Finally Seeing A Difference!

After a few weeks of eating very clean,  drinking tons of water and getting up at 5am every day to work out, I noticed something spectacular in the mirror this morning.

Now, I feel I should set the scene a little bit... I had just stumbled out of bed after rolling my eyes and turning the alarm off at 5am.  I put on my workout clothes.  The nice part of working out at home is that I can wear whatever I want because no one sees me.  So today it was a pair of crazy red and pink flowered shorts (I can't remember when I bought these - I definitely wasn't thinking clearly that day) and a red sports bra.  I was just closing my closet door when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.  Something looked different. I stopped and looked again.  Sometime, maybe overnight, I had lost some of the bulge on my stomach and developed some muscle.  Not great-big-bulging-I-win-you-lose type of muscle but there is definitely the start of some definition going on.  Finally. 

I contemplated waking Mark up to tell him but instead I just stuck my tongue out at him as I headed out to the living room to do the same ab workout as the previous days.  It is apparently a good one. :)

When working abs, slow is always best...I can pound out 100 crunches and not feel anything, but if I do 20 super slow...you can bet I'll be breathing hard and feeling it by the end.  So I did the 75/50/25 program again and it was even harder this time.  No worries...I managed the whole thing and I wouldn't dream on shorting myself on the 1 minute bicycles.  Not when it's starting to work.  Another note: the bicycles - keep both knees bent, lay back and crunch up towards one knee, focusing on straightening the other leg, then repeat coming up towards the other knee...and do it slowly, concentrating on form.  Your abs will be crying by the end of the minute.   

It's kinda funny...at first I so badly wanted to see something....something that indicated that my workouts were changing my body, that my healthy eating was helping, and that it wasn't all for nothing.  And then life took over.  I struggled to find time to workout, struggled to keep getting up at 5am (especially since I wasn't going to bed any earlier) and struggled to drink as much water as I could.  I forgot to keep looking for results.  And I discovered something very true:

There is really nothing more motivating than results.

What Have I Got Myself Into Now?

I must say, my sister has incredibly good timing.  

While folding the never ending pile of laundry yesterday, I was going over the upcoming week's workouts in my mind.  I had already decided that I needed to increase the amount of cardio I was doing...I just hadn't decided how yet.   You see...I hate cardio.  I love lifting weights, I love doing karate and I love dancing in Zumba but cardio just for the sake of doing cardio bores me to tears.  

Then my wonderful sister called...
"You know what we should do?" she asked excitedly, "The Army Run...it's in September and it's only 5k."
Hmmm...I hate running...but I love setting, striving for and achieving goals!  And it would fit right into my new cardio plan.
"Okay!" I said.
"Really?" she asked, most likely discarding the prepared speech she thought she'd need.

"Sure!" 

"Yay! I'll sign us both up!"

So...only minutes later, arriving in my inbox from the Canada Army Run Registration people, was the confirmation that I was signed up to run 5K on September 23rd.  What had I done???

I took a deep breath and typed Couch to 5K into Google.  I knew of others who had used this program with success so it was worth a try.  So, setting the alarm for 5am today, I hopped on the treadmill and tried it out.  And it was pretty good.   This week is a 5 minute walking warm-up then alternating between one minute of jogging and one and a half minutes of walking for twenty minutes (twenty five counting the warm up) and I did it!  And managed to go 1.5 miles in the process!  And I get to take tomorrow off!  Loving this program! :D

I also found a crazy new ab workout that I thought I'd try.
It's called "Do you really want those abs?"  
So, since I do...I thought what could it hurt to do it too?

Here's the plan:
75 Crunches
75 Side Crunches (each side)
75 Back Arches
1 minute Bicycle Crunches
1 MINUTE REST
50 Crunches
50 Side Crunches (each side)
50 Back Arches
1 minute Bicycle Crunches
1 MINUTE REST
25 Crunches
25 Side Crunches (each side)
25 Back Arches
1 minute Bicycle Crunches
COLLAPSE. :)

I better feel that tomorrow!
Also...since I didn't work shoulders, I had no trouble washing my hair after!
Gotta love a new plan!
Oh...if there is no blog from me tomorrow, it will probably be that I couldn't get out of bed. :D
 

Confession Time

So...I have a confession to make.  I absolutely love muscle soreness.  There is such a feeling of satisfaction when you wake up and feel soreness in muscles that you worked the day before (or even two days before), you know then that you are accomplishing something.  Now, I will admit that sometimes muscle soreness can get in the way, such as for the couple of days following the All About Abs class when I can't even sit up in bed.  Oh well, I roll out instead with a big smile on my face. 
I've been doing the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred Video for a week and a half now.  I really like the format of the twenty minute long workout (fits into my morning really well!) with it's warmup, two minutes of strength (two exercises, each for 30 seconds, then repeated), two minutes of cardio (same format as strength), one minute of abs then the strength/cardio/abs combination is repeated twice more with different exercises followed by some quick stretching.  There is only a few seconds of rest between each exercise.  At first, I found cardio really hard in the morning.  I don't have a problem doing Zumba first thing (maybe because I love it!) but jumping jacks were a little hard to take.  Now that doesn't bother me either.  I definitely sweat a lot doing this video and because I find there are a lot of shoulder exercises in it, my arms are usually feeling pretty jello-y when I attempt to shower right after.
However, I haven't had any muscle soreness.  Not at all.  Not even a little.
Not once.
And this does not impress me.
So...since I like to change things up and I'm always looking for a better way to do something, I've decided that for next week I'm going to combine the parts I like from the 30 Day Shred video (the strength/cardio/ab combos and the zero resting) and the exercises that give me the muscle soreness I'm looking for and see if that makes a difference.  If anything, it keeps me and my body from getting bored. :)

I realize that in the competition going on between myself and Mark, everyone is able to keep up with what I'm doing but not with what Mark is doing.  I know there are a few people who will come right out and ask him but for anyone else, let me fill you in. (If you haven't sensed a tone dripping with aggravation yet, you will shortly)
He is doing nothing.  No exercises, no getting up at 5am, no watching what he eats.  While my dinner plate is loaded with veggies, his has a side of Fritos.  
And while he still has to lose a bit of weight on his stomach, I can clearly feel his abs.  However, I do NOT tell him that. Instead, I tell him that if you can't see them, they don't count.  
So..as long as he doesn't change his eating habits or start some kind of cardio workout, I still have a chance. :)
I haven't had a chance to check the flyers this week, I'm hoping Fritos are on sale somewhere. :O

Are You Brave Enough?

Unfortunately, trouble with our internet has kept me from doing my daily blog.  Even more unfortunately, always needing something to write about keeps me motivated to get up in the morning and work out.  Luckily I've discovered a couple tricks that I'm finding to be very motivating.

1 - If you've been reading my blog since the beginning you will be familiar with the 10 lb. bag of Cadbury Mini Egg story.  Therefore, you will have no trouble believing me when I say that I am a bit of a chocoholic.  I love it.  Pretty much any kind.  From chocolate bars to brownies to chocolate ice cream.  Add to that a nice black coffee and I am pretty much ecstatic.  Obviously, I've now cut chocolate out of my daily eating habits which is proving to be an incredibly hard task.  I've mentioned that I avoid buying crappy food at the grocery store and that certainly helps, but it's the running in to Shoppers for some shampoo or paying for gas at Canadian Tire where I find I need to exercise a huge amount of restraint.  All those chocolate bars staring at me!  And I'm so hungry! What to do? Argh!
So...in order to help satisfy the craving and since I've never been one to deprive myself of what I really want, I now get my chocolate fix daily...in the form of a protein shake after I've finished my morning workout.  So, no workout, no yummy chocolate shake.  It's simple and it's working.

2 - Also, I'm still doing the Jillian Michael's video every morning since she keeps promising I'll be "shredded" in thirty days.  But she kind of drives me nuts.  Her safety explanations were good the first couple of days, but by now I have them memorized and I can't stand listening to her any more.  We are no longer on speaking terms.  But since it hasn't been thirty days, I don't really want to stop.  So, now I mute the video and listen to the awesome songs on my mp3 player.  And Jillian and I can stay friends.

Instead of looking for excuses, I'm looking for solutions.
And I'm starting to see results.

However, the results I'm seeing are in the mirror and not on the scale.  Which is fine with me, so long as my clothes fit better.  I've promised to list my original numbers including weight and body fat percentage but before I do, I thought we should make a game of it.

Any guesses as to what I weigh?  It hasn't changed since I've started working out so you don't have to worry about whether it was before or after and I really don't care what the number is so long as I'm okay with what the mirror shows me, so no one needs to worry that I'll be offended.  In fact, if someone thinks I can fit 200 pounds into my 5'2" self, that would be sort of impressive. :)

So...be brave and have a guess at it...I'll let you know if anyone gets it right!  

Holy Cardio Kickboxing Class Batman!

Yesterday morning I did a 20 minute video workout of Jillian Michael's and I truly believed that she was the devil.   I was wrong.
As it turns out, Jillian Michael's could learn a thing or two from my husband.  

After the morning workout I did (note: it's hard to wash your hair with arms that feel like jello), I was feeling pretty good about the day.  However, as someone who always wishes results came faster than they did..I decided to do the Cardio Kickboxing class last night as well.

Now, when Mark is away, I teach the class myself.  And we know we teach differently.  We've heard from members that Mark's class is more of a cardio workout that has everyone dripping sweat all over the place, while my classes will give them sore muscles for a few days.  He works the heart rate, I do more strength conditioning.  But, that six pack is not going to pop out with a lovely layer of flab over it, so bring on the cardio!

We were about 15 minutes into the class when I realized that Mark is a lot meaner than I ever thought.   And every dirty look I sent him was met with a big smile.  I guess he was just happy getting to boss me around for an hour.  I mean, seriously, does this look like someone who's going to go easy?

I left the class thoroughly exhausted and headed home to shower.  It wasn't until later that night that I realized what I'd done.  In his effort to push us all as hard as he can and motivate us to move faster, punch harder and pump push-ups and crunches out, he probably didn't even realize what he had me doing.  We probably did over 300 crunches during the hour!  And for that,  Mr. Crazy Kickboxing Instructor, I can only say thank you. :D

Becoming the Dancing Warrior

So...the workout plan for the weekend was to train hard, dance hard and laugh hard.
And I most certainly did all of it.

The training on Saturday consisted of 3 one hour long seminars in which we worked mostly training drills that left us on the mats tired and a little bit bruised.  We worked steadily for the three hours, the last one being a bo seminar which was an incredible workout for the forearms.  After a quick break for lunch, we headed into a two hour long seminar on karate that completely wore us out.  And I mean totally exhausted.  

We then headed to our rooms to relax for a bit before going out for dinner.  There was no time to nap! There was too much fun to be had!

Next on the fitness agenda was dancing and we made the most of the music by staying on the floor for pretty much the entire night.  Okay...well, maybe not "we", but definitely "me". :D

So...I would have to say that I got in an excellent cardio and strength workout on Saturday, which is good because I ordered the amazing Cheese Cappelletti from East Side Mario's on Saturday night and on Sunday I ended up sitting most of the day.  Well, except for practicing self defense with Erica and letting her throw me around so she could win a second place medal.  :)


Unfortunately I was unable to start my new fitness program this morning due to the fact that my incredibly sore and tired body was only able to maneuver far enough to reach the snooze button  and was not capable of actually sitting up until well past six o'clock.  I might have felt bad about that had I not stumbled across one of my favourite quotes this morning.


"Tomorrow is a new day and another chance to get it right."

And get it right, I will...starting tomorrow....because my feet are still pretty sore from all the dancing. :D

The Fitness Warrior got Sidetracked

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans....
Wednesday went okay, did the usual workout in the morning, still feeling good...did the following exercises:
30 Slow Crunches
12 Reverse Crunches (touch feet over head)
12 Dumbbell Blast Off  Push Up Hold
50 Russian Twist Crunches
24 Dumbbell Pivoting Goblet Squat (so great for the glutes - I can't get over it!!!)
24 (each side) Split Stance Alternating Bent Over Row
15 Leg Circles
I started with 30 min of Zumba to warm up as well.
SIDE NOTE:
The Jillian Michael's Triangle Press exercise was so effective the first day I did it (10 lb weights,  12 each side) that I may never need to do it again. 
(READ: I was so sore for the next two days, I am now afraid to do it again).  :D
Here it is (for you brave souls out there):

I wasn't able to find time to work out on Thursday (so I've decided it was my rest day) as I had a medical appt in Ottawa very early in the morning, got back to the gym at 2pm and left for a Black Belt Grading in Cornwall at 2:30pm...then got back home at 11:30pm).  Due to my very long day on Thursday, I didn't get up on Friday morning to work out either (rest day #2?).  And as soon as I'm done work today, I'm heading off to Kingston for a Martial Arts filled weekend.  So...my workouts will certainly be different for the next few days...but I will train hard, dance hard and laugh hard (great ab workout, for sure!) so that I'm ready to go Monday morning for a new program I'm starting.  


After my medical test in Ottawa yesterday, my very sweet husband decided to take me out for lunch at Moxie's, one of our favourite restaurants.  Mark has always been one of those people who, when asked by a server to choose a side for his meal, will always order fries.  Always.  No matter how fancy the restaurant.  Fries.
However, yesterday was different.
He asked for salad.
He grinned at my shocked expression - we both knew this had significance.
"So," I asked, "I guess this means you're back in the game?" 
His lack of desire to change his eating habits had pretty much convinced me that I would win our friendly competition, no matter how long it took me to achieve the goal.
"Yup," he answered, looking quite smug.
No matter...I had ordered the spring mix salad and he had ordered the Caesar.
Sucker. ;)

Back on Track

So, I was up today before the alarm.  I guess it bugged me yesterday so much that today there was no way I was hitting the snooze button.  
I did half an hour of Zumba and then followed it with some new exercises.  (In fact, when I got home from karate last night I tried a few of these out).  I can't remember where I found them because I had photocopied them for my binder but a lot of them involve pivoting (which helps work the core) and using dumbbells while incorporating the whole body. 
The plan looked as follows:
12 (each side) Triangle Press (stolen from Jillian Michaels)

 15 Superman Roll into Pike Crunch (my new favourite!)

12 Dumbbell Blast-Off Pushup Hold

24 Dumbbell Pivoting Goblet Squat (this is becoming another favourite! - great for glutes!!!)

12 (each side) Bicep Curl

50 Russian Twist Crunches

15 Leg Circles

And then I ran out of time...I might need to get up even earlier. :)

So tomorrow will mark one week since I started.  I did weigh myself that first day and took a body fat percentage count with our personal trainer's fancy scale.  I also took measurements in inches as well.  So tomorrow I'll probably get back on the scale and see if there's been any difference over the last week.  I'm not getting my hopes up though.  When I look in the mirror,  I don't really see any difference at all.  But I didn't expect to only work out for one week, so it's all good!  I'll post the results tomorrow along with what my numbers were when I started.   :)

I'm So Mad at Myself!

I have to admit, before the weekend came, I had planned out my workouts to make sure I stayed on track.  6am Saturday morning in the gym and Sunday morning at home.  
For Sunday's workout I did about 20 minutes of Zumba (which is an amazing cardio and core workout!) followed by pretty much the same exercises I did earlier in the week.  
However, Monday morning was another story.  The alarm went off, as usual, at 5:15am but instead of jumping out of bed, I hit snooze.  Then I hit snooze again.  And again.  
Eventually I got my lazy butt out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen.  My eyes flew open and I found I was suddenly wide awake.  The clock on the stove glowed 6am.  Now there was no time for a workout. 
I was so mad at myself! Yes, the extra minutes of sleep and snooze were wonderful (we have a new bed, by the way, and some days I wonder how I'm able to get out of it at all, it's so super comfy!), but how was I going to fit in a workout now?????  I can't believe I did that!!! ARGH!!!!
I think I might have been mad at myself for another reason, as well.  This coming weekend is Kingston Kicks.  It's a whole weekend of martial art seminars and a tournament.  That sounds like it will be a lot of sweating and working hard (and it totally will be!) but it will also be a lot of eating out, drinking and sitting around.  So, that makes this week very important...since it's very unlikely I'll do any working out Saturday or Sunday, I needed to stay motivated this week.  I'm still not sure how, but I will do my best to fit in some kind of workout today and tomorrow morning I am setting that stupid alarm for 5am!!!

The kids felt like doing some baking this weekend.  Cassie made some chocolate chip cookies and Colton made some brownies.  Nothing like a little temptation laying around while I try to eat healthy.  I had one small cookie right after they came out of the oven, because, well, come on, warm chocolate chip cookies are like a little piece of heaven.  And that was it.  No cookie dough.  No chocolate chips straight from the tupperware container.  No brownies.
Mark, on the other hand, did nothing to restrain himself.

On another note...I'm not feeling overly worried about Mark beating me in this friendly competition so much anymore....hehe 




 

Sabotage or a Sweet Gesture...I'm Not Sure

Day Four...where to fit in a workout today?  No time for biking...I have to open the gym for 7am, plus I'm not a die hard...rain will definitely keep me at home.  So off to work I go..at 6am to fit in a small workout before starting the opening procedures.  
Since I had the entire gym at my disposal and a lot more variety than I have at home, I opted for machines and bars that I don't usually get to use.  I varied the exercises, doing mostly legs today and did two sets.  I did 15 reps in the first set and then raised the weights for the second set and in some cases, made it to 15 again, some I only got to 12.  And of course, I did a bunch of ab exercises.

Someone might wonder, that in my quest for changing my body, I haven't yet written one word about my eating habits.  Well, that's not completely true...I think I said something about having polished off a 10lb bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs.   The reason for this is that I eat a very healthy, varied diet already. Not that I don't enjoy a bowl of Fruit Loops, but I very rarely eat processed, sugary foods.  I have never drank a can of pop (only occasional sips from Mark's drink at the movies when I was dying of thirst - carbonated drinks hurt my throat) and I find I can't eat candy if I don't buy it.  This is really the best advice ever.  Buy good food and you'll eat good food.  The trick is to buy good food that you'll want to eat.  

This is the one area where I definitely have an advantage over Mark.  He eats healthy on a regular basis, but only because I do the grocery shopping.  I will, however, buy him his favourite bag of chips (Miss Vickie's - the dark blue bag, I'm not sure what they're called) and I try really hard to avoid letting him come with me to the store.  When he does, we manage to bring home pop, ice cream and pie.  I definitely have more will power than him when he comes to making healthy food choices.  This makes our competition even since he's way ahead of me in the muscle department.


So...I finished my workout, got everything ready to open the gym and sat down to answer e-mails when Mark walked in at 7am.  His hands were full.  He had stopped at Tim Horton's on his way and picked us up bagels with cream cheese and also a French Vanilla for me.  Hmmm...I had packed some granola, milk and fresh fruit.  But never wanting to disappoint anyone, I ate half the bagel and drank the (extremely delicious, by the way) French Vanilla.  Then I thought...was this really just a sweet gesture to make sure I wasn't hungry throughout my shift today at the gym or was this some kind of ulterior motive to destroy my healthy eating, thereby allowing him to get ahead in our competition towards the coveted six-pack.  I gave this quite a bit of thought.
Then I made my decision.
Since he's my husband and I love him, I gave him the benefit of the doubt...this time.
 

Oh My God, I'm Sore

The alarm went off at 5:15am on Day Three and I stumbled quickly out of bed, hurrying into my clothes before I could change my mind.  I knew it was colder this morning but I hoped to be on my bike before I realized that I didn't really feel like going.  
When I put on my sweatshirt, I was stunned to realize that my arms were killing me! Darn kickboxing class last night...that I taught....and darn that Mark whose one request when he'd asked me to fill in for him was that I work arms.  Well, I didn't need my arms to pedal my bike, so off I went.
I was very happy to discover that I passed the point where I'd turned around on the first day before my legs began to burn.  Yay for muscle burn! At least that's something.  Since I only have about half an hour to bike in the morning, I see how far I can get in fifteen minutes, then I turn around and try to beat that time on the way back.  My ride home took eleven minutes.  So far so good.  
By now my legs were burning as much as my arms.  
It seemed like a good time to work more on my abs.

This is the workout I went through as soon as I managed to get up the stairs.
25 Reverse Lunges
50 Russian Twist Crunches
15 Squats with a 10lb Dumbbell
15 Half Seated Leg Circles
15 Superman Roll with Pike Crunch
15 Squats with a Twist (holding a bo staff above my head)
40 Super Slow Crunches
With my stomach hurting now as well, I figured that was good for today.

My whole body is hurting.  And I love it.  
I haven't noticed any changes in my body yet, but I already feel stronger going through my morning workouts so I think I'm on the right track. Bring on Day Four!