The beginnings of my “lifting hands”.
It’s taken us a little bit, but boo-thang and I have finally perfected our arm workouts.
We start by doing 15 minutes on a cardio machine (either the Cybex arc trainer or the Precor Adaptive motion trainer) and then one set of the following (sorry for the super noob-like terminology):
-Pushups (or chest press)
-Pulldowns
-Military press
-Rows
-Straight arm flys (? Where your arms go out and then in front of you) w/ dumbbells
-Chest flys
-Curls (with dumbbells)
-Lateral front raises
Then, we do 12 minutes on the same cardio machine and a set of the arm exercises.
Finally, 10 minutes on the cardio machine and one final set of the arm exercises.
Its friggin’ hard, but totally worth the effort because I’m GETTIN’ SO RIPT.
THIS JUST IN:
Not working out for ~1 month + eating all the holiday things will = 1 seriously rough day back at the gym. We’re talking “how did I ever work out for more than ten minutes EVER BEFORE” serious.
But you know what? I did this befo’, and I’m gonna do it again.
Easing back into it with 35 minutes on the Cybex Arc trainer and a leisurely ~1-1.5 hour hike/walk with my boo-thang. Speaking of which:
MAN. WE ARE CUTE.
So there it is, folks. After lots of talking and whining about getting soft/chubby, we went to the gym. And we’re gonna eat well (after I get done training at Chili’s…seriously y’all. I AM BEING FORCED TO EAT ALL THE FREE FOOD).
It’s gonna be rill good.
Just did 20 burpees.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY HEART.
Just took my first crack at p90x.
Ohhh, Tony.
6 moves on shoulders & arms (about 1/10 of the workout) + ALL of ab ripper x + 65 minutes on the Cybex arc trainer.
Brbdead.
90 minutes.
Breakin’ the cardio record today, folks.
Accountability Check
So, I’ve been pretty good at keeping you updated with what my face looks like, how awkward I am in video blogs, how my love life is going, and how much (delicious) food I’m eating. But I oftentimes forget to keep you posted on how the fitness/weight loss part of my life is going. I guess it’s because I’m not doing anything seriously awesome in the way of working out…it’s pretty much the same routine for me everyday at the gym.
But I’m going, and that’s what’s important amiright?
So right.
Also, let’s talk about how many t-shirts I’ve cut like this as of late. It’s brilliant. Just cut the neck out a little and then chop the sleeves off. Boom. Instant gym tank top…FO FREE. Which, let’s be real here, is the best way to do anything.
Here’s the short and short of it all: Since I reported to you last month, fair Tumblr, I have lost another 5-6 pounds (I’m teetering). Sha-wing batta batta! In two pounds I will be down thirty since the beginning of this blog, and in five pounds I will be down seventy from my highest weight. Huh.
How’s it going for you guys? I’ve recently been finding it a little difficult to stay on track in terms of going to the gym, eating right, etc… it is SO much easier to eat quick junk, to skip workouts, to grow complacent. BUT (but!) I’m also finding that my resistance is getting stronger. I used to give in to cravings and lethargy so easily, but I think that after a certain point in your weight loss you fall into a routine that just works. And that’s not to say that that routine is infallible (obvs, we all struggle), but the tough times get easier. I’m finally getting that, and it’s comforting.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: just keep swimming. And, in the words of our beloved Michele,
Carry on.
5 miles, innumerable almost-heat-strokes, and 3 teenage-boy cat calls later, I’m home.
Admittedly, I walked a good chunk toward the end there because I burned myself out at the beginning. But I started out running, and I finished up running, and that’s important to me. And, if we’re getting braggy, I DID run one sub-10 mile (9:49 to be exact!) and that felt pretty damn cool.
This was a test excursion. I’m planning to get serious about half marathon training here in the next couple months, and I needed to remind myself what I’m going to get myself into.
(Read: What am I getting myself into?)
Dumbbell Arm Excercises.
Last week I was looking at my 10-pound dumbbells, wondering what kind of easy routine I could come up with that I’d stick with (I don’t know what all the different lifts are called and I’m too lazy to learn at the moment). I messed around with a few different ones and have settled into a quick and easy, yet effective, little arm routine:
15 pushups
20 alternating bicep curls (10 per arm)
20 overhead tricep extensions (with both hands on one dumbbell)
I’m thinking about subbing hammer curls for bicep curls. I mean, they essentially work the same arm muscle so I think they’re comparable.
BASICALLY, WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY IS: This is a really easy routine to remember, and I really like it, and after four rounds* my arms feel like jello. Which is what we’re all going for, right?
* EDIT: NO MORE USE OF ‘rep’ and ‘set’ BECAUSE BRENNA INTRODUCED ME TO THE TERM ‘ROUND’. FITTING. I love having educated blog friendz.
One month.
I was meant to post this yesterday, as the Sixth of July was technically the day I started going back to the gym, but I spent the day buying cute things from Hobby Lobby and painting an accent wall in the living room with my roommate (and now the place is done! Pictures are coming!). I DIGRESS!
I wasn’t too public about it, but June was kinda rough for me. I was all bent out of shape because I couldn’t use the Rec at school/didn’t want to pay for a membership anywhere, but I still kept eating all of the things. it was a bad situation. I found myself up 6 pounds from the lowest weight I’d been since starting this blog, and I was not going to have anymore of it.
So, on July 6, I woman-ed up, bought a damn membership to the Rec, and…well, had no more of it.
July was, for the most part, a wonderful month. I got to see my family visiting from Jersey, I finally moved out of my old place, I went to a Ranger game, I SAW IRON AND WINE IN CONCERT. Barring some dating drama, I had a solid 30 days. My eating was near champion status (I counted calories on LoseIt), and I went to the Rec nearly every day of the work week. I splurged when I wanted to, but I really got back into my eating & exercise groove. And you know what happened?
I lost nine pounds this month. Can I get a Hell Yeah?
I’M WAITING.
I weighed in at an awesome 173.6 today, the lowest weight I’ve been since I was probably sixteen or seventeen years old. That number also means that I am down 23 lbs since starting this blog AND am less than a pound away from being at the 60 pounds TOTAL lost mark, a landmark I had pretty much lost sight of in these past few months.
I have no intention of stopping now. I’ve got my momentum back, and it feels REALLY good.
