Day 23

This friggin' sore throat has really got the best of me. I finally went to the walk in clinic yesterday to make sure I didn't have anything nasty like strep. Well, the good news is I do not have strep. However, they seem to think I have seasonal allergies. I'm not so sure I agree since days before I got my sore throat and lost my voice, the same thing happened to my daughter. Only she was lucky to only have to deal with hers for about 2 days. Anyway, I came home afterwards and crawled into my bed and slept for 2 hours. That felt great! I got some cough syrup with codeine to help me sleep and I think it did a good job. I am still coughing today and probably still only functioning on 80%.

Then I decided to get a flu shot as long as I was there. The shot didn't hurt at all but the hours afterward were SO PAINFUL! I've never reacted to a shot that way before. I could hardly move my arm and it was way worse than any muscle soreness I've ever felt. Almost like a constant muscle burn. NOT fun. I'm glad Emma got the mist now that I know how the shot feels.

Whining aside, I went to the gym this morning. We timed it perfect so that I could give Hanna a ride to school on my way. This is going to work out so great. And I know you were asking about this, Amanda, the reason I decided to join the gym is due to all the cable exercises coming up, especially in phase 3. Cables provide constant tension on the eccentric and concentric movements which is why Jamie uses a lot of them in her workout plan. So I figured that to make the most out of this 12 weeks, I either need to purchases a "home gym" or join a gym. I am SO glad I joined a gym instead!!

There is so much awesome equipment there, I will NEVER get bored. The time goes by so fast too. These last two days that I've been there, when I get to the end of my list of exercises I think "already??" and I just want to keep going...haha! But my muscles are just exhausted by the end so I couldn't even if I wanted to. Today was about an hour, start to finish. I spent a little extra time looking around for the right equipment but mostly it was pretty fluid from one machine to the next.

Today was shoulders/back and this is what I ended up doing:
hammer strength lat pull  10@70lbs/6@70lbs/5@60lbs/12@60lbs
wide grip lat pulldown 10@50lbs X 3 & one narrow grip 10@50lbs
seated narrow grip cable rows 10@40lbs X 3
t-bar cable pull (which was supposed to be a t-bar row using BB...oops) 10@50 X 3
back extension machine 10@55lbs X 3
DB curls (supposed to be BB) 10@30lbs/8@30lbs/8@30lbs/4@24lbs/4@20lbs - poundage is 'total', meaning 30lbs would be 2 - 15lb dumbbells
incline DB curl 8@24 X 3 - (2 - 12lb dumbbells) wish I could have gotten 10 reps here
alt hammer curl 8@12lbs/8@10lbs/10@10lbs/5@15lbs - this poundage is per arm
also added extra pumps for my left arm because it is much weaker than my right: 4@10lbs/10@5lbs

When I'm doing the hammer curls, my right arm could keep going a few more reps while my left arm is struggling to get the weight up. It's a big discrepancy in my opinion. Gotta strengthen that left arm. Of course the left arm was my 'shot' arm too.

I'm not super happy with my workout results today, simply because I haven't made any strength gains from last week but my aching arm might have contributed to that. At least I didn't have shoulders today - that would have been bad!

I'm eating SO MUCH protein that if I don't start growing some muscles soon, Imma be pissed! LOL. Seriously, all this eating eating eating is wreaking havoc on my digestive system and while I think it's getting a tad better, it's still a nuisance. Some days, I am hungry when it's time to eat, but I don't even want to eat because it feels like that is all I do. And I get tired of protein protein protein. Of course I'm craving stuff like bread and cheese BIG TIME lately. Last night, I almost ordered pizza. I felt THAT crappy. I didn't want to cook, Andreas was working late, I felt horrible. I was on the website, ordering and I finally said, "NO". And I walked away. I knew if it was in the house, I would have eaten it. I wanted it so bad but I WON! I beat my mind. I beat my craving. And I am so proud of myself for powering through a tough situation. This is real, baby!