Lindsay's Ramblings

Breakfast -Peanut butter chocolate protein oats + coffee Post workout -Smoothie with milk, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup mango, 1 scoop protein, handful of spinach Lunch- 2 eggs, 2 whites scrambled with cheese and salsa, 2 slices Ezekiel bread with butter and cinnamon Lunch 2- Apple, chicken burger, 10 almonds Dinner- Chicken breast, ~1 1/2 cups steamed broccoli Bedime snack - 2 spoonfuls peanut butter, protein shake

‎"Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not. As humanity has developed throughout history, physical strength has become less critical to our daily existence, but no less important to our lives. Our strength, more than any other thing we possess, still determines the quality and the quantity of our time here in these bodies." -Mark Rippetoe

My Christmas decorations are finished! My house looks sooo pretty, if I do say so myself. :) Love this time of year! So in other news.... I weighed myself after last week's horrible eating-and my weight was DOWN! What the heck?? This week I'm going to start my "muscle gaining" diet plan. Well, it's not really a diet plan because I'm just not a "follow a diet" person, but I am going to start tracking my calories to make sure I'm getting about 2300-2500 a day consistently . That's the only way these muscles will GROW ! I'm glad I get to have more carbs, even if my abs do disappear for a few months... It will be worth it when I have lots of new muscle to reveal, or so I HOPE. ;) Today is a rest day. Yesterday was overhead press day for strength, and then I did the CrossFit WOD "Nate", which is 20 minutes as many rounds as possible of: 2 muscle ups, 4 handstand pushups, and 8 kettlebell swings (I used a 40lb kb). I ended up...

Well, I sure am glad Thanksgiving "week" is over! In the past 5 days I have had monkey bread, peanut butter fudge, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, Thanksgiving dinner(mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, roll), more mac and cheese, dinner at Longhorn, fried chicken, and pumpkin pie!!!!!! You'd think I'd be as big as a cow after all that. I am so glad it's a new week to get right back on track! I'm so excited it's Christmas time! I started putting up my Christmas decorations yesterday.... I love decorating, but I got a little depressed last night and wasn't really feeling the Christmas spirit. It's mostly just because I want so bad for my family to be somewhat "normal"-is that too much to ask?? We tried to have a Thanksgiving dinner with my mom, brother and sister but that ended up as a FAIL. My mom cooked a dinner  at my house and literally dragged my little brother over here, who was miserable the whole time. He ...

"I promise myself... To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind... To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them... To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true. To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own. To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievement of the future.... To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others. To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble. To think well of myself and proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but in great deeds. And to live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me." (*Taken from an article in Muscle & Performance magazine about Ernestine Shepherd)

My day started with a good workout-it was deadlift day! :) I did a few sets of power cleans first, then 3X5 deadlifts. My last set was 180 lbs for 7 reps(as many reps as I could get with good form). Then I supersetted weighted situps and lying leg curls(my first time using a machine in over a year, and I will never do it again!). Then I did my Thanksgiving WOD (11/24): 11 burpees and 24 double unders, 5 rounds . I came home and watched some of the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade(I grew up watching this every single year with my dad!), then baked my famous pumpkin chocolate chip cookies(sorry, no healthy version here!) while listening to Christmas music. I just love this time of year! :) Then it was off to my grandma's house to EAT! My yummy Thanksgiving meal! I had a little of everything, plus another plate of dessert! Oh, how I love Thanksgiving, if only for the reason that it's an excuse to stuff myself! And, of course , I love to see my family. I'm s...

It’s all comes down to desire . “Your desire to get stronger or lose weight has to be greater than your desire to go drinking every night and sleep in until noon every day.” (liftbigeatbig.com) I desire to NOT look like the average person. I desire to be muscular . I desire to be strong . My desire for those things is greater than my desire to eat bad, it is greater than my desire to skip the gym when I don't feel like going, and it is greater than my desire to give up on those last few reps of heavy back squats just because it's hard. What do you desire the most?

It has been so rainy and nasty these last few days...ugghhh. Makes me so tired and lazy, and that is  not cool! It's not really that cold, though.  I'm thankful for that, at least! :) So Friday I went iceskating with my best friend and her little girl. Ice skating is something that I've done all my life, since I was about 10 years old. It's so much fun! One of the few things I like about winter time. Anyways.... after taking about 5 days off from the gym last week, I started my second cycle of the Wendler 5-3-1 program yesterday. I decided to train legs, and boy am I feeling it today!   My butt and quads are SOOOOO sore I can barely move, but I love it. Grow, booty, grow! Here's what my workout consisted of: I started with power snatches, then squats working up to a set of 6 with 160 lbs, and then 5 sets of  walking lunges with 25lbs weights supersetted with weighted back extensions. I finished off with kettlebell swings, as many reps...

‎1. Train like a freakin’ mad man. 2. Eat like a machine. 3. And do it for a long time! - Antoine Vaillant Love this! I can't wait for Sunday to come to get back to training....and with multiple Thanksgiving dinners coming up, there will be plenty of eating! ;) Oh yeah!

Like maybe.... -Take a walk outside. -Add a serving of vegetables to one of your meals today. -Instead of having a potato or rice with dinner, have a salad or some broccoli or cauliflower. -Eat an apple after dinner tonight instead of an unhealthy dessert or snack. -Don't drink that soda-drink a glass of water instead. -Do a circuit of 10 pushups, 10 squats and 10 burpees, 2-3 rounds, right now! -Set your alarm clock for 15 minutes earlier in the morning to get in a healthy breakfast, like scrambled eggs and a fruit. -Find a healthier alternative to a favorite dinner recipe and make it tonight. -Plan out some healthy snacks and pack your lunch for tomorrow, rather than getting fast food. -Turn off the TV, and go to sleep an hour earlier tonight.

Just in case anyone is interested. ;) Breakfast: Peanut butter chocolate protein oats(3/4 cup oats+spoonful of pb+scoop of Syntha-6=yumminess!!!) + coffee(w/cream and stevia blend) Lunch: 2 fried eggs+2 whites, 1 slice Ezekiel bread with all natural, no sugar jelly, 1/2 cup cottage cheese Lunch 2 : 3 & 1/2 turkey meatballs with 1/4 cup NO sugar spaghetti sauce, 1 apple Dinner: Crockpot chicken breast with salsa, 1 1/2 cups steamed broccoli and cauliflower mix, a small handful of pistachios Bedtime snack : All natural whey protein shake, 2 big spoonfuls of peanut butter

Everyone talks about motivation. Some people seem to have it and some people, well, just don't! It's a hard thing because you can't GIVE someone motivation; you can't make people want to better themselves. That can be frustrating for me at times as a trainer. All I know is that this is what motivates me : ~Wanting to be the healthiest that I can be so that I can enjoy my life now and when I'm 70! ~Getting stronger ~Setting performance goals(like increasing my weight on a lift) and creating new challenges for myself ~Looking good and having a lean physique ~Knowing that all of these things gives me confidence and makes me feel good about myself! It's also motivating to me to look at photos of my favorite fitness models. I know that they don't look the way they do by skipping workouts and not eating right. It takes dedication, determination, drive, focus, and sacrifice to look that way. And if that's the look I want, then I have to do the sam...

I had a great, fun-filled weekend! Saturday was my hubby's birthday, and we celebrated by going to Spinelli's, his favorite pizza place. Then we went to church and afterwards came home for some of this yummy pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. It was SO. GOOD. I was told it was the best cake he's ever had. :) Sunday we were getting our house painted and wanted to stay out of the painter's way, so we loaded up the jeep and headed to Dirty Turtle Off Road for a little trail riding. It was my first time ever "off roading", and it was really fun! It was a nice day, and Asher enjoyed coming along for the ride and spending a day in the woods. We didn't do any crazy hard trails, but we did get a little muddy anyway! So anyway,  I decided that I'm going to take this week off from training, as much as I hate doing that! Last week was a deload(light) week on the Wendler program, but I still did some CrossFit met-cons that made me pretty sor...

I was just thinking...most middle aged people who are overweight now were thin when they were kids and teenagers, or even young adults.  Then, the years and years of inactivity and bad eating habits finally caught up with them...and they ended up 10, 20, or 50 pounds overweight. There are many people who are young and skinny now , who don't have to exercise or eat right. But one day it WILL catch up with them. They will be the ones looking at themselves in the mirror 20 years down the road, saying, "What happened to me? How did I get here?"  Well, I can tell you how you got there. You didn't make your health a priority. You thought you could always eat the way you have and never have to suffer the consequences. You were wrong. Don't think it won't happen to you! Even if you have great genetics and are able to stay thin as you get older, you will still find yourself getting a "saggier" year by year, because it is inevitabl...

I want to be strong . I don't just want to be strong for my size-I want to be strong compared to anyone. I want to be as strong as a powerlifter. But...I also want to be fit and conditioned; to be able to fly through CrossFit WODs; to sprint and jump and run! I want to be big. I want MORE muscle! I want a bigger butt, bigger arms, and bigger legs! But... I also want to be lean. I don't want to gain fat in order to gain muscle. I don't want to lose the abs that I've finally uncovered! And there's more! I want to be flexible, I want to be good at gymnastics stuff like handstands and muscle ups, and I also want to be good at Olympic lifts. But what do I want the most?? The thing is, I'm not so sure it's good to want to be great at so many things at one time. Too many goals or wants at one time turns into not focusing on any one thing and not really getting much better at anything, and then you end up not being that great ...

Make no mistake, I always want to win, but I never fight with an opponent. My fight is within me -- it is the struggle to be the best I can be at whatever I do. ~Coach Wooden

Whew, it feels so good to have our life back to normal! It's like a weight lifted off of my shoulders! Even though I wasn't even the one dieting, I still felt the stress of Matt being on such a structured eating plan. I mean, I even lost a couple pounds!  (Goes to show how the eating habits of the people around you can rub off on you!) It's such a relief now that he can just eat anything he wants any time he wants.  It felt like the diet was our LIFE for the past couple months, and I am just glad it's over. I have my husband back!  Although I have a feeling that he'll probably do it again... So after Matt's show, everyone kept asking me, 'so when are you gonna compete?'  My reply: NEVER .  Getting up on stage just to have someone critique every inch of my body does NOT appeal to me. I just want to look good, look like a fitness competitor maybe, but...that doesn't mean I want to be one!  Being in ...

Well, it's finally over. After all of Matt's hard work, dieting and sacrifice, it was time to show off the results! Friday evening he got his spray tan. Lookin' good and ready to go! Whew, was Saturday a long day! It started with pre-judging at 11:30, which took quite a while being that there were around 200 competitors at this show, and Matt was one of the very last groups to go on. Then it was back for the finals at 7:00 that night.  I was so nervous and excited for him! He looked awesome up there. I thought he looked the best out of his class, of course, but...I admit am a little biased. ;) Finally it was time for the results! Matt ended up getting 3rd place in his class, which was 5'8 & under. One of the judges later told him that he was basically tied for 2nd-only one point separated them!  I was SO happy and proud of him!! He got a cool sword to show for it. After the show, it was time to eat! He had some barbec...

Most of you don't know me, but I'm stepping in to hijack my wife's blog for a few minutes! My name is Matt Cappotelli, and I promise to only make one entry so everyone can get back to reading Lindsay's Ramblings, not mine!  I enjoy reading her entries because she writes so openly and honestly about her thoughts. She's very transparent, and I hope you all can feel that through her blogs. I've never been a blogger, but I've been through some crazy challenges in life in the past several years. The newest challenge I'm stepping in to face on November 5th,  inspired me to write this entry. The 2011 Kentucky Muscle bodybuilding show is being held tomorrow, and I'm entering. I grew up an athlete, played football in college, then went on to the world of professional wrestling for 6 years. Around Christmas of 2005, at the height of my professional career, I was diagnosed with Stage 2 brain cancer. I don't remember that being an item on my Christmas ...

‎ "I will NEVER take for granted the ability I have to walk into a gym with my own two legs without help. I will NEVER take for granted the ability to do anything I choose in the gym with no limitations. I will NEVER think of working my body as an obligation again. It is a privilege and a blessing." - Marsha Christensen

It is much easier to achieve this look:   Than it is to achieve this look: There is nothing wrong with either one(it's all personal preference), but I just want to make the point in this post that  a "thin" or "skinny" body is much easier to achieve than a lean and muscular one. The girl in the red bikini has much more muscle mass than the other, and her body fat percentage is much lower as well. Getting lean like that is a much different goal than just losing weight, and many people don't understand that. It's easier (note I'm not saying EASY, but easi-ER) to simply lose weight and get smaller than it is to build muscle and "lean out".  To be lean and muscular takes a lot more than just doing what the average female does to get thin, which is usually tons of cardio and low calorie intake. It takes eating a lot of quality food(more than most average women), making sure to get adequate protein intake, and focusing o...

I couldn't tell you how many times people come up to me at the gym and ask me what I'm training for. I always tell them I'm not training for anything, just for fun. So far I've been asked if I was a bodybuilder, a gymnast, and a volleyball player. I guess I shouldn't say that I'm not training for anything, because in a way, I am training for something. I'm training for LIFE .  I'm training for a  better life, now and in the future. I'm training to be stronger than the average woman. I'm training to feel GOOD, both physically and mentally.   I'm training to be able to handle anything that comes my way. If I have  to run, I can run, if I have to jump onto something, I can jump, if I need to lift something or carry something heavy, I can do it. I'm ready for anything! Don't think of exercising as just something you have to do to look good or to lose weight. There's SO much more to it than that.  Train for...