sweats of the week
Thank you all so much for all of your congratulations on my All About the Numbers challenge recap. It means a lot to me that you are all out there keeping me accountable. For the first time in years (maybe even in a lifetime) I feel like I’m on very solid fitness ground going into the Christmas season. Fitness is an integral part of my plan for the season, and I’m determined for it to not fall away when my schedule gets packed.
This week’s fitness victories and thoughts:
- I have a line where my abs are. As in, you can actually see them peeking out under my layer of fluff. It never even occurred to me that defined abs would be in the realm of possibility for a 200+ pound woman. But the line is there. I showed Babyface yesterday and he said, “Wow. I don’t even have that line.” I am ridiculously excited about this surprise discovery. Planks work, kids.
- We had a really active and fun Thanksgiving day. There were planks, Superman pushups, chair sits and a rousing game of baseball. Long gone are the days where we are just gluttonous and lazy. Now we are gluttonous and active! It is so nice to have a family that is up for activity.
- I ran sprints on the treadmill this Saturday for no other reason than I wanted to run fast and get sweaty. It’s the first time I’ve craved running in a very long time. I’ve been thinking about “breaking up” with running for months now, but I’m starting to feel like it isn’t running that’s the problem, it’s my mindset around it. I don’t need to run marathons to be a runner. And I don’t need to be a runner to run. I need to stop putting myself into fitness boxes. If I want to run, I’ll run. If I don’t want to, I won’t. Ain’t no thang.
- I did two sets of 10 perfect modified pushups on Saturday. I am so close to a regular pushup I can taste it. The day that happens will be one of much pomp and circumstance.
- Getting stronger is so much more fun than losing weight. Not that they are mutually exclusive, but I’m having so much more fun watching my lifts get heavier than I did watching the scale go lower.
This week’s workouts:
Sunday (11/20)
- 11.5 miles biking
Monday (11/21)
- 3 miles walking
Tuesday (11/22)
- 4 miles walking
Wednesday (11/23)
- 4.5 miles walking
- 11 miles biking
Thursday (11/14)
- Family baseball and other activities
Saturday (11/27)
- PPC (Planks, Pushup, and Chairsits)
- Kettlebells (20 min)
- HIIT on Elliptical (20 min)
- Sprints on Treadmill (20 min)
- 2 miles walking
What was your best workout of the week?
Considering how sore I am today, yesterday’s gym session definitely takes the cake.
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I’m Cassie. I’m a Midwestern girl trying to live a healthy life without being too crazy about it. I’m a lover of fresh veggies, bright colors, craft beer, hiking, funky eyeglasses, and really, really dark chocolate.
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Get it girl! Walking rules
That Superman pushup thing is bananas. Insane. I mean, just insane.
I am so proud of you for the shift in your thinking. Some days I’m there, and some days I’m not.
As far as being a “true runner” (stop me if I’ve told you this), I don’t think it has anything to do with distance. A few weeks ago, we ran into a guy who used to be Nathan’s neighbor. This dude often places in – if not wins – his age group in 5Ks. And he said he’s never ran farther than a 5K. And he’s been running for decades. So distance doesn’t mean as much as we sometimes make out like it does.
Girl, keep rocking it out!
Did you try the Superman pushup? We were trying and couldn’t even figure out what muscles we’d need to strength to be able to do it. It seems just so totally impossible.
I feel the same way about so many things in this post! The feeling of being’in control’ during the holiday season is new for me too! I finally feel like I’m not going to have to start over from scratch in January which is so empowering
and I agree with the running too. I ran consistently for about a year but never felt like I could call myself a ‘runner’. I thought I had to break up with running like you but now I’m realizing the same thing, if I want to run some days I can and if I don’t feel like it other days (or weeks) I can do something else. No fitness boxes or labels necessary anymore!
I taught lots of Bodypump and Spin classes over the weekend, and am SORE today. It’s a good day for some stretching and yoga.
I really like that you said “getting stronger is more fun than losing weight.” That’s so true!
And good for you for having a “game plan” going into the holidays.. I’m still trying to figure mine out!
Woo hoo! You rock, Cass!
Hey, when you do your planks, do you just hold 1 as long as you can? Or do you do several sets of holding them as long as you can? I used to be able to hold a plank for longer than a minute when i was taking a strength training class at my community college, but unfortunately I’m working when the class is offered
Such is life- being a grown-up! Wah!
Keep up the amazingness. I really like that you have a holiday plan of attack… I need one of those myself!
I normally try to do a set of two planks. So I hold both for as long as possible. Usually, before the plank, I give myself a mini goal (5 or 10 seconds longer than my last one) just so I have something to strive for.
Just out of curiosity, do you do straight arm planks or elbow planks? I do elbow ones because the other ones hurt my wrists…
I do forearms. I find the straight arm ones actually a lot easier, but they hurt my wrists, too.