Sweat it Out:
Elliptical 5 minute warm-up
30 minutes weights
1  hour Elliptical

Today’s workout was the bonus workout at the end of Phase 1 and the last workout A!  It must have been leg day at the gym because every meat head was hogging the squat bar.  I will have to do those tomorrow because I am not kidding when I say that there was 3 men rotating out this machine for the ENTIRE hour and a half I was at the gym.  It’s called gym etiquette meat heads, look into it.

Here is what my LAST workout A looked like (sniff, sniff, tear).  Each exercise is only 1 set of as many reps your muscles can handle.  To see your progress you use the weight that you started the phase with 5 weeks ago.

• Barbell Squats:  Tomorrow
• Seated Row: 50 pounds, 30 reps.  My muscles didn’t feel fatigued, but I could no longer pull the bar towards me.  I figured that since my arms wouldn’t move any more that was as much as I could handle.
• Push-ups: 25 reps.  HUGE improvement from where I began.
• Step-ups: 50 reps on each leg with 16 pounds.  I’m pretty sure that by 50 my muscles were numb.  We’ll see how I feel tomorrow.
• Prone Jack Knife: 30 Reps.  Remember when I was too scared to do these?  I can thank this move for shaving 2 1/2 inches off of my stomach.

Next week I will give a full run-down of where I began Phase 1 and where I ended, and I will be starting Phase 2 on Monday!  Also, I will be keeping a spreadsheet of my progress that I will figure out how to get on the blog.

These last couple of days have been rough eating wise (see yesterday’s post to find out why).  I have learned from this experience that I need to plan so that I can conquer this feeling next month when its sure to happen.  I have been craving EVERYTHING, and because I don’t have any of the food that I am craving (and I refuse to go to the store and buy it), I just stand in front of the fridge/cupboard and eat whatever pops into my head.  I didn’t track, I didn’t care, I just plain didn’t think about it.  I’m not going to go on and on about how disappointed I am in myself and poor me, why can’t I get back on track, I’m just going to move on.  This seems to be my favorite mantra when I get off track.  Move on.

Do you find that if you dwell on something it makes it worse?  The more I think about it, the worse I beat myself up and so begins the cycle.  Let’s just turn this little scenario around.  If nothing negative ever happened then how would you find the positive?  I expect to have weeks that are up and down (more down than up, preferably) the positive I have found in this last week is that after looking at all of my progress at the gym, I can’t deny that I am making HUGE strides.  I can’t let a couple of days of questionable eating throw off the entire 2+ months I’ve put into this journey.  I am still positive about my weight loss, and I know that I can re-focus myself and move on.

I may be writing this post for a pep talk to myself, but in the end sometimes when you stumble it’s the only way to get stronger and learn about yourself.  And lets not forget, I’m kicking some major a** at the gym.  That is an accomplishment in and of itself.

Normally, I would do What I ate Wednesday today, but I forgot to take pictures and I’m pretty sure that I just wasn’t thinking about it yesterday.  I did make some pretty sweet tasting fish taco’s last night for dinner, with a different rendition of the corn salsa from last week.  Super delish!

How do you turn a negative into a positive?
I hate being negative, and so I have to try to find a positive immediately.  I count my blessings and suddenly all is manageable again.

Have you eaten anything today worth mentioning?
I shopped for the first half of our groceries on Monday and accidentally spent the entire grocery budget.  I’m getting creative the rest of the week! Luckily, I have a lot to work with!