Surprise!

Well, since my shoes are worn out, I decided to stay out of them and do the Yoga Booty Ballet "Hip Hop Abs" workout.

Luke called to say he's coming up for a surprise visit in a few hours. So, we'll meet in Fargo, and I'll buy some new tennis shoes!

Worn-Out Shoes

Today, I decided to get a bit of an earlier start to confirm whether my shoes are really worn out, or if standing on concrete for most of the day yesterday is what did my feet in. After doing the Power 90 "Sculpt" program, I went on a 3-mile walk with Baxter. My shoes are worn out! Officially!

Deep Cleanse

Well, today I continued to work in cleaning and organizing the basement. After using up most of my elbow grease, I had very little energy left for exercise. I managed to get on the treadmill for 30 minutes, but my feet hurt so much already from standing on concrete all day that 30 minutes is all I could manage. Also, I'm convinced that my tennis shoes have finally worn out!

Before the Birds

This morning, my mom had to leave the house by 7:00am for her trip to Texas. Which means, I woke up at 4:45am (after getting a whopping 3 1/2 hours of sleep) to start a pot of coffee and queue up the Power 90 DVD. By 5:15, we were pumping iron with Tony Horton. I was careful to only do as many repetitions as were comfortable so as not to aggravate my neck and shoulder injury from yesterday.

After the strength training routine, I jumped on the treadmill and my mom on the elliptical for 30 minutes.

Today marks the start of week 2, so my mom and I weighed in to see how we are doing. I weighed in at 126.9 pounds. So, in the past week, I've lost 5 pounds. My mother also lost 5 1/2 pounds! We realize this is probably a lot of water weight, and will set our expectations a bit lower for next week's weigh in.

Two Down

This morning I woke up with a horrible crick in my neck! I didn't have full range of motion when turning my head to the right, or tilting toward my right shoulder. My back also hurt. Thanks Power 90! I think I may have overdone my Power 90 "Sculpt" workout, as well as go to bed too soon after completing the workout. My body was still really tense from strength training when I went to bed. I went to the chiropractor this afternoon for an adjustment. Not yet 100%, but feeling much better! Thanks, Stephanie!

My mother's right foot also was in a lot more pain this morning. I had her ice it last night before bed, but it didn't do much good. She went to a local clinic; they determined that it was NOT a stress fracture (which is what we thought it could be), but something to do with her tendons. They gave her extra-strength prescription anti-inflammatory medication and a big boot to wear on her foot for the next couple of weeks. Yep, a couple of weeks.

But are we going to let these injuries slow us down?! No!.... Ok, maybe a little, but only literally slow us down, we are still going to exercise every single day.

This evening, my mother and I did my 55-minute DVD: "Core Strength Pilates" with Trudie Styler. I had been planning to do this exercise program today, day 7, anyway, as it is mostly stretching and very relaxing; a nice, low-impact workout. Both my mother and I were feeling great afterward.

Tomorrow, my mother leaves on a one-week trip to Texas to visit her siblings. I had the lovely challenge of designing a workout schedule for her that works around the limitations of her ankle and large boot! I developed a rotation of: swimming, good ol' Power 90, 60-minutes of mat Pilates, and some elliptical near the end of the week.

Climb and Iron Every Mountain

Wow, what a day! I was a lot more active in my regular activities today, and it wore me out! I spent about 6+ hours cleaning out one room of my parents' basement: the sewing/craft room. I probably exposed of 6 or 7 garbage bags of stuff; filled 2 large boxes with items to give away to a second hand store; and ironed mountains of fabric so as to be easily locatable and retrievable in the future.

Still, I completed the 30-minute "Sculpt" session on the Power 90 DVD, as well as walked 30 minutes on the treadmill. I am going to sleep so hard tonight!

Women Overboard!

My mom's right foot was hurting this morning from the strain of all the walking we have been doing. So, we really changed things up in our routine and went to open swim at an indoor pool to do some water aerobics! 50 minutes worth! I even did some dives off the board at the end. Shout out to Jodi for letting me borrow her swimsuit!

Later in the afternoon, we then did another exercise DVD: "Yoga Booty Ballet: Hip Hop Abs." You know, even though I'm not a fan of doing a number of different exercise DVDs, the nice thing about the Yoga Booty Ballet series is that the instructors are essentially teaching you a routine. They give you one part of the routine at a time and slowly build on, so by the end of the routine, you know what you are doing. And it's fun! I also liked this "Hip Hop Abs" better than the "Cabaret" from a few weeks ago; it's less "Broadway," and more "dance party."