Ghanie's Quest to Wellness

It looks like the new workouts put me back on a 6-week schedule in regards to TOM. So I'm going to stay on maintenance to see where I end up after it passes. I have a sneaking feeling that I'm still losing or would have had TOM not started. I was 129 lbs this morning. 

I am now only 26% body fat which is the high end of ideal for my age, yay! I'm also just over my personal "ideal" weight of 128 lbs.

Anyway, I'll be starting maintenance soon. I'm going to attempt maintenance with one cheat day. And we'll see what that does over the next month.

I'm getting plenty of exercise walking my sons to and from school, 4 miles per day 4 days per week. So no more CE unless I start to crave more. 

This month isn't going as well as I'd like. I'm working 12-15 hours leaving me not much time to do much more than the Push workouts.

I'll try to get all the Push workouts and Extreme Abs at least once a week. I'm getting in some cardio and interval training while helping my afternoon patient with physical therapy so I'm not worried about the others. 

Hubby might start work soon. He accepted an offer but it's contingent on passing a background and credit check. And while the background check wont come up with anything, we don't know how they'll feel about our 5-year-old bankruptcy. Fingers crossed. 

First off, I need to celebrate a little. I just broke below the 130's at 129.8 lbs this morning. So I lost 2 pounds during the BURN month and 1% BF.

Here is the schedule for this month:

1 Push Circuit 1
2 Extreme Abs
3 Push Circuit 2
4 Burn Intervals
5 Push Circuit 3
6 Burn it Off
7 Stretch

So I ended up at Target and thought I'd try to find a pair of pants that fit me. I went all the way down to a size 6 but I didn't like the style. I wasn't sure if it was one of those things that we find in women's clothes where you're really a size or eight bigger than the number on the label. So I dug through my closet and found a really old pair of pants that I was just keeping in my closet. And I fit! ... it's a size 5 !!!!

Wow, I'm in serious need of a wardrobe makeover. My casual pants are size 10 (has a drawstring so I couldn't really tell how much I was shrinking ).

In any case, it's a good feeling and I plan to get one or two pairs of pants at the end of the month when I finish paying off my credit card. Then I'll work on the rest of the wardrobe around December. 

So I decided to go ahead and ramp up the intensity last week. I did Plyometrics in place of the first rest day and Burn it Off. I also did Element Ballet Conditioning in place of Burn Intervals.

The second Plyometrics happened onSaturday and I took some creatine to help push through it. I felt great by the time I finished and had kept up with Dom for all but two or three moves. Except it made me gain some weight. 

It's a double-edged sword, especially when I'm so close to the overweight range. I'm actually over today at 132.9 which is technically overweight again. 

Well, I definitely don't want it to turn into some kind of crutch. Maybe I'll wait for the weight to sink back before attempting it again.

I'm going to go for 2 sets of Plyometrics this week again also. Then I'll use the first week of Push for recovery and follow the CE schedule. 

EDIT: Never mind about the weight gain. I just started TOM which probably has something to do with it a little more than the creatine. Bleh. 

I haven't felt up to working out this past week. And it's odd considering I was loving it last week. I think I miss sleeping at home, and in my own bed with hubby. This whole evening work thing ... sometimes it feels harder than it would be if I were working during the day. This whole one to two nights a week has me antsy. 

Anyway, I did do all my schduled workouts this week. I think I'll schedule an extra Plyo next week and see if I can boost myself back into gear. I also want to try to increase my calories. I did well when the majority of the calories were tossed into lunch (those mystery lunches with my morning shift client). Maybe I'll go back to that. I seemed to have more than enough energy to go around back then.

Ugh, I have to find a way to push through it. I'm definitely not done with the whole self-improvement thing yet ... I'm 31 and now that I know that I have the capacity to work out enough to earn a stellar body, I want one!

I went ahead and lowered my calorie goal to 128 which is just a safety net of sorts ... you know, let me have a cheat day every now and then without ending up in the "overweight" range, hehe. I wont be pursuing it aggressively during CE though. I want to focus on muscle and toning. If anything, the pounds will drop during my median month, I'm certian of that. So I'm keeping the 1400 calorie net unless I actually hit 128 lbs. 

I had Burn Intervals and Ab Burner today ... what an incredible calorie burner! The intensity rivals Plyo and has quite a bit of Plyo in it. I admit, I was struggling during parts of the Ab Burner which is awesome. I'm really glad I found something that I shouldn't get used to very quickly.

Overall, I'm impressed with the CE system. I'm also finding it very encouraging and motivating.

Here is my "HL Experiment" result photos. It went well: 6 pounds in 4 weeks with inches lost all around. I am SO happy with how the legs slimmed down. I definitely have the Plyo and Ballet combo to thank for it!  

I would continue but I need shorter workouts for now. And I want to get a jump on the muscle right away to push things into the "ideal" ranges. 

I am 28% BF on Day 1 of ChaLEAN Extreme. 

The goal is to tackle the body fat without losing [much] weight. To make room for muscle building, my net will be set to 1400 and I'll probably adjust it over time. I figure I'll keep my calories there unless I manage to hit 128, in which case it's time to hit full maintenance. 

For the Burn month, I'll stick with 30/50/20 while cycling to 50/30/20 on Mondays and Fridays. It's a little experiment. I did 30/50/20 for a strait month with P90X but reintroducing more carbs was difficult. So we'll cycle during the first phase and see how it  goes.

The Push month will shift to 40/40/20 and for Lean I'll go for 50/30/20 or possibly 60/20/20 depending on how I'm feeling at the time.

I think I'm really going to like CE. It' definitely has me energized and I felt stronger after the workout. 

The schedule for the week looks like: 

1 Burn Circuit 1
2 Plyometrics X
3 Burn Circuit 2
4 Burn Intervals, Ab Burner
5 Burn Circuit 3
6 Burn it Off, Recharge

Plyo is a P90X workout but I really want to get better at it and there's an extra rest day than I'm used to. 

So adding to my list of things I thought I'd never do again ... work and work in medicine. For about two weeks I've been doing so, maybe not so much as "medical" as I used to, but working with patients nonetheless.

I spent 4 years as a Cardiology Technician, 1 year as a Caregiver, and 1 year doing CSR for a lab when I thought I was done with patients. After retiring for about 6 years, I am not only a caregiver, but for one of the major players in the Health Care Industry.

Part of what surprises me more than the fact that I'm good at it is, I forgot how much I enjoyed being good at this type of work. 

I guess it's different this time because I have spent a good deal of time taking care of myself. And because I have made that a priority, it  doesn't take everything that I am to continue doing it ... Of course working 16-hour days kinda gets in the way of working out regularly, simply because I'm not home long enough to squeeze it in. But now that I'm on 12 hour days, I think this is something I can maybe do without sacraficing family or self. 

Am I crazy? Am I kidding myself? Time will tell.