Reset

I've been doing a little back and forth chatting with an AMAZING woman. She is a figure competitor in her 50s and her physique is stunning. She would be amazing to have that body at 20 and to think she is 50 and looking that good is a just crazy awesome. There is a lot of hard work and dedication into looking like that. And she just recently took home a first place trophy at a figure competition! MUCH deserved.

I feel like I have put in a lot of hard work and dedication too (obviously not as much as she has) but I still don't feel like I have the body to show for all my efforts. Something I'm doing is not helping, but hindering the progress I feel like I should be making. So I decided to go out on a limb and contact this woman, tell her a bit about myself and my "problem" and see if she could help me. Pinpoint what I was doing wrong with training and/or diet and give me a few suggestions.

She graciously agreed to help me out, despite having a family, full time career and crazy training schedule herself. I felt guilty about asking so much of her. I hope that some day, I can return the favor somehow.

Anyway, she wanted to take a look at what my training schedule was, the workouts I did and what I was eating. Lucky for me, I track all that stuff so I was able to fill her in. One thing she said really sticks out in my mind:

"Cardio is not your friend."

As you know, I am a staunch advocate for weight training OVER cardio as the way to get the body you desire. Unless you desire to be "skinny fat". That's a term for skinny people who look soft. If that's your desired outcome, do tons of cardio!

She looked at my workouts and told me I was doing too much cardio. Which was shocking because I really didn't think I did all that much. I had recently ramped it up in the final stages of a timeline to goal, as prescribed by my latest road to fat loss guru. But that was only 20 minutes after weight training plus a couple of HIIT sessions on off days. Typically, the only cardio I would do in the past would be 3 sessions, 20 minutes each, of high intensity interval training (HIIT) per week in addition to weight training. That's only an hour a week. HIIT has never proven to be a super effective way to burn fat off my body either. I like to do it for the cardiovascular benefit more than anything.

Also, she didn't think that I was eating enough calories. It always seemed strange to me that eating less calories and being in a deficit never produced fat loss. Sure, it did when I had lots of weight to lose, but the smaller I became, the more impossible it was to shed fat. I'm probably at a point where I need to just eat. And eat enough calories and do enough heavy weight training to gain as much muscle as I possibly can. That's the only way my shape will improve and look the way I want it to look.

Right now, I'm skinny fat (although my family tries desperately to convince me it's just skinny....I know the reality). Because either I would be solely training with weights (yet eat like a dieter, trying to lose fat) or I would go through periods where I thought I needed more cardio because the weight training on it's own wasn't working. So I would start running daily. But all those years I spent weight training and dieting at the same time, I wasn't adding much muscle and the muscle I might have added got wasted away when I decided to add cardio to the picture. Of course I wasn't improving! I've been spinning my wheels and driving myself insane trying this, that and the other thing because I feel like nothing works for me. All this time, I just needed to eat and GAIN.

For the past two weeks I've let a lot slide. I haven't been killing myself in the gym and I haven't been sticking to any sort of diet. My family seems to be a lot happier about it. But I am not. My stomach hates me. It tells me daily. But I'm just giving myself a break from it all. A break from the obsession. A break from the constant worrying if what I'm doing is right or wrong. I am trying to live like a "normal" person until I figure out what my next goal is and how I'm going to achieve it. With the help of one terrific lady. If you happen to read this, you know who you are. And you have NO IDEA how grateful I am to you for trying to help me out.

So, while I will not have my perfect bikini body YET AGAIN for summer, I will not give up. I'm done with fat loss, I'm done with my timeline, I'm just going to switch it all off. Reset.

Saturday 2/6/10

WORKOUT B

Squats 75lbs - got all 10 here, will move up to 80lbs
Lunges 60lbs - got 5 each leg
Romanian Deadlifts 95lbs - got 8 YESSSSSS!!!!
BB Bench Press 50lbs - got 10, moving up to 55lbs
BB Row 50lbs - got 10, moving up to 55lbs
BB Shoulder Press 40lbs - beat my last rep count by 2!!
BB Bicep Curl 35lbs - beat my last rep count by 3!!
Lying Tricep Extensions 20lbs - despite shaking like crazy, I beat my last rep count by 3!!
BB Calf Raises 60lbs - got an easy twenty, moving up to 70lbs
Abs - side bends at 25lbs - got an easy 10 each side

I really kicked butt tonight. I get so worried sometimes at how hard a workout is and wonder if it's possible that I will be able to get even one more rep next time. But I surpassed just one extra rep on every exercise. I ended up pounding out 2-3 MORE on each one! I think it was because I was really into a mental zone, concentrating hard and telling my body before each lift that it WILL lift this weight to such and such a rep and BAM!

I have been practicing "mind exercises" as well and it's really paying off!

I haven't been listing my food log at all these days. Probably due to the fact that since I'm not "dieting" or trying to cut back on any one particular thing, eating right just comes a lot easier. I have been trying to stick to the same foods every day though, just to make it easier. The only thing I need to improve on is getting my veggies in. I'm basically eating carbs and protein but omitting the veggies. That needs improvement. I found a formula that really keeps me energized and satisfied all day long so I'll keep on it until I get sick of it. Here it is:

Breakfast: Egg white, turkey sausage, cheese, english muffin sandwich (Jimmy Dean LIGHT - 260 calories)

Snack: plain oatmeal with cinnamon and stevia to taste and ground flax seed and wheat germ added for health

Lunch: 2 slices 100% whole wheat natural bread, with natural peanut butter and jelly

Snack: FiberOne cereal, skim milk

Dinner: This is what changes every day. Obviously I can't feed the family the same thing day after day! But it's always healthy, fajitas, low fat chili with lots of legumes, salmon, chicken, etc. I find some of the best recipes from the following books:

The Abs Diet
Eat Up, Slim Down
YOU on a Diet
Flip the Switch

And because of the way I've kept myself full of fiber and protein during the day, I am only hungry enough at night for one small serving of dinner! Big servings and seconds were always my weakness before. But now, I even can keep spaghetti to a 1 cup serving! And then if it's a non-workout day I'll have a slow digesting protein before bed (like cottage cheese) and if it's a workout day, (I do weights in the evening so Andreas can be my spotter with squats) I have a protein shake or a protein bar.

I haven't even felt the URGE to cheat the past couple weeks. It's weird! Even if the whole family is porking down chocolate and donuts, I don't bat an eye! I have an 80% cocao chocolate bar in the cupboard if I need something with my after dinner coffee (and it's full of antioxidants so bonus bonus!)

Tuesday & Wednesday

Rest days from weights. But I did do some interval training (HIIT) - which is 20 minutes on the treadmill, alternating between high and low intensity. And, in addition to the HIIT, I did a butt blaster (Wednesday). It's a series of 4 moves which are supposed to build a nice round butt ;) just twice a week. Not sure the point at which you are supposed to notice a difference tho...3 months maybe?? Anyway, I did 3 sets of each exercise and 8 reps of each.

I just felt the need to get some cardio in. It really felt wonderful, to tell you the truth. I couldn't help but smile the whole time I was doing it. I LOVE the way exercising can just lift your mood from good to GREAT!

So far I have successfully completed 2 solid weeks of training. I haven't noticed any gains in muscle size necessarily, but that will come eventually. I just hope I'm eating enough! I always worry that I'm not eating enough to fuel my muscles but when I do eat more (clean food, mind you) I'm worried I'm eating too much and will gain fat!!! It's such a double edged sword, this eating thing!