Phase 2.

Here I am! I made it all the way to the second phase of this 12 week program. This phase has harder weight lifting exercises and an added 30 minutes of cardio afterward. I did it for the first time last night and it wasn't so bad. Luckily I don't have to do the cardio on leg days...But since you have to do cardio 4 times week - there's only one rest day per week. It's just 4 weeks so I can definitely do this. It's going to take a lot of diligence and persistence mentally to make these hour and a half or more visits to the gym 6 times a week....

The gym is an interesting place. In between sets people are just sitting around doing nothing. Well, nothing is when you try to pretend you aren't looking at the other people in the gym. What else is there to do? When I got to the cardio portion of last night's workout one of the guys in the gym came up to me and said "You're a machine - you know that?" I didn't respond but I looked over at the man on the elliptical next to me and he was also confused by that statement. I'm glad someone else heard it too. I didn't think I was doing anything spectacular...what an interesting place. Since I've been going for over a month pretty consistently, I'm learning the traffic and some of the people. The gym is like a little community. I've even been given a few tips when my form was off - which I don't mind at all. I'm doing all this by myself so it helps to know when you need to adjust. I don't want to do all this work and do it wrong. I want results!

The diet is pretty similar to phase one. I just have to flip the "dinner meal" of 6 oz meat plus one starch and veggies to a mid-afternoon snack and then eat the meatloaf muffins around dinner time instead. We're "phasing out" carbs earlier in the day. I don't really mind that much. I realized I was accidentally eating a gluten free diet for a month since I was eating brown rice or sweet potatoes with all my meals. Oops. 

I'm off to the gym for my second day of the double workout... Chest, Abs and Cardio...Let's do this!

Bumpy Roads usually take you to new places.

My third week has been the most difficult. I prepped and saved and worked out....but towards the end of the week things got a little weird. All the food I had stored in the freezer got freezer burn. The new batch of crock pot chicken tasted terrible. I got stomach aches at random hours of the day. I was kept at work hours past when I was supposed to leave. And then I learned that the gym closes early on Saturdays. So for this week, I get a C. I call the road bumpy because even though I missed 2 of 5 work outs and some of my meals I'm still on the road. I'm just trying to pick myself back up and get some of my steam back.

I get to take out one marble every time I lose a pound. I still have not taken out any marbles.


Like I said before, I knew this was going to be challenging because I'm not losing any weight. How could I really expect to at this point? Since I don't have that much to lose I know it's going to take a lot of work. But it's still hard to put in an hour at the gym almost every day, change your entire eating habit and see no results...

So as I go into Week 4 today I just have to keep doing my best at sticking to this plan while working the strangest retail hours.

Motivation!

I don't know what day it is.

I had a pretty terrible day at work yesterday. I was late due to MTA's detour. I have to go into Manhattan and then back out to Forest Hills Queens. It takes a half hour longer than my normal route. Yesterday apparently even longer than that...I was humiliated by customer after customer, didn't get all my meals in and of course got out from work too late to get to the gym (it closes at 11pm if that's any indication of how pissed I was I couldn't get there in time). It's the kind of day that makes you want to give up. I didn't even finish my work and have to go in on one of my days off. 

But then I got home. Lit a candle. Got to talk to Matt on the phone. Drank some tea and felt a little better.   Today I'm determined to not let another yesterday happen. Life's too short to expect days like that. 

Day 7.

I expected phase 1 to be the hardest phase. Mostly because it's just building muscle which takes time and a lot of eating. I'm hungry all the time. I'm eating all the time. I'm not working out all the time which is why I thought this was going to be the hardest phase. I just have to trust the workout plan and relax. I'm so worried I'm going to gain weight because I'm not doing cardio. It's only been one week so I don't know for sure....The science of it makes sense but when I don't see results it's hard to know if I'm doing it right. I need feedback! But I just have to keep telling myself:

Stick. To. The. Plan.

Stick to the plan!

I only cheated twice and with good reason: my last meal with Olivia indefinitely and my last date with Matt for over a week. And by "cheat" I mean I ordered an omelette and forgot to say "egg whites only please," and I ordered a bubble tea and forgot to say "green tea only please."  But I'm not gonna harp on it.  Life's too short. And I stuck to the plan for all the other 40 meals over the last week. So I'm pretty darn proud of myself. That's a 95% success rate on the diet and a 100% on the workouts. I'll give myself an A for this week.