Survived High Cardio day! Phew

So I am battered and bruised (literally) but I made it through high cardio day! My day consisded of a series of high bursts of speed running and then 2 min rests in between. At one point I had to jog across a room while holding my arms straight out in front of me holding on to those stretchy bands...... my trainer was behind me adding tension to the bands- ummmmm lots of tension. I felt like I was running on a 45 degree angle leaning forward. The worst part was when I had to have the stretchy bands aroung my waist with my trainer providing the tension behind me. I had to jump out and down and touch a cone on the floor, then move laterally to the next cone. This just about killed me it was so hard and I had to do it over and over and over again..... In fact last night I was changing and noticed a huge black bruise on my stomach from where the band was digging into me. I didn't do very good today, but that is normal the first time I do something new, I hold back a bit, so I know I will be better next week :)

Off to do some shopping today and going to visit an old friend tonight that I haven't seen in ages. Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends.

Boxing update and truly scared about Friday's workout

Yesterday I had boxing training... I really need to get some video footage of my workouts because it is hard to describe in writing. Today I did lots of combos jab, cross hook, then my trainer would take a swipe at me (I had to make sure my hands were up to block or risk getting clocked in the face) And I did lots of footwork today. If you've ever watched boxing there feet are always moving. I started doing that yesterday and it made me feel like fricken Mohammad Ali - lol.... So much so that I totally forgot what hand combo I was supposed to be doing and just started throwing random punches at my trainer..... hahaha I had to stop and apologize and tell he I got a bit carried away with all the footwork.

Now tomorrow begins my first HIGH cardio session. I truly am worried because my regular cardio session that I do on Mondays are killers. I am not sure what I could possibly do to make my cardio session HIGH- I have a feeling there are going to be some yelling, and possibly some tears tomorrow, but I have to admit, I am also a little bit excited because I know I will get through it and be stronger and faster and a few steps closer to my goal once it is done. The best part will be knowing that I looked at the fear that I am feeling straight in the eye and had enough faith in myself to know I can do it. This is probably the biggest change I have made so far.

Speaking of change, I am off to cut my hair tonight - finally. Still undecided on whether to cut it all off short(shoulder length) or to leave it long.... hhhhhhmmmmm I'll see what my stylist thinks.

Gym update

Do you ever have those days when you say to yourself "who the hell are you anyway"? I had one of those days today.... Perhaps it's because I was looking through pictures of my journey so far and remembering all the pain associated with my life a few years ago. Both internal and external pain. I can see the sadness in my face, my body is twisted because of the back issues that left me in constant pain... and at my lowest point almost killed me, when I lay in my bed after hurting the disc in my back and then not being strong enough to pull my body up and out of my bed. I lay there for three days with no food, no water before I had to finally call my father to come and break into my condo to help me.

Today I was driving to work after my morning work out and was thinking about my workout today. My warm up consisted of a quick 1/2 mile run on the treadmill, followed by a full ab cycle and then a full running cycle. This cycle is done bootcamp style so you are runing around cones up and down, forward and backward etc. Each cycle is 2 mins with a 30 sec break in between sets..... It left me sweating and gasping for air and physically exhausted.... I had a 2 minute break and then went back to the treadmill to finish the day..... Now this is where the "who the hell are you anyway" part cames in... Somewhere deep inside of me there was this competitive spirit pushing up through me. I turned to my trainer and said - "I'm gonna run this sub 7 minutes" which has never been done before (by me obviously lol) My fastest time was 7:06, which was at the beginning of the session while my energy level is high and my average time is about 7:30... So what did I do today

6:30 baby..... It took every last ouce of energy, but I did it and it was yet another reminder that I am moving forward on this journey and I am finding out the the real me is strong, and fit and healthy and can do absolutely anything that she puts her mind too.

Life is good!

Weight watchers- weigh in #3

So today was weigh in day. Last night I grabbed a bag of pretzels from the store (hot buffalo wing flavor-yum) of course I ate the entire bag and then counted that they cost me 22 points. The good news is that I I had the flex points to cover them, but the bad news is they were full of sodium so this morning I was feeling quite bloated. I still managed to lose 0.4 lbs which I was quite happy with. This week I am going to see if I can work my flex points in earlier in the week and see how that goes.

So yesterday at the gym I was doing weights. First was lots of dead lifts - where you bend over at the waist and pull the barbell up as you straighten up. I did some other weight exercise as well and then we moved on to an exercise which is so hard for me..... Basically I was holding a 25lb dumbbell in each hand and had to swing it up in front of me to shoulder height, then push them upwards beside my ears until my arms were straight over my head. My trainer challenged me, he picked up two 45lb dumbbells and I challenged him to do this with me. If I failed to do it I would have to do a half mile on the treadmill in under 7 mins..... So I managed to do 20 reps, even after I said it was impossible for me to do so. Challenges are good!

Tonight I am out with some friends. We are heading out to see a band play at a little pub. Every hear of the group called the Spoons from the 80's? There are a couple of band members in this band called the lost boys. Tomorrow I am heading out to a horseshoe tournement and on Monday I am going mountain biking.... It is going to be a busy weekend but I am excited about it.

Perfect ending to my week

I ran for 10 minutes straight this morning! My morning warm up at the gym is to do 1/2 mile on the treadmill. It is normally a run/walk, no wait I mean a walk/run - I do more walking than running, but I do small spurts at 5 mph and even up to 7.5mph, but I can only do this for short bursts. Last week I went back down to my original speed of 4.5mph, which I know is really only a slow jog, but for me, at 240lbs, it is still running. Last week I managed to run for 6 minutes but then I hit the 1/2 mile marker and stopped. Well, this morning I was determined to hit the 10 minute mark. I walked for 1 minute to warm up and then went up to 4.3 mph and just ran, I got to 10 minutes and was going to stop but then realized that I had walked for a minute so I kept going for the last minute. I ran 3/4 of a mile without stopping. Hurrah! On the downside I was exhausted after doing this and then had a 60 minute session with my trainer to do, which of course included a ton of cardio and weights today, but it's done and I survived and am now feeling energized and ready to take on the day.

NOTE: HERE IS A POST FROM MAY 2009 WHEN I WAS THRILLED TO BE ABLE TO RUN FOR 1 MINUTE AT THIS SPEED.... http://journeytofindtherealme.blogspot.com/2009/05/gym-update.html

I have been on track all week with my eating and tomorrow I am looking forward to an absolutely fantastic first week weigh in at weight watchers. Yup I said I am looking forward to weigh in tommorrow.... haven't heard me say that in a while huh! :)

Off to enjoy my new favorite breakfast - orange juice, two tablespoons of vanilla yogurt, frozen mango chunks and frozen blueberries, all blended up into a glass of pure heaven.

My new love

Since I began this journey to get fit, I have tried out a few new ways to get fit. Running, triathlon, mountain biking, boxing, Muay Thai, and now I think I have found my "thing". Cycling- I just absolutely love the feeling of being out on my bike with the wind in my face and the sun shining down.

I actually was watching bits of the Tour de France this weekend- I am a big Lance Armstrong fan and wear my Livestrong bracelet proudly... It acts as my anchor to how I want to live my live.... to help push me towards that person that I have been trying to find for so many years. That 10 year old athlete who's view of the world and more importantly, who's view of herself was shattered by a few mean spirited and poorly timed comments and actions. So anyway, when I first started biking I was reluctant to put on the helmet and get into the cycling fashion. Then I went to the states and bought my first pair of Oakley sunglasses to go with my awesome helmet... I feel like I look like an athlete out there and it really boosts my confidence.

So on the weekend I went to the next step and purchsed a cycling jersey- lol. I have always wanted one and finally ordered one on line. Here is a picture:



I am expecting to receive it in the next few days, and although I am not expecting it to fit me. I will hang it proudly and vow to get into it by the end of the summer.

Livestrong, what a powerful thought. Thanks Lance!

Battered and bruised but grinning ear to ear

So my friends husband invited me out to go biking with him today. He said it was fairly easy riding, wooded trails leading to a nice waterfall and he said we would go at a nice pace. I was a little bit leary of off road biking but figured since he said it was an easy route I would take a crack at it.

We headed out with another of his friends and I knew I was in a bit of trouble when the very first hill was covered in rocks and tree branches and was pretty darn steep. I pushed my bike up this hill but lookin up ahead, into the forest the path looked pretty clear so I pedalled on. Everything was going great until we hit the first hill, there were quite a few rockes jutting out but I managed to climb up onto the grassy side and manuever my bike down..... phew. Then we came to the next hill, Dave and Dan were just out of site as my back tire hit a rock and my bike skidded to the right. Bam, I went down hard and the pain seared through my right hand as my thumb came down hard on a rock. I looked down and noticed a big scrape below my right knee. Welcome to mountain biking is what I thought. Anyway not to be defeated so soon into our ride, I got back up and continued. I slowly got a handle on how to navigate through the rocks and branches and started to quite enjoy the challenge. We hit a nice meadow with a grassy patch and just two ruts in the middle of the path. I was going through the rut when my pedal hit on side and BAM, I was thrown from my bike into the long grass. I landed hard on my right shoulder and totally got the wind knocked out of me, but I got back up and soldiered on.

All in all we rode for about 1.5 hrs up and down lots of hills and even with the spills I absolutely loved it. I felt alive, and fit and capable and I cannot wait to get out there and do it again. I am now back home, healing my wounds and thinking that I am really getting close to finding the real me that I always talk about. This is what I want to be doing on a Sunday afternoon, and for the first time in a very long time, I know that I am capable of doing it.

On another note, this week I pulled out my body bugg again, and have been tracking my food and exercise. I don't think it is coincidence that I am down 3lbs this week. My short term goal is to lose 25 lbs in 10 weeks which will take be down to about 218 lbs. I think I am off to a great start.

A week off

Last week my trainer took a week off to go on vacation. I took that as an opportunity to sit on my arse and veg for the whole week. Actually, I worked out both Saturday and Sunday last week, and came to the realization on Sunday night that I am tired, like seriously tired, worn out, fed up. I slept in on Monday morning and tueday morning and skipped my morning workout. I noticed that my knees were feeling a little bit better. I then made the decision to take the e ntire week off, get lots of sleep, catch up on the overflowing workload at my job and heal my body. It made me realize how much pain I was in- from my feet to my knees and all the way up to my shoulders, I have been in constant pain. It's all gone now, well except my knees which are still a bit sore, but the pain is manageable.

I also realized that I miss working out. Seriously I MISS IT! I never in a million years thought I would ever say that. I am looking forward to getting back to the gym tomorrow for a good run bike and swim, before getting back to training on Monday.

The other thing that I noticed is that my stress level went through the roof this week! I was irritable, miserable, tired, and just a plain old bitch all week long. I am 99% sure this is a direct result of not working out.

All in all, yes I was a lazy girl this week, but at least I learned some new things about myself, so I guess there was a small victory!

Monday's workout

Nothing much going on in my boring life at the moment. I am quite happy with this though, I feel like I am focusing on my health.

Today's workout: shoulder and arms (biceps)

Warm up
-walking on the treadmill 3mph, incline 5 for 0.5mils
-running on the treadmill 4.5mph for 0.5 miles

- squat with the weight bar on my shoulders - 15 reps, then 30 walking lunges(3 sets)
-barbell 65 lbs 15 reps then pull downs 15 reps (3 sets)
-sitting barbell lifts - 15 reps then rowing maching 15 reps (3 sets)
-arm machine ( wish I knew what this was called - fly maybe) started off with heavy weigh and 15 reps(I cried doing this) then the weight came down and the #reps came down - This was fricken beyond hard, especially since my arms and shoulders were already tired from all the weights)
- 20, 20 20 20 cycle of sit ups.
- ab work on the swiss ball
-finally leg work(imagine a dog on all fours lifting its leg to pee on a hydrant - lol

I can honestly say the last 4 days I have pushed my body to the max with regard to working out, but I feel great..... This morning I had an osteopath appointment and a lovely accupuncture session. Ahhhhhhh I feel wonderful now....

Note: starting clothing size was 22 or some 24. My size 18 capris are falling off today, I am pretty solidly in a size 16 now. It feels great :)

Gym Update

I managed to complete 26.2 miles on the stationary bike today - hurrah.... my time was 1hr 10 mins. The last 6.2 miles was tough, but there was no way I was going to quit when I was that close to the end.

By way of comparison, if anyone watched the Biggest Loser this season, they had a challenge to see who could do the 26.2 miles the fastest. The slowest person took 1 hr 41 minutes. The fastest took 1 hr 17 mins, so my time is pretty darn good, although they may have been riding at a higher level (I was pretty much at level 3).

After the bike I managed 375 meter swim, but I really was exhausted at that point. All in all a good weekend sweatfest :)

workout log

Just wanted to make a note of todays workout.

- 5k run/walk on the treadmill, time 37 mins.
- swim - 50 laps (Approx 1200m) time 40 mins.

Not much else is going on, I have been watching coverage of the G20 summit and am very upset at the level of destruction in downtown Toronto! enough said.

Tomorrow, my goal is to do a 26mile ride on the stationary bike and another 50 lap swim. Wish me luck

Finally Friday - G20 edition

I took today off just to chill and relax a bit...... This morning I was at the gym. My workout was simply this:

warm up - run 0.5m on the treadmill

get my ass kicked doing Muay Thai for 45 mins - literally until I could barely stand.


cool down - 80 sit up cycle.

I love kick boxing......er well I love it once I am done :)


Getting ready for a dinner and movie date tonight- I think we are seeing - get him to the Greek.

Other than that I am just hoping and praying that the G20 summit here goes off with no major incidents. There certainly seems to be enough police presence so my fingers remain crossed.

oh and go ENGLAND! Not really a huge fan, but I like to be part of the cheering and since David Beckham is from the same place as my Mom and sister, I am cheering on England.

Shakey Wednesday - Earthquake edition

sitting at work this afternoon, minding my own business when all of a sudden my computer screen started to shake as well as the floor under me. I instictively knew what is was as I have felt an earthquake years ago, but for a quick second I thought I was going to faint, as I had that lightheaded feeling from the motion. Wow, can I just say, I am not very good in a crisis. My only thought was get outside. I grabbed my car keys and got up, but by then the tremor subsided. Seriously, my heart was pounding and my hands were trembling for a long time afterwards. I can just say thank goodness there was only slight damage in Ottawa and Quebec.

I think we here in Southern Ontario are slightly jittery because of the G20 this weekend. In fact today there were helicopters circling all day(the airport is very close to my building). Also, I work for a Bank, which is a target of the protesters and because of the closures in downtown toronto, there are a lot of Bank executives working in my building this week, which also makes me a bit nervous......

ok, on to my workout - It's Wednesday which means it is cardio day.... here is a rundown of my workout.
- warm up - run 0.5miles on the treadmill from 3.5mph to 6mph time 6 minutes
- running lines not sure of the distance but each one takes about 2 mins\
- running course where I run 20ft bounce a medicine ball 5 times, run back. Doing this 3 times is one rep. I did 3 reps.

- next one was to walk the 20ft but swinging a 15lb kettlebell,bouce the ball 5 times, run back and then run back to the ball, bouce 5 times, pick up the bell and go back to the start. doing this 3 times = 1 rep, I did 3 reps.

- next one was to pick up the bell and lift it to the side 3x with each arm. then run 20 ft, bounce the ball 5 times and run back, do this 3 x =1 rep. I did 3 reps

- next was sit ups - 20 crunches, 20 knees up, 20 full body and 20 bicycles.

phew, I am tired now just thinking about it..... Friday is BOXING!

Monday ramblings

Well decided to post something other than pictures. I have not been motivated to write very much lately. Last week was brutal with process changes at work, and my workouts with my trainer have definitely reached a new intensity level. The good news is my knees are feeling much better, although not perfect.

Just a note that yesterday I went to visit my Dad for Fathers day. Now he is 73 yrs old and I am 43 years old but somehow when it comes to your parents you will always feel like a kid around them. Anyway, I have always had this need to make my father proud, and when I was doing the tri a few weeks ago I decided not to invite him to come watch me because a: I wasn't 100% sure I could do it. b) I was afraid he would say no, he was too busy (which would have killed me) or c) that he would come and be embarrassed of me. So it really is with delight that I write that he actually shed a few tears when I was telling him stories from my tri. Love it! He will definitely be coming to my next one in August.

On another note, my friend Helen, who also trains with the same trainer as me, and who did the Tri with me, went back home on the weekend to see her ailing Grandpa. Now this is a 6 hr drive north. She wrote to me on the Saturday, totally upset that she went to see him in the hospital, and all he could say was that she looked like she was 6 mos pregnant and she should ask for her money back because the personal training was not working. How can people be soooooooo horrible. My heart broke for her.

Anyway on to other news. I think I need to keep a bit of a note of what I am doing at the gym these days, so I can come back and review later.

Today:
-warm up was 0.5 miles on the treadmill - speed from 3mph(walk) up to 6mph(run) time was 6 mins, which is down from 7.5mins last week. Goal is 4 mins.

- working out the legs today. So I was on a leg press 185lbs 15 reps, then to a calf press, 15 reps (not sure the weight), then a leg curl 15 reps (quads) leg curl (back of thigh) 15 reps. I did this 4 times each, then had a break for 2 minutes and then did another set 4 times. At the end of the first set I was actually crying because the pain was so intense (I know, big baby- lol) but by the second set I got into the grove, focused and shut out the pain.

next came mat work, on my hands and knees I did leg raises - lots of them (about 40 or 50 reps on each leg)

next was abs, 20 crunches, 20 with my knees up, 20 full body sit ups, and 20 bicycles. followed by plank position for 30 secs.

DONE :)

Tomorrows goal: run 1 mile, walk on an incline for 1 mile, swim for 30 minutes.

New week, new computer, new outlook

Wow, it has been a bit of a crazy week and I have not been around very much. I have been Detoxing all week, drinking a green drink all day and having a small bowl of pasta at night, this morning I am down 9.5lbs on the scale. The kicker is I am feeling more energetic than ever. Obviously, this is not something I would ever recommend to anyone to do, but it is working for me and since it is part of my journey I am blogging about it. My weight went up during the weeks that I was sick, partly because of not thinking about what I was eating and partly (perhaps)because of the medication I was taking - anyway my weight last Monday was 249lbs. I will do an official weigh in tomorrow, but this morning I was just into the 230's and I have been trying to get here for about a year so I was a happy girl this morning.

I finally went out and replaced my dinosaur of a computer yesterday. It has been dying a slow death all week so I finally retired it and got myself a laptop. I bought my old computer in 95, so yeah I got my monies worth with that computer. Still trying to figure out this new one though - it took hours to figure out how to move the cursor without a mouse*blush*

Only a few weeks until my try a tri at milton and I am getting nervous. I mt up with one of my trainers other clients at the gym yesterday and we did a run through of the tri - here are the distances and my times:

RUN: 1.5 miles - time 26 minutes
Bike: 10k -15 minutes
Swim: 375m - 11 minutes
total time = 52 minutes

Not the greatest, but not bad for my first run through. I really neeed to work on my running. Haven't run much since I hurt my knee, but I will get back at it this week. Same with the swimming.

Today is boot camp - Week 2 and it is a beautiful day outside. I am totally looking forward to it.

Bootcamp day 1

My trainer is doing a weekend boot camp in the park across from where I live and he invited me along for some extra workout time. I said I would go but as always when it came down to it, I made up a million excuses why I couldn't or shouldn't go.... it was starting at 2:00 and at 1:55 my trainer sent me a text asking if I was coming. At this point I was in my pj's and had absolutely no plan on going but all of a sudden I thought about the fact that he invited me along with his friends and family to do this - really it is such a great opportunity, so I replied with a text saying I'm on my way.

First of all it is really cold today, like 9 degrees C and fairly windy, which made it rather difficult with my cold.

We did 3 laps around the track to start(I did 2 because I didn't want to hold up the class while they waited for me to finish) and then we did lots of warm up drills, followed by running/cardio drills , jumping over and running around pilons, and then some leg exercise and arm exercise, and core exercise and then finished off with some stretching.

I felt great afterwards and was so glad that I went. On another note, I am beginning a 2 week detox tomorrow, so I picked up my greens powder and my wheat grass powder, and will do my best to survive on this for a couple of weeks. I am hoping this is going to get me back on track and provide me with a blank canvas so to speak to begin new eating habits. I am also going to up the exercise this week, even if the exercise is just walking on the treadmill for an hour, I just want to work on burning extra calories.

I am going to post a lot this week I think, because I expect it to be extremely difficult and I want to write out how I am feeling.

Let the games begin - toxins be gone!

The Dreaded Man Cold!

Ever heard of that term. Apparenlty men become whiney when they are sick.... well I am not a man (in case you didn't notice) but I am probably the biggest suck to be around when I am sick. I went to the gym Wednesday morning, wasn't feeling great but not too bad either. Came home and showered and was driving to work when the cold and flu symptoms hit me like a ton of bricks! I still have the head congestion, you know where your entire face hurts, and the runny nose and fever- blargh. I was supposed to go check out a martial arts gym with my trainer last night which I am pumped to go see but had to cancel, and I had to cancel a date tonight which I was so looking forward too..... ok ok, I will stop whining..... I just hate being sick. Hopefully I can get in a workout tomorrow morning.

So speaking about working out, I have been wearing my body bugg when I work out to calculate calories burned. It's a little bit surprising to see the calorie burn when I think about how hard I work out but it is also interesting to see most activities, with boxing being the exception, burn between 275 and 300 per hour. Here is how my last six training sessions stacked up against my CN Tower climb:

CN Tower : 1 hr 10 min calorie burn 310

Weight cycle: 1 hour calorie burn 275

Cardio: treadmill 1 min intervals at incline 15, speed 3.5 and lunges in between sets - calorie burn 293

Boxing : conditioning, wearing 40 lb vest 1 hr calorie burn 495

Weight cycle: 1 hr - shoulder back and legs calories burned 277.

Cardio: 1 hr bike 10 k lv 5, rpm between 80 - 90, treadmill intervals lv 15, sp 3.5, calories burned 410.

Wow, I just downloaded wednesdays workout and the bike and treadmill gave me a great calorie burn, this is something I will look at doing myself when I go.

Finally, a fitness progress report..... Plank position- lol. when I started I could hold the plank position for oh about 5 seconds before collapsing in a pool of sweat on the floor..... Wednesday I did the plank position for 1 min 16 seconds yay!

Boxing and becoming an athlete

Well I boxed on Friday and had an amazing workout. I was feeling really good about the workout and how I was feeling. My trainer brought his camera in with him and taped one of the sequences. I didn't want to look at the video because in my mind I have a vision that I look amazing, cut like a boxer, strong arms and have perfect form. I know that is not reality, but that is what I imagine and my hope is that if I can see it, I will eventually be it -lol. So anyway I finally watched the video and was actually pleasantly surprised by how I look. Not great by any means, but really not that bad either. I am hoping to get a copy of the video and will post it here eventually.

I took Friday off of work and took my Nephew to my eye doctor to do his very last requirement to join the Canadian Armed Forces, and his vision is fine. He has completed all of the tests, all of the interviews and all of the paperwork and is official accepted into the army. He now has to wait until there is an opening in the artillery section which is now where you has decided to go. I am so proud of him. He has come such a long way and I look forward to watching him graduate from boot camp sometime in the coming year.

Finally, I went to my cousins house yesterday and saw lots of relatives whom I haven't seen since Christmas and it was so funny, and a bit surreal, that everyone now relates me to fitness. One friend of the family hugged me and then yelled out to everyone, "she just climbed the CN TOWER" while everyone cheered. My cousin and her husband were planning our upcoming triathlon and my cousin was asking me to help her pace herself in the pool, and another cousin, her husband, and her son, all specifially have me in mind to run a 5k race in June with my cousins son for crohn's desease as he was recently diagnosed, which of course I will do. It was just so strange and so wonderful to be looked at as an athlete, having my family look at me with pride and think of me as a bit of a role model for what can be accomplished.

Having a great weekend so far.... amazing date night on friday night, helped out a friend yesterday who was having a spa birthday party for her daughter, 1st communion party Saturday night and today, I am helping out my sister who is having a spa birthday party for my niece. I will be glad to get back to work tomorrow, just so I can rest!

Challenge #2 done- time to refocus and move on

So today has really been about reflecting on yesterdays accomplishment and using all of the positive aspects of my climb to motivate me in moving forward on my journey. I was talking to my friend Merlyn, who climbed with me, today and we both agreed that every moment of yesterday was such a positive experience, and we were both glad that it was so difficult to complete because in finishing it, we both realized that we really are capable of doing anything! For me I was also excited about feeling like I fit in with everyone else climbing, even the conditioned athletes who passed me were breathing really hard and were struggling a bit and we met up with many many people who were basically going at the same pace as us, so we would pass them, stop to rest, then they would pass us etc etc. Nobody turned to gawk at me as they passed, nobody snickered at the fat girl trying to catch her breath, there was nothing but support, and encouragement for what I was doing. That really is a big thing for me, and I know I beat this issue to death on here, but the reality is that is the one thing that holds me back I think.... is after spending my entire life trying to go unnoticed and fly under the radar, putting myself out there is a difficult thing...... blah blah blah.

Anyway, today I am emptying my entire fridge of anything that is not healthy, not fresh, or is beginning to look like a science experiment *blarg* and tomorrow I will re-stock, replan, and kick my ass back into gear. I have also dusted off my body bugg and will try and get back into using that. It is really quite surprising to me that climbing the CN Tower for 70 minutes only burned 310 calories. When I box (conditioning) at the gym, I burn approximately 500 calories. Since my knee is feeling better these days, I am going to see if I can start adding some more cardio to my routine, and also getting in some extra time at the gym..... even if it's just walking on an incline in the evenings.

One week until I climb- and last week in review

So by this time next week, I will be writing about my experience climbing the CN Tower. I feel very calm and confident about this challenge which actually is the biggest victory for me. I know I will make it, even though I know it won't be easy, I know I can do it, and this change of mind set is really amazing. This week at the gym I will be doing the stair climber on Monday, once again doing the equivalent of the tower..... Wednesday boxing (conditioning) and Friday the bike. Other than that I will make sure I am eating well this week, no eating out, no alcohol, and get lots of rest.

Last week was a disaster food wise, I think I ate out every night for a week. Luckily, my weight has not sky rocketed and I did try to make healthy choices at most of those meals.

Fitness wise, I am happy to report that I was able to actually spar with my trainer on Friday. He donned his boxing gloves and started teaching me blocking techniques. After getting clocked in the nose 2 times, I certainly understand the value of learning how to block punches. My trainer felt bad about connecting with my nose on two occasions (even though it didn't really hurt, but don't tell him that-lol) so much so that he texted me in the afternoon to see how my nose was..... I replied not to worry, I was fine...... and then added that the Dr. said the broken nose would heal nicely and the black eyes should be gone within a few days- hahaha, I am such a shit!

Personally, every thing is going well, I am enjoying the company of friends and looking forward to getting out and mingling a bit more as the warm weather approaches.