Workout

I'm trying out this new style of working out, inspired by this girl. She talks about the different ways she trains for a competition, and I thought I would give some of it a try, as well as trying out some of her tricks for controlling food binges. There are two stages to her prep for competitions: a cardio-intensive workout season and an "improvement season". The cardio-focused workout involves her doing double cardio sessions a day in addition to her weight lifting, which consists of several lower-weight reps/sets one right after another to keep the heart rate up during lifting. This is the time to lose fat. During her improvement season, she focuses less on cardio (although still does it once a day) but shifts her focus on lifting more weight. This is the time to build muscle and sculpt.

I have already been lifting weights with Ryan at the gym, but I know that I need more cardio in my life. Since Ryan has mentioned that he'd like to focus more on losing fat right now than bulking up, I thought this routine might work. So, I convinced Ryan to give it a try. He seemed a little hesitant because he had been told that this kind of weight lifting results in those skinny but slightly toned guys in the gym, which is not necessarily his goal. But I reminded him that he wanted to focus on the fat first anyway, so why not give this a try for a few weeks, just until we lose enough fat for him to start wanting to focus on bulking up? He eventually agreed.

So here's our routine:

> 5am: Wake up, have breakfast, and go to the gym for cardio (this morning we did the stairmaster for 20 min -- ah!!! I was dripping with sweat).
> 7am-4pm: Work (Lunch).
> 4pm-6pm: Back at the gym for cardio focused weight-lifting and another cardio session. We will be doing legs today, so we'll pick lower weights and do twice as many reps as usual, while switching between other exercises immediately to keep the heart rate up. I haven't decided what cardio I'll do. Perhaps the bike since I might not be able to stand after leg lifts... (Ideally, we'd have protein shakes after, but I think we forgot to pack them this morning.)
>6pm-9pm: Ryan is in class, and I'll be making lunch and dinner for the next day. I need to get better about prepping meals ahead of time.
>9:30pm: Dinner. It's not ideal to be eating so late, but it'll be a smaller meal, and we'll likely stay up for a couple hours anyway.
>11pm: Bed. Again, ideally we'd be going to bed earlier, but you work with what you've got, and we've got little time.

I'll let you know how this goes!! I've heard the first week is the hardest and we are only on day one...

As a side note, I  love how the girl mentioned above emphasizes that food is not the enemy. It is necessary for a healthy and beautiful body. But she also talks about how it has to be clean, which seems to work well with our goals for food as well :) check it out!