PT55: The Return

So last month I stopped going to my regular gym class because I was just so absolutely disgusted with the routine.  It was lots of jumping, the intervals were raised to 3 minutes on 30 seconds off and it was a lot of complicated moves that just frustrated me.  Since then, I've come to terms with jumping and the routine changes every month, so I was ready to tackle it again.  Tuesday night I went to the class and was happy to find out that the class was back to it's regular 1 minute on 15 seconds off like it was in the past.   The class is called PT55 because it's Personal Training (in a group setting) for 55 minutes.  It starts off on the stationary bike where we warm up for 5-10 minutes.  After that we do a few exercises, two minutes for each one with a 15 second break in between.  Halfway through the class is split up, half go to the floor and the other half get back on the bike to keep their heart rate up, then we switch.  We end with more exercises and a stretch.  It all equals to about 55 minutes.  It's a long class with lots of moves, but I tried to remember most of what we did, in the order we did it and I'll share it with you.

10 Minutes on the Stationary Bike to warm up

1st Half:

• Squat with High Elbow Rows-You lead the row with the elbows as you come out of the squat making sure to keep the weights close to your body. 

• One Leg Cross Squats-You have to balance on one leg while crossing your lifted leg over your balancing leg and do a "sissy squat" as the instructor calls them

• Shoulder Press Reach and Crunch-Another balancing workout.  You do a shoulder press up while you do a backward leg lift, balancing on one leg then without touching the ground you bring your knee up and crunch down with your upper body. 

• Sumo Squats-Probably a horrible idea for a small room, but who am I?  You lift your leg up and "walk" it in front of you, do a squat, then left your other leg and "walk" it in front of you, squat, then go backwards with the whole awkward motion.  Great workout.  Sucks when you keep tripping on some dick bags pile of weights. 

Split:

• Bicycles-Just your run of the mill ab exercise

• Walk in Push-ups and Walk out Push-ups-From the kneeling position, fall into a push-up and walk your self back up.  Just the opposite for walk outs. Walk out into a push up, do a push up, then push your self up into an upright kneeling position.  I didn't understand how exactly we were suppose to accomplish these and was not feeling anything, so I just did modified push ups for the two minutes.

• Tricep Elbow Push-up-On your knees you get into a push-up position, but with your hands in straight out in front of you and touching the floor higher than your head.  Bent your elbows til your forearms touch the ground then lift yourself back up.  I felt like I was slipping forward too much so I just did modified triangle push-ups

2nd Half:

• One Armed Ski Swing-With a heavy weight in only one hand, you swing the weight forward and backward with your unweighted arm going in the opposite direction.  Bend at the knees mid swing and stand up straight when the weight is up.  Keep from flinging yourself over. 

• Dead Lifts-The thing that pisses me off about dead lifts is that there is no standard.  Every instructor I've had has told me to do them slightly different than the last.  Some want you to bend your knees, some want you to keep your legs straight.  

• Squat Jump-Jump out of the squat, but land standing upright, then right yourself and squat again. 

• Back Squeeze-Holding two heavy weights with your elbows at your sides and weights at hip height, squeeze your back.  This one is also great for your biceps.  I also learned that your back is the second biggest fat burner (when chock full of muscles) with your legs being the first (which I knew already)

• Straight Pin Jumps-Jump straight up into the air and swing your arms straight up into the air.

I'm pretty sure I forgot a few, so I'm sorry that you couldn't get your full workout.  I'll try better next time!

Broccoli Cheddar Ham Quiche

This isn't particularly "clean" per se, but got damn I love quiche!

3 eggs
1-1/2 cups half-and-half cream
Salt
Pepper
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup ham
1 cup broccoli, chopped
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie shell

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and half-and-half. Season with salt and pepper, and add ham and broccoli. Place shredded cheddar in the pie shell. Pour egg mixture over cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and bake for 25 minutes, or until crust is golden and filling is set. Allow to set 5 to 10 minutes before serving. 

Nutrition Information

Calories 342

Total Fat 25.1g Sat. Fat 9g Cholest. 150mg Sodium 357mg

Carb. 16.9g Fiber - Sugars 2.9g Protein 12.7g

 

Weekly Meal Plan 8/22/2011

Breakfast:
3oz Vanilla Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup Blueberries
2oz Strawberry Whole Grain Granola
Cup of Coffee with 2 packets Processed Sugar

Mid-morning Meal:
1 Smaller portion of my Broccoli Cheddar Ham quiche (recipe coming soon)

Lunch:
1 Stuffed Pepper.  Stuffed with ground turkey, jasmine rice, stewed tomatoes, garlic and parmesan cheese.  Not the best I’ve ever made, but it’s still edible.

Afternoon Snack:
1 Orange

Dinner:
This is usually dependent upon if I've remembered to take out chicken, but it's usually chicken breast with veggies and rice/potato, or a veggie stuffed omelet.

Boot Camp: The Finale

So last Wednesday was our last session of boot camp, so Kitty and I are going to have to figure out what to do with our Wednesdays while still getting a nice long workout.   The last routine that we did was a 40/20 interval circuit with 6 stations and we only did 5 rounds of it.

• The first station was slam ball

•  The second station was TRX Rows

•  The third station was a TRX plank-You put your hands in the handles, toes to the ground and plank at whatever angle is most comfortable to you.  I didn’t like these at all because the straps were digging into my arms, so I did a regular plank for the last three rounds. 

•  The fourth station was jumping jacks

•  The fifth station was a vertical push up-He had us put our hands on this thing that looked like a dip station cut in half and put on it’s side.  Then we were supposed to stick our butts up in the air and do the “push up” downward into the ground.  It sort of reminded me of a monkey push up.  I didn’t like these at all because using the bars hurt my palms and doing it on the ground made my wrists sore.  It was supposed to work our shoulders and triceps, but it was quite ineffective because it was making other parts of my body hurt before I got any sort of burn. 

•  The sixth station was a backward lunge

 We ended the entire routine with squat count downs like the first boot camp I ever did.

Weekly Meal Plan 8/15/2011

Breakfast:
3oz Vanilla Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup Blueberries
2oz Strawberry Whole Grain Granola
Cup of Coffee with 2 packets Processed Sugar

Mid-morning Meal:
1/3 cup Cocoa Wheats with 2oz Vanilla Soy and 2 packets Processed Sugar

Lunch:
1 slice of Broccoli, Cheddar, and Ham Quiche

Afternoon Snack:
1 Banana

Dinner:
This is usually dependent upon if I've remembered to take out chicken, but it's usually chicken breast with veggies and rice/potato, or a veggie stuffed omelet.

First Day Back

Friday night I got my tattoo finished, so I didn't want to do anything that would make me sweat (since that's probably not good to sweat into an open wound), but I knew I needed to do something, so I did a nice slow workout.  It wasn't that intense, but at least it was something and I just did it at home.

• 25-5 lbs Rounded Shoulder Press-Instead of doing your shoulder press straight up, get your Barbie arms on, start with your elbows at your hips and press up as though you are hugging a tree above you.  If...your head didn't exist.

• 100 Standing Knee Crunch-Lift your knees one at a time (unless you can levitate) as high as you can and crunch down into the lift. 

• 10 Modified Push-ups-Knees down.

•  50-5 lbs Bent Over Rows-Just regular old bent over rows

• 20 Standing Side Leg Lifts each side-You just lift your legs to the side.

•  20 Mule Kicks each side-I didn't "kick" per se, but I tried to make sure that I engaged the glutes and did the move slow and controlled. 

• 25-10 lbs Squats-As squaty as I could squat them. 

• 20-10 lbs Bicep Curl each arm-Regular, not hammer curls.

Not much else to say.  Kinda blah today.  Been raining on and off since yesterday.  Gonna go make my dinner now.


Oh, here is my finished tattoo:

Fitness Snapshot 8/12/11

As of 7/31/2011 I weighed 183.5 lbs.

My Measurements:
Bust - 41-1/2"
Waist (thinnest point) - 34-1/2"
Waist (thickest point) - 40"
Hips - 42-1/2"
Thighs - 25"
Upper Arm - 11-1/2"

I wanted to wear the same outfit every time, but I forgot my other shorts at boyfriends house, so these will have to do. I was surprised that I even lost anything off of my hips.

Weekly Meal Plan 8/8/2011

Breakfast:
3oz Vanilla Greek Yogurt
1/4 cup Strawberries
2oz Strawberry Whole Grain Granola
Cup of Coffee with 2 packets Processed Sugar

Mid-morning Meal:
1 Slice of Homemade Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread (I've actually been skipping this since the yogurt has been filling me up enough)

Lunch:
1/2 cup Homemade Egg Salad
1 Arnold's Sandwich Thin

Afternoon Snack:
1 cup Green Grapes

Dinner:
This is usually dependent upon if I've remembered to take out chicken, but it's usually chicken breast with veggies and rice/potato, or a veggie stuffed omelet.

Eating Guidlines

I’ve been watching what I eat and counting my calories for months now.  I use a website called Loseit.com to track my calories and exercise and it helps me keep track of what I’ve been doing and gives me a little hint of motivation to keep moving forward with my “diet”.  I absolutely HATE when my calorie count goes into the red, it’s almost embarrassing, even if it’s only me that sees it.  So even on the weekends when I cheat, I try to have as little in the red as possible. But just counting calories isn’t enough to lose weight, you have to eat stuff that is good for you.  All the chemicals and crap that is in most of the food we eat today is just slowing our systems down and sadly we don’t usually get the nutrients that we need. Now I’m not saying that I only eat that which is 100% perfect for me, and I do cheat from time to time, but I have a set of “rules” that I like to follow when I plan my weekly meals.

• Fruit in two different meals.  That’s not necessarily 2 servings, I usually eat one, or more than one serving those two times.  

•  Vegetables in two different meals.  Same goes for this as does with the fruit, but I usually end up eating even more vegetables at about 2 to 3 servings just at dinner.  Now this doesn’t mean veggies that are covered in processed cheese or tons of butter.  I do spice them up, but I try to avoid unneeded extra calories.

•  Protein in three meals.  I prefer it to be a meat protein, but egg is just as good to me.  I don’t usually go for the “complete” proteins that combinations of foods can provide me because that’s just far too much thinking for me.

•  Nuts in one of my meals, whether it’s cooked in or raw.

•  5 small meals a day.  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and a snack between lunch and the other two.

•  Avoid simple carbs for dinner.  I eat carbs for breakfast and lunch, but if I havn’t done some sort of workout that night, I won’t eat carbs for dinner unless I was a special occasion.

•  Whole Wheat/Whole Grain.  During the week I opt for whole wheat pasta’s and whole grain breads.  The more fiber the better. I am that crazy lady at the food store comparing the nutritional information  of all the breads against each other.

•  Loseit.com. As I said before, I log my calories and have myself on about a 1500 calorie budget.

•  Water, I drink at least 2 liters of it a day.  I usually forget to drink my water on the weekends, and I can really tell the difference.

•  One cup of coffee a day.  I can’t give it up, so I only allow myself one cup a day.

•  Processed sugar in only one beverage/meal a day, and only 2 packets of it.

•  Green Tea.  I have been trying to work this in to my diet more and more, but I try to drink one cup of it at night with my dinner.  I love green tea with jasmine, but I’ve also been drinking this Chinese dieters tea that is supposed to clear our your colon.  I do believe it has been working, but I could do without the cramping it causes.

•  Greek yogurt.  Everyday for breakfast and I beef it up with berries (whatever is on sale that week) and whole grain granola. It’s so filling that I’ve not needed my snack between breakfast and lunch lately.

•  Cheat on the weekend.  I cheat horribly on the weekend, but I think it’s necessary. If you only ever ate food that was great for you and didn’t allow your self a giant slab of chocolate cake from time to time, you would not only be miserable, but you would fail horribly and end up just eating what you want anyways.

I also eat the same thing for lunch all week because it makes it easier to keep track of calories without slaving over my food plan and I don’t mind eating the same thing so it’s no big deal.  The only thing I ever got sick of eating was tuna noodle salad.  Two days of that and I’m so over it.  I also made whole grain mac and cheese with whole grain noodles and flour and it was AWFUL.   

My Mile 8/10/2011

So my buddy from work teased me MERCILESSLY for how pathetic my mile was last night.  I was at his house hanging out with his wife and her sister, and he came in with his friend and started asking everyone in the room how fast they can run the mile.  Then it finally came out that I ran it in 15:04 and didn't even run the entire thing.  His buddy was supportive and said that you have to start somewhere, but Mike was just ruthless about it!

Today at work we were talking about the best way to improve my mile and how to run the entire time.  He told me to run on the balls of my feet and lean forward so that my foot would spring and push me forward through it.  We also discussed breathing, and after about a half hour he pointed out that he doesn't know how I haven't burst into laughter when I was saying things like "I can't go in my nose and back out my mouth".  Of course after he pointed out the little innuendo, we both giggled.

ANYWAYS! I RAN the entire thing except for the very beginning when I was getting the treadmill up to speed.  I ran (and can truly say ran!) it in 14:28!  I think I did better today because I changed the incline as soon as I turned on the treadmill, and I gave myself about a two minute warm up.

GAH! I shaved 36 seconds off!

My Mile 8/8/2011

So I know I said that I was taking this week off, but I decided to cheat. Besides, I said I wasn't going to do strength training, didn't mean I couldn't run!  My cardio is a little more than weak, so I thought what better time to work on it. Mother has a treadmill in the basement just collecting dust, and it costs me nothing to walk down the steps.  I was itching to do something today and I know I need my muscles need a rest, so I had to resist my urges to use my home dumb bells. 

Bunny is my hero when it comes to cardio, especially now that I found out that she has been smoking and still is a beast (admonish her here).  So she is the inspiration in my cardio fitness desires. Well anyhow, enough babbling, how about I reveal my time.


Now, this is truly pitiful, I know, but I just started and I used to not be able to run AT ALL.  Now I obviously didn't run the entire time, but in my defense, the first 2 minutes of my run (until I HAD to slow down) were done at a 5 (whatever the increment of measurement they use) incline and I didn't realize it until 5 minutes in, when I was ready to run again.

I ran/walked a mile in 15 minutes and 4 seconds.

Zumba 2 Days

Just so you guys know, I didn't start my break yet.  I did do Zumba on both Thursday and Friday night with Kitty.  Next week I still plan on doing Zumba Thursday (since it's mostly cardio) but I can't do it Friday night because I am getting my tattoo finished!

Next week I will be filling you guys in on my eating habits, cause it's about damn time to talk about it.

Boot Camp 4

So tonight I think we all lost our minds, because we ended up arriving at the gym 45 minutes before the class started.  The gym owner was extremely confused, and looked a little irritated by it was well, but we later found out that he was just tired with a sore back.  Oh well.  We giggled and started our stretch.

The class started how all boot camp classes start with.  The ugly dynamic jumping warm up.  We also incorporated this new warm up move called an inch worm.  You start in a plank position, then you walk your hands in towards you until your bent over.  Instead of standing all the way up, you walk your arms all the way back out and do it over again.  No one in particular pissed me off, so I have nothing to rant about.  Sorry to disappoint. Standard circuit with a 40/20 ratio.  Tonight it was 4 rounds of 7 stations though.  Tonight there were few enough people to do one person per station, which made me sad because then I couldn't giggle with Kitty, but oh well.  At least she's close enough to give the eye to if something strange is happening.

• First station was called a Val Slide Back Lunge.  You put your back leg on this flat plastic thing that is slippery when on carpet, and you do a backward lunge.  This thing is great for your core, if your core is strong enough to keep you from falling over or pulling something.  Which...mine isn't.  I most certainly pulled my right hamstring the very first round.

• Second station was a TRX row.  

• Third station was a squat with a one armed shoulder press.  He offered kettle bells or dumb bells for this one.  I tried it with the kettle bell, but it hurt my hand.  It wasn't the weight, it was the way I had to hold the stupid thing.  So I switched to the dumb bell later. 

• Fourth station was jumping jacks.  Yay! Jumping! *vomits*

• Fifth station was either a full push up or a scapula push up.  A scapular push up is, in my opinion, not a push up at all.  You start in a plank position and keeping your arms straight, you move your body up and down within your shoulders.  Now for some reason, the scap push up made it really hard to breath for me, so I did a modified push up.  Darren told me that I either had to do a full push up or a scap push up and I explained that my chest was being squished during the scap push ups, and I sure as hell can't do a regular push up, so he told me to just hold a plank.  I don't see what was wrong with doing the modified push up.  I was still working my core.  Feh, whatever. 

• Sixth station was called Slam Ball.  You picked up a 10 pound weighted ball up over your head and slammed it down on the ground as hard as you can.  

• The seventh and final station was wood chops, but they weren't up to down wood chops like I'm used it.  Using one of those fancy universal weight machines we had to wood chop side to side.  I guess it was supposed to work your abs more. 

We ended with blast offs?  I think that's what it was called.  We had to hold a kettle bell and do two sets of 50 squats.  Darren gave Kitty a 10 (I think) pound kettle bell and told me that I had to use a 15 pounder!   I called him a meanie.

I felt off today and I think it's because I haven't given my muscles time to really mend.  When you give your self a longer period of time to heal, you generally come back stronger and able to work with more weight.  So next week I plan on not doing any strength training so that I can give my muscles optimum time to heal.  That also means that next week won't be our last boot camp since we won't be attending.  I still plan on doing Zumba because it's more cardio than anything, but I have to listen to my body and it's telling me that it's not happy with me right now.  But I plan on coming back the next week fully rested, fully healed, and stronger than before!

Best Ripped Abs

Again, a shitty mood and another workout that I just did not want to do, but I did it!  So this weekend I'm going to a friends 30th birthday party and it's going to be pretty dressy, so I wanted to get my hair done. I made an appointment with the hairdresser through facebook last Friday, and I asked her if it would be better for me to call the salon to make an appointment with her.  She said that she could take the appointment through facebook and I said great and told her to pencil me in.  Yesterday she told me to call the salon just to confirm my appointment.  I call the salon and no only am I not in the book, but she has no time slot long enough to get a cut color and updo.  But the receptionist says that she may have time for just a cut.  Um...hello, people don't get their hair done for fun, they get it done because they are going some where.  No I won't drive into philly just to get my split ends trimmed off you bird-brain.  So now I'm in a lurch because the party is SATURDAY!  So that's why I'm in a horrible mood!

Tonights workout is another twelve minuet workout.  Set your interval timers for 12 rounds with 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest.



I cut the jumping out of the sumo jump squats because my knees are bothering me today.   I had to do the 1-2 reptile push-ups on my knees and I did the v-scissors leaning on my arms. Damn, they are hard even modified.

My Scores:

Sumo Jump Squat/Leg Lift- 12 8 9
1-2 Reptile Push-up- 5 8 8
Squat Side Hop/Side Lunge- 6 7 7
Seated V-Scissor- 65 56 71 

OMG Sexy Body!

So I did this one at the recommendation of Bunny, who did this workout last week and wrote about it in her blog. I actually ended up messing it up, but didn't realize it until after I thought I was done, and by that point I was not about to go back and fix it.  I'm kind of cranky today, so I didn't even want to work out, but I can't let down Bunny and Kitty!

It wasn't particularly hard, but when you're feeling blah everything sucks.  You have to set your interval timers for 12 rounds of 50 seconds work and 10 seconds rest. 



I couldn't do the kick ups as high as she could and I could barely figure out how to do them at all, but I managed as best as I could.  The skater lunges are what I messed up on.  I didn't realize I was supposed to do a minute on each side and just alternated left and right. I also didn't jump, because...fuck jumping today.

My Scores:

Kick Ups- 80 80
Walking Push-up/Plank Jump- 7 6
Skater Lunger (Alternating)- 21 20
Side Leg Lift/Reverse Crunch Right- 12 11
Side Leg Lift/Reverse Crunch Left- 13 11