Do a Jumping Jack like it's 2012!

Okay so I am doing the workout from the Oxygen Magazine Total Summer Body Plan - there's a three month workout and I am on week two of doing a total body workout but it's basic and it's for beginners. And since I am on-again off-again no more, I decided to start from scratch and I'm beginning at 5lb weights for my arms and 8lb weights for my leg workouts.
I am telling you this is hard to manage: school, kids, working out, marriage...eating and sleeping, staying positive and not get overwhelmed when my husband wakes the baby in the middle of my workout and I'm forced to stop smack in the middle for 20 minutes while I nurse him back down. Honestly. It's work all around. But I'm making it happen. I talked about perspective on my last post, and I really do think this is the key to getting my head around how I'm going to make this happen.
The other thing that's keeping my head in the game is the fact that I am about to start acting again and that means that I don't have the time or patience for overdoing it with chocolate and wine and feeling sorry for myself. I can't focus on what I'm doing if I'm thinking about how fat I feel. So I've given myself something powerful: I'm giving my workouts value, I've set a goal and I've changed the way I see working out and how it affects my mind and body. I've made it important enough to pursue because now I feel like a lot depends on it. My word means something and I'm sad to say that I've let myself down too many times and now I'm just plain ready. I never back down on my word to anyone else. I follow through with everything, but for some reason, I've put myself wayyyyyy last and enough is enough.
Okay, so back to the workouts. :) I wrote this in between upper and lower body workouts. Talk to you tomorrow. xo

Happy Holidays!

The holidays are such a great time to be with the people that you love, enjoy great food and drinks and laugh, laugh, laugh. I have such a sweet tooth that I can't help myself when there are pastries and chocolates around. This is something I'm going to be happy is behind me: Christmas treats. My daughter and I also bake during the holidays, and while I didn't get to do too much this year, the things that we did bake, I ate wayyyyy too much of. I was reading Tosca's blog and she was talking about how if you miss workouts or slip up with treats, don't dwell - just get right back in, and so I will. I won't go into exactly what I ate. But I do feel bad about it now and this can be the catalyst that propels me into a much harder discipline. SO! Yes, this takes me to my lack of discipline. For some reason, I'm disciplined with housework, cooking (probably only because I have children and I have to cook - I've never been inclined to cook, but am very thankful that I now do), I am incredibly disciplined when it comes to school work and getting all of my assignments done and in on time, tests taken, &c. So why am I so fundamentally collapsed when it comes to working out? I love it. It doesn't take THAT much time, and I feel better than ever when I do. So why does it take a back seat in my life to every other possible thing? I'm still working on that answer...and I suppose the longer I think about it, the more it will not make any sense and I'll feel compelled for no other reason that pure logic to keep on top of this. After all, it does sound idiotic, and it reads just as immaturely. I think the one reason for my lack of pushing myself is because I'm tired. I have two babies (okay, one is six years old, but the other is 9.5 months old), I am a full time university student studying psychology FROM HOME and I have a husband that is not always the most supportive of my endeavours. It's tough. My son still wakes up to nurse in the night...right around the time I usually wake up to study: 4am. Yeah...it's not easy. But I have to get it together with the working out. Just like my assignments are due at a specific time and tests need to be taken on a timeline, my body is the number one thing that should take precedence over everything else because without it, I can't do much, can I? So, then. Today, back in the game. I missed three workouts last week and desperately need me some cardio! Speaking of which, I asked Kim Leto the other day which cardio workouts she would suggest and she told me about this: http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/best_sellers/turbofire.do?t=tr3c1 and there's also one geared toward men on that website).
AND, I'm going to look into competitions here! http://wbffshows.com

Cheers!

Motivation

By definition: "the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way". The motivation to get up really early in the morning to get your homework done. To feel motivated to continue to exercise, even when you know it would be easier to stay in bed. Motivating yourself to actually DO something about that bad relationship you're in, just because you know there is something better out there for you. Why don't people move in order to get things done?? The reason is simple: fear. The fear of not knowing what can happen is sometimes the worst feeling in the world. So much so, that most people would rather put up with the mundane, insane monotony of something awful, simply because they know what to expect from 'awful'. They don't know what to expect from the unknown, and walking out on a bad relationship into the arms of the big, wide, open world can be terrifying. It's easy to romance the 'idea' of being able to get up three hours earlier than usual every morning because you know that it will give you better grades, but how easy is it to stay in bed when the alarm goes off? How many times have you found yourself staying up late at night when you don't need to simply so that you have a 'reason' to stay in bed the next morning. Jeopardizing your studies as a means to complete a self-fulfilling prophecy is as reasonable as smacking your head into a wall, but we do it, if not literally, then we do it metaphorically. We get in our own way and time and time again, we just don't learn. Living inside of the comfort of what you know isn't such a bad thing, but doing what's best for you, regardless of how much work it takes is really what matters. Can you do it? Can you walk away from what isn't good for you in the name of what IS good for you? Of course you can. It's a matter of perspective. It's so simple...such an easy concept: you must want it to happen, and it will. You have to switch how you think about the thing you must do in order to accomplish it. In order to motivate yourself to do anything, you have to first consider the consequences of what you're doing. You know that if you go to the gym three times a week to lift weights, eat properly, drink enough water, and get enough sleep, you will see the results you are looking for after about six months of this kind of routine. This is why people with a GOAL paste photos of the great body they are working to acquire. Three days a week at the gym. And treating your body properly. That's all it takes. What is the difference between someone who does it and someone who just talks about it?? Perspective. If going to the gym three times a week seems rough, then you have to consider how you're thinking about it. Why is it rough? Why isn't it a gift that you're giving yourself: three days a week for an hour each time you go, to be alone with your thoughts, give your body the exercise it craves in order to function properly, and you will LOVE the results. You have to consider what it is that you're doing when you tell yourself it's too much work. You're ultimately telling yourself that you're not worth the effort. And that's not fair. There is only one person in the whole world that cares about you as much as they should and that person SHOULD be you. So why aren't you doing what is best for you?? Think about your perspective with regard to your life, and start deciding what needs to change. It should be something small to start: challenge yourself to stay away from the candy aisle at the grocery store. Make it a challenge, and see if you can actually stay away; play a game with yourself. Intentionally stay away from it and if you feel tempted, remind yourself how silly it is if you can't walk away. Remind yourself that sugar is actually really bad for your body, and say this regularly because you WILL eventually believe it. That brings me to the end of this little speech on motivation: if you believe it, it's true. If you don't think you can do something, you're right. You can't. So why not believe that you can do anything, add a little bit of competitiveness to your lifestyle, and get started on something that you've been wanting to do for a while. I always look at someone that is working really hard, and I ask myself: if they can do it, why can't I?! And I'm always right. Why not me???! My grandmother used to say something that resonates with me to this day: "...why put off 'till tomorrow what you can do today?" How true is that?? So start saying no to the part of your psyche that wants instant gratification (the impulsive side of you that never serves any real purpose: to eat sugar, to spend your hard earned money on things you don't need, &c.), and start saying yes to hard work. Say yes to optimism and thinking positively because it will pay off in the long run and you'll be able to share your hard work and competitive edge with someone who needs it!

I love my body = commitment!

Because I'm just moving forward with my transformation, I may not re-read my previous posts and might repeat something I've learned, so please read all of it because I might add something new!
This morning I realized that I'm on day 2 of my workouts and I still have not taken a 'before' photo, so I'm going to do that today. And I shudder to think that I will be putting this out there. But this is a great way for me to push myself. Because it HAS got to get better than this.
Working out is hard work! Wow. I keep telling myself that this must be the reason I've started off so strong but then gave up because I was just plain ol' tired. But what I have been lacking is a complete and utter sense of commitment. That's it. I didn't commit to this - I didn't say to myself "You want this! It takes hard work so you have to be in it for the long haul". And besides, when you stop thinking that conditioning your body is WORK, it makes it alot easier to see it as something that is necessary. I know, I know, I have just begun so it's easy for me to say this now. But something has changed inside me. I can feel it. I was watching a youtube video of Miryah Scott the other day and she said two things that really struck me: "...if you eat like everyone else, you'll look like everyone else", and "The outside is a direct reflection of what's happening on the inside". Oh, it made me think of certain people that I knew growing up and their homes were complete disasters - messes everywhere all of the time - no order, complete disorganization and lack of structure and that's when it occurred to me: I hated that. I mean, I loathed it so much that if my house is in disarray (and with two children, that happens throughout the entire day), I can't think. I can't function at my best, I have a hard time studying and I get irritable. Why in the world have I let my body get out of order??
Okay so this is where I'm at. I have committed myself to this. This is what is happening in my life now and I'm welcoming it as a very necessary change in order to function at my best all of the time and feel great about myself. And my daughter got up early this morning and was championing me through the end of my last set of leg raises. Oh! That's inspiration!!
This is what I've started and what I plan for my workouts:
Week 1:
Day 1:
Cardio: Running in place 30 steps in between sets. Don't allow knees to come up too high, and keep your steps light and bouncy.
Weights (upper body, 3 sets x 15 repetitions, using 5lb weights): Dumbbell bench press, (run in place in between each set), Two-arm dumbbell row (again, run in between each set), Standing twisting dumbbell press (run), Overhead dumbbell triceps extension (run), Dumbbell Curl (run), Double crunch abs (to failure, which means as many as I can), Plank for 20 seconds each time and 3 sets, Side Plank, 20 seconds each time and 3 sets, Thread the needle for abs (30 repetitions and 3 sets), and finally the Superman, 20 seconds each repetition & 3 sets.
Day 2:
Cardio: Jumping Jacks, 20 repetitions in between each set for leg workouts.
Weights: 8lb weight, where needed. These are the workouts I do for my legs:
Dumbbell squat (3x15), Dumbbell Romanian deadlift (3x15), Dumbbell reverse lunge (3x15), Dumbbell side lunge (3x15), Dumbbell unilateral calf raise (to failure), Standing side leg lifts (3x20) and Standing back leg lifts (3x20).
Day 3:REST!
Day 4:
Cardio: High knees in between each set x 20 (each time)
Weights: upper body
Day 5:
Cardio: Butt kicks in between each set x 20 (each time)
Weights: lower body

For day 6 and day 7 I will be doing cardio only, continuing with cardio and upper body with weights on Monday! I'll be repeating this for weeks 3 and 4 as well. So far so good!

This is what I will eat today: Breakfast: oatmeal with raisins, walnuts, almonds, agave for the sweetener and some light coconut milk. Snack: two hard boiled eggs, 5 large green grapes and 6 cherries. Lunch: Rice and organic chicken with kale and bok choi, onions and garlic. Snack: a whole pomegranite and a banana. Dinner: What I had for lunch, only with more veggies, more chicken and lots of spices. Yummy!!!