My Future Fitness: Crystal Ball Vision.

Here's what I have to say after my 1000 Calorie Burn Sweatfest this morning: WOOT! It felt GREAT to be on the track again today and I made some progress on my run as well! I don't know about you kids but I tend to view my weeks as Sunday-Saturday, so today is like the last day of this week for me and I start again tomorrow. I headed out early- even in the midst of a potential "it's rainy" excuse- to the track. Luckily it had stopped raining and the temp was around 77 degrees. Lovely. I did one lap warming up then 4 laps running at about an 11 minute mile. Then I walked a lap and did 2 laps running at a pace equal to a 10 minute mile. Then I was getting a bit winded/crampy. I do think guys/gals that my cramping is more of a result of my body getting used to continual running. When you do HIIT or Insanity, you are going balls-to-the-wall for 30 seconds then stopping. With running, it is heavy impact and "non-stop", so I can see how that takes some getting used to. 

Here is how the rest of my smörgåsbord run-workout looked like:

• 1 lap walk at 4mph pace, followed by 4 laps run at 11 minutes.
• 1 lap walk at 4mph pace, followed by 2 laps run at 5 minutes.
• 32 Walking Lunges, then 16 straight leg front raise kicks (leg is straight and you raise it up to hit your hand, held higher than your head, alternating legs)
• 4 sets of side squat jumps a la Jenny Lynn
• Standing lunges, jump rope, squats Tabata-Style
• 2 laps walking one minute, running one minute at faster pace, closer to 7mph
• 32 more walking lunges, 32 leg kicks
• Stretch
• Came home and did one giant set for shoulders

Who's Your Daddy?

Kids, we saw SALT last night. If you want to get motivated to kick some serious butt, go see this movie. Angelina Jolie, who CLEARLY needs to eat several large pizzas, still is the queen of badass chicks. I can't wait to see it again. Seriously.

So, I was mentioning this a bit in my blog/vlog from yesterday, about using the latter half of 2010 to KICK BUTT. Time flies people. I feel like it was just yesterday I was saying "It's July 1st and it's the second half of the year!"~ now it is July 24th! And in these 24 days I was really REALLY sick for 10 of them. That bites. But I'm OVER that and because of how annoyed I am at getting sick in the first place, I'm committed to being MUCH more focused on my "diet" meaning; MORE BALANCE.

The second quarter of 2010 was when I discovered "Eat Stop Eat" which totally changed everything for me and really got me started with significant fat loss. AMEN. Now that the ESE approach has helped me conquer a LOT of unhealthy thoughts about "Good Food vs. Bad Food" and binge tendencies, I can focus on ADDING more variety and balance to my diet. No, I will never go back to eating 6x a day like a machine or worrying about "every meal must have protein" like I will drop dead if I have a veggie bagel sandwich sometime. What I will do is start taking my vitamins again every day. Yes, as we age (old people like me do, you know)we need to be proactive in supplementing the diet. I've missed my Green Monster smoothies made with Shakeology (I am including a link to my Shakeology website, so please note that yes, if you purchase from my site I will earn a commission, as I am an independent BeachBody coach.) and added spinach and banana. YUM. I also want to check out Coconut Water and coconut products as recommended by my BFF Amy, who is the one that got me started on running!! She's the bomb, even though she cheats on me by having other friends, but I'm down with that Amy. I'm cool. heheheh

Now, talk about variety in workouts! The themes you will see running through this site over the rest of this year and beyond are:

• NO EXCUSES.
• WORKOUT ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ANYHOW- Killer, creative awesome workouts from home, no gym required.
• VARIETY: Jazz it up, keep balanced.

Here's what my Future Fitness Crystal Ball Vision looks like:

A whole lotta running. And then some more.

Remembering to STRETCH.

Of course, P90X and Insanity!!!!

Outdoor workouts and some TRX Love. 

Killer barre workouts that make that booty SING!! 

Throwing in some TurboFire!!!

Y'all know how much I love my BFF @ChaleneJohnson. She rocks. Chalene will be making a guest appearance here soon, so stay tuned!!

Yoga and Down Time. 

More awesomeness from my BFF @ValerieWaters. Talk about working the bootay! OMG! ValSlides and Val Bands will blow your mind!! Valerie will be making a guest appearance here soon!

Definitely sleep. Any trainer or doctor will tell you, getting a good night's sleep is KEY to optimal health and wellness. Make it happen. Make your bed the most comfortable fluffy cloud experience you can and focus on getting 7-8 hours! Period! Do it!

So here is my QUESTION OF THE DAY: Are you up for it? Are you game? What does YOUR Fitness Crystal Ball show you for the rest of 2010??

TGIF!!

Hey Kids!! Happy Friday! DANG. I was working like a hot knife through butter today! Slicing right through it! It is scary how much I got done and then how much is still left over!! haha

I am glad to be back home, unpacked and feeling better, and ready to RUN. I of course am feeling FAT because of the whole salmonella and being off the workout-mojo for yet another set of 6 days. Oy. I'm letting it go. These past two times of being sick are IT! THAT'S IT! I mention this in my vlog below but I'm getting back to taking my vitamins and making sure that- while I keep my current "diet" approach, that I incorporate more salads and some of my yummy Shakeology shakes. Remember when I first started incorporating the ESE (intermittent fasting) approach, I had a lot more "not-necessarily-health-food" type meals. Now that I've really conquered a lot of my bad eating behaviors, I want to just get back to incorporate more of the yummy but healthier versions of "anything I want." I'll explain more in my post tomorrow. I have plans tonight and have to GO!! 

Enjoy the vloggy randomness below- I will be back tomorrow with lots more good stuff. And I'll be telling you about a kick butt morning RUN!! WOOT!!

Cover Your Eyes! This is Scandalous!

Don't cry. Don't tremble. It's OK. I know it's hard to see such a blatant, in-your-face visual attack of carbs! Hug yourself. 

This is what I had for lunch today. Today I ate an early lunch because I have back to back conference calls until about 5pm-6pm, at which time I will do a (yes I hate them) late workout. Because I know I'll be working out later, say from 6-7:30pm, it makes sense for me to eat something NOW, so I have more than enough time to digest and do some cardio later. (You all know, I have discovered how important it is for me to have a totally empty tummy to be able to do cardio effectively.)

Why am I posting this picture? Because this lunch today is something that in the past 2 years, I would have been horrified to even THINK about eating. It's a chicken salad sandwich made with roasted chicken breast, Miracle Whip Light, fresh tomato and whole wheat bread. 

Some of you may wonder, what's so bad about THAT? But many of you know what I am speaking to here. When you get into that crazy diet mindset, or are following a strict competition type diet, when all you really want is to get lean and healthy, you've probably been taught that the above lunch is nothing short of scandalous, it is blasphemy! 

My former Insane/Obsessive-Diet-Complex mind would have feared this as a meal and the thought process would go something like this, "OMG I can't have that. It's on TWO pieces of bread! Body For Life says I can have carbs but only 1 piece, not TWO!" or, "OMG I can't have BREAD! That's processed food! It's too many carbs! I should just have the chicken salad ONLY." or, "OMG I can't have Miracle Whip Light! That's "fake stuff" and it has sweetener in it! I should only have REAL mayo or better yet- NO FAT MUSTARD. Wait, better yet, just plain chicken breast on a plate." or, "OMG I can't have this roasted chicken breast, I'm sure that some of the fat from the skin that was on that chicken seeped in to the breast so it has more fat grams that just a plain boiled chicken breast!" or, "OMG this bread doesn't have enough fiber in it!" or, "OMG I can't put tomato on that sandwich, tomato is a fruit and I don't eat fruit." or, "I can't have whole wheat bread, I can only have sprouted grain/spelt/rice flour bread!", or "This is not the correct proportion of Protein/Carbs/Fats - I need to add more protein, less carbs, more fats OR More protein, less carbs and less fat!"

Stop. The. Insanity. 

If you try to follow all the "RULES" out there, you might get to 10% body fat. And my guess is you will be somewhat miserable inside, as I was. And I suggest that the vast majority of you trying to follow all these insane rules are NOT getting anywhere NEAR that low body fat AND YOU ARE MISERABLE. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm eating what I want now. But without question~ I MUST, and we all must control the AMOUNT OF FOOD WE EAT. And we all must get active and stay active. Period. 

I will NEVER GO BACK to Rule Madness. Take a peek at Skwigg's post today that also reflects some similar madness. Thank you Skwigg for starting me on the road to sane, real-life thinking about health and fitness. CLICK HERE. And thank you Skwigg for informing me about Brad Pilon and the Eat Stop Eat way of eating. AMEN. My life is forever changed.