Day 24

Now, don't fall over... but yes, I've got two posts in two days!

Patrick's email mentioned that this is about the time where we get a little antsy and cranky with our diet and exercise routines. Me? I've always been a little different. So it's not surprising to me that I was dealing with the antsy-ness and cranky-ness over the last two weeks and (for now) it's out of my system and I'm going strong!

I actually (finally) got my ass up early (can I say ass on my blog?) and did my workout in the morning. My alarm was set for 5 am and I snoozed until 5:45 am, but I did it. I took the El downtown to my gym and just did it. The entire workout lasted about an hour and a half. The majority of my time is spent jumping. Since I can't string together more than about 75 jumps (and that's a really good streak!)... it takes me forever.

Speaking of jumping - it leaves me very winded. I was diagnosed with asthma (as an adult, go figure) but I'm not convinced that I really have it. I don't know what it is, but I don't think it's asthma (and, apparently, I think I'm smarter than my doctor). So I've been using my inhaler which kinda works but not really (which perpetuates my I'm-way-smarter-than-my-doctor psychosis).

Continuing the speaking of jumping - since I was at the gym today there were mirrors everywhere and I could really see how I was performing my exercises. I'm not sure this was a good thing. However, I did notice that during my jumps, when I am in the air, my right leg hangs a little bit posterior to my left leg. I've known that I have a slight rotation in my torso, but didn't connect the fact that my legs will dangle funny. I think this is preventing me from stringing more jumps together. Well, I think it's at least one factor. My general lack of coordination my be another factor.

No more speaking of jumps - at least for the time being.

Squats. FIVE SETS?!! Really? OUCH! I really don't like this leg work. And I am not looking forward to any new leg work.

Planks. They were hard. I had a very similar experience to Abby -- I trained in Krav Maga several years ago and we had to do planks for two or three minutes at a time. They were awful. But we all cheated (I didn't know at the time that we were cheating) by moving our hands medially into a prayer position. But to be fair, I really was praying. Praying that my abs did not rip right off their attachment sites and roll up like a window shade. But that was several years ago and today, especially with doing them the "right" way, the planks were hard.

In any case, I'll take 3x30 second planks over 5x20 squats. Heck, I think I'll take 5x30 second planks over 5x20 squats.

I missed breakfast. Ate my egg white for an AM snack. (Who was it that recently said "an egg white is not a snack". I agree. Patrick, I think you need to rethink this snack.) Had my PCP lunch. And then had a huge and delicious spinach, mushroom & tomato salad for dinner. I've discovered that squeezing some lime on my breakfast/lunch/dinner is delicious.

Also, I suck at cooking. I started steaming some broccoli before I began this post (steaming is my new favorite way to cook veggies), the water has all boiled out of the pot and the house stinks. The pan is destroyed and will be tossed. It would be embarrassing to admit how many pans I have had to throw away because I've boiled it dry. Suffice it to say, I really need to be supervised while in the kitchen.

I told you that I was a little different.

Day 23

We're technically 25% of the way done with PCP. I'm still hanging in there.

I'm realizing that I don't eat enough protein. I stopped eating meat almost 4 years ago after getting E-coli from a burger, so I've been trying to get my protein via fish, shrimp, and tuna. And, really, I'm completely fished out. When I told my boyfriend that I was considering eating meat again -- he looked at me blankly. So yeah, I'm thinking about it. I don't like ground meat. And I can't imagine eating chicken. But everything else is on the table. Any suggestions?

Day 18

Yikes! It's really been more than a week since I last posted. It's been a rough week with lots of things that needed to be done and a friend in crisis. I really appreciate all of your comments in the last post. Thanks for being there!!

Even though things have been tough, I've (mostly) stayed on tack with the diet. But I still struggle with the exercises. I've been very resistant do do the exercises first thing in the morning, but I think I'm going to have to suck it up and do it. It's just for a few more weeks. And it's for a great cause! And I do like the feeling of knowing that my exercises are done and I don't have to think about them for the rest of the day. The first week on PCP I lost several pounds. The second week I lost a couple. And this week has been nothing (but, at least I've not gained anything). So, yeah, I need to crank it up a notch.

As for my diet, I do a lot of the same veggies over and over - broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, onions, mushrooms. This hasn't been a problem. I kinda like the routine and not having to think about what to make and how to make the it. The problem is rice. I can't choke down another grain of rice. So tonight I made quinoa with onions, mushrooms and tomatoes. And it was good. Real good. So I'll make sure to switch up the carbs a lot to try to keep things interesting.

I also went to the Asian food market and got some spring roll wraps, so this weekend I'm going to try to make spring rolls. I hope they are as good as I'm making them out to be in my head.

Things are starting to get better. So I'm going to really focus and do this thing!

Day 10

Everything seems hard right now. Work. Life. PCP. This is when I would typically trash any diet or exercise routine. But I've been trying really hard to stick to the PCP. The diet is going pretty well, though I am really craving some comfort foods lately. The good thing is that we are eating a lot and I'm rarely hungry. Unfortunately, I've been inconsistent on the exercising. And the exercises just keep getting harder... ugh. My quads are very sore and the lunges are the worst (hardest) exercises. I'm still not great at the jump rope, but at least I can see improvements there.

I like that Abby pointed out that we're 1/9 of the way through PCP. It seems both like a relief and an urging. An urging to make sure I'm doing everything I can to make PCP successful.

Day 4

My workout is in the bag. Usually my workouts are done at the end of the day. Not today. It's still early and I don't have to think about doing my workout anymore today. Feels great!!!

Edited to add:
I was looking for an image for "done" and I found this manifesto. It belongs to Bre Pettis and it is rocking my socks off.

Day 3

I just finished today's workout. This one was tough. Tougher even than doing Day 1 and Day 2 back-to-back. But I did it and I'm relieved that it's done. My quads were a little bit sore today. Haven't really had that after workout burn in a long time.

It was kinda nice.

Until tonights workout. Tonight was a big reminder that these muscles haven't been worked out in a long time. I'm taking Brian's advice from my last post and trying not to think about the next 87 days and just focusing on today. Today's workout. There were some points in my sit-ups where I was just thinking about these 10 reps. Actually there were several sit-ups where all I could concentrate on was this one sit-up. When it was complete then I would think about the next sit-up.

The lunges tomorrow are going to be killer.

I was a little surprised that I didn't find myself too hungry today. It may be because I was distracted with work most of the day. I splurged on a coffee (with sugar and milk) this morning on the way in to work but haven't really had much to eat. And, I almost forgot, I passed on the starburst candies that were in a big bowl at work. It wasn't even hard. I heard Ren's voice (well, the voice I think Ren has) saying "f*ck that starburst!" Then I smiled and walked away. I see a lot of sugary snacks getting the same treatment in my future. Thanks, Ren!


P.S. I'm still in the "can't jump rope to save my life" camp. Did worse today than yesterday. Not looking forward to the jump rope marathon this weekend.

Day 2

So it's Day 2 and I have a confession to make. Yes, already. I didn't do my workout yesterday. Mondays and Wednesdays are going to be the hardest days for me to squeeze in my workouts. Oh, and it's going to be hard to find time to exercise on Fridays and Saturdays too. So the next 88 days should be interesting.

But I'm committed. I am. I did both Day 1 and Day 2 workouts today. That kind of sucked. Since I'm way out of shape, and I knew that I had to do two days worth of workouts, I only did the minimum number of reps suggested for each exercise. Still, it sucked so much that it was a very good incentive to not have to do that again.

I was downtown this morning anyway so I did my workout at my gym. It was kind of nice not to go anywhere near the cardio area. I found a space where I could jump and do the other exercises and just went at it. I was surprised to find out that the exercise I found the most difficult were the lunges. Ugh, they hurt! The jumping proved frustrating and my jumping progress looked very much like a bell curve -- I didn't do so good at the beginning, got better in the middle, the I was getting tired and not doing very well at the end. And I never got through an entire set of 50 jumps without stopping at least twice. But there were a couple of times where I put together 25 or more jumps. I can't wait until the day where I do 50 jumps without tripping!

I'm not sure if I like the food plan this week. Eat half. Half of what? I just eat whatever I want and whenever I want. However, I am trying to eat less. And I'm hungry. I've spent a lot of time thinking about food. Mostly chocolate cake. I hope this passes...