wallflower

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm not too worried about losing progress, but focus. I don't want to wake up a month later to the realization that I've let the program slip. It does look like the 'recovery week' keeps one pretty busy though.

Week 3 thus far: Monday - P90x 'Chest and back' Tuesday - rest day Wed - nope Thurs-nada Friday- P90x 'Shoulders and arms' Sat- Sun- I'm enjoying watching the # of reps/amount of weight going up each week. Gives me a real feeling of accomplishment, like I'm that much closer to my goals Next week is my 'rest' week, and I know it's important, but I'm not looking forward to it. I want to keep upping those #'s! I may need to journal just to stay on track (I fear that I'll lose focus during that time). *Edit - not the greatest week, but I take comfort in that I walk my kids to and from school almost every day. Every bit counts

Can I ask what club you train at?

A slight change of plans; I'm following the trend of mixing up P90 with Insanity. I'm also a bit tardy in my posting... today I am almost finished week 2, with 2 workouts left to complete. I'm tackling the 'Lean' version of P90, with Insanity (month 1) subbed for any cardio days. I'm forced to mix up my week due to my work schedule, so this week looks like this: Monday - Chest and back Tues - off (work) Wed - Core synergistics Thurs - Shoulders and arms Fri - Insanity (1st dvd...the name escapes me ATM) *Sat and Sunday - due to work will be either yoga and stretch, or maybe some cardio. My goals are to lose body fat, get strong and increase my VO2 max. I've lost 5 pounds since this summer, happy with that!

Fit test today, and I'm a bit underwhelmed. This should be, technically, my 36 day fit test. I took 2 weeks off though about mid month as I was sick. So I consider this my 15 day fit test. Day 1 > Day 15 SK 46>74 PJ 35>34 PK 70>83 PJ 30>20 GJ 6>7 SJ 9>8 PJ 7>13 LP 30>28 As much as I want to move on to the next level, I think I'd best do another 2 weeks at the 1st month.

Wow!! I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but I didn't realize exactly how long it'd been...! I'm currently using the 'Insanity' program. I both love and hate it! The workouts are really tough, yet I crave them at the same time...I can also feel improvement with each workout, which is an incentive to keep going. Today is week 3, 'Cardio Power' circuit time. It's my least favourite dvd thus far (@#! power jumps), I never seem to perform as well as I do on the other dvd's. My approach with Insanity is a bit different - because of my schedule, some days I have a hard time fitting in any sort of WO. So rather than follow the suggested schedule, I'm just doing each dvd in order, then taking a rest day, and repeat. Seems to work for me. Planning my fit test for next week, to see if I've made any improvement thus far.

Mon March 8 - nada Tues 9 - p90 x 'back and legs' + attempted Ab ripper Wed 10 - nada Thurs 11 - Krav class, 60 min Fri 12 - p90x 'chest, shoulders and triceps' Food - 1 c sticky rice and corn, steamed rapini w 1 tbsp each flax oil and ume vinegar gluten-free snack bar decaf tall soy latte and chocolate cake...it was the last day for someone I work with smoothie w rice milk and hemp protein (post WO) Sat 13 Sun 14 Realized today since starting my job at Starbuck's a year ago, I've gained 15 LBS. So the plus side of going gluten free/vegan will be that I won't be eating a lot of the crap that I am surrounded by day in, day out. I need to get serious about journaling what goes in my mouth, though.

Thanks Lobsteriffic. Tues this week - p90x, 'legs and back' - my six year old son has done p90 with me twice now, too cute. Today (Thursday) - 60 min Krav maga class. I plan to attend class Sunday as well. Friday - P90x 'Arms and shoulders.' Ow. My reps have all consistently gone up, which makes me happy Saturday - 60 min Krav Maga class

Lots of opens coming up for me this week at work, which means 5 am starts The *intention* this week will be to get to class 2-3 times, filling in the gaps with some P90x, maybe some yoga or pilates too. All depending on my energy, of course! Although I haven't kept a record here of my diet (lazy), I've come to realize that I seem to have become sensitive to bread, or gluten. Perhaps the origin of my stomach pain, which has subsided, so long as I continue to avoid eating gluten. A bit of a drag, but with the availability of all the gluten-free flours and products, I can certainly work with that

Sat Feb 27 - 60 min Krav class; a mix of combos and drills. Felt good to be back

Wed Feb 23 Not too sore today. Tomorrow may be a different story; had my ass handed to me at a 60 minute cardiokickbox at my club. Definitely need to work on my cardio! Also bought some hemp protein powder (chocolate flavour), had it stirred into some soy yogurt for a PW snack. Yummy. Oh, and I was able to do some ab work during the WO without any major pain!

Tues Feb 23 WO = P90x 'shoulders and arms.' Already seeing some improvements, which is encouraging. Btwn that and shovelling our recent snowfall, I have a feeling I'll be sore tomorrow...

Mon Feb 22 45 minutes of easy yoga today; it felt good after the previous week of...inactivity. Still trying to pinpoint what could be setting me off, but things seem to have settled again (for the moment). I've been loosely following a macrobiotic approach to my diet. I seem to recall reading somewhere that it is good for digestion, so why not? Still having issues with sugar though. But if I do stay away from it for a bit, I start to lose that bottomless tolerance for it, so at least that is a baby step in the right direction. I hope to make it to class this week as well!

Ha ha! I was invited out rock climbing today, at an indoor gym. I thought 'maybe not a good idea...?' Interesting re the yoga teacher, perhaps to help flush things out?

Tues Feb 16 - P90x, 'Chest and Back', no Ab Ripper. Woke up with nast GI issues this am. Could be due to the gluten I had yesterday (homemade waffles). Will avoid gluten for the next few days to see what happens, but today my tummy is still off.

I was hot to go to class Monday, but it's Family Day here in Ontario, so the club is closed. Sometime this week then, I'll be back Just attempted P90x 'Legs and Back.' It kicked my ass. Tomorrow is my rest day, and next week a fresh start. Food today; 1/2 c oatmeal with some walnuts and a bit of brown sugar juice - beet, carrot, celery and lemon an apple (preWO) couple of dates (postWO) handful of pecans and a coconut smoothie (froz young coconut, some lime juice, half a vanilla bean)

Thank you So, my results...bloodwork and ultrasound were fine, everything (spleen, liver, and gall bladder) are working. So now my doctor is leaning towards something GI. She thinks that with me being sick recently, and having, in theory, lowered immunity (I have MS), could be that my digestive system is just taking a long time to recover from the recent flu bugs I had. I'm now taking probiotics and have to pick up an antacid she recommended. Hopefully that helps, otherwise the testing becomes more invasive... Good news is I am clear for physical activity! While avoiding anything that makes things worse.

Feb 10/10 'Arms and shoulders' DVD (P90x) - feel pretty good after. Had one of my fave snacks following; 1/2 mashed banana, a heaping tbsp of vanilla soy yogurt, and a tsp of peanut butter all mixed together. Yum!

Thanks, lobsteriffic. I attempted maybe 15 minutes of Pilates yesterday, thinking that would be gentle enough. Unfortunately, any forward crunching seems to = nope. I started to get sore, so had to call it quits.

If you like Indian, I recently got 'The Indian Vegan Kitchen' by Madhu Gadia. I've been very pleased with the recipes I've tried so far - especially the Quick Chickpea Curry (so good!). My fella and I also recently tried our hand at homemade samosas. I know they maybe aren't the healthiest choice, but the batch we made turned out great.

Borrowed my BF's P90x to use at home. Today was chest and back - very humbling. Had to skip the 'ab ripper' portion though 'cause of my tummy.

I'm still waiting for my blood work results; my ultrasound showed that everything (spleen, liver and gallbladder) is 'normal.' Too bad I *still* don't feel normal Haven't been training at all, just working and trying to rest. The good news? It has been over a week since my last coffee I've also cut sugar and flour out, barring the occasional minor indiscretion. Alcohol too. Thought I'd post some of my previous lifts - no laughing. Squats - began with 40 lbs on an olympic bar, 2 sets of 15. Progressed to...3 sets of 12 w 40 lbs. Deadlifts - 2 sets of 15 (60 lbs), progressed to 3 sets of 12 (70 lbs). Rear DL (hams) - 3 sets of 15 (40 lbs), progressed to 3 sets of 12 (60 lbs). Rows - 2 sets of 15 (40 lbs), progressed to 3 sets of 12 (50 lbs). Lats - 2 sets of 15 (50 lbs), progressed to 3 sets of 12 (50 lbs). Shoulder (military) press - 2 sets of 15 (10 lbs), progressed to 3 sets of 12 (12.5 lbs). I plan to return to the gym and change things up a bit. Hopefully soon!

Thank you There's no giving up here! I just need to be careful. Apparently an enlarged spleen is fragile, and considered so when it extends beyond the ribcage, which protects it. It can rupture quite easily, causing one to bleed to death internally. And I know myself well enough to know that I really do need to take it easy. I'm bad for pushing myself past my limits at times. So, better to avoid temptation and potentially injuring myself - which means no heavy lifting or any shots to my midsection. I go in Wednesday for the tests, hopefully I get the results soon.

Looks like I won't have much to post here for a bit My doctor referred me out for some blood work and an abdominal ultrasound; she felt that my spleen was a bit enlarged. Could be due to 2 infections (flu) within the past month, or could be due to something like mono. If that's the case, no heavy lifting or high impact sports for me. SIGH. I guess there's still cardio or Pilates, or yoga. At any rate, it's Friday, I'll take the weekend to rest and recuperate.

Thursday: Leaving for my appt soon, not sure if I'll get a WO in today. I'm really tired. At least the food is still on!