Sunday, January 5, 2020

Done with Insanity!

I can't say I finished well, but I finished.  Working through Christmas was REALLY hard and I missed more days than I had hoped.  And I realized that I wasn't able to ever really finish any of the max insanity sessions.  Those were extremely difficult for me.  So the last week I went back to the first videos and did them.  They seem so much easier now that I worked on the max.  And I added some Focus T25 in the last week also.  But for my very last workout today I did the Plyo Cardio Circuit all the way through.

I lost only 4 pounds in the two months that I have been working.  That is discouraging.  But I can see a difference in my body.  Not like a huge difference, but some.  I know some of the belly fat lose is from going gluten free also.

I will keep working out but I may go back to my T25 for a while.  Insanity is super intense.  On the days when I feel I have lots of energy to burn I will do Insanity, but I think the 25 minutes of T25 is more my style.

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

47 Days of Insanity

I just finished my 47th day!  This has been a tough week.  Sunday I took too long of a nap so when I went to workout I was just tired.  I quit after about 5 minutes because my body just wouldn't do it.  Monday wasn't much better.  I did the Max Interval Circuit and had to quit 10 minutes early.  But I still did a long workout so I am not discouraged by that.  Today I decided to go back to the earlier workouts and I did the Pure Cardio and the Cardio Abs.  So again, I am not discouraged.  Some days you just have to realize that your body is tired.

I haven't weighed myself in a while.  To upsetting.  But I know I am losing inches and I feel pretty good about that.  My goal is still the 10 pounds.  I repeat that to myself as I am wanting to quit a workout.  I have only two weeks left until I finish the 60 days.

Monday, December 16, 2019

The Strange Ingrown Hair

While in Ethiopia I had a very strange experience with what I thought was an ingrown hair.  ** Warning - This is gross **  So during our second week in Ethiopia I developed a sore that was like a pimple on my back side.  And like most pimples, I decided it is best to squeeze it and irritate it so that it gets infected.  That is what I did.  After several days of me bothering it, it was very red and sore and the redness was growing.  It would be painful at times with like a pinching feeling.  I figured I was sitting wrong on it.  Yes, backside actually means my buns.  But we were sitting on hard, wooden seats a lot so I figured that is what was irritating it.  The bummer is that I couldn't really get a good pinch on it or see it very well so all my squeezing was not effective.

Finally, one day after realizing it was most likely infected and I couldn't pop it, I asked Steve to try to pop it.  He tried but said I should go talk to the nurse on our team.  So down I went to her room and showed her my sore.  She gave it a good squeeze and nothing happened.  She said it just needed to work its way out.  It might take another day.  But nothing deters my squeezing need, so later that evening while we were back in our hotel room, I had Steve squeeze it as hard as he could.  It was quite painful.  But finally he got it to pop.  A hard white rice size piece came out, like a hardened pus piece or something.  I was like, "Cool, let me see it."  So Steve put it in my hand as I lay there on the bed and lo and behold the rice shape pus started growing and then moving.  It was a worm!  A worm was under my skin, eating me!  Now, I like gross and weird medical stuff so I wasn't freaking out, I was excited.  So I took my worm and brought him out to the team of teenagers and college aged kids and showed them what came out of my body.  They were not impressed, but rather quite grossed out. One person told Micah it was his brother and Micah named him Satan.

It is now four months later and I still have a black spot where the worm came out.  I think it will be my reminder of the experience and how Steve is my hero.  Other husbands said they would never have done that for their wives.  But my husband bravely squeezed my worm out.  HERO!

Monday, December 9, 2019

Max Cardio Conditioning

For some reason I thought today's workout was going to be easier.  WRONG!  It was less jumping but it was still super hard.  I took lots of rests during the 50 minutes of working out.  I am sweating like crazy and my legs are shaking.  Time for my fruit smoothie with the protein powder.  But I have made it to day 39 which is quite an accomplishment for me.

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Ethiopia Man

Back in July, the three of us went to Ethiopia with a team from our church.  This was my first time to Ethiopia.  Micah had gone on the team the previous year, and Steve had gone on a scouting trip a couple months before.  I wasn't really nervous, having lived in Kenya a long time ago, and having lived in India for years.

Our team of Americans joined with a team of Ethiopian believers who were ready to go out and share Jesus with Muslim communities.  We had two Americans and an Ethiopian translator and an Ethiopian disciple maker.  The disciple maker was from the community and had already planned homes we would be going to.  They would also be the ones to follow up with any who wanted.

Micah and I were teamed up the first week along with our two Ethiopian men.  I was excited to get started.  First we went to a hut that belonged to a believing family.  Then we went with the home owner to his neighbor, who were Muslim.  We were able to share with them about awareness of human trafficking and also the good news of how Jesus is the perfect sacrifice for our lives.  Then we went to a third house.  This small, dark hut was only lit by a cooking fire in the middle.  It was raining outside so it was dark and dank.  We couldn't see the faces of the people we shared with.  We had finished sharing the human trafficking information and I had begun to share the good news, when there was a commotion outside the hut.  A man was angry.  We didn't know what he was saying since we don't know the language.  I stopped talking and we all sat in silence.  One of the men in the hut got up and went out to talk to the angry man.  The door slammed as he walked out.  Our translator said to us, "It's okay."  I didn't know if I believed him.  The voices outside continued in anger.  Our translator said, "I think we should go."  We gathered our things and headed out.  As we hurriedly walked away with a man speaking harshly at us, Micah was worried about me.  He was thinking of protecting me.  I was thinking of acting like I wasn't scared so that Micah wouldn't be scared.  The truth is, we were both scared and wanting to protect the other.

And this is the first time that my son took the roll of protecting me.  I realized that he is now grown up.  My sweet, little baby boy is a man.  At that moment, with an angry, drunk man chasing us away, I was hit with the realization that my boy was a man.  

Month 2 Insanity

Yesterday I began the second month of Insanity.  I am on day 38.  So it took me a little longer to move to the second level.  Yesterday I did a fit test.  I'm not really impressed with my results.  Some of the tests were a little lower than when I started and some are a little tiny bit higher.  And my weight is just 3 pounds less than when I started.  But I have lost inches for sure.

The second level is intense, or should I say, Insane!  The workouts are an hour long now and the moves are a bit awkward and intense.  I have to modify some of the moves.  I don't want to blow my knees out by doing them wrong.

If this doesn't kill me first, I think I should be able to lose a few more pounds with the workouts.  My goal is 7 more pounds.

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Made it to 30!

I have done 30 days of Insanity!  Very proud of myself.  I have only lost 3 pounds, but I have lost inches.  I didn't measure myself before starting so I don't know how many, but I can see a difference.  So I still have 7 pounds to go.  I now enter the week of recovery before I start the final month of MAX workouts.  The final month workouts are longer.  I think they are close to an hour long.  So this will be a bit more difficult.  Hopefully that is what I need to lose these 7 little pounds.