The Good Humor Truck

Anne and I bumped into each other at the club while we were filling up at the ice machine on Saturday morning.

“My body feels like it was hit by a truck! I told her. “But it feels like it was hit by an ice cream truck, not a big rig! 

She said “Oh, you mean a Good Humor truck?!” and we both laughed, I knew what she meant.

I started back lifting on Wednesday, exactly 4 weeks to the day after I broke my rib. For the first two weeks I was in too much pain to do much, but come the third week I was pounding out the steps on the stair mill, an hour a day. “Get me off this stupid machine!” I was crying inside.

Monday and Tuesday I started back with my lunch time stairs and jump rope, come Wednesday my legs were toast. Wednesday was shoulders, I was strong, I didn’t drop my weights, and I felt great.

Thursday was glutes, that wasn’t quite as easy, perhaps as my core was more involved. Friday was back and biceps. I enjoyed that, my bi’s were quite sore on Saturday. My weights had to be lowered for these exercises too.

 

Saturday? The day I had been anticipating, legs. It’s my deadlift and squat day, among other things. I have always prided myself on how heavy I can go and still maintain good form. Really, if you aren’t using good form you are defeating the purpose and risk injuring yourself, so why do it?

I had to drop my weights dramatically. I could only deadlift 135. Front squats were only 85, and back squats 115. I was feeling like a failure. 

Then I realized, it’s not only getting my body back into the swing of things, it’s getting my head into it too. You see, for me, weights are a head trip, pure and simple.

My head has gone through many interesting phases in the last four weeks. Feeling scared, sorry for myself, anger, frustration, embarrassment, anxiety, elation, pleasure, accomplishment, sadness, enlightenment.

I have never taken four weeks off in my life. Even when I had meningitis last year (was it only last year?); I lifted, only I did it with a painfully pounding headache at times…

In the past four weeks I have learned that I am an accomplished lifter, I know how to stay the course and eat healthfully without "dieting", and still look smoking hot; I have learned to enjoy food and wine with my family, I have learned that I can, and I should relax more often. 

I have learned that while competing was good for me, and it may still be good in the future, it’s only one competition, with the same people I always see, talking the same stuff I always hear, saying the same positive (and negative) things about others as they always do.

There was a time when I felt I HAD to compete to look good. I HAD to compete to justify my obsession with weights. I HAD to compete to prove something.

I no longer do. I have proven myself to the most important person in the world: 

ME

And, I am quite proud to say, that I am most impressed with the me I have become.

Just look at me in the picture above! I look pretty darn happy huh? And good too! It was Saturday after 2 hours at the gym, I seem to have maintained well, sore but still in shape. After a couple days lifting my arms are already starting to look fuller again.

This is what I wear to the gym, everyday, 365 days a year. A bra top and these little shorts. I like the way I look, and I only look better when I am close to a competition. 

I know many competitors who wouldn't be caught dead in public like this, unless it was 2 weeks before a competition, because they are not proud of how they look in the "off season", or they think they need to be "stage ready" to allow anyone to see their bodies. Pretty sad state of affairs, not sure if it is true body dysmorphic disorder, but I definitely know several who fit this mold! Me? I think most women would give their right eye to look this good in the "off season" or "on season"!

Tonight (I am writing this on Saturday), my son’s 17^th birthday, I am making a nice dinner (pork Milanese with pasta and homemade tomato sauce); he goes off to a concert while we watch UFC 129 in HD and enjoy a few glasses of wine.

Sunday? Shoulders again. I suspect I will still be running from that Good Humor truck, but I am quickly running faster than it can drive and I can barely see it behind me.

Next week, on Saturday is the competition I had been prepping for when I injured myself. Will I be going to sit in the audience and cheer on everyone? 

No. I wish them all well, I hope they come away feeling accomplished, but I won't be there. You see, competitions happen all the time, this one takes place every single May without fail. 


Saturday I will be attending a much more important event, my son's varsity lacrosse team is in the quarter finals, that doesn't happen all the time, and what would they do without the team mom there anyway?

Back in the Saddle Again!

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Back in the saddle again! Yesterday was my first day training after 4 weeks and god did it feel good! Shoulder day, an hour in the morning with a new program, and at lunch run up 125 stairs, and down 125 stairs, then jump rope 100 times. 3 sets.

Actually, I got so excited that I did my 350 stairs and my 300 jump ropes on Monday and Tuesday at lunch too...I couldn't wait.

The picture above was taken just a couple days ago, I guess that taking a month off weight training didn't hurt me too much huh? I think it was more of an emotional distress than anything really. My delts will pop again soon, very, very soon!

My shoulder and ab workout Wednesday:

Barbell Military Press SS w Leg raise	4x10 70 lbs
Arnold Press SS w crunches	4x10 27.5 lbs
Front DB Raise	4x10 17.5 lbs
Lateral Raise/ Burns	4x10 17.5/35 lbs
Leaning Lat Raise	4x10 17.5 lbs
Seated Bent Over Raise/ twist	4x10 12.5 lbs
Butt Floss	4x10 25 lbs
Poliquins Twist	5x10 BW
Combo	3 x 4 x 3 25 lbs

It felt so good to lift again that I found myself dancing in the weight room, dancing to this song on the video below and I didn't give a damn who saw me! Actually, when people saw me they smiled, I think they were as happy to see me lifting again as I was to BE lifting!


Isn't life wonderful!?

Steven Tylers look doesn't do anything for me, in fact it is obvious the only weight he has ever lifted was attached to a bottle of something....but he says it all and it's just how I feel. Turn up your speakers and feel it with me!

Email subscribers will need to navigate directly to the blog to see the video below.

Physique Changes

I am going to the gym after work three days a week now, to fit in the dreaded cardio. I don't have time in the morning, and while I still run my 300 stairs and jump rope 300 times at lunch, that is not quite enough to drop all the fat, it only take about 15 minutes so three days a week I am training three times a day, and the other days it's just twice.

I am only there 20 minutes, not hours like many others are. Darn it is crowded at night though and what a scene! People are there to socialize, check each other out, cruise, it's is a mad house and every machine is taken.

About a week ago I was feeling a little blue about everything, I go through that a few times as I get closer to a competition. Wondering why on earth I put myself through all this; why I make my family go through it all; why don't I just enjoy the gym, eat some good food and relax?

I talked to a friend, one who isn't competing this year and ask her what made her decide and tried to get a little advice. She asked me the same questions I ask myself, and she was straight up about it all. I was 7 weeks out, I have come this far just do it and then think about it.

She asked why I haven't ever gone to the Nationals or the USA's, I have qualified two years in a row, but I just don't think I am ready. I don't think I can compete with the other women I see in the NPC magazine. I deserve to according to the judges, but how would I do? My mind needs to be convinced before I would do that.

She is right of course. 7 weeks is nothing, it will be gone before I realize it. Then I can enjoy the time off for a short while or a long while, it's my decision.

So I changed into my running shorts, grabbed my jump rope and headed out in the cold, blustery wind, it was really, really cold (for California) and I didn't feel like going out in skimpy little Nike compression shorts, but I did.

I then had my lunch, finished work and drove to the gym for session three of the day, wanting to just go home and eat my soup.

The gym was packed, a nut house. I changed and climbed up on a stairmill, and started listening to a podcast that I had not yet finished from Sunday's cardio.

I then started looking around. I thought about myself and realized I do look quite good, better than most everyone I see there, with the exception of the woman in the pink tank but she was definitely not original parts if you know what I mean, refurbished from tip to toe. Nice looking but, just that look that isn't quite right, anywhere.

I looked over at the woman on the stairmill next to me and  she thought I had heard what she and her friend (standing on the ground in front of her had said), she looked a little alarmed. I pulled out my ear buds and told her I couldn't hear a thing, I had my sound up too loud, she laughed and was pleased.

Her friend said she liked my shirt, I thanked her and said I was about to take it off (I get really hot) so off it went. I get some disturbed looks at the gym when I do that with the afternoon/evening crowd, the morning folks are used to it. I do have a bra top on.

I finished up, went down to the locker room and that same woman was in there doing her hair and we have a conversation like this:

Woman: "I love that shirt, where did you get it?"
Me: turning around and showing her the back of my black t-shirt that says:

Good Girls Tone
Bad Girls Lift

"Thanks, I do too. I got it here, (company name is on the back) but they are out of business. I had a coach who told me I had to have it"
Woman: "You getting ready for a show?"
Me: "Yes, I have 7 weeks" (interesting she knew, most people have no clue about competing)
Woman: "Bodybuilding or Fitness?"
Me: "Figure"
Woman: "Well you look good."
Me: "Thanks, I am thinking this one, I will be 50 and then this will be the last. But who knows, I may end up doing July, then October, then next thing you know I am on a diet for a year again"
Woman: "50" You look good!"

Then as I left I started thinking "Bodybuilding or Fitness" ??? Have I gotten too muscular? I can't tell. She didn't think I was in Figure, she thought I was either big and bulky (bodybuilder) or tight and boxy (Fitness). I don't have a trainer to tell me, I only have myself and I see myself every single day, over and over.

Will the judges say I am too big? Wondering, I walked out, feeling good, I am glad I came. But still thinking, "am I too big now?"

What do you think?

Concentration

Here is a video of the guys at Westside Barbell lifting. I don't find that they have particularly attractive physiques, that is not the point of this post, and in fact, some of them look rather comical when they are lifting, but they all do something alike, something very, very important.

They concentrate. They psych themselves up. They set themselves up. They are thinking about what they are going to do.

This is more important than you may realize. Often you will see someone in the gym and you think they are an oblivious jerk- they don't look at you, they don't talk to you, they don't even notice that you are there.

Most likely they are not oblivious, they are serious, they are there to train.

When I am at the gym, I will chat to the others as I warm up on the treadmill, or I may stop to talk to a friend for a moment, but the rest of the time, it's me, my music and my binder. I am there for a reason, I am on a mission, I have a goal. Don't get in my way, I have no time to play.

If you are not seeing the results you are expecting, take a look at your attitude at the gym. Is your heart and soul there with the physical body?

Do you spend a lot of time in between sets talking, or even worse, do you bring reading material into the gym? The gym is no place to read unless you plan to spend an hour on a stair mill (bad idea too).

Do you go in knowing exactly what you want to accomplish?

Do you have everything you need? I carry my own lifting traps, interval timer (Gymboss), jump rope, cut up socks to protect my hands with snatches, band aids, music. No, I don't wear gloves, ever.

Have you ever seen the motivational poster that is in almost every office?

Your attitude determines your altitude.

I wholeheartedly agree, I do not believe in blaming others for my failures or lack of progress, I am my own person, I depend on myself.

Watch the guys from Westside Barbell here (email subscribers must navigate to the blog to see the video):

Chest Day and Nutrition (or a day in the life of a nut)

Monday morning, it's chest day for me. I thought I would give you an idea of my day training and nutrition and how I manage to fit it all in. This is an off season diet, so I am eating things I wouldn't normally eat when attempting to lose bodyfat such as fruit and bread.

Although I attempt to stick to a clean diet year round, believe me, there are times when I will eat with my family, even prime rib and loaded baked potato! But those days are really exceptions to the rule, this is how my typical day goes.

4:05 am, up and let the cat in. My alarm won't sound until 4:15, but somehow that cat seems to wake me up before it goes off every single day.  I get dressed into workout clothes (bra top and shorts), get the paper and read the sports page while I take supplements and my meal replacement drink.

I like Lean 1 chocolate fudge. I add amino acids from Fitness Nutrition ( I take it several times a day), glutamine,  beta-alanine and L-leucine.

I am at the gym just before they open at 5:00 am. My water bottle contains X-Tend (Branched Chain Amino Acids) in orange flavor.

Bench Press 3 x 8 135 pounds
active rest- jump rope in between each set
Incline Bench 3 x 10 95 pounds
active rest- jump rope in between each set
Chest press 3 x 8 50 pound dumbbells
active rest- jump rope in between each set
Incline Chest Flye 3 x 10 25 pound dumbbells super set with
Push ups 3 x 15
active rest- jump rope in between each set
Incline Chest Press 3 x 10 37.5 pound dumbbells super set with
Dips 3 x 10 (body weight)
active rest- jump rope in between each set
Hammer Strength Incline Military Press Machine 3 x 10 95 pounds super set with
Hanging leg raises 3 x 10 to 15 (body weight)
active rest- jump rope in between each set

Fill water bottle with post training supplements (Amino Acids, X-Tend, Glutamine, Beta-Alanine) and take more BCAA's and Kre-Alkalyn

I get home at 6:15 am, chest day is my shortest day and I get ready for work- I have coffee! I need to be at work by 7:30 am.

Breakfast is eaten at my desk:

1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese, 1 Tbsp Flax seed, 1/4 cup fresh mango, two thick slices Acme pumpernickel bread with 2 tsps peanut butter and 2 tsps low sugar jelly.

water, lots of water

10:30 1 cutie (tangerine)

more water

11:30 and it's time for THE STAIRS.  I jog to the Event Center, run up 25 stairs, across the rooftop and down again, 12 times. That's 300 stairs up, and 300 down. I have been doing this now for 8 weeks. 5 minutes jump rope (yes I have to rest a bit).

12:05 is lunch and I have 4 ounces turkey breast, 4 ounces brown rice, 1 cup mixed vegetables (green beans and mushrooms) with fat free balsamic vinaigrette dressing. More supplements.

The water never stops.

1:30 1 rice cake with 1 tsp peanut butter.

1 truffle (one of my staff gave me a whole box of chocolates, they are so good!)

3:00 lunch #2:  4 ounces turkey breast, 4 ounces brown rice, 1 cup mixed broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

yes, more water!

Leave work at 5:20, home by 5:40  (long day)

6:00 dinner is 5 ounces tilapia, 1/2 cup kabocha squash, 2 cups vegetables (Green beans, mushrooms, green chiles), supplements.

water!

I clean up and start getting dinner together for Cooper and David. Cooper's friend is over, they are working on their art projects at the kitchen table. We joke around about what classes to take next year (fashion, so they can be around all the girls).

I steal 2 bites of my family's dinner- its shepherds pie (I made) which is beef stew topped with mashed potatoes and cheddar cheese, then baked until the cheese is melted and bubbly. It is stupendous!

Get my lunches together for the next day, all the food is cooked, I just need to grab one protein bag out of the freezer, measure out the vegetables and weigh the rice. I have already made egg white/oatmeal waffles for my breakfast.

Take off make up, wash face. Update my blog a bit, and check email.

8:30 is my last meal. 1 cup egg whites and 1 cup bok choy with low sugar ketchup and sriracha sauce. 16 ounce glass of water with amino acids, X-Tend, supplements (ZMA, L-Tyrosine)

Brush teeth BEFORE I eat 2 tsps peanut butter (see a pattern here?) so I can taste it longer...

Sleepy time tea, bed at 9:00. I will read for a little while.

I have not had time for TV or anything other than household duties , including food prep and clean up.

This is a typical day, I lead a fairly boring life, there isn't much variation. Next week I will recount Tuesday, which will be leg day for me.