Shred Day 3, Level

You were right!! Level #2 is just as intense as level #3.  My arms (mostly shoulders) are still fatigued and sore. I could barley hold my arm up to put on my mascara this morning. I seriously had to take tiny breaks to give my shoulder a rest…I can't believe that just 20 minutes can fatigue your muscles so much…love it!  Stephanie warned me about the squats and army raises (chest flys)….I didn't know what I was in for…all I can say is OUCH. They hurt so freaking bad. I have been using 5lb weights throughout each workout, but after the first set of those baby's combined with the shoulder press, leg extension immediately afterwards, I dropped the 5lbs and went down to 3lbs.  Even the 3lbs were killing me…killing me!  I opened the basement window in hopes that the FREEZING cold weather would make the room seem cooler, didn't happen. I was hot as ever and sweating like crazy! The workout was awesome! 

I loved the Cardio too! I really like doing the double jump rope. It's fun to pretend like I'm on a trampoline and see how high I can get. When I visualize this my calf's work so much harder and get so fatigued…that move works so many body parts I love it!  I also loved the plank jumps. If you focus on holding your tummy in tight and keeping your body squared over our shoulders you are working your shoulders, triceps, biceps, chest, stomach and inner and outer thighs! THAT IS WHAT I LIKE! An all in one move!!

The situps were great too!  Does anyone else like that burning feeling in their stomach while doing sittups?  Am I sick to acutally like that pain?

Now that I know that level 2 and 3 are equally intense, I am going to rotate back and forth between the two. This way I will work out different areas of my body every other day and I won't get bored doing the same thing.  Since I have now done levels 1-3 I don't plan on doing a full report of each workout everyday….I think it would get boring since the workouts are the same over and over. 

I am SUPER excited that YOU (for those of you that have) have joined in and are doing it with me (us)!  There are now 9 people doing the Shred! I love you for joining in and making it more fun! I feel motivated and excited that we are doing it together! Those of you who aren't doing the Shred, don't feel left out or get bored with all the Shred talk going on here….I want to hear about what you are doing and what you like/dislike about your workouts…I can't tell you how much I love all of your feed back and suggestions and ideas and everything. It is SO much fun to hear from you guys and learn what makes you tick and how you live your life!  I seriously love you!

I am taking today as an rest day from the Shred because GUESS WHAT? My sister COURTNEY and her sweet little family came into town last night! I am so excited they are here! I came into work at 5am so I could get off early and spend the day with them!  I am only going to work until 12:00pm (yay!).  My parents always fly my sister and her family to Utah for our annual Halloween party. They usually come in on Wednesday and stay through the weekend! The festivities go on the entire weekend….its a blast!  Needless to say, I will not be doing the Shred today after work and was not willing to get up at 4:00am this morning to make it happen either! Tomorrow, Courtney and I are going to go to a Yoga class in the morning. I set this as my weekly goal for "Baby Steps to Body Love" I intend on completing it! I've only been to 3-4 yoga classes ever and my sister has never been…I'm super excited!

I can't believe its 5:30am and I am so awake, alert and HAPPY! I am super excited about the weekend and super pumped about life.  So many fun things going on right now!! What fun things you say?……..I'll fill you in shortly!! 

(Gosh, I want my arms to look like that…."They will…keep at it")
THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING!!
When I got home from work yesterday I waited patiently for Dave to get home so we could workout together.  When he got home he was tired as ever (worked 12 hours) and not in the mood to workout. I was a little bummed because I had already waited over 30 minutes and could have been close to done by then…but he said if I stayed home and worked out he'd hang out with my in the basement while I did it. Sounded good to me.  I popped in  the The Biggest Winner DVD (Full Frontal) and went to town.

I had not done one of these dvd's forever so it was really fun!  Compared to crossfit they are not as hard, but it was still a great workout!  Five minutes into the workout Dave came out and joined me. He decided he would feel better if he worked out, so we ended up doing it together! What a sport!  We were sweating our butts off! That Jillian, she is so….EMBARASSING in these dvd's. She's such a cheese ball it's almost hard to watch.  Dave goofed around during the cardio segments and tried to make me laugh….It is so hard for me to not laugh when he does that stuff, but it totally messes up what I'm doing if I break down and laugh.  He's a goof ball. After we were finished I had Dave take a few pictures of some of the exercises we did.  When he was done, I headed out side and ended with a 1 mile run around the block! It was wonderful. A few pics…

Chest Press

One Legged Squat (oh the concentration)

French Dips (That's what she called them, but I don't)

Push Ups

Side Leg Lift with Goal Posts

Chair squats with shoulder raises

I don't know what these are called, but you start with you arms to your side and then bring them to the front
(as shown)

Those were about 1/2 of the different types of exercises we did…but it gives a good idea. Sorry the pictures are so blurry, he took them with his IPhone in the dungeon (aka basement).

I actually don't mind working out at home. I do like all the different types of equipment there are at gyms, but sometimes its kinda nice to workout at home. 

When and (if) Dave and I ever move I'm not sure what we will do about the gym situation.  Right now we are members of the nicest gym in the world.  Maybe not in the world, but I swear it feels that way.  It is fully rocked on the outside and all the inside pillars or rocked and the beams over head or huge wooden beams, like a log cabin or hotel or something really neat. The atmosphere is that of a spa. Its so lovely. The equipment is all new and each machine has its own tv.  The locker rooms are another story. The floors are all slated along with the showers, which are amazing. The showers are bigger than my shower at home each with their own dressing room attached. I used to get ready there every single morning after working out and I LOVED IT.  They provide, lotion, soap, shampoo, conditioner, towels, q-tips, tampons, razors, hair dryers, shaving cream for men, mouth wash…EVERYTHING you can think of.  I love this place. 

Wanna guess how much we pay each month?….. $16 dollars!  No joke!  We paid a one time $150 sign on fee (together)and then we only pay $16 a month and are on a month to month contract.  See why I love this place?  Its high class, but super cheap!  Anyhow, my point is, after living in such luxury, we aren't sure what we will do after we move.  This gym will be 20 minutes away and all though I love it, it is not worth the drive. There are several gyms in the area, but they are all way more expensive and compared to Cross Roads (that's the name) and they are CRAPPY!  We might make our own little workout area in the basement and just buy the things we need, but we will see how it goes! It would be fun to create a gym in our basement (it is unfinished)…notice how I keep saying "our basement"…we don't really know if we are going to get the house or not…but a girl can dream right?

I'm SUPER excited its Friday and can't wait to get off work and hang out with Dave. We, like everyone else in the world, love the weekends so much. I love spending entire days together and doing the things we love! I think we might be going to a matinee this afternoon! Any recommendations?? I hope you all have an AWESOME WEEKEND! 

I plan on running 5 miles tomorrow! (Posting that I'm going to do it will motivate me to follow through) I think Dave will join me when I tell him about it!!  I'm super excited!! I'll let you know how it goes!! xoxoxo

QA: (I Have quite a few…pretty please answer them, I need some feed back on this stuff!)

Do you workout at the gym or at home? 
Do you feel you get as good of a workout at home as you do at the gym?
How much does your gym cost? (I want to see what is reasonable, I realize $16 is super cheap)
Have you done "The Shred"..did you like it?
Have you tried PX90…did you like it?

( I just made this collage for my desktop at work, I have NO pictures of Dave and I at my desk because they are all in storage.  This will have to do for now!)

Yikes! This workout was not for the faint of heart.  My arms, butt, stomach, legs, shoulders, calfs…and everything else is SO SORE!  It was kick butt!!

Here's what we did:

3 Rounds
200M (.13 miles) run holding medicine ball
Nat: 10lbs Dave: 20lbs
50 Air Squats
50 Push Ups
50 Sit-ups

Holy mother of America. My arms were burning so bad! The first set I did all 50 full push ups. The next set I did all 40 with 10 knee push ups and the last set I did 30 full and 20 knee push ups. I could barley walk because swinging my arms took too much effort!  WOOW EE!!  The workout took about 30 minutes.  We spent about 5 or 10 minutes after wards working on my running form. Dave gave me some pointers and watched me run for a bit. I think I'm getting it. Funny thing is I never knew I was running funny, I never remember learning how to run I just did it and thought I was doing it right. There is SO much about form that I never even thought about! I'm excited to continue to get better and see how and if it helps my back pain!  This week I'm going to run again and try it out! 

QA: Do you do the same workouts or routine every day/week/month.  How often do you switch up your workouts?

Yesterdays workout was not an easy one. I"m not sure if it was because I'm still not feeling 100% of just because it was super hard. Either way it kicked my bum!  I didn't work out Tuesday or Wednesday because I've been sick, and yesterday was probably the worst day I've ever had at work!  I was covering for 2 other people and my own work load (which isn't usually bad, but yesterday it was crazy). I was CRAZY busy all day long. People were driving me crazy.  There is this guy  at work that drives me crazy and always bosses me around and just bugs the crap out of me..well at one point in the day I was on the phone, talking to someone in person and holding with someone on my cell phone, he walked up to my desk and actually went to ask me a question, I nicely looked at him and said "GO AWAY"…he scurried off like a little girl. It made me feel better and me and the lady at my desk got a good laugh at it!  ANYHOW……my point to all of this was I was more than excited to get to the gym and shake my day off!

Here is what we did:

3 Rounds
Pull Ups
(assisted)
Dips
(assisted)
Sit Ups
(decline bench)
Jump Rope (100)
Burpees (15 every round)
1st round- 10
2nd round- 20
3rd round- 30

On the last round of burbpees it was like I was in another dimension. I was so out of it and so tired but I pushed through with no stopping. When I finished I collapsed on the floor (by choice) and could not move.  YIKES!  It was hard core. I think having a two day leave and being a little sick made it 100 times harder…BUT once I came back to earth and caught my breath I felt great!  The workout with out stretching took about 23 minutes. We stretched and headed home!

Thanks for all your nice comments about cutting my hair! I am super excited to get it done! (it's my day off so i'm home in bed writing this post…I slept from 9:30pm-8:45…heck ya).I'm off to run 5k today, and since I don't have a monitor, I'll go drive around and track the distance and then come back and run it.  It shall be fun!  After the 5k I am going to shower and do some things around the house and then go get my hair cut! WOO HOO! I"m seriously excited…only a tiny bit nervous, but that's normal right!?

Thanks again everyone for your help with Project Feed Me. Don't stop asking your family and friends if they are signed up!  Sometimes it takes a little nudging on our part!!  I am going to buy my items for week two tonight!!  Can't wait to show you!

Plans tonight?….. Movie, dinner….haunted house???  (This is what I want to do) We'll see what happens!!

Have a lovely day!

QA:  Do your workouts kill you the day after returning from being sick or a long break??

ps…the picture of my eye has no relevance to this post, I was just looking through some pictures and thought it was cool. Dave took that picture of my eye on our first date. weird? na, thats just him.

(dave just sent me this pic, he drew it for me on his i-phone…love him!)

Thank you all for your efforts with Project Feed Me!  The Project is growing like crazy and it's all thanks to YOU!!!  There are now 92 people participating!  The numbers went up by 20 people yesterday!!  Check out all the people participating across the nation here. PS….I can't wait to see your pictures!

Crossfit

It felt so great to exercise yesterday!  I was able to work from home  yesterday so before Dave got home I headed out for a little run.  The run turned into a walk after the first five minutes of my lungs burning and me gasping for air.  When will I learn people?  I needed my inhaler! GEEZE! I ended up speed walking for about 25 minutes. If you would have driven by me on the road, I think you might have laughed.  I was trying to go as fast as I could while trying to suck in as much air as possible at the same time….I'm sure it looked pretty funny!  As soon as I got home I grabbed my inhaler took a couple puffs…and ta du…I feel great.  I know you must think that I'm crazy for forgetting my inhaler all the time, but my asthma is so sparatic that sometimes I'm just fine and other times I can't get any air in.  Anyhow….after my run walk, Dave came home and we headed to the gym.  

Poor Dave, his back is still hurting him.   It usually goes away in 2-3 days but he is still not all the way back to normal.  He did his own thing so he could be careful with his back and I did Crossfit!

Here's what I did:

4 Rounds
21 Pushups
15Sumo Dead Lift High Pulls
Nat: 35lbs
9 Pistols (1 legged squats)
20lbs

I finished pretty quickly.  It only took  about 20 minutes. I used resistance and did 3 sets of 30 ab exercises to finish my workout.  Have you ever tried pistols? Geeze Louisethey are hard. I could barley do them!  I had to go ask a trainer if I was doing them right because it felt so awkward and way too hard. Turns out they are super hard and even my trainer used a bench to complete them. (even with the bench they were killer).

 I felt so great after our workout.  After not doing Crossfit for three days, I was more than ready to get a hard core workout in. While I was on my walk I thought about how good it feels to exercise. Whether I am taking a walk, running, or about to throw up doing Crossfit…It just feels so good! I remember a time when it was pure torture. Every second seemed unbearable and I only did it for one reason and one reason only..(weight loss). What a lovely thing exercise is when it's done for the right reasons. Love it, love it, love it!!

On a less than serious note, last night Dave and I had big plans with the TV. We watched Heroes and tried to watch Hoarders on A&E, but it was a re-run. Does anyone else love that show? Its so crazy to watch. I'm not sure why we don't get sick of it, same thing over and over each week, but it is just fascinating!!

I'm back at work today at my desk (blah) and I'm not loving it.  Hopefully I'll be busy and the day will fly by.  Chances are that is not going to happen!! 

 QA:
Are you bored at work? 
What do you do to make the time fly?

After dave sent over the cutesty "i love you" picture that he drew, he sent this one…

  
LOL!!  ha ha ha ha ha….it's going to be a good day!!

Good Morning!  I want to thank all of you who have been so supportive and willing to help with Project Feed Me. There has been such a great response!  Wonderful people from all over the country and across the sea are reaching out to help do their part! There are millions out there praying for help. The more people that get involved with Project Feed Me the more prayers that will be answered.  If you haven't already PLEASE register for Project Feed Me.  It only takes 30 seconds but is very important.  By registering you are helping me keep track of who is participating. This will help me in tracking the project and its success. It is helpful in setting goals and determining the overall outcome of the project. It will also help others get excited and involved. So again, if you plan on participating, PLEASE take a few moments and register!  It may take me a bit to get your names up on the PFM Members tab of my site, but I will get you up there!  Also, if you are willing please use your resources, IE blog posts, twitter, Facebook…etc to get the word out.  We have the capability to do GREAT things with little effort on our parts!! Thanks again for your support and participation!!

Crossift

OK peeps…on to Crossfit!!  We took a rest day yesterday, which was much needed physically as well as mentally. I was slammed yesterday with Project Feed Me stuff so it was great to be able to take the day off. Plus, my body was tired. I feel much better today….HOWEVER I have a butt twitch. Ha! Seriously though. There is a muscle in my butt that won't stop twitching. It is driving me crazy. It twitches every 30 seconds or so and makes me want to scream!!  It has been doing it for almost 4 days now!  I feel like I have a case of the never ending hiccups…except the hiccups are in my butt! Does anyone have ANY suggestions on how to make this stop?  I've had twitches before on my arm and on my eye lid, but never for this long, and never so annoying!! PLEASE HELP!!

Dave helped me remember my inhaler for Tuesdays workout and it did me good!  I was really able to push it and work hard.  I could breath too, which is always a bonus!!  Since my workout on Monday was a bit disappointing I wanted to make sure this workout was kick butt….and it was!!

Here's what we did

200M Run (.13 miles)
Nat: 8.5 Dave: 11.5
10 Thrusters
Nat: 35lbs Dave: 90lbs
10 Kettle Bell Swings
Nat: 35 Dave: 55lbs
400M Run
Nat: 7.0 Dave: 9.0
15 Thrusters
Nat: 35lbs Dave: 90lbs
15 Kettle Bell Swings
Nat: 35lbs DaveL 55lbs
800M Run (.50 miles)
Nat: 6.5 Dave: 8.5
20 Thrusters
Nat: 20lbs Dave:
20  Kettle Bell Swings
Nat: 25lbs Dave: 35lbs
200M Run (.13 miles)
Nat: 8.5 Dave: 11.5
10 Thrusters
Nat: 35lbs Dave: 90lbs
10 Kettle Bell Swings
Nat: 35 Dave: 55lbs
400M Run
Nat: 7.0 Dave: 9.0
15 Thrusters
Nat: 35lbs Dave: 90lbs
15 Kettle Bell Swings
Nat: 35lbs DaveL 55lbs
800M Run (.50 miles)
Nat: 6.5 Dave: 8.5
20 Thrusters
Nat: 20lbs Dave:
20  Kettle Bell Swings
Nat: 25lbs Dave: 35lbs
200M Run (.13 miles)
Nat: 9.5 Dave: 12

We finished our last run at a sprint. I was ran at 9.5 and Dave at 12.  WEWWW EEEY!! It was tough work. But awesome! I pushed myself so hard.  Lifted heavy weights, I didn't back down, I ran hard and fast (for me) and after the workout I felt great!  We ended with the following abs:

1 Minute front plank
1 Minute Right and Left Plank
30 Pulses up with medicine ball (6lbs)
30 leg lifts

Our stomachs were burning!! We took some serious time to stretch and cool down and then headed home. The entire workout abs and stretching included was about an hour. The lifting and running portion was only about 35 minutes believe it or not!! IT WAS A GREAT WORKOUT! I felt awesome!

GREAT NEW!! When we got home I made taco salads…and Dave ate his first entire salad. I didn't make it with any modifications, he ate what I ate. I don't think I've mentioned this, but Dave HATES ,H… A …T …E …S… any type of veggie.  He has a hard time even smelling them.  Lately he has been working to incorporate them into his diet to try and be more healthy, and on Tuesday night he ate his VERY FIRST salad.  He has tried bites before here and there, but this was his first main course salad meal! I was so proud of him. I tried to take his picture to post it but he declined.

Today we are going to do another Killer workout that I'm super excited about!  We are going to be doing a lot of dips (which I hate) but I really want to build my triceps to look nice and toned, so these are key!! 

Thank you again everyone for your support with Project Feed Me.  It is so touching to know how many people out there want to help and are willing to give service!  Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!!

That picture has nothing to do with Crossfit, It was my sandwich from lunch yesterday and I thought, minus the cell phone quality picture it looked so pretty. (just thought i'd share)

10 day! Woo hoo!!  20 to go.  Yesterday's workout sucked. It really did.  I had the worst asthma and I didn't bring my inhaler! I felt like I was being choked the entire time.  I wanted to push really hard and do all I could to kick my butt, but the asthma was doing it for me without me even trying. I wanted to work harder and go faster, but I just couldn't do it.  Dave however had a kick butt workout.  He was feeling great and really pushed himself! Good job him!  I was a bit bugged at the end of the workout, but I couldn't do much about it so I got over it pretty quick.  Although I couldn't breath well and I couldn't go as fast or push as hard as normal, I still got a pretty good workout in.  The entire workout took about 30 minutes.

Here's what we did:

400M Run (.25 miles)
N: 6.0 all four rounds/ Dave: 7.0, 8.5, 8.5, 9.5
Box jumps/Burpees
Squats
Nat: 65lbs Dave: 95lbs-140lbs
Pullups
Nat: Assisted 14lbs/12lbs/11lbs Dave: ???

21 reps, then 15, 12, and finished with 9 reps

The original workout called for Thrusters, but when I tried doing a few my left shoulder did not like it.  Instead we did normal squats without the shoulder press.  I think my shoulders are still tired form doing so many push-ups on Friday.  I think it's so important to listen to your body when you work out. If something is not feeling right, don't do it!  It's not worth it.  Instead I just pick a new exercise and work it!

I'm sorry my posts have been kind of boring these past few days. To be honest I haven't had much time to write.  Remember how I told you I was working on something really exciting?  Truth is, it's been taking up all of my time.  I have been working on it every free second I get, and guess what?? I'm almost done!! I plan, key word PLAN on telling you all about it first thing tomorrow!  I'm super excited!!!  Until then…..have a beautiful day!

Dave called me from work and told me he was going to do his workout on his lunch break so when we got home we could head straight to the movie.  Since he didn't give me much notice I didn't have time to go to the gym. Instead I did my work out at home in the back yard. The weather was PERFECT! Not to hot, not to cold.  I was able to find different ways to tweak the exercises so that I could still get a good work out without going to the gym. Here's what I did:

30 Push-ups
30 Box Jumps
30 Wall Balls
30yrds of Lunges

(3 sets of each)

I couldn't find my yoga mat so I used a door mat to cushion my hands a bit while doing push ups

I used the diving board for box  jumps and it worked great!

I don't own a medicine ball so I made do with what I had. I did the wall balls using an exercise ball.

The walk way next to the pool was perfect for lunges….15 down, and 15 back.

It only took me 23 minutes to finish all three sets. I decided I wanted a bit more, so I went for a 13 minute run around the neighborhood.  It was so lovely.  The trees are starting to change color and this week the mountains got a bit of snow on the tops.  It felt like I could have ran forever.  One thing that contributed a TON to me feeling like I could run forever is my inhaler.  I have been looking for that thing for two months and finally found it yesterday.  About a year ago I developed asthma and sometimes when I work out I have a really hard time breathing, making it that much harder to catch my breath.  I used two puffs of the inhaler at the first of my workout and I was set for the entire workout.

When Dave got home we headed straight to the movie.  "The Invention of Lying". It was cute. A lot different than I thought, but cute. Not my favorite, but entertaining, cute and fun.

Dave's mom has been asking us to send her pictures of the outside of the house we are hoping to buy so after the movie we headed over to the house to take a few pics.

View form the back yard

After taking the pics we went to eat at Famous Dave's tonight.  It was really good. This is only my second time eating there and I really like it!

We ended the night with an episode of The Office, The Hills and Cougar town.  Does anyone else HATE Kristin Cavalari?  I seriously can't stand her.  (and yes, my husband watches the hills…. he used to make fun of it but now he's hooked).

QA:
Do you have asthma or use an inhaler when you work out?
Do you watch the hills?

Saturdays workout was the hardest by far. I felt like I was going to faint and throw up a couple times. After finishing each set, I almost had to hold on to something just to catch my breath…it was hard core. (for me!)  The workout took Dave 45 minutes and me 50 minutes. Dave started out on the same pace as me but then he picked up his running speed and passed me by an entire set!   Here's what we did:

Reps: 21-18-15-12-9-6-3

Those numbers are for the reps, the sets went as followed:

• Pushups
• Pushpress
  Nat: 35lbs for reps 21-15/45lbs for reps 12-3 Dave: 45lbs for reps 21-3 (his neck was bothering him so he didn't want to push it)
• Sprawls(this is just like a burpee without the push-up or jumping)
• .25 Mile run/45 lunges
  Nat: 6.0 Dave: 8.0

On the odd rep numbers you run .25 mile, and on the even rep numbers you do 45 lunges.

So you start out doing 21 of everything, then go to 18, then 15…and so on until you reach 3.  THIS IS KILLER!!!

I tried doing a pull up on my own after the workout was over and I didn't even pull up an inch…stupid idea to try after the workout and not before.  On Monday I'll give it a try when I'm fresh. I might not be as close as I thought I was, but we'll see. It has now been only 2 hours since we finished working out and I can already feel the workout creeping up on my body.  I am going to be  one sore girly tomorrow.

On the way home from the gym we stopped by Smoothy King and got a yummy protein filled smoothy.  Those things are super good. 45 grams of protein, 1 carb, less than 1 sugars, 180 calories (+the fruit). MMM MMM GOOD!! I got vanilla with strawberry and banana. It did my body good!

It was such a lovely day. (on our way home from the gym)

Dave went four-wheeling and I did some chores and then relaxed all day.

OH I almost forgot!!!

Friday night we went to the mall and went shopping… it was fabulous. I got  four new pairs of shoes and a pair of jeans! YIPPEE!  Check em out…

We ate at Dave's favorite restaurant afterwards, its called Dragon Hill. It was yum. I had chicken in a spicy garlic sauce and Dave had General Sao Chicken. There was so much food I have an entire meal left over! We ended the night watching conspiracy theory movies. Dave is really into them right now.  We were both so pooped that we fell asleep watching them.  I woke up at 1:00am and looked at the clock, I don't even remember falling asleep.  We are losers for falling asleep at 10:30pm on a Friday night. ha ha..oh well I guess we were tired!

ps…here are a few pics from Dave's four-wheeling SO BEAUTIFUL!! I didn't want to size these any smaller because they are too pretty!!