Still resting which means no running, no heavy strength training, and anything that can worsen my sciatic area. Its actually feeling a whole lot better, but it was feeling a lot better then I ran and it got worst, so I'm going to try and rest it out for the full six weeks.
What to do now? I'm just eating properly and walking. Today I walked alot and it started to pinch a bit, so I know not to push it. Its all good tho, I need to do something or I'll go stir crazy!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Good News & Bad News
Lets start with the bad. Two days ago, the 25th, my spine/sciatic nerve area just wanted revenge. I woke up feeling like someone had stabbed me in that area. Slept it off first half of the day, then forced myself to go out to see if that would help for a couple of hours, didn't work. Then caved in and took 30 mg of vicodin. It was so bad. After talking to a doctor, its just something I have to rest out. Its isolated to my right side, which makes sense cuz I slammed my right foot down. So I can't really do anything too crazy. Which kinda makes me sad.
Good news? I'm down 20 lbs!!! I still think I look the same, but its coming out the belly first, which is soooooo goooooodddd perfect place for me right after my thunder calves. I hate my calves cuz I like/d walking in my tiptoes and um, they got huge. Bleh. Haha.
Its encouraging, yeh!
Lets start with the bad. Two days ago, the 25th, my spine/sciatic nerve area just wanted revenge. I woke up feeling like someone had stabbed me in that area. Slept it off first half of the day, then forced myself to go out to see if that would help for a couple of hours, didn't work. Then caved in and took 30 mg of vicodin. It was so bad. After talking to a doctor, its just something I have to rest out. Its isolated to my right side, which makes sense cuz I slammed my right foot down. So I can't really do anything too crazy. Which kinda makes me sad.
Good news? I'm down 20 lbs!!! I still think I look the same, but its coming out the belly first, which is soooooo goooooodddd perfect place for me right after my thunder calves. I hate my calves cuz I like/d walking in my tiptoes and um, they got huge. Bleh. Haha.
Its encouraging, yeh!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Eating While Getting In Shape (Other Than Round)
I had a really good talk a couple of days ago with Aldrin, credit where credit is due, in regards to food when it comes to getting in shape. While we have different goals, he is bulking up & I am losing weight with the end goal of being girly lean & tone, food still plays an important part in both goals.
What I realized is that I had many misconceptions, that I know others share, when it comes to eating properly. Not just while working out to achieve goals (loose, maintain, bulk, etc.) but also to just fuel your body. Note: I don't claim to be an expert in any of this. I'm just sharing my personal experience and what I'm shared. Every body is different and will react differently to different methods. I'm just glad that I have someone I can ask questions to because I need a place to start.
Carbs
Carbs was enemy number one. Specially since I live in a Filipino household and grew up in the Philippines where rice is a staple. So I avoided carbs while I was working out. Even wheat bread, brown rice, just carbs in general. I seriously do or die when it comes to things like that, and I just about died. I found myself tired by 3 pm and ready to knock out by 6 pm. what I didn't know was that carbs fuel your body. I was literally eating oatmeal (because I'm a lazy eater and can't think of replacements) for breakfast & lunch. Sneak in some fruits for snacks or when I was hungry. For dinner, I would have brocolli & some sort of protein. And yeah, there are some carbs there, but not nearly enough to fuel my body for my runs, workouts, and whatever my body needs to just function.
According to my source carb, in moderation as most things, is essential. The good carbs that we are told to eat, like wheat bread, is what fuels us out through out the day. It takes time for our body to break em down and turn em into fuel, so those things last through out the whole day. The bad carbs, like white bread, is more easily processed and if you aren't careful, those excess carbs that our body doesn't use will store them, and anything our body stores is stored as fat. Up to now, I still don't eat rice (unless its in sushi, seriously.) unless its brown rice, even then, I don't make brown rice at home, so its when I eat out and can have brown rice as on option. Its not really by choice that I don't eat brown rice, its just I'm lazy to cook brown rice. Most of my carbs come from bread, Wheat Thins, & random carby vegetables and its mostly eaten in the morning to fuel my runs & work out. Someone asked about rice, the white kind, and Aldrin suggested limiting rice to a palmful and eating it only for breakfast & lunch* so that the body can use it up before you knock out for the night and body goes into storage mode. *unless its in sushi is my little footnote.
Protein
Protein was also something I avoided. I seriously might as well have lived off oatmeal before I knew all this stuff, cuz seriously, somedays I wouldn't even have anything BUT oatmeal. My brother called me a grandma. Anyway, I was told too much proten = gout. Now, I have no clue what gout is, but it sounds ugly and it certainly sounds like its to be avoided. So I avoided a lot of meats. I ate a lot of chicken breast that I cooked at home and brocolli and when I didn't have oatmeal for dinner, I had that. And just that for like a week. After the very informational talk, I realize how detrimental & counterproductive NOT eating protein was. I wanted to go into protein shakes, I just started this week when mine came in from Amazon, about a month ago but I brought that idea up with a different friend and was told that too much protein = gout. There goes that ugly word again; to me a mental picture of gout would be an ugly looking fish.
Now, with a better understanding of protein, I understand that my muscles, even tho I was working out, was probably not getting the proper protein they needed to rebuild. It only makes sense that if you rip something, muscles while working out, you better supply them with something to rebuild with, protein. Since I was only getting my protein through chicken for dinner, which was also HOURS after my work outs, I wasn't supplying enough protein, and wasn't supplying it at the right time either for them to rebuild. Currently, I space out my proteins and do a protein shake after I work out. I haven't crunched numbers, but I know that I'm still under my "target" number for protein. I didn't realize how much protein our body needs. Most of my protein come from meat & eggs. Breakfast usually consists of either a turkey sandwich or 1 whole egg & 1 egg white. I did a little snoop around on bodybuilding.com and was actually suggested 1 whole egg & 7 egg whites! Which is a lot for me, so I just did 1 whole 1 white, till further notice. So yeah, protein is important.
Ratios
One of the best things that I learned, and actually try to stick to, is the 50/30/20.
50% protein, 30% carbs, 20% fat per meal. Now this is Aldrin's ratio, but he is trying to bulk up. I'm not sure how much variations is needed but since I'm a weaksauce and I'm also pushing myself in terms of strength training, I tend to focus on the protein as well. With my snooping on bodybuilding.com (i'm not an affiliate, I don't earn money or whatever, just a legit source with real people), another suggestion was 40/40/20, but since I don't really like eat carbs, I stick with the protein. I can only have so much bread a day. He suggests looking at your plate like a pie and divide it up accordingly, 50 protein, 30 carbs, 20 fats. I'm a visual person so anything that can be translated into a visual aid is good for me.
Meal Frequency
I'm going to get this out of the way right now, I am a lazy eater. This is what got me into trouble back then. Most of the times I wouldn't eat meals until I was hungry and binged. Add that with no longer playing soccer and my dislike of the sun, and I pretty much lost anything active in my life. Even now, I'm still a lazy eater and with the suggested eating frequency of six meals a day (every three hours), I'm still very lazy.
The whole point of eating that much is that your body never goes into storage mode. If you starve your body and then eat (specially binge eating), your super smart body will say "lets save some of this for later because were going to need it" and will turn some of the foods into fat for storage. And if you bing eat for dinner because you didn't eat the whole day, then when you fall asleep, your body will really store those. Thats why they say have a big breakfast, cuz your body will use up those foods as energy and won't store anyway.
For me, I try to eat six meals a day, but to be honest, I hit 4 more often than six. 5 when I have my protein shake, I don't take it everyday, just on days I work out & six when I'm being a good girl.
Post workout meals are also something I never knew about. He said after a workout, go eat. I would normally not eat because of guilt because hell, just finished kicking my own ass, now I'm going to eat? A thing to remember is our body is smart. After a workout, its going to recover itself an since food fuels our bodies, we need to eat. Post workout is when you can eat your "unhealthy" carbs, white bread, get some dextrose, and protein load as well. Its when our muscles are in need of these things to repair. If you don't, your body is going to think like this next time you eat: "I just went through an intense work out and had nothing to repair myself with, lets store some of this food." And storing = fat. He said we should eat within 2 hours post workout, and as always, don't go too crazy. Yeah we need sugar but don't go eat a bar of Snickers.
When he was telling me about post work out meals, my face was like this O_O I was seriously shocked cuz I just didn't know. Haha. Before I would eat a banana cuz they said it helps with sore muscles. Now I eat a protein shake and a banana. Or a sandwich and a banana.
I learned a lot more but I'll break it down here, just the super basics. I'll probably go back and re-read that convo so that I can put more stuff up. I'm so glad to be able to learn this from someone first hand and be able to pass it on (;
What I realized is that I had many misconceptions, that I know others share, when it comes to eating properly. Not just while working out to achieve goals (loose, maintain, bulk, etc.) but also to just fuel your body. Note: I don't claim to be an expert in any of this. I'm just sharing my personal experience and what I'm shared. Every body is different and will react differently to different methods. I'm just glad that I have someone I can ask questions to because I need a place to start.
Carbs
Carbs was enemy number one. Specially since I live in a Filipino household and grew up in the Philippines where rice is a staple. So I avoided carbs while I was working out. Even wheat bread, brown rice, just carbs in general. I seriously do or die when it comes to things like that, and I just about died. I found myself tired by 3 pm and ready to knock out by 6 pm. what I didn't know was that carbs fuel your body. I was literally eating oatmeal (because I'm a lazy eater and can't think of replacements) for breakfast & lunch. Sneak in some fruits for snacks or when I was hungry. For dinner, I would have brocolli & some sort of protein. And yeah, there are some carbs there, but not nearly enough to fuel my body for my runs, workouts, and whatever my body needs to just function.
According to my source carb, in moderation as most things, is essential. The good carbs that we are told to eat, like wheat bread, is what fuels us out through out the day. It takes time for our body to break em down and turn em into fuel, so those things last through out the whole day. The bad carbs, like white bread, is more easily processed and if you aren't careful, those excess carbs that our body doesn't use will store them, and anything our body stores is stored as fat. Up to now, I still don't eat rice (unless its in sushi, seriously.) unless its brown rice, even then, I don't make brown rice at home, so its when I eat out and can have brown rice as on option. Its not really by choice that I don't eat brown rice, its just I'm lazy to cook brown rice. Most of my carbs come from bread, Wheat Thins, & random carby vegetables and its mostly eaten in the morning to fuel my runs & work out. Someone asked about rice, the white kind, and Aldrin suggested limiting rice to a palmful and eating it only for breakfast & lunch* so that the body can use it up before you knock out for the night and body goes into storage mode. *unless its in sushi is my little footnote.
Protein
Protein was also something I avoided. I seriously might as well have lived off oatmeal before I knew all this stuff, cuz seriously, somedays I wouldn't even have anything BUT oatmeal. My brother called me a grandma. Anyway, I was told too much proten = gout. Now, I have no clue what gout is, but it sounds ugly and it certainly sounds like its to be avoided. So I avoided a lot of meats. I ate a lot of chicken breast that I cooked at home and brocolli and when I didn't have oatmeal for dinner, I had that. And just that for like a week. After the very informational talk, I realize how detrimental & counterproductive NOT eating protein was. I wanted to go into protein shakes, I just started this week when mine came in from Amazon, about a month ago but I brought that idea up with a different friend and was told that too much protein = gout. There goes that ugly word again; to me a mental picture of gout would be an ugly looking fish.
Now, with a better understanding of protein, I understand that my muscles, even tho I was working out, was probably not getting the proper protein they needed to rebuild. It only makes sense that if you rip something, muscles while working out, you better supply them with something to rebuild with, protein. Since I was only getting my protein through chicken for dinner, which was also HOURS after my work outs, I wasn't supplying enough protein, and wasn't supplying it at the right time either for them to rebuild. Currently, I space out my proteins and do a protein shake after I work out. I haven't crunched numbers, but I know that I'm still under my "target" number for protein. I didn't realize how much protein our body needs. Most of my protein come from meat & eggs. Breakfast usually consists of either a turkey sandwich or 1 whole egg & 1 egg white. I did a little snoop around on bodybuilding.com and was actually suggested 1 whole egg & 7 egg whites! Which is a lot for me, so I just did 1 whole 1 white, till further notice. So yeah, protein is important.
Ratios
One of the best things that I learned, and actually try to stick to, is the 50/30/20.
50% protein, 30% carbs, 20% fat per meal. Now this is Aldrin's ratio, but he is trying to bulk up. I'm not sure how much variations is needed but since I'm a weaksauce and I'm also pushing myself in terms of strength training, I tend to focus on the protein as well. With my snooping on bodybuilding.com (i'm not an affiliate, I don't earn money or whatever, just a legit source with real people), another suggestion was 40/40/20, but since I don't really like eat carbs, I stick with the protein. I can only have so much bread a day. He suggests looking at your plate like a pie and divide it up accordingly, 50 protein, 30 carbs, 20 fats. I'm a visual person so anything that can be translated into a visual aid is good for me.
Meal Frequency
I'm going to get this out of the way right now, I am a lazy eater. This is what got me into trouble back then. Most of the times I wouldn't eat meals until I was hungry and binged. Add that with no longer playing soccer and my dislike of the sun, and I pretty much lost anything active in my life. Even now, I'm still a lazy eater and with the suggested eating frequency of six meals a day (every three hours), I'm still very lazy.
The whole point of eating that much is that your body never goes into storage mode. If you starve your body and then eat (specially binge eating), your super smart body will say "lets save some of this for later because were going to need it" and will turn some of the foods into fat for storage. And if you bing eat for dinner because you didn't eat the whole day, then when you fall asleep, your body will really store those. Thats why they say have a big breakfast, cuz your body will use up those foods as energy and won't store anyway.
For me, I try to eat six meals a day, but to be honest, I hit 4 more often than six. 5 when I have my protein shake, I don't take it everyday, just on days I work out & six when I'm being a good girl.
Post workout meals are also something I never knew about. He said after a workout, go eat. I would normally not eat because of guilt because hell, just finished kicking my own ass, now I'm going to eat? A thing to remember is our body is smart. After a workout, its going to recover itself an since food fuels our bodies, we need to eat. Post workout is when you can eat your "unhealthy" carbs, white bread, get some dextrose, and protein load as well. Its when our muscles are in need of these things to repair. If you don't, your body is going to think like this next time you eat: "I just went through an intense work out and had nothing to repair myself with, lets store some of this food." And storing = fat. He said we should eat within 2 hours post workout, and as always, don't go too crazy. Yeah we need sugar but don't go eat a bar of Snickers.
When he was telling me about post work out meals, my face was like this O_O I was seriously shocked cuz I just didn't know. Haha. Before I would eat a banana cuz they said it helps with sore muscles. Now I eat a protein shake and a banana. Or a sandwich and a banana.
I learned a lot more but I'll break it down here, just the super basics. I'll probably go back and re-read that convo so that I can put more stuff up. I'm so glad to be able to learn this from someone first hand and be able to pass it on (;
Monday, March 21, 2011
The Hundred totally kicked my ass today.
As if it wasn't hard enough, putting your legs up higher and adding resistance bands (hooked on your feet, pulling down with your hands) just plain old kicked my ass. My core is burning, but I admit its mildly addicting.
It also helped my freakin' spine! Oh hallelujah. I've been having sciatic nerve/slip disc issues (like I said, mixed diagnosis) and while I don't have to take vicodin because the pain is tolerable, the pain is still there.
I'm also learning and appreciating the importance of stretching. I don't normally stretch before my runs I just kinda jog for five minutes then go at it but I think thats one of the ways I damaged my lower spine/back. I did some stretches today for cooling down and I have to admit, I felt much much much better after my workout. Usually I feel like passing out and knocking out, but I actually feel pretty alert and I kinda want to keep on going but I know I need to let my muscles chillax. I'm not sure if I'm alert cuz I had some caffeine tho. I couldn't wake up this morning without feeling mentally crappy so I had to get some caffeine in my system in the form of double caffeine Rockstar.
I'll probably do some P90X or Insanity later. I really want to work on my core and yeah, the hundreds help, but I want to push it, not too much, but just ennough.
::edited to add::
I did 3 sets of hundreds. My arms hurt, my core hurts, & a bunch of different muscles hurt. It would be okay if I wasn't super cold right now. The cold is just making me feel weird.
As if it wasn't hard enough, putting your legs up higher and adding resistance bands (hooked on your feet, pulling down with your hands) just plain old kicked my ass. My core is burning, but I admit its mildly addicting.
It also helped my freakin' spine! Oh hallelujah. I've been having sciatic nerve/slip disc issues (like I said, mixed diagnosis) and while I don't have to take vicodin because the pain is tolerable, the pain is still there.
I'm also learning and appreciating the importance of stretching. I don't normally stretch before my runs I just kinda jog for five minutes then go at it but I think thats one of the ways I damaged my lower spine/back. I did some stretches today for cooling down and I have to admit, I felt much much much better after my workout. Usually I feel like passing out and knocking out, but I actually feel pretty alert and I kinda want to keep on going but I know I need to let my muscles chillax. I'm not sure if I'm alert cuz I had some caffeine tho. I couldn't wake up this morning without feeling mentally crappy so I had to get some caffeine in my system in the form of double caffeine Rockstar.
I'll probably do some P90X or Insanity later. I really want to work on my core and yeah, the hundreds help, but I want to push it, not too much, but just ennough.
::edited to add::
I did 3 sets of hundreds. My arms hurt, my core hurts, & a bunch of different muscles hurt. It would be okay if I wasn't super cold right now. The cold is just making me feel weird.
This is why I haven't been running:
According to that, it won't be stopping anytime soon. There are patches of sunlight but like five minutes is the longest, I've been timing em. I could run in the rain, but I don't want to get sick, its just detrimental to what I'm trying to accomplish over all. We do have a treadmill in the garage, which I really don't prefer but it will have to do. Plus treadmills are better for my knees (which I injured a while back) and I'll stay dry.
I know numbers on scale don't really mean anything. Football players can weigh so much but are still fit. Its really all about body types and stuff. Even tho I know that, I kinda hate looking at scales because so much emphasis has been put on weight (as in the numbers) growing up that I just don't like it.
If you look at my family, you'll see that were a pretty random range of body types. We are all kinda different. So I just kinda took it as I'm the big one in the family, at least in my sibblings.
Back in November 2010 was when I decided to kinda get serious in being fit/running/working out. Unfortunately, that season is never the right season to decide to commit to something like that. So in the spirits of keeping it real, nothing happened until January.
Even then, I was never consistent. Consistency kinda didn't happen till February.
In the beginning I was always checking my weight. And I was always discouraged. I was confused tho because my clothes were fitting looser, fitting better. To be honest I was getting into this blindlly. I didn't know much so yeah, I was disapointed that while my clothes were getting looser, fitting nicer, the scale still said the same thing. I remember even Tweeting about how sad I was. Then my sister explained things to me & that made me not sad! Haha. She said that muscles "pull everything in" and that how clothes are fitting better even if the scale isn't changing.
In the short amount of time, a month, that I've been strength training, I've been happy with the results. No joke, a lot of my clothes have been fitting nicer and since I see myself everday, I can also spot the changes that happen in my body, especially in my core. That "pull in your belly button!" reminder in the workout videos mean it!
I just literally looked up body types right now on Google and a website that a friend suggested was one of the top results, and they have a body type test. I just took it and I got mesomorph.
Everyones different is what I was told. What may work for someone might not work for me. Which is so true. I think knowing my body type will help me to fine tune my eating and workout routine. Which is different from people who want to bulk.
So yeah, this thing is pretty fun. I'm always down to learn new things and I'm certainly learning a lot.
If you look at my family, you'll see that were a pretty random range of body types. We are all kinda different. So I just kinda took it as I'm the big one in the family, at least in my sibblings.
Back in November 2010 was when I decided to kinda get serious in being fit/running/working out. Unfortunately, that season is never the right season to decide to commit to something like that. So in the spirits of keeping it real, nothing happened until January.
Even then, I was never consistent. Consistency kinda didn't happen till February.
In the beginning I was always checking my weight. And I was always discouraged. I was confused tho because my clothes were fitting looser, fitting better. To be honest I was getting into this blindlly. I didn't know much so yeah, I was disapointed that while my clothes were getting looser, fitting nicer, the scale still said the same thing. I remember even Tweeting about how sad I was. Then my sister explained things to me & that made me not sad! Haha. She said that muscles "pull everything in" and that how clothes are fitting better even if the scale isn't changing.
In the short amount of time, a month, that I've been strength training, I've been happy with the results. No joke, a lot of my clothes have been fitting nicer and since I see myself everday, I can also spot the changes that happen in my body, especially in my core. That "pull in your belly button!" reminder in the workout videos mean it!
I just literally looked up body types right now on Google and a website that a friend suggested was one of the top results, and they have a body type test. I just took it and I got mesomorph.
A Mesomorph has a naturally fit body but to maintain it or improve it they should exercise and diet corretly for their type. Strength training can be done more often and for longer sessions then would be good for an Ectomorph, but you must still be carefull not to overdo it. You should train with moderate to heavy weighs and at a moderate pace, not resting too long between sets. You will find you gain muscle quite easy (some women and even men might not want to get too bulky, but this won't happen suddenly. When you are happy with your muscle size simply train to maintain it). Stick to a good healthy diet to keep you lean and muscular, and watch for any slow creeping fat gains. Engage in and enjoy aerobic activities, sports, etc. but do not overdo.That is a direct copy & paste of what a mesomorph is and from reading it, it describes me pretty accurately. I, in no way look super atheltic right now, but I also don't look like a blob. I've not the strongest, but I'm not the weakest either. And if I had to run for my life, I could. Before when I started playing soccer, I lost weight quickly (maybe now I'm older, its slowing down ::cries::). When I had dance practice for a friends Cotillion, I lost weight easily. But when I stopped, I also gained easily.
Everyones different is what I was told. What may work for someone might not work for me. Which is so true. I think knowing my body type will help me to fine tune my eating and workout routine. Which is different from people who want to bulk.
So yeah, this thing is pretty fun. I'm always down to learn new things and I'm certainly learning a lot.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Yesterday, because of the rain, I didn't run as much as I wanted. In retrospect, it probably wouldn't have qualified as a run at all. More like "I want to run, oh crap the rain is getting harder lets turn around right away."
So mostly, I just did some strength training.
I have this exact set of resistance tubes that I bought from Walmart. I don't intend to ramble or review products, just saying what I have. Anyway, for a weakling like me, this set is awesome. First of all, like I said, I am weak. The bands come with three levels of resistance and you can mix & match them for your own personal preference. I use the red or blue one, depends on what I'm working out.
They work awesome for P90x stuff that requires weights or bands, but today I just did the DVD that came with the bands. I worked out 11 am - noon and I'm still sore. It put me to work. The DVD is pretty thorough and mixes it with some nice high intensity cardio (or go as intense as you want, I kinda went berzerk this morning). I really like resistance bands, but I'll be honest that I'm terrified one of thesee days that its going to snap and hit me in the face or something. I'm also kinda iffy on the leg workouts with the bands. I'm not sure if its going to be as effective as the shoulders/arms/backs workout.
One thing I don't like are my arms. Wheeew. I hate my arms, especially my upper arms. I really wish there was such thing as being able to target weight loss but theres no such thing. The best thing I can think of while waiting for the weight to fall off my arms is to build those muscles and pull everything in. I do tend to focus on my arms when I strength train. Which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing. I should probably focus on "everything" or at least rotate, but I really don't like my arms. The workout on the DVD was alreing but I think I'll stick with the P90x workout as opposed to the DVD. P90x is crazy, but I do want to push myself as far as intensity.
Thats what I did today in terms of working out. Pretty tame, but I do feel the soreness 12 hours later. I have no bananas so I couldn't banana it after. Bummer.
I really wanted to put in a solid run because I haven't ran a good one in two weeks, but its raining. The forecast also doesn't show any signs of rain stopping until mid next week, but I'll just consider it as a sign to keep on resting for my nerve. It will probably only benefit me if I rest it up closer to the six week mark than the one week its been.
::edited to add::
I didn't do anything on Sunday. I woke up feeling sucky. Playing in the rain has consequences y'all.
So mostly, I just did some strength training.
I have this exact set of resistance tubes that I bought from Walmart. I don't intend to ramble or review products, just saying what I have. Anyway, for a weakling like me, this set is awesome. First of all, like I said, I am weak. The bands come with three levels of resistance and you can mix & match them for your own personal preference. I use the red or blue one, depends on what I'm working out.
They work awesome for P90x stuff that requires weights or bands, but today I just did the DVD that came with the bands. I worked out 11 am - noon and I'm still sore. It put me to work. The DVD is pretty thorough and mixes it with some nice high intensity cardio (or go as intense as you want, I kinda went berzerk this morning). I really like resistance bands, but I'll be honest that I'm terrified one of thesee days that its going to snap and hit me in the face or something. I'm also kinda iffy on the leg workouts with the bands. I'm not sure if its going to be as effective as the shoulders/arms/backs workout.
One thing I don't like are my arms. Wheeew. I hate my arms, especially my upper arms. I really wish there was such thing as being able to target weight loss but theres no such thing. The best thing I can think of while waiting for the weight to fall off my arms is to build those muscles and pull everything in. I do tend to focus on my arms when I strength train. Which I'm not sure is a good or bad thing. I should probably focus on "everything" or at least rotate, but I really don't like my arms. The workout on the DVD was alreing but I think I'll stick with the P90x workout as opposed to the DVD. P90x is crazy, but I do want to push myself as far as intensity.
Thats what I did today in terms of working out. Pretty tame, but I do feel the soreness 12 hours later. I have no bananas so I couldn't banana it after. Bummer.
I really wanted to put in a solid run because I haven't ran a good one in two weeks, but its raining. The forecast also doesn't show any signs of rain stopping until mid next week, but I'll just consider it as a sign to keep on resting for my nerve. It will probably only benefit me if I rest it up closer to the six week mark than the one week its been.
::edited to add::
I didn't do anything on Sunday. I woke up feeling sucky. Playing in the rain has consequences y'all.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
I like re-inventing myself.
I swear I went through more phases than a butterfly during my early teen years up to now. My hair went through so many colors, my clothes ranged from prep to emo. I learned everything from guitar to sewing. I played soccer, did color guard, tried running. I was everywhere but at the same time, really got no where.
Now that I'm 24, I have a more lofty goal as opposed to changing up my hair or picking up a new musical instrument, although I'm having fun with my kazoo. I want to be consistent in running & in order to be consistent I really have to get in shape. I'm not going to divulge my weight (I'm a girl, I have to keep some secrets) but know that I still have a long way to go in terms of reaching my goals (both health/weight wise & improving my run time & distance) but I thought that sharing (since I do tend to over share) would be a good way for me to keep track of my own progress. I don't want to say to be accountable to anyone since really, I'm doing this for me, therefore I'm accountable to me. Also I have a really really bad memory. Like no joke. I will forget what I did yesterday morning. Its not that somethings wrong with me, but my mind races at a pace I wish I could run. This will help me remember stuff.
I really do like running. Although I've never been a serious runner, I really do enjoy it. It helps me calm down (I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but my best runs, in terms of time & distance, has always been when I needed to calm down), its cardio, it gives me my sunshine (I'm not a fan of sun, really, but I know I need it), I've met some adorable dogs during my runs, and seriously its just a fun time.
Anyway, aside from running I'm also going to chronicle my strength training stuff that I do, because frankly, I'm a weak sauce. If I had to slap someone hard enough to send them a message, I would need a running start. I will also throw in some food stuffs because exercising & eating go hand in hand like [all natural] peanut butter & [orowheat 100 cal] wheat bread.
I'm also throwing in some resources from someone who doesn't want to start a blog, but probably should *ahem* I seriously prefer if other people do the thinking for me, because like I said my mind travels so fast, I get lost easily. I can do my own research and get so lost with a quickness (cuz everyone has differing opinions) that I give up. I think resources that are reliable are share worthy. To me, the most reliable sources are from people around you who you trust & know what they are doing. And I don't claim to know what I'm doing, yet, but I do know the next best thing, someone who does!
So hopefully I can keep this up in the blogging world. I've been getting over a "pinched never/slip disk," I have conflicting diagnosis, but thank God that its healed so I can be back to the grind. Not running for almost two weeks, after running consistently for a month, is throwing me off, it really does mess up your body.
I swear I went through more phases than a butterfly during my early teen years up to now. My hair went through so many colors, my clothes ranged from prep to emo. I learned everything from guitar to sewing. I played soccer, did color guard, tried running. I was everywhere but at the same time, really got no where.
Now that I'm 24, I have a more lofty goal as opposed to changing up my hair or picking up a new musical instrument, although I'm having fun with my kazoo. I want to be consistent in running & in order to be consistent I really have to get in shape. I'm not going to divulge my weight (I'm a girl, I have to keep some secrets) but know that I still have a long way to go in terms of reaching my goals (both health/weight wise & improving my run time & distance) but I thought that sharing (since I do tend to over share) would be a good way for me to keep track of my own progress. I don't want to say to be accountable to anyone since really, I'm doing this for me, therefore I'm accountable to me. Also I have a really really bad memory. Like no joke. I will forget what I did yesterday morning. Its not that somethings wrong with me, but my mind races at a pace I wish I could run. This will help me remember stuff.
I really do like running. Although I've never been a serious runner, I really do enjoy it. It helps me calm down (I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but my best runs, in terms of time & distance, has always been when I needed to calm down), its cardio, it gives me my sunshine (I'm not a fan of sun, really, but I know I need it), I've met some adorable dogs during my runs, and seriously its just a fun time.
Anyway, aside from running I'm also going to chronicle my strength training stuff that I do, because frankly, I'm a weak sauce. If I had to slap someone hard enough to send them a message, I would need a running start. I will also throw in some food stuffs because exercising & eating go hand in hand like [all natural] peanut butter & [orowheat 100 cal] wheat bread.
I'm also throwing in some resources from someone who doesn't want to start a blog, but probably should *ahem* I seriously prefer if other people do the thinking for me, because like I said my mind travels so fast, I get lost easily. I can do my own research and get so lost with a quickness (cuz everyone has differing opinions) that I give up. I think resources that are reliable are share worthy. To me, the most reliable sources are from people around you who you trust & know what they are doing. And I don't claim to know what I'm doing, yet, but I do know the next best thing, someone who does!
So hopefully I can keep this up in the blogging world. I've been getting over a "pinched never/slip disk," I have conflicting diagnosis, but thank God that its healed so I can be back to the grind. Not running for almost two weeks, after running consistently for a month, is throwing me off, it really does mess up your body.
When I bring up running, the majority of people make a crinkly face and ask why.
Here are my reasons why:
Here are my reasons why:
- I can't afford a gym membership. Yes, call me a cheapo, because I am. I don't want to fork over $25 a month for gym membership. Frankly, gyms intimidate me & I know about MRSA risks & that freaks me out. With running, all you need are a solid pair of shoes & some clothes (which you probably have).
- I spend most of my time indoors. I work in design & while I don't really like the sun, I like being outdoors. If I'm going to be in the sun, I would prefer to be boogie boarding in the beach, but running has less shark risks.
- Zombies. Enough said.
- I can run anywhere! I like getting lost in my neighborhood. I get to see things I otherwise wouldn't! Seriously, I have all my work out stuff (resistance bands, grips, mp3 player, etc.) in a duffel bag. I'm waiting for someone who actually wants to run/workout with me, but I'm ready you guys! I want to explore your neighborhood, lets go!
- It calms me down. One of the best things for me is seeing a long, straight, stretch of road ahead of me & running it like I stole something. Seriously its just calming. Sweating like crazy also makes me happy. Not sure if that is a scientific thing, but it makes me stinkin' happy (get it?!).
- I can go at my own pace. When I say "I run," I don't mean a marathon runner. You can run at your own pace & its still beneficial for you. I typically HIIT when I run, which is really fun on those straight roads. If I'm feeling kinda bleh, I typically jog or walk a lot more than I run, which isn't as good but its better than nothing.
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