Week 5 - fail

I failed week 5 as I got totally wrapped up in getting the house ready for our party on the 20th. I have not picked them back up this week as I'm now preoccupied with getting ready for my trip up north. I leave on Wednesday and return on Monday. I know that I will not be doing push-ups during this trip as I tend to be busy the entire time I'm visiting. Therefore, I'm taking this week off too and will resume on Tuesday the 30th starting with a redo of week 4. I felt like I struggled with that week and even though my exhaustion test proved I was still on the right track I just feel as though repeating that week (especially with the 2 week break in there) would be better than going on with things. I also haven't done my elliptical workouts yet this week. I haven't been getting good sleep and when that happens it's SO hard to get moving! However, I have been keeping up with the dog's exercise routine of an AM walk and an evening hour or so at the dog park.

Week 4 wrap-up/Exhaustion Test

Week 4 was tough. I feel like I'm losing steam and often felt like I should have been back one column. However, the exhaustion test at the end proved that I seem to be on track. After doing my cardio this morning I fit in the exhaustion test. I am now able to do 42 push-ups! Almost half way there! This keeps me on track in column 3 for week 5. Then there will be another exhaustion test. So far so good. The scale hasn't moved, but I feel better and that's all that matters.

Week 4

I noticed I've fallen a bit behind on my blogging lately. I think I will cut back to doing weekly updates on day 1 of the new week. I've found that week 3 got harder and harder for me as the days go on. Week 1 and 2 didn't seem as hard to me! But I've been able to complete the weeks and started week 4 last night.

I thought I wasn't going to make it and I should move down to column 2 instead of 3. Then I decided to take a little bit longer break in between the sets. The first 3 sets were HARD! I thought I wasn't going to make it. So I decided to get up let the dogs out, and rest for a couple min before doing the 4th set of 21. It worked like a charm! I was able to do that set much better and I felt as though I could make it to the last set.

So before the 5th set I let the dogs in, did a couple mini tasks and came back (no more than a 5 min break if even). The first 12 or so were ok, then it went downhill. By 20 I had to keep thinking come on you can do it over and over. By the last 5 or so I was shaking and weak, but in the end I did all 32!! What an accomplishment for me to push myself through it.

Turns out doing Biggest Loser Weight loss Yoga the next morning was not such a good idea as my arms were not happy doing more strength exercises. But I got through that too!

Week 3, Day 1

Last night I completed the first day of week 3. The first couple sets went well. Then after the 3rd set it all went down hill. On the last set of 20 I had to pause for a second because the dogs got in the way and it was so hard to get started again. I was shaking for a long time after completing last night's sets and I can feel it this morning. But it's a good pain and it's worth it!

The elliptical kicked my butt this morning! I'm still trying to adjust to my new schedule and getting out the door on time. I have yet to be successful at that one, somehow when I set the alarm 10 min earlier I still run 15 min late. Today I wasted a few extra min. because Rick left his phone on and had the alarm on and I could not figure out how the heck to turn it off, so I ran that upstairs to him. Then once I got back down stairs I realized that I left my MP3 player upstairs! All in all I wasted 5 min before I actually got going on the elliptical. But I got on and it kicked my butt and all is good.

Week 2, Day 3 and Test

Day 3 was on Saturday and went okay. It was tough again, but I was able to finish all of the required sets. I think that maintaining proper hydration makes a difference with them feeling easier/difficult to do. Saturday I wasn't great at keeping hydrated, same with day 1 of week 2. I am usually pretty good at getting my water in over the week, not so much on the weekends, so I will have to try and focus on getting in the 8 glasses every day.

At the end of week 2 I was scheduled to do another test. I did that test this morning after walking the dogs and hitting the elliptical for 30 min (and drinking a bottle of water). I purposely did not look to see what the requirements for each column would be, I wanted an accurate count without a limit based on that. In my mind I though that it would be great to do 26 ~ completely doubling my initial test amount. In the end, I managed to squeeze out 30! I did 30 push-ups at one time!!! I absolutely cannot believe that! It's totally awesome and a great day to start off a Monday!!!