Days 22, 23 + 24

I'm just going to jump right into the workout wrap up for the last few days. 


Day 22
Cardio X 30 minute arc trainer + 2 mile walk

I was supposed to do Cardio X on day 22, but when I woke up, my knee's were so sore. This is starting to concern me a little. I couldn't even imagine doing all the kicks and the squat cross press (which is the most painful of all for my knees).  Instead, I went to the gym... I mean, why not? I pay $48 a month for the silly membership and I haven't been in weeks. haha. I did the arc trainer for 30 minutes and then went home. I should have done 45 but I didn't want to push it. Later in the day I went for a 2 mile walk out at pond meadow with Patrick and my mom.

Day 23
3 mile walk + ab ripper x

Yesterday I went out to do my walk during lunch and it was raining. I waited a half hour, and checked again and it was fine. So I ripped through my walk at my best pace.

I had planned on doing ab ripper x after Patrick went to bed. Without getting into it, because that's not what this blog is for, I was in a really awful mood... stress + concern + mild depression = me taking the evening off from working out and instead watching Desperate Housewives. That leaves me with 1 Cardio X and 1 Ab Ripper X to make up for. Tonight is Cardio X and although my knees don't feel great, I will get through it so I don't fall further behind.

Day 24
Cardio X

Done! Tired, hurty knee but so happy to mark it off the calendar.

Now sleep!

Days 20 & 21

General Update

I'm tired exhausted. My body & mind. Just completely drained. I've been taking Osteo Bi Flex for maybe a week now to help the aches in my joints, my knees specifically, and really haven't felt any relief. I hope it eventually kicks in and does something for me. When I come down the stairs in the morning I feel like I'm 80 years old. I'm having a negative few days but I know I just need to push through it.


Day 20
Skipped :(

I was not feeling well at all. Skipping wasn't really a choice. I was not able to work out. I will try to make up this workout at some point during the week. 


Day 21
Day 7 Workout
Time: 25:45
Calories: Unsure

Day 7 workout. I still wasn't feeling good, but I didn't want to skip two days in a row and be that far behind again. At almost exactly halfway through the workout I had to stop to help Mathieu with something while he was fixing my brakes. It didn't take long.. maybe 5 minutes. I had paused my clock during the break, and started it back up.

That is sort of just the reality when it comes to doing workouts at home when you have a husband, a kid, and two dogs. There are plenty of interruptions. I usually get pretty frustrated when I'm interrupted, but I really need to let go of that.   

Food: Breakfast was a strawberry banana smoothie made with greek yogurt, strawberries, bananas, ground flax seed and a splash of orange juice. This smoothie was almost 400 calories. Holy crap! I had no idea there would be that many calories. Anyhow, the reason I am unsure of calories is because I ate out. I have absolutely no idea how to track the calories I ate. I had beef teriaki with noodles and a little rice. It wasn't like your typical greasy chinese food... it was more like real steak teriaki. In any event, I ate what I ate and I don't know how to track it. I also had my 2 beers for the week. Two Sam Summers. I chose to just go home after dinner because the rest of the night I would just be faced with more food and a lot more beer. I went to bed at 8pm.

Day 19
Rest Day - Day 7 Workout (makeup)
Time: 26 minutes (ish- I didn't stop my timer right away because I forgot)
Calories: 1,985 * 1 Pepsi

Food first this time. Yesterday for lunch I had a buffalo chicken salad. Since I didn't make it myself, or know exactly how it was prepared, so I based my calories as worst case scenario. I can't imagine that there were as many calories in that salad as I tracked for, but I don't want to under count. To be more specific, I marked 990 calories for the salad. haha. Well, in my fitness pal there were entries for all kinds of buffalo chicken salads... This one had the highest calorie count, so I selected that one. Chances are it was more like 600 calories, but I wanted to be on the safe side.

Last night after dinner cleanup and Patrick's bedtime I had to make the decision to work out. I said all day that I wasn't going to use my rest day. I laced up my sneakers and got down to business. I did my Day 7 Workout (lots of jumping rope, pushups, burpees & squats).

My body was exhausted by the end of it. It was a lot to do the Spartan 300 and Day 7 workout back to back. My knees have been bothering me for a while now, and I definitely felt sore after finishing last night. I've been taking Osteo BiFlex for the past 4-5 days, and I hope to start feeling the benefit of that by next week.

Day 18
Spartan 300
Time: 27.55 

Calories: 1,478

I'm pretty sure I'm still on cloud 9. Last night I felt stronger than I've ever been. I was ripping through the workouts faster than I've done [side note: by that I mean my personal best time. my partner is still embarrassing me with her incredible time, but I digress], until I hit the walking planks. I psyched myself out wicked bad. I did 3 and fell on my face. Rather than get discouraged, I moved on... I did not modify any workout. I did real situps, but I did anchor my feet under my coffee table. (is that modifying?).

I struggled through the burpees and looked at my time. 21.48! I was energized to finish completely. I did all 30 walking planks at the end. My total finish time was 27:55. I couldn't believe it. The first time I ran through this workout a few weeks ago, I was modifying a few of the parts, and I still wasn't finishing all 30 of a lot of these. Last night, my time was better than it's ever been, and I finished everything.

Granted, I did do the walking planks at the end. So I did move that piece. But now that I know I can do them, and I don't need to psych myself out, I will not shift a single thing next week. At the end I felt like I could vomit. I felt a little nauseous for about a half hour, but I also felt high. :)

Tonight is a rest night, but I think I have determined that rest nights are actually bad for me. I may do that Day 7 workout to make up for the one missed. If I'm feeling a little too stiff, I might just take a nice long walk. A piece from Cardio X has sort of become my mantra. The guy says "I don't care if it looks pretty, I just want you to keep moving."

It sure as shit doesn't look pretty, but I'm going to keep moving.

Day 17
Cardio X
Calories: ??  *1 Pepsi

I didn't track my calories yesterday. I started half the day, and just haven't done the other half. If I don't track it as I'm eating, sometimes I don't remember. I will try to plug through that later on. For now I'm just going to say it should be neatly under 1800. I've gotten pretty good at judging how much I can eat in a day, so that's nice to not have to keep looking up food.

Cardio X was last night. I did not want to do it. Yesterday was filled with lots of unnecessary drama, and what I really wanted was to relax on the couch with a few beers. I didn't do it though. I did Cardio X, with a little less fire than I've been putting forward, but I finished. I have been thinking of asking Carroll if one of my Cardio X days can be a different type of Cardio. For example, Spinning or running on the arc trainer. Etc. Cardio X felt boring last night, but it was the second night in a row & I was in a shitty mood. So I should just ignore the negative feelings.

Tonight is Spartan 300, and I'm looking forward to it for once. I'm going to play by the rules. Do the workouts in the order they are listed, and not modify until it's completely necessary. Wish me luck. xo

Day 16
3 mile walk, ab ripper ex, cardio x (makeup for skipping over the weekend)
Carlories: 1,375

Despite the heat yesterday, I went for my 3 mile walk during my lunch break. My pace was slower, but I'm pretty sure my heart-rate was up because of the heat. I sweat my ass off, then had to go back to work... but that's okay. My coworkers are used to it. :) Here are my results: 3.40 miles in 52:36

When I got home from work, I cooked dinner... A terrible unhealthy dinner, because that's all that was in the house. But, I had really small portions and managed to keep my day's calorie count really low. So there's that. For lunch I only had 3/4 of a green bell pepper and a tuna to-go packet. So, at least it wasn't unhealthy all day.

After Patrick went to bed I did Ab Ripper X. I was really excited because some of the parts that I couldn't even do a single repetition of the first time I tried the DVD, I was able to eek out 3 or 4. Some I still couldn't do at all, but I'm not quitting, so there's that.

After that, I took a 10-15 minute rest, got myself some water, and popped in Cardio X! So, I was able to make up one of the workouts I skipped over the weekend. Last night I was able to cross two days off my calendar, and it felt great. Tonight is Cardio X, and I still need to fit in the Day 7 workout that I skipped over the weekend, But I'll get to it.

Also- my knee's have been bothering me over the past week. I think it's all the squats? I started taking this:

It's helped in the past, it's just so damn expensive. Hopefully it will take care of me this time too.

Days 12
REST DAY
Calories: 1,815 *including 1 Pepsi

Day 13
Cardio X
Calories: 1,662 *including 1 Pepsi

I didn't want to do this. I had done a little running around preparing for a camping trip, and didn't get home until 9pm. I wrote Emma and told her I wanted to skip the day, and that I needed her to talk me out of it. Just writing her and admitting I wanted to skip made me put on my sneakers and just do it. By the time she wrote back I was already half way done. YAY.

Days 14 & 15
Day 7 Workout & Cardio X

I was camping, so I did not complete these workouts. I vow to not completely skip any workouts, so I will be making them up. So far today I have already done my walk. I plan to complete ab ripper x when I get home. And then do the skipped Cardio X when my I put Patrick to bed. I'll update if I complete all this.

I'm not exactly sure where I will fit in the skipped Day 7 workout, but I will fit it in.

I did not track calories on my fitness pal over the weekend because I had no cell service. However, I'm about 99.99% sure I kept it under 1800 calories. Both days the only snack food I had was carrot sticks and grape tomatoes, despite there being plenty of crap food I could have eaten.

This update is shitty. Hopefully I'll have a good one tonight/tomorrow.