In My Own Little World

Ugh.  I started out good.  Got up, ate my peanut butter, turned on a DVD.  I picked one earlier in the week since today was technically a rest day.  But I didn’t do anything Friday and Saturday so…

I barely got through the warm up but it was better than the first day. I still didn’t finish the video.  Too hard! My hope is that it will become easier on its own.  It’s not like every person who does this is able to start off full force.  It’s insane!

And so there is tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Background to the Insanity Journey here.

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Nothing.  Had motivation this morning then I lost it. Tomorrow is supposed to be a rest day in the series but if I have the motivation, I will do one of the days I missed.

What is the Insanity Journey?

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Technically, this was yesterday.

All willpower had been depleted.  Didn’t workout. Drank beer and ate Twizzlers and popcorn.

The end.

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Short story because I forgot to post earlier and now I’m tired.

Saw today was the ‘Cardio Recovery’ DVD. Automatically saw cardio and thought ugh! Turned out to be mostly stretching with some squats, planking, shoulder push-ups, etc.  Relatively easy, hence the word ‘recovery’ in the DVD title, compared to the past two days. That said, that doesn’t mean I got through a whole DVD yet.  But was still looking forward to what was on the docket so that’s good.

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Muscles are still a little sore from yesterday; I suspect I will be hurting for days with no real “off days” to speak of.  The one day the system allows off isn’t not gonna be near enough time for my muscles to recover.

So today is Core Cardio and Resistence. I made it relatively well through the warm-up today.  Of course I’m way slower than the DVD but I feel better knowing that some in the video also are slow and stop for breaks.  I managed to a bit further for this session but I think because it was as full cardio as the first day.  So I had to push through strength stuff more than cardio today.

I chose to go out with the family for dinner (Dad’s b-day today) so that interrupted with my virtual appointment after work to workout.  I almost said to myself that I could skip a day.  I gave it some more thought and opted to skip the beer at dinner (because if I have 1 I’ll have 13) so I could still have the motivation to get my workout done.

I seem to be on a willpower high these past few days because I’ve been productive with work and school and have been working out 3 days in a row.

Now I have to go make my popcorn.  :D

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My quads and hammies started to get angry with me late afternoon.  I thought, yay.  Before today’s workout, I set up a photo shoot.  I know nothing about lighting so the quality will probably suck but who cares? The goal is to document the changes throughout the 60 days. It’s a bit sobering to see myself in this first shot.  I know what I got to visually a few months back.  I had a waist, had lost a lot of belly and plain looked more healthy.  Now that my belly (feeed mah belly!) has gotten to the point that it’s farther out than my boobs again, well, that is just plain disappointing.

So I plug the DVD in.  Today is Plyometric Cardio Circuit (the video is in English even though the page is in Chinese).  I just about died after the warm-up.  No wonder it’s called Insanity! It IS insane.  After the warm-up, this is a short stretching break while the muscles are warm, then it goes into 3 set of 3 reps of killer plyometrics.  For those who are unfamiliar with plyometrics, here is a decent article describing it. You can also call it hell when done as much as it is in this DVD. I couldn’t get much past the first set.  I watched the rest of the DVD because I couldn’t breathe and the first set was so much and I’m so out of shape, I could barely jump.  I was disappointed but am trying to put this in perspective that I haven’t done much since November.

I do like how it puts a timer at the bottom of the screen.  Has one for the entire DVD and counts down sets and water breaks.  It’s nice to see the countdown to know how much farther you have to go.  Although it was much more helpful watching the counter from the couch.

So now my goal is to finish a DVD; don’t care if I am slow, I just want to finish at this point.

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So a few Saturdays ago, I had the TV on for background noise.  An informercial caught my attention.  It’s called Insanity. (Described as a cardio based max interval training. Opposite of normal interval training; so there are long periods of high intensity cardio with shorts rest periods.) I though, hmmm, that looks interesting.  Maybe it was the way the name caught my attention because there are many other workout infomercials out there. I checked out the website and thought, shit, I’m not paying over $100 for this hoo-ha.  So I went to Craigslist and found a brand new package for $60.  Some guy scored it one of his storage finds.

Insanity Fit Test Day 1

I finally started the program today.  I had to take many breaks.  And I only did the fit test! ha ha ha ha I am sooo out of shape.  I haven’t ran since November and have had some workouts but not more than once a week and not consistently since stopping either. So I’m starting from scratch. The first thing in the fit test is switch kicks.  I started doing them like I was back on Danceline with a little hop in between.  I laughed at myself.

There are a number of DVDs and the package comes with a calendar to show you which DVDs to do on whatever days.  It also comes with a space on the calendar so you can monitor your progress, by taking the fit test, every two weeks. I did take a before picture like they do in the informercials; I can’t wait until the end to see the results. I’ve never done a before and after photo so it should be interesting to get a real visual of the progress and to be able to refer back to something and say hey, remember where you were and where you didn’t want to be?

My real challenge, Burger King breakfasts aside, is how to keep myself doing this for 60 days!? My thought is that I will schedule this in as an appointment or as if I have a class.  So every week night, after I get home from work, I am scheduled to do the workout.  It makes more sense to do a morning appointment for the weekends but I’ll have to pick a time so that it’s not willy nilly whenever I get up.  That gets me into trouble.

Start here if you’re interested in checking it out.

Wish me luck!

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I’ve been off running for at least 6 weeks.  The last 2-3 weeks, I’ve been attempting to run 3-4 miles every 3 or 4 days.  Two nights ago I decided all randomly to run.  At 9 at night.  I thought I would run up and down the lit street by my house.  The route took me about 1/2 hour.  It was fun to run at night without my headgear.  I thought I could do that again occasionally if I need to get a quick 1/2 hour in without having to give much thought to the route.

Today I managed to slip in the 1/2 hour again, but it was a bit chillier so I decided to put a two layers on.  When I first stepped outside, I knew right away I like the Under Armour versus Nike.  Had the Women’s ColdGear® Frosty Tight Bottoms by Under Armour and didn’t feel ANY cold or wind at all! Totally gonna ditch the Nike under shirts for Under Armour when I can.

I didn’t run last winter as I ended up with an injury after my marathon in October.  I got into a large rut and didn’t pick it up again until he spring.  So when I went outside today with two layers on, I felt very heavy.  Halfway through the run I vowed not to wear two layers if the weather is 45 degrees or above.  On the plus side, the run was good.  I don’t have the same “injury” feeling in my leg as I’ve been having.  Maybe now I don’t have to get that MRI that I’ve been procrastinating getting.

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When I heard Kim Kardashian filed for divorce after just 72 days of marriage, my first thought was… and people think same-sex marriage is going to give marriage a bad rap?  Hmpf.  Then my next thought was… Are freakin’ kidding me?  How can people be so careless to get married without having an inkling that it might not work?  I heard about all the sort marriages in the next couple of days on the radio stations. And then I read a friend’s post showing a different perspective.  She could have had some idea that it wasn’t going to work but couldn’t call off the wedding.  I’ve never had to experience that decision myself, thankfully.  But imagine having to make that decision and everything and everyone it touches.  It’s easier to go through the motions. I can’t say that I’m totally sensitive to this perspective, because another thought that pops into my head is that she didn’t cancel because there was too much money at stake being that it was aired on TV.  If not-celebrity people have a hard time cancelling because of embarrassment, too many wheels in motion, or whatever, imagine how hard it must be if you’re a celebrity.

And then…

I was I at a seminar this morning and the speaker showed this picture…

What’s the first thing that comes into your mind?  Mine was “lazy.” How lazy can one be that they can’t walk their own kid in the stroller.  The speaker later explained that the reason they woman was doing this was because she was left with limited mobility and her husband thought this segway would help out.  Now what’s the first thing that comes into your mind?  Mine was “I’m such a boob.” I felt bad that I judged without knowing the story. Interestingly enough, the person who originally posted the photo, did write a public apology.

People who look through keyholes are apt to get the idea that most things are keyhole shaped.  ~Author Unknown 

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