day 2 in the bag

2nd day of my challenge to eat correctly portioned meals and avoid fried food entirely until Thanksgiving went well! Not perfect, but good enough!

• breakfast: oatmeal made with 1 C almond milk and 2 tbsp chia seeds (I eat this like every day)
• snack: 1 banana
• lunch: Amy’s chunky vegetable soup, kale salad with carrots and leftover lentils
• dinner: 2 slices (which is more like 4) vegan pizza from Whole Foods. 2 schlitz beers

Not awesome, but not bad either! I wanted to have another snack in the afternoon but held off! hurrah for tiny successes! good thing too because when I got home I was huuuuungry and Paul had bought the pizza and beer. Arghh he will single handedly ruin my challenge! Just kidding I was totally willing to stuff my face with all that white dough and delicious fake cheese 🙂 What’s good is that we ate this at around 5:30PM so I had a long time to digest before bed! (I’ve been sort of trying not to eat after 7:00ish. sort of being the opperative word.) I am also trying to really limit by alcohol and high calorie drink consumption too. I don’t want to drink my calories, I want to chew them! I’m pretty good about most drinks but I do love beer and mimosas and am often in denial of how many calories of it I consume from those. Overall, not the best meal for dinner but I don’t think I really overdid it and I didn’t even have a craving for anything the rest of the night which is huge! even when Paul suggested we make popcorn! I’m a health machine, I’m telling ya.

I am going to try and remember my workout with my trainer this morning which was a good one…

First I did about a lil run/walk that I failed to get in yesterday. This felt good! No shin pain at all! SCORE. I did 3min running 1 min walking for about 23 minutes.

circuit 1

• 3 x 30 seconds quick alternating shoulder presses #10 each
• 3 x 30 seconds quick cross punches #10 each (YOW my shoulders!!)
• 3 x back and forth walking side squat with kettle bell swings

circuit 2

• 3 x 20 shuffle steps over bosu ball w/ 8# in each hand
• 3 x 10 resistance band bicep curls counting to 5 on the way down. very last one hold at 90 degrees until failure
• 3 x 15 TRX T-ups

circuit 3

• 2 x 20 squat and throw med ball up wall and catch
• 2 x 20 seated on bench bouncing med ball side to side
• 2 x back and forth spriderman crawls (not even gonna try to explain this one…)

Ended with foam rolling. Ahh love it.

I really like my personal training sessions but Ionly have one left and I don’t think I’m going to buy more. SO EXPENSIVE. I’ve learned a lot of basic things that I can take into creating my own workouts from here on out. One thing that will definitely be tough will be getting up every morning to get to the gym. At least on my training days two days a week, I am forced to get up and go to the gym and work hard. Now it will be completely up to me to not only get my butt out of bed each morning but to put in the same amount of effort that I am now! And it’s getting so cold out!! I can do it I can do it I am the shit Nothing will slow me down. Maybe that will be my mantra from now on…or maybe not…

Instead of buying more personal training I am thinking about puting that money towards a different type of class or gym. I want to keep switching up my workouts but I need help sometimes. The issue is that working out at the WAC is so convenient because it’s like 3 blocks away from where I work. Therefore it’s easy to work out before or after work. If I start going elsewhere my life will not be as convenient and I will definitely freak out and crumble into a fat couch potato who can’t remember what it’s like to have goals or energy. Or maybe that’s a bit extreme and I should stop being a brat and learn that being inconvenienced is not the end of the world…sighhhhhhhhh

day 1. killed it

Hola! I’m popping in for a quick update! So I’m about 24 hours into this challenge and I’m feeling good about it so far! (even though it’s only been a day, big whoop right?) Yesterday my meals went like so:

• breakfast: oatmeal made with 1 C almond milk and 2 tbsp chia seeds
• lunch: Amy’s vegetable barley soup with a side of carrots and cucumber slices
• snack: a banana
• dinner: leftover lentil sloppy joe on sprouted ezekial bread with kale salad (cucs and chia seeds)

That was a great food day for me! I thought about dessert in the form of cereal or a piece of fruit with sunflower seed butter but I waited about an hour and the craving totally went away! I felt super strong and awesome! I think that the only reason I always eat a little something for dessert is because it’s become habit. And bonus, when I woke up today and thought about the food choices I made yesterday, I felt so friggin proud of myself! Like obnoxiously proud. Bam, day 1: totally rocked it’s bitch-ass

So far today has been good too! Still feeling fairly motivated, chuggin along at work…This morning I got in 30min on the stairmill. Level 11 intervals. Whoo I thought my heart was gonna explode. I tried for a little run/walk afterwards but it turned into 20min incline walking on the treadmill. I was beat! I’ve been a little hungrier today but no insanely intolerable cravings yet…

Well that’s about all, i’m gonna try to update this blog more often to document my progress and how i feel so if some of these update posts get redunadant I do apologize.

Workouts and a CHALLENGE!

A quick update of my workouts…

Friday: I actually went to the gym Friday morning! Usually that’s my day to sleep in but for the 5th morning in a row I made it! 30 minutes on the stairmill followed by a strength routine that I’m not sure if I can remember but I’ll try

• 4×12 resistance band upright rows
• 4×12 resistance band bicep curls
• 3×20 V-ups
• 3×12 each one arm dumbbell rows #22.5
• 3×12 each one leg dumbbell deadlifts #25
• 4×12 each split lunges #15 each
• 3×12 dumbbell bench press #22.5 each

Saturday: Made it to Planet Fitness early in the afternoon and did 40 minutes of elliptical intervals followed by

• 3×12 one leg dumbbell deadlifts #25
• 3×12 each split lunges #15 each
• 3×12 hammer curls #15 each
• 3×12 overhead triceps extensions #25
• 2×12 each one arm dumbbell rows #20

Took Sunday off and went to 6 FLAGS for fright fest!! Tons of fun but super cold…it was great to see Kelly and Jake and go on a fun little day trip!

Monday: 1 hour with Ali in the morning. Lets see if I can recap

• 10 min stairmill warmup
• 3x each walking same leg lunges with #10 help above head. (weight in opposite hand of leg lunging forward)
• 3×12 each squat to one arm shoulder press #10
• 3×15 each cable shoulder presses
• 1×15 external shoulder rotation on cable
• 1×15 internal shoulder rotation on cable
• 1×15 bent arm cable push downs
• 3×15 back extensions #10
• 3×25 v-ups on a bench
• 3×15 hamstring curls on back with ball
• 3×20 mountain climbers knee to opp arm with hands holding ball with handles
• 3×20 med ball side tosses with Ali
• 3x30sec each resistance band one arm squated rows
• 3×15 squats on a bosu with shoulder press (bar)

I’m trying to recap these workouts with Ali so I can repeat them in the future. I know that the way I describe some of the things we do makes zero sense but I think it’s enough to help me remember 🙂

I like to read mealsandmovesblog.com and Janetha posted a link to a “Turkey Day Challenge!” that is hosted by her gym. It sounds really interesting and I am going to try my best to participate on my own! The idea is to recommit yourself to health and clean eating before the holiday onslaught of food occurs by completing a set amount of workouts and making a measurable goal for yourself. I’m going to make a few minor adjustments to the challenge for myself.

1. You may eat NO ADDED SUGAR. I’m going to change this to You may eat NO FRIED FOOD. Because I need to step away from the french fries. I find that if I don’t eat fried food for a while I stop craving it…but once I start again, it’s hard to stop.

2. You must complete 5 GPP workouts per week PLUS three extra 30 minute cardio sessions per week. Well we don’t have a GPP here but my goal is to get creative with my workouts. My personal training ends this week so I will need a new motivator to get up and work out! I need to challenge myself and change it up. I have thought about trying out a few gyms around town as well as yoga or hot yoga. I need to step out of my comfort zone!

3. You are to pick a health related challenge to stick to. Once picked, you should post this healthy challenge and how you will be accountable for compliance to it. For example: you may choose to begin a few rounds of BCD & post (daily) whether or not you stuck to it.

• I choose the following challenge: Eat healthy & correct portions of breakfast/lunch/dinner. Breakfast and lunch are not so difficult for me but dinner is a problem. As well as weekend brunch. I need to focus on portion control. Too often I will scoop up the same portions as Paul does and I need to remember that I don’t need that much food. I also snack at night and often eat dessert. I am sick of working my butt off in the gym and not seeing the body that I want because I can’t control myself in the kitchen. It seems that every time I get close to liking the way I look, I deem myself “good enough” and go on a weeklong binge of chips and salsa. I need to remember that you don’t just get to your happy place and then stop. It’s a continuous thing to stay healthy. And healthy=happy. A few motivators to help me focus:

– 2 upcoming weddings we’re attending. Always wanna look good at weddings!

– Family get-togethers for the holidays! Call me shallow but I love when members of my family tell me I “look like I’ve been working out.” I thinks they notice more because they don’t see me every day so it’s easier for them to see changes. As opposed to Paul who sees me every day and probably just doesn’t notice small changes as much.

– Indulging during the holidays. If I eat healthy and feel good going into the holidays, I won’t feel so guilty about indulging in the treats that I love! I want to enjoy the football brunch foods, holiday cookies, and yummy cocktails and this means that I should be prepared to fully enjoy those things by eating healthy and clean otherwise.

Another facet to this challenge is “The TEETH.” Which means you have to put some teeth into it. Which means it has to hurt to break your commitment. My goal to eat healthy portions may be a bit hard for me to measure but I do know when I’ve gone overboard and will hold myself accountable. Not eating fried foods is very easy to measure. I am trying to think of a good way to hold myself accountable…I’m thinking that every time I mess up, I put $5.00 in a jar that in the end I will donate to a charity of my choice. I am making it $5.00 because $1.00 is too small of an increment to phase me but $10.00 is too much. I still have to pay rent! I’m not sure if this is the best incentive for me…I’m trying to think of something better that will really motivate me to not mess up…but it’s all I have for now and I can start with it.

So here we go! I am hoping that a real challenge will help motivate me and give me the kick in the ass to reach the goals that I have been so close to attaining for so long.

foam rollling made my week

Tuesday, Wednesay, Thursday. argggggggg is it Friday yet?!?! lets see if I did anything spectacular in my workouts so far this week…

Tuesday: 30 minutes stairmill…why is it that whenever I’m on this machine I feel like I’m dying but there is always some superwoman next to me going 10 times faster while doing her hair and reading a magazine?!?! life is cruel…short strength routine after:

• 3×15 back bends on a ball
• 3×10 hammer curls #15 each
• 3×20 V-ups
• 3×12 resistance band pull aparts
• 3×12 squats #25

Wednesday: 1 hour with Ali. I’m going to try and remember the routine. I wish I had started documenting our routines when I first started training with her. I don’t really know what weight I use for most of these but that’s okay…

1st circuit:

• split squats while holding cable out .opposite leg forward. 3 sets: 20 reps each leg, then 15, then 10
• 3×15 calf raises each leg
• 3×15 calf raises toes pointed in
• 3×15 calf raises toes pointed out

2nd circuit:

• deadlifts standing on bosu with cable. 3 sets: 20 reps, followed by 15, then 10
• bicep curls with cable. 3 sets: 20 reps, followed by 15, then 10
• in a plank- pushup, walk hands across bosu, pushup…back n forth for 30 seconds

3rd circuit:

• 3×10 upright rows with bar on the track
• 3×20 side lunges while holding med ball. (10 each leg)

Ended with FOAM ROLLING again! I love when she does my calves for me…which were super sore after all those calf raises!

Thursday: 40 minutes “Around the World” setting on the elliptical, Level 10 and a 10 min cool down. shorty strength routine:

• 3×15 back bends on a ball
• 3×12 each side bends #25
• 3×12 front raises #10 each
• 3×12 lateral raises #10 each

All in all…nothing spectacular but at least I got my butt up each morning and worked out! And I’ve been eating pretty clean and good this week so I’ve pretty much got my energy back from a rough start to the week. Also haven’t drank in 5 days, which is pretty awesome for me…we even went out for vegan mexican last night and I skipped the Modelo! Go me Go me Go me!

not so hot

Wow I have been slacking…well not really but it was a rough weekend. First a recap of the rest of last week:

Thursday: A little run! I couldn’t figure out how to make the treadmill switch speeds every few minutes automatically because my brain does not function in the morning. So I said fuck it and just did a quick walk and then ran for .80 miles at 1.0 incline and 5.5 speed. I know I’m supposed to be taking it easy…very easy…but my shin felt fine! and running felt so so so good that I just couldn’t stop! afterwards I did 25 minutes on the stairmill and 20 minutes on the elliptical. I guess I was feeling sporadic.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday: rest days…I know….wtf. I am seriously annoyed with myself that I let this happen. Let me set the scene…Friday I had dinner and drinks on the mind and this plan ended up lasting until 3:00AM with too much whiskey, french fries, and dancing. I felt so awful on Saturday that I only got off the couch to pick up brunch and to go buy fixings to make pizza. Not good. Sunday rolled around and I mopped my whole house, cleaned my kitchen and ran some errands all before the Packer game at noon. Holy productivity! My plan was to make up for my lost Saturday and hit the gym after the game. But I didn’t! I have no idea why! We just kept watching episodes of Sons of Anarchy and then it got dark and the gym never happened. What did happen was burritos, chips, and more french fries.

So to sum it up, I feel crappy about the complete lack of movement this weekend and my body is rebelling against me because of all the junk I fed it over the last few days. I woke up today after a full night’s sleep feeling lethargic, bloated, and exhausted. I am craving fruits and veggies so bad because I basically ate none all weekend.

Monday: At least today i HAD to get up and work out because I had a personal training session with Ali. My energy was nowhere to be found and a workout that should have been more of a snap was oh so difficult. And now I am sitting at work staring at the clock trying to stay awake…7 hours to go! I shall persevere!

work hard rest hard

La dee da…After noticing that I hadn’t taken much of a rest day in a while I ended up taking Friday and Saturday totally off. No gym, no running, no home workout. It was nice, Friday we went to dinner and a play and Saturday we made brunch and lounged around because it was rainy. It felt good to relax!!

Sunday: I knew I wanted to get to the gym this day because I didn’t want to take 3 days off in a row. Well I decided that I would have two mimosas with brunch, relax and then go….dumb…I took a nap and finally got to the gym late afternoon but I was seriously DRAGGING. I did 50 minutes on the elliptical. The same level and intervals I’ve been doing but it waws so hard this time…I even had to stop once! Note to self, workout before you drink not after.

Monday: 1 hour AM session with Ali This was a good one. We did chest press, split squats, crunches, planks, resistance band rows and bicep curls and lateral raises. much much more as well. I didn’t realize how hard I worked until later that day when my whole body was sore! Ow my butt. Ow my triceps. Ow all over

Tuesday: 30 minutes “fat burning” option on the stairmill. OH MY GOD I thought I was gonna puke or die. But I made it all the way!!! Then I did 20 minutes on the treadmill of 1min walk 1min run repeat per my chiropractor. This felt good and I think I can build from here. No strength training thank you very much…too sore.

Wednesday: 1 hour AM session wth Ali. This was a fairly easy day featuring walking planks, step ups, pushups, and squats. We spent the last 15 minutes foam rolling! I always associate foam rolling with running so I haven’t been doing it at all but I need to. It hurt like a bitch but my muscles feel much looser.

So there we have it! I think some shopping and another rest day is in order for this coming weekend!

chuggin along

Man oh man I’ve been chuggin’ right along! Calculating it out, I haven’t really taken a total “rest day” in a couple weeks! Granted I’ve had some easy days in there but my body hasn’t been screaming at me to chill out which is nice! I think I’m just starting to be able to tell when to take it easy and when to push it. This way I don’t reach that day of total exhaustion from burning myself out. Yayy for perceptability!

Saturday: 30 minute Turbofire video. It got me sweating but I wanted more. Unfortunately my plan to hit the gym afterward was foiled because my sister needed me to work at the restaurant. No worries though, at least I got sweating! And it’s interesting to note how insanely difficult that 30 minute video used to be for me…I’d be so sore the next day! Now it feels like a warm-up!

Sunday: I woke up early with tons of energy. I knew mimosa’s were on my schedule for the day while watching the Packer Game so I hit the gym early to get it out of the way. And MAN did I feel energized! I did 47 minutes of hill intervals on the elliptical at level 10 and I felt so good.

Monday: half hour session with Ali in the morning. I was hungover. Walking lunges had my legs screamin’!

Tuesday: 25 minutes of stairclimber…it’s getting easier! Strength routine after…let’s see if I can remember…

• 4 x 8 bicep curls #15 each
• 4 x 8 one leg dumbbell deadlifts #25
• 4 x 12 resistance band upright rows
• 4 x 12 each side bends #25

Wednesday: hour long AM session with Ali. Circuit workouts featuring planks, TRX, side lunges, rows, wall sits, and shoulder presses. yowser!

Thursday: I was tired this morning and debated taking a day off but I thought about my options…sleep for 1 more hour (big whoop) or get my ass up and get a workout in…I’m glad I chose the latter. 38 minutes of the same elliptical intervals that I did Sunday while watching Khloe & Lamar. Strength routine:

• 3 x 12 each side split squats #15 each
• 3 x 12 resistance band pull aparts
• 3 x 12 bench flies #15 each
• 3 x 12 front raises #10 each
• 3 12 lateral raises #10 each

back so soon!

I think I’m getting used to this morning workout thing!! And I kinda like it! (except that I fall asleep on the couch at 9:30 every night) This morning’s workout was pretty good. I did 25 minutes on the stairclimber. I was nervous about this because this machine usually demands every ounce of motivation I can muster and I wasn’t sure I had it in me this morning. I told myself I’d go for 10-15 minutes if I could. But guess what…the 25 minutes just flew by! I did the same level of hill intervals that usualyl kick my ass but today it felt pretty good! Still mega challenging but not like -ohmigod I can’t breathe, my heart is gonna jump out of chest- challenging. Nice. I followed this up with a strength routine that went like this:

• 3×12 dumbbell bench press #22.5 each
• 3×12 each one arm dumbbell rows #22.5
• 3×12 each standing side bends #25
• 3×12 each one leg deadlift #22.5
• 3×12 hammer curls opposite shoulder #12.5 each
• 4×12 each split squats #12.5 each

The strength routine also felt a little easier today. I really think I’m getting stronger!! One of my October goals is to focus on strength training and I think between my personal training sessions and my own workouts I can really do some work! I have a pretty broad range of excercises that I can work with now and can make up some decent strength workouts on my own. Looking forward to it!

My other October goal, just to mention it, is to be more mindful of my portions at dinner. I would like to lose a little weight in my stomach and love handles and I know it has to do with my eating habits. I am SUPER mindful all day. I eat pretty much the same things for breakfasts, lunches, and snacks every day but once I get home from work all bets are off. I snack in front of the tv, I load my plate up with huge helpings. I often have dessert; granted it’ll be cereal or a granola bar or trail mix but still…that can be the equivalent of an extra meal! I think this also has to do with the fact that I usually work out in the evening so after that I tend to go overboard with my “refueling.” I think working out in the morning is going to help but I still want to focus on this and see if I can improve!

Sweatin’ in the AM!

Monday: First hour long session with trainer Ali after work. This was okay…the gym was packed but overall it was a pretty good strength workout. My legs and arms were both sh-sh-shakin!

Tuesday: All afternoon I was debating whether or not to work out after work. Lately I’ve been using the excuse that I really want to go straight home and hang out with Paul right after work so I have to skip the gym. This is partly because we’ve been talking about how it sucks that I don’t get home til late (even thugh 7 is not really that late) and we don’t eat dinner together very often. BUT in the end I decided that a short cardio session was what I needed so I busted out 25 heart pounding minutes on the stairclimber and 10 minutes walkin on the treadmill and was still home by 5:30 to make dinner with the boy! DOPE! glad I did it, short cardio sessions can be just as beneficial as pokin around at the gym for hours.

Wednesday: 2nd attempt at an AM workout. I am trying to start working out in the morning because of the above reasons. This was also my 2nd session with Ali and boy did she work me!!! I seriously haven’t worked that hard in a while. LOVE IT. This is why I wanted a trainer. I need someone to teach me new things and really push me. I did feel a bit off for the rest of the day though…gahh. I was insatiably hungry all day and I got really tired in the afternoon. This morning-workout business is gonna take some getting used to…I need to figure out how to switch up my fueling patterns but I think I’ll like it once I get used to it.

Thursday: Got by butt up at 5:45 AM again for 40 minutes on the elliptical and a short strength routine:

• 3×12 lateral arm raises #10
• 3×12 front arm raises #10
• 3×12 resistance band pull aparts
• 4×20 V-sits

vague updates

I’ve had some good and bad workouts this last week.

Saturday: 30 minutes elliptical and some strength work at planet fitness

Sunday: Rest

Monday: 25 minutes on the starimaster followed by a 10 minute walk on the treadmill to cool down a little. Good full body strength routine after.

Tuesday: 35 minutes elliptical followed by a short strength routine. This was my first attempt at a morning workout in FOREVER and it actually went pretty well! I got to the gym at around 6:30 and actually felt awake and energized throughout my workout! I was insatiable hungry all day though afterward…but that’s probably better than being insatiably hungry after an evening workout which leads to binging before bed more often than not for me.

Wednesday: Another antsy day at work leading to 50 pushups (5 sets of 10) and 100 lunges (10 sets of 10) at work. 17 minutes on the stairmaster and 10 minutes on the elliptical after work followed by a strength routine

Thursday: Rest

Friday: 45 minutes elliptical hill intervals. Started a short strength routine but got really sick towards the end. Like really sick. I don’t know what happened! I ate Subway for lunch (not good…probably the reason) and I did break my rule of no more than 30 minutes of cardio. hmm

Saturday: 10 minutes ARC trainer and a full body circuit strength routine on the machines at the gym downtown. I upped the weight on several machines and this felt good. 6 minute run just to test out my shin because it’s been felling better. The run felt AWESOME and PAIN FREE. but the next day my shin bone hurt all over again 😦 probably not a good idea in retrospect…

Sunday: 10 minutes ARC trainer and some quick ab and hip work, short hike with my mom at Glacier Hills.

Today is my first hour long session with my personal trainer and I’m so excited! I want to learn more about strength training and body building so I enlisted my trainer from a few weeks ago to help me out!