Sarah and I are going to kick together this afternoon, so I didn't go to 7AM this morning. I was thinking of going to 7AM AND with Sarah in the afternoon... but last night the thought of sleeping overwhelmed that ambition.
Yesterday we focused on legs, biceps and triceps. No shoulder work, no abs. Justin added a fun twist to the donkey kick/hip raises superset... fire hydrants. It wasn't terrible or anything, I just wish my right hip didn't feel like it was screwed up in some way. There's always some pain when I do the fire hydrants or when I really get my leg up high for a proper-form roundhouse. I hope it's just tightness and not something like chewed cartilage in my hip joint.
I tried some braided bands that they got a few weeks ago... I had assumed that they would be stronger than the purple bands, but doing curls with them, I don't know that they are actually stronger. Also, the way they attach to the handle makes them press on your wrists at the top of the curl which kind of hurts/is annoying.
Another fun new thing... Justin had us do '21s' for a set of curls. 7 reps going from fully extended to half flexed... 7 going from half flexed to full flex... then 7 more 'normal' curls through the whole range of motion. Good one!
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
Week 8... with a bullet!!!
Yeah, I don't know what that means... sorry.
I skipped updates for a few days again. I made it every day last week... Friday was good, but my tank ran out... one of the first times I think when I was thinking of how great it would be to just walk away. I toughed it out, though. One of my partners (we did the wheel of death thing where the bags are all in a circle and the outside partner rotates) was an older woman... late 50s? It's so hard to tell. Anyway, I had her doing alternating roundhouses and she stuck through it all. It's kind of impressive and motivating. I'm (I hope) at least 15 years or so younger than her... if she's still going, I should be right?
Sarah was going to meet me Sat morning but she had to put air in the car's tires and get gas. It was extremely cold, her hands were frozen (she worked Friday night) and she showed up five or ten minutes into the workout so she just headed home. It was good, all lower body and abs... for squats I just held two medicine balls instead of wrapping multiple bands under my feet (which hurt my feet and make me worry about them slipping out and taking out someone's eye) but it didn't resist very much. I imagined doing them with a barbell with plates like at Gold's... not very practical in a room full of people. ;-)
For 'cheat day' Sunday I had one donut but was good the rest of the day. Most of last week I was following more of a south beach nutrition plan... which was effective in burning weight. I wasn't wiped too much at all in class either (had Greek yogurt before class), but had some bad afternoons and cravings. I'm switching to more phase 2 this week... a little more carbs, but since I was able to keep up in class well last week, I was going to keep on with it.
This morning I made it in at 7 again... I think there were 9 of us there total. We did pyramids of pushups and squats which was a nice break from roundhouses... by the set of 4, I was burning bad.
My toe is getting better... I can do pushups and planks with some weight on that toe (not a ton)... right lunges are still really difficult, though. Justin took me aside to correct my form this morning on them because I was lunging forward instead of lowering myself down. It's pretty tough when you can't really bend that toe. Left lunges were fine, though.
The schedule for the week was released (Thanksgiving week)... no classes Thursday and reduced number of classes Friday... no 7AM, for example. Justin said that apparently on average, Americans consume around 4500 calories on Thanksgiving... he recommended we not do that. Also, Friday and Saturday are not counting for 10-weekers for our attendance numbers... which is great and all but I still don't want to miss because I want to keep making progress. Thinking Sarah and I will go to 9:30 Friday morning... Sarah works Friday and Saturday night, so maybe I'll go at 9:30 on Saturday after Sarah gets home.
I skipped updates for a few days again. I made it every day last week... Friday was good, but my tank ran out... one of the first times I think when I was thinking of how great it would be to just walk away. I toughed it out, though. One of my partners (we did the wheel of death thing where the bags are all in a circle and the outside partner rotates) was an older woman... late 50s? It's so hard to tell. Anyway, I had her doing alternating roundhouses and she stuck through it all. It's kind of impressive and motivating. I'm (I hope) at least 15 years or so younger than her... if she's still going, I should be right?
Sarah was going to meet me Sat morning but she had to put air in the car's tires and get gas. It was extremely cold, her hands were frozen (she worked Friday night) and she showed up five or ten minutes into the workout so she just headed home. It was good, all lower body and abs... for squats I just held two medicine balls instead of wrapping multiple bands under my feet (which hurt my feet and make me worry about them slipping out and taking out someone's eye) but it didn't resist very much. I imagined doing them with a barbell with plates like at Gold's... not very practical in a room full of people. ;-)
For 'cheat day' Sunday I had one donut but was good the rest of the day. Most of last week I was following more of a south beach nutrition plan... which was effective in burning weight. I wasn't wiped too much at all in class either (had Greek yogurt before class), but had some bad afternoons and cravings. I'm switching to more phase 2 this week... a little more carbs, but since I was able to keep up in class well last week, I was going to keep on with it.
This morning I made it in at 7 again... I think there were 9 of us there total. We did pyramids of pushups and squats which was a nice break from roundhouses... by the set of 4, I was burning bad.
My toe is getting better... I can do pushups and planks with some weight on that toe (not a ton)... right lunges are still really difficult, though. Justin took me aside to correct my form this morning on them because I was lunging forward instead of lowering myself down. It's pretty tough when you can't really bend that toe. Left lunges were fine, though.
The schedule for the week was released (Thanksgiving week)... no classes Thursday and reduced number of classes Friday... no 7AM, for example. Justin said that apparently on average, Americans consume around 4500 calories on Thanksgiving... he recommended we not do that. Also, Friday and Saturday are not counting for 10-weekers for our attendance numbers... which is great and all but I still don't want to miss because I want to keep making progress. Thinking Sarah and I will go to 9:30 Friday morning... Sarah works Friday and Saturday night, so maybe I'll go at 9:30 on Saturday after Sarah gets home.
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Lost post?
Over the years of my new life of parenthood, I've gotten to the point where more and more I don't ever start doing something that I can't just drop because I have some emergency to attend to. Things like... raiding in World of Warcraft, for example... HA. Or any online game that I can't pause (which is... pretty much any online game). I'm pretty sure that blogging is on that list now too... because I SWEAR I wrote a post last Friday... but I don't see it. So... someone must have restarted my computer when I wasn't looking last week... before I published the post.
ANYWAY... lots to talk about.
Firstly, it finally happened... I injured myself. Last Friday during warm-ups, I was jogging across the floor and I jammed my left big toe in the mat. Sprained it. I limped through the rest of Friday Funday, gimped home... actual Friday Funday was good... worked out with my coach John. Did reverse planks for the first time which John helped me with my form, the rest of the exercises we just drove hard. It wasn't the rotating circle this time, we were partnered up and the room/class was dividing into three groups/areas... two with bags and the middle area for abs exercises... and we'd rotate to new stations every minute or so. Also, we were focusing on form more than ever in the past... Justin said that they had some clinic the night before where they were talking a lot about focusing on form. During warm ups we were going across the floor jabbing and focusing on footwork... then jab-cross... which was harder but do-able for me... then jab-cross-hook which became a complete gong show, I couldn't keep anything straight, I could either focus on my feet or my hands, not both. Ugh. Then lunge-kicks across the floor and then alternating squats across the floor... then I jogged back and sprained my toe. Dammit.
Funny stuff, John said that he read this blog and thought it was funny what I estimated for ages of the owners... because I was ten years low, at least on Randy and Justin. I guess being fit makes you look younger. :-)
I was really worried on Saturday that my toe would either get worse or screw up my workout, but it was okay. We dropped the boys off at Kid's Time so Sarah and I could both work out... good times. My left thigh killed, though... I think because I had been walking
Saturday we were talking and I decided to go low/no carb this week to try to kickstart my actual weight loss. It's worked so far, I'm 7 pounds down this morning from where I was Saturday. Next week I'll operate kind of South Beach phase 2 so I can have more energy before workouts... although honestly this week hasn't been bad except for the usual carb cravings during the day and feeling tired maybe in the afternoons. Workouts have been good.
Monday was kickboxing with Sarah again... good times as always. I was careful with my toe and all...
Tuesday was fun supersets with bands... beat the hell out of my legs, biceps, triceps. Actually it's funny, I think it was while doing donkey kicks and hip raisers I was thinking back to like the first week when we did hammer curls... and wondering if we were ever going to do it again because it was such a nice little break. Then sure enough, it was the next exercise. However, we were doing supersets with standing wide curls so I'd have to get up quick, get the right band and all and do standing curls, then back down on the mat, different band, wrapped around my feet right and then hammer curls... three times. Not nearly as 'restful' as week 1 was. :-)
Kickboxing yesterday was pretty good, but my toe was hurting again/still and I almost I think tore a tendon or something in my right calf while doing this thing where we kick our partners gloves (right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot) basically dancing in place. I think I kind of strained something while compensating for my sprained toe and that almost knocked it out. Anyway, I made it through at least. We focused on some more form stuff... including better roundhouse forms.
The invitation went out today for the 'awards' dinner at the end of the 10 weeks... Sat Dec 14th. Looking forward to it!!!
ANYWAY... lots to talk about.
Firstly, it finally happened... I injured myself. Last Friday during warm-ups, I was jogging across the floor and I jammed my left big toe in the mat. Sprained it. I limped through the rest of Friday Funday, gimped home... actual Friday Funday was good... worked out with my coach John. Did reverse planks for the first time which John helped me with my form, the rest of the exercises we just drove hard. It wasn't the rotating circle this time, we were partnered up and the room/class was dividing into three groups/areas... two with bags and the middle area for abs exercises... and we'd rotate to new stations every minute or so. Also, we were focusing on form more than ever in the past... Justin said that they had some clinic the night before where they were talking a lot about focusing on form. During warm ups we were going across the floor jabbing and focusing on footwork... then jab-cross... which was harder but do-able for me... then jab-cross-hook which became a complete gong show, I couldn't keep anything straight, I could either focus on my feet or my hands, not both. Ugh. Then lunge-kicks across the floor and then alternating squats across the floor... then I jogged back and sprained my toe. Dammit.
Funny stuff, John said that he read this blog and thought it was funny what I estimated for ages of the owners... because I was ten years low, at least on Randy and Justin. I guess being fit makes you look younger. :-)
I was really worried on Saturday that my toe would either get worse or screw up my workout, but it was okay. We dropped the boys off at Kid's Time so Sarah and I could both work out... good times. My left thigh killed, though... I think because I had been walking
Saturday we were talking and I decided to go low/no carb this week to try to kickstart my actual weight loss. It's worked so far, I'm 7 pounds down this morning from where I was Saturday. Next week I'll operate kind of South Beach phase 2 so I can have more energy before workouts... although honestly this week hasn't been bad except for the usual carb cravings during the day and feeling tired maybe in the afternoons. Workouts have been good.
Monday was kickboxing with Sarah again... good times as always. I was careful with my toe and all...
Tuesday was fun supersets with bands... beat the hell out of my legs, biceps, triceps. Actually it's funny, I think it was while doing donkey kicks and hip raisers I was thinking back to like the first week when we did hammer curls... and wondering if we were ever going to do it again because it was such a nice little break. Then sure enough, it was the next exercise. However, we were doing supersets with standing wide curls so I'd have to get up quick, get the right band and all and do standing curls, then back down on the mat, different band, wrapped around my feet right and then hammer curls... three times. Not nearly as 'restful' as week 1 was. :-)
Kickboxing yesterday was pretty good, but my toe was hurting again/still and I almost I think tore a tendon or something in my right calf while doing this thing where we kick our partners gloves (right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot) basically dancing in place. I think I kind of strained something while compensating for my sprained toe and that almost knocked it out. Anyway, I made it through at least. We focused on some more form stuff... including better roundhouse forms.
The invitation went out today for the 'awards' dinner at the end of the 10 weeks... Sat Dec 14th. Looking forward to it!!!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
Looking forward to Friday
Friday's coming... Friday Funday! Sarah hates it... I really like it.
I missed on Tuesday... I was going to go at 4:30 but Joshua broke his foot in the morning... had to get home before Alex's bus showed up because Sarah took Joshua to the Dr... and then Joshua wasn't in good shape. He had a lot of pain in the middle of his nap... my first time experiencing that kind of miserable torture, watching your baby writhe in pain and beg for you to fix it and you can't do anything. :-( The tylenol finally worked and he was better. The swelling must have gone down, too.
Wednesday was a huge challenge to get out of bed. But lying there at 5:55AM, I did the math and realized that at most, I'd get an extra half an hour in bed by skipping 7AM class... and I didn't want to get home late after an afternoon class. It was good... Lauretta drove us hard, didn't let us take breaks between exercises... or made us do high knees when she was explaining things... which gets pretty hard after a bunch of squats and roundhouse and pyramids. We did fire hydrant pyramids which I screwed up on the way up because I was just doing kicks, not the leg raises between them. I did them right on the way down on the left side and it was much harder. Did 7 reps up and down. One cool thing was during a straight-arm plank 'rest', I actually felt... rested. Looked up, looked around the room... but 7AM is pretty empty (only like 10 people there, usually) ... so Lauretta looked right at me... at which point I thought 'oh, crap... she's going to see me not having a problem with this and make me do something tougher'. I'll be planking with my feet up on the bag pretty soon, I think. We also did a ton of jabs, burning out... good times.
I had a one on one meeting with Justin today which was good, talked about different goals, weight loss, etc... how to do better on the pushups, nutrition. He said they started offering these one on ones with the 10-weekers this summer because they saw a lot of people in the spring session stop coming around week 7 and thought that maybe they could help people stick with it with that extra attention. I think it's a really good idea... I can see how someone might quit at this point if they aren't seeing what they expected to see for results at this point. Some of it may be changes needed to how you're working the program but some of it I think is just that a lot of the more noticeable improvements are made in the second half, after you've developed enough that you can do all of the exercises.
I showed up a little late to the 4:30 class, so I got started a little into the first exercise.. and didn't really get any stretch/warmup time, but it was good anyway. Really burned down legs and I added a red band on the pushups which was good. We did a lot of abs stuff which started to strain my lower back. I really don't want to pop something in there so I wind up backing off and just planking or something instead. Frustrating. Also, we were doing lunges with bands which was terrible because my rear foot wouldn't stay stable because I'm wearing frickin' socks. I need martial arts or wrestling shoes!!!
Anyway... Week 6 is going fast...
I missed on Tuesday... I was going to go at 4:30 but Joshua broke his foot in the morning... had to get home before Alex's bus showed up because Sarah took Joshua to the Dr... and then Joshua wasn't in good shape. He had a lot of pain in the middle of his nap... my first time experiencing that kind of miserable torture, watching your baby writhe in pain and beg for you to fix it and you can't do anything. :-( The tylenol finally worked and he was better. The swelling must have gone down, too.
Wednesday was a huge challenge to get out of bed. But lying there at 5:55AM, I did the math and realized that at most, I'd get an extra half an hour in bed by skipping 7AM class... and I didn't want to get home late after an afternoon class. It was good... Lauretta drove us hard, didn't let us take breaks between exercises... or made us do high knees when she was explaining things... which gets pretty hard after a bunch of squats and roundhouse and pyramids. We did fire hydrant pyramids which I screwed up on the way up because I was just doing kicks, not the leg raises between them. I did them right on the way down on the left side and it was much harder. Did 7 reps up and down. One cool thing was during a straight-arm plank 'rest', I actually felt... rested. Looked up, looked around the room... but 7AM is pretty empty (only like 10 people there, usually) ... so Lauretta looked right at me... at which point I thought 'oh, crap... she's going to see me not having a problem with this and make me do something tougher'. I'll be planking with my feet up on the bag pretty soon, I think. We also did a ton of jabs, burning out... good times.
I had a one on one meeting with Justin today which was good, talked about different goals, weight loss, etc... how to do better on the pushups, nutrition. He said they started offering these one on ones with the 10-weekers this summer because they saw a lot of people in the spring session stop coming around week 7 and thought that maybe they could help people stick with it with that extra attention. I think it's a really good idea... I can see how someone might quit at this point if they aren't seeing what they expected to see for results at this point. Some of it may be changes needed to how you're working the program but some of it I think is just that a lot of the more noticeable improvements are made in the second half, after you've developed enough that you can do all of the exercises.
I showed up a little late to the 4:30 class, so I got started a little into the first exercise.. and didn't really get any stretch/warmup time, but it was good anyway. Really burned down legs and I added a red band on the pushups which was good. We did a lot of abs stuff which started to strain my lower back. I really don't want to pop something in there so I wind up backing off and just planking or something instead. Frustrating. Also, we were doing lunges with bands which was terrible because my rear foot wouldn't stay stable because I'm wearing frickin' socks. I need martial arts or wrestling shoes!!!
Anyway... Week 6 is going fast...
Monday, November 11, 2013
Week 6
I went to the 9:30 class on Saturday... it was packed. I wasn't going to be able to make it to 7:00AM because of Sarah's work schedule... 8:00 is the FIT class, so that doesn't work. I did okay at the mid-way checkpoint, I guess. I did 33 pushups and 42 situps. Still a far cry from where I want to be. I did much better for the PFT for NROTC back in college... of course I was quite a bit smaller then... but also I'm doing better form pushups and situps now than I did then. Regardless... I'm doing extra pushups now and trying to focus more on abs work in class. It's really frustrating, literally my gut gets in the way of abs work... crunches and situps. My lower back gets sore... meh, now I'm just whining. The workout was good... some brutal leg work. Supersets of donkey kicks and hip raises... 12-16-24 reps of each... so 104 reps on the right side, then 104 reps on the other side. I had to band down from the purple to the blue. I also had to keep going to get different bands as we burned out on things... which was kind of tough because it was so crowded and there weren't many mid-range bands left. Like, there weren't ANY red long bands left. <shrug> Oh, well, I did my best.
Anyway, I've been keeping an accurate food journal now since Friday... which I was supposed to be doing this whole time. I have five focused weeks ahead... now that I've got a basis of fitness and strength to do the work, I need to push it... and eat right.
I didn't go crazy on 'cheat day' Sunday, just had two donuts, followed the nutrition plan the rest of the day.
This morning was good, kickin' with Sarah. We didn't do my favorite combos, but I finished the pyramid okay... pushups going up and squats going down. The new one I can think of that we did was jab-cross-roundhouse-lunge combos... generally anything with a lunge in it, I don't like. I still feel like that's going to blow out my knee one of these days. I did two dips and them my gloves slipped off of the stupid bag base again.... hate dips... it's a really awkward exercise for me.
I have an early meeting tomorrow so I'll be going in the afternoon.
Anyway, I've been keeping an accurate food journal now since Friday... which I was supposed to be doing this whole time. I have five focused weeks ahead... now that I've got a basis of fitness and strength to do the work, I need to push it... and eat right.
I didn't go crazy on 'cheat day' Sunday, just had two donuts, followed the nutrition plan the rest of the day.
This morning was good, kickin' with Sarah. We didn't do my favorite combos, but I finished the pyramid okay... pushups going up and squats going down. The new one I can think of that we did was jab-cross-roundhouse-lunge combos... generally anything with a lunge in it, I don't like. I still feel like that's going to blow out my knee one of these days. I did two dips and them my gloves slipped off of the stupid bag base again.... hate dips... it's a really awkward exercise for me.
I have an early meeting tomorrow so I'll be going in the afternoon.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Week 5 Friday Funday
Sarah worked last night and went to the 7AM class...she reported to me that there was a lot of running in warm-ups and fun things like bear crawls. Justin didn't make us do bear crawls... still a good workout.
Taking a step back, yesterday was really tough. I don't know what the deal is with Thursday. I think that it being the fourth day in the week and strength training instead of kickboxing (kicking's more fun) makes it hard to get to. Plus I didn't feel relaxed, I think I have a touch of a head cold from the boys, I kind of had a headache the whole time. It was kind of crowded, I had to keep getting lighter bands because of the exercises which I hadn't done before... I was toward the front of the room so I couldn't see Randy very well... blah, blah, blah. Pushups were hard, my wrists really hurt... Just wasn't feeling great. I'm glad I went, obviously.
Last night I had Sarah do some measurements on me. I lost half an inch on my arm, I think two inches on my chest, only an inch and a half on my waist, I think only one inch on my hips... and then three inches off of my thigh. It's kind of frustrating to lose on my thighs which weren't terrible to begin with and hardly touch my gut which I hate. Possibly related, I'm following the dietary plan better and I"m actually writing in my fuel log rather than entering what's convenient in MyFitnessPal. Also, I'm still 320 lbs. Also regarding food... I think part of my problem is that when I had success with South Beach, I generally ate till I was full... whatever was on my diet. But now... I have to have more carbs for fuel, but I'm not used to snacking on them and by default go to the SB or atkins stuff... snacking on some meat and/or cheese, almonds, etc... and something in my brain thinks that if it's okay to eat more carbs, then I should just eat ANY carb... which is erroneous of course... and then I finish off the boys' leftover pasta and meatballs. Stupid.
Today was much better than yesterday. In recognition of the Vikings' shocking second victory of the season last night, I wore my Studwell jersey which Justin appreciated. We did butt-kickers in warm-ups and also lunge-front kick across the room which was pretty fun. Burpees were easier than last Saturday... possibly because we weren't doing pushups in them, but I'm sure I'm in better shape now too. We did my favorite combos... jab-cross-roundhouse and jab-cross-hook... with power on the roundy and hook, but by the time we did the last set, I couldn't put much power behind my left roundhouse. Abs work and pushups felt a lot better than yesterday, maybe I should wrap my wrists before I do pushups for the midpoint checkpoint tomorrow. I held oblique planks for almost the whole 30 seconds and most of it with my arm in the air... progress. :-)
Also, my coach John was at the 7AM class and Sarah said he pushed her pretty well, thought he was a good coach. I knew this already, I'm glad she made it there after she worked this morning. She's working late tomorrow so she'll be missing, though... and I should be at the 9:30 class.
Taking a step back, yesterday was really tough. I don't know what the deal is with Thursday. I think that it being the fourth day in the week and strength training instead of kickboxing (kicking's more fun) makes it hard to get to. Plus I didn't feel relaxed, I think I have a touch of a head cold from the boys, I kind of had a headache the whole time. It was kind of crowded, I had to keep getting lighter bands because of the exercises which I hadn't done before... I was toward the front of the room so I couldn't see Randy very well... blah, blah, blah. Pushups were hard, my wrists really hurt... Just wasn't feeling great. I'm glad I went, obviously.
Last night I had Sarah do some measurements on me. I lost half an inch on my arm, I think two inches on my chest, only an inch and a half on my waist, I think only one inch on my hips... and then three inches off of my thigh. It's kind of frustrating to lose on my thighs which weren't terrible to begin with and hardly touch my gut which I hate. Possibly related, I'm following the dietary plan better and I"m actually writing in my fuel log rather than entering what's convenient in MyFitnessPal. Also, I'm still 320 lbs. Also regarding food... I think part of my problem is that when I had success with South Beach, I generally ate till I was full... whatever was on my diet. But now... I have to have more carbs for fuel, but I'm not used to snacking on them and by default go to the SB or atkins stuff... snacking on some meat and/or cheese, almonds, etc... and something in my brain thinks that if it's okay to eat more carbs, then I should just eat ANY carb... which is erroneous of course... and then I finish off the boys' leftover pasta and meatballs. Stupid.
Today was much better than yesterday. In recognition of the Vikings' shocking second victory of the season last night, I wore my Studwell jersey which Justin appreciated. We did butt-kickers in warm-ups and also lunge-front kick across the room which was pretty fun. Burpees were easier than last Saturday... possibly because we weren't doing pushups in them, but I'm sure I'm in better shape now too. We did my favorite combos... jab-cross-roundhouse and jab-cross-hook... with power on the roundy and hook, but by the time we did the last set, I couldn't put much power behind my left roundhouse. Abs work and pushups felt a lot better than yesterday, maybe I should wrap my wrists before I do pushups for the midpoint checkpoint tomorrow. I held oblique planks for almost the whole 30 seconds and most of it with my arm in the air... progress. :-)
Also, my coach John was at the 7AM class and Sarah said he pushed her pretty well, thought he was a good coach. I knew this already, I'm glad she made it there after she worked this morning. She's working late tomorrow so she'll be missing, though... and I should be at the 9:30 class.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Week 5, day 3
Middle of the middle of the middle week... whoa...
I'm 3 for 3 so far this week... fun time kicking today, except for instead of doing something nice and relaxing like boxer shuffle between sets, Randy had us high knee-lifts. Besides just feeling kind of awkward, that was pretty frickin' tough right after doing a bunch of roundhouses.
REALLY had fun with the jab-cross-hook combos today... almost knocking the bag over on my right hooks. BAM.
It's funny, I feel kind of achey and worried about my right knee getting swollen and sore when I'm at home and at work... then after stretching and warming up, it felt totally fine. Not feeling totally fine, though, is the fact that I succumbed to my baser desires and went to the buffet for sushi during lunch today. Combine that with not enough WATER being consumed (diet pop at lunch, some coffee in the AM... that's it today) and I got some cramps today which I've never had before. It's to be expected... not following nutrition and hydration guidelines.
Along those lines, I don't think I really have a chance at the prize anymore. I haven't been keeping food logs and I'm sure they care about that regarding winning. I don't have anyone to blame but myself. I haven't been eating terribly, but I have been finishing off the boys' food they don't eat sometimes... oh, yeah, I'll just have those two pieces of pizza, for example... or yeah, some noodles and meatballs that Alex refused to eat. I don't feel like I'm earning a Sunday cheat day... and honestly it's easier to eat right on Sunday when I don't work out... which is kind of weird, but makes sense when you think that I don't have that post-workout hunger to deal with. I dunno.
I'm also frustrated with the number of pushups I'm doing during workouts. I burn out pretty quick most of the time (again probably because my nutrition isn't up to par) and besides my wrists get sore and it hurts a lot of the time to be pushing off of the mat. We'll see how I do on Saturday at mid-way testing.
Monday was fun kicking with Sarah again (on the last day of my 4-day weekend). We did drop sets with strength training yesterday and I had some trouble with the squat sets... the purple band was pretty easy and of course Jillian noticed I think because she said "that was way too easy for some of you, band up!!!" so I grabbed a blue to go with the purple... which wasn't too hard for my thighs for squatting but was tough because that pressure from the bands on the bottom of my feet kind of hurt. Sarah's looking for martial arts shoes for me... I could get them myself too I suppose... and should. Also, we did jump-squats yesterday which was a new kind of fun torture. It's amazing how much it takes out of you to jump up from a squat... 20 times. My breaking point was when I was pretty sure that if I jumped up one more time, I wasn't going to be able to stop myself on the way down, my thighs were about to say 'f-you, I'm out' and just let me fall to the mat. But that's where we're supposed to get...
I've made it to 18 classes now out of 27... 66.6% attendance. Assuming I make it to the last three this week, that'll be right at 70% attendance... which is the min required to qualify for the prize (there I go again... I say I don't think I have a chance but then I talk about it again). Then if I make five every week for the second half, I'll be fine. But I want to just get there every day... it's the most important thing, just showing up. Once I'm there, I do everything I can and I then later I can feel guilty about what I'm eating if I want. ;-)
Laters...
I'm 3 for 3 so far this week... fun time kicking today, except for instead of doing something nice and relaxing like boxer shuffle between sets, Randy had us high knee-lifts. Besides just feeling kind of awkward, that was pretty frickin' tough right after doing a bunch of roundhouses.
REALLY had fun with the jab-cross-hook combos today... almost knocking the bag over on my right hooks. BAM.
It's funny, I feel kind of achey and worried about my right knee getting swollen and sore when I'm at home and at work... then after stretching and warming up, it felt totally fine. Not feeling totally fine, though, is the fact that I succumbed to my baser desires and went to the buffet for sushi during lunch today. Combine that with not enough WATER being consumed (diet pop at lunch, some coffee in the AM... that's it today) and I got some cramps today which I've never had before. It's to be expected... not following nutrition and hydration guidelines.
Along those lines, I don't think I really have a chance at the prize anymore. I haven't been keeping food logs and I'm sure they care about that regarding winning. I don't have anyone to blame but myself. I haven't been eating terribly, but I have been finishing off the boys' food they don't eat sometimes... oh, yeah, I'll just have those two pieces of pizza, for example... or yeah, some noodles and meatballs that Alex refused to eat. I don't feel like I'm earning a Sunday cheat day... and honestly it's easier to eat right on Sunday when I don't work out... which is kind of weird, but makes sense when you think that I don't have that post-workout hunger to deal with. I dunno.
I'm also frustrated with the number of pushups I'm doing during workouts. I burn out pretty quick most of the time (again probably because my nutrition isn't up to par) and besides my wrists get sore and it hurts a lot of the time to be pushing off of the mat. We'll see how I do on Saturday at mid-way testing.
Monday was fun kicking with Sarah again (on the last day of my 4-day weekend). We did drop sets with strength training yesterday and I had some trouble with the squat sets... the purple band was pretty easy and of course Jillian noticed I think because she said "that was way too easy for some of you, band up!!!" so I grabbed a blue to go with the purple... which wasn't too hard for my thighs for squatting but was tough because that pressure from the bands on the bottom of my feet kind of hurt. Sarah's looking for martial arts shoes for me... I could get them myself too I suppose... and should. Also, we did jump-squats yesterday which was a new kind of fun torture. It's amazing how much it takes out of you to jump up from a squat... 20 times. My breaking point was when I was pretty sure that if I jumped up one more time, I wasn't going to be able to stop myself on the way down, my thighs were about to say 'f-you, I'm out' and just let me fall to the mat. But that's where we're supposed to get...
I've made it to 18 classes now out of 27... 66.6% attendance. Assuming I make it to the last three this week, that'll be right at 70% attendance... which is the min required to qualify for the prize (there I go again... I say I don't think I have a chance but then I talk about it again). Then if I make five every week for the second half, I'll be fine. But I want to just get there every day... it's the most important thing, just showing up. Once I'm there, I do everything I can and I then later I can feel guilty about what I'm eating if I want. ;-)
Laters...
Sunday, November 3, 2013
BTW...
I was just reviewing old posts. I don't think it's quite clear from my posts what's going on.
Yes, I'm still weighing myself. I was 319 this morning still. I'm not keeping track of my food like I should be, I need to get better at that.
I find myself subconsciously flexing muscles all through the day now. Weird muscles like my glutes and obliques. Trying to sleep at night I'll start to alternatively flex right and left side muscles... it's a weird kind of new fidgeting.
When we started doing pushups in class, I tried a few regular and then just went to pushing from my knees. I'm doing mostly regular pushups now, all through class. Saturday was a little different, but I still didn't just revert to knee pushups.
On Friday I held proper form oblique planks for 8-10 seconds.
Brad Pitt has nothing to fear but I can see the changes in the mirror, too. My belt is one notch smaller this week than it was the week before. I'm actually worried that my shoulders and arms will screw up my goal of wearing off-the-shelf shirts that aren't XXXL again. Oh, well.
So... it's going well. :-) I'm planning to cancel my gym membership this week, I can't imagine why I wouldn't just continue at Farrell's as a FIT member when my challenge is done in December... and the regular gym is pointless in comparison.
Yes, I'm still weighing myself. I was 319 this morning still. I'm not keeping track of my food like I should be, I need to get better at that.
I find myself subconsciously flexing muscles all through the day now. Weird muscles like my glutes and obliques. Trying to sleep at night I'll start to alternatively flex right and left side muscles... it's a weird kind of new fidgeting.
When we started doing pushups in class, I tried a few regular and then just went to pushing from my knees. I'm doing mostly regular pushups now, all through class. Saturday was a little different, but I still didn't just revert to knee pushups.
On Friday I held proper form oblique planks for 8-10 seconds.
Brad Pitt has nothing to fear but I can see the changes in the mirror, too. My belt is one notch smaller this week than it was the week before. I'm actually worried that my shoulders and arms will screw up my goal of wearing off-the-shelf shirts that aren't XXXL again. Oh, well.
So... it's going well. :-) I'm planning to cancel my gym membership this week, I can't imagine why I wouldn't just continue at Farrell's as a FIT member when my challenge is done in December... and the regular gym is pointless in comparison.
Day of rest after Week 4
First of all, my failure to update all week was not an indication of me slacking off this week. I made it to 5/6 of the days... so there.
Monday was great... Sarah's first day back and we partnered up. It's so different to have a partner that you know. I suppose I could get to know the other Farrellites better too, but I haven't been there enough I think. Or I'm unfriendly, I dunno. Regardless, the week in general went well. Originally Sarah and I had talked about her doing 6AM and I just bring the boys with me to 7AM and she'll bring them home... trade off at Farrell's. Great in theory, but in practice that would mean I need to wake the boys up in time to get them in the van and down the road by about 6:20... which is pretty early, they're pretty much never up then. I can't remember the last time I saw Joshua up at that time. So on Tues/Wed I wound up going to the 4:30 classes.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Sat at the end of Week 3 burned the hell out of my thighs. Consequently I spent most of the day Sunday in pain whenever I tried to use said thighs. I was worried about Monday morning because of it, but it went well, except for burning out in warmups when we were doing squats. My thighs weren't an issue the rest of the week.
Tuesday we did drop-sets for strength which apparently is really focused on doing high-resistance bands to make sure that you fail. I suppose it's kind of like the 'low rep/high weight' part of free weights training rather than high reps with lower weights. It's my understanding that it's geared toward building muscle bulk more than strength... bigger muscles rather than leaner muscles. Regardless, it's still a lot of reps. 10 instead of 16 in a set isn't a huge difference, but when you're banding up, it's pretty different. Plus that gave me a better view of what bands challenge me for each muscle group. Most anything chest and tri-related was blues or purples... well, curls too. Back and shoulders are generally green/red. My coach John was there too which was good.
Wednesday kickboxing was fun... but then it always is. We added a new move/combo... jab-cross followed by a spin with a back-handed punch. Pretty fun, I'm surprised I didn't hyper-extend my elbow because I was getting wiped by that point and a little fuzzy mentally. Pyramids included roundhouse-pushup combos and I was a little overzealous throwing myself onto the ground for pushups because later on my lower back was feeling kinda sore and tweaky.
Thursday was Halloween. Sarah worked Wednesday night so I was going to do the 5AM class Thursday so I could be home right after work to give her time to nap or otherwise recover. However, at 4AM I realized that the van didn't have enough gas in it to get me to class and back and my wallet was in the car... which was with Sarah at work. So I missed Thursday. :-(
I took Friday (and Monday/tomorrow actually) off of work... I've been needing some extra days off for a while. Sarah and I dropped the boys off at Kid's Time and went to the 9:30 class which was a blast. It was my first 'Friday Funday'... Justin had the bags set up in rows and we warmed up running through them hitting them... then doing either jumping jacks or pushups at the end and then running back to the start. I consider it a minor victory that I didn't screw up a hip, ankle or my back on the final run through with alternating roundhouses... right then left on a bag, run to the next... repeat... Then the bags got put in a big circle with one partner on the outside and one inside and the inner circle rotated through the workout, so I got to partner with everyone on the outside. That was fun, even though I spent less quality time with Sarah... <shrug> Near the end, we were doing right roundhouses for power and I happened to be partnered with a bigger FIT member guy (Randy... not the owner Randy, different) and his first hit really rocked the bag over which kind of woke me up... like 'okay... okay, let's do this...' so we had a good 'see who can knock the bag over first' contest. I had a few good ones in there, but I'm pretty sure he won. But we both won because it was a good workout, right? Right. I know I've never hit that hard... like anything, the best way to improve is to compete with someone better than yourself. Although I suppose that assumes you're a competitive person... which I probably am... a little bit.
So... Friday was the best day so far, I think. Sarah and I were going to get pedicures and some sushi and a movie too so I showered there and we wound up chatting with some of the loitering FIT members along with Justin and Randy.
Saturday morning I was going to go at 7 but Sarah worked and I realized that she wouldn't be home until 6:40 at the earliest... and since Em and Nate aren't here this weekend, I couldn't leave early. So I was faced with a dilemma... show up 15 minutes late to the 7AM class... or just go at 8. Problem with 8 is that it's the FIT class. But I figured... usually in classes through the week, they just have FIT members do things like squats or planks while the rest of us are doing jumping rope or boxer shuffle... so I figured 'well, I can do that'. I showed up and John was there, asked me how class was... and when I told him that I didn't make it to 7, I was there for eight... his eyebrows went up and he was like 'you're doing the FIT class??' I explained my scheduling issue and thought that doing FIT was better than missing 15 minutes of the regular class. I don't think he actually said 'good luck' but the sentiment was implied.
Jill was running the class and it was pretty crowded which especially sucks for me because when we're doing anything that spreads out like lunges or burpees, I take up a lot of room. So Jill started out telling us that we were going to run later than 45 minutes... already a bad sign. The transitions between exercises were much quicker than I was used to and the exercises were quite a bit tougher than I'm used to also. 'Warm ups' included a new thing for me called 'around the world'... which was lunge forward, lunge to the side, then lunge back... that's one. Ten on one side, then ten on the other. Christ. Did hen pecks for the first time... also challenging since I'd never done them... and burpees with pushups and jumps in them. That REALLY sucked... I was only about half-speed as the rest of the class and I was all discombobulated. By the time we were doing walking pushups (stand up, bend over, walk out to standing arm plank on your hands... pushup... walk back on your hands to standing), my hands were so sweaty I was in danger of slipping on the mat while walking out. We also did something... I forget what it's called... it's not 'impossibles' but it's something similar. You stick one leg out behind you like a back lunch, then slowly lower yourself to that knee, then bring the other knee down... then the other leg forward to stand up slowly. It reminded me a lot of exercises we did in wrestling where we'd walk forward like that... foot to knee, foot to knee. I didn't think that was terrible, but then I was also more falling to my knee than lowering myself to my knee...
What else... I dunno, it was brutal. It didn't quite go an hour... I was POURING sweat like I can't remember... dripping into my eyes off of my hair. Our last set was abs stuff and I just sat there for a couple of minutes when we were done.
But... then I drove home. Sun was just up a little ago... it was 35 degrees out, no wind at all, not a cloud in the sky... and that blue sky against the fall colors on the trees... it's some of the best weather I ever see in Minnesota, I just love it. By the time I was ten minutes from home, I had recovered from the class mostly and I just felt... great. Not just the weather, but everything. Chris Brown's 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah' song played on the radio when I was almost home and if you've seen the video for it, there's a lot of running around and jumping in it... and it was like how I felt. I don't know how else to express how I felt... it was like life-changingly good physical feelings.
I have six weeks to go... Whatever any of my other goals might be, my main one is just to get to class every day. Next Saturday is the midway point evaluation... I guess we just do pushups and situps to see where we're at. Sarah's working but Em will be here to babysit so I'll be at the 7AM instead of 8AM FIT.... probably... ;-) Really looking forward to 7AM kicking with Sarah again tomorrow.
Monday was great... Sarah's first day back and we partnered up. It's so different to have a partner that you know. I suppose I could get to know the other Farrellites better too, but I haven't been there enough I think. Or I'm unfriendly, I dunno. Regardless, the week in general went well. Originally Sarah and I had talked about her doing 6AM and I just bring the boys with me to 7AM and she'll bring them home... trade off at Farrell's. Great in theory, but in practice that would mean I need to wake the boys up in time to get them in the van and down the road by about 6:20... which is pretty early, they're pretty much never up then. I can't remember the last time I saw Joshua up at that time. So on Tues/Wed I wound up going to the 4:30 classes.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The Sat at the end of Week 3 burned the hell out of my thighs. Consequently I spent most of the day Sunday in pain whenever I tried to use said thighs. I was worried about Monday morning because of it, but it went well, except for burning out in warmups when we were doing squats. My thighs weren't an issue the rest of the week.
Tuesday we did drop-sets for strength which apparently is really focused on doing high-resistance bands to make sure that you fail. I suppose it's kind of like the 'low rep/high weight' part of free weights training rather than high reps with lower weights. It's my understanding that it's geared toward building muscle bulk more than strength... bigger muscles rather than leaner muscles. Regardless, it's still a lot of reps. 10 instead of 16 in a set isn't a huge difference, but when you're banding up, it's pretty different. Plus that gave me a better view of what bands challenge me for each muscle group. Most anything chest and tri-related was blues or purples... well, curls too. Back and shoulders are generally green/red. My coach John was there too which was good.
Wednesday kickboxing was fun... but then it always is. We added a new move/combo... jab-cross followed by a spin with a back-handed punch. Pretty fun, I'm surprised I didn't hyper-extend my elbow because I was getting wiped by that point and a little fuzzy mentally. Pyramids included roundhouse-pushup combos and I was a little overzealous throwing myself onto the ground for pushups because later on my lower back was feeling kinda sore and tweaky.
Thursday was Halloween. Sarah worked Wednesday night so I was going to do the 5AM class Thursday so I could be home right after work to give her time to nap or otherwise recover. However, at 4AM I realized that the van didn't have enough gas in it to get me to class and back and my wallet was in the car... which was with Sarah at work. So I missed Thursday. :-(
I took Friday (and Monday/tomorrow actually) off of work... I've been needing some extra days off for a while. Sarah and I dropped the boys off at Kid's Time and went to the 9:30 class which was a blast. It was my first 'Friday Funday'... Justin had the bags set up in rows and we warmed up running through them hitting them... then doing either jumping jacks or pushups at the end and then running back to the start. I consider it a minor victory that I didn't screw up a hip, ankle or my back on the final run through with alternating roundhouses... right then left on a bag, run to the next... repeat... Then the bags got put in a big circle with one partner on the outside and one inside and the inner circle rotated through the workout, so I got to partner with everyone on the outside. That was fun, even though I spent less quality time with Sarah... <shrug> Near the end, we were doing right roundhouses for power and I happened to be partnered with a bigger FIT member guy (Randy... not the owner Randy, different) and his first hit really rocked the bag over which kind of woke me up... like 'okay... okay, let's do this...' so we had a good 'see who can knock the bag over first' contest. I had a few good ones in there, but I'm pretty sure he won. But we both won because it was a good workout, right? Right. I know I've never hit that hard... like anything, the best way to improve is to compete with someone better than yourself. Although I suppose that assumes you're a competitive person... which I probably am... a little bit.
So... Friday was the best day so far, I think. Sarah and I were going to get pedicures and some sushi and a movie too so I showered there and we wound up chatting with some of the loitering FIT members along with Justin and Randy.
Saturday morning I was going to go at 7 but Sarah worked and I realized that she wouldn't be home until 6:40 at the earliest... and since Em and Nate aren't here this weekend, I couldn't leave early. So I was faced with a dilemma... show up 15 minutes late to the 7AM class... or just go at 8. Problem with 8 is that it's the FIT class. But I figured... usually in classes through the week, they just have FIT members do things like squats or planks while the rest of us are doing jumping rope or boxer shuffle... so I figured 'well, I can do that'. I showed up and John was there, asked me how class was... and when I told him that I didn't make it to 7, I was there for eight... his eyebrows went up and he was like 'you're doing the FIT class??' I explained my scheduling issue and thought that doing FIT was better than missing 15 minutes of the regular class. I don't think he actually said 'good luck' but the sentiment was implied.
Jill was running the class and it was pretty crowded which especially sucks for me because when we're doing anything that spreads out like lunges or burpees, I take up a lot of room. So Jill started out telling us that we were going to run later than 45 minutes... already a bad sign. The transitions between exercises were much quicker than I was used to and the exercises were quite a bit tougher than I'm used to also. 'Warm ups' included a new thing for me called 'around the world'... which was lunge forward, lunge to the side, then lunge back... that's one. Ten on one side, then ten on the other. Christ. Did hen pecks for the first time... also challenging since I'd never done them... and burpees with pushups and jumps in them. That REALLY sucked... I was only about half-speed as the rest of the class and I was all discombobulated. By the time we were doing walking pushups (stand up, bend over, walk out to standing arm plank on your hands... pushup... walk back on your hands to standing), my hands were so sweaty I was in danger of slipping on the mat while walking out. We also did something... I forget what it's called... it's not 'impossibles' but it's something similar. You stick one leg out behind you like a back lunch, then slowly lower yourself to that knee, then bring the other knee down... then the other leg forward to stand up slowly. It reminded me a lot of exercises we did in wrestling where we'd walk forward like that... foot to knee, foot to knee. I didn't think that was terrible, but then I was also more falling to my knee than lowering myself to my knee...
What else... I dunno, it was brutal. It didn't quite go an hour... I was POURING sweat like I can't remember... dripping into my eyes off of my hair. Our last set was abs stuff and I just sat there for a couple of minutes when we were done.
But... then I drove home. Sun was just up a little ago... it was 35 degrees out, no wind at all, not a cloud in the sky... and that blue sky against the fall colors on the trees... it's some of the best weather I ever see in Minnesota, I just love it. By the time I was ten minutes from home, I had recovered from the class mostly and I just felt... great. Not just the weather, but everything. Chris Brown's 'Yeah, Yeah, Yeah' song played on the radio when I was almost home and if you've seen the video for it, there's a lot of running around and jumping in it... and it was like how I felt. I don't know how else to express how I felt... it was like life-changingly good physical feelings.
I have six weeks to go... Whatever any of my other goals might be, my main one is just to get to class every day. Next Saturday is the midway point evaluation... I guess we just do pushups and situps to see where we're at. Sarah's working but Em will be here to babysit so I'll be at the 7AM instead of 8AM FIT.... probably... ;-) Really looking forward to 7AM kicking with Sarah again tomorrow.
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