Pushing Through

"If you don't push yourself past the barrier, there's no way you're going to progress."   

~ Shaun T

June 7, 2010 - Day 1 of INSANITY

June 7, 2010 - Day 1 of INSANITY 

So, as you know, I've been working hard and sweating it out day after day in my basement.  I began this journey almost one year ago.  June 7, 2010 is my INSANITY "birthday".  Since the day I began, I've completed several rounds of INSANITY, did a month of P90X and dabbled in other Beachbody programs.  I thought I had gotten into fairly decent shape.  I lost weight.  I lost inches.  People were noticing and making comments about the changes in me.  It all felt great!!!  I was (am) very proud of the weight and inches I had lost during those rounds of INSANITY, but for some reason, I felt the urge to continue to push even harder and dig even deeper.  The best was yet to come......  

Entering The Asylum: 

May 1, 2011 - Day 1 of The Asylum 

May 1, 2011 - Day 1 of The Asylum

May 1, 2011 - INSANITY The Asylum Changes Everything

The beginning of May and entering The Asylum changed everything for me!  The Asylum is a 30 day, over-the-top-extreme fitness program featuring the same trainer (Shaun T) as in the INSANITY workouts.  It features sports specific drills involving an agility ladder, weights, resistance bands, a jump rope - every tool in the fitness trainer's tool box!      

Yesterday, was my Performance Assessment (or Fit Test) or Day 30 of INSANITY The Asylum.  The end of round 1 for me (since I plan to start round 2 on Monday)!!!  I found out through this assessment that I am stronger, faster, and have more inner gumption than I ever thought possible.  I was assessed in nine different areas in categories of speed, strength and agility.  From Day 1 to Day 30, I improved dramatically in all areas.  I am very proud of this accomplishment.  I also weighed and measured myself.  From Day 1 to Day 30, I lost an additional 8 pounds and 8.5 inches!

I know that most of you don't know what any of this means, but here are my Performance Assessment results (the first number is Day 1, the second number is Day 30):

Agility Heisman : 7 > 8

In/Out Ab Progression:  27 > 47

Lat Push-Up:  15 > 20

Mountain Climber Switch Kick:  60 > 80

Agility Shoulder Tap:  4 > almost 6

X Jump:  20 > 33

Moving Push-Up:  3 > 3.5

Agility Lateral Shuffle:  13 > 15.5

Agility Bear Crawl:  6 > 9.5

One thing I took away from this program is something that Shaun T says in one of the workouts.  He basically says that you can do anything you put your mind to if you have the MENTAL strength to do so.  He says "if you don't push yourself through the barrier, there is no way you are going to progress."  This is an incredibly important quote to remember and is significant in weight loss, fitness and life itself.  There are always going to be barriers that hold us back.  There will always be something that stops our progress, happiness, success, comfort.  We need to rely on our mental strength to push ourselves through those barriers and get better!  Shaun T also says, "if you left it up to your body, you'd have quit a long time ago".  This is so true!  Our mind is what gets us through everything - especially when the going gets tough!  What are your barriers?  What is something that is holding you back?  Will you make the commitment today to pushing through so you will see amazing progress on the other side?  30 days is not a lot of time and yet I have had the fastest and most satisfying results to date.  As I said, I plan to do another round.  

June 5, 2011 - The completion of Round 1 of The Asylum!

June 5, 2011 - The completion of Round 1 of The Asylum

June 5, 2011 - Round 1 Complete

One thing people need to keep in mind with fitness and weight loss is that there is no finish line!  It should be a daily activity (one which hopefully you enjoy), which delivers the results you are looking for in order to live a more healthy and fulfilling life.  I plan to keep pushing through barriers, working out in my basement, sweating my tush off, and continuing to be proud of myself for doing something I never thought possible.  Care to join me?

~ Cheers!

  

Hubby As Guest Blogger Part 3

Paul Speaks Part 3

MAY 14TH SUPER SATURDAY

Carrie and I walk to the stadium, register and go up to the workout room in the Fidelity box. To say I'm a bit nervous would be an understatement. Today I am going to do two 60 minute workouts with the guy that created the Insanity workouts. This is not me working out in my basement.....no phoning it in folks! We told him the night before we have been doing this for about a year and I'm sure he is not going to let us slack. There are all kinds of people there from very fit to some that are in the middle of their fitness journey. You can feel the nervous energy in the air. We were told by the event organizer that there are going to be about 150 people working out. Lots of people are talking to one another about the different workouts they have been doing from P90X to INSANITY to several other Beachbody exercise programs. We also realized that there are a few local  "Fit Clubs" here. These groups get together at local gyms or other halls to exercise together to Insanity etc...  9:30 rolls around and we hear Ozzy's "Crazy Train" being played and in comes Shaun T. Carrie and I are in the back of the room in order for us to have enough room to move during the workout. Shaun T starts to high five and shake hands with people and sees me and shakes my hand as well! Carrie said he probably looked at me and thought "You've been doing Insanity for a year huh?  I'm going to KILL you now!!!" 

Getting a handshake from Shaun T on his way into the venue

He gets up on stage and gets his stuff together and starts the workout and now I'm thinking "Here we go this is it. Let's see if yo can hang with him like the people in the videos". I have said to Carrie from time to time that even he can't do his entire video workouts cause he stops and goes around to the other people in the videos to encourage and to correct form. Well, I can say now that HE CAN do his entire workouts. This guy has muscles on top of muscles. I know he is a fitness professional and should look like this but he takes it very seriously and I can relate to that with things in my life. After the warm-up I am back to when I started Insanity that first night and think I am gonna die here. 

Dying already and it's only the warm-up (the WARM-UP!!!)

He is running this workout faster than what is on the videos! Again I say to myself "I can do this, this will not beat me" The whole room gets through about 30 minutes of working out and he stops everything and tells us to take a break and listen. Now he is going to give the key piece of information I needed except I didn't know he was going to do this. It usually takes one piece of information to bring it all together for me. Whether it was going to night school taking all those engineering classes, playing the drums or making cymbals for that matter. He said "When you feel you can't do it anymore and you want to stop, push through and channel that mental energy telling you to stop into positive energy and tell yourself you can push through" It's a mental thing people not physical! You can take a break and take two quick deep breathes but get back into it. Push through and Dig Deeper People! 

Shaun T giving a motivational pep-talk in the middle of the workout

OK that's it! I got it now. No more needs to be said. He continues the work out and he is walking around the room encouraging, working out next to people and really energizing the room. All of a sudden he is standing next to me doing one of the exercise moves and I am worried he is going to tell me to go faster. So I keep up with him and he moves on to someone else. I realize that the little talk in between the workout has changed my focus. I am no longer in a room working out with 150 people I am working out with and against myself! I get into a trance and am just listening to his cues to change from one exercise move to another. So, 60 minutes is now up and I have a sense of accomplishment and a little relief! 

Drenched in sweat after workout #1 with Shaun T

Carrie and I have about 5 1/2 hours before we do the second workout at 4 pm. I very rarely work out twice in one day especially at this level of intensity. I got through the first workout and am determined to get through the second. We went back to our hotel room took showers and headed out for a nice lunch. We headed back to the Fidelity box to have our picture taken with Shaun at the meet and greet that started at 2. We waited in line until it was our turn and Carrie gave him a really big hug that made Shaun T laugh a bit. 

He then said something to Carrie about my determination during the workout, which I totally missed him saying, and that indicated to me that he is really watching everyone during the event. Carrie asked about the second workout and Shaun said he is really gonna bring it and it will be harder than the first. I'm thinking great. but also told myself, I can do this. 4 pm rolls around and we're told that Shaun T is not quite ready yet and at about 4:20 he comes out. Now having played drums for almost 33 years I know that you have to mentally prepare for a gig. I know why he was late and why he didn't start right at 4. He was in a room mentally preparing to do the workout with us. Although he is a fitness expert he still has to prepare mentally and not just rush into things. As we start the second workout he says be prepared because I am going to kill all of you! Well, the second workout was twice as hard as the first. About 20 - 30 people were not at the second workout. Either they had other commitments or the first workout wasn't what they thought it was going to be and decided to bail on the second. A couple of moves that he had us do toward the end included a 64 count push up, 32 counts down and 32 counts up. Are you kidding me?! He told us it is not in the arms people it is in your core. Tighten up your core and you will be able to do this move with him. Well he was right, I tightened up my core and noticed it was a little easier.

Telling us it's all in the core - right before the killer 32 count push-ups

I remember looking up to watch him and he was solid as a rock doing this. One of the last moves was to get into a squat position and do 64 low squat pulses up and down with your arms straight out. He told us that if anyone gets up out of the squat position to take a break that he is starting the count all over again. Well a few people couldn't do it and he DID start over again.....twice! One of the people that caused us to start over was the event coordinator Kevin!!! We were all yelling at him. I felt like my quads were being poked with a red hot spike. The workout is now done and we stretch to finish up and I have this huge sense of accomplishment. I feel like I have climbed a Mt. Everest in one day. Carrie and I changed out of our workout clothes, clean up in the restrooms and get into our street clothes. What a great day. One that will I will never forget.

Workout #2 is done and the event is over.
Beachbody Diamond Coach Kevin Lopes presenting Shaun T with a personalized Patriots jersey

The one thing that I have taken away from this experience is that I have to use my mental ability to keep going when I think I can't. This has changed my focus with exercising and life from now on. I am also changing my outlook on my diet. I am really starting to look at what I eat everyday. Shaun T said at the end of the workout to not deprive ourselves of things that we like. It is OK to have a dessert after dinner once in a while. Control your portions. It is a lifestyle he told us, not a race that you complete. This race never ends.

I am now renewed with exercising. I am still doing Insanity but it is different now as I am not just trying to get through the routine, I am challenging myself to work harder during it - creating more personal goals within the workout. I'm very much looking forward to when I can attend one of these workouts with Shaun T again!

There is no finish line.  Always a work in progress!

Thanks, Peace out :)

Hubby As Guest Blogger

Paul Speaks - Part 2

SHAKEOLOGY

Now that I have a weight goal in mind I knew that I needed to change how I was eating. Insanity comes with a nutrition plan but I didn't really look at it and still haven't started to follow it. But I did change my eating habits. Junk food is cheaper than healthy foods and that is why Americans are so overweight. We decided to start to eat more and more veggies and fruits. I also cut down the portion sizes I was eating at each meal and eat SLOWER, that way my brain knew my stomach was getting full. In July Carrie got me a bag of Shakeology for my 42 birthday. She was using this as a meal replacement and was preaching the wonders of the ingredients to me and once again I was SKEPTICAL! Well now I have my very own bag and she volunteered to make me a delicious shake. I have this bag of powder so I might as well have a chocolate smoothie. I told her sure and let her make me one. Well I have to say it tasted great! I have been drinking this for breakfast since last July. My overall cholesterol has gone down 30 points and my blood pressure has gone down as well. I attribute this to the exercising everyday and the healthy shakes every morning.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

So I am in my daily workout routine with Sunday as my day off. I actually get frustrated if there is a day I cannot exercise due to work commitments or if the family's schedule does not allow me. I am seesawing between 150 and 153 lbs and trying to figure our how to get the weight to stay at the lower number. If I have one fault, I have the ability to really focus on something to reach my goals. So I am committed to getting to where I want and won't stop until I have reached it. The one big thing I notice is that I feel really great and that I am sleeping better and the biggest thing is that I haven't gotten sick this past winter season. Every year I usually get a whopping case of the Flu  that takes me out for at least three days. I attribute not getting the Flu to the regular exercising and change in diet to include larger portions of green veggies. I have always loved steamed Broccoli and would eat this every night as my vegetable if the family would let me!

Paul doing the "Heisman" as part of the INSANITY warm-up

Carrie called me at work one day in February of this year and said Shaun T is coming to Gillette to conduct a workout with people. I thought absolutely! I've been doing this for almost a year I can workout to any Insanity routine he throws at us. We each paid a fee of $100 and decided to make a weekend out of it!
  

 MAY 13TH

Meet and greet booth - May 13

Carrie and I arrive at Gillette the evening before the event. The local Beachbody coach Kevin, who arranged the event, has set up a meet and greet with Shaun T and a couple of Patriots cheerleaders at the Patriots Place shopping mall area. We walk to the area where the table is set up and we stand in line and notice that everyone in the line is a young male and they want to get their picture taken with the Cheerleaders! We got to the table and said to Shaun T "We're here to see YOU!" His face immediately lit up and asked if we have been doing INSANITY?  We both said yes and he got up came around from the table and talked to us for a while about the workouts and what it was like filming them with all the people in the videos. We asked him what Saturday's workouts were going to be like and he said he hadn't decided yet put it was probably going to be pretty tough. Great I thought. We took some pictures with him and me with the cheerleaders. I had to take a picture with them, they're pretty cheerleaders after all and wasn't going to miss that opportunity.

Shaun T meet and greet May 13

The "must have" photo op with two pretty Patriots cheerleaders

Stay tuned to hear more from Paul...............

Hubby As Guest Blogger

Paul Speaks - Part 1

(It's a long one so will have to be in a couple chapters!)

It's been two weeks since Carrie and I worked out, twice, with Shaun T at Gillette stadium on Saturday May 14th. My exercise workout journey has been developing over the course of many, many years. First off I am going to emphatically say "I HATE TO EXERCISE" I would rather sit and read the paper or watch some worthless mind numbing TV show. Now having said that, I now LOVE the Insanity workout DVD program. My exercise journey got a big jolt of energy last June. I had been a member of a couple of gyms and had really let my exercise regimen slack. Carrie had mentioned this infomercial about a DVD set called "Insanity" and like everything, I kind of shrugged it off. Who wants to exercise in their basement? I also said to her "those things don't work in the long run. Its just a money grab" and "I will never look like those people as they have trainers and nutritionists that are looking over their every move in order to get them to look good to sell the DVDs!" Because I am a very frugal person, cheap sometimes, I agreed that this was a more worthwhile investment than two gym memberships that we probably won't use that often. Plus, Carrie was very very excited about it. What did I have to lose I thought? Maybe some weight!  I remember Carrie either emailed me or called me at work to tell me that the INSANITY box had shown up. You would have thought it was Christmas at our house! I can be a very skeptical person at times and hadn't really bought into this exercise program but wanted to support Carrie because of her excitement. We watched the very first DVD called Fit Test. This judges where you are through a series of different exercise moves. You are to log your results, how many of each you were able to do, and then do it again some weeks later to see how you improved. 

THE JOURNEY BEGINS:

Day 1 of INSANITY - June 7, 2010

I vividly remember the night I began this exercise program because I thought I was going to die. It was a Monday night. Carrie went off to work. I put the kids to bed and changed into some workout clothes and headed for the basement. I put in the fit test DVD and started the routine. Now I have run 5K and 10K road races and used to run on average 3 - 5 miles a day. So I believed I could do just about anything. I did this fit test and at the end of it fell to the floor leaning against the couch and thought to myself this is the day I die. I was not only winded but my muscles were shaking. Folks, this is not the exercise program, this is a fit test to gauge where you are at. I hadn't even put in one of the DVDs that you actually exercise to!!! My only thought was Carrie will come home in a few hours and find her husband dead on the playroom floor. I sat there for a half an hour. Then I got mad. "This thing was not going to beat me" I said to myself. So, I started the next evening with the first DVD. At the bottom of the screen is a time line of how long each exercise move will be along with the overall time for this particular DVD. I looked and it said something like 39 minutes. I thought to myself "I got this". So it works like this. You do a three cycle rotation of warm up exercises. Each one is three minutes long before you get a break. So you do the routine for three minutes with each round getting faster than the last until the nine minutes are up and you can take a break. So I decided to relate this to something I know, running, guess what, it is not like running at all. It is not one thing you warm up with. You run and then you do jumping jacks and then something called Heisman and then two or three other different moves until you repeat the whole thing again. After three minutes I am ready to call 911 again. Now you get a 30 second break in between.

30 seconds is really long most of the time but when your exercising it is really, really short. I now have 30 more minutes of this!?!?!? Well I got through it and Carrie asked me how I liked this move or that move. I think I complained but still wasn't going to give up. She was very encouraging and was glad I was doing it.

DAILY EXERCISING

About two months into doing Insanity I notice that my pants are getting looser on me. I now have to wear a belt to keep them from falling down! OK so now I am seeing some results. Carrie had taken some before pictures in June and now wanted to take some more pictures in order for me to see the transformation that has taken place. Now I didn't think I looked bad back in June, because I think very highly of myself, but when I saw the pictures from two months later I realized just how chubby I was. In June I was around 168 - 170 lbs. and in August I was down to about 155 - 156 lbs! Not bad I thought. I now decided on a goal weight. The lightest I have ever been in my adult life was 147 lbs around the time I got married and that was probably for only a 1/2 an hour that I was at that weight. So my new weight goal was to get to 150 lbs.

December 2010 - about 6 months into the program

Stay tuned to see more of Paul's INSANITY transformation story....... 

Crazy Train!!!!

This past Saturday, I had the amazing opportunity to spend the day working out and hanging out with Shaun T and other incredible Beachbody Coaches and customers.  We got to spend the entire day at Gillette Stadium (yep, the home field of the New England Patriots) for what was to be one of the best experiences of my life!!!!  As a reminder, Shaun T is the (extremely buff) trainer from the INSANITY workout program.  Here's a delightful little sampling of his madness and the true INSANITY of this workout program!

Our workouts on Saturday were similar to the ones from the dvds in that there were many familiar moves and I was used to his style of teaching.  There was, however, no pause button and by the end of the first workout, my husband and I were drenched in SWEAT!!!  Nice, don't you think?

Here's a little of how I felt about the whole experience:

Two full workouts (one hour each), over 150 in attendance, 5 bottles of water consumed (by me alone), 5 clothing changes, several pounds of sweat, estimated over 1200 calories burned and suffice it to say, it was one of the best days ever!!!  Now, let me make this clear (and this may surprise you - ha ha)......working out is not always fun for me, nor is it my most favorite thing to do!!!!  I do love the end result though - the feeling of euphoria knowing I did something that I did not think was possible!!  Eating right is also a struggle and a full time job for me.  There is no "finish line" with this!  It's an ongoing process of making a daily commitment to myself (no matter how difficult it seems or how tempting the alternative may be).     

I will be posting more about this awesome day and all 

the wonderful experiences in the days to come.  Until 

then, I plan to keep plugging away in The Asylum!

~Cheers!

  

Digging Deep

I am here to debunk the thinking that you cannot get a good, intense, effective workout by exercising in the comfort of your own home.  For most of my adult life, I have belonged to a gym.  Granted, I also own a treadmill, enjoyed running outdoors, and working out to exercise DVDs, but in the past, my "go to" place for sweating it out was always a gym.  When I purchased the workout set INSANITY, my thinking changed. Since beginning this program 9 months ago, I have worked out more regularly and frequently than any other time in my life.  If you don't think you have the ability to push yourself at home, don't sell yourself short - you can.  If you don't think you have the attention span to complete it - think again - once a workout gets "in your blood" you will not want to stop (and let's face it, the menial home tasks and laundry will always be there anyway).  Plus the awesome DVDs that Beachbody puts out all are led by amazing trainers who are incredible motivators.

Here's Shaun T and some of the INSANITY crew!  They look badass, don't they?  One of the great things about this workout is that some of the cast members were just "regular people" beforehand.  They went through the program in its testing phase and had tremendous success!  It's so motivating to see the results of a normal person who transformed their body in such a drastic way - makes me think I can do it too.  Also, I love the fact that they are all sweating, panting, raising their heart rates (to what sometimes feels like unnatural levels) and even collapsing from exhaustion right along side me.   

That's the man himself.  The King of INSANITY, Shaun T.  Shaun T is a superb trainer too.  He's constantly talking, encouraging, giving tips on proper form, telling me how to breathe, hold correct posture, and I love that he tells it like it is (plus he's nice to look at too).  One of my favorite quotes from him is "It's get fit or get out people!  I'm not trying to hurt you, just trying to make you better."


On Monday, I began Month 2 of INSANITY!!  Let the madness begin (again)!  Month 2 MAX workouts are around an hour long with (what seems like) double the intensity as the first month's workouts.  I am still sore from Monday's MAX Interval Circuit workout - ouch.  What makes INSANITY different from traditional workouts is the amount of time you spend pushing yourself to the limit.  In traditional workouts, you would generally exert a sustained moderate amount of energy/intensity throughout with short bursts of high intensity.  INSANITY workouts are just the opposite....you work as hard as you can for 3-4 minutes with a 30 second rest in between each burst of intensity.  It is extremely effective!  On the agenda for me for today is MAX Interval Plyo.  I'm ready (yikes)!!

  ~ Bring on the Diamond Jumps!

A Lesson in Motivation

Go back in time with me if you will.......June 2010, I'm sitting on my couch (a lot), falling asleep in the middle of the day (a lot), feeling gross, flabby, exhausted and generally apathetic about my appearance and life itself.

Now, I've always been active.  I've got 3 full marathons under my belt, have done several triathlons, participated in indoor rock climbing and group exercise classes, but for some reason, it all came to a screeching halt last year.  Yep, I got into a rut and "let myself go" a bit.  Funny thing is, apathy like that is a vicious cycle.  The more you don't care, the more you don't care.  So there I was, literally becoming part of my couch (muffin top growing by the day), when I saw the late night Beachbody infomercial for the workout series "INSANITY".  It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before and thought it seemed like something I'd enjoy.  I am not a "dainty" exerciser by any means - love me some hardcore cardio and bring on the sweat - the worse I look after a workout, the better!  The trick was, trying to convince my hubby that spending $120 on a set of DVDs was a wise investment.  I suggested not renewing our $100 a year (each) gym memberships (which were up for renewal and hardly being used anyway), he took the bait and we never looked back!  INSANITY is put out by the company Beachbody.  It's is the same company that puts out P90X (which if you haven't heard of by now, you must be living under a rock), Turbo Jam, Slim in 6, and other awesome workout DVDs.  Let me tell you, the $120 was the BEST money we have spent and it changed our lives forever!!!! INSANITY is designed to get you in the best shape of your life in 60 days. It is extremely DIFFICULT, you sweat your cottage cheesy tush (and muffin top) off, and the benefits are amazing!! We both lost weight - he about 13 pounds and myself about 11 (so far) - plus we both have completely toned up, added muscle and significantly lowered our total cholesterol levels. I am about half way to my ultimate goal of another 10-15 pounds lost and my husband only has a couple more pounds to his goal.

So, where does my motivation come from?  What got me up from that apathetic place on my couch, to push myself beyond what I ever thought was possible and sweating like never before?  Well, I gotta say, the shirtless, solidly muscled trainer (Shaun T - who I LOVE) in the DVDs certainly doesn't hurt - hee hee.  But truly, motivation for me comes from a whole bunch of places.  I turned 40 in September and that was HUGE motivation for me.  With Type 2 Diabetes running in my side of the family and heart disease lurking in my husband's side, and obesity on both, I did not want to end up aging with medical issues on top of it!  Looking at photos of my parents and in-laws when they were 40 is an eye opener.  Is it just me or did everyone look 60 at the age of 30 back then?  So call me vain, but I want to be a hot mama at 40 and beyond.  I want to look good in a pair of skinny jeans tucked into boots.  I want my loved ones to be proud of me and I want to be proud and comfortable with my appearance as well.  My Beachbody business is also a HUGE motivator for me.  If I'm not continuing to be a "product of the product", than I am a fraud.  Simple as that.  I continue to try and live by example and practice what I preach. 

So for me, motivation is NOT just the intention to do something, or saying you're ready, or planning it all out, or even clicking "Yes I'm ready to take the INSANITY challenge" as I did back in June.  Motivation is this........you've run out of excuses and have nowhere else to go.  What motivates you?