Kat's Journey

[ker1978]

Background:
I started working out in February of 2008. I had lost about 50 pounds of fat at that point after having my daughter in September, 2006. Once I started working out I lost over 50 more pounds. I started with a bit of cardio and then did Body for Life. I incorporated P90X into Body for Life and then did P90X and P90X+. In December I was a Beachbody Success Story. P90X really worked for me.

Right now:
I am doing my first bodybuilding competition in October. I have a trainer who I found on here. He competes with the organization that I will compete with. He does not live in my state so I do everything by e-mail/phone. He came up in January and spent several days training me. He will be coming back in another week.

I am working on gaining muscle right now. I am eating around 2200-2300 calories per day with a 50/25/25 split. I get all of my protein from whole food except my last meal of the day, which is always a shake. I have not been able to kick that habit yet. My trainer does want me on all solid food though.

Right now my training is set up so that my weekends are focused on cardio. Today, I intend to use the jump rope for my cardio. I will jump for 40 minutes. If I get tired I will break it by running in place or doing jumping jacks. I did this for cardio on Thursday night after my shoulder work and my legs felt like Jell-O. I did 10 minutes jump rope, 5 minutes running, 1 minute rest/water and repeated until the end of 40 minutes. Since, I hold all my fat in my leg area I need to try it again.

I will use this journal to stay accountable as I head into October.

[ker1978]

This weekends cardio has been good. I work out at night, with the exception of Sundays. On Sundays I do my workout when my daughter is napping. I woke up this morning and fixed our food for the week. I made a Tex-Mex soup and organic spaghetti for my daughter for this week.

My nutrition has been good and different this weekend- chicken instead of tuna, thanks to my dad sending me home with lots of leftovers. :-)

One of the best lines I have heard recently is: Why do all this exercise if you are just going to eat crap. It is so true. My trainer allows me to have some cheats, but I really need to cut them out. I am anxious to see some quad separation!

[ker1978]

I got up and did my cardio first thing this morning. On Mondays, I usually do it after I lift. Monday nights are turning into really long nights though. After I put my daughter to bed, I do chest, triceps, and abs. Then I do three circuits. Doing 40 minutes of cardio afterwards makes for a long night. I can deal, but I figured I would change it up this week. I have been at a plateau for a while so what will it hurt to change one more thing?

Last week I hit 150 on my bench press. I did 135 for 10 reps, 145 for 8, and then 150 for 7. I was happy to bench my own bodyweight. I have only been at this for a little over a year and just picked up a bar for the first time in January (I used my 90# adjustable dumbbells before that). I know that my two strong areas are my chest and my legs. I can squat and bench some good numbers, but when it comes to other areas like my biceps, triceps and shoulders, I am weak. I have a lot of work to do and I willing to do it.

My man reminded me last night that I need to trust what I am doing and trust what my trainer has me doing. Trust- now that is a new concept for me. He is right tough (99% of the time he is- I will never tell him that though- lol). He used to be a trainer and is a bodybuilder so I know he knows what he is talking about. Also, after 9 years of dealing with me on and off, he knows me better than anyone.

Short term goal: Work on trust issues.