Insanity Day 6: Plyometric Cardio Circut

I didn't cry today!  Yay!

I went through the warm-up and each circuit twice, so I'm pushing along and getting better and stronger.  It was very difficult.  The hardest part about these workouts is going up the stairs afterward to get ready for work.  Hee hee!

I started out the workout wearing the Easy Tone shoes and I have to say that they really do work.  My feet and legs were all achy, so I only lasted through the warm-up and part of the warm-up stretch before I had to take them off.  They really slowed me down because they make you off balance a little bit.  I think they've heavier than the Pumas I have been wearing, so that doesn't help either.  But it will make me stronger in the end.  I think part of the feet-achy-ness was because they're new and still need to be worn in.  So I'll definitely wear them for at least the warm-up again tomorrow.

It really bothers me that I'm a day behind.  I was thinking about doing two workouts on Saturday, but that would be crazy this early into it.  My first two-workout day is this week though.  I'll do Pure Cardio and then Cardio Abs.

I can feel my body changing already.  Things feel tighter, I have more energy, I'm happier.  My weight is the same so far, but I know I do need to eat less.  I've been doing terrible on my diet.  For example, I went to Olive Garden and had this:

 

This is pear and Gorgonzola stuffed ravioli with shrimp and a balsamic glaze.  I substituted chicken for the shrimp because I'm not a shrimp fan.  It was amazing!  There are few things better than a pear and Gorgonzola combination.  I also ate a few bread sticks and plenty of salad.  But, don't you worry, I have more than half of this left over so I will be eating it for lunch today.  When I go to Olive Garden, I like to fill up on salad and bread sticks and then take most of my main dish home for a meal the next day.  Two meals for the price of one!

Guys, please help me diet better... yikes!  I'm so hungry now that I'm exercising.

Vinylmations

Have you heard of them?  I just heard about them a couple of weeks ago.  I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world.

Vinylmations are little figurines that are all shaped like Mickey Mouse, but they have different designs on them. Such as...

The Muppets

 Disney Villains

and Star Wars

They have many, many, many more collections, those are just my favorites.

Anyway, when you purchase a Vinylmation, you know in which collection it is, but you don't know exactly which one you are buying.  It kind of makes it fun, unless you get duplicates.  In that case, it's good to know other people who are collecting them so you can trade your duplicates with their duplicates.

There is a mystery "chaser" in each collection that is more rare than the other ones, and it is the one that is blacked out in the pictures above.

Like I said, sounds like the stupidest thing ever.  Lance's sister got Lance into it, and while I don't fully support it, it's fun for him.  Hopefully he keeps his head on straight, and doesn't buy very many.  At $10 a piece you can easily spend hundreds of dollars on these things trying to get the full collections (just ask my sisters in law).

Insanity Day 5: Pure Cardio

I'm pretty sure this is the hardest workout of all of the month 1 workouts.  There are no rests.  You are going going going.  Or... you're supposed to.  I rested a lot, but I did my best.  I am terrible at cardio.

I bought these today.

They are Reebok Easytone shoes.  We'll see if they work.  I'm going to wear these when I workout instead of my Converse or Puma shoes.  Then maybe I will have nice calves for the first time in my life.

Insanity Day 4: Cardio Recovery

I'm kind of sad because now I'm behind a day.  I didn't do Cardio Recovery last night and I didn't want to skip it, so, I did it today.

Cardio Recovery is yogalates, no cardio.  But, I found out that I don't need cardio to get my heart pumping.  All I need is to go into plank position, and lift one leg in the air and do pulses with it.  My heart beats out of my chest after about two pulses.  Nice.

The workout was painful but refreshing.  I'm glad I chose to do it instead of Pure Cardio today.

It Seems to Me, That Your Memory is Lacking

and it hurts my feelings.

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday.  Happy birthday, Laura!

At work we all signed a virtual card for her.  Our co-worker, Betty, said this:

"Remember my first day at work, and you invited me to Kneaders with you? Who knew we'd become such great friends!"

This hurts my feelings because *I* invited Betty to Kneaders with Laura and me.  I remember it very well.  Laura and I were ICQing about how hard it is to include new people, and we were both afraid to say anything to Betty before we left for dinner.  As we were getting up, I just blirted out in a nervous fashion, "Betty, want to come with us to dinner?"  And she said, "Where are you guys going?"  and I said, "Kneaders."  And she came with us!  I expected her to politely decline, but she came, and it was great.

Laura getting the credit for something that *I* did, that was really hard for me to do, hurts my feelings.  I think everyone likes to get credit for things they've done.

Logically, I'm telling myself to get over it.  Emotionally, it just hurts.

Insanity Day 4: Cardio Recovery

I wish I had something good to say, but I don't.  My alarm went off, and I slowly dragged myself out of bed, walked across the bedroom, went out the door, and into the hallway where I keep my phone.

(How else do you think I get out of bed before the sun comes up?)

I turned my alarm off.  My dogs were already downstairs, waiting for me to let them outside.  So I walked down the stairs, across the living room, and into the kitchen where our back doors are, and let them out.  I stood there, in the darkness, thinking about the workout to come.  Then realized I was in no condition to put my body through anything intense today.  My throat was sore.  My nose was stuffy. My body ached from head to toe.

I let my dogs back inside, and they followed me across the living room, up the stairs, down the hall and back into our bedroom.  I laid back down and immediately fell back asleep.  For an hour and a half.

Now do I do Cardio Recovery tonight?  Do I do Cardio Recovery tomorrow?  Or do I skip Cardio Recovery and move on to Pure Cardio tomorrow?

I vote doing Cardio Revocery tonight, if my body tells me it's OK.

Goodbye

You are the best point guard in the league.  I'm sad that Utah doesn't have what you think you need.  Good luck in New York.

I'm still a fan and always will be.

Insanity Day 3: Cardio Power & Resistance

I hurt.  So much.  I walk like... well, I can't think of a nice way to describe it, so let's just say I walk funny.  This morning, the thing that was the most sore was my bum and inner thighs.  What did the warm-up consist of?  Among other things, Power Jacks.  Power Jacks are like jumping jacks, except instead of standing with your legs apart and jumping to close them, you go down to a squat and jump up from there.  Yeah, that felt nice with my weak, sore legs.

I don't want to say that I didn't try as hard today as I did yesterday, but I didn't try as hard today as I did yesterday.  I did the warm-up circuit once, the first circuit once and the second circuit once, plus all of the stretching.  So, I cut out 2/3 of the workout today.  But!  I did more of each circuit consecutively than I did yesterday.  I'm not sure which is better, but this worked for me.  I'll think I'll finish out the week this way.  Some exercise is better than no exercise.

Insanity Day 2: Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Gooooood morning!  Before working out this morning I was a bit sore, mostly in my inner thighs and in my chest and upper arms.  When my alarm went off, I, for a second, thought about skipping it today.  It's only day two and I thought about quitting!  But, like a champ I got up.  Hopefully getting up early gets easier as time goes on.

I couldn't get all the way through the warm-up this morning.  I got through the warm-up circuit once before pooping out.  I did some here and there throughout the rest of the warm-up.

After the warm-up is about 6 minutes of stretching.  Can I just say that when your thighs are sore from the previous day, and shaking from what little of the warm-up I did today, some of these yoga stretching positions are incredibly hard.  I don't want to think about tomorrow.  The picture below is of the stretch that gives me the most difficulty.  My arms and legs are shaking uncontrollably, they are sore, and I'm supposed to support my weight like that?  Yeah right.  I tried!  I couldn't hold it for as long as Shaun wanted us to, but I tried!

The rest of the workout has two circuits that you repeat three times each.  I was still recovering from what little I did of the warm up, so I missed the first two repetitions of the first circuit (also, I started this blog).  I'm starting to think that maybe I'm not trying as hard this time of Insanity because I know what's coming, and I know what I could handle before.  Not good.

After doing only what was supposed to be the third time through the first circuit, I was too tired to start the second circuit.  I was already exhausted, and my muscles were already weak.  You've gotta be kidding me!  I've got to get better at this.  However, I did do the second and third repetition of the second circuit.  Shortly after starting my first (the DVD's second) repetition of the second circuit, I remembered that this workout is the one that made me very emotional near the end.  Today was no exception.  I began crying.  Oh yes, crying, like a baby.  I was so tired, and so weak, and Shaun kept yelling at me to "Go! Go! Go! Push! Push! Push!" and I couldn't keep up, and it was hurting, and I was pushing.  But, I did it.  Not nearly with as much speed or intensity as the people in the video, but I did it, and that's good enough for me.

The cool down stretch was easier than the warm-up stretch, but still hard, especially since my muscles were shaking.

Wish me luck for Cardio Power & Resistance tomorrow.

If you're not familiar with Insanity, here's a video about it. I tried to find one of Shaun yelling so you would understand why I cried.  Oh well.

Insanity Day 1: The Fit Test

I haven't completed Insanity since I did the first time, a year ago.  I am determined to finish it again this time.  So, I'll just count this as Insanity, round 2, since my other attempts failed.

I've backtracked since round 1.  See my results here: Round 1 Results

Round 2, Day 1:
Switch Kicks (2 kicks = 1 rep):
30

Power Jacks:
34

Power Knees:
61

Power Jumps:
17

Globe Jumps (four jumps = 1 rep):
6

Suicide Jumps:
9

Push-Up Jacks:
13

Low Plank Oblique:
26

Can I just say... holy friggin' crap, I forgot how incredibly hard this workout program is!

This Week

First of all, I want to apologize for my negativity yesterday.  Every once in a while I get depressed.  Don't we all?  Those were things I have been feeling for a while, but when I heard that Lance's family wasn't coming with us to Disneyworld but they were planning their own Disneyland trip it set me off.  So, there you go.  I can't pretend that I'm always happy.  This is me.  This is my blog.  Sometimes I'm not happy.  So there you go.

Today:  Happy President's (or is it Presidents') Day!  I am a lucky banana and I got the day off.  I don't think I've ever had this day off.  I mean, I work "in politics" but I don't get this day off.  Lance is at work.  That's OK though, because he's hourly and needs the hours.  But, I wish I had a car so I could run errands.  Oh well.  So the plan?  I slept in and it was LOVELY!  Then I ate some breakfast.  And now I'm waiting for it to settle for a little bit and then I will do INSANITY!  This will be my third time.  I'm excited, but a little nervous.  The weight loss competition I'm in is going well, for me, I think.  I've lost 3 pounds.  Doesn't sound like much, but I'm proud.  Especially since that was just from changing my diet, and quitting Dr. Pepper.  That's right, I haven't had Dr. Pepper in almost a month!  It finally is easier to not order it at restaurants.  I think about the calories, sugar, carbs, caffeine and other non-healthy things that are in it and happily drink my water or lemonade.

Tuesday: I'm getting my hair done.  I thought I wanted to change it up and do this coloring technique (ignore the Katie haircut), with my current red on the bottom, and beige blonde on top....  but I'm not so sure.  I saw a picture of me with my "fresh" red hair (it fades so fast) and decided that this color really does look good on me.  So I'm not sure if I should change it or not.  Also, if I decide I don't like it, it takes a long time to get the blonde to stay reddish, like three dyes or so.  So I don't know.  *sigh* Decisions, decisions.  I want to be both red and blonde, but I don't want highlights.

I don't really have anything else going on this week.  The Jazz are on Allstar break, so we don't have any games.  I might go visiting teaching, but I'm waiting for Linda to make the appointments (we take turns, it's my turn to do the lesson).

Excuse Me For a Moment

While I feel sorry for myself.


We  always try to include everyone (meaning our family and friends) whenever we plan something, so it really hurts when our family and friends don't include us.  It makes me feel like they don't really like me, they just tolerate me.  It also makes me feel like Lance and I aren't really a part of either of our families.  I'm not sure how it makes Lance feel.  Maybe he doesn't take it as personally as I do.

Last Saturday....
Jessica: "Are you guys coming over for dinner tomorrow?"
Jenn: "I'm not sure..."
Mom: "Are you inviting them, Jessica?"
Jessica: "Well, yeah..."
Katie: "What time?"
Jessica: "What time do you get out of church?"
Katie: "Noon."
Jenn: "Two."
Jessica: "We'll eat at one o'clock, I think."

Thanks Jessica.  That was nice of you to invite us to dinner and then set it at a time we couldn't be there.  And thanks to my mom for not trying to make us feel included by pushing it back an hour.

That's just one example.  But it happens a lot, on both sides of the family.

Lance's family is now planning their third Disneyland vacation without us.  This one, unlike the last two, we were actually invited to (thanks Nicole).  But, we already made plans to go to Disneyworld in April.  Oh, don't you fret, of course we invited them all.  I understand that they can't afford it.  But at the same time, it's just ridiculous that they keep going without us.

My solution?  Not invite anyone to anything anymore.  Stop trying.  If I don't try, it won't hurt, right?

What's In My Bag

Some of these are weird.  But ok...

I'm going to take this opportunity to clean out my purse as well.  Hooray!

I have my Regence card, just randomly in a pocket of my purse.

My phone.

My car and house keys.

A piece of paper a child in my primary class gave me.  She wrote her name on it, and wanted me to keep it.

An unused paper napkin.

A... piece of paper with my name on it... ?  Ok.

Old CoverGirl mascara.

My work/desk/computer lock keys.

Four different lip glosses.

Two different chapsticks.

Random shreds of paper.

Slumber Parties Hostess Lingerie Club card.  (TMI?  Oh well.)

A picture of the haircut I've been sporting for over six months now.

Subway receipt.

And old Marriage Can Be Murder ticket stub from when Sierra and I went to Vegas for our 21st birthdays.

Oh hey... I just found an earring I've been looking for.

My wallet.  Please, don't tell me to go through that as well....

Provo College keychain thingy.

A grocery list.  The only thing written on it is milk.  I guess I needed milk?

A card for a free chicken sandwich at Chick-fil-A.

One tampon.

Two bobby pins.

My Siblings!

This picture is great.  It's a couple of years old, but I love it.

In the top right corner is a cute couple.  That's my older brother, Eric and his lovely wife Katie.  Eric just turned 25 years old this past January.  He has a beautiful 6 month old daughter named Mabel who looks a lot like he did when he was a kid, but you can definitely see some of Katie in Mabel as well.  They are a beautiful family.  Eric is extremely giving.  If he gets 20 extra bucks somewhere, he'll want to buy everyone in the family pizza.  That's just the way he is.  I would like to be as giving as he is.  I love Katie because she is honest.  You don't ever have to guess around her because she is straight forward with you.  She is very logical, like I am. :-)  She is fun to hang out with.

My little brother, Jared, is a goof.  Jared is going to be 21 in June.  He is currently serving the Lord on a mission in Guatemala.  Jared is the perfect mix between hard work and hard play.  When he was younger he would go around the neighborhood and mow people's lawns, but he wouldn't stop there.  He would edge their lawns with a weed whacker.  He would make people's lawns look amazing.  That's the type of guy he is.  If you ask him to do something, he won't just do it 100%, he'll give you at least 110%.  I'm sure he's giving the Lord 110% as well.

Next in line is my sister Elise.  Elise will be 18 in September.  She is very witty.  Her humor is dry and sarcastic, and I like that.  She is extremely smart.  She will probably grow up to be a multi-millionaire business owner.  She can draw better than anyone I know.  She loves animals and is usually holding one in our family photos.  She won't pretend to happy when she's not, and I respect that.


Emilee is the next oldest.  She will be 15 years old in May.  When I go to my parents' house to visit, she is always happy and excited to see me, and it makes me feel good.  She does a great job at surrounding herself with positive people.  She will probably be in the General Primary Presidency someday because she is happy and bubbly.  She has a singing voice like an angel.  I'm not kidding.  I'm pretty sure she'll be a voice in a Disney movie.

The youngest in my family is Jessica.  Jessica is honest.  Too honest.  While Elise and Emilee greet me with "Jenn!  Hello!"  Jessica greets me with, "What are you doing here?"  She's so funny.  She loves to play games.  Every time I go over there, she wants to play a game.  I like this, because I love playing games.

So that's my family.  I have 5 siblings.  Growing up, I never thought of my family as a large family.  I now realize that it is quite a bit larger than most families these days.  We went without a lot of things, but I don't regret a second of it.  Big families are great!  There is always someone there to talk to.  My siblings are my best friends.

Triumph!

I just made this.  Mine doesn't look nearly as good as Tammy's, but I'm proud of myself!

In an attempt to make the cake "fancy", I broke out my Dessert decorator Pro for the first time.  I got it as a wedding present, so it's been about 3.5 years.  I need more practice with it...  Anyway, I should have stopped with the icing after the heart, but I didn't want  to waste the deliciousness of the cream cheese frosting, so I kept going until it was all gone.

What resulted is a slightly ugly, but very delicious rendition of Tammy's Chocolate Bananas Foster Cake.

Happy Valentine's Day!


PS: I hate Valentine's Day.  Lance, I don't want chocolates, I don't want flowers, I don't want jewelry.  I would be perfectly happy ordering pizza and watching a movie in the comfort of our home.  Take the money you want to spend on me, and put it in savings.  :-)

PSS (or is it PPS?): We're saving up for something super exciting!  But I'll post about that another time.