Let me apologize for how long it's been since I've popped back in here and posted, it was one of those cases of how "meaning to do it tomorrow" somehow turned into a month!
I was talking to Ginger yesterday and mentioned what an ass I felt like for not keeping up with things here and she encouraged me to get back in here, so here I am! Thanks to all who posted while I've been MIA, good to know you all still miss me even though you
KNOW I'm an ass!
I had mentioned in my last post that I was just all over the place with basically everything health and fitness related, but I'm thrilled to say that something magical has taken place this last week or so and I've never felt better about where I am and the course I'm on. I had a 3-day weekend all to myself last weekend and had some
much overdue time to catch up on some reading and self-reflection. That prompted deep thoughts and some perspective on just what the hell was up with me. Sounds corny, but I just kind of had that "A-Ha!" moment and things just started clicking again for me in a way that I don't think they ever have before. In a quest to constantly soak up information, I had kinda lost the ability to find a way to logically decide what concepts and ideas were really right for me. Basically, I was second-guessing everything from workouts, diet, supplements, rest, you name it. So, I decided to strip things down, clearly identify my goals and just get back to basics.
I'm putting in 6 workouts a week, 3 weight days and 3 days of cardio. On my weight days, I'm doing a total body weight workout and keeping it to one set of 15-20 reps of one exercise per muscle group, but performing them with high weight and slow measured raising/lowering times that allow me to reach failure within that one set. It feels fantastic and I've seen wonderful results in my body! Most of my cardio is HIIT-based, and I'm doing one day a week of pushing myself to my absolute maximum exertion, and the other 2 days are cardio intervals performed at slightly lower intensities. I'm mixing up my cardio, doing some on the bike, some on the treadmill and I'm just loving it. I had really gotten away from putting that much time and effort into cardio workouts, but after one week of serious dedication to this workout schedule, I just feel great!
So, I'm eating clean, but more importantly I'm not beating myself up if I eat a little outside my plan on occasion or have that glass of wine. My weight had experienced a pretty bad jolt a couple weeks ago due to a disasterous decision to adhere to a
"specific diet plan" which not only caused me to pack on some
serious weight in a very short period of time, but also resulted in making me cranky and mentally off. I've shed the weight gain, plus a couple of the other pounds that had settled back on, and as of this morning, I'm back down to an even 145 pounds!
Sorry for the rambling on and on, there are just a lot of great people here, and I didn't want anyone to think I had abandoned my health or was blowing this off. What was really stressful about the imbalance I was in was not even how much it was affecting me personally, but how it was affecting my training being provided to my clients. I knew I needed to step back and get myself together and find a way to put that clarity back into my life which would result in better service for them. It was bad enough feeling like I had lost focus on my own training, let alone thinking that I was letting my own issues affect someone else's training and success.
I promise not to stay away so long, and I'll be checking out everyone's progress pictures for May! I promise to post some update pics on here so nobody thinks I've just been lying on the couch eating ice cream!
