Postponing TurboFire workouts due to car accident.

This has been a crazy week. Sunday night I was already to restart TurboFire this week and complete the entire program no matter what. Monday morning on the way to work, I was actually getting geeked up just thinking about it. I haven't worked out in a few weeks so I was looking forward to those yummy endorphins you get after. 


I was on the expressway when all of a sudden two cars in front of me stopped out of nowhere. Luckily I was able to break in time and didn't hit the car in front of me. Unluckily..... the car behind slammed into me. After everything was squared away with the police, I got in my car (still drivable) and went to work. Once I got there, my neck started to bother me. After a couple of hours, it went from bothering me to full on hurting. I had to leave work and go to the emergency room just to make sure everything was ok. Nothing is broken but I have a cervical strain. The muscles and ligaments in my neck stretched and the muscles in my upper shoulder spasmed. Its been very painful and I can't workout which has upset me. I haven't been able to go to work and I've been home pretty much bored out of my mind. 


I'm glad I'm ok and that no one else was hurt in the car accident. I'm hoping by next week I'll be able to start working out, if not then I'll just have to postpone until the week after next. Resting up and getting better is most important right now.

Getting Back on Track.

It's been a little over a month and things have not been going as planned. But hey, that's life. Things never really go as we plan sometimes. Work has been super hectic and I was left so mentally drained and that is very exhausting. 


When I last checked in here, my mom had just started working out with me. That lasted for a couple of weeks and then everything went crazy-sauce. I never thought my job would be so crazy but with viruses on the loose and every one's computer seeming to want to break at the same time..... things got NUTS! Our jobs can cause so much stress sometimes which can interfere with our health. Working out is a great way to release stress but when you are mentally drained, it seems like nothing can get done. I've been tired to the point where my body has been exhausted but I could always tell myself to move past it because our minds are stronger than our bodies. We can do anything that we put our minds to but when your mind is drained, you can't function. 


I was trying to keep up with working out, two or three times a week, but it became so difficult do. I knew I had to just relax and let my mind rest. So I took some time off from working out. I was still drinking Shakeology everyday but I knew I needed a break. Sometimes we all need a break and there is nothing wrong with that. I didn't want to get to the point where I felt burnt out. 


As things started calming down a bit at work and I felt rested, I knew it was time to get back in the game. Even though I've lost about 20lbs, I still haven't hit my goal. I can see very clear now, more clear than I've ever been able to see it and that is because I'm surrounded by this community, Beachbody, that has so many wonderful, positive people that are will to help and motivate me right to that finish line. I've decided to start Turbo Fire over from week one, starting tomorrow (10-18-10). I know that this time, I can do this. I'll take it one week at a time and if work starts to get crazy-sauce again....... well, I'll just worry about that bridge if I need to cross it. 

I know it is going to be difficult getting back on track. For the past few weeks, I've been coming home from work, relaxing, and trying not to think about anything. But hey, the way I look at is if everything was easy then what would drive us to be GREAT individuals? As my favorite quote goes: "Change happens when the pain of change is greater than the pleasure of staying the same". 

My mommy's on board, week 3 redo, and randomness?!

Week 3 is over but I've decided to re-do the entire week. Last week was so hectic for me at work that I only got to workout 3 times the entire week. I wasn't too happy with this and I could have just said oh well and moved to week 4 but I felt defeated in a way and I just wanted to redo the entire week. Nothing wrong with that, its my workout and it's not like I'm in a race to lose weight :)


My mom has finally decided to do Turbo Fire with me (I'm so excited!). So this is another reason why I decided to do the week over as well. I was just going to start from week 1 with my mom but she is no stranger to Turbo. She has done Turbo Kick (60 minutes cardio) so I'm thinking she won't have any problem picking it up. I will be doing the new to class options this week. If she struggles with tonight's class (Fire 45EZ) then I'll see if she just wants to start from week 1. I won't mind starting over for her. I'm just too excited that she has decided to finally join me. I've been trying to get her to workout since I've been on my journey. She first decided to start going back to the gym a month ago doing the treadmill and elliptical. And now that she's seeing my progress, she wants in on it (I can't blame her lol). Now all that's left to do is to get her to drink Shakeology and she is slowly but surely wearing down. I'm thinking she'll be drinking it before the end of the month. 


In other news in the life of Lisa, I've colored my hair and since I colored it I've decided to get back into taking care of my hair like I used to. Because of work, I haven't been able to care for it like I should. Taking care of our hair is important too! It's apart of our body so since I'm working on fitness, why not work on hair care too (Shakeology has made my hair healthier too). Since I've colored it, I've made it more vulnerable to damage so I have to focus on deep conditioning and keeping it moisturized especially since winter is right around the corner. I won't go into it too much on this blog but I do have another blog where I talk about hair care and makeup if anyone is interested (http://spikedcoco.blogspot.com/). 

So I'm wrapping this week's blog up hoping that my mom can stick it out with me for the entire month. I will be taking her measurements today and I will keep you guys posted :)

End of Week 2 of Turbo Fire

Today is the end of week 2 for Turbo Fire and I'm feeling pretty good. I am not going to lie, it can be a little tough on some days but no one said it's supposed to be easy right? Working ten hour days at work is rough but with every workout I do, I gain a little more energy. 


How I'm feeling this week:
My muscles are a little sore but in a good way, I feel like my little guns are starting to develop and I looked in the mirror last night and I can see where my abs want to start forming lol they're trying to make an appearance, I expect them to be here in 10 weeks....well, I hope :) Other than that I feel pretty good. 


What I achieved this week:
I drank so much water this week, I was really proud of myself. I have this huge water bottle that holds 56oz. It also has a core that you can take out and freeze so it keeps your water nice and cold. *fun fact* did you know when you drink water ice cold, it burns more calories than drinking it room temp.... yep true story. So everyday I was drinking two of the water bottles. 


What to improve on next week: 
Next week I want to get more sleep and eat more. This week I wasn't sleeping well and I wasn't eating enough on a couple of days (I could tell because my energy was down in a couple of my workouts). Its hard some days to remember to eat especially when I'm busy at work (and this week was hella busy) but I just received my Turbo Tracker Journal in the mail and I think this will help me keep track better or at least make me more aware. And I did have a couple of not so proud moments when I drank a Pepsi.... *looks down in shame* I know............. I know but I didn't let that defeat me I just moved on from it, I'm human and mistakes will happen but next week I will conquer the Pepsi demon!


All in all, this was a good week and next week will be even better! 

My body, what it means to me, and other mumbo jumbo...

We all have those times when we just aren't feeling it. That little voice in our heads tells us 'why are you doing this? lets be lazy' or it may say 'hey, let's go get some pizza, a cheeseburger, and some cheese fries and wash all that down with a 32oz Pepsi.' That little voice is annoying as hell. I can't stand that little voice. And that little voice is not just there to try to deter you away from exercising or eating healthy... that little voice is ALWAYS there to try to keep you from doing more in life period. Now you may say, 'Lisa, what's doing more?' Well, I'll tell you since you asked so nicely.... Doing more is about going beyond what is expected to live in this life. Anyone can go about their everyday lives doing the bare minimum to survive, that's easy. The challenge is pushing yourself to do more, doing what some can't or just simply won't because its too 'hard' or a 'waste of time'. One of my favorite quotes (and if you follow me on twitter you'll see it a lot) is "Change happens when the pain of change is greater than the pleasure of staying the same." It's so easy for us to get comfortable with where we are in life because we don't have to do anything but continue to do what we've been doing, which is some cases is nothing. But those of us who strive to do more, we are the ones who want that change so bad that we don't care how hard it is or what needs to be done to achieve it because staying the same is so miserable that we would have to be out of our minds to choose failure when success is an option (LOVE Jillian Michaels' quote).


So when it comes to my body, I see it like this...
We are given this one body for our entire lives, why wouldn't we want to take care of it? I think back to days when I fed my body crap everyday, all day. I think about times I spent laying on the couch or in bed on beautiful sunny days, not getting any kind of exercise. Why would I treat myself like that? Especially after all my body had been through from being sick when I was younger. It's kinda funny (like ironic funny not haha funny) when you think about it, we all want to be loved by someone so badly, its true. You may say you don't want to be loved by anyone but if you say it, you're a liar lol. Everyone wants to be loved and be wanted by someone in this life, it's human nature. But one question that always seems to plague me is... Why are we willing to go above and beyond for someone to love us and not willing to do a damn thing to love ourselves? I know.... I know you're saying 'Lisa, I love myself I don't know what the hell you're talking about' and you may be right. But some are wrong because you can't claim to love yourself and then turn right around and go do something crazy and stupid to your body, to yourself. Until we learn to do for ourselves and truly love ourselves... how can we expect anyone else to take the time and love us back? 


Our bodies or so important, so very important. So when I'm updating my status or twittering about me working out or something good I've done for myself, I'm just sharing with the world how much I love me. And LOVING myself feels pretty damn awesome. If you haven't tried truly loving yourself then you should, I would definitely recommend it!

Turbo Fire makes me feel like I'm on FIRE!

I invested in a new workout program about two months ago. I was off to a great start until I got sick and had to put fitness on the back burner until I was well again. On 8/16/2010 I felt I was ready to jump back into my the program so I kicked off week 1 again and started from the beginning. Here is a brief explanation of what Turbo Fire is.


Turbo Fire is an intense cardio conditioning program that is between 12-20 weeks long. 12 weeks if you have the basic program, 20 weeks if you have the advance program. I have the basic program kit but I do plan on upgrading to the advance program when I'm closer to completing my 12 week program.


Everything you need to get in shape is in this one kit. From cardio to sculpting, toning, core work, and yoga. And what really makes this program effective is the HIIT (pronounced 'HIT') workouts (High Intensity Interval Training workouts). HIIT creates what is called an afterburn effect. This means you can burn more calories and fat up to 24hrs after completing the workout. This is what makes Turbo Fire unique from other traditional cardio programs. With HIIT, you crank up you  metabolism by exercising at your max in up to one minute intervals. By doing this, you are turning your body into a calorie burning machine. Doing an HIIT workout allows your body to burn more calories while you are resting so 4 minutes of HIIT can be more effective than 30 minutes of treadmill.


Turbo Fire is laid out in a structured program that allows you to get the most out of your HIIT workouts without your body breaking down. You workout 6 times a week but you only do 2 or 3 HIIT workouts in that week.


Another fun fact about HIIT is that it's used by athletes and since you are training like an athlete, you definitely need to eat like one. So that means eating every 2-3 hours to make sure you fuel the fire (your metabolism that is). Shakeology (I'll talk about this in another post) also plays a role in getting into shape because you're gonna need a protein supplement to help your muscles recover so you won't be sore. Its also just damn good for your body so you kill two birds with one stone by drinking 1 shakeology a day.


I've completed week 1 and I'm feeling great, I'll give my weight and measurements in my next post. 


I hope you are taking time to do something good for you. Be it eating right for the day or going for a brisk walk, just do something that's good for your soul and decreases stress.