Insanity 56&55

I hope you all had a great Christmas. Our family enjoyed a wonderful morning of working out to the pure cardio insanity video. My husband and I woke up a bit early to get the workout in before all the gifts by the millions of internet users started being used. We do not have the pure cardio video, its the only one that the fitness center is lacking. I guess someone really loved it! Anyway we had to use one from online. Thank you to the blogger that uploaded all the videos to his blog   😉

Pure Cardio is horridly great. lol  I know that is a bit odd to say but it really is true. Its the hardest video we have hit yet and there is nothing but pretty much a cardio workout that will leave you passed out on the floor. Yet in all the sore horridness of not breathing and sweating to death, you love it because when you get done you realize what you’ve done. Even if you do it the easiest you can and with modifications galore, you still accomplished more than you ever thought you could. Love/hate relationship at its best. We were halfway through the warmup and my one son who is doing this with us, came down the stairs and gave us the look of death. So we apologized half winded and invited him to join.

The rest of the day we spent with my side of the family at my sisters where we ate ourselves to death. We probably totally undid what the video did but what a great day to have that problem lol. Had it been another video I”m not sure I would have felt good eating that amount. My son that is exercising with us got a pull up bar that goes in the doorway. He’s been doing pull ups in his closet and he’s getting too tall for that to work anymore. This one is great because he can do it himself and now he also has something that will hold his feet so he can do sit ups too.

I combined two days because we went to our old neighbors yesterday too and didnt get back until late. Today I”m stuck at work in the fitness center. Yes the day after Christmas..you can imagine the flock of people here right now……  *crickets*    I just slapped on some Christian tunes on the speakers and am blasting my God loving music.

Today’s insanity workout is a repeat of the first video we did the Pyrometrics so I am hoping I can actually get through it fairly well. I think the plan is for my husband to come up here once he is up and going and we will workout while I get paid, in the back yoga area. There is a huge tv there and a nice floor that should have us be able to hold the push up position a lot better than our carpet at home. We will see. I know he wants to change his tires today so that may take over his day and I may be forced to work out tonight. After I get off work this afternoon we have some errands to run so it wont be till about dinner time we would be able to work out.

Have I mentioned how much I hate working out in the afternoon and evening. I’d rather workout bright and early right after chores and then be able to take a shower and enjoy my day. It gives me a chance to keep using my muscles all day and continually stretching them rather than workout at night and go to bed only to wake up all stiff the next morning.

Well I’m super bored and its only 7:20 am…so I think honestly I’m going to nap here at work.

Happy Homesteading and Merry Christmas!!   😀

Insanity Day 57

Wow yesterday I was sore. I kept moving and walking to try to keep my hamstring from locking up but it was slow going all day. Not only did the muscles around my knees hurt from the previous days but now I had to try to compensate for this other leg. I decided to break out my old massage chinese liniments. There is an ice liniment, a heat liniment, and a combo liniment. I went with the combo. Its pretty much icyhot without all the extra crud you dont need. I smothered my entire back leg with it and around the knee. What people dont realize is your muscles have two attachment sites and if you dont put stuff on those..it really does no good. Because I knew anatomy I knew I had pulled my short head of my bicep femoris. I know.. fancy. So I made sure I placed liniment on both attachments of that muscle, set it in with some moist heat and went to bed. This morning I was good as gold!..ok about silver..ish…

Todays workout is a cardio recovery. We watched the video ahead of time last night so I could figure out if I could do it or not. He still does a lot of leg work in that video and its more of a yoga thing so I chose not to do cardio recovery. No way my leg would heal if I placed that much work on it. So today I opted for my go to core work video. I dont feel that insanity at this point was working my abs much so I opted for a Yoga/pilates mix from Crunch. I know…bad Eileen..its not from beach body..oh well Crunch videos are awesome and I have a few I love including this one. Here it is.

This is my all time favorite video for ab and arm work. Plus it was super great for my hamstring because only a few exercises actually use that and I could mostly modify with bending my leg and just using my glute. Dont let this cute girl fool you. You will definitely get an upper arm and ab workout and it is very comparable to the cardo recovery and I dont feel it is putting me behind at all.

This morning I asked my hubby if he was going to work out first and he said he couldnt physically do it right now. I know he is pushing more than I am but I know my limits and if I have to do the entire insanity program again I will. I love the workouts..well minus the cardio recovery really. But once I’m not in pain anymore I’ll end up dumping ellen and going back to the insanity and doing the cardio recovery.

Keep strong, keep fit, so you can keep

Happy Homesteading!!   😀

Insanity Day 58

SNAP! That’s what I heard, felt, as I was almost mid workout today. Not good people. I was able to do most of the warm up and all of the stretching. I thought I was fairly warmed up. I about halfway through the video. We had to do these jump to one side and touch the floor then jump to the other side and touch the floor. Well I was winded so I just decided to stay in a squat position and just alternate one side and the other..apparently not a great idea. I did something to one of my hamstrings. You know those things that hold you up as you balance on one leg to put on undies and pants..yeah that one lol. I did manage to mostly finish the workout though. I just was very careful and if it hurt too badly I modified even more. Then into the ice bath for sure. I’ll nurse it all today with a heating pad and ice and see where we are tomorrow.

Last night my hubby and I went on the look for a recovery drink. They want you to drink a recovery drink with a 4:1 ratio of carbs: protein. Of course everything you find at the store is opposite that. So after a day of digging on the net to make our own, trips to walmart, GNC, and walgreens we came up with a mixture of things. The main thing you need apparently is amino acids after your workout. We found a bottle of this 

<– which is amino acids and carbs.

We mixed it with this protein powder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has protein and carbs. When you add the two together you get close to 44 carbs to 16 protein which is pretty close to that 4:1..as close as we can come versus buying the actual recovery p90x stuff that is close to $60. That only gave us a 30 day supply so between my hubby and I using it we would need 4 bottles of it for the Insanity 60 days challenge.  By buying this we will save about $15 and we dont have to wait for shipping. Which you know isnt much but its Christmas time and new years and the wrong time to be shipping stuff. We might try the p90x stuff next round or not. I think honestly the creatine powder alone would be enough and just eat carbs. The only thing I dont like is that is spikes insulin it says to help absorb the creatine so I guess no more candy…except chocolate..thats not candy..that is my sustainable lifeforce lol.

All and all I feel really awesome..minus the leg. I actually woke up at 3am and wanted to work out. Maybe I should have lol. maybe that would have made the difference in my leg. The only reason I didnt was because no one would have believed me that I worked out at 3am   😦   Oh well..hopefully tomorrow will be just as great and my leg heals fairly well today.

Happy Homesteading!!   😀

 

 

Insanity Day 59

Well I’m alive. My hubby and I sat down last night and watched the first dvd. We saw many moved that were on the fitness test but it was almost twice as long and way more intense. We thought no way!!  We promised each other that if we ever were able to go through the entire video at the speed and intensity they do, that we would go out to eat.. At olive garden..salad lol. I have news for him I’m going to eat a steak with that salad!

Day 59 is the Pyrometric cardio dvd. I did it..all exercises..its just at a granny pace and some exercises I only got one good one in with fairly good form but I can honestly say I gave it my best effort and got through the entire thing. Good thing we do it 2 more times this week! Then right after I took an ice bath. We live on a bi-level home so thats been interesting having to actually use the rail to climb the stairs and limiting my journeys lol.

I kept my heart in the target range of 140-180 given the intensity we were suppose to work at.  Here is the range my hubby and I are using because this is for our age..ok well his but I’m only two years under him.

 

 

A lot of exercises were moderated to still give me benefits but to also not have me working so hard I passed out. Target heart range is there for a reason and eventually I’ll be able to get through this with a little more..um.. bounce and spring in my step. Even my son who is 12 couldnt get through the exercises without moderation and he works out a lot.

So today..end result is video done, sore as can be, hungry beyond belief, and super proud of myself for getting through the entire video.   Now…for a nap lol.

Happy Homesteading!!   😀

Insanity….

OMG this was stupid. I”m going to say this right now. In my last post I told you that my husband was going to do Insanity. You know why he’s really doing it?? So he can be as buff as his bestie who does p90x. Since we cant afford any equiptment and I work in a fitness center (I know you’re laughing right. After telling you how much I dont work out..seriously I do work in a gym.) We have copies of both p90x and insanity. So we went with insanity. No equipment to buy but we are missing one dvd in the series the Cardio Plus. We’ve decided to just do another dvd we like and feel is similar rather than purchase one dvd.

For those of you that dont know..Insanity is the toughest workout put on a dvd. Seriously. In the videos there are no fat people..there are no slightly fat people. There are only ripped people who have done this entire program and then recorded a video with Shaun T pretending like they are doing it for the first time. But eye candy Shaun is a big help when you need to stop and catch your breath.   😉    It is 60 days to an Insane you!  Day 1 is a fitness test. Let me just say that the fitness test is just to see how bad you are in the beginning so you can see results happening each time.

I failed the fitness test. Not only did I only make it halfway through before I about passed out and puked, but it took us pausing the video after each segment afterwards for like 5 minutes so we all, hubby included, didnt pass out. I already know from long ago doing the Biggest Loser dvd’s that I in no way shape or form will be able to get through any new dvd right off the bat so I took it as slow and I could. I gave it my best effort and never puked or passed out. I did have to rest for a long while between sets but I have a score on each one. Hubby ended up puking because I’m sure he thought he was a big strong man who was in shape and was sadly mistaken. As I sit and write this he is asleep on the couch hehe.

I unfortunately do not have the guts to post my before pictures. I took them, shuddered, and still hold a hope that it will get better in a couple weeks. The fitness test was HARD!! I have no idea how the hell I”m going to get through even half of the first dvd if I cant even pass the fitness test lol. We shall see. BTW if you are overweight at all, I strongly encourage you to do the Biggest Loser dvd’s until you can do them all the way through and they are EASY..then try Insanity. I however am totally INSANE…at least for the next 60 days. I may not be alive after a week to blog about it, but I will have died more fit then I am now!!  I will try to keep you updated as I go. I’m SSSOOOOO fatigued right now from this fibro that I could fall asleep for hours..but I have to leave to go to work for 2 hours. I hope I dont fall asleep there!

Happy INSANE Homesteading!!   😀

My weight journey

I’m fat. Yup I am. I dont really care much. I dont seem to have time to work out much with the farm and gardening. Plus now that I’ve started selling Usborne Books and I’m still homeschooling..its pretty busy. I’ve never been one to work out at all really. My whole life I was the fat friend. It sucks to even remotely try to work out because with fibromyalgia even farming puts me so exhausted I need to sleep pretty much right after chores. Chronic fatigue sucks. Anyone with it will agree. To exercise means to sleep for an hour and half minimum afterwards which puts a damper in your day.  Let me tell you about my pack of friends.

My pack formed in 3rd grade with the addition of the last member. We have been besties ever since. We have my friend Sandi. She is the workout gooroo. She is all about fitness 24/7. She’s the one you see running with short and a sports bra in the winter time. She’s the triathlon runner, the iron man competitor, the completely super skinny, no body fat to be found one of our group. The second is Jeannie. She is the one who can eat whatever and she never gains weight. She’s been skinny all her life. She never really has to try. She’s the one everyone hates because she’s eating a cheeseburger and fries and we are all eating salad getting fat lol.  Then there is Lisa. She was normal weight. She was active in swim team and gymnastics but didnt really work out a ton yet she kept her body weight. She rode horses which helped too. Just your average american who ate consciously and kept her weight in check.

Then there is me. My whole mom and dad’s side of the family are fat, like 200 +. My mom was heavy all her life and I had her body type. You know the one that looks at food and gains weight even if you didnt eat anything. We ate out of the garden and we ate everything made from scratch pretty much. The best ingredients we could afford. Our family didnt work out ever. It was a struggle for me to stay thin enough. In high school I weighted 130 which was about 20 lbs over what my BMI said. It seemed that I could try and try but no matter how much I worked out I never dropped enough weight and it became a chore.

Over the years the 4 of us changed. We grew, aged, had kids, but today our story is pretty much the same. Sandi the fitness gooroo, jeannie works out doing p90x when she has time but has small kids so it makes it hard. She is still skinny but no longer can eat whatever. So she consciously eats and is still skinny. Lisa still rides horses and is about the same weight. Eats fairly well and also has kids. I grew and grew and grew..but not tall..out lol.  I topped 210 right after the pregnancy of my second child. Took forever to drop the weight.  At one time I actually dedicated myself to working out 6 days a week for 45 intense minutes. I dropped down to 150. I’m 5′ 5. So my BMI was still overweight even though I looked really skinny. Looking back and pictures I actually looked sickly but I was “skinny” for the first time ever. However if I skipped one day of intense working out, the weight would come back on. My ideal BMI weight is like 130 and eventually by not hitting my goal, it became extremely unrealistic and unfun for me. So I quit. That’s when I went back up towards 200 slowly and surely until I weighed myself one day and went..wow..um..I dont think so! Then went on my Nourishing Traditions journey.

I’m not totally 100% following the Nourishing Traditions. I eat organic, homegrown stuff when possible and other months when I’m not growing it, I eat store stuff. I cant always afford organic but I still try to make everything from scratch. My weight has maintained at 185 for a long time now. Meanwhile I developed fibromyalgia, intolerance to gluten, eggs, peanuts in large quantities, all milk except raw grassfed, and cheeses except raw. So what is a girl to eat??? Well Veggies and meat. BUT the meat has to be from a grassfed animal only because I react to the grains that are fed. So that puts pigs, chickens, ducks, turkey, and any cow that may eat grain, into a category that if I eat it, I might feel bad. The more grain the animal eats the worse it is. Right now I eat grassfed beef only, pastured chickens, ducks, and turkeys, and no pork. I also eat rabbit because I can pasture them mostly and then do my own mix of fodder, hay and vegetables.

Which brings me finally to Insanity. Not really but the blog is getting long lol. Hubby has been skinny all his life…waist 29 since I’ve known him.  5′ 9, 150 ish..skinny, muscular..the opposite of me lol. He wants to try Insanity. At first I was going to just let him do it..remember I hate exercise. However after watching some of the results I figure if I can not die for 60 days I can at least look decent for a while until my body morphs back into this thing it is now. Besides I have about 60 days before my garden season starts anyway. Maybe I’ll be able to hoe faster and longer   😉

Start the journey with me..into INSANITY.

 

Happy Homesteading!!   😀