Sunday, September 11, 2011

Reflecting on Week 2 and Planning for Week 3

Body - My body feels pretty good  today.  Thursday was really tough because I maxed out my shoulders in Wedensday’s bootcamp and the push-ups and shoulder exercises in the combo class just about brought tears to my eyes (although I had tons of fun and  I think I will now be adding Kazaxe to my weekly workouts…luv, luv, luved it!).   I have noticed that my muscles definitely need 1 full day to recover if I max them out.  My body is looking leaner,  but my belly is still smooshy!  J  I am struggling with pushing myself in some sets and recovering in time to max out in the next set.  I sometimes feel like I’m slacking if I push extremely hard in certain sets and have to rest a long time to recover.  I’m wondering if it’s better to choose to max out on certain exercises so that I can still complete the entire workout with great intensity.  Maybe, I will be able to reduce my recovery time by adding cardio this week.  I will see how this week goes and make adjustments the following week.

Learning - I’ve learned a lot about planning throughout this process.  In order to eat properly, I’ve found that I have to cook multiple meals on Sundays and spread out my shopping trips for perishable foods (such as fruits and fresh veggies that I do not plan to cook).  I am also accustom to low-carbing, so the introduction of Almond milk, Oatmeal, and Arnold’s High Fiber Sandwich rounds, and fruit is a very new concept.  I will say that when I do include these items into my daily meals, I am super energetic.  My body typically stores carbohydrates and as a result I do not lose any weight.  We will see how this eating plan works out. 

Observations = Something that I have observed is that I feed off of the other Test Group members.  So many people have encouraged me to finish a set or to push harder.  I also feel like it is my responsibility to push 110% because it encourages others to do the same. 

Goals – It took me a while to figure out what I should be eating, where to shop for these items, and how to fit the workouts, cooking, and eating into my schedule.  Today I cooked a ton of food that should cover my meals for the whole week.  Last week I cooked nothing and bought everything pre-cooked or raw, but I would practically starve if I ran out of something.  I also failed to complete the extra workout.  Moving forward, I am going to try to mix it up by having some raw pre-cooked meals and some frozen pre-cooked meals so that I don’t go hungry.  I am also adding two workouts to my Mon-Thursday schedule so that my weekend activities do not prevent me from completing the extra workout.

Set next (this) week’s goals:  My goals for this week are to add two cardio-sessions before bootcamp on Monday and Wednesday.  I will be doing an interval low-impact elliptical workout.  I may also add some light weights depending on the bootcamp schedule.  In addition, I will create a budget and official shopping list so that I can better manage my diet.  

1 comment:

  1. Rest until you can go harder. Check your HRM and make sure you don't go near your MAX (220-age= Max). How did your two extra cardio secessions go this week? If you have more days you are working on cardio, you can focus more on building muscle in class.

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