Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Cardio - Run

It was beautiful out today, about 40 degrees, sunny, just a tad bit of wind, perfect conditions for a run :)

I got some new shoes, they are New Balance, my brother-in-law told Kyle and I about this awesome website for discount New Balance shoes, check it out!  The only downfall and my BIL will not like this BUT I always had Nike shoes before because I have the Nike+ program and my chip fits in the sole of Nike shoes.  I now have to find, which it will be easy, a clip that holds the chip on my shoe I just didn't think about it before my first run today.

The run was good, very good actually, I just have no idea how far I ran or what my pace was.  All I know is that I ran for about 27 minutes, I never had the urge to walk and I felt like I could keep going.  Not bad for not having ran in about six months.  Sadly I know I couldn't have done it on a treadmill, I just despise running on a treadmill I can't stand it!  Being outside and actually going somewhere is so much more fun for me.  Eventually we will be doing cardio on a treadmill but that will be intervals like I do on the elliptical.

So happy this run went so well, I need to keep it up because I'm doing a Color Run in Des Moines in July, and possibly the Run the Flood race again this year as long as it isn't the same weekend as my Angel's reunion, although I could always just go for a run in Minnesota if it is :)

Monday, March 25, 2013

Shoulders & Arms

For this workout my bestie David joined us, it was fun, although he really can't be making me laugh while I'm trying to do shoulder presses ;)

I feel like we lifted a lot, did a lot of exercises, I was so tired when we were done and I really thought my arms were going to explode, weird but it is a great feeling!

I even got to have a Hawaiian wrap from Nutri-Sport, YUMMY, seriously they have the best wraps.  We needed some protein and I hadn't eaten yet that day so I needed the extra calories :)

We also went shopping afterwards, I LOVE TJ Maxx for workout clothes, I usually can find some cheap stuff.  I got a cute hot pink dry fit long sleeve shirt for $7 and a tank top for $5, yay me :)

We ended up skipping Sunday's workout because, well I went out Saturday night for my cousin's 30th birthday, I didn't intend to drink much but I ended up having way too many jager bombs, which caused the sidewalk to trip me on the way to the car and scrape up my arm, thankfully I had David to drive me home :)

So Sunday was a recovery day, but I did get out to the store and get groceries for the week, it wasn't completely useless.

Today is another rest day because I am still totally dehydrated so Kyle wants me to take one more day off.

I've said before that I have no dizzy spells, no funny heart palpitations, since working out like I am and eating so well.  I'm glad I don't drink very often because holy cow it completely dehydrates me and I have had some dizzy spells.  I should have drank water while I was drinking alcohol, lesson learned!

Friday, March 22, 2013

The Truth

Plyo's

After a little neck massage from Kyle and him letting me know that if we didn't go to the gym this morning we would have to do doubles tomorrow, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready to go!

When I work out after work and then have an early am workout the next day, I'm usually dragging ass for that morning workout.  I am doing very well with making sure I'm getting in enough water every day, but I don't really get rehydrated for that morning workout after my evening workout.

I was tired, I was sore, but I worked my ass off.  I was so drenched in sweat by the time we were done, so disgusting, but I can't help it I'm a sweaty girl! Thanks a lot dad for those genes ;)

This mornings plyo's consisted of jumping jacks, line jumps, toe taps on the exercise step, walking lunges, tire leaps, squat and jump over exercise step,  I think I covered it all.  We did two sets of those and then two sets of burpees and wall squats.

No wonder I was sweating my ass off!  I'm not going to be counting down weeks BUT glad to say the first week of "dieting" and training with Kyle is done, here's to many, many more weeks and there will be some pictures coming soon :)

Abs, Chest & Back

Last night after work we headed to the gym for another great workout.  It was a lot of push ups and band work.

I don't mind push ups, I'm getting stronger and am able to do more, Kyle had me do four variations, then we used the bands for some tough back work.  I will admit some of the back exercises were a bit awkward, squatting while pulling on the bands but it really made me focus on keeping my core tight!

After we left the gym we had to stop by Target for a few things, Kyle got a little Totino's pizza for dinner.  I just had to glare at him when he said that was what he was having, pizza is my favorite and cheese Totino's pizzas are by far one of my FAVORITES.  It brings back amazing memories of my days in Seattle when Stephanie and I would eat that for dinner and then have some Healthy Choice vanilla ice cream, one of our favorite meals :)

I really need to work on relaxing my neck more while I lift, it is so hard for me.  I woke up this morning with a really tight neck, but didn't let it stop me from getting in another workout :)

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Calorie Counter

I am definitely NOT getting in enough calories per day, so it was time to find a calorie counter.  I found a great app for my iPhone, it is a Livestrong app called My Plate.

I LOVE it, so easy, just input every little thing you put in your mouth and it will add up all your calories and let you know how many you have left for the day.  There is a pie chart that shows the breakdown of your day by percentage of protein, carbs and fat, YAY!  You can use this app with workouts as well to make sure you are burning enough calories, for me I won't really be using that part, mainly the food diary.

Kyle is wanting me to take in about 2,000 calories per day and this app going off of my weight and age has me at about 1,900 calories per day, so a pretty good match.

The great part will be to finally know how many calories are actually in what I'm eating, like my sweet potato, I have no idea how many calories are in one, or a cup of broccoli, you know that clean food that doesn't have labels on it with the calorie and fat content.

Now I'm anxious for my next meal, I look forward to keeping track of everything this way :)

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Forgot - Sand Volleyball!!!!!

I can't believe I forgot to add this into my last post BUT sign up for sand volleyball is MONDAY!!!!!  WOO HOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have our four's team, I was sad when my little brother Larry moved to Des Moines and I lost my doubles partner, and because I'd miss him of course!  Well yesterday I talked to one of the guys I play four's with and he wants to play doubles, so I'll be back to playing doubles AND four's on Sunday nights, it starts in April!

That will be great cardio, two hours of sand volleyball every Sunday night, I seriously can't wait.  I love, love, love it and I will be in such great shape this year, only a few more weeks to wait for it.  I don't even have to go sign us up Monday, it is insane here you seriously have to get there by like 6am to get decent time slots, so many people love to play but there aren't very many sand courts in our area.

Rather than me going Monday, Chris is signing us up, yay :)  Now if only it could warm up so the snow could get all melted off of the courts so they can get them ready.

Seriously Puxatony Phil, big FAIL this year!

Burpees and Elliptical Intervals

Today I did my cardio over my lunch hour at work, I'm fortunate we have a little shower here and a little "exercise room".  We have an elliptical and a weight machine, I don't use the weight machine just the elliptical.  Today it was very windy and about 22 degrees, so no running outside.

First of all I would like to show you my workout area today:


It just makes me laugh, all that beer, maybe I should have had some rather than working out ;)  Come on we are Teamsters, what more do you expect us to have stored in our "exercise room"!

Back to the workout, I had to do 10 burpees (oh lord they suck), then 15 minutes on the elliptical 30 seconds hard followed by one minute medium pace, then 10 burpees again and another 15 minutes of the elliptical intervals.

Holy crap, I was sweating my ass off when I got done and thought I may vomit at one point on the elliptical.  That just means I really did get a good cardio workout in about 35 minutes ;)

Can't wait for it to get warmer so I can get outside and run!

Stretch Day

Yesterday was a much needed stretch day, I was so, so beyond sore from plyo's on Sunday and lifting Monday morning.  Kyle thought the level of soreness was normal, I really worked hard Monday, kept my form and pushed out a lot of reps, even with the heavier weights.

Rather than do cardio yesterday Kyle wanted me to rest and do the P90X hour long stretch dvd.  It was as usual wonderful, I felt so much better afterwards. Then I had another soak in the bath with the amazing lavender epsom salts, heaven!

We also reevaluated what I'm eating and Kyle thinks I'm not getting in enough calories.  At first I thought it wouldn't be so bad eating every couple of hours with what I had, to add to it, it just seems like so much but I do need it to help bulk up my muscles a bit, right now my arms and shoulders are a bit small.

So last night I made up five chicken breasts with Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper Seasoning, I really love it, no sodium, no MSG, perfect seasoning for me :)  I'm sure at some point I'll need to switch flavors but it really is super yummy. I'm thinking I'm going to have to make ahead about 7 chicken breasts each week and 4-5 fish fillets.  Protein shakes are always good, a great way to get in lots of protein, but not very many calories.

We'll find the right balance for me soon I'm sure, last night I also had a baked sweet potato, I've never made them at home and well, I think I could eat one of those every day too :)

Today will be cardio day!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Abs, Shoulders & Arms

As we walked into the gym this morning, with crappy snow falling around us, Kyle said, "hey we were just here 12 hours ago!".  Yes, yes we were.

After a killer plyo workout I was ready to go at 4:30 this morning for my weight training day.  I could tell I was tired, funny how tired my arms were this morning after plyo's yesterday.

We did abs first, they weren't as tough as I thought they would be, I figured my abs would be killing me after plyo's but it wasn't too bad.  One good thing I did last night and plan to do every Sunday night is take a nice warm bath with lavender epsom salts, 20 minutes soaking in that = AH-MAZING!!!

I'm doing great on my abs, my reps are up and I don't really get too tired as we get through the routine.  I can see a big change, for all you mommy's out there you know what I'm talking about when it come to the little "pooch".  Mine has come and gone over the years, obviously as I worked out more it got smaller, then I would slack off, eat like crap and it wasn't so small anymore.  I can tell you that it is almost gone, almost!!!  I also have some stretch marks, thankfully mine are light colored but fairly deep, I've been using Palmer's Stretch Mark Cream in the morning and evening and let me tell you it totally works.  I've tried so many different creams, one was a very expensive and it did nothing for me.  The exercising and crazy consumption of water also help, but I'm sure they will be gone in a few months :)

Getting through the lifting was a little more difficult this morning, like I said before I was just tired.  I got through it though, pushed myself hard and made Kyle proud.

I'm really trying to make sure I'm eating every 2-3 hours now, after my workout I had a chocolate protein shake, two scoops of vanilla protein, one scoop of chocolate powder, really yummy and exactly what I crave after a workout.  Reminiscent of my high school track days when my mom had to keep the fridge stocked with chocolate milk for me since that was all I wanted after practices :)

Today I've got a little fruit salad, tuna with tomato and a spinach salad with almonds, celery sticks with a scoop of natural peanut butter.  That should get me through the day and then I'll be enjoying some tilapia and yams for dinner tonight.  I got some Mrs. Dash seasoning to use on my fish and chicken, that will be pretty much all I use.

I'm not going hard core on the diet quite yet, sticking pretty close to what I'll be doing the last 12 weeks before the show, but I'm also allowed one good cheat day a week right now, yay :)

Plyo's

Plyo's with Kyle, holy crap!

That was an intense workout, like I've said before I do work harder with him watching me, this was insane.

I did line jumps, toe taps and cross overs on an exercise step, tires, wall squats, box jumps and cross overs, three sets.  I was so, so tired when we got done and my legs were TOAST!

It really was an amazing workout, went by super fast and I know it was a killer fat burner :)

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Abs, Chest & Back

We get to the gym and Kyle has me do my warm up on the eliptical, when I get off he has me take my heart rate.  That was my sign, he now knows the actual date of the show, he isn't working out WITH me but rather training me and then doing his workout after he's done training me.  The true, serious trainer in Kyle has come out and is ready to kick my ass into the best shape of my life.

We start with abs, ugh, freaking abs, I don't know why I hate them so much but I do.  Probably because I've never had the strongest abs, I'm sure once I see them getting more defined maybe, just maybe I will get into it more.  I did love doing abs at one point in my life, when my bestie Stephie and I worked out together at 24 Hour Fitness, we were tough ass chicks rocking out some awesome ab routines :)

Let me take it back a sec, before we did abs my hear rate wasn't high enough so I did some line jumps, tires and jumping jacks, I was sweating my butt off before abs.  We get through abs and I'm a sweaty mess, we're like 20 minutes into the workout!

Then he had me hit it hard with the chest and back workout, I lifted to the point of fatigue on every exercise and he pushed me to do even a couple more on each exercise.  It was a GREAT workout, I'm tired typing this out ;)

I get home and Kyle had already texted me, "make sure you have a protein shake right away!!!".  My response, "already drinking one :)".  His response, "atta girl :)".

Kyle stated that today was "day 1", whoo it kicked my butt!

I did all the grocery shopping last night, I'm going to try to do it every Friday after work, I get off at 4pm and if I get home pick up Bella and we head out we can have it done and put away by 5:30.  She is the best shopping buddy :)  On my list of foods I got yams, spinach, carrots, pears, bananas, strawberries, cucumber, almonds, good things.  I already have at home LOTS of chicken breasts and various types of fish.  I'm not necessarily "dieting" just getting back into the clean eating with a good ratio of protein, carbs and healthy fats.

We'll take my body fat at the end of the week, I'm expecting it to have gone up a little bit since the last couple of weeks haven't been the greatest for exercising and I was naughty with my food choices, but maybe I'll be surprised!

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Water - Lots of it!

I've always been a big water drinker, my body doesn't retain fluids very well and per my cardiologist I try to get in about 90 - 100 oz a day.  I'm not the best with it, some days I get it all in, some days I don't.  The really bad days when I only get in about 30 oz, well I pay for those days and beat myself up for it every time it happens.

Now with the training I'm going to be doing I am supposed to try to get in a gallon of water a day.  Only like 28 oz more than what I need a day anyway, not much more, right?

Oy, it seems like so much more!  I have a 24 oz shaker that I'm using to help me keep track, so essentially I need to try to get in 5 1/2 shakers full of water every day.  My overly dramatic self sometimes feels like I'm drowning myself and I have to pee about 50 times a day it seems.

I've been trying to think of how to "spice" up my water with natural ingredients.  A few weekends ago Kyle and I had dinner at a nice steakhouse and their water had some slices of lemon AND cucumber in it.  I loved it!  Then I found a recipe for "sassy water", it helps eliminate a buildup of contaminants, fat and excess water weight.  I really did like it, but I have to admit that by day four I wasn't enjoying it quite so much, not sure if it was the ginger or the mint.  I didn't really notice and weight loss, but I'm not really trying to lose any weight.

I decided a couple nights ago to have a pitcher of water for myself with just cucumber slices and lemon slices in it, for me it is perfect.  The hint of cucumber and lemon is refreshing and yummy, I get in about 96 ounces of water every day just at work :)

I have noticed a difference in the weeks of drinking so much and keeping track, my skin is wonderful, my hair seems to be growing faster and I have more energy.  Amazing what a good amount of water can do for you, and again I'm very lucky, not having to worry about water weight.  In the end I think my lack of water retention will help me for the competition.

Kyle was happy to know the date for the show, we have plenty of time to get me ready, it just made it more real for him to know the actual date too :)

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

October 12th!!!

The Best of the Midwest announced the date for their show this year, October 12th!!!  Yes this is the show that I am planning on competing in, having the date set makes it so much more real for me.  Knowing I have PLENTY of time to physically and mentally prepare myself makes me feel at ease :)

That is going to be one kick ass weekend, October 12th is also my mom's birthday, I'm sure she won't mind spending it watching her daughter walk on a stage in a bikini and heels ;)  I know I'll be ready to go out and celebrate my mom that night and hopefully celebrate a major accomplishment for myself.

October 13th is of course Bella's birthday, so that is going to be one CRAZY and intense weekend for us.  I will have to really plan ahead this year and make sure I have Bella's birthday stuff all done before that weekend, she does know she wants to have a Scooby Doo party this year, it should be an easy one to put together :)

Woo hoo, I'm so excited!!!!!!!  My training this week has been bad, I was hit with a sinus infection, but I'm finally feeling better and will be back at the gym tomorrow morning.

Daylight savings has kind of thrown me off, I know it doesn't make much sense since it was dark when we had to get up for the gym anyway.  For some reason it feels so much earlier, I did try to get up this morning but allowed myself one more day to rest, but no rest for me tomorrow.

7 months to go!

Friday, March 8, 2013

Chest & Back

Chest and back was a great workout, I'm going my favorite exercise ever, chest flies!!!!  I love, love, love them :)

It is nice to have different exercises constantly rather than the same thing over and over with P90X, again it is a great workout program, but I just get bored really easily.

We took yesterday off, our dog Tybalt had surgery so we spent our free time with him in his drugged up state :)

Zumba

Tuesday I did a 55 minute Zumba class for my cardio, I forgot how much I LOVE it!  Seriously, so much fun and it goes by so fast, I'm glad Kyle will have me do that once in a while for my cardio :)

I really push it when I do it, I wish I had a heart rate monitor to wear but I don't.  I know it isn't as intense of a cardio workout as running, but again so much fun!

Monday, March 4, 2013

And So It Begins

So very proud of myself today!  I got in my 5am workout with Kyle, even though it was dark out, I could hear that damn wind AND it was snowing, but we did it :)  It wasn't too bad getting up for it actually, hopefully it will just be kind of easy for me to switch to the early morning workouts.

We did abs, shoulders, biceps and triceps today.  It was a really good workout, feeling it already :)  It was so quiet in the gym only two other people were there.  It was nice to have Kyle just focused on me, he didn't work out with me, he just trained me today.

One thing he added in was that I need to be drinking a gallon of water a day, it is only 8 ounces more than what I'm supposed to drink a day per my cardiologist.  I'm not always good about getting my water in, but I'm going to be lifting 4 - 5 days a week and I know my muscles are really going to need it.  So I'll be taking about 10 pee breaks a day at work I'm sure ;)

I'll probably say this a lot, but wow, I'm really doing this :)