Day 17- An Adventure

So tomorrow I am flying to UVA to visit their law school for admitted students day weekend. I'm pretty excited about it, but as far as PCP goes, I'm kind of scared. I'll be staying with a student, so I think it might be a little awkward if I start pulling out resistance bands and my jump rope. Therefore, I'm already planning on skipping the exercises for Friday. I'll just be there Thursday, Friday and come back on Saturday. So I can work out Thursday morning before my flight and then Saturday night when I get back. I'll just miss Friday which I plan to make up for on Sunday. The only thing I can't make up is the day of missed jumping rope. I'm interested to see how much one day without it affects my "skills" (yeah right). It might not be perfect, but it'll have to work.

As far as diet goes, there's not really much I can control while I'm there. I'm going to pack some apples and whole wheat bagels, but other than that, I'm at the mercy of my host. And whatever food UVA serves at the various functions of the weekend; which is a whole 'nother matter. I know a lot of it will be buffet style food, which could be the death of me. I'll do my very best to stay away from those pesky sweets that always seem to be calling my name. But I'm sure pretty much everything will be loaded with salt. And I probably won't get my protein because I don't eat any meat but seafood, and I can't really see them serving fish.

I'm just mentally preparing myself now, so that I won't weaken my resolve when I'm there. I know this will be a minor set back in my progress on PCP; I hope it won't throw me off too much.

As far as my jumping rope goes, I was not able to repeat my miraculous feat of yesterday, but I definitely can still see progress. I can usually go for at least 200 jumps at a time without tripping up, even towards the end when I'm worn out. This is a huge improvement from even a few days ago, when my form would always get worse near the end.

I hope everyone has a good weekend (mine's starting a little early this week). Hopefully I can stay in a PCP state of mind while I'm away!

Day 16 THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX!....

...That is how many jumps I made it to before I tripped up. Now this may not seem that impressive to those pro-jumpers, but to me it was amazing, wonderful, fantastic!!!! It was so nice to have that rhythm and just push through the slight burn in the calves. Of course after I tripped up, I tripped up a few more times before I made it to 800. But I think my calves are getting stronger and my rhythm is getting better, all making a much more enjoyable jumping rope experience. I just read Patrick's email about alternatives to our jump rope workout, but at this point the other suggested activities seem much more time consuming than jumping rope. And I like noting my progress each day. There may come a day where I might faint at the thought of one more jump, but I am no where near that point yet. It's a perfect way to start my day. I jump on the porch of my apartment, overlooking the wooded area behind campus. It's relaxing and almost meditating to be outside so early and have nothing to do but jump a pre-determined number of jumps.

Day 15

Today is the first day I've had a really bad chocolate craving. I could practically taste the sweetness and feel the sugar rush that would follow. But the knowledge that at some point there will be an indulgence, that this is not a 90 day chocolate-free zone, makes it easier to say no. I know eventually I'll get a morsel of that chocolate-y goodness of my choosing (brownie? piece of cake? mmmmm-so many possibilities). And seeing the results of all this hard work also makes it easier to say no. I'm so excited to see where I'll end up in 90 days. Honestly at this point of any workout/diet plan, if I'd gotten this far in progress I would be satisfied and quit pushing myself. But now I have the motivation to continue on.

I was going to post a picture of something ridiculously sweet and delicious looking, but I decided that would just be cruel. So here's a pic of something that looks adorable made from healthy food! YUM

Day 14 Freedom ends...

Today's the end of Spring Break, so I drove back up to school today. After I unpacked I went to the grocery store, loaded up on veggies and came back and steamed a bunch. And boiled a lot of noodles. So now I have a pretty good stack of food that should make things easier this week. For dinner I had noodles with veggies and shrimp. Not too bad, the shrimp were delicious!

I'm exhausted today due to some Spring Break fun last night. But I did my 800 jump ropes this morning! They are still a challenge for me, but it's such a sense of accomplishment to be able to do so many at one time! I'm glad the number isn't being upped again tomorrow though. 800 is definitely enough for now. My workouts are going better since my last post. Patrick's tip about sit ups should make a huge difference.

I can't believe it's already day 14! This past week flew by.

A Difficult Day 12

Today was not the best day. Is it bad when I think I've already hit a wall with PCP on only day 12? The jumping rope this morning did not go well at all. I think it had to do with my lack of energy (I didn't sleep well last night) and the fact that I'm still struggling with finding the right rope. My new rope keeps getting twisted no matter what I do, and so I went back to my old rope today. But it's way too light and I wasn't used to it anymore. So towards the end I think I was stopping about every 10 jumps because I kept smacking myself. I bought a new jump rope today and this is it. If I still have trouble I need to just pick one and work with it. I think this newest one is a good mix between the other two so I have high hopes!

The strength exercisers were not my best either. I strongly dislike squats. I get so bored of doing that repetitve motion that gives my legs such a burn. But I still do the max reps on those because they're not actually that difficult, just boring and slightly painful. I still don't have an option for the incline pull ups. I know I need to get moving on that! I'm hoping once I get back to school, the gym will have something I can use. The push ups were ok, I think I'm improving with the bars. I definitely could not do the max reps on those though. I could barely do the minimum! It's hard because just when I'm able to do the max reps on an exercise, they're upped so that it's a never ending struggle! I know that's on purpose though, so you're constantly challenging your muscles. The curl ups and Davincis were ok. My lack of energy made them more difficult than usual. And the sit ups were the biggest challenge of all. First of all, I hate sit ups. Yes, I used the H word. I have the hardest time keeping my feet on the ground. I'm been bracing my feet against my bed stand for support. I don't know if this is cheating or not, but if I don't do that, I really can't do a proper sit up after only a few reps.

Sorry to be such a downer. I'm keeping the blog honest, and I had to share my frustration. But enough with the negative. Now on to the positive. I think that it's ok that I hit a wall today. In fact I think that'll happen a lot throughout these 90 days. The important part is to push through it and continue on. And I can already tell my workouts are paying off! We did side planks in yoga yesterday, and they were so much easier than usual! I know I owe a lot of that to my dreaded sit ups. So that is why I think that I might grow to love all these ab exercisers that I dislike so much right now, or at least appreciate them more. And even though the diet is stressful (figuring out my meals) and time consuming (preparing my meals) at this point, I know it'll get easier as I get better at cooking and become more creative. The past few nights I've gone to bed a little hungry and instead of getting something to eat like I normally would, I just go to sleep. It's not that bad.

And reading all the other PCPr's blogs helps so much! I can always count on Ren's blog for a laugh, and Brian's for support and inspiration! So thanks everyone and please keep writing!

Day 10 sore, sore, sore...

...okay, I'm mainly just sore in my back. When i push my shoulder blades together, there is some quite intense soreness going on in those muscles! All these strength exercises with the resistance band are really working me hard! And using the push up bars is still a lot of extra work, but I'm pushing through (haha)!

I'm trying to find as many recipes as possible, so I won't be struggling for variety in my diet when I go back to school. It's been easier at home, because I have the time (and my mom) to help me figure everything out. But I know as soon as I get back to school, it's going to be a lot more complicated. Knowing this makes me happy I'll be at home for the last month of the program!

Day 10 means we're 1/9 through PCP!

Day 9

Last night I got a stomach virus right as I was about to go to sleep and proceeded to lose just about everything I ate yesterday. It sucks that I consumed all that food only to lose it a few hours later! But I felt fine today and did my workout as usual. The jumping rope went fairly well. My left calf was a little sore so I had to work through that. The strength exercises are getting more intense. I can definitely feel it working the muscles in my back!

I'm still having confusion with the diet. For example tonight I'm having a sweet potato as my vegetable portion for dinner. But it also has a lot of carbs in it. So does it count as carbs also? For tonight I'm going to say it does and eat some cereal to make up for the rest of the carbs.

I was very happy to read Patrick's email today and see that honey can be a treat once in a while that I won't have to feel guilty about! And cottage cheese! But I'm really sad that peanut butter is a no-no for these 90 days. It's one of the staples in my normal diet (PB+Js, yes sometimes I still have the taste buds of a 5 yr old).

I went on a nice long bike ride around the island today and then to another yoga class at that same place I mentioned yesterday. I'm already dreading the end of this vacation!