Yes, it is the theme jingle from McDonalds.  No, it is not because of a tasty Big Mac I woofed down.  It is because of the soreness I feel in my muscles:  legs, shoulders, back, and core!  What a great reminder to get back out there and take care of number one….ME!

I am going to a spinning class tonight for the first time.  Our coach Tom will be there and hopefully many other members from our group.  I can’t wait!  If you don’t hear from me…please send help!

As far as nutrition goes, I have been more watchful of what I have been eating and choosing to eat and getting back to my familiar yummy good foods, whole wheats, grains, more vegetables and fruits.  Most importantly, I dusted off my food scale and I am back to tracking everything on Daily Burn.   As I did last time, I am not doing a complete overhaul in my food choices all at once.  I believe that is a recipe for disaster and regret.  While I am being mindful of my food choices I am logging everything.  Believe me when I tell you, I won’t have that extra scoop of ice cream for desert once I see how it affects my nutritional values.  Seeing is believing…

Na na na na na…I’m lovin’ it!

Yes, it is the theme jingle from McDonalds.  No, it is not because of a tasty Big Mac I woofed down.  It is because of the soreness I feel in my muscles from Monday’s workout:  legs, shoulders, back, and core!  What a great reminder to get back out there and take care of number one….ME!

I am going to a spinning class tonight for the first time.  Our coach Tom will be there and hopefully many other members from our group.  I can’t wait!  If you don’t hear from me…please send help!

Just the friend I need!

Thanks to Sharon who was part of my local GFC, she has pushed me to get back into the gym and not by asking, but by telling me that I was going today and what time should she meet me.  That is the kind of friend I need.  She is a great workout partner and we have fun so that is always a plus.  Of course, she hasn’t slacked like I have so we are no longer on the same page, but she did slow down a bit for me today and gave me a break.  Any day I don’t have to do any burpees is a good day, but today we only did 10 instead of the planned 20, so it was still a good day.

I have to say, while doing the burpees or any exercise today for that matter, looking in the mirror I did not like what I saw.  Somehow I have managed to keep the scale the same, but I can see my body changes.  You have no idea what gains you have made until you have lost them.  My shoulders were rounded, my posture was more slouchy than normal, and my waist was jiggly.  My core needs so much work.  Hopefully this will be a lessen to me and I won’t let this happen again now that I know exactly what I have to lose.

Carry On Wayward Son….

p.s.

On a side note, as customary to my blogs, I was looking for an appropriate picture to post.  I have just Googled images for “hard workout” and “wayward.”  All I can is WTF, really???

Sooooo….I’ll just omit a picture for today…

Happy New Years – Happy Re-Do

Here I am after quite an absence.  I’m not exactly sure how I managed to get into a slump after being so motivated but I managed it, leave it to me.  Although, in my defense I did have bronchitis and have been pretty tired and even underwent a sleep study, but no excuse.  I haven’t seen the gym in some odd weeks, ok several, many, many weeks.  So why did I get my butt off the couch tonight in 42-degree weather??  I finally got my subscription of Runner’s World and got re-motivated!!  Somehow I managed to keep the weight off that I lost, but I’m not sure how much longer I could have kept that up without working at it.

So, tonight, I managed to bundle up, get my running shoes on, my butt in gear and I’m off on the C25K re-do.  It is disappointing I couldn’t manage another 5K right now, but at least I’m doing something and not just thinking about it.  This time around I’ll work on speed and so far when comparing to Week 1 Day 1 back in August, I’m already ahead.

Here’s to a new day, a new year, and renewed motivation!

Happily running again but in circles…

First let me start off a good note, I finally got my running sneakers!  I was amazed at the difference it made in my first run back.  I’m not sure at what pace I ran at, but I could certainly feel my stride automatically open up!  I didn’t have to worry about taking small strides in order to cushion the landing.  My sneakers took care of everything.  I was able to just enjoy the run without feeling the burn in my shins and ankles.  I also am amazed at how my body DID NOT remember the 9 weeks of training…I would say only about 5 weeks’ worth was in the bank, so I’ll be in training mode once again.

What motivates you?

I would love to hear from you all what motivates you on your bad days.  I would love this blog, the one I have been away from, to be all about how well I have done, but I haven’t done well.  I was sick for last Saturday’s workout, but I did manage to get in runs Friday and Thursday before I really got sick.  We didn’t have a Thursday workout since it was Thanksgiving.  My eating has been lazy and my workouts have been slow.  Fortunately the scale hasn’t moved too much but that is also an unfortunate as I shouldn’t be at a stand still.

I joined the GFC because I was sick and tired of not looking like I used to, so why isn’t that good enough to motivate me?

GFC Fitness Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday we had our first team challenge.  With so many members of the GFC unfortunately it wasn’t too much of a “group” effort but more, come in when you can and earn points for your team.  I met a few from my team at 10:30 and we started with the YMCA trivia portion of the challenge.  All of the information could be found within the gym, the pamphlets, or Google.  Not sure if we were supposed to use Google but as far as I know the record keeper, Rick, doesn’t read my blog, so he’ll never know… shhhhh

Once that was done, it was off to the fitness portion of the challenge.  2-1/2 hours later I finally finished!  We started as a group but through the various exercises got separated.  I’m not sure what happened to the rest of my team, you guys bailed on me!  Let’s just say that you better have brought some points in girls or I’ll tell Tom to give you double work on Thursday

The fitness part of the challenge was a list of exercises, 5 points for each completed.  I am proud to say I finished them all!!  I had to break them up and made some mini supersets, but I finished, slow but sure!  So far as I write this on this beautiful Tuesday morning, I am not feeling the pain…I’m pretty confident that will change in the next couple of hours.  Here is a list of all that was on our challenge:

• 5 minutes on the Stairmaster
• 2 laps around the building
• 50 push-ups
• 20 burpees
• Leg press, 3 sets of 15
• Dumbbell curl press, 3 sets of 12
• Climb 250 vertical feet on the treadmill
• Row 1000 yards
• 50 sit-ups
• 100 jumping jacks
• 50 stability ball leg curls
• Choice of any 3 circuits, 2 sets of 15
• 25 frog hops
• 2 minutes of low plans
• 2 minutes wall sit
• 1 mile on the treadmill
• Push-press 25 reps
• 50 body weight squats
• 100 calories on cardio
• Bench press 25 reps
• Pull-ups 25 reps
• Lat pull downs, 3 sets of 15
• Bracing heel taps, 30 each leg
• Lunge walks 100 steps
• Dumbbell swings 50 reps
• Machine chest press 50 reps
• 40 Mountain climbers
• Inverted rows 30 reps

Whew!  I’m tired all over again, but this monster I conquered!!!  Somewhere it became personal.  Not about points, not about winning, but about giving a task to HELP me and to see where I wanted to take that.  Sure I wanted to kick the crap out of Rick who made this program on my 19th burpee, but in the end, I knew it would only help me.  At the end of the day, did I want to lie in bed and think, “I shouldn’t have let it beat me” or did I want to think, “Dang, I did that!”  I chose the latter…

No-bread wrap….what??

That’s right, it is a lettuce wrap and oh so good!  Although I have yet to perfect the wrapping part.  I heard about a lettuce wrap on my support site, Daily Burn.    I wrap and it slides.  Perhaps I should call it a lettuce slide instead.  I make mine with green leaf lettuce, turkey, ham, feta cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette.  As you can see, it looks delicious, well at least I hope it does.  Just these wraps which satisfied my belly was only 135 calories, 6 grams of fat, 5 grams of carbs, and a nice 13 grams of protein.  Although delicious, I need some lettuce wrap ideas.  The only sandwiches I have made it with is the turkey and ham and tuna ….bo-ring!

This is a short post today, I have to go eat some snacks.  135 calories is great, but as you know, you have to eat to lose weight.  I LOVE  eating guilt-free