Day 5 (Just Like Mommy.)

6:15 am- Breakfast. Yeah baby, we had food in the house! I went for:

Cinnamon Pecan Special K (Special K is a staple in my morning routine)

2% milk

A rather green banana

(bananas for me are the perfect morning food. they are super quick and easy, take about 30 seconds to eat, and are nice and healthy as well.)

*Everyone is always saying these fruits are good for me. Because I wanted to know exactly why this banana was so fantastic, I looked it up on http://www.nutritiondata.com. It said, "The good: This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Potassium and Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin B6. The bad: A large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars."--I decided I had no problem with some natural sugar in my breakfast.

9:00 am- Back to Tracy at Anytime Fitness in Chesterland. I was very worried that I was going to get in trouble for a couple minutes late to observe training, but to my surprise and relief, I walked in a couple steps ahead of both Tracy and Courtney. Today was "Plyo Day," short for Plyometrics. The short, sweet definition of Plyometrics a la http://www.dictionary.com, "a type of exercise using explosive movements to develop muscular power, especially bounding, hopping, and jumping." Basically,Tracy had Courtney do a circuit of roughly ten exercises three times, with very little break in between. These exercises included jump-squats with a bar, scissor jumps, roll-outs on one of those "magic balls" I raved about in a previous post (for roll-outs, think of the Ab Roller that's always advertised on TV. Start in modified push up position, with forearms on the ball and back straight. Slowly roll forward with your forearms on the ball and abs tight, then roll back. Sounds easy, but it didn't look so pleasant when Courtney was literally on the verge of tears by the second round.). Basically, it was a mix of a lot of different types of drills that I used to do at soccer all the time. What struck me most about this observation day was that although Courtney clearly wasn't enjoying herself, and was being pushed to her limit, she never complained. Tracy would tell her to do something, Courtney would process it in her own mind for a second, and then dive right in, not matter how much she was dying. Her positive attitude and concept of "the big picture"--knowing that she was doing this for herself in order to reach the level of fitness she desired. Even though it hurt then, she'd feel great about doing it after she was finished. I decided I needed to talk to Courtney more, and find out how she stays motivated and positive. i could use a little bit of her spirit when I am out on my own trying to stay healthy.

11:00 am- Lunch.

Small square left over lasagna from my brother's dinner the previous night

1-1.5 servings Cookies n Cream ice cream (I never can really eyeball a serving of ice cream. I know it was somewhere in that range.)

1 clementine (I love these fruits because they are so easy to eat and manageably sized. There are no seeds, they are super easy to peel, and they are small, so they can go anywhere. That is not to mention the fact that they are absolutely tangy and delicious.)

12:30- I went up to Hawken to fill out my AP Art forms, and found I was still hungry. I ran over to the lunch room with my friend, Kelly, and we grabbed fudge sickles. They were nice and cool in the 80 degree weather, and were a good, light treat.

2:00 Lifting with Nurse Gali. Oh my, I have never felt so weak in my life. Granted,I haven't touched a dumbbell since February 16, and it is now early May. I couldn't expect to be even close to full-form.I asked to do arms because it was the part of my body I was feeling most self conscious about with my lack of muscle. So, we focussed on biceps and triceps. We basically did 3 sets of 3 exercises for each, plus abs at the end. I began with bicep curls, and managed to make my way through 3 sets of 15 reps using 15 pound dumbbells. Then, it kind of all came crumbling down. The two exercises I had the most trouble with were preacher curls and skull crushers. Preacher curls involve hanging your arm down along an inclined bench and curling up. It doesn't sound so hard, until you are on the second and third sets and Nurse Gali has to assist you in getting the weights all the way up. Yikes. For skull crushers, which are a tricep exercise, you lay on your back on a flat bench and hold the weights at 90 degrees above your head, then slowly lower them to next to your ears, and come back up. The most embarrassing part of that for me was having to go down to the 8 pound weights. In my prime, I would chuckle at the girls next to me using 8s as I pounded all of my exercises out with 15s at the lightest. Those days were gone. We finished with abs that were a modified version of "up-down-in-outs." The cool and kind of unique thing about those was the fact that instead of laying on the ground, I was hanging. I walked out of the weight room with my arms throbbing, but was glad I did it. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. And trust me, I admit it, I'm out of shape.

4:15- I was about to go to Retro Aerobics, which I will get to in a minute, and I knew I would need a snack to carry my through. Instead of going the non-filling, empty calorie route like I saw my brother and sister doing (no offense guys), I went for protein and fruit-

Yoplait Light Blackberry Yogurt

ReddiWhip Light

Handful Dried Fruit
Then, I ran out the door.

5:30- "RetroRobics" at Urban active. When I was little, I would always go with my mom to the YMCA to her Aerobics and Step classes, and stand in the corner and do the moves along with her. They played this awesome dance-y 90s music (that I still have on my iPod today because it brings back such memories.) like "Another Night" by Real McCoy, and "Sweet Dreams" by La Bouche. So, I saw this class offered at Urban and I immediately thought of her. The class was significantly smaller than ZUMBA!--Ahhh more space to move around! The instructor was a tall, thin, very peppy woman wearing hot pink and black spandex pants and a fanny pack. It was just as I remembered it. The music that played was, unfortunately, not my classic jams. But is was still good and really fun and upbeat--mostly Lady Gaga, which I was perfectly alright with. For the first half hour, the class was constant moving and jumping. The instructor saw that there were a lot of different age ranges and physicalities in our class, so she began to break everything into levels. Level one was low-impact. They walked versus jogged and stepped versus jumped. Level two added more bounce and energy. Level three only came out on certain songs, but one of the level three moves was this high kick out to the side and immediately jumping into the same move on the other side. To my joy and dismay, I got it after a couple of tries, and it felt great. Now, let me just tell you, a half hour of this class was killing me. ZUMBA! was a good workout, and great fun, but this was killer. And it was completely in disguise. I guarantee the people who could see us through the window did not comprehend the difficulty of what we were doing.

Thankfully, after 30 minutes, we switched gears. She turned off the lights and told us to grab mats and weights. Ohhhh no. I had already lifted today, and I was not up for round two. I grabbed some 5 pounders and decided to take it easy. For the second half hour, we combined stepping and squatting and lunging with lifting weights. We finished with this awesome ab workout that I could feel more than any ab exercise I had ever done. This class, I decided, was definitely getting added to my regular schedule.

7:30 Dinner at Mongolian BBQ on Coventry. This is arguably my favorite restaurant (besides Melt, the grilled cheese restaurant that is expanding from its original Lakewood location and putting a second one on the corner of South Taylor and Cedar in Cleveland Heights. I could not be more excited.) so I was beyond excited. I met my brother and mom there, and he and I walked up to the food bar to make our bowls. I loved that I could choose exactly what I was eating. There was the control thing coming out again. I went for crab, calamari, baby corn, snap peas, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, brown rice, and teriyaki sauce. They brought out tortillas with the meal, so I used two of those for a different way to eat some of my meal. I finished the rest with a fork, the old fashioned way. The meal was delicious. I also had my three diet cokes that I always have when I go out to eat. I left the meal feeling satisfied, and happy for getting to spend time with my family who I really hadn't seen all week.

12:00 am- I want ice cream...
After returning from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon," I knew I was hungry. My stomach was rumbly throughout the whole second half of the film. I walked through my door and went right for the cookies and cream ice cream. A nice big bowl of that was exactly what I needed to get me through til breakfast.

Reading Material

The verdict on pop. Alright, so here it is, the answer to one of my most burning questions. "Why is everyone so down on my Diet Coke!?" The Diet for Teenagers Only makes this point on page 157,"If you only do one thing after you've read this book, do this: Stop drinking sodas, especially diet sodas!"..A stake through my heart.."Diet sodas are full of artificial sweeteners, colors, and flavors--nothing is natural. Plus, sodas can mess up your body!"

The book goes on to say 4 things that sodas do to you.

1) Your bones become weaker. Yes, I have heard that, and actually, I asked my bone doctor about it when we were trying to get my fibula to heal. He said that unless I'm drinking bathtubs full of it every day, it shouldn't prove to be an issue. That being said, my bone never did heal, so I guess the jury is still out on that one.

2) You're At Risk for Developing Type 2 Diabetes. This one only counts for drinks with sugar in them, so we are going to throw this one out, because it is not applicable to my beloved diet coke.

3) You Might Get Cellulite. To me, this one sounds far fetched as well. The book says, "The thickness of your skin, your age, and genetics all help determine whether you'll develop cellulite, and how much. But eating less saturated fat (fatty meats and fried foods), drinking more water, and avoiding diet sodas might reduce cellulite." That's all fine and dandy, but there was no explanation or medical reason why avoiding diet soda has anything to do with cellulite. Until I see some cold hard evidence, I am skeptical.

4) The caffeine can make you fidgety and anxious. "Too much caffeine can give you the jitters and lead to insomnia"...I have a "friend" who might be experiencing some of those things...

Alright, so even though these arguments weren't quite up to par in my humble opinion, I have made a decision. For weeks 2-5 of this project, I will be cutting out pop completely. Everyone says it's so bad for me, and I want to see if I actually feel a difference in 4 weeks of being pop free. If the affects are noticeably positive, then I will try to stick to the system, or at least drastically cut back on the bubbly, artificially sweetened cans of goodness. If nothing changes, it's back to the old ways. How about them apples?

P.S.

Quote of the day, and one that I need to remember and revisit more often than I do:

"There are 3 billion women who don't look like supermodels and only 8 who do. Love your body."- The Diet for Teenage Girls Only, excerpted from an ad by The Body Shop.

See everyone on Monday for the start of Week 2!