***We're In This Together*** (May 2013)

Hello Friends.
Just checking in to say Hello. First week of work went good to fair. My stress and pressure showed its ugly face on Friday so ended up apologizing to the trainer. Trainer shows favourtism to one person but that person's performance later on will suffer for it. Other than that, life is good. Many people I know have experienced almost as much anxiety going back to work after a long period of time similiar to being laid off.
My class is mainly younger and think they'll smarter. Oh well. All of them of heavier and with health issues. A guy in my group is 25, almost 100 pounds overweight, intelligent and has fibromaylgia and arthritis much to do with his heaviness.
Have a more positive feeling about next week. Glad the first week is over.
Thanks for letting me vent. Hope to do personals later.

Happy Mothers Day!!

Jen

So glad your first week went well! That's too bad about the overweight fellow. If only people knew just how great they would feel if they worked out and ate healthy.
 
Morning ladies! Quickie post before I gotta go get ready for work. :)

Yesterday, I did Afterburn. Then... something weird happened. I decided to do the Core 2 bonus from XTrain. :eek: Me, crunches? lol :p I figured it's been a looong while since I really committed to doing some so I thought I'd try it out. It made me realize that HoCo has REALLY strengthened my lower abs, obliques and low back but my medial and upper rectus muscles must get a little less direct work since they were screaming during Core 2! :eek: I'm going to try and add a little of that in here and there when I'm feeling tolerant. hehe ;)

Tomorrow my family is going to go visit my grandma (93). She's my dad's mother and is my last living grandparent. She lives in a nursing home now. After that, we are planning to go out to dinner for my mom.

Natty- that lunch sounds fantastic! YUM! Usually Mark and I do breakfast in bed for each other on mother's/father's day and that's about it. We don't like to make a big deal. It's simply too stressful trying to figure out great presents every year for each other. lol

Sarah- I don't do anything for my MIL. Honestly, we barely talk to her...although Mark will usually (out of obligation) call or visit her briefly on her birthday and Mother's day. She has a strained relationship with all of her children, most especially Mark. Unfortunately, she's quite the piece of work. :(

Darn, gotta run...Waving HI to Marie and Jen!

WTG on AB and Core2. That one is killer! Glad to see you're seeing improvement from HoCo.

Have fun tomorrow and enjoy your Mother's Day! I'm sure your gma will love the visit. You know me and old folks. Just love them!
 
If I don't post tomorrow...
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO MY AWESOME LADIES!!!
Your kids (AND kitties, Jen) are very lucky to have such amazing mommies :)

I didn't post yesterday because Mark and I went out to lunch for Mother's Day :). I WENT ALL OUT :eek:. We shared an appetizer w/baked goat cheese, roasted garlic, fig sauce, pita slices :p. I had this cinnamon Goldschlager Martini, but I think they skimped on the alcohol cuz' I didn't taste a damn thing :mad:. My main was an Asian salad w/flank steak and noodles. Mark and I shared dessert which was an apple crumble w/ice cream and caramel :p:p. All in all, it was a very tasty lunch :p. Since the restaurant we went to is in a mall, we walked around for about 1 1/2hrs afterwards so our food would go down. We were nice and full :eek::).

My w/o yesterday was Bulk Legs. For some reason I'm not feeling the DOMS I did with Build Legs :confused:. I want to start incorporating some hip thrusts and firewalker's after this w/o is done -- it's only 40min. I'm really missing them!

So I was tempted to do something Thurs. I've really worked so hard to build up my heart stamina with hiit/tabata cardio -- I really don't want to lose that! So I wanted to see if it was still "up to par"...enter CF Triple Tabata premix. For the low impact Tabata, I subbed jump rope (with an actual rope!) while Cathe was doing the disc jacks -- definitely harder that way. Yup, I still got it ;). I think it's because I'm still doing the 1X hiit workout/week with BB. They say hiit/tabata is a good cardio of choice while you are building muscle, so hopefully I didn't screw anything up by doing CF.

Sarah
I actually like my MIL. I would rather do something nice for her than my own mother (sad, but true). We usually just get the moms a card and some flower's, but we don't go above and beyond.

Happy Mother's Day to you too. Enjoy that sweet Bella! She is such a doll!

Yum-O! Your lunch sounds amazing! Way to indulge. Got to do that every now and then.
 
Today was Bootcamp from Intensity Series. I love that one, so much fun. I am very sore in my butt from AB on Thurs. as well as my bi-ceps from yesterday. So I did different exercises if it felt to uncomfortable.

It's probably going to be a very busy weekend for everyone.. Trying to take care of Mother's Day for everyone. Do you guys do nice stuff for your MIL? I'm not, I used to. But the way I figure it, she's not my Mother ; ) But I do have to come up with some genius idea for my mom.

Sarah

Happy Mother's Day! I call my MIL on Mother's Day but that it. Love her for sure but I don't even give my mom a gift. I send a nice card and of course call her too. I send my stepmom a text. Tony and I aren't too much into gifts for some reason. We would rather spend time with the person. He will be spending the day with his mom tomorrow. I'm in CO right now so my sis and I will be together all day which will be nice. Tony says he has a surprise for me when I get home. Oh my, love surprises lol!
 
Checking in from CO....

Erin, the kids, and I took 2 awesome hikes today, each about 5 miles. Loving my sister time! And the cousins are loving each other. It's so fun to watch them interact :)

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OMG, Marie could they be any cuter?!?! I don't think so! :eek: Wowza! :D Mark and I aren't into gift giving either. It's always such a stressful practice for me for some reason! I stress out about getting something someone will like...knowing they appreciate the thought but aren't usually over the moon about the actual object they are getting. ;) As for when I get presents, Mark knows I'd rather just pick out my own present! lol It's stressful for him, too! :eek:
My whole family has gotten away from exchanging gifts, actually. We just prefer to get together for family time. We love getting together at restaurants and just generally getting rowdy laughing and joking with each other. :)

Gotta cut this short if I'm gonna get my workout in before visiting grandma! I'm aiming for HoCo 101 and STS Meso 2 legs with my brand spanking new weighted vest!! Did I tell you guys I got this??? I can't remember! Well, here it is: Amazon.com: MIR® - 30LBS WOMEN ADJUSTABLE WEIGHTED VEST: Sports & Outdoors Sorry if I'm repeating myself...I'm too lazy to look back and see if I told you guys I got this already! :confused: :eek:

I'll catch up with more personals tomorrow. Have a HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY everybody!!! :D
 
Hope everyone had a good day yesterday. Mine did NOT go the way I wanted :(. I was kinda guilted into spending the afternoon with my mother. So needless to say it was not a very relaxing day for me :rolleyes:. Oh well, c'est la vie :(.

I already did a 5 mile Leslie walk today. Bella is so cute, she joined along :). Tonight's w/o will be BB cardio + abs.

Super excited about the nice DOMS I got from Bulk Arms! I really pushed myself with bi's & tri's -- I know they need it! I feel like they are slowly but surely getting stronger, and I can see more muscle definition too :D.

So I emailed Nia for appropriate exercise subs (for exercises that need a machine) and she promptly got back to me! I was really surprised and happy about that :).

Colleen & Marie
Mark and I have been wanting to do the "no gift" thing w/family for a long time now, but for some reason they act like such sucky babies :rolleyes::confused:. God forbid you don't give someone a gift :rolleyes: and then they "subtly" complain and put on the guilt trip. It's downright childish of you ask me! I always tell everyone that I don't need gifts, I have everything I need. One Christmas I suggested that the money we would have spent on gifts, go towards a charity. Ya, that didn't go well :rolleyes:.

Colleen
Congrats on the vest :eek:.
How was the visit with grandma?

Marie
What a cute pic! Your hike sounded amazing. Bella loved the front carrier too! She could spend all day in that thing.

Check ya later girls!
 
Guys I had such a busy weekend. Happy Mother's Day to all.

Nat - I'm sorry your MD didn't go as planned : ( I'm glad Nia got back to you so fast, thats awesome. I love good customer service and am willing to pay extra for it. I got BB on Saturday and haven't had to much time to look at it. I am confused about the different programs. Which one are your doing? I guess I thought there was just one master program. Silly thinking, now that I write it down.

Marie - That picture is the best gift B could have given you. It is so cute, it will be a favorite of yours. I have one very similar from my girls. I hope you had a great time in Colorado with you sis.

Colleen - I love your new vest. I think 30 lbs. would be great. But I also kind of feel the the 20lb one almost is compressing me down enough. I have a hard time catching my breathe because I can't put the weight down like you would be able to with a barbell.

Jen - Hi Jen!

Saturday I did GS LB. I went heavy and wore my vest for everything and kept my weight at 40lbs. on the bar. But didn't get DOMS. Go figure! Then I took a 1/2 walk after. I met my niece down in Portland and spent the afternoon and evening eating all different kinds of food at food trucks. I have to say my fav. (not what I expected) was a waffle (I know a waffle, go figure) with a goat cheese whipped cream and a balsamic caramel drizzle sprinkled with pistachios.
It was so good, light and not too sweet.

Sunday I walked for 2 hours, I was exhausted. My husband was fixing me breakfast and said the longer I stayed out the better it would be for him. He fixed me this Tropical Pineapple Boozy Baked Oatmeal. It was good, he's not a cook so he was panicking. Then I spent the rest of the day watching Harry Potter the Order of the Phenix with the Kids. Then the Survivor finale with the whole family after the husband made me dinner. Again, more panicking. He fixed a Apple Fennel Salad, a Sugar Snap pea soup with Creme' Frache, Grilled Asparagus, Mushroom stuffed Beef Tenderloin, and Home-made Margaritas. Quite the menu even for an experienced cook. Everything was good and so thoughtful of him to do for me. He said he was ready to go back to work LOL.

Today I am going to do HoCO.

Have a good day all!

Sarah
 
Marie - This is my favorite picture of the girls. Once again, you have reminded me to take a second and remember what I have. Thanks!
 

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Sarah
There are 2 rotations: Huge Beast & Lean Beast. I am doing Lean. The real difference is that with Lean, you do 1X cardio/week up until the last phase (block 3- Beast) where you increase it to 2X/week. I must warn you now, the cardio is super intense! Probably one of the toughest I have ever done. It's only 25min, but it feels like an eternity :eek:.

BBL for more!
 
Afternoon ladies!

Yesterday was really enjoyable. We visited my Grandma (who it turns out is 95...I thought she was 93 ). She has a touch of dementia at this point, but unlike DH's Grandma it's not due to Alzheimer's but just general aging, lack of activity and circulation to the brain. This is the first I've seen her where she had trouble with memory and confusion though. Even last year she remembered everything and everybody! We have a huge family on my dad's side (9 brothers and sisters where each had at minimum 5 kids of their own...yep Catholic ). I don't even know everybody. lol She not only used to remember everybody, but knew what everybody was doing, who was married/divorced/in college/what career/how it was going, plus all the great grandkids!

Afterwards we went to a Mexican restaurant with my siblings and parents which was a lot of fun.

Today is another rest day (as was Saturday actually). For my workout yesterday I did: Crossfire w/u + fitness blast, STS Meso 2 legs disc 17 (minus calves), then HoCo January 102 (mat only). I got to use my new weighted vest! Of course, I wasn't ready for the full 30 lbs so I took some weights out and made it 20 lbs, then went as heavy as I could with the dumbells (alternating between 20, 25 and 30's depending on exercise). I had to take the vest off for the last triset though as I was really fatiguing big time! I'm looking forward to increasing my weight load and (hopefully) making it through the whole workout with it on next time. ;)

I've been trying to keep my fitbit steps up, too. One thing I've noticed though...on the days when I get a really high number (Friday I got to 12,000 steps for the first time) the following day or two I always seem to do far fewer steps. I don't know if this is me subconsciously slowing down to compensate or what. :confused: Saturday for example, I barely made it to 4000 steps. :eek: This thing has definitely made me more aware all around though!

Natty- Ah yes, I am familiar with the sucky babies who still want gifts. ;) My family, it was like "no problem, let's quit exchanging gifts...it's just easier" The only person we had trouble with was Mark's mom. :mad: This woman...I swear, raises the blood pressure of anyone she comes into contact with. She is literally the most narcissistic person I've ever met. She is also VERY materialistic, to the point that "things" (I kid you not) matter more to her than her own kids. She fought us for years on the no gift thing. For the longest time Mark would just give in and go get her something for Christmas, birthdays, Mother's day, etc until finally he stood his ground and said NO! She pouted and freaked out for the following few years after we stopped. Of course, even before this she rarely got us anything :rolleyes:.

Sarah- How did HoCo go? :D The vest did feel like it was compressing me after awhile. :eek: LOL I'm excited to work up the strength and endurance with it, though. I really love my new purchase! :eek: I am SO impressed with your hubby's cooking! How sweet is that to really try something so difficult? :)

Marie- did I read that right on facebook, that Tony got you a home massage session? :eek: JEALOUS! :p That would be my DREAM gift!

Jen- So awesome that first week is behind you! I bet that is a load of pressure off. Now you can just focus on getting your rhythms down and checking off that list of things you have to do and learn. I hope this week is starting off well!

Have a great evening gals! :)
 
Hello Friends.

Today started out well. Froze during a practice call & the person on the other end made a huge deal of it. Being tested on what I heard in church on Sunday about perseverance & attitude. Plus, other issues.
Prayers appreciated.

Thanks,

JT
 
Colleen
Glad you had a nice visit with your grandmother :). My great-grandmother was 99 when she passed, and I still regard her as one of the most influential people in my life. She was incredible.
As much as I appreciate and like my vest, it's truly a love/hate relationship :mad:. I find 20lbs a pain to get on/take off. After about 15min of torture with overheating :D my shoulder's start to ache too. I really wish I had a squat rack sometimes :(. How is your forearm strength with the 30lbs?! Mine burn like friggin' crazy! I feel as though they are gonna rip my arms out of the socket lol :eek:.

Sarah
OMG your hubby's dinner sounded AMAZING! I give him mad props for even attempting a meal like that! Mark is a basic cook, chicken finger's and fries kinda dude :D. But he is a really good cleaner (more thorough than me by a long shot :eek:) so I can't complain.
That waffle sounded SO tasty :p. Food trucks can have some pretty darn tasty food! Whenever I go to Toronto, I almost always get a hot dog from the carts (we call it "street meat"). But these are not your average yucky hot dogs. I can't even describe to you how delicious they are :p.

Gotta run! Have a good one ladies :)
 
Hello fit ladies!

Today I did STS Meso 3 disc 30 (shoulders, triceps and biceps) but I modified a lot to make it shorter (got it down to about 52 minutes vs 65) and more interesting. ;) I used my dumbells the whole time, fast-forwarded through many of the rests, increased some of the reps to 10, often pyramided the weights and even substituted some exercises here and there. I noticed in that one she does all the bicep work with a traditional grip so with a few sets I changed that to hammer curl and reverse bicep curl to mix it up some. Then I did the first 7 minutes XTrain Burn Sets Back (skipping the band work and the seated rear delt flies since I had already done those in STS). All in all, I guess you could say I was sort of all over the place. :eek: Hehe

In related news...I ORDERED BODY BEAST! :eek: I got it through Total Fitness which I think Mary is considered a Beach body Coach because I got the Lucky 7 workout, too. I ended up paying about $104 with shipping...I just wasn't patient enough to try and score it on ebay. Great job on that, btw, Sarah! :eek:

Jen- you will definitely have moments where you freeze and get the jitters starting this new job. It's normal! No worries! I know you can do this, girl. :) We have your back and are here to cheer you on! :D

Natty- I definitely felt the pressure on my shoulders and back while wearing the vest, but I figure I'll work up the endurance as I use it. It actually felt like a workout for my back wearing it and I even felt DOMS in my back (upper and lower) yesterday. I just love this vest! I actually didn't get too hot wearing it, although when I took it off I noticed it was really wet with sweat! :eek: :eek: I plan on doing Lower Body Blast tomorrow, and I'm thinking of wearing it again but this time take out a few more weights so it's more like 10 lbs for that one...especially considering there will be cardio blasts in there! :eek:

Gotta scoot! TTYL girls!
 
Hello Friends.

Had "the talk" with my trainer today. Fortunately, he told me that I improved but still need to work on a couple of things. He mentioned about letting me go. Plus, I thought about walking too.Honestly, I know I can do it! Proof that trainers don't have training & knowledge of working with longterm unemployed. I have made the job training harder on myself. Must believe I can do it!

JT
 
Jen - You can do it! You have made it this far. But I don't blame you 100% for being nervous. You hang in.

Nat - Every once in awhile I love myself a good hotdog. My dad always use fix them Chicago Style with lettuce and tomatoes and celery salt. Super good. Okay I feel like a doofus. I totally understand now about the BB programs. Why I was confused was because I was thinking when each one says week 1 that meant each one was different rotation. Silly I know.

Colleen- I just love your mix and max routines. As much as I would like to continue to do HoCo during a BB rotation I just don't see how. Have you come up with anything yet?

Marie - Hey and Hey to B too

Today I had 2 sick kids home with me. : ( Hopefully it will be the last sickness till the fall.

I took a walk 3 mile walk this morning with the pooch. Then I did STS Total Body. Boy that killed me. I had to pause a lot. She moves so fast and I can;t catch my breath and it doesn't help that I used the 20lb vest for the leg sections. I always have the worst DOMS when I do the STS TB LB premix so as a preventative measure I went ahead and did Yoga Relax premix #1. Tomorrow is suppose to be Crossfire but if I have DOMS like I always do with this one it will be just a walking day.

Sarah
 
Happy Hump Day (lol that always makes me laugh :p)

Yesterday's w/o was Bulk Back. A small advancement w/pull-ups; I lifted the bar higher (making it harder) and was able to do all 3x10 sets in a supine position -- I even did a few with 1 leg lifted off the floor. Oh, another exciting piece of news, my rear delts ARE getting stronger!!! I used to struggle w/8lbs (I used 5lbs most of the time), but yesterday I was able to do all my reps with great form!

I have decided I'm going to try (I say that lightly) and add-on a 2nd short leg/glute w/o during the week. I really love firewalker's, hip thrusts, stab ball hamstring roll-outs, but unfortunately those don't make an appearance in Body Beast. Yesterday while Bella was preoccupied :p I did a 15min w/o which included: 50 kettle bell swings w/my 10lbs KB, walking lunges with 2x10lbs, 100 stab ball hip trusts w/no weight (Cathe does these in PLB), firewalker's w/my blue band, barbell front and backs squats w/low weight (trying to focus on form going deep into the move). I was sweating like crazy! A great LB quickie w/o :eek:.

Colleen
YAY for Body Beast :eek:. I have to tell you in advance that you probably won't find the warm-up/cool down adequate. It's only 2min :(. If I feel I need more to get me going, I usually play the warm-up twice. OTOH, I usually don't need a very long warm-up for strength training, more with cardio I find.

Sarah
I miss some of Cathe's w/o's :(. BUT NO, I am staying focused and keeping my head in the game this time ;).
Love the pics of the twins :). They are too cute, OMG.

Sarah & Colleen
I hope you both like BB and Sagi as much as I do. Don't forget to print up the worksheets! I found them to be super helpful, not only for keeping progress of my #'s, but ensuring the workout went smoothly. Once you guys get accustomed to Sagi, I think you will enjoy the program. I like all of the background exercisers, except for 2 that get on my nerves. One guy is constantly saying "bro" and I'm like "can you just shut the F up?!". All of them however, work super hard and have excellent form. Sagi will usually perform some exercises and then go back to see if the guys are demonstrating good form (correcting them if need be), which I appreciate.

Jen
You can do it Jen! Don't give up on yourself or let anyone discourage you. The first few weeks into a new job are always a time of adjustment and challenge.

Marie
Your trip looked SO nice :).
 
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I felt tired all day. So I finally workout out at 2:00. I think I was thinking if I waited long enough it would go away. I managed to do Crossfire. Uggg. It killed me today. I feel sore from yesterday but not but nothing serious. So I really don't know why.

Thanks for the comments on my my girlies. They were cute. Except when they were born since they were premies they were kind of homely. Like little old men.

Nat _ Your WO sounded great. I really ready to start but am going to finish up at least this month of the Summer rotation. I too LOVE me some fire walkers. I remember when I used to do B and G and Cathe would talk about her boys. My daughters would then always try them with me.

I think if I can stand Tony Horton I can probably live with BB. I think I have a harder time with the instructors that are overly jolly.

Sarah
 
Afternoon girls!

Workout yesterday: Crossfire w/u + firewalker tabata, then Lower Body Blast standing only (minus w/u, using my weighted vest with 11 lbs and going heavier than Cathe with the dumbells ~35 minutes) + 100 rep hip thrusts (with 50 lb barbell, resting at 40 reps 30-45 sec and 70 reps ~90 sec). Hmm, the hip thrusts almost seem to be getting tougher in a weird way. I managed to take out one rest, but dang my heart was POUNDING doing these!

Today's workout was HoCo Hardcore August Year 2. This one used a variety of props: step, ball, bar and mat. It was REALLY hard! :eek: Some of the moves were beyond me, especially ones on the ball. I was lucky to eek out even half the reps Sandra did on some of those moves! Every time she went to put the ball away for a bit, I'd kick the ball away thinking "get away from me ball!!" lol. I have quite the love/hate relationship with that thing. ;)

I got an email that Body Beast has shipped! :D

Natty- I think for some of those warm ups, especially for the leg days, I'll probably use Cathe and one of the tabata's from CF or TTM like I've been doing with her lower body dvds. I know the program recommends very little cardio, but I'm already decreasing the cardio quite a bit and I need a little hit of it for my sanity (or is that Hiit? ;)). I definitely need a thorough warm up for cardio as well as legs, although when I do upper body I can get away with far less. I can't wait for it to get here so I can really check out the workouts and get serious about creating a homemade rotation with them! :D

Good luck on working in the second leg day! I want to keep two leg days in, too. I'm thinking one day of Sagi and one day of Cathe. For upper body, I may need to double up some days with cardio (doing weights first), will probably eliminate chest to accommodate HoCo...I don't know, I'm going to have to really sit down and figure this out! :eek:

Gotta run! Waving HI to Sarah, Marie and Jen! Have a great day ladies! :)
 
Today's WO was MMA Boxing. I liked it bout did get a little confused with some of the combos. I also liked the ab section really well. I am more sore today than I was yesterday in my hammies from STS TB. I will also take a walk today hoping that my DOMS will go away for tomorrows round of STS TB.

Colleen - Did I tell you I still have DOMS in my Obliques from Hoco on Monday.

Nat - I am afraid of missing Cathe too with BB. But I will have her new DVD too look forward to when I am done with a BB rotation.

Marie and Jen - Hey!

Sarah
 
Hello Friends.

Another update: I am leaving the employer. Reasons. From day one, I was made to feel like the odd man out and that I don't have a brain. Classmates/co-workers are/were making the SAME mistakes as me and it was laughed off. For me, I was told I was "not cutting it." So, tomorrow, I have an interview for a credit union in the morning and I will meet with my soon to be former employer to close it all out. I did leave a message to my recruiter that, if I am satisfied, I will not report to the State of Texas or get a lawyer.
The whole training, I felt I was discriminated against partially for my age and for not being from Texas, Mexican heritage and not living in a certain area. Last night, I had the strong feeling that I should've contacted all the companies whom I turned donw when I accepted this job. Tonight, I did it. As time went on, I thought something isn't right. It shouldn't be like this.

Thank you for letting me vent.
 

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