No luck. Boot camp ended, the high stuck around for a bit, but now the stupid cold’s back. & I leave for San Antonio on Wednesday, so it better be beat by then.

Funny story: tonight our trainer was also training an intern (I guess he’s in stage 2 of being a PT). So we did our usual grueling “warm up” that usually leaves me feeling like it’s time to go home already, thank you very much. Then we start in on a fairly simple routine: 1/4 mile run, 15 dead lifts (of about 90 pounds), 15 push ups, and 30 overhead squats (the overhead part is squating while holding a pole above your head, which is supposed to engage the abs, I guess). So we’re all doing different parts of the routine at different times, but we all have to finish the full routine.

So the first round ends & the intern comes back from his run while I’m finishing up the dead lifts & he looks bad. All white around the gills bad, all we’re about to see what he had for lunch bad. So Kathy’s worried he’s going to throw up, he leaves briefly to get water & I’m thinking, “does he realize we’re only in round one & there are 3 rounds to go?” Don’t think so. We ended up doing only 3.5 rounds & then heading up to the weight room to do about 15 minutes of ab stuff.

Sounds bad & I’m really a nice person normally, but I kept glancing over at the intern to get inspiration. The more he looked like he was hurting, the better, stronger, & healthier I felt.

So here’s the point to my story…the guy who is easily 15 years younger than me & studying to be a personal trainer…he really, really suffered through boot camp &, even with a terrible cold, I didn’t suffer any more than usual. Did you think I was gonna say, “even with a terrible cold, I rocked”? No, boot camp kicks my butt, I can manage, but I’ll probably never rock it. But tonight I left knowing that I did better & had an easier time of it than the intern & that feels like a personal victory.

Okay, I’m going to nurse this cold by turning off the lights & crawling into bed. I hate traveling, especially for work, when I’m sick, so it’s time to get serious here.

What’re your home remedies for the common cold? I’ll get chicken soup tomorrow, but I could use some suggestions for kicking this thing by Wednesday. This is an emergency situation chicks! Help!

Will someone please check to make sure you can get in? & if you can’t let me know. I might need email addresses to send official invites, but I’m hoping the link is sufficient.

http://www.chatzy.com/871622430756

But I gotta get out of here. The scale here has me 2 pds lighter than the night we arrived, but I can’t imagine what the scale at the Y’s going to tell me. & on Wednesday I travel to San Antonio for a conference…I’m a real sucker for Mexican food & this is the place to get it. Then the following week, home to see my family for Thanksgiving. Eh gads! I need to work out!

Okay, I’m up to no good. Let’s see what ya’ll are doing.

On top of that, it’s hubby’s b-day, so we’re going out for beer with a colleague after our meeting, then to our favorite restaurant, then home where he has cake & presents waiting for him. It’s his 30th, so I want it to be special, but we don’t really have any good friends to celebrate with around here, so it’s just the two of us. He’s probably not expecting the cake & I clearly don’t need cake, but I’m going to have a small slice to celebrate anyway. Tomorrow we’ll bring the rest of the cake down to Chicago where we’ll spend the weekend with his parents. That’ll be nice.

Wait, why’d I start writing this? Oh, right. So no boot camp & non-stop food and beverage temptations today. I’ve done good so far. I had a meeting at noon & they provided box lunches (sandwich, chips, pasta salad, cookie, apple, and mint….so the biggest lunch you’ve ever seen), but I planned ahead & brought in leftover moussaka & salad, ate before the meeting so I wasn’t tempted to snack, & brought the box lunch back to the office for hubby’s lunch. & last night I did my situps, pushups, plank, and leg lifts & this morning I woke up early to do a pilates video & about 5 minutes of the 8-minute buns video. Not bad & a routine I’d like to get into now that we have a spare TV in the basement & plenty of room to stretch out down there. I’m thinking when SWAT ends next week, I’ll just take her pilates classes until the next round of boot camp rolls around. & I’ll add in some of my own tabatas & runs…must get back to those runs!

Okay, that’s it for now…I better get a move on or I’ll be late for my meeting.

Cheers Chicks!

Hey, scratch my “I’m holding steady at 170″ remark from the other day. My bathroom scale sucks…slide it two inches in any direction & you get a minimum of 5 pd difference, a maximum of a 10 pds difference. & I refuse to believe any of the lower numbers, although it’s always nice to see them & imagine that one day soon….Whatever, the high number keeps me honest & I just make sure it stays steady all week long.

So the only scale I trust now is the one at the Y. Yesterday I did my weekly weigh in & I’m 2 pds to 2.5 pds lighter this week (can’t remember exactly what I was at last week, but I know I lost at least 2). So that rocks. It’s confusing since I haven’t been counting calories or paying much attention to what’s on my plate, but maybe the SWAT muscles are starting to pull their weight & burn those calories! Yay!

Yesterday was “fight gone bad” day. I sorta like this workout. First the warm up, then once around the track, then a series of lifting, pushing, pulling exercises (most with weights) that you do as many reps of in 1 minute, then move on. The first time we did this one, I was sure I’d die after the first round, & I was shocked, shocked I tell you!, when she made us do two more rounds. This time it just felt really hard, but in a way my body finally seems to understand. Poor fat body…eventually it figures out that there will be no rest & it starts behaving. & since I knew we were only expected to do once around the track for each round, I really pushed myself for the runs, which felt good.

Oh, last week I thought of you speed trainers out there. After our usual tabata, she had us do a running tabata: set the treadmill on 6 (that was my speed, everyone else did 6.5 & above), jump on & sprint for 20 seconds, jump off for 10 seconds, & repeat 8 times. I think I could’ve gone faster if we’d done this first, rather than as an add-on to the already brutal hour. But it was fun, & reminded me of the fact that running actually can be fun.

Okay, I guess this has turned into an exercise journal for today…Hey Eryn! Hurry up with that unpacking & then come help me instead. We can hit the Y after that

Yesterday was a “break to clean” day for the most part. I finally opened up 3 of hubby’s boxes that have been sitting in the living room since we bought the place. But all that stuff is now out of the boxes, washed & put away. Yay! Got the spare bedroom tidied up too: shifted some boxes around so they’re in the basement or closet & not in the middle of the floor & even made room in the closet for hubby’s giant UP-like winter coats that have also been occupying a corner of the living room.

I swear, I don’t usually live like this. I mean, I get as cluttered as the next person, but this is crazy. My next task was going to be getting the wireless installed on my office computer (the internet service we have has only the one plug, so the rest of the computers–even my basement desktop–have to be wireless). This isn’t something I’ve done before, but I figured I could pull it off. Only I didn’t get the chance. I asked hubby where he kept the spare wireless card (or whatever it’s called), and that’s it, he did it for me…& used the opportunity to play around with my computer for 3 hours rather than work on the diss. I feel bad cause I know I could’ve & would’ve done it faster on my own…when you’re writing the diss, any distraction is a welcome & potentially lengthy one.

Oh, this is a lot of talk not about diet & exercise. Both have been okay, but not great. I really count on bootcamp to give me my exercise for the week & it’s almost the only thing keeping me grounded right now…I really look forward to her beating the crap out of us twice a week…although last week we did a lot of exercises that involved beating & kicking the crap out of stuff, so that was relaxing. The only other exercise I get is walks & occasionally pushups/situps. Seems like no matter how often I resolve to do better, doing worse gets the better of me.

Food has been mostly home cooked stuff…chicken, ham, beef chuck, burger, whatever’s on sale. Lots of veggies & salads, but I’m not counting calories this week, apparently. I guess I’m burning calories with all the treading water I’m doing at work…barely keeping my head above it. But probably the stress is just adding inches to my waist.

No gains…I’m holding steady at 170. I really hate that, but I’m also really determined not to hate it so much that I sabotage myself & get the scale moving in the wrong direction. So still with the bootcamp & still with the weekly fast & still with the no stupid over-indulging & still with the small plates & single helpings. If I can hold steady until this crazy time has passed, I’ll feel like I accomplished something.

Damn, I’m boring. Time to see what you exciting chicks are up to.

The plan: dentist & vote. I hope neither takes too long, but I’m prepared to stick it out at the polling place since, you know, we’re one of the richest countries in the world & the oldest democracy, but gosh darnit, we just can’t figure out how to make it easy for people to vote. Chick the vote people!

The exercise plan (for day 1 of my perfect week): 20 push ups, 20 sit ups, 30 jumping jacks, 20 squats, & 3 minutes with the jump rope. Ain’t much, but I’m post bootcamp today, so we’ll see how I feel after this. Ideally I’ll get a short run in as well.

The food plan: 1200 calories. Starting the day with a 170 calorie protein shake & planning a big salad for lunch cause there’s kielbasa, pierogies, and kraut on the menu for dinner…have to check the calories in those to see what the damage will be.

I’m all about planning, apparently.

That’s all from me, now to check in with ya’ll!

VOTE!

I think a perfect week is in order…by perfect, I mean an average of just 1200 a day, no crap food, and exercise of some kind every day. For exercise I’ve been doing 20 situps, 20 pushups, and 30 seconds in the plank position every day, but that’s not enough. i’ll try to up that one additional round of 20 & 20 plus add in jumping jacks & squats.

& what happened to at least walking every day? Hell, what happened to running? I need to start the couch to 5k program again around the 5 minute interval mark & work my way back up again. I can do a 12-minute mile in bootcamp, but only the one mile & even though I can sprint through the finish, I feel like crap doing it.

This is just no way to be chicks! Time for a fresh start & dern it all, it’s time to start another long week!

Oh well, at least we finally get to vote!

Good idea!

Me, well, I went a different way. Bought candy so as to give my students a nutritional breakfast during open lab hours yesterday. Brought the candy home. Saw 5 Trick-or-treaters, ate 5 pieces of candy on my own. In other words, & for those of you playing along at home, I made no less than 3 huge mistakes yesterday…although the other two (bringing the crap home & eating it) could’ve all been avoided had I not bought the stuff in the first place!

But wait, there’s more: I did good until after lunch, & then I lost it in a 1737 calorie day.  That inlcudes 2 beers, a pulled pork sandwich for dinner (bun & all) and, inexplicably, 1/2 bagel for a late-night snack. Cause apparently the beer & candy didn’t have enough carbs for this girl! Nosiree! Junk! All of it junk!

& aside from grocery shopping (which takes me 3 hours & to 4 different stores now cause I’m becoming a rabid money-saving meal planner) and 20 push ups & 20 situps, NO EXERCISE to counteract the enormous amount of sugar pulsing through my system, pausing only (and permanently) to take up residence on my butt & thighs.

I’m not looking forward to the lecture I’m going to get when my trainer reads my food journal this week. So it’s crunch time…I need to eat plenty of fruits, veggies, and lean proteins until Monday. Should be easy to avoid temptation…were it not for the fact that I’m working a 6-hour film festival at school today & there will be snacks…for one thing, there will be the giant bag of candy I’m bringing in to get rid of.

So I have to get in lunch before that, a salad with egg & 1 cup frozen spinach with 1/2 tbs light cream cheese mixed in for good measure (flavor). & then I need to keep the snacking healthy…NO CHEX MIX, NO COOKIES, YES CRUDITE! Okay, that’s the plan, now to put it into action & get ready for some good movies…

Happy Saturday Chicks!