Teenage mutant ninja spider

There I was sitting on my living room floor watching TV, playing a lonely game of solitaire (old school, with real tangible cards spread out on the floor in front of me), when something caught my eye and I realized I wasn’t alone. Initially I was startled. I think something like “Oh crap” came out of my mouth.

I took a second to decide if I wanted to do the shoe smash or bug spray and came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to have to get any closer to it than I had to and opted for the spray. I calmly stood up, got the raid from under my kitchen sink, and returned to introduce the large 8 legged bugger to death. This is the second ugly brown spider that I’ve come across inside my living space in the last few days. I don’t like it! The last one I smashed with a shoe after trapping it under a cup and staring at it for 5 minutes gathering my courage to lift the cup off of him before hurling said shoe full force upon it (I put paper under the cup first for easy clean up post smash).

I sprayed at this new visitor, and he startled and took off even faster. I tried spraying him again, but I’m not sure how much of the poison actually made contact with him. In the blink of an eye he disappeared in my tv cabinet. Kelly Clarkson’s voice kept resonating in my head, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Ah geeze. I was really regretting not going for a shoe, or at least getting closer before I sprayed. I’m now quite certain that this bugger is going to mutate, acquire super spider powers, and then come find me in my sleep to seek his revenge.

Don't stop moving

It always cracks me up at the end of the max interval workout before the cool down the camera man does a sweep over the gym floor showing every one lying down practically passed out, and then a little note pops up that says “don’t stop moving”. I hope my ribs moving up and down are sufficient to qualify for movement.

I’m done! Yesterday I did the last fit test and today is the first day in 2 months I’m not working out before heading into work (except for the few times I had to work on a Sunday). I wish I felt guilty about it, but I’m so tired I don’t care. I've been looking forward to today for the last couple weeks. During the last 2 months I only missed 2 workouts in the 2nd week because I had a fever, and some days I also went for an extra jog or walk. Month 2 was hard and turned more into a chore than it was the first month.  I didn’t lose any more weight in the second month which also made it hard to keep going. In fact, when I weighed yesterday I was a pound more than I was the previous month. It kills me knowing that I’ve been eating as healthy as I have been and working out so hard that I can’t get the scale to move down, but at least my measurements still shrunk. After the first month my arms and legs stopped shrinking too. I wish I could say it’s because I have nothing left to lose there, but I do. My hips and waist still are getting smaller though. I don’t exactly have the body they advertise, but I’m by no means over weight, I’m smaller and more fit than I’ve ever been, I’m stronger and can do more in the workouts, and I now have to go shopping for new clothes because hardly anything I own fits any more.  I love looking at the fit test and comparing my numbers from day one to yesterday. I get more satisfaction with those numbers than I do from the scale or my measurements.

Total count over the last 2 months: 4 pounds lost. ½ an inch off each upper arm and thigh. 1 inch off my chest.  2.75 inches off my waist.  1.75 inches off my hips.

I know I said in a previous post that there’s no reason for me not to work out an hour every day and still go to work, but I take it back. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet now that I’m done. I’m not going to stop moving, but I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be doing insanity 6 days a week anymore. I’ll probably go back to jogging on the days that I don’t work throwing an insanity workout in the mix, and maybe doing a month one workout on the first day that I work and take a break the next 2 nights that I work to give me 4 days a week of exercise. I was losing weight before I started insanity with jogging on my days off and eating reasonably, so I should be fine with whatever I decide to do. Today however, I’m doing nothing before heading into work except blogging this post and eating the banana nut bread I baked myself and started eating Sunday night to celebrate being done. It will be gone by tomorrow.

One more week!

Insanity day 56

The workouts were more enjoyable last week. I felt like I was able to push myself as hard as I should be able to and I was seeing improvement in how much I could do. Only 6 more check boxes to go!

BAM!

Insanity Day 50

Today was fit test, weigh and measure day! The thing I fear the most with Insanity is not seeing any improvement after all the hard work I put in every day, and the biggest reward is seeing that improvement. This is why I both dread and get excited for these days all at the same time. Today was a mixture of wins and losses, but overall I have no reason to be upset.

From 2 weeks ago, all of my measurements remain the same except I lost another 1/4^th of an inch off my hips. Even though the measurement is the same around my waist I’m starting to see more definition in my torso that wasn’t there a couple weeks ago. As for the scale…well, I imagine hurling it at a tree trunk, watching it bounce off into the street just before a ginormous garbage truck rolls over it. I’ll show YOU who gained half a pound since 2 weeks ago. There goes my beloved new middle number back up to the decade I just can’t get out of. Whatever. I can’t be sad about numbers. I may never get to my dream weight, but I’m certainly smaller than I’ve ever been and that’s leaving me feeling pretty good.

Which brings us to the fit test! I’m always so nervous going into it. Today I worried that since I worked the night before and only slept 3 hours before putting in the DVD I’d not have the pep to push myself to win (I HAVE to beat myself. I just have to). I am not content to just be grateful for the exercise the fit test gives you. I want improvement!

BAM! Improvement! A lot! By my standards anyway.

I guess I didn’t need to worry. BUT, I am slightly worried for 2 weeks from now when it’s all done and I have to beat those numbers. Because I HAVE TO beat them. Even more so than the previous fit tests since it will be the LAST one. I will be so disappointed in myself if I don’t. Each time I do the fit test I push myself so hard and can’t possibly do any more than what I put out, which is why I always worry for the next fit test, and is always what makes it fun to see the numbers go up each time. I am very happy with the fit test results today. I wasn’t expecting that much of an improvement.

I think hitting my goal amount of calories every day has really helped with my energy level, although after the fit test (which lasts about 25 minutes) I had nothing left for the workout after. Aside from the first and last day of insanity, you follow the fit test (which is a really good workout all on its own) with a regular work out, which in the second month gives you about an hour and a half of insanity. Whatever energy I had from the yogurt and pretzels I ate about 45 minutes before I began today was completely drained, I couldn’t even keep up with the first 2 minutes of the warm up. I remember thinking “There’s 57 more minutes?! Gah !”  I was shaking by the middle, and not doing nearly as much as I felt I should/could be doing and I was so happy to be done at the end. I should have eaten a better meal and waited before trying to work out, but I wanted to get it done before I had to go back to work for an inservice. I don’t work tonight or tomorrow and I’ve been consistently hitting my calorie goals for the last 4 or 5 days (keeping a food journal tracking calories of everything I eat has helped a lot) so I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s workout. I should be feeling really good.

We can do this

Insanity Day 48

The workouts the last 3 days have felt much better than before and my body is thanking me for the food. I was surprised at how much food you can eat when the calories you’re consuming are healthy ones. I definitely wasn’t getting enough before even when I wasn’t working (I was eating the same kind of food, but not as often as I am now) and I’m almost embarrassed by how stupid I was being about eating. I knew the science behind nutrition I just wasn’t paying attention to what I was actually taking in. I still feel tired after a workout, but it’s a different kind of tired. I’m not exhausted to the point of tears and when I’m tired now I can tell it’s because I need sleep or because I just worked my muscles after pushing myself as hard as I thought I should be able to. It’s been educational getting to know my body this way and learning how nutrition affects the way I feel and what I can do. I’m also learning to listen to my body. When I feel hungry I need to eat something, and that happens at least every 3 hours and sometimes as often as twice in an hour. I don’t have anything in my place that is bad for me to eat and if my body is telling me it is hungry then I need to respond and put something into it. In the past when I’d be "dieting" when my body told me it was hungry I told it to shut up because it’s not dinner time yet. Counting my calories has given me the freedom to eat more often letting me know that even though it’s my 5^th time eating that day I still have 800 more calories to go so go ahead and eat something else. The other day I ate something when I wasn't really hungry just because I knew I hadn’t gotten close to what I needed for the day, was about to go out for awhile and didn't want to be under my minimum number. It’s taking some getting used to feeling like I’m eating all day, but I feel better doing it and I can see/feel a difference in my workouts. I’m going to splurge tonight and eat ice cream and I had an oreo at a church activity this afternoon. It wasn't the kind of cookie I'd been craving, but it still made me happy. I don’t even feel guilty about it…but I guess I kind of do about the icecream because I went for an extra jog this evening to help justify my going and buying it tonight.

My trusty shoes I wear with every workout...and jogging too. I'm going to need new ones soon

My insanity calendar...only now there's a purple checkmark on Saturday along with a +3.3 mile jog written in

And here's me looking goofy pre work out this morning. We'll spare the blogosphere an image of post workout. Nobody should have to see that mess.

Fun facts about the shirt I'm wearing: It was a gift from my awesome cousin Courtney. It has a flamingo on it which is my favorite animal. It is yellow, which is my favorite color. Underneath the picture it says "Paradise Island" (you can't really see it in the picture). We had no idea how awesome that would be when I originally got it knowing where I live now.

Eat more

Insanity Day 47

Month 2 hasn’t been very satisfying for me yet. I’ve been feeling tired all the time, I feel like I’m not making the amount of progress I’d like with the workouts because I’m too tired to push as hard as I want and the scale that I expected to start moving down a bit more now that I’ve developed some muscle and my workouts have intensified hasn’t moved at all…except for maybe a pound in the wrong direction. I’ve been craving sugar more than I had been. My muscles have been extra shakey in the workouts this week and I felt like crying once. What the heck was wrong with me? It was just a work out!

I did a mental reflection of the food I’ve eaten the last 3 days tallying up the calories and realized I was starving myself eating only about 1000 calories a day on the days that I worked. A girl my height, weight and age who doesn’t exercise at all requires 1395 calories a day to meet her basal metabolic needs. I’ve been doing hour long insanity workouts  6 days a week and half the time following that workout with a 12 hour shift at the hospital. 1000 calories isn’t going to do it. No wonder I felt like crap. With weight loss as my goal at the activity level I’m at, I should have been eating at least 700-900 more calories a day than I was.

I never focused much on the nutrition side of insanity aside from cutting out sweets (although I still have an occasional dessert like last weekend for mother’s day and my nephew’s birthday) and my diet ginger ale/cranberry juice I used have all the time and incorporating more fruit and vegetables. I never bothered counting calories. In month two with the harder workouts they tell you to “eat more”. I didn’t change anything nutritionally in month 2. I guess I’ll have to do a little bit more food planning on my days off to make sure I eat enough on the days that I have to work so I can have the fuel that I need to get through my workouts and which should also decrease my sugar cravings. I was just hungry. I hate counting calories, but I’d rather know I’m getting what I need than feel like I’ve already done a workout before I even begin one. The calorie count started yesterday and I’m already feeling better with more food in me.

I'm tired

Insanity day 45

And I miss cookies.