Update, confession, announcement!

Update -

I was sick the week before last with a pretty awful sore throat and fever that took a lot out of me. I've given my body a lot of time to recover so I really haven't been working out. Feeling good and strong again now, and I will be getting back into the swing of things this weekend :-)

Confession -

This will actually probably come as a surprise to the readers who know me in real life....but this is actually my second blog. I've had another secret blog since the beginning of 2011, when I was still feeling very insecure about my weight loss journey and wasn't comfortable speaking candidly with friends and family about my struggles. But, with success comes a great deal of confidence, and when I started this blog here it was because I really wanted to be able to share my story with the people who KNEW me. However, it hasn't been easy maintaining two different blogs, and I'll admit I've neglected both my readers and followers for this one (AND I APOLOGIZE!), so I've decided to do something big. Which leads to my announcement.

Announcement -

I'm shutting down this blog. And my old one. And rebranding under a NEW COMBINED BLOG! New blog will not necessarily focus on body revolution, as I am currently not doing that anyway, but will certainly highlight it when I resume with phase 2. I sincerely hope you will all follow me over to my new home.

http://www.smallerintime.com/

The truth about vacation

Hi friends! My sister has been nagging me to update my blog, so here goes.

I want to start off by saying I'm taking a temporary break from Body Revolution. I have every intention of finishing this out, but I lost momentum when I went to London for Easter, and I never fully got back in the swing of things before I returned to London in May. Now that I'm back, I have about a month and a half to train for my first 5k, so I AM working out, but I have been focusing on running so that I don't really embarrass myself.

Now let's talk about vacation. I'm a huge fan of The Biggest Loser, and they always have the episodes when the contestants go away somewhere and the trainers preach about how going on vacation doesn't mean letting yourself go...but really, what's the fun in that? Half the point of going on vacation is taking a break from life. Taking a break from EVERYTHING. I told myself that when I went to London, I was going to let myself live of the edge for a bit! So, for two weeks I didn't work out, I drank, and I ate what I wanted. And then the guy I was seeing dumped me via email while I was away, which gave me license to eat as many cupcakes as I wanted to.

The day I left for London, I was at the lowest weight I have seen in.....forever.

The day I got back from London, I was at the lowest weight I had seen in forever...plus 11 lbs.

That's right friends, I gained ELEVEN POUNDS in London. And now I finally realize why the BL trainers preach what they do...it's totally not worth it. I fully believe it's possible to have an amazing vacation and make smart choices, I just didn't try. Now I'm paying for it. AND I REGRET IT.

So I've been home two weeks, and I'm down 6lbs, but still up 5lbs overall. Not proud of it, but blogging is all about being honest about the choices we've made and the setbacks we've encountered, and I'm hoping that someone reading this will keep this in mind when they go on their summer vacation.

Anyway, it's nice to be back in the swing of things, and I hope you'll all keep checking in even while I'm not doing the body revolution. I promise I will keep blogging, and my current plan is to restart phase 2 at the beginning of August once the 5k is over and done with.

Day #36

I'm baaaack.

Ok, sorry I disappeared again. I ran into some troubles at home that disrupted my workout schedule. That sounds a little weird, but it wasn't weird at all. But it's a long story and not worth telling. Long story short is that everything is fine, and now my regular routine has resumed. Anyway, while I wasn't doing Jillian Michael's Body Revolution, I was taking the dog for about 4 20 minute walks a day, so that's gotta count for something.

But, it is no replacement. Today I picked back up where I left off with day #36, which marks the start of week 2 of phase 2.

I hurt. My muscles didn't like such a long break. Got through it okay, but there were definitely things I could do much better a month ago.

I leave for London 3 weeks from tomorrow (yep, going back), so that will give me just enough time to wrap up phase 2 before I have to take another 2 week break. That's going to be rough, I can just tell now. There's no way phase 3 is going to be easy, and even worse right after a vacation.

In other non-BR news, I signed up to do a 5k with a bunch of my friends (called the color run, google it and see if there's one in a city near you). It sounds like a total blast and I'm excited that I'll finally run my first 5k. However, I also don't want to totally suck at it, so it's time to start working some running back into my workouts. It's not until the end of July though, so I've got about 3 months to prep for it.

How's everyone doing?

And....I thought I posted this last night. But I just found it. Oops.

Checking in!

So sorry for my sudden disappearance!! It was planned, and I meant to tell you all, but things got chaotic and blogging end up last on my list of priorities.

Getting caught up....I finished week 1 of phase 2 (i.e. week #5) and then I jet-setted off to London to have an extended long holiday weekend visiting my sister and some college friends.

I just got home a little while ago, mildly exhausted and a little thrown off from my usual "Sunday week start"....that seemed to be a good routine for me, so I'm debating waiting until this weekend to kick off week #6/Day #36. If I end up doing that I'll probably just try to do cardio every day in the meantime. And maybe some push-ups/planks.

Eating was slightly off from being away, so I definitely need to get back into a healthier routine with that. But hey, that's allowed on vacation (in my opinion), as long as it doesn't carry over into the return.

Day #31 & Day #32

I have a confession.

A very embarrassing confession that I am ashamed of.

Yesterday was day #31 and after all that crap I said on Monday about "no excuses" I didn't work out. And truth be told...I don't even have a good reason!!! I started playing "draw something", an app for smart phones...and I got so sucked in that seriously hours had passed before I realized what happened. And then it was late and time for bed. So, I did NOT do cardio 2 as planned.

Today was day #32 and I was supposed to do workout #5....well....I'm not a big fan of messing up the plan, so rather than continuing to have a week that is off schedule, I decided to pay for my sins of yesterday immediately today.

So, this evening after work I met a dear friend of mine for some frozen yogurt and pow wowing, and then when I got home I got right down to business.

Cardio 2 immediately followed by Workout 5. I'm not going to lie - this sequence sucked. Sucked. SUCKED. Don't ever do it. Learn from me - don't skip workouts! Do them on the day you're supposed to so you don't have to play catch up later.

Now, since this was also my first time doing Cardio 2, let me say a few words about it. It's not actually that bad. For most of the workout I thought to myself "hmmm, this is almost easier than Cardio 1". I retracted that thought when we got to the burpees.

Burpees are the fitness world's version of hell.

For real.

On the first circuit I killed myself on the burpees and got burned out immediately, so for the 2nd two circuits I just vowed I would take them slowly at my own pace and see how many I could fit in. I did 6 the 2nd time and then 7 the 3rd time. So, I think I'll just keep at it like that, and hopefully by week 4 of phase 2 I'll be doing many many more!!

And it's late now so I am going to go to bed and rest my more achy muscles.

Day #30

Today was a crrrrrazy day!

I'm going to keep this post in line with this season's theme of The Biggest Loser - "No Excuses".

When we have busy days it's really easy to let that be the reason not to work out.

Today I got up at 5:30, got ready to leave, hit the road just after 7 to head to the garage to drop my car off for the brakes to get looked at. From there, a friend was waiting to pick me up and then drop me off at the courthouse for my second go at jury duty. This round was slightly more exciting than the first stint, I actually got brought to the courtroom and saw the jury selection process, but my number was too high and I didn't get selected for that trial. I was returned to the jury pool room, and after A LOT of sitting and waiting, we were told that the remaining case that still needed a jury ended up having the defendant plead guilty so we were released.

Now...I didn't have a car, and my car wasn't ready yet, so I ended up walking in 4 inch stilettos and not enough cold weather gear (really needed something for my ears) from the courthouse to my college campus/sorority house. Days like today made me really glad that even though it's been almost 6 years since I graduated, I'm still so involved that I know almost all of the girls and they were happy to let me into the house and hang with me for a bit until I got the call for my car. It ended up being ready right at closing time, 5pm, so a few of the sisters took a ride to drop me off at the garage so I could collect it.

Instead of going home and relaxing, my sister and brother-in-law had to run an errand tonight and so I volunteered to help out and come babysit for my 1 year old niece. I knew that I'd end up here for probably 4-5 hours, plus a 1 hour drive on each end, so clearly working out was not in the cards.

Or was it?

After I got my car back I had to make a quick detour home to let my dog out and feed her dinner, so I also quickly changed into some workout gear, threw an old yoga mat into a bag, grabbed a set of heavy dumb bells and my resistance cable, and phase 2 dvds. Drove to my sisters, hung out with my niece for awhile, and right after I put her to bed I got to work!!!!! I have to say...aside from the fact that weights are heavy, this is a relatively portable program. Definitely something that could be taken along and done on a vacation as long as there was no flying involved (I don't even know how many pairs of shoes I would need to sacrifice to bring 16 lbs worth of weights in a suitcase).

And finally, on to the workout #5 review. I'm feeling it big time right now, but it went by extremely fast. In fact, when it was over, I was confused, I thought there was going to be a whole other circuit. So that's a good sign.

There were three moves I couldn't do 100% -

1) Plank bicep curls. I think that's what they were called. Well we've established a running theme of how I suck at plank and all plank related things. I struggled with this one, had to take it to my knees
2) Superman with weights. I'll try this again at home. She said to do it with your lightest weights, but since I only brought one set with me (my heaviest), my arms literally were incapable of leaving the ground. I just did the modified version without weights.
3) Windshield wipers. Wow. I just don't have the core strength for this one. I definitely couldn't bring my feet all the way down to the ground.

Also, for those looking forward to making running man a thing of the past once they finish phase 1....it's baaaack! Jillian makes it a cardio interval this time around. Seemed significantly easier when it's on its own rather than back-to-back with other cardio so I flew threw it no problem.

There are definitely lots of twisting and jumping and balancing in this one, however those are the things I'm good at so I didn't struggle much. Lost my balance a few times doing the one legged bent row and statue of liberties, but I was able to bounce back pretty quickly and not lose the rhythm.

I hear cardio 2 is really good, so looking forward to checking that out tomorrow.

Day #29

Where's day #28? Well....I just realized that somewhere along the way (probably when I was re-doing things) that I screwed up my day count.

Today I started Phase 2. Workout #5.

Now, the question that's been on everyone's mind...is Jillian trying to kill us?

The answer is yes.

Ok, now that I've gotten past that....I survived. There are parts that I found easier than others. She starts us off with a series of chaturangas, a yoga move that is no stranger to me. In fact, my beloved yoga instructor probably has me perform roughly 300 of these in her hour long class, so doing 4 in a row was a breeeeeze.

As you probably know, I'm still struggling with military push-ups...I can seriously only do 1, then I need to do the modified on-the-knees push-ups. She expands on military push-ups in this disc where she has you do a push-up then go into side plank. I struggled finding fluidity with this move because it's much more difficult to go into a side plank (which I can do no problem) from a modified push-up. Note to self: master push-ups. And regular planks.

Which leads me into another death sentence: mountain climber. Get in plank and then move your feet like your climbing a mountain. It was pretty gruesome.

Do I have you excited for disc #5 yet?

Let's talk about crab! Probably my least favorite move from her previous workouts. Well it's back again. Only this time she makes you raise a leg in the air. Lots of burning. Lots and lots of burning. I mostly did it which surprised me...I had to take a couple 2 second breaks and go back into the easier crab pose (man oh man I never thought I'd be calling that "easier"), but I got through it and I'm guessing this one will get easier in time.

The rest of the moves I rocked at. My best one was probably the one leg squat/weight raise due to my superior balance. She recommends a medium weight on that one but I think next time I'll go with the highest I have, I didn't struggle with it at all.

Definitely lots of poses in this one that she makes you hold while doing something else with weights where your leg muscles shake and you think you're going to just collapse...but once you get through that it's bearable :-)

I also want to just take a minute and do a quick shout-out to my readers! Thank you so much for all of your kind words and support, I got the best comment tonight on my Saturday post and it really was so uplifting and made me want to keep rocking out at these workouts even more -

"I've been creeping on your blog, trying to decide if I want to spend the money on this program. Of all the blogs people pointed to, yours is the best (and most informative!) And... way to go! I think you've convinced me to get it. But I'm gonna keep on creeping, if that's okay. :)"

So to coolallison and anyone else who's been following along without commenting...thanks for reading, I'm happy you're here!!