Wednesdayyyy

Today I was a little bit late so I missed about 10 minutes of spin. That hardly matters 'cause I was still instantly sweating when I got on the bike!
I have a love hate relationship with spinning. I love it when I'm not there. I love how it makes me feel after, and how I feel proud that *I* go to spinning. I HATE it when I'm actually there, on the bike, flailing like a madwoman and having Zack shouting "HARDER,FASTER,GO!GO!GO!!"

Blarrrghhh *falls of spin bike*

It is a really busy week for me and I'm just not getting everything done. I have a presentation tomorrow morning, and another presentation on Friday morning. I have a bunch of little assignments due that I've been neglecting. I have been spending WAY too much time just surfing the internet and slacking off.

I feel like I ate too much today, but I didn't. I just ate more carbs & proteins than fruits and veggies. It feels like a poor balance.

B - Steel cut oats with blueberries, almond milk, and sprinkle of brown sugar
S - Apple, 99 cal dark chocolate
L - Bean burrito (hummus instead of cheese or sour cream)
S - Protein drink, kinda regretting this one as it turned out to be a whopping 300 cals!! YIKES. However, it was delish and packed with B vitamins and 20g soy protein.
D - Beans, rice, corn, and lentils mixed together. Small glass of OJ.
S - Triscuits with vegan cheese.

See what I mean? carb-heavy and not enough fruits and veggies. More calories than I should have eaten. Oh well. I will try to do better tomorrow :)

I am feeling pretty great about my weight loss lately. I think those progress pics really boosted my mood - to see that kind of change. I also have been actually enjoying the gym this week.

I stepped on the scale this morning and it is showing me up from Sunday. I know my pattern - Big loss, little/none, little/none, Big loss. So, after that week of 5.5 I'm thinking this will be a little-to-no-loss week. I'm going to put the effort in anyways, hopefully I'll at least stay the same!! I'd like to lose 1lb to crack that 140 lbs down mark :)

Sorry about my disjointed thoughts today. I'm kinda all over the place.

Saturday thoughts :)

My legs are killing me today. Ouchie!!
We had our workout last night and we did some really hard stuff.

We did one legged squats, where you put one foot up over your knee and then squat. We did rope lunges, where you place your foot on the boxing ring rope and then lunge forward with the other leg. (1 legged lunges, essentially) We did a bazillion push ups, lots of crunches. I tried to get a little extra cardio in.

I *really* need to ditch my home scale, but I am finding it extremely difficult. I stepped on this morning and it is still showing me up 1 lb. It causes me to wrack my brain with "what should I do? More cardio? Rest day and lots of water? Eat more? Eat less??"

My boyfriend told me to STOP weighing myself, but it's not that easy. My trainer told me to stop, the gym owner told me to STOP. I went to all three of them with "what should I do, the scale says I'm up!?" and all of them say "Who cares?" If you are eating right, exercising, and following the plan, you will NOT get fat, you will NOT gain weight. It's a fluctuation, simple as that.

I know I always give that advice to other people, but I am admittedly scale obsessed. I thought about telling my boyfriend to hide the scale on me while I'm at work so I don't know where it is. When I went to call him, I felt anxious (no scale!?!) and chickened out. What the heck??

I was thinking about this on the way to work. I think it is a bizarre need to show others that I'm succeeding. I don't want to be up because then when my mom, friends, or teammates ask about my WI, I have to tell them. I feel like I have something to prove, but I don't know what and I don't know to who.

Yesterday in class, all of my classmates were talking about how inspiring it was to watch me climb a 3 story tall tree even though I'm desperately afraid of heights. The first time I did it, I was hyperventilating and crying by the time I got to the top. I am REALLY afraid of heights. The next day, I felt like I had to try it again, to do it without freaking out, just to show I could. I did - I climbed all the way to the top, and then even did the swinging bridge. My friends were all cheering at the bottom and taking pictures. People I barely know came and told me how proud they were of me. It was embarrassing... but I had to prove to myself and other people that I wasn't going to let something that scares me control me.

There was one point at about 7 meters high where I was completely frozen in fear, my fingers were freezing and purple, and my body would not move despite my mind. All I could say was "I'm stuck!! I can't do this, I'm stuck!" But then I would use the mantra that my previous Professor (and now dear friend) told me: "I choose to feel relaxed and calm"... I mantra'd my way through and managed to get my body climbing again. Later, my friend Jeff said "I honestly thought you were going to give up. If I was stuck on the side of the tree like that, and as afraid as you were, I would have given up."

I kind of feel like that is how it is with my weight loss. When I have everyone around me staring at me, waiting to see if I give up... I power through and keep going. If there was no audience it would probably be a different story. Who climbs a 3 story tree with no one around to watch?

Day One. Ouchie.

Cardio warm up: 5 minute walk to gym, plus 15 minutes of walking/jogging combo on the treadmill. Incline 2, alternating speeds 3.5 & 4.5

Today we started with the following:

squats with vertical pole (30 slow reps, 30 fast reps)

stiff leg deadlift with bent over row (60 reps)

barbell curls with shoulder press (30 reps)

vertical bar french press with squats (20 reps)

push ups (60)

lunges, crunches (in various capacities: basic, alternating holding one leg up, legs moving in and out, both knees up, etc) (140 - 2 sets of 10 reps each position)

lunges with knee raises (60)

superman drill (120)

We went through that sequence twice!

Then we stretched for a few minutes.

Now I'm sore :(

My food today:

B: Nature's Path cereal, blueberries & almond milk

S: Apple, almonds

L: Tortilla with Gardien mock chicken breast, lettuce, tomato & mustard

S: Pear, 1/2 cookie

D: Vegan chili with small slice whole grain focaccia

I also drank 5L of water.

My trainer is dumb. I know more about proper form than he does. He kept telling us to "straighten our legs" when locking your knees is NOT GOOD! I would keep the slightest bend and he'd come by and say "straighten your legs!"

HELLOooo... You are not supposed to lift weights with locked knees!! Clearly all those years as a Chippendales dancer were NOT used to pay his way through university...

Also, he calls for reps toooooo fast! He says "updown updown updown" when there should be a slow up and down movement, like "up two three, down two three" because just moving the barbells up and down that fast is mostly working on momentum, and not actually engaging the muscles. Luckily, I know my way around a gym and I've done lots of training before, but the other people in the group (who are paying a LOT of money!) are not being given the best information possible. I ran these perceived mistakes by my boyfriend (who is also a personal trainer!) and he agreed with me that I was right. He thinks I should mention it to the manager if I'm not comfortable mentioning it to the trainer. Someone could get hurt!

Ugh. I did get a great workout though, and the people on my team seem really nice :)

I think I'll take a hot bath to relax my muscles a bit, and then go cuddle on the couch with my wonderful, lovely, perfect-for-me boyfriend :) <3

Week 5 Begins :)

Workout Length: 75 minutes
Calories Burned: 840 (50% fat)

Alright! I'm starting my new week off on the right foot :)

I woke up this morning and felt motivated to work hard at the gym. For my cardio warm up I did the Couch to 5K interval running again - 60 seconds on, 60 seconds off... for 15 minutes. I was sweating by the end and it was really great! I was proud of myself for being able to jog for a full minute - last week I was having trouble with 45!

We are doing lots of weights and stuff. They've kicked it up a notch! Monday is Body Bar class, Wednesday is Spinning (good GAWD that's hard) and Friday is Kickboxing. He's also getting more vocal about keeping up to his pace and not breaking between sets.

Anways... I am stinky and cold and tired so I must shower and nap. I am back to counting points since I lost so much in the first two weeks and not as much in the last, and the biggest difference between the two times was not tracking points.

Didn't Sleep.

Workout Length: 75 mins
Calories Burned: 628 (60% fat)

Oh man.

I have a lot on my mind these days, and I did not sleep at all last night. I went to bed really late - midnight - and then I was awake staring at the roof until 5 am, right before my alarm went off. I didn't even sleep 20 mins here 20 mins there - I just didn't sleep at all. Not a wink.

When I got up and got dressed for the gym, I didn't even feel that tired, but I knew I would be a lot weaker and stuff. We did another body bar workout, including legs, abs, and arms, and I was SO dead. I could barely do 10 reps above my head before feeling exhausted. I am usually much better than that.

Anyways I came home and took a nap, I'm a bit better now. I may go for a walk later since I didn't give my all at class this morning.

My trainer was just happy I showed up at all, after explaining to him I had no sleep. lol

Bootcamp Blugh

Workout Length: 70 minutes
Calories Burned: 476 (60% fat)

Blugh. I'm just having a blah day. I went to my work out and we did a regular-level body bar class. I can't wait until I'm stronger with the upper body weights (such as lifting weights for 3 sets of 10 reps above my head) gets easier.

Today one of the guys on our team forgot his Bootcamp Book (which is BIG no no, it's the food journal for the trainer to go over your week). For this the whole group had to do 100 extra lunges! Ack... 50 per leg. That was haaaard. He said next time someone forgets their book its 60 per leg, then 70 per leg, and so on. Plllleeeeaaasee don't forget the books, people! lol

I'm not really feeling the food on my menu today, but THANKFULLY I work on the ferry where none of the cafeteria food is suitable for a vegan diet. I'll just enjoy my rice cakes, baked potato, green salad, and fruit... and pretend to LOVE it until I convince myself I love it. :)

Exhausted - Week 2 Day 3

Workout Length: 75 minutes
Calories Burned: Unknown :(

I forgot to start my heartrate watch today, not sure how that happened. I love seeing the calories burned so I can gauge how hard I'm working. Today would have been a great day to have it on too because MAN was it a difficult workout!!

I am so insanely exhausted right now. I am going back to bed for an hour before work. I don't know whether the work out was especially hard because I was tired, or if it's just getting harder 'cause they always want to kick our butts just beyond our capabilities.

We did a ton of arm exercises. I had 8lb weights, which isn't that heavy, but when you are doing 3 sets of 15 reps back to back with no break, it's tough.

We did bicep curls, alternating bicep curls, shoulder press, alternating shoulder press, tricep press, alternating tricep press, incline press, alternating incline press... 15 of each, ALL with no break in between... *falls over*

We sit across from a mirror and I could see myself grimacing and hear myself grunting by the end of it! lol

Then we did a bunch of ab and leg exercises, squats and crunches and the usual. I am really bad at using the balance ball. We have to sit on it and lift our feet off the ground and I can only do it for a few seconds at a time, at most. I have no core strength and no coordination! lol

I am super exhausted, I stayed up wayyyyy too late last night. I need to go back to sleep for an hour or I won't make it through my shift!!

(I'm still annoyed my watch didn't track the workout, but oh well)

Week Two Begins

Strength - Bootcamp
Workout Length: 75 minutes
Calories Burned: 871 cal (55% fat)

Cardio - Walk
Workout Length: 90 minutes
Calories Burned: 1021 (60% fat)

This morning's bootcamp seems so long ago... I usually post right after I get home, but I had some things to do this morning, and then went for a walk around the lake.

We did a similar work out to last week, but he upped the difficulty a bit -- shorter breaks, less often. We did the usual legs, abs, and arms work out. Using a body bar, we did lots of squats and whatever-they're-called presses where you lift the bar above your head. My arms are still quite weak but getting better!

My allergies are still driving me crazy, and my ankle is really sore. The roof of my mouth is itchy, my eyes are dry, and when I was walking around the lake my ankle felt really tender. I think I'll take it easy tonight... cook some dinner and watch a movie :)

I usually do separate posts for my bootcamp workouts and my cardio workouts, but I'm feeling lazy today (hah lazy? Tired maybe - I earned 10 APs before 1 pm! lol) so I just threw'em both in here.

Blugh. I have all the food in my house to make Thai Red Curry and Bulgur Chickpea Curry. The Bulgur one would probably be okay, but I can't really see my trainer approving of the Thai Red (I only have regular-fat coconut milk, not light). I want to use up the groceries I have. I think as long as I stay within my points, I should be okay. (That worked last week, I did my own thing and lost 7 lbs!)

TGIF!

Workout Length: 80 minutes
Calories Burned: 872

Today was bootcamp round 3. We were in the boxing ring, and did lots of legs and a little arms.
I started with 20 minutes of cardio, then went into the ring and we had to do 3 laps side-shuffling around.

We did 3 sets of push-ups...
10 second hold when down, 1 second hold when up x 4
then 10 regular ones.

Then using the boxing ring ropes we did leaning squats, which was actually really hard because there was 1 set up upper squats, 1 of lower, and 3 of full. My legs were burning after!

When we did lunges we had to hold them for 3 sets each..
3 sets of 30 second hold
3 sets of 45 second hold
3 sets of 60 second hold

I wish they went longer to shorter, cause by the end holding a lunge for 60 seconds is really hard! I did it though. My trainer kept shouting "don't focus on the pain! Focus on what you're doing today! Don't think about the burn!" But when he was saying that it made me think about it... I would have been better off in my own zone if he wasn't shouting about how it hurts! LOL

Ugh, we then did leg lifts. On all fours, lifting your back foot 10 times slowly, 10 times fast, then straighten your leg and lift it 10 slow/10 fast. (Then switch legs and repeat). We had to do this 3 times and it was A LOT harder than it sounds (or looks).

We did a few sets of arm exercises using the ring: pull ups (kinda like push ups, but pulling up your own body weight) and tricep dips.

After that we did a bunch of ab exercises. Crunches, etc. It was hard. haha. I have very weak abs, so I can do the first half no problem but by the end of the sets I'm pretty much just laying there with my hands behind my head... hahah (I still try, but I go no where, lol)

Anyways it was a pretty good work out. I still think Wednesday was the hardest!

I plan to walk around the lake tonight, or hit the gym, because tomorrow is rest-day and I'd like to get one last little workout in before that. :)

Butt Kicking Round Deux

Workout Length: 75 minutes
Calories Burned: 469 (60% fat)

I'm so tired :(
And I hurt all over :(

I got up at 5 and went to bootcamp. Holy crap, that was HARD. Leo kicked my butt so feirce, I am sore already. I have really weak arms and we did a lot of arm exercises with free weights and stuff. We also did some abs with the balance ball and I'm way weaker in my stomach than I even thought.

I remember going to yoga and occasionally we would do stretches that would actually make some people cry because they were so stress-relieving. I've teared up in yoga before, too. My eyes watered twice today, not because it was hard and I wanted to stop, but because there is such a huge release when stretching after exercising. It feels so good!

I asked my trainer about the protein thing. I'm supposed to be eating 5 oz of proteinous foods, not 5 oz of protein! hahah... that explains it. So a big piece of tofu, or a veggie burger or whatever will cut it. I don't need to be stuffing myself on protien bars and drinks and beans and whatnot.

Thank gawd.

Alright, I'm going back to bed for an hour...

Too Early to be Alive....

Workout Length: 1 hr 20 min
Calories Burned: 1050

I slept terribly last night. I tried to go to bed at 11:00, but didn't end up falling asleep until 1 am. I remember looking at the clock at 12:40, still wide awake, and then a bit after that I finally drifted off. I woke up three or four times during the night, when finally the alarm went off at 4:50 am.

To state the obvious: that's really early.

I threw on my gym clothes and rushed to the gym. We had decided that anyone who is late has to do 30 pushups, haha! I got there at 5:29:55! Thank goodness.

I did 20 minutes on the treadmill... speed 3.5 incline 3-8. I'd have gone longer but that was just our warm up. I considered hopping back on after our workout but decided I'll save my energy and exercise again this evening!

TODAYS WORKOUT:

Squats with vertical pole - 10 slow, 10 fast, 10 second hold. (3 sets)
Stiff leg deadlift with bent over row - 10 reps each, (3 sets)
Barbell curls with shoulder press - 21 reps/10 reps (3 sets)
Vertical bar french press w/squats - 10 reps each (3 sets)
Wall push ups - 20 reps (3 sets)
Lunges with vertical bar, knee raises - 10 reps each (3 sets)

On the mat - 10 reps and 3 sets each

Basic Crunches
Crunches w/one knee up
Crunches w/ one knee in/out

Switch legs and do it again

Crunches w/both knees up
Upper and lower abs together
Basic Crunches

10 minute full body stretch

I was home and showered and totally finished by 7:30 am. It's weird this early in the morning... I can't call anyone to chat, I can't run my errands... I'm almost thinking I may go back to bed! haha. I plan to do some more cardio this evening, probably just light though - like a walk around the harbour or something.

I am going to have trouble spreading my points over the course of the day, considering it's 9 am and I've already had breakfast and a snack! I'll have to pick up tons of veggies so that I've got 0 point snacks throughout the day.

I may write more later... I'm in desperate need of a nap.