Day 13, 14, 15/30: Nothing exciting

Nothing really exciting to post for the past three days of the 30-day Surprise PT Challenge, but here's a recap of what I did and how it went:

Monday, Day 13/30
Looking back at my workouts last week, I realized I didn't take a break day so as much I didn't want to because of the weekend of eating, I took off on Monday. Water intake and calories were on track all day!

Tuesday, Day 14/30
Yesterday still on track with water intake and cals, but my cals were actually really low throughout the day and I totally felt it when I tried to workout to a combo of strength/cardio: P90X Plyometrics. One of my absolute favorite workouts ever! Higher impact and a little tougher on the joints, but I love how it's one of the few workouts that really give me a good pump going through my leg muscles. Not even lifting weights can give me this kind of burn. And I am feeling it today because I cannot sit down or get up without being reminded of the jump squats and jump lunges from yesterday... my glutes and hammies are sore! I LOVE IT!

Wednesday, Day 15/30
As long as I stick to my plan for the last 8 hours of the day, I will be right on target for my calories, water, and workout. Nothing too exciting today, just going to the gym later tonight to hit the weights (minus lower body moves!) for, what I hope will be, an intense upper body workout. I wanna feel the burn in my arms, check, back and shoulders like I do my legs!

BTW, I realize that today is my half-way mark for the challenge so I'll be posting thoughts and a recap of how I'm doing so far.

Weigh-in Wednesdays: 134.8

Last Wed. weight: 135.6

Today's weight: 134.8

Lost: -0.8

Well I don't know how I did it, but I held on to my awesome weigh-in from last week Friday. This past weekend I had a funeral to attend so a lot of family from out of town were in and because of that I ate out every lunch and dinner this weekend. Some places I had no choice to choose healthier options (like the family-style Chinese dinner on Saturday that was SOOO good!), but the times I could choose I really didn't. I didn't eat horrible, but lots of sodium and very little veggies/fruits. The time with family and friends was worth it, though.

I'm no beginner anymore

Over the weekend I went back in time... sorta.

I spent my Sunday morning rereading my blog from start to finish. What an exhausting journey! The one thing I found constant throughout my posts was the fact that when I talk about fitness, I talk about myself as a beginner - someone just starting to workout. Even though the intensity, amount, length and type of workouts have increased with my posts, my reaction to my progress is still the same. I make it sound like I've accomplished so much by doing so little! Like my celebration about running up a one-mile hill.

"Hello! You've run a 13K almost a year ago, you should be
celebrating much harder fetes than a one-mile hill!!"

Well I'm no beginner but I'm no athlete yet either... or am I? I still see myself as the "fat girl" who could only walk for exercise...

Not someone who can hike non-stop-in-less-than-30-minutes up a mountain made of stairs!
Not someone who can do plyometric workouts with the best of them!
Not someone who does a boot-camp at the gym and remains the last one standing in my group!
Not even someone who looks forward to working out everyday!

But I need to keep telling myself that I am that someone!! I actually do look forward to my daily workouts!

I am no longer a beginner at this stuff called fitness and I need to stop acting like I am. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm not anywhere near elite athlete status or anything, but I can't be celebrating the small stuff anymore.

• 50 minutes on the stepmill? That's not something to celebrate for me! I should be celebrating two hours!
• Running seven miles? Nothing! I did eight miles almost a year ago! Where's the celebration in doing less miles than what I did several months ago?
• Hiking up a really tough mountain? Doesn't really count because I've done it over 6x already!

I always hear talk about how people who lose weight still think of themselves as fat and this is exactly what I'm going through except on the fitness side. During my personal trainer sessions, whenever my PT tells me to move faster or longer on an agility/cardio exercise, I always doubt myself because I have the mindset of a beginner. This is holding me back!!! Again my mindset is holding me back!

So for the next several workouts I do, I'm gonna think differently, reminding myself that I am not a beginner - in fact, far from it! Hopefully this will allow me to push myself

H.A.R.D.E.R. FA.S.T.E.R. S.T.R.O.N.G.E.R. F.A.R.T.H.E.R.

Day 12/30: Won me another one!

Sticking to the 30-day Challenge was tough this weekend because I had a family member pass away so I had a lot of family in from out of town. Lunches and dinners filled majority of the meals this weekend and not having the option to chose healthier items really made it hard to stick to the diet part - how do you choose between orange chicken and crispy fried salt and pepper beef? Anyway, today was a little better as far as food choices but still over in calories but...

... at least I still got in my exercise. This is the hardest part to fit into my schedule when it gets busy but I did it this weekend! Got in walking yesterday and did a nice hour long HIIT session (yes! an hour!) this morning and heading to the gym later tonight.

The PT comes back in about 2.5 weeks so really gotta get it together if I wanna see the results!

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Thank you to Katie for bestowing this award upon my lil' blog.

So the rules are: Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. You must use only one word answers! Once you have filled it out you then pass it on to 6 of your favorite bloggers and alert them that they have been awarded!

So here goes:

1. Where is your cell phone? charging
2. Your hair? brown
3. Your mother? caring
4. Your father? marathoner
5. Your favorite food? pasta
6. Your dream last night? none
7. Your favorite drink? water
8. Your dream/goal? be happy
9. What room are you in? patio
10. Your hobby? blogging
11. Your fear? fat
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? content
13. Where were you last night? gym
14. Something that you aren't? picky
15. Muffins? suck
16. Wish list item? puppy
17. Where did you grow up? Hawaii
18. Last thing you did? facebook
19. What are you wearing? shorts
20. Your TV? HUGE
21. Your pets? Poki-love!
22. Friends? important
23. Your life? great
24. Your mood? tired
25. Missing someone? babe
26. Vehicle? Corolla
27. Something you’re not wearing? watch
28. Your favorite store? Ross
29. Your favorite color? black
30. When was the last time you laughed? tonight
31. Last time you cried? weeks
32. Your best friend? babe
33. One place that I go to over and over? gym
34. One person who emails me regularly? Chad
35. Favorite place to eat? many

Now six of my favorite bloggers. Well this one is tough because there are MANY blogs out there that I like. I hate 'stopping' the award from traveling around in blogland but I prefer to give this award to anyone who I follow... if I follow your blog... I think you're awesome!

Again, thanks Katie for the award!

Day 11/30: Thanks parents, for this awesome food find!

As far as the challenge goes, still on track but went way over on cals today. Making up for it tomorrow with two workout sessions so we'll see if I can hold on to that sweet weigh-in I had yesterday! More food, family, and good times tomorrow and Monday so it'll be tough...

On another note...

My parents are big time snackers and the other weekend I was over at their place and they had a container of chocolate covered almonds on their counter. No biggie since I wasn't tempted by the 'evil' chocolate but when I took a better look... it was cocoa covered almonds! Not fully processed chocolate.

Buy your's at Sam's Club TODAY!

I quickly turned the container over to read the nutrition facts and and it was good!


Almonds are a staple in my diet right now, usually raw and unsalted, but these are perfect for satisfying my chocolate/sweet cravings!

Thank you, parents!