Journey to the Stage: April 21/15

There is a special kind of crazy one needs to be to do Barre Legs from 21 Day Fix WITH weights. And I am just that special kind. After taking a few more rest days than my schedule called for (Friday was legit, Sat, Sun, Mon, were noooot) I jumped back in with gusto today.

Tuesday is normally leg day so I covered that with Barre Legs. It is actually one of favourite leg days of all and my fav workout from the 21 Day Fix. Funny since it's not even part of the original package but part of the upgrade. Trust me, it's worth it!!! If you already have 21DF, get Barre Legs. But after killing my quads with Beast Legs I decided to make it a little more Beasty.  Of course that meant adding weights. I used ankle weights for the variety of leg lifts, a 15 lb dumbbell for the sumo squats, and then 10s for the squats and lunges. Autumn really gets you with the pattern of singles, pulses, and holding.

Let's talk about this little workout buddy for a moment. My girl has been working out with me since day one really, started laying on the floor by me to crawling around me, to climbing on me, to doing it with me. Kids really do learn by doing and I like to think she is learning the right things from me. At least in this area, hahaha.











I didn't do just legs though :) I did some of my favourite. Arms. Doing arms make me feel like a warrior. RAWR.

Today's Breakdown

Workout: 21 Day Fix Barre Legs AND Body Beast Bulk Arms

Post Workout Recovery: I didn't have any today. I was eating spaghetti leftovers out of the pot right before pushing play. OOPS :P

Food: Not Bad. Not great but not horrid. But look at my yummy oatmeal. Ain't it a thing of beauty.

Additional Activity: None :/

 And that's it for today. I really need to get myself off to bed. Sleep is also very necessary for your results and progress. My coffee habit and late nights are becoming my advisories. Haha.

Rock. Lift. Love. 

Journey to the Stage: April 16/15

Hey Hey!!! Guess who got their workout done before midnight tonight!! Before 10:30 NO LESS. ME of course, lol.

How did she get it done early you ask?? Because I put the kids to bed AFTER my workout. We slept in hard today so the kids got to go to bed MUCH later than usual. And while I was putting them to bed Rock went to do a grocery run so mamma has good eats tomorrow.

So today was shoulders and I quite like doing shoulders. I find they are a relatively easy muscle for me to build and the work shows well. Not that it's easy easy but every woman has a different body part that seems to POP more than others. For me it seems to be my shoulders.

In honour of actually getting this workout done at a decent time (for me) I uploaded a few moves to youtube so that I can share the Beast goodness with others. Really the whole program is necessary for results but this will give you an idea. And would make a great little stand alone option.

You can easily do these moves at home!!

Do each move in a row with the following "sequence"

15 reps

12 reps

8 rep

Then just repeat that. Go up in the weights as you go down in reps. 

Remember it is shoulders so don't go crazy. It doesn't take a lot of weight to get the burn.

Today's breakdown...

Workout: Body Beast Build Shoulders

Post Workout Fuel: oops. missed that one today but because I was already out of carb macros I couldn't do my usual shakes. But I did have my chocolate vegan ShakeO earlier in the day (usually for lunch).

Food: Decent. I did have one awesome victory though. I struggle with the disordered eating pattern of binge and restricting so counting my macros which allows me to factor in "bad" foods is really helpful. Today we had a family picnic with pizza. Now the old me would have just eaten slice after slice, then felt guilty, then eaten more food, and the cycle repeats pretty much until I go to bed waking up at 3 am with raging heartburn. NOT TODAY!!! I had one slice, logged it, and moved on. Huzzah!!! Because I eat pretty clean for the most part knowing that I can have "bad" foods without consequence to my goals is pretty freaking awesome. Very freeing. And it prevents me from having a binge. 

Additional Activity: Tossed around a nerf football and an angry bird frisbee at the park with the kids. The older, 250 lbs version of me would never have done that. Once of the BEST results I have had is being able to just play and have fun with my kids. 

Now to watch a little Netflix with Rock and off to bed. 

Rock. Lift. Love. 

Journey to the Stage: April 14/15

Today was legs. And I said yesterday I would take legs over chest. But yeah, it's legs. To be honest I don't actually mind squats, even sumo squats, or deadlifts, but make me lunge and I may just wanna cut someone.

Today's workout was a great combination of totally phoning it in and being a badass. Lunges I phoned it in. Squats I used 30s. Bulgarian squats I phoned it in (which is actually a lunge, masquerading as a squat). Stiff leg single leg deadlift I went up to 25s. Plus I used 20s for the calf raises. So all in all I give myself a gold star. BECAUSE IT'S LEGS AND I SHOWED UP!!

There I am ready to tackle it with more bravado than a 16 year old boy.






And then this is how I look halfway into the first set.








And since I have a nice little system going on I'll keep on doing it….

Workout: Body Beast Build Legs

Post Workout Fuel: Results and Recovery, water, banana. I need to stock up on Vanilla ShakeO, frozen berries, and spinach.

Food: Better than yesterday!!! Bonus. I know my macros are still WAY off. But I did have cottage cheese mixed with greek yogurt today and that was all kinds of a yummy protein punch. An observation I have made though is that I REALLY need to scale back the coffee. It's becoming a problem.

Not much else to say about today. When I get a grocery stock up done later this week I'll squeeze in some meal prep posts. What I'm doing. What I suck at. What I fancy myself fabulous at.

Rock. Lift. Love. 

Journey to the Stage: April 12/15

It's LATE. But here it is. My accountability for the day. I did combat, which is one of my chosen forms of cardio. I don't really do much cardio. Right now my plan doesn't have much cardio. But something every so often hits me saying, "girl, you should do some cardio". Usually the thing hitting me is that winded feeling, or my pants feeling too snug. So I did some cardio.

Combat is pretty fun. I am picky with my cardio choices so fun has to rank pretty high. I like kicking and punching the air. Visualizing certain people I'd like to cause harm to. There aren't many. Also, a girl can never be too tough, just sayin'.




So here is the breakdown for today:

Workout: Less Mills Combat Power Kata 30

Post Workout Fuel: Vegan Chocolate Shakeology with chocolate almond milk and banana











Food: Not so great. See. This IS going to be the hardest part of all. I did fairly decent all day. Then it was time to go to grammy's birthday party. It was potluck. I took tortilla chips and con queso and it was down hill from there. I am stuffed to the brim that my stomach actually hurts. Like, no joke, it hurts to breathe deep. It's funny though (but not funny haha) I used to eat WAY more than I did tonight on a typical binge. My stomach just isn't used to that kind of torture anymore. I'm going to do the typical woman thing and say, "my diet starts tomorrow" because I hear Rock warming up the leftover con queso.

What I Need To Work On: The Damn Macros. That is all. No wait, that is not all. I just want to say that I had a wonderful friend give me some freaking awesome macros. I should NOT complain at all. I should be nailing them no prob. I'M the prob.






Speaking of my macros, I mentioned yesterday that I would let you in on them. Read them and weep my friends. THIS is why I lift. This is why I sling around weights like a bad mofo. So I can EAT!!! I did the huge deficit thing. I have done the cardio and 1200 cal thing. Ain't nobody got time for that. Lifting and Fueling my friends. That's what life is all about.

Total Cals: 2039 

Protein: 168g

Carbs: 152g

Fat: 84g

Like how freaking amazing is that. I love my higher fats. And my high carbs. And my high protein. I honestly have trouble meeting the protein needs. I'm going to have to figure out some hacks for that (egg whites in your Shakeology anyone?)

And that is pretty much what my cutting numbers are going to look like for the next couple months. They will drop just a smidge in there as my body fat goes down. Then I'll be doing another full round of Body Beast (including a bulk and cut) leaving me with roughly another month after to extra cut and peak week (the week before comp).

Haha, look at me, talking like I know this shiz. But I sort of do. And everyday I am learning more. I get jazzed about it. I'm excited to be the Obese to Beast woman.

Anywho…there ya go. Today's update. This week I'm going to BRING IT and do WHATEVER IT TAKES.

Till next time,

Rock. Lift. Love.