Was I crazy? - First A.M. workout with my man!

Well, we finally did it!  We got up at about 5:15 this morning and worked out togethe!.  Working out with my husband is a great experience.  We're close enough that we can be honest with each other, but we also look out for each other too.

Our morning workouts (thanks to a good friend who blessed us with this program) will actually consist of the T25 program.



For those of you familiar with Shaun T or the beachbody family of products, T25 is a shortened, more "focused" version of Insanity.  The great thing is it has a modifier for every move, so for people like me and the hubster, we can still keep up even though we're not bouncing and moving around like Shaun T.  We'll eventually be able to do the regular moves and the results will speak for themselves in the coming weeks.

Jerry's actually pretty excited about it - I haven't really seen him excited about exercising before.  To be fair, though, while cardio is my thing, he HATES cardio --he'd much rather weight train.  So of course he wasn't excited about exercising in the last few months - all I suggested was cardio, LOL!  But he's excited, which makes me even more excited!

We got up this morning and dragged ourselves into the living room to do the first work out: Alpha: Cardio.  Within the first 30 seconds , we were both "feeling it" in our hips and legs!  We pressed on through it, and at about 13-minutes in, didn't think we'd make it.  At about 23 minutes in, I thought I was going to vomit, but I guess since I didn't have breakfast yet, I would up being OK.  Jerry had do some deep breathing, too - but we made it!!  We finished it!!  I wouldn't say we nailed it, but bless God we finished it!!

I've been feeling good pretty much all day from it.  The hips and legs (and for some reason my right knee) are definitely feeling it as the day/night wears on, but we will be getting up again tomorrow to do Alpha: Speed.

It's a very interesting thing to work out with a buddy, though.  I've definitely got a little bit of a competitive streak in me, so I wind up pushing myself, but Jerry and I know each other well enough that we're looking out for each other too.  We were constantly telling each other, "watch your hip on that move" or "make sure your feet are facing forward when you go down"....just so we don't get hurt.  Or maybe so that we don't have to take care of each other if we do get hurt! - LOL

We did take some "before" pics last night, but of course those are going to stay hidden away until they can be compared to our AWESOME "after" pics ...coming in a few months.

Make it an awesome week, friends!

NSV's...my own list

So, here's a list of things I'm thankful for  - things that I owe purely to my newfound commitment to fitness!

• went down a pants size
• lost 25+ lbs
• playing with my son is a lot more fun for both of us!
• when I started out a few weeks ago it took more than twenty minutes for me to walk ONE mile.  Now I'm at just under 17 minutes for walking one mile.
• I'm running at an avg speed of 4.5 on the treadmill
• people are noticing that I'm losing weight
• clothes fit much better (didn't realize how freaking tight they were till they started fitting RIGHT!)
• I actually feel worse when I DON'T exercise

And, things I need to work on:

• staying committed to healthy eating ALL day
• exercising in the morning vs. evening - it helps me drink much more water throughout the day!
• my posture (see previous post)
• walking more at work instead of being so chained to my desk ---makes me wish I could afford one of these:

A LifeSpan treadmill desk.  I want one!  But seriously, why did they have to put an old guy on there?  Don't they know that hot, fit working moms want them too?? ;-)

So that's it for the Saturday list.  Now on to my favorite grocery store for healthy food choices for the rest of the week!!

PS - we are working on something REALLY big that's got my creative juices flowing!!  So be ready for an AWESOME DIY/shabby chic kinda post coming up soon!!

Modified Couch-to-5K (& one more treat!)

This week has been a CRAZY week!  Started the week with Mother's Day, which was emotional in all sorts of ways for me, I wound up getting sick Monday, and the rest of the week I've pretty much been catching up.  My exercise program has begun to fit into a nice routine, and the couple of days I missed the exercise, I REALLY missed it! ;-)

I've been walking on the treadmill since I saw my doctor last Friday.  He believes that my headaches after exercising are caused by some muscular issues - mainly poor posture, but also enlarged trapezoid muscles in my shoulders.  The poor posture is mostly my fault, but if you've seen my maternal grandmother's family, it may very well be a bit genetic too.  So I've been VERY careful to keep better posture this week (including my neck) and it's seemed to help.

The enlarged trapezoid muscles are due mainly to my size - hopefully as I watch my posture and become more fit that will be corrected. ;-)

The trapezoid muscles can be enlarged in obese men & women, resulting in muscle strain during seemingly "normal" activities.

Given my history of having headaches after exercising, I decided that I would just walk on the treadmill for a while instead of doing the more intense boot-camp type workouts.  So, Saturday night, I got on my -determined to just keep moving - after all some movement is better than none, right?

Well it is INCREDIBLY boring to be working out for a stinkin' hour doing nothing but walking!!  So, I decided in the midst of my walk that I'd still do my couch-to-5K program --- I would just modify it!  So here's my Couch-to-5K modified program:

Week One: 3 miles (or one hour), running as fast as possible while retaining good form for 1:00 every 15minutes.
Week Two: run every 10 minutes for 1minute
Week three: run every 10 minutes for 1m30s
Week four: run every 10 minutes for 2 minutes.

I'm not sure how I will do on this "program".  My main concern is that I maintain good form while running so that I don't wind up hurting myself.  I will push myself to do more, but I will not push myself to the point of injury!

So, It's after midnight! I will update some non-scale victories in the next day or two...stay tuned!!

BTW - here is my boy and his very first science fair project!!