My Butt And Calves Are So Sore!

As you know from a couple days ago, I am taking on the BodyRock.tv Challenge. You may be wondering what the hell is wrong with me and why must I become involved in multiple challenges (6-week Challenge, Gold's Gym Challenge and the BodyRock Challenge). I am just way too competitive for my own good. If you ask my sister and anyone I ever played softball with they would tell you that if we lost a game I would either speed off in my Chevy Beretta, punch the crap out of a fence, or run!

I love competition for a few reasons: I want to be the best and it keeps me motivated. I went to the gym today to do Day 3 but the BodyRock website was down, so I did my own thing that I'll post below as well.

BodyRock Day 2:
12 rounds with interval timer set to :50 work and :10 rest.
10 high-knees then 10 mountain climbers
2 squat-jumps then 2 push-ups and 1 tuck jump
Center to elbow jumps (Think plank and you jump your feet in toward each elbow)
Clean and press, squat and press, push-up
Tuck jump, 5 burpees, squat and hold
Spider knee push-up, push-up
Lunge and press
Side lunge, side punch, tuck jump
10 squats then 10 squat jumps
10 elbows to knees each side (Hop while you do it)
Wide leg jump and push-up
Run in place

This workout will kick your butt literally. I feel like my butt cheeks have not been this sore in awhile. Plus random things happen while you do this workout. Big muscular guys come ask you how to do burpees like you are some sort of plyometric champion. Secretly, I hate plyometrics. I think it goes back to my soccer days.

Following this workout I moved on to do my circuit training of biceps, chest and back doing high-reps. Then 20 minutes of arc-trainer.

Today's Workout:
Today I decided to do some Tabata intervals. Tabata intervals are the exercise that suck the life out of you, and if you do them while running on a treadmill you may end up being that girl who falls on a treadmill and gets flung onto the floor. That didn't happen to me, but it was close to happening.
Set an interval timer to :30 work :10 rest.
I used a treadmill my work speed was 7.5 and then for the :10 rest I just jumped off onto the sides of the treadmill because there wasn't enough time to change the speed. Then I did 16 sets.
Follow this up with my circuit training focusing on triceps, delts and abs. Then I did 25 minutes on the arc-trainer and 5 minutes on the bike.

New Workouts - Trying Out The BodyRock Challenge

A few months ago I stumbled across a fitness blog after finding a recipe for Portobello Mushroom Pizzas. I had added the recipe to my Pinterest board, but couldn't for the life of me remember that I had done this. The website/blog was really amazing. I was kind of overwhelmed the first time I looked at it. There is just so much information. Then last week I stumbled across the website and found that starting early January they began a 30 day fitness challenge. They have HIIT workouts everyday. The longest workout being about 12 minutes. If you don't know what HIIT is and what it can do for your workouts read this article. So, yesterday I decided to give the 30 day fitness challenge a go. It starts off with a FIT test. Think Presidential Challenge in elementary school. You are timed and you do as many reps of an exercise that you can in that time. Then you track your marks and at the end of the challenge do the FIT test again to see how far you've come.

Workouts and Week 2 Results

It is the end of week 2 already, can you believe it? I can't! It seems to be going faster this second time around. Maybe it is because I am now used to the portions I eat, journaling my food and pushing hard at the gym.

I was talking with Matt the other day about goals and he was trying to persuade me to join the Gold's Gym 12-week Challenge. It is a National challenge divided by sex and age group. Typically the winners are the ones who went from fat to flat, and somehow got professional hair, make-up and a spray tan. Michelle and I mocked these photos when we first started this challenge, trying to stick our bellies out as far as possible and refusing to inhale. It's winter so I didn't need to work on being pale as a ghost.

New Workouts and New Goals

For the last 3 days I have been battling a pretty nasty cold. My workouts had not been nearly as hard and thankfully that is ok since I took the weekend off for NYE and to prepare for round 2! Which starts today!

So today I went to the gym with the goal that I was going to hit my targets and do it hard and fast. I tried out some workouts on the Workout Trainer App, mixed in with some of my standard cardio. I normally do circuits with my cardio, but this week I'm gearing up for heavy reps and decided I would do all cardio as a transition. I didn't want to spend 60 minutes on a treadmill so here is what I did. I'd love to hear from you - try out the workout at the end of this post and let me know what you think.

Keri's Round 2 Goals:
Workout 6 times a week
Burn 1000 calories each workout
Lose 8lbs
Drop Waist 1 measurement to 32"
Drop Waist 2 measurement to 29"
Hip measurement to below 43"
Thigh measurement to 23"


Michelle's Round 2 Goals:

Workout 5x a week

Burn 1200 calories each workout

Get Waist's 1 and 2 under 30 inches

Hips under 40 inches

Chest lose 1 inch

Thighs lose 2 inches

See some friggin abs!!!

Catching Up On Workouts and Nutrition

I got a little busy last week and did not update my numbers and measurements, but I did in fact lose. I lost another pound and about 1.5" total. I weigh in and measure again tomorrow and will update then. There is only one more week left after that! This challenge has been helpful and I wish I would have found this as a motivator prior to help get the last few pounds off. I'm looking forward to my final 9 days of this program and hopefully will be well on my way to kick-starting the new year.

So, I haven't posted my workouts lately, but thought I would do that with my nutrition today. One of my favorite things to do at the gym is the arc trainer. I feel like the elliptical does nothing for me, and I don't love to run. I love the stair climber but it is usually always taken. The arc trainer is the next best thing. Here is the workout I did today:

This Challenge Is About More Than Weight Loss

I will preface this blog post with this statement: I am currently unemployed!

With that said, my day consists of waking up and eating breakfast, surfing job boards for marketing and communication positions I can apply for, stumbling out of my pajamas and into workout clothes which look strangely similar, then heading to the gym, coming home to eat lunch, working on my freelance projects: invitations, holiday cards, websites, and watching way too much reality television or CSI. It seems like those are my only options.

So on Tuesday, I met up with Matt D. at Golds Gym to fit in my weekly personal training session. I knew going into this workout that we were going to weigh and measure since I wouldn't see him on Thursday. Up until Tuesday morning, I was feeling a bit defeated but was trying to convince myself that weight loss would happen. I had been working SO hard to burn 1000 calories each workout and was tracking my food and felt it just was not happening.


After my workout on Tuesday, I felt like someone punched me in the throat it was so hard to breathe. But honestly, I think I just get frustrated with how easy it is for some people to lose weight when I know how hard I have to work to get there. As a woman, it is slightly frustrating to look at someone who is the same size as you but weighs 10 pounds less than you. You wonder why you aren't there or why it seems to be so much harder for you to get there. Then when I got home I watched "I Used To Be Fat," one of those reality TV shows I've caught now that I'm jobless. The girl on this week's show talked about how it was really hard to stay with it when the people around her weren't also willing to follow a diet or exercise. This could not be more true. I find it extremely hard to stay on the right path when people close to me are not also working hard at the gym or journaling every little thing that goes into their body.

I am happy to say that after weighing in with Matt on Tuesday, I was down one pound and my measurements have dropped. So, I'm going to stay focused on that and less on how easy it is for others to drop weight.

Tuesday, Matt set up a deadly little workout for me:
50 reps of the battling rope (as a warm-up) and I hate this thing as is.
10 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back
8 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back
6 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back
4 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back
2 18lb kettlebell double swings
Sprint width of the gym and back

Repeat with cleans instead of swings
Repeat with high pulls instead of swings and sprint after every 8 and 2
Repeat with snatches instead of swings and sprint after every 8 and 2

50 reps of the battling rope
10 drop squats
40 reps of the battling rope
10 drop squats
30 reps of the battling rope
10 drop squats
20 reps of the battling rope
10 drop squats

Then we did 10 reps on both right and left sides and overhead with slamming a ball against the wall.

Workout Apps and Nutrition

I've been doing workouts from a book I purchased about 6 months ago when Borders went out of business. 101 Fat Burning Workouts.

Workouts For The Week:
Thursday - Kettlebells, Ball Slams, Bounce Squats (that's what I'll call them) and Boxing with Matt D. Oh and the dreaded treadmill push.
Friday - 30 minutes cardio on the Arc Trainer and a full body circuit workout from my book.
Saturday - I took Saturday off because I went to The Urge show the night before and was lacking sleep.
Sunday - Boxing - took me 80 minutes to burn 1000 calories my arms were limp noodles but I love boxing.
Monday - Today I tried something new. I downloaded 5 workout apps on my droid phone and thought I would give them a try. Most of them have "motivators" which talk over the workout. I'm going to do a review of these in more detail in another post. But, I did a 20-min intense workout (push ups, burpees, jumping lunges, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, plank leg raises, etc) Then I did a 40-min Elliptical Intense workout, but I hate elliptical so I used the Arc-Trainer instead. 1000 calories burned in a little less than 80 minutes.

Tomorrow I'm meeting with Matt for my PT session since Thursday is Turkey Day. Gonna jump on the scale, but I'm afraid I haven't lost anything yet. Which is disappointing with what I've been doing. But I'm GOING TO STICK WITH IT!

Do nothing, get nothing. Do something, get something!

So, I hadn't posted my nutrition from yesterday yet, so here it is, definitely still not where I want to be with distribution on carbs v. protein. But not gonna give up there.

Nutrition - Sunday, November 20, 2011:

What Is The 6 Week Health Challenge

It's simple really. Starting Friday, November 18, 2011, there will be 6 weeks until New Year's Eve.

That gives you 6 weeks to set a reasonable body composition goal and achieve it during a time when most Americans gain weight.

This challenge was first posed to me by my personal trainer, Matt D. at Gold's Gym. I was recently let go from my full-time job and personal training has been an interest of mine. So, I am taking this time to challenge my friends and family to better their health and join me in my weight loss goals.

Over the course of the 6-weeks, I will document my workouts, food journal and feelings as I go through the process. If any of my friendly competitors want to share their stories, I will also post those here. Also, I will be documenting the process with photos and videos.

So what do you say? Take control of your health over the holidays, jump start your New Year's Resolution and set a goal for the next 6 weeks!

Personally, my goals are as follows:
- Workout a minimum of 5 times a week
- Burn a minimum of 1000 calories during each workout
- Journal my food daily

I haven't established my body composition goal yet, but I'm thinking a 10 pound weight loss goal.