Back On Track

I had a great birthday yesterday but it can’t last forever. I went back to my gym life and my meal plan. It was tough to go back to my meal plan after eating out. It made me miss all the amazing food I used to eat. It was a bit of a mental battle to get back on track but I had to remind myself why I’m doing this. Eating dessert is not going to help me lose weight. Instead, I decided to go to the gym to do some cardio. If I felt guilty about eating out, I did an hour of cardio to help me burn off all the extra food I ate. 

I had two big revelations today. The first is I changed my perception of food. In the past, if I felt guilty about eating out or eating so much food, it would just push me to continue to eat badly. I would feel sorry for myself and use food as a way to cope. It would make me feel even worse and I would eat more. Since I ate badly already, I would tell myself I’ll just eat like this for the rest of the day and then start fresh tomorrow. It is definitely not the way to handle things. I changed my habit today and ate right. I didn’t feel guilty and I felt great by the end of the day. 

The second thing I learned about myself is I changed my gym habits. I go to the gym on a regular basis but a great part of the reason is because I work there. It’s easy because I’m already at the gym and I have no excuse not to work out. Today, I actually scheduled it into my plans. Originally, I was going to go on my way home from fairview but I had to stop at home for lunch. In the past, if I was home, I would never want to leave for the gym. I would make excuses and run out of time to go. Today, I made the effort and left to go to the gym for an hour. It felt great! I was efficient and stayed for an hour. It didn’t take long and I was back home before I knew it. 

I knew there would be physical changes with my body throughout this whole journey but I didn’t realize how much my mentality would change. My outlook on training and dieting has changed so much. I actually want to go to the gym now and don’t feel right if I miss it. I want to eat healthy because it makes me feel good! I’m no longer doing things because I have too, I’m doing them because I want to.

Happy Birthday To Me!

It was my birthday today. I turned 22! I had a great day at the Calypso water park with my friends. They have so many slides and a huge wave pool. There was one ride where I stood in a tube and the floor just opened so I dropped down. The tube even curved so I went upside down. It as so much fun! 

My trainer gave me permission to eat out for my birthday so I decided to go out for sushi. My family and I went to Sushi St Jean. It was delicious! I ate so much but I love sushi. I even treated myself to a small piece of cake afterwards. At first I didn’t want a cake for my birthday but then I realized, who doesn’t want cake for their birthday! I had a Baskin Robbins chocolate ice cream cake! The best! I always have an ice cream cake for my birthday. 

Overall, I had an amazing birthday filled with friends and family. I really felt loved and lucky to have all these amazing people in my life!

Two A Day

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have a lot more energy during the day. I don’t know if it’s because I’m seeing results and I’m feeling more motivated. It could be because of my new meal plan. It could also be that I’ve genuinely found a new passion for working out and are reaping the benefits with energy and excitement. Whatever the reason may be, I decided to work out twice again today.

I started with a cardio session in the afternoon. I did a lot of machines to get my heart rate up. I started with 10 minutes on the stair master. I moved on the the treadmill and did 20 minutes of interval training where I would walk for a minute and then sprint for a minute. After each interval, I increased the incline by 1%. I then went into the cinema cardio room to watch The Dark Knight Rises (great movie!). I walked on the treadmill on an incline of 15% for another 20 minutes. That went by in a flash as I was so invested in the movie! I ended with 5 minutes on the spin bike to get my heart rate up. I also took the time to foam roll my legs as they were feeling a little sore.

I also went back to the gym at 9 to work out with my trainer. We trained my arms and shoulders. It was a quick work out that involved a few circuits. The toughest thing I had to do was dips on the Power Plate machine. It was brutal. I did 20 reps on the first set and I couldn’t feel my triceps afterwards. On the second set, my left cramped a little. It was tough!

My Myzone belt helped me track my work outs and in all, I burned over 1000 calories today! It was a little intense but I enjoyed every minute!

Mind Over Matter

Today was the first day were I struggled a little bit with my meal plan. I didn’t cheat or eat any extra food. I followed it to a tee but I felt hungrier than usual. I think I felt that way because I was tired. When you’re tired, you tend to eat more than if you get a good night’s sleep. I would give in in the past to my hunger but today I fought through it. It marks a huge change for me. I’ve learned to fight the temptation and stick to the plan. I made sure I drank my 2 litres of water. Sometimes dehydration can mask itself as hunger.

My work schedule kept me busy during my fasting time so I didn’t even realize 6 hours went by before I ate lunch. However, I noticed my stomach growling later on in the day, after I ate my second meal. I knew I only had 2 snacks left to eat so I savoured it when the time came. I’m hoping today was an exception and that I don’t start feeling like this on a regular basis. I’ve been really enjoying my meal plan so far.

I also made a vow that I would stop weighing myself every day. I weighed in at 156.6 on Monday and I will not weight myself until next week. 156 is the lowest weight I’ve achieved so far since I started my journey. I hope that my weight continues to go down all week. I’ll be really excited once I hit 150 because i’ll be a big milestone for me. It’s a little goal that I’ve set for myself as it’ll mark a loss of 10 pounds! A little hard work and I’ll get there in no time!

Building Stronger Legs

I had another session with my trainer today where we planned to work out my legs. I started with back squat. The breakdown was as follows:
– 12 reps, 45 lbs
– 10 reps, 70 lbs
– 8 reps, 90 lbs
– 12 reps, 80 lbs
– 15 rep, 70 lbs

I was so so proud of myself for finally being able to squat a full plate! It’s something that I had been working on for a while and I finally did it, for 8 reps too! I was really excited!

Afterwards, I moved onto single leg Romanian dead lifts. I did 12 reps on each leg for 3 sets, while increasing the weight after each set. This is my favourite exercise to work my hamstrings. I always feel sore after doing it and it works on my balance as well.

The next circuit involved a glute exercise on the Smith machine, leg extension, and leg curls. For the glute exercise, I was on my knees with the bar resting on my shoulders. I had to slowly bring my butt down to my heals and then squeeze it as I sat back up. I did the circuit twice and performed 12 reps of each exercise.

My trainer decided to end the session with my favourite exercise in the world.. the sled! Just kidding, I don’t like the sled. It’s so tough! I had to push it across the gym 3 times. For the first run, I had to push it there and back. For the second time, I had to push it one way and pull it the other way. Pulling is so tough! It really burns your quads. The last set, involved pulling it both ways. Before starting, I asked my trainer if I could just pull it half way. He said sure. I was a little surprised he agreed and told him I was kidding. He said “good, me too!” I pushed through and completed it all. I was so proud of myself. It was a great start to my day!

Chest & Back

I trained chest and back today with my trainer. It was a good workout that consisted of circuits. The first circuit was bench press, resistance band rows and a cardio exercise. For the bench press, I increased the weight for each set and decreased the number of repetitions for the first 3 sets. I dropped the weight and increased the repetitions for the last 2 sets. I find it crazy how fast my chest gets tired. A small increase in weight makes it so difficult to push up the bar. It’s really tiring. I did 30 reps of the rows. For the cardio portion, I did jump squats on the PowerPlate for the first round. I then did split squats on PowerPlate for the second. I jumped over a bench for a minute for the third round. I did rope slams for the fourth round and ended the circuit with 2 minutes on the spin bike. The toughest was probable the split squats on the PowerPlate. I felt really uncoordinated!

The next compound set involved lat pull down and rows. I did 12, 12, and 15 reps of each exercise. My trainer really focused on my positioning to make sure I was doing the exercise correctly. I also had to squeeze for 3 seconds at the end of the movement. I ended with 2 sets of chest fly.

The work out really tired me out. I was in the fasting portion of my meal plan so I didn’t have as much energy as usual while working out. It felt really good to eat my biggest meal of the day right after my workout. Yummy in my tummy.

Cardio Sunday

After a really long and busy day at work, I did an hour of cardio. Since it was raining, the gym was really busy all day. My shift flew by but I was also exhausted by the end of it. I had planned to work out but I really wanted to go home and rest. I reminded myself I have a goal and I need to do everything I can to achieve it. I also realized that I could watch the soccer game on the machines so then I didn’t mind so much (Go Germany!!!).

My trainer asked me to do cardio. I changed it up by doing different machines. I started with 15 minutes on the stair master. I skipped for 10 minutes. Then I ran on the treadmill for 15 minutes. I started by running for the first 10 minutes and then walked on an incline for another 5. I ended my cardio with 10 minutes on the spin bike. I wanted to end with biking so I could help with the circulation in my legs and get rid of any lactic acid.

I wanted to split up my cardio so that I wouldn’t get bored of doing the the same thing for an hour. If I stay on the treadmill for too long, I get bored and lose energy. Working out on all the different machines helps the cardio go by faster and it makes it more fun. It also helps get my heart rate up. After it was over, I was pretty tired but proud of myself for getting it done. In total, I burned 546 calories!