I'm on fire!!!

The last two days I've been lifting heavy at night. I started on Wednesday because well it’s in the middle of the week and they say fitness/diet programs that are started on a random day (rather than on a Monday) are more likely to succeed. I know that I don’t need a statistic to succeed. My determination comes from within, but that statistic was just a justification as to why I started on Wednesday. Are you still with me? Hahaha!

So I started with chest and triceps two nights ago and I am still sore EVERY WHERE! I was doing this DVD:

Cathe (the trainer) has you do drop set push-ups.  Drop set push-ups are defined as:

“a strength method used primarily by bodybuilders to increase exercise volume per set. It works by lowering the resistance being lifted at strategically timed points throughout a set thereby allowing the lifter to perform more repetitions than they otherwise would have been capable of. The resulting increase in exercise volume helps stimulate muscle growth.” (Source)

So she started her drop set at 18 and worked her way (by 2’s) all the way down to two 2-count push-ups. To say the least, my chest is on fire today. However, you would never guess that from doing push-ups my abs would be screaming too! Every time I sneeze I feel like I’m getting punched in the lower gut.

It’s awesomely painful! J

Last night, I worked out my back and biceps. Again, I used a Cathe video.  She worked my biceps to failure so I know I’m going to be sore come tomorrow. However, I’m not sure my back is going to be sore from the workout or if it is already sore from all the push-ups. My lats are on fire! I can barely lift my arms above my head. Have you ever tried to wash your hair after a tough arm workout? Yeah, I had my elbows leaning against the shower wall as I washed my hair. Hahaha!

I love weight lifting. I can’t wait to lean out and see all the muscle I am building. It’ll come next month when I start doing cardio again.

Oh yeah! I’m not doing cardio for the next 4 weeks. I’m solely concentrating on building muscle mass. Then next month I will reintroduce the cardio 2-3 times a week. The reason I switched it up from running all the time and now to lifting weights is because I need to boost my metabolism. It’s been taking a snooze and I am pretty much in a huge plateau. I know my body, and I've been here before. No amount of running will get me down to where I want to be. I need the muscle mass to help burn the fat!

In addition to the workouts, my eating has been spot on. I haven’t cracked once this year! I've been eating my high protein food which is why I probably don’t crave anything. I always feel so full! I’m hoping that the combination of my high protein diet and heavy lifting will promote muscle mass. This really is a leap of faith on my part because it is so hard to let go of my running, but I know that building muscle is the next step in this journey. I just have to have faith that it will work.

On another note, it looks like we are finally getting our blinds installed in our house. FINALLY! Back in November we got our windows replaced and our original blinds no longer fit in the window sills. So we've been rocking bed sheets as our stylish window treatments for about two months now. I’m excited to be getting my blinds because I miss natural light coming into our house. I've been feeling a little like a vampire lately. No light comes in when you have dark bed sheets up as curtains. It’s depressing, so I’m happy it will soon be over.