April

I’m sitting in Christy’s living room (I love being able to say that!) looking at the amazing view, and just a mere 5 feet away, Christy is on her laptop.  I did I mention that she has an AMAZING VIEW from her living room?  I’m so jealous.

And we are both SORE.  (Christy more so than me probably!)

Because, this has been no ordinary visit.  Oh no.

On Wednesday we went hiking at Lost Maples State Natural Area.  We hiked about 5.5 miles and 1.5 miles of that was basically rock climbing.  I’m not joking.  And here’s the kicker…are you ready for it?  Christy carried Mia in a pack on her back!  Seriously.  She’s my hero for that.  And just as a note, we did all of that in 4 hours!! (Maybe a little less!)

Yesterday, we ran.  (Because we have that thing called a 5K coming up this weekend.  You’re running with us, aren’t you?!)  We ran and walked about 3.7 miles in around 42 minutes.

How’s that for exercise while on vacation?!

I’m so freaking proud of us, I could smack Christy. ;oP

Here are some shots from our hike!  (Not the rock climbing parts though, we were just focused on making it up the mountain!)

First, let’s talk about ChaLEAN Extreme.  Early this afternoon, I noticed that my hamstrings were SORE.  I was super excited about this.  Why?  I never have been sore in my hamstrings.  They’re already really strong, so the fact that I worked them to the point of soreness is an awesome thing!!  (I know, I’m weird.)  Then right before my work out, I started to get sore in my shoulders.  I’m not sure if the soreness came from Burn It Off or Recharge.  Either way I’ll take it!  Means it’s working!

As far as today’s work out, it was back to Burn Circuit 1.  As far as the Burn Circuits go, this is my least favorite.  But I still like it!  And can I get a “HELL YEAH” for doing all 12 push-ups with leg lifts on my toes?!  I can already feel my body getting stronger, and that just makes me want it more!

Next, I’d like to address a question from yesterday’s post.  Karena asks, “I’ve got problems with my knees, and you’ve mentioned the same problems. How are your knees holding up after a week of this?”

Karena, this is a GREAT question.  Of course, as long as your doctor has cleared you for exercise, you can absolutely do these work outs if you’ve had knee problems. After a week, my knees feel just fine.  Let me tell you what I do to keep them in good shape.  First, I always wear knee braces when I’m strength training and have them close by during cardio.  When it comes to leg work, I mainly focus on form as opposed to how low I can go in squats and lunges.  For example, with squats, I make sure that my knees stay over my ankles and that all of my weight is shifted to my heels.  Form is key, and Chalene does an excellent job on focusing on showing good form with these work outs.  Also, if my knees are tweaky, I don’t use weights.  My body weight is just enough to still give my legs a good work out.

NOW.  Let’s talk about our new challenge!  I’m excited for this one!  We are challenging ourselves for 21 days to create a new healthy habit!  My challenge for myself?  To take my multi-vitamin every day.  I know how important my vitamin is, but I swear to you, the thing is a horse pill and I have to choke it down twice a day.  So, I “forget”, and if I’m being honest, I haven’t taken it in a while.  (Boo!)  So, I’m going to take my vitamin every day for 21 days!!!

So, what are you going to do??

Normally, Fridays are not work out days.  It’s summer and there is lots of things to do in the summer.  I thought about blowing off my work out more than once today to find someone to go to a Happy Hour with me.  But I didn’t.  I dragged my tired ass home and worked out.

Today, I experienced the hell most awesome work out that is Burn Intervals.  I thought that this was going to be a straight cardio work out.  Much like, um, Cardio Party from Turbo Jam.  Yeah.  Not so much.

If you’ve ever done any of the Turbo Jam work outs, you know that right in the middle there is this thing called Turbo.  It’s around 90 seconds of  pure hell extreme cardio enjoyment where you get your heart rate at maximum.  So, imagine that times 500 with sets of 2 minute weight trainings in between each interval.  Oh, and all of this is for 45 mins.  It’s kind of like Cardio Party meets Jari Love.  (Jari concentrates on light weights high reps.)

And while I sweated and I cussed and I sweated and I cussed, I loved every minute of it.  It kind of worked out the soreness I was feeling from Burn Circuit 2 and after it was all done, I felt like I had climbed a mountain.  It gave me a great sense of accomplishment!

Oh, but we weren’t done.  On the schedule was Ab Burner.  Now, I admit that when first seeing the title “Ab Burner”, I had to smirk a little bit.  I mean, after all, I’ve done Ab Ripper X from P90X, so how hard could Ab Burner be right?  Pretty hard.  My abs are my weakness.  I hate to work them and prefer to do total core work outs as opposed to just working on Abs, but it’s on the schedule, so I did it.  It was a kick butt Ab work out!  I know my abs are going to hate me tomorrow but love me in the end.  I still have to admit, this was my least favorite work out so far.  I’m sure I’ll hate Ab Extreme even more.

So, that’s Day 4.  Any questions?