Yesterday's Workout

Well let's see, yesterday, I was so tired after the gym, I crashed.  Not a whole lot to report. I ate 4 diet blueberry cookies (400 calories) while at work, when I got home from work, I ate 6 vienna sausages (200 calories), then I went to the gym, did 50 minutes on the ellipitical.  I has everything from Michael Jackson to Rick Ross on my ipod, so getting through those 50 minutes was a breeze.  When I finished, I burned 550 calories.  My weight training involved 3 sets of 15reps of bench press, 3 sets of 15 reps of butterfly press, 3 sets of 15 reps of pullovers, 3 sets of 15 reps of pulldowns, and 3 sets of 15 reps on dips (assisted).  So, all in all, I was in the gym for about 2 hours last night.  Chest and Triceps day is a relatively easy day for me,  Today will be long because it is back, bicep, and shoulder day.  I'll probably only do the stairmaster for about 30 minutes before I hit the weights. 

My evening meal consisted of leftovers of that pasta dish I told y'all about yesterday.  (400 calories), yes, I also had a glass of wine (120 calories), and for desert, (yes I said it), I had a Klondike ice cream sandwich.  That was a mistake y'all, but I told you I'd be completely honest with you.  That was a whooping 350 unnecessary calories.  My saving grace, (if there is one) is that I didn't drink any calories except for the wine.  I figure if I'm going to enjoy calories, at least let it be something I can chew up!  My total intake for the day was 1470, but I burned 550 in the gym, so, as far as my body is concerned, it received 920 calories. Not too bad. Oh, I wanted to share this calorie counter I found online.  The site is www.SparkPeople.com.  I find it really helpful if I'm trying to gauge my caloric intake for the day.  I guess I did okay except for that Klondike bar, but MAN, it was some kinda good! I ain't mad!  I'll holla at y'all later on today. Wish me luck on today's workout! 

Dinner

Okay, so it is 8:26pm, Monday night, and I know, it is way too late to be eating right now.  Remember that ole saying your mamma use to say, "Do as I say, not as I do!?" I guess you can say the same principle applies here.  1st thing I'm doing wrong is eating carbs this late at night...but, I've only had 60 grams of carbs all day.  That's relatively low.  I'm not sure what the average daily carbohydrate intake should be, but I'll find out for y'all.  My guess is that it will vary depending on the individual...anywho. First rule of thumb, if you must have those pesty carbs (and sugar), try to eat it early.  (Before 3pm).  Number 2...I've just consumed 120 unnecessary calories by drinking this 8 oz. glass of wine! Remember my discussion about sacrifice? Well, it ain't happening with the wine! On top of everything else I've just admitted to, I missed the gym today. Doggonit! Ladies, listen to me closely, I am doing alot of things wrong this evening, but what I've done right is plan for all the wrong doing I intended to do.  Oh yeah, y'all didn't know? this was all planned!  Let's look at what I've done right.  First, my fiancé is cooking a fabulous spaghetti meal; he makes his own sauce of fresh Portobello mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, and green peppers.  Let me break it down a little further.  The sauce, 50 calories per cup, the pasta, 4oz (about 1/4 cup) is 420 calories, my glass of wine, as mentioned, 120 calories, and the 6 diet cookies (yep diet cookies)  replacing my breakfast and lunch were 500 calories.  Now remember, the key to losing weight is to consume less calories than you are currently consuming.  Everyone's caloric burn rate is different, but I can consume up to 1500 calories per day to maintain my current weight of 155. (That’s IF I do 45 minutes of cardio at least 4 days a week). Yep, that's right; I am 5'7" and 155 pounds (most people assume I'm about 20 pounds lighter) When I am losing weight, I try to consume only 1,000 per day.  Online, you all should be able to find a caloric burn rate calculator.  This is a great tool to use.  So, we know I didn't work out today, so let's do the math...I've consumed a total of 1090 calories!  Way too low, as I am not trying to lose weight.  Y'all know what that means don't ya....More Wine! Yeah! No, not really, as much as I'd like to, I have to hit the gym tomorrow morning at 5am.  Tomorrow will be a two-a-day, since I missed weight training today.  I try to alternate between the two depending on what body part I'm working on.  We'll talk about that later, right now...I'm hungry! Talk to y’all tomorrow!

My Story:

In 1993, I was lost, confused, and had no idea what direction my life was going.  I was attending Norfolk State University, since 1988 (I was 18), and my parents decided they were not going to continue to spend their hard earned money for me to get my party on.  And let me tell y’all, I partied!  Anywho, needless to say, I dropped out.  My dad decided that I needed discipline, so he encouraged me to join the Army.  That didn’t pan out so hot, because I have asthma, so that idea came to an abrupt end.  Bear with me, there is a point to all of this random info.  One day my dad was looking in the classifieds section of the newspaper, and he discovered an ad by TWA recruiting flight attendants.  He said, “You like to run your mouth, this is right up your alley!” Shoot, I can’t tell y’all how excited I was at the thought of running amuck all over the world without the supervision of my parents!  I was so ready.  So, I was successful in getting through the first interview, the second interview involved me flying to St. Louis.  Now y’all know there was a catch don’t you?  Of course there was.  At the time, flight attendants were still required to meet a certain height and weight requirement.  Although, I was 5’5” at the time, and a size seven, I had to be 130 pounds to meet the requirements.  At the time, I was 147.  Now, I had two weeks to starve and run my booty off to get to that weight.  Before I continue ladies, please know that this is the absolute worst way to lose weight.  We can talk about how not receiving enough calories will actually slow down your metabolism and hinder weight loss a little later.  So, let me tell y’all, I got up every morning at 5 am, and started running.  I hated it, because I ain’t gonna lie, it was hard!  Remember, I was no fan of commitment.  Well, you can imagine how it was killing me.  But guess what?  Two things happened during those two weeks. The first thing I realized was, although I hated commitment; my determination to become a flight attendant far outweighed my disdain for it.  The energy I used to foster thoughts of what I didn’t want to do was replaced by my desire of what I wanted down the road.  Sure it required sacrifice, determination, and commitment, but it was worth it.  The second thing I discovered was my runs became easier. What was once a grueling activity, turned into a habit, one of which I looked forward to daily.  I didn’t even consider the commitment aspect of having to get up and run my little 1.5 miles; it became something I didn’t even think about.  Kind of like brushing your teeth every morning, you don’t really think about it, you just do it.  This is where my journey began.  Do I eat junk food? Yes, I still do; in fact, I don’t even have the discipline to allow myself one cheat day a week.  To be honest, I have junk (in moderation) at least 3-4 days out of the week.  Here’s the catch ya’ll, if you do it, you have to burn it off.  Cardio exercises by way of cycling, brisk walking, elliptical and the stair master is the punishment you’ll have to endure to keep that stuff from metabolizing into fat.  Sugar and carbohydrates can be the devil if you allow it to be; but, you have the power to kill that demon with determination.   Now let me be honest with you ladies, if you eat junk, your workouts are going to be junky; making it that much harder to burn off that junk food you’ve consumed.  Trust me; this was a hard lessoned learned.  At 41, although, I know this to be true, I sometimes cave into the temptation of having to have that 300 calorie snickers bar.  I wouldn’t be honest with you if I didn’t admit that as soon as I’ve taken my last bite, I want to go upside my own head for making such a bad choice.  Not only am I going to have to torture myself with vigorous cardio work for at least 45 minutes, but because I had that candy bar instead of an apple, those 45 minutes ain’t gonna be nice.  So there you go, junk food, (especially chocolate) is my vice. But you know what? We are in this thing together.  I am anxious to learn from you, and I’m happy to share all that I’ve learned on my journey to achieving a healthy lifestyle.  I am open to all suggestions, constructive criticism, thoughts, questions, concerns, or anything you may want to share.  I’ve created this blog a forum for me to document and share my daily activities regarding health, fitness, and life as well as another place for us to commune as sisters.  This lifestyle is a never ending journey, but with encouragement and support, it doesn’t have to be a difficult.    Again, I am no expert, so I won’t always be able to give you expert advice, but what I can offer is honest information on what I’ve learned along the way.  I hope to hear from you all soon.  Stay beautiful!