The Gym - Week 1

My first week of re-dieting and re-exercising was easier than I expected, and harder than I expected.  It was easy getting to the gym, but once I got there it was hard as hell to get the right kind of workout in.  I fumbled over my feet as I walked onto the gym floor, trying to decide what to do first.  I  put on this face like my shit doesn’t stink, and act  like I know what I’m doing…but I’m secretly wanting push over all the tall, thin, beautiful ladies on the stair climbers who’s asses you could bounce a quarter off of.

I think back to when I last trained, I was going to the gym 5 days a week for an hour and a half maybe two hours at a time.  I would do a 5 minute warm-up, free-weights or machines for 40 minutes and at least a 40 minute cardio workout.  Ok then, I think to myself. So I hop on the treadmill, bump it up to a 14 incline at 2.3 speed.  After all, that’s what I used to do for 40 minutes.  I could handle this.  Before the treadmill even inclines to the top, my feet are kicking each other and as I strained to catch myself from falling off completely, I accidentally knocked my water bottle off the machine and it flies behind me into an elliptical.  Well, shit.

I finally made it through 5 minutes and decided to work on my upper body on the free weights.  I soon discover that not only because I haven’t done this in 3 months, the fact that I started an all protein-no carb-detox-diet, I’m only pushing 2/3rds the weight I used to.  How much time does it take to lose muscle anyway?  I wonder.  I’m able to finish all my sets, but I had to do it on lighter weights.  And, by the time I was even thinking about doing cardio, my muscles were already feeling sore.

I hop on the death machine again in an attempt to do some cardio.  After all, I did it for 5 minutes already, I knew what to expect.  No tripping this time, but I convinced myself that I did enough, cut it short at 20 minutes.  Sigh.

I ended up skipping two workout days, so I only went three times last week.  It did get easier though, and today, I actually did a full workout.  I even broke out the kettlebell.

The harder part was the diet.

To shock my body into ‘health mode’, and to get rid of all the junk that’s been in my body, I did an all protein and veggie diet for the week.  By no means am I qualified to tell all of you that this is what you should be doing.  I just know based on my personal physique, this works for me.  If you want to try it, go-ahead, but it may not result in anything for you.  Below is a list that I compiled of foods that I ate:

Proteins:

• Eggs/Egg Whites
• Chicken
• Turkey (no deli meat)
• Fish
• Whey protein
• Black beans

Carbohydrates:

• Any and all vegetable EXCEPT carrots and corn

Fats:

• Almonds
• Olive oil
• Natural Peanut Butter

Drinks:

• Water
• Coffee with splenda

*NO sugar, NO breads, NO fruit

*Splenda, I can’t believe it’s not butter and Pico de Gallo were used as seasonings.

I ate 5 meals a day, which is supposed to be a healthy balance of protein, carbs and fats.  Carbs in this case being veggies.  A typical day looked like this:

• Meal 1:  2 egg/3egg white scrambled, with handful of almonds, coffee.
• Meal 2: Post workout whey protein shake/ 2 cups of edemame (soy beans), water.
• Meal 3: Tuna fish with relish and horseradish (no bread!!), green salad with oil and vinegar, water.
• Meal 4: Whey Protein shake, 1 whole small cucumber, almonds, water.
• Meal 5: Chicken with black beans and pico de gallo, almonds, water.

Besides a few cheats (I get midnight munchies BAD!) I stayed pretty much on track.  HOWEVER, I know those few cheats means that my system isn’t completely clean.  For me it’s just a matter of telling myself that I want the body more than food!

Overall, my first week back on track went better than I expected (the diet), and worse than I expected (the gym).  I ended up losing 3 lbs, which is a pretty big deal for my weight-loss history.  I NOW know what I need to work on for this second week coming up.  I need to drink more water, at least a gallon a day, and I need to GET RID OF ALL THE CHOCOLATE IN THE HOUSE.  Will I do this by eating it?  Maybe, maybe not.  After all, I want to be able to play quarters off of MY ass!