Day 27 - Birthdays & Those Arms

Today was my brother's birthday. I didn't want to be mean and let it slip by without doing anything. So I bought two cake slices, ate one, gave the other to my dad, and took a picture and sent it to my brother saying happy birthday. My brother's currently in Germany serving in the Air Force, and it's hard to get a hold of him since he's always on duty at work. Birthdays are always that time of the year when you just can't refuse that piece of cake. I feel like it's just something fitness people have to go through: accept that it's ok to binge on that day, and continue with their exercise routine right after. That birthday cake is for sure unhealthy, but being overly obsessed with your diet is also unhealthy. As long as you make sure to eat healthy in general, it's ok to cheat once in a while. If you're desperately in need to losing weight, that might be a different story. Medical reasons should outweigh special occasions. Also, when you do decide to eat your cheat meal, just make sure you're not eating in excess amounts. You're allowed cheat meals, but it depends on how often you're eating them and how much you're eating in one sitting. You don't want your hard work to go to waste in one day.

There were an exceptionally large amount of arm workouts today. I definitely got a good dose of cardio and arm exercises. I don't know if I mentioned this in my earlier posts, but my arm is the most self-conscious part of my body for me. I know a lot of people say that their most self-conscious part of their body are their abs, legs, and thighs, but I don't really hear a lot of people saying that they're self-conscious about their arms. I have a little background story about why I'm so self-conscious about my arms. When I was in 7th grade, I was at that awkward stage where I started getting chubby and excessively tan, but didn't really take notice because body fat and weight wasn't really a concern for me back then. I remember my uncle visiting our family, and my grandma told me to come downstairs to eat breakfast. So I went downstairs to eat breakfast, and my uncle was sitting on the same dining table, conversing with my grandma about his life. Then all of a sudden, he looks at my arms, gasps, and starts making fun of how thick my arms are. He started making a big deal about how a girl my age could have thicker arms than his. That's when I started to take notice of my arms, that the thickness of my arms matters to some people, and that my body can be a subject of judgment. Ever since then, my arms looked like elephant trunks all my life. They're still chubbier than I want them to be, but I feel like that past childhood memory of being humiliated made me look at my arms bigger than they originally are. That being said, arm exercises are the hardest for me. I always dread working my arms because they're not as strong as my legs and abs. I can do ab workouts and leg workouts fine, but when I have to do arm workouts, I just can't bear the feeling of my arm muscles burning. However, to my surprise, I was able to do a lot of arm exercises today even though they were burning pretty bad. I just had this strong drive to push myself today. We'll see how my arms look tomorrow morning.

Workout:

30 min of Cardio Fix
40 min of Blogilates (arm insanity)

Diet:

Breakfast - Ezekiel bread with egg whites, water cress, salsa, and avocados. (YUM!)
Lunch - Brown rice with turkey bacon
Snack - peanut butter and chocolate Quest Bar
Dinner - kiwi and chocolate cake slice (should've eaten this earlier in the day)

How I felt:

Despite all the unhealthy foods I ate today, I actually felt really good. It's probably because I worked out right after eating that chocolate cake. One good way to keep in shape is to make sure that you're exercising after eating carbs. That turkey bacon really needs to go, and this is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've been saying this. But it's probably the easiest to prepare. You literally have to just microwave it. With chicken breast, you have to cook it in a frying pan, chop all your veggies, and that takes time and effort. I do know that chicken breast and tofu are a lot healthier than turkey bacon though. I like the texture of tofu better than chicken breast, so maybe I'll get some tomorrow. At least I got creative for breakfast. :)