BABY I'M BACK!

Summer is officially only 31 days AWAY...

Uggg, while I enjoy the weekend mini-vacays to the lake or to the beach..I do not enjoy the heat every other day of the summer...and the heat certainly puts an impact on my outdoor workout performance. Not looking forward to that...So Get it in While You Still Can!

April Challenge Update: 

Yeah well... It has gotten the best of me. History is proving...Im not good w keeping up w my regular gym routine 5+ days a week and also doing these challenges day to day. I start off strong and a week or two later..Quit...I haven't done 1 day since before vacation! ::Sorry Snuffy!:: lol

May Challenge: Step It Up!

Im thinking my challenge for May will be something I can push myself everyday to keep up with...I will start with a blank MAY calendar and track everything I do daily (legit exercising only).  The goal will be simple, too exercise EVERYDAY for the 31 days! I will likely incorporate ideas from the other challenges..like on a day I don't feel like getting to gym, track or biking (Sat or Sunday) I can instead do a little home routine of squats, push ups, ab work, burpees, Whatever...Each week I will post that weeks calendar of what was done and by the end of the month my calendar will be full, all 31 days! & before ya know it..POOF! Summer will be HERE!...and hopefully some pounds will NOT be!

This week 4/22-4/28, I had a slow start getting back into it coming off from a week of vacation down time but I got right back into the swing of things, on Tuesday..lol. 

 

WORKOUTS:
Mon:~None~ My minds on a permanent vacation... 

Tues: Gym->Stair Master: 15 mins/80 floors/208 cals

                     +Treadmill: 1 mile/9:36 mins/134 cals

Wed: Gym->Lat X: 33 mins/85 floors/5.24 miles/362 cals
 

Thurs: Gym->Cardio w Chad

Friday: Gym->Run 1 mile=9:18/136 cals
                               +Leg Day

Saturday: Family Day~Casual Zoo Walking/Climbing~


Sunday: St. Joachim family workout (1 hour)

 CJ & I ~Sandbag Race~

I also rekindled my old flame w MFP and I stayed under budget with my calories intake everyday, except one. Im pretty happy w that.

And with that being done...

I lost!!!!! 2.6 lbs this week!
...and gained a whole lot of sore muscles!!!!

Not a ton..But 2.6 less than last week :D

NSV: I had a little "non-scale victory" moment on Thursday...Chad and I were working out in the gymnasium @ the gym and Vince, one of the trainers-my fav trainer..lol, stopped me in bw sets and asked "What sport do you play?" I laughed and said "Umm..None." He said "What sport did you use to play?" I said.."Umm...Dancing?" He shook his head and said "No, really...with the burst speed of your sprints, I thought for sure you played a sport." He went on to say..Keep that up and you will be shredded. WAHhOOOO! PS:Ive never played sports in my life, except for what they made us do in gym class in school...which I either sat out or slacked and avoided the whole time I pretended to play! I was good at getting OUT! at dodge ball..and that's about it! lol AND before about a year ago..I had never even dreamed of myself jogging/running/sprinting. Anyone Can Do It! Set Your Mind!

Hope everyone has a great week.

Motivate yourself!!!!

Me vs. Myself - In the end, I win.

Happy Monday Morning Everyone!  How was your weekend?  I had a busy one!  So busy in fact, I made myself a To-Do List to keep on track  with it all!

A daunting way to start the weekend huh? 

We were "fostering" 2 cats for some friends who are in the military and after 2 years, the cats were returned to their owners.  I'm sad to see them go but SO HAPPY they are gone!  One was an outside cat that liked to play chicken with my car every time I pulled into the driveway, and the other was a long haired black and white crazy cat!  Seriously, the cat would just bite you for no reason!  He also jumped on my counters (hated that!), would run and hide under the bed in my room when I would open my door to exit (when he wasn't allowed in my room EVER!), he'd run out the house any chance he got, and he had an issue with HAIRBALLS!  Ick!  Also, my sister and nephew, who currently live with me, are moving out next weekend!  With the two cats gone, and with my sister and nephew moving, I was ready to spring clean the crap out of my house!

I work well with an organized list of what needs to be done because it keeps me on track.  I am also a huge fan of a spotless house and a nicely kept yard.  I'm not big into cleaning, which is why I keep my house clean by doing just a little bit every day so that it stays clean, but when the time is right and a big clean needs to be done, I'm all over it!  Dust bunnies BEWARE!  No ceiling fan blade is safe!  No baseboard is too clean!  LOL!  I need help!  You know the best part of a To-Do List?  Knowing you completed nearly everything you set out to do!

The car didn't get washed (b/c of rain), and I didn't go through ALL my clothes.  I did throw in a few extras that I didn't put down, like cleaning the fridge, clearing out my DVR (I record stuff and never delete any of it!), and organizing the area under my kitchen sink!  Boom...girl's got mad cleaning skills.  I'll clean your house too...if the price is right!  So why am I telling you this?  Being active isn't about sweating it out at the gym.  There's no minimum gym or track requirement time that you must put in before it becomes "exercise".  I got in a full body workout on Saturday and my house was clean after!  How many people can say that about hitting the gym?

Even though I kept myself very busy this weekend, I also made time for some fun stuff along the way... like dinner at Zea's with my friend Kelli (I ordered the chicken almond salad, took half of it home, and ate the rest of it for breakfast the next day), and an impromptu lunch on Saturday to Dos Gringos where I ordered the fajita chicken salad, no dressing (used salsa instead), and I had TWO CHIPS!  Proud moment for me.

Sunday I hit the gym early to get it out the way, and then I got dressed and went shopping!  I love clothes shopping, even at my heaviest I loved clothes shopping!  I was in serious need of new shirts as all my shirts are too big...and conveniently, JC Penney's sent me two coupons!!!  I spent the rest of my Saturday alone shopping and browsing and enjoying time to myself.  Everyone needs time to themselves!  It was fabulous! 

But enough about my weekend and marathon cleaning session!! Checkout how I've been doing exercise-wise since last week's post!

How My Week Went
 

Monday - SLACKER (at least it feels that way) - I did 2 miles of walk/run intervals on the treadmill and headed home!

Tuesday -  2.5 mile walk at work, then 2 miles of walk/run intervals on the treadmill at the gym followed by a 500 meter row.  Cardio boxing at home that evening with Adam after my online group meeting!

Wednesday -  2 miles of walk/run intervals on the treadmill followed by some last minute pre-weekend getaway shopping with (and for) my husband's trip. 

Thursday - 2.5 mile walk at work, Abs and Glutes class, Body Pump class.  I was SO SORE on Friday!  Mostly my rear because of the glute work!

Friday -  5 min. warmup walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk/10 min. run/5 min. cooldown.  500 meter row, and 10 min. on stairclimber

Saturday -  Yardwork and housework!

Sunday -  5 min. warmup walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk/10 min. run/5 min. cooldown.  500 meter row, and 10 min. on stairclimber.  Lots of walking while shopping and light cardio from trying on all those clothes!

As you can see, I'm keeping up with the fitness!  It is really something I enjoy and look forward to, most days at least.  I recall talking to Courtney on my way to the gym on Friday and I said I was tired.  She asked what I was doing and I told her I was heading to the gym but as much as I wanted to turn the car around and head home, I view the gym the same as showering or brushing my teeth...something I have to do.  Exercise is no longer optional.  If I want to lose weight and be healthy, I need to eat right and exercise.

Rather than continue to fit in cardio and then a class, I've decided to get the cardio portion of my day out of the way in the morning rather than the evening.  This can only mean one thing......early morning workouts!  Ick.  As I've gotten older I've become more of a morning person than a nightowl...so let's hope this means that morning workouts are easy to do when that 5:30 a.m. alarm goes off!  Wish me luck! 

What's New??
 

1.  Husband and I are signed up for next Sunday's CrossFit Fiesta Field Day.  It's a day of field day fun and the cost of registration includes a t-shirt, fajitas, some exercise, and lots of FUN!  I'm excited about it AND I'm considering this towards my goal of 12 events!

2.  Thursday is my second to last checkup with Pennington.  After this checkup I have 2 more weeks and then I'm back to regular foods.  I'll still have shakes throughout the day and more than likely my routine will be shake, snack, shake, snack, sensible dinner.  I'll keep that going for a while to continue to lose weight.

3.  I had an online meeting with the dietitian on Friday and she moved me to Level 2 which means I can have 2 cups of veggies a day!  Woot Woot...bout time!

4.  I am awesome...oh wait, this isn't new!!

I'm thankful that I've taken pictures along this journey.  It's fun to look back and see the changes that I've made.  There are days when I feel as big as I ever was, but pictures help bring me down to reality.

In the last shot the white sticking out from under my shirt is my sports bra that used to be too tight.  Now it's too loose and, as you can see above, it's non-cooperative

 

 

 

That shirt was TIGHT
 

 





Get ya mind right

Caught up, shmaught up! I have had a HORRID week but I’m ok with that. My goal last week was to get caught up on the WBC but I most certainly did not. I have been slacking big time on working out and on MFP although, I must say that I’ve been making better eating choices over all.

My only workouts last week were:

Thursday the 18^th
1.0 mile 11:38
[This is my best alone time and my second best time overall. (11:07 with Nicole is still number 1).]

Jillian Michaels 30 day shred

[This was a GREAT workout. I am looking forward to adding this DVD to my workouts for sure and I do want to add the 6 week 6 pack to my schedule too. ]

I just want to note that after the Jillian Michaels workout I was drenched in sweat! It was awesome!

This week I am also taking it easy so I may not blog next week. The reason that I’m taking it easy is because my boys will both start tee-ball next week so I want to start back with a morning schedule for working out.  Also, with a southern summer right around the corner, we usually get a lot of afternoon showers which would put a cramp in afternoon jogs for sure.

SO, tomorrow I have off of work and I will be cleaning the whole house so that I can just do spot cleaning from here on out. This is something that, when I actually do it, I have lots of time for other things in life and I’ll need it with tee ball 4 days a week!!!

 

 

Crusin...Backwards...

Cruise=Spoiled Rotten!

So...As you all know, I was out on vacation all last week. And with that, of course...comes LOTS of eating and not a lot of exercising. Although, any cruiser knows, You take the stairs everywhere and I bet I climbed a hell of alot of stairs everyday and did lots of walking...I did also make it to the gym on board on our 2nd day at sea (Tuesday). I ran 1 mile on the treadmill in the 8 min mile range and I also did front and side plank work and arms w weights.

BUT...& BIG BUTT...It doesn't come close to what I consumed..lol. I over-indulged to say the least! 

Every day went a little like this:
1*Room Service Wake up call w coffee, muffins, cereal, fruit, etc.
2*Breakfast on Lido deck or dining hall=Cheese omelet w bacon, toast & milk. 
3*Lunch on Lido deck=Hamburger w fries, taco, buritto, pizza, etc.
4*Throw in bw there several "drink of the days" and ice cream cones for "snacks" 
5*Dinner-Lots of bread/butter rolls, salad starters, main course (variety), and my fav..Dessert=bread pudding w van ice cream , melting chocolate cake w van ice cream, creme brulee, baked alaska, cappuccino pie, coconut cake, chocolate amaretto cake, etc etc. (I tried 2-3 of these each night)
6-7-8*More drinks...
9-10*Late Night Pizza & Ice cream cone

Yeah which explains...the 9.6 lb GAIN in the 7 day trip.. :( 

Yeah its gunna take a while to work that off...

We had a blast and I took over 700 pics. Here are just a few...

JAMAICA:

Grand Cayman:  

 Cozumel: 

Fun On Board:  

 

Lots of fun..But now that that's over, time to get bk to it...

Hope to have a good week for getting back on track..

Good Luck to everyone ;)

~Nicole

  

Duck You!

Happy Monday Morning everyone!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I spent yesterday in bed pretty much all day!  I had a splitting migraine that I thought was a sinus headache but after treating it with sinus medicine, it didn't go away.  So frustrating and annoying!  But luckily it started to subside lastnight! 

So here we go:

How My Week Went

Monday - 5 min. walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk on treadmill at gym

Tuesday -  5 min. walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk on treadmill at gym, and cut and edged my backyard.  It was kinda high so there was lots of exercise going on there...

Wednesday - 1 mile walk during lunch,  5 min. warmup walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk/10 min. run/4 min. walk/ 10 min. run/5 min. cooldown on treadmill at gym followed by a very HOT and SWEATY Body Flow Class!!!  No seriously, I don't know if it was supposed to be that hot or what (the rest of the gym wasn't hot), but I was DRIPPING sweat and my shirt was drenched after class!  Good feeling but it was HOT!

Thursday - NONE - Too a much needed exercise day OFF!  Had my appt. at Pennington,

Friday - NONE - Didn't want to stress my legs out for Saturday's ride.

Saturday - Tour de Cure 25 mile bike ride - Ended up doing only 18.46 miles because of a poorly labeled course.  We weren't the only ones that went the wrong way.  Everyone doing the 25 miler went the wrong way and cut the ride short by about 5 miles!!

Sunday -  NONE - Fought a migraine all day.. sick as a dog nauseous because of it. 

What's New? 



1.  My 12 week checkup with Pennington was on Thursday and as of Thursday I am down 44 pounds.

2.  I completed my first ever bike event.  I was nervous before it started strictly because of the unknown...I didn't know what to expect. I was told there would be rest stops along the route and there weren't.  I did 18.46 miles nonstop on my cruiser.  It was fun but next year there are things I'll do differently...like use my mountain bike instead of my cruiser.  I'll also do the 50 mile next year rather than the 25.  I didn't like that the ride had us along highways because that can be very scary when cars are whizzing past you, but it was fine and wouldn't keep me from participating next year.  When the ride finished my legs were tight but after about 15 minutes the feeling subsided and my legs were fine.  They weren't sore the next day either, which was a nice surprise!  I averaged a 5 1/2 min. per mile pace, which is better than I was expecting, which is funny because I didn't really know what to expect.  I can do 4 laps around my neighborhood, which is 10 miles, in 45 minutes... so I figured the ride, with stops, would take me no more than 3 hours.  I finished in 1 hour 46 minutes (subtract about 5 off of that time though b/c I forgot to turn off the tracker when I got to the finish line).

There was a baby duck with no mama duck in sight and it was just running across the highway.  A fellow rider scooped up the baby duck and saved it...and I got to love on it at the after party!  She said she was going to keep it!  I was so worried about the dang duck that I went off the road and nearly fell into a ditch.  I did come off my bike but landed on my feet...thankfully! 

Also, at the after party a guy wearing a "Community Service Worker" vest came over to where we were sitting and said "Anything you don't pick up, I have to pick up.." and we just kind of looked at the guy and said we'd pick up after ourselves.  What a weirdo.  Then he starts to walk past us and turns around and says "I'm only here because I got a DUI....but I didn't know this after party would be so awesome!"  As he's holding and drinking a beer.  WTH?  Crazy guy! 

3.  I met a girl at the Tour de Cure and we started chatting it up about the ride, how far we've each ridden before, and she mentioned that she rode 10 miles in a triathlon.  I was impressed by this and began asking her questions about the triathlon and it turns out that she did the Spring 2013 Girl Power Triathlon.  She was telling me about her experience and how great of a time she had and it got me wanting to take part in it.  Fellow blog buddy Nicole was told by someone that the Girl Power Triathlon is the best first-time tri to do and that it is all female, etc., and I was pumped about it back then when she was telling me about it.  Fast forward to Sunday and I'm sitting at home feeling like I needed something to work towards.  Pennington is a month away from ending and I need a new challenge to work towards and to keep me motivated.  So I hopped on the Internet and read about the Girl Power Triathlon and that there is one coming up in September...so I signed up...right then and there.  Guess this means I need to start preparing for it huh?  I'm working on a training plan this week so I can get some much needed swimming into my routine.  Swimming will be the most challenging part simply because I love to swim and can swim with no problem, but doing laps isn't something I've done.  300 meters isn't very far, so I'm confident I can do this.  The biking portion is 10 miles and I've got that!  The run portion is 2 miles and even if I have to run/walk that B, I can handle it!  Just finishing will be a huge accomplishment.  For now I have no expectation for time but as I get down to it and really get into the swing of swimming, I'll have a better idea of how quickly I can complete the swim portion of the tri.  I'll be posting updates on how I prepare for it as time goes on...so stay tuned for that!

I'm ready to hit the ground running this week.  After taking some time off this past week, I'm rested up and ready to roll.

I hope you all have a wonderful week ahead.