I’m still battling back pain.  It’s mild now, but all my attempts to exercise result in lots of tightness and increased pain. I have SI joint instability, and given that my SI joint is a little ligament in the middle of my sacrum, it’s not like I can tighten that baby up.  When my SI joint gets out of wack, my muscles get all spazzy.  But, then again, maybe my muscles get all spazzy from exercise or moving wrong, and it pulls my ligaments out of wack. Who knows…  I KNOW I have to tighten up my core… but I have to find ways to do that without making my muscles freak out.  It’s a balancing act… and I’m going to be super patient, and go real slow.

I’m currently doing restorative yoga workouts, and low back yoga videos.  I cannot tell you how incredible it feels to fully relax and let go for a half hour or so.  Being a mom of 4 kids, working all week long, trying to keep it all together takes its toll on me mentally, and the total relaxation of my brain is SOOO helpful.  I highly encourage taking time to de-stress with some yoga.  I signed up for www.myyogaonline.com and for 9.95 a month you get unlimited video access.  It’s totally worth the money.

My mind wants my body to go back to insanity, but my back needs care right now.  It’s humbling.  I just won’t give up.

Namaste

I am suffering from an acute attack of low back pain.  I bought Chalene Extreme and was a little too excited when doing my oblique work.  My back was so not ready for that.  I’m in what I’d consider severe pain, so I’m icing, resting, doing a wee bit of stretching, and going to my favorite chiropractor 3x’s a week.  I have been out of work because I cannot sit without pain.  Walking is problematic too, but I’m forcing myself to get up and move every hour.

I’m throwing some recovery formula into my water, hoping some of those muscle healing/repairing elements will actually do something in a good way.  I was severely depressed yesterday, and all I wanted to do was numb the pain with meds that would conk me out. I’m feeling a lot more positive today, knowing that within 4-6 weeks I’ll be feeling just fine.

I thank God I do not have a chronic, life-long, debilitating disease or condition.  This is only temporary.  I think about people who suffer spinal cord injuries, or have degenerative diseases and I just want to weep for them.  I can’t imagine having a brain that wants to make your body get up and run, jump, play, and work… with a body that cannot cooperate.  What would it be like to need someone to turn pages in a book for you, carry you to the living room, drive you from place to place?  How could you maintain a sense of self-worth or dignity?  It just shows me that the real key to enjoyment does not lie in what our bodies are capable of, what we’re able to do, or how much we accomplish.  It’s something internal and spiritual.  I always think about what type of person I would be if I were stripped of EVERYthing I hold so dear to me.  Would I be able to love, laugh, or experience joy again?  I believe I could… but not without a lot of tears and anger first.

I know this is depressing, but I think it’s important that we take a good hard look at where and what we’re drawing our self-worth from.  Part of exercise and diet is about those key elements.  Why do we do what we do?  To feel and look good, right?  For health… longevity…sanity… if we couldn’t exercise, how would we develop these?  Can we learn the art of contentment without gaining what we consider to be “perfection”?

“Lord, strip me of everything that is not of you, and mold the rest into something You find beautiful.  Then teach me to see it as such.”

One HUGE benefit of eating well and getting lots of exercise is that PMS symptoms can be almost eliminated altogether.  I have horrible pms in the January-March months of the year… which is entirely due to those being the months that I eat the worst and exercise the least all year.

Here are some symptoms I’ve noticed all but go away:

cramps, irritability, mood-swings, fatigue, cravings for salty, sweet and fatty foods, … anyone want to add to the list?

I’m asking some women to join me in combating their PMS by taking a 30 day challenge to eating well and getting plenty of exercise.

I just ordered Chalene Extreme for my personal collection of workout programs from Team Beachbody because my sister Amy keeps going on and on about how much she LOVES it.  Also, it’s on sale this month, so I couldn’t resist.  30-minutes a day.  Lots of muscle building and fat-burning workouts.  I can definitely do 30 minutes each morning.  I could get an extra half hour to 45 minutes of sleep!

So the challenge is to eliminate junk food (let yourself eat a LITTLE bit so you’re not completely denying yourself— that’s how you end up binging and quitting!) and get plenty of exercise.  Aim for 30-minutes a day.  Do this for a month and see how much of a difference you see in your mood, energy levels, and quality of sleep.  I am dying to hear if your PMS symptoms are alleviated.  (for those of you who are pushing 40 like me, I hear pms gets a lot worse before menopause)

And if I were you I’d add Shakeology to my daily diet.  It is AWESOME stuff!  You will LOVE it.  And if you don’t like it, there’s a money back guarantee.  Just go to my teambeachbody website, or Amy’s to order some.  We can even give you a discount if you’re really nice to us.

I use Results and Recovery drink to get through my morning workouts.  It is the ONLY way I get through my workouts at 530 in the morning.  It gives me SO much energy to get through an hour of Insanity, or even an hour and a half of P90x.  I could NEVER workout in the morning without it.  I HIGHLY recommend it!

The other thing I completely rely on is the p90x protein bars.  I LOVE the wildberry yogurt.  I drink Shakeology for bfast, eat half a bar for my mid-morning snack, then I eat the other half for my snack at around 3 or 4.

Comment and let me know if you’re with me this month!  Get happy!  Get energized!  Join me!

FOCUS.  FOCUS. FOCUS.

What’s your goal?

How are you going to reach your goal?

What sacrifices are you willing to make?  How’re you going to find that time each day?

Go to bed earlier so you can get up before work?   Sacrifice that time you spend sitting on the couch in the evening, flipping channels, browsing facebook?

NO MORE excuses!  Set your goal, focus on your goal, and DO IT!

Take a few minutes once a day to chill out, give yourself some deep breaths, and set your mind on what you want to achieve.  You can DO THIS!

If Bill can get up at 4:30 every morning to work out, ANYONE can do it!

BRING IT!!!

Its here! The holidays are officially over. Do you feel gross and lazy? Are all your pants too tight? That is what most of America is feeling today! I didn’t eat well, but I didn’t go crazy and most importantly I didn’t really gain. Shakeology really kept me from doing that I think – and I hear they might be doing a vanilla version which I am SO excited about!

So whats your plan? Your goals? Start exercising every day, eating better? Sure that’s everyones plan – but be specific. Setup what you *can* acheive and slowly build on it over time. Here are my workouts and what I think:

Chalean Extreme – my absolute FAVORITE workout. It works the whole body and has 3 phases. Her diet isn’t nearly as hard as the p90x diet.

Turbo Fire – lots of cardio, not much strength training – but if you need to burn calories, this is the one for you

P90X – really great strength workout – the legs dont get focused on as much and cardio isn’t as good as Chalean IMO. Your arms and abs will be in great shape!

Nikki has done insanity and loves it, looks too hard on my knees to be honest! I would definitely start shakeology if you haven’t! Signup to be a coach and save 25% or earn money from others buying it.

Good luck and GET MOVING!

Happy Christmas to everyone!  We’re enjoying a family day, awaiting a bunch of snow.  It’s been flurrying on and off… the kids are enjoying their presents, and I’m just sitting here by the fire, grateful for all I have.  My kids are amazing… and I really do have the world’s best husband.

Today’s exercise:  none

Today’s diet:  cinnabon cinnamon rolls (i made them from scratch), cracker barrel ham, green beans, biscuits and hashbrown casserole (also made from scratch), and “pumpkin pie on steroids” for dessert tonight.

And you know what?  I don’t feel guilty!

I’m very excited about 2011– join me in conquering bad habits, developing new ones, and getting my body in literally the best shape of my life.  I’m really pumped!  Join me!!! (Asylum is coming!!!)

This week was ridiculous!  and it’s only Tuesday.  Everyone in the school brought in food… that equals lots and lots of food.  Monday morning, I ate my usual breakfast and got to school only to realize all my favorite pastries were available.  I tasted them ALL.  And we’re not talking teensy portions.  Big slices and chunks.  I found the one I liked the best and went back for more…. twice.  That’s not including lunch:  meatballs, pasta dishes, breads and dips, chips and dips, … and dessert, of course… fudge, brownies, cakes, cookies… and that pastry!

Then I got home and still ate my usual dinner… well, except I ate two helpings, and three servings of garlic bread.  Oh how I love garlic bread!

And guess what…. My workout this morning SUCKED!!!! I mean, really, really sucked.  It was horrible.  I had no energy, my thighs were slapping into one another precariously, and I couldn’t lift my heavy legs off the ground for any of the jumps.  All I could think about was all that crap I ate the day before.  It was NOT worth it.  Sure, sure, it was good goin down, but the day after hangover was NOT worth it!

So here’s what I am telling myself when I look at high sugar, high fat (aka “delicious”) food: “That will make me lethargic and crabby (I really do get EXTREMELY grouchy and impatient with the kids after I eat a bunch of sugar) and it’ll only make me crave more and more of it.  If I at that my workout tomorrow will SUCK.”

Today I planned well… I drank my Shakeology beforehand, brought a P90X wildberry protein bar for my snacks (half in the am, and the other half in the pm).  For lunch I limited myself to a healthy serving of veggies with fat free ranch, and a couple of spoonfuls of casseroles (2 pasta dishes and a couple of meatballs) … and… a few triscuits with a delicious feta cheese dip.  I ate one tiny little triangle of baklava for dessert.  It was probably 600 calories.  (hey, that’s WAY better than the day before!) I came home starving and proud of myself.

This was taken Tuesday morning.  It represents HALF of what existed Monday.

There is a similar row of tables on the wall opposite this one.

I gained two pounds.

Has everyone put on those 5 lbs that make you feel icky? I did a few weeks ago, but I’m doing well with weight watchers. I have my good days and bad days, and of course, brownies with toffee showing up on my desk certainly do not help. Luckily I just ate less than half, and threw it away.

I’m sticking to my shakeology in the morning and trying to bring my lunch. The downside is I prefer heading out of the office for a bit so its nice to eat out. I did burn it off tonight, that’s a great workout. Its 1-2 minutes of high cardio and then you switch to something lower. I love the 30 minute workouts, they fit so nicely into my schedule.

I can’t wait for nicer weather, I love to do a little running and walking but its just too cold!

… or if this is only important every three or four weeks.”

My husband actually said this to me.  With regards to having a picked up house.  We have problems around here.  It’s beyond having four kids.  Beyond being a family where both parents work full time.  It’s called clutter.  This clutter is a claustrophobia-causing kind of chaos.  I mostly tiptoe around it, avoiding making any eye contact with it.  I can honestly manage this for long stretches of time.  But then, every few weeks, particularly when I have run out of time on Sunday night…, I let my eyes wander to the floor, the counters, the bookshelves, the cabinets, the piles of laundry, the scum on the sink, the splatter marks on the mirrors… and I panic.  It’s sort of like an anxiety attack– but not quite that severe.  My heart does race, and my breath quickens, but I don’t have that “I’m going to die” feeling.

It’s my new mantra.  “If it WERE important to me, it would be important every day.”  (Is that too long for a mantra?)  I liked Rainy’s post, “Life Happens”– especially given that she wrote that in the context of her daughter having experienced a ruptured appendix and had an almost week long hospital stay.  Life DOES happen, and bad days do come.  But, really, should fatigue be enough of a reason to let the clothes pile up?  It literally takes 3 minutes to put clothes away.  And should a bad day really mean eating a double portion of spaghetti, garlic bread, wine… and dessert?  Unless someone I love is in the hospital, I can put my dishes in the dishwasher and hang up my coat for crying out loud.

And as far as working out… I say the same goes.  If I have legs that work, and a heart that beats, why should the fact that it’s so incredibly warm in my bed be enough of an excuse to not work out?