Trip Like I Do

Back To Basics

I haven’t been posting my workouts lately, mostly because I have been working out sporadically for the last couple of weeks. It’s partly because I have been pretty tired at night, but it’s primarily because I have been feeling pretty discouraged since I haven’t really been losing weight. Argh. I know most of it is because I really need to clean up my diet, but it’s pretty difficult with my living situation right now. That and I really need to get out of the house more.

I did pick up a couple of new workouts at Ross last week though.

The first one I got was Walk It Off with George: Walk and Box. I picked it up since I had heard some good things about it over at the video fitness message boards I frequent and because it was pretty cheap. I just figured it would be a nice compliment to my other Leslie Sansone walking DVD’s. The video itself is about 45 minutes long and it really isn’t led by George Foreman – it’s actually led by Petra Kolber and George is more of a co-host. The two of them do have good chemistry though and George Foreman really hams it up sometimes – especially during the boxing segments.

It is just like a typical walking video – no complex moves at all. I did like the boxing segments, but they were a little short. The thing that surprised me the most though is that they also included 1 minute cardio intervals throughout the workout and showed people modifying them during each one. I of course went at it with gusto and I was pretty pooped by the last interval. But, those intervals really won me over – without them the video would have been incredibly boring.

It also made me realize that I really do need to up my cardio intensity too. I haven’t been pushing myself enough in the cardio department. It makes me reminisce about my glory days when I would jog a couple of miles a day. I was in my best shape then, but that was ages ago. I really need to get on the ball with that and try to up my cardio more.

The other find I got at Ross was Jari Love’s Get Ripped! 1000! I still can’t believe that it is available at Ross already – especially since it was just released a little over a month ago. This workout is a little over an hour long and it includes Jari’s high rep/low weight weight training with cardio intervals. Hmm, there are those intervals again. Of course, I did this the day after I did the George Foreman one, so I was still a little tired. Doh. This one was pretty hard and I of course did the workout without previewing it first. Double Doh!

I barely made it through this one. The cardio intervals are primarily done on a step, but like always, Jari has someone show modifications so you can do them on the floor without a step. I think that is partly what endears me so much to Jari. She always shows someone doing modifications of the exercises so you can adapt the workout to your level or to what equipment you may or may not have. the intervals were all pretty basic, except that they were all either running up and down the step or jumping from side to side over the step. Ach.
I did my best during the intervals, but I am out of shape and felt like a beginner trying to keep up with them. Ach. A lot of the weight work is also done on the step and I kept losing my balance during some moves since my legs were so tired. I am not saying that I didn’t like this workout, I am just not at the right level for it – yet. Of course, I should have previewed the workout a bit more before I tried it because there is a workout selection in the menu that will show you a low impact cardio modifier – so you don’t have to run up and down the step or run in place if you don’t have one. I really need to choose that option the next time I try this workout, but I don’t think that is going to be for awhile unfortunately.

A couple of days later, I decided to try something a little “easier,” so I picked up my copy of Get Ripped! Slim and Lean. I was able to get through it just fine the last couple of times I did it, but this time, Ooof, this time I was really struggling. I had to lower my weights to get through a lot of it. Grrrr.

Since I wasn’t feeling particularly strong, I next decided to do a couple of the new Firm workouts. I decided to do both of Tina’s workouts – the medicine ball one and the resistance cord one. I got through the medicine ball one okay, but I was really struggling through the resistance cord workout. It is just so frustrating. I feel like I am back where I started even though I only really took maybe a week off of working out or so.

Since I had such a hard time with that last workout, I decided to do something a little easier on Thursday. I did the 2 mile walk from Leslie Sansone and then the stability ball workout from the Firm.

It’s just so frustrating.  I keep trying to lose weight, but I just feel like I am just constantly gaining weight – not good muscle weight, but fat weight.      It’s frustrating, depressing and unmotivating.

December 9th, 2006

Cowboy Fringe Optional

video://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9sEUXrvBN0

Um, yea. It looks like it could be fun with the right attachments.
The frightening thing is that this is a real product.

video://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWZKjtFUeco&NR

December 9th, 2006

Consider This

It seems as though winter is finally settling in Hawaii – Finally. I was getting really sick of all of those days where the temperatures were in the mid to upper 80’s with 75% humidity. Things have cooled considerably for us and now the highs are in the lower 80’s and the lows are in the lower 70’s, sometimes upper 60’s. Ooooh FREEZING! I kid. I know, these temperatures are positively balmy for most of the continental US. Today was a bit odd weather wise though. It was windy – very windy all day. The wind started around 4am Friday morning and was constant all day with gusts around 20mph. There were a couple of telephone poles that were blown down and I read a news report where a couple of people almost lost their roofs because of the wind. The wind started to die down a couple of hours ago, but seems to be picking up again. Oh well, at least our trash can is secure.

I still really miss Portland and I like to keep up with the news there – to try to keep me connected to some extent. A couple of tidbits caught my eyes, as well as most of the country apparently.

First, Senator Gordon Smith spoke out against the Iraq war on Thursday.

GOP senator says war may be ‘criminal’

MATTHEW DALY

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican who voted in favor of the Iraq war in 2002 and has supported it ever since, now says the current U.S. war effort is “absurd” and “may even be criminal.”

In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Smith called for changes in U.S. policy that could include rapid pullouts of U.S. troops from Iraq. He said he never would have voted for the conflict if he had known the intelligence that President Bush gave the American people was inaccurate.

“I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day,” Smith said. “That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore. … So either we clear and hold and build, or let’s go home.”

A spokesman said Friday that Smith did not mean to call the war criminal in a legal sense.

Smith is up for re-election in 2008. His comments come a month after Republicans lost control of Congress – in large part because of voter unhappiness with the Iraq war – and shortly after the Iraq Study Group issued a blistering criticism of the administration’s handling of the war.

Smith said he is “tired of paying the price of 10 or more of our troops dying a day. So let’s cut and run or cut and walk, but let us fight the war on terror more intelligently than we have because we have fought this war in a very lamentable way.”

Hurray! Good for him to finally recognize that this war is just a damn quagmire and that we really shouldn’t be there in the first place.

The other bit of national news from Oregon is regarding the Kim Family. James Kim died while trying to find help for his family and is now being called a hero for doing so.

I know this is going to sound incredibly insensitive and probably in poor taste to some people, but this is my blog, so too bad. I just don’t understand why people are calling him a hero. From my understanding, they were traveling from Portland and missed the exit for highway 42. So they decided to take a “shortcut” or a back road to try to get to their destination while it was snowing. They got snowed in on a back road and got stranded. Unfortunately Mr. Kim died because he left the vehicle and tried to get help.

But, I just don’t understand where the whole hero thing is coming from. I am not saying that he deserved his fate, but what kind of moron would decide to take a back road, in unfamiliar territory, in a sedan, in a snowstorm? According to a couple of reports I read, it was snowing so badly that he had to stick his head out his window to even see where he was driving – that is after they left the interstate.

Well A’lisha, what would you have done? I would have probably done the most sensible thing if I was driving along and missed my cutoff. I would have gotten off at the next exit and gotten back on the highway to get to the correct exit. It just seems like common sense to me.

December 9th, 2006