I Live at the Gym Now

So a month or so ago, I remembered UFC*. Some of the Gracies live in my hometown and I remember my dad watching UFC when it first started. I’ve watched a few fights since then, but never made any real effort to follow it until recently. And then I decided I wanted to start kickboxing, so I looked up local gyms.

I went to check out one, which was both hella intimidating and awesome at the same time. Intimidating in that it’s an MMA gym where people are actually training to be fighters. It’s completely no frills – there’s an area with mats for sparring, a ring for boxing, and an area with a bunch of punching bags and free weights. That’s it. And while I was touring and getting my free intro lesson, they decided to throw a little physical assessment at me – 1 minute of sit ups, 1 minute of push ups, 1 minute of burpees. Yuck. We won’t talk about the overall results – though I will say that I did 37 real push ups!

Since then, I’ve been at the gym almost constantly (hence my lack of posting). I’m taking beginner’s boxing, beginner’s kickboxing, yoga, and a class called cardio kickboxing that incorporates circuit training with kickboxing (it is HARDCORE. So hardcore that I may have thrown up halfway through the first workout… but I still finished the workout!). I’m also considering taking the beginner’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class, but I haven’t worked up the nerve for that yet. Plus, have you seen people do BJJ? They frequently end up with their heads near the crotch of their opponent. And that’s just awkward (especially since guys usually significantly outnumber the girls in the classes I go to).

Anyway, I haven’t lost any more pounds, but after only two weeks, I can see muscle definition in my arms and legs that wasn’t there before and I’ve lost half an inch off my waist. Unfortunately, we’re leaving Georgia in about 6 weeks, so I don’t have much time left to take classes here, but I’m interested to see how much more progress I can make before we leave here! And I’m hoping I can find a similar gym in DC and make a seamless transition.

Probably a stretch… but anyone out there have recs for a good MMA gym in the DC area?

*This, like so many things in my life, may have been linked to the reading of a romance novel.

25 Pounds!

I hit a goal this week:

Thanks My Fitness Pal for tracking my calories and workouts for me! In other news, I bought my first pair of jeans with a size in the single digits… ever. That was a very good feeling.

And for more good feelings, let’s check out some pictures.

Me, last December:

Me, in August, after a run (running in Georgia in the summer is gross):

Me, two weeks ago:

I’m a happy Sespi right now

Just 15 more pounds to my goal weight!

The Yellow

It’s slowly been warming up here, and I’ve been dreading the return of the yellow. Today, I looked at my weather forecast and saw my fears confirmed.

What is the yellow, you ask? This:

[Can you see the clouds behind the billboards? Those are CLOUDS OF POLLEN.]

It’s a terrible time. It wreaks havoc on allergies (mine AND Shecky’s!) and NOTHING can get clean. You have to keep your windows closed, take off your shoes before you enter your house, and vacuum every day — and the dirt container in your vacuum will be yelllow! Your deck, your sidewalk, the streets, the puddles, and your car will all be covered in a layer of yellow dust. And no matter how often you clean it, it will be back in under 10 minutes.

Lucky us, it’s coming early this year! But the peak still isn’t expected until March or April. Oh joy.

Nervous Nurses Make Me Nervous Too

*If reading about needles/taking blood makes you woozy, don’t read this*

I had to go get a blood test this morning to check my freakishly low calcium. (It’s a miracle my bones aren’t turning to dust.) Normally with blood tests, it’s not a big deal. I have a history of anemia, I’ve donated blood and I used to get allergy shots, so needles are no big thing to me. No one has ever had trouble taking blood from me either. It’s always been quick, easy, and painless.

Enter today.

I sit down in the chair and roll up my left sleeve. They always take blood from my left arm. She squints down at my arm and says, “This is the arm you want? I don’t see any veins.” So I rolled up my other sleeve to let her take a look. She flicks at that arm and says, “Oh, you have those hard veins that roll.”

Hmm. I kind of looked at her and said, “That’s interesting. I’ve never heard that before.”

“Well, it doesn’t mean I’m going to hurt you. It just means that it might take me more than one try to get it.” Is that supposed to be reassuring? She tied the little rubber strap around my arm and proceeded to press on my arm for about five minutes, looking at other nurses in the room who are all on their second patients by this time. Finally, she says she thinks she feels a vein and will try it. Then she says, “You know, it’s hard when you’re first starting the day. Yesterday, they made me take a break because I kept missing, but it was just that everybody was FASTING and it makes your blood move SO SLOW so it’s hard to find the vein.”

I glance up at her–this close to saying ‘Hey maybe you should ask another nurse to do this’–and say, “Maybe that’s the problem with me. This was a fasting blood test.”

She visibly flinched and then backpedaled. “Well, I feel a vein right here, so it should be ok.”

Did I mention that the stupid rubber strap has been on my arm for-ev-er and my arm feels like it’s going to explode and the spot where she’s been pressing for the past few minutes feels like it’s a giant bruise? She hesitates, then stabs the needle in. Apparently, she hit the right spot, because she beams up at me and says, “See, I got it! And I didn’t even hurt you.”

Gee thanks.

P90x: Day 1

So, as I mentioned before, I’m starting P90x. For reals. And I’ll blog about the workouts to keep me accountable and track my progress. Or at least until I get bored of blogging about them.

P90x is hardcore. And I’ve been told that Day 1 is the most hardcore. I am not hardcore. Yet. So keep in mind when reading these numbers that I’m using bands to simulate chin ups/pull ups and half of those push ups (ok, 80% of them) were on my knees. Still… I didn’t do too shabbily!

So totals for Day 1… aka Chest and Back (and abs) day… aka “Muscles I Didn’t Know I Had” day:

Exercise: Total (First Set, Second Set)

Standard Push Ups: 34 (20, 14)
Wide Pull Ups: 35 (22, 13)
Military Push Ups: 18 (12, 6)
Reverse Grip Chin Ups: 43 (19, 24)
Wide Push Ups: 29 (13, 16)
Close Grip Chin Ups: 42 (26, 16)
Decline Push Ups: 9 (5, 4)
Heavy Pants: 21 (10, 11)
Diamond Push Ups: 22 (12, 10)
Lawn Mowers: 28 (16, 12)
Dive Bombers (MY PERSONAL HELL!): 6 (4, 2)
Back Flys: 31 (10, 21) <– The difference there is due to me figuring how to do them correctly.

At least this workout doesn't come up on the schedule again for another week…

Ok, Time’s Up

Before I went to OCS*, I was in fairly good shape. I was working out everyday – running, sit ups, crunches, push ups, flutter kicks, elliptical, treadmill, weights, whatever – and I was eating healthily, because no matter what I do, my weight refuses to budge from the absolute maximum I can be for my height. I even cut out diet soda because my recruiter couldn’t find anything else to cut from my diet and was as confused as I was about why my weight wasn’t budging. I passed tape, but tape is so subjective that we didn’t want to rely on that. So anyway, no fun food but lots of early morning workouts (which weren’t so bad in Monterey, but sucked in August in Georgia).

Anyway, after I dropped, I went… well, a little crazy. Pizza, pastrami sandwiches, cookies, ice cream, cheesecake…. all that stuff I couldn’t eat for the months before I went to OCS? It got eaten. I went to the gym a few times in Newport, but when I got home… not so much. And running everyday? No, thank you. Push ups? Psssh. Sit ups? No, I can do without scraping my tailbone raw for fun, thanks.

The other day, I weighed myself for the first time since September 14. Now, I should probably be happy that the number has only gone up 4 pounds considering how drastically my lifestyle changed. But still, ugh. I can feel that four pounds making a difference in how my clothes fit and I do not like it. So, time to get back on the exercise/healthy wagon — which I proclaimed last night over a giant slice of pizza and beer. Wait, no beer because they were out of the ones I wanted. Diet coke. See, getting healthier already.

So. Back to the Couch to 5k program, starting at week 5. Back to hundred pushups, starting at week 3. Back to two hundred situps, starting at week 1. I need to lose those 4 pounds. And then about 20 more. I’m bribing myself with the promise of a shopping spree when that goal is reached

*If you had no idea I went to OCS and are wondering why I’m not currently a Naval Officer, see here