Insanity, Day 5: Pure Cardio

1/12 of the program down!

Oigh, today was tough too. I'm still the most sore I've ever been in my life in my calves. Stupid jumping. I'm not as bad as yesterday though. I still can't take long steps but I'm driving better and not afraid of my left calf seizing while I'm releasing the clutch. The good news about this Pure Cardio session is that the warm up and stretching is about 10 minutes in itself (the warm-up that makes me stop to take a breather multiple times? yeah, that one) and the actual cardio cardio part is 15 minutes and the last 5 is stretching again, which is typical of HIIT. I never feel like I'm moving fast enough in the football move (stand feet wide apart and almost jog in place really fast). The move that goes: hands down to the floor, push the feet back, do 8 push ups, run it out, feet back in, stand up, jump and go down again kills me. I didn't do the jumping jack push ups well either; I wish I did better in that one but I was so pooped from the work out before that. I also paused in the frog jumps but again it was because I was so tired. I paused the video once just to catch my breath and also took many breaks in between... The skiing move is okay for me. I think I could do much better with the frog jumps if I wasn't so tired. The squat jumps are starting to not feel as hard, as are staying stationary in some of the stretches for a long period of time (namely during that part where one foot is far in front of the back foot and one hand is down and one hand is up).

Tomorrow is plyometrics again... crap. Wednesday is my rest day. I know I won't be not sore anymore even after a rest day. Uh, I mean, I know I'll still be sore, despite a rest day. :)

Food: 2 bananas, asian pear, veggie sandwich and sweet potato fries, a little more than 1/2 my acai naked juice, 30 oz veggie juice, 6 pieces of non-chicken chicken (man, I am hooked on these things!), 3 16-oz bottles of water. Need to drink more water. Omg, am I not eating enough? This was only about 1200 calories I think...

Food

Apple, [worked out,] avocado, 20 oz of veg juice, 7 non-chicken chicken nuggets (130 cals in 4 nuggets), 2 small cookies, umami burger's earth burger (mushroom & edamame patty), 1/2 "hostess" cupcake and 1/2 chocolate peppermint cupcake (both vegan from Real Food Daily).

Insanity, Day 4: Cardio Recovery

I now realize that the Cardio Recovery was the one I did with Dennis and Albert in December and was the one that made me want to do Insanity in its entirety. I also realize now what Dennis meant when he said that was NOT LIKE the other sessions!!! There was stretching combined with some strength training. I'll admit, the parts when you're on all fours (but replace your knees with your toes and your knees are still bent, just a bit off the ground) were difficult for me. Thankfully, my previous classes at Pop Physique helped me do the butt exercises. At Pop Physique I got some individual attention and the teachers corrected my posture when I was doing something wrong; in the video, there's not really much of that. If you do it, just make sure you lift from your butt and NOT YOUR KNEE OR YOUR BACK. You want to keep your pelvis kind of tucked in ("kind of" as in, make sure you're not sticking out your butt). Actually, that's much easier to do on your toes and hands rather than knees and hands! At Pop Physique we would do these exercises on our hands and knees, making it much easier to slack off and arch your back. You want to feel that dimple in your butt when you do these exercises. The worst parts by far were the staying and pulsing. I definitely did not go through with all the staying and pulsing. There were some parts of the stretching where I had to stop too because I just couldn't stay in those poses for that long.

Tomorrow is Pure Cardio. Oh boy...

Last night and this morn...

Whoa! Check this out. I haven't been this tiny since high school:

Last night:
18% bf
56% tbw

This morn:
115.8 lbs
25.75" waist

lol, this is so not going to last. I think my numbers are so low because I had a pretty crazy day yesterday:
6:20 AM wake up
6:45 eat an apple and do 40 min exercise
8 eat an avocado and then go to farmers market
840 go home and get ready
11 go to san diego
1 drink 20 oz of veggie juice
1:30 eat a raw hamburger
3 eat 2 cookies (vegan choc chip and (non-veg) mocha mac nut)
4 play xbox kinect for 2.5 hours with very few breaks in between games
6:40 drink 12 oz Robek's juice (soy sorbet, mango, strawberry, soy protein)
9:05 get home and change clothes
9:15 leave for Exchange
1:15 leave Exchange after dancing the night away
total 48 oz of water

As you can see I didn't eat that much at all. I'm inclined to think the scale was off.. how was I 56% hydrated when I drank so little water and ate so little food compared to everything I did? I did the most physical activity (strenuous activity, not like, walking around Disneyland for a day) I've ever done in a 24-hour period (36 if you count the Insanity sesh from Friday night!) so I'm not really sure how I seem so hydrated on the scale. My stomach is understandably small from not eating much. Shrug. Since yesterday vastly deviated from my norm, I was hesitant about writing my stats down; I always weigh way less after I go clubbing. But the numbers are good to keep track of I guess.

Otherwise, I'm sore as heck. XBox Kinect had tons of jumping!!! But it is SO fun and I get competitive so I make myself jump and do everything. And, I always go all out on the dance floor. My calves are dying.

btw, driving a stick and having sore calves is NOT recommended....

Insanity, Day 3: Cardio Power & Resistance

Wowee! So proud of myself that I got up at 6:30 on a Saturday to do my work out. I woke up and I could not walk. Actually, I was having problems walking last night; those jump moves really make my calves suffer. I don't think it's a great idea for me to have done 2 work out sessions in a 12-hour period, but I don't plan on doing it often.

Today was cardio power and resistance. I began to figure out that I probably won't make it through any of these dvds without stopping and that my goal should be to stop as little as I can. (Even the people in the video stop once in a while.) Again, the high knees.. urgh. Combine that with a jump (did I mention I have no hops?) and you get a very tired Chloe. One of the hardest exercises was the jump in the air and make your hands and touch at waist height. The other hard one was the moving push ups, but that's just because I can barely do a push up. The alternating 8 squat jumps / 8 push ups was easy and hard: I have no problem with squat jumps, but the push ups kill me. I admit I wasn't going down all the way and by the second to last and last reps I was probably going down about 1/4 of the way.

Oh yeah, food -- I ate a small apple and drank more of my Vitamin Water Zero. I hear that one of the best ways to burn fat is to do your work out first thing in the morning without food, but I always get lightheaded when I do that. I am glad my body was able to sustain itself on a small apple and I didn't feel heavy or any discomfort. Well, the discomfort came from my throat.. it's like I couldn't clear it enough. Gross.

This is super hard and better be worth it! Glad I got that out of the way this morning though. I was afraid I would miss it. SO GLAD I did not.

Tomorrow is Cardio Recovery. I doubt that's what it sounds like...

Insanity, Day 2: Plyometrics

Ok, not as sore today as I thought I would be (but still sore). Today was Plyometrics -- I had a crazy schedule today, so I'm glad I got that in. I only stopped the video once during the work out, a huge improvement from yesterday's 3x. Well.. the 30 seconds in between sets helped. The worst workouts for me are the ones where you have to get down and get up (especially the one where bend down, throw your feet back so you're in the plank position, do 4 push ups, run it out, feet to your hands, stand up straight and then bend down all over again). Also, I have NO quadriceps; anything with high knees SUCKS for me even during the warm-up.

I ate much better today: an avocado, 2 bananas, an apple and an Asian pear for breakfast, some handfuls of nuts for snack, Tender Greens' Happy Vegan for lunch (greens, avocado hummus, farrow wheat or something, ..some other stuff I can't remember... I forwent the bread and dressing.), some mochi from my mochi class and veggie juice. Oh yeah, and I also drank some Vitamin Water Zero during and after my work out. I didn't at all feel faint or anything today.

Gotta go to bed. Another crazy day tomorrow, so I have to wake up in 7 hours to do tomorrow's stuff. Something about.. cardio. Why am I not surprised...

Insanity, Day 1: Fit test

HOLY HELL that kicked my ass.

Switch Kicks	52
Power Jacks	43
Power Knees	77
Power Jumps	38
Globe Jumps	9
Suicide Jumps	14
Push-Up Jacks	20
Low Plank Oblique	23

The Fit Test is supposed to take about 20-25 min. It took me around 40 minutes. I literally stopped to rest and lie down 3x during these exercises and waited for the room to stop spinning. The first few I got through straight without stopping but after a while I just got faint and had to stop. I suppose I need to eat better -- a lunch of sweet potato fries doesn't exactly cut good eating (good tasting, though!). Other than that, I'm on my 4th 16-oz bottle of water, and I ate an apple, an Asian pear, some of a regular American pear (I stopped eating it because it started to taste yucky), and a banana for breakfast. I also ate some handfuls of nuts. ...oh. Well duh, I see why I almost fainted. I'm also too tired to make veggie juice. I'm about to put some non-chicken chicken nuggets in the oven too. Tomorrow I must eat better. Thinking about making protein smoothies in the morning or something. We'll see. That stuff tastes like yuck. They have nutritional guides / meal plans buuuut I hate following meal plans. Firstly, I feel restricted and just looking at what I can eat for the rest of the day makes me want to eat more. Secondly, I am WAY too picky, and I don't want to eat too many animal products (cheese, milk (including whey) and non-Yogurtland yogurt). And I'm probably the only vegetarian you'll meet who doesn't like mushrooms.

Kind of disappointed in my performance today; it's not often that I feel nauseated or faint during exercise. I also need to re-evaluate what I'm drinking -- water isn't enough, so I'm reading. I need to replenish my electrolytes. The Vitamin Water Zero looks appealing: it has electrolytes AND vitamin B12 (something I lack because I don't eat animal products too often).

Tomorrow: Plyometric Cardio Circuit. Previewed it today. Looks like I'm in for 60 days of treats...

I am glad that this doesn't take up TOO much room. I have about one and a half to two steps from my bed to my door and just more than enough room to do a somersault as the width and length of my exercise space and it's totally enough space to do this stuff.

Also: I have to learn how to land more softly when I do the jumping exercises. My left knee won't be able to handle much of it. Is it bad that I work out barefoot? Everyone in the video wears shoes but I don't want to wear shoes on my carpet... speaking of people in the video, damn, that girl in the Fit test kicks butt!! I will say though that she was TOTALLY cheating during that exercise where you lean on your right, have your hands up high and bring them down to your knee that you raise and lift. She barely had her hands above nose level!!!

Starting INSANITY

Last night:
Body fat percentage: 19.7%
Total body water: 55.4%

This morning:
Weight: 117.4 lbs
Waist: 26.25"
Hips: 36.5" (NONE of it is booty. I just have wide hips.)
Thighs: 20.5"