Day 11: Weights and Abs

I had the hardest time falling asleep last night. I do not know what it was, but I was just lying in bed for hours thinking of different things going on in my life. I finally just took some melatonin spray and fell asleep, which was not good because I had to wake up in order to get to church on time this morning. I made it, but I kept my ride waiting a few minutes and I did not get any breakfast. After church I went out to lunch with some of my relatives who were visiting, along with my uncle and cousins who live here. We went to Carrabbas. It was very good, but I was terrified to check to see how unhealthy it was. I had asked for whole grain pasta, but when they gave it to me, it looked regular, but I did not want to make a fuss and just ate it anyway. When I got back to my dorm I looked up all of the ingredients and the calories and it was actually only about 550 calories. I was expecting it to be a lot more I guess. I usually do not pay attention to calories as much as I pay attention to what is actually IN food that I eat, but today was kind of a special occasion so I tried not to worry about it and I only had one piece of bread with it and one part of the appetizer my uncle ordered. I also skipped the side salad/soup it came with. I am not saying it was justified, just that it could have been worse haha. After church tonight I went to the store with my cousin and I got this cereal that I had for dinner and it is so amazing. It is Grape-Nuts Fit cereal. I did not even have that much and it filled me up! It was really good, though it was like $4. However, it should last me a long time so I am okay with that.

For my workout today I did resistance training for my arms (biceps, triceps, and deltoids):

• Weighted arm circles-20 reps forward, 20 backward, 3 lbs (I do not know which specific muscles they target)

Biceps:

• Hammer curl-20 reps, 15 lbs
• Seated concentration curl-20 reps, 10 lbs
• Seated biceps curl-20 reps, 2 sets

Sets 1 and 2: 30 lbs

Deltoids

• Lateral raise-20 reps, 2 sets

Sets 1 and 2: 5 lbs

• Front deltiod raise-20 reps, 10 lbs
• Upright row

Triceps

• Lying triceps extension-20 reps, 10 lbs
• Kickback-20 reps, 10 lbs
• Triceps overhead extension-20 reps, 2 sets

Set 1: 10 lbs

Set 2: 15 lbs

I kept the exercises for each muscle group pretty even. On some of them I really felt like 10 lbs was too light, but 15 lbs was too heavy. I need 12s!

After that I did my “Fab Ab” workout, which consisted of:

• 20 sit-ups
• 6 push-ups
• 20 second plank

Needless to say, it was really easy.

Then I did about 10 minutes of ab work. I found this ab exercise that I really wanted to try, but I was not going to do it if someone else was in the exercise room because I did not want to try it and fail at it the first time with someone watching. Vain, I know. So I did this instead (I did 30 reps of all of them):

• Side oblique crunch (x 2)
• Vertical leg crunch
• bicycle
• crunch (x 2)

My legs are sore from yesterday’s workout. That did not stop me from getting some cardio in though! To finish up my workout, I ran a mile on the treadmill at 5.5 mph. That was the first solid mile I have run since I hurt my ankle. It felt good. I just have to make sure I don’t push it too hard!

Day 9: “Fab Ab” and desperation to fit something in!

Today was crazy. I did not get to workout nearly as much as I had planned/wanted to. Sadness. I did the first “Fab Ab” exercise. It was like….not even a workout. 10 sit ups, 4 push ups, and a 10 second plank. What is this?! But I did it nonetheless. I did that in my dorm room and after that I did not know when I would be able to do anything else. My best friend’s dad was coming in and I am extremely close to his whole family so I wanted to see him when he got here. I told my friend to let me know and I had to do a bit of waiting. I knew I had a few hours, but I spent most of that time working on something else. I finally was able to get down to the exercise room and put in a pathetic 20 minutes of working out. I did 1.5 miles on the treadmill. Mostly walking. I really wanted to do more, but it is like midnight now so I figured I would just have to make it up tomorrow. I am glad I got something in though. Also, I ate super healthy today and that makes me feel better about not doing as much exercise as I wanted to today.

Tomorrow is Pinterest Saturday! I still have to pick one, but I’m excited! I will also be doing another “Fab Ab” workout (can it even be called a workout if it only lasts 1:30 minutes???). I may do some other stuff as well. I don’t know yet. I do have some school work I have to focus on tomorrow so that may affect how much I can do besides what I already have planned. Happy Weekend!

Rest day!

Today is my rest day for the week to give my muscles a bit of a break. I do not really love rest days because I feel so lazy on them, but I realize the importance of letting my muscles relax since it has been said that rest days are when your body progresses the most.

Along with my fitness program, I also believe that eating healthy is essential. FOr the past few years I have been eating a lot healthier than I had in the past. When I look back now to all of the junk I ate, it truly disgusts me. I make a habit of eating healthy and avoiding junk food; however, I do believe that it is okay to have a sweet dessert every once in a while, especially if you have a sweet tooth like me! Sometimes I find it VERY hard to resist desserts and such. One thing I like to do is to eat a lot of fruit. Fruit is naturally sweet and can sometimes extinguish a desire for more unhealthy foods. Sometimes you just HAVE to have chocolate. That’s just it. It is necessary. So instead of candy bars or milk chocolate, I will get dark chocolate. Dark chocolate, as most people know, is a lot better for you than other chocolate and has many health benefits. In fact, I think70% dark chocolate is actually good for you. Right now I have Dark Chocolate M&Ms in my room (which are not the healthiest form of dark chocolate) that I like to eat with popcorn. It is an excellent snack that I do not feel too bad about. Popcorn is a great snack and even really healthy if you just pop the kernels in the microwave in a paperbag (no oil needed!) I don’t put anything on it and it is great! So anyway, enough rambling on about nutrition. All I’m trying to say is that if you eat healthy and exercise, you will feel really good about yourself!