P90X3

126/66 – The Push-Pull Experience

Shout out to Justin Timberlake, of course. He was here in concert last night but I couldn’t bring myself to drop the cash on that. That’s my yoga chair and it’ll be around long after JT blows town. Sorry, man. Maybe next time.

Chest and back day. There aren’t enough words to describe the level with which I do not like this. I would rather do legs for three straight days than this for one. Hubby is just the opposite. I wonder, again, if it’s a guy/girl thing. As much as I hate it, I still do it because strong arms are sexy arms and I use those arms a lot for aerial stuff. Got my numbers up again also. 126 pushups and 66 pullups in 30 minutes. Friggin Tony Horton. Your exercises work, but you need to stop telling those lies that your protein/energy drink tastes good. It does not. Just like any other protein shake, it tastes like poop. Except the Gatorade one and some Muscle Milk, but I don’t want to have to take a Lactaid every time I work out. Stupid system that won’t accept milk without making me hate my life. Ok, ok, enough complaining already!

Last night’s FabPole class was certainly more of a success than last week’s class. I managed to figure out how to get inverted without banging my ass on the pole (ha, that’s so dirty) and mostly figured out the new moves that were introduced. No video this week. I think there will be one after next week’s class though. I think that, while it doesn’t always feel the best (see screaming red marks on my back and in my armpits), staying tight looks so much better than a more relaxed pose even though it’s a flowy type of apparatus. I know myself well enough to realize that I will probably never look at a video of myself and say “holy crap, I’m awesome!”, but I’m at least at a point where I can watch my own videos and not just be totally disgusted by them. Progress!

In other news, my procrastinating ass did finally sign up for the writing lab. It runs for a couple months and it is certainly going to be a challenge. Every day has a writing assignment.  That’s in addition to my assignment to myself to get words down in this blog every day. I’m hoping that after a couple weeks, it will become as (almost) second nature to me as this daily writing. I’ll certainly have to get outside of my box to get this done successfully, but that *is* the whole point. The first assignment I thought up while I was in the shower. It wasn’t supposed to be deep or anything, just kind of a little something. After I wrote it,though, I looked at it with different eyes and saw the double meanings I had unintentionally put in there. Cool! I can do this! I want to give you something to read that sucks you in and makes you irritated when you have to put it down and sad that it’s over when it is. Lofty goals,eh?

My goodness, I think I’m going through snowboarding withdrawl symptoms. I’m itching to get out and ride, but although we got about 4 inches last night, I don’t think there’s any freshies up on the mountain. Kinda want to wait for some new snow after the last visit.  Hopefully that comes, oh, around January 31 since we’ll probably go up on February 1. 😀  I love my life.

What about you? Have an exercise day you love over one you hate? And no, none of them and all of them are not good answers. How about your trip planning? Days to weeks to months in advance or spur of the moment? While you’re thinking on it, go have yourself a great day. It is, after all, Thursday and one day closer to the weekend!

I Work Out (Girl, Look At That Body)

Oh yes. This morning, I feel accomplished. I upped my push-up/pull-up game just a touch from last week. Then: 45/95. Today: 57/115. I’m hoping to push that number up every week for the next three Thursdays. Pretty stoked on the P90X3. You should try it. Only 30 minutes a day! Message me for more info. Only down side here is that I’ll be done around the end of March and bikini vacation isn’t until June. I guess a second round won’t hurt.

Last night, I went to my second FabPole class. Did I mention that I’m taking this class from the woman that invented it? No? Well, there you go. Now you know. And since knowing is half the battle, GO JOE! Officially two hours in (two one hour classes) and we’re working out a routine. We’re about 2 minutes in and I love it. I know that there are things that I need to work on (the broken neck look, the WTF hands, and occasional toe points), but I’m actually able to look at this and say “hey, for two hours of practice, you’re not doing too badly.” Without further ado, here’s what we’re up to (it’ll take a minute to load and I’m not sure how this looks on mobile):

Weeeeeeeeeee! So much can get done with this apparatus. I’m excited to see what else we learn. I’m also excited to work out that straddle back at the end so I don’t just slam my ghetto booty on the pole. We did just learn that part last night, so I don’t feel too badly about it. I mean, yeah, it bangs against the pole, but why else am I doing all of these squats and lunges if not to lift that baby up? Booty, booty, booty, booty, rockin’ everywhere!

Thursday. I swear that not three weeks ago, I was saying how the weeks were going by uber-quickly and now, it seems that time has decided to push the slow motion button. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t have my entire week packed full of activities…yet, or what, but it’s crazy. Maybe because I just want to get to the weekend to get up to the mountains to tackle jumping. Maybe it’s because I’m taking the time to stop and smell the snow after I faceplant. The world may never know.

Did you ever want something to drink and opened up the fridge and there wasn’t a damn drop in sight? Did you close the door disgustedly and walk away? Did the light bulb over your head go on almost immediately after the fridge light went off? Did you run back there and grab a couple of Cuties?You know those little oranges/tangerines/tangelos/whatever the hell they are? No? Just me again? Damn. Well fine, I’m not gonna share then. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna take my Cuties and go try to get mentally prepared for my first “boss” meeting today. I don’t think they’ll be expecting much of me outside of my attendance, but you just never know. How much do you love an unexpected surprise?

Get on out there and have yourself a thumpin’ Thursday. If you get down, just remember, tomorrow is Friday!

Ante Up!

Kidnap that fool!  Because this platform isn’t friendly to embedding YouTube videos, there’s the link. Good Thursday morning anthem, but then again, I don’t start my days like most people. 🙂

How did I start my day, you didn’t ask because you don’t care but I’m going to tell you anyway? Why, in the way of us X-heads,of course. 95 pushups and 45 pullups over 30 minutes. The last 5 of each of those were absolute suckassishness, but push, push, push! Have I mentioned P90X3? Hahahahaha, of course I have. Dear body, thanks for bouncing back pretty quickly every time I fall off of the workout wagon.

Last night I had my first FabPole routine class. Loved it. It’s pretty yet it still takes strength and more grace than I have. I still have to keep the fabric lower on my back and not in my armpits, but hey, it’s the second time I’ve ever tried it so I think I’m on a good path. Three more weeks to keep learning and get it all down. I got this. When we’re all done, I’ll post a video…maybe.

Proud to announce that on only my fourth day using my sandwich maker, I have perfected the art. This morning, my whole sandwich was hot and none of my cheese melted off into the sunset. I think this has a little to do with me switching cheese, but more to do with my “sandwich making” skills. I can’t wait to see what else I can put in that little bugger and make deliciousness.

I didn’t forget about yesterday’s writing prompt. I just think that I’ve written that post previously. When I read today’s prompt, my initial thought was that it was another one I would throw by the wayside, but then I started thinking more about it. The prompt says: It’s 1984. You’re locked in a room with your greatest fear. Describe what’s in the room. Back then, I was 10 years old. Do you know what kind of irrational fears plague 10 year olds? For me, it wasn’t the dark or something fairly normal. At that age I had three major fears: our house burning down, tornadoes, and nuclear war (Reagan SMASH!).

The fear of the house burning down has basically followed me into my adult life and up to this day. It is probably slightly irrational, but I cannot help it. Every time we leave for more than two days, I get freaked out the moment we turn onto our street, and I’m deathly afraid that our (rented) house has burned down. Were I to psychoanalyze myself, I’d say that this issue stems from my (great?) grandmother dying in a house fire. Her house. It couldn’t have been too long before 1984. Follow that up with a nightmare about riding the bus home from school and coming around the corner to our house and everything goes into super slo-mo. I can, for some reason, hear my neighbors talking in their yard (yes, I’m still on the bus. Slo-mo obviously gives you hyper-sensitive hearing also) before the bus rounds the corner and I see our house burnt to the ground. I literally woke up screaming. Yikes. One of three nightmares I had as a child, or at least one of the three that I vividly remember.

I’m not entirely sure why I was so scared of tornadoes, but oh boy was I. I still don’t relish the thought, but I’m certainly better than I was. If it was stormy and windy, I wanted no part of anyone. At 10 I just KNEW that I knew how to survive the dreaded tornado. What’s crazy is that where I grew up, there were very few tornadoes. One did touch down about 2 miles from our house, but it was about the equivalent of the fart of the lactose intolerant after a bowl of ice cream. Oddly enough, the tornado fear didn’t translate into a hurricane fear when I lived in Miami. Don’t get me wrong, my first tropical storm I nearly shit my pants, but after that, I was cool.

So then why is a 10 year old so scared of nuclear war? Why does a 10 year old even know about this? Too much news at too young of an age. Too much listening to adults talk about the President. Too wild of an imagination. All of the above. I was quite a strange child, of this I am sure. Carried that into adulthood too. Being strange, not fearing WW3.

What about you? Any strange or irrational fears you’re harboring? It can’t be just me. Even us one-of-a-kind folks have similarities.

Most Depressing Week of the Year?

Seriously? This is what I saw on the news yesterday or the day before. I was only half-listening, so I’m going to go ahead and assume that they were saying that the first full work week of the year is the most depressing. Personally, I’d be hard pressed to try to figure out the most depressing week of the year for me because: a) they just all run together anyways, and b) my life is pretty decent.

I suppose I can understand not wanting to get back on the 5 days a week schedule, but since I had to work in the timeframe between Christmas and the New Year, back to work isn’t as big of a deal for me. Now, had they said that this week felt like the longest week of the year, I’d be first in line to jump on *that* bandwagon because somehow, IT’S ONLY WEDNESDAY!! Argh. Let’s just get to Friday so I can go snowboarding, ok?

Technically, snowboarding is on Saturday, and hopefully I’ll be moving around a little better by then. As per the norm after I start working out at a decent clip after a time off, I’m currently walking around like I got kicked down a flight of stairs. Not like I fell down a flight of stairs on a cruise ship, but like I got kicked at the top, kicked down the stairs, and kicked again at the bottom. I absolutely love the side eyes I get when I try to get up from my desk and get to the bathroom. I’m hoping that by this time next week, I’ll be back in the groove of things and back to my normal, patented (not really), Burkes walk. That’s what my Gram called it. Said she would know from afar if it was me just by the way I walk. Distinct is fun.

Fortunately, in the workout rotation, today was yoga. In 30 minutes. Which makes it a little tough, but still well on my side of being able to complete it. And because that 30 minutes couldn’t be nearly enough torture for one morning, I followed it up with a 45 minute stretching routine because, well, I’m partially off my rocker, but more so, I’m interested in being a bit more flexy. As I well know, strength alone does not an aerialist make. So I stretch and I stretch and I ache and I ache because my hips are absolute jerks, but one day, I will reach my goal of general flexiness. Flexiness by the standards of aerial/pole, not by the standards of general medicine these days. My chiropractor said that my current flexibility was way beyond the “normal” range because, get this, when laying on my back, I can bring either leg past 90 degrees. Ninety. Degrees. That makes flexibility?!?! Where the hell are we going as a society except straight down the crapper? So sad.

You know, today’s writing prompt is actually a pretty good one. I think I’ll write it up as a separate post…or I’ll save it for a day when there’s really just nothing going on. You’ll just have to tune in to find out.

 

Seven Whole Days

So we’re a week into the new year. Doesn’t it feel like the holidays were already forever ago? No? That’s just me? *Cartman voice* Screw you guys, I’m going home.

I really do feel like Christmas was forever ago. I suppose that could be because I more or less skipped it this year. I didn’t put up the tree or the village as I wasn’t feeling it (and we weren’t even home the entire week of Christmas, so whom exactly was going to see that work? No one.) Maybe I’ll get back into the swing of things this year, maybe. I guess I’m one of those Scrooge-type people that could seriously do without all the extra stuff, just let me have a couple days off of work.

Speaking of work, this is new for 2014: I got a promotion. While it isn’t official for another week, I’ll be leading my little team of 2 (and a half) engineers whilst shaking the hands and kissing the babies of other departments. Is it my lifelong dream? No, not exactly, but I can do it and I can do it well, so onward and upward after a rather interesting process of getting to this point. I swear I watched one person in particular do a complete 180 in regards to how said person was acting towards me and my interest in the position. Weirdos.

Anywho, work schmerk, let’s talk about my breakfast sandwich maker.  I LOVE IT! Now that I’m in my healthy breakfast sandwich mode (egg whites, smoked salmon, slice of cheese on a whole wheat muffin) , it’s so much easier to just throw the stuff in the machine, walk away and come back to a sandwich. Gives me time to do things like start writing the daily blog post. 🙂  I know that healthy breakfast and slice of processed American cheese don’t go together, but man is it good. Although, I am considering finding a different cheese because my sandwiches get too hot and therefore cause more of the cheese to end up on my paper towel than ends up in my belly, but that’s probably not such a bad thing either.

Sidebar: My mom just sent me an email and a portion of it said: “Let your confidence be as an earthquake – a force to be reckoned with – crumbling all negativity that comes your way. BOOM!

So day 2 of P90X3 was a little rough. These workouts are only 30 minutes, but they’re still tough. Today was Agility X. (It’s athlete stuff says Tony,which explains why I had a heck of a time..no coordination.) Jumping around and squats and lunges and more squats and lunges. I’m sure my knees will be feeling this tomorrow, particularly after I tried to follow it up with some hip and hamstring opening yoga and Zumba tonight. Somewhere along the line, I probably lost my mind. Before I lost it, I might have thought that this continual stretching and exercise might get me in shape. We’ll see what happens.

By the way, I haven’t forgotten about the writing prompts (or Zero to Hero for that matter). Sometimes the writing prompts just don’t prompt me to do anything but shake my head. Sometimes the ZTH item doesn’t require an actual post. Today’s prompt is about a time you felt helpless. I don’t do helpless. I’m sickeningly self-sufficient. More than my husband would prefer I’m sure. Perhaps the one time I felt a fleeting case of helplessness was about 20 years ago when I was driving down a hill (going to Monongahela for those that know) that had just been oiled and it had just rained and my tires were none too grippy. I completely lost control of my car, sliding on the wonderful mixture of bald tires, oil and water. Took a cruise down the oncoming traffic lane much to the chagrin of the car coming towards me who was laying on the horn as though I wasn’t trying to get the hell out of their lane. Finally made it back into my own lane, only to overcorrect and start spinning, Fortunately, it ended up only being a 180, but it was a slow motion 180 as I watched the guard rail come closer to the side of my car and hoped against all hope that it held as there was a rather large downhill/cliff waiting for me if it didn’t. Fun! Obviously it held as I’m still here. I did get out of my (new at the time) car and I literally expected my car to be bleeding. Hey, what do you want? I was like 19 and it was my first brand new car. I was absolutely butthurt. Possibly feeling helpless that I broke my car. Poor thing. No sliding around in the Brown Bomber though! I TRY to make that thing spin out but the ABS and AWD and anti-slip/anti-skid kick in and all I get is a little noise. Safe? Extremely. Fun? Hardly.

Well then, I suppose the time is now for me to wrap this up and get on with the day. Enjoy your Tuesday. Stay warm wherever you might be. It’s cold out…you know, because it’s WINTER!

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