I am so frustrated with my body right now. My ankle injury hasn’t been that bad recently, but last night the knee on my other leg started hurting and now whenever i straighten it, I get sharp, horrible pain. This means I had to cancel my training session this afternoon and working out in almost any capacity is off limits.

I’ve been dealing with this issue for a number of years now. I start working out to loose weight and get healthy, but the extra weight causes stress on my joints and I’m prone to injury which stops me from working out. It’s a terrible vicious cycle.

Clearly I need to focus on healthy eating more since I can’t make up for diet slip ups with exercise. This means I’m going to calorie count like crazy and use the Daily Plate site to do it.

Any advice from the oh so knowledgeable Tumblr ladies and gents? Have any of you ever experienced this?

What I’m going to do:

1. Find balance in my daily food intake. Since raw veggies cause major tummy issues for me, I need to find creative ways to incorporate cooked veg and lean protein into my diet and reduce my carbs. Also, Drink more water!
   
   
2. Exercise 5 days a week for at least 1 hour. This can include intensive gardening, renovating, bike riding, walking, swimming and gym going.
   
   
3. See my trainer 1 - 2 times a week. It’s an expense that I feel is worth every penny.
   
   
4. Spend no more than 2 hours watching tv or browsing the web. Serious time suck, and I alsways feel tired and blah after spending too much time staring at a screen.
   
   
5. Be frugal. Weddings are expensive and I don’t need to spend money to have fun, especially in the summer here.
   
   
6. Enjoy the outdoors. It’s mosquito central in Saskatchewan right now but I need to suck it up! The warm weather is few and far between here, especially this year with all the rain.
   
   
7. Appreciate the victories, learn from the failures. I’m not perfect, but I’m also capable of changing my life, one small step at a time. Positivity is crucial
   
   
8. Focus on being HEALTHY. While looking good in my wedding dress is inspiration for this, it’s not the main reason for making these changes. My overall health is my ultimate goal.

So we’ve tentatively picked a wedding date and it’s just over a year away which means I need to SERIOUSLY get back into being healthy. The dress above is basically my dream dress with a few modifications like cap sleeves, a higher neckline, and more green underneath the lace. There’s just a few problems: Given my current size, dress selection is LIMITED and what actually would look OK on me does not always translate to what I want or like. This was my exact problem when looking for dresses last year, not to mention the fact that my city doesn’t get very many designers.

So it’s time to begin Operation Wedding Dress, because I’ll be damned if I’m going to look dumpy in my wedding photos! I’ll figure out the exact details and post them shortly, no slacking on this one.

Seriously, who knew waking up at 8 am on a Saturday could be so fantastic? Ryan and I usually sleep in on the weekend, hang out and eat breakfast together then run errands etc. But today he left to go visit his parents for a few days so I figured it would be a good opportunity to work out then get some paper writing done. I was right!

I met my friend Gina who is also going to South Africa this May, and went to the university gym, which I’m slowly starting to like, but definitely not as much as my regular gym. Breakdown of the workout:

• 20 min warm up on treadmill (I walked, with an incline since my calves are still sore)
• Stretch
• Squats
• Free weights
• Crunches and V sits (OW!)
• Stretch

At this point Gina had to take off, but since I didn’t have to be anywhere I hopped on a stationary bike for 30 mins and went hardcore. I don’t think I have ever pushed myself that hard when working out on my own and it felt AMAZING.I even got a little emotional when a really good song came on and I was trying to push through the last 2 minutes before the cool down. I kept thinking “I can do this! I can actually do this!” It was so weird, and super liberating.

I took my time stretching and relaxing after the fact, then grabbed some subway and a V8 for lunch. Now I have a sweet cubicle with a window and I’m ready to get to work.

• Monday: Personal training session
• Tuesday: 1 hour cardio (split between bike/elliptical)
• Wednesday: 1 hour cardio (same) and abs
• Thursday: Break
• Friday: Personal Training session
• Saturday: Bike Ride? Walk/Run outside?
• Sunday: 45 mins cardio and abs

Despite my insane schedule for school, I am determined to get 6 days of exercise in this week. I think it will help keep me focused and less stressed out about all the work I need to finish.

I am also going to set my alarm for 6:00am each day and see if I can get going to the gym early. It’s pretty much the only spare time I have, and as long as I go to bed early enough, why waste it sleeping?

Slept in a little, made Ryan some french toast. I ate one piece made with egg white only and mashed up fruit/yogurt and almonds instead of maple syrup. It was tasty!

We are going to get new glasses today, I’m pretty excited about this, since I need prescription sunglasses for my trip and Ryan’s been wearing the same frames for 4 years. I’ll post pictures when we get them.

After that I’m headed to school to get working on my paper, hopefully with a gym break in between although I’m not sure what i will be doing when I’m there. I had to change my cardio warm up during my training session yesterday because my calf muscles are causing me a lot of pain. My podiatrist said that my foot problems are mostly from those muscles being extra tight but even with stretching, the pain seems to be getting worse. It’s frustrating because my only other options are the elliptical or bike and those carry their own set of problems too. (foot numbness, ankle pain) I’m basically a mess when it comes to my joints. So it’s off to physio for me. It’s partially covered by the government if I get a referral from a doctor so that’s a plus.

I hope you all have a great Saturday!

I have never been so happy to wake up in the morning, check facebook and find a message from my trainer asking if we can reschedule our session for today. Don’t get me wrong, I love working out with her but the combination of school stress, lack of sleep and stomach issues makes me dread an AM workout right now.

I am TIRED. So, as soon as I’m done writing this, I’m going back to sleep.

However, since I’m not about to sacrifice my otherwise awesome week (let’s just not speak about the french bread I ate last night…) I will be going to the gym sometime today. Not sure when, but sometime. I’ll make sure to post a phone pic or something so you all know I’m not a big liar.

This morning I woke up feeling fantastic, despite my sore neck I was peppy, energetic and on time for my training appointment! (gasp!)

The work out was pretty awesome, I did squats and lunges with one leg on a bosu ball where basically you do a squat, keep your one leg on the ball, then move the other leg behind you and do a lunge then repeat. OUCH! Lot’s of other stuff too, deadlifts with 20lbs instead of 10 since I’m getting stronger. It was a blast as usual.

I had subway for lunch because I didn’t feel like cooking and have some reading to do before class at 2:30 today. Also I’m waiting patiently for my new dress to arrive, hopefully it will come in time for me to wear it today! Until then I’m hanging out in my sweaty workout clothes, nice.

I’m procrastinating school work and I wanted to update you on my gym success this past week!

My tentative schedule was:

Monday - break

Tues - Training: check

Weds - 40 mins cardio + abs (didn’t go, boo)

Thurs - Break (Went this day instead! yay!)

Fri - Training (Worked my ass off, yes!)

Saturday - 1 hr cardio (Danced at the bar for hours instead, although the alcohol prob. canceled that out)

Sunday - 30 mins cardio + abs (I was DETERMINED to work out yesterday so after work at 11pm I did the Yoga Booty Ballet Cardio vid, and yes its as cheesy as it sounds but still pretty awesome. And some pilates for lower body)

Soooo, if you count Saturday’s dancing, that’s 5 days! Not too shabby!

This morning was rough, doing an intense workout right before bed probably wasn’t the best idea even though it felt awesome at the time. My neck and lower back are quite sore but I still think I’ll go to the gym today. Maybe aquacize?

Workout Schedule for March 8 -14

Monday: Core circuit followed by aquaftiness

Tuesday: Training

Weds: 8am yoga?? (hah, unlikely but I will try)

Thursday: break

Friday: Training

Saturday: 45 mins Cardio

Sunday Break.

Also, I lost another 2.5 inches! Screw you unchanging weight, I got muscle now!

So I’m now at:

Waist: 41.5’ (First measurement was 48.5, what!?)

Belly: 50’ (First time I’ve measured this, gah its horrid but oh well)

Hips: 46’ (Still the same and fine with me, I have a flat ass, TBH I wouldn’t mind if it was bigger! haha)

Wish me luck this week. I’m going to have 7 days of being perfect even if it kills me! (Well maybe just near perfect…)

So I made it to the gym today. Didn’t go for as long as I wanted but it was either that or miss my 2:30 class which I don’t like doing. I opted for a quick 20 mins on the treadmill at my regular gym instead of an intense hour at 9pm at the school gym I dislike so much. Which I suppose is better than nothing.

Also, I’ve been doing very well food wise the past few days. I need to get more protein in for sure, but blogging on a regular basis has helped me with the junk cravings!

This was my supper between classes. Filled me up nicely, but I was hungry by the time my class was over. (It’s 3 hours long) I need to get the protein/veg/carb ratios down so I don’t feel starved when I get home at 10.

Tomorrow I have the day off from school, I’m going to see my trainer, get my netbook fixed and pick up my eShakti order (woo!) then clean the house and make homemade pasta with Ryan for the Outside the Box challenge. I’ll definitely post pictures.

TTFN