Goals - Need some work!

Just taking a look at those pushup, plank, and ladder goals I set for myself a little while back.  They are kind of just hanging around there. I started off well - giving an effort to them and then I kind of let it slide.  I would sure like to blame it completely on the bit of stomach trouble I have been having. But sadly I cannot put all the blame there. Because there have been a few days where I simply chose to do virtually no activity when I could have been making an effort to do some activity at least.

So with that said and with me with my really unreasonably yucky gut today I am still going to go and do at least some wall push ups. They aren't terribly taxing that I will feel worse than I do and the type of thing that I can do and put really good work into not too many minutes worth of it if I work really well on concentrating my effort in the muscles that I really want to work.

Off I go!

Struck by something

Well the last days for me have featured some serious nausea, a lot of sleep followed by no sleep, followed by reduced nausea and increased abdominal disturbances (pain that reminded me of my gall bladder attacks and had me actually sobbing).  But thankfully despite the lack of sleep last night I think I might actually be feeling quite a bit better.

The thing is that as much as I rant and rave against the scale there are some milestones that still mean something to me despite my efforts to minimize them.  That 75 pounds lost was one I was looking forward to.  But now I just shot right past it on the result of being so sick and it just kind of spoiled it for me.  Kinda glad on one hand, kinda disappointed on the other.  I don't like the big losses - they are not to be desired and I especially don't like one brought on by being sick and taking away my milestone LOL.  Never satisfied.

But on another scale related note. I realized I had under accounted my height (probably hadn't measured my height since high school when I got my learners license LOL, and put on an extra 3/4 of an inch after that).  So here I am never having known that I am taller than I ever thought LOL.  But the great thing about that is that it means that getting my "goal" weight for WW is that much closer.  And I don't really care about that number per se but I do care about not having to pay anymore! And that will be awesome!

Fun but famishing

Well yesterday my presence at the pool was commanded by my 2 young nephews.  They were off to the pool and it is a rare occasion when I can resist the call of my nephews asking me to play with them.  That is something I will always thank my drama classes for (I am no actress it is sure but they did force me to remember what it is like to play and to let go of some of those ridiculous worries about what others might think if I show a bit of playful enthusiasm) opening my eyes back up to the fun of play.

I think that everyone should just go out and play and have fun and I don't mean play like an adult (cards or something like that) I mean play. Run around wildly with no intent in mind or go to the park and swing until you feel like you are going to throw up, or whatever.  Just free yourself from all those constraints and ties we put on ourselves and just go for it.  I would wish that everyone would be able to experience the fun and freedom of doing that!

Now with that said I had lots of fun at the pool with my nephews. I am very proud that I encouraged my one nephew to be brave and let go of me and float around without hanging onto one of us.  Kids need that encouragement to try the "safe risks" sometimes.  It is fundamental to their development of problem solving skills.

But after the pool time was over I arrived home absolutely famished and tired tired tired. What is it about the pool that does that to me? But was it worth it - absolutely and unquestionably. I would take that kind of tired and hungry any day over tired and hungry following a day chained to my desk!

Anaerobic Workouts are the BEST

Perhaps I am crazy, and perhaps anyone reading this will think that I am but I can feel that anaerobic burn going on at the core of me right this minute.  An anaerobic workout from my understanding is one that not only burns calories while you are doing it but turns up your internal engines to a higher level and keeps burning the calories for quite a while (up to 8 hours) after the workout.  And I am entirely convinced that if you try you can feel it.

Today I braved the cold, bundled up and walked to they gym.  Once I got there I hopped on the Jacob's ladder (after taking off the extra layers of clothes and jackets of course - since I think it would have been pretty hilarious to see me on there with winter jacket, toque, scarf and gloves - and I think I would have fallen off of it in about 1 minute under those conditions LOL).  I did 17 minutes on it.  The first minute (0 to 1)was a warm up at a reasonable but not super fast rate.  Then minutes 1 to 6 were 6 20/40 intervals. Then minute 7 I needed to stay at the slower pace.  Then I did two more interval based minutes.  So 8 minutes of intervals in total.  The rest of the time on there I was going at a little faster pace than I have been doing. I would say I probably averaged in at 40 or maybe even 41.

Followed up the ladder with a little bit of stretching, then a little bit of ab work (not much just a little bit), then some pushups (30, 10 of each of 3 types - regular, tricep, serratus) and I did a short plank as well.  So all in all it felt like a really good workout.

I do think that intervals really are the way to go if you want that anaerobic burn to be going all day! Because I know I have felt that burn doing a running in place tabata (10 sec at as hard as you can go/20 second very slow pace) for just around 2 or 2 and half minutes and have been able to feel the burn afterwards for hours.  So I absolutely believe that the best bang for your buck in terms of calorie burning is intervals!  At least that is my 2 cents on the subject!

A little shortfall

Well as much as I hate to provide myself with excuses this morning I got my crampy self onto the Jacob's ladder but wasn't there early enough to do 16 minutes so I did my 10 minute session so I could go to the seminar I needed to attend. Honestly I don't think I could have done the 16 with the 8 minutes of intervals anyway. The 10 pushed my limits (and then was followed by having to climb 4 stories worth of stairs to go to the seminar).

And I didn't go back for the 16 minutes later.  I let my crampy self and the cold weather be my excuse.  But I will shoot for doing it tomorrow at the end of my day.  It will be good for me since Friday nights are definitely one of my challenges.  So I will try to get on there after work tomorrow!

Exciting Plan for tomorrow

Going to shoot for 16 minutes on the Jacob's ladder tomorrow.  Looking for 8 minutes of intervals.  Then hoping to get back on it again later in the day and make another 10 minutes (probably only 5 intervals).

Ha, maybe you thought the plans were going to be for something amazing and exciting like a trip to an exotic locale or a amazing adventure. Well I guess that ladder pushing myself a little farther will be the adventure!  And of course I do find pushing myself to try a little harder each time is pretty exciting!

The plan is also to do my test to see where I am at on my push ups and plank as well.  Will update all of the details in my goal progress tool once I finish all of my wonderful work tomorrow!

Jacob's Ladder 3 and Beginners Guide

Well I faced down the Jacob's ladder and I showed it who was boss for 15 full minutes! And I can tell you that parts of me really desperately wanted to stop at 8 minutes and again at 11 minutes and again at 13 minutes etc. You get the idea.  But I did it. It was 7 minutes of intervals (20/40 fast/slow) and then I probably averaged out on the rest of the minutes at around 38 or 39 which is a bit faster than my last time.

All in all I would say it was a great workout.  And it has the added benefit of allowing me to have the energy for a very long day and night at work!

So a beginners guide. I am going to start working on a beginners guide. Something that could be used by people getting started on the road to getting healthy.  Mostly it will be generic but there probably will be some references to specific WW things but many other things will be useful to anyone on a journey to better health. At least that is my hope!

If you have any suggestions for what you think would be useful to include in this - from your own experiences - I would love to hear them from you!

Saturdays

I find it a bit strange but at the same time not all that strange that Saturdays are one of my hardest to motivate myself days. This is primarily in terms of activity. I actually am going to blame this being meeting day for me.  It means that I get up and can't work out first thing in the morning as I need to toddle off to my meeting.  Then after my meetings I usually end up picking up a few groceries and then home and onto here - the computer brain sucker LOL. And that just doesn't get me started well.

So on other days I often at least feel like I have the option of doing a Wii workout in the morning as I get myself started up for the day.  Or I am scheduled to head off to the pilates studio for a class.  I just find the morning workout the easiest to motivate myself for. But I am doing to do mine today once the living room is free. I could go over to the gym at work and hit the jacob's ladder today but I think I need to roll out of the leg muscles so I will do that for a bit and just hit the Wii later today.

I keep thinking I should get back into my workouts each morning and I still think I should but haven't quite gotten myself to do it yet. I do think watching for my progress on those goals on the side might just be the stimulus I need.

Pics

Okay so technically I am now taking my pics at the end of the month instead of the start of the month. But hey, I don't think that makes a huge amount of difference. I have the new clothes for the pics - shows off a bit more belly than I normally feel comfortable with for sure!  Okay who am I kidding it shows most of my belly (well not really the worst part of it though) and that is something I don't do in public which begs the question of why I am willing to post it here LOL.  But I want to watch the more minute changes happen. I want to watch the little muffin topping start to erode away. I want to see my stomach flatten out without it looking flatter than it really is because of a shirt disguising what is going on. And I am willing to share that here because not that many people look at the pics here.

First I will post the style of pic that I will continue to do. A compare of however many months side by side (months from 2012 with of course the start picture to keep things in perspective).  And then I am going to be having another one that will always just feature the start, the current month and the month previous and those I will split out into two separate pictures (front and side ones).

So here they are. Notice all the precursor text so the pictures push down the page a bit farther LOL.

Start and current only

Another day on the ladder!

Well I haven't been doing a real tonne of other stuff. My pilates yes but not that much else. So today I was back onto the ladder at the gym.  It was 13 minutes and 20 seconds today.  0-1 min I just warmed up, then 1-7 I did heavy intervals with the fast being quite fast and the slow being around 33 or so.  In the same 20 sec/40 sec breakdown.  Then the rest of the time on there today I worked at around an average of 37 or so. It was a very good workout in not much time!

I pushed myself to do that 7th minute interval. I really was ready to not do it. But I made it through it. And I thought of stopping at 12 minutes and again at 13 - at 13 I decided I would just go a few more seconds.  Now I know I can actually do more. But I do want to work myself up on this at a reasonable pace - not push it so much that I don't want to do it anymore.

Now maybe I should do some wall push ups to get myself going a bit on the arm stuff I want to accomplish! Perhaps I should start keeping a tracker and test myself once a week to see where I am at for hitting those targets that I am after. Hmmmm perhaps a good idea.  I am going to be posting some pics tomorrow in the new picture outfit.  Or if I get energetic I will post them tonight yet.

**Edit: Well you can see I added in a goal progress tracker on the side bar there. And I am testing myself today on them. Push ups actually felt okay at 25 and probably if I was doing it for the actual assessment I could have pulled off a couple more. So will keep working on that.  Will go do the plank in a little bit here and then update that number as well. ***