Transforming Violets in May!!!

I have been missing in action again. This was an unplanned computer break. To make a long story short, I had an appointment with my doctor Monday afternoon. I forgot to ask y’all to pray for me, but I went to have a place on my arm checked. I suffered a blistering burn in high school and have been watching a spot for years that started changing recently. It turns out that I do not have skin cancer, which is a good thing. It is something else, but thankfully it is not likely to result in cancer. I do believe God led me to schedule this appointment. Peace of mind is nice, but my doctor also gave me a good kick in the butt about my weight. I am having hormonal problems, and I have a weight goal for the Road Trip now. I weighed 216 pounds Monday afternoon. My doctor wants me to shed 36 pounds sooner rather than later. We can regulate my hormones with birth control pills, but it is not worth the risk at my current weight. Several of his patients have lost over 100 pounds in less than a year. I am greatly encouraged because they did not resort to pills or surgery or a legalistic diet. He prescribed cardio, cardio, and more cardio for me. He wants me to do 90 minutes of cardio at least 5 days a week and preferably 6 days a week. My eating and calories are right on target according to him, but he told me that I am not exercising enough. Oh my! I am grateful that he did not counsel me to cut my calories, but I was shocked when he told me that 60 minutes of exercise a day is not enough for significant weight loss at my age and size! Apparently, being more than 50 pounds overweight causes hormonal changes and makes it more difficult to shed the stubborn fat.

I went to my friend’s cardio boot camp class Monday after work. She is in total agreement with everything my doctor told me. It has worked for me in the past. It is the only thing that has worked for me. My Cathe rotation is solid, so I am planning to supplement with a second cardio session after work. My personal trainer friend and my doctor both reminded me that I can split my workouts into more than one session. My friend and all her clients are in amazing shape, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for her.

I figured out how to use the self-timer on my digital camera this week and took a self-portrait wearing my Cathe “embrace the challenge” baseball tee. It does not look as bad as I imagined. I still have a long way to go, but I can do this.

My morning workouts so far this week have been Rhythmic Step Sunday morning, Drill Max cardio leg blast premix Monday morning, Body Max 2 cardio and weights premix Tuesday morning, and Cardio Kicks this morning. I did my friend’s cardio boot camp class Monday after work and bounced on my rebounder last night. I wasted several hours tonight resolving a customer service issue with my phone company. I was hoping to go to the club and jog in the pool with Rebecca, but that did not happen. I am crashing a friend’s wedding tomorrow night, so my second workout will not likely happen. I am avoiding the pit of legalism and giving myself a lot of grace with my second workout of the day. My game plan is to stick with my planned Cathe rotation every morning and supplement with extra cardio in the evening when I have time and energy to do so. I know from experience that wearing myself out will backfire on me in the long run. My second workout of the day will usually be something gentle like rebounding, jogging in the pool, or enjoying a nice walk at the lake. The club just bought all new cardio machines that are equipped with LCD TVs. I can ride the recumbent bike and watch a movie or other show. I want to try the new arc trainer too. As I have shared before, I am a morning glory girl. My Cathe workouts are what I do for results. My extra cardio after work needs to be fun, joint-friendly, relaxing, and not over the top in intensity.

Low Impact Circuit is in my DVD player for tomorrow morning. If I get home too late from my friend’s wedding tomorrow night, I will check-in again over the holiday weekend.

Blessings,
Heather B.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).
 
Good Morning Heather and Jean!

Heather: I would definately split up that cardio if I were you. 90 mins 5-6 days a week is ALOT especially if you still want to weight train...which I personally think you should do atleast 2x per week for now. You could do an hour work out of 30 mins cardio/30 mins weights in the morning and then do a solid hour of cardio at night or something like that and you'd only have to do the weights a couple times per week! Good luck with it hon!

Well I think I am going to attempt Shape It Up right NOW! I have time before my spin class starts and DS is not up yet. I can always finish it later on. I just can't imagine I'll be wanting to do an 80+ plus minute work out AFTER spin! I've done work outs after that class but this one is LOOOOONG!

Have a great day folks!
 
Good morning, Wendy! I am not off the hook with weight training. My doctor and my personal trainer friend still want me to get 90 minutes of weight work in every week. I can do 45 minutes twice a week or 30 minutes 3 times a week or 15 minutes a day. I am sticking with my 12-week rotation and adding extra cardio. I am planning to do a 3-week CTX Series rotation in June, so that will cover cardio and weights every morning. I will just need to add extra cardio after work. This is my general game plan for the other weeks of my Cathe rotation:

Sunday morning - step cardio
Monday morning - lower body circuit (or cardio and lower body weights)
Tuesday morning - upper body circuit (or cardio and upper body weights)
Wednesday morning - cardio kickboxing
Thursday morning - total body circuit
Friday morning - stretching
Saturday morning - cardio and lower body weights (or cardio and total body weights) and abs/core

After work, I can bounce or jog on my rebounder or jog in the pool or walk or ride the recumbent bike at the club for my bonus cardio. I am going with a planned morning workout and a spontaneous evening workout for a good balance between consistency and variety.

Hugs to Jean!

Blessings,
Heather B.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).
 
Heather, Glad to hear you aren't letting the weight work go. SOOOO very important!:)

Shape It Up, Spin class, 13 chin ups and Cool It Off Express (stretch) are all DONE! I have earned my rest day tomorrow YEAY ME! LOL :p ;) :7

BBL!
 
Hi Heather and Wendy

Wow, Heather, I was quite surprised to read your post. I've never heard of a doctor ordering 90 min of cardio a day. If that's what he wants, just make sure that a lot of it is low impact (walking, swimming, jogging in the pool) otherwise you are setting yourself up for an injury. You might ask your doctor if you need to increase your protein to make sure you are getting enough to support the activity. And of course you will need complex carbs for the energy.

Wendy, do you do your chin ups one right after the other or do you put something in between? when I was younger, the most I ever did was 4. As for the spin class, no this wasn't the first time. I think the first time I tried it was back around Christmas and loved it from the very first class. I just wish I could get there more often. I'm not use to working out at night and definitely out of the habit of going to the gym. So even on the nights that I don't work late, I just don't think about it. But I've been keeping my workout bag in the car to remind me. Now if they had a class at 5:00 in the mornings, I would probably be there.

Today, I did GS Legs premix. Don't know what I'm doing tomorrow.

Jean
 
I am tired on this rainy night, so this will be another quick check-in. Low Impact Circuit was my morning workout. No evening workout as expected. My friend’s wedding was lovely. I arrived an hour ahead of time to make the final meal preparations. I resisted the fried potatoes, the yeast rolls with garlic butter, and the green beans with bacon and garlic butter. The chicken was smothered in mushrooms and did not tempt me at all. I did indulge in a glass of sweet tea and a small piece of wedding cake. It was yummy! Before I left work, I imagined myself resisting the wedding cake. I was not expecting a cake like this:

http://pic1.picturetrail.com/VOL1120/3778596/16572193/255004056.jpg

Yes, it was as good as it looks! Tomorrow is a new day. I have already enjoyed my treat for the week, so Saturday will be a clean eating day. I am looking forward to the holiday weekend.

I have shared before that I quit drinking almost 13 years ago. Here is a piece of advise for you. Do not put a non-drinker in charge of opening bottles of wine at your wedding. I broke the corkscrew and got the metal part stuck in the cork of the first bottle I opened. LOL!

Jean, I generally eat around 1,800 calories a day. Yes, I will be doing a lot of gentle cardio like rebounding and jogging in the pool. I am also careful to only do step every other day.

Blessings,
Heather B.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).
 
Hi Ladies.

Today is a well earned rest day for me but I will either be running the boardwalk or using my bands from my hotel room tomorrow!}(

Jean: I can do 3 chin ups in a row w/o stopping at most. The more sets I do the lower that # will go. I usually break up the sets w/in whatever work out I am doing with them. I just break at points in my work out and jump on the chin up bar!:) I hope you get better at remembering to hit spin. It's SUCH a great work out! After finally going to the class consistently for about 6 or 8 weeks I am getting better at it. I am finally able to handle more. }(

Heather: LOL at the story about the corkscrew! That's funny. :)

Have a great weekend!
 
Heather, I'm drooling right now. Now we need to start a new thread so I don't have to scroll down over that picture everday for the next week. LOL
As for me and wine bottles, I need the new screw off top. Good thing I'm not much of a wine drinker. I always have DH open them.

Wendy, have fun running on the board walk. Hope the weather is nice. We are having icky rain. but I'm not complaining, because if we have rain now, then next weeekend it will not rain for my dh's neice's wedding. At least I hope not.

This morning was LIC upper body premix. That was a nice work out. Maybe tomorrow I can get up and make it to the weekend spin class. If I could regularly go twice I a week that would be great.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

O/T ever notice how many times our thread is read. We posted 60 something times this month and its been viewed over 600 times. Is it just us looking at the thread that many times or are there lurkers? Hello to everyone.

Jean
 
I am still running the race and fighting the good fight. I confess that I am battling a strong temptation to send the white flag up the pole. The thought of working out twice a day again is overwhelming. I got used to coming home after work and relaxing. Translation: I got lazy! I have not yet been able to get back on track with double workouts other than my friend’s class once a week. I am hoping that the fresh start a new month brings will inspire me. You would think the Road Trip would be motivating me. I definitely have a challenge before me. It is not unique, but I am.

Yesterday’s workout was Stretch Max, and today’s workout was the Butts and Guts warm-up, leg blast premix, and abs. I am reworking my rotation to add the extra cardio my doctor prescribed. Adding it on top of everything else I was planning to do is too much. One of my problems is that I am tired. I have been getting to bed too late every night. I need to take this week to catch up on my sleep so I can have the energy to take on this new challenge.

When I returned home from church tonight, I was delighted to see a ladybug running around in my living room! That was my warm fuzzy for the day. This was a restful day. It was a rainy morning, and I stayed in and relaxed.

I did have some progress to celebrate yesterday in another area. I received a note that the maintenance guys would be doing a quarterly inspection. It took me less than 5 minutes to get ready for them. I usually stay up all night cleaning and clearing clutter before anyone enters my home. I am thankfully making good progress in some areas of my life. My finances are improving every month too. We will not talk about my weight. I am not looking forward to posting my official results this month.

Jean, sorry I cannot edit my post. Close your eyes and scroll down fast! We only have a few more days left in this month.

Wendy, have fun this weekend!

Blessings,
Heather B.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1 NIV).
 
Good morning everyone. It feels like a Monday, but at least it will be a short week. This morning I got up and did some mix and match from BM including the upper body segment. It was a nice change.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. DH had a friend help him tile our powder room. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time making trips to Home Depot and Loews. I went to the movies with a friend. We saw Shrek. It was cute, not as funny as the other ones though. Sunday night DH and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean, At World's End. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. (who wouldn't enjoy watching Orlando Bloom?) If you go make sure you stay for the scene after the credits. We missed it, but I read about it on a web site.

gotta run. Have a great week.

Jean
 
Good Afternoon ladies!

Well I didn't have time to do Tear It Up today which is what I had scheduled so I decided to do my own thing using weights and bands:

Mini upper body circuit done twice:
15 push ups on toes
3 pull ups (+ 2 extra pull ups at the end )
15 bicep curls
15 over head tricep presses
8 front/8 side shoulder raises

Then:
24 single/8 pulsing squats
32 deadlifts
36 standing/36 squatting fireburners total
24 plie squats
56 inner thigh lifts each leg
50 calf raises

Tonight I am probably going to go to the gym with DH and run. It's not on the schedule but I feel like I need it for many reasons.

Friday was my rest day but on saturday at the hotel I did Itread set 5/40 minutes plus my own full body work out using the bands and body weight exercises. Sunday & Monday I rested again.

I am very much suffering the affects of a long weekend of drinking and eating to excess as well as not getting enough rest. It will take me the week to recover! LOL
 
Good Morning!

I did Core Cardio and 6 min abs y'day.

Today is Spin class and Tone It Up + chin ups.

Have a great day!:)
 
Hello Violets. I did not get a chance to post yesterday. Workout was Legs and Glutes. This moring I did not have time for a workout because I was up to the wee hours of the morning cleaning for company coming into town.

Eating is good though. Hope everyone else is doing great.

Jean
 

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