Since November 1, the approximate day I started with Tom the Trainer, I have lost a whopping twelve inches overall, albeit "only" 15 pounds. This includes SIX inches from my hips alone.
I have graduated to 70 pound lat pulldowns, increasing in weight to 100 pounds and decreasing in repetitions from 12 to 5. As a result I think I'm getting a really amazing back, but then I can't really see it.... I'm seeing what I term "tremendous" definition in my calves and thighs (I actually have a thigh cut - who knew), and while my upper body gains may seem a little more modest, which I can't for the the life of me figure since we work it every single time, I have defined traps and delts, and when I flex, my biceps impress ME at least.
Here are some pics:
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| Honestly, I need to learn how to pose. I looked a lot better in the mirror. |
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| This is solid muscle - even underneath |
I've also graduated to rows with 60 pound weights (working up from 2 sets of 10 with 30 pounds, to 40, to 50 and finishing with 60), which frankly amazes me because I can remember whimpering with the 30s.
My bicep curls now are 15 pounds in sets of 10, and I don't even know what my tricep push downs are because he keeps changing up the weights on the cables. I've also done skull crushers with 15 pounds, which liked to kill me, and those danged curl-under-the-bar-and-push-yourself-up-using-only-your-triceps things. Still hate those.
What with the planks, kicks, crunches, reverse crunches, push ups, punching bag, sit ups, assisted pull ups (I have not forgotten my goal of unassisted by Labor Day), squats, lunges, bench presses, shoulder work, and everything else we do in the gym, my progress is steady, albeit a little slow sometimes for my tastes. AND I'm still doing an hour and a half of cardio every day. I think my body is so used to it now, despite mixing it up with intervals and hills, I'm quite ho-hum about it. Someone check my ID, because this can't be MY life.
As for nutrition, I have done a lot of research and decided that Marc was right - I needed to up my intake so I could build muscle, and hopefully lose fat with a higher number of calories when the time comes to cut before my competition. For the past two weeks I've increased my calories by over 500 a day, and am focusing on hitting certain numbers for my macronutrients. Amazingly, I haven't gained anything, and managed to lose two pounds after being stuck for over a month.
I have also found some great, high protein food stuffs
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| These are so good, I closed my eyes to savor every bite. If only my store carried the peanut butter cup flavor. |
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| Pretty good, and a nice change from eggs in the morning. |
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| Okay, not so great but no carbs and a ton of protein. |
It seems like I've been doing this forever. Honestly, I got up the other day at 6:15 like I do most every weekday now, went directly to my room to put on workout clothes and shoes, went to my bathroom to wash my face, put on sunblock and put my hair in a pony tail, slapped on a cap and made my way to the breakfast nook to drink some water before heading out for my cardio. All before I was truly awake. I looked at Ted and said, "So this is my life now." And it is.
What keeps me going are pictures like this:
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| This is Juliana Malacarne, the reigning Olympia physique champion. I'm thinking steroids. |
Granted, I may be too old and may lack the genetics to get THIS kind of definition (and again, there may be other factors at work there such as horse hormones), but I like to imagine walking into my local grocery store even only half as ripped as this. I like to imagine going into a TESTED show and winning my age group. Maybe even the overall....
And when I'm done imagining, I do the work.
