Day 9 - Arms, Shoulders, and ABs

Wow, I'm very much amazed that I've made it to week #2. Actually, this week is so crazy and hectic (can you hear a re-occurring theme yet?), that I've had to switch the routines up.

We're going up to Breckenridge on Thursday to celebrate my bride's 28th b-day. We'll be there through Friday night, which is totally going to screw up my workouts. BUT, I have a plan. If I do the intense pullup routine (legs, back, abs) on Thursday instead of Friday, then I can take our mini laptop up to the mountains and do the Yoga routine while the kids frolic in the pool on Friday. THEN, I think I'll use my "day of rest" for Saturday, since it's a terrible, terrible hectic day, and do my Kenpo on Sunday, which is much less crazy hectic. Phew! I get exhausted just typing about it all! Jeesh.

So I was concerned yesterday about when I was going to be able to get my workout in. I decided to sneak home for the lunch period and work on the first part (1-hr.) Normally, my Tuesday workout would be the cardio (according to the lean program), but because of the crazy switch up on Thurs/Fri/Sat, I decided to get the iron-pumping upper body routine in today, and save the cardio for tomorrow (wed.). Is this all making sense? Sorry, I'm just kinda typing what comes to thought. Like mumbling my thoughts!

So nothing special to report. I did great with my reps. I use my 10lb. weights for everything. Sometimes I think I'm under doing it, especially when the guys on the movie are using 25lbs, and the girls are using the 10lbs. But I just remind myself that I DO NOT WANT TO BULK UP! I'm not going for beefcake here. Rather, I want good, hardened lean muscles. So I go for reps. In fact, when they do 12-16 reps, I'm pushing out 24+. So that makes me feel worthwhile.

Once I had finished my iron-pumping routine, I realized that I could squeeze in my ab workout, but I'd be a few minutes late getting back from lunch. No biggy. So I started. Well, after I got to the crunchy frogs (3rd routine), I realized I didn't quite have it in me to finish the intense ab workout. So I decided to wait.

Which worked out very well for me.

We love to watch the biggest loser as a family. My primary complaint, however, is their need to take a 1-hr. show and draw it out into a 2-hr. episode. It gets so old watching the same clip, over and over, before the commercial, and after the commercial. It's a joke! And the weigh ins are terrible. 40 minutes to narrow down who lost the least amount. Since we no longer have Tevo, it's quite unbearable. But still, we love the show.

Well, last night I pitched an idea to the family. "Would you like to do the AB routine with me during the weigh-ins?" Everyone was on board, except for Kim, who desperately wanted to go to bed :-) So Jade, and Kaleb, and Kathy and I all did the 15-minute ab routine while NBC bored the audience with the same 'ol recipe for weigh-ins. By the time we were done, they were down to the final 2 weigh-ins, which is all that really matters.

I was proud of my family. They did GREAT! Jade is a super athlete, and the AB routine kicked her butt! Kaleb, who is nothing but skin and bones, breezed through the routines with ease. Kathy, who tends to complain about the extra five pounds she has been hiding on her waist for the past half-dozen years, FLEW through the routine. She could have been, dare I say, an INSTRUCTOR! I was very, very impressed with the strength and endurance she displayed throughout this intense 15-min. routine.

It was fun. I'm glad everyone joined me. It made us feel united, and I think we'll continue this Tuesday night tradition.

This a.m. I weighed in at a solid 186.5lbs. I'm okay with this for now.

My tummy is RUMBLING!! It's hungry, but it's a false hunger. I'm still working on reducing the size of the stomach so that my hunger pains can be reduced. Lots of water, and carrot sticks, and almonds for snacks.

Today's meals have looked like such:
Breakfast: coffee (black, always!), and a banana
Mid-morning snack: 8 yogurt covered pretzels and 6 ginger snap cookies (yum! yum!)
Lunch: Subway (I walk there, about 1/2 mile ea. way). spicy Italian with Swiss cheese, lots of veggies, oil and a lot of vinegar. And half of a powerade for a drink.
Afternoon snack: handful of cinn. bears and an apple.

So what do I miss the most? Well, I really miss beer. Not that I've given it up, but I just don't think that it fits into my diet plan right now. It's more for the Sunday "day of rest" timeslot. Also, I miss portions. I miss being able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. When I did this, I weighed 190lbs. But I had too much fat. I'm not seeing the trade off yet. I feel like I'm hungry WAY MORE, and I've only lost 3lbs. That's hard to deal with. But I'd like to believe that I'm replacing the fat with muscle. Oh, and sugar. I really miss sugar. I miss eating peanut butter cups, and sweet tarts, and a 5lb. bag of cinn. bears, and Diet Dr. Pepper, and Slushies! Not that I can't enjoy these (I had one peanut butter cup last night), but the trade off isn't worth it for me right now.

Keep on rockin'! Right?