Monday, March 28, 2011

WEEK 45 - March 28

Week 45 has been nuts. And yes, this post is late. I was just so exhausted yesterday, I went home and went to bed. Life is crazy! Busy! But good! As always! Started to actually train people. Had an orientation of sorts on Saturday and Sunday, and a session with a client, an orientation and a monthly Monday morning. Feeling better about all of it and building a little bit of confidence! I found that last week, I did do a lot of working out. But it was more so for the clients, and what workouts I was going to do for them. And that is good, because even though I didnt use as much weight as I could for the workouts, I was still going through them... almost nightly.

I did try to test my PR on the leg press while finishing up a late night workout at Fuerte. I had 5 plates each side, and was still able to do 12-15 reps. And I was out of plates at that point. So, I need to go to 24 and see what these legs are made of! Strangely, the more i go over these workouts for future sessions, the more i feel i need to have a workout for ME. And that may seem selfish. Fine. But, to just drop the note pad, put the headphones in, blast the music, and get lost in the world I wind up in when my heart rate gets going. I crave it when I go without it.

I do love training though. Yes, I've only really been doing it for like 2 weeks, and not as often as I will be. but its good, and feels good, and Yeah, basically read last post and thats how I feel. It's comfortable. I think the issues that are arising now, is yeah, I can do these monthlys where the member will be like "we did an upper session last time, lets do lower this month" And my goal is to give them a wide range of exercises that they can form their workouts around. But a client you see 2x a week. You have to be creative, and you have to keep it fresh. Ahhhhh.... oooohhhhh haha. And I will get that. I have been going over bodybuilding.com's exercises library any second I can. I have it on my phone so I can always whip out the app and write more down when I have a moment to spare. I finally have learned the value of having a writing notebook with you at all times. I'm always writing in it. Ah, I cant wait til the day when I can just run someone through an upper wrkt and not reference anything. I should make a program..... the "Workout Randomizer" I'd make millions.

Fun news! I also made Jamie Eason's "INSPIRATION" album! 42,000 followers and I was the 6th photo she uploaded. Nice. Figured if I can use my story and my progress to motivate and inspire others, then that is a good day! Anyway, I know, I'm not changing much, probably, but here is Week 45!

Monday, March 21, 2011

11 Months! - March 21

Its Month 11! And its blog day! WOW! Life has been crazy the last week! Hard for me to grasp what time it is and where I'm at! But, with that, it works, and im happy!
I started to shadow, and get comfortable in a gym setting this past week. See this is bad, I cant even remember if its been a week or two weeks. I feel like it's been 2 weeks since I started working out of Fuerte Fitness..... but, wow. Anyway! With that aside, I've so far done two "orientation" sessions. I put someone through a core workout and had a "meeting" with a member where they basically have the opportunity to go over what they have been doing, talk about what may be working, what may not be working, etc. And I can throw in my corrections or update their plan, give them new exercises, etc. And... honestly? It's comfortable even though I'm not as knowledgable (clearly) as I am going to be in a year, or two, three...etc, you get the picture.

The other really cool thing is this: before I start the session, im wondering if people are going to be watching me... or "oh god, that person has been training for years, they probably look at me like im an idiot and new!" And then, I start talking to the member/client, and all that disappears and I don't even concentrate on it. I thought I would be afraid to touch people to help correct form, and im not. It's really refreshing and exciting to know that while, like I said, im not as knowledgable as I am going to be, I'm not really uncomfortable or afraid of it either.

I have decided (today actually) that they best thing for me to do is go through each body group, get basic, intermediate, advanced exercises for each (since my "off the top of my head" exercise bank is not yet extensive) and use them as cheat sheets. And also, go through common "ailments" (i.e. lower back pain, knee problems, elbow pain, shoulder ETCCCC....) and write down the more common reasons these occur and what is common to fix it, exercises, etc. And that would be a good couple sheets for me to have in my pocket at first. I'll tell ya though. I'm excited. For what reason, I have no idea, it feels natural. It feels good. And I wasnt quite expecting that. Like I said, its refreshing.


With that said!!! On with my week! I started in on a STRICT diet again. I get to session on..... Thursday, and I tell my trainer "I dont really want to remind you..." we took measurements, and as I had thought, I didnt really go much of anywhere since the last time. I lost half a pound, and had a mm or two fluctuation, but my pinch i think was about the same. My eating, had gotten to the point where I was relying on Zone Perfect's....... pure proteins, and not eating REAL food. Well, NOW.... I am! My diet is as follows (yes, I have a photo of what my trainer wrote out for me....scary thing: It's only monday, and I'm pretty tired! HELLO 5am!!!):

ADD 24 almonds to last meal.

And I have followed that, except for the steak, I eat chicken. I think I needed that little kick in the butt with the measurements, and i KNEW i hadnt made that much progress since last measurements, but it made me realize i gotta get back to it. Still got more to go!

My goal with cardio is too go for distance now. I hit 5 miles one day. Wait, I wrote about that last blog. And now, I need to still do the distance, but I've been running about 2-2.5miles and then hitting the stairs and doing lvl 14 for 15ish, taking it down to lvl 7 for a 30 sec break and then gunning it at lvl 16 for 5. At lvl 16 I can basically jog on the machine. I can walk too, but its at that speed where you can do either. It's tough. And as the last 5mins of a 40min cardio session. You better believe my mind is DEAD when i get done!!!

I also started doing PRs. My bi curl is 35lb x1, my tri pull down is 45 on the cybex, I'll go in tonight and see what my bent over ext is. My chest press on the cybex is 55. And as far as the other PR's there are, I'm going to redo them. I got 80 for the row and I know I can do 100 on another machine. To the Meat Market I go!!

Almost time for PHOTO TIME! I feel like with this month's photo, you can see more definition in my arms. But, if you see my hand, im trying pretty hard to flex it "incognito" lol. Even still, my arms have shown some change. I think that my ribs are more present.... maybe, but this spot in my dad's house shows my shadows really well, as I have mentioned before! I have an appt with Sono-HELLO! (tired lingo for sonobello) on March 30th to assess the current situation and see what sort of hit to the pocket i could be looking at. While part of me feels really guilty, and maybe, fake, for considering this option.... ive lost 65lbs (from my heaviest) by hard work, diet, dedication, determination.... and I will be, excuse me, damned if I let this skin stay there and laugh at me and remind me of a time that i could hardly walk on the treadmill for more than 5mins. No thanks! So, that will be an update for 2 weeks!

Alright! Enough of this jibberish!!! Here is the photo comparison and the month line! Next month!!! I get to put up my first YEAR comparison!!! WOOT!!!


And the month comparison line.... (sorry about 11 being smaller than the others!!!)


Cheers!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

WEEK 43 - March 16th

Mid week post this time. I've been thinking about what I was going to do that isnt just pictures and talking about my wrkts. So, I decided to start pushing my PR's. Since I'm going without a spotter, i may do my best weight at 8 reps. And for those exercises where I can maybe do one rep, more than likely my bi curl. So, I may record a 1RM for that. Last week, rocked the cardio still. Been getting drenched, hitting level 16 on the stair master. It's been slowly killing me. But I keep going back for more! Love it! I am going to get my first recording tonight for what I can handle at 8 reps. May do upper body tonight and lower tomorrow. Or whatever works! But, by the end of the week, I'll have all my starting points! Will update blog then! And, yes, I do have photos. I may still post photo, because I'm used to it, but dont expect it to change THAT much!! So, I will post some photos on Sunday :) This is a text only post! WHAT! Alright, See you guys soon!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

WEEK 42 - March 7th

Yes, I am a day late again. I've had some crazy thoughts going on this weekend and all yesterday. Saturday, I was informed that I have gotten my fat to the point where its going to be extremely hard to lose it. And that if I am to see my horizontals, I'll need to undergo surgery. This text conversation with my trainer led to a session of face to face conversation about every other thing I hold deep in my head and save for my trainer. It was good, needed, I've told you guys! She's amazing and serves far more purpose for me than just making me sweat. She is an incredible friend, motivator, inspiration, she's like family to me. Anyway, I'm fairly upset and not sure taking photos every week is going to show much anymore. Thinking about cutting back to once a month...or maybe starting up some PR's and pushing my weight. I need to move my "progress" to another arena. Maybe its to take photos every 2 weeks of flexes and show that my muscles are morphing and changing. I'm sure there is still some fat that can be shed off. But its going to be probably 3 full days of running to see a mm taken off :P haha. Well, here is week 42!

So, I will figure out what my posts will be from here on out!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

WEEK 41 - Feb. 28

So, I know this is coming on March 1st, Tuesday. Funny thing is, I uploaded my pics yesterday, and got them cropped together, and then completely forgot to write my blog entry! Sunday night, I went for a little run on the Treadmill. I ran 4 miles. Thats a new level of endurance for me I think. I feel as though I kind of always had it... I just never let myself get to the point where I really test it. And why, I'm not sure. Maybe it's time to change that. Friday, my trainer gave me the assignment to just start running. And then we will jump back to interval training again in a few weeks. I saw her 2x, and was sore on my bottom half for a good.... 3 days or so. STILL feel a lil achy! My upper doesnt really like to get sore, but thats ok. One day it will. Yeah, I'm still thinking about the 4 miles. It felt awesome. In fact, I took a photo to document the feat lol. Me foam rolling just after:


So, anyway, on with the progress photos. I'm pushing the workouts, and myself, so I hope to see SOME of this fat start to fall off me. It will take time though :( haha

Just after shower :)