In Other Workout News.....

This past week was a slow work week with it being mid-winter break time here.  Next week will also be slow, but luckily I have a ton of transcripts to work on to continue to make money.  So, with all of this working from home I have taken advantage of taking classes and working out like crazy.   

Last Sunday was a rest day because I was doing my Stress and Resilience test and couldn't do any strenuous exercise.  I did clear it with Julie that I could do the Slow Burn Yoga class that day and get some steps on the treadmill for my Fitbit challenge.

Monday, I trained with Sarah and then came back and did a Spinning class at noon.

Tuesday, I took a Spinning class in the morning and then came back for my evening Pilates class.  I have to say I totally rocked Pilates on Tuesday.  My short spinal series is vastly improving.  I am really getting my butt in the air.

Wednesday was leg day with Sarah and that was quite enough for the day.

Thursday was a much needed rest day.  (And I worked, so that is enough reason to rest.)

Friday, I took Tammy's Vinyasa Flow, went to the Cafe to get something to eat and then took the noon Spinning class.

Saturday, I took the 645 am Spinning class and then my favorite yoga class, Ashtanga Vinyasa. 

I've been sleeping a ton even though I have been sleeping on the couch since the Olympics started.  I love just watching all the winter sports.  Sarah told me last week that she read somewhere that people who train as hard as we do should actually get 9-10 hours of sleep.  I'm not complaining about that.  

30 Days of Yoga - Days 15 to 21

Well, I did a little better this week than last week in this challenge.  I took three classes this week.  This brings my total to 10 classes in 21 days.   My goal for the remaining 9 days is to at least crack the 50 percent mark, which means 5 classes in 9 days.

The classes I did was:

Ashtanga Yoga with Claudia
Slow Burn Yoga with Rickita
Vinyasa Flow with Tammy.

I leave you with another pose courtesy of Yoga Jones:

Training 2014 - Week 7

This week my training sessions were on Monday and Wednesday mornings.  Monday I had off for Presidents' Day.  I actually have most of the week off and I am taking full advantage of the time off to do a lot of working out, but I will do a separate post about that.

Monday was upper body day.  It was another tough workout.  I'm surprised I wasn't more sore than I was.   I am terrible with the names of the exercises I do, so that's why I'm not too detailed on these posts.  I can tell you that I was tired after the workout.  I had planned on taking a Slow Burn Yoga class afterwards, but I was too beat.

Wednesday was legs.  OMG, I think Sarah is really trying to kill me.  It was extremely tough, but I did it.  My cardio once again was the prowler.  This time she put 100 pounds on the prowler, which made it approximately 175 pounds.  We're still doing extra sets on my right leg.  It's not so bad, I understand why we're doing them.  My legs were total jelly when we were done.  I almost wanted to take the elevator down to the first floor.

As much as I feel like dying while I'm working out, I love what I've accomplished and I'm pretty sure most people couldn't handle the challenging things Sarah tells me to do.  I feel like this once the workout is over and I'm all showered up and relaxing at home:

30 Days of Yoga - Days 8 Through 14

Yeah, I totally sucked on this challenge this week.  I only went two out of the seven days.  My body was just so exhausted in general I ended up taking Monday and Thursday off from working out.   Thursday evening I actually spent finishing up a transcript that was due Friday morning.  

In other workout news, I had Pilates class on Tuesday night.  I was on a different reformer because my classmate Maureen was out of town.  I loved that reformer.  The footstrap is so long.  My normal reformer has a short footstrap and I'm always afraid of falling.

On Friday, I took the noon spinning class.  I had never taken that instructor before and she was good.  I have this coming Friday off, too, so I plan on taking that class again.

Here's another yoga pose courtesy of Yoga Jones:

Training 2014 - Week 6

This week, Sarah switched it up.  Instead of doing an upper body day and a lower body day, we did a full body workout to shock my system.  I actually really enjoyed it.

Sarah is also adding an extra rep on my right leg because my legs are registering uneven on the scale.  Yay (sarcastic)

Wednesday's workout was a combination of my least favorite exercises.  Step ups.  Shoulder presses.  The Prowler (this time the weight was 185 lbs.).  I used to love the prowler, honestly I did.  Now, I loath it.  Even though I hate these exercises, I still do them because I know that they will benefit me.  I'm not really much of a whiner.

Part of my issue is my body is so tired.  I took a rest day on Monday, which when I looked at my calendar I noticed I hadn't had a rest day since before January 25.   I see a few rest days in my future.  I definitely need to have a rest day if I'm going to do the Stress & Resilience test.

My training days for next week are Monday and Wednesday.  I hope to be back and rested after I take a tiny break.

90 Day Challenge Starts This Weekend!!

This weekend was one crazy weekend at Lifetime Fitness.   It was the starting weekend for the 90 Day Challenge!!!!  I did my initial weigh in with Sarah.  Starting weight: 228.4.  I'm still working my way back down to the 50 pound mark, but as I've said previously, my body fat percentage is down.

I purchased a Stress and Resilience Test, which I plan on doing next weekend.   I'm super excited to retake this test.  I can't wait for the results and this time Julie will do the results instead of a conference call with corporate.

The other things I purchased were supplements.  I mainly just purchased supplements that I was out of or running low on.  The only new supplement I purchased was the Whey Isolate (Chocolate) by Thorne.  Lifetime just started got this brand of Whey recently and there's been a lot of buzz and excitement.  Sarah suggested I use this over the regular Lifetime brand because I have really increased my activity and it will be more beneficial for me.   I also think it will be more cost-effective for me since I get a smoothie in the cafe every day and it costs me $7.

I got home and made my first two smoothies (one for work tomorrow) and I LOVED it!!!!  I added L-Glutamine, PB2, Dynamic Greens, Olive Oil, a banana, and coconut milk.  Totally yummy!

30 Days of Yoga - Days 1 Through 7

Lifetime Fitness - Novi is having a 30 days of yoga challenge, which I have mentioned before.   It started on February and runs through March 2.  In the first seven days, I have taken five classes.

February 1:  Ashtanga Vinyasa with Rickita.  My favorite class!  Love, love, love!!!!

February 2:  Slow Burn Yoga with Rickita.  Yikes, this was tough.  It didn't help that I had worked out with Sarah right before class.

February 5:  Hatha Yoga with Claudia.  I have never taken a Hatha class and I have never taken a class taught by Claudia.  I enjoyed this class.  I will definitely take it again.

February 6:  Vinyasa Flow with John.  A new favorite.  This is the second time I've taken John's class.  

February 7:  Vinyasa Flow with Tammy.  A little hard to hear Tammy, but she is a killer.  I spend quite a bit of time in child's pose recovering for how tough she is.  Wow!

I leave you with a pose courtesy of Yoga Jones.

Training 2014 - Week 5

This week I trained on Sunday and Wednesday.  I was supposed to train on Thursday, but since we got an ill-timed snow storm this morning, I had to call off work (again) and decided to train today insread.

Sunday was arm day, which totally killed me.  I was sore for two days after and of course, I was the most sore on the second day.  This week Sarah had me do shoulder presses with 18kg kettlebells (that's a smidge under 40 pounds to us Americans).  That was just brutal.  We also did some bench presses and Sarah had me super set those with push ups.  I started each set with normal push ups and then finished with modified push ups.  Of the three sets of push ups, I did a total 10 normal push ups.  Not bad.  Sarah wanted me to get lower, but my chest hurt.  I did the best I could.

My cardio for Sunday was the prowler.   Sarah added 90 pounds and the average prowler weighs 75 pounds, so that was 165 pounds total.  I was to walk up and down the aisle near the advanced training section for two minutes.  While I was doing it, Sarah and Trainer Kristi were shouting encouragement, blah, blah, blah.  I was busy concentrating on pushing the prowler, but on the inside I was.....

Wednesday was leg day.  My right knee and ankle were a little achy thanks to the blizzard-like snow that was blowing around outside.  Nothing too painful, just the joys of getting older.  I did some single leg presses.  The first set was 80 pounds, but that was a bit too much so the last two sets were 60 pounds.  I did some lunges today too.  I can't remember the name of the machine I did the first two sets on, but Sarah thought my form was better doing TRX lunges, so we did two sets with the TRX thingy.

My cardio was running 0.25.  I haven't run in a while because of the burn on my low back, but the pain has pretty much gone away.  I finished the first run in about 2:37.  I ran 5.5 mph.  I only did half of the second run.  I was pretty disappointed, but my legs were killing.

So far I have my next Sunday session scheduled for Week 6.

The Numbers Game

I reached the 50 pounds lost milestone last month.  I've never seen that number again because I've gained weight.  My birthday happened and I've mentioned on this blog that I've been a little bad with my eating.  It was getting me down, but my body fat percentage has gone down.  So, I'm not too freaked out about what my bathroom scale says.  I'm doing pretty good with my eating and I'm working out really hard.

On Sunday, Sarah took another picture of me.  The last picture was taken in late December.  I'm probably at the same weight.  I'm still not in a place where I want to see these pictures, so Sarah compares them and gets back to me about what she notices.  According to her, there is a significant change in the last month, especially in my midsection.

I felt really good about hearing this news.  I'm sure the scale will start moving again eventually, but I'm happy about the lean muscle mass I'm putting on.  It's all good.