Quickie little post

Hello!

Yesterday I mentioned that I was only able to get through 30 minutes of dance cardio, then needed to take a nap for an hour.  I was supposed to do my MS last night, but I was so exhausted by the end of the day that I just fell asleep when I got home. 

Today, however, I am about to go attempt doing both my Mat dvd and my cardio. I hope it goes well- no napping afterward!

Post-holiday weekend- back on the wagon!

Hi everyone!

The weekend is over, that means it's time to get back down to business!  Unfortunately, "business" kicked my butt this morning.  

Let's just say I LOVE my  new shoes (And apparently so do Tracy and Anna). Best workout-related investment (aside from the TAM stuff) of my life.  I wish I knew about these before. Very lightweight shoes, and I was able to withstand a little extra bounce in my dance.  My old shoes were noticeably heavier and hurt my arches and knees.  I jammed out 30 minutes, still low impact but I felt tired on a whole new level- which is what kicked my ass this morning.  :D

I couldn't do more than the 30 this morning, my body decided enough was enough and demanded a 1 hour nap before work.  Still not too bad considering I was horrendously lazy Thursday-Sunday.

As for my MS- (I always seem to be an MS avoider rather than a cardio avoider...) That is on the list for tonight, after class and after work.

More blogs later, just thought I would shoot out my Monday morning update!

Cleaning out my closet, and my belly!

Hi guys!

I hope everyone is having a good weekend. Last night, I decided to look through my old clothes.  I came across 3 pairs of jeans- one in a juniors 13, 15, and 17 respectively.  I haven't worn jeans in so long, so I decided to try and put on the 17s. The didn't even go all the way up to my hips. they stopped just below my saddlebags.  Therefore, my first shrinking goal (after fitting comfortably in my XL Juicy Couture track pants which are the equivalent of a US Misses 14, but being that they're sweats, there's a lot more room in them than jeans) will be to fit into those again, comfortably, then the 15s, then the 13s.  (Junior sizes are a little smaller than Misses/Women's sizes, a junior 13 is like a misses 11-12)  I have always worn junior sizes because they are a bit more slim in the hips (I'm not a really curvy girl under the weight).  I hope to fit in the 17s a lot better by Christmas or New Years. 

My ultimate goal dress is a long, dark green Chinese dress in a size 34 (I'm guessing that's a European size because it's tiny!).  I did some research and it's close to a US 4 or 6. (I think- there was a lot of different info on this!) 

Anyone else have any "goal clothes" to measure their progress in?   I'm getting back on the Tracy wagon full force on Monday. I saw on her twitter page she'll be posting new stuff on Monday! I hope it happens!

Post-Thanksgiving Aftermath... And shoes!

Hi guys!!!

I hope all of you who celebrated yesterday had a lovely Thanksgiving.  I cooked dinner at my place, and like most other people, I have leftovers.  This has been totally dangerous for me all day, as it seems like today I can't stop eating! My god, this is ridiculous. I have almost half a mind to throw the rest of it in the garbage. 

Another thing- I GOT MY NEW SHOES~!!! (yay!)

I got my Mizuno Wave Inspire 6s- aka the shoes Anna is wearing in this video (I just realized it!)

So far, walking around my house in them, they feel amazing. VERY supporting yet at the same time really lightweight too.  If you order them, try a half size bigger than what you would normally order for running shoes.

I ordered mine at Zappos- free overnight shipping!

http://www.zappos.com/mizuno-wave-inspire-6-white-shocking-pink-anthracite

(and yes, I got the pink ones. )

For the free overnight shipping you have to become a VIP at Zappos- which they are letting people get- for free- for a limited time- as of this blog- 5 and a half hours left!

http://vip.zappos.com/d2/tistheseason

After I dance in these a few times, I will review them further!  Hoping that will be tomorrow.

My thanksgiving plans... AND a new video from Tracy!

Hi guys!!

Well, tomorrow is the big day for Americans- Thanksgiving Day which  means we are going to be around a lot of food.  What are my plans for tomorrow?

I am going to be cooking!  While it won't be the healthiest, it's one day, so no need to stress.  I'm making a roast ham, stuffing, and a few vegetables on the side.  If anything, the killer (and arguably the best tasting of this) is the stuffing, which I will be making from scratch!  Old family recipe and I only make it once a year, and I will try my best not to overindulge.

Knowing I will be eating this lovely stuff, I did a little extra exercise than normal.  I am actually quite proud of myself!  I had to go pick up my paycheck, but instead of driving my car, I decided to walk there and back instead, so I got in a full hour of walking (30 minutes each way) and even though it's pretty cold here, I was sweating when I got home.  After that, I did my Mat workout- 15 reps a leg, walking really burned my legs! and 40 minutes of boot camp dance cardio (step touching).

Speaking of cardio, lately I have been feeling pain in my arches of my feet, my knees and my hips, and I think it's definitely because of the shoes.  Hopefully tonight, I will be ordering a new pair of Mizuno Wave Inspire 6 *recommended by Tracy among a few others* online tonight and having them overnighted to me so I can hopefully use them on Friday when I am working off the yummies. 

Last, but definitely not least- just in time for Thanksgiving, Tracy released a new webisode on YouTube- a short leg work section and a new dance cardio routine!  Enjoy!  I want one of those Tracy tank tops they're wearing- super cute!

Have a lovely Thanksgiving, enjoy friends, family, and food- and get back to work on Friday!

Weekends... I love you, I hate you. Also, Thanksgiving,

Hello hello!

Well, this weekend I feel like I probably gained back all the weight I lost last week.  If I wanted it, it went in my mouth- including but not limited to: Starbucks caramel brulee coffee, caramel nut coffee cake, gummy bears, cheese, spam *which is only good cooked* and -ack~!- white rice!  I think my period is on the way. Yikes... And no exercise all weekend aside from cleaning up.

Ugh. I'll do better, swear.

Now then- a big holiday coming up- Thanksgiving day- aka another excuse to stuff ourselves silly!  What's a dieter to do?

One thing you better NOT do- starve on Thanksgiving on your own will!  You won't gain 10 pounds of fat on your body from one day. I promise. (Unless you eat 35,000 calories over your metabolic rate which I DOUBT)

I say- enjoy Thanksgiving and enjoy the food!  However, little things you could do-

1. Squeeze in a workout if you can.

2. Eat until you're content, NOT stuffed like the turkey sitting on the table. 

3. Try to make dinner your main meal, keep breakfast and lunch light.

Hope these help- I plan on following at least #2-3. 

I will be weighing in today... Scared to, but gotta. Then going to work and class.  Also adding at least some cardio today, perhaps Mat after class. (Just no time for both in the morning on Monday, and cardio at night is a MAJOR no-no here.)

Ouch....

Hi guys!

Sorry for the delayed post.  My past 2 days have been sore, but I am already seeing results!!!

Monday- had a stressful, long, tiring day that I was totally unprepared for, but managed to squeeze in the Mat workout with 20 reps a leg and just about all of the rest, using my legs only for some of the ab work *not strong enough yet!*  I had no idea how badly 20 reps would kick my ass.  I did this on Monday, it is now WEDNESDAY and I am still really sore. I think next time I do Mat I will keep it at 20 because that was a real struggle. 15 is when it starts to be really hard.   Doing Mat made me realize how much I missed weighted arms. I know the recent stuff has a lot of work on all fours which works out the arms in a similar way but this just has a different feeling.  

Tuesday- so sore I could barely walk, much less do the Mat workout again. Hell no!  I slept like a baby, then took ANOTHER nap during the day I was so tired!  I didn't feel ready to do dance cardio for fear that I would be in worse pain, or worse, hurt myself or bump into things and wreck the living room.  Therefore, I took a good brisk 30 minute walk.  It sort of made my butt and thigh pain worse but got a sweat on regardless. \

My thoughts- No way am I going to do Mat workouts 6 days a week... Yet. First my goal is 4 times a week, then build up.  Cardio 7 days if possible, even if it is just a walk.  The main goal is to burn off this lard, and cardio is the main way to do this. 

As for  my diet- I am still keeping it pretty clean, and around 1000-1200 calories a day.  Also, I ordered a body fat caliper so that even when my weight on the scale isn't budging, I want to be sure the fat is. 

Today's goal- do 40 minutes of the cardio from the book- step touching it. Even though I don't go high impact, within a couple of minutes, I'm sweating. Depends on how I feel- I MAY do my Mat work too.  I have class tonight so at least cardio will happen.  Tomorrow, my goal is to do BOTH since I have nothing to do that I know of. 

Keep up the great work everyone!

Pre-bootcamp training final thoughts

Hello all!

After falling off of the bootcamp wagon due to my physical inability to go further than sequence 1, as I  mentioned before, I am going to be starting with the basics.  If I was lighter, bootcamp would have been much more doable I think. 

I decided to give my old friend, Mat Workout another go. I remember it being doable, but very challenging. In a good way! I also only remember being able to do about 10 reps on each leg. My goal- do 40 easily!

I also remembered the fact that I have the Tracy Anderson Connect abs, butt and arms webisodes. I have never actually DONE these, and so I gave them a watch.  Looks like a similar workout to the Mat workout without the chair and I think this will be my next transition after I master the original Mat workout. 

One thing I do miss that the older Muscular Structure work has that the new one does not is weighted arms. I remember when I first ever tried Tracy's workout, I saw results in my arms much faster than when I was doing PD1.  Also a huge plus that Mat has against PD series is the standing abs are easy to follow along with after watching it once or twice.

Last, but finally  not least, I have noticed myself tightening up in a bad way- loss of flexibility.  When I can squeeze it in, I will steal my roomie's P90X Stretch DVD- a whole hour of good stretching.  I want to get my hands on Ballet Boot Camp's stretch DVD as well.   Stretching time would be before bed, something about stretching out before bed makes it a lot easier to fall asleep. 


Going to weigh in before work tomorrow too, on the GOOD scale. The tricky part will be subtracting clothes weight.  My home scale is loopy, every time I step on I get a different result. At my job, the gym has a scale that gives consistent readings! 

Alright, enough rambling, time to go to bed. Got a busy day ahead!

Day 12~

Hi guys!

Well, I decided to not knock sequence 2 quite yet so I made another attempt.  All was going great until I did my one side of legs, then on the left side (which I always do second) came the move where you stand up on the chair.  Then disaster struck.  

Not doing the workout, but the clumsiness of me coming down off of the chair.  I guess when I put my right foot on the floor first, I felt a sharp pain in it, not like a break but like I pulled something, so I am staying off of it for the rest of the day.

I would have thought of this normally as a failure, but instead I see it as a challenge. 

My challenge is to work on and master the original Mat DVD until I can do 40 repetitions of all of the leg work, and doing 40-60 minutes of the Boot Camp cardio, even if it is just step touching. Hopefully this melts off this extra fat that is getting in the way of a lot of my movements and impairing my balance, as well as building up stamina.  Ideally, I'd like to go back into the Boot Camp more full on, perhaps using different, more advanced cardio from the beginning of it.

Mind you I am NOT QUITTING- I am just re-evaluating and doing it differently until I can feel a little more confident in my own body.

Days 10 and 11... Disappointment.

Hey guys. 

Today I totally fell off the wagon as did yesterday. Ugh. 

Day 10- didn't exercise, had no energy, and I craved (and ate!) chocolate like it was going out of style.   And if that doesn't make me feel bad enough...

Day 11- Was SUPPOSED to be my first day of sequence 2. However, those chair workouts in my current fitness level just don't seem to want to happen and I had started thinking of an alternative, or lose weight doing other of Tracy's stuff before attempting boot camp.  My flexibility and everything is SHIT compared to when I was slimmer, probably because I didn't have all this fat in the way.

What I am thinking of doing, at least until December, is still work out daily but going back to basics- the good ol' Mat DVD and work on that until I master it, doing Bootcamp cardio after it, since at least THAT part seems to sort of be going well.  

Pennies for thoughts are always appreciated.

Days 7-9 plus a recipe!

Hi guys!!!

Sorry about the really late blog post- yesterday wasn't feeling too hot. 

Day 7-

Went as normal, got my exercise in, ate right, nothing out of the ordinary.

Day 8- 

Had a problem with my exercise... I was doing my Sequence 1 Muscle Structure work and every ten reps of the leg moves I had to stop and yawn, I was exhausted. All I got accomplished that day was legs. 25 reps. No abs or arms, I felt like I was going to crash for the night already and I still needed what little energy I had left to get through work and class. This lack of energy led to day 9-

Day 9-

NOT feeling well, my weakness the previous day probably led to this.  I didn't work out, I just let myself sleep as much as I needed to- until 2 pm.  I did feel guilty but friends of mine are right- take care of yourself so you're out for a day as opposed to a whole week! 

I also have a recipe for you guys- how I cook my chicken breast without using any salt, yet still tastes great!

It's really simple- I promise! It's a garlic lover's and lemon lover's delight.

My Greek-style chicken breast~

What you need:

Boneless Skinless chicken breasts

Lemon juice

Garlic powder (or garlic cloves finely chopped)

Oregano

Extra virgin olive oil

Step 1:

Rinse and pat the chicken dry and place in a tupperware dish, sprinkling garlic powder and oregano generously (to taste) on top of each piece (especially helpful if you are stacking the breasts on top of each other, so that the spices evenly flavor all of the chicken)

Step 2:

Pour enough lemon juice to cover the chicken. Place in the refrigerator at least overnight, shaking the container occasionally.

Step 3:

In a pan or on a grill, coat the cooking surface with olive oil (optional) and cook chicken until done on the inside and slightly browned.

Also good if you cut up the chicken before marinating, then it can be used in salads and such!

Bootcamp Days 4-6 in a nutshell!

Hello!

Sorry for my epic lateness. My internet has been being a real slacker.

Well, these past three days have been a living hell for me. Not because of my exercising. Not because of the diet I am on. Because of my damn monthly visitor REALLY misbehaving and trying to derail my progress! However for the first time in my life, Brain wins~!

Examples:

Brain: I have to exercise.

Period: I wanna go to White Castle, get a sack of 30 and eat it all in bed watching TV!

Brain: HELL no! -beats up period who goes crying in the corner-

Let's just say my monthly visitor is my inner fat girl's total BFF.  I think they're even dating.  They all want the same things in life too. However, the skinny girl and my brain have been forming quite the team, thwarting the gruesome twosome at every turn. 

I will admit- it does feel strange now that I no longer have a desire to drink diet soda. All I drink these days is iced tea, water, and mineral/sparkling water.  I am also finding it scarily easy to say no to junk food. No more "just a bite", or "It's cheat day!" (Bootcamp HAS no cheat days!) 

As for exercise... I am now able to do 25 reps of my muscular structure work, it was hard but I think that if I am not feeling TOO badly, I will go for 30 tomorrow!  I at least want to get to 40 reps (even if it's a struggle) by the end of this month.  Fingers crossed, not promising.  Also I am noticing I am having lingering soreness in mainly 2 places-

1. Under my arms/behind my breasts (the pushup muscles)

2. My hips, inner thighs, and bum! (Or, the Thass)

I am also shocked at my ability to do MS AND do my cardio right after. Mind you, I am still keeping the cardio low impact which is still making me sweat within a couple minutes of starting. For me, it's like high impact, I do start to get a little tired toward the end of the second combination but I am seeing my endurance go up a little.

Another thing- I'm seeing fat disappear! From my gut, my arms, my thighs, my knee area, etc. With my monthly friend, I am not relying on weight right now.  Also, I think my scale at home is a tad on the broken side. I do go to my school which has a fitness center with a scale that anyone can go in and use. I think I'll start weighing myself when I go to work and class. So that would be like, a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday weigh in all about the same time on those days so then I should be able to get better readings. 

I would have taken measurements, but I realize I suck at it. I measure myself twice in the same area and get 2 different numbers.  That's why I took before pics, so my progress can be seen as it is. 

Alright, tomorrow is my first Sunday that I would actually be working out on!!!

Boot Camp Day 3!

Hi everyone!

I can't believe I made it three days now without even cheating just a little. AND having my monthly visitor (My number one excuse to not do ANYTHING). Craziness!

Today, had some more oatmeal, vegetables, chicken, and more vegetables. I feel like I'm getting used to the eating part. I've noticed some non-weight related benefits too. I also notice I seem to be digesting this stuff better than the fast food processed garbage I USED to eat.

Exercise... I just was able to do my cardio because I wasn't feeling well in the morning and had a time crunch. Cardio is most important when you're trying to lose weight. Got my combo 1 step touch done, and was pretty pooped when I was done.  Didn't have time at night to do my MS  but I got home at like, 10:40 pm and just wanted bed. Sweet, sweet bed.

Advice- If you have Tracy's other DVDs- for a warm up I do PD1's warm up section before my mat work and BDC warm up before my cardio.  I like following the warm ups to a DVD too and the boot camp dvd doesn't have this.  The book does but I prefer working out to the DVD. 

Another thought... Since I have a lot of weight to go... Thinking of keeping up boot camp for a second consecutive month... Or should I follow the same guidelines but instead use the other DVDs- Example- sequence 1 is PD1, sequence 2 PD2, sequence 3 is PD3, etc.  What do you guys think?

Boot Camp Day 2!

Hello!

Day 2 is complete, and it was hard~!  I was incredibly tempted to haul off and eat junk food, because my monthly (asshole) friend decided to show up. 

Monthly friend: Oh hey Roxy~ I see you're doing a boot camp. Cool! Can I join?

I was really tempted to go pour myself a glass of rice milk and mix some chocolate in. But I didn't. I measured out 1 cup of orange juice for myself (which is better than chocolate milk of any kind!)   I still kept to my clean eating.  Steel cut oats and 1 cup of orange juice for breakfast, steamed broccoli for lunch, was a little indulgent for dinner- had some grilled chicken breast with a cup of whole grain angel hair pasta drizzled with a little olive oil. Delicious! Didn't feel like a snack, the broccoli did a pretty good job of filling me up. 

Exercise- I was definitely feeling it when I woke up, especially in my chest and bum area.  I did the same workout I did yesterday- 20 reps of the MS sequence 1 (I didn't want to push my body too hard, being that I was sore and everything) and step touched cardio combo 1.

My weight... I gained a pound, likely water due to my physical condition. I think I'll wait to really weigh in until Monday when the period monster SHOULD be gone. (I tend to retain a lot of water during that time, no matter how much I drink, so if I only gained 1 pound instead of 5, I'm doing SOMETHING right!)

Well, 28 more days~ Still haven't given up yet! :)

Boot Camp Day 1!

Hello~

It appears that day 1 went over rather well!  

My starting weight- 264.4 pounds / 120 kg... Damn.  My goal is to be half that!

I didn't do the meal plan from the book but am following similar guidelines.  Breakfast- a bowl of steel cut oatmeal sweetened with stevia, lunch was a salad with balsamic vinegar on it, I had strawberries for a snack (almost a whole package, I was ravenous!) and for dinner a grilled chicken breast and steamed broccoli.  There was temptation though. At work- the coke machines (for me, diet coke) calling my name all day while I sat there drinking my water.  I miss my diet coke, but even more surprising was there was also a pizza party at work which I did NOT partake in! So proud of myself!

As for the exercise- I was able to do 20 reps of all of my muscle work EXCEPT that damn connection push up.  I think for now I am going to skip on that one or just do like, 3 because that's about as long as I can hold myself up.  Being really overweight has always made plank-type exercises for me hard to near impossible. When I was my younger skinny self, it was a cinch.  I was also a good girl and did my cardio.  Step touching to the first combination but hey, it made me sweat and I think for my fitness level it was just enough.

Advice- There are going to be a lot of moves she does that are almost impossible to do without jumping. DON'T do it. Instead, step touch to the side, or do those side kicks (or any move you like that doesn't jump) and USE YOUR ARMS! It will make it burn that much more and that's what you want! Even though it's low impact on your knees, it's not on your heart rate!

So to my fellow bootcampers (and everyone else) keep it up! If you can do one day, you can do 30!