Kicking my PCOs to the curb!

[marygrace]

Great workout, you're getting into some heavy weights! I know what you mean on just running out of time during these workouts and having to pick and divide what you're going to do. Looks like your food was good yesterday was well, very balanced. Keep it up =D

[beach_plums]

Totally know about the running out of time thing too. I usually will drop the HIIT for the next day, because I know I'll do it. Not to sure I'd have enough disipline to do ab work though. Today will be the true test of that though. Last night I missed my cobra and HIIT. I'm planning on doing it tonight after work before going out.

Great workouts. I'm looking forward to starting stage 3 too, but am certain it will kick my butt. I've been watching your weights to try to determine my starting point, since we've been pretty close in our weights.

[dillytl]

How's things going this weekend Kiri??

[Kirjava]

Hi all, sorry, it's been a couple of days since I posted! I had a great and very busy weekend. Had birthday parties, frantic housecleaning, shopping (got a sweet pair of new jeans! yay. Just for the record, that's not my butt ) errand running, dinner-hosting, workouts and more.

It was great.

Also been doing a lot of thinking about diet and whatnot. I am greatly frustrated because my diet has been not clicking for me. The counting cals thing is not working. Even though I know I need to reduce my intake, I psychologically find it different to go below a certain number. But, I need to, because not doing so is causing weight gain.

So, to cut a long thought process short, I decided to go back to weightwatchers to simplify the process a bit. It worked for me very well in the past, and now that I know a good deal more about nutrition, clean eating, and adequate protein intake, I am optimistic that it will work again, and even better this time.

I need more help and structure.

Today is a day off from exercise and tomorrow I start my second wave of Stage 3 workouts. I have realized that I need to go to the gym in the morning because otherwise it is way too easy to flake off from my workouts. I often already do that, but I need to standardize it it a bit.

So altogether I am feeling a breath of fresh air towards my diet and workout routine in general. I did well with regards to eats over the weekend. I avoided the chocolate cake and ice cream at the bday part, and didn't even have any wine. In fact, I went so far as to take my own grilled chicken breast to eat with the salad (knowing that the mains were going to be lasagna, a huge dietary no-no for me). The hostess is my sister-in-law, so she totally didn't mind at all. (I wouldn't do that for a more formal evening).

Today's menu:
breakfast: oatbran and soymilk, berries (thanks, Marygrace, for the oatbran suggestion! I'm loving it )
snack: apple and peanut butter
lunch: 2 soy burgers with an ezekiel wrap
snack: cut up carrot and celery
dinner: thai green curry with chicken

[dillytl]

So altogether I am feeling a breath of fresh air towards my diet and workout routine in general.

Glad to hear this, Kiri!!! Sounds like you have a good plan in place!

[marygrace]

Glad to see you're enjoying the oat bran, and also that you feel you have found a solution in weight watchers. I hope that approach works for you! I agree that working out in the morning is the only guarantee that the workout will actually take place. I almost always exercise in the morning, but once in a while when for whatever reason I have to go during the afternoon instead, I am always really tired. It suddenly becomes very easy to rationalize skipping a workout. Plus, I love how I feel energized and ready to start the day after a morning workout.

[Littlemermaidklb]

Ditto on the morning exercise thing... it's sooo easy to shrug it off if you leave it till later. Sounds like you've got a plan with the whole Weight Watchers thing, I hope it works for ya!

[Kirjava]

This morning I dragged my sorry ass out of bed and got to the gym for an early one. Whew! Good thing I did too--I was late at work and there is no way I could have made it afterwards. Today was a crazy day at work--I pretty much didn't move from my desk from 8:00 until nearly 6:00. I can't wait to quit my job one day hopefully sooner than later!

Anyway, so this workout was pretty much my only movement....good thing it's a total ass-kicker.

I was proud of myself because I finished the full body matrix, twice! The thighs were burning but I just ignored that. So mean to my thighs.

Stage 3, Workout A#2
Warmup: 10 min on elliptical, followed by some ADW (Active Dynamic Warmup moves)
A. One Armed DB Snatch: 3 x 6 @ 20 lbs
B1. DB Single Leg RDL: 3 x 6 @ 25 lbs
B2. DB Single-Arm O/H Squat: 3 x 6 @ 10 and 20 lbs --these are hard but good.
C1. Barbell Bent Over Row: 3 x 6 @ 60
C2. DB Incline Bench Press: 3 x 6 @ 25
D1. Plank: 3 x 90 seconds The whole gym got treated my red grunty face!
D2. Reverse wood chop: 3 x 6 @ 40

Body matrix:
1st time: 3 min 56 s
2nd time: 3 min 20 s

Yup, this is a long, exhausting workout!
It felt great to be back in the gym, though.

My menu for today:
pregym: shake made from rice protein, soymilk, and strawberries
breakfast: oatmeal with soymilk and flaxseed
lunch: ham sandwich on ezekiel bread, yogurt and apple
snack: pumpkin carrot soup
dinner: a bit of whole wheat pasta with lots of ground turkey and veggies
dessert: frozen fruit with some yogurt

Altogether a pretty good day, eats and workout wise.

[stingo]

Nice work on the planks - I hate those suckers myself.

[rixatrix]

Originally Posted by Kirjava

Today is a day off from exercise and tomorrow I start my second wave of Stage 3 workouts. I have realized that I need to go to the gym in the morning because otherwise it is way too easy to flake off from my workouts. I often already do that, but I need to standardize it it a bit.

So altogether I am feeling a breath of fresh air towards my diet and workout routine in general.

First, good for you! She who is most flexible with her plan wins, you know. And that's exactly what you're doing - changing tactics when you need to. Brilliant.

I had the same realization about going to the gym in the morning. I work in Advertising, where there's a lot of pressure to meet deadlines, and my plate gets VERY full some months. If I wait to go to the gym until after work, some days I just won't go at all. If I do it first thing, I don't care as much if I have to stay late, because I put myself first. It's hard getting up early every day, but it's worth it. And I've been sticking with it for a while now - a couple months! Whew.

Originally Posted by Kirjava

I was proud of myself because I finished the full body matrix, twice! The thighs were burning but I just ignored that. So mean to my thighs.

Body matrix:
1st time: 3 min 56 s
2nd time: 3 min 20 s

Yup, this is a long, exhausting workout!
It felt great to be back in the gym, though.

Great workout! Look at you go...way to work through the pain.

[dillytl]

Nice job on the workout Kiri!! I hear ya about being chained to your desk and having the workout be pretty much the only time you move during the day - I have days like that too!

[Kirjava]

Originally Posted by stingo

Nice work on the planks - I hate those suckers myself.

Thanks, Tom! It is shocking how hard they are, isn't it?

Originally Posted by rixatrix

First, good for you! She who is most flexible with her plan wins, you know. And that's exactly what you're doing - changing tactics when you need to. Brilliant.

I had the same realization about going to the gym in the morning. I work in Advertising, where there's a lot of pressure to meet deadlines, and my plate gets VERY full some months. If I wait to go to the gym until after work, some days I just won't go at all. If I do it first thing, I don't care as much if I have to stay late, because I put myself first. It's hard getting up early every day, but it's worth it. And I've been sticking with it for a while now - a couple months! Whew.

Great workout! Look at you go...way to work through the pain.

Thanks, Rixa! Yes, it feels good to change tactics just a little bit. Trying to do the same thing over and over again and having it not work is just....depressing. So this feels good.

Originally Posted by dillytl

Nice job on the workout Kiri!! I hear ya about being chained to your desk and having the workout be pretty much the only time you move during the day - I have days like that too!

Booooooooooo to days like that! Thanks for the props, Tracey!


Yummy........I am just finishing up my breakfast, which was pretty much all my favourite foods at once. A slice of ezekiel cinnamon raisin toast with peanut butter and a bit of yogurt with flaxseed. Hm, I realize that makes me sound like such a health food weirdo! Well okay. I also love the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies I made a few nights ago for my poor husband who is cramming in the finals stages of his thesis. But I've only had ONE of those!!! So that's not bad.

Anyway, I'm pretty stoked because I just had a great workout at the gym before breakfast. I did 20 min of HITT on the elliptical, and then 30 min of s.s.cardio on the treadmill. So yay for that!

And hopefully work won't be quite so intense today....can only hope!

[Littlemermaidklb]

Your'e doing great Kirjava! You workout looks really good!

[Kirjava]

Unfortunately, I had some undesired time off from lifting--I think it's my meds (metformin is notorious for this), but I was really ill on Thursday and stayed home from work. Consequently, on Friday I just walked as my workout and on Saturday I did a step class, but then Sunday I was really woozey and nauseous again.

Sigh!

So anyway, today I got back on the exercise bandwagon. Yay! I had a GREAT workout!
I've been thinking (in all this downtown--ha ha) about my goals and how it feels like the NROL4W exercise program isn't quite helping me with them. Right now I would like to concentrate more on fat loss. To be honest, I'm not necessarily super jazzed about building tonnes more muscle--I actually already have quite a bit. So I think I'm going to go back to a weights style that has worked quite well for me in the past--supersets with no rest between exercises. That keeps the heartrate revved but still maintains strength.

I'm going to follow the workouts in the Perfect Body Diet--that's three days of weights and three days of cardio a week. Because it's a program designed for weight loss, it might work better for me. I'm up for it.

Today was my first day of lifting in the supersets and it was TOUGH!!! I was sweating like a pig and sore and trembly and all that good stuff. It was awesome. (It's an eight-week program, and I'm starting with week 2 since week 1 is a break-in).

Week 2, Day 1
Warmup: 10 min on the elliptical, some active dynamic warmup moves

(there is no rest between the moves of a superset; a one minute rest between sets; a two minute rest between supersets. Hope that makes sense. )
I repeated each superset 3 times.
Superset A
1. Dumbbell reverse lunge: 20/12; 25/12; 25/10
2. Push up: bw/12; bw/10; bw/10
3. Sideplank: bw/30s each side; bw/25; bw/15

Superset B
1. Dumbbell bench squat: 20/12; 30/12; 30/12 (that's the first time I've played with the 30lb dumbbells! )
2. squat to single arm row: 75/12; 75/12; 75/10

Superset C
1. Dumbbell step up: 15/12; 15/ 12; 15/10
2. Lunge-stance DB shoulder press: 15/12; 15/10; 15/6
3. Bench hip-pop: bw/12; bw/12; bw/10
4. Wall sit with DB lateral arm raise: 8/12; 8/10; 8/8

I then did 10 min on the elliptical to rejuvenate my shaking muscles, stretched, and collapsed. I mean, got home and made dinner.

I really was shocked at how hard it was to complete three rounds of each superset and how weights that look light were incredibly difficult by the end.

All told, it was great and I'm looking forward to a well-earned bath with the epsom salts tonight!

[stingo]

Yup supersets like that WILL drain ya like nobody's business - but your endurance and recovery will improve a LOT.

[nutbar]

Oh, man, those big supersets would kick my butt for sure! I have PBD, too, but have just used it for the warm up in it so far. I'll be keeping an eye on ya here to see how you like it.