Day 7 - 6-Pack, Here I Come...

A few months ago, I bought myself "The Abs Diet" by the editor of Men's Health; the title's a bit misleading, since it's not so much a "Diet" as it is a "lifestyle" - ultimately, nothing's "off-limits" though there are the "Abs Diet 12 Power Foods," with which you're supposed to concentrate most of your meals around (things like whole grains, lean meats, spinach, nuts, olive oil, etc). You're also supposed to try and eat 6 times a day; 3 meals and 3 "snacks" (like the walnuts & dried cherries mentioned before).

It's an awesome way to eat, and I have found myself basically never hungry, and feeling healthier, lighter, and more energized. I HIGHLY recommend reading it, b/c it's full of really useful, helpful information.

The book also has a workout program that I have found to be MUCH more enjoyable, faster, and more effective than traditional lifting. Basically, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are days to lift; you do an exercise for each major muscle broup, both upper and lower body, in a circuit. So basically, I do one set of squats, then move right on to one set of bench press, then right to one set of lat pulldowns, etc. At first, I thought this method would be really difficult in a gym b/c you're moving from machine to machine, and so often you have to wait till someone's done.

However, I found the opposite to be true; b/c you're not doing 3 sets of each machine, you can easily walk up to a machine even if someone's on it, and ask if you can jump on for just one set. No one's gonna say "no" and so I'm able to do 2 circuits in under 40 minutes - WAY easier and less time-consuming than before.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, you're supposed to do a quick set of 5 different Ab Exercises before the lifting, one exercise for each area of the abdominals - they include easy to follow illustrations and instructions (like the picture at the top) of how to do each, and it takes about 7 minutes. You also do Abs on Saturdays. And lastly, the days in-between are meant for cardio, so those are the days that I'm doing my running for the Parvus Challenge.

Today, since I wasn't running, was a day to do some lifting, and I did a decent job (though I'm running a little ragged w/ all the running around town I have to do as I'm leaving)... I have a feeling that next week is gonna be a "slow" week for training, as Thursday is my last day of work and I'm fitting everything I can in to the next week... So I'll probably be talking more about the places I've gone than the working out I've done... ;)