STS is finally here!

After the year-long wait, Cathe's Shock Training System (STS) has finally shipped to all the anxious customers who pre-ordered.

I started this post on February 13th of this year. Somehow I got side-tracked and didn't get to finish it. I think my STS shipment arrived from the UPS truck that day and I had planned on starting it that following Monday. The 13th was a Friday (no superstitions here, but it's always fun to know when it's a Friday the 13th) and the next day was Valentines Day. That's when I ate a whole Chocolove candy bar that I'd bought for myself so I wouldn't eat the one I'd bought for my husband for Valentines Day. Then I ate his, went back to the store, bought 2 more, ate mine again all in one day, then had a little of his too. Way too much sugar, even if it was unrefined. Way too much chocolate. From that point on, I started getting symptoms of the flu my kids had had for the past 2 weeks.


I started feeling sick the next week and never got to start. After that I got super sick and now all this time has passed without me ever starting STS. Craziness. I pre-ordered this periodization workout system last May, waited all that time for it to film and be produced, edited, shipped, then it sat on my shelf for almost 3 months. :) The first month was understandable. I wasn't healthy enough for much of anything. The second month I was not only building up my strength and stamina, but was also trying to remember why I loved exercising. It was hard to get myself to move. But this last month has been one of trying to focus and keep going. I've been doing Slim Series workouts and Cathe's CTX (Cross Train Xpress, which I'll write about later -- I love that series).

My eating was spiraling downward this past weekend, so I thought it was time I took everything up a notch as soon as Mother's Day was over (you know the whole start on a Monday thing as well as the wait till after the holiday is over mode of thinking). Surprisingly, I did it. I got up early this morning, got out all my weights, barbell, step, band, stability ball (this series has a TON of equipment). The first workout is Meso 1, Disk 1 -- Chest, Shoulders and Biceps. It was fun, well, all except for the who knows how many sets of push-ups. I love chest work, but she must have done 7 or 8 different sets of push-ups. I did sub some chest flies and presses in there a few times. Hopefully I'll work up to it though in my subsequent chest workouts.

I'll let you know what I think of Mesocycle 1 after I finish the first 4 weeks. Then I'll review Mesocycle 2 when I've finished it. I sold Meso 3 to a friend of mine because I just thought it was too heavy for my post-surgery lifting restrictions. I'd have to modify far too much. I figure I'll do Cathe's 4 Day Split (which is a heavy lifting program I've been able to handle before) along with her Plyo Legs (Meso 3 alternate leg workouts if you don't have a squat rack for the really heavy lower body work) when I get to the last 4 weeks of the program. Maybe I'll be ultra-toned one of these days. Or maybe I'll just be stronger and more disciplined. That would be nice too.

P.S. (Want to see the nutritional facts from the back of the Chocolove wrapper? It's not a pretty sight. Multiply that fat content by 3. Then double it for the day I ate 2 of them -- or was that the days that I ate 2 of them -- oh dear! One bar has 36 grams of fat! So that's (36 x 4 in my head, mmm, 72 x 2) 144 grams of fat. Yikes! I guess the sugar content isn't all THAT bad with it being dark chocolate and all. Still it's not a whole food and it didn't do my body any favors beyond the few moments of tasting wonderful. Still that's 3 months of finally getting back to where I planned to be with my workouts in February. Live and learn!)