Nice Stems

This week continues to leave me with great workouts and obvious progress in my physique. Monday night's leg workout went really well, and I had minimal hamstring pain. I think I found a decent remedy to that....2 advil prior to training. I've never been much of a pain medication person, but I've been known to do whatever it takes to have a good workout. Anyway, my strength was spot on, and I hammered out some really good sets of squats to start. We did our "pared down" extension workout, which surprisingly didn't leave me as sore as I thought it would. I always feel like the workout wasn't effective if I'm not crippled the next two days. Bright and early Tuesday morning (or rather, dark and early) was my usual hamstring workout, which I seem to finally be getting the hang of by keeping my volume low. It's definitely killer to train quads at night and follow it up with hams just 8 hours later in the early morning with only one meal in between. But I'm making it work.

Last night's shoulder workout was also really great. We started off with 5x5 standing BB presses with the same weight, and believe it or not, I seem to be getting stronger with those. Don't ask me how that's possible on a contest diet, but I did 100 lbs for 5 on my last 2 sets, which I don't think I've ever done. We followed with 3 sets of DB presses, then 3 drop sets of DB laterals. By the time we got to rear delts, I was cooked, but we did 4 sets of bent over DB laterals, then 2 sets of high rep reverse cable flies and finished with 2 high-rep sets of machine lateral raises. I was completely shot, and when I tried to work on my posing, I wound up spending more time whining about how tired I was and the stupid toe cramp I had than actually posing. So I said "F" it and headed home. Today was cardio only, and I'm beat. It's looking like an extra early night for this chickie.

As far as the changes I'm seeing in my body, they seem to be coming pretty quick. I'm tighter and tighter each week, and I'm slowly getting more and more vascular (for me, that is). Even my legs, which NEVER seem to show changes until the end, are showing signs of a little bit of separation. So far, everything has been on point with the diet, and I've been sticking to the step mill primarily for my cardio. Now I can't wait to see what the scale says this weekend (note the sarcasm).

Great Weekend

Although it didn't start out that way, this weekend lent itself to some great workouts and just an overall boost in my attitude toward prep. Friday, my training partner had to bail at the last minute, so I trained by myself, which is not usually a bad thing. But I hate chest, and I'm usually pretty beat come Friday night, so it's always good to have him there (among other reasons). I also needed to find someone else to take my pictures, which I strongly dislike considering it's still early in the diet, and I'm self-conscious about how I look. I wound up heading out to my "Vacation Gym" to train, where a friend of mine, who is also a bodybuilder, trains, and he was able to take my pictures. Bonus for me was how impressed he was with the changes I'd made in the offseason...he hasn't seen me since I was doing figure.

I was still pretty cranky when I woke up Saturday morning, particularly when I got on the scale, and was not in a great frame of mind to train back. But when I got to the gym, I got in a zone and had another amazing back workout. I am shocked at how strong I still am, and that just seems to keep the fire going to keep training my ass off. Then I practiced posing for about 20 minutes afterwards, and later in the afternoon, I went back to the gym for my 55 minutes of cardio.

Got my changes for the week and my cardio is surprisingly still the same, but I'm down a protein/fat day, which isn't horrible. I like that my cardio isn't adding up quickly so early on like it did last year. I'm sure that's what's helping keep my strength up. But I have no doubt that will change in the weeks to come....it takes a lot of cardio and very little food to get the fat off this ass. Anyway, this morning was arms, which I did solo again and had another great workout. Usually I feel awful the morning after my cheat meal, but that wasn't the case this week. I also usually look pretty bloated and gross, but I was harder this morning than I was yesterday or Friday. I cleaned up my cheat meal this week, and I think that helped me not feel so sick. As much as I wanted to have the cheeseburger and cake, it's just not worth it to feel how I felt last Sunday. Plus, I'm guessing my lack of progress this week on the scale was due, in part, to that cheat meal. So I just assume keep the cheat meal clean.

Only A Matter of Time

...before the cranky, dieting biatch in me came out. And that time happened to be yesterday. I officially had a canary at work because some fat idiot used up all my mustard, and I had nothing to put on my bland chicken and green beans. I bet whoever finished it had a nice, mustard-covered hotdog...bastard. Then, last night I stopped at the grocery store in search of raw cashews for the second time this week, only to find that there were NONE. I'm convinced that there is another person in my area that has the same problem that I do with raw cashews. And when I find out who it is, they're going down. So back to the crankiness....when I was leaving the store (did I mention that I was without my cashews?), two people were backing out at the same time and not only did they nearly hit eachother, but they also almost took me out. Being the short-tempered Italian that I am, I yelled at both of them and then proceeded to my car, without my cashews.

Unfortunately, last night's leg workout didn't help matters. I felt good going into it, but my left ham just wasn't having it. I knew right from the start that I was going to be fighting that pain more than the actual weights. I tried not to get too upset because my strength was there, which was good, but it's just frustrating when you know an injury is holding you back. I mean, I think I'm the only person I know that's able to squat 195 with just my right leg...because I've gotten so good at compensating for my left ham. Anyway, I was up this morning at 4:15 to train hams, and since I was feeling much better than I did last week, I decided to do my cardio post-workout instead of later tonight after work. I pulled way back on the volume, since last week's workout didn't go over so well, and it seemd to be much more effective this morning. Overall, I'd say I'm still feeling really positive about things and just happened to run into a cranky day yesterday.

14 Weeks Out

Another great week...I lost 2.8 lbs this week and am down to 136.8. It's hard for me to believe that, right now, I'm two weeks into my diet and only two pounds heavier than my heaviest offseason figure weight, and it looks so different on me. I am a VERY competitive person and have a tendency to compare myself to others(I know, you're surprised, aren't you?), so I've been doing a lot of worrying lately about how I'll stack up come November. But something weird hit me today that made me realize just how much progress *I've* made in the past year, and I'm sure that will only become more apparent as the diet progresses. In a strange comparison, I look at this kind of like when I was studying for finals in college. I was the big dork who always did things ahead of time and studied along the way throughout the semester. Then, when finals time came, and all my roommates were pulling all-nighters to finish projects and spending hours on end in the library cramming, I was sitting back watching tv or, better yet, NAPPING! Basically, I've always made sure to do my work along the way so that when push came to shove, I was always prepared. And that's how I feel about this prep. I busted my ass for the past 13 months of my offseason trying to change my body, and now that dieting time is here, I feel like my work is done, and all I have to do is watch my body change and see the results of my hard work (and of course, get the fat off my ASS!)...not that dieting is easy, because Dave makes sure that it's not :-P

Anyway, finished this week with pretty good workouts, relatively speaking. Considering last night was chest, and I just looooove to train chest. And usually I really do love my Saturday morning back workouts, but for some reason, I couldn't get into it mentally today. I was really distracted and just not focused. Regardless, I'm really happy with my progress this week and am looking forward to my cheat meal tonight! Speaking of which, I still haven't figured out what I want yet....excuse me, but I have some planning to go do.

Keep On Rockin'

Week number two is coming to a close, and I'm still hammering out good workouts. Last night was shoulders, and we killed it. I decided to change things up after last week's shoulder workout tanked, and it was much more effective this time around. Our workout looked a little like this:

Standing Military BB Press (5x5): 95/5, 95/5, 95/5, 95/5, 95/5
One-Arm Hammer Press: 45/10, 50/8, 55/6, 35/15
DB Laterals: 20/12, 20-10/10-12, 20-10-5/8-12-10
Bent-Over DB Laterals: 35/12, 40/10, 45/8, 45-25/8-15
Reverse Pec Deck: 60/12, 65/10, 65/9
SS with
One-Arm Cable Laterals: 15/12, 15/12, 20/8

My shoulders were so pumped, and I was already seeing some vascularity in them (considering how fat I still am). I felt strong and still had good energy. Then I posed for about 20 minutes. I've been good about putting in the time to practice posing, I'm just worried that I'm practicing complete crap. I HAVE to get on the ball and get in touch with my old posing coach.

I'm definitely finding that my efforts to keep myself feeling positive about prep is translating into better workouts and what appears to be good, steady progress. I know I shouldn't waste time speculating about my weight loss this week, but I do, so get over it. I figure I've probably lost about a pound this week. I have a tendency to get frustrated when I see other girls that work with Dave losing weight at a much quicker, steadier pace than I do (by doing less cardio), and I can't help but wonder what I'm doing wrong. I also have a tendency to compare myself to top-level competitors, which is completely rediculous....I'm mean, let's be serious, I'm barely an average competitor.

Strawberry, Banana, Orange, Oh My!

I have officially found my new favorite flavor of Crystal Light. The unfortunate thing is that it doesn't come in the convenient individual packets, only the small containers that make 2 quarts worth. The other night when I was food shopping, I was desperate for a new flavor of CL and saw this one. My friend though it was a questionable combination, but when I'm dieting, pretty much anything tastes good. I took the plunge and bought it, and it's freaking awesome....hopefully they'll have the individual packets soon though because I keep over-flavoring my water. It's also pretty good when you mix a small amount of it with the Strawberry/Banana Chain'd Out....it cuts the sourness of Chain'd Out a little bit. I know, I know, I have this stuff down to a science here.

Anyway, workouts this week have been pretty damn good. Last night's leg workout was awesome. We did a pared down version of the "Extension Workout" (see, I'm slowly learning to decrease my volume here). This morning (at 4:30am, mind you) was a really good ham workout. But me and my fucking bright ideas....I decided to train on an empty stomach and then do my 55 minutes of cardio right after so that I wouldn't have to do it after work at like 8pm. Normally I like training on an empty stomach (even when I'm dieting), but by the time I got halfway through my cardio I thought I was either going to puke or pass out. And the drive home was a little scary because I knew something was wrong. But as soon as I got home at 7, I ate my first meal instead of waiting until 8:30 like usual and felt a little better. So, I've decided to suck it up and do my damn cardio AFTER work on my late nights because I refuse to have my first meal at 4am and try to stretch the remaining 4 meals throughout the rest of the day.

Just about halfway through the second week and I'm still feeling really good about this prep. I'm still excited; though, I have had some freaky contest dreams (which I don't usually have ever). I know that I just need to focus on myself and my own progress because I can't control who shows up or what kind of shape they're in. If I start worrying about who will show up, it'll be a miserable four months. I'm hoping that by keeping myself excited about it and enjoying the process, things will progress much more smoothly. In the meantime, I'm still trying to figure out what I want for my first cheat meal this weekend. Any suggestions?

One Week Down

Lost 3 pounds this week...down to 139.6. Feedback from Dave about my pictures was positive, and he added 10 minutes of cardio.

Overall, I'd say it was a good first week, despite a really crappy chest workout Friday night. I couldn't put up any weight last night, and forget about squeezing out an extra rep or two. Nope, that shit just came crashing down again. I'd start the set feeling strong, and then before I know it, I'm stuck at the bottom of the rep. I'd like to think that my body is still adjusting to training on lowered calories. But it can't be all that bad becuase I had a rediculously good back workout yesterday morning and was able to move pretty much the same weight that I usually do, and even a little bit more on some exercises. I trained with my girl, and we usually move almost the same weight, but I was hurting trying to keep up with her. Anyway, we pushed eachother and both had a great workout. This morning, I trained arms by myself and ultimately got in another good workout again. As has been the pattern, I started off strong with each set but quickly fell short as things progressed. The strength is still there, just not the endurance. After the workout, I posed again for about 15 minutes and ran through my routine a couple of times (if I don't, I'll freaking forget it because I'm a complete scatterbrained spaz). I still have to go back and do my cardio later on, so in the meantime, I'm thinking a nap sounds REAL good!