Today is one of those days that it is hard to get everything done. I worked this morning, taught my kiddos their lessons, did my workout, fed the family, and now I have to go to work again till 10 pm tonight.
For those of you on you fitness journey please know that just waking up and dragging yourself from your comfortable warm bed, on those days when it is hard to do. That discipline that you have shown in that minute is a win. That is a force of will power you used, that discipline to just get out of bed is a victory. That can carry you through the rest of the day to make the decision to do your workout, then the rest of the week. Making the decision to go do your workout is a victory, celebrate the fact that you decided to go and work on improving your cardio, strength, flexibility, or anything. It is so easy to say no, I don’t have time, or I don’t have energy. What is harder is to stick to the your routine, and have the discipline to go out there and get it.
Here is the workout I did today, and I will do this for Wednesday and Friday. I have Muay Thai and Kali Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
48 minutes, A 15 minute HIIT Run and 33 minute Weight Lifting workout.
(30 second rest between sets, and 1.5 minute rest between exercises)
I look goofy after a workout.
15 minute HIIT run (2 minute warm up. 10 minute Run at fastest pace, 1 min active recovery run, lather rinse and repeat, then 3 minute cool down jog)
Squat Thruster with two 20 lb dumbbells, reps 12, 10, 8
Reverse Lunge with bicep curl with two 20 lb dumbbells, reps 12, 10, 8 (1 lunge each side equils one rep)
Dead Bug Core, a.k.a. Alternating V UP, 3 sets of as many for 30 seconds. I was able to do about 18 per 30 seconds.
My arms are noodles today after this workout. Get out there and show the world what you got. Making a good decision instead of one that is easier is a victory, and that discipline will help you through out your life.
Enough of my rambling. Thank you for reading. Let me know if you have any questions.
You can make these at home, and I did. I made these for my family for dinner. My kids love these and they are super healthy. I made a ginger peanut sauce to go with it.
It may look daunting and the most difficult part is the wrapping of the rolls.
This meal is a bit time consuming but if you have about 45 minutes you can have these ready and tuck in.
This is a recipe that is easily translated to vegan, or vegetarian. This is gluten free, and really very healthy. One roll without the sauce is only 117 calories, and almost no fat.
Ginger Peanut Sauce – (yield:about 16 tbsp)
Tip:You can change this to vegan or vegetarian by using Bragg’s Aminos instead of soy sauce. This gives a similar taste but does not have any animal products.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup or 4 oz of Soy Sauce
1 tbsp or 0.5 oz of sriracha sauce
1 whole lime juiced
2 tbsp or 1.0 oz of crunchy peanut butter
1 tbsp or 0.5 oz of freshly grated ginger
1.5 tbsp 0.75 oz of honey
Directions:
In a bowl stir together soy sauce, sriracha sauce, lime juice, peanut butter, grated ginger, and honey. You can make this ahead of time and use it when you need it.
Calories for 1 tablespoon: Calories 23.75, Fat 1 g, Fiber 0, Carbs 2.9g, Sodium 431 mg, Protein 1.25 g
Calories for total amount of sauce made: Calories 380, Fat 15.8 g, Fiber 3.3 g, Carbs 47.8 g, Sodium 6908.5 mg, Protein 20.1 g
Shrimp Spring Rolls (Yield: about 15 rolls)
Tip:you can change this to vegetarian or vegan by omitting shrimp, and you can change the veggies used in this wrap to those you like. For instance a thinly sliced bell pepper would be delicious.
Ingredients:
2 lbs or 32 oz of shrimp
I package rice noodles
1 package rice paper wrappers
3 grated carrots
1/2 of cucumber grated
lettuce of your choosing, I used a mixed greens
1 Jalapenos sliced thin (if you don’t remove the seeds they will be hotter.)
Directions:
Follow the directions on the package of how to cook he noodles. In my case bring water to boil and then add noodles cook for 3 minutes. I rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking, grate the veggies, cook the shrimp. I just boiled them in water. Soften the rice paper wrappers as the package directs.
Assembly:
Soak the rice paper just till it starts to get soft. It will be slightly firm still.
Layer veggies, shrimp, noodles and lettuce.
Fold up the bottom end of the wrap over the filling
Wrap the right side over then while tucking the ingredients, roll over the roll and continue wrapping.
Fold down the top of the wrapper and it is complete.
This is the calories measurements for 1 wrap: Calories 117, Fat 1.2 g, Fiber 1.3 g, Carbs 21.3 g, Sodium 292.2 mg, Protein 4.9 g
Enjoy! I hope you like these as much as my family and I love them. Let me know what you think if you get a chance to try this.
So today I woke up not sore, but body was just tired. =) That is good. I put it through the paces last night. Two 5 minute conditioning rounds back to back is hard. 2.5 hours of Krav and Striking class training today.
Krav
Krav was fun, bright and early we got in. While working on some foot work we got to do a fun dump I had never done before. I actually took a video of this dump. We called it a sweep dump. Just by off balancing your opponent and then rotating along a fulcrum you can dump them pretty easy using very little force.
In this video you see a sweeping dump. First one is slower to get the steps/moves in. Second dump is more quick and more true to real life situation. I wonder what an assailant would think if they attacked a person and one second they are standing and the next they are on the ground wind knocked out of them.
This is called a 50/50 clench. Where I am controlling his left bicep, and he is controlling my left bicep. We each are controlling the neck head area. Then I step out, with my left foot, and with my right foot sweep his leg out from under him. I rotate him around the fulcrum created from my hip, and he is dumped on his back or side.
I have to mention I that this was filmed after I threw my partner about 30 times. It takes a toll on them and this is not comfortable for him. So all the love to my partner for being a good sport, and letting me throw him a few more times.
Striking
In Striking we worked on dealing with hooks, either high cover, bob and weave, and returning punches. If the hook is coming in at you from the left side, we do an uppercut, hook, then cross. If the hook is coming in from the right hand side we do a uppercut, cross. We could high cover, or we could bob and weave. If we bobbed and weaved, we would get a gut shot into our opponent and then we would continue with the counter punches as above.
We then worked on Pop the Leather, or basically pre-sparing. We do this with both the advanced and junior students. Where we do controlled sparing type training. We are told one person can only do throw the hooks, and the other person has to counter them by, high cover block, bob and weaving. We then return or counter attack with a hook, cross, uppercut, gut punch. The original person hooking has to parry our counter attacks and not get hit. We suit up in our shin guards, gloves, and mouth guards and train. This is different than our usual sparring, where everything goes except elbows. Those are so devastating and if we land them we can do a lot of damage to our sparring partners. So we take elbows out of sparing, and a lot of times knees as well, unless we have belly pads on. By everything goes I mean we get to do what ever combination we want to. Our object is to get past our opponents defenses. Not to kill them or hurt them, but controlled hitting. =)
I am wiped out. I am tired and want to take nap now. But I have some chores to do. I may do some laundry and just vegetate now. Thanks for reading this far. Hope you are having a wonderful week.
When plans fall through, you have bonus Muay Thai training, or at least I did. I got 3 hours of training in tonight. I have to slather my arm in Namman Muay Thai oil. I will do a review on it in the future. But I digress… I am tired and feel accomplished.
I meant to be out of town, and I was going to see friends. However, the friend I was going to go with had a family thing pop up and I fully understand. Family is always first, it is the case with me, and I fully support them. So I got a bonus training day in. Woot! This was not a formal class but a time in the gym when I could work on my form, timing, and get ready for an upcoming test.
Warm Up:
Complete 3 sets of the following
2 minutes of jump rope
60 seconds rest
2 minutes of shadow boxing
Bag ladder pyramid drills. You decrease the punches by 2 and the kicks by one on each side till you are only doing 2 punches and 1 kick each side, and start ascending again.
20 punches, and 10 right kicks, and 10 left kicks
18 punches, and 9 right kicks, and 8 left kicks.
Lather rinse and repeat
We all lined up at the heavy bags, and worked together on our ladder pyramid drills. One of our friends that was rolling in BJJ looked up and said, “woo hoo look its synchronized Thai. ” We all looked back and laughed.
Then we worked on right leg kick, right torso kick, and then a fake out right kick again that lead into a teep. This kind of kick to faint to teep is one of my favorite moves. I think it will be my bread and butter. I am short and therefore my range is shorter than others, so a lot of times I can create noise with my glove in their face, and then get a kick in without them noticing. This is similar, they are expecting a kick and then get teeped. Now I am not perfect at this at all, and it is going to require a lot of practice, but I love this kind of move. My feeder was amazed I picked it up so quickly. I have a lot to work on with it, but I find when it is something I find exciting, or fun to do I pick it up faster. =) Strange how we are like that.
We worked on the boxing 20. I have to get it ready for testing. I am still dropping my hands. I need to make sure I get my hand turned with thumb up to do my hooks.
We worked on knees, and a hop knee. My instructors tells us that everyone is bad at something. My bad thing is the long leaning knee. The one used to create distance between you and your opponent. I am just crap at that.
We then did two 5 minute conditioning rounds back to back with a 60 second break in between. First 5 minute round, we had to put the kicks in fast and the knees in fast. 3 kicks on on side, 4 knees, and 3 kicks on the opposite side. For the second round we had to do the same kicks and knees with all the power put in. I was gassed after the second 5 minutes. I hated them during it, and I hated the person feeding me, but that was just cause it was hard. But I did it, and I got it done. I kept my form consistent, and while I have a lot to work on still keep it consistent and being able to stay in the ring for 5 minutes each time is fantastic.
I had a blast and I feel accomplished. I got a great workout in while I was here. I was able to do two 5 minute rounds back to back that I thought I might not be able to do. =)
Thanks for reading again. I hope you had a great day. If you have plans and they fall through find something you love and take that time to do that.
Thursday Muay Thai and Kali, Thursdays are hard. The week is almost over, and I have had to deal with kids who are 9 and one turning 11. The 11 year old thinks he knows everything, and so does not need me to tell him anything any more. I had a great time at class, but man I come tired. I am not the only one. My class mates all come in on a Thursday and they all work, but you can see it on them too. Thursdays are just hard for everyone. Traffic around here is full of the “suck”. Fridays are a bit better, because if you have a regular 9-5 job, you know at least if you get through today you have a weekend. Not so much for me. I work odd hours and odd days, but even so Fridays are/seem better. Never mind the tiredness, we have Muay Thai and Kali on Thursday and I love these training classes.
Muay Thai…Violent Rainbows
Muay Thai today we worked on redirecting teeps into a sweep instead of a catch today. We then would work in a Thai 4 count. Sweep the teep, return a leg kick, hook, cross and same right side torso round kick. I got to work with a brand new student. Kru Krysta asked me to work with her. Its her first day, and would I work with her, because, “coming to a martial arts class with mostly men is very daunting.” Kru Krysta’s comment got me thinking. I had the same concern when I was starting out. I was scared to work with strangers, and stranger men. I have been abused in the past and it might stem from that. The fact that I don’t know how or what the person is going to react like when they get upset. I don’t know if the feeling of dread/worry about starting a class with mostly men is a learned feeling or if we just tend to flock to people/sexes we are most comfortable with. That is something I will ruminate on I guess. I of course was happy to work with her. We talked a bit during training, and she mentioned she had some bad times. I gathered what she meant and know that this training will help her confidence in those kinds of situations in the future. I know it has with me.
So I mentioned this in a previous blog post. Working with brand new students you take the power out of your elbows, punches, knees, kicks, and teeps. You are there to help them get a feel for the moves. Its our job to help them, and it makes us better in the long run. I remember my first day. I felt so uncoordinated. But even when you take the power out of the move you still work on your form. I got a compliment that my form on my kicks was great. Yay! *happy dance* I let her know I was happy to work with her. I broke a sweat a little bit. It was not the hardest workout, but you know what if I got a chance to make another person happy and have a good time it was well worth it. We were laughing and giggling like school girls while she tried to get the kicks in. It was good for her, and I. Favorite quote of the day is, “violent rainbows“. Kru Krysta came up with that one when she was explaining in detail to the new girl how to do a downward diagonal elbow. Downward Diagonal Elbows == Violent Rainbows
Kali… Silat – Puta Kapala
We worked on Silat again tonight in Kali. In my previous blog I talked about Silat. The short version is that it is an Indonesian form of martial arts, but used in Kali. We worked on take downs again, and I took some video this time of the moves. I went slowly on these moves for two reasons. 1) I am still learning this. 2) I do not want to hurt my partner. But the moves are catch jab, redirect cross power, elbow the assailant, knee them, step out, and rotate the assailant around putting their head were your left foot is. From that point keeping hold of the opponent/assailants hand you then put knee on belly, or arm bar them, and continue to attack. I like throwing, off balancing and dumping people. I am a short person and if your assailant is on the floor they are much shorter than me now and I can have the upper hand, or kick as it were.
Anyway that is all for today. I had a great time. I got to meet a new person, and work with them. I hope she comes back. I got to learn some new Puta Kapala variations, and I had a blast doing it.
Let me know what you think about the reason females like me would be intimidated coming to an mostly male martial arts class for the first time. Or do you think everyone feels that way and it is not just females. Thanks for reading this far. Have a great night.
The D.O.M.S. (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) hit me at about 3 pm today. That is normal for my body I tend to get D.O.M.S. at about the 24 hour mark after an intense workout. Yesterday I kicked my butt with my run (I ran faster than I have been) and weight lifting workout ( worked on more weight and harder compound moves). So by 3 pm today my quads hurt, my glutes hurt, my shoulders, my traps, and my core hurt. =) I take that as I had a great workout, and pushed my muscles to their limit. All great things. D.O.M.S. are micro muscle tares, that cause inflammation, resulting in soreness and can be unpleasant but are not anything to be worried about.
With that said, it can make a person not want to move. That is a normal response. However, I believe that moving is just what you should do. I feel I heal faster if I do a workout, different than the day before that caused the D.O.M.S.. Here is a great article that talks about D.O.M.S.
Here are some ways to mitigate those pesky D.O.M.S.:
Active recovery is my number one way, some say a light workout, but I say a workout that is different than the one that you taxed your muscles with is perfectly fine.
Compression Clothing, helps keep the muscles in place and help blood flow to the muscles.
Keeping the areas warm, like taking a warm bath, and if you add Epsom salts too that is great give you extra magnesium.
Fluid/Hydrating to keep your body pumping in nutrients and aid in repairing your muscles. Your body needs electrolytes so give it a hand up. Coconut water is great for this.
Sleep… it is the time where your body repairs your muscles the most. So get your Zzzz’s in.
Massage/roll out muscles – Massage is great, but being a parent and busy all the time I don’t have time or face it even the money to get a massage when I need it. What I do instead is roll out my muscles with various rollers I have. Massage will break up the muscle knots and helps reduce inflammation.
However, I digress. This is about my Muay Thai and Kali. Today I started out sore, but we worked on teeping and knees and some kicks in thai. Our emphasis was on controlling oncoming teep, countering it, and then following up with elbows, knees or kicks. Catching teeps with gloves is a little tricky, then pulling opponent over so that you can counter with elbow and a knee into the face or chest. It was a great techniques class today. This was not a heavy workout day for us. Don’t get me wrong I was sweating, but I was not out of breath. We are working on technique and we always learn new things, or ways to make our bodies do what we need them to do. Perfect for after a hard day like yesterday.
Kali/Silat (we study Dan Inosanto Kali)
Kali we worked on Silat today. Kali is a martial art from the Philippines, and Silat is from Indonesia. Where Kali we work with weapons, sticks, knives, and open hand. Silat does as well, but seems to this novice to work more on dumping people. Getting them on the ground to control their weapons Using your body to counter strikes, and making your opponent pay for their digressions, by dumping them on the floor, and then you can submit them, or just run away. We had to catch a jab, parry a cross, slip the parry at the same time punch/stab into stomach, control the bicep, and put your foot behind the opponents leg and dump them by leaning in. The other was if they get out of that, we practiced sticky leg, where we followed up with controlling the arm for a ballistic break of arm stepping up and over, breaking their base, hooking their foot with ours and dumping them.
So we started out with practicing break falling. Break falling is learning to land on the pads and conversely on the ground breaking your fall and hopefully not breaking anything else. This proved to be the scariest thing for me. I had a huge back injury some 6 months back. A herniated disk, so falling on the ground is super scary for me. What if I hurt my back. Luckily my Kru Krysta Scharlach is a fantastic teacher and helped me. Kept and eye on me and understanding that I go really slowly. I worked with husband all night and he helped me go down slowly.
I kept in mind all the things we needed to do to protect ourselves. Tuck our chins, land on the muscles of our glues and shoulder, do not extend our arm to save yourself, because that could cause, shoulder/elbow/wrist injury. Slap our arm down to disperse the weight, then kick out our legs to stop momentum. I am pleased to say I did more break falls than I have in 6 months. I thought I might never be able to do them ever again. I am still going to take it slow, still learn all I can about the technique and the move. Here is hoping this is a good trend and I can keep working on this. Learning how to fall will allow me to avoid more injury. However, getting over the fear hurdle is a big part. I am working on it, and it is easier with trusted partners, and fantastic teachers.
Well that is all for tonight thanks for reading this far. Have a great night, and if you are in my area of the world be careful. We are estimated to get 6 to 8 inches of snow. Be safe and stay warm out there. Please let me now if you have questions or comments.
Today I kicked my own butt. I pushed myself to my limit. I ran faster for my sprinting speed on my HIIT Run. I got another 12 minute mile in today as well. My thruster squats, were so difficult, I almost could not get through the 12 first set, then by the 8 set, I was dead. The renegade rows I went to 15 lbs so I could do the plank properly.
I Push yourself, its going to be hard. Its going to hurt. Its going burn, you just have to push yourself. Believe me I wanted to stop. But I am happy I did it. I feel great! I feel accomplished. Yay!
I try do this for workout on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Workout: 50 minute workout
HIIT Run – 20 minute ( 2 minute warm up, 16 minute HIIT run, and 2 minute cool down. I ran faster than last week on my sprint and my active rest jog I ran faster as well. 5. 4, and 4.4)
Thruster Squats 20 lbs each hand, reps – 12, 10, 8 (rack the dumbbells, squat, and stand pushing weights above your head.)
Renegade Rows 15 lbs each hand, reps – 12, 10, 8 (in a plank position row the dumbbells, one row for each hand is 1 rep.)
Individual Leg V Ups, reps 12, 10, 8 ( laying on your back v up with one leg then the other. Once each leg equals 1 rep.)
Bicycle Crunches, reps 12, 10, 8 (laying on your back pull one knee up, and crunch and twist your opposite shoulder/elbow to the knee. Once on each side equal 1 rep.)
Bulgarian Split Squats, reps 15, 13, 11 ( with the top of one food on the bench, bend the opposite knee to do a single leg squat. Do reps for each side. 15 left and 15 right.)
Burpees for 1 minute I was able to get 17 done.
I hope you have a great day. Thanks for Reading. Keep pushing yourself, keep being awesome.
Alright the beginning… that seems a good place to start… Wait… Let me just preface this with. Each persons fitness journey is going to be different. We all are going through ups and downs, and have to start and stop. It took me a while to understand this. But this is normal and it is a part of life. It is what a journey is. Not just a month here and there. But the entirety of your change for the better, and your learning what your body can do for the rest of your life.
Alright the beginning… that seems a good place to start. I was always an athletic person. I used to be a competitive swimmer. My strokes were 200 m Butterfly and 500 m Freestyle. What that meant was I was placed on a Medley Team and I was asked to do IM’s. (Individual Medly – Butterfly, Back, Breast Free) I cannot tell you how much I hated breast stroke. I felt so slow. I digress… being that I was a Butterflyer. I ended up with massive shoulders for a girl. Or so I thought/sometimes think.
Here is a picture of a person doing butterfly.
this is not me but totally what I did
That is what my back muscles looked like. Sigh… I may never get back there again. However… fast forward a few years in college. Life happens. I have problems with family, and end up leaving to be on my own. I jump into the work world and the daily trying to keep up with bills. I was doing well, for a 21 year old with a QA job. Life happens again, and I have to take care of myself. I made some bad relationship decisions and I had to iron those wrinkles out. I end up on my own and going back to school for Culinary Arts.
I meet my now husband, and fall in love. He is loving, kind, understanding, responsible, a sweet heart, soft spoken and a generally great person. All the things my ex was not. I am happy we are buzzing along and we end up having two kiddos. I was not expecting to be able to cause of female problems from the age of 12. I did not workout with the babies because I was scared of losing them. I was told I would never have babies when I was 12. I was scared, thrilled and excited to be pregnant. My baby boy came to us, perfect and healthy. He was 9 months when we found I was pregnant again. Bonus! We wanted a second, and we got one. My beautiful healthy baby girl.
Fast forward 2 years, and I have not been working out at all since college for about 8 years. I finished second college in 2007, and got my degree. Yay! I let myself go since then. I had life, and hazards, and love, and so many other things that people fall into the trap of, and put aside my health and working out.
Baby Gates Be Damned
I have two little ones one 4 and one 5 years old. They are under foot and around foot, and on foot, and on hip, and just need me for everything. I did not have the energy before this to do anything but make sure everyone’s diapers (or nappies for some of you) were changed, and all parties were fed and not trying to kill themselves by going down the two flights of stairs in our home. We lived and still live in a town home that is three levels, and kids whew…they wanted to go up and down stairs, baby gates be damned. I still held my jobs at night and took care of everything else for them during the day.
It was at this point when I finally had a chance to breath and got my head above keeping babies alive to keeping toddlers alive. I noticed in my pictures just how fat I had gotten. I hated taking pictures of myself so I was always behind the camera instead of in front of it. I had let myself go, ho boy had I let myself go.
That is enough of those pictures… you get the picture. Hahah… see what I did there. Eh eh eh…
Health Issues? No, Healthy as a Horse, Just Fat!
I decided I needed to do something. Anything… cause doing nothing was probably going to kill me and I was pretty miserable at this weight. Yeah I could eat what ever I wanted when I wanted, but really I did not like the way I looked the way I moved, none of it. I have been asked if I started my journey because of health issues. The answer is no. I was healthy as a horse as they say. Just fat! I had some criteria that had to be met for me to be successful. I believe in setting yourself up for success. To do so know your needs, and see to them.
Needs:
I had to be able to do it at home. I had kids and no extra time.
I had to be able to do it without a lot of extra equipment at first.
I had to be able to do it when I had little ones under foot.
I had to be able to do it period. I had to get this big body moving. This body that was not used to working out any more moving, and not hurt myself. I could not be down for the count with little ones.
I had to do it on a budget. I don’t know if you all know, but children are expensive. =) I love them dearly but they will cost you an arm and a leg and your sanity.
I found a system that met those criteria. It was from BeachBody.com and it was the Turbofire series. It allowed me to do it from home, with little to no extra equipment, it allowed me to do it with kids under foot, I just had to make sure they were occupied with snack time. I was able to make 30 minutes a day time to get my workout in. Either during the kids snack time, or during nap time. I wedged that workout in where I could. It was important to me so I made sure I put it in. I am not here to sell the workout, just to tell you what I did. It gave me a structured workout, with a calendar of what to do each day. I needed this. I am a type A personality and I need the check marks and lists. It gave me a structure to work from. One that I could do and keep doing. Here is a picture of me on a day after one of the workouts.
I started in June of 2014, and I finished a whole 90 days, or one whole rotation of the system. I even got the tank top to prove it. I changed my food consumption and I incorporated healthy good for me foods. I felt good and I decided I needed to change it up and this is where I added yoga and kettle bell to go with my HIIT workouts.
Kidney Stone
Wanting to get myself to the next level I restricted my food intake more because “that is what you do” and only allowed myself “good for me” foods. I ate spinach morning noon and night. I ate nuts, and veggies, and cut out most meat. I craved and loved things like beets. I would make a whole pan of roasted beets and eat it all for the next couple of days. I was losing weight and feeling great. I had lost about 40 lbs. One day I had this excruciating pain, in my abdomen. I was on the couch and could not move. I called my husband at work and it passed till it felt like it moved again. As the pain passed again, I thought it was just something that may have been temporary. I tried to ignore it, but that level of pain got me scared. That night and the next day I was passing what I found out to be blood in my urine. I was rushed to the hospital the next day and found out I had a kidney stone. It was 5 mm or 1/5 of an inch. So they had to schedule a surgery to get it out. Doctors were surprised I did not go to the E.R., but I have a high pain tolerance. I had to wait 2 days for the surgery and they said it may pass between then but most likely it would not. The surgery went off without a problem. They tested the stone after the surgery and found it was calcium oxalate stone. I had not been drinking enough water, and I was eating all the foods with calcium oxalate. I love them to much it seems. Here are some of the foods with them:
Spinach
Bran flakes
Rhubarb
Beets
Potato chips
French fries
Nuts and nut butters
These are all foods I love. Especially beets, nuts, and spinach. I was shocked because these are “healthy foods”, and supposed to be good for you. But I learned this the hard way. Everything in moderation, and drink your water. Drink lots of water. I drink about 3 liters a day.
I healed up nicely and got back to workout as soon as I was given ok from doctors. I was antsy and raring to go. I was worried I would lose progress. It was about a week till I could do something light. Then the week after that I was able to go back to my regular routine.
By September 2015 I had lost 60 lbs. I was over the moon. I hit a plateau and was upset I was not losing more weight. I kept up with the workouts and eating healthy. I decided to start eating whole foods. Cutting out all processed foods
Hysterectomy
We are at September 29, 2015, and I am scared. I had been having symptoms of cancer for the past 6 months. My OBGYN was concerned it was a tumor that they could not see, and I put my head down and tried to ignore it. Do you see a recurring theme here? I try to ignore my pains and keep going. It is in my nature, and I figure I can just walk it off. I could not walk this off. I was bleeding so much I was in risk of becoming anemic, and I was getting more tired and weak as I went along. I know my husband was worried, and I was sad cause I was thinking of having a third baby. It was a huge decision and I did not want to make it. I ended up deciding to go ahead with my doctors suggestion and had a full hysterectomy. She removed my uterus and my cervix. I did end up having a tumor, and adenomyosis. (“ Adenomyosis is a condition in which the inner lining of the uterus (the endometrium) breaks through the muscle wall of the uterus (the myometrium). “ ) My tumor it turns out was benign but it was one of these. “Endometrial hyperplasia: A condition in which there is an increased number of cells and glandular structures in the uterine lining. Endometrial hyperplasia can have either normal or atypical cells and simple or complex glandular structures. The risk for developing cancer in the lining of the uterus is higher when endometrial hyperplasia has atypical cells and complex glands. “ Find out more information at cancer.net. Mine had atypical cells and could have turned/developed into cancer. So in the end it was the right call to remove my uterus. Cancer is scary and serious don’t be me and stupid and wait. Just go get it checked out.
Here is a post I made on the day of the surgery.
Anesthesia is not a good look on me.
“I am awake and alert. I am doing ok. I am keeping up on the pain meds. I had a slight complication during surgery. They accidentally cut my bladder. Now I have to live with a catheter and bag for two weeks. Wee!
Thanks for all the love and well wishes everyone. =) My H is taking great care of me, and the kiddos are doing awesome.”
Two weeks of bed rest due to complications and cut bladder. I wanted to get up and do all the things but the pain and the discomfort made me listen to my body.
Come Hell or Hysterectomy
Turkey Trot Race I walked in 2 months after hysterectomy.
I had made plans and bought my ticket run a 5 kilometer. It was a goal I had set at the beginning of 2015. It was in November and was a turkey trot. I was not cleared to run but I told my doctor I was determined to get out there and at least do some of it. I was given the go ahead to walk the race, and my family came with me. My two children and husband came out and walked the race with me. I was in pain but I was determined to sort of complete this goal this year, come hell, or hysterectomy.
Three months of only walking and no lifting more than 10 lbs had me biting my nails to get back to my workout routine.
By December 2015 I was gingerly making my way back to my workout routine. I wanted to keep it up and not lose my momentum. I lost some muscle and gained a few pounds but was able to get back to it slowly.
Fast forward to November 2016. Here is the workout I did for that day. =) I still have it, cause I put it up for my friends to see.
Here are the workout details if you want them:
100 squats, no rest 100 lunges, no rest 3 x 1 minute wall sits with 30 second rest in between 100 pike sit ups, 30 second rest at 45, and 65 mark 50 leg lifts, rest at 25 for 30 seconds 50 leg extensions 95 lb dead lifts with olympic barbell, rep set: 10, 9, 10
This is what I looked like then:
If you made it this far, I am amazed. This is already a long winded blog post and I am only up to 2016. But thank you for reading. Keep up the good work, and keep on going. Don’t let little things get stop you and only let the big things stop you till your doc says its ok to get back to it.
1.5 hours of Striking class. I have had a really busy week and I really needed the sleep. I worked till late last night and was up till 12 am. So I slept in and missed Krav today. I am glad I did. My body needed the sleep.
Today in Striking class we worked on the Thai 4 count. However, to mix it up our instructor Kru Krysta Scharlach made us do it with right lead leg. Meaning in the South Paw stance. Just like in Kali, when you have to do something on the side of your body that you don’t normally work with it melts the brain. For instance if you are right handed and you train and make yourself write with the left hand. You have to stop, slow down, and consciously force yourself to make the moves. It is weird to try to force your self and watch your partner go through the same problem. In my case it is my brain telling me to throw my hook with my right hand instead of my left hand. Doing this you will notice several things, or at least I have noticed these things for me:
Your punch, in this case the hook feels less powerful, and it is because you are not rotating correctly. Your body is used to throwing the hook with the left hand and you know how to throw your body into the hook.
Your brain will say to throw a hook, and you will automatically with muscle memory try to throw it with the left hand. The problem with that is the way your body is positioned you will not have the power or the torque with witch to throw it properly so it will feel off.
When you start to throw the hook with your left hand, and realize you are doing it, you stop, so you see yourself and your partner make a jerking motion stopping yourself from throwing it. As your brain says “no no no use your right hand. ”
Because of the jerking motion you end up doing you lose some of the flow you have.
When you go back to your original stance, in my case Orthodox or left lead leg. It takes a minute for your body and brain to sink back up, but then it feels right and you can throw in your hook in a more accurate way. It makes you hyper aware of your body and its movements.
It was a great class and I had fun. We all went out as a group to get tacos at a local taco bar, and it was great fun. The waitress had to bring many carafes of water cause we were all sucking down the water after our workout. We tipped her well for being so understanding, and putting up with 12 of us thirsty people.
Keep being awesome and get out there. Move your body, and do the things you love. Thanks for reading.
P.S. I was talking with one of my friends. I wanted to let people know that I post my info on workouts, my feelings, and such about my workout journey, not to fish for accolades. I am documenting my journey. I hope it does not come across as fishing. Don’t get me wrong like anyone it feels good when people say nice things to me and an about me. But I feel like it might be helpful for people to hear/see that they are not the only one that struggles through their journey. I am not perfect, never will be, but I will try to be the best at everything I do. I try to give 110%, but there are days when I can’t. My body says no, and I am becoming better about understanding that. I am becoming stronger, faster and a little better all the time. =)
I just finished 2 hours of Muay Thai and Kali. I had a great time and caught a blooper, see below.
while I had a great time. I was having a hard time holding pads for my partner. I was not great. Toward the end I figured it out was able to hold for her. Holding pads or feeding pads is a skill in of its self. Holding pads well will make your partner look like a bad ass. We worked on the Muay Thai 4 count left kick, cross, hook, then right kick. Then we worked on the Muay Thai 4 count left kick, cross, hook, to left kick again. We also worked on the 1/4 step posting our hand on their shoulder and landing a left kick into their mid section to a cross. We then did a 1/4 step posting our hand on their shoulder to knee and right elbow. It felt good when a girl who had not worked with me in a long time, was amazed at the strength of my kicks. She said they were great. Much stronger than the last time I worked with her. Yay!
In Kali, we worked on something I have never done before. Punyo Sumbrada is what it is called. This is one of those days where Kali just clicked. As soon as I was shown it, and we worked a few reps in slowly I had it down. I knew it, and was able to do it pretty well with good flow. This was one of those nights where I was not having a brain melting problem. It all seemed to click. I was able to change from feeding the 1, 3, and 5 attack angles. In turn receiving the 1, 3, and 5 attack angles, blocking punyo attacks, and then also disarming, using the snake disarms.
It was fantastic. Here is a video of me working on the Punyo Sumbrada. =) It feels good when it clicks.
And then there are funny things that happen. These are contact sports/arts so there will be contact and sometimes the camera man gets it too. I was laughing so hard. It did not harm the person, just startled them, the stick landed in their lap, and knocked the phone over. Here is the video.
Thinks with Spinks 