Best Purchase Ever

It's Saturday - gym day! Except not. The Mr is not feeling 100%, he is getting over a bad cold so his sinuses are all stuffed up. So I thought hey, I'll go run. My legs are runnable now that it's been a few days after the Squatpocalypse.

The goal was to do 3-4 miles. I was feeling pretty good so I said hey, I'll do 5. I think I can make it without any water and be ok. Then about 1.5 miles in... bam, the path was closed because they were cutting down trees. Well shit. I turned back and just made it a 3 miler. Which is just fine by me, it's better than nothing. I kept it at a good pace of 9:57, despite feeling like I was on fire during the last mile. Sunny and 70 degrees really does feel like the surface of the sun while I'm running. Viking no like heat!

Came back and broke out the cooling towel! I found this thing on sale a few weeks ago and it's been amazing. Best purchase ever.

In case of running induced face fire, apply cooling towel to face and shoulders. Rinse and repeat!

Random updates and thoughts

I've been busy lately, used my day off to take care of car stuff, errands, and house cleaning. And a serious leg/back day at the gym

Squats!

95# x10

135# x6 (2 sets)

155# x5

I was feeling a little saucy so I upped it to 165.. but only made it 3 reps before I knew failure was coming so I stopped. 

I am chasing that PR... 175 is next!

Then more hang cleans and RDL's at #65

Pull ups, rows, bicep curls, and dual pulley pulldowns ..this guy saw I had #42.5 on each arm and he was like "The bar is over there" No, I fully intend to lift this weight just the way I have it set up. And I can. My husband commented on me having an insanely strong back. Maybe he's right... I see other chicks pulling #30 and I do #85

Finished with some kettlebell swings, jump rope, and burpees, then some ab stuff

I must have gone a little nuts in the gym cause I crashed hard later on in the day. Whoops!

I had a good trip to Virginia last weekend, saw the family and walked around lots. I realized something though.

So I do struggle with a pretty bad sweet tooth. And I guess I always have. Now that I'm older... I don't drink soda much and I'm generally more conscious of sugar content in foods... so I find my cravings are worse because I'm not constantly consuming the stuff. It's something I struggle with on a daily basis. Now I thought I was bad... until I was around my oldest brother again.... So this guy loves cokes. That much has always been true. But it's gotten so much worse. He was bothering my mom constantly to go get cokes from the store (By the way, you are 48 years old and have a car, this is a problem you are capable of solving!) and then as a treat for the family I decided to bring home some cupcakes from Smallcakes. We had this shop in Georgia and they are really good. So I get them home and my brother is way too excited. We each take a cupcake and go hang out in the living room. About halfway through my lemon one I got that "ugghhhh" cupcake coma feeling (but it was so good!) but then 5 minutes later I see my brother come back with another cupcake. Downs that one. 5 minutes later, a third cupcake. Then he remembers my mom brought home soda so he goes to wash it all down with some more sugar. THEN he comes back in with a 20 oz bottle. 20 minutes later my mom came down and complained about how much soda he drank. 3/4 of the 2 liter was GONE. I was shocked... This guy crushed 3 cupcakes and 3/4 of a 2 liter in 15 minutes, and was about to start another 20 oz. Good lord! Now to his credit he did do a bunch of yard work that day so he definitely needed the calories and carbs, but still that is way too excessive. Later on that night I know he ate at least 1 more, so he ate 4 out of 13 cupcakes that were meant for 6 people.

I mentioned it to my mom because it's definitely a concern. Diabetes runs in my family. Addiction runs in my family, mostly in the form of alcohol. I do myself struggle with blood sugar lows and these crazy sugar cravings, so I'd be shocked if he didn't have some kind of abnormality in his ability to process sugar. And the thing is, he'll be the first one to preach healthy foods and natural medicines. So witnessing this really helped put things into perspective for me. I'm not THAT bad when it comes to sugar. But I have to be careful not to LET it get that bad.

And that's pretty much what has been happening. I didn't run this morning because I'm hella sore. But that's ok. I'm chillin out tonight, my husband has been sick for over a week and he actually feels human today so we are hanging out.

Weight Loss - 3 years later

As I'm approaching the 3 year anniversary of beginning my weight loss, I find that I have slipped backwards a bit. I'm still doing great - exercising, doing new things, getting stronger... but my eating habits are utter shit right now. Lately I've been eating whatever the hell I want, and I've succumbed to eating fast/convenience foods almost all the time because I am too lazy to cook after a long day at work. I dunno why this happened. But I need to do something to fix it. I don't feel good and I have gained fat.

I've been hovering between 163-170 depending on the day. Which isn't bad, considering I struggled to get below this weight in 2013, barely reaching my goal of 155 and maintaining that for a very short time. And I have way more muscle than I did back then. So this time I think I can get to 155.

This picture was taken last night. Yeah I'm in my underwear and I don't give a shit, no different from a sports bra or bathing suit. But really, I don't look bad. I have definitely looked worse. As you can see I continue to fight the arm fat and stomach fat - I call it my battle of the bulge. It's hard to tell but my legs are mostly muscle now.
But really this is more about trying to get back on track with eating healthy and cooking my own meals. And who knows, maybe I can lose some pudge along the way.

167 lbs of me (and a cat)

I'm gonna do just what I did before - count calories, weigh in once a week, and just try to exercise some moderation and not eat every damn thing in sight. Lifting 3x a week which I'm already there. But...

Running - We kind of took a break from each other for a little while. I dunno what it is. I know I've fallen in love with lifting a whole lot more. Maybe it's made my running kind of fall by the wayside. And don't get me wrong, I want to run. I really do feel great afterwards when I'm all sweaty and out of breath. I've just had the hardest time motivating myself to get out of bed early and go run. Well now I'm making myself do it 3x a week. This morning was a success, but it also taught me how much running fitness I've lost in the last month. Around mile 2 the soreness from yesterday's workout really kicked in, I was running out of steam, and my pace dropped to 10:22. Yuck. But I got it done in just over 30 minutes.

I am going to visit the parents in VA this weekend. I'm not going to be counting calories, but I'm also not going to go overboard and eat everything in sight because "I deserve it"

So that's my news.

(Also, benching with 40's now and PR'ed my cable row at 120lbs x1!)

DC Sprint Pics

I'm just absolutely flooding my blog with Spartan pics this summer.

 First we have this pic where my face pretty much sums up how I feel about this obstacle. Seriously though, that bucket carry wasn't so bad compared to what I've suffered through in the past! Note the clever use of the tree as a bucket rester by the gent behind me :)

Then a nice post- dunk wall picture for ya. Ptthhhbbbhh!

I love this one!

A nice sideways view of the fire crossing

It's a good day for Oly Lifts!

It's Wednesday - my day off!

I had a nice morning at the gym. No rush, nowhere to be. Time to focus on lifting!

I am beginning to teach myself more of the Olympic lifts. I have always loved them and wanted to learn how to do them. Some of them I know, or have a rough idea of. Now that I have been lifting seriously for 8 months I feel I have a good basis of strength and technique so I can begin to teach myself. Maybe consult the husband on form when we're in the gym together. They're fun - hard work and quite tiring, but they make me feel awesome and powerful.

So I'm starting with Hang Cleans.

Since I'm just learning I did 65 lbs and just worked on getting the timing of the movement down. Did a few other exercises...
But then I was feeling feisty so I went back to the Oly platform for some shoulder pressing. After a couple sets I made the bar 85 lbs and did 3 reps (push press). By this time I was tired and cleaning the bar up was somewhat difficult. I rested and did another set of 3. Close to failure on that last rep. But hey, 85 lbs is a PR for me!

I think that on the days I do pushing movements I will work on some Olympic lifts. That leaves me a day to squat and a day to deadlift.

I feel I'm not too far away from seeing 100 lbs over my head !


Oh! Then after the gym I further enjoyed my day off with some retail therapy at the mall! I actually picked up a bunch of (gym)clothes for my husband, especially cause he's working out 6 days a week now and has lost 10 lbs already! I'm super proud of him. Stopped by Lush for healthy face stuff, new bras from Victorias and some Bath and Body Works stuff. I also devoured some Chipotle after all that lifting.

Yes, it's been a good day.

Therapy!

I love how a good workout can just get you into that perfect zone where you just feel so awesome for the rest of your day. I feel happy, chill, yet energetic (but now that it's night time the energy is slowly waning into a lovely sleepiness)

I dunno what it was about today. I went to work early in the morning but it ended up being slow so I got out before 1. Got to my car and there was a man telling me my car had been hit. ???? Wtf. So then another car pulls up and its a guy with his son and they are the ones responsible. Come to find out the son is my brand new co worker, in for his very first day of training. That's awkward. The right fender is dented and scuffed, hopefully no paint was lost and it'll just buff out. I'm not too mad, cause I ain't the one paying for it. I just hope this incident was a one off and it's not a sign that my new co worker is a complete D bag. 

So there's that. And I guess work has been frustrating lately cause it's been slow and sales have been bad. 

I left work and headed to the gym. I don't know what was special about this workout, but I must have really needed it cause I worked hard and it felt amazing. Maybe it was just the perfect outlet for whatever energy I had pent up. 

Well, my couch is the Oly lifting station because I did not bench today.

Seriously... runner's high, pump, therapy, whatever you wanna call it... it is real, and it's amazing. 

Dead (lifting)

Ohhh. It hurts.

I went to the gym yesterday and deadlifted for the first time in a month. After squats/anything legs, deadlifting is definitely the runner up on the list of things that make me hurt the next 2-3 days.

I guess it has been a little while since the typical Gold's Gym morning regulars have seen me around, because I managed to turn the heads of every guy in the room. I was only doing 135 (but I did go on to bench the same weight as a guy)

But holy crap. The DOMS is pretty debilitating. Lower back, hamstrings, glutes, traps, posterior delts, even forearms.

I had trouble sleeping last night and I abandoned the idea of my morning run today because of the sore back and hamstrings.

Deadlifting is a love/hate relationship for me. It's hard, I struggle to complete the last 1-2 reps, but hands down it's the one lift that makes me feel the most powerful. And it's cool knowing I can pick 185 lbs up off the ground if I try (but it's super hard!)

I wanna get a couple runs in before the week is over, so hopefully I feel better tomorrow. Then it's a long awaited gym session with my husband on Saturday!