It's ON! The Ultimate Squat Circuit Challenge

Starting tomorrow, Saturday April 25th I am doing this! I just saw it posted on the BodyRockTV FB Page and the timing could not have been more perfect! 4,000 squats in 30 days. It sounds insane but it's doable. After having done other 30 Day leg/glute challenges that increase quicker and with less rest time, I know this can be done. It's only 120 squats by day 30, that's a piece of cake! So who's with me? I will be checking in here and on my FB timeline so if you want to make the commitment and take the challenge and need some motivation then let's do this!

All you have to do is 1) commit to doing the challenge EVERY DAY and 2) check in EVERY DAY. You can check-in on your own page or with me or both, but I know a lot of my friends don't like to post these things on their own wall, so I'm making it easy by giving you the opportunity to do the challenge but not having to advertise it to all your friends. You can post in response to my check ins (here of FB). Comment below or on my FB post (if we're friends) if you're in.

MY 5 Fit Tips To Get my Fitness Back

I follow 30 Day Challenge Series on FB and last week she posted an article titled

5 Fit Tips To Getting Your Fitness Back, and after reading it it got me thinking that I need to not only do it, but put it out there. If we're FB friends then you have seen my fitness check-ins. You may be annoyed by them (I don't care), you may be inspired by them (glad I can help!), or you may be indifferent. Either way, if you pay even an inkling of attention, then you've noticed that they have kinda disappeared for a bit. And from past blogging experience while trying to lose weight, making the commitment to put it out there holds me accountable. 

The reason for the decreased FB posts has been a combination of frustration with my sudden halt in progress and another injury. You see, aside from dance I was never very active. I did yoga and dance, that was pretty much it. Occasionally I'd try the gym but it was never my thing so it didn't do much. It wasn't until about 3 or 4 years ago that I discovered the Jillian Michael's DVDs and began my love/hate relationship with her workouts. 

I love them because when I stick to them I totally see results and quickly and the majority of them are only 30 minutes. I hate them because she is an evil sadistic bitch that makes me want to reach through the TV and punch her in the throat, but I have no energy because I'm trying keep up with her results producing insanity so all I can do is yell obscenities at the TV while my fat cries and I practically drown from sweat dripping into my nose. I feel amazing and accomplished afterwards, but during those heinous 30 minutes I wonder at what point does someone just fall over and feign death from lack of oxygen or some weird muscle cramp? Once I stick with it and see results I feel awesome and want to do more, so after completing 30 Day Shred (I always start with this one because I'm convinced it's magic and I see results in 2 weeks), I move on to something a bit more challenging. And sure enough, without a doubt I always hurt myself. You name it, I've done it (at least it feels that way) and it's always from pushing myself too hard too soon because of course after 30 days hate combined with results I start feeling a little cocky and am sure I can do anything, regardless if it includes a muscle group that is totally weak or I didn't even know existed until I injure it. And every fucking time it happens I go to my PT and get it fixed and am told to take it easy for a few weeks. And during those few weeks I start to slip and the vicious cycle begins. 

The most recent injury is my neck/shoulder. After 5 months of feeling like a bad ass I decided I needed a heavier kettle bell (15lb) and it was time to start using the 5 and 10lb weights for everything (it's a lot when you have little to no arm strength so shut up!). I also decided to do another crazy 30 day challenge that was 30 push-ups EVERY day for 30 days. The problem was that I did feel a little pain but I convinced myself that it was due to weak muscles so I had to power through and build some semblance of muscle to strengthen the weak area, but really all I did was hurt myself and now the once weak area is probably even weaker. So between the push-ups and a harder Jillian DVD, heavier weights and my heavyass mufasa hair and sleeping funny and ignoring some pretty obvious signs, I managed to aggravate an OLD injury and now after over a month I'm still having issues using my left arm because the neck is responsible for so much more than just supporting my big head. 

And because of the limitation instead of just working on core and lower body like I'm sure any "normal" person would probably do, I've become frustrated and haven't done shit aside from continuing dance class, and I even have to take it easy there. I also started to notice a halt in my progress which caused more frustration. I was working out and dancing even more than last Fall and instead of shrinking more like I thought I should be, I stopped seeing any results. I racked my brain to figure out what I was doing wrong, and instead of stopping and really dissecting it I decided I needed to try and workout even more and push harder, and that's when my shoulder/neck really said "NO MORE!" And then my brain said "fuck it!" So I stopped the Jillian workouts thinking another squat challenge and dance would suffice while trying to fix my neck. Nothing, I felt the fatness coming back. My jeans were tight again and I got pissed and instead of binging/emotional eating like I know a lot of people do, I go the other way and cut back. I am an emotional NON-eater and that is equally bad for your body and made everything worse.

So as I sat on the couch feeling the fatness take over I decided to utilize the on-site nutritionist at work to do a metabolic analysis and check my body fat % to see WTF was going on. Sure enough she confirmed what I thought, but I'm the type of person that likes to see things in black and white and even though I had an idea of what was going wrong I needed someone else to reconfirm. I have basically screwed myself and undone all of my hard work. All the inches I had lost are back, the 3% body fat lost is back. My weight however, exactly the same. WTF?! That was the wake up call. I had lost inches and body fat from building muscle. And muscle takes up less room that fat but it DOES NOT weigh more. A pound is a pound is a pound, meaning 1 pound of feathers will weigh the same as 1 pound of bricks, but visually they take up different amounts of space, but they still weigh the same. 

 

A pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle, but the fat takes up more space. It spreads out like Jabba the Hutt, while muscle is more compact like Princess Leia (not the best comparison but it works for me). 

So while the scale never really budged in 5 months I had gotten smaller because of gaining muscle, and now all of that is gone and I am back to square 1. How did I do this you ask? Not eating enough, even though I was eating and attempting to track calories, I wasn't making up for all the calories I was burning during dance and home workouts. I was causing too much of a deficit and made my body go into starvation mode. So by not eating enough my body decided to hold on to everything and feed off the little muscle I had gained and suddenly the muffin top was back. 

So while all of my fitness gadgets (FitBit and Heart Rate Monitor) were telling me I was burning off hundreds of calories I wasn't making up for it with food to meet my minimum caloric intake. So on days that I would burn 1,000 calories at rehearsal but only eat 1600 calories, it wasn't enough. So here I am late April with 2 performances coming up and NO WHERE near where I had planned to be. Talk about frustration! So last week went back to using SparkPeople yet again and started tracking all my food as well as actually paying attention to what I was burning and trying my best to make up for it and not freak out on days I need to eat 2,000 or more calories. So far so good. I still haven't done any additional workouts aside from dance classes, but I figure I need to get a handle on the food and be okay with that first before jumping into more challenges or anything else. So after that long-ass diatribe I am going to utilize the above referenced article and list out MY 5 tips and get my ass in gear so that just MAYBE I'll get back on track and not feel so gross come May and I have to bear the mid-section on stage. 

Fit Tip #1. Define your motivation?

My motivation is appearance based. I want to lose a few pounds; 7-10, I want a smaller waist, some muscle tone, a flatter tummy and over all I want to feel good in a bathing suit and my dance costumes. Clothes hide a lot but those 2 things don't. 

Fit Tip # 2. Set small, short term goals. Not longer than 30 days.

I was doing this, but I was also mentally jumping ahead and after like 5 days I was trying to plan out the next 30. So starting April 25th it's going to be 30 days at a time until Tahiti. I'll start with 30 Day Shred again (minus arms) because I really am convinced it's magical and I'll pick no more than 2 30 Day challenges. And hopefully I'll lose an inch overall. The article mentions to decide on a reward. Really my reward will be looking and feeling better, I can't think of anything else right now. 

Fit Tip #3. Track your progress and results.

I need to make some sort of tracker. Aside from posting on FB and my HRM that tracks all workouts as long as I remember to wear it and turn on the app. I think I need another visual log that I can keep in front of me at all times. I used to have a weight one years ago when I was doing Weight Watchers. Maybe it's time to dig that up again, but instead of weight I'll log inches as well as literally check off days worked out. 

Fit Tip #4. Try something new.

My something new will simply be focusing on eating more so that I continue my progress and don't unintentionally starve myself. This also means more regular grocery shopping, actually planning out meals and cooking/prepping more meals in advance so on the nights I get home late we can eat dinner right away instead of wasting time trying to figure out what to eat. 

Fit Tip #5. Make it social.

The article suggests doing stuff with friends which doesn't really work for me, but I will make it social by blogging about it more and getting back to our "weekend walkabouts" instead of just sitting on the couch crocheting for hours on end (which is very productive but doesn't burn nearly the number of calories that I think it should) while we binge watch a new series. I'm going to make D commit to walking again too because it's no fun walking alone, and really who am I kidding, I won't go for a walk on my own. 

If you'd like to join me but aren't one to put all your business out there on FB please feel free to comment on my posts here. Different things work for different people, do what works for you and motivates you to keep you accountable. Just make sure you do it. And you can hold me accountable too, if you don't see something here or on FB then please ask me WTF is going on, I won't get mad, I need that kick in the ass sometimes.

40 Random Donations in 365 Days

Anyone who knows me well knows how I feel about my birthday so I won't go into that here. I will say that this "big" birthday has taken a while to come to grips with, but fortunately I have a lot of great friends who are older and have not only proven that 40 now is NOT the 40 of our parents, and really, it is just another year, another number. Granted it is not a number you will likely hear me mention again. Fortunately for me I have good genetics on my side and most people are pretty surprised when I tell them my age. I also take pretty good care of myself because good genes are only a foundation, you can't take advantage of that shit.

With that said it's my birthday, and I'm not mentioning it because I like the attention. Quite the contrary, I don't like a fuss being made, I like presents, but no fuss. Nothing new to those who know me. I have been thinking a lot about this birthday though. I mean, assuming I live till I'm 80, today means I've officially made it half way through my life. That's pretty intense. I remember being like 10 and thinking 40 was ancient, I mean my mom wasn't even 40 yet and regardless of age, at 10 everyone thinks their mom is "old" right? Shit at my age my mom had 2 children under 10 and a teenager. My grandmother was 43 when I was born. There is no way in hell I could ever picture myself as a grandmother. "Ain't no one got time for that!"

Of course a lot of friends have asked what I am planning for my "big birthday." And then of course we all hear the "you only turn ___ once." Well no shit, you only turn every age once, so really why do certain numbers/ages get special treatment?

Of course you have the ages that signify something "meaningful" (at least in my opinion); 10 because suddenly you are in the double digits, 13, because you're no longer a "kid" and now you're a teenager. At 16 you get your license, or at least you can get your license. At 18 you can vote and you are legally an adult, although I can't think of any 18 year old that I've ever known that was an "adult." At 21 you can "legally" buy alcohol and get into bars and drink. But then what? 25? Because it's a quarter of a century? After that it seems that we only really make a big deal about the decades. But why? Why not make a big deal about 17 or 24 or 33 or 42 or 57 and a half? Or not put so much pressure on certain numbers and treat them all the same? Party like its 1999 every year, or not, whatever. Where am I going with this?

Well, since I have chosen to remain 29 for the past 10 years, I've contemplated this new number. Will I accept 40 or will I be 29+11? We are not doing anything "BIG" because I'm a weirdo and don't like the attention and don't want to have a party. My husband would love to be able to throw me a party but fortunately for me, he gets me, and even though we could not be more opposite when it comes to birthday celebrations, he respects my eccentricities, and plans a great weekend for just the 2 of us. One of these years we'll go on a big trip, again just the 2 of us, because that's how I like it. I do feel like I should do something "grown-up" though, because even though age is just a # and I truly feel and live by "you are only as old as you act and feel," (and look, but that's a different post). I don't feel old, I don't act old - well no older than I ever did, I have always been an "old soul" and had viejita tendencies, and I know I don't look old, but I have lived 29+11 years and that's kind of a big deal. So what to do, that would mean something to ME that would be kind of a cool way to celebrate this new decade?

In 2010 I remember coming across a blog post about this woman who decided to celebrate her 38th birthday by doing 38 random acts of kindness in a day. Totally not something I could/would do, (too much human stranger danger interaction) but I thought it was pretty awesome that she took the time to do it. In addition to the fact that I pretty much remember everything, it is no surprise that I still remember this story 3 years later, but there was something about it that stuck with me. Could I do something cool with the number 40? Of course I could! But it would have to be something that wasn't putting too much pressure on myself, because that doesn't work with me, not with something like this. That instantly rules out anything done all in one a day. Hmmm... What to do that would be meaningful to me?
Why not make it a goal to donate 40 of my crochet/knit items before my next birthday? I know I already donate hats to little kids but so far it's been in conjunction with a sale. Like a BOGO but instead it's been a BODO. I've also donated a few hats to raffles/auctions for pet shelters, but again its kinda random. I think I've donated a total of about 10 items this year, maybe 12. So 40, in addition to what I already make for Miss FartyPants and whatever I sell, is a lot. It might not seem like a lot to some, but if you know me, then you know how anal retentive/type A/perfectionist I am when it comes to anything I do, which means I take twice as long as the "average" person to do anything. Maybe 3 times as long.

So here are my rules for myself (I LOVE rules!)

1. Donate 40 individual items between now and my next 29th birthday to an oncology center and/or animal shelter. 
2. Must be something I make, not monetary or bought.

That's it, just 2 rules. I'm not setting a "goal per month" or picking a specific item or even a specific organization. Instead of 40 Random Acts of Kindness, I'm calling it 40 Random Donations. It might be beanies to kidlets battling childhood cancer, it might be hats to an oncology center for teens/adults. It might be items for a raffle for an animal shelter or even pet beds. Again, no pressure. I put enough pressure on myself on a daily basis, I want this to be something fun and meaningful to ME. If I manage to donate more than 40, AWESOME, but no less than 40. And I will stay accountable by posting it here, kinda like I do with my workouts. I may even post pics of whatever I make to donate each month on FB and IG, just to add to the accountability. 

So that's it. 40 Random Donations in my 40th year.  So if you read this and know of a children's oncology center or oncology center or animal shelter then post it in the comments. I already have a list of a few but I know there are more out there. Do you make stuff too? Wanna join me? (you would do your own #/age).

Oh and I plan to continue and step up the workouts because I WILL wear a bikini next Summer dammit. Even if its just once. I don't have 40 lbs to lose or even 40 inches, but if I could lose 4 inches in my waist, that would be amazing. I think that's pretty doable, don't you? 

So that's it, my monumental birthday post. Time for me to go work out and make some shit! But before I do that...

It's time for some useless trivia...

December 4, 1973 is the 338^th day of the year 1973 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 27 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Tuesday. So 40 years ago I was born yesterday. 

A person born on this day will be 40 years old today. If that same person saved a Dime every day starting at age 7, then by now that person has accumulated $1,205.30 today. (I should make my niece start saving a a dime a day, shit a quarter and then she can thank me later).

All About My Birthday is a cool site to find out random info about your birthday. In reading all the amazing things that happened on my birthday, this stuck out to me the most. 

What is the birthstone for December 4, 1973?
Turquoise is the modern birthstone for the month of December while Onyx is the mystical birth stone (based on Tibetan origin). The zodiac gemstone for Sagittarius is topaz. Lastly, the birthday stone for the day of the week ‘Tuesday’ is ruby.

I've always loved gems/semi-precious gems and believe in the properties they posses and their energy. During my teen years I wore lots of Turquoise and I still have most of it. I've always loved and been drawn to Onyx because its a beautiful stone and now it makes more sense. The most interesting part in all this though, is that according to this site the birthday stone is ruby. Well if you know me personally then you know that D and I got engaged on my birthday 9 years ago AND guess what stone is in my engagement ring? A RUBY! He chose the stone, I just said that I didn't want the typical cliche diamond. It's like he knew, even though he didn't know.
That's it.

I will sign off with a random picture of my namesake in 1973.

November Workout Wrap-Up

I started on Nov. 12, got 9 days in and took almost the entire week of Thanksgiving off minus the "day 9 Hula. Not quite half the month but considering how September and October were I say not a bad start! I can  definitely say that while squats still kill, busting out 100-200 each workout has gotten way easier. If I keep this up maybe, just maybe, I'll have some semblance of an ass by next year. We shall see.

Day 9 - Hula. I had planned on adding to it but it didn't happen. Still a good workout though so I'm not complaining.

Day 8 - Hula and the Drop 10 Workout

Day 7 - 1 set of the 100 Workout and 1 set of the "Every time You See This" plus 50 regular squats and 50 Sumo squats.

Day 6 - Another 200 squats (no split squats and no 1 leg squats). My legs were trembling during the last set of Sumo Squats. And 1 set each of the ab exercises shown. I swear that 60 sec plank is the longest minute ever! Surprisingly my arms aren't as sore as I thought, but I am definitely aware of all the muscles between my shoulder and elbow.

November Workouts Day 5

I took Friday and Saturday off which meant I HAD to do something today.  I didn't want to, but I also didn't want to lose my new momentum. Originally I thought I'd workout in the morning before we did anything, but I enjoyed my morning grog (coffee) a little too long and ran out of time.  Fast forward to 9pm and I had to make a decision. Work out or be lazy. I wanted to be lazy because I felt the mittelschmerz starting and knew it was going to be bad, which meant no squats or jumping or even a good core workout. What to do? Flake and use the onset of pain as an excuse, or power through a quick workout before it hit full force and I was bound to the couch in excruciating pain? I opted to power though until I couldn't do anymore. Arms was about all that was safe so I did the '10 Minutes to Tone: Arm Workout' video again. My arms were still sore from Thursday but "no pain no gain" right?  I swear that is the most hellish 10 minutes! Even though my arms felt like jell-o,10 minutes seemed like a sorry ass excuse to call it a day. Attempted the 'Killer Abs' but couldn't make it past the first 10 sit-ups before cursing womanhood and the shit we deal with on a monthly basis.

I still couldn't give up though. Why not torture my arms a bit more? I mean what's 30 more reps (3 sets of each) of a few easy moves? HA! I got in 2 sets, was afraid to whop myself it the head with a 5lb weight during the the shoulder press and called it a day. By this point I could barely make it to the couch anyway so the timing was perfect.

While this was not my most impressive workout I figured it was better than not doing anything at all. It hurts like hell so it has to be doing something AND if I pop a few Ibuprofen now I should be able to do some serious leg and core exercise tomorrow. 

November Workouts Days 3 & 4

Day 3 - I decided to google, and search some hashtags on IG and also search Pinterest and found more workouts to do. for Day 3 I decided to work on arms and core. I've said it before, but some of these exercises seem easy at a glance, until I start counting the reps. Adding Sumo Squats and Calf Raises on days 1 and 3 means that my legs are SORE. Not just thighs, the WHOLE leg, both legs.  So I thought focusing on arms and core (that was sore too but I can deal with that soreness easier) was going to be giving myself a bit of a break without slacking. I found this 10 minute arm video on FitSugar and it what's 10 minutes right? WRONG again! the woman does not break. It's 10 straight minutes, except when you switch from 3 to 5 pound weights. Of course I thought I would be all bad ass and just stick with my 5 pound weights, plus its all I have. By the 3rd exercise I wanted to cry and just used my own resistance. Still sore as hell during after and today, the day after. 
Here is the video. It really is only 10 minutes and since it is non stop and makes you want to cry I'm going to recommend it and hope to see results sooner rather than later.
http://www.fitsugar.com/10-Minute-Workout-Sexy-Sculpted-Arms-21620326. 

In addition to the arm torture I did the Core Challenge. My arms hurt so bad that I could only do 1 of the planks with fully extended arms, and even then they started to shake after 10 seconds and that has never happened before. 

Day 4 - let the torture continue. Totally sore today. 

Even tough I went to hula and danced for an hour I felt that I had to keep my momentum and do a regular work out. I had intended to take easy, but once I was done I realized that I've lost my mind and am clearly punishing myself for being such a slacker the past few months. 

-I only did 1 set of arms, with 5lb weights. The full image says 3 sets,  but I just couldn't be that cruel, it already hurts just to reach in the cupboard from yesterday's 10 minute torture video.

-I also only did 1 set of the each squat pictured. There are actually 2 more variations (split squat and 1 leg squat) and that also says to repeat 3 times, but 200 squats in one night was enough for me. I can't even fathom 600 in one day at this point. I can't be that cruel yet. Maybe by January I'll have reached that level of insanity but for now 200 squats is enough. Shit, the 30 day challenge doesn't have you at 200 until the very end and I've never made it that far. I'm actually kinda scared, I hope I can get out of bed tomorrow. 

November workouts - Day 2

I almost didn't do an actual workout since I went to hula practice early and danced for approximately 1.5 hours non-stop and my legs were crying, but I came home, made a quick post-dance dinner and then started searching. Our DVD player still isn't working properly and the excuse is getting OLD considering I have a laptop and iPad so really no excuse to not pull up a video or just do more of the "pic workouts." So I found a few more that looked interesting and challenging and picked 2 for last night. I found these doing various google searches. The one on the left is called the "Inner Thigh Gap Workout Routine" and the one on the right is simply "1 set." Considering I was already sore from Monday's workout and had just worked my legs in hula I was already sore so these were pretty hard, but again, TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Today I feel like this, but also my core. It's that good sore that I love to hate but also miss. I like to pretend that the soreness is converting fat to muscle so it's worth it! I find that the soreness really kicks in about 15 hours post workout, which means I may be crawling by this evening. Maybe I'll find some floor workouts for tonight. ;)

The Beginning of the November Workouts - Day 1

Last year I kicked ass on the workout front. I formed a strong love/hate relationship with Jillian Michales and her DVDs. I got fit, felt great and had noticeable results. Without going through all my FB posts I believe I worked out a total of 150 days in 2012. Now that may not seem like a lot to some of you, but considering I hadn't done much in 2011, it was a HUGE accomplishment. This lead me to enter 2013 with grandiose plans to hit the 200 mark. Sadly I stopped keeping track because I lost motivation and I'd be shocked if I even made it to 85 days this year. Oh well, shit happens right? At least I haven't given up. I haven't been as dedicated to Jillian this year but I have done tried a lot of the 30 Day Challenges. I have yet to make it through an entire 30 days, but I've given it a good shot.  Since my motivation has been lacking I thought I'd start out light and chose these 2 workouts that I found on Instagram. Let me just say that they were NOT as easy as I had anticipated but they felt good! Haven't decided what I'm going to do tonight but once I do I will post it.

FB accountability has definitely worked, but since I have been lacking, I am now holding myself doubly accountable. Plus posting here will be much easier to search.