Oh snap....Meg-O's training for a Figure comp....
So I guess this is as good as a time as ever to start a public journal. I will be training for an October/November 2012 Figure competition but I've got some work to do now to set myself up for a fighting chance.
[B]My Background[/B]
I've played softball non-stop since I was 5 years old, well that is until I tore my ACL this past July. I played in high school which is where I was first introduced to the weight room and busted my arse over 4 years to be able to bench 130 lbs, squat 250 lbs, and clean and press 180 lbs, beast mode. College softball workouts were lacking compared to what I was used to so I started working out with the football team, got down to my lowest weight ever of 130 lbs. Left my first college to start my engineering degree, picked up a graveyard shift as a valet, gained some weight, moved to swing shift, lost some weight, but hadn't lifted a weight in about 3 years. Decided I wanted to cocktail, made the switch, started working out again to be able to fit in my insanely snug bustier, got back down to my lowest weight of 130 lbs but this time with a helluva lot more muscle (see the pics from 2006 in my BodySpace). Graduated college, moved to Houston, stopped working out for about a year, started running marathons, gained 25 lbs, and I believe that brings me up to date.
[B]Where I'm Going[/B]
After getting bored with training for and running marathons, I've made the switch over to triathlons, but for some reason I let a friend talk me into signing up for a half-Ironman next April. A trainer at my gym would love for me to compete in a show in March 2012 but with all that biking, swimming, and running (if I stick to the training plan ;P) I think I may go slightly catabolic and even though I've got a fair amount of muscle, I want a sure shot at placing in my first show. So my current goal is to cut at least 15 pounds prior to the Ironman, rebuild over the summer, then go beast mode in the gym to hit 130 lb and 14% BF for October/November 2012.
I've been keeping track of my meals and workouts for quite a while now, but now I will begin posting updates here to keep me honest. Honestly, it's football season right now and with all of the tailgating and whatnot, I've been slacking on the will power to say no to copious amounts of beer and over-processed snacks because honestly, I had no other reason not to because I'm the only person that would know.
So if anyone manages to follow this journal, call me out, slap me around, and put me back in my place. It's time to do this and stop yo-yoing around like I have over the past 4 years.
How I got to where I am today...
[B]INJURY[/B]
So I had a few set-backs, one minor and one major.
After discovering I had a hole in my right eardrum I went in for surgical repair. I was unable to do anything strenuous for 3 weeks; you got it, no lifting, running, swimming, or sports. I went stark raving mad.
Once cleared from the 3 week no movement period I immediately hit the softball field and that very weekend I tore my ACL during a tournament. Not knowing it was torn at the time, just really painful, I popped a Vicodin (or two) left over from said prior surgery (still didn’t take the edge off) and played the last game of the tournament. Over the next month I got all of my vacationing out of the way and even raced in my last triathlon of the season the weekend before surgery (severely out of shape).
Since surgery on August 12th 2011 I have 6 months until I'm fully released for sports and have been counting down the days since...110 days to go as of today.
I've been bugging the crap out of my physical therapist to let me workout legs and run, so now I can do "light" (ha! yeah right) leg workouts and run on the treadmill.
[B]PROGRESS OR LACK THERE OF[/B]
[B]154.6 lb[/B]
Seems I've been stuck floating around 155 to 160 lb over the past year.
I'm still working out how to take consistent progress photos so bear with me.
I have slight atrophy in my right quad. We measured the right quad to be a little over 1" (circumference) smaller than the left. I still notice it but I guess it's not as apparent as I make it out to be.
I've been doing a predominantly push/pull/legs three day split over the last 6 or so years. The workouts haven't changed much structurally and adding or swapping out exercises is about the only change I've ever made. I enjoy high volume workouts that keeps me in the gym between 45 minutes to an hour and I despise cardio but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
I like to work out during lunch, it keeps me from going insane from sitting in an office all day and it keeps me from the temptation of going out to lunch with friends and coworkers and making bad food choices. I would usually lift Mon/Wed/Fri and swim on Tues/Thurs but I'm kind of back in lifting addiction mode so yesterday's workout was the second back day of the week; Monday and Thursday. I added some core to the end of my Tuesday Chest/Shoulder/Tri routine and I'm still sore and loving it but made yesterday's workout a little weak.
THE COUNTDOWN: 76 days post-op / 111 days until full release
[B]THE WORKOUT[/B]
BACK (dropped bis this w/o)
11 minute warm-up on treadmill, 1 mile
Lat Pulldown drop set superset with CG/RG Pulldown
Lat Pulldown
12 / 75lb
10 / 90
8 / 90
6 / 105
Close Grip/Reverse Grip Pulldown
3x6 / 75
T-bar Row
8 / 60
2x8 / 75
Straight Bar Pushdown
4x8 / 70
Bent Over BB Row (Pendley)
3x8 / 80
One Arm Row
8 / 35
2x6 / 35 <-- got lazy here and was eyeballing the clock to not be late for my 1 PM meeting.
[B]DIET[/B]
Diet was less than stellar yesterday with a 7 PM football game and getting home at 11 PM, oh well, back on track tomorrow. If anyone can make a meal out of beer it's this girl. I usually do better at drinking a gallon of water, just wasn't on my game yesterday.
Breakfast: 1 lg egg, 1/3 c. egg whites, 2 slices 100% whole wheat, 1 TBSP olive oil spread
Snack 1 (Pre-W/O): 2 slices 100% whole wheat, 2 TBSP Natty PB, 1 grapefruit
Snack 2 (Post-W/O): 1 scoop Syntha-6 Chocolate Mint (my fav!)
Lunch: 4.7 oz grilled chicken breast, ¼ c. Quinoa, 2/3 c. mixed steamed veggies
Snack 3/Dinner: Naughty choice at the football game...Beer
Cals: 1627 F: 42g C: 135g P: 100g
1/2 gallon water
[B]SUPPS[/B]
Ultimate Woman Multi
Glucosamine
Jack3d (pre-w/o)
Xtend BCAA (intra-w/o)
Legs/Lower Back today
Weekend recap...successes and failures...
So the weekend happens to be the most difficult time for me to stick to the plan. It still amazes me that a person can do so well and work so hard 70% of the time but the 30% that they slip up can dramatically slow down progress, or in some cases reverse progress. This is probably how I managed to gain almost 25 pounds after graduating college. So this weekend I had some successes and some failure, but it was mostly a good weekend when it comes to ‘the plan’.
Maybe I need to give some background on how I got to be 25 pounds heavier: beer, beer, not working out consistently, beer, only running and not lifting, and did I mention beer? So I think we all see where I can make some improvements ;P
The downfall with living in Houston is the craft beer scene is exploding. My neighborhood bar is my home away from home Fridays through Sundays and is by far my biggest weak point. So this weekend when the BF wanted a hamburger for lunch, we go to The Petrol Station (that amazing neighborhood bar I just mentioned), oh boy. In lieu of the hummus and fresh veggie plate that I would typically order, I splurged and went for the pulled pork sandwich. But I can proudly say that I did make a larger sacrifice; instead of getting a full pint of Double IPA I went for a half-pint of a light bodied Pale Ale. Being a regular, all the bartenders know what I drink so I got the WTF look as it took me longer than 1 minute to decide on a beer that wasn’t some kind of IPA. Peer pressure is a bia—tch.
Saturday night I feel that I kept it reasonable. We met up with friends for Thai food and had two glasses of wine (the place was BYOB so we weren’t leaving a half bottle behind). Then later we met up with friends for beers. I had only 1 beer (my beloved IPA) all night, and we even stayed out until nearly 2 AM. I think that for 5 hours 1 beer is extremely reasonable since this could have easily been a fiver night.
Sunday was spot on but way below calorie target. I recently bought a food scale and find it difficult to eat a full 6 ounces of grilled chicken in one sitting so if I don’t eat smaller snacks throughout the day I won’t hit my calorie target. I was very surprised by how little protein I was consuming.
[B]QUICK WEEKEND RECAP[/B]
Saturday:
Cals: 1959 F: 40 C: 164 P: 162
¾ gallon H2O
Ultimate Woman Multi
Glucosamine, Chondroitin, & MSM
5g USPLabs BCAA
Treadmill: 30 minutes, 2.85 miles
Sunday:
Cals: 1167 F: 22 C: 132 P: 120
¾ gallon H2O
Ultimate Woman Multi
Glucosamine, Chondroitin, & MSM
5g USPLabs BCAA
Swimming: 40 minutes, 1000 meters
(skipped the bike ride)
What is everyone’s thoughts on “if it fits in your macros”? I’m not sure I’m a believer of this thinking which is why I dread the weekends because socializing with friends usually means hanging out on the patio of our favorite bar(s).
10/31/11....Chest/Shoulders/Tris...
[B]156.4 lb[/B]
Got a little ego boost during today's workout. Random dude asked me if I "always workout this hard"...hell yeah dude.
[B]THE WORKOUT[/B]
Chest/Shoulders/Tris
DB Bench Press
2x10 / 35lb
6 / 37.5
DB Shoulder Press
3x8 / 25
7 / 27.5
Peck Deck
2x8 / 40
4 / 50
6 / 50
Bent Over DB Flyes
3x8 / 17.5
BB Upright Row
3x8 / 65
Lateral DB Raises (ss with front raises)
8 / 17.5
2x8 / 15
(desperately wanting to increase weight but the left shoulder wasn't having it...don't know why because it's typically my throwing arm that pusses out on exercises)
Front DB Raises
8 / 17.5
2x8 / 15
DB Overhead Tricep Press
3x8 / 35
[B]DIET[/B]
Breakfast: 1 lg egg, 1/3 c. egg whites, 1/4 c. whole oats, 1/2 TBSP honey
Snack 1 (Pre-W/O): 2 slices 100% whole wheat, 2 TBSP Natty PB, 1 medium banana
Snack 2 (Post-W/O): 1 scoop Syntha-6 Chocolate Mint
Lunch: 7.4 oz grilled chicken breast, 1 c. brown rice, 1 c. mixed steamed veggies (overpacked the lunch today to rid the leftovers...but ate ever darn bite...guess I was hungry after that workout)
Dinner: 6 oz grilled chicken breast, 1 c. brown rice, 1 c. steamed green beans, and 1 milk dud (struggled to finish)
Cals: 1751 F: 42g C: 194g P: 156g
1 gallon water <-- finally bought another 1 gallon jug of water
[B]SUPPS[/B]
Ultimate Woman Multi
Glucosamine, Chondroitin, MSM
Jack3d (pre-w/o)
Xtend BCAA (intra-w/o)
Fish Oil (finally found a 900 mg capsule...so now only one horse pill 3 times a day instead of two)
THE COUNTDOWN: 80 days post-op / 107 days until full release
Tomorrow is legs again. Working out legs every three days until the right quad catches back up.