Rollin' It Out

No training scheduled for me today so I took the opportunity to stretch and foam roll. Stretching is something I don’t always take the time to do, even though it is so important. I have a foam roller at home so I took the time to properly stretch my legs. I have such a love hate relationship with the foam roller. It is so painful to roll out my IT band but it feels so much looser after. My quads were also really tight so it felt good to stretch them out. I need to start doing this on a more regular basis to loosen up my legs. It doesn’t take long and I feel so much better afterwards. Since I’m training a lot, I need to keep my legs in top shape. I left my foam roller in front of the TV so if I’m every watching a show, I can take 10 minutes to foam roll at the same time. My goal is to start by doing it 3 times a week to start. Once it becomes routine, I’ll try to do it every day. It’s a small step I can make in making a new and better me!

Ending The Week Strong

I met with my trainer this morning. He planned a full body work out for me. It was tougher than anything so far so it was a great way to push myself and end the week on a good note. After a quick warm up, my first superset involved a one arm dumbell snatch and then box jumps. I had never done the snatches before but I really like them and picked up the technique really quickly. I felt really powerful doing the box jumps. I had to focus on jumping from a squat position and really using the power from my legs to get me up onto the box. I definitely did better than I thought which is a great thing. After 3 sets of that, we moved onto doing overheard squats with a barbell and side plank with row using the resistance band. The rows were challenging in the beginning but I learned to focus on keeping my balance and I got better. The next superset was 1 arm landmine press with rotating landmines. These were challenging exercises because the bar was heavier but I pushed through it. I then moved on to 3 sets of Turkish get ups. I found this a fun exercise to do because you’re focusing so much on keeping your arm straight, the getting up and down part becomes a challenge.

The killer part of this work out was the ending. I had to push the sled across the gym, there and back, 5 times!! It really became a struggle after the second set. I couldn’t believe I had to do it 3 more times. I started feeling nauseous by the end. I fought through it because I wanted to get it done. My trainer was so proud of me and I was really proud of myself for completing it all!

The feeling didn’t go away and I actually threw up when I got home. I felt a bit better after and decided to sleep it off. I felt better after my sleep and went shopping at Costco to get more food for the week.

I may have pushed myself a little to hard today but I’m happy I got through it. It was challenging but I completed my whole workout!

Meet Scott

This is my new trainer Scott. He’s going to be training me here at Gold’s 3 times a week for the next 3 weeks. He’s studying Kinesiology at York University and he’s been playing football there for the last 3 years. He comes back to work at Gold’s each summer. He has a background in strength training from school and his experience with football.

We planned to train this morning at 8 before my shift at 9. When my alarm went off this morning and all I could think was what was I thinking, scheduling my training at 8 in the morning. However, I couldn’t back out because I knew my trainer was waiting for me. I packed all my food for the day and headed to the gym.

We worked out my upper body this morning. The way he likes to schedule his workouts is by starting with power, then strength and finishing with cardio. We started with stretching for my whole body. I then moved on to doing chest passes with the medicine ball and I had to run and catch the ball before it stopped rolling. I also had to throw the ball across my body and pass it to my trainer. We did 3 rounds of those exercises. My second circuit consisted of push press and rows using the TRX. The third circuit involved single arm chest press and face pulls on the cable machine. The fourth circuit was lateral and front raises using a band, negative pull-ups and burpees. The burpees were tough. They’re always such a killer! He made me end the session by doing rope drills for 10 seconds followed by 2 sprints across the room. I repeated that 8 times! It was tough but I pushed through it. I’m happy I got my training done in the morning because now I don’t have to worry about doing it for the rest of the day!

Late Night Work Out

I wasn’t able to get my work out in before work so I had to complete it after work, at 9pm. It’s a late time for me to work out but I wasn’t too tired and actually ended up having a good work out. My trainer Scott gave me a plan of exactly what to do so I was efficient with my time.

I started by doing my cardio on the treadmill. I did 30 second sprints with 1 minute of rest. After each sprint, I had to increase the incline by 0.5. I did this for a total of 30 minutes. The sprints actually went better than I thought. I thought I would struggle to sprint for the full 30 seconds, especially with the higher incline but I actually enjoyed it. I felt myself being able to run faster than I used and I feel that my cardio in general has gotten better.

I did a quick arm and ab workout afterwards. I did supersets of seated incline curls with triceps press downs for a total of 3 sets. The second super set involved TRX curls and dumbbell skull crushers. I had to do sprints on the rope machine 2x, 20 seconds down and then 20 seconds up. I love the new rope machines we got at the gym. You can do so much with them and you can really push yourself with sprints. My ab work out consisted of plank, side plank, and bicycle crunches. I completed my work out in an hour and 20 minutes and burned 505 calories!

I’m going to get a good night’s sleep tonight as I’m meeting my trainer at 8 tomorrow morning. It’s going to be tough getting up that early but I’ll be happy to get my work out over with.

Food Preppin'

Today was my day off from training so I took the time to prepare some meals for myself for the week. I started off by cooking 4 chicken breasts in the oven. I seasoned them with Montreal Chicken Spice. It’s very simple and quick to make. I usually add the chicken breasts to my salad. It’s a great source of protein and it adds so much flavour to the salad. I also use it as a meal on its on and add vegetables to get all my nutrients.

I prepared some salads for myself as well. I usually keep it simple and only add a few ingredients. The salads I made today are spinach topped with cucumber and yellow pepper with a chopped up chicken breast. I also cooked some extra lean ground turkey. I mixed in some carrots, green beans and onions to add some veggies to my meal. Overall, it didn’t take me too long to prepare all the food because I just threw the chicken in the oven and prepared the salads and cooked the ground turkey in the mean time.

I want to try to look up new recipes for salads or other dinner ideas. I enjoy the meals I’m making myself for now but I should also try to add a variety. I don’t want to get sick of the food I’m eating now. Now that all my food is cooked it makes planning my food for the day so much easier. Everything is already made and I can grab it quickly on my way to work. 

New Trainer

My new trainer for the next few weeks is Scott! He’s gonna help me lose weight and push me to achieve my goal. The plan from the beginning was to change my trainer each month so that my body doesn’t get used to a specific way of training. I’ll be training 3 times a week with Scott and once on my own.

The plan for today was to work out my lower body. We did a few circuits to complete a variety of exercises. The first superset was medicine ball slams and ski jumps. My second circuit involved back squat, plank with my feet on a step, and squat jumps. He really worked on my squatting technique because I have the tendency for my knees to fall inwards. He also kept reminding me to push through my legs to work on my power and to feel that my muscles were actually performing the movement.

The second circuit was forward to reverse lunge followed by leg raises to work on my abs. The last circuit was step ups with knee raises and hamstring curl using an exercise ball. I liked all the exercises he made me do today except for the lunges as I hate lunges. We ended the session with sprints on the spin bike. I had to sprint for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds for a total of 4 minutes. It was a great way to get my heart pumping and sweat through the last bit of my workout.

It’s really cool that I get to work out with different trainers. I’m excited to see what each of their styles are and in what ways they’re going to challenge me. I can’t wait to see what else Scott has in store for me!

1 Month Done!

It’s officially been one month since I started my transformation. I have been able to see changes with my body. I feel like I’ve lost weight and some of my clothes, especially my tops, have started to feel a little looser. 

Here are my progress pictures. On the left is day 1 and on the right is this morning (I took these as soon as I woke up which is why I look so tired aha)

I definitely see changes around my waist. You can see it has gotten smaller and my stomach is flatter. I lost a bit in my arms and my legs. I’m really happy with the changes but I want to push for more in the next month. I know I can lose more weight and I want to tackle my problem areas. It’s going to take time but I know I can do it!