Weekend Wrap Up

Happy Monday... here we are at week 2 (51 to go!).  Last week, it was really important to find my motivation.  It was important that I find the love back in my body.  This week it is time to get serious, and start to set goals and achieve them.  

Let’s review the weekend.  I know that my struggles are not isolated in my home alone, and I know that by sharing my struggles, as a community we can come together and rally around each other.  Friday night, my husband and I were insanely  bored.  We are saving up for a weekend trip to New York in a couple of months so we do not have much money to spend- however, we did find a gift card to the movies that we had not used yet.  It has been YEARS since my husband and I went to a movie in the theater.  How could we resist that Icees and popcorn?  We couldn’t.  We splurged.  We shared popcorn and I had a giant blue Icee and loved every minute of it.  If the movies are a once a year event (if that), I am not in danger of making this habit.  

Saturday we got up and worked out and did a killer treadmill workout (again, thank you Pinterest!).  Saturday evening, my brother and his girlfriend were over and I had prepped a roast in the crockpot but when it got down to it- that was just not what I was craving.  I caved- pizza it was.  And it was good.  I made an effort to eat till satisfied and not overly full.  Next came the drinks… of course there were drinks.  Vodka, and orange juice- my favorite.  I sipped slowly, and overall controlled an indulging evening which could have been much worse.  It was an inward battle of “right” and “wrong” between me and my body.  Finally I just let go, had some fun, but attempted to keep in moderation, which I believe I succeeded in.  

Sunday was a rest day and we were back on track as far as nutrition goes.  I even forwent my poolside drink (BIG DEAL= BIG WIN).  Every win counts right…??  

Here we stand at Monday- time to get some concrete plans in place so I am not floundering at the gym, which I found myself doing at the beginning of the week last week.  I have put together this tentative plan, and will try to stand by it as much as possible.  However, I do not want to get myself in such an OCD rut that if something derails, I become panicked and ready to give up.  Sounds crazy- but I am sure I am not the only girl who has this issue.  This plan is merely to keep me on some sort of guideline when I go to the gym.  There may be some days that I feel like switching it up, and my goal is to accept it, and do whatever it takes to stay motivated.  The pictures (from Pinterest) are what I did this morning. 

   

o   Monday

§  Arms with weights

·         Cable bench

·         Triceps

·         Shoulder exercises

·         Bar hang

§  Lower body cardio (see 2 pictures attached; I did them in picture order)

·          

o   Tuesday

§  Legs with weights

·         Squats

·         Inner/outer thigh

·         Leg extension

·         Hamstrings

§  Body weight arms

·         Pushups

·         Burpees

·         Planks

§  Cardio

·         Elliptical

o   Wednesday

§  Cardio

·         Choice

o   Thursday

§  Arms with weights

·         Incline bench

·         Shoulder exercises

·         Lat pull down

·         Bar hang

·         Triceps

·         Biceps?

§  Lower body cardio

o   Friday

§  Legs with weights

·         Squats

·         Inner/outer thighs

·         Extension/curls

§  Body weight arms

·         Burpees

·         Pushups

·         Planks

§  Cardio

o   Saturday

§  Cardio  

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

This is day 5 of 365… I am sore, but I feel great.  I have dropped 3lbs in 5 days- but truth be told, probably slightly more than that because I was too fearful of getting of the scale initially.  So that “before” number is a few days after working out- quite an astronomical number… but still it’s going down.  After my workout this morning, I thought my waist looked smaller- and I measured and inact, it was down 1 inch, and my hips were down .5inch.  Now I should clarify, this past weekend I was in Nashville where the drinks and food flowed quite easily so perhaps I was “bigger than normal” when I began this.  Nevertheless progress is progress, and it is a motivation. 

Last entry, I wrote about the weekends.  As today is Friday, the weekend is upon us and already we are starting to make plans (we love the weekends).  Unfortunately for our bank accounts, but fortunately for my health, we are broke (too much fun in Nashville) and therefore our going out will be heavily limited.  Nevertheless we have plenty of alcohol and mixers to make a great weekend at home… which could prove to be devastating for the scale.  The trick in all of this must be to find a balance.  I refuse to stop acting my age, and I refuse to refuse having fun and living my life because of goals that I have.  That is not real life- because what happens when it’s over??  Do I go back to the way I was eating before?  That is my biggest fear- so what I am doing right now, is trying to create a lifestyle that I live with on the day to day. 

3lbs down, and an 1.5inches down… we are on our way.

Today’s workout consisted of some high intensity work.  This week I have tried to alternate my “heavy” lifting days (with cardio following) with heavy cardio days with more body weight exercises.  Today kind of combined the two (cardio and body weight exercises).  There was LOTS of jump roping, tuck jumps, jump lunges, jump squats- and hang grip.  One of my goals is to be able to do a pull up, I know I need to work on my grip strength so whenever I get a chance down at the gym I try to do three good hangs and hang for as long I can.  I must tell you that my grip strength in nil.  Even in my best shape, my grip strength never even made it onto the charts—I suck at this.  But among my other vows, I vow to get better at this.  Yesterday I hung for 8 seconds; today my longest was 10 seconds.  Again, it’s slow (and sad) but it’s progress. 

This is how my workout started out (thanks Pinterest- and PopSugar)

• 60 seconds jump rope
• 50 jumping jacks
• 30 seconds jump rope
• 20 alternating lunges (I did 20 on each leg)
• 30 seconds jump rope
• 15 tuck jumps (this exercise makes my heart go insanely high)
• 30 seconds jump rope
• 20 squats
• 30 seconds jump rope
• 60 seconds high knees run
• 30 seconds jump rope
• 15 jump squat
• 30 seconds jump rope
• 15 burpees(I had to break these up in groups of 5... I was gassed)
• 30 seconds jump rope
• 50 jumping jacks

Day 2 of 365

Well, it’s Day 2 on my “new me” journey.  Yesterday- Day 1 went really well.  It is easier to keep the motivation up on the first day.  The struggle will be keeping it up a 4 days from now- or 3 days from now.  Weekends are always the hardest part for me.  During the week when my days are structured, I am able to (for the most part) play by the rules.  But the weekends are a different story.  I love to go out with my husband, we love to go out to the bars and whatever else is going on.  I don’t want to alienate myself from fun- I just need to figure out a proper balance.  But- this struggle is for a different day.

Today’s goal- stay focused.  I feel better today.  I woke up with a headache but that is undoubtedly from not drinking enough water.  Last night I charged my iPod (which never happens) and set my alarm clock with the plan on setting out on a little 3 mile run this morning- and wouldn’t you know it- it was thunderstorming this morning.  But that’s okay because I am not going to let this deter me from goals.

Today’s workout:

100 pushups

2 rounds of commercial exercises.  The picture is below- although I am thinking I may make some adjustments to it after going through it yesterday.   

 Follow me, and let’s support each other in this fight for health.