it's become second nature

Do I sleep in, or workout, sleep in or workout............ahhhhh..................
I kept going over these two options last night for a good 20 minutes.  Sleep I definitely lost trying to determine what to do for my rest day.  It's kind of funny considering over a year ago I would have easily chosen to sleep in.  However, now a days it's a challenge, because I love working out so it's become second nature to set my alarm early for a workout.  It's an addicting drug I don't ever want a cure for, but I do need to learn to take a break so I did finally decide to sleep in. Plus, I knew if I'd gone it wouldn't have been a rest day.


I  need to keep repeating over and over again until it finally sinks in:
Rest Day = a day for my muscles to recover from all the abuse I put them through at the gym.


So far this challenge has been helpful in other areas that I'm weak in; like consuming enough protein.  I'm pretty sure that's why I've had D.O.M.S. so often, because those are the days I forgot my protean shakes and wasn't able to eat anything until 4-5 hours after my workout.    Consuming enough protein is a huge struggle for me, mainly because it's harder to have amount of protein you can get in a small amount of meat.  I  know that if I was more educated in Vegan-Vegetarian Protein this wouldn't be an issue., but I'm not there yet.  So this week, I've made sure to incorporate a lot of meat; Chicken Breast and tTlapia  Do you have any suggestions for ways to consume more protein without throwing off my carbs and not having to eat so much meat?


My goal is to be between 1550-1650 calories on days that I'm working out with a 40/40/20 ration (152g of Carbs and Protein + 32g of fat).  I also have come to realize that I need to lower that number on my rest days since I wont be as active.  Though I find it frustrating, because it seems like the only way to achieve this balance is with meat and veggies and it doesn't leave much room for incorporating recipe meal, which tend to jump my carbs far more than my protein killing the balance.


I was looking forward to 4:30pm when I would meet my hairdresser.  ahhh, now I feel better and my hair is manageable again.  I've been blessed with super thick hair, but it makes it hard to keep styled so I purposely  have it thinned out and styled very similar to the picture below.   However, I really have been liking how my hair looks with the help of the flatiron that I'm curious to see what it would look like longer, so today I just opted to just go with a basic trim and a major thin out. 

I really did accomplish a lot today, even a trip to ashcomb farms so I can get an idea of the financial impact to start a garden.  Now that I have a yard I really want to take advantage of being able to grow some of my favorite fruits and veggies.  I want to keep it simple,  so I'll be planting cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, blueberries and strawberries.  Though I may be tempted to add heirloom peppers if they're available.  At only 1.99 a plant it's not going to be a huge impact on my budget.

cauliflower plants at Ashcomb.  I really wanted to pick up a few.

I even made it home before dark and managed to get some cooking done.
* Cooked pasta and brown rice
* Marinated and baked my tempeh
* Grilled Chicken breast and tilapia seasoned with Caribbean Citrus& from
  Mrs. Dash on my George foreman

Goals this week:
* Adjust meal plan-calorie intake on rest days.
* Actually REST on my rest day
* Buy 4 more sets of the divided Tupperware (pictured above) for my meals as
  they are super handy.

The beginning of a new challenge

It's day 2 of my 12-week transformation and I'm feeling pretty good and keeping focused. I did sway from my meal plan for Dinner last night as my roommate made dinner and it was just so yummy. Plus, it meant I didn't have to cook, but I really do need to prepare my Tempeh, but I think I will do that Wednesday night.

I've been logging my food at FitClick and finalizing my workout log.  Today I put together most of it, but I still need to add in my measurements: before + the picture and then transfer my Monday and Tuesday Workout to the notebook.  I simply used a comp book and then hand wrote some key notes from the plan for review and then printed out my daily logs and glued each day to a page in the comp book.  I tried gluing it, but the glue soaked through so tapping it was the cleaner method. 

Here are some sneak pics to show what I did and really how simple I kept it, which is a challenge for me to do.

Tomorrow is my rest day,so that's either planning a meal, cooking or doing yoga/stretching before the day ends.  I do have some light cooking I need to do with my Tempeh and I need to grill more chicken and Tilipia for the rest of the week, but other than that it will be an easy day.  I am thinking about talking an easy walk either on the Treadmill or if it's not raining during lunch and maybe spending some time in the sauna.

so close I can taste it

I love my life, but I never would have imagined that when I turned 30 I would be working half a month to pay on student loans and credit cards (and that's only the minimum payment).....YIKES!.  Though I'm proud to say that this last year has been a driving force in my finances.  I've been taking charge and clearing out the negatives on my card balances and it feels so fantastic because I'm so close I can taste.  It will be wonderfully to finally be card free, so I can really focus on clearing out my student loans.  This however, wont be so easy to knock out, but at least I'll be able to start.  

The last few weeks I've lost track at really how close I am and haven't really made any goals on knocking out my debt, until tonight.  The funny thing is that I really need to give thanks to the pompous ass I was ranting about the other week in my post from my gym.  Though I do have to give him ups as his social skills are improving.  I happened to run into him Wednesday night after my workout since I decided to sleep in Wednesday morning to give my legs a little more recovery time.  He came over and informed me of a new promo that ended Friday.  He mentioned $27 a session and I was ready to pounce then, but after further discussion it turned out to be a package deal of 3 visits a month at $96.  It's a slight savings since a normal 1 hour session is $40, but once you add in the $96 contract fee it brings it back up.   I did tell him I would check my finances and get back to him tomorrow.  

 Once I got home and unpacked all my gear and prepped for breakfast I reviewed my finances.  I knew that there wasn't going to be any give as my day job only covers my basis bills.  However, after doing a little math and seeing what extra funds I would have if-when my evening job has hours again I was a little giddy.  After playing with the numbers I concluded that if I can work a minimum of 3 shifts a week I would be able to pay off my debt by December while still being able to take advantage of the personal trainer promo, and have a little extra.  

As much as I was excited about this, I knew that I didn't want to sign any contract before I actually had a steady income of extra hours so I decided to pass on the training for now.  It really doesn't matter how much I would like to take advantage of the training services at my gym I really can't until I have paid off my card debt.  Once that's done I can focus on my creating an amazingly toned body.  I just need to stay focused in clearing out my debt and not take on any new financial additions that would distract me from clearing it out sooner.  Plus, I can't think of a better treat after clearing out your financial debt then treating yourself to a personal trainer to begin your body transformation. 

Since it will take a few months before I can really enjoy treating myself to personal training I"m going to stick with the 12-week program that I'll be starting next week.  It's a great program and once I gather my goals and create deadlines for my progress, which will help me to stay focused I know I'll be rewarded by changes in my body definition.  I also really really need to take progress photos.  I'm so bad at this and I know if I just take them, I will be more positive and less likely to have the feeling of why bother, because I'm just going to fail.  The goal is to take them this weekend and then update each month for the next 3 months.

fit smartie

I relished in the thought of pulling the covers over my head and sleeping for another day in hopes that when I woke up the pain would be gone. It's unbearable and every time I walk the sharp pain reminds me that I need to slow down.  I'm not sure what the underlining factor is to my self injuring behavior, but I really  hope I figure it out soon, because I'm not sure how much longer my legs can take it.  

It so hard to tell myself to slow down when I feel like I can fly during my runs; however my legs just can't take all that extra beating and they remind me with every step.   I really need to sit down and work though my goals and create a plan that will help get me to my desired fitness level without continually re-stressing my muscles to the point of overkill.  I need to train right and slow down.  I have all good intentions when I begin my workout, but once I get started I just can't stop and sometimes it's for a silly reason like impressing a cute fitness boy.....like from this current injury.  I had been checking him out Sunday in the weight room and 15 minutes into my 20 minute cardio he made his way up stairs and landed on the elliptical 15 behind me.  I was supposed to only have been doing a 20 minute walk to cool down after my leg routine (machines), but I decided I would run two minute  intervals instead.  Yes, I already knew this was a bad idea, and that I needed to stick to my original plan, but I found myself hitting the time button until I added another 15 minutes.
I could just be a glutton for pain, because I knew I was going to pay for it, but I wanted to come across as something more than I was...yes I got sucked into the desire to impress.  I'm not sure if he was looking my way, but it seemed a few times that he was going to come over and say hi, but half way over he would make a quick u-turn .  It was the kind of reaction of heading out the door and realizing that you forgot your keys and needed to turn around to get them.  I probably wouldn't have thought much about it, but he did this 3 times just while I was on the seated calf machine.  He even, when I was done with my cardio upstairs, took a water break right after I was next to the water fountain prepping my towel to clean my machine.  This could all very much just be in my head, either way it doesn't change the fact that he was a cute fitness guy and I'm a cute fitness girl.  hmmmmmm.

 

I need to find a balance.  I need to be a fit smartie, who works herself just enough to keep the blood flowing, and the body happy during and after a run.  Any tips on what to do?  

I've been spending a lot of time between fitclick and bodybuilding.com reading and checking out some new exercises to incorporate into my routine and I came across their 12 week body transformation plan for women-fat lose by  Jamie Eason so starting next week I'll be posting printable workout cards for this routine and logging in my training on my bodyspace page.  I think this will be a good start and help increase my exercises library and really start to see some definition, especially if I can stick with tthe meal plan that long.   It seems pretty easy, but kind of bland, but I need to make some sacrifices if I want to see change in my physique.  I also want to start adding more supplements to my diet, like L-Caritine and Omega 3 Fatty acids,  since I currently only take Iron and a Vegetarian Multivitamin.

12 week body transformation plan for women-fat lose