Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Beautiful with Curves


This is Oklahoma City Thunder cheerleader Kelsey Williams, how gorgeous is she?!?  Seriously I think she is so lovely, she looks confident, happy and just plain beautiful.

I was so disgusted to read some articles about her and people bashing her for her size, seriously it makes me want to vomit.

Every woman has a different idea of how she wants to look, each of us has a different level of comfort with our bodies.  Some strive to be ultra thin, or muscular or athletic or just plain healthy.

Women are MEAN, it's a simple fact.  Sadly it begins at a young age with girls seeing the "ideal" woman in magazines on TV in movies, that mindset of feeling the need to be a certain size can hit so early on.

I am working my butt off to teach my own daughter to live a healthy lifestyle, an active lifestyle and to always be comfortable in your own skin.  I have had my own body issues and have been very careful to keep my thoughts to myself or speak them to Kyle in private.  I know I am in good shape and have never been necessarily overweight, but I've always had some issues of feeling like I have to be "perfect".

Some have opinions that I am choosing to compete in a figure competition just to have that perfect body, not the case.  I am choosing to compete because it has been a dream of mine for the past 12 years and I've never found the "right" time to do it, my time is now.  I honestly feel I was made to do this kind of competition and so does Kyle.  If anyone on this earth thought I didn't have a chance of placing in the top three like I want to, it would be him.  He wouldn't tell me in a mean way, but he would be honest.  He is so honest that he tells me constantly about how great I'm coming along and how awesome my muscle definition is already, what can I say, I'm a very muscular woman and it comes easy for me, I know I'm lucky that way.

I dream of walking on that stage, proud of what I've accomplished with all the hard work and sacrifice having my family and friends there to cheer me on and show their support.  I would love to walk away with some trophies, not gonna lie, I would love to do so well that I can keep competing and possibly work towards a pro card, it is a dream of mine.

I have always felt beautiful except for a time when I myself got way too thin.  I got into the Hydroxycut fad with the ephedra when I was 19 and I looked disgusting.  I did have it in my head that I needed to get that small to be beautiful, thank god I had friends and family to knock me into reality.

I kind of rambled there but my point is this Kelsey Williams is beautiful, how sad that some women choose to blog that she is too fat to be a cheerleader.  It's not like she has some huge tummy hanging over her booty shorts, I for one am not offended seeing her in her cheerleading uniform.

Kelsey, ignore all those haters and stay just as beautiful as you are.  You look like one happy, lovely woman, kudos to you!

Pushing Through

Sunday night was a fun night of volleyball, not as many wins as last weekend, we only won one game in doubles and one game in fours.  The team we played in doubles was really good and we lost 21-19 both games, boo!!!!!  Our fours games we were just a bit off and should have won at least two of them, oh well there's always next weekend.

In the sixth game as I jumped to dink the ball over I pulled my left hip flexor, damn the hip flexors!  I pushed through the game and once I got home I was in tears.  It hurt so crazy bad, I couldn't even lift my leg.  

Kyle strapped an ice pack to it, Bella was so sweet bringing me pillows and trying her best to make me comfortable.  Kyle gave me some muscle relaxers which totally knocked me out after dinner and more icing.

Yesterday was my much needed day off, last night I did the P90X stretch dvd and iced some more.

This morning it felt so much better, but is still pretty sore, so no abs today :( I never thought I would be sad to have to skip abs!  

We worked chest and back this morning, it was a great workout.  Added some heavier weights, more reps and changed it up a bit.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Hitting It Hard

Saturdays lifting session was a tough one, I seemed overly tired and felt like my muscles were fatigued pretty quickly.

I did great on my abs, I'm starting to really enjoy those exercises even with the kettle bell!  I've made so much progress on my obliques, I started off only being able to do about 12 reps on each side.  I'm now up to 25 and could do more but we only do 25 reps of each exercise.

I also made a big jump in my push ups, 18 was my max in plank position, on my knees I could do more but no more knee push ups allowed!  Saturday I did a total of 26 push ups in plank, yay!

Kyle has added a new shoulder exercise, it was tough and my shoulders are still feeling it today.  I love it when we change up what we are doing, time to confuse my muscles!  At one point while I was in plank I noticed Kyle had his phone pointed at me, that meant picture taking.  Makes me feel good to know I'm at a point where he wants photos to see how my muscles are progressing :)

I saw some photos this weekend of some women that had competed in some figure competitions, a gal on Facebook competes and trains and I follow her.  I must say I was shocked to see their physique, I think they were competing in small shows but they had no muscle definition at all, they were slim, don't get me wrong, but no ab, leg or arm definition.  I started thinking again, oh my goodness, maybe I am going to be too muscly for this!?!

When I showed Kyle the photos he made me feel better, he was shocked at their physique, again they are slim and I know they had to work to get to where they were at body wise.  He was just surprised by the lack of muscularity.

I honestly at this point already have way more definition, but we did do my body fat and I wasn't happy with it.  I'm only down to 17%, but Kyle assured me that I only need to lose about 9 - 10% and I have 24 weeks to do it, it won't be a problem.

Eating is still difficult for me, it comes down to wanting what I can't have, I've been this way my entire life.  My discipline hasn't been the best and that is the reason for my body fat not going down a whole lot.

I need better discipline, it will come I know it will, I've just been getting bored with my food choices.  Time to do some research and see what I can add or find some more interesting recipes.  Also my addiction to carbs is insane, this is so, so hard, I can see why doing this sort of competition isn't for everyone, I love my bread, muffins, pasta, sweet rolls, the list could go and on.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Lifting, Running & VOLLEYBALL!

Hello there, I seemed to lack the motivation to blog this past week.  

I've been lifting of course, the ab workouts are starting to really make my abs sore.  Adding kettle bell weights to the moves makes a HUGE difference.  I'm happy I still have 24 weeks to get ready.  This week I've been overly tired and extremely sore, my motivation has been gone.

My mind has been very busy, some stressors have come along but I think they are now under control and I can get back to thinking about training and continue working really hard!

I had a nice run yesterday, not.  I had lost my chip for my Nike+ software, cleaned out my car and magically found it :)  I was so excited yesterday to run and have that wonderful voice in my ears telling me how far I've gone and what my pace is.  Well about halfway into the run my iPod shut off and said "connect to computer to restore".  I was thinking, SERIOUSLY?!?  I've never had that happen before, so I had to finish my run with no music, just my own thoughts.  But I did it and felt like I was going at a decent pace.

The best part of the week was volleyball!  I was so, so happy to be playing again :)  We did awesome, in doubles we won 2 out of 3 and in four's we won all 3 games!  My friend Chris and I had never played doubles together before, so we were pretty psyched about how well we did.

I was insanely sore on Monday and Tuesday, clearly after two hours of volleyball on Sunday nights I need to have a good stretching session.  So happy to have my Sunday workouts be sand volleyball again :)

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Plyo's & My Birthday!

This morning Kyle put me through a really good plyo circuit, I'm getting so good at wall squats, seriously I think I could do a wall squat for a long, long time :)

It's the jumping over the raised exercise step that gets to me, my legs are cashed so early on!  I push through though and I'm seeing a lot of changes in my legs, they are slimming out quite a bit.  I'm sure we'll start building them up again but they didn't need to be as big as they were.

I can say that today my abs are SORE!  I think after yesterdays ab workout and plyo's today, they finally got what they needed :)  They are coming along, my upper abs are getting pretty defined, my lower still need that final layer of "mommy" fat gone, but we're working on it!

Today also happens to be my birthday, it was a great start to the day with a plyo workout.  Then I treated myself to a skinny vanilla latte and a naughty blueberry scone, so yummy :)

It is cold and rainy here today and is supposed to rain pretty much for the next week.  It sucks because volleyball starts on Sunday, I'm thinking we will be playing on some really hard and cold sand, but it will still be fun!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Abs, Chest & Back

Another killer ab workout this morning, half burpees have been added, I'm just not doing the jump up.  Weight was added to another exercise at the end, I did it :)

Today I did the most push ups yet in the plank position without having to go down to my knees, yay!  I also notice that Kyle has me doing the same machine at the end as the beginning, he said he did that the last two times, guess I wasn't paying attention the last two times.

My weight is not changing at all, it's hanging right around 142, I'm sure when I actually do more cardio it will drop a little bit.  We need to do my body fat soon, it's been far too long, and measurements, maybe just maybe we'll have time to do that tomorrow morning.

Volleyball starts in just five days!!!!!!

Abs, Shoulders & Arms

Saturday was a really good workout day, Kyle changed up my ab routine.  He asked me if they are still feeling nice and sore afterwards and they hadn't been, I was honest and now my ab workouts are longer :)

It was great though, he added some weight to some of the exercises, sadly my arms got tired from holding the weight but my abs did great!  They still haven't gotten too sore, I'm trying to keep that to myself........too bad he reads this ;)

But seriously, my abs are my worst part, the most pain in the butt.  I can see a big difference though and feel it too, the layer of fat over them is getting less and less.  I'm still not ready to be showing them off yet, but I have a feeling that time will come soon!

I haven't been great about my cardio, that is a problem I know, cardio will obviously help me shed the last little bit of fat.  I've had a cold for the past five days, lifting I'm fine with, cardio I wanted to wait on so I don't feel like I'm hacking up a lung.

The rest of the workout was awesome, shoulders and arms are my favorite, I can see so much change and I'm loving it!!!!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Abs, Chest & Back

The past couple of days were spent nursing my neck.  Monday night I managed to be jerked awake by a thunderstorm, I LOVE thunderstorms, but didn't appreciate what the shock of waking up to loud thunder did to my neck. I had a huge knot on my right side and spent Tuesday at home using our back stim machine a few times throughout the day.  It worked and the knot was gone by Tuesday night, yesterday it was really sore so I didn't workout yesterday either.

This morning it is still very tender, but I got my workout in!  My eating has been pretty bad this week, I blame it on mother nature, damn her visiting once a month and making me crave chocolate and bad food like crazy.  Last night I had some chocolate marshmallow ice cream, finished it off, at least we don't have anymore ;)

My tummy was not feeling the best for my workout, after abs I had to take a break before we could do chest and back.  Think I learned my lesson about ice cream at night?  Probably not.

It was a good workout, there were moments when I could feel my right trap starting to tighten up but I would stop the exercise and the feeling went away.  I really don't have time for tweaked muscles!

I feel like my back is really starting to come along, I don't get to see it really of course, but I just feel like it is getting pretty muscly :)  My chest is looking good, the tatas are lifting, what a great feeling as a woman, I'd love it if they just continue to perk up and not get any smaller which will make me feel like I don't need a boob job once I'm down to show size, a girl can dream!

The search for my first set of photos has hit a big bump, I can't find them!  They were never uploaded to our computer and they are not on the memory card I use most often, I'm hoping and praying that they are on another memory card that is lost somewhere in my insanely messy office.  Our plan is to do some photos this weekend, it will suck if we can't find my first ones, but photos taken this weekend will be fine.

My abs aren't coming along like I would like them to, that is totally my own fault.  The eating has been so tough the past couple of weeks and I've cheated more than I should.  I really, really need to knock it off, somehow I will get to the point of only having one cheat day a week.  I'm not cheating all day but I've had one bad meal a day, usually dinner.

Time to find more powerful willpower!

Monday, April 8, 2013

Plyo's

Yesterday I went to Robert's Buffet at Riverside Casino, my Uncle Denny invited the ya-ya's (myself, Laura, Angie and Stacy) and also my parents.  So obviously yesterday was my "cheat" day, um yeah, I totally took advantage of that and went way overboard.

I ate and ate and ate, it was all so good and I wanted to try everything.  Talk about binge eating, oh my, I at least couldn't finish all of my desserts.  I knew that my morning workout would be a tough one, but I told myself it would be totally worth it.

I woke up before the alarm even went off this morning, I was happy about that :)  I'm sure it won't be the same on Monday's once volleyball starts in just two weeks!!!!!

Anyway, I was ready to go for some plyo's.  My body felt pretty heavy, how could it not after I devoured pounds of bad food yesterday???  Ok, not pounds literally, but just massive amounts of food.

I don't think I've sweat that much since playing volleyball in 100+ degree weather with high humidity.  It was so gross, I'm so happy we are the only people in the exercise area doing plyo's at 5am.

It was TOUGH, squats were added to the box jumps, there were wall squats added in between exercises, lots of calf raises, line jumps, tire jumps, walking lunges, and so much more.

Kyle totally kicked my ass today, I'm lucky I didn't vomit, it was a damn good workout and I'm thinking I burned quite a few of those calories I consumed yesterday :)


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Abs, Shoulders & Arms + A Picture!

Today's workout was amazing, I really pushed every exercise until I could literally not lift the weight anymore.

I needed a good mind clearer today and this workout totally gave me that along with some confidence :)

David joined us, which is always such a huge bonus, I feel like I push a little harder when he is there. A few laughs and lots of good reps, I soooooo needed it!

When we got home I was ready for a picture. I am definitely building a lot of muscle and getting some size. It made me feel so good to see this photo, I still have six months to get ready for the show, feeling very optimistic :)



Friday, April 5, 2013

Cardio - Run

I did it, I got through my run today even though I didn't think I would.

Last night was swimming lessons for Bella, we take her to a place that is super tiny.  It is literally a small building with one pool in it and locker rooms.  It is extremely humid in there, I dress lightly, I drink my water the entire time, but it doesn't matter by the end I feel like complete crap.  It really is sad and so frustrating for me how the humidity affects me so much!

I ended up laying down when we got home, I couldn't eat, no dinner and I just went to sleep.  I know it was a really, really bad choice, talk about being behind in calories, so bad when you skip dinner AND your evening snack.

This morning I still felt kind of crappy so no gym in the morning.  Work was full of issues that people thought I could fix but I couldn't and lots of moments where I needed like four of me.

Before my run I was dreading it, I knew it would be bad.  It was tough but I got through it.  I've never had an issue with feeling like I have to go to the bathroom when I run, not even when I ran the half marathon.  Well today about 5 minutes in it hit me, well really no place for me to stop.  So I ran feeling like I had to poop, my right leg cramped up before my half way point, did I mention it was a horrid run??

The highlight was passing a random pedestrian, when I ran by him he yelled, "good job, keep it up!"

It made me giggle, I've never had that happen other than at a race :)

Glad that run is done, looking forward to the next one and knowing it will better!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Abs, Chest & Back

Wow, this mornings workout really kicked my butt!!!

We started with abs, my obliques are getting so much stronger and it is the best feeling :)  Kyle has me do 25 reps for each exercise, I was only able to do 12 on each side for the oblique exercises but today I did 20 on each side :)

We did a quick warm up of push ups and pull ups, that got my blood pumping.  I feel like I really pushed it today, I pulled 20 pounds for heavy pants, 40 pounds for seated lat pulls, pushed 25-30 pounds for some of the chest press exercises.  It was a great workout!

Kyle is going to start really helping me with my food, I expressed my frustration yesterday with feeling like I'm taking in too many carbs, but he has assured me that I don't need to worry I do need the carbs but I also need to get in some more protein.  So now in the mornings I'm putting two scoops of protein powder in my shakes rather than just one and adding a protein shake at night.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Cardio - Run

So no workout this morning, just a run on my lunch hour, no abs.

I know my abs get a workout anyway just from a run, but we're going to have to hit them hard tomorrow!

It was a bit chilly, 32 degrees with the wind chill.  Damn the wind, seriously I wish it would at least start coming out of the south and be warmer or just stop, it is kind of ridiculous.

The run was very good, no leg cramping this time, YAY!!!!  I ran for about 28 minutes again and did feel like I could go longer.  The only bad part about doing it on my lunch hour is that I have to keep it right around 30 minutes and that's it.

I did get a little clip on holder for my Nike+ chip, did I remember it today for my run?  Nope, of course not.  It's alright, again I'm not looking to get my runs really fast or anything like that BUT I do like to know how far I've run.

Still having a hard time with calorie intake, partly due to laziness, I really need to make some hard boiled eggs.  I mean how hard is it for me to simply put them in a muffin tin and bake for 25 minutes?  Apparently too hard for me lately, but tonight I WILL make some!  They will be an easy addition for extra calories and protein, but they do have carbs too, grrrrrrrr.

The carb/protein ratio is hard for me, I feel like the only thing I will be able to eat July - September will be chicken breasts or fish.  I know that's not the case, but I'm starting to really realize how truly hard it will be to keep my carb intake down.

Damn fruits and veggies having carbs in them, it is going to take some real research on my part to figure out which fruits and veggies have a lower amount of carbs and I'll just have to stick with those, in smaller amounts.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Shoulders & Arms

I was a bit grumpy this morning, not really ready to go for my lifting session.

We got to the gym and I got upset because we weren't doing abs, me of all people, getting upset because I'm NOT getting to do abs.  The girl who hates abs, well when you can see a big difference in them and you know they are your main trouble spot, I worry when it's been four days since I've done abs.

So then I was grumpier.  I HAVE to get up tomorrow morning for my cardio now, no chance of running on my lunch hour because I would not have time to do abs plus run, that thought process made me grumpier.

My grumpy self got through my workout, Kyle wants to change up when I do abs, not sure why maybe I should have asked so I can understand why we are needing to change that up.

Sorry Kyle for my grumpiness this morning, my abs just totally suck ass and I worry that they won't ever be a nice six or eight pack.  I know I have six months, but that is even sounding like not much time to me.

The lifting was just alright today, amazing how much your mindset can totally throw off a workout.  I got it done, but honestly it didn't feel great and I know that is my own fault.

Here's to hoping the next weight lifting session goes better and that my mind is in a better place.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Cardio - Elliptical

Today was cardio day, I think I was still in a food coma when it was time to get up for the gym at 4:30, I didn't do it, instead Kyle told me to do cardio on my lunch hour.  Since certain running gear wasn't washed and ready for me today (totally my own fault) it would be an elliptical day in the "beer" workout room!

I took my cheat day a little too seriously yesterday, I ate everything in sight, seriously.  At least today if I see any Easter candy it makes me feel sick!  Well I take back feeling that way about one item, lemon bars, seriously I ate almost half a pan.  I'm not proud but those things are so amazing and refreshing, mmmmmmmmm.  I did enjoy my day of eating whatever I wanted, I enjoyed it yesterday, not so much today.  

So I did burpees, then 15 minutes of elliptical intervals, burpees and 15 more minutes of elliptical intervals.

OH.MY.GOODNESS.  I'm lucky I got through it without vomiting all that damn Easter candy and probably lemon bars.  I did it though and felt pretty good when I was done, looking forward to tomorrow when I can see the results of today's cardio workout.

I truly am at the point where one bad day of eating makes a difference in my body, I can see it at least, then one good day of cardio bounces me back to where I need to be.

It does make those cheat days seem much less appealing, hopefully by the time July gets here I really won't want my cheat days since I won't get them anymore from that point up until the show anyway :)

Abs, Chest & Back

Abs were awesome in this workout, they are getting stronger and stronger :)  I was able to do 80 russian twists, woo hoo!!!!!

This workout involved a lot of push ups and pull ups, we hadn't been doing pull ups and I felt so weak because I couldn't do very many.  This workout was longer than usual, thinking the lifting days are going to start getting longer now, which is fine with me I do love the weight training more than the cardio at this point.

It was nice at out Easter get together with my family, my brother John mentioned that I'm looking very fit :)  Those compliments mean the world to me and knowing that someone can actually see a difference, that gives me a little boost!

Only three weeks until sand volleyball, woo hoo!!!