Lean Bodies - Noel Clark

Do you ever feel, man this is just not fast enough.  Grrrr that is where I am at today.  Yes, I do realize that I have been dieting for 3 weeks which is NOTHING, but I get so impatient.  And why is it that we always see the most changes in the dumbest places? LOL  like our face and our calves hahaha. 

 I have been watching people at my gym a lot lately and trying to pay attention to what they have been doing.  There is this guy that trains about the same time I do and he is there before I get there and still there when I leave.  He must lift for well over an hour.  Then there are those that are on the treadmill or elliptical for HOURS.  This is the time that I am thankful for 1.  Having the right coach 2.  Learning the proper way to diet and 3. being efficient in the gym..

I think that we tend to forget that it isn’t always the amount of time that we put in while we are there as much as it is the effectiveness and intensity that we put into the workout.  If you lift smart and you lift with intensity…couple that with with consistency and you will see the progress that you are after.  I find myself wanting to go up to people and say….you don’t have to do all that to progress.  Or You don’t have to kill yourself on that mountain climber thingy for an hour to drop fat. 

Make your time count while you are at the gym.  Focus your energy into your lifts.  Concentrate on your form and the muscles that you are working.  Put your cell phone down, pay attention to your rest time, chat when you are finished. 

Push yourself…want more….want better. 

I had my first BW workout with my Steady State yesterday.  HAHAHAHAHA.  This is probably the most work my quads have gotten in oh about a year. lol  It was funny though, everyone in the gym has been really use to me lifting big weights and I go in yesterday and start this stuff.  I had a guy come up to me and said…”Oh, no, are you going to start that jumping around stuff again?”  LOL  I told him I now have different goals.  That it was time to lean out.  He just looked confused.  I am actually sore from that workout.

I turned in my biweekly today and I was happy to see some progress.  As I said before, I have noticed mostly in my face, but I did have decent measurement drops and a loss of 2lbs.  As I told Erik, I am ready to feel lean again.  He went back in his stash of old biweeklies from Jan 28th of last year to compare my numbers.  It appears that I am about 8.5lbs heavier now yet my waist measurement is an inch smaller.  This is the news I needed to feel motivated.  I like to compare…pics or measurements.  Helps me remember where I was and stay focused on where I need to be.   So here is a pic of Feb 8th of last year and then now.

This is Feb 8th of 2007

This was taken today.  Look past the whiteness LOLOL

I am noticing a difference, but do you want to know where…my face.  MY FACE????  Seriously?  Out of the places to notice loss…in my face?  not my legs, or hips or anything..my face.  GRR. LoL.  This is just a really good reminder that you cannot spot reduce.  I would love to lose off my legs first and then my waist and LAST my face.  I think that women get into a bad habit of thinking that if they work a certain area..that is where the fat will come off.  I see women in my gym on that adductor/abductor machine…thinking they are just burning up the fat on their thighs.  This is just so not the case.  Goes back to a previous post of mine about doing 900 sit-ups a day won’t give you a six pack.  And most women (no not all) lean out from the top down.  So as annoying as it is ….consistency is the key.  Eventually it will make it’s way down to your lower half LOL>

The word is out and it is official.  I am fortunate enough to now be working alongside Erik Ledin at LBC!  I am very excited to be doing something that I absolutely love and in a way that I know (from personal experience) works and is healthy.  Along with training and nutrition, I will also be doing some new things as well for local LBC clients, helping them IN the gym.  In addition, I will be running several LBC Boot Camps in and around the Atlanta area.  I think this will be a fun way to get a group of people outside the gym and off the cardio equipment, in a fun supportive environment.  As I have mentioned before, I also want to talk to mom’s organizations-I think that educating them on proper diet and training will go a long way, in showing them how to be fit and healthy, and will hopefully trickle down through their families.  Another population that I am planning to work with are those with Multiple Sclerosis.  I have spoken a bit about my mom having MS and what a difference eating right and working out has made in her health - she is sleeping better, has more energy, and has improved her strength and balance since I began working with her.  I am hoping to meet with her Doctors, as well as her support groups, to get the word out.

 All in all, I am thrilled to be working with Erik and can’t wait to make the same impact in others that he has made with me.

Ok so here they are. Now keep in mind this is during the past several months I have been bulking.  I put on about 17 lbs.  THIS IS A LOT FOR ME!  17lbs would be a lot for anyone I would think.  I have had several other women ask me if I would post these pics to see what it looks like to bulk up.  I do not care for these pics BUT I know that it is important to show that this is a reality if you want to put on some muscle–which I know I have.  How do I know this…well my numbers in the gym really went up.  I also can see a difference in my back shot.  Now, I didn’t take a lot because this was definitely a hard several months.  Getting on the scale and taking measurements was hard enough..looking at pics just didn’t make me feel too good.  BUT in the end, I know that I accomplished what I set out to do and that was to change my physique for this year.  I am starting my diet now and can’t wait to see what is underneath.  So hopefully you will see a difference as I diet down…or even from these pics here.  I didn’t take a lot of lower body shots because I DID NOT want my legs to get bigger. 

This is a month in: 

 front shot:

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SEPT

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Sept (same time different shot)

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The next one I have is from Oct…this is the only shot I have

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Now we jump to now…Jan 9th

Legs:  smooth GRRRRR

Back shot Jan 9th

Last one I have:  This is where I can tell a difference..I am going to post a shot of myself now and then next to it is a pic from about AUG. 

And yes…I am white LOLOLOL

I did my first true lower body workout today.  OUCH lol.  It did feel good though.  I like the change in my program.  I did RDLs for the first time in a while.  I have come to really really love lifting heavy.  People just really don’t expect that from girls in my gym.  I ended up lifting about 20lbs more than this really big guy in my gym…..:)  245 for a 4×5.  I am actually excited to do HIIT this afternoon.  That will slowly fade :)  I hope that after this bulk my cardiovascular fitness comes back quickly…I hate sucking wind.

Ok so after reading some of the comments that I got from my last post as well as comments from others, I am going to post my pics tomorrow.  I appreciate Jennifer’s post on my blog yesterday and can understand exactly where she was coming from because I myself have looked for other’s bulking photos.  They are few and far between.  The reason being, it isn’t fun to see yourself go from ript to totally soft.  I will post mine tomorrow.  I did not take a ton of them due to exactly that…I just didn’t want to see them.  So hopefully this will give people an idea of what I went through during this process.

Have a great weekend

Ok so today it is official.  Biweekly in….with just starting numbers.  I can’t explain to you how hard that was though.  I had Scott (my hubby) take my measurements when I came off my bulk on December 26th BUT I had him keep them away from me.  See, I know what will work for me mentally and what won’t.  Seeing those first numbers would not put me in the mental frame of mind that I knew I would need to stick to a low low calorie diet for 14 days.  Now that those days are up I knew that I would have to give starting numbers to Erik so that we could get this show on the road and that meant 1-seeing them for myself and 2 Showing someone else!!  GRRRR.  I definitely find it difficult starting at a bigger point this year than last but I also have to keep in mind…that was kinda the goal.  I did enjoy my oatmeal this morning though :)  I went into the gym ready to push myself and ended up with a new PR.  I hit all 4 sets of Incline DB Press with 55lb dbs.  The funny thing that excited me about that is I have now moved to the lower rack of weights at my gym LOL.  Woohoo

I did take some pictures this morning.  I think that when I start to get leaner I will be able to post them, but can’t bring myself to do it yet :).  Will start doing some video stuff and post some of that too.   I am hoping for an exciting year. 

So here are some totals over the last 12 days:

Total inches down 10 1/2 inches and roughly 5.5 lbs.

My navel and leg measurements changed the most during this process.  I am sure these will go back up just a bit due to my refeed, but I am ready to really focus on nice slow changes and hold onto this muscle that I have put on over the last 14 weeks. 

READY SET GO!!!!

Diet is going well. I am definitely ready for some more sane calories.  Those come on Wednesday with a nice refeed.  This was a great way to get some of this fat off fast. 

There has been a lot of talk lately about dieting and strength in the gym.  I think that if you are on very low calories that as long as your volume is low your strength should remain.  A lot of it will be mental.  I have still been able to maintain my strength during these past two weeks.  I have been able to do Incline DB Press with 50lb DBs.  This is huge for me because last year I was using 35s.  So try to go into the gym with the attitude you will push the weights…just with less volume.

Hopefully on Wednesday I will start trying out some video blogging.  Now you will be able to WATCH my 3 year old fits   I am also hoping to get some training videos as well as some other behind the scenes footage at competitions and posing clinics.  This should be an interesting season!

I believe that people base most of their success or failure on the scale (when it comes to fitness goals).  If it doesn’t go down the ‘right’ amount, they aren’t happy.  I am even guilty of this.  Look at the Biggest Loser?  It is all based on “WEIGHT” lost.  Not what type of weight that is lost (fat, muscle or water), just that there is movement downward on the scale.  I think it is very important for everyone to keep in mind while you are trying to achieve that new physique that you keep track of your measurements as well.  And take them at several points on your body.  This way, when the scale doesn’t budge or doesn’t budge ENOUGH, you have the measurements to fall back on. They can show you that you are actually getting smaller.  I think that everyone has experienced that at some point right?  You are starting to feel better in your clothes, your pants are looser, and then you get on the scale and……Nothing!  I think this has a tendency to set people back mentally.  So try to remember….it isn’t all about the SCALE 

Progress Update:

I have been going really low on calories this past week and am going to continue until Wednesday.  I myself thought the scale would be lower than it was today, but was happy with the number of inches lost…man, do I have a long way to go.  Down a total of 6 1/8 inches in a week

You can definitely tell it is the new year.  My gym was unusually packed today.  I know from past years this will die down in about two weeks.  Kind of sad actually.  That the excitement of the new year and new fitness goals only takes two weeks to fizzle.  One of the things that I noticed was all the ab machines going.  Crunches, Hanging Leg Raises, Stability Ball crunches…Everyone was on some machine to get those six pack abs that they are after.  I wish more people realize that you can do a million sits ups or buy the latest gadget to zap those abdominal muscles, but you will never get the illusive ’six pack’ until you get control of your diet.  You can have great abs that are just covered by a layers of fat.  That is DIET!  Get the fat off-presto-abs.  I wish it was as easy to just do sit ups.  Saying no to our favorite comfort foods is a heck of a lot harder.  The first step in all of this is to start keeping track of how much you are eating.  I think if you write it down, you will be very surprised at the amount that you do eat.  A little here and a little there adds up to ALOT in the end.