Need a kick in the butt? Take your measurements!

I believe the Plague has officially left our residence. I spent  Saturday morning tending to my little guy who spiked a fever, then Saturday afternoon through Sunday on the couch. 

Yesterday, I woke up and figured I was going to sweat the uglies out of me. And I didnt want to negate all the hard work that Ive put into my Insanity Challenge (which by the way, has been renamed The Insanity 62 Day Challenge). Yesterday I was due to huff and puff through the Plyo Cardio Circuit DVD. It was by far the hardest workout to date. I felt weak, and I was incredibly fatigued from being sick. And I paused a lot to regain my breath and drink water, but its all good. The thing I love about Insanity, is that there is no realistic way for a couch potato, or a moderately active person to blast through these workouts with out pausing to collect yourself...and thats O.K. You do your best, and forget the rest (Thanks, Tony Horton). 

Today called for the Cardio Recovery workout. The Amazon seller immediately shipped me a replacement disc, and I was excited to check it out. I KNEW going into it that "recovery" was a sneaky term....I mean, we are dealing with Shaun T. This workout consists of deep muscle conditioning, deep yoga stretches, and lots of plank work. Do not be fooled. The only recovery happening was to my lungs. My quads, glutes, shoulders, and arms have not hurt this bad.....EVER. This is an intense control workout, and I LOVED it. It was nice not to do cardio, im not going to lie. Im intrigued by the week of Core and Balance that is scheduled before we move on to Month 2. 

And then, tonight, I finally got my butt in gear and took my measurements. I am still down about 4 lbs, and I overly indulged the past two days. Now that I have my measurements, its holding me accountable. Im going to try and find some kind of cool graph/chart thingy that I can put all my numbers in for the end of my week 2 or 3 recap.

Have any of you challenged yourself recently? There is a cool graphic floating around Facebook, stating "do one thing every day that scares you". I try to keep this in mind every day. 

I do find irony amusing

It's funny, really. Yesterday I wrote all about how life will never go as planned, and you need to buck up and fit in your exercise/training days/fitness goals. Aaaand today was NOT the day for me. Emma has been sick all week, and her fever returned today. And then Eli started with the throwing up and fever. Chris hasnt been home all week, and he worked 20 hours fri-sat morning, and got home at 5am. Then after lunch time, I started feeling way less than stellar.
My week 2 , day 3 Insanity workout (cardio plyo circuit for those of you who were curious) most definitely did not happen today.
So, instead I figured Id write about random things about me. Its interesting looking at Blogger stat's and analysis. I have had readers all over the place! For those of you who dont know me, here is some odd facts:

1.) I am a total Southern Vampire Series/True Blood groupie. Not at all a Twilight fan. I have read Charlane Harris' series at least half a dozen time. I could talk for hours about the book and TV series.
2.) I grew up in Massachusetts; lived in FL from 2005-2008; then moved to TN. Although a part of me will have be a liberal  New Englander, I have to admit, I would never leave the south. I love it. I love the sun baked springs and summers. I love the slow way of life. The way southerners keep life simple, and dont take anything they dont rightfully earn.
3.) I have serious wanderlust. I would travel the rest of my life if it was feasible. If I won the lottery, my family would be the new Jolie/Pitt crew (minus a ton of kids), and would travel, gaining world knowledge.
and finally....
4.) Negative energy makes me very uncomfortable and awkward. Oprah said it best "kindly leave your negative energy at the door". Oh yeah, I am an Oprah groupie too.

Insanity 60 Day Challenge- Week 2; Days 1 and 2

Ive learned a few things the past 2 days of my Insanity work out:
1.) Im stronger than I think I am. Mentally and physically. I keep pushing, and pushing, and surprise myself with every work out with how much longer I last, and how much more I can do. I was completely ELATED that I managed to do PUSH UPS yesterday! Never ever ever give up! You are only as strong as you think you are!
2.) When you set a goal, you need to fully intend on achieving the goal. Life always happens, and your plans will not always fall into place. But you need to take detours to reach said goal. For example, Emma has been sick for several days, and Eli hasnt been sleeping well, and I am running on mom fumes. My house is a mess, my life is in disarray, but I am serious about finishing this challenge, so NO EXCUSES. No one is going to hold my hand and help me get where I need to be. I need to stay focused and on track. And it wont be easy.
3.) Living a healthy lifestyle is crucial, if you want to be fit and happy. Exercise just needs to be part of daily life, just like eating and breathing. Working out, to get to a certain weight, or pants size, then slacking off when you reached your goal, sets a person up for a lifetime of yo yo-ing and disappointment. And diets dont work, Let me repeat that...diets dont work. It HAS to be a LIFESTYLE change. And the person has to be ready. It needs to click. It needs to be an "aha" moment (throw back to Oprah). Im so at peace with myself now that I understand these things. My body isnt perfect. But thats OK. Im a work in progress. Thats realistic. But I dont deprive myself. Because I can do what I want in moderation.

My workouts for week two have been great. And I see and feel results. Unfortunately, I still havent done measurements. Chris has the measuring tape, and I havent seen him all week :-(  I weighed myself this morning, and I am down 4 lbs. But my success so far is so much more than that. The challenges of these work outs are huge. And the fact I am meeting them with everything Ive got, and learning so much along the way, is worth so much more.

Week 1 DONE of Insanity 60 Day Challenge

**phew**

How happy I am that I completed week 1! OK, Ill be honest. This workout is completely wearing me out! I dont know if its the combination of never getting 6 or more hours of sleep a night, or just the work out in general, but I have been exhausted! So, yesterday I completely wanted to cry, thinking of doing the workout on my Handy Dandy calendar, which was Cardio Strength and Plyo (a.k.a Assault On Arms and Shoulders).
What did I do? I went crying over to Heather, Ms Beachbody Coach Extraordinaire, who assured me rest and recovery is as important as the work itself. I had missed my Recovery day this week, so she suggested I do some Yoga Meltdown yesterday as my Recovery, and to take today completely off. 
Music. To. My. Eyes.
All in all, I am very happy with my first week. I think tomorrow will kick off a real, true, INSANE week of working out. Now I know what to expect. Now I know how much I can push myself.
If anyone reading this has wanted to try Insanity, do not let the thoughts "i cant do that" enter your mind! ANYONE can do this! Give your best, thats all you need! Growth is exciting!
Measurements coming next week!

Insanity 60 Day Challenge! Day 5!

Im finding it hard to be witty and interesting with my daily blogs. However, I want a record of each day of the challenge, so that when all is said and done, I can look back and see how far Ive come.

My scheduled work out for today just happened to be Pure Cardio. Minus the Abs that I did yesterday. Silly me. Why didnt I look at my handy dandy calendar when I chose Pure Cardio to sub in for the Recovery disc yesterday?

Anyway, I went for it with guns blazing today. I want results. I really, truly gave todays work out everything I had. But, my upper body strength is a joke. Which is irritating, because if you know me, you know how much I love Kettlebells. But, for the life of me, I can not do push ups. And, I am telling you, I try. In the time it takes Shaun T and his army of rockin bodies to jump into plank, bang out 8 push ups, sprint, and jump back down into planks....Im still trying to do 1 push up in proper form. But, you know what? Ill never get there if I dont keep trying. I imagine myself as the Little Train That Could. Im chugging along, determined to get there one day. And I will. As pathetically slow as my push up progress is, I will do push ups sooner or later!

To my fellow INSANE members...my favorite move of this work out is the pedal. SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT! LUUUUUNGE! SPRINT SPRINT SPRINT! LUUUUUNGE! I love it, lol.

But, the best part of this whole work out? The end, when Shaun T drops on his back on the floor, and says "this shit is BANANAS!". Yes, Shaun T, you are correct.

Insanity 60 Day Challenge- Day 4

Today was supposed to be  "Cardio Recovery" day, according to my complimentary Insanity Wall Calendar (a.k.a accountability).

I grabbed my disc, and popped it in, to find..."cannot read" flashing on the screen. I tried it in all our DVD players, and the disc never worked. Thankfully, the amazon seller I bought it from was awesome, and will have another copy of the DVD in the mail tomorrow. Score! So, I eventually decided to do the Pure Cardio and Abs disc. This was a 56 minute work out in total. This work out has made me REALLY want to get a heart rate monitor. There are really no words for the intensity of the cardio. Im so curious how many calories I burned!
I was kind of overwhelmed with the abs portion. I felt my strength was not nearly enough for that, lol. Maybe by next week ill feel better about it! Actually, I think once I go know what to expect for each workout, I think Ill get a better work out.
Ready for day 5 tomorrow!!

INSANITY! Day 3

Sorry I didnt blog my Day 3 work out yesterday, folks. My 2 year old really stuck it to me yesterday and was wiiiiide awake until the wee hours of the morning. It was not a fun night :-p

Before I dove into the INSANITY challenge, I either ran when I could have someone watch the kiddo's, or I did my video workouts after the kids went to bed (Kettleworx or a wide variety of Jillian Micheal's). I learned FAST that I can not do these Insanity workouts after they go to bed. First of all, they are somewhat long, in comparison to what I was used to. And, Im WAY too keyed up after the work out to head to bed shortly after. And, Im a budding extreme couponer, and I need that time before bed to clip and organize ;-)

*By the way, I am not giving up running. I am doing this challenge to make me better*

So, Saturday was my Cardio Power and Resistance day. 

Still, the warm up has me taking water breaks, and leaves me in puddles of sweat. The warm up is followed by intense stretching, then a water break before the Insane workout. 

To be perfectly honest, I don't even know where to begin with the different exercises in this DVD. There was a lot of cardio. A lot of lower body work. A lot of upper body work. I cant even keep up, lol. 

My thoughts so far? I wish I took measurements of myself before I began this work out. I didnt. I also need to be clear that I havent been counting calories. I dont eat meat or dairy. I do have "bad" snacks sometimes. I also cant do these workouts with out taking breaks. I dont mind this so much. I see it like this: more value for my dollar. I have a long way to go before I master this set. Its a challenge, and I am a work in progress. 

I absolutely recommend this work out. You need to be willing to make a lifestyle change, however. This isnt a magic solution for laziness or someone who wants to hurry and lose a few pounds. This is for someone who is committed to being a healthier, better person, and isnt afraid to work for it.

INSANITY! Day 2

Today was a rough day. I couldnt fall asleep for the life of me last night, and today was chock full of errands. 

Once the kids and I were home for the day, I got bold, and decided to do Day 2 of Insanity while they were awake. I knew I wouldnt be able to bring myself to get it done once they fell asleep.

So, I popped in the Plyometric Cardio DVD (after I begged the tiny humans to please please dont fight, dont open windows, dont climb anything, play nicely, and Ill even let you hang out in moms rooms to watch TV!) and braced myself.

**those puddles of sweat are not gimmicky advertising. blood, sweat, and tears are involved in this workout**

Anywho, so I began. Let me just say, the "warm up" in itself, is a workout.  Jumping jacks, mummy kicks, high knees, heismans, butt kicks....need I go on? This workout covered pretty much all bases. Upper body, lower body, cardio, cardio, cardio. I needed to pause it several times to intervene disasters with the kids, but even with my pause breaks (which I regained my breath), I still couldnt go full out with the work out, without taking breaks. You also CAN NOT do these workouts without HYDRATION. This is really, really important. 

I also want to stress, that you do not have to be a rock star, or a REAL athlete to do these videos. Its OK to be intimidated, but dont let that stop you from trying! Its OK to take a break, just keep trying! 

So the end result of Day 2 of INSANITY looked somewhat like this:

excuse the silly face, and obtrusive finger blocking the lens, hahaha. Mirror pictures are not a natural talent for me yet. 

Day 3 tomorrow---BRING IT!

Blog Reboot! Im Going INSANE!

Im pretty bad at maintaining my blog. I apologize. In my time lapse, our whole family has become more fine tuned in the fitness lifestyle. This is so reassuring to me, because as parents, you want to provide the most stable foundation for your children's future. We cannot provide a trust fund for our kids, but what we can provide is confidence through physical activity. This, for me, is super important. Emma (4) and DH (Chris) are involved in Kenpo, which I really cant rave enough about. More about that at another time.
This all comes full circle to the reason for my Blog Reboot...In my mission to be a bad@ass woman/mother/wife, I am throwing myself into the INSANITY 60 Day Challenge. Thanks to my pal Heather, who tipped me off with her awesome journey, I am dipping my toe into the Beachbody world.

So, after waiting for what seemed like eternity, today was the most exciting of mail days!

Naturally, I waited impatiently for bedtime, so that I could pop in that Fit Test DVD and begin to "dig deep".
The Fit Test consists of 8 different exercises that you take every 2 weeks to monitor your progress. Chris ended up doing it as well.  We performed each move for 1 minute.
1.) Switch Kicks- I did 109; Chris 122
2.) Power Jacks- I did 38; Chris 48
3.) Power Knees- I did 65; Chris 64
4.) Power Jumps- I did 36; Chris 41
5.) Globe Jumps- I did 8; Chris 9
6.) Suicide Jumps- I did 11; Chris 16
7.) Push-Up Jacks- I did 2 (I was thrilled---for real!); Chris did 21
8.) Low Plank Oblique (BTW- Im in love!)- I did 35/Chris 50

For first impressions: I LOVE the packaging! Am I the only one who was impressed with the packaging? Sturdy and eye appealing, lol. I am excited for what you get for your money. I got 10 Insanity workout DVD's, PLUS 3 extra DVD's that arent included in the 60 Day program. I need to refrain from popping in "Insane Ab's", lol. If any of my readers have done those extra workouts, I am intrigued!
I cant wait to dig into the first "real" workout tomorrow. This Fit Test is barely going to touch upon the sweat and work ill be doing tomorrow, and I cant wait :-)
I did weight myself and take a "before" picture, but I wont be posting those items until I am happy with some results :-) For now, I am NOT brave enough to make that public, haha.