Cathe Fans Part 5

Hi Ladies! Definitely feeling yesterday’s workout today! I had planned a couple of workouts and switched them out at the last minute for some that sounded better mentally. The premise was the same (upper body and step), just slightly different workouts, especially with the step. I wanted less jumping! So I did Cathe Live Upper Body Bootcamp followed by Party Rockin’ Step 1. Felt good.

Laurie, glad you enjoyed that workout more this time. Anymore, step tests me mentally just as much as physically, especially choreography. Sometimes my feet just don’t want to move the right way. And then sometimes my mind just.....wanders off. When those combine is when I am a real mess. Anyhow, glad you found a work around for the DVD player which also encouraged your DH to replace yours. Talk about a win-win. Yay for doing a West End theatre!! I hope you love it. London is such a vibrant city and remarkably easy to get around. Well, at least it was eons ago when we were last there, but I can’t imagine much has changed. And I say it is easy to get around, but that does not include driving. We drove into central London once.......we really learned a lot about the tube and trains after that!

Enjoy the long weekend!

Laurel

Hi Ladies, I hope you had a great weekend. We had a nice and quiet weekend.
On Friday I did the morning Restorative Yoga class and in the evening DH and I did the Restorative Thai Bodywork class. It was really good and by the end of the class, we felt like wet noodles. There were only 6 people in the class so that the instructor could work on each one of us. We first did restorative stretching, where we held a twist or stretch for a long time. During the second half of the class, the instructor did Thai bodywork on each one of us. She had asked us to write down for her areas where we needed work and what level of pressure we wanted.
On Saturday, we went to the track with our friend to do a 2-mile walk.
Today I did gentle yoga and Barre.

Laurie, glad you guys finally got your facility running. Great job with your workouts. How nice of your DH to get you a new DVD player!
August really flew by! It's always so hard to adjust to the fall temps! I just read that the week of the 16 we will have temps in the low 100's and high 90's!
I hope Rocket will enjoy his stay at the Doggy Daycare. When do you leave for London?

Laurel, great job digging out those older workouts. So glad you enjoyed them! Good job for listening to your body and switching to different workouts!

I am so happy you are finally going to Hawaii! I hope you have a wonderful time!

Hi Tami and Erika!
Have a great week ladies!

Thelma

Hi Ladies! Hope you enjoyed the weekend. We had a great weekend of sunshine and golf. Managed to golf all three days, including two rounds on Saturday. Definitely feeling that in my hands and forearms right now, but it felt so good to be outside for much of the weekend. Like Thelma mentioned above, we are not done with summer yet. The highs over the next couple of weeks may be as hot as anything we have had this summer. But the good news about that is the humidity has come down quite a bit. I don’t mind a last blast of summer at all right now.

For workouts, I have decided that I am going to use the next two weeks to test out my new rotation format that I described to Tami last week. I am adding more spin and yoga and decreasing some of my non-spin cardio times and such. So Saturday I did Bob Harper’s Yoga for the Warrior. Sunday was Cathe Live Oh My Glutes followed by Cathe Live Hearts on Fire. Yesterday was LIHI Back, Shoulders and Biceps followed by Cathe Live Cardio Core Blast. And today was Pedal Power followed by Jessica Smith Flow Yo from YouTube. So far so good with the format. It was really nice today to know that at the end of my spin workout today, I as going to get some yoga.

Thelma, glad you enjoyed the weekend. Sounds like you got some great workouts in as well. Like you, we are definitely heating up again. But the nights are still cooling down, which makes it very bearable. But we certainly could use some rain.

Laurie, sounds like a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Glad you got a chance to work on some projects and spend some time with your oldest DD. My step height is definitely coming down more consistently. I am still okay on 6” for most things and even 8” for some. But my 10” step days....which I was never really comfortable with....are over (unless it is just for strength moves). And I pull out my 4” step when doing things like Shred Cardio. I would much rather be safe and have a slightly less intense workout than injure myself.....without question. Over packing is really easy for me to do. Especially for long trips to unknown places like where you are going. I seem to think I need a pair of shoes for every possible occasion. Hope you are better at limiting things than me!!

Hi Tami and Erika!!!

See you tomorrow.

Laurel

Hi Ladies! Today’s workout was LIHI Chest, Shoulders and Triceps followed by Cathe Live Cardio HiiT Plus Core. Definitely had more energy today than yesterday. I think the spin/yoga combo mid-week may be a keeper!

Thelma, great workouts! Yay on the party!! That is an incredible response from your community. It just make you feel so welcome to know that many people already....and all of them want to spend time with you. Sounds like you have a perfect plan for food. Like you, cooking for that many people would stress me to no end. Sounds like you should have great weather for the weekend as well. Love that you are doing this for your new neighbors!

Had an early hair appointment so now I am off to catch up on my daily chores. See you tomorrow!

Laurel

Hi Ladies, we had a beautiful day here today. My workouts were a private yoga session with an amazing instructor at the yoga studio and a sculpting fusion class. This yoga instructor is the one who makes sure you only do only what your body can handle. We worked on form, and she was excellent.

Laurel, wonderful workouts! I love that you've discovered your body needs an easier workout mid-week!

The people we invited are the friends we've met through someone I met back in April when I participated in the Parade of Homes event. This friend is awesome. We love him, and it's obvious he loves us too. This group of friends gets together every Friday at a bar or a restaurant for a couple of hours. They have welcomed us with open arms.
We lived in our MA neighborhood for about 12 years and we hardly knew our next-door neighbor! In a matter of a couple of months, we have all these friends here in BR. I also have my pals from the yoga studio too!
There's no way I would ever think of cooking for so many people. The good thing is that they seem to be used potluck meals when they get together. Next time I'll have people bring a dish to share.
So far the weather looks perfect for Saturday.

Hi Tami! Happy September to you too! 3 day weekends are the best!
Glad you had a good time with your guests.

Great workouts! I don't think I'd ever heard of that Supreme 90 Cardio Challenge workout before!
I can't believe your DH started his fishing season already! Good for you for going through your closet and getting rid of things.
I feel like I have to donate most of my dressy/work clothes. The dress code here is very casual. Early on a lady told me that all I'd needed here were jeans and t-shirts. I think she was right.
I sometimes wear dresses when we meet with our friends on Fridays, but feel strange because I am the only one wearing a dress!

At least I know that when I'm ready to donate my clothes they will go to people in need.

You are doing the right thing by focusing on being grateful to have a good work environment. Be patient, and you will get a better job in due time.

I was really happy DH went to the restorative yoga class with me. There is one this month too but he wasn't thrilled about going. He said he knows I liked it, and that he would go for me. I let it go this time because the class is on our anniversary. Next time there is a workshop I'll make him go with me. LOL

Our friends live in neighboring towns. We really only have one neighbor at the entrance of our road which only has 3 houses. The third house is a vacation rental property. Our only neighbor is not very sociable but we've made it a point to talk to him whenever we see him. He is better with us now. You and your DH should think about retiring here! There is plenty of fishing here. BR is the trout capital of Atlanta if not the country.

A friend told us today to prepare ourselves for the day to get dark at 6 PM. Of course, we're used to the day getting dark at around 4 PM! We'll take a day getting dark at 6 pm any day! LOL

Goodnight ladies!
Thelma

Hi Ladies! I decided to workout with Cathe live again today, and, boy, was it a tough one. It was called Legs for Days, and it was one of her longer live workouts at a little over an hour. She did some of her standard moves but added a 4” step to many of them for additional range of motion. She kept it at a slower pace to make it easier to get deeper. I am going to be feeling this one tomorrow. Already looking forward to doing it again. I followed it with a shorter cardio—In The Ring, and a random core section from another Live workout.

Tami, glad you enjoyed the weekend and the visit from your houseguests. Great job with the workouts!! Glad you like the sound of the new rotation. As far as workouts planned......this is a rough draft, to be honest. But here is generally what I am planning, which I hope to start the week of September 22. The daily workouts for me will look something like this:

Sunday-lower body and cardio
Monday-upper body split (for example, a chest/shoulder/triceps workout) and cardio
Tuesday-spin and yoga
Wednesday-upper body split (the other upper body parts not done on Monday) and cardio
Thursday-lower body and cardio
Friday-upper body (all parts) and spin
Saturday-yoga

My goal is to keep all of my cardio under an hour and, preferably, in the 30-45 minute range with the two spin classes, a lower impact, and at least one HiiT workout in the mix. As far as programs, right now I am focusing on four programs for the first eight weeks. I think I will start with LIS Trisets for the first two weeks; XTrain Discs 1&2 for weeks 3-4; STS Meso 1 (probably discs 1-6) for weeks 5-6; and 4DS (the upper body split premixes and the lower body premix) for week 4-8. 4DS isn’t exactly an endurance workout, which is why I put it last. But it has elements of endurance but also muscle building in it, which I think will be a nice lead in to the next section of ‘muscle building ’. I also thought starting with LIS, though also not strict endurance, is good because of the excellent all over body work it uses, including balance.

For the 8 weeks of ‘muscle building’, I am thinking of using Pure Strength, Gym Styles, RWH LIHI, two weeks of Meso 2. But I may also skip Pure Strength and do all four weeks of Meso 2 but split into two week segments so, for example, two weeks done after Gym Styles and then two more weeks done after LIHI. For the last segment of Strength, I am thinking of doing three weeks of each of the following: Burn Sets, Slow and Heavy and Meso 3, but I may do them in an alternating fashion instead of three weeks of one and then moving on to the next.

Some of these series are upper body only (like Burn Sets), so I kind of plan on doing lower body work from these series for one lower body workout per week when it is available and, when not, doing.....whatever sounds good on the day. I had toyed with adding Body Beast to the last section (Strength), but right now I am leaning away from that.

I had also toyed with alternating all of the segments like the last (doing each series’ workouts for one week before moving to the next and then repeating the pattern), and can be talked into that still!

I am not sure what my goals are necessarily except to convince myself to do shorter cardio workouts, focus on a variety of strength workouts and not getting lazy by continually doing the same strength workouts over and over. I don’t expect an STS or Body Beast type of result, but I also think my body may love this. Or at least I hope so!

Anyhow.....there you go. Let me know what you think. If you are interested, I can do a more detailed calendar of workouts and email that to you. Oh, and by the way, I was reading on a Cathe Facebook page about the Pelaton app and have downloaded it. I haven’t tried it yet, but I am thinking of giving it a go to add to the variety in my spin workouts (even though I don’t have a Pelaton bike). Looks like they have some great yoga classes on that app as well. My question for you is do you think I will be able to do the spin workouts with a different cycle? All feedback and info is welcome!!

Thelma, sounds like another great class. Amazing how saying yes to that Parade of Homes has resulted in such a community around you. Such a great thing because, like you and Tami, we have lived places and never knew the neighbors names. It is so sad when that happens.

Laurie, great workouts! That cool morning temp..... . I guess autumn is on the way for certain! When I was waiting for my hair appointment yesterday, I wandered into a shoe store to look for some sandals to take to Hawaii......and it was filled with boots!! So, yep, autumn is coming. Regarding yoga, I am just finding I am getting tighter and tighter from workouts and am getting a little concerned if I don’t add some longer stretches that I may end up with another injury. I discarded my FitBit a couple of months ago because my obsession with steps was resulting in me reaching for longer cardio workouts and shorter strength workouts.....and running away from yoga and stretching. Not good. It was from realizing that that I kind of came up with this new rotation because, honestly, the best thing for my body seems to be strength workouts followed by stretch/yoga....and then cardio. When I wasn’t doing cardio this winter because of my leg injury but had inserted Pilates and yoga and such....I felt better (less sore) and my body was the same as it is with all the impact. I know I am not ready to get rid of cardio in huge amounts because of what it does for me mentally. But I can try to make it something that doesn’t hurt me too. This aging thing.....so much fun!

See you tomorrow!

Laurel

Morning Ladies,

This morning I did 30MTF Train Like a Contender Boxing. I used my boxing gloves, and just made me feel tough. Good workout for the upper body and abs.

Laurel, Lots of work went into your thought process on the rotation. It looks awesome, and I will have to re-read later today. Thanks for all that work. Awesome job on your workouts also. Okay I'm going to schedule the yoga into my rotation right now, it needs to be on there. I just can't understand why I tend to ignore it, so I have to just have one day during the week that I have is scheduled. I'm finding that it can't be on a weekend either, because then I have a very good chance of saying it is to nice outside. Of course with the weather changing it will be easier to get the yoga in on a weekend. I still use my FitBit, but I don't think that I ever get the required steps in. I mostly use it for my sleep and just recording my workout. When I do reach the 10K steps, it surprises me.

Tami, Great job on the workouts! I hear you on the dog and waiting for your workout to be over. Mine seems to think that the whole workout floor is for him to lay out on. It makes for some interesting workout space for me. With the Lean Body Circuit workout I upped the weight to 20lbs, and boy was I sore this morning. I impressed myself with being able to do that workout with the 20's. Figured that if Kelly was using them I could. She did say that we should up our weights if the workout wasn't tough enough. I have to remember to up the weights on workouts more often. Of course I don't think that 25lbs will be something I lift anytime soon. My greatest weakness it the dollar store. They have some really nice things, and you really need to go there with an open mind. You never realize what could be used for organizing. I bought a couple of containers that they say are for sugar, but I'm using them for my floss picks. They work great. I will have to take a couple of pics of what I did with my drawer.

Have a great day!
Laurie

Hi Ladies! Hope you had a good weekend. Ours was nice. The weather is warm but dry, though I have my fingers crossed for rain soon. Saturday we spent on the golf course and yesterday we spent working on the yard and garage and doing some early prep for fall/winter. Feels good to have gotten some home projects knocked out as we have been neglecting them a bit in favor of golfing this summer. For workouts, on Saturday I did Jessica Smith Walk Strong 3 Yoga and Pilates Fusion. Yesterday was Gym Style Legs followed by Shock Cardio 30/30 and Double Wave Load Pyramid HiiT. Today was Gym Style Chest and Triceps followed by Cathe Live Steptastic. Good stuff all around!

Erika, great job with 21DF! I am glad you are enjoying some cooler weather. We are having some of our hottest temps of the season, but because the humidity is down, it feels pretty good still. But I am finally getting to the point where I am ready from a change. Honestly, I can take the day time heat, but I am ready for some cooler nights. I want to have the windows open. I am sorry to hear about your DS’s driving test. I have no doubt he will get it this time. I am sure he was pretty disappointed though. Makes for a tough birthday, for sure.

Laurie, glad you enjoyed your cooler weather as well! Bet it feels good to finish your landscaping project! We are going to try to attack a couple of bigger projects outside next month and my body is already thinking ‘ouch!’ But even from the little we did yesterday, I was reminded how much I love that tired feeling at the end of a good day’s outdoor work. I love that your DD wanted to learn how to plaster! I am so thankful for the time my dad spent with me teaching me how to use tools and such. I am still pathetically uninformed in that area, but at least I have some foundation for how things work. Such a valuable tool in life. Love the sound of that new KCM workout! Sounds like a great ‘all over’ workout. Love those. I am with you on being a tad preoccupied with vacation planning right now, so I am having trouble trying to stay focused on putting together the next rotation. So I have decided to just plan out the first two weeks for now and then do the rest post-Hawaii.

Sunday (again, I am hoping to start with on 22 September, all things going well getting back from Hawaii): LIS Lower Body Trisets and a HiiT workout

Monday: LIS Upper Body Trisets Chest/Shoulder/Triceps premix followed by steady state cardio.

Tuesday: Spin and Yoga

Wednesday: LIS Upper Body Trisets Back/Biceps/Core followed by a HiiT or higher intensity workout

Thursday: Lower Body Blast (one week) and Butts and Guts (one week) followed by Low Impact Cardio

Friday: Pyramid Upper Body (one week) and CTX Upper Body (one week) followed by spin

Saturday: Yoga

Okay, it is clear this was put together by somebody who doesn’t work!! Most especially that is clear in that I put the longer workouts (Thursday and Friday) during the week instead of on the weekend. But I intentionally put those longer upper and lower body workouts in during these first two weeks because the LIS workouts are pretty short. But if the order doesn’t work, I get it!

See you tomorrow.

Laurel

Hi Ladies, glad y'all (LOL) had a nice weekend. Our party was a huge success! Out of the 27 people we invited 19 came. 6 people were either out of town or working and one couple didn't even bother to RSVP. We had a great time and once the people started to arrive I relaxed!
My chicken wings were a huge hit and people asked which restaurant we purchased them from! People were in love with our house and our view. We couldn't be happier with how well things went. The party was pretty much out on the deck. Everyone was just enjoying the nice breeze, each other's company, and the view.
Laurie, sadly I didn't get the sangria recipe but I will ask again to see if I get lucky this time.

I didn't workout from Thursday through Sunday. Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning was all about cleaning and getting the house ready for the party. The house was spotless and it looked great. I was in charge of house tours and it was great to hear people admiring the house.
A few of the ladies who offered to bring something brought a side dish or a dessert, and people even brought gifts! We have 3 beautiful new plants, lovely scented candles, and nice picture frames as well as a Home Depot gift card!

The men in the group get together on Wednesdays at a bar for a couple of hours. Once they saw our view they told DH that they should have their get-togethers at our house! One even said that he'd pay to come here to see the view! LOL

Sunday we went to Murphy, NC to a shooting range with one of our retired FL police friends. Since I can't be in the sun he wanted me to go check out the place where we will learn how to shoot a gun. Thankfully the place is covered. It's in the middle of the Nantahala forest. I got my first firearm safety lesson and how to hold a gun. Thankfully our friend has a small enough gun that fit my small hands pretty well. After trying several guns for fit, I had to ask if there were children's size guns. LOL

I woke up with a bad neck ache and had a bad day. My neck and my upper back were killing me. I went to Barre class but that took superhuman effort. I was dragging all day long. I think my sinuses are bothering me again.

Laurie, fabulous workouts! I'm sure you can't wait for your trip! It's just around the corner!
Buying the food took a lot of the stress away, and people loved the BBQ. I had one vegetarian that I didn't know about as she doesn't frequent the group. She someone's wife and a lovely great artist. As soon as she was in front of our kitchen island where the food was, I realized she was a vegetarian! Thankfully I'd made a Mexican dip, someone brought fruit salad and another lady brought deviled eggs!
We felt so honored that two of the wives who don't like to leave their homes came to our party. Next party will be potluck style as they do here in the south. We want to have them over to watch the sunset but it's going to be raining for the rest of the week and it looks like next week too. We really have gathered a great group of friends.

I highly recommend doing a yoga session at least once a week. I love it when we do the warrior poses because I always end up with DOMS on my thighs for how hard the legs work to hold the pose. You have to tighten your legs your butt, tummy, point the front knee to the outside just a little, and on top of that, you have to do the Ujjayi or oceanic breath. So much to remember!

It really is getting dark early now. Great idea to have Rocket wear his reflective vest.

Laurel, amazing workout combos as usual! Thanks so much for putting that rotation together. I want to give it a try because it looks really good. I may not be able to do everything you recommend because I don't want to give up my classes.
I hear you about realizing that there are things we can no longer do workout wise.

Doing the Parade of Homes event really changed our lives. Can you believe we have all these friends? I actually know their first names and have reminded DH several times about them. We actually have more than 27 friends but they don't always attend the Friday gathering so I couldn't give them an invitation. I now realize how sad it is to live somewhere for so long and not have any friends.
Yoga really IS a workout. Not all the classes I take are workouts but they are good for the body. Some of the restorative classes are not workouts at all but the benefits of holding a stretch for a long time is so good! The beginners' yoga class I take is not much of a workout either because the instructor does a lot of restorative work which I love. The Wednesday morning yoga class IS a workout. I have to see if I dare do another 8:15 class on Friday's but might not if I'm going to do part of the rotation.

Hi Erika, great job keeping up with your workouts! Sorry, your boy didn't pass the driver's test. I hope he passed today!

The flareups are not fun but I really am having more good days. I am torn between my yoga studio classes and doing our usual DVD workouts. I want to do both but I don't have that much energy. I am thinking that I need to build that energy up. I hope that is what I need to do anyway. The massage was pretty amazing. I wish I could do them every week but it's not like they're free.

Tami, great workouts. I'm glad you're enjoying the Peloton so much!
Poor Bernie waiting next to the Peloton for his 'mommy and me time!"
That private yoga class was really amazing. This instructor is really good and even better at helping you with form and telling you what you're supposed to feel. I am surprised I've never heard of the Supreme 90 series! I really think your patience will pay off at work at the right time. Remember that things happen on God's time!

Sounds like you're going to be very busy making sure you don't fall behind with work.
That is a tough decision about the gym membership! Think about the benefits that you get from your gym membership. Classes you love and what about the social aspect of going there?
My membership at the yoga studio is $99 a month for unlimited classes. I really think I'm the only person there who takes as many classes as I do. I feel that I get my money's worth with the number of classes I take each week. For me there is also the social aspect I get out of going the studio, that is priceless to me.

Goodnight ladies!
Thelma