Busy Week

Thursdays are supposed to be Zumba days, but the last 3 weeks, I haven’t done Zumba for one reason or another.  Last week it was because I worked a double shift at work and didn’t have time to do a workout one day, so Zumba, being my “extra” workout got bumped.  This week, I didn’t do it because when I woke up this morning, I was tired and decided to sleep in.  I figured I can just do some cardio Saturday morning and then my strength training, as usual, Saturday evening.  I’m good with that.  I may go check out that boot camp class at my new gym.  It’s at 9:30am, so I’d have more than enough time to do that, go get my nails done, then go home and shower and still make it to my sushi with friends at 2:30pm.  We shall see how spry I feel Saturday morning…if I feel like Zumba or boot camp.  I’m kinda thinking I’ll go ahead and do the boot camp.

So, yea, sushi on Saturday!  It’s a little get together we plan every couple months.  It’s all people from work, but most of the people work on the morning shift (I’m the afternoon/evening shift), so we go after they get off work at 2pm…and of course, on a day that I’m off work.  We go to a different place each time.  This time we’re going to a place called Piranha Killer Sushi.  I took a look at their menu the other day and all I can say is yum-o!  They’ve got some specialty rolls that look absolutely delicious.  And they’re not expensive either!  I usually give myself a cap of $35 to spend (that’s with tip, of course) when we go out for sushi.  I usually get about 4 rolls with that amount.  I’ll get 2 cheap ones and 2 specialty ones. 

Then, on Sunday, I’m going to the renaissance festival with some friends.  That is going to definitely be a “free” day as far as what I eat.  I’m going to do my best to keep it at a minimum and not over-indulge, but I’m not going to track calories on Sunday.  When we get to the festival, our first stop is always the food vendor that sells ogre toes (it’s crumbled bacon packed in sausage with strips of bacon wrapped around it and then it’s fried…it’s NOT healthy, but I only eat one a year, so it’s okay).  Later in the day, when I get hungry again, I’ll either eat a funnel cake or a steak on a stick and a slice of cheesecake.  There may end up being some jalapeno poppers in there somewhere toward the end of the day…if we’re stopping at a restaurant on the way home for dinner.  I’m so excited about the festival because it’ll be the first time since I’ve lost 30 lbs that I’ll be wearing my corset.  I may even have to go back to the vendor I bought it from last year and have them cinch me up a little more in the back laces.  Woohoo!  Because I’ve lost some serious inches since I wore it last spring.

New Gym New HRM/GPS!!!

Well, well, well.  Checked the website for 24 Hour Fitness again to see if there was anything listed about an initiation fee and there was.  It’s $50.  However…if I sign up by tomorrow, there is no initiation fee.  FABULOUS!  So, I’m signing up online this morning!  That means I’ll be able to join my friend Steve for a morning workout Saturday morning.  WOOHOO!  I’ll be working out twice on Saturday as I’ll be doing the workout with him and I’ll be doing my regularly scheduled Showtime workout of legs/calves/abs in the evening.  Goodness!  But I can handle it, I know I can.

Another bit of good news, when I checked my pay statement for tomorrow’s pay check (I get paid a day early due to direct deposit…YAY!) I discovered that I’m getting paid for 8 hours of overtime I wasn’t expected to get paid for until my next check.  This means that I can buy the Garmin 410 I’ve been eyeballing online for a couple weeks now and then I’ll have it by the end of next week.  And that means when I go for a bicycle ride next week on Saturday (the 9^th), I’ll be able to wear the Garmin to map my route and time with the GPS.  AWESOME!!! 

What I’ve decided I’m going to do for my Saturday workouts is that I’m going to ride my bicycle to the gym (which is about 15 or so miles), attend the boot camp class (that’s the CrossFit style class I mentioned previously), and then go cycle for about 2 hours and then head home.  Now, if the first time I try this my legs aren’t able to do the 2 hours after the class, then I’ll just do 2 hours on my way to the gym and get that in before the class.  You see, I REALLY want to do a 2+ hour ride every Saturday.

Speaking of riding my bike for 2+ hours once a week, I had mentioned getting a 5 litre hydration pack.  Uh, yea.  I can’t seem to find one bigger than 3 litres.  WTH?  I *know* I saw a 5 litre one in one of my fitness magazines.  Too bad I don’t still have that magazine so I can find out what website I could buy it from.  And all my Google searches don’t bring any 5 litre hydration packs up, so I’m at a loss as to where to buy one.  I guess my next step is to go into a bicycle shop and see if maybe they might sell them.  Or if they know where I can buy one.

A Little Ego Boost

When I was getting ready for work today I decided to flex my biceps.  Believe me when I say that I was shocked at what I saw.  Last time I flexed for the mirror it was just an arm with maaaaaaybe a slight raised bump, but nothing more than that.  When I flexed today, however, it was a totally different story.  There was a noticeably raised bump when I flexed my bicep AAAAAND there was a shadow of definition at the bottom of my bicep muscle.  WOOHOO!!!  I do have to say that this Showtime strength training workout does the trick…and the results are obvious to me.  So, that was a nice little boost for me today.

Something else that was a nice boost was shortly after I arrived at work.  I was in the breakroom and one of the guys from the shift before me was in there and he asked me what I’ve been doing and said something along the lines of I looked great or fantastic (can’t remember the actual word he used).  I gave him a brief rundown of what my eating plan consists of and I told him about the Showtime workout I’ve been doing and where he could probably find it online.  I also made sure to mention that I was running 5 miles 3 times a week.  He told me to keep doing what I’m doing because it’s definitely working and he again told me I looked great.  I’m going to be flying high on that encounter the rest of the day…heck, maybe even the rest of the week!

 

Oh!  Back to the Showtime workout...the guy I got it from (Keith) told me he's got another workout that I might be interested, which is good because I will finish up my second 4-week round of the Showtime next Tuesday and I'll be needing a new strength training workout to do.  But I'm definitely keeping the Showtime in my bag of tricks to reach into later down the road to do again.  It's an awesome workout that produces actual results.

Enjoying My Food + a Note on Shin Splints

Something that diaryofanaspiringloser has mentioned in a post or two of hers is that once she is physically full, she has noticed that she stops enjoying the food she’s eating.  I thought this was interesting, but that was about all I thought about it before I forgot about it.  Until a week or so after reading it, that is. 

The Saturday before last I took myself out for some Chinese food at a little bistro restaurant I like to go to.  I love their sweet and sour combo (chicken, pork and shrimp all together), so of course that’s what I got.  They brought me out my egg drop soup and crispy sweetened wontons with sweet and sour sauce to dip them in.  Those all tasted good and I enjoyed them.  Then, the waitress brought out my main course.  I ate it, but it wasn’t as good as I remember it being for starters.  For another, about three quarters of the way into eating it, it dawned on me that I was no longer enjoying eating it.  I ended up finishing the food on my plate because there wasn’t more than a few pieces left, but I was full.  I didn’t even eat the fortune cookie and I love the fortune cookies! 

I like this little development in my eating habits.  It sort of happened this past Saturday when I took myself for BBQ.  The BBQ was okay.  It wasn’t fantastically delicious (my favorite place to get BBQ is about an hour’s drive away, this place was only about 15 minutes), but it was enjoyable.  The banana pudding was okay.  It was nothing when compared to my co-worker Keith’s wife’s banana pudding (she uses Paula Dean’s banana pudding recipe…to. die. for.), but it was good.  But, when I got done eating, it was nice to realized that I had eaten the perfect amount of food and felt satisfied.  I hadn’t eaten too much because I didn’t feel FULL nor stuffed, just satisfied.  And it was nice.

On a side note, I found an article about how to "banish" shin splints.  The exercise it tells you to do is easy to do and seems like it would be really effective.

Blisters & Bruises

So, this morning’s workout consisted of what was *supposed* to be this past Saturday’s workout: back/traps/biceps/forearms.  I believe I did a really good job with it too.  Pushed myself just the right amount.  As I was getting to the last few sets of exercises (as I’m doing supersets right now with my strength training), I suppose I was getting a little absent-minded.  Why would I say this?  Well, I was doing my superset of standing close grip EZ curl bar bicep curls supersetted with the machine bicep preacher curl, the floor staff were mopping in my vicinity.  I reached down and picked up my water bottle and sheet of paper with exercises, sets and reps on it to move them to where they wouldn’t get hit with the mop.  As I was setting them down next to my feet, I leaned forward (duh) and ran smack into the counterweight for the preacher curl machine.  Ow!  There was a lady on the ARC trainer right next to me who started laughing a little.  I wasn’t mad, I kinda laughed a little myself at my blunder.  Anyway, 6 hours later while I’m at work, I rub my forehead and hit a tender spot.  Right where I ran into the counterweight.  Ugh.  And Hahahaha!  I have bruise on my forehead.  Lovely.

The other thing about this morning’s workout is that I noticed something to do with my hands.  Specifically that I had to pop a blister on my left palm.  What the hell?  I wear weight lifting gloves for a reason.  I didn’t get blisters before I bought the gloves.  I was, however, starting to develop calluses and I was trying to avoid massive callus development so I went and bought the gloves.  And now I’m getting blisters???  I think I’m going to write the company that makes the gloves and complain about this.  This is ridiculous. 

I’m still a little peeved that I’m a strength training session behind where I should be, but oh well.  I’ve just gotta get over it and move on.  And I will.  Anyway, it was weird doing this workout in the daylight because usually on Saturdays I go late in the day, right around sunset so it’s dark outside when I’m at the gym.  And the front of the gym is all windows, so there’s no outside light coming in when I’m at the gym on Saturdays.  So, yea, it felt a little weird to do this workout in the morning.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow.  I always look forward to tomorrows when tomorrow is a run day.  I LOVE run days!  Absolutely love them! 

Friend Makin' Monday

1. Did you watch the Oscars? If so, who did you enjoy seeing most?  nope, i worked overtime at work.

2. Do you drink meal replacement shakes, smoothies, etc?  not normally, but i do enjoy them

3. Share one thing you have done to help someone in the last week? i work the releases department at my jail, so i guess you could say i have helped lots of people get out of jail and back to their lives.

4. What is the tastiest thing you ate last week? saturday i took myself out for some beef brisket and banana pudding...so yummy!

5. Think of one fun thing that you could do this week without spending any money to do it.  RUNNING!!!  no, seriously, running is complete fun to me!

6. Share one place that you’ve been to and would like to visit again.  South Korea

7. Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter?  Facebook.  i have a Twitter, but i never use it.

8. What is your favorite vegetable?  oooo...i love so many veggies that it would be easier to list what i don't like: okra.  i like basically every other veggie and would eat the crap out of them!

9. Share a goal that you have for the month of March.  run my very first 5K race and to reach 170 by the end of the month.

10. Share a quote that inspires you. "you can do anything for 30 seconds" -Tony Horton

Running, Riding & Tailoring

First and foremost, my run this morning.  Spectacular!  I did the same route I ran last Sunday when I had the phone problems and my running app wasn’t able to track my run distance and times.  I thought about going further on today’s run, but I was very curious to see just how far I had gone last Sunday, so I resisted the urge to run a longer distance in favor of being a control freak about my distances.  So, when I finished my loop around the lake, I had clocked 5.26 miles!  Woohoo!  That’s further than I ran the rest of the week!  My average pace was a bit slower than Friday’s time, but the Ladybird Lake trail I ran today (and last Sunday) is “paved” with decomposed granite and there is hills and some stairs involved.  However, when it came to running up the stairs today, I ran up the grass next to the stairs.  I didn’t really slip around at all either, which was nice.  And I found a way to run around the stairs going down on the other side of the bridge because I discovered that if I just run about 100 yds passed where the stairs are, the trail connects with the sidewalk.  So YAY!

I did a little bit of looking around on a couple different sites today, trying to see if I can find a bicycle ride to participate in sometime this fall, in like October or November.  One site didn’t have any rides further out than April listed on their site.  The other site (www.austincyclery.org) had rides for the entire year listed.   I found a ride that I’m interested in for October 13^th.  It happens in Round Rock and takes off from and ends at the Dell Diamond.  There is about 5 different lengths of routes that you can choose from, all the way up to 100 miles!  I’m choosing to do the 63 miler.  That’s basically a metric century.  And the registration fee is only $30!  Woohoo!  And the first 950 people get finisher prizes!  A dry fit shirt, a ticket to the cyclist social pasta dinner and other fun prizes.  So, I’m excited to start training for this ride.  **update, i just looked at the ride info again, and this is the information for the 2012 ride...ugh.  So, i'm sure they'll have a 2013 date for this ride, but now I gotta wait and see when they post the info for this year's ride.  I'm gonna do it, though, I just gotta figure out when it will be.

I went on Amazon.com last night and was looking at bicycle seats.  I really would like to avoid spending $100 or so on a saddle if I can.  I found a saddle (in hot pink!  Woohoo!) that looks like a decent long distance style saddle.  It’s only $13 for this saddle, so I’m going to buy it when I get paid later this week and give it a try.  I hope it works, because if it does and I can ride comfortably for longer than 2.5 hours, then I have scored the deal of the century…as far as bicycle saddles go.  Hahaha.  I currently only have a mountain bike, but it has road slick tires on it since I never off road with it.  I get an annual bonus at work every year on my employment anniversary…which happens at the end of November.  This year, it will be $600, or around $500 after taxes.  I’m going to take that money and put it toward purchasing a nice road bike.  I’m looking to spend about $1000 on one.  It won’t be top of the line, but it will be waaaaaay better than anything you could hope to buy at Wal-Mart.  I’m hoping to hit the 2013 close-out sale and get a more expensive bike for less money, so I’ll be looking in January or February of next year.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a few weeks now, but I finally got around to it yesterday.  I got a new set of work uniforms issued to me about a year and a half ago.  I weighed about 50 lbs more than I do now, so, needless to say, they’re quite baggy on me.  While I can’t personally do anything about the pants (when I reach my weight loss goal in 16 lbs, I will email the supply officer and see about trading my current work pants in for ones that fit better…if they don’t have any to trade to me, then I will pay to have 2 of the 4 altered), I *can* do something about the shirts.  So, yesterday, I put one of them on inside-out and pinned it in on the sides.  Then I took it off, marked it with fabric chalk and removed the pins.  Then I ran it thru the sewing machine and voila! tailored shirt!  And let me tell you, it looks sooooo much better on me than it did before I took the sides in.  I calculated and I removed about 5-6 inches off the circumference of my shirt!  Holy cow!

Reflection

Last week was all sorts of crazy for me due to working a double shift on Tuesday night.  As a result, I literally had no time to workout on Wednesday before coming back to work.  Then, when my alarm went off on Thursday morning I was just plain too tired to think about trying to do a weight lifting session.  I told myself I would just double up my legs/calves/abs workout with my back/traps/biceps/forearms workout that I do on Saturdays right now.  So, I went to the gym last night with the expectation of being there for about 2 hours lifting weights.  I started with the legs/calves/abs workout I had postponed.  By the time I was about ¾ of the way thru it, I realized I wasn’t going to have enough energy to do my usual Saturday session.  So, after I finished up with the abs exercises, I called it a night and headed home.  I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get all my workouts for the week done within the week and that I’m now going to be a session behind, but it is what it is.  My calories burned for the week was over my minimum 3000 after the postponed workout was complete, so that’s good.  Not too bad considering I didn’t workout for 2 whole days last week.

Something I noticed while I was walking some dumbbells back to rack them up was how my legs muscles are coming along.  I had noticed at the beginning of my workout that my calf and shin muscles (my favorites) are looking nicely developed.  This is a really good thing so far as my running goes because those muscles will help keep me stabilized while I run and therefore reduce chances of injury.  Anyway, what I noticed while walking the dumbbells back was that there is a shadow along the outside of my thigh, along the outer edge of my quads, that shows up as I flex my legs to walk.  So awesome!  I love how my body responds to the training I put it through. 

My plans for this week are a 5-ish mile run around Ladybird Lake today, Saturday’s weight lifting session will be done on Monday.  Then, running 5 miles on Tuesday.  Chest/shoulders/triceps on Wednesday.  Zumba on Thursday.  Another 5 mile run on Friday.  And then Saturday I will finish up the week with legs/calves/abs.

Oh!  One little victory I did note as I was doing my workout last night is that when I got to the abs exercises (hanging leg raises, weighted crunches, Russian twists, bicycle crunches), I was able to do more reps, specifically on the hanging leg raises.  Usually I can only bang out 15 (I keep my legs straight as I raise them all the way up to hip level), but last night I did 20!!!  Oh yea!  I did 2 sets and the second set my form started to suffer after 16, so that’s all I did.  I’d rather do less with good form than more, less-effective reps with bad form.

Also, this Saturday is the day I go with my friend Steve to 24-hour Fitness to get signed up for my new gym membership!  Woohoo!!!  I’m so friggin’ excited about that.

Changing Gyms Soon

After talking with a friend/co-worker yesterday, I have decided to change gyms.  I’ve happily been at Planet Fitness for almost an entire year now.  He works out at 24-Hour Fitness.  This came up because I was talking to someone else about dropping in for a free CrossFit class at another co-worker’s CF gym.  My friend, Steve, mentioned something about his gym conducting CrossFit type classes.  How awesome is that?!?!?! 

I’ve been wanting to be more social with my fitness and weight loss efforts, even considering joining Weight Watchers so I can go to the weekly meetings and talk to other people about my efforts.  But I really don’t think that WW is right for me because I am so close to my goal weight that it would be almost pointless.  I’ve already got a really good tracking tool with Sparkpeople, so I don’t need WW so I can track my food and activity.  I would ONLY be doing it for the meetings.  Like I said, basically pointless. 

So, I haven’t had a workout buddy in ages.  Since I tried my hand at bodybuilding and had a personal trainer that I met with twice a week.  And then, I only had a workout buddy while I was at my personal training sessions.  I still did 85% of workouts solo.  So really, it’s been since high school since I had a workout buddy in the gym (I took a weight lifting class…Woohoo!).  So, by switching gyms, I’ll gain a workout buddy for like 2 or 3 times a week with strength training.  We can also occasionally run together.  That will all be incredibly awesome.  I’ll get to be social with my workouts.  When we’re lifting weights together, I won’t have to wear my music cuz we’ll be talking and motivating each other.  I will, however, wear music if we go run together.  I breathe too heavy to even try and have a conversation while running. 

Other possibilities include all the classes I can participate in, namely that CrossFit style class.  Also, 24-Hour has rowing machines and stair steppers, neither of which Planet Fitness has and both of which I’ve been wanting to use, especially the rowing machine.  The main things I’m excited about are the CrossFit style classes and the whole working out with a friend!  I can lift so much more weight if there’s someone spotting me as I lift!  Woohoo!

Weekly Weigh In - 2/23/13

Broke my little weight loss plateau!  Lost 3 pounds this week!  I’m now down to 176.2 lbs and 22.3% body fat.  That means I’m only .3% away from my actual goal of getting down to 22% or less body fat!!!  WOOHOO!!!!  So, even tho you shouldn't reward yourself with food, I promised myself that if I weighed in at 178 or less today that I would take myself out for BBQ.  So, 1/3 lb of brisket and some banana pudding for me today!  Oh yea!  and then it's back to my strict meal plan for all of next week, which will be really easy for me to stick to because I’m working overtime tomorrow, making for a 6 day work week.  I’m less tempted to eat foods not in my food plan on work days.