No Peeking

Could you go an entire month with no peeking?

If there is one thing most women can’t stand it’s the number on the scale. Although I’ve never been a scale person (I don’t have one in my home), I know I’ve gained a little bit over the past year or so. So in gearing up again with my personal trainer, I asked him if we could do measurements before our session today. This included the scale – and his has always shown more than my physician’s office.

He did weight first, I did not look at the scale. Do you know how HARD that was? Gets better. He did measurements and pictures. I have no idea what the measurements are, and I already know what I look like.

Cuz I know you’re dying to know:

Circuit 1:

Deck of Cards:
Diamonds = 5 burpees
Spades = 15 squats
Clubs = 10 curl & press w/dumbells
Hearts = 30 second plank

You have 20 minutes to draw as many cards from the deck and do the exercise that corresponds to the above suits. No breaks. Here’s mine:

14 cards drawn (average is 20):
75 squats
1 minute planks
15 curl & press
45 burpees (modified)

Circuit 2:

5lb Dumbbells:
15 side raises x 3
15 half Arnolds x 3
15 front raises x 3
15 full Arnolds & press x 3

Circuit 3:

12lb Dumbbells:
15 curls x 3
15 tricep press x 3
15 hammer curls x 3
Pushups? Total Fail.

No, No – You Can’t Take That Away From Me

December 31st of 2010 I wrote my very first post here on SPD. I completely forgotten about it until I read The Daily Post’s writing prompt for today. I’m not going to rewrite the post. However, I am going to share an update.

Weighty Wednesday

Daily Prompt: Conflict

Seriously…like you haven’t had this conflict…EVER?

Sneaker Confessions: Feels Like a Setback

Along with a laundry list of declining health issues due to my massive obese self, my knees aided in my decision to have weight loss surgery May of 2011. I’ve lost around 140 pounds (it floats up and down depending on what I have stuffed in my mouth, how much sodium I’ve consumed…and whatever long jargon you can fathom for “haven’t been 100% focused”).

My staircase pre-op was a major obstacle. My landlord had to reinforce the staircase so it wouldn’t wobble when I waddled up (it wobbled without my waddle – my obesity did not cease the waddle wobble). My weight made the motion of stepping viciously painful. My knees would scream like I had rail road spikes driven through them. It was 19 steps to the top.

It is still 19 steps to the top.

As the weight started to drop, my activity level skyrocketed. Stairs – eh- touch and go. In October of 2011 I physically could not do the stair workout at the gym with my trainer (17 steps to the top). The pain was unreal (so I thought-apparently it gets worse). So he incorporated other activities. I did try spin for several months, got hooked on boxing drills, totally dug weights & TRX (I’m sick, I know); did cave into the elliptical even though I complained about it all the time. By January of 2012 I could do the stair workout. I had a 40lb weight loss before I resumed the activity. A few months later I tried a stair climber and fell right off. I discovered the row machine. I took a header over a stack of risers in front of about 50 people. I also attempted jumping rope.

If you ever want a lesson on how to hang yourself with a rubber tube via pony-tail, let me know.

I desperately wanted to run. I signed up for a 5K last spring, my knees wouldn’t cooperate. I would sign up for two more 5K’s and a marathon over the next 12 months, but the outcome was the same: knees wouldn’t cooperate. So I resolved myself to the fact I will not be a runner.

So I got into outdoor workouts, those were fun. Not so much for my knees. I do have to have my right knee replaced, like soon (2014 – probably before Spring). Still – my knees have gotten progressively worse in the past five months, and…

…my staircase has become an obstacle.

Again.

Coupled (or quadrupled – it’s a glass half full/empty thing) with all of the changes I’ve gone through since surgery, this knee thing has slammed me into a corner. I mean, I lost 140lbs and am about in tears by the 14th step (remember: there are 19-I count them every day).

That’s where I was before the surgery, minus the tears.

It’s both pissed me off and gotten me depressed. Say what you will, all of my accomplishments over the past 29 months feel completely quashed over this. I am so disappointed right now.

Final note: THIS situation should have been included in the insurance mandatory pre-surgery seminars I had to attend.

How to do a Round Kick By Krav Maga Worldwide®

When I visited my friends/family in SoCal earlier this month, my buddy Jill took me to the MMA Academy she is a member at. She’s really into Krav Maga.

If you saw J-Lo kick the crap out of her abusive husband in “Enough”, you’ve got an idea what Krav Maga is about: self-defense, fitness, and fighting. Krav Maga is also the official Israeli Defense Forces defense system.

Check out AJ Draven below as he shows how Krav Maga Worldwide® performs a proper round kick.

The Today Show on Kim Kardashian’s Butt

Yesterday I posted a blippo about The Today Show bashing on Maria Kang.

Today on…um…Today, the Instagram picture of Kim Kardashian’s butt was profiled. For some unbelievable reason the producers today decided that…um…Today would have to censor her butt during the segment.

Really.

Bit ol’ round blurry bubble (when you read “round”, imagine how Jim Carry would exemplify Today’s bubble…um…today).

KK’s butt spreads across engulfs the entire screen (iPhone, iPad, laptop, flat-screen that takes up four feet of space). The Today Show all but gave her a golden globe (get it?? globe??) alongside their praise for Kim Kardashian’s selfie in suit that showed half a boob and most of her butt.

All KK’s bragging must have sent Hoda into rehab.

Shame on you Today…um…today…for the global crap-slap about a mom who’s all about a healthy lifestyle whilst a shower of NBC rain-bowed peacock feathers was poured out for the roundest, most spoiled snot of them all.

Today, you suck…um…today.

The Today Show on Maria Kang

Unless you’ve been in a coma, in a submarine on the bottom of the ocean, or under a rock, you know Maria Kang has taken some heat for her fitness picture.

A lot of heat.

During the first airing of The Today Show, Matt Lauer and the team ripped the picture apart. Later on second airing (Kathie Lee has named it “Booze-Day Tuesday”), Hoda Kotb made the attack personal.

“I don’t like people who brag about something good…I like to walk by and say, ‘wow, you look great, what are you doing?’ I don’t like it when someone says, ‘look at me.’ I think there are lots of examples of people that look great, but there’s something about the tone, and showing the body, that grosses me out…”. (Hoda Kotb, Today.com – next to her big glass of wine)

What a snot.

Maria Kang is a wife, momma, personal trainer, fitness blogger, in recovery from an eating disorder, business and non-profit entrepreneur…and a MODEL. She’s won eleven beauty and fitness titles. Maria is a cover model for Max Sports and Fitness, Sacramento Parent, as well as a guest writer/columnist for a number of magazines. Oh – and the entire Kang family was featured in Acura’s 2012 commercial.

The Today Show should have gotten all of their facts together. Maria Kang is an inspiration.

Oh…and Julie Gerstein: considering NBC had plastered Kang’s name everywhere, you might have had someone proofread your contribution on Tuesday – her name is MariA – not Marie.

 

Life Check: What AM I Doing To Myself???

I follow several fitness bloggers, my favorite being Steve & Bonnie Pfiester and their BCX Boot Camp page and LiveExercise program (um…no…really…I’m not a stalker). They have honest, practical, in-your-face content I just suck up.

Not to be confused with “suck it up” – that’s later.

Bonnie’s latest blog is about Celebrity Bodies, before and afters, what’s normal, etc. In her post she talks about what her weight typically looks like, what it looks like when she preps for photo shoots, and when staying a bit leaner. Bonnie also mentioned she’s been a bit more than her leanest weight, what makes her feel, miserable, and what twenty pounds more feels like.

I don’t want to quote her entire post. What I do want to quote is this: “We all have that weight where we feel our best, and mine is (go read the blog). That is a weight I feel good at, and I feel like I can maintain without being miserable.”

This is a frigging fantastic comment and one I cannot comfortably say. For while I’m incredibly happy I do not stare at numbers which loom slightly under the 400lb mark any longer (I still can’t wrap my head around that, I am not happy where I’m currently at – which is still another 55-60 pounds from my goal weight.

My goal isn’t out of reach. I know all I have to do is get off the lazy truck and do what I know I’m supposed to be doing. I have a lot of motivation: my friend Jill who weighed just ten pounds more than I did when we both embarked on our weight loss journeys (she threw herself into the gym – and that is an understatement!). My #1 Jesus Mum – Debi – who’s healthy as a little horse (seriously…”You’re not the boss of me”…totally takes on a whole new meaning) – she has mysteriously high cholesterol and sports several heart stints. I have online pals who follow my weight loss antics (okay…some are downright hysterical…I fall off stuff really well).

I have women in my life who when we do workout together, it’s a blast. It’s really infrequent. I get discouraged because we’ve had discussions on “Yah! This’ll be great!”. Commitment is an issue…and then my commitment to myself becomes an issue. I know it’s an excuse. I can’t tell you how challenging and fun it is to workout with someone. Working out alone is…alone. Dumb excuse.

Life check. What the heck AM I doing here???

For those of you on the post-op wagon who got off track, those friends who run when I invite them to play at the park, the other friends who’ve opened the weight loss door of discussion then flee like a warehouse fire erupted when I hold you to it: all in or all out? Longevity of life to chase nieces, nephews, grand-kids, spouses, Minions, new cute little man-babies (okay…I really, really, really like Beckham) do a pull-up.

I want to continue to be amazed at the little stuff: I can put another half of me in an airplane seat – where I use to spill over into the next one. I can cross my legs…like…all the time. I’ve been in the bathroom twice on the plane – to pee – but I can walk in without turning sideways…or knocking the toilet paper into vortex below.

Personally: I’m either 100% in or I’m 100% out. My health, though vastly improved, is not optimal. Physically – if I don’t get the remaining weight off I’m in for a real headache. Knee replacements are on the horizon, and one will have to be in the next 12-18 months. My back hurts where my spine curves. The added weight doesn’t help. My butt bounces when I run (I need a butt-bra). I want to do Cross Fit (I can do most of the stuff). I’d KILL to get up to the top of a muscle rope – right now I can’t even pull my body weight over a bar.

Time to get off truck of lazy and focus on making my life matter. Not just in the Jesus realm, in the physical too!

 

Saturday Boot Camp: No, Can’t, Sh**t

Someone cancelled out of boot camp last night, and my other participant was half an hour late this morning. So by the time she arrived at the park, I had already completed the warm-up & four rounds of the first set of exercises below.

I let her know the bar was moved up (generally this elicits a rather loud “oh no”), and that I had three rules:

–You are not allowed to tell me no, nor what you will or won’t do.
–You are not permitted to say “can’t”. That means you’ve already given up and that makes for a crap workout.
–You can’t say “sh**t” (it’s her favorite word).

Anne is a friend from church. She also works at my doctors office, knows my PCP and my weight loss doctor. Anne started seeing my personal trainer last year (I drug her to a session). Admittedly – I get after her quite a bit to be more active – she gets mega props though: she’s lost somewhere between 50 & 60lbs! For a woman who recently turned happily 60, that’s incredible!

Saturday Boot Camp WOD

Warm Up
Forward Lunges: 15 reps (each leg)
Side to Side Squats: 15 reps (each leg)
10 Incline Push Ups

Set 1:
Quick Step Ups: 20 reps (quick breather) and 20 reps (3x)
Incline Push Ups: 15 reps (3x)
Incline Jump Backs: 15 reps (think half-burpee with a bench) (3x)

Fourth Round: 30 seconds of each in set 1

Set 2:
High Knees: 30 seconds fast (3x)
Jumping Jacks: 15x (3x)

Fourth Round: 45 seconds of each in set 2

Set 3:
Dumbbell Swings: 10lbs – 30 reps (2x)
Toss & Squat: 6lb Medicine Ball – 15 reps (2x)  Anne ate the ball once