Showing myself some tough love....

In 2016, I'm going to show myself some tough love. This year, Superman has helped me with nutrition several times, yet none of my weight loss has stuck. Superman gave me calorie levels, and told me when to eat carbs...but I need more to work with. I need help with the numbers. "Mamacita" is a figure competitor, and one of my gym friends. She's going to help me figure out macros for burning fat, and teach me how to spread everything out over my day.

The first week of the year, Superman is going to measure my body fat with calipers. My scale shows about 48%, and my handheld device shows about 40%. I'm prepared for calipers to show similar levels. If they do, I will need to lose about 10-15 percentage points off my body fat to be in the normal range. I believe if I hit 25-30% body fat, my muscle definition will be visable. That has been my goal for years.

I'm not 100% sure that I am going to be able to successfully do a pull up in a few weeks. No matter what, an attempt will be made before the end of the year. And I plan to continue doing my 2x weekly upper body workouts.  I like how it feels, and I've been slowly making gains in several lifts.

Too big of a goal?

I'm hoping that "operation pull up" does not end up being a failure. I'm worried it will be. I'm 6 weeks in to my 12 week plan, and don't feel near strong enough.

I'm working back and shoulders 2x a week, once on my own, and once with Superman. I'm concentrating on lats, delts and mid back. Yesterday I tried to see how far I could pull myself up, and it didnt feel like I got up more than a few inches :(

Operation pull up

I can't do an unassisted pull up 😭 I've been trying for over 2 years now. But one of my very few goals for this year is to do one.

Back my first year at the gym, the year  I met JC, I tried to do a pull up on the monkey bars at the local park. I got myself up about half an inch. That's when I started doing assisted pull ups. I've made progress on them--from needing 120lbs or more of assist, down to 95 lbs of assist.

I read a lot of fitness articles, and have my Personal Trainer textbook too. Pretty much everything I've read says it's a good idea to work your weaker areas 2x a week. Superman and I pretty much always do legs on Tuesday and upper body on Thursday. So this week I started doing shoulders, delts, and lats on my own on Monday. Today (Thursday ) Superman will do more upper body and back stuff with me. I've got basically until Christmas to get strong enough to do this. I'll be happy with one pull up, but I would love to be able to do several more.

Sometimes I forget...

Sometimes I forget that I'm not 230lbs anymore. Several times in the last month I have found myself making accommodations for the weight I no longer carry.

A few weeks ago Superman had me doing something on the weight bench. I sat on the edge...then immediately moved more towards the middle.  I was afraid I was going to flip it by putting too much weight too close to the end. Just yesterday he had me standing on a plastic step doing deadlifts. I found myself scooting back...because I was afraid I was going to flip it!

Superman competed in his second bodybuilding competition a few days ago. He didn't place, but it wasn't a drug tested competition, and several of the guys he lost to had obvious signs of steroid use. He's content with what he brought to the stage though, and I couldn't be more proud of him. He looked amazing!! His cheering section got to hang out with his parents again this year. Yesterday he told me that his mom had commented to him that she could see the changes in my physique from last year!

German volume training

,,Last week Superman got the brilliant idea to test this on me. It was...interesting.

GVT is a training method where you pick a few compound exercises, and you do 10 sets of 10 repetitions of them. The weight stays kind of light, but 100 reps is brutal.

Last week we did bench press (75lbs) and deadlifts (135lbs). The first 4-6 sets were relatively easy. By the 7th set of each, I was struggling. On the deads, I had to pause between reps several times per set. On the bench, he made me rack briefly after the 6th or 7th rep. My arms were so shaky when we were done! The next morning I woke up at 4 am to pee...and realized I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. It hurt to breathe, my  shoulders and entire back was tight. It took until Monday for everything to loosen up!

He didn't call it GVT, but Tuesday we kinda did it for legs. He gleefully announced that we were doing 10 kinds of squats. That's right kids, an entire hour of nothing but squats. Bodyweight, sissy squats (totally NOT for sissies), dumbbell squats, squat machine, front squats on the machine, barbell squats, barbell squats with bands/kettle bells dangling, front squats, box squats...and jump squats. Wednesday morning my quads were tight, but not horrible. Thursday morning...OMG!

Yesterday he decided to do a modified GVT round 2. We started with shoulder press, biceps curls and close grip smith machine push ups (5 sets of 10 of each exercise). Then we did triceps push downs, concentration curls, and rear delt raises (5 sets of 10 of each exercise). My arms weren't as shaky afterwards. Hopefully that means I won't be too sore this weekend...

Rite of passage...

At my gym, on the patio, are 2 huge tractor tires. As kind of a rite of passage, the "big boys" like to go out and flip it to prove how strong they are (and impress the girls 😉 ). Since I am one of the stronger females that Superman trains, last year we attempted tire flips on numerous occasions. I needed help from him, but I did it.

This year, we intended to try it again as soon as the weather was warm enough, but before we could try, I developed severe tendinitis in my left elbow. It took 4 months, including a month of physical therapy, to get back to 100%. Just last weekend I texted him and told him I thought it would be safe to try some of the things we have avoided.

So Tuesday was leg and self defense day. He fried my legs with squats, lunges, adductor/abductor, etc then we went out on the patio for some punching and kicking. Then he decided we could try the tire. The first attempt was a true struggle, but he talked me through it, and I'm pretty sure he helped me a little. The second time, I got part way up, and dropped it.  The third time, I struggled, I fought...and I did it!!!

On Monday I want to try again.

Support...

The other day Superman said something, and I've been thinking about it. We were talking about diet since him, and his training partner K are both on strict cutting diets. He said it's a little easier, and sucks a little less, when you know your friends are "suffering" through it too. You know, 'cause misery loves company 😁.

So I've decided to do 2-3 more continous  rounds of 21DF, and not stop til his competition in late September.  I know I won't follow plan 100%, but I'm sure I can manage 80% of the time. That will still allow for coffee with JC and chocolate to help me through rough times at work (someone will DIE if I completely cut out chocolate and alcohol).

If I can lose 1 pound a week for the next 9 weeks, I will officially be the lightest I have been since possibly before I got pregnant with DS2. And only about 15 lbs away from the obese/overweight line. It would be so awesome to finally hit the overweight BMI after all these years.