[Here were my 2013 goals.] How am I doing after month number one?

• Weight: on track! down 4lbs since New Year’s and 72lbs since my heighest! 178lbs and 27% body fat even! Current long-term goal is around 165lbs or 15% body fat, which should be attainable some point between June and December.
• Running: better than thought! My goal was to get my mile time to around 10:15 consistantly, but I ran a 9:21 mile a few weeks ago and 3 miles in 31:05 today. So I’m going to up the ante: new goals are to get my 5k (3.1 miles) under 31:00 by June and around 30:00 by December. Holy cow!
• Lifting: on track, I think. I won’t bore you with the numbers, but my goal was to about double what I was lifting and I’ve started to already see improvement. I’m not sure if this was a realistic goal to start, but I’m definitely improving which makes me feel great!
• Sleeping and food: amazing! nutrition is great. Homemade everything, sticking to an almost entirely plant-based diet. Mostly veggies, a few eggs, and some random stuff like tofu and homemade gluten free waffles. No complaints! Plus 7-9hrs of sleep a night HOLLA

I am the fucking happiest person every right now, okay?

Yesterday: heating pad, few extra calories, hot tea, a bit of stretching, and loads of rest. 9hrs sleep.

Today: 7hrs sleep, sports massage after work, loads of water, and some more heat before I go to sleep.

Tomorrow: lightly getting back into the game? Elyptical for 30min, extra stretching!

I DO NOT LIKE THIS ONE IT.

But my ego wouldn’t let me leave the gym, so after 90minutes there I’m going to go dance at a wedding and tomorrow go to the boxing class I already signed up for.

Goddamn every muscle body is fatigued.

Yesterday, after previously lamenting to my boss about those red velvet cupcakes and my need to learn raw “baking”, he arranged to have a raw vegan chocolate pie made for the staff as a treat.

Today, I planned all my meals ahead so I could take a 2hr lunch and hit the gym duing the most dead time of day. I had a protein spinach salad for lunch, now I’m back snacking on a banana and a protein shake.

I have no complaints about life right now.

Race day on Saturday!!!

I’M NOT EVEN FAT ANY MORE STOP TAKING PITY ON ME YOU IDIOT

DO YOU EVEN LIFT!?

70lbs and counting!

I beat an eating disorder, obesity, panic disorder, and a slipped disk in my back. I’m getting strong, fast, flexible, and lean.

All with a magic weight loss pill! Its called “balanced nutrition, calorie counting, running, and weight lifting.”

• Finish your arm workout with a plank chaser.
• Finish your ab workout with a plank chaser.
• Oh, you just do cardio then work your whole body? Plank chaser.

So the basic premiss is this: sometimes you just don’t do your muscles all the way. You’re like “chest day!” but then you don’t bring yourself to failure. You don’t grow.

Make sure your workout is REALLY over by chasing it with a plank—just like you’d chase booze with some cola, if you drank either of those things.

Step 1: Do your normal workout

Step 2: At the end, just get into plank. And stay there until you fail. Because, in theory, you just shredded your muscles you shouldn’t be able to hold it for very long, even if you normally can.

Example: today I did just my arms and abs (nursing a hamstring injury) so after everything was said and done, I just got into plank. I usually hold it for about 1:30, but I fell down after about 40 seconds.

• If you can hold it for as long as you normally can, you didn’t make a ton of progress today in your workout.
• If you can only hold it for a fraction of the time before you fall, congratulations. Now go get a protein drink.

Again, I’m mostly posting this for my own purpose, because organizing vague thoughts is really helpful. This is also all my progress (sort of) outside of what the scale says, so maybe you’ll find this helpful too!

Back

I always start with this because I have arthritis and a slipped disk in my lumbar. But, like usual when I’m in fitness-mode, I don’t feel a thing. It’s been a little sore the past few days with everything else, but the heating pad seems to be helping.

Stomach

I have no idea if this shit it is ever going to go back to how it was. I can now see my ribs when I stretch and suck in my stomach so you can see the contours of my hips/ribs, but it’s just so puffy and loose. I don’t mind the stretch marks (they’re barely noticeable) but I can’t for the life of me imagine how this thing is ever going to get smaller. It’s just lose skin. Hopefully if I just stat concentrating on insane ab exercises I can build enough muscle to make up for some of the skin, but who knows… this is the saddest part…

Arms

I’m probably back to my July definition which is good shoulders, light bicep/tricep when I’m flexing. I think part of the problem (or maybe the whole thing) is how bad my form is with my arms, so I’m thinking about moving off free weights onto the machines for these so my shoulders can stop compensating for everything. BUT I do have that cool muscle-dent around my arm pit now (TMI haha) which makes the front of my shoulders look great. Also going to get better at charting progress so I start lifting heavier too!

Legs / Butt

Definitely making more progress here than anywhere else. My butt has a nice shape and like half the size that it used to be, and you can now see my leg muscle when I’m just standing, despite how much fat they still have on them! Mostly in my quads, but my calves are getting there too. I want to build my butt faster than the quads though (since I run and squat like a maniac) so I’m going to start incorporating more exercises that uses my hamstrings/butt more than just my quads/butt. I’m pumped that I’m going to have weight lifter thunder thighs, because they’re such practical muscles, but I still want my butt to be bigger than them!

Injuries

So I have hyper mobile joints (they actually leave the socket a bit to be super flexible) and I’m incredibly injury prone. This means I concentrate a shit ton on my form, and listen to pain. Here’s what’s currently wrong with me:

• Lumbar: A little soreness recently, but nothing worrying! A slipped disk, arthritis, and a pinched nerve are what originally made me start working out. I needed to lose weight to avoid ending up in a wheel chair, and I dare say it worked haha
• Right rotator cuff: Screwed this up bench pressing, still not the same after a year. Nothing new to report except I think I’m going to stick to pushups now. Even the super light bench presses are aggravating it, but I’m getting pretty competent at pushups for the first time in my life! It’s exciting and doesn’t bug my shoulder.
• Lately: left ankle, right hamstring. I don’t know what I did, but I’m assuming it involves too much cardio. My right ankle is hurting when I extend it on the treadmill or when running, but stairs and walking is fine. It’s been a few weeks but only when I really push myself. Might look into physical therapy next month. Also I think I pulled my right hamstring. Even bending over sucks. Gahhh…

Being Eastern European myself, I think this should be the theme song of body positive fitblr.

It’s just as weird and food-centric as 90% of you. Don’t lie.

Alright fitblrs. I don’t care if you ate Willy Wonka’s entire goddamn factory.

You didn’t do any worse than the rest of us did.

Clean your kitchen. Clean out your fridge. Banish junky left overs out of your pantry. Go grocery shopping. Go to the gym. Stop making excuses.

TODAY IS OUR DAY.

Gluten Free / Fitspo / Whey Protein BROWNIES!

Ingredients

• 1 cup oat or gluten free flour (the oat isn’t gluten free, but it is healthy)
• 3 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder (100% cacao)
• 2 scoops chocolate protein powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 cup Stevia
• 8 oz berry flavored applesauce (or baby food)
• 4 egg whites
• Coconut oil (or non-stick cooking spray)
• 9 x 9 baking pan

Cooking Instructions | Healthy Brownie Recipe

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Mix dry ingredients (flour, chocolate whey powder, baking cocoa, salt, baking soda) together in a large bowl.
• Mix wet ingredients (egg whites, berry applesauce, Stevia) together in a medium-sized bowl.
• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
• Oil the dish with coconut oil and spread mixture evenly among pan.
• Bake for 20-25min.

We’re gonna call this the Master List okay?

Gonna make me a calender and design a weight training routine using these. Can’t wait!!!!!

thiscrossfittinglife:

Then, once you realize how much money it actually is:

(Worth every dollar though.)

I’m on the second half right now. (Mostly.)