The stations are placed so that you really get your heart rate going. You might spend a minute jabbing at the bag, then off to mountain climbers, then pushups, then bicep curls. I feel like I’ve been beaten up. And Andy (our trainer) was giving me shit about the music asking if I had a preference about what we played. He must have read my blog stating a little rock music would motivate me more. So to add to the torture he played techno. Damn him!

No matter how hard Kosama is, I really feel it is worth the pain. After a week of not working out, my feet are really hurting. I can tell the fluid retention in my legs is back and that is causing my feet to hurt. So exercise helps push that fluid out of my limbs. Which is odd since it isn’t even 6:30am and I’ve already drank 68 ounces of water. (oh yes, I keep track. I drank 48 ounces during/after the workout) Sweat is pouring off of me at the moment.  But I feel like I accomplished something today. Now I can go back to bed.

Now let me tell you about the stress test. Noone told me how hard this was going to be! So I’ll give you the 411 so you are better prepared. I knew I need to wear clothes to be able to work out in. But that was really all I knew. I got to Iowa Health Cardiology West (at the Lakeview Medical building) and they injected me with something so they could view my heart. So iv in the hand, injection, then sit and wait while it circulates in my body. Easy. They give me an apple juice and I sit and watch Price Is Right. Then after 30 minutes they call me in to lay in a reclined position, arms over my head, while a machine takes pics of my heart for 15 minutes. The whole time listening to STAR 102.5. So could have been worse. I was afraid I would doze off and start snoring. But the gal who worked on me was great!

After that, I move to the treadmill. Ok, not a problem at this point. I have sticky pads all over me that they hook up to the machine. They take blood pressure and an EKG. The dr. looks at it and said I’m good to do the test. Now here is where you need to be ready. In front of the treadmill is a picture of a road with trees on both sides. To give you the illusion that you are taking a nice run thru the woods. This is not reality. In reality you will be pushed beyond your limits. The goal is to get your heart rate to a certain point, based on weight and age. My goal was 154 beats per minute. I thought, wrongly, no problem. So the treadmill starts nice and easy and I am holding on to the bar. After a few minutes they take my blood pressure. All is good. Until I hear a whirring noise and the speed increases on the treadmill, and the incline goes up. Well this has become more difficult. I’m breathing harder, running faster, and not sure I’m going to make it. The staff is cheering me on and they take my blood pressure again. Which means I have to release the bar with one hand so they can take it, and try not to fall off. They ask ‘are you short of breath?’ Um, yeah. Actually you are quickly killing me. And then I hear the whirring noise again. Oh no. We are going faster and the incline has increased again! At this point I want to start crying, but I can’t because my shorts are so far up between my legs… I’m trying to pull them out and not fall off the treadmill. I’m really breathing hard and they tell me I’m only at 147 and I have to push harder. I’m looking for exits and almost have myself convinced I could jump off and be in my car before they can catch me.

I finally get to the goal of 154 beats per minute and I expect bells and whistles, and to get off the treadmill. Nope, I have to keep that pace for a full minute as they shoot my iv with more stuff so they can see how the heart is pumping. HOLY COW this is fast! With some help, I make it the minute then collapse into the chair. I’m really breathing hard. More EKG readings and a blood pressure reading. They send me to the waiting room with another apple juice to wait for the send iv of fluid to circulate. Then more pics of my heart in the reclining machine. Then I’m out.

After that treadmill I knew coffee and food was in my future. Luckily there was a Panera bread right there. I got a soup and sandwich, a latte and a pecan roll. Oh I earned it!  Every bite. There is nothing like their Broccoli Cheddar soup.

So anyhow, I am clear to go back to Kosama now. Here is what I noticed from my week away…I sleep better when I am exercising. My body feels better when I am exercising. My mood is better and it is easier to stick to a healthy eating plan. And now I know that my heart is ok to take an exercise program. And I’ve missed it! I have truly missed Kosama. Who knew?

One other thing before I go…bad chain restaurant experience. I won’t name the restaurant, but it is a chain restaurant. We ordered food to go and my husband went to pick it up. As he waited they gave our food away to a different take out order. So they realize their mistake and tell my husband they have to recook our entire order. Whatever. It took an hour for him to get home with our food. He gets home and explains it all to me as I am emptying the bags. When I realize our order is wrong. Wrong Wrong Wrong! I am livid at this point. I call the restaurant and talk to the manager. Who to be honest, handled things very well. He explained how the person handling the takeout was in over his/her head so other staff members tried to help out. In helping, things got really messed up again and orders were mixed up again. I asked what he was going to do to fix this mess and he said he would mail be certificates to cover our meal and some extra to encourage us to give them another try.  My husband and I have both worked in the food industry, so I know how things happen. The fact that the manager wanted to make things right goes a long way. It will encourage us to go back and give them another try. The downside is that I’ve had 2 bad experiences at this restaurant in the past 6 months, and one positive one. So I am hoping another bad experience doesn’t happen here, or I have to move on.

First of all I was blown away by his fans who traveled from far places to see him perform on the Walnut Street Bridge. I went down to talk to people a couple of different times during the day. And then I had a great interview with Adam on the phone. Just a very sweet, down to Earth guy.

It was time to take some winners backstage and I finally got to meet him face to face. What an incredible guy. So nice and easy to talk to. I got a picture that I will post a little later this week. But it was a great experience.

Then it was show time. And I will tell you, honestly, he puts on a h#@% of a show. Seriously. With the wardrobe changes, the dancers, the lazers and such, it was so over the top. and I loved each and every minute of it. He just performed. He gave us a show! It was just amazing.

And then I see this video posted after the concert which just proves my theory about what a great guy he really is. I mean to stand out in the cold and sign as long as he did? Very cool.

Happy Adam Lambert day!! I am so excited for this concert! I love the cd For Your Entertainment and can’t wait to meet him. He is calling the studio at 2 this afternoon for an interview. And to be honest I am so nervous I am a wreck over it! Who is ready to get wild tonight? Woot Woot!!

Anyhow, I have a stress test scheduled for Tuesday morning, which is the earliest we can do it. I tried to talk the dr. into letting me continue exercising since I’ve been on a roll, but she said absolutely not. I can follow my eating plan and keep that in check while I’m being benched. We might do all of this and still find that it is a pulled muscle. But you know what? At least I’ll know I’m cleared and can get back to work. We will have results Wednesday and I hope I can hit Kosama on Wednesday night! (Trust me, once I get the ‘all clear’ I’m getting my butt back there)

According to my husband this is the most active I’ve been since he has known me (5 years) and my heart is probably in shock like everyone else. (Hardy har har..he is a comedian) So anyhow, as bummed as I am, I’m not quitting. I’m going to let them bench me so that I can get the all clear and go back knowing all is fine.

So last night as was really mad about all of this and I wanted to eat. I stress eat. I eat when I’m stressed or sad. So of course I wanted pizza. But there is a way to have healthier pizza that still tastes great. We love ordering Papa Murphy’s take and bake, and they have this pizza called ‘Thin Crust DeLite’. They are 40% less calories and 30% less fat. But they really taste great! So we ordered the Veggie and the Chicken Bacon Artichoke. So I got to have pizza without a lot of guilt. Woo Hoo!

This morning I got up at 3:30am to go to the Downtown Kosama. Plyo was brutal today and I just about threw up on the way home. I worked out hard this morning! Week 3 is kicking my butt!! So obviously when I got home I needed to lay down and rest. Rhiannon decided to ruin my plans for going back to sleep and she woke up at 6:15. I let her crawl in bed with me hoping that she would go back to sleep. (Now I know at this poing many of you are swearing I am doing the worst thing as a parent and letting her sleep with me….I was tired…) But Rhi wanted to lay there and press my nose and say ‘beep’ over and over. Then she found an old Halloween noisemaker that makes a whirring sound as you breathe in and out. Yes, I tried to sleep with that. Then my husband got up and I said ‘tag, you are it’. That didn’t work. She didn’t want Dad. She wanted Mom. She didn’t want Dora. She didn’t want a Pop Tart. She just wanted to lay there and torment her poor exhausted mother. My husband laughed as he tried his best to get me the rest I wanted. But she wouldn’t budge.

So I’m tired and in need of a Venti skinny triple vanilla latte. Anyone delivering?

So when Kaelynn gets to the house Rhi is being a turd. Eventually the girls played well together and I said if they did well with dinner we could get ice cream. So we grilled hamburgers and I made french fries for supper. Then we sent Daddy down to Dairy Queen. I originally had the idea to load the girls up in the wagon and pull them down there. But then I remembered the huge, massive hill on the way back. I chickened out. So with ice cream in hand we went up stairs to our bedroom and watched Finding Nemo. Then its bedtime. I put both of the girls in the big bed in the guest room. They each had 2 stuffed animals and it looked like they would go right to sleep.

Looks can and are decieving. I started hearing shrieking from Rhi, ’stop touching my hair.’ I went in and Kaelynn said the bed was too big. Rhi said she kept touching her. Kaelynn then said her tummy hurts. So I move Kaelynn to Rhi’s bed (smaller toddler bed) and leave Rhi in the big bed. Kaelynn keeps wanting to get up and tell me her tummy hurts (a ploy I’ve now learned) and Rhi kept trying to sneak out of bed and come in the living room. Needless to say I worked my butt off from 8:30 until 10:30 getting those two to go to bed! So I’m exhausted at this point. Kaelynn likes to get up early. Like 6:15am early. She comes to tell me she wants to go outside to play. Um, no. Being the bad and tired mom that I was I said let’s watch Dora. So Rhi is now up and both of them are watching Dora. And I’m still exhausted today from the weekend!  But both of the girls are big into playing ‘cleaning the house’. They ran over with my little swiffer. Next time I am attaching a cleaning pad to the bottom and putting them to work! I think overall it was a great experience and would love to have them spend more time together. Kaelynn is smart as a whip and I hope she rubs off on Rhiannon. The social interaction is great!

Now on to Kosama. I went to Yoga on Saturday as my fabulous friend Ginny offered to watch Rhiannon so I could go. So I woke up Rhi at 5:30 and dropped her off at Ginny’s house as I headed to the Downtown Kosama. Hot Yoga is brutal. Why is it Hot Yoga? They turn the temp up in the room to about 90 degrees and you really sweat out all the toxins. I couldn’t do all the poses but man I can rock that corpse pose! I did the best I could though and really felt like my muscles were strengthened.

Now today was upper body. It wasn’t too bad except the breaks are getting shorter between exercises. I’m not ready to give up the breaks! I did ok except one of my elbows was bugging me so I felt like it was a little weak and held me back. But I kept at it and even made it thru abs. I can’t do the V-ups yet as they are really hard on my lower back, so I do crunches thru that exercise. But I can feel my abs actually coming in again thru the layers of fat. Again, I am NOT getting on a scale. I know that my body is changing thru these exercises, and I am building muscles. I am not about to play a mental mind game by getting on the scale and not losing any pounds. That wouldn’t work for me.

And this will now be week 2 of using the Thermogenic Push Program with Nutrishop! I am really liking this program. I am not feeling jittery or anything, which is a big plus! I am sleeping better and really functioning better overall. I can feel things are changing! I just have to keep it up now.

I have started working with Nutrishop and they set me up with a great program to help me with my overall fitness goals. I’m working out, but I want to do everything I can to enhance what I’m doing. I really am loving the Thermogenic Push Program they set up for me.

I have 4 books sitting at home waiting to be read. I am so wiped at the end of the day that I can only read a chapter before I start dozing. Not a bad thing at all, but I am never going to get these books read!  

Tonight I am cooking up some pork chops, ears of corn, and salad for supper. Sounds fabulous to me! I found a recipe that I want to try this weekend for a zucchini basil soup…I’ll let you know how that goes!

Now here were the rules we laid out. I can’t make this a habit, but it was ok for the occasion. No leftovers were to be left in the house and what I was going to eat had to be consumed immediately. I was honest when I plugged all the food into my Kosama website for nutrition. I went over my calories (obviously the cheesecake wasn’t the most brillant idea but so worth it) and took in way more fat that necessary. But I am back on track this morning and feeling ok about it. Moving on.

Kosama. I think I strongly dislike kickboxing. I want to like it. I really do. But those kicks are hard! And when you punch anything for 1 minute you get winded. I was sweating hard. I did it though. And to be honest I wanted so bad to sleep in this morning. Gotta be the result of eating so poorly for dinner! But I made myself go and I got it done. I worked it hard! I think I figured out that if I had rock music playing during kickboxing I would be able to punch harder. That is my theory. I don’t really like hip hop and dance music. Some is fine, but I think I would be doing better with some Guns and Roses or AC/DC. I’m just saying…

I finished a couple of great historical fiction books recently. One I blogged about already, but the last one was called Cleopatra’s Daughter. Loved this book! Yesterday I picked up 4 books I had on hold at the West Des Moines library so I am ready to get into another great book. First up is going to be Not Tonight Honey, Wait till I’m a Size Six.  This book is a series of short stories based on the author’s life and experience. Very funny. Chick Lit at it’s finest!

And last up I want to let you know about a trivia night I am going to help out with. It is called Dog Eat Dog Trivia and will be help benefit The Pet Project Midwest. Here are the details:

Test your trivia, have a blast while helping raise money for families in need

Organize your team, buy tickets now for a fun night out Sept. 16!

(Des Moines) Iowa history, Des Moines landmarks, music, movies and food are just a few of the fun categories at the Dog-Eat-Dog Trivia Night on September 16.

Dog-Eat-Dog Trivia Night, a fundraiser for The Pet Project Midwest, will kick off with a social hour at 6 p.m. at People’s on Court and the game will begin at 7. It costs $25 to play if you purchase your ticket before Sept. 6 at www.ThePetProjectMidwest.org or $30 after Sept. 6 or at the door. Teams of eight will compete through rounds of trivia questions ranging from pop culture to historical facts. 

“Tickets can be purchased in ones, twos, fives, etc.,” said Sara Henderson, board president of The Pet Project Midwest. “You do not need to put a whole team of 8 together to sign up! Just grab a buddy or two, or plan a solo night out & buy your ticket soon!”

WHO TV Reporter Jannay Towne and Karess Carter from STAR 102.5 will be the celebrity emcees. The top three teams will take home cash prizes and bragging rights. Ticket cost includes dinner from Planet Sub.

“Ever since we had Dog-Eat-Dog in May, players have been asking when they can do it again,” explained Courtney Tompkins, board vice president of The Pet Project Midwest (TPPM). “High-schoolers through senior citizens will have a blast at the event. It’s a test of knowledge and useless trivia but it’s no quiet night in the library. Bring your game and be prepared for a very fun night!”

Money raised through Dog-Eat-Dog will help feed animals around the Des Moines area metro through TPPM’s Pet Pantry. The Pet Pantry currently has about 350 client families it provides food and supplies to for 900+ pets so families can stay together, even in rough months.

Visit www.ThePetProjectMidwest.org for more information about TPPM and the Pet Pantry, event details, registration or sponsorship opportunities or call 515-727-4738 or email Info@ThePetProjectMidwest.org.

Ok, now let’s talk Kosama. I was feeling pretty good for class today! Had a great night of sleep due to the new product I’m using from Nutrishop called Dreamweaver. I was ready to kick some Kettlebell booty! I did too. I rocked those bells hard! I did the best I could and I think I did pretty good! Now I am a little scared about kickboxing tomorrow as that may kick my booty. Hard. But I’m going to be there.

I don’t feel as sore as I did Week one. I feel different though. Like my body is going thru some changes and it is being sculpted into something different. At this point I’m still just a mess of lumpy clay, but I’m slowly taking shape. Or maybe I am heated up and getting easier to mold into something. I don’t know. But I have noticed I am not taking bites of Rhi’s food anymore. No bites of Pop Tart or a stray french fry. Although I will admit to a craving this morning for McDonalds Sausage Egg McMuffin with cheese. Don’t know why but I started salivating as I drove by. I had to divert my eyes and pull hard on the steering wheel, as my car knows the way there by itself.

I haven’t had diet soda this week either. Not sure why exactly, except water is tasting really really awesome at the moment. I know I am still short of my daily water goal, but man, I just can’t keep running to the bathroom all day! LOL

Anyone else?