Final Boot Camp and 5 Things

Today was the last boot camp of the transformation challenge. Our whole team was there, which was nice and we got a group photo which was also nice. I am fighting a respiratory cold/cough thing and did the best I could, although I know that I didn't give 100% which made me a little sad. And I almost didn't stay and do cardio after because I felt so crummy, but Carey is such a little.....motivator (you thought I was going to say something else, didn't you, Carey?) that I got back out there and I did 20 min on the treadmill. It was a walk, not a run. And it was only at 2.5 mph instead of my usual 3.5 to 4. But I did incline it for a while to 7.0, then toned it down to 5.0. But I did it.

And that's somewhat sums up how I feel about this challenge wrapping up - I did it! I did it. There were definitely times that I thought, what did I sign up for, I'll never make it 12 weeks. But I did. Let me say it again, I did it! :)

I think the two most important things I am walking away from this challenge with are:
1. good habits - if not good, at least better; I'm still getting there on food, but I am definitely there with the workouts.
2. support - in the form of trainers, friends and teammates that will help me push through the tough times and help me celebrate my successes. They all rock!

We have our re-test, re-weigh, re-measure day next Wed. I'll post my stats (and maybe my pics if I'm brave) then.

And last but not least...

5 things I am grateful for today:
1. A long weekend ahead of me
2. My in-laws for watching the kids tonight so Scott and I can have a date!
3. People like Carey and Courtney who push me and make me smile
4. Nice weather
5. Finishing the Transformation Challenge!

Workout plan for my first week post-challenge

I'm definitely a planner so I am going to lay this out here so that I can be accountable to myself. If I don't know in my head what I'm going to do for the week, I'm sure I'm destined to fail. What's the old Weight Watchers saying? If you fail to plan, plan to fail. So here goes:

The remainder of this week:
Thurs: 10K day2 on treadmill or at home
Fri: Boot Camp, possibly Abs class, 10K mileage on treadmill, Rock Bottom at 4:35 then home for DATE WITH HUBBY!!
Sat: 10K workout with team
Sun: long walk with family or other activity

For the week of May25-31:
Mon: No classes at the gym so either: run at home or run at gym (mileage)
Tues: Body Pump 10:30-11:30, 10K day 1 on treadmill, RPM at 5:45pm if I get into work early enough
Wed: Body Flow 10:30-11:30, 10K day 2 on treadmill
Thurs: RPM at 6:45, 10K day 3 on treadmill at lunchtime
Fri: Body Combat 12-1, 10K mileage on treadmill, Rock Bottom at 4:35, Body Jam at 5:45
Sat: MM4K!!!
Sun: REST!
Totals: Cardio ~7 hours, resistance ~2 hours, stretching/recovery ~1 hour

I'm going to print this out, make appts in my outlook calendar and try to stick to this as much as possible. Knowing my workouts ahead of time help me to adjust my work schedule and kid pickup/dropoff accordingly. Wish me luck!

Grateful

Through the Transformation Challenge, I've gotten to hear Jean Steel speak a few times as well as read her book and she is inspiring to say the least. One of the things I learned from her is to take time every day to list out 5 things that you are grateful for. I have been focusing on the negative these last few weeks, letting the stress of daily life wear me down. But as of today, I am going to try to follow Jean's lead and find at least 5 things every day that I am grateful for. Here's my five for today:

1. Making it through 12 weeks of the Transformation Challenge!
2. My family
3. My health - fighting a nasty bug and trying to lose weight are nothing compared to the health struggles others deal with
4. My friends - awesome supporters with huge hearts that are always there for me!
5. Getting in to work early today - as brutal as being in the office at 6 am can be, it means I can head home early to spend time with the hubby and kids! :)

Happy Thursday to anyone out there. What are you grateful for today?

Transformation Challenge - Final week!

I know this is going to sound so cliche, but I really can't believe it's the last week of the challenge. I had to miss Monday's boot camp due to some work conflicts, and this morning kicked my boo-tay. Seriously, this shouldn't surprise me since it was Lauren. But I was exhausted from being up literally all night with the boys. They are both fighting a nasty bug and Ian's asthma kicked in big time so he was in our bed where I could listen to him breathe after giving him his inhaler. And Daniel is sick AND teething - nice combo, yes? So he was also in our bed part of the night. That made the workout especially hard. Partway through I felt sick, so I walked outside and took a breather. Went back in and held out a bit more. Went back out and Liz (very sweet trainer-in-training at the gym) came out to check on me. I just started crying when she asked if I was okay. I was so frustrated at the fact that I had to take a few breaks in the workout. I felt like I was back at week 1. I was mad at myself and feeling like I hadn't made any progress in 12 weeks! She cheered me up a bit and I went back in and finished the workout. I did abs class after with Lauren (never had her as abs instructor before and she rocked it, as usual). I probably should have stayed and done cardio after, but I just mentally couldn't get there. I'll go back this afternoon and do some running for my 10K training.

I know this morning was just exhaustion and stress hormones and all sorts of good stuff like that kicking in. I know that I have come a long way. I can't see it physically and my clothes aren't fitting much better. But I am down 17 pounds and I feel better most of the time - except, of course, mornings like this morning...lol. But those are by far the exception not the rule.

I'm looking forward to continuing to get fit and healthy. Alyse and I joined WW last Friday and we go to our first weigh in this Saturday. I just faxed in my application for Team in Training to do the San Francisco Nike Women's Half Marathon in October. I'm going to keep at this. And someday, maybe a year from now, maybe two years from now, but it will happen - I am going to have a ROCKIN' BOD and KILLER CONFIDENCE and best of all - GOOD HEALTH!

Frustrated!

These past few weeks, I have not been doing great in the challenge. I have been working out as much, or more, but I have not been eating well. I've fallen back into my old eating habits and I don't know why. I feel like it's a sort of self-sabatoge. I can recognize this pattern in my life where I get close to a goal and I let it slip out of my fingers. I don't know why. Am I afraid of success? Am I afraid that I won't live up to my own expectations? This is what worries me. I am seriously considering starting to see a therapist because I'm afraid that if I don't get to the bottom of WHY I overeat, I will never be able to maintain a healthy weight, let alone get down to a healthy weight in the first place.

My friend recommended a book on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and losing weight. It shipped from Amazon this weekend and I can't wait to get it and start reading. Maybe it will help too. Not sure if this link will work, but give it a shot: The Beck Diet Solution.

Now, I've got to force myself to get back to my healthy eating habits and finish strong in the challenge and hopefully be able to continue on and get to my goal. I know I can do this, I just have to DO it!

Transformation Challenge - Where do I go from here?

This is going to sound like such a cliche, but I can't believe it's been almost 12 weeks since this whole crazy ride started. Some days it feels like forever ago, some days it feels like just a few short weeks. I've had good weeks, bad weeks, terrible weeks and amazing weeks and everything in between. But I think the good/great/amazing weeks far outweighed the bad/terrible weeks. And I don't mean good weeks like I saw a good number on the scale. I mean, I had those too. But mostly my "good" weeks consisted of making it to boot camp all three days, making it in for a minimum of my five cardio workouts, and not just that, but weeks where I felt good, I felt strong, I felt motivated.

I think a lot of that has to do with my teammates. I think we are a group of the most amazing women. Every woman I have gotten to know within the challenge is amazing, actually. But my team has been phenomenal for me. They motivate me when I'm feeling discouraged, they push me when I need to be pushed just that little bit harder, they make me smile when I need it most, they support me through all the ups and downs of life and the challenges I face in trying to find the time and energy to focus on me for a change. They are awesome. They rock! To quote one of them, they rock "hard-core." :)

And a lot of it has to do with the staff at EQ, who are amazing. If I haven't mentioned that on here before, let me repeat it for emphasis...A-MAZ-ING! There aren't enough good words to describe the EQ team. If anyone is out there reading this blog and does not belong to a gym and oh yeah, is female? Run, don't walk, RUN to EQ and sign up. I can guarantee you will not regret it. And no, they aren't paying me to plug them here. I don't have nearly enough folks who read this to make that remotely worth their while. Nope, what I say about EQ on here is my honest-to-God opinion.

As the challenge wraps up, of course my mind wanders to thoughts of where do I go from here? Well, one of my teammates and I just joined Weight Watchers today. I've done that program before and it just works. It makes sense and you eat normal food not some pre-packaged stuff. And now I can use my knowledge of macronutrients and nutrition I've gained at EQ and apply that to WW and have the best of both worlds. WW is just easier for my life than tracking protein, fat, carbs, etc. I'll still pay attention to that on the food labels and such, and like I said, apply what I've learned to help me make good choices, but WW is something I can live with and still have the accountability that turning in my journal to EQ gave me. So that's the food side of things.

What about exercise? I was a member of EQ before the challenge and I will continue to be. I plan to continue to take classes and use the machines for a combination of resistance and cardio much like we maintained during the challenge. I'm going to take Body Pump and/or Rock Bottom 3-4 times a week for resistance. Then I'll take other classes and/or use the elliptical/treadmill/bike and/or run outside and/or swim for my cardio. The nice weather is making me want to hit the pool again. :)

Short term, I've signed up for the MM4K 10K on May 30th and will continue to train for that. I probably won't be able to run the whole thing, but my goal is to run/walk about 50/50 or maybe a little bit more on the run side. We'll see.

Long term, I'm attending a Team in Training kickoff meeting this Sunday to start training for the San Francisco Nike Women's Half-Marathon in October.

I started this post with a cliche and I'll end with one. This isn't an ending, but rather a beginning. Cheesy, but true. It's the beginning of a new life for me, a life filled with new habits, new friends, new goals, a new me inside and out. And I am so looking forward to living that life!

Word of the week - hard-core!

My friend Carey started this on Monday or Tuesday - word of the week: hard-core. And I ran with it.

Whatever you're doing in life - be hard-core. Don't do it half-assed. Why bother? All the way or not at all. Push yourself.

Wednesday, I wasn't feeling so well. I was really nausous and queasy in boot camp. I stepped outside for a few minutes. When that didn't help much, I ended up running to the restroom a bit later and losing my protein shake and then some. It was lovely, let me tell you. I wanted to go lie down. But my stomach did feel a lot better. I felt a little shaky, but I decided to run with the word of the week: hard-core. I went back into that workout room and I finished the training. I probably wasn't 100%, but I definitely didn't wuss out. And I definitely wasn't doing it half-assed. I was proud of myself. I was hard-core. I'm not saying to push yourself to injury or to make yourself sick. You have to know your limits. And I knew that as much as I wanted to go take it easy after throwing up, I didn't NEED to. My body was okay. The toxins had left the building, so to speak. If I needed to stop during the rest of training or call it quits, I would have. But I didn't need to, so I keep going. I pushed through and I even went and did 30 min of cardio on the treadmill, so there. :)

I am challenging myself this week to be hard-core.

My week so far....

This has been a stressful week. The kids are struggling, everyone's tired, some of us are sick, I'm overwhelmed to say the least. End of the school year is coming, Mother's Day this weekend - I think I have gifts figured out for mom and mom-in-law - PTO newsletter is put to bed for the year, finally! Box Tops is wrapping up, got a big "deadline" with that tonight. We're traveling down to Ventura this weekend and I need to do laundry, pack, clean house, etc. But I'm just beat.

But workouts are going okay this week.

Monday - boot camp, no cardio unfortunately, due to work commitments
Tuesday - marathon session: rock bottom, group training with Kate, then body flow
Wednesday - boot camp, 10K training on treadmill (30 min)
Thursday (today, planned) - 10K training on treadmill
Friday (planned) - boot camp, abs, 10K training on treadmill in the a.m. rock bottom and body jam in the p.m.
Saturday (planned) - body flow and 10K training on the treadmill
Sunday (planned) - 10K training at the beach in Ventura

I've got to pick up the pace with the 10K training. I saw the doctor on May 1st and finally picked up my prescription for NSAIDs last night, started taking them today. Two weeks and he says my knee will feel a lot better. We'll see.

We did some hamstring work in boot on Monday, then again in rock bottom on Tuesday, then a little bit in our group session on Tuesday and then again on Wed in boot. My hamstrings are killing me! And holy moley, this is the most sore I've been in a while. I don't know if that means I'm not working out hard enough or what, but I am feeling it in my calves, hamstrings, inner thighs, quads, abs, biceps and triceps. Whew! What a week. At least there's only one more strength session before next week and the rest is cardio. Never thought I'd be thankful for cardio, but there it is.

Happy Thursday to anyone reading...if there's anyone reading. LOL

You, and only you, are responsible for pushing yourself

Some of the girls in the challenge have complained about the lack of motivation, excitement, etc on some of our workouts. It definitely does depend on the trainer. Some of the trainers might not be as fun, entertaining, intense, whatever. But if you push yourself, you can make it a good workout, no matter who the trainer is. This morning, we had stations set up around the room, and you were doing a different exercise at each station - some were step stations, some were abs, some were using weights, etc. I noticed that one of the girls was adding on to her stuff, whatever she was doing - raising arms on the step, doing shoulder presses with the weights during the squats - adding on to what the trainer instructed us to do to challenge herself. If you don't think it's hard enough, make it harder. Go an inch deeper in that squat, run faster, pickup a heavier weight, whatever you need to do. We won't have boot camp or even a trainer (god knows I won't be able to afford to go back to personal training sessions) when this is over and I know for most of us (if not all of us) this is going to be a lifelong struggle. I don't think there's any of us who have the metabolism to eat what we want or even eat healthy and NOT workout pretty hard or we wouldn't be in this challenge. We're going to have to push ourselves for the rest of our lives. Get used to it, ladies... :)

Spin Class - aka Class 'o Pain

So I went to RPM last night, the Les Mills Spin Class. Great workout. I was feeling it big time and I was sweating like crazy.

And I'm all about feeling the burn in my workouts. Pushing myself to fatigue or failure? Bring it. But I'm not about pain. Workout, pushing myself pain, fine. Rock hard stupid bike seat making me feel like I'll never walk normal (let alone have sex) ever again? Not so much. My ass hurt so bad and I swear, my tailbone and buttbones are seriously bruised. And my toes went numb by the end of class. Nice. The trainer said the numb toes are kind of normal, check how tight my pedal straps are, wiggle my toes during recovery, etc.

It was a good class and a good workout, but I will have a hard time going back just because it wasn't fun because of those painful things. I will go back. I know it's better for my knees right now. And everyone told me, oh, after three or four classes, you won't notice the seat. Ok. But I won't make it through three or four classes with that much pain. I'm really not trying to be a wuss, but I'm a dead serious. I needed to go home and sit on a bag of frozen peas for an hour or so. I'm going to hit the sporting goods store before my next class and get either padded bike shorts or a padded seat cover I can take with me to class.

Until then, I'll be reminded of how much that class hurt every time I sit down.