Workout routines...

My family has been given the amazing opportunity to live in Italy for the past 6 weeks and we still have about 3 weeks in Italy and then onto another adventure before we head home to the USA.

I didn't want that to stop my desire to become fit and fabulous, so I packed some DVDs from my home library with the plans of doing those.  Well, I hated them.  I couldn't stay motivated to do them, I didn't like what I was doing, so I never did them.  After praying for guidance on my situation, I searched youtube.com and came across a fitness blender workout!  I thought, well, why not, I have nothing to loose.  I did it and I fell in love!  They are simple, wonderful exercises that got my heart rate up and starting to tone.  I did that one a few times and decided to do a little more research about them.  I went to their website and immediately fell in LOVE!  They have so many, many videos to so many different fitness levels and abilities.  They have stretching, HIIT, yoga, kickboxing, abs everything.  They even have an awesome search engine that you can say exactly what you need.  Since I don't have any home equipment available to me, I have to use that option and they have so much available.  It really has been an answer to my prayers.  

My goal each week is to do 1 lower body strengthening, 1 upper body strengthening, 2 days of cardio and 2 days of P90X Ab ripper and one day of all day walking with our site seeing!  I also give myself the okay to take a rest day if I feel like my body needs it.  So far, it has been great.  I feel great and I feel like I am looking thinner but without a scale, I've had to rely on just that look and feel, that is another post in and of itself!  

Find a way, not an excuse!!

--What is your favorite at home exercise?

--What are your current exercise goals?

Not quitting...

Once again I find myself on the road to getting fit and fabulous.  Life gets in the way, especially of blogging, but I have not done well with maintaining my weight either.  I need to find a balance of what I want to eat and the weight I want to lose.  I'm struggling with how to find the motivation to eat as amazing as I was when loosing weight.  I cannot understand why I had so much motivation then, but cannot seem to keep it up now.

I am determined to find the right balance of emotions, food, exercise, motivation for ME.  I have a goal in mind, a goal to do better at the triathlon at the end of August than I did last year and a goal to get to a better weight for my body.  I will not let excuses get in the way of my goals, even if I am in Italy or another country. 

I have struggled with emotions of eating and weight for my whole life.  I am going to release those emotions forever and find my happy balance.

Do your BEST ....

During P90X workouts, sometimes I want to just lay down and quit.  Then, Tony will say "Do your BEST and forget the REST".  That saying hits home with me.  It helps me keep going.  It helps me to know that next time I do something, if I have given it my all this time, I will get better.  I will be able to do bring different BEST the next time I conquer something hard.

I love that during exercise and pushing yourself you can find great life lessons.  I feel like this motto can be taken into your life with great dividends.  Do your BEST and forget the REST in your eating, in your spiritual journey, in motherhood, in being a true friend, in EVERYTHING.

BUT, you DO have to do your BEST.  DO NOT sell yourself short.  Make sure you KNOW that you can give it 100% of you and that you can do amazing things when you do your very BEST.  We are not all going to be amazing athletes, perfect Mom's, always eat healthy, but we can give it our ALL and forget what we cannot do!

---Do you do your BEST and forget the REST?

---What area of your life do you need to remember that more in?

Week 2, Day 1 ... P90X

I already made it through the first week of P90X!  Yea!  and guess what?  I LOVE it.  I love that it helps me feel strong. I love the goal I have made to do a unassisted pull-up by Christmas.  I love that when I make the decision to work out in the morning, my day goes smoothly and I have an easier time picking good choices for my food.  I love that it helps me stretch my neck so that I don't get headaches in the afternoon.  I am loving it so far!

I started last week with my chest and back workout just trying to go through the motions and could barely do some of the push-ups and only used 15 pounds on the pull-ups (on our Bowflex) and today, I could actually get my reps in quicker with a few extra on top of my push-ups and I did the weight at 35 pounds (70pounds total) for my pull-ups.  It is fun to see that I can already do more in just one week.

I still haven't taken my 'before' pictures .... I know, I know.  It is my goal to get those done today!

---What are you doing to LOVE your body?

---What is your one thing to be proud of today?

Stagnant ...

Well, it has happened.  The awesomeness of loosing weight, then doing all my triathlons wore off and now I am in a rut.  I took a break and now I am ready to go somewhere I have never gone!

Weight training/HIIT

P90X!!

I mentioned it to my hubby (Coach J.) that I wanted to try it and asked him if he wanted to do it with me.  I am already glad he said yes, because he has gotten me out of bed at 6AM both mornings because I had committed to him to do it.  I have enjoyed both work outs already and cannot wait to see the results!  I will post before pictures in the next few days so you can follow along on my journey.

I am really hoping it will help me tone up and actually hit my goal weight this time!  I stopped sort to start training hard for my triathlons.  I gained a few back but not many ... YEA!  And now want to go into weights that I do not ever remember being!

--- What are your goals lately?

--- What do you do to get out of  a rut?

Oral IV hydration ...

I recently received a sample of ORAL I.V. for review.  I knew nothing about this product, but have always struggled with keeping hydrated and so was excited to try it.

About: 

Per the marketing material I received with the product sample:

“ORAL I.V. is a revolutionary hydration aid product based on a proprietary formula of crystalloid electrolytes and purified water. Since ORAL I.V. does not contain any sugars, caffeine or stimulants it is significantly different from other products on the market. It can be consumed directly or added to water. Individuals can use ORAL I.V. as an addition to their existing hydration methods and to aid the hydration process.”

Initial thoughts:
I wasn't sure what to think about these little vials of hydration aid.  My husband saw them and got all excited to try them because of his 100 mile run coming up.  He will be using them during his race but I wanted to try them too.

I usually get dehydrated on long runs, short runs, mowing the lawn, almost everything.  I have very low blood supply so it takes an extra amount of water/hydration to keep me going.  SO, I thought I would give them a chance and see if they made any difference to me.

Conclusion:
I think these helped me.  I didn't get as exhausted during my lawn mowing and I seemed to recover faster even after sweating a TON because it was so hot outside.  These little vials were great because they fit in a race belt very nicely and the top comes off quick so you can just get it and gulp it down. It was tasteless so that was an added bonus as I do not like most flavorings. 

Overall I was impressed and if you are prone to dehydration or doing something extremely crazy (like a 100 mile ultra) they would be nice to have around!



If you are interested in sampling ORAL I.V. for yourself you can give it a try with a discount.  Enter the code is “fitness” at check out and you’ll get 10% off any purchase on the Oral IV website.

Full disclosure: I was provided with samples of the ORAL I.V. product to review. The opinions and reviews presented here are solely my own. I have no affiliation or relationship with ORAL I.V. and received no payment or compensation for this review other than the samples.

Iron Girl: Cherry Creek Race Report

I cannot believe how quickly time moves.  It does not seem like this triathlon could be here and gone already...oh but it is!

I had a great time going away for the first time on a 'girls weekend' and including a triathlon in the mix.  It was a whirlwind of a trip, but it was so worth it.

Alex and I drove over on Friday and got there in just enough time to check our bikes and get our race packets.  Then, off to Pei Wei Asian Diner for some yummy terriyaki chicken, veggies and rice.  Then, home to lay out all my stuff and hit the bed. I was So tired.

After a great night sleep, the alarm went off way too soon.  Sent my husband a text that read "Always wonder why I do these things when the alarm goes off in the morning"...and that is so true.  Hate getting up that early, but glad it is worth it in the end.

Next, off to the event.  The parking was a little bit of a pain because they wouldn't let everyone into the resevouir so we had to park at the local high school and walk in.  It took 7-10 minutes to walk in so it wasn't too bad, but still kind of a pain.  Luckily the scenary was beautiful and put my  nerves at peace!

 Into the line for body markings, and the bathrooms!  They had lots so that was nice, it went quick.  Set up my transition and I am ready to get the show on the road.  My only goal this time was to get out of the water without feeling like I got beat up.  I wanted to have a good swim.  We went down to the water's edge and they started lining up the different waves.  I was in the 4th of 5 waves so I had a little while to wait.  I got in the water did a few strokes and felt like I was ready to go.  Found my girl friends in line and wished them luck and then went over to watch the waves start.  Finally it was my turn.  I positioned myself in the front right side of the swim start.  I figured that I liked to be passed better than trying to pass so if I put myself up there the fast people could pass me and I would settle in quicker.  I was right.  I placed myself perfectly and got into my groove much sooner than I have in the past.  I was almost 3/4 of the way out when I hard the next wave start.  I couldn't believe how far I had come in 5 minutes!  Yeah, I felt great!  On the home stretch, I felt great.  I was passing people, staying within what I felt I could do and almost liked the swim!  I only got passed by 2 girls in the wave behind me and one was Winter, from Team Winter.  Go read about her, she is amazing!  I felt good about her passing me :).   My final swim time was 17:58.  I was happy to be on dry land again, but I felt great after the swim, which has never happened.

T1 was a pain.  We had to run up from the swim out and go up stairs and the boat ramp and it was long and frustrating to already feel my legs tiring just to get into transition.  Once there, I had to take off my wetsuit, which i have never had to do because the other races have people there to help you.  I just sat down by my bike and took it off so it wasn't too big of deal.  I hate putting my wet feet into socks and shoes, but alas, it comes with the racing game!  

Onto the bike course, the race packet said it was 'pretty' flat...hahaha.  There were very few flat parts.  Hills were everywhere.  It was as tough course and I had to put my gears all the way to the easiest possible to get up some of them.  I still had a great time biking and loved my Daisy.  She did well for me again.  I actually fueled on the bike this time with Strawberry Heed and Grape Nuun.  It was delish.  I am glad I did because I really needed the help during my run.  It got hot and pushing it so hard on the bike wore me out. I teared up coming in from the bike when I saw kids there cheering for their Moms.  I missed my little cheering section. My bike split was 44:54.  I will take that on the hardest course I have done yet!

T2 is always quick for me.  I have to remind myself to take my helmet off and then put my race belt on and I am off.  I walked through transition to get my legs back under me and then took off running once I cross the timing mats. 

Oh the run, how I struggle with the run.  By the time I get to the run, I am just exhausted and for me to run when exhausted is quite the event.  I had a horrible cramp in my neck/shoulder when I started the run and started crying because it hurt so bad.  I got it shaken out at about the 1 mile mark, thankfully!  The run was on a hot, not shaded course with a few little rolling hills that made it quite difficult for me.  My feet were swollen from the drive over and they were just screaming at me.  I was SO happy to get some Heed at the aid station.  Couldn't have been more happy to see the turn around point and almost lost it when I could hear the finish line :).  I pushed through all of the pain I was having and got a great split time... for me.  It was 31:53.

Total time: 1:39:18, just slightly faster than my Snake Tri on a much harder course.

I was proud of what I pushed myself through this time.  I had more problems to work through this time than I have in the past 2 triathlons, but I did it.  I was rested and ready for this triathlon, just traveling threw my body off I think.

  I enjoyed hearing my name called at the end and the the Iron Girl sponge to pour cold water on me!  Katie Williams .... YOU are an Iron Girl!!  And the post race food was so delicious!

 It was so fun to meet a bunch of new girls from Idaho Falls and hope to continue to "Tri" with them in the future!  I am so happy with how my first triathlon season went and cannot wait to crush these times some day!