What a Pain...

Have you ever done the splits involuntarily? Well, luckily neither have I. Until Thursday night that is.

Holy Grand Toreno.

I think I pulled my groin. :(

Thursday night was just another regular mommy basketball night. Lots of sweating, a little bit of aggression, and several injuries. It was a blast. At one point I went up for a rebound the same time another mommy from the other team did. Fire works emitted in every direction. It was beautiful.

Not really. It was a mess to tell you the truth. I landed with my right leg fully extended frontwards and my left leg behind me. My right shoe was slick and I lost my footing. I can honestly tell you how a rubber band feels after you shoot it across the room.

Not so good.

My right leg extended so fast that I actually felt the tendon in my groin snap back jerking my entire leg.

OWIE!!!!

Little rubber band men... I vow never to shoot you at unsuspecting victims again. There should be laws against anything snapping back so violently. Actually, I'm sure there are. Probably why several days later I'm still limping like a gimp.

On a brighter note however, the cardio was amazing! Interval training (which has been put on hold for now) and playing basketball has done wonders for my own self image. When I look in the mirror I can actually visualize and perhaps even see a slight change in my torso.

Perhaps I'm starting to sculpt my body.

Perhaps I'm on my way!! :)

Perhaps we should all party!

Love Nichole
ps. My friend Rachel is typing up a no sweets for two weeks contract for me. I've been having a hard time controlling my sugar intake for awhile. I'll fill you in on that another time.

A Bat out of Hell...

Whoa! Have you ever stopped to think about the differences between plain'ol jogging and running sprints? No? Neither have I! Apparently there is a BIG difference. Trust me. I now know.

I was told Monday night that I need to start focussing on building up my endurance for my first Triathlon in May. "How am I to do that?" I asked curiously.

Running Sprints.

Huh.

Then it was explained that I should start out walking for 60 seconds and then run RUN run as fast as I can for 20 seconds. And start over.

Easy right?

WRONG!

Last night I had intentions of doing this for 30 minutes. It's funny how my idea's change as time goes on or I get intimidated by something. My intentions quickly changed to running every other telephone pole as hard and fast as I can and walk the others.

In the dark.

I swear I had people slow down as they were driving wondering why the heck I'm running like a bat out of hell. Was there someone chasing me? Was I running from the law? And then I freaked myself out when I saw a huge stick coming up in front of me.

"WHAT IF I HIT THAT RUNNING AS FAST AS I AM???"

Yah- that would have wiped me out and probably taken my entire face with it. When I do anything I give it my all. Falls included.

So... I'd like you to guess how long my 30 minute venture turned out to actually be.

15 minutes.

I COULDN"T EVEN MAKE 30!!! I was so exhausted that I fell into the door trying to control the urge to vomit. My lungs burned and my abs were on fire. My butt and legs however never felt better!

IT WAS AMAZING!!!

You can bet your chocolate covered mints that I will be out doing that again today... and hopefully for the 30 minutes! My inspiration? If you don't remember... it's this photo of Hilary Swank. I felt incredible and even though I may not look as fit as she does here, I felt like I was. It felt incredible.

Here's the link explaining the reasoning behind interval training- aka sprints.

New Year- New Game Plan!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! And happy new waistline... Or err, not so happy? HAHA! I guess it's safe for me to say that I worked really hard last year to end it with a bang. A bang of chocolate, bratwurst and of course, the infamous flu. Yup. It was that much fun for me, but enough of this last year garbage. It's time for THIS YEARS celebrations!

I am so pumped and rejuvenated about this next year. I can't even contain myself. Literally. While I'm sitting here typing this up in the wee hours of the night, my legs are bouncing all over the place. I'm feeling pretty positive about what I have accomplished last year and what I'm aiming for this year.

Last year in a typed up nut shell:

Something I never owned up to on here until now is that I ended 2009 weighing 280+ pounds. I know. I shiver at the sight of that number myself. Probably why I never put my true starting weight on here to begin with. In April I weighed 269, and today I'm sitting at 237- I think. HAHA!

So yah, it's a gradual weight loss but it's one that I'm uber proud of. I hated myself for how large I had gotten but instead of whining about like I had for years, I decided to make last year different. I decided to change my life. And I have. I feel amazing! :)

This years tentative goals:

Basketball season has started again! Yay! Play 2x a week.

I played for the first time in five years last night. I am sore in places I haven't been sore in for months. For someone who has been working out hard and training for a triathlon all summer this is a lot to say. I think this is the change up I really need right now.

AB class 1x a week.

Triathlon Training starting... NOW!

4 Triathlons scheduled for this summer. As they get closer I'll let you in on what races they are. I do have each race already marked on my calendar but for safety reasons would rather not tell Jo Bob with 6 months in advance where I'll be on what day. ;) (See... I pretend to be smart every once in awhile! hehe!) My first ever will be in May.

INSANITY 2x a week

Resistance Training 2x a week

Scheduled meal plans starting last week.

Shopping with bestie and dicing up the veggies together starting tomorrow.

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I guess we'll see how well that goes. My next actual weight loss goal is to lose another 30 lbs. by June. Then I'll be a hottie with a naughty... attitude. HAHA! :)

If you guys have any suggestions, comments, or even stories I would love LOVE to hear them. Remember I would also love to share someone's personal self-image problems for others to read as well. There are all types of emotional struggles, and the best way to deal with them is to get them out in the open. One person to another. :)

And remember... as you are making your new year resolutions and struggling to button those new favorite jeans that even if you never get down to that next pant size, it really doesn't matter. Because to me, to our loved ones, and to our Heavenly Father... We Are All Beautiful.

Love Nichole
isnt_she_beautiful@hotmail.com

Crash... and Burn

Why hello there everyone. My goodness it's been a LOOONG time since I've been able to just sit on my... no cross that. It's been awhile since I've been able to sit on A COMPUTER and type out my thoughts.

Two weeks ago my life had a very unfortunate event occur that left me broken hearted and very frustrated. Our 6 month old computer's hard drive malfunctioned and we lost EVERYTHING. I know, I know... I should have backed everything up with our external hard drive. Sniff. Sniff. My bad I guess. Needless to say I was a basket case when Best Buy informed me that ALL my weight-loss pictures, my edited play, AND all of my children's photo's and video clips are GONE. GONE!!! :( Like I said. I am broken hearted.

That said this has been an absolutely HORRIBLE month for me and my weight-loss journey. I have had stress after stress bombard me every day for four weeks now and my waistline is suffering. How sad. Not so sad is my taste buds, however. My tongue has been singing a happy tune since the fudge and peppermint have taken up resisdence in my parent's home. MMM. I guess I might as well enjoy it for the next couple of days because starting January 1st I jump into my new regimine.

In the beginning of January I will begin training for my first triathlon. I will also start eating my regular meal plan again. Apparently I am a lady that thrives on structure. With out it I wigg out. I am excited to get back on the wagon and can't wait to see what this next year holds.

That said I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and remind everyone that it's okay to mess up... as long as you get back in check quickly! :)

Love NIKKI

Pain... And Some Sweat

Grunting.

Sweat.

Pain.

Nausea.

Yelling.

More pain.

More yelling.

Salt.

Odor.

Water.

Tonight I had the best work out I've had in a long time. Purple faced and perhaps thinking something not quite appropriate I finished feeling on top of the World. I have never been able to finish all three rotations in our circuit style ninja ab class... but tonight I did. Tonight I fought with several slosh pipes, and old sail boat type ropes. I even fought with a large bouncy ball as I worked on my abs. But I came out on top.


I fought and I achieved. Tonight I was NOT the fat girl at the gym. :)


Love Nikki!!!

A Day for Vegging Out

I am in a foul mood today. I'm not sure if it's because I haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately or if it's the life cycle that is spinning me out but geeze-la-weeze. I could just shoot a horse. Or perhaps become a tornado. That sounds more exciting then shooting a poor animal. Shame on me.

One of my biggest issues when I'm angry is I tend to VEG OUT! And no, not usually with vegetables. When I'm stressed I don't eat at all so my mental status is a little confused. Not usually a good thing for my metabolism.

I feel that Winter fat beginning to hug my wonderful love handles again. I guess today would be a great day to work out and burn my frustration along with some calories. I went to my ab class on Monday (it's been way too long!) and felt the "burn" for two days. Funny thing about that though, it wasn't in my core that I felt the burn. It was my thighs and bottom. Holy bottom I could barely move.

I think today I'll focus on my arms and core once again.

I hope you're all having a better week!

picture came from: http://northeastquadrant.blogspot.com/2010/06/northeast-tornadoes-fail-this-weekend.html

Thanksgiving- How Well Did YOU Do?

To tell you the truth I think that on the actual day of Thanksgiving I did really well. I dished up way more then I could eat, and snacked the entire day. And the pie? I had a few bites of three different pieces. Probably because they were all so good and rich I couldn't handle any more then that.

I guess you can say that ... I may have cheated a little on my own challenge. I did; however not finish my plate of food. I stopped when my stomach revolted against anything else entering it's dark hole of nasty-ness.

With that said I'm on the mend health wise and I only have my son's third birthday and Christmas left to hinder me edibley. (Is that even a word?) So now that I'm all fat and sassy and full of pumpkin spice goodness I think I will begin focusing on my cardio and resistance training once again.

INSANITY- Are you ready for me?

ps. I did black friday this year... and stood in line for 4 hours at Target. I know I'm crazy. Do you think this counted as a cardio or perhaps a leg workout? I mean... My feet WERE sore! HAHAHA! JK!