Posts Tagged ‘fitness’
Vacation!!
Posted on: June 19, 2013
Howdy y’all! First, sorry I haven’t posted in a few days (or more like a week). I’ve been using my time in the evenings (my normal blogging time) to work on some of my sewing projects and get things ready for my oh-so-needed vacation! I’m back in what the Goob consider her home. Good Ole San Antonio (GO SPURS!!).
We’re staying with two different friends so that I don’t overstay my welcome at either person’s home. Lucky for me, one of them eats pretty clean with a few minor exceptions, the other, the author of Road to Recovery, and very close friend of mine, eats with her health in mind! She is very much a food is fuel (with a splurge here and there). I am so excited to be staying with these two lovely ladies! Plus they both have kiddos that get along really well with my kiddos!
I honestly don’t know how much posting I’ll be doing over the next week. I’m house hunting today, I’ve got academic stuff to take care of at the University of Texas San Antonio (I start in the fall), as well as a few other goodies on my plate.
As for my fitness regimen, it’s going to be more laid back than the past few month. Nick and I both agreed it would be good to use this week as a recovery/rest week. We did a full body training on Monday, and I’ve got a benchmark workout that I’d like to do today, but I kinda need a gym for it… Then I’ll do the benchmark again once I’m home to see how the rest affected my body. Most days I’ll just do some cardio, nothing too intense, but something!
That’s about it. Hopefully I can stay away from the yummy Tex-Mex foods here and still enjoy myself here!
I’m curious. When you go on vacation, do you try to stick to your routine, let it all fall by the wayside, or just to find a place in the middle?
Here’s hoping you have a great week.
Fav Pins
Posted on: June 13, 2013
Those who know me personally know I am a Pintrest freak!! So, for some quick enjoyment, here are some of my favorite pins from my fit board!
- In: Getting Fit! | health updates | whole 30
- 9 Comments
Well I have a feeling the whole 30 days are going to start sounding very familiar considering I’m eating essentially the same thing for a week at a time. I know that doing my food this way will work for me, but won’t be very entertaining for y’all reading this.
coconut thai curry chicken with onions, red pepper and zucchini
I finally had the curry I made and it was honestly delicious! I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m very happy with what I got. And more times than I can count I’ve found myself so happy that I have pre-made meals that just need to be nuked. I finally took my progress pictures (found below) for my past month. I am very happy with the results to be completely honest. Yes I know I have further to go, but coming from where I’ve been, I’m happy!
Hmm, what else has occupied my past two days? Oh! A big a$$ spider!! I don’t know how many people know this, but while I was in the Army I was bit 4 flipping times on the top of my thigh by a brown recluse. It happened while I was sleeping and I guess he kept biting me probably because I kept moving. Yes, a nasty creepy crawler was IN MY BED!! Mind you, before this, I wasn’t scared of spiders at all. I was that person who let them live in the nooks and crannies because they ate the more annoying bugs.
Anyway, it was graduation/family day and I saw the “bug” bites but didn’t think anything of them. They progressively got worse, but I refused to let some stupid allergic reaction stop my family day. But, by 10 o’clock that night, the bites were filled with puss, there was an area about the size of a large dinner plate that was turning purple, and from knee to hip crease, my leg was bright red and inflamed. I finally went to the hospital, found out what actually bit me, got the antidote (which felt like FIRE), and considered myself very lucky. Since then, the only spiders that live when I’m around are easily identifiable ones, and they have to be little, like your average wolf spider. Tuesday morning I went to pick up my cat’s food plate and holy shiz!! There was a huge spider guarding my cat’s food! I flipped out and ran upstairs to get my Mom so she could kill it. I was absolutely terrified. We sprayed it and had to trap it under a bowl because it was bouncing around. Later on I actually got my brother to get a good picture of it… 
Needless to say, pest control is coming out!
I will have an update as to what kind of spider it actually was in the next post! Please oh please don’t let it be a brown recluse….
And now onto the before and afters…. Horribly lead in I know, but I was getting the heeby jeebies again….
quarter turn left
front
quarter turn right
profile (relaxed)
profile
back (relaxed)
back (flexed)
back (flexed)
glute/hamstring connection
glute/hamstring connection (crossed)
New Book
Posted on: May 7, 2013
I very rarely buy books at full price anymore thanks to wonderful stores like Half Price Books and trusty Amazon. Today, on a whim, Link and I decided to head over to Books-A-Million to peruse their overpriced selections. We both have a kindle reader of some sort or another (I have a paperwhite and he has an iPad), but some times it’s just nice to hold a physical book.
My meandering lead me over to the cook books and fitness/health sections (surprise surprise). I found this book.
I figured with everything I’ve been going through, some motivational stories might do me some good. I’m planning to read a few tonight. I’ll give you guys a little review once I’m done 🙂
Um… Time to bare it…
Posted on: May 6, 2013
I have been taking before and after shots since I started working with Nick. Just recently I had a meltdown because I wasn’t seeing/feeling any different. I knew I was getting stronger, but I didn’t feel like I was getting any leaner. I was frustrated and complaining to both Link and Nick about it. Frustrated doesn’t even really come close to how I felt to be honest.
I am all for getting stronger. I have been promoting the benefits of lifting for some time now. I love the benefits I’ve been reaping thanks to lifting. I apparently still need some help to get over my mental road blocks. I still find myself turning to food to help deal with stress. I still see myself as “chubby” and I am very critical of myself.
Here are my original before and afters:
It took Tom pointing out the difference because I honestly could not see them. I see them now and feel crazy for not having seen it before. No, they’re not drastic, but they don’t need to be! It’s progress and that’s what I need to be concerned with!
I showed them to Nick as well. He made a valid point… I need to get out of the shorts! How am I going to see the progress in my legs if I’ve covered them up? I have always had major insecurities with the “thickness” of my legs and booty, which is why I put the shorts on. So, I’ve got new before pictures. In a triangle bikini no less. I took them last night and it was like some weird form of torture. I like being on the seeing side of the camera, not the seen. I cannot thank Link enough for helping me with them. I felt awkward and exposed. Not the best feeling in the world, let me tell you.
But, after looking at them, I can see even without pictures to compare them to, I know I’ve made progress. Of course there are things I don’t like. I’m trying really hard to not focus on those parts. In order to keep with the whole honesty idea of this blog, I’m sharing these pictures with you. And I may or may not be planning to compete in an ACTUAL fitness competition come September which is where the poses are coming from.
oh, and um, don’t mind my crazy, it’s way past my bedtime hair 😉
Most recent workout
Posted on: April 28, 2013
First and foremost: LINK IS HOME!!! His two week “vacation” started this morning, so I was crazy getting the house and kids ready, which is more or less the reason I haven’t posted much in the past week (ish).
Now, onto blog business. A quick update with my “no scale” challenge. It’s been hard. Honestly. I hate not knowing how much I weigh. At one point, a couple of weeks ago, Nick wanted to get my stats, so I found out then what my weight was, and seriously, it was like getting taking a huge breath after you’ve been underwater to that point just before you know you might want to consider coming up for air. I haven’t looked since though. I’m starting to feel the “itch” though. LOL May 4th is the day my scale comes back out. One more week.
On Friday Nick decided it was a good day to work my entire back half. Wow. Lots of dead lifts. Lots and lots of dead lifts. I was actually able to do 185 pounds, whereas last week I could only do 165 pounds. 20 pound difference in a week? I’ll take it! I try to tell myself those are the numbers that matter, even if it doesn’t sink in every time.
We also did some ab work on the TRX. It’s a great training area/device/contraption/torture device if you can find the right form. Some of the exercises are a bit hard to find the right form, at least for me they are, but I think that’s what I’m going to start working on because I really do like how it works.
I’ve included a couple of pictures that Nick took while I was working with cables and while on the TRX.
—Take care of your body, it’s the only one you have!
Weight challenge
Posted on: April 20, 2013
I’m sure y’all have figured out that I really like lifting weights now. Well, while Link is off in LaLa land, he and his buddies created a weightlifting challenge of sorts. They have a reward system but I honestly can’t remember how it’s set up. The events are dead lift, squat and bench press. To get the lowest reward, their combined weight has to reach 500 pounds, the second reward is 800 pounds, and the top reward is for a combine weight of 1000 pounds. Crazy right?! I asked him what the standards were for women since there are women over there too (I’m all about EO)! He said he thinks the numbers are 300, 400 and 600 pounds.
I don’t have any idea what possessed me to tell Nick about this challenge but I did. The immediate effect I had after seeing his reaction was “uh oh!” Of course we wanted me to do it! I was thinking okay, I know I can get the 300 pound mark, but the others are way too far off… at least for now. Nick, being the awesome trainer that he is, said we’re gonna skip right over that 300 mark, and shoot straight for 400. I told him he was crazy! I started thinking either he’s seriously overestimating my ability, or I’m seriously underestimating them. We planned to go through it this past Friday. Well, between the squat and the deadlift, I was 325. So maybe I was underestimating myself a bit… The bench press proved to be really hard for me though.
during the warm up… 45’s on each side
There is apparently a proper way to do a bench press that quite literally engages all your muscles, not just your chest. It was a very awkward feeling, and he thinks that is the reason I didn’t lift more. I lifted 65 pounds. Here is an article that explains “proper” form.
I was really surprised at my weights! And we didn’t do the math until after we were done to figure out exactly where I was. Also, the chest press wasn’t my max because I was able to do six reps, as well as the squat, which I did three of. After he did his max calculations, he said that it would technically be 407 pounds. So, I actually lifted 390 pounds but maxed out at 407 pounds! I’ll take it! These are the measurements that really matter. Not just how much I weigh! There are so many other indicators to put my focus on to measure my health and fitness.
Nick warned me I’d be sore. He didn’t lie. Today I had a long run planned but once I woke up this morning I realized very quickly there would be no running. Today was definitely taken as a rest day! I will get my run in tomorrow morning!
Another well-paid for workout
Posted on: April 10, 2013
Nick has done it again. I swear, he gets a kick out of torturing me, and I love him for it! Here’s how today went:
I saw him finishing up with his earlier appointment, so I let him know he could find me warming up on the treadmill. Not even 1 minute later he comes over laughing at me, telling me to get off. There was my first big indicator that today I was going to sweat… a lot! I could see it in his eyes! LOL
He hands me a jump rope and off I start. Today was a “go until you lose your rhythm (mess up) and well do one exercise”. So in between my “mess ups” we took care of the prehab stuff. He made me focus considerably more by putting half a foam roller on my back so I would isolate the right muscles/joints without shifting. The supine bridge was intensified by doing them one legged on the bosu, and we did another prehab called the “reach, roll, and raise” (or something like that). It focuses on the mid-back.
Then we go into the “heavy” stuff. It started with a kettle ball exercise that I can only describe because I have no idea what it’s called. It’s double-armed, and you swing them until they’re almost parallel to the ground then you use your traps and lats to “punch” them back. I know that’s a horrible description but I have no idea how else to describe the motion. LOL Then onto dead lifts, morning glories, inverted rows, presses and donkey kicks all on the smith machine except for the first two. There was huge progress made from last time I tried inverted rows. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty awesome (tired) afterwards.
Once the heavy was done we moved back to our starting area and did some ab and endurance training. This was the circuit I had to complete as many times as I could in 15 minutes. Donkey kicks, fire hydrants, plank (on elbows), alternating side planks (holding for 1-2 secs each time) for 10 reps, wall sit for 30 seconds, then upright rows. The wall sits damn near killed me!! I hated them in the army and I hate them just as much now! After all of that was done, then I had 20 minutes of cardio.
So yes, I sweat my a$$ off today, and it felt awesome. I have noticed when I’ve gotten in a great training, I am so much more apt to keep the momentum going into my dietary needs. Granted, today was Boston Market Wednesday, I still behaved so much better than I think I would have normally, and I still made nutritious decisions without totally depriving myself. All in all, a good day!
If not for the skinny jeans... 