Filthy Fifty

When I am home my family members like to put themselves at the mercy of my workouts. Although I definitely enjoy the alone time a good cardio session can bring, when it comes to weight training I think it is so much more fun to workout with other people. Maybe it is because I enjoy being able to complain about how hard things can be with others who are feeling the same. Who knows? I think it just makes time go by so much faster. 

I have a lot of friends who are doing Crossfit right now. A lot of my circuits follow the same high intensity interval training that is the basis behind Crossfit. It is basically a quick, intense, all out way of working out. I am always reading up on different methods of exercise, and trying out new workouts, and I like a lot of the things incorporated in Crossfit type workouts. In my reading this past week I came across a Crossfit workout called the "Filthy Fifty." I have had a couple friends tell me it's a killer, so I wanted to give it a try. Yesterday morning my mom and sister were on board to try it out.

So, while watching The Biggest Loser, we got our sweat on.

We had to make a few modifications from the original Filthy Fifty, but our workout went like this...

50 Box jumps on a 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups (assisted)
50 Kettlebell swings (done with 20 lb DB)
50 Walking Lunges alternating legs 
50 Hanging Knees to elbows
50 Push press

50 Back extensions on physio ball with DB rear fly added in
50 Wall ball shots with a medicine ball

50 Burpees

Let me tell you...those 50 burpees are the cherry on top. If a cherry is comparable big spikey thorn poking you in the eye...painful, but oh so good. Oh, and yes...my mom did all 50 burpees. She is a maniac...in such a good way.

 

Sweaty. Make up-less. Done. 

I love family workouts.

Do you like working out with other people? Do you ever do high intensity interval training? Do you have a love/hate relationship with burpees like i do?

The rest of the day was spent helping my mom decorate the house for Christmas. Decorating FIVE trees with extremely tired shoulders is not for the weak my friends. Today will be spent driving from Arizona back to Utah...goooo...Maybe it secretly got warm while I was gone. Here's to wishing huh?

November 28th: Today I am grateful for the opportunity to get to hang out with my family all weekend. They are the best.


One year ago today...Post Thanksgiving Survival Tips

Guess who's back??

Sooo...season 8 of my favorite show premieres tonight, and I couldn't be happier.

I LOVE The Biggest Loser. I think it's so inspirational. I may even shed a tear every now and again...and by that I mean usually every episode. Admit it. You do the same! LOVE IT...get excited. I know I am.

Start Small. Go Big.

Between watching this week's episode of The Biggest Loser, and having a great workout with one of my rock star clients, I had a principle of working out (and life, really) re-confirmed to me. Biggest Loser Scenario: The contestants watched a video of their first workouts on the ranch. Most of them were doing hardly any weight, struggling to get their reps in, and using poor form. From the looks on their faces they were hating life, hating exercising, and wanting to get the heck out of there. BUT they didn't. They stuck with it, and most of them...a hundred plus pounds later...couldn't believe that was actually their "old selves" they were watching.

Rock Star Client Scenario: Betina is an AWESOME client of mine. I've been working with her for about 7 months. She's almost 50, and she's SUPER sweet, in so many ways. When I started out with her we started mostly with balancing exercises, low reps, really focusing on form. Slowly each week we'd build. Increasing weight, increasing difficulty, and though she didn't realize it, increasing confidence in her ability to perform. On Wednesday I put her through an extremely challenging workout. When we were done she was SO proud of herself, and I was SO proud of her too. She was doing things she never would have believed possible on day one.

So, the take home lesson?
-Start small. Yes, i'm not going to lie, it WILL most likely be hard at first. Wether you are out of shape, overweight, old, young, weak, or just trying to get back into the mode. The first few weeks are the most dificult.
-Which brings me to the next lesson. IT GETS BETTER. Stick to it. Make those small goals, and increase them with time. You will be surprised at your own strength, and abilities.
-Lastly, don't be afraid to push yourself. Most of us don't realize what we are capable of. Be safe, don't overdo it, but don't underestimate yourself either.

I hate to bring up the marathon again, cause I know you're all sick of hearing about it. BUT if there is one HUGE thing I learned, it's that we are capable of SO much more than we give ourselves credit for. Don't give up on yourself. If there is something that you want, go for it. Get the "I can't" out of your head, because the truth is YOU CAN!!

See Megan Run...The Final Chapter.

I did it. I almost can't believe it. Well, I can believe it do to the fact that I am reminded with every sore step I attempt to take today, but I am still a bit dumbfounded I guess. 26.2 miles later I completed a full marathon, a goal i have had for probably 10 years.

After a carb loading pasta dinner with the family, I slept up at my brother Tyler's house on Friday night, so I could get as much sleep as possible. As I was going to bed I just kept thinking to myself...when I wake up in the morning it is going to be go time. It seemed almost unreal to me that I was finally arriving at what the past 4 months of intense training had led up to. I had everything prepped for the big day. Part of the training process is working out all the bugs before hand so when race day comes you're primed and ready. So...I knew exactly which shoes/clothes I was wearing, what I was going to eat for breakfast, how I wanted my hair to be, what I was going to supplement with, etc. Knowing all of this beforehand makes the pre-race anticipation significantly less. My sweet brother woke up with me at the CRACK of dawn on saturday to get me up to the start line. He made sure I was all prepped to go and took some pre-race photos for me. At the start I just remember thinking..."here goes a loooong morning." I was correct.

and we were off...

My awesome family came to some of the different mile markers to cheer me on and keep me going. It helped me SO much just to know they were there cheering for me! Their encouraging words kept me going. My mom would run along side me for a sec and remind me I could do it!
Here we are at mile 13. I remember at this point thinking...hmmm...had I done the half I'd be done. But, nope. KEEP GOING!
Believe it or not here we are at mile 20. Ty snapped this photo of me giving my dad a high 5, while my mom jogs along side me. I love it. Having my mom and dad fly in from AZ was more than I could have asked for. Thanks so much M&D!! It was at this point in the race that the mental toughness started. My body of course was really tired, but I just had to keep telling myself to keep it up! It was so amazing to have random strangers lining the streets the whole way cheering all the racers on.

Crossing the finish line was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. It was so awesome to have all of the people that I love at the end cheering me on! I LOVE to shop, as a lot of you know, but I don't know if I've ever been more excited to see the Gateway Mall in my life. (The finish line ran down the middle of the outdoor mall.) I was completely exhausted, my legs felt like led, I was pretty sure I couldn't take another step, but I absolutely couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

I got an AWESOME massage after the race while my family chilled and waited for me. One of the race day highlights...besides me of course ;) ... My family met and took pictures with Blane and Dane, cousins from this season of The Biggest Loser. AMAZING, right? Check my sister Lindsey's blog HERE for photos and details. They ran the 1/2 and look awesome! After talking to them for a bit, let's just say...we know who's going to the finale. I'll tell you if you want me to...
We had a bunch of cameras there, so I didn't get all the photos that were taken of everyone that came up to cheer me on. BUT I just have to say thankyou to all my supporters. For my family and friends who to the time to come to watch, it absolutely meant the world to me. For those of you who texted, called, left facebook/blog messages; every single word of encouragement and congrats were SO SO SO much appreciated. This was such a big accomplishment for me, and I couldn't have done it without all of you encouraging me along. My time was 4 hours and 10 minutes. My goal was to finish around 4 hours, so I felt really good about it. I finished 13th out of 52 in my age group. Here's to 26.2 BABY!!! I'm officially a marathoner.
(oh, and please disregard my nastiness in all the photos...I just ran 26.2 miles ok??)

oh boy....The Biggest Loser does it again...

For those of you who aren't following the show...my apologies...but, Tuesday's episode can't go unnoticed. Aside from the fact that it was one crazy twist after another, I thought there was a valid point made that we can all learn from...MODERATION.

The black team won the weekly challenge, allowing them 24 hours of luxury. For them that meant to be a day of relaxing; sans workouts. It turned into a day relaxing; sans workouts, with an overload of mindlessness, alcohol and calories. 15,563 calories to be exact. That is how much all the black team members combined consumed for their dinner. When that number is compared to the 1,612 that the blue team consumed it puts their binging into perspective.
Most of the black team members made comments such as, "it's just one day," or "I've worked so hard I deserve this."

How many times have these exact thoughts ran through your head? Or maybe you've even said them out loud. I know I have. We all get into these mindsets. Don't get me wrong, I'm so so SO for a little relaxation, for giving yourself a break, and for allowing some revamp time. Your body needs it. However, there is a complete difference between a little R&R and giving away the farm.

MODERATION folks. If you allow yourself some indulgences every now and then, chances are you aren't going to go binge-happy. It was crazy to see how all of the black team members didn't end up doing very well at their weigh-in, due to their overindulgence. All of them regretted getting so calorie-happy, and saw how they stunted the awesome progress they had been making.

Word of the day: Moderation.

*for some reason blogger won't let me change all the font to black. This is wack! My apologies.

I got the Bugg!

I got a Bodybugg! I am SO SO SO excited about it. What is a Bodybugg? It is a device that is worn on your arm that measures caloric burn and steps taken. The basic principle behind weight loss is that you must burn more calories than you intake. By having an exact determination of how many calories your body burns throughout the day you can better determine what your calorie deficit needs to be. The Bodybugg is used with a companion website where your calories burned and food consumed are logged. I have wanted one of these for a couple of years now, and I'm so excited to get serious about my stats!! I'll let you know how it goes.
(p.s. the biggest loser contestants all wear these...seems to work for them, no?)
(p.p.s. shout out to Benita for hooking me up with a sweet deal!! We're partners in crime here.)

Biggest Loser Recap

For those of you who haven't watched it yet...don't worry. I'm not here to spoil it for you, BUT for those of you who have, what a good episode eh? The highlights for me?
-Bob goes Jillian on Silver Team member Joelle....(I say she deserved it.)
-Daniel and Jerry break my heart...what complete opposite ends of the spectrum.
-Tara (green team) wins the challenge...and then gives her phone all to Filipe. (I like her already)
-Carla (silver team) dancing her lbs away at home...see you just have to find something you enjoy! ;)

As I have mentioned before these individuals are in a very controlled environment, which is very conducive to their massive amounts of lbs lost. Not all of us have that luxury, but I think there are definite lessons learned we can take away from every episode. For the lesson from last nights episode I turn to Joelle.
Scenario: Bob getting on Joelle's case for not completing the 30 second sprint he was having the whole team doing. Joelle stopping at 20 seconds every time and repeatedly saying she "couldn't" and giving excuses for not finishing. This happened probably 5 times before Bob went CRAZY. He was not amused. In fact he insisted (with a few choice, bleeped out words) that she could in fact do it, and she would. So, they did it again, and fancy that...she did it.
The Lesson: PUSH YOURSELVES. Just because you haven't done it before, or you think it's hard doesn't meant that you can't do it. More than likely it means that your scared. So, again I say, Push yourselves. You'll be surprised at what you can accomplish, and what you WILL most certainly accomplish if you go about exercising with an "I CAN" attitude.

Also... Host Alison Sweeney had her baby girl, Megan Hope Sanov, on Monday, January 12th.
congrats to Ali...love the name choice. ;)