Half and Whole.. It's Birthday Week People!

This is going to be a great week, I can just feel it! Yesterday, there was no workout and I got an early day off work! It was such a great day, until 8:30 rolled around and I found out I was having a Bachelorette watching party (thanks Jess and CJ). That show might be the most pathetic and ridiculous thing I've ever seen.

This is also the week of birthdays. Sunday was my home girl Melissa's half birthday, and one of my very sweet and favorite "sister's" birthday, Janell. Those two are two of my very closest and favorite people I met in Kansas. Yesterday was Jesus's half birthday, and to finish of the halves, today is Nutmeg's 1/2 birthday! That's my sister's dog. Isn't he adorable?

 

He did that himself.. Talented snuggler

Wednesday is Jack's birthday (my Kansas neighbor friend who moved to Greensboro), Thursday is CJ's birthday, and Friday is Meredith's birthday. Holy crap people. That's a lot of births. However, this week conveniently falls on my last week of bulking! Which also means I get another cheat meal! I think I'm going to actually have a cheat meal and not just a grilled chicken sandwich WITH the bun. Rebel, I know. But this busy week also means hello 5am gym crowd! Yay. I'm okay with this actually, I love working out in the am, I just don't like having to work after it. But whatever, I need to get back to my bed by 8:30 up by 4:30 routine. There have been too many 5am nights in my last three weeks, and it is seriously screwing me up. I was up until 11:15 last night playing Minesweeper. Really, Susie?

Workout today was great. Mere dropped my reps to 4-6 for some exercises so I can really lift as much as possible. It felt awesome, but I was a little disappointed that it fell on a week where my shoulder is aching me. The pullups I really wanted to get unassisted this week, but I had to do them with 2 plates off (less than 8# which is still awesome) because the pulling up irritated my shoulder. If I could take a week off I think it would be good, I really think it's just a little anterior impingement because the rotator cuff tendons are inflammed. It feels better each day, and now it's really just bringing it down from forward flexion or abduction that bothers me. I also have some crepitus on both shoulders (abrasive test for you PTs) which indicates an abrasion of the torn tendon margins against the coracoacromial arch. But since I have it in both shoulders, and my left isn't painful at all anymore, I'm not as concerned with that. 30 year old Susie is going to hate 24 year old me. I promise to take time off and get healed come November. Anyway:

Back and Core:
Pullups
Bentover BB Rows on the smith machine
Lat Pull downs - narrow grip
Single Arm DB Rows
V Sits
Stability Ball Crunchs + Med Ball OH

Great workout, but glad to be done. 30 days into Meredith's program and I'm feeling great. I think I have picked a competition, with her help of course, and it's in Greensboro November 3. 18 weeks from this Saturday. Wow. There is also a competition Aug 25th by the same guy in Greensboro that I'll be going to just to check it out, if anyone wants to come.

Nutrition today was also spot on. I planned out every meal this AM before eating my second meal of the day and that works so much better for me. I don't cheat, I don't consider subbing things, and I get everything in that I need. If I take it meal by meal, I tend to want to splurge on some extra fat or proteins here and there and then at the end of the day I need like 50g carbs, 0.2g fat, and a random amount of proteins that makes it so difficult to meet. This is much better for me. Organization and planning pays off people!

Well, gym time tomorrow is 5:30 am so that I can hang out with Jack for his birthday tomorrow. Can't wait but it'll be a busy day for me! Hope you all are having a great week, we're almost half way through, keep plowin through!

Oh and I wanted to give a S/O to my sister Anne for kicking ass at her leg workout yesterday! She worked them harder then anyone I know and now can't sit on the toilet or walk down stairs. Couldn't be more proud :)

Last Day

Today has just been one of those days. We have Fridays completely off, so you think I'd get everything taken care of today, right? Wrong. I wake up at 7:45 and proceed to lay around bed just playing minesweeper on my phone until 8:45am. Then I finally get out of bed, make breakfast - which was a delicious combination of eggs and everything in my fridge - and before you know it, it's 10 AKA prime sun time. So instead of going to the gym, doing homework, studying, I pack a bag and head to the pool. My bronze needed work and I was overwhelmed. Planned on leaving by 12:30, stayed until almost 2:30, and I have a nice red tan line across my neck as proof. Awesome.

I then had to watch the final episode of Grey's and (Possible Spoiler Alert!) boy was I disappointed! Not by the death, but by the ending. No one finds them? Seriously? Bad ending.. and are any of them even going to be surgeons anymore? You would think they would just add on 3-4 episodes and make this the final season since supposedly everyone's leaving. Oh well.

I was just about to head to the gym, when my best friend Melissa skyped me from Paris. She's been there all year, was supposed to come back by now, but instead is staying at least until August.. or whenever her Visa expires. It was 10 pm there.. and she was drunk. It was great. So, I didn't get my workout in because I am now on my way to dinner and the movie The Dictator with some new friends.

I just got a message back from Meredith about competing, and am super excited. She said (which I expected) that I need to build up my delts and back since I have a short thick torso to give it more of a V-taper. She thinks I need about 6 weeks to work on my upper body and then 16 weeks to focus on my diet, so that will put me around late October, early November for a competition. Yikes that's coming up quick. So today is the last day for cheat meals and from here on out I'm going to be 100% with my nutrition. I'll start posting my meals to give y'all an idea of what I'm doing. Wish me luck!

Before I go, though, I thought I'd clue you in to some huge food dilemmas I've been having lately. First, the mystery between cherry and grape tomatoes is this: one is shaped more round like a cherry, and one is shaped more oval like a grape. Guess which is which. This gem of information was given to me by my wonderful sister Anne. Second, a frozen banana may sound like a good addition to your PWO smoothies, BUT they are difficult to peel. So I'm thinking maybe peel them before you freeze them.. or just don't freeze them and add ice cubes.