Saturday, September 28, 2013

Working Out Paid Off

After 3 years of working out at the gym, I have gotten down to the weight I used to be when I was a teenager! I didn’t think it would ever happen after having kids. My muscles are more toned than they have ever been and it was done without the treadmill.

I messed up my knee 3 times since I’ve been to the gym so I had to quit the treadmill. The first time I injured my knee was BECAUSE of the treadmill. The second time was lifting 150 lbs. on the leg press after being out sick for 2 weeks. I thought I was bad-ass, but I was just stupid. I should've worked my way back up to that weight. The third was doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu with someone much bigger than me. That injury lasted over 3 months.

I thought I would never be able to lose weight without the treadmill because sprints burn a lot of calories.

I was at the same weight for a year and a half. I just couldn’t drop any lower even while eating chicken breast and broccoli almost every night for dinner. I even cut out soy protein shakes when I heard how bad soy was. My body couldn’t handle whey protein every day.

This summer, I decided to change my routine to see what would happen. I took more classes at the gym, used Sweet Sweat, and took DotFit LeanMR after my weight lifting workouts.

I didn’t even use the 2 scoops recommended because I didn’t want a stomach ache from the whey. I used one scoop within 45 minutes after my workout which is within the time limit for my muscles to benefit from the protein.

One of the trainers at the gym is lactose intolerant like me and told me that the LeanMR doesn’t hurt her stomach like the other proteins do. She takes one scoop before and one scoop after her workout and that girl is ripped! Plus she’s a vegetarian. How is that even possible? A lot of guys wish they had arms like hers and they eat meat.

Anyway, there is something about the makeup of the protein in LeanMR that allows lactose intolerant people to tolerate it better than other whey proteins. I don’t remember the technicalities of what she told me, but I tried it and I’m fine with one scoop. No stomach aches.

I used to just lift weights on my own, use the elliptical, sometimes jump rope, kick and punch the heavy bag, use the rowing machine, do Muay Thai, and Women’s Self Defense. That was my routine for a year and a half where my weight stayed at 117 lbs. My husband calls it putz-ing around the gym. No structured routine.

My favorite Zumba instructor came back to the gym, so I started to go on Sundays. Instead of working out 5 days per week, I changed it to 6. When we started the gym, we were going 7 days a week.

Monday, I do a high intensity cardio/barbell/dumbbell class for 1 hour. It’s like the Les Mills workout from what I hear.

Tuesday, I took out Muay Thai and added Zumba.

Wednesday, I alternate Women’s Self Defense and Zumba. I’m not sure which burns more calories. They seem the same.

Thursday, I either putz around with weights, jump rope, heavy bag, rowing, etc. and/or do a 25 min. jump rope class.

Friday, I putz around, but it’s mainly just weights for a total body workout. I also do abs that day.

Saturday I rest so my muscles can grow.

Sunday it’s Zumba. The instructor for this day is not like other Zumba instructors. It’s very high intensity. Our gym is sort of like a fighting gym, so she knows some of the women do martial arts and boxing. She will add some exercises to the routine that martial artists do. She is awesome!

With this routine, I broke through my plateau weight. I can’t believe I have muscles now! I’m not ripped, but I hope to have the arms I want in about a year.

I don’t know if the Sweet Sweat works or even if the LeanMR works. Maybe they work in combination with my workouts.

I was doing more weights before the summer, but I don't think my muscles got smaller. Maybe I finally have enough muscles to burn a lot of calories while I’m not working out. This summer I was finally able to wear tank tops without being embarrassed!

For the same amount of time, running on the treadmill burns about 200 calories, Zumba burns 700, and Women’s Self Defense probably burns around 700 calories. I’m glad I don’t have to run on the treadmill anymore. That thing is so boring! And I used to think it was fun!

I guess in a way the knee injury was a blessing because it got me off the treadmill. A bunch of trainers told me what to do to help my knee. I build my hamstrings and my quadriceps to strengthen the muscles around my knee. It has helped me tremendously! Now I can do Zumba without a problem. I’m supposed to foam roll my knee out every day, but d’oh! I forget or just don’t have the time to.

I’m not a trainer or a fitness expert, but hopefully this will inspire or help someone lose weight and get in shape. This is just what helped me this summer.

Eating the right foods is 80% of the battle. I’m so sick of chicken breast! But we all suffer now and then.

I ate ice cream twice during the week last week because it was so damn hot out AND ate some white rice one day, but still didn’t gain any weight from it. I even ate a bowl of chips yesterday and when I woke up this morning I had lost a couple of more pounds.

So, you don’t have to give up all of your favorite foods. We have one cheat day per week, but we do 2 a lot of times.

Cut out the soda, white rice, and bread. If you consume those things on a regular basis, you will most likely drop weight if you cut those out. Also, easy on that salad dressing! Try to cut it down to 1 or 2 tablespoons or else you might as well be having a cheeseburger. Well, that’s only partially true. Depends on how much and what kind of dressing you put on your salad.

When I started at the gym, I had a trainer for a few months and I told her at the beginning, “I don’t do diets.” LOL! I crack myself up now that I think back on it. I did not want to give up my food back then! My attitude was that I would eat whatever I want, but just in smaller portions to lose weight. What a dum-dum! No wonder I didn’t lose any weight the years before the gym. People still thought I was pregnant 4 years after I had my last child! Now I know what foods to eat and what to stay away from.

My husband has gotten into amazing shape from the time we started at the gym. He didn’t see results for the first year and started to get discouraged. Now he has the body that other guys are aspiring to get to. He’s going to be Superman for Halloween this year and the costume doesn’t need to be padded!

We never thought we would join a gym, but now we’re kicking ourselves for not joining sooner.

If you have young kids, find a gym that has a daycare so you can work out without having to find a babysitter.

It might be hard in the beginning, but just get yourself over there. Find a class and make it a point to show up. Make friends at the gym and either train with them or take classes with them. If you know someone is waiting for you to show up, it’s easier to get your butt to the gym than if you have no support.

You will feel better after you work out. Don’t wait for January. New Year’s Resolutions are BS. Do it now.

Wow, I sound like an advocate for the gym. This post was not supposed to be like that.  I’m just happy that I broke my plateau and I wanted to share it. Hopefully it will inspire at least one person reading this.

 

 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Cross-Dresser

Last weekend we saw a man walking down the street wearing a nice dress, heeled black shoes, and carrying a woman’s purse. This was not in West Hollywood, mind you. It was in Yuppietown Pasadena. Not even the cool part of Pasadena either where it is so crowded that you can only turn right when the light turns yellow. There was only one other guy walking down the sidewalk a block away and no interesting shops around. Having never seen a cross dresser before, my child was shocked.

This guy’s dress was cute, shoes okay, purse not something I would carry, but his head was balding. There was hair on the sides of his head, but not on the top. He had no cute wig on. I mean, come on! At least complete the ensemble with pretty hair! Or wear a nice wide brimmed hat.

He must’ve been a straight guy who likes to wear women’s clothing because I would think a gay man would be conscientious enough to wear a wig.

With what I have seen lately in the news, I thought it was pretty brave of him to walk around like that alone in broad daylight.

But still, the wig. I just can’t get over that.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Scribophile

I've recently discovered a web site called Scribophile. http://www.scribophile.com/
It sounds really good and I'm interested in researching it further. If there aren't any drawbacks that I can find, I would like to become a member someday.
Maybe I'll have my juvi/middle grade book critiqued there. I feel like I should make it better before I submit it, though. It's so not what I wanted it to be. My heart wasn't in it like it should've been. Hopefully I'll find the enthusiasm to re-work it soon. It's probably not as bad as I think it is, but I want it to be great.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Leaving Coast to Coast AM

I have been listening to Coast to Coast AM since 1994. Probably even sooner than that and have been subscribing to the podcast for about ten years. They talk about conspiracies, ghosts, UFOs, health issues, the economy, the mafia, and other things that are outside of the mainstream topics on other radio stations.

It gives me great ideas for books, however in the past few years, it has gotten really boring. The guests are always the same. The old guests that Art Bell used to have on are no longer interviewed. The health and economic topics are useful and interesting for a while, but now they talk about them ad nauseum. I can't take it anymore.

George Noory seems like a kind hearted guy, but he keeps cutting callers off before they have time to finish their interesting story. Sometimes he’s not even listening to them because he’s reading his instant messages. Or, he’ll run out of time for them and say, “Oops, where’d you go?” as if we believe they had a bad connection.  I feel sorry for those people who had to wait an hour to get on the air then get cut off because their story was too long.

It’s such a disappointment to listen to the story (if it’s interesting) and not hear the ending. That’s like reading a suspenseful book where a creature is in the hero's room at night about to rip his throat out and then…aw, the author ran out of paper. Sorry folks. And you’re like, what?! What happened? Very frustrating.

So, after over a decade of being a streamlink member, I’m not renewing my subscription in October. It’s sad to be leaving what I feel like my Coast family, but I’ve thought about it for two years. The show hasn’t changed and I’ve skipped more shows than I actually listen to because of the topics. It costs only 15 cents a day, but that’s 15 cents a day that is wasted if I’m not listening.

I have other podcasts to listen to that are free.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Anne Rice Interview

Today on Goodreads there was a live chat with Anne Rice. It is a little over 30 minutes long. She talked about her new book, The Wolves of Midwinter, a bit about her writing process, and her vampire characters among other things.
Here is the link: 
http://www.livestream.com/goodreads/video?clipId=pla_06a4e5b1-aa5a-4fb9-9f57-5890f8643383

It has been many years since I have read her books, but I have read quite a lot of them. I found it interesting that when she writes, she doesn't start out planning to write a series. However, Cassandra Clare, in the interview further down the page on the above link, does plan out her series before she writes them.

There are several interviews with other authors on that link that I plan on watching later. I'm sure there are many interesting things to learn from them about writing and life.

On a random note, I just finished reading Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism by Thomas Allen. It tells about the boy who The Exorcist book and movie was based on. One of the priests that performed the exorcism, Father Bishop, kept a detailed diary of the exorcism. The diary was left in a drawer in the hospital room where the boy was exorcised and the room was locked up for decades. For me, it wasn't scary, but I found it interesting and educational.

And, on a much lighter note, I'm currently reading Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster which has a lot of laughs. I think any girl that grew up in the 70s and 80s will appreciate it. She mentions Kristy McNichol and Brooke Shields. I did not see that coming.

Stephen King says to read a variety of books,so I think I'm living up to that advice.