paulapop’s BodyBlog

Spent some at the gym this evening and ran into my trainer who is freshly back from a conference where she learned all kinds of new tortures for her clients.  She went over one new method with me tonight.  Its the one and a half rep, rep.  For example, a simple leg press….bring knees in to chest….full extention out, bring knees into chest again, the only extend half way out, and bring knees back in……that is ONE rep.  That half rep is a killer.  I could feel my eyes bugging out when I tried it.  It was awesome!  Trainer lady told me it is great for building strength.  I told her I was already strong enough, thank you very much.  Needless to say she wasn’t buying that one lol.

 Hope everyone is having a great week!

On friday I had to go to the Ministry of Transportation (DMV for my U.S. friends) to get my license plate renewed.  Its never a fun trip, and the lady that works at our local office can get very stressed out by her job and tends to take it out on the patrons.  Anyway…..it was a real hassle while I was there, I had to run home twice, once to get my drivers licence (didn’t know I needed it to renew the plates on the car), and then again when I was finished because I had an old set of plates I wanted to get rid of.  With all the running back and forth, she kept in good spirits and when I was finished she said to me "well now I know how you stay so thin with all the running around you do"

Yes, you read that correctly…..she called me thin!!!!!!!!  I’ve never had a comment like directed at me before.  I hear things like, "wow you’ve really gotten thin, how much weight have you lost?"  This woman just assumed I was always thin.  It definitely made the trip worth it.

As for workouts, Saturday was a day off that I spent gardening, and Sunday was a 6 mile walk with my walking group, then more yard work.

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

Wow, I can’t believe its been two months since I’ve been on here……..has it really been that long?  Gosh, I have no excuse for it either, except maybe summer time, two jobs and zero computer time.

Over the course of this summer, I’ve finished off my nutrition plan and transformation contest.  Gained some muscle, did a bootcamp (was sore for a week after that one)  Got Food poisioning and lost 10lbs in three days (not good!) and started a sunday morning walking group.

I am still up and at it at the gym everyday, I took a month off from personal training and am looking forward to starting back up with it on september 6th.  I don’t even know how much weight I’ve lost……I know I was in the 130’s when I stepped on the scale this morning, and was probably in the 150’s the last time I posted on here.  I will have to trot over to my profile next and update everything. 

I hope everyone had a fabulous summer!

Do you remember what it was like being a child and playing in the park?  Climbing on the monkey bars, pulling yourself up with no problem?  How about grade school gym class, jumping on the trampoline?

I spent some time lately revisiting these childhood activities and I have to report they are way easier when you are a child.

Climbing the monkey bars not only requires agility, it also requires GUTS.  As a child I can’t remember ever thinking about falling as I climbed.  As an adult, it was all I could think of.  I couldn’t beleive the amount of strength it took just to do the "monkey walk" across the bars.  My nieces thought it was very funny to watch good Ole Aunty Paula on the monkey bars.

My next little adventure in childhood memory lane came when my wonderful nieces convinced me to come jump on their trampoline with them.  All I can say about it is……WOW!  It requires a tremendous amount of balance to stay on your feet while jumping with 5 kids.  Do you remember doing the knee drop or the seated drop?  Where you drop to your knees then back up on your feet in one very eloquent movement?  That was the best quad excercise I have done in years!  Think of doing squats on a bosu and multiply that feeling by 10 and you get the idea.

  The time I spent playing with my neices was a great deal of fun, a fantastic workout, and it taught me sometimes play can be the best form of excercise.

I am now, officially the proud mother of a university graduate!  I spent last week in Ottawa for my oldest son’s graduation.  He graduated with a degree in computer science and is enlisted in the canadian armed forces. 

 My youngest son and I made the trip up for the graduation and had an amazing time.  It was really great to spend some time with my youngest son, especially since his brother has been sick for the past month or so, he has been somewhat feeling neglected.  My degree is in history, so I was absolutely in my glory to take my son to our parliament and show him some Canadian historical sites.

The bad part of the trip was of course comming home and leaving my oldest son there.  He will be home for a very short visit the 1st week of July, then will be gone for a month tasking with the army.

Hope everyone has had a great week, I am wondering through my friends blogs and catching up with everyone, look for a new blog reguarding my workouts and progress tomorrow!

I’ve been off here for a while, because my son was sick and in the hospital (as some of you know).  My son is much better now and his injury is looking like a "normal" scrape on the leg, which is a far cry from a bone infection.

Just because I haven’t been on here doesn’t mean I’ve given up.  I stayed on my nutrition plan and kept with the Ulitmate transformation contest that I am in.  I am at the one month mark on the plan and the training schedule.  Had my measurements done this morning and the stats are as follows:

 Waist-stayed the same

Biceps -down 1/4 inch

Chest- down 2 inches

Hips- down 1/4 inch

Thighs- down 1.5 inches

Weight- down 10lbs

Body fat- down 3%

I am fairly happy with that result.  I am 13lbs and 3% from my goal weight/bf% and have two months to go. 

I hope everyone has been working it hard!

I’ve been off here for a while, because my son was sick and in the hospital (as some of you know).  My son is much better now and his injury is looking like a "normal" scrape on the leg, which is a far cry from a bone infection.

Just because I haven’t been on here doesn’t mean I’ve given up.  I stayed on my nutrition plan and kept with the Ulitmate transformation contest that I am in.  I am at the one month mark on the plan and the training schedule.  Had my measurements done this morning and the stats are as follows:

 Waist-stayed the same

Biceps -down 1/4 inch

Chest- down 2 inches

Hips- down 1/4 inch

Thighs- down 1.5 inches

Weight- down 10lbs

Body fat- down 3%

I am fairly happy with that result.  I am 13lbs and 3% from my goal weight/bf% and have two months to go. 

I hope everyone has been working it hard!

Well I survived a full week on my nutrition plan from EmpoweredNutrition.  I found the plan very easy as the foods involved are all food  I like.  The grocery list was a little overwhelming at first and it took some getting used to and organization for me to plan my weeks meals.  I actually started the plan on wednesday and my stats on here have been updated to reflect the weights and measurements my trainer took wednesday morning.  So far I have lost 2lbs……I am impressed!

I ran my first today as well, and not only did I finish the 10k but I wasn’t last!!!  My time was 80:05 for 10k, I don’t know if that is good or not, but since I am still nursing a glute injury I was impressed.  However by the time I finished the pain was shooting down from my glute to my toes and I am seriously considering the possibility that I might just need to think about seeing a chiropractor.  Can you sense my enthusiasm about seeing a chiropractor?  I am absolutely terrified of them, I have trouble even being in the same room as one.  I am not sure why….It is just one of my phobia’s.  My trainer is trying to get me to see one, or a massage therapist (believe it or not, I am more terrified of a massage therapist than a chiropractor).  I’ve been told they do things with ultrasound that really could help my muscle.  I am giving it some thought……

Well, I was at the gym for 6am on friday, did the monster cardio session that the trainer had set out for me…..at one point I was looking around the gym to see if there were any firemen/EMS workers of any kind present, save the trouble of dialing 911 when I had the heartattack.  I survived the cardio, and the one hour training session, went for a tan then went to work till 11pm, came home crashed and was back at work for 9am.  What a bloody long day!

I did something today that I very rarely do….I had a nap.  I got home from work around 1pm, and napped till just after 3.  I went out to the barn to visit the horse after my nap. 

I spent the evening editing some pictures and watching a movie….I am getting used to taking saturday’s as an off day from the gym and just doing the fun stuff like horseback riding or jogging.  Tomorrow is jog day!  I can’t wait, I am so psyched now that spring has arrived!

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

In two totally unrelated incidents, two men, who have never met, both asked me if I was sick or had cancer.  This is not the first time someone has asked me that question.  It really bothers me when people ask me that question.  I feel as if they assume I must be sick because I’ve lost so much weight.  I feel as if no one believes I could have lost the weight on my own without an illness to blame.  It also makes me feel as if I must look awful or certainly unhealthy for them to ask such a question.

When I answer that, no, thankfully I am not ill,and that I have been trying to loose weight, the next question that comes out of their mouths is….."how did you loose so much weight"  When I answer "diet and excercise" I am met with a blank stare of disbelief.  I actually had a customer say to me "it can’t be just all diet and excercise, there has to be more to it than that".  It feels as if everyone is thinking I found some easy, magical way to loose weight and I don’t want to share that secret.  They couldn’t be more wrong.  I did the "magical" way to loose weight, but it is anything but easy. 

There are days, like today when it takes every ounce of self restraint for me not to say……"you need to get off your butt, stop watching 16 hours of tv a day, go to the gym, and stop eating french fries and you will loose weight"