the purple carrot: chest workouts

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone has gotten to enjoy some good food and good times with family! I didn’t feel great this afternoon for awhile, but I’m feeling much better now so all is good ; )

I haven’t mentioned much of my working out lately, so I thought I’d share my chest workout from this past week. I haven’t taken any pictures in the gym because I just feel weird bringing my huge, nice camera in with me while I’m trying to workout, ha. Maaaaybe someday. For now, here’s some pictures from home … (to see progress in my muscle building, here’s some pictures from January and February for comparison) Monday’s chest workout:

Bench press: 65lbs for 12 reps, 85 lbs for 8, 105 lbs for 4, 115 for 2, failed attempt at 125lbs, 65 for 17 reps (aka, to fail)
Incline dumbbell chest press: 30lb dumbbells for 12 reps, 35lb dumbbells for 6, 30lb dumbbells for 6, 20lb dumbbells for 20 reps (aka, to fail)
Decline bench press: 65lbs for 12 reps, 85lbs for 8 reps, 65 lbs for 10 reps, 45lbs (the bar) to fail
Seated cable flies: 4 sets with 60 lbs (30lb cable on both arms) to fail (ended up being 6-8 reps)

It was a really good workout and I felt great when I was done.

Fast-forward to this weekend:

Yesterday Erik and I ventured to KC to hang out and enjoy the nice weather. I LOVE this time of year : ) For food, we decided on Genghis Grill in the Power & Light District. It’s build-your-own Mongolian stir fry. They had tons of options and basically you build your own bowl by going through a buffet and picking a protein, your seasonings, your veggies, your sauce, and putting it all in a bowl. They then add your starch and cook it for you. I decided upon (if I can remember it all) …

Sliced beef seasoned with granulated garlic and pepper with cabbage, a few mandarin oranges, onions, squash and zucchini with roasted tomato sauce, a little ginger citrus sauce, and garlic water. And for my starch, I picked Udon noodles. This picture was taken from the outside window, hence it’s quality, but there’s an idea of how they cook it … I love the whole build-your-own concept that seems to be prevalent in emerging restaurants these days, because it makes knowing what you’re eating much easier. In fact, you can even put in your ingredients online and you’ll get the nutritional facts. Here was my bowl:

I tried to get most of the low sodium ingredients, because when eating out, if you don’t watch it, salt adds up QUICK. I probably could have done better, but for eating out, 600 mg isn’t that bad. (Especially considering how a serving of most of their proteins have 400-600 mg alone)

I really liked my combination but decided I put a little too much pepper in. Ha, and poor Erik couldn’t even finish his because he underestimated how hot (spicy hot) it would be.