RAWR!

Yesterday I cracked myself up with a couple of tweets (it was so good to be back to my normal self):


I'm a good girl. I'm heading to the gym to do my last RSG Week 3 workout! RAWR!

and

RAWR! RSG Strength Training: Complete! I feel strong! *shows all her @NerdFitness friends her muscles*


Onto the RSG Log!



Friday brought the final week 3 RSG workout for me, and it kicked my booty! I decided to level up in lunges and did the squat-lunge-squat-lunge (ok that was 1) combo. :) Boy were those kick-ass.  I also lowered the bar on the smith machine for my body weight rows for the first 2 sets, the last 2, I did cable machine rows with 82.5lbs (someone else had jumped on the smith machine).


RSG BW Brigade Workout B
BW Rows/Rows: 6,6,8,10 = 30
Close Hand Push-ups: 20,20,20,20 = 80
Squat/Lunge: 10,10,10,10 = 40
Plank: 120s,130s,120s,120s = 490s (8 minutes?!)


After a couple days of being in a stressed hell and not feeling the desire to eat, I ate yesterday!  I also made sure to get enough protein!


Yummies consumed:
Breakfast: Coconut Milk, Walnut Butter, Berry, Protein Smoothie
AM Snack: Omlette & Bacon
Lunch: Turkey Burger with Grilled Veggies & Bacon
PM Snack (After late workout): Protein Shake w/ Water, Almonds, Apple & Salad
Dinner: Chinese Buffet (Salad, grilled chicken, green beans, teriyaki chicken & melon for desert)


Yesterday was a much better emotional day than the previous. I was back to my normal, goofball self.


Today is going to be a day of yard work, grocery shopping (I picked up the Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals cookbook!) and relaxing around the house!

Shitty Day but Great Healthwise!

Thanks to some folks on Twitter I got my workout done today. I woke up in a foul mood and it just continued to get worse throughout the day. I didn't want to workout.  I knew that if I did, I would feel better so I asked Twitter to give me a kick in the ass and I got it!

I went down and did my cardio interval Triathlon. 45 minutes later, 600 calories burned, I did feel better.

Times:
1 mile treadmill: 15:02
1 mile elliptical: 12:28
3 miles bike: 12:31

Yesterday I ended up at about 1000 calories for the day.  I'm not worried about it, things will even out.  Today I had the same, "I'm just not hungry" feelings at various times.  I ate enough though.

Yummies:
Breakfast: Bacon, Eggs & Apple
AM Snack: Carrot, Easter Egg, Celery & Walnut Butter (odd combo there)
Lunch: Polish Sausage, Cauliflower, 3/4 apple (I also had made a salad, but wasn't hungry enough to eat it)
PM Snack: 3/4 oz cashews
Dinner: Pork Chop, Garden Veggies & Almonds

Tomorrow is Friday!  Strength Training, Late Night at work then dinner out with the family!

No Emotional Eating for Me Today

The middle of week 3 brings some interesting things. Stress at the workplace had my stomach in knots.  Instead of eating my stress away like normal, I just wasn't hungry... so I didn't eat.  Realizing that made me feel really good about myself.

In my workout today, I changed a couple of things. I noticed my hands were probably forward a little bit too much in my push-ups.  I brought them back a little bit and instantly my push-ups seemed easier. I also did underhand body weight rows instead over overhand.  Oddly enough, underhand was easier too. And finally in my second day of assisted pistol squats I finally found what I was going to hold onto that didn't make me feel off balance and I could go down until my thigh was parallel to the floor.

BW Brigade Workout A:
Push-Ups: 20,15,15,18 = 68 (almost ready to level up!)
BW Rows (Underhand): 8,8,8,8 = 32
Assisted Pistol Squats: 10,10,15,20 = 55
Side Planks: L40, R50, L50, R60 = 200 seconds

It really was a great workout.  I felt wonderful afterwords.

Eating today... not a lot. A late breakfast at work, no AM Snack and no Dinner (I'm just not hungry).

Yummies consumed:
Breakfast: Ham, Tomato, Mushroom, Onion & Green Pepper Omlette with Bacon
Lunch: Pork Chop (Yes, I ate it with my hands, didn't bother cutting it), apple & steamed cauliflower... oh and 12 almonds
PM Snack: Carrots & Celery, some left over taco meat & veggies (about 1c total)

A little more on the work thing, I need to get it out...

I work in the IS/IT field as a developer.  Mainly I do SQL and Reporting but I can also do .NET programing. I'm also the business knowledge expert of our team.  Over the past couple of years, we rebuilt the system. We were able to do this by hiring consultants.  During their tenure, they programmed, but didn't document. One consultant was with us for two years.  We tried to hire him, but senior management declined the fee we'd have to pay the consulting company. So now, we're left with a HUGE knowledge gap... and me expected to support the system with the new developers. Today, there was a problem with some product orders.  I e-mailed the consultant and got a little direction, but he couldn't give more without us paying support fees.  My boss, while I love him, is trying to prove to management that we needed the consultant and they were wrong in not hiring him... and once they see that, because we're not keeping up, they might rethink.

The problem with this philosophy is me and my work ethic.  Me failing is not an option. I take it personally, that I am a failure.  It is why I am good at what I do, failure is not an option. I work and work until I achieve success.

Today's issue still isn't resolved. I left work feeling horrible, about to cry and sick to my stomach. While I feel great about the fact I didn't eat my emotions away, I still don't feel great about the situation at work.

I'm left not knowing where to turn. I've made the decision to stick it out until June when I'll be there for 5 years and be fully vested.  I love the organization I work for and the people I work with.  Right now, however, the situation I'm in... really sucks.

I Rocked It!

Can I just say, I rocked my cardio HIIT training today! Check it:

1 mile elliptical: 9:48
3 miles bike: 10:18
1 mile treadmill: 12:32

I was DRIPPING with sweat by the time I was done.

Eating today was good, nothing overly exciting.

Breakfast: Fried Eggs, Ham, Kiwi & Cheddar Cheese
AM Snack: Apple with Cinnamon, Hard Boiled Egg & 6 Almonds
Lunch: Ham, Green Beans with Bacon & Almonds, Salad
PM Snack: Carrots, Celery, Hard Boiled Egg & 6 Almonds
Dinner: Taco Salad with Sauteed Green Pepper & Onions

I was looking at my end of 2 week progress photos today and I can see a difference!  That is so awesome!

2 Minute Plank!

Day 15 of RSG Log

Today was a pretty awesome day. I handed myself my ass during my workout. Who woulda thunk I could pour sweat out so much during a plank?  Then again, that was at 100 seconds and me telling myself, "HOLD IT FOR 20 MORE SECONDS!"  Of course, I'm on the gym floor grunting at myself, but I did it!  WOOT!

Workout Today: BW Brigade Workout B
BW Rows (Smith Machine #6): 5,6,6,7 = 24
Close Hand Push-Ups (On knees still): 15,15,10,15=55
Lunges: 15, 15, 15, 20 = 65 (each leg!)
Plank: 60s, 90s, 120s, 70s = 340s

I was too pooped at the end to even worry about squat thrusts!

I had to do a training during the time I normally go to the gym.  Since I normally also eat lunch after my workout, I didn't want to eat a big meal before the gym.  So, I had my snack at "lunch time" and my lunch at "snack time", which ended up with me eating a big meal at 4pm.  Needless to say, I'm not very hungry for dinner.  I'm thinking of making a walnut butter protein shake in a bit though.

Yummies Today:
Breakfast: Attempted an egg burrito using an egg-white "tortilla".  Was good, but not so much a grab and go... had some green pepper in there.
AM Snack: Apple & Almonds
Noontime Meal/Snack: Carrot, Celery & Hard Boiled Easter Eggs
Big ol' meal @ 4pm: Homemade Smoked Pork Sausage (YUMMERS!), Garlic Cauliflower (Also yummers) & A bit of sweet potato.
Snack on the train: Nuts & Fruit from Starbucks with green tea
Smoothie Before Bed: Protein Shake with Walnut Butter, a bit of frozen berries and coconut milk.

I recalculated my calories and decided to aim around 2000 with all of the activity I do.  On a given strength training day, according to my HRM I burn around 400-600 calories.  On my cardio days, I burn around 600-700 calories.  Given that, with my estimated BMR around 2100, I think 2000 is a good goal.  I'm going to aim at that this week and see how that feels and what the results are.

Oh!  Also I decided to do pictures every 2 weeks for the challenge... I can already see a difference. I was flipping between them on my computer and, wow...

A Rocking Start to My Day!

Last week, I sent a summary of my progress so far on the Rebel Strength Guide to the authors. Today I got an e-mail back congratulating me on the successes so far. That, in and of itself was awesome!

Then... I get to work and check my e-mail... Steve was so impressed he put a quote from my e-mail in the eBook! Woo!

RSG Week 2 Summary

Exercise Goals:
Awesome!  I completed all of my strength training and my cardio Triathlons! FIVE days of workouts! From Monday to Friday I increased my push-ups and went up a rank in squats!  I also blasted my side planks up by 30 seconds! My regular planks by 70 seconds! My legs recovered and I went wild at lunges again.  Still can't do chin-ups but I can tell I'm getting stronger.  When I aim for a negative, I can tell I'm holding myself longer than the last time.

My cardio times over the prior week increased as well!  My elliptical mile increased by 50 seconds.  My three mile bike was slower, but not because I couldn't, but because I chose to go slower to continue letting my quads recover.  The greatest?  My mile on the treadmill increased by 1:03!! Astounding!

Food Goals:
Eating goals were right on.  Even on Easter, I allowed myself to have some Easter bread and a bit of candy, but everything else was spot on.  I was happy to spend the time with the family, but I'm right back on track this morning and feeling great about it.

This week I'm going to be recalculating the calories I'm eating to see if I'm getting enough for all of the workouts I'm doing.

Life Goals:
Due to changes at work, the project management thing will be taking a backseat to my getting the reports moved and getting information from the leaving data analyst about reports he's been doing. Training for project management will be mostly webinars and books at this point.  Certification may come later... seems I need some experience before certification!

Week 2 Results:

I lost another pound and 3.5 inches! That means, I'm gaining some muscle and losing some of the fat! Woot!  Am I worried about the 1 pound loss compared to prior week's 5?  Not at all. I know that fat is going away, my belly alone, I've lost 4 inches.  That is huge... If you go by the theory that 5 pounds of fat equals 1 inch, then that's 20 pounds of fat, gone.  Yeah, it's an estimate, but when you look at it from that light, the inches are more important.

Also, the averaged BF% went down another percent, so that's awesome.  This week I'm going to see if I can get into the gym to get tested by the trainer to see what her number is compared to mine.

Looking ahead to week 3:

• I'm going to look at calories in to evaluate that I'm eating enough.
• I'm aiming to hit sets of 20 with my push-ups (currently at 15).
• I'm aiming for my assisted pistol squats to be more like full squats than half (it's a balance thing).
• I'm hoping the negative chin-ups happen better this week!
• If all goes well on next Sunday's measurements, I'm treating myself to some pizza for dinner that night!

Butterball!

Today was a beautiful day outside, and a total, complete rest day.  I however, didn't sit on my arse and do nothing.  I went out, enjoyed the fresh air, watched an Easter Egg Hunt, bought some mulch and flower, then grilled dinner.  After dinner, we played a game called DICEcapades, which was awesome fun.  Then, I made the official batch of Easter Butter.  Yum!

Made a butterball!

Eating today, fairly good... although tonight for dinner, I just wasn't hungry.  My abs are sore from side planks yesterday, so as I was eating, I got uncomfortable and just didn't finish anything (but that is all good.)

Yummies Today:
Breakfast: Fried Eggs w/ Provolone, Apple & Kiwi
AM Snack: Couple pices of mango
Lunch: KFC Grilled Chicken Breast & Wing & Green Beans (Lunch on the run, had a 2 hour drive to pick up a computer for my sister!)
PM Snack: Pear, Hot Dog & Couple of Almonds
Dinner: 2 carrots, a bit of salad and 2 bites of grilled pork

I also had a soda today from KFC.  It was... alright?  It was alright, but I felt wierd not drinking the water I have been drinking lately.  I promptly fixed that when we stopped for a snack on the way back and had a ton of water when we got home. It's funny how two weeks without the stuff, I really don't even care for it much anymore.

Life Goals: Still trying to figure out how best to train for a PM role.  Should I go certification route and study that way, or just keep watching stuffs?  Gotta figure that one out soon!

Finishing the Week Strong

Today was an emotional day, and I'm proud to say I didn't turn to food when the emotions started running. I thought about it, but I didn't.

What I did eat:
Breakfast: Eggs & Apple
AM Snack: Turkey Burger & Raw Veggies
Lunch: Chopped Chicken Salad
PM Snack: Turkey Burger
Dinner: Coconut Crusted Tilapia, Salad & Roasted Zucchini/Brussels Sprouts

Being Good Friday, the gym was fairly empty.  I had it to myself for most of my workout, so I decided to do something different for my chin-ups portion of the workout.  Two sets, I did rows on the cable machine. One set, I strung up some exercise bands and tried a couple assisted negative chin-ups and the last set I did body weight rows.

Let me tell ya, after my workout today, my biceps were tingly for a good couple of hours.

BW Brigade R1 & R2
Push-ups: 15,15,15,15 = 60 (Still on knees, will move to regular when I hit sets of 20)
Chin-Up (esque): 10,10,7,8 = 35
Assisted Pistol Squats: 10,10,10,12 = 42 (each leg)
Side Planks: 40s/R, 40s/L, 60s/R, 40s/L = 180

Bonus Move! 1 minute of shuttle runs.

And now?  I'm going to bed to sleep while my muscles all do their thing and help me burn fat!

Emotions Are Hard

I've been going through an emotional year, not just 2011, but the past twelve months. To cope, I've thrown myself into workout out, being anal about my food or at times, throwing in the towel. A friend once asked me, how do I have so much dedication to workout out and eating healthy? My response? It's the only thing in my life I have control over anymore. It helps keep me from going insane.

However, I go to extremes.  I throw myself in 100% or I fall out 100%.  There is no half-way for me. This is why, once I finish a program, I'm lost and need to re-find myself.

The Rebel Strength Guide has been a blessing for me. Not only the workouts and eating programs, but the community of people in the forums. It's funny how a mixed forum of people trying to lose weight with people who are trying to gain weight makes me feel right at home. Sure, I don't understand 100% the need to gain weight, but reading their stories, I understand their reasons.

On the personal front, my life is in an upheaval. Instead of dealing with it, I let it build up until I am ready to burst and with I had a punching bag to take out my anger on. Is it really anger, or is it me fighting off the depression that I feel washing? I can't tell.

I'm a strong woman.  My shrink told me that once. I can handle a lot. However, there is one thing I can't.  That is willingly hurting another person. The thought, that doing just that is what will free me from the chaos, makes me want to be sick and brings tears to my eyes. Yet, that is what my friends tell me I need to do. Somedays, I wish I had the strength for it.  Somedays, I'm glad I don't. I don't have the right answers, I have to lean on the people around me to help me logically think about it. They all have the same answer, but how do I get past my inability to harm another in order to do what they think I should? This, I don't know. I wish I did.

I know this post is disjointed, but I needed to write it.  I needed to put my feelings out there.  I'm disabling comments for this post. If you want to comment, please do so personally by sending me an email at: citabean at gmail dot com.

I'm a rockstar!

Today closes another day of awesome. I was pondering this morning about my cardio workouts and the fact that I'm essentially working out hard 5 days in a row. So I decided instead of pushing hard both cardio days, I'd push hard one day and the other, just go with the flow and go the speeds I felt comfortable at.

Cardio HIIT Triathlon:
Bike 3 miles: 11:10
Treadmill 1 mile: 13:25
Elliptical 1 mile: 11:05

I'm also playing with flipping around the order.  This was the first time I had started with bike.  It was an interesting progression. It seems whichever I start with, I push the hardest, and the one I end with, I'm just pooped.

Eating today was varied.  I wasn't overly hungry, I wasn't overly starving.

Yummies Today:
Breakfast - Eggs & Blackberries (I need to do some make ahead breakfasts over the weekend)
AM Snack - Apple & Walnut Butter
Lunch - Turkey Burgers & Carrots
PM Snack - Tuna mixed with mustard, celery & some nuts
Dinner - Salad, Broccoli, 1/2 chicken (It was a small chicken!)

Overall, a day of awesome.

New Veggie Day

Day 10 comes to a close with me feeling great! I wasn't overly hungry today, and just ate when I was hungry.  I figured it wouldn't be a problem since yesterday I felt like I ate so much!

Today was also try new veggie day.  We had a Daikon radish in our stir fry.  I also ate some raw while I was prepping the stir fry.  Yummy!  I highly recommend it.

Yummies today:
Breakfast - Fried Eggs & Blackberries
AM Snack - 1/2 Apple & Walnut Butter
Lunch - Chicken Breast & Prince Edward Veggie Mix
PM Snack - Almond Snack Mix
Dinner - Chicken Stir Fry w/ Broccoli, Daikon Radish, Pineapple & Red pepper.

My workout was at home today.  There was a health fair at the gym today and I opted to not venture into the madness and to just do my workout at home.  Which works great as I'm doing the BW workouts. My thighs felt better today.  There was some soreness at the bottom of the lunges, but overall, I felt great and was dripping wet at the end of the workout!

BW Brigade Rank 1: Workout B
Chin-Ups: Since I got my chin-up bar at home, I tried to hang in a flexed arm hang five times each set.  I never got more than one second or so but by the end it felt easier, as I might have been holding just a breath longer.
Close Hand Push-ups: 10,15,12,15 = 52
Lunges: 15, 15, 15, 20 = 65 each leg
Planks: 60, 70, 80, 90 = 300 seconds
Bonus Move: 7 Squat Thrusts!

Today was a great day!

Quicky Update - Week 2 Day 2

Day 2 of Week 2, and I'm ready to crawl into bed. Tonight's update will be short, sweet and to the point.

Yummies Consumed:
Breakfast - 2 eggs, turkey, cheese & blackberries
AM Snack - Apple with Walnut Butter
Lunch - Chipotle Steak Salad & Kiwi
PM Snack - Everything I could get my hands on, I was hungry!  Ended up being: half green pepper, small zucchini, turkey lunch meat, pistachios & walnut butter in some combination across about an hour.
Dinner - Small Omlette with sausage, ham, mushrooms, green pepper, onion, broccoli & tomatoes

Workout today was my cardio HIIT Triathlon. I switched things up and did elliptical, treadmill and bike. Since my thighs are still sore, I took an easy on the bike.

Times?

1 mile elliptical: 10:07
1 mile treadmill: 13:10
3 miles bike: 11:43

I totally rocked the elliptical and treadmill!

Other than the hunger this afternoon, caused by a slightly smaller lunch than normal and feeling really tired, it was a great day!!

Walnut Butter Food Porn

Yum!

Buttah!

Day 1 of Week 2 is coming to a close quickly... If I fall asleep typing this, sorry! :)


Highlights of today?  
I made homemade cultured cream butter ala Mark's Daily Apple
I also made homemade cinnamon pan roasted walnut butter!  Can I say, OMG delish? I'll have to post pictures of the walnut butter tomorrow.


So, speaking of...


Yummies Today:
Breakfast: 2 Fried Eggs, Ham, Cheese, Apple
AM Snack: 1 c. Coconut Milk, Chocolate Protein Powder
Lunch: Pulled Pork over Salad with hard boiled egg, roasted nuts and mushrooms.
PM Snack: Blackberries, Roasted Nuts & Carrots
Dinner: Sauteed Veggie Mix (Pepper, Onion, Zucchini), with pulled pork, eggs and bacon
After Dinner Snack: Apple with freshly made walnut butter! (YUM!)


Looks like that hunger issue I had the first couple of days is gone.  :)


RSG BW Brigade: Rank 1: Workout A
Push-Ups: 15,12,10,12 = 49 (6 more than last time!)
BW Rows: 5,5,4,4 = 18 (Same as last time, but I lowered the bar)
BW Squats: 30,35,45,50 = 160 (5 more.  I attempted Rank 2, but my quads are still hurting from last week)
Side Planks: L/30, R/40, L/40, R/40 = 150 second (7 less than last time?!)


My quads are worrying me.  While warming up, when I went into the lunge, I felt the same pulling pain I felt last week at the end of the week, same thing when I tried the pistol squat.  Not sure what's going on there?  I mean, I did 45 lunges that day, that's not highly outside my normal.  We'll see how they are on Weds.  If they're still sore, I'll do sets of 5 again.


Did I mention how tasty the walnut butter is? Mmmm. And what else is great?  There ain't anything in there but the little bit of cinnamon and little bit of coconut oil I used to help roast them in the pan and give a little flavor.


Hehe, true story... tonight I was caught saying, "First I'm going to cream my milk, then I'm gonna cream the nuts!" 


Homemade butters; regular butter or nut butter... so simple, so good for you, so DELICIOUS!

Quickly Before Bed...

And week 1 is officially in the books of this challenge!

I definitely think that the average BF is the way to go for me, it's more consistent than my scale or calculated alone.

Sunday's Yummies:

Breakfast: Eggs, Sausage, Orange, Hash Browns
AM Snack: Cashews
Lunch: Huge Salad w/ ground beef, ham, egg and a lil cheese
Dinner: Slow Cooked Pork, Sauteed Green Peppers, Onions & Zucchini
Nightish Snack: Mixed Nuts, Apple

I got the garden raked and the backyard somewhat.  I also got most of the laundry done (anyone else hate matching socks?).

I'm off to bed early tonight, night all!

Week 1 Closes on a High!

Saturday was a good day! I got my chin-up bar, body fat caliper and coconut oil! I also got a ton of veggies and meats. It's going to be a nummy couple of weeks.

Speaking of Yummies! 

Today's Yummies:
Breakfast - Omelette with ham, sausage, bacon, green pepper, onion and some fruit
Lunch - Chicken Faijta Salad
PM Snack - Fresh Berry Mix, Couple of ounces of Mixed Nuts (Snack on the way home from the store, I was hungry!)
Dinner - Lemon Pepper Tilapia & "Prince Edward" Veggies (Mix of wax beans, green beans and carrots)

Activity, lots of walking and practice with the chin-up bar (I can swing from it... lol!)


Today was my weigh and measure day.  I lost 5 pounds last week, and another 5 inches.  I measure a lot of body parts. :)  Neck, chest, belly, waist, hips, thigh, calf, wrist, forearm and bicep!  I do so partially to compare body fat measurements.  I have the caliper now, but I'm a newbie so it's kinda still a guesstimate I think.  I'm also doing BF measured by measurements as well as my scale (in the evening, 1 hour after dinner), but the scale measurement varies heavily on how hydrated I am.  So I take the 3 numbers and kinda come up with an average for what I "count" as my BF for the week.  I'll be doing that one tonight.


Speaking of today, my plans are "Sunday Morning Breakfast" at my parents, huge ol salad for lunch and some slow cooked pork with veggies for dinner. I gotta find a pork recipe and then I'm off to the shower.  I'll post exacts of the yummies later tonight.


Activity?  It's sunny out!  I'm going to futz around the yard today, do some laundry, clean up the house a bit... y'know Sunday Cinderella type stuff. :)


Have a beautiful day everyone!

From Sore to OW!

Mid-day 5 here and I'm feeling a mix of sadness and pride. Proud because I did do my workout. Sad because my legs still hurt and when I started doing the lunges the soreness turned to pain, so I didn't do many at all. I'm also having mixed feelings about a night out tonight and staying on course with my eating. I've gotten some really great suggestions from fellow NerdFitness folk. I think I'm going to be OK and I just need to not stress.

Today's Workout: BW Brigade: Workout B
BW Rows (Using Smith Machine bar): 5,6,7,7 = 25 (Same height as Wednesday)
Close Hand Push-ups (on knees): 10,12,10,12 = 44
BW Lunges: 10,6,5,0 = 21
Planks: 60s, 70s, 60s, 68s = 238s
Bonus Move - 5 Squat Thrusts

Yummies Thusfar:
Breakfast - 2 Eggs, Ham & Cheese "Egg-which", Small Apple
AM Snack - 2 Hard Boiled Eggs, Almonds, Apple
Lunch - Chicken Breast, Green Beans, Salad & little bit of melon salad
PM Snack - Nothing planned, ate a big, late lunch.
Dinner - TBD

In other news, today is my first Friday back in the office in about 10 months. While I like the fact that I can use the gym, I'm sad that I can't be home in my PJs working, spending a little more time with Jonas. Ah well, I'll make the best of it and kick ass on my challenge.

This weekend, I'm going to take an easy on the thighs.  No formal workouts are planned, however, I'm going to talk Dustin into going to a mall (that really isn't hard to do) and get a bit of walking in.  I'm also buying my body fat caliper and chin-up bar.  If all else goes well, I'm aiming to go to good-will and check on some more work type shirts. I've been feeling like I'm wearing the same 6 shirts too much and need some variety.

Amazed by Myself

Day 4 is in the books!

Yummies Today:
Breakfast - Ham & Cheese Omlette, Apple
AM Snack - 1/2 Apple & Spiced Roasted Almonds
Lunch - Grilled Chicken Salad (with the 1/2 apple from snack!)
PM Snack - None, lunch was huge, and I was full
Dinner - T-Bone Steaks, Grilled Carrots, Salad, 1/8 potato
After Dinner Snack = Spiced Roasted Almonds

My thighs were are indeed still sore today so I took an easy on my cardio intervals.  Instead of high intensity, I did mid intensity. I still rocked it hard!

1 Mile Treadmill: 14:57
3 Miles Bike: 11:33
1 Mile Elliptical: 12:25

I'm excited with how far I've come in just this short time. I am looking forward to my workouts again, which is amazing for me. I'm so excited to see how I finish this challenge and where I am when I finish.

Sick Time

The company I work for has awesome benefits.  I get 9-11 holidays a year, 3 personal days, 2 floating holidays (of which can be taken any day of the year), 2 weeks vacation, 2 weeks sick time... On top of that, I get free gym membership and rock awesome medical coverage.

Anyway, tomorrow is payday and I was looking at my accruals... I have 153 hours of sick time accrued... that's almost 2 years worth of sick allowance....

It amazes me how little I get sick now that I'm eating healthier and exercising my body.  Does anyone else notice this as well?  Or, if I do get sick, it doesn't last very long (a couple days vs. my bf getting the same thing lasting for nearly a month??).

Too bad I can't take sick as vacation time and just have a long vaca this summer! :D

A+ Day Again!

Day 3 is complete! My hunger finally caught up with me! I ate very well today!

Yummies Today:
Breakfast - Hamburger, Zucchini Omlette
AM Snack - Apple & Spiced Roasted Almonds
Lunch - Leftover Shepard's Pie w/ Mashed Cauliflower & Salad
PM Snack - Chicken Salad w/ Mustard, Cucumber & Peanut Butter (not together...hehe)
Dinner - Ground Beef, Carrots & Spiced Roasted Almonds

My workout rocked! I'm still shocked that the GM/Trainer in my gym was so astounded by my workout and how hard I was working!

BW Brigade - Workout A:
Push-Ups (On Knees): 10,12,10,11 = 43
BW Rows (Using Smith Machine bar): 3,4,5,6 = 18 (I went lower to the ground today)
BW Squats: 30,35,40,50 = 155
Side Planks: L: 30,34 R: 33,60

My thighs are still sore from my workout on Monday and the hard Cardio I did on Tuesday.  I'm really pondering doing a slower Cardio session tomorrow if they are still sore.  I don't want to cause damage.

Overall?  A+ Day!

So Awesome Compliment!

So I'm doing my last side planks before my cool down. The gym general manager/personal trainer looks at me and asks, "How many squats did you just do?"

I huffed and puffed, "That set was 50, I did 20, 30, 35, 40 before that."

She looks shocked and says, "You are working really hard! Great job!"

She complimented me twice more. Once to the person she was training while I was almost done with my cool down and then again when I was done and was on my way to the shower.

Talk about me feeling great after a workout!

Another Awesome Day

I had another rock awesome day today on my challenge.  Day 2 is in the books!


Let's take a look back over the day:
I finished my Cardio HIIT Triathlon! My legs felt like absolute jello!

Stats for distances:
1 mile treadmill 14:13
3 mile bike 10:46
1 mile elliptical 10:57


My first Cardio HIIT Triathlon? (1 mile elliptical 11:32, 3 mile bike 11:49, 1 mile treadmill 14:28)

Yee-haw! Them legs are movin faster! Go me!

Eating today is better, or rather I was actually hungry after my cardio workout! Breakfast was egg, zucchini, sausage scramble. Apple & Almonds for a pre-workout snack. Lunch was grilled chicken, green beans, salad w/ zucchini and a small apple. Snack was tuna salad with celery.  Dinner was an awesome Shepard's pie with ground turkey, veggies and topped with garlic mashed cauliflower!


My legs are no longer feeling like jello, now they just are sore.  But a very good, I worked hard type of sore! This type of muscle soreness makes me remember that I am on a very awesome path to a very awesome me.

The Challenge Starts

My day one draws near a close and reflecting on the day, it was fairly good.


The workout was done around 11:30am. I decided to do the workout in the gym downstairs at work, because there is pull-up/chin-up equipment and I wanted to see, if I could actually jump up and at least hold myself up there for a few seconds. The answer? Nope! I tried doing something I saw in a video, where you keep your feet on the chair and try to use your arms to go up, but it felt like I could cheat too much by using my legs, so I dropped to the floor and did body weight rows instead.

Because I started the workouts last week, I just went ahead with where I was instead of starting over again...

BW Brigade - Workout B:
BW Rows - 5,7,10,10
Close Hand Push-ups (on knees, i'm working toward full push-ups, promise!) - 10,10,10,15
Lunges (each leg) - 10, 10, 10, 15
Plank - 48s, 50s, 68s, 63s
Bonus Move: Squat Thrusts, I did 5!

Eating today has been well. I had an egg, guac, zucchini scramble for breakfast. Apple & Peanut Butter for a snack before working out. Salad, grilled chicken and green beans for lunch. I didn't eat  an afternoon snack because I wasn't hungry.  Dinner was a burger with some taco meat mixture on top and some carrots. I'm going to have a snack a little later of some almonds, toasted up with some spices.


Tonight after dinner we walked over to the park, played some softball and then played on the playground!


Reflections on today? I'm trying not to stress that I'm very under my calorie goal because I'm simply not hungry. This is normal for me on days I workout. I'm not hungry on days I workout, but on rest days, I'm hungry. Does anyone else have this happen? I know it's the weekly average of calories is what matters, so I'm not stressing about one day being under.

Go Confidently!

I've been participating in MeYouHealth's daily challenge for a while now.  Today's challenge: Share a Feel Good photo with someone you know.

So in looking for some photo, I found one on courage... to go confidently to your goal, your dreams.

I decided to share this with you.

Source of Photo

So today, Go Confidently in the Direction of YOUR dreams.  You can live the life you have imagined for yourself.

Reboot Towards Health

Tomorrow starts my six week challenge in "The Greatest Contest in the History of the World". I'm very excited! I start tomorrow's workouts with a body weight workout. I'm going to do this at the gym at work instead of at home tomorrow, the only difficult portion will be the 2 minutes of jump rope.  I'll be jumping rope without a jump rope! Doing the workout at work though, gives me the ability to do something fun at home with the kiddo (bike ride, walk, playground, etc). If I get too busy at work and don't get a chance to do the workout, that's OK, I can do it at home without a problem! One of the goals I added for this challenge was to be able to do 5 chin-ups by the time the six weeks was done.  Currently, I'm doing body-weight rows to get my body strong enough to do these.  In a couple of weeks, I'm going to aim for negative chin-ups (jumping up and going down), then I'll try for the normal chin-ups toward week 5.

This weekend I got to see Stevie Nicks with guest Sheryl Crow and Rod Stewart in concert!  It was all kinds of awesome. We also spent most of the day today outside, enjoying the odd 80 degree April day! We went to the park, did some geocaching and then I grilled a ton of meaty goodness for the week. I have lunches ready for all week, just grab a serving of meat and some veggies and I'm golden!

Here's for a great week y'all!

I feel teh Awesome!

Can I just say, I feel Awesome!  Yes, with a capital A!

So I've been following my new plan for 4 days now. Two, kick ass body weight strength workouts. One, kick ass cardio workout (second is coming in 20 minutes). Four days of eating on goal! Four days of sleeping well (maybe because I'm kicking my own ass?)

I feel energized.  More than that, I am happy with what I'm doing and the results I will obtain!

As part of the challenge, I needed to come up with some goals.  Goals for working out.  Goals for eating and life goals for the next six weeks.

These are my goals:

Fitness: Following the Body Weight Workouts of the Rebel Strength Guide 3x per week

Fitness: Cardio HIIT "triathlon" 2x week, increasing time for each distance (1 mile elliptical, 3 mile bike, 1 mile treadmill - Currently at 11:32 min, 11:49 min, 14:28 min)




Life: Continue Training my way to a Project Manager role as well as completing the project for the data cube I'm building.

Life: Get enough sleep so that I don't feel the need to nap on the train. That way I can spend my time on the train reading!

Eating: Following the diet as outlined in the Slim Down Guide of the Rebel Strength Guide.

My Starting Numbers:

Weight: 289
BF %: 41.5 (according to bf scale)

Waist: 47.75
Hips: 57
Belly: 55.5
Chest: 42.25
Thigh: 26.5
Calf: 20.25
Bicep: 15.3
Neck: 14.8

Do I have a number goal in mind for the end of the six weeks? No. I had thought about saying, "Oh, I plan on losing X amount of weight." Then I thought about doing the same with inches.  I decided my goal is to do the program to the best of my ability and see where it takes me.

Happy Days are here!  Happy Days are ahead!  Keep Smiling and Keep Pressing On!

Eating Healthy

This past weekend, it warmed up to 75!  I pulled out the grill and grilled a bunch of chicken for my lunches this week.  The past two days, my lunch has been: 6oz grilled chicken breast, salad w/ spinach, green beans and green giant healthy weight medley. In other words, very vegetable oriented.  I had this planned before even reading about the new plan on I'm going on.

Today, two co-workers commented on how I am the ideal healthy eater, that my lunch is one you would see pictured in magazines... but that they couldn't eat it.  One girl went so far to say she wouldn't be able to touch the vegetables without adding a lot of salt, pepper and gravy.  Can I say, ew? I like my veggies nekkid or as natural as possible! The thought of covering up the beautiful vegetables with gravy just makes me feel sickly inside.

Anyways!

I kicked ass at my workout last night and again this afternoon!

Yesterday I did the first workout of my new plan.  Can I say the warm-up kicked my ass?  Let me fill you in on this warm-up....

2 minutes jumping rope, 50 jumping jacks, 50 squats, 10 lunges on each leg, 10 hip extensions, 5 side leg step overs in each direction, 10 straight leg swings on each leg, 10 side leg swings on each leg, 15 push ups and 10 mountain climbers!

That was all before actually getting into the core workout! 47 minutes after starting the warm-up I finished the cool down... and I felt great!  I felt accomplished! I burned 475 calories according to my HRM.

Today, I did some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training).  I did a reverse "triathlon".

- Treadmill: 1 mile 14:28 (my HIITs were at 6mph, 7mph, 7.5mph, 8mph)
- Bike: 3 miles 11:49 (my HIITs were at 100+ RPMs)
- Elliptical: 1 mile 11:32 (my HIITs were as fast as my legs could go... I think I got up to 14 mph at one point!)

Calories Burned? 559!

I'm so excited that I am back on track!

It's Here!!

My Rebel Strength Guide from Nerd Fitness is here! I am SO excited!

So what does this mean for me? Starting April 11th (one week from today), I will be documenting my journey through the Rebel Strength Guide for six weeks. I will take my weight, measurements and pictures to document the start of the journey, and then do the same for each week of the journey, to document my successes in measurable ways. I'll also continue to blog how it's going here.

For the next week, I'll be working towards becoming familiar with the eating program as well as the workout plan. For me, I'll be following the "weight loss" eating program and the Body Weight Brigade workout plan. MWF will be Body Weight Strength Workouts. The other days I'll do some cardio-fun.  I'm thinking of my triathlete type cardio (swim = elliptical, bike and treadmill).

What will I be eating? Fruits, Veggies, Protein and good Fats. The eating program is a Paleo based eating program, eating the foods our ancestors ate. I've eaten this way in the past and don't mind doing it again. Sure, I love breads and whatnots, but I've been restricting them for a while, as I know I binge on them and when I don't eat them as much, I don't crave them as much.  I also feel SO much better when I eat cleanly. He does say, if you choose, you can have a "cheat day", where you can eat what you feel you would like. I may start off with a "cheat meal", where one day a week, one meal a week, if I've been craving Pizza, I'll have pizza. Likely, I'll make this meal Friday night dinner, as it works well with traveling to take Jonas to his father or our date night, that we normally go out.

I am so excited about this!  I look forward to seeing where I go and sharing my thoughts as I go through it.

Walking in the Rain

Today is a rainy, gloomy sort of day. Did it stop me from walking over to Subway for lunch? Not one bit! Ok, so Subway was all of a 6 minute walk there and 6 minutes back... but it was a walk! It felt good to say I was going to walk to my lunch and not let a little bit of rain stop me from going. The weather is barely warming up, but it was nice to get outside and enjoy some fresh air.

I'm working from home today, as per my normal Friday work schedule, so I don't have access to the work gym. This is one of the reasons I've pondered joining a local gym. However, I don't know how long I'll be lucky enough to work from home on Friday's, so I haven't.  I've been doing workouts at home or the local track instead.

Given my new found attitude of "No matter what, I just gotta do it." in regard to workouts, today's workout will be a video of some sort. I'm going to browse around what's available on On Demand - Exercise TV and find something new and exciting to do. I am waiting until Jonas gets home. One, because he loves to workout with me. Two, he could use the activity too! :)

I've recently been following NerdFitness (given that, well, I'm a nerd... and I'm trying to be more fit...) and he is releasing a new eBook on Monday called Rebel Strength Guide. With the release, he's holding a contest. Follow the guide for 6 weeks.  Take before and after pictures... submit your story! I like contests.  I like new challenges.  I really think this will help push me in a way that I've been looking for. The contest begins on April 11th, which gives me time to read up and get familiar with what I'll be doing for six weeks. 

I'm excited!

I shall blog about it on the way, so y'all can follow along with my progress! I'll post my starting picture, measurements and the like on April 11th.

In other, related news... The scale is moving in the right direction again!  No more of that going up that it has been doing! YAY!