Day 117

I almost forgot to post.

This morning I did 30 mins on the elliptical and another 2 hours of general gardening (moving/removing rock, digging holes, planting flowers and herbs). I'm exhausted.

One day at a time. One choice at a time.

I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength.

Day 242 (day 4 / week 35)

We are on our way to go eat Zaba's for dinner (yum!) with my hubby's best friend, so I am going to make this quick....er lol.

Today I did heavy cleaning. HEAVY. Heavy like when we first moved in here. I scrubbed both bathrooms head to toe...err, wall to wall (I don't think my bathroom has any toes) and the kitchen as well. I got in a pretty good workout. Because I knew I would count my cleaning as a workout, I was aware of it...so I did some lunges while I was drying the floor w/ the towel (not necessary, but I did it for exercise) and scrubbed a little harder, just to get a better workout. I stopped after about 1.5 hours and took a small break (turning off my HRM) and then finished the kitchen and mopped. I did 2.5 hours of heavy cleaning and burned 865 calories. Not bad for cleaning! Keep that in mind the next time you are scrubbing, mopping and/or cleaning. House cleaning is a great workout! (so is mowing the lawn!).

Hope you all have a blessed Sunday! I'm slow to catch up on my emails and comments so I apologize!

Make it count!

I can do this. I am a star.

Day 218 (day 1 / week 32)

Thank you so much for all of your feedback with my blog! This weekend I will try to change a few things to see if I can fix any of the problems you guys are having. I'll let you know when I am done updating, and you can tell me if you are still having issues.

Today I feel MUCH better. Yesterday was a "high" day on my calorie cycle, and I just felt so much better when I woke up. I went out and walked early this morning, had a good walking day and came home and did some summer cleaning (just like spring cleaning). It was definitely the lack of calories, although it wasn't anything I was doing purposely. I really have to make an effort to eat as much food as I am supposed to to keep up with my exercise. It stinks to say that more often than not, I probably wouldn't eat much, if I didn't make that effort. I am happy right around the 100-1300 mark, and that's just not enough for the amount of exercise that I do daily, but I don't want to cut back on my exercising (huge mental benefits as well as the physical!) so I just have to suck it up and eat more.

I walked 2 miles in 35 minutes (430 calories). I have been meaning to share this with you, but I keep forgetting. My theme song for walking (the song that I listen to on repeat because it is the perfect song for me with timing and some of the lyrics and just attitude) is You Can Do It by No Doubt, on their Tragic Kingdom album (#11). I LOVE this song. I zone out sometimes and when I think "eh I don't want to do this anymore" and I come back out of the zone, I get to hear Gwen singing, "you can do it" and it's just awesome! Very motivating song for me. Find motivating songs and incorporate that into your exercise routines. I bet that will give you the extra boost you need to push a little farther if you need it. I want to compile a mixed CD (remember mixed tapes? lol) and make that a walking CD...but my CD ROM doesn't work anymore, so it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Anyway, after I got home I did my cleaning and cleaned for 150 minutes and burned 837 calories. Sweet. I got a lot done, and now I just feel relaxed and happy. The Monkey Boy is down for a nap and everything is clean...gotta love that.

The Monkey Boy and I got to see my niece today and she is just growing up so fast. I think she is 6 now. She such a beautiful little princess and she adores my son, as much as he adores her (you should see them together...they are so cute). Hopefully we will see her tomorrow again before she goes back to Cali, so I can take a picture of them (I forgot today).

Tomorrow is Friday and it's supposed to be in the mid 90's here. SO happy about that. That means I can take longer walks! I am nervous because my first day of work is Monday. I hope everything goes smoothly!

See you guys tomorrow! Make today count! *sings* You can do it...you can do it...

I can do this. I am a star.

day 156 (day 2 / week 23)

"I want you guys to feel like you're going to die!"
--Jillian Michaels, The 30 Day Shred

I woke up this morning exhausted. Yesterday I spent 2.5 hours STRAIGHT (no joke!) scrubbing and scraping that grill. It was filthy and caked with grease and grime. It has (according to my mom) 15 years worth of build up on it (should have taken a before picture). I have to go back today to finish, because it was just not possible to do it all in one day. The steel wool ripped through my gloves and so I gave up with those, but now my nails and fingers are all...nasty. They look worse than man hand lol. I scrubbed so hard that I don't know if there was originally a protective coating of paint at the bottom of the build up, or if it was just straight aluminum (like it is now lol).

So I really didn't want to do The 30 day shred today because I know that I am just going to be scraping and scrubbing again today. I really didn't want to exercised. Then I remembered that I made a commitment with the group members in a sparkteam (on sparkpeople.com) fittingly called "The 30 Day Shred," to do the shred for the entire month of June. Arg! (yes I'ma pirate today).

What do you do when you don't want to do something? You take it to another level! Today I did the 30 day shred, but instead of doing level 1, I did level 2! This method is quite motivating for me. Jump in head first and just get it done with. I had only done level 2 once before (I think--I don't really remember) so I couldn't expect anything and wuss out of anything. I am really proud of myself and glad that I pushed through it. I feel great now, and KNOW that I can tackle that grill. With better gloves. And more oven cleaner. *vera de milo muscle flex*

Off to wake the boy up (wow I'm waking him up super late today!).

Make today count! Take it to the next level and push through it! You'll be glad you did :)

I can do this. I am a star.

day 155 (day 1 / week 23)

There is something about how Jillian Michaels structures the 30 day shred, that makes it go by so fast when you are doing it. I have done quite a few 30 minute workouts, and this one seems to go by the fastest. I think it's because we are constantly moving onto something else, and you can kind of count the segments or phases (I forget what she calls them).

She has a 3-2-1 system: 3 minutes of strength training, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs. This really makes the time go by fast, let me tell you! There's nothing worse than going to exercise (especially when you really don't want to!) and the time just drags on. This workout is definitely a higher intensity than Slim in 6 or Turbo Jam, but you can't really compare them all. They are all just different, and it isn't fair to do that. They are all awesome in their own right!

Anyway, I just finished Day 4, Level 1 of the 30 day shred. I can already go lower in the 2 types of lunges we do and the squats, and I can feel my body getting stronger (ha! ya right, it's only been 4 days--must be totally psychological--but it sounds good, right? lol). My legs were a little bit sore yesterday later in the day, and they were a little sore this morning, but they feel fine now (not a bad sore). It reminds me of High School, playing sports and working through the beginning training part, after the summer break. I used to hurt so bad after volleyball and softball, but it eventually went away the more I practiced.

Ok off to get some stuff done. Hope some of you guys are out there doing the shred with me. I know some of you have it! We can do this together! Well, whatever you're doing, make today count!

I can do this. I am a star.