Sunday Spartan Workout

After watching Dave finish his first Spartan Race in Malibu (post to come), I decided to go to the local park and do a Spartan themed workout of my own on Sunday – After all, I am doing my very own Spartan Race in January!

Here's what the workout consisted of:

150 jumping jacks
15 burpees
3 X 10 dips
15 box jumps
15 sandbag squat-throws (I used a 26lb dumbbell and it works just fine!)
3 X 10 crunches
10 box jumps
3 X 10 jumping lunges
5 X 25' Spiderman crawls
Run 1.5 miles
30 burpees

Stretch

Here's a fun little revelation I had yesterday. The park I went to had no benches around to do box jumps, so I improvised... I realized that my truck would work perfectly as a box jump substitute.

It was so much fun, and so much more challenging (It's a bit higher than I was used to) and now I know I have a box for box jumps whenever I need it!!

Hello Monday....

As blue as I am that it is Monday, it is a short week!! Thank you Thanksgiving!! So really, today is more like Wednesday, and for that I am grateful.

This past weekend was pretty uneventful, which is just the way I like it. The older I get the busier I seem to be, and this weekend the only thing on the agenda was Friends-Giving and a lot of football. YES!

Friendsgiving was a great success. It was a unanimous choice to do the event at our house, but it was somewhat of a Potluck Friendsgiving, which made it much less stressful.

I was so busy in the kitchen all day that I managed to completely forget to take pictures the entire night. FAIL. Luckily, my roommate instagrammed the turkey once it was ready! Thanks Chris!!

The spread was delicious. We have turkey, brussel sprouts with Bacon, Roasted cauliflower, sweet potato au gratin, mashed potatoes and stuffing for the non-paleo eaters! HAHA. Afterwards there was also Pumpkin Pie and Chocolate Pecan Pie. I must say the chocolate pie was amazing!!

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Moving right along, on Sunday I decided to get out a little bit and go dress shopping for my upcoming holiday party at work. It's kind of like our own little prom, everyone gets really dressed up and its kind of a big deal, so I thought it might be a good idea to start looking at dresses ahead of time...

I found some cute ones, but I'm not in love with anything just yet. One thing I AM enjoying very much is that dresses actually zip up all the way on me now, and I'm not even at the largest size!! That was a good feeling. If I needed any motivation to keep going, that was it. By this time next year I'm going to have the body I've always wanted, but until then, I'm going to keep enjoying these little moments of bliss in the dressing room.

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And now it's Monday (actually it's already halfway over!)
I'm already done with my cardio boot camp workout -  and boy was it a doozy. Mondays are always hard... my legs always feel twice as heavy on a Monday! Haha

Today's Boot Camp workout:

1/2 mile warm up run

10 squats
10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 deadlifts (each leg)
10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 "good mornings" no weight

10 walking lunges, each leg

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

10 sumo squats

10 lunges with a hip flexor stretch

Run 0.5 miles (2 laps around park)

1/2 mile cool down run

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Stick a fork in me I'm done!!!! 

Progress and Results

I was looking back at some of my old posts when I first began writing about my fitness goals. Man was I ever negative! I am so sorry if any of you who still read this ever had to bear those awful self loathing posts. I was so lost back then, and as much as it hurts to read those posts, they're a solid reminder of where I came from - and how far I've come. I am so glad that I have those to remind me, and humble me, when I am feeling like I've fallen off the wagon or feeling set back. Everyone has setbacks, and I know I am going to continue to have setbacks. Life is never perfect and there will be stresses, it's how you handle them that show how much you've changed. I know I've changed a lot. I'm not perfect, and I'm only halfway to my goal, but instead of feeling down and sorry for myself because "I'm not there yet" I am rejoicing because guess what.... there was a time where I told myself (or maybe even wrote on this blog) that I would have killed to be 20 lbs lighter.... just 20 lbs" – and here I am, 0.5 lbs away from reaching that inner wish. I did it. And now I want more.... I won't stop here because it's easier that way. I will keep going because I know I can. I know I'm not done... There are some beautiful muscles hiding underneath that ever-shrinking layer of the old me that is still longing to come out!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....

Never forget to appreciate how far you've come.... there is so much more work to be done. glorious work. Its going to be awesome!

Progress and old photos...

Sometimes its hard to see the results of your hard work when you see yourself in the mirror every single day. Seeing the day to day progress is tricky. It s a slow change that is easily missed or skewed. I was starting to feel like I was back-peddling a little bit, falling off the wagon. I've been eating not-so-great lately, but the portion sizes have been there. I just wasn't feeling great about my progress, until I found this old photo of myself (left), and put it next to a current photo (right). This was when I was at my heaviest. I hated my body, hated shopping and had no idea how to fix it. A lot has changed since then...

I know it's not a whole body before/after, we'll get there. I'm not at my goal yet. But holy moly can you see a difference in the face here. Or at least I can.

I'm actually very proud of the 13 pounds I've lost. I am trying for about 20 more, but hey, I have 13 gone. Out of my life for good. And now I have some evidence, and it feels good.

So good.

The hike....

a few weeks ago, a typical saturday for me would have been going out to breakfast (after a long night of drinking) maybe doing a bit of shopping, and then A LOT of lounging around the house in sweats. then having lunch. lounging some more, then dinner.

lazy and full of calories.

saturday is my cheat day, but i don't want it to completely ruin my progress for the week, so on friday i invited all my friends to go on a hike in santa barbara, followed by a delicious lunch/dinner at Eureka burger - {which by the way is the most amazing restaurant to have a cheat day at.... EVER}

not a bad idea, huh? burn a boat-load of calories THEN have your cheat food.... i like it.

and, it was so much fun!!! {can you see the excitement on our faces?}

i think we have decided to make this a weekend tradition.

sunday hike...

last sunday i went for a hike with a few friends, and let me just say it was a GREAT workout. it was a little less hiking, a little more rock hopping/climbing. it was great because my arms got a workout too... as well as my abs because when you hike with friends, you're bound to laugh a bit. we climbed to a spot that had these beautiful punch bowls and a small waterfall which people would slide down. i unfortunately opted out of the slide, but next time i'm definitely doing it!!

Joe was the fearless one in our group that tried it...

now that i'm signed up for the North Face 10K in december, i definitely want to do this hike at least once a week!! i'll take incline training anywhere i can get it!!

A good day

Yesterday was probably one of the better eating days I've had so far on this little journey. I ate a large breakfast, a healthy snack, and a healthy, filling lunch... followed by two workouts in one day!! {This is a rare occurrence people. Working out is one of the hardest things for me... i'm kinda lazy}

Yesterday after lunch, I went to the gym {at my work} for an hour, which included 30 minutes of cardio followed by some free weights and strength training.

THEN, after work I met up with one of my besties and we went for our "HILL WALK" -- which is more like a mountain, since you can see the top from the freeway, but it's paved, so we call it a hill. It takes us about 30 minutes to go up, and about 15 to come down... my legs were noodles, but it hurt so good.

Because of those 2 workouts, I went to bed last night still having 600+ calories remaining in my daily calories!! WOW... if only I could do this every day!