Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Knee is getting better!

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a great week so far! I've been enjoying reading all your posts and can't wait to get started on my new lifting program. 

My ROM is coming back to my knee, so I'm happy about that. I'm thinking that I'll start with bodyweight squats next week and see how they go. I'd really like to start New Rules sometime soon & if I have to modify the squats and lunges for BW to reduce my risk of reinjury, I'll probably have to do that for a few weeks. This knee has had me out of commission for about a month now, and I really don't want to hurt it even more

Anyways - I've been getting to the gym consistently which is good & not having to modify as much - which shows the knee is improving. Yesterday the A/C went out so we had a Bikram Boxing class - I was a sweaty mess when it was over! haha! Tomorrow is my birthday, so I'm looking forward to having a great day with my friends & family.

Here's my bodymedia burn for yesterday - I met most of my goals, so definitely happy with the way it turned out (deficit was a little high, but I had to make up for the Italian-food-carb-fest I had on Sunday as a pre-birthday dinner):

Posted Image

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Anyways, since having a gimp knee - I'm getting damn good at one-legged burpees & pistol squats....they are pure evil!

In other news, I've got 2 final exams this week & 3 next week - so I'm thinking I'll make a goal to get progress pics and measurements taken the week after finals are over. There's just no way I can manage it before then. We are taking a mini-vaca in a few weeks, but thankfully our gym has a location nearby so we won't be missing any workouts while we're gone. 

Anyways, hope you all have a great day! 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Happy Wednesday!

Hey everyone! I hope things are going well for you all! I'm doing well. This week began the end of the summer semester for me - so I had one final exam yesterday, 2 next week and 3 the week after that. Its gonna be a busy couple of weeks for me! I got an 87% on the exam I completed yesterday (for my psychology class) so I'm happy about that. Now I'm just focusing on getting ready for the other 5 finals I've gotta knock out in the next few weeks - I've got Biology & Lab, Chemistry & Lab and Nutrition all coming up :)

I got a kickboxing workout in on Monday at the gym and it went well. Still had to modify due to the knee injury, but I think I did a good job of it. Increased dumbbell weights from 10lb to 12.5lbs for rows, presses & flys (30-60 secs of constant work - which is why I'm keeping those weights a little lower) and was able to consistently do one-legged sit up/stand ups with pistol squats on my right leg for a minute - so I'm pleased.


Here's a screenshot of my BodyMedia burn for the day:

You can totally tell where my hour long workout was! haha! Anyways - I'd say that a 2600 cal burn for someone who works a desk job :typing: with a bum knee really isn't bad at all! 

Yesterday & today are usually rest days because I go straight from work that starts at 5am to school and I usually won't get home until after 6pm - but I think if my knee is feeling up to it today, I might try to hazard a small yoga workout just to get moving.

The knee has been feeling better recently & as of yesterday I was finally able to drive without much of an issue. I drive a standard (I love my car!) but it definitely makes things difficult when I've got a messed up left knee - so being able to drive without an issue is definitely a little victory! :yahoo:

Even though yesterday was a rest day, I do still try to stay moving consistently so my burn yesterday wasn't too bad either. 2230 cals burned on a rest day isn't too shabby at all

Anyways, that's about it for me! I am hoping that I only have about 1-2 more weeks of recuperation before I can start getting back into light workouts for my knee! I'm keeping my fingers crossed! 

Once I'm back to full ROM on my knee, I'm going to start a new lifting program along with my cardio. I created a profile at www.lift.net to help track my progress & I've started a blog there as well. I'll be using that one to post videos of my lifting for form checks, etc so feel free to swing by there and follow that as well! 

I hope you all have a great day!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Davey Joy!

Okay - real quickly....nutrition is spot on today so far! New motivation rocks!

But most importantly - AFI RELEASED A NEW SONG TODAY!!! OH HAPPY DANCE!!!

Davey Havok makes me so happy :-)




That is all - have a good day peeps!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Bad Habits Need to Die

Hey all! How are you doing? Things are going well here. I haven't worked out since Monday night (this is normal since I had class yesterday & today) but I've noticed some yucky habits that are popping up. First of all, when I'm injured - my nutrition goes to hell. I'm not as motivated to stay in line because I can't exercise. I feel like a lazy ass so therefore I am not as disciplined with my food. This is a pattern I've fallen into before & I refuse to fall into it again.

My knee is still exceptionally sore & I can't bend it all the way - so this is obviously an actual injury and not just a minor strain. Today I've got the compression wrap on it and I'm still gimping around instead of walking. That being said - I'm going to have to keep modifying my gym workouts, but I'll still be going (which is better than sitting on my ass at home) Since I'm not working out as intensely, I can't be as lax with my nutrition as I was before. Calorie burns according to my armband are about the same, but I don't want to rely on that to stay that way. They might level out with me being unable to do plyo, squats & lunges.

I refuse to feel sorry for myself - that's just not the person I am. I know people who get super whiney and claim they're "depressed" when all they really need is to stop bitching, suck it up & deal. I put myself in the situation where my knee was injured and now I've gotta get it healthy again. Its gonna put me back a few weeks in my training plan - but I'm not gonna let it derail me all together. The only person capable of reaching my goals is me - and I need to get myself there. However, I'm finding I need to change my motivation with my food. I've been eating higher calories again (right about maintenance most of the time) since I'm healing & that makes it WAY too easy for me to slip up and overeat. Granted, my weight has stayed the same over the past 2 weeks - but I feel squishy instead of strong due to the lack of workouts.

Also, I've been exceptionally tired the past 3 days. I've stayed up later than I normally do every night this week and the lack of sleep is finally getting to me. But I've noticed that lack of sleep PLUS kinda crappy nutrition has totally wiped me out. So tonight after my chem lab, I'm gonna head home & prep a bunch of food. Tomorrow, its back to my primary (almost paleo but not quite) diet of mostly protein & veggies. I'm gonna see if I can drop this water weight and start feeling better again.

I figure, even if I have a busted knee - that's no excuse to let myself go (not that I was going to) - but its also a sign that maybe I need to pay a little more attention to the way my body is functioning. Right now, its saying it needs better foods and starting tomorrow it will get them :-)

OH - and in other happy news - new tattoos might be in hubby & my future soon! Yippee!

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

My busy existence!

Okay - so its about time I give you all another update from my world! Life has been super busy this summer but I'm loving every minute of it! School is going well, but its keeping me busy this summer since I'm taking a full 14 credits. We got our mid-term grades and I currently have an A in Nutrition, 87% in Psychology, 89% in Biology for Health Sciences, 88% in Chemistry, A in Biology Lab and a B in Chemistry lab. I'm super close to being at an A in psych, bio and chem that I'm trying to bring those grades up - but honestly, I'm thrilled with those grades! Biology & Chemistry are hard classes - so taking them both in the same term AND taking them both over the summer so the course is smashed into 12 weeks instead of 18 - well, I'm really pleased with my 89% and my 88% that I currently have in each of them!

I got registered for the fall semester and I'm super excited for my classes! I'll be taking Microbiology (which looks amazing!) & its lab, Anatomy & Physiology and its lab, analytical writing, communications and French 1. So once again, it will be a full course load - 18 credits this term, but I think it will be awesome. I've managed to coordinate all of them around my work schedule so I think its gonna work well & I can't wait to get started! Also, I'm only on campus 4 days a week and only for a few hours, so it won't interfere with my gym schedule at all! Yippee!

We've also been working on overhauling the house this summer too. Our spare bedroom had been a glorified storage closet ever since the roommates decided to trash it and move out. So a few weekends ago I decided to attack it & make it pretty again. So here's the "Before" of the extra bedroom in our house:



And here's the "After" - this took about 5 hours of organization, cleaning & the sacrificial death of our noble vacuum cleaner, but I absolutely love this room! Its now a display room for our comic toys, a library for all my books & a reading nook in the corner! I love it! And hubby was super surprised - I didn't tell him I was attacking the house....he just came home & it was done!


So, in other news - I've managed to keep up with a full-time job, 14 credits at school, reorganizing most of the house, spending time with the hubby and the kiddo & getting in at least 4-5 workouts a week. We go to the gym 4 days a week for classes and I have 1 day of yoga with one of my best friends on Wednesdays, which is awesome! Well, during some event during one of the things listed above, I tweaked the hell out of my knee about 2 weeks ago. At first, it felt like a hyperextension so I took it easy, but wasn't super concerned about it so I kept up with the normal routine. 

Well, the knee wasn't happy with the normal routine and it swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe for about 4 days! As of last Tuesday, I took a hiatus from the gym and tried to be as lazy as possible to heal myself up. However, since a body in motion tends to stay in motion - I went absolutely batsh*t crazy & got super fidgety because I couldn't get any exercise in! I managed to stay off it for 5 days and then went back to the gym as of Sunday (and again yesterday). I was able to modify my workout to be mostly upper body with no strain on my knees and it worked really well!

So now, I'm back at the gym 4 days a week - modifying my workouts to accommodate my bum knee. It feels amazing to get moving again, even if I'm not 100%. I've got my knee wrapped in a compression bandage & I'm not kicking any bags. I'm substituting weighted arm exercises for squats & lunges (so my arms are gonna be thrashed once my knee is healed!) and with making those modifications, I can keep up with the rest of the class really well. Yesterday I had 90 mins of activity on my armband, so I'm guessing I did something right :-)

This has become a familiar sight on my couch recently! I'm gonna keep up with the modified workouts until I get my full ROM back in my knee & continue to wear the compression wrap for additional support and protection during my workouts. Little by little, I'm getting better....even if ice packs are my friends on a consistent basis :-)



Well, bum knee aside - I'm not letting it slow me down (much). I was a lazy X-Box playing brat for a few days but now I'm back to my normal active self....even if I am wobbling around a little bit when I walk. On Friday night, hubby took us all out for a fabulous dinner at the Brazilian Grill I've mentioned before - they send out birthday cards that give you a free meal, so we went and used mine since it's my birthday month! I decided I didn't wanna feel like a shlub with a bum knee, so I decided to dress up a little bit. I wore my fabulous grey cordoroys & this amazing new red top that I bought. I thought it was fun & I was getting compliments on my tattoos all night! haha!


Okay, so let's recap - summer is busy but awesome, got a 3.33 GPA in school with TWO science classes & labs, looking forward to fall semester, busted my knee but still managing to get workouts in and stay on track, I'm down about 15 pounds in total so far and I'm gaining muscle like crazy, so something is working right, we're redoing lots of areas in the house so I'll post pics as more of that gets done (the living room is next!) and overall - life is good! The hubby is fabulous & I adore my kiddo so things are awesome!

OH - and P.S. if you haven't seen Warm Bodies yet....DO IT!!!! That movie is amazing! Its seriously one of the best movies we've seen in a long time! I enjoyed it so much that I ordered the book, so I'm looking forward to reading it once it gets here!!!