Reflections On 2012

This white shit just won't stop coming down. I hate it. My neighbors just had to come push my car for me because it was stuck on the teensiest amount of snow you've ever seen! My back is killing me from the amount of shoveling I've done today just in order to keep my precious beemer from disappearing under a mound of fluff and the plow guys don't seem to realize that they can't just plow one lane through the development and be done, but that they actually need to plow our parking spots too. Urghhhhhh!

Thank god I brought my laptop home last night so I could work from home today. There's no way I would have made it into the office. Luckily I happened to check Facebook at 11:00 this morning and saw that World's was going to close at 1:00 so my only chance to get in my weight sesh today was if I could make it in during my lunch hour. Thankfully, I was able to persuade my neighbor who was in need of a workout himself to take me to the gym at that time. Today was day "E" of my Cathy Savage Fitness (CSF) bikini weight training program (day 6 of the 7-day split) and I was not going to miss out on legs! Before leaving for the gym I did two of the moves, squat jumps and curtsey lunges, on my kitchen floor since they didn't require any equipment and I didn't want to make my neighbor stand around during an epic weight session. Then, once I got to the gym I did the following moves:

-Barbell front squats
-Bulgarian split squats using a bosu for the back leg
-Barbell straight leg dead-lifts on a bosu
-Hip adduction machine
-Hip abduction machine
-Walking/Twisting med ball lunges

The use of the bosu and the med ball was my own added feature as the plan as stated didn't seem to be as intense as I thought it should be. Somehow I managed to plow through this routine in under an hour so I added two ab moves, 1-leg med ball wood-chops balancing on a foam square and stability ball crunches where I had my neighbor throwing a med ball to me on each crunch. I decided today would be a no-cardio day. My new plan requires 5 days/week of cardio, 3 days of High Intensity Interval Training (spin class, running intervals, etc.) and 2 days of steady-state cardio like elliptical or a light jog/fast walk on the treadmill. Yesterday I did spin so after doing legs today I decided it would be a good off-day. Tomorrow is supposed to be a no-weights day so I'll probably do my interval run and then follow it with some core work. I just hope this snow lets up at some point soon so the gym can open back up!

I'm going to change the subject here for the remainder of this post. A couple of blogs that I follow have made similar end-of-the-year posts about 3 important areas of growth both in 2012 and in the coming year. These are career growth, mental/personal growth, and physical growth. This got me thinking about my physical transformation over the past year and how everything seems to be coming together for a strong finish to 2012 and a promising year ahead. When I think back to where I was a year ago, I realize A LOT has either changed or is in the process of changing in all three categories. However, since this a blog about health and fitness I'll stick to the physical change category here.

A year ago, I was just as much of a die hard gym rat as I am today only I didn't have any specific goals other than of course that crazy running regimen I was on and was largely at a plateau with my weight training. However, slowly over the course of the year I met many new people, each of whom implanted on me a different piece of information about either nutrition or fitness. My brain is like a sponge when I'm being told something I'm actually interested in and now as the year comes to a close I am looking back thinking how each one of these people altered my approach to my own program. Things that have stuck with me are the "eat clean get lean mantra", "more is not always better" when it comes to cardio, go heavier whenever possible when weight training, have a future goal in mind and an organized plan on how you will achieve it, and most importantly do what makes you happy and don't listen to the negativity brought forth by those who don't understand your lifestyle.

Looking ahead at 2013 I truly believe it will be my best year yet; health, fitness, personal/mental, and career-wise. I'm sure some shitty things will happen too, imperfection is inevitable, but there are just so many things to look forward to that I plan to simply brush off any crap that comes my way. I'm half-way completed with my ISSA personal training course so I'll soon have that to add to my resume and can then get started with the ISSA fitness nutrition course, I have the April OCB show to keep me motivated and making constant physique gains for, and I seem to be in an unusually happy mood lately that I can't seem to attribute to anything other than having a more positive outlook and possibly my nutritional improvements. After all, when you eat well, you feel well!

So as your year comes to a close and you think about what the new year will bring I hope that you too have something to look forward to. If not, ask yourself where you really want to be in life and then make a list of what you need to do to get there. One of my high school English teachers once shared her favourite line from a poem called The Summer Day and it has stuck with me for the past 10 or so years:

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?"

-Mary Oliver

Think about it. 

Competition Prep Day #1

Happy Saturday, Gym Rats! This is an exciting blog entry for me as I am publicly committing to a major change in 2013. A few entries ago, I mentioned that I was starting to clean-up my diet and change my workout routine around in preparation for a new fitness venture that I was contemplating doing in the new year and if I decided to commit, I would let the blogging world know come January. Well, any of you that know me well enough know that patience is not one of my strong points so after the past month or so of feeling like I'm already seeing and feeling positive changes in myself, I have decided to jump on the committing bandwagon a bit early! This new exciting challenge is going to be training for and competing in a natural bodybuilding competition in April!

Now don't cringe, I do not plan to come out looking like the hulk or anything. For those of you who are not in-the-know when it comes to these competitions, this is something that has grown tremendously in the past decade and competitions now have several different divisions depending on your sex, age, physique, and size of the show. I plan to start small with the Organization of Competitive Bodybuilders (OCB) event in Westbrook, ME on April 6th in their Bikini division. If I'm really feeling up for it I may do another show soon thereafter in MA but I don't want to get ahead of myself just yet!

Dear family: here is your chance to freak out, calm down, then ask me all of your questions in a non-judgmental and supportive manner over the holiday. I'm sure you are thinking I'm going to become a crazy 'roid-head but I promise you will soon realize this venture is nothing of the sort and is really quite awesome!

So just how do I plan to get myself in tip-top shape in the next 3 months? With the help of my new coach at Cathy Savage Fitness (CSF) in Boston! I joined this wonderful team, "Team Savage", yesterday and began my new routine today. Immediately upon joining I was able to access my first month's weight training routine (standard for everyone in this division) and then this week when I get to speak to my new coach, I will be given my personalized cardio routine and nutritional plan as well as any tweaks that need to be made to personalize the weight training portion. Additionally, I will be checking-in with my coach on a weekly basis to go over my updated measurements and any other questions/issue that may arise. For the first few days prior to meeting my coach, I am supposed to be eating only foods off of their selected grocery list. The funny thing is that these are the only foods I eat anyway and their website makes it sound like this is supposed to be a torturous change haha!

Anyway, as is my usual Saturday morning ritual, I got up bright and early to hit up the gym prior to spin class.  Day #1 is supposed to chest & back; however, I did back & bi's in my own routine yesterday so I decided to switch days #1 and #3 this week so I didn't have to do back-to-back back workouts. Wow, I used the word "back" a lot there lol! The routine consisted of the following workouts and took me about 60 minutes to get through:

-Swimmer planks (straight arm planks where you alternate lifting arms and rotating them as you would doing a front/back stroke in the water)
-Seated shoulder presses
-Dumbbell up & back (front raises where you lift your weight in front of you, pull it in to your shoulder, push it back out again, then lower)
-Crab taps (opposite toe-to-finger taps while in a crab-like bridge position)
-Burpee presses (push-ups holding free weights where you do one push-up then shoot upright into a shoulder press then back down again....HATE these!)
-Barbell upright rows
-Reverse flies (they don't have the suggested reverse fly machine at World's so I did 1/2 of these on an incline bench and the other 1/2 standing bent-over)

I won't give up the secret amount of sets & reps since I am paying major bucks for this program (so sorry already depleted bank account!) but you get the gist of it. Aside from the burpee presses, the moves weren't anything different from what I usually do but it was many more sets than usual and seeing as I typically do only 3 different moves for each muscle group per training session, I thought my shoulders might pop out by the time I was done! Luckily I had about 20 minutes to spare before spin started so I calmed down with some core work (side crunches on the back extension machine) and stretches.

At 9:00 am I entered spin class and was happy to see an instructor I really like teaching. Of course I was nervous who it might be given recent events but honestly it ended up being one of the best classes I've done in a while! Her music was spot-on with the type of work being done and it was choreographed perfectly. Definitely a high-quality class and a nice change after the total spaz instructor I had earlier in the week who couldn't manage to make it through an entire song before flipping through 3 more trying to find the next one! I should have asked today's instructor if she was just subbing or if she was the permanent replacement so I guess I'll have to cross my fingers and find out next week.

After and intense and successful weight and cardio routine, I fueled back up with some almonds and a cappuccino flavoured protein shake. This has to be the best flavoured protein on the market right now; it's certainly the best I've ever tasted. If you want a delightful yet not sinful post-workout treat for both your taste buds and muscles, I highly recommend it. The brand is Syntrax and you can get it at PNC. After leaving, I hit up the grocery store to fill my fridge up for the week and headed home where I made my new favourite lunch: grilled chicken & avocado spinach salad. I'll try to post the recipe later on in the recipes section of my blog so be sure to check back!

That's all I have for today. I know it was a long one but there's just so much to talk about! I'm not one to make new year's resolutions as I feel that the best day to make a change is always the present day. However, I can't wait for the new year and all that it will entail! 'Til next time Gym Rats, happy gymming! 

"Diet" Doesn't Always Imply "Lose Weight"

Diet: 
noun
1. Food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health.
2. A particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease.
3. Such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight.
4. The foods eaten, as by a particular person or group.
5. Food or feed habitually eaten or provided.
6. Anything that is habitually provided or partaken of.

I begin today's blog entry with this lovely definition as I am getting increasingly annoyed with the nutritionally-uneducated's association of the word "diet" with the act of trying to lose weight (i.e. fat). Yes, a diet can be used as a means to trim down (and should by many!), however there is so much more to it. You could be on a diet to GAIN weight, a diet to gain muscle (like myself), a diet to lower cholesterol, or perhaps a diet to reduce blood pressure. Everyone is on a diet of some sort whether they realize it or not and the average American needs to understand this! I've been thinking about this issue ever since yesterday when I had a lunch out with colleagues to welcome a new person into our group. I was loathing the newbie's choice of Ruby Tuesday's as a dining destination but was pleasantly surprised when I got there, read the menu, and saw that the food selection had vastly improved since my last RT's experience years ago. I ended up ordering a grilled salmon filet with grilled asparagus and steamed snap peas...Yum!! At the end of the meal my manager asked if we wanted any dessert and I said "No thanks, I am on a clean-eating diet". I didn't elaborate as these sadly aren't people who would be interested in what that means but my response was met with an eye roll and one of those faces that you know is saying inside "why is she on a diet when she doesn't need to lose weight"..."she obviously has body image issues"..."one slice of cheesecake won't hurt her"...I'm going to have one even though everyone here knows I'm a good 100 lbs over-weight"...  I tried to smile and change the subject but boy was I ticked! My office really needs a wellness-coordinator position and it should be me haha! I was thinking yesterday afternoon how I'd love to start sending out monthly, weekly, or even daily diet and fitness tips to my co-workers but I'm sure it would not be met appreciation by most. In fact, in that overly corporate tight-ass environment I'd probably get canned for it!

Anyway, now that you are all in-the-know when it comes to dieting, I'll move on to my fantastic workout today! Not wanting to lose any PTO days as the year is coming to a close, I took today off from work. I know I've said this before but PTO days are soooo much better than weekend days! Unfortunately it is with great sadness that my former favourite Saturday spin class is no longer. It's not my place to get into details (and I really only know one side of the story anyway) but let's just say there's a bit of drama going on down at World Gym and some folks appear to be afraid of a little in-town spinning competition. Unfortunately, us paying members have to suffer because of it. Since I don't yet know who will be taking over that time slot, didn't want to risk starting my weekend with a crappy spin class, and had the day off, I instead took my other favourite spin class which was today at noon. Today's instructor is also fantastic but I usually can't get to her classes due to my work schedule. Working out mid-day is kind of annoying for a morning person such as myself but her class is definitely worth it!

I arrived just after 10:00 and began with a truly awesome bi's and back sesh. Okay, I really began with a fake-n-bake sesh but I justify the unhealthiness of it because having a nice glow helps to keep my SAD at bay!  It was so nice and quiet in there at that time of day; I was able to get everything I needed and not be harassed by too many creeps haha. Here's the split of today's weight sesh:
-Standing cable bicep curls (1x20 then 2x12 w/increased weight) I'm LOVING doing these and the cable cross-overs lately (for shoulders) but it's hard to find both cables available during the busy times I am usually there.
-Standing spider-curls (3x16)
-Standing bosu ball hammer curls (3x8)
-Standing bosu cable rows (3x20)
-Weighted back extensions (3x12)
-Bent-over bench rows (3x12 each arm)

I had few minutes to spare prior to class so I added-in 3 sets of 20 side crunches (each side) on the back extension machine. Tomorrow is going to be a shoulders, chest and core day so I plan to hit my core much harder then! After my weight sesh I was beginning to get hungry so luckily today's spin class was only 45 mins vs the usual 60 mins. Boy was it intense though! The 1/4 scoop of Super Pump I downed prior to getting to the gym had totally worn off and having done legs yesterday and spin on Wednesday, my hammies were really struggling! It was a great class though (as expected!) filled with mostly hard rock tunes like Nickelback and Buckcherry which always keep me going!

On my way home I stopped into Whole Foods to get my favourite sweet-potato burrito for lunch and picked up some ingredients for a yummy grilled chicken asian-inspired salad I'm going to make tonight. I'll post a pic on Twitter so be sure to follow @PortlandGymRat for that and other fun diet & fitness tweets that don't make it into my blog! I'm going to cut-out now as I still have some items to check off of my daily list prior to dinner and then I need to get a solid beauty sleep because after my workout in the morning I am meeting with the maXtreme creator for a photo shoot for the website! Ahhh busy busy busy these days. Keep at it gym rats and remember, no matter how much you train, the proper "diet" is key to your success.

A Compliment Can Change Someone's Day

Today was a rare day when I decided to allow myself to sleep in 'til the late hour of 7:30 am since I didn't have any major Sunday plans and I've been battling a cold all week. Somehow, however, my internal clock decided that 4:45 was a more appropriate time to rise. Urghhh even my dog wasn't interested in getting up at that time! After tossing and turning, trying to will myself back to sleep, I finally decided that 5:30 was as late as I was going to get. So, up I got, turned on the coffee maker, and cooked up some yummy eggs to start my day. One thing I love about the early morning is that it's so quiet. Everything's still and you can go about your tasks without being bothered. Amazingly, the gym was just as empty when I arrived at 7:00 and the solitude lasted for my entire workout! This was a nice contrast to yesterday when for some reason there was an 8:00-9:00 am weight room mob scene pre-spin class. Odd how people's schedules change for no apparent reason.

Anyway, after a week of trying to stick to my new diet & fitness regimen despite feeling lousy, I amped it up in the gym this weekend to make sure I didn't fall behind. After doing bi's & back yesterday, today was all shoulders, chest & core. Here was the split:

- Standing cable crossovers (3x12)
- Standing arnold press (3x10)
- Front raises (3x15)
- Stability ball chest press (3x12)
- Incline forward crunches with weighted pullovers (3x20-18-16)
- Stability ball side-to-side crunches (3x16)
- Push-ups (3x8) - 1 set with feet on stability ball and hands on bosu / 1 set with feet on floor and hands on bosu / 1 set with feet on stability ball and hands on floor

The first set of push-ups where both my feet and hands were balancing were extremely hard since I hadn't attempted these in a long time but they work your core so well that I am definitely going to do them more often. If you feel comfortable doing either of the other two kinds I mentioned, then I highly recommend trying these! Given that I am now hitting each muscle group at least twice per week, I decided to only do one or two chest exercises each time I do chest simply because chest is not an area I want to get too big...not muscle-wise anyway hahaha! Shoulders and core are way more important to me as they are two areas that are most visually prominent on a fit physique.

Being there so early, I was able to have most of the room to myself and get all of the equipment I wanted which makes such a difference. Although, I think the heat doesn't kick-on 'til mid-morning in that place because it was frigid for the second Sunday in a row. I hadn't planned to do any cardio today but ended up doing a quick 10-minute running interval just to warm myself up in between muscle groups! It also probably didn't help me that I was not feeling fully awake throughout my workout. Today was a morning I probably could have benefited from downing a scoop of pre-workout on my way in! I really don't like the stuff in general (makes my heart race too much and disrupts my sleep when taken prior to evening workouts) but it sure does charge you up for a killer weight sesh!

After I had completed my routine, I went over to the mats to do some all-over stretching and one of the regulars came up to me to say how he'd noticed that I've been making improvements in my upper body muscle-tone! Now, of course he could have just been saying that to make me feel better and give me a little encouragement since he does happen to know the ultimate fitness goal I'm working toward but regardless, that one compliment totally made my day. It also gave me a little extra incentive to bust-ass (literally) tomorrow when I hit my glutes! So, if you see someone deserving of a compliment, be it in the gym or elsewhere, don't be hesitant to pay it forward. You never know what's going on in there life, what they're working toward, or if they're having a shitty day and hearing something nice can totally change their perspective on things.

Now I'm sitting at home having my mid-morning snack when most other people are probably just getting up to have breakfast. Feels so good to have a full-day ahead of me and already have checked so much off my list! 

It's You Vs. You

A friend in the gym was wearing a shirt today that read "It's You Vs. You". It got me thinking how that's really the bottom line when it comes to performing at your best. It doesn't matter how much the person next to you is curling or how much longer than you they have been running for. All that matters is that you get in there and push yourself harder than you did the last time. I got to the gym nice and early this afternoon, having taken the day off from work. Days off from work are always the most productive; even more so than the weekends are because it's truly time off to do things for yourself whereas the weekends are always filled with chores and errands that you didn't have time for during the work week. I won't bore you with a list all the things I got done today but let's just say I will go to sleep tonight with a feeling of great satisfaction!

Over the past couple of week's I've decided on a new fitness goal for myself. I'm not going to announce it to the blogging universe just yet though. I'm going to use December as a trial period, making slight diet and workout alterations and if I feel like I'm headed in the right direction then I'm going to commit in January. We all know what happened last year when I announced I was going to run my first 5k and then I ended up with all sorts of lovely injuries that prevented that from happening. A year later, I still hate running haha. I'm someone that needs to always have a goal to strive for though, something to look forward to, so regardless of whether I achieve my goals I always end up in a better position than when I started. Changes I'm making in December include the following:

Fitness - Change workouts from a 4-6 day split to a 3 day split. What I mean by this is that previously a typical weight workout would consist of two major opposing muscle groups followed by core work. Going forward, I will be typically be doing 3 major muscle groups that aren't necessarily opposing and not every day will include core work so that I can work that area harder on the days that I do have it scheduled. The problem with my former plan was that A) say for example I was doing bi's & tri's one day, I would have already tired my arms out by the time I got to the 2nd muscle group so that group would not get as strong of a workout as the 1st and B) Some muscle groups would only get done once per week. This new plan will mean that some days I will be in the gym for much longer than usual, but that's a "sacrifice" I'll have no problem making! Of course, this new schedule may be altered slightly on days when I do a spin class but in general, that's the new format.

Diet - I've been keeping track of all of my intake via the free app called myfitnesspal. Looking back over several weeks, it is evident that my macro ratios are off for my goals. If you are unfamiliar with macros, then Google it; it's really a very interesting topic that I've been coming across a lot lately. Basically, your macronutrients or "macros" are the proteins, carbs, and fats in your food. You want to try to maintain certain ratios of each in keeping with your particular fitness goals. For me, this means that I need to cut carbs and increase both protein and fats (good fats of course!). A general rule for people trying to gain muscle is to eat 1 gram of protein for every pound you weigh. However, I already do this and it's not enough so I'm making sure to mix up a protein shake on my way out of the gym every day for an added 20 grams. Fats are pretty easy to increase. For this, I'm doing things like adding mixed nuts to my breakfast oatmeal and making sure to have fish at least a couple of night's a week. Carb-cutting however is going to be the most difficult since carbs are in basically everything! I'm a major pasta junkie, eating it for several dinners each week (with chicken of course!) so I'm trying to slowing wean myself off of it by cutting back to half-portions and increasing my protein source instead. I may even try spaghetti squash although I'm a bit skeptical. Tonight I had a delicious & easy homemade turkey chili that I threw together in my Crock-Pot this morning. Take a look at my Recipes tab if you are interested in making it.

Now, back to my workout today which consisted of a run followed by chest, core, and triceps. Here's the split:
-Running intervals for 21 minutes doing 1-min segments of walking followed 3-min segments of running
-Stability ball chest presses (3x12)
-Incline dumbbell flies (3x12)
-Plank rows (3x12, each side)
-Stability ball leg lifts (3x12-8-10)
-Wood Chops (3x20-18-16, each side)
-Stability ball weighted bench dips (3x12)
-Tricep kick-backs (3x10, each side)
-Straight-bar pushdowns (3x10)
In total it took me approximately 110 minutes (including breaks) which isn't too bad for adding in an extra muscle group!

In other fitness-related updates, my ISSA CFT studying is going great! I officially have no free time whatsoever but I love it! I'm already on unit 6 of 33 so I'm right on track if not ahead of the game. This 6-month life plan of mine is really improving my overall mood and outlook so I highly recommend it for all of you regardless of your life/work situation.

Well, I'm going to end it here so I can write out my workouts for the next couple of days and pack my meals for tomorrow. I know it was a long entry but I hope you found it interesting. Remember, whatever your fitness goals are, when you get in the gym, on the track, in the pool, or wherever you are doing your workout, it's you vs. you out there. Doing your best is all that matters.