Happy New Year!

I am always amazed how the passing of one day into the next can bring such optimism to people. It's as if all their worries have disappeared and they have been given a second chance at life! Why we can't act this way DAILY is beyond me. I am one of those who act like I have a second chance...lol!

That said, here are the goals I have for 2011

1) Become a certified ACE instructor

2) Achieve & maintain a weight of 126 or below

3) Declutter my life (house/car/emotional garbage...etc)

4) Pay off one of my student loans

This is the beginning. I hope to add more goals to it as they come to mind but I wanted to make sure that I have ones that are good and wanted, not just something to fill up space.

Here is to a new year!!

Help!!! 2011 Goals!

Ok, I want to set some realistic, exciting and challenging 2011 goals but I can't think of anything.

I want something I will stick to and something that will really make me feel good. i don't want to limit them to just health and fitness, yet I definitely want that included. I need them to be managable and not overwhelming.

Here are some ideas I'm throwing around

- ACE certification (something I wanted to do for awhile)

- Pay off at least one of my two HUGE student loans

- Get my weight to 127 or below (in a healthy manner)

- Give myself a monthly allowance to spend and stick to it

Now these are good and will be a part of my goals...but there is nothing really exciting. I want to try something new! but I don't know what.

I want to step out into the land of the unknown, where it is scary to go, but exciting because you know that each step is one that betters you, you know?

so....any ideas???

Starting Again???

Wow! I haven't been on here in forever! I know, you think I had fallen off the face of the earth right? I don't know what really happened.

I finished one month of Insanity and didn't want to continue the second month because I was missing my weights...I felt like a failure. It felt like something else in my life I just didn't accomplish and 'failed' at doing.

So, while I continued to exercise, I stopped being accountable. My exercising is usually pretty good, even if I miss a day I know I will come back to it. It's my eating that is the problem. So after I felt as thought I failed, I stopped keeping track of things and simply stopped trying.

My job helped me to continue this because I don't have the time to eat during the day and often times it is 6 - 7 hours from breakfast to lunch and then I'm starving!!!

This job is also mentally taxing on me. While I'm learning a lot, that is not what I'm talking about. It is my boss. She is great but she is also 5' 5" (my height) and 115lbs. This is a killer for me. I am 135 so all the little demons in my head are just telling me how huge I am and I have started back on some bad habits...like not packing lunch / dinner or eating late at night cause I didn't eat enough during the day cause I didn't want to eat in front of her.

I know this is in my head and I need to conquer it. There will ALWAYS be someone better looking / smarter / more physically fit...etc then me. I need to just be the "best version of ME" (as Sandrelle so nicely put it on her post). As long as I keep telling myself I'm worthless, I will treat myself that way.

I need to start loving me. I've said that before and I wonder if this time it will truly happen, but I'm not going to worry about that, just move from today.

So, I'm starting my new year now. I know I won't get online every day cause neither my job nor my Internet connection allow that, but I will continue posting and keeping myself accountable.

That said, I am going to try Bikram yoga again, starting Sunday....yoga in a room that is 105 degrees!!!! I'd love to stick with it, but money will determine that one...haha!

Here's to being the best version of ourselves!!!

Merry Christmas!

Change of Plans & Cider Mill

Ok, I decided to change my workout plans for this week. Instead of following the Insanity recovery week I am follow Cathe Friedrich's September 2010 week one rotation.

I may end up continuing this rotation instead of going back to insanity or I may mix it up with insanity and here is why. I found myself getting down about not lifting weights. In turn, this made working out very depressing. While I still continued to do my workouts, I stopped trying to be healthy. I wasn't eating well and I was eating anything to try and fill the void I felt from trying to follow a program where my heart wasn't in it. I didn't want to 'fail' yet again.

It wasn't until I read my friend's blog, and saw that she was also switching up her workout, that I realized I am not a failure. I am still working out by following Cathe's rotation, I'm just following my heart.

So, you will see the workouts posted are not from insanity. I may continue or add it in occasionally, but I'm not sure. I'm going to go by what my heart and body want.

On another note, I wanted to share some pics from a recent trip to the cider mill! I went with my sister, bro-in-law, nephew and niece. In order to make it more fun, we took a lot of crazy pics! Here are a few :)

The Cider Mill Sign

My niece, bro-in-law, sis & me being 'rebels'! haha

The 'Karate Kid' pose

My handstand...with a little help from my nephew :)

"Caught!" hehe

Day of Rest!

Well today was supposed to be my day of rest, but since I messed up my week with the scratch on my eye, I did Cardio Recovery today. While not intense in the way of cardio endurance, it is challenging to the muscles!

I have to admit though, I am missing my weights. I love this program and all it's doing for my endurance, but I feel kinda flabby. So i have devised a plan. This coming week is another hard week of working out, but the following week is supposed to be the recovery week. Every day is "Core Cardio & Balance" I'm not sure what that consists of yet, but I'm going to sneak in my Cathe Friedrich Gym Style workouts. I need to build myself back up in weights...or at least that is how I feel. Who knows, maybe it's all in my mind, but either way, I still miss the weights.

If all goes well, I may continue the next 4 weeks following the recovery week, with weights three days a week. I will just do my cardio in the morning and weights at night.

Of course this all sounds good on 'paper' so we'll see how it works out with life ;)

On the job front, I did not get the job in my little downtown, but I have another potential job that is far better and with much more opportunity for advancement. Unfortunately, I won't know for sure until a month or two from now, but I am praying about it and I have a good feeling here. Either way, I'm trusting God to take care of me. I'm still doing my part in looking, I'm just trusting Him to open/close the right/wrong doors.

Hope all of you had a great day of rest!

Insanity Catch up!

Hey all!

Things got a little messy this week with working out.

On both Mon and Tues I felt sick as I worked out and didn't feel like I did a great job. Come Wednesday, I had a morning Bible Study to go to and I didn't get home until 2pm (due to talking and lunch).

I had my body combat class to teach that night and since it was a new routine, I wanted to practice it before 6pm and found I also needed to rest...I was just exhausted!

I taught my class and felt incredibly good. I wasn't even winded! I think that is due to the help of Insanity. All those workouts are so tough that everything else feels like a breeze :)

anyway, I came home from class and did Pure Cardio. After the warm-up, I realized I wasn't going to be able to do Cardio abs. I was getting tired again.

So I finished Pure Cardio and headed to bed.

Thursday morning I wake up and just as I'm opening my eyes, INTENSE PAIN hits them. My eyes had dried out again and opened an old wound. I tried putting cold compresses on my eyes to help them. I couldn't even open them at this point. The compress helped my left eye but not my right eye. I waited until noon before I called my doc to see if I could come in. I still couldn't open my right eye....too painful. It's like having a wood sliver stuck in your eye..yeah, just imagine how that would feel! yikes!

I went to the doc and he said the scratch was a pretty significant size. In order to heal, I had two choices. Get a contact put over the scratch and come back Sunday to get it out (while taking antibiotics) or get some new gel put in there with the antibiotics and sit around with my eyes closed. I opted for the contact. To top it all off, I got my 'monthly visitor' and am feeling very lethargic....which might also explain why I was feeling sick on Mon and Tues.

I had to completely skip my workout yesterday due to all of this though :( I thought I will just make it up on Sunday.

Today I feel much better. I am still seeing double in my right eye, but a lot of the pain was gone. I'm also still quite tired. I did my workout but my legs felt like lead! I also did Cardio Abs today. I was going to do them Sunday, but I saw that Monday's workout is Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs so I didn't want to have them back to back.

Eating is going ok. I am not binging at night as my journal tells me I have been, but I still need to keep a close eye on that and make sure I spread out my food to all meals and not hoard it for one meal.

Well that's it for today...time for an eye break!

INSANITY! Fit Test #2

I will probably post later today because this is for yesterday's workout but I wanted to get it in here while I had time. Here are the results of my fit test.

Switch Kicks: 120 (+2)

Power Jacks: 55 (+15)

Power Knees: 115 (+15)

Power Jumps: 30 (same)

Globe Jumps: 11 (+1)

Suicide Jumps: 15 (-1)

Push-up Jacks: 15 (-1)

Low Plank Oblique: 56 (+6)

I purposely didn't look at my first set of results when doing this because I wanted to see how well I could do not because of previous numbers but just from within myself.

I did do better on most. I think I got a little tired and lazy at the end, so next time, I will look at these numbers as I go and try to beat them. I thought that might be the wrong way to go about it, but now I think that is what probably pushes me.

Today is Cardio Circuit. I thought it was Pure Cardio + Cardio Abs and I was trying to pump myself up for it, but that isn't until tomorrow (whew!) I also have to go and practice my kickboxing for tomorrow's class. I really hope more people show up. It's such a great workout, but I think people are scared off by it...thinking they can't do it. What they don't know, cause they don't come, is that I break it down for them, making the high intensity or more difficult moves, easier. They would know if they came. I pray they do, not just for my class, but to show them that they can do it.

Recently, I got information on two contests about weight loss. I considered joining one of them, but I just did that this past summer and didn't follow through. What I really need to do is follow through on keeping my food journal. That is the thing I have the hardest time with. I keep doing other things in hopes the weight will fall off, but ignore the journal.

This week, I'm keeping it. My reward, if my goals are met, will to fill my coffee card so I can buy a cup every day.