Transfrm2day’s BodyBlog

Does anyone on here workout strictly with Kettlebells? How effective are kettlebells at shaping/building muscle? Sculpting the entire body? Burning fat? I am thinking about switching up and trying a kettlebell workout. I will still run/walk, bike or swim 5 days a week. Any advice or "reviews" would be greatly appreciated!

Today I completed my first workout of my new plan…Stevep78’s Psychotic Fat Destruction Plan. It was great! I got up at 5:15 had a hard boiled egg and some water and got rockin! It took about an hour, I jumped rope for 5 mins to warm up and then I did some squats, leg presses, bench presses, military presses, overhead extensions, lateral raises, skullcrushers, calf raises, ect..

I feel fabulous. I am so happy to have a plan to follow. I have been aimlessly working out forever it seems. I would go from tape to tape, lift here lift there, try stuff on my own, go back to tapes, ect ect…and while I have been staying in decent shape with that I have not been able to achieve the body I really want.

I had a one week delay due to a lower back strain moving some boxes around in the garage. I was so bummed and it was killing me to be a good girl, let it heal and then start the plan. But it payed off, my back gave me no problems at all today!! So now I am on track and can’t wait for tomorrow to go at it again! The hardest part of this journey is going to be taking the days off for rest

Well I am finding I personally have to have a tangible goal for me to stay 100% focused. That being said I first decided that I wanted to try to run in a marathon. Now this is a huge goal for me because a runner I am not, at least in the past. When I was in the military it was all I could do to pump out 3 miles in one session!  In the past year though I have started to love the "feel" of running soooo.. now I want to try to run an 8K or 5miles…yes I am only going for the 8K this time, and I sorta feel like a wimp but I have to set a goal that I know is achievable…why set my goal so high I cannot attain it?..baby steps, baby steps ;).. you see I already plan to go for the half marathon in the spring and then well, we will see ….

Soooo in the process of looking for local marathons I ran across a very local triathlon…and it’s on my 41st birthday. This looks very appealing to me, but is it attainable????? By me??? It is a 1/2 mile swim, 12.43 mile bike ride on mostly flat terrain and a 5K run….so I’m thinking "Okay I am a fairly strong swimmer and 1/2 mile is not too far, I am also a fairly strong biker, and the run would be a great prep for the 8K…but can I do them all back to back in under 2 1/2 hours????"  And be ready by October 4th to do it???That is the question..

All of that being said…any advice would be greatly appreciated!! this is all new territory for me…but I am really excited and I know if I train right I CAN do this. I mean what better gift could I get  for my birthday than to complete a triatlon? and at 41! And the best thing is that it is something I would have never even considered 5 years ago, and now it’s something I am going to do! And then one month later, a marathon! Wohoo!!!

One more thing though…please HELP! ))

So you know how you work out day in and day out and you think you are hitting all the muscles and body parts, think you are doing really well toning it all. Then you go and start a different style of workout and you wake up the next day and Yowza!!!..you can hardly walk! That was my experieince with Tony Horton’s Power Half Hour this week. I did the 30 min butt toner on Sunday before we went to the relatives for dinner. I am chugging along doing the workout thinking to myself " Geez this is way too easy!" "I can’t even feel this, this is nothing!!" HA! Joke was soon to be on me! I felt great all the rest of Easter Sunday. Went to bed blissfully unaware of the pain coming in the morning.

I woke up rolled over and climbed out of the bed. Took one step and the eyebrows raised, next step and cringed. OMG!! What the hell happened while I slept?? Was I like playing soccer in my dreams? And why are my inner thighs killing me when I was working out my arse, which at that point was only mildy sore. I found out when I attemped to sit on the "throne" lol…that my arse was in total rebellion to that particular action!

As the day went on it only got worse. I went for my lunch walk which would have been hilarious to witness because I was walking like I had a stick stuck up my ummm ya know …almost hobbling the entire mile and a half. So last night I felt it would be safer to do the upper body workout, which it was, but who knew you needed your butt to perform tricep kickbacks or swimmers presses??? I had never felt my butt engaged in those activities before!?!?!?!?

So here we are two days out and the butt is a little better but the inner thighs…lordy, lordy!

All of that being said…thank God for diversity, because obviously I was not hitting those inner thighs very well with any of the other routines I had been engaging in, not even the weight bench work. The funniest thing is I did this routine a year ago and never felt it like this..amazing how fast we lose it as we get older  All the more reason to press on each and every day!! Oh and I love this workout routine! I forgot how good it is and how much I enjoy pushing myself that hard! I am also supplementing with additional cardio, strength training and ab work whenever I can add it in.

Love the burn!!! :):) No burn, no earn!!!!

Well this weekend I fell right into the food wagon! I had a horrible weekend with my diet and did nothing but eat the wrong foods and drink. I worked out on Saturday…did nothing Friday or Sunday and on Monday went sledding for three hours, which was a workout, but not enough. I guess the stress of my son taking off finally got to me…which by the way he is back home now…kids! God knows I love them though!

So back on my diet as of yesterday and back into my workouts. I have to say I learned a lesson this weekend about how much impact your diet has on you ability to give your all to an intense workout. Just those few days of bad eating & drinking.. and working out yesterday totally kicked my arse! I actually struggled more with that workout yesterday than I did with P90X Plyo which I thought was going to kill me the first time I did it ;)…like I said lesson learned! Not to mention how cruddy and run down I felt…

But the important thing is that even though I fell…I got right back up and on the "workouthorse" again! :)

Yesterday was one of those days that really test your progress. My almost 16 yr old son has been struggling for the past 1 1/2 with an intense desire to be an adult, to be on his own. This started by making friends with the wrong crowd (mostly older kids with no ambitions at all) and them getting him into smoking pot. He has fell in love with the buzz  My ex-husband and I have tried everything to turn him around, but he is determined to push the envelope. In September we decided maybe he would do better living with his Dad, at first he did. His Dad however lives in a more rural area where my son unfortunatley found even more trouble. So yesterday he left a nice little note and said he needed to see what it would be like to be on his own. That it has nothing to do with us, he just wants to be free (which he has beed saying for the past year and a half…"why can’t you just let me do what I want" "why do you have to care",ect,ect..)  He said that he will still go to school, he says that he is staying with a friend but will not tell us who, and not to worry (yea right! )ect..ect… Of course we are supposed to report him as a runaway which will only make him go deeper into hiding and probably not go to school….what to do???? He did this twice already last year and the police just pick him up bring him home and do nothing to keep him from doing it all over again. The kicker of all of this is that my kids have had a good life, and they were actually great with/thru the divorce. They have no anger or hidden emotions about that, we have talked very openly about it and they have no problems expressing thier feelings as well as the fact that they were not kept in the dark about the seperation, they knew well in advance and had to time to talk it out and adjust to it before it happened, which was four years ago. They also love my fiance and his kids. So we have none of the usual problems associated with that and have very open communication, which trust me my kids have no problems utilizing that tool! ..it is so frustrating and heartbreaking to see your kids go down the wrong path and knowing that there is only so much you can do to stop them/help them.

On top of that my fiance and I got hit with a major expense yesterday too….talk about STRESS!

So I had two choices, I could either eat/drink myself under the table or work out til I collapsed…I chose to workout. I was so proud of myself, beacuse in the past I would have just wallowed in the mire and ate & drank til I could not do anymore, and then did it anyways!

I did a interval circuit on the treadmill with wieghts and then I did another 30 mins full out just pounding out my emotions and the anger. I then proceeded to do work with the stability ball until I could not move anymore. By this point I didn’t want anything to do with food, but made myself eat a reasonable dinner. I did however have one glass of red wine which I do not feel the least bit guitly for

Now as the days wear on and I worry about how he is, where he is, what his future holds, ect…. I need to continue to channel the emotions into the workout and not into the alternatives which will only depress me more…please if you have any advice, encouragement, ideas…please send it my way..it will be needed and appreciated!

So I have to admit month 1 has not gone to well. I have had a hard time getting my schedule to fit my workouts: too many kids, too many activities! I tried working out in the mornings…well guess my body doesn’t warm up well in the mornings and I hurt my elbow lifting. Now it is acting up again. All that being said I am determined to make this work!

I actually gained weight…I was horrified when I stepped onto the scale! Not suprised though, I could see it and feel it, and it wasn’t muscle! Now I know that the number on the scale was not entirely accurate cuz of that cursed monthly thing us ladies endure, but that poundage aside, the number was still up!

So I decided that I need to drop the 15-20lbs I want to lose, while toning up and then focus on building muscle. I was doing Chalean Extreme to be followed by P90X…the new plan..Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, then Chalean followed by P90X. The 30 Day Shred begins today! I just got the video in the mail.

So I will take new starting pics, post them and see what happens! I will overcome!!! Wish me luck

Oh and thanks to all of you on this site, you provide endless amounts of motivation!

I appreciate the replies on my first blog about this! So I found out from those replies about Tosca Reno…WOW! Turns out that one of my friends already had her Clean Eating book..so I borrowed it and am now reading it. Alot of the stuff was stuff I already knew; like cutting sugar, salt, empty carbs, alcohol…ect. However I am discovering there is ALOT more to learn!

I tried one of her recipes last night; Roasted Potatoes and Chicken…delicious! I altered it by adding fresh green beans and mushrooms in place of the asparagus, as no one in the house likes it. It took longer than the recipe stated to cook it but other than that..awesome! I am looking forward to trying more of the recipes and starting the lifestyle.

I think I have a general idea of what clean eating is, but need more clarification. I see it on alot of profiles and I also see the results that come from it…can someone spell it out for me? Please

I finally got the pics posted and now I CAN’T wait to start charting my progress!

Time to go home and burn baby burn! Feel the burn, welcome the soreness, enjoy the results!