Insanity!

Well, I did it. I tried Insanity! I was pretty intimidated by it, but I did it. My cardio skills aren't that great since I lovelovelove strength and resistance training so much. I'd rather lift weights. Any day. But I know I need to improve my cardio so I figured I'd give Insanity a shot. And man, what a workout!! I Cardio Recovery yesterday and Cardio Power and Resistance today. (If you're wondering why I started with these two workouts it's because my brothers are doing the full Insanity program and my older brother is at my apartment helping me move so I worked out with him). Cardio Recovery wasn't too bad. You do approximately a million and a half squats. Or so it feels. My quads were screaming! And there were a few yoga moves, which made me feel a little womble-y and reminded me of my very long hiatus from yoga (ha). Since it was a recovery workout it wasn't really a workout workout. If you know what I mean. Cardio Power and Resistance, on the other hand, was beast. My heart rate was up to like 180 just in the warm up!! It was pretty brutal. Then again, with all the craziness of moving I haven't really been working out lately (unless you count packing/hauling boxes and walking a lot). So I'm definitely not conditioned to intense cardio right now. Boo. It makes me sad to type that! Especially since I had gotten better at cardio thanks to Plyometrics X. I digress... the workout was rough but so good tonight! I wasn't sure if I wanted to do it since I still have a good bit of packing to take care of. But I knew I would feel better if I took the time to workout. And I'm very happy that I did! I really like that the Insanity workouts are relatively short. Tonight's was like 34 minutes or so. I like that. A shorter, power-packed, intense workout. That's good stuff right there. The structure of the Insanity workouts was somewhat similar to Plyometrics X but still different. There was a set of moves that you do for the workouts, repeating the sequence three times while doing it a little faster each time. The warm up moves were no joke, too. I'm talking double heismans, squat jacks... serious moves. Then there was a stretch before getting into the real workout. The "meat" of the routine was like the warm up- a set of moves repeated three times getting progressively faster. I think there were three different sets. Yeah. Three. So it was totally doable but still tough! I had to take a few breaks and just march it out to get my heart rate down (I hit 191!) but I never stopped moving. I felt so good once I was done! It definitely made me proud to finish that workout. And it reminded me that I need to get conditioned for cardio again, haha. I might give the full program a try once I'm moved and settled a bit.

On to the food portion of my day. I honestly did not eat much today. I don't think I ate enough calories for doing an intense workout tonight.

Breakfast
2 Kashi 7 grain waffles
1 Tbsp Better 'n Peanut Butter
A dash of cinnamon
1 cup unsweetened almnd milk
1/2 scoop protein powder
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Lunch
Chobani lemon yogurt
Handful of raspberries
Fiber one granola bar

Snack
100 calorie black licorice rope

Dinner
1 homemade stuffed pepper (with lean ground turkey, lentils, onion and diced tomatoes with reduced fat cheese sprinkled on top)

Snack
A few dark chocolate covered coffee beans (I can't get away from them! Lol)

Post workout snack
Elite Recoup recovery drink (I drank this during and post workout)

2 slices whole wheat bread
1 Tbsp chunky peanut butter
1 Tbsp all natural cherry preserves
1 cup unsweetened almond milk

It sounds like a lot but I bet if I added it up and subtracted the 500 calories I burned working out, it wouldn't be very much. I might regret that tomorrow. My muscles might ache from the lack of protein. We'll see! Either way, I'm glad that I finally tried Insanity! :D

Lots of abs

I tried a bunch of new ab moves tonight! I picked up SELF Magazine's "Flat Abs Made Easy" and was excited to try some of the moves from it! There are a few different moves that can be mixed and matched for a great core workout. I did like 30 minutes worth of them- it felt great (in a sore, make my abs hate me kind of way, of course). It wasn't anything spectacular, but I definitely felt them working! And I was happy to get some strengthening time in. I needed it. I wanted to do some legs and arms work but I was crunched for time and my legs are sore from all the jumping yesterday. I figured just targeting my abs for awhile was better than nothing! I hope I'm sore tomorrow, haha.

Now for the food part of my day. I felt pretty hungry all day long... I managed to stay on track with small healthy (well, mostly) snacks in-between meals. Here it is:

Breakfast
PB and banana sandwich- two pieces of multigrain bread, 2 Tbsp Better 'N Peanut Butter, 1 small banana and a dash of cinnamon.
Coconut coffee with 1 tsp sugar and coconut almond milk

Snack
1 light string cheese stick
7 strawberries

Lunch
Salad- field greens, baby spinach, beets, grape tomatoes, cucumber, fat free feta cheese, sunflower seeds and low-fat raspberry walnut dressing

Snack
Handful of dark chocolate covered coffee beans (I can't resist them!)
1 medium apple

Dinner
Italian seasoned chicken breast
Pasta salad- multigrain spaghetti with cherry tomatoes, fat free ranch dressing and a sprinkle of feta cheese

Snack
6 rosemary Triscuit crackers
6 pieces of 75% fat free cheddar cheese slices
Small handful of blueberries

That's it! I just can't stop eating those coffee beans, haha. They're so good!! I think I ate a bit too much sodium yesterday and maybe a little too much dairy today... but I did get all my diary from low-fat or fat free sources. I also feel like I ate a lot of fruit and veggies today, which is good! I realized that I didn't log my water consumption for yesterday because I didn't even think of recording it. I drink a lot of water! I don't usually keep close track of it because I know I get enough or more than enough everyday. Today, I think I drank about 72oz.

I won't be working out tomorrow due to traveling... but hopefully I can try a new workout with my brothers this weekend! We'll see :]

Exhausted!

Between my work hours changing to longer days Monday through Thursday, the busyness of trying to pack and everything else involved with moving 300+ miles, I am worn out. Seriously though. On the up side I get half-days on Friday. However, every Friday is spoken for. Booked. Busy. I feel like I have next to zero downtime! And if I want downtime I have to skimp on sleep which is a terrible idea. I don't do well running on less than 7 hours of sleep. Plus, lack of sleep can lead to weight gain. It's a real catch 22. Busy life. Needless to say, my workout life has taken a hit. I hate to admit it, but I have to cut out a lot of my exercise time in order to make time for other necessary tasks. I hate it, but it's a necessary evil. Sigh.

Tonight, however, I managed to fit in a workout! A good one, too. I've heard so much about Insanity so when I  found this 20 minute Insanity workout, I had to try it! Let me tell you, it was a serious workout! No joke!! I thought it looked intense but not ridiculous... well, I was wrong. Haha. I am not very good at cardio (obviously) so this workout really took it out of me! And I was having one of those days when my body feels so heavy. Like every jump took an enormous amount of effort! It was crazy. I'm not sure why I felt so sub-par but it made this workout that much harder. I tried to keep my abs tight and engaged the entire time in order to work them harder. I've been trying to make a conscious effort to engage my abs more often- whether I'm sitting down, walking, doing other strengthening moves. Hopefully it'll make a difference! It's gotta be doing something.

After my big move is over (and I get back from my 7 day cruise, hehe), I'm hoping to get back into a good workout routine and start blogging more regularly. I'm not sure how well that will go since I have a lot of summer plans... but hey, if I want to wear a bikini practically every day, I'm going to be constantly reminded to workout all summer long! Maybe I'll give the real Insanity workouts a try. And then pass out, haha. I feel like those workouts will kill me. Eek. Maybe I'll be brave and try it.

I'm thinking about keeping a food log on my blog, too. It'll keep me accountable. I'll be honest, though, I'm not super strict about my diet. Not as much as I should be. So sharing my food log might be tough for me... I'll have to be very transparent. I think it'd be good for me, though. In fact, I'll log today to start this new idea off:

Breakfast
2 Kashi 7 grain waffles
1 Tbsp Better 'N Peanut Butter
1 small banana
Coffee with 1 tsp sugar and coconut almond milk

Snack
Lemon greek yogurt (Chobani, fat free)
6 strawberries

Lunch
Grilled cheese-two slices multi-grain bread, 2oz cheese (75% fat free cheddar and regular gouda) with 1/4 thinly sliced pear

Snack
Handful dark chocolate covered coffee beans
1 medium apple

Dinner
6oz sirloin steak (with soy sauce and seasoning)
1/2 cup corn

Snack
1 1/2oz goat cheese
15 multi-grain crackers

Sheesh, that looks like a lot of food! It was pretty spread out, though... and it was all yummy! I could've done without the dark chocolate covered coffee beans but I needed a little jolt in the middle of my work day. And dark chocolate is good for you, right? Haha. The grilled cheese sandwich was something new that I tried. It was really different. Sweet and savory, gooey and a little crunchy... very interesting! I liked it, though. Dinner was my hubby's creation. His steak is delicious! We usually eat steak once, maybe twice, a month so I always savor it.

Okay, well that's all I have for now! I'm planning to sneak in some strengthening moves tomorrow evening. Let's hope I have the time and energy! :]

Quick update

Yes, I am still working out!! Not quite as frequently and as long as I'd like to be, but my life is busybusy! I'm moving at the end of the month so that means LOTS of cleaning and packing!! It's pretty much enough to keep all my free-time busy from here on out until our moving day. It's rather dreadful, to be quite honest. I hate packing. I'm still working full-time so as you can imagine, my days are full of stuff to do. I am making time for some working out, though! With the first phase of the Drop 10 plan done, I'm moving onto the second phase! I really like the new moves. It's a nice change of pace from the other strength moves I was doing for awhile. I'm also hoping to start running again this summer!! I've never been much of a runner but I did pick it up while I was at college. When I was running frequently, I could go close to five miles at a time. I want to do a 5k either this fall or next spring so I'm going to start running more. I did venture to the school gym and use the elliptical a couple days ago! That was great! I forgot how much I loved the elliptical. I used it allllll the time last summer. I was a little "rusty" but I still cranked out 4 1/4 miles :] And I felt SO GOOD afterwards! Yay!

Okay, I don't have time to blog more right now, but I will be blogging more in the future! Wish me luck! ;]