Woohoo!  I made it to Week 2!  I’ll try to make my overview of days 4, 8 & 9 quick & painless.

Day 4 – shoulders & abs

Since day 4 fell on a weekend for me and I had hand weights at home, I figured I’d just knock out my day 4 at home.  I did my shoulder presses on a stability ball instead of a chair.  It went fairly well, but I feel like I didn’t have the same intensity as I do at the gym.  Seeing that I was still UBER sore from leg day, I was just happy to get my shoulder workout done and have my rest days.

• Seated Dumbbell press
• Standing Dumbbell Front Delt Raise
• Side Lateral Raise
• Seated Bent Over Rear Delt Raise
• Exercise Ball Crunch
• Air Bike

All went well except the stinkin’ crunches.  On my second set I got a wicked bad cramp or ab dislocation or something.  It’s hurts so bad when it happens and it’s weird because it’s always on the same side and it doesn’t happen every time, but when it does, I can’t do crunches for a good while afterwards.  After taking a 5 min break I was able to do the air bike though.  🙂

Annnd…here’s what happens when I workout at home and I have to waste a minute in between sets…I take self portraits.  😛

Day 8 – Chest & Triceps, Day 9 – Back & Biceps

Workouts were the same exercises as last week so I tried to go up in weights, even if just for one set or half of one set.  I was super excited because last week I did all of my narrow push-ups on my knees and somehow, magically I was able to do about half of each narrow set on my toes!  Those narrow ones are freaking killer and I hate them, but I was pumped that I could get a few on my toes!

Felt good both days.  Got a good pump and I’m sore, but not immobilizing sore.  😉

Ah, ah ah….I work out!

Food…

I’ve been doing okay with my eating.  I have good days and bad days.  I won’t lie and say I haven’t had a Starbucks or more dessert than I should, but I’m trying to have more good days than bad days and some days…I’m just trying to not to eat my weight in junk food!

I’m using My Fitness Pal to track my food so feel free to friend me if you’re on there too!  My username is katiehigg.

Speaking of food, I found a yummy protein pancake recipe that I’ll be posting soon!  I made some again this morning and took pics so now I just have to write it up.  😉

Shew.  Got days 2 & 3 done this week with a rest day in between.  Not the way it’s supposed to go, but oh well, I gotta do it when I can.  I’m going to do day 4, shoulders & abs, here at the house today so that I can rest tomorrow and then start week 2 on Monday (or Tuesday since the kids are off on Monday).

Just a quick overview of my days…

day 2 — back & biceps.  I LOVE back & biceps so I was pumped for day 2.

• Wide grip Lat Pull-down
• One-arm Dumbbell Row
• Seated Cable Row
• Underhand Cable Pull-down
• Alternating Dumbbell Curl
• One-arm Dumbbell Curl
• Standing Biceps Cable Curl

All pretty self explanatory.  Well, except for the underhand cable pull-down.  That was my first time doing those and basically it mimics doing a chin-up.  I definitely felt it in my biceps!  Between that one and the alternating curls, my biceps were spent by the time I got to the one-arm dumbbell curl.

day 2 pic…all my equipment I wear when I workout and my snazzy workout bag!

day 3 — legs & calves.  I did day 3 yesterday and all I have to say is “OUCH!”

• Leg Press
• Leg Extensions
• Sumo Barbell Squat
• Seated Leg Curl
• Standing Calf Raises
• Seated Calf Raises

Soooo, I think my pride might have physically hurt me.  Let me start by saying that although I’ve been working out with weights fairly regularly, I haven’t done a dedicated “leg day” in probably 6-12 months.  I would always do other body parts or mix in a couple leg exercises with other parts to save time because I hate leg day.  Your leg muscles are a huge muscle group so you tend to really get the heart rate up if you work them hard.  With that being said, I do my little 5 min warm-up on the treadmill and then walk myself over to the leg press ready to bust out some reps.  I throw the big guns on…a 45 plate per side, 90lbs total + the weight of the machine.  Yes, not that heavy to some girls, so I was confident I could knock out 12 reps.  I did my first rep and immediately thought, hmmm, maybe I should drop to 35lbs each.  But, no, I didn’t want to wuss out and it be too light so I kept the 45’s on.  About halfway through I was thinking I definitely should have put on the 35’s.  However, seeing that I was feeling all tough and stuff, I refused to get up and un-rack the 45’s only to go down in weight.  So…I pushed through.  I got 12 of each set (pausing a few times during each set).  It totally killed my legs!  I did my next exercise…leg extensions…and when I got up after my last set, I had to grab a nearby machine because my legs felt like they might crumble underneath me.  They were pure jelly!  Worst part?  I still had killer sumo squats to do.  Needless to say, my squats were not heavy or even great form.  Well, my form was fine, but I didn’t go as deep as I should have.  I kind of felt like a failure, but I’m uber sore today so I must have worked them out good enough.  I’ll have to kill my sumo squats next time.  😉

Here I am BEFORE my workout.  I know.  Super original, but, it’s too much of a pain to get my phone out of my armband during my workout so I only have time to take pics before or after.

Side note:  My car was filthy so I got it washed right before I got to the gym and when I came out of the gym this is what I found!

A bird apparently thought my car was too clean.  😐  And it was on more than just my windshield.  If I had time I would have gone back to the car wash and asked if I could have a cheap run through, but I didn’t have time.  🙁  Errrrr.  Stupid bird!

Hola!!  I FINALLY made it to the gym on Monday and it was awesome.  Ah…I love being back there.  Well, except for all the newbies hogging my benches, but hey, I guess they’re entitled to be there too.  My gym friends were there and it’s always great catching back up and getting back in a groove.  The workout was pretty simple for day 1 so I didn’t need to bring my notebook in.

Wide Pushups — 3 sets of 12

Dumbbell Bench Presses — 3 sets of 12

Flat Bench Flys — 3 sets of 12

Narrow Pushups — 3 sets of 12

Overhead Tricep Dumbbell Extension — 3 sets of 12

Tricep Pushdowns — 3 sets of 12

No cardio in phase 1, but I did a high incline walk for 5 min to warm up and a low incline walk for 5 min at the end of my workout.  I completed everything pretty much as written.  Our at-home dip bar must have kept my chest & triceps in good shape because usually I struggle after taking a few weeks off, but I busted out my push-ups like nobody’s business.  Well, the wide ones anyways.  The narrow ones I had to do on my knees and I only got 10 of the last set.  I also did regular dumbell flys instead of cable flys.  Too much of a pain to set up the cable machine.  Oh, and I despise the overhead tricep press so I did a two handed overhead press instead of a one hand.

I had errands & crap to do on Tuesday, but I’ll be back at the gym today for day 2!

I did pretty good with my eating on Monday too.  We’re not supposed to be counting calories, but since I’m not following the food plan, I want to track my food and make sure I’m getting enough good calories in.  Here’s what my day looked like yesterday.  I think I should probably be upwards of 1700-1800 calories per day, but I need to figure out what I want to eat for high protein/low carb/low sugar so I don’t up my percentages on those.  😐

Btw, I’m only eating so many calories right now because I’m weight training and trying to put on some muscle.  In a few weeks Jamie has us restricting our calories slightly.  However, you won’t see me with super low calorie counts, like under 1200.  I just don’t think it’s healthy to go that low.  Also, in case you didn’t know, lean muscle burns more than fat so when you have 10lbs of muscle on your bones you are going to burn more calories just sitting still than if you had 10lbs of fat.  Which is why I weight train (and lift heavy!) instead of just doing cardio.  Cardio is great for the heart, but if you want to lose weight and keep it off, you should do BOTH!  I lost 10lbs last year without spending hours on the elliptical or treadmill.  😉

As you can see, my sugar and sodium were WAY over.  The sugar overload was mostly due to the banana & grapefruit that I had so I’m not too worried about that.  The sodium should be much better though and I was way low on my proteins.

Yesterday I did great with my food until the end of the night and then ruined it with a milkshake.  Oh well, today is a new day!  😉