Working on My Fitness

Oh weekend!  I love weekends.  How about you?  It didn't help that the weather was absolutely gorgeous!  It makes me want summer to be here already.  My hubby and I dated each other all weekend.  We called it one giant date since we hung out together the whole time minus an hour or so when we separated do do our own thing at the gym!  Some may call us sick, but I think it's fun always having a buddy to hang out with!

Workouts
While I'm waiting for my pictures to load with the food, I realize that I haven't talked about my new workout schedule too much around here.  Yep, I've been working it out and it's been about two weeks into my new badass lifting routine.  As I mentioned earlier, I have been a cardio queen for much of my life, including the last year.  I was trying to get all toned and stuff for my wedding and now that I don't have the pressure of 1,000 pictures and being the center of attention of 100 of my closest friends, I decided to shift my focus and work on getting totally yoked.  As a disclaimer, I don't build muscle very easily.  In fact, it's taken me about four years to get any tone on my arms.  My goal has always been fat loss, but I'm experimenting to see what happens!  As another disclaimer, I'm no expert (duh) and am not under the guidance of any fitness professional.

Anyhoo, here is a sample week:
Sunday: Legs day- around 4 exercises including lunges, squats, leg press, donkey kicks, and various machines.  I try to use my own body weight mostly because I store most of my mass in my lower body.  I hate legs because I usually can't walk up the stairs for the next 3 days.  Legs day is also coupled with about 30 minutes of cardio.

Monday: Chest and Triceps- I do 4 exercises for chest including different kinds of press and do a combo of machines/bar/dumbells/cables.  Sometimes I burn out with pushups.  For tris I do 3-4 exercises including dips and also combine machines and cables.  I love doing chest.  I hate doing tris because they hurt!  I mix this with 30-35 minutes of intervals on the treadmill/stairmill/elliptical.


Tuesday/Wednesday: Back and Biceps- Again, 4 exercises for back (my favorite!!) including lat pulls, upright rows, assisted pullups, and a combo of another machine.  I follow this up with 3 bi exercises, again doing a combo of dumbell curls, machines, and cables.  One of these days is usually a rest day and I also throw in 30-35 minutes of cardio intervals


Thursday: Cardio I usually do about 45 or 50 minutes of steady cardio.  Last week I did walk/run intervals on the dreadmill and it was fun!

Friday: Now that I don't have class on Friday nights, it's either shoulders by themselves (4 exercises), shoulders and abs, or more cardio.  Sometimes I work out by eating chocolate at home.

Saturday: Rest day!  Weekend rest days almost always include walks or bike rides when it's warm out

Thoughts: So far I've been having a fairly good time adding lifting to my routine.  I usually do it by myself because hubby is usually on his own schedule and I get too impatient waiting for machines.  I can almost always find a substitute and since I have a loose idea of the muscle group I want to work that day, I don't throw a roid rage if I can't get to my machine.  I was a little anxious about cutting the cardio and have an impulse to do it longer, but I have found my heart rate to be high enough while I lift.  I also don't take breaks to speak to my buddies about protein powder or pick up on unsuspecting gym folks, so I feel like I'm still working hard.  I also try to do as heavy as I can and have been able to increase weights so far.  Whether related to lifting weights, or lifting cookies (I am still having about one treat per day), I am up about two pounds.  I have not noticed a large increase in appetite, but I will give my routine another couple of weeks before I change it up!

Now that I'm pooped and all of a sudden tired from the time change, I leave you with a couple of highlights:
Sunshine filled latte and OIAJ!

Leftover whole wheat pasta with chicken, veggies and extra spicy pickles:

New favorite snack:  Cheese, apple and crackers:

Questions for you: Have you tried anything new in your workout routine?  Fitness divas, feel free to give me constructive ideas!
A couple of fabulous bloggers have recently posted every single food they ate...Is this something you would want to see from me?