Row Row Row your......

Well it definitely wasn't a boat I was rowing today at the gym, but I got a good 10 minutes of stationary rowing in after I completed my WOD (see below).

**NOTE** AMRAP = As Many Reps As Possible

My modifications were as follows:

*20 singles (this is jumproping and I can't quite get even ONE double under yet, so I stuck with singles and doubled the reps)

*5 Walk the Floors (see video).....I did NOT do the handstand push up that "the kid" does....I just walked the floor with my hands back and forth like he did in the beginning of the move, but this was the only video I could find LOL.

*10 jump squats (no modification)

*15 modified crunches (see picture below) - ONE DAY I will be able to V-ups again!

So it's kind of funny I did all of this and burned a crazy amount of calories, because I did NOT want to go to the gym this morning.  I tossed and turned all night long meaning I wasn't well rested this morning and had the hardest time prying myself out of bed and in the back of my mind I hear "You've gone to the gym 5 days in a row already, you really could skip it today and sleep a little longer", but then there was an angel on my other shoulder saying "You aren't going to be able to get to the gym for the next 3 days....you HAVE to get to the gym today!"  So I did....however I learned this morning that how I feel during my workout is SEVERELY affected by what I put in my pre-workout smoothie.  Other days this week I've been adding chilled (brewed over night) Mango Green Tea to my smoothies rather than coconut milk and I haven't been including any proteins.  Today, I had a little craving for PB and forgot to brew my tea the night before, so I added a SMALL scoop of PB (1Tbsp) to my smoothie and used coconut milk instead of tea/water along with the banana, whole green apple, and flax I've been loving lately.  It was delicious, but not only did it pack more calories, but it was HEAVY and all the jumping and moving from one move to another during my circuit left me feeling "blah" to say the least and after returning to standing on the walk the floors, I wanted to vomit all over that beautiful fake wood floor in the studio.  HOWEVER, I DID make it through my workout without polishing the floor with my regurgitated smoothie I just didn't do as many reps as I normally would have.

I DID take the opportunity to take some full length pictures (front and side view) during my alone time in the studio (they'll be added to the "In Pictures" portion of my blog at some point).

I'm proud of my efforts today, especially since I didn't snuggle back under the covers and throw in the towel for the day.  Lots of photo shoots this weekend, little time for the gym, but lots of time with good people.  Can't wait!

Have a fabulous weekend all! 

Ketchup.....

Ok, so maybe not the tomato'y kinda, but I have (again) been slacking on blogging, so I want to catch up on that.  So here goes....I am privileged enough to say that because of some great people today was my 5th day in a row of working out.  THAT hasn't happened in a LONG time.  Here's what has happened the last 5 days....

Saturday - my amazing boyfriend watched all 4 of our kids so I could go to the gym - I sure <3 him!
Sunday - we planned to go to my mom's for dinner and didn't have any other plans the rest of the day, so we went over early and helped unpack and prep dinner and since we were there, she let me head down to her fitness center (in the apartment complex) for a good 30 minutes on the elliptical.
Monday - CrossFit WOD (a previous one I'd been sent) 20 minutes of:
      100m Sprint
      10 Pushups
      15 Donkey Kicks
      20 Broad Jumps
      and then because I wanted a longer workout than 20 minutes, I went on the rowing machine for 10.5 minutes.

Now let me tell you how I am STILL feeling two days after my first rowing session.....OW! OW! OW!  Yesterday was worse than today I think, but YOWZA!  My shoulders, chest, upper back (shoulder blade area), and ABS....oh my aching ABS!!!!  Ok, enough whining, it's a good hurt and since I see my chiropractor 3x a week and lay on an amazing vibrating, roller table every time prior to my adjustment, that helped TREMENDOUSLY!

Yesterday, because of the muscle pain I was feeling in my upper body, I decided to stick to JUST cardio.  SO I rocked the treadmill for 10 minutes, hopped off to get a fan pointed my direction and had to RESTART, so I got in approximately 38 minutes on the treadmill and burned over 400 calories!  When using the elliptical I use the "Weight Loss" program on the machine which fluctuates levels, typically 2-3 minute intervals of each level (which I increase), so on the higher levels I moved the traditional forward direction, but when the levels dropped down to the lower of the two, I decided to mix things up and "pedal" backward.  It works my muscles in a very different way and challenges my balance as well! LOL!  That was yesterday....TODAY.....I met with the Anytime Fitness Personal Trainer, Jordan, for the first time and did my assessment.  Now I know what you are thinking....an assessment is not a workout and I agree, it's not near as productive as one of my regular workouts, but it included:
    Wall Sit (as long as I could hold it) - 1 min 5 secs
    Plank (as long as I could hold it) - 50 secs
    Pushups (as many as I could do) - 17K (knees)
    And overhead squats (as many as I could do) - for Jordan to assess where my muscle imbalances are. - I didn't count these, but the number didn't matter, however I do have a number of fairly prominent muscle imbalances, so it'll be time to bust out the foam roller!!

So it was NOT a complete waste and it definitely re-engaged my abs and I'm feeling THAT.

As for how I did on my assessments.....definitely better than I THOUGHT I would, but also definitely not my best.  It's just a starting point and I will get back to my best at some point and even surpass it.  Until then....butt bustin' time!

As for Jordan, he and I are very similar is what we feel are good workouts and he likes the boot camp style workouts, so I think he will be a good match for me as far as trainers go and just like my town and my honey, he's got a great name! LOL!  There's definitely something about me and THAT NAME!  Anyway, here's to my future healthy self!!  CHEERS!

My First WOD

So as some of you may not know my good friend, Tiffany (that I talk about constantly here) is a certified Cross Fit trainer and yesterday she turned me on to a cool website that posts daily Cross Fit WODs (Workout of the Day).  So I decided THIS website would be my personal trainer for the time being.  Today's workout was THIS:

Now clearly, I'm not QUITE bad ass enough to do some of these so I modified them to the best of my ability/knowledge.  I got 5 sets done in the first 20 minutes, which isn't great, but I definitely was taking my time and still sweat my butt off and my heart rate was up, so I'm calling it a success.  I swapped the handstand pushups for regular pushups.....on my knees :(  My badassery sure has changed, but I have to remember at least they weren't granny pushups....that's what I started out at a few years ago.  My burpees lacked the jumping, but I DID do them and the renegade rows were just regular standing double rows with 12 lb weights.

The second group of exercies....I planked on my elbows because my wrists are no good anymore.  Hollow rocks (GOOGLE IT!) were impossible, so instead of transferred a balance ball between my ankles and hands....I'm not sure what the official name is for it, but it's still very much a core workout, and I rocked the leg raises.

Sad thing is, my heart was beating hard, I was sweating and half of the exercises I couldn't log in My Fitness Pal which was disappointing and they only count calories burnt from cardio....strength training doesn't count, which is a huge bummer to the strength training lovers like myself.

Tomorrow I won't make it to the gym unless it's super late at night.  I have to be in the office all day and then dinner and drinks afterward to bid a farewell to one of my favorite leads and my all time favorite supervisor!  Maybe I can squeeze in a workout afterward....Anytime IS a 24 hour gym!!  I'll also be in to the gym Saturday morning as I have ZERO plans until afternoon, so hopefully I can get a nice LONG workout in....maybe a WOD AND a round of cardio.  That's the plan anyway.  Sunday I'm photographing a wedding so I probably won't make it to the gym, unless I can talk my honey in to going late at night after I'm done with the wedding.  We'll see what the weekend brings.  Gonna make it in as much as possible.  All next week I'll be "in house" (aka in the office), so I'm not sure I'll make it to the gym at all.

Anyway, stay tuned!  I'll blog as I can over the next few days and try to keep you updated on my adventure.

Happy Thursday all!

OUCH!

Not literally, but man oh man I haven't blogged in a LONG time and to my loyal fans, I'm so sorry.  Yesterday I just made a comment that I haven't had anything "blog-worthy" happen lately, but looking at my last blog post, BOY WAS I WRONG!

So first thing first, training for Go Commando fell by the way side thanks to a mini vacation (which was amazing) and being in the office for a week and then some.  Not giving excuses, because there really are none, but it is what it is.  Eating on vacation was amazing.  My honey and I made some very delicious and VERY healthy meals with just a little Coleman Stove and some tinfoil.  We DID treat ourselves to pizza ONE meal and a small malt on one of the sweltering days on the north shore.

After coming back and working in the office which is ALWAYS sabotaging to my getting healthy efforts, between the temptations surrounding me, potlucks, increased stress, and a hour and half commute each way leaving me with little time to work out.  It's just plain HARD that week of the month.

Another thing I've added to my plate and get healthy regimen is Dr Jeff May.  He is the number 1 most wonderful and amazing Chiropractor I've ever met.  The technology in his office is astonishing and the knowledge he gives to people is absolutely wonderful!  Being that our nervous system controls EVERY single ounce of our body and how it works, why wouldn't we continually take care of it (even when our backs AREN'T hurting).  Chiropractic is NOT just about your back or neck.  If you are having ANY issue chances are your vertebrae and nervous system are past a minor subluxation.  Even when you DON'T have pain and issues with organs, muscles, etc chances are there is SOME form of subluxation.  You'll hear some people talk about taking their child with ear infections to a chiropractor....what?  Yup, that's right.  Antibiotics aren't ALWAYS the answer.  So how did I get all of this information and how did I come to meet Dr May?  Well, my little (nearly) 6 year old sweetie, jumped off of a dock in to water that was much too shallow and compressed her back and neck.  First thing I did was look for a chiropractor....and I found a great one!  Izabella had her scan and Dr May identified not only the issue with her back, but something none of us had noticed previously, she holds her head to one side because her nerves and back are so out of alignment.  So how does he determine all of this.....a scan.  Yup, this dr has more technology in his office than I've ever seen.  He scans every patient's neck and back and does thermal imaging which will tell him where the body is holding stress.  He can even tell if you eat healthy or not.  When I had my scan and told him I eat healthy he said "Yeah I know, I can tell by your scan".  Then he said "Normally I have to call people's bluffs on that, but you really do eat healthy."  Anyway, enough praising of Dr May, but if anyone is interested in just seeing what your scan says, it's normally covered by insurance with POSSIBLY a small copay and when one member of your family has it done, everyone else can get one for free....here is the link for the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TotalHealthAdvantage.  Dr May is not necessarily a back dr but he takes care of overall wellness by manipulating the nervous system.  Here is the link for their website directly too: http://www.totalhealthmn.com/ .....No, they don't pay me....hehehehehe.

What else.....OH!!!!! GO COMMANDO!!!!  We ended up with 4 on our team on race day.  Three great friends that didn't know each other, my honey, and a fried of his who's girlfriend was racing on my team.  I say "race", but it's not really a race at all.  There's no timing or anything.  It's just plain fun.  It was a great, wet mudslinging time.  We had a lot of registration difficulties with Team Ortho but those were all resolved pre-race and I LOVED the course this year.  Definitely a lot more challenging in more ways than one.  One thing that challenged me the most was my fear of heights and the cargo net concoction they had us climb.  I took a LONG time to get over it, shaking like a leaf, but thanks to Ashley I made it.  I don't know what I would've done if she wouldn't have been right next to me.  The rest of the course was a lot wetter than it has been in years past, but that made it a lot more fun.  You can see pictures of me and my team on my facebook page.  Otherwise, here are some highlights :)

So fun!  Can't wait for next year and all of the people who have said they are going to do it with me, including the man of my dreams who is going to "own" it.  And next year I won't forget my running shoes!  That held me back a LOT!  No traction = scared to run for fear of falling on my face and no ankle support = sore ankles even just walking!

What else....hmmmmm....well yesterday I gave up on the gym I was trying to get in to and decided to go with good 'ol Anytime Fitness despite the experiences I've had with them (different locations) in the past.  I did my first workout this morning and since I was short on time I just hopped on the elliptical and rocked that bugger for a good 25-30 minutes.  I've also been tracking my food intake which has been quite eye opening.  Back to my old friend, My Fitness Pal.  They've made awesome improvements to the app and since I have an iPhone now, I can utilize the bar code scanner which makes things tremendously easier.

Have I mentioned lately how important love and support through this journey is?  I could not do this on my own and while my support system isn't huge and doesn't involve too many people of my immediate family, there are a few people I just couldn't do without and who have encouraged me and picked me up when I fell and who have helped me over mental hurdles and who I have to thank over and over and over again.  First and foremost, JORDAN!  He NEVER discourages me and NEVER makes me feel like I can't do something.  He's supportive of my eating habits and has joined in with me, which makes me love him more and more every single day.  When I fell short of motivation he stepped up to the plate and encouraged me to do better and do more.  Secondly - Tiffany - I can not ever imagine my life without her!!  Meeting her at my bootcamp class was one of the best days of my life.  We were instant buddies and we ran next to each other at our first 5K.  Even after gaining back 70 lbs of the 180 I originally lost she NEVER gave up on me and is one of the only people that kept in contact with me when I was at one of the lowest points in my life.  That girl has been through it all with me and I can't thank her enough!  There are a few others that have loved and supported me and have encouraged me via facebook, My Fitness Pal, and other avenues by posting their own success stories and in ways they probably will never understand.  I thank each and every one of you.  I am so blessed to have such a great group of true friends surrounding me.

So I'm back to blogging.....watch for more updates in the near future :)

Happy hump day!