Tag Archives: working out

Exercise Interuptus

7 Nov

I’ve been working out to the Jillian Michaels Ripped In 30 dvd lately, yes I know I attempted it before and failed miserably but I figured why not try again? 🙂

Why oh why haven't I seriously started this yet??

Attempt Number 2!

I really did plan to follow the dvd the way it is set up – there are four different workouts, labelled Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4. You are supposed to work out 6 days a week and you progress through the workouts until you’ve been working out for a month and are, apparently, ripped.

Being the doubting type of person that I am, I don’t believe I would ever be ripped in 30 days, even if I followed the work out plan and meal plan religiously. That just isn’t possible lol I was hopeful for being in better shape than when I started though. Small goals my friends, small goals! lol

So day 4 of week 1 and wouldn’t ya know it, I was injured. Lovely. *rolls eyes* I hurt my shoulder which was seriously impeding normal day to day activities let alone push-ups, planks and free weight work. I had to take a break from the dvd and baby the shoulder for a bit. After about 4 days of babying I went back to the dvd and gave it a try, using lower weights than previously. The shoulder seemed ok so I kept going. Well, sort of, sigh.

Life got in the way, as it has a tendency to do and I missed a day, then a couple days later I missed another day, all in all, it took me two and a bit weeks to finish Week 1 of the dvd workouts lol I’m pretty sure that would get me a severe tongue lashing from Jillian if she were to find out, good thing she doesn’t know I exist! 😉

Yesterday I decided screw this, I’m bored with the workout for Week 1, I wanna graduate to Week 2, I can do this! *insert battle cry here*

On to Week 2!

Um, wow, I’m so not ready for Week 2 lol Some of the moves I can’t do due to severe lack of coordination. Oh geez was it bad, as in totally horribly bad, there is this move that I was so off with I’m pretty sure I got no exercise benefit from it at all! You start standing with your legs together, arms at your side holding dumbbells. You lunge forward and as you land in the lunge position you do a bicep curl, then the leg that is forward swings backwards, not back to standing position but behind you to another lunge, during the movement your arms go back down to your side then as you land in the lunge position your arms do another bicep curl. It confused my brain and my body lol I kept curling at the wrong time *rolls eyes*

There were other moves that I had to do the modified version of because of either confusion, inability or exhaustion. 😛 Jillian would be so disappointed, sigh.

jillian

About halfway through the workout my phone rang, which never happens, I communicate almost exclusively via text or email…or facebook…So the phone ringing is a rare enough thing I took a look at the screen and it was an uber important person (my agent) so of course I answered. He actually had to ask for me because I was panting when I answered and didn’t sound like myself lol He was calling for an uber important thing (an audition) so totally worth the pausing of the dvd. We chatted for a while then I had to decide, start the workout back at the beginning because even though I kept walking the entire time I was on the phone my body had completely cooled down, or start where I paused it and basically force my body to leap back in to the high intensity part of the workout.

I opted for hitting play and continuing where I left off, mostly due to the horror I felt at the idea of repeating what I had just done. Nope. Nuh-uh. Wasn’t happening!

At the end of the workout I felt like I’d cheated a bit, since I’d had that break, but figured I’d make up for it the next day (which, fyi, totally didn’t, oops! 😉 )

I have bad luck with this dvd, first my workouts get interrupted because of an injury, then because of a phone call. I can’t decide if it’s the universe’s way of telling me to stop using that dvd or the universe’s way of issuing me a challenge. Since I like the idea of a challenge better I’m taking it as such and will continue with the Week 2 workouts, let’s see where they take me! To Week 3? To injury? Who knows!

The bigger thing to ponder is…how long will it take me to complete Week 2?

Guess there’s only one way to find out! lol Bring it on Jillian. Bring. It. On. 🙂

this makes me laugh and shrink back in terror at the same time lol

this makes me laugh and shrink back in terror at the same time lol

If the caption in the pictures is too small to read it says:

Picture One

Lady Working Out: “My back hurts”

Picture Two

Jillian: “That’s a bummer. Guess what else is going to hurt?”

Picture Three

Jillian: “Everything!”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Monthly Round Up – April

8 May

Alrighty so I’m a tad late with this, what can I say, punctuality is not my strong suit lol To hold myself more accountable for my fitness related actions I have been tracking them on my calendar. Every time I do something fitness related I write it on the calendar and then highlight it in pink. The highlighting is so that at a glance I can see how much or how little I have been doing so far within the month and it will either (1) re-enforce I am doing well and help me to keep going or (2) force me to realize I am slacking and push me to get my butt in gear.

Here is my calendar from the month of April…

Such a slacker! sigh

Such a slacker! sigh

As you can see, there are huuuuuge gaps where I had lots of days in a row where I did nothing that counts as exercise, sigh. Must. Get. Moving!

It is hard to tell from looking at the picture but some of those days I did two different workouts/activities which helps to make the month not quite as bad as it could be lol

In total, out of the 30 days I exercised 17 times. I am not impressed with myself *rolls eyes* I learned from tracking in the previous month that Fridays through Mondays are my worst days for getting my butt out there and doing something. It is due to my work schedule but I can’t let that keep holding me back, I have got to figure out a way to work around the hours and my laziness.

Tomorrow is Friday, a day I generally don’t exercise because of working but I’m hoping to at least do a workout dvd. I’ll only be able to go to the gym if I go before work since they are closed by the time my shift is over and I’ve shown time and time again I am not good at forcing myself to get up early and head to the gym before work. I go to bed with the best of intentions to get up and go but it doesn’t happen. Sooooo, I’m lowering the bar lol I’m lowering it to getting out of bed and following along with an exercise dvd. It may not be an amazing workout but at least it is something, and something is better than nothing, right? Right! I figure I’ll work up to getting my butt to the gym before work…

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Rest Days

19 Apr

I’m not sure how I feel about rest days. I know for muscle growth you need them, but generally you can have a rest day that isn’t really a rest day. That makes no sense to you I’m betting, what with you not being in my head an all lol

If you are working on building muscle it is easy to have a rest day because you just divvy up what days you work various muscle groups. So, Monday might be arms and shoulders, Tuesday  legs, Wednesday back etc. You are still going daily but you are also giving certain muscle groups a rest.

A year or so ago when I was following an extreme workout regime given to me by a super fit friend I got one rest day a week, my week looked like this:

Day 1 – short cardio, arms and shoulders

Day 2 – cardio, core

Day 3 – short cardio, legs

Day 4 – cardio, core

Day 5 – short cardio, back

Day 6 – cardio, core

Day 7 – rest

I personally feel a rest day needs to be earned, and because I am super hard on myself I feel that until I am at the fitness level I want to be at, and am maintaining, I have not earned a rest day. Doesn’t mean I don’t have days I don’t exercise, but that is due to scheduling or sheer laziness, not because I have it marked down as a rest day lol.

rest day 3

This past Wednesday though I consciously took a rest day. The previous Sunday I went running, did a bunch of squats and some upper body weight work, Monday I went for a hike, Tuesday I had dragon boat practice. The run alone caused me some muscle pain, mostly in my legs, well, most likely the run combined with the squats lol, but whatever the cause, there was muscle pain. The hike on the Monday was not planned, I was supposed to be doing something else but it ended up as a hike (on a new trail, yay!) but that did nothing for my muscle pain, especially when I wasn’t content to just hike so I did interval work while hiking. By that I mean whenever there was a flat section I would either stop and do squats, change from walking to doing walking lunges, plank, do some push-ups or do calf presses (standing ones, I would find a curb or log to balance on). During the course of the hike I did each of those exercises three times, each time a set of 12, it made me feel the hike was a better workout for the inclusion of the extra work.

But yeah, so by Tuesday my legs were kinda pissed at me lol and the run I was going to take before practice did not happen. By the time Wednesday came around all I could think was my legs would never forgive me if I went running or hiking that day so I did nothing exercise-y. I did some house work but not enough I feel it can be counted as exercise lol

Thing is, while I am not adverse to building muscle, when I think about building muscle I think of my back, shoulders and arms, mostly because that is where I need it for dragon boating. I don’t really think of my legs, which means I don’t generally give them a day off. The days I decide to not go running or hiking are usually days my knee is acting up, so I give the knee a break but that break is in no way meant as a rest day for my leg muscles, shrug.

I count my runs and my hikes as cardio, and I’m sorry but who gets a rest day from cardio? Nobody!…Least, I don’t think we are supposed to, are we?  But this past week made me realize that I am dummy and sure I am getting cardio when I go hiking or running but I am also building strength in my legs which means I am working the muscles, doh! Sooooo now I am wondering if I should be spacing my runs and hikes so I don’t do them every day, or at least consecutive days because I need to give the leg muscles a rest between workouts…

Why oh why do there have to be so many questions when it comes to working out?? sigh.

I think for now I’ll just follow what my body says, if the legs are hurting to the point the hike won’t feel good but will just be painful I won’t hike, but if I think the hike will stretch the muscles out and make them feel good well, bring it on! lol 😉

Tags: , , , , , ,

So Far So Good

2 Apr

Last month I tried this thing, I wrote on a calendar I have hanging on my bedroom wall every time I exercised and I highlighted it in pink. This way, I could see at a quick glance how much or how little I was exercising. I wasn’t going to push to exercise more than normal, I just wanted to see where, in my normal routine I drop the ball.

2014-03-31 19.02.14

Uh, wow, I dropped the ball a lot! If you count the pink on that calendar page I only exercised 10 times. 10 times out of 31 days, uhhh…what?? Talk about being a lazy butt and having proof of it! 😦

I am guaranteed two times a week because of dragon boat practice but I’ve got to stop slacking the other days! The easiest day to exercise, besides my dragon boat days, is Wednesday because it is a day off. Fridays through Mondays are where I suck. Those are my work days. If I don’t get my exercise in before I go to work Fridays and Saturdays I won’t get it done because of how late I get home. Sundays and Mondays I am usually so tired after working the morning shift I do nothing but crash.

But, like I said, things have to change.

So, I changed them. 🙂

This past Monday we had beautiful weather, sunny, warm but not hot, the cherry blossom trees are in bloom, a perfect spring day. I left work late but was determined when I got home I’d go out and at least walk, enjoy some of that sunshine. I ran in to my landlords when I was leaving the house and asked if their dog might want to come with me, they said yes so I had a super friendly golden lab with me. I didn’t care where we went so we followed her nose. Lemme tell ya, her nose took us on a weird, convoluted route.

the route the dog chose

the route the dog chose

I had planned on only walking, normally I get down on myself if I walk more than run but I was tired and my goal was to get some sort of exercise even if it wasn’t as intense as I would like. The dog however had other plans, lol. She wanted to run and who am I to say no to big cute doggy eyes? I am not that strong! 😉 So, it was a jog/walk. The green parts on the map are where we walked, the yellow was a jog, the tiny little orange section was more of a run, you can see that didn’t last long lol In total we went 5.45 km in 1:02:33.

Then Tuesday I had dragon boat practice so two hours of exercise there, yay! I usually (read that as Always!) sit left side of the boat but we were short people who sit on the right at practice so I ended up sitting on the right side. It was…odd…My body is used to sitting left so it was a tad more painful than normal but not bad painful, just, the other side of my body was getting worked more than it is used to, so muscle pain. Actually, I’m still feeling it today. *groan* poor muscles! lol

Today I went for my first hike of the season. I am soooo glad it is hiking season again, I didn’t realize just how much I missed it till I was out there, on a trail, in the wilderness, away from everything. Well, almost everything, I was with a friend lol We went slower than I would have if I went alone but the point is that we went…right? I used my Runtastic App to track the hike, like I did above with the dog walk, but my phone battery was low and it died while we were still on the trail so I don’t have full data on the hike. I plan on redoing that hike so I can get accurate distance and time it took. The app recorded a distance of 8.12 km in 1:36:06 which sounds horrible buuuuut please take in to account we were on the side of a mountain, on trails, going slower than my normal pace. Take a look at the picture below, you’ll see where it stopped tracking (where the red dot is)

the hike up the mountain and back

the hike up the mountain and back

The numbers on the trail are the app marking the km’s so we went up 5km then turned around and started back down, using my oh-so-non-impressive math skills I’m thinking that means we did 10km. Pretty snazzy math that! 😉 The red dot just past the number 8 is where the phone died but obviously I am not still on the mountain and I made it down and if I went up 5km then I had to come down 5km so yay for 10km! Unfortunately I didn’t notice what time the phone died at, and I didn’t take note of what time we started the hike or what time it was when we got in to the suv at the end of the hike so there goes any hope of my figuring out the math for how long we were hiking. Hence my needing to do the hike again, to get accurate numbers.  I don’t mind doing it again though, it is a really nice easy hike, a good one to start the season with. 🙂 I try to ease in to hiking season cause it can be brutal on my knee, sigh, this will definitely be a go-to-trail when I want easy, meant to relax me hiking, not intense-push-to-the-limit hiking.

So let’s tally things shall we? We are three days in to the week and I have exercised three times, booyah! I know I’ll be exercising tomorrow so that’s in the bag. My big challenge will be Fridays and Saturdays, for some reason doing some form of exercise before work on those days always seems so impossible. I don’t know why I can’t make it happen! I irritate myself with this failing weekly. Maybe this week I’ll manage it, after four days of being active maybe I’ll be so used to getting some sort of exercise it’ll be easier to get out of bed and head to the gym…maybe?

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Sugar Overdose

27 Mar

I’ve been eating not all that great lately and I think I am (I can’t believe I am about to say this!)…all sugared out.

I am not only not craving/desiring/wanting things with overt amounts of sugar in them I am actively craving things that aren’t all sugary sweetness.

How crazy is that??

no more sugar? say whaaaa???

no more sugar? say whaaaa???

I don’t even want my go-to spoonful of peanut butter lately. If it wasn’t for having no other symptoms I’d say I must be sick! lol

Can a person eat too much sweet stuff, or just in general not good-for-you stuff and have their bodies rebel? If so, I think mine has done it.

For the past couple days all I’ve really been wanting are fresh fruit, bland meals, simple foods that have no sweetness to them. Seriously, what has happened to my tastebuds??

Now, you might be thinking that this is a great thing, that it makes it easier to say no to treats but it oddly has had the opposite affect. I’m so freaked out by this that I keep trying various sugary treats, even though I don’t want them, because I think I should want them and I feel like something has gone wrong because I am not craving them. How messed up is that?! A lot, I know!

I’ve decided to stop with the contrary, ridiculous behaviour and as of right now I am going to be eating healthier, which will result in my eating the types of foods I am craving. Keeping in mind payday isn’t until Friday sooooo the changes will be quite minor until I can afford groceries…hopefully the change in foods will get me back to feeling more like myself. I know the change in foods will be good for my weight loss, workouts, dragon boat training, self-esteem…crap, why’d I ever stop eating healthy when it has so many positive side effects?? And don’t say cause I’m a dummy, I already know that! lol 😛

Combined with my changing back to healthier foods I keep thinking about trying CrossFit. I hear amazing things about it, both good and bad and soooo badly want to indulge my curiosity. However, I don’t want to be the last person to finish, or the weakest person there, or well, the suckiest. Which I’m fairly certain I would be cause I’ve heard what some of the workouts are and I’m fairly certain if I tried doing those workouts I’d die right there in the gym lol. What stops me the most from trying it out is the cost, I have yet to find a CrossFit price that doesn’t seem exorbitant and way out of my price range. No way I am spending over $100 a month to work out, I don’t have that kind of expendable income, whiiiiich pretty much keeps me solidly in the camp of wanting-to-try-but-can’t-cause-I-can’t-afford-it. sigh.

I don't have the designer purse either :P

I don’t have the designer purse either 😛

I know a lot of people who’d say it is money well spent, totally worth it, and then question me about if I feel my health and well-being were worth so little to me. I would like to point out it’s not that I don’t think my health and fitness are not worth the expense, it’s that if I have to choose between being able to pay rent, pay my other bills and have a bit left over, I’m going that route rather than paying for one month of CrossFit and having to skip a bill because my pay cheque doesn’t stretch far enough to pay for everything. I mean c’mon, if my pay cheque stretched enough to pay for everything I wanted I’d totally of signed up for that lipo already! 😉 lol

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Chatty Cathy Corner…Only I’m Not Cathy…

15 Feb

I don’t usually use my blog to talk about movies or tv shows. I have occasionally posted a link to a youtube video for a song I abso love but that’s about it.

Well, I just finished watching the movie Captain Phillips and am so blown away by it I feel I have to say something, to someone, and since my computer is within easy reach, and all of my friends are sleeping, you dear readers are the people I am going to tell. lol. So why don’t you grab a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy my random chattiness…

captain-phillips-poster

Go watch Captain Phillips. It was amazing, incredible, gripping.

Tom Hanks has a way of making you believe right from the moment he shows up on your screen that he is that character. And as Captain Phillips he humanized the Somali pirates and helped me (if only briefly) feel pity for them. This movie, while being about the first American ship being taken over by pirates in 200 years wasn’t all Pro-America-aren’t-we-great yadda yadda yadda. It was about normal people, put in a crappy situation…but that description right there, about people being in a crappy situation, describes both the Americans on the ship and the pirates who boarded them.

If you followed the news in 2009 then you already know how the movie ends, but in case you are like me and didn’t follow the news, or just forgot how it all turned out, I won’t spoil the ending by saying what happens. All I will say is I 100% recommend you (yes, you!) watch this movie, the acting alone makes it worth it, but the acting combined with the story will keep your eyes glued to your screen for the entire length of the movie, and how often does that happen? 🙂

On a completely different note, the trainer my lil sis and I worked with emailed us pictures he took of us while we performed various exercises so we would remember what they looked like. I printed them out today and stuck them on my fridge so now I have no excuse to not do them. I also printed a copy for my lil sis but doubt she’ll be happy to see that lol. All the exercises are designed to be things that can be done in a gym or at home, hence sticking the print out on my fridge where I will see it everytime I go to get food. There are a couple I can’t reeeeally do here but only because they involve my arms stretched straight above my head and my ceiling is too low for that, I could go on my knees for those, I think that’ll get me the same benefit as standing…maybe…I don’t really know…maybe I’ll just stand in the hall outside my door and hope my landlord doesn’t walk by lol

My Squat Circuit Challenge is going well, Saturday will be Day 7. So far I haven’t had any problems with my knees which is a relief. I think because instead of doing only the standard squat I am doing the 5 different squats it is somehow easier on the joints, I don’t know why I think that makes sense but in my head it does so I’m going with it lol

One Week Done!

One Week Done!

I’ve really got to decide what I am doing about this Ripped In 30 Jillian Michaels dvd challenge. Every now and then I pull out the dvd, pop it in and do the workout for Week 1. It is a good workout and weeks 2, 3 and 4 hold the promise of a real ass whooping but since I never do the first full week I’ve never bumped myself up to the next level workout. There is also a meal plan that I have yet to access online cause ya know, that’s how I roll apparently lol I should have started the Squat Circuit Challenge and the Jillian Michaels challenge on the same day then I could use the one to prompt the other buuuut I only just came up with that brilliant idea *rolls eyes* When I google results from her workout dvd there are amazing pics online, people seem to do really well following her workout dvd and meal plan so you’d think I’d be right on that but for some reason I’m not. I don’t even have an excuse for why I haven’t started the challenge, I just haven’t…sigh…

Why oh why haven't I seriously started this yet??

Why oh why haven’t I seriously started this yet??

My last bit of news is I got woken up by a phone call from the doctor today, oh joy. They got the results from my most recent x-rays and blood tests in and I yet again have to go in to talk to her about them. Ugh. I’m so done with that, can’t I just wait to see the specialist? Oh but wait, no, no I can’t cause she says I have to go in to talk about them. I’m not a big fan of doctors and all these repeated visits are irritating me. I’m not nervous this time about what she is going to say, she seemed to get all the scary words out of her system last time *rolls eyes*, I figure she’ll use the same scary words this time, or it’ll be worse (which I doubt due to my being very much aware of the pain level in my hip at every second of my day) or it will be magically better (which again, I doubt since I’m the one feeling the pain in my hip and that isn’t going anywhere). What could she possible tell me she hasn’t already? Aaaaand, I suppose by typing that I am tempting fate now aren’t I? sigh. I just want it fixed so it doesn’t cause me problems during dragon boat season which, oh yeah! That was my other news! lol

Grr! I am dragon, hear me roar!

Grr! I am dragon, hear me roar!

My team signed a new coach, yay! Who has decided we are starting our on the water training Feb 27th instead of mid to late March like we normally do. This means (1) I’m super stoked to be getting back on the water! (2) my first practice of the season is the day prior to my meeting with the hip specialist which is not the order I would have preferred that to happen in and (3) I’m gonna have to hurry and buy my new water proof pants (mine stopped being waterproof part way through last season, it was weird)

All done your tea? Good, so am I! 🙂

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

30 Day Challenge Confirmed

13 Feb

It seems that I am taking part in the 30 Day Squat Circuit Challenge…I’m still mildly confused by this even though it was my decision to do it lol

I'm doing this??

I’m doing this??

I did the first day thinking something along the lines of “I can do this but it doesn’t really mean anything…I can still not do the challenge…” then I did day two and three and well, it seems I’m committed now lol. 😛

I’m glad I’m doing this challenge, it’ll be good for me, and will hopefully push me to get to the gym more often, and the mountain! We got some fresh snow the other day up on the mountain so guess whose hoping to go snowshoeing tomorrow? If you guessed me you’d be riiiiight! 😀

Today was spent with my lil sis at the gym working with a trainer. He focused on showing us solid, full body moves that we can do in gyms or at home (so we have no excuse to not work out lol) and I felt like I got a good workout. Not as good of a workout as it could have been but that was because it was a learning workout so there were more pauses than there normally would be as he explained things, or corrected form or took pictures. Yes, took pictures, weird huh? He took pictures of us doing various exercises that he will email us so we will remember what the proper form looks like for various exercises. Smart man.

He also gave us a suggestion for a workout to do together next week (this week was our last session with him, sadness), he suggested we do the Widow Maker. Neither of us had heard of it, it is basically a freakin huuuuuge outdoor staircase that equals to 12-13 flights of stairs. Huh. We promised we’d do it next wednesday and have also promised to email him to let him know we did it so we really do have to do this thing, we’re accountable to the man…I think that was his sneaky plan to make sure we kept working out…

He also suggested we go back in 3-4 months and have another fitness evaluation so we can see how far we’ve come (this is of course assuming we get better and not worse lol). I think it’s a great idea! My lil sis wasn’t quite as excited at the idea but maybe she’ll warm to it…I was hoping to magically find the money to be able to meet with a trainer from there every three weeks or so, to help me stay on track, learn new things, and to eventually re-evaluate my fitness levels. I can’t sign up with the trainer we’ve been working with cause he charges $75/hour and you have to book minimum 2 sessions per week with him, eek! Sooooo can’t afford that! He said other trainers there charge $65/hour and don’t have minimum amounts you have to work with them. I’d rather stay with him cause I’ve been working with him but I’m sure the others are just as good. However, I have decided I can’t afford the expense, boo! But am more than willing to take up his offer of another fitness evaluation in 4 months time. This will give me something to work towards and motivation is always a welcome thing in my world lol

I find I have a tendency to lose motivation, I still have all the reasons I have always had to get in shape buuuuuut my laziness takes over and I forget in the moment why I should work out instead of go to a movie with a friend, oops? lol Adding another reason for why I should work out is good, but what will make the difference is that he will be seeing me in a relatively short amount of time and I want to be able to show him I’ve gotten better, not stayed the same or gotten worse. I think knowing I will be tested will help me to not eat the bad-for-me-food and will also help me get out there and exercise. *crosses fingers*

Oh, and don’t forget that 8km I signed up for…I should really start training for that soon…maybe that should be my motivation? 😉

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Another 30 Day Challenge?

11 Feb

The other day I was bored and started searching for 30 Day Challenges. I was actually thinking I’d redo the 30 Day Squat Challenge I did last summer because I liked the results I got from it and well, I know I can do it lol Nothing like going in to a challenge knowing you’ve done it once and can do it again! lol 😛 Also, I’ve gotta get my act in gear and get in shape, these challenges are nice additions to an already existing work out plan but they are also a great motivator. I mean, if you go and do a bunch of squats well, you’ve warmed up your body, you’re revved up and thinking you can handle anything which in turn can quite easily lead to a gym session or a jog (weather permitting) or at least working out to an exercise dvd, right? Right!…well, at least for me…

So I was searching for the 30 Day Squat challenge from last summer and came across this little gem…

30daysquatchallengeSorry it is so blurry, I’ll try to get a better image up but for now this is the best I could find.

In some ways it is the same as any other squat challenge, it gets you up to doing 200 squats in a day within 30 days buuuuut the main difference is that instead of just doing your standard squat you do 5 different squat poses per session. I love it! This way you are getting a more well rounded lower body workout because you are working different parts of your legs by doing the different types of squats! Yay!

To give you an example yesterday I did 6 each of the five different squats:

-narrow squat (feet together)

-narrow squat with a kick back (legs together, do a narrow squat, when you come up lift leg backwards)

-standard squat

-standard squat with side leg lift (do a standard squat, when you come up lift leg to the side)

-sumo squat

For the narrow squats with kick back and the standard squat with side leg lifts one rep is both legs, for example, you do a narrow squat, get to standing position, lift right leg back, then do the same thing but lift the left leg back, that is one set. This way a set of 6 means each leg gets lifted back 6 times. Does that makes sense?

I haven’t done my squats yet today and it is already 1:30am, doesn’t mean I won’t do them once I finish typing this and right before I go to bed but they sure will suck that little bit more because I left them so late lol My own fault though, sigh. 😛

A friend at work saw the print out and asked what it was so I showed her and she asked for a copy, she seemed really gung-ho about it which inspired a sorta brilliant idea in my head. Why not invite the staff at work to take part in the challenge, we can all do it together! I don’t mean we all get together daily and do the squats at the same time, lol, that’d be weird! 😛 Just that if we all know each other is doing the challenge then it might make us more likely to finish, we can encourage each other and we can bitch to each other about how hard it is lol, stuff like that.

I thought it was a great idea, the others? Not so much. sigh. One of the girls said no, her reasons ranged from she is too fat to do squats, to she is too short to do squats to just plain no. Another girl already had a work out plan she follows and doesn’t want to add to it (fair enough). One wants to do it and was all “yeah, I’m in!” but when I asked her today how her squats went yesterday she was all ready with reasons why she couldn’t get them done. The girl who initially was all gung-ho didn’t start yet but said she would today after work so next time we have a shift together I’ll ask her how it is going…at this point I am wondering if any of them will actually do it, sigh.

oh so true

oh so true

I get it, you have to want to work out in order to work out, at least initially. You have to have something inside of you driving you to be uncomfortable, to get sweaty, to force you up off the comfy couch and out the door to the gym or at least to the middle of the room where you then start doing squats which, even if you are in shape are hard work. All sorts of things can be a persons motivation but if you don’t have at least one thing motivating you juuuuust enough you aren’t going to change your habits and actually find the time and energy to do the work. I firmly believe you can always find some time in the day to exercise, it is just a matter of using that time for exercising and not for resting, or reading, or watching tv, or napping, or talking on the phone, or checking facebook or or or. There are a lot of things pulling all of us in a million different directions and almost always the first thing to get dropped when you have a lot  of things to juggle is working out. Like we all forget taking care of ourselves is more important than going on facebook or watching tv.

I used to be good at prioritizing working out, I always found time for it. If my social plans couldn’t be worked around my working out then I changed the social plans, not the work out session. Whereas lately I’ll cut the work out session at the drop of a hat and find a way to make any excuse sound legit. *rolls eyes* Pathetic. 😦

I’m trying to fix this, and I’m hoping this new 30 day challenge will help me. I hate failing and that will help push me to complete the challenge. Also, I am looking at this as work towards training for the 8km I signed up to run, as well as helping me get back in shape for dragon boat season (which starts soon) and just in general helping me feel better about myself. I always feel better about myself when I am living a more active lifestyle but I am a naturally lazy person and have to really fight my lazy nature to get out there and do stuff lol. Since I can do the squats at home I have no excuse to not do them each day and the confidence I will start to feel the farther in to the challenge I get is something to look forward to!…so is the muscle definition! Don’t forget the muscle definition lol Last time I was surprised at how noticeable the change was in my thighs for muscle definition, it’ll be nice to get that back. 🙂

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The Olympics Sucked Me In

7 Feb

I never used to be all that interested in the Olympics. I’d get cranky because my regular scheduled programming would get all messed up, it was a bunch of sports and I don’t do that whole watching-sports-thing, and well, I just didn’t get the appeal.

That changed in 2010, since the Winter Olympics in Vancouver I have been hooked. Hooked! I definitely prefer the winter Olympics over the summer Olympics…for the most part, not gonna lie gymnastics in the summer Olympics is something I try very hard to watch. But yeah, winter Olympics? Sooooo many things I want to watch! It really sucks there is such an extreme time difference but oh well, that’s what recaps are for. Not as exciting as watching when it happens but the games can’t be in my time zone every time lol 😛

When I got home from work today I had intended to work out (using a workout dvd since my gym was already closed) but when I turned on the tv it was by fluke on a channel showing the men’s semi-final snowboarding freestyle and bam! Sucked in! Did I exercise? Hellz no! That would have meant turning off the Olympics so I could what? Do a dvd workout? Screw that, I wanted to see if a Canadian qualified for the finals, for a chance to win a medal, and oh yeah he did! Mark McMorris from Regina is making Canada proud!

Mark McMorris

Mark McMorris

Turns out I missed the figure skating, sadness, since that is also one of the events I really look forward to but whatcha gonna do? Time zones. shrug.

There is a really great app called Sochi 2014 that is awesome! It’s by CBC and you can watch a lot of video recaps, see a listing of results, all kinds of stuff on it. I used it to watch sections of the opening ceremonies cuz um, I sorta slept through those. Come on people! 8am?! That’s ridiculous! *rolls eyes*

Did anybody see those, the opening ceremonies? The fifth snowflake not turning in to the fifth ring, oh dear. lol. Some poor Russian is in maaaaajor trouble!

oops!

oops!

But hey, no biggie in the grand scheme of things right? I mean, that pole thingy didn’t extend properly in the opening ceremony for the Vancouver Olympics, it was embarrassing but there are worse things that can happen *cough*killingstraydogs*cough*

I have a feeling Olympic watching will be impeding a lot of things in the coming weeks, not just working out. Part of me thinks it is dumb, altering what I will be doing so I can be home watching the games buuuuut at the same time these aren’t an everyday thing and I want to see what happens, ok fine, if I am being honest I want to see who wins! lol

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Jillian Michaels Ripped In 30

1 Feb

The other week I bought the Ripped In 30 exercise dvd by Jillian Michaels. Not gonna lie, I bought it not knowing if I would actually try it, stupid I know lol. *rolls eyes*

Jillian Michaels Ripped In 30

Jillian Michaels Ripped In 30

I’m torn on my feelings for Jillian Michaels lol She is one of those people that I, in equal parts, want to meet and fear to the point if I saw her on the street I might run away lol 😛 When I watch her pushing someone on The Biggest Loser to the breaking point I always think (1) I have never had a workout that intense before and (2) I don’t think I’d survive a training session with her…I’m pretty sure I’d die…just sayin…

So this dvd, I know it is only a dvd but I thought, if it is anything like the Insanity workout dvds I won’t make it, just not gonna happen! My hope for this dvd was an intense workout that doesn’t have as much jumping as the Insanity workouts (so I could stop hitting the ceiling lol) and that pushed me but was also do-able.

The ’30’ in the title refers not just to the 30 day program but also to the length of time that is each workout, 30 minutes (or a bit less) for each workout and there are 4 different workouts so with each week your workout gets harder. Apparently with just 30 minutes a day 6 days a week I will get the body I want in 30 days…somehow I doubt this…cynical? Maybe. Realistic? I’d say so. 😉

This evening when I got home from work I decided to try it, sheer food guilt led me to my decision to work out, I ate pasta for dinner then had two shortbread cookies, sigh, and I wonder why I am fat?? *rolls eyes*

I cleared floor space, put on my work out gear and prepared to be yelled at a lot and feel like I wouldn’t be able to make it. I also was looking forward to that feeling of satisfaction I get after I have completed a good solid workout.

Welllll, it’s not that the workout wasn’t good, it just…well, wasn’t great? It was better than doing nothing, and some of the moves were good, but I didn’t feel like I was doing any kind of intense workout, I didn’t feel pushed, I didn’t feel exhausted by the end…shouldn’t I be feeling those things?

Part of it was because I only have one set of dumbbells, ten pounders, which admittedly aren’t huge but for some of the moves I was supposed to have smaller weights, like three or five pounds. I made the executive decision to use no weights for some of the moves because my ten pounders were too heavy, makes me sound like a wimp huh? I swear I’m not!…well, not completely lol Next time I will have some canned soup or beans or something near by and use those in lieu of small weights, random I s’pose but it’s what I have lol

She has two women working out with her, one to show a modified simpler form for the moves and one to show a more bad-ass form. I tended to land somewhere between the two, never needing the super simple form but not always doing the bad-ass version either. I am a bit of a dummy and didn’t realize the workout was only 30 minutes (I thought the 30 referred only to the length of time the entire program takes, the 30 days) so I kept thinking “don’t do the bad-ass moves, save energy to get you through the entire workout”. I think next time I will do the bad-ass moves since the workouts are only 30 minutes lol.

The bonus to the workouts being so short is I should have an easy enough time fitting them in to my daily routine! 🙂 I’m not anticipating getting ripped in 30 days, but a little slimmer wouldn’t hurt lol.

Her plan of attack is a good one, she goes in sets, 3 minutes of strength exercises, 2 minutes of cardio, 1 minute of abs. You do each set 2 times and then you never do those moves again during that particular workout. I like that she doesn’t have you doing the same things over and over and over cause that gets soooooo boring, especially if you use the dvd often – which I will be in this challenge!

There is also a meal plan that I can get online, I haven’t checked that out yet but will tomorrow. I’m not sure if I will follow it (since I haven’t read it yet) but knowing me I’ll take some of the recipes or meal ideas and ignore the rest lol. 😛 I find meal plans that come with exercise dvds usually have a lot of foods in them I don’t generally buy and it is too costly to stock up on what they say I need. shrug. I want to get in better shape but I’m on a budget and I have to take that in to consideration when planning meals. 😛

So yeah, I don’t have a finalized review of the Ripped In 30 since this evening was my first workout with it but I’m going to try to do as she says (workout 6 days a week using her dvd, and each week advance to the next workout so it gets harder) and maybe by the end I’ll be more impressed then I am right now. We shall see!

Oh, fyi, if you are looking to buy it Wal-Mart was selling it (and other of her workout dvds for $10) 🙂

Tags: , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →