Update

Thanks ScrappyTBear for asking... I am still struggling with the shoulder; however, they have found the cause (calcification on the tendon) and will be removing it on the 22nd of January - that will be a good day! 

In the meantime I have been through a lot of changes, personally, and let my blog slide... again!  Right now my children, my studies and my needs have taken over and I have let almost all my online activities cease.  It is quite liberating actually.

That being said, I am starting a new round of 21 day fix on Monday, the 23rd of November.  So I will have more to blog about and I may resume it... but in case I don't, you can find me on Facebook ... Marjorie McRae.

Chat soon!

Marge

 

How to Stay Active While on a Dr Induced Rest

Sigh…

Seeing the days pass and my schedule falling behind is a bit depressing.  Knowing that I am falling short of my goal makes me sad!  BUT I am trying not to focus on that but it can be difficult to see past it.

SO, what did I do to keep active and busy on a rest day?

I took the stairs 5 times

I got up and moved every 1/2 hour

I drank my water which kept me moving as I walked to the bathroom countless times!!

Worked with our study group until 11pm so I kept the movements going until that hour.  Getting up and getting everyone the water, bringing a healthy snack to all … just kept my body in motion as much as I could.

Today, I am doing the same thing… BUT I have to drive my lil girl to Cheer tonight which happens to be 2 hours away (each way) so there will not be a lot of movement going on tonight.  While she is in cheer I plan on being active but tonight is the registration and meeting that parents must participate in.  Tomorrow I have my x-rays and then hopefully the rest time will be lifted.

How do you keep active when you are forced to rest??

Kenpo and a Hike Followed by a Forced Break

Happy Tuesday everyone in Bloggerland!

What a weekend!  Friday I took my lil Miss out with some of her friends and we went to a wonderful little cafe for drinks and art therapy.  It is amazing how I can talk 5 teenagers into colouring :P

They questioned me at first but before long I had them eating out of the palm of my hand :P  My lil girl LOVED it and was a little embarrassed at first but it turns out that her friends thought that I was cool.  HEHEHE

Then Saturday … oh Saturday, I went fishing with my parents and brother.  THe seas were not kind and as a result I was so sick!!  I am sure that it was good for weight-loss though.  Came home and rested all day and managed to break out another sweat during a feeble attempt at Kenpo.  But I got it done and kept chatting this mantra in my head...

Then on Sunday I took the dog for a hike where we will be snowshoeing this winter.  I am hoping to teach her so she takes me up on the offer to make our way through the snow in the upcoming months.  She was WONDERFUL … my pup always amazes me.  I got a great burn and realized that it is much easier to snowshoe the trail with the ground cover rather than to take my clumsy ass through brush.  

Then came Monday and my Dr. appointment.  Turns out the Doctor fears that I have an injury to my tendon in my left shoulder.  I have received three shots of Cortisone in the past 4 months and now it is time to do x-rays to assess the damage.  That being said I have to take a rest until the Cortisone is functioning and the x-ray is complete.  

SO… it will be quiet on the X schedule but I plan to keep active.  I am well on my way and I don't want to start over again so I am just modifying.

Make it a great day everyone and make it count!

Wobbly Legs and Back

It was 8:30pm before I got downstairs and worked out my legs and back.  I really did not feel it until I pushed play.  My sister has been going through some stuff and finally made the break she has been planning and it was weighing on my mind.  My parents and in-laws were over for cake and ice cream to celebrate this little beauty:

By the time everyone left and homework was complete it was getting late and I thought of postponing it… but I sucked it up and brought it as though it were 7pm!  I got through it and as I was walking up the stairs my knees were wobbly and grinding… like there was sand under them.  But, this morning I feel perfect… so I am thrilled with my mind over matter win last night.

I like to take pictures a lot because I think that it shows results more than any other measure.  I have avoided the scale because that bitch lies… LIES I tell ya!  So, I will be updating with pictures because that is how I roll :P

I am leaving you with a picture of me with two of my most favourite people in the world, my parents!  My father is always doing something foolish… so in the second picture you are witnessing my mother trying to contain my Dad.  Dad was trying to hide my face with his hat and my Mom was saving me.  My reaction is the way I look every time I am in their presence… pure joy!

Plans for the weekend!  My baby girl has a couple of her good friends over tonight and we are getting dressed up and heading out for a girl's night.  Dinner, dessert and a little art therapy.  We will be coming home for movies (I will be kicking out some Kenpo) and then bed for me.  Saturday morning I am heading to the wharf for 5am because I will be fishing with those two great people in the photos above.  Then I will be doing my Chest and Back routine and maybe do a Plyo workout (depending on my body's response) to do a little catch up.  Then Sunday I am doing either Plyo or, I am hoping to be doing Shoulders and Arms to be closer to my original schedule.  Again, I will be listening to my body and not planning to do more that my body allows.

Stay tuned :D  Have a great weekend everyone!  We shall chat Monday!

Subbed out Yoga X for SUCCESS

SO… Tuesday night was my rest day for the week considering it was Kryptonite day and I was exhausted and just didn't have enough fuel to get through my workout.  I didn't beat myself up … just used it as my rest day.

Last night I was ready for bed at 6pm … was so sluggish and drained.  I wasn't sure how I was going to get through my workout; however, somehow I found the strength to get dressed and go downstairs to push play and break out a good sweat with Cardio X.  I felt revived when it was all done and went to bed and killed an 8 hour sleep session… was just about a perfect day!

Before

After

Tonight is Legs and Back and try and avoid BIRTHDAY cake over consumption … it is my little girl's 13th birthday today and YES, there will be cake because she is worth celebrating!!

Make it a great day everyone and make it count!

10/90 COMPLETE!

Good Monday Tuesday morning!

Today was my Kryptonite day so I am hoping to be feeling 100% by tomorrow… although lately the effect has been less than usual.  Regardless I am not stopping and feeling like I am ready to kick September in the ASS!

So… where did I leave off?  Oh yeah, Friday … Plyo day and I was working followed by a two hour drive to take the family camping… so Plyo was subbed out with extreme cross country hiking!  My sweet little girl and I did the loop twice and I took my lil puppy, Cersei, for a run on the same loop.  Everyday I burned more than 450 calories and there were many walks and hikes that I did not take my phone/runkeeper on.  

I rushed home on Monday to do up my laundry, the lawn and my meal prep so that this week would go off without a hitch.  Despite all the sweating that I did all weekend and all day I picked up on day 10 and killed a shoulders and arms workout!!  Left me all sweaty like:

Now that brings me to day 11… the dreaded Yoga.  Yoga on my treatment day… can it get any worse?  NOPE… so I am subbing out Yoga for Cardio X.  That is what will keep me in the game.  So tonight I am going to try and muster up the energy to get it done!  

HOw was your weekend everyone?  Enjoy your short work week and make it a great Tuesday :D

8/90 Pushing and Pulling

Man, when I start week two I feel like a superstar… I am already feeling stronger and managed to do deeper push ups although I am still at 20 per set.  My goal is to make them beautiful not to push out more … just to do 20 with exceptional quality.

As for the chin-up portion of the program I have succumb to using the Smith Machine and 80 pounds rather than trying to lift all 180 pounds of myself.  Again I am looking at doing it in good form, increasing the strength in my back and gradually making my way over to the chin-up bar.  This format is keeping me motivated and I am not feeling discouraged at all.

Next week my plan is to increase my weight on the chin ups and keep getting deeper in the push ups.

What a great feeling of accomplishment when I am done a great workout :D

I promised a progress picture… but I didn't take one of myself so I will post a progress pic of the gym :D

Love the colour and I the energy it gives me.  I can't wait to see the second colour in there and what mood it lends to the space.  The hockey net is getting a new home to ensure that there will be no more puck marks on my walls!  We are pouring a slab of cement so that Ashton can use it outside in any season.  AND … in a year or two we may use the same slab to build a shed and give him an indoor space to take out those frustrations.

I took some selfies last night too… happy to have Tony on my TV and sweat in my eyes!

Now, my plan for the weekend is to pause my P90x schedule so that I may join my family at the campsite.  I have to be able to fit the program in my life and my responsibilities.  THat being said, I am planning at least one BIG hike per day.  It will be a cardio-fest weekend and when I get back I will carry on with the schedule, as planned.  This 90 day program may take me 100 or more but I will get there :D

Make it a great day and make it count. 

6 and 7/90 - Kenpo and Rest Day

If any of you follow me on Instagram you know how difficult it was for me to do my workout last night!  This blog is the real shiznit … talking about the real problems we face trying to regain our spirits and our bodies.

For some more real talk… my rheumatologist's office called two days ago to advise me that my potassium levels were dangerously low.  I am on medication and being closely monitored to ensure the levels pick up.  As an autoimmune disease warrior I suffer with fatigue on a regular basis but in the last couple of weeks my family and I have noted that it seemed worse.  I attributed it to forcing a new schedule and was certain time and commitment would fix it.  I may now be able to point the finger to the potassium!  This is great news because I am hoping that it will go away once my levels regulate.

All that to say, my energy levels have been suffering and I did NOT want to go downstairs and kill that workout last night!

I started off discouraged and looking like this:

But once I pushed play, turned on my tunes and focused I ended up looking like this:

The shirt came off after the warm up!!  It was too hot and restricting for Kenpo.  By the time I was doing the punches, front kick, behind kick series I was dizzy~~  but I kept going and burned some grizzle as a result!

After my workout my lil boy asked me to read him his story and I could not think of a better way to cool down… so that is just what I did.  Love his snuggles!!  We are reading about Greek Gods … Zeus is a 10 year old in this novel and so is that smiling cutie beside me.  He is loving the series.

One last share today… I am transforming my garage into my home gym.  I am hoping that the space will be cooler than my current gym and my son wants to take over the large room downstairs as his bedroom.  It is a win-win as far as I can tell.  I am so excited to see the paint going on the walls and the space opening up … I can't wait to get in there and have a good sweat session.

As for the schedule … day 8 starts today!  Chest and Back and ARX… stay tuned… maybe even some progress pics from week 1 to week 2 :P  

Make it a great day everyone and make it count!!

5/90 Legs and Back

There is not a lag in the blogger application there was actually a delay in my execution of day 5: Legs and Back.  Why?

Swollen knees and back :(

Typically I would have taken pain meds and worked through it… leaving myself in a BAD state and then falling off the rails, yet again.

This time… I took my pain meds until the inflammation was gone and my joints were functional again. Then I KICKED some ass in my home gym while I tortured my legs and back!

I must be learning in my old age :P  

I really want to finish this round so I am committed to listening to my body and working with it… not against it.

I kept my diet on point this weekend.  Indulged in a little bit of wine on Saturday but other that that… keeping fat low and carbs in check.  

Next Tuesday is my Remicade day and I will know how this hard work translates into weight loss/gain.  I refuse to weigh in daily like I used to because I get obsessive.  I am having faith in the routine and giving it everything I have and seeing the weigh-in like a gift.  That is a big change for me as I typically dread the weigh in.  

So, legs are done and Kempo tonight.  I have had enough rest days so tomorrow I am doing Chest and Back… week two will commence. 

Make it a great day everyone and make it count!

4/90 Yoga ... Not Feeling the Namaste

Oh Emm Gee I hate Yoga!

I want to like yoga... I really do but I dread it.

I am flexible.

My balance is not horrible.

This should be easy enough but it is just painful.

I am not a zen person... so I should probably benefit greatly from yoga.

I have crushed the P90x program three times... full rounds and never did learn to like it.

I tried to have an open mind this morning... still hate it.

SIGH

I will keep it in the lineup for the first phase but may choose to sub it out in phases 2 and 3.  I just hate feeling like I wasted my time.  Please don't argue with me yoga lovers... I am trying here.

Anyway, so that is what happened today on the P90x front.  Tomorrow is Legs and Back and I think that I am going to do doubles completing my Kenpo a day early since I am in school all weekend.  My legs will be H-U-R-T-I-N-G but then I can focus on school :)

Diet still in check!

Feeling motivated by the schedule and not letting my hatred of yoga dim my light.

Make it a great day and make it count!

3/90 Shoulders and Arms ... With Trepidation

Well, good morning!  Hope you all had a great day yesterday!

Mine was marvellous :)  Diet on point, exercise on point and one of my best friends called me GORGEOUS before 8am.  That is the way to start the day!

Enough about yesterday ... let's talk about today's session.

Shoulders and Arms was on the menu and I am not going to lie, I was concerned.  I hate talking about my aliments but this blog is an honest one and I don't hide from them here.  I have had a serious flare-up in my shoulder for the past six months.  YES, 6 months.  I have had 2 shots of Cortizone in the site and still in a lot of pain.  It even hurts to get my coffee from the Tim Horton's drive through in the morning, sometimes requiring both arms!  (Yup, I am a Canadian who has her Tim's daily)

So, naturally, I modified today ... using much lighter weights than I am used to.  I did do every rep for every exercise so I am pleased but there were moments that I considered stopping.  I pushed through and was dripping wet again today.  The humidity and the pain made for a great calorie burn :P  Actually the pain was intense at the beginning but as I worked the joint it felt better and now it is feeling good.  No pain meds used :)

I should also mention that I did not have difficulty waking up this morning... actually woke up just before the alarm but my body still tried to convince me to stay put.  I know that the first month is the hardest.  I will have to coach myself out of bed every damn day ... and you can bet that I am going to!

On another note, I want to talk about my home gym.  When my husband and I built our house six years ago we decided that we would build a space for a gym in our home.  We invested a lot of money but it was well worth it because I use it, a lot!  The problem with the gym is that it gets so warm because it is in our living space and we did not create a different zone in that room (for the radiant heat).  So, it has been discussed for the past two years (more like me trying to convince my husband) that we should redo our garage and make that space into our gym.  Well, after two years of talking the carpenter arrived this morning to get started!   I will take pics when it is done ... I am SO EXCITED about it.  There will be more space and cooler space... yeah me!

Ok, that is all for today... have yourselves a great day and make it count!

2/90 Plyometrics Pain at 5am

Let me begin by saying that I hit it out of the park yesterday!  Diet was on point!  Exercise was on point and I still managed to do my hair and look like a professional!

I got to bed early and fell asleep with ease; however, when that alarm went off at 4:45 this morning my body was telling my brain to ignore it!  I shut it off and laid there for a couple of minutes with this dialogue running through my head:

Body: Stay in bed... you can do it tonight!

Brain: No you can't ... you have to take Skye to cheer tonight.. you really think that you will have the energy to do it at 9pm?

Body: But... this bed... it is SO COMFY!

Brain: Get your ass outta bed!

Body: You could just wake up your husband and have sex... that could count as cardio?!

Brain: Then I would be UP... so GET UP!

Then I got out of bed, grabbed my clothes that were laid out from the night before and stumbled my way into the bathroom.

I reluctantly washed my face and got dressed and dragged my ass downstairs and pushed play.... and I KILLED the first 1/2 of Plyo today but the last half was pitiful.  BUT ... I damned well did it!!  

And although the thought of morning sex was a good one ... there is no way that I would have gotten this kind of a calorie burn:

So I know that I made the right decision!

Make it a great day everyone and make it count :D

P90x ... Third round

WOW, time passes slow when you are feeling like shit!  Making plans are hard, finding the strength and energy to take control of your life following a bad-ass flare up is HARD and committing to health it is even HARDER!

So, where did I disappear to?  I had the unfortunate chance of suffering from an extended flare-up followed by extreme fatigue for months.  It was all I could do to maintain my family/work schedule and the result was full weight gain.  ALL that work that I put into creating a body that I was beginning to be proud of has been tossed out the window.

My mojo took a hike when my body was acting up.

My desire to worry about working my body out and developing vanity muscles had disappeared.

My only focus was managing my family and keeping mobile.

The occasional walk followed by extreme pain was about all I could muster.

On August 17th, my 40th birthday, my friends invited me to kayak down the river.  Since I have spent a lot of time resting these past few months I was feeling strong enough to partake in one of my favorite sports and it was FABULOUS!  That being said, it was also a moment of revelation.  In these past months, with all my weight gain, I realized that I am not longer comfortable in my skin.  I watched as my friends all enjoyed their time in the water, wearing cute bathing suits while, once again, I found myself on the sidelines.  I am tired of sitting and watching life pass me by as I did in the past.  Since my body has had regular Remicade treatments every 5 weeks and got my mobility back I realized what a gift those meds have been.  Now that my body is working better and my fatigue is something that I can work with ... it is time to start living again!

Time to get comfortable in my skin again!

Time to stop standing on the sideline of life.

Time to break out my P90x and start back with the program that kick-started my health journey.

So, this morning was 1/90 and it was GREAT.  I have lost a lot of strength but I am certainly not starting over ... I am stronger than round one.  That was promising.  I know that the muscles are there ... just well protected by layer upon layer of FAT.  Time to build and reveal :)

This round my youngest daughter, Skye, is joining me.  She has recently taken up Competitive Cheer and needs to work on her strength.  This is a great bonding experience plus she is gonna love how chiseled her body is gonna get on this program!  I am just hoping to be her size at the end of it :P  SHe is so cute!

Anyway, I will be sharing my journey as I am still determined to be #fitby40 ... just by the end of 40 now :P

BRING IT