I Workout :)

I was three paragraphs into a post this morning when I realized what a bitch fest it was turning into and how crappy sounding it really was. It was just me going, wah, I’m cold… wah, I’m tired… wah, I’m hungry. And then a friend on twitter reminded me that sometimes attitude adjustments are in order because living in suckytown helps no one yet alone yourself. So I said, you know, instead of spending my morning complaining (I’ve already done that for 3 hours BTW), I need to start focusing on the positive. And then I remembered that I DID have a kick-ass workout last night so that is positive.

I had personal training which I have to say I was dreading because of the professed killer ab workout I was promised. And in the end it wasn’t as bad as I feared. Lesson learned. Don’t condemn something before you even try it. Seriously. It was hard. Don’t get me wrong, it was really hard but it wasn’t impossible. Nothing is impossible. My trainer is pretty awesome. She is constantly telling me things like, this workout is so hard, it’s really crazy hard and most people can’t do it. And then she asked me when I was doing exercises (that are hella hard by the way), if I just zoned out and went away? She obviously noticed the focused blank stare on my face and I was like, “yeah, pretty much”… and she said that is amazing, that is a real talent because most people can’t do that. I have perfected the blank zone out stare over the course of my life. I really can make my mind take a vacation while my body is physically doing something else, much much more painful.

She likes to remind me that I am a rare exception to her training and that this is why she makes me do so much more than I ever see her making other people do. For instance, when I got to the gym she was training another woman before me and I watched for a few minutes and I was like, why can’t I do that? I can do that. I obviously was panicked of what was to come for me. I guess that is why we have personal trainers then right? To push us to do those things we don’t want to do.

This is the workout she made me do… it was REALLY painful actually…

50 jumping jacks (just to get warmed up you know!)
25 crunches
50 squat jumps
60 second plank
25 reverse crunches (NOT my favorite thing ever)
60 second high knees
50 bicycles
50 seated Russian twists
20 Burpees
25 Straight leg lifts
25 back crunches
50 side crunches
20 toe touches (lying down with your feet in the air reach up and touch your toes) SOOO painful at this point!)
And finally
50 mountain climbers

I was a sweaty ass mess at the end and yes, my core was pretty well on fire. The thing is this, I would never, like not ever do all of these exercises in a row like this on my own, in these amounts. When it really hurt I’d probably quit. But I feel that need to please her so I keep going and I HATE having to quit on something. I cannot stand not finishing an exercise. I push thru all levels of physical pain I am feeling to mentally feel good and be able to finish.

Afterwards I was going to take the ab class but then another trainer stopped me and said you HAVE to do my class instead, please. When your personal trainer friend asks you to take her class you can’t really say no, so instead I did Tabata style workout. I guess what this really means is high intensity cardio training in small bursts. After having already felt pushed to my limit to immediately go into fast intensity left me wanting to puke. It was basically 20 minutes of 2 exercises done for 30 seconds each, 10 seconds off, four times total. These were hard things for sure. And if that wasn’t enough, Turbo kick was thereafter and I did another 30 minutes of work. At least this was mostly legs with some punching thrown in there. Still a great workout.

And then being the crazy girl that I really am, I didn’t feel like any of this work produced any good strength training so I went ahead and grabbed a 10 pound set of dumbbells and did some arm work for about 20 minutes. So there you go, awesome workout. Day 5 in a row of workouts. Tonight is Day 6, which will consist of one 30 minute class which will be hard because it’s one of those high intensity all-out effort type of classes and then I will be on my own for the rest of it. Thinking strength training for about 45 minutes and then I am done.

Looking forward to my Friday night off from working out because Saturday morning I get back up and start it all over again with 9AM turbokick. That is just what I do. So the reality is this, I am really hungry all the time. Like I am pretty sure I eat over 2,000 calories a day. I haven’t tracked my food in well over a month or so, but I’m certain I am clocking in excess of 2,000 calories. This is not an exaggeration. I do not officially track my food but mentally I can calculate a day and I know it’s in that range. So far I’m not gaining weight because of those crazy workouts I do, but mostly I am just that hungry and I feel like I have to eat that much. Actually I feel hungrier most of the time and probably could eat more. My muscle wants food. Seriously.