Weekend Wrap-up

This weekend was a good weekend.

Saturday morning was my Zumba class. We had 4 people. One that was a return client and three that were new. Which is good!! I like when we get new people.

After we were done I spoke with the ladies to give them a bit of my background and how I lost weight initially doing just Zumba. They were impressed and asked me how long it took. When I told them 9 months they commented that they had 9 months then to lose the weight. I might have to explain to these ladies how I altered my diet, gave Zumba all I got and started walking 4 miles a day...then running in the evening.  But my calories burned were light: 593 for an hour. Actually less than an hour because I forgot to turn on my HRM until we were done with the first song.

When we walked out, Melissa said that she wants us to pick up another class on Monday nights at 5:30! Awesome! Today I am going to leave at 5 to time how long it takes me to get to the gym to see what time I am going to have to leave. I might ask if we can push the class to 5:45 if I need the extra buffer. Our class will start next Monday.

I also asked her about personal training and if they are looking for a specific certification. She said they ARE looking for trainers, but not a certain certification. Because of that, I might end up getting an inexpensive certification right now, get some experience, and if we move or if I want to work at a different place, I at least have some experience, clients and negotiating power. As in hire me and I will sign up to get certified thru ACE or ISSA but in the meantime I am certified thru (whatever certification I end up choosing). I most likely will go thru American Muscle and Fitness and get an extra certification in Sports Nutrition.

Also Saturday I went shopping with K to Victoria Secret. I dont remember the last time I was fitted for bras and that was obvious when I was measured. My existing bra that I wore just about every day was a 38 DD. I was measured at a 34C. HAHAHAHA. Yeah. So I bought 3 new bras. Had to. No way around it. BUT they were having a GREAT sale. And I LOVE a sale! Push Up bras for $30!!

Sunday I woke up and weighed 155.5. I was fine with that. I had done some munching the day before...nothing serious...and a couple glasses of wine. Eric warned me that my weight would be going up and I didnt do any lifting so I expected it.

Sunday was my rest day. I went and saw my grandma at the nursing home. Eating was spot on for the day until dinner. My borther in law came over and cooked up a TON of steaks and a standing rib roast that he had received when a family friends restaurant closed. And because it was all together and needed to be carved into steaks and had been frozen, he had to cook it all up. And when I say a TON...I am talking about 10 steaks that look like they came from the Flintstones and a HUGE standing rib roast that looked like it was off of the Flintstones car. Remember that in the opening scene? Yeah. That was dinner last night.

I ended up making a salad with carrots, mushrooms, celery, scallions, cucumbers and steak. For "dressing" I just used some hummus. Pretty good huh?? I did have two pieces of bread with some butter but it was delicious.

Then I had my normal Casein shake last night while we watched Walking Dead.

This morning I weighed 158.0.

Probably from the bread and steak BUT I know I will be using that protein today to get thru my workout.

Tonight I work with Eric. He messaged me yesterday to talk about our session for today to make sure we were on. I told him yup and asked what we were working because I had just done shoulders myself on Friday.

He said that we would mix it up and do two days of legs this week! Oh baby! I CANNOT wait! My legs are still what I need the most work on for toning. My arms are looking fantastic but my lower body holds the fat. So I really want to lean them up and build muscle.

This is how my food is going to look for today:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with 1/4 cp applesauce, 3 hard boiled eggs
Lunch: Celery, scallions, hummus, some strips of stead
Snack: Larabar (if I get hungry)
Dinner: cheesestick, clementine, hard boiled egg
Post snack: Casein shake

Thats my news for now!!

Tip of the Day:

Bragging Rights

Yeah Nike didnt ask me to post today...nor are they paying me. pshttt....I wish. But I like the image.

Anyways...

Yesterday was a great day. Food was right on....basically...but I will get into that in a minute...and the gym was awesome...as usual.

Breakfast was what I said...oatmeal and eggs. Lunch I had a black bean burger on two pieces of romaine which ended up being too soggy to use as a bun so I just cut it up and ate it with my side salad. And then I ended up eating the buttered noodles that Landry didnt eat. Sue me...

That actually kept me full until I was done at the gym so I didnt need the Larabar.

When I got to the gym I did a 10 minute warm up on the treadmill talking with Maggie for a bit. Then I went over and worked on my shoulders. Eric was there working with another client and for whatever reason he was feeling frisky and teased me. Funny boy.

After shoulders I went over and worked my abs quick before Zumba. Zumba I kept is really nice and easy not going all out. Eric would have been proud. I skipped cool down to go out and get my little boombox so Maggie and I could practice and Eric was talking to another trainer. I stopped because they harassed me about bringing in the stereo and Eric said he was just talking about me. Hmmmm...really? He said he has been bragging about me and proceeded to pull out his phone and whip out my progress pictures like a dad or mom pulls out their kids picture. Too funny. But it made me feel good. Really good. To have a trainer brag about your progress felt amazing!

Then Maggie and I went back and just practiced a few songs. Nothing major. In 2 hours, 23 minutes I only burned 869 calories. And you know me...that burn is NOTHING!!

Then I got home and found that Aaron got Jets pizza. Damn it. I ended up having 2 breadsticks, 1 piece of pizza, some roast beef, a cheese stick, a clementine, and the rest of those Eat your Veggie chips. And I had 2 mini bottles of wine. Ya know...the kind they sell for $1.

Could you tell I was starving?

Then about 9pm I had my Casein shake. THAT put me over the top and I was STUFFED.

This morning I weighed in at 154.0. Thats fine. I dont care.

Today is Zumba teaching. In fact, I need to go get my butt in gear and get the kids around too. Xavier is all ready for his swimming but Landry is lagging behind. Time to go crack the whip.

Catch you on the flip side.

Tip of the Day:

I'm Gonna Gnaw Something!

I swear to all that is Holy, that whatever is now going on with my body is INSANE!!

Yesterday, seriously, I felt like a pig that devoured everything in its wake. Seriously. Ravenously hungry.

As in I havent felt hungry like this since I was pregnant. ALL. THE. TIME!

Wanna know what I ate? Here is my list...

Breakfast- 3 hard boiled eggs, an english muffin with PB.

9am I was hungry again but I was at mother f-ing Comcast waiting until those lazy people open up at 10 am....SO...

10:30 snack- coffee and some of my natural cookies

Lunch 11:30- 2 stalks celery, 3 scallions, 3 pieces roast beef, half a can of tuna, 2 hard boiled eggs, hummus

Snack- more of those raw cookies

Snack- Peanut Butter cookie bar before the gym (about 3)

Snack AT the gym- cheesestick

Dinner- pretzels, hummus, tuna, Eat your Vegetable chips, roast beef, coconut water

Pre dinner "snack"- My casein shake.

Workout was: 5 minutes walking at the gym, then about 30 min of yoga and stretching. Then I went and worked with Eric. We did bench presses, dips, incline presses, tricep pull downs, flys and a couple other things. We also went over what I am going to do tonight...but I will get to that in a minute.

Then it was bonus night RPM. And instead of a 45 minute class, he does an hour. My oh my... Last week he did Push the Tempo two times back to back...this week he did 3 interval tracks back to back. Ugh. A great burn though and I burned 1043 calories while at the gym.

I did ask him about my hunger. He said that with cardio training your metabolism is suspended for a short while after working out but returns to normal. With weight training, your metabolism is increased hours past your workout and your body is burning thru fuel faster. He said that is why weightlifters eat like 5000 calories a day. Hm. Didnt think about that.

And I guess it proves a point. Yesterday I know I went WAY over my "allowed" calorie intake and I still lost a pound. Down to 153.0. I dont weigh myself anymore because I need to lose weight but more to just chronicle and out of curiosity.  In fact, Eric told me that my weight will probably start going back up with the weight training but that the clothes will become looser...and I am ok with that.

So onto what is going on for me today...

I am meeting my girlfriend A with Penni for lunch. A is pregnant and is due within a week or so and we havent seen her since she moved out of the 'hood. So we will be hitting Red Brick for lunch. After that I need to run over to school to meet with a group of us that is doing a presentation for the school board on how the tornado affected us and our children for Early On Education. Next Friday will be a year since the tornado.

Then it will be off to get Xavier and home to play with them for a bit before heading to the gym.

Tonight at the gym will be a 5 minute walk with an incline of 10, speed 4.0. Then I will do lifting for my shoulders and 4 minutes of abs. Eric gave me a great ab circuit for me to do tonight. 20 seconds forearm plank, 2 seconds plank position but raising a leg and an arm and then alternating, and then 20 second v-up hold. Repeat 4 times. Ouch. After that will be Zumba and then Zumba practice with Maggie in which I will dial the energy back.

Here is my food log for the day as I am planning it for right now:
Breakfast- 3/4 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup applesauce, cinnamon and blueberries...then 3 hard boiled eggs
Lunch- Red Brick black bean burger hopefully on a lettuce bun with a side salad and hummus.
Snack- Larabar pre gym*
Dinner- hummus, pretzels, clementine, tuna, cheese stick
Bedtime- Casein shake

*Note: Eric told me he wants me to cut out the Larabars and stick with natural food. Though this bar is "clean" it is still processed. I told him I was trying to find an "energy" type bar to have before the gym that didnt have all the shit in it and this was the best one. So because I just bought a bunch of them, I will eat them until they are gone. After that, I will cut them out and instead have a hard boiled egg pre gym with some hummus.

Right now as it stands, this is about 1510 calories according to MyFitnessPal. 300 calories OVER my daily allotment. Now I KNOW I will burn that extra 300 calories off at the gym but it will still be interesting to see what my weight does tomorrow.

I just finished my breakfast of oatmeal and eggs which should be really filling and already I am hungry again. Ha. Go figure. Eric said if I get hungry he wants me to eat veggies and hummus.

Ok I am off to gnaw on something...

Tip of the Day:

Oh Holy...

Oh Holy Shitballz Batman! Wait...did that just sound like Drazil? LOL.

So yesterday I switched up my diet. I ate that awesome pancake thing for breakfast...by 9am I was starving. As in...I am gonna eat my arm off, I feel like I havent eaten in a year...starving. WTF! Next time that happens, instead of sticking it out (like I did) I am gonna have a hard boiled egg or something.

For lunch I had 2 hard boiled eggs, 2 pieces of roast beef, two stalks of celery, 3 scallions, half a can of tuna and hummus.

Snack was some raw mini cookies I had. I call them cookies very loosely. I got them at Plum Market and they are 100% organic. The ingredients are Organic coconut, sprouted organic sesame seeds,  organic dates, and organic cacao. They were not baked but instead dried so the "cookies" retain their nutrition.

But again, I was hungry by dinner.

Dinner was the other half of the can of tuna, cheesestick and a clementine, some pretzels and hummus.

Exercise was 90X back and biceps. Dont worry. I cleared it with Eric first. Tonight he said I could lift heavy for 45 minutes my back and biceps and tomorrow we would work chest and triceps. For that I am grateful that I have P90X. I dont have to worry about what exercises to do. I just put in the dvd and push play. I did cut the dvd short by just a couple minutes. Eric said no longer than 45 minutes so that is what I did including warmup stretching and cool down. And I did not do ab ripper. We did some abs Tuesday...well we held my core and it feels like I worked my abs Tuesday.

I told ya I was gonna be switching stuff up with my diet and exercise. OMG.

Aaron didnt get to leave Ohio until almost 6. It is a 4 hour ride back so I wanted to get my exercise in and then watch the new season start of Haunted Collector.

Landry was just a tired mess so he went to bed early. Xavier I let stay up a bit and play Angry Birds on my phone because he has been so good. Since when did my kids have a roll reversal? Xavier is usually my sassy pants but he has been sweet as sugar! I will take it. He has been a great helper for me!

Then before bed (while I was watching Haunted Collector) I had another Casein Protein Shake. The Casein gives the body food to fuel itself and repair the muscles all night long while you sleep which is why you want to drink it before bed. It also is supposed to help promote fat loss and not muscle loss which can happen as the body uses its reserves while you sleep. And using the muscle as I sleep when I am trying so hard to build muscle is NOT what I want.

This morning I weighed in at 154.0! Funny how I eat almost double the calories and I lose a pound.

Today I have personal training with Eric and then RPM. Normally we have been training in the AM then I head back in the evening to do RPM. Eric had a dr appt this morning so he asked if I would mind switching to the evening. No biggie.

SO... I will be doing a quick high cardio run this evening before working with Eric. Then I will be doing chest and triceps and core. Then RPM. Woo hoo!

Meals will be as follows:
Breakfast- 3 hard boiled eggs, english muffin with PB, wheatgrass and coffee
Lunch- 1/2 can tuna, celery, scallions, 2 hard boiled eggs and hummus and a couple pieces of roast beef
Snack before workout- wheatgrass, Larabar
Dinner post workout- string cheese, tuna, clementine
Snack before bed- Casein shake

Oh and yesterday I posted new stomach pictures of myself on my FB page. I want to share them with you.

I think it is going well. I wish I would have been taking pictures the whole time but if you look at my "current pictures" you will notice that as I loose more weight the vertical line running thru my belly button becomes more prominent. But when I took the picture, I pulled my pants as low as I could without getting vulgar and pulled all the excess skin out. So what you see is all that I have left. If you look at the front shot my stomach hangs over my waist of my pants by what? a 1/2"? 3/4"? Not much. I can tell you that. So I am still holding out hope to get the pooch gone.

Ok so thats the news for this Thursday!
Have a great day!

Tip of the Day: You think you are making a decision when you order oatmeal...

I feel like a chicken

So I got another workout in with Eric yesterday.

First I got in 2 miles in just over 17 minutes. Not bad. Then I walked another .75 at about an 8 incline.

Then we did legs.

And at the end of our circuit between two different types of leg presses, I did the inclined leg press 8 times with 400 lbs. Yup. You read that right. 400 lbs. 8 times...in a row. And yes I weigh in the 150's. Eat that!

From there we did Russian Split squats, jumping lunges, one legged dead lifts, regular dead lifts, etc.

Calories burned: 589 in an hour

While I was there, I forgot to ask Eric about my eating. Because I am not worried about weight anymore because I am trying to gain muscle, I need to focus on the types of food I eat. So I messaged him asking what I needed to change as far as my eating.

Obviously I need to increase protein to rebuild the muscles I am tearing while lifting. Here is what he suggested and what my meals are going to look like now...

Breakfast: wheatgrass, coffee, 3-4 hard boiled eggs, and some oatmeal OR a veggie egg while omelette and Ezekiel bread (this morning I will be having 4 egg whites, 2/3 cp oatmeal, 1/2 cup natural apple sauce and some cinnamon mixed together and cooked like a pancake then 2/3 cp blueberries on top- it is delicious! Try it!)
Lunch: 1-2 hard boiled eggs, hummus, celery, tuna, scallions
Dinner: string cheese, clementine, tuna
Snack pre workout: Larabar, wheatgrass
Snack pre bedtime: slow release protein whey powder made with water and ice

I will be interested to see what my weight does. We are going to start hitting the weights HARD.
But with all these eggs, I feel like a chicken. LOL. I did buy 2 small cartons of just egg whites and boiled up about 18 eggs yesterday. Should last me a week. LOL

Eric said I needed to have a heavier meal at breakfast hence the extra egg protein and oatmeal. And trust me. After my workout yesterday morning, I was STARVING all day. Didnt go off track with food really (though I had a couple oreo cookies and a small glass of wine last night), just ate more.

My first pre bed shake was yesterday. Holy crap! Filling! Now that I know how filling it is, it will definitely keep me from snacking in the evening. I can just have that instead! It was almost an ice cream thickness if the ice cream had slightly melted. Awesome! Just powder, ice, water.

Weight this morning: 155 lbs Holding steady and I am ok with that.

Today Aaron is out of town. If he gets home in time, I am planning on going to the gym for yoga at 6:30. If not, then I might pop in my P90X2 dvd and do that yoga.

I had planned on doing Turbo Jam and my Uncle did drop it off, however when I opened the case, the dvd's were missing. Damn it. I should be able to get the dvd's at Easter time.

I am just tapering WAY back on the cardio and focusing more on the weights. Way more Weights. LOL. But I feel like I need to be doing SOMETHING!! So Yoga will now be added back in. If I can work on my ankle flexibility, I can get a deeper squat.

I am, however, sore today. I am hoping the increase of protein will help the muscles. We shall see!

I *think* that is the news for now. Much less exciting then Monday huh? I can tell you that now I am back to working with Eric, I will be very excited to see new month shots. I forgot that I had been working on my own while his baby was born.

Ok. Have a great Tuesday everyone!!

Tip of the Day: Well...it is funny anyways... and laughter IS the best medicine sometimes...

Deer Disaster

So I had a VERY interesting Monday yesterday.

Normally I get up, make Xavier's lunch, sit down and write my blog for the day and then relax a bit before starting the morning routine with the boys.

Well I did all that and then I get a FB message from the neighbor behind us saying T is coming over to take care of the dead deer on our fence. To which I reply "say what?". Seriously. I am sitting here at my dining table looking into the backyard and I see NO deer.

I thought maybe it was behind the pine trees on the right hand side which arent easily seen from where I am sitting.

So then I see my neighbor and the sheriff outside. And they go to the deer. And the deer isnt behind the pines. It is straight out in my line of vision BUT a cherry tree trunk is sort of hiding it from view. Holy crap. So of course I had to go out there.

This poor deer must have tried to jump my neighbors fence and biffed it. It was literally half way over with one of the uprights going thru it. We (all of us) never heard a thing so it must of happened early in the morning.

Do you know what the sheriff told her? Because it was a Popsicle they wouldnt touch it. They told her to leave it on the fence and let it rot. Yeah right. The reason she has a fence is to keep her dog in. WTF.

So T was going to come over and remove it and take it to a friends rural house to the woods and let it rot.

WELL then after I posted about this on FB, Eric says "I want it. I will have it processed".

Great. Waste not, want not. I told him I would share it with him. So T took it off the fence and left it on the ground for Eric to come get later.

So I went about my business and ran my errands. Went to lunch with Aarons grandma and I did really good when we went to IHOP. I ordered their slim and fit spinach omelette. Egg, swiss cheese, onions, tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms with a side of fruit.

Then Eric texted me saying they were having problems getting the permit and that they were backing out from taking the deer. Great. Now I need to get rid of a body.

So it was good he texted because I got in an extra session at the gym with him last night...more on that in a minute.

So I call the sheriffs office who says they will issue me a permit to have it processed. So I called a processor and thought I would drop it off.

NO. It has to be field dressed and gutted. WTF. Can you tell I have no hunting experience?

Now this is not a full sized deer. This is a very small deer. Maybe two years old. So Eric (after more back and forth) told me that by the time we pay for processing etc there probably isnt gonna be much meat left.

I called the Sheriffs office. They dont pick up dead deer. I called the DNR. They said go dump it.
Aaron called Waste Management (our garbage people). They wont pick up deer even though it says they do in their manual. Aaron called the county and they told him to bury it. WTF. The ground is FROZEN!!

So last night after my workout with Eric, Aaron and I lifted the deer up onto a tarp and then onto the kids sled and walked that puppy out to the front of the subdivision (about 11 pm) and into the woods a bit to dump it. Of course as we were walking with a dead deer, 2 cars drove past us. I went with him because I was the one that was advised by the sheriff to dump the deer and my name was already in their system. So just in case someone called on Aaron, he wouldnt be accused of poaching.

So we had an Operation Deer Drop yesterday that was successful.

My workout with Eric last night was good. I got 1.75 miles in on the treadmill. 1 was running at 6.5 and the other walking at 4.2 with a 7 incline.

Then we went and did shoulders/abs. That was nice because I was able to fill him in about the deer and what was going on with it. His dad actually works out at the gym and was there and I got to talk to him about it too. Sad thing is, they would have taken it. But when they called DNR, DNR said that a processing tag could only be issued for a hit with a car or a kill with a gun. Well MY sheriff would have issued one which when I talked with the DNR the gal kinda said They are gonna do what? but that it was up to their digression. So I could have taken care of the problem easily with one phone call had I known what the problem was. BUT by the time Aaron and I lifted it onto the sled last night, it was stinking. Not rot stink, but methane gas stink. Gross! So I dont know that the meat would have been good by yesterday afternoon anyways.

So regardless...Last night in an hour I burned 514 calories at the gym.

Today my weight is back down to 155.0. I am cool with that.

My plan for today is that both boys have school. Then I go to the gym to work legs with Eric. I will run before working out with him.

Tonight Aaron leaves to go out of town overnight so I will be at home with the boys. My plan is to work on some more Zumba stuff. Not necessarily doing it but trying to watch and repeat the routines outloud. And if my legs are really sore, I can stretch them on the elliptical.

Food for the day:
Breakfast: coffee, hard boiled egg, wheatgrass, peanut butter cookie Larabar
Lunch: scallions, hummus, tuna, pretzels
Dinner: string cheese, clementine

And tomorrow because I wont be making it to the gym because Aaron is out of town, I will be starting Turbo Jam. My Uncle is dropping it off today. I am SO excited to try it!

So that is my crazy insane news for the day. Luckily no more deer appeared on the fence overnight. I was beginning to think that we might have a lemming situation. Or maybe they were just trying a new fangled die-it. Just kidding.

Have a great day!

Tip of the Day:

Updates All Around

GOOD MORNING!!

First...
Friday night I ran for all of like 4 minutes. Eric came and caught me but what he didnt know was that I was only running until I could sign up for Zumba. Then I was going to do weights for my legs and then Zumba class and then Zumba practice. So I only got about a half mile of running in. Not enough to even document. Weights and class were great. Practice was funny. We kept screwing up and we kept saying that a bad dress rehearsal means a good performance...at least we were hoping. That night I burned 1575 calories at the gym.

Saturday morning Zumba class was AWESOME! We had 5 ladies (one of which had to leave early but wanted to check out the class) there.

Three of the had just finished an MMA class right before so by the time they got to ours, it was no joke. I am not sure what the other Zumba instructor does for songs, but ours really works the core with squats, lots of abs, push ups, jumping jacks etc. We left completely sweaty and everyone said they had a good time.

I am hoping that this means that we can start picking up some more classes. They are trying to phase the old instructor out because people just cant follow her. I asked everyone how they were doing and how they liked it and they said they did, so we shall see. For that one class, I burned 886 calories. Yup. You burn lots more as an instructor.

Yesterday was a rest day for me. I did do Zumba a little bit last night but it was to learn some new routines. So in the hour I worked last night, I burned 293 calories. Mainly I sat and studied the routines.

Today I have some errands to run in the AM but I am determined to go on the elliptical tonight. I really am unsure of why I have been avoiding it like the plague but it is time to do it and log some miles.

I woke up today weighing 157.0. Not worried about it. Last night I had a BIG bowl of chili for dinner and while awesome, I am sure that it had lots of sodium and caused some weight gain. So I am just gonna drink lots today and flush it out of the system.

Last week I also took new photos. I cannot see much change in them, HOWEVER, I took them in my too small bikini to start using that for a reference AND I had just eaten which was a stupid idea. LOL.

Anyways, because I am starting to get more in the sequence, to see them better you will have to click on the image to enlarge it. I know the crap on the right side of the blog probably will cover some of the newest picture...so make sure you click on it. Next month I will crop out a couple of them to take it back down to three pictures for an every other month sort of deal.

One thing I noticed with this picture is that the saddle bag on my hip on the right hand side is about gone and smoothed out. WTF is going on with my other side then? LOL. I know the tag is partially covering what is left of it on the right hand side of the picture, but still. Also I see a little fat roll on the left hand side but I know it is because the bottoms are too small and are bunching up extra skin.

 

This picture is from January when I kissed my arm....

 This is the newest one from when I kissed my arm. I think my arms are getting much more definition. Not sure about the abs yet but I will still keep working them.

This month I REALLY want to push the weights and see what can be done change wise. I am very excited to see what is in store for the changes that can be done!

Ok so that is it for updates for the day.  Have a great Monday everyone!!

Tip of the Day: I LOVE coconut water!! It is naturally sweet and a great thing to drink after a hard workout.