Weeks 10, 11 and 12: A Super Long Update...plus, the dreaded... PROGRESS PHOTOS :/

So, I finally passed the "Week 11" threshold.  Oh, glorious week 11... it was at the 11th week that I started to see progress in 2012, and I am officially seeing a lot of progress now! I'm having to tighten my bikini bottoms, clothes that didn't fit do now... I'm feeling amazing!  I'll detail these items below with my first release of PROGRESS PHOTOS!

UPDATE ON THE GENERAL PROCESS:
I am finding it increasingly difficult to check in on a weekly basis to blog, though I have so many thoughts, ideas, and tidbits I want to document in my transformation.

My work schedule has been chaotic -- I've been logging 10+ hour days at the office for the past 5 weeks.  Nonetheless, I have stuck to my workout plan.  Some days have been extremely hard to muster up the energy to produce a quality workout.  In those times, I draw upon my favorite motivational YouTube video (link: CLICK HERE) and my list of reasons why I am on this journey (which I will post later).  It's a funny thing -- when you want something SO badly, it's hard to imagine you'll ever find yourself in a place so difficult, exhausting, or otherwise seemingly impossible, that you lose your focus and begin to think that how you are feeling now (negatively) is not worth the toll your goals demand.  Several times last week I felt myself wanting to just quit for a couple days.  My body and my mind were drained, and there was one point (Thursday of last week, as I recall so clearly) where I remember sitting in the employee kitchen eating my pre-workout meal thinking to myself, "What am I doing?? I need to go home and sleep.  This workout is impossible."  Normally, I probably would have listened to that intuitive voice.  But I had scheduled an extra rest day last week for Friday, and decided to tough it out on Thursday.

As the funny meme suggests, rarely does one ever regret a workout.  Thursday reeeeally pushed my limits on believing there are no exceptions to this meme.  Even after toughing out as hard of a workout as I could (which, I'll admit, I still cut some corners and simply couldn't pull myself together enough to produce a strong cardio segment), I wondered if I hadn't actually done more harm than good by not giving my body the rest it craved.


Strangely, though, the next day I felt flush full of energy and, after getting dismissed early from work, decided I had the time and strength to do a regular workout.  Go figure.

The boy and I.  Sadness! :*(

One other wrench thrown into my life plan a couple weeks ago was that my boyfriend and I broke up.  I won't get into the details, but suffice it to say the event translated into some SERIOUS workouts in the gym.  I just ran and lifted my way out of sorrow, and I'm feeling great for it.  The break-up also means I have full control over my time and diet now, which means I can focus more on my goals and getting to where I want to be.  It hurts, and its sad, but the beauty about having a passion and a project to work on, is that you stay distracted and focused on what you love; the positive. I used to be an emotional eater, but through the course of diet and training (particularly back in 2012), I re-trained my mind to console myself with other feel-good things that didn't involve food, which also helped me cope throughout the past couple weeks and stay on track.  Shopping, splurging on a massage, taking long contemplative bike rides or walks.... sometimes even just going to a local park and people-watching has had healing powers over me.  But mostly, keeping myself busy -- working on those projects that I've let build up, splurging on new gardening tools and planting something, etc -- has been, in a word, "EPIC" at healing a broken heart without the use of junk food or wallowing on the couch instead of getting up and staying on track. 

UPDATE ON WORKOUTS
One new thing I have added into my routine over the past 3 weeks is a circuit training day in place of my regular Back/Chest day.  I've been taking one of those platforms that people use for step aerobics and stacking it onto 5 or 6 risers and placing it in a secluded part of my gym.  Then I do 100 jumps with a jump rope, immediately kneel on the makeshift bench and crank out 8 reps of a 35-lb single arm row (8 reps for each arm), then go immediately lay down on the bench and do 10 reps of a 27.5lb dumbbell chest press (27.5lbs per dumbbell), and then go right into a 45 second plank on the floor.  I aim for 6 sets of this, and done quickly enough, it has an exhaustive cardio element to it.

I have decided that each month, I will replace one of my normal lifting routines with a circuit just to keep things varied. Next week I will start a circuit for biceps and triceps.  Just got to research and plan one out.

UPDATE ON NUTRITION
I had several weeks in a row of SUPER solid nutritional planning.  I didn't feel the desire to cheat, so I stuck to a very clean (very boring!) meal plan, because it seemed to work.  I had my regular unsweetened bran flakes w/ skim milk for breakfast, 3 poached boneless/skinless chicken tenderloins w/ 3 cups steamed spinach and 1/2 cup cooked plain barley for lunch, 1/2 cup of roasted pistachios with a Quest Bar for an afternoon snack, a banana & 3 tbsp natural peanut butter for pre-workout, and then 6 eggs scrambled (2 yolks, 4 whites) with 4 cups of steamed spinach and a Cutie tangerine for dinner.  If I was extra hungry, I'd have a recovery protein shake directly following my workout. 

Café Gratitude "Awakening" pie... DIVINE.

In Week 11, however, I had a variety of cheat meals.  Two Sundays ago, my best friend's mom cooked a traditional Irish feast for St. Pat's.  We're talking full-fat corned beef, cabbage/carrots, soda bread, BBQ asparagus, and then a berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream for dessert.  I had seconds -- of both!! It felt SO good, and really gave my body a boost.  I woke up feeling re-fueled and good.  But then on Wednesday I had a date (already... yikes!) and we went to a DELICIOUS vegan restaurant.  It was all natural and organic, but nonetheless I know I blew my macros out of the park with dessert alone (which happened to be a Key Lime and Avocado Cream Pie -- maybe the most delicious thing I have ever had.  Bravo, Café Gratitude!) And THEN, on Friday, my friend ordered Thai food for all of us, and I completely gorged myself on coconut curry and pad Thai.  So, it was a cheat WEEK for me.  But I don't feel bad about it at all.  In fact, I feel great! I'm glad I infused some extra calories and new foods into my diet.  Kinda give my metabolism a break, give my mental state a break, and now I'm more than motivated to get back onto the plan and push for another 2-3 super clean weeks before I splurge again in April.

The Plan for this Week
My plan for this week is to stay the course.  Today and Thursday will be legs day at the gym plus solid intervals on the elliptical.  On Tuesday I plan to run 5 miles, and then do my final back/chest circuit plus a chest/posterior delt fly and assisted pull ups.  Wednesday is my day off but will be an active rest - I'll go for a walk, and do my therapy for my back.  Friday will either be a day off if I plan to play volleyball on Saturday, otherwise it will be biceps, triceps, shoulders and some kind of cardio (maybe hill repeats).  I wish I had access to a pool.

And not, for the long awaited.... PROGRESS PHOTOS!
Shit just officially got real.  Don't judge me for how soft I was when I started back up again.  I as practically on bed rest for all of 2013 :(

This was after week 1

After week 3.  Still had a fluffy belly in full effect!

This was after week 5.  Super hard time because it had already been 35 days and I could see how far I still had to go.  My face says it all.

After week 10.  Starting to see a little definition.  Clothes are starting to fit better.  A smile of hope on my face after 63 days!

Week 11 - More progress, bigger smiles :)

Week 12 - My current state -- still a long ways to go, but finally some visible progress

So, clearly I have a looong ways to go -- especially in the legs department, but my hands are tied there until my therapist gives me clearance to start doing squats, deadlifts, and really any exercise involving the quads.  Right now I'm only allowed to do hams and glutes.  For the record, I haven;t fit into those bikini bottoms since 4 months into my progress in 2012, so I feel like I'm right on track :)

More progress photos in  a month or so!

Progress Report: Week Three -- Workouts, Meal Plans, Progress Photo?

Well, it's not quite 3 weeks, but it's close enough :)

Yesterday marked the start of my 18th week since hurting my back - nearly 4 and a half months.  It feels like it's been an absolute eternity, but when I think about it, if I can recover in 6 - 8 months, that would be pretty reasonable.  

I continue to get stronger and am able to push myself harder in my workouts.  But right now, I only have two different weights routines in rotation, which I alternate every other day:

Routine 1:  Back and Chest

• Seated Row:  4 sets of 10 reps -- 80lbs
• Forward planks: 4 sets of 45 - 60 seconds
• Lat pulldown:  4 sets of 8 reps -- 70lbs
• Side bridges:  4 sets (2 on each side) - 60 seconds
• Bench Press:  4 sets of 8 reps, 30lbs (plus 45-lb bar)
• One arm row: 4 sets (2 on each side) of 10 reps, 27.5-lb dumbbells
• Chest fly:  4 sets of 8 reps, 60 lbs.
• Posterior delt fly:  4 sets of 8 reps, 40 lbs

Routine 2:  Lower Body + Shoulders and Triceps

• Seated hamstring curls: 4 sets of 10 reps, 90 lbs
• Forward planks: 4 sets of 45 - 60 seconds
• Skull crushers: 4 sets of 8 reps, 45-lb barbell
• Prone hamstring curls:  4 sets of 10 reps, 60 lbs
• Side bridges:  4 sets (2 on each side) - 60 seconds
• Shoulder press:  4 sets of 8-10 reps, 30-40lbs
• Tricep extensions:  4 sets of 8 reps, 45 lbs

I do these weights routines on my lunch break, and round it off with a sprint around the block where my office is (0.7 miles) - which I will be increasing to a block and a half for a full mile.  Before work, I walk on the treadmil for 30-45 mins at 3.4 MPH at a 7.0% incline, and then do specific calisthenics designed for my rehab program, including back hyperextensions, glute bridges and stationary lunges.  After work, I do hill repeats: 5 - 6 sets of speed walking up an incredible mountain-grade incline for 6 minutes, then walking down for 6 minutes.  All of these are designed to continue to build up the posterior of my body to help balance things out and bring my pelvis back into a natural alignment.  Picture to the right is one I took at dusk after an ass-kicking on the mountain doing hill repeats.  It's always worth it. 

It is a bit cardio-heavy, but I've been wearing my heart rate monitor and more or less the sum of all of these workouts equals the caloric burn I was achieving pre-injury, with all of it being gentle enough for my body to handle as it heals.  I do have to take 2 solid gym days off a week (I used to only take 1 off), but I think that plays an important role not only just in helping my back heal.  Here's the number of steps I take in a typical day on this routine!

My current diet stands as follows:

1. Pre-AM Workout Meal:

Medium banana, 2 tbsp peanut butter (strictly measured) and 20 fl. oz. water

2.  Post-AM Workout ("Breakfast")

Protein Shake -- I have been doing an audit of protein powders on the market to see if I could find something as healthy as Shakeology, that I enjoy equally, but that doesn't crush my bank account.  I've settled on Tera's Whey, which - when mixed with boiled milk, makes the most epic healthy hot chocolate!

3.  Mid-Morning Snack

Lydia's Organic raw/vegan/gluten-free sprouted grain bar.  Only 2g of sugar, nothing--absolutely NOTHING fake -- delicious!

4.  Lunch

My latest obsessions:  a 4% extra lean ground beef patty in 1/2 a whole wheat pita with lettuce, tomato, pickles, avocado, ketchup and mustard, with a cup of baby carrots.

5.  Mid-Afternoon Snack

I naturally have a blood sugar dip in the afternoon.  I've tried front loading my carbs, back loading my carbs, and spreading them out throughout the day, and it never fails -- come 2pm, I want something sweet.  Cue the dairy! By this time last year, I was completely free of dairy.  It was an experiment which I grew accustomed to.  But now, I feel variety is important.  And since dairy has protein and some sugar, it really hits that mid-afternoon hole in my regimen. I chose a nonfat Greek yogurt, a low fat string cheese and some mixed nuts to add a little more protein and healthy fat to the snack to round it out.  Add a cup of plain black tea:  perfection :)

6.  Pre-PM Workout Meal

Can't workout on an empty stomach! Come 5:30p, even if I'm not hungry, I eat anyway because it's the only way I'll make it through my hill repeats.  Simple:  1/2 cup of jumbo blueberries, the egg whites of 2 jumbo hard boiled eggs, and 1/2 a dark chocolate mocha NuGo bar.  Also vegan, gluten-free, all-natural AND DELICIOUS.  Oiy!

7.  Dinner

My newest go-to meal:  1 lb. of cubed boneless skinless chicken breast simmered in a jar of Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce with chickpeas and steamed broccoli - makes 4 servings.

All of these meals equate to about 1850 calories with a macro distribution of around 30% fat, 37% carbs, and 33% protein.

I will confess, I haven't weighed myself, taken measurements, or tracked my progress.  I do know my clothes are fitting better though, and I've been taking weekly progress photos which I will be posting in a couple weeks.  I did the same thing last time -- didn't start tracking my stats until I was about a month in… and didn't start taking progress photos until 2 months in. Here's one photo I'm proud of though -- I've been kicking my booty in my workouts in time to wear this dress for the summer.  I'm almost there!

So, there you have it.  I need to continue to stick with my meal plans, be smart about my workouts, continue to get quality rest for my back, and I could be back in the game in only a few months :)  Woo-hoo!

#GymRatProblems

Happy Friday, my loves and darlings!


So, this past week was a heavy week for me with sobering posts on my blog.  But you know what?  I'm moving on :)  I'll deal with the blows as they come, and everything I'm facing seems to be very easily address-able, so HALLELUJAH!  I'm so thankful to be alive and well and injury-free to boot!  Things could always be FAR far worse, in the grand scheme of things.

To lighten things up, I wanted to blog about ridiculous problems that I have encountered along my fitness and clean-eating journey.  I always think it's funny when someone posts a very real (but somewhat ludicrous) pet peeve on Facebook, and then hash-tags it with the #firstworldproblems meme.  Whether politically correct or not, at least they are being honest and recognizing that a lot of the things that truly bother or annoy us, are really nothing in the big picture of life.

I have collected a short list of annoyances that I am sure many of you can sympathize with, below.  What are your top #gymrat, #clean-eating or #fitnessfreak pet peeves?

1.  My underwear don't fit me anymore!!

The situation:  Ever pick out your favorite sexy pair of Vic's Secret panties that you spent $25 bucks on, only to find that they have become frump-tastically saggy and are now slipping off of your new svelte frame?

The problem: To dispose or not to dispose:  that is the question. But what a waste! And it's not like I can donate the undies (that would just be weird), so of course now I have a new storage bin of lovely lingerie that I adore but never want to fit into again.  Safe keeping in case the fat days come again??  Bite your tongue!

On the brighter side.... It's always nice when your 'au naturel' body is sexier than the lace you adorn it with.  Besides, you never know when those suckers could come in handy again; they could perhaps come in very useful during the zombie apocalypse??? :D

2.  Have my boobs shrunk? UUUUGH.

The situation:  Similar to the above case study, have any of you noticed that for each 10-15lbs you lose (approximately), your boobs get smaller too?  According to Livestrong.com (link:  HERE), the body does not discriminate from where it pulls fat cells to burn during the weight loss segment of your fitness program.  Just like we can't simply target fat loss in just the hips, or just the belly, the body loses weight evenly among all parts.  And since a significant portion of a woman's breasts are made up of fat cells, it's no wonder that the Lovely Lady Lumps that Fergie sang so adamantly about, 'take one for the team' in shrinking a bit during your body shape metamorphosis.

The problem:  My army of Vic's Secret bras have joined the Panty Brigade in the space-saver under my bed.  *Sigh* 

On the brighter side... Did somebody say SHOPPING??? :D Plus, there are two bright rays of good hope here - the first is that since your body looses weight proportionately, you'd have to lose a SIGNIFICANT amount of weight for anyone to really notice a smaller bust size.  And even so, since the rest of you is equally smaller, your 'ladies up top' will still appear to be the same size as they were before, in relation to your frame.  Secondly, according to another Livestrong.com article (link:  HERE), this is a great reason to make dear friends with a Barbell (image HERE) and familiarize yourself with a chest press.  Weight loss can change the size and firmness of your breasts, but you can combat that by strengthening your pectoral muscles (your "pecks" - yes, women have them too!!).  These will offer a natural breast lift, and give the appearance and feel of a fuller, firmer breast.  No access to a gym? Have no fears! Simple push-ups do the trick, which you can do at an incline if you have bad shoulders / elbows, or lack upper body strength, until you are capable of doing them on a horizontal surface.

3.  Post-workout Toilet Seat Cover Separation Anxiety Disorder

The situation:  5:30pm.  Just logged an EPIC hour-long elliptical session that, had it occurred on a battlefield, could have rivaled the intensity of a war scene from Braveheart.

The problem:  To prepare for said battle, you hydrated all throughout the day by drinking almost an entire gallon of water.  Your bladder did its best to keep up, but you definitely need to 'drain the pipes' after your ellipti-war.  You run to the john, you throw down a toilet seat cover, you sit down, and immediately you feel the toilet seat cover becoming one with the sweat on your booty / back of legs.  When finished, you stand up and UP comes the toilet seat cover too.  CR*P!  To make matters worse, you try peeling it off, which subsequently turns the situation into one reminiscent of trying to remove tissue remains from a sweater that went into the washer/dryer with a Kleenex in the pocket.  Le' sigh.

On the brighter side.... This is a PRIME example of promoting fitness multi-tasking in your everyday life.  Instead of using a toilet seat cover and risking gaining a new layer of faux flesh on your tushy, pop a squat! No, seriously - squat over the potty in proper form and do your business while also getting in an extra lower body squat rep :) Voila!

4.  My kitchen looks like the Tupperware version of Mr. Roger's Land of Make-Believe

The situation: It all started with needing 7 medium-sized containers into which I could place a carb, a veggie and a protein, and then throw it into the freezer to store until I needed one for lunch each day of the week....

The problem:  Unbeknownst to the general population, Tupperware is much like Gizmo from the movie Gremlins: get it wet, and it uncontrollably multiples!  And don't even get me started with the fact that Tupperware lids, much like socks in the dryer, fall victim to spontaneous combustion.  It's my only explanation for why I incessantly have more containers than matching lids.  This ranks about just as high as running out of Conditioner quicker than Shampoo.  I mean, really?? UUUGH.  [cue #firstworldproblems hash tag ;)]


On the brighter side... Tupperware is amazing, and there are ways to use up old containers if you have too many but don't want to throw them away.  You can pretty much use them anywhere - to hold rubber bands in the cabinet of your home office, to hold pens/pencils in your children's rooms (or for that matter, make them into piggy banks!)  My personal favorite is using up my old cottage cheese containers from back when I used to eat dairy, by cutting a couple holes in the base, filling them with potting soil, and growing individual herbs in my carport.  My apartment doesn't allow us to grow plants in the garden, so I put together my own Tupperware Garden of Eden alongside the back of the complex (affectionately named TupperEden by yours truly!).  And I put a sign up saying people could contribute as they wish, and to feel free to pick a few leaves or sprigs at will :)

If you are of a more OCD nature (I can sympathize!), there are ways to bring your Tupperware collection to maturity if you feel like you need a new system of organization.  I recently purchased 7 of these Sterilite Segmented Tupperware containers (link:  HERE) so that I can have my lunch in one (protein and carb in the small sections, veggies in the large one), and then my other snacks which I used to put in individual containers in the other (fruits, nuts, veggies, you name it!)  It's a great space saver :)

5.  Ear buds:  The bane of my existence.

The situation:  Ear buds:  The most unholy of holies in my gym bag.  What would I do without them?  A workout is absolutely impossible without having Britney Spears coo her sinful thoughts directly into my brain ;)  [Great, now I have the Womanizer reel stuck in my head!]

The problem:  How frustrating are these little snakes??? They get tangled into knots an Eagle Scout couldn't even manage, not to mention that apparently my ears sweat more than the average bear because I tend to short circuit at least one of the buds after the first couple months and then all of the sudden I am left with listening to Britney in one ear and some woman on the other speaking to "Deloris" about the audacity of what Paula said last night during book club while she is only working out on like a LEVEL TWO intensity on the elliptical next to me (not judging, but seriously? You'd get a better workout gabbing on the phone while walking around the block outside.)

On the brighter side.... Well, the bright side is that we have music AT ALL.  I could no less spend an hour on the step mill listening to the heavy breathing of a man-beast next me than I could spend an equal amount of time watching water boil.  I will take my one-sided ear buds ANYDAY over that misery!  But anyway, when it comes to having sweaty ears, I have a GREAT solution - YURBUDS!  Yurbuds (website HERE) are custom-designed for athletes.  They are this rubber thing (that's a technical term, mind you) that squeezes over a traditional ear bud, which does one a several things:  First of all, being rubber, it protects any sweat from getting into your ear bud and breaking it.  The rubber also offers a form of friction which keeps your ear bud in place instead of sliding out during your vicious hill-running HIIT cardio days.

I recently purchased these Ironman ear buds with built in Yurbud covers for only $29.99 at Target (Link to product HERE) which have the added benefit of having a component to the ear wrap-around feature that is customize-able to the fit of your ear by bending them similar to how we used to contort those new age Barbie Doll legs into unnatural positions back in the 80's so that Ken could come and "un-break" Dolphin-Trainer Barbie's leg from the boating accident she was in while trying to rescue Flipper.  (Not sure what I'm talking about?  Well, not all of us were born creative geniuses....) ;) Suffice it to say the soft rubber ear wrap-around has a strong, pliable wire on the inside that allows you to make the fit snug or loose depending on your ear shape, and contributing to comfort and reliability.

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While there are several other fiascos we fitness junkies must deal with (ever lose the scoop to your protein powder mix?  Or have a Blender Bottle erupt on you while shaking it cuz you didn't close the lid all the way?), I feel like the above challenges have been the most unforgettably forgettable "problems" I've encountered thus far.  I'm sure there will be more to come.  Perhaps I will consider putting a support group together for us "victims".  :D