Every Gym’s Nightmare

So I know I said I would do something interesting for a workout today, but the thing about me is, sometimes I lie. Ok, i don’t really lie, because when I say something I have every intention of doing but then when it comes time to, I just don’t want to.

Today wasn’t really my fault, however. When you offer to ride with your dad to visit your mother in the hospital, and said dad drives 3 miles an hour while taking the scenic route (I’ve loathed those words since childhood) that 20 minute ride turns into a 3 hour nightmare.  After, that I did my cheapo shopping trip to Big Lots, a.k.a. discount grocery heaven on earth, and by the time I got home, the pooch had been cooped up all day and needed a run. So we just took a liesurely walk in this gorgeous weather and went to the high school near my home. They have a nice fenced in side yard, where I can let Porkchop off the leash without worrying about him running away and humping passersby.

Well, as seems to be the theme for the day, things became more difficult than originally planned. There was a woman already their with her perfectly well behaved dog playing fetch, so I decided to continue my walk with my hellion and would return on the way back, hoping they wouldn’t be there. 

As we walked I passed my dream house.

The pictures don’t really do it justice, its about twice as big as it looks.

I wonder if a single man lives there and has a thing for sarcastic golddiggers with boyfriends. I desperately hope he saw me, too. It would be very American Beauty, me standing there taking pictures of him in his house.  I even brought the most beautiful thing in the world, except it was full of dog shit.

 Anyways, as I was killing time I got completely and utterly lost, which when you are walking is WAY more annoying than when you are driving. Truth be told, I think the key to a good cardio workout is a horrible sense of direction. I do this very often. I  should develope a workout DVD based around that and make millions. So as I tried to get my barings, Porkchop decided to get bubble guts and stop every 5 seconds to go to the bathroom. Nothing would come out so I’d just yank him along.  I had my ipod in, so I didn’t hear the angry footsteps of a homeowner. I got a tap on the shoulder, whirled around and was face to face with a man yelling about respect and personal property and the laws of humantiy. I gathered he thought Porkchop had pooped in his yard and I did not clean it up.  I am very good about picking up his mess if I think people are watching  so I knew he was assuming. I calmly tried to explain to him that Porkchop is sick and while it might have looked like he went on his lawn, I could assure him he did not. He was not convinced and continued to yell, so I opened the bag I had in my hand and invited him to take a whiff to prove I was dilligent about the dog. He declined and turned around and left. Douche.

So we eventually made it back to the school, and the woman was gone.  Excited that we made it to our final destination, I let Porkchop off the leash to run his little heart out. He promptly sat down on my foot and would not move. I put his leash on and ended up just running him around in circles like an idiot. It gave me a little extra cardio but stole a bit of my self respect.

So now I am home and starving. I am off to make dinner now, and get ready for the boy’s show tonight. Truth be told I’d rather just stay home tonight, but the life of a groupie is full of sacrifice.

A lot of people have asked me to post my food, and while I won’t do it everyday because I eat boring and this is an exercise blog, I will post it when it is relevant because nutrition is a huge part of living a healthy lifestyle.

I think everyone should have a go-to meal. Something thats easy to make and they always have all the ingredients on hand, so they dont have to think too much when things get hectic. Or when you just don’t want to think. You lazies.

So here’s my dish, because I am in a huge rush and could throw this together super fast.

I started some pasta on the stove. In the mean time, I chopped up a bit of white onion, a quarter of an avacado, 1 1/2 roma tomatoes, 2 tbsp extra vrigin olive oil, some red pepper flakes, garlic salt and some basil. 

Then I just drained the pasta, tossed it with the mixture and topped it with some black pepper. I got the idea from an italian restraunt I love, where I used to order the penne insalata. Its served room temp, but unfortunately they stopped serving it so I decided to make it on my own, and added some avacado for fat for satiety. Viola. Its now my favorite and my go to meal.

Here’s my dinner next to my planner full of the crap i need to get done tonight/this weekend:

So tonight I am off to celebrate a friend’s birthday and get some nutrition seminar junk done. I was going to visit my mom in the hospital but they found some woman murdered and stuffed in her trunk in the parking lot. I know. So my mom won’t let me visit her when its dark out. My moms pretty over protective, always shielding me from murderous trunk stuffers. She never lets me do anything fun.

Today is one of those very rare days where I’m not going to have time to fit in a workout. But Im going to try and find something fun to do tomorrow for a workout so you guys don’t get bored with me. We shall see.

So here’s something sad.  A new client of mine’s husband works at the middle school across the street from my house.  Thats a huge coincidence because i work about 30 minutes away from home. Anyway, he is the orchestra teacher and complains because the students have to choose between PE , art, or music.  Since hes the orchestra teacher, his students obviously all chose music, and he is noticing most of them are overweight.  Early stages of planning here, but maybe I can implement some afterschool fitness program so they can get a little exercise.
 
That’s sad.  No child should have to choose between the arts and physical education.  I didn’t have a choice, you had to do all three.  They should have to fake “feminine problems” and twisted ankles to get out of running just like I did.
 
Tonight’s agenda is full of cleaning, visiting the ‘rents, and nutrition seminar preparation.  Thank goodness my last session for the day was at 9:00am. We had a meeting at 12, so that gave me some free time to fit a workout in at work. 
 
We have a machine called a functional trainer with arms that go anywhere from straight up, to straight down and swing all the way out and in. There are cables attached to the arms and then we have all kinds of handle attachments.  You can basically do anything and work any body part on it. 

My arms were killing me today from the gym last night so i kept it pretty mild.
 
I did:

• 2 sets of 10 resisted step ups.  I used a block and placed the FT handles thusly:

              I stacked the weight to 15 on each side, held the handles, stepped up on my right and lifted my left leg behind me to work the glutes. I did 10 on each leg. they weight just added about 30 lbs to my body weight for extra resistance.
 

• 2 sets of 10 standing rows; 20 pounds
• 2 sets of 10 tricep pulldowns; 15 pounds. I put one arm of the FT pointing toward the ceiling, put on a rope attachment so I could hold on with both hands, kept my elbows in at my sides and just pushed the rope down from my chest to my waist and back
• 2 sets of 10 bicep pull ups; 15 pounds. Same as the triceps but exactly opposite. FT arm is pointing towards ground, pull rope attachment from waist up to chest
• 2 sets of 10 upside down (black side) bosu squats.  Having the bosu upside down makes it super unstable so it works the core and lateral stability of the legs very well.
• 2 sets of 10 kettlebell swings. You stand feet shoulder width apart, holding the kettlebell in both hands between your legs. bend your legs, swing the kettlebell up above your head, and back down between your legs.  You have to try and slow it down and obsorb the momentun of it. Suprisingly, its more more of a leg workout than arms.

This little guy (compared to a 5lb dumbell) weights 18 pounds. Kettlebells are all about absorbing the kettlebells momentum with your body, so it involves a lot of swinging and then slowing down the kettlebell.  I highly recommend taking a kettlebell class. Hoo, boy, you get a GREAT workout and amazing muscle definition. 

• 2 sets of plate drags down the hall.  These are great for your core and shoulders.  Put two weight plates (or magazines or dinner plates, etc. The more they weight the more resistance) on the ground.  Place your toes in the center of the plates and get into push up position: core tight, hips down.  Use your arms to “walk” down the hallway, keeping everything tight and being careful not to let your legs swing from side to side, like a seal.  I always threaten to sit on clients if they dont keep their hips down, thats what makes this work.

And thats about it. Im going to try and go for a short run later tonight, but other than that, I am done workout wise. It feels good to get it out of the way. i wish i could work out in the mornings but then I would have to wake up around 2:15, which, um, no.
 
So I am going to be SWAMPED at work for the next while. In addition to the three part nutrition seminar, I am also going to be the “nutrition consultant” for my work. (What’s funny is I don’t know what to call my work, its not a gym, but its not a studio either. None of us can figure out what to call it) All of the other trainers are men, and arent very nutrition savvy. So it falls on me. We have an online program that no one does so in order to make the clients more accountable we are going to set up nutrition consultations probably every month to get them in and really looking at the decisions they make. We have over 50 clients. I know some of them will tell us to shove it because they just want to get their butts kicked during a workout and don’t care about food, but geeze. I love nutrition and I am excited about doing this, I think it will be really fun and beneficial for them, but it just means lots more work. Fun work, but more work nonetheless.

I tried to size down the pics to make them easier to load last night, but it didn’t quite work, it just made the pictures blurry. Ill keep trying though, I promise.

Just a reminder that trainers aren’t perfect when it comes to fitness: I CANNOT do the stairstepper. I always trip. Its one of those revolving ones and i always miss judge and clip my toes.  And you better believe people notice. Its hard for them not to because the machines are about 8 feet tall so Im up on this pedestal, stumbling away. I still do it though. I must be a glutton for public humiliation.

So i did 20 minutes on the stair thing at the gym today,  stretched then did a ton of abs and a lot of arm work with free weights. Then I went on the elliptical for about 10 minutes, some stability ball work and then went home.

So I know everyone is on this oatmeal kick (thanks Kath!) and it just so happens I need to restock my breakfast supply, so here’s my spin.

 I wake up every morning at 4:15 am.  Suffice it to say, I’m rarely in the mood, or have the time, to cook breakfast. The breakfast is even too much work for me. Oatmeal holds me over glamorously, so I needed a way to get it in unless I want lunch at 9:00 am.  I love oatmeal cookies, so i thought I’d spin that ion to something portable I could have for breakfast.

Its nothing fancy, i just make oatmeal like I normally would,  then bake it on a cookie sheet.

I use:

• 2 cups oats
• 1 large banana
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
• 1 tbsp honey

You can use anything really: apples, cinnamon, any kind of nuts, etc. I put everything in a bowl and pour boiling water from the kettle over it until it looks like enough. Sorry, i cant be more specific than that. You want the resulting oatmeal pretty dry, but still able to stay together when you mix it all up.

Then you just plop them onto a baking sheet, and put them in the oven for 30ish minutes at 350 degrees. You can fit a lot on a plan because the size they are when you put them in is the same size as they are when they come out.

And then the finished product:

You can just put them in a tupperware and eat them as you want them.

And just for fun, here’s a video of my dog, Porkchop, attacking my stability ball.  His arms do this weird T-Rex thing that gets me every time. Video featuring The Boyfriend’s Feet.

So tired. Long day. Nuff said.

 Still managed to get a workout in though, even though it was in my living room while watching Biggest Loser. Just FYI, Jillian bothers me. But she could snap me in half over her knee, so I will be civil.

My at home workouts are always different, and I just do a lot of random stuff. The only equiptment I need is a stability ball and two 8 pound dumbells. Nothing fancy; nothing expensive.

So today I did:

• 3 Sets of 10 Pike up, Push ups. Works the abs, shoulders, chest, biceps, core. You need a stability ball.
• 2 Sets of 15 Heels Tucks (see this post for instructions) Works the glutes, hammies, calves, core. You need a stability ball
• 2 Sets of 20 Sumo Jump Squats (as shown here; except I did them without the weight and kept my hands on my hips) Works the quads, hammies, inner and outter thigh, calves, glutes
• 2 Sets of Dumbell Twists (as shown here; except I did them sitting on the floor with my feet raised in the air, knees bent. So I was balancing just on my butt.) Works the abs, obliques
• 2 Sets of 10 One Legged Squat to Heel Raise on both legs (Shown here except when I come back to standing I go up on the ball of my foot to do a calf raise) Works the quads, hammies, glutes and calves

I couldn’t find an example of Pike up Push ups, so I had the boy record me doing some right here. I just woke up so I look like crap and just ignore the dog barking in the background. We had to lock him in the bathroom as to not compromise the shot. Because its Oscar quality for sure.

If you can’t pike up you can bend your knees and roll the ball in like this:

It was mainly a lower body day today, as it usually is, but I’ll do more arms at the gym tomorrow. I stick to lower body because it is my “problem area” which just means I would like it to be a bit firmer (don’t we all.) My upper body is fine, so I just work it out to maintain it, which doesn’t take as much focus.

You can really do a lot of great exercises at home, you just need to experiment and research.  I like old school stuff that really burns, but if you like Self and Shape magazine workouts thats completely ok. Just really try some new stuff every once in a while so you don’t get sick of your routine.

Carrie also had a good question:

Hi Kelly, what do you mean by flexibility? What exercises improve flexibility?
Thanks!
 

There should be 3 focal points for a workout; cardiovascular endurance (cardio), strength training, either with weights or without, and flexibility. There are two different types of felxibilty- dynamic (ballistic) and static.
 
Ballistic stretching/flexibilty is mainly reserved for people whos goals are increased performance, either in a sport or just for personal growth. It entails elongating the muscle before it is contracted, which offers a greater contraction. plyometrics are a perfect example: if you jump up onto a box and hold a squat, you strecth that muscle as you prepare to jump, then it contracts to make you jump and then strecthes again as you hold the squat pose. This is more advanced training as the stretching and contracting of the muscles, if the muscle is not strong enough, can cause instability which may lead to injury (either by falling or pulling a muscle)
 
Static strecthing is the kind most people know and it is just regular ol’ “hold this pose” strecthing. When the muscle is elongated forcefully (but not “bounced”, just held) for 10-30 seconds, the muscle and all the tendons and connective tissue will permanently deform to increase your flexibilty. You should stretch every time you work out but after you warm up. Stretching before you warm up has a cold taffy effect: it snaps. Increased flexibilty will decrease the occurs on soreness, protect you from injury, improve performance and quality of life, and when done at the end of a workout can “trick” your mind into not being so tired afterwards since you had a nice relaxing cool down.
 
I usually warm up on a cardio machine for 5-10 minutes, go do a long stretching session (hammies, calves, quads, glutes, arms, shoulders) then lift weights, finish up with more cardio and then a quick stretch of the hams to wrap it up as they are always tight for me.

I’ll get a proper post in tonight with my detailed at home workout. And the FAQ’s I promise.

I got a great question for marcy so I thought I would make it my post.
 
 Kelly,What keeps you so motivated to exercise when your bf etc are not into it? I find my days are so filled with other errands, work, etc that exercising just adds on another layer.MarcyI kind of posted this on my old blog but I’ll do it again because I think I have one of the most extreme examples of differing lifestyles.
 
My boyfriend and I do not live together but all that means is he gets to sleep in my bed and eat all my food for free. We are always together. He is in a rock band, smokes, never works out, and will only eat vegetables is they are deep fried and wrapped in bacon.  He will kill me for posting this, but once we went to the beach and rode bikes. When we got back he promptly threw up, right there in the front yard.  He stays up all night, sleeps all day, and drinks like a divorced Irishman.
 
I, on the other hand, try to go to bed fairly early, wake up early, work out everyday, eat balanced and sensibly, and will only eat bacon if it originally came from a turkey. I learned early on through lots of nagging that I could not train him to be excited about fitness. The only thing I can do is cook for him as often as possible, and invite him to go with me on walks even though the inevitable answer is always “Pfft!” followed by a puff of smoke.
 
So how do I not fall into his trap? I know that for me, I need to work out and eat healthy because it just all around makes me feel better. If I lay in bed all day I start to resent him for it, which is no fun.  Workouts are my me time, they help me to relax and take time out of the day to take care of myself.  His idea of relaxing  is laying in bed and watching tv, which is fine. So we do our relaxing at the same time, just in different places. And lucky for me, after my long grueling workout, he usually hasn’t moved from his spot on the couch, so then I can snuggle up next to him without having to worry about anything I need to do, because I got it all done. This especially works on the weekend when I can leave while he is still asleep, grocery shop, workout, make a healthy breakfast, whatever, and then come home and not have to worry about anything else. It makes “our time’ that much more special.

 
I think the reason this works so well is because we respect eachother.  He respects my career and my health, and has seen how far I have come since my eating disorder and has stood by my side through it all. He is glad I am taking care of myself. I respect his choice to live how he wants. I want him to be healthy but I also know that you can’t force someone to be passionate about something.  Almost everyone that is trying to live a healthy lifestyle will get a lot of crap and pressure from friends/family/coworkers who do not share the notion, especially about their food choices.  Don’t let them get you down, you shouldn’t have to apologize or defend your want to take care of yourself, and they should respect your choices.  There is safety in numbers and people feel less guilty for not doing what they need to be doing when someone is right there with them doing the same unhealthy thing.  It doesn’t mean you can’t see them, you just have to make the decision to not let it bother you. Their snide comments are more about them than they are about you.
 
I work out to stay fit, look good, feel good, relax, fight off disease and aging, improve my health, improve my everyday performance, to gain energy, avoid injuries and illness, and to just plain enjoy myself.  That’s enough motivation for me to keep moving.  You just have to find yours and you’ll make time for your workout.

Well, its Sunday which means I have been running around all day trying to get as much stuff done as possible before the work week. I got to the gym today and did about 20 minutes on the eliptical until Aunt Flow stopped by for a visit and punched me in the uterus. So I did some heavy duty stretching, then some upper body work and went home to watch a movie with the boy. Im only at about 6000 steps right now, so I will take the dog for a walk later and call it a night.

So I bought this little balance board thing at Marshalls, thinking it would be like the poor woman’s bosu:

it was not.

So I pull it out of the box and see these little “massaging” nubs.

 I figured they couldn’t massage me if I had shoes on, so I took them off. They just hurt. So I put them right back on. It seemed kind of flimsy so I stepped on it and there was barely any air in, but no pump to fill it up further. Its also no bigger than a record, so I couldn’t do any sort of squats with it because I couldn’t get my feet shoulder width apart.

Needless to say, I am taking it back tomorrow.

I was just looking at the NEDA (National Eating Disorder Association) website and they have an interesting program they call “Media Watchdogs.” They write letters either praising or protesting the companies or different advertisers for their portrail of body image in the media. I think this would be a great idea of something to do with a young child, especially a girl. It would be empowering for her to tell those magazines or tv shows with stick thin girls that they are wrong for how they are showing beauty, not the child, and they should never appologize for how they look.

They also lobby to make sure that treatment for eating disorders is covered by insurance, because it is a disease.

If you want to donate or find out how you can be involved, visit the website. http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/p.asp?WebPage_ID=337

I will get the FAQs page up and running tomorrow. I know, but try and get some sleep.

Good morning. I am deliciously hung over right now, but still managed to get up and take the dog for a walk. The weather was beautiful so we did a leisurely 3 miles. Here was the veiw from the half way mark:

It looks far away but downtown is only about 10 minute drive.

I know I won’t get to the gym today, I have tons to do, so I will do a quick workout at home before I make myself presentable to the world. I usually do a lot of stability ball work, and a lot of core and static holds because I don’t have much equipment at home, but honestly, a workout just using your body weight can be just as intense, if not more so, than one with machines and dumbells.

Last night was wonderful, thanks for your well wishes. We caught a cab downtown, ate way too much food, then caught a cab to the U-District (The University of Washington town) hit some bars, and met up with some friends. The boy was feeling impulsive, so we went to get his snake bites re-done (little piercings on each side of the lower lips, like where if a snake bit itself thats where he would puncture…i guess) but his friend that could get him a discount was on break so we decided against waiting. We then went to another bar, met up with some friends, and then caught a cab home. It was a good night.

My bf is in a band, which I will now shamelessly promote. TRIP LIKE ANIMALS. Hes the one with ridiculously long hair and, yes, he smokes. If you want a CD. $5. I will mail it to you. There I did my networking for the week.

Timeofbutterflies- I couldn’t find the exact pedometer I have on the website, but it looks a lot like this. Just don’t pay more than $10 bucks for one, and make sure it has a cover because theres nothing worse than looking at your pedometer at the end of the day and seeing its at 10 steps because you accidentally hit reset. that’s pretty much my only advice.

And I will leave you know with the BEST butt, thigh, and calf exercise around:

Hamstring Curl – Supine w/ SB

And here it is on video. Ideally, your hips should be up higher than his throughout. I’m thinking since he is musclebound, he doesn’t have much flexibility. I just find these on youtube.com, I don’t know the people in them or anything.

If I could recommend one piece of home workout equiptment, it would be the BOSU. 

Bosus are like the top quart of a stability ball with a flat plastic base. Their function is to provide a consistantly unstable surface for you to work on so your core and whatever muscle group you are working is constantly engaged.  So not only can you do the same exercises you would on a stability ball, but you can also stand on it to do squats, lunges, plyometrics, holds, or you can stand on it while doing upper body exercises, too.  You can also flip it over, and use the black flat side to hold onto for pushups, burpees (aka. squat thrusts) or mountain climbers.

They are about $90, which is kind of pricey, but its uses are unlimited.  They have a lot of them on ebay, so you could probably find on for cheaper. And while you are there, you can also pick up your very own velvet jesus portrait.  Oh, how I love the ebay.

 No gym today.  Its the boy and I’s anniversaryso we are soon taking Seattle by storm.  And by that, I mean going to an all you can eat Japanese buffet, drinking our weight in sake (which by the 4th bottle is pronounce sock-AYYY!) and wandering downtown trying not to step on degenerates or their urine.  Romantic.

So in preparation for the night, I adjusted my cals accordingly, but still remainede balanced.

Breakfast: 1 banana, 1 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp peanut butter, 1 organic cliff bar

Snack: 1 light yogurt with 1 packet Bear Naked granola

Lunch: Subway 6 inch turkey on wheat with veggies, no mayo or oil, diet coke

Dinner: TBA but I know it will involve sushi, crab legs and tempura. And sake.

Yesterday’s steps: 11089. My pedometer fell off around 7 which I didnt notice until later, so I’m sure I hit 12,000.

Happy Friday. Do something fun. Kiala, do your crunches.