Day 44 - Legs

Hello again. Seems like forever since I've blogged. Even though it's really only been a few days. After my drunken stupor I put myself in last Thursday and then my planned "cheat" on Saturday (hey, it was my birthday, I had to have cake!), I am no worse for wear. Of course, I don't feel like I made any progress last week, but it's all good.

I boiled another whole chicken and I am LOVING it. It is so super convenient for me to just pull some cold chicken out of the fridge and eat it when I need protein. It's fast, it's easy, it's tasty. All important things. I'm not usually a big eater of chicken. I like it, I just don't get excited about it cooked the healthy way. It's bland. I guess I'm just not a very good chef.

There is this app for phones called MyFitnessPal that I am sort of digging. You can track all your meals and exercises from your phone. My brother says he even scans the bar codes from food packaging to enter his food, which sounds totally awesome, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I'm a newbie to this awesome Windows phone that I got for my birthday. I used to think the phone I had before was good enough, but now that I have this beauty, I can see why my husband always has his in his hand. It's addicting.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I didn't have any cardio today. It was legs day, which is a little switch up from previous weeks. I was so happy and surprised that I yelled "YESSSS!" and that made my husband excited to find out what I was so excited about. "I don't have cardio today! WOOT!" And he laughed.

I am steadily trying to increase weight, whether I think I can or not. This is what went down today:

Narrow stance squats: 2 sets of 15 reps at 50lbs, 1 set of 10 reps at 90lbs, 1 set of 8 reps at 90lbs.  When I joined the gym a few weeks ago I remember how awful I felt because I could barely squat 60lbs. I'm getting up there!

Narrow stance leg press: 8 reps at 160lbs, 8 reps at 160lbs, 6 reps at 140lbs, 8 reps at 140lbs

BB step ups with 45lb bar: 8 reps each leg X 4 sets

Walking 'double' lunges: using 15lb dumbbells, 6 sets of 10 reps

Single leg BB squat (foot on bench): 8 at 50lbs/ 8 at 30lbs/ 8 at 30lbs/ 8 at 30lbs (each leg)

Seated calf raise: 15 at 55lbs/ 15 at 55lbs/ 13 at 55lbs

Standing calf raise: 10 at 25lbs/ 10 at 25lbs/ 15 at 25lbs

Leg extension: 10 at 70lbs/ 10 at 70lbs/ 10 at 50lbs --- my legs were so done here

Done!

It felt like a great workout. I was sweating like CRAZY! I went a bit later today since I had to bring my husband into the hospital to get his tonsils out and it was so dead there! By the end of my workout, I was the only one in the weight room! Nice!

I keep looking at myself in the mirror and I don't notice any change where I want it. I still have what I call a big divet on the outside of each leg created by sagging fat. Disgusting, I know. And some days, I swear my cellulite has actually gotten worse! Lumpy lumpy lumpy. I am hoping it's one of those things that gets worse before it gets better. Because it just doesn't make any sense to me that it should look worse after all my efforts these past 6 weeks. Maybe it is being pushed to the surface? I don't know. But I CAN NOT WAIT for it to be gone. I am so impatient. I want it to happen now! It's so frustrating. I will keep doing what I am doing and have faith that one day, it will disappear.

I am supposed to be watching calories now. On lighter workout days, I am to follow a calorie intake of about 1336 and on legs days, for instance, I am to intake around 1636. I hate calorie counting with a passion. But I guess I have to learn to like it. In the past two weeks I should have been cutting back on carbs later in the day. Just isn't happening. So yesterday I decided it was time to get serious. I mean, do I want this or not??!! So, I made lasagna and garlic toast for the family (yum) while I had.....you guessed it, cold chicken and salad. It was good but I don't know why I torture myself like that.

Tonight, I am making tacos. It's easy enough to have salad with taco meat without feeling deprived. I bought all kinds of convenience foods for the kids this week since my husband will be home feeling miserable and I wanted to make things as easy as possible. So they have things like chicken nuggets, pizza rolls, hot dogs, sloppy joes, etc. on the menu this week. Which they love. And I even bought Hanna potato bread, which I never do. Cuz it's white. And it turns to sugar the moment it hits her tongue. I always feel guilty when I do this. What kind of a mother buys their kids crap like that to eat?? It makes me want to cry. They rely on me to make them nutritious food to feed their growing bodies properly. Even if sometimes they don't always enjoy it. What is it saying to them if I refuse to eat the junk I buy for them? To me it says, I don't care about your health as much as I care about mine. To me it says, I am too lazy to put for the effort that is required in getting you to sit up to the table and try everything on your plate - even the broccoli. I don' know, I am just feeling bad about it and needed to vent.