Is it seriously Wednesday already??

Sheesh! This week is flying by.

On my last cardio day, I wore my heart rate monitor. Haven't done that in a while. I might decide to wear it more often in the coming months though. Anyway, I was just interested to see the readout from my 30 minute hill intervals. Here they are:

AVG HR: 144
MAX HR: 165

Fitness: 29:38 - this is the time I spent working on conditioning my heart
Fat Burn: 3:59 - this is the time I spent burning fat

Total calorie burn: 259

I should have worn it when I lifted weights on Monday. I feel like I work really hard at the gym and I'm sweating and panting and it would be nice to know how many calories I burn in that hour that I'm there working. I will have to do that next time ;) It will be fun to compare the numbers against the cardio numbers.

Improvements this week from last week:

1) For pull ups, I'm now doing wide grip pronated pull ups instead supinated grip pull ups (or chin ups). Changing the position of your hands, changes the muscles targeted. Pronated grip will give you back width, primarily targeting the latissimus dorsi and rhomboids. While supinated grip also works the latissimus dorsi and rhomboids but will move the emphasis onto the biceps.

(pronated means palms facing away and supinated means palms facing in toward you)

Anyway, I was doing so well with the chin ups I thought it was time to move to "big girl pull ups" ....haha. Anyway, I was on the assisted pull up machine and did 25 on setting 4. And 4 is the lowest number you can set it before you are getting no assistance whatsoever. So to improve, I will have to take the peg completely out and it will be all me, no help.

And by the way, I didn't do all 25 at once. I did 5 sets of 5. It was tough!

2) I moved my squats up to 115lbs. That's only up 10lbs and it's hard for me to be ok with that because I'm impatient. But going up small amounts is necessary to gain strength and muscle without injury. I just desperately want to bring my squat up and it just seems so hard. I had my hopes set a little too high and wrote 125lbs in my workout log - meaning, that was the weight I was planning on using that day. But I got under it and I just couldn't bring it back up again. I am focusing on getting my squats as low as I can (and having those mirrors in the gym is handy for that!) so I got low and couldn't bring it up. Oh well, that would have been a 20lb jump in weight. Too much for this girl. I'll get there...

3) Moved my two arm KB swings to 50lbs (from 30lbs) and dropped the reps from 25 to 10. Thanks for the advice, Kristy! I am feeling it in my butt now!

4) Got my clean and press to 70lbs. That's up 5lbs - and that is a lot for me on this exercise. IT.....IS.....TOUGH! Not so much the clean part but the press part. 70lbs is a lot for these shoulders!

5) Renegade Rows (I just love these) - using 25lb dumbbells 6 sets, 5 reps each side per set. My mom just cannot fathom how I can do these. I guess they look hard. They are tough in the sense that they really work a lot of your body and you get pretty winded, but definitely not impossible! My palms will give out before the rest of me because it's uncomfortable after a while.

6) One arm snatches are at 30lbs

7) Deadlifts at 140lbs

8) Bench press at 90lbs

9) Lying ham curl at 70lbs

10) glute/ham raise - did 3 sets of 10 whoo hooo

11) curtsy lunges and band walking improved as well

I've been skipping out on the 6-8 minute intervals at the end of the workout because I've added things like the glute/ham raise, curtsy lunges and stuff like that (already mentioned previously) and it ends up getting to be too long for me. I go until I've got nothing left to give. So on my "off" days I've been adding cardio, usually 20 minutes, to make up for it. Same thing I would do otherwise, hill HIIT.

I'm feeling amazing. I feel strong. I feel like I'm making progress with each workout. I'm really happy with where I'm going. I'm totally stoked for summer!!

Nutrition is so perfect until dinner time. STILL having a problem controlling my appetite at dinner time. I don't know if I'm not eating enough during the day (although I certainly feel as though I am) or what the deal is. But I've got until March 11th to get it under control! That's when I start cycling and cutting back. Yikes! Better bury this sugar addiction once and for all! Damn girl scout cookies.