Fitness Case Study - Week Eight Recap

I am morphing.  Changing into something that I have never been before. When I enter the locker room at the gym, I feel like Clark Kent entering his phone booth!  My breath comes faster and my heart starts to pound as I think about the task at hand.  There is a cloud of mystery around me during each and every workout as I push harder and harder.  


In the back of my mind, a little voice repeats "Are you sure about this?  Can you really do this? What if you hurt yourself?".  But - in the forefront of my mind, there is another voice (oh boy, I wonder if I should be telling you all this.  I'll probably end up in a straight jacket!  LOL!  I hear voices...", a much louder voice that says, "Go girl!  Push it!  Is that all you're gonna' do?  Go hard or go home!".  


Whooo hoooo!  This is when you know you're alive!  When you get to do something that literally, without fail, pushes you closer to your goal every single time you do it!
  

During week eight, I stuck to my guns about NOT allowing perfectionism to come to the gym with me.  I left it behind and instead of quitting when my strength started to waiver, I pushed on, sometimes shaking, sometimes growling but all the time knowing that it was the right thing to do and the real way to train.  I welcomed the "new fatigue" that I experienced with this extra effort, knowing that it's how I'm supposed to feel.  

Week eight also marked the end of my "growing phase" for the case study.  That's not to say that I'm done growing my muscles!  I still have LOTS of work to do in that department.  The girls just want me to experience what it's like to sort of "lean out" for competition.   The biggest change to my program is that I get to do cardio again.  That's exciting to me, I've been missing it.  In addition, my calories are a little bit lower but still plenty high to maintain the muscle I've developed thus far.  When I finish the case study, my calories will probably go back up and I'll probably stop doing cardio for a while.  This is so that I can focus on muscle growth and development again.  Then later, closer to my show date, I'll drop the calories, reintroduce the cardio and do a real competition prep.  

There's a new journal entry, progress picture and measurements on the Recipe For Fitness website.  Just scroll to the bottom of the page to find the pic.  I'm fairly pleased with the progress I see, especially when I remind myself that I've only been at it for eight weeks!

Happy Tuesday, dear reader!