Thursday, February 17, 2011

Something For the Pain...

I am happy to say that it is officially one of my favorite times of year... the start of spring training! By next week all players will have reported to camp and baseball will be underway! It has always been one of my biggest dreams to go down to Tampa & go to the Yankees' spring training facility and see all of my favorites (especially #2) up close & personal, but unfortunately I haven't made it there yet. I am determined to go in the next 4 years (before Derek Jeter's contract is up!)

Currently, I am sitting on my bed watching "Grey's Anatomy" with an ice pack on my left shoulder & a lidoderm patch on my lower back & that is because Joe decided to put me through a man work out on Tuesday. Now, I'd like to consider myself a fairly tough chick when it comes to my work outs. I enjoy lifting more than just standing on a cardio machine, but this pain is just unnecessary. The work out started with full dead lifts with a 40 pound barbell & since my form was so great Joe decided to bump it up to 70 pounds (3 sets), then I got to do a bench press with the 35 pound barbell & thankfully he didn't throw any extra weight on that (3 sets), squats with the same bar behind my neck so it was resting on my shoulders (3 sets), half dead lifts with a bicep curl (3 sets), lateral extensions (3 sets) & to finish it all off... UNASSISTED DIPS (3 sets). I can't wrap my head around WHY a girl would ever need to do unassisted dips? Assisted dips sure, but having to hold my whole body weight up on the edge of a bench and drop down and come back up after everything else is just awful. And 3 sets of everything! I literally feel like I've been hit by a truck. I don't know if ALL of those exercises were necessary in the same work out. Muscle soreness is fine, but I'm going on day 3 tomorrow & I doubt I won't still be sore.

I try to remind myself that it'll all be worth it, but when my body is screaming I can't necessarily think about the big picture. Tuesday is weigh in and measurement day so naturally I'm nervous for that. I've been trying to get more protein in my diet so I've been alternating oatmeal and eggs in the morning and salad and half a sandwich at lunch. I'm just so bored with my food! I think this weekend I'm gonna check out some recipes and see what I can find. I need a little something different or I'm going to go crazy. Until Tuesday I'll be drinking as much green tea as possible & loading up on asparagus to help flush all the toxins out of my body. Tomorrow is cardio day & Saturday I'll get in another round of lifting. I like how I've been looking even though I'm not completely happy yet and that's why I'll keep on pushing myself. When you're a former fat girl, there's just no other way.

I will definitely report back with the weigh in & measurements after Tuesday. Everyone keep their fingers crossed for me & hope for good results! Until next time...

Marisa

Friday, February 11, 2011

Summer's Just Around the Bend...

Another long week is almost in the books! I hope everyone is surviving the cold, snow & ice that winter has been giving us an abundance of. This weather just makes me want to stay under the covers, watch movies and eat... but obviously that can't happen. All I can do is throw on a bunch of layers of clothes and head out to the gym and get my body ready for summer!

Unfortunately, the change in my school schedule makes getting to the gym a little bit harder, but I'm still doing it. Sure I feel like falling on my face, but no pain no gain, right? Tuesday is my day to train with Joe & then I'm left with Friday and Saturday to go on my own. The other day while I was on the treadmill there was this girl with a PERFECT body running of course and all I could think was that some people are just blessed to be born with amazing bodies. I am not one of those people, but they do exist! Those are the people that LOVE doing cardio and eating really healthy food and I would like to just force feed them cheeseburgers!

The food can be even harder than the working out in my opinion. We tend to fall into patterns with food and eat basically the same thing ALL the time. Almost every morning I eat oatmeal... not because I enjoy it, but because I know it's good for me. Occasionally I'll switch it up with eggs or some Special K but for the most part, oatmeal is my breakfast date. Lunch is usually some form of chicken either over salad or with veggies...although occasionally I'll have a half of a sandwich or something left over from dinner the night before... dinner can vary but I end up cooking a lot of chicken. Chicken, chicken, chicken! Sometimes I just want to throw the chicken across the room, but I know I've got goals so I've gotta eat the it.

I'm still feeling the pain from Tuesday's work out, but more than just regular muscle aches, the pain in my shoulder has not been fun times. Joe decided it would be a good idea to do an upper body work out. Ugh. If my left shoulder didn't get tired so quickly it wouldn't be so bad, but since it does it makes 15 reps feel like 40. Reverse pull ups should be outlawed. Chicks don't exactly have a ton of upper body strength as it is and when you have to hold up your entire body weight and pull your chest up to a bar you are reminded why girls suck at doing those kinds of things. Today I did some cardio and tomorrow I'll do full body work out.

I started thinking about how tight my muscles are and how yoga would probably benefit me A LOT. 2 years ago I started doing yoga (purchased one of those cheesy DVDs) and it helped me get out some of those unwanted knots and actually relax a little bit, but I haven't done it in such a long time because trying to do yoga at home never works out well because I always get interrupted. I wish they had it at my gym, but maybe one of these days I'll get back into it. If you're thinking it's just a bunch of deep breaths and weird positions with weird names while that's kind of true, it's actually really good for the body.

Well, it's time for me to call it a night. I hope everyone has a great weekend & a Happy Valentine's Day. For those of us in the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band... here's to better luck next year! But until then, I'll just imagine that I'm snuggling up with this...
Joshua Jackson... my first celebrity crush & even better looking now!
Until next time... 

Marisa