Week 3 of the Find Your Fit Challenge...Almost Completed

I have come to end of Week 3...ALMOST.  I still need to complete the optional Day 5 workout tomorrow.  I think we are having another garage sale tomorrow, so it may be a late day workout, or a Sunday one.

It's been a great Week 3.  I am feeling stronger and more alive than I have felt in a long time.  In today's workout I saw progress.  Besides my Burpees getting stronger and faster, and less rest between doing each rep or set, my Box Jumps got a little bit bigger.  I started off with what I first started this Find Your Fit Challenge with, my deck out the back.  Now it's only about 8"-10" from the ground, but it was something that I could do.  Do, at the start with some difficultly, because of the lack of exercise that was happening in my life before I began this challenge.  When I first started doing the Box Jumps in the challenge, I noticed that my feet just kind of slapped the deck.  Well today when I started my box jumps, I noticed my feet clearing the deck by a lot.  I noticed a scrap piece of deck wood sitting nearby, so on my second round of Box Jumps I added to my jump. Progress, progress...progress.

My food has been on target.  Pretty much the same type of meals and foods as you have seen in the previous weeks.  So I won't bore you with mentioning them all again.

This week my evenings have been busy with making more gum paste flowers for that cake I will be making.

I think I am getting the hang of it.  

I have to redeem myself with this cake.  Back in March, my Mum asked me to make a cake to celebrate the March family birthdays.  We were getting together at her home for dinner and celebration.  The cake was a disaster...just like how I was feeling.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that one...maybe someone in my family took one(I'll check with my Mum and my sisters and get back to you).  It was terrible.  It tasted great but it looked awful.  The icing was sliding off the cake.  Then the cake started falling apart.  Just terrible.  Awful.  There was nothing special about it at all.  I felt terrible that it looked so bad.  But now I have the chance to redeem myself in my cake decorating skills.  The flowers are looking great.  I have my fingers crossed that when it comes times to ice and decorate the cake, that it all stays together.  Making the flowers could be considered a craft, but I believe to make them look realistic, it is an art.  I love creating these little masterpieces.  I will have some more pictures in the next couple weeks.

A mention of some food, since I am a foodie.  Today I made up a small batch of Guacamole.  I love it.  I am the only one in the home that likes it.  So it's ALL mine.  I had some for my morning snack this morning.  Instead of serving it with chips, I served it up with some yellow bell pepper.

So good!

Just a few more food mentions...

I made up some Kale chips the other day.  I think my husband ate most of them.  Which is a great thing.  I'm so glad he likes them.

Well I MUST go to bed now.  It is late and we were supposed to get things ready for tomorrow's supposed garage sale.  Instead we watched the PVR'd Season Finale of Survivor.  We managed to avoid hearing who won for 2 days now.  So now I'm tired and I still don't have things ready for the sale.  I know my daughter is excited about doing another Lemonade Stand.  We shall see what the morning brings.

Good night and Stay Strong!

Trina

Playing Catch Up, But Still on Track

I have been slacking on writing my blog, but I have NOT been slacking on my workouts and healthy eating.  It was a busier work week and more renovations had to be done last week.  I was too tired by the end of the day to sit and write to you.  My apologies.

Yesterday I finished Week 2 of the #FindYourFit Challenge.  I did the 4 days of workouts, plus the optional Day #5 workout.  My calves were feeling it at the end of week #2.  There were lots jumping jacks, jump squats, burpees, box jumps, in and out jump squats and jump rope.  Do you see now why my calves were sore?  Many jump moves.  I made through all the workouts, some I had to modify a bit.  But I am not ashamed of having to modify them.  My body is not yet at its best, so I needed to switch some of the burpees to another exercise.  But it was only for one round of them here are there throughout the week.  Some of the speed burpees were not so speedy, but I pushed through them and got them done.

I know that I am getting stronger again, because I made it through Week #2 and looking forward to the start of Week #3 tomorrow morning.  I have jumped on the scale a few times throughout last week and there weren't any huge changes.  A bit of a bummer, but that won't get me down because I know since I am lifting, I am gaining my muscle back.  I feel like I have started to lose that lazy layer of fat that was keeping me down in the pot hole in the road on my journey.  I am not bathing suit ready yet, but I know by the end of the 6 weeks, I will feel that much closer.

Here is a recap of the past week through food, fitness and topped it off with some fun...

Breakfast...

Some scrambled egg whites and toast on some days.  And on other days, toast with almond butter.

Snacks...

I made up a mixture of nuts to go along with my fruit snack for my morning snacks.  I packed some of the nut mixture in a smaller container to take on-the-go.  The rest of the mix, I put it in an airtight container to use for the snacks to come.

 Below here is something new I tried...

Grilled pineapple with roasted pecans.  

This was so good.  Sometimes you just have to experiment to discover new taste and create new dishes.  I will be definitely been having this again.

Here is some fitness...

I took my workout outdoors.  The early morning post workout sweat.  Geesh...my hair looks grey in this picture.  I know that I have some grey hairs, but not that many.  It's the lighting...honest. 

I bought myself this notebook above a while ago.  I only found it with all the Spring cleaning we are doing.  I decided to keep all my CX-T #FindYourFit workouts in it.  In addition to my notebook, I have also been using the Seconds PRO app to run me through each workout.  As you can see in the picture below, I have entered tomorrow's workout in the app ready to go.

Some of my times may be different from other challengers as we all work at a different pace.  And some times, my workout ends up longer than what it shows in the app picture.  Like the other day, I repeated the Finisher just for a little extra.

Some more food...

The 7 Super Food Salad served with a Sweet Potato topped with Cottage Cheese.

It was so good, I ate the other half of sweet potato for dinner the next night.

A Few Lunches... 

Grilled Chicken and Cucumber sandwich on the Hemp and Quinoa bread, toasted.

7 Super Salad with Yellow Pepper, Apple and Grilled Chicken

Now for some FUN...

I have been asked to make a cake for a 50th Wedding Anniversary party in June.  It is to be a BIG cake with some BIG decorations for the BIG 50.  I want it to be great, so I have decided to try my hand at making some gum paste flowers.

Above is my first attempt at making flowers.  I'm glad I have a few weeks to get them right.

And no, I won't be eating them.  But yes, these flowers are totally edible.  My kids want to eat them already.

More fun...

We took a mini break this weekend from renovations and Spring Cleaning and took the kids away for the night.  Thankfully it is a long weekend here in Canada, so I have tomorrow to resume all the reno work stuff and more cleaning.

We went to the beach overnight.  It was so nice to get away from home.

The kids loved being back on the sand.  And of course my daughter loved being back in the water...

She went right in with all her clothes on.  In the picture above, she was in up to her waist.  But eventually, she was in up to her neck.  I love my little free spirit.  She was loving it!

Week #3...I'm ready.  I am planning on getting in some more cardio this week to help shed more of the lazy layer of fat.  Maybe I will get out and start running again.  MAYBE...

Even though tomorrow is a holiday, I am still planning on getting up at 6am to start my day.  Starting it with Day 1 of Week #3.

Until then...Stay Strong!

Good night.

Week 2 Day 1 CX-T Find Your Fit Challenge and Track & Field

Well I am into the second week of the Find Your Fit Challenge and I am feeling great.  I have been feeling a little bit tired which I think is from the sun and the heat the past week, but I'm not complaining about it.  I LOVE it!

I am down a few pounds from last Monday, so that alone is a good sign of great workouts, healthy foods and hard work.

And today's workout needed hard work.  BURPEES, Plyo push ups and many squats...oh my!  And that was just a small part of it.  The workouts are fantastic and turn me into a sweaty mess every time.

My food today in and out of the house.  Breakfast at home with egg whites and toast.  Snack at the track with mango and slivered almonds.

Lunch...

My Cucumber, Tomato, Red Pepper & Onion Salad mixed with Quinoa and topped with Chicken Breast.  I packed it up and went to my son's very first track and field meet today.

I was going to be out of the house all morning and afternoon, so I needed to pack some healthy food and water to keep me going during the day.  It was a hot day so I made sure I packed lots of water with lemon to keep me hydrated and took some extra for my son too.

When we got back home I ate the afternoon snack I had packed, watermelon...mmm.

Now Dinner was not at the healthiest place on earth, BUT...I chose a grilled chicken wrap and I totally DID NOT have any of those fries that taste so good and 2 weeks ago I would have stolen some from my kids.  My will power has returned.   I think you all may know which food place I am talking about, and if you don't...well it's good that you don't(I think).

So while I had to eat in and out of our home today, I think I did pretty good.

I want to talk about my son and his first Track & Field meet today.  When my son first told me about that he would be in track and field, I was excited...him, not so much.  I think it was his nerves.  Lately I have had Mondays off so it worked out perfectly that I would be able to go see him.  At first he didn't want me to, then he changed his mind.  Last night he told me he didn't want me to cheer for him.  He said it would distract him.  Oh my dear son...do you know who your mother is???  Of course I am going to cheer for you.  His first couple events were standing long jump and running long jump.  Both of them were on the far side of the field, so the only way he could have heard me was if I had a megaphone.  AND...I didn't have one.  I did see him waving at me a few times, so I knew that he was happy that I was there.

After those events were done, he came up to the stands where I was sitting and told me that his leg hurt.  I think now his nerves were getting to him because he knew he was going to have to run soon.  He also wanted me to buy him some cotton candy, but he then changed his mind to a large bag of popcorn.  I swear the bag was bigger than his head.  He ate a little, and I gave him a pep talk and he was good to go.

After the lunch break it was his time to run the 200 meter race.  I found that many of the kids would look up to the stands if they heard someone cheering their name.  So I decided that I would stand down closer to the finish line so that my son would just keep running.  Now remember he didn't want me to cheer for him...but I did.  I was and still am SO proud of him.  I was so worried that he might not run because of his nerves, but he did and he did great.  He finished with a smile on his face.  He may not have been in the top five, but he did it, and that is what counts the most.

The best part of this was after the race he came up to me and told me that he almost stopped to pick up his friend's hat that flew off while racing, but then he heard me shout "GO TYLER GO!", and he just kept running.  He said that it motivated him to keep going.  Somehow I think he will want me always to cheer him on.  That is something that is no problem at all.

Now you all, or maybe most of you know how much of an emotional sap I am when I comes to shit like this.  My god, when the first 800m race was on, I started to get tears in my eyes, and my son wasn't even in that event.  SAP!!!!!  I was very proud of myself too, to hold it together when my son actually raced.  The results for the boys 200m will be announced tomorrow at school.  They also ran out of time, so he still needs to run the 60m race at the school some time this week.  After he ran the 200m, he got a participant ribbon.  He came up to the stands to show me and he was so happy.  The day was golden.

But it didn't stop there.  He was also competing in the softball throw.  After 2 great throws and all the measurements were entered, he was lining up at the placement tent.  He got 6th place for the softball throw.  When they announced his name, he had a smile from ear to ear.  And so did I.  So proud.  I'm smiling right now as I am typing this.

So I am going to wrap this post up with my hero and inspiration of the day...

My love.

Stay Strong!

Good night

Trina

Week 1 Day 5 Optional Workout CX-T Find Your Fit Challenge

Okay so I was up early yesterday(Saturday)morning.  But not for my workout, but for rather sweating like crazy getting things out for our Spring Garage Sale.  By the time people started showing up, I needed a shower.  The weather was perfect for our sale, no complaints here.  I thought I spent most of my time in the shade, but I got the the first sunburn for the season.  We didn't even get half the stuff out that we wanted to get out for sale, so we are probably going to have another sale in two weeks time.

My daughter was excited for the Garage Sale as she wanted to sell some of her toys and run a Lemonade Stand.  And that she did!  She rolled out of bed late(10am), but she was raring to go.  I made the lemonade for her, set up the table and after having an argument about how much to charge for a glass of lemonade(which ended in tears), she was open for business.  If I let her price the lemonade, she would be able to pay off the mortgage in a day, that's if she made any sales.  She is a very hard little business woman at the age of 7 years.  Anyway, she had a price of .75 cents a glass or 2 for $1.00.

Open for business.

She was also selling the children DVDs that we are clearing out.  She was very pleased with herself at the end of the day.  And so was I.  The only problem her selling lots, was that she wanted to buy stuff.  Buy stuff from our own garage sale.  I had to explain to her that we were trying to get the stuff OUT of our house and not bring it back in.

She was so pleased that she wanted to do it all again today.  Ah...no.  She will be open again in two weeks if the weather is nice.(if not sooner, she may twist my arm)

Anyway, after a long, hot day setting up, working and taking down the garage sale, I really did not feel like riding my spin bike and then doing the Optional 5th Find Your Fit workout.  I was hungry and tired.  So I jumped in the shower, which felt awesome, and got dressed and we went out for dinner.  Once we got back home I thought I can do the #5 workout, so that is what I did.  As tired as I was, it felt great to get it in there.  I did not however, go for a spin.  I figured with all the walking and carrying of things in and out of the house, that was a pretty good workout in the heat of the day.

My food and water consumption wasn't the same as during the week.  I ate healthy foods but not at the same schedule as I do during the week.  Water, I still got in about 9 glasses of lemon water.  It was still all good.

It was a great day overall.

Today is now Mother's Day, Sunday May 10th.

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mum's and Mum's to be!

Today should be a rest day, but when I look around at the state of our home, that just seems impossible.  With renovations and everyday mess making, it seems like the work is never done.  Mind you it is now 2:51pm and I haven't cleaned up anything...LOL.  Actually I did do a couple loads of laundry.  Now I guess I have to fold it all and put it away.  Cinderella, Cinderella.

So with saying that, I must go.

Week 2 of the CX-T Find Your Fit Challenge starts up tomorrow.  I have my workouts and reviewed the video tutorials, now all I need to do is enter the workouts in my Seconds PRO app and I will be ready to go at 6am.

Have a great Mother's Day!  Enjoy your day!

Stay Strong!

Trina

Week 1 Day 4 CX-T Find Your Fit Challenge

OMG...I thought I was going to puke.  The first part of today's workout was fine, tough, but fine.  The second part...like I said, OMG!  The 400 rep challenge was more than tough.  Well the first 100 was.  I will tell you this, doing 100 push ups made me want to puke.  Now I didn't do the 100 non stop.  I started with 20, took a breath, then I did another 10, 10, breather, 5, 5, 10, breather, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 3, 3 and I wanted to puke.  But there was no time for that, my next 100 rep exercise was waiting to be done.

I set my Seconds PRO timer app up for this workout as well.  I gave myself 3 minutes for each 100 Reps for a total of 12 minutes.  WHAT?!?!? was I thinking.  My push ups took me 6 minutes to do.  The next two 100 rep exercises took me 4 minutes to do.  The last one took me 5 minutes to get done with a little bit of breathing time at the end of it.  So all in all, I finished my 400 Rep fit challenge in 19 minutes.

I finished off the workout with some stretching.

Today's food was similar to yesterday's with a few changes, but I need to get things ready for our garage sale tomorrow.  SO...I need to cut this one very short today.

Must go...Stay Strong!

Good night
Trina

Breakfast

Scrambled Egg Whites with Hemp & Quinoa Toast

Week 1 Day 3 CX-T Find Your Fit Challenge

I should rename the title Week 1 Workout 3 since I took a semi-recovery day yesterday.  Ah...but you are a smart bunch and you can follow what I'm doing.

With the CX-T Find Your Fit Challenge, there are 4 workouts with an optional 5th one.  Yes, I will be doing the 5th.  If the following 5 weeks remain the same set up, my weekly schedule will look like this:

Monday: Workout 1
Tuesday: Workout 2
Wednesday: Recovery Cardio(my own choice)
Thursday: Workout 3
Friday: Workout 4
Saturday: Optional Workout 5 with some Recovery Cardio(my own choice)
Sunday: Rest Day

and repeat...

You have to do whatever suits your lifestyle and weekly schedules.  This, up above, works for me.

I did Workout 3 this morning.  At first I thought I wasn't going to be able to move my legs in order to get it done.  But I was good.  Once I started to warm up, the soreness subsided until an hour after I was done.  Then it returned it all it's glory.  Yes, once again it is a "hold on to the wall to sit down and pee" kind of day...I envy you guys.

Today's workout really worked my abs.  Even though my abs of steel are covered with flab, I know that the steel will overcome the flab.

Today's post is going to be short and sweet.  We have had a busy night with the renovations and time has ticked on, and with that my bed is calling me.

I have inputted Day 4's workout into the Seconds Pro app and it looks like it's gonna be a tough one.  There is a 400 Rep Challenge to finish it off...YIKES!!!!

Today's Food...
Breakfast: Phatsoslim's French Toast and Chocolate Protein Shake
I used the Hemp & Quinoa bread, 1 egg white and some cinnamon.  Topped it off with some organic honey.

Snack: Apples and Peanut Butter
The apple wasn't a nice as I was hoping it would be.  I used store bought peanut butter today as it was much smoother than my homemade stuff.

Lunch: Salmon served with the 7 Super Foods Salad & Quinoa
I topped of the salad with some olive oil and vinegar.  I think I put just a bit too much vinegar. It was still very good.

Dinner:  Scrambled Eggs with Salsa and Toast
Sometimes you just need to have breakfast for dinner.  And with us being busy tonight, it was a good fit.

I know it doesn't look very appetizing, but it hit the spot.

Snack: Watermelon

What a perfect end to a busy and beautiful sunny warm Spring day.  Some very refreshing watermelon.  I couldn't make my protein shake to go with it, because we had to shut the water off in the house for the renovations, so tonight I will go without it.

Well that's it for me for today.  I must get my rest as well as Rockin' tomorrow's workout, we are gearing up for a garage sale here on Saturday morning.  The Spring cleaning continues.  Lets hope that we can sell lots of stuff to help pay for more renovations.

Good night...Stay Strong!

Trina

Recovery Day

All my alarms worked this morning and I was on the bike by 6:15am.  My whole body could feel that last two days of workouts.  So getting on my bike felt great.  I rode for only about 20 minutes, and then hit the shower.

I thought since I haven't been on my spin bike in a while, I would start with just 20 minutes of work, 5 minute cool down.  That was enough for today...sort of.

After my children were off to school and the little daycare girl arrived, her and I went for nice 35 minute walk.  Pushing a stroller is a lot harder because you can't swing your arms when you walk.  But at least with her in the stroller I could walk at a much quicker pace.

A nice Spring walk through the trails.

Today's food...

Breakfast: Protein Shake with Hemp & Quinoa Toast and Natural Peanut Butter

Snack: Pineapple and Walnuts

Since I had cut up a fresh pineapple last night for snack, I thought I would have some for snack today too.  No sense letting it spoil. 

Lunch: Salmon with Quinoa and Cucumber, Tomato, Onion & Red Pepper Salad
I had some leftover salad and quinoa from last night's dinner, it was perfect to eat with my salmon.

I LOVE salmon!  But you already know that if you have followed me on this journey.

I cooked up some salmon for myself and the daycare kids.

It was so good!

I decided that I would wait until after dinner to have my other snack.

Dinner: Steak with Cauliflower Mash and Steamed Snap Peas

Now steak was not on the list of protein sources...BUT...I had bought it before I got the lists.  

I couldn't just let it go to waste.  

It was delicious.

Snack: Cottage Cheese with Mango

Use up what you have on hand.  Mix and match it up with different ingredients so that your foods get used up in the current week.

Along with the food that I eat during the day, I have been drinking about 12 -15 cups of water each day.  Most of it is lemon water.  Needless to say trips to the bathroom have been quite frequent.

Must get to sleep now.  Day 3 CX-T Find Your Fit Challenge workout in the morning.

Remember to find out more information about this challenge or other training sessions that Chris provides, email Chris at cxtpersonaltraining@gmail.com

Good night

Trina

Week 1 Day 2 CX-T Find Your Fit Challenge

Well so much for my early start this morning.  I had a dream last night that I thought it was time to get up, so I checked my phone(because I use it as my alarm clock), well it didn't turn on.  I thought, "oh great, I have slept in".<<<this by the way is all in the dream.  My husband was still in bed and I thought he was late for work(it was still dark outside, but that didn't dawn on me at all)<<<still dreaming>>>I woke my husband up and said he was late for work.  At that point in the dream I actually woke up, I saw that it was still dark outside and checked my phone for real...it worked, it was only 4:23am, so I got up and went to the bathroom.  Crawled back into bed and fell back to sleep.  My alarm was supposed to go off at 6am so that I could do my workout before getting my kids up and ready for school.  THAT did not happen.  I woke up at 6:31am to no alarm.  I checked my phone...it didn't turn on.  SHIT!!!!  I spent a few minutes trying to get my phone working again, and then just got up and got ready for the day.  I was pissed off that I didn't get my workout in, but I knew that I could fit it in at some point today.

Now it could be the fact that sometimes my iPhone loses it mind OR it could be that fact that it looks like this...

My husband calls me the Phone Slayer.

My last iPhone hit the floor a number of times, got slammed in a car door and it still worked.  It took a leap into the toilet and THAT was the end of that one.

So as long as this one stays clear of water, it should last me a bit longer.

It's all good!

It works just fine.  I just have to be careful of the broken glass, and I might need to start setting another type of alarm to wake me up in the morning.  I wouldn't want my children to miss school.  Maybe it's them tampering with my phone in the night.

Anyway, I did get my workout done.  I was thinking if I could get the kid's lunches made quickly, I could do it before heading to the school bus...NO...that didn't work.  After coming back from the bus stop, I thought maybe I could do it before the little daycare girl arrives...NO...that wouldn't work because I never know exactly when this one is going to arrive.  BUT...an hour and a half later I got a text from her Mum saying that she would bring her at lunch time.  PERFECT!  So I got changed into my workout gear and got to it.  About 40 minutes later I was a sweaty mess.  Great workout Chris!

I hit the shower.  As I was getting undressed and dressed today I could feel yesterday's Find Your Fit workout throughout my body.  I also feel that driving force in me.  As another Find Your Fit challenger put it, "Beast Mode".  I can feel the beast being released once again.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I finally weighed myself after about, well probably a year and a half, it wasn't pleasant, but I did it.  The scale definitely keeps me in check.  I jumped on it again this morning upon waking and I was down 1.2 lbs.  Now, I know that it's not much, but it's more than I have lost in about a year and a half.  Seeing that number on the scale go down right now is a BIG motivator.  I am feeling better already.

This is probably the first selfie I have taken in awhile too.  You can't see that I am sweating like crazy, but you don't need to see that.  In addition to the new batteries in the scale, I also bought some for my Suunto heart rate monitor.  It recorded an AWESOME burn of 460 calories for Day 2's workout this morning.

I am going to ride my spin bike in the morning to give my muscles a bit of recovery time.  As today has gone by, my body is REALLY feeling these workouts.

Let's move on to what will help lose the laundry that is cluttering up my wash board stomach...

Today's FOOD...

Breakfast was very similar to yesterday.  Toast, natural peanut butter and protein shake.  

My Morning Snack:  Fresh Mango with Slivered Almonds

Lunch: Chicken Salad
This wasn't the same as yesterday's chicken salad.  I bought this mixture of Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Kale, Chicory, Dried Cranberries and Pumpkin Seeds.

It has a poppy seed dressing.

So good.

Dinner: Leftover Chicken served up with Quinoa and a Cucumber, Tomato, Onion and Red Pepper Salad

This was delicious.

Snack: Cottage Cheese and Pineapple

This has always been a favourite of mine.  Thanks to Chris for reminding me of how good this one is.  He had posted it on the sample food plan, and I'm so glad he did.

I guess all I would have to do is go back through my blog or photos on Instagram to see remind myself of some yummy meals and delicious snacks.

To make sure I get up in the morning at 6am, I have set the alarm on my Suunto heart rate monitor.  I think the new battery should be okay for a while.  But just in case, if you know my number, and you are already up, text me and tell me to get my A$$ out of bed.  You could always send me a Facebook message too.  Both will make a noise.  

I hope all my fellow CX-T Find Your Fit Challengers have had a great second day.  And I hope you too have had a great day.

I will be back in the saddle tomorrow.

Until then...Stay Strong!

Trina