Well the temps are down to a more reasonable level so I am back to working out this week. (I admit to not working out last week but the outside temps were up as well as my fever.) Here’s the plan:
I may also try to squeeze in a couple new DVDs I have — Strong Knees and Aligned and Well: Fix Your Feet. I have issues with my feet and my knees which can get in the way of my fitness goals so maybe these could help. How about you? What are your workout plans this week?
Sorry I have been MIA — June was a very busy month — both with work and the end of the school year. I finished out my Stephanie Huckabee rotation, I did a light/recovery week using Ellen Barrett’s workouts (a mix of her Studio, Crunch and the workouts she did for Fit TV), then, I finally started my Montenegro Method rotation. It took some tweaking, but I have ended up with a plan like this:
Day 1 — Montenegro Method Strength
Day 2 — Montenegro Method Endurance
Day 3 — Margaret Richard Strength
Day 4 — Run/Walk
Day 5 — Montenegro Method Strength
Day 6 — Montenegro Method Endurance
I also add on stretching, Pilates, and yoga.
So far, I’m enjoying the MM workouts! They are short (under 30 min) but really pack a lot into the time! At first I thought I would have to “double up” on the workouts in order to feel like I accomplished something but — nope — one session and I’m pretty good to go — with an add-on of Pilates, yoga or stretching. (more…)
Today is a busy one – I am volunteering at the book fair at my daughter’s school today – my “shifts” are the one right before school and the one after school. I am a big book person so I love being around the book fair. Of course, my daughter picked out some books and so did I. At the moment I’m really into reading young adult literature. It all started when I became nostalgic for some books I read as a teen/tween. I guess what started me thinking about them is watching my daughter’s reading take off – she is pretty well into chapter books these days which is amazing to me because she is only in first grade. The schools seem to push the reading a lot harder and earlier these days as I am pretty positive I was not reading chapter books in first grade. I suppose there are ups and downs to that. Anyway, my current read is an old favorite – Julie of the Wolves. I appreciate it a lot more as an adult than I did when I first read it as a “tween”. I picked up some more young adult literature for myself at the book fair and I’m looking forward to reading some new authors and finding books to share with my daughter when she is older.
Today I started thinking about rotations. I know many of us plan our workouts and design various “rotations” in which to alternate them. I get a lot of my inspiration to design my own rotations by reading about what others are doing, reading rotations that instructors put together for their various “systems”, and just generally having fun with trying to combine different workouts, instructors and styles. It is a bit like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. Sometimes I’ll find a set rotation and add my own tweaks (as with Stephanie Huckabee’s rotation – I am following her 2-a-day plan, but adding on some additional workouts that I choose). Sometimes I’ll decide on a theme or instructor that I want to workout with for a set period of time. Sometimes I’ll come up with a “generic” rotation where I’ll have a category for the day, but allow myself to pick and choose the workout that fits my mood for the day within that category. It is a lot of fun for me to do this and keeps me motivated. After I finish up with Stephanie Huckabee’s rotation I plan to do the Montenegro Method workouts – not quite sure how I’ll put it together yet, but I have some ideas in mind and some time to plan it out since I still have a couple of weeks left in this rotation. In future posts I’ll be sure to include some of my past, present and future rotation ideas! (more…)
Sara invited me to post and Fig graciously allowed me to join up! I’m excited, fitness has been a passion for me all my life and I love to write up my impressions of the workouts I do.
A little about me – I’m a 40-something mother of one. Happily married with a dog, a cat and a bunny to round out the family. I work outside the home so I treasure my 5:00 a.m. workout time as it is my only “Me” time for the whole day usually! For example, right now, after a full day of work, I’m typing this while helping my daughter with her math project. It was pretty fun – we had to create a math game. She did a good job and actually did most of the work herself – including coming up with the concept and designing the board. Why didn’t we have homework like this when I was a kid?
I digress. I have been working out in some form or another since I was in high school. In those days, and through college I was a cardio hound – I ran and ran and ran some more. Didn’t do much strength training or any other cross training. In the early ’90′s I discovered the world of videos. I had a modest collection (it fit in a couple of shoe boxes!) until around 1998 or so when I discovered the FIRM. I actually borrowed the Tortoise and the Hare from the library on Thanksgiving weekend. After that, I was hooked and my collection (thanks also in part to the internet and sites like Videofitness.com) ballooned. I really have never taken a count of how many workout videos and DVDs I own. I think I would be embarrassed if I knew how many there were! I also have collected an array of equipment – BOSU, steps, various weights, stability balls, band, gadgets. We also have a treadmill and exercise bike – got those for DH, but he doesn’t use them often. (more…)
You may have noticed I was missing for a couple weeks or so. I got sick for about 10 days (weird random fever-causing virus) and didn’t work out much for over a week. Then when I got back into it I had such a busy week that I didn’t take time to post. But this week I am back. I decided to restart the Push phase of ChaLEAN Extreme last week — I love this heavy weightlifting after all, and I felt derailed a bit by my break. So now I’m starting my second week of Push. LOVE it.
As I continue on with the Push phase of ChaLEAN Extreme, this week looks a lot like last week. Why mess with a good thing? I am learning Amy Bento’s ASC3 (I think it came out right before I got pregnant so I didn’t do it much at the time) so that’s why I’m doing so much of it.
I just finished up the Burn Circuit of ChaLEAN Extreme. I think I’m going to start the Push phase tomorrow. I was doing the ChaLEAN weight workouts on M-W-F but this week I’m going to change to T-Th-Sat. We’ll see how that fits in with my life.
I’m still plugging away at the first circuit (called the Burn circuit) of ChaLEAN Extreme. I am finishing up week 3 and week 4 will start on Monday. I think that’s the last week and then I’ll start part 2, the Push circuit. I have really been enjoying these workouts and I love Chalene’s personality. She is such a cute little bundle of muscle and energy. She’s very good at the motivation aspect of the workouts. I also like that they aren’t very long–just something like 30-40 minutes each. That works well for my busy mom schedule.
Has anyone else who has done this program want to pop in and tell us how you liked it? I have some friends who got great results; maybe one of them will pop in and tell us about it. Otherwise, you can see one woman’s amazing before and after pictures by clicking on those links. One commenter on the after pic said she suspected the woman pictured had a tummy tuck as well–what do you think? I think that’s a possibility–that lose skin is hard to get rid of even if you lose the fat (take that from someone who’s had three big babies and who is considering a tummy tuck some day).
Speaking of babies, here’s what baby Cormac often does while I’m working out.
Tomorrow I’ll be starting an exciting new workout program called ChaLEAN Extreme by Chalene Johnson. Well, it’s new to me, anyway. A lot of my friends were doing it a year ago, but I was pregnant and didn’t want to do a heavy weights program at that time. So now I finally have it myself and I’m ready to go. I ordered it from BeachBody through my friend Jenn, who is a BeachBody coach — there’s a link for her over there on the right ——>.
It’s a 3-phase 12-week program, so that’s 4 weeks a phase (duh). Tomorrow I’ll start the first phase — Burn Circuit. It looks fun but tough. Not only do they have the weight workout DVDs but the program also came with a very helpful guidebook, a food guide, a DVD full of tips about form for the exercises and info about nutrition, etc., cardio and ab DVDs, a motivational CD, a resistance band, a thigh toner band, and a body fat tester thingey. I also ordered some bonus DVDs because I’m crazy like that. (more…)
I’m still here! Still alive. All good. I think I forgot to come and update again about the gestational diabetes. The test came out negative – apparently my sugar levels look fine. Still trying to eat sensibly – not too many carbs (tough for me as I love breakfast cereals) and a bit more protein. The doctor I saw at the last visit said chances are I will still have another big baby. Ugh. Lucky me. I’ll be back for another OB/GYN visit on Thursday.
I’m still pretty tired because lately I’ve been suffering from insomnia. Very hard to get enough rest, which is discouraging since I know I’ll have trouble getting sleep when the baby comes. Yesterday at dinner my 3-year old Ewan looked over at me and said, “Mommy, when the baby’s out of your tummy you won’t be tired anymore. And you’ll stay up all night. And I will, too.” Huh. I probably will stay up all night because of baby but I’ll be even more tired. Silly kid. I just hope he doesn’t actually stay up all night, too!
Monday………….Rest (unless taking laundry up and down the basement stairs counts)
Tuesday………….Yoga
Wednesday……..Walk
Thursday………..Yoga
Friday…………….Cardio
Saturday…………Rest
Sunday……………Walk
Sheesh, it looks like such a lazy rotation! Just keep in mind I’m the size of a small whale when pregnant – walking down the street in my maternity clothes I look like a ship in full sail.
What about you – big plans this week? Feel free to share in the comments.
I am exhausted today after a tough weekend. I won’t go into all the details here, but basically we have sewer water backing up through a hole in our basement floor. Yeah, kind of sucks. So dealing with that today and I don’t know how long it will take. Right now I’d really like to nap but waiting for the sewer/drain guys to come back (they were here last night but couldn’t start until today).
Anyway, still decided to have a plan.
Monday………….Walk–gotta get out of this house some today
Tuesday………….Yoga
Wednesday……..Walk
Thursday………..Yoga
Friday…………….Walk
Saturday…………Yoga or cardio
Sunday……………Rest
How about you–what do you have planned this week? Feel free to share in the comments.
Just a note regarding the last post–went to the lab today for the Glucose Screening Test so now I just wait and see what my results are for this pregnancy. I’m still going to eat carefully even if my results are negative for gestational diabetes.
OK, little late this week. I confess I’ve been spending a good deal of my free time on sewing (some of which is on my new Etsy shop at http://lainiefig.etsy.com).
Monday………….Walk
Tuesday………….Nothing (oops–2nd lazy Tuesday in a row!)
Wednesday……..Walk
Thursday………..Yoga
Friday…………….Cardio
Saturday…………Not sure yet–maybe yoga
Sunday……………Rest
What do you have planned this week? Feel free to share in the comments.
Just a reminder of all the handy stuff I keep on the Tools page of this blog. Today I added a couple links to rotations done by Cathe Friedrich and FitnessFreak (a member of Cathe’s forums who puts together some great Cathe rotations). If you’re interested in the rotations, the links are in the sections near the bottom of the Tools page–a long list of Cathe rotations followed by a list of FitnessFreak rotations.
Well, I managed to work out 3 days last week. I had planned more than that, but at least I got up and did something during the week. I was also pretty busy on the days I rested, so my rest did not involve lying around (though really I do deserve to do a little more lying around, I think–maybe I should schedule that!) I did manage to meet my goals on The Woman Challenge.
Monday………….Walk
Tuesday………….Short Walk, Upper Body, & Yoga
Wednesday……..Cardio & Lower Body
Thursday………..Yoga
Friday…………….Cardio & Total Body
Saturday…………Rest or Cardio
Sunday……………Rest
As I did last week, I’m starting this off as a generic list but then I’ll come back as the week goes along and edit to show what I actually did for my workouts. It’s a way to hold myself accountable.
How about you–what are your plans this week? Feel free to share in the comments.
As I’ve done before, I’m starting this off as a generic listing but then I’ll come back as the week goes along and write in what I actually did. It’s a way to hold myself accountable.
How about your own plans? Feel free to share in the comments.
This week there is NO plan. Crazy, I know. We’ll be traveling around a bit–some day trips from here at the beginning of the week and then we’re driving south to visit with my brother and his family later in the week.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I plan to pack some resistance bands when we leave town so I can get some toning work in. Cardio will be walking and hiking (the hiking will be done in the first part of the week in our nearby state parks.
Do you have plans this week? Anyone else on Spring Break right now? Feel free to share either here in the comments or over at Fit at Home.
This week I’m following the same plan, though Thursday and Friday will be a little different as the kids will both be off school. Hopefully they’ll cooperate with my workout plans!
I’m starting this off pretty generically but then I’ll come back as the week goes along and write in what I actually did. It’s a way to hold myself accountable.
How about your own plans? Feel free to share either here in the comments or over at Fit at Home.
We don’t claim to be fitness experts. We don’t dispense medical advice and we're not qualified to do so. We are also neither nutritionists nor personal trainers. We are just women on the journey to better fitness and a richer life. Please consult a doctor if you are starting a new exercise routine.
Well the temps are down to a more reasonable level so I am back to working out this week. (I admit to not working out last week but the outside temps were up as well as my fever.) Here’s the plan:
