I am still going strong! It’s now been 18 days of burpees…

It’s hard to believe that I have done 900 burpees already! By time this challenge is over 5000 burpees will be completed: DAMN!

I had a great feeling of success today as I was pushing through my burpees. A guy was in the side room with me and saw what I was doing, when I was done I walked out to get water and when I came back in he was doing burpees!

I gave him a quick “great job” and he said I had impressed him with my intensity he had to give it a shot.

My time is getting better and better, below I am sharing my video of post burpees yesterday. I will go ahead and warn you though if you want to see a gorgeous fitness model with a fresh face then don’t watch it. I am sweaty, out of breath and proud of it!

Today I did better than my best with a record of 4.37 seconds! Wow was I tired by the end of those 4.37 minutes! How are you doing?

TIMING THOSE BURPEES! 

The Pretty

One of the ways I handled my anxiety and stress of the weekend (read below to see what happened) was with a kick ass workout yesterday. I pushed hard and today my body is sore from shoulders to my feet! It feels great.

Here was my workout:

Triset: Do each of these back to back without rest. Take a minute after the squats before doing it two more times.

• Split Squats (20 lb dumbbells) x 8/leg
• Squat with 25 lb plate x 14
• Jump squats x 10

Superset (3 sets):

• Dumbbell Pullover (35 lb) x 10
• Pull-ups x 6

For time:

• 10 Combo Burpees*

*Complete a full burpee, have a preweighted barbell in front of you, after you jump up from burpee… grab the bar and complete 5 standing shoulder presses. The burpee plus the presses = 1 Rep

I did 10 reps in 3 min 20 sec

Timed Interval-6 Rounds

• 15 foot shuffle
• 2 Commando push-ups

I set my interval timer to 25 seconds of work; 10 seconds of rest; a total of 6 rounds.

For 25 sec straight: Shuffle from one cone to one set up roughly 15 feet away, get down and do 2 commando push-ups; shuffle back to start and do push-up… repeat until time is up. Rest for 10 seconds and repeat.

So that’s that… exercise is my favorite stress buster. It’s the only time where I can completely clear my mind and just work. It’s very cathartic to me, and I find that I push harder when my anxiety is high.

The Ugly Weekend Events

This weekend was close to being the worst weekend either Dan or I have had together. Which is why it’s been a while since I have written.

As you know, a couple of weeks ago we adopted a kitten. She is the cutest little kitten in the world and she quickly, very quickly  wrapped us both around her little paw. So when we woke up on Friday morning and noticed she had some “goo” around her ear we immediately grew worrisome and took her to the vet.

At that time the vet couldn’t pin point an issue, said her ear looked fine and send us on our merry way. I wish it was that easy… that night she grew worst and by the morning it was clear something wasn’t right. So we bypassed our vet and went straight to the emergency vet.

The issue: severe infection! And her fever was way too high for a 2-pound kitten (normal is 102, her’s got up to 106 later that day). She refused to eat, couldn’t walk, and simply look miserable.

The outlook wasn’t looking good, and Dan and I were not handling the situation all too well (I am a very emotional person).  But we just got a call that her fever has come down and she’s finally started to eat on her own.

We are still not close to being out of the woods yet, but at least the outlook is a bit more positive than yesterday. I couldn’t stomach to be in our empty house working, so I am just now getting back to getting things done. Please keep our baby Nike in your thoughts!

This past Saturday (3/26) I did the Rugged Maniac Race with a trainer friend, Jeanette. If you haven’t heard about the Rugged Maniac then I definitely suggest checking it out… www.ruggedmaniac.com.

Me, Jeanette, and Tyler... Waiting For The Start

It is a 5K on steroids! With obsticles along the way! The first was a whole bunch of bamboo shoots that were laid out where you had no choice but to go under and over them. Next up we had the cargo ladder to climb, jump down around 15 feet and keep on going.

Next, a forest of tired. First run through them, then they were hanging so you had to push them out the way, and of course run through them once more.

More walls, some mud and chicken wire to crawl around in, water pits with floating pipes to “snake” over, tunnels to run…. well I guess you get the idea.

I was so glad that I thought to bring a change of clothes and shoes. All the running attire had to be trashed at the end! But it was fun, a great way to hang out with friends, feel accomplished and do something new!

I can’t wait to do another one! My time? 36:17. Not bad! I finished 26th out of 159 in my age group!

After the race there was a band and free beer, but I have never been one of those people that can go run my ass off and go straight to grab a drink, not to mention it wasn’t even 10 am when I finished!

I will admit, I am one of the few people out there who truly loves to exercise. And I’m pretty sure you could say I am addicted to it, which is fine for me because I have so many reasons to hit the gym.

You probably don’t think about it a lot, but why do you exercise? It is just to drop a few pounds, because you’ve got a vacation coming up or a wedding? What forces are motivating you to sweat?

Here are the top reasons why I wake up at 5:30 am to drive in the freezing cold to get my workouts done:

1. Energized… it gets my day off on the right foot and I feel energized and ready to go for the day. I feel accomplished by knocking it off my to-do list which makes me ready for the second thing on the list.
2. My body… it’s not vanity but it’s one of the biggest motivators for all of us. We know workingout burns calories and helps keep fat away. I want to look great not just for myself but for my husband as well. I have too many friends who have gained weight as soon as they said the words “I Do”… I Don’t want to do that.
3. Health… diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure all runs in my family. Hell if I want to have to deal with these things so I do everything I can to be the one not on Lipitor when I am in my 40s and 50s.
4. Aches and pains… I have a herniated disc in my lower back. Keeping a strong core is the best remedy to keep the aches and pains away. Staying fit allows me to live the active lifestyle I want, and gives me the ability to handle my very strenuous job (I teach gymnatics and am always spotting girls).
5. Stress relief… this is perhaps the biggest benefit I get from my workouts. When I feel like crap or when the stress of life builds up working out helps me let it out. I lift a little harder, do my intervals a little faster and get that built up energy out! It’s better than letting it out on my husband for sure.
6. Competition… this is more vanity I suppose. I have two competitions coming up… one obsticle course in March and a figure competition in April. I have to try and be the best I can be for both and these are big motivating factors. Have I ever mentioned how competitive I am? VERY!
7. My clients… as a trainer I want my clients to see me as a good example. What kind of trainer would I be if I said one thing and did the opposite. I want them to feel comfortable asking for advice and have the confidence in me that I know what I am talking about.

So that’s a bit about me… what about you? What gets you to the gym?

I finally took a progress picture this morning. Please excuse my appearance, I have no makeup on at all.

This morning I weighed in at 112 lbs; 21% body fat… this is not where I want to be… I don’t mind the weight, thought it’s ok if I even gain a few pounds but I am working to lean down a bit. I would like to be around 16-18% body fat. This is where I look and feel the best.

Getting there is actually going to be simplified thanks to Lent. I am giving up chocolate and sugar. Not that I eat a tons of candy, but I do eat chocolate a lot, it’s my weakness.

Workouts are being upped still with 1-2 extra days of cardio and yoga. Love the yoga!

I will give an update with new pictures next week!

February 15, 2010

2-15-2010 Progress Picture #1 (sorry no make-up)

Please excuse the mess in my kitchen… it was an extremely busy weekend!

I don’t care if you’re a football fan or not, Rudy is one of the best movies of all time. Any time you need a great pick me up it’s a great one. Here is the ultimate speech to get you on your feet and get you to go workout!

It’s almost the 3rd week of January, which means in the next two weeks most women are going to quite going to the gym and quit on their weight loss goals. Going back to fast food, no workouts, and wishing that this year could be different. Is that going to be you? Not if I can keep you pumped up!

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy!

Here’s a killer workout of the week to blast calories and tone your entire body!

TGIF Fat Burning Workout

• 10 Push-ups
• 13 Body weight squats
• 10 Ballet Kicks (10 per side)
• 8 DB Clean and press (each side)
• 12 Stability Ball Jack Knives
• 20 Jumping Jacks

Do these exercises back to back with little or no rest. Once you’ve done them all rest for 1-2 minutes and try to complete the circuit again, aim for a total of 3 rounds.

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