Day Sixty-Five -- Back On Track

Thursday’s Workouts:
• Cardio/Interval Session (1 hr)
• Body Fat Test (i.e., Got Dunked)
• TWO Abs/Core classes (1/2 hr each)
• Swimming (50 laps, 1 hr)
• Beach Volleyball drills (1 hr)
• Circuit Training Session (1 hr)
• Cardio & A Movie (3/4 hr)
• Acupuncture

It is finally heating up in Marina Del Rey – seriously…I think it was in the 80s today. I love it. The sky was a perfect blue with no clouds. The tide was high though, which makes for a soft sand beach walk/run. Normally I would have been happy to do the beach walk/run, but I was glad to be in the gym. Since I was scheduled for a body fat test I participated in Arleigh’s cardio/interval training session. Whew, what a workout…by 9am I was already soaked from sweat. See…I sweat A LOT. I don’t mind it though. I was getting dunked anyway so I was going to be “clean” pretty soon. I put on my swimsuit, and Arleigh thought it was new…but the truth was it’s becoming a little too big! Arleigh also commented that I don’t take up as much space in the dunk tank as I did in the beginning. That’s good to hear. Shucks, I have a pair of jeans that were too small for me when I arrived, but now they are too big. Woohoo…that means I’m down THREE jeans sizes. I’d love to go on a shopping spree, but I still have a lot more weight and inches to lose. These twelve weeks at Camp are just the starting point for me. I’m looking forward to challenging myself once I’ve left Camp, to doing some sort of healthy workout almost every day, and to just living a healthy lifestyle. So the shopping spree for new clothes will have to wait. I’ll have to buy SOME new clothes, of course, although I do have some stuff in storage that was too tight – wouldn’t it be a treat though, if all that is too big, too! Hee hee! OH! The results of the BMI test…..were good! My body fat percentage has decreased by nearly 4% in the nine weeks that I’ve been here. Of the 35 lbs that I’ve lost, about 25 of them have been fat pounds. Now that I can lift weights again, I should be able to build some more lean mass and burn even more calories. I’m going to kick ass these next 18 days.

After the dunking, I had a free half-hour, and since I was going swimming an hour later, I decided to leave my suit on and do an EXTRA half-hour of abs/core work. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there are usually two half-hour abs/core workouts on the mat. Since I had time for both, and I had dried off enough, I did both. My abs are still the weakest part of me. I know that my back and legs are really strong, but when I have to do things like bicycle kicks, c-curve holds, forward planks, etc, I struggle a lot. I think my CORE is strong (‘cause I have good balance, as proved by the ball balancing act), but my abs definitely need a lot of work. All the more reason to burn those calories and that belly fat!

Swimming was next, and as I mentioned on Tuesday’s blog, I wanted to do at least 20 laps without stopping. It took me thirty laps to warm up to that, but I did it! Oh baby I was tired, too. So tired, that after lunch I had a doze on one of the chairs in our “lounge” area. Do you ever doze but you’re not quite asleep enough that you can hear what’s going on around you? That’s what I was doing. I’m still having sleepless nights so any spare minute that I can shut my eyes helps. There aren’t many of those spare minutes, I can tell you. Thankfully I CAN fall asleep anywhere – it especially helps if I can rest my feet up and cover my eyes. Some of us were going to do beach volleyball drills later so I knew that I needed that rest. It didn’t help my legs though. I forgot to mention that when I woke up this morning, instead of my calf muscles being sore, my hamstrings were killing me after yesterday’s hike. This did not make for quick nor easy movement in that deep sand for the volleyball! Regardless, I do love doing the volleyball drills….I burn lots of calories and get to do something I enjoy.

Back at the gym Eric, who had taken us for volleyball…which makes sense since he’s a professional beach volleyballer, led us through a group circuit on the mat. We had a couple of extra minutes at the end so I asked to do the ball balance again. As I’ve now mastered the all-fours and the two-knees-one-hand technique, I went straight to getting up on my knees. I’ve just about figured out how to keep myself up there for awhile. It does BURN my inner thigh muscles and quadriceps though, however I managed to stay up there for 1:39. Woohoo! A record! Francine, if you’re reading this…girl, I’ll show you how it’s done!

After wolfing down the apples/cinnamon/cottage cheese meal (I love this! With lots of cinnamon), it was time for the cardio/movie workout. I, however, had scheduled an acupuncture appointment for this evening ‘cause I wanted Dr. Chen to work on those knots in both of my shoulder blades and to see if she had any ideas to help me sleep. She did the usual needles and also the cupping. I asked her to repeat the bleeding process on the knots because that seemed to alleviate the pain from the knots a couple of weeks ago. I just want them to be SMALLER. I swear they are the size of ping-pong balls. Can you imagine ping-pong balls stuck just under your inner shoulder blades? Ouch! As I’m writing this now, I’m feeling the usual pain but slightly diminished pain in my left arm. I’m hopeful this will improve after tonight’s acupuncture and cupping session. Dr. Chen also gave me some Chinese Herbal capsules to try. Before doing that she looked at my tongue for any abnormalities, but since I’m eating a perfectly healthy diet and am consuming zero toxins, my tongue looked perfect, thank you very much! If you’ve ever watched Dr Jillian McKeith on “You Are What You Eat” on BBC America, you’ll know what I mean…Dr Jillian always checks the tongues of the people with whom she is working and they always have a nutrition imbalance that is revealed on their tongues. Anyway, I’m about to take these Chinese Herbal capsules, get my shower, and hopefully have a good night’s sleep. ‘Cause you know what Friday means….THE DUNES! I also have a 1-on-1 session with Nicola, and I know it will be tough, so I want to be well-rested.

I hope your Friday is going well and you’re looking forward to a fun and relaxing weekend. Anything exciting planned? I’m looking forward to seeing my old friend Skate and his wife Siouxsie who arrive in Los Angeles Friday night to attend the Grateful Dead concert. Hmmm, I wonder if we’re going to go to dinner? This will be a great chance to put my nutrition knowledge to the test by ordering from the menu. Still can’t have any beer or wine though. Pooh!

Have a great weekend, everyone! And Happy Mothers' Day to all you Moms, and especially to mine!