Motivated Monday

Good Morning Gym Rats & Happy Monday! I'm feeling super motivated today and ready to take on a productive week. That probably means it can only go downhill from here and I have a bitch of a 5-day stretch ahead of me, right? Let's hope not. For some reason I awoke an hour earlier than usual today and am fully awake and refreshed so I thought I'd crank out a blog entry before work. Yesterday began week #3 of my 2014 Springtime shred and I am making a couple of tweaks to my plan already. Firstly, my weekly weigh-in showed me up 1/2 pound from the previous week (I had dropped a pound in my first week). While I can try and convince myself that this is some heaven-sent added muscle mass, I'm guessing its more likely due to the fact that I had two high-carb days in a row this past week rather than my scheduled one. It could also be due to the fact that my cheat meal this week was 2 slices of orgasmic Portland Pie pizza during a work lunch on Wednesday. Totally worth it but its also the last pizza I will be having until my bulk starts again this Summer! Alas, rather than eliminating my cheat meals starting February 15th, I am eliminating them now as well as all alcohol (although I haven't had a drink in at least a couple of weeks; that's much less of a temptation for me). Unless of course I go on an awkward first date that requires a "break-the-silence" drink. That I'll allow if absolutely necessary LOL! I've also gone cold turkey on my afternoon coffee. My tummy has not been happy with me lately so I decided last week to replace it with green tea instead which I've had no trouble sticking to so far. Lastly, I have been bringing my 32-oz Nalgene to work with me and forcing myself to drink a full bottle pre-lunch and a full bottle post-lunch. In addition to the hot bevs and water consumed at the gym each day this is easily upward of the suggested gallon per day. Usually I don't track water until closer to a show but I'm thinking I'll make a better effort this season. If nothing else, staying properly hydrated during the winter months should help with my frizzled-out hair and skin! Otherwise, my nutrition plan is staying constant until my 1-month cut on February 15h. Two weeks to go.

My workouts lately have been great. Not that they weren't before but having a show in mind (no, I haven't chosen a specific one yet) definitley changes my mindset and I end up going much harder in the gym. I've been able to increase my weight on many exercises and am just feeling all-around hulk-like LOL :D On several days I've even added several additional exercises to my routine after finishing my scheduled plan. Really making sure to hit all muscles from every possible angle! Next Sunday I'll start my February lifting plan which I created last week. Cannot wait for the change-up! I also signed-up for a posing class to be held next Sunday in Newburyport, MA (where I competed in the Yankee Classic last July). It's a little early to be posing but a note came out saying that the bikini T-walk rules have changed for 2014 and we now are required to do a side pose during our turns. I find this move rather slutty to be honest but I'll obviously do what I gotta do...and I plan to nail it ;)  I'm excited to go spend the day with other competitors. Being around others who "speak the same language" always amps up my motivation level!

Tonight is probably going to be 15 mins on the StairMaster (my shins already hurt just thinking about it) and then a bi's & tri's sesh. Normally it would be shoulders & core but I swapped out my yoga yesterday morning for today's lift instead. I just wasn't feeling the yoga and ended my workout with my own stretching anyway. I don't particularly want to get in the habit of taking pre-workout so early on in my prep but something I've been doing lately on days when I need a really good burn is adding a 1/2 scoop to my BCAAs. I did this yesterday and on leg day last week. It's enough to push me to the next level without keeping me up all night. Give it a shot if you need an extra boost one of these days. I currently use Scivation Psycho Apple Asylum because it gives you added energy without any shakes and zero crash afterward. Although I suppose if you add a few too many scoops this too would create some issues for you :P

Anyway, off to work I go here. I hope you all have a motivated, stress-free Monday and kick ass in your workout...whatever that may be! xo

myOatmeal.com Review #1

Hi Everyone! I'm here today with my first review of the products I ordered from www.myOatmeal.com. The three packs of oatmeal I ordered earlier in the week only took a few days to arrive and came packed tightly in double-thick wrapping so as not to loose or destroy any of the contents. Here's a pic of my new arrival:

You can see that each package came with a printed label of the nutrition information which made it very easy for me log into myfitnesspal. I decided to try out the "lite" version of the company's Dirty Banana flavour first. I should have ordered it w/o any sugar at all because simply by including the brown sugar, it sent my carbs through the roof for the day! Oh well, next time I'll cut it with 1/2 the flavored variety and 1/2 plain oats. One serving is listed on the package as being 40 grams but when I measured this out and saw that it was a very small portion (about 1/3 cup) I opted for an 80 gram serving for breakfast. There was a nice variety of dried cranberries, banana chips, and oats all mixed together and the flavors I had selected were not overpowering at all. Really my only other complaint is that the protein was way too low for my diet so I added 1/4 cup of liquid egg whites (about 4) to the hot water when I mixed it together. This also gives the oatmeal a nice thicker consistency and keeps me full longer. I might instead add a scoop of vanilla whey next time I make it. I would recommend that myOatmeal.com start offering flavored protein add-ons to their list of optional ingredients because I think this would draw-in a lot of bodybuilders and other clean eaters who might otherwise not purchase from them. Here's a pic of my complete breakfast:

Overall on a scale of 1-5 I would rate this product a 4.5. Definitely check out the website and try out one of their customized flavors yourself! Stay tuned, next up I will review the PB&J cupcake flavor. 'Til next time, remember, eat clean to get lean! xo

myOatmeal.com

Hi everyone! It's getting late here on a Thursday night and I'm pretty tired from a long day at work and a serious back attack but I'm so excited about a new partnership that I just had to tell you all about it as soon as possible! Have you ever heard of myOatmeal.com? It's a great company that allows you to customize your own oatmeal flavors and will then ship them to you however often you want! Check out their website - you will surely find yourself feeling hungry while perusing all of the options! This company has thought of everything; how much you want, what kind of oats, what flavors you might like, how sweet you want it (if at all), whether you want any fruit, nuts or seeds included, and even provides you with the nutritional information as you "build your brand"! Well, they have given me the opportunity to be a product reviewer of their latest customized concoctions! They will be sending me different flavors in the mail and I will be sampling them and posting my reviews on this site and also on my personal training site fitfiercefun.com. Of course I'll be sending out lots of tweets from both @PortlandGymRat and @FitFierceFun so you don't miss out on my reviews. How great is this?! Okay, maybe I'm a little over excited but you all know how much I LOVE oatmeal and especially how much I love creating my own crazy concoctions like my pumpkin pie or strawberry rhubarb delicacies! I think I'll even be getting a discount code from them so you'll be able to order at a discount too! Yum yum yum...I can't wait!

On a totally different note, tonight for the first time EVERY I finally got my Dad to workout with me! My Dad; the guy who has always been anti-gym and doesn't see the point of working out inside when he gets "all the workout he needs" by hunting and fishing LOL! I can get people in for free at World's on Thursday nights so every now and then I ask him to workout with me always knowing the answer will be "no". Well, by some sheer strain of luck when I decided to ask again yesterday he actually changed his tune! I don't know what brought this on. He claims he just simply wants to get in better shape. Maybe it's the fact that his birthday is next week and I know he HATES turning another year older. Whatever the reason is though, I'll take it! I got a little worried as the day progressed and I started hearing the "I'm too tired", "I'm not feeling well" and "I'm injured" complaints. He even went so far as to tell me that he would be doing an hour on the bike and nothing else because his bad knee was too sore to lift anything. BULLSHIT I said. We would be doing a back workout only with the intensity solely depending on how heavy he wanted to lift and thus would have little to no impact on his legs. Well it appears all the complaining was just to get me worked up because when he arrived at my house after work he was in GAME-ON mode and I was impressed! He even let me put a scoop of BCAAs in his water bottle! Although he did ask me what kind of "roid juice" I was feeding him :P

When we got to World's we started with a 15 minute cardio warm-up (I let him use his precious bike LOL) and then moved into the weight area. Luckily it wasn't as crowded as it has been recently so we could workout without too much bother. This was the rundown of our back session:

-Standing BB bentover rows
-Sitting wide-grip cable rows
-Cable straight-bar pulldowns
-Lat pulldowns
-DB wide upright rows

I wanted to finish off with a little lower back action on the back extension machine but it was taken so we stopped there and did a little core work and stretching on the mats. For core we did 3 sets of bosu ball pushups and 3 sets of 30 second planks (front, right, and left side holds). I honestly don't know if he pushed himself hard enough to be sore tomorrow but I tried my best to get him to go as heavy as he could without hurting himself. I think he might have been faking difficulty to some degree for my benefit but I think once he realizes that going heavy does not mean you are going to injure yourself, he may then amp up the intensity level. At least he finally got a good idea of what my training is like and seemed to be engaged enough to want to try it again. I said we could make it a Thursday event and do different muscle groups each time so here's hoping! I think that generation still has it in their head that gyms are just for bodybuilders and the average person doesn't need to go to one. I think I proved him wrong tonight though!

Anyway, time for me to pack my meals for tomorrow and then hit the sack. Breakfast is going to be oatmeal with vanilla whey and cinnamon almonds, yummers! The sooner I get to sleep the sooner I get to eat it LOL. Have a good night gym rats and be sure to stay tuned for my upcoming customized oatmeal reviews! xo

Day 1

Happy official new year everyone! Wow, I have been really slacking on the blog posts lately. I guess it's just all this "simple living" I've been doing that hasn't given me much blog material (jk). Today just happens to be the first afternoon I've had in a while where I don't have anything else pressing on my list of "to-do's" so I figured it was a good time to give everyone an update. Plus, I feel kind of under the weather so sitting here on the couch relaxing is about all I am up for at the moment. I feel like my body is battling a cold because I've been extremely exhausted for the past couple of days. I decided to not set my alarm this morning and just let my body sleep for as long as it wanted. When I finally rolled out of bed at 7:30 it was bright and sunny in my bedroom, a nice change from the bitter miserable grey tundra we've been experiencing for the past couple of weeks. However, my good mood rapidly diminished when I realized that my dumb-ass dog was throwing up little piles of tin foil all over my bedroom carpet. I guess he was pissed at me for not getting up at our usual hour so he decided to dig into the kitchen trash and eat the chicken-grease covered foil from last night's weekly mass chicken bake. Urghhhh my goal to live more peacefully is really struggling right now!

After cleaning up that mess (and then a couple more he decided to do once we got downstairs), I whipped-up a yummy egg sandwich and coffee and headed off to the gym. It was too late to make it to yoga so I decided to do Monday's shoulder and core routine instead and then tomorrow I'll just do the cardio I was planning for today. Despite feeling shitty I actually had a great lift this morning. This was the breakdown:
-Started off with 15 mins on the elliptical to warm-up
-BB upright row to press
-Bentover DB delt raises
-Standing DB lateral raises
-Rope cable crunches
-BB front raises
-DB seated arnold press
-Stability ball weighted leg raises

I was thoroughly burned-out by the time I was finished. Sometimes I think I actually work harder when I don't feel well though because I am trying so hard to offset fatigue! Oh well, whatever the case was, my workout was definitely a success! I was also ravenous again so I whipped-up my chocolate whey shake on my way out and inhaled my favourite white chocolate raspberry Quest bar on my way to pick up groceries. Nothing but clean and predictable grocery items from here on out as today begins day 1 of my Springtime lean-down! Yup, that's right, my month of track-less dieting is finally done and I am not only back to using myfitnesspal but also back on a structured competition-focused diet plan. I'm not saying I'm going to do a show this spring for sure but I am going to be dialing things down here so I can a) look hot and shredded for Summer and b) see where I'm at muscle-wise and then decide whether I am ready for another show or not. I have definitely put on some size but just how much is muscle and how much is fat is hard for me to tell right now. I know that my protein and fats have been higher over the past month so now that I am cutting both of those back slightly we'll see how much damage/progress I have really done. Not tracking my diet for a month was stress-reducing for the first couple of weeks but then actually seemed to cause me more stress for the last couple of weeks as I knew I was taking in a substantial amount of added calories and started to feel fat, bloated, and lacking control.

Today I am up 10 pounds over my leanest show weight. It's such a weird feeling for me because on the one hand I know my goal is to put on weight (via muscle) but prior to becoming a bodybuilder I never really saw much fluctuation in my weight year-round. I just maintained relative leanness and ate pretty much what I wanted since I've never been one for binging on unhealthy foods anyway. Basically I was at a plateau for many years but it didn't matter to me as long as I could still wear my size zero jeans! It's really hard to change your way of thinking after so many years in your comfort zone but I'm getting there. My hope is that my leanest this year will be higher on the scale due to added muscle. For the next month I am going to continue to allow one un-clean cheat meal per week, one alcoholic beverage per week, and one clean cheat meal. An un-clean cheat being something like pizza or pad thai while a clean cheat being something I would normally eat just higher in carbs like sushi for example. Then after the first four weeks are over I will reassess my progress and decide whether I need to discontinue the un-clean cheat and alcohol or not as well as increase cardio days which are currently at only 2.

I'm still experiencing shin pain, predominantly in my left shin, when I do too much cardio. I know this is probably my own fault for not just taking a complete break from all lower body work last year when it began but it's too late now. I'll just continue to focus on low-impact cardio for my longer sessions and try to keep leg days as spread apart as possible. If cardio days need to eventually be increased for the sake of leaning out before a show then I'll just have to cut back diet-wise instead. Not ideal but doable.

Anyway, a nap is really calling my name right now so I'm out. How are you doing sticking to your 2014 goals so far? Here's to waking up tomorrow without a cold, having a peaceful stress-free week at work (bahahaha I crack myself up!) and enjoying the next 5 days of kick-ass workouts! Happy gymming!