MegsFitness on Nerd Fitness – Battle Logs!

I’ve blogged in the past about how much happier and more content I feel when I am following the core strengths of health and wellness – including eating well, sleeping well, exercising, and making time for personal goals.  So, it stands to reason that now, more than ever, I need to get back into the patterns of healthy eating, getting enough (and higher quality) rest, exercising, and making time for personal goals. 

This blog has become more of a personal journal for me, which will definitely incorporate health and wellness, but it’s always been about more than that.  For me, it’s been about recognizing the fact that my journey — whether it’s to weight loss, muscle gain, social changes, or family life — is going to be completely different from someone else’s journey, even if we share many of the same characteristics.  To that end, I still have every intention of maintaining this blog and getting back into writing about things that are fun, interesting, or relative to my personal narrative.  

My day-to-day fitness narrative is going to be captured at Nerd Fitness.  It’s a community of fitness-minded individuals and I really feel like that’s the sort of encouragement I could use at the moment.  What that means for the MegsFitness blog is that I’ll be cross-posting my weekly summaries here, so that at least part of this journal can resonate with the “-Fitness” part of the name 😀

I’m ready to get back to good.  I’m ready to lose weight, gain muscle, find my confidence, and conquer the world.  If you’re interested in joining The Rebellion, my “battle log” is found here: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/52946-amis-last-first-post/

[Begin Crosspost]:

Name: Aminarra, aka “MegsFitness”

Occupation: Corporate Fleet Management Resolution

Previous Fitness Experience: 2 years on SparkPeople, 3 years with Weight Loss Warriors, 3 attempts at Weight Watchers, 1 attempt at Herbalife; 4 years high school strength training, 1 obstacle 5k, 10+ regular 5k Races, greatest weight loss 42lbs.

Current Level of Fitness: Sedentary.  It’s been 2 years since I’ve worked out consistently due to a severe back injury after the Warrior Dash.

“End Game” Goal: Working out 4+x/week, Settling at a healthy weight, ideally ~180, but more importantly having functional strength and physical health.

Short-term Goal: Begin working out 1-3x/week, at a beginner level to become re-acclimated to the fitness world. Begin reintegrating Paleo Lifestyle into eating plan  

Plan of Action:  Use Nerd Fitness to launch new fitness goals; integrate fitness guild with gamer guild for inspiration.  Generate weekly goals in the areas of nutrition, exercise, and personal.  Update status on goals at least weekly.

Outside of NF: 
https://megsfitness.wordpress.com/
http://www.vexxgaming.com/

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The day was hectic. By the time I sat down for lunch, I had only 5 minutes to eat. (thanks for the tortellini, Mom!!) I took 8 minutes anyway, then dashed off to my next meeting. The rest of the afternoon flew by until it was time to clock out and head to training.

I met with Jody. We started with resistance bands and really targeted the scapular muscles. I was collapsing my frame by the end of the sets and didn’t realize it, so I’m glad she was there.We also used the bands to do a rotating like motion to target the muscles between my shoulders.

We moved into the studio, and did some floor exercises. Trunk twists, guided crunches, pelvic rotations, pelvic rotations with marching motion, bridge, calf raises/flex and point, adductor and abductor exercises with a resistance bands, and kick backs.

I felt the burn, but I feel good, now. Jody said that I’ve got a better foundation than I give myself credit for, and a greater range of motion than she was expecting. I credit iaido for that.

At this point, I’m glad to be getting started.

Breakfast: Quaker Oats Medley’s with Strawberries

This is actually a pretty hearty cereal.  It generally keeps me sated until lunch time.

I know I haven’t posted fitness in a bit… I didn’t take pictures, but I wanted to share one of my fitness exploits from the weekend: minute to win it One minute intervals.  I set a 1-minute timer (really 1:05 so that I could get back to position) and then just did whatever I wanted for a full minute.  Then I reset the time and did another minute.  And another.  Soon I had a 20 minute work out in, where otherwise I wasn’t doing any.  I did high knees, bosu cross-overs, push ups, crunches, squats, punches–etc.  It was a great way to blast just a handful of calories and wake up before going back to work.

Tonight, I have a fitness assessment and personal training session at the gym.  Once my loan is paid off, I’m investing in personal training.

Out with the old and in with the new!

A good pair of work out shoes, at least a good pair of mine, get the life beaten out of them before they get replaced.  This was my last pair of running shoes before the ones that I used in the dash.  I got them from Nordstrom Rack a while back (over a year ago?) and they were $45.  I thought I scored a great deal on them! At that point, I had never shopped at Nordstrom Rack, but I *had* paid a prettier penny for similar shoes at other stores.

It’s hard not to get swept up in the glitz and the glamour of big-box-retailers–especially when you live within walking distance of Dick’s Sporting Goods:

Source

You walk in and suddenly you’re engulfed in the Willy Wonka-style world of sports – indoor and out, with everything you can possibly think of needing for your sporting pleasure.  Of course, they have prices to go with it.  Of course, they have a coupon and a rewards program that makes it very reasonable, too, so–there’s that. But, I digress.  We moved out of that neighborhood and now live a comfortable 5-10 minute drive from anywhere we might want or need to spend a bunch of money.  Our latest sporting purchase came from a new sporting goods store that you also might have in your area: Sports Authority.  Now, the name of this store doesn’t make me giggle as much, but their store principals must be very very similar.  We walked into the doors and–you know how some stores, you walk in and you’re greeted with the smell of stale air conditioning?–we were greeted with the smell of SPORTS! – Iron, cotton, latex, and whatever gumption smells like, this store had it.. just long enough to give the impression that they would be fully competent in supplying our sporting good needs.

Source

The cool thing about this store is that I can actually come across gift cards for it rather easily through a rewards program at work.  I do things that are above and beyond, my co-workers recognize that and nominate me to receive a gift card of my choosing–I select Sports Authority, and bada-bing! New equipment for “free.”  Now, of course, I work my tail off to get things done around there, and I certainly can’t expect such awards on a recurring basis, but I was able to save up points and get enough for a new pair of shoes for both Jeff and I this time around. 🙂

We found ourselves separated and enveloped in a shoe wonderland of our own for about 20  minutes or so.  The selection of women’s shoes as pretty impressive, but their selection (in my size) of training shoes left something to be desired.  For the first time since high school, I was looking specifically for a cross-trainer that could be used for cardio but still provide ample support for my strength training sessions.  I only had enough on my gift card for two pair of shoes and one of those was for Jeff so mine had to do double duty.

I found another great pair of Asics that I think will meet my needs.  They’ve got ‘gel-cushioning’ and mid-sole support for mild pronation.  I did a few lunges and squats in the store, but you can hardly tell if they’ll stand up to the type of beating that I give my shoes.  They were marked as trainers, but there’s also a part of me that’s a little worried that these are still considered running shoes.. Mostly because of the ratio of mesh to leather:

 

Jeff started his search in Men’s running shoes and was looking for trainers but only found ones marked as “Athletic.”  We asked a clerk if men’s “athletic” shoes were considered cross-trainers.  She rambled on ad nauseum about how things changed and wandered her way to telling us about the rewards program that they have and “Just let them know that I helped you, up at the front.”  Somehow I think this rewards thing goes both ways.. But that’s neither here nor there–it saved us 5% on our purchase and we’re already on our way to saving more this quarter.  Anyway, after her presentation got snuck in, we were pointed to a different aisle that had a scant selection of shoes marked as trainers for Men.

Jeff was a good sport and tried on a few, but, truth be told, he had already fallen in love with an “athletic” shoe.  Since he’s still in the beginning stage of working out, he’s not yet doing much in the way of lateral movements or high impact moves, so I think his shoes (also Asics) will work out just fine.  Come to think of it.. they look like a black-and-orange manlier version of mine:

 

We also got a new Camelbak Groove and  technical shirt for him, so we’re all geared up for round two of personal training with Emily.  I have lost 2″ on my waist and Jeff has lost close to 10lbs, I’d wager.  We’re excited to keep going 🙂

In other super happy fun time news – yesterday was day 1 that I went entirely without any confections, desserts, or chocolate.  It’s another of my attempts to quit cold-turkey.  The next sweet I eat will be wedding cake 😀

PT, S’more’s and an evening walk

Today was a good day.  My co-worker had read my blog entry on s’mores in a tin  and was inspired to bring s’mores to work today.  LOL  Yay for microwave s’mores!

Microwave S’more

Have I mentioned I love s’mores?  Have I also mentioned I’m trying to lose weight?  Good thing I can balance, right?  Most days.

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It was my 3rd meeting with Emily for some PT.  She and I worked out a deal that makes personal training affordable.  She’s terrific–willing to accept payment after-the-fact to get me started.  We talked our way through the work out and it was over before I knew it.  We did our warm-up, I did the presses, lunges, bridges, “kick-stands,” the thing on the cable machine, plank… etc.  And suddenly she says “let’s stretch out”

Me: “Wait, what?”

Emily: “what?”

Me: “We’re done?”

Emily: “yeah!”

Me: “No, like, with *all* of it?”

Emily: “Yeah, we did the warm up, the plank, the [listed all of my exercises which I can’t recall at the moment…]  and now we’re done!”

Me: “… Wanna do it again?”

It was great.  After work I was tired out, hungry, etc. and on any other day, I would have just called it a day and went home–but Emily was waiting for me so I had to at least show up.  By the time I left, I was happy, energetic, excited.. It was good.

Unfortunately, Jeff and I still didn’t get our grocery shopping done, so dinner tonight was a salad from Wendy’s:

Apple Pecan Chicken Salad – Wendy’s

Jeff and I ate dinner when I got home, watched an episode of Supernatural, went for a good 40 minute walk and then watched a couple more episodes of Supernatural. I’m about to hit the hay, but here are some pics from our walk:

Pretty white flowers along the side of the path

Giant, untended Rhubarb

Manicured Hill

Herd of Geese

[Sidebar:  Guys, I use my phone to take the pics for my blog, and lately, the quality has been suffering.  The replacement phone that I got works great as a phone but the camera is hinky.  It flashes when I have flash disabled, the auto-focus is unreliable, and the exposure is defaulted to something that is too dark, so unless I compensate, the photos don’t even turn out.  Based on the poor quality of the photos from my walk, among others that were too bad to publish, I think I’m going to contact Verizon again and ask for another replacement 😦 Hopefully you guys will have better pics in the near future 🙂 ]

Warrior Dash: Week 1 Day 1 (Phase 1)

I tried for a few minutes to find a photo to represent how I felt after my first personal training session yesterday.  I googled the words “triumphant” and “proud” and scrolled through a few pages of photos of people caught in those feelings, but none of them really grasped what it was like.   So then, I read a small book of Wisdom from Ariel Books. I found the following quote to be most suiting: 

Don’t wish me happinss–I don’t expect to be happy….Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor–I will need them all.  – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Yesterday morning, I showed up for personal training at 6:50am and changed into my workout clothes.  My mom, who had come for the core class at 6:00am was just finishing up with her workout.  I got a sweaty hug from her as we crossed paths.  I bid her good job on her work out and she wished me luck on mine.  It started out innocently enough on the treadmill.  3.5MPH for a little bit.  Just to warm up, then he wanted me running 5.5MPH, then 5.7.  After that he started adding in the strength exercises.  Over here to the ball–chest presses, go! Back to the treadmill, no stopping! 3x. Now over here to do standard-stance squats with a bar, now back to the treadmill–go go go!

Overall I think we did 4 strength exercises spaced by sessions on the treadmill.  I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet and so we were really tapping into the harder-to-access energy reserves that I have.  It felt weird and challenging and difficult and once I thought I might just toss my cookies.  But I pressed through it–because I signed up for this.  I asked for this.  I need this.  On and on it went and it was challenging enough to push me but not so hard that I would give up.  I could hardly think about what I was doing let alone anything else.  It was kind of liberating, in a way.

When I was all through and he told me I made it, I was already laying on a mat and he just rolled the exercise ball out from beneath my feet.  Unexpectedly, I found tears cascading down my cheeks and I just felt momentarily overwhelmed!  I was so proud that I hadn’t given up.  He gave me a few minutes to collect myself and when I was back to good, he told me that he was proud of me for pushing through–that a majority of his first-timers need at least 10 minutes rest at the 30-minute mark because they feel the overwhelming desire to or have given in to the desire to throw up.  He also told me that since I have a track-record of working out and an established fitness base, he is starting me at something more like Phase 4.  He said I could be ready by December.  I could have 6 months to do anything I wanted.

The other trainer called me last night to finalize registration for the Warrior Dash.  She asked me what size shirt I wanted.  I said Medium.