C25K Week 5 Day 2

Calorie Summary
Calories consumed: 1793
Calories exercised: 365
Net calories: 1428

Exercise Summary

• C25K Week 5 day2
• Hundred pushups week 4 day 2.  Today was so hard.  I broke out in sweat while doing pushups.  Check my progress here.
• Bodyrock Sexy Satisfaction workout

Went to Fidelity and Costco.  Learned my lesson from last time: avoid the free cookies at Fidelity.  Be mindful with the free food at Costco. As a result, I did not go overboard with my snacking.

I woke up early to go jogging (i.e. 6 AM early).  Week 5 of C25k is very daunting because the whole program, I've had a chance to take walk breaks.  Suddenly, on day 3, I need to run for 20 minutes straight.  Well, today, I ran for 8, walked for 5, and ran for 8 more.  The first 8 minutes were no sweat.  I was almost dying the last 8 minutes.  It wasn't muscle fatigue.  It's more like serious huffing and puffing.  I wonder if this is an indication that my V02 max can use improvement.  Although I am quite pleased with my running pace today (10:36 mile), one of my goals in life is to run an under 10 minute mile.  To do so, I'm thinking I need to improve V02 max, which can be done by sustaining a fast run for 2-5 minutes as indicated by this Runner's World article, which is what I did today.  I think what this article is saying is that I need to push myself for a sustained period of time.  Now, I have no idea how I'm going to do on Saturday, when I need to run for 20 minutes, but I hope today's 8 minute of sustained V02max will help me have more endurance.

I started doing the Sexy Satisfaction workout.  I actually completed two rounds.  I don't know why I quit.  Actually, yes I do.  This workout is filled with pushups.  The press and kick is pretty tough.  I think I'm going to try again today.  After attempting 2 rounds, I went to look at myself in the mirror and saw what appears to be the beginnings of a six pack trying to appear from a layer a fat. :) Weird, but cool.  I guess Bodyrock really works.

Body Rock Hot Touch

This is a review of 8/29:


Calorie Summary
Calories consumed: 1735 Cal
Calories burned while exercising: 218 Cal
Net calories: 1516 Cal


Exercise Summary

• BodyRock Hot Touch workout
• 1/2 of Fitness Blender Ski Conditioning Workout

I'm quite happy with my day.  I need to be more mindful when I snack on nuts.  I did 3 rounds of this BodyRock.  I need to start counting how many of each exercise I do.  The hardest one is still froggers.  My goal is to be able to do a full minute of froggers.

I only did half of the ski workout as it was getting late.  I learned to not start working out at 10 pm.

Also, I tried to do some normal pushups (i.e. pushups that aren't on my knees).  Despite the fact that I'm going through the 100 pushup program and making progress on the # of knee pushups I can do, standard pushups are still freaking difficult.  I could barely eek out 10!!  

C25K Week 5 Day 1

Calorie Summary

Let's be honest.  My weekend eating sucked.  I went 1000 calories over my calorie budget on both Saturday and Sunday.  I felt ashamed, gained weight, and felt disgusting.  One of the days, the food wasn't even that great!  It was just interesting food at a pot luck.  The second day, my family and I went to a Chinese restaurant.  2 lobsters for $16!!  How can you beat that deal.  Everything was SO good.  It was 100% my favorite.  What is the lesson learned - It wasn't worth it.  My binge set me back 1 or 2 weeks.  That's a lot!


Exercise Summary

• On Saturday I vacuumed
• On Sunday, I C25K Week 4 day 3
• Sunday, I did hundred pushups week 3 day 3.  check my progress here
• I think I 45 minutes of elliptical on Monday, 8/27.  That's it.  
• 8/28: C25 Week 5 Day 1 - dude, it was easy compared to week 4.  Is this normal?
• 8/28: Began week 4 of hundred pushups.  I am getting there!!  Not sure how much I should be struggling, but I feel like I'm struggling through the last 2 sets.  Also, not sure how I should have my elbows during pushups.  Should they be against my body?  Or should they fold outwards? It feels different in my pecs, depending on which way my elbow goes.

New Widget and Sexy and Tight Workout

Calorie Summary

Calorie consumption: 1445 Cal;
Exercise calories burned: 287 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1275 Cal


Exercise Summary

• C25K week 4 day 2 - outdoor run!  Very nice.
• One minute of NTC Jeanette Jenkins Hollywood Ab Blast (yes I only did 1 minute of planks)
• 4 minutes of BodyRock Sexy and Tight Workout
• 1.5 minutes of NTC Core Crunch

Fabulous eating day.  Ok exercise day.  I did 1 minute of plank and I didn't think I was going to make it, but I did.  But that was too hard, so I started to casually go through all the exercises in Ab Blast just to mentally prepare for what was to come.  I attempted to do forearm plank balances.  FAIL.  I totally collapsed.  Everything else I could do (without considering fatigue).  I moved on.  Decided to attempt the lastest Bodyrock.  Then decided that it was too hard.  Freddy said if I was a beginner, I should only do 1 round, which is what I did.  I regret only doing one round.  I should've attempted another round.  After my 1 round of Bodyrock, I decided to attempt Core Crunch.  FAIL.  I think 1 minute of planks totally killed me.  Well, I've decided that I am totally going to do one of the NTC ab workouts tomorrow.  I've got my mind made up.  I'm going for it!!

Oh yes, I got new running shoes over the weekend.  LOVE THEM!!  Asics GT 2170.  I feel like I'm running on clouds.  What a different new shoes make!  Today was my second time running in them.

Total Adrenaline!!!

My new scale came today!!!!!  I love it and recommend it.  It's nothing special, just a plain digital scale.  It's by Eat Smart and you can find it on Amazon.  I don't think it's carried at brick and mortar retail.  I weighed myself, and happily discovered that I've lost 1.5 lb since my last weigh in.  Happiness.

After a week of not blogging, I looked over my blog and realized that it's confusing.  From now on, I will add more labels so you will know what I'm talking about.

Calorie Summary

Calorie consumption: 1893 Cal;
Exercise calories burned: 233 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1660 Cal


Exercise Summary

• NTC Total Adrenaline (get strong -> beginner)
• the hardest part of this was the walking lunges at the beginning.  As far as NTCs are concerned, I think this is the easiest one I've done so far. Either that, or my conditioning is getting pretty good.
• Hundred pushups - week 3 day 1 - check my progress here.  KILLED ME!!!  Things started getting hard on the 3rd set.  When I saw that for my last set, I needed to do at least 20 pushups, I was seriously concerned.  Didn't think I would be able to do it. I ended up doing 28.  Minor victories keep me going on.

I ate a chocolate bon bon, not that it's bad.  But I just ate it because it was there.  Plus, because I hardly eat sweets, I got a major headache post consumption.  I also had a snack, that left me uncomfortably full but not stuffed.  These all contributed to going over my calorie budget.  Lesson learned, eat when hungry.  If not hungry, don't eat.

I chose Total Adrenaline because it looked pretty easy.  I broke a sweat but there was never a crazy struggle.  Next time I do this, I will up the intensity by doing things a bit faster, but still controlled.

I broke major sweat while doing the pushup program.

Tomorrow, c25k!  Dread.  The last c25k was rough.  

Training insane on the treadmill

Yesterday was weigh day but I had no intentions of going to the gym.  Therefore, I could not weigh myself.  I bit the bullet and purchased a digital scale from Amazon.  It should arrive tomorrow.  I really like my goals from last week so I will use them again.

My goals for the week are as follows:

• Eat between 1200 and 1400 Calories / day - net
• Drink more water
• Choose happiness, contentment, and thankfulness
• Be more resourceful with my time.  No internet shopping!!

Calorie consumption: 1553 Cal;
Exercise calories burned: 259 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1294 Cal

• Couch to 5k Week 4 Day 1
• A 10 minute ab workout from Fitness Magazine August 2008 - (there were challenging moments and there were cakewalk moments)

Since my last post, there are a few things to note:

1.  NTC is getting easier, most notably Core Crunch.
2.  I did NTC Body Sculptor yesterday.  Single Leg Clock Squats totally broke me.  I want to get better at these!
3.  Ski exercise is getting easier.  This has single leg squats which suck, too!!  I will master this because I want to be a graceful skier.
4. C25k today was amazing!!  I nearly died.  I was running pretty fast (for me): 5.2 mph.  I had the treadmill on random, and it was giving me crazy hills.  I had to slow down.  But then, the last 5 minutes, I decided to keep up with my faster pace and I kept on telling myself "mind over matter" and I kept on trying to focus on other things such as counting.  Well, I did it.  I feel proud.  If I can do it once, I can do it again.  Hopefully next time it will be a lot easier.

I have this scrapbook of workouts that are clippings from magazines.  I'm trying to go through these and figure out whether these workouts are any good.  If they aren't, then there's no need to keep them.  Well, this ab workout had highs and lows.  I think blogilates or anything on Youtube is better.  I will persist in going through my workout scrapbook though.

Week 1 Weigh In

Good news!  I've lost 1.0 lb. this week!  I don't have a digital scale at home so I'm going to start using the scale at the gym and weigh in on Sundays or Mondays.

My goals for the week are as follows:

• Eat between 1200 and 1400 Calories / day - net
• Drink more water
• Choose happiness, contentment, and thankfulness

Sunday:

Calorie consumption: 1510 Cal; Avg. HR - 132
Exercise calories burned: 230 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1280 Cal

• Couch to 5k Week 3 Day 1
• Exhaustion test of 100 pushup challenge.  Check my progress here.  Turns out I didn't to do this.  I could've moved on to week 2
• NTC core crunch

Jogging was exhausting.  I think I'm going at it too hard.  My HR isn't through the roof, though.  I just felt like I was starting to get a headache which is a sign of dehydration.  I might need to drink more water.  Between today and tomorrow, I will drink more water.

Core crunch has gotten tougher.  At least I'm finishing the workouts.  I discovered that I'm using hip flexors instead of abs for some of these exercises.  I need to modify my form for the future.

Beware of the Panera Bread Chocolate Chipper!!

Friday:

Calorie consumption: 1492 Cal
Exercise calories burned: 188 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1303 Cal

• walked for 45 minutes
• Day 3 of Week 1 of 100 pushup challenge.  Check my progress here.  Remember, I'm doing pushups on the knees, so don't think I'm some amazing pushup wizard.

I said I was going to take a day off but I lied.  I ended up walking around the neighborhood at a comfortably brisk pace for 45 minutes.  I remembered that I needed to finish up my week 1 of 100 pushup challenge and did it later in the night.  My muscles were super tired and I just wasn't into it.


Saturday:

Calorie consumption: 2072 Cal
Exercise calories burned: 438 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1635 Cal

• Elliptical  
• Half assed effort on the BodyRock We Are Young workout
• Good Time Flow Yin yoga

I was feeling so blah today and really just didn't want to do anything.  Ok, let's be real, I was feeling depressed and I don't know why.  There was 0 motivation to do anything.  I didn't even want to have fun.  I decided to go to the gym and once my car was on the road, I felt better.  I realized that I just needed to get out of the house and see some people.  After the gym, I went to Panera to eat dinner and work on a journal article I'm writing with a professor from B-school.  I knew I was going to be at Panera for awhile and decided to buy a cookie.  Freaking delicious and evil 400 calorie cookie!!  I am just so mad that I didn't check to see how many calories that cookie had before I ate it.  Also, I was totally full when I ate that cookie.  The cookie was putting me over the edge.  Why did I not stop!?!?!?

When I came home, I felt the need to do something.  So I did this BodyRock workout, without pushups, because the 100 pushup challenge is my first priority.  I also am getting freaked out by my tight hips so I did this yoga workout that was also on the BodyRock site.  The commenters mentioned that it made their hips feel good and one of my goals for the day was to find some online yoga videos.

POP Pilates Butt Blaster

Calorie consumption: 1589 Cal
Exercise calories burned: 393 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1196 Cal

• Elliptical  
• Pop Pilates: Butt Blaster

I am exhausted today.  Butt Blaster was super hard.  I started doing the ski workout but just couldn't make it through the 2nd group of exercises.  I'm taking the day off tomorrow.  I might have been overzealous with my workout plans, as my legs are starting to get tired.  I'm going to take a step back and slowly ease into exercise.

Completed Core Crunch

Today's calorie consumption: 1529 Cal
Exercise calories burned: 311 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1218 Cal

• Couch to 5k Week 2 Day 3 - max HR - 177; avg HR 140
• Hundred pushups - Week 1 day 2.  Check my progress here.
• NTC - core crunch 
• Blogilates - BIKINI BLASTER 4: Awesomesauce Arms

Did awesome on couch to 5k.  Ran around the neighborhood.  I think I was running faster than a 12 minute mile which I am ecstatically happy about.  I hope I can keep this up.  I enjoy running to the Killers Pandora station while I run outdoors.

Core crunch freaking killed me.  I did this in the late afternoon and pushups in the late morning.  Finished the whole workout, but it took me longer than 15 minutes.  Doing the pushups in the morning made the plank in core crunch extra difficult (as in I had to go onto my forearms to complete).  I also took super long breaks between circuits.  In fact, I started slowing down one and a half minutes into the workout.  My goal is to be able to finish this workout in 15 minutes.  Needless to say, this workout is going into my repertoire.

I think the pushups made awesomesauce arms very difficult to. I felt like my arms were going to fall off (which I didn't feel last week).  I didn't do the pushup portion of this exercise.

30 Minute Ski Conditioning Workout - Strength and Cardio Training, Fitness Blender

Today's calorie consumption: 1612 Cal
Exercise calories burned: 457 Cal
Net calories consumed: 1155 Cal

• Elliptical 45 min
• 30 Minute Ski Conditioning Workout - Strength and Cardio Training, Fitness Blender 
• hardest move -  lateral one legged hops
• POP Pilates: Legilates Legsercizes Leg Workout 
• hardest move - plie squat - I thought I was a squatting queen.  This video proved me wrong.

Today was legs day on the workout calendar.  Both exercise videos were tough! One of my goals in life is to become a graceful skier and I think this ski exercise video has the moves to move me in the right direction.  It was extra tough as it had me hopping around on one leg.  I tore my ACL a few years ago from a ski accident.  Even though I had an operation, my knee has not been the same ever since.  My weak knee was definitely not liking the one legged hops.  But, after continuing a bit with the help of a chair, the knee felt better.  So, I hope that this video will help my knee become stronger.  Both of these videos are going in my regular repertoire as they were quite fabulous.

Starting a diet. Discipline! FOCUS!!

I'm a chronic dieter.  But this time, I really will meet my goals.  I'm writing this blog because to keep an informal eating and exercise notebook.  For now, my goal is to eat between 1100 and 1400 calories / day.  If I exercise, I can eat more based on the # of extra calories I burned . To help, I'm using the following apps:

• LoseIt! - to log my food and beverage intake and calories burned
• Nike Training Club - amazing interval training app
•  C25K (free) - gets me off my butt and doing cardio

I've also become a big fan of the following YouTube channels:

• blogilates - amazing blog and lady.  I'm trying to exercise according to her workout calendar
• Bexlife - one tough lady.

Both channels offer free exercise videos.
 
Today's calorie consumption: 1430 Cal
Exercise calories burned: 232 Cal

• NTC 15 minute ab burner
• hardest move - Russian twist with a 6 lb. medicine ball.  Dagh, halfway through round 3, I had to let go of the ball.
• C25K week 2 day 5 - jogged at 5.3 mph.  Walked at 3.9 mph.  Max heart rate was 169.
• One-Minute Challenge: Introducing Pilates Bootcamp With Cassey Ho!  .  I love blogilates.  On a scale from 1-5, 5 being difficult, this is a 1.
• Day 1 of One hundred pushups.  This one's a doozy.  You can track my progress here.  I'm doing pushups on knees, btw, because I once had a trainer watch me do normal pushups and suggested I do the easier form.  Maybe I should've started with something less challenging and that involves less commitment.

 Also, one day, I will start this core challenge, but not today:
24 day Core Challenge