Insanity-Day 3

Holy crap. What have I gotten myself in to?? Today's workout was Cardio Power. Just the name of it should scare me away, but I figured it was just a bit of bravado and market posturing. Nuh uh.

Again, I have this twisted mindset when I workout. I think I'm Superwoman or something. I guess that's a good thing in some ways because it helps me push myself instead of getting down on myself, thinking I'm not capable of doing it. So, I started out thinking "I can do this! I may be tired, and I may not be able to do as many, but I should be able to finish each workout."

Boy, did Shaun T. show me! I didn't finish a single workout without taking a break for EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. I refilled my water cup THREE times and lost probably twice that in sweat. I was tired, sweaty and suffering from some serious muscle fatigue. Honestly, I haven't had a shower feel that amazing since I got home from the hospital after having Geordi.

I decided to take advantage of the overcast/rainy day and the remainder of Geordi's nap and curl up in my bed and die. As is custom, Geordi woke up early, the second my head hit the pillow. So, I sucked it up, got up, and went about the rest of my day. By the end of the night, I could feel the soreness setting in. My legs burn and my abs tingle (no crunches!).

I blissfully climbed into my comfy bed tonight, dreading what tomorrow morning would bring.

Insanity-Day2

Yeah... I skipped my workout today. Not entirely out of choice. Just one thing led to another and before I knew it, it was 10:00 pm and I was saying to Riker "Ugh. I really need to do my workout video." He looked at me like I had lost my mind. I probably had, thinking I was going to do anything at that hour. So I didn't and went to sleep instead :P

One thing I thought was interesting though was that I wasn't terribly sore today. I guess I really shouldn't be since yesterday was just a "fit test," but for how hard I was sweating and how fatigued my muscles were, I expected to be dying today. I didn't even notice anything until just before dinner and even then I just felt a little stiff. Maybe this will turn out to be the perfect workout...

Insanity-Day1

So, I have decided that I am going to give the Insanity workout a try. A friend of mine just finished the Insanity: Asylum workout, which is the next step up, so I figured I could at least give the original a try.
I decided to try it over trying P90X again for 3 reasons: 1) it is only 60 days instead if 90 (summer break starts in less than 50), 2) there isn't any equipment needed and 3)they say you can get awesome abs without getting on the floor. Ab Ripper X is a killer workout, but is just a bit much for me. (FYI, I made it through 2 weeks of P90X before I stopped. Yes, it was hard. Yes, I noticed a definite improvement in that time. And No, I did not do it all 14 days.)

Today's "workout" was just a fitness test. You take all your measurements and then you do the test circuit where you try to do as many of the specific exercise as you can in just one minute. Now, I always thought that while I'm not in peak shape, or even my best shape, that I was at least in moderately decent shape. So that is the mindset I had when starting my fit test; I may not get as many as the people on the video, but it won't be too bad.

... Boy was I wrong. I finished the 25 min "test" laying on my floor, drowning in a puddle of my own sweat, and screaming "dear mother-- what was that?!?" Yeah...

And then I promptly polished off every last peanut M&M in my kid's Easter baskets (I have to get it out of the house somehow... right?)

Amazingly, I wasn't too sore. Just very very tired. If this is how the rest of the videos are, I am going to die!! But, I am determined to not be fat and lazy anymore. So, here are my results: (I would post a picture, but it was blurry and didn't really look any different from day 1 of P90X)

Measurements
Weight	137.5
BMI	25.1
Body Fat %	32
Neck	13.25
Chest	34
Waist	31
Hips	39
Right Thigh	23
Left Thigh	22.5
Right Calf	13.5
Left Calf	13.5
Right Bicep	11.25
Left Bicep	11.5
Right Forearm	9.5
Left Forearm	9.5

Family Photos

We haven't done a family photo since Yar was in Kindergarten. The kids have grown up quite a bit since then and they've multiplied! So, we finally had some family pictures taken a little while ago that included Geordi. By the time we finally did these, it was mere days before Geordi turned 1 (man, I know how to take my time...).

A friend of our offered to do them for us and I was happy to accept. She does great work and the kids already know her so it made them feel more at ease. Unfortunately, right after this photo shoot, she had several family issues come up one right after the other so I haven't been able to get our picture CD from her yet (she promised soon, so I will get some more up as soon as I can!). All we have for today's post is a couple of teaser photos.

(Other than Worf's face, this one is my favorite of the two)

So, I'm afraid that my posting for last year became non-existent shortly after early November. There is a very good explanation for that. After more than a year and a half of a brutal court battle, it finally all came to a head during Thanksgiving Break. Thankfully, I won my case, but it took a LOT of time and effort which meant I had less time for my blog.

I did, however, take the time each day to find something that I was grateful for. By last night, I had come to realize that a lot of my issues had come from how I viewed them. Once I focused more on the positive things, it became so much easier to notice them. I also came to find that Riker was struggling with a similar issue. It has been very hard to watch him become so engrossed in all of the negative things that have been going on. Oddly enough, my attempts to help him have just forced me to find even MORE positives in my life.

The best part is that with the holidays over the last few months, I have had even more time to reflect and evaluate my life. I have really come to appreciate more simple things. As a result, I have been a lot less focused on trying to get everything perfect. I have been a little easier on myself. I have smiled more. I have tried to let things go and move on. I have even had more time for myself (which made more time for craft habit).

As part of our New Year's Eve celebrations, I had the kids write down all the crappy things that had happened to them over the last year. Some of the things they wrote down were petty and happened within the last several hours. Some of the things they came up with were very influential in their lives and have had a great impact on them this year (Data's broken arm and corresponding surgeries and complications being a good instance). Then, we all folded them up, took a deep breath, and threw them in the fire as a physical way to let it go and move forward. From there, we listed all the wonderful things that happened and the blessings that we were grateful for (this list was significantly longer) and wrote them on a paper lantern and set it floating in the sky to remind us that there are always good things that happen and that we have to keep our chin up to see them. (I seriously came up with this idea in the middle of our festivities and was so impressed by how well it went over that I will definitely be incorporating it into future New Year's Eve traditions).

Like many others in the spirit of New Year's, I have come up with a list of resolutions for 2012. Instead of trying to start them all at once and inevitably falling short after a few months or weeks, I am going to try to take my master list and split it up into smaller, more attainable goals and only try to work on one at a time. This may mean that I never get to some of them before the end of the year, but at least I will be able to work on some of them. My plan is to split them up into 52 goals and add them in, one at a time, each week. Think I can do it? I do.

So, my first goal is to have Family Home Evening with my family every Monday, even on days when Riker has to work (this is one thing that always threw us off before). Unfortunately, updating my blog is a little lower on my priority list this year, so I may not be tracking things on here regularly for several weeks, but I will try to touch bases every now and then to keep things updated and keep track of my progress.

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas season and are looking forward to the fresh opportunities that this year has in store for you. Here is to a GREAT 2012!