LiveFit Trainer Phase 2 Day 46

How is it that I go from two days of eating closer to 1750 calories then drop to a day of under 1450, and I feel like I've eaten way too much today?  Sometimes I do not understand at all how my body works.  Actually it is days like today that really make me want to take classes to learn more about nutrition and dietary needs.  It also makes me realize that I really need to go to the grocery store or I will have to start making some pretty interesting substitutions in my meals.  So here is a layout of what I ate today:
Breakfast:

• 2-10 oz. mugs of Hazelnut coffee made from the same K-cup sweetened with unsweetened almond milk and Stevia
• 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb High Fiber wrap
• 6 T liquid egg whites
• 2 T salsa

Lunch (Post-workout):

• 4 oz. baked chicken breast
• 2/3 c. sugar snap peas
• 1/2 c. brown rice
• Frank's red hot sauce

Snack:

• 1 slice Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread with spray butter and cinnamon
• 1/4 c. raw unsalted almonds

Dinner:

• 1 can shredded chicken in water
• 2/3 c whole green beans
• Yellow mustard

Snack:

• 1/2 c non fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• Walden Farms pancake syrup
• 1 banana
• Banana Nut Muffin Quest bar
• A couple of handfuls of Planter's peanuts

This was all roughly 1400 calories in total.

I burned off roughly 550 calories today with exercises in doing my Shoulders and Cardio workout from the trainer, which I will bullet point out for you all, and I went for a brief 20 minute jog around my neighborhood after work just because I felt like it.  I have no idea why I felt the need to go out running after work, but I had been thinking about doing it for a couple of days now.  When I feel like running, I know I should go, because that feeling does not come to me often.  I still hate running.

Shoulders/Cardio:

• Arnold Dumbbell Press: 4 sets of 8
• Seated Bent-Over Rear Deltoid Raise: 4 sets of 8, last set to failure
• Standing Palms in One-Arm Dumbbell Press: 4 sets of 8
• Superset: Front Dumbbell Raise at 4 sets of 8 and Standing Dumbbell Upright Row at 4 sets of 8
• Side Lateral Raise: 4 sets of 8, last set is a drop-set
• Reverse Flyes: 4 sets of 8
• 30 minute moderate intensity steady state cardio---elliptical

Tomorrow will be interesting for many reasons.  I am going out to dinner at Longhorn, which kind of stresses me out, but I need to push myself to be able to eat healthy and enjoy my life.  I need to get groceries.  And it's leg day with a 1750 calorie budget.  Wish me luck!

LiveFit Trainer Phase 2 Day 45

Today's post is going to be pretty simple with an explanation of today's workout and meals, since I didn't have anything cool to take a picture of.

Chest/Abs/Cardio Workout:

• Barbell Bench Press: 1 warm-up set of 8
• Reverse Tricep Bench Press: 4 sets of 8
• Superset of Dumbbell Flyes: 4 sets of 8 and Dumbbell Bench Press: 4 sets of 8
• Superset of Incline Dumbbell Press: 4 sets of 8 and Bar Dips: 4 sets of 8
• Cable Crossover: 4 sets of 8
• Medicine Ball Crunches: 3 sets of 25
• Hanging Leg Raise: 3 sets of 15
• Reverse Crunches: 3 sets of 15
• 30 min. moderate intensity steady state cardio--treadmill

Today was a 1750 calorie day, because it was a heavy chest day.
Breakfast:

• 2 cups Butter Toffee coffee from a single K-cup with unsweetened almond milk and Stevia
• 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb High Fiber wrap
• 12 T liquid egg whites
• 1/4 red bell pepper
• 3 T salsa

Lunch (Post workout):

• 4 oz. baked chicken breast
• 2/3 c. sugar snap peas
• 1/2 c. brown rice
• Frank's red hot sauce

Snack:

• 1 slice Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread with spray butter and cinnamon
• 1/4 c. unsalted raw almonds

Dinner:

• 4 oz. baked chicken breast
• 2/3 c. sugar snap peas
• 1 can chicken in water (about 5 oz.)
• Yellow mustard

Snack:

• 1 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Quest bar
• 2 c. unsweetened almond milk
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• 1 Strawberry Cheesecake Quest bar

All of this food ended up being about 1654 calories, so not quite 1750, but I don't feel like I need anymore food.  Tomorrow is my second favorite workout day: shoulders!!  It is also a lower calorie day, which I'm actually interested to see how I'll do on after two days of 1750!

LiveFit Trainer Phase 2 Day 44

Today was my first high calorie day, and it was definitely an interesting experience.  I have learned that through dieting for so long, I've figured out what foods I can eat more of, because they are low in calorie.  However, now that I can eat higher calories, I'm eating insane amounts of food!!!  I will admit right from the start that I did not meet my goal of eating 1750 calories, but man did I try!  I got to 1586, and I am lying here so full right now!  I cannot even think about eating another thing, even if it was a delicious Quest bar, and we all know those are my weakness!  Anyway, without further ado, here was my menu for today:
Breakfast:

• 2 cups of Butter Toffee coffee made from the same K-cup with 1/4 c. unsweetened almond milk and Stevia
• 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb High Fiber wrap
• 12 T liquid egg whites
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 4 T salsa

Lunch (Post Workout):

• 4 oz. baked chicken breast
• 1 c steamed broccoli
• Yellow mustard
• 1/2 sweet potato
• 1 T Better n PB 
• Cinnamon

Snack:

• 1 slice Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread
• 1 T Better n PB

Dinner:

• 4 oz. baked chicken breast
• 1 c. steamed broccoli
• Yellow mustard

Snack:

• White Chocolate Raspberry Quest bar

Evening Dessert Fantasmic Creation:

• 1 PINT Arctic Zero Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein mixed with unsweetened almond milk and Walden Farms pancake syrup
• 2 T PB2 mixed with almond milk and pancake syrup
• 1 Quest PB cup
• 1/4 c. raw unsalted almonds

I was definitely well fed today, and usually on leg days, I want to eat everything in the entire kitchen!  I'm taking that as a good sign that I'm finally feeding my body right!
Here is the leg workout for the day:

• Narrow Stance Barbell Squats: 2 light sets of 15, 2 heavier sets to failure
• Narrow Stance Leg Press: 4 sets of 8
• Barbell Step ups: 4 sets of 8
• Walking Barbell Double Lunges (Step-down-up-down): 3 sets of 20
• Single Leg Barbell Squat: 4 sets of 8
• Seated Calf Raises: 3 sets of 20, last set to failure
• Standing Calf Raises: 3 sets of 20, last set to failure
• Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 10, last set to failure

I upped all my weights today and felt awesome after burning over 400 calories just by lifting.  I did absolutely no cardio today!  I may, however, have gotten a few odd looks for wearing one of my favorite t-shirts to the gym, but I was repping my favorite drink ever: Arizona Green Tea!!

Overall today felt awesome!  I loved being able to eat more food.  It actually made me think that I could do this without counting and tracking every little thing.  I also felt pretty lean today, despite eating more than I've ever eaten while dieting!

I am not one of those girls that wants to be stick thin.  I want some muscle, and I want to keep my booty!  I can't wait to see the changes the next 6 weeks will bring.  It is a slow process, but it is just that: a process!

LiveFit Trainer Phase 2 Day 43

Welcome to week 3 of Phase 2, a.k.a. week 7 out of 12!  Today was the first day according to the trainer that I am supposed to calculate calories.  In order to calculate your calories, Jamie Eason says to start with your goal weight and multiply it by 10.  Then, for arms, shoulders and rest days add 200 calories to that number.  For heavier days like legs, chest and back, add 500 calories to that.  So since my goal weight is 125, my low calorie number is 1450, and my high number is 1750, which for me on a diet is an insane amount of calories!  It is going to be extremely difficult for me, but I am going to do it, because it will become important in phase 3 when the carb cycling starts.

Since today was Arms, Abs and Cardio day, I was supposed to eat 1450 calories.  According to myfitnesspal, I made it to 1435, which is close enough for me, since there could be some margin of error.

Breakfast:

• 1 La Tortilla Low Carb High Fiber wrap
• 6 T liquid egg whites
• 1/4 red pepper
• 2 T 505 Wounded Warrior project salsa
• 2 cups of Hazelnut K-cup coffee with 1/4 c unsweetened almond milk and Stevia

Lunch (Post workout):

• 1 can Chunk Light Tuna in water
• 1 c. spinach
• Walden Farms Honey Dijon dressing
• 1/2 sweet potato
• 2 T Better n PB peanut butter
• 1 banana

Snack:

• 2 c. unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
• Walden Farms caramel sauce
• PB&J Quest bar

Dinner:

• 1 can Chunk Light tuna in water
• 1 c. spinach
• Walden Farms Caesar dressing

Bedtime Snack:

• 1/2 c non fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
• Stevia
• 2 T Better n PB peanut butter
• 1 Quest Cravings PB cup

Also, if you can't tell I finally got another shipment of Quest bars!!!

Love when I come home from a workout to find this on my front porch!  I got 25 bars and 2 packs of pb cups.  There is at least one of every flavor bar in those boxes!!

Now on to the really fun stuff: my workout! Like I said, today was arms, abs and cardio.

• Narrow Push-ups: 4 sets of 15
• Tricep Press: 4 sets of 8
• Superset: Cable One-Arm Tricep Extension 3 sets of 8 and One-Arm Reverse Grip Tricep Pushdown 3 sets of 8
• Superset: Skullcrushers 3 sets of 8 and Close-Grip Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8
• Incline Dumbbell Curl: 4 sets of 8
• Dumbbell Alternate Bicep Curl: 4 sets of 8
• Barbell Curl 21's: 2 sets of 21
• Stability Ball Crunch: 3 sets of 25
• Jackknife Sit-up with Stability Ball overhead: 3 sets of 15
• Stability Ball Reverse Crunches (Ball between feet): 3 sets of 15
• 30 min. moderate intensity steady state cardio: Elliptical

I upped most of my weights with this workout and found the ab workout to be simple but difficult.  I will give you all a little tip: I truly believe wearing superhero shirts to the gym totally makes you workout harder!  Today I wore a Captain America shirt!

Tomorrow is a new leg workout and a 1750 calories day.  I am trying to plan ahead and so far I'm up to 1699, so we shall see how tomorrow goes!

LiveFit Trainer Phase 2 Days 37-42

I know!  I know!  I've totally been neglecting this blog, and I'm writing a combined post for 6 days.  I had closing shifts at work every night for the last 6 days, so it made it very difficult to write the posts when I got home.  I am not going to promise now that I will post every day from now on, because I want these posts to be useful and fun to read.  If nothing truly interesting happens I may skip that day and combine it with another day's post.  I don't want to just post every day to have a new post.

Here is the run down for this past week:

Tuesday (Day 37): Chest, Abs and Cardio
Wednesday (Day 38): Legs
Thursday (Day 39): Arms, Abs and Cardio
Friday (Day 40): Shoulders and Cardio
Saturday (Day 41): Legs and additional Cardio
Sunday (Day 42): Rest Day

These were all the same workouts as last week, which have daily posts and bulleted lists.  The workouts will change again next week, which means new exercises to try!  I haven't really checked the trainer fully yet for tomorrow, but I will be doing so once this post is complete!

I am still going by my goal of not weighing myself until the end of phase 2!  It is extremely difficult, but I will meet this goal.  I feel like this is important to my mental health, so I don't get so obsessive.  There are some days when I feel skinnier, and some days when I don't.  So I'm not sure if I have really lost much weight or not.  I'm hoping when I step on the scale in two weeks it'll say 146 or lower.  On the bright side, I'M HALFWAY THROUGH THE TRAINER!!!!!  This week completes week 6, so I am halfway there!

I was also really excited this week, because I purchased a Keurig!  One thing that I've noticed since I started dieting and eating healthier is that I have a new love of peanut butter, as well as coffee.  I never really had either all that much before dieting, but now I want some every day!  I was spending entirely too much money at Starbucks, and since Kohl's had associate shopping days, I decided now was the time to buy!!  I absolutely love it, and for the last two days since I bought it, I have had amazing flavored coffee every morning.  I sweeten it with Stevia and unsweetened almond milk!  MMM!!! So good!

Well I guess that is all I have for this post.  Next week will definitely be more interesting with the new workouts, and I will be trying out at least one new recipe as I will be working an overnight next weekend!!

LiveFit Trainer Phase 2 Day 36

Day after Warrior Dash and back to the old grind!  I cannot describe how important yesterday was for me.  I needed that!  I needed to know that I could do it, and I needed the small break from crazy tracking everything I eat.  I was getting too obsessive about how I was eating, but today was so easy to get back into the swing of things.  Normally when I cheat, I feel sick, guilty, hateful and broken.  I also struggle to get back into healthy eating, but yesterday and today was not like that!  I don't feel guilty about yesterday.  I didn't get sick or hate myself.  I felt satisfied and ready to get back into the gym!  I just indulged a little bit, and now I feel so much better.  I am totally rambling now, but seriously I felt amazing today!  I ate well, wasn't hungry, didn't feel deprived and kicked ass at the gym.  Although the kicking ass part may have been due to my new gym clothes, a.k.a my Warrior Dash tank and new Adidas shoes!

Today's workout was Back and Cardio, same as last week.  I decided that I love wearing tank tops to the gym now, because I can see so much progress in my upper body.  I used to wear giant sweatshirts to the gym to cover myself up and sweat more, but now I'm comfortable in clothes like the above.

Today's meals were pretty simple but delicious, because I didn't have anything pre-prepped.  I have since prepped some baked chicken breast, black beans, brown rice, broccoli and green beans for the coming week, because I have closing work shifts almost every night!  It's going to be a busy week, and I am glad I took today off.  My meals today were as follows:
Breakfast (9:00AM):

• 1 La Tortilla Factory Low Carb High Fiber wrap
• 6 T liquid egg whites
• 1/4 green pepper
• 1 slice Go Veggie!  Pepper jack cheese
• 1 serving jalapenos
• 2 T Tostitos chunky salsa

Lunch (1:00PM):

• 1 can shredded chicken in water
• 1/2 green pepper, sliced
• 1/2 sweet potato
• 1 T Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter
• Walden Farms Honey Dijon dressing

Snack (4:00PM):

• 1 White Chocolate Raspberry Quest bar

Dinner (7:30PM):

• 1 cup Oikos non fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 scoop Body Fortress vanilla creme protein powder
• Stevia to taste
• 1 square of my Chocolate cake
• 2 T Peanut Butter and Co. Cinnamon Raisin peanut butter

I have also been chugging water all day to get rid of the excess sodium and water retention from my cheat day.

I also was very excited today to see that the race results were posted.  Here are my results if anyone is interested:

It's hard to see, but this is my overall placement.  I placed 2846 out of 5572 people.  I ran the race in 53:51:30 minutes.

This is my placement in the female age group of 20-29.  I placed 414 out of 984.

Since I completed some of my goals that I previously posted, I now have some new ones.

• No big cheats until after phase 2.  (My friends and I are planning a trip to Olive Garden for my cheat after phase 2.)
• I won't touch a scale or measuring tape until after phase 2.
• I won't become obsessive about what I eat.  I will follow the trainer and eat clean, while tracking, but I won't deprive myself if it will put me over 1200 calories.

I've got three weeks left of phase 2, and I am feeling great!  I can't wait to see my progress by the end!

LiveFit Trainer Phase 2 Day 35 and WARRIOR DASH!!

On the trainer today was supposed to be a rest day, but who needs those, right?  I signed up to run in the Warrior Dash Ohio II race in at Clay's Park Resort in April with my knee newly injured.  While enduring physical therapy, my goal the whole time was to be able to run in this race and complete it!  Today I DID IT!!!

I will reiterate for those who don't know me: I AM NOT A RUNNER!  I loathe running with a passion, but when you add in obstacles to climb over and mud to swim through, you are calling my name!  I don't exactly remember how I first heard about the Warrior Dash, but I knew immediately that it was something that I would eventually want to do.  I figured the obstacles would break up the running enough that it wouldn't feel like so much of a chore like the other 5Ks I have done.  Plus it's for the amazing cause of St. Jude's Children's hospital.  I had talked to people who have previously completed the race, and they told me that while you need to be able to run a good distance endurance wise, you need a lot of strength for the obstacles.  I have gained a lot of muscle doing this trainer, and the obstacles were tough but smooth going.  However, I will start at the beginning.

My wave started at 9:30 AM, and there were three waves before mine.  I wanted to get there early for packet pick up and to watch the other waves, so my mom and I got there around 8:15.  I got my over 21 ID bracelet, my Warrior t-shirt (which I am wearing as I write this post), my race bib, a shoe tracker and a fuzzy Viking hat!

I started to get a little bit nervous when it came time for me to line up, but I started talking to people at the starting gate.  Everyone was so friendly!  At 9:30 on the dot, we set off!  I started out toward the front of the line, but as I am not a very fast runner, I ended up kind of in the middle of the pack through the first stretch into the woods.

As you can kind of see from the course map, the first stretch is pretty long, so I made it my goal to run the whole way to the first obstacle.  Met that goal!  I climbed over a bunch of walls, swam through the lake, dove into some muddy trenches, trucked it through some tires and ran my butt off until I finally made it to the last three obstacles by the finish line.

The cargo net climb and the Warrior Roast.  That's me in the black pants and grey tank jumping over the Warrior Roast.  Then came the epic mud pit.

I was the most dirty I have ever been in my entire life, but it felt so good!  I didn't care how dirty I was!  I cannot even describe the fun I had during this race.  I actually caught myself smiling a few times while running!  Plus it didn't hurt that I had good friends and family there to cheer me on!

This was the perfect thing for me to do after completing phase 1 of the trainer.  I feel like I have renewed motivation to continue on with phase 2.  It also gave me a chance to have a much needed cheat day filled with a giant turkey leg, beer, loaded frozen yogurt and homemade pizza!

I am so proud of myself today, and I can't wait to get back in the gym tomorrow!!