Darcie's Fitness Journal

Weekly Updates 2/2/11 - 2/10/11

2011-02-23T22:34:00.000-05:00

2/2/11: Great Day!
It was so nice outside today - 80 degrees, blue sky, pretty clouds. Too bad I was indoors most of the day catching up on housework stuff, painting and decorating.

I had a super leg workout tonight. I did some pre-exhaust sets and then quite a bit of single leg work. I like to add that in every so often. Not just for balance, but because it really keeps the heart rate up to have to basically do all of your sets twice.

Tuesday Workout Stuff:

AM - yoga 30 minutes

Afternoon - Dance 50 minutes

PM - Weights

Single Leg Exts - 45x10x4 each
DB Squat & Press - 15's x 6 x 2 (back felt funky, finished up with DB deads)
DB DL's - 15's x 15, 20's x 12, 25's x 10
Single Leg Squats - BW x 6 x 3 each
Single Leg RDL's (each leg) - 15's x 12, 20's x 10, 25's x 8
Bulgarians - 15's x 6 x 3 ea (first time I've been able to use weights in months without bothering my back)
RB Adductors - Blue x 15 x 3 each
Side Lying Leg Lifts - 25 x 12 x 3 each

Elliptical 30 minutes

It was an active day! I think I'll enjoy my day off tomorrow, besides the yoga and cardio thing.

Yesterday was good. Monday Workout Stuff:
Did 30 min yoga. Ran/walked 1.5 miles with Jake.
Then Chest workout:
BP 45x10, 65x8, 45x10;
DBBP 15's x 10, 20's x 10, 25's x 8;
Flyes 15's x 10, 20's x 6 x 2; Inc
DB BP 15's x 10, 20's x 10, 25's x 8;
Pushups (knees) 10x3;
DB Pullovers 15x10, 20x10x2.
Then elliptical while watching an episode of Dr. Who - so about 45 min. Prior to that I had done some pilates abs & glute work for about 30 minutes.

Weight is up today. We'll see how it goes the rest of the week. I do tend to go up a tiny bit around days 9-11, but not a whole lot.

~Darcie

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2/3/11: Weight's going up
Ah, the lovely battle with the scale! I've been eating great since Monday, done my workouts and cardio every day, and the scale is climbing. I'm up to 127.6 today. I'm not upset though. I know if I keep up the good eating and workouts and follow through for the next few weeks it will change direction. I have 9 weeks to lose 8 pounds. Once I get my groove on there'll be no stopping me :)

Today I did a bunch of garden work. Things are growing again out there and that makes me happy :)

On the schedule today is Back, and some cardio. Not sure what I'll do for that today. Maybe run down to the park with Jake and do some basketball. I hope no one else is down there, i love to let the dog just run around while we play. We had a huge storm last week and that dumb plane didn't budge. I think its gonna stay there unless we can get a cherry picker down there.

Last night I did 30 minutes on the elliptical, but that was the extent of my workouts for the day (besides AM yoga sesion). That's okay, it was my off day! :)

Today I skipped the yoga and went back to sleep. I only got about 4 hours last night and needed some more.

Ok, Jake's home. Gonna head out!

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2/5/11: A little jumpstart
This weekend I'm doing a protein / veggies / fruit plan to give myself a little jump start. I'm halfway through this first day and I feel pretty good about it - no headache or shakiness or moodiness. I wanted to post it so that I'd be more likely to follow through with it. Oh, and a little coconut oil for fat, or some olive oil on my salad - gotta keep some fat in there :)

Mentally I also feel great about how it is going. It's making me feel like I do have some control over my diet a little better. The first week of the challenge I didn't do well on the eating front. This past week I really improved although it wasn't perfect. But today I feel mentally ready to really dig in and eat clean.

This next week I'm going to eat as if I'm prepping for a contest. Then the week after when I'm boosting I'm going to relax the diet again for those 2 weeks. My overall goal will be to treat every buffing period as a strict contest prep, and I will follow through with that. :)

That's all! I cut my hair yesterday, just took four inches off the bangs so that I actually have some right now. Its kinda weird having them again, but I'll get used to it. I did my hair 60's style last night when we went out to dinner, that was fun. So I'm thinking maybe a 1960's themed photo shoot at the end of this contest.

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2/8/11: Great Start
My week is off to a great start! The 'jump start' worked well this weekend. I was 130.2 on Saturday morning (dinner out Fri night) and I was 125.6 on Monday - yay! My weight will probably go up a bit this week as I eat more cals and carbs, but not nearly as high as it was getting. My goal is to be under 125 by Sunday. Might happen, might not, but I'll give it my best!

Yesterday's eats were very good, and I got in a nice workout. And here is where I say - AGAIN - that I'm changing my routine. Just 2 weeks ago I changed it to be more relaxed. Well that gives me only one leg day a week and let me tell you my legs are getting squooshy. Not squishy as in fat, but squooshy as in my muscles are not nearly as hard. I like that hard quad feeling! So it's back to 5 days a week. The thing is, I really loved having an "arm" day so that on my other days of lifting I focused only on the big muscle. But that's not going to work. And if I do back/shoulders/bi's then inevitably I'm run down by the time it gets to bi's and they don't get done. So I'm going to try - chest/tri's, back/bi's, legs/shoulders. And my thought is that I'll do legs in the AM, and shoulders in the PM. Because everything with shoulders that I do can be done while watching a movie with the family. If I have time and energy i'll do it all at once. If not, I'll do shoulders at night. So let's see how that goes! Actually any of my days can go like that with the auxilliary stuff. I'm open to fitting it in however I can (except for early morning, I don't believe in "early" LOL)

Okay, onto the workouts.

Monday - Chest
BP
45x12,
65x8x2,
75x6,
45x10

Inc BP
45x10x3

DBBP
20's x 10,
25's x 10 x 2

Db Flyes
15's x 10,
20's x 8,
15's x 10

Abs - 20 minutes, various
Elliptical intervals, 21 min

Tuesday - Legs/Shoulders
Squats -
95x10,
115x8,
135x6,
155x4x2,
95x15

BB Lunges - walking - 5 forward, 5 backward
45x10x5
BW x 10 x 5

RDL's
95x10
115x8x2

Exts
90x8x3

Curls
25x8
30x8
35x6

Then tonight during Biggest Loser I'll do:
Adductor - Resist band (blue) x 15x3 ea
Lying Leg Lifts - 25x15x3 ea
Mil BB Press (behind)
DB Shoulder Presses
Lat Raises
Front Raises
SS Ellip

Today's eats started off bad, got better, got not so good, will end perfect! :)

Alrighty, I'm off to do something, probably get dinner ready. Have a GREAT evening.

~Darcie

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2/10/11: Booty Jiggle
Wow, I have some serious booty jiggle going on. I really need those lunges this week! Which, by the way, I totally spaced on yesterday. So I'm doing 200 today to make up for it.
Anyway, I was putting on some tanner because I am extremely pasty right now and when it got to doing my backside I was surprised at how... unfirm it was. I didn't think my pics were that bad at the beginning of the challenge, but I'm beginning to think I was slightly blinded to myself. That means it is time to get a little tighter than I have been. I haven't done great on the 'competition strict' eats this week, but they haven't been bad eats either beyond one small meal's worth (half a bagel and some snickers bite size). Weight jumped up right after my jump start, then it began dropping again, so I feel good about the direction I'm going. I just need to be patient and keep making those better choices.

Tuesday night I finished up my shoulder workout with:
Mil BB Press - 45x12x3
DB Sh Press - 20's x 8, 25's x 6 x 2, 20's x 8
Lat Raises - 15's x 10, 20's x 8, 25's x 6, 15's x 10
Front Raises - 15's x 8, 20's x 6, 25's x 4, 15's x 8
Then did Elliptical for 30 minutes, and abs for 25 minutes

Wednesday was Back/Bi's day:
Chin Ups (band assist) 4, 6; Pullups (band assist) 5, 6
Lat Pulls 55x6, 75x6x2
Cable Rows 75x6x3
BOBBR 45x10, 65x10x2
Rev Flyes 15's x 10, 20's x 8, 25's x 6
Rev Grip BOBBR 65x8x3
BB Bi Curls 45x8x3
DB Bi Curl 15's x 8, 20's x 6, 25's x 4
Conc Curls 15 x 4 ea (while in squat position)
Elliptical Intervals 20 min, plus 10ss
Abs- 10 min

Today is my day off! Yay :) I did Dance Central for 60 minutes today. Did all of the songs I've unlocked on hard, then did 3 more levels of new songs (breaking it down, then performing). That was fun! I wanted to do more but I needed to get in the shower and get moving on the day. Lunges only at 20 so far, but plenty of day to get them all in.

Ok, gotta go find some food. I'm hungry!

~Darcie

Update 1/22 - 1/31

2011-02-20T13:37:00.000-05:00

1/22: What Rest Day?
3 AM - blood sugar check since Jake took some insulin at bedtime snack

6 AM - wake Jake up for insulin and breakfast

11:00 AM - 3:30 PM - paint at grandparents house, up and down the ladder all day again.

3:30 PM - 5:30 PM - yardwork, paint mailbox, haul border stones around

5:30 to 6:00 - clean up, shower, get ready to head to parents house for dinner. i'm in my comfy fuzzy eyeore pants and fluffy robe - very dressy, hehe.

It has just been a non-stop day. My parents are getting pizza tonight. Yep, I'm eating it! Might as well get it out of my system because there will be no pizza during the next 10 weeks.

Tomorrow is stats & pics. I'm sure I'll be a puffy mess from the pizza and stuff (cheesecake last night). But that's okay, they're BEFORE pics LOL. It'll just make the afters look better :) .

Gotta run, time to chow down and relax and hang out after a long busy day.

~Darcie

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1/23- The Rally Room - SuperStar Success Challenge 2011 - Starting Stats:
Starting weight - 126.6. CD - 26
Shoulders (relaxed) 40 1/2
Chest 34 3/4 relaxed, 36 1/2 flexed
Waist 27 1/4
Hips 36 1/2
Thi Hi - 20 3/4
Thi Lo - 18 1/4
Calves 12 1/2
Bi's 10 1/2 relaxed, 11 flexed

Starting Thoughts:

1. Do you remember how great you both physically and mentally when you were at your peak physical condition? When was that?There are a few times I have been at my best physically. The first was after my initial online training with Michelle back in 2007. The most recent was this past Sept & Oct for my competitions.
Mentally I am at my best RIGHT NOW. I have been feeling great mentally ever since making the decision to get on stage. Jesus has totally been working in me these past few months - well actually he always has been, But I'm feeling it spiritually, mentally and emotionally. I love how I feel each day. I am thankful for each day.

2. List 3 specific things (solutions) you have to change about your current daily habits to attain results like that again?

More water. I am really lacking in water during this cold weather. I keep saying that and I need to make it happen.
Less treats. I need to make more of the healthy treats from my EFL book instead of going out for cheesecake LOL.
Have easy to make food on hand. If I can throw together a spinach tortilla or something easy I am more likely to eat healthy than if I have to make a more complicated meal.
3. What is your #1 goal for the next 10 weeks? What is the #1 solution you must stay focused upon in order to attain that goal?
My number one focus for the next week is to work on my abs. I really dislike ab work. I do it, but I feel that it is a waste of time and I will skip it to work other areas. While I generally have nice abs when I am lean I have never actually had the 6 pack look. That is what I want to work on. Solution? Just get it done. No excuses, just do it and move on.
Other Goals:
Work on my shoulders & arms still. I'm seeing some improvement
Lost 7 pounds - totally doable in 10 weeks
Raise the Titanic as Julie says! :)
Do all of that on a relaxed schedule of only 4 lifting days a week.

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1/24 - Day 1 SSS
Ok, Day 1 was not stellar. But it could have been worse :) I already posted my eats over in the clean eats challenge. Have I made it even one day clean yet on that? Ugh.

Today was another busy one.
Worked on some jewelry this morning.
Then headed over to grandparents to do touch up paint from what the rest of the family did on Sunday.
After two hours of that it was up to Lowe's for soil & mulch for all of the plants and pots we bought.
Then to the grocery store & meat market.
After that it was home to unload, put away, grab a bite to eat, then out to the yard. I planted and mulched for 3 1/2 hours today. Yesterday was about 2-3 hours. I can't even remember LOL. The yard is looking pretty though :)
After that it was clean up, eat dinner in about 1 minute, then up to the school for PTM.
Wish I was done but then once we got home I had to make the protein powder mousse pie so it would be ready when snack time hit me. Gotta be prepared!
Then I did my workout, and in between sets I loaded and unloaded (in reverse) the dishwasher.

Today was chest
BP 45x10, 65x8, 75x6, 85x2, 65x10
Inc BP 45x10x3
DBBP 20's x 10 x 3
DB Flyes 20's x 8 x 3
Resist Band Horiz Push Press - Red & Blue x 10 x 3

Was going to do cardio, but honestly after 3 hours of yardwork and all that other stuff I am beat. I'm boosting so I'll take the lifting workout and be happy with it. I will do some abs while we watch a show in a bit.

that's all. i'm off to relax a bit :)

~Darcie

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1/27: Birthday Weights
Ted & Jake got me a pair of 25# db's for my birthday. I am so excited! I have really missed those since I sold off my last set of db's a few years back. Ted has been very hesitant to get me weights for a gift - worried that it is like giving appliances (there was a tough lesson for him when he got me a vacuum our first Christmas. I had to set things straight if we were going to have happy holidays in the future LOL). But I told him I would LOVE weights for gifts. More than jewelry. So yay! I have some 25's again. I can't wait for Friday when I do shoulders/bi's & tri's. I've been wanting to use 25's for my lat raises and bi curls. The Kettlebell is just too awkward for those moves. And I'll probably work them in tomorrow for reverse flyes during my back workout.

Weight was up today. I ate clean yesterday so I'm sure it is the leg workout and the fact that CD2 came on very hard. Lots of bloat & cramps. Eats today were okay - they're over in the eats forum post and I'm too lazy to go get them :)

I relaxed most of the day. Went to Jake's basketball game - he scored twice so that was cool. Then came home, made dinner and got a huge craving for a birthday dessert. But nothing sounded good and I ended up eating oreos. Oh well. Jake & Ted got ice cream from the little ice cream place down the road. Actually the dog got a pup cup too. She goes crazy when we drive in there.

We watched The Expendables tonight which was extremely boring and stupid. I ended up browsing the app store on the ipad. Not even playing anything, just browsing the store, that's how bored I was.

Last night did Legs during Biggest Loser.

Squats 45x10x3. I felt my back twinge on the first set so I didn't even bother adding more weights. Just used it as warmup.
Deadlifts 45x10, 135x8x3, 1 set of db dl's 20s x 10
RDL's 135x8x3
Bulgarians BW x 10 x 2 ea
Exts 90x10x2, 115x10
Leg Curls 25x10x3
Resist Band Adductors - Blue x 10 x 3 ea
Lying Leg Raises 25x15x3 ea
Calf Raises 45's x 10, 20's x 10

Then the elliptical for an episode of Buffy, so about 40 minutes.

A little bit of dancing today for cardio but pretty laid back. It's my off day so I'm happy with that :)

Catch ya later!

~Darcie

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1/31 On to Week 2!
Last week was a bust. I was all over the place with workouts and eats - TOTALLY hormones. I did do my weights every day, but I think only 2 cardio sessions. Lets not even talk about the birthday cake. Ok, lets talk about it - 3 pieces, and I'm talking the corners with the big frosting flowers on them!! However, I'm feeling so good today and ready to attack it.

Got up and had my crockpot oatmeal and then did a yoga program that I streamed from Netflix. I generally don't do yoga stuff because I hate all the spiritual junk involved, so I'm picky about which ones I do. I have a sports yoga from the place I got my PT cert and I like that one. The one this morning was pretty good - mostly focusing on stretching which was exactly what I was looking for. I needed an easy wakeup and I have been so tight from all of the painting and planting last week. Then I cleaned up the kitchen and then fell asleep LOL.

Food is going okay. The actual contents have been great, its just that with the little nap and then the grocery trip i haven't gotten enough food in. It was breakfast at 6:30am and then lunch at 2pm. More of a gap than I'd like.

POA for the week:
Think I'll do the yoga-stretch program every morning

Mon - chest/abs/cardio - i think a run outside tonight.
Tues - legs/abs/cardio (ss)
Wed- abs/cardio
Thurs - Back/abs/cardio
Friday - Arms/cardio
Saturday - active rest
Sunday - active rest, maybe some ss ellip while watching a show (lazy cardio)

Yep, its a cardio week for me! I need to really step things up after my bad week last week. I'm also going to do some of the other streaming workout programs that I have in my queue. They're not really cardio, but they're not weights either. They're just...extras I guess. Gonna do the booty one this week :)

Ok, I'm off to check out the burlap coffee sacks that I ordered. Going to put them on my plant shelves and maybe frame some. I will put up pics soon of the new kitchen decor because if I wait til its done it may be next year LOL. I still want more metal wall art and some vintage coffee grinders for the plant shelves. But no $$$ to spend right now :) . So I'll at least put up pics of the new paint job and what I do have up.

Weekly(ish) Update ~ 1/13 - 1/21

2011-02-03T15:16:00.000-05:00

Next Update! Probably the last one for today. Then tomorrow I will try to finish up through January. If the weekly thing goes well I will try to break it up into 2x/week and see if I can be consistent with that.
1/13: Eat, Eat, Eat & Be Lazy
This cold weather is making me eat too much. I just want to eat warm yummy stuff and not drink my water. I wouldn't be surprised if the scale read almost 130 tomorrow morning. I know its not real pounds, I was just 125 yesterday, but still !!! It's got to stop. So my goal tomorrow is to eat clean. I've got the stuff here, I'm just not interested in it.

I also skipped my arm workout yesterday and haven't done it today. I think I need to make my off day on Wed, and move wed stuff to Thurs. I keep running out of energy on Wednesdays, its a busy day for us with Jake's basketball and stuff. I may even still get the arm workout in tonight, so I'm not totally writing that off. But no cardio today either. I wanted to be a complete slug and just snuggle.
I did go to the new bingo place with my mom today. I thought that would be fun. The last time I played was about 15 years ago. They opened up a little bingo place about 5 minutes from my house so we checked it out. The problem is I can't take the cigarette smoke. My eyes were all dry and I felt dehydrated after about 20 minutes in there. My throat was so sore. It was odd too because last time I played we had paper sheets and ink daubers to mark them. The ones today were the old style cardboard boards and chips. If you bought more "cards" you got an electronic thing, but I didn't want to spend that much money. We stayed about an hour and it was fun, but can't take the smoke. Neither of us won, but we did come close a few times. Too bad they don't have any non-smoking hours or days.
Okay here it is again. Tomorrow's goals:
Eat clean! No treats at all. Not even a piece of chocolate

Workout! Get in some good cardio and and upper body workout

Drink water! Add some herbal tea to help meet the quota, stay warm inside :)

Alrighty all, have a great night :)

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1/15: Revamping my plan, Again
k, I've decided I need to pull back a bit on my workouts for a few months. All too soon I'm going to need to hit it extra hard for summer competitions so a little break will be good. For the next 2 months I'm going to drop down to a less intense schedule. Monday Chest, Tuesday Legs, Thursday Back, Friday Arms. Right now I'm working out 6 days a week, hitting each part twice a week. Moving to four days a week and only hitting each part once will give me more down time and more recovery time (physically and mentally). And more importantly i won't feel burned out when it comes time to get serious.

I'm proud to report I did great yesterday on my eats. No treats at all. If anything I did fall short a meal due to taking a really long nap in the afternoon. But I feel good about how i did. The scale was nice too and the fluff pounds were gone. I'm back down to 125.6. And I'm going to run with Julie's idea about another clean eats challenge. I know many of us are struggling so maybe a 2 week eats post to stay accountable.
I got in a good upper body workout yesterday, but no cardio other than running down to the park to check on the plane in the tree. I don't think I wrote about that here, but last weekend Ted flew Jake's new RC plane into a tall pine tree and got it stuck. It's about 80 feet up at the top and hooked on a limb so even in the wind it just blows like a flag but doesn't fall. We've tried shooting rope on an arrow to get up over the lowest branch, which is 30ft, maybe 40ft up. Then I was going to climb the rope, but we couldn't get the rope to fall over the other side of the branch, not enough weight. Then we built a huge pole out of pvc pipe but it got to bendy and started wiggling all over the place. Next Jake & I tried to throw tennis balls at it but I can't throw anywhere near 80ft up LOL. Anyway, I think it's trapped until we get a huge storm.
Alright, gonna find something to do today. Probably chores, and a nice geocache hike tomorrow. Weather is beautiful today, almost 70.
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1/19: Beautiful Day!
It was so nice today, in the 70's. I love that!

I did garden work for about 90 minutes - weeding, prepping beds, digging and filling, mixing compost, thinning plants, stuff like that. Growth so far is peas, onions, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, radishes, cabbage, 2 lettuce types, and I think the carrots are poking through. There are a frew things I've planted that haven't made an appearance, the watermelon and some of the other lettuces, i think the romaine is being stubborn. So hopefully we won't have any more freezes. I'm trying really hard to stay on top of the garden this year.

I also did about 30 minutes raking out front because our stupid HOA sent a letter. We just raked but the leaves fell again and they sent a dumb letter. I was SO mad. I really can't stand having these property police come by and nitpick about every little thing. I also have to clean the mailbox (it was getting a bit dirty so I get that one). And they sent a notice about our fence needing to be all one color. Well we are replacing it and we've done the front section and part of the side so of course the new boards are looking great, but the old ones are still old. And we can't afford to do it all at once so we're buying a few boards and replacing on the weekends. That just pissed me off that they would send me a notice about it. So I'm really mad and grumpy right now and trying to get over it.

I had two good workouts so far this week. I am loving my new schedule. Glad I was off today for the other stuff that needed doing and for Jake's basketball game.

Monday - Chest (128.6, eek)

BP 45x12, 65x10, 75x8, 65x10, 45x12

Inc BP 45x10x4

Inc DBBP 15's x 10, 20's x 10

Flat DBBP 20's x 8 x 2

Inc Flyes 15's x 8 x 2

Flyes (flat) 15's x 8 x 2

RB Horiz Press - Red & Blue x 10 x 4

Cardio - 1 hour kinect games with Jake

Tuesday - Legs (128.8- yikes! the burger and fries killed me...)

DB DL's 20's x 12 x 4

KB Swings 25x15x4

Bulgarians BW x 10 x 3 ea

Ext's 90x10x4

Curls 25x10x3

RB Adductor - Blue x 12 x 3 ea

Lying Leg Lifts 25x15x3 ea

Cardio - 16 min ellip

I had no energy left for cardio. Monday I base coated the kitchen and Tuesday I spent almost 6 hours painting it with the new colors. It was up and down the ladder all day long. I'm changing it up from spices to coffee shop. I have tons of cute coffee wal art on my bday list so I'm not putting up any pics until I get it totally decorated. I'm watching ebay right now for some old vintage coffee grinders to put up on the plant shelves, and some burlap coffee sacks to stuff with paper and put up there too. I need to get some warm lights though. I hate these cfl's.

Tomorrow my grandparents are moving up here from Ft. Myers. I'm so happy. Now I can see them more often without having to board the dog and find a weekend where Ted is off and we can go down there.

Ok, that's enough this blog is getting long. Catcha later!
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1/21: Rest Days
woke up yesterday with a swollen gland on the right side of my neck and my right ear feeling stuffy/clogged. Other than feeling a bit run down I don't feel sick at all. No sinus issues, no coughing or sore throat. I was very "out of it" yesterday. I kept forgetting things and felt generally fuzzy brained. So I just did a rest day. I want to start the next contest off good, not worn out. Then last night I had a fever and was hovering around 101. Today was the same - minus the fever - so I got some errands done and played some basketball with Jake, but no workout again.

I plan to rest all weekend. Well, rest meaning that I'm doing a bunch of yardwork and helping my grandparents paint their new place, but no lifting or real cardio.

So no workotus to report. Eats are weird. I was so on the go today that I've only eaten one clementine and two reese's pb cups and its almost 6pm. I slept in late to get as much rest as possible. Then I made lunch and got dinner in the crockpot but didn't have time to actually eat the lunch LOL. Yesterday I did well all day until Ted brought home a hot apple pie from McD's.

I think my weight is 127ish. I weighed in twice today because I couldn't remember what my weigh in was at 6am. So I weighed in again at 11am. And now I still can't remember what it was LOL, but i think around high 126/127. See what I mean about fuzzy brained? LOL.
Ok, I'm going to go eat some dinner finally. Have a great weekend!
~Darcie

Weekly(ish) Update 1/4 - 1/12

2011-02-03T15:10:00.000-05:00

Here I am, falling behind again on this blog! I think at this point I will just attempt to do a weekly update. Here are my journal entries for 1/4 - 1/12.
1/4: Changing my POA:
I did pretty good last week. I only missed one real workout, which I ended up doing 3 1/2 hours of yardwork in its place so I don't feel like I lost out.

This week is going to be mostly the same. The thing I am changing though is my cardio plan. I was only going to use Dance Central for my cardio. But I've decided that isn't going to be enough because it is going to get boring. I am having fun with it, but I'm getting through the dances a little faster now that I know alot of the moves, so it isn't taking me as long. I did a few songs this morning - almost an hours worth. But that pushed me through 2 new songs, plus some old ones I've done. I don't want to get all the way through the game that fast. That means I need to find more stuff to fill in my cardio time. On that note I've decided to add in any videos that I can stream through netflix. That should give me more variety. I did one this afternoon and I couldn't get through all 45 minutes of it, just 30. It was a dance one and it was fun. I didn't quite grasp all of the moves, but I just kept moving along anyway :)
Tonight I'll do legs and abs during biggest loser. I'm excited to see the new couples starting the show. I'm going to try to like everyone LOL. That's hard for me :) .
Yesterday was upper body and I'm feeling it today! Sunday I did shoulders/bi's/tri's. And I'm keeping up quite well on my new schedule. Now that we're back at school today I need to adjust a little, but it will all work out :)
Have a great day!
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1/6: Fantastic Week!
I'm having a great week getting back into the school schedule. My little organization binder is helping me stay on top of things - yay! Workouts are going good, food is going good (not great, but still good), weight is barely dropping, but it is so that's....good. :) It's all good!

Workout breakdown:
Monday - Chest/Back 126.6

BP 45x10, 65x8, 75x6x2

BOBBR 75x8x3

Flyes 15's x 10, 20's x 8 x 2

Rev Flyes 15's x 10, 20's x 8 x 2

Cable Rows 55x10x3

Resist Band Chest Press (standing) Red & Yellow x 10 x 3

Cardio - Dance Central 30 min.

Tuesday - Legs 126.6

Squats 45x10, 65x10x2 (was out watching BL so only squatted what I could shoulder press)

Deadlifts - 65x10, 135x8x3

RDL's - 135x8x3

Exts - 90x10, 100x10x2

Curls - 25x10x3

RB Adductors- Y x 10 x 3 ea

Side Leg Lifts 25 x 15 x 3 ea

Lunges (stationary, forward, backward) 10x3 ea

Cardio - Dance Central 55 min; Dance Video (Crunch dance party) 30 min

Abs - crunches 20x3, rev crunches 15x3, side crunches 10x3 ea

Wed - Off 126.2

Cardio - Dance Central 30 min, Dance Video (crunch dance party)15 min

Thurs - Arms 126.2

Mil BB Press 45x10, 65x6x2

DB Sh Press 15's x 10, 20's x 10 x 2

Lat Raises 15's x 10, 20's x 7, 20's x 8

Front Raises 15's x 8, 20's x 6, 15's x 8

BB Curls 45x10, 55x8, 65x4

DB Curls 15's x 10, 20's x 8 x 2

Tri Pushdowns 55x10x3

Tri Kickbacks 15's x 10 x 3

Cardio - DC 40 min, Dance (crunch dance party 2) 15 min

Abs - Net Video - Killer Abs & back - 20 min (yes, it did kill LOL)

Now I'm going to go hit the shower and maybe get in a little nap before Jake's home from school. Check the garden - it poured this morning and I'm wondering if all my little seedlings washed away. And maybe get in the craft room for some jewelry making.
Have a terrific day!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1/8: It's Your Life
It's your life.... so why live it according to everyone else's expectations? I've been thinking alot this week - that's very dangerous LOL. I do alot of thinking and reflection while I'm gardening. I would say that gardening is the best meditation ever. When I weed I think about weeding junk out of my life, and as I plant and prepare I think about possiblities. This week what has been in my mind is LIVING. Not being afraid to just be who I want to be or do what I want to do. Not caring what everyone else might think of whatever choices I make. There's only ONE who I want to please so I want to live for Him. I've been feeling expectant so far this year, like something is about to happen. I'm not sure what it is, but I just feel I should be ready. I want to be more bold about my life, my faith, my love, my friendships - just put myself out there and risk rejection and failure. Ok, so that's enough of that! :)

Seeing Michelle get her hair done put the bug in my ear about coloring my hair. I'm thinking of going red again for a while. I really love being a redhead and I can pull it off. But I wanted to do something fun, something a little different, maybe a bit bolder. Feb/March I'll probably do the red. But yesterday I decided to put blue tips on the ends of my hair. I've always wanted to do unnatural colors. I missed my chance in high school, then I thought I was too old. Then I decided - who says I'm too old? Why should I care what our society says I can or can't do? Why should I stay in the little box they want me in instead of climbing out and being me? Why should I crawl when I can soar? So I bleached the ends and put on blue. I will probably need to redo it again next week to see if I can get the color to hold a little better.
The pic doesn't show it too well, but there's blue all along my bangs too. They're just curled under. I think it is FUN and definitely something a little different :) .

I almost missed my workout yesterday. I slept in too late, went to the mall to pick up some makeup, spent way too long at the beauty supply store trying to pick my color, then back home to start the process. First I tried it on some hair swatches I cut off so that took an hour to test bleaching and color hold. Then it was several hours of bleaching and dying the hair that was still on my head :) . Then up to mom and dad's to watch Clone Wars with them (finally an episode that wasn't boring politics and peace policies!!). It was 10pm by the time we got home, and I grabbed my weights and dragged them to the family room so I could watch an episode of Lost while I worked out. (we haven't watched the full show yet, just on the final season 6, so no spoilers please!!) I did back/chest.
BOBBR - 45x10, 65x8, 85x6x2

Floor Press - 45x10x2, 65x10x2

Rev flyes - 15's x 10, 20's x 8 x 2

Flyes - 15's x 10, 20's x 8 x 2

RB Lat Pulls - All bands x 15 x 3

Pike Pushups - 10 x 3

RB Rows - all x 15 x 3

RB Standing chest press - red/yellow x 10 x 3

Abs - crunches 15x3, rev crunches 15x3, side twists 15 x 3 ea
That was it. No cardio or anything. Some chips and dip up at my moms, and ate the tex-mex bean salad around midnight so weight was up this AM. 126.6 again. I think it will finally start to drop this coming week. I'm getting past ovulation and expect to see some drastic number drops in the next week.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
1/12: Brrrr!
Its just getting too cold here again in FL. Supposed to be 29 tonight- yuck! I just went out and covered my seedlings that have sprouted so they don't die.

Workouts for the past few days:
Monday Upper 126.0

BP 45x15; 65x10; 75x6x2; 45x15

DBBP 20's x 10 x 3

Flyes 20's x 8 x 3

BOBBR - 45x10, 65x10x2

Rev flyes - 15's x 10; 20's x 8 x 2

Cable Rows 55x10x3

Tuesday Legs - 125.6

Squats - 95x10; 115x10; 135x10

DL's 135x10; 155x8; 185x6; 135x10

RDL's 135x8x2

Exts 90x10x3

Curls 25x10, 35x8, 45x6

RB adductors - yellow x 10 x 3 ea

side leg lifts 25x15x3 ea

45 min ellip

Video - 10 minute solutions pilates abs

Today is arms, will do that during the movie tonight. Tonight is also $5 bang bang shrimp from Bonefish. I love that! Its our every other Wed dinner.

Wt - 125.6 again - not bad since i went out to lunch with mom & sis, then ate the leftovers for dinner.

Mil BB Press

DB Shoulder Press

Lat Raises

Front Raises

BB Bi curls

DB Bi curls

Tri Exts

Tri Kickbacks

abs

Cardio? I've done about 25 min dancing so far today, not sure if i'll do anything else tonight.

I went back to bed this morning about 8:30, I felt drained and exhausted. I woke up at 11:30! Yikes, I wasn't planning on sleeping that long but I guess I needed it. Tomorrow is an off day for weights, and I'll probably do some cardio. Mom and I were going to go walk in the morning but neither of us are cold weather people so I don't think we're going to.

Have a great evening,
~Darcie

Oh Goodness, time flies!

2011-01-04T09:38:00.000-05:00

Wow, has it really been over 3 months since I posted here? Life gets BUSY! So this is also just a very quick update.
I didn't place at my competition on 9/11, but that's okay. I got up there and I DID IT! I was very happy to just follow through with it and am proud of myself for doing it.
I ended up doing another competition on Oct 4th I think it was - basically it was 3 weeks after the Sept comp. I did get to walk away with a trophy from that one! But even if I hadn't I still would have enjoyed the whole process. I loved it. I had a great time with the other girls who were competing. It didn't even feel like we were going up against each other- at least to me it didn't. I was going up against myself.
This year I'm looking at 3 comps - june, july & oct. I'm sure I can bring an even better body to the stage this year. As long as I don't win LOL. I don't want to have to keep moving up the competition chain. I like the idea of just doing these local comps to keep me in shape. Not interested in traveling all over trying to go pro.
So that's where I'm at. I'm currently about 10 pounds above my competition weight - that was the fault of the holidays LOL. By the end of Jan I hope to be just around 5 pounds over. More if I can add some muscle to this stubborn body. I'd like to not have my ribs stick out so much. For my Oct comp I came in a pound heavier and I felt I looked more healthy. So I'm looking to gain a little so that when I lean out I don't have to go so low.
Here's a pic from the Oct show, standing next to my trophy :)

What if I had givern up? Part 4 of 4

2010-09-14T11:55:00.000-04:00

I'm calling this last part "Even if it takes a year". Because what if you knew it would take you a year to get in shape? Would you give up? Would you say that it wasn't worth it to only lose 12 pounds in a year? Gosh, that's only 1 pound a month. Why would I work so hard for only one pound a month? There are women around me on "insert fad diet here" losing 5 pounds a week. Really, how long does that weight stay gone? A year later do they still look good? And do they just look good in clothes but not in a bikini?
Here's why you should not give up, even if it takes a year. (not that old pic from sept again!!! hehehe)
Sept 2009:

Sept 2010:

Sept 2009:

Sept 2010:

So, what would you do?

Would you give up? One pound (on the scale) a month not worth it? To me it was worth every single moment of hard work and clean eating. And honestly, you dont have to eat perfect. You should enjoy cheats here and there. With me when I have a good cheat like pizza or burgers and fries, or desserts it just revs my body up for more weight loss.

But you can't just do this with diet and cardio. If you want to get lean and have curves you MUST LIFT WEIGHTS. And you have to lift them heavy. Obviously starting out you want to be careful, but you need to challenge your muscles. As Michelle (BuffMother) always says - Challenge=Change. If you are not lifting heavy (for you) to challenge yourself you will NOT see change. You will just get a smaller skinny-fat body.

So get started! Grab your weights, clean up your diet, work hard, lift heavy, add in some cardio and get to it.

Even if it takes a year girls!!

What if I had given up? Part 3

2010-09-08T12:54:00.000-04:00

I'm talking a bit about momentum today.If you don't work at it, you can't build it up and use it. It makes me think of power ups in games. You have to do certain combos and moves to get your power up, then you use it to do even better moves. Same thing - except you only get one life here in RL, and you can't defy gravity and jump 50 feet in the air, or be a half-elf, and slay monsters... Ok, rabbit trailing a bit. Anyway.... You workout and you eat right, you keep doing it until you see results, you gain more confidence in what you are doing and you do better, lift heavier, run faster/farther (further?), eat cleaner, and you see even more results! That's how it works.
So I didn't say "why bother". I have felt like "why bother" at times, but luckily those days pass by.
And so we move onto the next challenge! Yes, there's almost always a challenge going on in the BuffMother Rally Room, which is great to keep you on track. The next one was... Sexy in 70. 70 days to work hard and see what you can do. I was determined to make more progress this time around than back in the SSS2009 challenge.
You see, that momentum builds. If i had given up after the sss I'd still be struggling. But I kept at it, kept joining challenges, kept myself accountable to my fitness friends, which kept me building that momentum to succeed.
Ok, where did I start for sx70? Here it is. I was 125.6. That's good because it means I was losing between contests. Yay! My goal was to get under 120. I really like being around 118 when I have a good amount of muscle. The more muscle, the more I get to eat!! :) And since I love to eat I have to build the muscle. I am really rambling off track today. Sorry! I ended the sx70 at 119.2. Hurray, goal met!
Pics. Let's go back to Sept 2009 again - we're all going to get tired of that pic, but hey, this is the way it goes, because everything relates back to not giving up at that point. I think I was 129 at start of sss2009. So this is now a 10 pound difference. (scale weight, body comp is much different)
Sept 2009:

June 2010:

Sept 2009:

June 2010:

I was quite happy with my results. But now a thought begins to tumble around in my mind.
Could I do a competition? So many of my friends are doing competitions. My dad mentions a customer doing competitions. Competition just seems to be everywhere. So I pray about it. And I make the decision to do it. And oh my gosh, I felt a physical weight just lift from me. I hadn't realized how oppressive the enemy had been until that moment. I felt free when I decided to go for it. And ya know, I'm only 3 days away and I'm not nervous at all. I'm really just excited. I think it is going to be fun. And after the competition is when the final blog of 'not giving up' is going to happen. Because you are going to see a total transformation from Sept 2009 to Sept 2010. And I hope it will motivate you to not give up!

What if I had given up? Part 2

2010-09-07T09:04:00.001-04:00

Obviously my answer from the previous post - part 1 - is that I chose not to give up. I continued lifting more consistently and eating (a bit) better. I try not to go crazy about clean eats - just more good choices than bad. But I completely believe in moderation on my eating and I do enjoy the good (bad) stuff now and again.
Anyhow, when the next BuffMother RR challenge came around at the turn of the year I was ready to get at it. My weight was basically the same as the ending of SSS2009, mainly because of the holidays. So I started the 6 week Just Do It challenge at 129, and ended at 126.6. Yay, progress finally! Well, scale progress. My body was making progress all along, it just hadn't shown up yet. Add in all of the holiday meals and treats and I was pretty happy to maintain those few months.
Do I give up yet? Well let's see.... from Sept to April I've only dropped 3.4 pounds. Is that even worth it?? That's not even a pound a month.
Pics-

End of SSS2009 - Front:

End of Just Do It - Front:

End of SSS2009 - Back:

End of Just Do It - Back:

Pics aren't showing much difference, not for over 6 months of work. Should I say "why bother?"

Check in tomorrow, I'll show you why you need to keep on going even when the going seems slow.

~Darcie

What if I had given up? Part 1

2010-09-06T10:53:00.001-04:00

This is part 1 of a several part blog. I don't know how many yet LOL. But as I count down to the show (5 days) I have found myself thinking about what if I had given up last year.
I see people all of the time getting upset about not losing much weight after just 1 week of turning things around. I am one of those people at times as well. I'm hoping to not be one anymore. I want to take a look back over this past year to show that you can't (or shouldn't!) give up over a week of no visible progress. In fact, you can't (shouldn't!) give up even when a month goes by with no big scale drops or measurement changes. There's stuff going on INSIDE that's getting fixed too, and sometimes it takes a while to show up outside.
Today's blog I'm talking about last September when the BuffMother Rally Room contest "Super Star Success 2009" started. I have always done the RR contests, but for the almost 2 years prior to SSS2009 I hadn't been giving it my all. When this one came around I was ready to start trying again. I was tired of being fluffy, again.
So for 10 weeks I cleaned up my eating, was good about doing my workouts and my stellar results were.... 0.6 pounds. No way!! 10 weeks and only 0.6 pounds?
Here are the before and after pics.
Before Front:

After Front:

Before Back:

After Back:

Okay, so obviously that wasn't a great performance during the SSS2009. But I did give it all I could give. What are my choices now?
1. I can say "That's just the way my body is supposed to look at this age". I tried, but it didn't work. It isn't worth the time to keep trying and not see results.
2. I can say "That's 0.6 pounds down, if I keep it up I can lose more". Because if I give up now it isn't as if the pounds will magically fall away on their own. I will not be better off if I quit. I'm going to keep trying.

Hmmmm, which one did I choose?

1 Week Out!

2010-09-05T16:01:00.000-04:00

Saturday 9/4/10:
Wow, I'm really struggling with the legs lately. I'm sure its the lower cals as we get closer. Only 1 week away!!! I'm so glad. I'm ready to eat a big piece of red velvet cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. That's on my list for after the show next Saturday. Yum!!!
Anyway, did wimpy legs today. Just 3 isolation exercises. I have to do legs again on Monday and I didn't want them sore for my last real leg workout before the show. On Monday I'll kill them with squats and deadlifts, but for Saturday it was just sets of Leg Ext's, Ham Curls & Calves. A bunch of sets with different weights and some single leg, some both legs. Too lazy to write it all out - nothing special LOL.
Tomorrow I start a much more strict diet, with no grains at all. No more oatmeal (cry). No brown rice. Just fruits for my starchy carbs this week. I'm doubling up on my oatmeal today since it's my last for a week. I hope the rest of the family survives my diet this week.
Since it's actually Sunday when I'm posting this - today is my day off. Yay! I am trying to rest and really be ready to go this week. Tomorrow is a bit off schedule because it's labor day and we'll all be gathered together - and there will be snacks everywhere. But it is going to be my butt up on that stage that is getting critiqued and I'm not sabotaging that with a few chips and dip. Clean, clean, clean eats this week.
Watched a bunch of npc figure clips on youtube last night. It was a great confidence builder. Those girls aren't perfect either. So I feel really good going into the show. By the time I'm dehydrated and prepped by Saturday morning I think I'm going to be shocked at myself. Can't wait to post some pics here!
Have a great holiday weekend.
~Darcie

Last of the Catch Up Posts!

2010-09-05T15:55:00.000-04:00

8/30/10: Rested up and Ready to go!
I am ready to tackle the week. I had a good rest day on Sunday. I only did a little pilates and stretching when my back got tight from sitting at the computer gaming with Ted & Jake.

Saturday was hams/glutes and I focused on single leg exercises - so not very many. They take forever LOL.
warmup rbike 10

booty bulgarians - 20's x 6 x 4 ea
with RB Lat Raises - Blue x 10 x 4

Single Leg RDL's 20's x 6 x 4 ea
with RB Front Raises - Blue x 10 x 4

Ham Curls (single) 10 x 12 x 4 ea
with RB Bi Curls - Blue x 20 x 4

Stat. BB Lunges 45x8 ea - Knees said no more!

Then today was back/shoulders/bi's
warmup rbike 10 minutes

BOBBR- 45x10wu; 65x10; 75x8x2
with Mil BB Press 45x8x3

Cable Rows 75x10; 85x8x3
with Lat Raises 15's x 8 x 3

Lat Pulls Wide grip - 55x8x3
with Rev Flyes 15's x 8 x 3

Front Plate Raises 25x8x3
with Bi Curls 15's x 10 x 3

10 min rbike afterward, moderate speed. Pilates after that.
PM - Hill Sprints. Walked to hill, 6 sprints uphill, walked home. Total distance 2.5mi

And I was super-productive today. Only got 4 hours of sleep and thought for sure I'd be crashing after Jake was at school. But instead I continued packing up his old toys, rearranging stuff, cleaning out the toy room/storage room / everything goes here that we don't know where to put somewhere else room. I was going, going, going all day long.

And now it's time for me to go game with the family :) Have a great Monday, the week is just starting and there's so much you can accomplish!

~Darcie

9/1/10: Try, try again
Yesterday was leg day. Was supposed to be leg day at least. I just could not get this workout going. I started in the AM and did a few sets of squats and leg ext's. But my back was so tweaked from some booty bulgarians the previous Saturday. So I ended up rolling it out on the tennis ball. Started mid back and ended up going all the way down my glute and into my hamstring. That whole area was a tight mess. But wow did it feel much better afterward. Had to head out, but tried to do the workout again in the PM and it just didn't happen. I ended up with: 10 min rbike wu. Squats 45x10, 95x10x4. Exts 90x8, x7, x8, x10. That was it. Needed to do some ss cardio but that was a no go too. I think Monday's super productive day caught up to me. So on Saturday when I do legs I will do it all instead of just hams/glutes.

Today was senior picture day at school so I was there all morning. I brought my food but just didn't have time to eat it. When I got home I thought I might be doing a workout, but no energy. Picked up Jake, came home and ate, still no energy. Decided I needed a nap, so had a nice 30 minute rest. And FINALLY got my workout in.

wu rbike 10

BP
45x10
65x10
75x8x2
80x6x2
85x4x2
90x1
75x6

Paired those with:
tri kickbacks 15's x 8 x 3
tri exts 15 x 20 x 3
flyes 15's x 10 x 3
db press 15's x 10

Intervals: rbike 20 minutes
Ab Boot Camp - 2 rounds

I felt better after I got it done. I had such a hard time getting motivated and getting started. Just had to push through it today. Tomorrow is long cardio day, some walking lunges, and calves.

Have a great evening!

~Darcie

9/3/10: Leaning out
I can tell I'm leaner than I've ever been, because well parts of me are just getting, smaller. LOL.

Today was back/shoulders/bi's.

wu rbike 10 min

BOBBR's 45x10, 65x10, 75x8, 85x6
with Mil BB Press 45x10, 65x6x2, 45x10

Single Arm Rows 45x6x3 ea
with Lat Raises 15's x 8, 20's x 5 (only got those halfway up), 15's x 8

Lat Pulls 55x8 wide, 65x6, 55x8 wide
with Bi Curls 20's x 8, 15's x 8 x 2

Rbike - 21 minutes with some intervals. I forgot I was doing intervals LOL. Was just going along doing SS when I realized I was supposed to do intervals.

Then Ab boot camp afterwards - 2 rounds.

Yesterday I went up to the park and rode my bike for an hour. That place is always windy. It can be still everywhere else but the wind there blows against you no matter which way you are going. Even when you swing around the loop its always against you.

Tomorrow is legs, ss cardio and abs. Looking forward to a nice long weekend. Hope you all have a fun one!

~Darcie

Wow, Still more stuff From August?? Yes!

2010-09-05T15:52:00.000-04:00

8/23/10: Abs are looking great today!
Abs are looking awesome this morning. I love that!
Today was chest/tri's. yesterday was off day and I did 4 sets of booty lunges.

WU - rbike 10min
BP - 45x10wu; 65x8; 75x6; 85x2, 1; 75x6; 80x4
Tri Kicks - 15's x 12 x 3

Inc DB Flyes - 20's x 8 x 3
Dips 10, 10, 6

Inc DBBP - 20's x 10 x 3
Tri Pushdowns 25x10x3

Tonight is sprints. If it isn't raining. It rained all weekend. And I will do pilates and some extra abs after sprints. I was doing pilates in the AM, but I really like doing it after cardio.

I was very productive yesterday. I finished putting stones on my suit this weekend. Not a lot, just a nice amount I think. I caught up on all of the dishes, ran laundry, and even got to play some games with the family in between! It was nesting day :) .
School started today. Got a call at lunch saying Jake had forgotten his lunchbox in Ted's car. So we scrambled to find stuff there that would get him enough carbs. They are a private school and don't have a cafeteria (food is ordered and brought in for lunch each day) so it was quite a jumble of stuff LOL. But at least he ate :) Then I called Ted and he says he doesn't have the lunch box. So I called the school back and they found it up in his classroom. But both Jake and his teacher looked for it and couldn't find it. So either someone accidently grabbed it then brought it back, or it got shoved behind a backpack or something. But at least we know where it is. What a way to start! LOL.

Ok, I'm gonna clean up from my workout and veg out a little bit while I have the house to myself.

~Darcie

8/24/10: Not even a taste!
I made oatmeal raisin cookies today for Ted and Jake and I didn't even take one tiny taste. Not a nibble, not a lick of a spoon or finger, nothing! When we were at the grocery store the other night Ted was actually looking at boxes of cookies. I was like "are you kidding? store bought cookies?" That's just nasty. Those things are dry and disgusting. But since I've been on a pretty tight diet I haven't done as much baking as usual besides bread. So today I thought it would be nice for them to have a little treat around. And you know what? I'm just not even tempted. I SO thank Jesus for that. I know it is him who is giving me the strength and discipline to get through this training. I'm so thankful!!

Today was leg day. I got it done early today since I have things to do this afternoon. It's a bit hard adjusting to school year schedule, but it will get better after a few weeks. Still, with it being earlier than usual, and CD2, major cramps both tummy and back... I was proud to even get anything done today! LOL.

Warmup rbike 10

Squats 95x10; 135x6x3
w/ Ext's 90x10x3
w/ Calves - single leg bw - 10x3ea

Squats - feet together - 135x6x3
w/ Ext's - toes out - 90x10x3
w/ Calves - single leg bw - 10x3ea

Lying Side leg Raises- 25x20x3ea

Then 20 min ss on the rbike. Then pilates/abs.

And I'm done!! :)

I made those cauliflower "mashed potatoes" today that Kermane has in the recipe section. Well, without the butter, but they were still good!! Made me feel like I was getting some good carbs - mentally.

Now I'm off to vote in the primaries today. Then to go get Jake and we'll rent some movies for tonight. It's dark, rainy and stormy. Love that, but wish I could nap today and take advantage of the good nap weather. There's just no time today!

Have a terrific afternoon!

~Darcie

8/25/10: Back Day!
Had a blah workout this morning. I didn't really give it my all. Actually, I just didn't have much to give. I felt like I was getting an ear infection last night and I'm still a bit stuffy feeling on the left side today. It's STILL rainy and dreary out. And it's CD3. Put them all together and what do you get? Tired and run down. And back/shoulder/bi day always feels like it takes forever.

Back/Shoulder/Bi
wu 10 min rbike

BOBBR - 45x10, 65x8, 85x6x2, 65x8
w/ Lat Raises 15's x 8 x 3

One Arm Rows - 45x6x3ea
w/ DB Shoulder Press 15's x 12 x 3

Lat Pulls 55x8, 75x5x2 (actually these were negatives. this weight pulled me off the bench LOL)
w/ Rev Flyes 15's x 8 x 3

Front Plate Raises 25x8x3
w/ bi curls 15's x 10 x 3

15 min intervals on rbike
15 min pilates/abs

Then did some work. And I started packing away all of Jake's star wars toys. We were in his room the other day and I asked if he even played with it anymore and he said no and that I could pack it up. I can't tell you how much stuff there is in there. I've filled 4 big boxes and I'm not half way done. I hope Ted can find some more boxes to bring home today LOL. But it was kinda sad packing it all away too. Some things we haven't played with in years, but I can remember how much fun we had with them. Still, it is time to move on to a new stage. His room is going to be so empty though. He's actually excited to get one of the bookshelves free now so he has more places to put his books. He is like me in that way. We love books.

Weight was 119.6 today. i wasn't expecting that at all. I always sit at 120 forever so I was shocked to see something different. And I still haven't had a cookie :) Eats are good, but just the same old thing. You can't imagine how excited I am at my last meal of the day for my prot powder/pb mix LOL.

Gotta go pick up the kid. Catch you all later.

Oh, my sparkly clothes came. They are the best!

~Darcie

8/27/10: Another Tired Workout
Ugh, it was all I could do to get through the few exercises I had planned. Just so tired today. I went back to sleep this morning after Jake was at school. I didn't even get my first meal until noon - which is probably why I just feel weak and tired today. Anyway, here's what I did.

WU rbike 10 minutes

BP 45x10; 65x8; 75x6; 80x4
with Bench Dips 10x3

Inc BP 45x10; 65x6x3
with Tri Exts 15x10x3

Inc Flyes 20's x 6 x 3
with Tri pushdowns 25x10x3

Then just 12 minutes on the rbike with 4 intervals. I don't feel too bad about those. I did cardio every day this week.

Tonight I will do some resist band stuff for shoulders and maybe some light chest stuff. Tomorrow is leg day and I get more carbs, so that should help too. Then Sunday I'm totally off and I'm taking advantage of that and just resting. rest, rest, rest!

Alright, so I'm 2 weeks out! I'm getting really excited!!

~Darcie

Yep, More August Stuff!

2010-09-05T15:47:00.000-04:00

8/17/10: Tuesday means LEG DAY.
I had to do legs early this morning so we could head over to Bok Tower Gardens for the afternoon. So here's how it went...

Legs & Shoulders/Bi's (didn't get my extra shoulders/bi's in last night)

Squats 95x10, 135x6x3
with
DB Shoulder Press 15's x 10 x 3
with
Abs 10x3

Squats Feet Together - 95x10, 135x6x3
with
Lat Raises 15's x 10 x 3
with
Abs 10 x 3

Deadlifts 135x6x2 (back started feeling tweaky after previous squats, so only 2 sets)
with
Front Raises 15's x 8 x 2
with
Abs 10 x 2

Leg Exts 90x10x3
with
Bi Curls 15's x 10 x 3
with
Abs 10x3

Then it was off to Bok. We were there for 2 hours, had lunch, walked the trail and grounds, hung out at the reflecting pond for a while. A nice relaxing afternoon. A photographer there took pics of Jake & I at the reflecting pond for a magazine he was doing a shoot for there. That'd be fun if they use them in the magazine. He said he'd send us a copy. That's the second time for us getting asked for photos. Last time we were at a park looking over a bridge to the river and a photographer from the local paper stopped us to take some photos for his story. I don't get the paper though so I don't know if we made it in there LOL.

Yesterday was back/shoulders/bi day. I did some compound stuff in the AM with plans to do isolation in the evening, but that didn't happen. A rainstorm rolled in and I got all lazy :) No sprints either. Gonna have to do those Wed. But what I did get in was:
BOBBR - 45x10x4
Lat Pulls 45x10x3
Cable Rows 45x10x4
Mil BB Press 45x10x4
BB Bi Curls 45x10x4
PM- Rev Flyes 15's x 10 x 2 - then the laziness kicked in.

I'm on low cardio this week. I talked to Michelle yesterday morning and she said I could keep building right now and not try to lose weight this week so yay! If you are going to do a competition you SO have to train with her. Even if you can write your own program, there's just a huge relief in knowing someone can guide you through all the way to the show, who knows what exactly to do and how to do it. And don't wait til the last minute to do it like I did :)

Last night I ordered some custom yoga pants, hoodie & tank top from a site called Custom Glam Girl. Oh my gosh! If you love sparkly stuff and rhinestones you'll love this. I had all of those items made with Team BuffMother on them. The hoodie is black with pink sparkly writing. The yoga pants and tank are black with the writing in rhinestones. I'm wearing them to the show. I think I'm going to be addicted to making my own stuff there. Hopefully they will be good items. I'll let you know.

Okay, gonna veg for the rest of the evening. Everyone keep up the great work on the 30 day challenge!

~Darcie

Oh, my suit came yesterday!

8/18/10:Rainy Day
I love rainy days, but they make me feel so lazy. After our errands this afternoon I came home and changed into my jammies to hang out and relax. I'll need to get some energy for sprints if it clears up. Only problem with sprints after rain is that the sidewalks that are under the trees out on the main road get slippery from mildew. I don't think it is going to let up though. That's my second day this week that sprints have been rained out. I guess I will at least need to do intervals tonight.

This morning was chest/tri's.
wu - rbike 10 min

BP - 45x10wu, 65x8, 75x6, 85x4x2
with Tri Kickbacks - 15's x 12 x 3
with Abs 10x4

Inc BP - 45x10, 65x8, 70x6x2
with Tri Exts - 20 x 12 x 3
with Abs 10x4

Flyes - 20's x 8 x 3
with Tri Pushdowns 25x10x3
with Abs 10x3

Weight is back down to 120.4. It keeps going up in down in a two pound range. I'm feeling good though and looking good so I'll ignore that for now. Of course my butt, hips and thighs are the most stubborn part and they don't seem to want to cooperate with the plans I have for them. Too bad! Compliance is not optional.

Eating is going great! I had my lindt truffle "cheat" today - ahhhh. I made it last a long time LOL.
M1 - oatmeal w/blueberries, eggs
M2 - salmon, green pepper
M3 - turkey, spinach, strawberries
lindt treat
M4 - tuna, brussel sprouts
M5 - some dessert-y type thing that isn't a REAL dessert but tastes like it LOL

I've been trying to come up with some creative bedtime snacks because I love sweet stuff at that time. Since I'm off bread and dairy for now the cottage cheese thing is out, and the yogurt thing is out. No cinnamon toast or pbj toast. The last 3 nights I've mixed canned pumpkin, prot powder, spices, 1/4 of a graham cracker and pecans together. Eh, it's okay. But I'm out of pumpkin now. I can probably do some applesauce thing. Peanut butter is calling my name though. Maybe some pb, pp & a little water to make it like brownie batter. & some peanuts. Well, i'll think of something.

Have a great evening. Oh, I think I see blue sky. Drat, sprints! LOL

~Darcie

8/20/10:Friday Already?
Wow this week flew by. Our last week of summer vacation. I am going to miss our lazy schedule. Now its back to school and packing lunch and snacks and getting clothes ready. Today I have to go pick up school supplies. LOL, I know, last minute huh? That's me. I do my best work last minute

So I just finished up my back/shoulders/bi's workout. I am currently boosting/buffing. Boosting my big moves, buffing the smaller ones, buffing eats, boosting cardio.

BOBBR's
65x10
85x6x3
with
DB Shoulder Press
15's x 12 x 4

Cable Rows
45x10
75x8
95x5x2
with
Front Raises
15's x 8 x 3

Lat Pulls
55x10
75x5x2
with
Lat Raises
15's x 8 x 3

Seated Calves
Single Leg -
45x10ea
90x10ea
Both Legs -
90x10
135x10
150x10
with
Seated Bi Curls
15's x 6 x 3

Donkey Calves, single leg
10x3ea
with
DB Curls
15's x 8 x 3
(saw my vein come up for a visit on these sets! )

How do calves fit into back/shoulders/bi's? LOL. They don't. But I they need some extra attention.

No sprints today. I'm not getting rained out this time, but my shins are sore from Wednesday's sprints. Normally I wouldn't do them that close together but the weather was uncooperative this week. Anyway, I'll do some intervals later and I'm going to do some pilates after since I skipped abs during the weights today.

Today's tasks are housework, school supply shopping and groceries. I need to restock. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to make bad choices since nothing sounds good.

Have a great weekend!

~Darcie

More August CatchUp

2010-09-05T15:43:00.000-04:00

8/10/10: Legs, Legs, Legs
Got them done! I did my pilates this morning, but no extra am cardio today - yay! I'll do a little ss elliptical tonight.

Leg workout - PreExhaust SuperSets

Leg Ext's - 70x20x3
with
Squats (feet together) 115x10x3

Let Exts (toes out) - 70x20x3
with
Deadlifts - 135x8x3

Triple Burnout Circuit:
KB Swings 25x10
with
Step Ups 15's x 10
with
Walking Lunges 15's x 10
3 times through
Legs were TOAST!

Eats are great. I got to have my little lindt truffle cheat today - one a week! LOL. Lots of greens going down today.

I ordered a new comp suit. The other one was too small up top. I can't remember if I wrote this already? LOL. Anyway, it should be shipping out tomorrow, and is for my measurements instead of just guessing. I still got it through diva exchange for a great price. I'm only putting a few stones on it for a little extra bling, but not much.

Oh, and i ordered a GREAT video. If you are doing a comp for NPC and have never done one, I highly recommend it. It's called What Judges Are Looking For in Figure, Bikini, Women's Bodybuilding & Fitness, 2010. Lots of things like - don't try to flare out your arms on front pose - if you don't have the Vtaper they know it and you're not fooling them. And good stuff like that.

Ok, off to play some games and eat. It's a dreary rainy day. It's supposed to be that way the rest of the week. And I have to stay home for some package that's coming tomorrow, but only have to wait between the hours of 7am to 8pm - how nice of them to narrow it down like that. So convenient for me. LOL

Have a good one,

~Darcie

8/12/10: Summer Bowling Party
Today we had a summer party at the bowling alley. We invited all of Jake's class and about half could make it so that was fun. We did about 2 hours of that. Then we played some pool until all of the kids were picked up. It was a fun morning. I did not eat any of the pizza. I did however end up going a long time without food because I never had a chance to get out to the car to grab my salad. I was STARVING!!

I'm glad it was just cardio day because I didn't have to try to fit in a weight workout somewhere in there. Did 30 min on the rbike this morning and will do a walk through the neighborhood tonight. I keep pulling my groin muscle slightly every time we go bowling. I'm not sure why because I haven't changed my bowling style in 20 years. But I'm going to have to stay away for the next few weeks. i can't be down and out of commission at this time.

Yesterday was back/shoulders/bi's/cardio/some abs

AM - Pilates
40 min Ellip
Back:
BOBBR - 45x10, 65x10x3
Cable Rows - 45x12x3
Lat Pulls - 45x10, 55x10x2
Rev Flyes - 15's x 10 x 3
Single Arm Bent Over Rows - 25x6x3

PM -
Shoulders/Bi's:
DB Shoulder Press 20's x 8 x 4
Lat Raises 15's x 8 x 4
Front Raises 20 x 8 x 4
Bi Curls 20's x 5 then 15's x 5, 3 sets
RB Lat Raises Blue x 8, 10, 12
Ellip 30 min

Looks like alot, but just because I split it up. I like to split it so I can do some stuff quick in the AM, then we can go do stuff, then later at night I can finish up. I usually do big muscle moves in the AM and hit the auxillary stuff in the evening. Except that yesterday we didn't go anywhere at all LOL. We had to stay home and wait for that mysterious important package that required a signature. You know, the one they dropped at the front door without even ringing our doorbell and left and the only reason we knew it was there was because we heard the truck. And it was so important - a free game from MicroSoft since Ted did some survey's. LOL.

Eats are awesome! I am not tempted to eat the good (bad) stuff. I haven't completely eliminated everything yet because I'm still losing weight. Well, I'm not losing fast, and some days I am a slight bit higher, then drop again, but i'm leaner so who cares what the scale says. Anyway, this weekend I will probably cut my dairy down a bit....just a bit :) I'm slowly weaning off some things so it's not all at once. And I had to do a nice high cal day on leg day because I needed a jump start.

Alright, that's it for me. We've been having a Harry Potter movie marathon this week. I think the last one I had seen was number 3, so that's 3 new movies for me to watch (3 new movies to keep me occupied while I do the elliptical!)

~Darcie

8/15/10: Weekend Stuff
Let's see, last post was Thursday night so catching up...

Friday was chest/tri's. Just did a regular style workout, no supersets that day. I just wasn't up to it.
Did
bench 45x10, 65x10x3,
incline bench 45x10x3,
incline flyes 15's x 10 x 3,
resist band flyes blue & yellow x 10 x 3,
tri pushdowns 25x10x3,
tri exts 20x10x3
& bench dips 10x3.
Did I do cardio? I must have. Oh, yes right after lifting I went out and did sprints. 8 sprints in the hot FL afternoon. They felt a bit wimpy but I gave what I had. Did 2 miles total with the walking part between sprints.

Saturday was hams/glutes. I kept putting it off ALL DAY until about 7:30pm. Things just kept popping up - grocery shopping, playing computer games with Jake LOL. Anyway, I only got in 4 major exercises.

Sumo Squats 95x10x3
SLDL's 95x10x3
Booty Bulgarians 15's x 10 x 3 ea leg
Cable Pull Thru's 25x10x3
Calves between each set.

I don't know what it was - maybe because it was so late in the day or something - but after the booty bulgarians I was shaking. Not just my glutes and legs, but my arms too. It was like they got my whole nervous system. We went for a walk after my workout and I was so slow and sore already. I've done them with heavier weight so I'm not sure what was going on. My glutes are killing me today. Tried to do my booty lunges today and only got in 2 sets of 10 with the 15's.

Today was an off day. No cardio or weights (besides the lunges). It's also my day to drop bread and dairy for the next 4 weeks. I think I'll be fine. I've been weaning off them all week. And yesterday I had my high cal day, and some toast and milk for my last hurrah LOL. Eats are going great! Today I ended up with all greens and fruit for my carbs, weird.

Weight only dropped .4 pounds this week. All that extra cardio and stuff??? Bah. Whatever

Played with the tanner Friday night and it looked bad. Not sure if there was still some leftover of the spray stuff on me, but some areas would NOT accept the tanner at all and just rubbed off. Very blotchy looking too. And I've been exfoliating for 2 weeks now. Just not sure why it is being so stubborn, but I need to get it figured out soon. At this point I like the ultra 1 better than the hi-def, but I think I'd put on 2 coats of it. It sure covered way better. New suit shipped out yesterday so will get a few stones for it this week.

Ok, that's all that is going on here. Well besides a little "freak out" that I'm not going to be ready in time that hit me on Friday. Michelle reassured me I would be. I needed that.

Catch ya later.

~Darcie

So Far Behind!!!

2010-09-05T15:39:00.000-04:00

Wow, I'm almost a month behind in posting my blogs here. Ok, well these next few posts will be more catch up posts.

8/6/10: All carb'd up, nowhere to go
That was me yesterday. I ate most of my carbs that morning knowing I'd be doing a longer cardio session, then we changed our plans for the day. So instead of 60 minutes of cardio it was to the bank; to the school; to the movies (Sorcerer's apprentice, fun!); to wal-mart; to the grocery store; to the video store. Too many errands!
So later yesterday evening I did 60 min elliptical while we watched a movie.
Today was back/shoulders/bi's. I did back this morning: Pre-exhaust supersets
warmup rbike 10 min
Bent over rev flyes 15's x 10
then resist band rev flyes blue x 10
w/ BOBBR's 50x10x3
w/ abs 10x3

Cable Rows 25x20; 35x20x2
w/ Lat Pulls 35x10, 55x10x2
w/ abs 10x3

Single Arm Rows
25x15, 12, 10
w/ abs 10x3

Then it was off to do sprints. I did 4 good sprints before I started feeling bad in my right foot. It was the feeling that said "you're about to get an avulsion fracture of the 5th metatarsal if you do one more sprint and you will be off your feet for almost 2 weeks" (yes my feelings are quite lengthy and wordy). So I walked the rest of the way home, which then took forever because I couldn't run LOL. And it is hot out there at noon!
Next I went out and weeded the garden for 10 minutes (did I mention the heat?)
Then it was off to pretend I was getting ready on comp morning so that took me a little over two hours to shower, shave, tan, hair, makeup, play with the bikini bite, pose for a while, etc.
Now I'm all pretty and tan and don't want to do the rest of my workout LOL. But it needs to be done. So I'll be heading off to do shoulders/bi's/(intervals -to make up for quitting earlier):
pre-exhaust shoulders
Lat raises __ x 20 x 3
w/ Mil BB Press 45x10x3

Front Raises ___ x 20 x 3
w/ DB Press 20's x 10 x 3

Bi Curls 15's x 10 x 3
Hammer Curls 15's x 10 x 3
Some extra bicep stuff with resistance bands.

Intervals on rbike.

OH, and JanTana FTW! The protan stuff sucked. I was barely tan, it splattered and ran down my body. The JanTana Ultra1 that you put on the morning of comp - it rocks. I am actually DARK right now. :)

8/7/10: No rest for the booty
My poor glutes have been sore since last Saturday! They just can't catch a break. Last Saturday was glutes/hams, then Monday they got killed with sprints, Tuesday was quads but squats always work those glutes, Thursday was walking lunges with a glute focus, and just when they thought they might recover it was more sprints on Friday, and today was hams/glutes again.

So, I worked my posterior chain today - I can already feel it so will I be mobile tomorrow? Lower back got some great work in too during the good mornings and cable pull throughs.

More pre-exhaust supersets: Glutes/Hams

Leg Curls 15 x 20 x 3
w/ Good Mornings 95x10x3
w/ Calves 20x3
w/ Abs 10x3

Cable Pull Thru's - 25x20x3
w/ RDL's 95x10x3
w/ Calves 20x3
w/ Abs 10x3

Booty Bulgarians - 15's x 5 x 3 ea leg
w/ Calves 20x3
w/ Abs 10x3

Yesterday I did not get in my other set of intervals to makeup for my lack of full sprints. And this morning I forgot to do my fasted cardio. Oops! Although I have been doing my pilates every morning. So tonight I'm thinking some intervals, then add some SS. But I'm feeling SO super lazy I can't make any promises on that.

Today was domestic day- laundry, dishes, Jake made yogurt, I made bread.

Eats are good! They've been good all week. Since today was legs it is my favorite day because... more carbs! That way I was actually able to eat a piece of the bread I made :)

Weight is good. I started the week Monday at 123.0 and today I was 121.6. Not sure how I'll end the week tomorrow because I tend to weigh a bit more after leg day. So I might go up. But it will drop right back down so it's all good.

Ok, was going to list eats this week but this post is getting long. Have a great evening!

~Darcie

8/9/10: RR is on fire today!
Wow, it is crazy busy in here today - lots of fun!

I am in the contest, but have a different workout schedule setup, so I'll be following along to my own little tune LOL.

Starting the week off GREAT! Today was chest/tri's/cardio/abs. I'm working twice as hard this week so lets hope I make it to Sunday :) . Weight is 122.0, looking to be in the 120.x range by Sunday.

AM fasted -
Pilates 20 min
Rbike 40 minutes, easy pace

Later AM - PreExhaust Supersets

DB Flyes - 15's x 20 x 3
w/ BP - 55x10x3

Resist Band Flyes - Blue & Yellow x 20 x3
w/ DBBP - 20's x 10 x 3

Around the Worlds - 5's x 10 x 3
w/ Pullovers 10 x 10 x 3

Then this evening I finished up with:

Tri Pushdowns - 25x10x3
w/ abs 10x3

Tri Exts - 20 x 10 x 3
w/ abs 10x3

Tri Kickbacks 15's x 10 x 3
w/ abs 10x3

Light Lat Raises - bluex10x2

And sprints outside. 8 sprints, total distance 2miles.

Eats were great at dinner out last night. Salad w/chicken, very little dressing. Saved up my carbs so I could have the croissant that comes with it :) . There must have been about 10 cups of mixed greens in that salad. I had the 2nd half at home as late night snack. Totally passed up the cake and appetizers. Today is great also. In fact it has been a perfect week of eats.

Hope you all are having a spectacular start to your week!

~Darcie

The BuffMother "30 Day Get Buff" Contest

2010-08-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

The 30 Day Get Buff Contest Starts today! Head on over to the BuffMother website and sign up there. The contest takes place in the paid only portion of the Rally Room, but there is a 30 day free trial - perfect for this challenge!

Basic Contest INFO-

This contest is FREE!!!

TEAM start date Aug 9th, 2010 (you can start late- just sign up and follow the plan on your own)

Location of the Contest is in our "Women Only" Team Buffmother! Rally Room- you can join FREE using the "30 day free trial" option

Daily workout plan- a link will be e-mailed to you daily, however, you can opt to do your own alternate workouts

Support, info, instruction, videos and downloads will be available to contestants via the Rally Room.

4 Simple steps to enter and WIN:

1. Take your starting stats (pictures optional)

2. Blog in the Rally Room at least 3 times during the duration of the Challenge

3. Take your ending stats

4. Submit your entry to michelle@buffmother.com by Sept 25th- Entry= starting stats, final stats, a written paragraph sharing your thought about the contest, and at least photo of yourself.

Chest/Tri's & Grapes

2010-08-04T21:47:00.000-04:00

I didn't sleep very much last night. Ted was the on call tech and so calls were coming in quite a bit. When I woke up I did not want to do my pilates. I was tired!! But I did it anyway. It's a great relaxed pilates workout dvd - Caribbean Workout. I love the music in the background.

Then we went grape picking. The ones that we ended up liking weren't quite ripe yet so we'll have to go back in a few weeks. But it was fun to walk through and taste them, even if I did get covered in spider lines that were going across from one set of vines to the other.

After that we went swimming. It felt really good after walking around in the heat.

Came home, took a nice nap, then onto the workout.

Chest/Tri's, Pre-exhaust supersets
+ Abs, & SS cardio

warmup rbike 10 min

DB Flyes - 15's x 20 x 3
w/ BP - 45x10x3
w/ Abs 10x3

RB Flyes - Blue & Yellow x 20 x 3
w/ DBBP - 20's x 10 x 3
w/ abs

Pushups 10x3 (knees)
w/ Abs 10x3

Tri Pushdowns - 25x10x3
w/ abs 10x3

Tri Kickbacks - 15's x 10 x 3
w/ abs 10x3

Elliptical 30 minutes

Walk dog 20 minutes

Eats were good. A little low on greens, but all still in line with the numbers I'm looking for. Yay!

Have a great night :)

~Darcie

Leg Day & Lazy Day

2010-08-03T16:42:00.000-04:00

Got most of my leg workout done this morning. Going to finish up tonight with some calves, also a teeny tiny bit of shoulder work, and ss cardio. I also realized today that is has been FOREVER since I did pilates and I miss it. So starting tomorrow I am doing pilates first thing in the morning. It will be a great start to my days.
Today was quad work. PreExhaust supersets.
Leg exts - 65x20x3
w/ Squats - 95x10x3
w/abs after each superset

Leg Exts (toes out) 65x20x3
w/ Squats (feet together) 95x10x3
w/abs after each superset

Walking Lunges - 20's x 10 x 3
w/ KB Swings - 25x10x3
w/abs after each superset

These supersets are really working me hard. Both the pre-exhaust and the post-exhaust.

Jake wanted to be lazy today. That's too many days in a row. He's really into working in PhotoShop and making avatars and signatures for the Wizard101 Central forums. So he's been totally focused on that for days. I've at least challenged him to some Wii competition this afternoon :)

Tomorrow we're going grape picking! That is going to be so much fun. I've gone orange, grapefruit, blackberry, blueberry, and strawberry picking, but this will be a first time for grapes. They have 40 different varieties!! Can't wait to taste test :) Then some swimming probably after since it will be hot. And later in the week some bowling, to the movies, and maybe to the park.

I made my bracelet for the competition. I'm still undecided how I want to go with the earring design. Here's a pic of my bracelet, and my itty bitty suit. :) You don't realize how tiny they are until you put one on and you're hanging out all over the place hahaha. Pic doesn't show how sparkly the bracelet really is though.

Workout Stuff :)

2010-08-02T22:54:00.000-04:00

Wed 7/28
This morning was back/shoulders/bi's. I'm a little shaky right now so typing is taking forever since I have to fix typos.

Post Exhaust Supersets

BOBBR
45x10wu
65x8
75x6x3
with
RB Rev Flyes
Blue x 20 x 3

Lat Pulls
55x8x3
with
Cable Rows
35x20x3

Mil BB Press
45x10x3
with
RB Lat Raises
Blue x 20 x 3

BB Bi Curls
45x8x2
with
Bi Curls
10's x 20 x 2 (various styles)

My legs are toast today after yesterday's workout. I can't believe I'm feeling it so much in my inner thighs and glutes. I was trying to work quads! LOL. I guess the high rep exts really took it out of me and I had to use those other muscles during my squats and deadlifts. Anyhow, its all good.

The beginner line at the wakeboarding place was broken so we didn't get to do that yesteday. We'll try again next week. Came back and swam a little, then a bit of a walk last night. It felt good to stretch out my legs because they were already sore. I didn't finish my part 2 of my workout. Today I need to remember my glutamine!

Thanks again for all of the support you all gave in my blog yesterday. You can't begin to know how much it means to me.

~Darcie

~*~*~*~*~*~
Friday 7/30
Yesterday was cardio only day. It was actually "off" day all around, but around 9pm I decided to get some cardio in. 40 min on the elliptical.

Today was chest/tri's & cardio. CD2 so I skipped abs and will get them maybe tomorrow. Started buffing today, a few days early.
Pre-exhaust supersets
RB Flyes - blue/yellow x 20 x 3
BP - 55x10x3

RB Single Arm Fly
Yellow x 15 x 3 ea arm
DB Press - 20's x 10 x 3

Tri Pushdowns 25x10x3

Tri Kickbacks 15's x 10 x 3

Ellip 30 min ss

I also got a massage this morning which felt great. It is nice to be able to turn my neck a bit again LOL. After the workout I got some weeding done in the garden. It needs it bad.

Tonight I'm practicing with some tanner. It looks terrible right now, we'll see how it is in the morning. The directionsn stated it didn't run or streak but it slid right down my body immediately and did every time Ted stopped the sprayer then started up again. We'll see tomorrow.

Ok, gonna go post eats - they were good. Down 1.2 pounds this week even though I was trying to boost and gain. Just vacation junk weight though.

~*~*~*~*~*
Monday 8/2/10
Hoping to make the most of this coming week. It's great that every day is new to make good choices.

I did super over the weekend. No cheats or treats. The eats challenge was so good for me to do. It really helped me stay focused.

Today was Back/Shoulders/Bi's & Intervals. Oops, I just realized I totally spaced doing abs.
Pre-Exhaust supersets - AM

Rev Flyes - Blue x 20 x 3
w/ BOBBR - 55x10x3

DB Rows - 15's x 15 x 3
w/ Lat Pulls 45x10x3

RB Lat Raises - Blue x 10, then set of RB bi curls blue x 10, then 5 more Lat Raises.
w/ DB Shoulder Press - 15's x 10 x 3

Then in the evening.
Run/walk Intervals. 8 sprints, total distance of 2 miles.

When I got home did:
Bi Curls - 15's x 10 x 3
w/ RB Bi - Curls Blue x 10 x 3

Hammer Curls - 15's x 8 x 3
w/ RB Front Raises - Blue x 8 x 3

Since I forgot abs I'll do some vacuums, supermans and cats. I'm already showered so I don't want to do anything sweaty.

Saturday I did legs - hams/glutes. And some ss cardio.

Today I let myself have a lindt for doing so good and that will be my treat for the week. Otherwise it is clean and low cals for me.

Did some more weeding of the jungle (garden). I found some carrots growing in Jake's box LOL. And I got a bit of grocery shopping done. Otherwise it was mostly work and researching the search problem we've been having for....oh about a year LOL. I might have a solution, we'll see what else I can find. And working on a bit of jewelry too.

Have a super evening and a great week ahead!

~Darcie

Legs Part 1, Done!

2010-07-28T14:13:00.002-04:00

Ah, another leg day today! I will say I don't like the bands much for quad work so didn't use them in my workout. I think they are great for glute stuff (kickbacks, ad/ab stuff) and will incorporate them on Saturday's leg day.

Today I did more post-exhaust supersets and I was so shaky by my 3rd set of exercises that I had to finish up for the time being.

Squats
95x10wu
115x10wu
135x6x3
wtih
Leg Exts
45x20x3

Squats - feet together
135x6x3
with
Leg Exts - toes out
45x20x3

Deadlifts
135x6x3
with
Step Ups
BW x 10 x 3

I could barely step up on the bench LOL. So later I will finish Part 2 with:
Walking Lunges
Calves

I'm getting ready to take Jake Wakeboarding today, and maybe try it myself. It depends on how busy they are. I think it will be fun though and hope they aren't busy so I can try it.

Ok, so last year I wrote a blog about working on not being afraid to fail. And I've moved forward slowly. But I really don't like failure. Really afraid of having to admit I failed and look like a loser. So I've been keeping this thing to myself, and I feel that I need to share it, get it out there and be able to face it. So here goes. I'm doing a comp on Sept 11th. My biggest fear is NOT that I won't place. My biggest fear is that everyone here will know I'm competing and I have to come back and say that I didn't place and feel like a total failure. There it is. Its out there now. I'm not going to be talking about it in any more blogs and I'll let you know how I did after the show.
I really don't want to push the save button.....

~Darcie

Back from the beach!

2010-07-28T14:12:00.000-04:00

7/24/10
We had a great time!!! The weather was gorgeous and the house we stayed at this year was so nice. Yesterday was our only rainy day, which was actually a nice way to end the week. Our schedule every day was the same:
AM - Beach
Noon - up for lunch and swim in the pool
Afternoon - play games - wii, billiards, air hockey, cards, puzzles, nap
5pm - out to dinner
Evening - back to the beach to swim and play frisbee
PM - back to the house to play dominoes, watch movies, eat dessert
Sleep
Repeat every day!!

We had some really great food again this year. I ate, and ate, and ate.... LOL. I left at 122 and came back at 126. :) Crab bisque; duck; chicken marsala; some yummy salmon topped with peas, sundried tomatoes and bacon in a cream sauce; shrimp; brie baked in a pastry with walnuts and apricot sauce; great salads and tons of different types of breads; choc mousse dessert (twice!); seduction by chocolate cake; lots of ice cream... See, I ATE. LOL. Good stuff. We really enjoy our dinners out on vacation and it is fun to try so many different things.

I also worked out EVERY DAY. Yep. I brought my resistance bands along and I have to say I LOVE them. I could totally feel I worked out even though I only had 45lbs resistance with them. I will be incorporating them into my workouts at the end because I love the pump they give. My schedule was:
Sun - Chest/Tri's
Mon - Legs
Tues - Back/Shoulder/Bi
Wed - Chest/Tri
Thurs - Legs
Fri - Back/Shoulder/Bi

For cardio I didn't do much. I brought all of my workout clothes but forgot my shoes! Oops. Two days I rented one of those long paddle boards that you stand on and did that for 30-45 minutes. Jake loved it too. He took it out, but got tired coming in. My dad and Ted swam out to see if he was low blood sugar, but he was just tired. As they were coming back in a manatee swam up to check them out. It brought its nose out of the water right in my dad's face like it was giving him a kiss, and then swam to Ted and he was able to pet it. (Alright. so it is illegal to pet manatees, but I think if THEY come touch you its okay :) ). So that was cool. Anyway, back to cardio. I also ran sets of stairs and did sprints on the beach with Jake (he beat me every time). Oh! And I got a compliment on my arms from the guy I rented the paddleboard from. That made me feel great because they are such a hard part for me to build and they never look buff. But I guess they are getting better!

And that sums up our week on the beach! We got home last night just after midnight and it was great to sleep in our own bed. I'm off workouts today and tomorrow, then Monday I boost for another week, then I'm on fire buffing!! Can't wait to get some of this vacation weight off in the next few days as my meals go back to normal. Gonna take advantage of it and build while I can though :) . Well I'm off to do all of the fun stuff that has to be done when you get back from vacation - unpacking and laundry!!!

Have a great weekend!

~Darcie

~*~*~*~*~*
7/26/10
Just finished my workout and I'm off to a great start to this week! Feeling good and raring to go, which is strange since it is CD 24, but I guess that's what vacation does to me. Gets me re-energized and ready to tackle it all. Let's hope this feeling lasts. For now, I'll take it for today and deal with tomorrow when it gets here!

Workout this morning was chest/tri's. I did post-exhaust supersets like in the article I read the week before last. So it was a low rep heavy compound set paired with a high rep lighter isolation set. I feel totally worked over.

Warmup rbike 10 min

BP
45x10wu
70x10x3
with
Resistance Band (RB) Flyes
Blue & Yellow x 20 x 3

DBBP
20's x 10 x 3
with
RB Chest Press, single arm
Blue & Yellow x 10 x 3 ea

Inc BP
55x10
65x6x2
with
RB Single Arm Flyes
Yellow x 15 x 2
Blue x 15

Then a tri circuit:
Tri Kickbacks 15's x 10
w/abs x10
w/ Tri Ext's 15x10
w/abs x 10
w/ Tri Pushdowns 25x10
w/ abs x 10
Three times through.

And I'm done! Now to eat some yummy salmon and salad. I finally got the grocery shopping done yesterday. Our fridge was EMPTY when we got home. Saturday night we had pizza and cinnapie - too much! I totally pigged out. Sunday was clean though and weight has dropped almost a pound since getting back from vacation, even with Saturday night's eats. My goal this week is to build that muscle!

Will probably go bowling this afternoon so that should be fun. Hope we haven't lost our touch over the last week off :)

Have a great day!

~Darcie

More Catchup...

2010-07-28T14:11:00.000-04:00

7/13/10:
The hormones are after me! It started yesterday afternoon - frustration, brain fog, fatigue, doubts about my ability to succeed in the goals I set before myself, desire to just QUIT and give up. I prayed through it. My brain really wanted me to compromise and just tell it I would give up so that it would quiet down. But NO. Prayer is awesome. I accepted the peace God sent my way. I'm still a little tired today, but am NOT giving up. Its a bit unusual for me to have mid-cycle symptoms, but every once in a while they head my way.

So yesterday wa Chest/Tri's/Abs, Cardio
DB Flyes 15's x 10 x 3
w/ Tri Exts 15x10x3 ea
w/ abs 10x3

BP 65x10x3
w/ Tri pushdowns 25x10x3
w/ abs 10x3

DBBP, Incline - 20's x 10 x 3
w/ Bench Dips 10x3
w/ abs 10x3

Did 30 min fasted rbike upon waking. Then did about 15 min bellydance drills to wu before wo. Then last night was cardio #2 - run/walk intervals for 30 minutes, then a 30 min walk afterward.

Today was Leg day. I was bad this morning and skipped my AM cardio session. So onto the workout:

wu 10 min rbike

Mini Circuit of the following: All the way through, then repeat 2 more times.
Squats 95x10
KB Swings 25x10
SLDL's on step 102x10
Leg Exts 90x10
Cable Leg Curls 15x10

Set those up in different rooms and then did walking lunges back and forth to equipment.
Walking Lunges 15's x 10 x 12
Abs After Lunges, + after last exercise 10x15
Calves After Abs 15's x 30 x 5, 15's x 20 x 5, 15's x 10 x 5

Tonight is elliptical while watching Jillian. Looks like a good one - where the lady doesn't even want her there and cries about it, and the guy won't finish his lifting sets and Jillian catches the lady smoking. I think she's going to have fun yelling at people tonight LOL.

On the countdown to the beach! Weight didn't drop today but not gonna stress it. It is what it is :) Have a great afternoon. Keep pushing through anything trying to get in your way!

~Darcie
~*~*~*~*~*~
7/15/10
We're halfway through the week! I still have so much to prepare, but I don't want to do any of it LOL. Stuff to pack and sort, etc., and it all seems overwhelming. So I end up sitting here at my computer goofing off instead. Totally having hormone issues this week.

My scale has not been nice to me, so I have decided that I will not grace it with my presence until Saturday morning. It can stay all lonely and we'll see if it has anything nice to say after a 2 day time out. I will just continue to eat good and work hard, and whatever it says on Saturday... well I'll have done my best. And you really just can't do better than that, can ya.

Today was Back/Shoulders/Bi's & Tri's day. I split it up, so I've kinda been working out all day.

6:30AM - fasted cardio 30 min rbike

8-10:30 - crashed on the couch LOL

11:00AM - Back - preexhaust supersets
Bent Over DB Rows 20's x 15, x10, x12
w/ Shrugs 95x10x3

Reverse Flyes 15's x 10 x 3
w/ BOBBR's 45x10x3

Seated Rows 55x10, 45x10x2
w/ Lat Pulls 45x10x3

Super quick workout - only took about 15 minutes but I hit all the big stuff.

Bowling this afternoon - 145, 113, 151. Obnoxious family with NO bowling etiquette next to us. Made me cranky. Rephrase that - increased my natural hormonal attitude today in a downward direction.

5:00PM - Shoulders/Bi's & Tri's -
preexhaust supersets

Lat Raises - 15's x 10 x 3
w/ Mil BB Press 45x10x3

Front Raises 15's x 10, 10's x 10 x 2
w/ DB Shoulder Press 15's x 10 x 3

antagonistic supersets
Tri Kickbacks 15's x 10 x 3
w/ Bi Curls 15's x 10 x 3

Tri Pushdowns 25x10x3
w/ BB Bi Curls 45x10x3

My arms are FRIED! I got this email article from tom venuto yesterday and it was all about supersets and working specifically for hypertrophy. I really loved all of the different types of supersets so I'm going to work those into my workouts quite often. The idea of post-exhaust sets for strength and size - good for boosting.

So all that is left is PM cardio. It just finished raining, so not sure if I'll do any running. Plus I ran Monday and today might be too close together as far as my shins and knees are concerned. I'm thinking of challenging Jake to an hour of Outdoor challenge on the Wii. That is a sweaty workout. Ok, good he just accepted my challenge. 60 min competition it is, 9pm.

Alrighty. I guess that's it for the day. I should be doing something. I'll start with something small. Gonna go get Jake dinner and wash 10 dishes. Then maybe make some jewelry for my sis for her bday this weekend.

Have a super day! Have a better mental day than I'm having LOL.

~Darcie

~*~*~*~*~
7/16/10
Off to the beach. Cya in a week!!

Oops, Sorry! Falling Behind Again

2010-07-28T14:08:00.000-04:00

Sorry about that. For all of you folks who aren't even reading this blog LOL. Doesn't matter, I'm posting anyway. Here's 7/8 through 7/12
7/8/10:
I am worn out today. It's those Tired Thursdays sneaking up on me again.

Workouts....
Monday I did get in my running intervals outside while Jake and Ted did a longer ss run. My shins were still sore yesterday, but not hurting like shin splints.
Tuesday was legs (quads) and abs. My abs were really sore from my sprints too. I also did ss elliptical while watching Losing it with Jillian and some calves and lunges.
Wednesday was chest/tri's, nice quick circuits. SS cardio 4 miles - 2 miles up to the ice cream place and 2 miles back. No I didn't get one. Jake and Ted were the lucky ones :) They each gave me a teeny tiny bite of theirs. It was almost 11pm by the time we got home. We had to time it around Jake's bedtime snack.
Today is double cardio day. Did 45 min rbike this morning and will either do more rbike or elliptical in about an hour. Probably ellip since I'm bored with the bike.

Eats....
My meals have been super duper clean all week. I'm really proud of the things I've turned down and for getting this far without my bread or glass of milk (not even a swig from the carton).
I have had 2 "cheats" that I really don't even consider cheats. The teaspoon of ice cream I tasted last night - and saying a teaspoon is being generous, it was hardly any. And today I had a forkful of mac n cheese. That is it. So I'm giving myself a 99.9999999% for clean eats this week :) .
I'm fairly close to my carb ratios each day. I've yet to actually make it to all the way down to 50, but not over 60 on those days either. On my leg days, which are 100 carb days, I've stayed below 120. That is good for me because typically a low carb day for me is about 120 and my normal carb days are near 200.
Unfortunately I'm not dropping my weight at a quicker rate on these low carbs, nor am I looking much leaner. But I do plan to stick it out the whole two weeks to see if I can get a better overall picture of how it is working.

Current weight is 121.8. I thought I'd be in the 120.x range by today so I'm a little annoyed with that. I still think I will see 120.x by Sunday.

I had a little nap this afternoon which helped a bit. Some crazy cat was meowing right outside my window though and woke me up, so it was a short nap.

Ok, I'll catch you all tomorrow. Have a good evening :)

!*!*!*!*!
7/9/10
Short week. I was so confused all week as to what day it was LOL. And now I find it is Friday. It's almost 3pm and I really haven't accomplished much yet. I didn't wake up until about 10:30 so my day has been short too. I will need to kick things up a bit to get everything done that needs doing today. I DID however get in my workout :) Didn't want to but I did it.

Tri Circuits:
Warm up - rbike 11min

Single Arm Rows 25x10x3ea
w/ Lat Raises 15's x 10 x 3
w/ Hammer Curls 15's x 5 x 3 ea

BOBBR's 45x10x3
w/ Shrugs 45x10x3
w/ BB Bi Curls 45x8x3

Seated Row 60x10x3
w/ Mil BB Press 45x10x3
w/ DB Bi Curls 20'x 8, 20's x 6, 20's x 3 & 15's x 3

Lat Pulls 60x10x3
w/ Front Raises 15's x 8 x 3
w/ Conc Curls 20x5 ea, 15x5x2 ea

Ellip Intervals 20 min

DONE DONE DONE!! Yesterday I did a walk to my parents and a swim for my evening cardio. So got in my 2. Weight was 121.2 this morning. Still on track for being in the 120.x zone on Sunday morning.

I'm off to eat something - a bit hungry today! Have a great weekend.

~Darcie

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
7/12/10
I finished up a week of low carb, no dairy and no bread stuff. I was going to do two weeks but have decided it just isn't working out for me. Not because I can't do it but because it isn't giving me the results I am looking for.
Some of my expectations going into this were:

1.*Faster weight loss
2.*Breaking the 120 barrier that I tend to get stuck at
3.*Leaning out more
But I did not experience those things. My cals were 1100-1300, carbs below 60 most days and just around 100 on leg days.
My results were:

1.I struggled this week to lose any weight at all. Sunday,7/4, I was 121.8. I had a cheat day that day which brought Monday to 123. I should have started dropping rapidly after that day but instead I went three days without a drop at all. By the following Sunday I was 121.2. That is only a total drop of half a pound. If I want to lose half a pound I can do that on 2500 cals and 200+ carbs thank you very much.
2.I couldn't even get into the 120x zone, much less under it, which really made me mad. I should have hit it by Friday. I totally expected to be under 120 by Sunday. Instead - 121.2. Didn't like it. Didn't like working my butt off and no carbs for mediocre results.
3.I got bloated. The thing is I KNOW this. I have done this experiment before with the same results. When I get my protein ratio too much higher than my carbs I get bloated. I really do much better with my carbs even to my protein, or just a bit higher. I especially should have leaned up due to my cycle days, and ending my period, but I didn't.
It wasn't a failed experiment though. It basically reinforced what I know about my body - low carb is not beneficial to me. The removal of dairy and wheat is not a change for the better for me. I'm glad I tried it again, just to be certain. I did succeed in doing it the whole week. I didn't complain or whine about missing it. I kept up a good attitude until Saturday when I realized I wouldn't be making my goal. I got kinda grouchy then. The worst part was that I was completely without energy and tired for most of the week. I still pushed hard through my workouts but then I was drained.

Sunday I pushed the RESET button (ie: high carb/high cal cheat day). This week I am still on the lower cals, but my ratios are back to normal. Workouts for the week are M-chest,T-legs,W-back, F-full body. Thursday is off except for cardio. I'm on 2-a-days this week going into the final 5 days before vacation. AM ss, PM mix of intervals and ss. Lots of water as always. I'm hoping I can reach 120 or less by Saturday morning. No, I'm expecting and planning to be 120 or less. :)

2010-07-06T07:32:00.000-04:00

Friday 7/2:
I am READY to have 2 successful weeks leading up to vacation. Or like my friend Liz says, to be Victorious! I feel very good about the upcoming weeks.

Some ways I have been successful so far:

Yesterday's cals fell right in mid range - 1411. Carbs were a little higher than I had planned out, but still only comprised 20% of my diet so I feel victorious about that.

This morning on the scale - 123.4. I defnitely revved up my metabolism the past 2 weeks.

Got my chest workout in and my intervals this morning. These are my first intervals since before the SX70 ended - its been a while!

My attitude. It might be CD1 today, if not it will be tomorrow for certain, but I am focused on keeping a positive attitude.

No bread, no milk yesterday and none today either. That is big for me :) Will keep that up until vacation.

I have already cleaned the master bath, master bedroom, family room and dining area, plus a couple of loads of laundry - getting things done!

So when I am feeling down or frustrated I will come back to this post and see the success I had and know it is possible and I can keep on going.

Let's see. I do still have to finish up my tri's this evening. I'm really loving splitting the workouts up when I have a day that just doesn't allow it all at once. I do the hard stuff in the AM, the big compound moves and sweaty stuff. Then in the PM the isolation and smaller moves. Like today, chest & intervals in the am, and tri's in the pm.

AM:

10min wu

DB Flyes 15's x 10 x 3

BP 65x10x3

DBBP 20's x 10 x 3

Tri Pushdowns 35x10x2, 25x10

Between sets did abs, calves, lunges.

Intervals - 22 min rbike

PM: will be...

Bench Dips

Tri Kickbacks

And some light shoulder stuff.

Yesterday we had fun at the trampoline place, but Jake ended up feeling really sick. He was jumping without much of a break for about 45 minutes. It was fun to run and jump into the walls and do flips and roundoffs and stuff. I was the only adult in there, besides a few in their late teens (18/19ish maybe). Jake had abandoned me for the dodgeball game and I felt kinda dumb on my own LOL. But I jumped anyway. I don't think we'd go again unless it was someone's party though.
Ok, I'm off to clean house. Have a wonderful afternoon. Plan for success this weekend!

~Darcie

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Monday 7/5:
My body is burning through the fat, fast. On Wed after boosting I was 124.2. I ate super clean and strict on Thurs, Fri & Sat and by yesterday (Sunday) I was already down to 121.8. Of course, it was the 4th of July and was my last real cheat day before vacation so I lived it up! But, I'm only 123.0 today which is still 1.2 pounds down from Wednesday despite my cheat day. I fully expect to be 120 by the end of this week. So I know I will reach my beach goal by the 17th. I'm always excited to see how my body reacts to things and this last experiment with lots of food and heavy lifting was NOT a disappointment.

Todays workout was back/shoulders/bi's. I still have a set of hammer curls to finish later, and some running intervals.
BOBBR's - 45x10x3

Cable Rows - 55x10x3

Lat Pulls - 55x10x3

Rev Flyes 15's x 10 x 3

DB Shoulder Press 15's x 10 x 3

Lat Raises 15's x 8 x 3

Front Raises 15's x 8 x 3

Bi Curls 15's x 10 x 3

Hammer Curls 15's x 10 x 3

Running Intervals

Food is on today. 1100-1300 cals, low carb, no dairy or bread-y type stuff. I'm really full though so getting in all 1300 cals is going to be tough today. The rest of the week will look like my previous two weeks as far as the lifting goes, with intervals and ss added in.

Ok, I'm planning for a successful week! I hope you are too :) . And hoping for some NICE weather because we haven't seen the sun in almost a week - rain, rain, rain and clouds.I need a tan!!!

~Darcie

Caught up!! Wooohoo!

2010-07-01T09:04:00.000-04:00

This is actually today's real post. I will do better about staying caught up too. :)
Ok, so I didn't make my weight goal this week. I thought I'd get to 125-126 but only made it to 124.2. That's what I weighed on Sunday so I didn't gain an ounce Mon - Wed. I dropped cardio to just once this week and I did pretty good with cals (averaging 2500/day), but couldn't get there. Oh well, it isn't TOO BAD because now I'm closer to my losing goal for vacation LOL. And I feel really good about my progress during boosting. For one thing I went all out and didn't try to keep my cals a bit lower for fear of gaining. I know that was my goal, but you all know how hard it is mentally to accept the weight going up on the scale! So sometimes I end up eating less out of that fear. I am happy that I didn't do that and proud of myself for following through. I believe that I worked out heavy and hard and all my cals went where they were supposed to go - to building muscle!

And now that I've gained, I'm ready to lose again. I started the morning with some fasted ss cardio, just 30 minutes. It felt great and is a good jumpstart to my next 2 weeks. I'm looking to be 120 or less by vacation. That's 4 pounds - totally doable. My workout schedule will be the same, but buffing style. Thursday "off" day will still have cardio. Sunday "off" day may just be active or complete rest. 4th of July is cheat day :) My only cheat day for the next 2 weeks. After the 4th I'm getting tight and strict.

Yesterday's workout - last boosting wo. Back/Shoulders/Bi's. I split it up to do back in the AM (which ended up being 1pm LOL) and Shoulder's/Bi's in the PM (about 8pm)

AM: Back:
Single Arm Rows
25x10x3 ea, for wu

Seated Rows
55x10
65x10
75x8
85x6
95x6

Lat Pulls
55x10
65x8
75x4 - neck/shoulder felt fine again - doing good!

BOBBR
65x10
75x8
85x6

Inverted Rows (feet on bench)
6x3

PM: Shoulders/Bi's
Mil BB Press
45x10
55x8
65x6

DB Shoulder Press
20's x 6 x 3

Lat Raises
15's x 10
20's x 6 x 2

Front Raises
15's x 8 x 2
20's x 6

BB Bi Curl
45x10
55x6
65x4

DB Curls
15's x 10
20's x 8 x 2

Preacher Curls
32x4x2 - my short little arms couldn't reach the stupid bar on the preacher bench. hated these. Guess that's why the preacher attachment's been sitting in the corner for a year LOL

Jake and I went for a walk in the rain in the afternoon at the park, 2 miles.

Cals for yesterday: 2495. F-89, C-245, fiber 19 (too low), P-178.

Meeting a friend of Jake's at a fun play place this afternoon - 11000 sf of trampolines - should be a blast!
Have a great day!!

~Darcie

Dragging!

2010-07-01T08:59:00.002-04:00

6/29/10
Wow, I am so drained today. From the moment I woke up and all through the day. Totally tired this month leading up to CD 1. I had originally thought maybe we would go tubing over toward Orlando today, but the thought of the drive, and the morning traffic, and dealing with all of the people on the river - exhausting! I know, floating down a river is exhausting? LOL. It sounded like it today. Saw the rain forecast and it said we'd get storms around noon through the rest of the day - um, no, never happened. So we lazed around all day waiting for the rain LOL. We finished up some of our gaming marathon, and did get a little swim in this evening before Losing it with Jillian (which was an excellent one tonight).

I did get in my workout. It was leg day. I woke up with a twinge in my back so I elminated any sort of deadlfit or lunges this morning. So I started out with:

Squats, normal
95x10; 115x10; 135x8; 155x6
Squats, feet together
95x10; 115x10x3
Leg Exts
45x10wu - knee started to hurt so I ended the workout at this point. Twingey back and sore knee too? No thanks.
Ate and rested and then during Losing It I finished up because my knee felt better
Leg Exts
90x10x2; 135x8x2;
Leg Exts toes out
90x10x3
Single Leg Exts (left only)45x15x3
Calf Raises
90x15x3 (in, out, straight)
Lunges - front
40
Lunges - back
40

Yesterday was chest/tri's
DB flyes
15's x 10; 20's x 8 x 3
DB Bench
20's x 10 x 2
BP
75x6, 85x5assist, 95x1 hurt, 65x10
Tri Pushdowns
25x10, 35x6, 45x6
Tri Kickbacks
15's x 10 x 3

Tomorrow is my last day of stuffing my face! yeah! I managed to get in 2293 cals Sunday, 2362 Monday and 2482 today. Tomorrow will be about the same and then I get to buff. SOOOOO ready to buff. But a bit of a cheat day on the 4th. Otherwise it is super buffing all the way to vacation on the 17th. Ahhh, the beach for a week!!

Alright, I definitely need to get out and do something tomorrow. Something active and fun!! Because CD1 is coming up quick and I'll want to veg that day for sure.

Have a good evening. Catch ya tomorrow!

~Darcie

Sneak Peek

2010-07-01T08:58:00.000-04:00

6/23/10- Took a sneak peek at the scale
I generally don't weigh in much during boosting. I just like to enjoy it, so I usually weigh in on Sundays only. But, I really wanted to see if I was gaining at a good rate. My goals were to hit 2000 cals a day but I've been hitting about 2500 each day instead for the past 3 days since I started. Goal is to gain 3 - 4 pounds by July 5th. So far I've lost half a pound. Seriously. Ok, so my goal was also that by this Sunday I'd be losing weight on 2000 cals and I'd have to increase. But instead I'm losing already on 2500. I'll stay at 2500 for now and will reassess when Sunday comes around. Next week may be a 3000 cal week and let me tell you that is HARD. I mean it, it sucks trying to eat 3000 clean cals - you feel so sickeningly full.

Workouts have been ON. Heavy (for me) and intense, lots of rest between sets. Slow cardio for 30-45 min a day, just simple things like a walk around the neighborhood or climbing hills and trees at the park. So far I'd say I'm right on track, except for the fact that I'm losing. It is possible I'll gain though by the time Sunday comes around. Looking to really rev up this metabolism prior to next buffing session.

Today was chest/tri's. I ended up splitting the workout up so we could meet a friend of Jake's at the park. We had fun there and his friends mom and I are pretty alike in things we enjoy doing. She has 4 boys so she deserves a medal :) We spent 90 minutes playing there, fun!

AM -
DB Flyes
15's x 10
20's x 6 x 3

BP
65x10
75x8
85x3 ?? was supposed to be six. I couldn't get it today though. I felt strong going into it, but nothing.

PM -
Inc Bench
45x10
65x8
65x6

DB Bench
15's x 10
20's x 8 x 2

Tri Pushdowns
25x10
35x6x2

SkullCrushers
20x8x3

Bench Dips
15, 20, 25

Light Calves (in, out, straight)
20's x 30
bw x 45
20's x 60

Some light lat and front raises too. Forgot about booty extras today. Climbing the hills should count! Might throw in a few kicksbacks and stuff tonight since those don't require much time.

Oh, and while I'm thinking of it. I did half supermans ON the ball yesterday. Kneeling on ball, just practicing the arm portion. I did a few of those. I did balance doing a full superman on the ball for all of 2 seconds but couldn't switch :)

That's all. I'm almost done shoveling down food for the day. Just a little yogurt & protein powder later (tastes like choc mousse!). Oh, I'll put a yummy cold bean salad in the recipe section. Made it yesterday and it is awesome! Eats today:
cinnamon toast (2) & milk
kashi w/milk & blueberries
bean salad over lettuce
prot shake & banana @ park
ww spaghetti w/ground beef, tomato sauce
ice cream - southern blackberry cobbler flavor, yum!
yogurt w/prot powder
sunflower seeds - snack on these throughout the day
Cals - 2340, fat 65 (25%), carbs 306(46%), fiber 53, protein 162 (29%)

Have a great one!

~Darcie

!*!*!*!*!*!*!
6/24/10 - too tired for a title
Today was back/shoulders/bi day. I'm very tired today (and yesterday). Might just be the heat - it is so hot here!

Single Arm Rows 25x10x3 ea
Cable Rows 55x10, 65x8, 75x6, 85x4
Lat Pulls 55x10, 65x6x3 - really happy with this. No neck pain again
BOBBR's 65x8x2, 75x8, 45x10 rev grip
Lat Raises 15's x 8, 20's x 6 x 2, 15's x 8
DB Press 15's x 10, 20's x 8 x 2
BB Bi curls 45x8, 50x7, 55x6, 60x4, 45x8
DB Bi Curls 15's x 10, 20's x 6 x 2
Walk, 30 minutes

Yesterday was an off day. Just an hour walking the dog last night. It was nice out.

Food is still good. 2404 cals yesterday, 2672 today. A little ice cream both nights and some lindt truffles that fell in my mouth. But other than those 2 things it was all good. Legs tomorrow. My hams just recovered from last Saturday's workout so hopefully they'll recover more quickly this week.

I'm thinking of cutting my heavy eating short by just a few days. I was schedule to end on July 4th and I'm not sure I want to feel that big and full running around in my bikini all day. I might finish out each body part lifting heavy one more time and start buffing 2 days prior, to just give my body a bit of time to not look so stuffed. I'll see how its going thorugh midweek next week. If I'm still looking lean I'll keep putting down the food.

We're about to watch Book of Eli so I gotta get going. Have a great weekend. I'm a little anti social today too. Maybe the tiredness?

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6/27/10 - pizza day!
Ahhh. Sundays are my day to have a real cheat meal. Today I am having some pizza! Its been a while since we have ordered a pizza, not even sure when the last time was. Anyway, the plan is to savor my yummy meal and hold out for next Sunday LOL. I should be able to hit my cals no problem today :) .
Speaking of that... I weighed in this morning at 124.2. That's 1.2 pounds for the week so I'm feeling good about that. By Thursday I think I will be 125.6. That's my goal at least. And then it will already be time to start buffing. The beach is in 3 weeks and I am confident I will be where I want to be by then. Not as low as I planned at the end of SX70, but i decided to build and I think it will be worth it.
Yesterday was hams/glutes:

Warmed up with ball curls, 10x3
SLDL's on step
95x10; 135x8; 155x6; 95x10
Sumo Squats
95x10; 115x8; 135x6; 95x10
Booty Bulgarians (ea leg)
15's x 8; 20's x 6 x 3
Leg Curls
10x10, 20x10; 30x8; 40x4
Side Lying Leg Lifts
25#plate x 10 x 4 (ea leg) Loved these with the plate. I usually use a db but the plate feels so much better - doesn't push into my it band.
Was supposed to do calf raises but ran out of time. So today I will do some weighted calf stuff. Standing, seated and donkeys.

I'm definitely feeling it today, but not as bad as last week. So that's good.

Alrighty, Ted should be back with the pizza soon. I'm STARVING. And I feel ill. The guy in front of me in church had so much cologne on that my eyes watered and I felt nauseas. Combine that with an empty stomach and its not a good thing. So i'm off to eat and then make good use of it with my calf workout. :)

Have a great day!

~Darcie

Shaky Legs!

2010-07-01T08:53:00.000-04:00

6/19/10 - Shaky Legs Day
You ever feel great after a leg workout...and you go get your meal and sit down and everything is fine. Then you try to stand up from your chair and find out the something isn't quite right? Your legs shake when you try to get up? That's the kind of day I'm having today LOL, love it! :)

Today was legs, hammy/glute focus.

Bench Squats

95x10, a little too light

135x10, put too much weight on spine and couldn't feel the glute work

95x5x2 ea leg, single leg at 95 worked exactly what I was hoping for

Sumo Squats

95x10x3

SLDL's on step

95x10x3

Good Mornings

95x10x3

Leg Curls (legs were shaking before they even made connection with the rollers LOL. I couldn't even flex my hams w/o shaking at this point)

machine only x 10

10# x 10

20# x 10 x 2

yeah, this is really weak. This is the hardest exercise for me.

Calf raises (standing on step)

95x10x3

Stationary Lunges

95x4x3 ea leg

Seated Calves

45x10

90x10

135x10

180x10

Walking Lunges

20's x 10 x 2

Abs between sets. I tried those supermans on the swiss ball. I had to leave one foot touching the ground (knee pushed into ball) in order to do them. Tough! I couldn't balance totally on it and do supermans. So then I go look online and see that on the swiss ball you are on your STOMACH and then you do supermans. You aren't supposed to be hands and knees on the ball and do them. LOL. Is that correct Brenda? LOL, you should have seen me trying to do hands and knees on the ball AND do the supermans. I may decide THAT is a challenge for me to accomplish.

Anyhow, that's all for now. Not sure that I'll do any cardio today. I was going to help Jake mow and then go swimming, but a huge black cloud rolled in (again). Now its storming. Will do some light lat and front raises later as I missed them yesterday. Just totally forgot about them. Have a few glute things to finish up too but its all stuff that can be done in small amounts throughout the day.

Have a great day tomorrow with the men in your life who are Dad's! We'll be grilling and swimming if it isn't raining.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
6/21/10 Back/Shoulders/Bi's
It is so funny how on any upper body day my writing in my workout journal gets messier and messier toward the end of my workout LOL. Lucky for you all I'm typing this and not writing :)

I started boosting this weekend, yay! I love boosting because I only weigh in once a week and don't have to deal with it on the other days. I am boosting really hard these next two weeks. I'm aiming to gain about 4 pounds by the end of the two weeks. I'm starting out on 2000 cals a day since I've been so low due to the finishing up of the SX70. However, I believe if I do this right that by next Sunday I will need to increase the calories to meet my four pound goal. That's how hard I plan to lift, that I'll start losing on 2000. We'll see :)

Today's workout:
BOBBR's
45x20wu
65x10
75x8
85x6
100x4
65x10

Single Arm Rows
25x10
45x6x3

Lat Pulls (light and careful)
25x10
45x8
65x6
55x10
Neck and shoulder felt okay - yay!

Military BB Press
45x10
55x8
65x6
50x10

Lat Raises
10's x 10
15's x 6 x 2
20's x 6 PB

Front Raises
10's x 10
15's x 6 x 2
20's x 6 PB

BB Bi Curls
45x10
55x8
65x2, then 60 x 4
50x10

DB Bi Curls
15's x 10
20's x 8
20's x 4
25x4 ea, self-assisted

Working my skinny little grover arms...

Between sets I did abs, glutes, bw lunges, bw calves. Later today will be easy going ss cardio. Nothing muscle wasting this week! Lift hard, low impact cardio, regular daily activity, eat, eat, eat!! I plan to be well rested and with a roaring metabolism by the time buffing comes - the watch out! LOL.

Have a great day. We're off to go bowling (not sure my arms will work??) then I'll be back later to catch up on all of the weekend posts!

~Darcie

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6/22/10
Did legs late morning/early afternoon. It took forever, but got them done. I had to stop and make lunch for Jake in between too, but mostly just resting up for the next set took up a bunch of time.

Squats
95x10wu
125x8
135x6
145x4
155x4 - highest I will go w/o spot
95x10

Deadlifts (conv)
135x10
155x8
185x6
205x3 almost 4
230 - no go. tried to pull several times but couldn't do it. 225 will have to stand as my pb for now
135x8

Leg Exts
90x10
125x8
135x6
180x4
90x10

Squats - feet together
95x10
115x8
135x6
95x10

Leg Exts - toes out
90x10
100x8
110x6
90x10

Donkey calves
bwx15
Jake x 10

Seated Calves
90x25
135x15
180x10

SS cardio later tonight and abs. Didn't get in my lunges yet either, but I am wiped out. Need to rest and eat and might do them later.

I got in 2500 cals exactly yesterday. So far today it looks like I'll just barely squeak over the 2000 line. Yesterday I had the help of the chocolate chip cookies that I made & lindt, but today is all clean so its harder to get them in.
Yesterdays eats:
Choc chip cookies/milk
1/2 pb&j
spinach tortilla w/spinach and chicken & dressing
prot shake w/spinach and blueberries, kashi bar
ww spaghetti, ground beef, tomato sauce
prot shake (milk & pb)
sunflower seeds
2 lindt truffles
Cals 2500, fat 95 (too high)34%; carbs 249, 37%; fiber 25; prot 160, 26%

Today:
kashi go lean w/blueberries, strawberries, milk
prot shake & banana
ww spaghetti, ground beef, tomato sauce; broc slaw
turkey sandwich and spinach/strawberry salad
bean salad w/chicken
plain yogurt w/choc whey prot
2 lindt truffles
*Edit* Cals 2408; fat 67; carbs 309; fiber 62; prot 165. Definitely made it over 2000 again **

Eat eat eat, lift lift lift, build build build!!

Ok, its game day today. We're battling each other on wii games, computer games and board and card games. (ie, a lazy day). :) So I'm off to play.

~Darcie

Weekly Stuff

2010-06-30T20:36:00.000-04:00

6/15 - Monday/Tuesday Stuff
I got right back on track Monday with my chest/tris/abs workout and am feeling good so far this week. Sundays cheat day of Cheesecake Factory, after photos, was so yummy! :) I split my chicken madeira into thirds so I had it for three meals. I had 1/2 a piece of blueberry cheesecake in the afternoon, and then 1/2 a piece of red velvet cheesecake that night. Love that red velvet one, I'll get that again....someday :)

Monday - Chest/Tri's/Abs/Intervals

I did bench press -made myself go a little heavier for my 10 reps, testing out the shoulder and it felt okay. I will attempt next week during boosting to carefully increase; incline bench; db flyes; single arm cable flyes; cgbp; tri pushdowns; tri kickbacks (single); abs between all sets; lunges after every other set (bw); glute work between all sets; intervals on rbike for 20min; ss walk the dog for about 20min; bw calf work throughout the day.

Jake got home yesterday from a weekend in Colorado with my parents. My dad had a marathon there (he's running one in each state). He had a great time, they did horseback riding, river rafting (the river was so high and fast that a normal 2 hour trip only took 30 minutes), hiking up the mountains. It rained most of the time they were there. And he got to see and play in the snow! He only "saw" snow when he was 18months so he was pretty excited. I was nervous as this was his first time out of state without me and with the diabetes, but he did well. He texted me his numbers and any corrections he was making. I was very proud of him.

Tuesday - Legs/Abs/SS

Squats 95x10, 115x10, 125x10

Squats feet together 95x10x3

Deadlifts 115x10x3

Step Ups BWx5x3 ea

Leg Exts 90x10, 110x10x2 (knee hurt a bit on these)

Lunges - various types, 100+ throughout the day, BW

Calves - standing 115x10x6 (in, out, straight), donkey bwx10x3, seated 115x10(bar- awkward), 45(plate)x10x2 - better but need more weight. Only, I can't go get more plates after one is on my lap LOL.

Abs between sets. Will get more glute work in throughout the day. SS cardio tonight during Losing It w/Jillian. Elliptical.

Some ending thoughts on the contest:

I did exceed my goal for weight loss. I'm pretty excited about that. I would be very happy with this WEIGHT throughout Sept-May. However, I'm not completely thrilled with body composition still so I will be working hard to add muscle during my boosting periods. But up to vacation I'm going to stay pretty moderate with that because I don't want to do a huge gain right before the beach. So when I get back I'll do some building focus. Mostly in my legs. But again, I do feel good, it's not a body I'd be ashamed to be on the beach with and I am very happy with how it went.

I also met my goal of getting pretty lean without dropping the carbs and bread and dairy. I even ate my carbs and dairy through photoprep because part of my goal in this challenge was to do just that. To drop them then would have been "cheating" to me. What I like about that is,well, there are a lot of reasons. 1. Bread and dairy are my two favorite food groups LOL. Ok, Milk at least. I can do without cheese and stuff, but I love my milk. I love that I can succeed with those things in my diet, even if it means taking longer to get there. 2 - Everyone in the house is more happy when I don't go off bread and milk LOL. 3 - I still have a few tricks up my sleeve when I need to really lean out. If I drop bread and dairy right away, what do I have left to eliminate? If I wait until the last moment when I really stagnate, then I have something to drop and begin to make progress again. I know I'll need to drop them for a while to become super lean if necessary, but until them I'm enjoying them :) (and my family is happy!).

I didn't meet my splits goal. I just determined along the way that no one on vacation is going to see that I can do splits, but my butt is going to be hanging out of my swimsuit (or not) depending on how well I do there. So I focused more on shape. I figure splits is a good winter goal LOL.

Overall I'm pleased with my effort. I really kicked it up toward the end. I feel good about myself again although that isn't completely weight related. And I just feel like I'm more alive again. I can see in my eyes that they look lifelike again instead of zombie-ish. For a while there I'd smile and it wouldn't hit my eyes and I didn't know how to get that back. I've come to the realization (heart finally, not just head) that God loves me even when I'm a screwup and that has made a difference in how I see myself again.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~
6/16/10 - 101 in the shade!
Yep, it was a hot one today up at the park. We weren't even in the shade for most of the time. We went up to do some geocaching and as soon as we got there the thunder started. The air was thick with rain coming. But we were there for 90 minutes and made it out before the rain actually showed up. Didn't find any of the caches on our list, but we were busy doing an earth cache. That's a virtual cache where there isn't anything to find there, but you have to take down information and email the answers to the person who started it. This one dealt with water levels and cypress trees. So that was fun. We saw a couple of female wild turkeys. One had her babies with her, oh gosh they were absolutely adorable. We also saw 2 gopher tortoises, a couple of turles in the lake on logs, a ton of squirrels, and to my delight an owl. A beautiful golden owl. I love owls. We heard a gator grunting around us but we couldn't spot him. Its always a good hike when we spot wildlife :) .

I'm ovulating for sure. Very tired, snacky cravings are here. I've munched on an oreo-type cookie, a werthers candy and just had a few chips and salsa. Not horrible, just off plan a bit. I wasn't going to do any cheat stuff til Father's Day. Can't get myself to get anything done. The dishes are piling up and the stupid dishwasher decided to just coat everything with a layer of soap. Now I have double the dishes to do. I'm going to have to go out there and just wash a few at a time until they are done. I already feel like having a nap and I even slept in this morning.
Its back/shoulders/bis today. I started this morning but my stomach was too empty and I felt ill right away. So I'll probably hit in about 30 mintues. Little tri-circuits.

Barbell rows with dumbbell shoulder press with bi curls

Single Arm Rows with lat raises with barbell curls

Seated cable rows with front raises with concentration curls

Should be quick and just what I need today since I'm feeling very tired. No extra cardio, just the walk at the park for 90.

Alright, its raining which means the couch is calling my name LOL. Catch ya later.

~Darcie

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6/18/10 - Chest/Tri's/Abs
Hey, hope all is going well for everyone on Friendly Friday!

I got my chest/tri workout in this morning and am ready to go get some groceries. Just enough to get through the weekend. I still have intervals to do but am waiting til Ted gets home and maybe we'll go for a run.
WO:

wu rbike 10 min

DB Flyes 15's x 10 x 3

BP 70x5 then 65x5; 70x6, then 65x4; 70x10

Pushups - feet on ball 10, toes on ball 10, hands on db's 10

Tri Pushdowns 25x10x3

Tri Exts 15x10x2, 20x10

Tri Kicks (single) L15x15x3, R15x10x3 - I have nerve damage and can't feel my left very well so I have to do more before I start to make the connection of feeling them work.

Abs between all sets

Light calves between every other set - 25x10x3, 30x15x3, 40x20x3 (calves need major work so they get extra)

BW Lunges between every other set - 10x6, 20x2

Glute work between every other set - 10x3, 20x4, 40

Will also do some very light lat and front raises later today. I've noticed good changes from just adding a few light sets every day.

I've set up a new schedule for myself for the next few months. It gives me Sundays off for family stuff and another day in the middle of the week to recover.

M - Chest/Tri's

T - Legs (quad)

W - Back/Sh/Bi

Th - off

Fri - Chest/Tri's

Sat - Legs (ham/glute)

Sun - off

M - Back/Sh/Bi's

T - Legs (quad)

W - Chest/Tri's

Th - Off

Fri - Legs (ham/glute)

Sat - Back/Sh/Bis

Sun - off

Off days I usually do cardio or active stuff, just no lifting.

Oh drat, it's thundering and raining. I don't want to go get groceries in that. Think I'll curl up on the couch and read a bit and fold some laundery too, then head out a bit later.

Ok, off to relax a tiny bit :)
~Darcie

More Catching Up!

2010-06-30T17:32:00.004-04:00

6/9/10 Catchin' Up
I haven't felt like blogging the past few days, so just doing some catch up here.

Monday was chest/tri's & intervals. Then Jake and I went bowling. After the first game (a 131) I decided I'm going to try for a 200 game this summer. I've been close twice before, both in 1991 within about a week of each other... a 192 and a 196. So my second game I was totally focused and I bowled an ... 84! LOL. It is so rare for me to even go under 100 I just laughed about my "focused going for 200 game". Last game was 124. So anyhow, my summer goal is to practice and bowl a 200.

Tuesday was legs & ss cardio. Nothing too exciting that day - the dog and bunny had to go to the vet and that ended up being a 90 minute appt. The bunny screamed. I'd never heard him scream before but he didn't like the vet trying to look at him and he just started screaming like a maniac. The vet said that's his "please don't eat me" scream. LOL. I've heard that sound once before when our dogs caught a wild rabbit on a walk one night.

Today was back/shoulders/bi's. I put lat pulls back in the lineup and immediately paid for it with pain in my right neck/shoulder area. I have a messed up neck/shoulder/upper back on my left side. The left side of my face is actually partially numb most of the time (if you look at my photos close you'll see my left eye looks squinty quite a bit). With nerve damage the best the doc's seem to be able to say is you just have to wait it out. There's not really anything there to try to fix. And then there's my muscles pulling every which way in my back, the monthly massages are helping with that a bit. Anyway, I'm rabbit trailing here. I hurt my right side of my neck/shoulder doing those stupid lat pulls so I finished up the shoulder press and then quit for a while. Jake and I went bowling again (119 and 144 today), then I came home and did some really light shoulders and biceps, then off to swim for an hour (float really). No cardio, just walked the dog.

Eats have been good. I'm salting up tomorrow for photos on Sunday. I haven't done the salt up thing in almost 3 years so that should be fun. I actually like salty day - love chicky broth and I dump even more salt in it. My belly will look so pregnant by the end of the day, but I've never gained weight from it so we'll see if that still holds true.

Just a few more days in the challenge. Then I have 5 weeks to get ready for the beach. Should be fun! I had to miss boosting for these last two weeks so I'm looking forward to the next one, although it will be pretty mild. Beach week will make up for it though. Beach, pool, eat - that's vacation schedule!

Have a good one!

~Darcie

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6/11/10 Gettin' my workout on!
Ok, salty day was bad to me. I "gained" 3.4 pounds. Mentally that is distressing when you're so close to the goal. On the other hand I know that in order to gain 3.4 pounds I would have had to eat over 15000 calories yesterday and that didn't happen - I had 1400. I know it's the salt - I had about 8000mg. I know it will go away. But will it go away quick enough? I've never gained on salty day so I'm not sure what this means. Does it mean I'm still too soft? Does it mean I have a bit more muscle? Not sure but I'll be keeping track so I'll know for next time. All I know is that on Sunday morning that scale better read 120.x or lower.

So what did I do after seeing that number and mentally walking myself through it? I did what any woman would do - I went shopping! LOL. I bought 4 new bikini's. I love them!! I am cleaning out some of the old ones today. I have some that are just not flattering that I've been hanging onto for some reason? Why? I'm never going to wear them. So you'll see some new suits in my photos on Sunday. Yay! New suits!! :) And yes now I feel better

Then I came home and did some work so I can pay for the new suits LOL. And now I'm heading out to the living room to get my workout done. It's a light full body one today. No more cardio this week, yay! Sunday is photos and a nice yummy cheat meal at cheesecake factory. And then Monday starts another 5 weeks of aggressive workouts and eats so that I'm ready for the beach in July.

Okie, dokie. I'm procrastinating now so I'd better get out there.

Have a great weekend!

~Darcie

~!~!~!~~!
SX70 Stats & Pics
We took over 100 pics this morning. I'm tired! LOL. Gonna load up my stats and pics and then heading to Cheesecake Factory for lunch. I'm very happy with my results. I'll be back later to fill in ending thoughts, etc.

SX70 Start & End Stats Date 4/2/10 6/13/10
CD 15 8
Weight 125.6 119.2
Chest
34rel, 35.25 fl 34rel, 35.25fl
Waist 27.75 rel, 26.75fl 26.75rel, 26fl
Hips 36.50 36
Thi hi 20 19.75
Thi lo 18 18.25
Shoulders 39rel, 40fl 39.75rel, 41.25fl
Bi's 10.75rel, 11.25fl 10.25rel, 11fl
Calves 12.50 12.25

Goal was weight 120 so I'm thrilled to be under that. Here are some after pics!

6 Weeks til vacation!

2010-06-30T17:28:00.004-04:00

6/1/10 Two bowls of split-plea soup to go, eh!
sorry, a little Strange Brew humor there. Anyone else dorky enough to have watched that movie? Yeah, that's what I thought. Anyhow....

I made split pea soup today - with the yellow ones because I wasn't sure I could stomach looking at the green ones. It was okay but needed some spicing up and I didn't feel like getting back up. But, I did love the numbers on this meal - 12g protein, 30g carbs of which 13g where fiber, 0g fat. Yep, that's one I'm going to keep on hand because getting 13g fiber in one shot is awesome. I'm hitting 44 fiber today.

We went to see Prince of Persia today. Fun movie, lots of action. And we got the early show so only $5 each. So now I'm doing my workout tonight instead. I will give it 100%!

!~!~!~!~!~~!
6/3/10 Pushing Through Mentally
Yep, its those days, the tough hormonal ones right as my cycle is about to begin. The scale won't move no matter how clean I've been eating and is actually up instead of maintaining. My body just wants to hang on to that extra water right now. So I KNOW this mentally and am telling myself to just get past this next week and move on and not fret. It just SUCKS being like this at the end of the challenge.

Anyhow, yesterday was double cardio day. Fasted AM walk for an hour. Then last night did tabatas, then ss on the elliptical.

Today was full body before we headed out to the beach. Squats, BP, BOBBR's, Booty Bulgarians, Flyes, Single Arm Lat pulls. I skipped the intervals so we could get going.
We stopped at a little restaurant nearby and had some popcorn shrimp (cheat!!), then played in the ocean for 2 hours. We had 4 dolphins swim by, and one manatee that floated past.
When we got home I got right on the rbike and did intervals for 25minutes. 5min wu, 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds easy for 16 intervals, then 4 min cool down.

Showered, tanned, and ready to just hang out and relax for the rest of the evening. Besides lunch today eats have been great. Speaking of eats, its time for another meal.

Have a great evening!

~Darcie

~!~!~!~!~~!~!~
6/6/10 - Six weeks til vacation!
We had a lazy day today - which is always a nice break :) Hung out and played games most of the day, Jake & Ted are at the movies right now. I did some laundry (oooh so fun!), dishes, made 2 batches of yogurt (trying fat free with skim milk this time), cooked up some brown rice for the week and got the grocery shopping done. My eats are a bit low today, but I'm not hungry. It's CD1 and just having a not hungry day.

I have 6 weeks left until our week at the beach so I am going to be on top of things through then. I have some daily "extras" that I'm going to be doing to get ready, like daily glute work, extra abs, lunges, and stretching My workouts will be 6 lifting days/week, with some intervals and ss cardio tossed in. And the daily extras. I want to weigh in a few pounds lower than my comfort zone so I have some wiggle room while I'm there :)

We have a figure show in town this weekend so I'm going to go down and watch that on Saturday. Jake will be with my parents and Ted is teaching class that morning so I'm gonna go watch the prejudge, then Ted & I will go back later that night for the show. Maybe it will spark him into a little interest in getting more fit. Maybe. I hope so because I can't seem to motivate him.

Yesterday Jake & I did some geocaching at a local park that is just hills, hills and more hills (FL size hills LOL). Up and down for 90 minutes and we only found 2 of the 4 we were looking for. We had a ton of vines and spiderwebs to go through. Ted had class so he missed out on that one.

Ok, guess that's all. Get in gear to have a successful week!!

~Darcie

318g Carbs!

2010-06-30T17:24:00.002-04:00

5/27/10
That's my carb count for the day LOL. Today was back to school for an assembly (Jake had been off all week for test exemptions) and then the kids all went to Chuck E Cheese. Yes, 7th graders having fun at Chuck E Cheese- they're such a fun and fairly innocent class, love 'em. Anyway, I had a caesar salad and some pizza.

So there went my 100% day. Then when I got home and saw how my carbs were adding up I figured, well, I may as well give it 100% LOL. I mean, if your carbs are going to be high, you might as well do it right. So here are my eats for today.

M1 - Steel cut oats, plain yogurt, homemade granola (oatmeal, wheat bran, wheat germ, flax seed, peanuts, coconut oil, raisins, agave nectar), milk.
M2 - Caesar salad w/chicken, 1 slice pizza
M3 - ww spaghetti & meatballs, homemade bread/butter
M4 - snack - more granola
M5 - Kashi golean crisp w/blueberries and flax seed, milk
M6 - prot shake
I'm only 120cals shy of 3000 cals today.

We went blueberry picking today. There are actually still some left out there. This guy was selling them for $10 a bucket (that's about 6 pounds!). Six pounds of blueberries for $10. That's less that $2 per pound. At the store on a good deal they are 3.99 for a pint. We brought home 6 pounds worth LOL. I see quite a few blueberry items in my future. But they'll have to wait until Monday. Because even though I'm loading up today, I am going to be back ON PLAN Friday, Saturday & Sunday. My final weigh in will be Monday morning, Memorial Day because I will be indulging that day. Then it is back on plan to finish out the contest with probably a high day the Sunday between.

Today is also my off day from workouts. I had a moment earlier where I thought "i should do some cardio after this day", but I quickly squashed it. That is not how I want things to be. I don't want to feel "guilty" about a food choice and think that I have to work it off. So I'm enjoying my day and tossed the guilt workout aside.

Have a great night!
~Darcie
Oh, and I tried the VS self tanner last night. Its okay so far.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~~!
5/28/10
So, who wants to guess how much the scale went up after my super huge carb fest yesterday??? :)

Today was a great day. I woke up feeling good, no food hangover. I got in my workout:

Chest/Tri's/Abs, Cardio. Triple circuits
Bench Press w/ Tri Exts, w/abs
DB Flyes w/ Bench Dips, w/abs
CGBP w/Tri Kickbacks, w/abs
Pushups w/Skullcrushers, w/abs

Then it was 30 minutes of intervals on the elliptical. At level 8 I hit 11.9mph - couldn't make it say 12 LOL. Thought I might throw up right after that one but I hung on :) . 10 intervals.
Then 30 min ss on the rbike reading a book. I felt awesome when I was done with it all.

Also got the master room & bath cleaned, living room, family room & kitchen cleaned and vacuumed. And a couple loads of laundry done. I just feel good about what I accomplished today.

Eats are ON.
M1 - egg + whites scrambled, green peppers, blueberries (get used to seeing those the next few days haha)
M2 - 1/2 turkey sandwich w/spinach
M3 - salad w/chicken, blueberries, grapes, a little olive oil
M4 - brown rice, chicken, brussel sprouts, kidney beans
M5 - planned protein shake
Clean and barely broke 100 carbs today :) I'm right on target to hit, but I think I might even pass my goal weight by Monday.

Oh, and the scale went up ZERO pounds, ZERO ounces from my foodfest yesterday. Hope it doesn't delay and show up tomorrow morning LOL.

Have a great Holiday Weekend!

~Darcie

~!~!~!~!~!~!~~!
5/31 100% Complete
Well my two week 100% challenge is done. I feel great about my success. My goal was to be 123.0 today. I weighed in at 122.4!!
I'm happy with the results. I like that there's more of a gap between my thighs on the front pose, seeing my hamstring more on the side pose, my back is looking better. Very pleased!
I'm only 2.4 pounds away from my weight goal for the sx70 with 2 weeks to go. Today's my off day and free day so I'm ready to enjoy it and get back to 100% for the rest of the challenge. One thing I hadn't planned with the 2 week challenge was doing high cal day cycling, but it ended up that every 4th day I had higher cals and it really worked. Sometimes I get afraid to do that and try to stay low, but I can see that it works for me.

Did a long geocaching hike yesteray - over 5 hours. I also did my back/shoulders/bi's in the morning before we left. It was a good hike, even though the gps died .2 miles before finding the last cache and then the rain started. We had to head back so Jake could get dinner and insulin in time, which means we'll have to do about a 2-3 hour hike back just for one more cache LOL. We were filthy since we'd been scrambling up hills on hands and feet and sliding (sometimes not on purpose) back down as we searched the park. Fun day!

SNAP!

2010-06-30T17:22:00.002-04:00

5/26/10 -
Yeah baby, you know what that sound means? It means I got those board shorts snapped up today!!!! Granted that it pushes all of my fat up over the waistline so I still have work to do since the goal is to get them snapped AND look good in them. But 11 days ago I couldn't get them snapped at all. WHOOT!

Today, however, has not been a 100% day. Close, but not 100%. My workout was not very intense this morning as Jake wanted some help farming a mob on Wizard101. So I did the workout in the den while playing LOL. As far as effort goes it really only gets maybe a 70%.

BOBBR's 45x12x3
DB Shoulder Press 15's x 10 x 3
Single Arm Rows 25x10x3 ea arm
Arnolds 15's x 10 x 3
Bi Curls 15's x 10 x 3
I'm planning some running intervals up to the pool in a bit. I will try to give those 100%, but at 4 in the afternoon in FL that's asking quite a bit LOL.

Eats get a 98% today. I slightly deviated from plan, but just barely so it gets 98% :)
M1 - cinnamon toast, scrambled egg/whites, milk
M2 - turkey, spinach, 1/2 banana
M3 - lettuce mix, chicken, kidney beans, flax seed +added blue cheese dressing that I was going to skip today
M4 - porcupines and ww spaghetti
M5 - prot shake & 1oz homemade granola

Yesterday's leg workout went okay. I had to change things up due to my bruised swollen hand (which by the way is MUCH better today and just feeling slightly bruised), so some things were bodyweight, and most with just the bar. But I gave it a good go and feel good about it.

Okay, toinght I'm trying the VS beach sexy instant tanner - anyone tried that yet? It's always an adventure trying these tanners out LOL.
~!~!~!~!~~!~!~~!~
5/25 Mutant Incredible Hulk Vein
That is what the vein in the back of my hand looked like this afternoon! I was working out in the yard planting a few things when I felt a weird pressure on the back of my hand. I looked down and this one vein was just a huge gorging bizarre swollen thing. I was like "what is going on with my hand?" when I realized there was something poking out of it. A spine from one of the palm fronds had jabbed into it. I yanked it out and the blood just gushed out, it must have been stopping the flow of blood through my vein. Anyway, now it is all swollen and bruised and sore, and I can't really grab or grip. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to lift tonight. I'm not sure I can hold a weighted bar, although I'm pretty sure I can hold just the oly bar with no plates. But lowering my hand and having the blood flow down aggrivates it too so I'm thinking DB's are out as well. I will give it 100% of what I CAN do, and that's all I can do :)

So yesterday my weight popped up to 125.2 after my yummy high cal day, but I didn't worry because I knew I didn't eat over 5000 calories LOL. Today, dropped four ounces lower than my Sunday weigh in so I'm at 124 and only 1 pound to go from today til Sunday. Sweet!
Yesterdays WO: Chest/Tri's/Abs. I was going to do intervals in the PM but instead Jake & I walked up to the park (2.8miles) and met Ted up there for some basketball. Then we drove home and Ted got his run in on the way home.

Yesterday's Eats:
M1 - kashi, milk
M2 - turkey, spinach, strawberries
M3 - lettuce, steak, kidney beans, apple cider vinegar, a bit of homemade granola treat
M4 - tuna w/some mayo, sweet potato, brussel sprouts
M5 - prot shake, cinnamon toast w/coconut oil (man I was looking forward to that ALL day after baking the bread!!)

Today's Eats:
M1 - Kashi, milk, strawberries
M2 - turkey, spinach, strawberries
M3 - salad w/kidney beans, chicken, blue cheese dressing
M4 - yogurt w/homemade granola
M5 - 1/2 baked potato topped with: chicken, cottage cheese, green peppers, salsa
M6 - prot shake

Tonights WO: Legs/Abs/SS Cardio during biggest loser finale!! Gosh I hope Ashley doesn't win. She is so obnoxious. I hope Koli won the vote to stay on.

Hmmm, I think I'll make some spaghetti & meatballs tomorrow. Oh, maybe porcupines!!! Can you tell I'm hungry? LOL.

Have a great evening. I'm going to practice making a fist and get my hand ready for lifting later.

~Darcie

Sheesh, I had to edit this thing, it was full of typo's today.

And my final weight was....

2010-06-30T17:21:00.002-04:00

Here is Sunday 5/23/10.

124.4. Yay!! Last Sunday I was 126.0, that's 1.6 pounds. I eeked out that one and a half that I was going for.

Sooooo, goal for this next Sunday is 123.0, going for 1.4 this week. Keeping it at 100%.

Today was a good rest day. Did a couple hours of yardwork, the floated in the pool for an hour. Stocked up on the groceries for the week. Ugh, wish eating clean was cheaper.

Todays Eats, my high day.

M1 - Kashi GoLean, Milk, Strawberries
M2 - Turkey Sandwich
M3 - Salad of: Green Leaf Lettuce, Endive, Broccoli, 1/4c kidney beans, 1hb egg + 1hb egg white, blue cheese dressing (1tbsp)
M4 - Protein Shake (milk, protein powder, 1tbsp peanut butter)
M5 - Hamburger, potato wedges, 1/2c kidney & pinto beans
M6 - planned - protein shake (water, protein powder, 1c spinach, 4oz strawberries)
Cals 2026, P158, C237, F56, Fiber45

Feeling really good today. I did some stretching during minute to win it, working for those splits still. My hams just don't seem to be loosening up. They get so sore on leg day that it takes forever to be able to stretch. But obviously women who lift can get flexible because of the fitness competitors that do splits and stuff. I'll keep working at it. I probably need to just do it more often during the day.

Oops! Totally falling behind here!

2010-06-30T17:16:00.003-04:00

Ok, last post here was in May? Wow, where'd the time go? I have still been working out and staying consistent. Let's catch up.
Here's my blog for Saturday 5/22/10.
Whooot! I'm feeling good about such a great week. Tomorrow morning is my weigh in day but I don't expect to see a huge loss this week. I was going for 1.5, I think I might just barely reach it but we'll find out in the morning.

Today was back/shoulders/bi's/abs/cardio. I started at 9am, did 3 sets of bobbr's and abs, 1 set of lat pulls and just could not eek out anything else. I knew it was trouble when I struggled to do the rows with just the bar - that's my light weight. So I went and did some other stuff, had some green tea, ate some more food and at 2pm I started up again with more success :)
I did bobbr's, lat pulls, single arm rows & mil bb press all with abs after each set. After that I did intervals on the rbike, then steady state while I finished up some db shoulder press and bi curls. After that I got out some lighter weights and did 21's for lat raises and more bi curls.

Eats are on track. We just drove through chick-fil-a for Jake since we were out so late and let me tell you it smelled SO GOOD. I didn't even nibble on a fry though.
M1 - 1/4c oatmeal, 1/4c wheat bran, 1tsp coconut oil, 1/2 tsp brown sugar; 2 egg whites scrambled
M2 - 3oz chicken, 1/2c tomato sauce, sprinkle of cheddar; brussel sprouts
M3 - kashi go lean, milk, strawberries
M4 - 3oz turkey, 1/2 apple
M5 - prot shake
So today was a really low cal day - ended up with 1159; p-112, c-129, f-31, fiber-35. But tomorrow, muahahaha! I'm looking forward to tomorrow's eats. I have a yummy 2000cal day planned out and my carb grams are at 228, fiber is at 42. Man it's going to be a good day LOL. And that should get me all ready for another week of lower cals and ratios. My "cheat" meal is basically a hamburger and some potato wedges that we'll make for dinner. So not a real cheat but it will be good, and all other meals will be the same as from this week but just bigger portions. Can I say again how much I'm looking forward to those carbs tomorrow! It's also my off day. I will be ready to tackle Monday when it comes around.

Alrighty, gotta go clean the rabbit cage (so fun). Have a fun evening. We'll probably just take it easy as Jake was at a birthday party for 6 hours today playing on a waterslide, bouncy castle and in the pool. He got a new cell phone tonight so he's out playing with that.

Will check in tomorrow with my weight numbers.

~Darcie

Finishing up the week strong!

2010-05-21T21:57:00.002-04:00

3 more successful days of workouts. Here are my last three day's blogs.

WEDNESDAY:
It was a cardio day today, fun fun! :)

I did 60 minutes on the rbike this morning while watching Pitch Black (love Vin Diesel!). Every ten minutes I'd jump off and do abs, then I'd increase my speed for the first half hour. For the second half hour I did the abs and then decreased my speed as cool down. I felt great after that workout.

This afternoon I took Jake up to the park and we rode the 11 mile loop. He biked and I bladed. Windy today so it was a bit rough and we had to fight against it toward the end. I'd rather deal with it in the beginning LOL. We were going along rather lazily when I realized that I wasn't giving it 100%, just going through the motioin. So after that we did all out for a mile, then relaxed for a mile, etc.

So workouts for day four of my miniC is done. Eats were good again. I might need to plan a little treat for tomorrow, maybe some yogurt w/fruit.

M1 - Kashi golean crisp / milk
M2 - pshake / banana
M3 - loaded potato (1/2 baked potato, tsp butter, 1/4c cc, 2.5oz chicken, 1/2c broccoli, 1/2c salsa)
M4 - salad (1c spring lettuce, 1c endive, 1c spinach, 2oz turkey, 1/2c broc, 1tbsp bleu cheese dressing)
M5 - pshake

Feeling great about giving it 100%. I'm hoping the scale or the tape measure will reward me in two weeks LOL.

Have a great evening!

~Darcie

---------------------------------

THURSDAY:
I had another good day. Let's see, it is day...5 of my challenge and well, I'm a bit hungry for bad food :) . But, so far so good.

This morning I did Chest/Tri's/Abs.

BP 45x15x3 w/abs
DBBP 20's x 10 x 3 w/abs
Inc DB Flyes 15's x 10 x 3 w/abs
CGBP 45x10x3 w/abs
Tri Exts 20x10x3 w/abs
Bench Dips 10x3 w/abs

This afternoon just a short walk/run to my mom's house, 1.5 miles. Then floated in the pool for about 45min.

Eats are good.
M1 - 1/2c oatmeal w/ half tbsp coconut oil, 1/2tsp brown sugar; 1 egg & 1 white scrambled; 1/2 grapefruit; 1/2 c milk
M2 - spinach wrap, 1.5c spinach, green pepper strips, 2.5oz chicken
M3 - tuna; plain yogurt w/cherries & 2tbsp flax seed
M4 - 1/2 turkey sandwich, salad
M4.5 :) - kashi bar, tsp pb
M5 - protein shake

My shoulder/neck/back was feeling so sore after my workout this morning. Bench pressing always bothers it and it is why I can't go heavy lately. I called and got an appt for massage in the early afternoon and it feels so much better. I'm glad they could fit me in.

That's about all. Have a good one.

---------------------
FRIDAY:
Today was another successful day. I don't know about tomorrow, but today is all good!

Workout: Legs/Abs - 3 Rounds of:

Squats 95x15
walking lunges to bench out in family room 15's x 8
Abs
Single Leg Ext's 45x15 ea leg
walking lunges to living room 15's x 8
Abs
Single Leg RDL's w/KB 25x15 ea leg
walking lunges to bench out in family room 15's x 8
Abs
Bench Step Ups 15's x 10 ea leg
walking lunges to living room 15's x 8
Abs
KB Swings 25x15

It was a good one! It took a little over an hour due to so many single leg exercises. No cardio today - yay! Tomorrow is back/shoulders/bi's and after reading Kim's blog I think I'm going to do my arm work while I'm on the rbike - time for some crazy rbike intervals!

Eating is on track:

M1 - 1/4c oatmeal w/1 tsp coconut oil & 1/2 tsp brown sugar; 1 whole egg, 1 white scrambled; 1/2 grapefruit, 1/2c milk (looks just like yesterday, right!)
M2 - 1.2oz steak, 1.2oz chicken; 1/2 sweetpotato; salad w/lettuce & endive, green peppers, broccoli, apple cider vinegar for dressing
M3 - 3 hb egg whites, 8 carrot sticks, 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
M4 - 4oz chicken over 1/4c brown rice w/homemade spaghetti sauce, tiny sprinkle of cheddar on top; green beans; piece of toast w/1 tsp butter
M5 - protein shake

I think I need to plan another yogurt treat for tomorrow :) Oops, nevermind that. I'm putting some kashi cereal in that spot to increase my fiber intake. That's like a treat though too :)

Now I just need to stay focused and determined. The scale is not budgeing at all - well barely. Up and down a few ounces each day. I know it is going to be slow going because I'm so close to my goal. I know that if I just stay committed it will finally drop. It seems so hard sometimes when you don't see any progress. But I won't rely on that scale. I will go through my two weeks and see what my results are. There'd better be something good at the end for working my tail off and eating good. But I want to lose fat, not just weight so I'm content to keep going. Because I can make the scale show a lower number by not eating, but I want to be buff, not skinny fat. :) Anyhow, just getting that out there because it is annoying me.

3 Days done - 100%

2010-05-19T07:28:00.002-04:00

Sunday, Monday & Tuesday were all 100% days. I ate clean, I got my weights in, and some cardio.
Sunday's Workout:
I gave it 100%. I felt a little weak and tired, and at a few points I thought I might skip a few exercises, but I pushed through and did it.

Warm up rbike 10 minutes, abs between each set
BP 45x10x2 wu, 65x10x3
Inc DBBP 20's x 10 x 3
Inc Flyes 15's x 10 x 3
CGBP 45x10x3
Skullcrushers 45x8, 7, 6
Tri Kicksbacks 15's x 10 x 3
Tabatas on rbike 4min wu, 4 min hard intervals, 4 min cd
30min elliptical ss in PM.

Monday:
I only got 5 hours of sleep Sunday night and it was dreary and rainy here Monday. That makes it hard for me to get moving (and its going to be hard to tan in the rain LOL, haha). But I DID IT!! (the workout, not tanning in the rain!)

It was leg day. I had a big old list of stuff written down. I looked at it and was like, "what was I thinking???". Well, when I wrote it I was thinking about kicking tail these two weeks, so I went through with it.
Squats 45x10wu, 95x10, 115x10x2
Deadlifts 95x10x3
Booty Bulgarians 20's x 5 x 3 ea leg
SLDL's 95x10x3
Leg Exts 65x10x3
Walking Lunges 20's x 10 x 3
KB Swings 25x10x3
Ball Ham Curls 10x3
All with abs between sets, and the last four exercises with calves after the abs. Plus a little warmup on the elliptical. I did have to lower my weights some today, but not a big deal, as long as I get it done and make each rep count. And I did. PM was 1/2 mile walk warmup (and to test my shin, which felt good). Then 5-6 sets of sprints outside.

I took some pics Monday morning for the start of my mini two week 100% challenge. Really, really hope to see some good changes in just 2 weeks. That would give me tremendous momentum to keep going hard if I can drop a few pounds of fat and get my abs flat again. I feel good about it already, so I guess we'll just see in 2 weeks how it went.

Tuesday:
3 days going strong - whoohoo! I'm just focusing on one day at a time and today was great.

I got my back workout in during biggest loser which really helped it fly by. Abs between all sets.

BOBBR's 65x10x3
Single Arm Rows 25x10x3
Rev Flyes 15's x 10 x 3
Cable Rows 65x10x3
Mil BB Press 45x10x3
DB Shoulder Press 20's x 5, then 15's x 5, 3 sets
Front Raises 21's x 10#, 3 sets - burn!!
Bi Curls 20's x 5, then 15's x 5, 3 sets
Hammer Curls 20s x 5, then 15s x 3, 1 set
Cardio - 30 min intervals on elliptical
Stretching 15 min

Eats are on target.
M1 - 1/2c oatmeal w/ .5tbsp coconut oil, pinch of brown sugar; 1/2c milk; 1 whole egg & 1 white scrambled
M2 - spinach tortilla w/ 1.5c spinach, 3 oz chicken breast, 1/2 c broc, 1 tbsp blue cheese dressing
M3 - 2oz tuna, green pepper slices (4oz)
M4 - 3oz steak, 1/2c brown rice, 4 huge brussel sprouts
M5 - protein shake w/flax seed, 4oz strawberries

Monday was almost the same except I had 1/2 turkey sandwich in the afternoon. Sunday was really good too - only had 49g carbs on that day? Probably because I slept so late, but I didn't feel hungry so just went with it.
Took more pics today of the cute board shorts I want to fit into by the time we go on vacation in July. I can get them on and tie them (doesn't look great though), but can't get them snapped. That's my goal. I'm not looking for a specific number on the scale so much as being able to fit comfortably into some of the clothes that I have.

Have a great one!
~Darcie

Talk about falling behind!!

2010-05-17T18:25:00.002-04:00

Last post was in October??? Ok, so maybe I fell behind AGAIN in blogging, but I am still going strong on workouts and eats. Yesterday I started a mini challenge for 2 weeks of giving 100% to my workouts and eating. Last week I took a much needed week off. I got some shin splints from running too much and needed to rest.
Alrighty, short but sweet. I need to be better about posting here!!

Oops, falling behind!

2009-10-16T16:05:00.000-04:00

Alright, it has been more than a week, but I totally forgot to post here.

Sept 26-Oct 2 I got in two lifting workouts and did some house painting that week.

Oct 3 - 9 I only did two workouts again and some cardio, but we were home all week sick with a fever. Jake was out from Monday afternoon through the whole rest of that week. Lots of blood sugar changes to deal with when he was sick. And we were both exhausted. Not the flu though, yay!

Oct 10 - 16 - This week!
I've been ON this week.
Sun 10/11 - Chest and rbike
Mon 10/12 - Legs w/cardio between sets, alternating rbike & elliptical. short workout but felt it the next day.
Tues - Started a 10 day emergency fitness plan from bb.com. It's a bit extreme - not for beginners and not for more than 10 days . I'm wanting to lean out a bit for Jess's wedding. Then back to normal workouts. I haven't missed a day this week. Lots of full body workouts, bodyweight wo's and cardio & pilates.

Today was red/white/blue day at Jake's school, wrapping up Spirit week. We had a fun time! I love watching the skits the kids put on in the different classes. His class didn't win this year, but they did a good job!

Ok, my workout and cardio are done, I'm off to do a little pilates and then EAT! (oh, and wash the red, white & blue spray out of my hair too LOL).

It's Fitness Catch Up time again!!

2009-09-25T11:45:00.003-04:00

Good week this week! I just kept making myself do my workouts. In the morning I would wake up and be like "I'm not going to do it today". But after an hour or two I would just go do it! So here's my week:

Sunday:
"Daniel"
50 pullups (I did assisted pullups and chins)
400 m. elliptical
45lb thrusters
800 m. elliptical
45lb thrusters
400 m. elliptical
50 pullups (assisted, some chins, and ended with bent over bb rows 45#)
Time ~ 27:14

Monday:
"10 for 10" (my own little made up thing) 5 rounds of 10 exercises, 10 reps each, mostly bw.
Pushups
Walking Lunges
Bi Curls @ 22#
Glute Ham Situps
Tri Exts @ 22#
Flyes 10's
Step Ups
Hammer Curls 10's
Back Exts
Tri Kickbacks 10's
Time ~ 28:42
Plus rbike for 5 miles

Tuesday:
"Diane" Reps 21-15-9
135# Deadlifts
Pike Pushups
Time: 8:13
Plus rbike 5 miles

Wed: off. just walked the dog

Thursday:
"Pizza Pie" (400 m. ellip, choose your own two toppings with reps at 21-18-15-12-9-6-3, 400 m. ellip)
400 m. ellip
BP @ 65#
Plate Swings w/10's
400 m. ellip
Time ~ 22:46
Plus rbike 5 miles

Friday:
"Act your Age" (another thing I made up this morning) Age = reps & time (37 for me). Put together a program and try to complete it within the time given.
Squats @ 95#
BB Bi Curls @ 22#
Crunches
RDL's @ 95#
Tri Exts @ 22#
Bicycles
Leg Exts @ 90#
Lat Raises w/ 5's (wimp!)
Side Bends w/ 10's
Leg Curls @ 30#
Calf Raises
Ab Adductor V's
Walking Lunges - total steps
Ellip .3 mi ~~~I finished the whole weight workout and then did .3 miles on the ellipt before time was up. Yay!

See ya next week!

Another Week - Staying consistent!

2009-09-18T11:44:00.002-04:00

Alright! It's another week down. The workouts are becoming a good habit again and I'm enjoying them. I really just love the attitude that I don't HAVE to do it. For a while there that's what it felt like and I got burned out. Now I CAN do them if I'd like. And I can choose not to as well. It's a much better style for me. But I do want to stay consistent as well, so that's a bit of a struggle between being consistent and being obsessed. So I fit it into my schedule when possible, but I don't work the rest of my life around fitness. It's just another slice that fits in with the other stuff. Hmm, where'd all this babbling come from? Let's get on to the week!

Monday 9/14: Back w/a litte shoulders & bi's - a bit lazy today. Am I always lazy on back day??
Lat Pulls 65x6, 75x4x2
Cable Rows 75x6x3
Cable Upright Rows 35x6x3
Bi Curls 10's x 10 x 2 (really need some 15-30lb db's, these 10# plates are getting boring)
BB Bi Curls 45x8x3

Tues 9/15 Legs:
Squats 95x12 wu, 115x10, 125x8, 135x6
DL's 95x10x3 - lazy again!
RDL's 105x10x3
Exts 45x10, 90x10, 135x8, 160x4, 180x1 - that 180 is a personal best for me!
Leg Curls 45x6x3

Wed 9/16: Off. Except I rode the rbike 5 miles. I'm going for 100 miles in 10 weeks. That's only 10 a week which is easy enough. Oh, and we went and played basketball. And walked the dog. Day off?? LOL.

Thurs 9/17: Chest/Tri's - a bit of a benching day
Decline BP 45x10x3
BB Pullover & Press 12x10x3 - (no point in pressing 12 pounds. But the pullovers are kinda tough for me so next time I'll just do the pullover part and not the press. maybe add 5lbs)
Reverse Grip Bench Press 45x8x3 - (didn't like the grip at all)
Guillotine Press 45x8, 65x8x2
Tri Exts 12x10, 17x10, 22x10 (will start at 22 next time)
Tri Pushdowns 15x8, 35x8 (too hard for me), 25x8
And 5 miles on the rbike.

Friday 9/18: Legs - mainly squats today
Squats - normal stance
95x10, 115x8, 135x6, 150x4

Squats - Feet Together
95x10, 115x8, 135x6, 150x4

Squats - Sumo/Plie
95x10, 115x8, 135x6

Bulgarians
45x10 ea leg wu, 65x5 ea leg, 85x5 ea leg

Overhead Squats
45x8x3

SLDL's
135x6x3

Farmer's Walk - just something to finish out the workout that I've been wanting to try, but keep forgetting :)
45's x 60 feet, 45's x 120 feet

There's my week! Not sure what we'll do this weekend. We haven't had an adventure in a while...

Weekly Update 9/7 thru 9/11

2009-09-11T18:29:00.002-04:00

I'm still going!! Last Friday I just didn't get to my workout. Oh well. I got in my 4/4 that I planned this week. Plus one of the fitness sites I go to has a 12 week challenge going on and this week was 20 minutes of cardio each day. I don't usually do cardio, just haven't felt up to it quite yet. But I've followed through this week.

Monday: Chest/Tri's/Bi's
BP
45x8 wu
65x8x3 with knee ups 8x3

Bench Dips
8x3

Flye's
10's x 10 x 3 with bicycles 16x3
Pushups
8x3

Bi Curls
10's x 10 x 3 with crunches 8x3

Tri Kickbacks
10's x 10 x 3 with knee ups 8x3

Plank Tri Kicksbacks
1 set of 5 each side with 10# - testing this new move out

BB Bicep Curls
32 x 8 x 3 with supermans

SkullCrushers (and yes I hit my skull a few times LOL)
12x8
22x8x2 with bicycles 16x3

Cardio - pool volleyball and swimming.

Tuesday: Legs, paired circuits
Squats 95x10
& Leg Curls 20x15x3

Deadlifts 95x10x3
& Step Ups 45x10x3

Extensions 65x10x3
& Calf Raises 95x10x3

Cardio: Bellydance 30 minutes, ballet barre moves 20 minutes

Wednesday: Off. Cardio - racquetball, basketball, swimming 75 minutes.
Wednesday we did a little theme of 9's since it was 09/09/09. We did:
Racquetball to 9 points.
Basketball to 9 points
Swam 9 laps in the pool
9 holes of golf on wii sports
Did 9 races on Mario Kart
Read Psalm 9
Walked .9 miles
Played 9 innings of Mario Sluggers (wii)

Thursday: Back
Lat Pulls 55x6x4
Cable Rows 55x6x4
Upright Rows (cable) 25x6x4
Was busy doing other stuff so didn't finish (made bread, made jelly, strawberry pie, peanut butter)

Friday: Legs, back to heavy lifting again for the next few weeks
Deadlifts
95x8 warmup
135x6x3

Romanian Deadlifts
135x6x3

Squats
95x8x3 - i really pre-exhausted on those deadlifts. I went down for the first squat and my legs were already so shaky I didn't think I'd be coming back up LOL.

Extensions
50x10 warmup
95x8
140x6x2

Cardio: Barbell Complexes (these are for cardio, not resistance training). Grab a barbell that you can handle for your weakest move in the circuit (for me that is the shoulder press). I just use the bar which is 45 lbs. Go straight down the circuit transitioning from one move into the next without putting down the barbell, and do it 6 times. That is 1 round. You can rest about 30 to 60 seconds after each round. I did 20 minutes worth which ended up being 8 rounds (or 48 reps).
Deadlift to
Shoulder Press to
Squat to
Calf Raise to
Good Morning to
Shoulder Press to
Bent Over Barbell Row

That is it for the week! Except for cardio on Saturday and Sunday which I'm not sure what it will be yet.

8/31 through 9/3

2009-09-03T19:33:00.003-04:00

If you haven't seen my garden blog for today, well this week has been crazy due to my son being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (insulin dependent). So we're all trying to get used to this new routine in our lives. I've kept up with my workouts, so here they are for the week so far.

Monday - Crossfit "Linda" (aka three bars of death), For time.
Sets go 10/9/8/7/6/5/4/3/2/1 - little to no rest between each move.
Deadlifts @ 135#
Bench Press @ 65#
Clean High Pulls @ 40#
Time - 18:33

Tuesday - Crossfit "Kelly", For time .
5 Rounds of:
Run 400m (i was on my elliptical)
30 Box Jumps
30 Wall Ball
Time - 31:55

Wed - Off. Played Wii Outdoor Adventure and did 15 min pilates

Thurs - Crossfit "Murph" For time.
Run 1 Mile (elliptical)
100 pullups (i did supine, knees bent)
200 pushups
300 squats
Run 1 Mile (elliptical again)
Time - 1:04:55.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Fight Gone Bad. I'll have to see how I feel because my shoulder and neck feel funky today. I think it was the pullups. So I may have to do a different workout since FGB includes Mil BB Press and Row which are not going to go well with my problem right now. We'll see!

Thursday & Friday Stuff. Fun bike intervals!

2009-08-28T12:47:00.003-04:00

Just had a really good feeling workout. The kind where when you're done, you just feel alive and ready to tackle anything! Today was back to lighter weights and I just did a mish-mash of stuff revolving around legs, but hitting the shoulders and chest too.

Clean & Press
45x10x3 w/ crunches 10x3

Squats
115x10x3 w/bicycles 20x3

Plate Swings (i could really use some db's here, but making do!)
10's x 10 x 3 w/4 position hip flexor stretches

Walking Lunges w/Lat Raises at bottom of lunge (did I mention I could really use some db's??)
10's x 8 x 2
5's x 8
w/ Plate side bends 10's x 10 x 3

Then onto Blaster Burpee Biking Intervals. Yes, here comes another bizarre form of intervals from me. It consists of biking, Mahler Body Blasters, & 6 count Burpees. The biking part is your "rest" period.
Minutes 1-5 Warmup
Minute 6 = Mahler Body Blasters
Minute 7 = Biking
Minute 8 = Burpees
Minute 9 = Biking
Minute 10 = Mahler Body Blasters
Minute 11 = Biking
Minute 12 = Burpees
Minute 13 = Biking
Minute 14 = Mahler Body Blasters
Minute 15 = Biking
Minute 16 = Burpees
Minute 17 = Biking
Minute 18 = Mahler Body Blasters
Minute 19 = Biking
Minute 20 = Burpees
Minutes 21-25 cool down biking
I did between 8-10 reps of blasters and burpees each set. So at about 9/set that's about 72 pushups and 72 squats added into the mix.

Then I did 5 minutes of hip flexor stretches since I just did the worst thing in the world for tight hip flexors - riding the bike.

Yesterday was Back day and it was short and sweet since I had to get out and paint the house.
Lat Pulls 55x6, 65x6x2
Reverse Grip Lat Pulls 55x6, 65x6x2
Bent Over BB rows 45x8, 65x6, 85x4
90 minutes of house painting and climbing up and down the ladder
And 20 mintues of pilates in the evening.

Recap of 4 weeks:
I'm feeling good and consistent with the lifting workouts, so on to the next phase. I'm the same weight or actually even slightly higher because I've been lifting, but haven't messed with the diet yet. I can feel my quads getting harder though so it is working. This next week I start the cleaner eating phase and I am certain that in the next 4 weeks I'll see some great changes if I can stick to that part of things. I'm looking for a 6lb loss in the next 4 weeks. I will also be adding in some cardio to my workouts at this point, but not alot yet. We'll save that for the end of the challenge. What challenge? LOL, well two of them. The 10 week Super Star Success challenge over at the BuffMother Rally Room. And the 12 week challenge over at the Strong Woman Training Room. I need all of the motivation and encouragement I can get to make this happen!

Monday & Tuesday Workouts, 8/25

2009-08-25T16:49:00.003-04:00

Monday was chest and it really felt like a rather wimpy workout. But today I'm feeling quite sore so I guess it was better than I thought.

BP
65x8x3
85x2
85x6
Flyes
10's x 10 x 3
Cable Flyes
10x6
10x8
Pushups
10

Today was Leg day! I did all single leg exercises. It was good stabilization work and I found out my left leg is weaker and tighter than my right.
#'s are for each leg, not the total. (ie. 45x5 = 5 reps each leg with 45lbs)
Single Leg Bench Squats
45x5
45x5
55x5
65x5
75x5

Bulgarians
45x5
55x5
65x5
75x5

Step Ups onto bench
45x5
55x5
65x5
75x5

Walking Lunges
75x8x3 (8 steps total, not each leg)

Leg Exts - Left Leg only to give it a little more work
45x6x3

Then I spent 90 minutes removing the ivy from the front of my house - it fell part way down in a storm last week and I couldn't salvage it. It has been growing there for 9 years. It was sad to have to pull it down. And it was hard work too!

Wed/Thurs/Fri Stuff

2009-08-21T13:11:00.002-04:00

Wednesday was an off day and we went to a park. We walked about, hmmm.... maybe 3.5 miles. It is hard to calculate because the "loop" we were supposed to walk which was .9 miles was closed halfway and we had to backtrack to the beginning, then start down the other side until we came to the closed spot on the other side. Then all of the sidetrails. But it was close to about 3.5 I think.

Thursday was Back:
Lat Pulls 55x8, 65x6x2
Rows 65x8x3
Supine Pullups 6x3
Mil BB Press (shoulders) 45x10x3

Friday Legs:
DL's (conventional)
45x10 wu
95x8
115x6
135x6
155x4

Leg Exts:
65x10 wu
90x8
105x6
140x5

Squats
95x8
115x8
135x4x2

RDL's
95x10
115x6x3

Leg Curls
20x8
45x4x4

Mon & Tues Check In

2009-08-18T20:41:00.002-04:00

Monday: Chest
Monday was chest day, and my first day of boosting.

BP
45x10
65x8
75x8
85x4x2

Around the Worlds & Flyes mixed in
10's x 10 x 3

Inc Press, Narrow Grip
45x8
55x8
65x4

1 Arm Cable Flyes
10x10x2

Ok, so here's where it gets a little crazy. I wanted to make butter. I thought to myself..."if I just strap the jars under my bike pedals (indoor bike of course!!) then it would just agitate it enough as I rode to maker butter. Then I could kill 2 birds with one stone. Not that I would want to kill even one bird. After 15 minutes I looked and it just wasn't working. So I thought... "if I strap it to the elliptical beam it will shake it more of a front to back motion and surely that will do it". So I hopped over to the elliptical with my jars of cream. Five minutes later I looked and one of them was thicker, but the other just wasn't getting anything. So I quit that crazy scheme and went to just shaking. Consider it tricep burnout after a good chest workout LOL. But even 15 minutes later it wasn't becoming butter. Well, I was so close. I tossed it in the mixer and not 30 seconds later it separated LOL. Anyway, 20 minutes of cardio trying to make butter. :)

Today was Leg day. I split it up since I ran out of time in the AM. Found myself with some extra time in the PM and decided to do a few more things.

AM:
Squats
95x10
115x8
135x6
125x10

BB Stationary Lunges
45x10
65x10

Bulgarians
45x10
65x10

PM:
Leg Exts
65x10
90x8
115x6
135x4

Leg Curls
20x10 standing
45x6x2 lying down

Friday's Super Duper Leg Circuit ~ The Remix

2009-08-14T13:20:00.002-04:00

Here's my new super duper leg circuit. It's a shorter version of my old circuit, meant to squish in under 30 minutes. I wasn't sure how long it would take so I just pushed through as efficiently as I could. I had extra time today so planned to let myself go past 30 minutes if I needed to. Setup & cleanup take a few minutes as well. Here's how it went!

Exercises all in a row. 1st circuit is 12 reps (for abs this means 12 reps each leg if doing things like bicycle, scissors, etc), 2nd circuit 10 reps, 3rd circuit 8 reps. Don't change the weight. Rest 2-3 minutes between circuits.

Squats @ 95 lbs
Walking lunges with 10's
Knee Ups
Leg Exts @ 75 lbs
Walking Lunges with 10's
Bicycle Abs
Deadlifts @ 105 lbs
Walking Lunges with 10's
Scissors
Leg Curls @ 30 lbs
Stretch legs and rest. I took about 2 minutes to stretch, then reset my bench with the weights for the exts to start the next circuit.
So how long did it take?? 23:01 ! Yes. 23 minutes WITH the rests between sets. I was ON FIRE today!! It felt good. I really thought it had taken longer. Had some great Newsboys going, the GO Remix.

If you want to do this circuit, setup looks something like this:
Choose a weight that is slightly challenging, but not too intense. This is a light day and you will be struggling on circuit 3 if you set it too high.
Take your bench and set it 12 walking lunges away from your rack. For me this means the bench goes out to the family room and I do my lunges from the living room through the kitchen, into the family room. These are rather short stride lunges, but that's what you want for round one anyway. By the time you hit circuit 3 you will only be doing 8 lunges and you will take longer strides. That way you hit a good mix of stride lengths.
In your main room set up your bar with weight on the rack. Also set up another bar with weights for your DL's in that same room.
On your ext's & curls do the ext's first so you can just pop the extra weight off for your curls at the end of the circuit (if you are weak at leg curls like I am LOL).
Do your squats, then do your lunges out to the bench, do your ext's, then do your lunges back to the other room and do your DL's, then walking lunges back to the bench for your curls. Abs are after each set of walking lunges to give your legs a few seconds rest before starting the next leg exercise.
Have fun! I love this workout. It keeps things interesting. :)

Today's WO - back and some shoulders

2009-08-13T16:22:00.002-04:00

It's a busy day, but just the perfect amount of busy. I squeezed in my 20 minute workout today. I love that I have put a time limit on my workouts - I have no excuse to not fit it in.

Back/Shoulders
Lat Pulls 50x8x3 w/ Ab flutterkicks 30x3
Cable Rows 50x8x3 w/ scissorkicks 20x3
BB bent over rows 35x10x3 w/ jump twists
Upright Rows 35x8x3 w/cats
Lat Raises 10's x 10 - time up!

I see that I tend to be able to fit in 4 lifting exercises and 4 ab exercises, 3 sets of each, during a 20 minute workout. Once I have my new equipment all figured out I will be a little faster and putting on weights and knowing how well each thing works. Might be able to hit 5.

I'm baking bread today so I'm off to get more things done!

Tuesday's Legs

2009-08-11T18:59:00.001-04:00

Still trying to stay accountable on my workouts - and hopefully make some progress. Here's today's wo:
Squats
45x10 wu
95x10
115x10x2

Good Mornings
65x10
95x8x2

DL's
95x10x3

Leg Curls (ALWAYS my weakest exercise LOL)
20x8
30x8x2

Leg Exts
30x8
55x8
80x8

Then we went to a new park today. The site said they had an archery area so we brought our bows and arrows. When we got there as we went down the road a deer hopped out in front of us and trotted along. So cute! Then we got back to the archery area and it was so neat. There were trails leading to different targets throughout the woods. We had alot of fun going from target to target. Then we went for a swim.
That's all!

Weekend Catchup

2009-08-11T10:39:00.003-04:00

Well the activity I thought I'd get this weekend didn't happen. The most I did was yardwork and walking the dog. Oh well, maybe next time.

Yesterday was chest day. I did my first chest workout on the new equipment and it was terrible. Very unstable. Rack too narrow so that I had to do a very narrow grip bp. The way the seat inclined I couldn't even get the barbell out of the rack for incline presses. I decided that piece of equipment had better go back!

Here's what I ended up getting done.

BP 55x8x2, 75x4, 65x8 w/ knee ups between sets 20x3

Inc Flyes 10's x 10 x 3 w/ crunches between sets 15x3

Pushups 15x3 w/ bicycles between sets 20x3

Tried to do inc presses, messed with bench settings, etc., finally decided to just be done and move on!

Then I scoured the internet for some good used gym equipment. Found this great deal!!

Bench, rack, lat & row pulley, 430 lbs of weights, oly bar, curl bar, leg developer attachment. Sweet deal! And very nicely taken care of by the previous owners. Fits just right between the elliptical and rbike. I'll get a leg workout done on it later today - hurray! Catcha later!

Friday Legs! Quad dominant

2009-08-07T11:44:00.002-04:00

Leg day! It has always been my favorite day when I'm on a workout split. I'm not sure exactly why, except that I feel very strong on a leg day. I think I was extra excited to get started because with the new bench setup I can do a little extra on legs. Before I had the rack I could only squat what I was able to shoulder press in order to get it from the floor to over my head to on my shoulders. AND more importantly I had to be able to get it OFF my shoulders and over my head and back to the floor. That was always the hard part. I was pretty much limited to 60lbs.

Today's Legs:
Squats
55 x 10
85 x 10
105 x 10

DeadLifts
85 x 10
*Got out the Step so I could get a deeper squat with these new larger weight plates*
105 x 10 x 2

SLDL's
105 x 5 x 5
I think I should go lower next time. I was having grip problems

Ext's - testing the waters. Haven't done these in years!
30 x 10
55 x 10
65 x 10 - I can start at 65 next time

Walking Lunges
10's x 10 x 3

That was all, time was up! My goal in a workout is to go no more than 30 minutes. If it doesn't get done by 30 minutes it doesn't get done at all. That's why I'll be starting with all of the bigger moves and saving things like ext's till the end. The lunges I like to do after I've done my other moves and it totally kills the whole time LOL. Oh, I did throw a few abs in here and there, but nothing special.

I'm fortunate to be the right height to be able to use the bench rack as a loader for squats too. I just fit down into that little spot to get it on my shoulders. I have to start from the bottom of the squat, but that is ok. One thing I found out. You cannot load that bar from empty while it is on the rack. If you put a 25 lb plate on one side the other side will fly right up and try to knock you out LOL. That bar just does not weigh enough (it's like 3lbs total). I may look into getting another standard bar that is heavier. I just load up 50lbs on the floor then put it on the rack. The rest can be loaded without trouble.

Thursday - Day 3 Workout

2009-08-06T14:54:00.002-04:00

Here's what I got done this morning: Thursday 8/6

Paired Sets (wt x reps x sets)

Bent Over Barbell Rows 65 x 10 x 3
w/ Bicycle Abs 40 x 3

One Arm Barbell Rows (LOL, yes I had to use my barbell, no db's!) 45 x 6 x 3 ea arm
w/ Rope Climbers on Ball 20 x 3

Upright Rows 45 x 8 x 3
w/ Knee Ups 10 x 3

Reverse Flyes 10's x 8 x 3
w/ Reverse Crunches 10 x 3

Front Raises 10's x 10 x 3
w/ Plate Side Bends 10's x 10 x 3

That's all! A quick 20 minutes and it felt good to get it done. After that Jake and I went to a local park and walked around the garden paths and the boardwalk.

New Start - Workout One & Overcoming Obstacles.

2009-08-05T11:29:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I did my first workout toward my new goal of losing 12 pounds in 12 weeks. It was a wimpy one as far as workouts go. One of the obstacles I'll be facing this time is equipment. I sold off almost all of my workout equipment last year when we needed the money. No more nice Smith Machine, no nice db set of 5's to 25's. No more power tower. No more treadmill. No more #300lb oly bar set. Ok, let's stop focusing on the "no mores".
Let's work on what I DO have.
I have a barbell with weights up to 100lbs. I can get another 10 pounds on it when I hang my ankle weights on the sides LOL. 110 max isn't very much, but it will have to do for now.
I can use the weights for some db exercises because they have holes cut in them that work good for handholds.
I still have my elliptical.
I still have my recumbent bike.
But I'm not concerned about cardio because I have legs and a sidewalk outside to run on. I have a bicycle to ride around the neighborhood. No, my concern is the weights and being able to get heavy enough to make it worthwhile.
So for now, I will work with what I have and make the most of it. And maybe check Craigslist and the used sporting goods store.

On to yesterday's first workout. In honor of the current Rally Room challenge of 40 Days to Fit, I started out with a little "40" theme. I would have only lifted 40lbs too, but I was too lazy to take off the extra 5 pounds. I am a lazy workout girl LOL. So I kept it all at 45lbs.

Here it is. All in a row with little to no rest between sets. After all, I'm on a buffing phase and won't start my heavy lifting phase until the end of next week. I can't wait!

Deadlifts (conventional) 45x40
Crunches 40
Bench Press 45x40
Bicycle Abs 40
Bent Over BB Rows 45x40
Knee Ups 40
Walking Lunges 40
Ab Adductor V's 40
Pushups 40
Ab Flutter Kicks 40

That was all. I guess it is as good a start as any. Definitely better than no start at all! Today is just cardio. Tomorrow I'll do back & shoulders. Friday will be legs. Saturday & Sunday will be active days and cardio. Then next week I'll start up on my old usual split - except I will be focusing on big compound movements this time around.

I also put in my order to bodybuilding.com for my protein powder. I haven't ordered in almost 2 years. I wonder if they are still as fast as always? I might get it tomorrow if they are still that efficient!
Catch ya later!

Starting Over - 2009

2009-08-05T10:13:00.009-04:00

Here I am, starting over on my fitness journey (like so many others!). And while I'm not starting from as bad a place as my original beginning (in 2006), it's still another start. A fresh start! I can do this. Why blog here? I don't know. I just need more blogging outlets than I already have? LOL. What, a garden blog, and adventure blog, Facebook, and the BuffMother Rally Room, and sometimes BodySpace, isn't enough? hehehe. I guess I felt that if I put myself out here for more people to see what I'm doing, that I'd feel more motivated, accountable and compelled to actually reach my goals.

So let's recap. Here I am in January of 2006 when I bought the e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. I really thought that would be a waste of money. I was wrong.

BEGINNING - 2006: I weigh 129 at this point.

Here I am in 2007: Weight is 120 (muscle rocks!)

Here's 2008. Weight is 126

And here we are in 2009. Weight is back to 129.

Ok, now that I have the photos up here are a few things to mention.

1. In June 2006 I found the BuffMother Rally Room and began to lift heavy. It pays off! As a woman, you just cannot bulk up like a man. Don't be afraid to lift heavy and build muscle.

2. What happened in 2008? Well, let's see. My anxiety attacks came back, depression set in, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, my husband lost his job due to the horrible economy. 2008 was not a good year. But it is done and over! And God is good and He was (and is) with me through every moment. No desire to workout and eat good through that year though.

3. 2009 - Tentatively reaching to see how things go. And now?? I am ready to start again.

4. The hardest thing will be pushing past my fear. My fear of failing. My fear that something will set off the anxiety attacks and depression again. I cannot be afraid. I have to push past it and continue forward.
5. See the first pic and the last? I weigh the same amount on the scale. Build muscles girls!! You will not regret having a faster metabolism and a lean shape.

6. I got in this shape from solely working out at home. I never set foot in a gym. I just like it that way. Nothing wrong with the gym, but if you think you can't get in good shape at home - you can!!