So what is this all about? It's not about my personal life (well maybe sort). It's about my life for fitness, which kind of makes it personal because fitness is really kind of my life. Here and there you will probably read, if anyone actually reads this, things about my kids and our crazy life. However, this is really about my love for fitness. I have always considered myself a fit person, so this isn't about my new fitness journey to lose weight, blah blah blah. I have though recently changed my approach to fitness. Up until about 5 months ago, my focus was always cardio, running in particular. Not the professional kind of running to win some huge race, just the running to stay in shape, running to max the Army PT test, running to participate in fun road races. I would weight lift here and there, but really when I said I 'worked out' today, that meant I went for a run. I would also eat whatever I wanted. Genetically blessed with a decent metabolism, that was fine in my adolescent years and early twenties. So while running and eating whatever I wanted, I never was able to achieve the type of tone and definition I had always wanted. I would see fitness models with nice looking muscles. I always thought if they could look like that, why not I? I am not different than they are. So that is what I set out to do, tone and define my muscles. For no particular reason, other than for myself. I didn't do this to compete, to model, to body build, etc. This was and is simply for me. I like what I see. Everyone's preference is different, however, mine is pretty muscles, but not too muscular to look manly.
I set out to define my muscles through http://www.bodybuilding.com/ Jamie Eason's LiveFit 12-week trainer (http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jamie-eason-livefit-trainer.html). AMAZE! I loved it, still love it, and you will love it too. The whole basis is clean eating and building muscle tone, definition, and strength while decreasing body fat. I know that I started the program around 20% body fat. I have not measured myself since; although I'm sure I am lower. I will do so in the near future and report back. I don't weigh myself. I don't count calories. I don't measure my macronutrients. The program does call for both of those tasks in phase 2 and phase 3. I simply stuck to the suggested foods and meal plan. I cut out sugars. I changed my eating habits. That being said, the Chase household ALWAYS cheats. We try to keep it to once a week and it's usually pizza night on Friday nights. We also very rarely drink alcohol. For a few reasons, one - we just don't have a HUGE interest any more (thank gosh), two - we just don't have a lot of time to think about it, and three - it has a lot of sugar and alcohol inhibits fat loss.
Where am I today? I finished the 12-week program in early April. Now I'm doing less structured of weight lifting, but still a little structured. It makes sense in my head, let's put it that way. :) I'm starting to dabble in Crossfit with Matt. He is encouraging me to lift heavier and really challenging myself. If it weren't for him, I probably wouldn't 'do' Crossfit. We don't belong to a Crossfit gym. We either use the gym on post or we use the equipment we have in our garage. For now, it works just fine. While my focus has not been cardio for the past handful of months, the crazy Chases are competing in a duathalon this weekend - run 2 miles, bike 14 miles, run two miles. Biking has always been my weakest sport. We are running a half marathon in two weeks [on the side of a mountain none the less]. Basically we just want to survive.
Benchmarks (to keep myself accountable):
1 rep max:
Squat 185 lbs
Shoulder Press 85 lbs
Dead Lift 185 lbs
Clean 105 lbs
What do I plan to do today? Crossfit workout "Angie"
For time:
100 pull ups (I can't do these on my own yet, so I use a resistance band on the pull up bar to offset weight)
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 squats
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