Thursday, December 22, 2011

I always manage to get sucked back in....

I ended up with an extra 30 mins at work this morning...so what did I do??? I ran. I walked to the gym (at 530 in the morning) and knocked out over a mile on the treadmill. Granted, I haven't ran since my demon stomach bug back in November - but nonetheless, I got my ass on that treadmill and I ran.

I knocked out a mile in 11:50 - which I didn't think was really that bad considering its been over a month (actually closer to 6 weeks - last run was November 9th!). The first quarter mile is always the hardest - getting in the groove, convincing yourself you actually *ARE* capable of getting your distance met. But then, as usual - I got into my groove, put on some good tunes (specifically Prepare to Be Wrong) and just enjoyed the process. I wasn't dying, I wasn't hurting, I wasn't suffering - I was enjoying myself!

Appetite has been wonky the past few days, but its helped me get my weight down a little bit. Dropped 3 pounds from yesterday so I'm already feeling better. Today got an egg, chile & cheese burrito for breakfast after my run - but I had to force myself to order it because I just didn't have an appetite. But now that I've eaten, I do feel better - so I'm glad I did.

Today is also Day 4 with no soda or caffeine! I wanted to try to cut back on it because it wasn't doing good things to my thyroid, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Been drinking nothing but water (and a decaf latte Tuesday morning and a cup of green tea at a chinese restaurant 2 days ago) - and I'm already noticing positive benefits. Even though I've been a little grumpy and I've had to take some ibuprofen, I'm feeling better, sleeping better and starting to get my energy levels back. I'm missing the bubbles of soda, so I think I'll be drinking sparkling water with some Mio in it to satisfy that craving, but overall it hasn't been too bad. Maybe an investement in a Soda Stream is in my future, since sparkling water is so expensive....

Anyways, tomorrow night we have a Costume Party to go to - and I tried on my costume yesterday. It actually made me feel pretty darn fabulous...I didn't feel fat or squishy at all (which was surprising!) It made me appreciate that even if the scale is being evil, I don't actually look as bad as I thought. I'll be sure to post pics (just not sure if its going to have to be after Christmas since we're so busy!)

Since I don't have my kids again until January, I'll be pushing myself to get some kind of movement each day throughout the holiday. Just that little 11 min run today upped my energy levels and made me feel SO much better - so I'll be sure to be adding that into my regular routine. Perhaps a Bosu routine and an interval workout on the treadmill is in my future today! Yippee!

Total Miles Ran in 2011: 132.2 Miles
Total Calories Burned "Running From My Issues": 19,860 Calories GONE

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Holy Workout Gods I'm Wiped!!!

Okay - so after my awesome strength training workout on Thursday....I got nothing out of it. No soreness, no nothing....kind of a bummer and not really inclination to keep it up. I wasn't really happy. Guess that's the downside to already being pretty fit - I've gotta keep upping the ante to get good things out of it! Growl...

Anyways, didn't get a workout in yesterday - got out of work early after our holiday lunch (I had one plate of chicken enchiladas, beans & chips & salsa). Finished up my Christmas shopping for the hubby and came home with the expectation of grabbing a nap before he got home from work. Little did I know that he was already off work and he strolled in the door *right* when I laid down for a nap! haha! He'd gotten out of work early and been going shopping for my Christmas gifts all afternoon (he's such a sweetheart!)

SO - he walked in the door and said "you're going to get this gift now because I have NO idea how to wrap the damn thing!!!" Of course, I was totally confused. What on earth could he have picked up for me that was too big to wrap???

He walked to the garage, slapped a bow on the box and walked in the door with this (the kitten totally loved the box!! haha)
Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

HOLY CRAPOLA!!! I've been wanting a Bosu ball for YEARS - just never been able to justify the cost!!! What an amazing husband I have!!! OMG he totally made my day!!! What a fabulous Christmas present from my wonderful man! I can't believe he remembered that I wanted one!!! AAAHHHH!!!

Okay - so anyways, we basically hopped right in the car when he got home and drove up to see my family for the evening. We went to dinner and I had a Caesar Salad with a side of green chile Mac & Cheese (so yummy!). Then we went to my Stepdad's choir performance and living nativity at his church - with real camels and everything! Totally cool! It was freezing, but we had a great time!

We got home a little late last night, so we slept in this morning - which was really nice. Its rare when we can sleep in! We rolled out of bed a little after 9, showered and went over to visit his mom - who just got a new puppy for Christmas! Isn't he totally cute???
Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

We hit up Twisters for breakfast and then took off to Toys R Us (yes, we went to Toys R Us the weekend before Christmas) We took $40 and bought as many toys as we could. We managed to get 3 kitten stuffed animals, 7 hot wheels cars, 3 bouncy balls and 1 kung fu hamster toy thing - all which went straight to the Marines for Toys for Tots. We have been so blessed in our lives that it meant a lot to us to be able to give back.

After that, we walked around the mall for a bit. Hubby got 2 pairs of jeans, 2 new shirts for work and a sweater for less than $70 and I got myself a festive new top for Christmas! Yippee!

This afternoon, hubby has errands he needed to run, so I stayed home and finally broke in my brand new Bosu! Holy crap...that thing is amazing!! It took me about 10 minutes to get used to jumping off and on the darn thing, but it worked my legs in all kinds of crazy ways! It came with 4 workouts, so I ran through the Total Body workout - took me about 30 minutes and only burned about 160 calories (but I think that will go up once I'm more comfortable jumping on and off the darn thing) However, low calorie burns aside - my legs were totally toast at the end and my abs are STILL shaking now! EEP! I think I've found my new strength training plan!!! I heart my Bosu soo much!!!

I can't wait to try the other workouts! I don't want to try another one today because I don't want to overdo it, and I'm going to take it easy and slowly get into this thing - so I don't hurt myself. But I really see myself getting lots and lots of progress with this thing! Let's just say - push ups on a Bosu are KILLER!!!! haha!

Been an eventful Friday evening and Saturday so far! Can't wait to have a quiet night in with the hubby catching up on TV shows, might order in dinner if we don't want to cook....either way its going to be fabulous!

Hope you all have a great day!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Hittin' the Weights...

So today started the "Lunchtime Strength Training Routine" and it felt good! I didn't get a massive calorie burn - but that's to be expected since my cardiovascular rate is so high. Hopefully this is enough to see some changes and keep my muscle (if not make them more defined!)

Got the joy of doing the workout today in bootcut jeans, reebok sneakers and a green skull t-shirt...totally spaced out bringing workout clothes to work...go me! BUT - I didn't use that as an excuse to NOT work out! Squats were about parallel or a little lower - since I don't have the ROM in jeans that I do in workout gear. Had to ditch the lunges after 5 reps on each leg - I tweaked my knee in class last night and the lunges were pissing it off so I didn't want to do anything terrible to it

Okie - so here's what I did today. I know I can move more volume than this, but since I'm restricted to dumbbells and don't have bars & plates - this was what I was able to do today. Since I couldn't go higher in weights, went higher on the reps so I think it still sufficiently kicked my ass - overall wasn't too shabby for a little full body routine. I went through each set as quickly as possible, with no rest between exercises to make a circuit workout (so for the arm stuff there was no rest between row #1, row #2 then shoulder press - they were toast by the end!)

Strength Workout 12/15/2011
Deadlifts: 50lbs (two 25lbs in each hand) X 15 reps for 2 sets
Squats: 20lbs (two 10lb in each hand held up at shoulder height) X 15 reps for 2 sets
Bench Press: 10lbs each hand X 15 reps, 15lbs each hand X 15 reps
Lunges: 10lbs in each hand X 5 reps (one set only - wonky knee)
Lat Pulldown: 50lbs X 15 reps for 2 sets
Row #1: 10lbs each hand X 15 reps for 2 sets
Row #2: 10lbs each hand X 15 reps for 2 sets
Shoulder Press/Bicep Curls: 10lbs each hand X 15 reps for 2 sets
Bicycle Crunches: 2 sets of 25 reps
Skull Crushers: 1 set of 15 reps with 10lbs in each hand

Total Workout Time: 22 minutes
Total Calorie Burn: 135 Calories (like I said...not too high, but that's the joy of being cardiovascularly fit)

So tonight is my last night of my after school program! I was totally wiped after all 3 of my classes yesterday, but still can't believe how fast this year has gone already! I'm excited for my new classes, but I will really miss the kiddos that I've had this semester so far!

Other than that, hubby and I have a date night planned for Friday evening - should be super fun! The bike is finished at the repair shop, so hopefully we'll be able to pick it up this afternoon. I've been eating like a horse recently (and am still hungry right now, but I guess post workout that's to be expected) - but weight is about the same, so its good to know that I'm maintaining with all this crazy that's going on.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

New Plan For Now...

So, after posting that last blog I really started to think things out about my strength training plan. I really don't want to have to try to fit something into my already busy schedule - so the appeal of finding something do to at work (on my lunch break) is really nice. I came up with a plan that I can do 3-4 days a week that will fit into my lunch break really nice.

So far - it includes:
Deads
Squats
Bench Press
Lunges
Lat Pulldown (since there's nowhere for me to do pull ups)
My Two Types of Rows (upper back/lower back)
Shoulder Presses with Bicep Curls
Bicycle Crunches
Skull Crushers
And Optional (if I have time) - Calf Raises, Flys, Weighted Crunches, Planks, etc

I'm thinking 2 sets of each all done in a circuit style will make for a nice little workout. Since tomorrow is my hell day with 3 classes, I can't start it tomorrow - but I'm looking forward to trying it out on Thursday and seeing how it goes!

Reigning myself in....

Alrighty folks...I know its been a while. Life's been busy. Helped a friend move this weekend, got all our Christmas shopping finished, been snowed in for a few days last week (and there's another storm on the way now), wrapping up my first semester of the After School Program - which is proving to be bittersweet. I'm finally starting to get really comfortable with my schools - so its sad that this is the last week for them. I feel really accomplished that I'm halfway through the year though. I was really worried that I'd burn myself out, or that I wouldn't be able to handle working 3 jobs all at once...but I've really stepped up and proven to myself that I'm capable of working this hard for something I really enjoy.

In trying to manage the crazy schedule from hell, nutrition has taken a backseat to time management. I've been maintaining my weight in the 180's (anywhere from 183-189 depending on the day) and I'm feeling a little chunky but all my clothes are still fitting well. Still rockin' the size 6 and a small/med in tops. Because of the chunky feeling though, I'm not as comfy in my skin as I have been in the past, so changes will need to be made.

I think a big part of this is my current workout scheme - with how busy I've been, workouts are only my classes...meaning lots and lots of cardio....but not much else. I haven't been able to maintain the muscle definition in my upper body I had before the school year started and my arms feel a little too jiggly for my liking - even if I haven't lost any strength from the lack of workouts. This past weekend we helped our buddy move, and I spent most of the day lugging boxes full of books around. I was really impressed that I handled the lifting so well considering I haven't done a formal strength workout in months.

I was trying to come up with a strength program that might work for my busy schedule - and today at lunch I snuck into the gym to play around with some weights. Its been forever since I've had the chance to throw some weight around - so it felt good. I just pulled the 10 pound dumbbells and knocked out bicep curls and 2 sets of row isolations (10 reps for upper back, 10 reps for lower back) with no rest in between - so arms sufficiently felt like jello in less than a minute...go me!

After that - I kept each of the dumbbells in my hands and knocked out 15 consecutive ATG squats while checking my form in the mirror (no butt winking!) Its nice to know that I can still knock out proper form even after months of not really doing a lot of strength training.

So after all that awesomeness, I decided to snap a few pics - I'm wearing workout clothes today and they give a decent idea of the current shape of myself. I'm not too thrilled about my current chunkiness (as expressed above) but all in all - I really don't think I look that bad. I don't have a muffintop going over my pants, I still have an hourglass figure and my legs are still muscular and strong (even if the rest of me feels like squish)

Here's the pics I took earlier (I took a few more, but photobucket is being stupid today and won't upload them from my phone)

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

In other news, hubby and I are planning on hitting nutrition hard after the new year - with the holidays coming up we don't want to "diet" through them but we won't go crazy either. After the new year, we are going to get a better handle on nutrition and keep ourselves to a good calorie count for our energy levels. I figure since I'm halfway through the year, I've been able to acclimate to the crazy schedule I've created - now its time to get myself in line and stop feeling bad about the way I look.

I'm still working on the actual plan, I can't over-exhaust myself, but I can't just do cardio anymore either...need less squish which means more muscle at the moment. I can't figure out if I'll try to come up with a plan I can do at work during my day job, or try to do something outside of work during the small amount of free time I've got.

That's about it for my ramblings today. I've already updated Spark with everything else that's been going on...hope you all have a great day!