Journaling

I'm going to try and journal a bit to reflect on how I'm doing each day...

Date	Wins	Losses	Mood / How I felt	Tomorrow's Goals
Thurs 08/18	* T-25 Cardio (Day 1)	* 9.7k steps
Fri 08/19		* 8.8k steps * Mango smoothie w/Boba
Sat 08/20	* 11k+ steps * HIIT Workout classes	* Almost passing out in class from not eating breakfast
Sun 08/21		* Could barely move when I woke up from yesterday's workout * 8k Steps * Ate too much at the Chinese restaurant * Drank a soda	* Sore!!
Mon 08/22	* Walked 1.8m to/from school * T-25 Speed (Day 2) * Cooked dinner * Almost 13k steps * No soda	* Ate too much of the dinner I cooked * Need to be more productive at work	* Sore!!	* Workout * Focus
Tues 08/23	* Rest Day	* Rest Day - I felt bad at the end of the night with not doing anything * Ate a lot of pizza * Had a fountain drink - it was so yummy	* Sore!!	* Workout
Wed 08/24	* Woke up early and did T-25 Total Body Circuit (Day 3) before my meetings * Celebrated my in-laws anniversary! * Enjoyed a delicious frozen sangria.	* Ate too much at the celebratory dinner :D * Enjoyed a delicious frozen sangria.	* Sore!! Not great when my Heart rate hits 160. Happy I got my workout over with early.	* Wake up early to workout
Thurs 08/25	* T-25 Abs Interval (Day 4) - this was a killer! I also did this after eating McD for lunch and it was not a good idea. * Almost 12k steps	* Ate McD and had a Large Sweet Tea. * Ate too much of my FIL's delicious salmon pasta for dinner and french bread.	* Fat	* Eat Less
Fri 08/26		* Only 7.8k steps today	* Hungry - have to fast for my annual work screening.
Sat 08/27	* T-25 Lower Focus (Day 5) * Only had breakfast and dinner as result of that huge breakfast. * 12k+ steps	* Ate like a pig at breakfast with family
Sun 08/28	* Cooked dinner (noodles & bean curd) instead of ordering Papa John's like I wanted as their app / website were down. * Sewing time!! * 15k+ steps
Mon 08/29	* Cooked dinner in the instapot! Kids loved it! * 12k+ steps * Walked with K around R's soccer field during his practice.	* Stayed up too late sewing		Go to bed earlier
Tues 08/30		* Had CFA and a coke and lots of fries for dinner.	* Migraine today	Have a better day
Wed 08/31				Get set up for next month!!

Garden of the Gods

My family came to visit and we took them to visit Garden of the Gods and Cave of the Winds on Sunday.

My mom wanted me to take this picture as they look like dinosaur scales.

 

You can see the Manitou Incline in the background

Kissing Camels

This looked to me like a fish or turtle out of finding nemo...

New Discoveries

Finally got around to working on the kids' rooms and closets this week.  My MIL got them unpacked when we first moved in, but I needed to go in and sort and organize still.  

I originally took this picture yesterday to show how I definitely shop for my son and the color selections in his closet reflect this.  

I am also really behind on laundry at the moment, and have now done about 4-5 loads since last night.  As I am putting his clothes away this morning, I noticed something about his clothes.  Can you see the the difference?

Here it is side by side with a bigger hint:

All of his green shirts were in th laundry and seems to be what he gravitated towards first.  This is really making me step back and think because last night he was sitting there so sad right before dinner.  When I asked him what was wrong, he broke down and said no one ever notices him or pays attention to him.  

This broke my heart because I thought we were doing ok.  That how I showed my love for him was what he needed, but clearly his love language is different.  

I'm still sitting here a bit perplexed this morning trying to feel like I haven't failed as a mother 😢.  The clothing situation I can rectify easily.  The ensuring that he knows I love him and working on making him feel like I give him the attention he needs will be harder.  I'm still puzzling out exactly what he perceives is the gap and that I could do differently.  I can't play hello kitty with him like I do  with K.  Maybe I can play cars with him and carving out more mommy and R time.  🤔

One month later

Hard to believe exactly one month ago, we packed up our belongings and left behind our beautiful home and our friends in Northern VA.  I was devastated at the time to leave the area that I spent the last 20 years and to be honest wasn't that excited about the journey ahead.

Tomorrow, we will have been in Colorado for four weeks.  Life has changed in many ways and not so much in many others.   I'm back at work and trying to work 6am - 3pm.  This should hopefully free me up to be with the kids after school when they go back (in 22 days :-o) and also helps me to have meeting with UK and India easier.  kids are back in their activities already so that takes up our time again.

On that first walk before the kids even got to CO and we went to their school, we met by chance a man that was out there setting up for soccer on the school fields.  We called out and asked if there was a camp and he said no, he was a coach for the local league and was about to do a private lesson.  We got his contact information and R has been doing privates with him this summer.  It's been such a great thing for him and we've seen a huge improvement in his game.  I think this will be a big confidence booster to getting on hopefully a competitive league this fall.

K is back in gymnastics, although it's been a big adjustment for her and probably more for her momma and the expectations.  The meet season in CO for compulsories pretty much run from September - December and the Level 4 / Level 5 state meet here is the first week in December.  Their girls here have been training for Level 4 since January and K didn't start practicing L4 stuff until her L3 State meet season ended in Mid May and then she took off the whole month of June.  According to the coaches here, each week off is like a month off of their training with not using the same muscles.  All things considered, K is likely not going to compete L4 this year and is training with the developmental team instead of the L4 team (and she would've trained with the L6 Training team back in VA).  The upside is only 9 hours in the gym instead of 16 hours a week and then she will be evaluated again in Dec. / Jan. for next year.  She is happy though so mom will be happy for her too, they spend a lot of time right now tweaking her forms and the group she is with is her age group.  She just gotta get that kip!  

The biggest change has been all of the time we spend outside. We haven't been able to plan too far ahead, but try and look up hikes to do on the weekends.  We hiked Raven's Roost and Oxen Draw today.  The climb was pretty rough for me.  





At one point, K asked me if I wished I had stayed home today.  I told her no, I wanted to be with my family, but I felt bad that I had to rest a lot and was holding them back.  She said, she liked the rest too but didn't want to say anything as she doesn't want her dad and her brother to think she couldn't keep up.  What a cutie :)







I thought all of that uphill was never going to end, but we finally got to the viewing point and it felt so glorious to just sit and soak in the view.  I am starting to get an inkling of why people would enjoy hiking so much.  It's such a peaceful feeling to just sit up there and enjoy nature - until this bug bit me.  Then the moment was ruined.  Thankfully the downhill journey down was much better for my heart rate.

Sunset at R's soccer lesson tonight

R @ practice

 

Challenges

Feeling a bit tired and defeated today. I just want to sew, but there is so much boxes and bins to unpack before I can even make the space halfway useable. I'm also moving at a snail's pace today. Big ol' sigh!


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Life in Colorado - Day 2

Today, I asked the movers to make me feel better and tell me we weren't the largest load they've had to move. Thankfully he said they've moved plenty larger. 😝

One guy did say that the people with as much stuff as we have generally seem to work from home and have a hobby. We both work from home a lot and I have many hobbies so that upped the size of the load apparently! 😁

Hope they can finish unloading tomorrow. Thankfully our new neighbors have been understanding about the giant semi in the way!

Whew. I'm tired. It's been crazy hot here in CO so it's been rough on the movers and us. Now we are out to dinner to soak in some AC. I'm drinking water, coke, sangria, and when in Colorado- I tried one sip of Rob's beer. Still not a fan of the beer. The sangria is a white one (I normally like red), and it really tastes more like white wine than anything else. 😭

Better luck next time!!
Until next time!


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Behind already 😱

Today I should be on two workouts for day 5, but I'm behind and only on day 4.

I'm quickly remembering that working out is miserable and painful. My ankles hurt and I am winded so quickly. How pathetic!! Angry with myself today! 😡

Did spend time walking to and from school twice this morning, ran around playing soccer with my son for a bit, and then am now walking the track while waiting on his practice. My ankle still hurts and I can't talk and walk without panting for breath. Nearly positive half is being overly fat and the other is crazy bad allergies as I can't breathe very well right now.

What's going to suck is that I'm going to go home and be starving and probably inhale too many calories. 😠

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Day 2

Speed 1.0 has always been one of my favorite workouts. I am still sore from yesterday and barely eeked out the time to workout today, but I figured if I already fail on day 2 of 2 then I'm always going to keep making excuses. Harder workout than I remembered, but I'm glad I finished the workout.

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Sore!

I've been working on my Piyo sporadically, but started t25 again today. Alpha cycle day 1. It was not easy and I had to modify a lot as I'm so out of shape! I'm tired and sore now!!!


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Action Packed Weekend - Part 1

The weekend before (Sat 7/18 & Sun 7/19), my husband had another activity planned, so it was me and the kids since Thursday evening.  We got through Friday pretty easily - I took off from work and spent the day in DC with my daughter and a friend.  My son and her kids were finishing their last day of camp so we spent time exploring parts of DC that I have never visited.  (Will come back to our DC day in a later post).

On Sat, my baby girl (she may be 6, but she is still my baby) had gymnastics practice for three hours.  I decided to take my son (he is 9) to go rock climbing.

(sidebar: I haven't been rocking in 10-13 years since my husband and I were relatively newly married. I wasn't belaying him properly and he didn't let me know he was tired and was coming down and he just let go. Since I didn't want to drop him, I caught the ropes as best I could and ended up with major rope burn and blisters in both palms. I will never belay my husband again (and really he wouldn't trust me to do it properly either), so I've avoided the rock climbing center.)

Honestly, I was pretty scared to do this and my son needed some encouragement too when we got started.  I had to remind myself that I needed to show my son (and myself) that I could be a little brave and conquer my fears.  So up and down the wall we went.  It was quite a workout!  We both made it to the top of the shorter walls and then maybe half way up the top of the tall walls.

I was super proud of my son for his willingness to climb and then asking to do a week of summer camp there!

Here is picture proof that I was on the wall at some point.

Here is my son (in the blue shirt) - we both got to this same rock (actually he climbed first and I had to push myself to make sure I at least got to that same spot - whew!)

P,S. I did workout today (still on my Combat/Pump hybrid) and my son ran on the treadmill near me to train for his upcoming kids triathlon!

Pressing on

I completed Week 2 Day 3 yesterday (Thursday) late afternoon. Morning workouts are better as it's harder to get motivated to get down there and workout as the day slips away!

I am thankful that I was jet lagged for most of the week so I could wake up between 4-6 am feel and feel ready to go. Unfortunately, I think that is wearing off and I struggled to wake at 6am this morning.

Yesterday was Pump Challenge and Hard Core Abs. I've done Pump Challenge over 10 times now at least and just realized I've been facing my palms the wrong way for my chest presses :(. Maybe now I'll get more results :). I start out on 5lbs each side and then after the second exercise I went to 7.5lbs each side for the back and arms. I also raised to 5lbs each for the shoulder segment. My underarm area still hurts on the right side when I try to raise it too high, but I just keep pushing through. I should be able to start at 7.5lbs each side next time too for the squats! Excited to see progress in my capabilities!

As for the hard core abs - this is the first time I've done this dvd. What I haven't enjoyed as much about this set versus t25 is the amount of switching in coaches. Shaun t is the constant in t-25 and I love that. I'm constantly trying to figure out the new coach accent with pump. Anyway, abs started out doable but my back was getting sore - maybe from the extra weight on the deadlifts and rows earlier - so I concentrated on trying to not hurt it. It was a bit scary to hear / feel a pop in my back each time I did a crunch / leg extension so I was pretty careful and leery about the workout. Some of the push ups got harder too so definitely need to up my game and stick to this. Extra pain points from my fall where I bruised the back of the forearms so it was hard to lay on that to hold a move and then my bad ankle was not wanting to support my weight to do the side lift.

No pain, no gain - I just wish the gain would be more proportionate to the pain 😁.

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Forgot

I totally forgot to post yesterday! We had to take the kids out for swim lessons and it was pouring out so was just dashing about in the rain.

I didn't get my workout in until late in the afternoon, but I did get my combat 30 complete. My six year old did it with me for about the first seven minutes. I gave her some tips before we started so it wasn't awful, but her arms and legs were all over the place 😆.

I was really tired though especially my arms so throwing those punches were not easy!

On another note, I twisted my right ankle yet again after falling right inside the swim school doors because it was so wet. I twisted it earlier in Barcelona as well. May have to just wear the ankle support for a bit until I can get more stable!


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Wannabe

I tell my husband frequently that I want to be a runner. I watch all these people run by and I want to run. Why? Because all these running b***** are so skinny - surely if I run I too would be skinny?!?!? He reminds me that I'm not built for running. That I'm short and my bad ankles and flat feet would not do well. I already go to bed and wake up every morning with pain in my feet and ankles so I'm sure he is right (I just hate to admit that).

We walked so much in Europe (17k-25k steps daily) that my knee started to hurt on a hike we did so I'm sure knee issues would be next if I took up running.

I just wannabe skinny, but I love food too much, but running is probably not my get fit quick shortcut. There are no shortcuts for me so just need to continue plugging away.

Time to meal plan my 21 day fix soon I guess and see how that goes? :)

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Week 2 Day 1

Pump and Burn- my first time doing this video. Started a bit strange feeling with the live format, but it got a lot better. I did 5lbs each side all on all exercises since it was my first time through.

I have a love hate relationship with bottom halves. I hate them because they hurt! I love bottom halves because they must be working if they hurt so much?!?

I think next time on the chest track I have to debate if I go 2.5 on each side or if I try the 5 again. I need to add 2.5 each side to the third track (maybe arms/back?) and give that a shot.

On a side note- I skipped week 1 day 7 rest or flow since I just had a long rest from vacation.


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Productive Morning

First of all... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOMMA!!!  (I thought she was turning a certain age because I calculated her age from mine thinking I was 36.  My husband corrected me that I am 37 - doh... I guess forgetfulness is surely a sign of aging lol.)  My mom is an amazing woman, she came to a new country 30 years ago not really speaking the language, not liking to drive and she had to pretty much bring us up by herself while my dad worked in our home country.  Through all of this, she has remained the kindest and sweetest woman who would do anything for me, my brother, my dad, her family, and my kids.  

We went out to a local tapas place for dinner last night (coincidentally called Barcelona) as I was craving some red wine sangria.  While the food and drink was good, it's not quite like being in Spain.  That and I think having the kids there who didn't like the food (sauces) as much was rather difficult.  We tell our kids they can't live on mac and cheese forever and constantly work on expanding their palate.  They did try everything we asked them to even if it wasn't to their liking.  I do have hope though as my oldest didn't like any fish or non cheese sauce at all and suddenly started gobbling down salmon and pesto pasta.  I did follow this up with some tasty gelato that was around the corner because we enjoyed those on the many hot days/nights of trekking across Europe.  

I digress... either the sangria or just still trying to adjust to the time zone difference made me very sleepy.  Pretty sure I was fully out by 9:30pm.   This led to waking up at 4:30am.  My norm would be to read in bed and then fall back asleep.  This is not really a good idea as I hit another sleep cycle and wake up even groggier when it was time to wake up (alarms were set for 5:45, 6:15, and 6:30 as my son had to be ready for camp by 7am).  

This morning I got my butt out of bed and went in my disaster of an office and cleaned my desk a bit.  It felt really good!  I also got my to-do list written down and then went and got in my workout.  

Day 6 of the combat / pump hybrid = Pump Challenge.  I increased my weights from 2.5lbs to 5lbs each side for the final arm / shoulder workout.  I can see and feel my arms still shaking while blending my shakeology so I think it was a good challenge to my muscle.  

1 child off to camp and now time to get my 'work' day started although I may need to squeeze in a quick rest later to function.  

America's Birthday

Has it really been a month since my last post?  Shows how life just moves on by quickly.  My husband and I went to Europe for a nice break while my in-laws watched our kids.  We missed our connection in Frankfurt yesterday so we had to travel home on the 4th.  When we planned our trip, I did not want to be traveling on the 4th as I figured there were greater risks or more security measures to go around - the best laid plans and all that right?  We didn't even have to remove our shoes so I'm not sure how security was intensified, but we had an uneventful (thank God!) second leg home.  

Happy to be home in time to celebrate America's birthday and enjoy fireworks with the family.  Some photos from the fireworks display :)

Loved the purple hues of this one!

Back to reality and working out tomorrow!

Day 3 ✔️

Finished Day 3 Total Body Circuit. Barley. Really mixed feelings today...
- Proud that I finished even though I had a headache every time I jumped to landed. - Disappointed I let myself slip so far back that I'm struggling again.

Why did I start again? It was the realization that I've gained back 8 of the pounds I've lost. I haven't weighed myself since the day before my birthday. I don't think it was nearly as bad - was just the bloating from pms that added to the size of my belly that made me sad.

(I don't know what Pms is called after a hysterectomy though ... I still have my ovaries and hormones so I still get the bloat and major mood swings but no pain and issues.)

Anyway, I should go and weigh and take my body measurements again so I can see the results after I finish my program.

Eating and drinking better - haven't had a soda since Monday night.


Me post work out. It was tough today and I worked up a good sweat.








My workout buddy. He wasn't that impressed apparently. 😖













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Day 2

Day 2 is finally in the books after starting at night rather than in the morning like I had planned. Lessons learned:
* Need to just get my workouts in before I start my work day.
* Plan my meals again- didn't over eat today but don't have the energy now like I did yesterday when I spaced out my meals and snacks better.

Speed 1.0 while not crazy hard like when I started originally, seemed longer than 25 minutes today - think it was because of the lower energy!!

Ah well. I feel so much better mentally now that I can check that item off my to do list. :)


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Workout started

No more excuses 😅 - I'm 37, the oldest kid is now 9 and I'm nearly 5 months post surgery.

T25 Day 1 Alpha Cardio - check. Not quite starting over at -0 but definitely harder than when I stopped working out consistently. The first 10 mins went by pretty fast - the last 15 seemed longer than before 😝. Every time I wanted to quit I looked to the right where our old TV was and see my reflection and how much I hated my weight currently and it pushed me to continue.

At least it's over for today and my knees survived! Next is to eat well today....

What is your health and fitness goal for today? Whatever it is - do it early and plan ahead! I need to go plan those meals and snacks before I get starving and devour everything in sight and make this all for naught!


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After the Fall

Owie. I fell down our steps earlier this evening and my body is now hurting even more. I got cocky thinking I could walk and bend and scoop up stuff to take down at the same time and next thing I knew, I was sliding down the stairs. Taking an inventory of aches, I jarred my teeth, hurt my wrist, back, and butt. My biggest area of pain though is on my forearm where I must've hit the stairs the hardest. :'(


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