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!