My Life. Medication Optional.

Rocked the workout tonight. Always get the best workout when I'm aggro. Playlist qualifications were that it had to not annoy me or had to contribute to my irritated spirit. That's not really the contradiction it sounds like.

Playlist:

Kid Rock - Cowboy
Miranda Lambert - Gunpowder and Lead
Nelly - Air Force Ones
Pink - So What
Rob Zombie - Superbeast
Miss Balitmore Crabs - Hairspray Soundtrack
Taylor Swift - Should've Said No
I Drink Alone - George Thoroughgood
Green Day - Minority
Bowling for Soup - Almost
Fergie - Fergalicious
Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl
ACDC - You Shook Me All Night Long
Kenny Chesney/George Strait - Shiftwork
Rufun Rainwright - Hallelujah

I made a training mistake that I shouldn't have. And it's all TV's fault.

So, I watch Make It Or Break It, which is teenage drama and gymnastics. When I was 8 I wanted to be a gymnasts, so this show is like candy to me. Anyway, my favorite character Payson has to retrain as a more artistic gymnast and is starting over. She started out with cartwheels, which made me think, 'Hey, I bet I can do a cartwheel now! That looks like fun! I should try learning some basic gymnastics stuff!' And that's where I went wrong.

I hit the gym and decide I'm going to screw around in the big aerobics room and try some cartwheels. (I stretched first, natch.) It's fun! So I do a few more, do two in a row, etc. Then I think, 'Well I used to be able to do a handstand. Let's try that.' So I do. I have some trouble getting up, but I manage a few. So 15 minutes goes by and I'm sweaty and warmed up so I decide today is the day to run my 2 miles for my race training.  I hit the treadmill and do two miles in 21:13, my best time ever. So I'm feeling great. Awesome, right?

Then I wake up the next morning.

It seems there is a huge difference in a teenage gymnast doing cartwheels and me doing them, because I am god-awful sore. I hurt EVERYWHERE. Back, shoulders, forearms, butt, thighs. I soak in Epsom salts. Nothing. Take Ibuprofen. Nada. So I decide to take the day off, because OW.

That's the mistake. When you wake up sore like that, the best thing to do is work out at a medium pace, nothing challenging, but long enough to work the muscles and get the blood flow going. I skipped out and I'm paying the price. It's two days later and I still hurt. I'm scrounging up some icyhot today.

Also, Make it or Break it rules.

Sideways - Dierks Bentley
Accidentally in Love - Counting Crows
Stronger - Britney Spears
Ladies Choice - Hairspray Soundtrack
Sin - Nine Inch Nails
Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani
Rockstar - Nickelback
Fergalicious- Fergie
So What - Pink
Air Force Ones - Nelly
Psych Theme Song - The Friendly Indians
Rooster - Alice in Chains
Blue - Leann Rimes
Only Hope - Mandy Moore

So yesterday I started two new workouts that were in the May issue of Oxygen Women's Fitness.

Ow.

I did the 6-week ab routine and started the 8 week chin up goal.  My abs and arms ache so bad I took Ibuprofen twice today.  Sweet!

The ab routine is deceptively simple.  It's three exercises, leg raises in the captain's chair (3 sets, 15 reps), side crunches with weights (3x12) and crunches on the ball, with a medicine ball (3x12).

I'm not 100% sure that I believe that the chin-up plan will work.  I have no upper body strength, it turns out.  The first step is to raise the bar on the smith machine so you are about an inch or two above the floor with your arms extended.  Then you bring your feet in until they are planted on floor and lift as high as you can.  I can get halfway.  And I can only do 7 reps out of 12 before I need a break.  I didn't think that my arms were tired after three sets (I completed eventually) so I did a fourth of ten reps.  My arms hurt so damn bad today.  I can feel it in my biceps, shoulders and back.  It just may work.

I worry that I'll drift away from the plan, forget my goal.  I did the couch to 5K plan, but it took two tries to make it.  Maybe writing it here will keep me on plan.

After a two months of running and tracking my progress (in miles and in pounds lost) I was down ten pounds. On days I didn't run, I used the elliptical or the treadclimber at the gym, instead of walking. After running, trying to walk for an hour was boring and felt pointless. I liked being able to move faster and feeling stronger. I also started lifting weights. I found weightlifting moves and tips in magazines and books and adapted what I could for myself. I started keeping a log of when I exercised, what lifts or cardio I did, how many sets, reps and weight of each. I had a notebook I took to the gym and I tracked everything online at SparkPeople.com. It makes things in to graphs and charts so you can see your progress and you can share your info with other people.

Here are some of the things that helped me change my ideas about fitness and to become more involved in my lifestyle change.

SparkPeople.com, which I briefly mentioned above. SparkPeople is a free website that has everything you need to make substantial lifestyle changes. It has a calorie tracker, fitness tracker, goal setting tips and charts for your progress, an option to create your own SparkPeople page, forums, articles and a lot more. The best part for me was being able to chart what I was eating and how much I was really working out.

Oxygen Women's Fitness. It's a fitness magazine for women, but it's not boring diet tips and endless crunches like you'd get from Shape or Fitness. This has serious diet plans geared towards women who want to push the limits of what their body can do and who are willing to work hard to do it. I learned amazing moves for lifting, saw women who had transformed their figures and got more practical, useful tips than I ever got in any other magazine.

Roni's Weigh (http://ronisweigh.com/). Roni is a fitness success story. She shed 60 lbs and ran a marathon last year and held a fit blogging conference this year. Not only is she a great fitness role model, but when she blogs, it feels like she is talking to you, honestly. Roni is the real deal. (Plus she is sweet enough to answer some of my questions on Twitter and to give support. Thanks Roni!)

Body for Life. Mys sister talked me into doing to Body for Life challenge, which is taking the book's exercise and eating principles and following them for twelve weeks to see results. The workouts are based on intensity and utilize cardio and weights. The eating plan was the best part for me. I learned about planning food in advance and to eat a protein and a carb together at every meal. It was a great way to find foods that are good for me and that will help me achieve my fitness goals.

I'm not perfect about what I eat or working out. I try to hit the gym six days a week. Some weeks I make it, some I don't. Some days I get 40 minutes of intense cardio, some days a moderate 20 minutes is all I can handle. You have to be flexible and listen to your body, but you also have to remember not to sell yourself short. Sometimes my not wanting to go to the gym isn't about the gym, it's about my emotions or laziness or a million other things. Usually by the time I get to the gym and get changed, I remember that I didn't want to be doing this, but by then it's too late, so I do it anyway. That's pretty much my philosophy. Acknowledge my feelings (good and bad) then do it anyway.

I've been feeling strange for the past two days.  I have this weird feeling in my chest, almost a pressure, which generally means a panic attack is near.  My mind is fairly clear and I don't feel mentally scattered or anxious, but I heed the signs when they come.  I hit the gym today for a major workout and did 50 minutes of cardio and lifted.  I feel sane again and I think I may have prevented a panic attack.  (Hope!)

Last year at this time I weighed 174 lbs according to SparkPeople.com and the gym scale.  As of yesterday I weigh 134 lbs.  (That's 40 pounds lost, FYI.) 

It's is definitely awesome, as I've gone from a size 14 to an 8 (almost a 6).  I feel better, more confident, and if I go into a store and try on a pair of pants, the always go on.  That's a new feeling for me. 

A lot of people comment on it, which is nice.  It's also really uncomfortable for me.  The problem is that they always seem to want to know what my secret is.  The ask how I did it and then they look disappointed when I tell them.

Because I watched what I ate and I go to the gym six days a week.  It's not a magic cure, it won't even work for everyone.  It just happened to work for me. 

The part that people seem to like to hear least is when I tell them about the gym.  I don't believe in going to the gym to walk on a treadmill for half an hour.  I think that people ignore the potential for what their body can do.  I think people make excuses to not be fit or at least to not have to work very hard.  It's not even about losing weight, it's about challenging your body to change itself.  Muscle tone and endurance don't change without sweat and exhaustion. 

I may make it sound like it's all easy and anyone can do it, but I don't mean that.  I just think that people who talk about wanting to make a change need to challenge themselves.  I have lots of days that I don't want to workout.  And I do it anyway.  It makes me stronger physically, but also I think the discipline of going to the gym and training my body has been really good for my self-esteem and my goal setting in other areas of my life.

So, readers (ha), do you workout?  Do you have weight loss or fitness goals? 

Of course, I don't really have any days that aren't weird, so there's that.

I have way more energy today than I have had in months.  I've done laundry, ran the dishwasher twice, cleaned the kitchen and laundry room, had my nephew come over and took the kiddo out for pancakes.  So obviously, I am suspicious of my new-found good fortune. 

Oddly enough, the one thing I don't want to do it go to the gym.  I just don't feel like it.  Fortunately, I have to.  I accidentally left my workout shoes on and left my regular shoes there .  (Which is a big no-no at my gym.)  I'm sure I'll get away with it, but I need mu shoes for work, so I have to them.  Maybe Fate was stepping in to make sure I get off my ass?  Yeah, we'll go with that.

Oh yes, I know you.  You're the woman who goes to the gym to 'workout'.  I would like to take this time to point out to you that walking around aimlessly while chewing gum is not the most effective workout.  In fact, it's goddamn annoying.  Why? Well, to begin with chewing gum = air in the stomach and can cause some gastrointestinal issues, plus working out while chewing gum makes you look dumb and is a choking hazard.  Although I don't think the choking hazard applies to someone who walks up to a machine, looks at it for a minutes, climbs on, does a half-assed set at the lowest setting, takes her sweet time getting off the machine, then doesn't wipe it down after.  All while other people who have a plan are waiting.  Walking around looking at machines, getting sips of water and 'streching' is not a workout.  It's annoying to people who are there to actually workout. 

And the kicker is that I know that in a few weeks I'll hear you bitching to a friend about how the gym is a rip-off and you aren't losing any weight.  And I will snicker to myself and be glad you're leaving and freeing up machines.  Because I'm not always nice.