#GoingHardIn2010
I’ve been looking everywhere for little bits of motivation for the last couple weeks! The weather has definitely got me in a bit of a funk, especially when it comes to working out and eating right. Potatoes and Peggle (this seriously addicting Playstation 3 game) have been calling to me!
Monday was pretty hard. I’ve been taking the weekends off from working out and eating right to give myself a break, which I think is totally fine – except when the time comes to get going I start to stall. To be honest, I was thinking about just taking a day off, until I remembered some of good ole Perez Hilton’s tweets.
After the new year, Perez set himself a goal (whatever that may be) and promised to go hard in 2010. The tag made me think – I’ve been slacking because I haven’t been seeing results, and that’s because I haven’t really been pushing myself lately. The first couple of weeks of the workout were hard, but were becoming easier and easier every time I did them. So on Monday, after giving this a lot of thought, I decided it was time for me to #GoHardIn2010.
In case you don’t live in the area, New Jersey was facing some serious cold weather the past few weeks, but this week the sun came out and the temperature spiked to a balmy 45º. Perfect opportunity to start running again. I took Jacko out with me and we had a great 20 minute run. After that (since it was my cardio day) I came in and worked solely on my abs and legs doing another workout that I pulled out of my Women’s Health magazine this summer. Yesterday I went even harder – I went on a serious run before going through Circuit B of the Bikini-Ready Workout.
To make the workout more challenging after two weeks, I upgraded from three-pound weights to five-pounders – and even though I sound like a total wimp, it was just what I needed. The five pounders were just enough to get my muscles actually burning again when I had to use them.
This morning I woke up a little sore – something I haven’t felt since the first week I started this journey to a better me. I’m figuring out that I can’t just sit around and do the bare minimum – with anything – anymore. I have to learn how to push myself, and do it just for me.. no one else.
Here’s to #GoingHardIn2010! Thanks, Perez!
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Cocktails without the calories!
Ugh, life post college.
Take away my apartment, my friends and my freedom – but not my tolerance for booze! It has definitely diminished over the past few months as evidenced by my killer hangover last weekend. Not only did I feel like crap, but I ate like crap (grease gives me my energy back) and I realized that the three glasses of wine and two french martinis probably set me back from my weight loss goal more so than avoiding my work out!
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really drink that often, but I do look forward to having some drinks with my friends after a rough week at the office. We all know that drinking calories away is “wasteful,” but I never really looked into how it compares to eating.
I sucked it up and checked out the damage done on The Daily Plate, where I found that a typical French Martini is around 222 calories! WOOF. Instead of throwing two of those down the hatch I could have had potato skins from Fridays!!! Why, God? Why?!? I enjoy my martinis, but trust me, after eating nothing but plain oatmeal and salads over the past couple of weeks, I would rather EAT those cals than drink ‘em. The CabSauv was a little better – it clocks about 90 cals in 4 oz. (a typical glass). When all was said and done though, I drank 714 calories.
So, to prepare for my next night out (let’s face it, there will be one) I’m checking out some low-cal drinks, courtesy of The Daily Plate. Here’s what I found:
Vodka Tonic: Here’s a shout out to my old roomate Julie, who made this her signature drink by adding a dash of lime juice. An ounce of vodka (the suggested serving size) runs from 60-70 calories, depending on which brand you choose. Svedka and Stoli are a cool 69, while Sky runs a little higher at 70. The tonic water is about 10 calories per ounce, so to fill your cup it could run up to 80-100 calories. The beauty of science has, however, brought us Diet Tonic, which has ZERO calories. WOO!
Rum and Diet: A total classic. The Diet Coke is obviously at a whopping zero, and the rum can run from 50 – 70 calories. Hanging out with the Captain will cost you a little bit more – it has 75 calories per fluid ounce.
Wine: Wine actually isn’t too bad, especially since there are some tricks out there cut the calorie count. Let’s say each glass of wine you get at a restaurant is around 4 ounces. Merlot is around 120 per glass, Reisling is around 96. You can lower that by recreating the beach bar and adding club soda to the mix to make a wine spritzer. That way you get more liquid and more satisfaction. I mean, they do say that carbonation makes you feel a little more tipsy, right?
Beer: Thanks to the geniuses at BeerTutor.com we can see how bad our fave brews are. On the low end (that I could recognize) was Miller 64 an Becks Light. Heineken Light banked it at 94. Find your favorite on the list too!
Next time I go out I’ll definitely have these choices in mind, so I can at least pig out if I really feel like cheating. 
Circuit B today! How are you guys doing with your work outs?
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I suck.
Ok, not really. To be fair WordPress was giving me a teeny bit of trouble over the weekend and wouldn’t allow me tp update. But I was a little glad to be avoiding having to write about my delinquent weekend.
On Thursday after my post I did go for a nice long jog with the pup and challenged my little brother to a jump roping contest (he sucks, I rule). BUT! Then the weekend arrived.
Friday was Sam’s birthday, and we had plans to go out to this amazing hole-in-the-wall Mexican place and out for drinks. Since I had a couple of errands to do after work I didn’t get home til 5:30 p.m., and still had to shower and get ready for my night on the town. So, I guess I’m trying to justify that I didn’t “have time” to work out and that I was “too busy.” Trust me, it’s just the beginning. It gets worse.
To make a long story short, we had a lot of wine and a few martinis – which did not make for a good morning. I spent most of Saturday in bed… or eating cheese fries. 
Sunday I really meant to work out – I swear! I just was running around and doing a lot of errands. So today I’ll be continuing on with my Bikini-Ready Workout even though I sabotaged myself. The only good thing about my break is that I’m not really sore anymore and I’m totally ready to kick butt.
What can I say? I’m only human! I love to eat and definitely enjoy my vino – and I absolutely have days where I’m less than motivated to sweat like a monster. I never said I was perfect, only that I want to make myself better, and that I would try. So please don’t judge, help me get motivated!
I know tomorrow I’m going to be sore again.. I’ll try not to whine.
<3
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Exhausted.
Last night I passed out around 9 p.m. – no joke. My body hasn’t had to work this hard in a loooooooooooong time. I honestly wasn’t sure if I was even going to make it through my work out… but I did!
After a lot of whining to my co-workers and family about how sore my legs were, I pushed through doing three more circuits of the Bikini – Ready Workout. This one was still pretty heavy on the squats and lunges, so I had to cut back.
Instead of doing the three recommended sets, I did two and followed the stretching guidelines (hold each stretch for 30 seconds, and do three sets of each). I’m still pretty tired today, but since it’s a balmy 36º out, I think I’ll try to go for a nice jog.
What will you guys be doing?
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Seriously.
I mentioned this before, but ever since the temperature dropped I completely stopped working out. I used to run, and I was really starting to enjoy it.. but all good things must come to an end. Since I started resembling Jabba the Hut over the holidays I’ve been searching for something, anything, that I could do inside my house that counts as cardio.
Well, I found it.
A couple of weeks ago I bought an iPhone and have since become completely obsessed with free apps. First it was for movie tickets, then for an alarm clock.. and then for working out.
I came across the Nike Training app under the Healthcare & Fitness Top 25 category, created my cute avatar and started crafting work outs. I didn’t really have any intention of using it until I started to see it as a last resort to get my heart rate pumping.
The app has three different work outs – yoga, indoor training (YAY!) and a combo indoor and outdoor training. Once you choose a program you can either focus on core, strength or cardio.
Honestly, after the ass kicking I got yesterday from Women’s Health, I wanted something nice and easy, something relaxing even.. so I went with yoga.
WHAT A TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE IDEA.
I always thought yoga was for prissy girls who didn’t like to sweat, or move.. or think. I was wrong. There were points where I legit had to stop so I could catch my breath and chug water. I couldn’t even make the excuse that I was a novice – because each exercise comes with an idiot-proof video demonstration to take you through the moves. Then the app keeps time for two minutes while you actually do it.
The cardio yoga program included a three minute warm-up to get the blood moving and then seven other exercises to get the sweat to literally drip from your face. There was the Step and Rotate, where you step up holding dumbbells and twist your torso, alternating for the two minute period. Then the High Knee Skip to work your legs, the parachuter push up to make your arms want to fall off and the Bridge Crunch to wish you had never been born. My only reprieve was the two wonderful (and sterotypical yoga) poses at the end of the work out to stretch out my already burning muscles.
If you’re interested in joining the death app club, you can download it at the App Store. If you’re a lame-o who has yet to join the iPhone bandwagon (ha!) you can download the Nike Training widget here.
After working my body to death for the second day in a row, I’m going to take a nice, long bubble bath. Tomorrow I’m on to Workout B of The Bikini-Ready Workout. Gulp.
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So. Sore.
Yesterday I started Day 1 with my first work out, The Bikini-Ready Workout designed by Valerie Waters. No.. I’m not planning a fabulous beach vacation, but the workout promises a flatter gut and a tighter butt (two of my problem areas) so I decided to start with this one.
I don’t really feel like getting sued by Rodale, so I’ll just give a brief rundown of what HELL I put myself through. There were three separate circuits, each exercise called for 12 reps with three sets of each. All in all I did 36 reps of each exercise. AH!
The first circuit concentrated on hips and abs, with side plank, regular plank, and one legged hip raises. Easy. The next one had me do a total of 36 body weight squats, and around 72 lunges (36 reverse and 36 traditional). UGH!
I think the best part about this book is that it gives a lot of alternatives. While the work out called for a few exercises that required advanced equipment (like reverse lunges with a valslide, or those pully machine thingys for shoulders at the gym), I just flipped through the pages in the muscle section to find something comparable. Instead of using the valslide I did reverse lunges with weights in my hand, and instead of the pully exercise I did Y Raises on my swiss ball. Both of the replacements were still rediculously challenging.
The last circuit concentrated on the arms and back, and wasn’t too bad, considering I used my measly five pound weights. 
Needless to say I woke up feeling stiff. There’s nothing like a great workout to make you feel like an old lady. Today I’m taking a break from the weight training and doing some cardio and ab work.. I’ll let you know how it goes in this 23º weather.
P.S. – Lunch time. Today I had a half cup of plain oatmeal (with sugar!) for breakfast, a cup of split pea soup for lunch and a chocolate pretzel Special K bar for a snack.
Ta!
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Never heard of this before..
I stumbled across this while looking for measurement tactics yesterday. It calculates your waist-to-hip ratio, which can be used to determine different health risks. See, doctors have recently confirmed that apple shaped people (who have more fat around the belly) are at a higher risk for heart disease or diabetes when compared to pear-shaped ladies. A healthy ratio is considered to be below .8 for women.
Calculate your waist-to-hip ratio by using the measurements we took yesterday of the circumference of the two problem areas. Then you can plug them into the calculator at the link above or suffer through the long division. My ratio came out to be .775.
What was yours?
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Obligatory measurement post.
Finding directions on exactly how to take my body measurements was probably the most annoying thing to do. I worked at a jean store for a couple of years, and there sizes are determined by waist size, although I found that that’s not entirely accurate.
According to Dr. Mehmet Oz’s YouTube (where he answers various questions from the public) men and women should be measuring their waist size from about an inch above their belly button. After searching around the web for a few minutes, I also found this nifty chart that will help track progress through measuring my figure. The bottom of the page gives advice on where on the body to place the tape. Here’s what I found:
Bust (for the ladies): Measure the fullest part of your chest, placing the tape directly over the nips. This way you’ll get an accurate measurement that includes the width of your back and size of the ta ta’s.
Waist: You want to look for your “natural” waist, which is typically an inch above your belly button. One site explained that if you can’t find it, bend to the side – your natural waist is the point where your skin begins to crease.
Hips: Ugh. This is a sensitive part for me. Place the tape around your hips at the widest part (meaning over your butt) while your heels are clicked together.
Thighs: These were a bit conflicting. Some Web sites advised that you measure halfway between the hip and knee, while the chart I shared with you says to measure at the very top right below the butt cheek. I’m going to go with both.. can’t hurt, right?
There were also sites that suggested measuring the wrists, neck and arms, but I’m going to skip those. To be honest I just really don’t care if my wrist shrinks .23474 of a millimeter after three months. Be sure to jot down your height and weight too if you’re following along!
Drum roll please – here are my results (gulp):
Height: 5’3″
Weight: TBD (to be honest, I don’t own a scale! I’ll sneak over to grandma’s tomorrow to get it.. promise!)
Bust: 36
Waist: 31
Hips: 40
Thighs: 23 at the top (below the cheek) and 21 in the middle.
OK, I think that demonstrates enough effort for tonight. Remember, the hard part’s over! Tomorrow we start pumping some serious iron.
-Maggy
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New year, new start.
Here’s the deal. I’m 22 years old, live at home and have a dead end job with limited amounts of cash. This summer I started working out a little bit at home with my chubby beagle Jackson, and now that it’s frigid those lengthy, sweaty runs have turned into swift walks around the block.
I need change. At work, at home, in my love life.. well, you get the idea. So, in order to jump start my way to a new life in 2010 (because let’s face it, 2009 was pretty rough for ALL of us) I’ve decided to work on something I can control. Myself. I’ve read up on a few things and found that exercising not only improves physical health (duh) but also helps with sleeping issues, confidence and mood.
I’m using this blog to track my progress and to keep myself honest. If you happen to follow me, maybe you will be inspired by a normal girl trying every at-home workout on-line, in the lady mags and in The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises. I won’t be attending an expensive gym, and my only equipment will be my giant Swiss Ball, dumbbells and my grandma’s treadmill. If I have any equipment updates, I’ll post with pictures.
Every day I’ll be tracking my progress, and at the end of each month I’ll update my stats along with any helpful information I find along the way.
I don’t have a super specific goal – just to fit into my favorite skinny jeans and not have a muffin top.
It will definitely be a painful process for me, but could be an entertaining one for those of you who are reading.
So here goes. Please leave comments to cheer me on, or share your favorite workouts or home videos.
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Tags: Updates, Work outs
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