Hey There and New Fitness Goals

I haven't felt like blogging lately. How obvious is that? I'm sorry. I left you hanging high and dry near the end of Ultimate Reset.

So here's a quick rundown of how that turned out, where I've been, how I'm eating now, and what's next for me in terms of fitness.

Ultimate Reset
I think Ultimate Reset might be my favorite detox program ever. Just like when I finally found Shakeology and said that I'd kissed a lot of whey protein frogs to get to the love of my life -- Shakeology -- I feel like I went through a lot of detox hells to get to the point of Ultimate Reset. The food was yummy. Yes, there was prep work and I had to think and plan ahead (not always my strong suit), but I felt amazing after it was over, and I think I look pretty darn good. When I was in Ohio, I had a lot of people ask me what I was doing to lose weight. When other people can see it, that tells me something is working.

I have stayed mostly vegan after Ultimate Reset. Mostly, not totally. I have found that how I feel best for now. I did eat ice cream in Ohio. I did eat some meat. I find I mostly crave meat (or eggs) when I have PMS (sorry if that's TMI), but other than that, right now I can take it or leave it, and I mostly want to leave it. I have, of course, eaten popcorn. And always will.

As for grains, I am really only eating rice and some quinoa. I'll probably never give up rice.

So, when people ask me to describe my diet, I tell them I call it the Crave Diet. Really, I eat what I crave (in moderation because when my body craves chocolate, I don't make a meal of it!) and that's fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds and meat when I want it. I'm not bored with that. There's a huge variety of stuff you can eat in that realm. Huge.

I'm not kidding myself -- this an easy way to eat during summer. I figure things will change when cooler weather sets in, and my body craves different foods. It will be an experiment.

Overall, I lost 6 lbs. on Ultimate Reset, which at first, bummed me out because there were people out there losing 30+ pounds and talking about it on the support threads. But for me, that was a pretty good amount. It took me below 130 lbs. (I'm 5' 4 1/2"), which has been a goal for a long time, and I feel like I'm at a good, healthy, fit weight. I never did measure on the final day. We left for Ohio the day after Reset ended and I just flat out forgot to measure.

Fitness
Summer is always sort of a weird fitness time for me. The kids are home, of course, and we're sort of schedule-less, which never bodes well for me. I always do best when I have a strict schedule to follow.

During Ultimate Reset, you're not supposed to work out, but I couldn't stand that, and I didn't feel the greatest doing that. So I ended up alternating days of walking and doing TurboFire Stretch 40, which is 20 minutes of yoga and 20 minutes of deeper stretching. I felt really good with that plan.

In Ohio, I walked nearly every day. It makes me happy to walk around my old hometown and drink it all in. It was a nice break from structured routines and higher impact workouts.

So now, what do I do?

I did set up a month-long schedule in my WOWY calendar (Beachbody's online gym) for TurboJam. It's lower impact than TurboFire. I'm working my way back to working out harder at altitude -- I was amazed at how I could feel the difference from a cardio perspective after spending two weeks at sea level!

But I'm wanting to add stuff in to make my workouts more challenging.

So here's what I've decided to do. The TurboJam schedule will take me almost until the boys go back to school. I'll stick with it, but I'm adding some RUNNING. Yes, I said it. I'm adding RUNNING. Is hell freezing over?

I know, madness. But my long-term goal is -- get this -- to do a triathlon. And if I want to do a triathlon, I need to run. So I'm starting with a Couch to 5K program. Once I finish that, I plan to add in the triathlon training program (note: that's going to put me in the fall so I may be training and not have a race to run, but the point, to me, is the training part). For the remainder of the summer, I'm also going to do some Brazil Butt Lift and P90X Legs and Back. Might as well keep hammering away on that area. I feel like I had good results doing that in the spring.

I'm writing it out so it makes sense to me...

Remainder of summer:
-TurboJam + Couch to 5K + BBL and P90X Legs and Back

Late August (when school is starting):
-Contine with Couch to 5K (note, I originally wrote "Cough" to 5K. How appropriate.)
-TurboFire and ChaLEAN Extreme

Mid-October:
-Continue with TurboFire and ChaLEAN Extreme
-Begin triathlon training schedule although this could be a curious process because it would already be snowing in Colorado...

I'll see where that gets me!

TurboFire is History

And I have to say, I'm a little sad about it. It has been my favorite Beachbody workout, bar none. I love Chalene Johnson, she's my idol. I think I might be a groupie. I love the music on TurboFire and I love the moves.

When I finished TurboFire last week, I found myself with a little gap though and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Historically, in the summer, when I'm not officially doing a full-on scheduled BB routine, like not following anything, I don't do well. I need structure. I'm like a preschooler that way. Except without the nap. But I would like the nap if anyone could please make that happen.

Anyway, I knew I had missed a few workouts here and there when I was sick or when I didn't want to do one of the yoga workouts during the weight loss challenge because I wanted to crank on the cardio routine to burn more calories. Plus, I'd shuffled some things around when we traveled. I made those up, but there were "blue spots" in my WOWY schedule and I could see exactly what I had/hadn't done.

I admit I've become freakishly obsessive about the WOWY calendar. I love making the whole month green, which means completed workouts, except for the rest days. Obviously, I can't go back and fix those specific days, so I constructed a schedule of all of those "blue spots" and it was exactly 12 days--the amount of time before we left for Ohio.

Pefect. Except that I realized about three of the days were HIIT (high intensity interval training) days. Ick. I thought I was done with those. But I'm doing it.

And an interesting aside: Eamonn is doing Insanity. And get this: he can actually do it. Unlike me when I did Insanity and spent most of my time just standing there watching in horror.

It does create a bit of a logjam in the basement in the mornings, but since the weather has been so great, I do a walk while Eamonn is Insane and then when he's finished I do my TurboFire schtick.

So far, so good.

And in further news, on Friday, I hit my revised weight loss goal. Very exciting! Then, because Friday was my cheat day, I ate guacamole and chips in wretched excess and that number bounced back up. It will be back, I know it. It was fun to see it for a fleeting moment though.

Happy Fourth of July!

I Went. I Ate. I'm Back.

We went to visit my sister in Utah for Thanksgiving. I didn't write that before I left because I'm never sure if that's safe or not. My husband was here, but what if someone tried to break into the house and steal our 20 year old TV or something? That would be terrible. How would I workout?

Anyway, I had somewhat of a plan in place for Thanksgiving and I'll follow it again for Christmas because it seems to serve me pretty well. I didn't put any restrictions on myself for food. These are the holidays and for me, part of the holidays is enjoying the food without guilt. My sister and I did exercise each day and my calorie burn totals were good the whole time we were away.

I was reminded that I do need to continue to avoid gluten, where possible. The stuffing and leftover turkey sandwiches did cause me some, um, gastrointestinal distress. I know, I'm sorry, but it's the truth. And no, I don't have scientific evidence that it was the gluten, but if I think as to what was different while I was gone, gluten is a big, glaring difference. I don't eat much of it on a daily basis.

I wonder if I could make gluten free stuffing? I'll have to experiment at Christmas and report back. Remind me. Because I'm forgetful that way.

So I'll be continuing through the whole holiday season on this general trend--workouts every day, enjoying treats in moderation.

I will say that even though I enjoyed things in moderation, my system is a little out of whack just from eating heavier foods. My older son is having similar system issues. Low on the fruits and veggies and higher on the stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy will do that to a body apparently.

Completely changing subjects here, my friend, Marci, said she was looking for me on BeachBody and couldn't find me. I can't remember if I said this before, but BeachBody has an online workout site that you can use for free. They assign you a free coach (you can choose me :) ), but the nifty thing is that you can workout at the same time as someone else and see their picture online and what workout they're doing.

For example, my sister who lives in Utah and I "meet" online between 5:30 and 6:00am MST each day. I log in and it shows me who of my "buddies" is online and working out. It's pretty cool and I enjoy knowing that she's suffering at about the same time I am.

I like to suffer in good company.

Like I said, it's all free. If you want to do it and workout online at the same time we are (or not workout at the same time if you're in a different time zone!), do this:

1. Go to www.wowy.com
2. It will offer you a free coach. Click on "Get Your Free Coach Now." It will randomly assign you someone or you can choose me: CoachNatalie. That's my BeachBody screen name. I know--how creative. If you put in my coach name, something will pop up to give you the option that "Yes, I want Natalie Rooney to be my coach" and you can say yes because I am a Sooper Genius and you love me.
3. Then you'll have a BeachBody account and can log into all of their online tools. They do have a paid membership option for something like $14.95 per quarter and that gives you access to menu plans and stuff, but none of that is required. For me it's all about having that accountability and my sister saying, "Why weren't you online this morning????" And I can make up some excuse like the cat chewed through the computer cables or something. (We don't have a cat, but she seems to keep accepting this excuse)

If you do sign up under my name, the system will send me a note and I think I can then send you a workout invitation. Or you can send me one once you're signed up. And we can be workout buddies. It will be swell.

I like it when things are swell.

So how was your Thanksgiving?