Wow. It's been about two months since I made my last entry. When I made that entry, I was just getting back into the swing of things after some [somewhat] minor abdominal surgery. Well, everything has been going well - so well, in fact I haven't had time to blog! Well, I'm back to a full 100%, and I'll let you know how my workouts have been going.
First, I eased into my workouts exceedingly slowly. I didn't want to mess anything up with the surgery. I had a small umbilical hernia [which I had before I started lifting - but it only got worse over the past year and a half]. A hernia is a defect in the abdominal wall. Mine was small, but caused an prominent "outie" bellybutton which I could push back in, or reduce, if it ever extended out a little. It was becoming more bothersome and would occasionally push out and cause me pain, so I had it corrected. This consisted of making a small incision over the belly button and suturing closed the defective abdominal wall. It was a day surgery, which I did on a Friday, so I recovered over the weekend and only missed one day of work [though the monday after was harsh!].
I went to the gym for the first time 13 days after my surgery, and did very minimal [very slow] stairs. I stuck with exercises that did not increase my intra-abdominal pressure, and never did anything that caused considerable pain. I very very slowly began going to the gym more regularly, only doing cardio, and by 8weeks, I was working a weight routine back into the mix. Between 8-10 weeks, I worked ab exercises back into the mix too, again exceedingly slowly.
Well, my slow but steady pace paid off, and now, as I said at the beginning of this blog entry, I'm am back to 100%. Cardio and health wise, I'm probably in the best shape of my life. Strength wise, I'm not as strong as I have been in the past, but I have focused more on cardiac workouts and toning. I have slimmed down for the summer and am now at ~170#'s.
Perhaps the thing I am most proud of over the past two months is my diet. It has really been good - I'm making much of my food, and nearly always eating very healthy, in great control of my dietary intake, even when I eat out. If it is any inspiration for anyone out there trying to adhere to a diet, the diet part of my routine is possibly the hardest for me. I LOVE food! But I have been successful at eating good foods, that are good for me, and occasionally allowing myself small portions of foods that I love, but do not fall in line with the healthy nature of my dietary routine [like my absolute fav - pizza].
So my workout routine has been disciplined. I have really focused on cardio workouts with multiple days of 30min-1hour cardio workouts. Sometimes even longer. But I haven't neglected weights. To the contrary I have adhered to a very rigorous one muscle group per day each week. I cycled through chest, back, shoulders, arms, and legs each week, often with a day of circuit [one exercise for each of the muscle groups mentioned], and a day of cardio. Some weeks I would take a day of rest, or simply do light cardio. I would exercise abs twice weekly, and focus on calves at least once weekly.
When it comes to weights this has been my routine for sometime. This week I begin something anew. In my continual effort to change things up and keep my body guessing, I will start a routine that will look something like this: Chest/Tri's/Abs on day 1, Back/bi's/calves day 2, legs/abs day 3, and shoulders/arms/calves day 4. Day 5, oddly will be focused on the left side of my body, which is weaker than my right, to improve symmetry, and perhaps more legs, which I would like to focus on for this next month [I may split my legs workout into two days in this way]. Day 6 will focus on cardio exclusively, and day 7 will be for fun - mostly basketball.
I have also been incorporating swimming into my routine - but I am really not a good swimmer. All the more reason to improve and challenge myself! Likewise, while the weather where I live is nice [though hot] this time of year, I have been jogging outdoors more too.
As far as diet, I am going to continue with what I've been doing. I am planning on incorporating more complex carbs [I'm on a brown rice kick right now], and monitoring my meal times more carefully to look at when I'm putting food in my body.
So that's the update and the plan. The plan with this blog is to write when I can, and continue to bring fresh information and inspiration to anyone interested. Thanks for reading! -cb
