on a mission.

Slept in till 7 today, had my coffee and newspaper without any hurry, before we headed for the Zoo.
The Zoo….once again I was shocked by how many obese parents were strolling around with their kids. I understand not everybody is into going to the gym or eating lettuce, but hey…you have kids and what are you doing to them??? I feel like I have to be a role model for Mark and yes, I have to take care of that lil man and that involves making good decisions as far as what I put into his little body. And what kind of life is it when you are too big to follow your kid around in the Zoo? I know, none of my business…but it’s my blog so I will talk about it.

Workout went as planned-I was even on time, 2pm on the dot. Did Miss Val’s workout again and I thought it was hell…just like the last time. This time I did include the T-Pushup (well, 2 sets) which I had to do on my knees, because I thought I’d faint. Where is that nutcase woman who told me she doesn’t like to lift weights because it’s not "intense enough" for her and she feels she gets a better workout doing cardio? 

I did add some reverse lunges with the cable (3/10-45), narrow grip rows (3/12-75) and flat bench presses with one dumbbell (3/15-20)-love the last exercise. I put my feet on the bench and only get 1 dumbbell so the other arm is not even holding any weight which makes it much harder. I am still waiting for them to bring my baby, the seated calf raise machine, back. It disappeared one day and has not been seen since. Waaah. I like doing them seated. So today there was-again-just standing calf raises.

Had my snack and took the child out to the pool to meet A. and her 2 kiddos. I got to snuggle her little baby for almost 2 hours which was wonderful. Made me think about having another one….but then again, the thought of "starting all over" with morning sickness, weight gain, feeling big, delivery, post partum "my body doesn’t feel right", sleepless nights, constant carrying, breastfeeding….awwww….no thank you.

Time to go read to The Dude and head off to bed. Tomorrow’s bootcamp (at noon-how lame am I? *lol*) and I want to be at least somewhat recovered and rested.

Before I know it, it’s almost Monday again. Just a blur.

Got up, dawdled around and messed with the sprinklers to give that grass some water and realized at 8.15 that spin class is at 8.30 on Saturdays and not at 8.45 like during the week. Scrambled to get my shower bag, music for class, waters, Mark, Mark’s shoes, Mark’s snack and drink, spin shoes, heart rate monitor and Yoga mat in the car…out of the car and into the Y. Dropped Mark, his shoes, his drink and snack off at the nursery and got on my bike at 8.31. I am awesome.

Today wasn’t supposed to be cardio day, but since I have a hard time these days getting a good cardio workout in I guess I have to take what I can get. The spinning instructor, who is a friend of mine, trained us well and I had a great, well balanced workout. Since I did cardio today it means I’ll have to go in tomorrow to lift weights. Wah. Hate that.

I think I’ll skip church, take Mark to the zoo, go home, have an early lunch at 11 and be at the Y at 1.30. That should give him enough time to eat and nap. At 3 we have a playdate at the pool where I am supposed to watch a friend’s baby so I have a good hour to do my workout and at least 15 minutes to stretch. I am getting so much better at realistically planning now *lol*. My planning used to sound nice, but really was just some wishful thinking.

I now realize the importance of having a 30 minute buffer for unforseen circumstances like a child with digestive issues or a Mom who cannot get her behind away from the computer desk. So most likely I won’t be at the Y till 2 tomorrow, but at least I will still be on time to take care of that baby.

Next week we’ll start that kickboxing bootcamp 3 times per week for an hour each. I’ve sparred once before and my shoulders felt as if I had run into a doorframe (ever done that? I have ) . I am curious to see how my body will react to it. It also puts my weight lifting on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, giving me the entire Sunday off. Yay for a regular schedule.

What the heck happened??

I guess it’s a good thing being so much on the go…makes time go by faster. Got up, showered, started to make breakfast (coffee and tea and milk for The Dude) and tried to wake lil man. Oh boy. Trying to motivate him to have breakfast ("eat a bite of the banana", "drink your milk") was an ordeal since he was so tired. I was tired too so that didn’t help. I like to just sit and have my coffee and shovel down my oatmeal with soymilk and berries and NO TALK. Then I had to pack his lunch (for school) and my lunch, which took up some time. But the fact that it costs me around 9$ to buy my lunch at Publix (5$ for a turkey wrap, 3$ for a salad and 1$ for a yogurt or an apple-outrageous) forces me to bring my own. I was scrambling a bit, but I am sure I will get a routine down and it will become a lot easier.

Dropped him off at school and went to the Y to train with D. Did some BOSU stuff with lateral hops and some squats and push-ups with one hand on the BOSU before moving on to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3cUHQFQXnY . We used a barbell and I hope I looked less stiff than mr. from youtube. It was my first time doing those and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I love exercises that just take care of every single muscle in the body. I’m not one to do 50 bicep curls…bores me to death. Also did some deadlifts which I am struggling with. I am just not comfortable with that mixed grip, but I guess I do need to teach myself. Anyway….was a good workout and I left feeling like there really wasn’t anything else I’d like to work on. That’s a good, satisfying feeling.

Went to work where I slooooowly fell apart. As time went by I went from "yay, I feel great and have tons of energy" to "crap, it all is starting to stiffen up and I just need a nap". Was so glad when it was 3 and I got to go home, have my snack and go pick up The Dude. In between I did stop by at the Y and walked on the treadmill watching some TV and trying to prevent mucho muscle soreness. I think it helped. Did a good amount of stretching since I had to rush out to work (and eat!) this morning. So that was good.

Dude had a great day at school and was very happy (and tired) when we got home. Good thing there is no more nights at G’s gym for us. Being at home in the evening and just being able to be with my son, relax and take care of US is so neat.

Felt like crap last night. Such a waste of time. Of course once I got home from Yoga at 8pm I still had to give The Dude a bath, make dinner, do his bedtime routine, call my friend and vent, clean myself up and go to bed. No more scrambling like this. In the future I will pack up and leave the class if they’re wasting an hour that I could spend with my son instead.

So today I went to spin class and that was a good one. A solid workout with timed work-rest intervals that had been well planned out. Today was just one hill and the rest was sprints of various lengths and intensities. Loved it. Sweat. Finally. Because of all the sprints we only did 40 minutes which I considered plenty. It’s great to leave and just know you’ve given it all and yes, you do deserve a shower.

After lunch I picked up Mark and we had a playdate. Dude is wiped out now. We’ll go to the store in a bit and then have an early night. Tomorrow is training day again and I am very much looking forward to that one.

Never, ever eat these sugarfree puddings again.

2nd- do not do classes with unknown instructors. Do cardio on your own. A sucky class is like bad sex. Right when you feel "I’m starting to sweat" or "now we’re getting there" the intensity plummets ("walk around the room and do bicep curls") and you’re left feeling frustrated and pissed.

Nothing new here. Slept really well and crawled out of bed at 7am (WOHOOOO!!!)…shoulders sore, calves sore, hamstrings sore, butt sore…about in that order. Well, at least that’s how I felt it as I was slowly starting to move Very nice. I love knowing that I put in some effort yesterday. Time to push it a little bit.

Dropped Mark off at KiGa and went back home to do laundry and clean up before heading to work. Had lunch at work (note to self-dump the sugar-free Jellos…tummy cramps)-salmon mixed with cream cheese and dill, rolled up in a flatbread and a salad. Very yummy. For a snack I decided to break out the Vitamix for something other than a shake (belly is already insulted) so I shredded some carrots and mixed them with yogurt. Hopefully that will calm the cramps. I knew to stay away from that sweetener crap. One protein shake a day and a diet soda is about all I can take.

Now I should probably get dressed and go pick up The Dude and go to the Y. I decided to try some interval training class…if it sucks-I’ll go spin tomorrow so I know I’ll get a good workout then. Right after I’ll teach an hour of Yoga and that’s it for the day. Go home, eat something, shower and go to bed.

Could be worse.

Yesterday was a lame lounge and hang around day. Went to church, had lunch and packed up Mark to go to the Y for a quick 30 minute walk on the treadmill since the weather wasn’t all that great. I do not like to go to the gym on my off days but then I also didn’t want to drag a 4year old around with me for a walk in the neighborhood.

 Today-got to the gym at around 9 and it was almost empty. Some of the usual weekend-and holiday warriors, so I did not want to disappoint and did my dynamic warmup with inchworms, bear crawls and med ball stuff. Haha, I love the looks and the whispers. Anything that isn’t really conventional can’t be right, right? However, in Germany that is far worse. In the gym there they looked like I was completely out of my mind.

Workout itself was good.

Deadlifts 3/8-110

Split Squats 3/8-20DBs

Flat BenchDB Press 3/15-25DBs (hm-how do I make the jump to the 30lb DBs without hurting myself???)

Narrow Grip Cable Row 3/12-75

Shoulder Press 3/15-15 DBs

I ended with some pull-ups and ball push-ups, but there really was not much left. Not sure why I didn’t just pack up and leave.

Right now I am not sure how to increase my strength. Like shoulder presses-whenever I use the 20lb DBs I can get maybe 5 reps so I’ll usually do 5 sets of 5…but I don’t really see much progress. I am also still worried about my left shoulder "giving out". Of course that’s also why I am stuck with my bench press. But helloho-once I get up to the 15 reps I should be able to up the weight (you’d think). Well, tell that to my body.

Time to clean up the kitchen and head to the Zoo for a playdate. Oh Lawd.

Anybody have any EASY explanation how to get progress pictures side by side?

Someone told me it was the start of college football season or something like that (I have no clue, as usual ;O) )…whatever it was, the gym was pretty much empty when I came in @ 9.30 in the morning. Niiiiice.

Last night I stumbled across this http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/valerie10.htm and decided to give it a try . Let’s just say I never got around to the T-push-ups. I’d done the corner rows and presses before, but the squat-jumps really killed me. Well- I had done step-ups before which I am committed to doing once a week (they really seem to help my patella tracking issues) so legs were not fresh anymore. Added some 1legged deadlifts and some bicep/tricep cable curls/OH extensions, calf raises and was done. By that time the Dad-crowd (you know, the guys who come in only on weekends…polo-shirt clad , slightly overweight, acting like they own the place) had started to take over so I was happy to leave.

Afternoon I had a new sitter come over. Of course that involved some housecleaning which was good…because there was no more procrastinating with someone coming over It’s hard when you are at home long enough to make a mess, but don’t have enough time there to keep up with all the cleaning.                 Â
 Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Babysitter girl turned out to be really young but she probably did the best job of all the sitters I had so far. She’s young enough to listen to my instructions and doing what I told her to do- which isn’t much. Entertain the child, that’s it. No need to feed or bathe or anything-easy enough, right? This one, however, played with him and he seemed to have a lot of fun. Nice. I got to go to the mall with my friend since we couldn’t figure out which movie to watch-AND to the bookstore afterwards. Went to Publix on my way home and even got my groceries done. And now I am tired and feel like I had a good, fulfilled day.

Yesterday was supposed to be spin day, but at 10 minutes before end of class some crazy ex-wife/girlfriend/whatever came in and started attacking one of the girls (the "new" one). Just pulled her off the bike and started hitting her. Wow, Jerry Springer at your local YMCA. I won’t even say any more about this.

So there was not that much cardio since I had a hard time getting going in the first place. That’s why I went today and did some Kickboxing and finally (hallelujah) got a good, solid workout in. Note that I tried 5 times this week and only got 2 good workouts (cardio, that is). I think I probably should start doing cardio on my own and just getting it done 3times/week instead of doing what I am doing now. I do enjoy classes, but only when they are taught well-and not interrupted by crazy people.

Wanted to lift some weights today, but I do have DOMS from Wednesday (aua). So I will rest for the remainder of the day and go tomorrow. Sunday is off and Monday is weights again. And then I am back on my regular schedule.

Maybe I’ll even get to go to the movies tomorrow. I wonder what’s playing-I haven’t been in so long, I am clueless . So tomorrow will be a day to look forward to. I am dreading the long weekend though. Weekends are hard being a single mother…all the happy couples are doing happy couple/family things or they meet up with other happy couples/families and are happy together. Ah-screw it. Screw the happiness, that’s it.

Hopefully Christmas I won’t be the single parent anymore and all this crap will be over.

And now I’ll go clean my kitchen and then we have a playdate at the pool. Yay. I know I will just sit back in my resin chair and not move one bit