Modified Workouts

I couldn't face the gym today. After waking up and trying to walk to the bathroom, I wrapped my ankles, downed some Advil and decided to shoot for a Thursday return date at the gym. In the meantime I'm going to try and modify my workout so that most of what I do does not involve my ankles. I've been researching strength moves I can do to work various parts of my body with little to no equipment and without standing or using my ankles in any way.

So Far My list includes:
Push ups
Planks
SuperPeople
Sensei Mark Specials
Ab Choppers
Bicycle Crunches
Hamstring Ball Curl

If you've got any ideas on various workout moves I can try please let me know...I'm desperate here!

Of course I'm going to try (and I stress the try) to hit the pool to get some Cardio on Thursday. It's not that I don't have the time, or that I don't love swimming...it's well, er....it's the swimsuit issue. The idea of wearing a swimsuit in front of people I don't know makes me get slightly panicky. But since almost all forms of Cardio exercise that I can think of in some way involve my ankles, I may be forced (once again) to embrace a form of exercise that I've been avoiding.

I'm still bummed about the fact that I'm basically sidelined right now. Just when I was starting to catch the running bug, I manage to break myself.

Calorie counting is now of paramount importance. I'm terrified that if I'm not very careful I'm going to erase all the hard work I've done. Especially since I'm upset, and I'm an emotional eater.

Like tokaiangel said "Think like a surfer - 'stay stiff and ride the black wave'."
-Meg

The girl hit hard like a barracuda baby

Last night I tried an experiment. Since I only have one ace bandage I wrapped up my right ankle and not my left ankle, took some Tylenol PM and went to bed. This morning, surprisingly, my left ankle felt better than my right ankle. I have no clue. In the process of getting myself up and mobile and to the gym I determined that stairs were no longer trying to kill me, and therefore I would be fine on the treadmill. So I laced up my sneakers and hit it.

I ran for half an hour and felt ok. I even pushed myself to run a little faster. My ankles started aching a bit towards the end but I figured I was alright.

I did day two of week six of the Hundred push up challenge, or rather I tried to. My arms gave out at push up 38 out of 42 in the max set. Part of my problem I've realized is that my palms get sweaty while I'm doing my push ups and my hands start to slide outwards slowly, making for progressively difficult push ups. Anyone got any suggestions? But anyways that means I'm redoing week six next week.

I kinda ran out of time for my strength set unfortunately. All I did was a set of 20 sensei mark specials. I'm planning on doing some more sit ups and squats on my lunch break to make up for it.

Then it was time for Treadmill Round Two! Yeah, no. Running produced a decidedly unhealthy shooting pain from both ankles. So I walked. I put the incline up to 5 and kept my heart rate up above 150. It was a fast walk, but it was most definitely a walk. So I sucked at the workout today.

I really need to figure out this ankle problem though. It's slowin me down.

I had this big long introspective post about me being a tomboy that I was writing in my head while I was doing the first half of my workout, but I've forgotten most of what I wanted to say...I'll try to remember and post a bonus post later.

-Meg

Take a deep breath, babe, cause we've just started

It seems like I just can't get myself to exercise on the weekends. I make grandiose plans to do boxing and hit the gym and then *bam* real life interferes. After getting a grand total of 6 hours of sleep Saturday morning so that we could get up and traipse around Brooklyn looking at apartments, there was no way my body was letting me get up in time for boxing. Now mind you, normal people wouldn't have a problem getting up for a 12:30 class, but being the night dweller that I am, that's early.

I got myself back into the swing of things today (Monday was spent looking at more tiny overpriced apartments), and man do I hurt from it.

I did the half hour on the treadmill, with my body complaining the whole way. Then I did Day one of week six in the Hundred push up challenge. Ow. Just. Ow. I'm in the lowest bracket this time, and I barely made that last couple of push ups in the max set. I foresee redoing this week in my future. I did a wussy strength set, just the crunches I usually do, stretched and then tried to hit the treadmill again. My body was having none of that thank you very much. So I spent the next 25 minutes alternately walking and then jogging for a couple minutes, walking again for like 10 minutes, trying to run for a couple minutes, repeat.

And yet I feel like I ran a half marathon at this point..
-Meg

Check in the appropriate box for Boy or Girl

First things first, I would like to apologize for my recent foul mood. I did a very silly thing, and agreed to work overtime on a week when I already wasn't at my best. Being overtired, PMSing and getting almost no human interaction outside of work? Not good.

I've considered taking down my last post, because honestly I could see how it might offend someone with or recovering from an eating disorder, however I feel I need to leave it up, for me, because sometimes I'm afraid I'm starting to develop *very* bad habits and thought patterns.I need to be careful, because I have a highly competitive nature, not to turn my food journal into a competition with myself to see 'how low I can go'. Let me say instead that I was speaking out of frustration and hormones, and I'm sorry.

I had a short, but good, workout today. The S.O. gets out early on Fridays so I met him at 3:00 for some gym time. I talked him into the treadmills and proceeded to fly. I had been feeling tired and out of sorts when we got there, I had only gotten 6 hours of sleep and was cranky, but let me tell you, after the two minute warm up, I cranked the music and just ran for 30 minutes. I even did an 'interval' for the last two minutes, pushing myself hard, sweating buckets, and hitting that 'no room for any thoughts' zone.

I did my Hundred push up Challenge set, day 3 of week 5. Again I barely made the last set. Those last few push ups were done teeth clenched and making my "I will KILL this" face. (Coined so by one of my Sensei's back at the dojo as it is the face I make that scares people ^_^)

I did Abs (25 sensei mark specials, 10 each side 'ab choppers', 10 each side side crunches, 15 toe touches with 12 lb weight), and a little extra arm work, just 2 sets of 15 tricep kickbacks with the 12 lb weight. Then I did a full stretching set for once (since I had time) and hit the showers.

One thing I noticed while running is that the appropriate music really helps me go. A small sample of my "I will kick @$$" music (and yes I'm weird so sue me):
"Infrared" by Placebo
"Boy or Girl" by Electric Six
"Mystery Girl" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
"Come out Swinging" by The Offspring (or really most songs by them work)
"The Libertine" by Patrick Wolf
"Machete" by Moby

Yeah there's more...I have a huge workout playlist...but that's a good sample for now...

So what do you listen to?
-Meg

Workout, with a vengeance!

I feel much better today. Later last night, after posting I had a wicked vertigo attack, so I do believe that my negative state of mind was in part associated with the oncoming attack. Gotta love the human body. I would like to thank tokaiangel very much for her kind words about my state of mind last night , it's always good to know that there are people out there pulling for you. ^_^

Today I hit the gym hard. With a Vengeance!! I got there earlier than usual, and jumped on the treadmill. I warmed up for two minutes then ran steady for a full 30 minutes. No stopping, No slowing. I even managed to run a little faster on a little bit of an incline for the last two minutes. I cooled down for 5 minutes then hit the mats for strength.

This is my second time through week 5 of the Hundred Push Up Challenge, today was day 2 redux. I'm still just barely making it through the required sets. I feel fine up until the last "max" set. Then I BARELY eek out those last few push ups.

After the push ups I did a set of 25 "sensei mark specials" (I'm trying to work my way back up to sets of 50 of them) a set of 15 "toe touch crunches" with a 10 lb weight in my hands, 2 sets of 10 "ab choppers" (one set on each side), 2 sets of 15 side crunches (again one set on each side), 2 sets on each side of 15 triceps kick backs with a 10 lb weight, and 2 sets in each direction side squats.

I stretched for a while until the S.O. showed up then we hit the ellipticals. One thing I'm noticing now that I'm doing running on the treadmill before I get on the elliptical machines is how freaking tired I am by the time I get to the ellipticals. But I managed to keep myself moving at a respectable rate with the resistance up at 10 for 30 minutes, even if every minute felt like I was trying to run in knee deep snow.

I hit the showers and then we headed to Starbucks for my daily indulgence (a tall iced skinny vanilla late...mmmm.)

I started keeping a food journal yesterday, and over the course of the day I racked up a total of 1606 Calories, 47.7g Fat, 188 Carbs, and a measly 58g Protein. I'm going to report my daily totals here and hopefully that'll help keep me accountable.

The word for today is Rededicated.
-Meg

Keeping Pace

Back to the gym today, for real.

I did a solid 20 minute run, with a five minute warm up and five minute cool down. I topped a mile. Somehow this is much more work, and feels like a much bigger accomplishment than the same distance on the elliptical machine..

I did day one of week five of the Hundred Push up Challenge. I had managed to do around 40 strait during my last test, so I was in the middle column this week. OMG WTF, it got so much harder this week! I barely did the 35 minimum for the last set. The last couple were BARELY eked out. I'm starting to worry that I'm going to end up having to repeat this week.

After that run, and the push ups, I did some light arm work and ab work (sensei mark specials, side crunches, and ab choppers) Stretched, and then about 20 minutes on the elliptical machine before realizing I was completely out of energy and hitting the shower.

I realized that I've never explained what a "sensei mark special" is. Well it's simple really, it's basically a modified set of crunches. First you start by laying down and holding your legs strait up, and crossing them at the ankles, so you're making an L out of your body with the long upper part being your legs, and the short lower part your torso. Now, you do a twisting crunch, touching your right elbow to your left knee, then another twist, left elbow to right knee, then two strait crunches. That's one. I usually alternate which elbow I'm using first so the second one would be left elbow to right knee, then right elbow to left knee, then two crunches.

Now do as many of those as you can. Lately I've been really weak and only been able to do about 20 before I have to stop and do the "omgi'minpain" face while trying to breathe without using my abs (which I've found is virtually impossible.)

I'm working my way back up to sets of 50 of those. Someday...
-Meg

Motivation via Cheerleaders

And no, I don't mean having a personal cheerleader (although that would be awesome). No, today, while I was doing my strength training set I was standing near a window at my gym which happens to look out over Wall Street right in front of the NYSE. There were Cameras everywhere, Lights, stages, people all dressed up in fancy suits talking to the aforementioned cameras, and the Nets Cheerleaders posing in/on/around a car. Yes, directly in my tired, sweaty, frustrated line of sight was a cadre of robotic-aly perfect shining examples of *who I'm supposed to be

*sigh*

Anyways, today I was tired again, in that "idontwannagotothegym, youcantmakeme" kind of way. But I went anyways. I got on the elliptical and that same competitiveness that used to keep me getting my butt kicked at karate kicked in again and I kept my speed up and matched my 29 1/2 minute time for the 3 mile mark. Woo! I did a different set of strength moves today, my triceps are killing me from all the work I've been doing so I tried to give them an easy day. Instead of doing the full arm workout, halfway through it I switched to doing some exercises from another FitSugar plan, doing side lunges, reverse lunges bicycle crunches (which by the way, hurt, in a good way) and I did my standard "Sensei Mark Special" crunches.

I actually got a full fifteen minutes of stretching in before my S.O. showed up for the second half of my cardio. At this point (due in part to the shiny perfectness of the damned cheerleaders) I was feeling defeatist, and exhausted. So I decided I was going to take a different tact on this stint on the elliptical. Instead of keeping the resistance (relatively) low and going for speed, I switched it up and put the resistance (again relatively) way up to 15 and just tried to keep a respectable pace. I had to drop the resistance at a couple points down to 13 as my legs started burning from the unaccustomed work, but as soon as my legs recovered I'd push it back up to 15. And somehow I managed to do close to 2 1/2 miles in the 30 minutes. Which tells me I can run faster than I've been, and should push myself next time to see how fast I *can* go.

All in all not a bad workout. Even if I didn't want to go ^_^
-Meg