Legs, calves, and abs

I know I’ve been slacking on the blog, but I’ve not been slacking in the gym! I just haven’t had a chance to really sit down and write lately. I do have some good news though. I lost 3 pounds! All I did was switch my regular bread to 14 grain whole wheat, my regular peanut butter to low sodium, and my 1% milk to skim. I shed those pounds in just a week too. These were just small changes. I’m sure if I chose whole grain bread instead of whole wheat and went with tasteless low-fat all natural peanut butter I’d see even more pounds lost. However, I refuse to give up taste for pounds. I don’t want to be miserable. If you can live with those bigger changes though..do it! I’m just a picky eater! I really don’t feel like going back to the last day I had a blog and working my way forward, so today’s blog will pick up with what I did yesterday.

10 minute warm up

     -  Instead of trudging my minutes away on the hamster wheel, I decided to do a brisk walk outside. I can actually walk to the gym from Cory’s house so that worked. It was too beautiful of a day to not walk outside.

Squats
     -  2 warm up sets, 3 sets of 12-15 reps
     -  My knees been giving me some problems so Cory has put me on a lower weight/higher rep routine. I like this a lot better actually. Instead of trying to handle a lot of weight, I just use what is comfortable and do as many reps as I can with that. I still get a great burn in my legs too.

Ab bench

     -  3 sets of 20
     - My old faithful standby! I don’t know why I love this machine so much, but I do. I think it’s because I always feel the burn and the effects.

Leg extensions

     -  3 sets of 20
     -  Because of the knee issue I started doing lower weight/higher reps on this exercise too. I was walking on shaky legs after I got done. That many reps will wear you out! If you want to just keep doing it how we were then just up the weight and lower the reps to 10.

Ab bench

     -  3 sets of 20
     -  Your stomach probably feels like you have a knot in it by now, but keep going. Be proud of yourself for doing 120 weighted crunches!

Seated calf-raises

     -  3 sets of 15-20
     -  I absolutely hate calf raises! Probably because my calves are so weak. They hurt so bad today I can’t even point my toe! Unfortunately that means I need to do more of them. My goal is 20 reps, but right now I’m holding steady at 15. Once I hit 20 on every set I’ll amp up the weight.

Dumbbell side bend

     -  3 sets of 15 on both sides
     -  I love working out my obliques. They are a difficult muscle to work, but the effects are always worth it. It is one of the worst places to be sore in my opinion though!


Notes from Courtney: Unfortunately by switching up the foods I eat I have proven that saying I hate so much: "Abs are made in the kitchen not in the gym." I always knew that weight loss is 80% diet, but I always thought I could out exercise a semi-bad diet. I have been eating pretty well, but clearly by just making a few changes I see there is room for improvement. We'll see how that goes. I might just work out harder so I can keep my tasty peanut butter :-)