Return to 30DS

I wasn’t able to finish Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred last time because I got injured and thought it prudent to stop after pushing through to the end of Level 2. That was the farthest I had ever made it in that program and it took over a month to get there because I was following a slightly different regime than most other people do.

Most people power through the workouts in the 30 days it advertises. I chose another route Jillian Michaels suggested – 2 days of the DS DVD, 1 day of cardio, 2 days of the DS DVD, 1 day of cardio, REST, repeat.

I’ve started over and already I can feel that old injury. A deep burn in my thigh that reminds me not to overdo the static lunges.

I’d stick with the same weekly routine but I got super impatient with how long it was taking. I’ll just power through every day except maybe Sunday. I’ve always enjoyed taking Sunday off. But maybe not. We’ll see.

I’ll be using this calendar to help keep me on target. Now I just need to push myself to stick with it.

If you’re interested in other Jillian Michaels’ workouts, BeFit on Youtube has a good variety. Check them out if you have time.

As much as I don’t want to admit to them, here are my starting stats:

• weight – 174 lbs
• arms – 11 1/2″ (L) 12″ (R)
• chest – 32″
• waist – 33″
• below belly button – 40″
• hips – 43″
• thighs – 23″

Ugh. My body has gotten so out of hand. When did I lose control? Fitness is a lifelong uphill struggle.

Do you ever revisit old workout programs?

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My Week of Insanity

I guess I am a little insane because, after trying (and hating) the fit test in the Insanity DVDs, I decided to try a bit more of the collection.

My fitness level is so low again that I didn’t beat myself up for not being able to finish a workout.

Here’s how my week went:

Day 1: Fit Test

• results were given in the last post

Day 2: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

• 27 out of 40 minutes – I ran out of time with this one and had to cut it short so I could take a shower before going out…but I’m not complaining as I was quite happy to stop and had gotten an excellent workout.
• min hr – 90, peak hr – 195, avg hr – 157
• 392 calories burned
• Was exhausting and I was fighting tooth and nail to keep going by the end.
• Didn’t throw up!! Woo!

Day 3: Cardio Power & Resistance

• 40 out of 40 minutes. Woo! Made it to the end and didn’t get sick!
• min hr – 69, peak hr – 184, avg hr – 156
• 563 calories burned
• Had to slow it waaaaay down and modify more than a few moves in order to keep going (ie: power jumps became squat jumps, didn’t go down far enough to touch floor on some moves)

Day 4: Cardio Recovery

• 32 out of 32 minutes. Easy to finish. They called it light cardio in order to recover but it was more like strength training.
• min hr – 63, peak hr – 137, avg hr – 106
• 266 calories burned
• Muscles on inner thighs near knees BURNED!!! Reminded me of old injury from 30DS and I eased up on the lunges.

Day 5: Pure Cardio

• 38 out of 38 minutes
• min hr – 105, peak hr – 183, avg hr – 158
• 556 calories burned
• Threw up in my mouth twice toward beginning but that was because I had some granola sometime around an hour beforehand. NOT eating for 2 hours before doing these workouts seems to be EXTREMELY important.
• Oh. My. Goodness. Water breaks after warm-up and after stretches but none after that till cooldown stretches. I was encouraged to take my own breaks…and I did.
• My thigh muscles are coming back!

Day 6: Cardio Abs

• 17 out of 17 minutes
• min hr – 84, peak hr – 165, avg hr – 121
• 175 calories burned
• Didn’t work my abs as much as my hip flexors. By the time I had to concentrate on my abs, my hip flexors were so tired that I couldn’t lift my legs to work my abs!
• I think a little less cardio while working the abs would be better because I’d be able to concentrate on my abs and work them more.

Keeping in mind that the Cardio Abs workout was only 17 minutes, I decided to get a little running/walking in that day as well. We took a family outing to the park where my son rode his bike, my husband rode my son’s scooter, and I jogged.

• 23 minutes, 273 calories burned
• min hr – 94, peak hr – 198, avg hr – 135

I don’t know how far we went but it was pretty hot so we didn’t go the full distance on the trail. My son kept stopping toward the end saying his bike ran out of gas and he needed to refill. So he’d hop off, run to a bench like it was a gas pump, and pretend to fill his bike with gas. It was cute…until the end when we were about 50 meters away from the car and there was no shade to wait in while he filled up his tank. UGH! HOT!!!

The last DVD of the 1st month in Insanity is scheduled for later today. It’ll probably go along the same lines as the others. All in all, the series is fun in a masochistic sort of way. I hated it at first and I’m still not too fond of each workout while I do it but I no longer hate them. In fact, I’m enjoying myself. I guess I must be insane.

Unfortunately, the DVDs are due back to the library tomorrow and I can’t renew them. Maybe I’ll let them rest and switch to some Jillian Michaels after this. Then I can see if the DVDs are available next week and do them again starting with the Fit Test. I’m curious to see how much progress I’d make.

Have you ever tried a workout etc you thought you wouldn’t be able to do?

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Picking Up the Pieces After I’ve Let Myself Go

I have too many “reasons” for why I haven’t been pushing myself to exercise these last couple months. Some, like the smoke, were real but others were just excuses.

And what’s the result? I’m 10 lbs up (officially overweight again) and I look like the Pillsbury Doughboy’s sister.

I’m not happy.

I tried to keep up with strength training while on vacation but that lasted all of one week. Smoke’s gone (hopefully for good) though there is a hint of stink in the air. My plan was to start exercising again on Monday. Fresh week, fresh start.

So much for that.

In a good way.

Sunday took my husband, son, and I out to a park because it was beautiful outside. Cool breeze, lower temps (translation: lower than mid-90s), blue sky. My son had his bike, my husband had my son’s scooter, and I had my running shoes.

Knowing my son’s speed, I thought I’d get a nice little jog and walk. I did not take into account my husband’s ability to push. He raced ahead on the scooter, my son pedaled his little heart out to catch him, and I got to sprint to keep up with the both of them.

It went something like this:

jog, walk, jog, sprint!!!, walk, jog, sprint!!!, walk, jog, sprint!!!, jog, REST to look at construction, jog, walk, jog, run, jog, walk, etc…

On and on till my extra weight and my atrophied muscles screamed in protest. Actually, it was my knees that did the screaming and the cramp in my side. A lot of the walking was uphill though some of it was jogging (almost always pushing a bike…even while jogging).

So I started my exercise one day earlier.

Today I neglected to go to the park despite my plans. But wouldn’t you know, when we went to the library a dvd collection screaming INSANITY!!! stared me right in the face when I past by the rows of dvds after looking for a book that wasn’t there. Insanity came home with me and I began with the Fit Test. It went as follows:

1st Insanity Fit Test:

• switch kicks – 41
• power jacks – 40
• power knees – 93
• power jumps – 20
• globe jumps – 7
• suicide jumps – 5
• throw up in toilet
• push-up jacks – 0
• low plank obliques – 0

Why 0 for the last 2 moves? Because I gave up about 1 minute after throwing up. I felt so sick to my stomach. My face looked like something like a beet. Now I know why people say “beet red” for a person who’s really red. It’s a dark red and it doesn’t look nice as a skin color. For me it was accompanied by profuse sweating and the overwhelming urge to vomit.

That is my cue to stop no matter how much I want to keep going which I didn’t in this case so it was convenient.

So I walked around to cool down and get my breathing under control but it wasn’t until I was nearly done with my shower afterwards that the urge to throw up went away. For those of you out there who say I’m insane for liking fitness, this dvd proves I’m not insane because I hated every second of it.

At first I was extremely disappointed with myself and ashamed. I wasn’t going to post the results up here. How had I let myself get so out of shape? All that hard work before, wasted. I’m fat again and weak.

It took a lot of calm, reasoning talk to pull back from the depths of cookie-inhaling depression. And there are cookies in the house. Oreos. Though they have wheat, they have no dairy. I am too happy about this.

I’ve fallen…quite far in fact…but I can’t let it stop me. I have to pick myself back up and start going again.

I figure I have 2 options:

1. Moan about my temporary failure, inhale cookies and chips, and make it a permanent failure
2. Shut up about it and get back into the rhythm of daily exercise and eating right (or at least mostly right)

The first option is by far the easiest. Naturally it’s the one my body wants (especially my tastebuds) and I’m actually inclined to agree with my body because I do enjoy relaxing. But then my weight will creep up farther and farther. I’m not happy with how I look now; if I sit back and continue to relax and stuff myself, I’ll soon be miserable with how I look. It’s hard now but it’ll be harder in the long run if I do nothing now.

How long do you beat yourself up when you trip up?

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Smoke and Heat

My how plans can change. I had a lovely plan for this last week. It went as follows: every morning I’d take my son out to the park where he would ride his bike while I jogged/walked with him; then he’d play on the playground there while I did my strength training on the playground equipment; home for lunch; library in the afternoon.

It was a wonderful plan. We’d get exercise, play time, fresh air and sunlight, internet, books…

What I didn’t count on was the oh-so-excessive heat and smoke. It’s the reason why I hate summer. I used to love this season. Sure, it’s usually too hot and that bumped it out of 1st place for seasons with me (Spring is my favorite by the way), but at least hot was better than freezing…at least for me.

Until 2 summers ago when Wenatchee was blotted from the world by smoke. Now every summer thunderstorms terrify me. Smoke sends me into a senseless panic.

I was one of the lucky ones that awful summer because I was able to leave for about 2-3 weeks. True, there was still a ton of smoke when I came back but it was on the mend and I think it only took another week or so before it had cleared up entirely.

Now the smoke is back. I won’t make the same mistake I did last time – exercising hard every day despite the deadly air.

My son and I got one day in of our plan. There was smoke in the air but it wasn’t all that bad. What caused us to cut our morning outside time short was the heat. When it’s too much even for a kid who hasn’t had a lot of outside time lately and loves to run and climb, you know it’s too much.

Even my husband was laid up from it. He came home from work hours early with watermelon and Powerade bottles freshly bought from the store. Then he spent the rest of the afternoon napping because he had a raging headache and his stomach hurt. When I touched him, it felt like his skin was burning. Overheated.

I’ve spent the rest of the week laying low. We’ve gone to the library and a story time at Wenatchee Free Methodist Church, but have otherwise stayed in with the air conditioner on. No extraneous trips out of doors.

Looking forward to rain with no thunder/lightning and to a change in wind. Hoping the firefighters can clear up this mess (these messes actually because there are numerous fires around us…again) soon.

(NOTE: Since writing this post, the weather has cleared up quite nicely. The fires are still around but at least my town is getting a smoke reprieve for the time-being. Here’s hoping it’ll last because I’m going out again to exercise starting tomorrow.)

How do you survive when it’s smokey out?

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Healthy Smoothies and Outside Fitness

I did a very bad thing during my vacation with my parents – I stuffed my body full of so much dairy and gluten that I felt sick to my stomach (even on Omeprazole!) last night. This has happened before when I was first changing my diet over a year ago.

Oops.

It was a wake-up call that I have seriously let myself go. I shouldn’t need a wake-up call but obviously I did. Sometimes I wonder about myself.

I’m a bit bored with my single smoothie recipe. I modify it by changing up my fruit but other than that it’s always the same. I don’t have a whole bunch of money to be buying a lot of different ingredients but it would be nice if I could switch it up at least a little. I’m more worried that I’d buy the ingredients and then not use them. I hate wasted money especially with food.

I won’t be able to use, like, any of these recipes without modification because of all the dairy in them but with a bit of thought I’m sure I can modify them to my dietary restrictions. Some of these modifications would be expensive though. Like if I still wanted to use yogurt I could use coconut yogurt but that stuff is expensive. Those smoothies would be special treats I think. Hopefully they’d taste good enough to be treats instead of a punishment for something I can’t help.

When I get back home, I have a plan for getting back into shape and getting my diet back under control. Since my son is on summer break, I get to take care of him 24/7. So how do I exercise the way I like while also getting him outside and giving him attention?

Cardio:

• jogging/walking while he rides his bike (always on trails)
• Blogilates
• Tone It Up
• spurts of various cardio ie: jumping jacks, quick feet, burpees, etc (that he can join in on between bouts of sitting)

Strength Training:

• Blogilates
• Weights
• Playground Equipment
• Bands
• Own Body
• Tone It Up

I’m looking forward to using the playground as a means of strength training. Found this on Blogilates:

Can’t wait to try it!

What’s your favorite smoothie recipe?

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Humorous Side-Effects of Gluten and Keeping Up With My Fitness

If ever my family doubted my insensitivity to gluten products, it no longer exists. Our plane landed Monday evening and they took us out to dinner at a buffet. I had eaten well the whole day because I figured my dinner choices wouldn’t be the best. Sure enough, though I started with a very nice salad, the junk called out to me. Lots of gluten and dairy products later and I was stinking up the car on the way home with some very loud and very smelly outbursts from my nether regions.

The rest of the night was spent with my son playing with my dad’s fart blaster (from Despicable Me 2). He gave it to me at one point and told me to do it so I stood, stuck out my butt toward him and blasted…though not from the gun. Everyone just about died laughing (we are a potty humour kind of family).

For some reason they’ve all been pointing out gluten-free products for me to eat ever since.

The really nice thing is that they searched a long time for an allergen-free cake long before we started our visit because they knew regular cake made me sick. My poor sister had made fudge and was excited to offer me some. She’s no longer offering me any. Hmm…

It’s hot in CO (though not too bad yet) and I’ve gotten stuck in the habit of taking a shower at night before bed because there’s not much time during the day. We’ve kept busy during the day. I don’t want get sweaty from a bunch of cardio, take a shower midday, and then feel all grungy again at night so my cardio has been neglected so far. Not the strength training though!

Monday – rest from travel

Tuesday – Total Body Toning

Wednesday – Sleek and Sexy Arms, Victoria Secret Super Model Stiletto Legs Workout

HOLY COW! My arms!! And abs! Thighs hurt but only when I squat and not it’s not bad. That Total Body Toning is supposed to work everything but I felt it mostly in the front of my abs. I may take today off but I’ll probably do the Bikini Bootcamp for another full body workout.

I have to say that despite skipping cardio, that Stiletto Legs workout had my pulse up after awhile anyway. There are stairs here too so I run up them whenever I have to go up. Down not so much because I have been known to fall going down. I’m not the most graceful of people.

Oh yeah! One last note. I’ll be away from the internet this Sunday so I’ll be skipping my usual Sunday update. I guess you can consider this an early Sunday post? Anyway, I’ll post again toward the end of next week again.

What makes you bust a gut laughing?