I was so exhausted that I ended up sleeping in all of my spare time.  My 1.5 hours of jump rope training turned into nearly 3 hours, so my Saturday was gone.  I collapsed on the couch when I got home.  I was so out of it that I actually forgot my i-pod on top of the stereo gym during my jump rope training.  I realized this on Sunday morning when I woke up and couldn’t find my i-pod anywhere.  And yes, I went ballistic! So, I threw on some clothes and parked myself in front of the gym at 7:45AM waiting for the gym to open and praying that my i-pod was still there.  It was!   Thank goodness!  My ipod is my most important fitness tool!   Love my nano!

Picture credits

I had 2 great classes on Sunday and ended up staying in the fitness studio an extra hour to practice my Zumba routines.  I passed out the couch when I finally got home and stayed there the rest of the day.  Some much needed rest!  Now, the week begins and I’m set on my new goal to start phasing the sugar back out of my diet.  Yes, I’ve been eating lots of sugar and I need to get it back out of my diet.   I am making lots of salads to take to bring to work with me and I recently bought a Magic Bullet Blender to make my protein drinks. 

If you haven’t tried Click! protein drinks, I highly recommend them.  They taste awesome!  Like a Frappacino with only 120 calories per 2 scoops!  Tasty!

Click! Espresso Protein Drink

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It’s been a long week, although technically, it was a short week.  It felt long to me, though.  I’m still plugging along and have a busy weekend planned.  I am planning to run my first race of the season a week from Saturday, June 12th.  It’s a 10K race called the Lawyers Have Heart 10K which raises money for the American Heart Association. I’ve run this race a few times and I ran it last year and achieved a PR in a 10K race.  I ran the race in 47 minutes and 18 seconds on a very hot June day.  I finished 111st place out of 1709 in the women’s category.  Not bad considering I hardly did any training for it.  I don’t expect to run as fast this year, but I still expect a respectable time. 

So tomorrow, my Saturday morning will start with a trip to the track to get in some speed work before I head to teach my 8:30AM spin class.   Then, I go home, grab a quick breakfast and then head to teach my 11AM & 12PM Zumba classes.  Then I get to go home for a couple hours before I head back to the gym at 3:30PM for another 1.5 hours of jump rope training.  Sounds fun, eh?  I think I’ll just move into the gym and live there.  That would save some travel time.

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Sunday is much of the same: Track, spin class, Zumba class, a 2PM audition, then errands – buy food, cook food, laundry and hopefully a little rest time.  And I still need to continue looking for another full time job.   I know it sounds crazy and like I do a lot, but I tend to be more productive and efficient when my days are packed like this.  I would probably just be watching TV or something else otherwise, so I don’t mind being a little more productive with my time.  And I earn money while working out and you can’t beat that.  Cha-ching!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Hey guys! I’m here and still alive!  I’ve wanted to sit down and post for awhile, but my life has been so crazy lately that I haven’t had time.  I’ve been taking every spare minute I have to catch up on sleep.  So, I am still working my full time job, I am now teaching anywhere from 9-11 group fitness classes a week, I have started personal training and train a client every morning before work, and with all this, I’m trying to fit in my own workouts into the day as well.  Any spare time is spent doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, shopping, catching up on errands, going through mail and looking for a job!  EEK!  My full time job ends in one month so I MUST find another soon!  With that said, once I’m unemployed, I’ll probably be posting more due to time.  I haven’ t had time to read blogs either but I hope to catch up on a few over the long holiday weekend.  And I have a very imporant meeting planned for this holiday weekend.  It’s my butt meeting the couch!   At least for a little while….

And now….

After visiting my parents this weekend, I realize how differently I eat now versus a couple of years ago.  I am sometimes hard on myself when I feel that I eat one whole wheat english muffin too many, but for the most part, my diet is drastically different from most people I know.  I have a rule that I don’t keep any junk food in my house.  Zero!  Because, if it’s there, I will eat it.  That’s just how it goes.  So my fridge is usually stocked with plenty of vegetables, some fruit, lots and lots of lean protein (I usually keep 8-12 dozen eggs and 5 bags of frozen chicked stocked up on  a regular basis), miracle noodles and lots of wheat bran and oatmeal.  Of course, there are plenty of other items, but these are the major items.   I workout every day, although I’ve been hard on myself lately because I haven’t been getting up early every morning like I used too, but I still get to the gym – every day. 

I’m proud that I’ve also been able to maintain my weight pretty well without too much thought.  Since being home in Massachusetts with my family, I realize that my family, on a regular basis, eats way too much bread, cereal, milk, sugar, rice, and other simple carbs even though they think they are eating healthy.  Most of my family is overweight, not obese, but above the “normal healthy” range.  They do try and I am happy that they at least make an effort to eat healthy.  My dad eats oatmeal every morning, loves his fish and tries to get up early and walk or workout on the bike.  My mom can’t sit still.  She’s always moving around and she cooks for my family every night.  She tries to incorporate healthy items like skim milk and margarine (which I can’t seem to convince her is worse then regular butter), but even she needs a little more education.  And I love (not!) how she lectures me on which foods are healthy and that I need to incorporate in my diet.  Moms will always be moms!  I let her do it, even though she likes to treat me when I visit by buying my favorite Milano chocolate cookies.  And she still can’t seem to shake her nightly cup of Friendly’s ice cream. 

But, I do realize that my family’s diet is closer to the norm than I realize.  They think I am the extreme.   Well, everyone except my friends who are fitness/figure competitors, think my lifestyle is “extreme”, but put into perspective, it really is not.  If you look back 3o or 4o years ago, the American population ate much less and were much more active.  They ate more vegetables, lean proteins and got a lot more daily activity than we do now.  Today’s society is way too sedentary and we eat too much food.  Even the so-called healthy food we eat should be measured and eaten in moderation.  I don’t think people realize that.  Yes, a 100% whole grain piece of bread is healthy, but you need to factor in the calories in your daily diet.  Yes, maybe a glass of red wine can be healthy – but in moderation.  That recent study that came out that women who drank red wine in moderation weighed less than those that did not, really irritated me.  Why don’t you ask the people who are experts on fat loss what they do.  You will not find many (if any at all) figure competitors or bodybuilders that drink alcohol.  Period!  They seem to know how to get and stay pretty lean, but what the heck!  Some random study seems to peak everyone’s interest so much more.  And recently, my doctor asked me what I do to keep my cholesterol at such a healthy level.  He said that I have one of the best HGL cholesterol levels he’s ever seen and he was convinced that I must drink red wine.  Nope – hardly ever.  And it’s not genetic, most of my family has high (unhealthy cholesterol), so it’s mostly my lifestyle choices. (Okay, rant over…)

Don’t get me wrong.  I like to eat and I eat a lot.  I’ve just learned which foods I can eat in extreme quantities and which I can’t.  Steamed or raw green veggies, I can eat as much as I want.  It’s not unusal for me to eat 5-6 steamed zucchinis in one meal or add an entire bag romaine lettuce to my dinner salad.  I’ve eaten a HUGE serving bowl of wheat bran without gaining an ounce (Well… after nature takes it’s course ).  I won’t gain weight eating these foods because they are very low calorie and/or high fiber.  It’s the little tricks I’ve learned along the way that help me keep my weight in check.

And salt?  Don’t get me started.  I taste salt in everything.  My body is extremely salt sensitive and I will retain water in a second if there is too much sodium in anything, so I monitor my salt intake vigorously.  I almost could not eat the dip my sister made last night because I could taste the high levels of salt. She assured me that she didn’t add any extra salt to the dish, but I just could taste that something in that dish had a very, very high salt content.  And yes – the hot sauce and the ranch dressing she used had a high sodium content.  My legs are itching and really swollen from the extra water my legs are holding onto because of the salt.  Ouch!  I’ll have to get to the gym and do the stepmill or go into the sauna to sweat out the extra salt.  On the other hand, my body also loses salt quickly so I have to be careful to maintain the right balance.  You can read more about salt sensitivity here. http://www.healthandage.com/Some-are-more-sensitive-to-salt-than-others

And water – I aim for one gallon every day.  I get extremely thirsty if I don’t drink enough.  And I love my green tea – probably 2-3 cups every day.  Coffee is slowly, but surely, losing it’s hold on me.

I am looking forward to getting home and back on my typical diet.  I never really think my diet is perfect, but it’s moments like this that make me realize that I am doing well and making healthy choices.  It’s great that I don’t even really think about it – I just do it.

Yum…

Looking back when I was a child, I remember that my parents were always very creative on Easter morning.  I really, really believed there was an Easter Bunny who was super fast and gave us the most beautiful Egg baskets every year.  My parents would very quickly hide eggs around the house, bring out our Easter baskets and even would get a carrot, chew on it and leave it by the door so when they ran the doorbell, we would run to the door and really believe that we had just missed the Easter bunny by several seconds.  We loved it!  Easter is not so exciting anymore, but still a great time.  I came home to Massachusetts to spend time with my family! So happy to see them!

So, as things have been going, I think I am going to push the date back of my competition to August – the Presidential Cup.  The reason is that a lot of things are changing, most importantly that I need to get a new job very soon because my term clerkship is ending soon, and I need to figure out what I’m going to do for employment.  It’s been very stressful, I have to say, but I am hoping for the best.  In the meantime, I’m going to see what kind of plan I can get from my trainer to maximize the use of this time – and really to build up some muscle, especially in my upperbody.  With the weather so nice this time of year, I can also use the outdoor track for sprints which will really help lean out my lower body. That’s my stubborn area and I really need to pull out all the tricks to lean out.

So, I am working on putting myself on a strict schedule to get things done.  I work most efficiently that way, and I am also putting on my daily to do list, some time to spend blogging. I think that updating my blog every day is a very useful tool to measure my progress and stay accountable, so I need to get into the habit of doing it more regularly.

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  Beware those chocolate bunnies!

(Repost from 2009)

My inner fat girl has been taking over lately and she’s relentless. She’s been talking me out of going to the gym in the morning.

She whines that “We’re tired and we can work out later. Let’s sleep in. Sleep is good for health and people who get sleep actually lose weight”, she whispers to me as my alarm goes off.

“Okay,” I happily reply and I go back to sleep.

Then during the day, she whispers to me, “Let’s have a cookie. When you start training again for a competition, you’re not going to be able to have one. Let’s eat it now. You have plenty of time.”

“Okay,” I happily reply.

Later in the day, she tells me, “You know, we really haven’t taken a break in a long time. You work out 2 sometimes 3 times a day. You really need one day off from the gym. You really do.”

“You’re right!” I reply.

“By the way, we really need a few more cookies and maybe a donut.”

“Okay”, I happily reply.

This has gone on for a couple of weeks. She’s so seductive, so tempting, so manipulative. She knows how to push my buttons. She knows how to sooth my anxiety. But this has got to STOP! She needs to go away because Skinny Me is nowhere to be found right now. Fat Girl has kicked her ass and she’s down and out for the count.

Well, this morning, Skinny Girl won and we went to the gym and we cooked our meals today. Fat Girl is still lurking. She’s telling me right now that I need to go to Starbucks and order a biscotti with the coffee I’m going to order. “Oh, and we need lots of cream in that coffee!”

 B!tch! What is she trying to do? I’ll kick her ass one way or another.

It’s 3:20A.M. and my alarm clock radio goes off.  Dawson McAllister is giving some young girl advice about her foster parents on the radio.   I wonder why people are up so early in the morning and I realize that I am one of them.  I crawl out of bed and change quickly into my workout clothes before my brain processes what’s going and on tries to convince me that I need to stay in bed.  It’s a mind game.  Every morning.  I don’t know if it ever gets easy to wake up so early, but it becomes tolerable after a while.  Once I’m changed and have packed up my gym bag, I gulp down a glass of ice water and take a capsule of vitamin B12 and I’m out the door.  The roads are empty.   It’s dark and quiet.  I drive slowly and carefully still waiting for my brain to fully wake up. 

When I pull into the gym parking lot, I see the cars belonging to the regular gymgoers who are also as crazy as I am and get up in the wee morning hours to workout.  We don’t talk much.  We know that we’re all half asleep but we want to be here.  We need to be here.  This is what we do.  

The first 5 minutes of every workout are tough.  Forcing your body to wake up and work hard is never easy.  But it’s mind over muscle.   I ignore my brain telling me to slow down and take it easy and I start to increase the speed, intensity and resistance on the elliptical.  I start to sweat and I can feel my body warmup up and my muscles starting to work.  I blast my music.  Loud and fast.  That’s how I like it. 

After my warmup, I head to the stretch area and knock out 100 pushups and stretches.  Next, to the fitness room for 45 minutes of jump rope.  Today is leg day so I head up to the weight room and do many, mamy sets of lunges, squats, leg extensions, leg curls and step ups.  I’m drenched by the time I’m done, but I feel great.  I take a few minutes to stretch and do 200 crunches.  I’m headed out the door.  It’s 5:40AM.  The sun is not out yet.  It’s still dark.  It’s still quiet.  Just the way I like it.  My day has just begun…

With my new jump rope!

I bought it on Saturday at my Buddy Lee Jump Rope Certification and I used this morning during my workout.  I was only supposed to do 10 minutes of jump rope to warm up.  10 turned to 20 and 20 turned to 30, and I finally had to tear myself away so I could finish my planned workout.   My new rope is cut to fit my proportions and it’s a special speed rope.  I swear it’s magic because I hardly tripped up on the rope at all today! 

This is the rope. It is the Buddy Lee Aero Jump Rope.   Buddy calls it the “Rolls Royce” of jump ropes.  I have to agree.  I love it.

Weekend Recap
Another super busy weekend for me.  On Friday night, I took an awesome Zumba class with Sensazao Crew.  They are one of the hottest zumba instructor groups in the area.  I had so much fun.

I woke up at 5:30AM Saturday morning and headed to the gym for my normal workout – close to 2 hours.  I went back for Zumba class with my sister at 11:30 and then back again to a different gym for a Zumba audition.  Then from 3:30PM to 8:30PM was the jump rope certification.  I was so exhausted when I got home that I headed straight to bed and completely forgot to reset my clock for the next morning.

You know that moment when you wake up in the morning and you’re not sure what day it is or what time it is? Well, I woke up at what I thought was 8:30AM on Sunday morning, looked at my cell phone and it read 9:32AM.  Huh?  Then it hit me that I forgot to reset my clock.  My spinning class started at 10AM.  So I threw on my clothes, brushed my teeth and ran out the door.  I managed to get there on time, but that was close.    I spent the rest of the day cooking, doing laundry, sorting mail and cleaning. 

Since I’ve been slacking on my morning workouts, I made a promise to myself to get in all my morning workouts this week – NO MATTER WHAT. Well, barring some tragedy or sickness, I will get up and workout.  So this morning was a success.

I got up at 3:40AM and was at the gym by 4:10AM.

12 minutes – elliptical warmup

30 minutes jump rope.

5 sets of 20 pushups – 100 total

30 minutes stepmill

200 crunches

2 minute plank

stretch

I felt great when I left.  Really sweaty.  Tonight, I’m taking it easy.  I plan to go to bed early so I can start my morning early again tomorrow.