Falling Short of Goals

It happened.  I fell off the horse.  I ate ice cream, and Thai food, and all kinds of things that aren’t on my plan.  Oh it was soooo good but so bad.  Eating clean has still been apart of my everyday lifestyle, but it has definitely taken a back seat.  Initially, I struggled with feelings of guilt, regret, and discouragement.  The farther I strayed from my eating plan the farther my target goal seemed to be.  So what did I do?  The next opportunity I had I made good choices.  I didn’t dwell on the fact that I ate ice cream the night before or eaten WAY too much brie and crackers.  The most beneficial thing you can do for yourself when you fall off the horse is get back on as soon as possible.  It’s too easy to dwell on bad decisions and let the guilt cripple you.  By doing this, we end up sabotaging our own goals.  I’ve taken the past week and realize the following factors have played a huge part in setting me back:

• Preparation (or lack thereof) as in meal prep.  Preparation is key in achieving your goals, if you don’t prepare, you won’t be ready.  Simple.
• Justifying one bite here or one bite there.  20 little bites throughout the day add up!
• Not blogging!  This blog is something that holds me accountable and not doing it meant that I wasn’t holding myself accountable and ignoring my cheats.  Living in denial!
• Not enough sleep.  Why would you want to prepare your meals and workout if you have zero energy?
• Lacking groceries.  I haven’t had many healthy options around lately which means I’ve been more likely to go grab a bite to eat at a restaurant or out of the freezer.

SO WHAT AM I GOING TO DO TO CHANGE THESE BAD HABITS AND GET BACK ON TRACK?

• Dedicate more time to meal preparation.  It’s all about priorities, surf the internet or have my meals ready for the next day?
• Keep it real!  No more BS-ing myself.  Having a bite here and there is cheating no matter how I like to sugar coat it.  If I am going to eat, I will sit down and have a meal or a snack.
• Blog more.  This is like my online journal.  Reading and writing in it reminds me why I live the lifestyle I do.
• Go to bed earlier.
• Make sure my pantry and fridge are well stocked with clean options.  Nutrition plays into about 80% of  any weight loss goals.  Food is your tool, if you don’t have the right tools you can’t get the job done.

Time to re-motivate myself and get back on track!

Tags: best diet, bikini, clean, clean eating, competition, diet, eating, exercise, fat, fat loss, female, fitness, goals, health, healthy, lose weight, loss, npc, npc bikini, nutrition, plan, recipes, weight lifting, weightloss, woman, women

End of Week 5

Well, I think I’ve officially plateaud.  I’m almost positive I’m not incorporating enough cardio into my regimen.  The weight training has stayed pretty consistent but I think I need that cardio to keep my body responding.  This week I am going to focus on upping the high intensity cardio with plyometrics and sprint drills.  Hopefully this will give me the boost I’m looking for.

Here are the pics!

Abs are looking good (especially compared to the previous weeks!)

Not bad, but still work to do

And my biceps!

Definitely still work to do though they are slightly bigger

Next week I’ll start incorporating full body progress pics because monitoring back and leg definition is important too.

Week 6 here we go!

Tags: diet, fat, fat loss, fitness, goal, gym, health, nutrition, training, weight, weight loss, workout

End of Week 4

The end of week 4 is upon us! I made it to one whole month of consistent diet and training. I’m definitely starting to feel and SEE results. Sticking to a lifestyle change is always so much easier once you can see the fruits of your labor. My abs have always held more fat than the rest of my body so it’s a good feeling to see them gain some definition. Eating a low sodium diet and drinking a ton of water has also played a large part in helping lose water weight and also helping with my g.I. problems.

Here’s where my abs are at right now:

Here’s my bicep. I’m starting to see some muscle forming!

I’ve got12 weeks left and I really want to see what I am capable of. So far so good!

Tags: bodybuilding, diet, exercise, fat, fat loss, fitness, gym, health, muscle, nutrition, training, transformation, weight, weight lifting, weight loss

Power Hour

Here I am talking about the RAD class I teach on Thursday nights at the climbing gym.  Neil and Bill are the other two trainers.

Get psyched to work out!!

Tags: climbing, crossfit, fitness, gym, health, muscle, nutrition, p90x, power, Power Hour, ring training, rings, strength, strength training, training, weights

Sprint Workout

I said in an earlier post that I needed to incorporate some more cardio into my gaining program so I decided to hit the local track for a sprint workout. The local school track was closed so I went down to the closest park instead (improvisation is key to achieving a goal!).

I warmed up then completed:

5 sets of 300 meter sprints ( resting 1 minute and 30 seconds between each one)

Then rested 4 minutes and completed five sets of 100 meter sprints (also resting 1 minute and 30 seconds between each sprint)

I made sure to complete the sprints at an ALL OUT effort. It felt so good to run even though t was pretty hot outside. Whenever you workout a water bottle is a must!

Tags: cardio, fat loss, fitness, gym, health, running, sprints, track, training, Workouts

End of Week 3

Sorry, this post is a little late due to some technical problems with my internet (thanks alot Verizon).  I made it to the end of week 3 staying strong with the exception of a cheat meal (day is more like it) on Sunday.  Contrary to what I thought was going to happen, my willpower has become a little stronger as the weeks go by.  Those Swedish Fish in the back of my fridge don’t seem to be calling my name QUITE as loudly.

Here is a sample of my diet today:

Meal 1: 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1 scoop protein powder

Meal 2: sandwich made from 2 slices of low sodium Ezekial bread, 1 tablespoon lite mayo, 1 tablespoon mustard, 1 slice sandwich meat, 1/4 avocado

Meal 3: 1/2 cucumber (sliced) dipped in 1/3 cup yogurt (with dill and squeeze of lemon)

Meal 4: 4 oz chicken breast, 1 small sweet potato, 1/2 cup mixed veggies

Meal 5: 4 oz chicken breast wrapped in whole wheat tortilla 1 cup lima beans

Meal 6: 1 scoop protein powder and water, handful of raw unsalted walnuts

 

This plan puts me at about (roughly) 1,800 calories.  I need to make sure my body is well fed so I can build muscle and keep my body from resorting to using muscle as fuel.

Here’s a pic of my abs.  I’m starting to notice a flatter belly and more muscle definition.

 

They're coming!

Killer workout

I did a pretty gnarly workout yesterday. I warmed up 10 minutes on the elliptical and then completed:

Wall balls 60x 50 x 40 x 30
Kettle bell swings 60 x 50 x 40 x 30
Pull ups 40 x 30 x 20 x 10

Workout looks like: complete 60 reps of wall balls and kettle bells and 40 reps of pull ups, continue down the list. It took me about 40 minutes to complete this so I will work on improving my time. It was also a good change from my usual weights I have been doing. Wall balls are hard work and the intensity of this workout left me totally worked.

I used a 15 pound wall ball and a 25 pound kettle bell.

Here is what wall balls look like:

It’s done with something similar to a medicine ball, but bigger and made with squishy material.

Tags: cardio, exercise, fat loss, strength training, workout

End of Week 2

I made it to the end of week 2! Woo hoo!  I did allow myself a cheat meal this week of some bomb pasta which was so worth it.  It’s important to not totally deprive yourself or else goals kind of fall apart.  My training has been consisting of heavy lifting 4 days a week each day working two different muscle groups.  Starting next week I will start incorporating more cardio as well.  Since I haven’t been eating as much as I should my energy levels have been kind of low.  It’s something I’m slowly starting to improve.

Here’s a picture of my abs.  I don’t see any huge changes except that I do notice my muscles being slightly more defined.  Also I’m not as bloated which is pretty sweet.

Abs.

But hey, this would be cool too.

Goal abs.

Butter!

You know what’s really hard? Eating steamed vegetables over, and over again. Recently while perusing twitter I noticed a tweet fitness icon Alicia Marie had made about Butter Buds which is sprinkled on foods and gives it a buttery taste. AWESOME. I tried it tonight on my green beans…SO good! The only downside is that it does contain sodium (120g per serving). However, Costco carries it’s own brand and calls it Butter Smart. Their stuff only has about 40g of sodium per serving. I highly recommend it to anyone that doesn’t want to go insane while dieting or just to clean up meals.

Enjoy!

Yum!

Tags: butter buds, diet, fitness, health, low fat, nutrition

Week 1

So today marks the end of week one. Aside from the initial brain fog due to cutting out refined sugar and alot of carbs, everything is going well. The most challenging set back is actually making sure to eat ENOUGH food. Whole, unprocessed foods are so filling that it is easy to overestimate how many calories, proyein, etc you are getting. I have to admit that today I barely got up to 1300 calories. NO GOOD. I need to be taking in at the very least 1700 calories if I am trying to put on muscle.

Thus far, here’s how things are lookin’:

Tags: body, clean eating, diet, training