Week one of work:  CHECK.  How many more to go? The best thing about working in the schools is the summers off!  You always have next summer to keep you motivated.  It’s like a little reward for working hard for 10 months.

I accomplished 3 workouts in 4 days this week.  Two required me to get up at 5:15-5:30ish, and the other one was a yoga class on Wed evening with a neighbor-buddy.  We went to yoga nidra– it was like being on acid (not that I’d know what that feels like)… monks, expanding and contracting circles, third eye breathing… an hour of meditation/relaxation is supposed to be equivalent to 4 hours of sleep.  The verdict is still out on that one.  Anyway, my schedule is working nicely.  workout 5:30, get the kids up at 6:45, feed, dress, & get kids out the door by 7:45, drop 2 kids off at daycare while the older 2 sit in the car, 8:00 drop the older two kids off at their before school care, get to work by 8:45, work hard all day long– I run in half hour schedules, working with 1-6 kids at a time all day, with teeny breaks to do billing, documentation, write IEP’s, fix schedule problems, consult with teachers, plan lessons *individually designed lessons for 35 different kids*, and manage to squeeze in lunch and maybe 1 trip to the potty into about 6.5 hours.  Hence the “WHEW!”  Anyway, I leave work between 4:00-4:15, pick up the older 2 kids around 4:45, pick up the boys at about 5, get home, make dinner or rush off to girl scouts, brownies, piano, (a special dr. visit w/ my oldest daughter who has anxiety problems), or whatever else activity has popped up… managing to get the kids fed, homework checked and done… laundry done, kids fed, house chores done (we’re on a strict schedule)– esp. the kitchen & bathrooms!– then it’s bathe the kids, get them to bed, make 6 lunches for the next day, and pack all our bags for the morning.  I crash between 9 and 9:30.  Bill and I talk on the phone, over the scream of children, and/or for about 5-10 minutes before falling asleep.

And after all that, I still manage to keep workouts a priority.  It’s my ME time.

Now, I need to find time to read.  I entered a book-a-thon challenge at work against the 5th graders.  hmmm…

I am SO happy Dawn has joined our team!  Anyone else want to join up?  You are WELCOME!  I think the act of blogging about workouts is a great accountability.  At 5:30 in the morning when I want to hit snooze I just say to myself, “Don’t let the fans down, girl!” and then I force myself to roll out of bed.  Except for this morning.  This morning I hit snooze 8 times.

I’m still loving my turbo fire workouts.  Man are they getting easier!  I’m actually jumping higher, feeling way less winded, and feeling less “twinges”.  I’m also getting better at listening to my twinges.  I just stop doing high impact when I feel one (i’m still wearing the compression socks i’m happy to report!)

I am NOT a morning person. I dont wake up early, I am not chatty in the mornings, and I need my coffee. I’ve tried off and on to work out in the mornings and my body just hates it. I’m slower, and weaker.

But, my life right now doesn’t afford me the opportunity to work out in the evenings. Now when I say work out in the morning, I actually mean after 6:30 AM. Which for some isn’t early, but it is for me. I like to go to bed at 10, and get up at 7. Yes, I know that’s like 9 hours of sleep. That’s what my body needs.

Since I’m doing Chalean Extreme again, this morning I had burn intervals on the docket. Its not my favorite workout, but I do like it. We’ll see how tomorrow goes!

I’ve come to a point in my life where I know that a change has to be made.  Three years ago, I was in great shape and I was really happy with how my life was going.  And then something changed.   Maybe it was the recession, (my husband works in the automotive industry and we were hit hard) or maybe it was my sons diagnosis with Aspergers, but coping with just about everything became too difficult.  Rather than exercising and eating right and I became apathetic.

Not anymore.  It’s time to get my life back to what it should be – for me, for my husband and for my boys.  So I’m starting over.  I’m doing a mini version of P90X – Kenpo, Plyometrics, Legs and Arms.

The hardest thing to overcome will be my emotional eating habits.  When things get rough, I become one with the refridgerator!

Wish me luck!

A twinge of pain, is just the beginning. Its your body telling you something. Listen to it! There is a difference in muscle fatigue and pain.

Almost a year ago I threw my back into massive muscle spasms. I’ve been doing well but as soon as I feel that twinge, I quit. I can say that I think its related to my hamstrings. When they are tight my back seems to have issues. So, tonight I was supposed to do core 20 with turbo fire, and it hurt. So I stopped. Now my back feels like its about to go into spasm. So I’m being super careful this evening and I will probably rest tomorrow. Better safe than sorry!

One bad workout will put you out for weeks.

Ab Burner was on the menu for today. It’s a 10 minute ab crunching work out. If you compare it to Ab Ripper X, its cake. If you compare it to sitting on the couch, its a struggle. Its mostly crunches with not much rest in between exercise. Definitely a good ab workout but not as intense as the p90x version which after this long I still struggle to get through!

I am so happy to be home after a week and 2 days of travel!  I met with my superstar Chalene this morning, and she told me I’m awesome.  I did Turbo 55EZ.  Nothin easy about it, kids.  Oh my GOSH did it feel good to work out again.  I was a bad, bad, very bad girl when on vacation.  Too much food, WAY too little movement.  I didn’t even read like I wanted to!  LA-Z.  It’s good to have a week like that once a year, right?!

I got my groove on this morning at 5:15!  Yikes.  The only reason that worked out is b/c I was so exhuasted from traveling that I passed out promptly at 9pm last night  I seldom get to sleep that early.  I took advantage of it and didn’t have any trouble getting up.  Just need to maintain that for the next 10 months and I’ll be alright!

So that’ll be my routine, exercise from 5:30-6:30.  6:30-7 shower and get perty.  7-7:50 get the kids up, fed, and out the door.  work 8:30-4, pick up kids at 4:30/4:45, come home & cook, do homework, get the kids to their various lessons and practices, and get ready for the next day.  Add changing diapers, cleaning up messes, wiping away tears, applying bandiads, yelling, screaming and pulling hair (me, not the kids), and you’ve got yourself an evening.  Sound like fun?  Come join me sometime!  I’ll cook you a meal.

Happy end of summer, folks!  Welcome fall and college football!!!!!  (have i ever mentioned that our family schedule revolves around husker football?)

School is starting, summer is almost over, and its time to get your scheduling cap on. With the busy life of kids, work, walking dogs, carpool driver or whatever keeps you busy, how are you going to fit in your work outs?

For me I have to work early this year and I hate working out in the morning, so I’ve saved my afternoon / evening times my workout hour. Typically it’ll be around 7pm. My goal is to do a combo of chalean extreme plus turbo fire. Thankfully there is a nice workout schedule that came with turbo fire.

Whats your plan?

A huge part of our vacation is food. We like to eat. Scratch that – we love to eat. I had no premise of eating healthy. Donuts, ice cream, bagels, soda, all the yummy things in life. It makes me feel awful though.

I think the moment of eating horribly isn’t worth the icky feeling you get for days after. So here we are, day 5 of our vacation and I can’t stand the thought of eating anything else awful. So tonight I plan on eating something lighter. We are by the beach so seafood is always a good option, though I may go for something chicken.

There is the theory that giving yourself that bump in calories will help boost your metabolism, though I dont think they mean by eating 3000 to 4000 calories a day

In any case, its almost over and I’m sad, but I do enjoy my life of exercise and eating well so I’m happy to get back to that. I think eating junk makes me more emotional *g* Which isn’t a good thing! LOL.

It seriously gives me energy during my workouts.  If I wake up totally groggy and the last thing I feel like I can do is get through an hour of exercise, I just sip on it throughout the workout.  It seriously helps.  The P90X yoga video is an hour and a half, and by the time I’m an hour into it I start to crash– the day I sipped Recovery Drink during the workout I made it the whole way through, and I haven’t had a problem since.  This morning was just one of those days.  I had to peel myself out of bed– knowing I’d be riding in a car all day tomorrow motivated me quite a bit.

Today was FIRE 55– which I LOVE.  I can’t decide if I love FIRE 45 better though… they’re both awesome.  Anyway, I could barely shake my thang during the warm up… thought I was NOT going to make it, but about 10 mins in I was shaking it like a polaroid picture.  It was truly an awesome sight.  I wish you all could have been there to witness it.  Maybe next time.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Myrtle.  SO EXCITED!  Hoping Amy feels better soon.  Otherwise, she might ruin my vacation by whining and stuff.

Ugh, at least its BEFORE vacation and not during vacation! I have the beginnings of a cold. I’m not a big “drug” person so I do my best to avoid things like Nyquil. I think my body is equipped to fight a regular cold.

I do however use a neti pot, its the greatest thing ever. You just take a teapot looking thing with warm water and some kind of salt solution and pour it in one nostril and out the other. Sounds gross I know but it really does help. It cleans out your sinuses which helps prevent blockages and bacteria from getting a chance to grow.

The other thing I do is eat healthy and try to get extra sleep and fluids. I avoid working out, I know you can still work out but if my body tells me to rest, that’s what I’m going to do. There is a reason why you feel the way you do and you should listen to it!