technical difficulties

I have comments enabled on here but it doesn't show on my front page. You have to actually click the title of the post and go to the individual entry page. Does anyone know how to change this?

Thanks! xx

- Desperate Student

workout du jour

I thought I would share my outfit today as it was entirely Christmas presents. The pink shirt was from my parents, the yoga pants were from Dad to Mum but they were just a little too small. I get her workout clothes that are just a little to small until she can fit them again (she's doing the elliptical twice a day so I'm sure I'll lose custody soon). Okay, on to the workout!

1 hr Elliptical, 600 cal, 5.3 miles
Unfortunately this is all I got to do today. The hubby is still having major problems with his knee but refuses to use anything but the treadmill, and so was hurting too bad after an hour to keep on. I totally respect where he's coming from, I'm not really a fan of the elliptical, but I know my limits. My lower body is feeling the last few days and and hours worth of cardio i don't particularly enjoy is better than none.

This is my hand grippy thing. I really have no idea what it is actually called, nor what I should be calling the exercise that you do with it. All you do is squeeze it. You really feel it in the forearms. I need to do this because my pullups get slowed down by my weak hand grip. It was another Christmas present, from my lovely fiance. I'm going to make it my goal to do minimum a hundred squeezes per hand per day. Since I didn't do any form of weights today I'm going to aim for 300/hand. I'll let you know if I make it tomorrow ;)

Being New Years Eve and all I'm not expecting to eat clean tonight. Food is a tricky subject for me, I really don't like diets. I like to eat clean for the sake of training, but I also like to enjoy food. So that is what I'm going to do tonight. The hubby is making supper which will be great - he is an amazing cook. And dessert will be my weakness, chips and dip! Yum.

Song of the Day:

Dance (A$$) Remix with Nicki Minaj - Big Sean

It's pretty vulgar, consider that your warning! But for my ladies working on their backside, it could help get that last little bit of effort out of you that's been hiding just out of reach ;)

Happy New Years to everyone! xx

- Desperate Student

One Resolution Acheived, and it's only NYE

One of my goals for this year was to pick up a hobby, probably knitting. I decided to start out making a small scarf for my hubby to wear out in the field (they can wear just about anything out there in the winter, as long as the color matches their uniform).

I stopped by wal mart on boxing day and picked up some camo wool and knitting needles and got to work.  Unfortunately my nana lives about 5 hours away so I didn't have her help. She's awesome at knit and crochet because her mom used to own a wool store. Instead I used this video off of youtube that I found very helpful. It shows how to cast on, knit, cast off. The basics.

There were some SERIOUS problems with my little project. First, I thought to be big enough a scarf needed about 50-100 knits. Turns out it only needs about 12 and so I wound up knitting the scarf width-wise instead of lengthwise. This and my general lack of knitting skills made the scarf really short and really curved. To combat the shortness I added a button on it, to fasten through one of my many dropped-stitch holes. This 'mistake' was actually a great thing, and my fiance -who doesn't normally wear scarves- likes this size of it so much that he wears it almost every day. My next knitting goal is to make him another (longer) scarf with one row knit, one row purl stitches. I want to master the purl stitch so that I can move on to other, non scarf projects! So far I haven't been to good with it and I had to unravel a good five inches of knitting haha.

UPDATE:

I took the first step and emailed the boxing club I was hoping to join in my town. Will soon found out if this is something I can afford and if the scheduling will fit with my classes! Can't wait.

spring chick challenge seems like a cute + fun way to share experiences

Name: Desperate Student ;)

Blog URL: desperatechubbystudent.blogspot.com/
Age: 21
Location: Canada


Goals
non-scale victory: increase 1 rep max for deadlift, improve time for 5k, fit into skinny jeans, improve number of consecutive push ups, get a full unassisted pull up.


exercise: maintain crossfit 3x/week, run one 5k/week increasing monthly, join a boxing club, begin taking part in other exercise programs offered at my school gym esp. yoga and swimming.


nutrition: slowly make paleo diet changes, attempting to remove majority of grain products. Drink min. 8 cups of water / day (juice + protein drinks count depending on what they are). Switch to egg whites only.
avoid bingeing.


starting weight: About 140
target challenge weight loss: 125-130

I look forward to supporting and being supported by everyone taking part. From what I've seen everyone has really great but also attainable goals. Looking forward to being inspired by everyones success!
xx

- Desperate Student

Surya Namaskara - Sun Salutations

03. 30/12/2011, Friday, 2242hrs 

Today wound up being a rest day, although not on purpose. My right ankle, left foot shin knee, are both hurting while the fiance is having lower body pain as well. I have excuses but I'm not going to share them here, because excuses won't make me fit! I did do the yoga routine I mention in this entry so at least I wasn't couch - potatoing all day. While I do wish I had made it to the gym, regrets are a waste of time so I'll just move on and do better tomorrow! xx

02. 30/12/2011, Friday,1150hrs

Ran through it after a little breakfast. Felt GREAT on my sore muscles! Will def. keep this one up, suggest it for anyone about to work out / just woke up/ sitting on the couch doing nothing instead of something (that last one is me haha)!


01. 30/12/2011, Friday, 1100hrs
^ new attempt to format the blog. I'm still not comfortable with how I'm posting. I thought maybe only one post / day, and updates would go above the original entry with date / time so they are distinguishable. also numbers because i like how o number looks.


INFORMATION, PICTURES AND VIDEOS FOUND AT eternity-yoga.com.

Eventually I want to regularly attend the yoga classes held at my school, but until then I thought incorporating sun salutations into my mornings and warmups would be a great way to start. My body is telling me today that my stretching (or mostly lack-there-of) is not sufficient at the moment. The information that I am going to be including in this post will, I hope, be an interesting read, but I highly suggest you go to the eternity-yoga.com website and read everything over as it is very informative, well written, and contains a lot of information that I chose to leave out hear. The purpose of this is mainly a reference point for myself in future rounds of sun salutations. Felt like I had to share that so I didn't dupe anyone into thinking this was informative or anything, haha.

- performed at the beginning of a yoga session as a warm up
- several rounds is sufficient for a complete routine. easy gentle way to increase circulation and decrease stress.
- better a hot room than a cold room
- important: DO NOT STRETCH BEYOND YOUR ABILITY. Flexibility comes with time, forcing it won't work and your only gunna hurt yourself, girl.

Image of the routine/poses:

photo credit: eternity-yoga.com

Video of the routine:

video credit: eternity-yoga.com

Revelation

02. Todays Workout:
30 minutes treadmill
I usually keep it at a comfortable jog (4.5) so today I started at 5.0 to push myself a little. About fifteen minutes in I went to 5.7 for five minutes, then between 4.5 and and 5.0 for the remainder. Warm up was stretches and walking around the gym.
3 sets 10 reps v-sits
8 kg medicine ball
3 sets 10 rep jumping pull ups
using a stand to reach the pullup bar that I didn't realize wasn't properly put together. it fell apart on my second rep of my first set, I fell straight on my ass. Very funny, very thankful no one else was around.
3 sets 5 reps sumo dead lifts
this was just to pass the time, weight was 12kg and under.
About 20min sparring with fiance, hitting heavy bag, speed bag
very, very, very fun. must actually join boxing club. i hurt my pinkie knuckle and im calling it my first war wound (it isn't serious at all).


01. I've lost five pounds this holiday season. Yesterday was the first day I exercised, and I haven't been eating clean. This means that I had five pounds of muscle mass to lose, which is kind of cool. Ready to put it back on.

Trying to make my fitness goals a little more tangible so that they are more easily tracked and I have a CLEAR goal instead of a 'moveable finish line'.

Thought:
Jan: Run 5k at least once a week
Feb: Run 5k at least twice a week
March: Run 5k at least three times a week
April: Begin running between 8 and 10k at least twice a week.

always work on improving times.
if needed distance can be raised.

It's Ten O'Clock in the Morning..

My fiance and I decided that from this point on in our break we're going to go to the gym together each day. Yesterday I did a 5k (I know you could just scroll down and read that but it feels nice to say). He did some running, lifting and the jacobs ladder machine but then we ducked out early because his knee hurt.
About a month ago now he was playing flag football with his unit when he was hit (funny, I thought the point of flag was no contact? not how he tells it). It got worse for a week until he had to go to the doctor who gave him a chit to last until christmas holidays. It scares me that it's still bothering him despite how long its been, especially since I just found out my dad will probably need surgery in his knee after hurting it in a badminton competition about a month ago.
So the injury is the reason that I am letting Mat sleep in despite it being 1040 in the morning. Maybe some rest will make it feel better and then on top of that I can convince him to hit the elliptical or the stationary bike instead of the treadmill.
Another thought: I've seen a lot of runners call the treadmill the 'dreadmill'. Anyone know why? Just curious, I love the tread.

Since I have some time to kill waiting on my sugar bear I'm going to share my injury history.
Two summers ago I was doing my basic training with the army and I had to stop midway through because of severe pain in my feet. It took them a while to find the stress fractures and by the time they realized what was causing it they had spread to my shins, as well. Stress fractures are a bitch. There really is no treatment except to get off of them for.. oh one to ten months. You heard me right. I left basic to go back to school for the year and TEN MONTHS LATER I have healed up a LOT but still not 100%. So I've been off training for almost a year. On top of that the only way to prevent stress fractures is to do the exercise that causes them, slowly building up, as STRESS fractures are caused by EXCESS STRESS on the bones from jumping into training to fast. So when summer came around this year and it was time to go back to basic, I finished it this time but with.. you guessed it.. MAD STRESS FRACTURES! My last x-ray is in august and I took it easy for a month (I'd pushed through on SF for four months that summer, I really felt like taking a break). Then I got back to the grind. I have CAP next summer which I hear is much more demanding than basic. I will not make the same mistake I did last year, babying myself and then going into training in terrible shape.

PAIN IS WEAKNESS LEAVING THE BODY

Today when I'm on the 'dreadmill', I'll be picturing this, which is by far my favorite:

photo credit: reasonstobefit.tumblr.com/

Today I...

Excercise: 5k run in about 39 min (wow thats nowhere near where I used to be), about 1 min on the heavy bag just for fun! 10 pushups just to make sure I still could.
Eating: not clean. very not clean.
2 eggs, coffee with cream, terrys chocolate orange ;)

I really liked the heavy bag and will hopefully do a bit more with it tomorrow. Hoping to add in a bit of skipping and try out the Jacobs Ladder machine. I always see them using it on I Used to Be Fat and it looks really challenging. If they can do it so can I.

There is a really neat account on tumblr where they post 'reasons to be fit'. I think it is really neat what they do and how they are all empowering instead of hateful like most of the 'thinspo' I see. I love it and it is definitely worth visiting. This was the one that inspired me today:

photo credit: reasonstobefit.tumblr.com/

I'm going to have to creep around the site and see if it says where they get all of those awesome pictures from.

Todays pump up song at the gym was:

Great remix of Rock Star by N.E.R.D. The original is great but this takes that and makes it run-able.

What I've Been Doing

Back in October I started On Ramp with my local chapter of crossfit. As of about mid-November I've been doing 1 hour crossfit workouts three times a week, Monday Wednesday Friday. I'm trying to figure out how to explain what crossfit is to anyone who hasn't heard of it before. The words awesome, amazing, challenging, perfection all come to mind but they don't really help now, do they?
This is a quick little blurb I've taken from the website, but it hardly captures the amazing accessibility that is crossfit.

"CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.

Our program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing."

- Crossfit.com

and then there's this:

I love it. It isn't hard to commit because the challenge itself is its own reward. You'll lose weight and build muscle FAST. Theres fit, and then theres crossfit ;)

My Intentions

Why I Made This Blog

I spent a lot of 2011 trying to work out more and trying to be a better student. The fact of the matter is I know I am capable of more and I want to make myself accountable to that. That is how I found my way over here (where apparently I already had an account for some other purpose long forgotten). I don't want to lose weight in an unhealthy way, and I don't have a huge goal, number-wise. What I want to do is exercise, eat clean and put in the effort to become not only fit but strong.

Who I Am

I am a 21 year old female university student. History is my major. I am engaged to a wonderful man who is a soldier in the army. I like to read and daydream about being fit.

My "stats"

21 year old female

5"3'

140 lbs

what else goes here?

My Goals

There is still time and so these may be tweaked a little.

Short Term:

- continue to xfit three times a week.

- join boxing club, do that two times a week

- go to yoga at least once a week

- run at least three times a week

- do homework at least one hour a night

Long Term:

- run an easy 5k in under 30 minutes

- quit smoking FOR GOOD, no weekend smoking

- pick up a hobby (probably knitting) so you aren't snacking at night.

- get rid of belly fat, maintain

- reward self with new tattoo(s)

Let this be the start of exactly what I need!