Back Home Again in Indiana

This was my first full week in my new office. Which is sweltering. Which also has a refrigerator available to put my fresh foods in. But it also makes it difficult to get into a rythm living in a different hotel room every couple of days. Regardless, I've been doing my best.

Monday morning I got up and lifted back and biceps. I was still at home and wanted to make the best use of the gym. Great pump and it felt good to lift heavy again.

Wednesday night I got the opportunity to try Cross Fit. I had purchased a Cross fit membership for DH for his birthday last year and finally felt confident in my body to try it myself. We did the following baseline assessment:
500 m row
40 squats
30 sit ups
20 push ups
10 pull ups

I completed this in 6:55 using the black band for assisted pull ups. Next time, I'll shoot for push ups on my toes and the green band for pull ups. And a shorter time.

This evening I'm planning on lifting legs and doing a treadmill 4 miles. The Glass City Half Marathon is only 2 months away and I have 5.1 miles to run. Better get started!

Insanity 30 day Challenge

I am a Beach Body coach. In order to be a better coach, I feel it necessary to actually do one of the programs so I can legitimely and appropriately have an opinion.

So with this, I've decided to do Insanity. Its a program that allows me a quick high intensity interval training without a whole lot of necessary equipment. I'm on the road for the entire month of February, so this should work great.

I had every intention of working out when I got to the hotel last night, but I felt like I'd been hit by a bus. My lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me!

I took my measurements this morning and anticipate working out with the first DVD - Fit Test.

Weight:162
Shoulders: 42
Triceps: 12.75
Chest: 40
Ribs: 32.75
Waist: 32.5
Abs: 37.75
Hips: 41.5
Thight: 21
Calf: 13.5

My results for today's fit test:
Switch Kicks: 42
Power Jacks: 45
Power Knees: 83
Power Jumps: 21
Globe Jumps: 8
Suicide Jumps: 14
Push-Up Jacks: 15
Low Plank Obliques: 23

I'm hoping to take some photos on Saturday when I get home from this business trip.

If you are interested in Insanity or any Beach Body products, feel free to let me know!

Big News!!

This has been a HORRIBLE food and exercise week. No time, back pain and not choice in ordering has made for just a bad week. I'm owning it, and working to get better. I'll have the ability to have a fridge next week and will have a larger room to work with for Insanity and a safer area to go for a run if I choose. I know Cody pretty well (I've spent a month there to date) and feel more comfortable with it than in Houston where I just got back from.

So now for the big news that some have heard. Bobby and I are moving to Indianapolis in the next few months. I've received a transfer in positions at my company, and will be helping out another engineering group (I'm in Pipeline engineering Mainline integrity now, I will be in Pipeline Engineering Region Engineering South). It will be a lateral move, but I will be gretting a raise, and the work I will be doing is capital work, no longer expense work, which is a double edged sword. The projects will be bigger, higher profile and higher cost work. I'll also be doing more design and total engineering rather than just coordination.

I have a conference call on Monday to determine the timeline, but I'll probably be moving down there in the next 2 weeks and living in an extended stay hotel. We'll be getting stuff ready to sell our house and buy a new house. Lots of changes, but we are very excited.

I'm going to be traveling again Monday - Wednesday. My goal is to do Insanity on Monday night and Tuesday night at the hotel. I'd like to run on Wednesday when I get home. We are going to Michiana this next weekend, where I hope to get a bootcamp and a run in as well. I'll also host a bootcamp on Thursday night. I'm really ready for consistency.

My body hates me

Well, the DOMS is back with a vengence. I could barely walk this morning! Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Recapping yesterday, I started my marathon relay training! 3 miles with Dice followed by 1.1 miles with Roger. I couldn't take one without the other! Food was on plan until we went to Reverends for the football game. Rapture dip anyone? I got home from that and passed out. 12 hours of sleep and I feel like a new woman!

I'm taking today as a day of rest. I did weigh in this AM and I'm up 1.8 pounds!! Bob says its from water retention, which I know is the case. It takes time and consistency to see scale love.

This week will be a true test for me as I'm traveling with coworkers through Friday. My plan for the week is as follows:
Monday - DOR
Tuesday - legs and airtravel
Wednesday - Insanity DVD!
Thursday - back/biceps and 4 mile training run
Friday - chest/tris/shoulders, insanity dvd! And air travel
Saturday - cycle and yoga
Sunday - 4 mile run

Food wise I'm planning on keeping it simple - protein bars, oats, salads, eggs, etc while away. We have an extra Magic Bullet so I'll be able to make shakeology while away. Hopefully my back will withstand the hotel beds!

Exhausted

Well today has been nothing but relaxing and exhausting all at the same time. Let's recap the rest of yesterday:

Lunch was Cheddar's with the group. My least favorite place in the whole world. I always get sick when I eat there. It was the welcome lunch for the new employee in my department. All 12 of us went, shared their spinach artichoke dip (had 4 chips), loaded fries and handmade onion rings (had 2). Ultimately I had a side salad with honey mustard on the side (did not eat the giant croissant that came with it) and a grilled portabello mushroom ciabatta sandwich, no pesto mayo. I could barely make it back to the office.

I didn't eat an afternoon snack as I was super full from lunch which worked out well because we ended up going for sushi with friends. GREAT sushi! Bob and I shared 2 spicy yellowtail rolls, a spicy tuna roll, a sunshine roll, a spicy/crunchy scallop roll, and I had an eel roll (my personal favorite). I got all my water in yesterday too. When we got home, I literally crashed after I took all my bedtime meds. I've been using melatonin for the past few nights to help me go to sleep. Holy cow! I can barely make it 35 minutes after I take it before I'm sawing logs.

Fast forward to today. Cycle and Yoga this morning kicked my butt! I take an hour long cycle class almost every Saturday at a separate gym in the next town over. I love the instructor, and try not to miss a class. I hadn't done one since before Christmas, so it was nice to get back into it. I followed cycle with an hour long yoga class. Today was rough! We did a lot of standing poses and my feet did not like that at all. Just goes to show you how dependent our feet are on our comfy cushiony shoes.

After I burned about 700 calories between the two classes, I got home (after drinking my Shakeology on the way home!) and cleaned. Dished, vacuuming, sweeping, laundry. A family friend who goes to college in town is spending the night before the dorms open, and we needed to do some serious cleaning. After I wore myself out doing that, left over spaghetti squash and homemade garlic bread served as my lunch. Followed by a 3.5 hour nap! I was pooped!

Just finished cleaning up and now just hanging out. No clue yet what we're doing for the night, either Karaoke in a questionable townie bar 2 towns over, bed early or out in the college town. Decisions, decisions. Regardless, training run tomorrow for the marathon relay I volunteered for in April. That's a story for another day.

Getting back to it!

I went to the gym this morning!!! I got my tush out of bed at 5 am (ok, more like 515), had a quick snack and got my sweat on. I've been having back issues, so this was a full body workout to just get something in.

I took this from www.mrshutupandtrain.com, a great trainer out of the ATL that I follow on Twitter and Facebook. He is super innovative and the workouts are great for people who don't a) have a lot of time or b) have a lot of space or equipment. All I needed for this workout was a mat (because I was on a hardwood floor) and a dumbbell (5 lbs, it was early).

Warrior Workout
60 seconds of each exercise, 30 sec rest between exercises, 90 second rest between sets, 2-3 sets each

Jump Rope
Body Weight Squats
Opposite Hang/leg
Plank Walkups
Hip Taps (these suck)
T-Pushups
Reverse Burpee Crawls

I started with 5 minute walk on the treadmill (3.0 mph, 1.5% incline) and ended with a spin bike tabata, 20 second sprint or climb followed by 10 second rest. It sucked. The whole workout took about 40 minutes.

It was good to get back in the gym. This workout made me sweat up a storm AND burned my shoulders. Great way to start the weekend!

Food today is going to be pretty simple. Pre workout I had a bagel thin with Chipotle Laughing Cow cheese (OMG delish!!!). Post workout I tried Shakeology for the first time. Not going to lie, not in love with it, as it is SUPER chocolaty, but I will drink it because I know it is good for me and will hopefully help with the cravings I have once I start cleaning up my diet. I had half a banana in the shake too. Morning snack is 2/3 c. low fat cottage cheese and a NSA Del Monte Grapefruit cup. I LOVE pre packaged food because it takes the thinking out of prep work and makes it super easy. Not sure if we are going out to lunch or not, so I brought something anyway, left over spaghetti squash lasagna and a Think Thin Protein bar for the afternoon.

I've always had a tough time while in NW Ohio making friends, as I'm a bit different than the typical person who lives here (growing up in a larger, more diverse area makes it hard to relate to people who grew up in towns of 1000). We do have a few that we've made through recruitment at Purdue and through work. Tonight, we're getting together with some of those friends for SUSHI!!! I'm planning on sashimi, red snapper and tuna. Yum.

Here's to a great Friday!

Maybe I should actually do something with this

I'm not a very good writer, and don't think my life is very entertaining or exciting, but I have a blog, might as well use it, right?

I work as a project engineer for a medium sized oil company in the middle of the midwest. I had the same question.. Oil in the midwest? There used to be lots of it. That isn't the point. I'm also a bit of a tree hugger. Makes for some interesting conversations at the water cooler. I work in environmental, so I'm not totally going against my morals, but it's still difficult being the only person in my department who voted for a particular president and against another one. The point of all this is I'm cleaning up my projects and bored out of my mind. I'm running out of things to do. Lots of time killing on internet searches and Twitter.

I also workout. A lot. I competed in a Bikini contest in June and got 4th place. Out of 5. Not stellar, but I wasn't last! So I fired my other trainer (more like said 'I'm not paying you for another 12 weeks') and hired someone else. Who is a bit of a ball buster. But I get to eat fruit! I'm planning on competing again in September in Northern Michigan. Rather excited actually. Now if only my back would hold up...

Here is where I think the point of my blog will be. I am injured. Bad. 2 herniated disks (L4/L5 is bulging to the left, L5/S1 has a tear and is bulging). I really can't run, or put any weight on my shoulders. Makes squatting, deadlifting, leg pressing, anything really other than pull ups, lat pull downs and bicep curls kinda hard. But, as I commented to my hubs earlier, sitting on my tush isn't helping it get better. Might as well kick my own ass until I have a solution.

Onto a little bit more about myself. I'm a die hard Boilermaker (BSCE 2007) and married the man of my dreams whom I met there. We've been married since Jan 2009 and have 2 crazy pups together.

Dice and Roger and the Hubs

The dogs are our joy, we'd rather watch them then TV. I used to play soccer and field hockey, but the inability to run sort of put a damper on both of those. I'm a bit of a physical player too, so throwing my body around really wouldn't work well. I've lost 30 lbs since graduating college. I was hit by a car in March 2003 while walking back to my dorm and steadily gained weight until I met the hubs in December 2004. At that point I started eating 2-3 meals a day in the all you can eat dining hall and well, he was in his 'bulking' phase. Which meant I was too, cause if he's gonna get a second plate, why not get one too! I was by no means huge, but 160 on a 5'3 frame is not as attractive as I thought it would be. Through exercise and healthier eating (and portion control!) I've gotten my weight to a more manageable 130. And with training for competitions, I'm probably going to sit around 120.

I'm not sure where this blog will go, or if anyone will read it. It should be an adventure!