Archive for December 31, 2008

Yummm!!!

Hey all! I will finish my update from last night ……. I had my usual lunch of chicken, brown rice and green beans..i know it might seem like that gets boring but it really doesn’t and its so satisfying that I wouldn’t give it up. It is amazing how much food you can eat for such a small amount of calories….4-5 oz of chicken, a 1/2 cup of brown rice and basically however many green beans you want to eat….its under 300 calories and sometimes i can barely finish it. (but i always do because im gluttonous like that :)) Anyways…had a protein shake mid afternoon with a piece of apple…..then more chicken, rice and GB for dinner..and another protein shake a few hours later…..It was my friends birthday dinner last night and i resisted all temptations…even though they were giving me shit all night and ordered me a bowl of lemons just so that i looked like i was eating haha…they did however make me take ONE bite of cake….they literally grabbed my face and made me do it…haha but it was a small bite so i’m not too worried about it.

This morning for breakfast i had the BEST oatmeal ever!!! 1/2 cup of rolled oats that i microwaved because not only am i a glutton, i am lazy too 🙂 Then i added in some of my protein powder..(amazing) some blueberries and a few black berries! SO GOOD. Better than anything quaker could make!

Off to the gym now!

Practice!

Although my competition diet doesn’t officially start until Jan. 1…you may have noticed that I have been trying to eat as clean as possibly as sort of a way to practice…the competition diet is not an easy one because you have only a small selection of foods that i can eat. I also have to eat several times a day which i am not used to either. If i’m going to screw it up..it’s going to have to happen before jan. 1, so i have been “practicing” I have to say, I really like eating clean. It minimizes those cravings you get when you eat comfort food. You know when you eat a bowl of macaroni and cheese…and when you finish off that huge bowl that makes you pretty stuffed…you decide you need something sweet to top it off….When i eat clean foods like chicken, brown rice, vegetables, sweet potatoes, egg whites, oatmeal etc….I don’t get those cravings or those urges to eat that stuff. I feel satisfied and I am ready to move on with my day…so competition or not..i like this way of eating.

As a practice..usually i make my egg whites with about a 1/2 oz. of reduced fat mozzarella cheese, but for competition diet, the cheese is a NO-GO…so i decided to try it today without the cheese….still tastes great to me 🙂 I also had some oatmeal and 2 apples. I’m off to the gym now…..another part of my training will include an hour and a half of cardio everyday. That is going to be rough considering I usually only do about 45 minutes…but i can split it up if i need to, so that should make it easier.

Anyways…i need you guys to root me on through this approximately 12 weeks of competition diet and intense training. I will start showing you guys progress pictures and stuff, but the motivation reallllyyy helps.

My show is on March 28th…wish me luck!!

Post Workout

So i was feeling like i was getting a cold last night..and woke up early today feeling sick as well. I had planned on meeting my friend at the gym to run, but was thinking about resting it up.

Well I am very glad that i went to meet her! Not only did i run 6.2 miles, but I felt great while doing it….It took me about 59 minutes (6.0-6.5mph pace) and I really was feeling good, even though i was sick. I then did a leg workout: squats, reverse lunges, prone(lying) ham curls and the squat press machine…16 sets total. I am feeling so much better both physically and sick-wise. I’ve always said…working out makes me feel better when im sick and people think im crazy but im telling you it works!! I don’t necessarily recomend this and it may not work for everyone, but weight training especially..even if you go light…i feel makes you just feel a little bit better..rest however is extremely important as welll though and you need much more rest and WATER when you are sick.

I had a protein shake and some blueberries post-workout. If anyone is looking for a GOOD TASTING PROTEIN POWDER….i was referred to one and it really does taste great. It is the Isopure low carb or no carb (depending on the flavor)powder…i bought the cookies and cream flavor, but you can also get it in dutch chocolate which is supposed to be really tasty as well. I haven’t tried the other flavors, but i would guess they are probably pretty good as well!

That’s all for now…getting ready for work, then going to eat some chicken, brown rice and veggies!

Early wake up!

Sorry i haven’t posted in a few days I have been super busy!

This morning I woke up at about 430 am. I am kind of sick so i just couldn’t sleep anymore. I met with a figure competitor yesterady to get some advice on my training and food plan. I’m getting really excited! She said she thinks I will be able to get ready for the show(it is in March), so that was good news!

I have been eating well for the past few days and although I’m sick, i feel good…even though that sounds kinda weird haha. When I get sick, i like to still do a little bit of strength training and some cardio if i feel up to it. It is probably psychological but when I workout, I sweat and i feel like i’m sweating out all the bad germs that got me sick in the first place.

This morning for breakfast I had a little bit of tomato soup to make my throat feel better, some strawberries and my usual egg white breakfast. I’m supposed to meet a friend at the gym to do some running this morning, so I am going to try to do it but if im not feeeling well I don’t want to push it, i just need to get better as soon as possible.

Merry Christmas!

Hope everybody is having a wonderful holiday! I am only somewhat enjoying myself. Today is my dad’s birthday, my older brother is in town, and somehow my entire family feels the need to be difficult. Why is it so hard to get myfamily together and enjoy themselves? Everyone has to complain about something and it gets frustrating!

Annyways…..I decided not to go nuts with food just because its the holidays. I am in a good feeling mode this week and if I don’t feel like splurging, then why waste the calories? So here is a recap of today…

Woke up very early for some reason and decided to start my day. I had my usual egg whites and oatmeal. I also decided that my christmas treat today was going to be a slice of bread with some low sugar jelly on it. Haha i know i’m a lame-o. I headed off to the gym and had an AWESOME workout.

I did back and triceps…about 16 sets of back exercises and 13 sets of tricep exercises. And i worked hard! The gym was pretty ghostly this morning which meant no distractions! I pushed it and im proud of it.

It didn’t stop there though, because I still had cardio to do. I decided today was going to be a “whatever i feel like for 45 minutes” That ended up being a mixture of running at variuos speeds (6.0mph-7.0mph) and incline walking at between 3.3mph-3.6mph at a 10-15% incline. I was sweating like crazy and felt like jello when I got off. To me thats a good workout 😀

Lunch was the usual..chicken, brown rice and vegetables ..and an apple.

I had some afternoon snacks (oatmeal, some nuts, and a bar) not too long ago…so dinner will be pretty small

I’ll leave you with this…..

How can you not love that face?!?!?! My 9 month old baby (Already 70 pounds!!!!)

85 dollars at CVS…check!

Yes…it is possible to spend $85 at CVS buying absolutely nothing. I am living proof of that. I got a little blanket..some lotions..hair products and nail polish. I guess it’s possible.

WORKOUT

Anyways I am going to give a more structured view of my workouts from now on!

I will typically write the exercise, then i will write the weight by how many reps i did so it will look like this…

Dumb Bell Squats: 50×15, 60×15, 60×15, 60×15

That shows I did four sets.

Moving on..

Today was supposed to be a back and tricep workout..but my back is still somewhat sore from my last back workout, so i decided to swap workouts and do a quad/calf workout.

DB Squats: 50×15, 60×15, 60×15, 60×15
DB Walking Lunges: 10×15(per leg), 15×15, 15×15
Squat Press Machine: 200×15, 220×15, 250×10
Leg Extensions(w/ a hold at the top of each rep): 50×10, 50×10
Seated Calf Raise: 25×20, 35×18, 35×15
Calf Raise Machine: 110×15, 110×18

NOTE: I rarely do calf exercises, so I wasn’t sure exactly what the right weight was for me to do that is why you can see that I should be doing more weight considering I got 15 reps on the first set and 18 reps on the second set on the calf raise machine.

Depending on your goals, I recommend 12-15 reps for most people, however if you are trying to build muscle, I recommend 8-12 reps of an exercise. For me, I have pretty muscular legs as it is, so I usually go for the 12-15 reps, while in my upper body workouts, I am for 8-12 reps.

Cardio today was 40 minutes on the elliptical(my legs were worn out so I didn’t even want to try for an incline walk today.)

Let me know if you have any questions…comments are always welcome too!

DIET

For breakfast today I had 4 egg whites with some bell peppers and a little bit of reduced fat mozzarella cheese. I also had a bowl of oatmeal and 2 apples. (All pre-workout)

After my workout it was lunch time and I had about 3.5 oz chicken breast, 3/4 cup of brown rice, and about a cup of mixed vegetables. I followed it up with an apple and a protein drink.

Off to work now, and plan on having a few almonds mid-afternoon, and a dinner that resembles my lunch! Protein shake before bed!

I feel great!!! 🙂

whey protein

I have decided just now that im eating my whey protein with my oatmeal because i really hate protein powder and water. I get it down, but not easily. Yuckky. I would loveeeeeeee any ideas of other ways to use protein powder because i really just don’t like it in water.

Haha on another note..i got all of my holiday shopping done…with the exception of one gift…and also got my hair done today!

I have to work tomorrow and the day after christmas 🙁 but oh well.

By the way…if anyone read my post about the negative workout i did…i am STILL sore from it..my back and biceps especially..which my biceps rarely get sore and if they ever do, it lasts maybe a few hours….its been like three days! I highly recomend it. I plan on doing another one as soon as i recover from this one haha.

Had an awesome shoulder workout today.

If you guys would like me to post my workout schedules, i can do that and also if anyone needs some help with putting together a strength workout, i would be more than happy to do so! I have trained people before so this is something that i am very capable of doing …and its free!

Tastes so good.

Eating clean tastes so good! And is so damn easy.

Today for lunch I had 3 oz. chicken (cooked in the microwave for about 2 minutes), a 1/2 cup of brown rice (90 seconds in the microwave), about 1/4 cup of green beans (zapped in the microwave), and a TBSP of fresh salsa. (pictured above)

totally filling, totally delicious, totally easy…and did i mention that is about 220 calories… and 25 grams of protein.

I love it!! if you have other easy clean recipes..send them to me!! I love eating clean, but don’t have much patience for cooking!

Glares

As i attended our office holiday party today…I noticed that when i was offered food and i politely declined…i felt as if i got a glare or perhaps a cold shoulder from people.

Has anyone else ever experienced this? This even happens to me at some family gatherings..I will say “No thank you, im not hungry” or im okay thanks!…im always very polite about it and thankful for the offer..but still I feel that people kind of get angry with me just because i don’t want to eat!

Anyone feel my drift?

« Older Entries