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Friday- I had a bagel with cream cheese, a rare treat…  someone at work bought them in :)  I brought squares of cheddar cheese  and an apple to snack on.  It was a delightful treat.  I talked to Virginia at lunch.  Talking with her is always so enlightening and clarifying. 

For dinner I had the chicken pieces from Carl’s Jt.  Not the healthiest but certainly not the worst.  I skip the french fries at the fast food places. 

We went walking again tonight :)  My end ofthe walk numbers were:
Immediate:25X4= 100

2min: 24X4= 96

5 min: 21X4 = 84

I m guessing that for whatever reason, Ted and I are not walking fast enough so we will have to work on that.
Ron asked me to stop and get him donuts.  Sheesh!  Guess he isn’t worried about not having the proper nutrition…

Yep it is totally my own judgement of the situation

Saturday-  Today I spent the day helping Carol move again. It is how I spent last weekend as well :)  I was drinking coffee when she came and picked me up.  She insisted on buying me something to eat- so here we are faced with fast food… again.  This time I had chicken pieces… again I guess it’s a good thing I like them :p

We spent a long time hanging and sorting clothes.  Carol ran to the old house to grab something.  While she was gone I did my exercises.  I think I am good to go with mostly no problems with the inflamation.  I did:

3 sets of the plank, holding for 20 seconds for each one

3 sets of Squats 20 each

3 sets of wall push ups 20 each- I am still place quite far from the wall. 

At around 4pm her washer over flowed allover her kitchen.  She called her husband to bring a mop.  It took us about 10 minutes to realize he wasn’t dropping everything to bring that mop so I spent the best part of the next hour using towels to sop up a lake of water. Sopping and squeezing the towels out was rough on the hands and the stooping etc…  on the back. Now I need a good masseuse :p

With the exercise, working and the towels, I am really sore and tired tonight. Oh and for dinner tonight, i had spghetti and meatballs - here at the house not eating out tonight.  I was too tired to walk, much to Ted’s chagrine.  I have no walk numbers.  and I am fading so I better call it a night (erm, morning) I will be up and at it again on Sunday….

I decided to do both days at the same time. 

Saturday- Today seemed like a good day to start off with…    yeah, yeah, yeah  Coffee :)  I needed a camera card so I could have a dedicated card to my homework.  I went to three different stores all to no avail.  All the XD cards it seems are now the “M” ones which are not compatible with my camera.  As time was getting short, I headed home.  I had plans to go out dancing at 6:00

I had dinner at the club Chicken breast with Vegetables and Iced tea.  There was birthday cake as well. i didnt have any and it wasnt all that difficult to say no.  I did have some sugar free Jello :)  I am thinking dancing is at least as good as walking in the exercise department :)  I had an excellent time until I got home.  Now that’s another blog.  Went to bed stressed and not too happy

 Sunday- Woke up and didn’t go anywhere, even to have coffee.  I had a cup of coffee here at the house… later.  Ted and I went and shot my homework, we got some great shots too :) 

For dinner we had Chicken Pot Pies and Mac & Cheese.  Not the greatest meal.  Neither ted nor i really wanted it but we ate it mainly to keep the peace.  Too much turmoil lately…

Went walking tonight but I do seem to be in the process of manifesting some sort of error in my body.  I have this pain in my upper chest on the right side.  While walking, I needed to cough and that made the pain way worse so mmm. Not fun.  I worked on moderating my walk so that I didn’t breath too hard because apparently that makes the pain worse as well.

Here are my end of the walk numbers:

Immediate:36X4= 144

2min: 25X4= 100

5 min: 22X4 = 88

Got home and rested for a bit, then thought I would try some wall pushups and um, no….  OW!  and Planks?  Yeah, ow on those too. ok, I will not let this keep me from my goal.  I will see how i feel tomorrow…

I started today out with a nice cup of coffee, ok so what’s new! LOL  Didn’t get much sleep last night so i laiddown and tooka nap this afternoon.  I woke up in time to catch the Ellen show and finish my BSF homework.  Had hanburger patties with gravy on them, mashed potatoes and french cut green beans for dinner. 

Had a snack of turket teriyaki jerkey and some harvest cheddar sun chips after lecture while we were watching Miyah.  Tonight is an exercise night…

Squats: 3 sets of 20 each
The Plank: 3 sets of 15 secs each (arms are still shaking on every second that passes
Wall Pushups: 3 sets of 30 each standing as far from the wall as is comfortable

 I think next week I am going to go to counter push ups… we’ll see.  I didn’t go walking today because of my busy night.

I weighed myself tonight and I am at 148.  Now as I have said before, I am not sure where I started darn it!  I usually was 150-155 riding toward the high side.  I am definitely making progress though.  Some gains have deffinitely been made which is awesome! 

Rick, you are my hero

Started today with coffee at Cafe Bixby. I thought about ordering something but couldn’t think what I wanted so in the end I got nothing.  I spent most of the day chillin in front of the computer.  We were supposed to have Fish and chips (I had planned a salad instead of the chips) instead we went to Taco bell.  The best thing they had was the rice and steak bowl and nothing to drink.

Went for my walk late. Seems like the numbers are a little screwy tonight.

Immediately: 32X4=128
2Minute: 29X4= 116
5 Minute:28X4=112

I was going to do squats and planks today, but I just didn’t feel like it. :/  Am feeling lazy apparently… No Wall Pushups.  Tomorrow is another day.

I had a big salad when i got home. kale, spinach, romaine, tomatoes, and brocolli. I toipped the salad off with the beet, carrot and turnip mixture from the other night.  It tasted surprisingly good. 

I took the rest of the salad in the bowl today: The ingredients were the usual: Kale, cabbage, Romaine Lettuce, Bean Sprouts, and some gound flax seed thrown on top. Oil & lemon juice was my dressing of choice.  I took an apple as well.  At some point this morning someone brought donuts to share.  It seemed like there were boxes of Yum Yum donuts everywhere :/   God at a couple times they sounded sooooo good.  I was good and stuck with my apple and salad.  

Wasn’t too awful sore today but was horribly busy.  For somereason lately I have been feeling the desire for junk.  *sighs* I suppose it is a mind game I am playing with myself, though not a fun one.  At one point Miguel offered me candy.  I was this close *holds fingers together* to taking a piece.    Another co-worker asked if i was on a diet.  

This got me to thinking about the whole diet concept.  If you are “ON” a diet and you lose weight, doesn’t that then set you up for what happens when you go “OFF” the diet.  Equal and opposite reactions no?  I wonder if this might be why so many diets don’t work. 

For me it’s about changing my life and the way I live it by the choices I make.  That’s what is so great about Rick’s program.  It’s about incorporating small baby steps of changes into your life until you integrate them and make them part of you.  Then he moves on to the next step.  It’s like he is coaxing you out of a closet. he allows you to run back and hide for a time before he begins to coax again.  Once you become familiar and comfortable, he coaxes you a bit more.  before you know   it the closet has disappeared.

Foe dinner we went to cafe Bixby and I had a hap and asperigus omelet with a light holedaise sauce.  Instead of the potatoes I had ascoop of cottage cheese.  Was yummy

Went for a walk again tonight.  My heart rate immdeaitely after i stopped was 33 X4= 132 (slghtly low)
2 minutes after was 28X4=112
5 minutes after was 23X4= 92

Stopped at the store and bought a bunch of beats, some more Kale (was .50 a bunch!!) milk, oj and Ron wanted some Hostess cupcakes *rolls eyes*

I mixed beets with half a turnip and some carrots.  I think i added just a tad too much turnip.  I sliced the rest of it and added some salt. Now that is how to eat a raw turnip!  The taste reminds me of a raw potato.  I have beet soup or juice or whatever for tomorrow.  I did 3 sets of 20 WallPushes and npow I am off to bed. Am thinking Saturdays and Wednesdays for squats and planks.  Oh and I bought my Caltrac today!  Just waiting for it to arrive…                                                                                      

I have been given more extensive information regarding why I am being asked to keep track of the heart rate. I found this all very interesting. below is an email I received regarding Exercising and heart rate.

Some Physiology behind Exercise and keeping track of the heart rate

The more exercise you can do at the highest HR possible, the more fat you will burn. Not so much during the exercise

but because for some reason the metabolic rate of the body stays elevated long after you quit exercising.
That said, I don’t want you (yet) going all out and doing max HR workouts for long times.

It is great you feel comfortable going higher and higher.

But your body might not be quite ready just yet.

So i want you to do around 80% for 2 weeks in as many walks as possible

If you can double the distance then test yourself at this level. Here is what you do…

Take the HR a couple of times during the brisk walk and see if you are on target. At the end of the walk immediately you stop, test HR again (number of beats /min). After 2 minutes test HR again.

After 5 minutes test HR again.

Write these numbers down every time you go for a walk.

You should find that over time, the 2 minute and 5 minute numbers will decrease as your fitness levels and heart fitness get better.

Once we see a decrease of say 5 bpm in those two numbers, THEN up the HR during the workout. Say by 10 or 15.

Note the numbers again. As the resting HR numbers go down, we up the exercise again rate again…

See the point?

You are safely upping the rate of work in line with your hearts capabilities to recover…

Now for the strength training.

Do the squats twice a week. 3 sets of 15 should be a good start. if they get too easy lift it to 4 sets. Remember good form and to take a deep breath

before you start the squat and tighten all your tummy muscles. HOLD your breath as you go down and bounce off the bottom of the squat. About halfway up and as you get to the top “whoosh ” the air out as fast as you can. Rinse and repeat.

Do the plank 2 times a week until your muscles don’t hurt very much. Then do it 3 times a week, for longer and longer.

Remember this is progressive. As your muscles get used to the work, and stronger, you have to work them harder and harder. But please be patient with yourself. Rmember the muscles actually get stronger and rebuild during the resting period. This is why trades like bricklayer and carpenter get injuries and wear and tear. they are physical all day, but because it is 5 days a week, they don’t have enough recovery time.

Do the wall pushups daily though. Once they are way easy, progress to the bench LOL.

and throttle back to 3 times a week until they get easy

For pushups build up to 3 sets of 10.

Then go onto the floor.

Eat your veggies and fresh fruit.

That’s all for this post. I will add a seperate post for my day Thanks for the great infor Rick

The mixture I had from last night thickened up but tasted pretty darn good. My son said last night it tasted of freshly mowed grass. LOL I woke up to some sore muscles. Legs: thighs. back of the legs and buttocks. (I know that is a result of the squats) The Wall Pushup have the chest sore and of course the Plank has the abdominals sore. In addition to that the lower bacl muscles are sore. I think that is because my basic core strength is so weak.

For dinner tonight we went to Jack’s (Cafe Bixby and Pizza) I consideredwhat I should eat for a very long time. I bounced back and forth between baked chicken, a charbroiled chicken breast (boneless and skinless) and fried chicken. In the end the fried chicken won out.
My son said “Mom, take of the skin and that chicken will be ok”
I answered, “I’ll take it off all right”
My husband returned, “It’s like having dinner with Jenny Craig”
My son said, “That’s right if she want’s to lose weight”

He has his heart in the right place.

With the fried chicken, instead of the baked potato with butter and sour cream, I opted for Cole Slaw and veggies, so not great, but not as bad as I would usually do. A little back slide this evening. I haven’t had fried chicken in months and the temptation was too much. *sighs*

We came home and I hopped on the computer for a bit. We went walking around 11:00pm and it was chilly! Yeah, I am a weather wimp so I bundled up and off we went. My heart rate at the end of the walk was 39 beats in 15 secs) x4= 156. Quite a nice raise from my last walk which was 132. Since I got home, I have had some sunflower seeds and some water.

I got a new form to keep track of my walking and such… today, so I will be keeping track of heart rate. I will need to maintain at about 80% of my Max Heart Rate so tonights walk was a little faxt. I should be maintaining at about 141 and Rick advises to walk farther- perhaps doubling my walk.

I just thought, I should have weighed myself before I started this adventure.  I forgot :/  I know I was varying between 150-155 I think it was hovering closer to the 155 mark for a while. I remembered tonight and weighed myself.  I am 151 pounds, I think I may have lost a pound or 2 :)  *huge grin*

Toonights workout:

Squats:
3 sets of 20 reps (ugh!  very ouchie!  But I did em! Yay)

Wall Pushups:
3 sets of 25 reps (I stood further away from the wall and upped the reps tonight. Oi, felt my arms shaking pretty good but I did em )

Planks:
3 sets of 15 seconds each (So I upped the amount of time I am holding em tonight)

I an going to do this!  *Hums we are the Champions as she goes to the kitchen for food*  (the good stuff :p)

*edit* I fixed some collard greens, spinach & brocolli steamed with water and lemon juice.  Not bad…

I made a green shake for tomorrow and put spinach, broccoli, a carrot, a tomato, Kale, half an apple, a banana, and romaine with some water and lemon juice.  This one tastes better I think, lighter than the one the other day.  We’ll have to see how it tastes tomorrow.

I took the green shake to work today instead of my usual yogurt. I had a whole 20oz and i drank every bit.  However, my boss brought these awesome looking chocolate chip cookies.  God they looked good and they were put by the printer.  *drools*  I did really well and resisted temptation.  I was proud of myself :)  It is however Monday which means BSF and dinner out.  On Mondays I give myself the treat of having 1 taco.  The best (bar none) junk food tacos anywhere.  hamburger, lettuce, tomoto and sourcream…  Yummm. Last yera I was eating 2 and a cup of coffee.  This year, I limited myself to only 1 and coffee.  

Of course after BSF, we have tape timewhere Michele and i watch Miyah.  We always get goodies.  Tonight I had Doritos (100 calorie bag) and Sun Chips Harvest cheddar (also a 100 calorie bag)  ok so i slippeda little.  For snacks at work we have almonds and peanuts and cheddar crackers.  i may forgo the cheddar crackers… we’ll see

Last nights exercise:
Squats: 3 sets of 20 
Planks First rep  I held for 15 secs, the second rep I held for 10 secs & the 3rd rep I held for  15 secs. 
Wall Pushups 3 sets of 15

Results: My legs and stomache are quite sore, but my arms are not so much.  I am thinking for my next workout, I need to either up the reps or stand further back from the wall.