Archive for Workout

Oops…

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Although I thought I was ready to come back to blogging regularly, actions will show otherwise. I guess I’m not really ready to, nor do I have the time to blog regularly, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been working hard on my goals!

 

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to lose some weight and find a happy medium between where I was and my competition body. I’m happy to report that I’m down about 8 or 9 pounds and feeling pretty good. The best part? I haven’t cut out any of my favorite things: namely, candy.

I eat some form of candy, usually daily. Not a lot, but some. A roll of sweet tarts is the perfect afternoon pick me up. Another favorite? Pop chips. I realize this isn’t candy, but they taste damn good. I incorporate them in several times a week. So what have I been doing that has worked so well?

 

Balance. Of food, of workouts, of life. Who would have thought…..

Posted in body image, food, Workout

Day 2

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So far, so good! I’ll be honest, the lifting plan is kicking my ass more than I thought it would. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done straight sets without supersetting. The last year and a half has been mostly light lifting/plyometrics focusing more on upper or lower body rather than muscle group splits. Right now all I’m doing is 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise but more volume for each muscle group. I’m sore!

It actually feels good to be eating this clean again. I’ve actually been pretty healthy over the last 1/2 year and I’m basically just cutting out the extras that I was having. (Pop chips, sweet tarts!!)

For the next 3 days, I will be in San Francisco, so I won’t be able to lift. It’s fine since this initial phase of the plan calls for 3 lifting days off. I just rearranged my lifting days. I’m hoping to get some hiking in while I’m in San Fran, but if not, no biggie.

Here’s what food for most days looks like for me:

 

Breakfast: egg whites & oatmeal

Mid-Morning: Smoothie with: Banana, strawberries, protein powder, amazing grass superfood, spinach, and sometimes a little greek yogurt.

Lunch: Chicken & sweet potato with BBQ sauce and veggies (obsessed with this right now)

Snack: Greek Yogurt (plain 0%), blueberries and almonds

Dinner: Chicken or Turkey, sweet potato and veggies

Snack: Haven’t needed one so far, but would be a protein shake or something

 

Anyways, so far I’m feeling good and it feels really nice to eat really clean again. On days where I can’t bring food with me (studio sessions, vacations) I just will make the best choices I can. Which, to be honest, is pretty easy. Getting grilled chicken or egg whites at a restaurant with some veggies usually isn’t too hard to do. Or my personal favorite, turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread!

I’ll likely check back in when I’m back from San Fran. Take care!

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Day 1

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Today has been great! I got up around 9 and walked to the gym (about 3/4 mile) and began my workout. Today was chest and triceps. Let me just say, narrow pushups are my enemy! They were so tough! After my lift, I hopped on the treadmill for 30 minutes for some incline walking. I started at 10% 3.3mph and worked up to 15% 3.3mph. Afterwards, I jumped into the tail end of a circuit/plyometric class that was going on. It consisted of 1 minute each of:

-Medicine ball squats on a bosu ball

-Jumping jacks with a dumbbell held in front of you

-Exercise ball knee crunches (Start in push up position with your feet on the ball and crunch inwards)

-Battle Ropes

-kettle bell swings

-Step Up Jump offs

It was a good end to my work out!

I can’t believe it’s already 1:30pm. I got some work done at the gym and am at home now…..still doing work. I’ll post later with an update on my food intake!

 

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A New Journey

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I haven’t posted on this blog in quite some time. I’m almost positive I don’t have any readers anymore! But that’s okay, a lot has changed since I used this blog, but I think I’d like to bring it back….

At the time that this blog was a daily part of my life, I was single, competing in bikini competitions, living in Arizona and going to school. Now? I live in beautiful, sunny Santa Monica. I still work out daily, but don’t compete (and don’t do nearly as much work out volume as I used to). I’m not the petite thing I was back in 2009. I am a sound engineer and work out of a few different recording studios in Los Angeles and Hollywood. I still work part time at a gym doing operational duties. Life has definitely changed for me, but I’m happy and loving it.

Competing was fun for me, but it wasn’t good for my brain. It took me over two years to get my brain back to a semi-normal state, and I would say that I am about 75% of the way there now. It has been extremely tough, taken a lot out of me, and been a huge fight, but I finally feel almost  like a normal person again. I’ll go into some details some other time.

Anyways, for those of you that still have this blog in their news feeds, maybe you’ll stick around for some more. Since I gave up the dieting long, long ago, I am about 20 pounds heavier than I was when I was competing. Not terrible, but not where I’m totally comfortable either. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with my body. For the first time in 3 years, I am at peace with my body and embrace it. With that said, I’d like to find a place somewhere in between where I was and where I am. I have been able to maintain this weight within 5 pounds for the last year and a half. I finally feel ready to do it for all of the right reasons and not because I hate myself. Because yes, as soon as I gained 5 pounds post-competition, I hated myself. For 2-3 years I hated myself. Sad, really, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come along.

My workouts over the last year or so have been pretty random. I work out about 5-6 days per week, but I don’t have a strict regimen of lifting and cardio on the daily like I used to ( which was about an hour of lifting + an hour of intense cardio and sometimes a boxing class to boot). Some days will be a run by the beach, a tough bleacher/stair workout, some days will be lifting, some days will be just cardio at the gym, sometimes a combination. I try to go hiking with my boyfriend when I can as well. I still like to push myself, but I prefer the shorter workouts as opposed to the 2-3 hours I was putting in before.

I’d love for you all to follow along if you feel like it, but I really just want to document my journey again. It’s fun to look back and see what you’ve accomplished. Life is much, much busier these days, so it won’t be quite as easy to fit it all in, but if I’ve got time for Facebook and Twitter, I’ve got time for cooking, working out and prepping food too.

My goal is to drop about 15 pounds and get my abs back. I want to keep my bubble butt. 😉

Here’s my plan: After reading Janetha’s blog about Jamie Eason’s Live Fit plan, I’ve decided to give it a go. Never in my life have I followed a “plan”. Even when competing, I kind of just did my own thing. That’s just my personality, but I’m bored and want to spice it up and actually work on losing some extra weight I don’t want. Maintenance has been great as I’ve gotten back normal hunger cues and such, but I feel ready to push harder.

Help push me along or even better, join me and we can do it together! I’ll post daily details of what I’m doing and how I’m feeling.

Take care friends!

(Photo below of me at a studio in North Hollywood last month)

Image

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Hamstring Fiyah!

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Hey guys!! Sorry my posts have been so sporadic. I’m moving to Los Angeles on Saturday, so I’ve been tying up the loose ends here.

I’m finally getting over the horrendous cough I had. It’s been a week and  a half, and I’m finally able to work out again as of Sunday. I’m still coughing a little bit, and my ribs are sore, but I’m not going to complain. It’s funny how sickness makes you appreciate your health so much more!!

I haven’t been able to do much cardio, since my lungs are a little pre-occupied with coughing, but I’ve done some. Aside from that, I’ve just been watching what I eat and getting in my weights. I haven’t done much plyometric work either, and I’m excited to get back to that, hopefully next week sometime. I don’t want to push it and end up sick again!

This is the hamstring/glute workout I did yesterday. It had me sweating like crazy. I’m not sore today, surprisingly, but it was a great workout!

Leg Workout

Deadlifts: 95 x 15, 95 x 15, 115 x 12, 135 x 8, 135 x 8

Superset of:

DB Step-Ups: 20 x 15, 20 x 15, 20 x 15

Quadruped Hip Extension(one of my faves): 20 x 12, 20 x 12, 20 x 12

45* Hyper: 10 x 15, 10 x 15, 10 x 15

I finished with 20 minutes on the elliptical to cool off and move my legs around 🙂

Enjoy! Let me know if you try it and what you think. (Of course, use weights that are appropriate for YOU.)

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Measurements + Cardio Decrease

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Hey guys!

Bear with me for the next few weeks. I’m finishing up my finals, while packing my life away for the big move! It’s been pretty busy around here. 😉

I just wanted to talk about a few things. I like cardio and its unlikely that I’ll ever just stop doing it altogether, but I don’t like doing endless cardio every single day. It’s pretty monotonous and I’ve always done it just to stay in good shape.

Lately, I’ve gotten into some ruts with my workouts, as far as the types of workouts I’ve been doing. I LOVE working out, but I do like to change it up so that I can keep enjoying my workouts. Slaving isn’t fun 🙂

-I was bored with lifting weights, so I started doing more running and plyometrics.(burpees, jumping movements, pushups, tire flips etc.)

-It gets HOT in AZ in April, so running hasn’t been as fun. Feeling like you’re going to get heat stroke while pounding the pavement isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. I realize waking up at the crack of dawn is an option, however it’s not one I want to take right now.

Anyways, I missed the iron, and have been lifting pretty regularly again, combined with the plyometrics. Let me just put this on the record: Best workouts I’ve ever gotten.

They are fast, intense, hard, fun, and always keep you guessing. That’s what she…

As far as cardio? Well I’ve still been doing it about 3-4 days a week, but considering I was doing it 6-7 days, it’s a drastic cut for me. I sweat more, breathe harder and get fatigued so much quicker with the workouts I’ve been doing lately and I finally realize how much time I’m wasting on steady state cardio. I’m not saying it’s bad, and I still like it and will continue to do it, but endless hours is just not necessary. In April, I have lost 0.5 inches in each of the following areas: waist(smallest part), butt, upper thighs and lower thighs. I lost an entire inch on my hips! May will be even better 😀

With that said, I will show you one of the workouts I did recently.

Wacky Workout – Go through these exercises without a rest. When you finish all of them, take a 1 minute break and repeat. Do the circuit 3-4 more times depending on your fitness level. (Note: If you can only make it through once, no shame!! It’s a tough circuit.)

10 Ninja Jumps

10 Barbell Walking Lunges(10 per leg)

10 burpees (with push ups)

Heavy bag pull (if you don’t have access to a heavy bag, you can replace this with a sprint…different but will still raise your heart rate)

15 DB bicep curls (per arm)

20 DB overhead tricep extensions

The funny thing is that when I wrote this workout, it looked pretty easy to me. Then I did it. End of story.

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Summer is upon us…

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And it’s getting hot!! For all of you dealing with the crazy storms, my heart goes out to you! I am happy to not be dealing with that, but it is definitely getting hot here in AZ. The kind of hot where you walk outside in the morning hoping for a nice cool breeze with the sun beaming down, and instead you get hit in the face with a wall of HEAT. Imagine opening an oven, except the world is a really really big oven. Anyways, I’ll stop complaining now 😉

Workouts

This week’s workouts have been kicking my ass. First of all, my sleep pattern is really screwed up. Working sound gigs really takes the life out of me. It’s 14 hours of mostly pushing heavy gear around and in between sitting and waiting. The actual work time of sound checks and mixing is really short compared to the long day you have to put in. Again though, I’m not complaining because I LOVE working shows and it inspires me more and more each time. The moral of the story is that it makes me SO tired. In fact, after Saturday’s gig, I slept for 11 hours. And another 11 hours the night after that.

Monday: 45 minutes of incline walking + quick Leg workout (squats, quadruped hip extensions, SL deadlifts)

Tuesday: Heavy upper body workout + 20 minutes elliptical

Wednesday: 30 minutes incline walking + Conventional deads and burpees

As you can tell, I’ve been throwing some heavy lifting back in the mix. I took off some time from heavy lifting because I mostly just wasn’t into it, and I like to enjoy my workouts! Last Friday I decided to lift heavy and it made me miss it, so this week I brought it back a bit. I’m pretty sore, but my strength hasn’t gone anywhere which is refreshing. I have been doing plenty of body weight and high rep training, and I actually think my endurance has gone up a lot, which helps with the heavy lifting. I’ve always had a lot of endurance with weight lifting, but my upper body sometimes wants to crap out when the reps get high(lower body just goes forever haha) I noticed my upper body endurance has increased, so I’m pretty happy!

FOODS

I’ve been doing pretty well with keeping myself accountable and staying on track. A few mishaps here and there, but for the most part I’ve stayed pretty strong with it. It’s funny how much easier it is to stick to when you’re just ready to do it and how much of a struggle it can be when you just don’t care and want to eat like crap 😀 Don’t get me wrong, I still have a sweet tooth, but I’m managing it.

My latest obsession:

Broiled green beans with cracked pepper and sea salt, slightly burnt. (that part is an old favorite) but the NEW addiction is in the sugar-free ketchup. Yes, it’s artificial and I’m trying to eliminate most artificial things, but it is SO good. It made me realize that I actually don’t like french fries, I like ketchup. Since a green bean mimicks the texture of a french fry in some ways, it works  quite well. Try it!

What’s your latest food obsession?

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Wedding and Workout

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Hey!!

I told you I’d be back Monday, but I’m barely making it back to blogging today! My sister’s wedding was a BLAST, and I couldn’t imagine a more beautiful bride.(Don’t worry, there are pictures at the end of this post…)

We had a LOT of fun and continued the party to the hotel that night with about 15 of our friends. We had brunch the next morning, and let’s just say, nobody was feeling too great. I didn’t drink at the wedding (I know, I know) but I was still extremely tired from lack of sleep and literally dancing the NIGHT AWAY. My dad invited my brother and I to a Diamondbacks game, so we did that and then enjoyed more time with the family that evening.

I took Sunday off from working out, but yesterday I was back at it! I did another one of Zuzana’s workout, this one to be exact, and it was a total ass kicker. Unbelievable.

My stats:

Part 1: 4 min. 26 seconds

Part 2: 8,9,7,7,7,7,8,7,7

and finished off with 10 minutes on the spin bike.

Enjoy the photos!

Me, Rachel(sister), Maggie(friend)

The kiss!

Me after makeup

They look so happy!!! 🙂

BEAUTIFUL bride. Love it.

Thisss is basically how everyone looked the morning after. Our friend Scotty, looking his finest….

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Today’s Workout

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As I mentioned a few days ago, I’ve really changed my workouts up a bit lately. I haven’t done much formal lifting, but have been incorporating more plyometrics, pushups, compound movements and metabolic training into my life. Weights are still being lifted, but at a much faster rate! It’s fun and I’m at a point in my fitness journey that makes me want to just get in ridiculously good all-around shape. I’m just not feeling the heavy lifting right now, but I know the bug will come back eventually. It always does 🙂

So I thought I’d give you a taste of my workout today. As always, know your limits and check with a doctor before you try anything new. What works for me may not work for you.

I started out with 15 minutes of incline walking on the treadmill. Then I moved to a different area of the gym to get my fitness on.

I did timed intervals of the following exercises(1 minute of each), with a jog to the stairs, up and down, and back to the starting point in between exercises. A 25 lb barbell was used for most exercises.

-Squats

-Step ups

-Bench press

-tricep extensions

-Bicep curls

-Bent over rows

-Shoulder press

-calf raises

I think thats it? It’s hard to remember. Anyways, i did about 3 sets of each exercise for about a minute straight and probably threw in about 5-6 jogs to the stairs with a sprint up and down the stairs. Next time I will do my best to remember accurately!! 😀

Well, tomorrow is the rehearsal dinner and the wedding is Saturday!! You probably won’t hear from me until Sunday or Monday, but i hope everyone has a great weekend! I’m off to bed so I can squeeze a workout in before the fun begins!

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Tabata and Running…and then I got all preachy.

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Buenos Tardes amigos!

Today has been somewhat crazy, and the next few will be even more-so! This wedding is really starting to stress me out, and it’s not even mine!

I went to my (almost) final fitting for my dress and finally got shoes for the wedding. I just need to finish up my speech, and the rest should fall into place! I have to go back one more time on Friday because she is making a few slight alterations, but it’s basically ready.

Today’s workout was pretty killer. I was sweating up a storm! I started out on a jog around the neighborhood I’m house sitting in. It is a really nice, overcast day here, so the conditions were great. I set out for 5 miles and was just going to call it a day after that. About 2 miles into the run, I decided that although I was enjoying myself and the time was flying, I wanted to push myself harder. My pace was pretty fast, but I was starting to mentally check out and get my brain set on doing something more intense. I finished up 3 miles and came inside to do a Tabata style workout.

Tabata is a style of training that involves 8 rounds of 20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest. You need an interval timer to do it, but luckily I found this handy tool online. Makes it easy when I just have to listen for a bell!

My tabata exercises included:

-Mountain climbers

-Squats

-Pushups(holy hell.)

-Bicycle Twists

I actually wanted to do more, but I’ve been having some lower back issues the past few days and started to feel it a little bit. I’d rather be smart and do less, than do more and be out for a long period of time!

It’s funny, I think that females, or maybe everyone, tends to work the body parts they don’t like much more than any others. I have ALWAYS worked my legs like crazy, not to mention, I love leg workouts. Combined with all of the cardio activities that I do, my legs have some crazy endurance. The squat rounds really didn’t phase me. Next time I will definitely add weights. The mountain climbers were tough but not terrible, the bicycle twists weren’t so bad, but the push ups? Murderous. I work my upper body A LOT, but it has always been my weak point. If you saw the way my body is made up, it would make total sense. I actually have a decent amount of upper body muscle, but it is all self made. Prior to my working out days, they were stick arms. My lower body is very athletically proportioned. Although I’m carrying around a few extra pounds these days, I have very muscular glutes and hamstrings. My quads are also pretty muscular, but it isn’t as noticeable as the backside.

Random thoughts: I skyped with the man(funny to call him that because he’s about as mature as an 8 year old. But who am I to talk, so am I.) who got me started in the fitness world. He’s currently in New Zealand working on his PhD and we haven’t talked in a few months. We talked about when I first started working out at his gym, and how I’ve changed over the years both physically and mentally, specifically towards my views on strength and conditioning. It’s just still crazy to me that I walked into Lifts almost 4 years ago just thinking I’d start working out a little bit. Little did I know that my entire LIFE would be completely changed. Even though my weight has fluctuated through the years (if I was a yo-yo I’d definitely be a Bumblebee) my perspective on life has constantly been getting better and better. My parents were never big exercisers, other than my mom having a short stint with the gym. It still amazes me that I played sports my entire life, when the other 5 members of my family sat on their ass (my older brother actually was a swimmer/mountain biker but everyone else was a sit-on-their-asser). My grandparents were very active and involved with sports though, so maybe that’s where I got it. My dad started working out about a year and a half ago. Over the last 6 months he has told me that the best gift and greatest lesson I have ever taught him is how much exercise can change your life. He doesn’t realize that him telling me that is one of the greatest gifts I’ve been given by him. It feels good to help someone. Exercise doesn’t just change your body and health, it transforms your mind. There is NOTHING, N.O.T.H.I.N.G in this world that can do for your mind what exercise can do. Yes, one workout gives you endorphins, but long-term continuous exercise makes you believe in yourself, instills confidence in you, and really gives you a drive that you may have never had before. I would assume that the happiest people on the planet are those that exercise regularly, whether that means they live in a walkable city and walk everywhere, or whether they spend hours in the gym, exercise has the ability to change you and bring out the best in you.

Okay, I’ll stop with my preaching, but I just can’t begin to describe how wonderful exercise has been to me. It’s a gift and a privilege to be able to work out as lightly or as fiercely as I want to each day. I am continuously thankful for that, regardless of being 15% body fat or 25%.

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