Sunday

Thank heavens for Sunday. It is so good to rest for a day and change my focus. It's always a challenge to keep from focusing on myself too much when I count every calorie and every move I make every day. On the Sabbath, I am reminded to focus on what I can do for others and why I am on this earth. I am reminded that how I look probably isn't as important as some other things. My looks will fade, but the choices I make will affect an eternity. I am a Mormon and as it turns out, that's a big deal.

Hiking

Hiking Zion's National Park. It's a beautiful place; it's good for me to get out of the gym sometimes. It's a good activity for a rest day. Not too vigorous mind you.

Circuit Workout

New work out. Circuit consists of 6 exercises. I do 20 reps of each exercise and go through the circuit 3 times. My exercises today were for chest and shoulders. I did push ups (hands on bench), bench press, seated chest flys, incline chest presses with dumbbells, push ups with feet on bench, upward rows, and military presses. Wow, what a killer! I could barely finish the last circuit and had to go down on weight to finish. I will feel it in a couple of days.

I have been feeling hungry. It seems to happen periodically when I am hitting my macros. If I can hang on and wait it out, sometimes it leads to a more cut look. I have been good about prepping my meals, etc. One of my favorite, easy ideas is to stir fry a pound of ground turkey. I take it out of the freezer and slow cook it, crumbling it as it melts. When it is cooked, I add a ton of frozen stir fry veggies. It fills up a big skillet. Then I divide it into 4 portions and put them in glass containers with lock lids. It  is ready whenever I need it and a better choice than some other things I could eat. Let me know if you need ideas. I have a few meals that work well for me.

Today was shoulder and abs day. I did super sets with cardio intervals, performing active recovery. So it went like this:
Warm up 15 minutes on elliptical, then on to weight lifting.
All exercises performed 3 sets of 8 reps, supersetting all exercises.
Military presses with 30 lb dumbbells, supersetting with
lateral shoulder raises using 12 lb dumbbells,
followed by 1 minute of cardio (I run 1 lap around the inside of the gym, or do jumping jacks for 1 minute or jump rope for 1 minute).
Next:
Upward rows using 40 lb barbell, supersetting with
front shoulder raises, alternate using 12 lb dumbbells,
followed by, you guessed it, 1 minute of cardio.
Next:
Seated rear flys for rear delts with 40 lb, supersetting with
standing, rear dumbbell lifts using 15 lb dumbbells
1 minute of cardio.
Next:
Straight-arm shoulder circles, using 7.5 lb dumbbells, 20 forward, supersetting with
20 backward
1 minute cardio interval
Abs: reverse leg lifts on an decline bench, 3 sets of 20, supersetting with decline oblique twists holding a 10 lb weight

And that's how it's done.

"Grandma Beckie" is what my grandkids call me. Is it true that I'm a grandma? I love my grandkids, but I'm not a grandma !! I have the best of both worlds; I'm young enough to work hard, but old enough to know better. Changing it up at the gym always makes me sore. I'm trying to convert a long-time marathon runner to weight lifting. She just can't give up the long steady-state cardio. I'm here to tell you that in spite of her long hours of running, she has a layer of fat over her whole body. It's a stress response; your body secretes cortisol which is catabolic to muscle and encourages fat storage. Boo... on that! Interval training is a much better option for cardio and pull out the weights please. My work out today was arms only. I started with 2 exercises, performing 3 sets of 6 reps, two different exercises 3 sets of 8 reps, then 2 more exercises of 3 sets of 10 reps, and lastly 2 exercises with light weight to failure. It felt good. I do about 30 minutes of cardio every day except leg day. That's it; no long, hard bouts of cardio.

Holidays

Everyone knows it is hard to behave during the Holidays. Some things that help me are: not letting myself get too hungry, especially before being exposed to "naughty" foods, choosing the healthiest options at parties, not having treats at my house, staying on my exercise plan no matter what, and of course logging every bite into Fitnesspal.

Today Was Supposed to Be Great

My newest goal is to start each day by believing it will "be a great day." Then at the end of the day, I am to review all the good things that happened. I have to admit that it was mostly a good day. I got the kitchen back to normal after a Halloween Party. I got all of my blankets "vacuum packed" so they take up less space. I made it to the gym, Yay!! I spent an hour with my husband at work and we went out to a short film Halloween festival. It was interesting, if not super fun. The downside to my day was that my youngest son wrote me an in depth letter explaining his belief system. Since it is not at all what I have taught him his whole life, I find it a bit disappointing and I even feel defeated. Of my five children, only two have fully endorsed the things I taught them when they were young.

Anyway on the fitness and nutrition front, I have been eating a bit poorly for about 2 weeks. I am a fanatic about entering every single thing into FitnessPal so I am accountable. It doesn't look good when you have to actually look at the graphs of each day and week. I can't wait for the bad days to drop off. All in all, it didn't impact my physique much. Since I have gained more muscle, I can get away with more "cheating," but I spend calories like money. You can pay the price for a great body or make excuses. I'm not saying my body is the best or greatest, but it's pretty darn satisfying for a person my age to have done this well. If I could recommend two things to make success a reality, they would be Myfitnesspal and clean recipes on Bodybuilding.com. Take a look.