Today starts Week 3 of Boot Camp. I have gone faithfully. I do take off Wednesdays to let my body rest, but I am there bright and early...well...more accurately I am there "dark" and early, but either way....
But, thanks to Daylight Savings Time, it is now light enough, long enough, after dinner to reinstate our nightly Family Fun Runs. I love being able to boast two workouts in one day, not to mention the fact that I get to work on my endurance and stamina. Two nights ago, B decided she wanted to ride her bike, which I thought would be perfect. I'd just jog along side her. I did not forsee her pedaling at the speed of stop, though. ...I kinda get why, though. We've taken her out to the school parking lot behind our house forever, and she speeds around the lot like nobody's business. But this was her first time riding along the roads. She was more than cautious. I jogged along side of her. At times she was going along so slowly that I literally had to stop and jog, virtually in place. Oh it was painful! lol My bad knee did not appreciate the slow plodding along. I think it actually put more pressure on my knee going along so slowly. The good news is that I was able to jog the whole thing...2.25 miles. Of course, my speed was almost non-existant, but hey...I was more than walking, and that counts!
One of the things I have loved most about Boot Camp, though, is that it's always different, and usually with some type of running. ..And this I love! I was up to 6 miles before I got pregnant, and it was so discouraging to finally go out again and not be able to make it a quarter of a mile. But with Boot Camp, the different distances and speeds that we go, it has really helped boost my endurance.
The other night on another Family Fun Run, we took the small route....just over a mile, but I ran the whole thing. And do you know who ran with me? My 4 year old! Yeah! My 4 year old can run a mile! ...I guess I should offer the disclaimer that my running is more of a slow and steady jog, but moving is moving! And I can't believe my 4 year old ran the whole mile! I am detemined to foster a love of exercise and fitness in my girls. I do not want them to have to deal with the struggles of weight and self-image the way that I have.
....Looking forward to tonight's Family Fun Run. Today was stressful, and I could use a release! And then tomorrow...more Boot Camp! :)
Monday, March 19, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Boot Camp: Day 2
Boot camp. It's not just for army recruits anymore.
Today was Day 2 of boot camp. It was great. More cardio. Thought I was going to keel over. But I didn't. And the cool thing is that I'm getting workouts that target all areas of my body AND running. However, my quads are shot, and I'm just praying that my legs feel better and I can actually walk. If not, tomorrow is going to be TOUGH!
And now, off to bed. ...Not a wholly descriptive or informative update, but, it's here either way.
5am comes quick! G'night! :)
Today was Day 2 of boot camp. It was great. More cardio. Thought I was going to keel over. But I didn't. And the cool thing is that I'm getting workouts that target all areas of my body AND running. However, my quads are shot, and I'm just praying that my legs feel better and I can actually walk. If not, tomorrow is going to be TOUGH!
And now, off to bed. ...Not a wholly descriptive or informative update, but, it's here either way.
5am comes quick! G'night! :)
Monday, March 5, 2012
Ummm...Day 1 DO OVER. :)
Okay, so it was like last week...or last, last week that I posted about Day 1 on my XBOX Kinect?
Yeah.
So a lot has happened since then. Or, more accurately, not a lot has happened since then. As it turns out, my genius plan to get fit in front of my tv wasn't all that great. I was so pumped for success, I didn't take into account prime tv viewing hours, or my husband's method of stress relief: Netflix and video games.
Since my last post, I have been roped into joining a Boot Camp by a very sweet friend. Roped carries a slightly negative connotation. I really have wanted something like this for years, but didn't think we could fit it into our budget. But I was able to get a very reasonable rate per month for what equates to almost a personal trainer, five days a week.
Today was Day 1.
Today kicked my butt. Here is a recipe for how to turn your legs to jello.....
1. Run Kickbacks around a circle drive.
2. Run High Knees around a circle drive.
3. Do this weird "side shuffle/jumping jack" thing around a circle drive.
4. Skip around a circle drive. (This I have not done since I was like 8.)
5. Stretch.
6. I might be skipping something here...can't remember. ..Yep..I know I'm skipping some kind of mat exercise.
7. Run 400 meters.
8. Do 5 burpees (if you're me and new..otherwise do 10).
9. Do 15 squats (if you're me and new..otherwise do 30).
10. Do some number of sit ups...I do half.
11. Do burpees again?
12. Run 400 meters...or if you're me and you might actually keel over and die...walk it...and run the last 50 feet. :)
13. Do some ab work with weights...
14. Walk to your car looking like Gumbee melted.
It. Kicked. My. Butt!!!
I can't wait to go back tomorrow!!! :) ..Actually, I'm kinda of terrified! I'm mostly afraid of not being able to keep up, at least for the first couple of weeks while my body adjusts, but my friend feels like tomorrow will be less heavy cardio and more weighted lifting. Sweet. My arm flab could use a direct hit.
Okay...I am making a new promise to try to update this blog more now, especially since I finally have a structured, predictable workout. Here's to feeling better in my own skin and getting summer ready!
So hopefully look for an updated post tomorrow, but for now, I gotta jet. Did I forget to mention my Boot Camp is at 5:30am? Holy cow, I'm not a morning person, and I kinda need to be up by 5am!
'Night! :)
Yeah.
So a lot has happened since then. Or, more accurately, not a lot has happened since then. As it turns out, my genius plan to get fit in front of my tv wasn't all that great. I was so pumped for success, I didn't take into account prime tv viewing hours, or my husband's method of stress relief: Netflix and video games.
Since my last post, I have been roped into joining a Boot Camp by a very sweet friend. Roped carries a slightly negative connotation. I really have wanted something like this for years, but didn't think we could fit it into our budget. But I was able to get a very reasonable rate per month for what equates to almost a personal trainer, five days a week.
Today was Day 1.
Today kicked my butt. Here is a recipe for how to turn your legs to jello.....
1. Run Kickbacks around a circle drive.
2. Run High Knees around a circle drive.
3. Do this weird "side shuffle/jumping jack" thing around a circle drive.
4. Skip around a circle drive. (This I have not done since I was like 8.)
5. Stretch.
6. I might be skipping something here...can't remember. ..Yep..I know I'm skipping some kind of mat exercise.
7. Run 400 meters.
8. Do 5 burpees (if you're me and new..otherwise do 10).
9. Do 15 squats (if you're me and new..otherwise do 30).
10. Do some number of sit ups...I do half.
11. Do burpees again?
12. Run 400 meters...or if you're me and you might actually keel over and die...walk it...and run the last 50 feet. :)
13. Do some ab work with weights...
14. Walk to your car looking like Gumbee melted.
It. Kicked. My. Butt!!!
I can't wait to go back tomorrow!!! :) ..Actually, I'm kinda of terrified! I'm mostly afraid of not being able to keep up, at least for the first couple of weeks while my body adjusts, but my friend feels like tomorrow will be less heavy cardio and more weighted lifting. Sweet. My arm flab could use a direct hit.
Okay...I am making a new promise to try to update this blog more now, especially since I finally have a structured, predictable workout. Here's to feeling better in my own skin and getting summer ready!
So hopefully look for an updated post tomorrow, but for now, I gotta jet. Did I forget to mention my Boot Camp is at 5:30am? Holy cow, I'm not a morning person, and I kinda need to be up by 5am!
'Night! :)
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Week 1, (should have been) Day 2
Today was Day 2 of Week 1 of my 9 week XBox Kinect program. ...Or, it should have been. Instead, after ending the day with a sore throat and a neck that felt tender, I went home to investigate, only to discover white patches on the back of my throat. Greeeeat! That's all I needed. Thank you maternity leave for leaving me no sick days, and of course tomorrow night I have a work event I am expected to attend.
I opted to spend the night in urgent care getting checked out, just to be on the safe side. Surely, if I went, it would be nothing. But you KNOW if I didn't go, I would wake up tomorrow morning feeling like my throat had been sealed off. Either way, better safe than sorry with little ones around, and one who can't even tell me what's bothering her. I went in.
I gotta hand it to the urgent care facility. It was quick and orderly, and was fairly empty. I had expected to be one of many. I actually brought my backpack to work on lesson plans while I waited. It didn't take long to get checked out, and while the physician's assistant who saw me did say that it probably wasn't strep, she went ahead and prescribed me a Z-pack, just in case. She agreed that my little splotchy friends in the back of my throat were questionable.
So I'm glad I got checked out, but pretty bummed it meant that my night was pretty much shot. I may need to renounce my former view of morning workouts, as that time is fairly interrupted by little more than the fussings of my Littlest Little...and then only on the mornings that she stirs early, which isn't really every morning. Most, maybe. But not every.
I'll have to play catch up the rest of the week. And just in case you were wondering, and I have had a few people ask me, about the effectiveness of the workout games out there. ....When you put forth effort, it will work. My last/first workout was Monday, and I can still feel it in my abs, arms, and legs.
And with that quick (non)update, I'm headed to bed. Strep or no, my throat is definitely sore. And my neck does feel tender to the touch. I'm getting some much needed rest.
Tomorrow? Water. A healthy lunch, a busy day of teaching (never sitting down counts for something, right?!), and making up Week 1, Day 2. It's gonna be a good, good day. :)
I opted to spend the night in urgent care getting checked out, just to be on the safe side. Surely, if I went, it would be nothing. But you KNOW if I didn't go, I would wake up tomorrow morning feeling like my throat had been sealed off. Either way, better safe than sorry with little ones around, and one who can't even tell me what's bothering her. I went in.
I gotta hand it to the urgent care facility. It was quick and orderly, and was fairly empty. I had expected to be one of many. I actually brought my backpack to work on lesson plans while I waited. It didn't take long to get checked out, and while the physician's assistant who saw me did say that it probably wasn't strep, she went ahead and prescribed me a Z-pack, just in case. She agreed that my little splotchy friends in the back of my throat were questionable.
So I'm glad I got checked out, but pretty bummed it meant that my night was pretty much shot. I may need to renounce my former view of morning workouts, as that time is fairly interrupted by little more than the fussings of my Littlest Little...and then only on the mornings that she stirs early, which isn't really every morning. Most, maybe. But not every.
I'll have to play catch up the rest of the week. And just in case you were wondering, and I have had a few people ask me, about the effectiveness of the workout games out there. ....When you put forth effort, it will work. My last/first workout was Monday, and I can still feel it in my abs, arms, and legs.
And with that quick (non)update, I'm headed to bed. Strep or no, my throat is definitely sore. And my neck does feel tender to the touch. I'm getting some much needed rest.
Tomorrow? Water. A healthy lunch, a busy day of teaching (never sitting down counts for something, right?!), and making up Week 1, Day 2. It's gonna be a good, good day. :)
Monday, February 20, 2012
Week 1, Day 1
While I already have a journal that I track my fitness goals and progress into, I figured there might be a higher level of accountability if I know that my progress is trackable and has the potential to beseen by all...or at least everyone who stumbles across this blog.
It's not that I am wholly unactive, but I've had a lot of start and stops. Some stops justified, others not. ...But I think mostly justified. Bad knee. Physical therapy. Pregnancy/post-partum.
I run. Well. I call it running. Really, it is probably more accurately described as a kind of bouncy-plod at a brisk walking pace. Here is the best visual representation of how I run:
...Yeah.... That's probably fairly accurate. Be that as it may....
And then there's a piece of wisdom I cling to, given to me by a close friend who is a coach at the middle school that I teach at, not to mention a veteran marathoner. She says, more or less, that if you're got the "bounce" part of running going on, you're doing good. Well, I bounce. I know that I bounce, because I can feel it in my rear. lol ..Another sign that I've had too many starts and stops, because I also know that after a few weeks of consistent running, that rear end bounce tends to decrease somewhat.
The problem is that running, right now, is not very conducive to my schedule. And by "not conducive", I mean that there are a few areas in which I refuse to budge:
Luckily, my parents, who have an XBox kinect, don't actively use it right now. They opted for an actual gym membership, which is something that is not currently in my budget.
Even more lucky, my parents brought the kinect, along with 1 dance game and 2 workout games, down for me when they came to visit recently.
I tried the one game the other day, "Your Shape". Not bad. Definitely a good workout. What I don't like is that you really (or at least I didn't, if you can) modify the workouts too much, and there were several workouts that engage your knees. My problem with that is that my right knee is wonky and gimpy, and exactly what landed me in physical therapy all summer long a couple years ago. Squats, while a great workout, wreak havoc on my knee. I feel like an 80 year old, and I find myself wondering if a knee replacement would correct the issue. Seriously?! No. No surgery!
Today I spent the morning, and I do literally mean the whole morning, setting up my kinect profile, and then setting up again in EA Active 2. I decided to go for the 9 week program. Today was Week 1, Day 1/4.
Kicked. My. Butt.
My husband came home for lunch as I was closing in on the end of my workout. He wasted no time in making fun of my avatar's running style as I did circuit running. I was too busy trying to make my legs continue to notice, but he was kind of right. lol As I said before, when I say that I run, what I mean is faster than walking, with a bounce. My trainer was insiting I RUN, and since it was a "race", and I do have a streak of competitiveness in me, I had to win! You know, because outrunning a digital guy in spandex is extremely fufilling. :) ...I won.
He also got to witness me doing side to side jumps. He was very.....motivational.... lol "Jump higher! C'mon babe! Keep going!" ...I did complete the exercise, but I'm pretty sure gravity won. ...Kinda don't ask me to do one of those 'jump-in-the-air-and-I'll-take-your-picture' shots. It will be a futile attempt, that looks more like...
So. Anyway. Week One. Day 1/4, out of a 9 week program completed. Is it bad that I'm craving chocolate chip cookies?! lol
It's not that I am wholly unactive, but I've had a lot of start and stops. Some stops justified, others not. ...But I think mostly justified. Bad knee. Physical therapy. Pregnancy/post-partum.
I run. Well. I call it running. Really, it is probably more accurately described as a kind of bouncy-plod at a brisk walking pace. Here is the best visual representation of how I run:
...Yeah.... That's probably fairly accurate. Be that as it may....
And then there's a piece of wisdom I cling to, given to me by a close friend who is a coach at the middle school that I teach at, not to mention a veteran marathoner. She says, more or less, that if you're got the "bounce" part of running going on, you're doing good. Well, I bounce. I know that I bounce, because I can feel it in my rear. lol ..Another sign that I've had too many starts and stops, because I also know that after a few weeks of consistent running, that rear end bounce tends to decrease somewhat.
The problem is that running, right now, is not very conducive to my schedule. And by "not conducive", I mean that there are a few areas in which I refuse to budge:
- I will not run in the dark.
-Maybe I'm paranoid, but I've read one too many news articles that validate this decision.
-It doesn't help that right now we're in the tail end of winter, which means the days are still pretty short, and by the time I can run, it's already too dark to go out. - I will not wake up at the butt crack of dawn.
-I know. I know. Maybe eventually I can/will change this, but as of now, I am not a morning person, and no amount of motivation will cause me to be one.
Luckily, my parents, who have an XBox kinect, don't actively use it right now. They opted for an actual gym membership, which is something that is not currently in my budget.
Even more lucky, my parents brought the kinect, along with 1 dance game and 2 workout games, down for me when they came to visit recently.
I tried the one game the other day, "Your Shape". Not bad. Definitely a good workout. What I don't like is that you really (or at least I didn't, if you can) modify the workouts too much, and there were several workouts that engage your knees. My problem with that is that my right knee is wonky and gimpy, and exactly what landed me in physical therapy all summer long a couple years ago. Squats, while a great workout, wreak havoc on my knee. I feel like an 80 year old, and I find myself wondering if a knee replacement would correct the issue. Seriously?! No. No surgery!
Today I spent the morning, and I do literally mean the whole morning, setting up my kinect profile, and then setting up again in EA Active 2. I decided to go for the 9 week program. Today was Week 1, Day 1/4.
Kicked. My. Butt.
My husband came home for lunch as I was closing in on the end of my workout. He wasted no time in making fun of my avatar's running style as I did circuit running. I was too busy trying to make my legs continue to notice, but he was kind of right. lol As I said before, when I say that I run, what I mean is faster than walking, with a bounce. My trainer was insiting I RUN, and since it was a "race", and I do have a streak of competitiveness in me, I had to win! You know, because outrunning a digital guy in spandex is extremely fufilling. :) ...I won.
He also got to witness me doing side to side jumps. He was very.....motivational.... lol "Jump higher! C'mon babe! Keep going!" ...I did complete the exercise, but I'm pretty sure gravity won. ...Kinda don't ask me to do one of those 'jump-in-the-air-and-I'll-take-your-picture' shots. It will be a futile attempt, that looks more like...
So. Anyway. Week One. Day 1/4, out of a 9 week program completed. Is it bad that I'm craving chocolate chip cookies?! lol
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