Back Pain Bummer!

Here is a great article on how to alleviate Back pain! What to do when back pain throws a wrench in your workout.

I have been dealing with pain that is basically on my right side, goes down through my glute and into my hamstring and sometimes radiates to the knee. I have been going to Physical Therapy for about 2 weeks now and even though the pain is still very dominant (sitting all day in a chair at work doesn't help!) I know it will get better.

Make sure you get help in the beginning of a painful episode, maybe it won't turn into a full blown injury!!!

Eating Healthy is the way to go...

So, I decided that the time is NOW to finally lose the weight and really get my body in the shape that it is supposed to be, hourglass!! It is a definite work in progress and eating right is a MAJOR factor.

The past 5 days I have been mostly following the Zumba 5-day Diet plan. Basically for 5 days you eat specific things like an egg and high fiber toast or high fiber cereal and fruit for breakfast and different lunches and dinners. So, I pretty much stayed on track with my food choices except for Thursday's dinner, I ate some rice noodles with my Bangkok Curry with Shrimp from Noodles & Company and Friday night the family wanted Chicken Wings from Buffalo Wing Factory so I indulged! Well, I didn't totally indulge, I only ate 1 order of wings which I usually eat 2.

Well, can I tell you how much my stomach hurt after eating those wings! The curry didn't bother me at all but eating a deep fried piece of Chicken with Peppery Parmesan sauce on it did a number on me!! I had to break out the Alka Seltzer or I wasn't going to be able to sleep at all last night! HA!! I have to tell you, I haven't had to take the Alka Seltzer in almost a week due to eating much healthier foods and I was really disappointed in myself for indulging myself that way. There are many other healthier items that they offer such as salad (minus the cheese) or even a burger with all the toppings (meaning lettuce, tomato, onion). Once in a while will I have a wing from now on and most likely I think I will only grab one or two from either my hubby's or my kid's plates! LOL!!

Needless to say from my weigh-in on Monday morning to my weigh-in this AM I have lost 2 pounds. Nothing near what the Zumba 5-day diet says you can lose (up to 9 pounds which could mostly be water weight). I guess I don't have as much water retention as I thought I did! LOL!!

But, I have been exercising every day except for Monday which I took the day off because Physical Therapy really did me in. Needless to say I was eating no more than 1200 calories per day for the past 5 days and exercising my butt off. My lowest calorie burn was around 350 calories which when eating less than 1200 calories per day makes me wonder why I only lost 2 pounds.

So I present myself with three questions:

1. Am I eating too few calories that is causing my body to hold on to whatever is left after calorie burn for dear life?
2. Am I still eating the WRONG kinds of foods that inhibit my body from shedding the excess weight?
3. Is there something wrong with me hormonally or otherwise that is inhibiting my body from shedding excess weight?

Now, this week I am going to investigate the hollows of the internet to find out what could be stopping me from losing the weight I want to and hopefully shedding some light to help a few of my friends who have those last 10 to 20 pounds they just can't get rid of!

I will keep you updated....

It's been a good week so far....

This week has been pretty good so far...It is HUMP day so I thought it would be a nice update day!

Sunday was an intense workout day, well, my workouts weren't as intense as they could be due to being sick but I did do a 2.6 mile walk and then an hour of Zumba so I would say that was intense enough! HA!

I started the Zumba 5-Day Jump-Start Diet on Monday to see if I could get my body moving into the weight-loss mode. One thing that makes me so mad is that I work my buns off and get no results. I know we go through plateaus but man, they are really a pain in the butt!! So, I decided I am going to try this and see what happens. Surprisingly, I am eating no more than 1200 calories per day and not feeling logy or out of sorts. I guess it is because I am eating the right things! HA!

So, you start off with either an egg and a piece of high fiber toast or a high fiber cereal and a fruit of some sort. You can eat one or the other and swap off each day. Then lunch and dinner are specific per day and I have been utilizing these dinners to make for the whole family. There is no separate meal plans in my house!! It is the easiest way to eat right when everyone else is doing it with you. And besides, there is nothing wrong with making your children eat protein and veggies at dinner!!

I took the day off from exercise on Monday due to the fact that I started Physical Therapy for my aching back, right leg including glute and hamstring and periodically my knee. I was quite sore afterward but it is all going to be worth it when I can exercise, especially run and walk without pain! The PT gave me some exercises to do at home and a standing one to do at work. Have I mentioned I work at a desk ALL...DAY...LONG!!! UGH! Sometimes I really wish I was still on the line gang. At least there I got my daily exercise. Oh, well, LIVE AND LEARN!!

Yesterday I took the ever wonderful Tabata class at Reston Sport & Health. Man, every time I take that class I think, "What the HECK am I doing HERE!" but afterwards when I am still feeling the burn I am happy because I know I am doing great things for my body as a whole, meaning brain, bones, muscles and heart!!

Tonight is Muscle Up but it depends on the Little Miss. If she is napping I will just do one of my millions of exercise DVDs down in the basement.

Here's an idea that I have been having for a while. I think I am going to start doing this. I have many, many, many exercise DVDs that I haven't even worked-out with yet. I am going to start doing them along with my regular workouts but I am also going to review them as I go along. I am sure it will definitely help me to get myself into a better shape than ROUND!! HA!!

What do you thing about that for evolving?!?!

Have a great day!!

What constitutes Evolving?????

So, yet again I fell off the wagon and allowed myself to get WWWWAAAAAYYYY overweight and out of shape. Do I blame it on my running injury? I could but that wouldn't be entirely true. I was allowed to do other exercise except for walking or running and once Aqua Zumba was finished I basically quit! Not a very good thing to do. Even when I was allowed to walk 20 minutes every other day I did it without much umpfff!

Well, that concept is now changed. I am back on track and have been moving pretty much all week. Last Saturday I did the Anthem Great Pumpkin 5k which was my first ever race so I plan to do it every year while I can! My neighbor Shannon and I did a Walk/Run pacing 2 minute walk/1 minute run. I have to say I was very pleased with our time. I wanted to finish around 45 minutes and we did just that! I was a great day for a race and we had a great time participating in it!

On Monday I didn't do too much working out due to not feeling very well and having a sick little girl but I did some stretching and lots of walking up and down the stairs to keep her happy!

Tuesday I took a tabata class at Reston Sport & Health. HOLY COW!! Can I tell you, that class will KICK YOUR ARSE!! It was a lot of fun, very hard but well worth it!!

Wednesday I popped in the P90X Kenpo DVD. Definitely interesting and one heck of a workout. I was sweating like a pig 1/2 way through. I hadn't done that one before so I was in for quite and experience. It is another interval type exercise program but with a martial arts background. I was punching and kicking my way to intense cardio activity!! I really did like it even though I felt totally lost trying to perform some moves, not that the moves were hard because they are all pretty basic, just getting my body to do the move was the idiotic part! Hello, you know how to jump and you know how to lunge, why can't you do it together? AHAHAHAHA!! The DVD was only 35 minutes so I wanted to get a little more exercise in so I popped in a GAIAM Balance Ball workout. Basically using the ball and your body weight to exercise. Hello People! You DO NOT NEED hand weights, your body weight is enough to really give you a good workout. Try putting the balance ball under your knees and doing pushups!! Gravity helps to give you the extra push to many that exercise just a bit harder!! I ended up doing about an hour of exercise so I was pretty happy!!

Last night I decided to go OLD SCHOOL and pop in the DVD from when I first became a Zumba instructor. I went over the basic moves to SALSA, MERENGUE, CUMBIA and REGGAETON. It is very interesting how after so long of doing something with lots of flair and flavor trying to do the basic moves is harder than you think! HA!! I went over the basic moves for about 30 minutes and then did the 20 minute quick fix workout which expanded on those four rhythms. To finish off the workout I practiced my song that I am doing at tonight's Zumba class over and over to make sure I have the moves down with the cuing so no one is lost!!

I am happy to be back exercising but I really need to push myself more to run. I start physical therapy again tonight for my back/leg issue, so hopefully this will help and I will be able to run pain-free!! Fingers crossed!

Oh, by the way I am a Zumba Affiliate so if you want to grab some great Zumbawear at Zumba.com use the code: MEESHW to get 10% off your order!!