Saturday morning my parents and I woke up early, about 6am, and headed to Savannah to spend some time with our family. To my surprise my mom suggested stopping at Startbucks before we got on the road. Yippeee! Great way to start a cheat day! I had a tall skinny caramel macchiato and a yogurt, fruit, granola parfait! Oh man, I forgot how good the yogurt parfait was! That will definitely return as a daily staple in my post competition diet. I’m pretty sure that thing disappeared before we even made it to 75S. We also stopped in Macon to meet my parents’ friends and drop off some wine from Nashville. Since we had to stop anyway, might as well stop at Chick Fil A. Being the red blooded American that I am, I had to have one of the new Spicy Chicken Biscuits…. And I’m proud to say I fulfilled my patriotic obligation, but I won’t be ordering another one. I like the original biscuits, they’re ok, but I would really just prefer to have a plain biscuit with honey. Also, keep in mind, I don’t like fried chicken…. So I didn’t like how the spicy chicken was so crunchy. Now, if Chic Fil A ever launches a spicy chargrilled chicken sandwich I may have to take a vacation day from work and camp out at the nearest restaurant. Please Mr. Cathy, I know you can do it! You’ve been toying with my emotions for far too long now. Spicy Chargrilled wrap, Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Spicy Chicken Biscuit….. what’s a girl gotta do to get a Spicy Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich!!!
Forgive me, I digress…. So we cruise on down to my aunt’s house and meet my mom’s side of the family for lunch…. nothing too special, just a simple lunch with sandwiches and chips and all. I ate two and a half sandwiches on white bread, loads of pasta salad and a few handfuls of BBQ chips. You think that’s enough…. No way! My glutton self attempts to put away a piece of double chocolate cake. If I would I have known there was chocolate cake, I would have skipped the sandwiches. After only three bites of cake my stomach was telling me that it had had enough. See here’s the problem with cheat days…. My mind knows I need to eat the carbs, my taste buds long for a short return to normal food, but my stomach is like “whoa… WTF?” So I had to take a break from eating and lay on the couch for about 30 minutes. So we leave my aunt’s house and head to my grandparents’ new place. They recently moved in to a retirement community after 60 plus years in the house they build on my grandfather’s GI bill…. Anyway… quite the transition for anyone, but an even bigger deal when you’re 95 and 90 years old. So I was very excited to see their new house. Unfortunately my grandfather was in a rush to get to his Quarterback Club dinner party with my dad and brother so I saw him for about five minutes before they rushed off. On a side note, they were about an hour early, obviously no need to be in that much of a hurry… but that’s a whole different story. My mom, Kristin (future sister-in-law), and I visited with my grandmother and heard all about the new place. I think they’ll really like it. I know I would! I have to wonder if they have a minimum age requirement…. Who wouldn’t want to have three meals a day, laundry services, and a shuttle to take you around town to run errands… oh yeah and countless activities and social events. Where do I sign up? Why don’t they have these for young single people…. Oh wait, that was the sorority house….
So the ladies enjoyed a nice dinner out at Spanky’s in Savannah. My grandmother likes this restaurant but my grandfather doesn’t so we decided to take her there. I’ve always gotten the same thing every time so why break tradition now….. I got the Hot Chicken and Cheese Pita. It’s grilled chicken, cheese, onions, green peppers, and jalapenos in a pita and it comes with the house spuds. Spanky's also has this amazing honey dip stuff for the spuds... it's sweet but has a tangy litltle kick at the end. Not sure what' it is, but I love it! De-Lish! I was very happy!!!
Sunday morning the fun was over…. We left Savannah really early and headed back to Atlanta. We stopped for breakfast in Macon again. This time we were at Cracker Barrel and it was back to the diet. Six egg whites and half a cup of oatmeal. Wanna talk about a rip off… let’s see how much Cracker Barrel charges for one scrambled egg white…. $1.15. They do know that a dozen of eggs is only $1.35-$1.50. I’m no math wiz, but that’s a bigger mark up than a beer at a Braves game! The egg whites are still good to me, but the oatmeal is getting difficult. It’s just so plain and blah… I’m not sure I’ll eat much oatmeal after March 19th. As soon as I got back to Atlanta is was time to hit the gym for morning cardio. I decided that after my week 2 weight gain that I'm going to increase my cardio to 60 minutes each time instead of just 45. Not sure it'll make a huge difference, but I'll try it and see what happens. Then I went to Publix for my weekly grocery shopping. The good news is it doesn’t take long to shop when you can only buy chicken, steak, eggs, oatmeal, spinach, and asparagus. I came back to my house and cleaned up a bit and washed clothes. I feel like I don’t have enough socks and work out clothes, but I guess that’s what 12 work-outs a week will do to you. Four o’clock rolls around and it’s time for my afternoon weight training and cardio session with Marcia. Thank goodness I have such a fantastic work out partner. She ensures I have the proper form and continuously pushes me to add weight, push through the pain and finish strong! I hope I can be as supportive and motivating to her, but right now I think I’m just helping her learn to count. If I wasn’t there she’d be doing 5 or 6 sets instead of just 4… she just gets so into it that she forgets to count and doesn’t stop. Sunday night was a quick work out but we still make it worth every minute. We worked legs and shoulders and I’m still surprised at how much definition I can see in my shoulders already. Still not impressed with my legs, but I know if I keep pushing the weights and dieting right then I’ll get the results I need. It may take nine more weeks but I’ll keep at it.
Monday I was off work for MLK day so of course I slept in and enjoyed my time off. But, time off from work doesn’t mean time of from the gym. So I did my morning cardio, came home, ate, took a nap, and went back to the gym. Tonight was the dreaded bicep workout. UGH! Just plain terrible. I was able to bump up my weight (or decrease assistance) with the pull-ups and I’d like to take that as a huge improvement…. Despite all the cuss words that could be heard- I was happy with what I did. Also, I found that I was able to increase weights on preacher curls and finish my concentrated curls without assistance…. Guess that means we’re bumping those suckers up on Thursday J
Tuesday was a true test to the temptation of food. We had a special lunch at work today where everyone was supposed to bring in a cover dish lunch…..I truly believe my office has some of the best cooks in Atlanta. Oh no…. I just realized that I may still be on this damn diet when we have the Spring Picnic…. If that’s the case I just need to take a vacation day now because I know I won’t be able to resist temptation that day. Today kinda sprung up on me, but I know there will be no way to hide from the Spring Picnic. Anyway, I escape the office lunch and come home to eat like usual. I’m really lucky to live two and a half miles from work so that I have time to come home and eat a good lunch. I don’t know what it was, but my lunch was actually really good today! It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary… chicken, sweet potato and broccoli. I’m not complaining one bit… but I think this whole program is starting to brain wash me. Marcia had to teach a spin class tonight so I was left on my own in the weight room. I put on my iPod and got down to business. I felt absolutely amazing tonight. I felt energized and really excited about where I was headed. My only real difficulty tonight was chest press but it was the first full day at a higher weight.
Three days til my cheat meal… its about time to start thinking about what I’ll feast on this Saturday. Mexican maybe… maybe Vietnamese pho and banh mi? I love this cause I never really know exactly what I’m eating… that’s one of the simple adventures in life that I enjoy the most. Adventurous eating…. Perhaps my next blog will be a worldwide adventure exploring unique cuisine. I could be Andrew Zimmern’s sidekick. I’m sure he would love that!
Let’s see… here we are at Wednesday, hump day. Today was a really good day. I had two girl scouts selling cookies in the office today…. I didn’t hesitate at all when I ordered a total of 5 boxes. Not one ounce of guilt crossed my mind. Everyone knows you can freeze those suckers! Once delivered, they'll be safely stored in my freezer. All and all I felt great and was thinking that this wasn’t that bad after all…. I had energy all day. I was in a good mood. I was looking forward to my work out. Not much to complain about. Wednesday evening I got home and texted Johnny, the training expert, to tell him how great I felt, how excited I was and that I was actually feeling confident that I could have a positive showing at the competition in March. His great, inspirational, coaching response - “Hehe, just wait!” I mean seriously! How could he say that? I was so pumped and then my hopes and dreams came crashing down. I guess I did need a little dose of reality. He told me that the diet was going to get tougher in the next two weeks. At the start of week five I was going to have to cut out all carbs. I have never done a no-carb diet so this was going to be true test. Carbs make me happy. Well actually all food makes me happy…. That’s why I’ve started living each day just to make it to Saturday.
Thursday was just another day in paradise. I was really busy at work Wednesday and Thursday so I didn’t have much time to think about being hungry or tired. I have noticed that it makes the workdays much longer when I’m constantly watching the clock. Get to work at 8:30ish…. Eat my eggs and oatmeal around 9:45, go home and eat lunch at 12:30, then keep watching the clock until 3:30 when I have my protein shake and almonds. After that its down hill from there. Today I was dreading my workout because it was the toughest one: biceps and abs. Another huge disappointment Thursday was the fact that my awesome group of girlfriends all went out to dinner at Noche and enjoyed margaritas, yummy tapas, and chips and cheese dip. This has been the first time I’ve really had to turn down something fun with the people I love because of this training. I can deal with missing lunch outings with work friends, but I was really sad to miss dinner with my girls. I’m just going to keep working hard and stay focused on my goals. I know we’ll have plenty more GNOs to come after March 19. Luckily Marcia and I could work out together tonight. Tuesday and Wednesday she was teaching classes. Even though tonight was our longest and toughest workout, we managed to get through it and kept our spirits up. I swear I couldn’t get through this without Marcia by my side. She pushes me to do more than I ever thought I could do. It’s really surprising and rewarding to look back and see where I was three weeks ago. For some exercises I’ve increased my weights about 20 pounds and it’s just going to keep getting better for 8 more weeks.
Finally, we’ve made it to Friday. TGIF has a whole new meaning to me. After five days of long hard work, I know I just have a few more hours until I can rest (and eat). Tonight was a relatively “easy” and short workout. Marcia and I were lucky enough to have two special guests join our workout tonight. Somehow she managed to convince Ryan and Tyler to do our weight-training program with us. I guess I have to explain a little background information. You may think I’m crazy but we’re really lucky to have a great little gym family at Midtown. There is a core group of people, maybe 10-12 of us, who pretty much follow the same group exercise classes every week. So we see each other every day and love to pick on the one who’s slacking or maybe not sweating enough. It's all in good fun and we push each other to reach of max potential. If you have the strength to move after Boot Camp on Wednesday nights then you obviously wasted the previous 60 minutes. So we’ve all gotten to be really good friends through the gym. Also, I’ve worked with Ryan and Tyler for the past four years. So anyway, it’s been a little weird not being able to go to class with these people the past three weeks. Marcia and I were excited to have our special guests tonight. We breeze through our tricep, chest, and oblique workout and actually had fun doing it. So if anyone’s interest, feel free to join the pumping iron party anytime! I really wish the cheat day really began Friday night. I was dying to eat something good after our workout. When I went to sleep Friday night I knew I would dream about food…. And I really did, not sure what this dream meant but I was at a restaurant by myself and they only served me these tiny little donut things with honey…. Not so bad, but I couldn’t get a menu and real food. Also, they kept sending over yummy cocktails and I was mad because I can’t drink them. Haha I just remembered in my dream, I took a sip of rum and coke and felt terrible guilt about cheating on my diet. Seriously? Who does that? Who has dreams of food and alcohol? Only me…. And maybe everyone else in the middle of training.
Here’s my week three update…. Another reason I'm thankful to have Marcia workout with me... I'm not the only one taking in the gym taking pictures in a bathing suit. I’m still not seeing the changes and improvements that I expected. But I’m not getting worse either so I’ll take that at a positive. I am happy that the extra cardio this week seemed to help drop a little weight. I lost a pound or so.... weighed in at 115.6 Saturday morning. Hopefully when I start practicing my real competition poses the pictures will turn out better.
Thanks for following my blog and keeping up with my daily struggles! I'm less than two months away from the big day.... so I know there will be many more ups and downs and I hope you'll be reading along to see how I get through it. I hope I get through it all... eyes on the prize. Gotta stay motivated and focused on the goal.
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