A New Beginning

Just because something has "always worked" for you doesn't mean that it will continue to do so.  This is something I've come to realize lately.  First off, I'm definitely burnt out with how I've been doing my running schedule.  I've started dreading running (even though once I'm actually running it's the best time in the world to me) and even look for ways to postpone doing it.  Ugh.  I *was* going to wait until November 1st to start Paige's program that she made for me, but I think I will be starting it on Sunday.  Well, I sort of started it today. 

I texted Paige this morning shortly after I got out of bed to ask her a couple questions regarding the exercises she put down for me to do.  First off, I asked her what an Arix is.  Then I asked if she meant to only do one set on the second group of exercises.  An Arix is a square pad about a foot and a half by a foot and a half and 2 inches thick.  You do stabilizing exercises on it.  For instance, the lunges she wants me to do on them.  When she showed me how to do it this morning, it more closely resembles a single leg squat than it does a lunge.  So, did you catch that?  She showed me?  So, when I texted her this morning with those questions, she asked if I was going to be at the gym today and I said that about an hour later I would.  She told me to text her when I was on my way.  

I ate my breakfast and drank my coffee, then got dressed for the gym.  I took my running stuff with me in case I decided that I was going to do my 2 mile BTG tempo run, then I could do that after I got done with my in the gym workout.  I had to stop at the store and pick up a chocolate pie for the spread at work.  As I was leaving the store I texted Paige to let her know I’d be there shortly.  When I arrived, she had me warm up for 5 minutes on the treadmill and then we went over to the trainers’ area of the gym.  She had me grab the 30# barbell from the free weights area while she grabbed the Arix pad an one of those box jump boxes.  We started with the lunges (one legged squats) on the Arix pad.  HARD.  Then we moved onto the step up series.  First in the series, I start off standing on the box jump box (haha…I have no idea what else to call it).  She had me stand on one foot and then do a single leg squat while reaching my other foot as close to the floor as I can without falling over (which I did multiple times).  I had to keep proper form too…HARD!  Then, immediately following that she had be go into the second of the series which was a speed knee thrust.  Then, the third in the series was a one legged jump where I started with one foot on the box and one on the floor, then I would bring say my right knee up all the way and do a little jump with the other foot when my knee got to the top…but the trick was I had to jump off my heel, not my toes…HARD.  Next exercise was the front squat to overhead press.  I did the squat pretty well with good form, but had some issues with coming all the way up, thrusting my pelvis forward (sort of like you do when you complete the swing with a kettlebell) and pressing the bar over my head in one fluid motion.

So, I basically got a personal training session for free this morning because she trained me for a full hour and instructed me on proper form and all that jazz.  She also told me to come and see her when these exercises become easy so she can help me tweek them so they’re once again challenging to me.  I told her that it was most likely going to be a while before they were “easy” for me.  

She wants me to do both groups of exercises together and not as separate workouts.  I only ran through one set of the first group of exercises this morning with her and that took me at least 30 minutes for an overall calorie burn of about 390.  Tomorrow, I plan to go in and run through the whole thing (second group of exercises included) for all 3 sets.  So, I plan to wake up no later than 7:30 and be at the gym no later than 9.  See, I figure it will take me at least 2 hours to run through the exercises I did this morning 3 times plus 3 sets of the other 4 exercises in the second group.  

In the program she wrote up for me, she has me doing “weights” twice a week and, since she said she wants me doing both groups of exercises all together, that means she wants me doing all of the exercises twice a week.  If you’ll notice that list of exercises, only two of them affect the upper body: the front squat to overhead press and the bent over row.  So, I need to put together an upper body workout to do once a week.  I’ll put together 2 different workouts to alternate between each week.  She’s got me as “off” on Sundays and Fridays, so I’ll do the upper body workouts on one of those days…most likely Sundays so that any overtime I work during the week doesn’t interfere with me doing that workout and so I’ll get the upper body workout done for sure and at least one session of the Paige workout (that’s what I’m going to refer to it as from now on…in fact, look for a clickable link to the right side of my page entitled “The Paige Workout” that has the details of the program so they’re easy for you to find if you’re interested in trying it out. 

OH!  While she was trying to get me to adopt good form on the exercises, she noted that I was arching my back excessively and was constantly telling me to pull in my abs/core.  She made a point to tell me that my back is stronger than my abs.  The reason for this is because of the bulging discs I had a few years ago that resulted in my having the spinal cord stimulator implanted (which I haven’t used once since I recovered from the surgery!!!  Haha!!!).  I made a point to do all the back strengthening exercises I could to so that my back would be so strong that the risk of me injuring my back again would be minimal.  But, doing this I created a deficit in my abdominal muscles that I now must try to correct.  I mean, it’s fabulous that I have such strong back muscles.  Now, I just need to start doing more ab exercises to build up their strength.  I’ll add those exercises to the upper body workout I’ll be doing on Sundays.

Alright, I mentioned yesterday about wanting to change up my eating and that I wanted to buy a book or two to help me do just that.  Well, when I stopped at the store this morning to buy the pie, I hit up the book section to see what I could find.  While there was no nutrition books, there were “fad diet” books.  I picked up a couple and flipped through their pages and looked at their meal plans and didn’t like what I saw for the most part until I got to one called “SHRED: The Revolutionary Diet” by Ian K. Smith, M.D.  I looked at one day of meal plan and there was so many options and it looked easy and simple to follow…it looked like someone with common sense wrote it.  So, I bought it.  Plus, it’s a newer book, so it was 30% off cover price…YAY!  So far, I’ve already read through the first chapter and part of the second.  Since I’m going ahead and switching to Paige’s workout plan for me effective immediately, I won’t be doubling up my workouts on Monday and Tuesday (my days off next week), so I’ll have plenty of time to read more of the book and start delving into the actual daily meal plans.  In the first chapter he makes a point to say that the foods included in the meal plans are normal foods that aren’t expensive, so you won’t be spending double your usual food budget to do this “diet.”

Here’s the mean plan for week 1, day 1:

MEAL 1

·       -1 piece of fruit

·        Choose one of the following:

-1 small bowl of oatmeal (1.5 cups cooked)

-2 egg whites or 1 egg-white omelet with diced veggies (made with 2 egg whites max)

-1 small bowl of sugar-free cereal with fat-free, skim, or 1% milk

-1 container of low-fat or fat-free yogurt

·        -1 cup of fresh juice NOT from concentrate (grapefruit, apple, orange, tomato, carrot)

SNACK 1

·        -100 calories or less

MEAL 2

·        Choose one of the following.  Your choice must not exceed 300 calories and must not have any added sugars.

-1 fruit smoothie

-1 protein shake

-1 bowl of soup (no potatoes, no cream, no meat).  Good choices are vegetable, lentil, chickpea, split pea, black bean, tomato bisque, etc.  Be careful of sodium content!

·        -1 piece of fruit or 1 serving of veggies

·        Choose one of the following beverages:

-One 12-ounce can of diet soda

-1 cup of lemonade (freshly squeezed preferred)

-Unlimited plain water (flat or fizzy)

-1 cup of flavored water

-1 cup of juice (not from concentrate)

-1 cup of unsweetened iced tead or any other type of tea

-1 cup of low-fat, reduced-fat, or fat-free milk, unsweetened soy milk, or unsweetened almond milk

SNACK 2

·        -150 calories or less

MEAL 3

·        -1 small salad (no bacon bits, no croutons, 3 tbsp max of fat-free dressing)

·        Choose one of the following:

-1 piece of chicken (4-6 ounces, no skin, no frying)

-1 piece of turkey (4-6 ounces, no skin, no frying)

-1 piece of fish (4-6 ounces, no frying)

You can have 1 slice of cheese if desired.

·        -1 serving of veggies

·        Choose one of the following beverages.  Choose a different beverage from the one you chose in meal 2.

-One 12-ounce can of diet soda

-1 cup lemonade (freshly squeezed preferred)

-Unlimited plain water (flat or fizzy)

-1 cup of flavored water

-1 cup of juice (not from concentrate)

-1 cup of unsweetened iced tea or any other type of tea

-1 cup of low-fat, reduced-fat, or fat-free milk, unsweetened soy milk, or unsweetened almond milk

MEAL 4

·        -3 servings of veggies

·        -1 cup of beans (no baked beans)

·        Choose one of the following beverages.  Try to choose a different beverage from what you chose in meals 2 and 3 if you can.  You don’t have to, but try.

(see options above)

SNACK 3

·        -100 calories or less

See?  Pretty easy to follow.  Lots of flexibility.  They talk about meal spacing, but I haven’t made it to that part of the book yet.  I’ll talk about that when I get to it, but I’m sure it has to do with leaving about 2 hours between each meal/snack to keep hormone levels stable.  The plan calls for 30 minutes of exercise (not sure yet how many days of exercise it wants you to do).  It gives a good list of exercises you can do, which include:

-Jogging outside
-Walking/running on treadmill
-Elliptical
-Stationary or mobile bicycle
-Swimming laps
-Stair climber
-225 jump rope revolutions
-Treadmill walk/run intervals
-Zumba or other type of aerobics
-Spin class
-Other high-intensity cardio programs
-Rowing machine

The food changes a little bit every day so your body doesn’t get bored with the foods you’re eating.  Dr. Smith calls it “diet confusion” after the concept of “muscle confusion” from weight lifting where you change up the exercises you do and how much weight you lift and how many sets and reps you do so that you lessen your chance of plateauing.