Tag Archives: burpees

MONDAY GRATITUDE

Happy Monday to all.  I am on my first cup of coffee and smiling already, coffee and the fact that I wake up each and every morning is enough to make me smile. I am alive and able to drink this hot creamy cup of perfection, so I greet Monday morning with a big thank you.  I prefer to savor the little things in life as well as the grand.  I have chosen to make my life a happy adventure, full of creative endeavors. Yes, it is Monday morning but I am up early and ready to embrace my day with an open mind and heart. I am creating the life that I wish to have.

Tomorrow is my weigh in and my weekly workout with Mike. We are going to videotape me performing burpees either this week or the next. Melissa at Melissa Bender Fitness is going to post the video, with future videos of me improving on the move. We all know I need to improve on the move, since I feel so awkward doing them. She is such an amazing motivator. I am so grateful for her help and for Mike’s help. Mike really is a one of a kind trainer and I am so lucky to have his help.  I feel incredibly blessed to have such positive people in my corner. I could not go it alone, no one can. 

I have been working hard on my My Change For A Ten project and I am just around the corner from volunteering with my first charity The Monday Night Mission. My plan is as soon as I reach my first ten pound loss, I will give my place of employment heads up two weeks in advance so they can order the food that they are donating to the Monday Night Mission on my behalf. Then we are going to join the lovely people at the Monday Night Mission to help feed the residents at skid row. So the actual date of my first charity volunteer work with be a few weeks after I reach my first ten pound goal. Mike is going with me, and any other friends are welcome as well, I think Francie may join us. The more to help the merrier. Compassion for others is contagious.

I wish you a sunshiny day full of everything your heart desires. Yes, that may be a tall order for a Monday morning but greatness has to begin somewhere. Just order yourself a tall latte’ to inspire caffeinated creativity, after all a little coffee always helps.  Think it, believe it, and make it happen. 
Namaste’
Love and Light to all
Rose



MASTERING THE ART OF BURPEES


When you learn something new that is outside your comfort zone, you feel awkward doing it. For me, exercise has always been dance related. When I speed walk I dance in my head to the music I am listening too, everything for me up until this point had a rhythm to it. My heart would follow the beat, and it was seamless and natural for me and I loved it. 

I still love to work out to dance moves or  walking outside or on the treadmill to music, but I have added a lot of new exercise moves to my regimen since I started working out with Mike my trainer and friend. Like I have said before in recent posts, his help is invaluable and I am learning so much. He is really helping me through our weekly workouts. Now, a lot of what I do with him is completely foreign to me, and some things are down right difficult since I have never had arm strength. In the six weeks we have been working out though, I can see significant changes in my form as well as my strength. I am definitely getting better, and that is when he mixes it up and makes it more difficult for me. I love a challenge and I am working really hard, and each week I get a little stronger and more fluid in my movements. I am so grateful for his expertise, assistance, and time.

Burpees feel so awkward to me, and I am yet to master the push up part so I do the burpees without the push up. I do not know what my hang up about this exercise move is, but for some reason I feel like I look completely silly when I do it. My best friend Melissa at Melissa Bender Fitness has asked me to see if Mike would video tape me doing burpees for her website. He loved the idea, me not so much. It looks like we will tape me doing burpees next week. I am going to practice the hell out of them in the week to come. This is an adventure, and sometimes you have to not fear and just do. 

We also worked out a lot with a kettle ball, and a jump rope as well as the machines that are at the park we go to. I can jump rope fast but my endurance is not as good. More things to improve upon. Each week is different and each week I get a little more natural at everything we do, and if I do say so myself I am very proud I have stuck to my regimen thus far. I have a long way to go to my goals, but I am definitely just around the corner to my first ten pound goal. I can tell I am losing inches too.  I feel stronger and I have more energy, and it feels completely wonderful. 

Tonight is yoga with Nicole, and I look forward to it so much. Last week she was explaining the difference between sensation and pain. I still cannot decipher which is which. I also signed up for a Groupon for one month unlimited classes at YogaWorks, thanks to  my friend Francie from the video shoot. She sent me the link and I had just enough time to get the amazing deal. I have to say I am so happy our paths have crossed, she is a fantastic human being and friend. We are both excited that the Richard Simmons video comes out this Friday. We had so much fun dancing in it.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Wednesday full of love and light.
Namaste’
Rose



CRAWLING IN THE DIRT


Yesterday was my first workout with my friend/trainer Mike. He was so kind to offer to help me on my quest to be a better version of myself and help others in the process. I will have more information about him at later dates including photos. Let’s just say I am lucky to have supportive people like Mike in my corner as I continue on the path of fitness and weight loss. I am very grateful for that.

We arrived at this lovely little park with machines, a little path and a grassy area. We started with burpees, and I struggled I cannot lie. I actually ran a little, did some speed walking, did all the machines etc and I crawled in the dirt. Did you hear that correctly? This bona fine east coast girlie girl whose sister claims she brought a curling iron camping years ago crawled in the dirt. You know what? It may have felt a little awkward, a little hard to do but it was kind of like being a kid again. You know when you were a kid you were not afraid to get your hands dirty, and by the end of the day all other parts of you were dirty too. When I arrived home I had grass in my hair, and I felt like a kid again. This journey is going to also be an adventure, so why not approach working out like playtime when you were a kid. After all, in some ways I really am a kid at heart.

We continued on with the workout, and it was a bit of a struggle for me to keep up, to catch my breath etc. I am out of shape but that is changing now. I did my best and I will continue to improve as I venture forward. Now when I reflect on the exercises I cannot decipher if they were super difficult or just felt awkward and funny to do. I expected to feel somewhat intimidated working out with a trainer but Mike is so nice that I  felt relaxed. He is nice but not soft and he gets it done. I respect his manner of training very much. He even plans to do my measurements soon, ( more numbers), and a full body assessment including checking my oxygen levels. How cool is that? 

So I crawled in the dirt, and did my stretches in the grass sans mat and loved every minute of it. I am going to do the workout again this week on my own. I probably for now will work out with Mike on Tuesdays schedules permitting but will perform his workout two times a week to start on my own.  It was fun and I can see how it makes you stronger and fit. Luckily I am not too sore as I wake up this morning.  I never expected to feel so liberated with everything I am trying and doing to make My Change for a Ten a success. I am feeling grateful, inspired, liberated and extremely motivated. 
Namaste’
Rose