Bench Press Update v.2 .0

Exactly 1 month ago I posted an update on my bench press goals. Well take a look now!

	Sets	Reps	Weight
Week 1	5	4	50
	5	3	55
Week 2	4	4	55
	5	4	55
Week 3	5	3	60
	4	4	60
Week 4	5	4	60
	5	3	65
Week 5	4	4	65
	5	4	65
Week 6	5	3	70
	4	4	70
Week 7	5 5	4 3	70 75

I made it to 75lb. this past Thursday! I'm not done yet, because my goal is to bench press my body weight (which will mean completing a minimum of 2 reps), but I've made it as far as we originally charted. I'll continue following this pattern, and the next update you see will be when I make it!

Also, I just have to say... I was extremely encouraged and straight up proud of myself last Thursday, because I didn't just do 5 sets / 3 reps / 75lb. After I was done, Levi took 10lb off and said how many do you think you can do in a row? I was like...ehhhhhhhh. He said, 6? 7? Try to make it to 7. And I was like...ehhhhhhhh!! But you have to do what your trainer says, so I obliged. And here's what I did, consecutively:

15 at 65lb.
20 at 55 lb.
25 at 45 lb.

Levi then started depicting explosions with his hands next to his head. I was mildly confused until he said, Mind. Blown.

Mine too......mine.too.

P.S. - I also have to praise my man - he finished his Insanity workout program this week! I'm so proud of him! (And also selfishly relieved that 9 weeks of coming home from work to Shaun T on video and an exceedingly sweaty man in my living room doing jump squats in his underwear and tennis shoes...are over.)

Bench Press Update

I'm pretty proud of myself - I've stuck with my bench press schedule since I started! Here is where I'm at:

	Sets	Reps	Weight
Week 1	5	4	50
	5	3	55
Week 2	4	4	55
	5	4	55
Week 3	5	3	60
	4	4	60
Week 4	5	4	60
	5	3	65
Week 5	4	4	65
	5	4	65
Week 6	5	3	70
	4	4	70
Week 7	5 5	4 3	70 75

The blacked-out rows are what I have already done - so I'm 2.5 weeks in. I was dubious when I went up to 60 pounds yesterday, but I haven't been sore from it today, so maybe the next set will be easier. 50lb was pretty easy, so going to 55lb wasn't bad, but I started feeling the struggle at 60lb.

In more tangible terms, my upper arms have grown 1/4 of an inch! I don't think they'll get bulky (I actually prefer that they don't), but this has been great for muscle toning and I can really tell a difference.

So thanks for tracking with me! I'm a little unsure about my ability to keep with the schedule, especially around 70lb, but I have a little time before I get there and I can add an extra week if necessary. We'll see!

The Career Woman: A Misconception

Career Woman

If you are familiar with or grew up anywhere near conservative Christianity or the homeschool movement, you know "The Career Woman." She most likely does not homeschool her children, she is believed to not love God or her family as much as she should, and she certainly does not have her priorities in the right order. She is captivated by the idea of worldly success and her selfishness keeps her from making the sacrifices necessary to being a godly woman/wife/mother. She is placed in contrast to the more ideal woman who does not succumb to these "pressures" from the world outside her home. This woman is not distracted by outside ambition and she is more pleasing to the Lord because her aspirations lie almost solely within her home.

Sound familiar?

Of course there are women who spend the majority of their time in the home and don't pursue careers, yet they don't consider themselves more pleasing to the Lord simply on account of this. I appreciate you. I do not think any less of the woman who is not pursuing a career and is instead home raising precious children and nurturing a hard-working husband. I don't claim to know my future, and that life may be in it someday. That is not who this is about.

Several months ago I came across a blog post that spoke of the godly trophy wife every woman is supposed to want to become in contrast to our above-mentioned "Career Woman." It wasn't anything I hadn't heard before, and I wasn't particularly shocked by anything it contained...for the most part. It talked about how as Christian wives we are called to take care of our husbands, homes, children if we have them, etc. I don't disagree. It got offensive, however, when it started down the path of saying that these things can't be done if a woman has a job outside the home. In this specific instance it was just talking about a wife with no kids taking care of her husband, and the author straight up said that if you are holding the standard 9-5 job, you are not able to be a good wife. Come again?!

And this is the idea I disdain. Keep in mind, at this point we're just talking about a woman with a job, much less a woman pursuing a career. But let's go ahead and talk about that big bad word: Career. What does it mean? If you type "define: career" into Google this is what you'll get:"An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress." If I think about the meaning of this word in the context of my own life I realize that I am pursuing a career. Listen, everyone: I am a career woman. I have professional goals I want to achieve and I don't plan on just letting them dissolve after I have kids. I'm not even getting into the question of homeschooling right now, or how many hours a week you have to be home to be considered a "devoted enough" wife or mother. At this point in my life, that is irrelevant. Right now, I am a career woman and I am not ashamed of that. I am not just biding my time until I become impregnated and can finally start fulfilling my real calling. I am pursuing a career, and guess what - I can do that without sacrificing my femininity, without sacrificing my husband, and without sacrificing my God.

So why does the idea of a career woman carry such a negative connotation, and how can we start overcoming that misguided notion? You may contend, "But there are women who care about their careers more than their families and who will stop at nothing to be on top of their professional worlds even if it means neglecting the most important people in their lives!" Yes, there are women like that. And it may be one of the saddest things in the world. So instead of deciding that it's more holy to avoid a career, how about be the career woman who gets it right? Who pursues - yes, pursues her career without shame but still keeps her life in balance and shows her family that they are still the most important thing in the world to her. My husband knows that nothing in this life will be more valuable to me than he and our family is, but he is secure enough to encourage me in my pursuits and help me advance in my profession. He realizes that it doesn't have to be either/or, and I think it would behoove a lot of people in the conservative Christian community to realize the same. 

Of course you may say that all of this is really easy for me to say when I don't have kids, and that I have no idea the craziness that ensues when they come. I bet you're right. And this is another topic for another day, but I think there are options for moms who still have career goals in mind. There are a lot of options. But my point right now is, Ladies, please don't be afraid of being a career woman. It doesn't bite. I'm here to encourage you if you've experienced the negative, judgmental sentiments that we receive from time to time. And I'm here to encourage us all to break the barriers of preconceived notions, engrained prejudices, and "righteous indignation" against the misconceived career woman. We're not as cold-hearted and selfish as a lot of people think. 

I Want to Say I Can

Ever feel like you want to be able to do something mostly just so you can say you can do it? For whatever reason, you just want to be able to so you can say, "I can do _________." Maybe I'm wrong, but I imagine this might be why people run marathons. I'm sure they want the results they get from training, but isn't it really so you can put one of those 26.2 stickers on your car? (I see right through all you people.)

Well anyway, I have one of those things. If I thought some more I'm sure I'd find more than one, but this is one I've had for a while. I've made attempts to reach my goal before, but I've never made it very far, usually because life got in the way and other things were more important and I just couldn't stick with it.

But I want to actually get it done. This is a fitness goal. Levi started the Insanity workout program a few weeks ago and around the same time, I started getting back in the gym, going to group workout classes, doing a lot of yoga, and after about 2 weeks of what felt like every muscle in my body being sore at different times, I'm feeling great. (I even made it through an entire Insanity session with him last night. That stuff is crazy.) So what's my thing that I'm fixated on being able to say I can do?

I want to be able to say I can bench press my body weight.

(Annnnnnd everyone who has ever met me just lol'ed. I know. You can stop whenever.)

But I don't see anything intrinsically wrong with wanting to do something because it's impressive. I'm not going to go around saying I'm better than you or anything. Maybe you'll be inspired and want to try too. And if you do, you can adapt the chart below to your needs, or adjust it to anything else (push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, etc.).

	Sets	Reps	Weight
Week 1	5	4	50
	5	3	55
Week 2	4	4	55
	5	4	55
Week 3	5	3	60
	4	4	60
Week 4	5	4	60
	5	3	65
Week 5	4	4	65
	5	4	65
Week 6	5	3	70
	4	4	70
Week 7	5	4	70
	5	3	75

Levi is going to help me and he started by putting this plan together for me. I think the most I got to before was 60lb, so he took it back a little since I've been out for a while. (And for the record, don't worry, I do weight more than 75lb. I also weigh more than 100lb. The idea is that if I can do 5 sets of 3 reps of 75 lb, I can do my body weight once or twice.)

So this means if I can get in the gym to do this just twice a week (with at least 1 if not 2 days of rest in between), then sometime in April I should be able to say I can bench press my body weight!

What are your "I Want to Say I Can" goals? Do something about them, then be impressed with yourself.

On the Use of Time

I mentioned in my last post that one of the things I wanted to share next was some of the goals I have for how to spend the extra "free time" in my day that I've acquired since we moved. Now that we've had some time to get settled and feel at home, my mind has been exploding with all the possibilities of what I can do!

Of course there are all kinds of things to do apart from home, being this close to DC, having the Town Center right across the street, being 15 minutes or less from a ton of stuff that used to be 35-40 minutes away, etc (think mall, movies, museums, shopping, etc.). Naturally I have all kinds of ideas about things I want to do in that regard - and I've already started. (And I might add, it's SO MUCH FUN!)

Besides that though, I've had ideas about what to do during the evenings at home (which is still the majority of them). Something makes me think that if I blog about these ideas, I'll stay inspired to actually do them. I don't know if that's true, but even if it's not, here we go.

• Read more. I haven't really gotten to this yet, since I've been so busy setting up house and freaking out about how much there is to do outside of the house, but I do plan on getting there. There is just SO much good stuff out there to read, and I feel like in all my life I still haven't scratched the surface!

• Get up early(ish). I've found that I actually feel more rested during the day when I don't get too much sleep or sleep til the last minute. Since I don't have to be to work til 9, and I have a 5 minute commute, I have time to get up and have a somewhat leisurely morning for once. (What is that, right?) So last week I made a goal to get up at 7:00-7:15, which I accomplished with the exception of Friday morning. (And that was for a very good reason that involved getting my friend Molly from the airport the night before. ;-) But every other morning I was all "wake up slow," drinking my coffee, reading my Bible, and getting ready for work at a comfortable pace. Not to mention I felt pretty rested the whole week and even went to bed after 11:00pm sometimes! Now that was a long paragraph, so moving on.

• Cook new foods. I have to say, I was getting so tired of cooking the same rotation of 4 or so dinners over. and over. and over again, especially in the few weeks before we moved. It was depressing, boring, and dull, and I got so frustrated at myself for not being able to come up with the energy to do something new and different. But now those days are over! Last week I made this absolutely delicious pesto cream sauce that I put over pasta and chicken, and I was in heaven. Tonight I was a little down about not having any good ideas, so I googled "recipe ideas for ground beef" (that's usually all it really takes) and found a recipe for the Mediterranean Beef Pitas shown below (photo credit here). But as a side note, don't use the recipe that it provides. Soon I'll share my own spin off of it that I think turned out much better, because I've found Real Simple's recipes to frequently be a little too "Simple" on the flavor side of things.

• Kitchen cleaning. I've learned how much sheer happiness I get from having a clean kitchen. Now that we have a dishwasher, it's been my goal to clean the kitchen after every meal in the evenings, because it's a much easier process. In only 20 minutes or so, the table can be cleared, food put away, dishwasher loaded, pots and pans washed/dried/put away, and the counters wiped. A small kitchen helps, and so does the reward of lighting a fresh smelling candle to flicker against the walls when the lights are turned out. What peace of mind.

• The little things. This is kind of the catch-all for, well, the little things. Like giving myself home manicures. Organizing those daunting corners and crannies that only in your mind take more than 15 minutes to get done. Watching something on tv with Levi, setting up a new piece of decoration, going to the pool for a swim. Blogging!

This was a pretty text-heavy post this time, but I definitely enjoy sharing my inspirations! I'll make it a point to get that pita recipe up soon and to cover some of the other things I mentioned before. For now I'll leave you with a snapshot from my weekend. My good friend Molly is vising from California, though she recently returned from months of European travels - and I haven't seen her since last August! So we girls went out on the town for a movie and then a patio dinner while listening to a live salsa/merengue/Afro-Cuban concert. And here we are in a semi-blurred picture waiting for our table.

Happy Monday-is-over!

Brooke - Erin - Kara - Molly