Week 2

Saturday could have possibly been just as exciting as Christmas morning…. I went to bed Friday night dreaming of food… carbs!  Yay can’t wait to eat food that reminds me of my former, fatty lifestyle.  So I woke up around 9ish maybe and went to the gym for my cardio work out…. Still trying to make up for what I missed Friday morning.  So finished my workout, weighed in and went straight to Einstein Bros Bagels.  Oh baby!  This was the best bagel of my life.   I ate half of it on the way home because I couldn’t wait another minute.  I tried to savor the last half once I got home.  A few hours later I ordered a pizza from Papa John’s.  I was trying to convince myself that I wasn’t a complete glutton so I only got a medium three-cheese pizza.  I brought that sucker home and devoured it!  I ate the entire pizza!  Well, not including the crust, I don’t really like that part.  So before 1:00pm I had consumed my goal of 250g of carbs for the day.  Later that afternoon I reported for duty as photog assistant Lil Wiz for erika Leigh photography.  (www.erikaleighphotography.com) Check her out!  She’s the best photographer in Atlanta…. She takes amazing, fresh, new, creative, not to mention beautiful pictures and I’m lucky enough to tag along for some of the ELP fun at some pretty awesome weddings every once in a while. Yes, we'll travel far and wide for your wedding or other special event. Oh yeah, and she also flips her hair back and forth….. she made it cool way before Willow Smith.

Sunday was back to the grind… same old plan.  Morning cardio, grocery shopping adventure at Publix (apparently Atlanta is getting ready for a monster blizzard…. Hello?  This is Hotlanta… what are people freaking out about?)  So I bought my normal shopping list, chicken breast, broccoli, spinach, and asparagus.  I also picked up some new sodium free seasonings to try to change up my grilled chicken a little bit.  Sunday afternoon I met up with Marcia and we went through our scheduled weight routine.  I also added 30 extra minutes to my cardio just in case I couldn’t get to the gym Monday due to the blizzard.

Monday….. well, looks like I’m eating my words.  Atlanta is completely shut down.  No work and no gym today…. Snow day play day!  I’m so thankful to have the extra time to catch up on sleep.  Luckily I had some resistance bands at home so I could attempt to replicate my weight training routine.  It was ok I guess…. Good enough to get by in a pinch.   The worst part about being stuck inside all day is really sticking to the diet.  Everyone knows you eat when you’re bored and it took all the will power I have in my body to keep to the diet.  I tried to cut back a little bit due to my lack of activity and no cardio work out tonight.  Looking forward to a normal life tomorrow…..

Well normal is not coming around today… Tuesday is another day as a shut in.  So this is getting pretty old.  And that nutella in my kitchen is starting to look pretty darn tasty.   Now I’m starting to get worried….. Two days of no gym, no weight training, no cardio, and LOTS of temptation to break the diet and eat non-diet foods.  Ugh…. Even if I could get in the gym tomorrow, have I already lost what little I gained last week?  Will I ever catch up to the schedule and be ready in time for the show in March?  If my chances are shot now, I might as well eat a few cookies today.  But no, luckily I talked to Marcia and we both pumped each other up and knew that we had to stick to this.  We had to tackle the challenges and make it through this.  So I turned up the Mixmasters and went through another resistance band work out. 

Things are starting to look up Tuesday night.  Looks like my office will be open midday tomorrow and since the gym is so close to work; I’m praying that they’ll be open too.  A year ago, I would have never thought that I would be so happy to go to work and go to the gym.  I mean, I love sleeping 12-13 hours a day and all, but not four days in a row…. I gotta get out and do something….

Wednesday was a fantastic day!  Atlanta began to thaw and slowly we saw resemblance of a normal life.  I called the gym at  7am and yes, the were open.  However, I was advised to wait a few hours and come later in the day because the parking lot and front entrance were still very icy.  So I forced myself back to sleep for two hours and then went to the gym around 9am.  I was so freakin’ excited to be back in my normal routine… well kinda.  I did my morning cardio and then went to work.  My office closed at 4pm so I went to the gym right after work and did weight training without Marcia.  Today was a pretty short, tolerable work out.  After that it was back upstairs for more cardio.  I knew I should add some time since I was out commission the previous two days.  So I planned to do an hour of cardio.  I’m currently reading “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”.  So when the 60-minute mark came up I “accidentally” kept going because my book was sooooo good.  OK, so this is  probably one of the last things I ever thought I’d say.  Here are three thoughts that I had in my head today: 1. I’m so happy to go to work today. 2. I’m excited to finally be back in the gym. And 3. This book is so good… I can’t put it down.  So, if you knew me 6-8 months ago, you would think that hell would have to freeze over before I would say one of these things, much less all three in one day.  No, I’m not really insinuating that Atlanta is hell.   Wednesday was one of my best days so far in training.

Thursday we’re back in action…. Atlanta is still covered in ice but slowly showing signs of improvement.  I manage to get back to the gym in the morning and then a full day of work.  I met Marcia at the gym for our weight training.  Today’s plan is the worst of the three…. I seriously dread this day.  Today we’re focusing on biceps and abs.  I absolutely hate biceps exercises…. Probably because I’m so weak and everything is really hard.  Also, this plan has more exercises than the other two plans so it takes much longer.  By the time we finish up with 45 minutes of cardio on the Stairmaster, I’ve been at the gym for nearly 2 ½ hours.  YUCK!  It was insane.  The good news, and saving grace that got me through this, only one more day til I can eat normal food.

Friday was starting to feel like my normal routine again…. Same old stuff: morning cardio, protein shake, eggs, oatmeal, chicken, asparagus, little bit of sweet potato, protein shake, almonds, weight training, cardio, protein shake…. And finally dinner.  I forgot to thaw my chicken so I’m stuck eating tuna fish and asparagus…. It’s not exactly gourmet but I’m not even gonna think about it.  So today’s weight training was pretty good.  I felt great, felt like I was getting stronger and increasing weight with the chest dips and flys.  We also changed up our oblique knee raises.  We were hanging from our elbows… at first it was a little intimidating but then it turned out to be kinda fun and then intense and difficult!  I loved it!!!  We finished up the night with 45 minutes on the elliptical.  All and all I thought it was a great day…. Diet went well, training went great and I felt great... pretty much felt like my usual self all day….. and then….. the bomb hit.

I stepped on the scale after my work out tonight since I won’t be in the gym tomorrow.  Looks like I gained weight this week.  I was 116.3 last Saturday morning and tonight I was 117.0.  I didn’t expect it to upset me like it did…. I was really frustrated.  I realize that I missed two days in the gym due to the ice madness and I was also comparing Friday evening to Saturday morning.  I guess you’re at your lightest in the morning before you eat… and I’ve already had two full meals and two protein shakes.  It’s just a tough blow to your confidence when you’ve worked so hard.  I expected to drop at least 1 or 2 pounds this week.  If I had known I was going to gain weight I would have had some cookies and nutella while I was snowed in for a few days.  I guess next week I’ll have to increase my intensity with the weight training.

Here's a pic of how I look Friday night...  I'm seeing progress in my shoulders and abs.  I'm really waiting to see when I'll see some improvement in my legs.  But it's only been two weeks, albeit two long weeks.... Patience is a virtue.

This also puts a damper on my excitement to pig out tomorrow.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m gonna eat like a champ!  First stop… Chick Fil A!  I’m dying for a chicken biscuit… but no pizza this week.  What I’m really dying to have is a milkshake!  But I think I have 64 more days until I can get that.  I still have to be very careful about too much sugar.

Two weeks down... nine to go! I think....