Madonna– Confessions of a Dance Floor

Best cardio CD on the market. I have to give the credit of this discovery to my coworker Melissa.

On the workout side of things I’ve been making progress too. I did an arm workout last Wednesday that had me out of commission until Sunday (today). That’s right guys and gals….after this workout my arms looked and functioned in a similar fasion to one of the following:

1)    T-Rex

2)    Lego figurine

3)    Barbie

What these three things have in common, is that their

arms are stuck in the bent position and can’t fully extend. I felt quite proud of myself for having pushed myself during the workout, but the feeling of pride ended when my boyfriend was dressing me for work in the morning because I was literally handicapped.

If you want a hell-of-a upper body workout….just ask Dave for what Zia did on Wed last week. Good luck.

PS: Chris McDole scored 3^rd place in the Strong Man comp this weekend in Winkler MB!! Everyone pass on the congratulations when you see him!

I admit I had a very difficult time making the transition to going on my own. Its very different when you need to motivate yourself, especially when you know that no one is expecting to meet you there at a certain time. Recognizing my lack of “self motivation” I’ve made a couple adjustments in order to get back on track.

1)    I’m now going in the morning again. I love a good workout to start my day. By the time I get to work, I feel refreshed and focused. I don’t like when my alarm goes off at 5:30, but I LOVE sitting at work and not thinking of how tired I am, and creating elaborate excuses as to why I can’t go.

2)    Making fun and motivating playlists for my Ipod. This keeps me going when I’m sweatin solo. My favorite track right now is “Bulletproof” by La Roux. I highly recommend it for your next workout.

I’m starting to feel back on track…and most importantly, starting to feel more like myself.

DB Shoulder Press

Hamstring curls

Summer living is the best! Patios, cottages, long weekends…everything good in life. One thing a lot of folks do at this time of year is take out their storage bin of summer clothes. Its an exciting thing to do, you think if the new wardrobe possibilities, and how you’re in desperate need of a tan before you’ll wear most items out of your house. I did this last week, and of course I tried on a couple items…..(you can see where this is going) I have a pair of North Face board shorts that my kind boyfriend purchased for me last year at an end of summer sale. They are very cute! However they were quite tight when I tried them on…flattered that he thinks my ass is sizably smaller than it is, my goal was to fit into them more comfortably by the time the weather got warm enough to wear them. The readers digest version of what I’m getting to is that I currently can’t pull them up past my thighs……….gross. I started to justify this thinking that I couldn’t pull them up when I first tried them on a couple months ago, but Natasha kindly reminded me that she distinctly recalls me telling her that I could button them up (barely).

This kick started my motivation to get into better shape, which had obviously been lacking. You can’t fight the cold, hard, sobering, fact of a pair of shorts pulled half way up your thighs

They say to set small goals, and celebrate your successes. New goal…..fully pulling up shorts, and buttoning up before the end of summer!

So…in regards to the title of this post. Today was not a good day for me. To make a long story short, due to unusual circumstances I had chocolate peanut butter rolo ice cream in my fridge from last night. Those of you who have to limit the presence of junk food in your house will understand when I say that the thought of that rolo ice cream sitting behind my freezer door all day was burning a hole in my brain! A migraine that only a hit of rolo ice cream could cure. I dove into the container similar to an Olympic diver (with perfect form), and ended up with a sore stomach instead of a gold metal. I met Natasha at the gym soon after and proceeded to feel incredibly ill for the duration of my ab focused circuit. The dry heaving, and burps that tasted of warm rolo ice cream were grotesque. Upon reflection I know not to eat crap like that before the gym but I think I need to feel the wrath every once and a while in order to remember why I don’t do that. Its like getting slobbering drunk every once and a while, waking up to the extreme pain that seems to encompass your entire body, and say to yourself…”I’m never doing that again”

Jogging warm up

That is, until the next time….

Assisted Chin Ups

Monday I got to the gym with guns blazing ready to start a new week, and by the time I left I had been seriously put through the ringer. Those of you reading this who participated in Monday’s circuit will agree…it was brutal! In a good way. I think it may have been one of the most difficult circuits since I started working out at Pro(AG)gressive.

By my last set of jumping split squats I think my legs were seriously shot and I probably looked like Bambi trying to walk on ice. To make a long story short I was experiencing excruciating pain in my knees by the next afternoon. So much so, that I’ve only been doing arm workouts since.  The moral of this story should be to know your limits and stop an activity before your form gets really bad, but instead, I think the moral should be workout what you’ve got, after all, my arms were still working!

In the end I got to feel really bad ass doing my arm work outs like some locked up prisoner who has to resort to chin ups and tricep dips, however I think the guys doing a nickel in Chino can lift their own bodyweight and don’t have access to assisted chin up machines like I do.

If I had gone straight home that day, I most definitely would have stretched that bad day into a bad evening, but by the time I got home I felt like the world was right again. Either that, or I was too exhausted to care.

When you’re having one of “those days” the gym serves like a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I’ve never used a Magic Eraser before, but I’ve seen the commercials and they look like they can work wonders.

The Prowler

So lets say my minimum is to get to the gym at least 4 times a week. I’ll have a couple weeks like last month where I felt very motivated and was there almost every day! But then I’ll have weeks like last week where I’ll eat my weight in Girl Guide cookies, and force myself to go the minimum 4 times.

Lat pull downs

To a certain degree, everyone is on the fitness roller coaster….be honest…you are…and that’s ok. Its just important to not give up when you’re trudging through the lows, and really appreciate when you’re having a Claudia Schiffer week! So far this week is looking good….

I leave you with this. If you were going to eat an entire row of Girl Guide Cookies, would it be Chocolate? or Vanilla?

The culprit

I have a love/hate relationship with this machine. It makes me feel very out of shape, but also makes me sleep very well at night.

Jacobs Ladder