The Workout Challenge

So, as part of my attempts to get back into a workout routine, and to help a friend with her motivation, I’ve started a workout challenge.

It’s not the perfect challenge to be sure, but I think it works well for our purposes. Hopefully!

Each week (Friday – Thursday) we track exertion in calories burned on MyFitnessPal and at the end of said week, we make a tally and whoever has the most, wins that week. Whoever wins the majority of the weeks in the month wins the month.

And then, at the end of the year, whichever one of us has lost the year, buys the victor a book. (A wonderful reward idea if I do say so myself.)

I’m rather certain this model would be more motivating if the winner of the month was entitled to a book… Perhaps a change is in order.

Wednesday Weigh-in: Seeing Progress

Food:

Because of the lifestyle change we undertook, you may have noticed the large amount of fruits and veggies in my Monday post. Five meals a day, limiting my intake of carbs – mostly sugar related carbs – and paying attention to the nutrients in food, has made me feel so much better. This past Monday was probably the best Monday I’ve had in years. I felt fantastic. I wasn’t super tired, I felt a little sore, but not in pain and that has been awesome – it’s lasted the entire week so far!

Fitness:

We’ve gotten back into Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred, and are actually sticking to it.  Along with that, we’re trying to get down to the gym once a week for an hour (this has been difficult in the mornings, because it is COLD) and then we’re doing Yoga before bed each night, which is super helpful for relaxing.

Hurdles:

Remember my knee and it’s annoying pain? Back when I was in physical therapy for it, the one thing that really stuck with me was that the trainers always told me to work through the pain. So, that’s what I’ve been doing… and guess what? My knee feels amazing! So that’s fantastic.

My slip up this week was when we went to a Christmas party… where, as one is wont to do at Christmas parties, I had two sugar cookies and some hard cider. It wasn’t aweful, by any means, but my self control did  wane. I’m interested to see what eles tries to trip me up this holiday season.

Today’s Weigh-in: 152.0!

(I'm not sure what was up with yesterday's drop - but I didn't get any exercise in, so I'm not too supprised that it hopped back up again.)

Working out is Hard to Do

The actual act of working out is not so much the point of that title, but rather the motivation to get off one’s ass and do something to reduce the size of said ass.

From the hearty recommendation of my biggest fan, I have since purchased and begun using this:

Jillian Michael’s 30-Day Shred.

OMG is it fantastic.

A) I can do it in the comfort of my own home.

B) It only takes 20 minutes (But Jesus does it feel longer than that)

C) I don’t have to wear pants, or shoes.

D) I feel so good afterwards it’s not even funny.

Seriously. After the first day I knew this was the workout for me. I love it. And I don’t care what you say, Katie, outside the blogging world, I’m telling people I discovered it on my own! Muahaha – okay, not really.

Has anyone else tried this? What’s your experience been?

Workout Woes

I am so not a morning person. Getting up an hour and a half early so that I can go to the gym (especially when it’s cold outside) is not my typical idea of a party.


I love sleep. Snuggling between the covers, head resting on the soft comfort of my pillow, with my dog curled up against me is one of my favorite pastimes. And then that annoying little buzzer goes off and implores me to get up! Needless to say, I did not get up in time to make it down to the gym this morning.

On a side note, I can’t set my alarm clock to go off with music or even just the radio. I won’t wake up after day two or so. My subconscious likes its control, so it tricks my brain into thinking that whatever sort of music I’m hearing is part of my dream and thereby I mentally ignore it. Fun times.

So I didn’t go to the gym. And that’s no good, because if I don’t go to the gym I won’t lose the weight, and I need to lose the weight because I need to fit into a dress by April. Earl’s mom is getting married and I don’t want to have to buy a new dress. I hate dress shopping.

So I think I’ve convinced Earl to try a night-time workout strategy (hopefully) because I really don’t think that waking up early is going to work. Ever.

So we’ll probably try for at least the Monday, Wednesday, Friday thing… I’d like to try for Thursday nights too. (Tuesdays are out because of Game night with our friends in the building.)

So I’ve got a schedule down (sort of) but one of my biggest difficulties in working out is cardio. I used to run a lot (even though I hated it), Katie and Birdy can back me up on that (high school aerobics class anyone?) but in 2006-ish, or maybe it was ’07, I fell off a curb and landed smack on my left knee. No I wasn’t drinking, it’s called I was tired, in heels and I don’t walk well to begin with. I ended up in physical therapy over it, having bruised the cartilage under my knee cap.

But even after months on end of physical therapy, my knee is still nowhere near where it once was and thusly, running on a treadmill is far from a pleasant experience. Another small setback for Cardio is the fact that I cannot use an Elliptical trainer. My hip joints are all messed up after I had a run-in with some penicillin when I was about two – not only did I blow up and turn bright red like a tomato, I ended up with joint issues, wonderful, no?

So I try to use the treadmill as long as I can anymore, because I really do feel better after I’ve run, but mostly I’m relegated to the stationary bike – joy of joys – and let me tell you, they really should make those seats more comfortable.

One of my biggest problems with the bike is that I’m short. I never really thought I was short, until I realized that most exercise equipment seems to be made for men of an average height. I am obviously neither a man, nor am I average height. So everything has to go to the bottom peg if it’s adjustable. The Bike is no exception.

Well, now that you’re done listening to my workout woes, feel free to voice any of your own.

Day 1 - Operation Get-Rid-O-The-Excess

Before I go into this morning’s post I’d like to say that my thoughts are with those who were affected by the tragic shooting in Tucson Saturday morning when several people were injured and six people died in what appears to have been an attempt to assassinate US Representative Gabrielle Giffords.



This morning I did something that was incredibly difficult on my part. I woke up at 5:25 and was in the gym at 5:30. For those of you who know me, that will make sense. For those of you who don’t, I can only say that saying I wasn’t a “morning person” would be one of the biggest understatements you’d ever make.

The fact that it’s cold here only makes things worse. I’m not a “cold” person either. So hauling my butt out of my cozy bed where my radiator dog is curled up next to me at an ungodly hour of the morning to go down to the gym and sweat and feel my legs go dead is not my idea of a party.

But I need to lose the 10 pounds I gained back when I was trying to be vague, and then, I’d be happy if I could lose the 20 pounds I’ve gained since High school. So to the Gym I must make my pilgrimage.

(Source - )

I gave Earl implicit instructions to not let me roll over and say “10 more minutes” because, before you know it my entire work out would consist of sleeper-cise. Maybe I should make some strange contraption that can be sold at one in the morning to the unsuspecting insomniacs…

Needless to say, I did get up and put on my gym clothes, and then I got in the elevator and went to the bottom floor of the building where the gym is located. And there, I jogged. It was not fun. But I felt better for it afterward.



Also on the list of things to do is to change my eating habits.

(Source - )

I cut out soda last week, and with the exception of yesterday – when at the movie theater, my mind entirely spaced the no soda rule – I haven’t had a drop.

I’m paying strict attention to what I eat, so that a) I eat enough. I have a horrible habit of forgetting to eat – yesterday was a good example of that.

We went to the movie and I having forgotten to eat breakfast, substituted a small popcorn (not the best choice… but it was that or a box of bunch-a-crunch. I think I made the better choice.).

When we got home from the movie we immediately headed out to do a smidge of shopping (The anchor blue in one of the many Malls here is going out of business and I scored on some pretty inexpensive jeans.) On our way home from the final store (the grocery store) I realized I’d not yet eaten Lunch – evident by the mild headache that was slowly blossoming throughout my grey matter – It was 3:00pm. Our friends in the building brought up Bavarian Pretzels and Borscht they’d made and that ended up being my lunch.

At 8pm we finally got around to eating dinner. A homemade BBQ Pizza (the only thing I ate yesterday that was portion controlled.)

And this is why I need to schedule my eating… It’s no good.

Today I’ve done better so far:

Breakfast consisted of: A whole wheat Bagel with a smidge of strawberry preserves. A cup of Cottage Cheese (oddly made with 1 & 1/2 % milk) and a glass of orange juice.

Lunch is left over BBQ Pizza

And for dinner, since Earl didn’t have to work today, he’s making me a low fat version of Lasagna that’s done on the stove top. This should be interesting!

Anyone else changing up their work out schedule/eating routine this year?