Contractions

Don't worry, I'm not having another baby.

Tonight at boot camp was one of the hardest workouts I've done to date. Seriously, I threw up in my mouth- twice. Just a little, but it happened. I was grunting like a warthog, and quivering like I was in Rhode Island in January, in a bikini. Cold was the least of my worries though. Curtis had us doing Isometric holds again, but not just any hold... Contracting every single muscle we could possibly contract WHILE holding. It's amazing what a little butt-clenching can do to you! I was shaking at the start and throughout each round. I'm actually very surprised and pleased that not ONE time did I have to stop or drop down to my mat :) Doesn't mean I didn't want to though.

I never thought I'd experience contractions when I wasn't in child labor or having a charlie horse. And definitely not intentionally. When I was in labor with my oldest Elika, my mom would say things like "relax" and "breathe" and "calllllm"... well duh.. But it's not that easy. You THINK you're relaxing, but until you focus on an exact body part to relax you're still tensing up and not realizing it. I thought it was so annoying listening to my mom coach my sister through her labor.. She had this soothing voice, I'm sure it was amazing for my sister, but as an onlooker, I couldn't wait for the whole event to be over just so I wouldn't have to hear the "breeeeaaatthee, reelaaaaaxxxxx, shhhhhhhhhhhh." So when it came my turn, I dreaded that voice HA HA! Little did I know when she told me to "relax," the way she actually said it was totally different to me. She went down the list of every muscle I was tensing and said to release it. "Relax your face" was more like "relax your eyebrows, your cheeks, your lips" Etc. Probably sounds bogus and weird, but having that focus brought to my attention really did amazing wonders.. I'm SO glad my mom was there!

Why does any of this matter, besides the part of contractions during labor and contractions at RSBC? What my mom was doing has the exact effect for the contrary. Curtis was saying "contract every muscle". I thought I was, until he stood right in front of me and went down the list. "Are you contracting your:

butt-cheeks?
shoulders?
tri-ceps?
bi-ceps?
calves?
back?
lats?"

check-check-oh wait, missed that one... missed that one too...check..hmmm. I THOUGHT I was flexing everything I possible could. WRONG. Once I was fully activated- wow. After that I was able to make a mental check list and make sure I was really flexing every single thing I could. I was totally spent by the end of the night. Totally.

Friday (tomorrow) I have a doctors appointment with my general practitioner to see if there are any underlying issues that I'm having that might hinder my weight-loss. Sadly I haven't lost much poundage since I started this whole thing 36 weeks ago :( It's depressing. I've lost about 10-15 pounds, and that fluctuates. It's so frustrating to work so hard, harder than I ever have in my life, and not have results. Yes I'm slimmer, I'm more toned, I'm stronger. At this size though, the number on the scale really DOES matter. Anyway, I still have my goal of 50 lbs by summer. I still have time. Hopefully I can get some answers and maybe I just need to increase my activity even more.

March 17th I'm doing the Gladiator Rock N Run 5K obstacle challenge. I'm a little freaked out, but I can do it. Seeing my fellow campers complete The Spartan Race was so motivating, I had to get a piece of that action. My husband is going to join in on the fun too! Hopefully someone will be there getting pictures as evidence that I did it!

So here is the big picture update, I see a little difference from the last one I took at week 21. Overall-- wow. My legs look pretty nice in those tights, not gunna lie.

Excuse the phone pic-- I had Joel snap it right before I left for camp!

Long Week, back to RSBC Finally!

Well not really a long week since it's only Wednesday, but it seems like so long because I haven't been to Rock Star Boot Camp (RSBC) since last Thursday for boot camp Friday. You already know that I had to miss TRX Saturday since I posted about that in my last blog. I also missed Monday to be with my kids, and Tuesday my dad had some truck issues or something I needed to bring him to his warehouse to sort out. I left with plenty of time to get to camp, but then got caught behind a major serious accident literally one blog away. It's like seeing it so close, but yet so far out of reach.

Monday was Halloween, obviously.. I dressed my daughter in a mermaid costume that I made myself (squee!!) and I made one for her cousin to wear as well. They were the CUTEST little mermaids that ever walked the land. My youngest baby was a little kitty. She slept the entire time we were trick-or-treating, this year wasn't much for her.

Anyway, my oldest will be 2 two weeks from today and she's never had a piece of candy. Not even one. She did have fun holding out her bucket and saying her version of "trick-or treat" which was "see-yo, see-yo". She's so cute. She loved getting treats in her bucket, even though she wanted nothing to do with them, YAY for her! It was so much fun seeing all the little kids dressed up in their cuteness, meeting new people. I didn't splurge on eating candy though like every other year. I actually don't like too much candy, I'd prefer not to have cavaties thank you! I got soooo much of it though, I think I'm going to have to give it away at Elika's birthday party in a few weeks. Actually that just reminded me that a fellow camper and friend's husband is deployed, serving in the US Army and they missed out on treats, so RSBC is putting together a big box of all the candy we SHOULDN'T be eating to ship to his unit. They'll really enjoy that I bet!

Tonight was the typical "Kill a friend Wednesday" but Curtis decided to call it "kill your partner cardio thunder band day". That basically sums it up to a TEE. We used these wonderful "teal spaghetti" tension bands:

and then proceeded with some crazy partner madness. The band was around our hips, while one person was working, the other served as our tension anchor, pulling back on us creating resistance. We weren't just doing jumping jacks, we were doing jacks while working against a force drawing us back.

30s of work, 5s of rest
5 different stations x 5 cycles.

1. Stationary Sprints
2. Jumping Jacks (killer on the calves and shins!)
3. Full body extensions, jumping if you can at the top
4. Back/Forward pedaling, 2steps back- 2 forward.
5. Side shuffles.

YOWZA!

I highly suggest NOT going a week in between HIIT sessions at RSBC. Seriously. It's such a beyotch getting back into it. My feet hurt, my back hurts, calves, knees... just about everything. BUT I will say that all this "rest" seems to have given my body time to recuperate and I "lost" a few more pounds. I say that in quotes because I've said before that my scale has mood swings. It works sometimes, then it doesn't.

Rachelle has scheduled a before and after measurement dealio to take place 11/12. We're going to take our measurements of our "before" selves and then start on the Rock Star Boot Camp Holiday Fat Buster! Sounds like fun. I can't wait to beat the crap out of my fat and NOT go all crazy with the holiday foods coming up. I'm not exactly sure when we're going to do another measurement to see our progress, but I love that I'll be able to document the changes I'm making with other campers, and see their success as well! YAY.

I'm so glad to be back at camp. Too bad it's the weekend soon.

One last tidbit:

My cucumber salad/salsa was featured in a good friends blog across the country. She's on the east coast, so we're going international :) WOOT. Jk, not that big of a deal. But check out her post here on The Half-baked Housewife. She is hilarious and has some great stuff on her site!

SWS, I hate you.

"SWS is a dreadful affliction, 'Steering Wheel Syndrome' is commonly spread at Rock Star and can affect your ability to operate heavy machinery or control the steering wheel with wobbly arms/shoulders while driving home from boot camp - there is no immediate cure, we're sorry ;)"--Curtis

This morning a fellow camper posted on the Rock Star Facebook page that she had SWS after this morning's work out. I asked what it was, and the answer is the quote above. I already had a name for this: "hurt-so-bad-I-need-help-snapping/unsnapping-my-own-bra syndrome." Never mind getting in and out of a sports bra, that's near impossible with this syndrome. SWS is much shorter, and easier to remember though.


Well after tonight, I have SWS. A serious case too. I kind of like it though because I know after this pain will come some major strength, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel!


We did a partner series for tonight that included Sumo Squats, Courtsey Lunges, Double-leg hip extensions, and Split lunge all of which included some time of dumb-bell press/pull/row. I had 15lb-ers tonight and by the end of each round I was really struggling. I loved it! I really felt challenged today. 

After those sets repeated a few times we moved on to the "Spartan Screamer 2.0"... I'm not sure I remember the 1.0, maybe that was last weeks? Whatever it was, it was delicious. I know I wont be doing the Spartan Race this year, but it is a goal of mine to do it eventually. Maybe the next one. I still do enjoy the Spartan Screamers that Curtis puts us ALL through as if we are all training for the event. This time we did some dumb-bell clean presses, then cross-jacks, other arm for the dumb-bell presses, then finished the round off with mountain climbers.. I'm getting good at those suckers!


Tonight was glorious. My body is really feeling it right now even as I type this. I'm going to be moaning tomorrow about how sore I am and I look forward to it. I haven't felt this sore since probably week 1. A successful day, lots of sweat, no tears or puke... Thanks again Curtis!

What.The.EFF. Monday

Today is the beginning of week 5 for me (yay!) and Curtis is back from Hawaii. I was realllllly looking forward to tonight because I have a little cold and I was hoping working out would make me feel a little better. Tonight definitely got my lungs working aka gasping/gulping/begging for air.

First things first though. During warm-up, probably doing jumping jacks, my pants started to feel a little loose. I tried to tighten the drawstring but I had double knotted it 2-3 years ago when I had first bought them, all the way at the tip of the strings. I wanted room to stretch I guess... Thinking about that, why the hell would I want room to stretch LARGER than my already plus sized stretchy fat pants?? Whatever, anyway... I had to act quick and get that damn knot out or my neighbor campers wind up singing this:

Where I had them before, they fit comfortably, sometimes snug around my waist. I measured how much I'd shortened them when I got home and it was 8 inches! SUCCESS!

As for the rest of the night, we did 2 different Super Sets that consisted of TRX Jump Squats, and TRX Push-ups. We could've done those at our mats with a dumbell, and regular push-ups, but I've become a TRX junky so that wasn't an option for me. The second Super Set was burpees and forward/reverse sprints. Do you remember what a burpee is?

During the first round at the TRX station, I was actually jumping off the ground during the jump squats. Well sounds like a no brainer, but when we'd done these before I couldn't get my fat booty to leave the earth, so I'd just pop up onto my toes. This time, I could jump. A few inches even. We repeated each set twice and on the second cycle, round 4 or so, Curtis happened to look over at me during my FIRST break where I'd gone to popping up on my toes instead of jumping. My bloody luck, huh? Of course he yelled at me to jump up off the ground, which I did. But just so you all know, my calves are on freakin' FIRE from how much jumping I was doing!

After the Super Sets, we partnered up. One of us would hold a push-up pillar/plank while the other sprinted 30 or so yards. When they came back, we switched places. This went on for 4 minutes and it was hell the entire time. I suppose I loved it after the fact, but during... eff that noise.

It was extremely hard to breathe tonight from the very beginning. I also have a chest cold which made breathing even more of a challenge. I was okay though, I think I needed to slow down on one of the sprinting rounds. I needed a super hard workout tonight and I certainly got one! I actually said "What the *insert expletive* Curtis!?" It was probably the most intense boot camp session I've been to since I've started 5 weeks ago.

I also have some major love for the 6:30pm Rock Star campers. Several times, by several different people I was getting "Come on Erika!", "You've got this!", "Push Harder!", "You're doing great!", "Only 2 more minutes, you can do it!". There is nothing more motivating than people around you rooting for you and cheering you on. It's an amazing feeling and just when I felt like slowing it down, someone would give me a holler and I got a quick shot of energy, a desire to do even better.

Thank you to everyone that supports me and loves me. It makes this journey even more enjoyable. My goals WILL be reached with the team I have surrounding me. You ROCK!

Catching Up

I've fallen behind on my blogging! It's been a crazy busy few days for me and I finally have a few minutes to update.

After Bikram Boot Camp last Tuesday, I'd gone home feeling great after my sweat-fest. That night I got a horrible pain in my back. I figured it was muscle soreness from Rachelle's awesome workout. So I slept with a heating pad for most of the night hoping it'd do the trick. It didn't, and I was worse off. I decided it was probably best to rest my back, just so I didn't injure it worse and then really be in trouble. It might've been more psychological than physical, but it's better safer than sorry. So I missed Wednesday, my very first time missing a day of camp since I started a month ago. I was sad and refused to miss the next day. I was going on Thursday, even if I just had to lay on the ground and stretch.

Thursday, I managed to do most of the workout okay until we started doing side pillars... that REALLY hurt my back. I took a little break and rolled my back on one of the foam rollers Curtis has and I felt a !*POP*! It felt amazing and I sat up and said "I think I just healed myself!" I felt great, and finished the workout with more energy than I had before.

Friday, my back was still feeling good. I was pumped for TRX Saturday! I was going to the 6am workout session and photographing the 7:30 session. Friday night though, the back pain started again in the middle of the night. I again laid on a heating pad until it was time to get up but it didn't work, again. Oh well, it actually wasn't too bad the next day, but I was tired as hell from no sleep because of it.

TRX Saturday was AWESOME. I especially loved it this week because Rachelle managed to choose a track with Christmas music in the background HA! I really love TRX exercises and I seriously can not WAIT to do some more. This time we did a lot of upper-body strengthening (which I need very much). Wall slides, a bear hug/clutch variation, squats with our arms held straight overhead, medicine ball slams, then some outdoor stuff with tension bands and rings.

Rachelle did a seriously awesome job leading camp this week. I really enjoyed getting to know you Rachelle, and look forward to seeing your more at camp!

Saturday night we had a Rock Star girls night out, hosted by Becki and Tyler. They are some nice folks! Food was great, drinks were great. I didn't indulge too much but what I did have was delicious. I really enjoyed meeting a few new ladies!

I decided to step on the scale yesterday, even though I know it's finicky. My broken scale says that I've lost 7lbs. So either that is true, and I'm finally starting to shed some fat, or my scale is just playing mind games with me again. I'm not going to worry about it though, I'll have a real weight check next month at my doctors appt. I need to update my picture, suppose to do that last Friday, but like I said I've been so busy so hopefully I can get one today. I've lost 7 inches around my waist so far... wait, is that the magic number? 7lbs/7inches??

I'll take it.

Oh btw, I have a new goal: dead lift THIS sucker!

Here are a few pics from TRX Saturday :)

A Message

Woke up this morning, popped onto my Pinterest (let me know if you want to join, I can invite you) feed and this is the first thing I saw.

I think it's a sign.

If you have nothing positive to say...

I say this to you:

I'm Shrinking!

Really... I took down all of my measurements last Monday, the day before I was suppose to get my machine. That day I also started counting calories and eating no more than 2000. Since I hadn't started working out yet, and couldn't until I got my machine, I figured might as well get a head start on getting my calorie intake in check. Now that I have my machine, I've worked out 3 times. Twice yesterday, and once (so far) today. I planned on working out twice a day, for an hour each time. Thing is, I totally forgot what it was like working out. Back in the day when I had my gym membership, I could go a good 45-1hr straight on the elliptical. I don't remember if I worked up to that or if that was right off the bat. My first workout yesterday kicked my butt! I stupidly put the machine on Hills, which puts it up to level 3, and went at it. I was seriously tired 2 minutes in. What the heck? So I stopped it, put it on Manual level 1 and continued for 20 minutes. That was all I could do. So I've readjusted my goals. 3x a day for 20 minutes at a time. I'll work up to more obviously, but I'm not going to set goals that I can't reach (yet). I'm already getting better. This mornings workout I barely had to take any 5 seconds breaks, went twice the distance and burnt 50 more calories than last nights workout.

Anyway, back to the measurements.  I won't list every one because I haven't noticed a big difference all over. The only place I can really tell is smaller is my waist. The first was 58"... holy crap that's almost FIVE FEET around. I'm only 5'5" tall, so that is just wacky in my brain. It doesn't make sense, or look like it. But the measuring tape does not lie.

I felt different today so I remeasured for the heck of it, and my waist is down 3.5"! I've sweat a bucket so I'm sure I'm losing a bunch of water weight but I don't care. I don't care how this weight comes off, just that it does. It's so motivating that I'm only on Day 2 and seeing/feeling results. WOOT!

Brain[storming] monsooning

I've come up with a set of achievable short term and long term goals. I need the short term, I think every one does. I feel so great when I finish something, it makes me want to keep going. This is why I don't make blankets. I knit and crochet and never again will with make a blanket... why? because it takes forEVA. Scarves? I've made TONS, because they're easy and I can make one in an hour. I've completed something, and I feel so accomplished. I can marvel at my work sitting right in front of me and think "wow, that was easy... lets make another!" With a blanket, I work on it for an hour at a time, and for days and days, I'm still looking at a heap of yarn. Unfinished.. and then I get bored. What's the result of this? A whole basket full of quarter/half done unfinished blankets, and a LOT of wasted yarn. So instead of my weight loss turning into an unraveling blanket, I'll make a bunch of scarves and sew them together. I'll lose small increments of weight, reach my goal, and in total I will have lost a whole load! In the end, I'll have a completed beautiful blanket.

Okay, enough about blankets. Here are my goals and rewards.

Lose 10 lbs $10 Towards New Wardrobe
Lose 25 lbs $15 ^^
Lose 35 lbs $10 ^^
Lose 50 lbs $15 ^^ and a MANI/PEDI (woot!)

So for the first 50lbs, it'll be 1$ per lb. I don't want to be buying tons of clothes before I reach my goal weight because I'll just be getting smaller. No sense in wasting while I'm wasting away!

This is all I'm going to focus on for now. There are more goals, but again.. scarves, not a blanket.

What am I looking forward to?

-shopping at the cool stores in the mall
-wearing high heels without piercing the earth
-spending less than $45 on a normal size bra
-hiking a mountain without nearly passing out
-running in the park with my kids
-being smaller than my husband
-wear a 2-piece swimsuit.. with NO cover up! *gasp* (even though it'll still probably be a tankini, dewd I've had 2 kids mmkay?)

That's just a few. The shoe thing... I love shoes, the cutest ones are always heels or wedges, but seriously all this weight on those things SUCK. Since my sister also has a shoe fetish and we share feet size, hopefully I'll get to indulge in her closet.. and borrow a few pairs for a night on the town!

Next: arrival of Elliptical Machine, building of Elliptical Machine, and first "weigh in" eek.