6 week tweaks!

ok so once again i’m blogging at 10 o’clock at night and my body is killin’ me…i’m just happy tomorrow is an off day!  but i at least have more energy tonight than i did last night.  i got a full 8 hours sleep last night and plan on doing the same tonight.  it was hilarious though…since i can’t really eat much after dinner my trainer recommended me drinking a cup of hot tea while i read in bed to help relax.  yeah so i completely nodded off and spilled hot tea on myself…ha ha!  might have to re-think that strategy!  so here’s the scoop on what changes at 6 weeks out:

nutrition tweaks
at 6 weeks out she’s lowered me to 1200-1300 calories per day on workout days and 1100-1200 on active rest days.  i’m going to stay there for the next 3 weeks then she’ll lower me a bit more for weeks 2 and 3 to do the final ‘lean-out’ and then the week before the competition she’ll bring my calories back up so i have energy and feel good.  so here’s what the next 3 weeks look like:

• i got a bit of a lecture on days where i went more than 3 hours between meals (in my defense it was only a few days when i was busy!!) so it’s really important i’m eating every 2-3 hours.
• my fruit intake was already limited to strawberries and blueberries, but she did add in grapefruit which i love.  but she’s limiting my dairy to only 1 serving per day so either cottage cheese or greek yogurt.  that’s about all i was having anyway for my morning snack so it’s ok.
• …but on that note i asked about my beloved protein pancakes and she said they’re fine, but to take out the cottage cheese.  which i was fine with that…they’ll just be a bit runnier and thinner.  but here’s the real kicker: yeah no more  yummy berry syrup.  berries fine.  syrup…2 tablespoons!  what?  that’s just a tease!  limit the spray butter, splenda and all those added things…i guess i should have saw the syrup going too.
• other little additives i have to limit: salad dressing, olive oil, almond butter, salsas, tomato sauces…anything that adds empty calories.  i can still use my little spray salad dressings which is only 10 calories for 10 sprays…or do just lemon juice…and on oils i use just a tad bit of pam olive oil when cooking but that’s about it.
• sad sad day…no more protein pudding!  well – the way i used to make it anyway.  we’re cutting out anything with added sugars or chemicals…eating super clean – which means no jello pudding mix.  BUT she did give me a little recipe for my bedtime snack  which is basically just 1 scoop of my chocolate protein powder, 2 tablespoons psyllium husks (for fiber!), and 1/4c chocolate almond milk.  when mixed together it tastes almost like my pudding and the psyllium husks fill me up…it’s got a bit of a grainy texture but i actually like it.  however i’m fully aware that at this point cardboard would probably taste good! ha ha!  no really – it’s a good high protein snack to fill you up before bed for only 150 calories!
• so while it looks like she took everything away – she did add some things:  i’m going to be eating a lot more sweet potatoes, fish, and obviously vegetables.  actually i take that back – i don’t think i could eat any more vegetables.  my salads are HUGE!  when you’re eating so few calories you figure out how to fill yourself up.  what’s so crazy is that my body actually craves vegetables now…weird huh?  get this: i actually have been craving brussel sprouts.  go figure.
• since she saw by analyzing my fitbook that nighttime is the hardest for me (especially when i’m up until 1am!), basically after dinner i have my protein shake or protein ‘pudding’ and that’s it.  often times i’d stay up later than i should and i wouldn’t eat anything bad necessarily but i’d eat too late and your body can’t burn fat when you’re sleeping if you have food in your tummy.  hence the importance behind going to bed!  so in order to have any issues with figuring out what to eat – it’s pretty simple: just my protein, then go to bed.  and i got lectured on sleeping…i need to!  so last night i got 8 full hours and i have to from here on out so my little body can recover while i’m sleeping.
• water water water.  actually i’ve been doing really good on this.  believe it or not your body acclimates and i even finished my water the last few nights right after dinner and just had my tea…so i’m easily reaching my gallon per day goal.

workout tweaks
like i mentioned last night, after working out with my trainer, she definitely wants to develop my rear delts and lats more…other than that she said she’s really happy with my progress and that the workouts themselves won’t change too much.  here are the few things i need to switch up:

• even though it was a love/hate relationship, i’m sad to see my smith machine squat routine go away.  she said that she doesn’t want me to be pushing too much weight or nothing will be left of my rear-end!  so while i was a bit relieved…i also credit that stupid machine with getting my butt in shape over the last 6 weeks.  never fear though – we have a new torture method to replace it!  read on…
• while i was doing my smith routine 4 days per week (on top of my heavy leg lifting day!), she wants me to cut back to only 3 days per week doing walking lunges.  sounds simple right?  ugh.  i have to do 3 sets of 50 walking lunges…50!!  the first set is walking lunges with a glute raise…the second is a side stepping squat with leg lift….the third set is walking lunges with a glute raise + knee lift….all of these while carrying 25# dumbbells.  holy camoly they kill.  i want my smith machine back!  one benefit of doing these is that this engages my core and my back muscles a lot more than the smith machine.  darn it – she knows what she’s doing but it’s painful.
• it’s really important to focus on targeting each muscle group from a different angle so i hit it from all sides.  so for example on shoulders i would do on overhead press to work the top part of the shoulder, lateral dumbell raises to target the sides, and then the reverse pec deck to target the back part of the shoulder.  i’ve been doing this but i just have to make sure and develop all areas of the muscles.
• no more oblique ab exercises…she said those are already developed well and i need to focus on the lower ab region, hence the need to do those hanging leg raise pike thingy-mabobbers that are ultra-tortourous.  i texted her yesterday all happy telling her that i did 3 sets of 6 with a spotter but barely needed a spot.  her response: “that’s great. now next time give me 4 sets of 10.”  i love that…i love that challenge.  so guess what i did today?  4 sets of 10!  🙂  i didn’t text her and tell her that…not yet…i’m afraid she’ll challenge me to do more and i honestly almost died doing them today.
• my cardio is getting backed down a bit to lower intensity so that i continue to burn calories, but not burn muscle.  so she still has me doing my lovely mountain climbers on the treadmill for 20m once per week and my 20m sprints once per week.  the only real changes is that i’m doing 1 day of 30m and 2 days of 45m at steady state cardio (no intervals) at a heart rate of 135 which is pretty low.  i can choose between either incline walking (15% at 3.5mph) or the stepmill.  i love my stepmill..that’s where i catch up on my magazine reading…i just have to be careful not to fall off!
• overall she’s happy with my workouts and likes the results…my main focus is just to keep pushing more weight and making sure that i’m exhausting my muscles to failure on every set.  so that means i might need more spotting at the gym but i’m sure i can round up someone to help me with that…i’m a little social butterfly unfortunately.  however – i’ve been doing better about not talking at the gym.  i’m too focused on my workouts!

whew!  that’s long i know, but those are pretty much my tweaks at 6 weeks out!  i’m still loving it but i must say that my shoulders are STILL killing me from my workout with her on sunday…followed by my killer back and chest workout yesterday.  today was biceps and even more legs which are just exhausted.  so my off day tomorrow?  it’s supposed to be 70 degrees which means i will proceed to my pool at lunch time to catch some sun and relax.  so excited.  and for my active rest i’m going to continue my spring cleaning and get that finished up! 

i’m off to make my tea…relax and close my peepers.  let’s hope i can do this without giving myself a tea bath tonight!  sweet dreams!