Wow - so many people who checked up on me recently... You are all WONDERFUL!!!

So - what's up with me. Well as you may have gathered I've struggled a little in this new year. For no 'real' reason I just couldn't seem to get my head in the game. My 'why' just didn't seem to have any teeth in it. And I certainly couldn't seem to get a handle on 'why now'. Top this off with the fact that last month I got a promotion and was suddenly finding myself working 45 - 50 hours a week PLUS my four hour a day communte and needless to say non-essential internet time has been at a premium.

That's not to say that it's been all bad. I've managed to 'tread water' but I haven't had the focus, drive and progress that I would like to have and that frustrates me. The scary thing is that I have 7 weeks until my sprint triathalon and haven't trained nearly as much as I would like. *sigh*

But! Last week I put together a new plan. I completely revamped my resistance training. The plan I built for myself was taking me 1.5 hours a day! So.. I scaled way back. AND I'm doing cardio FIRST to make sure I get my triathalon training in. It was working. I had found new motivation (I suspect I was overtraining) and I had made it to the gym 3 days per my plan.

then Thursday we got the news that my father in law passed away... so the last four days has been dealing with all of that.

But I'm back now - although on my own. My honey is going to be down taking care of his mom for the next few weeks. It does make it easier for me in one way because I can work out at night guilt free. No one is waiting for me at home :) but it means I have to drag my own butt out of bed in the morning if I want to work out early :

So - I'm going to try to be better on keeping you up to date on my training etc. I know that history proves that posting here helps keep me focused.

Now.. for some 'shouts'.

ausomm - I don't pay for LL by the month. I signed up for a year long program. It's not cheep but it's been worth it so far :) If you want to check it out though - you can try it free for one month.

Anonymous #1 - thank you so much for your comment! seeing things like that just makes my heart so happy. congrats on your progress and I'm glad you found a bit of inspiration here. Keep up the fantastic work and in all honesty you've passed me by! I would love to hear how you're feeling in your 'new body'.

Evelyne - thanks for kicking me in the pants - I need to update here and I'm glad to know there are folks still checking on me.

Anonymous #2 - don't know if you're the same person but thank you too for kicking me and getting me back blogging. I need this.

and so... I haven't worked out yet to day but I plan to get some cardio in when I get home tonight. Food had been good today - stayed on plan - ate some veggies and had my fruit so I'm good there. I'm going to get up early and hit the gym tomorrow so expect an update with some new 'lifting' numbers :) They may not be spectaular as I've lost my workout partner and my spotter but I'll push as best I can.

Thanks again to all of you!! End of April I'm going to post some progress pictures and I want to have something to show you :)

Not much to report

Really just plugging along here - no big problems but no big victories either. Just doing what needs to be done.

I'm really struggling to get my cardio done. I'm just finding it dull and unexciting - 5 minutes in and I'm already bored. I can't change much up right now because my sprint tri-athalon is only 12 weeks away. I'm investigating ways to 'spice' things up a bit. Some sort of excercise 'reward' for getting my trathalon training done. My ideas so far are boxing classes, dance lessions or something like that. Still working on it :)

Feelin' Good

Feeling Really Really good today, for a variety of reasons.

1) the sun was shining today for a little while and I actually went outside in a short sleaved shirt for the first time in over a month... mmm a little ray of sunshine goes a long way to uplift your mood.

2) I got the the gym in the MORNING! I never thought I would say this but MAN it's nice to get up at 4:00AM lol! I've certainly learned that starting my day with a workout does wonders for my overall well being.

3) TWO compliments in three days.

Saturday while working out with my honey, I noticed this man using the bench next to us was watching and by his body language WANTED us to notice. I thought maybe he wanted one of us to 'spot' him and after my experiance on Tuesday I wan't about to leave a fellow lifter 'hanging'. So I turned toward him and smiled giving him an opening to ask. He suprised me though and instead of asking for help, he said, "I used to come in here in the mornings and I saw you two here." I nodded and opened my mouth to explain why we had been missing all week, when he went ahead, "You two have made a LOT of progress. You look GREAT! You make a great team, keep up the good work." I think my smile got bigger with every comment and I acknowledged with a 'thank you' every time. I think that's the first time at the gym that someone's asknowledged my progress to my face and certainly they've said something to me about my husbands (which I'm proud of as well). Let me tell you it put a LOT of UMPH into the rest of our workout having heard that.

Then today I went to visit a client that I haven't seen in MONTHS... Pretty much since before the wedding in September. While I know I've made some progress since then I don't feel it was as much as the progress they SAW me making before I left for my honeymoon. Either I've changed more since then then I remember, or they were remembering how I looked when we started the project (back last January) because three of the people I met with were nearly open mouthed when they saw me. One gentleman (who is not what I would call an outspoken indivitual) leaned over to me when our meeting was over and whispered... Have you lost weight? I happily told him yes. They other two were much more vocal about it, exclaiming how good I looked. It was a nice shot in the arm to hear from people who don't know I've actually been working to notice the changes.

So that's about it - plugging along here looking forward to getting into new and exciting territory. While January got off to a rough start I'm expecting all kinds of amazing things in Febuary :)

I was looking in the mirror today and trying to figure out what I'm going to look like with 10 more lbs gone... that kind of visual doesn't come easily for me but I do know it's going to be exciting to see!

Hard Week

This is one of those hard weeks for me. My honey is working long hours and can't make it to the gym. That means I need to go on my own. It's funny how much easier it is to step into a crowd of people (for me at least) when you know you've got your best friend at your side. Last night I knew I was going to have to face the 'night' crowd at a gym full of 20 something gym bunnies, meat heads and resolutioners with a few 'regular' folks (like us) thrown in. I dislike the gym at night even with my honey there, facing that crowd alone took a lot of fortitude.

When I got there it was exactly what I had expected. THRONGS of people there. The posers were posing the gym bunnies walking around with only 1/2 thier gym clothes on and the resolutioners wandering around looking lost and doing way more weight then they should. Ok maybe I'm being a little harsh but it was really crowded and frustrating. The worse part was I was having to do a chest workout without my workout partner.

So, I got through dumbbell incline presses at a lowered weight, and I did incline dumbbell presses just fine. Barbell flat presses though I started to get a little nervious - I really wanted to hit the chest hard but I have this real fear not finishing a rep and getting stuck under the bar. So I start looking around to grab someone to spot me. There are six guys doing chest press around me... do you think a single one would make eye contact? Noooooo.... I finally have stand directly in front of a guy and wave my hand in front of his face! He spots me for one set (and does a good job) then runs away! So I have to chase down a SECOND guy for a second set. BAH! I'm not hitting on you I just want a spot - stop acting like I'm going to bite you for god's sake.

So - that was my night. I have to go back and do arms tonight - wish me luck!

---- other then that, everything's going well.

Happy Day!

My training materials have arrived! OMG I have a LOT of stuff to read but it's been a pleasure so far.

The weekend went great - I finished up my training for the week and now have TWO weeks of making every single weight workout... I like that . Feels like things are back on track.

I wanted to share a new 'concoction' I discovered... this makes two 'meals' for me - you'll have to play with it to fit it into you're own plan...

1 cup fat free cottage cheese (trust me - I won't put spoon to cottage cheese normally but really love this!)
1 cup fat free vanilla yogurt (You can use plain too but may have to add more flavoring)
1 cup stawberries, washed, destemmed and cut in half
vanilla extract and splenda (or sweetener of choice) to taist.

dump all in the blender and whip until smooth. You can drink this like a extra thick shake or eat with a spoon. A really yummy way to get my 1 cup serving of fruit in a day.

2006 in Review

2006 was actually a great year - I lost about 39 lbs of fat all told and 4 inches off my waist...

What I really like seeing is how far I've come from what I believe is just about my 'biggest' ever... Here's progress from about July 2005 to now

And how have my muscles grown?

Oh my!

I can't believe it's been almost a month. The holidays really take a bite out of you... then then new Year has been just crazy!

So, where to start... Christmas was fine. Spent time with the kids and generally relaxed the week between Christmas and New Year. Got back to work on Jan 2 and handn't been here long before I got a call from my honey that things wern't looking good for his father (who is critically ill). So we left work and flew (well drove)the three hundred miles to go be with him. We spent the whole week at my in-laws. Thankfully my father-in-law pulled through, unfortunatly, my fitness program didn't. But hey sometimes 'life happens' and you need to put your own stuff on the backburner for a week to focus on someone else for a while.

So back home now and the past week and a half has been a whirlwind of catching up at work and at home as well as putting into place many of my 'new year' plans.

As for fitness goals - I haven't really come up with an extensive list. I know THIS is the year I reach my goal of 130lbs. There's no way I can fail because I have coach Greenwalt (from Leanness Lifestyle) with me every step of the way. Other things I want to accomplish this year: I want to really work on my flexablity, two things I want to do this year is be able to do the splits and a backbend (from standing). I also want to run my first sprint tri-athalon (already signed up for it). Oh yeah and be able to do pull-ups.

Other goals I've got right now that are kind of fitness related is... I've sent in my money and I'm starting training to become certified as a personal trainer. I can't tell you how excited I am about this! Just more motivation to get to my goal and get a body that's a living testimate to what my 'services' will offer. I've also started work on the website that I'll offer to all my clients including a 'community' area. I want to specialize in people looking to make a weight loss 'trasformation' as well as those who are 'begining' weight lifters (Like my son or even my husband last year). I plan to offer more then just training programs or even diet plans but education, motivation and support (that's where the website comes in). I want to work with the WHOLE person. Ummm... yeah, I'm a little excited. I'll move on now.. lol

I still haven't gone back and figured out how I did on last year's goals - it's on my 'todo' list I swear! :)

Oh and we've moved into the 'heavy' phase of our periodization program...I've been stunning myself with the amount of weight I've been lifting! It's so much fun!

Monday was chest day and my 'best set' for each excercise was:

Dumbbell Incline Press: 50lbs x 9
Barbell Flat Press: 150 x 9
Barbell Decline Press: 95 x 12

Cable Crunches: 120 x 9

Today was Biceps and Froearms: (best sets)

Barbell Standing Curl: 75 x 9
Dumbbell Alt Standing Curl: 30 x 11 (yes! I'm curling 30lb dumbbells now - whoop!!)
Cable Two Arm Curl: 75 x 9
Barbell Wrist Curls: 65 x 12

I think, this is going to be a really good year! :)