Striving for fit:The journey there

I have decided to start tracking my days in a journal to help with self motivation and to track myself while reaching closer to my goals. I posted in my first introduction thread of how I had let myself go and what brought me to this site.

Im not bragging about myelf, but I am an attractive girl, or was, or Im not even sure anymore. Im 21 now. When I was 18 and until I turned about 20 I always was complimented and was looked at alot. I had long pretty hair and I was thinner and tan. I always dressed nice and favored cute sun dresses and heels.

Now here I am. I have shorter hair (which Im desperately trying to grow back) and I have gained weight. I usuallywear jogging suits or sweatshirts to hide it but I look slopppy. I wouldnt dream of wearing one of my dresses now!

My boyfriend and I have gotten back into our gym routine and I feel good for once. I have a long way there. Im 5'8" and weigh about 180. My boyfriend has been into natural body building for years. He was out for a while because of an injury but hes finally getting back to it. I have always spent time in the gym with him helping to spot him, etc. I have seen a lot of very fit and toned women lifting and we have gone to the Arnold Classic every year and I have always admired the fitness models.

I have no desire to be a full blown body builder but my views have shifted. I always used to think that girls with very defined and maybe a little bit larger muscles was attractive but I had always just wanted to be skinny. I think though that if you are going to put in a lot of time at the gym you should strive for a body that people will take notice of. I also think its facinating to see how you can transform your body into a work of art which is how I see it.

I have weight to lose but I honestly hate just doing cardio for an hour! I have been doing it but lately I decided to switch it up. I have been weight training with my boyfriend on our workout days (5 days a week). I am not training to light heavy weights however. I am learning correct form and I am lifting light weights. My aim is to do higer reps with a short rest between each set to keep my heart rate up and burn more. After our weight training is complete I head upstairs and do about 20-25 min of high intensity cardio.

I really love how this makes me feel. I feel that I am getting in better workouts and it keeps me interested and focused because Im always doing something different rather than the same everyday for my entire workout.

My diet seems to be on track as of yet. I think I may be a little carb heavy so I am going to try to cut that back.

It may be weird for me to say but I actually enjoy that slightly sore and tense feeling I have in my muscles from weight training. I think maybe its just because its a constant reminder of the work I put in. Stretching when you are sore also feels good.

Looking forward to another great night at the gym tonight!
 
It's always good when someone starts getting into good exercise habits, and it's great to hear that you you actually like it.

What sort of rep range are you considering as "light" compared to "heavy?" In my experience, moderate weights (6-15 reps) seem to have the best impact on body composition, although it's good to go through phases of each type of loading (light weights (12+ reps) is usually good for technique-building (which you said you're doing, which is good because bad technique makes a lot of exercises dangerous) and endurance, while a month of heavy weights (1-6 reps) will generally boost your progression through light and moderate weights.
 
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