Starting Insanity

Just got my husband to test me using the methods my homeopath uses, testing all the things I've been eating over last few days and looks like it's peanut butter and cheese, two great sources of protein.......never mind - back to the drawing board for quick easy snacks.

Finally got round to Power once my little boy was in bed, and talked my daughter and husband into doing it with me. My 8 yr old thought it was fun and chatted constantly throughout - but my poor husband.....hating any kind of aerobic routine combined with a tad too much weight and minimal exercise for many years, he was dying. Was quite funny throughout the warm up but then I felt really guilty for putting him through it. I've been trying to get him get fit for ages, hopefully it's been a bit of a wake up call and the excuses will stop. I think I underestimated how intense it is. I've never been into exercise, tho have always watched my weight - and I guess running round after two kids helps. I walked up the BT Tower in London in February, 900 steps in 11 mins, with minimal training, and hadn't done anything before starting this - so I guess I thought he'd just be able to 'dig deeper' and do it like I did. Hmm, maybe not.....

Great job doing the triple - we're both amazing!! I'm very much an all or nothing type person and know if I let myself have an unscheduled day off without catching up I'd stop and not go back.

I'm planning to take some more pics after 30 days I think, don't feel like I'm getting anywhere (even tho my fit test results improved), I guess cos I'm not doing it to lose weight until the toning really kicks in it's hard to see the gradual changes.Hopefully will motivate me through the second month.

The peanut butter thing is a pain, and I love peanuts. I was on a natural one with only peanuts, palm oil and salt - so I tested peanuts last night and they were bad, walnuts almonds and almond butter are all ok (phew), but pecans are bad too - who knows why, hopefullyit's only a temporary thing. I guess I never noticed the impact having them occassionally in moderation, but now having peanut butter most days as a snack with corn cakes it's had an impact. Least I can do almond butter tho, and I already had some, so all good.

Had a lay in this morning so haven't done my Plyo yet, hopefully will be able to sneak it in if my son has a nap. Looking forward to a day off tomorrow......

Hope you havea great day xx

Wow, another triple, way to go!!! You'll be able to give me a heads up on month two - looking forward to it in a sadistic kinda way, tho very scared.

Have worked from home again today so was able to have a little lay in (i.e. not getting up at 6am to workout) and do my workout at lunchtime. Caught sight of myself in the mirror doing the Power jumps and was impressed that I actually looked similar to the guys in the dvd, made me push much harder. Think most of my limtations are psychological rather than physical, although my triceps have started cramping for the tricep dips the last two times of Power & Resistance, just have to keep trying. Lower back is a little achy after cardio abs yesterday, stupidly attempted the leg lift thingys by leaning back rather than in c-sit, because I still can't do them, and think I twinged something, nothing major so am hoping will go away quite quickly. Just need to keep strenghtening my core, don't think I'm anywhere close yet.

This will make you laugh. I was laying bed last night and ran my hands up my quads to my thighs and back down again, and became kind of obsessed with how it's starting to feel different, think my husband thought I'd gone mad, laying in bed running my hands up and down my thighs LOL, really motivated me to keep going though. I still can't see any changes and I've measured from time to time and haven't seen any change (despite being pretty religious with my diet) so to be able to feel a difference, Woo Hoo!!!

Also, tested myself with goats cheese and seems to be ok, so bit the bullet and tried some today, fingers crossed there aren't any adverse side efects.

Hope you have a great P&R today. Where are you off to on your vacation on 1st July??

Catch you later

M xxx

p.s. Do you think it was something we said, we've lost lu123 and Zelsawef (or however you spell it) somewhere along the way, great that we;ve still got each other.....:happy:

LOL - just re-read, meant 'quads to my hips' - not 'quads to my thighs'....I knew what I meant LOL

Excellent progress on the dips, pushups and drills - they are really hard. They guys on the dvd make them look sooo easy!!! Mind you, I could barely manage one press up before starting this so who knows, we may make it look easy in another few weeks!!

My only 'experience' of Miami is watching 'Miami Ink' on TV, always looks like a really cool place, but everyone looks so body conscious. Never been sure how much of it is exaggerated for TV. Much less pressure in the UK to have a 'beach body', and certainly not when you're over 25!! Kind of the norm to have kids and fill out...but then I've never been normal - LOL!!

My back was ok this morning, I rocked plyo - well, more than normal, still struggle with the ski abs and in and outs, don't think they did the back any favours. Worked in London today which is about 45mins from where I live, and my laptop bag is really heavy. By the time I got there my back was really sore again and has been playing up all day....and what a day!! Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, work wise, have had a really rubbish day.

I was hoping to have a productive day today, I've booked the next two days off work. My husband (Kev) works shifts and finished his four days yesterday (works 4 on 4 off, alternate days and nights), so even tho it was a long weekend in the UK, he was working (12 hr shifts) so we didn't really see him. As the weather is meant to be nice over the next few days, and tomorrow is my birthday (37 arrgghhhhhhh, getting closer to 40!!) , thought it would be nice to go away for a few days. We have a motorhome (nothing by RV standards but a 24ft 6 berth so big enough for the family and better on the wibbly wobbly UK roads), that Kev went to collect from storage today, only to discover a hideous noise emanating from the gear box, so our trip away looking less likely. Great end to a great day.

I was hoping to do tomorrows recovery tonight and have a treat day off tomorrow, but really not in the mood. Hadn't quite worked out how I was going to fit my workouts in while away in the van. Kev suggested doing them in the dark outside the van, hmm, thanks darling!! I did consider buying a little gazebo to do it in!!! This insanity thing definitely affects the brain!!! LOL

Think I shall take myself off for an early night of watching TV in bed and chilling out. Nearly succumbed to a take away tonight, but would have been comfort food so resisted the temptation and cooked pork loin with sweet potatoes and asparagus instead. Strangely that cheered me up (I guess being a control freak - I felt back in control of my day again), that and a cathartic outporing to a good friend with a shared insanity!! LOL

Have a great day - catch you tomorrow.

Hi

Thanks for the birthday wishes. The day started out quite rubbish but got better. The motorhome needs work and by the time we'd been to the garage it made it too late to get organised and find somewhere to stay. We need to be back sun afternoon as Kev working Sun night, so would have been too much rush for too little gain.

Great job doing the triple yesterday, I missed the recovery yesterday in the end, and 7 of us went out to Tgi's so I succumbed and had a bunless burger with fries. Only drank diet tonic water and no dessert so reckon about 600 calories, and counted as meal 4 & 5.......Made up for it with the triple today, cardio, abs and recovery but found it hard going. You def need to listen to your body for you short recovery. I seem to be tightening up rather than getting more flexible, think I'm going to need the recovery week to regroup.

I'll definitely put some thought into places you should visit in July, the Cotswolds isn't far and is very pretty and quaint.

Off to round up the kids and see where we can go, speak soon x

Hi guys, seems an AGE since I've posted on here. Missed about a week of workouts due to major stressage about final exams. But its all over now and I'm back with the workouts. Did recovery today to ease me back into it lol. I'm looking forward to getting back into it

Hurricane: Ooo my advice is bring water proofs. It'll be July but you never know ha ha ha... I love english weather! My advice is Bath, only about 1.5 hours on a train from London Paddington, so easy to do as a day trip and its such a nice city, its got the Roman baths there and lots of regency age type stuff and pretty buildings but it really depends on what kind of thing you're into. Let us know how Month 2 is

Mbeforethes: BEACH! Love the beach. Did my degree in Swansea and the beach was literally across the road from campus. and we had the Gower nearby too. Love it. Four hours doesn't sound too short, you don't want to be out there that long, its been really hot recently.

Hi guys! Welcome back Lu123! Congrats on finishing and we are happy to have you back with us- what week are you starting up with?

M- I think your idea of doing the fit test of Sunday is brillant. 5 days of the Core and Balance is probably more than enough, and the fit test and max interval yesterday was really challenging! Although it was a HUGE calorie burn day (310 for the fit test and 730 for the max interval), so I got to eat a ton, but I was wiped out.

My weekend plans didn't go exactly as I hoped. I managed to actually get sick with a cold on Thursday night (guess the thing I never fully caught the week before made me run down enough to catch one). So I did Pure Cardio and Abs on Thursday, then took Friday, Saturday and Sunday off since I felt horrible. So I ended up finshing Month 1 only skipping 2 workouts- Thursday's Recovery and Saturday's Plyo.

Yesterday I started Week 5. I did the fit test first and was doing pretty well even though I was still really stuffy and had to blow my nose a lot during the breaks. But after the pushup jacks I threw up a little! Must have been all the drippy nose stuff and jumping around and then when I went down to do the pushup jacks it was just too much. So I didn't push as hard on the obliques because I didn't want it to happen again. I'll post my results later, don't have them with me at work.

Then I took a brief rest and decided to give the Max Interval Workout a shot. Good news is that there is a new warmup, which was exciting since I was so tired of the old one! Bad news is that it has switch kicks and these new kickjump handstand things that are HARD! The rest of the Interval workout was OK. It is longer than Month 1, with 3 sets of 4 exercises instead of 2 sets, and each exercise is now 45 seconds long instead of 30. So it's a much bigger calorie burn, but the time does go a little slower. I liked most of the moves in the interval DVD though. I'll let you know how the Max Plyo one is tonight.

Thanks for the suggestions on places! Are all of those outside of London? Is there anything in London that is a must-see for someone who has never been before?

Holy cow- Max Plyo is HARD! There are a ton of strength moves, and loads of pushups: One leg V Pushups, Power Pushups, Falling pushups, and the Level 3 drills (16 pushups/16 runs). It was definitely a challenging upper body workout that took the Month 1 Power DVD to a whole new level. I am sore again from the new moves in part 2! Now I understand why they make you do 4 weeks of the Month 1 moves- jumping straight into this month would be hard even for an athlete. Can't wait til you guys join me here!

Good job fighting through the plie shoulders and hip flexor moves! You will enjoy the HRM. I'm finding that it says I am burning over 730 calories for the Month 2 workouts (so even once I subtract the 70 or so calories I would have burned that hour that MFP already accounts for it's still a huge burn!)

Amazing results, especially as you were feeling so rubbish!! Great job carrying on after throwing up!!

I took my 30 day pics last night, put off doing it as I didn't expect to see much improvement and didn't want to be deflated....and guess what, there wasn't much change and I'm feeling deflated. Pah!! I know it all hapens in month two - and boy am I scared of that, so I knew not to expect much, but still woken up today feeling blue. Will post them over next few days once I've managed to get them in a suitable format. Didn't help I was messing around truing to complie the pics to see a comparison until 12.45 this morning, so am tired today and kicking myself for not getting mroe sleep. I can see a little improvement in the muffin toppage, waist and back - tho seems little visible change for all of the effort.......but not gonna quit or anything, just need to remotivate and pick myself up.

Dragged myself out of bed at 6.30am, got dressed into my workout clothes for my recovery only to find my 2 1/2 yrold son wandering around the study looking for mischief. Normally when I wake up feeling a bit blue the workout lifts my spirits, but can't work out with him awake - tried that earlier in the week and it's so distracting. So feeling pants, haven't worked out and meant to be meeting a friend for a belated birthday meal after work.....hmm, def need to give myself a big kick today!! I may leave work a few hours early and try to get a workout in before monster son comes home from nursery, and before I go out - else will be nearly midnight before I do the CC&B and worried I'll skip it.

Hope you have a great day and that max recovery is actually a respite & not more torture!! xxx

Max Recovery wasn't too bad! The lunges sequence was easier, and there was a challenging plie set and triceps pushup set, but the only brutal part was the high plank/low plank set. You start leading with the right arm, do 4/rest/8/rest/16/rest, then go on to the left and do 16/rest/8/rest/4. Since I could only do 6 in a row it was so hard!

This morning I did Max Intervals again. I was really low energy, and almost stopped, but after 10 minutes of going through the motions I got into it and finished strong. One more day and then a rest day!

Have a great weekend

single handed pressups :noway: i think they might need practice when I get there lol.

I kind of half way though week three but I keep jumping the workouts around depending on what I feel like doing lol. Also started playing my own music because I'm kind of getting a bit bored, especially in the warm up because its the same for every work out. Pushing through though.

Wow HS i don't know if I would have carried on after actually throwing up! Good job!

mmmm BLT *Druels*

Well my theory paid off........I've been imagiing the worst possible painful impossible workout (without peeking at the session in advance) with the expectation that I'd only be able to manage a few of the exercises, and anything more would be a bonus. Alarm went up at 5am and by 5.30am I could put it off no longer......and I did it, MI done!! And it felt good!!! :drinker:

Really glad I did the fit test in advance and could give it my best shot. Couldn't manage all of the exercises at their pace but I gave them all a damn good go, and kept up with most of it, only stopping a few times. And the endorphin hit afterwards was well worth it!! Don't get me wrong, it was really hard, but not impossible. Even quite enjoyed it in places - I'm definitely insane!!! BRING IT ON!!!!! :noway: :happy: :laugh:

Hope you had a great weekend and your day is going well xxx

Hi

How was CC HS?, and doing Abs as well - am very impressed.

After my euphoric endorphin high yesterday I've come crashing down with a bump. Had a rubbish day at work yesterday and was exhausted by 5pm, by the time i got to bed at 10.30pm I was shuffling round like an old woman. Woke up this morning followaing my 5am alarm, faffed about until 5.45am then pressed play...for all of 3 mins, then pressed stop and watched something I'd recorded for an hour. Just wasn't in the mood to commit (

Am slowly kicking myself up the rear as the days goes on, and intend to focus on a quality workout within the next hour or two as a lunch break, am working from home today fortunately, tho it was probably one of the reasons I let myself wimp out - knowing I could make it up later.

Hope your both having a great day, and are managing to dig way deeper than me!! xxxx

CC was so much better. I was dreading it all day, but I actually enjoyed it. I guess I just hated it so much cause I was so burnt out by the time I got to it last week. I still couldn't do a full minute of several of the exercises, but I tried to take short breaks and keep pushing through. The "recovery" moves helped a lot! I'm curious to see how you like it tomorrow.

I did Abs after so I don't have to do them on Friday- I'll throw in some Abs on Saturday instead when I have more time- P90x Ab Ripper maybe. But my husband said I was shaking the whole apartment building when I was doing the tuck jumps. Whoops! Tried to focus on landing softly in the power jump set!

Good job getting through plyo. I thought it was really hard- so many strength moves one already exhausted muscles. A lot of the moves seem to be in all 3 of the main videos this month, and it is hard to do them daily without a break. I definitely would have put the workout off until lunch too- but I hate getting up early!

I have Max Interval tonight~bring it on!