12 Week Oxygen Challenge

Alrighty!  I’m going to start off telling you that my computer is having major SLOW issues!  This post will be short and sweet due to my lack of patience!  I have a WONDERFUL trip to report on and an AMAZING 12 week challenge that I’m about to EMBARK on coming up TOMORROW!!!

I have been waiting through the longest month to get started on this.  With my injuries and knowing I’m starting a strict challenge, my exercise and healthy eating life have taken a small dive!  Yesterday I took before pictures and went through the whole measurement thing.  I’m going to weight myself a lot, but I’ll only do measurements and progress pictures every 2 weeks.  This is what I’ll be talking about clear up until October 7th!!!  Seems so far away!  I’m excited to get in the best shape of my life.  My stress fracture is healing up awesomely and hopefully I’ll be able to step it up big time next week!  I do have a small snag in my calendar this week.  For 3 days we’ll be on Pioneer Trek.  I won’t be by a gym (: nor will I be eating exactly what I should, but at least I’ll be walking and walking and walking!

First off, back to my wonderful and amazing trip to SAN DIEGO!  Last December, I purchased 2 tickets to ONE DIRECTION for my 14 year old daughter.  Best money spent!  This trip was a dream come true for her and I was so happy to be a part of it.

We had so much fun being inseparable for 3 days!  We rented a cute mustang convertable and drove all over.  My brother lives close by so we stayed with him and did a few things with his family.  His cute twins enjoyed riding in the backseat as we cruised around singing!  We loved the beach, shopping, sight seeing, and of course One Direction!  Just watching my daughter at the concert was entertainment enough with her crying, jumping up and down, and screaming!  I was quite proud of myself for my mad navigating skills.  I never imagined a concert so huge!  It was in a football stadium that was completely sold out.  65-70 thousand people!  Not to mention Comic Con was going on at the same time and I guess San Diego is headquarters to that big deal too!  Here are some pictures from the trip!

As for my challenge, I’ll get ONE good day in and then be AWOL for a few.  I’ll be following the plan 100%  Back to My Fitness Pal too!  I took a little break from that!  After reading through the material and nutrition program, I wasn’t surprised by anything!  Mostly, I need to remember to eat more often, protein, drink water, and eat lots of veggies.  I haven’t seen the workouts yet, kind of dying to see them!  I’ll be back soon with Trek adventures and tips on how to STAY in the game with being healthy!  My FAVORITE way to be!  I also have a slew of family coming to town right now!  We’ll be hoppin’!!  (:  Remember:

Get fitter and healthier this summer!

Hello and Happy First Day of Summer!!!

Today was a successful and accomplished day!  I’m writing this between 2 baseball games so I’ll be quick!

Last weekend our family went camping for 2 days with my brother and his family.  When I say camping I mean 40 minutes away up a beautiful canyon sleeping in tent trailers and having my brother and his wife cook for us!  I love camping so much! (:  I did contribute the SMORES which I have to admit I went a little overboard!!  I really need to kick the habit of pigging out on the weekend.  This is the funniest thing!  One of my healthy challenge participants emailed me her weight loss success on her Garmin!!  It’s FANTASTIC!!

Now take a look at mine!

What the heck is wrong with me!?  That giant spike is 3 days!  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (:  I have to say though I don’t believe it’s all REAL weight, whatever that means, because when I get home I lose about a pound a day for a few days!  SOOOO my new goal for the rest of the year is… to only have 3 TREAT days a month!  I have officially murdered my New Year’s Goals so now that I’m half way through the year I’m only going to work on this ONE goal!  I think that was my problem, I had too many goals!  What I really want to work on is recording EVERYTHING in MY FITNESS PAL.  When I want to eat too much of everything, I don’t record it (:  I don’t think I could handle seeing 5000 calories on one day!  I have also been ULTRA diligent with my Jamie Eason weight workouts.  Haven’t missed a day in 3 weeks except for last Saturday when we were hiking!  And once again after a strict clean diet, weightlifting is where it’s at!  I really need to cut out cardio next week because my stupid achilles pain flares up every time I do cardio!  I sat down and mapped out my SUMMER WORKOUT SCHEDULE!  This is like Christmas for me (:  Some days I’m sure it won’t be this exactly.

MONDAY: Track weight workout/High Fitness

TUESDAY: Weights/High Fitness

WEDNESDAY: RUN/Weights

THURSDAY: High Fitness/Weights

FRIDAY: Weights/High Fitness

SATURDAY: RUN/Weights

On some of those non running days I will add 20-30 minutes of interval sprints on the treadmill.  When I say weights, I work a different muscle group every day.

This is an example:

Monday:Biceps/Triceps/Abs

Tuesday:Legs

Wednesday: Chest/Abs

Thursday: Shoulders

Friday: Legs

Saturday: Back/Rear Delts

O.K.  Summer is much easier for me to workout since I don’t have to worry about my 6 year old.  He has brothers and sisters galore to play with him.  I thought of something so PROFOUND the other day.  I discovered that when I start to crave something that is not very healthy to eat, it is because I AM HUNGRY!!  Amazing!  So!!  What do I do?  I stop what I’m doing a grab some food out of the fridge and eat yummy healthy food!  After that I am fine and I forget about my cravings!  So, EAT!!  Just for fun, here is what I ate today from My Fitness Pal!

My Dinner!

I only have one small body fat percentage point I want to lose!  I’ll post the whole page of this body composition deal they do at the gym!  It’s interesting and motivating!

Well, I need to be off!  I’ll end with pics from the trip!!  So FUN!!  We especially LOVED the hike to Lake Mary and were surprised by all the snow!!  Ha Ha!!

Stick with the program and serious abs

Happy September and back to school!  I’m happy Fall is in the air.  I love seeing the leaves change and having a new change of pace.  I love the harvest decorations, the cooking, and smells of the season!  We are remodeling our yard and peach trees are on the list.  My favorite!

O.K. first matter of business, FOOD!  Our weekend in Heber was a MAJOR stay strong challenge for me.  I don’t want to even talk about all the amazing good food goin’ on up there.  I didn’t cheat once amidst chocolate chip cookie pie, grilled pizza, shakes, and more.  I’m proud of myself and I’m proud of this healthy meal I whipped up last night and then ate today for lunch!

It’s spaghetti squash with pasta sauce and zucchini and a salad with tuna on top.  Did you know that real whole food tastes so much better when you’re not eating processed and sugary food?  I am weird, but my vitamin drink tastes so good to me!  I will say that while everyone was over eating and experiencing stomach pain on our trip, I was feeling great.  No stomach issues.

Next, working out.  I’ve loved my workouts over the past week minus my RUNNING! I’m doing perfect with my eating healthy, but I think I’m eating more like a body builder and less like a runner.  They are not the same!  That’s o.k. I’m going to add more calories 2 weeks before my half. I’ll give a full detail of my eating lifestyle in about 10 days. Let’s just say, I’ve never felt better and all my clothes fit perfect.  The more I lift the more I like it.  It’s my happy place.  This is the workout I did with my church group this week.  I loved the core and abs throughout.  Move fast and get it done in an hour!  We did each exercise for a minute and a half and then rested for 20-30 seconds between sets.  Do each station 3 times before moving to the next station.  My obliques are still sore two days later.

Station 1 X 3

Donkey Kicks alternating with ab jacks

Rear Delts

Burpees

Station 2 X 3

Tricep Dumbbell kickbacks

Walking Planks

Frog Hops

Station 3 X 3

Arnold Press

Tick Tock Abs

Ladders

Station 4 X 3

Hand Release Push Ups

Leg Lifts 

High Knees

I’ll finish with a few pics. from the trip and one outfit.  Life is definitely hoppin’!  I have many priorities and projects that I’m working on.  I’m grateful I can do so much and still stay sane and happy.  (:  Have a happy weekend.  FOOTBALL!

Soldier Hollow-Sheepdog Championships

Ignore the porta potties. My daughter must have overlooked our background!

Top-J Crew
Capris-LA Idol

 

 

Hello Trails!

We had a birthday to celebrate amongst my friends today which called for our first trail run of the season!  Every time we head east, 2 minutes away from our homes and run up the mountain and above the city, we are always truly grateful that we live so close to such a beautiful place.  It was the perfect temperature too!  It’s 7 miles up and down.  Only one of us crashed on the way down this time.  Battle scars rock!

It’s such a great time of year to get active and moving!  I have my first client set up to personal train too!  Do I have any idea where to start?  Not really.  I called a friend of mine who is a personal trainer and who’s done a fitness competition too and I’ll have her give me a few pointers.  I know what I want, but I think my challenge will be devising a plan that someone else wants.  It’ll be fun of course.  The teaching part of my fit life might be on hold for a bit right now too.  Changes to the gym are not making me too happy and my favorite class has been cancelled.  Not a big deal.  Monday I’m going to get back into my Jamie Eason weight training and get very serious about my diet.  I looked up the fitness competition I want to do and it’s on October 19th!!!  5 months.  Next week I’m hoping to meet with trainers from Team Huegly and then I’ll get rolling.  It’ll be a fun challenge and I’m looking forward to learning a lot.

Life is too short.  Do what you love and go after every dream!  I need to get working on my yard and adding more plants and flowers.  Next week I’ll share my before and after shots of the front of my house that I want to work on.  We picked up a bunch of potted plants and hanging baskets this week and they are perfectly calming to me.  Here are a few from my yard.

Chocolate chip cookies are perfectly calming to me too!!  Yum!

Be happy and have a Fit and Fabulous weekend!!

 

 

Throw back 20 years and a CLEANSE!!!

HI and Happy April Fools Day!!!!  My kid’s have been playing jokes on me and each other all day and it reminded me of one of the funniest pranks we did 20 years ago!!   I was away at college and some of our guy friends broke into our apartment and ransacked the place, putting goopy stuff all over and messing with the doorknobs and shower heads, pretty much everything.  We turned around after we de-pranked the whole place and told them our manager saw it and was so mad.  He wanted us to pay for the damages and we wouldn’t get our deposits back, etc.  They totally believed us and felt so bad.  We even had a “fake” manager call and chew them out.  Eventually we gave in and told them the truth, but it made for a GREAT LAUGH!!!!!  So….for April Fools Day you get a THROW BACK 20 YEARS DAY!!!!  Fun times!  I’m amazed the pictures scanned across so well!

I think I had just got done working out. Natural high!

My BRO!

First ROOMIE and BFF!

The April Fool’s Group!

NEXT… my APRIL 1ST stay strict health plan.  I’m not setting any time frame on this or goal weights or whatever and I’m not saying it’s a DIET.  I’m following a HEALTHY EATING LIFESTYLE.  First off, I need to do a 4-day cleanse and THIS is not a JOKE!!  I’m actually, really CRAZY!!  Here it is:

DAY 1- No food, only water or zero calorie drink.

DAY 2- 2 cups of V8 plus DAY 1

DAY 3- 2 fruit servings, 2 veggie servings, and DAY 1 and DAY 2

DAY 4- 24 grams of protein plus DAY 1, DAY 2, and DAY 3

I’m going back to weighing myself this month too.  That no scale thing backfired a little bit.  WISH ME LUCK!!!  I’ll post the results and how I feel at the end.  This is a RELAXED week for us since the kids are out of school.  I’m teaching  a boot camp class twice this week at the gym!!  YAY!  I have to say something quick about the body building competition too!!  What do you think?  Did I like it?  Of course I did!!!  It really wasn’t that big a deal, very low key.  We had to watch all the guys before the girls even came on though and that got REALLY OLD!!!!  We talked with a few people around us and the ones I thought looked the best were doing it for the first time.  It’s a LOT of time, money, and everything else.  I’m sure most people think it’s too extreme, vain, immodest, or just plain insane.  We’ll see.  I need to get my PT certification first!  Maybe I could train for a show in NOVEMBER!  I would love to do that before I turn 4-0!!!  Here’s a small pic. of some of the winners of last year’s show.

Have a BUFF day!

Arms/Abs and Total Body

As I look through workouts and photos on the computer I think some people are a little bit over PSYCHO on their physiques.  Whenever I think I’m a little crazy, I needn’t look far to find a WHOLE lot of people crazier than me.  I like a lean muscular body, but serious overkill muscles on men and women is NOT attractive.  I don’t even want to post example pictures.  You know what I’m talking about!  I’m sure some people think the photos I post are still too muscular.  So whatever, do what you like as long as you take GOOD care of your body!!  Yesterday I had a GREAT workout at the gym I want  to post and my WEDNESDAY WORKOUT.  First of all, I love this:

For years I was a CARDIO fanatic.  Recently, I’ve gotten into lifting weights and it has made me LOVE my body more now than when I was 20.  Weights will change your body like nothing else.  I love running, but so many people run and run and run.  FOR WHAT?!  It won’t get you anywhere.  Add weights and cut back on the running and you’ll be MUCH happier and healthier!!  Enough chat, here is a killer ab and arm workout I did thanks to JAMIE EASON.  I tweaked it a little and then ran 5 miles afterward (:  Hee hee, I still like to run, just not HUGE miles!

SUPERSET WITH 30 SECOND REST BETWEEN SETS 

3 SETS OF 12

 

Wide grip barbell bench press

 

Bench Dips

SUPERSET 3 X 15 

 

Pushups

 

Cable Crossover

SUPERSET 3 X 15

 

Smith Machine Incline Bench Press

 

Jack Knife sit ups or Leg Lifts holding weight plate above head

SUPERSET 3 X 15 AND 30 CRUNCHES ON BALL

 

Side to side pushups

 

Exercise ball crunch

SUPERSET 3 X 15 AND 30 MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

 

Cable Crunch

 

Mountain Climbers

My arms were shaky and sore and my abs really felt it.  I think the cable crunch was what got them.  Doing something different will get you every time!!  I have LOVED Jamie Eason’s workouts!  She has a 12 week program I have followed sporadically.  I just recommitted myself to do the last 8 weeks of the program again AND (big KEY here) FOLLOW THE DIET!!!!!  I even took before pictures to help motivate me!!  I’m 3 days in!  I have a goal to have my body fat tested too, so with that in mind I WILL stick to my 8 weeks.  NO SUGAR is really all I need to remember!!!  O.K.  Here is WORKOUT #2

8 EXERCISES AT 1 MINUTE EACH FOR 5 ROUNDS  (My workout friends like to talk.  I had to remind them to push hard, keep going, and to move to the next exercise fast.  We didn’t take breaks.  Only quick water breaks if needed.)

FROG HOPS

BICEP IN AND OUTS

THRUSTERS

TRICEP PUSHUP

STEP UPS WITH WEIGHT

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

SIDE TO SIDE LUNGES

PUSH UPS

I ❤ ABS more than any exercise.  Legs are a close second.  We did a great AB BLAST at the end.  Complete 2 times

50 CRUNCHES

40 MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

30 SIDE CRUNCHES

20 IN AND OUTS

10 SCISSORS

20 IN AND OUTS

30 SIDE CRUNCHES

40 MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS

50 CRUNCHES

We discussed stretching too.  Some of the girls are having injuries and I told them how important it is to stretch, especially AFTER working out!!  IT HELPS A TON!!  Here is a chart I found that is very informative.

Last but not least, strong chicks.

KEEP PUMPING AWAY!!!

Sweat

Push

Bring it!!