Who's that girl?

yes yes.. it's ME!!! =) Now just wait until you see the full length picture on week 16!! =)

Friday, it was cardio day again and we did intervals inside, then went for a 20 minute run. I believe we had to run inside at IROC because the weather wasn't cooperating. =( But, T & I had our Ipods and the lady at the desk at IROC was nice enough to turn the radio on so E had something to listen to. As we started I vowed to myself that I was going to run for the whole 20 minutes. I hadn't done that to date and I knew that I could do it if I just pushed myself and MADE myself do it. And I did!! I ran for the whole 20 minutes and I'm very proud of that!! =) I believe we run just over a mile as well. It kinda sucked to have to run inside, and no offense to IROC, but the walking track is boring to run around. It's only 1/10th of a mile so it takes 10 times around to make a mile. So running/walking 2 miles or more ends up being very tedious.

Saturday was good. E & I were back at IROC and we did this: Started with rounds, 8 reps each of pull ups and squat presses. Then: A). Reverse Lunge Band Row x 6 reps per side, Stability Ball Push up Jacknife x 6. Complete as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes. B). Squat Press x 6, Pull ups x 6. Complete as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes. The pull ups were especially difficult because IROC doesn't have a bar or rings that we could do pull ups on. We had to use these two handles that were built into one of the weight benches. They were way over our heads (even E! who is fantastically tall!) so we had to stand on a little bar that was a brace for the bench thing and then grab onto the handles and do the jumping pull ups. The real trick was to be sure of where your feet landed when you came back down. The bar wasn't directly under us, it was more in front so we had to be careful. There was one time that I wasn't careful and my feet slipped off the bar and I went all the way to the floor. Don't worry though, I wasn't hurt. It just startled me more than anything. Let me tell you, my arms were still sore yesterday from that one. WHOA! After our rounds, we went outside and did sprints. 1 1/2 minute sprint 1 1/2 minute rest x 2.

Sunday was pretty good. It was another all protein day for the 28 day diet so it was a little rough, but not too bad. We also went to my sister-in-law's and hung out with her, her husband and their beautiful girls (neice playtime!!!!). I brought my food for the afternoon with me so that part was fine. I drank a LOT of water!! LOL..

Yesterday it was back to BBC... and I was very glad!!! We all did our thang last week without Ben, but I could tell I was lacking that extra push that he always gives us. I did push myself, and busted it in the workouts, but I missed hearing "Get there!" "Come on! Push! Go all out!!!". I think we all did. Anywho... we did: Front Squats 4 sets of 8 reps then, A). Band Lunge Row x 6 per side, Stability Ball Crunch Jacknife x 6. As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes. B). Squat Press x 6, Pull ups x 6. As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes. Finished with 6 rounds of 30 seconds high intensity 90 second recovery sprints. Kicked my ace!!!! I do have to say that I definitely like the long runs rather than sprints. I seriously suck at sprints!! I would rather do the D run again than do sprints!! Ha! What does that tell you!!! =) Crazy!!! Oh, and did I mention that I wore my grey BBC t-shirt for the first time???!! Hells yeah I did!!!!! And it is a LARGE! Large!!! I started out in a 3x!!! Get the F out!!!!!!!!! You want some motivation to lose weight? That's it right there!!! NEVER in my life did I think that I, Lisa Cordeau would be wearing a t-shirt that was a large. NEVER. Yet here I am. It's just amazing. I get teary just thinking about it. Trust me, those are tears of joy. Even better was after class when E, Ben & I were stretching & talking. Ben said that when I first walked in he hardly recognized me and that I looked like a different person. =) Nice!!!!!!!! Fantastic is what it is!!! I couldn't be prouder of the progress/changes that I've made. I have truly changed my life, and it's all for the better. =)

Today was cardio and we did intervals again. The stations were bike, burpees & sprints. We did 1 minute of work, 1 minute rest, 1 minute "active" rest of get up sit ups. We did this for 5 rounds. Afterward we went outside (it was a little cold, but not too bad) and ran for 20 minutes. Again I pushed myself and made myself run the whole 20 minutes. It felt really good. Like really really good!! =)

Never have I been more "up" than I am right now. I have never felt better and I will only feel more and more fantastic as I lose more weight! I have no doubt that that will happen. I hope that everyone reading this blog that wants to get healthy and lose inches and/or pounds will be inspired to do so and will inspire others to do so as well (pay it forward!). =) =)

~L

End of week 14.. wow..

So, here I am..... sitting here, out of the poker game (!!!?!) and thinking.. well, it's been a few days, I should blog. But I'm finding myself at a loss for words. What do I say that I haven't repeated a million times in the last 14 weeks? Any damned thing I want I guess... LOL.. it's MY blog!! LOL...

Well, let me start with the workout yesterday. Cardio day. It was T, E & I. We did our warm up in the arena of IROC, then did our intervals of sprints, burpees & sprints 1 minute of each with 1 minute rest and 1 minute get up sit ups. After that we went outside and ran for 20 minutes. It was actually a nice little run. We ended up running by a mulch place and it smelled really good! It was a little misty, but otherwise it was good.

Today was a weights day so I met the girls at IROC (T couldn't make it) and we used the gym to do our workout. First of all, I have to say that I'm SO glad that Ben keeps his place cool (even in the winter) because the workout room at IROC was a freakin sauna!!!!! There isn't any ventilation or windows that you can open, so OMG it gets really HOT in there!! Anyway, we started doing push presses using dbs (M & I) and E & C did "pull ups". We didn't have anywhere that we could do pull ups so we did like this reverse crunch thing. Then we did A) push ups feet on ball jackknife and reverse lunge band pull (M & I started on this) and B)reverse crunch things and squat press. Do 6 reps of each back and forth for 10 minutes straight then switch to the other two. After that we did 2 minute sprints with 2 minutes rest X 3. We started out in the arena, but that was rough on the knees. So we switched to the walking track. The reverse crunch thing was really tough for me. I'm sure people have seen what you do this on. It's like this tall thing with 2 arm things. You put your arms on the arm things, hold onto the pegs at the end and your legs dangle below you, then you pull your legs up towards you. I couldn't seem to hold myself up. I kept ending up with my shoulders scrunched way up. It was irritating me that I couldn't do it, but I just kept doing it anyway. I am stubborn!! LOL.. but that's ok. We worked our butts off today.

I'm glad that we are proving that we can still work out when Ben is gone. We definitely miss him... miss hearing "Come on! Get there! Push!" I am still definitely motivated and push myself, but I don't think it's the same as during our classes. Just proves that Ben really knows what he's doing! Personally, I think I need that extra push. Obviously. Otherwise I would've been able to lose this weight on my own... anyway.. I'm rambling..

I think that's it.. Tomorrow is another cardio day so it'll be the same as Wednesday.. running running running! =)

~L

D Run & 4 days of catch up

Sorry again that it's been so long since I posted. Now that the weather is nice, it's harder & harder to stay inside and stay in front of the computer. Plus, since we aren't using fitday for the diet, I don't need to be on the computer as much which has made Mike very happy. LOL.

So let's see.. Friday.. we did this: Started with Deadlift 4 sets of 8 reps, then: A) Reverse Lunge Band Row x 6 reps per side, Stability Ball Push up Jacknife x 6. Complete as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes. B) Squat Press x 6, Pull ups x 6. Complete as many rounds as possible in 10 minutes. Then Intervals: 6 rounds 30 seconds high intensity 90 seconds recovery. We went outside and ran on Taplin Road for that part. I'm liking the new workouts. They're challenging and are made more so the more that I push myself. =) Harder you push the more fat you burn!!

Saturday we still did a bootcamp workout (I know.. we're nuts!!) but T, E & I were the only Moosers to make it. We did Deck of Cards. I really liked this one. It's kind of like Roll the Dice where you basically don't know which exercise you're going to be doing or how many until you pick the card (roll the dice). I don't remember what the specifics are of what we did but it was good. After that we did the Dandelion Run. It was pretty tough, but it was good. I was under the impression that my leg (the first) would be fairly flat. No such luck. There were plenty of hills. But that's ok. We ran for a good mile before we had to stop & walk. My sister-in-law ran with me and she was fantastic at keeping me going!!! So thanks sis!! =) We estimated that we ran about 2 miles of it and walked about 1 mile. Not too bad. I felt bad for T & Ben because they were on the 2nd leg and it was all hills. Like huge ones from what they said. A special thanks to T for running that leg because Deveney was supposed to run with us, but had to bow out at the last minute because of a conflict with a fundraiser that was later Saturday night. Then Missy was the 3rd leg and E ran the 4th. I am extremely proud of all of us for doing this run (and all the other bootcampers that did it!! ). We are AWESOME!!! Thanks to C for coming out and supporting us as well! I have to tell you that on Saturday I came home, had lunch, worked in the garden for a couple hours and I was done. I seriously could've taken a nap, but I just planned on going to bed early. Around 4 or 5 Mike was like, let's go do something!!! I told him, dude, you go right ahead. I am pooped!!!! I was not going anywhere!!! He ended up going to a poker game and I stayed home and relaxed and then went to bed (fairly) early.

Sunday was ok. It was the total protein day of the diet, so that was a little rough. To make it worse, we went to the races to watch my brother so I had to bring everything with me. So I had to eat my steak for lunch and chicken for dinner cold, but it was ok. I drank a TON of water and chewed gum. Oh, and got a nice sunburn ontop of the sun I had gotten on Saturday. It's not too bad though.

Yesterday was the first workout without Ben who is gone on vaca (and a business thing too). It went well. It was just T & I and we met up at IROC and did 2 rounds of sprints and 1 round of burpees 1 minute per round 2 minutes rest with 1 minute of that doing get up sit ups. Then we stayed at the walking track and ran for 20 minutes. I think tomorrow we're going to plan on running outside.

Today it was T, C & I. We were able to use the community room at IROC and did two circuits: A) Straight leg romanian deadlift - they had a couple bars with a little bit of weight so we used those - X12 reps and Crunches on the ball with 10lb weight x 12. Do as many rounds as you can in 10 minutes. T started on this one. Then C & I started on this one: B) Step ups (weighted - we had fairly light weights but busted out the rounds) x12 each leg and kb or db swing x 12 - we used 25lb plates. So the weight was fairly light for these exercises so we busted butt to do a ton of rounds. I think we did really well. =)

Tomorrow is cardio day so that will be back at the IROC walking track/arena for sprints, burpees and maybe high knees.. then running outside. =)

The 28 day diet is going well. I haven't really had too much trouble with it. I just have to sit down with the menu and figure out my substitutions. =) Not bad. I haven't really had too much trouble with being hungry except for the all protein day. I think that's why I was chewing gum. Helped to keep my mind off it. I've actually been chewing a lot of gum lately which I'm getting out of now. I don't want to start using it as a crutch to ward off hunger. I should be fine though.

Later!

~L

28 day program - the final push

Sorry that it's been so long.. My computer didn't have a virus like a thought, it was just the video card going to hell. Thanks Shaun for fixing it for us! (E's significant other) =) It's running great now!

Where to start? Well, on Monday we started the 28 day program. It's a diet designed to melt the fat off you and fast. The really nice thing is that the menus for the entire 28 days is planned out for you. Every single meal. The extra nice thing is that there is a "substitution list". Whoever came up with this is a genius!!! And must've known that I would be doing this diet!! Otherwise I would be one very unhappy girl.. there's a LOT of fish on these menus and this girl and fish, just don't mix. (Fish is at the top of the "blech list". LOL) It was funny Sunday because I printed out the first 7 days so I could make my shopping list, and I got the sub list out and made at least 1 substitution every single day. For some days there are 3 or more!!! But don't worry, I'm not straying!!! So far so good. I'm definitely not hungry at all and I'm still eating all the supportive stuff that I should be. The only thing is, this is very light on carbs and VERY heavy on protein. But that's ok. I can deal with that for awhile. I told Mike before I went shopping that there was a lot of chicken in my menu. He said: "good thing you could eat chicken every day!" I said: "ask me again after we're done!" LOL... It actually hasn't been that bad though. I am eating some lean beef and lots and LOTS of egg whites!!!! Today's lunch was a soup and OMG it was SO good!! =) I'm sure you're thinking, "she can have soup???", yes I can!!!!!! It was 2 cups low sodium chicken broth, celery, 6.75 oz chicken breast, onion and tomatoes. You cook the veggies in EVOO then add to the chicken broth & breast. I also put garlic powder, onion powder and oregano in my broth. The best part was after I heated it up I also put 3 tablespoons of parmesean cheese on top and mixed it in... yum yum yum!!!! Before now I always thought parmesean cheese was gross, but you know, it's starting to grow on me!!! The other night I had chicken parmesean.. oh was that tasty!!! It was 6.75 oz chicken (see? eating lotsa chicken!!) 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 3 tablespoons parm cheese.. try it!! =)

There are also specific workouts that go with this diet. You can check out Ben's blog for what we've been doing this week. I don't know if he's posted today, but I know he didn't on Tuesday. You didn't miss much there. We just did cardio. We did a 1 minute round at each of the stations with 1 minute rest and the 1 minute active rest (get up sit ups). The stations were sprints, bike and burpees. Then we went outside (yay for nice weather!!) and did a 20 minute distance run. Just run 20 minutes. On Tuesday we ran from the parking lot, out to Taplin Rd, to Rte 111, then turned behind the BBC building and back to the parking lot. It's not a bad little route, but kinda tough on the knees & legs to transition from grass to gravel to pavement to grass to gravel to grass. Today we ran down Taplin Rd, turned off on a little road and ran down there. We just went for 10 minutes and then turned around and ran back the other 10. That's a nice run, just one small hill, all gravel and nice scenery!! Next week will be a little tough as Ben will be gone all week so we will be on our own. He has given us our marching orders for the week so we're all set with what we have to do. It'll be interesting for sure.

Ummm.. let's see.. I think that's it.. I think I'm working my way out of my funk. Finding out I've lost nearly 50lbs in 12 weeks has definitely helped. I'm hoping that I'll hit 65lbs lost by the end. It'd be great to hit 15% body fat lost and 20". That would be amazing!! I'll "get there" though...

Saturday is the Dandelion Run. I'm nervous, but I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm really really happy that my sister-in-law will be running with me. I know she'll keep me going. =) If you're reading this and you're local, come on down (we start the run at 9am) and cheer us on!!! =)

~L

Catch me up

I'm hoping that this will post since my computer has some serious virus that is totally screwing it up.. but there is hope, E nicely volunteered her significant other to take a look at it for us and see if he can fix it. So keep your fingers crossed!

This has been a very emotional week for me personally. I found out on Sunday that my aunt in NY had died from lung cancer. She was only 53. May she rest in peace. And when a family member dies suddenly it makes you think... It was tough, I didn't really know her that well (sadly) because they live 6-7 hours from me, so I got to see them maybe once or twice a year. Plus, I wasn't able to attend the services which I feel really rotten about. I'm sure my family understands and will accept that my thoughts and prayers are with them. Then on Wednesday I found out that my co-worker, Flo had had a stroke and was in the hospital. On Friday I found out when I got to work that she never woke from the stroke and had passed away Thursday night. She was 63. My thoughts and prayers are with her family in this very difficult time. It was so unreal at work on Friday because I had just seen Flo on Wednesday. She was there, walking around and fine and now she's gone. I wish I could say that I knew her very well, but I'd actually only worked with her for about 5 or 6 months. She will be sorely missed at NGJ. RIP Flo.

Friday was measurement day for me. I was really nervous. I knew that I'd kept dropping weight, but I wasn't sure what my measurements would be like. Would the roadblock I'd been working through this week hurt me? The answer? Not a chance in hell. I lost 24 more pounds. 2.1% body fat and 4.5". So my totals so far is 47lbs lost, 8.6% body fat lost and 13.5" total lost. These #s totally blow my mind. Honestly this whole thing has just been surreal. It's kind of like I've been doing the workouts and eating what I was supposed to so that's been real, but the weight coming off and my clothes getting baggy hasn't been. Like I was on the outside looking in, watching. But I look in the mirror now and I see it. I see a new me and it's bloody wonderful!!!

Friday was the last day of 30:30:30. Ben hasn't really told us what we're going to be doing this coming week for cardio except it's 20 minutes of intervals and 20 minutes of running. We don't know what the intervals are yet. So Friday we did 30:30:30 of sprints outside. It was a really nice day so it was great to be able to get outside. Although I'm not that big a fan of sprints, it's definitely helped build my endurance which is great. On the very last sprint, Ben told us to really push and make it the best one yet. So somehow I was able to dig deep and just run, sprint as fast as I could. It felt great to really push myself and challenge myself to do better. I felt like my lungs were going to burst after, but I felt SO good!!

Saturday was "Bring a Friend Day". I brought my co-worker Bernice with me. We did a new one Ben is calling "Death Valley" which is an appropriate name for it. Lol. Here is what we did:

20-16-12-8-4-8-12-16-20

Pull ups/Rows
Clean and Press
Jump Squats/Sky and Ground Squats
1 Arm Kettlebell Swings
Russian Twists
Uneven Push ups/Push ups

Move through reps completing 20 for all exercises, then 16, then 12 and so on.

Bernice did VERY well for her first time and I am VERY proud of her!!! =) She almost puked, but not quite! =) So you know it was a good one. Ha ha ha. We got through the list 3 times. So we ended by doing 12 reps of each one. I hope that she will consider taking more BBC classes, but that's up to her.. who knows? Maybe we scared her away!! LOL...

After the workout we had our final MMC. It was kind of emotional, but mostly we just reflected on how this whole thing went, what was hard, what was easy. That kind of stuff. For me, the hardest thing was the emotional part. I don't think I ever realized just how much of an emotional thing getting healthy and losing weight is. All of the "baggage" and "issues" that you have to get over personally can be overwhelming. For me, my past has played a huge role in why I got big in the first place. One of the most valuable things I've learned is to let your past be your past and look to the future. Don't let something that happened in the past hold you back from being happy now or in the future. Take charge of your life. Trust has always been an issue for me as well. I've had people close to me, who I thought were my friends, hurt me. So trusting new people, not so easy. I used to put up walls to sheild myself. Just go about my business and not let anyone see the real me. But these women, these 4 women and Ben have shown me that I don't need to put up walls anymore. So I made the conscious decision to let go grudges of the past and make peace with it. I may still put up a few walls at first, but nothing like before. I can't believe how much I've been able to grow as a person through this experience. I can never thank everyone that voted for me enough for believing in me and helping me to start on this journey. I know it's not over yet, that we have 4 more weeks, but I hope you've been following along with me and I hope that I have inspired you. I hope that I can inspire anyone out there that wants to lose weight or get healthy to do it. Just do it. Do it for yourself, find that inner woman/man that you know is inside of you. Cause he or she is there, ready to be loved.

I've been listening to my Ipod in my car a lot lately and I found this song and I think that it really says what I want to say to my fellow Moosers. So here it is. Enjoy:

Artist/Band: Rascal Flatts
Lyrics for Song: My Wish
Lyrics for Album: Me and My Gang

I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow,
And each road leads you where you want to go,
And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.
And if one door opens to another door closed,
I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,
If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,
But more than anything, more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.
I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you left,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,
And you always give more than you take.
But more than anything, yeah, and more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish. his is my wish
I hope you know somebody loves you
May all your dreams stay big

~L

Train the Trainer!!! ...and my Moo92 interview (I hope)

Today we did "Train the Trainer". OMFG it was SO funny!!!!!!!!!!!!! C took a video of the whole thing and hopefully she'll have it posted some time this weekend or by Monday. It's kind of long, but seriously worth watching!!!

So, here is what we made Ben do:

Cartwheels down the gym & back
Crabwalk down the gym & back
Handstand max hold
Band pull - Ben had an elastic band around his waist and had to pull 3 of us down the gym & back (sprinting)

Go through this list as many times as possible in 15 minutes. Ben did very well and got through the list 3 times.. maybe even 4. It seems like maybe I'm missing one, but I think that was all the exercises we had him do. He was sweating his ass off though!! Loved it!!! Ha ha ha ha ha! Ahh revenge is sweet! LOL.. It was a lot of fun...

After, the real work began. We warmed up and then did 8 rounds of:

KB high pull burpee
Flutter kicks
Push ups
Jumping pull ups

One time through the list is a round. Do each exercise for 1 minute w/5 second transition, no rest between rounds. After that we went outside and did what Ben calls the Birch run while your partner does planks. Ben & E were one team, M & T were another and C & I were the final team. The Birch Run isn't anything special, we just sprint to the Birch tree and back. But it was hard nonetheless. I don't know how far it is to that freakin Birch tree, but it's damned far enough!!

Last Wednesday I was interviewed by Moo92 about how it's been going so far. The djs Tod & Deveney were nice enough to put the interview on a disk for all of us. C has already posted hers and hopefully the others will post theirs as well. I'm hoping that this works. Ok, nope didn't work. =( UGH... I'm trying.. I'm just not sure how to post it.. I'll have to ask C how she did it. Plus, my computer is on the verge of a major meltdown so I'm lucky to get this blog in. I'm hoping that we can get the tower to the computer dude and get it fixed up soon.. But for now...

G'night!

~L

Run Forest Run!!

It was cardio day again in BBC land. We started doing our intervals inside when someone ( I won't name names -Missy) suggested that we run outside. So, we jogged out to the road and ran a gazillion 30 second sprint intervals. Oh it was so much fun!! (sarcasm is kinda lost on here LOL). Honestly, it kind of sucked. Like really hard. After awhile I started getting a pain in my hip in the front (apparently it's my hip flexor) on my right side. It KILLED to keep running with it hurting like it was, but I did. I kept on running. I definitely wasn't sprinting, but at least I was still running. So I'm hanging onto that. I kept going and pushed through and that's the important thing. I could've let it bother me, but I decided that it wasn't going to.

I think maybe I'm starting to come out of my funk. I felt pretty good today, eventhough I was walking around my office like an old lady. LOL. My hip hurt, my knees were sore, but it reminded me of the hard work that I'm doing. I am working hard (we all are) every damned day. The benefits are numerous. I haven't even reaped all the benefits yet. I can't wait until I can get rid of my stupid sleep machine. I'm starting to really hate that stupid thing. I will be a little scared when it is time to get rid of it because I've been using it for SO long that I feel like I'm kind of dependent on it, but I'll be fine. And, I know that Mike will be VERY happy when I get rid of it too. =) I can't wait to go back to my doctor after we're done and have my cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes tested again. How much do you want to bet that those are all normal now? I'd bet quite a bit!! Most importantly, I can't wait to have children. It's something that I've wanted for my entire life. I've always known that I wanted to be a mother since I was a little girl. My dream was to have a really big family and enjoy being a stay-at-home mommy. My weight has been holding me back from that, but not for much longer!!! I may not have as many as I had originally planned, but I will have at least one! =)

So for anyone out there that's reading this and wants to lose weight...Do it. Do it now. If you have goals or dreams that seem unatainable because of your weight, get your ASS up off that couch or out of that chair and do something about it. No excuses. You are worth it. You deserve to be happy. Once you start, don't give up. Keep going, remember why you're doing it. Remember those goals & dreams that you had on hold because of your weight and keep pushing. GET THERE.

I found this quote on Facebook and I think it's very true: "Today I give myself permission to be greater than my fears".

~L