| |
|
DBCLARINET's Recent Blog Entries
|
 
Saturday, June 05, 2010
Phew! Brought Legs and Back today. Well, brought Back more than Legs, but I'll be honest, my least favorite part of the workout is the balance lunges, which are the very first thing! Ugh! I HATE them!
I didn't lose my one stinking pullup, but I'm finding that I don't like doing that much work when I still have another 2938472 to go! So I'm still doing my pullups with one leg on the chair to get up and then taking the leg off the chair to go back down. At least, that was the plan. The reality was that about halfway through the workout, I didn't have anything left to give, so I ended up doing only one stupid pullup with an unassisted descent and then finishing the rest of my reps with the chair both ways. But I'm hoping that by doing that, I'll gain the strength to do more pullups.
I'm not sure I brought it with the legs, but at the very least, I didn't do worse. Man, the first week of a new program is killer!
So, I said I would do it, and here they are. My "progress" pics from the first 30 days. Actually, it's a little better than I first thought:
Front shots:
 
Side shots:
 
Back shots:
 
I think there's some good improvement in my back, but my legs could use some more work. Here's hoping riding my bike more will help with that!
Let's see, breakfast was another delicious smoothie, this time with blueberries and cherries. Between that, blueberries + strawberries, and blueberries + mixed berries, I think this was my favorite. Tonight, hubby and I are going out on a date. Not sure where yet, but I'm going to try and stick as close to the diet as I can without feeling deprived.
Hubby and I made a list of pros and cons last night, first of joining the Navy, then of all the possible scenarios that we would need to consider during the months leading up to my enlistment. The list of pros to joining the Navy was definitely longer than the cons, and then we went through and weighted each pro and each con individually, added up our scores, and then compared. In both our cases, the pros outweighed the cons.
Then we did the same with possible scenarios to get us through until my enlistment, which wouldn't happen until after October 1. Our options were: move in with my parents, move in with his mom, stay in Texas and have me get a part-time job, stay in Texas and have me complete one more semester of school. Well, getting the part-time job got eliminated quickly due to finances. And in each of the remaining three cases, the number of pros and cons ended up the same. But when we weighted them, it turned out that moving back with my parents was the best option. That way, we both can get private lessons from the teachers we studied with at Ohio State, I can have tons of time to practice, and we'll have fewer bills to pay -- mostly just student loans, car insurance, and cell phone bills. I can enlist earlier, and I believe in this case, earlier is better. Plus, my parents have some distinct advantages over his mom. First of all, I won't want to commit physical harm after only a week. Even hubby admits that he doesn't think I'll be able to live with his mom for more than a week, and that's totally true. We both hate his MIL's dog -- too big, stupid, and untrained -- and my parents keep their house much cleaner than MIL. My mom is allergic to everything, so we did mention that we were concerned about putting her through the trouble of dealing with them, but she said she's allergic to their pet birds, too, but that doesn't mean she's gotten rid of them. She'll live with the cats.
Plus, as hubby mentioned, my parents would probably be insulted if we didn't live with them. Much as they wouldn't admit it, that's what he thinks, and I think he's right. They do feel like if there is something they can do to make things better, they want to do it, and they don't very much like it if you protest. Oh well, I could have it a lot worse!
For me, the biggest fears are that I have a good thing going with my DSO teacher right now, but I also made huge strides recently. He told me in my last lesson that now he believes I really know when I sound awesome and when I don't, so I just need to constantly fight for sounding awesome. And yes, it's a lot of work and it's really frustrating, but I have to do that. I still have some months left where I can work with him to fight for that.
I have a bachelor's degree and a master's degree. My next degree will be terminal. I started the doctorate at UNT, and right now I'm not convinced that it's the right move for me. Perhaps the right move for me is taking four years in the Navy to figure out what IS the right move for me. Maybe I'll totally hate it and realize I MUST play in an orchestra, and then I'll spend those four years trying to find a teacher whom I want to pursue an artist certificate with. I think that's what is going to happen. I'll do the Navy, and it'll be great to have a paycheck and good benefits, but I'll be constantly seeking out other teachers and enter some artist program afterward in the attempt to get an orchestra job when I get out. That, I think, is the plan right now. But I need to feel like I'm not pushed up against a wall with nowhere to go. So, I guess we'll find out.
The one thing our recruiter did tell us is that if you can prove to the Navy that the career move you are about to make is an improvement, they will release you from your contract. It's not easy, but they'll do it. Or, at the very least, I'll leave the program in four years and enter an artist certificate program or doctoral program where I don't have to take out loans and pay tuition. I think it's doable. I mean, four years isn't THAT long.
So, there we go. Now, if only we can find my high school diploma. Yeah, I have a bachelor's degree and a master's degree, but they want my high school diploma for me to enlist. Whatevs.
Friday, June 04, 2010
YogaX. I normally do my workouts in the morning, but today I was just so tired that I thought it would be more effective for me to make my morning shake, get to work early, and get the zombie out of my system while I spent four hours in front of the computer doing literally nothing. I was both right and wrong.
Rode my bike to work as planned and had only a few ounces of coffee. The cup on my desk is pretty big, and normally I fill it all the way with coffee, but today, in an effort to decrease my caffeine intake, I only filled it halfway. That got me through the morning, then around 1pm I rode my bike back home. I just couldn't bring myself to do the yoga. So I took a nap instead. It was supposed to be 20 minutes, but I extended it to 45 before I finally woke up. I was STILL dragging, so I made a cup of half decaf/half caf to get me going. I FINALLY got around to doing YogaX.
It was probably one of my best workouts, once I finally was able to turn my brain off. I can hold the crane pose for most of the minute, with only a few breaks, and for the first time today, I tried going into wheel instead of just bridge. I definitely couldn't hold it the whole time -- I took two breaks and after the second one, just laid there while the video finished up. But, it was wheel. Oh, and on the side balances, I was able to lift a leg a little.
What I love about yoga is that each time I do it, I learn something new about the way I move. My downward dog is getting better because I think I FINALLY understand how it works! Or with moving from bridge to wheel, I couldn't do it before because I didn't understand the force you need to provide with your arms. I was trying to hold myself up in so many other places, but it seems like if I provide upward force with my arms and legs equally, then my body just floats. Of course, it's a lot of force for two arms to provide (and I really have to think of the force as going along the entire arm, not just my hands), so I can't hold it very long.
Ate basically the same foods as yesterday, but I mixed up my nuts a little bit. A half cup of almonds is a lot of almonds! So I threw in some walnuts for good measure. And I ended up eating a whole orange instead of just half an orange because I was still hungry after dinner.
I am going to make myself go practice now. I have new mouthpieces to try. I'm just mentally worn out. I imagine I'll be much better after this weekend, or heck, even after tomorrow when I get to sleep in. But for now, practicing will at least alleviate my boredom!
Friday, June 04, 2010
Well, here's what we were told. I can delay my enlistment until sometime after October 1 so I can get the loan repayment, and sometime thereafter hubby will be able to re-audition for the bands. There is currently a waitlist for trumpets -- they have too many in the program right now -- but the audition coordinator's boss said that if hubby auditions at or above the level of people on the waitlist, he will push hubby through into whatever band I'm in.
Talk about a curveball. This might help us dodge the unfortunate situation my friend ended up in. As an individual, I would have more choices of bands, could possibly pick a good one, and then they would try to push hubby into that band, instead of going for the two-fer deal that landed my friend in a small, obscure band that is trying not to get itself cut by the Navy program.
My MIL is unbelievable. When hubby called her to tell her the results, she said, "Well, we both know you never liked to practice much." He (rightfully) got upset, and then I'm not sure what happened, but he hung up on her, then called her back, and they started arguing again, then she started crying and hung up on him, then about twenty minutes later he called her back. He apologized for yelling at her, and she apologized that he took her comment the wrong way. Well, then it turned into "How else was I supposed to take that comment? There was nothing positive about it," to which she responded "What can I say that's positive in this situation?" (that's what hubby says anyway, this was all over the phone). Then I just stepped out of the house because I couldn't even think straight with that going on. I could only hear hubby's side of the conversation, and he wasn't outright yelling, but he definitely had a raised voice and clear agitation, and he was already in a pretty foul mood from the first set of conversations, and it just makes me so mad when she pulls garbage like this, that I just decided to remove myself from the situation. She's his MOTHER for crying out loud, can't she say something supportive? Like, "Don't worry, you'll get 'em next time" or "At least now you know what you need to improve on" or something?
I could go on and on, but I'm going to stop there and leave it at that.
Tonight, hubby wants to make a list of pros and cons to figure out if we really do want to do this, and if so, what our plan for the next five months will be. We thought initially that we would move in with my parents until we deployed, but he threw out the possibility that we could stay here, he'll work until it's time for us to move (probably halfway through the next school year), and I'll pick up a part-time job. Of course, is there even a job that would a) hire me, b) pay enough, and c) I could leave after only three months? Sure seems unlikely. But I guess we'll see.
Mostly I just want to take a nap.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Well, hubby got a phone call from the Navy bands. I'm in, they want to hear hubby again in 6 months. Now we have some serious talking and thinking to do.
Thursday, June 03, 2010
It was time for a sunny change-up, so here it is.
Today, I did Back and Biceps. I seem to have lost my full pullup. Either that, or I'm aware of just how many pullups are ahead of me and have a mental block against pullups. But it's okay, I'll get it back, and my arms were like freaking Jell-o when I was done today, anyway. That workout was freaking hard! When I got to the end, I got to some familiar exercises from the previous month's workouts, and I definitely had to decrease the weight because my left bicep was all, "He** no, I'm not doing another curl."
To make up for not being totally able to hoist my chin over the bar today, I decided to use the chair to hoist myself up and then pick up my feet and fight my full body weight on the downward motion. I did a respectable amount that way, but by the end, it was full-assist, take-frequent-breaks, pray-for-one-more kind of pain. I was so glad to be done that I forgot to go on to AbRipperX! I've been doing it at night with hubby but decided that it revs me up too much before bed and planned on doing it immediately after. Well, I guess I'll be doing it tonight after all!
I was so pooped that I could barely make my shake this morning! I'm finding that my fruity shake is really satisifying and also that if I blend up the berries and then add the protein powder and ground flaxseed, I don't get the foamy mess like I did the first time I tried. I think the foamy mess was completely due to too much water with the protein powder. I can add a bunch of water and then stir in the protein powder, or I can blend in the protein powder and then add water, but I can't put both in the blender. Well, today I found out that I don't even want to add water anyway. A good cup or so of mostly frozen berries and the powders make for a nice, thick, satisfying smoothie. I actually don't end up very hungry.
I rode my bike to work again today. My legs were crying at the beginning, but once I got into it, I ended up with a better bike ride than I've had so far this week. It was pretty enjoyable, even if once again I showed up to work dripping in sweat. Oh well!
SparkPeople's fitness tracker seriously doesn't like how much I'm working out compared to my nutrition goals. Instead of the normal "SparkPeople won't automatically adjust your nutrition goals to meet your activity level" thing, I got this:
The number of calories you should eat to manage your weight depends on many factors, including how many calories you burn through exercise. It may seem counterintuitive, but eating too little while burning too much can actually hurt your weight-management goals and the outcome of your fitness program. If you are consistently burning more calories than recommended here, please update your fitness settings as soon as possible. This may adjust your calorie ranges (if necessary) so you can reach your goals in a timely and healthy manner.
Well, that sounded like a plea if I ever heard one! So I'm going to take the advice and get back to tracking, but I'll track based on my average calorie burning during P90X instead of on some weird fitness program they want to stick me on. It's putting me at between 1630 and 1980 calories a day. We'll see. I do want to stick to it, though, because I really don't want results to be stunted because I'm not eating enough.
I also got motivated yesterday by an e-mail I got featuring Holly Rigsby, who runs this thing called "Fit Yummy Mummy." Okay, I'm definitely not a mom looking to get back into shape, so I don't think the program is for me, but she's definitely motivation! In this e-mail, she outlined the program she used to burn off a bunch of fat in 20 days, and mostly she said that she just really had to give it 110%. It's not that she did anything really different, she just made sure that she ate well, gave up caffeine, and when she worked out she really made it count. So that's my other motivation to get back to tracking. One, to make sure I'm eating enough, and two, to make sure I'm holding myself accountable for my food. Maybe after P90X is done I'll get a little more lax, but for now, I might as well make the most of it!
First Page
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
Last Page
|
|
Get An Email Alert Each Time DBCLARINET Posts
|
|
Member Comments About This Blog Post:
