Lean Bodies - Noel Clark

Ok this might be a little bit of a rant so I will go ahead and apologize ahead of time. 

So you have been sticking to your diet 100% for a week MAYBE even 2 and you go to re-weigh or re-measure or re-take your pictures and what the heck, why are you not shredded yet.  This seems to be the thought process of many of my clients, friends and I have found myself impatient lately as well.  We all must have HUGE expectations, unrealistic actually to think that in a matter 7 or even 14 days that we can undue the damage of eating poorly for weeks, months and maybe even years.  I think Erik has said it a ton of times, we need to start thinking more long term.  Aren’t we doing this for LONG TERM benefits - becoming healthier, smarter in our food choices, and just overall feel better about ourselves?  As much as I would also like huge results I think that we all need to get our thinking in check about what can actually be accomplished in a matter of a couple of weeks.

I have really been bad about keeping this up to date.  Life tends to get in the way sometimes.  Training is going really well.  I am loving it!  We have incorporated some of my favorites back.  I am building up to pass my previous PR in Push press and will definitely be hitting some numbers that I haven’t seen before on Bench.  I was working with 140 on Push Press yesterday and it was nice and smooth…pretty easy which surprised me considering that I hit a PR of 150 at the end of my bulk.  I will be working in the 140 range with bench as well this coming week which will be new territory for me.  I have always been uneasy about benching but now that I have the form down, I am feeling a bit more confident.  I am planning on getting some more video up hopefully hitting some of these goal numbers.  As for my diet, well, I have been pretty loose with that.  I am hoping that with seeing progress in the gym, I will get my head back in the game when it comes to nutrition–but then again, who knows.  I do know that when it comes time to buckle down for prep time for Nationals…I WILL be ready.  I think watching USAs last night, today and tonight is getting me excited about going at this again.  I think I need a little push.  I look forward to seeing who our new PROS will be after tonight!

Ok so it is no secret that I have been feeling a little burned out from the gym.  I discovered the longer you stay away….the harder it is to WANT to come back.  Now that I am back on a more regular schedule, I am starting to feel the drive again.(thank goodness).  The next several weeks will be having fun in the gym.  And fun for me will be hitting some heavy weights.  I didn’t realize how much I like the low rep ranges until we had to switch to a bit higher ones.  I will be doing some heavy Deads, benching, push press, and (brace yourselves) squatting.  One of the things that I want to improve over my off season this year (after Nationals) is my glutes!  I need a butt LOL.  Everyone knows that good squatters have nice bums so I think we are going to do this for the first time.  We have really just stayed away from quad stuff trying to bring my legs down, but now that we know how to do it, I think we are going for it over the winter.  THAT should be interesting. So for now, I will be working on very very low reps just to focus on control and form.  I was able to try a lot of this plus new movements this past week.  Erik and Laura were in town and stayed the week with my family.  We were all able to go the gym together (pregnant laura and all )  We even got out to Cindy and Ileen’s gym to workout with them as well.  We checked form and all hit a few PRs.  I was able to try overhead holds while Erik was here and was able to hold 185lb.  I also Squatted for the first time and hit 205lb.  Can’t wait to see what I can do on that in the future.  So overall the next little bit will be enjoying myself in the gym, eating clean but not crazy and then as the show gets closer, just buckling down and GOING FOR IT. 

On a personal note, while Erik and Laura were here we were able to go out to dinner and meet a few new clients that we can now call friends.  I can’t begin to say how much fun that dinner was.  Tons of laughs and just really good company.  I also discovered this past week that there was another version of bowling in Cananda with 5 pins and teeny tiny ball–Maybe that is why I kicked everyone’s butt at bowling :lol:  they weren’t used to using a normal size bowling ball LOL.  Also seeing Laura was nice–FYI–she is adorable pregnant! 

Yesterday was my first day back in the gym.  It has been over two weeks.  Erik didn’t think I could do it without complaining LOL.  I have not wanted to step foot in the place yet!  I have actually never felt this way about training so I guess it was really time for a break.  I don’t even know how ‘ready’ I felt yesterday but I am hoping that once I get back in there on a regular basis, I will get back into the swing of things.  I did get a chance to try a new movement.  I did Overhead Holds.  I always get a little nervous when I try something like this with heavy weights overhead because sometimes in the past I have felt unsteady.  I felt the same thing when I tried Overhead Squats.  And not to mention I just finished my workout, but I ended up feeling ok about it.  I used 175.   

As for my diet.  I definitely took a break from that too.  And even though I am not ‘happy’ about how I look right now, it was definitely worth it.  I feel like I can go back at it feeling revived and ready.  I looked at the calendar and realized just how much time I have until Nationals-about 20 weeks!  That seems like forever.  The best part is that it is here—in Atlanta.  No traveling for me :)

On a personal note-Erik and Laura drove down from Canada to stay for a week with us.  Erik wanted to take a ‘road trip’ and had never really driven over 5 hours….this trip was about 15 :lol:  So we are trying to make plans to do several things while they are here.  Some of which is meeting up with the Georgia crew for some training and then of course a dinner out :)