Week of June 22 - Blogger's Block

Monday-
walked home from work + Treadmill workout
20min 10% incline @ 3.5mph
25min @ 1% incline @5.0mph
- doing all those HIIT sessions has really ramped up my cardio. The only thing holding me back were my feet/ shoes. Haven't ran distance in a really long time. It was good!

Tuesday-
Walked to & from work

Wednesday - TT Workout B + HIIT Tabata training X4 sets (same as last week)
52:00min
485cals
HR Max 187/ 153avg

Looks like my calibration of my HRM brought my cals burned only slightly. Not huge enough difference for me to be seriously concerned though.

Thursday- TT Workout A - Elyptical @gym PM
25:26 min
183cals
HR Max 170/ 133 avg

Friday- Cardio Day
Tabatas X4
HIIT Sprints 1.5% incline @8.0mph
No stats for today :(

Sat & Sun
Guests in town so did ALOT of walking. Not exactly High Intensity but movement nonetheless.

Link of the week:
None- sorry readers- I had serious blogger's block this week. Lacking motivation in a big way :(
I won't stop working out, but let's just say I'm not feelin' it this week.

I'm hoping to pick it up this week... somehow.

Week of June 15 & Inspiration

Monday- off (had to drive back from our mini-vacation) ALOT of sitting!

Tuesday - TT 2K3 workoutB + 4X Killer Tabatas (1min rest between tabatas)
45:40min (moving a little quicker than last week!)
438cals
HR Max 191/ 151
I love to hate these tabatas!

Wednesday- Eat Stop Eat Fasting day
I used this day to callibrate my HRM
walking 1 mile as fast as I could + HIIT sprints
33:10min
Max HR 185/152 avg
321cals

That's it!! I cannot lie- I didn't get in any other workouts this week! :/ I let life get in the way, and I got lazy.

Steps to take next week: set goals to track.

Link of the week: Inspiration! - Watch me Shrink (not me, but a vlog blogger on youtube)

http://www.youtube.com/user/Smile2DayTears2Morro

Check out this woman's transformation! I was floored! Not to mention mesmerized by her vlog posts on youtube. I litterally almost watched every week. She's funny and smart and totally inspiring! She lost over 40lbs the good old fashioned way- good nutrition (counting the cals), working out and dedication. She's amazing!

Let me know what you think!

Intermittant Fasting with Eat Stop Eat

So I successfully completed my first 24hour fast yesterday. (If you'd like more info about the program please click here Eat Stop Eat)

Here's my experience with it:

• I had a good breakfast of a scrambled egg & whites plus multi-grain toast. Last meal= 7.20AM
• 11AM I briefly thought about food when I usually have lunch, but was ok. I really had to try and not look at the clock or count the hours because that was depressing!
• Throughout the day I sipped on cold water, green tea and herbal teas. Nothing hot, all iced. I felt pretty good.
• Got some great tips from Liz and Sarah (She also recently posted about her experience with the ESE method- read all about it here. Sarah does a great job briefly explaining the principles too)
• for most of the day, I was pretty focused on whatever I was doing at work AND I didn't get sleepy at 1pm as I usually tend to feel. Hmm... good indicator that I might need to make better choices at lunch!!
• I got home and watched some TV, surfed, spent some time on Twitter and everything was pretty much ok...
• about 9pm and I started with a head achy feeling and actually feeling a little nauseous lying down. Had to sit up but was still feeling queasy. (In retrospect I should have been drinking more water, less tea in the evening)
• Here's something interesting that I noticed... my sense of smell was UNREAL last night! I have a very good sense of smell on any given day, but last night felt like it was magnified for some reason.
• went to bed around 10pm and couldn't really get to sleep, and when I did finally fall asleep... I woke up a few times because I could smell stuff! I have skin cream and body powder in my nightstand and woke up because I felt like I was smelling them right under my nose. very very weird.
• woke up around 6.20am (little late today because of my restless sleep) and really wasn't feeling well. I had some stomach pains that were similar to something I've experienced with excess stomach acid. :( Not nice.
• took a shower and got ready for work and finally broke my fast at the same time I started yesterday with a handful of cherries and 1/2 piece of multi-grain toast. I had no desire to eat huge or upset my already hurting tummy.

Fast forward to this afternoon, I feel much better. I felt better about 40min after eating so all is good. :) I learned that alot of my eating is just habit, not necessarily because I'm hungry. I will try and listen more to what my body is actually telling me, not just "used to". The jury is still out on whether I would do this again... stay tuned.

It was nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be, in fact right up to 9pm, I was fine.
My advice, WATER! MORE WATER!! WATER!!

I weighed in yesterday pre-fast and today just before eating... (-5pounds) which means nothing I know, but still interesting. We'll see what my -1500cal adds up to this week.

Recalibrating my Polar F6 HRM

After reading on of Becky's posts on how her HRM was acting funky and possibly not accurately recording her calories burned I decided I'd better check out mine.

My HRM is a huge motivator- I like to see the cals I burn during a workout, so better than OVER recording cals burned, let's make sure I've got it right.

Age, sex, weight, height- yup... quite sure I've got these right- LOL
VO2 Max- this is the one I wanted to be sure I had right.
I used the Rockport test for VO2Max which of course isn't as accurate as being plugged into a snorkel with electrodes and graphs but anyway:
Essentially: Walk 1 mile as fast as you can, take your HR immediately after and plug into the calculator here:

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/rockport.htm

Based on this test, My VO2Max is 34, which on the scale is "Good" for my age range. Will be interesting to see what my stats are for the rest of this week as I originally had this set to 36. Hmm...

Week of June 8 & my "No Excuses mini-vacation"

Monday- TT 2K3 Workout B + Tabata sets X4
slooow movin' workout today! Ugh, Mondays!
1:01hr
555cals
HR max188/ 146avg

Tuesday - Kenpo X
43:24min
458cals
HR max 189/ 164avg
Forgot how fun this workout is!

Wed- rest (my hamstrings are still sore from Monday!) I've been doing DB RDL wrong for weeeeeks!! But finally corrected my form :)

Thursday - TT 2K3 workoutA + Sprints 2%incline total 9 sprints (30sec:1.5min) did my fastest sprint EVER 9.5mph! Barely made the 30seconds, but I did it! PHEW! Anyway, that was the first one, the rest I did at 7.3mph which felt like a jog after 9.5mph. LOL!
44:21min
423cals
HR Max 190/ 151avg

Have I mentioned how much I dislike decline push-ups? ouch!

Still workin on my chin-ups. Still @2 reps/ set X3sets. Apparently it's a big jump to 3. :)

Friday- TT 2K3 workoutB + Sprints @2%incline I kicked it up a notch... my base speed is now 8.0mph and it's completely manageable. I threw in a 9.0mph and an 8.5mph just for "fun". NOT! :) but seriously, 7.0mph was just starting to feel like a jog! Which is awesome 'cause when I started TT in April I was only sprinting at 6.2mph! YAY for progress!
52:28min
500cals
HR Max 187/ 151avg


Link of the week: none... :( I'm a bad blogger! With all the last minute details to my mini-vacation with DH, I didn't get around to it!


I will however add my thought of the week here... "Just because you're on vacation, doesn't mean there's no room for movement."

We went to the Okanagan (the interior of BC) this weekend and were lucky to have hot, sunny awesome weather, perfect for a dip in the pool & a bike-ride! :) I made sure that I worked in a fun activity for us this weekend. Ended up being a leisurely bike ride through some amazing terrain. Check out the pics!





Had my heart rate monitor on and here are the stats:
2:57hr (stopped a couple times, had some snacks, took some pics)
882cals
HR max 144/108 avg


And here's a short vid of DH & me along the trails (yes, I'm very dorky :o) )

So that's my vacation... what are you going to do to make sure you move on your vacation? :)

Week of June 1 & Successful Weight Maintenance

Monday- new TT Workout!! :) 2K3 A- wow- killer workout. I had spaghetti arms right after doing this one.
42:50min
368cal
HR Max 185/143avg
HIIT- sprints @2%incline starting at 7.0mph up to 8.2 (7intervals)

Tuesday
Walked to and from work

Wed - TT 2K3 B + Tabata sets X4 (step-ups, jump rope, bench hop-overs)
I did the Tabatas first, which in retrospect may not be a good idea before a leg workout.
53:41min
565cals!!
HR Max 188/160avg

Check those stats, those tabatas killed me! I wonder if replacing TT HIIT for Tabatas is ok?

What do you think my fellow fitness readers?
So I got some responses (thank you) and looks like I can do either one or the other. :o) I luuuv my gymboss so I'll add more tabatas I think!

Friday- TT 2K3 A + Tabata sets X4 (alternating between ministep straddles/ jumping jax/ plyo-step-ups & Bench hop-overs) ** the bench hop-overs were a GREAT shoulder workout! :)
47:30min
408cals
HR Max 184/144avg

Saturday & Sunday- not much... uh oh!!

Link of the Week:

I found this article in the Precision Nutrition Blog. What I found really interesting is the the table near the bottom of the article. I've been thinking alot lately about how I got back to where I am today... no where near the 189lbs in 2003 but still... how did I get back here?
Coincidence that the behaviors of weight losers and successful weight maintainers are the same when it comes to constant observation and measuring of weight? Probably not. Somewhere I guess I stopped looking at the scale / measurements to keep myself on track...

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/expert-tips-losing-vs-maintaining

I hope some of my blogging buddies who are maintaining find some use in that info :)