Adjusted Reality

Tag: Weight Loss Page 4 of 8

Sorry, Monday, I’m Just Not That Into You…

On November 16, 2009

Attitude is everything. I’ve taken some really rough days and put a positive spin on them and come out alright. I’ve gotten through some tough times in my life just with optimistic thinking. So why, when everything is going great, and I feeling so…bleh?

I’m thankful for having a job at a stable company that has a successful product where I’m making a living wage at a title that is not beneath me. However, I’ve been at that title for 4 years now and it’s time to move up (I’ve never gone so long without a promotion). Plus, I miss the creativity I used to have earlier this year. That one post I made a few months ago all excited about job stuff? That’s on hold and I’m onto something else not quite as exciting.

I’m thankful for have been able to able to lose 110 lbs, and go from someone who grumbled about having to park 100 feet away from her apartment to a half marathon runner. However, it’s been the greater part of a year since I really took off any more weight. Why the hell can’t I get it together and finish this up? Also, a trend I’m not liking is I feel like I’m becoming less enthusiastic about my workouts.

I’m just feeling all around burnt out lately. This year has been crazy (crazy cool, but still crazy) – it started in March with the birthdays and then April with half training, and then in July, it was wedding, wedding, wedding until October. I figured things would calm down but now it’s been taking care of all the stuff I’ve put off since the wedding. Plus I decided to take on NaNoWriMo. And next week begins half marathon training.

I feel like the guy in Office Space who just wants to do nothing. The silly thing is, I know it’s crazy because I go NUTS doing nothing. I think the combination of stressing over my sticky scale numbers, having a period of work where I’m just not quite as into what I’m doing as I could be, not having had a good, lengthy, and relaxing vacation in a while, and feeling obligated to do something at every moment of the day this month is just about making me crack.

But don’t cry for me. Seriously. I saw you taking that tissue out and just go ahead and put it back.

The Write Stuff:

Even though I’m stressing about it, NaNoWriMo has been a great experience that I will be immensely proud of, even if I don’t get to 50k words (but I’m not giving up!!). Just sitting down to write a story and getting through it has been huge for me. Though it’s been hell some days to find time to write, and yesterday I just couldn’t get inspired, I’m pleased with my consistency of being able to sit down and flow. While this week was too crazy to write most days (hence, why I got so behind), I pulled over 7000 words out this weekend.

Words needed to be on track: 25000

Words written: 20500

Words per day needed this week to catch up: 2400

One thing I’m also realizing – it doesn’t need to be THE BOOK for me to start writing it. You know, the masterpiece. The one that’s going to somehow become a best seller and I’ll be able to retire and go move to Vermont like all writers do or whatever. If I can speedwrite a short book in one month, I can chip away at a novel a year. Slow, sure. But it’s better than not writing and complaining about it. I think it is going to be a goal from now on to write at least one novel per year.

Food, Glorious Food:

I’d say I lost it here this week, but honestly, I don’t know for sure. I stopped tracking mid-week and just couldn’t bring myself to start it up again. The key days were Wednesday, Friday, and the weekend.

Wednesday – work event, which I sailed through. I ordered a DELICIOUS asian chicken salad and only used half the dressing. Then later, for dinner, I ate a bunch of fried appetizers after some drinking. This is sort of a wash. Sure, I ate crap. But at least I had the sense to split the crap with other people and then realize I was done eating for the night even though it was an appetizer.

Friday, I had a buffalo burger, wheat bun, no butter and split some fries for lunch. I was hoping to love it since it’s a fairly healthy option for Fuddruckers, but I just didn’t. The meat tasted weird. We had grilled chicken, tiny baked potatoes, and my famous veggie pasta salad for dinner. However, there were two margaritas on a beautiful patio and some drinks later, so again, kind of a wash.

Saturday, I knew I needed major fortification, so I had a footlong subway turkey with no cheese and lots of veggies and an apple. That got me through the day until the party, where I cooked a feast (more on the tomorrow) and pushed tropical drinks on my guests! There was some healthy (veggie tray, veggie curry, etc), and some not so healthy (fried lumpia, fried chicken katsu, etc), and I ate some of both. Come on, a good cook ALWAYS tastes the creations.

Sunday, minus the pizza that found it’s way into the house during lunch time (Zliten’s fault! He didn’t even give me the chance to veto, he just left and came back with it), I noshed on the leftover veggies, salad, soup, fruit, and for dinner we made tiny filets.

All in all, I think what happened is I slipped back into “balanced lifestyle” mode instead of “weight loss” mode. I didn’t go off the deep end. I balanced out the alcohol and junk with a lot of fruits and veggies. And this was even left to my own devices. I’d venture that I averaged maybe 1700 calories per day this week total, which is not what I’m aiming for, but not up to my maintenance calories either. I’d call it a victory, but I haven’t had the courage to step on a scale yet. Tomorrow morning, I’ll let you know. 🙂 Last week, I bounced between 154.2 and 155.4. Disheartening as I was hoping to continue the downward trend, but encouraging as I was not up and down like normal. I’ll take what I can get.

This week, my goal is to stay under 1500 calories per day (closer to 1300 if I can), minus a planned event Wednesday which I’ll allow up to 2000.

Body Movin’:

I talked about this a lot this week with my abrupt end to shredding, unplanned day off minus some yoga Wednesday, and my subsequent discovery of DDR circuits that I refined on Friday, so I’ll spare you any more details. I took the entire weekend off to give myself a rest and am back at it this week. This is essentially my week 0 for half training, and I’m getting myself prepared to run more by bumping it up to 3 days this week. I am a week and a half from my 5 mile race, and I just haven’t trained much for it specifically, so I’m just hoping for the best. Here is the plan:

Monday: 10 mins warmup, 6×400 sprints, 10 minute cooldown

Tuesday: 5 mile run at attempted race pace (45 minutes)

Wednesday: off

Thursday:DDR circuit

Friday: 3.1 mile tempo run (yeah, I’m going to chase my sub 25 5k ONE LAST TIME before half training starts and I need to be a reasonable human and stop running so fast and work on running far)

Weekend: DDR circuit and a bike adventure

Wednesday is off because I have to be into work early anyway to go to said event at 5:30, and I don’t do early early morning workouts so I’ll adjust the rest of my week accordingly. I may reconsider and do a regular strength session tonight at the gym after my sprints instead of so much on the weekend, but we will see. Without schedule conflicts, I would have run M/W/F (sprints/tempo/long) and did DDR circuits Tu/Th.

I still owe before and after shred pictures. I’ll get on that.

So bloggy people, how was your weekend? Anything supah cool? Anyone else kinda feeling the blahs and just CANNOT WAIT for some damn time off over the holidays? Wanna tell me what an arsehole I am for feeling whiny? Your opportunity awaits…

And yes, it was another Natalie Dee day. It just felt right.

An Untimely, Shreddy, End

By Quix

On November 12, 2009

In Uncategorized

The 30 Day Shred Experiment is over.

Not because I’m a wuss (though I have to keep telling myself that). Not because the workout was too hard. It was challenging workout for sure, but I was able to get through it. Not because I hated seeing Jillian’s smug mug every day saying the same cheeseball lines about “gargling my heart” or “replacing hours phoning it in at the gym”. Not because it got boring doing the same damn thing over and over each day.

Just about the only thing that could break me did – I found myself yesterday *thisclose* to an injury. When I first started running I had a lot of heel problems. I had to take 2 weeks off (which literally almost drove me crazy) because each step doing something more poundy than just walking hurt like the dickens. Of course, I’ve gotten over this. I haven’t felt heel pain minus an odd tinge in about a year and a half. Until Jillian came into my life.

The first week wasn’t so bad. In fact, the overwhelming pain was leg muscles, and it was the “hurt-so-good” pain. So I kept on. Week 2 wasn’t too bad either. However, I think my feet started to be sensitive as by the end of it, I REQUIRED new shoes. I’ve been wearing the old ones to shred and honestly, nothing really seems wrong with them now. Week 3, I only made it through 4 days and started to feel some mild heel pain. Figure it would go away. This week didn’t start so badly, but yesterday morning, I had to quit during the WARMUP because my heels were killing me.

If you know me, I do not quit workouts. Starting sometimes is an issue but when I’m suited up, I’m just about unstoppable.

After considering the options, I decided that Jillian everyday was not going to work for me. Not with running and DDR too, and I don’t want to give those up. My heels were still mildly sore today, so I avoided running, but was able to DDR without a problem, even the super jumpy songs. This doesn’t mean I’ll never shred again, but I cannot see doing it every day. Apparently my heels aren’t tough enough.

So, my half-assed review follows:

Weight lost: Hard to say because I fluctuate so much, but I will say that when I started, my weight was between about 155-158. I’m now stabilizing around 154-155 this week with a low last week of 152.8. I would have liked to say that this was the month where I kicked the 150’s to the curb, but I just didn’t have it together.

Inches lost: I totally misplaced my measuring tape, but I found another way to tackle this problem. Huge progress here. I had one pair of jeans that were in the “a little tight but wearable-ish”, and one pair that would barely button at the beginning of the month (both size 6s). I am happy to report that both pairs are now in my regular rotation (though the too tight to button, I do have to take care which shirts I wear with them as they are suuuuper low rise).

Pictures come later – I took befores, and I am going to take afters tomorrow or on a day I don’t feel so bloated. 🙂

The good:

I feel stronger. I haven’t felt stronger like this in a while. Through my half training my weights and reps stopped increasing and I just haven’t been motivated to do a big push on this since. While I was only using 7 lb weights during most of the videos (occasionally I’d switch to my 3 lb ones on the second set if I was hurting), it definitely worked me over.

I discovered I needed to work some muscles I wasn’t. I had been neglecting the squats and lunges for a long time, and had convinced myself that running worked them just fine. Not so. The first day convinced me of that when I was having trouble sitting down and getting up the next day after a 20 minute workout.

I had been shying away from dual moves (for example, lunges with hammer curls instead of just doing hammer curls). Now I know that I’ll get worked over much faster by doing two things at the same time. I mean, duh, right? Not sure why I didn’t get this before.

I have fallen in love with circuits! I dig the idea of mixing strength, cardio, and abs into one simultaneous workout.

My short distance running has VASTLY improved. My easy 5ks have gone from 30-ish to 27-28ish and I did a 25 minute tempo run two days ago and got 3 miles under my belt. My goal was a 5k under 25 minutes and this takes me so damn close. I haven’t done a timed mile in a while but I bet I could shatter my 7:17 record. Shredding was also a fantastic warm up for running. If I had an hour, I did a shred and then immediately hit the pavement for a 5k.

I feel slimmer. I may not weigh much less than I did a month ago, but putting on those skinny jeans and having them fit felt GREAT.

Traveling pushups. ‘Nuff said.

The bad:

It just felt wrong to do the same workout 5 days in a row. If my heel hadn’t acted up, I totally would have been down for doing alternating levels, but doing the same workout 5 days in a row? Totally boring and bad for the muscles, imo.

I didn’t look forward to it at all most days. There were some mornings it took me an extra few minutes to get out of bed because I didn’t want to shred. It was definitely a “get through this” part of the workout and not a “hey cool I get to do this” part.

Anyone else just fucking hate jumping jacks?

The ugly:

As detailed above, I got really close to a heel injury. No bueno at all.

However, I really enjoyed what I did today, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to hear about it. Yes, I know I’m awful.

So I want to know – anyone gonna go shred after my review? Ever found a great exercise that works wonders but your body just didn’t like it? Who wants to call me a wuss for not finishing my last few days? Any shredders and runners see a huge improvement in times like I did? Hit me up.

Pictures from fukung.net, that don’t have anything to do with anything but made me laugh. 🙂

On Fitting an Elephant in a Teacup

By Quix

On November 10, 2009

In Uncategorized

Life feels a lot like this lately. Sometimes I miss being so megamaniacally (my made up word, deal) focused on ONE BIG THING because it was easy to ignore all those awesome and time consuming possibilities on the horizon. All that mattered in my life was my Zliten, and work. Everything else was completely trivial. If I didn’t get groceries one week, we just got takeout. We rarely got invited out and we weren’t generally expected to show up. Hobbies? I listed them on my resume as playing games (usually testing out what I was working on), swimming (I would occasionally walk downstairs and jump in the pool to cool off), web design and art (it had been YEARS), anime and sci fi (watching while working). My friends, I was a 4.0 student that had no extracurricular activities.

Now, my life is completely different. I’m like that kid with the middling GPA that doesn’t try very hard in class but gets by, but is president of the glee club, in student council, plays on the soccer team, and also knits afghans for the homeless in quilt club. For example, this week, I have just about every hour outside work mapped out. Yesterday was catching up on my novel, dinner, and cleaning the bedroom. It was naaaaasty (said like Clevland). Today I ran and shredded before work, now work, lunch out, work, obtain groceries for party food, novel, then bed. The rest of the week doesn’t get much better. It’s all pretty much diet hell as well unless I remain a pillar of motivation and stability. This last week was my reprieve, and I did alright. This week, it’s on like donkey kong. Battle Royale of Quix vs Too Much Food And Booze.

I always spend some time self negotiating here. The fight between lazy self and truthy self. “Why not quit NaNoWriMo?” says lazy. “It’s a busy month and it’s your first time trying. You’ve got a good start. Give yourself six months and see if you can get it done by then.”

Then, truthiness self steps up. “No! You always say you want to be a writer. If you give this up, you know you’ll lose steam and it will be just one more failed manuscript. It’s one month. It’s 50,000 words. You blog about half that in a month. Suck it up, buttercup!”

Truthiness self is totally right and lazy pouts.

“Well, then something’s gotta give, right?” Lazy says. “Maybe I should just cut down the exercising. I’ve done 3 weeks of shredding, that’s enough right?”

Truthiness self pounds her fist down on the proverbial table. “Ok, let’s stop when you’re finally having the first results you’ve seen in months. And let’s not even begin to entertain the thought of letting go of your eating.”

“But-” Lazy protests. Stupid mind reading truthiness self.

“Hey – you know as well as I do. It takes no extra time to control your portions and choose healthy things from the menu. No excuse.”

Lazy is totally pouting here. This could have been her excuse to order some really awesome greaseball food at the company event on Wednesday, the outing Friday, and completely go crazy Saturday night at the party. “Who would blame me? I’m totally busy this week. Busy people eat junk food, right?”

Truthy rolls her eyes at Lazy. “Other busy people eat junk food. YOU are better than that. YOU know that all that noise is comfort eating. YOU know your body feels better when you don’t consume junk.”

Lazy grumbles. “Fine, I give. So what’s the deal. What do I do?”

Truthy gets a little too close (come on, personal space, self!) and looks Lazy in the eyes. “Like I said, suck it up, buttercup. You want to write this novel. You want to lose this weight. You want to maintain this fitness. You planned this party this weekend. These are all things you want to do. WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT THE ABUNDANCE OF AWESOME THINGS GOING ON THIS WEEK?”

Lazy wipes this spit off her face. Truthy is a little enthusiastic sometimes. “You are so right. I just need to get on with myself and do it.”

Truthy smiles and pats Lazy on the butt. “Good kid. Now get out there.” Not entirely sure why my hard ass self is trying to do an impression of my middle school gym teacher, but there you go. Welcome to my head.

What I need to remember is that there is never a goddamn good time to do anything. When I started doing this healthy living thing, I was surrounded by people (minus the Zliten who was trying to do it with me) that were either ambivalent, skeptical, or unsupportive. I cannot think of a good time in the last 3 years to have written a novel. I can’t think of a month that hasn’t been a whole lot of crazy. Last spring was not a particularly good time to start training for a half marathon. In fact, heat training sucked. I never got surrounded by this healthy living bubble that made it all easy. This morning I was accosted by a cupcake the size of one my shrunken buttcheeks in the break room, but I didn’t give in.

Things may have been simpler then when I only cared about one thing, but when I took the blinders off and saw the rest of my life in ruination, I knew that I had to bring back some balance, some harmony, some remedy to all-work-and-no-play makes Quix a fat evil genius-wannabe. Between discovering that there was indeed life outside of work and shedding approximately one petite human being from my physical mass, the blinders were way off and my head was up in the clouds, dreaming about all these new awesome things I could do.

I’m good at the dreaming. What I need practice at is the doing. It’s easy to make excuses that life is too busy, and you’ll wait for a better time to start working out, start that novel, start cooking dinner instead of getting take out, take a clogging class, etc. I’m here to tell you now – your life is not going to get any easier. Unless you have extreme circumstances (aka, you work crazy hours for 3 months and then have 3 months off, or something similar), there is NO GOOD TIME to start something. You just need to decide to grab time by the huevos, look it squarely in the eyes, and tell it that you’re going to be watching it closely, making sure that it doesn’t slip away.

So there you have it. I am going to make it through this crazy busy week, my writing is not going to suffer, my workouts are not going to suffer, and I am going to make the healthiest choices I can out and about this week. I am not going to sacrifice sleep, and I am not going to get stressed about it. There are 24 usable hours in each day, I just need to make the most of the waking ones for the time being.

Bursting On The Scene

By Quix

On November 9, 2009

In Uncategorized

I am sort of a schism of emotions today. Mostly good ones but I digress. Let’s get on with it:

Movin’ on down:

This morning I started the week at 154.8. This is a huge victory. I haven’t started the week below 155 since – well, I can’t remember. Since I have been paying attention to Monday weights. My low weight last week was 152.8, which is also something I haven’t seen in a while. How did I accomplish this?

Cakehole Shoving:

I actually did a damn good job of this for the entire week – for the most part. I was below 1400 Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I was around 1500 Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. I went a little nutzo on Sunday, but it couldn’t have been above 2000. I did learn some good lessons and reinforce some good behaviors (or at least “lesser evil” behaviors).

Friday, I enjoyed a very healthy and low cal dinner and some drinks, but I found the good stopping point where I was enjoying myself but wasn’t wasted. I wish to remember that point as sometimes on a weekend, I’ll just run up to that cliff and jump right on over. Fun, yes, but then I pay for it the next day. Saturday I was pretty responsible as well, we stayed in, ate leftovers, and cleaned like mad people. The majority of the house is now sparkling clean – or at least for us normally opposite-of-neat-freak peoples.

Sunday, we had planned a little controlled splurge – ordering a medium supreme pizza and that along with salad and veggies being our meal for the day. We put the pizza order in (and my Zliten, who was in need of meat, made us order the large chicken wings and fries) and then as soon as I hung up we got an invite to celebrate a friend’s birthday at the Alamo Drafthouse. Fun yes – but my day was not working out as planned at all. This day could have potentially been my ruination.

The pizza was delicious. Just what I was craving. We each had 2 slices and put the rest away (and now have a delicious lunch for today). I had 3 chicken wings, and we split the order of fries. The nice thing about the place is they have no frier. Yeah, I know – the wings and fries are SO ungreasy because they’re baked. It’s awesome. A hefty meal perhaps, but my dinner later was a greek salad with italian. Eaten right before we went to the alamo. Hello, strategy.

The problem was, we got there and they were picking up the tab so they said to order whatever we wanted. To clarify for any non-Austinites, the Alamo Drafthouse is really the only reasonable place to see a movie. The ticket prices are cheaper, and they serve food (like real food – you can get pita chips, veggies, and hummus there, or a burger, or pizza if you would like) and beer and wine. They also do really cool events like 80s sing alongs, screenings of old classics, and sometimes feasts themed to the movie.

I got a glass of wine and then somehow convinced myself it was a good idea to also order a guiness milkshake. I shared it around with everyone and then drank about half. While it may have been a not-so-good idea to order it I conquered two things. First – milkshakes have held this magical power over me. I have had a craving for one for over two years. This one was delicious, but honestly, I would have rather had a nice three bite home baked cookie, or a sliver of decadent chocolate cake. I will no longer be obsessed with them as they are firmly in the category now of “eh, totally not worth the calories”. Second – I was able to drink half of it, put it down on the table, and leave it alone. I have a big thing about finishing (which is why I only cook what I’m going to eat or make sure it is tucked away before I can go for it again), so it was nice to not suck the whole thing down.

All in all, a great week. This week becomes a bit more challenging. Friday, I have the day off and a friend and I are going to hit happy hour. The plan is to get a good lunch in me and only allow myself healthy food if I’m going to drink. Then, Saturday is our Austinite wedding reception. We had a lot of friends that couldn’t go to Vegas, so we decided to host a reception here. The win – we’re doing all the cooking. However, I’m not going to subject my guests to stuff that doesn’t taste good so I have some ’sperimenting to do. I am excited for a Polynesian feast!

I have been totally lazy about tracking calories over the weekend. I’d chastise myself for it, but it actually seems to be working. I know if I fall face down in the bag of chips or if I eat mindfully – and as long as I stick with the latter, I do ok. If the downward trend comes to a screeching halt… then I’m back on it like bees on honey. For now, I’ll see if I can get by as it’s something I’d like to move away from eventually.

My Ass, and Moving It:

During the week, I am a workout saint. Shredded without complaint Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I did my DDR, my yoga, and my running. I think I might have even beat a record running but sadly I wasn’t really timing. The watch is coming with on tomorrow’s run though fo sho. If there is any chance I ran a sub 25 minute 5k I want proof! My 5 mile time is improving as well. I’m under 50, now I want to work towards under 45. I know I can do it!

The weekdays jam packed are killing me by the weekend. I am so over it and sore and tired (thx u Jillian), I don’t want to do a fucking thing. On Saturday, I woke up feeling like my pec was slightly pulled. I had planned on shredding that morning and decided against it. It takes me a full weekend before my feet and legs feel good again. Level 3 is brutal. Doing 5 days of intense strength back to back is brutal.

So this week I’m changing it up. Just a little. I said I was going to shred for 4 weeks. I’m not going to wuss out this last week, but I am going to alternate levels. M, W, F – Level 3. Tu/Th – Level 1 or 2. Going forward, I’m going to try to keep it on the schedule 2-3 times per week until half training gets too intense. I don’t want to knock it too much. I am seeing results. I wore jeans yesterday that I haven’t even had the guts to put on in months. It is working. However, I just can’t risk rolling into training time injured and tired, and I think that alternating the days will work my muscles differently enough that it will be good for me and I won’t feel on the brink of injury.

NaNoWriMo:

The story is developing nicely. Writing about characters inspired by and very similar to us ten years ago (extended and stereotyped and much more extreme) has made it easier to keep going – I just have to dig in my “memories” section of the brain for the next plot twist. Perhaps the next one will be a story created solely by my warped little mind, but this is something safe for the first and very time-crunched attempt and I’m appreciating it.

I have no idea if it will be interesting. If it was a screenplay, it would be one of those Napolean Dynamite type movies – slow paced, with some humor, but you almost feel like you are laughing at the poor sobs because their situation is so ridiculous, not because it’s terribly funny. Nothing terribly extraordinary happens to them – they don’t get sucked into a black hole and end up in Bizarro World and become royalty – they just live their lives. The end is anticlimactic. But it’s kind of what I’m going for.

I’m also a little behind. I should be at about 12500 words as of yesterday, and I’m only at about 11000. It doesn’t sound like that much, but tonight I’m aiming to do about 3k words to get caught up, which is about 2 hours of full concentration, and I am usually at about 50% with the TV on and my Zliten home. Hopefully I can have some kick ass sessions this week and get back ahead as this weekend isn’t looking promising for writing time. For those of you who haven’t checked out NaNoWriMo, the goal is 50k words by Nov 30th.

Initial prediction – I’m going to finish the story. I’m up in the air whether I can continue to dedicate the hours each day to finish up the words in the time allotted (though being super competitive me, I bet I’ll do it), but I’m going to do it even if it’s not by the end of the month. However, I’m also now seeing a novel as a manageable and possible thing to do. If I did it right and came up with a story outline, laid out the chapters in an outline, and then went to town, I think I could have something polished in perhaps 6 months time. I’m not going to get books published by wishing for it. It something I can EASILY do while just relaxing at home on the couch with the lappy. This is a HUGE revelation for me!

It’s the same thing as a marathon. It looks like a huge, unwieldy task. Highly intimidating. There is no better way to get there than picking a deadline and putting together a plan to get there. Looking forward to cracking both of those nuts in the next year.

Back to my Monday. What mountains are you going to climb this week? Inspiration wanted.

Shredhead, Coming Back to Earth

By Quix

On October 27, 2009

In Uncategorized

Few things to talk about today so it’s sort of a scatterbrain Tuesday! Get ready for the smorgasbord!

Yesterday:

*Ok, squeamish boys, you might just want to skip this section – go on then.*

So yesterday, my post kinda reeked of melodrama. I wasn’t sure what the heck was going on in my brain. Sure, that number on the scale was enough to floor me but then little things at work were affecting me more than I should and I was just feeling awfully ill. I went to empty and fill (my bladder and my water glass, respectively) and started freaking out because I thought something was wrong with me.

After a few minutes of puzzling out what day it was – it’s the first time I’ve been early for TOM in… years probably. But only a few days so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. I am under so much less stress this month than I have been in about a year maybe (taking it easier on the workouts, wedding stuff done), that my 33-ish day stress induced cycle is off. Once I realized that’s what it was, it made so much sense. THAT is where probably half of the bloat came from (the other half salt). THAT is why I was really feeling ill. THAT is why people at work were making me emotional.

I came home, took pain killers, and curled up on the couch. Yes, I even skipped my workout. I’ll make it up later this week. I needed it. I’m down 2.1 of the 7 lbs today and I expect they will fall off this week as it progresses.

Occam’s razor – most often, the simplest explanation is the right one.

Shredding:

So I’ve been doing the 30 day shred, and it’s been interesting to say the least. I always discount short workouts a bit – I can do anything for 20 minutes, right? Well, Jillian definitely pushes that theory to the limits.

The videos have you doing her 3-2-1 system – 3 minutes of strength, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs. During the strength portion you do one sort of isolating arm move for 30 seconds, then arms and legs for 1 minute, and then repeat. During the cardio section you do one exercise for 30 seconds, then a different one for 30 seconds, and then repeat. During abs, you do abs. For example, one circuit is chest flys for 30 seconds, then side lunges with anterior raises for 1 minute (then repeat) for the strength portion, then jumping jacks for 30 secs and punches in a squat for 30 secs (then repeat) for cardio, and then bicycle crunches for 1 minute for abs.

So Day 1 I had no respect. I was like, ok, this is cake, and went for a 5k immediately after. The next day, I was kinda sore. Which isn’t too hard to believe – I worked different muscles than normal. Then I realized I had to do it again. The second day – that was tough. The third day? I decided it was a shred and yoga instead of the additional cardio I had planned because I was so incredibly sore. Day 4 I felt better because of my little rest and ran again after, and that made me sore as hell for Day 5, where I blew off the rest of my cardio. I was pretty sore through the weekend, but I think that was also attributed to being on my feet most of the day on Saturday and then dancing my hiney off at the party.

By yesterday morning (Day 6) I was feeling better and though I blew off additional cardio it wasn’t because I was sore. This morning I moved on to level 2 and I have 2 words for you – SQUAT THRUSTS. Ugh. Some of it was easier (the ab workout was pretty weak in comparison I thought but we’ll see what’s sore later), some of it was harder (hiya, cardio, you actually felt like a workout), and I can tell different muscles are sore. The plan is to stay with this another 6-7 days, and then move on to level 3 and finish the 4 weeks out there.

My impressions after a week-

The Good:

-It is a kick ass workout if you only have 30 minutes to spare from start to cooldown/stretch. Even a 5k takes me longer and that’s typically my shortest workout.

-You will most likely find some new awesome moves. Lunges + bicep curls? Painfully awesome!

-I haven’t been this sore and also felt this much improvement in the strength side of things in a while.

The Bad:

-While I definitely feel an intensity to it, I don’t think it’s enough time. I need some running, DDR, and yoga in there. 6 mins of cardio bursts per day doesn’t feel like it’s doing my running any service.

-The first week of almost utter and complete soreness made it really tough to WANT to do anything else. I had the best success going for runs immediately after shredding because I was warm (and might continue that trend on short and fast runs), but splitting workouts into morning and afternoon is NOT optimal with this as I cool down, get sore, and then have to get back into something else 9 hours later just as my body is starting to repair.

-It is rough on your body. I trained for a half marathon with very few aches and pains and this short workout gave me minor knee and ankle aches. I question whether doing it every day (ok, 5 days a week for me as I just don’t do a week with no rest days) or even consecutive days is good for you. As Jillian says it helps you adapt quickly, but at what cost?

-It’s boooooring doing the same things every day. I’m trying to follow instructions for now but I think I’d rather rotate between the levels during the week.

The verdict:

Gonna stick with it for the next 4 weeks, 5-6 days a week. After that – I think it gets thrown into the strength training rotation. I expect to look a little firmer once it’s done but I don’t expect miracles unless I really put a little more effort into my consumption. I think this would also be the PERFECT workout for crunch time at work when 30 mins is about what I’ve got and just do it every day before work.

I am going to make doing the shred my first priority. That is, if all I can do in a day is shred, that’s ok. I have 2 yogas, 2 DDRs, and 2 runs planned as well, but I have to listen to my body. If I’m going to die, I need to rest. I have 2 weeks post-shred before a 5 mile race, and then that week I start half training. I don’t want to come out of this weaker than I was. That being said, I cannot forsee doing this more than 2-3 times per week max if I want to also continue running.

Zliten also tried it yesterday. He has been complaining ever since. ::grin:: I don’t think he’s going to do the every day shredding, but it’s an option for him on days he doesn’t want to leave the house.

So, my dear internetians… I leave this in your hands to continue the discussion? Ever had TOM just completely sneak up on you and you thought you were going crazy? What’s everyone else think of the shred? What’s going on with your Tuesday?

Pictures from nataliedee.com… because they are adorable.

Adjusted Reality

“Reality can be beaten with enough imagination.” – Mark Twain

Tag: Weight Loss Page 4 of 8

Sorry, Monday, I’m Just Not That Into You…

An Untimely, Shreddy, End

On Fitting an Elephant in a Teacup

Bursting On The Scene

Shredhead, Coming Back to Earth

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