Here's a little catch up...
I've started working out at Urban Active with a friend of the family who happens to be an incredibly accomplished Shot Put-er and Weightlifter. He's acting as a mentor/trainer/coach for me right now and it has been great! I've been working out like crazy and loving every (well, almost every) minute of it! I can feel and see my body changing and transforming back towards a lean(ish), mean(sometimes) fighting machine! I've re-discovered my true love for lifting weights and building my physical strength and I am beyond excited to be back in the gym environment. Mike (my coach/trainer/friend) continues to preach that I need to focus on cardio and use lifting as a means to tone as I lose weight, but I'm having a hard time with that... because I realllly love being strong lol. I've been weighing myself weekly, though I'm not all that concerned by the number on the scale. Frankly, as much as I'm lifting I'm happy that it's going down at all. Last week I lost about 2lbs and the week before I lost about 3lbs. Muscle weighs 1.5x's more than fat so as Mike described it, I'm just transitioning the weight from fat to muscle. Oh, hey muscle. :) Oh and speaking momentarily on Urban Active - I love it. It's so nice to be in a well-equipped facility with a knowledgeable staff! It's more expensive that Fitworks, and rightfully so, but I certainly don't mind paying the extra considering the amount of extras that come with it. I was always intimidated to go into Urban Active because I always saw it as kind of a Barbie and Ken gym... skinny little scantily-clad girls with a full face of makeup and giant men grunting all over the place. Not so! It's a bunch of normal people gettin their sweat on! I love it.
Anywho.. beyond the exercising part, I've been trying to stay disciplined with my nutrition. I emphasize trying. Food has always been my pitfall and I know that it's a struggle I will have my entire life... it starts in my brain and lord knows there's a mess of problems surrounding it. BUT I have been doing really great with the drinking/smoking part. I've almost cut alcohol completely and I haven't had a cigarette in about 3 weeks. I just don't see the point in going to the gym and busting my ass and then filling my body with toxins. Per the direction of Mike, I've been trying to make lunch my largest meal of the day and dinner the smallest. I've also been trying to not eat past 7pm, so I start dinner at around 4:30 or 5 each day and eating by 6 or 6:30pm. It seems to work out well. I've also gotten back into the habit of going to bed earlier so the eating earlier/food cut-off time doesn't seem to bother me quite as much. When I stay up late, that's when I get in trouble... I like to snack. I still have my junk food (or as I like to call it, shit food) cravings but I try to handle business as necessary. This week my big splurges were a small fry at McDonald's and I had lunch at Olive Garden which was really carb heavy. I still luck out being Vegan because I don't every have to worry about the extra fat/saturated fat/cholesterol that dairy and meat loads onto things so typically even when I eat shit food... it's not THAT bad. OH and a BIG thing for me... I've almost completely cut out chips and salsa! Not that I really tried to do it but I think I just kind of burned myself out and I don't really long for it anymore.
Anyway, here's some examples of what I've been doing in the gym:
Some days I do 2 workouts, cardio in the morning and lifting at night... these days go like this:
AM - 1 hour of cardio... consisting of any combination of: Elliptical / Running / Rowing / Biking / Swimming
PM - 1 1/2 - 2hrs of lifting (in circuits of 3 exercises - reps are: Set 1 - 20 reps, Set 2 - 15 reps, Sets 3-5 - 10 reps). I increase the weight for sets 1-3 and then remain at the same weight for 3-5. Although this week I've been adding some weight and increasing weight with each set on some exercises.
30 minutes cardio
1 workout days go like this:
1 1/2 - 2hrs of lifting (same as above) followed by 45 minutes - 1hr of cardio
Every workout I add abs and do about 10 minutes of stretching.
I love my gym time :)
Here's an example of daily menu:
Breakfast:
Protein shake w/ unsweetened almond milk immediately following workout
Sandwich of organic peanut butter and banana on toasted sprouted grain bread
Snack - anything from crackers/carrots and hummus, almonds, grapefruit, grilled veggies... just depends on what we have
Lunch - usually a rice and veggie combination of some sort... sometimes pasta, yesterday I had grilled pizza
Snack - same as above
Dinner - Smaller portion, keeping the carbs a bit lower. Larger veggie to carb ratio, about 1/2 portion compared to lunch
That's about it! As usual, not any secret remedy.. just some good, hard work!
I'll be honest, I'm a bit concerned about the change of pace when school starts next week. I want to make sure that I still have time/energy to get my workouts in every day. I'll just see how it goes and make sacrifices where necessary. :)
Anyway, here's a picture of my current self:
Roughly 241 lbs...
