Day 1

Yesterday, I had my appointment at the Chiropractor (lets call him the Healer) to go over my lab results and do this test called NeuroLink to see what kinda nasty junk I have going on inside me.  Of course going into this, I had no idea what he would actually be doing.  I like to say it's Voodoo because it just looks that crazy to someone standing there.  I can't even  really begin to explain the test but I did find it very fascinating!  You know, a normal person would have said "What is that? What are you doing to me?" I totally didn't!  I was just so excited to get it done so I could see what gross stuff is inside me!

Starting a new path!

WHOA, how long has it been since I have written?!? A long, long time.  My three followers were probably going into shock waiting. I apologize.  We have moved and settled into our new house and I have enjoyed every second of it.  I have been extremely busy regardless of not working anymore and it seems like we have had company almost every weekend.  This really threw me off my good-eatin' train big time.  I completely derailed once we got here. *slaps self*  It was all fine and dandy until mid-summer.  I was walking until it was too hot for the dog to go with me, and we were in the hotel most of the summer so I didn't want to leave her in the room.  The swimming in the pool helped a lot, but still I stopped working out altogether. I am ashamed. *hangs head*

Right now, I am just shocked at how I let things go and frankly embarrassed that I threw all my health by the wayside post-move.  I got so busy planning, packing, unpacking, organizing, enjoying shopping, trying new restaurants, and all the other stuff that wasn't real food/work out related that the next thing I knew, I wasn't happy with myself.  So many excuses, and there's no apology to myself big enough for it.

In late October, I met with my new Chiropractor and let me tell you, I was chomping at the bit for the holidays to be over so I could go back to him and start his Wellness Program.  When I say that, I mean I literally went home and ordered the "Eat Right for Your Blood Type" book that he follows with his program.  I am 99.6% sure my blood type so I studied that list inside and out!  I am planning to document weekly how I am doing with this program, so cross your fingers I remember to do it!  I am curious how things change and I feel documenting them in the blog will just help me see where I was vs. where I am in the end.  I probably won't post all my measurements and personal stuff because NOT YER BIDNASS!  Maybe I will after I feel better.

Enough of the back story.  Today, I went in for my first meeting with the chiro.  I learned what I will be doing as far as HIS wellness program goes.  When I go back, I will go in detail over that.  But for now, the most important parts are 1. sleep 2. hydrate with purified water 3. exercise 4. get your Vitamin D levels up 5.eat REAL FOOD.  Luckily I am slightly ahead of that and it won't be as taxing on me as some other people.  I already know what food/exercise is required of me. I know I should be hydrating more than I am and have been working on it.  For the most part I get enough sleep, but I need to turn it around as in "go to sleep sooner/wake earlier"  Sleeping at 1230am to 8am isn't really ideal for me because I still have to force myself to get up at 735am at my alarm and still lay there til 8am.  For shame. I know some of you are thinking, "what a lush, sleeping in til 735! That jerk!" Hey, it's better than sleeping til 11am...just sayin' is all.  I need to slap myself around and tell myself "workouts at 830am!".  Unless its walking outside,  then I want it to be mid day and hot! I'm back into my workout videos, so that's also a step ahead.

I also got the basic panel done so that the chiro can contour the wellness program for me.  Funny thing, most nurses can't find my blood veins and end up murdering my arm before they get any blood.  I warned the nurse of this, so she spent more time investigating my teeny tiny deep in the tissue veins before saying "I'm not going to try to poke you 100 times, let me get the vein whisperer."  She went to get another nurse who also spent a few minutes looking for the best place and got my blood on the first stick.  NICE!  Three vials of blood and some stolen urine later, I was finished with my end.   However, tonight I have this great blood blister from where the BANDAGE came off.  Huh?  The needle hole is red, but then there's this giant blood blister next  to it.  STRANGE.  Anyway, they tested for a variety of things that will be discussed next appointment.

With that, you are caught up on my current health crap.  :D I hope to get back into the blogging along with the other things I just gave up on.  I think it helps that we got the PC working again, 6 months later!

Back in the saddle. Again.

Man, things have been CRAY around here.  I have been so incredibly busy but now I am back and ready to blog!  It's been a very busy summer and my workouts and super clean eating all but halted.  Basically I failed my workout challenge I gave myself.  We were living back and forth between the old house and the hotel.  I did pretty well the first couple weeks at the hotel with the workouts, doing some swimming and taking advantage of the gym but then things got so hectic (and the chromebook broke down again, had to get it replaced) that I just had to stop.  Even though we had a kitchenette in the little hotel room, and we went to the farmers market on the regular, we still went out to eat a lot.  And we craved ice cream.  To say that I was knocked off my routine is an understatement.  Now that we are into our new house, and things have settled into a normal routine, I am jumping right back into our lifestyle.

Week 3.

I will not bore you with the details of this weeks workout, it was the same as last weeks.  What I will say is I CANNOT get into the Fire45 for the life of me.  I don't know what it is about that workout, but OMG I just glaze over and would rather run in place for 45 minutes.  Which I actually did Monday.  HEY! At least I still worked out.  And I of course did the fire drills.  Okay, I did some of the workout, but for the most part I just ran in place for 45 minutes.  I'm changing it up this week.

I did get a fun different workout in on Saturday, actually I only call it a workout because I got sweaty.  We went sledding.  Well, "icing" is the better term.  Thursday WinterStormQ mauled us with ice pellets, I kid you not there was three minutes of snow...the rest was sleet and ice.  It looked like a sno-cone machine exploded.  So, the yards were solid ice sheets.  We would step out of our door and get down to the sidewalk (which was clear, thanks Goose!) and step over to the ice, and we basically skateboarded down the yard to the curb.  Our yard is fun and slope-y like that.  So we  took off to the park with our sleds and dog in tow and had a blasty blast of a workout.  I don't know how many flights of stairs I climbed, but by today my arms are sore from the sledding.  We really had a great time because it was so icy, we just went on and on forever!

TurboFire
Week 1:
Fire 45
HIIT 25
Fire 60
HIIT 30
Fire 30, Core & Stretch 40

Chalean Extreme
Burn Phase (month 1):  Burn Circuits 1, 2, & 3
Burn intervals
Ab Burner
Burn it off
Recharge

Week two

Done! Well, minus the 40 min yoga stretch.

Monday:
Fire 45 --can't say this is really my favorite at all.  I struggled getting through it.  There's others I like better.
Burn Circuit 1 --no big thang! I pumped iron right along with them!

Tuesday:
HIIT 20 + stretch -- I NEEDED the stretch after this one! I was huffing and puffing all over! Love these HIITs!
Ab Burn -- all I have to say is ow.

Wednesday:
I exchanged Fire 45 for Fire 60, much better! I love that one the most I think.  Nothing was really dry at all afterward.
Burn Circuit 2 --not long after I finished this workout my arms turned to jello and my legs were on fire.  I call that a success.

Thursday:
HIIT 15 -- short, super intense.  I feel like I'm cheating on those but I know how effective they are
Burn it off -- this is real similar to a HIIT but a little longer and less crazy...good day for it and I really felt everything from the day before

Friday:
Fire 30 -- easy little workout to get my blood going
Burn Circuit 3 -- I only thought I was jello-y on Wednesday....

Saturday:
Okay, this isn't done yet but if I don't do it I'll not be able to walk.  Can't go wrong with 40 min of yoga and stretching.


TurboFire
Week 1:
Fire 45
HIIT 20
Fire 60
HIIT 15
Fire 30, Core & Stretch 40

Chalean Extreme
Burn Phase (month 1):  Burn Circuits 1, 2, & 3
Burn intervals
Ab Burner
Burn it off
Recharge

Gotta hold myself accountable!

Day 1 done...whoa all over again. 

Well after almost a year of not working out (please hold while I punch myself in the face for admitting that....okay done!) for MANY reasons excuses, I have gotten back on the workout train and taken off.  What a dumb metaphor.   Anyway, I can sit here and give you a long list of reasons why I didn't work out...but I will summarize with a few key points which all boil down to laziness if I want to be honest with myself.  And, lets face it ... with this title, I better just be honest.  I started out the year with some injuries, one involved my falling down the stairs that stopped me from working out, and I just got it all up in my brain  that if I went a week or two and didn't stick to schedule, that I had ruined all my work and should start over...which was dumb.  Goose was gone for 7 months (minus the weekends) and I just.got.lazy.(not to mention would have rather had TV dinners instead of making something for just me...STUPID!)  My TV broke, my PC started wearing down and becoming unreliable, my fitbit broke, worked again, then broke. Then my hard drive failed completely, the one I had ALL my workouts backed up on, including old photos and music, etc.  Blah. Blah. Blah.  All excuses if I look at it truthfully.  Except for the hard drive, that just happened.  But it was a week of tears and sap until I realized intelligent me had backed up my photos and music elsewhere....just  the videos were gone.  I suppose the last excuse was I needed to get my eating right squared away and get through the 30 day paleo challenge first.  Done, now what? GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER BRI!

Because I want to get old.

People who truly have jumped on the "healthy bandwagon" usually have reasons why they did.  I'm not talking the fad dieters who choose to drop a few lbs this month, or join a workout group for a month and quit after.  I mean the people who had their eyes opened right up and slapped in the face with "you NEED to get better for YOU".

Here's my reason.  I don't like divulging this as a conversation starter, I don't want to be pitied.  In fact, most people would never know or guess that I have a disease.  I don't tell this story for pity and I refuse to let it define me.  But it is a part of me, and a major factor in my health changes no matter how big or small they are and will be.

A very helpful tool: the tiny mighty Fitbit! UPDATE!

Get your own!

Back in October 2011, I decided I needed some help with counting my calories.  Not the calories I consumed.  The ones I burned.  I used Calorie Count for what seemed ages, but it only counted my caloric intake of foods, not what I was putting out.  It was ideal for food journals which works really well and I encourage everyone to write what they eat down but I needed more.  I also wanted something that was convenient to wear and would register my video workouts.  I had looked at some of the HRM watches (which I was skeptical about because really I just wanted to do the calories...I can measure my own heart rate thankyouverymuch), and even considered a Nike + Sportband but it only registered a pace walk, meaning if I am standing in my living room doing TurboFire, it wouldn't show up that I did anything.  I also feared that it wouldn't show me on a treadmill in case I get lucky enough to twist Goose's arm into one someday.  Thinking ahead for the future here people!