Shannon’s BodyBlog

Holy mother of Phuck…pardon my Phrench again.  I’m DONE.

I did 500 in 14 minutes which beat my previous time of 17 minutes.

All in all my total time was 29 minutes.

Janthony predicted 25-30 minutes.  So once again, as he was with his pushup prediction, he was on the spot with that.

Oh, and I went 90 degrees…no 45 degree cheats.

My goal for the squats is to beat 17 minutes at the mid-way point.  And then after that, I don’t know what will happen.  This is new territory for me.  1,000 squats.  On my mark, get set, GO!

Phuckin’ finished this in under a phukin’ hour.  Pardon my Phrench.

The last time I did this, I finished in 1 hour 18 minutes.

OK, I can’t really think because my brain is spent and you may have to correct me on my math, but I beat my time by 30 minutes???  Is that correct??

Janthony predicted I could finish in an hour, so he was pretty spot on with that.  He was just off by 2 minutes.  Is that right??  Is my math right on that??

I did 40 pushups right off the bat.  The last time I did this in March, I did 38 pushups to start.  So, I only beat it by 2 pushups.

Now I smell like ammonia.  What’s up with that?

BRB, doin’ pushups.  I’ll post my finish time when I’m done.

Lately when I look at myself in the mirror, I see myself looking like I did when I still had my pregnancy weight on me.

I see a fat ass, chubby tummy, and extra jiggle in my thighs.  It’s so weird how gaining a few+ pounds makes such a drastic impression on my perception of myself.

But I still fit into my size 4 clothes.

Now, I had gotten myself down to 13% bodyfat, but I felt and looked like parchment paper.  My face looked gaunt even though I thought my body looked fine.  I like the healthy, athletic glow, not the bedraggled-mom-of-3-who-gets-no-sleep look.

So I started eating more and went up to about 15-16% BF where I felt I looked my best.  But, I tipped the scale too far and now I’m up to 18% BF.  So now my goal is to drop down a few percentage points and maintain that.  I finally found my happy medium, now it’s time to get to it.

In the meantime, I have to stop looking in the mirror because I see myself looking dumpy and frumpy and it makes me grumpy.

Since working with Janthony, he has introduced me to weight lifting exercises that I call "little gems".  They’re ones that are totally different from the average exercise, but they’re really effective and interesting to do.  There are a bunch of them he has had me do over the months, but this is the first one way back when we first started working together that he had me do.

It’s for the rear delts and probably my all time favorite move in general.

One reason is, I get to lay down on the bench and do it.  Ahhhh.  It’s nice to be able to lay down and relax

Another reason is that it really gets a good pump in the rear delt and you feel it ONLY in the rear delt if you’re doing it right.  I like when I feel a pump in the specific muscle that I’m working (uhh…hmmm…that was awkward).

Anywho, you can choose to watch the whole video, but for the exercise I’m talking about, start watching at minute 5:15.

Dying man couldn’t make up his mind which place to go to — both have their advantages, "heaven for climate, hell for company!"

–Mark Twain

‘Tis the time for Hell Week, starting Monday, June 29th at ?? o’clock.

If anyone would like to join me, here is my schedule:

Monday:  500 pushups (My previous time:  1 hr 18 min.)

Tuesday:  1,000 squats  (New time assigned:  will be revealed after the session)

Thursday:  250 pullups (Previous time:  2 hours 2 minutes)

Friday:  1/2 mile walking lunges around track (New time assigned:  will be revealed after session)

I asked Janthony how much time he thought I could beat my previous times by, and he also gave new expected times in which to do the squats and walking lunges since the reps and distance have been changed from the last time I did Hell Week.

But, to give an air of anticipation, I’ll let ya’ll know whether I failed to meet his expectations or met up to his expectations…or beat them out.

French_pedi did the pullups with me as he fantasized about Dara Torres.

And Tightchick did the squats, WEIGHTED.  Note:  Don’t do weighted squats.

So, if you’d like to join me, let me know and next week, I’ll give the time I’m starting.  You can either do it at the same time, or do it when you have a chance.

Everyone should be so lucky to find a gift.

It is that special something that you are completely and utterly passionate about.

My son was lucky enough to find a gift for himself.  And that gift was the game of baseball.

He loves the game.  He loves the strategy.  And nothing gets in the way of him playing this sport.

The thing I learned from his passion is to throw away the ego.

When he plays, he plays because he loves the movements…throwing, catching, hitting, stealing.  He sees past the basics and focuses on the strategy, much like the game of chess.

Even when diabetes threatens to knock him out of the game, he fights through it, does whatever it takes to combat that little monster inside of him and continues playing.  He loves the game that much.

He was chosen by his coach to play on the All Star team, but was not chosen by the powers that be when making their final decision for who would make up the team.

When we told him that he wouldn’t be playing, but softened the blow by telling him that he would still continue in other tournaments, he said, "I don’t care.  As long as I’m playing baseball, it doesn’t matter what team I’m on", and took a swing with an imaginary bat….because mom said, "No bats in the house!!"

He wasn’t insulted, nor did he feel rejected.  Ego had no place in his love for baseball.

He works hard during practices and puts his heart into every game played.

This 9 year old kid taught me a lot, especially since he was diagnosed with diabetes.

If you’re lucky enough to receive a gift, through the ego away and put your heart into it.  Find joy in it…get lost in it and let nothing get in the way of doing it.  Do your very best to get good at it, and do it often.

If weight training is that gift for you, throw away the ego.  Don’t expect recognition for what you’re doing, or compliments.  If you’re doing it because you love to do it, it will pay you back more than you ever expected.

Breakfast:  2 whole eggs, 3 egg whites (24g prot)
oatmeal (5g prot)
milk (8g prot)

Lunch:  Chicken (20g prot)

brown rice (7g prot)

spinach

Postgym:  protein shake (24g prot)

banana
Dinner:  Shrimp (24g prot)

brown rice (7g prot)

spinach

My brain is suppressed by lack of stimulation.  I feel vegetable-ish.  It has been raining for the past 2 weeks straight….the sun has left the building.  I ran out of coffee and didn’t get my caffeine fix.  I’m a junky like that.

BUT, there are starving children all over the world as well as homeless people and flood and earthquake victims.  So I really can’t complain about life!

I want to put in my best effort at the gym today by adding weight onto my lifts.  And run my legs into the ground at the track.  I’m trying to get psyched up for a great workout day today.

Yeah.  Alrighty.

So my daughter came up to me the other day, lifts her shirt up to expose her stomach and in a cool, ‘I’m all that’ kind of tone says, "Hey mom, check out my biceps."

Breakfast:  oatmeal (5g prot)

protein powder (24g prot)

Lunch:  Burger (30g prot)

2 eggs (12g prot)

1 cup spaghetti (7g prot)

Postgym:  protein shake (24g prot)

Dinner:  chicken (40g prot)

bread

Snack:  protein powder (24g prot)
milk (8g prot)

I decided to take up running again.  Yesterday was my first day back at it and I decided to take this week to work on running a solid mile.

I expected to do a walk run and in the coming days, do a run for the full mile.

Well, what a pleasant surprise it was to be able to run a mile the whole time.

I joined and ran with a running club a couple of years ago at the track where I ran yesterday and it pretty much blew chunks.  They had different groupings based on ability and they would run 400’s with rests in between.  Well, even with me being in the lowest ranking, I still couldn’t keep up.

I would have women run along side me carrying on conversations like they were walking instead.  Then they would start talking to me as I was gasping for air and I would think, "Are you seriouly serious??  You want me to talk right now??"

I would reply with gasps in between every two or 3 words.  It was torture for me.  Running clubs are not the social scene as far as I was concerned.

But yesterday, it didn’t feel like I was sucking wind through a straw.  My heart wasn’t beating it’s way out of my chest with its little fists.  My legs weren’t cramping up or burning like kindling.

It was actually a nice experience.  Pip pip.

There were a few other people on the track with two of them being men who were jogging as well.  They passed me at the start, but my hope was that they wouldn’t lap me.  I didn’t want to go so slow to allow that to happen.

But I didn’t want to go full out and be crippled over the next few days.

I felt like I couldn’ve kept running, but because I’m a born again running virgin, I didn’t want to wear myself out too soon.  That is just like me to get excited about something, give it 200% and then burn out and lose interest.

My ultimate goal for now is to run 5k and enter a race.   I’ve never done one before, and unlike the triathlon I did where my goal was to merely cross the finish line, I want people to choke on my dust, LMAO.

I want to work on running the smart way this time.

Slow and steady wins the race.