Notching my belt

I forgot to mention a little fun milestone for the changes in my body. The belt that I wear all the time hocked into the 5th hole yesterday! I mean, its leather, so maybe its just stretching, but I don't think so. When I first bought the belt a couple of years ago, I could only fit it into #2. Then I lost a bunch of weight and alternated between 3 and 4 for the past year or more. But today it fit into hole #5! It's the last hole. I will have to buy a new belt if I lose many more inches!

Speaking of which, I keep taking photos that I mean to upload, but never remember when I get home in the evening. I've been measuring periodically, but after noticing the belt hole thing, I measured again to make sure I wasn't crazy and the belt had stretched.

My underbust was still 34, my waist still 29, my navel was 33(!!) and my hips were 41 (!!) over jeans! So it totally makes sense that the "belt" region is losing inches! I've definitely been able to see it around the lower abs where I have the little girlish belly bump. You know the one right below your navel? In old ladies it turns into this belly sack! I never, ever, ever want a belly sack, so I need to get rid of it before my body gets used to storing fat there.

Tonight I have muscle conditioning, which should be fun. I'll try to do a quick 4 mile run after class and before my upper body work. Today I think I'm going to go with heavy weights again, since I'll do a lot of lighter-rep work with muscle conditioning. I've read in some articles that you can change up within a routine rather than within a week.

Oh, bootcamp class was cancelled this morning so I slept in. :( But it means I Got 8 hours of sleep. I'm really working hard to sleep enough. Even if its pushing a lot of my workouts into the evening. Once I get the sleeping length in tact, I'll start to shift back to going to bed earlier to make everything a morning workout.

Food Log: I've been having a carb-heavy diet still, according to my ratios. Today I'm trying to add some whey protein in with my yogurt after my workout, to boost my protein consumption at least. Eventually I'll snag the info on the zone diet - see if I can pick things from the blocks. I don't think I'll start that until May, however. I just want to work within the food I have and enjoy now.

Last night I made the quinoa with just water and some garlic. In the future I'm going to need to find a good way to flavor it without boullion. I'm going to search for low-sodium broth/boullion this weekend, along with some low-sodium soy sauce. I like the protein content of the soy sauce, but hate the sodium aspect. So I don't think its a tool that I should entirely turn my back on. We'll see what I can find. Last night when I made the "sauce" I used 1/2 tablespoon of soy sauce with water and garlic. It gave the veggies/tofu a little flavor, but not to much. I put the full amount on this list for nutritional info, but quicte frankly, most of it cooked onto the bottom of the pan. I'm sure I ended up with a lot less, honestly.

Breakfast (420/10.5/368/69/18/21)
1 cup Optimum Slim (180/2.5/250/38/11/9)
10 dried cranberries (40/0/0/11/1/0)
2 Tbsp ground flaxseed (120/8/8/8/6/4)
1 cup skim milk (80/0/120/12/0/8)

Snack
Barlett Pear (100/1/0/25/4/1)
12 almonds (81/7/0/3/1.5/3)

Lunch (222.5/6/240/24/4.5/16)
1/2 cup of quinoa, cooked (100/2/6/20/2.5/4)
1/4 tofu (100/4/0/2/1/9)
sauce (2.5/0/230/0/0/1)
mushrooms + baby bok choy (20/0/4/2/1/2)

Snack
1 blood orange (70/1/0/15/3/1)
12 almonds (81/7/0/3/1.5/3)

Post-Workout
4 oz nonfat plain yogurt (50/0/80/7.5/0/5)
1 tsp agave nectar (20/0/0/5/0/0)
1/2 packet Whey Protein Strawberry (55\0\75\0\0\12.5)

Dinner
1 egg (77/5/62/1/0/6)
2 slices deli ham (50/1/240/2.5/0/7.5)
1 Tbsp fat free ricotta (11/0/19/1/0/1.5)
*
1/2 cup pomegranate ff froyo (90/0/55/18/0/3)


Totals: (1327.5\24.5\1147\174\32.5\80.5)
Ratios: 220.5-696-322 (1238.5)
18%-56%-26%

1.5L water
2 16-oz teas
Totals: 83 oz

Evening Update

Tonight I went to muscle conditioning. Catherine was back, so the class was awesome. I was feeling shaky muscles as we went through this. She fell back to some of her classic high reps, but included plyometrics (jump squats x 3!).

We learned a very cool new ab move. "The Hover" - Imagine you're laying on your back. Your legs are lifted to tabletop, or 90 degrees in the air. Your back is in "imprint" (lower back touching the ground, abs tensed). With your legs pressed together, staying at the 90 degree angle, slowly lower your feet towards the ground to touch your toes. Except you don't. You stop with 1 inch between your feet and the floor. Then you start doing crunches. Your legs can't move. They're perfectly still. Your feet stay 1" from the floor. Yup, crunches. Oh, yeah, and is your lower back still in imprint? Totally flat against the floor? Because you can't let it arch. Hella hard, even for someone who does a lot of pilates.

We also did some teaser-like sit-ups with a barbell. Your feet are, again, not touching the ground. You execute a full sit-up and balance at the top with a straight back. Luckily you get to use a hand weight to help "pull up" which you hold at a 45 degree angle with straight arms (soft elbows). Fun times.

After a tough muscle conditioning class, I then went for a run. I was so sluggish. My legs were just busted today. I did the 4 mile lap in 36 minutes. Yikes. Embarrassing. My legs felt like lead weights though. I'm really not sure what was up. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

After the run, I returned to do upper body. I was in a crunch for time, so I only did 3 sets of exercises. I did heavy weight at 6-8 reps (10 for cable crossover). I did go heavier than Tuesday though! I feel my strength increase every week.

Cable Triceps Pushdown (75lb)/Biceps (62.5lb)
Delt Raise (12.5)/Crossover (25lb)
Assisted Pull-ups (10 reps x 2, 75 assts - I went down, but I was pooped tonight)
Rows (85lb/Chest Press (80lb)
Lat Pulldown (85lb!!)/Shoulder Press (44lb)
(We did a bunch of push-ups in class, as well as plank-to-pushups; her classes are always upperbody intensive)

Exercise is a cure all.

I went to the gym tonight feeling like crap. And after muscle conditioning and my upper body workout, I barely feel sick anymore. I mean, I just feel great! Healthy! Perfect! How awesome is that?

Muscle conditioning was okay. Arthur subbed in for Catherine tonight, which we had no notice of. I was pretty disappointed. He does the semi-dangerous moves that really aren't made for most of the class. And he does a lot of resting in between sets. I mean, he's a really sweet guy, but...eh.. I was only really excited about going to the gym when I was feeling so sick because of the promise of a challenging class with Catherine. :(

After class I did some upper body, but no cardio today. I'll try to get a run in tomorrow before my big day on Saturday.
- Tricep Pushdown (57)/Bicep curl (45)
- Delt cable raise (12.5), 2 sets of 12 each arm
- Cable crossover (20), 2 sets of 12 each arm
- Row(70)/Chest Press(63) x 4
- Lat Pulldown(70)/Shoulder press(43) x 4
- Assisted Pull-Up(70 assistance), 2 sets of 10

Missing out on the best day.

Very sick this morning. Slept in. Will attempt muscle conditioning tonight, but very fatigued.


1 cup Dry Optimum Slim cereal (180/2.5/270/11/9)
2 tbsp dried cranberries (30/0/0/0/0)
10 almonds (80/7/o/1.5/3)

2 stalks of celery (12/0/64/2/0)
7 grape tomatoes (18/0/0/0/0)
1 laughing cow wedge (30/2/260/0/2.5)
5 baby carrots (20/0/40/1/0)

1 portobello burger (100/1.5/290/4/16)
1 tsp romano (20/1.2/70/0/1.8)
1/2 zucchini (20/0/12/1/2)
1 red pepper (46/0/6/3/1)

1 blood orange (70/0/0/3/1)

1 cup of hot cocoa (120/2.5/170/1/1)

Total: 746/18/1182/24.5/37.3

Best day ever at the gym.

Wednesday was pretty normal. I got around 4 1/2 hours of sleep. Got up at 5am to go the gym. Did some cardio on the bike to warm-up, squeezed three sets of ten in on the leg extension(80) and leg curl machines(73). Went to the 15 minute Abs class, followed by intermediate pilates. Pilates was challenging today - and when I commented on that, thinking its because I can't do Mondays anymore, Sandy said that its because we did so much, so fast within the first half. I'm not sure I buy it. I know my body, and I'm quite certain that I need to start practicing three times per week again, with or without classes. After class, I did some lower body, 2 sets of each studio-length: weighted walking lunges, oblique twist walking lunges, traveling squats, traveling plie squats, leg-weighted hip raises.

Now, I rushed through all that because today's workouts were AWESOME. Yeah, capital letter awesome. I mean, I can't say how excited I was today by my classes. To start, Katie totally rocked bootcamp class. We were busting from one thing to another of crappy stuff so much that I've forgotten half of it, let alone the order.

The class started (after my own upright bike warm-up) with pyramid sets of push-ups, crunches and squats, 1 to 10 reps, and since I was the overachiever, Katie told me to start back down again - which I wasn't psyched about so I was slowed down a lot and got some water until the other girls finished up. It then went into these rounds of increasingly advanced/challenging exercises in sets of 20. Push-ups, burpees, plank, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, diamond push-ups, dips, plie squats, side plank, this strange plank-on-step while stepping forward thing I can't describe, and some other stuff. Each of these things then increased in its intensity with each round, like doing uneven push-ups on the step or side planks off the step with leg lifts. And we still managed to finish up "early" with enough time to do the most horrific barbell-weighted lunges off the step in four directions. I just went to work after class. Screw extra working out. I was pooped, but totally revitalized.

The evening was just as awesome-intense. I love Catherine's new exercises and routines. She's seriously kicked it up a notch in muscle conditioning these days. I did 3 sets of assisted pull-ups before class - I'm comfortably using 75lb assistance for 10 reps each now. Next week I hope to drop it down to 70lb. So anyway class: She did these crazy combo moves today (a la Arthur, but less dangerous) where we were doing squats with dumbbells (10lb each) raised vertical over our heads. Or we did the wood chopper move. Lots of balancing on one leg, or stepping out to the side and balancing back, while doing hand weight moves like curls or reaches. We had this crazy tricep kickback which turns into this swinging arm-leg lift, balancing on one leg. They were so much fun!! And freakin' challenging when you're choosing between 8 and 10lb dumbbells. I suspect these moves could have been adapted from kettleball exercises. While we totally burnt out our upperbodies, we at least didn't have push-ups today - I was planning not to do them if we did anyway, since I was push-uped out after the morning.

So after class, I went out to do my tricep-biceps. I pretty much had my ass kicked twice in one day, so I didn't have a lot of faith in my physical capacity to do the rest of the upper body machines. The tricep pushdown on the cable machine is my favorite exercise in the whole world - because I get to stare at my uber-hot muscle flexing in the mirror as I do it - so I decided I'd just do those sets. I always have been uncomfortable with the overhead tricep extensions that we do in class anyway. So I go over to do that.

Joyce and her friend (whose name I totally don't have down yet because its unusual and rarely said) were over there too - they ended up asking me how to do the stuff on the cable machine. I showed them and they really liked it. So we hung out a while trading off and talking. Joyce laughingly said that I was seriously their role model (because of my dedication I assume - or maybe my general knowledge of cable machines, haha). I mean, she's said before that she's impressed when I finish my workout after class - but I mean, I guess I didn't take it very seriously. We've always been on the same strength-level in class. She's pretty buff herself. But today just seemed different, just very sincere. I mean, she's the second person to say something along those lines from my classes in the past few weeks - I bust my ass and people have noticed apparently! It's noticeable! Woah. Anyway, it really made my night. :)