Time for a name change and an update for the MONTH, sorry it's a book!

First post... I decided to change the name of the blog, it's still kind of a mix of my life and posting about my addiction... exercise. I wanted to change it to something that was like my facebook group WE GOT THIS but that wasn't available and then I checked some others that weren't available either. Bummer

May has been a huge month for me and I wanted to post about it so that I can remember everything next year when it comes time to see if I decide to do all of this again. First of all, the weight has FINALLY started dropping off and as you can see by my ticker, I am finally down 19 lbs, 1 lb away from my goal. I actually think I might have made it to my goal but forgot to weigh myself until after the duathlon, I had eaten and had drank about 32 ounces of water by then and I was a half a pound from my goal. I am guessing I will probably be up again tomorrow due to swelling of the muscles and that I will eat a lot today since I burned a lot but either way, I'm almost there!

Indianapolis Mini Marathon
Okay, going to take a step back and write about the Indianapolis Mini Marathon I did on May 7th. This is a huge race as you can see on this photo on the website... http://www.500festival.com/, about 35,000 people participate in this race. I did it last year for the first time and finished in 2 hours and 28 minutes which was awesome considering I had no training and had just been ok'd to run by a foot Dr. and had just been released from a stress fracture. I really enjoyed the race and everything about it (well other than the weather) in 2010, in 2011, not as much. There are SO many people, I felt like I was dodging people the entire time, there were tons of potholes and I almost fell a couple of times. The first time running around the IMS (Indianpolis Motor Speedway) is a great experience and so exciting... you will see people get down and kiss the bricks (the finish line of the race) and people stopping to take it all in and take pictures of themselves on the track.... it's all that the first time, the 2nd time for me, it was the longest, most boring 2.5 miles of your life. After the IMS, you're going into mile 8 (I think), that was where I really started feeling it, my hips were getting sore (along with probably lots of other things). It was pretty cold again this year and started raining, first sprinkling lightly and then it rained pretty hard as I was finishing. I really didn't notice because I was so hot and because I had a visor on and just didn't feel it much on my face. Somewhere around mile 11, I start losing my mind, not remembering what mile I'm on and how much further I have to go, you start losing faith in yourself. I finished in 2 hours and 30 minutes but I finished. I was majorly disappointed with my finish time. Last year being my first time, I really just wanted to finish, this year, I wanted to beat my time and I couldn't believe that with no training last year, I did better. This year, the longest run I had done before this was 6 miles so I wasn't fully prepared and didn't even plan to run it but took my cousin's entry at the last minute. I had ridden downtown with some friends who were very supportive and made me feel so much better that I just finished, 13.1 miles is not easy and props to anyone who does it and finishes it, no matter what your time is!

Then, I had 2 weeks off from a race, of course I continued to workout and was not even really that sore from running the mini, last year was rough!

Geist Half Marathon
On to the Geist Half Marathon, personally, I like this name a lot better than MINI marathon because as Alan said, there is nothing MINI about running 13.1 miles! This one has far fewer participants but still a big race and a HARD race, there are lots of hills on this one. One of my spinning instructors has done the Boston Marathon and has said that this is harder than Boston. I still find that hard to believe it's harder than 26.2 miles but I'll go with it! Here is the course map and the elevation chart at the bottom of this page... www.geisthalf.com/course.asp I did this run in 2010 and it was the most I had run without stopping which was 8 miles, around 8 miles, there is a HUGE hill and I also wasn't prepared for all of the running downhill and ended up having to stop to get my knee wrapped and that made the rest of it really difficult to finish but I finished in 2 hours and 38 minutes, still not too shabby.

This year, I was supposed to run with a friend who wasn't able to and I basically MADE my husband take her entry, ha, it really wasn't that hard to talk him into it. He had only done the Indianapolis mini last year and really enjoyed this race, other than having run 8 miles the day before for a torch run he did for work purposes but the course of this race is very scenic, pretty homes, water views of Geist reservoir and lots of homeowners come out to cheer us on, play music, little kids giving your high fives, water, etc. It's just a fun all around race and it's in my neck of the woods and doesn't take me an hour and a half to get downtown and fight with all of the downtown traffic like it does the Indianapolis mini.

So on to the race, we got there much later than we had planned so we parked where ever we found which ended up being at the back of Hamilton Southeastern High School, we could have taken the shuttle to the start line but that's just not us so we really had to jog a mile to the start line, good warm up, right?! HA So we pretty much got to the start line and stretched for a minute and then we went! It took us 3 minutes to cross the start line (unlike the 10 minutes it took during the mini... okay, I'm seriously not trying to bash the mini, just point out some comparisons). I really don't remember how I felt for the first 4 miles so I assume I was feeling pretty good. I remember about mile 4, I was already starting to think I couldn't do it, my hips were already hurting, my knee was hurting and I had a blister on my toe from the mini that started hurting too. Fortunately, I had my husband with me to keep me going. I'm kidding, I would never quit unless I was injured and even then, I didn't quit the year before! I don't know why but I just have this mental block that makes me think I can't do these things so that's one of the reasons I wanted Brad to run with me. When we got between mile 7 and 8 and faced the HUGE hill, I thought there was no way I could run up that hill and most of the people around us didn't but my awesome husband kept telling me I could do it and I did, we ran up that horrible hill and were passing people left and right, it all seemed like a blur at the time and I felt like I was walking because I was going so slow but we did it! Again, around mile 11, I started losing it again and couldn't remember where I was, I had actually hit my wall around mile 10 but was really losing it by mile 11 and was thinking I can walk the rest of the way but thought there was no way that I could run the rest of it. We did walk for a short time because I was just out of breath and it was hot! Then came mile 12 and I thought We've GOT this! My husband was starting to cramp in the thighs and told me to go ahead but even though I felt like I was going, he was still right behind me. I started to sprint across the bridge and then felt like I was going to have a heart attack so I stopped and he yelled at me to RUN, I did. Again, I did the same until almost to the finish line and stopped and he yelled at me along with some other people and I (WE) finished. I finished in 2 hours and 26 minutes, that's 12 minutes faster than my time last year, 4 minutes better than my Indianapolis Mini time and 2 minutes than my personal best. It felt amazing, I was so proud of myself and HUGE thanks because I don't think I could have done it without my husband!

Energy2Action Duathlon
On to my next race, I was very sore from the Geist hills, I had to walk down the stairs in my house backwards for 2 days! WOW, I normally would be right back to working out on Monday but was really so sore that all I could do was take a long walk with my son. So, this one was a little different, a duathlon only 1 week after Geist. My friend Jen who lives in Colorado had done one and I have always wanted to do one (read about it here... http://jeepjenjen.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-race-i-did-it.html), she was already going to be home visiting family and friends for Memorial Day and found this race http://www.energy2action.com/, it was a 2 mile run, 16 mile bike (it says it's 15 on their website but the actual map shows it's 16) and then 2 mile run again. This was today so I can't say how I felt after the race yet, I worked out yesterday which was probablynot the smartest thing but oh well! It was pretty far for us but Brad and Wes got up and came with me, we got up at 6, left at 6:30 and it took us about an hour to get there. When I got there, I rode my bike up to the registration desk, got my number marked on my arms (yes, both) and my legs (yes, both) and had to pin my number on. I assume that because they don't use timing chips but keep track of this manually, that they had to have numbers everywhere to assure someone would see it and write it down. It's a pretty small race but I think that actually made it a little better. I was a little nervous when Jen said that the bike route wasn't marked at all but it actually was and there were people at every corner you turned to block traffic.

Initially when I got there and put my bike on the same rack as Jen and already had all of my things in my gym bag so it wasn't too hard to get to things but I put my helmet on my handle bars and set my bike shoes out. The running course was nice, fairly flat and it made it easy to run the full 2 miles, I felt pretty good but I think I drank a little too much fluid before the race since it was such a long drive and I had a protein shake before and nothing else so I was feeling a little like puking with everything sloshing around in me, ha. When I came back in to get my bike, the transition area was nice and smooth, changed my shoes quickly and hopped on my bike. Brad reminded me to put on my helmet so I started out trying to buckle my strap and ride. I felt great on the bike for the first several miles, there's a good size hill toward the beginning but it was pretty easy, it's an out and back course, I didn't feel the wind at my back but it was pretty chilly. Only 55 degrees, I think, then when we turned around to come back in, the wind hit us and it was tough, I need to get a new bike computer so I have no idea how fast I was going but I think Jen said she was at around 21 mph on the way out and around 16 mph on the way back so I assume I was similar, there were some fairly large potholes on the bike course but they had them marked well. When I came back into the transition area, it was smooth and nice to be able to ride to the end of the bike racks instead of having to run thru it like I did the Go Girl last year. I did have to run the length of the bike racks but it wasn't far. After 16 miles on the bike, the last 2 miles were a bit challenging, your legs feel a bit like jello. I ran next to another woman most of it as her and I were about the same pace at that point and we joked a couple of times about how we felt, etc. I'm just really thankful that I signed up for this one first before I signed up for an International Distance Duathlon though I am considering doing one later in the summer, I will definitely have to do a couple of bricks to work on the running after biking. So here are my results though I'm not sure if this will display properly...

Since I ran under my cousins name during the Indianapolis Mini, the sex and divisions aren't accurate.
NO FN LN DIVISION OVERALL DIVPL SEXPL 10M BRICKYARD BRICKYARDTOD GUNTIME TIME PACE
40172 Sean Reaves M3539 18056 1724/2165 10456/14275 1:53:59 1:26:59 9:10:55 2:40:35 2:30:13 11:28

Geist Half...
NO FN LN DIVISION OVERALL DIVPL SEXPL 5MILE RATE RANK 10MILE RATE RANK LAST5K RATE RANK TIME PACE
575 Brooke Arnold F 35-39 1763 158/257 730/1389 51:26 1018 1658 1:49:19 1056 1740 37:27 1205 1773 2:26:45 11:13

And I don't have the results from the duathlon yet but I will say that I did the first 2 miles at a 9 minute mile pace which is fast for me and I was super happy about that!

Oh and I have to say that my friend Jen rocked it, she ended up placing 2nd out of all the women! WAY TO GO, Jen! Someday maybe I can be like you! :)

V02 test

I really should be doing my weights right now but I have to blog about this before I forget everything! I redid my V02 test this morning which is testing to find out how my body utilizes oxygen, fat and calories. It's done by a system called New Leaf which tracks your oxygen and C02 thru a mask that looks like this...

You also wear a heart rate chest strap and all of this information is sent to the computer. I did this test in June of 2009 and the results were definitely NOT what I would have expected. I workout 6 days a week doing what I would call pretty intense cardio at times, such as spinning, turbo kick and running.

Before I get into the results, I will say that I really don't remember this test being as stressful as it was for me this time. I do not drink caffeine during the day but wasn't allowed to drink caffeine the day before and I had a massive headache and was so sleepy yesterday! Then this morning, had to get up pretty early on a dark, rainy morning to be there for my test at 8AM. Thankfully, my wonderful husband got up to get Wes dressed for me. I dropped Wes off at the daycare and ran upstairs, I was a few minutes late because of traffic so my heart was already pumping, ha ha. Shaun put the mask on me and got me all hooked up to the machine. The first few minutes are very easy, walking on a treadmill at a very easy pace, every couple of minutes, Shaun increased the incline, when I reached about 80% of my max, I told him I was becoming quite claustrophobic as it's getting more and more difficult to breathe thru your mouth, with that mask on, your breathing is definitely challenged! I really didn't think I was going to make it but I focused and Shaun kept increasing the incline, after 80%, it felt like forever! I got up to a 15% incline and still walking but at 94% it seemed like I was stuck and it took forever but then I was finished! If I would have had to jog, I think I might have passed out but thankfully I didn't have to. So for anyone that thinks about doing this, just an FYI, it's not a walk in the park! :) Thankfully, it only lasts about 15 minutes!

Onto my test results, as I said, I did this test in June of 2009, at that time, Wes was 9 months old and I had only been working out at home and was still having a difficult time with weight loss which is why I did the test. Now, after having worked of consistently for 2 years, I would have thought my results would have greatly improved and they have NOT, in fact, they have gotten worse.

In 2009, in zone 1, I was burning 7.2 calories per minute and 59% fat per minute which should be 50% fat or above.

Now, I am burning 7.7 calories per minute and 63% fat per minute which is great, I have improved in zone 1 but who works out in zone 1? Right, no one! Well some do but not me!

In 2009 in zone 2, I was burning 8.3 calories per minute and 43% fat, not great since again, should be at 50% fat or above.

Now, I am burning 8.9 calories per minute BUT I am only burning 29% fat, that is NOT GOOD! Again, it should be at 50% or above and this should have increased, not decreased!

In 2009, in zone 3, I was burning 11.3 calories per minute and 20% fat which should be at 30% fat or above.

Now, I am burning 10.8 calories per minute and only 19% fat. Again, that is NOT GOOD at all!

I actually thought that doing the RMR test a few weeks ago was going to give me more insight as to why I'm not losing weight but I actually think that this has given me more insight. My RMR is lower than it used to be so I should be eating less but I'm not effectively burning fat like I should be. They give you a 6 week training plan to help your body improve this so I am definitely going to follow it this time, I didn't do that the last time.

My V02 threshold is at 60% compared to others my age and gender which is good, I suppose but it could be better. Your V02 for those of you that don't know what this is is how much oxygen your body needs to burn fat. V02 stands for the volume of oxygen your body absorbs per minute while at rest and when you move. We measure Peak V02, which is the maximum amount of oxygen you used during this assessment. Your Peak V02 measure your heart and lung fitness and is considered the gold standard for determining your exercise potential.

The last thing the test measures is your recovery heart rate. As you increase your level of fitness, your heart gets stronger and recovers faster from exercise. Your heart, being as a muscle does get stronger with exercise. A stronger heart pumps more blood to your body each beat with less effort, giving you a lower resting heart rate. Well my heart rate dropped 21 beats per minute in the first minute and 32 beats per minute in the 2nd minute which is a great recovery rate. The only bad thing about having a fast recovering heart rate is that I don't get to rest for as long as others when I'm doing intervals, ha ha.

So the workouts that they give me are basically alternating heart rate zones always between zones 1 and 2, zones 2 and 3 or all 3 zones. This morning, I went to strike class as I normally do, we did have a different instructor so class was different and I also had to leave for a few minutes to go change a poopy diaper and come back so I didn't burn as many calories as I might have but also attribute that to Shaun having reset my zones on my heart rate monitor and maybe I just don't burn as many calories as I think I do. I obviously don't burn much fat! My body tends to burn more carbs before it burns fat so I guess that right now, I should really, really be watching my fat and I have been.

Shaun is going to continue to keep checking my body fat every couple of weeks and he is also going to look at my food journals from http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ and I also plan to definitely back off of the workouts a bit and start following this heart rate training plan that they gave me to do.

If anyone has any other questions about this, feel free to let me know!

A few articles that I have not read yet but plan to that are included with my test results are...
A better way to burn fat http://tinyurl.com/2GTQ2D
Maximize your metabolism http://tinyurl.com/2PLRJQ
The AT factor http://tinyurl.com/YT36A7

new 21 day challenge

So today is the beginning of a new challenge, it's going to be really hard for me to track my workouts beginning on a Tuesday but I'm willing to go for it. Julie created a new 21 day spring break challenge. I have to replace 1 meal a day with a protein shake (which I already do, breakfast is a protein shake), I have to do 4 days a week of cardio, 3 days of strength training and 2 days of yoga/pilates.

Since I did weights on Monday, Julie said that I could count that as one of my strength training days so I am including that and today, I did ashtanga yoga for an hour and 15 minutes and I also ran for about 20 minutes.

My goal is going to be cardio on Tuesday, maybe Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, strength training will be on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and yoga will be on Tuesday, Wednesday and maybe even Saturday too.

I am still also tracking my calories for the week too but am still going to count them from Sunday to Saturday. This past Sunday, I took the day off, Monday I did turbo and weight training and burned 1050 calories. Today, yoga and running and I burned 750 calories

So starting the new challenge, into week 1 have burned 1800 calories this week!

The end of the 6 week challenge

Well yesterday was the end of the 6 week challenge to burn 21,000 calories. In this time, I have lost 5 lbs and 1 inch off my waist.

My ending total for this week was 5,120 calories burned and here's the other 5 weeks...
Week 1 - 4,200
Week 2 - 3,500
Week 3 - 4,150
Week 4 - 6, 055
Week 5 - 4,850

So I burned 27,875 calories in 6 weeks. I plan to keep trying to burn 3,500 calories a week which I don't think should be a problem since I beat that goal every week except for the week that I had the stomach flu.

I think that I did great, however, I feel like I should have lost more weight than this and seem to have plateau'd recently. I have been tracking my fat and carbs and have done a great job of staying under my goal, I just am having a hard time eating more calories.

I am going to start a challenge next week to try to do 180 minutes of weights each week so stay tuned! I may need some motivation on this one! :)

Love Life. Do Good. Live Well.

Happy Friday, everyone! I had planned to have a really busy day today but my plans got changed by the 5" of snow that we got last night and I heard that the roads were terrible this morning. :( Boo We had planned to go to the gym for my favorite class of the week; strike and then we were going to go to lunch with some friends and then were going to go to a bounce place called Monkey Joe's. As it turns out, most of our friends that were going to go with us are sick so we're going to try to reschedule it for next week!

Since I updated last, on Tuesday, I did ashtanga (which is also another favorite class) and I ran a mile. I also have been speaking with a couple of instructors about becoming certified to teach some classes and just not really sure what I want to do, still giving it more thought. I really would love to teach but do I have the personality for it and will I make any money at it? If I'm doing something I love, money isn't a huge concern but it will be for my husband! :)

On Tuesday afternoon, we had a playdate with Quinton, Bradley and Barrett, all the boys had a good time and Wes was pooped after they left!

Wednesday, did my usual spinning and piyo. I guess I really can't say that strike is my favorite b/c I love ashtanga and piyo too! :) I don't think we did much Wednesday afternoon other tthan cleaning and laundry. OH, Wes did have speech therapy on Wednesday and he said a 3 word sentence, yay!!! He said Go Blue Car! yay Wes!

Thursday, I decided to get back into the pool because it has been forever since I swam. I spent a lot of the day procrastinating but we did finally make it to the gym. I took Wes swimming for a little while and he had a blast, when we first got there and I asked him if he wanted to go swimming, he said no but I took him out to the pool and showed him and when we went back to put our swimsuits on, he agreed to it. He ended up having so much fun splashing around, blowing bubbles and practice kicking. I decided that I think I'm going to do this every Thursday. Then I threw on a towel and a hoody and took him to childcare (well I got him dressed first) and then I came back and swam laps. I did quite a bit of freestyle with fins on and just upper body with a buoy between my legs. I am definitely not a great swimmer, at all but I feel like I did pretty well considering it has been since last August since I swam. I swam for about 45 minutes and then went to take a shower, I was definitely exhausted after swimming, it takes so much out of you!

Today, as I said, I'm stuck at home for the time being and I went out and shoveled snow already and burned 250 calories in 30 minutes, it's a heavy wet snow too so it was a great workout. I really just wanted to update the blog and see where I'm at for the week and then I'm going to go do the p90x kenpo. One thing I have been having a really hard time with is getting weights in. I'm really unmotivated to do it now so if anyone has any suggestions for me, let me know!

Here's my workout log for the week:
Sunday - weights for 45 minutes 100 calories burned
Monday - turbo for 60 minutes 750 calories burned
Tuesday - ashtanga and ran a mile for about 75 minutes 700 calories burned
Wednesday - spinning and piyo for about 110 minutes 1000 calories burned
Thursday - swimming for 45 minutes burned 345 calories (according to my fitness pal, I didn't wear my heart rate monitor)
Friday - (so far)... shoveling snow for 30 minutes burned 250 calories

So I have burned 3,945 calories this week.

Week 1 - 4,200 calories burned
Week 2 - 3,500 calories burned
Week 3 - 4,150 calories burned
Week 4 - 6,055 calories burned
Week 5 - 4,850 calories burned
Week 6 - 3,945 calories burned (so far)

"The greatest wealth is health."

I know I haven't updated since last Wednesday. Last Thursday, I had a terrible headache. I don't drink much caffeine (none in the morning at all, maybe a diet coke at night) but I had a terrible headache and was so tired. I wasn't able to workout OR have any caffeine because I was doing a resting metabolic rate test on Friday morning. The test went pretty well, for those of you that don't know about it, you wear a mask and probably look similar to Hannibal Lecter (even the personal trainer said I did, ha ha), you have to breathe in and out thru your mouth which is kind of a challenge (or just requires more thought on breathing!) and you basically just sit and relax for about 20 minutes. SO EASY! I did this test a couple of years ago and my RMR was 1450 calories a day, that's what I needed to eat to survive and not let my body go into starvation mode. I really wanted to redo this test since I found out that I have hypothyroidism because I knew that my RMR had changed since then and it did. My RMR is now about 1250 calories which when I first heard was kind of like being punched in the gut. If I didn't workout, that would be very little calories and going out to eat would be nearly impossible! Thankfully, I get to eat a little more calories since I workout. However, I still will probably need to play around with the calorie intake to lose some weight. I had lost 5 lbs in a month but then I plateau'd and haven't lost anything the last couple of weeks.

I did talk to Shaun, a personal trainer and the one who did the test for me and we talked about my fat, protein and carb consumption so I am watching that now and trying to not go above 40% fat and about 50% carbs and not way over on protein but pretty much what I want. I have been really watching this since I did the test on Friday and today when I was looking in the mirror, I thought my stomach already looked a little smaller. I still haven't lost any weight but I took my measurement of my waist and I have already lost an inch off my waist! WOOHOO!!! I took my measurements a few weeks ago and nothing had really changed so I know that this is a loss that has recently occurred. I didn't check my other measurements but will keep watching this. The belly is definitely an important place for me to lose it since I feel like I carry a lot of weight there!

If anyone I know around here is interested in doing this test, I highly recommend it and can answer any questions you have about it!

I'm not going to go into alot of detail about my workouts. Friday, after my test I did the usual strike and burned 650 calories, would have probably burned more but I had to leave to go get a diaper and change it in the middle of class.

Saturday- did spinning and 30 minutes of athletic yoga and burned 1000 calories. It was really nice here on Saturday so I went to the outlet mall with my mom and Wes and Alan and got some new things for him for summer and next winter, along with some jibbitz for his crocs and some Thomas PJ's which he was pretty excited about, we got to do a little more walking because of this trip too.

So for the week, that put me at 4,850 calories burned for the week!

Yesterday, I kinda took the day off, I did some abs and then I did p90x legs on my own without the video which doesn't take long. I burned about 100 calories. I had a nice visit with my friend Kathryn yesterday afternoon and got some cleaning done, Wes took a good long nap and Brad went to the office to do our taxes, uninterrupted!

Today, I went to the gym for turbo, I haven't done that class forever. I'm really not very coordinated but I can handle doing strike on Friday b/c it's not as dancy. I think my problem is that I lose my focus and I forget the moves or my count, plus I have never been one to be able to pat my belly and rub my head at the same time or however that goes, I might have that backwards, ha ha. A lot of the moves in this class require you to do things with your hands and feet at the same time. I don't feel like I looked completely stupid but I definitely was not the most coordinated person in the class. I just focused on keep moving and you'll still burn calories no matter how dumb I look! And, I burned 750 calories!

So here's my recap of my weekly challenge since I'm in the final week (although I plan to keep trying to burn 3500 calories a week for as long as I can keep it up!)...
Week 1-4200 calories burned
Week 2-3500 calories burned (stomach flu)
Week 3-4150 calories burned
Week 4-6055 calories burned (that's kinda crazy, hu?) As of this week, I had lost 5 lbs since the beginning of this challenge
Week 5-4850 calories burned
Week 6- 850 calories burned so far and as of the beginning of this week I have lost an inch off my waist!

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. ~Henry Ford

Well, I'm finally getting around to updating this from last week. It has been a busy week and I just haven't had the time to do it before now.

I'll start with last Friday, I did my usual strike class but Julie was in Chicago and Rachel was teaching. I don't know what happened that day but I thought I was going to throw up a couple of times. Great class! HA! I also did p90x weights at home that day and burned 990 calories that day. Wes and I also went to Recreation Unlimited in the afternoon with some friends and had a blast, he loved swinging on the big boy swings, going down the slide and he liked jumping on the trampoline too! That evening, we went over to a friends house for dinner and had pizza. That didn't help with my fat intake which I have to admit, I'm having a hard time keeping it low.

Saturday, I got up and went to spinning in the morning even though I was pretty tired that morning, I also tried to stay for yoga after that but Wes had a meltdown in the daycare because he was up late the night before and was tired so I had to leave about 20 minutes into it. I still managed to burn 915 calories. Mom and Alan came over that evening and Alan brought ribs and we had mac and cheese and baked potatoes, not the healthiest of meals but hey, it's the weekend, right?

Sunday, I did kenpo and burned 650 calories. We had another bad day, went to a friends for dinner and had strombolis that evening however in all of this, I never went over my calories, was probably just high on the of the fat which is not where I want to be!

As soon as the thaw began around here, my allergies started going crazy and I haven't felt fantastic this week but went to spinning on Monday, got there late and there was a different instructor (who I didn't care for), burned 650 calories.

Tuesday, I did my usual ashtanga yoga, I finally got back to running and did a mile and a half and then I came home and did weights at home too. So good calorie burning day this day. 950 calories burned, plus Wes and I went out and did some shopping and got him lots of spring/summer clothes so we are prepared for the warm temps, yay! Come on spring!

Wednesday, it's really nice out here today, the snow is melting and it's 60 degrees, though it's not helping my allergies. I went to spinning this morning and then piyo and burned 950 calories. I came home from the gym and vacuumed out my car and cleaned the grime off the windows and then I went to get my nails done. This evening, I'm going to a local cycling place for a ladies night that I'm kind of excited for, meeting 3 friends there and just looking forward to getting out of the house this evening, especially in this nice weather.

Tomorrow, it's supposed to be SUPER duper nice out. I HAVE to take the day off from working out because on Friday, I'm doing the resting metabolic rate test. I'm so excited to have this done and find out how much I should really be eating because I haven't had it done since before I had a throid problem. I will update everyone then!

Here's my workout log:

week 1 -4,200 calories burned
week 2 - 3,500 calories burned
week 3 - 4,150 calories burned
week 4 - 6,055 calories burned (I have to admit, that's kinda crazy!)
week 5 - 3,200 calories burned (need to burn at least 300 more this week!)

so unproductive today...

• I have been so unproductive today, ugh. I got up and got dressed to workout and never did. I have worked out every other day this week and have already passed my goal of burning 3500 calories this week and I have not eaten bad today so I don't feel terrible about not working out. I just needed to do p90x legs today so I will just have to do it tomorrow instead.
  
  Yesterday, I had a great day and burned 1200 calories doing a spinning class and then piyo (pilates/yoga). I did have my body fat checked by Shaun at the gym yesterday and even though I am down 5 lbs, I'm not feeling wonderful about my body fat. I'm at 28% which is in the normal range of most people but last August when I had it checked last, I was at 24% but Shaun said that it can vary as much as 3% per person that checks it so it could have been wrong. I weighed more back then but that was also when I was training for the triathlon I did last summer and swimming in the morning so I was working out alot more. I definitely would like to get back to at least 24%, possibly lower if I can!
  
  I wanted to post the p90x workout that I did on Tuesday and last Saturday, this was a different video than I had done before, it was chest, shoulders and triceps and didn't require a pull up bar so I liked that part of it. Though, there are a TON of push ups in this video. I just have to tell you that this is an amazing workout and if you're looking for a workout that you can do at home, this is a great one to do. So here we go... (I will admit than when I did this video, I didn't do as many push ups as were in the video because I did yoga that day and did alot of push ups that day and the day before).
  
  
  I'm sure that most of these exercises can be googled if you're not sure what they are. Also, most of these you do as many as you can with the heaviest weight you can.
  
  
• First is 3 in 1 slow motion push ups - this is wide, middle and chataranga
  in and out shoulder flys (this is going out in front and then out to the side) - 16 with 10 lbs
  
• chair dips - 30ish
  
• plange push ups - I did 25 - you can google dive bomber push ups, basically the same thing.
  
• pike press - I did 25. This is basically a downward dog and you do pushups with your head almost touching the floor.
  
• side tri rise - lay on your side, cross the arm that is laying against the floor across your chest and push up with the other arm.
  
• floor flys- you can use a paper plate under one hand, go out wide then switch hands with a push up in between.
  
• scare crows - hang your arms down like a scare crow and lift just your forearms. I did 10 with 10 lbs.
  
• overhead tri- I did 20 with 10lbs.
  
• 2 speed twitch push ups - 12
  
• y press - 10 lbs/15 reps.
  
• lying tricep extension - 20 with a 10 lb weight
  
• side to side push ups - 8ish?
  
• pour flys - 12 w a 5 lb weight. A lot of these exercises are probably what you imagine them to be but I didn't write down many descriptions and I don't remember exactly. Like I said, you can probably google them.
  
• side leaning tri's (leaning on a chair) - 12 with 10 lbs.
  
• 1 arm push ups - okay, I did 5 on each arm but what you have to do is move your knees out WIDE and my arm barely moved but watching the girl in the video, she barely moves either! :)
  
• weighted circles - 2 sets of 10 with 5 lbs, forward and back
  
• throw the bomb - like a tri extension did 10 with a 10 lb weight and 15 with 5 lbs
  
• clap or plyo push ups - I didn't even do these!
  
• slow mo throw - 8 with a 10 lb weight
  
• front to back tricep extension - 15 with 10 lbs
  
• 1 arm balance push ups - ha, yeah right!
  
• fly-row-press - 15 with a 10 lb weight
• dumbell cross body blows (you lay on the floor and since this is the last exercise, you do as many as you can) I did about 50 with 10 lbs.
  

So, that's all for today other than my training log...

Week 1 - 4,200 calories burned

Week 2 - 3,500 calories burned (sick with the flu)

Week 3 - 4,150 calories burned

Week 4 - 3,950 calories burned (still 2 workout days left this week)

mental note...

I just need to make a note of my calories for the past few weeks because I'm losing track of it.

Week 1 - burned 4200
Week 2 - burned 3500 (sick with the flu)
Week 3 - burned 4150
total is 11,850

I am in week 4 now and Sunday, I did the elliptical at home and burned 400 calories.
Yesterday, I went to a spinning and core class and burned 750 calories between the 2 classes. Then I came home and dug up ice in my driveway for about an hour and a half and I burned 1000 calories, that was hard work!

Today, went to ashtanga yoga and burned 600 calories. I'm also going to do p90x weights in a little while too.

So this week, I'm at 2750, looks like it's going to be a great week for calorie burning since it's only Tuesday and I'm already almost at my goal! Whoohoo!!!

This morning, I talked to Shaun who is a personal trainer at my gym and a metabolic specialist, he gave me some good tips, he said I should be taking fish oil to help me with weight loss which I used to take but then I ran out and just never bought it again. I had no idea that it would help with weight loss. So I bought a big bottle of it when I was at costco today (I think there should be a link here with some good information about fish oil).

He also told me about a lot of people being sensitive to gluten in their diets. I really don't think that's my issue because I don't have unexplained weight loss, if I did, that definitely would not be a problem with me.

I am very excited because I am going to redo the resting metabolic rate test which will tell me how many calories I burn a day. I have been wanting to do this since I found out I have a thyroid problem because I know that I was burning 1500 calories a day when I did the test before but not sure if I burn less than that now with the thyroid problem. Part of the thing that bothers me is that there isn't much information online about losing weight with a thyroid problem. There's alot saying that once your thyroid is regulated, you should be able to lose weight. Well I am and I do workout a lot and eat fairly healthy so what's the problem?

The next thing I talked to Shaun about is my protein and fat intake so I'm going to start trying to keep track of that. A lot of the problem is getting protein into your diet without the fat, so we'll see how I do with this challenge.

Yesterday, I had 79 grams of protein and 41 grams of fat.
2/6, I had 51 grams of fat (it was the superbowl, give me a break) and 46 grams of protein, okay, not a good day!
2/5, I had 35 grams of fat, and 36 grams of protein. Also apparently not a good day but I guess this is why I'm looking at it, hu? :)
2/4, wow this was a really bad day... 62 grams of fat and 85 grams of protein. We ate at culver's that day, guess I won't be eating there again anytime soon!
2/3, holy crap, 52 grams of protein and 70, yes, 70 grams of fat!!!!!!!!!! agh! (Oh, this was the day that I ate at Pizza hut for lunch with Taja, I thought I did okay having a big salad and 2 pieces of pizza but apparently not... of course, there is no nutritional value in iceberg lettuce anyway).
2/2 - 58 grams of protein and 76 grams of fat, holy hell, this just keeps getting worse. It's actually embarrassing to record this but I guess that's why I'm doing it so I will RECOGNIZE!!!!

This was the first day that I began recording my calories on my fitness pal so before that, I don't have record the nutrients like this. I was recording on the daily plate on my itouch but it doesn't show the nutrients like my fitness pal does. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this in the future and have to figure out where I'm going wrong because on 2/2, I ate at home and not really sure what I ate that was so bad that day other than a few too many cookies because I baked that day! Okay, off to do my weights now!

Happy Thursday!

I was excited to finally get out of the house today after last week of having the flu and not leaving the house from Thursday until Monday and then this week, we were trapped at home because of the ice storm. I took some pictures while I was out today I will post here too.

This morning, I did the kenpo x DVD and then I went to the gym to do a noon powersculpt yoga, it's a great class except having done a bunch of push ups and legs yesterday, I was a little sore. Then, Wes and I went to meet Taja, Jack and Darby for lunch. Darby is a freshman in high school and is autistic (there are still out of school because of the ice storm), she has a big time crush on my husband. At lunch she kept saying "hey woman" to me and asking "who's that man?" and I said "Brad" and she said "do you like him?" and I said "yes" to which she replied "I love him" It was awesome, I love it that Brad has a girlfriend! Though Taja threatened to send her home with me for the weekend and I don't think I could handle that. She might steal my man, she obviously has very strong feelings for him! :) We went to Hilton Head last summer with Taja and her family and had a blast, I think this is where the crush began! Jack and Wes had a great time playing at lunch too, it was really cute. I think when I need a night out, I will send Wes over so that Jack and Taja can babysit him and maybe Darby can watch Brad for me! :)

Here are some photos from the snowpoclypse 2011! That poor little frog used to be sitting on a stone in my yard, now he's sitting on ice!

Eat, Sleep, Train... that's my life or it feels like it is

It's been quite a week and haven't updated much because I haven't done much! Last Thursday, I came down with the stomach flu, it was horrible and I thought I was going to die (not really but it was bad). I was really, really sick on Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday were pretty much used as recovery days although I did still have an upset stomach that lasted 6 days total thru the whole thing.

Monday, I finally went back to the gym and did a spin class and a 30 minute core class. I am still sore from the core class as I sit here and write this and it's Wednesday! I also did some pull ups on the assisted pull up machine too. I burned 1000 calories on Monday.

Monday evening, we got hit with a major ice storm and since I live 30 minutes from my gym, I knew I wasn't going to be going in on Tuesday. I planned ahead and did about 45 minutes on the elliptical and did about an hour of p90x yoga. I wanted to do more yoga but it was challenging with a 2 year old under me as I was trying to downward dog. :) I also did a lot of running around that day, I cooked a yummy broccoli cheese soup...

1 can cream of celery
1 can cream of chicken
about 15 oz of chicken broth
32 oz bag of frozen potatoes, carrots, celery and onion
about an additional cup of chopped celery
half of a large block of velveeta cheese
(place all in a pot and once soupy, I pureed all the veggies with my cuisinart hand held mixer) then add a bag of frozen chopped broccoli

I also made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and some peanut butter chip cookies to calm my nerves during the ice storm. Listening to the second round of ice hitting the windows after we already had about an inch of ice probably was nerve wracking and feared we were going to lose power. Also, my husband was out working the roads thru all of this and I was also worried about him so I'm sure I burned some calories just from stressing out! HA HA But I burned 550 calories during my workouts on Tuesday.

Today, after the 2nd round of the ice storm, we were "iced" in and had gusting 35mph winds and I hear that the roads are still very bad so we planned to stay in. I was having a hard time getting motivated today, I was able to lose 2 lbs before I had the flu and then after the flu, I was able to keep off 5 but today, the 3 came back on and I'm only down 2 lbs. :( So today being home with Wes, I did workouts when I could. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical earlier. Then I looked back at my p90x legs workout and did that, then I eventually did the p90x abs and did another 30 minutes on the elliptical, all while cleaning a little here and there and playing with Wes. I feel like I had a more productive day yesterday but oh well. Throughout all of that, I burned 750 calories. So I'm up to 1550 for the week, at this time last week, I had already made my goal (which was good since I had the flu), I'm definitely going to have to workout tomorrow, Friday and Saturday to make it and hopefully I will! It's definitely very hard to workout at home and I'm hoping I can get to the gym tomorrow but will just have to see. I do at least have the kenpo x workout so I can at least do that tomorrow and I will definitely be back in the gym on Friday.

How are all of your goals going for the week?

No matter who you are, no matter what you do, you absolutely, positively do have the power to change. ~Bill Phillips

Well it's been a crazy couple of days. This morning in my spinning class, I was thinking about what I was going to write today and I was kind of depressed because last week I lost a pound finally and kept it off but then I weighed myself this morning and it was back on. Well as it turns out, my husband pointed out that I should have placed the scale on the tile instead of the rug so the 1 lb is still off! HA HA Yes, I guess I'm a dork! So knowing this, I'm in a much better mood!

So first, I will start off with my workouts yesterday. I went to the gym for ashtanga yoga, one of my favorites, love this class, it's so hot, I sweat like crazy and it's so fun to challenge myself to get better every week. Ashtanga is the same every week, maybe sounds boring but I love it, I love trying the balancing poses to see if I'm getting any better which I think I am but it's baby steps! Then after this class, I did some pull ups on the assisted pull up machine, I did 2 sets of wide, underhand and close grip. I don't remember how many I did of each. I also had to point out that I used the "assisted" pull up machine because several people on facebook thought I was bada$$ enough to do a pull up on my own, HA, I doubt it!

Wes and I came home after that, got some lunch and I got on facebook for a bit which is my usual routine, my plan was to do the p90x chest and back video after lunch but somehow I got inspired. A while back, my friend Jennifer invited me into a group called 'the mommy group' and a recipe exchange. I have grown to love these groups and seeing people post there everyday and being able to help each other so I decided that we needed a group of our own for those of us that want to live a healthy lifestyle. I called the group 'we got this' because I found it online somewhere and I loved it and I had actually forgotten it was kind of my friend Rana's motivational theme! She has run numberous mini-marathons and just last fall, she completed 2 marathons! So she did "got it" hehe

So, as of today, we are up to 88 members and lots of active posts going on. I couldn't be happier, it's so inspirational and motivating to me that people truly want to be involved in it and I'm just so excited about it.

I feel like I'm all over the place this evening. Let me get back to the fact that I did finally do the p90x chest and back yesterday after creating the group, although I feel like I only did about 20 minutes of it because having done ashtanga and yoga the day before, I had done a lot of push ups and I had already done the pull ups at the gym so I didn't have much left. But overall, I burned 950 calories in yoga and doing weights.

Today, as I said started out rough, Happy Hump day! I thought I weighed a pound more but I went to the gym depite being kinda bummed. Had a decent workout though I felt like my heart rate was a little higher than normal in spinning class, it was still a great workout and then I did 45 minutes of piyo (pilates and yoga) and felt really good in that class. With everything that happened today, I actually don't remember how many calories I burned but I think it was around 1000.

Wes and I then came home to do our usual routine of eating lunch and getting on facebook. Well, I came home to find that my laptop (I'm on our computer upstairs that we have) had been infected with a virus so instead of cleaning this afternoon and showering and cooking dinner, I had to burn all of my photos to cd's and thumb drives before the computer ate them all! Definitely not what I had planned for the afternoon. Thankfully, I did have time to vaccuum the house and finally got to get in the shower by 5:30. And we had pizza for dinner but considering I didn't eat much all day and was still only at 660 calories by dinner time, I don't feel too bad about eating 2 pieces of pizza! If I get hungry again later, I'm going to make myself a spinach salad or eat an apple, although I'm still a couple hundred calories under my goal so maybe a protein shake too.

That's about it for me right now, I'm going to go spend some time with my hubby, stepson and my son before he goes to bed. Tomorrow, I am going to go to an indoor play place to meet a couple of friends in the morning and then I'm hoping that I have enough motivation when I get home to do some p90x weights. I really have a hard time doing workouts if I don't do them first thing in the morning so I'm going to need help!

Here's my calorie log:
4200 calories burned last week
3500 burned this week (already met my goal)

If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can't buy.

I think my little day by day titles are kinda boring so I decided to change it up. One that I would love to make my title but I know it would be too long is this one that I saw in my gym. I'm posting it here so that I can look back on it too because it really inspires me to do more...

I won't just reach my goals. I will crush them. I am here to work hard. To learn. To take back my life. Get a little help. Live a lot. I will not be content. I will push myself. And be pushed. I will build my body. And fill it with confidence. One on one. One day at a time. For one reason. ME!!!

So today, I had a pretty great day. I don't know why but I'm feeling really positive today, well since my workout anyway. This morning, I woke up thinking I hate the snow, I hate these dry cracked lips I have, I hate having to wear different pants to the gym and then change when I get there because it's too cold to wear capris. But then I went to David's spin class, I used to go to his class when he first started teaching there and I really didn't like him but now I really love it. I feel like I'm riding outside and he's a great motivator. I also did his 30 minute core class after that which was a killer (but still not as hard as p90x abs, ha). I did the p90x yoga yesterday which has lots of push ups in it and there were quite a few push ups in this core class today. I know you're saying that's not core but he did it more like yoga and planks. Anyway, I ended up burning 830 calories in that class today. I also went out and shoveled snow this morning too but I only burnt 93 calories and I'm not going to count that in my total for the week. Then Wes and I went to the mall to return a couple of things, I was proud of myself for not buying anything for myself but it's difficult to shop with a 2 year old! :) I did get a pretzel that I planned to share with Wes but he didn't like it so I ate that, bad me but sometimes you have to give in and I only eat those probably twice a year. So sometimes you give in but you have to let it roll off your back and keep on truckin'. :) Other than that, we went to a friends yesterday and I probably ate a little too much but it was all good because I worked out, today even eating the pretzel, I think I'm still probably way under my calories and not hungry. I'm also going to a special yoga event at the gym tonight which I don't normally like doing in the evening but I'm going to do it anyway because Tyler will be here and it will give him and Brad some time together and my friend Andrea is going who I haven't seen forever so she kinda talked me into it! That's why it's good to have friends that workout and keep you motivated!

• My week last week 4200 calories burned.
• So far this week 1550 burned
• 5750 of my 21,000 calories burned challenge!

Oh, I almost forgot

Despite having a bad night of drinking Friday night, I actually lost 1 lb when I weighed myself Saturday morning. This is a big deal for me because I have a really hard time losing weight since I have a thyroid problem. SO I'm hoping that this 3500=1 lb of weight loss is actually finally working!

Happy weekend

I don't think I will usually post on the weekends but while I was sitting here, I decided to recap my weekend. Friday night at the last minute, we got invited to a friends for happy hour, that turned out to be a late night. In one sense, it's really nice because now Wes will sleep in his pack and play at our friends house but we just shouldn't have had as much to drink as we did and stay up so late. Overall, with all of my food and drinks on Friday, I consumed around 2000 calories which isn't that bad considering I burned I think 800ish on Friday (I can't remember).

So Saturday ended up being kind of a lazy day, I planned to go do some weights but we slept in and then I went to get my nails done and then did a free photo book on snapfish along with some other things around the house and then my mom and Alan came over. I never feel good following a day of drinking and partying, it's fun and even though I really wasn't hungover yesterday, it just doesn't fit into my lifestyle. Why workout 6 days a week, eat fairly healthy and then I drink and feel icky. I guess I need to find some new friends, HA, kidding! Even though I didn't work out, I only had around 1200 calories so I felt good about that.

Today is a good day, I finally sold the spin bike that I wanted to get rid of. Then I went and did 45 minutes of the p90x yoga. I wasn't feeling all that flexible so I didn't do the full hour and a half of it. Then I was going to go to the gym to do some weights with the hubby but his gym is at the police station and they share it with the firemen and I just really didn't want to be there especially because we would have to take Wes. So I decided to do the kenpo x again because I really liked it on Friday.

Later we are going to a friends to watch the football games today so I'm going to have to be good today. I made a healthy appetizer so I'll have to try to eat a lot of mine and I know they are making chili and chili isn't bad, right? :)

So my tally for this week is that I'm at 720 calories of out 3500 for this week.

I'm not sure why I said day 6 yesterday, today is Day 6! HA

Well I reached and exceeded my goal, YAY me! I was actually incorrect in my total yesterday, it should have been 3425 and today, I burned 775 calories so I'm at 4200. I am feeling so good about this and really proud of myself. I worked really hard this week and even had to work out at home 3 days because of the childcare at the gym and Wes not liking it. It's actually really cute because he likes to imitate me doing weights. This morning, I did kenpo and he looked at me like I was crazy most of the time. Here's a picture of Wes working out with me...

Kenpo is a part of the p90x program, I really liked it. I normally do sort of a kickboxing type of class on Friday but since childcare at the gym wasn't back to normal, I decided to stay home and do this. I used my 2lb weighted gloves for some of it (which they didn't use gloves on the video so I was really pleased with myself, ha ha). I had to stop for a second briefly to fix Wes' choo choo that he was playing with but I still finished in just a little over an hour which is what the video is and I burned 600 calories.

I immediately ran upstairs and put in the ab ripper from p90x and I FINALLY made it thru the whole video, it's only 15 minutes but wow is it hard. It's all balancing type boat poses or roll up type of ab work which I think is just very hard. I guess I definitely have not been doing enough ab work. I had to quickly shower after this because Annie was coming over for Wes' speech therapy, my legs and arms felt like they had weights on them and I'm really hoping I'm able to get out of bed tomorrow! :)

Day 6

Well sorry, we didn't get around to blogging yesterday. We had a rather eventful day, we went to the gym but the childcare area is currently under construction so they are having childcare over in the basketball court. On Monday, Wes loved it, Tuesday, not so much but he tolerated it. Yesterday, he had a complete meltdown, I left him there with the wonderful manager and he cried. I went upstairs to my class to find that it wasn't the usual instructor so I went back down and talked to someone for a few minutes and then went to check on Wes (because I was still hoping to make it to a spinning class after that) but he was still crying so we left and came home.

This was difficult since we live pretty far (20-30 minutes) from my gym but I came home and got on the elliptical for about 30 minutes. We were then going to meet some friends at this play place called Recreation Unlimited but Wes didn't seem like he was feeling great, he just kept laying around and hasn't really been eating much lately. So I did the p90x abs after this. The video is only 15 minutes but is VERY hard. I have still only made it thru about half the video. I'm sure that if I pushed myself, I could do it but since I thought we were going to meet friends, I stopped it. We got ready to leave but then I couldn't decide if Wes would want to go or not, I kept changing my mind. We decided to stay home.

Then, my friend Jasmine who I haven't seen in a long time called and said she was going so we decided to go anyway. Wes ended up having a great time, they have 4 Thomas train tables, a huge Thomas store, which was thankfully behind closed doors or we would have never been able to leave and everything would have been pulled off the shelves. They also have a basketball court, about 15 swing/playsets INSIDE, some play houses and 3 trampolines. As I said, we had a blast, it's close to home and so cheap that we will definitely be heading back there again soon and are planning another playdate next week!

So anyway, back to my challenge, I burned 375 calories doing the abs video and elliptical which puts me at 2875 out of 3500.

Now on to today, we knew we were staying home today because Wes had his annual speech evaluation and since Wes had such a meltdown at the gym, I didn't want to risk taking him back. I am hoping they are back to the childcare area tomorrow so we can go back.

Wes did really well with his speech evaluation. He knows or says at least 80 words, probably more than that. He did really well with all of the other things that they asked of him so we just have to wait for them to grade him to find out if he's still eligible for speech therapy. It's provided thru the state so it's very inexpensive which is why we have to be eligible. I'm hoping he is still going to get it because I just think it's nice to have someone else here once a week to work on things with him. He doesn't listen to me as I'm sure you moms know! :)

So today would normally have been a day off from working out but since I'm doing this challenge and trying to get more weights in, I decided to do the p90x legs and back. As I said the other day, this can be as hard or easy as you want it to be depending upon the weights you decide to use. They actually don't even use many weights in this video and I didn't either. I didn't have a pull up bar yet but tried to do some of the exercises with a band as one of the girls in the video did. I would think this video would be VERY hard if you use a pull up bar.

So once again, here is what the video consisted of...

• 25 balancing lunges (one leg on a chair)
• 25 calf raise squats
• 25 reverse grip chin-ups (if you're using a pull up bar, it would just be as many as you can do)
• 25 super skaters (each leg) - This is where you stand up and then lunge back with one leg as if you were skating but your other leg never touches the ground.
• wall squats for a minute and a half, you get lower ever 30 seconds - VERY HARD :)
• 25 wide front pull ups
• 15 (each leg) step back lunges with a 10 lb weight
• 24 alternate side lunges with a 10 lb weight
• 20 close grip overhand pullups
• single leg wall squats for a minute, change leg every 10 seconds - I was about ready to fall on the floor by the end of this.
• 25 (each leg) dead lift squats (basically a dead lift on one leg)
• 20 switch grip pull ups
• 25 3 way lunges (side, 45 degree and front with a high kick after each one)
• 20 sneaky lunges reverse grip chin ups (I stopped keeping track of how many I was doing so just do as many as you can)
• chair salutations - hold for 30 seconds, repeat!
• 20 (each leg) toe roll isolated lunge
• wide grip pull up
• 20 groucho walks
• calf raises (regular, pigeon toed and out) do 12 slow and then 12 fast of each
• close grip pull ups
• 80/20 seiber speed squats (where one toe is barely touching the floor)... I believe they did about 10 and then did about 10 jumping squats and repeated
• switch grip pull ups

The End!

After this, I went out and shoveled snow very speedy like. Unfortunately, as I sit here and type this, my driveway is covered again so I might have to do it again but I really just did this for a quick additional back workout and it's still snowing so I'm not going out again yet!

So I burned 400 calories doing the P90x legs and back and then I burned 175 calories shoveling (I didn't keep track of the time but was probably around 30 minutes). Sooooo, I'm at 3450 of my 3500 calorie goal for the week! YAY ME! If I do get to to go the gym tomorrow, the class I do is a high calorie burner and I am hoping to do some yoga also!

Day 3 of the calorie burning challenge...

I am really having fun with this, I think most people will think I'm completely over doing it but I'm excited to finally see if I see some results, I'm adding p90x weights into my workouts so that's where I'm hoping I finally see some changes!

I'm 2500 calories into my goal this week and my goal is only 3500, yay me! HA! Today, I went to the gym for an hour and 15 minute HOT ashtanga yoga. I love this class! I never thought of myself as a yogi but I do really love it, I love when it's hot so you get a good sweat going and the poses are very challenging. I'm also seeing some definite improvement in my flexibility!

Then, I went to do 20 minutes on the stairclimber. I would like to do the bop to the top this Saturday morning which is (I think) 37 flights of stairs. I knew that I would have to do about double that on a stairclimber since it assists in you climbing the stairs so I got thru about 68 floors in 20 minutes. That was 700 calories between those two things.

I came home, I had 2 hard boiled eggs on the way to the gym this morning and scary enough, I have lost another hard boiled egg I had in a bag, I have completely cleaned out my purse and my car looking for it so I'm hoping it just fell out of the car! My car doesn't smell like egg but I'm going to keep checking for it! AGH! Then, I ate a banana on my way home and a bag of veggie chips because I was starving. (Oh and last night, we had leftover gumbo over rice, a piece of garlic bread and I had a chai tea) As soon as I finish posting this, I'm going to go pig out on a big turkey sandwich!

So, once I got home, I decided to do the shoulders and triceps workout from p90x. I don't have a pull up bar yet so I couldn't do the other one that I had. Here is what this workout consisted of (I did all weights with 10 lb weights unless otherwise noted)...
warm-up
20 alternating shoulder press
20 bicep curls
17 tricep kickbacks
repeat
20 deep swimmers press
20 sublination curls
20 chair tricep dips
repeat
17 upright rows
15 static arm curls
20 flip-grip tri's (with 5 lb weights)
repeat
16 seated 2 angle shoulder flys
15 (12 the 2nd time) crouching cohen curls... this one was pretty hard with a 10 lb weight and leaning against a wall
15 lying down tri's (basically skull crushers)
repeat
20 straight arm shoulder fly's (5 lb weights)
20 congdon curl (only 17 the 2nd time)... I already don't remember what this is, ha ha
10 side tri fly's on the floor... This was painful and I said I wasn't even going to do it the 2nd time but I did. You lay on the floor on your right side, hold your right arm up like you're crossing your heart then do a push up on the floor from your left hand... NOT easy!

So what I said above was challenging, was challenging, I need heavier weights to push myself harder with the other one's, doing 10 lb weights was hard and we'll see how sore I am but I feel I could have pushed myself harder. I still burned 300 calories in a hour of doing that which is how I got to 2500 calories.
500 Sunday
1000 Monday
1000 Tuesday

I still have the p90x ab ripper which you are supposed to do in conjunction with the weight days and hopefully I have the energy to do that, it's only 15 minutes. Tomorrow will probably be a spinning class and then I will do piyo and on Thursday, I will probably try to do p90x weights again. If you have any questions about the workout above because you'd like to do it, feel free to leave me a comment and I'll get you an answer!

New year, new me... hopefully

Well I know it's been a while since I've posted and my topics have been a little off topic as this blog actually started but, I have taken on a challenge that I want to post about. I have a hard time remembering things and writing them down and where better to remember by posting it here.

As most of you probably know, I have hypothyroidism and have had a really, really hard time losing weight. I have no problems getting to the gym and exercising, in fact, I'm quite addicted to it though I have hoped it would help me look a little different. I'm not one to diet as I like to enjoy my food so that probably doesn't help. I have tracked my calories for a long time and that didn't help. I also started weight watchers about a month ago and only lost a couple of pounds when I was sick for a couple of days.

So, my hope is that by tracking things here, it will make me more accountable and maybe, just maybe I will see some results. As for this challenge I have taken on, it is to burn 21,000 calories in 6 weeks which is 3,500 calories a week which is equal to 1 lb of weight loss per week, hopefully!

I wanted to journal the things I'm doing for my own record but also for anyone else who might care to read. I'm hoping I can keep track of this every couple of days so keep checking up on me to see how I'm doing and get on me if I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

I started this challenge yesterday and because I was kind of sore from a class I had done on Friday, I decided to do yoga, the P90X yoga. Let me tell you, this is not an easy one. I have been doing yoga 3 times a week for a few months and it was still hard. The P90X yoga is 45 minutes of yoga and 45 minutes of balancing poses and abs. I wore my heart rate monitor as I will when I do any exercise and I burned 500 calories in an hour and a half, that wasn't even hot yoga.

Last night, we had some friends over to cheer against the Patriots and most of us had too much to drink. This morning, I was meeting my friend Andrea to do some weights, I'm really glad that I had scheduled to meet her, because I might not have gone to the gym otherwise though I knew if I didn't, I would feel awful all day. So, we did about 50 minutes of weights which was a great workout and then I went to a spinning class. I didn't push myself as hard as I probably normally would have though, I still went. I burned 1000 calories doing that hour and 50 minutes of working out.

To some of you, that may seem like a lot. I do have my heart rate monitor set up with my zones and have done testing even though it has been a couple of years ago, I guess I just burn a lot of calories, unfortunately, it still doesn't seem to help. I really need to do the metabolic testing and test my zones again to find out where I am but I just haven't made it a priority.

So that is 2 days of my journey, I'm at 1500 calories of 3500 for the week. Tomorrow will probably be kind of a light day as I do ashtanga yoga on Tuesday's, I'm going to try to get there early to do some cardio before or after class. I also am hoping to get the entire set of P90X so that I can do that in addition to my gym workouts!

As for the diet end of it, I would also like to track things on here as well, just not sure how realistic that is. Yesterday, I ate egg beaters on a multi-grain english muffin with a slice of cheese, then I didn't eat again until dinner which was a spinach salad, half of a mexican meatball sandwich, some pasta salad and corn casserole. Since we had friends over, I was bad and did have a piece of red velvet cake and had way too many rum and diets. Today, I had a protein shake with peanut butter for breakfast and a hard boiled egg. For lunch, I had a homemade turkey sandwich with a slice of cheese, olive oil mayo and mustard. I'm not really sure what we'll be having for dinner yet but will try to update that later.

Well, I better go shower now, I'm looking forward to vegging on my sofa for a while after that!