Monday, October 27, 2008

I'm currently dealing with trying to keep our toddler in bed while my Husband is at work. This is not going that well and so my plan of having time to update is somewhat shot but I said I would be back and so here I am.
Went to the gym after taking the exam this morning and got on the elliptical and the treadmill. Did intervals on both, the elliptical had a cross ramp option that basically increased the incline-not sure that I've done that kind before. I remember when 5 minutes on an elliptical on resistance 1 about killed me-I was coming from being completely sedentary and a smoker to boot. Creepy falsetto singing dude was back and just like I thought I'm pretty sure he's out of jail or something-I noticed the tear tattoo on his face today. Also, what was he doing at the gym on a Monday during the day? There's an interesting mix at this gym, scary looking guys in the free weights area, me being the only female that ventures in there amongst them. Then you have all the Latinas young and old rockin' the cardio machines and then really, really old white folks paddling around in the pool. I love seeing the obvious harmony in such a variety of people.
I've since come home and worked for what feels like a long time (at least an hr or two) on the house, cooked dinner and battled our son who seems to be going through an independence asserting phase. I'm exhausted and believe I'll go curl up in bed with a book.
I'm seriously considering re-joining a gym. I've thought, "I can do this at home, look at these shiny handled cannonballs here and this bench and this elliptical, etc" and while it is true I CAN do this at home, the problem has been WILL I do this at home. The fact is, when I have a designated building to dress for, go to and cavort within, I am much more likely to be consistent. There's no coming in and sinking into the couch while my ass becomes one with the foam.
So Bally's is running a thing where you can print out a two week free pass and of course you have to go through a "tour" which is basically a thinly (and I mean thin, as transparent as a Saran wrap dress)ploy to sign you up that day. That day, as in before you even get to workout there. I almost fell for it myself, not due to the less than stellar sales pitch but just because my little fitness addicted heart was dazzled by having all the crap I could want within 5 minutes of our house.
I'm studying for an exam that is coming at 9:30 this morning over Liver and Heme but promise and cross my pea pickin' heart and all that jazz I will come back to post again TODAY. I have to tell you about my first workout there and the grunty Latin macho man that persisted in singing in a falsetto voice at random times. For instance singing the she's got legs ZZ top song when it wasn't even PLAYING.
I'm wearing my workout gear now so I can drive straight from school to the gym for HIIT cardio, I shall return.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Today is my last day of my big rotation for this semester. I'm a bit sad that it is over now that I have a great instructor that is making it really interesting and non scary for me. Exercise has been constantly on my mind but I have yet to achieve any since Sunday. My son is going to his grandma's today thru Sunday and my Husband leaves tomorrow to go hunting so I'll be all on my own.
I'm having a vintage party Saturday with my girlfriends-we're going to dress up, fix our hair old style, watch old movies, maybe have some martinis or champagne, etc. etc. I think it will be very fun but I need to figure out what to do with my hair. It's gotten so long it's down to my bra strap and I am girly stuff challenged sometimes. I just now figured out how to curl my hair properly and I'm 27.
What can you do, right? ha!
I want to talk about something really cool that happened yesterday at the hospital but think it's better to not mention things on this public place. Not trying to be a teaser but if anyone wants to know just email me.
Le sigh, I better get ready for my last day. Be back later with pictures, etc. Also going to finally figure out how to do videos with the help of my Husband.

Monday, October 13, 2008

I still felt queasy all day today and I promise I didn't drink THAT much, my goodness. As a result I've eaten on an almost constant basis all day trying to stifle that niggling discomfort. That combined with other GI disturbances has added up to my feeling pretty crappy right about now but this too shall pass. I know that, and I know that THIS TIME (the eternal cry, right?) I will not let my workouts fall by the wayside. I am stronger and in a better mental place-at least when I get enough sleep, something I did not do last night either. Ack, this is reading like a trainwreck.
How 'bout I share a food tip instead of listing my deviations from the path? If you have a hard time eating salad or you eat it but don't really enjoy doing so, try chopping the lettuce into fairly small pieces. I first tried it after having a completely unhealthy chopped salad out and about with friends and then I remembered buying this handy little tool I bought at IKEA in the days of yore which promptly went to live in my cabinet to languish. It works like a champ to chop my salad and I can go through a huge package of spinach or romaine now when it is chopped. It might sound like a silly thing but for some reason it makes my salads deliciouso mucho! It is funny how the texture of things can drastically change our perceptions. I also think it tastes better because there is more surface area for the dressing and other goodies to coat instead of huge dull leaf that barely gets doused. Try it, you may love it. There's also scissors specifically made for the job but I love my little roley poley cutting board thingie.
I had a sneaking suspicion that my back would be killing me today after pulling myself up those swingset bars (picture sort of a really tall u-shape and gripping the bars while swinging your body back and forth and climbing to the top of the upside down u shape with just your arms and back doing the work). Not only has my back hurt but my poor neck seemed to take the brunt of it. It's been miserable.
I'm doing it again as soon as possible. HA!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Yikes, what happened to updating in the morning? Completely slipped my mind the next day as I was running behind and feeling harried trying to get everything done before leaving the house. I attended this with some friends to celebrate one of their birthdays early and we had rootbeer on tap, unbelievable bread, salad and pizza at Eno's before I hopped back on the train to head home. As soon as I got home I changed clothes, ordered a pizza for my mom and son to have for dinner and we left again to eat dinner at Uncle Julio's in Ft. Worth before going to see a comedian. I had the roasted vegetable tamales and they were fantastic! Unfortunately I did not have a cheesy greasy coating in my stomach for all the drinking that ensued. I had not intended on drinking quite so much but it got out of hand and we ended up closing the bar down after the show and then going back to a friend's house and carrying on even more. We may have stayed up until about 5 for all I know.
Now, normally if I did something like that these days I'd beat myself up and feel worthless mentally and physically the rest of the day but today I tried to be smart about it. As smart as one can be about what amounts to an episode of binge drinking. I am well aware that the two concepts don't go together. I deduced from various lectures that if you are hungover but can manage to get some activity in your body will process the alochol and toxic by products much more efficienty. Your liver is unique compared to say, your kidneys, in that the blood flow varies on physical activity. You receive more blood flow when moving about than when still and much more when exercising. The liver is an amazing organ, I had no idea all of the many things it does and I can honestly say I am ashamed to have abused it so much and then to go out and do it again just this weekend after having my eyes opened in Friday's lecture. I hereby swear to not engage in that kind of behavior again. I will drink I am sure, but not in ridiculous amounts that make me feel sick and hurt my body. It is just not worth it.
I've done some housework and then we took our son to the park for the first time all together and I played with him and swung on the monkeybars. I even climbed the poles at the end of the swingset just using my upperbody and inching upward. Hard to explain but it was easy to do when I was a kid and super hard as an adult. I plan on doing this kind of stuff more often. Then after dinner we took a family walk and our son and I raced for most of the little over a mile path. I actually got a decent workout in doing all of this and am feeling pretty good now, at least able to focus.
Pictures of what I bought at the fair are to come. I'm sure this is terribly disjointed but that's what I get for punishing my liver. Poor sweet liver. I still have plenty of school work to do but wanted to finish typing this out as I started it hrs ago. I lifted weights (whole body workout) twice last week and did two sessions of HIIT. Not shabby for having a hard week in the hospital.

Friday, October 10, 2008

I had several ideas of what to write about in this space but my brain and heart are occupied with toddler issues. I just can't seem to muster an entry on things that have occurred to me lately to increase your fruits and veggies. I promise to stop writing these little blurby nothings and to actually update in the morning.
Sigh. Blogging is hard.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Before I start reading your blogs and get distracted I want to update really quickly here. I was tracking my food again on Sparkpeople.com just to get refocused and so now I feel I have that down again and I'm tracking my workouts. Yesterday I went by the uni gym and lifted weights (felt amazing after taking too long a break) and then this morning I got up at 5:30 and jumped on our elliptical in the garage for 20 minutes of HIIT. I've gone back to my old tried and true method of 3 x full body weight lifting workouts alternated with 3 x 20 min HIIT sessions. In reality it's not a lot of TIME working out but the intensity is defnitely there and I can already see my body shifting around after 2 days. This time I am trying to back off when I can see I'm pushing too hard and I anticipate this helping my consistency problem. I'm considering driving to the uni gym as soon as I get up at 5:30 tomorrow so I can get my workout in, shower and get ready there and then walk next door to the hospital for my rotation. Driving that early will actually cut out drive time and make for a less hurried morning, the trick is having all of my things ready to just grab and go when I roll out of bed.
I had another bad day re: my intern work but I hate to rehash things. Just thought I'd mention why this post is lackluster and hurried.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Just checking in to say I'm back from my weekend trip. I'm exhausted but excited about life, I had a lovely time. Plans are swirling around my noggin regarding my own personal development, things I'll do with my site www.zenerrific.com and some things I'll do here in the meantime.
Looking forward to catching up with all my blog friends and to writing more often, this week is the final week of my major rotation and though other things are coming up the major pressure should be lifted somewhat.
I'm barely upright so I'll say goodnight.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

I have to say feeling under the weather or being full blown ill is the number one deterrant I have to working out regularly and having the bod I want. Besides the pesky frequent illness my health markers are great so I have to cop to the vanity side and the desire to be lighter and stronger so that I can DO more. I still really, really want to do pullups, be able to run at least a mile, etc. and yet after years of trying to be physically active I'm not that far from where I started.
me=frustrated.
I eat much better than I did before, I have the abilities to take care of my family well nutritionally and to encourage a healthy lifestyle. There are many things to be thankful for but as far as fitness goes: I have nothing I can say as far as, "I completed x" or "I can do x that I could not do before" etc. For short periods of time I do and then I slide back to square one because I have a short attention span for things and lose interest and my life makes consistency hard, not impossible, but hard.
I'm really unsure as to how to tackle this problem, previous exploits have all failed, I think I need a group or something to belong to-that approach would be completely foreign to anything I've done before.
I'm sick now but this is the time to formulate a plan. Never fear, I don't ever give up, I'm just being honest with myself and you. No tangible progress to be had and I'm ready to change that. I need to implement some type of progression system for workouts like I've done for food...will have to ponder that and then come back here for more navel gazing.
Mizfit had a recent post about workout buddies. Heck, if aren't reading her site, why aren't you? And you should start, that's all I'm saying, including the comments. Lots of good information there.