Terminator

It's finally here, my LAST day of work! I've been waiting for this day to come for several years and now that it's finally arrived it seems rather uneventful LOL. Just sitting here, twiddling my thumbs, watching the clock tick ever-so-slowly until a suitable departure time arrives. Like T-4 hours ago J

After three stressful weeks I finally found solid tenants for my house who are coming to sign a lease tonight (knock-on-wood). Maybe once I have a signed lease in my hand I'll be able to sleep through the night for the first time in….fuck I don't even know the last time I got a solid 8 hours! My movers are all set to go now though so once I secure my tenants all I have to do is finish packing (surprisingly not a daunting task as I seem to be an expert packer from having moved so many times in the past) and it's pretty much smooth sailing from there. One thing I love about moving is that you end up eliminating a lot of things you don't need (Goodwill, Salvation Army, the dump) and you clean your house better than you probably did the entire time you lived there LOL!

This morning was my last super-early gym sesh and I crushed chest with a little added cardio. Here was the breakdown:

5 min elliptical warm-up

DB Chest Press on SB 3x10 using 25's

DB Incline Flies 3x10 using 20's

Decline Pushups from a SB with balancing in between sets 3x8

DB Incline Shoulder Press 1x8 using 25's and 2x10 using 20's (Burnout!)

10 min elliptical cool-down

I'll probably stick to my morning routine until I leave but it won't be quite so torturously early J

Can you believe Christmas is less than a week away? This is the first year I did not get a Christmas tree or even put up any decorations for that matter. The hassle of the never-ending pine needle pickup would have just been too much of a nightmare amidst all of the tenant walk-throughs I've had in my place. Surprisingly I haven't really missed it though. I guess I'm just too focused on my move to think about anything else! Luckily present shopping wasn't that stressful this year. I either already had ideas for people or got GCs which you know are usually preferred! I think tonight I'll watch one of my favorite Christmas movies, The Holiday. That'll be the extent of my festiveness for 2014.

So, the countdown is on. I'm so mentally over Portland you'd think I was already gone! You know what's really pissing me off? This just popped into my head so I need to vent it out. Ever since word got out a few weeks ago that I was leaving, guys have been asking to" hang out" left and right. I'm just like, "Dude, you had the past 7 years to ask me out and you think I'm going to say yes now that you've realized you've been too chicken shit this whole time and now you've blown it?!" Okay, so I don't actually say that but that's the truth. Moral of the story, don't be a pussy. If you like someone, ask them out. The worst that’s going to happen is they'll say no but chances are they'll give you at least one chance at a date, if for no other reason than to be nice. If you never ask then you'll never know. But, if you wait until your chance is gone, don't be a shithead for missing out.

Never Give Up

Good morning Miami! Um I mean Portland, okay well soon-to-be Miami! Yup, you read that right. I AM MOVING TO MIAMI! Wow it feels so good to finally be able to put that out there! In an effort to keep this post much shorter than it could be, I'll just give you the highlights for now:

1. That "last-minute trip south" I mentioned a year ago was actually an unsuccessful trip to Miami for a personal training job interview. Long story short, I clearly did not get the job and thus came back to Portland to continue my job search instead of moving there without a job which would have been a very bad financial decision at the time.
2. It's no secret that health and fitness have been my primary interests in life for years and I NEVER SHOULD HAVE MAJORED IN FINANCE! That being said, it took me 7 years to finally make the decision that being a broke student for a few years in my late 20's-early 30's would be a wiser decision than spending the rest of my life in a frigid miserable corporate environment where 99% of the people are just lying to themselves, trying to convince themselves that they are adequately content with their life choices all-the-while counting down the days until retirement.
3. It was a bit of déja-vu last week as I returned to Miami in search of a place to live. Again, not telling anyone at work of my true intentions for fear of not finding a place and then potentially being out of a paycheck (aka fired before the time was right). A bit of advice if you are planning a move; do your homework and use a rental agent. Specifically if you have an often restricted breed of dog like I do which made finding adequate housing extremely difficult!
4. In spring of this year I finally hit rock bottom with my misery level and decided I had had one too many failed job interviews and was done searching for "grass might be greener" corporate jobs in a state where I didn't want to be living anyway. My good friends had largely either remained in Canada or moved out of Maine to better their own lives and I was left feeling alone and tied-down due to my mortgage. There's a quote that goes something like "it's far better to be alone in a place where you know no one than to feel alone in a place where you know everyone". That's exactly how I felt. And that brings me to #5…
5. Done with time-wasting job interviews and done with the state of Maine I decided to take a drastic step and go back to school so that I could have a career that didn't make me want to stab my eyes out every morning. And trust me, that's a nice way of putting how I felt about my situation. Having followed the blog www.katheats.com for quite a while, I was inspired by Kath's similar decision to go back to school herself to become a Registered Dietician. Becoming an RD would mean a lot of additional schooling, basically starting back at square one since my finance degree did not provide me with any of the science prerequisite courses I would need in order to get into a Dietetics program. However, I decided it was a change I was willing to make and thus began my quest to change my life.

So, around June I began to research programs that prepare you for the RD exam. There is a great database at www.eatright.org that helps you to research the various nutrition-related career options and what schools in the US offer each. Since no school near Portland offers a suitable program, that meant I would have to relocate. And, if I had to relocate then I sure as hell was not going to go from one miserable cold locale to another! I knew I wanted to a) be near the ocean and b) be somewhere warm thus I quickly decided on Florida International University in Miami. Only one problem: out-of-state tuition is a bitch. I'm talking like twice as much simply for not being a resident. Outrageous! I had to get a little creative with my planning so I decided to begin taking my prerequisite courses at my local community college since they were quite reasonably-priced as well as transferrable. However, this did not fix my residency issue and thus I decided that I would make the move to Miami to complete my prerequisites at Miami Dade College with the intention of becoming a resident (1 year is required) in time to transfer to FIU.

After many months of keeping my plans largely on the down-low I can happily say the time is almost here! I took three courses this fall and tomorrow is my last exam! I've worked extremely hard, getting up at 4:30 am every day in order to train in the gym before heading to work where I remained full-time in order to save as much dough as possible and then headed to school at nights and on Saturdays. Yes, that meant zero social or romantic life but I had priorities and nothing was (is) going to prevent me from being happy.  I think I might even end up with all A's and since I have the credit requirement that would mean getting on the Dean's List! I'm literally holding back tears as I type this because if you had been a schoolmate of mine during my first university experience where my real major was college boys and booze you would not believe that LOL!

I gave my two-week notice at work earlier this week and I'm now riding out the next few weeks getting things in order for my move. That includes packing my house up, scheduling movers (expensive much?!), spending Christmas with my family, searching for a part-time job in Miami, and finding suitable tenants to rent my home which I decided not to sell quite yet just in case something doesn't work out (knock on wood). It's been hard to find tenants since it's a pricey place to live but it's also a really nice place and should be able to attract professional, financially stable tenants so I'm staying hopeful. Everything works out so long as you don't give up. If there's anything I've learned during the past few years it's that no matter how bad life gets, if you keep chugging through the hard times, you will end up where you need to be. While on my "vacation" last week I finally had time to for some pleasure reading (as opposed to textbook reading) and one of the books I devoured was The Alchemist. My favorite quote goes something like "when you want something, all the world conspires in helping you to achieve it". It's so true. Stay strong, keep your head up, and keep your eyes on your goal.

More to come. Happy Friday gym rats! xo

Pre-Turkey Day

Hello everyone and happy day-before-Thanksgiving! It's the calm before the storm in many ways here in Maine. Not only are the roads and airways about to get backed-up with millions of people travelling for the holiday but we are supposed to get a massive snow storm tonight and into tomorrow. I'm hearing upwards of 8-12 inches. Yuck!

Today was my cardio-only day at the gym so it was a boring sweat sesh on the elliptical for me. Luckily I chatted-it-up with the lady on the machine next to me the whole time so it flew by quickly. After a quick stretch I was back home getting ready for the day. It would have been a perfect lift day since the place was so empty! Hopefully it stays that way for the rest of the week.

The past few days I have been functioning on very little sleep so I'm seriously looking forward to taking some PTO starting tomorrow. I've been battling a small cold this week and while I fall asleep easily I end up waking around 3:00 am needing a nasal decongestant and then I can't fall back asleep. Pre-workout and coffee are keeping my eyes open.

What's everyone doing for the holiday? My family lives right down the street from me so luckily I don't have to travel anywhere. Just gotta make my fav cranberry-orange sauce and head on over to fill my belly up with delicious turkey! I'm not stressing over the possibility of weight gain for many reasons:

1. I factor-in a "cheat meal" each week anyway so having some extra fat and sugar with dinner isn't going to destroy my plan.
2. Not having to work means I have extra time to get in some additional cardio tomorrow morning pre-meal.
3. I naturally don't even like dishes with lots of butter and cream (stomach literally can't handle it and I'll end up on the toilet for the night) which are most of the side dishes at my family's southern-influenced table so I basically fill-up on turkey and cranberry sauce.
4. As the saying goes; "one "bad" meal won't ruin your progress just like one "good" meal won't give you results".

Therefore, we should all just enjoy ourselves and sample a little of everything! I'm not saying go on an all-out binge fest but do allow yourself a little treat. It's one day out of 365 and you don't want to look back and think "gee I wish I had had a slice of that homemade pecan pumpkin pie"! Mmmmm pie :D

Anyway, I have lots of items to check off my task list today so I'm out. Have a fantastic holiday with friends and family, enjoy some festive homemade cooking, stay safe on the roads, and keep life fit, fierce & fun! xo

Friday at Home

Good day & happy Friday everyone! After an excruciatingly long, frigid, and exhausting week in the office I was lucky to be able to work from home today. I had a plumber come to work on my shower faucet which has been leaking for several months so I had a good excuse to be home! I got up at 5:00 today (no drive into work meant I got to sleep-in an extra 15 minutes) and after some Coffee by Design pumpkin coffee and a bowl of hot apple & cinnamon oatmeal, I was off to the gym to train back and chest. My oatmeal was so good I'll share with you the simple recipe:

½ cup oats

¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce

Dash cinnamon & stevia

½ chopped apple

½ cup liquid egg whites

Refrigerate overnight and pop into the microwave when ready to eat!

Kind of a random crowd at the gym this morning. Fridays are typically a little quieter which is nice when you are on a time-restricted agenda! My workout was really great and consisted of these exercises:

Stiff-leg deadlifts

Standing T-bar rows

Decline DB chest presses

Incline DB shoulder presses

Wide-grip lat pulldowns

Flat bench DB flies

Cable straightbar standing pulldowns

3 sets of 8-12 each

A little stretching and I scooted home to walk the pup and get ready for my workday. Once I had my computer all set-up I mixed a delicious post-workout shake with whey and iced coffee. I usually have this with just water but since I was WFH I brewed extra coffee and refrigerated it while at the gym. I highly recommend this mix. Protein for your muscles + coffee for your brain = fantastic re-fuel!

At lunchtime I scooted out to the grocery store to do my weekly food shopping. It was an expensive order this week as I needed to re-stock on all of the expensive proteins (chicken, salmon & steak) and Mugsy was also running low on both food and treats! One great thing about this time of the year…citrus season! I got some delicious Ruby Red grapefruit and a gigantic crate of clementines. Clementines are such a great snack to have on-hand. They travel well, peel easily, are super healthy, and taste delicious! I plan on adding a couple into my annual cranberry sauce that I'll make for Thanksgiving next week. Yum! Hmmm that just gave me an idea for Thanksgiving themed oatmeal! :D

While at the supermarket I also picked-up a Vietnamese shrimp spring roll to have for lunch. Nothing in my fridge was appealing to me. Believe it or not I sometimes get sick of my usual chicken breast salad!

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing various work items on my laptop. Overall not a very eventful day but it was sssoooooo nice to be warm in my own home! The office has been so cold I've had to wear my smart wool socks, hiking boots, full North Face parka, scarf, and running gloves (thin fabric so I can still type) AT MY DESK. Even with all of this my circulation issues are at an extreme already this season. Yesterday my toes hurt so bad I had to try not to cry at my desk. Yes, I do have a doctor's note saying that I have a medical issue and need to be allowed the use of a space heater but I have not yet been allowed to use one by the company I work for. I won't go into details (I probably have mentioned it in prior years) but it's not something I can live with for much longer. I try to get up and walk around to get the blood flowing to them at least once per hour but I'm scared the lack of circulation could lead to amputation. I know that sounds drastic but my toes literally get so cold they turn purple/blue and burn. I can't even get a pedicure this time of year because it's too painful to touch them. I end up doing self-pedis on the weekend after a post-gym hot bath soak. Pathetic.   

Anyway, I'm toasty at the moment since I'm wearing socks, slippers, and sitting near my heater. I don't even keep my house that warm since I live alone and fuel is expensive. It ranges from high 60's when I'm home to low 60's when I'm away. I think it's more a matter of not having to sit stagnant for 9 hours with A/C blowing on me. Something's gotta give pretty soon.

I'm currently debating what to have for dinner tonight. To make something or to get a Whole Foods burrito which never disappoints? Hmm decisions, decisions. Friday used to be my "cheat meal" night but I'm going out to my favorite pasta restaurant tomorrow night and I plan to order the super decadent baked truffle mac 'n cheese. Saturday is of course my training off-day but I'll use the carb-load for my Sunday morning leg sesh! What are you all having for dinner tonight? Give me some good ideas! Cheers! xo

Sunday Funday Legday

So, I'm still on the Sunday legday routine as legs always take so much longer to train than any other muscle group and the weekdays just don't have enough time to get through my whole routine. Basically this means that I cannot walk correctly when I start the week out at work every single Monday LOL but oh well, no one seems to notice (or care!). This month my routine is pretty similar to last month except that I took out the RDLs which didn't seem to be giving me a booty burn anymore and replaced them with lunges which I haven't done in 2 months. Let's be honest, I HATE LUNGES! I didn't used to mind them when my workouts were less weight-focused but when you are constantly dealing with super tight quads and other random leg aches and pains they are a bitch. In order to get myself to not skip them I let myself choose the type of lunges I do each week. Last week was walking DB lunges (pure torture) and today I did walking lunges with Med Ball core twists. These weren't so bad as they were more balance than weight-focused. Other options I might use are stationary BB lunges, side-to-side lunges, or raised-leg lunges (I think these are called Bulgarian lunges?). I find the best way to keep yourself motivated is to do what you enjoy so if you hate what you're doing, find a better method! Anyway, here's the breakdown of November's leg routine:

4 sets of 8-12 each:
-BB back squats
-Hack squats
-Lunges of choice (2x length of gym)
-DB goblet squats on two parallel benches (Doing them raised lets you get really deep - I LOVE these!)
-Standing calf raises. 2 sets with toes forward 1 set each with toes facing in and out. This lets you get your calves working from all angles - another trick I love!

I then finished off with 15 minutes on the elliptical to loosen-up my stiffening muscles, 3 sets of hanging leg raises not only for a little core work but also to really stretch out the upper body since I'll be hitting shoulders tomorrow, and then finally some stretching and foam-rolling on the mats.

This takes about 2 hours in total so I try to get in really early and not use-up too much of my day. On my way out of course I was starved so I had a delicious Pure Fit peanut butter toffee protein bar and then stopped into Coffee By Design for a small iced which I mixed-up in my shaker with my whey. I bought a new flavor recently, chocolate caramel I think its called, which I am not a fan of but the coffee addition made it so much better! Adding caffeine to your protein shake is not only a great way to refuel those broken down muscles but also fantastic for re-energizing yourself after completely burning yourself out for 2 hours! I'm so ready to take on the rest of my day now haha! When I got home I soaked in a hot bubble bath filled with Epson salts for a while prior to showering. The salts feel so good on your sore muscles, soften your skin really nicely, and the heat and lavender scent really help to rid any lingering stresses. Plus, its freaking frigid here and the thought of sitting in an ice bath when the air temperature is not much warmer was really making me cringe!

Despite my post-workout nutrition I'm already dizzy from starvation so I'm going to go make myself my typical chicken breast salad for lunch before getting on with my Sunday chores. Thank goodness I took tomorrow off as a PTO day...so much to do and so little time lately!

Do you readers reserve your favorite or most time-consuming workouts for the weekends or do you prefer to take the weekends off? What's your favorite post-workout snack? I'd love to see some comments below! Happy Gymming all! xo

Election Day

Hello gym rats and happy Election Day! I woke bright and early and hit chest and back on this frigid Tuesday here in Maine. As the start of a new month, all of my workouts are changed-up this week. It's always my favorite week of lifting! Today's split consisted of the following:

-Straight-leg DLs

-Wide-grip T-bar rows

-Decline DB presses

-Incline DB presses

-Cable lat pull-downs

-Flat DB flies

-Straight-bar standing cable pull-downs

I have to say, 3 days into my new schedule and I am spent! My ass hurts so bad still from Sunday's leg sesh (but hurts so good!) and doing back right after yesterday's shoulder sesh probably wasn't my brightest idea ever. I may switch my back/chest day with my bicep/tricep day (Friday) going forward.

Another thing I love about a new month of offseason building is that I get another calorie increase to my meal plan. I have been testing a monthly increase in calories each month since my last show. So long as I feel like I'm burning it and not getting pudgy, I keep it going. This month I'm up to 1,800 and I feel great. I am noticing huge gains in my "troubled" areas and my abs, while not as defined as I prefer, are still flat and sports-bra appropriate LOL! My macros are still around 45 C / 20 F / 35 P but I'm honestly not as strict as I have been in the past. This sport is such an experiment and I find it's better to listen to your body rather than sticking to a super stringent routine that may be slowing your gains. Unless you're cutting…in that case stay on plan! Side-note: I posted a great recipe for sweet potato quinoa patties to my recipes page a week or so ago so if you haven't already, go check that out. They are delicious!

In other updates, I'm still ridiculously busy and have zero down-time. That's why the blogs have gotten so infrequent lately. I will however be updating you all in the next month or so and my lack of posts will suddenly make much more sense…just in time for a 2014 re-cap and discussion of New Year resolutions past and future! I can't believe the year is coming to a close again. I know it's only the start of November but time flies and we'll be baking Turkey's and hanging stockings soon enough! It even snowed here this past weekend. Yuck! It snowed all effing day long on my "Sunday Funday" but luckily it didn't accumulate. The weather has been so strange lately. 34 degrees when I got up this morning and supposedly it's going to be in the 60's tomorrow. Make up your mind already!

Anyway, I gotta get back to my day here. Have a great Tuesday and don't forget to vote! Make your opinion count.

P.S. I would really love to add some new online clients to my book in the coming year. Talk about a perfect holiday gift to give! I create monthly PERSONALIZED fitness routines and diet plans for folks of all kinds. And no, you don't have to be a seasoned exerciser or a bodybuilder. I work with my clients to create a routine that both fits their schedule and incorporates things they'll enjoy doing. Fitness is supposed to be fun! Visit my site at www.FitFierceFun.com or e-mail me at FitfierceFun@gmail.com I might even offer-up a deal if you mention this blog post J

Fall Tastes

Good Morning! I have a few extra minutes to spare in between training, studying, cleaning, and knocking other random chores off my list this morning so I wanted to share with you all a great new vegetable I just discovered. It's called a Kabocha and is also known as a Japanese Winter Squash. Ever heard of it? Well I'm not much of a squash fan nor am I a fan of cooking anything that takes more than a few minutes of prep but a fellow lifting girlfriend excitingly told me about it the other day as it is apparently difficult to find around here and she had found it at Trader Joe's. I guess it's one of Pauline Nordin's (Figher Diet) favorite starchy veggies so being a huge fan of hers I too had to try it out. I scooted off to Whole Foods the next day since I had a GC to spend there and to my luck I found a big box of them. I chose a small-ish one and after reading-up online about how to prepare them I decided the cleanest and easiest version would be to cut it into slices and bake them on a greased baking sheet for about 10 mins each side at 375 F. I sprinkled them with cinnamon for a little extra sweetness and flavor. When I pulled them out they were soft and easy to cut into smaller chunks. Some of the recipes I read recommended skinning the squash first but that looked way too difficult so I just ate the skin right along with the fleshy middle. I would liken the taste closer to that of sweet potato than say butternut squash since it was quite sweet. I thought it was delicious and the best part was that 1 cup is only approximately 40 calories and 7 grams of carbs. What a great food to have on-hand while dieting! I ate 1/2 of the squash with dinner alongside some steamed peas and grilled chicken breast and I was full for the rest of the night! Here's a collage of the baking and eating process:

I would recommend using a very sharp knife to cut through the squash if you choose to cook it that way. My knives all suck so I had to microwave it for a couple of minutes to soften it a bit before slicing. My friend who claims to be a lazier cook than I said she just cut it in half, scooped-out the seeds and steamed it in the microwave until soft with a little bit of water added to the center. I found some other recipes that sounded pretty tasty which suggested additional spices and tossing in coconut oil prior to baking but I was going for low-cal here!

Anyway, I just wanted to share this new find with all of you before it leaves the shelves again. I always love finding new clean foods to add some variety to my bland diet. Please share any fall foods you have recently tried in the comments section below! Happy Sunday Funday all :) 

Lately

Hello Gym Rats! First off, I'd like to apologize to my loyal readers for being MIA for so long. My excuse? Outrageous busyness to the point of literally not having enough hours in the day to do everything that I need to. Even my training and diet have suffered as of late. These 4:30 am daily wake-ups in order to be on the gym floor by 5:00 are seriously killing me. Not because it's "too early" but because by the time I get everything done for the day and settle down to sleep, there's just not enough hours left for a decent slumber between then and when the alarm goes off again! I am someone that has and probably always will require AT LEAST a solid 7 hours in order to function properly. When I list out my major priorities at the moment, training is still numero uno. I just feel like I'm rushing through things in order to get in-and-out in the measly hour I can devote each morning and letting equally important things like stretching, cardio, foam-rolling and ice bathing fall a bit to the wayside. I know…no excuses right? So I keep trudging and working on some workarounds.

I decided to call this post "Lately" because some of my favorite bloggers are always posting "Lately" posts of their week's recent events (OK, month in this case). I don’t even know where to begin though! The biggest life change (and consumption of time) for me is something I can't share here yet but I promise as soon as I can, I will! It's officially Fall here in Maine and that alone brings many changes in our day-to-day lives. Do your training and eating habits change with the seasons? Mine sure do! I've been freezing my ass off here (as usual) and have been in full-swing with the Fall baking. As clean and protein-packed as possible of course LOL. So far I have made two separate batches of pumpkin apple protein muffins, yum! I don't really have a recipe for them to share with you guys. Basically I just googled a simple pumpkin muffin recipe that included chopped apple chunks, did my usual swapping-out of butter with apple sauce, lowered the sugar,  added-in a couple scoops of protein powder and doubled the baking powder to offset the denseness brought on by the protein powder. This is a great baking trick a friend told me about. If you find that your recipes get too dense and don't rise enough when you add-in protein powder, just double the baking powder/soda (whatever is in the recipe). Works like a charm!

Last Sunday I finally had a few free hours of "me time" so I met up with a couple of friends and went apple picking. I try to go apple picking every year. Store-bought apples just aren't the same. Nothing beats a bite into a crisp Macintosh just plucked from the tree! I also picked up a small jug of fresh apple cider. Sooo good; especially when heated-up! Here's a pick of me doing some necessary orchard taste-testing.

I have no idea what I was laughing at but apparently it was a riot. Sunday night I whipped-up a delicious apple crisp with a protein crumble topping. I've been having a small bowl of it for breakfast each morning with my eggs. Great pre-lifting fuel! I think this weekend I am going to try making a pumpkin bread with dried apricots and sunflower seeds. I found the recipe while sifting through my recipe binder last weekend. I think I cut it out of a magazine last year and never made it. I'll post the recipe here if it comes out as good as it looks!

As far as training goes, nothing really changes for me in the Fall but I am being a bit less strict about calorie control (i.e. I may or may not have had pizza and wine for dinner last night). My favorite fitness idol, Pauline Nordin (check out FighterDiet.com if you aren't already in-the-loop) posted a good point the other day when she said something like "you can always loose an extra few pounds of fat so use those added calories today for greater muscle gains!". Well she said it much better but anyway my point is that I'm feeling like I'm making great progress on my "problem" areas thanks to added carbs/calories in my diet so if I my abs aren't quite so visible right now I don't really care. It's not bikini season, right? Plus, a guy who I constantly avoid getting into a gym convo with because of his highly critical nature actually went out of his way to compliment my progress the other day so I figure it's not totally in my head LOL.

As I mentioned before, I really haven't been doing much cardio at all other than my one day per week where that's all I do in the gym. My shins haven't been bothering me at all lately but that's probably more due to lack of cardio than it is true progress on my skeletal imbalances. I am still trying to get-in a 10-minute ice bath post Sunday morning leg training because it really does make a HUGE difference in my recovery. There's just no time for it any other day of the week unfortunately. Outside of the gym I did get out for a beautiful pre-Fall hike a couple of weeks ago from which I was literally crippled for a good 3 days afterwards. Maybe doing legs the day before wasn't my best idea ever LOL! Here's a pic of the miles and miles of Maine woods you could see from the top of Burnt Meadow Mountain in Brownfield.

Gorgeous, eh? I hope to get in at least one more hike before it gets too cold (i.e. two months ago LOL). Maybe go somewhere with some good foliage viewing! Alas, I must cut this short so I can check more items off of my Thursday "To-Do" list. Side note: it's not too bad with only about 386,206,173 tasks to get through today! So, that's it for my "lately"…How does your life change with the changing of the seasons?

TGIF!

Hey y'all! Happy Friday! Just a quickie post as I sit here sipping a glass of delicious Barefoot Refresh Summer Red wine. I've never been a red drinker but I was recently in a position of compromise and decided to give this sweet version a try. Guess what? I LOVE it! This could get dangerous LOL!

Anyway, it's the start of the long Labor Day weekend and I was happy to work from home today to make for a semi 4-day weekend. Being plugged in all day isn't so bad when you are in the comfort of your own home, not being frozen to death by the arctic A/C and in comfy gym clothes to boot!

Despite not having to get up as early as usual I decided to rise at 5:00 am today to do legs. This month I am changing my rest day to Saturday (from Friday) so since I didn't want to have 2 rest days in a row I did a little switch-up. Sunday will basically be an ad-hoc day since I won't want to do legs again and since my sister is coming to visit I am going to take her to the gym for an introductory lift sesh. She's either going to love it or hate it; I'm so excited! I think I'm going to do a total body circuit of my favorite exercises for each muscle group so she can get a feel for what lifting is like.

So anyway, today was the start of my September lifting plan which I created a few days ago. I've been having some success with keeping the shin pain at bay lately so I'm going to try to hit legs 2x per week again and see how it goes. Today's plan consisted of the following:

BB front squats
Romanian DLs
Hack squats
BB stationary lunges
Calve raises

I was ticked when I arrived at the gym and found all of the squat racks taken (seriously, taken at 5:30 am? FML!) so I started with the hack squats. Luckily one of the racks opened up quickly so I was able to stay put and get the squats, DLs, and lunges all done in the same spot. It actually made for a much more efficient workout, not having to move around all that much. When I was through with my planned lifts, I finished-up with some hanging leg raises and some stretching and foam-rolling on shins and quads. No matter what I do I just cannot loosen-up those areas but some stretching/rolling is better than none! I think it might be time to splurge on a serious deep tissue massage in the near future.

Anyway, it's Friday and I'm being a total anti-socialite as I have to get up early tomorrow to attend a course I am taking (details at a later date). It's the reason Saturday is now rest day! Alas, I'm signing off now to go prep for tomorrow and finish my wine :)

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! Be safe and stay active! xo

August Update

Good Morning! I realize it’s been a while since my last post but I promise I haven’t been slacking in life; I’ve just been outrageously busy (in a good way)! First things first; yesterday I officially became an ISSA certified Sports Nutrition Specialist! I crammed through my studies in order to finish the 8 month course in just over two. In all I found most of the material quite easy since I already had a pretty solid base of knowledge but I definitely learned a lot. I got a 94% on my exam so I guess that leaves a little more learning to be had in my future J

I don’t even know where to begin with my workout / life / competing updates so I’ll start on the competition front. After going back-and-forth for a stressful few weeks on whether or not I should compete one more time this year I’ve pretty much decided to hold off for now, continue to build, and return to the stage in 2015 bigger than ever! It’s not that I don’t want to get back on stage right now (I’m dying to!) but I know that in reality it makes more sense to keep building since I will inevitably lose some muscle mass the next time I cut and I want to be sure I can take that risk and still show visible improvement on stage. The main reason I am putting it off though is because my schedule this fall is going to be nothing short of a crazy hectic whirlwind (more on that at a later date) and I’m just not sure I’ll have the time to devote to expanding my existing training schedule with increased cardio sessions and posing practice. It could be done; I’m just not convinced it should be.

Physique-wise I have seen and felt great improvement ever since I changed my macros a month or so ago by decreasing the added fats in my diet. By doing so, I’ve leaned out a little bit due to a small caloric decrease. While I haven’t made an effort to take in extra carbs, the decrease in fats has caused my diet to consist of a larger percentage of carbs which I think is a better ratio for my mostly anaerobic training. I have been a little more lenient on my fruit intake though which hasn’t seemed to hurt me and definitely makes me a happier camper LOL. Macros over the past week have been 42% carbs / 36% protein / 22% fat. Definitely not 100% consistent day-to-day but I feel good so it’s all good. The funny (sad) thing is that while my fats are at 22% (kind of high for a bodybuilder) I am barely taking in any additional fats other than a few almonds or avocado in my salads and a teeny tiny bit of olive oil when sautéing veggies. Most of the fat is just what is inherent in other food sources like eggs and meats. Kind of a pisser if you ask me!

On the training front, it’s safe to say that I am now an official morning gym rat. My body just decided that it was going to continue to get up at the crack-of-dawn whether I wanted it to or not so I’ve been hitting the gym by 5:00 am most weekdays. Training before work means that I’ve got to get in-and-out in about an hour / hour-and-a-half so I do the occasional double-session when I need more time to fit in cardio. Most days the early morning is very enjoyable with few distractions, equipment-hoggers, tools or chatty Kathy’s so when I do return to the 5:00 pm time slot I am easily irritated and leave more overwhelmed and angry than when I got there. That’s not what’s supposed to happen at the gym!  

Injury-wise I haven’t been in too much pain lately. I’m sure this is mostly from not doing a lot of cardio but even when I have done it, I’ve managed to keep the swelling at bay by sitting in a bathtub full of cold water and ice for 10 minutes post-workout. It’s actually not as torturous as it sounds and being able to walk and go about the rest of my day without constant pain makes it worth it. I haven’t been back to the PT in a few weeks because even with insurance it was costing me an arm and a leg but I have been doing my recommended exercises at least a few days per week and while I’m still skeptical of their necessity I can’t deny my improvement. I’m also no longer popping Ibuprophen like they’re Skittles so that’s definitely a plus!

Anyway, it’s time for me to scoot off to work here. I was up way too late last night so I’m not looking forward to the inevitable mid-morning head-bobbing and mid-afternoon brain drain that will most definitely require an extra strong coffee to battle through. Looking forward to an early bedtime tonight! I hope all you gym rats are enjoying these last few weeks of Summer (or extended Spring here in Maine). ‘Til next time, happy gymming! xo

Perfect Protein Bars

I have spent the past few weeks perfecting the perfect protein bar to share with you. So what constitutes a perfect protein bar? Well, deliciousness of course! But in keeping with one's fitness and physique goals I wanted to create one with appropriate macros as well. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE Quest bars for just this reason but seeing as they have been costing me a bundle each month I wanted to see if I could make a similar product. Indeed I can :)

Qualities of a (good) quality bar:
1. Superb taste
2. Pliable but not too melt-y consistency
3. Majority of carbs from fiber
4. At least 1 serving protein (20 grams)
5. Low in fat & sugar

I began by Googling "Quest bar recipes" and came upon several different sites that offered up similar recipes. However, one site in particular, www.busybuthealthy.com shared a product I had yet to hear of, VitaFiber.

You can read about what exactly VitaFiber is at the Company's website http://www.bioneutra.ca/index.htm but in a nut shell it is a low-calorie, sugar free sweetener similar in consistency to honey that is extremely high in fiber. The product also comes in powder form but for the sake of not having to add additional liquid to my recipe I opted for the syrup version. It costs an arm and a leg but it's so worth it! There is one other company that sells this product in the US however BioNeutra gives you slightly more product for the money, despite the flat shipping charge to the US being more than the product itself!

Before my VitaFiber arrived in the mail I experimented with some cashew-coconut protein bars which were pretty decent in consistency and taste but way too high in sugar due to having used honey in my recipe. For my first experiment with the VitaFiber I made key lime protein bars. These were delicious but way too liquidy and had to be eaten with a spoon! Next I tried peanut butter chocolate bars which were a little harder in consistency but didn't taste as good because of the brand of protein I used (side note: not a fan of MusclePharm!). My third try was with white chocolate macadamia nut flavored bars. These were pretty good but again the consistency was just not quite there. The main ingredients for all of these bars were the VitaFiber, protein powder, flour, and water to achieve desired consistency. Plus of course extras like nuts, coconut, choc chips, lime ride shavings, and lime juice to make the specific flavors. Finally I connected that the best bars consistency-wise were the ones I made the first time which used cashew butter. Thus, today I concocted the perfect protein bar in the flavor of double cashew! You can head on over to my recipes tab for the exact recipe by clicking here: http://gymrat-confessions.blogspot.com/p/favorite-protein-packed-recipes.html. The only modification I would make would be to use 4 scoops of protein and 1/4 cup of flour. I had to adjust this because I only had 3.5 scoops left in the tub! This will make your macros slightly better by increasing the protein and decreasing the carbs a tad. Still, the nutritional content was pretty good!

You could make a delicious double almond bar by using almond butter and almonds instead of the cashew butter and cashews I used today. I can't wait to try these out post-workout tomorrow. I sampled a little bit of the batter and it was soOoOoOo tasty! If you've ever tried the fantastically delicious PureFit protein bars http://purefit.com/ I would liken them to those....but with MUCH better macros!

My tummy is rumbling as I type this so I think I'm going to go prepare an early dinner and then take the pup out for an early evening walk once the sun starts to set. I always feel bad taking him out midday this time of year since I hear the hot tar can really tear-up a dog's tender paws!  Anyway, I hope you take a stab at your own protein bars and if you do, please share your own unique recipe and results with the rest of the gym rats in the comments section below! Happy cooking xo

Always Changing

Good Morning gym rats! Your day is probably just beginning but I’m already ready for bed. Soooo sleepy and the rainy / humid / grey atmosphere is not helping matters. I may have officially woken up at 4:45 this morning with the sound of my alarm alerting me it was time to get up, fuel-up, and hit core before work but I really feel like I’ve been up since about 2:30, having tossed and turned much of the early morning hours. I do love my early morning gym sessions but unless they are a regular occurrence, the change in schedule really sets my bodily clock out of whack!

A week of having a training partner was about all I could handle so I am back to training on my own this week. I will say though that it was exactly what I needed to get me over a plateau I didn’t even realize I was on. I’m lifting much heavier all across the board right now. I even realized yesterday that in the past two weeks my rear delt flies have gone from 12.5 DBs to 15’s to 17.5! I’m feeling wicked strong and even think my gains are starting to be noticeable. Very happy with my offseason strength progress thus far! I think sometimes you just need someone to remind you that you CAN lift more than you think and get you to push through the last couple of seemingly impossible reps.

However, by the time Thursday rolled around my lifting partner seemed to forget that spotting does not mean groping so I’ve since backed away. Men are such dumbasses. Training by myself at 5:00 pm these past couple of days though has reminded me how annoying most of the amateurs in the weight room are, thus I decided to rise and grind this morning. I’ll probably do the same tomorrow since I’ll likely be giving myself an early bedtime tonight and I really do enjoy starting my day with such a prime selection of meat LOL!

Another change I decided to start this week is in my macros. Right now I’m hovering around 1,700 calories +/- each day which does seem to provide me with ample energy to train and get me through my day as well as build muscle. However, I am not satisfied with my current level of leanness so I did some research on macros the other day based on my body type (Ectomorph – naturally lean “hard gainers”), gender, and muscle building goals. I decided it might be a good idea to try to increase my carbs and decrease my fats. Not substantially, but say 5-10% on a daily basis. I was previously achieving an average of 40% carbs, 35% protein, and 25% fat but I think I may get better results both energy and physique-wise if I try to get something more like 45-50% carbs, 40% protein, and 15-20% fat. I’m going to keep my calories constant for now, then reevaluate in a month or so. I’ve been so terrified of taking in too many carbs for so long now that increasing them to this degree is going to be a challenge but I am always game for a nutritional experiment!

Anyway, that’s all for this mid-week update. Off to go re-fill my Nalgene bottle. For some reason being exhausted makes me so thirsty! By 9:00 am today I have already had about 12 oz of coffee, 20 oz BCAAs while lifting, 20 oz protein shake post-lift, and about 20 oz water. 72 oz in and at least 11 more hours of hydrating to go. No wonder I pee so much!

ISSA Sports Nutrition Certification

Hi everyone! Another gorgeous weekday spent inside the arctic office here in Maine. Its days like this when I think about how great it will be to one day grow my personal training business into a full-time gig and be spending these sunny afternoons sitting outside creating workouts and diet plans for clients. There must be temperature-controlled laptops and glare screens by now right?

Before getting back to my blog, please allow me to remind you all to visit www.FitFierceFun and sign-up for your own personalized workout plans! I work with my clients to create monthly workout plans that only include exercises they feel comfortable doing, are enjoyable, and are in-line with their personal fitness goals. Or….share my site with your health & fitness-minded friends and family!

So, speaking of training, my ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer expires this winter and in order to keep it active I need to obtain 20 CEUs prior to then. Since I am currently out of good summer reading material, I decided to get a head-start on the process and signed up for the ISSA Sports Nutrition Certification course last night. I am so excited! Anyone who knows me at all knows that while I love fitness, nutrition is my #1 passion. There were two separate nutrition courses to choose from, this one and another called Fitness Nutrition. However, after reading the overview of each, the Fitness one sounded more generic and likely covered a lot of topics I already know inside-and-out. The one I choose is more specific in terms of learning proper nutritional requirements for athletes. This will be especially beneficial to me as a competitor as well! I feel well versed in the nutritional requirements of a bodybuilder at this point but I am looking forward to learning more about the needs of other types of athletes and the general fitness-minded population. I get a lot of friends who will ask me how they should be eating and I have a hard time steering away from my “Protein! Protein! Protein!” mentality LOL!

Have any of my readers ever taken this course or one similar? Has this benefited you as a trainer, competitor, athlete or general gym rat?

Beyond the Mental Boundaries

Good Morn Gym Rats! All I can say is my shoulders are SPENT. Honestly, they are so sore right now I can’t even believe it; I haven’t felt a shoulder burn like this in months! Adding to this is an increasing bicep and tricep burn leftover from Monday’s lift sesh. The reason for all of this is that upon leaving the gym on Saturday I randomly bumped into an old gym friend I hadn’t seen in a few years. You know, one of those rare people who you don’t really know outside of the gym but when you do encounter them they actually have really good tips and advice for you. Anyway, I was shocked to see him, having assumed that he had moved away long ago. Just my luck though, he had randomly purchased a week pass to World’s while on a stay-cation for the week and decided his new gym down in Saco was a nuisance to commute to. He mentioned training together so we agreed to meet on Monday. Long story short, best lifting partner ever. He always did have good exercise ideas but I’d never actually done a whole workout with him before. He’s the kind of person who really motivates you to push beyond your mental boundaries to get in those last burning reps and does so without being mean or condescending like some others can be when they THINK they are being motivating. It was such a good sesh that we agreed to do shoulders last night. For the most part I have stuck to my planned exercises but increased the weight on pretty much everything and gone from 3 to 4 sets all-around. Last night he showed me a better way of doing rear delt flies (IMO my most problem area) where instead of using a bench for support you get down in sort of a sumo squat position. What a killer burn! Then after my regular exercises we did overhead BB presses where I honestly felt like my muscles had finally hit failure. Seriously, even with his spotting, the 45 lb BB felt like I was trying to lift a 2,000 lb car! Then when I was ready to quit we went over to the pull-up bar and did 4 sets of hangs, increasing the hold time with each set. If I keep doing these on a regular basis I think I should be able to do unassisted pull-ups in the not-too-distant future! That would seriously be my dream if I could walk up to the bar by myself and bang out 8-12 unassisted pull-ups like it was nothing LOL.

So, suffice to say that I don’t really have DOMS right now because my shoulders felt like they were going to fall off before I even left the gym! Tonight we are planning on doing back but if my upper body pain increases throughout the day I may switch it with my core day to give myself a little more recovery time. Even though I’ve been back to the 5:00 pm schedule this week and the gym has been obnoxiously crowded per usual, I haven’t been annoyed at all. Working out with a male lifting partner who knows his shit seems to do the trick when it comes to fending off the squirrely tools!

Unfortunately I don’t know that he’ll continue to come after this week is over since World’s is kind of out of his way once he goes back to work but I’m going to do my best to convince him to at least make an occasional appearance. I do prefer to workout by myself but when you finally find a good lifting partner, it’s not something you want to give up! Anyway, off to work I go now. I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday; I’m so spent already! Do you prefer to workout alone or with a partner?

Lifting Tunes

Happy Fourth of July to all my American Gym Rats today! I'm taking advantage of the extra day off from work by getting some house cleaning, organizing, Goodwill drop-off, and blogging done this morning. Hurricane Arthur is supposedly headed our way and is thus leaving us with cloudy, grey skies, high-humidity, and sporadic rain showers, so it's not like I'm missing out on a beach day. Portland's fireworks have already been postponed to tomorrow night so there's not much going on festivity-wise today.

Friday is supposed to be my rest day but I decided to do my Sunday chest sesh this morning since I was up anyway, feeling well-rested, and thinking ahead that Sunday may be an all-day beach or boating day. My lifts on my new plan are all sooOOooOOOo good! In fact, my DOMS from last Saturday's leg day was so intense I was feeling it three days later! On Wednesday (back day) instead of my usual BB stiff-leg DLs I opted for one of my old favourites, the 1-legged DB balancing bosu ball DL (see One-Leg Deadlift tab for a visual). I had stopped doing these ages ago when I determined that they weren't effective for me anymore and caused to much shin pain to be worth it. However, I decided to be adventurous and use 2 20-lb DBs which was heavier than I ever used to do and holy crap I am still feeling a burn! I don't recommend these unless you have great balance but if you feel up for it they are a fantastic total-body strengthening exercise with an emphasis on the hamstrings and lower back. I made sure to give myself a good stretch and foam-roll this morning post-workout because I don't want to take on leg day tomorrow with any lingering soreness.

The other reason I think my workouts have been so great is my new playlist. I give you permission to make fun of me as I downloaded my first iTune last weekend! Call me old-fashioned but I've just always preferred an actual physical album. However, since I had a list of a bunch of random songs I wanted I thought it would be a better idea to make my own random-artist playlist for once. I have had iTunes for years now but all of the songs are either burned from my CDs or really old downloads from the days of Limewire and Kazaa. I ended up downloading about a dozen songs and then (after a stressful hour of trying to figure out how to sync my iTunes playlists with my phone) created an awesome mix of my favourite songs to lift to. I wanted to share it with you but since there are 53 songs on it I'd have to do multiple screen shots. So, here's a list of my top 10 favs in no particular order:

1. Sail  - Awolnation
2. Work Bitch - Britney Spears
3. Fighter - Christina Aguilera
4. Lose Yourself - Eminen
5. Remember the Name - Fort Minor
6. Roar - Katy Perry
7. Bulletproof - La Roux
8. Hall of Fame - The Script
9. Mouth - Bush
10. Poison - Kopie Von Groove Coverage

Some are more upbeat and some are more angry but they all have a great motivation factor for me. If I were a cardio queen I'd probably have more of a happy/techno mix but the weights are where it's at! Do you listen to music while you workout? If so, what genre do you generally choose and does it change with the kind of exercise you are doing?

Have a safe, happy, and fun holiday everyone! xo

Utterly Exhausted

I liked Tuesday morning’s early pre-work workout so much that I decided to do it again on Wednesday. And Today. Now three days into it, I am so stuck on this routine that I kind of want to make it the norm going forward. The crowd is just SOOO much better at that time. No one tries to chat me up and I can get through my entire lift in under an hour if I keep my rests between sets to a minimum. This morning I really had to rush (it was cardio & core day) and actually skipped the last exercise on my plan (bosu ball pushups), afraid that I would be late for work, but I left the gym completely spent so they probably wouldn’t have added any extra benefit to me. I'll just tack them on to my chest sesh on Sunday :) 

My body just won’t readjust to my usual 6:00 am wake-up this week so rising with the 4:45 alarm hasn’t been a difficult change. Last night however I fell asleep on the couch shortly after 7:00 pm, my belly happily full from dinner and my fav chocolate casein pudding dessert J Perhaps these early morning workouts have finally caught up with me. Tomorrow is my scheduled rest day and I definitely need it. I’ve been going HAM every day with no pre-workout drink! I might also be extra sleepy because I’ve cut back on coffee these past few days without really meaning to. You see, typically I chug my protein shake while leaving the gym because it's dinner time and I'm starved but I haven’t been hungry enough yet upon finishing my morning workouts so I wait until I get to work at about 7:30 and have it then when I would typically have my 2^nd morning coffee. Instead, I don’t have another coffee until after lunch, swapping-out my usual 3^rd cup.

I think I’ve also been extra motivated to hit the weights hard this week as I feel like my physique is slowly making gains. Sometimes I feel fat-as-fuck (sorry but it’s the truth!) but then I just remind myself that tight pant legs means growing quads!!! Plus, each day is a new day on my latest workout plan and they’ve all proven to be grueling but very enjoyable.

Speaking of which, I’m looking to take-on some extra online training clients right now so if you’re interested, or know anyone who may be interested, head on over to my other website www.FitfierceFun.com and sign-up for your own monthly workout plan! I’ll work with you to create workouts that you will enjoy and help you work toward your fitness goals. Even if you’re new to lifting or are working with injuries we can develop a plan that works for you. It’s all about customization!

This morning I was sweating buckets during my routine. Typically I merely glisten (I think I’m just blessed with minimal sweat glands haha) but between the StairMaster (just a 15 minute warm-up) and the intense humidity outside there was no staying dry. Sometimes a good sweat is more than a physical thing though; it’s also a mental cleanse and in this case helped me start my day stress-free with a positive mindset and that’s always a good thing for Miss. Glass-Half-Empty ;)

Anyway, I think tomorrow I’ll strive for a carb-load treat meal either for lunch or dinner because I plan to hit legs HARD early Saturday morning! It’s looking like a beach day and I need to look and more importantly FEEL my best in my bikini!  

These Past Few Days

Hey y'all! Sitting here on my couch post-dinner (a delicious chicken stir-fry) taking care of lots of random "to-do's" online. Finally the last two items on my list are 1) write a blog post and 2) search for a good mock-Quest protein bar recipe. Trying to cut-back on expenses here and Quest bars, while delicious and diet-friendly, are pricey!

This past weekend was a low-key and stress-free break which began with taking Friday off so that I could get my MRI done. What a long ordeal that was! It's hard to believe the fancy pants hospital only has one machine on site but apparently that is the case so I spent a good part of my Friday afternoon waiting to be scanned. Luckily I wasn't missing out on an amazing beach day and it was my rest day after all :) I have my next appointment this coming Friday to review the results and determine next steps. Oh the joys of the US healthcare system...

Friday evening was a lovely get together at my Family's house for the high school graduation celebration of one of my Stepsisters. We had a guy come early in the day to get cookin' on a traditional pig roast and dinner was a delicious mix of carved pork, pulled pork, corn-on-the-cob, corn bread, several different salads, baked beans and a smorgasbord of desserts.  Cheat meal heaven! I even let myself have seconds and didn't feel too guilty since it was mostly more meat! :D For dessert I had a salted caramel frosted chocolate cupcake from East End Cupcakes bakery here in Portland. It wasn't as great as it sounds though. The pulled pork was definitely my favourite dish!

Saturday was the official first day of Summer! Sadly not a hot day but it was at least sunny and bright so I spent the afternoon with friends at Ferry Beach in Scarborough after a killer morning back workout. On Sunday I decided my delt issue was resolved enough to make a return to yoga which I did (successfully) after a 20 minute and relatively pain-free elliptical warm-up.  Then I spent the rest of the day devouring the remainder of The Fault in Our Stars at Ferry Beach State Park in Saco (totally different beach). This is one of my favourite beaches in the area because it is never that crowded. Again, it wasn't an extremely hot day so I underestimated the sun's strength and did not adequately apply (or re-apply) sunscreen. Now two days later my lobster legs are still in pain! It's an ugly burn too as most of my time was on my stomach reading so the front half of me is tan while the back half of me is roasted.

I had a free drink at Starbucks so I grabbed a Venti Iced Nonfat Latte on my drive there. What a relaxing day! Late last week I decided my workouts were just not motivating me anymore so I designed a new plan using my favourite exercises from the past couple of months and somewhat changing the days I train each muscle group. Yesterday began the week with Bi's & Tri's and this morning I did Shoulders. I've been waking up waaaaaay too early these past few days so this morning I decided that rather than tossing and turning until my alarm rang I would just get up and hit the weights early. I had a surprisingly excellent session despite the time of day and think I'll probably do the same tomorrow for Back. The crowd (or lack thereof) is really so much more tolerable at that hour! Thursday I have core & cardio on the agenda, rest on Friday, legs on Saturday, and will start anew again on Sunday with chest and either yoga or cardio depending on my mood / pain / timing. Ahh I love a fresh plan! Anyway, my wrists are killing me right now (gosh I really don't need to add tendinitis to the injury mix here!) so I'm done typing for the night. Guess I'll have to save that recipe search for tomorrow. Anyway, I hope all of you are enjoying a beautiful first week of Summer. Anyone have any experience cooking mock-Quest bars? How about a good recipe to share? 

Bullseyes & Lobsters

Buongiorno gym rats! I’m seriously dying to go to Italy this year. I don’t know if it’s the intense homemade pasta craving I’m having right now or just my growing need for another European getaway but it needs to happen soon! Urgh why is it so hard to find a suitable travel buddy willing to drop a little dough on a once-in-a-lifetime experience?

Anyway, another week has gone by here in the lovely state of Maine. Apparently summer arrives in 4 days but I’ve yet to see much in the way of hot temps and sunshine for more than a couple days at a time so far this year. De-pressing! This past weekend was nice enough but not quite the weather we Mainers suffer through 8 frigid months of the year for.

I pushed through 7 days-in-a-row of lifting (talk about exhausted muscles!) so that I could have Saturday as my rest-day this past week. Instead of hitting the gym I spent the day at a local range taking a bullseye shooting course. As usual with these types of courses it was mostly men (sadly no attractive or age-appropriate ones) so I was definitely the oddball participant. It was however a great experience and nice change from my usual defensive shooting technique. Defensive is two-handed while bullseye is one-handed and being considerably more difficult, it is used for competition. I definitely was not as accurate as I expected to be but most of my shots at least hit the target and at 25 yards I guess that’s not so bad. Bottom line, if I can hit a small target one-handed at 25 yards then I can certainly hit an attacker if need be!  

Sunday I returned to the gym for what ended up being a really great workout. I started with another 15 minutes of warm-up StairMaster torture, followed by a good hour of biceps and then probably another ½ hour of core training. I love leaving the gym feeling totally spent! I debated going to the beach for the day but instead jumped at the opportunity to join the family for a Father’s Day lunch down in Kennebunkport. We went to this restaurant called Stripers where I ordered a fantastic lobster roll with a side salad. I’m not typically a lobster roll fan since I detest mayo and white bread but this one was just lightly tossed in a lemon aioli dressing so it wasn’t so rich. Un-planned cheat meal for sure but definitely worth it!

The rest of the afternoon was spent sunning on my patio reading my latest book, The Fault in Our Stars. I can tell its going to be a quick read so hopefully I can finish it and then go see the movie while it’s still in theatres! Nothing else really exciting is on my agenda this week. I got lazy and did not create a new workout plan so it looks like another 3 weeks on the P/RR/S program for me. Oh well, I do feel strong so I guess it must be working despite all of my modifications. Anyone have any fun plans this week? New workouts programs in process? New diets being tried? Ciao!

Deceivingly Out-of-Shape

Good Morning gym rats! Another early beautiful morning here in Portland but it’s supposed to turn to rain showers shortly and last through the new few days. Joy. I have this urge head south right now for a much needed vacation, I just haven’t decided where yet. Charleston, Miami, NOLA, hmmmm.  So much so that I found myself filling my coffee cup with Southern Pecan roast this morning LOL (it’s quite delish BTW). I’ve barely used up any PTO days so far this year so I really need to just stop being so cheap, pick a place and go explore!

Injury update: Nada so far. I thought I’d be getting that MRI last Thursday but apparently they don’t have the machine in the office so now I’m waiting for another appointment to be scheduled. The doc doesn’t think I have the tiny bone fractures that I think I have but I’m starting with the MRI in order to rule that out as it’s the least invasive diagnosis. He thinks its something called MTSS but after reading an article a trainer friend posted a few days ago I am skeptical. More details on the invasive diagnosis he is recommending if it comes to that. In the meantime, check out this interesting article: http://www.stack.com/2014/06/04/do-i-have-shin-splints/

A glorious amount of time was spent outside this past weekend and I am sporting a sweet bronze at the moment! I went to the beach on Saturday and read a good chunk of the third and last of the Gillian Flynn books, Dark Places. It’s been slower to get into than the other two but I can tell it’s going to start to get really suspenseful soon. Sunday was the gem of the weekend and I was tempted to do another long beach day but the Old Port Festival was going on and Los Lonely Boys were playing at 2:30. I ended up meeting up with a friend to go watch them and thank goodness I did because they were AMAZING. Actually, amazing doesn’t really do them justice but regardless I would pay to see them again. True rock talent right there. Parts of their show reminded me of Hendrix and Santana, they were really that good! Afterward we hit up the beach again for some late day rays and that wrapped-up my weekend. Other than training of course.

I kept with the same routine of back on Saturday morning and Biceps on Sunday. However, given that 5 weeks sans cardio has actually eliminated a lot of my shin pain I decided to give the stair master another shot as a warm-up on Sunday. It definitely hurt but I kept it to 15 minutes so it wasn’t too bad. The most embarrassing thing however was that I have ZERO cardiovascular endurance right now. I was huffing and puffing after about two minutes. Goes to show that even when you are not trying to lean-out, SOME cardio is still so important for your overall heath. I might try to include a quick 10-15 minute warm-up 2x per week going forward so long as the pain doesn’t get too unbearable. Its funny how you can look “in shape” but really be so gosh darn “out of shape”! J

Anyway, today is shoulders so I’m obviously looking very forward to that. Now it’s off to work for the day. Hopefully it goes by fast! Happy Tuesday all! xo

Sunny Days

Hello everyone! Just a quick early morning check-in here today on this beautiful, SUNNY morning. Ahh how my mood improves about a hundredfold when I’m soaking up the vitamin D. I’m also sipping a delightful ½ French Roast – ½ Wild Mountain Blueberry Green Mountain Coffee. It’s the perfect mix of seasonal flavoring and caffeine jolt.

It’s now week #4 of my new lifting program (rep range week) and I began it on Sunday morning with another biceps-focused workout followed by a LONG paddle around the entire perimeter of Highland Lake in Windham to break in my new kayak.

Let’s just say that after training back on Saturday and having that right rear delt issue still lingering, loading/unloading and paddling against the current for much of the way has made me feel more ancient than ever!  The late hours of my day were spent lying in the sun on my patio with an Aleve in my belly and a margarita in my hands!  I don’t know how many miles I paddled but the lake is 8.5 square miles so I’m sure at least a few. I can’t wait for Thursday to come because that’s when I finally get in to see the Sports Medicine Doc!

Yesterday afternoon one of my siblings graduated from high school so I got up earlier than usual to hit up the gym before work. Being just a tricep training day, I knew I could get it done in under an hour so it was a perfect morning workout. Full disclosure: there was an unusual influx of studs at that hour which totally kept me powering through despite my body not being fully loosened-up and awake yet LOL! My triceps are burning right now (in a good way)! I’m getting a little sick of this P/RR/S routine already so I think after the 6 week mark I may find a new program to follow. Anyone have any recommendations for me to check out? I am hesitant to change things up though when I’m still experiencing DOMS after each workout (i.e. I haven’t plateaud yet). I guess I’ll have to wait and see how I feel in a couple weeks.

Today it’s back to the 5pm grind with shoulders. Despite my delt issue shoulders are still my favorite body part to work. Shapely shoulders totally take a physique from average to smokeshow. Anyway, off to work now. Have a great day all & happy gymming! xo

MDW Re-Cap

Good morning gym rats! I hope you all had a nice long Memorial Day Weekend and got to enjoy some fair weather, good eats, and QT with family and friends. It’s so nice to have an extra day to get all those chores done that I usually procrastinate on during the typical 2-day weekend. There’s always something that gets tacked onto my “to-do” list and saved for the next long weekend or PTO day.

In keeping with the 2014 tradition, this weekend’s weather was anything but predictable here in Portland. It rained off-and-on making outdoor plans a little dicey but I still managed to be ultra productive. Saturday morning began with my scheduled back sesh (owie sore traps!!) and then off to get my groceries for the week. Yay sale on watermelon! I actually haven’t sliced into it yet but I just love the fresh fruits that pack the store shelves this time of year.

After heading home and getting cleaned-up I picked up my Stepmother and took her out for brunch and pedicures (a belated Mother’s Day present). We went to the Front Room for eats which I was really excited to try since everyone raves about their brunch but I was less-than-impressed and won’t be returning. I ordered the spinach and bacon gnocchi with poached eggs and got the vegetable gnocchi (also with poached eggs). I detest tomatoes and mushrooms which my plate was piled high with. The place was packed though so I just kept my mouth shut and ate the rest as I knew that if I tried to send it back it would be another 30 minutes for the server to return and then another 30 minutes to get my correct order (with a side-order of snot most likely). I had an unsatisfying dinner there a few years ago so I’m 0-for-2 at that place. I will say they make a delicious blood orange mimosa though!

After our post-brunch pedi’s (I got a summery pink-coral color) I drove out to Bridgeton in middle-of-nowhere Western Maine to check-out a sale on a kayak package I had found while perusing Craigslist. Kayaking has always been one of my most favorite outdoor activities. Being out on the water on a calm, sunny day with no distractions is the most relaxing place I know of. Even better than a massage (IMO) since no one else is there to interrupt your train of thought. Unfortunately I had sold my beloved pink kayak of 20+ years last Fall (long story for another day) so I needed another. I’m a big fan of the sit-on-top variety (perfect for sunbathing) and this one was about $325 for the kayak, paddle, and lifejacket. Not a bad deal! It’s an Ocean Kayak which is a reputable brand and it’s small and light enough for me to load and unload on my own. I’m so excited to break it in!

Even better, the Thule roof-racks and roll-bar I had saved in my shed from 3 vehicles ago fit my new Jeep perfectly! I contemplated taking it out for a spin yesterday but the clouds kept rolling-in and I just knew that with my luck by the time I got out to a lake or pond somewhere it would either be down-pouring or worse. Crossing my fingers for next weekend!

Sunday morning began with a lengthened bicep sesh instead of yoga class. I didn’t want to aggravate my shoulder issue but also didn’t want to lose a day of fitness so I split-up my combined bicep/tricep day this week. Then, after a delicious (and typical) grilled chicken salad lunch I decided to take Mugsy out for some exercise. We ended up at the Eastern Promenade where there is a long paved walking path as well as a dog-friendly beach. Of course, Mugsy is only selectively dog-friendly so I took him to the far end before unleashing him and letting him retrieve a stick from the frigid ocean waves about a thousand times. The dog never tires of this game and absolutely LOVES to swim! Apparently that is unusual for a boxer.

That afternoon I headed over to my Dad and Stepmother’s house for a MDW BBQ. I wish I had taken a pic of the sausage and kielbasa platter. It was pretty impressive! I sampled some Lithuanian sausage, chicken & chorizo sausage, and some kielbasa. I’m not much of a sausage fan but I do appreciate the high-protein options for once! I also enjoyed some sesame-glazed grilled shrimp (my request).

Yesterday was by far the most productive of the 3 days. After my tricep sesh (they are sooo sore today!) I took Mugsy to Macworth Island in Falmouth. It was still early enough in the day (about 9:30) so I knew it would be the best time to be able to walk around the wooded path without too many dog encounters. There’s also limited parking on the island so waiting until the afternoon would likely mean having to park on the mainland (too much travel for my poor shins!). It was a gorgeous, sunny and warm walk and we spent a long time playing fetch again on a little secluded beach on the far side (my secret spot). Mugsy will never show his exhaustion while outside but once we get home after that much running and swimming, he is out cold for the day which makes me one happy Momma! After two days in a row of sand and salt water though he was in dire need of a bath so once we got home I plopped him in the tub (which needed a good cleaning anyway) and soaped him up with some peppermint dog wash. He’s so soft and cuddly now…and his white spots are so WHITE! Haha

After cleaning all the dog dirt & grime out of the tub I was on a cleaning kick so I decided to drag the vacuum out and give the interior of my Jeep that thorough cleaning I’ve been procrastinating on since I bought it…5 months ago (insert embarrassed face here). You know I’m not the first owner when you find a French fry under the seat. Gross! By the time I was done with this chore my shins were aching terribly. This doc appointment cannot come soon enough. I really pray they can accurately pinpoint the issue(s) because I am so sick of constantly popping painkillers. Not to mention, my constant (perhaps irrational) fear of getting fat from lack of cardio.

The rest of the day I pretty much just lounged around, watched some mindless TV and read a bit. I’ve been hooked on the Gillian Flynn books lately. I plowed through her most famous, Gone Girl, a couple of weeks ago and thus had to rush out to purchase her other two, Sharp Objects and Dark Places. I highly recommend these if you like a suspenseful page-turner. I only wish I wasn’t such a fast reader; these were supposed to be my summer beach reads!

Anyway, this post has gotten long enough and I really must be on with my day. I’m going to attempt to do shoulders tonight. Praying my right deltoid can handle at least a light load! We have a work offsite on Friday so thankfully it’s only a 3-day workweek for me. I can handle that. I think.