October 16

I went to the gym this morning, it was a new experience. Usually when I go to the gym it's no sooner than noon, half the time it's 8 pm. When I go at noon I take Noah and put him in daycare, which works great cuz there's only like 5 other kids in there. It's a totally different story at 9am. I seriously considered not putting him in there and coming back later because there were SO many kids. I didn't count but counting the babies and everything, I'd bet there were 40+ children in there. I know that they staff based on the number of kids, and according to state regulations, but MAN it was busy in there. Anyway.

I hopped on a treadmill and did my interval running routine and was pleasantly surprised to find out that my endurance hasn't really dropped in the last few months with me barely working out. I was planning on getting on a stair stepper when I was done with intervals, but there are only 4 machines (that I know how to use) and they were busy the whole time. So I ramped up the incline on the treadmill and walked for another 15-20 minutes that way. I enjoyed it honestly, I told myself that it was like hiking. I could have gone for a lot longer but I didn't want to leave Noah in the daycare zoo any longer than really necessary. After about 45 minutes total, feeling like I had a good workout under me without being too fatigued, I got the kid, grabbed some subway, and headed home.

I had forgotten how much I really love Subway! I ate there fairly often when I was working because it's by far one of the healthier fast food choices, but since having Noah I've only had it maybe 3 or 4 times. It's a good, healthy, fresh, balance option for lunch, especially when you put lots of veggies on it. We watched Super Size Me last night, and after watching that I asked for a small drink, and it was still PLENTY big.

My legs weren't fatigued at all when I left the gym, and I didn't feel it at all playing with Noah when we got home...until I had to walk upstairs carrying his 26 pounds with me. Guess I worked harder than I thought.

October 1

Wow, it's weird to type October. Anyway. I'm going to be doing 30DS again today. I'd like to start throwing some P90X into my workouts, but after being as sick as I was, I'm not feeling strong enough. I know that I wouldn't pass the Fit Test right now. So I'm going to continue working out 30DS until I'm feeling a bit more fit. I'm also going to start counting calories again using Spark People. The great thing about spark is it tracks calories, fat, protein, and carbs. It's a really good way for me to get a better idea of what I've been eating.

Breakfast: Protein shake
Snack: canned peaches
Lunch: Left over soup
Dinner: taco salad

September 30

I'm so glad that I finally went to the Zumba class last week. I have the videos and love them, and knew that the class would be even more fun. Tonight Jill had all new music and choreography for us, and will be doing this "new" stuff for the next 4 weeks. Some of it was a little hard to follow, but at the same time it was a lot of fun to try something new, and to see how good I am at following and getting my body to adjust to new movements.

Breakfast: Old fashioned cinnamon raisin oatmeal
Lunch: fajitas
Snack: more fajitas...and one peanutbutter cup. I had 4 though, and convinced myself to only eat one.
Dinner: Vegetable and rice soup with scones

Post-Flu

I had the stomach flu all weekend, therefore didn't workout, although I did go for a little hike on Saturday. I was feeling 90% better yesterday, but thought that I should give myself one day to make sure that I was really better before I jumped back into the world of fitness. So this morning I popped in my 30DS dvd and started it up. Halfway through the warm up I gave up because I had no motivation, and was already getting tired. I complained to my husband that I just didn't have it in me, and he said that I should do it anyway. I knew that if I didn't do it during N's morning nap, there was no way it was going to happen at any other point today. So I went back downstairs and started it back up. It was TOUGH, but I made it through the whole thing. Not working out for 4 days is bad enough to come back from, but when you've got malnutrition during those 4 days as well, it makes it really hard. But I figure I might as well come back strong instead of taking another week as an excuse of "recovering".

Breakfast: Hot chocolate and whole wheat toast (testing my stomach)
Post workout: Protein Shake
Lunch: Pork chop, rice & black beans
Dinner: chicken fajitas

September 22

I'm thoroughly proud of myself today. I did my spin class last night, and I think being that active just a few hours for bed was a good thing for me. I woke up at 7:15 this morning feeling refreshed and ready to hit the day with lots of energy. The original plan was to go workout with the video on a really low volume before Noah woke up, but since he was up at 7:30, that didn't really happen. But I did get my 30DS workout in during his morning nap. My butt is really really bruised from spin last night, and my right hip feels tweaked, so i had to modify a few movements, but honestly I liked it better that way. The side lunges with anterior raise has always been awkward for me. So instead I did a plie with an anterior raise, and it felt a whole lot better.

Breakfast: French toast, Canadian bacon, 2% milk
Lunch: taco salad
Snack: sloppy joe
Dinner: thai beef taco's

Intro Spin

Tonight I went to the gym and took an Intro Spin class. We spent 10 minutes or so figuring out how to adjust the bikes, and where to adjust them to based on our body heights and lengths, and then we spent a couple of minutes talking about form in various positions - standing, sitting, leaning forward etc. Then we did a 20 minute ride.

Here's the deal. I liked it. My butt really hurts, but I liked it, and think that I would have a lot of fun doing it on a regular basis. The problem is that the regular spin classes literally DO NOT fit into my schedule as it is right now. So at least I know that I like it, but my butt's going to hurt for nothing tomorrow where I probably won't be back to another spin class for several months. Oh well. At least I tried something new tonight.

September 3

Breakfast: Oatmeal and blueberries
Lunch: Left over pot roast
Snack: PB & Honey sandwich (N ate about 1/4 of it)
Dinner: Sante Fe Chicken Soup and salad

September 2

Today I'm going to do 30DS again in the morning, and then I'm going to a Zumba class tonight at the gym. This will be the first actual class that I go to, and I'm really excited to do it in a group setting instead of by myself in my living room.

Breakfast: 2 eggs, toast, strawberries
Lunch: turkey sandwich
Snack: chips and salsa. Not the healthiest I know, but if you've had my mom's salsa, then you'll understand
Dinner: Pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions

So I ended up not doing 30DS this morning, on account of being really sore from it yesterday. Then when I got to the gym tonight for Zumba, I found out that it was canceled. So I hopped into the class that was going instead of Zumba, which happened to be turbo kick. which was AWESOME. I've been doing Turbo Jam video's for almost 4 years now, and it was a wonderful new experience to do it in the gym setting with a whole bunch of other ladies. The only downside was that there were giant sized mirrors all around the room showing me how bad my technique/form really are. oh well, it was a great workout.

September 1

I haven't worked out really in like 3 months, which is just flat out stupid. Especially considering I bought a gym membership. I've used it maybe 4 times in the last month. So I'm turning over a new leaf and I'm going to get myself back into shape. It was sad how tired I was doing 30DS this morning. I used to be able to breeze through that thing.

Workout: 30DS level 1

Breakfast: Steak, green pepper, mushroom omelet, wheat toast, and a glass of milk
Snack: Yogurt
Lunch: Left over beef stir fry from last night
Snack: Grape salad and string cheese
Dinner: Chicken Enchilladas

Time Constraints

My husband started P90X up with me this last week, and it's been great to have someone to workout with. The only problem comes when we are doing workouts that involve weights. We have the Bowflex SelectTech weights, but of course we only have one set of them. That being said, I did my workout today while he's at work so that we don't have to 'fight' over weights for our workout tonight.

I'm really glad that Tony Horton included workout sheets with the program. Without them I'd be doing too little weight pretty much every workout. They really help me to push myself further and harder. Today's workout - Shoulders & Arms - was a lot more rewarding than the first time that I did it last week because I knew what I was doing, and what I needed to do different. I did the workout while my baby was sleeping, and unfortunately didn't have time to do the bonus round today. I had the energy and the motivation to do it, but it was either finish the workout, or take a shower for the day. Sorry Tony, but this time, the shower won.

Plyo

Call me sadistic, but I actually thing that the P90X Plyometrics workout is pretty fun. It's like being a kid again, and spazzing out, and seeing who can jump the highest! This workout reminds me of that "Friends" episode where Phoebe and Rachel go running, and Phoebe runs like a total spaz cuz it's so much more fun to do it that way. Plyo makes me literally kick myself in the ass, but I do it with a smile on my face, and half the time I'm laughing about it as well.

Chest, Back & Abs round 2

Obviously from the title of this post, today was my second time around on P90X Chest Back and Abs. I'm still pretty sore and tight from my Kenpo workout last night, but I feel like I pushed myself nice and hard. I feel good and fatigued as I sit here typing and sipping my protein drink. I'm definitely feeling myself getting stronger though, even after just one week on the program. I'm finding ways to push myself harder, whether it be higher weight, forcing just one more rep out of myself, or no longer modifying some of the movements. I did my wide pushups today without going down to my knees. They were significantly harder, I could only do 5 or so instead of the 15-20 I can do on my knees, but I felt great for being able to do just those 5. I also used the pull up bar today on the second time around instead of using the bands. I have to help myself quite a bit using the chair, but it's a significantly harder workout doing it that way. I think I'm going to start using it more often to push myself that much harder.

Tony's Ab Ripper X routine still 100% kicks my butt, or abs I guess, but again I'm definitely feeling myself getting stronger. I'm not having to completely modify every single movement. I may not be able to do all of the reps without modifying, but I can do at least some of them, and that's an improvement.

Kenpo

Today's workout was Kenpo, and I actually had a lot of fun with it. Tony was right in his little intro interview, you're so busy doing so many different things that you don't have time to realize how stinking tired and sweaty you are. For this workout, I'm really glad that I have done so many other kickboxing routines. I've done a LOT of work with Turbo Jam, and Chalene's "tuck" position really helped me out with Tony's kenpo stuff.

I have successfully completed my first week of P90X. I had to rotate my kenpo day and my rest day because of my son's birthday party, but I finished everything right on scheule really.

P90X day 4

I haven't posted in a long time, and I've been thinking about a lot of things fitness, so this is likely to be a fairly long ramble.

First off, I'm on day 4 of my first time doing P90X, and so far I'm loving the program. It's incredibly challenging, but really set up so that you can go at your own pace. Tony is constantly reminding his audience to make sure they have the right weight so that they can maintain proper form, and to feel free to push pause if their body needs to take a break. I like how much he encourages people to listen to their own body. No workout program is going to be 100% perfect for any one individuals body, and he understands that and has built it into his system.

Second, the way the program is layed out so far is fabulous. After 3 days of fairly intense working out, I was more than happy when I realized that I have 1 1/2 hours of yoga tonight. It just sounds like something that my body wants and needs right now. Yoga, while physically intensive on your body, is also incredibly relaxing and therapeutic for it. I really think that after doing it tonight I'll have a much easier time getting through the rest of the week of workouts.

Third, Tony is constantly cracking me up! It's easy to forget how hard your body is working when you're busy laughing at the antics of your 'trainer'. And I really appreciate that he has people of all body types in there. You've got skinny dancer girls, big booty girls, lean men, and really built men. It's a great variety that helps me as a viewer to feel like I can achieve the body type of at least someone on the workouts.

Dripping in Sweat

I consider myself to be a fairly un-sweaty person. I can usually do a whole workout, pushing myself pretty hard, and barely break a sweat. Today I did level 2 of Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred and I am SWEATING. Workouts didn't exactly happen over the weekend for me, so it's not a surprise that it was a fairly hard workout for me, but man, I'm really sweaty, and I feel GREAT.

April 15

I was feeling really ambitious this morning, and slightly upset that I'd only lost 1 pound in the last week or so. I've been working out consistently, but I think that the feasting over the weekend probably put me back a step or so. This morning I did the 20 min Flat Abs Zumba workout in addition to my normal 30 day shred workout. Wow did it make a huge difference! I usually sweat when I do 30DS, but starting it out already sweaty and slightly fatigued made it a lot more challenging of a workout. The great thing was for the final cardio set I still felt really good and was able to push myself through the whole thing with high energy

Breakfast: 2 fried eggs in Pam, a piece of whole wheat toast lightly buttered

Snack: Dymatize protein shake made with milk

Lunch: ham, turkey and beef tortilla with lettuce and tomato. A small apple with a serving of cottage cheese, sprinkled with cinnamon.

Dinner: Home-made chicken enchilladas. They had half the cheese that I normally put in them.

I've discovered as far as calories go, I need to keep each meal around 300. If I do that I should be able to easily stay in my 1200-1500 per day limit.

Day 6 & 7

I confess, yesterday I didn't work out. But I was active all day long, cleaning the house and doing laundry, and I still ate really really healthy. I don't remember what exactly but I know that it was eggs with yummy stuff for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and Italian turkey burgers for dinner.

Today
Breakfast: Eggs with mushrooms, cheese, and spinach. whole wheat toast

Workout: Cardio.
After not working out yesterday I noticed that today felt a little bit harder. guess that right there is good motivation to keep going!

Snack: Protein shake mixed with milk

Lunch: Left over Italian turkey burgers with spinach salad

Snack: Apples and cottage cheese with cinnamon. YUMM

Dinner: Bun-less hamburger with pico

Day 4 - 01/11/09

Breakfast: Eggs with mushrooms, spinach, tomato and cheese. Glass of milk

Workout: Cardio Party
I really didn't want to workout today. I wanted to just be lazy, and especially go and take a shower since I didn't take one after my workout last night. But I got my butt in gear and did it anyway, and it was great. I'm glad that I did.

Snack: Peanut butter toast, glass of milk

Lunch: Ham and turkey wrap

Dinner: Chicken and rice with salad.
I was at a dual birthday party, so I ate as healthy as I could, but I would have preferred to not have had all of that rice. But I didn't have the croissant or any of the birthday cake, so I feel I did the best with what I had.

Snack: Apple and peanut butter
I was really hungry when we got home for the evening, and it was still relatively early, so I had one of my most favorite snacks.

Today went really well. I wish that I could have eaten a little healthier, but I'll be fine I'm sure. I actually had enough energy this evening that I was considering doing a second workout, but the baby had a rough time going to bed, so I didn't have the time to get it in. Maybe I'll do some extra crunches or something before I head to bed. I need to start downing water again. Being in and out all weekend I really didn't drink nearly as much water as I would have liked to

Day 3 - 01/10/09

Breakfast: Omelette with cheese, tomatoes, sausage and mushrooms

Snack: Didn't happen this morning since we were out and about for Saturday activities

Lunch: Tomato basil soup, Salad with poppy seed dressing, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and candied nuts.

Snack: Lunch was really late, so the afternoon snack kind of didn't happen either.

Dinner: Citrus chicken, avocado, tomato, and salad.

Workout: Toning
I remember this workout being a LOT harder than it was. I haven't done it in a really long time. I think it also really helped that I've been working out consistently the last few days.

Snack: Peanutbutter toast
I've been craving peanut butter like mad lately, so I was WAY excited about this. Tasty stuff.

Today has been really good overall. We were out and about most of the day, which stressed me out a little bit dealing with the baby while we were out there. My workout didn't happen until pretty late tonight, which I don't really prefer, but at least I got it in. According to the wii fit, I'm down I think 2 1/2 pounds in the last 3 days, which is GREAT!!!

Day 2 - 01/09/09

Breakfast: egg white burrito with spinach, green peppers, avocado, sour cream, salsa, and a side of fruit.

Snack: Breakfast was late so I didn't have a morning snack.

Lunch: Salad

Workout: Cardio party
WAY easier today. I didn't realize it until I really started moving, but my core is feeling tight from yesterdays workout. Not necessarily sore, but just kind of pulling and well....tight feeling. I kind of like it.

Snack: Protein shake mixed with milk.

Snack: 1/2 C of sliced pears.
I was hungry, and I hadn't had a second snack today.

Dinner: Spicy Peanut Chicken.

Considering I went out this morning, I think I did pretty good with my eating today. Yeah, I probably had too many carbs, but I also had quite a bit of fruit and veg today, and a fair amount of lean protein as well. Not a perfect day, but I'm still proud of myself for it.

10 day turbo jam challenge

Day 1 - 1/8/09

Breakfast: 2 eggs, mushrooms, tomato and spinach omelette. Whole wheat toast with raspberry preserves

Workout: Cardio Party.
Man, I forgot how much I LOVE the end of this workout. It's totally worth getting through the rest of it in order to do this awesome finesse section.

Snack: Protein shake mixed with milk.

Lunch: Santa Fe Chicken soup.

Snack: 1/2 C cottage cheese and blackberries
Really not a great combination, but it was filling at least

Dinner: Beef Stir-fry with celery, carrots, and broccoli crowns.

I feel really good from today. Maybe a little bit hungry, but I don't have anything that I want to munch on, so I'll chomp on a piece of gum and have some extra water.