Day 30

I am typically very positive so please forgive me for this post. I think I just need support and to get some of this off my chest. 

Day 30, I should be happy that we are 1/3 of the way done but when I look back at the month we really did have it easy. The hard part is on, and you had better believe this month is going to seem that much longer.

I have massive black and blues on my arm from skipping, tripping and then whipping (myself with the rope). It sorta looks like I am a drug addict… add the recent weight loss, are people talking about me behind my back?

I feel like I am so behind on all of the exercises. I have to break between lunges; I can’t even do a full forty without stopping once. I literally am not strong enough. Not to mention I am completely out of breath and sweating my @ss off. It isn’t like I am not trying. I thought we shouldn’t be doing these and getting winded. I get through the whole work out, just very slowly. Have I mentioned I have never done anything like this in my life exercise wise?

My divinci’s are sad, and sometimes I can’t make it through a single set without having to stop. And I can barely make it through 100 jumps without tripping or having to stop because I can’t breathe. Those that are doing them in less than 15 minutes boggle my mind. I have to now split up my jumps and my strength because I just don’t have the time in the morning. It takes about 25 minutes to get through them. I think I am getting worse at them and not better.

Finally, I am eating really well. Sticking to the diet is the easy part of this whole thing. So why did my weight revert back a few pounds? I know we fluctuate naturally but it has been like this for 4 days now. So discouraging.

This cold I have is kicking my butt. The antibiotics and cold meds they have me on put me in a perpetual state of daze. It is so hard to get out of bed, and I hardly sleep over my nonstop coughing in the middle of the night. My workouts are twice as hard now and not just because they are intense.

I want to be stronger. I want to know that when I get home and do my dip’s I will be able to, but I know I won’t. I have zero upper body strength. My push-ups are a joke. Sigh…. I guess that’s it. I promise to be more optimistic tomorrow.

Evening of the 26th, Day 27 and 28

Saturday night was a BLAST. The indulgence couldn’t have been on a better weekend. I headed with my girls to Tampa. Had dinner at a café and got to see a bike race. We ate outside and the weather was perfect. 

After, we headed to the comedy show. It was funny and my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. When the show was done we ran over to a local club and got on the guest list. A friend knew the DJ. I love guest lists :)  NO LINE NO WAITING!! Then I enjoyed my indulgence. 2 sugar free redbull vodkas. Ahhh, just like heaven. Well no not really, they taste like piss as they typically do BUT man oh man did I catch a buzz. We danced from midnight till 3 am. The house was ROCKING! And I am not talking any wiggling in the corner. Oh no, I was on stage with my girls popin’ locking, top rock and busting a few serious dance moves. Dancing for me is its very own high. I probably burned 1000 calories. Here is a cute pic of me and the girls out shaking our groove thangs.

Oh then Sunday came. Remember, I was being a trouper and went out even though I had the nagging cough. Well dancing till 3am did not help matters. Sunday I spent ingesting cough meds and being VERY unproductive. I took three naps during the day.

Today I decided to work from home. I also decided it was time to see a doctor. As I suspected I have an Upper Repertory Infection. Now it is Antibiotics, Cough suppressants and decongestants for me. Sigh.

Although I am sick I still managed my jumps, all 1300. There were no records here today. After 400 (stop and start) I had to sit down for a good 10 minutes. I did 250 more and had to lay down on the ground for a bit. Finally I busted through the rest (all stop and start). I did feel better when they were behind me. Getting there was no easy feat. I am already dreading tomorrows. I just feel like my body is so week.

This coming week I am committing to doing 150 jumps in a row. I gett hung up a lot but I know I can do it I just have to push. If I can do sets of 150 instead of 100 and do them with minimal tripping over the rope, I could cut my time drastically. Right now it is an average of 24 minutes.

 Anyhow I sort of like the new diet. 1 apple 1 banana for dinner. Kinda takes out the thinking part when the questions arises, “what’s for dinner?” We shall see how I feel about it at the end of the week. Here is a pic of my lunch from yesterday. Seafood on spaghetti squash with roasted garlic whole wheat toasts.

Anyone else excited to be at day 30…. It is 1/3 of the way thorough!!

Day 25 and 26

I <3 Saturday.
 Got to sleep in finally! Had a rough night of coughing and hacking. I felt bad for my man so I slept on the couch for part of the night. Took some cough mess and finally passed out around 5am. I was very groggy making breakfast. Feeling generous this morning so I made Adam (boyfriend) some ham, egg, tomato, cheese sandwiches as well. The cheese was all melty and looked so good. I know I'm a cheeseiholic! I would take cheese over chocolate any day. Surprisingly I was ok just watching it melt. I'm certainly getting stronger with my will power as well as the muscles.
 
Speaking of strong will. Yesterday I had two major tests. I have been avoiding luncheons with my work crew for some time now. I decided to join them and my friend Sara at a BBQ pit for lunch. I brought my brown rice, veg and chicken. There was pulled pork, ribs and BBQ sauce every where I looked. Just walking up to the restaurant make my mouth water as they were pumping out the BBQ aroma. I stayed string though and it felt good! Test number 2 came that evening. Pacific Rim, my favorite Sushi place for dinner with a crew. It was a late dinner and I was starving so I got grumpy when they served everyone complimentary egg rolls. They smelled sooooo good!!! Everyone was happily munching away and throwing back cocktails. I gritted my teeth and had water with lemon. Kept thinking about how awesome I'm going to look in a few months. Finally my salad with no dressing and sashimi came out. It was amazing. I did mix some wasabi with low sodium soy sauce just to get it pasty. I can't have sashimi with out the spice! By the end of dinner I was quite proud of myself!
 
1150 jumps in 24 minutes. This seems to be the average all week. Can't seem to get back to the 18 minutes from the other day. It's getting hot around here however and I think that has some to do with it. I need to get a mist of cool water to spray on me and jump in a swim suit pretty soon!! Seriously it will be 85-90 in the mornings in no time. The strength has been ok. Those planks are rough... The crouch walk thing hurts my knees. I have no idea how the V sit is suppose to look like but I am sure I'm doing it wrong.

 Tonight we are going to go watch Steve Harvey the comedian in Tampa. It's girls night out so dinner first then dancing at some outrageous club (he he I'm holding about the outrageous part)! Can't wait to get my groove on. You had better believe I will be using my "indulgence" allowance tonight. I want a small bite of something cheesy, a small bite of something chocolaty and then 2 vodka and sugar free redbull drinks :)  I can barely wait!!! Ok time to pick out an outfit! Cheers everyone :)

Why do I love Florida so much??? How about all the fresh fruit! Morning snack:

Day 24

This morning I was almost in tears. Wow… what a workout. It is the first time this week I have done it consecutively without taking a break between the jumping and the strength. I was so lightheaded (I have pretty low blood pressure so I am not sure if this had to do with it) that I had to stop twice doing my jumps and put my head down. For the Squats I was equally dizzy. That is it for me, working out before I get a meal in. From now on I am going to get up an hour earlier and eat first. Then I can veg out in bed with a cup of tea for 30 minutes, work out then shower and go to work. Having a tea pre workout will probably give me an extra boost of energy.

Wow those 3 little planks kicked my butt! I am already dreading them in the future. I can’t do a pull up yet but I feel myself getting stronger in that area. I have faith in another few weeks I should be able to do at least 1 full one.

Tonight I am going diving after work so I packed a lunch, snacks and dinner with me. It feels good not to have to think about that. Hopefully I will be in bed by 9:30 like last night. It feels good to get solid rest.

Have a great day friends!

Day 23

Last night I pushed myself on the jumps. I got 1050 done in 18 minutes! Much better than the 30min from before. This morning however when I did them I could only muster up 23 minutes :) Oh well. Also I have been whipping myself with the jump rope when I trip. I am starting to look like I got beat up. The pictures didn’t come out very well but I thought I would share them. Also last night it was so hot and I was sweating my butt off. So in addition here is a picture of me at the end of my workout covered in sweat, YUCK!!

I am so tired today. Perhaps it is the lack of carbs at dinner or something? I feel like I could sleep for a week. Tomorrow I have to get up early and do my work out in full. Patrick really stepped it up and I am struggling so it takes me a while. After work we are going diving though! Yay something to look forward too!! Hope you all have a great first part of the day!

Day 22

Did I mention that my boyfriend was complaining that there were no sweets in the house so I made him a batch of peanut butter cup cookies? I didn’t have any of the batter and I haven’t had a cookie. But I watch him eat one every day. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. But to be honest if I was going to cheat, I could come up with something better than that. Somehow, that makes it all ok.

The bruises on my arm and hand are starting to subside from whipping myself with the jump rope. SCORE! The bad news is it still takes me 30 minutes to do all the jumps. What’s up with that? I have never done this much physical activity in my entire life though, so I am happy with myself just doing it. But MAN what a time saver it would be to only be outside for half the time in the morning. It is bad enough I am already late for work some days. When the jumps get more intense (like at the end of this week) I will have to split my work out into two parts, doing strength after work. There are not enough hours in the day!! My social life is through from here on out. But you know what? In the end I am sure it is worth it. I am in “training” as Patrick says, and when training I need to sacrifice some things. I am very proud of myself for not missing a single day of workouts and for sticking to the diet.

On the food end I have gotten really creative in some of the ways to flavor my food. No! I refuse that food will just be bad tasting. It honestly does not need to be that way. Yes I am treating it more like fuel lately, but I am still going to enjoy it. And I have been enjoying it! The down side is I have been making things a tad too spicy and giving myself heart burn. A little more tweaking and I think it should be perfect.

Its only Tuesday but I can hardly wait for the weekend. I am excited to do some diving (maybe) and then spend a day just sitting on my butt. Of course there will be cleaning and errands and I probably will not have time to do nothing, but the thought gets me through the week or grueling workouts, long days in the office and watching my Boyfriend eat peanut butter cup cookies.

Hope my team and all the other PCPers are having a great week!! It is odd being in such a different time zone, I feel a little off reading your posts while you are just getting ready for bed and writing mine while your mid sleep on a day in the future! Hey Patrick, any chance we can get the menus two days earlier so I can prep lunches on my day off instead of scrambling on a week night??

Cheers all!!

Day 19, 20 and 21

Wow what a weekend!! I am BEAT! Friday I got up at 5:45 did my exercises and then off to work. I had a productive day and headed out after to find a new pair of shoes. Came home and grabbed some dinner. I was already late to meet my friend so I rushed through a shower and primping to hit the town.  That evening we danced our hearts out… I was exhausted. Admittedly I did have a drink. A diet sprite and vodka. It was terrible tasting. I did get quite a buzz off from it however which was the point and I was able to hang the rest of the evening AND hit up and after party. I know I danced off the calories form the drink so I didn’t feel too bad about it. Regardless I ended up going to bed at 4am. Now that was a long day!

Sat I got up bright and early to go diving. I felt guilty about not getting my full 8 hours of sleep but I was too excited for the adventure ahead to worry too much about it. The dive was amazing. Some of the folks I was with were spearing fish. I ended up getting a free dinner out of it. Fresh fish! Within two hours of spearing I was grilling them up! Unfortunately by the time I got to my workout it was 9:00pm. I was so tired form the boat and sun and dive and dancing the night before, plus a lack of sleep. It was nearly impossible to get through the jumps. Every 10-15  I would trip up. It was like my feet didn’t want to come off the ground. But I managed to get through all off it. I felt great about the whole thing and after a quick shower passed right out!

Sunday I woke up with a headache (too much sun), and still tiered even though I slept about 12+ hours. After letting my pup out for his morning pee I decided to wait till it was dusk to do my work out. Jump roping in the heat and sun would have been a nightmare. I ran errands, went to the market and got everything else I needed to get done. I was able to prep lunches for myself and my boyfriend, make dinner, and clean the kitchen. After that I went out for my workout. Again another late night, got into bed around 10:15 just simply pooped.

6:20 my alarm went off. I don’t even remember my Boyfriend leaving this morning I was so tired. 1000 jumps. Taking me 28 minutes. I know I need to step  it up but I am winded and tired after only 100. I know my endurance has gotten better though because no matter how many jumps we have I always seem to do them in about 20-28 minutes. I’m just going to keep plugging away.

My skin was bad last week and now is much better. That paired with the fact that I got a bit of sun really helped with my overall “glow”. I also added my week 1 and week 3 pictures. Ugh…. One day that bathing suite will look great, but today is not that day. Starting to notice my energy level is higher, clearer skin. No change in the way clothes fit though. I will be happy when I am not doing the wiggle dance when pulling on a pair of jeans!

 My Aunt Lydia holding up the guys catch! Sheepshead!

Fried up and ready to eat!

Me and my girl out on the town Friday night!!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Day 17 and 18

“Everybody’s working for the weekend”

I am so glad it is Friday. Last weekend I spent at the  Advance course for Landmark Education. It was all weekend and lots of work. I am glad to have limited plans for this weekend. Tonight I am going to a show at one of my favorite clubs. It will be weird not drinking. I will have to have some serious caffeine to get me through as 5:45am came early today! Tomorrow I need to wake up early to get my workout done and after we are going out on the boat. Oh how I adore the boat! I am going to do a dive as well. I am sort of new at diving, only done it 10 or so times and am terrified of Sharks. I am hoping to actually see one so I can get over it. So freaky!!! The weather here is in its peak, Florida is definitely the best in Spring.

Diet is going well. This week I had a massive craving for chocolate though. Kinda random and out of the blue. I did not succumb and by the next day the craving was not there. I was having some trouble with getting to work on time with all of the things I had to do in the morning. Last night I decided to make lunches and prep breakfast in the morning which takes up a large chunk of the time.  It worked pretty good and I was able to get to work in a decent amount of time. The next thing for me to do is pop out of bed and start jumping. I still lay in bed for about 10 minutes dreading it all. I could really use that 10 minutes. Solution… set my alarm 10 minutes earlier. Best of both worlds.

I am a little sore today. I hate the lunges. Probably even more than the jump roping. I can finally do 100 jumps in a row now. I still have to take a long break in between. I am just winded and my heart rate is high. I do feel like the endurance is getting better. It takes me about 23 minutes to do 850 jumps. Where is everyone else at time wise, I know I am slow? The rest of the exercises I am pretty quick with. I can’t do a push up.  I can barely get half way down without getting all shaky and falling on my face. Any tips? I also feel my abs contract hardcore when I am doing them. They feel like really intense planks right now.

Ill post some fun boating pics this weekend!

TGIF!

Missing French fries or home fries? - Cooking Tip

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut potatoes skin and all into small chunks and set aside. In a small bowl whisk an egg. Toss egg on potatoes and season with pepper and a dash of chili pepper (optional). Bake in the oven till a fork slides in and they are tender on the inside. They should be just like you deep fried them! This also works for sweet potatoes, and other root veggies!

Spaghetti squash, if you have never tried this yummy veggie you will love it! Just cut one in half and roast for 45 minutes. Scrap the insides out with a fork. The strands should look like spaghetti noodles. Then I toss in some diced plum tomatoes and sautéed onions and garlic. YUM!