Sleep. And Zumba!

Sleep. In case you didn’t know, it’s kind of a big deal.

No really, EVERY single ‘Top # Ways to Get Healthy/Lose Weight/Feel Great’ article lists it. And when they list it, they add the caveat that you have to get enough sleep.

So, imagine my dismay at the slow deterioration of my sleep over the last week.

It started out simple, like taking longer to fall asleep, and then waking up before my alarm because the sun is up. Those nights, I still got around 6.5 or so hours of sleep. But, through the magic of social obligations, my bedtime has been pushed back little by little. It used to be that I’d fall asleep easily around 9:30, and now I’m struggling to get to sleep at 10:30.

Last night, I’d be lucky if I got 3 hours of sleep. I kept tossing and turning all night until I finally plucked up the courage to look at the clock and see that it was 3:30 AM, 3 hours before my alarm goes off. *sigh*

The weirdest thing: this isn’t the first time something like this has happened, and, in hindsight, I should have done this sooner. Since I’ve been more conservative with my water intake (making sure not to drink much at meals and allowing time before and after meals without water), I’ve noticed that it is a lot more difficult for me to stay hydrated. It used to be that I had a very ‘laaa-dee-daa’ approach about drinking water, so drinking was essentially a reflex. I was hydrating constantly!! Now, I oftentimes forget to drink water, and (though most times this is okay) when I work out really hard, I sometimes forget to rehydrate or don’t rehydrate enough. This manifests as me overheating when I’m trying to sleep.

So, sometimes I can’t sleep because my body doesn’t have enough water. All I need to do is drink 16 oz of cool water and I can typically fall asleep right away. Weird…

Last night, I didn’t realize that this was the case until 3:30 in the morning. I drank some water and was finally able to go to sleep. Though, the word ‘sleep’ is a bit exaggerated; I’d describe it more as a nighttime nap!

Overall, I feel okay today, which surprises me. I’m definitely tired, but I’m functional. I think I’m going to need to put more focus on getting to bed EARLY in the future. I wish it was that easy, but when the love of your life gets off of work at 10pm and wants to see you for the first time in a week, you learn to make exceptions!

On a lighter note, I tried out zumba for the first time yesterday!! The local community center offers classes daily, and I finally plucked up the courage to give it a try! I’m so glad I did, because it was an absolute blast! I think I’m going to have to consider getting a membership so that I can attend classes more often! I don’t think it is a suitable replacement for pole dancing (which I’d consider more of a strength workout than cardio, and zumba is all cardio), which is a shame because pole is SO expensive. But I think it would do wonders for reducing my levels of stress and would be a great complement to pole!

Thanks for reading my sleepy brain induced ramblings! I hope everyone has a great week, and stay healthy, friends!

It Feels Good to Work Out Again

Last week was one crazy ride, leading to a stressed out, over eating, and under working out Hokie. Last Friday, I saw an article on the web for a cranberry lemonade cleanse. I hadn’t really been having good results when it comes to clearing out my candida, so I figured I’d give it a shot. It’s called the One Gallon Challenge, and it is an inexpensive relatively quick cleanse that focuses on eating right (lots of raw foods), drinking lots of water (almost always a good thing!), and sweating out your toxins through exercise and baths. Those three things are a toxin’s nightmare. I started on Sunday with Sylvia, and here is what I have been drinking daily:

Recipe for Cranberry cleanse (modified from the website due to lack of cayenne):

• Just under a gallon of spring water or filtered water (I use my Berkey water filtration system)
• 1 cup – 100% Cranberry juice not from concentrate (Organic is better – I found Trader Joe’s has a pretty good non-organic brand for only a few dollars)
• 1/2 cup – 100% Lemon juice not from concentrate and with no preservatives (I was able to find an organic brand at my Giant that wasn’t too expensive)
• 1/8 cup – Raw Organic Apple Cider Vinegar – Bragg’s is a good brand, and Trader Joe’s also had an option available for slightly cheaper. This is my cayenne substitute.

Since I started on Sunday, I gave myself a day to just let the cleanse work its magic before I began working out. I told myself this is so that I don’t overdo it and have to stop the cleanse. In actuality, I was lazy. I hadn’t worked out in about 3 weeks since I’ve been standing at my desk and walking fairly regularly, (and cleaning and moving furniture every now and again), and I figured that was enough.

Yesterday, as I was enjoying the national holiday by sitting on my rear in front of the T.V., I reached a new level of boredom. It was about 4:30, and I thought ‘I’m bored, maybe I should work out’. So, I did. I pulled out my Focus T25 DVDs, popped in Alpha Cardio, and had my butt handed to me. I pushed myself hard, and was able to do much better than I was able to do at the start of T25. I was even able to keep up with some of the non-modified moves, which made me feel pretty good about myself.

But most importantly, I sweat. And I sweat, and I sweat, and I kept on sweating for about 30 min after I stopped moving. It took a while for my body to get going – almost like my pores were clogged up with gunk, and it was slowing the sweat down. I pushed myself hard, and at the end of the workout, I was shaking with exhaustion, but I felt good. I washed all of the toxins off of my skin, and enjoyed the rest of my night.

This morning, I woke up with what felt like a dehydration headache (say what??) but what was probably a detox headache. I’m pleasantly sore, like I worked my body after a long time of standing still (or sitting still), and I’m healing. But I woke up feeling 20 lbs lighter today. I slept better, and I feel like my skin has improved considerably. I was really starting to break out, and I think working out will clear it right up (just in time for the monthly visitor).

I’ve also been taking some supplements to nourish my thyroid for about a month now. I hadn’t noticed any changes in the way I feel – until yesterday. I think working out cleared out whatever was gunking up my thyroid to help the nourishment get there! I can tell because I’ll suddenly feel way warmer after eating food, and (I know this sounds crazy), but I feel like I’m burning more energy.

And then I realized – I did Alpha Cardio on a Monday. Why should I just run through Alpha phase while I’m doing this cleanse? The cleanse is 10 days long, so I’ll try to work out every day for the rest of the cleanse (and when I don’t, I’ll at least stretch and take a detox bath), and then afterward, work out about 3 or 4 times a week. I don’t want to fall into the chronic cardio lifestyle, since I know that it eventually will get stale, I’ll fall off the wagon, and fall back into a non-working out slump.

Well, wish me luck on the cleanse, and feel free to join along! Thanks for reading, and remember to stay healthy friends!

Results from Last Week! (Taken 4/27)

Greetings! This week was another strange week for me, but an important one, as I discovered yesterday! I’ve got a lot to talk about today, so let’s get right into it!

Last week wasn’t the best, but I made effort to work out more than I had the previous few weeks and walk every day. Sylvia and I couldn’t work out often, either due to schedule conflicts or whatnot, and I didn’t always work out when we were separated. I went over to a friend’s house Friday night and ate a BUCKETLOAD of sodium in the form of chips and dip, and they skewed my Staturday results quite a bit. On Saturday, Sylvia and I sat down and decided to attempt a quasi-Primal diet. We’re both moving soon, so we’re trying to get rid of the non-Primal ingredients in our pantry, but we’re also trying to go for a more high-protein, low carb diet. I had a pretty good day on Saturday, and ended up losing 2.6 lbs overnight (mostly due to salt).

Since it’s been a while since I’ve posted my results, I’m going to post my results for this week and the total in that stat that I have lost.

Weight: 192 (-28.2) (ALMOST HAVE LOST 30 LBS!!)

Waist: 34.25 (-5.25)

Hips: 44 (-4)

Bust: 39.25 (-3.75)

Under Bust: 34.25 (-2.75)

Right Arm: 13 (-1)

Left Arm: 12 (-1.3)

Right Thigh: 23.4 (-2.1)

Left Thigh: 23 (-2)

Body Fat: 39.0% (-9.29%) (ALMOST 10% BF LOST!)

Fat Weight: 74.9 (-31.5) (OVER 30 LBS FAT LOST!)

Lean Mass: 117.1 (+3.3)

Overall, I am ecstatic with my success so far! I am almost into the 180s!! I haven’t been in the 180s in over 3 years!

So, even though last week wasn’t the best week for me, it proved to be an extremely important week. Last week, I struggled through even Alpha work outs, but since Saturday and Sunday were really great in terms of what I ate and how much I walked, I’m well on my way to correcting my deviation from a healthy path! How do I know this? Yesterday, during Alpha Cardio, I KICKED BUTT!! I felt great during pretty much all of the cardio moves, with the exception of the long periods of lunges and squats (mostly due to not doing them for a long time). Better yet, I was able to do the non-modified jumping jacks moves and my ankle feels fine!

I am so thrilled that yesterday’s workout went well, but I am feeling it today! My glutes are definitely sore, and the rest of my legs are a little sore when I walk around, but I feel up to doing Speed 1.0 today!

So, what happens now? Sylvia and I have been talking about it, and we agree that doing another round of straight Focus T25 will be too boring after a little while. So, we’ve decided to switch things up on Fridays: We already have Insanity and P90X, so, on Fridays, instead of doing doubles, we’re going to incorporate a ‘Free Day’ where we do the doubles prescribed in Focus T25, or we swap in an Insanity or P90X favorite to switch things up. I have also ordered Ruthless, so we will have 20 more 20 minute workouts to pull from to keep things spiced up and our muscles challenged. It really is of the utmost importance to change your work out regimen regularly: the change will work your muscles in new ways to prevent plateauing, and the variety will keep you from getting bored and losing your interest/momentum.

With the changes in my work out regimen and my diet, I’m hoping to see some great results this week! That being said, I also know that I’ve lost about 2 lbs of lean body mass over the last month, so if I gain a little weight this week, I’m not concerned, as long as I lose inches!!

I hope everyone is having a great day, and remember to stay healthy!

Results tomorrow!

Hello everyone! The day seems to have gotten away from me and I’m suddenly realizing that I won’t be able to post my results today but I will post my weekly results first thing tomorrow! I had a really great weekend, and I really enjoyed going back to Alpha Cardio today! I haven’t felt this good after a workout in a long time, and I tried to do as many non-modified moves as possible!

I look forward to posting my results tomorrow, but I look forward even more to getting back into the swing of things! Also, a note for Bantam: I ordered Ruthless!

I hope everyone has had a great day, and I’ll see you tomorrow! Stay healthy, friends!

Feeling Good and Looking Good!

Yesterday, I had another good day 🙂 I ate well during the day, worked out, walked, and ate a nice dinner.

So, sometimes Sylvia and I have these moments, and they’re becoming more and more common. We can almost subconsciously guess what the other one is thinking. For example, I’ll go over to her house to work out, and, without her saying a word, I’ll say, “I’m exhausted, want to just walk today?” and she’ll visibly relax and say, “I was going to ask you the same thing!” We had another moment yesterday, when we were trying to figure out which workout to do.

She turned to me and said, “Want to just do workouts from Alpha phase this week?” I could have kissed her! So we popped in Alpha Cardio, and I remembered how much I enjoyed these workouts! Even though I was a bit rusty, my form was definitely better on most of the moves! I also took it a little bit easy on my ankle (still worked up quite a sweat though!), and my ankle feels great today!

I also began an impromptu experiment: what happens if I workout WITHOUT my ankle sleeve on and modify the moves? I’d noticed that my ankle sleeve was cutting off circulation to the bottom of my foot due to it riding up my ankle, and it was causing me foot pain. So, I worked out sleeveless yesterday, and I feel great today! My ankle was a little tender after the work out, but it’s virtually pain free today!

I am feeling sore today though, in the best way! My hamstrings and adductors are a little sore today, as well as my glutes and quads. I can expect that, though, since Alpha Cardio has a lot of lunges and squats. It feels good to feel my work out again!

That’s when I had an epiphany: The reason that Sylvia and I were falling off the bandwagon was boredom. We’d done Beta for the 5 scheduled weeks plus one extra week since we were apart. Then, we started Beta again, and two weeks in we were bored out of our minds. The weather got nice, and we decided we wanted to walk more than we wanted to do Beta work outs.

The change in work out produced dramatic results, and we dropped more weight in two weeks than we had in the last 4 weeks of Beta. We tried to get back into working out, but couldn’t find motivation, until I decided to work out with my roommate on Tuesday. Since she’s a beginner and I was rusty, going back to Alpha was the logical choice, and working out became FUN again! I was quoting all of my favorite Shaun T lines again, and reveling in how much better my form is now than it was back then! The workouts in Alpha are still tough, especially since I didn’t do the regular moves during a majority of Alpha phase. We even commented on how much more Alpha phase works your quads and glutes with lunges and squats! So I turned to Sylvia during Alpha Cardio yesterday, and we agreed to start back at Alpha phase!

We’ll probably do Alpha phase for a few weeks and then jump back into Beta (which will be fresh again!). Just goes to show you that variety in your work outs can really do great things!

But after even two days of working out and eating right, I’ve been sleeping better, and I’ve noticed that I’m beginning to trim down again 🙂 I haven’t done any measurements or weighed myself, but I notice that I look better in the mirror!

If I gain a little weight during the weigh in this week, I won’t be surprised, since I’m starting to work my muscles again, and I tend to bulk up. But I’m hoping to lose some inches, and (as always) look better in my photos! I hope everyone stays healthy and has a great day!

Going back to an old favorite!

Greetings! I’m feeling pretty much great today, and I think that is partially due to yesterday being a GREAT DAY!!!!

I ate well pretty much all day, starting the day off with an omelet and then having a Chipotle salad for lunch (I think they forgot to add vinegar to their salsa, so it was a little disappointing, but still delicious), and topping it off with a vegetarian spicy chicken patty with goat cheese on a wheat bun. I had a little bit of chocolate too, but I made sure it was at least 70% dark, which means that after a few bites, I’ve had my fill of chocolate! I also picked up some kombucha at the grocery store, and it was DELICIOUS!

Yesterday, Sylvia was feeling a little under the weather and didn’t want to work out, but I was determined to get a workout in! I ate at her place (healthy and not ordering in!) and then a couple of hours later, I went back to my apartment. My roommate, Naomi, who tried Alpha Cardio from Focus T25 last week came in and I asked if she wanted to work out with me. I decided to go back to an old favorite: Speed 1.0. It’s the perfect workout for getting back into the swing of things! There’s cardio involved (and FUN cardio at that!), and stretching, which is really important since I’m a bit rusty. I forgot how much fun that workout is! I was struggling a little to do a few of the moves, and did a lot of modified moves to take it easy on my ankle (which feels fine today! I’m so excited that it might be healing up!).

I hope that Sylvia is feeling better today, so we can do a Beta workout like Dynamic Core or Upper Focus, but if she’s not, I might go back to Alpha again and workout with my roommate. It’s nice to change things up and go back to the DVDs that started it all!

I hope everyone is having a great day, and remember to stay healthy!

Ankle Pains and Hunger Pangs – Thursday’s Post

Greetings! Have you ever forgotten to eat dinner the night before and woken up hungry? Well, I ate dinner, and I ate it really early, completely forgetting to eat a banana a couple of hours after dinner to tide me over. This morning, I woke up with my stomach feeling like there were rocks in it or something – definitely not your typical hunger pang! I hate it when you get to the point where you’re so hungry that your stomach begins to ache; then it seems like nothing will satisfy your hunger for the rest of the day! However, I’m proud to say that I ate a sensible breakfast (even if it was slightly larger than usual, by about 100 cal or so) and I’m feeling slightly more in control!

Another thing of note today actually began last night. Yesterday’s workout was Lower Focus, and at one point, we do a move called the ‘Calf Hop’ in which you bounce up and down on one leg to work your calf intensely. I think during this move, I tweaked my right ankle a bit because it was a little sore last night and is still a little sore today. It’s very frustrating because my left ankle has been giving me problems with sprains for about the last year, and my right ankle has always been fine. But I don’t think that my ankle is sprained because the pain is in a different place than it is on my left ankle, the pain is much milder, and my ankle doesn’t hurt when I stretch my quadriceps. I’m going to take it easy and use some heating packs and hopefully it will clear up in a few days!

I’m looking forward to today’s workout: Alpha Cardio! This one is one of my favorites, and I love improving in the workout each time! Also, I’m stoked that my workout buddy, Sylvia, figured out what was wrong with her feet and found that KT tape completely eliminated the pain! I hate the feeling that my workout buddy is in pain the whole workout, so I’m glad she’s found relief!

This wraps it up for today! Stay healthy my friends!

My First Daily Post!

Welcome to my first daily post! Let me just get into it then!

I feel great today! I feel awake, alive, strong, and in control, so I am ready for the day and working out! I indulged a little bit for dinner yesterday and it was planned out so I would have a slightly higher calorie intake yesterday to keep my metabolism burning hot and not leveling out at the 1600 calories I normally eat daily. If I were to eat the same amount of calories every day, I would not only get bored, but my metabolism would too, and it would slow down to match what I’m putting in!

My roommate’s boyfriend is visiting and he made us some lemon pepper shrimp in pasta. It was delicious! That was probably because it was swimming in butter, but I let most of the butter drip off before I took a bite J It’s been so long since I had butter that it was really rewarding to indulge!

So, since I indulged a bit, my weight went back up to 210, which means that I must have lost some weight over the past few days and the weight I put on due to indulging will come off real quick!

I’m looking forward to doing Alpha Cardio for my workout today! Yesterday, Sylvia and I destroyed Alpha Speed 1.0, and it was really gratifying! Her apartment was too warm, so I was struggling through the workouts before yesterday’s and feeling like I wasn’t improving. But yesterday, we turned down the thermostat, and made it through the workouts pushing ourselves and even doing more non-modified moves than normal!

Today, Sylvia and I are going to try and get new pairs of cross training shoes, since she’s having feet pains, and I’m just curious as to whether or not I can find a pair of cross training shoes that I like better than the ones I have. Hopefully, we both end up with great shoes!

Who would have thought that I would get so girly about WORKOUT shoes?? I wouldn’t have called that one a few months ago!

I hope everyone has a fit and healthy day filled with happiness! Thanks for reading!