Keep Calm and Get Fit

I'm not sure where the problem was but I had a really hard time getting through the day, yesterday. The morning was fine, I did my workout (and I worked very hard I might add), I ate really healthy but then around 3pm (after I had picked up the boys from school) I just started to feel drained. I still feel really tired today so I didn't do much of a workout. I decided it was important to listen to my body, and I needed a rest so I just did yoga for awhile and called it a day and seeing as I was working ahead of schedule for the 30 Day Challenge, I think that's ohk. Especially after what I did yesterday. Yesterday was something a little new from Bodyrock. For Burn, instead of a normal circuit done through however many times in 50/10 intervals, we did 3 sets of couplets in intervals of 50/10. We did each couplet twice through, followed by a Sculpt of 4 exercises and a Flow that worked on stretching your forearms and inner thighs.

Burn:
Couplet 1:
Towel Plank Drag + Push-up: 15/10
Bicep Curl + Low Jacks: 20/20
Couplet 2:
Weighted Standing Crunch + Jump: 10/20
Bicep Curls: 30/40
Couplet 3:
10 Mountain Climbers + Clean + Press + Squat + Press: 4/3
3 Point Blank Jumps + Surfer Jump Turn: 5/6

Sculpt:
Low Squat + Double Side Lift (Alternating Right and Left): 10
1 Leg Lunge + Knee up with Side Row (Left): 15
1 Leg Lunge + Knee up with Side Row (Right): 15
Plank Hold for 50 seconds

I might try to do a little something more than yoga later, we'll see. Probably not, I don't feel all that great today. Tomorrow will be fun because I'll have AJ here to work out with me, so that will be new and fun. I actually am getting to work out! Go me!

Here's my inspiration for Today/Yesterday, I went with something more relaxing for today:

Motivation is what gets you started, Habbit is what keeps you going.

Another good day. I really need to get better about getting to the workout in my day faster though. This is the last week I'll have where I have the middle of the day to myself since the boys I watch are done for the summer after Friday and then my days (excluding weekends) become the 9-5 type for a couple months. Not that I'll mind that at all (I get a free pool pass and I get to go do cool activities on someone else's dime) I will just have less time to do what I'm supposed to during the day so I need to improve my time management skills so I can get to working out ASAP in the mornings before work. I think I might join a gym that's a lot cheaper than other one's I have found and it's right down the street from me, we'll see. I also still really want to take a rock climbing class but I don't think I'll be able to, at least not until the boys go back to school.  On another note I've decided that I'm not just going to have this be my workout journal anymore, it still will be but I'm going to put down other parts of my life too. As much as my new fervor for fitness makes for a really awesome outlet for my pent up fuck-up-ness (let's call it what it is), I still think that writing shit out is the most helpful way to deal. I am still doing a lot of writing (and reading) as well as painting so I'm keeping myself busy, which certainly keeps me from hoarding bad thoughts and then blowing up at my poor, wonderfully understanding boyfriend but nightmares still haunt me sometimes and I can't help but feel like it doesn't and won't matter how healthy I get or who I talk to, rape left a hole in my soul that will never fully heal. Maybe it could have been different if I hadn't buried it for 2 years until it came bursting out of me in ways I never anticipated but there's no use in saying "if" the only place to move is forward. I guess that's the best attitude to have in any bad situation. I like to remind myself that no matter what horrible things life holds, there are always good and beautiful things to look to that outweigh the bad. After all, love conquers hate, so the same concept should apply here.

Anyway, backing away from dark thoughts, I had a really awesome weekend with AJ, it was wicked hot, but we went to the Field Museum of Sunday and it was really fun. We've decided that we're going to try to get out and do more new and fun things this summer. I am excited about it. I have already been able to cross Field Museum, Rivers Casino, Explore Downtown and the Paradise Pup off my Summer "To do" list and it isn't even technically summer yet!

Onto the workout stuff, today for the Bodyrock May 30 Day Challenge, I was on Week 3 day 3 (I'm working a day ahead so I'm not actually sure what I'm really on because the website seems a little jumbled now anyway) and I did Bodyrock Lite and Bodyrock Flow.  Lite was supposed to be 3 exercises done in reps of 25 3 times through and then 30 of the abs exercise but that was a bit easy so I stuck to doing all 4 as a circuit , 3 times through at 50/10 intervals. I also altered the squats so I did a weighted Front Raise with it to add a little challenge to it. I preceded it by doing 30 seconds of Phantom Jump Rope and followed it with 100 Jumping Jacks and 50 Extending Leg Reverse Crunches, then I moved onto the Flow, which was a very relaxing routine today and felt really awesome. Here's how I did on the Lite (I kicked some ass):

Squats with Weighted Front Raise: 25/25/30
Beginner's Push-ups: 25/25/25
Bent Over Row: 40/45/50
Bicycles: 60/80/80

Today is a very good feeling day. I also just realized that I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that I also walk a total of about 8 miles a day to and from work, so that's something too. Here's my motivation/inspiration for today:

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

So keeping track of what day I am technically on is getting confusing as the website is kinda jumbling some of the workouts so I'll just say I am working a day or so ahead because I have done a few two-a-days and a few Saturdays. Anyway, For me, I am onto Day 12 of the Bodyrock May 30 Day Challenge. Today was a Bodyrock Burn, Sculpt and Flow day and it got me quite sweaty haha. First I should say that on Saturday morning I did what I'm going to call a "mini" work out because I don't really want to say what it really was (i.e. half assed). I did 100 Jumping Jacks, 50 Russian Twists, 30 Hydrants and 10 Burpees and I called it a day. I also then proceeded to have a really unhealthy weekend of eating. Today I worked a lot harder and I am going to eat much better the rest of this week. Burn was a circuit of 4 exercises done 3x at 50/10 intervals, Sculpt was 3 exercises done once at 50/10 intervals and Flow was stretching hip flexors (that felt awesome).

Burn:
1/2 Burpee, Star Jump, 1/2 Burpee: 15/15/15
Elevated Push-ups + Triceps Dips: 10/8/8
Sumo Knee Touch + Front Raise + Squat 24/20/26
Wide Leg Toe Touch Abs with Weighted Ball: 16/12/20

Sculpt:
Low Squats (Pulse Squats): 70
Punch Abs: 20
Touch Back Squats: 20

It was a very good day. Here's my inspiration/motivation:

You will never know your limits unless you PUSH yourself to them.

Today is supposed to be Week 2 Day 5 (i.e. Day 9) of the Bodyrock May 30 Day Challenge but since I am running ahead of schedule, I am doing the workout for Week 3 Day 1 (Day 10).  Today's workout is the mid-way fit test to see how far you've come already. I was going to do the intermediate level fit test so I could really challenge myself but I want to do a comparison to where I started from so I am going to do the beginner fit test today and then I'll do the intermediate tomorrow so I can stay a day ahead. It's basically just a Burn workout with 50/10 intervals of a circuit of 4 exercises done through 3 times. Hopefully I've made progress. Let's see:

Squats: 40/30/30
Push-ups: 25/20/20
Triceps Dips: 20/25/25
Abs (I did Bicycles last time so I will again): 80/90/100

Last time I did the fit test, with the exception of Bicycles, I only did reps instead of intervals. last time, I did was able to do 3 sets of 15 Squats, 2 sets of 5 and 1 set of 10 Push-ups, 3 sets of 12 Triceps Dips and I did the intervals for bicycles getting 80/72/80.  I think it's safe to say that I am getting a lot stronger and I am pretty damn proud of myself. I plan to keep working hard and continue my quest for fitness. If for no other reason than simple happiness, I really enjoy the way working out makes me feel and my confidence levels are striding upwards.

On another note, we were also supposed to do the Flow (Yoga) Fit Test again but since that was so easy for me the first time I just did 3 Sun Salutes and called it a day.

Here's my daily inspiration:

Make Yourself Sweat.

So I kicked ass the past two days and today I fittingly had my ass kicked again. There will be no doubling up on workouts today. Today is supposed to be Day 8 (Week 2 Day 4) of my Bodyrock 30 Day Challenge but since I doubled up the other day I am working a day ahead (I am going to try to do 2-a-days at least twice a week from here on out) so I am technically at Day 9 (Week 2 Day 5).  Today (tomorrow) was a Bodyrock Burn, Sculpt and Flow day and I finished everything, I had to modify two exercises from Burn because they required equipment I don't have (yet, I'm still working on it) but other than that I got it all and I worked really hard. I think it's fair to say that if you still look cute after your workout then you didn't work hard enough and I am proud to say that that has not been an issue for me since starting Bodyrock. So Burn and Sculpt were on 50/10 intervals again (of course), Burn was a circuit of 6 exercises done twice through and Sculpt was a circuit of 4 exercises done once. Flow was harder today as it was really just variations of ab exercises and not really yoga at all.

Burn:
Burpee with alternating toe touches: 10/8 (These seriously kick my ass)
Pike Mat Jumps: 40/30
Kick-up, Lunge, Kick-ups: 10/10
Wide Leg Plank, Double jump & Weight Drag (alternating arms): 10/15
Tuck Abs: 20/15 (the second round of these killed)
Reverse Crunches (supposed to be Hanging Knee Raises but I don't have a pull-up bar): 25/30

Sculpt:
Bicep Curl & Shoulder Press: 20
Triceps Dips: 25
Round the Worlds: 10
Upright Row: 30

 Flow:
Extended Leg Raises: 15
Roll-up/downs:15
The last exercise was doing a Vee and holding for 5 breaths then relaxing.

Today was intense but I loved it. Looking forward to working hard again tomorrow. Then it's a three day weekend! Here's my inspiration for today:

Today is another chance to make yourself proud!

So yesterday I kicked ass and then some. After I got home from work I had excess energy so I ended up doing today's Bodyrock Flow workout last night, which was pretty easy because it was mostly about stretching your legs out but it felt good. Now today was supposed to just be a flow day, but those don't really push me at all so I decided to do the Flow from Week 4 Day 1 because it was a Vinyasa routine and a bit more challenging. Then I decided I still had energy so I ended up doing tomorrow's Burn and Sculpt routines. I ended up only doing one round of the Burn and I didn't do the last exercise at all but I did 100 Jumping Jacks and 100 Russian Twists after I was done so I kinda am calling it even. Anyway, with the Burn it was supposed to be a circuit of 4 exercises at 50/10 intervals done 3 times, which I didn't complete but I still feel pretty good. In Burn I did 70 Taps, 3 sets of 10 Crab Jumps and 10 Mountain Climbers and 10 Burpees and for Sculpt (one round of 4 exercises at 50/10 intervals) I did 20 Weighted Squats, 35 Bent Over Rows, 25 Woodchops Right and 25 Left. I've also eaten wicked healthy the past couple days and despite slight hunger, I am feeling awesome. Here's my inspiration for today:

Fe = Iron ergo Female = Ironman.

So this is what determination looks like.  If I had been this motivated when I was able to play team sports in high school, I could've rocked it. No use wishing now, just keep pushing.  So Day 2 of Week 2 (Day 6) was killer, awesome, but killer. Today seriously got me sweating (which is good) and I did everything, I just pushed through and I am proud of myself. Today was a Burn and Sculpt day for Bodyrock. Some of the exercises did require a dip station, which I don't have because they are freaking expensive so I modified but it all seemed to work out. wBurn was a circuit of 6 exercises again in 50/10 intervals done twice and Sculpt was 4 exercises in 50/10 intervals done once.

Burn:
Switch Lunge & Weighted Woodchop: 20/18
Windmills (supposed to be Diagonal Knee Raises): 15/20
Burpees with Alternating Underside Toe Touch: 10/8 (these were killer!)
Pike Alternating Side Jumps (Monkey/Bear Push-up plus jumps to each side): 60/30
Pike Press & Knee Tuck: 20/15
Kick, Reverse Lunge, Kick: 10/14

Sculpt:
Side Plank Leg Lift (Left Side): 10
Ab Circle Holds (Alternating Direction): 15
Side Plank Leg Lift (Right Side): 10
Ab Circle Holds (Alternating Direction): 25

I call today a success.  Lisa Marie also had a motivational video up about what you should and shouldn't be eating and how habit is what makes or breaks you and it was really apropos because yesterday I totally cheated and had a huge old slice of chocolate cake, but now I am super determined again and that will not be happening again.

On another note, I have become a little obsessed with work out gear and it is not going to reflect well on my wallet.

Inspiration:

Determination

So Week 2 is off to a great start! Today's workout felt great. I was able to do all the exercises and I feel awesome. It was another Bodyrock Burn, Sculpt and Flow day but it didn't kill me like it did yesterday. For Burn, today it was a circuit of 6 exercise at 50/10 intervals repeated twice. I had to modify a few of the exercises but not by much. For Sculpt, it was one time through a circuit of 5 exercises at 50/10 intervals and I didn't have to modify anything! Flow was a set of 3 poses that practiced balance and I really enjoyed them all, they were even a bit challenging which was refreshing.

Burn:
Alternating Arm Switch Weighted Swing: 30/20
10x Crab & 10 Mountain Climbers (making it through the set of 20 is 1 rep): 2/2
Weighted Side Lunge (alternating right & left): 30/25
Monkey Push-up: 15/15
Wide Leg Plank, Double Jump then Drag the Weight: 8/5
Alternating Right & Left Under Knee Crossovers in Plank: 40/40

Sculpt:
Elevated Shoulder Push-up: 5
Woodchop Left: 30
Single Arm Rope Pull & Twist (Left): 8
Woodchop Right: 30
Single Arm Rope Pull & Twist: 8

Really, really good day so far. Here is some Inspiration/Motivation:

Just Keep Swimming...

Well holy hell, I am beat. Day 3 kicked my sorry ass so it was nice to have an active rest day yesterday. I went with AJ's family out to Des Plaines to go to the Paradise Pup (oh so delicious yet oh so bad for you) and to River's Casino (Also very fun but mostly because I was the only one who walked away with more than I came with, only $15 more but it's something). Anyway, I decided I wanted to catch up as much as possible so I could do a proper full week this week so I did as much of Day 4 as I could handle today. Sadly, as I was still pretty sore from Friday I couldn't do all of the exercises. Day 4 was supposed to be Bodyrock Burn, Sculpt and Flow. Burn being a circuit of 4 exercises in 50/10 intervals done 3 times (I skipped the intervals and just did the circuit as 2 sets of 10 reps each (though I only was able to do 3 of the 4 exercises).  Sculpt was a circuit of 8 exercises, doing 10 of each exercise (I only did 5 of the 8 exercises because my abs hurt too much to do the ab routine) and the Flow was more Yoga but it was ab work so I only did the second pose (Side Plank with leg lift on each side).

For Bodyrock Burn I did:
Jumping Jack plus elbow to knee touch: 10/10
10 Mountain Climbers + a half Burpee: 1/1 (I did this whole thing twice)
Squat + weighted front raise: 10/10
Under Touch Toe + Straight Leg Half Burpee to Elbow: 0

For Bodyrock Sculpt:
Alternating hand weighted arm swing: 20 (10 for each arm)
Shovel Left: 10
Shovel Right: 10
Clean + Press Left: 10
Clean + Press Right: 10
Reptile Push-up (same as the Spider Push-up): 0
Mountain Climbers: 0 (I already did some and couldn't handle more today)
Star Push-ups: 0 (I am determined to be able to do these though)

I plan on starting tomorrow right by drinking lots of water, eating right and doing the full Day 5 work out, no excuses. So I will leave you with my motivation for staying strong, one of my heroes, Hope Solo is a badass):

Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.

My workout mantra courtesy of Yoda.  I admit, I was legitimately saying that out loud to myself during the ruthless "first real workout" (frankly I count the fit test from Wednesday, that shit burned) for Day 3 of the Bodyrock 30 Day Challenge. If today was just the beginning, I can only imagine how brutal this is going to get but I am 100% determined and I will NOT quit. I hope. I am at least feeling really good about this as well as myself. I have almost doubled the amount of water I drink (and I already drank a fair amount) and I am still (mostly) doing a good job eating healthy (less starch, sodium and fatty foods).

Anyway, for Day 3 we (by we, I mean I watched the video on the website and followed along so I felt like was working out with someone) did Bodyrock Burn (and boy did it) and Bodyrock Sculpt (here's hoping).  All with the 50/10 intervals again, which I am really enjoying (I found an app on my Kindle Fire that does a great job), it makes you really work for it. Maybe it's because I'm competitive but I just always feel like it's a race and I'm trying to beat the timer. It's also really helpful to have a badass playlist going while you're working. I like to listen to The Black Keys because they make me feel like I could kick some ass, which is a feeling that I find fairly seductive.

For Bodyrock Burn there was a circuit of four exercises that you repeated 3 times with the interval of 50 seconds on and 10 seconds rest. You start with touch downs (also called side taps which are fast side lunges with a touch down to the middle) then move on to spider push-ups (you bring alternating knees out, similar to hydrants but in a push up position), these were too hard for me in the basic position so I modified to girl push ups with a hydrant, next you do tuck-abs/tuck-crunches (sit ups with a knee tuck, in the rest position try to keep your feet from touching the ground) followed by hanging knee raises, I don't have a pull up bar (yet, I'm working on it because I want to be able to do these) so I did reverse crunches with a kick out. It kicked my pathetic ass but I loved it. Here's how I did:

Touchdowns: 70/60/50
Modified Spider Push-ups: 15/20/15
Tuck Abs: 15/20/15
Reverse Crunches: 20/25/25

After I got nice and sweaty doing that circuit 3 times, you immediately move on to Bodyrock Sculpt. For this one there were 8 exercises in the circuit; a bicep curl and press, shoulder press, squats, triceps presses, "round the world" (start with forearms facing forward arms lowered in front of you with your free weights lightly touching then bring arms straight out to your sides, up over your head then down in front of you back to start then reverse that, that is one rep. This hurts so good.), upright row, bent over row and finally abs (full sit-ups) with elevated legs. Thankfully you only do the circuit once. Here's how I did:

Bicep Curl and Press: 20
Shoulder Press: 20
Squats: 25
Triceps Press: 30
Round the World: 10
Upright Row: 25
Bent Over Row: 30
Abs: 30

The chick who does all the tutorial videos and whatnot on Bodyrock's name is Lisa Marie (I will probably start referring to her occasionally so I thought I ought to mention it, not that anyone but me is actually reading this haha) and she wants everyone who's doing the 30 Day Challenge to take a before picture today. I did but I will not be posting it until I have my after picture as well so that I can feel good about myself rather than just embarrassed. Anywho, I am going to hurt tomorrow, but luckily it's Saturday so it's is a rest day that will be spent at Rivers Casino with AJ and his family (hopefully I win a little haha). Sunday is also a rest day, though hopefully I'll do at least a little Yoga, maybe I'll even skip the rest day (don't count on it).  Here is some inspiration/motivation for the day:

I so want a muscular/toned back, I think they're super sexy.

Feel the burn.

Look out! I am posting two days in a row, who'd a thunk it possible? Not me, but apparently I am more motivated than I have been in years, so that is a good sign.

I started the Bodyrock 30 Day Challenge yesterday (http://www.bodyrock.tv/category/may-30-day-challenge/) with their "fit test" and it was awesome, I hurt in places I didn't know had muscles today. Thus, I was super happily surprised when I learned that today's workout was a flow workout (i.e. yoga stuff).

On another, totally irrelevant (mostly) note, the other day, my building's management company finally installed proper screens to my front windows (after a year and a half of begging on my part) but in the process one of the guys accidentally broke one of my picture frames. It really wasn't a big deal but the guy felt bad so he came back later with a Starbucks gift card for me (totally unnecessary but I'm not going to turn down free coffee). I went in this morning for some coffee and the gift card turned out to be worth $30. Nice! Also bad though because now I have an excuse to buy calorie-ridden fancy coffee drinks. Oh well, haha.

Here is my inspiration for the day. I call this picture "Holyshitabs" (it's the girl who does the bodyrock workouts.

You get what you work for.

So it's been almost a month since I overhauled my page and decided to use this as my health and fitness blog. Again proving that I very aptly named this "The Wrong Way" as I have not written since I changed it.

Just to update, I started a calendar where I write down my daily workout. I was also doing a food log on dailyburn.com but it turned out to be a pain in this and more effort than it was worth so I may try to just keep track of my eating habits on here (doubtful but only time will tell).

I haven't been running as much as I wanted to but I have been running some. Unfortunately my knee doesn't like it when I run too often so I can only do it a couple times a week and I can't really go for too long. Some is definitely better than none and I think my knee is getting stronger so hopefully I will be able to continue adding time to my runs.

That's it for the disappointing stuff, other than that, I have been doing really well. I had one week where I didn't do much but other than that I have been working out every weekday, even sometimes on weekends and I am really feeling great. So I just found this found this website through Pinterest called bodyrock.tv and they have a 30 day challenge that I am about to start today.

The first thing you need to do for it is take a "fit test" to see what you can get done already. (Here's hoping I don't start out at the bottom of the barrel) What you do is do as many of the exercise as you can in 50 secs then rest for 10 seconds then move on to the next exercise for 50 seconds, rest for 10 move on, etc.. There are seven exercises to test.

Here are my results:
Squat Jumps: 20
Push-ups: 20
Burpees: 8
High Knees: 115
Switch Lunges: 25
Tuck Jumps: 10
Straight Abs (aka sit ups): 30

You can clearly see the spots where I got tired.  That being said, not too shabby, definite and obvious room for improvement though.  Doing interval timing like that is hard, I am wiped right now. I'm very glad to have found this. And I just discovered that I did in fact do the wrong Fit Test because that was for the program back in January. Whoops, no surprise there though ha. Take 2: The May 30 Day Challenge. I made sure I am on the right page and doing the right fit test. I'm doing the beginner one today because I already did a fit test so I'm a little tired but I may move up to intermediate fairly quickly (I hope). For the correct fit test it's still in intervals of 50/10 but you do three rounds of each exercise and there are only four exercises which is nice. They are supposed to be Squats, push ups, tricep dips and sit ups but I am going to do bicycles instead of sit ups because sit up make my spine hurt. Also I went with reps instead of intervals on everything except bicycles.

Here's how I did:

Squats: R1-15 R2-15 R3-15
Push ups: R1-5 R2-5 R3-10
Tricep dips: R1-12 R2-12 R3-12
Bicycles: I1-80 I2-72 I3-80

And now I am beat haha. Onto the Bodyrock Flow Fit Test, which is basically just yoga which I already do everyday anyway.
Downward dog- no problem, my heels come up a tiny bit.
Pidgeon- easy peasy, I can lean all the way forward and keep both hips down
Dangling- basicall a forard bend, again, no problem
Standing Back Bend- Not as easy, this will be the one to work on.

So that was today, and I really will try to update more often, for myself, this serves as great motivation.