Day 292

The workout for this day goes as followed:

30 minutes on the Eliptical Trainer

15 minutes on the Treadmill

90*6 Bench Press
95*4 Bench Press
70*8 Bench Press
75*6 Bench Press
50*10 Bench Press
55*10 Bench Press

35*8 Curls
25*10 Curls
20*12 Curls

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Day 293

The workout for this day goes as followed:

30 minutes on the Eliptical Trainer

15 minutes on the Treadmill

100 sit-ups

I wanted to start this post out by saying that we all need a kick in the ass. Right? Right. So let’s do it. Our goal will be the New Year!

Everyone on board for a little inspiration raise your hand. I need to get back on track and so do you guys..or maybe you’ve hit a plateau or maybe you just need a new twist in your routine.  What I’m proposing is that we get on the ball..whether it’s the bosu or dynadisk!

Here’s the catch: You all have to participate, be active and be accountable, just like me..

So I’ll be posting my bodybugg results again, probably on a weekly basis and you guys can do the same if you have a bodybugg or any other results you can come up with. It can be a spreadsheet, powerpoint, notepad, etc.  Pick a goal and we’ll all work toward our own goal. The other part of participating will be that you all have to either give me a topic to address for the week or a question. 

So who is all in on this? Leave a comment and let me know!

I’m just curious to get a take on how many of my blog readers are actually my students. Thank you for answering! I want to make sure my blog material is relevant for you!

Event: Grand Opening Celebration for 24 Hour Fitness
Time: 9:00 am to 9:00 pm
Date: 30 October, 2008
Location: new 24 Hour Fitness at Palm Center in East Vancouver
Address: 13019 NE 4th Plain Blvd; Vancouver, WA 98682
Overview: We will be on location at the unveiling of the new 24 Hour Fitness on East Vancouver on October 30th. There will be several give aways of 2 complimentary ART treatment sessions and 1 Vibe session to those who sign up for the drawing.
This is truly our type of customer base to spread the word about vibration therapy and Active Release Techniques. Those who are seeking help recuperating from a sports related muscular or other soft tissue related injury will greatly benefit from our approach to advanced healing techniques.
If you’re in the neighborhood come in and check out the brand new club and say hello to Gene with Muscle Movement Therapy.

6 AM at the gym (24 hour fitness) this morning I took part of the SPIN Class.  And I lasted the whole 1 hour session. Up and down a cycle at my size isnt the most comfortable, but it sure gave me a sweat!!  Hopefully I can go every Tuesday at 6 AM.  Pray for me, as I find creative ways to lose weight, lol.  I currently weigh 243lbs!! Oh my, i think the scale was broken this morning, lol.  I dont feel like 243lbs!!!  I feel like 233!!

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is doing good. Life has been great for me. I have been doing some new things to help in my weight loss goals. I joined the gym about 2 months ago, with a friend that already had a membership. We had agreed to go together as a support system. Which worked good for about 2 weeks and then life happens; kids, vacation and 2 different time schedules. But I had made a decisions that I needed this and I wasn’t going to allow not having someone to go with become my new excuse for exercising. Well, I didn’t start off that way, but I am made a choice to continue going even if we couldn’t go together.

  This is where my frustration comes in, for the past 4 weeks I have been at the gym 5 days and even 6 days a week, but I am not LOSING ANYTHING!!!! Ok I lied  the first week I lost 6 lbs WOW, then the next week it found me! What is up with that! I know your wondering well “Have your eating habits changed? And the answer is no I am still eating the same no more no less, nut shouldn’t I be losing something? The Elliptical at the gym says I have burned 400 calories, I should some kind of results, but I haven’t. I DO feel better physically, so not all is bad. 
 
 I will keep going though. We are now meeting with a personal trainer and hopefully I will have good news next time. I will be changing my eating habits to see if that will assist me in meeting my goal. If you have any suggestions please let me know.

Thanks Everyone Chat will you soon.

DES

It’s truly scrumptious… (random side note after my random beginning: Linds, do you remember dancing to this song from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in a roadshow? Doesn’t your mom have the video stashed somewhere we could watch?)

Okay, on to my blog for the day.

We have an onsite gym here at work and while it has minimal equipment (like no bench to do an incline or decline chest press and no smith machine), it’s still a great gym for a company. Because of the minimal equipment, I choose to go to 24 hour fitness for my lifting (and because of my superbly LOW LOW membership fees – I rock!). But, turns out, I use the company gym AT LEAST four times a week. Because lists are fun, here’s a list of the reasons why:

1. Abs / Core class – ever since I royally injured my back, I’ve been commanded from on high to strengthen my abs and core to avoid constant pain; thankfully, I can go to a 15-min class every Monday, Wednesday and Friday because we all know how lazy I can be about working out on my own.
2. Yoga for the Back – again, it’s all related to my bestest buddy, mi espalda; my company is paying for an eight-week session of yoga classes that I attend instead of eating lunch on Fridays. Oh wait—who am I kidding? I would FAINT if I missed lunch. I eat at my desk on Fridays.
3. Capoeira – they don’t have this class anymore because the instructor (is there are capoeira-specific title for him?) is apparently too busy, but for a time, I attempt to go against the forces of nature and try to force my body to move gracefully like these martial artists do. (If you don’t know what this is, look it up on YouTube. I can’t look it up and give you a link because they BLOCK those evil streaming media sites at work.)
4. Health Fairs – anything that provides free goodies and drawings for prizes is something I will go to. I haven’t won anything for over a year, though (last prize was an iPod), so I’m thinking my turn is coming up again, soon… law of averages.
5. TV – I have been known to take a break to go climb on a treadmill in order to watch TV. There was probably a really good soccer game on.
6. Stretching – sitting in an office chair all day long is not a favorite activity for mi espalda. Sometimes, I go to the stretch classes; sometimes, I grab Stacky and the two of us go stretch out using foam rollers—is a nice break.
7. Laughing Yoga – has ANYBODY ever heard of this before? Turns out, one of the PAs in our clinic here is CERTIFIED in this so she’s teaching a class once a week. Sadly, I missed it this week, but next week, I will totally go and take a break to laugh.
8. Conditioning Exercises – this is a new addition I hope to include in my workouts: conditioning between lifting. One of the instructors in the wellness center emailed me this list with tons of exhausting drills. So if you see me at the gym doing the shoulder press, I will then start doing Burpees in between sets. Gotta get in shape for swimsuit season…

I weighed in yesterday with Lorenzo.  The numbers are decent.  I’m at 30% of my goal in just two weeks of work.  With school and kids, I have been cheating myself of cardio so Lorenzo made sure I got it in yesterday.  I’m so very thankful — even if I’m saying it in a monotonous, flat tone of voice. =D

If I can pull myself out of the zombie state I am usually in after school I can get better results.  The winter is coming (do we have winter in Texas?) and I can feel that depressive state creeping up on me.  None the less, I’m keeping motivated.  My birthday and Halloween is my goal.  What can I say?  I’m an Autumn baby and it’s my favorite time of the year.

So to recap:  Birthday is October 19 (sound the panic buttons) and Halloween is October 31. Today is the 9th and that means my first milestone I have less than 10 days to really work.

It’s been nice having someone push me when I felt like going home and crawling into bed, though.  Believe me, I’ve thought about it plenty of times but I really want to hit my goal.  I’m a very stubborn woman, anyone that really knows me is shaking their head so hard we might have a whiplash epidemic.  If I want something, I don’t settle until I have it, so this needs to happen. LoL

I want to also apologize for not adding more stuff on here other than small updates.  I will try to be more active on it once I finish off one of my classes (it’s a short term for one) which ends approx around my birthday, incidentally. 

I haven’t forgotten you guys, I promise!

I didn’t know Alicia had a commercial until recently.  I couldn’t find it on youtube but I did find it here.

As many of you already know, I’ve picked up my own personal trainer.  I get a lot of odd looks when I tell them I’m a personal trainer with a trainer but then I explain that my circle of support is limited to my mother who lives 1.5 hours away, my son who I love to workout with but now has a job and school and our times never correlate with each other’s, and my friends whose goals are not the same as my own.  I guess it seems a little more comprehendable that I might opt for a trainer to keep me motivated.

Lorenzo, as (some of) you know, is my trainer and he’s the fitness manager at the 24 Hour Fitness club on Westheimer and Dairy Ashford. (I’m shameless with plugs, but only when deserving)  When Lorenzo isn’t making me lunge my life away, I love him.  He’s funny, always smiling (I think he’s smiling because I’m not) and doesn’t let me give up … even when my legs flat out refuse to keep lunging.

Lorenzo also likes to make sure that my shoulders burn like someone poured gasoline on them and tossed a match at me.  Ah, lactid acid.  Kryptonite to anyone in the fitness universe.  He, at least, finds me amusing.  Especially when I talk to my extremities and coax them to move even when they’ve clearly been left a few paces behind or outright refuse to cooperate.  Yesterday I tried to talk the opposite wall into moving closer (this didn’t work in case you’re wondering).  I think he just assumes I’m a little on the crazy side and that’s alright with me because it means he’ll just smile and nod..which would explain why he gets worried when I don’t talk enough during the sessions.  When I hear him chime in, “You’re a little quiet today, Lisa” it never ceases to make me snicker.

All in all, I’m extremely happy with my love-hate relationship with Lorenzo.  We smile and laugh while he abuses me.  I tell him he’s lucky because he’s the only man on Earth’s surface who can tell me what to do.  And even though I’m turning 35 this year, I’ll have the backside of a 20 year old — this makes me very, very happy. 

The bottom line is:  When a trainer tries to workout with friends or family it’s hard for us to get out of “trainer mode”.  That is to say, it’s hard for us not to try and correct and focus on someone else because that’s essentially our job.  We ensure you’re working out properly, safely, etc.  It also helps to have someone else’s perspective and I really respect Lorenzo’s knowledge.  I’m pretty creative as a trainer but he’s taught me a couple things I would’ve never thought of.  After 10+ years in this industry, I really wanted someone to take care of me, and he does.  So while I curse him out for not being able to properly squat over a toliet, I thank him for giving this full-time, pre-med student, mom of four, bipolar wacko her favorite hour of the day.

<3 Lorenzo!

Although the winter months are creeping up on us, there’s no reason to pack away the swimsuit.

After all, guys, you don’t want to end up looking like a couch potato this winter - do you?

Maybe it’s time to sign up for a health club, take on a handful of swim routines at the local YMCA, whatever.

So, you want to do it in style!

Here are some great choices.

The pattered suit featured below (Vilebrequin of St. Tropez) actually comes in kid sizes, too, so Daddy & the little man can go for a splash together when weather and time permit.

So it’s 5 a.m. in the morning and I’m at work.  

I was so tired last night for whatever reason (sheer boredom from work, I suspect) that I died about 8:30 p.m.  When I woke up, it was 2:40 a.m.  I tried going back to sleep but couldn’t (a sign of aging, OH NOES!), so I got up and worked out!  In the middle of the night!  I guess that’s why they have something like 24-hour fitness…

I worked out in my room for 1/2 hour, then showered and now it’s about 4.  Got dressed and jumped in my car to see about getting breakfast at McD’s (they’re 24-hour now, at least here in Taiwan) only to see two cops holding down the fort in front of the local McD’s.  They’re there to cite people for illegal parking.  It’s a red zone out front of this McD’s…what a crappy business decision!  That should haunt them a bit.  So I drive past it and never look back.  Instead, I go to 7-11 and just munched down two eggs for my lost protein and now I got milk for more protein.  I sound like an Atkin’s Diet guy.  But I’m not that extreme I don’t think, I just don’t eat as much starch no mo (i.e., rice)..

And now it’s 5 a.m.  I’m back to the place where I died of boredom yesterday and I’m looking to be suffering more of the same today.  Ironic eh?

“And isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?”  No Alanis, your song isn’t about irony, for the billionth time.

Tonight was a very fitness centric evening! Mom and I found out about a special on the 24 Hour Fitness website where we could save like $70 by signing up tonight, so, we went ahead and did that (since we were planning to join there anyway), so, I’m excited to go and check out my new gym tomorrow! TV was also telling us to exercise, with Half Their Size! A People Magazine TV Special and of course The Biggest Loser-I was sooo amazed by Jerry’s weight loss in just 4 months! I think that Coleen will end up winning, she’s done so well and she’s my fave, she actually really reminds me of myself. I did a short resistance workout and a sun salutation tonight, I really enjoyed it, but it amped me up too much, now, I’m not tired! I’ll hopefully be getting my workout in around noon tomorrow so won’t have to worry about that. 

Goodnight!

Here is my class schedule for October! I’m so excited to be back on a regular schedule after Ike! All of these gyms are back on track so I will see you in class!

Oct 1 - Wed - Richmond
7-7:30pm Pilates (Subbing)

Oct 2 - Thurs - Post Oak
7:30-8:30pm Pilates

Oct 4 - Sat - Greenbriar
10:30-11am Pilates
11-Noon Yoga

Oct 5 - Sun - Greenbriar
11-Noon Pilates

Oct 7 - Tues - Elgin
7:15-8:15pm Pilates

Oct 9 - Thurs - Post Oak
7:30-8:30pm Pilates

Oct 16 - Thurs - Post Oak
7:30-8:30pm Pilates

Oct 21 - Tues - Elgin
7:15-8:15pm Pilates

Oct 23 - Thurs - Post Oak
7:30-8:30pm Pilates

Oct 25 - Sat - Greenbriar
10:30-11am Pilates
11-Noon Yoga

Oct 26 - Sun - Greenbriar
11-Noon Pilates

Oct 30 - Thurs - Post Oak
7:30-8:30pm Pilates

It was, without a doubt, a rough storm.  I’m very thankful and grateful that I did not get hit hard and at the same time, I feel badly for those that are still without power and who have suffered a huge amount of loss due to this hurricane.

Hurricane Ike pounded Houstonians into what looked like a war zone, but I want to tell you something.  I’ve seen such resilience in this city that I cannot explain in words.  It is something you cannot experience until you’ve been through it and seen it first hand.  Houston did not lie down. 

The day after the hurricane, people were outside, assessing damage and cleaning up ready to start the day as if it was just “another storm”.  I stared in awe.  I’ve never seen a block of people, walk outside, see trees down and windows blown, just shrug and get to work.  It was a sight that brought strength inside of me in one of those weird, sappy moments.

On that note….I started with my trainer, Lorenzo, on Tuesday.  I hadn’t done much besides long walks at night because of school starting and I didn’t have a working car.  So, no excuse to be had, I kept my eating light and my cardio usually consisted of walking my poor, small legged, half-Chow, half-Shepard, half-pint dog, Diesel.

I can tell you now, that Lorenzo honed in on my weaknesses like a true predator..er I mean, trainer, and got to work. The next day I could not walk without cursing him ..and then blessing him.  Please refer to my post on the humor page about the “Cat Scratch”.  I’m convinced he’s trying to break me.  And he almost has! 

Alas, he is Apollo and I am Rocky.  The dumb guy that keeps coming back for more beatings, screaming, “Ain’t so bad!”  And yes.  He pummels me some more.  But I know in the end, I will look great, so it’s all worth it.

He said to make sure I tell you guys the truth so no one else comes in thinking he’s nice.  Uh — He’s not nice.  He smiles.  But he’s not nice.  He’s a monster.  And I love him =)  Thanks Lorenzo.  For all of you that want to get your ass kicked, too.  He’s at the 24 Hour Fitness location on Dairy Ashford and Westheimer.  Bring water. Lots of it. And skip Gatorade. *ahem*

Just got the following information for the following 24 Hour Fitness locations: Post Oak, Galleria and Voss. So I will NOT be teaching tomorrow night at Post Oak due to the curfew…

Club 207 Post Oak:       Thurs Sept 18th 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM no classes before 8:00 AM or later than 7:00 PM due to curfew.
 
Club 315 Galleria:       Thurs Sept 18th 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM no classes before 8:00 AM or later than 7:00 PM due to curfew.
 
Club 334 Voss:              Thurs Sept 18th 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM no classes before 8:00 AM or later than 7:00 PM due to curfew.

I hope all of my Houston area readers made it safely through Hurricane Ike. I know many are still without power and this goes for businesses (like 24 Hour Fitness) as well. I received an update regarding club openings and those opening today, Wednesday September 17 are: Katy, Dairy Ashford, Spring Cypress and Willowbrook. All other locations are doing their best to be back up and running by Thursday morning. At this time I am planning to be back in the classroom at Post Oak tomorrow night for Pilates at 7:30pm. If this changes, I will let you know. Just to be on the safe side I would call the gyms before showing up just to double check. 24 Hour Fitness is also allowing members to visit any club location until September 30 regardless of membership status. Emergency and relief workers will also be granted access to area clubs during this time to show our thanks!

Good luck and best wishes to everyone during this difficult time in Houston!

Bodybugg Reviews,

The Bodybugg is produced by Apex Fitness. The Bodybugg is supposed to measure the amount of calories a person has lost or used during physical activity - hence excercise, normally the bodybugg is worn on the body, the device has several unique abilities that are used to measure the amount of calories used / spent during physical activity.

1. Accelerometer: The Bodybugg attempts to track physical exertion, based on body movement and the force of gravity.

2. Heat flux: Apparently whilst exercising your body produces heat, during this phase the heat temperature is monitored and the Bodybugg thinks that the more heat you produce - the more calories that you will burn.

3. Galvanic skin response: Apparently physical activity creates electricity, this is measured also.

The actual proof of these - well to be honest who really knows ? What’s next, measuring the sweat to provide a reading ?

The testing results, some have said it’s complicated, the results can be confusing, the actual size of this monster is about as big as an iPod, so it’s light and compact - that’s a plus. But does this help you loose weight in the long run ? nah not really - but you know some funny stats about your body when you’re working out.

The body bugg is being promoted on the biggest looser in television, hence the excitement and recent sales pitch. However i believe this could be just a sales gimmick. To see a picture of the bodybugg or read what others are saying click here