It's been a rough week

Well, this week has officially sucked. I signed up for extra hours of work and so far I've worked 30.5 out of the 68... I was on call for 12 of them and didn't have to come in. I'll be on overtime the full shift Saturday so I'm hoping I won't have to come in! Anyways, this week has definitely challenged me. I was so happy I didn't come to work Sunday night. I was sick from Sunday to Wednesday. Just started feeling better Thursday. I don't know, must have been a combination of lack of sleep, new medications messing with me, and I cut out sugars and fats so my body retaliated. Either way, this week has sucked and it's not over yet.

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. The work shift has been SUPER busy!!! Gogogo. I finally got a break. But I feel bad, there was no one to watch my kids. Ted was shaking as of Wed night when fireworks started to go off here and there. I'm a little nervous to what I'll go home to tonight. Poor kids probably scared out of their minds. We live right up from the park so it's close proximity to the big show of fireworks and noise.

Ok so the good stuff. Dieting! Has gone great. Sunday I had some Starbucks. Tonight (Thursday night 4th of July--although it's technically Friday morning now) we had a pot luck at work. So I had some chips and a couple bites of cake I shouldn't have. Then I just ate turkey on a piece of croissant bread. So that's the worst of my diet this week. The rest will be clean. I've lost some weight just by quitting the fast food, snacking, and sugary stuff. So that's a plus. And my cravings have for the most part gone away along with the head ache. Switched to smaller portions and I'm getting used to that too. However, due to being sick and weird work schedule, I haven't been eating nearly enough every day so far this week. Hopefully next week will be better. I knew eating 5 meals a day would be challenging.

I decided to use MyFitnessPal.com after some debate. It seems to have more specific food options which I like better. So it's worked out. Add me as a friend on there! I use MapMyFitness.com as well for my Insanity workouts and any other activities that I do. I debated on getting the Fit Bit wrist band which tracks your fitness and some other awesome features as well as a heart rate monitor so I can track how many calories I am actually burning during my work outs. However, I'm saving for a tattoo, a bridal shower for my friend, and surgery. Plus there's the fact that surgery and annual training will keep me from working out for a while so I think I'll save that for Christmas gifts on my wish list this year! I'll be excited once I do get them though. Check them out! They're awesome tools for keeping on track.

Now for Insanity. The workout is insane just like my work schedule. I didn't sleep at all (as usual) Sunday or Monday nights. Monday I was in bed forever probably till 6 pm or so. I felt terrible. However, 10pm rolled around, I didn't want to let myself down so I did my first day of Insanity as planned. It was the fit test. That is no joke!! There's 8 exercises and you do each one for one minute to muscle failure essentially. I had to take a mini break half way through. It was rough. Tuesday I didn't get to workout. I did a nursing class for work 8:30a-4:30p, 3came home passed out 4:30p-6p and then worked 7p-11:0p. Lack of sleep, being tired, and a weird broken up 12 hour shift was not conducive to my work out plan. Then Wednesday came around. I worked 3p-11p so I worked out before work for the second day on the Insanity program. Ridiculous!!!! Ok if there is one thing I hate it's cardio. I'm not a runner, never have been, hell I got a pelvic stress fracture from running. I'm a weight lift kind of girl and I do enjoy the elliptical but that's it. So first day of real Insanity sucked. I stopped a thousand times. My heart rate was definitely upper 160s according to my little pulse oximiter. Went to work then slept from 11:45ish pm to around 8:30a. Still didn't feel well but forced myself to do Insanity day three in the afternoon before work.

It's tough. Even after the fit test I was super sore, especially in my calves. I took a rest day from my weird work schedule. After day two though I was even more sore!! But when you're sore, the best way to relieve it is to stretch and work out some more. So soreness and all, I'm sticking to it. It's a lot a lot of cardio work. I feel like I'm dying and sweating every time and pausing it every 5 minutes. But it's good stuff. I'm definitely excited for it. Shaun T or however you spell the guys name who created Insanity also has Hip Hop Abs which looks fun so I might get that too for an extra kick. But so far 3 days of Insanity down.

It looks like surgery is going to be Aug 5 or 6. So I'll most likely be out of commission from Insanity and other crazy workouts probably a good month which is going to suck. The better shape I can get in now, the faster recovery will be. That's my motivating factor right now. Not to lose weight, not to trim down, not to do anything but get stronger for a quicker recovery. Like I said, this first go 'round I won't be too hard on myself because I've got bigger fish to fry. The good thing is that my diet is going great cutting out all that fatty greasy sugary stuff, the headache is gone and soreness, well I'm pushing through it. I'm excited for the results come the end of this month.

I did take pictures and measurements earlier in the week, but they're on my home computer. I'll post those when I get a chance. You can add me on MyFitnessPal and MapMyFitness to track my progress with me and start tracking your own goals and keeping honest with your fitness/dieting!! Best way to stay on top of it is to journal it and have support. And I think that's helped me a lot so far. Typically I wouldn't even do what I've done this week. It's a stressful ridiculous work week being sick Colin being gone new meds making me feel terrible etc and normally I would have turned to fast food and no exercise, just sleep. Progress is being made!

The kids are getting antsy. I need to get back on track with getting them out of the house 1-2 X a day. It's just been really hot n I haven't wanted to get out of bed. So that will be next weeks goal is doing more with them. That's it! Insanity sucks! I die every time! But I feel great afterwards! I'll have to post some recipes soon. My new fav is cottage cheese. Never tried it in 25 years and it's sooo good. Ok, that's it for now.  Hoping this week ends swiftly and on a good note. Colin comes home Sunday so I'm hoping a lot of this stress will go away.

Have a good day, hope everyone had a good safe 4th eating grilled food, having some beers, and playing with fireworks--without injuries that is. Who knows what the ER is like, I only work postpartum and it was an explosion up here any ways!

-Nic

PS This picture by the way is no joke! Food is my stress relief and exercise is the last thing on my mind. But with all that I'm going through, I feel WAY better after eating good and doing my Insanity work outs. Night and day.