4 Weeks To Go, Bootcamp Update, and Clean Eating Extravaganza!

Let's see if I can throw anything else into this post, shall we?

I can't even believe there are less than 4 weeks until our wedding! That is so crazy to me!! I can't wait to be surrounded by our friends and family and so much love! I am so excited to see how all of the details come together. More than anything, I am hoping to be able to surrender to the day and not let myself get worked up over any hiccups that may arise. Those that know me know this is a big challenge.

Also, since the end of January I have been working on my fitness in a big way. I have been purchasing different deals at several fitness facilities and working out anywhere from 3-5 times a week. The eating in our house is already pretty clean, aside from the occasional shared bottle of wine or carton of ice cream, but I have reached a plateau which means I need to clean it up a bit more.

A few months back, JB decided to try to follow the Paleo way of eating. Basically, you eat only what people in paleolithic times would have access to. No dairy, processed sugar, legumes, or grains. It focuses on fruits, veggies, lean meats, and nuts (PS, peanuts are a legume, not a nut. This makes me sad. See why here.). As it is, we only eat lean meats (fish, chicken, ground turkey), brown rice and wheat pasta, and fruits/veggies for the most part, so this isn't a huge change for us like it might be for others. Back when he decided to do it the first time, I wasn't completely on-board. I was still having my wheat toast in the morning and my greek yogurt for a snack. It really helped to jump start the change in my body with the workouts and I am hoping that it will help push me past this stupid plateau.

Monday I bought the book, Everyday Paleo, by Sarah Fragoso. It has quick and easy recipes with each having just a few different ingredients (I don't know about you, but if there are more than like 5 or 6 ingredients and zillion steps, I pass that recipe right up.), a 30 day meal plan including the shopping lists you will need for each week, and workouts for everyone from beginners to pros. It is very family friendly and helps you introduce your kids to a paleo lifestyle too. I have already tried a couple of the recipes and they are delicious!!

The most important component of eating like this is planning ahead.  We started a menu board so shopping for the week's dinners is easy and I put the page numbers of the recipes next to them so JB can start dinner before I get home if he wants to.  I also hard boiled a dozen eggs to grab for breakfast or snacks and pre-cut some veggies for snacks as well.  Of course I am going to have to derail for my bachelorette party this weekend, but I will be back on track Monday morning.

Bootcamp is currently in the 5th week, which means after this week, I only have one more to go! I was really hoping to get after it and work out 5 days a week and sometimes twice a day, but I hit a major slump during this bootcamp for some reason. I have not been feeling it. I think 6 weeks is too long for me now. I am so used to changing things up every 4 weeks that this is just taking forever.  It could also be that I am just feeling stressed and overwhelmed with everything to get done before the wedding, who knows?

The camp is held outside at a local park.  We started with a lot of women and it has dwindled week by week to a comfortable small group size.  Each workout is an hour long and we use sand bags and resistance bands and do a lot of body weight exercises for our workouts.  The workouts are mostly like circuit training, but somedays they throw in yoga.  We had to run a timed mile and I came in at 8:32.  I was the first one to finish!  I'm not a distance runner, so for me, I will take 8:32.  My 5K pace is usually around 10:00.  We were supposed to run it again to see if we could beat our previous time, but I think I missed the day they did it again because I came a different day that week.  I don't really think I could have beaten that time anyway.

How was that for a super jumbled, word-vomit post?  And PS, WTF is going on with Blogger lately?  I can't leave comments on people's blogs and the followers are missing.  Stupid.

New Month, New Camp

I started a new camp last night and it's awesome! I have had my eye on this place for about a year, but their camps are normally way out of my price range. When I saw they were doing the March camp for just $99, I had to jump on it. Usually I can talk someone into trying it out with me so I don't have to show up alone, but this time I couldn't find anyone. I almost didn't sign up because I was nervous to do it by myself, but JB talked me into it and I am so glad he did!

Back in December I bought a Groupon for this place which got me a free 30 minute personal session and a free group class. Little did I know that when I went in for my personal session, I would actually meet/train with the owners. They were both awesome! Learning the basics with the guy who developed the program was pretty intense, but he was really nice and somewhat patient, LOL!

The camp requires a jump rope, hand wraps, and boxing gloves. Of course my wraps and gloves are pink, but I couldn't find a pink rope. Sad face. The class is 45 minutes long, which is just long enough to get in a great sweat, but not so long that you are looking at the clock wondering when it's going to end. We started with a few minutes of jumping rope to warm up. After that we put on our gloves and headed over to the heavy bags for some combos. The rest of the class consisted of some pushups, ab work, squats and lunges, and then we finished with some more rope. I don't know that the class has the same format every time, so more to come on that.

My back is sore today, but it's probably a combination of my workout from Saturday and my workout last night. The camp is M,W,Th at 5:30, which is really convenient since they are right down the street from my work. I am excited to have a camp that is heavy on the cardio, since the treadmill and other cardio machines just don't do it for me. I am going to try to fit in some strength training on my off days, either at the gym at work or with Jillian Michaels at home.

I'm tempted to post some before and after pics as well. What do you think?

Boot Camp is Over, Now What?

As you all know, I have been singing the praises of Sacramento Downtown Adventure Boot Camp since I started in April. I even got a couple of friends to join in the "fun" and develop the same love/hate relationship. However, this last month was more of just a hate relationship for me, so I am hanging up my boot camp hat for now. I just got really burned out driving downtown and getting home late and dealing with the heat. The heat was a big issue for me as it kept me from having the energy to give my all. I would leave camp pissed off and frustrated with myself for acting like a little bitch. Not to mention, with other things I am currently saving money for, I don't have the funds to support this habbit.



I really wanted to try out Prime Time Boxing, since they have a location close to home and my work and they have morning camps I could actually go to before work (if I could get my ass out of bed). They do 4 week camps as well, all indoors that are focused on boxing training and workouts. It's non-contact, so I don't have to worry about breaking someone's face (okay, having mine broken). I really enjoy the kickboxing classes at the gym (although I realize boxing is a lot different), so I figured this would be a fun way to switch things up for a while. JB and I stopped in one day on the way home and checked the place out. The pricing was way too much for me to justify right now ($249 for one month) so until I can afford it, which will probably be next summer, I will have to figure out something else.



The boot camp we have been doing focuses more on functional strength training than it does on cardio. But since I get home so late 3 nights a week and am completely exhausted on the other days, I haven't really been able to work that in so much. My muscles are definitely there, now I just need to remove the layer that is covering them. So, for the next month I will be alternating the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred video, getting up in the morning to do it before work, and fitting in some cardio either at lunch or after work. This means I can still get my fitness in and get home at a decent hour to take care of the rest of my life.



I have enlisted JB's help to get me out of bed in the mornings, because I really can't seem to do it on my own. Since the workouts are only 25 minutes from warm up to cool down, I don't have to get up a whole lot earlier and I can start my day on an awesome note. I also have her cardio DVD to do on the weekends. :) Plus, I found a lunch buddy to do cardio with in the gym downstaris at our office. Everything is better with a buddy!

Back To Boot Camp

So, after a month off to let my shoulder heal (I disclocated it near the end of May during boot camp) I am back in the game. With about a million other women. Apparently the guys decided to run a coupon on Groupon.com for new members to pay $35 for a month of camp and sold 609 of them. WTF? Our 6pm MWF class used to have like 7 people and now has 60. Pretty crazy. They have done a good job of organizing it so far and Tiff and Melissa and I can be used as examples and demos for different exercises and activities. It will be interesting to see how many people actually stick out the whole month and pay full price to come back next month.

Two of those people that got roped into boot camp are friends Callie, aka Skanky Pants, and Brittany (click for her comical take on camp) aka BLee. This boot camp is tough, and after listening to me about it for two months straight and trying to recruit these girls, I am proud that they finally decided to go for it. I think they will find out that they are stronger than they thought they were.

The first night of camp was on Tuesday since Monday was a holiday for most. I definitely regretted taking that month off during Tuesday's session. My recovery rate was terrible and I could not get my heart rate to slow between exercises which made me dizzy and out of breath. I wasn't feeling too sore yesterday and it seemed that my stamina was already starting to bounce back since I was able to make it through the agility circuits pretty well. Having to deal with the heat is definitely different now, so I am trying to adjust to that and stay in the shade as much as possible. I felt really good when we were done yesterday....

And then I woke up this morning.

I reached for my snooze button and almost cried out in pain. Then JB wanted to cuddle for a minute and I whimpered as I tried to turn over without using most of my muscle groups. Not.Even.Possible. Pretty much my favorite thing to do when my core is this sore is sneeze (insert sarcasm here). I don't know what hurts worse than contracting all of your sore core muscles unintentionally and not being able to stop it. Awesomeness.

Let this be a lesson to you folks not to take a month off of your fitness regimen as you will suffer serious consequences. It was nice to make it to some turbo kickboxing and lift classes at the gym, but it's just not the same as someone kicking your ass 3 days a week.

Adventure Boot Camp

Summer is almost here and we know what that means....BATHING SUITS!!!

After my last experience with boot camp, I can definitely say I was in the best shape I have been in since high school, probably better. So what better way to get my a$$ back in gear than to do another one? I had to wait for my tax return and for the weather to get a little better, but after months of being a slacker, I think this will do the trick.

My friend Tiffany (aka GF) and I were at the bridal expo in February and these guys had a booth there. I kept receiving emails from them and finally got one that offered to let me come try a class during their week between sessions. I rounded up a couple of friends and tried it out. Keep in mind I have only really been doing cardio. I tried the P90X thing for a while, but with the time commitment and my commute, it didn't really work out for me. The last boot camp required bringing three different size hand weights, but this one didn't say anything about that, so I was a little skeptical at first.

Boy was I wrong!

We started out with some light stretching and then a couple of laps around the school yard (it's held at an elementary school downtown) and then we got right to work. We did some stuff in the plank position that also worked our upper body somewhat, but most of the exercises are targeting the upper and lower body at the same time. We did a circuit of three excercises with the hand weights and squats three times, but then moved on to these Turkish sand bag things. Imagine kettle bells, but it's a intertube cut in half, filled with sand and duct taped at both ends for closure and handles. We did a circuit of three different exercises with this, using upper and lower body three times, finishing the class with an ab circuit. Once again, three different exercises, three times. I was a little wobbly after class, so I knew I was in for a real treat in the coming days.

I was already tight and starting to get sore that night before bed. The next day, my legs got tighter as the day progressed. All of the muscles in my back and rib cage were sore, so I couldn't take deep breaths very easily, and my triceps were tight. Boot camp was on Wednesday and by Friday, I was practically immobile. Not only were my legs and glutes so tight and sore that I could barely get up and down in my chair (going to the bathroom was a real treat), but my triceps were so wrecked that I couldn't use my arms for support.

I immediately went online and signed up for the month of April. :)

Some/all of you may think I am crazy, but I know this is exactly what I need to get where I hope to be. Even though JB is a trainer, I don't let him push me as hard as he should. In the release, we had to initial that we would not drink alcohol for the month of boot camp and stay away from sweets. I am not a big sweets person, but the drinking might be a little tough. Especially since I have some friends coming to visit and a camping trip planned. I know how to cut it out for the most part, and make wiser choices when I do drink, so that is the route I will go. Our overall eating has been pretty good, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep that up. And after I finish the camp, I can get back to working out the way I was last year before I started the first camp and keep myself in shape that way.

I will try to update with specific workouts that we did so those of you that want to can try it at home :)