My Abventure

Ugh I am so annoyed and frustrated!  Can you tell?  I have done more cardio than I have in months.  I have stuck to the Abs Diet everyday except for cheat day Sunday.  And yet, I weigh more than I did compared to when I started!  I don’t understand!  The only thing I can think of is maybe the portions I am eating are too big.  It’s either that, or… it’s muscle?  I AM climbing a lot of hills, so maybe I’m building muscle in my legs.  I sure don’t think I look like I weigh 137lbs.  Man is it frustrating though.  I biked 20 miles today, so hopefully it neutralized my cheat day.  I didn’t even want to take a cheat day because I haven’t seen results.  But I can’t not have one because otherwise I’ll go insane!  I was craving these yummy garlic rolls all week and I finally got them.  It was so worth it.  But tomorrow, I am back on the Abs Diet and watching my portions.  The 52DC is in a couple weeks!  So hopefully that will help with my progress as well.  I will be out of town for a week when it starts, so I am going to have to count snowboarding as one of my cardio workouts.  Snowboarding is TOUGH!  I tried following the workout plan in the Abs Diet book, and I only did like 3 days of cardio (which is right) but only one day of weight training!  It was hard to do anymore with my schedule.  So I’m going to have to be careful when I set my goals.  Before I started to attempt the workout plan, I thought it would be a piece of cake to strength train 3 times a week, and cardio 3 times a week.  But it is so not a piece of cake.  I will try again this week.  I should start on Monday, but since I did a 20 mile bike ride today (Sunday) I’m starting on Sunday this week.  Now all I have to do is 3 days of weight training, and 2 days of cardio.  Awesome.  I should be able to do that, but I guess we’ll soon find out.

I am so happy!  I worked out enough today to the point where I felt a little nauseous.  That probably means I exerted myself enough and didn’t skimp on the workout.  First I took a walk up and down the steep streets for 5 to 10 minutes.  Then, I continued to walk to this AWESOME steep sand hill that is just a few blocks away from my house.  A lot of athletes train there, except they run up and down it like 5 times, and I’m dying just walking up it once.  So I did that today.  At the top, you can either take these stairs down, or go back down the sand hill.  I took the stairs, then walked back up the stairs, then walked home.  It felt like a great cardio exercise!  And the great thing about it, is if 1 time up the hill gets easy, then do it twice.  And it’s free.  And another great thing is I don’t think it ever gets easy cause you can always go faster.

Then I went to the gym a little later and did abs and circuit training… basically I’m following pages 171-173 of The Abs Diet.  I never realized there were 5 different sections to the abdominals until I read this book.  Geez no wonder I’ve had a fat stomach my whole life.  Knowledge is power!!  So I worked all 5 sections tonight, twice.  Then I went on to do the circuit training, and I almost did everything once (I was supposed to do it twice) but then I almost threw up.  So I was excited about that because I knew it probably meant go home and have a smoothie.  So I did.  And I just finished it.  YUM.

I put nonfat plain yogurt, banana, chocolate ISOTOPE whey protein powder, lowfat milk, almond slivers, a bit of honey, fiber one cereal, blueberries, peanut butter (hopefully I don’t die), and ice.  It was goooood.

Here’s the stomach I want:

Ahhhh, what to write in the very first blog….

OBJECTIVE

I am 5′6″ and 136.2 lbs.  I have been obsessed with toned abs for years, but I’ve never had them.  I came very close once, but then I went on vacation and that screwed everything up.  The real culprit that prohibited me from achieving my abdominal desires has been alcohol.  Now that I’ve decided never to drink again (2 months sober, yay!) I believe now is the time to work hard and reap the rewards of sexy abs.

A LITTLE ABOUT WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING 

I’ve been on The Abs Diet for 3 days, and I really like it.  Luckily, I LOVE to cook, so I went grocery shopping and bought a bunch of the ingredients it calls for in the book.  I went ahead and prepared all the food I bought, and put it all in tupperware in my fridge.  

It says in The Abs Diet book that I don’t have to do any of the given exercise suggestions for the first 2 weeks in order to become acclimated to the diet plan, but I’ve begun walking every morning anyway.  I live in an area where the streets are steep inclines, so I’ve been walking up and down these streets for 20-30 minutes a day.   

I also went to a Yoga class yesterday (Saturday).

GOALS

2 weeks from the time I started The Abs Diet will be January 30th, which in turn is a little less than 2 weeks from the 52DC.  So between January 30th and February 11th, I will work on getting accustomed to the given exercise plans found in the book.  The book’s workout suggestions will be my goals for the 52DC.

I’ve decided to rest from exercise on Sundays, and this will be the day I get to have my cheat meal.  However, I am not going to have a cheat meal until I’ve been on the diet for at least a whole week. 

I plan on taking a Yoga class every Saturday (or once a week) starting now until forever.  This will be one of my personal goals for the 52DC. 

I think I want to be 115lbs… but as I’m reading and learning more, muscle weighs more than fat.  So I’ll be happy either being 115lbs or a Size 2… whichever comes first.

Hopefully this blog will keep my Size 6 arse in check. 

For the record, here are my BEFORE pictures: