Category Archives: 28 Day Body Shapeover

Shapeover thoughts

Is anyone else having trouble adapting to the time change? I woke up almost an hour later than usual because of the light.  Good thing I hadn’t planned on the gym today! I am very lucky in that I don’t have to wake up to an alarm, but I do tend to pretty much wake up at the same time every day.

I got the coffee brewing and made up breakfast.  1-minute muffin topped with peanut flour.

I rehydrate my peanut flour with water, a pinch of salt, cinnamon and a bit of honey – maybe 2 grams worth.  Then I use it as a topping.  I don’t think it really tastes like peanut butter, but I like it for its own taste (and the protein!).

I got going with work right away with my favorite doctors.  Made it a good Monday morning!  I took a break for a mid morning snack of a protein drink and a couple clems.

As mentioned, I will recap/review the 28-Day Body Shapeover that I did.  I went into this more for changing up my lifting routine than for any other purpose, so I didn’t do any measurements or pictures.

The workouts were tough, but my body got more used to them as the month went on.  I liked the workouts except for the arm workouts.  As I have said numerous times, I don’t concentrate on my arms because they build up and I don’t think I need to be doing biceps curls when I do bench presses.  It’s redundant (for me).  This did keep me pretty focused on balance of all muscle groups, though.

I didn’t follow the food plan, but I ended up down 1.5 pounds during the 28 days, which was surprising to me because when I start lifting more I usually gain from water.  I think this means some fat loss – which I will take.  Could be from cutting out the extra snacking, too 😉  I definitely feel stronger.

I think this is really a good program for anyone to do because the moves are good for anyone and you can do whatever weight you need to.  There are also alternate moves given for each one if you do the program at home rather than a gym.  Plus, the author explains why he has you do everything, which is nice to read.  Science stuff = bonus!

Tomorrow I start a new lifting program, which I will talk about tomorrow.  I am eating today like I will be on the program (hence the morning snack).  This was lunch:

I topped a turkey burger with a laughing cow wedge and salsa.  A taco burger?  It was really good.  I actually blended my salsa because I don’t like chunky salsa.  Is salsa considered a veggie?

Oh, and the strawberries?  Seriously – this is just not right.

Uber huge. I’ll let you know if I start growing a third eye or something.  😯

It was so nice out this afternoon.  I had an amazingly productive work morning, so I snuck out in the early afternoon for an 8 mile bike ride.  It was 63 degrees!  Eeeeeee!  I love my bike.  It’s funny how you know you love something when you aren’t doing it and miss it, but you forget how much you *really* love it until you do it again.  I should get in another couple of rides this week, too.  Gotta build up the distance legs for cupcakes 😀

I wish I could get clip shoes in sparkly red.  That would be so much fun!

I made up a latte plus of few of the coconut chocolate balls (recipe). I won’t do anymore close ups of those 😀  I like them more and more as I eat them.

I finished up work in good time today.  That is so good for a  Monday.  I guess today just was an overall good day to start the week with – for which I am very thankful.

I cooked up some chicken thighs for dinner.  I chopped mine up and added it to my sauteed broccoli and some rice that was left over.  A few splashes of soy sauce and I called it done.

With it being light later, I even took a post prandial walk tonight!  Plus it was still warm. Going out with just a light jacket on and it almost makes you feel naked, you know?

For accountability – here is my portioned out snack for later.

Measuring out nuts really chafes on me, which says to me that I really need to keep doing it.  My no extra snacking is going really well.  It’s not a habit yet (or broken habit), but it is easier most days.

 

Giant sets and fast talking

Happy International Women’s Day! I was trying to think of some kind of deep post to make, flame on about Rush Limbaugh, or think of something inspiring, but I didn’t. Instead, I just decided to celebrate my strength and go lift.

I had my pumpkin protein drink (half before and half after), which is my rut as of late.

Then more giant sets for the lower body.  60 second rest between giant sets, no rest between exercises.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Dumbbell Squats
Jump Squats
Leg Extensions		 3 set of 15 with 15#
3 set of 15 at body weight
3 sets of 15 at 30#		 Quads/full lower body
Good Mornings
Lying abductor raise
Kneeling Leg raises		 3 sets of 15 with 25# bar
3 sets of 15 Body weight
3 sets of 15 with body weight		 Hamstrings/Glutes/Abductors
Toe Press (on lying leg press machine)
Seated Calf Raise		 3 sets of 15 at 100# 

3 sets of 15 at 30#

 Calves

Note the calves are just a superset. No point in 3 exercises for the calves. I was super sweaty doing this workout. Nothing gets the heart rate up like jump squats! Phew. I never see anyone do these.  Maybe some box jumps occasionally, but never jump squats.  I don’t know if I would keep doing these  regularly because of my back issues, though.

Breakfast after I got back home was protein waffles.  I got a little too much baking powder in them and they poofed way up!

Might have to do that every time!

Today was so much warmer – in the 50s, but it rained.  I had hoped to get outside and walk some in the afternoon, but it was not to be.  Stupid work.

I made up a 1-minute muffin for lunch today topped with peanut flour spread and some blueberry jam.  Ooops, blueberries twice!

I kind of had to make myself eat the carrots.  Do you ever think you want something and then realize you really don’t? That was what happened with the carrots.  But, I didn’t want to waste them and they are getting on in age and needed to be eaten.

Afternoon break time and I posed my latte by Pixie.

She was most displeased at this because I woke her up.  I did give her belly rubs to make peace, though.

I finished up work a bit early, which always puts me in a good mood. When we were cooking dinner, my mouth was running about 100 miles an hour.  I tend to fire off a lot of questions in a row when I do this without waiting for answers- all on different topics, of course.  Poor John looks shell shocked when I do this.   :mrgreen:

I asked him if it was I was overwhelming to him at times and he said “yes” very emphatically without hesitation!  You would think after 15 years of marriage that he would be used to that by now.

This was the result of cooking:  Turkey burger with laughing cow and a lot of green!

A little early for St. Patty’s Day.  Lots of protein in that turkey burger.  I ate 111 grams of protein today.  Go muscles!

I got in some good practice time after dinner.  I will have to do another video this December.  Maybe make it a tradition.  I started working in this last week.

A running joke around here is that I only play pieces in A minor.  It seems that a lot of them are – and not on purpose!

This is the snack for later tonight.

Totally stolen picture from the other day because the lighting was better then.  Now to settle in and relax for the evening.

Hope you had a fabulous Women’s Day – but don’t make it just a day. Celebrate yourself every single day!

Hello Drop Sets

Just a straight up workout post today.  I didn’t feel like taking pictures.

Week 3 of the 28 Day Shapeover! The one thing I don’t like about doing programs that have a time length is that I realizes how fast time really goes by. It’s scary sometimes.

This week’s focus is drop sets. What this means is that after you finish the last set of an exercise, you then drop to a lower weight (25-30%) and then do reps until you can’t do anymore. Then you drop to another lower weight (25-30%) and do reps until you can’t do anymore. So if you start with 10# DBs, then after the last prescribed set you would do a set with 8 pound DBs, then do a set with 5# DBs.

This was for today:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Dumbell Shoulder Press 4 sets of 8 with 10# DBs
Drop Set 1: 8# for 7 reps

Drop set 2: 5# for 7 reps

 Shoulders
Single Arm Lateral Raise 3 sets of 8 with 8# DBs
Drop Set 1: 5# for 6/8 reps

Drop set 2: 3# for 8/6

 Shoulders
Dumbbell Bent Over Lateral Raise 3 sets of 8 with 15# DBs
Drop Set 1: 10# for 6 reps

Drop set 2: 8# for 7 reps

 Shoulders
Biceps Curls 3 sets of 8 at 10#
Drop Set 1: 8# for 10 reps
Drop set 2: 5# for 6 reps		 Biceps
Cable Hammer Curl 3 sets of 8 at 20#
Drop Set 1: 15# for 6 reps
Drop set 2: 10# for 5 reps		 Biceps
Dumbbell Preacher Curl 2 sets of 8 with 10# DBs
Drop Set 1: 8# for 8 reps
Drop set 2: 5# for 10 reps		 Biceps
Lying Triceps Extension 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs
Drop Set 1: 8# for 8 reps
Drop set 2: 5# for 9 reps		 Triceps
Seated Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Press 3 sets of 8 with 10# DBs
Drop Set 1: 8# for 7 reps
Drop set 2: 5# for 6 reps		 Triceps
Dumbbell Kickbacks 2 sets of 8 with 15# DBs
Drop Set 1: 10# for 8 reps
Drop set 2: 8# for 6 reps		 Triceps

There is a reason why drop sets are also called burn sets.   The only thing that was funny was the single arm lat raise.  I was able to do more drop set reps on the right arm because it had rest time from the last set on the left with its drop sets.  That gave the right arm more time to rest.

I do wish this gym had 12# dumbbells. My old gym had those.  There were some of the exercises that I really could have used the 12s to start with and not the 10s, but otherwise it was a good and very hard workout. I really don’t work muscles to failure very often as I don’t usually have a spotter.

My arms were so weak when I was done.  I had brought along a protein drink with 30 grams of protein and  a half cup of pumpkin.  I drank half before the workout and half after.  This shake was twice as much as I normally do, but I knew it would be a tough workout.

Snow forecast for tomorrow!

Friday foods and Saturday Shapeover workout

The weekend is here!  It’s Mardi Gras weekend, too!

I slept in a little today since I didn’t have to go to the gym. That felt good.  My legs are a little sore from yesterday’s workout.  Really, mostly my left thigh is sore more than the right.  Kind of weird, but that is me in a nutshell.

I made up some coconut flour waffles for breakfast.  They came out really good! Sometimes they crumble apart getting them out of the waffle iron and sometimes they are fine, like today:

This is just the protein pancake recipe with 14 grams of coconut flour in place of the oats.

It was hard making myself get to work today.  I feel like I have been saying that for the last few Fridays! Ooops.  Even though I work at home, I do work hard and it is nice to come to the end of the week.

Lunch time was egg salad:

Plus one of the sweetest pears I have ever eaten.  This was a red pear, which normally are a bit sweeter and softer than other types, but this was really sweet!  Maybe more in season?

I also roasted up some espresso for the afternoon during lunch.  I take part in a co-op that buys green coffee in bulk and splits up the bags, so normally we just use whatever single origin I have roasted as our espresso, only with a finer grind.  The co-op didn’t have any greens that interested me, so I bought from another place. This time I bought some green beans that were blended specifically for espresso to try out called malabar gold.  This includes some robusta beans and arabica, which gives a nice crema to the espresso.  See how they are all different sizes?

That’s some fresh roasted coffee right there.  This is quite good.  It’s a little more than I like to spend on my green beans, but I may get some more.  I have a bunch of Guatemala to go through for our regular coffee as well.

Latte with said beans:

Plus some chocolate.  Cause it is Friday! Like I need an excuse.

I had a solo dinner tonight since John was out tutoring.  I cooked up a bunch of ground turkey with BBQ sauce.

I love all the colors on this plate!  Trick of the camera – none of that food is touching, but it looks like it from the angle.  :mrgreen:

I had lots of yummy food today.

Since I won’t be posting on Saturday, here is the  the next workout of the 28 day Shapeover. It is back, chest and core. This is on tap for Saturday. No weights listed because I haven’t done this yet to finalize it, so just exercise and reps.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell Incline Press 4 sets of 10 Chest
Dumbbell Flat Chest Press 3 sets of 8 Chest
Dumbbell Incline Fly 3 sets of 10 Chest
Reverse Lat Pulldown 4 sets of 10 Back
One-arm Dumbbell Row 3 sets of 8 Back
Lying Dumbbell Pullover 3 sets of 10 Back
Crunches 3 sets of 10 Core
Captain’s Chair 3 sets of 10 Core

Now that I have written it out – I have to do it LOL!  Not sure if I will be going before or after breakfast tomorrow.

John and I are hosting our annual Mardi Gras dinner on Sunday, so stay tuned for that!  Laissez les bon temps roulez!!

Question:  Any fun plans for the weekend?

More Shapeover answers

The week seems to be going by fast, even though I was a day ahead of myself yesterday.  I was up bright and early for my gym workout today.  I slugged some protein and headed out.  So nice that it is almost light out when I leave for the gym!  Soon enough, it will be.

Today’s 28-Day Body Shapeover workout. Lower body.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell Squats 4 sets of 10 with 45# bar Lower body
Single Front Leg raises (on machine) 3 sets of 8 at 30# Quads
Side Lunges 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs Lower Body
Stiff-legged Deadlift 3 sets of 10 with 55# bar Hamstrings/low back
Single leg hamstring curl (on machine) 3 sets of 8 at 25# Hamstrings
Cable standing abductor Raise 2 sets of 10 at 15# Hip Abductors
Standing Calf Raise 3 sets of 10 at 70# Calves
Seated single leg calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 20# Calves

This took 35 minutes to get through.  I don’t usually do single leg exercises. I really notice the difference in strength between my left and right legs when doing them. My thigh just can’t do what it used to do. I find this mildly depressing and I don’t really know if there is anything that can be done about it. I could go for a workup and everything, but other than physical therapy, I would not do anything surgical for my back at this point.  It’s more of a nuisance than anything else.

I got home to make coffee with the new machine!  It brews really fast. 4 minutes for a pot.  The coffee had a good clean taste, but needs to be stronger.  We have to adjust how much coffee we use now.  I had the coffee with breakfast in one of my new bowls!

From Japan.  It has a crackled interior:

A new bowl makes everything taste better!

I have gotten a few questions on the 28 Shapeover program, so I will address them here.

1. Helen asked if this could be something done at home.  Yes! The nice thing about this book (and Brad Schoenfeld’s in general) is that he also gives you an alternative exercise to do at home if you don’t have access to a gym.  You just need dumbbells and some resistance bands.  When I did this program a couple years ago, I did it at home.

2. The eating protocol.  This book does provide an eating protocol.  It is about 1400 to 1500 calories per day.  I am not following this. I am only doing the strength workouts.  It’s basic and balanced, although a heavier emphasis on fish than I would ever eat!  I’ll post a couple sample days of eating from the book later this month just to show you.

3. Being sore. Okay, this is not program specific, but Jill asked if I still get sore after workouts.  I rarely get sore from lifting anymore.  I certainly wouldn’t want to lift 3 times a week if I was sore after each workout!  That is no fun.  Only if I do really heavy work or something that I haven’t done in forever will I be sore.  And it isn’t as sore as I would get when I first started lifting.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Lunch was quick today.  My literacy learner and I moved our tutoring session to today at noon.  So, I grabbed a quick bar on my way out of the house:

I used to eat these bars all.the.time.  I was addicted – anyone remember that?  Now it is only very occasionally.  John eats a lot of these bars as a snack, so they are in the house.

After I got back from tutoring, I was pretty hungry, so I had a pear and got right back to working.

John came by shortly thereafter with my latte.  See how I have to work?

Pixie was curled up in a ball and totally snoring away here, too. No room in my lap for the laptop!  But, I work around the cat – sucker that I am.

For dinner, I had more processed food.  I forgot about this that I got at Trader Joe’s.  Product fail –

I kind of wondered if the wrong thing was put in the box.  This is supposed to be 3 servings!  Another fail there.  The dish has 4 little slices of the paneer.  3 servings??

On the plate:

This is 1.5 servings, according to the box.  John and I split this entire entree. Note the Nut Thins on the side.  That is what was left from my whole serving of those that I nibbled on while fixing dinner.

I will say – this was actually pretty good!  Both John and I liked it.  I don’t think I would get it again, but at least we liked it.

Finishing up work tonight and I hope to get around to catching up on some blogs!  Bring on Friday!

New lifting program

Wednesday – I had to keep reminding myself it was Wednesday. I am a day off. I hate it when that happens. I got up to go to the gym this morning when I remembered it was bagel day! So, I went back to bed for a little before we got ready to go.

Wheat bagel today. Tasty!

I forgot to photograph the rest of my food today. How weird is that? I think I was just very distracted or something.

Yesterday I started a new lifting program. I am now doing the 28-day shapeover

I have done this program before and I liked it.  I have been in a bit of a rut with my lifting, so it was time to shake it up.  This does a 3 day split with alternating days of cardio and 1 rest day each week.   Yesterday was arms and shoulders.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Dumbell Shoulder Press 4 sets of 10 with 10# DBs Shoulders
Dumbbell Upright Row 3 sets of 8 with 15# DBs Shoulders
Dumbbell Bent Lateral Raise 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs Shoulders
Cable Curls 3 sets of 10 at 25# Biceps
Barbell Drag Curl 2 sets of 10 with 25 bar Biceps
Dumbbell Concentration Curl 2 sets of 10 with 10# DBs Biceps
Dumbbell Kickbacks 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs Triceps
Single Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Press 3 sets of 10 with 15# DB Triceps
Reverse Cable Press Down 3 sets of 10 at 25# Triceps

It took 30 minutes to get through this workout.  I will tell you – my arms are *sore* today!  I haven’t worked my arms like this in over a year. Normally, you know I eschew doing single muscle exercises, particularly for my arms.  My arms will develop much faster than the rest of my body, so I need to keep the weights lighter while doing this program.

Tomorrow is lower body and then Saturday is chest/back/core.

On another front – look what arrived today!

 

Can’t wait to try it out tomorrow morning!

Runnin’ and ramblings

Thanks for the nice comments yesterday about my flashback fat feelings.  It just nice sometimes to admit to these things and know you aren’t alone.  So, I hit the gym for run day today.  I set the treadmill at 5.5 mph and just chugged it out while listening to my player.  I had downloaded Casandra Forsythe‘s podcast as I mentioned yesterday.  You know, I liked listening to people talk while jogging.  I normally listen to music, but this maybe made the time go by faster?  I don’t know why that would be.  It made me think some and nod my head in agreement a lot.  Sometimes I didn’t quite agree with what was said.  I really liked how this interview was 2 real women talking about fitness in a way that isn’t all magazine headline and ‘lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks’ kind of thing.  Also interesting to note is that Cassandra is quite far into a pregnancy, so she also talks a lot about what she does and does not do being pregnant.  They also brought up a great point about how women just always aren’t nice to each other (or themselves).  We cannot appreciate someone for just being, but there has to be a “She’s too skinny/fat/muscular/tall/short/old/wrinkled/etc” thrown in there.  Whatever that blank is.  Why is that??  Quite a long interview, too.  It was about an hour and got me most of the way through my run, which was 6 miles.

I was ready to eat!  I wanted a fast breakfast, so it was Cream of Wheat time!  Made with a mashed banana, cinnamon, and topped with the last of the pecan butter and some chips.  These are regular size chips, and it looks like so few compared to the minis!  They still got nice and melty, though.

There’s some chip dust on there, too, from the end of the bag.  I was sad when the bowl was done.  🙂

Fun note: I received a wonderful email from Brad Schoenfeld and I about fell over!  You know that I recommend a couple of his books 28-Day-Shapeover and Sculpting Her Body Perfect.  Anyway, he apparently stumbled across my blog and he mentioned me on his blog!  I was so flattered! Eeeeeee!!!!!!!!  You all know how I loves my lifting 😀

Still in the ‘use things up’ mode in the house.  We have a lot of food!  Lunch was the rest of the greek yogurt with a little agave, some Special K Protein cereal and strawberries.

I like the Special K, but I noticed it has HFCS in it.  Booo….  Doesn’t stop me from snacking in it though, I noticed. LOL

Snack time involved more of yesterday’s item: 

I am snacky snacky lately.  I’ve been swamped with stuff in the last few days and just tend to eat.  Not to mention the long run.  I tell you, wish I were earning more money for how busy I am!

Dinner was a pizza made from a Josef’s Pita.  These are nice and soft and make a good crust, if not a little thin.

Topped with chicken, feta cheese and a piece of crumbled bacon (couldn’t resist the last piece that John cooked…..mmmmm…. bacon).

I have made so many spelling errors tonight.  I made peanut butter after dinner, and managed to slice my finger cleaning off the blade.  See what happens when you try to do stuff yourself 🙄

Owie.  It always seems like when I cut myself, it is where the digit bends, and that makes it hard to type.  Of course, my job requires typing all day long, so I’ll probably be swearing some tomorrow LOL!  Thank goodness for spell checker.  Going to have some pineapple later for a snack.  Good thing that is already cut up :mrgreen:

Enter here to win some Barney Butter at Healthy Living!

Question:  Do you listen to music or podcasts when working out?  Which do you like better?

28 Day Body Shapeover Comparison shots

** Gratuitous pictures of me to follow 😀 **

Well, the scale shows nothing lost for the month, and from the before pics only about 3 pounds on the scale, but noticeable body changes. These first shots were taken in the summer, but I had on the same outfit for comparison. The hard workouts are paying off, and the jogging is paying off. The scale will obey at some point LOL!

Before:

Today:

Biggest changes in my lower body.
My upper body is strong now, too! Here are my biceps (with loose skin under the arms) in full flex:
Before:


Today:

Funny how you wouldn’t guess my arms are like that until I flex them.

These pictures are waaaaay better than this one where I weighed 225:

28 Day Body Shapeover Day 26

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Back, chest and abs today.
Giant set:
Incline dumbbell chest press: 3 x 15 10 pounds
Flat dumbbell chest fly: 3 x 15 10 pounds
Push ups: 3 x 15 (I had to rest to finish all 15 of these by the last set)

Giant set:
Lying lat fly: 3 x 15 25 pounds
Dumbbell lat row: 3 x 15 10 pounds
Lying dumbbell pullover: 3 x 15 10 pounds

Giant set:
Crunches: 3 x 15
Reverse crunch: 3 x 15
Side jack knife: 3 x 15

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28 Day Body Shapeover Day 24

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Giant sets 1:
Dumbbell squats: 3 x 15 10 pounds
Jump squats: 3 x 15 (these are hard!!!!!)
Seated leg extensions: 3 x 15 25 pounds

Giant sets 2:
Barbell good mornings: 3 x 15 10 pounds
Leg curls: 3 x 15 25 pounds
Standing leg lifts: 3 x 15 35 pounds

Standing calf raise: 3 x 15 10 pounds
Seated calf raise: 3 x 15 105 pounds

I am noticing a bit of difference in my arms and thighs after 3 weeks, and I for sure feel stronger.

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