February 2:
I got off of my detail at midnight last night and then had to be up for early roll-call, and as a consequence managed to grab only about three hours of sleep last night--so this is going to be my Day Of Rest.
Food:
0400, Fake eggs w/chicken. 0900, vanilla protein shake. (Tried to get home to make my shake sooner, but Chevy Pickups were popular with the car thieves last night and I was running ragged taking reports and faxing paperwork.) Tried the vanilla in another desperate struggle for some variety--but did it straight-up with only milk and nothing to aid the flavor. Ewww! Yech! Ptui! Had to force myself to drink the whole glassful. Bleh. Between 1000 and 1400 had a soy bar and 1 1/2 chicken breasts. 1800 had black beans and corn with 2% cheddar on top. Tried blending the remainder of the vanilla shake with a can of lite peaches, and was well pleased (and relieved) at the result. Will be nice to have a change from the chocolate every now and then. There're still ten more weeks to go.
February 1:
Got a call from Mike around 0900 after I got to the gym. "I'b sick," he wheezed. "Wing it on your own." Since this is a short week (as far as available time for working out) the plan for today had been to do a light workout of shouders, triceps, traps and back--combining two workouts into one to at least get something done on all bodyparts this week. So I worked out on my own and just did an overall bit-of-everything. Managed to get 2 to 3 exercises per bodypart in, and did a bit more on my triceps since I'm trying to increase definition in my arms. Went kinda light on traps since I'm not seeking that no-neck look that men seem to want. No cardio today since my celphone died--and I must get it fixed, and I have way too many other errands I have to run as well.
Food:
Protein shake and toast w/peanut butter before working out. Chicken Noodle soup when I got home. Large chicken breast with 2% mozzarella (in a desperate struggle for some kind of variety!). Tuna lunch kit.
January 31:
Met Mike at the gym at 0730 to work legs.
I'll go into some detail as to what constitutes Leg Day: We start with leg extensions--the first three sets (Note: I try to do fifteen repetitions per set) or so being a slightly lighter warmup to get the blood flowing and to get the knees working, and then three more sets of heavier with my last set being a "drop set" (i.e. put it on a fairly heavy weight and do as many as I can, then drop it down one or two plates and do as many as I can, then drop it again and do as many... and so forth until I can't do any more. Really puts the burn on your quads!) Next we go to the Smith Machine and do squats--about four sets of those. Again, my last set I pull some of the weight off when I can't do anymore and burn the rest out.
Then comes the Lunges Of Doom. Take a dumbbell in each hand--I hold 12 pounders or 15 pounders, depending on my wanna-puke level--and do walking lunges the length of the gym and back, deep strides with the knee almost touching the floor on each stride. When I first started doing these I thought that they would really hurt my knees, but surprisingly they don't--I guess because you're not really bending the knee as much as you'd think, and the stress is really in your glutes and quads. But, I tell you what, these lunges will kick your ass. I am always falling-down-gasping at the end of each set--and I can feel it in my butt and legs for several days after. No need to do cardio on leg day! Mike and I are both in very good cardiovascular shape--and we're both always saying, "Just lemme [gasp] catch my [gasp] breath," when it's time to do the next set. We only do lunges every other week since they're so extremely intense. On alternate weeks we'll do deadlifts instead. (In other words, we alternate concentrating on quads or hamstrings.)
After lunges we'll do some leg curls--only about three sets, and not terribly heavy on lunge week, and then we go to the two calf machines and finish off with those as a cool-down.
Food:
I have learned to never eat anything too substantial before Leg Day, so I just had a protein shake at 0630--giving me plenty of time to digest before working out. Around 1030 I had a large chicken breast and half a can of asparagus. Noon-ish I had a soy bar. Had a small breaded chicken breast after I took a much-needed nap, and snacked on grapes throughout the day. At 6-ish had half a dozen raw oysters and 2 grilled catfish filets.
January 30:
Actually got up at 3am and did 30 minutes on the stationary bike in my living room before my shower.
Food:
Usual Breakfast, then a protein shake at about 0730. Had a soy bar around 10, ate my cut-up 1 1/2 chicken breasts while driving from one call to another around 11ish, then had another soy bar around 1. Had a trainee in my car after that, so I didn't get to eat again until I got home at 6--then munched on the remains of the veggie and fruit trays. Two pieces of toast with peanut butter.
January 29:
Woke up feeling bloated and sluggish--no doubt due to my gorge-fest of the previous evening, and the accompanying guilt for losing all shreds of willpower when faced with 5-layer nacho dip. (I'm sure the fact that it was 3am had nothing to do with my feelings of sluggishness!) So I got on the stationary bike in the living room for about 15 minutes before I showered. I've read in a variety of places that doing cardio upon waking and before eating burns a ton more fat than at any other time during the day. That's all great and good, but when the alarm is set for an ungodly hour to begin with, it's hard to reset it for an ungodlier hour and then not give in to the Snooze Button temptation.
But I have resolved to Try.
Anyway, I took my eight-hour day today, originally with the hope of being able to go run at the academy, but it is storming today, and so instead I went down to the gym, tanned, then did 15 minutes on the elliptical machine, and 30 minutes on the bike.
Food:
Was running a little behind this morning due to my time on the bike, so I just chugged a protein shake before I left for work. There wasn't much going on this morning after roll-call, so I was able to swing back by my house a couple of hours later and make my eggs & chicken. Had half of the remaining half of the subway sandwich from yesterday (yeah, that's one quarter) at about 10:30, then had a soy bar around 11:30-noon. Got home a little before 2pm, and had another protein shake before going to the gym. When I got home from the gym I had an intense craving for the leftovers from the veggie and fruit trays I'd brought to the party last night, so I chowed down on cauliflower, celery, broccoli, and carrots--and used fat-free italian dressing as a dip instead of the fat-laden ranch that came with the tray. (130 calories per 2 tbsp--120 of those from fat!!) I gave the ranch dressing to the dog. He thought that was some pretty great shit. Around 5:30 had a chicken breast (I buy the bags of pre-cooked frozen chicken breasts at Sam's Club--Tyson's Honey Mustard and also their Lemon Pepper. The Lemon-Pepper breasts are bigger than the Honey Mustard, and have 31 grams of protein per breast! And they're good too!) and half a can of asparagus, followed by a handful of raisins to get the pepper taste out of my mouth.
January 28:
Today was Weigh and Measure Day. I was pleased to see that my progress continues nicely at about the rate that I was hoping for. I'm not really concentrating on the weight loss as much as the inches lost, and the hips, thighs and waist are slowly coming down.
Today was not, however, a rest day. Mike and I decided to go ahead and workout today since it's going to be hard enough to squeeze in workouts next week during our long daywatch week. And I'm glad that I woke up slightly later than I'd planned on, since I'd originally figured on doing some cardio upon waking and then meeting Mike at the gym at 9am. But he walked in the gym and said, "Supersets today!" in a cheerful tone, and I was glad I'd saved my energy. So, we supersetted Chest and Biceps, going straight from one exercise to another with very little rest in between. We had our third training partner, Rene, with us today as well, which was good because a three-person rotation gave us just enough recovery time between sets. I think we'd have been hugging the can if not for that. I was also sincerely glad that I hadn't had my usual big protein breakfast, and instead decided to just have a couple of slices of toast with peanut butter. But it was a very good, very intense workout. We finished with a couple of sets of forearm exercises, using that as our cool-down.
I've also realized, looking back at previous entries, that it would appear that I never do abdominals. Not true at all. Actually I do some sort of ab workout every time I weight train, though it ranges from just 15-20 crunches as a core warmup, to a full 20-minute heavy ab routine. Kinda depends on my mood and whether Mike is there ready to start training. (I developed good abs back when I was working out with Zack, because he was always late and I'd do abs while waiting for him.)
Food:
Two slices of toast with peanut butter. (So very glad I did not do the eggs and chicken, else it would probably be on the gym floor now!) Protein shake when I got home. (Read an article saying that you should consume protein about 30 minutes after weight training, and if it's in a liquid form, your body absorbs it more efficiently. So hence my post-workout shake.) Half of a foot-long Subway Turkey sandwich w/only mustard, lettuce, pickles, and vinegar. Chicken breast and half a can of sliced carrots.
Then came the Superbowl party. It was at Mike's house, and I had virtuously brought a veggie tray and a fruit tray. But other people brought things like meatballs, and stuffed mushrooms, and nacho dip, and fried chicken, and a truly evilly-delicious cake... Mike looked at me and said, "You gotta have a cheat day every now and then or you go nuts." I'll admit it. I gorged. I was bloated. It was good. I will run tomorrow to make up for it.