6 weeks ‘til I visit, for apartment shopping and making good on a long-overdue booty call.
So I have 6 weeks to kick this whole ‘fitness’ thing into high gear. I’m in pretty damn decent shape already, but my midsection is a point of personal contention.
Things I intend to do for the next 6 weeks to help with this:
- Sunflower seeds! In-shell, ~60 calories worth of sunflower seeds takes me all damn day to eat, and tricks my brain into thinking I’m stuffed ‘cause, well, eating all day! Perfect mindless snacking food.
- Salads: lotsandlotsandlots of salads. Salads every day. I didn’t used to like salads but it’s like a switch in my brain flipped and now I’m obsessed. Spinach salads with bell peppers, carrots, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, cheese, a wee bit o’ dressing (on the side, so I can dip a fork in and stab things), raisins, almonds, chicken, eggs or some combination thereof. Also, chicken salads made with canned chicken, greek yogurt and celery
- Drink. More. Water. Damnit.
- Walk. More. Damnit. I looked at the stats from my Fitbit…I’ve been doing an appalling job of walking enough each day. There were some horrifyingly low numbers — no more!
- Start running
- Ab exercises & stretching. Not a bazillion crunches (Brittney Spears Syndrome? Nothanks), and obviously I know ab exercises do not give you a 6 pack or burn fat, but just for the sake of tightening up (in the middle…I guess stretches are for quite the opposite).
- Bike. More. Damnit.
- Gymming. 3xweek. No more excuses.
I think it’ll be easier to stick to because I have a specific goal — must look good in 6 weeks for boy, and in 10 weeks for city.
So my long weekend was awesome, but not for the reasons everybody else’s probably was:
- Kicked major ass at the gym: New squat PR of 125lbx5, new deadlift PR of 150lbx1 (I haven’t been doing DLs very regularly so pulling this at the end was mighty satisfying), climbing back up the bench press ladder and a new overhead press PR of 50x3
- Went hiking today - 7.5 miles in an hour and 20 minutes with roughly 15lbs on my back
- Ate like crap (cookies&icecream, baby) and don’t even care (I did just eat a nice healthy meal, though)
- Watched like 1.5 seasons of Eureka
- Did the aforementioned shopping and managed to get rid of another bagful of clothes
- Actually managed to cut down on my fabric stash instead of adding to it/keeping it the same and coming out with a really awesome pair of winter pants in the process
I’d call it a successful holiday weekend. Not so prepared for work tomorrow, but we’ll see how that goes.
So holy balls is it hot in my apartment. And tomorrow is supposed to be ridiculous. And I haven’t been riding my bicycle, which makes me sad.
So! I just went out for a nice 2 a.m. ride down one of the major roads (pleasantly empty), 10.5 miles in 48 minutes. Not great, but there were a lot of pretty big hills so I can’t complain too much (and that should put me in line for roughly 12mph, which seems to be my average).
As for weights this week, I went to the gym on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday wasn’t great, I went down a little on my lifts but was happy I did them. Thursday was pretty sweet — new barbell squat PR (120x5!) and new OHP PR (50x2…I didn’t think I could do more than 40, so I’m happy with it). Can’t wait to go on Sunday night! It feels so far away.
I think the reason I’ve been stalling in my lifts is because I’ve been doing way too many warm-up sets. Like I see other people doing ridiculous numbers of high-weight sets, but those people have been lifting consistently for much much longer than I have. For example, I couldn’t get past 115 on my squats, but when I cut out a few sets and made my warm-up a little higher (starting at 65 instead of 45) and only doing three sets 10lbs apart (so 65/75/85 before jumping up to 105 instead of 45/65/85 or 95 and then +5lbs to failure), 120 actually came pretty easily. Next I’m going to try eliminating the 45s and 50s from my bench to see if I can’t break that 70lb barrier (or at least get a full 70x5, I always fail at like 2 or 3).
So it figures — one of the rare nights when I have the weightroom pretty much to myself and the benches are wide open…there’s some kind of pain in my wrist/thumb. I only felt it when picking up the barbell to bench, though, which I thought was weird. sigh
Barbell squat:
45lb x 5
65lb x 5
85lb x 5
95lb x 5
105lb x 5
115lb x 2
This is the first time I have ever failed a squat (going for the third 115lb rep). I’m okay with it, though, ‘cause the rest of ‘em felt really good. Definitely getting better with my form.
Dumbbell OHP:
15lb x 5
15lb x 5
20lb x 3
20lb x 3
I’m not sure what’s up with my arms today, but they were just not having any of it.
Triceps Kickback:
10lb x 8
10lb x 8
10lb x 8
Dumbbell Curls:
10lb x 8
15lb x 5
ಠ_ಠ
Chest Flyes:
10lb x 8
15lb x 4
My shoulder was all tight and weird, these did not feel very good so I stopped.
Dumbbell Bench Press:
10lb x 5
15lb x 5
Yeah I was too tired by this point to do anything useful.
Jump Lunges:
10x5
Wall Push-Ups:
10
20
15
Trying to make up for the gym. At least now I’m sure my arms are tired.
I have no idea why my best gym nights always come as a surprise to me, but…
Barbell Squat:
45lb x 5
65lb x 5
85lb x 5
95lb x 5
105lb x 5
110lb x 3
My current PR for these is 115lb (not sure of the reps). I’ve been building back up to it, and they feel a LOT better this time around — they’re a lot lower, too.
Dumbbell Bench Press (there were people fucking around with the barbell benches and I didn’t feel like waiting around):
15lb x 5
15lb x 5
20lb x 5
20lb x 5
25lb x 5
New PR! I haven’t done these in awhile. I think I’ll start switching between barbell and dumbbell bench presses more often.
Barbell Deadlift:
45lb x 5
90lb x 5
115lb x 5
135lb x 5
My PR for these is actually 145lb x 5, but I haven’t done them in awhile and I didn’t even really feel like doing them last night. My friend (who is also the overnight cleaning guy at the gym), however, decided he wanted to start lifting with me and he wanted me to show him deadlifts. At least I can still do more than bodyweight! Probably could’ve pulled 145 if I wanted to, but I think I’ll leave that for next time.
Standing Barbell Shoulder Press:
30lb x 5
30lb x 5
40lb x 5
New PR! I’m surprised, I haven’t been keeping up with BB/DB shoulder presses, either. But I should, ‘cause I seem to be improving.
So that’s pretty cool. Next up: bike polo!
