C must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed because she was kind of getting on my nerves this morning and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet. But, I took a step back and a few deep breaths and . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30 Day Challenge: Day 7]]> I’m not even gonna lie… I’m feeling good today.

C must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed because she was kind of getting on my nerves this morning and I hadn’t even had my coffee yet. But, I took a step back and a few deep breaths and reminded myself that I’m the Momma and she’s a child- get a grip lady… oh and some patience.

So, I did.

After that, all was well. 1:10 she fell asleep and I got moving. Trainer Dan had a full body workout in store for me- and it was no. joke.

But, no complaining for me today- I took it like a champ.

I emailed Kathryn Peck, who is the community manager for EA Sports Active and she gave me some pointers for my issue with the remote the other day. By the way, I kicked the heavy bag’s ass and inline skating! Thank God for that because usually I hate inline skating, but today I “put my back into it” according to trainer Dan!

I am really feeling the upper body workout today in my shoulders and arms- so thanks for that Trainer Dan. Here’s today’s results:
Oh and just to let you know, I got a silver for today instead of my usual Bronze… Hell YEAH!

Lastly, a few pointers:

- Sometimes how you hold the remote makes a huge different- I found that out today. So make sure that you are holding the Wii remote properly.

- If you want to increase the resistance from the bands for your upper body workouts, remember that you can fold the resistance band over 1 and then step on it.

- Don’t be afraid to press pause. This ain’t a race- shoot, I press pause like it’s my JOB.

- Finally, don’t forget to stretch when you’re done. Super important.

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I thought Wahoo- take it easy on my lower body? Thank God! Then . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30 Day Challenge: Day 6]]> Today went so well. C fell asleep and instead of trying to put her down in her crib, I let her sleep right on the sofa- save myself the trouble. Trainer Dan had this planned for me today:

I thought Wahoo- take it easy on my lower body? Thank God! Then I saw this:

Uhh lunges? Inline skating? What the hell?!

Trainer Danny was super nice to me today. He was saying things like:

“This is definitely the effort I want to see on every exercise today!”
“Way to go!” and my favorite:
“Deep lunges AND a great pace? You’re in total control here!”

I burned a great deal of calories today and ran 2.5 miles, so I was happy about that.

Here are a few of my issues with my EA Active:

1. Some of my moves are premeditated by the Wii. My Mii will move before I move. It will start a lunge before I start it or moves to catch the baseball before I do. Why is that?
2. When I was doing the bicep curls/shoulder presses there seemed to be a lack of communication between my nunchuk/remote and the Wii because it kept showing me this on the screen:

It got very frustrating and I lost my “groove” because I spent… or wasted so much time trying to get the Wii to see that I was doing the bicep curls and shoulder presses. I pressed pause, started the workout over and it seemed to be fine until the second time around I had to do the bicep curls and shoulder presses- the same thing happened again! Why is this happening? Any help would be appreciated!!

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“Nice Job” “Way to show enthusiasm” and my favorite: “Somebody’s serious about burning calories today”

Damn right Trainer Danny. And to punish myself for falling off the wagon for so . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30-Day Challenge: Day 5]]> So, since I am not a quitter, I am back on my wagon. Things went well today. Trainer Danny said things like:

“Nice Job”
“Way to show enthusiasm”
and my favorite: “Somebody’s serious about burning calories today”

Damn right Trainer Danny. And to punish myself for falling off the wagon for so long I bumped my intensity level up from Easy to Medium and boy did I feel the burn… until I realized that I was literally burning up because I forgot to turn off the heat. LOL But it was a great workout. Take a look at today’s progress:

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Okay faithful readers. I have something to admit to you: I haven’t worked out in… 2 Days? I’ve been slacking because my mother has been here visiting and I have been using it as an excuse to be lazy. Ugh. Okay, but just because . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30-Day Challenge #Fail]]> Yes, this confession warrants the Twitter hashtag: #fail

Okay faithful readers. I have something to admit to you: I haven’t worked out in… 2 Days? I’ve been slacking because my mother has been here visiting and I have been using it as an excuse to be lazy. Ugh. Okay, but just because I fell off for two days doesn’t mean that I can’t get back up, right? So- tomorrow we take my mom to the airport and I continue with my program. Thanks for rooting me on and please continue to do so- it is needed!

Moving on… Happy Thanksgiving to all of my United Statesians errr Americans.

C’s first Thanksgiving was awesome. She ate like a pro! She just got her second tooth in two days ago and she put them to use today. She had baked macaroni & cheese, turkey, yams, cornbread AND stuffing. Yeah- baby girl can EAT. I SO can’t believe she is going to be one very shortly- it’s crazy. I’ll try to hold back my tears- okay I can’t, please hold….

…alright, back. Seriously, though. Our baby girl is getting SO big- I can’t stand it.

And it’s official, I can now say: From our family to yours- Happy Holidays!

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My  mother flew in on Saturday and we spent the day out. Sunday… I was just lazy. Cadence isn’t necessarily taking to my mother quickly, so Chris and I have been trying to keep her calm.

I turn on my Wii today, though, only . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30-Day Challenge: Day 4]]> So I took 2-days off from exercising.

My  mother flew in on Saturday and we spent the day out. Sunday… I was just lazy. Cadence isn’t necessarily taking to my mother quickly, so Chris and I have been trying to keep her calm.

I turn on my Wii today, though, only to find that my Friday’s exercise didn’t save. WHAAAAT?! So it says that Friday was a rest day when it definitely wasn’t. Argh! Oh well. Moving on.

I realized I never really explained a few key things about EA Active.

When you turn on the game to get started, you are shown what workouts you are going to do today and the expected amount of calories you will burn.

You have the option of not doing an exercise if you do not want to do it.  Simply uncheck the box.

I did all of today’s exercises with no problem, though I don’t think I will ever really like the lunges, inline skating or the side-to-side jumps. My thighs hurt!! In a good way I guess.

At the end of your workout, they tell you how many calories you ACTUALLY burned. (I burned 81.7 today) From there you can choose to do the workout over again if you want. (Of course, I don’t!) I usually do some individual workouts like tennis forehand/backhand, bump/set in volleyball or catching/throwing a baseball- just for good measure… okay, more for fun really.

So total, today. I burned 94.9 (counting the extra activities I did). I’m glad that I did it, though, I don’t want to fall off of the wagon like I did last time. So any and all encouragement are greatly appreciated!

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I was hoping that Trainer Danny . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: 30-Day Challenge: Day 2]]> Well, today was definitely easier than yesterday. As far as getting started is concerned anyway. I put baby girl down for her nap, ran out of the room before she had time to realize what was happening, strapped on my sneakers and went right to work.

I was hoping that Trainer Danny wouldn’t have jokes on me today, but he didn’t- which made me happy. He told me things like “good job” and “way to show enthusiasm today”- I guess yesterday he knew that I’d fallen off the horse so he needed to help me get back on it. It’s okay Danny, I appreciate the tough love.

Today, Danny had me run, do high knee kicks, bicep curls, shoulder presses, lunges (oh, my thigh), side lunges w/toe touches (yuck) and some tennis. My thighs are screaming. But, I feel good. The running went well. I know it’s not “real” running, but I equate it to running on a treadmill. Maybe after a few more sessions in-home with trainer Danny, I’ll be ready to get out and “hit the pavement” (as I’ve heard some runners call it). And since C was still sleeping, I thought I’d throw in some volleyball, baseball and another round of tennis- just for fun.

Now? Off to boil some eggs. Here’s hoping I stay this motivated. Keep cheering me on ya’ll, I appreciate it. Over 100 calories today! Wohoo!

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I have been feeling down. In . . . → Click Here To Read The Full Blog Post: EA Active Personal Trainer 30- Day Challenge]]> I threw away my donut holes. Yes, I know that there are starving children in Africa- I’ve met some of them and I would never give them donuts anyway. What would that do for their teeth? Anyway, they were getting hard and going stale. So there.

I have been feeling down. In the dumps. In a funk, if you will. For… too long, I can’t even count. Some days I think my Pristiq is not working, but I’ll save that for another post. After four years in therapy with the BRILLIANT Pamela W. (if you need a therapist in tampa bay, I can give you her name) I should know all of the coping skills that should be put into place to help keep me out of said funk, but, I have not been using them. God Bless the man who married me to stick by me through all of my ups and downs. It has NOT been pretty.

So, I decided that I need to pick up what is left of myself and start doing something to make myself feel more like- well, myself. Enter the EA Active 30 Day Challenge.

Now I bought this video game a while back thinking “I’m home all day, of course I can workout with my Wii.” I started the 30-Day Challenge before and failed miserably. What I do remember, though, is that I felt really good and had more energy on the days that I worked out.

Getting started… did not go as planned. First, my daughter- oh God love her, would not go to sleep. I was really planning to use her naptime as my workout time. Ha! When I finally got her to sleep. I put my sneakers on and then realized that the Wii was sitting comfortably on the bottom shelf of our entertainment center. For I had not hooked it back up since moving into the new place IN SEPTEMBER. Okay, proceed to hook up the Wii…

All set up. Now I can do my EA Active. Wait, what is this? The Wii remote is flashing blue lights. Hmm that sometimes means the battery is dead, but I just changed the batteries. What else could it be? Where’s the other remote? {{searching, searching, searching…}} Huh, it seems to be lost. (Damn it, Cadence!) Okay, so I’m stuck with one remote, flashing blue lights at me and I don’t know what’s wrong. Oh look, it’s my baby brother on the phone, he always knows the answer to electronics questions.

Me: Hey Jr. do you know anything about the Wii?
Jr: Yeah, I know a little, why?
Me: Well, The remote is not working and your lovely niece lost the other remote so I’m stuck with one for now. I put new batteries in, but the blue lights are on the bottom and I don’t know what to do. I pressed the red sync button on the back of the remote, but nothing. I really thought it was the Sync thingy since once remote is missing I thought maybe this was remote #2 and ugh, we haven’t plugged this in since September…. (insert further rambling here)
Jr: Whoa, whoa, you haven’t plugged it in since September?
Me: Well, yeah, not since we moved
Jr: There should be a red sync button on the Wii itself, I know the XBox has one. Since you haven’t plugged it in in so long you may need to press that also.
Me: (Frantically searching for this magical red sync button on the Wii) Are you sure? Cause I don’t- Ohhh, you. are. so. smart Jr. I found it. Thank you.
Jr: Yeah, no problem
Me: K, I gotta go try to work out before your niece wakes up. K? bye.

Now I’m ready to go. Let me put my wrist strap on (safety first, kids) and Press A, A (yes I know the nunchuk needs to be connected), A again- damn it Nintendo, really? If I throw my Wii remote through the screen, I promise not to sue you!

Alright, here we are. ready to work out. Select 30-Day Challenge, choose my trainer Hmm, I think I’ll pick a male trainer this time, maybe he’ll do better at helping me stay on track. (wink, wink) And let’s get started Okay, running (Wahhhhhhh) YOU’VE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME. Well, so much for that workout.

Then I decide to press on, not be discouraged and rather see if I can work out with C in the living room with me. Yeah… that was- interesting, but I got it done. Try doing side lunges with your daughter clinging to your legs. F-U-N.

I can’t even tell you how many times I pressed pause. Look at poor Trainer Danny in the corner showing me how to side lunge. Just being so patient with me. I decided to name him Danny after cursing at him once when he said “My grandmother can demonstrate better than that!” Uhh excuse the fuck outta me Danny Boy.

I also had to find a good place to put my resistance bands so C wouldn’t use them as her next toy or weapon, whichever.

C found one of my old mix CD’s and I let her play with it since she seemed so content scratching it back and forth on the fireplace brick… but oh no, she still wanted to come run with Mommy.

All I can hope is that a. I stick with it and b. tomorrow goes more smoothly. So, here’s to tomorrow.

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