Late Night

This morning it was time for exercise class again.  Alex came in and woke me up to go.  But then I noticed that Logan wasn't awake yet.  Poor kid.  Last night he laid in bed FOREVER and couldn't get to sleep.  He finally shoved a note under his door 2 1/2 hours after I had put him in bed that said "mom, come in my room.  Logan."  It was SOOO cute.  He obviously didn't want to get in trouble for coming out but wanted me to come talk to him! :)

Anyways - so since he was awake so late the night before, I told Alex that we weren't going.  I put a show on for him and climbed in my bed to read scriptures.  A few minutes later Alex came back in and said "mom, are you ready to go to exercise class?"  I again told him we weren't going because Logan was sleeping.  He came in a few minutes later and said "mom, how come you're still reading your scriptures??  We need to get to exercise class!!"  I AGAIN explained about Logan! :)  He came in again a few minutes later, handed me my exercise pants and said "here you go mom.  Now you can get dressed for exercise class."

Logan didn't end up waking up in time to go, so we missed it.  But I LOVE that it's rubbing off on my kids.  Like I said, we were always walking in my family (especially on vacation :), and I'm thankful that it "kind of" rubbed off on me! :)  And I hope that it will rub off on my kids!

I'm dying...

So... I am officially old.  I didn't realize it until it was pointed out to me this morning. :)  Tony always jokes about me being old since I'm 6 months and 3 days older than he is.  I also notice all the gray hairs poking out every time I look in a mirror.  But in my mind, I'm still a youngin' and always will be! 

But today sure made me realize that while I may still be a teen in the inside, I am DEFINITELY not on the outside.  I woke up this morning and went to exercise class.  Even though I was sore and still out of breath from last night! :)  About half way through, I was convinced that I was going to throw up!  I went home and collapsed on the couch.  PK fell asleep and I literally just sat on the couch and didn't move.  I took Logan out to the bus and then put Alex down.  I again sat down on the couch and didn't move.  Jen came over to bring Rani.  I opened the door, wrapped up in my blanket, then sat down again not saying anything.  Poor Jen was like "uhhh... are you okay?!?!" :)  NO - I'M OLD!!!! :)

Anyways - it's crazy how that happens.  Natalie and I were talking this morning that our body's are sure not what they used to be.  It takes a longer time to recoup from sore muscles.  We can't exercise as often.  We CAN push ourselves as hard, but we pay for it longer and harder afterward.  Isn't it crazy how that happens!?!?

OH WELL - at least I have enough strength to write this post.  So next time - instead of working out Tues morning, REALLY hard Wed night and then hard right again Thurs morning, maybe next time I'll go a little bit easier on myself.  The goal of this journey is to lose weight and feel better, not kill myself.....

Extreme Cardio #2

So Tony was home tonight - YEAH!! (he was actually home because he was sick so I can't cheer too hard!! *sheepish grin* :) :) but he was home nonetheless...) so I went with Erica to Whitney's Extreme Cardio class again.  This was my second time going.  (The first was exactly one month ago.  I'm not even sure I have recovered since that one.  ha ha)

Anyways - we were a little bit late and when we walked in she said "we haven't done much so you haven't really missed anything."  Both of us groaned and thought "dang, we should've come even later!" :) 

I'm not gonna lie... this one was SOOOO hard!!  Even harder than last time.  For one full hour, she does NOT stop moving.  And she expects you to not stop moving as well.  In fact near the end, after one workout we all stayed on the ground after (I think we had just done about 75 minutes of pushups and jumps... at least it felt that way...) and she yelled "what are you doing?!?!  Get up, get up, get up!!" 

Also, she gave us a "water break" and I put that in quotes because there was NO break involved.  She should've said "I will give you exactly 2.3 seconds to take a sip of water before I continue on my slaughtering rampage."  Anyways, Erica and I hadn't brought a water bottle so we both ran out into the hall.  When we got back, we were politely asked to bring water bottles next week since she had already started the next exercise. 

**As a side note - I realize I'm probably making her out to be a Nazi.  And... she is!  I'm not gonna lie... :)  But she's a VERY nice Nazi.  I love her!  She is INSANELY good and talented.  Just VERY serious about exercise! :) :)

This was a lot like last time, but she added more plyometric stuff... The actual definition of plyometrics is this.... Plyometrics (also known as "plyos") is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports. Plyometric exercises may also be referred to as explosive exercises.  Yes, I was about ready to explode....

Anyways - at the end, she said we were going to do 16 burpees (not sure how to spell that, but it's where you jump up, go down like a frog and jump out, then repeat.)  She said to go and do them SUPER hard and that this was our last thing.  One of the girls confirmed "so this is our LAST thing so we can go all out."  She said "Yes."  Well after doing all those, she then had us plank for a while and then stomp planking - and then one more thing but my mind is fuzzy and I can't remember what it was!! :)  Halfway through I said to my neighbors "what part of LAST THING does she not understand!??!"  ha ha.  Also at the end, everyone was thanking her.  In between my gasps, I said "why is everyone thanking her?  What do you have to be thankful for?!?"  ha ha - apparently I'm the exercise class clown.  Although I have to admit, I was in between 2 hilarious girls who kept it VERY fun for me!  MUCH better than last time...  Erica was one and I don't know the other girl's name.  I didn't have any breath or energy afterward to introduce myself.  Guess I'll have to go early next week to make a new friend!

I left the church that night DRIPPING wet with sweat.  I don't ever get like that, so that was quite a feat for me.  Then Erica and I stood outside and talked for a full hour after.  So by the time I got in, I was barely moving.  But it felt great!!!

Wow!  Here's to extreme cardio....

Slowly Dying

I swear Heather's goal lately is to just kill us!  Or at least one part of us!! :)  Today she said we were going to focus on our arms.  And focus on arms we did!!!  All of the exercises revolved around different arm exercises.  And instead of saying "okay, we're going to do 20 on the right bicep, 20 on the left, 20 on the right, etc..." she decided to do the workout more like... "okay, let's do 3,000 on the right and then when you are completely and utterly unable to move the right side anymore, we will then move on and do 3,000 on the left."

It was fine until we left.  Even just pushing PK's stroller home was KILLER for me!  After that I went grocery shopping.  I'm not even lying.  I barely made it back in the door with my dead arms.  It was INSANE!!  I practically had to bring in all the bags of groceries one at a time.  SOOOO pathetic!!! :)  Let's just hope I see results from this killer workout soon!

Curse You!

I swear Pinterest it out to get me.  Why is it that every time I log on, there are DELICIOUS looking morsels starting at me... just waiting to be pinned??  They also have such power in their look that I want to run out and make them right then!  You try telling me that pinning a veggie tray spread or spinach wraps is EVEN HALF AS FUN as pinning Triple Layer Fudgy Mint Oreo Brownies, Chocolate Chip Cookie Delight, Butterfinger Blondies, Oreo Stuffed Cookies, Twix Trifles, Churro Cupcakes or Key Lime Coconut Cake.  Go On!  I DARE YOU!

Curse you Pinterest!!!!!  

Encouragement

So workout goals are usually a bust.  My guess would be 9.7 times out of 10.  That's why everyone jokes that America is it's healthiest during the month of January.  Because by February, everyone is back to their normal, regular routines.

I'm REALLY impressed with myself that I'm still sticking with it 8 days into March.  Okay, so I'm not quite as careful or as diligent as I was in the beginning.  But... the point is, I'm still trying.  For me this is GREAT because I have a tendency to get bored with projects and want to move on. 

There are a few things that have REALLY helped me stick with this goal (although I need to recommit and do even better...) but the things that have helped are...

1 - A future goal.  All my life I've said I want to lose weight and look better.  Doesn't everyone?  But I really do have a goal in mind.  I REALLY want to look good for my UNKNOWN reason in September. :)  I want to look and feel better at that point.

2 - Friends to chat with.  BY FAR one of the biggest reasons I've stuck with this goal is having friends along the path of my journey.  Cheryl annoyingly :) texts me every Tues, Thurs and Fri morning to see if I'm going to class.  I honestly can't even count how many times I've woken up and said "nah.. I'm good.  I'll do something at home.  I'm not going today."  Knowing full well that I probably won't get around to it.  Also, talking to friends and family on the phone, over email, outside and on this blog.  I LOVE hearing your success (and sometimes not so successful :) stories.  How about I just say - the successes and the attempts! :)  I LOVE it.  And I NEED it!  It helps me through SO much!

3 - Good music with a good beat.  Nuff said! :)

4 - Lastly - encouragement from my kiddos.  NOTHING and I mean NOTHING beats watching Alex and Nani grab a set of 2 pound weights and jump on a step with us and say "look mom, I'm healthy."  NOTHING beats Logan, Alex, Tanner and Nani on the edge of the stage screaming "GO MOM, GO MOM - BEAT THE OTHER MOMS!" as we're running across the gym floor.  This happened again on Tuesday morning while we were running.  This morning was the step class so we weren't running.  But Logan came up and begged us to run across the floor so they could get up there and cheer.  All the kids usually start out cheering for us, but by the end, only our four cute kiddos are left.  They LOVE yelling, cheering and dancing for us.  Nothing can beat that!

Keep up the encouraging words.  And keep sharing your stories with me so we can continue to succeed together!!

Breakfast Goal

So - is anyone else trying the breakfast goal for this month?  I've tried two things already and I'm enjoying it.  I LOVE breakfast foods and so does my family.  Tony doesn't appreciate it for dinner like me and my boys do - but... sometimes we sneak it in anyways!! :)  I also love to cook breakfast foods at any time because my picky eater Alex LOVES breakfast foods.  So that usually gets him to eat more.  I love to add pureed veggies, applesauce, flax seed, etc. in those meals to give Alex the extra vitamins / minerals that he's missing from not being willing to eat too many other things.

I made some pumpkin oat muffins which had wheat flour, oats, plain pumpkin, apple juice.... Logan, Tony and I all loved them.  Alex didn't get a chance to eat them as Tony took the rest for the next day's breakfast. :)  That's okay - I'll make them again.

I also have made my fav sweet potato pancakes.  Sweet potatoes are REALLY easy to play around with.  You can put them in lots of different recipes.  They have worked in every pancake recipe I've tried them in.  From scratch or not.  This time I did Bisquick since I had that.  Then I just add milk and cinnamon and there you go!  I also threw in flax seed.  That's always an easy thing to add for extra nutrition.

My BIL makes quinoa and eats that for breakfast.  I'm still trying to decide whether or not I should give that a go.  That is definitely a healthy breakfast though! :)

What other ideas do you have for delicious, healthy breakfast foods?!?

"You Did Awesome!"

This morning I woke up feeling REALLY sick.  It started last night.  Stomach pains.  I felt sick, nauseous, greasy, etc.  I didn't sleep very well and seriously felt like absolute garbage.  But when that annoying text from Cheryl came at 8:20, :) I realized I had to make a decision.  I have missed SO many exercise classes in the past few weeks and really need to get going again.  But at the same time - I felt SOOO gross!!  Well, I made a decision - the theme of this season of The Biggest Loser is NO EXCUSES (side note - this is NOT a good season of the show so if you haven't seen it before, DO NOT start watching now... you'll never want to come back...).  Anyways, so I told myself that even feeling sick was NO EXCUSE!  So I got up and went. 

Well, it didn't go very well.  I was SOOO sick there.  She wanted to do a Fit Cardio rotation.  We would run 12 times across the gym, then do 12 lifts with the weights, 12 jumping lunges, 12 tricep dips (or push ups) and then 12 crunches.  Each time you did it (we did it 4 times), you're supposed to go faster.  Well, I couldn't even do a full set.  I VERY lightly jogged across the gym.  I did the lifting.  The jumping lunges turned into light-non-jumping-lunges.  The tricep dips were okay but I totally vetoed the crunches.  I knew they would make me vomit.

Then she followed that up with another 30 minutes of exercises.  Needless to say, I very limply did SOME of them.  I felt pretty dumb but was just glad that I hadn't puked.  The whole time I'm working out I'm trying to think of why I was sick.  I knew it wasn't the flu (I didn't have any other symptoms), I didn't think it was a food allergy (they usually hit me differently than this even though I do think I have a new, undiscovered one...), I didn't think it was from a greasy meal (we had eaten really healthy the day before), I didn't think it was food poisoning (no one else in my family was sick), ... I couldn't figure out the problem. 

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks!!!  It's what I have affectionately termed my P.S.S (POST-STRESS SICKNESS!)  I have figured out a pattern in my life.  Every time I go through REALLY stressful times, my body somehow finds a way to pull through and be strong.  I live on less sleep, grosser foods and lots of anxiety.  But I'm able to survive and be strong.  BUT... after that, my body crashes.  I feel like I can't get caught up on sleep and I get really sick to my stomach.  I have been to multiple doctors about this and every time they ask "are you going through a stressful time?"  I always say "no - I just got over one for the past 3 months, I'm FINE now!"  But for some weird reason, my body reacts this way.  It's almost like it's punishing me for putting it through so much stress! :)  And yes, the past month has been VERY VERY stressful!!!!

ANYWAYS - once I figured this out, I knew I would be fine and just had to get past it... but man, I sure feel like garbage here and now!!  As soon as the class was over, the teacher came up to me and said "you did AWESOME today Kristi.  Awesome job!"  I thanked her, but inside I was laughing SO hard!  Really, an AWESOME job?!?!?!??!  I've only been working out here for the past 3 months.  I really HOPE I don't look like I did an awesome job today!!! :)

I know she was just being nice, it just made me laugh.  Anyways - I still feel like garbage (although better after the Gatorade and Saltines that JenK brought me) but I'm SUPER proud that I made it this morning.  Victory for me!

March Healthy Nut

Here is the newsletter that I wrote back in March of 2009.  I'm actually REALLY excited for this month's goal.  I have had several ideas on my mind for a while, but since I've been SOOO busy, I haven't been able to get them done.  So here's my chance....  Let me know if you have any great ideas!!

LOOOOOOOOONG Break!

So... I'm back!  Did you miss me?!?! :)

I went to exercise class this morning for the FIRST TIME IN TWO WEEKS!!!  The old me would've said "oh, that's normal."  The Trying-To-Be-New-Me is shocked that it's been that long!

The night of my KILLER workout, Logan had an ear infection.  He was up a lot during the night.  Poor kid came in and asked for medicine.  Apparently my sleepy self told him to just lay with the hurt ear up.  Really?!  What kind of a mom gives that kind of advice!??!?!  I have to put a disclaimer on my sleepy self...  Anyways, he came back in in the morning and said "mom, the way you told me to lay is NOT helping my ear."  I didn't even know what he was talking about at first.  Poor kid!  So I gave him medicine and he fell asleep about 20 minutes before I was supposed to leave for class.  So I didn't go.  Which was fine because I was REALLY hurting anyways.

Over the next two weeks, I didn't go because I had sick kids, then I was sick, then I had about a week of dizzy spells... and... I tore my IT Band.  Wow - that was painful!!  But it is all healed now and I'm doing much better!  So finally I got to go back to exercise class.  Actually - Tony and I did the P90X Ab workout last night.  Shockingly, I did pretty well - considering I haven't worked out in two weeks and I have no ab muscles.  I tried doing push ups after and could tell I couldn't do as many. 

I HATE THAT!!  Oh well... onward and upward....

But... here comes "getting back on the horse" for March!!!