Workout Wednesday: It was all good until it wasn't.

It was all good when I began my week last week, which for me, begins on Wednesdays typically, food-wise and exercise-wise because it's when I weigh in. Which coincidentally, I weighed in at the Sisterhood and that post is here. (Don't know what the Sisterhood is? Check it out!)And my first log of the 100 Pushup Challenge came in vlog form.  2 minutes of sheer gracefulness. (NOT!)

It was all good when I rocked the first 100 pushup challenge workout and the tworkout with The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans and was sore till Friday.

It was all good when I realized I had muscles I didn't know I had, like right down near your armpit but not your armpit and not your chest, but right in the crook of it in that region there, there's a tiny muscle that lives there and it was mad.

It was all good when I did spin class on Thursday, had a swimming date night on Friday and swam a mile, and did a 10 mile run on Saturday. It was alllll good. Until then.

Then Sunday I got sick. And then it wasn't. I felt it coming on and it went downhill since then. I think it was the shopping cart. I always blame illness on shopping carts. I believe everything begins with the shopping cart.

So anyway, guess what I've been doing. (Rhetorical.)

Does blowing my nose count as cardio? Hacking?

No?

Well ok, I did run my intervals on Monday after sitting in the parking lot of the gym for 10 minutes contemplating it. And for exactly 30 minutes, I had no cold! Gotta love adrenaline. Don't worry. I wiped the machine down real good with antibacterial.

And I haven't gone shopping so you'll see that in my Sisterhood post I am severely lacking in the eating well area.
Anyway, in sum, I'm redoing week one of the 100 pushup challenge. Because I want to and because I want to be better this week and because I want to pretend that the latter part of the week never happened and that I don't have one million zillion things to do before the kids return to school.

Are you doing the 100 Pushup Challenge? Do you want to? Read more...
And because it's Wednesday, here is the next installment of my...

101 No Excuses Fitness Tips to Get Your Butt Out the Door!
(Read 1-10 Here, this week we're beginning with #11 -- support. Very important. Ps. I realize that some of them overlap my BFF Tara Costa's tips from last week, but these are tried and true and worth repeating. Plus I wrote them before she told me about them.)

11. Get the support of your husband and/or family and make sure they all know how important it is for you to take this time out for you and how you'll be a better person for them if you do it. Everyone really does win!

12. Getting support actually takes some work and time. Sometimes no one believes you're serious. Sometimes you won't want to go (aka guilt) and sometimes they won't want you to go. You might have to prove yourself to them about how important it is to you. But that's ok, because you'll be proving yourself to yourself anyway, so eventually they'll be believers. They might even be on board and working out, too.

13. Have a wall of motivation. A corkboard or posterboard or something on your fridge or in your office that reminds you of your goals and what you're working for. Put pictures on it, before pictures, dates, mottos, slogans, anything and everything that inspires you. You can add "after" pictures as you hit different goals. You cross off goals you've reached.

14. Make lots of playlists of rockout music for you to get pumped to.

15. Find a workout buddy or a run or cycling or swim or tri group. These are people who can help you stay accountable, help you through tough workouts and inspire and push you.

16. Remember that everyone in the group is or was just like you. It took me a while to get the courage up to join a group but I wish I'd have done it sooner. Have courage.

17. Every time you have courage, it builds your confidence for the future. It goes in the bank. You can draw from it forever.

18. Log your workouts on Facebook and/or Daily Mile (http://www.dailymile.com/) which will publish your workouts to Twitter. There is a huge online community of exercisers out there and when I read what they're doing, I always want to do more!

19. Find workout bloggers like me, here, or at The Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans! Blog about your workouts, your frustrations, setbacks and milestones! Blog blog blog away! Safety in numbers!!!!

20. Journal. Whether you blog or not, always journal your workouts and food. Keeping a food journal keeps you accountable and keeping a workout journal helps you figure out how much further you can push yourself, what worked and what didn't!

Have a great Wednesday! And Happy Anniversary to my parents! Who have been married for an infinity!

Workout Wednesday: The Road to the One-Armed Pushup + Tara Costa Part II: Fitness Tips

OK, so here we are. Beginning week 1 day 1 of the 100 Pushup Challenge that I said I'd do because of my dream about being Demi Moore and here I am doing it. (And please feel free to join in on the party at any time. The more the merrier.)


First, my husband did it. He did pretty well! (Refused to let me tape it though) but go husband!

Then it was my turn. In my initial test, I did 11 pushups of the boy-kind because I'm thinking if I ever wanna do a Demi Moore-style one-armed pushup, I can't be doin the girlie kind. So I did the sets in the third column below with 60 second rest in between.




So here is my video because I decided to vlog this one. (Note - the hair gets bigger between sets.)

So that's it. Yes, I collapsed in a heap in the last one! I went down and then when I went to go up again, my arms just wouldn't. So, 8 1/2 on the last set out of 9. Besides my butt being too high and my arms are too far apart, and my collapsing in a big heap with my giant hair, I'd say it went pretty well, what do you think?

Anyway, it's actually not so bad. The workouts are totally doable. My chestal region is pretty sore, but this is not something I can't do and you should do it too, it's even sort of fun. OK, next week I'll have a recap of this week's workouts and we'll see if that changes my mind.

Next  up:

So remember how I interviewed Tara Costa from The Biggest Loser? (I posted the story yesterday in case you missed it.) Well, normally I would be posting my next round of Fitness/Workout Tips to Get Your Butt Out the Door, but Tara gave me some of hers and I really like them so here they are instead and we'll get back to mine next week. So:

Fitness/Weight-loss Tips from My BFF Tara Costa

• The "Just for Today" Post-It. Ijust love this idea so much. And boy, the power of a Post-It. Seriously, they're onto something here. When I asked her about her mantra, she said immediately, "Just for today." When Tara feels a weakness coming on, she will write it down on a Post-It and stick it somewhere visible where she will refrain from whatever the weakness is, "Just for today." Because you can do anything "just for today" and by then, the weakness has passed! Brilliant. I'm stealing this mantra for many a thing such as "Just for today I will refrain from Taco Tuesday "(because Taco Wednesday is just no fun anyway right? Mostly because the price goes up. And by then my mood for tacos has passed.)
• Some of Her Faves: Truvia, 40 calorie Almond Breeze Milk, frozen mangoes, Turkey Bacon from Trader Joe's (and we don't have a Trader Joe's anywhere near me and I AM MISSING OUT! Psst. Trader Joe's, can you hear me? Florida, please. We need one in Florida, on the west coast, specifically Tampa. I'm just sayin.)
• Mix it up and Find Some Buddies. "It’s about finding the right people I can kind of tag along with and be with and do new things," says Tara.Yeah, like a leisurely 100 mile bike ride or something. *snicker* But yes, I agree 100% with this one that mixing it up is what keeps things fresh, like swimming 1500 meters for date night with the husband, which is what we did last Friday.
• Find What Works for YOU: "The first important thing is to look at yourself, your needs are going to be different than your best friend's or your neighbor's." True true true. Not everything works for everyone! That goes for workouts AND food plans.
• Log Log Log : Keep yourself accountable by writing in a pretty journal, using a Blackberry app, or taking pictures of your food (like my friend Pubsgal). If you don't, “You’re only kidding yourself!" she says. "Write it down." I tried to not do this one forever and ever, but alas, when I did it, it was a total eye opener. It's true, it's important to do.

What about you? Got some tips? Doin the 100 Pushup Challenge?? Gimme the details!

And have a nice day.

Workout Wednesday: A Dream About Demi Moore (And a Challenge)

I have a fantasy.

Please don't laugh.

It's about Demi Moore.

I have this fantasy of one day doing a one-armed pushup.

I know. Even "saying" that out loud crossed out sounds a little ludicrous to me. But there was something so pivotal about her one-armed pushup scene in GI Jane, like that one-armed pushup meant something. It was more than the pushup. It was about her conquering that world, the one she was not invited into, and it was about her conquering herself.

And I want a one-armed pushup in my life.

So hey. My life is just a tad bit different from GI Jane's. So what? So I'm not almost drowning every day in training and being tortured by male GI's because I want to be part of their world. So my life is instead filled with tiny GI's and I am struggling to fit into their world. That's a sort of boot camp, right? I think so.

Anyway, I mean, look at her! It's RIDICULOUS!

I also have a fantasy about shaving my head but that's another story and my husband will have none of that. But if I ever, ever find myself in the position of being able to do a one-armed pushup, you best believe I might entertain the idea of shaving my head in celebration. My luck, I'd have a lumpy head.

I don't expect to be able to do a one-armed push-up anytime soon (still got some of that "wave flab" going on here) and in fact, it might be years until I can ever do one. I'm ok with that. But it's on the bucket list. And we only live once.

So since you have to have a plan and I'm all about plans, I'm issuing a smaller challenge.

It's about pushups. Not the kind that has to do with a bra (although I could really use one of those). The way I see it, it's a long road to the one-armed push up and it's paved with regular push ups. And let me preface this by saying I can barely do 10. This is going to be a really, really long road.

But I figure I should probably be able to do more if I'm ever to try the one-armed kind. So, I'm taking the 100 PUSHUP CHALLENGE!  

I can't even believe I'm saying it out loud. My husband and I are doing this. I invite you to just try it.

It's a 6 week plan but it takes less than 30 minutes a week! That's like less than 5 minutes a day! (Are you sold yet?) I will just add it onto the tail end of my workouts, how bout you?

I will have a few vlog reports where I embarrass myself and crash to the ground in a heap on the floor I'm sure and we can check in here and if you choose to blog about it, you can leave your link and/or update in the comments. If you drop out halfway through because it turns out this thing is all sorts of crazy, please do tell because I'd love to know. Or you can just follow my personal journey through pushups here.

I'm going to post my very first pushup workout here next Wednesday (which means I will technically begin the challenge myself next Tuesday). If you want to do it too, you can start here with the initial test, where they tell you where to start.

So, I'm going to take the rest of the week off now and rest up for my big pushup ceremony next Tuesday. I need a nap just thinking about it.