My newest fitness purchases

I decided to order a few things for myself with some Christmas cash. I ordered all of these from Amazon. Today, I received my cell phone arm band I ordered. I hope this will work well when I'm running. It is supposed to keep my phone free from sweat and allow me to use my fitness apps while running. I'll try it out tomorrow morning.

HTC Evo shift arm band - photo from Amazon.com

TaeBo is one of my favorite ways to exercise. I treated myself to 2 new dvds with some Christmas cash. I was thrilled they arrived today.  I can't wait to see what Billy Blanks has in store for me! I had the honor of meeting Billy in Franklin, TN a few years ago after the flood hit Nashville. He came to do a session to benefit flood victims. It was great punching and kicking while Billy walked around the room pushing us!

Working out with Billy Blanks

Picture of me the day I worked out with Billy Blanks

TaeBo - new DVD's

Labor Day weekend

Long weekends are so much fun. I love doing things with my family and having a few days off work. I wish we had some sunnier days in the forecast but we need the rain and it will be much cooler here in a few days. I'm looking forward to fall!

I started the day with a hearty breakfast bowl, that was not very healthy. So, after indulging in cheesy scrambled eggs with sausage and hash browns, I got out my Tae bo dvd and had a great workout. There's something about kickboxing that makes me feel so powerful. I followed up my workout with a 20 minute ride on the stationary bike.

Now, that I've got my workout in I'm looking forward to spending some time with my daughter. I was hoping for a cookout for Labor Day weekend, but I'm not sure that the rain will hold off for that to happen.

What do you have planned for the long weekend?

Wednesday's Workout

I planned on going to the gym today after work. I packed my bag and took it to work as usual. I tend to have more success when I change clothes before leaving the office. Workout clothes - check. MP3 player - check. Running shoes - Oh no! I left them at home. So, since I had to go home for my shoes, I decided to do a Taebo workout there. My legs were very sore today from doing squats and weights a few days ago. I'm sure I groaned every time I got out of my office chair. I was hoping the kicking and punching would help my legs.

First, I did a cycling workout on my bike for 20 minutes to loosen up. Then I popped in a DVD. This time I chose an abs workout.

Taebo DVD

It was a very intense and exhilarating workout. Great choice!

I didn't really have dinner, so for my after workout snack, I had a multi grain waffle with peanut butter instead of syrup and a glass of Silk light. Yummy!

After workout snack

I'm glad I'm back on track with my workouts. It feels good to update my Active.com calendar and post on Daily Mile on my progress. I'm starting to see muscle toning that I hadn't noticed before. Even though it is almost impossible for me to get the scale to move, these little details are what keep me going! I'm not giving up.

Now it is time for a detox bath and a little relaxation. Ahhh!

Back to training

It's a lovely Saturday morning here in Tennessee! The sun is shining, its going to be warm today, and as far as I can tell, the end of the world did not happen as they predicted. I'm hoping to relax today since yesterday was extremely busy for me. I had cleaning to do, cooking, buying a new car, and a high school graduation to attend. I'm glad I didn't have to work on top of all the other things going on.

new car!

Whitney at Graduation 2011

Whitney & her band friends before the performance

Today is a XT day for me, so I'm planning on doing a Tae Bo workout. Actually yesterday should have been my XT day, but Friday left me feeling a little frazzled. Tae Bo is a great way to include cardio, strength training and flexibility into one workout. Soon as I have my coffee and a quick breakfast....I'll be punching and kicking to the max!

Tae Bo - I have several workouts to choose from

Must have coffee first thing in the a.m.

Kashi cereal with skim milk

Silk Light - my favorite way to start the day!

This Couch to 5k challenge has me feeling like an athlete. I never thought I would say that. I've gotten serious about the training to the point that I have 2 5k's and one 4 miler on my schedule for the fall. One in September, one in October and the last one on Thanksgiving Day.

5k registration - Women's Half Marathon/5k in Nashville

I also took advantage of a free Active.com training plan after registering for the Women's Half Marathon/ 5k a few days ago. I'm using that in addition to the c25k training. I like this plan since it includes email reminders of the daily workouts and motivational words to keep me on track. Also, when I log in my workouts, there are fields to enter vital statistics as well as b.p./ pulse readings. Its a helpful tool.

I hope your weekend rocks!

Week 2 of the C25k Challenge

It's Monday and you know what that means....Its time to begin week 2 of the couch to 5k training!

I was ready to workout after I got home from work. I got some new running shoes for Mother's Day from my husband and kids. They know what's important to me... :) I was anxious to try them out. I used them yesterday while doing a Taebo workout, but that's not the same as running. I posted this picture on Facebook, only to get lots of comments about when I'm going to run a half marathon. I love the idea of that, but I need more courage and confidence before I can get serious about it. I need to RUN some 5k's first, then maybe a 10k, and work up to a half. That's the plan.

Mother's Day gifts - running shoes & coffee shop gift card!

 

 

Taebo - one of my favorite workouts

I have done Taebo for many years. It is one of the most powerful and inspiring workouts I know. I was very thrilled last week when Billy Blanks daughter tagged me in a Twitter post. She actually lives in a town near me and I had the honor of meeting her and Billy last year in a benefit to raise money for flood victims in Nashville. I participated in a portion of a 2 hour Taebo workout with Billy in person. That was thrilling! Here's a few pictures I took at the event.

working out with Billy Blanks in Nashville

I made it through workout 1 of week 2. It was a little hard for me today. It could be that I was wearing new shoes that I'm not used to yet, or that it was so hot in my exercise room! At least I wasn't running outside in the 90 degree weather. I tried to increase my speed some in the beginning, but ended up slowing down after a few intervals. It's going to take some time for me to get comfortable with this. Here's a picture of me after the workout.

After the workout

I suppose I'll sleep good tonight! For all of those awesome people doing the #emwc25k challenge, Keep up the good work!

Busy week

I haven't had much time for blogging this week. It's been a busy one! I'm looking forward to The Biggest Loser tonight. Any thoughts on Season 11? I really don't like the contestants training with the unknowns being away from the rest of the contestants for the first 4 weeks. I don't remember the contestants since I haven't seen them.

My Tuesday ritual is to go home after work, eat a light, healthy dinner and watch my favorite show! I am also due for a workout today. So I will try and fit that in too. I did a Taebo workout on Sunday followed by a training run. I am still a little sore. I love the way Billy Blanks makes me feel so strong and powerful!

I took my daughters to Applebee's for dinner last night. It was excellent. I ordered a spicy shrimp wrap. But....I woke up in the middle of the night so thirsty. It really makes you think twice about eating out when you don't really know how much salt is added to their meals.

I hope you are having a wonderful week so far!

Christmas Eve!

Christmas is in the air! The presents have been bought and wrapped. Goodies have been made. And tonight is our family Christmas party! We get together with my parents and my sister and her family to exchange gifts and share a meal. The meal will not consist of much healthy food, unless I provide it. So, my plan today is to a) exercise this morning, b) eat healthy at home before going to the party, and c) remember to eat smaller portions at the party and to choose 1 or 2 desserts instead of sampling them all. Wish me luck!

Here are some pictures of my home with my Christmas decorations:

My Christmas card collection

Our Christmas tree

My daughter and I baked goodies last night. We made several different kinds of cookies, fudge, chess squares and chocolate nut clusters.

chess squares!

lots of sugar cookes to decorate

Its going to be hard sticking to my healthy eating the next few days! You see, I have a sweet tooth and it is very hard for me to resist all the goodies! Yesterday I did a Taebo workout. No one can work me out like Billy can. I feel so powerful after punching and kicking. So what will it be today....treadmill, 5k training, and exercise bike? That sounds good to me!

Happy Holidays to you! I hope you weren't on the naughty list!

Our new room

We have done some remodeling in our house over the last few days. We decided to turn our extra bedroom into our exercise room. So now we have our treadmill, exercise bike and other equipment in one central location, rather than scattered all over the house.

I don't believe I will be able to move in my heavy bag though, so it will have to stay in the garage.

We have also moved my fitness dvd's to this room. I think there is enough room in there to work out.
I'm glad we have everything in one room. It's much easier to workout without the excuse of it being too cold in the garage or not being able to workout to a dvd because someone else is watching tv. I have also noticed other members of my family taking advantage of the room to work out. That's awesome!

I still have some work to do on the room but I'll take it one day at a time. 

I did notice that I had trouble keeping up with drinking water today. I usually have no problem with that since I keep a water bottle on my desk and fill it with filtered water throughout the day. But for some reason today, I needed more caffeine and had the urge for a Dr. Pepper. I have almost given up soda completely so I found this a little strange. So after coming home from a long day at work, I managed to drink a few more bottles of water. My job was a little stressful today so I'll use that as my excuse. Mental note:  find better ways of dealing with stress than to consume hundreds of empty calories!