Stretching is supposed to feel good

So for the last week I haven't been able to work out because I've been sick. This also had the effect of driving me nuts since I'd just started this whole workout thing and then found I couldn't actually DO any of it.

I made the rather understandable mistake of mentioning this to my husband. As a Marine and consumate badass, little things like illness (or loss of surface skin, for that matter) don't really slow him down much and he sympathized with my plight more than I think I'd intended. This whole not working out thing was a problem that had to be solved. He'd been the one to say "don't work out this week" since I'd been sick but I had underestimated the true depth of his knowledge in all things designed to suck when it comes to exercise.

He suggested I stretch.

Photo from yogagirlsorlando.com

"Ok," I thought, "sure! I can do that! It'll be relaxing! I'll just do some fun yoga or something and that will be my exercise." So yesterday, I told my hubby I was going to take his suggestion on stretching. That's when he sent me the link to this site. It's a mobility workout of the day site by a guy called KStar. He's actually a well respected athlete who looked at his fellow muscleheads and said "Wow, we are all in a lot of pain." He decided that people knew too little about how their own bodies work and he set out to fix that. His site is a series of mobility workouts, one per day, that are designed to stretch you out in ways that might otherwise go overlooked.

Sounds great, right?

I clicked the play button on video number one and found that my first daily stretch was just sitting in a squat for 10 minutes. Well THAT'S not hard, right? It's just a squat. In fact, peoples around the world who don't have a ton of European luxuries actually sit that way normally all the time. Scientists even tell us that this is a NORMAL position for people and that we aren't really designed to sit squarely on our rumps. This can lead to lots of back pain.

Photo from goyavier.wordpress.com

Ok, this whole squatting thing is natural and perfectly normal so sitting like this for 10 minutes should be cake. I plop down into a squat and congradulate myself on having managed something this easy. Then I take a closer look at how Kstar is sitting. Ok, so my heels aren't on the floor. I correct this...and promptly fall over. What the hell? Turns out that it's not as easy to sit like this as you might think. Also, it hurts like holy hell. It's not because it's not natural, it's because since I was a child, I've been taught to sit in a chair so this seemingly normal squat becomes somewhat problematic. All the muscles that SHOULD be stretched to do this, namely the hips, back of the thighs, and butt, are all shortened from lack of stretching over the course of years and now I'm trying to tug them into a position they no longer deal with well.

I spend the next five minutes trying to convince my heels to stay flat, my knees to stay apart, my butt to stay off the ground, and my back to stay straight. That last part is important. PAY ATTENTION TO IT. Seriously, it hurt when I found myself curling over to try and balance better. Instead, I just caused some serious lower back pain so don't do that. To help with my balance, I wound up clinging to the leg of a table like some cracked out lemur while I tried not to topple over, all while counting down the minutes with a desperation I hadn't realized one could get just from stretching.

The whimpering sounds of my agony eventually drew my husband back out of his office and he gently informed me that the 10 minutes didn't have to be consecutive. I could build up to this sort of thing. After which, he helped ease me down to the floor and kept me from hyperventilating as my screaming muscles finally relaxed again. Now at least I know not to try to do these exercises all in one go. They are not for the faint of heart and much like fighting a dragon, if you go in unprepared, it will eat your butt alive.

Thus ends my lesson in how stretching isn't always relaxing and how I am apparently tense in muscles I didn't even know I had. Tonight, I'm back to my workout so, seeing as my butt is reminding me of what I did to it yesterday, doing weighted squats tonight should be fun. >__>

Wouldn't ya know it?

So you may, or may not, have asked yourself "What happened? Why did this blog start only to go all quiet after a few days? Has she given up already?"

The short answer?

No. I didn't give up. Instead, right after getting into this whole working out thing, I got sick instead. Yay.

The hubby is well versed in not just working out but is also a trained medical technician so he put a strict kabosh on my exercise this week. Booo! So yeah, my workout got put on hold till this weekend.

I admit it, I've been bad though. I've gone out and gone for short jogs where I could because quite frankly they are a source of stress release for me and I was going a little stir crazy. On the up side, I can go back to working out starting on Monday and I am actually looking forward to it. One way or the other, I am determined to get into shape enough to pull off this race in April.

For now, I'm gonna go chug water and stare at my calendar...

Aren't Weekends Supposed To Be Relaxing?

Sorry for my lack of updates over the weekend. I had originally intended this to be a daily blog but sometimes life just gets in the way. It's not always a bad thing as I got to spend some time with good friends yesterday!

There were legos involved. It was awesome.

Aside from being on-call for work and hanging out with friends, I had originally intended to do some long jogs to get ready for distance running. That did not happen. Why? Because of this.

Those numbers were in the triple digits this weekend. I am NOT jogging in 100 degree heat. That's just asking for some kind of stroke. They'd find me in a sticky puddle of my own sweat out in the middle of the road. I'll pass, thanks. Tonight it's back to weight lifting though and I'll be making one of my favorite breakfast recipes. I'll share it with you tomorrow!

Have a good day!

I think this blog thing is working

It forced me to do my workout last night.

Seriously, it did. I didn't get home till late and as I shuffled through the door at seven pm, all I wanted was to make some food, clean up around the house, and then collapse into a happy cocoon of mindless televised bliss for a while. Then I remembered this blog and I knew I couldn't do that. I had made a promise, not just to me but to whoever might be reading this. I was going to stick with my workout, I couldn't just miss a day, epecially this early in the game.

Damn skippy.

So as much as I wanted to sit on my couch, I knew I had to get up and do my work out. RAR. I are tough.

Anyway, last night's fun consisted of 1 pull up, 5 push-ups with a 20 lb weight vest, 5 squats with the weight vest and a 15 lb weight in each hand, 5 bicep curls with the 15 lb weight, and 5 shoulder presses with the 15 lb weight. Wash, rinse, repeat 5 times with a 3 minute breather between each set. Not too horrible, honestly, and it went by quickly enough. The breaks in between sets are nice because it gives me an excuse to get all ADD on Tumblr for a few minutes. Nothing distracts from muscle fatigue like random animated gifs and appropriately snarky posters.

Feeling any muscle fatigue right now? No? See, it works.



After my workout, I crawled to the shower and my wonderful, amazing, incredible husband gave me a can of coconut water. I have no shame. I curled right up in the tub and nursed that coconut water like it was the secret to life. If you've never had any, trust me when I say that it's a great thing to follow up a workout with when smoothies aren't readily available. It's packed with potassium and is very good at rehydrating you.

I admittedly didn't post this entry last night, sorry about that, but I spent the rest of the evening cooking dinner and then curling up on the couch with my loving husband who had folded the laundry for me. This morning, I'm not too horribly sore, so that's good. It'll make working out tonight much easier. ;)

That's all for now!

A little breather

Day 3:

Today is my down day. I get a rest between all the working out so my muscles have a chance to build up after the horrible things I've just done to them. Working out isn't the only part of this plan though, eating right is also important. Now, I've admitted I like junk food and before I met my husband, my idea of eating healthy was having hotdogs instead of perogies slathered in brown sugar and butter. Don't judge till you've tried it. It's GOOOOOOD.  I've gotten much better about fresh foods since those days but I still prefer eating out to eating in. 


That doesn't work too well with this program though and if you're anything like me, the words "health food" conjure up images of cardboard topped with a single slice of lettuce. Fortunately, there ARE actually lots of healthy recipes out there that don't take long to make and are chock full of flavor. I refuse utterly to eat anything that doesn't have a lot of flavor so trust me on that last part.

Yesterday I promised a simple recipe for my After Workout Cherry Smoothie. This is really simple so here goes:

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup frozen cherries (I just get generic Publix brand)
• 2/3 cup yougurt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup Bolt House Farm Vanilla Chai Protein Drink (You can get this in any grocery store in the fruit section)

Put all four ingredients into a blender. Blend till smooth. Gulp down. That's it! 

Easy, huh? The result is pretty darn tasty too and yes, it's healthy. The yogurt and milk are good for bones, the cherries give you sweetness without added sugars, and the Chai tosses in some extra protein for growing muscles. This is surprisingly satisfying after a workout and it takes away the hunger really well. That buys me enough time to whip up a quick dinner. 

Enjoy!

Dear God, What Have I Done?

Day 2:

It's day two of my training tonight. I posted my intro earlier today so you'll have to forgive there being two posts in a row but from here out, I will only be doing one a day.

I've just finished up tonight's workout. Allow me to introduce you to a special exercise called "Tabatas". Never heard of it? Neither have I. Let me share with you what I've learned.

The day it started

Day 1:

I'm honestly not sure who this blog is for more. You or me.

Maybe you found this blog by following a link from another site. Maybe you know me and in a moment of not feeling self-concious, I gave you the link to this. Maybe we've never met but you're here out of curiosity.

Truth is, I'm only partly writing this for you. The rest of it I'm writing for me. I'm hoping it'll keep me honest to myself.

You see, this blog is going to be a running diary of sorts as I strive toward my ultimate goal:



What is this Tough Mudder thing and why do I care? Well, it's one of the toughest obstacle courses in the country and I care because apparently I've taken a completely leave from sanity. I want to complete it. I don't know why really, maybe it's to prove something to myself, but this blog will be a brutally honest diary as I get ready for this. The event won't happen till next year so there's time enough to get prepared. I have all the things I think I'll need:

• Complete lack of sanity
• A Marine Corps husband willing to put me through intense training
• An almost manic will to complete this
• A blog to detail through the entire process of what I'm about to do to myself.

The point behind this blog is to be brutally honest about what I'm doing here. I shall catalog my successes as well as my failures (also know as "when the brownie cravings win"). I can't say I'm looking to lose weight, I've never been terribly large to start with, but I'm not exactly brimming with muscles here either. This is about a realistic tale of one insane woman's attempt to get into shape.

And then apparently torture herself for 12 miles.

Anyway, the hubby has already written up part one of this nightmare adventure in the form of a workout program capable of inducing child-like weeping. 

I started it yesterday.

Today I am convinced my butt muscles have been secretly replaced with two cement blocks. I'm shuffling around my work, trying my damnedest to not LOOK like I want to curl up in a corner (like I totally do).

Also, I have a secret you all should know. I have a weakness for junk food. I love it. I crave salty fatty things and sugary treats and, if given the opportunity, will eat them till my face rots off. To complete this training though, my dietician (also known as my husband) has stated that I'll have to really reign this need in.

He means well.

I asked him to do this.

He knows a lot about fitness.

Right now I would gladly mug a three year old for their lollipop and I'm only 24 hours into this.

*sigh*

I think the change in food will be the hardest part for me. I had a healthy breakfast but snacks today consisted of just black cherries when all I want right now is a quesadilla. I am strong though. I will not go down to the company cafeteria and buy one of their heavenly brownies with the chocolate chips in them.

I won't.

And if I keep repeating that, maybe I can convince my stomach.