I have slacked in my blogging for the past week. I've had other things weighing heavily on my mind. In any event, I'm not sure when I did what. I do know that I have stopped calorie counting in the formal sense. I haven't been tracking on my fitness pal, but mainly because I know how much is too much, etc. I'm confident that I am keeping it to my target or below.

I did take the full rest day this past week. I needed it. I didn't stick to each workout as prescribed. I did a lot more cardio at the gym and some extra walks, but stayed away from high intensity/impact workouts. Today is the last day of July. I CANT BELIEVE IT! A full month has come and gone. Tonight is my last workout of the July schedule: Cardio X!

Tomorrow is my weigh-in and measurements. I've cheated a few times taking my weight, so I know about where I'm at... but I have not picked up the tape measure even one time - so I'm really looking forward to seeing some type of results (i hope). I know my clothes are looser and I've tightened my belt a few notches, and that's pretty awesome.

I know that I feel like I look better. I'm looking forward to jumping into August. I need to re-read Carroll's plan for the month and really take it in. There's a lot of information and lots of changes. Maybe I'll read it once Patrick goes to bed.

I'll be posting weight and measurements tomorrow. Wish me luck! <3

Day 25
Spartan
Time: Not completed
Bonus 2 Mile Walk

At lunch I took a bonus walk. Look how happy it made me!

The story behind the picture is that I tried to take a full body shot to show my mad style during my lunch walks. Showing the full business attire and my Asics running sneakers. haha It's quite the sight! But I couldn't fit everything. Ah well.

My walk was lovely. I fully enjoyed strolling through the rich neighborhoods near work with my tunes. The walk was a little over 2 miles, but I accidentally closed the map my walk app while I was shutting down other apps to save battery life. So i'm not sure exactly how far it was. That's okay though because it was just a bonus walk.

By the time I was able to do the Spartan it was after 9pm. We had pizza for dinner (2 small/medium slices) and I had 1 Pepsi. Really really stupid to eat a dinner like that before doing the Spartan. I did everything but the walking planks and burpees. I just had no strength or desire to continue. Note to self- never have a meal like that on Spartan night.

Tonight is my rest night. I did have plans to meet some friends for drinks in Somerville after work, but with the shitty weather on the way we decided to postpone. This gives me the chance to make up for the Cardio X I had skipped. That makes me happy.

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