Thursday, January 27, 2011
A Winner! And a downer of a post!
And the winners are! Organic Warrier and Clare. Congrats! Thanks for playing everyone. So, I’d like to sing the praises of the CVS Minute Clinic for a minute b/c not a lot of people even know it exists. Did you? It is a doc office at your local CVS! You will see either a medical assistant or a RN. You don’t need an appointment and it costs the same co-pay with most health insurances. Since I started going to CVS I haven’t been to my doctor in 2 years! I still see my lady bits doctor, so I figure this is a fine arrangement. The clinic workers can write you a prescription and you can sit there while it gets filled. I have never had to wait for than 30 mins to get in and I can’t even say that about my regular doc when I have a stinking appt! I love you minute clinic. I got a prescription of anti-biotics which are slowly taking my cold away, but on the downside my stomach is now a wreck. So, I stopped at the store this morning and picked up some probiotics, hopefully that helps.
This time of year is a tough time for me. My dad died 3 years ago tomorrow. You would think time would make it easier, but it really hasn’t. If anything the pain, grief, hole in my heart, whatever you want to call it has gotten worse. I think that has to do with being a mom now. To know that Harper will never meet her grandfather really bothers me. A lot about my dad’s last few months on earth bother me, I said some really not nice things to him, believe me all well deserved but it has hung on my conscious like 20 extra lbs. I don’t remember my last conversation with him and I hate that. When someone dies unexpectedly you find yourself spending way to much time on the shoulda, woulda, coulda's. I wish I had a better picture of his last days on earth, I wish I had picked up the phone, I wish a lot of things. But most of all I wish he was still here.
This time of year is a tough time for me. My dad died 3 years ago tomorrow. You would think time would make it easier, but it really hasn’t. If anything the pain, grief, hole in my heart, whatever you want to call it has gotten worse. I think that has to do with being a mom now. To know that Harper will never meet her grandfather really bothers me. A lot about my dad’s last few months on earth bother me, I said some really not nice things to him, believe me all well deserved but it has hung on my conscious like 20 extra lbs. I don’t remember my last conversation with him and I hate that. When someone dies unexpectedly you find yourself spending way to much time on the shoulda, woulda, coulda's. I wish I had a better picture of his last days on earth, I wish I had picked up the phone, I wish a lot of things. But most of all I wish he was still here.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
P90X Week 5, Day 1 and 2 - It hurts!
Oh it hurts. Sitting, standing, bending, lifting my arms. You name the body part and it hurts right now! And only from 2 days of working out. Monday was a whirlwind and it regretebly became my rest day. I had to finally break down and get some meds for this never ending cold. So, I spent my evening at the CVS minute clinic and found out I had a double ear and sinus infection. Oh joy!
Tuesday was Day 1 of Week 5 and I got to do a new DVD – Shoulder, Chest and Triceps. Here are the excercises:
Slow-Motion 3-in-1 Push-up
This workout wastes no time in wiping out your pushing muscles! The 3-in-1 Slow-Motion Push-up is a slow 4-count on the way down, and then a slow 4-count on the way back up. You do that from a wide push-up position, a standard width push-up position, and a military style (hands close to body) push-up position.
In & Out Shoulder Fly
This is a basic front shoulder raise with a dumbbell in each hand, and then immediately doing a lateral (side) raise with the same weight. As always, you want to use a weight that will get you to your goal number of reps (8-10 for size, 12-15 for leaner muscles), so choose a weight that you can do that number of reps with while still keeping excellent form.
Chair Dip
This is just a standard dip.
Plange Push-up
The Plange Push-up is kind of weird, but it does a great job of working your pushing muscles from a different angle than they are used to. Different is always good when it comes getting results! For this movement, you keep your hands very close to your body, right near your rib cage, and you have your fingertips facing out away from your body, rather than forward as in a normal push-up.
Pike Press
The Pike Press is a GREAT exercise for your shoulders! Basically, you bend over at the waist, and go up on your toes while your hands are on the floor in front of you. As you drop down, you keep your face towards your legs and drop the top of your head towards the floor. I was able to do 1! Yes 1, suck it Tony Horton.
Side Tri-Rise
For this you lay on your side and try and use your tricep to push yourself up. It’s a toughie, you do it on both sides. I can eek out 15 of these, but it is hard.
Floor Fly
This exercise has such a simple name, but it does OH SO much! Basically what you are doing is putting a towel, plate, piece of cardboard, or something else underneath one of your hands, and sliding that hand out before going down into a push-up. You then slide it back, do another push-up, then out for another push-up, etc. This is an awesome exercise because it works the entire chest area, not to mention the triceps.
Scarecrow
With a dumbbell in each hand, you bring your upper arms up and parallel to the floor, and let your lower arms hang at a 90-degree angle, perpendicular to the floor. Picture a scarecrow and you'll have the general idea. From there, without moving your upper arms, you twist the dumbbells all the way up until your palms are facing forward, then all the way down again until they are facing backwards. I tried to do this with my 10 lb weights, which was impossible. I need to get some 5lbs.
Overhead Triceps Extension
This is a pretty standard triceps movement because it is such an effective exercise. Hold both dumbbells overhead with your arms completely straight, then unhinge your elbows, bringing both dumbbells down behind your head. Lift them both back up to full overhead extension and repeat. If you have dumbbells that have flat surfaces, you can keep the dumbbells touching during the entire exercise.
Two-Twitch Speed Push-up
Going back to slow-motion push-ups that were done earlier in this workout, now we also add in fast push-ups as well. You do 4 fast push-ups (all the way down and all the way up), and then you do 3 slow-motion push-ups, using the 4-count on the way down and on the way up.
Y-Press
This is like a standard dumbbell overhead press, only you push up at approximately a 45-degree angle, rather than pushing straight overhead. Love it.
Lying Triceps Extension
This is another classic triceps exercise, and it is very effective as long as you perform the movement with perfect form. You are on the floor on your back with 2 dumbbells held up at arm's length. One at a time, you drop one of the dumbbells down to the opposite side of your head, close to your ear, being sure not to let your elbow flare out to the side. You can also do this exercise with both dumbbells at the same time by dropping them down towards the back of your head, but again, don't let your elbows move at all.
Side-to-Side Push-up
Another awesome push-up variation, you basically "hop" one leg and one arm out to one side, do a push-up, and then return to center briefly before going out to the other side and doing the same thing. At this point I was D-O-N-E and could barely do 5 of these.
Pour Fly
Time to put the pride away, because you won't be doing this exercise with very much weight! Basically all you do is stand with a dumbbell in each hand, arms extended fully out to both sides of your body. Without moving your arms at all (keeping your shoulders in a static contraction the entire time), you twist your wrist to bring the dumbbells perpendicular to the floor, then back to parallel to the floor. Again, I am going to need to get 5 lb weights for this. 10 is too tough.
Side-Leaning Triceps Extension
This is another overhead triceps movement, only this time you are sitting in a chair and leaning on the back of the chair away from the direction that you'll be pressing the dumbbell up overhead. The idea is that by leaning away from the direction of the exercise, you'll be able to push the weight up more effectively, only without letting your elbow flare out to the side.
One-Arm Push-up
This is just like it sounds, and yes, it IS that hard! LOL, I just skipped this, as if, said in my best Clueless impression.
Weighted Circle
This exercise is basically doing the arm circles that are normally done during the warm-up sessions, only now you are doing them with dumbbells in your hands. Once again, light weights are called for here, and if you try to go heavy, you'll never last.
Throw the Bomb
This is a cool twist on a standard overhead triceps extension. You do one arm at a time, and with the other arm, you point forward as if you were pointing to a receiver down the field that you were about to throw a football to. Press the dumbbell straight up in the air and be sure to stop when you get to the top! You aren't actually throwing the dumbbell, but rather modifying the move so that you can put a slight hip twist into it.
Clap or Plyo Push-up
There are 2 version of this exercise, and you should try them both to see which is better suited to your present (but growing) level of fitness. The plyo version is basically just pushing yourself up off of the floor when you get to the top part of a standard push-up. The clap version is pushing yourself far enough off of the floor so that you can clap your hands and then get them back underneath you before you face-plant on the floor. Again – AS IF!
Slow-Mo Throw
This is very similar to the Scarecrow that you did earlier in this workout, only this time you raise your arms straight out in front of you. From the up position, you then rotate at the elbow to bring the dumbbells back to your ears, then rotate forward to the straight arm position. Drop your arms briefly to your sides, and then repeat.
Front-to-Back Triceps Extension
This is a one-arm overhead triceps extension, only the front-to-back portion is thrown in to work the muscles from a slightly different angle. You basically extend the dumbbell up, then drop it down in front of your face, and then extend it up again before dropping it down behind your head.
One-Arm Balance Push-up
This exercise combines a push-up with the Yoga X one-arm balance pose. You do a standard push-up, then - while still in the up position - roll over to one side while stacking your feet on top of each other. Keep your hips up as high as you can by engaging your core muscles, and raise one arm all the way to the sky. Roll back down into the push-up position, do another push-up, then repeat on the other side. Say it with me – AS IF!
Fly-Row Press
The Fly-Row Press actually combines 4 different exercises: the Dumbbell Fly, the Upright Row, the Overhead Dumbbell Press, and the Reverse Curl. You do the fly first, then drop your arms back to your sides before doing the upright row. Without coming out of the up position of the row, drop your elbows and push the dumbbells up overhead, then bring them down and do a reverse curl, ending the movement in the starting position for the next repetition.
Dumbbell Cross-Body Blow
This is the final exercise in this routine, and by this point, you are very, very tired. Grab two dumbbells of a reasonable weight, and then get on your back on the floor. In a pseudo-punching movement, you punch one dumbbell then the other across your body.
I like the videos that have this kind of format, as opposed to the repetition format where your repeat the excercises. I feel like this goes faster. After completeing this workout I still had to do Ab Ripper! So, that was a tough day. This morning I got up and did Plyometrics and boy was I tired and sore. I still do love Ploymetrics even though I suck at most of the moves.
LAST CHANCE ON MY CONTEST! ENTER BELOW.
Tuesday was Day 1 of Week 5 and I got to do a new DVD – Shoulder, Chest and Triceps. Here are the excercises:
Slow-Motion 3-in-1 Push-up
This workout wastes no time in wiping out your pushing muscles! The 3-in-1 Slow-Motion Push-up is a slow 4-count on the way down, and then a slow 4-count on the way back up. You do that from a wide push-up position, a standard width push-up position, and a military style (hands close to body) push-up position.
In & Out Shoulder Fly
This is a basic front shoulder raise with a dumbbell in each hand, and then immediately doing a lateral (side) raise with the same weight. As always, you want to use a weight that will get you to your goal number of reps (8-10 for size, 12-15 for leaner muscles), so choose a weight that you can do that number of reps with while still keeping excellent form.
Chair Dip
This is just a standard dip.
Plange Push-up
The Plange Push-up is kind of weird, but it does a great job of working your pushing muscles from a different angle than they are used to. Different is always good when it comes getting results! For this movement, you keep your hands very close to your body, right near your rib cage, and you have your fingertips facing out away from your body, rather than forward as in a normal push-up.
Pike Press
The Pike Press is a GREAT exercise for your shoulders! Basically, you bend over at the waist, and go up on your toes while your hands are on the floor in front of you. As you drop down, you keep your face towards your legs and drop the top of your head towards the floor. I was able to do 1! Yes 1, suck it Tony Horton.
Side Tri-Rise
For this you lay on your side and try and use your tricep to push yourself up. It’s a toughie, you do it on both sides. I can eek out 15 of these, but it is hard.
Floor Fly
This exercise has such a simple name, but it does OH SO much! Basically what you are doing is putting a towel, plate, piece of cardboard, or something else underneath one of your hands, and sliding that hand out before going down into a push-up. You then slide it back, do another push-up, then out for another push-up, etc. This is an awesome exercise because it works the entire chest area, not to mention the triceps.
Scarecrow
With a dumbbell in each hand, you bring your upper arms up and parallel to the floor, and let your lower arms hang at a 90-degree angle, perpendicular to the floor. Picture a scarecrow and you'll have the general idea. From there, without moving your upper arms, you twist the dumbbells all the way up until your palms are facing forward, then all the way down again until they are facing backwards. I tried to do this with my 10 lb weights, which was impossible. I need to get some 5lbs.
Overhead Triceps Extension
This is a pretty standard triceps movement because it is such an effective exercise. Hold both dumbbells overhead with your arms completely straight, then unhinge your elbows, bringing both dumbbells down behind your head. Lift them both back up to full overhead extension and repeat. If you have dumbbells that have flat surfaces, you can keep the dumbbells touching during the entire exercise.
Two-Twitch Speed Push-up
Going back to slow-motion push-ups that were done earlier in this workout, now we also add in fast push-ups as well. You do 4 fast push-ups (all the way down and all the way up), and then you do 3 slow-motion push-ups, using the 4-count on the way down and on the way up.
Y-Press
This is like a standard dumbbell overhead press, only you push up at approximately a 45-degree angle, rather than pushing straight overhead. Love it.
Lying Triceps Extension
This is another classic triceps exercise, and it is very effective as long as you perform the movement with perfect form. You are on the floor on your back with 2 dumbbells held up at arm's length. One at a time, you drop one of the dumbbells down to the opposite side of your head, close to your ear, being sure not to let your elbow flare out to the side. You can also do this exercise with both dumbbells at the same time by dropping them down towards the back of your head, but again, don't let your elbows move at all.
Side-to-Side Push-up
Another awesome push-up variation, you basically "hop" one leg and one arm out to one side, do a push-up, and then return to center briefly before going out to the other side and doing the same thing. At this point I was D-O-N-E and could barely do 5 of these.
Pour Fly
Time to put the pride away, because you won't be doing this exercise with very much weight! Basically all you do is stand with a dumbbell in each hand, arms extended fully out to both sides of your body. Without moving your arms at all (keeping your shoulders in a static contraction the entire time), you twist your wrist to bring the dumbbells perpendicular to the floor, then back to parallel to the floor. Again, I am going to need to get 5 lb weights for this. 10 is too tough.
Side-Leaning Triceps Extension
This is another overhead triceps movement, only this time you are sitting in a chair and leaning on the back of the chair away from the direction that you'll be pressing the dumbbell up overhead. The idea is that by leaning away from the direction of the exercise, you'll be able to push the weight up more effectively, only without letting your elbow flare out to the side.
One-Arm Push-up
This is just like it sounds, and yes, it IS that hard! LOL, I just skipped this, as if, said in my best Clueless impression.
Weighted Circle
This exercise is basically doing the arm circles that are normally done during the warm-up sessions, only now you are doing them with dumbbells in your hands. Once again, light weights are called for here, and if you try to go heavy, you'll never last.
Throw the Bomb
This is a cool twist on a standard overhead triceps extension. You do one arm at a time, and with the other arm, you point forward as if you were pointing to a receiver down the field that you were about to throw a football to. Press the dumbbell straight up in the air and be sure to stop when you get to the top! You aren't actually throwing the dumbbell, but rather modifying the move so that you can put a slight hip twist into it.
Clap or Plyo Push-up
There are 2 version of this exercise, and you should try them both to see which is better suited to your present (but growing) level of fitness. The plyo version is basically just pushing yourself up off of the floor when you get to the top part of a standard push-up. The clap version is pushing yourself far enough off of the floor so that you can clap your hands and then get them back underneath you before you face-plant on the floor. Again – AS IF!
Slow-Mo Throw
This is very similar to the Scarecrow that you did earlier in this workout, only this time you raise your arms straight out in front of you. From the up position, you then rotate at the elbow to bring the dumbbells back to your ears, then rotate forward to the straight arm position. Drop your arms briefly to your sides, and then repeat.
Front-to-Back Triceps Extension
This is a one-arm overhead triceps extension, only the front-to-back portion is thrown in to work the muscles from a slightly different angle. You basically extend the dumbbell up, then drop it down in front of your face, and then extend it up again before dropping it down behind your head.
One-Arm Balance Push-up
This exercise combines a push-up with the Yoga X one-arm balance pose. You do a standard push-up, then - while still in the up position - roll over to one side while stacking your feet on top of each other. Keep your hips up as high as you can by engaging your core muscles, and raise one arm all the way to the sky. Roll back down into the push-up position, do another push-up, then repeat on the other side. Say it with me – AS IF!
Fly-Row Press
The Fly-Row Press actually combines 4 different exercises: the Dumbbell Fly, the Upright Row, the Overhead Dumbbell Press, and the Reverse Curl. You do the fly first, then drop your arms back to your sides before doing the upright row. Without coming out of the up position of the row, drop your elbows and push the dumbbells up overhead, then bring them down and do a reverse curl, ending the movement in the starting position for the next repetition.
Dumbbell Cross-Body Blow
This is the final exercise in this routine, and by this point, you are very, very tired. Grab two dumbbells of a reasonable weight, and then get on your back on the floor. In a pseudo-punching movement, you punch one dumbbell then the other across your body.
I like the videos that have this kind of format, as opposed to the repetition format where your repeat the excercises. I feel like this goes faster. After completeing this workout I still had to do Ab Ripper! So, that was a tough day. This morning I got up and did Plyometrics and boy was I tired and sore. I still do love Ploymetrics even though I suck at most of the moves.
LAST CHANCE ON MY CONTEST! ENTER BELOW.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Phase 2 of P90x! Start of week 5.
Did you enter my awesome Saffron Rouge giveaway? If not, scroll down, it’s in the last entry.
I made it! Woohoo. The first 30 days of P90x are complete and I now move on to Phase 2. I should have made myself a little hat and gown to celebrate such a momentous occasion. If you ask around, you will find a ton of people who have done P90x, but when you ask a few more questions, you soon find out that what they’ve done, is in fact a few P90x DVDs here and there or that they started the 90 day journey and got only 10 days through. It’s not easy yo. But I am truly loving this journey and I am excited for Phase 2.
First let me reflect on Phase 1. It did not go really how I wanted. I give myself a B-. I was inflicted with too many nasty petri dish daycare diseases. A stomach bug for over 2 weeks and now the head cold from hell, seriously I am snotting fire, oh no that’s just another bloody nose from the damn medicine drying out my sinuses. Out of the 4 weeks I have done so far (really 5, I repeated week 3 after all) I would only give 2 of those weeks an A effort (week 1 and the repeat week 3), meaning I hit every workout and I did it right. The other 2 weeks were relatively half assed. I started this journey hovering on the scale back and forth between 137.6 and 136.4. I have now seen 133.2 or 133.4 for a few days straight. It’s not as big of a weight loss as I would have liked, but I am okay with that. I can totally see a difference in my body. My love handles have retreated from whence they came and my belly is flatter, plus my guns look and feel stronger. I am getting round shoulders! I do plan on sharing pictures, but not quite yet. Maybe after 60 days, maybe after I get back below 130 where I belong. I am very excited about the progress made. For the rest of this journey I am going to commit myself to the diet more, I have not been really watching what I eat and it shows. I mean who ate 2 Trader Joes pumpkin spice whoopee pies for lunch yesterday? That would be me J and I loved it. But what I love even more is being able to wear all my damn clothes, so its 125 or bust people.
Week 5 starts today and I overslept! Again, did I tell you I’m sick? I was up in the middle of the night b/c Harper is having some sleep issues and then I couldn’t go back to sleep b/c I couldn’t breathe. So, the 5am wake up call was not happening. So tonight I try a new arm DVD and I am looking forward to it. I added in 2 lb weights to kenpo this weekend and whoooobooyyy are my ar
ms sore, in a good way. Putting on a shirt hurts and I admit my sadistic butt kind of likes that! These muscles are here to work! I am hoping in this next 30 days I can get down to 128. Things are about to get tougher for me b/c in Feb I HAVE to start running again, 3 days a week. In terms of p90x, that may mean that I skip the Kenpo workout for a long run some weeks, but I am going to try my hardest to just do it all P90x and the 3 runs. Although I will admit I am a yoga slacker, I hate that the DVD is 90 mins and I think I am just going to swap it out for another yoga workout. Mamma doesn’t have 90 mins unless it’s for a 10 mile run.
And Bloggy friends I am raising money through my marathoning for a great cause! How about you skip that $5 latte this week and give some funds to keep an animal happy and warm in 2011! https://www.firstgiving.com/monicaonthego.com
I made it! Woohoo. The first 30 days of P90x are complete and I now move on to Phase 2. I should have made myself a little hat and gown to celebrate such a momentous occasion. If you ask around, you will find a ton of people who have done P90x, but when you ask a few more questions, you soon find out that what they’ve done, is in fact a few P90x DVDs here and there or that they started the 90 day journey and got only 10 days through. It’s not easy yo. But I am truly loving this journey and I am excited for Phase 2.
First let me reflect on Phase 1. It did not go really how I wanted. I give myself a B-. I was inflicted with too many nasty petri dish daycare diseases. A stomach bug for over 2 weeks and now the head cold from hell, seriously I am snotting fire, oh no that’s just another bloody nose from the damn medicine drying out my sinuses. Out of the 4 weeks I have done so far (really 5, I repeated week 3 after all) I would only give 2 of those weeks an A effort (week 1 and the repeat week 3), meaning I hit every workout and I did it right. The other 2 weeks were relatively half assed. I started this journey hovering on the scale back and forth between 137.6 and 136.4. I have now seen 133.2 or 133.4 for a few days straight. It’s not as big of a weight loss as I would have liked, but I am okay with that. I can totally see a difference in my body. My love handles have retreated from whence they came and my belly is flatter, plus my guns look and feel stronger. I am getting round shoulders! I do plan on sharing pictures, but not quite yet. Maybe after 60 days, maybe after I get back below 130 where I belong. I am very excited about the progress made. For the rest of this journey I am going to commit myself to the diet more, I have not been really watching what I eat and it shows. I mean who ate 2 Trader Joes pumpkin spice whoopee pies for lunch yesterday? That would be me J and I loved it. But what I love even more is being able to wear all my damn clothes, so its 125 or bust people.
Week 5 starts today and I overslept! Again, did I tell you I’m sick? I was up in the middle of the night b/c Harper is having some sleep issues and then I couldn’t go back to sleep b/c I couldn’t breathe. So, the 5am wake up call was not happening. So tonight I try a new arm DVD and I am looking forward to it. I added in 2 lb weights to kenpo this weekend and whoooobooyyy are my ar
ms sore, in a good way. Putting on a shirt hurts and I admit my sadistic butt kind of likes that! These muscles are here to work! I am hoping in this next 30 days I can get down to 128. Things are about to get tougher for me b/c in Feb I HAVE to start running again, 3 days a week. In terms of p90x, that may mean that I skip the Kenpo workout for a long run some weeks, but I am going to try my hardest to just do it all P90x and the 3 runs. Although I will admit I am a yoga slacker, I hate that the DVD is 90 mins and I think I am just going to swap it out for another yoga workout. Mamma doesn’t have 90 mins unless it’s for a 10 mile run.And Bloggy friends I am raising money through my marathoning for a great cause! How about you skip that $5 latte this week and give some funds to keep an animal happy and warm in 2011! https://www.firstgiving.com/monicaonthego.com
Friday, January 21, 2011
A giveaway! A giveaway! Saffron Rouge, alert the presses!
It’s been a long while since I have done a giveaway on my blog, so whadayasay, want to have one! The good people of the awesome website Saffron Rouge sent me a little care package. I told them about the harsh Cleveland winters and my ridiculously dry skin and all the aches and pains that P90x is leaving me with. They listened and sent me some awesome body balms and Badger sore muscle rub. My favorite thing they sent me was the Evolving Body Balm. It smells delicious and is the perfect under eye cream. I put it on before bed the last few days and despite this shitass cold, I still look half way perky! Plus, it smells good enough to eat, like honey and roses made a baby and melted it and you rubbed it on your face. Okay that was kind of gross. I apologize for that. 
Muscle rub is my best friend nowadays and this badger one is good. It is made of cayenne and a lot of other spicy stuff and makes your muscles glowwwww with warmth. I prefer it to my normal go to Icy Hot, the smell isn’t quite so old folks home.
Seriously, I am not just saying this b/c they gave me stuff. Saffron Rouge is a great website full of lovely organic bath and body products. Stuff you won’t just find at your local CVS. Plus, orders over $50 get free shipping ANNNDDD you get to choose 2 product samples with every order. Who doesn’t love samples, for real, who, they are crazy. Tell them I said so.
I’d would like to give some of my lucky readers their own little winter beauty treatment. So, go on over to Saffron Rouge and have a look around and leave me a comment telling me which product you would buy if you were so inclined to buy something today! I will pick 2 lucky comments and send you some Badger Muscle Rub and/or Balm Balm. Either way yo
u will be super lucky and smell good. Good luck. Contest is open until next Thursday morning, say around 9am. Leave your email address in the comment so I can track you down.
Muscle rub is my best friend nowadays and this badger one is good. It is made of cayenne and a lot of other spicy stuff and makes your muscles glowwwww with warmth. I prefer it to my normal go to Icy Hot, the smell isn’t quite so old folks home.
Seriously, I am not just saying this b/c they gave me stuff. Saffron Rouge is a great website full of lovely organic bath and body products. Stuff you won’t just find at your local CVS. Plus, orders over $50 get free shipping ANNNDDD you get to choose 2 product samples with every order. Who doesn’t love samples, for real, who, they are crazy. Tell them I said so.
I’d would like to give some of my lucky readers their own little winter beauty treatment. So, go on over to Saffron Rouge and have a look around and leave me a comment telling me which product you would buy if you were so inclined to buy something today! I will pick 2 lucky comments and send you some Badger Muscle Rub and/or Balm Balm. Either way yo
u will be super lucky and smell good. Good luck. Contest is open until next Thursday morning, say around 9am. Leave your email address in the comment so I can track you down. In other non free stuff news. I officially signed up for the South Bend Indiana marathon on June 4th. Those crazy F-er's have a 6am start time! And I just learned that sign up for Chicago is Feb 1, yay! Unfortunately that race coses $145. Yuck.Guess I better stop spending all my paycheck at Whole Foods on my lunch break every week. Week 4, the so called rest week of P90x, is going, this cold has caused me to miss a workout or two, but I am not stressing, just want to get better.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
A mistake has been made!
A mistake has been made. I went out on my lunch break to get some drugs, fed up with this awful, horrible head/chest cold. I have one of those awful colds where you feel like you are underwater. I couldn’t hear, my head was throbbing, my throat was sore and I couldn’t think straight. I got in line at the CVS pharmacy to pick up some of the good stuff that you cannot buy off the shelves anymore thanks to the ingenious meth dealers. I grabbed a card off the shelf, showed some ID, and walked back to my car with Aleve-D. The D on the box is embolden and red, surely that means this stuff really works! Right on the front it says one pill will work for 12 hours. Great! So, I down one and head back to work. By 2:00 nothing has happened. Nada. My head still feels like it is full of concrete and I can’t seem to get any work done. So, what do I do? I pop another one. Sigh. Now I sick here at my desk feeling like a junkie. I can breathe, oh yes I can breathe, but I am completely tweaking. I hope I come down a bit so I can drive home at 5! If I have to call the husband to come get me b/c I overdose on Aleve- D, I think I may get a talking to. Oh yes a mistake has been made, send help and glow sticks. I am going to go listen to Phish on Pandora now and relive my glory days from 1999-01.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Week 3 Done - recap
Well as I mentioned the kid has been super sick, turns out she has RSV. She then passed this dreaded viral scourge on to me and Gary. I feel like I can't catch a break lately. I had the stomach ick for weeks on end (cutting out dairy completely has taken care of that matter) and now this. I feel pretty awful. Luckily it didn't hit me until Friday afternoon and I had most of week 3 under my belt. I ended up skipping yoga on Sat for a 4 mile run instead. It was a sidewalk run with the dog in really deep snow. Tough stuff. I felt good while I was doing it, but man did my lungs burn afterwards. Today was my rest day, but I did a ton of packing and house work and moved a bunch of fire wood out of the garage over to my neighbors house. So, all in all I consider week 3 a solid one. My weight isn't down anymore, still holding steady at 134.7, but I can really tell a difference. My love handles are going away, my arms are more cut and my stomach is flatter. Yay! Have I mentioned I love P90x!Pic is of Harper and her older cousin Colleen, ignore the food on her face! I just love how both of them are like "huh".
Thursday, January 13, 2011
P90x Week 3 - going strong
Hey there Bloggy friends. I am almost done with week 3. I am so glad I decided to have a do over, I have been having some kickass workouts. After Back & Chest/Ab ripper on Monday, I did Plyometrics on Tuesday, Shoulders & Arms on Wednesday and today I did Kenpo X and plan to do Ab ripper on lunch.
I am getting much better at the Plyometrics DVD. It is so damn tough, but I love it. I really plan to keep it in my weekly plans after P90x. I have a lot of improving to do and can’t imagine I will ever be able to do all the moves as well as Tony. Boy is that man flexible! I did Kenpo this morning and it makes me feel like a uncoordinated oaf. I just focus on the punching, I cannot get the foot movements down to save my life. I really cannot express how much I am loving P90x. I love not having to go out in the cold and run, I love that I get to sleep in a little in the morning, I love how sore I feel all over my entire body! However, I do have creeping feelings of worry about my running. I have only run 4 times since Dec 11! That is unheard of for me, it’s very weird and I cannot shake the feeling that I am going to regret this. I really do need to make sure I am running more than once a week and I will do that moving forward. But it’s cold out there ya’ll!
My weight is finally starting to go down and I can tell a difference in my arms for sure!
My poor little monkey is so sick. I stayed home with her the past 2 days from work and Gary is on duty today/tomorrow. She has had a really high fever and has been so lethargic. It is heart breaking. She is taking about a 3 hour nap, so I had time both days to do some more cleaning and organizing of the house. This weekend we are meeting with realtors, I am so excited! Have any of you sold your house recently? Any tips or questions you think I need to ask?
Monday, January 10, 2011
P90X Week 3, day 1 & Virgin Health Miles
Good morning Bloggy friends. I started my day the right way with Back and Shoulders followed by ab ripper. This is the 4th time I have done this DVD. I think I am getting a little better, but I can still only do about 20 pushups and 25 pullups for each exercise. I cannot even fathom doing these pushups on my toes. Maybe I would be better off doing 10 and doing it on my toes? I have found with this tape especially, that Tony talks too much, so if you fast forward the workout really only takes about 48 mins as opposed to 55. I usually do ab ripper in the evening, but I knew that tonight was going to be busy b/c G and I have been cleaning out the basement, so I opted to do it this morning. Ab ripper is so tough. You are supposed to do 25 of each exercise, but I manage about 20. I used to be able to do this DVD no problem, but now that all my muscles are fatigued it’s not so easy. I think standing most of the day is contributing to muscles fatigue as well. Lord knows I haven’t been running!
My company signed up for a year long health initiative called Virgin Health Miles. Basically we got a pedometer and you can upload your steps to the Virgin website. Your steps equate to points. Once you accumulate a certain number of points, you move up a level. There are 5 levels. You also get points for other exercises like P90X, but only 10 points, you basically get the points for logging your exercise. So, today I would get my steps, and then 10 points for Back/Shoulders and 10 points for Ab ripper. Updating your health profile gets you points as well. We get prizes for getting to levels 3, 4 and 5. And then there will be competitions internally that we can get points for. The prizes are TBD. My goal is to get 7K on days that I don’t work out and over 10K on days that I do. I mean I should be walking the dogs for at least a mile a day. Unfortunately standing at my desk and moving my feet does not seem to update my pedometer. Boo.
My company signed up for a year long health initiative called Virgin Health Miles. Basically we got a pedometer and you can upload your steps to the Virgin website. Your steps equate to points. Once you accumulate a certain number of points, you move up a level. There are 5 levels. You also get points for other exercises like P90X, but only 10 points, you basically get the points for logging your exercise. So, today I would get my steps, and then 10 points for Back/Shoulders and 10 points for Ab ripper. Updating your health profile gets you points as well. We get prizes for getting to levels 3, 4 and 5. And then there will be competitions internally that we can get points for. The prizes are TBD. My goal is to get 7K on days that I don’t work out and over 10K on days that I do. I mean I should be walking the dogs for at least a mile a day. Unfortunately standing at my desk and moving my feet does not seem to update my pedometer. Boo.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
P90X Week 3: FAIL!
Sorry I have to submit you to this nasty photo, but come on turds in the bowl are funny. I feel like a bit of P90X turd in the bowl right now. Week 3 didn't go as well as it should have. I have my list of excuses - work was busy, I got into a car accident on Thursday (minor, my fault, boo) and that consumed me that day. Most of all, Gary and I made the big decision to really try and sell our house this spring and I got super excited and started packing stuff up so that when the real tors come next week our house isn't a disaster.I also got addicted to a book - The Walking Dead compendium 1 - which is a compilation
of 48 issues of a zombie graphic novel and I was up too late reading it. I have never read a comic book in my life, but I loved the AMC show so much I had to check out where it came from. So, so good. The books are a bit pricey and hard to come by, I ordered the compilation from Amazon, check it out. So, getting up early was tough.
I missed 3 workouts this week and since I missed one during week 2, I am going to do this week over. No biggie. I did do plyometrics, shoulders/back and arms/shoulders this week. Still tough, but getting a bit easier b/c I know the workouts. Tony really does talk
too much, so I found myself fast forwarding through some of his long winded explanations. Long week. I am looking forward to getting my shiz together next week, I have to get up early to get it done, no other way.
On another note. I have started standing up most of my work day. I know I look a bit wierd, but if you google it, you will find that standing at work is much better for you and actually burns about 120-140 calroies an hour! I have been doing it for 3 weeks now. I started with 2 hours a
day and now do 4-5. I'm sure a few peo;le think I am just trying to be odd or get attention, but I really like it. I can already tell huge improvements in my posture. To do it, all I did was prop my laptop up on a banana box I snagged from the office recycling bin! I need to wrap it so its more pretty. Check out this article from the NY times to learn more.
Monday, January 3, 2011
My race plans for 2011
I am feeling fast people. It’s imaginary. I’ve only run 3 times since my marathon on Dec 11th! The horror. But I am feeling fast and hopeful for a year of racing. Here are the races I plan to do this year:
Feb 19th – Chili Bowl 5K (maybe, depends on weather, but haven’t done a 5k in over a year!)
March 12th – St. Malachi 5 miler
April 23rd – Cleveland 10 miler (hoping for a big fat PR, my best 10 mile time is – 1:29:42.68 )
May 15th – Cleveland half mary (again hoping for a PR, best time is 1:56:09)
June 4th – South Bend IN full mary
Sept 12th – Eerie PA full mary
Sept 24th – Akron half mary (maybe, only if my Brother in law wants to do it again)
Oct 6th – Chicago IL full mary
Nov 27th – Fall classic half mary (if I don’t do Akron)
Nov or Dec – another local 5K, probably pigskin classic or Reindeer Run
I would love to get my half time down to 1:51 in the spring and under 1:50 in the fall. I think for the 10 miler I can get it down to 1:25, I hope. Overall I just hope to get my times for distances from an half and under closer to 8min/mile. For fulls I hope to break 4 hours next year, which means my avg. pace will need to be as close to 9min miles as possible. Likely under 9min miles for the first half to allow for some dropoff at the end. I am not a negative split kind of lady.
Feb 19th – Chili Bowl 5K (maybe, depends on weather, but haven’t done a 5k in over a year!)
March 12th – St. Malachi 5 miler
April 23rd – Cleveland 10 miler (hoping for a big fat PR, my best 10 mile time is – 1:29:42.68 )
May 15th – Cleveland half mary (again hoping for a PR, best time is 1:56:09)
June 4th – South Bend IN full mary
Sept 12th – Eerie PA full mary
Sept 24th – Akron half mary (maybe, only if my Brother in law wants to do it again)
Oct 6th – Chicago IL full mary
Nov 27th – Fall classic half mary (if I don’t do Akron)
Nov or Dec – another local 5K, probably pigskin classic or Reindeer Run
I would love to get my half time down to 1:51 in the spring and under 1:50 in the fall. I think for the 10 miler I can get it down to 1:25, I hope. Overall I just hope to get my times for distances from an half and under closer to 8min/mile. For fulls I hope to break 4 hours next year, which means my avg. pace will need to be as close to 9min miles as possible. Likely under 9min miles for the first half to allow for some dropoff at the end. I am not a negative split kind of lady.
If I complete this list I will be up to 6 states by the end of 2011. I may be able to squeeze in a May marathon in MI if my training comes together, but not sure with P90x if I can make that happen.
P90X Week 2 recap
Well I finished off a second week of P90x on Sat. I must say that this past week was a bit half assed. I wasn't feeling well, had a stomach bug, and that made it pretty hard to do the jumpy around warmups and abs. My week looked like this:
Sunday - Rest
Monday - Back/Shoulder
Tuesday - Plyometric
Wednesday - Shoulders/Arms & Ab Ripper
Thursday - Legs/Back
Friday - 8.5 mile run
Saturday - Yoga X & Ab Ripper
So, I skipped Kenpo in favor of a long run and I didn't get one of the ab rippers in b/c of stomach pain. But I am happy with the week. It felt good to have a long run. I haven't run much in 3 weeks and I am looking forward to getting in some miles again starting this week.
Start Weight - 136.7
Week 1 - 135.4
Week 2 - 134.7
I can tell that my stomach is flatter and I am starting to see some definition on my arms already. Tony Horton I love you! I plan to really "Bring it" this week to make up for my halfassedness of last week.
Sunday - Rest
Monday - Back/Shoulder
Tuesday - Plyometric
Wednesday - Shoulders/Arms & Ab Ripper
Thursday - Legs/Back
Friday - 8.5 mile run
Saturday - Yoga X & Ab Ripper
So, I skipped Kenpo in favor of a long run and I didn't get one of the ab rippers in b/c of stomach pain. But I am happy with the week. It felt good to have a long run. I haven't run much in 3 weeks and I am looking forward to getting in some miles again starting this week.
Start Weight - 136.7
Week 1 - 135.4
Week 2 - 134.7
I can tell that my stomach is flatter and I am starting to see some definition on my arms already. Tony Horton I love you! I plan to really "Bring it" this week to make up for my halfassedness of last week.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
My Husband is a Turd, Happy new year.
Did you have a good new years eve people?! We sure did. Up until the last minute we didn't think we had a babysitter, but then grandpa came through at the last minute. It was raining so going to Progressive field for sledding was out. So, we dropped Harper off at the in - laws and we were free! But what to do? After much discussion about all the places we knew we couldn't get into, we decided to try Marbella on Chagrin Blvd A long time ago I had the best meal of my life at their sister restaurant downtown Mallorca. Both restaurants boast large menus full of Latin inspired meat and seafood dishes and generous portions. Since I still eat fish this was a good spot for me. However my meal at Marbella was a mixed bag. The sangria was fabulous and the calamari appetizer was some of the best, non greasy calamari I have ever had. The bread was gross, cold white bread, the salad was at least nice and green, but nothing special. I ordered crab meat stuff shrimp. The shrimp was chewy and the crab meat was bland and salty. The family style sides of mixed veggies and rice were no better than something i could make at home. Gary however got some giant piece of roasted pork and he enjoyed it, he said it tasted like stew, it was one of the nightly specials. Luckily, like I mentioned, the sangria was divine, so I was tipsy by dinner's end and didn't care so much that I had wasted $27 on shrimp that tasted like it came from Denny's.
Since it was a ugly, rainy night we wanted to head somewhere close to home for drinks. We live very close to Melt Bar and Grilled and decided to settle in there. I was surprised at how slow it was. I guess most people don't want to go to a grilled cheese bar on NYE. However they have such an extensive beer list. I enjoyed 2 different wheat beers, both were pretty good, one was an apricot beer from Pyramid. That was a bad idea b/c it has malt in it and I had quite a hangover on Sat. Boo. We also split the Peppermint sugar cookie bread pudding at Melt and it was just awful. We are bread pudding connoisseurs and that mushy loaf of sugar was no bread pudding. Imposter.
We rang in the new year by finishing up the second half of a movie we couldn't stay awake for on Thursday - The Girl who Played with Fire. We were asleep by 10:30! Happy New year from 2 old farts. Why is my husband a turd? B/c I want to get some decent pictures of us, we have none. Why, b/c as you can see from these photos, this is what he does. His punishment is having the pictures posted on my blog!
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About Me
- Mnowac
- distance runner attempting to run a marathon in every state, vegetarian foodie, mediocre triathlete, sucky swimmer, mommy to Harper, tea lover, coffee drinker, animal saver, hubby snuggler, race addict, full time working 31 year old living in cleveland
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