Oh So Fabulift!

1/12/2012 - Zumba

Started my day with a green monster smoothie for breakfast! Felt like I was getting my Popeye on with all that spinach!

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When I got home from work, I made a turkey meatloaf with a side of sauteed kale, onions, and garlic. But damn Chris brought homemade banana nut bread and pound cake home from work. While cooking dinner, I nibbled off the bread and had 1 small slice of the pound cake before forcing him to hide it from me. We went to the gym and when we came home, both desserts were gone. Gabby, our fat ass dog, had eaten them both. At least they’re no longer a threat to our hips. ;)

Meatloaf before the oven:

Meatloaf after: Yum!

I use Ellie Krieger’s turkey meatloaf recipe. It calls for plain oats and milk which are both non-paleo. I switch the milk to coconut or almond and just don’t stress about the oats because it’s such a small amount. I’ll save my carb battles for the big things. ;)

Here’s today’s food diary:

Today’s workout was Zumba. I did it with 3lb weights today and it kicked my butt because of yesterday’s chest/triceps on top of XFit day.

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1/11/2012 - XFit + Chest/Triceps

I took a rest day on Tuesday but hit the ground running on Wednesday for another big day in the gym.

I started my day with some plain greek yogurt. I planned to eat it with an orange on the side, but I just couldn’t stomach the bitter taste of the yogurt without sweetening it up a bit. 1 serving of agave nectar + my orange slices later, I could actually get it down.

Here’s my diary for the rest of the day. I’m still transitioning into as clean of a paleo diet as possible, so don’t judge too harshly. ;) Also, the soy milk is actually almond milk.

My standard calorie goal is around 1250, but I typically workout and earn myself more calories (because workouts require fuel). Believe it or not, it’s really hard to make even my 1250 goal on paleo. It’s naturally lighter in calories even with fat = 9 calories/gram compared 4 calories/gram with carbs. I feel like all I’m doing is stuffing my face all day long. As you can see, even with 6 small meals, I couldn’t get close to the extra calories doing XFit and my lifting afforded me.

XFIT: The instructor was out sick today, so the students ran the class.

Warmup/Buy In: 2 min. broad jumps + .25 elliptical

Workout 1: 11 minutes AMRAP + 20 bicycle crunches every 2 minutes

Bear Crawls across room 2x
50 Squats

Workout 2: 11 minutes AMRAP + 2 sprints every 2 minutes

20 situps
15 sprawls
10 leg lifts
5 push ups

Buy Out: .25 treadmill + 2 min star jumps + stretching 

After XFit, my spot didn’t show again. So instead of skipping the workout, I asked a fellow XFitter to spot me for my bench press. It’s the only exercise on chest/triceps day that I need help on.

Chest:

Source (I loooove this photo of Marilyn Monroe working on her fitness!)

Flat Bench Press:
45lbs x 12 (WU)
55lbs x 12
60lbs x 10
65lbs x 8
65lbs x 6

Incline DB Fly:
10lbs x 12
10lbs x 10
10lbs x 8
15lbs x 6

Triceps:

Triceps Push Down with Rope:
20lbs x 10
22.5lbs x 12
20lbs x 12 <—-starting to give out strength at this point

Overhead Triceps Extension:
15lbs x 10
15lbs x 12
15lbs x 12 

1/9/2012 - Monday - XFit + Zumba

Today I started back at XFit. I ate really clean but hadn’t learned how to properly replace my usual complex carbs in my pre-workout meal with a Paleo alternative. It really makes all the difference during your workout. A lesson learned the hard way, because I just about passed out toward the end of XFit.

Here’s what I had for breakfast:

A green monster smoothie, but I made it with kale this time. Too bad I didn’t realize kale is better “juiced” instead of “blended”. So after drinking it, I looked like this:

Side note: ALWAYS wear your retainer! I need to gets me some Invisalign.

Lunch:

Turkey sandwich sans the bread. Side of grapes. 1 Laughing Cow cheese wedge (non-paleo, but I can’t get rid of cheese so I keep it in moderation).

And my pre-workout meal:

I guess it wasn’t that my pre-workout meal was bad per se, it’s just that I ate it too close to working out. That plus the overall “lighter” amount of food you intake on paleo (you seriously have to eat A LOT to meet your daily calorie goals) meant I wasn’t fueled up enough for something as intense as XFit bootcamp. But I survived, and even stuck around for Zumba since my spot (Chris) didn’t show for my lifting session to help spot (he had to work late).

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Buy In: Tabata

High knees
Jumping jacks 

.25 elliptical

WOD:

2 rounds - 1 minute each

Mtn climbers
Pushups
Situps
Leg lifts
Suicides
Rest

6 minutes AMRAP 

10 burpees
10 squats
10 box jumps
10 bench dips
squat shuffles across room 2x 

Cash Out:

1 mile on stationary bike
2 minutes bicycle crunches 

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Right after XFit, my pre-workout meal kicked in and it got me through Zumba. Before I left the gym, I decided to weigh myself and I was down another 3lbs to 141! I’ll continue to weigh myself until it steadies out because I’m curious as to how much carb bloat I’m holding onto (that paleo seems to gets rid of).

1/8/2012 - Sunday - Adaptive Motion Trainer + Extra Motivation

I went out of town this weekend to photograph a boudoir session in Athens. Going on trips always presents some obstacles when I’m trying to stay fit. First off, I started a new nutrition plan (Paleo) on Friday, so I had to be more aware of my food options on the road. Then, I knew I wouldn’t have access to a gym. So I planned ahead, did what I could, and didn’t stress if it wasn’t perfect.

Saturday:

I started the day by making a big green monster smoothie with chocolate whey protein powder. Here’s the recipe I used from Green Monster Movement (put the items in the blender in this order!):

• 2 cups organic spinach
• 1-1.25 cups almond milk
• 1 banana
• ice
• blend, then add 1 scoop of whey protein

I know, you’re thinking, “Spinach in a smoothie?!” But I swear on all my picky-eateyness, you can’t taste the spinach at.all. It was sooooo good! And the perfect 4 hour drive companion!

That night, I went out with a friend to a local eatery. I was starving by the time we could go eat, so I wasn’t too concerned with healthy options at that point. But I still managed to order a relatively healthy option at a pizzeria: turkey + artichoke panini. Not fully Paleo, but I was trying.

By using My Fitness Pal, I realized that even with my indulgent dinner, I was close to my daily caloric goal for the day! Not bad for being on the road. I love MFP because it has a huge database of foods so you’re not constantly writing in nutritional info and it saves your most used foods. At the end of the day, after you’ve completed your food/exercise diary, it lets you know where you’ll be in 5 weeks if every day was like that day. At the rate I’m going, I’ll be at 135lbs or less in 5 weeks! Of course, that’s not counting the lean muscle I hope to gain in that time. ;)

Sunday:

I hadn’t worked out in a couple days at this point and had a long drive home ahead of me. I ate the healthiest option at my friend’s house for breakfast (plain oats). Not Paleo, but not much I could do about it. Then I opted for a Zaxby’s salad with grilled chicken for lunch (using only 1 packet of dressing) to get as close to Paleo before hitting the road.

By the time I got home around 9:45pm, I really didn’t want to fit in a workout. But I had a little motivation on my side: it was the last day to finish the week’s Gym-Pact! So as soon as I got home, I changed into some workout clothes and headed to the gym for a quick run on our new Precor AMT machines (which are WAY harder than they look).

35 minutes. Level 5. 315 calories. Nearly 3 miles run.

And as a result of getting my butt to the gym, I earned cold-hard cash! Sure, it was only $2.19 this week, but it beats the hell out of paying $5 for NOT going. ;) 

This week, I’ve upped the ante to 4 workouts! I’m sure I’ll get even more cash as people start dropping like flies after the New Year’s resolve wears off.

Finally, the newest fitness “motivational” tool I’ve discovered is Earndit, which also rewards you for exercise. I’m using it with my RunKeeper, but it also uses apps like FitBit and Nike+ (which I plan to start using soon as well).

What do you use to keep you motivated and on track during your journey to fitness?

1/5/2012 - Zumba + Back/Biceps

I officially completed my first Gym-Pact day! Today was Zumba (a full class with great energy!) followed by some lifting. I hadn’t done a back/biceps day since late November!

Back:

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Assisted Pull-Ups: (actually did these 2nd since they were in use)
85lbs x 10 medium
75lbs x 10 wide
75lbs x 8 m
65lbs x 10 w 

Lat Pull Downs:
30lbs x 12
45lbs x 10
55lbs x 8
62.5lbs x 6

Bent Over BB Rows:
20lbs x 12
30lbs x 10
40lbs x 8 (2x)

Cable Rows:
40lbs x 12
45lbs x 10
55lbs x 8
60lbs x 8

Biceps:

EZ Preacher Curls:
20lbs x 12
20lbs x 10 (2x)

DB Curls:
10lbs x 8
10lbs x 6 (2x) 

12/14/11 - XFit + Official Measurements

Unfortunately, this is my last post of 2011 because that’s the last time I went to the gym. I could blame the holidays, the effect the holidays has on my job (holiday portraits in full swing), and even the effect the cold weather and shorter days take on the body. But they’re all excuses at the very core of it. Because on THIS day, I went to the gym after being on the road all weekend, attending a football game in ATL, and completing 3 photo sessions! 

I’m mostly sad that on the “date-iversary” of the 3rd month in the gym, I quit going. This seems to be the toughest part of a long-term fitness routine for me, because I quit around this point the last time. I just have to get back on the horse this time. I’m much more aware at 3 weeks out of the lack of exercising that I was a year out after quitting last time, so that’s a good thing!

This day in XFit was really fun. We did a teamwork routine where we were given 4 different exercises and a certain number of times we had to do each. But we could split up the exercises any way we wanted as long as there weren’t more than 2 people doing a same exercise at once.

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We were like a XFit superhero team. It only took us 16 minutes and 22 seconds among the 4 of us to do the following:

40 suicides
320 squats
280 situps
210 pushups 

We basically split every thing equally among us, but I started on suicides and ended up only needing a few of my pushups taken by another girl.

I forgot to weigh myself that day and haven’t been back since. So because I don’t have a scale at home, I still don’t know what my pre-holiday gorge-fest weight is. BUT, I do have my official 3-month measurements:

Chest: 35.5 (1 inch LOST)
Waist: 33 (same)
Hips: 40.5 (1/2 inch LOST)
Thighs: 25 (1 inch GAINED)
Biceps/flexed: 11.75 (same)

I’m taking “official” before/after/progression photos, but I’m not going to share them until I’m at a point I feel comfortable doing it. In the meantime, here’s a little glimpse into 3 months of work:

I just hope I haven’t completely undone what I worked hard for in just 3 weeks away from the gym….

Okay, so the blog is up to date and I’ve joined Gym-Pact (more on that next time). So all that’s left to say is:

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12/12/11 - Monday - XFit + Zumba

So I’m in the middle of catching up the fitness blog when it dawns on me how little I worked out last month. If I’m remembering correctly, I only did some form of working out 4 times. Only 4 times?!? SHAME.

At least this particular workout was a double-whammy. Started off with XFit:

Warmup

AMRAP (but I can’t remember how long the intervals were)

Set 1:
2 suicides
25 situps
25 leg lifts 

Set 2:
1 suicide
25 bicycle crunches
25 scissor kicks
25 v-situps (holy crap, these were so hard!)

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Set 3:
50 high knees
50 flutter kicks
50 ground thrusts 

We did our usual cooldown and stretches and then I stuck around for Zumba. 1 hour with 1lb weights. Which speaking of Zumba, this is the newest shirt I’m lusting over to wear on Zumba days. But first I’ve got to GO to more Zumba days.

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12/10/11 - Saturday - Cardio

I didn’t step foot once in the gym this week. I worked overtime on people’s holiday portraits and tried hard not to get behind on editing so I would be able to enjoy my own holidays. I learned my lesson to set a deadline for Christmas cards next year. The extra work really threw off my gym schedule. And we all know how easy it is to stop going once you quit for a short period of time.

I was supposed to run another 5K this morning, but I used my new iPhone for my alarm and set it wrong. By the time I finally realized what was going on, I would have had to leave right then to make the start of the race. I still got up and headed to the location in hopes that they started late like the race the week before. No such luck. So I grabbed my goodie bag for pre-registering and vowed to run 3 miles at some point that day. And I did!

The only problem was that I SUCKED. I tried a slightly new route in 45 degree weather late at night. I stupidly followed a C25K workout which had slower intervals that were way too long.

And once again, my knee began hurting. But this time it was further into my run and hurt a tad less than last time.

Chris ran with me and for the most part, I felt like this chick since I was currently in better cardio shape than he was:

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Not so sure how I’d hold up now with nearly a month off from cardio…