♥ SMART Quest ♥ Tues. Feb. 15, 2011

My SMART Quest for today:  Don't give up!  I have been feeling frustrated as I have been so good but I feel my results are slow going. 

I work out so hard and I eat fairly well as one can see by my daily food journals.  Perhaps I am not eating enough?  I now my metabolism is messed up and no amount of eating clean can fix what menopause is messing around with right now.  My only hope is that I can hang on and not give up and pray that my body will come around in all of this.

Today I am going to do Zuzana's Born this way workout!  I really feel like a part of the Bodyrocker community now!  I dont post there, but I love to follow what everyone is doing.  It feels like my old Ageless Abs group except Zuzana has a huge following and it is great!

Awoke: 5:00 am - 6  hours sleep!
Warm up: 5:25 am
Push ups x 8
Squats x 12
Spiderman Climbs x 10 total
Jumping Jacks x 20
Completed 2 rounds

Born This Way Workout

Workout Breakdown

Time: 20min.

Workout Type: Interval training

Exercises: 5

• Sandbag Sumo Squat - do max. reps during 30 second interval
• Plank Knee Touch - do max. reps during 30 second interval
• Sandbag Swing - do max. reps during 30 second interval
• Side to Side Plank Jumps - do max. reps during 30 second interval
• One Leg Squat & Side Kick

Oh my gosh, this workout is really something!  Again, it looks so harmless, but it is killer.  My heart was racing and there was really no time to rest much, whew!  I used 25 lbs weight for both the "Sandbag Sumo Squats" & the  "Sandbag Swing".  The Side to Side Plank Jumps were a bit of a torture for me, I could feel this in my quads, abs, etc.  I still can only go halfway down into the One Leg Squat, but this time I really concentrated on trying not to use a chair.  I had the chair there if I needed it.  I don't think I will ever be able to go all the way down as I have bad knees, but I could really feel this in my calves, quads, glutes, you name it!  I sure was happy when this was over.  If I wasn't carpooling I would have followed it with 12 minutes of Skipping Rope as Zuzana had suggested.

I have to say I was completely out of breath and felt very worn out at the end of this workout!  I felt like I was going to faint, and I was very thirsty!  That was some 20 minutes!

Here are my scores:

Sumo Squats with Sandbag – 17, 17, 14, 16, 17, 16, 15, 17
Plank Knee Touch – 17, 18, 17, 17,
Sandbag Swing – 15, 16, 16, 15, 16, 15, 16, 15
Side to Side Plank Jumps – 27, 31, 37, 36
One Leg Squat & Side Kick – 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5 (only went 1/2 way down)

ZUZANA'S Instructions: Workout - 20 minutes - consisting of 3  4 minute rounds/intervals.
Set your Interval Timer for 6 rounds of 10 and 30 second intervals ( a round is the 10 seconds of rest and 30 seconds of max. effort). 
Complete as many reps as possible for each exercise during the 30 second intervals.
Write your reps down during the 10 second "rest".

In the first part of the workout you will be doing  Sandbag Sumo Squat – with the Sandbag on your left shoulder, Plank Knee Touches, and Sandbag Sumo Squat with the Sandbag on your right shoulder. You will repeat this sequence one more time.
In the second part you will be doing Sandbag Swing – with your left arm, plank side to side jumps, and Sandbag Swing – with your right arm. Repeat one more time.
In the third part you will be doing One Leg Squat & Side Kick – on your left leg, and One Leg Squat & Side Kick on your right leg. You will repeat this 3 times.
Now repeat the first and the second part one more time.

ZUZANA'S scores:Sumo Squats with Sandbag – 16, 16, 15, 15, 15, 15, 14, 15
Plank Knee Touch – 16, 15, 15, 15,
Sandbag Swing – 16, 16, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15
Side to Side Plank Jumps – 43, 42, 36, 35
One Leg Squat & Side Kick – 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 4

MEALS:
Meal #1: 8:30 am -   coffee &  sugar free creamer (30 calories)
Meal #2: 10:30 am -  2 slices uncured turkey bacon, 1 egg, 1/2 sm banana  (180 calories)
Meal #3: 2:00 pm -    5 ozs chicken breast, 1  serving spinach, 1 See's chocolate truffle (yes, I had a chocolate, it was amazing, sigh)  (351calories)
Meal #4: 5:30 pm -  5 dried apricots, 10 raw almonds (159 calories)
Meal #5: 7:30 pm -  4 large grilled shrimp, 4 grilled sea scallops, 3 ozs asparagus, small crust of whole grain bread (250 calories)
Meal #6:  9:30 pm - 1 serving of trail mix (200 calories).  I was feeling very hungry and had only eaten 970 calories so I had some trail mix.

1170 calories total 

WATER:  8 glasses