Highs and Lows

This week started off awesome..

Monday morning I hit the gym and it was a feisty one. I like to call it Kettlehell

These were my buddies for a brutal 35 minutes.

(with the 2 pink bells)
Overhead presses
Squats
Swings (with Blue there cause it was easier to just handle the 1 heavier bell)
Rows
RDL's

10 reps of each, no rest between sets until the end of the circuit which was about 40s rest. I did it 12 times.

This was apparently enough to attract the attention of the other girl that was in there at the time, she came up to me afterward and was like "I was wondering if you were ever gonna stop!" Well I seriously thought about it... those last few sets were all mental, I had to just make my mind take control of the situation and force the body to do the movement.

And it was a warm 87 degrees outside - my gym has little to no air conditioning

It was gloriously exhausting. I was so tired on Monday, but I felt like I had gotten a great start to the week and planned on following up with - a run, deadlifts/pull, push, a bootcamp class, and a special adventure on Saturday!

But then I fell ill on Tuesday. It's kind of a TMI situation, but right now I can't go to work or exercise. And blam, there goes my awesome start to the week.

Oh well, it happens. I'm using the time to get caught up on some life stuff - and non life stuff by binge watching Team Ninja Warrior - my husband has a few interviews and we're hearing rumors that they need butts in seats and a move could possibly happen within 2 weeks? Cuh-Razy!!! 2 weeks is actually a bit terrifying because I would have so much to do and we're still in the process of selling our house/then we'll have to find a new house and stay in a hotel for a long ass time. I am traveling to VA to see my parents and then I'm going to Augusta at the end of the month (if we're not already living down there by then!) so there's gonna be alot of LIFE happening. I am gonna stay on it though because during the last move I did nothing and lost SO much fitness. Building myself back up from nothing sucked and I'm not doing that again. If a move happens I'll likely find a gym/Crossfit box and just start going immediately. And run the canal/FATS.

So I get to rest for a few days, I am hoping I can do bootcamp tomorrow but it's looking unlikely. But Saturday is my 6th wedding anniversary and regardless of how things are with my body, we are going to the Sandy Spring Adventure park! It's one of those tree climbing/obstacle park things! I have wanted to do one forever and I'm super excited to play around in the trees.

Busy week

Man, what a week.

Last Saturday we sold our house and bought a car on the same day! We now have 2 Jeeps, my husband got this crazy fully loaded Wrangler (and I still have my Patriot) and he totally loves it. I am not so crazy about the price but he has worked his ass off so he wanted to treat himself.

And in new developments, we once again might be moving back to GA! My husband is interviewing with other companies since he isnt' 100% happy with his and they don't have any positions down there. He has 2 interviews so far with possibly more on the way, there are a shit ton of positions open so we're cautiously optimistic that this will happen.

I kinda took a few days off from exercise, I guess I was tired and just needed to sleep in. But now I'm back full force

- Got my pull/deadlift day, those heavy deads wore me out. I didn't eat much the night before and I felt the consequences. Last week my injury site hurt a bit after deadlift day, but this week I have no problems. The morning after my glutes were even just the slightest bit sore - it's nearly impossible to make mine feel sore, the only exercise I have found that does is single leg squats.

- Ran yesterday morning and sprinted at the end
- Got a double because my husband wanted to go to the gym that afternoon. I just did a bunch of full body stuff, 5 sets of clean/press, and also Turkish get ups, snatches, burpees, and jump rope.

- I am about to go do my leg and push day!

I am SUPER tired. On top of being busy with life stuff/exercise I also just survived 5 incredibly busy days at work.

After the gym/errands/shoe clinic at work, I will probably come home, eat Chipotle, watch Spartan Team Challenge and pass out on the couch :)

2 weeks

I have been at it for a couple weeks now - watching what I eat and restricting calories for fat loss.

I'm down 9 lbs and 1% body fat (sitting at 26%). I dig it... thinking I'd like to see 24 or below.

So far I'm doing alright with food, I eat "bad" every now and then but I try not to go overboard with portions, and I don't give in to every single solitary craving like I used to. Some days I feel more "fat" than others, but one of the coaches at the gym made a comment about how he's already noticed me getting leaner :)

This week so far it's been bootcamp, 2 mile run, and lifting this morning. We're deadlifting on Wednesdays now, today it was 3 sets of 175x5. We upped the reps by 2 and it's challenging at this weight, but next week we're moving up to 185. Also did some other back/pull exercises before heading off to a tech session at work. Tomorrow I will run another 2 miles and then do some sprints at the end.

I'm in somewhat less pain than last week. For some reason everything was acting up at the same time, but I must have slept real good last night cause today I woke up and the hamstring was much better. Feet, knee, and shoulders are ok. The right ankle and shin are a bit sore, but I think it's cause I ran yesterday and today I just felt it when jumping rope and such.

Some days it feels like I'm not progressing at all, but today's body fat results and progress pics gave me relief and showed me I am seeing some improvement. And I have to keep reminding myself that I've been through all this before and that it's a really slow process. Change comes in time :)

Can I just get new legs?

Sigh.

On top of dealing with my on again off again hamstring problems with the left leg, my right leg apparently wants to join the party too.

The right leg has historically had problems with running. I used to have hip pain and a chronic knot in that calf. These are all problems that only happen when I run and not when I lift. The hip doesn't always hurt, but with enough miles/use the calf thing is a given and I have to massage it constantly. Today things were bad. I did wear my compression sleeves because I knew it would be sore, but I still ended up with pain all over my right leg. Hip, calf, medial shin, and ankle today! What the heck is going on? The good thing is I didn't notice much pain during running, but the instant I stopped I was actually limping because of it! When I got home I spent a good while massaging the calf and it feels much better now which is a very good sign. I know this is all muscular, and it probably has to do with a tight hip and the fact that the right ankle overpronates pretty bad. I know all these things are connected, and it'll just be a matter of getting back my running strength and figuring out which tight muscles are the problem. 

I had a good run until I stopped. And tomorrow I have a massage scheduled which is gonna be much needed. I have put myself through it lately, active 6x a week WHILE on a calorie restricted diet for fat loss. I guess it's no wonder things hurt a little. I will roll out and rest up for tomorrow, and possibly tape up the hamstring for my super barbell complex which will likely leave me on the floor. It's so good though. 

Even if stuff hurts, I'd rather be doing what I do than doing nothing at all.

Resetting

It's now been a week and a half since I started restricting calories to lose some extra blub. While on vacation I realized clothes fit differently than last summer, I looked different in pictures, and when I got back I stepped on the scale and I did not like it at all...

Since the initial weigh in I have lost about 8 lbs. I think most of it is bloat but hey, it's 8 lbs. I also measured myself one week ago and then again today. I've always had a pot belly so the largest part of my belly is a measurement I'm tracking, and in a week I have lost .5 inches off there.

My diet is better now, and I've stuck to it for the most part. I'm surprisingly not as hungry as I thought I'd be, there was really only one day when I was super hungry and kinda fell off the rails a bit. But I've been down this road before and I know stuff like that is going to happen. I don't have to be perfect 100% of the time, but as long as I do the right things most of the time the change will occur.

Lifting hasn't changed a whole lot, I'm just not going crazy heavy all the time right now aside from the deadlift. I am hitting reps with 175 there and not having any problems. Yesterday in fact I felt pretty strong with it. I'm doing bootcamp twice a week and running 1-2 times a week. Certain muscles are cranky, the bad hamstring is acting up right now but I'm stretching/massaging and it helps. The calves are also angry but they will get used to running again. As far as bootcamp goes, I wore my watch the last 2 times and was a little underwhelmed at the result. It shows calories burned around 380 for both classes. I thought it would be like 500+. Oh well, that's why I got the watch... now I know not to overeat. I am going to experiment with the watch a bit though, because both times I left it running the whole time and there are parts where we rest and where the coach walks us through each station. I wonder if pausing it during rest will give a different result. We shall see.