Hola peeps!(did I really just say peeps??) Hope everyone had a good start to the week after the Superbowl.
I ended up not going to any Superbowl parties and just crashed after work. I am such a partier 😉
The funny thing is, I used to go out every single weekend. If I didn’t go out all weekend, it was because I had the flu. I never get sick(don’t tell my teachers that. According to them, I get sick every other week. :-o) so I basically went out every weekend. Going out doesn’t mean I was out drinking, though. I’ve never been a big drinker and I get questioned a lot about how I’m able to hang until 4am without an ounce of alcohol in me. Maybe I’m magical. 🙂 When I get really into my training though, it’s not worth it to lose out on that much sleep. I still go out every once in a while, but lately I just want my sleep!
Okay soo anyways…
Help
Holy hell, I am SO SICK OF: Chicken and Ground Turkey. I am in desperate need of some contest prep recipes or protein alternatives. I still love my egg whites, but they aren’t very portable. I don’t really like beef. I tried bison, and nutritionally it’s great, but it’s expensive and it tastes like: Beef. I think if I could find a way to make ground turkey another way, i wouldn’t be so sick of it. Does anyone else have that problem? I find a way that I like a food and I eat it like that for every meal until I hate it. I’ve been living off of ground turkey, avocado and hot sauce for the past few months. Ugh, please find me something new!!! I’m try to eat as cleanly as possible(the majority of the time) so if you have any ideas throw them my way! I don’t eat dairy, but I did used to have greek yogurt as a protein source. I’m getting so desperate that I am thinking about bringing that back to my life. That is both expensive, and I don’t know that I want that much casein protein, but on the other hand if I have to eat another piece of cold, plain chicken this week, I might just stop eating all together.
Good thing I still love my veggies and fats though 🙂 OH, and by the way. I am on a walnut kick. You can’t eat very many of them (95 calories in 1/2 oz.) but they are F.D. as my mom would say.(f*&kin delicious). I might even get crazy and put some on a baking sheet, spray them with a little Pam, sprinkle some cinnamon and stevia on them and call it dessert. I don’t know though, sounds dangerous. 😉
Workout
Today’s workout was a good one! I didn’t do an over-kill of cardio today(shockingly). I warmed up on the treadmill with 10 minutes of walking and 10 minutes of jogging. I didn’t do my normal 20 minute jog because my legs a) felt like lead b) could be getting shin splints? more on that in a hot minute.(yeah, i just said hot minute. sue me.)
Afterwards, I met Dae on the “other side”(the weight room) for some backtion. Haha i just made that up, and I like it.(back action). So, my backtion work out consisted of multiple sets of cable rows, pull downs, straight arm pull downs, some band reverse flys, band rows, face pulls etc. We did drop sets, super sets, and he threw in a bunch of ab exercises too: different variations of crunches on the bench, hanging leg raises, and band crunches. He also had me do some sprints, side shuffles, and step up/jumping jacks in between sets. I sweated. A lot.
Afterwards, my leads(hahhaa i like that one too. lead+legs=leads) were so dead, so I just did a light 25 minute session on the arc trainer. Enough to get me a little sweaty, but by no means a tough cardio sesh.
I’m Sore!!!
Ok, so i am ridiculously sore. The track workout from yesterday was apparently harder than I thought. Yeah, it felt hard yesterday, but I didn’t expect my quads to be so dead today. My glutes and hams are a little sore as well. Jogging felt like I had taped lead pipes to my legs. I’m sure that my dearest friend George would tell me, nope, that is just because your legs are so massive, but today they felt heavier than ever! (no worries, we are good enough friends that he can joke with me and not hurt my feelings. except he isn’t joking, and he is very open about that haha…moving on…)
My shins are tender today and I think I may be doing a little to much sprinting. I am jogging M,W,F mornings and between plyo days on wednesday, and at least one boot camp and/or track workout on the weekends, plus usually a sprint work out during the week as well, it is absolutely NO surprise. In my attempt to try to find some balance(more in a moment) I am going to skip the plyo workout on Wednesday and just do a normal leg workout. No running tomorrow and I will see how I feel on Wednesday or Thursday. Incline walking and stair mill until then.
Balance
The difference between training hard and over training. I seem to get caught up in this and tend to do the latter. I LOVE to train hard. Some people think I’m sick and twisted for it, but others understand it. I like to not be able to move, and to feel a workout for the entire day. Overtraining, however, just hinders progress. I have an extremely hard time finding the happy medium. I am REALLY trying to work on listening to my body and not overtraining. I am capable of training a lot and sometimes people think I am overtraining, but in fact, my body feels wonderful. I have a lot of endurance and it takes a little extra to put me over the top. With that being said, I am going to do my best to train HARD, but not overtrain. Today is a perfect example. My legs were dead, so instead of forcing myself to do incline walking for an hour, I stuck to light cardio for 25 minutes. It’s little things like that, that will eventually help me to move forward. These marathon workouts are NOT going to necessarily make me a better athlete. Being an athlete means pushing yourself hard, but being smart about it too. My bummed wrist, knee, and shins are my body telling me to slow it down, so I’m doing just that: Listening.
Ya know what else I’m doing to listen to my body? If you follow me on twitter, you know that I am going to attempt contest prep without calorie counting. I have been counting calories for about 2 years now, and I have noticed a few things.
1) I don’t listen to my body. I eat based on calorie allotment, and timing.
2) If I have leftover calories and I’m not hungry, I eat. If I have used up all my calories and I AM hungry, I don’t eat.
I know what my portion sizes are. I’ve been counting calories long enough and making meals long enough that I know how much I should be eating at each meal. The difference is that I am not going to add up my calories. I am going to make my meals for the day. Some days I may come up short on calories and be satisfied, other days I may need that extra meal at night. I’m going to listen to my body and see what its telling me. A healthy body begins with a healthy mind, and right now, my mind is reading a Sparkpeople calorie chart to decide if I should eat or not.
It’s a scary thing for me, because not knowing how many calories I’m eating is something I’m not used to, but at the same time, I feel like it will help me get a better mind/body connection regarding getting my training habits and eating habits in sync.
Okay, if you are still reading, you must really have no life. I mean seriously, go do something. 😉 JUSTTTTT kidding. I appreciate it if you read this whole post! It was a long one. I am thankful for all of my readers who continuously support me!!
Have a great evening girls and guys. I need my rest. I’ve got boxing, bi’s and tri’s and some ‘light’ cardio on the agenda for tomorrow along with work, class and cleaning! Later!