Mid Week Yada Yada

I've been fairly sleepy all day long; I didn't get much sleep last night. I am planning on going to a spinning class a the Y later this evening. I will be going home first to change. I may have an argument with myself over whether to change into exercise clothes and go to the Y, or change into pj's and nap on the couch. I haven't decided which side I'll take just yet.

Other than that, I have no plans for the evening, nor do I tomorrow evening. Friday night, I am to attend a rehearsal dinner for the wedding of precious Holly and Jacob. Their wedding is Saturday.

So, the week tends to be slowing down a bit.

Hmm, CSI NY comes on Wednesday nights....I guess I do have plans.

What a weekend!

Friday after work I went to a bridal shower, then I had a great tennis lesson with Brooke. I hung out at the Love's house for a little bit and called it a night.
Saturday I went the kids' soccer games with Brooke and Kelly. We were there from 8:30am to 5:30pm! And genius-me didn't think she needed sunblock. :( I'm burned. The kids were awesome! I was proud of them all, whether they lost or tied a game. I did get a good workout in between games. They were playing a YMCA on Downtowner, great facility! After that we all went to Mom and Dad's for a fish fry.
You would have thought it was Christmas morning! Dad was all giddy and happy over his fish. He fried the brim and bass the kids caught the week prior. They were battered and fried whole, so when I ate the filet there was no breading. There were also beans and coleslaw. It was a great dinner!
Sunday morning I went to church (will post more about the teaching later), then to Mom's house for Mother's Day dinner with her, the Love's and my grandmothers.
Then I cleaned house and hung out with some friends at Heroe's in downtown Mobile.
Today I'm pretty tired, sore from working out and irritable because of my burn. On the bright side Brad is coming home tonight and will be here for 3-4 weeks! Hmmm...I need to buy groceries.

New Workout Program

I’m putting together my grocery list, here’s what I have so far:
Sugar for tea
Oatmeal
Peanut butter
Bananas
Pita
Brown rice
Can tomato sauce
Can stewed tomatoes
Apples
Salad stuff
Broccoli

Here’s my new workout plan. I have to do each exercise 4 times before moving to a new program. So, basically I have to do Workout A 4 times, and Workout B 4 times, alternating them on my weight lifting days then I get to move to something else. I do 15 minutes of cardio intervals after each lifting session, then on my non lift days I do a full session (35-45 mins) of cardio. Lately I’ve been favoring the bike or cybex trainer. It’s like an elliptical. Here are the workouts:

Workout A

Front squat to a push press
This is basically the movement you see alot of Olympic lifters doing. I'm a little scared.

Step up
Yay. I can’t tell you how much I hate these. But I do them anyway. Dot would be proud.

Dumbbell one-point row
I couldn’t find the correct illustration for this, but basically you are balancing on one foot, making a T with your body. Stomach and one leg is parallel with the ground. You pull the dumbbells to your waist in a row motion. This will be interesting to see people’s response.

Static lunge, rear foot elevated
Um, I hate lunges too.

Push ups
I actually like push ups.

Plank
I love these!

Cable horizontal wood chops
I really like that I can do an exercise called a wood chop! Basically this is where you stand next to the big cable machine thing and in motion pull the cable away, twisting your body. These will be fun.

Workout B

Wide grip deadlift

Bulgarian Split Squat
What makes this a Bulgarian? Well, it's just a nice term for the worst lunge you'll ever do.

Underhand grip lat pulldown
I love exercises for my back!

Reverse lunge from box w/ forward reach
Yes! More lunges… ((groans))

Dumbbell prone Cuban snatch
Um, yeah, I don’t really know what this is either. There’s a picture in my book somewhere..

Swiss ball crunch
Reverse crunch
Lateral flexion

And that’s it!
So you may be wondering… What are Paige’s goals? Great! I’ll tell you. It’s basically what a lot of people are on the constant search for:
Stronger muscles
Leaner body
Less fat
Stronger bones
….well basically I just wanna get ripped…in a feminine sort of way.

This will be interesting.

Another busy week

This will be another busy week. Yesterday after work, I went to the YMCA, home, showered, then Brad and I went to the Kidd's house (Anthony and Anna) for dinner. Anthony is the keyboard/piano/saxophone player for Seraph. His wife, Anna, and I have become good friends. They just bought a house last week and rescued two kittens from a shelter yesterday. So I had to go see them. One is black the other is silver tabby. We believe they're about 8 weeks old; simply adorable. Anna's chicken stew over rice was amazing! I'm going to try to recreate this later in the week. We played the Wii and I ALMOST beat Anthony in bowling. After that Brad and I fueled up the truck for the long trip he's taking today and stepped into Walmart for a few things, tapes and batteries for the cameras. Seraph is taking a trek over the Las Vegas. Um, yeah, I'm a tad jealous.





Now for the rest of the week:





Today (Tuesday) after work I'm meeting Sarah Beth and the two Laura's for coffee at Moka's to discuss a bridal shower and other details of SB's wedding, taking place in late June. I expect by dress will be in by May 5th. I had to guess on the size since we're ordering online. Depending on how long we meet I may or may not go to the gym to lift. I get my new program today! Yay!! At 7pm every Tuesday Brad and I host a "small group" at our house, which is a bible study organized through our church, People of Mars Hill. We've been doing this for 3 years now and 4 of our small group members have been attending from the very beginning. I'll post more about my small groupies later. I truly LOVE them! Oh, and I need to buy groceries at some point today. I'm out of oatmeal. ((GASPS!!)) I know... it's terrible.





Wednesday I will work, of course, like everyday. We can make work an assumed task. The days after I lift are designated cardio days. After that I will go to the Mars Hill Cafe, where my church meets on Sundays, for a small group kickoff meeting. I'm going to share about the small group I host to the people who are interesting in either starting one or attending one.





Thursday I pick up the Love children (my neices and nephews) to take them to soccer practice. They practice on the field behind the Y, so while they're doing that I'll go inside for about half an hour or so and get my workout in. We'll go home and hopefully I'll be able to catch a new episode of Scrubs. Oh, how I love that show.





Friday I'm going to attend the Nasser Spring Festival to watch Mikayla (my sweet baby sis) for her gymnastics 'recital'. I. cannot. wait. She really has an amazing talent for gymnastics. It must be in her blood.






Saturday is pretty open, I'm not sure what's going on that day. I'm scheduled to lift that day, I'd like to clean house too.

Sunday Anna and I have coffee service duty at our church for the evening service. I'm pretty sure I'm going to sleep in that day.

Y - M - C - Hey!!! Get off that treadmill!

I've been going to the "Y" for 2 months now, I think. I have worked out at gyms before, never really noticed anything strange. I mean, you always see strange things at the gym, but I didn't pay attention to how the genders worked out. I went on Thursday after work to lift weights and do some cardio on the elliptical machine. It was then that I had noticed something I had never realized before. ALL the women at the gym were in the cardio area (treadmills, bike, elliptical, stairmaster) or they were in spinning class. I was the only female in the weights area. Now that I was thinking about it, I'm always the only female there. Yeah, I'll see women on some of the machines and ab devices, but it's rare. My mom works on those when she can, so I'm excluding you from this thought, m'kay? Love you.
So, why don't more women pick up free weights, plates on barbells and do some REAL push ups? Those aren't just men exercises. They're just exercises. I understand that intimidation could easily be the factor. Well, that and the fear of a woman getting 'all jacked up'. I too get intimidated, but I have to get over it if I'm going to workout like I want to. I usually stick to the cardio area on Mondays and Tuesdays because the weights area is so packed, I am too impatient to wait. But later in the week I am over there 75% of my time. I love cardio, it's so good for you, so definitely do it! But don't let the men intimidate you. Get in there and do this for yourself. That's what I have to tell myself. I'm not there to impress anyone. (The only person I want to impress is my husband, anyway.) Me being there isn't going to make someone think I'm weird. I'm there because I want to be in better shape. There are studies out stating that lifting weights regularly DO aid in stronger bones in women. That's pretty good motivation, I think. I'm short already, I don't want to be even shorter as I get older. I'm sure it's inevitable to some extent, but I'd like to halt it as much as possible, you know?
I know that for myself, I just feel better after lifting weights. It's like I get an ego-trip or something. After doing a set of push ups I want to flex my arms and Ggrrrrr!!!!!! But I don't. That would be weird.
But, going to the gym is a great way to meet people and make friends. It's definitely an "exercise" in social skills. At first I went in a little on the defensive, not making eye contact, avoiding conversations, but now I want to enjoy it more so I talk to people in between sets and it's more fun that way. It also helps me relax when I'm initially intimidated. I would recommend lifting weights to any woman, unless her doctor said, "no". It's good for the heart, it's good for the bones, it's good for your muscles and overall physique, and it's good to just make new friends.
Right now I'm going through the New Rules of Lifting for Woman program. It's a good book, I recommend it. There's a wonderfully illustrated section in the back of exercises and it's puts the reader on a lifting schedule, moving in phases. I'm starting phase 2. You do a phase for 4 weeks, increasing your weight to be lifted each week. I think there's 6 phases total. It also includes cardio if you want faster results, which I would feel odd going to the gym, lifting weights and going home. I mostly feel like I need to do something else.
Now hear this, I'm not downing any woman, or man, for that matter who sticks to the treadmills or bike. Some people simply prefer that. Maybe building muscle or losing weight isn't a goal for you. I'm really putting this thought out there for those who have thought about lifting, or would like to, but are too afraid too. After researching some benefits, you're going to want to. The hard part is getting past some initial intimidation. At least, that was (and still is) my issue sometimes. I think all people should involve themselves in some type of activity (socially is possible) on a regular basis. I think it helps clear our minds and shed some stress. I'm thinking about joining a tennis league. My sister has inspired me to do it. She really has a great time doing it, and I know she's been able to meet some people doing it too.
That's just my thought for the moment. Maybe you disagree, that's fine. Trust me, I'm not always right. You may leave a comment, but please make it nice, I'm a little sensitive.

I don't know...maybe these cardio people know something I don't....