Summer Is Finally Here – Is Your Beach Body?

In my last post I said I was going to be competing in the upcoming OCB Yankee Classic Show in Newburyport, Mass. and while I’ve been training and maintaining a clean-eating diet for it, unfortunately, I will not be able to compete in the show.

My health is great and I WANT to compete (very badly), but I won’t be able to because, for me, at this time, it’s out of my budget to do so. I have other priorities I need to tend to so competing is being placed on the back burner…for now! I have some pretty exciting plans coming up that I am focusing on that will only benefit me and what it is I want to do so I’m going after that right now. 

I know I do not need to explain myself to anyone, but I figured I’d let my readers know since my last post said that I was doing the show. You can mark my words; I WILL be competing in future shows, after all, I have a first place finish I have to go after! Depending on finances and my schedule in November and December, I have a couple shows in mind I’d like to compete in. If not, then I will absolutely be hitting the stage come February 2013. This will definitely give me plenty of time to work on improving my body, too.

Speaking of which, I’ve already seen great improvements since my last show. I really wanted to work on building my shoulders and it’s been paying off! I stopped training my triceps and biceps for the past couple of months. The only time I hit those is as a secondary muscle when I’m training back and chest. Other than that, I’ve been training shoulders twice a week – heavy one day, light the other – hamstrings and glutes (typically together and sometimes twice a week), chest and back. I've even increased training my abs around 2-3 times a week. I have been using my other available day for plyometrics. My cardio has increased a significant amount and I think between that and doing plyos, it’s been making a world of difference. I switch up my cardio all the time – I’m either doing steady state anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or HIIT for 20 to 30 minutes. This week, I am starting to incorporate plyometrics two or more times a week. I’ll be doing this for the next five weeks. Here’s what my schedule looks like as far as cardio goes for the next five weeks:

WEEK 1

Monday: Hill Interval Workout

Tuesday: Plyo Workout

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday: Jog for 30 minutes

Friday: Running/Plyo Workout

Saturday and Sunday: OFF

WEEK 2

Monday a.m.: Hill interval Workout

Monday p.m.: Plyo Workout

Tuesday: Running/Plyo Workout

Wednesday: OFF

Thursday a.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Thursday p.m.: Hill Interval Workout

Friday: Running/Plyo Workout

Saturday: Plyo Workout

Sunday: OFF

WEEK 3

Monday a.m.: Running/Plyo Workout

Monday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Tuesday: Hill Interval Workout

Wednesday a.m.: Running Plyo Workout

Wednesday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Thursday: Plyo Workout

Friday a.m.: Running/Plyo Workout

Friday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Saturday: Plyo Workout

Sunday: OFF

WEEK 4

Monday a.m.: Running/Plyo Workout

Monday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Tuesday: Hill Interval Workout

Wednesday a.m.: Running Plyo Workout

Wednesday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Thursday: Plyo Workout

Friday a.m.: Running/Plyo Workout

Friday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Saturday: Plyo Workout

Sunday: OFF

WEEK 5

Monday a.m.: Running/Plyo Workout

Monday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Tuesday: Hill Interval Workout

Wednesday a.m.: Running Plyo Workout

Wednesday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Thursday: Plyo Workout

Friday a.m.: Running/Plyo Workout

Friday p.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Saturday a.m.: Jog for 30 minutes

Saturday p.m.: Plyo Workout

Sunday: Optional: Jog for 30 minutes or use as rest day

What do you think? Are you up for the challenge? If you’re already working out, this is a great supplement to your training program. If you’re a beginner, you can start out doing what YOUR body is capable of and work your way up! Write down your progress, too! That way you can look back and see how much you’ve improved. Let me know if you’d like to try this and I will share with you the plan for it. Let’s get your beach body underway!

Thanks for reading! Happy training!

How Have You Been Treating Your Workouts and Diet?

It's summertime and I've noticed I've become lax on my diet and have even skipped some workouts to go do other things instead. After all, living in Maine, summer lasts from June to September and of those months June is usually a wash out with rain and it starts cooling off by early- to mid-September. I am a summer person (I HATE winter with a passion). I enjoy my time at the beach as well as spending as much time outdoors as possible. Unfortunately, my diet and exercise sometimes suffer. I think I've gotten that out of my system in the past three weeks though.

I hit a funk and was only working out 3-4 times a week as opposed to the usual 6 times a week. My diet was actually pretty good during the week, but as soon as the weekends hit, I allowed myself one too many cheat meals and one too many Whipped vodka drinks. Mmmm, but who can resist? Well, I have to now. I have to get back on track and motivate myself to get to where I really want to be. If I don't, my body will suffer and in turn I'll feel like crap about myself and hide under sweatshirts and long pants. Who wants to live life that way? Not me!!

I think it helped not training as hard these past three weeks because it really gave my body time to recuperate and rest. I went into the gym tonight and trained shoulders and I was in beast mode - I killed it! I left the gym feeling so accomplished. I showed the weights who was boss tonight. Yeah buddy!!!!

First, I have to mention... I really was discouraged and didn't have any intentions of going to the gym after work (that's why I really need to get back into the routine of going in the mornings again). BUT I downed my Super Pump 250 and got the energy and motivation I needed. I showed up at World and the parking lot was FULL. Screw that! I drove over to Obie's instead. Thank God.

I started my warm up and then I got into it. I did 4 sets of 10-12 reps of seated dumbbell (DB) shoulder press. I made sure I chose a weight that I was struggling to get the last rep. I took about 30-45 seconds of rest in between each set. Then I superset 4 sets of 10-12 reps of the Arnold press and rear delt flye. My next exercise I superset 4 sets of 10-12 reps of lateral raise and alternating front raise. Finally, I did 4 heavy sets of 10 reps of the E-Z bar upright row.

In between the last three exercises, I would train my abs. I just did them all until failure - woodchop, decline sit up, russian twists, lemon squeezes, weighted crunch.

Finally, I moved on to HIIT cardio on the Arc Trainer. I put it to the highest level (10) and set the time for 20 minutes. At 17:30 I started my high intensity and just sprinted for 30 seconds. Back to low intensity for a full minute, then immediately to high intensity for another 30 seconds... I kept doing this until I hit the 2 minute mark. I stopped and cooled down. In only 20 minutes, I ended up burning 272 calories. Had I kept going at the low intensity pace for 30 minutes, I would have only burned about 300 calories, if that. I felt great! Awesome thing about HIIT is that even after I'm done my workout, I'm still burning fat and calories and will continue to do so into tomorrow. That's also another reason why I prefer HIIT to regular cardio.

My diet was ok today. I definitely did not drink nearly enough water and I didn't eat enough. I had tuna and two rice cakes, two cups of coffee with Stevia, chicken salad with eggs and cottage cheese and tomatoes and some light cheese and balsamic vinegar, almonds and gummy bears, protein shake post-workout, and about a cup of baked ziti with meat sauce. Definitely not ideal, but the morning started off on the wrong foot, so it threw my eating off. No excuses, I know! Tomorrow will be a much better day as far as diet goes.

All I know is that after tonight's workout, I feel amazing! I can't wait to hit the gym tomorrow morning with my trainer, Jamie. We'll be training legs! My other favorite body part train other than shoulders.

Get out there and train and eat well, and be sure to drink plenty of water!!!!

A Delicious Protein Recipe & My New Diet!

So I’ve been looking recipes to start making my own protein bars and came across a really yummy-looking one by Registered DietitianGeorgie Fear, author of Ask Georgie.

These are called Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars – mmm, mmm good!

Ingredients:

• Pam cooking spray
• ½ cup plain oatmeal
• ½ cup unsweetened soymilk
• ¼ cup egg whites (or 2 whites)
• ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder (or 1/3 cup)
• ½ cup Stevia (or 12 packets)
• ¼ cup milled flaxseed
• 2 tablespoons white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons natural peanut butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray an 8x8” pan with Pam cooking spray.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine oats and milk; cook for 60 seconds. Stir and allow cooling; mix in egg whites and vanilla extract.

3.   In a large mixing bowl, combine the whey protein, Stevia, flaxseed, flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

4.   Add oatmeal mixture to dry ingredients; mix just until everything is moist. Spread batter in pan.

5.   Place peanut butter in microwave safe bowl and heat for 45 seconds or until melted. Spoon peanut butter over batter in pan and swirl with knife tip.

6.   Bake for 10 minutes; allow cooling completely before cutting into 6 bars. Wrap each individually in plastic wrap and store in the freezer or refrigerator. Unwrap and microwave 30 seconds to warm.

These bars make 6 servings.

Nutritional Facts:

Per serving:

195 calories

11 g total fat

2 g saturated fat

5 mg cholesterol

14 g total carbohydrate

4 g dietary fiber

12 g protein

218 mg sodium

You can cut the bars into different sizes depending on how substantial a meal/snack you want your bars to be. Because I’m working on leaning out and I’m in my cutting phase, I will probably only have these as part of a cheat meal. But this would make for a great, delicious, and healthy snack/meal for anyone!

I can’t wait to try these! Share with me if you decide to make these, too! Let me know what you think of them!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bars

My New Diet


So after putting on some muscle mass, I'm starting my cutting phase like I mentioned in last night's blog. Below is a sample of what my diet looks like now. Of course I substitute some of the meals for other foods that are equal so I don't get bored with the foods.


Meal 1:


1 scoop Whey Protein
1 serving of Gummy Bears
(this is my post-workout meal)


Meal 2:


3/4 cup egg whites (1 yolk)
1/4 cup Oatmeal
1/2 cup berries
(sometimes with this meal I make these as protein pancakes and I add cinnamon and use sugar-free syrup - so good!!!)


Meal 3:


1 scoop Whey Protein
1 tbsp all natural Peanut Butter


Meal 4:


4oz. chicken, tuna, turkey, haddock, or tilapia
3oz sweet potato
1 cup veggies


Meal 5:


1 scoop Whey Protein
1 tbsp natural Peanut Butter


Meal 6:


4oz chicken, turkey, bison steaks, haddock, salmon, tilapia, or tuna
small green salad
oil & vinegar, lemon juice, or sugar-free Maple Groves dressing


Meal 7:


3 egg whites


Again, this is just a sample of what I'm eating and I'm combining this with weight training and cardio. Tonight I trained shoulders (my favorite!), abs, and did cardio on the Arc Trainer. I performed:


Seated Shoulder Press
Standing Front Raise
Standing Lateral Raise
Upright Row with EZ Bar
Bent-over Rear Delt Raise


For abs I did:


Captain's Chair
Lemon Squeezes
Plank
Mason Twists


WHAT DID YOU DO FOR A WORKOUT TONIGHT AND WHAT ARE YOU EATING?