Bootcamp Day 1 continued

So I did it, I fit in the 60 minute walk and core training.  (But my legs were so exhausted from my indoor apartment walk some of the core moves were impossible.)  I might squeeze in another core workout later in the work.  Dinner and lunch were also good so I feel like my diet is on track.  Hopefully my cold will be too.

At dinner I had a salad with romaine and napa cabbage.  I forgot how mild flavored Napa Cabbage is (the past few visits to the store I haven't seen any good heads of cabbage or it was sold out).  Anyway I reccomend you incorporate it in your diet.  Great salad addition!

Bootcamp Day 1

Today is day one of the bikini bootcamp (from now on the BBC as the book dubs it).  Last night, the early stages of a head cold were developing, and this morning I was feeling horrible.  I was debating if I should postpone till tomorrow.  After sleeping in a bit extra, I woke up and decided to start, at least part way.

Let me recap the program for you in a nutshell.

Daily requirements:

1.  Write in a journal

2. 15 minutes of yoga

3. 40 minutes of circuit training

4.  1 hour of walking

5. "Healthy eating:" it looks a lot like the Sonoma Diet or clean eating, pretty common sense stuff: eat more produce, have a little protein with all meals (nuts, beans, eggs, yougurt, dairy, poultry, fish), eat whole grains, avoid packeaged food.  The book includes some desserts, but not fake ones like South Beach, more like some kind of fruit based dessert.  Cut out the caffine and refined sugar (and fake products as well, the non sugar sweeteners of choice are stevia and honey).  The only interesting note, dinner starts with veggie or broth based soup.

6.  Meditate for 10 minutes

7.   20 minutes of core training every other day.

8.  Start the day with hot water with lemon

This morning I started with the yoga, circuit, mediatation and journal.  Later today I plan the walk and the core work for day one.  I'll try to post again with an update.  I am less concerned with the food, since my brain has been telling me to detox from my holiday eating, and I have been doing well for the past few days.

Here is the meal recap so far:

Pre-workout Breakfast: 1/8c of sliced roasted almonds and a banana

Post-workkout Breakfast: 2 eggs with 3 teaspoons of grated parmesan and 1c of red bell peppers

Great Eating Day

So i plan to start the Bikini Bootcamp this weekend, so I have been stocking up on good groceries. Today was an annoying day since all of my meals were later than I wanted, but I did pretty well.

Here is my recap:

AM

Oatmeal with Cranberries, Almonds, Milk and Stevia to sweeten

Vanila Black Tea with Soy Creamer and 1 sugar

Lunch

Trader Joe's Vietnamese Chicken Wrap (good, but a little high in sodium and lower in fiber than I would like)

Snack

Orange Spice Tea

Dinner

Tubot with mache, bell peppers, a few garbonzo beans dressed with salsa verde, mango chili vinegar and olive oil

1 navel orange

1 cup of  "sipping chocolate"

Amazingly enough, I had very limited amounts of processed sugar, and well did OK from a produce perspective.  Tomorrow more veggies and fiber, but today I kept the calorie count low, had good fat and omega-3s and didn't go ridiculous on the post dinner snacks!  This is a first for me.  :)

Holidays are hard

I had been doing pretty well, with fitting some exercise regularly, but it all exploded in October or so.  My schedule was interrupted once my sister moved in for 4 months.  I didn't feel like I could leave her alone and go to the gym after work.  And then my work load piled up. I left work late daily.  Of course the Holidays came and took over my calendar (like everyone else) and I was roped into an informal carpool, all undoing my gret habits earlier in the summer. 

So starting now, it is all about me.  Which means....too bad for work and the casuall carpool.  Over the past 6 weeks or so I succumbed to the holiday treats...and I noticed it..in my love handles.  It is a bit freakish, that I only gained in my midsection, which is different than my typical lower body gaining pattern. 

And I am back too packing in more veggies and more importantly, fitting in more exercise.  And exercising a little harder.  To kickstart the me-focus of the year, I'll hop on the "Bikini Bootcamp."  What was appealing?  The recipes, they looked right up my ally.  (The book, not the online works better for me, I need to cut down on computer time!).  And I'll also follow the Sonoma principles more closely.  Overall I tend to eat healthy..but I go through spurts of dessert or junk food, so the goal is to limit thos spurts and be agressive about the produce and less agressive on the snacks.  :)

Starting on Sunday, I'll be waking up early, fitting in some meditation, and getting back on track.  My goal is to turn waking up early into a habit, fitting in a post work walk or cardio workout and surpassing the 5 per day.

See you afterr bootcamp!

This weeks plan

So I plan to do 3 week spurts with a particular theme or pattern.   After three weeks I'll switch.

This week's goal (and last week)
2 X Cardio  for 45 minutes with pyramid style intervals
2 X Weights for 45 minutes or so

Last weeks recap:
 2 X 45 minutes cardio. One day elliptical, one on the arc climber.
1 X 45 minutes fulll body weights at the gym.  one at home session with marie claire total body workout 20 minutes.
1 X party dancing.

The unfortunate thing?   On Sunday my quads were SORE for no apparent reason.  I don't know if the home workout, or the dancing or the combo did me in.

Today 35 minutes on the elliptical.  Top level 15, top speed 5.2 for about 2 minutes or so.  Otherwise I was in the level of 3.3 or so as I climbed.

You're so vain

Well part of the benefit of losing weight is to hopefully get cuter clothes.  So to wear the cute clother i want: here is what I need to lose.

Bust; 5 inches
Waist: 8 inches (aka high school range)
Hips: 7 inches


Hmmm I wonder if it is reasonable.  I guess we will see in a few months.  Challenge 2, my friend is getting married early fall...what if my size varies too much from purchase date?  I guess we will see.

Don't Forget to Fuel your Workouts

I am giving my self 4 gold stars.  So far this month I have logged 11 workouts, right in line with my goals!  I also uncovered a perfect 5K walk with hills to practice for my 5k 40 minutes by January goal!

And I lost a few pounds even they TOM is in town. 

Now back to the title of my post, well today it was slammed at work so I only had a couple of dried peaches pre-workout.  My energy level suffered accordingly, and I could barely eeck out 20 minutes on the Arc climber.  I didn't have enough fuel for intervals.  I eventually settled for declining incline for 5 minutes.  The good news, the arc climber burns pretty serious calories.

Tomorrow, no time to workout, so I'll try to squeeze a couple in this weekend.

Setting Some Goals

Guess it is time to put them on paper:

Bust: lose 2 inches, 2 cups
Arms: lose 1-2 inches
Thighs: Lose 2-3 inches
Waist: Lose 10-12 inches
Hips: Lose 7-8 inches

We'll see how it plays out!

Week at the Gym

Well this week I made a huge sacrifice, I joined the gym.  With rainy season coming up, and well not as much commitment as I hoped, I thought it was time.  The final straw?  All the evening traffic on my way home from work.  I have tried the wake up early route, but I hate waking up when it is dark, and well it feels a bit strange.  Post work:  well if it takes 45-60 minutes to get home, and an average workday ends at 5:40 or so....starvation mode would kick in when I got home, and it would be dark outside.  The solution, join a gym near work, get my exercise in straight from work, and go home for dinner.

So I started on Tuesday.  Here is my workout summary for the week:

Tuesday: 10 minutes elliptical, 10 minutes recumbant bike, 15 minutes treadmill, 15 minutes stationary bike, 15 minutes upper body weights, 5 minutes stretching.

Wednesday: 20 minutes treadmill, 15 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes recumbant bike.

Thursday: treadmill 5K in 55 minutes (average speed of 3.4 mph, 3 minutes of incline, intervrals from 2.7 mph to 4 mph).

Here is what I learned:

1.  The treadmill is boring for an hour: song choice is key
2.  My gym is empty after work (mostly)
3.  I need to learn about the weights
4.  I want to find some cool cardio workouts with intevrals to keep myself interested
5.  I was shocked that I walked at 3.4 mph, my last few outside walks have been closer to 2.8 mph -- with more hills.  My incline dose was at 3.4 mph
6.  I need more hills practice
7.  The elliptical trainer still kicks my butt

The goals:
1.  Go to the gym Monday-Thursday consistently. 
2.  Fit in 4-5 days of exercise per week.
3.  Add strength training sessions of 20 minutes 2x per week.  4.  Do at least 45 minutes of cardio per session. 
5.  Improve 5K walking times to 40 minutes (4.6 or 4.7 mph).  This sounds ambitious, but I hope to meet this goal in 3 months: requires 5% time increase per 2 weeks.
6.  Lose 15 pounds over 3 months

How do you get out there?

So for some of us, exercise is second nature.  For me it's not.  I feel fine when I do it....but I hate the gym, and I can't do the at home workouts or workout videos.  So how do you guys do it...you know get up early and go to the gym, for a run, whatever.  Me I can never drag myself out of bed.  Except on the weekend...not during the workweek.  And I get home at about 7pm everyday.  I leave at about 7:20A and my morning commute is about 30 minutes, but it stretches to 45 or 50 on the way home.

So here is this week's resolution.  I saw a great workout in Shape this month.... It has 4 workouts per week with 3 mile walks (or runs) ending with 5 miles at the end of the month.

http://www.shape.com/getfit/7812

The biggest problem I have,  I live in the land of hills.  So in the flat terrain I can do 15 minute miles pretty easily.... but no matter where I go I'll have an incline on the way home...(unless I try the really hilly route that includes 1.5 blocks at about a 20% incline, .5 blocks downhill @ 15% and then another block clime @ 15% or so, which finally leaves me at a 2 block 10% downhill grade.  

So what was the point of that rant?  Well my speed is a 20-21 minute mile with the combo of hills and flats I have.  And that requires waking up before the sun comes out. 

So wish me luck in getting into better shape so this hill route will cut down to 15/mi so I can wake up @ 6.

At 2 workouts of 16 so far.  My goal for the week is to finsh up with one on Tuesday, one on Thursday.  But the rain is moving in and walking outside in the rain isn't really very fun.