A Dream Come True: working out with Jillian Micheals

 

Yes I know the picture isn't great!  But that's her standing behind me with the black hat and yellow and black shoes.  She is truly 5 foot nothing, but her bark... has some serious bite.  I don't remember how many times she said she would personally kick our asses... It was AWESOME!!!!   Ok so let me tell you the story!

 I can't remember if it was Monday or Tuesday when my friend Sherry asked me if I had submitted my name to workout with Jillian... I was like "what??? no one said anything about this to me!!!!  ahk, what do I do? what do I do? who do I call? Thank the Lord Sherry is used to my panic ridden anxiety because she sent me the number right away.  I called and they told me I couldn't get in the class unless my name was drawn from the lottery.  I wasn't about to give up, I asked if they could call me if anyone didn't show up, then I asked if I could be in the gym... so they could call my cell.  They had no problem with that.  So plans were made.

I taught on Wednesday morning, then grabbed lunch, picked up Sherry and off we went.  She had gotten into the class, I was literally loitering by the bottom of the stairs waiting for the ok to take the class. There was one other lady waiting to get it with me, then two more joined.  Class was due to start at 3:30 and at 3:27 Jillian with her hat and aviator glasses bounced up the stairs.  I nearly missed her, at 3:35, after photo's were taken they let us in.  I grabbed my weights and walked right up front.  See me in the picture, I did the class from there.   

The way I figured it, I wasn't about to miss the most amazing opportunity of my life by hiding in the back of the class.  I wanted the whole experience.  I wanted to be yelled at!  I wanted to leave everything on the floor... at her feet... yes... yes I worship the woman! 

The class was 45 minutes, of the most intense moves I have pretty much ever done.  You know those moves that you might only see a few of in a 60 minute class... and lasting about a minute... Ha. Well I don't actually remember her ever stopping at any point in the routine.  It was one intense exercise to the next... and she was very clear that she would give a 5 second count down and were were not to stop the previous exercise until she said 5, then we were to start the next one.  Ok so we are talking,  tuck jumps, jumping squats, plank walks, push up-walk ups, side arm raise lunges, single leg squat with bicep curls, mountain climbers, plank jumping jacks... and the list goes on and on... (apparently similar to her videos ... but harder! )  I got yelled at, looked at, tripped on... all by Jillian... I swear to this day, I gave it everything I had.  Nothing was left in the tank.. and also if that lady had asked me to do a 1 finger push up... I probably would have... Because it's Jillian Micheals asking. 

I was so proud of myself! I was so greatful for having been allowed the chance to workout with her. And so blessed that I had an amazing friend to share it with.  

The rest of the day, we re-fueled and then went to her Maximize you life seminar.  Also a mind blowing experience... I can even begin to get into everything that she covered. But yes, she spoke about diet, exercise and mental wellbeing.  Here's the short version... Eat less!!! Move more!!!   And also metabolism is your endocrine system... so the food you eat affect the hormones in your body... Eat crappy=hormones aren't working to optimize health=fat cells growing.... Eat clean/nutritious/and the right amount for you = you have happy hormones=optimize health=burning fat

She gave us the math.  You can look it up too. Look up how to calculate you BMR. You can just find one online.  Mine comes out to being 1436... That is how many calories I need to live. Now you can multiply this number by your normal activity level. 1.1 sedentary.... 1.2 slightly active throughout the day 1.3 you are a trainer...  1.4 construction worker/heavy repeated motions all day long.  (she was a 1.3 so I'm a 1.2)... so my daily caloric intake should be 1723.  If I want to lose weight... I need to eat less and move more!  

Ok and my brain is still trying to wrap itself around the mental/mindful aspect of the seminar.  Diet and exercise I get... But then she asked some pretty important questions... "Why are you doing what you are doing?"  (so for me... why am I killing myself with the triathlons, why do I then turn around and consume alcohol and other treats, which sabotage my hard work?) Why?

 And then she got into the reasons why we fail... Destructive patterns of behaviours... done because why? We are looking of a different result? We follow the same routines leading to some type of unhealthy behaviour. Rince and repeat... We essentially determine our own failure by taking the same path.  So the point is to be conscious... to constantly check in... How do I feel in this moment.. Is it making me happy, ok good, continue, or is it making me feel crappy, ok bad, disconnect!   She really liked using the term "listen to you bull crap meter"... it's probably right. But we get really good at ignoring all emotions, we stuff them way way down so we don't have to deal with the unpleasant ones.  

So the point is!  Make the changes!  Stop making the same subconscious destructive patterns leading obviously to failure!   Live healthy, live actively and live mindfully.

Training has Begun.

As many of you know last summer I competed in my first super sprint distance triathlon (basically a quarter of an olympic distance).  I placed 4th in my age category.  I was proud!  The second race I competed in was supposed to be a sprint distance (half the olympic distance) but it got turned into a duathlon at the last minute. Boo! And I placed 7th.  I would have done better if it had remained a full triathlon because the run is my weakest leg of the tri.  But I was still really happy with my results! My transitions were good, other than losing the insole to my running shoe.  Blah!  I trained with Mommies in Motion.

This year my goal is to train for a full olympic distance triathlon (1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run).  I'm super excited to train with a new set of folks (men and women!!! woot).  Janicke is my new coach, from Millcroft Fitness.  Currently I am running with them, I go to Goodlife for spin classes and weights, and as always I am still doing hot yoga at Power Yoga Canada.  So if you are interested in my journey it it my goal to begin posting more often.  I want to share my journey.  To inspire anyone to try something new and scary, something that will make you proud!  And most importantly bring you closer to who you want to be. I want to be a mom, an athlete and a teacher. I want balance and happiness.  This is how I'm going to do it.

Ok so for the last month I have been slowly getting myself into the kind of shape I think I need to be in to actually compete in these events.  I'm not kidding myself, last summer I was racing against other newbies into the sport.  Not many triathletes stay in the short distances for very long, they move on to bigger and scarier events.  So this summer I'm going to be competing against some fierce women.  I've been working on building endurance and strength.  So that means I've been killing my legs, arms and shoulders doing super sets. That means about 300 reps alternating major muscle groups.  (gluts and legs to calves) (biceps to triceps  and (shoulders to traps)  It hurts, I swear and it takes like an hour and half.  I warm up, stretch, do the stupid long set, do some abs core and then finish with a stretch.  So I aim for 3 times a week, on alternating days I do some long cardio.  For example I might do a spin class followed by a run (I'm working up to running 10k after spinning for 50 minutes) So far I can run 7.5k.  On Saturday morning I like to do a marathon workout.  CXworks (core type class with the rubber band), then a combat followed up with a spin class.  I am aiming to be able to sustain a high level of physical activity for about 3 hours.  I'm also running during my lunches with a fellow teacher a couple times a week, and running with my Millcroft Fitness group.

Eventually starting April official triathlon workouts will begin.  And starting this week I will also be adding a swim on Wednesday nights to the schedule.  Ok so what does this insanity look like....

Monday: Run at school, legs at gym and hot yoga
Tuesday: Run with group, (possibly hot yoga or swim practise)
Wednesday: Run at school, arms at gym, swim (if I didn't do it tues.)
Thursday: Spin then tread mill run
Friday: Shoulders at gym
Saturday:  CXworks, combat and spin classes at gym
Sunday: REST!  Amen!  (if I can I will bring the kids to little pretzels and I will do a hot yoga)

This schedule will change in April as I begin to add in more training with the group and less weights (but somehow I will need to keep my legs strong to support the extra load).  As of now my teaching schedule is letting me get most of these workouts in either before school or right after so that I'm home with the kids 6 nights a week.

Cheers to Pain, New Goals and Groups!!!

Well to start off I have to say I have truly the most supportive husband!  He takes care of the kids so that I can go to the gym and get my burn on.  Which today was 1463 calories :D  (Ok I partly cheated, I left my hr monitor on for an hour after my workout and got 188 calories burn while sitting at Starbucks drinking tea with my super awesome pal Sherry!!!  I do know that I don't actually burn that many calories sitting around, can you imagine that is about 4500 calories that I would burn in a day!!!!  But my guess is a little over half that, which is what I had guestimated for myself yesterday.  Ok sorry about the math.  Getting back to the point. 

Ouch!!!!  Cheers to pain:  today I did a yoga class, a body pump class (resistance training/endurance weights) and combat...  Need I say more!  Ouch, from lactic acid during the classes and now from damaged and broken down muscle fibers.   As a side note: it is super duper vital to drink tons of water to help flush out the biproducts of lactic acid (toxic waste), plus it helps in speeding up the recovery process.  I also need to make sure I'm getting enough protein, which is the building blocks (amino acids) for muscle repair/reconstruction.  But as a bonus, muscle fiber that breaks down and is rebuilt, is actually built stronger/more efficient at burning fat when I'm not exercising (so when I'm sitting here typing on my netbook, my base metabolic rate has gone up because of the new muscle fibers that have been created)

Cheers to new Goals: today while chatting with Sherry at Starbucks I decide I was going to kick start my metabolism (and lose some serious weight), I was going to eat Tosca Reno's cooler plan 1 for 14 days!!! 

And so Cheers to Groups: I created a group on fb for this goal of mine, the group is open to anyone who wants to join , it's called Tosca Reno's Eat clean plan 2012.  Please add yourself or ask me to add you!  I am doing this to help myself be accountable.  I know I need support but I can also provide support for anyone who wants to participate.  It doesn't hurt that it's a new year and everyone is ready for some serious changes around this time of year.  So that about sums it up! 

Now I'm going to drink more water and go to bed!