Category Archives: Weight Loss

Another Therapist Check In (or Showing Off My Happiness Checklist)

Posted on July 23, 2015 | 5 comments

I had another appointment with my therapist this week. Last time I was there, he gave me homework to do over the next 90 days (the number of days between my appointments). I was to make a checklist of 10 things that make me happy and track how many I do each day. The goal wasn’t to do all 10 every day (I don’t think I ever did that), but it was to try to make sure that I at least do some every day.

I did this for 90 days (my appointment ended up being on day 89 so I finished it the day after my appointment). And my checklist looked pretty full.

Old Happiness Checklist

I brought my (almost) completed checklist with me to my appointment to show my doctor. It was the first thing we discussed and honestly I think he was pretty surprised that I did it. He said that many patients start one and only keep it up for a couple of days and others never actually do it. But I wanted to prove that I’m taking this seriously and I’m not just going to therapy to get medication (although that is what started this process).

He told me to continue my checklist for the next 60 days (again, it’s the length of time between my appointments). I had to make a new checklist and I was allowed to keep any or all of the previously happiness items on the list. I decided to keep all but one of them. I changed shopping/beauty because while that does make me happy, my financial situation prevents me from doing it as often as I’d like. Nothing else on my list is restricted by money so I figured that that one was meant to go. In place of shopping/beauty I put binge free day. It’s a bit controversial that I listed lack of eating disorder symptoms as something that makes me happy, but hopefully my therapist will be ok with this.

New Happiness Checklist

After going over my checklist, we discussed how I was doing on Vyvanse. I’ve been very torn about the medication. It has helped a tiny bit (I’d say I’ve had many a 5% improvement) but I don’t want to take something if it isn’t making a significant change in my life. There are side effects that can be dangerous and I want to be in a place where the benefits outweigh the side effects.

My therapist seemed to understand my feelings and how I don’t want to give up on Vyvanse but I don’t know if continuing to take it is the right choice. So we are going to try changing up my dosage to see if that helps. I’m now going to take one pill in the morning and another pill right before lunch time. I just started this yesterday so I have no idea yet how it will really affect me or if it’s going to work a lot better. But I am very hopeful. I have to be since I know that many things can be affected if you are positive or not. So I’m going to remain positive about this and give it the best shot I can.

My therapist said that the best plan is to take the medication and forget about it. I shouldn’t make it the focus of my day (I wonder how he feels about me writing an entire blog post about it?). So if I’m supposed to forget about the medication, I’m going to focus on the happiness checklist and seeing how much I can get checked off in the next 60 days.

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Default ThumbnailUpdate On My Checklist (or Working On Being Happy) Default ThumbnailFollowing My Doctor’s Instructions (or Days Off From Vyvanse) Default ThumbnailAn Easy Therapist Check-In (or Virtual Appointments Make Things Easier) Default ThumbnailOver A Month On Vyvanse (or A Meeting With My Therapist) Default ThumbnailJust A Little Bit More Reflection (or Evaluating My Happiness Checklist) Default ThumbnailAnother Therapy Check In (or Someone Sees Progress)

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Posted in Food, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

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Being A Bit Of A Show-Off (or More Baby Steps)

Posted on July 20, 2015 | Comments Off on Being A Bit Of A Show-Off (or More Baby Steps)

I had a pretty great week of workouts this week. I might have only gotten 3 workouts in, but I really maximized them.

Monday was a really fun day. I had a friend come try out class with me! She had never been to Orangetheory before, but she was looking for a new workout class to motivate her. I love having new friends in class because if they get a membership then that means I’ll have more friends in class on a regular basis!

My friend was on the treadmill next to me and it happened to be a run/row day so the treadmill segments were pretty short. Because I want to push myself (and because I’m a major show-off), I decided to up my speed on the treadmill again.

My push and all-out paces have been pretty steady at 3.7 miles an hour (my base pace has been at 3.5). But I started at 3.7 for my pushes and then went to 3.8 and even 3.9 at times. I don’t think I can do those higher speeds for an entire class, but it’s good that I’m trying to add on speed for a minute or two. I’ve had issues with increasing my speed because I feel like it’s an all or nothing sort of thing. But it’s not horrible to have variable speeds throughout the class.

Since I was showing off at Monday’s class, I decided to see if I could push the limits of my push and all-out paces for the rest of the week. I was able to do a minute or so at 3.8 and 3.9 for my other two workouts. I even was able to do 4.0 miles an hour for about 30 seconds for an all-out segment (so it was also at 10% incline). I think I’m almost to the place where I can increase my push pace more often, but I’m still struggling with increasing my base pace. I’m testing the waters of 3.6 miles an hour, but it’s still a struggle for more than a few minutes.

Since Monday was a run/row day, I also had a good opportunity to work on getting better at rowing. Rowing is weird for me. I feel like I’m still struggling with it, but my coaches have been telling me that rowing might be my strongest thing. I’m great when it comes to sprints of about 250 meters or less, but the distance rows still make me struggle. One of the other workouts this past week had a 600 meter row and I had to take my time with that and that frustrated me.

I think this frustration I’m feeling is a real positive thing. It means that I know that I can do better and I’m not questioning myself as much as I have in the past. I’m still physically struggling, but I’m happier with that than I am with a mental struggle. I wish I could discuss this with my hip surgeon, but I know a lot of things I do aren’t really recommended. But since my hips are going to go bad no matter what I do, I figure I might as well work on my strength even if it might make my hips go bad a few months sooner than they would if I was cautious. Also, I’m been pushing the limits with my hips for a couple of years now, and I’m still doing way better than they ever expected I could.

Since I’ve been pushing myself on the treadmill a lot, I think it’s time for me to push myself with the weights. I’ve been using the same weights for a while. And I think the reason I’ve been nervous is because the weights I use look more like regular weights to me and the next set up looks a little scary. I know that’s probably really stupid, but I think that’s the only reason I’ve been holding back. It’s time for me to realize that I’m strong and can do more lifting than I have been doing. And by lifting more, I’m going to build more muscle which will help me in my weight loss.

I love this motivation I’ve found! I know that it can only lead to good things!

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Default ThumbnailBack To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!) Default ThumbnailMore Progress And Steps Back (or Trying My Hardest) Default Thumbnail5 Workout Week (or I Did It, But I Don’t Know When I’ll Do It Again) Default Thumbnail4 Workout Week (or Heavy Weights And Speedy Treadmills) Default ThumbnailWorkout Celebrations (or A Week Of Awesomeness) Default ThumbnailPushing Myself Enough (or Listening To My Body)

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

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Playing Catchup (or Recovering From The Beginning Of The Week)

Posted on July 3, 2015 | Comments Off on Playing Catchup (or Recovering From The Beginning Of The Week)

After all the excitement on Monday, I’ve pretty much spent the rest of my week making up for everything I didn’t do because I was focused on both the live recording and after party.

Obviously, the first thing I had to make up were work hours. Fortunately, my box office job doesn’t have Monday hours so I didn’t have to worry about that. But with my research job, I had to make sure to work a few extra hours to make up for not doing anything Monday (or over the weekend).

The research job is still trucking along. Things are a bit slower than I’d like, but my boss is totally understanding. I think that once I get all the initial work done and it’s more about maintaining the data I’ve collected, things will be better. Now it just seems like a race against time.

Even though I got through all the festivities of Monday, the podcast team still needed to meet up on Tuesday. We met at Lyfe Kitchen and I think it’s pretty obvious that we all were pretty hungry going into the meeting.

Lyfe Kitchen

Some of the meeting was a debriefing of how things went the night before and what we could improve on for the next event. I think most of us were on the same page about things, but I think that I also kept some of the issues I encountered too quiet as nobody else on the team knew about them. In a way that is good because I was the only person stressed out. But I’m glad I got to share them because we can make changes to prevent those issues from happening again.

We also discussed the 300th episode. Yes, it’s about 2 years away. But I’ve got to top what we did for the 200th so I’m getting a head start. I can’t share any of the ideas we’ve been discussing just yet. But if things go the way we want them to, in 2 years you will all want to come join us for our 300th episode!

I also had a friend of mine ask me to write them a letter of recommendation for Women In Film! That was such an honor. I took my time and wrote several drafts before sending it to her to submit with her application. I’ve asked for letters of recommendations plenty of times. But I never knew until know how stressful it could be! Maybe I’m just so stressed because I know how great Women In Film is and I want all my amazing friends to be a part of it as well. I’ve got my fingers crossed that she gets in!

Finally, I just had to catch up on working on my happiness checklist. I’ve been neglecting some of the things that make me happy lately (although other things have been happening almost daily). I see my therapist in just over 2 weeks and I’m planning on bringing my checklist for him to see. I want him to see that I made a real effort in the homework he gave to me to do for 3 months. I really am taking this seriously and if I want to get my dosage of Vyvanse adjusted (which I’m pretty sure it needs to be), I have to work on the mental aspect of my recovery and not just getting the “quick fix” medication.

That’s a lot of work to get done on an already crazy week! I’m glad that this weekend is a holiday weekend and I get tomorrow off from my box office job!

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Default ThumbnailChecking Things Off The List (or 4 Workouts In 1 Week) Default ThumbnailWeek 3 Of Orangetheory (or Pushing Myself Even In Extreme Pain) Default ThumbnailThe End Of My 8 Week Challenge (or The End Is Really Just The Beginning) Default ThumbnailRecovering From Thanksgiving (or As Always It’s Back To The Grind) Default ThumbnailFirst Week of Workouts After The Challenge (or Weird Workout Times) Default Thumbnail“Only” 3 Workouts This Week (or Testing A Pre-Work Workout Time)

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

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Getting Back To Better Food (or Finding My Own Balance)

Posted on June 11, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting Back To Better Food (or Finding My Own Balance)

After having so many days of “bad” food days, I knew I needed to get myself back in gear. If I didn’t, I would easily regain all the weight I had worked so hard to lose (plus some). I’ve been in this cycle for years (or decades) and I know that it won’t end on its own. I have to be proactive.

I’ve been trying to figure out what would be the best way to get back on track. I tried doing the diet plan from the cleanse again but that wasn’t working. I was feeling really sick and I couldn’t figure out what was causing it.

I also tried going back to my weekly meal prep, but whenever I did I felt like I wasn’t totally into it and found that I wasn’t satisfied with my meals. So I would eat something else (like take-out) or after my meal I would still eat something else.

I think that it is so hard for me to find a “normal” diet because I’ve never really had one. Even as a kid and teenager I had food issues. So normal is completely abnormal to me.

But I have to find my own normal. So I’ve been working on that this week. I’ve been doing research on food options and seeing what seems most likely for me to follow.

Basically, I’m back to a similar plan to the cleanse with many modifications. I’m trying to just have fruit for breakfast. I was hungry at the beginning because I’ve gotten used to bigger breakfasts (usually a waffle with peanut butter), but I’m starting to feel more comfortable just having fruit in the morning. On Mondays when I have a morning workout I might have something more substantial, but on non-workout mornings I’m good with just fruit.

Lunches are a bit more varied. I’ve had sandwiches, apples with cheese, or a microwave meal (I’m trying to stick with the more organic ones even though I know those still aren’t ideal). Basically lunch needs to be something that is quick to put together and easy to eat. And hopefully something that I can put down and continue eating later if I get a call from a customer at work.

On workout days, I sometimes have a snack after work. Usually those are pre-packaged individual serving bags of cashews. Those help keep me from feeling too hungry or light-headed during my workout.

Dinners are still a struggle. I know better options for take out that I can get if necessary, but I’m really trying to make more dinners at home (especially on nights that I’m not working out or going somewhere). I’m doing a lot of rice bowls with either beans and veggies or a veggie burger on top. Those aren’t bad options, but I’m hoping to figure out something else besides rice bowls that I like to make for dinner (and don’t make me wish I had something else).

These are baby steps in the right direction, but at least they are on the right direction. I’m hoping that I’m finally able to find a balance that works for me in the long-term and doesn’t just feel like a quick fix (like everything has in the past).

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Default ThumbnailFood Scheduling (or Trying Out New Things) Default ThumbnailFinding A Balance (or Eating Healthy And Fun At The Same Time) Default ThumbnailFinding My Way Back On Track (or A New Balance) Default ThumbnailFinding A Work/Life Balance (or Preparing to Not Be Unemployed) Default ThumbnailVacation From Meal Planning (or Finding It Hard To Go Back) Default ThumbnailStill Figuring Out Meal Planning (or Will Food Ever Be Easy For Me?)

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Trying To Keep All My Good Habits (or I Need To Get Back On Track)

Posted on June 4, 2015 | 1 comment

Why does it seem like whenever I make progress, something comes that sets me back?

Once again, my weight loss progress has stalled. And I know it’s my fault. I’m not doing so great with my food (again).

I tried to go back to my cleanse plan, but my body wasn’t happy with that. I was getting nauseous and dizzy throughout the day, especially during workouts. And those symptoms would last for an extended period of time where I didn’t feel safe driving or sometimes even walking (I ran into several doors in my house and got lots of bruises). So I tried to just say with a good “normal” diet plan with trying to stay in my calories each day.

It’s just not working. I’m finding that I’m screwing up almost on a daily basis. It’s  not as bad as it’s been in the past, so that is some progress. But these little slip ups do add up and they really are effecting my weight loss.

The one thing I will say is that no matter how bad I feel after eating “bad” foods, I’m still going in for my workouts. In the past, if I had a binge episode I would spend the next day or so recovering from it. And that recovery usually meant laying in bed or the couch waiting for my body to stop hurting. But now, even if I’m hurting or feel sick I still work out. I might not work out as hard as I know I could, but something is better than nothing.

And with this setback with my food, I’m also having a problem for the first time with water intake. I’ve always been someone who drinks too much water. In fact, I’ve had to monitor my water to not drink too much (that can cause issues). I’m still getting in close to 100oz of water every day, but that’s less than I’d like to drink. I’d rather be closer to 125oz.

I just bought a new water glass for my house online and it should be delivered in the next week or two. This one is a 24oz tumbler that is double-walled so I can have it next to my computer while I’m working and I don’t have to worry about the water sweat. Hopefully that will help me get more water in while I’m working (that’s been one of the toughest times for me to hydrate).

Even though I’m having these setbacks, acknowledging them is a major step. And stopping my bad habits before I get back to my before weight is progress too. The water issue seems easier for me to fix than the food one. But I’m really hoping that I can slowly get back on track soon.

Maybe all these setbacks and needing to get back on track moments aren’t really setbacks. Maybe this is just what “normal” eating is like. I’ve never really experienced that so it is a foreign thing for me to deal with.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Set Back (or Why Can’t I Just Learn My Lesson) Default ThumbnailGetting Out Of A Food Funk (or I Need To Get Back To My Good Work) Default ThumbnailThe Good Outweighing The Bad? (or When Will I Get Back On Track?) Default ThumbnailRoutine Time Again (or Getting Back On Track) Default ThumbnailFinding My Way Back On Track (or A New Balance) Default ThumbnailSeeing My Therapist (or Building Habits)

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Feeling Special This Workout Week (or Maybe I Influenced My Coaches)

Posted on May 25, 2015 | Comments Off on Feeling Special This Workout Week (or Maybe I Influenced My Coaches)

This past week was a really fun workout week for me. It was another 4 workout week which is good. And yes, it was another week filled with lots of rowing.

While all my workouts were really good this week, the highlights for me were on Wednesday and Thursday.

About a month ago, one of the coaches, Lal, promised me that he would take a workout class with me and be on the treadmill next to me. I’ve taken Lal’s class a bunch of times. He is my Saturday coach from time to time. But I’ve never taken a class where he was doing the workout and not as the coach.

Right after he made that promise, he hurt his arm. I completely understand injuries, but at the same time I told him that if I was injured he wouldn’t let me use that excuse. He would tell me that I could just modify what I need to so I can work around the injury (like I do with all my hip issues). He said that once his arm was better, he’d workout with me.

I saw him on Monday after my morning class and reminded him that he had made that promise to me and hadn’t fulfilled it yet. He said that he would take a Wednesday class either this week or next and he let me put his photo on my social media pages and publicly shame him and hold him accountable.

And wouldn’t you know it? It worked! Lal was in this Wednesday’s class. He didn’t let me know ahead of time so I didn’t save him the treadmill next to me (sorry Lal), but he was still there and that is what counts.

Of course after the workout I had to get a photo with him so I could let everyone know on social media that he held up his end of the bargain and nobody needed to bug him about the promise.

Lal At OTF

The next day I was back at Orangetheory for another workout. I couldn’t work out on Friday due to a screening I was attending, so I did a Thursday afternoon one. And I was so happy because Whitney was my coach! I haven’t seen Whitney in a while since she is the head coach at the Santa Monica location (which is farther for me to get to than the Brentwood one so I don’t go there). She seemed pretty excited to see me as well. In fact, she named the run/row after me.

Jen's Run:Row

This was not an easy run/row for me to do. While my rowing skills have improved so much over the past few weeks, I’m definitely a sprinter versus a distance rower. And to me sprints are usually 200 meters or less. So 250 and 500 meters aren’t that easy for me. I’m able to complete them without resting in the middle, but I really do get tired.

Also, the run (or for me walk) segment of the run/row was longer than it usually seems to be. So it really tested my endurance (which was the point) and while I didn’t get through all 4 sections I go to the final run segment and only missed doing the final row. I don’t think a majority of the class got through all the segments so I’m not too disappointed in myself. Plus, Whitney seemed pretty proud of me. I might have to start taking some Thursday classes so I can see her more often!

I also had a nice workout victory in my Saturday class. Lal was the coach then and it was another run/row day. All the row segments were 250 meters and Lal was pushing us all to do them around 50 seconds every time. I can usually get a longer sprint in for the first row but my time increases a lot over the course of the workout because I get tired and burnt out.

But I really wanted to focus on trying to be as close to 50 seconds for all my rows. I stayed between 51 seconds (my fastest) and 56 seconds (my slowest) for every row. So even though I didn’t get to 50 seconds like Lal wanted, I stayed pretty close to my fastest time each time. That’s pretty awesome for me.

I’m toying with the idea of doing 4 workouts this week too. As of right now, I’m signed up for 3 classes. I’m still waiting to see if I have to do something on Saturday afternoon, but if I don’t I might try to go for my 3rd 4 workout week in a row!

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Default Thumbnail4 Workout Week (or Getting Some Friends To Come Try Orangetheory) Default ThumbnailWorkout Celebrations (or A Week Of Awesomeness) Default ThumbnailCan 4 Workout A Week Be My New Normal? (or Pushing Myself Beyond) Default ThumbnailAn Easier Workout Week (or Ignoring My Head And Listening To My Body) Default ThumbnailPeak Performance Week (or Getting Closer To Some PRs) Default ThumbnailA Full Workout Week (or Sticking With My Plan)

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Back To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!)

Posted on May 18, 2015 | Comments Off on Back To 4 Workouts (or More Rowing!)

I finally had another 4 workout week. It had been about a month since my last 4 workout week, and I’m not totally sure how that happened. I’ve been trying to stay on top of getting in 4 workouts every other week, but no matter what happened I’m getting back on track this past week.

I thought with all the rowing we did last week, this would be a light rowing week.

Nope.

It wasn’t as bad as the rowing last week. All of the rowing segments were on the shorter side and some of them were just sprints.

I’m noticing that my rowing form is getting better each week. And I’m able to bend my legs in a more upright way than I did before (my legs used to have to bend more toward the side like a butterfly stretch during rowing). And I’m finally feeling like I’m able to row with very few issues caused by my hips.

I’m still struggling with getting the wattage up high enough, but that’s a tough thing to improve on. There are times where it is exactly where it needs to be, but it’s tough to maintain. So I guess I need to work on rowing stamina.

I also broke a personal rowing record. I was able to row 200 meters in 46.5 seconds! This was a new record for me, I haven’t tracked my 200 meter time in the past. And my records for 100 meters is 19.5 seconds so I’m not really sure if at one point I did 200 meters faster. All I know is for as long as I remember in my Orangetheory workouts I’ve been at about 55 seconds for 200 meters. So I’m happy with this new record!

Beyond my rowing accomplishments, I’m continuing to try to improve my strength work. Unless all the 15 pound weights are taken, I’m always using those for my arms, shoulders, and back work. And I did deadlifts this week with 25 pound weights in each hand. When I started, I was at 8 pound weights in each hand. That’s a huge improvement within the year!

My treadmill work is a bit stalled. I’m still at 3.4 miles and hour and doing my crazy inclines, but I’ve hit a bit of a wall. I can increase my inclines for my push pace (I’m currently at 10% incline), but when we have pushes that are more than a minute or two I find it too difficult. I did do 1 push pace this past week at 11% incline, but I was hurting after that. And my all-outs are at 15% incline which is the maximum incline. I’d like to increase my speed soon, but 3.5 miles an hour feels way too fast right now. So I have to be patient and maybe in a month or so I can go up to that speed.

But one of the things that I’m proudest of from the past week is how well I did with my 4 workouts. I was scared that my body had gotten too used to 3 workouts a week and that the 4th would be a big struggle. The 4th workout wasn’t easy, but it was a typically hard workout struggle and not the struggle of being too tired.

I don’t believe that I will get 4 workouts done at Orangetheory this week due to my schedule, but it’s nice to know that my body will be ok doing them from time to time when my schedule does allow it.

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Default ThumbnailSome Holiday Workouts (or Back On The Treadmill This Week) Default ThumbnailBalancing My Workouts (or Doing Some Planning) Default ThumbnailFriends and Rowing (or More Records In My Workouts) Default ThumbnailFitting In My Workouts No Matter What (or Last Workouts Before The 5K) Default ThumbnailGetting My Rowing In (or Burning Lots Of Calories) Default ThumbnailWanting To Run (or Focusing On Running And Rowing)

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Feeling So Much Love (or Embarrassed By People Complimenting Me)

Posted on May 15, 2015 | 1 comment

On Monday after my workout, I posted the following photo.

Post Workout Selfie

I took it because during my workout I realized that I did a horrible job of taking of my mascara from the night before and thought it was pretty bad that I had mascara smudges and sweat marks on my face. I’m usually much better about removing makeup pre-workout. I was also pretty proud of the workout I had just done, but I’ll share more about that in my Monday post where I recap my workout week.

Right after I shared that picture online, I started to get lot of really sweet comments from friends of mine. Some shared them publicly and some shared them in a private message. But they were all pretty positive and made me feel pretty great.

Then that evening, I shared this photo online.

Bedtime Selfie

I was celebrating having my new mattress in my house. It was a crazy morning having it delivered and the first time I got to lay down on the mattress was at bedtime. It felt like a hotel mattress and I felt so spoiled. So that’s why I shared that picture (also to thank my parents and Grandma for letting me have the mattress). I really didn’t think much about it when I posted it.

Again, I got lots of positive comments on the photos.

I love all the love that I got from everyone, but sometimes I feel like a fraud when people tell me that they are inspired by me or how they are so proud with how well I’ve been doing. I question if I deserve that positivity or if I’m not sharing my true self online (I hate when people only share the good of their lives and not the good, bad, and ugly).

I’m still struggling every day with my eating disorder. In fact, I feel like I’m struggling more than before because I feel like the Vyvanse should be doing more than it is. I wonder if I’m doing something wrong that is making the medication not effective for me. I wonder why I can’t have it work for me the way that the drug tests claim that it worked. Because of this, I’m harder on myself every time that I have an episode.

Sometimes I think that I don’t deserve people to be inspired by me or proud of me. People should be looking up to people who have conquered their struggles, not are in the battle with them.

And I’m sure I’m being too hard on myself. I know that I look up to people who are public with their struggles. But I usually look at them as someone who is done with the struggle, not in the middle of it.

But maybe I do need to look at myself the way that others look at me. I should be proud of myself for working out 3-4 times a week (a lot of people don’t do that), for continuing to battle my eating disorder (and not just give into it), and for just trying to do everything I try to do.

I’m going to work on seeing myself the way that my friends do. Using them as the mirror to see myself in and hopefully not being as hard on myself in the future.

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Default ThumbnailFinding A Community (or Online Motivation) Default ThumbnailPeople Don’t Get It (or My Comment On The Dear Fat People Video) Default ThumbnailFeeling Blindsided (or Being Tricked Into Believing Some People Are Good) Default ThumbnailA Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself) Default ThumbnailIs Helpfulness Out Of Style? (or Shocking People) Default ThumbnailBeing As Honest As Possible (or Making People Feel Awkward)

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Getting My Rowing In (or Burning Lots Of Calories)

Posted on May 11, 2015 | Comments Off on Getting My Rowing In (or Burning Lots Of Calories)

It had been a while since I had a run/row day at Orangetheory and I kept asking if we could have one on one of my workout days. I guess this week was the payback for asking for that.

Monday was a pretty normal day. Or at least as normal as a workout could be after going to the dentist in the morning. To be honest, because I was coming down from my panic meds I don’t remember too much about this workout. I know that I got through it just fine and I had moments were I started to wonder if I should increase my weights again. That’s a good sign and I’m hoping to start thinking about which movements I can do with a heavier weight and start doing that this week.

Wednesday was a run/row day. It was a pretty typical run/row set up and I was happy about that. Since rowing is one of my weaker things, I’m always happy to get to have some time to work on improving it. I still struggled with the longer rows, but I’m definitely much better at sprint rows (200 meters and under are sprints in my mind).

I did learn one thing about run/row days that I didn’t think about before. I’ve been averaging 3,000-4,000 steps in my workouts. So I know that I can get those added to my goal of 10,000 steps on my Fitbit on any of my workout days. On run/row days, I still will get some steps in, but it’s much less than compared to a usual workout day. So I can’t keep depending on my workouts as being a big chunk of my steps for the day. I need to get more done at home before working out.

Friday was one of the hardest row days since Hell Week. I don’t even know if you could call it a run/row day. It was just a crazy day.

To explain this the best I can, I will call one half of the class the weights section and the other half the rowing section. But you’ll see that that isn’t quite how it split up.

I started on the weights section. We had about 6 different things to do (mainly ab work) on the floor. After getting through those 6 movements, we then had to head to the treadmill. We then had a 90 second push (I did this at 10% incline) followed by a 60 second all-out (I did this at 15% incline). Once we finished on the treadmill, we headed back to the floor to repeat the cycle. I think I got about 3 1/2 rounds down before the 22 minutes were up.

Next was the rowing section. First, we had to do a 1,000 meter row. I managed to do it without resting, but it was so hard and I needed time to catch my breath after that. Once that rowing was done, we used a medicine ball to do 15 shoulder press squats followed by 30 static squat presses. Then we had to do an 800 meter row. Followed by the same medicine ball routine. Then 600 meter row and medicine ball routine. At the end of this 22 minute section, I just finished the 400 meter row.

That is a lot of rowing to do in one workout! Fortunately the vertigo I had been experiencing recently had ended and my sunburn is almost completely healed so I was able to really feel like I did my best during all 3 workouts. Now reflecting on last week I really wish I had added a 4th workout to my week, but since the past 2 weeks were tough on me I was scared to push it. But for this week, I currently have 4 workouts scheduled so I’ll be back on track to reaching my 2015 workout goal.

If anyone from Orangetheory is reading this, I got my rowing fix in this past week. Hopefully this week will be less rowing!

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Not Being So Hard On Myself (or Missing A Workout Goal This Month)

Posted on April 27, 2015 | Comments Off on Not Being So Hard On Myself (or Missing A Workout Goal This Month)

This past week of workouts weren’t my best, but I tried. Last week wasn’t my best week either, and I don’t like that these bad weeks are becoming a trend.

I’m pretty sure that a lot of this pain is coming from the fact that I cannot take my strong painkillers right now. I don’t take them that often, but I probably take them a couple of times a month when I have really bad hip pain. But now, I just have to make my mild painkillers and push through the pain.

I’m also continuing to make sure that I’m getting 10,000 steps in every day, and when I’m having a bad hip day (and not able to take my usual painkillers), that makes my bad hip days last longer.

Even with the bad days, I still managed to get in my 3 workouts (what I consider to be my minimum number of workouts in a week) and I managed to still make progress.

I’m now always at 3.4 miles an hour on the treadmill (except for when we have walking recoveries which are supposed to be at 3.0 miles an hour). I’m doing that same speed even if I’m at 15% incline. Considering that when I started less than a year ago I was at 3.0 miles an hour, I’m pretty darn happy with myself. I’m still hoping to be .2 or .3 miles an hour faster by my next 5K (which will be in November), so I’m trying to figure out when I should bump up my speed another .1.

I’m also pushing myself with my weights more. I don’t always get to use the 15 pound weights, but that’s usually because I can’t find them (those aren’t at all the weight stations so sometimes all the 15 pound sets are being used). But I have noticed that the 12 pound weights are feeling too light now. Just a month or two ago, I was struggling with those weights!

And I’m continuing to improve on my wattage on my rowing. I can sometimes get it up to where we are supposed to be, but my hips have a tough time maintaining that for more that 100 meters. For the longer rows, I just try to stay above 100 watts and most of the time I’m getting that done.

While I am making progress even during my bad days, this past weekend I did realize that I am going to miss a workout goal for the month of April. I had a goal at the beginning of the year that I would do 175 workouts for the year. I have an app on my phone that helps me track my progress and to let me know when I’m getting what I need done each month.

This month (after I work out on Monday and Wednesday) I will have gotten 96% of what I needed to do this month done. I can’t add an extra workout in this week, so I’ll have to be ok with 96%. There were weeks when I wanted to add a 4th workout in, but it just wasn’t possible.

But I know that I’ve got plenty of months left this year to make up for what I didn’t do this month. I can do more than 100% in May to make up for it and I feel confident in being able to reach my goal by the end of this year.

So here’s to hoping that while I might have another bad hip week this week, I still can make progress and continue to kick butt in my workouts.

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