Insanity: Week Seven

I am sad to inform anyone who reads this that my work out buddies and I slacked a bit this week. I slacked more than the others I think.

I had two tutoring sessions this last week (my first sessions!) and we studying until it was too late for me to join the workouts. And yesterday we were supposed to do two videos but we only did one. And the shorter one at that. I did, however, make up for one today, so that's good news!

We've all been struggling with these latest videos. They are longer and harder. My biggest complaint is how hard they are on my already bad knees and neck. I find that I have to be extra careful, alter, or skip entire exercises because it aggravates my neck or knees too much. My knees have been feeling better though which is great. My neck has issues that are not related to Insanity, but there are a lot of movements with arms and shoulders that always irritate it and there happen to be lots more arms in these workouts. Hence the added neck pain.

Despite our slacking, we are still noticing progress. Awesome. Clothes are getting loose, we are slimming down and getting toned. We definitely see it in each other. Also, I can actually do push-ups now. When I started I think I could do one, maybe two good ones at a time.

The only solid measurements I have to report are another half inch off my waist and a half inch off my butt. I lost some in my bust, which is sad because I have very, very little there to lose. And BTW, it is difficult to find even smaller bras then I was buying before. I'm less than a real size. Less than half a real size. Sad day. However, I am generally feeling better about myself and my appearance. I hope I get some kick-ass abs soon. We think we will do Shaun T.'s Hip Hop Abs next. It will be entertaining at least.

So that is that! Only two weeks left! I, personally, want to repeat month one, just for fun. Yes, fun. I liked month one.

Insanity: Week Six

Ah, finally! The end of week six! This week was brutal!

 

Of course, it didn't help that I was sick for the first three or four days. The workouts were longer and harder. And hard on your knees! Be careful!

This last week started with the fit test. I was sick during this so I started strong but feeling like crap really started to tell on me towards the end. Here are my results from three weeks ago and this last week.

                      Start of Week Three      Start of Week Six

Switch Kicks:               53                            63

Power Jacks:                30                            34

Power Knees:               57                            64

Power Jumps:              20                            22

Globe Jumps:                6                              7

Suicide Jumps:              8                              8

Push-up Jacks:             10                            12

Plank Obliques:           22                            30

Not bad considering I was sick. Next time will be better. If you want to see what the workouts for the fit test are, see Insanity: Week Three.

There is one video in this set where Shaun T. must have been in a bad mood. He yelled a lot. But not motivating yelling, angry yelling. At which point quiet little Krissy called Shaun T. an asshole. Another funny instance came up on recovery day when Shaun T. was wearing tight, legging-type pants and Krissy commented, "That's a whole lot more of Shaun T. than we've seen before..." Lots of laughs.

On to other results. No changes in measurements and weight from last week. However, there is a lot more arm stuff for the last month so as of now I am adding shoulder and arm measurements to my list. I will keep you posted!

Insanity: Week Five

Week five was different and interesting. It was "recovery week." A whole week of Core Cardio and Balance. Shaun T. tells us that we shouldn't feel exhausted after the video. Yeah right.

Because of our schedule, our recovery work out usually falls on Friday. Instead of doing the Core Cardio and Balance video we did the Cardio Abs video. We thought we deserved a little break I guess. Cardio Abs is shorter and not all that much cardio. We did do the cardio and balance one the rest of the week.

Aside from my getting sick at the end, it was a good workout week. At the beginning Katja brought her Wii Fit so we can all track out progress that way. It was highly entertaining. Also, I had never touched a Wii before. According to the Wii Fit, my "physical age" (based on BMI, weight, and balance?) is about 30. Funny funny.

Now the results! We have all noticed improved endurance, muscle tone, and flexibility. My calf muscles have had a hard time adjusting to the workouts, but they are getting nice muscle! My abs aren't coming along quite as nice, but I am getting some decent oblique toning. I am still fluctuating around my normal weights. As of this week, I did lose half an inch in my waist, which was unexpected because I have a pretty slim waist. I expect more changes in my hips and butt though. They were about the same but loose, if that makes sense. No change in my thighs sadly.

In case anyone is wondering about the measurements I decided to take, I should debrief you. I call myself "the great pear-shaped woman." I have almost no chest and I gained no weight in my chest or my rib cage. My waist is slim, too. Proportionally, I have larger hips and gain all my weight in my hips, butt, and thighs. Therefore, that is where my focus is. I actually was only taking my waist measurements to check my consistency.

The next month is going to be tough. The workouts are longer and all hive titles like "Max Interval so-and-so." We are a little nervous already. We also do the fit test tomorrow. I will post results.

Last week I talked a little about knee pain while working out. This week, for whatever reason, was hard on my knees. It took most of the week to learn to be careful enough to avoid hurting them. To that end, I found some good links (on Pinterest because, let's be honest, where else would I spend time online?) to help with my knees.
1. Build A Stronger Knee. Be careful with these because some of them may strain your knees if you are not.
2. Hip strengthening exercises. With these make sure you are working from the hips, not the knees. Turn your legs at the hips. Especially for us women--our wide hips can hurt our knees.

Insanity: Week Four

Yay! We made it through one month of Insanity!

For anyone thinking about doing this workout one warning: make sure you keep your body aligned.

They tell you these things in the video but you have to remind yourself. My knees and ankles began to hurt after the first couple weeks and it took me a while to adjust my movements to avoid injury.

For me this is absolutely making sure that my knees are over my ankles always. I know it may not always be very lady-like to have your knees spread so wide for those squats, but trust me: it will save your knees. I have to be most careful about this in squats, knee highs, stretches and (oddly enough) the heisman. I noticed that doing this also seems to help my ankles. Be careful out there!

So month one is over! Five weeks to go. This coming week is a new workout called "Core Cardio and Balance." And the workouts will change for the last month. Into new territory!

I have started to notice that my butt and thighs are more toned. I have always had a big butt and thighs (this is where all my weight goes). I measured today and I lost a half of an inch in my hips and my butt. None in my thighs yet. I also gained just a little weight but I think that was the fat converting to muscle. And Krissy told me that my shoulders and arms are getting bigger--she usually stands behind me for our workouts--she could see that while I was stretching. Happy day! Overall I feel very satisfied with the progress so far.

I have noticed that all four of us have lost a little weight and look more toned. We can get through the majority of the warm ups and we do pretty well in the exercises (though we all still have to take breaks). And we feel great! The soreness did start to come back more in weeks three and four but it's not so bad that we can't walk so it's all good.

With so many of us working out together our motivation stays up. It's almost like peer pressure. "Well, we're all going to work out... it is implied that you are lame if you don't..." Horrible right? But we have been enjoying our time together for snacks and hot tub afterwards. And we put 1$ per workout day into our little piggy bank! We are going to do something fun to reward ourselves after all this. Spa day, manicure/pedicure, something.

Jhenn's chalk board piggy bank for our reward! On the other side it says "Shaun T. says 'dig deeper!'"

Good luck to anybody who wants to try it! We recommend it!

Insanity: Week Three

We made it through week three? "How y'all feelin?" As Shaun T. would say.

 

I should talk about Shaun T. He leads the Insanity work outs. And he always introduces himself as "Shaun T." "Hey this is Shaun T. Welcome to Insanity." In the Pure Cardio video he talks about himself in third person, "Shaun T. is tired." Yeah? So is Samara L. Weird right?

And he always says, "Push it harder! Push it harder!" And "Dig deeper!" And we talk to him. "I can't Shaun T. I'm too tired..." Or, more commonly, "You should just be glad that I'm still moving..."

Here is a video of him yelling at us. He's saying "Let's go!" but that's not really what it sounds like (he doesn't always enunciate very well). Shaun T - Lets Go! Ah, gotta have him yelling at us.

Our endurance continues to increase and we are starting to notice some muscle and toning, yay. Below is a picture of Jhenn's oh-so-awesome legs. Her thighs are getting nice and muscle-y. Apparently she puts on the toned muscle pretty quickly! Jealous.

 

 

 

Jhenn's sexy, sexy legs!

Week three started with the second fit test. The fit test is a series of eight exercises and you have a minute for each to do as many as you can. The exercises include: switch kicks, power jacks, power knees, power jumps, globe jumps, suicide jumps (sounds nice, right? "We're going into suicide jumps. Are you ready?" asks Shaun T.), push-up jacks, and low plank oblique. I know those aren't great descriptions, so here is a picture:

 

Of course, by the time you get to the end, you are too tired to do much anyway... It is a pretty good measure though. In two weeks I made pretty good progress!

Here is my sheet for the fit tests. That is day one (don't judge) compared with the first day of week three.

And sorry I am a day late on this post.

Insanity: Week Two

We made it through the second week of Insanity! Hooray!

Oh the big black X's! We just live to cross off those days!

This last week my body (mostly my legs) have been less sore but more tired, if that makes sense. At least I can walk these days. My body grew accustomed to the work much faster than I thought it would.

We all continue to notice improvements. We start week three with the fit test and I will post about that next week. I'm a little nervous and excited. For me, the warm up is the best measure of my progress so far. I can already do soooo much more of it than I could when I started. Fast results!

At the end of week one I weighed myself. I will probably do this weekly for the sake of curiosity. I don't actually expect to lose much weight. I may actually gain pounds as I replace fat with muscle. Remember all, muscle weighs more than fat. However, I no longer see the weight I had gained in my face. It came off that quickly! I also took my waist, hip, and thigh measurements at the end of week two. That's where I hope to tone up the most. I feel like I am getting more tone but I haven't seen a lot of physical evidence yet. I don't know if I will be posting my actual weight and measurements, but I will left you know how it progresses!

We continue with our healthy snacks and weekly dinners. We skipped the hot tub a couple days this week, but that's alright.

Here are a couple references that I have used when picking out snacks. Perhaps this will help you out. (I found all of these via Pinterest. Seriously, I am always on there...)

1. Low-Calorie Post-Workout Snacks.

2. Women's Health: Top 28 Best Healthy Snacks 

3. 10 Perfect Post-Workout Snacks 

Enjoy!

To 2013!

A new year once again. The time when we have to cross out the year every time we write the date because only after 2012 is on the page do we remember that it is 2013.

So, New Years' resolutions. People are funny about these, I think.

The idea is great. It's a new year! Turn over a new leaf! Gym memberships skyrocket! Dieting is the rage!

And then it's back to normal come March.

I think having a New Years resolution is great, but two things: be reasonable and stick with it.

I am making a promise to myself this year: be better with my money and get in better shape. If you are like me, relative goals work. I am not going to set specific goals right now, I just want to see how far I can get.

Last year I did not have a resolution but both years before that it was to improve my diet (both years in a row because there is always room for improvement and because I always had such bad eating habits. It took a while for me to get to a good spot.) Both years I did improve and looking back, I am proud and satisfied. And maybe a bit healthier. The way I ate was horrifying. I think I made entire meals out of junk food. Those days are, thankfully, over. So now I need to focus elsewhere.

I have been trying to get my finances under control for a long time now. I'm not great with money and I had and still have a decent amount of credit card debt. On top of that I really don't make a whole lot. Being a home-owner and possibly in need of a new car soonish means serious budgeting with my small earnings.

I have cut back my spending a lot within the past several months, which is great, but it never seems to be quite enough.

Most of my spending is when I go out with friends. So I need to place limits. More staying in, less going out. With friends or without. Another goal is that I do not go out more than once per week (unless there is a special occasion, friends visiting or some such). For my friends who are reading this, I hope you understand that I am not intending to blow you off, just to curb my spending. This is gonna be huge. And difficult.

As for working out--I am the lucky kind of person who hides weight well. I don't tend to gain a whole lot nor show what I do. Overall I am pretty slim. I am not doing this to lose weight. I need to be in shape. I have no stamina whatsoever and no strength. I used to, but it is all long gone.

Today a friend of mine and I started Insanity. Yep, that is happening. I also purchased an app called "Couch to 5k." I used it briefly (the free version) last year and liked it so I made an investment. I can't afford gym memberships so I am going to stick with Insanity for now and then do other workouts until it is warm enough to run outside (I will post what little workouts I find; I already have some lined up). That's the plan. I think I can handle it. If I get in better shape and save money, maybe I can start ballroom dancing or vaulting again. That's the idea. I hope you all will hold me to it.

What are your resolutions? And what are you going to do to stick with it?