Week 1

Sunday January 2, 2011-

After all the fun of the past few days, I was excited to be back home and in my own bed…. So I slept in until about 11 and then went to the gym for my first workout of the day.  I did the usual 45 minutes of cardio keeping my heart rate below 125.  No biggie… I’m used to this by now. 

I'm planning to take pictures once a week so I can see the progress and hopefully be motivated by small signs of improvement.  Also, like I said in the beginning, this is going to be my honest story... so I'm posting my first picture. It's not great.... looking at this picture shows me that there are a lot of areas that I need to work on, getting a tan doesn't top the list yet.  I weighed in at 119.6 today.

On a side note, these pictures were taken after the gym closed so the only people who saw me were Johnny and Marcia.  I would never prance around the weight room in the middle of the day.  The bottom picture was a pose that Johnny said was used in some competitions but not the one I'll be doing.  I couldn't help but laugh as I did this.... I never thought I would ever be flexing and posing in the middle of my gym.

Later that night, I went back to the gym to do a lower body workout, cardio, and meet with Johnny and Marcia who are also going through this same program.  Johnny’s done this a few times before and he’s our go to professional with all training and dieting questions.  This is Marcia’s second attempt.  She made it through about 4 weeks of training last year and decided not to continue.

We start with the diet…. It’s going to be tough.  It’s basically six small meals a day.  It’s a lot of high protein, low carbs, and almost no fat.  The good news is we have a lot of substitution foods so I shouldn’t get really sick of any of it…. At least not right away.  Also, we can use pretty much any herb or seasoning except anything with sodium so I can always change up my flavorings.

Then we go through the weight plans….  This is a six day program so there are three sets of work outs.  I’ll do one on Monday and Thursdays, the second on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the third set on Wednesdays and Sundays.  Saturday will be my day off.

I had a ton of questions… but luckily, Johnny and Marcia were patient with me and helped reassure that I would be ok and it will all pay off in the end.

Sunday I ate a lot of eggs, about seven, some oatmeal, and ground turkey…. I was supposed to eat six meals but only had four because I slept in so late.

The plan from here on out, well as much as I know, will be 45 minutes of cardio in the morning and then weight training and 45 more minutes of cardio in the evening.

On Monday, I was excited… I was so pumped to get this whole adventure officially underway.  I started the day as usual, but I was amazed at the amount of food I had to eat…. I thought there was no way that I can eat ALL of this in one day.  The morning protein shake, followed almost immediately by 6 egg whites and ½ cup of oatmeal was a daunting task.  I think it took me almost an hour to eat that.  I had the usual lunch, some ground turkey breast and spinach.  I never thought I’d be hungry again, but by 3:00 I was starving for my afternoon snack, protein shake and almonds.

I went through the evening work out and it was pretty difficult and I was on my own this time.  I was bored…. I don’t really like being in the weight room working out by myself.  The weight training took forever, almost an hour and a half.  Then I had to finish up with 45 minutes of cardio.

I began questioning myself and wondering what I was really doing here.  What’s the point?  What do I really expect out of this?

Tuesday and Wednesday are kind of a blur to me…. I was a walking zombie for two days straight…  I followed the work out plan and diet as it was written…. I was so sore from the new weight training… I had a terrible headache that lasted for days.  All I could think about was the next time I could close my eyes.  I craved sleep…. But, I know this is all part of the adjustment period.  During the day I felt a lot ups and downs.  Sometimes I was bursting with energy and feeling like I could take on the world, and then just a few hours later I was barely able to keep my eyes open and felt like I could fall asleep.  It was definitely challenging to keep up with work.  The worst part about the first few days was leaving the gym around 8pm, having a protein shake, and then having to wait about two hours to have dinner.  I was eating dinner around 10pm and I was so tired.  I’m used to going bed really early without the two a day work outs and crazy diet.  So getting to bed between 10:30 and 11 this week has been killing me.  There is also a lot of prep work at night for the next day’s breakfast and snacks that keeps me busy in each night.

Thursday started as a normal day until I was almost finished with the weight-training workout.   My stomach hurt so bad I thought I was going to die… ok maybe not exactly, but it was really bad.  I could barely move.  I stayed curled up in a ball watching Man vs. Food until I fell asleep.  I told Johnny that there was no way I could make it to the gym Friday morning for my cardio workout.  He wasn’t happy but told me to do double cardio Friday evening.

So Friday morning, I slept in a little later and went straight to work.  I was feeling about 80% better…. I think my new glow in the dark air force ones really helped brighten my day.  So I continued business as usual Friday and met Marcia at the gym for our evening workouts…. She left after weights and cardio and then I stayed and finished my extra cardio since I skipped that morning. 

Friday night I came home, made my dinner and watched the Gray’s Anatomy…. After the week I had, this was the perfect relaxing night for me. 

There’s no way to sugar coat it…. This first week was tough.  I wanted to quit several times.  I just knew there was no way I could keep up with this diet and lack of sleep.  It made me a really bitter person… I was pretty grumpy most of the week.  I’m pretty sure that I’ll throw up at the sight of another protein shake…  Honestly, I think these are the worst part of the program.  One is good, but three a day is way overboard!  I just had to keep reminding myself that it never always gets worse.  I’m hoping that the newness will wear off soon and this will become more of a habit and normal routine.  I’m planning to do more prep work on Sunday so that I’ll have my entire food plan ready for each meal and I won’t have to do a lot of measuring and weighing portion sizes each day.

Below is a shot of the progress in the first week.  It's hard to really compare to the first shot because the pose isn't the exact same.  I dropped 3.3 pounds this week and weighed 116.3 Saturday morning.  Now it's time to pig out.... I think I'm starting with a bagel and cream cheese, then ordering a pizza for lunch, and maybe Steak and Shake burger and fries for dinner!!!!

Thanks for following week one.... Please check back next week or see my facebook for more daily struggles.  Also, feel free to post a comment if you have any tips to share or words of encouragement!