Time to pack!

We leave tomorrow for vacation. So today I need to do laundry (2 loads), sweep, clean cat boxes and get snacks and stuff in the house for our house sitter and pack. Exciting stuff. So all in all there is not much to accomplish. Thank goodness. We were up LATE last night. I checked the weather and the temps will be cooler than what is forecasted here in MI. Still not sure if that is good or bad. it has been easy to get used to this 90 degree plus weather we have been getting every day. Call me crazy but I enjoy sweltering temperatures. It will probably be better for the runs though!

While on vacation the plan is to work out a five times, interval run three times,  eat 85% clean and not gain a pound or inch in that week.

I better get packing. At some point I am sure I will do a little post here and there, nothing long, fantastical or anything amazing. But for the most part the Robinson’s will be MIA until the 10th.

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

The Difference A Year Can Make!

Last year when we flew out for our annual 4th of July trip I weighed 220 lbs.. That is a difference of 57 pounds. It just hit me because I did not really think about the weight I lost before my last major plateau and decided on Les Mills Pump.  A friend pointed it out. That leaves 33 pounds to lose to be at the weight I was when I got married 3.5 years ago.

I will be here 25.9% smaller than last year! Nope, I don’t golf either. 😛

First Round 1 Thursday Weigh in & Vacation Workout Plan

To commemorate the end of Week 1 of Round 2 of Les Mills Pump today I weigh and measure in. This week was a rough week so my workouts were not on PAR I missed a workout and two I only did my basic Pump portion. I did make up for it by doing a billion loads of wash and purging the house of a bunch of unneeded clothing so they could go to others who are in need. I have 4 bags ready to go and will have 4 more by tomorrow.

I leave for vacation on Sunday. Gozzer Ranch here we come 🙂 My Mother in Law emailed me and had me send her my “diet” aka just how I eat now so I can’t call it a diet anymore, and is graciously providing me with the foods that I need. So food won’t be an issue, I am  glad not to have to worry about that. As far as workouts go, I think I will take my Jillian Michaels Yoga meltdown and Les Mills Pump Hard Core Abs just in case finding someone to watch Emma does not work out. I can lock my self in a bedroom and do those and Yoga Meltdown offers challenging body weight exercises. The boys will golf early mornings so my runs are out in the a.m. So after dark is when those will have to happen. Yes, I will have cocktails in me but it’s all good. It is a vacation right? I want to try to get three runs in while I am there, for 7 days I figure that will not be so bad. I will be gone 9 but will be in Idaho for 7. I plan to blog a little while I am there but am making no promises. I do not want to take my lap top and I am not sure how the internet on my phone will run. Last year I had voice service but no data there. It is fairly remote so I didn’t really expect it to have data.

So here is what you all came here for:

Drum-roll please…..

• Chest: 31.0 inches (- 0.5 inches)
• R Arm: 12 inches (- 0 inches)
• L  Arm: 12 inches (- 0 inches)
• Waist: 32 inches (- 0 inches)
• Hips: 41 inches (- 0 inches)
• R Thigh: 23.5 inches (- 0 inches)
• L Thigh: 23.5 inches (- 0 inches)
• Weight: 163 pounds (-2 pounds)
• Pant Size: 12
• BMI: 29.4% (- 0%)

Not to shabby!  Maybe this is marking the end of my plateau!

Today, Today

So, I was Debbie Downer on here yesterday, and everywhere else. I don’t like to air my dirty laundry on the internet so I will just say life sucked yesterday but all is good now. Sometimes things just come to head and explode and dealing can be hard. Everything is taken care of now and I am hoping the issue  does not pop back up.  I really felt guilty for not getting my workout in and I didn’t eat all day or really drink anything either, then later binged on a Culver’s burger, fries and a root beer. Yikes!

To change the pace of the day we went and did some clothing shopping for our upcoming vacation, Emma needed an entire new summer wardrobe due to her last growth spurt. We have to buy her a new wardrobe 4 times a year. Why do kid jeans cost as much as adult jeans? We are going broke 🙂 Anyhow I bought a bunch of bottoms, a top and a dress without trying on because I just didn’t feel like it at the store. So today I need to try it all on and see if anything has to go back and be exchanged. I still need to find a pair of neutral sandals that I like and a jacket. And another pair of sandals for Emma. Fun, fun.

Today the plan is to do a double workout to make up for yesterday (or as much as I can do without killing myself), do the billion loads of laundry that needs to be done to catch up on what we normally wear and the piles and piles of stuff that I need to rewash to donate. I probably have 5 or 6 trash bags of stuff to donate once again. Try on those clothes, eat food and hope to get some time in outside. The wash won’t get completely done today but it needs to be done by Thursday so I can concentrate on getting everything ready for vacation. I’d rather take up the invitation to go sit pool side but I guess being an adult is what I have to do today. Boo-hoo!

On the workout agenda I have: Hard Core Abs, Pump Challenge, Step and a Run. Oh my! I better go get my Pump on.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow

Felling bad that I missed my workouts today. There was just no way it was happening today, yesterday or whatever you want to call it. It was a horrible day and I am glad that it is over and I can try to get back to normal in the morning. Whew, what a day! My official Tuesday Post will be better.. Promise!

Benefits of Yoga

 

Today is Day 4 of Round 2 doing Les Mills Pump. On the agenda today is Flow. Flow is in a nutshell the LMP’s form of Yoga. To be quite frank when I first tried it I was not a fan. i found it to be monotonous and pointless. Honestly, I will chalk it up to my not being familiar with Yoga and my apprehensiveness to try something new. I was already new into the Pump portion to the workout and I think I overwhelmed myself. When Flow came back up on my LMP schedule I did try it again and more open-mindedly I should add. it wasn’t so bad and it was actually enjoyable. Today I have found other forms of Yoga I enjoy and have added more Yoga to my workout schedule. I enjoy the peace, the stretch and so many other things that it brings.

A few of the benefits of Yoga:

• Improve mental health: Yoga practice is calming. Regular yoga practice can reduce or eliminate the root of anxiety disorders and aid in controlling or decreasing depression and can lead to a more peaceful state helping you gain confidence, mental well-being and the ability to stay calm in more stressful situations.
• Helps prevent diabetes: All types of exercise including yoga help to stabilize blood glucose. This is important in the prevention and control of diabetes

• Prevent bone loss and osteoporosis: The low impact Yoga postures can be effective for post-menopausal women and older men in preserving and building bone density.

• Backache relief and backache healing: I know I have already talked about this in a previous post, But this is one of the best things for my back issues. Yoga goes right to the physical cause of your backache helping you to recognize areas of chronic tension Overall fitness and muscle tone is essential to your spines health. The more aerobic forms of yoga provide your spine oxygen and helps to create flexible hamstrings and hip flexors in hand freeing-up your lower back.
• Arthritis Prevention: The best preventions and/or relievers of arthritis are motion and exercise. Engaging all of your muscle groups in a yoga practice strengthens bone and improves your coordination and balance. Yoga is a low-impact form of exercise and yoga postures can improve muscle strength, joint flexibility, endurance, as well as range of motion.
• Detoxification: Many Yoga postures massage the internal organs, this provides a natural form of cleansing which rids the body of toxins.
• Gained flexibility: Few fitness regimens concentrate as much on flexibility as yoga does. In fact nearly every single movement in yoga can increase your flexibility

 There are many other benefits of practicing Yoga also. I suppose I will save those for a later time. I still have house-guests to attend to and my Yoga to get in today, as well as a run after everyone has settled down for the evening. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Sources:

http://www.mayoclinic.com

http://www.droz.com

http://www.webmd.com

 

Saturday quicke

It is Saturday!! Yay!! I have house guests and entertained last night and will be again tonight. I really enjoy having a group around me. On the docket tonight, dinner, fire and more “chicken” wine. As pat calls it. I have an infinity for all things roosters and he was a sweetie and brought me home some Rex Goliath Chardonnay. It is oh so tasty. So I have been on a mission to try every type of wine they produce because I love the bottles. I will have to find something crafty to do with them in the future.

I love these bottles, the wine is mighty tasty too.

My house guests are out for the moment visiting a local family member so I just wanted to make a quick posting today. I have a full day! I have to get my workout in, make BBQ sauce, Make clean eating shortcakes, clean up our mess from yesterday, swim with the kids and grill some chicken and veggies. Happy Saturday Folks!

It’s true 🙂

LMP Round 2 Phase 1 Schedule

As you all know I have started Round 2 of Les Mills Pump. There is no hybrid Schedule out there that I have found that incorporated Running as well as the Les Mills Pump Ultimate Cross Training workout plans. Using the Round One Phase One Schedule I added the Running, UCT workouts, The Yoga I like to do on rest days to reset myself as well as a couple other things that I just plain enjoy doing. I kept the weight training segment part of the schedule exactly the same as it was before and just switched out the walking days with other things and added runs and other workouts seeing I am at a higher fitness level now and can push myself harder than I could when I started Round 1.  Just to keep myself accountable here is my Round 2 Phase 1 schedule.

PHASE 1: TE WERO: The Challenge

 

Today is Day two, So….. it is time for me to get my Yoga in and I will run later this evening once it starts to cool down. I have found that I really like running and walking outdoors at night. It is serene. Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend. I have a weekend of house guests again so it should be fun!! I am glad they don’t think it is rude when I disappear on them to work out. I have even gotten some of them to work out with me!

Ohh Yeah! 😉

Day One of Round Two

Today is my first official day of Les Mills Pump Round Two. I decided to take a day off and visit a good friend, go swimming and do other fun stuff instead yesterday. From here on out Tuesday Weigh In’s will be Thursday Weigh In’s. I will weigh and measure in every week just as I did before. I will follow the Les Mills Pump Schedule but switch out the walking days with the Les Mills Pump Ultimate Cross Training and on the rest days I will do a short Yoga session. I will start at Phase One/Day One and will run at least 3 days a week.

In 11 days I leave for our annual vacation, during that period I will pause LMP and continue where I left off when I return. I do not want to fly with a ton of weights in my luggage so taking it with me is not happening. I will find other ways to be active daily while I am there. I am sure there will be some sort of class offered if not I will just go running. There is over a 2000 ft difference in elevation so I am wondering how running will go for me. From a Valley to a Mountain top should be interesting 🙂

My Day one stats are:

Let’s Do This

• Chest: 31.5 inches
• R Arm: 12 inches
• L  Arm: 12 inches
• Waist: 32 inches
• Hips: 41 inches
• R Thigh: 23.5 inches
• L Thigh: 23.5 inches
• Weight: 165 pounds
• Pant Size: 12
• BMI: 29.4%

My Goals for Round Two are:

• Break through this plateau
• Up my weights by 5 lbs each track
• Up my endurance
• Lose another pant size and be at a solid size 10

Wish me luck peeps!

Have a Happy Thursday!

Fluffy Runner’s Tutu a No-Sew Tutorial

So I am a day late on this. Keeping track of time/dates/ anything has not been for forte’ lately. Life has been crazy, thanks to allowing myself to get dragged into other people’s issues. I like to help and it can kick me in the rear sometimes. At least my workouts were charted out for me so I didn’t mess those up!

Anyhow the other night I finished my second tutu for The Color Run in Ann Arbor, MI. Pictures of each step were taken so I can do a tutorial. I based this on Idiot Runner Girl’s tutorial. You can check it out here.. click me

First thing first you need supplies. I am sure you already knew that though!

Supplies:

• Tulle (125 yards were used to make this tutu)
• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Measuring Tape
• Plenty of Time
• You!

First things first gather up your supplies. I used five colors of 6 inch tulle they came in 25 yard spools. You can buy the wider bolts of tulle also and just cut the strips to make them 6 inches wide. Tulle can be purchased in fabric and crafting supply stores or even online. You can use less for a not so full tutu or more for an insanely full tutu I will assure you that 125 yards will make a pretty fluffy and full tutu.

Supplies.. Measuring tape as well as the pink and purple tulle not shown.

Now that you have your supplies together it is time to turn those rolls of tulle into strips of tulle. I wanted my tutu to be a little bit on the longer side so the tulle was measured and cut into 30 inch strips. This will give you a tutu that is about 14 inches long. This also takes forever. While I measured and cut I watched (well more listened to) a movie. I don’t even recall what it was so it must have not been that good.

The white sheet of paper was to help me see the tulle better while cutting.

Now you need something to put the tulle on, this is where the ribbon comes into play. I cut a 7 foot length of ribbon. It will be too long but it best to cut it longer then trim after you are finished and tie the bow in the ribbon.

Yay ribbon!

It is time to get this tutu going! I used two of the 30 inch strips of tulle and folded them in half. One on top of the other, then made an upside down “U” shape with it, this is the beginning of our loop.

easy peasy

Take your tulle and place it under the ribbon with the top of our loop above the ribbon line.

This is about to get exciting 😛

Fold the top of your loop over the ribbon like so making a closed loop with the ribbon being the top and the tulle being the bottom you should have a “U” shaped hole (loop):

You still with me?

Here is the trickiest part. It is actually pretty simple. Take the two tails (loose ends of tulle on your loop) and pull then through the loop.

There you go!

Now grab the ends and pull into your loop turns into a knot.

Pull!!

And there you go, you have your first knot finished!

1 down, 1 billion to go 😛

Just continue this process in whatever pattern you would like for your tutu. You can even just do it in a solid color. But what fun would that be?

I think you get the point here. Just keep going, and going, and going!

I did not pull my knots tight I left them loose (well, just not super tight)so I could push them together easier to get my proper size for me. I wanted to be sure I used the entire lot of tulle. So as I am looping and knotting away the teasing started. “That is a lot of tutu I thought you were trying to get thinner not fatter.” “How much weight do you plan to gain by July?” ‘Are you and your friend doing a three-legged race and you both need to fit into the same on?” Ahh men, can’t kill them……….. Don’t worry they got it right back. I can be a bit sassy at times. HA!

It was HUGE! Tico also wanted to be included in this post too. Look how cute he is hanging out with mom and supervising the tutu making process.

Next I grabbed the ribbon ends and started to push the tulle knots together pulling any of the knots tighter that looked to big. After it started to shrink in size I put it around my waist and continued to pull until it was the appropriate size for me.

Pull!

All you have to do now is tie your ribbon in a bow, trim the ends of the ribbon to make them the length you like and get out there and run.  Can’t wait to wear mine at the color run. I have two more after that so I am going to start planning colors and kick out some tutus!

It is full enough to stand on its own!

This was my first tutorial post so I hope that everything was explained well and coherent. These are easy to do and just consume quite a bit of time. So be sure you plan to have an evening free or do it in intervals. Have fun making your tutus!

Me in the latest tutu. it is too full to fit in the mirror. I think I need someone around to be a personal photographer for when I blog.