My Goals for 2014

I don't know what has gotten me all fired up with goals this year. Maybe it's to fight the blues from taking over in this most squalid of winters or just maybe I'm all inspired from within. Well, whatever it is, I shall not question and just ride the wave.

So here are my goals for 2014 in no particular order. Notice I did not say New Year's resolutions. Somehow this feels so carved in stone and if I don't do it I'll be a loser of losers, a failure of failures, a characterless person. Goals sound so much more positive and realistic ~ something you're reaching for as opposed to being so resolute you'll never budge. Hmmm. But I digress:

Overarching

• maintain a consistent painting schedule
• maintain a consistent workout schedule
• maintain a consistent Ashtanga/yoga schedule 
• Get thee to your Mysore classes backslider!!! lol!

Painting

• To get more creative and start painting again after I let a couple of years slip by. Which I have! Woohoo!
• To do at least two of the most inspiring pictures I've taken last year. I'm starting small with two as to not overload myself. I even prepped three canvases. Who knew they would be the primary colours!

In the beginning there was Cadmium Yellow Light!

In the beginning there was also Primary colours!

Yoga

• To get an open Baddha Konosana or as I like to say a "Badass" Konasana. I'm hoping to have my knees on the ground by next December. This will open up so many postures for me.
• Be in full frontal splits by the end of the year.
• Widen my side splits. I won't say full, as I have a LONG reach to go!
• Being able to get my leg to face in Supta Padangusthasana ~ because I want to! Is it wrong?!
• A more open, deeper backbend: What would that look like?
– straighter arms in Urdhva Dhanurasana (Wheel)
– a more rounded Ushtrasana (Camel pose) with more open hips and quads,
– and starting to work on Laghuvajrasana
• More lift in my arm balances: being able to consistently get my feet back to bakasana from tittibhasana and a better positioning of the knees on upper forearms for jumping back with dignity instead of a sad flop.
• A cleaner jump through because it'll make me look fly!

Ways to get me there: 
• Always do crow, supta padangusthasana, titti-transition, splits, backbends and wheel with every practice.
• When watching TV sit in butterfly pose, or front splits. Also, practice passive stretches every other night for backbends over a chair with pillow, over yoga blocks, and on my exercise ball to open my back.

Cardio:

• Increase my cardio capacity: What does that look like?

– 1st: Being able to do a Cathe cardio dvd without pausing one iota.

– 2nd: Perhaps being able to do all of Cathe's Step Works without pausing one iota.

– Pinnacle: If I want to go for broke, being able to do Intensity dvd's step portion including the HIIT step portion without pausing! I'm not even going to attempt the other HIIT segments in this dvd as my goal as there's no need to bother. As it is, this one's going for gold. But ya neva know until ya try! As one reviewer said this has NO downtime, even the "moderate" segments are intense ~ it goes from intense to maximum intensity over and over again, no in between. Get it!?!

Ways to get me there: 

• Doing a varied and consistent routine of steady state, metabolic (since it has alot of anaerobic cardio that really pushes plateau's), HIIT's (anaerobic for plateau pulverizing) and Tabata's (app).

Hopefully, I'll remember to check in 6 months from now in July to see how I've been doing with these little goals of mine.

... so practice, make inspiring but realistic and maybe even some unrealistic INTENSITY goals ~ cause ya neva know unless ya try as my friend said, at least it will get ya some ways there! ~ and all is coming.

What Was I Thinking!

... in doing three sets of chest exercises followed by a burn set for!?! My chest is on FIYA and I did the Burn Sets dvd on Sat! I'm realizing this dvd is not a misnomer! I'm living proof of it! I can hardly open and close doors or put a fork to my mouth. Wait a minute, that might be a good thing! I'm not regular at doing weights for my chest and it's also my weak area as it gets sore really easily, though I have no problems doing full push ups whether on the floor or inclined with my feet off the step. But I just wasn't putting my little noodle of a brain in gear to assess this a little further before being so ambitious. Oh well, they say no pain no gain for a reason. Just gotta suck it up sometimes.

I Love Step!!

... Cathe's Party Rockin' Step 2 to be exact!!

OMG, I had a very productive satisfying day. And man it feels goooOood! And Party Rockin' it made it that much better! I got alot done by my standards. Now, I say by my standards as I'm sure others beat me by a mile like my EverReady Bunny, Mom. Who keeps going n going n going! Haha! I can't compare to that! So I do my own thang! So, by my standards it was productive. 

I made a wicked two bean veggie chili. It was supposed to be a three bean chili but I ran out of room! And I had a big pot! (Check out my Recipe section.) Then I did Party Rockin Step 2 followed by Burn Sets Chest, Back & Shoulders. Then as it was my cheat day foodwise I went to my fav fish n chips restaurant and pigged out on my usual "Fish, Ceasar and a Few (chips)" and not to be outdone, chased it all down with my fav dessert "Apple Walnut Crumble with Icecream." I kinda went a little overboard on my cheat and at home had my saved in the freezer Godiva dark chocolate with creamy mint center and, wait I'm not finished yet, along with one melt in your mouth frozen christmas shortbread cookie. I take cheat to the extreme! Then I sketched my composition on my canvas in preparation for tomorrow's creative painting fest. And now watching good ol' TV. So it was a very satisfying day.

Party Rockin' Step 2

Once again Party Rockin' Step 2 was rockin for me. I love this dvd as it has a great fun factor, great music and a great blend of steady state mixed in with Cathe's famous blasts that keep me challenged and my heart pumping. I even noticed that I hardly paused this time around. Actually only one time! Okay, there was two other minor times only to remember the steps quickly, that's it. So, it's great to see my cardio improving. And I think it's due to a more regular ~ trying at least ~ cardio schedule and incorporating more metabolic workouts. ... Oops, but I have a confession, I didn't do the last combo or the complete combos put together at the end. So, sue me!

Burn Sets

Then I followed it with Burn Sets' Chest, Back & Shoulders. Love this disc as it's a traditional strength workout that's the same as I do at the gym. And is very effective in muscle building. With this dvd you work each muscle group entirely before moving to the next and you do three exercises per muscle group doing 3 sets each with the last working to failure using heavy enough weights to peak out at around 10 reps. Then you finish each muscle group with a burn set to totally "burn" the muscle group before moving on. And man, I "burned" those muscles! I know I'll have great DOMS the next day! Yowza! I love this as I don't have to go to the gym every second day. Yeah! ... And I DID do it all!

... so practice, love what you practice and all will be coming!

Back from Miami ... And No Cop Out!

Fortune House, what a beautiful place to stay.
Reminded me of Agatha Christie's Bertram Hotel.

I'm back down from the heights that was Miami! What an experience! I hope and plan for many more in the future. New day, new chapter, I say! However, I've landed like a drug come-down into the dank depths of reality. No fun! ... To counter this see saw highs and lows I've decided there's nothing better than planning. The bible says "Where there's no vision the people perish." I know, I know, sounds rather heavy. But it's helping me to plan and keep my focus so I don't go keening into a real depression. So, I've got three main goals/plans for now: planning and saving for my next vacation, widening my social circles, and artistry specifically painting. By the end of this month I need to have two canvases prepped; by next month a nice big deposit into my vacation fund; and by the next two months getting my butt back to Mysore School and joining some cool groups of interests. This will keep me buoyed up and mind busy to get me through these dull, cold, non-Miami days! Lol! But I digress ...

No Cop-Out!

I finally won mind over matter. And dragged myself to my gym at 9pm tonight. My shadow hadn't crossed it's threshold in almost a month! What with Christmas, a cold, running around in readiness for my Miami trip there just wasn't any time. Besides I was getting great workouts at home. However, there's no substitute for going heavy at the gym. And my legs really need it for therapy. So finally I was able to psych myself to get there and it was no easy task I tell you! You have no idea the war that goes on in my head every Friday to get there. But my head finally won and I did the "Just DAMN WELL do it!" moto. And it worked! Got my butt there and a-kickin. Did my leg extensions for my vastus medialis quads to help my patella track in place. Can do 90lbs and 105lbs now. Did my barbell plie squats at 100lb (down from 105lb) doing 2 sets of 16 plus 4 low ends. I usually do 3 sets but since I haven't been at the gym for about a month I need to ramp up slower. But now that I finally lost the weight (I was NOT going to Miami not at my best, no way no how!) down to my normal 114lbs, my knee braces aren't fitting tight enough and I have to really watch my form. Time for new braces, but with saving for said vacation, I may have to put it off for late summer. We'll see how my knees fair. I did back work, chest pec machine, triceps and abs on the nearly 90° ramp. Wicked! But totally forgot to do my inner and outer thighs! Bummer! I'm going to be SORE tomorrow. I always get sore when I've been delinquent in my weight workouts. Yowza, serves me right!

More Plans

My plan is to do yoga tomorrow, maybe Eion Finn's Power Yoga for Happiness, Strong Free and Happy 53min sequence. As it's got some nice arm balances thrown in and an ashtanga type floor work. Also, has some good warrior holds for strengthening the legs. Then on Sunday, I'm going to decide what two paintings to start and the ground colours to use. And do my step aerobics possibly Cathe's Athletic Step or 4 Day Split High Intensity Step plus shoulders and biceps thrown in.

... so practice planning and DAMN WELLs, and all is coming.

Had a Blast! ...

... tonight with Cathe's Lower Body Blast dvd. Check out my sweaty forehead to prove it. Okay, it could've been sweatier but I kept forgetting I was going to take a pic and kept wiping it off with my oh so cool superstar wristband.

I can't remember where or when I got that thang and discovered it in my drawer just lately. And I'm oh so thrilled it appeared. It's definitely handy, if I do say so myself. lol! And check out the pink nail polish, in the middle of winter no less. Very matchy matchy. I promise it wasn't planned. I was just trying to channel summer. But I digress ...

Lower Body Blast!

I decided to do my new fav lower body workout again. I have a secret, I don't really want to admit to myself. But I think I ramped up my high impact cardio too quickly for my achilles' own good. Humf! So now they're kinda complaining, with their old injury giving me reminders. I get over enthusiastic with cardio as I LOVE step and I LOVE jumping as it reminds me of my old love ballet. I was really good at jumping in ballet. My teachers used to say I had amazing ballon, I had height ~ took air ~ and looked weightless when I jumped. So getting achilles tendonitis or a hint of soreness there is my nemesis as I LOVE to jump. So, I've been really diligent about icing but it seems to be still creeping in. Yuck! With that I've been taking calculated risks trying to figure out how many high impact cardio's I can slip in here or there to assuage me need for speed and before my achilles say it's really time to go grounded now. So I decided Lower Body Blast is now or never. And I must say it was a blast! 

It's a 60 minute funtastic, effective, lower body strength workout that intersperses fat burning cardio blast intervals in between the strength segments. It worked me good! We started out with a warmup into the first cardio blast off the mini step with  repeaters, power 7's, jacks, etc then into the first segment of leg work using free weights, barbell, gliding disks and stretch band for floorwork. And man she worked my legs good with walking lunges Cathe burn style, low step ups to low lunge (really works the thighs and glutes), barbell squats with pulses and low ends (I sub plie squats as they're safer for my knees), barbell plie squats, lunges, sliding warrior lunges, dead lifts, hover squats (killer), you get the drift. Done at an almost non-stop pace with cardio blasts interspersed to keep the heart pumpin and the fat burnin. And all to great music. I felt the burn and Missy Cathe kept my sweat glistening and me wiping with my superstar wristband. Cathe never fails.

P.S. Me hopes I'm still walking tomorrow or the next day! Those DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) can really sneak up on you and take you by surprise. Just like when I did my step aerobics on Saturday (still have to post on that one as I was so proud of myself) using 3 risers instead of 2 and surprise, surprise, my legs were killing me not on Sunday but on Monday!! Ouch!! I haven't had sore quads from step in YEARS!! ~ until those 3 risers kicked in!! Wow!!

... so have fun and ballon and all is coming.

Flex Train Choo Choo!!!

More like Woo Hoo!! Or Whoa Hoa!! Last night Cathe burnt my triceps and shoulder muscles with her new workout Flex Train. Ouch! Yah, that picture on her front cover says it all! She will burn your shoulders silly. And here I was trying to keep to my new workout schedule,

~ Nice huh! ~ but she burnt my triceps and shoulders so bad that the plan to do Ultimate Yogi's Strength was killed quick time. It was a night of rest for me. Travis' penchant for all those power chatarunga's would've took me out in no time flat. Travis and Cathe, you guy's kill me in a good way.

Flex Train

This dvd is one of Cathe's new one's and kind of a hybrid between a high rep workout with metabolic tendencies, shall we say. And it's low impact, great for those times when my knees or achilles get twingy. Also great when I want to top off with a full body weight day with added cardio mixed in at the end of the week after having done a heavy weight day earliery on. This will burn! I have to say these metabolic and high rep workouts are new to me as I tend towards heavy weight work and separate cardio work OR sometimes a circuit workout to top off my week. I find dedicated workouts more productive for me as my muscles don't respond to light weight lifting. And metabolic is notorious for using light weights as it's just trying to up the cardio factor and get a little anaerobic at best to burn fat longterm. But to see muscle growth effects, NOT ~ for me anyway. So I've always tended to view them as "time-wasters" and pooh-poohed them. However, done Cathe style, I seem to be enjoying them, surprisingly. And as long as I use them wisely to top off my week or every 2 weeks not replacing my heavy weight days then I'm golden.

If I remember correctly, actually I should remember this correctly as she just about did in my shoulders. In fact, check out all the shoulder work in this preview alone! She started off with shoulder and I made the mistake on the first exercise when we picked up the 8lb weights, I thought I knew better than her and picked up 10's instead. Well, later on I was really sorry I did that! We went from one metabolic shoulder exercise to another to another to another. Waaaa! I was feeling it! I thought when is this ever going to stop!? Next time, I will obey Cathe's cues if I know best. Then we went to heavy back with 25lb, I did 20lb and then some light let's-burn-the-back work. We continued on with bicep, chest and triceps with legs sprinkled in. Then abs to close. I went heavier on the biceps and didn't do the pulses but did more traditional sets and reps. I have to be very careful not to do high reps or pulses for my biceps as I believe that type of lifting is too stressful for my bicep brachialis tendons. And I don't want to get tendonitis there again.

This was a great workout as it gave me a nice two for one ~ high rep and cardio conditioning. How can I go wrong. And I sweated nicely. The only thing that I fault is that you won't get a leg workout with this. Barely burnt the legs except for the last leg exercise where you WILL feel the burn. But there wasn't enough exercises and heavy enough to warrant it in any way close to a leg workout. All in all Cathe's Flex Train is a keeper!

... practice and all is coming.

Oh My Poor DOMS!

I.am.sore.with.DOMS.all.over.my.body.from.tip.to.stern! I was very good and rested on Wednesday then on Thursday did Burn Set Bi's, Shoulders and Ab's that Cathe was so nice to put as bonus workouts on her XTrain dvd's so you don't even have to get her Burn Set dvd if you don't want to. Though you still have to flip from dvd to dvd to get at them. Details, details. Then yesterday was heavy weight work at the gym and I did back, legs, chest and triceps. And I'm so proud of myself as I'm now at 105lb on both the leg extension machine and the squat rack. Yeah! I think I'll go to 110lb for plie squats next week. However with those two heavy weight days in a row I am SORE! I haven't been this sore all over in ages and no amount of whey protein with added BCAA's is putting a dent in it. Ha! My shoulders ache, my chest aches, my lats aches, by ab's burn, my biceps ache, my inner thighs ache! The only muscles that don't yelp at me yet are my triceps and quads BUT they may just be biding their good old time only to bite me in the butt tomorrow. They don't call it delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) for nothing. But I digress ...

Cathe's XTrain Burn Set Bi's and Shoulder's 

XTrain Burn Sets is one of Cathe's newer dvds which I did for the very first time on Thursday. I actually don't have the dvd but she's so amazingly generous that she added them as bonus workouts on her other XTrain dvd's so I did her Burn Set Bi's added as bonus on her Cardio Leg Blast dvd ~ the full workout no less, no short changing here. And Burn Set Shoulder's added as bonus on her All Out Low Impact HIIT dvd. And I think it's now going to be one of my favourite heavy weight dvd workouts. It's exactly the way I like to work with weights as I like to go heavy. And this way allows for that along with the rest periods in between sets.

 

 

How she does it is for each muscle group we do 3 different exercises plus a burn set to really burn and work the muscle to submission. This allows for really good gains. For each exercise we do 2 sets with a goal of 10 reps so you should go as heavy as you can for 10 reps. Then you do the third set to failure. On the failure set you shouldn't have your weight too light that you could go past 15 reps and too heavy that you can't go past 5 reps. Then after those 3 exercises you do the burn set finisher. It was awesome and I new my muscles were worked and I'd be feeling it the next day. I liked the exercise choices she used for biceps and shoulders, they are the one's I find the most effective and that don't strain my tendons. Like incline bench biceps curls my tendons HATE and I won't do. And she didn't do them. Yes! And she didn't do the front close grip close to the body barbell raises for the shoulders that my scapula muscles despise. Thank goodness it's not a popular exercise anymore anyways. I did cheat and skip a set in the biceps and shoulders as I need to be careful with my bicep tendons and I needed to work up to this dvd. lol! Awesome and effective. Cathe did it again!

... practice and all is coming.

My Lazy Week 2 Schedule and Post-Mortem

Well I followed my Friends Week 1 Schedule with some few tweaks. Here's the original schedule:

If Out With Friends:

SAT: Gym Legs & Back work (See how my wrists handle the weights. Got a bit of wrist issues)
SUN: Home Practice
MON: Step (Cathe Friedrich: 4 Day Split Higher Intensity Step)
TUES: Mysore
WED: rest
THURS: Out with Friends
FRI: Home Practice
SAT: Gym Legs

Here's what I ended up doing. Still got my goals in there though I had to flipflop: 

Post-Mortem:

SAT: Gym Legs & Back work (my wrists handled the weights with flying colours!)
SUN: Step (Cathe Friedrich: 4 Day Split Higher Intensity Step + Namaste Yoga Season 1, Ep11, forward fold to lunge to standing splits sequence. That's such a nice flowy stretch sequence, perfect for post cardio. And my hips and hamstrings were nice and opened after jumping around. Felt amazing!)
MON: rest
TUES: The Rocket DVD (couldn't make it to Mysore, had to work late)
WED: Friend reunion. Totally fun!
THURS: Mysore (totally awesome, had the teacher all to myself at the end. Nice!)
FRI: Too.Much.Grocery.Shopping.Yikes!
SAT: rest
SUN: The fun and fab Finding Your Lift Workshop

Here's My Lazy Flexibility Reigns Week 2 Schedule:

MON: nada!
TUES: Gym Legs and Back
WED: nada!
THURS: Mysore
FRI: hmmm ... will see
SAT: hmmm ... be flexible
SUN: hmmm ... flexibility reigns supreme

Lol! Gotta have some lazy flexible weeks where you do what you feel. I may wake up and feel like yoga or I may wake up and feel like jumping around. And that could even change as the day wears on. Who knows my hmmm days may turn out to be VERY active AND flexible.  ; )

My Wishful Scheduling

Here's my first wishful scheduling for this week. I wanted to go to my Mysore class tomorrow or rather today but my shoulder muscles are too sore due to an unplanned week off on vacation to beautiful Quebec. I had all good intentions of doing my yoga there, brought my mat and all, but only got one practice in before distractions set in. What are vaca's for. I'm quite undisciplined. Another thing I'm still working on. lol! So with that and taking my led primary yesterday then coming home to some chatarunga holds and practice tuck, jump backs, I did my shoulders in. Ouch! My wee shoulders are a bit DOMSy (delayed onset muscle soreness). So schedule gets a reshuffle like this:

If Out With Friend:
SAT: Gym Legs & Back work (See how my wrists handle the weights. Got a bit of wrist issues)
SUN: Home Practice
MON: Step (Cathe Friedrich: 4 Day Split Higher Intensity Step)
TUES: Mysore
WED: rest
THURS: Out with Friend
FRI: Home Practice
SAT: Gym Legs

If NOT Out With Friend:
SAT: Gym Legs & Back work
SUN: Home Practice
MON: Step (Cathe Friedrich: 4 Day Split Higher Intensity Step)
TUES: Mysore
WED: rest
THURS: Mysore
FRI: Gym Legs
SAT: Rest

etc. etc. ...