17 Weeks Out, New Diet, New Activities, New Workouts...

Saturday marked 17 weeks until Contest.

I've now been on Nathan's plan for the last week and it is boring. Not bad on hunger, but just plain boring. Breakdown of my day is something like this:

3:30 wakeup
4:00 workout - cardio anywhere from 40-50 minutes (depends what day), weight training 4 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour
6:00 post workout shake - 1 scoop of whey and water
8:00 Meal 1: 6 egg whites, 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 grapefruit
10:00 Meal 2: 1 apple, 1 tbsp almond butter, 1 scoop whey
12:00 Meal 3: 1 cup grean beans, 3 oz chicken breast, 50 grams cooked quinoa
2:00 Meal 4: 1 cup grean beans, 1 cup asparagus, 3 oz chicken breast
4:00 Meal 5: 1 scoop whey, 1/2 grapefruit
6:00 Meal 6: 3 oz chicken breast, 2 cups grean beans
8:00 bedtime

As you can see it is pretty boring on food. The only variety you are allowed is the seasonings really. So in my oats I switch between cinamon, pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice. And I only put pepper on the egg whites. For the grean beans and hot meals I mainly just spray it down with butter spray and try a variety of Mrs Dash seasonings. They help but it is still just green beans and chicken! Boring!!! I asked about swapping out meats and veggies but N8 wants me to stick to this plan for 2 weeks to see what happens. I can tell a major difference on my energy levels and overall mood. I'm not starving to death and I feel good. I just am a little bored with what I eat.

Today I'm sick so I slept until 11:30 and didn't even eat my breakfast until like 1:00. I am supposed to limit carbs in the evening, so I figured I will have that meal, Meal 2 at 3:00 and then skip to Meal 4 and Meal 6 for the last two meals so I don't have carbs this evening.

As for working out, I am pretty excited because I'm working out arms again! YAY! But, if you saw my workout plan, they are on the same day as shoulders. Shoulders I'm still working all heads of my delts and lifting heavy. But arms are lots of reps at a lower weight. Not trying to bulk them up. Then, I get two leg days now. Similar story there....LOTS of reps on quads and more heavy on hamstrings. So Monday I work out shoulders/arms, Tuesday legs, Thursday back, and Saturday legs again. I do abs 2-3 days of the week.

Cardio is now more than it has been. 5 days a week! But, what is different now, is there are two days where I'm just trying to burn fat so it isn't high intensity. These are the long steady days - 50 minutes on the treadmill walking on incline. Then I have one day of cycling (which is a leg day of course), one day of HIT (High interval Training) where you walk a minute, jog a minute, then sprint a minute. This is a 40 minute session. Then the last session is 40 minutes of interval training any way you want it (I swap machines so I don't get bored) but it is just one minute at a slower speed and one minute at more resistance/higher speed.

And if I haven't said it before....I HATE Cardio. I get so damn bored. So I'm not happy to have to do even more of it now. Let's hope my body is starting to lose fat easily so i can keep it to a minimum!

Oh, and I DO get a cheat meal. However, all alcohol is out of the diet. I'm on day 12 of no alcohol (since I cheated in Vegas). So the cheat meal has to be thought about and once it is over it is over. Yesterday I had one. I had to eat 4 oz chicken breast first, then I had a piece of cake and a cup of low fat ice cream. I put a reese's peanut butter cup in the ice cream and a little whip cream. This whole meal was about 750 calories. That is about right for cheat meal. All other meals have to be healthy. I was pretty sad when it was over because I'm so used to enjoying a whole day of cheating and not worrying about counting calories. The whole eating chicken breast before the good food and counting what you eat sure takes the fun out of it.

I will hopefully have updated progress pics this week. Jonathan flaked on me last week so I didn't get my body fat checked, so I really didn't see the point. Hopefully Friday I will have an update. It seems like I've been losing some weight but I can't really tell on the scales because they are still saying 123 pounds. It seems like I've floated between there and 125 pounds for 2 months or something ridiculous.

One other thing - Friday, I went to dinner with some girls and VPX (long story as I was helping VPX demo their products on Saturday, totally a waste of my time and pathetic)...but one of the girls is going to a posing practice on Wednesday with Mary who I've been trying to get to help me forever now! She invited me to come along. Since I already have the basic moves down, I can go and it is only costing me $25 for the hour of help! I am super excited. Only bad part is it is Wednesday at 6pm and the gym is in the Galleria area of Houston so I have got to book it from work on Wednesday to get there. I'm thinking I will leave work at 4:30 in hopes of getting there by the 6:00 appointment! Crazy evening it will be! Especially since I'm going to bed by 8pm now! So, will update everyone on how the posing practice is going.