Sugar and Thighs and everything Wise

So, I had a really fabulous day. I did a REALLY intense leg work out today but a milestone one, for sure. I did 5 sets of 10 on squats and leg press. I "leveled up" on both, I guess you could say. I've been slowly adding 5-10 pounds a time on both and today I got to 90 lbs(1 big 45 plate on each side) and 180 lbs (2 big 45 plates on each side) on the leg press. I usually do 3 sets of 15 with less weight but today I felt like really pushing myself. I was pleasantly surprised at how not-quite-as-hard-as-I-thought it was. Definitely still pushed myself harder than usual, which needs to become my new "usual". THEN I went into the dark aerobics room(a group of gym rats had taken over the ab mats, giving me a good excuse to hide) and did some inner thigh exercises. I did a couple sets of some Pilates moves and then 3 sets of these altered squats with a weight that are supposed to work your inner thighs more. THEN I had myself a mini Zumba session. So yes, lots of fun. haha I basically put myself through a mini bootcamp. I need to check if they're having another one of those at my gym this weekend.

The New Norm

I've been needing to push myself harder because I have not lost any weight in the last week. It's weird because this March 1st I was exactly where I was last March 1st as far as weight and body fat%. This is good and bad. Good because that means I've come a long way in the last 2 months to undo everything I undid the 6 months before that. Bad because I essentially wasted a year. But I'm trying hard not to think about that. I've learned a lot in the last year about myself and my body and how it reacts and what it needs. And I've come a long way stamina and strength-wise. And I still haven't gotten anyone to do my measurements so I dunno if I'm exactly back where I was size-wise. I dunno, I keep going back and forth on that. But part of what is annoying me is that this was where I plateaued last year and I never got over it so now I'm gonna have to switch it up to get over it this time. Not exactly sure what I need to change but hopefully I'll figure it out. 

Looking back one of the biggest differences is my stamina, and I can't help but wonder if part of that is that I don't drink carbonated drinks anymore. I remember during soccer season when I played varsity I would cut sodas out for 3-4 months of the year because our coach suggested it. It always made my body feel better and I could keep up better. And I'm fairly certain I've mentioned it before, but: drinking water is the most important part of a healthy lifestyle. Yesterday on facebook I saw this picture and it really illustrates what I've tried explaining to people in the past. 

So for your viewing pleasure: Rethink your drink. 

This is a picture of the drinks and below the amount of SUGAR in each drink. Now, I'm not even gonna get into what all this sugar can do to you, the difference between natural sugar and added sugar blah blah blah. I just want to point this out solely from a weight-loss perspective. A 20 oz bottle of Dr pepper has 250 calories and 62 grams of sugar. So, say you normally have 2 of those in a day- That's 500 calories and 124g of sugar. [That's like 3 cookies or something] So say you manage to be under your calorie limit for the day drinking all those calories and you're still losing weight, great. Cut out just ONE of those sodas a day? You'll lose an extra 3.5 pounds in 5 weeks. Cut out both of them? 5 pounds. So in that scenario you could lose A POUND A WEEK just from cutting out sodas. This isn't to mention what replacing that soda with water will do for your body. I remember in the past I could lose 5 pounds in a week just by replacing soda with water. (Lent, anyone?) Trust me, you make the switch and your kidneys will be thanking you. 

Now I say "just", but I too was once a Dr. Pepper fiend. I transferred to diet dp and then I kicked it completely. I haven't had a soda in two months. I tried having one for the caffeine like 2 weeks into the new year and I felt awful! So yup, I slowly dwindled and as of this year I'm pretty much carbonation free. The doctor I work for claims that in the next 10 years we're going to find out all kinds of awful things sodas do to you like when they started actually researching what cigarettes do. The thing is, used properly, caffeine itself can do good things for your body. I've been wanting to do a post on caffeine and one on artificial sweeteners but I haven't done the research I need to to be able to talk about it like I want. I think it's important to know what you're putting into your body. It's one of the key shifts your brain has to make for this lifestyle change to really stick. You have to go from "this tastes good" to "this is good for me", and they don't always have to be mutually exclusive. When you start giving your body the right building blocks instead of complete crap for it to work with, it will reward you, I PROMISE! Not getting kidney stones from too many sodas is probably it's first "Thank You". You're welcome. 

Gym Juggernaut

Y'all... I cannot even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed Zumba class. I knew I would, but I didn't realize I was gonna have so much fun! Especially because 2 of the songs we danced to were straight off my workout station. I burned close to 1,200 calories in that hr class and I enjoyed every minute of it. After that I actually had a pretty positive sauna experience. Haha. It was more crowded but all the women in there were normal->big and chatty so until they left it was ok, then I got to lay down and it helped, I think. I actually strained my left lat[timus dorsi] so instead of training with josh we just talked while he showed me some stretches.

They must've helped bc I felt better enough today to go to my hour group training and burn 800 calories with Nichole. =) I kinda wimped out on these pike things she wanted us to do at the very end bc any way I did them my back was yelling at me. Haha. But it was a fun circuit training thing where we went in a rotation and did all sorts of stuff. The hardest for me was probably the jump roping. I was really good at the beginning but as I got more and more tired the harder and harder it got. Haha. My favorite was this weird ab thing I've never done before but I really liked. ...I just tried to explain it but I kept having to delete it bc it didn't make sense. Lol. Maybe I'll draw you a picture later. I think I'm gonna add it into my ab sets next week. =)

Speaking of next week- I'm gonna be hitting it hard again(I've gone to the gym 5 days in a row this week!). I'm planning on going to spin Monday, an hr with josh on Tuesday, spin Wednesday, and Zumba on Thursday. Bc week after that will be time for measurements again!! I WILL be down to a 14 by the beginning of this summer. It will happen, I am determined. I'm not ready for a bikini yet or anything, still too much back-fat-roll and thigh jiggle, but I'm slowly but surely getting there. Hmm, you might not have wanted to know the specifics on that, sorry. Lol. The main thing is, I will be down to a size where they SELL bikinis, even if I shouldn't be wearing one yet. Lol.

You know what else I shouldn't be wearing? These red soccer shorts I've been living in for the last like, 8 years. They're way too big but because they're also a tad on the short side, they're starting to be inappropriate for public wear. At least if I'm doing ab stuff where lifting my legs is involved bc my thighs are small enough now where the leg holes are way too big. Haha. More TMI for those of you I don't know as well, but there it is. Lol. So favorite red shorts are officially retired for gym use! Yay! This means I need to go find a pair that actually FITS me! Such a novel concept. Lol. Now where's the closest adidas outlet?

Saunas Suck, Surprisingly

Hey guys! So, Wednesday spin class was pretty good today. Every week my endurance is up and I can TELL! Gotta love results you can actually feel even if they're not measured. Yesterday I was on the elliptical for 30 mins and I did 2.3 miles so I feel pretty good about that. I burned 850ish calories yesterday and 750ish calories today so I am gonna step it up tomorrow bc I like to have at least one day in the gym a week where I burn around 1200 calories.

Also, tomorrow I'm going to my first Zumba class!! I've been wanting to try it for ages but I didn't want to go by myself and I couldn't find one at a time I liked, but now they offer one tomorrow at the same time as my spin class was today! A few of us were talking after spin and we're going tomorrow so we all have friends to help us laugh at ourselves. =) I'm really excited! And of course I will let you known how it goes. So tomorrow I'm going to Zumba in the morning and then I have a half our with josh in the afternoon, and THEN Friday morning I have an hour small group with Nichole. So basically I'm using this week to go to the gym every day and kick my butt back into gear. I'm gonna be so exhausted. I'm still a bit sore from legs on Monday, but yesterday after I did my ab circuit [ 3 x (20 flat bicycles, 12 leg-extensions/reverse-crunches/whatever-you-call-them, 20 Jesus sit ups)] I decided to try out the sauna. My glutes and quads were still killing me(I was cursing myself for doing those 2 extra sets of leg presses the day before) and I knew that supposedly the sauna helped.

Well, how does one go about getting in the sauna at the gym? Good question! I have NO IDEA. I didn't have a towel with me, other than my already drenched workout hand towel. Even if I did, I wasn't going to strip down and wrap myself up for a post-workout steam. Ok well I have nice thick boy shorts on and a good sports bra and they happen to both be black, so I could just lay there in my underwear...right? Shows you how far I've come that this was actually my initial plan. But do I strip to my skivvies in the locker room and walk over there in my underwear? I'm not ok with this plan anymore. Ok... So maybe I just wait and take off my shirt and shorts once I get in there? Good plan. So I took off my shoes and socks and left them with my keys in a locker. I took my water and my phone with me, and walked barefoot to the sauna(making a mental note to bring my flip flops next time I wanted to do this). So I take a quick glance at the warning posting, make note that I am not pregnant or drunk so I should be good to go but to leave if I feel dizzy or nauseas(duh?). I open the door and walk in and find not just one, but TWO skinny girls laying in there fully dressed with shoes and everything. Well, crap. So at this point, in my mind, I have no socially acceptable choice but to lay there fully dressed in the remaining spot (which is on the lower "shelf", if you will, and slightly more narrow than the upper one). So there I lay with my two very small and very silent sauna companions trying to be as unobtrusive as I can with about 5 inches of my right side hanging off of the ledge that I'm on. Oh by the way, it's 180 degrees Fahrenheit according to the sign outside, and I'm sweating even more than I was while I was just pounding out my last ab circuit to the 2 step remix while trying to ignore the 5-7 young good-looking guys trying to look impressive for themselves and everyone else in the mirrors by the ab mats.

So I lay there for a couple minutes, trying to move as little as possible while trying to figure out what to do with my arms. Skinny girl #1 gets up and leaves, so I wait til she's definitely gone and get up to move to the upper shelf which should just about be wide enough for my Latina hips. I sit there for a minute to decide how I want to situate my self when ANOTHER intimidatingly thin girl comes in and lays down where ITG(intimidatingly thin girl) #1 just was. Well, crap. Now I don't have room to also lay down, which is apparently the ideal position for cooking yourself post-workout. I sit there and try to decide if I should just leave even though I've only been in here for about 5 minutes when skinny woman #2 leaves. yay! So I move to her spot and lay down, even though that puts my feet about a foot and a half away from ITG but she's listening to her music so she can pretend to ignore me and it'll be all good. So I get comfy and lay down and desperately wish I could take off my shirt but ITG is, again, fully clothed with shoes and everything so I figure I can deal for another couple minutes. Which really, is all I can deal with. The heat feels good on my tired muscles but I am warm natured anyway and this is becoming a little too much for me. I stick it out about 4 minutes after ITG's arrival and then I have to bail. My shirt is sticking to my chest and back, which may look good if you belong in a magazine but isn't a good look for me, trust me. Besides I've drained my water and I want some more. So I try to extract myself as un-awkwardly as I can, and pass another magazine-worthy girl about to go in to cook herself. The room-temperature air feels blissfully cool against my skin and I am suddenly more thankful that I am barefoot. Haha. I enjoyed the heat on my muscles and today I feel like it probably did help, but I don't know if it's worth the awkwardness. I really want to try it again tomorrow after Zumba, but if there is more than one other person in there I just don't know if it's worth it.

I'd cut my losses and just get in the hot tub if I had a swim suit that fit, but un/fortunately, I'm fairly certain my one from last summer would fall off of me before consulting me if it was convenient. And the thought of swim suit shopping right now while I'm right between regular and plus size pretty much makes me want to punch someone. Probably an ITG unwarily making things awkward in the sauna.