Stay on track...toe the line...

With an extra day to prepare for my week I went into today much more prepared than usual. I ended up cooking quite a few things yesterday. This is what happened in the Kitchen d' Erin:
* Baked yams
* Jamie Eason's Chicken Meatloaf Muffins
* Spicy Couscous Summer Salad (with brown rice couscous)
* Spicy Broiled Shrimp
* Roasted kabocha (patiently waiting for my protein powder to arrive so I can make some kabocha protein waffles)

Hmmm...it seemed like I made more than that. I need my protein powder! I have 2 different protein powders on their way and neither of them have arrived. It's too bad I like MGN's protein powder because it always shocks me how SSLLLLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWW they are at getting orders out. Ugh! Oh well. I should have ordered it two weeks in advance. It's my own fault!

Got up this morning nice and early and headed to the gym for my 20 minutes of HIIT on the spin bike. OY! I'm not used to that workout. It was HARD but felt really great to really just kill it with each interval. TOUGH though, that is for sure. I did kind of random intervals. This is what I did:

30 seconds push – 60 seconds recover

40 seconds push – 50 seconds recover

50 seconds push – 40 seconds recover

30 seconds push – 60 seconds recover

60 seconds push – 60 seconds recover

60 seconds push – 60 seconds recover

60 seconds push – 60 seconds recover

60 seconds push – 60 seconds recover

60 seconds push – 30 seconds recover

50 seconds push – 40 seconds recover

40 seconds push – 50 seconds recover

30 seconds push 

I did a little cooldown basically so I could breathe again and then did a nice long stretch. LOVED it! Hadn't done 20 minutes of HIIT for a long time and it was really nice for a change. 

Can't wait for my workout tomorrow. Hammies and glutes but taking it easy. I'm still healing so I'm not going to push a lot of weight and just really concentrate on form. Wish me luck. 

Hope your short week is off to a great start! Mine is! GOODNIGHT!

LOVE having a day off!

Hope you're all enjoying your weekend still (if you have a 3-day) and if not then I hope you had a good weekend! I had a great weekend! I'm actually headed into the not-so-fun part of my weekend. I used to work first, play later. But I don't seem to be very good at that so this weekend I played first so guess what? Yep, I have to work later, meaning NOW!

I have much packing/organizing/throwing away/decluttering to do before the floors get redone next week. Ooh! It's next week I just realized. Yep! I've got a LOT to do! So it's off to work I go.

I have pictures from my weekend that I'll post later. On Saturday I celebrated Memorial Day with a hamburger of course. And it was super duper delicious! OMG! I got a fantastic Groupon deal and tried a new place, Steingarten LA. They're beef is grass-fed, no hormones or antibiotics and I think it was possibly the best burger I've EVER had. And I've had a lot of burgers in my life. I ordered mine with brie and bacon. I mean, how can you go wrong there, huh? I don't think you can. Oh, and it had some roasted garlic sauce on it as well. Mighty mighty tasty indeed! And of course I had fries. My BF and I each ordered different fries - sweet potato (yam) for me and parmesan fries for him. To die for! I love my fries! And they had this fantastic "curry ketchup" that was simply amazing, particularly on the yam fries. Yummy!!!!!

I was smart to plan the day that way though. We had a track workout in the morning that was really great. And then lunch and then we went to Greystone Mansion and walked around the park. Although the mansion is closed for restoration the grounds are open and they're beautiful and it's incredibly peaceful with great views of the city. Really great FREE find. Even free parking...YES, in Beverly Hills! It was a beautiful day and I got sunburned. Good job me! I forget that I don't have the skin I did when I was younger and just never really burned. Now I do. Well, not to mention that the ozone layer is thinner and helps you burn faster. Haha!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, I wrote all that above this morning. Now it's the afternoon and I've accomplished quite a bit and even got in a very quick (12 minutes) but VERY intense workout I found on bodyrock.tv. Where have I been? How come I didn't even know this site existed? Well, now I do and I'm on it now. I can see that there are some good and quite challenging workouts on here. I also watched Zuzana's video about "Stress Makes Me Fat". Now even though I don't know her at all and it's all new to me, clearly she is not looking "fat" to me or "pregnant" but I thought the video is good just because she's real about eating and that sometimes you eat too much and then you have to rein it in again. I like to hear that and I don't like it when "fitness" people act like they never fall off the wagon. I think it's human nature so I liked that she talked about that and then said that when that happens she just cuts back on her intake and starts from there. It's good that she doesn't beat herself up about it. Very refreshing indeed!

That's about it for now. A few more hours of this holiday and then it's back to reality...but for now I get to relax...love it!

Yes...Hello Friday! I made it!!!

Happy Friday to ya!!! I am sooo sore in my upper chest that it hurts to take a deep breath! Can we talk about how quickly your muscles atrophy and you lose strength when you don't work out? I noticed that today for sure. As you can see from my workout yesterday I shouldn't be as sore as I am but I am! What can I say?

My workout yesterday:
Pushups off dumbbells 3x12
Inverted Row 3x10 (6 straight legs, 4 bent)
DB Shoulder Press 3x10 25#
Smith Machine Squats 3x10 50#
Single Straightleg Deadlift 3x8 each side 15#
Glute Bridges 3x20 bodyweight only
Planks 3x60 sec
Tabata - 2 rounds - 20 seconds KILLIN' IT and 10 seconds rest
1) Speed Squats (I went deeper than Nick does and not up on my toes - personal preference)
2) Burpees
3) Mountain Climbers
4) Speed Skips

I stole borrowed the tabata workout from Nick Tumminello in this article here! I LOVE it! Here's the video link too.

At any rate, I'm clearly out of shape. That's okay though because I was slightly injured. All good now. Getting back on track. Hey! I'm sitting here enjoying my afternoon protein shake. Hey! How come I never thought of mixing chocolate protein powder and almond butter? It's DIVINE! Try it...you'll like it. Of course I use raw almond butter. I don't like the roasted.

I'm so happy the weekend's here. Can't wait to just chill, unwind, relax. It should be a great long weekend. I get to spend some time with my boyfriend, some friends and myself. Those are some great people right there! Yep, indeed!

I also found out about this "your 100 gratitudes" idea today and I'm going to start on it this weekend. It definitely sounds like an exercise I should definitely do. I like the idea to write not only the WHAT but the WHY for each of the 100. I think it's going to be good for me.

That about sums it up for me. Hope you all have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I know I will.

FINALLY! United with my protein shake!!

So today I wasn't supposed to be at work all day but I was there much longer than I was planning on being. Lucky for me I was quite well prepared with food. But the one thing I didn't have and really wanted was my protein shake. I had the powder but I wanted it all blended and "fancy" so I had to wait till I got home. Well, what normally takes only about 10 minutes to get home ended up taking me about 30. LOVE road construction. It's soooo fantastic! But I did eventually get home and the shake was all the better for my waiting. Mmmmm...so tasty! I LOVED it. I ended up having a "mocha" shake with 1 cup almond milk, a little less than 1 tablespoon Dandy Blend, 1 scoop chocolate protein powder, 10 ice cubes. YUM!!!!!

For those of you that don't know about Dandy Blend, well let me tell you. It's a great substitute if for some reason you have to quit drinking coffee. It tastes very similar to it but also has other health benefits. Check out the site and you'll see what it has to offer. It's kind of spendy but it lasts a while and it's nice for a change or when you want that coffee taste late in the day without the caffeine.

Food was on point today and I experienced some hunger. I guess that's what happens when you taper your calories, huh? Yeah, I think so. My plan is still not fully configured but I have a general idea and I'll get it more configured by the end of the week. In the meantime I'm eating veggies when I'm hungry so "good job" me! Feeling better already just having acknowledged my issue (general fluffiness).

Goodnight y'all. Tomorrow's another day. Big things and big dreams! That's what it's all about. Dream BIG....ANYTHING is possible!

OH...WHAT?!? I can't eat as much as I want?

Wha...wha...wha...what?!? Oh! I see! When you've cut down on your workouts due to injury you can't actually continue to plow through food at the same rate you did before! Got it! Yes, I'm feeling rather fluffy today. Clothes are a little too tight. Gotta make a change but where to start?

In some ways I feel like I should just eat about half the food I normally do and I'll be just fine because I honestly believe that's about how many calories I'm burning. I did work out yesterday though and also today but I'm so lacking on any cardio (meaning HIIT). Maybe I should go for a walk. Hmmm...good idea. I just want to move, ya know! But beyond that, my food/nutrition is off...way off! Ugh! I just feel like I'm really struggling. I was already having a hard time with post-comp food and "limiting" myself, etc. but now with an injury it's worse. I actually did pretty well with my food last week but still felt I was eating too much. I must come up with a plan.

Okay, it's done then. Tonight I write up a plan and STICK WITH IT! I'll give myself 2 refuel meals in the week just to be realistic. I don't HAVE to take them but they're there if I need to! Lower my food intake and if I'm hungry then it's veggies. Yep, all the veggies I want!!!! So anytime I reach for something to eat, it's going to be a vegetable. Lucky for me my BF bought me a BUNCH of kabocha. I love that stuff like it's my BFF. Hahaha! It's coming into season again. There's a time during winter when kabocha tastes really starchy and not so sweet but that is not the way it is right now so celebrate with me. Here's to KABOCHA!! Yay for kabocha!

After I create my plan I may or may not post it but I'll let you know how I'm doing even if I don't plan it. I have a couple of crazy weeks coming up since I'm having my floors going from carpet to hardwood. Basically it's like I'm moving. Yeah...super fun! Except NOT! Quite the opposite. But this is such a good case of "careful what you wish for". Not that long ago I was telling my friend that I needed to pretend that I was moving so I would get rid of all the unnecessary items I have and really simplify my home. And then look! I have to do just that...pretend I'm moving. I'm glad though. I already took a car full of stuff to Goodwill. I'm sure there will be many more trips there before this process is finished. It's going to be great though. Nice new floors and super clean home. Can't wait! YAHOO!!

So I definitely have to have a plan and definitely need to do some advanced meal prep or I'm going to become the Goodyear Blimp and we just can't have that now, can we?

So new plan, new mindset, new floors, new goals...WOW! New new new! Awesome. I feel like it's the beginning of something huge for me. You know how that feels? FANTASTIC, isn't it?

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." ~Goethe


"What the caterpillar calls the end the rest of the world calls a butterfly." ~Lao Tzu

I took my knee out for a test drive today.

And it did fairly well. I did just body weight glutes and hammies. There were a couple of things I did that felt a little weird. And I was going to do step ups but I think there is something about that exercise that I'm not doing right. I don't think my knee tracks over my foot. I actually think that's how I originally hurt it but then I forgot about it until today. I'm pretty sure that was the original injury. See...the good thing about getting older is your memory isn't as good so you can't really remember why/how/when you hurt yourself originally! Isn't that awesome?!? LOL!

Meals today:
1) Pre-workout: Matcha shake w/ 1 scoop protein powder and 1/4 cup oats; also glutamine and BCAAs
2) Post-workout: 1/2 cup Voskos Greek yogurt w/ 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder, 1 t instant decaf coffee, 2 T pecans, 1/2 packet stevia, 1/4 cup oatmeal - yummy wow-wow!
3) 3 egg whites, 2 eggs (yeah, I was having an egg-cracking problem - don't ask), 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/2 apple w/ 1 T peanut butter
4)1 slice of Iris's turkey/chard roll-up (very yummy with homemade tomato sauce...yum!), 1/2 tilapia fillet, 1/2 cup brown rice
5)1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 apple
6) Half batch of Protein Oatmeal Cookies!!!! WAHOO!!! SOOOOOOO TASTY!!!
7) Still to come...mighty green smoothie (I need some veggies!)

Why the defeated mindset? Does it ever surprise you how quickly you can go from being highly motivated to being quite defeated? Are we so used to being told that we can't do something that after 40+ years you actually believe you can't? If you read my post from yesterday you know I'm highly motivated for 2 major...MAJOR goals. Well, in researching one of them already today, I started asking myself: What am I doing? I can't do that. I've never been good at that. Who am I kidding? But I guess the good thing is that I didn't let that stop me. I decided that plenty of other people have done it so why not me? Yes it may be harder for me and yes, it will be a challenge. But what is life if not for challenge? So I will forge ahead and go with my general plan and see what happens. I can only shoot for my dream and you never know what might happen along the way!  As long as I'm headed in the right direction then I'm doing something. And as long as I'm going in the direction with the best of my abilities and pushing myself past what I think is possible then I'm succeeding. That's all there is to it.

Just wrote up the Protein Oatmeal Cookie recipe. Oh, these are good...really really good. I LOVE them! I might eat them every day for every meal! Okay...kidding! Just kidding! But they are THAT good! I also made some of my Orange Cranberry Cereal Bars. Yep! Danger! Watch out! Tasty treats all around me. Can I be in control? Yes, yes I can!

Hope your week is off to a great start! Here's to another great week and moving closer and closer to those goals we keep setting for ourselves! YES! We've got this, right? RIGHT!

Watch out world! Here I come!

Yesterday was my first day back in the gym in over a week. So Erin, you might be asking, how did it feel? And the answer, my friends, is GREAT! It felt great to be back in the gym. I had to control myself and not overdo it. It just felt good to be in the zone, make my body do what it can do. To understand that I have control over how and what I want to improve and how I will be getting there.

I also just finished reading Apolo's book Zero Regrets (in just 3 days!) and I'm now highly motivated. I know what I want and I'm going to go get it! I will do all I can to become the person I really want to be. I have more direction now than I have in a long time. Probably since I decided I would do a figure competition, about 19 months ago. I have two very main goals in mind and I have to do some research to see how exactly to make sure those come to fruition. One may not be possible and I probably won't know for for sure until the end of this year. But the other one is definitely possible and it's just a matter of finding the path that will get me to that destination. It's just awesome! I feel the fire in my belly and I can't wait to get started. I'm sorry not to share my goals with you but I don't want outside opinions to douse my inner fire. I'm sure you all understand. But believe me, as my dreams/goals shape into realities you will most certainly be made aware of them and learn my battles/struggles and accomplishments/successes along the way.

As I was reading the book I kept thinking about why recently I haven't had the motivation that I had during my contest prep and then it became abundantly clear to me that I didn't have big enough goals for myself. I didn't have anything that was scaring the hell out of me and exciting me at the same time. I think without that fear that I, personally, don't have the motivation necessary. I want to be able to say that I have done all I can to reach my goals no matter what. I'm sure I will trip, stumble, and fall but I'll get up again, learn many things along the way about myself, others and life in general. I have fear of my goals and that is PERFECT! I can't imagine a better way to live. It's the reason I had a highly successful contest prep. It didn't matter how I placed, my goal was to get to the stage and do my first figure competition ever at the age of 43. My goal was to push myself physically into a state I never had before. I now know that if I can do that at 43 there are many more things I can do. Absolutely! No doubt about it!

As I get older, I tend to limit myself thinking that I can't start a career path at this age! That's insane. What if it doesn't work? What if I don't succeed? What about how much older I'll be if I go to school or spend that time getting a certification, education? I'll be how old?!? Nearing 50? And just starting a new career? What am I thinking? And what about the money? How is THAT going to work out? But not any more! Now I must think that I will and can and I have to find the path to do it. So with all that fuel I am going to find a way to make MY dreams come true, to make MY life the absolute best I can make it so that when I get to the end of my life I can say that I did the best I could. I made the best life possible for ME with the tools I had and the will only I possess! It's up to me. No more sitting on my laurels. It's MY TIME!!!

So like I titled this post, watch out world because here I come! The new and improved Erin! The person I was destined to be is starting to take shape right now...right here! You'll see and hopefully I will only serve as inspiration to those that want to chase their dreams regardless of their age!

“The age of a woman doesn't mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.” 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.” 

~Mark Twain

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” ~Henry Ford

WOOHOO! 40 Followers! THANK YOU!

 

I just want to say thank you to all my followers and those of you that regularly read my blog. I love writing it and I'm glad some people out there find it interesting enough to read it on a regular basis! You are all awesome in my book!!

So, the lowdown....I did not go to the gym. My knee is almost back to normal so that's great! I slept really well last night so that's also great. I woke up feeling refreshed, knee felt pretty good, I could breathe (though I was sneezing a lot - allergies!). It was a good Friday morning for me. I will be hitting the gym tomorrow for the first time in over a week. Sooooo excited! Can't wait!

Yesterday I got my book I ordered the other day: Apolo Anton Ohno's Zero Regrets and I have to say that it is fantastic so far. It's highly motivating and helps me understand that I really need to live my  life with zero regrets. Go at everything in my life 100%. Decide what to do and then do the darn thing! That's it. There is no other way. LOVING this book BIG TIME! Wish I could read faster! Hee hee! He may not be for everyone but I find it HIGHLY motivating!

I'm ready for the weekend and I think it's going to be great. I have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks and beyond so I better get it started early tomorrow! Have a great day and an even better weekend!

“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” ~Vince Lombardi

Come on motivation!!! Come on!!!!

I will admit that it's very hard to stay motivated to eat right when you're not working out. You don't need to be fueled in the same way. But when you're not working out you have to watch what you eat even more!! So I've been good. I haven't strayed much at all! Actually I've pretty much only eaten on my plan except for 2 Swiss truffles (one dark, one milk) fresh from Sprüngli in Switzerland brought back by a friend!

Okay, I'm not even a huge chocolate person but I went to this confectionery in Zurich when I was there and their truffles are ridiculous! Actually anything dairy in Switzerland is ridiculously good!!! I had their pretzel bread with butter when I was there. Fuggedaboudit! Soooo tasty! And also I had some fondue there (again not really a cheese person either) that knocked my socks off. I will NEVER eat fondue in America again! Nothing can compare. Hmmm....I think I need to get back there ASAP! Oh! And let's not forget about their bratwurst! Ridiculous! Memories...


So the truffles were a temptation I couldn't resist just because it's not every day that someone goes to Switzerland, ya know! The tortilla chips that have been staring at me all week are something I have resisted. Yes! Me! The CHIP FREAK!!!! They ARE my weakness. Look at them...

Fresh tortilla chips

But I resisted so I'm quite proud of myself. Quite...thank you very much!! LOL!

Okay, moving on from all that ridiculousness! I did make some oatmeal protein cookies yesterday but they were too dry. Don't worry. I'm going to perfect the recipe and we will be able to enjoy our oatmeal cookies soon enough! Yes! You will enjoy. They're close to perfect already!

I finished off my day of food with Broiled Tilapia and Crunch A Munch salad! I will never bore of that delicious meal! It's just the best and my FAVORITE healthy meal!

I didn't sleep well at all last night. I just felt like I was awake more than I was asleep! That drives me crazy and I'm always glad when the night's over in that case. Tonight it will be early to bed. Well, not too early because we all know what happens when I do that. Still undecided if I'll be working out tomorrow morning or rest one more day and then start up on Saturday. Going back into working out is always tricky for me because I enjoy it so much that I tend to overdo it. So I think it would be good to start out with shoulders, tris and abs tomorrow and then Saturday I can do some "easier" lower body workout. I have no desire to re-injure my knee so I have to be very cognizant of what I'm doing with my workouts whatever I end up doing. I'll keep you posted.

Hope everyone is having a good Thursday. Friday's almost here...it's peeking 'round the corner...

Ibuprofen makes me hungry? Weird...(VERY random post!)

This whole resting thing is one thing. But to be so hungry when I'm not working out is...ODD! Very odd indeed. I'm proud of myself for taking my rest in stride. It's mentally kind of challenging but it's good for my body I suppose.

My knee isn't hurting now which is good. It just feels a little tweaky still. I'm down to 1 ibuprofen 2 times a day. Not bad. I'm still resting it until Friday (I think). When I say rest, I mean I'm resting my knee and my whole body. I feel all right about that. I mean RESTING...nothing.

I found, for me, a GREAT treat! Yummy! It's this agar agar pudding recipe and I made it into Matcha Green Tea Pudding this morning. OMG! DELISH! I LOVE my matcha and this was just another way to love it! So tasty!

Matcha Protein Pudding Recipe

Basic agar agar "jelly" from this recipe - 1 1/3 cups almond milk and 3 heaping teaspoons agar agar flakes

Once set, add in whatever you want. Here's my matcha measurements:

1/2 batch of agar agar "jelly"

1/4 - 1/2 cup almond milk

1 T matcha green tea powder 

1 scoop protein powder

Blend all together with immersion blender or in blender or food processor. 

To be honest this didn't go at all as I thought it would and I left the stove on when I thought I had turned it off. But even with all of that, as the blogger of this recipe said, it is fail proof. It still worked like a charm. Can't WAIT to make some strawberry pudding...YUM!

Here are a couple of photos I've taken and keep forgetting to post so these are kind of random...but random is good, right? Right?

Mochi & Matcha

I had this for breakfast the other day! Brown rice mochi and matcha green tea protein shake! Oh boy! It was DELISH! And also my other breakfast time companions - Nature's Plus Source of Life liquid multivitamin and Carlson's Fish Oil. I take one tablespoon of each. I like the liquid vitamin because I can take what I need. Full dose is supposed to be two tablespoons. As for the fish oil I have 1 tablespoon in the morning. I would like to split that up during the day but I always forget if I try to do 1 teaspoon at breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition to those I take calcium, vitamin D, evening primrose oil and Celadrin daily. Find what works for you and take your vitamins and/or minerals.

Oatmeal cooking

Egg & Egg whites cooking

This is pretty much the scene on my stove each and every morning. Sometimes I switch it up but generally speaking I have egg whites and/or eggs and oatmeal. LOVE my oatmeal and the eggs help me get some veggies in since I like them better with eggs!

Yesterday's breakfast

This was a very big breakfast for me - 3 egg whites, 1 egg, 1 zucchini, 6 mushrooms, 1/2 cup oatmeal, 6 strawberries, 4 walnut halves! DELISH! I always eat my eggs first and treat my oatmeal as "dessert". GREAT way to start my day. Look at all those nutritious items! AWESOME!

I have a new best friend I think I am going to love to hate! It's THIS!!!! The RUMBLE ROLLER!!

Compact Rumble Roller

Rolling the ol' IT Band with this? Yes, pain is what it would be called. Owwwww!!! But on the neck is sheer bliss. The upper back? Again some pretty good pain. The glutes feel good as do the adductors. And on the latissimus? SHOOT ME! SOOOOO painful! Since that is an area that is always super tight on me, rolling on it with this torture device roller is super duper painful!!!


I must go make my dessert now. Hmmm...what will it be? What will it be? I must go decide and I'll let you know tomorrow! Yippee!!! Goodnight!

Resting is hard work...

Well, it is really. Since I hurt my knee last week I decided to work out upper body only. After trying ice, rolling, ibuprofen, etc. I decided what I really need to do is REST. The rolling seems to be getting things inflamed and the ice seems to stiffen things up. So I decided Friday night that I need to take on a FULL ADULT-SIZED REST. So no working out for me this week. And it's HARD. When you're used to KILLING it in the gym, it's kind of hard to just rest and recover. And it's a little depressing as well. So, here I am. A little down. I know it's temporary and I'll come back out of it but I just need to rest.

I'm smart though and bought myself a new puzzle book. I'm crazy for puzzles. LOVE them! Love deduction-type puzzles as well as word puzzles and games. I know. I'm a nut! Call me crazy! Because I WILL answer! Ha!

So since I will not be working out this week it's imperative that my nutrition is on point! So no fun little snacky meals for me this week. That's okay though. I kind of needed to get a little strict with myself anyway. Now I'm just kind of forced to do it. So lighter and lesser food this week. That's the plan. I think I do best with fish at night so I'll be doing that most nights this week. I'll have my bread twice this week ONLY. That's been my goal but I've been overdoing it. I'll put it in my plan so I can enjoy and look forward to it this week.

So I slept in this morning and ate a HUGE breakfast! It was so delish! I will post a picture later so you can see all the yumminess.
Meal 1) 3 egg whites + 1 egg with 1 zucchini and 5-6 mushrooms, 1/2 cup oatmeal with 5 strawberries and 4 walnut halves. It was so delicious!
Meal 2) 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup Voskos Greek yogurt mixed with 1/2 scoop protein powder, 2 T walnuts, cinnamon

That's it for now. More to come later! Hope your Mondays are off and running! Enjoy!!!!

“Sometimes the most urgent thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest” 

~Ashleigh Brilliant

And I thought my stair workout was hard enough!

I found this video of Apolo Anton Ohno this morning. They probably played it during the 2010 Olympics or something but I had never seen it. Let me just say...WOW! Starting at about 3:45 you'll see their "dry land" workout that's all on the stairs. Then he goes on to explain that one "set" of just a part of this workout is jumping up the stairs one step, every third step and every fifth step. And they do that 14 (that's right...FOURTEEN) times! Holy cow! They are ANIMALS, I tell you! BEASTS!!! And this is all AFTER they've been skating in circles. Oh, yes, and THEN 3 sets each of single step hops facing forward, then right leg, then left leg. A total of 45 minutes on this crazy stair workout! So motivating! If only my knee weren't jacked up, I would definitely be at the stairs in Santa Monica right this very minute! AMAZING stuff!!!!


GET IT DONE! Today's your day! I'm motivated and inspired! Hope you enjoy!

Oh, Blogger, how I missed thee!

I had started writing a great post yesterday and then Blogger messed it all up. Now I don't have my post, nor any changes I made to my blog on Wednesday before they did their "scheduled maintenance". Ugh! So frustrating! So now I have no idea what I was writing about yesterday. Let's see if I can recall.

One thing I was writing about was my knee pain. NOT good. I overdid it last week and didn't listen to myself "myself" said to not work out lower body again less than 48 hours after my intense workout. I'm what they call a fool. But oh well. Lesson learned...yet again! HA! Running the stairs and having sore calves on Sunday, inline skating sprints on Tuesday, heavy glutes and hams on Thursday and glutes and hams plus some quad on Saturday = KNEE PAIN!

So here it is Friday and I've worked out twice this week - on Tuesday and today. They were both great workouts but I really can't do much with my lower body. Oh well. That's the way it goes. Rest, ice, roll baby roll!!!! And I've been doing the stretches and rolling shown in this FANTASTIC video:

Thanks to Bret Contreras for directing his followers to that video. This guy has a lot of great stuff. I can help myself with a lot of my pains, it looks like.

It's Friday and I'm ready for the weekend. Anyone else feeling unmotivated or is it just me? What is WRONG with me? Hahaha! I think I don't want to pack up my stuff to get my floors redone. It sounds like a pain in the neck! That's okay though. It must be done and in the end I will be happy about it!!!!

Early to bed, RIDICULOUSLY early to rise, makes a young girl...

healthy, wealthy, and wise? Really? I doubt it! Makes me a little loopy and nuts though! Wahoo! Hahaha! So I followed my rules and I was in bed, lights out by 9:15 at the latest. And guess what? At 3:45am I was awake! Did I fall back asleep? Uh...NO! So I got up and had a leisurely breakfast and ate a yummy shake (pumpkin pie protein shake) with some oatmeal. And I played WWF. And I read a couple of blogs. I didn't know what to do with myself while I waited for the gym to open.

Eventually I went to the gym and did a shoulder workout and finished with some tabata. It was fun and different. Never tried it before. Do any of you do it? What do you think of it? I did this one from Nick Tumminello. The difficulty for me was only 10 second rests. Very tricky. But I love the idea that you're done in just 4 minutes. I know it's not good for every workout but 2-3 times a week sounds perfect to me. And you can do any number of exercises. I know it's been around for a while but I've never tried it until now. I think it may become my new best friend.

I'm hungry today too. Not really sure why. Could it be the tabata? It is supposed to have quite the EPOC effect. Maybe? These are my meals so far. Not sure why I'm hungry. But yes, I'm eating again as I type.
1) Protein shake with 1 scoop protein, 1/8 cup pecans and 1/4 cup oatmeal
2) 4 egg whites + 1 egg, 1 zucchini, 1/2 cup oatmeal
3) 1/4 cup oatmeal, 3/4 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 small apple, 2 T walnuts
4) 1/4 cup oatmeal, 1/2 scoop protein powder, 2 T walnuts - because I'm STARVING! Haha!

We'll see what the rest of the day holds. But that's about it for right now. Ooh! I did do a new exercise for my shoulders since there were no rope attachments for my cable front raise. I used the D-handle and held that with both hands palms up. It was great. Really targeted the front delts. Fantastic!!

Legs, Hammies, and Glutes...OH MY!

So I worked out hammies and glutes on Thursday afternoon. I got an offer from a friend on Saturday to work out with her and we thought legs would be great to workout. So despite common sense I worked out my legs with her. It was a GREAT workout! But BOY OH BOY did I hurt yesterday. Hurting and exhausted. I was thinking of working out yesterday. I think I must have lost my mind when I had that thought. Ha! I'm still not even sure today is a good idea. Maybe later but I may just go for a walk/stroll later just for some fresh outdoor air.

At any rate the weekend went well. I didn't get much done but I did get to relax and got to work out and have lunch with my friend that I don't see often enough. My workouts on Thursday and Saturday pretty much made it impossible to work out on Friday and yesterday. So here I am still trying to heal and letting my muscles grow so rest, rest, rest.

It will be an early bedtime for me tonight. That's for sure. I don't have much left in the energy department so that should be pretty easy to do. I guess it would be nice of me to share my workouts. So here we go:

THURSDAY - GLUTES AND HAMMIES
Dumbbell Full Squats 52.5# 3x12
Leg Press 90# x 12, 180# x 10, 270# x 1(basically EPIC FAIL on that - too heavy) so 230# x 8
Walking Lunges w/ Barbell 60# 3x12 (each leg)
Single Leg Back Extension (glute focus of course) 3x10 each leg
Deadlift 50# x 12, 60# x 12, 70# x 12
Single Leg Hip Thrust, bodyweight only, 3x10 each leg

SATURDAY- LEGS (kind of but more hammies and glutes)
Barbell Squats 95# x 15 warm-up, 115# x 12,  135# x 10
Leg Press 90# x 12, 180# x 10, 230# x 10
Dumbbell Full Squats 50# 3x12
Leg Extensions 70# 3x12
Walking Lunges w/ Barbell 40# 3x25 total
Deadlift 50# x 12, 60# x 10, 70# x 8
Single Leg Back Extension (glute focus) 3x10 each leg

So as you see these were both very similar. And that would explain why I was so fried. Foolish you say? Why yes, I would agree.  However, it just sounded more fun than doing shoulders and tris. Not nearly as exciting. And my friend wanted to try a couple of the exercises I had mentioned. So that's what we did and we had a great time. However 2 days later and I'm still paying for it! HA!

My food was off. Surprise surprise. But I'm back on today. I'll keep you posted and will most likely log many of my meals for this week.

As I mentioned earlier I am in desperate need of sleep and rest. I think I keep waking up dehydrated so my plan for today is to make sure I get plenty of water. And my House Rules for tonight are these:
1) No TV
2) No computer
3) No WWF (Words With Friends, not World Wildlife Fund or World Wrestling Federation...hee hee)
4) No phone after 8pm
5) Reading my book is okay and preferred
6) Lights out at 9pm at the latest!

See? I run a pretty tight ship, huh? LOL! So tomorrow I should be rip roaring and raring to go! All hydrated, well rested and well fed. Yep! Tomorrow is going to be amazing. Today is going to be good. But tomorrow? Yep! AMAZING! I'm ready. Bring it! Here's to fun, laughter, amazing food, and great great workouts!

Inline Skating

Hello my little friend!

Forgot to update you all on how I fared with the allergies and my skating expedition. Well, the allergies were no problem whatsoever. Claritin is amazing! Gosh, am I becoming a doper? Haha! So, let me just say this about inline skating. I LOVE IT! And even though it's not easy I really enjoy it. When I went on Tuesday I was basically running sprints on my skates. I would set a street to skate to and then push it as hard as I could! It was awesome and TOUGH!!! But I loved it! What can I say? I love competing with me. I'm the perfect competition for myself!

So when I was finished I took off my headphones, put on my flip-flops and strolled around the beautiful neighborhood. It's so beautiful and relaxing and I made a note to do that more often. I really just don't do it often enough. I slept like a baby that night.

So is inline skating still my best friend and still the best cardio workout for me? I would say yes, definitely! I LOVE it. I love the challenge and all the muscles it works and the fact that I can "sprint" on my skates. It's fantastic! And I get to be outdoors. Yep, it's the best!

WHOLE BODY PLAN

First of all, let me just say thanks to those of you that frequently read my blog. Secondly, I definitely appreciate the comments and LOVE it when you write on my posts!! It makes me so happy! I decided I'm just going to respond to the comments from yesterday's post here since I realized in writing the responses that these were probably things that people might want to read:

Karatenurse had this to say: 

As I get closer to stepping on stage, I have started mapping out my post competition plan. So, far my plan is to have one day of cheat meals and then Monday morning I am back on clean eating. Since my trainer has me carb cycling, my new "normal" will be my medium carb days. Would something like that work for you? Since you find comfort in your comp prep diet, could you go back to it? This is my first time through, so I am really pretty clueless. Like I said, I am making a PLAN but have no idea what it is going to feel like when it is actually the week after and it's time to put my PLAN into motion! Keep posting your feelings about this! I'm reading!!

My response: Yes having a post-comp PLAN is definitely key. To be honest I was just fine for about 5-6 months following my comp and since then it has become increasingly difficult but I think I’m getting back on track. As for my prep diet, I can’t really go back to it because I’ve completely changed my workout routine so now my calorie needs have changed. I also want more fat in my diet since that is definitely something that I could feel my body was missing during contest prep. 

Meaghan wrote this: 

I just brought that topic up last night with my fiance, about eating after a competition. Saturday will be my 6th competition, but the previous years I didn't make a plan and I just ate whatever. Not right away though, I actually didn't even know what to eat because I forgot what typical people ate. But I soon remembered, but my weight bounced back. I have my wedding 2 months after my show, so I don't have an option to do that this time, nor do I want to. I am slowly going to bring foods back into my diet, but the first two weeks after my competition I will be eating my competition diet and will slowly add carbs back into meals and variety as time passes. My body is so used to a caloric deficit that if I give it too much it will store it for fat. I know what you are going through...it is hard and it is hard for people who don't compete to understand it. My only suggestion would be to make a plan/schedule...I say that because I love living off schedules and it helps me stay on track with everything in my life. Maybe it will help :)

My response: Thanks so much Meaghan! Ooh, congratulations on your impending wedding! That’s so exciting! I wonder if your carbs were missing entirely or if you were just having very few carbs. I think one of the things that is hard for me is that I was at my stage weight for basically 8 weeks or so of my contest prep. So I was at that weight for a long time so now it’s hard to remember what it feels like to be a woman with some fat on me. Still to most I’m sure I look fairly lean but you know how your mind plays tricks on you once you’ve been super lean! Having your wedding 2 months after your comp will definitely help you stay on track. Yes, having a plan/schedule will definitely help me so I’m working on that and I’ll definitely let you know what it is. Thanks for your input!

And finally Lisa had this to say:

OH Erin I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. I'm a mess with food. Okay, I'm eating better and more clean right now but I'm still lost when I don't have a plan. After my comp I told myself I'd only "cheat" for two days and then get right back on things.Yea right. My mind and body had different plans. Not being able to eat that yummy stuff for so long I binged and I binged like a champ. I didn't gain too much, 10lbs max but that's because I was still working hard at the gym. took me about a month to get it together and now I'm on track again but it's tough. I agree with how comp is so different! I'm trying to get myself to think of what I want or don't want to eat, not what I can or can't have. You know? Hey, at least we understand this about ourselves =)

My response: Lisa, hahaha…a mess with food! Yes, exactly! You know exactly how I feel! Such a good point about what you do and don’t want to eat vs. can and can’t have! Love that point. Yes, we know this. I know it’s just another challenge but for me it’s difficult. Life was much more blissful when I was just a foodie and had the girth to show for it!!! Now I have to be a little fit foodie and that’s a tough one! Thanks again for commenting!

So again, thank you all for what you write and/or say to me. I have so much support and it really helps out in this world to have that support, both virtual and actual. So...THANK YOU to each and every one of you for your continued support as I make my way through this jungle of life!

I've thought some more about what I wrote and what responses I got. The basic theme is to have a plan and I agree with that. But I want it to be a fairly loose plan and include not just my food and workouts but also things for my mind so I've come up with this. Are you ready? 

MEALS:  

5-6 meals per day or more like 3 meals and 2-3 "snacks" - Click this link for ALL the foods that I CAN eat!!

2 "refuel" meals each week to be taken whenever I'm in the mood for them - unlimited fun but watch the quantity - My refuel motto has to be this: "Enjoy every single bite but don't overdo it."

WORKOUTS:  

3-5 days per week of heavy weight training 

Ab work about 3-4 days per week added on to training days

Circuit or HIIT workout 2-3 times per week for 10-20 minutes

MIND:
Walk or stroll 3-4 times a week
Meditate 5 minutes daily
Read (for pleasure) 20 minutes or so a day
Unplug for 10 minutes a day

PREFERRED FOOD LIST

This is by no means a comprehensive list and as I think of new items (or eat them) I will be sure to add them to this list. 

PROTEINS

Chicken – mostly white meat but sometimes dark*

Turkey – again mostly white but sometimes dark*

Shrimp

Fish – tilapia is my fave of course but I also love trout!

*Salmon

Squid

Clams

Mussels

Oysters

Lean beef – steak, lean ground beef

Lean pork – pork loin chops, pork tenderloin

Protein powder

Cottage cheese

Lowfat yogurt (or nonfat but I don’t like that as much)

Tofu

Egg whites

*Whole eggs

CARBS

Brown rice

Kamut

Yams/sweet potatoes

Spelt

Oats/Oatmeal

Farro

Rice cakes

Kamut cakes

*Puffed kamut cereal

*Puffed brown rice cereal

*Crispy brown rice cereal

*Spelt flakes cereal

*Kamut flakes cereal

*Cheerios

Oat flour

Spelt flour

*Ezekiel bread

*Ezekiel tortillas

*Spelt tortillas

*Julian bread

FATS

Natural nut butters – almond, walnut, peanut, NuttZo, NuttZo PF

Raw nuts – almonds, walnuts, pecans, macadamia, hazelnut, Brazil, pinenuts

Oils – olive, macadamia, canola, flaxseed, sesame

Coconut flour

Almond meal

Flax seeds

Avocado

FRUIT – Raw 1-2 servings per day of ANY fruit – hey! They all have their benefits!

VEGETABLES – UNLIMITED

I eat any and all vegetables in unlimited quantities. I don’t eat corn or carrots too much but that’s just because I’m leery of corn after all I’ve read about how genetically altered it has become over years of trying to make it “cheap”. Carrots I’m fine with but tend to overdo it and they are higher in sugar.

OTHER ITEMS - UNLIMITED

Unsweetened almond milk

Toasted seaweed

Fresh and dried herbs

Sea salt

Black pepper

Dulse

Chili garlic sauce

Garlic

Vinegars – apple cider, white, red wine, rice, yuzu

Tea – green, matcha green tea powder, black, herbal

USE SPARINGLY

Honey

Agave

Molasses

Brown sugar

Real maple syrup

*Use less often, maybe a few times a week – it’s a control thing, meaning if I allow myself to eat more of these items I will most certainly overdo it!!

AARGH! ALLERGIES!!!!

I'm all for Spring, beautiful flowers and clear skies! It all sounds very appealing but it's killing my mojo! Not to mention my breathing and sleeping and everything else that goes with it! I have to take Claritin every day and it's warm here! But I get tired of taking Claritin because I just don't really like to take medication of any sort. So I didn't take it for the past 2 days. But today the whole "I can't breathe or think straight" thing was kind of too much for me to deal with. Thank goodness I work in an office with AC. I don't particularly care for AC normally but when my allergies are kicking my butt it's nice to come to the office and clear them out a little and then go back to my home and DIE again because of the open windows and fresh air! No, I don't have AC in my place. Well, I have a portable AC but it's not quite the same as central air, ya know!

All this to say that I really want to go inline skating today but I'm not sure I can handle it with my allergies. But I took Claritin so I'm thinking I'm just going to push my luck and see what happens. It's been wayyyyyy too long since I got to enjoy my wheeled feet! I'll let you know later if I went and if I did, how much I enjoyed it!

My food has been pretty on point so far this week. I haven't eaten anything crazy but I haven't been overly strict either. Have you noticed that I seem to be a little confused where food is concerned? I think I am. So I'm just trying to eat the right foods for ME, at the right times for ME, and in the right amounts for ME. We'll see how that pans out. I feel like I can't control my eating very well anymore. I don't understand it at all but that is how I feel. Or not that I can't control it but kind of like I have NO idea what I'm doing with my food and nutrition. I think it's time for an overhaul. There are some things I've learned about me and foods and some I already knew. I think that I really need to sit down and write a plan for ME that will really work best and let me feel the best about myself that I can. It's SO HARD to eat "normally" after doing a competition. If you've never done a competition I can't explain but if you have then you definitely understand. Let me just say that I know it would be a lot easier if I would just do another competition. But I'm not one to take the easy road. Actually I shouldn't say "easy" because that it is not but I would definitely say "simple", at least where my food is concerned. I would know exactly what I'm supposed to eat every single day for every single meal. While that's very rigid, it definitely simplifies your food and choices. Prep was easy for me in that way. Nothing to think about or question. I ate what was on my plan and that was it. SIMPLE! Enter the real world where things are NOT so black and white. I'm drowning in gray matter! Hahahaha!!! Seriously, I am. But I'm going to find my way and whatever I learn I will be happy to share with all of you!

Well, that was quite a rant now, wasn't it? So let me just say thanks. Thanks for being there for me and reading my blog so I can rant away and dump by head on the internet! Such a relief! Well, that's it! I'm off to finish up my work day and then head out to skate! Yahoo! I think I will be fine and I'm sure I'll enjoy my time. It's just the way it goes. Wheels + music + helmet = sheer happiness and bliss!

Ahhh...yes...LOVE the Santa Monica Stairs!!

Well, I'm not really sure LOVE is the word. Maybe it should be love to hate? Hahaha! I just love being outdoors and getting a great workout and sweating a lot with strangers. It's AWESOME! In case you don't live in L.A. or anywhere near it and haven't been reading my blog that long, here is a picture of what they look like.

Santa Monica Stairs

That's right! 175 steps of sheer hell bliss! I only did 6 rounds (pretty much about 1050 steps both up and down!!) since I was pretty sore from my workout on Saturday. Yep...hammies and glutes one day and stairs the next! Not so bright, right? Right! But it was a beautiful day and the stairs definitely needed to happen. So that's what I did. My calves are sore from that today. Not as painful as they are when I do 9 or 10 rounds so yippee!


As for the rest of the weekend, let's see...Saturday was a good day. I got up and got things done early, threw in some batches of laundry, did my hammies and glutes workout and then went to ALL YOU CAN EAT Korean BBQ. So I told myself before I went to not overdo it and just remain calm when all the goodness of Korean BBQ is swirling around my head. But did I take that excellent advice? Um...hmmm....NOPE! It was just too doggone good. I love Korean food. That's all there is to it. Me and Korean food...we're tight!!!!


So later we went for a stroll but still felt full for the rest of the day. I've GOT to stop doing that. NOT a good feeling. Whew! There! I said it! I put it out there so now I can't let that happen again! I just love BA (blog accountability)! It's awesome!


Ready for the workout from Saturday? Okay, here it is!


GLUTES AND HAMMIES (yet again!!!)
Dumbbell Full Squats 50# 4x12
Deadlift 95# x 12, 115# x 10, 135# x 8, 155# x 6
Leg Press 90# x 12, 140# x 10, 180# x 8, 230# x 6
Back Extension (glute focus of course), prisoner style x 12, 25# plate x 10, 8, 8
Single Leg Hip Thrust, bodyweight only, 2x10 each leg

This was my first time doing the dumbbell full squats and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM!!!! If you have not tried them then definitely give them a try. Just click on the link above to see what I'm talking about. So much fun. You just can't really cheat them because if you lean forward or backward you will fall down. GREAT exercise!

My strength seems to be increasing, huh? Yep, I may just break my arm patting myself on the back! HA! Quite proud of the numbers I'm putting up now.

Life is good. It's Monday. It's GO day! Let's get it started and show this world what we're made of! Who's with me here?!?

Nothing is worth more than this day. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe