9 Months to Tri

Dear Blog,

Today I did weights and Mike was IN.  Mike is a big meanie!  No, he’s not really.  Actually, he’s a great guy, but his idea of a strength training session feels an awful lot like running laps.  Seriously.  I had gotten halfway thru my first circuit (I do 2 circuits of a 10 exercise super set) and Mike walked up, “You’re going to slow.  I want you moving faster than this.”  Now, with Mike setting weights on the next station before I had finished my current one, I no longer had to take a moment to check my list, figure the next weight, and then start.  Apparently those few moments I had between stations afforded me more rest than I thought.

So, the workout which last time took almost an hour to complete only took 40 minutes this time.  I also had my first muscle failure on this set today.  Dumbell bench press with 35lb weights.  I can feel that we’re zeroing in on several more, though.  The weight increases will continue, I’m sure.

Then, later on this afternoon I met with Jamie.  We talked a bit about the food journal that I had been keeping, some of the choices I made, and came up with a plan for moving forward.  Because of my weight training, she wants me eating protein with every meal and snack if possible.  As always, I need to bump up the intake of my veggies.  I can eat corn chips (Tostitos)! Not a lot, mind you, but she told me not to deprive myself, or I might have dire consequences later. That’s a big deal, because I could literally subsist on corn chips if given the chance.

I’m not sure how much of this Jamie will post on her plan, but I’ll hit a couple of tips that we covered that stood out.

TIPS:

Your body will shed not only fat, but muscle, if you are dieting and NOT strength training. Jamie gave the example of a client of hers who lost 50lbs, but 20 of those lbs (40%, right?) was in muscle.

Keep food on hand.  I have a number of examples from these last two weeks of being hungry, but not having anything healthy on hand at the office.  Also had that problem while driving to the wedding last Sunday. So, the idea is to keep nutritious non-perishable foods on hand so that you don’t have to swing thru the nearest drive-thru or starve until lunch and then be so hungry that you overeat or eat the wrong foods.  Sample items are snack bars, nuts and dried fruit.  I suppose at the office you could even keep some regular fruit for a few days.

Don’t deprive yourself of foods you love, just portion control them.  This will keep you from gorging on them later.  So, for me, a great example of this is corn chips.  Its better to eat a few each day if I want them, than to devour a bag of them in one sitting two weeks later.

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