Monthly Archives: February 2007

TT W8D3: The Evils of Singing Shows

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I did today’s workout at home due to a late wake up, which in turn was due to my staying up past 1 AM recording 4 new songs at SingShot.com after watching both American Idol and Grease: You’re The One That I Want on DVR following Heroes. The problem with watching cheesy singing competition shows when you are a karaoke fanatic is that they invariably make you want to go out singing, but you have to go to work the next day and you are already in your schleppy stay-at-home clothes. Thank goodness Singshot is around for situations like that.

The workout felt pretty good this morning although I need to get to the gym to perform it next time since I am already maxed out on squats using the Powerblock barbell setup I have at home. I really tried for a 7th chin-up each superset, too, but it just isn’t happening yet. Maybe after I drop about 10 lbs or so. As a 5’6″ female, it’s just tough to pull my current body weight up. It’s about time for me to move up to 35 lb dumbbells on the step-ups though. Got in my whey/dextrose/BCAA shake during and after workout, chased it with another dose of BCAAs, and am on schedule with meals, water, and supps (multivitamin, calcium+D, fish oil) so far.

I am going to see about making a Palm OS HandBase database and entry form to track and record my TT workouts and nutrition this weekend. I’ve made modules to handle other training programs in the past, and I’m tired of looking at my own sloppy chicken scratch on my printed TT workout log sheets.

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TODAY’S WORKOUT:

– TT for Women – Week 7 Workout B
A1) Chin-ups (Full/eccentric – 3 x 6/2, 6/2, & 6/2)
A2) BB Sumo Squat (3×8 @ 135 lbs)
B1) DB Step-up (3×8 @ 30 lbs)
B2) Cable Lateral Raise (3×8 using resistance tubing at home)

– 1.5 mile walk around the office complex parking lot during lunch
– Core B also during lunch break or after work
– Bodyweight interval circuit (a.k.a. “TT Torture Session”) at home after work

TT W8D2: Tightening Things Up

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(2/27/07 Workout – Upper body circuit with trainer)

– Seated barbell military press (Smith machine, 3×15 @ 40 lb total plates)
– Upright Smith machine row (3 x 15 @ 30 lb total plates)
– BB tricep bench press (3 x 15 @ 55 lb)
– BB standing bicep curls (3 x 15 @ 40/30 lb)

My left shoulder felt a bit twingy this morning when performed any arm movements that crossed over the front of my body, but was fine by the middle of the workout. Due to the lack of rest between exercises, I found that my forearms were too exhausted to perform all 15 reps of BB curls at 40 lbs, and I had to drop weight down to 30 to finish the set in circuits 2 and 3.

Cardio, which I did on my own, was a 20 minute interval run (4, 5, 6, 7, and 9.5 mph for one minute each; repeat) with 5 minutes of warm up and 5 minutes of cooldown. I haven’t been running regularly since I ran a 5k on January 20, so I took it a bit easy today.

Pre-workout supplement: 3 scoops MRM BCAA + Glutamine
Post-workout shake: 1 scoop whey protein blend, 3 scoops BCAA/Glutamine, 1 scoop dextrose
Water: 4 cups

I may do some yoga or TT core work tonight while watching Heroes on the DVR.

As recommended by Jen Heath on the TTmembers.com forum, I am keeping my deficit conservative at this time and consuming 1700-1800 calories/day on average. I have also added BCAAs back into my pre- and post-workout nutrition. I’m thinking that I’ll have to give up the 4 cheats/week (90% compliance rule) allowed by Precision Nutrition and just work on more consistent and cleaner meals though, as I find that I just get better results with just one cheat a week and a diet that doesn’t vary much from day to day. I’m going to structure my nutrition more along the lines of the TT nutrition model this week and see where that takes me.

My deficit is so small that I feel that eating clean is more important than ever. I just don’t have the leeway to shrug off a few hundred unplanned calories, unlike the days when I was limping along (and freezing to death) at 1200 calories/day.

TT W7D4: Mmm…Veggies

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It’s that time of year again–time to get going with another season of veggie gardening to supplement my heavy vegetable addiction. Actually, it’s BEEN that time of year since November when winter failed to turn up. My Brazilian oval orange eggplant which produced only one measly fruit all last year due to a persistent hornworm infestation of all my tomato, pepper, and eggplant plants is now covered by pendulous bright orange fruits the size of premium Christmas ornaments.

Yes, that’s right.

Eggplants in February.

I’m behind on my planning, but I learned a lot last year about veggie gardening in Florida–what works, what doesn’t, and just how much I LOATHE tomato hornworms.

This year I am nixing the decorative wall of moonflower and morning glory vines because, just imagine, gypsy moths (the mamas and papas of those nasty plant-destroying hornworms) are attracted to said flowers. UGH. No wonder all my nearby tomato and pepper plants were chewed down to stumps. My garden was like a Stop ‘N’ Go for hornworm breeding. I am also giving up on berries of any sort. They just don’t like the Florida summers, and I could use the space for things that DO thrive.

Here is what I plan to put in this year:
– Transplant second Emperor lychee tree (currently in large pot) in the ground after removing strawberries
– Papaya tree from seed
– Peppers: habenero, pimiento, Thai giant, jalapeno, Bulgarian carrot, red hot cherry, Thai nippon taka, early Sunsation, California Wonder, Beauty Bell, probably some others…
– Tomatoes: Green zebra, purple calabash, yellow pear, Roma
– Greens: pak choi, Malabar spinach, green onions, mesclun mix, loose leaf lettuce mix, Swiss chard
– Peas/Beans: Sugar snap peas, snow peas, and soy/edamame
– Eggplant: Fairy Tale hybrid, Pingtung long, Rosa Bianca
– Other: Sweetpotatoes…lots and lots. Nothing else survives in the summer.
– Transplant daylilies and angel’s trumpets currently in containers into the ground somewhere.

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TODAY’S WORKOUT

Chest/Back with Trainer
– BB Flat Bench Press (12 @ 95 lbs, 10 @ 105 lbs, 8 @ 105 lbs)
– BB Incline Bench Press (12 @ 65 lbs, 10 @ 75 lbs, 8 @ 80 lbs)
– DB Row (4×12 @ 25 lbs)
– Close Grip Seated Cable Row (4×12 @ 85, 70, 70 lbs)

TTW7 Workout A
A1) BB Romanian Deadlift (3×8 @ 95, 105, 115 lbs)
A2) DB Flat Chest Press (3×8 @ 35, 35, 40 lbs)
B1) DB Row (3×8 @ 30, 30, 35 lbs)
B2) Elevated (Kneeling) Push-ups (3×8 per side)

TTW7 Core A

– Cardio: Plyo X DVD after work

TTW7D1: Am I The Only One?

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HowManyOfMe.com
Logo There are:
9
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Apparently not. 😆

A couple of the DJs on my local talk radio station were talking about the HowManyOfMe.com web site during my lunchtime drive to pick up my lunch via the bank and gas station today. Of course the first thing I did when I got back was plug my own name into the database to see how many other Maggies, Wangs, and Maggie Wangs lived in the USA.

We wouldn’t even fill up an aerobics class.

How many people share YOUR first and last name?

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TODAY’S WORKOUT

– Shoulder Circuit with Trainer
1) DB Seated Shoulder Press (3×15/12/12 @ 25 lbs)
2) DB Bent Over Lateral Raise (3×15 @ 7.5 lbs)
3) DB Side Lying Lateral Raise (3×15 @ 7.5 lbs)
4) DB Front Raise (3×15 @ 12.5 lbs)

– TT Weeks 5-8 Workout B
A1) Chin-ups (3×8)
A2) BB Sumo Squat (3×8 @ 135, 155, and 155 lbs)
B1) DB Step-up (3×8 @ 30 lbs)
B2) Cable Lateral Raise (3×8 @ 20, 20, 20 lbs)

– TT Core Training B

Free Pink and Woodcraft Magazines and Alwyn Cosgrove Teleseminar

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I have a couple of freebies to share today:

Mercury Magazines, a trade magazine distributor, is giving away free one-year subscriptions to Pink, a magazine for financially savvy working women by the publishers of Inc. The subscription is 7 issues and is sold on Amazon.com for $19.95 normally. You have to fill in a questionnaire about your current job so the system can match you up with additional free trade magazines related to your position.

Here’s the blurb from the site:

PINK profiles America’s most influential women in business and gives readers cutting-edge strategies and emerging trends to help gain career success.

There’s also a free 7-issue subscription to Woodcraft magazine available.

On the fitness front, today’s free Ultimate Body Makeover teleseminar features tell-it-like-it-is strength and conditioning coach Alwyn Cosgrove, author of the Afterburn fat loss program and the New Rules of Lifting.

As always, you can either dial in tonight after reserving a spot here:
http://www.myultimatebodymakeover.com/alwyn/

Or check out the recorded log tomorrow at http://www.myultimatemakeoverseries.com

The previous teleseminars can also be found on the same archive site.

Rachel Cosgrove on Boyle’s “Why (most) Women Shouldn’t Run”

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This article was included in Rachel Cosgrove’s newsletter today. I thought I’d share it here since I believe she makes some valid points.

Do you agree? Disagree? Why?

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(If you missed -Why Women Shouldn’t Run, Part 1 and 2 Click Here)

Response to Mike Boyle’s article, “Why (most) Women Shouldn’t Run”

By Rachel Cosgrove

When I first read Mike Boyle’s article, “Most Women Shouldn’t run,” it immediately made sense to me and I absolutely agree with what he is saying. Now this is coming from someone who is currently training for an Ironman endurance event in which I will run a marathon. I am also a coach for the triathlon team for Team in Training. So, yes I am an endurance athlete and I coach endurance athletes yet I agree 100% with what Mike is saying.

Continue reading »

TT W6D4: Star Wars, Workouts, Valentine’s Day, and More Wedding Stuff

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Things are starting to get busy at work again now that we are signed to develop the Nintendo DS version of the upcoming Lucas Arts title, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. There were many semi-late nights last week that kept me from signing up officially for capoeira class, but I will give it a shot next week. If you want to become a video game developer, you can pretty much kiss any hopes of regular evening classes of any sort goodbye. 🙁

I had a great shoulder workout Tuesday followed by half of a TT workout and bike sprints. I took a break yesterday, but was back full force this morning with a back circuit and TT workout B followed by some incline treadmill walking. I’ll do my real TT intervals tomorrow morning.

Food has been thrown off by the addition of some high sodium beef jerky I picked up as an alternative to the endless monotony of whey shakes. The main side effect is some serious water retention in the neighborhood of 3 lbs or so. I may have to rethink the beef jerky since it is masking my progress. I’m also experiencing some random itchies that may or may not be linked to the preservatives in the jerky. I don’t eat any other processed foods at the moment, so that stuff is the prime suspect. I’ll definitely be cleaning things up for the next three days before the next set of progress pics and measurements.

(Wait, I take that back. Last night was a Valentine’s cheat meal of steak, lobster, scallops, green beans, and angel hair pasta with 5 cheese marinara, all prepped at home. Amazingly enough, I didn’t do the bulk of the cooking. Chris managed 90% of it all by himself. And Friday will be another company potluck blowout, so there goes the plan of eating super clean for Saturday’s progress check. I may postpone until Sunday….)

In wedding news, we’ve attended a food tasting at our venue and narrowed down the menu options. I spent most of last week putting together a wedding information site based on WordPress 2.1 and about five or six free plugins that give the page all the functionality of a $30-$80 paid wedding site package. Our guests will be able to RSVP, contact us, check out Orlando weather, read about the location, accommodations and events, sign up for updates, register for events, and update their mailing addresses. I am working on a tutorial on how to set up a similar site for next week.

I also found a decent channel-set baguette diamond and white gold band at Overstock.com that looks pretty good with the engagement bling (which has baguette diamond accents) for a reasonable $109. It looks nice and sparkly by itself, too, and is light with a low profile that won’t get caught on anything. It’s at the jeweler right now being sized down from a 6 to a 4. Chris also found a modern style ring he liked in nearly indestructible tungsten carbide from Tungstenworld.com (style: Mattino), but we are waiting on the company to send their plastic ring sizer gadget before ordering so we don’t get the wrong size. I also emailed them about the availability of size 4 tungsten carbide rings (Hey, Chris isn’t the only one who is rough on jewelry! I’m the one who is elbow deep in raw chicken, garden detritus, or dirty pans most days.), and they responded that they will start stocking size 4’s within 2 weeks. Granted, a 6 mm wide TC ring won’t really match the current engagement bling, but it’s nice to know I have options.

We have furthermore decided to forego the traditional overpriced monstrosity of a wedding cake for five light, fruity sponge cakes from a Taiwanese bakery and five super dense and rich Decadent Dessert cakes from Publix–including German chocolate and Boston creme. That will be a lot tastier by far, and it won’t send us over budget. Come on…It’s just CAKE, not one of the fabled Peaches of Immortality. There’s no reason that flour, eggs, sugar, leavening, food coloring, and oil should cost hundreds of dollars.

TODAY’S WORKOUT
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– Back Circuit with Trainer
1) Bent Over Cable Row (3×15 @ 90 lbs)
2) Supinated Lat Pulldown (3×15 @ 70 lbs)
3) Weighted Hyperextensions (3×15 @ 20 lbs)
4) DB Single-Leg Roman Deadlifts (3×8 @ 15 lbs each side)

– TT Week 5-8 Workout B
A1) Chin-ups (3×8)
A2) BB Sumo Squat (3×8 @ 95, 115, and 135 lbs)
B1) DB Step-up (3×8 @ 30 lbs)
B2) Cable Lateral Raise (3×8 @ 10, 20, 20 lbs)
Core Training B

– LISS Incline Walk (3.7-4.0 mph / 6% incline)