Sprinting towards the Light!

As I began to love myself I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health-food,people,things,situations and everything that drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is Love of self~ Charlie Chaplin Today hasn't been the best so far. Full of tears,hurt,purging and questions. I had to pull out my book of positive morning quotes I send to my friends and family each morning at 8am. Had to remind myself what I had been through and come through and the person it has made me. Sometimes we have to take a step back, momentarily, and see how far we have come! I told a dear friend yesterday after she asked how I was feeling since the surgery."I feel great! Everything that I have been through was in preparation for this moment." I probably wouldn't have made it if I was in the unhealthy place I was almost 2years ago. My mind,body and soul was sick. I had to heal those things first so that I could be strong enough to weather this storm. Some of people feel like I'm strong but I don't want to be strong all the time. I want to vulnerable. I want to be held. I want to cry in someone's arms and have them reassure me that this to shall pass. Being "strong" is over rated. Today a very dear friend gave me the most inspiring and soothing words of encouragement that I desperately needed. It read as follows: Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy-the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.~Brene' Brown Thank you Marcus. I must stop looking back in the darkness the light is just ahead and I got my running shoes on and sprinting my way towards it!

It's Been Awhile

Wow! It has been awhile since I last wrote on my blog. Let's see I believe when I last wrote I had just finished the UMC(Urban Mountain Challenge). I had decided to pursue my dream and enter a body building competition come fall. Well, things have changed since February. Training was going so well. Willie had me running the treadmill on level 5,speed 7 and walking on 5(a jog) for 30minutes. I was burning over 400calories a day doing that. Marvin had me lifting weights with light and heavy weeks. Heavy weeks consisted of heavier weights (got up to 15pounds) with less reps. I was beginning to lift my own body weight with push up and working on doing pull up. Light lifting weeks were lighter weights (about 10-12pounds) with more reps. Rob was working my abs. I am seeing the definition come up in my body and waist getting smaller, down to a size 8/10! 34inch waist. Booty is right and tight. I started drinking green smoothies, spinach or kale, mixed with fruits; such as mangos,pineapple,apples,blueberries and almond milk. My goal was/is to do this ALL natural,meaning no protein shakes and pills. I want to challenge my body and see just how far my body would go on it's own and I was doing pretty good. If you noticed I am switching back and forth between past and present tenses. It's not because my English is that bad,it's because things have altered my goals temporarily. 6months ago I tried to be a participant in an experimental drug for my seizures. Part of the testing required I do psychiatric questioning and a heart test. A side effect of the drug was a possible heart problem so you had to do a EKG beforehand. Well, I was rejected. Why? Because they found that my heart at some point was stopping. I had no clue. I felt nothing different, I felt wonderful! I have lost 72 pounds on my own and was feeling good, looking good and loving and healing me. My neurologist sent me to a cardiologist. He was amazed I was walking around and not feeling a thing and doing the things I had been doing( zumba,running,climbing stairs,lifting weights) and not passed out. I was amazed and in complete awe by what he was saying to me. The cardiologist then tells me I need a pacemaker. What?! Have you lost your mind?! I'm 36years old! I'm healthy. My response to him was simple, "No!" If you only saw this on one test I'm not doing it I don't care what you say. He goes on to say he wants to run more test which would require me to wear two heart monitors. The first was for two weeks. I had those sticky pads in five different places on my body;one my heart,three on my left side under my breast/rib area and one up by my collar bone right side. They test reviled nothing. Then, I had to wear another for a month,again nothing. Healthy. Then, he decided I needed to do a Echo/Stress test. I had to go to the hospital and run on the treadmill as long as I could with the techs increasing the speed every so often. The highest it went to I believe was 12. I made 11! Then, I had to quickly jump off and have dye put in my IV so they could take pictures of my heart to see if there were any blockage or other issues. Nothing. Healthy. Cardiologist tells me if this happened once it will happen again! He says," I don't even think your having seizures it's your heart. Your heart is stopping and then starting again and throwing your body in shock so it's appearing to be a seizure." He explains the only way to fix it is to put the pacemaker in. I still say "No" I'm healthy otherwise,I'm not doing it. The next day after the stress test I pass out on my kitchen floor. As a mother, you know how it goes, despite how you feel you MUST keep going! No excuses. I have kids to take care of and a sick mother I need to tend to. Plus, I have a goal to reach and nothing is going to stop me! That was six months ago. The past month I have been experiencing chest pains when I was doing nothing but sitting still. Literally, sitting watching tv, the chest pains were tight enough to make me cough I was trying to catch my breath. So, I go back to Cardiologist and tell him what is going on, they run another heart test in the office and they we what saw 6months ago. He again tells me I need the pacemaker and if I don't do it the symptoms will get worst and I run the risk of just passing out while driving or worst. I agreed to the pacemaker. That was on a Monday April 8,2013 surgery was scheduled for Wednesday April 17,2013 at 6am at St.Joseph Hospital. Shocked. Scared. What if I die? Ways going to happen to my kids? I don't want to leave my kids. I wasn't worried about me, I was worried about my kids. I came home and sat my 13year old daughter and 11year old son down and told them what was going on with me. I don't sugar coat things for my kids I explained exactly what was going to happen to them. They took it well. My daughter said," We will just pray about it and let God handle it. Your going to be ok mommy." And gave me a hug. My son, asked if I was going to die. I said ,"no" and was praying I was telling the truth. We talked for about an hour about"what ifs" and how long I would be in the hospital, surprisingly it was only overnight. I got my ducks in a row. Got my little brother to come stay with them at my house for that one night. I told some friends and family what was going on. My wonderful drum sister,friend and fellow mother Elizabeth Beck jumped in and prepared food for my babies to eat for days and we eat lasagna and chicken and rice for days and it was so good! The day of the surgery my sister-in-law picked up me and one of my older brothers,who was going to stay at the hospital with me during surgery and we headed off. Surgery took about an hour. They found the upper chamber of my heart stopped working causing my lower chamber to work harder which was the pain I was feeling. A dual pacemaker was put it on my right side(since I'm left handed, they put the pacemaker in on your nondominate side) There are leads that run to my heart to the upper and lower chambers,hence dual pacemaker. To set my rhythms in synch with one another. and I was out the next day. I am on restriction of no vigorous activities for 6-8weeks. So, that means I can't do what I love to do for awhile. No drumming. No running. No lifting. I am not happy about it but I understand I have to heal. Therefore, I have reset my body building competition has been reschedule for next year! I have not been to the gym in over a week now and I am dying to get there! Let me tell you about my William Wells Brown workout family! Purple Rain, Mrs. Tracy,Marvin,Rob,Mrs. Vanessa and Katrina have called sent messages came to see me in the hospital and is keeping a sister in prayer and can't wait for me to get back. I tell you they have made me feel so loved and showed me what I mean to them. Wow! I love,love,love you guys so very much! To everyone that has called,texted me, stopped by to see me,offered to help me, I love you and appreciate you so very much and it means so much to me! To my family Thank You so much for being there for me. Come Monday I'm back to work and back to the gym! Ain't no stopping me for real. I can not undo all the hard work I put into myself. I will continue to heal physically and mentally and spirtually!

Urban Mountain Challenge

Well,Well,Well! I set my goal to take on the Urban Mountain Challenge AGAIN this year. My goal was to SMASH my last year time of 00:11:47.0, that's 11 minutes 47 seconds. You know, when you set yourself a goal you must put in place a PLAN to reach the said goal. That is exactly what I did. I went over to William Wells Brown Community Center and spoke to the trainers about my goal and was instructed to work with Robbie (Robert Martin). Rob(as we call him for short) is a former track and field athlete. His workouts were designed to build my leg muscles and core so that I could use my legs to push up the steps more effectively. A few times we even went down to the Financial Building, also known as the 5th 3rd bank building or Big Blue building to train.
During the Christmas break when the Community center was closed for two weeks we ran the steps,walked the steps, we went up so many floors, came down stopped did push ups, then down some more floors then more push up. We tried different methods of me getting up the steps faster like skipping steps(which my legs were to short for that and it was much harder!). Rob would ask me to pick a floor number, I would say,"17" he would then pick a floor,"25". He would say,"Ok, we are not going to stop til we get to floor 17, we aren't going to run up to that floor but keep an nice steady pace til we reach that floor. Once we reach 17 we take a second to catch our breathe then we go straight again til 25." Crazy right?! The first time 'bout killed me and him both! But we did it. The key was to keep pushing using your arms in a  pumping motion to push you on up the steps! When we reached the 25th floor we came back down the stairs backwards. This allowed for the stretching of our calf muscles. It was quite an experience.

This year the Urban Mountain Challenge was set up differently. Last year it was one building 29 floors 638 stairs. This year it was 50 stories, 2 building ( 5th 3rd bank building and the Central Bank building). This year they allowed teams, or an individual could run only one building (Central Bank at 22 floors), or an individual could run both buildings(50 floors). I opted to run one building! Next year I will maybe try for two :-)

As my daughter and Rob waited for me to complete the challenge on that VERY Cold Saturday morning at 8:30 am needless to say ALL the hard work that Rob and I put in, it paid off! I am so very PROUD to say on January 26,2013 I completed the Urban Mountain Challenge 1 tower climb in...
00:5:52.7!! That's 5 minutes and 52 seconds!!! 
Yes sir! I cut my time in half! I couldn't believe it! I told myself, if you can climb 17 floors without stopping you can add 6 more and keep pushing through without stopping! If you want this then...MAKE IT HAPPEN!

The scary part was that it almost didn't happen! When it came time for me to register I ran into some financial issues that weren't going to allow me to participate. I was very disappointed and felt like I was going to let a lot of people down that had been supporting me via Facebook, work and friends and family. I posted on Facebook that I wasn't going to be able to participate and man you should have seen all the comments of, "oh no! why not?", "Oh, I'm sorry to read this I know how hard you were working for this." It broke my heart. Then, I get this message in my inbox from a very dear friend that as,'when the money was due? and how much was it?' I responded that the money was due January 23rd and it was $45. Another message came,"I will bring you the money tonight." I was shocked! My friend went on to explain how proud they  were of me for what I had accomplished. They knew how much I wanted to do this and they wanted to make this happen for me. I was so humbled. I couldn't believe my little journey meant so much to someone else too. And not just this one person but to my dear friends all the way in Indiana!!! Yes, they even tried to surprise me by registering me online and getting the information from my daughter so they could do it because they knew if they told me they wanted to help I would say ,"no". Which is true.  I don't think I could EVER say this enough but I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS EVER! So publicly I say THANK YOU dear friends I love you so very much for making my dream come true! I pray one day I may be placed in YOUR path to make YOUR dreams come true as well.

So, if you got some time you can go to http://www.3wayracing.com and check out my time for yourself(for the haters) and you can see a video clip of myself and others climbing the steps in the Urban Mountain Challenge! If not here are a few photos my daughter snapped as I waited in line to take My Challenge!

Took right before leaving the house to go to the UMC.  Flash Lighting!

Calling all numbers between 101-155. That's me  #152
Side note: The guy next to me in the blue we talked the whole time about this challenge, another challenge and even doing a Mud Run! This was his first time.

Say cheese mommy!

Looking at the clock. I was suppose to go at 00: 8:38:00

Trainer Robert Martin aka Rob and I after the  UMC "We Hard"

Crazy "penitentiary" pose

My certificate of completion 00:05:52.7

I Amaze myself sometimes!

I usually hit the gym at 5 pm, but I was late getting there today because my daughter had color guard practice today at 6 pm. I DUG UP IN IT TODAY!! I can't believe my numbers myself , I shalt not make you wait any further. 

Thursday January 24,2013: Gym Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Treadmill: 

• 420 calories burned in 30 minutes
• 2.88 miles
• level 4
• speeds 4-8
• incline 1.5-5

Leg workout:

Squat Machine: 

• 3 sets of 12 with 25#

Sumo Squats:

• 3 sets of 12 with 20# dumb bell

Lunges:

• 3 sets of 16 with #5 cow bells

Standing squats:

• 12 reps with 20#
• 12 reps with 50#
• 15 reps with #50

Upside down squats:

• 3 sets of 12 with 70#

Last but not least Willie's 4 minutes Ab workout

Food intake:

5am:

4 oz grilled chicken breast 1 egg white

8am:

1/2 cup oatmeal with raisins and 1 tablespoon honey

11am Lunch:

4 oz grilled chicken breast

baked sweet potato with 1 tablespoon of honey

1 cup of steamed broccoli

1pm Snack:

canned mandarin oranges and fresh strawberries

3pm Snack:

Greek yogurt with coca

 

Dinner:

baked tilopia

baked beans

spinach

Water Intake:

77 ounces

I bout passed out but I DID IT!!

Today was full sauna suit day! Well Shuntella what is Full Sauna Suit day? It is the wearing of a shorts, plastic pants with sweatpants on top. It is wearing a long sleeve dry fit shirt with a plastic shirt on top. YES! it is HOT!!! But there are goals to be met and no time for crying. Ok, maybe a few tears and "Willie I can't go anymore." "Willie, your killing me." "Willie I am hot!", " Ok I can do this." I think that was all I said! lol
Any who, here's how my numbers look for January 23,2013:

Treadmill (FULL Sauna Suit): 30 min. 2.8 miles 400 calories burned
Bike(no sauna suit): 20 min. level 7, hill workout, 3.76 miles, 137 calories burned

Lifting Workout: Shoulders
Shoulder press: 3 sets of 15 7.5 weights
Free weight lifts: weights 10#( 15x's), 25#(10x's), 45#( 5x's) then going back down 45# at 5,25# at 10 and 10# at 15. Done twice.

Lower ab work.

Time in gym 2 hours

Food intake:
8am:

• 4 oz grilled chicken and 2egg whites
•  cup of coffee with creamer only
• canned pears

11am Lunch:

• Grilled chicken sandwich on 100% whole wheat High fructose free bread(2 slices), light salad dressing
• water
• pears

2pm Snack:

Oatmeal with 1 tablespoon pure honey and 1/2 cup raisins

Water intake:
69 oz

Urban Mountain Challenge/ Yesterday's numbers

Can you believe it,The Urban Mountain Challenge is THIS Saturday January 26,2013!
I am SUPER excited that I will be able to participate again this year.  For those of you that do not know what the Urban Mountain Challenge is it is a timed race to run up the stairs of the 5th 3rd bank building, which is 29 stories, 638 stairs in downtown Lexington, Ky. This year they have stepped the game up by adding another building, Central Bank building. That will now be a combined total of climbing 50 stories!! I, on the other hand WILL NOT be climbing both buildings. I will ONLY be climbing the 5th 3rd bank building to beat my last year time of 11 minutes 47 seconds! I totally amped!

So with all that being said I had my BMI(Body Mass Index) taken yesterday to see where I am at and where I need to be. Check out this link to better understand what BMI is www.cdc.gov and look up BMI.
Here are my numbers:
Height: 5ft 1 in.
Weight: 163.8
BMI: 31.0
Fat%: 33.6%
Fat Mass: 55.0 lb
FFM: 108.8 lb

Desirable Range:
Fat %: 21-33%
Fat Mass: 20.0-53.6 lb

Target Body Fat: 25%
Predicted weight 145.0 lb
Predicted fat mass: 36.2 lb
FAT TO LOSE: 18.8 LB
So, as you can see I am .6% from reaching a desirable Fat Percentage and 1.4 pounds from reaching a desirable Fat Mass. My FFM is muscle and I was told I want this number to stay the same or go up! This is ONE HAPPY CHICK!!! I was told I am healthy and keep up the good work! When I told Marvin, he gave me a high five and said," Now it's time to step it up!"

But, before getting these numbers Willie had already decided that I needed to step my game up YET AGAIN! He figures since his goal is to burn 400 calories on the treadmill guess what? I should too! So now this is my NEW goal to burn 400 calories in 30 minutes. I met AND exceeded my goal yesterday!
I did 2.8 miles in 30 minutes, burning 408 calories on level 4, on inclines 1.5-5.0, walking speed of 5, running speeds of 6-8. Woo lawd I was tired! But it is for the betterment of me so I am all on that!
 Yesterday was also my back workout day. So I did:

• lawn mowers with 15# weights with 3 sets of 20 reps
• Back pulls with 7.5# weights 3 sets of 20 reps
• another back workout not sure of it's name with 5# weights 3 sets of 20 reps.

I keep a handy dandy planner with me to write down all that I am doing and which body parts I am working and with how much weight so we can keep track of what I'm doing and weight lifted.
I LOVE MY TRAINERS!!!

FOOD INTAKE:
8am:
Oatmeal with pure honey and mandarin oranges
1 cup of coffee with creamer only
11 am Lunch:
Southwest chicken strips wrapped in half a burrito wrap with sweet potato fries and water (23 oz.)
2 pm Snack:
Southwest chicken strips and 2 egg whites scrambled
8 pm dinner:
1 salisbury steak, kraft mac and cheese and green beans and water(8 oz.)

My water consumption for the day was low. Only 54 oz. of water yesterday Boo! me :-( Gotta do better!
*23 oz were consumed during my workout*

It happens

Well, I must say I am disappointed in myself. I didn't go workout today I tried really hard to convince myself to get up,get dressed and go but I just didn't. It was pure laziness. It happens to even the seemingly strong. So I will share me meals for today. January 17,2013:
Morning Snack: 5:30am
Banana

Breakfast: 8am
Pure Granola with Almonds added 1/4 dates, 1/2 cup raisins and banana and Almond milk.

Snack: 10am
Grapes

Lunch: 11am
Baked tilopia,broccoli,rice pilaf, Fresh kiwi and strawberries

Snack: 4pm
Pure Granola with almonds,raisins and almond milk

Dinner: 8pm
4pieces of turkey Bacon and biscuit with pure honey.

Water consumed today:
32oz( 4cups)