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Hard. Work.

Happy Sunday everyone.  I hope you all had a good start to your first work week in the New Year.  According to studies, the first Monday after the new year is the most depressing day of the year.  I guess it has something to do with getting back to work after the holidays.  I don't know about you, but I was quite optimistic.  I didn't go into work until Tuesday, and I was ready to get back to the gym because I missed it.

I'm also approaching 2014 with a different plan.  Like I mentioned before, I'm focusing on 6 goals that I hope to complete by the end of 2014, and I'm working with my trainer to make sure I get there.  So before I took the plunge and go going, we needed to meet to develop a plan., and my plan focusing on strength building and conditioning.

We were scheduled to meet after our Kettlebell class on Wednesday, and I'll admit I was a bit nervous about stepping back in there knowing how poorly it ended last year in December.  I don't even know why I was tripping because I did great.  As usual, I challenged myself, and I was most happy with how I completed my plank rows, which are quite tough.

After class, I was presented with the first four weeks of my strength building plan, Wendler 5/3/1.  The focus is to build strength by cycling through four weight-bearing exercises over a four week plan.  Each session depends on your max rep weight.  Once you figure your max rep weight, you using that as a basepoint, and start lifting based on a percentage of that weight.

My first four weeks will be used to determine what my max rep basepoint is, so we are starting a bit conservative.  So my first four weeks will look like the following:


 
As you can see, I'm quite serious about my lifting plan.  I'm starting tomorrow so wish me luck. I'm quite excited about it.  I'll lift four days a week alternating between upper and lower body work to give my muscle groups plenty of rest.
 
I'll still continue with my cardio and I'll be fitting in Zumba and other activities as usual.  Kettlebells will still be on Wednesdays, so I'm hoping my body will hold up.  I was exhausted after this week.  I really put my all into my workouts this week, and although the "scale" didn't report much, my jeans sure did by being loser than they were last week.  I'm not going to flip out and go Bezerk just because the scale showed me some bullshit.  But I still need to weigh in since it gives me a baseline on my calorie content.
 
Hard work!  That's what it takes.  I'm not giving up.  I'm pushing on.  I should have a pretty interesting entry next week since I'll be reporting on my first week of muscle building.  Cheers! 
 
One more thing... I was asked to submit a quick summary of my weight loss journey for work, and I'm happy to report I am being featured for the Success Story for January 2014.  I was quite happy with the distinction.  If I can inspire one person to take the plunge for better health and wellness, it's more than worth it.
 



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