I DID IT!!

Alright, after 2 months plus 1 week I finally did it. I worked out! I started over. Today was chest and back man did it feel good. Hard as hell, but it felt good. No more of this whining and just talking about starting I am actually going to do this. It will be done. No ifs ands or buts about it. I may have to take a slight break when Clark Jr. comes along, but that is it.

And Then Life Happened...

So, I suck! My last post was back in January. The last time I worked-out was in January. I suck. I have told myself and those around me that Monday I was going to start working-out again. Well Monday came and went a number of times and here I sit, as not slim and trim as ever.

Before I stopped working-out I think that I was really starting to get results. I wasn't loosing any weight but I could tell a difference in inches and my health. I just felt better. I am still eating better. Not as good as I was, but I have definitely added more fruits and vegetables to my diet.

What made me stop working out you ask. Well I'll tell you. No good reason. When I began working-out I was already a busy person. I had just started student teaching which kept me up late at night making lesson plans and I was a lead character (for the first time) in a musical and had practice 4 nights a week.

So my day normally ran like this. I got up (6:30am), got ready for the day, took Jimmy to the sitter, taught until 3pm, came home worked-out (3:30-4:30pm), made dinner and ate (4:30-5:30pm), spent a little time with the family (5:30-6pm), went to play practice (6-9:30/10pm), came home and worked on lesson plans for the following day (10:30-12/1am).

It was a full day and I started to fall behind in things and was in general just tired from lack of sleep. I didn't always fall right to sleep. So I decided to wait until the play was over to begin the work out again. Well the play ended February 14.

I really don't have any excuse for not starting it since then. I am still student teaching, but I am getting the hang of making lesson plans and it's going easier. I'm still up late some nights working on them, but I still should have time to workout.

So you heard it here. MY WORKOUT WILL START OVER ON MARCH 15! One month after the play finished. Shame on me.

High Maintenance

So, Lois is off to Boston for a breakin' news story and it's just me and Jimmy at home this week. No problem! Except for the fact that my son and I are HIGH MAINTENANCE!

The week started out good. Monday was chest and back. I did that no problem. Then Tuesday was my day of rest (I get one every 7 days). Lois also left Tuesday. No, when Lois leaves it is always sad and we miss her terribly. We miss having her around to play with, to talk with, to have dinner with. But the one thing I miss most is having her laying in bed next to me each night. I never sleep well the first night she is gone.

So Tuesday night I wasn't able to fall asleep until 1:30am!!! That normally wouldn't be a problem if I didn't have to be up at 6:00am to get myself and Jimmy ready for the day. So I don't fall asleep until the early morning, then when I'm supposed to be getting up the alarm doesn't go off. Well, it did go off, but I couldn't hear it because Lois had turned the volume off (what good is an alarm if the volume is off?). Luckily I woke up around 6:45am. So I am right away running late. I get Jimmy ready first and then get myself ready. Then after I eat a quick breakfast we are out the door. I get Jimmy to the sitter by 7:45am (normally he is there by 7:30 at the latest). I get into my classroom at 7:50am and the bell rings minutes later. By the end of the day (3:30pm) I was SO completely exhausted I just wanted to crawl into bed.

I can't crawl into bed yet. I have to get in my plyometrics workout and I have to make Jimmy and I dinner, then give him a bath, and then put him to bed. Well like I said, I was COMPLETELY exhausted. Needless to say I didn't get my workout in. I was TOO tired. I know, I know it would have made me feel better, but it took all my energy just to make dinner and give a bath.

So that was yesterday. This is today. I got plenty of sleep and had a good day at school. I had everything planned out. I was going to go get diapers, pick Jimmy up from the sitter, go home, workout, shower, get ready for play practice, take Jimmy to Grandma and Grandpa's house, then go to play practice.

This is how it went down... I went and got diapers, picked Jimmy up at the sitters, spent about 10 minutes at the sitters fighting with him to get his shoes, gloves, hat, and coat on (this NEVER happens), fought with Jimmy in the driveway (I took him out of his car seat and he literally collapsed on the ground crying), fought with Jimmy on the back porch (he would not go in the house, he wouldn't even go up more than 3 stairs), fought with Jimmy to take his coat, gloves, hat, and shoes off, gave Jimmy at time out until he was finished screaming and crying (about 5-10 minutes), then fought with Jimmy about not watching "Noggin."

So, after all the fighting with Jimmy I decided that I needed to spend so quality "Dad" time with him. Since we weren't going to be watching "Noggin" I didn't think it would be fair if I was "watching" my workout. We went into his room and we colored on his easel and in his coloring books, then we played memory. Now he is eating dinner and I allowed him the watch Monsters Inc. while he eats.

The plan for the rest of the night is this. We will finish eating dinner, I will take Jimmy to Grandma and Grandpa's house, go to play practice, pick Jimmy up from Grandma and Grandpa's house, put him to bed, workout, and finally go to bed!

This is a HIGH MAINTENANCE household when Mommy is gone!

Day 6!

Well, yesterday was my last day of "workouts." today is a day of rest. I did the Kenpo X workout yesterday. I was only able to make it through half of the DVD because of my asthma once again. Even though I only made it through half I really feel it today. My arms and legs feel a bit sore. It's great! I actually enjoy feeling sore. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something.

The diet didn't go so well this weekend. I majorly bombed it. We went out for dinner on Friday night to a place here in town. That was the only place that I did good. I had a salad (which I didn't finish because I added too much salt) and pork chops with bbq sauce on the side. On Saturday we went to Madison to do some shopping. We stopped at another restaurant to have lunch. Here's where it starts to go downhill. I had a hamburger with parmesan garlic steak fries. The burger was alright, because I didn't have my 1 carb for the day and it's okay if I eat meat. But the fries are a big no no. Then on Sunday it just went completely out the window. For breakfast I had 3 pancakes (it's okay here, I can have 3 pancakes) which fills my carbs for the day, then for lunch I had egg whites with mozzarella cheese and a fruit smoothie with whey protein (this filled my dairy for the day), then for dinner I had Jamie's pizza. It had of course a crust (too many carbs), LOTS of cheese (too much dairy), and turkey meat (the only part of the pizza that I could eat)! So yeah, there's my horrible diet for the weekend. I'm back on track today! 

Today's workout is either a day of rest or do the Stretch X video. I figure it's all about stretching, and I can do stretching.

Day 5!

Alright, sorry my days are getting kind of weird. My internet connection has been in and out this whole weekend. Yesterday was day 5 for me and it was back and legs followed by abs. Well, by the time I got through half of the back and legs my legs were complete jelly. So I didn't make it through the workout yesterday. I'm still feeling pretty good though today. I'm slightly sore, but not too bad.

The back part of the workout was ALL chin-ups. We did wide grip, reverse grip, close grip, alternating grip. It gets pretty tiring to lift this heavy butt up. I use a chair, but the door way isn't really high enough for me. I need the bar to be probably about another 8-12 inches higher. I don't know if I'm getting a good enough workout because of this. It wouldn't be a problem switching to a higher door frame, except that the chin-up bar only fits in one  of all the many doorways in my house. Because our house is so old (built 1927) all of the door frames are very wide. I don't know the average width of a door frame, but it is obviously about and inch thinner than the ones that we have.

Today's workout is Kenpo. For those of you that don't know what Kenpo is, it is a type of Karate. This one should be amusing! I am one of the least coordinated people I know. I have long arms and legs, so when I try to do things like this it's just funny to watch.

This was me last night! Or at least will be eventually. Last night was Yoga X. It was an hour and a half of intense yoga exercise.

I am a big fan of yoga and it's relaxing ability. Well I can't say this workout was relaxing. It was very challenging! But that's what I have come to expect form the program. I have done yoga a number of times in the past so a number of these poses were familiar to me. Such poses as Warrior 1 and 2, or Child's Pose. But then they threw in some new and pretty difficult ones like Crane (picture to left) and Warrior 3 (picture below).

It was a great workout and I worked up a huge sweat! I can see this workout easily becoming one of my favorites. It may not have been the most relaxing workout that it should be, but that was mostly because I am still learning the poses.

If you have never done yoga, I HIGHLY recommend it. It works on your flexibility, balance, and can be so peaceful.

On a side note. I purchased the P90X Recovery drink and man is it good!!! It tastes like an orange dreamcicle. MMMMMMMMMM!

Day 4!

The week is getting on now. It's day 4 but really only day 3 because of yesterday's mishap. I think I'm doing pretty good! I'm sticking to my diet, I'm working out on a regular basis. All-'n-all it's been a good start.

Today I worked arms and shoulders and then another round of abs. It wasn't too bad! I realized though that I need to start working out with my shoes on so I can use the bands that I bought, or I need to buy heavier dumbbells. I think the shoes win out. It's cheaper and with this program it is nice to do something that is cheap.

It's not that I didn't get a good workout in. I just had to do more reps because the weights were too light for my MASSIVE biceps... It's hard to stay on track with this program when you have to do extra reps. The way it works is that they do each exercise for so many seconds or minutes and then move onto the next. By the time I am finished with my reps they are half way through the next set.

I still am not able to keep up with the ab ripper x workout. BUT I was actually able to do about 12 wide leg sit-ups!!! If you notice in my previous post on Day 1 I wasn't able to do any. I think that that is a huge feat for me. I still have trouble with the frogy crunches (I think I called them monkey crunches before).

Workout aside, the thing that I am most proud of is my diet. Yes, it's only been 4 days on it, but I'm actually sticking to it. It's not even that difficult! Having breakfast in the morning and then a snack a couple hours later has really helped. Right when I start to get hungry again it's time for a snack. So I eat my snack and am good until lunch. Then when my body starts telling me to eat again it's snack time again. Then dinner time comes and I am just hungry enough to not overeat! It's been fantastic. Even cutting out 9/10ths of my carbs hasn't been that bad. I really don't even notice it all that much. Tonight I had broccoli for the first time ever. It wasn't half bad. I had it in a steak and broccoli stir fry so I couldn't get a real taste of it, but for me that's a good thing.

Another thing with this diet I've noticed, and I know this is going to sound a little weird. I think I have to train my tongue and mouth how to eat fruits and vegetables (quit being perverted!!). Because I haven't ever eaten these things I'm not sure what to expect when I do. Take pineapple for instance. You bite into it and it explodes juice (knock it off!) all over your mouth. I wasn't ready for that. You also have to swallow the juice before you eat the meat (WOW! Could this sound any more perverted?). If you don't you end up with a mouth full of stuff and it's more awkward to get down. Side note: I didn't think strawberries were all that great. I would take pineapple over strawberries any day.

I think the same thing goes for other fruits and vegetables. My common reflex for trying new and potentially disgusting foods is to build up a large wad of saliva in my mouth and then when I take a bite I chew as fast as I can and then swallow. I have found that with the huge wad of saliva it actually disperses the tastes more and possibly distorts it to make it taste worse that it probably is. This process has actually become so common place for me that I didn't even realize I did it until this week. It is a struggle, but I am doing my best to prevent this. When I go to try new vegetables I try to make sure that my mouth is somewhat clear of saliva. Obviously you need some saliva to chew it and then swallow. This is what I struggle with. It is a true fear of trying these new foods. Sometimes I almost get to the point of shaking I am so nervous and scared. It's ridiculous, but I can't help it! I'm trying.

Tomorrow is yoga. This is a workout I am most looking forward to. I LOVE yoga. I'm not the most flexible person in the world, but there is something about it that is just so relaxing. Now, I know that this is the P90X yoga workout so it probably won't be that easy. Besides it's an hour and a half long! But I'm still looking forward to it.