Week Three: Day One

The start of a brand new week! I'm pretty happy with how well I've stuck with my workouts so far. Normally by now I would have come up with some excuse to skip a day, whether I was "too sore," "too busy," or any number of other excuses I've concocted in the past. Hopefully I can keep that up!

Like I said, it's a new week, and that means new photos!

Unsurprisingly, I look almost exactly the same!

Before my workout, I weighed in at 154 lbs almost exactly, which means I gained a half pound over the course of a week. I have no idea if that's water weight or real muscle though, so I'm just going to simplify my life a little and say I stayed about the same. After this month is over, I'll compare myself to my initial weight and see how I need to adjust my diet to make sure I'm gaining the way I should be.

My lifts today were pretty good overall, with slight increases on about half my exercises.

Bench Press: 45 lbs x 5 reps, 60 lbs x 5 reps, (75 lbs x 5 reps x 3 sets)

Flies: (10 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets)

Tricep Pushdowns: (40 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets)

Tricep Kickbacks: 15 lbs x 10 reps, (10 lbs x 10 reps x 2 sets)

Assisted Pull-Ups: (5 reps x 3 sets with 100 lbs assistance)

HIIT: 10 minute circuit, distance: 1 mile

Pretty happy with my diet today. No breakfast, but lunch was a nice piece of my leftover chicken from last night. I had a protein bar after my workout along with a big bottle of Gatorade. For dinner, I made beef ravioli and a protein shake. All in all, I had around 2000 calories and 152 grams of protein. I'm getting the hang of this after all!

Week Two: Day One

Well, it seems I messed up. I misread my logbook today and accidentally upped my bench press weight by 15 pounds. As a result, I put too much stress on my muscles way too quickly and had to finish out my sets at a lower weight than last time. You'll be able to see more clearly what I mean in a minute, once you see my workout. Needless to say, I was extremely frustrated.  But it's done with now, so hopefully I can get back on course without too much trouble.

But before we get to the lifts, today means a new week has started, which means progress photos!

Not really any noticeable difference yet, but a promise is a promise.

I also remembered to weigh myself today before my workout. I came in at a pretty decent 153.5 lbs, so we'll call that my baseline since I never had a real one at the beginning.

Now for the good stuff:

Bench Press: 45 lbs x 5 reps, 65 lbs x 5 reps, 85 lbs - failure, 75 lbs x 3 reps to failure, (65 lbs x 5 reps x 3 sets)

Flies: (10 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets)

Tricep Pushdowns: (35 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets)

Tricep Kickbacks: (10 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets)

Assisted Pullups: (5 reps x 3 sets, 100 lbs assistance)

HIIT: 10 minute circuit, total distance: 1 mile.

Even after my Bench Press fiasco, I still managed to increase weight on 2 exercises from last week, tricep pushdowns and tricep kickbacks, so I can't be too upset about it. All in all, I'd say today was still a pretty successful day!

See you all again tomorrow, same time, same place! <3

Day One: Chest and Triceps

Day One has been a total success! I can barely move my arms to type this for you all, so I'd say that's a good sign.

First, here are my baseline photos. I took these this morning before leaving for the gym, and I'm reluctant to post them for a couple of reasons. The obvious reason is that I'm unhappy with my body right now, but that's why I'm here, right?! The less obvious reason is my dirty bathroom mirror. Ignore that please.

Also ignore the toilet paper roll. My husband needs to learn a lesson.

Also, I forgot to weigh myself. I don't own a scale for a multitude of reasons, so I'll just estimate because I am not walking back to the gym for that. Even though it's a very pretty walk.

Hawaii's so nice isn't it? Are you jealous yet?

That said, my baseline here is 5'6" and 150ish lbs.

Alright, public embarrassment out of the way, here's what I've done for today!! I'll list everything, even warm up sets, and put my working sets in parentheses so it looks a little less jumbled.

Bench Press: 45 lbs x 5 reps, 65 lbs x 5 reps (70 lbs x 5 reps x 3 sets)

Flies: (10 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets)

Tricep Pulldowns: 25 lbs x 10, (30 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets)

Tricep Kickbacks: (5 lbs x 10 reps x 3 sets)

Assisted Pullups: 3 reps x 5 sets, 100 lbs of assistance

After my lifts, I did 10 minutes of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and managed to run a full mile in that time. I was actually pretty surprised. I also felt like death.

Okay, I'm going to go shower, because I look like I've been through hell. See you all tomorrow! <3