Goooooooood Morning

I seriously think there’s something wrong with me ;) I’ve never been in such a good mood AFTER Christmas. I’m just so excited about the coming new year! Actually I’m finding I’m excited about each new day – another chance to prove myself. Another chance to be the best I can be.

I did really well on food yesterday. I managed to avoid all the left over treats here at work, and the left over treats at home. The food I had was very good and very satisfying. I kept my calories almost right at 2000 and ratio at 23/40/34 F/C/P – overall I’m Thrilled ;) If I keep with this there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll start to see results quickly and consistently.

This morning 4:00 AM came REALLY quickly though. It took me forever to wake up. In fact I think I was ½ way through my workout before I finally felt human :P

I couldn’t believe how empty the gym was today. There were two other people besides my fiancé and I in the weight area and maybe 12 (or less) people on the cardio machines. It was SO nice ;)

It was back day. After 8 minutes of peddling on the bike and a few warm-up sets I started my workout.

Bent Rows (+ bar): 60 x 6 / 60 x 6
Close Grip Pull down: 105 x 6 / 115 x 5.5
I probably could have finished the last rep for these but my fiancé started playing ‘personal trainer’ and was being so goofy that I started laughing.
Wide Grip Pull Ups (Assisted – these make me feel like such a looser because I can’t do them): 170 (I think that means 170lbs of assistance?) x 6 / 170 x 6
Olympic Style Dead Lifts:

Now I did the Dead Lifts on this machine they have at the gym. Since it was my first time doing Olympic Style I felt better doing it on a machine. It allows me to focus on my form more and less on ‘don’t drop the bar’. This machine has three grips much like a pull up setup: Narrow Grip, Wide Grip and Parallel Grip. I get all set up, and take a narrow grip because it seemed the most comfortable to me. I was all focused on my form, weight back so that my knees were behind my toes, back slightly arched, head up. I was watching myself in the mirror as I stood, looked good, and then at the top of the lift I made sure to pull my shoulders back and give my lats a good SQUEEZE. My fiancé almost jumped across the room when I hollered ‘OWE!’.

“Oh my god, are you aright? Do you need me to take the weight?”

“No, it’s ok, I’m ok…”

What had I done? When I had stood up straight and rolled my shoulders back I had rammed the pegs for the parallel grip into my thighs. I’m such a dork! I finished my sets anyway.

45 x 6 / 70 x 6

That was it for the day – I hit the showers.

Chest yesterday and back today? Let’s just say my upper body is a little sore.

A few last notes. Having committed to several challenges for the new year: Julies “Torch” Challenge, Ms Fit’s Challenge, Pink Dumbbells challenge and a challenge at Body Blog has got me feeling anxious. I’m suddenly feeling pressured to have a ‘transformation’ and in my mind that requires doing things ‘right’. This has left me questioning everything I do. Is –Max-OT the right weight lifting regime? Should I do cardio every day? Twice a Day? HIIT or LISS? Run or Bike ahhhhhhh!! And then there’s the nutrition. Do I low carb it? Only eat fish on Sundays? Have cabbage every third hour? (I know I’m getting silly now)

The easy thing would be to do BFL by the book. Frankly I feel I’m a little beyond that. But maybe I’m giving myself too much credit. I just know I don’t like the two day split, Upper Body one day and Lower Body another. And on average I think the palm/fist method leaves much to be desired on my body. I’ve tried ‘winging it’ and that’s gotten me no where.

I know there are a lot of people out there who feel the same way. Completely confused on what program to do, when to do what and how many reps; it’s overwhelming. I don’t have any answers yet. What I’m NOT allowing this to do is paralyze me. Yes, I don’t have plan yet, but that doesn’t mean I sit around and do nothing!

Because of this confusion of mine I went and checked out some training programs. Two I’ve been interested in for a while now SGX and Leanness Lifestyle. While looking at these two programs I was scrolling through their ‘results’ photos. That’s when my fiancé made a comment. He said, “I see you looking at all these photos and I wonder when are you going to stop looking and start doing?”

I had to think about that for a while. I told him that I look at the before/afters for inspiration. To assure myself that it’s possible. We then got into a discussion about me and my lack of results. (Yes we’re back to that). What it comes down to is that he doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand that working your ass off at the gym isn’t enough. I do that. You have to plan and carefully execute your nutrition to get the results that we see in the magazines. Don’t get me wrong here – it’s not that he doesn’t believe in me. The thing is, he believes in me too much! He believes I’m capable of an amazing transformation. That I’m capable of achieving amazing results, what he can’t understand is why it hasn’t started yet…

And really I don’t have the answers - yet. I’ve spent the past year (or more like the past 6 months) figuring out what DOESN’T work for me. Eventually I’ll figure out what does. And when I do, whoa Nelly!

Have a GREAT day everyone.