Healthy Me

My days of Insanity are over. I'm a 41-year-old mother of four hoping to see some signs of a body again. Insanity was a challenge that I was intent on meeting.

Now that it's finished, I am thinking I might try the new Shaun T T25 (or is it T-25?) exercise program when it comes out or my older sister does Les Mills Combat.  Perhaps I'll try that. I don't want to stop and get lazy again.

I am the type of person who needs variety apparently with exercise (which is weird because generally I am predictable) or else I get bored so I definitely am ready for another program to try.

Monday is my beginning to a workout that I hope will get rid of the flab and give me a body I haven't seen in years! I am starting Insanity by Beachbody and Shaun T on Monday - and it's April Fools Day.  It's not a joke either!

A couple weeks ago, I purchased Hip Hop Abs from Live Core Fitness (my Beachbody coach). This is an exercise program by Shaun T.

I started it last week and I love Hip Hop Abs.  It isn't boring (where you are counting down until it is over), probably because I have always loved to dance and I love Hip Hop dancing (I call it street dancing...come on, who DIDN'T like watching Channing Tatum street dance in Magic Mike?).  In the last few years, I've definitely lost my groove (who has time to go out dancing with a huge family) but I am starting to feel like I am getting a little bit of my groove back.

If you are getting back into fitness and looking for something to hold your interest, Hip Hop Abs can be done by the very beginner (believe me, my asthma would take me out if I didn't start at the very beginning at my fitness level).

It's almost 2012!  I don't make New Year's resolutions.  I've never known anybody who actually kept them.  I do plan on losing a few pounds and getting in shape in time to coach my two girls' cheerleading squad in 2012 but resolutions?  Nope.  I would do better to bet some coins on weight lost or how fast I can get from struggling to touching my toes to actually touching them but no resolutions for me.

I think my June, I should be able to do a toe touch jump.  Ha ha.  That's funny.  We'll see.

I need to find exercise that I will actually want to do.  If I don't like it, or it makes me sweat, it's just not going to be something I want to do regularly.  So, I am thinking about a pool.  My kids would like it.  I would like it.  Get a nice deck around it, google pool safety and cover pool and relax in the pool - fun and no sweat!

I am trying to get back into the regular routine of taking my thyroid pills.  My doc reduced the dose, which brought all my symptoms back - including memory loss.  So, now that I am back on the right dose, I keep forgetting to take them!  Until I get my system back to the right dose regularly, I am going to keep forgetting them.  Oh what a vicious circle!

My little sister is in training to compete in fitness.  It's not body building.  She called it flexible something or other.  It's about being lean but in shape.  It sounded like it was about being able to build muscle without building it up so much that your shape was no longer feminine. I'm not sure that is the right word for it but that's about the only way I can think to describe it. She's eating right and using a trainer. It sounds very healthy anyway.

My brother does that fitness program that everybody is talking about - p90x. He's in his 40's and more fit than most guys in their early 20's (the other guys in their 20's are probably also doing p90x). He keeps telling me I should give it a try.

Have you tried it?  Did you like it?  Did you see results?  What is the difficultly level?

I never thought about it before. I am horrible at golf. I've had private lessons, had my own set of ladies golf clubs, and belonged to a golf club. I could not hit that ball to save my life! It was very embarrassing.

A lot of people think of golf as a lazier sport. It doesn't have the constant movement of sports like swimming or basketball (or the aggression of football). People dress up to hit a little ball around the golf course. So how is it exercise?

According to this article, you walk up to five miles if you play 18 holes (that means you have to leave the golf cart behind!). You use a large muscle group every time you swing (I didn't realize that all those times I missed the ball and had to swing again, that it was actually GOOD for me). Finally, it's a stress reliever for some to be outdoors. Golf courses are kept up nice so the setting is definitely pretty.

That makes me think a little differently about golf. It won't make my swing any better though.

I've started swimming twice a week as exercise. No results yet since I've only gone twice but I was surprised. I didn't realize swimming was such a workout until I had been swimming for awhile yesterday. I could feel it in my legs and it's definitely a cardio workout. The first time I didn't feel it because I was taking care of my four-year-old at the same time so the workout was limited. Yesterday I definitely felt it.

It's been years since I've been swimming. I'm not too comfortable yet in a public pool in a bathing suit but I'm doing it anyway.

My sister was telling me about a workout program called P90. I saw an infomercial on television the other day about P90X. It seems like a popular program. It also looks intense!

Next week, my husband and I get on a regular fitness schedule. We have made arrangements for the kids at the YMCA (youngest in the play room with a sitter and oldest three going to swim with the lifeguard) while we work out.

I really hope this helps get some of this weight off. I can't stand it!!

I did some belly dancing today! I love belly dancing. Now if I was any good at it, I'd like it better. It'll be good exercise though.

I've been keeping up with my "steps" everyday with a pedometer...seeing how active I am against the chart they gave us at my son's fitness meetings last month. Mine gives steps or miles walked depending on what I set it for. I can also set goals and it'll tell me how close I am to meeting my goal. I've been faithful with using the pedometer everyday...until yesterday.

Yesterday we worked outside all morning - my most active day since getting the pedometer. Guess what? I forgot to put it on for the first time. Geez! All that activity and all I have to show for it are sore shoulders from digging and carrying...no steps.

Oh well...there are more important things going on in the world than the fact that I forgot my pedometer. I heard North Korea launched that missile. Other countries, including ours, will puff out their chests over it and went to the U.N. Problem for me is I really don't think the U.N. has any authority anymore. Is this going to be another stressor for me added on top of everything else - the economy, the wars, the stepkids, my health, and my weight or is it going to disappear quickly and be forgotten about until the next time North Korea flexes a little muscle? We shall see.

I bought a pedometer. During the "Power Up" lectures at the YMCA, they gave us a sheet that told us our activity levels according to how many steps we take per day. I figured for $5, it's worth it to see just how active (or lazy) I am.

We are also signing up for a family membership at the YMCA. It's on special right now for $28/month. The price of that alone, to take the kids swimming a few times per month for a family activity together, is worth it (plus now they can have swim lessons and all the other kid activities they have). Add to that their fitness center and gym, yippee! It's a pretty nice YMCA so I can't wait until we get all the paperwork filled out and submitted. In the interim, we have a free 30-day family membership there.

The day before yesterday, my husband and I went walking with our youngest. He ended up carrying her through more than half the walk. I wish he could've carried me towards the end. I was so tired. I had a charlie horse in my leg yesterday...must've been in shock from lack of exercise, lol.

Something to make me feel better after a local salon cut my hair wrong, I got out the scissors this morning and fixed my hair a little bit so I am happier with it now.

I must've been in the hair cutting mood after cutting off all my husband's hair the other day when I went to town on mine this morning. I think he got tired of me asking him when he was going to get a haircut so he asked me to cut his. My 12 year old daughter is blaming me for her dad cutting off his hair (it was getting longer than mine). When the kids went to school, and we had some free time together alone, it was like being with the man I'd met all those years ago. Woo Hoo! We burned up some calories, lol.

My husband is a cyclist. He was racing before I met him and he continued to train regularly and faithfully for most of our marriage. He raced for several years into our marriage (with way too many to count First Place's) but now just keeps himself in training mode without the races. I don't have any interest in cycling myself but I did learn something from his training - to train every other day to give the muscles you've worked recovery time. They need time to repair what you've done to them. In other words, don't exercise the same muscle groups every single day.

I looked it up at Wiki since people are more apt to listen to a well-known source and not my husband's ideas through me, lol. Here is what it says:

"Too much exercise can be harmful. The body parts exercised need at least a day of rest, which is why some health experts say one should exercise every other day or 3 times a week. Without proper rest, the chance of stroke or other circulation problems increases, and muscle tissue may develop slowly. It has also been noted by the medical field that expectant mothers should never exercise two days consecutively.

Inappropriate exercise can do more harm than good, with the definition of "inappropriate" varying according to the individual. For many activities, especially running, there are significant injuries that occur with poorly regimented exercise schedules. In extreme instances, over-exercising induces serious performance loss. Unaccustomed overexertion of muscles leads to rhabdomyolysis (damage to muscle) most often seen in new army recruits. Another danger is overtraining in which the intensity or volume of training exceeds the body's capacity to recover between bouts."

There is also the nutrition factor:

"Proper rest and recovery are also as important to health as exercise; otherwise the body exists in a permanently injured state and will not improve or adapt adequately to the exercise. Hence, it is important to remember to allow adequate recovery between exercise sessions. It is necessary to refill the glycogen stores in the skeletal muscles and liver. After exercise, there is a 30 minute window critical to muscle recovery. Before doing anything else, one should drink something for recovery. Liquids are ideal after exercise and there are several studies that show low-fat milk and chocolate milk as being effective recovery beverages because of its ideal 4:1 combination of carbohydrate and protein that fuels and replenishes our muscles the best."

Here's another article on the World Fitness Network.

Here is another calorie calculator, like I mentioned in my previous post, but it is by MSNBC.

How do you figure out how many calories you've burned doing an activity? I wanted to know so I went 'net searching to find a site that could tell me. I found a site that will tell me on all kinds of activities, activities you wouldn't think of looking up, such as housework, horseback riding and even sex (and more). Of course, you have the usual too like football, soccer, step aerobics, swimming, etc. Check out the calorie counter here. There was one a few years ago that a friend gave me but I can't find it online now. It was similar to this one but I liked it better.

Too bad this one didn't include shoveling snow!

After a few days of feeling discouraged, I exercised tonight and I feel wonderful! I did TURBO JAM DVD by Beachbody tonight. It includes several workouts. I grabbed a bottle of water, squeezed some fresh lemon juice into it, and put the 20 Minute Workout in. I like the boxing and the music. It's actually fun to do (and I usually hate exercising). You can choose whether you want to do high impact or low impact. It really gets your heart pumping. I love the way I feel after I exercise! It's just the "getting motivated" part that has me stumbling but once I do it, I really enjoy how I feel afterward. Now that I'm sitting still, I can feel it through the abs! Yeah! This is supposed to work the abs without having to get on the floor with the usual sit-ups.

Here is what's on the Turbo Jam Beach Body DVD (taken from Amazon):

Turbo Jam's Chalene Johnson packs each workout with calorie-blasting kickboxing, body sculpting, and the hottest dance musicall guaranteed to give you jaw-dropping results, no matter what your fitness level. INCLUDES 3 WORKOUTS ON 1 DVD:

• WORKOUT 1: LEARN & BURN (25 minutes) - Start blasting pounds and inches right from the start as Chalene leads you through her signature "Elite 11" moves. Also includes an amazing 15-minute ab routine.
• WORKOUT 2: 20 MINUTE WORKOUT - Pump up the volume with this calorie-burning workout featuring some of the hottest music around. You'll see fast results that will keep you motivated and coming back for more.
• WORKOUT 3: TURBO SCULPT (40 minute) - Tighten and tone your muscles using Chalene's signature moves. Get sculpted abs and glutes, strong arms, and lean legs with this fun and innovative workout.
  

I haven't done too well the last couple of days. I haven't binged on anything...nothing like that. I just didn't do anything to make my health better.

I asked my husband the other day if it was better to do MORE sit-ups and hold them for less time or LESS sit-ups and hold them for more time. He said less. OK, that's what I thought. So I only did 15 sit-ups the other day, holding them for a count of ten. I thought that was pretty mild stuff. Hubby said I was overdoing it and was going to hurt myself. *pick up chin off the floor* I only did 15! That's discouraging to me. I think I know when I can feel that I am hurting myself and believe me, I am the last person in the world that is going to push myself so hard, fitness-wise, and cause damage. I'm lazy! I didn't think 15 was that big of a deal. I was actually going to do a set of 15 a couple times a day, every other day, but I didn't tell him that after I got a lecture after only doing the first set.

The last time I started exercising, he thought ten minutes of Turbo Jam was too much and I was going to hurt myself. My face gets red easy so maybe that's why he's so worried. He sees that as over-exertion. I am very pale so ANY change in blood flow is going to show. A couple of our kids are the same way so you'd think he'd realize? *sigh* I got discouraged and put it away. I didn't want a lecture every time I took the DVD out or talked about it. He was overweight as a child and his family thought it was "cute" - - you would think he would be the one person who would understand the need for encouragement?

It just gets discouraging. I am not a fitness buff. At all. I need encouragement! I don't think he wants me to remain 20-25 pounds overweight? I don't know. Maybe he likes the extra weight it brings to my chest, lol. Just kidding. Maybe.

What I don't get is this: Why are 15 sit-ups too much but he has no problem with me shoveling snow. My husband knows I won't leave it (like he would leave the snow...he just four wheel drives over it)? Boy if he could have felt my heart rate this morning! I went out there today and only got a small section shoveled, big enough for the mail car, so the mail could be delivered today (about 3 ft. deep that the road crews pushed into our driveway) before I felt like my heart was going to explode and felt nauseous. I had to stop before I sent myself to the ER with an asthma attack. Shoveling snow is a lot harder on my body than 15 sit-ups!

I don't understand. I just get discouraged.