Prefenz Hand Sanitizer

My friend Heather told me about how Prefenz Hand Sanitizer is supposed to last through 10 washes or 24 hour. With all the illnesses going around I decided it couldn’t hurt to get some. It was a whopping $17 for an 8oz bottle, which is supposed to last 366 pumps. That was a couple weeks ago. I went to Hy-Vee yesterday to get a bottle for my grandparents and was pleasantly surprised to find the same bottle on sale for $9. Or, they had a purse-sized 1.5 oz bottle for $4.

So far I like it, it doesn’t have alcohol and doesn’t dry your hands like the other alcohol based hand sanitizers. Short of not getting sick lately, I cannot comment on the validity of its claims, however. I had every intention of looking into this product a little deeper, reading reviews and case studies of its effectiveness. But, my friend Tim (Heather’s husband) beat me to it. And, he probably did a much better job of scrutinizing its claims. He’s somewhat cynical of Prefenz, but if you read his post on the product I think his thoughts are reasonable since there are little to no true. unbiased third party opinions.

So, it’s probably easier to just say yeah…what he said.

ActivTrax – Slowly but Surely

Had a pretty good week last week:

Sunday – Went to Anytime Fitness with Andy, followed his ActivTrax routine with MUCH lighter weights
Monday – Signed up at the Anytime Fitness, once again followed Andy’s routine with lighter weights
Tuesday – Went to yoga with Heather at Ultimate Fitness
Wednesday – Went to Anytime Fitness and did my first ActivTrax Workout #1
Thursday – Took the night off but can’t remember why
Friday & Saturday – Took these days off
Sunday – ActivTrax Workout #2

So far it’s not so bad but I’ve bumped the time of my workouts up to about 35-45 minutes of weights so the breakdown is as follows:

5 min – Warmup
5 min – Stretch
35-45 min – Weights
20 min – Cardio

So, I’m at just over an hour. Andy would like me to increase it even more to coincide with his 1.5 hour workouts. We’ll see. As I’ve said before, baby steps. If nothing else I can spend another 20 minutes on the treadmill, or 20 minutes playing on my iPhone in the car.

What are your thoughts on ActivTrax? One of these days I will post more specifics for those of you who are unfamiliar with the program.

One Extra Hour

By now I’m sure you are all aware that we turned the clocks back this past weekend for Daylight Savings Time. Andy and I were celebrating our anniversary in Galena (details and photos will be posted this week!) When we got home I was in an “in-between” mood, not sure what I wanted to do. Andy decided to pounce on this opportunity and convince me to go to the gym with him.

You may recall awhile back that I have already joined Ultimate Fitness in Bettendorf. While I enjoy the gym for the classes, I’ve never been a big fan of the rest of the gym. I was (poorly) attempting to take advantage of the ActiveTrax that came with my membership. I only made it through one workout and for one reason or another I never got back to the gym.

So, yesterday I decide to spend my extra hour from Daylight Savings working out at Anytime Fitness, which is Andy’s gym. Although I probably would have equally enjoyed that extra hour sleeping, or reading, or plain wasting it surfing the Net, I’m glad I went with him. It may very well turn out to be a turning point in my life.

I’m really trying to look at exercising in a new light. Andy has gotten into the routine and truly made a lifestyle change; he has been going almost daily for the last two months. (Yay Andy!) Equally important, he has the mindset that it truly is a lifestyle change – not a fad, not a short term weight-loss or muscle gain goal, an honest change to his life and daily schedule. And it’s not just for his own purposes, it’s for us as a healthy couple and for our future family. He put it to me this way, “If you start working out regularly now you can add 11 healthy years to your life. Maybe you’ll still live those 11 years without working out but maybe you’ll do so with some kind of illness…we’ve got a long life together ahead of us. I want to enjoy it.” Well said. I’ve decided to look at it like that a little more rather than a chore. It’s one more thing we can do together that will improve our overall quality of living. How can I argue with that?

I will probably continue to hit UF for the classes, because those are usually more enjoyable than weights, but we’re headed tonight to get me signed up at AF as well. It’s an investment in our future and well-being. Andy goes at least 5 days a week so there’s no real reason I can’t do the same. Besides, it’s really hard to say no when you carpool and your 6′2″ muscle bound driver is heading straight for the gym after work.

I got all that out of one extra hour yesterday. Feels rather productive so far. What did you do with your extra hour?

ActivTrax Day 1 – For Real!

Once again, I tried to be an overachiever at the gym and doubled up on my workouts. (Actually, it makes me feel like less of a loser for skipping out so many in between gym visits!) Heather & I tried out yoga for the first time, which I really enjoyed. It wasn’t difficult, but it was challenging.

After yoga last Tuesday I decided to see what the big deal is with this ActivTrax that Andy is so obsessed over. I must admit, it was pretty good. I grabbed my customized workout sheet, decided 40 minutes of yoga should be an acceptable substitute for the recommended 5 minute warm up, and went to each machine, listed by number, on my list. I was able to do most of them as instructed but there were maybe two that I could not to the minimum reps. I don’t know if that was because I’m that weak, or if doing yoga beforehand hindered my strength a bit.

It was an arms day so I did all upper body stuff in about 20 minutes. I did wuss out on the ab stuff because I just wasn’t feeling it that night. But, then again, when am I ever in the mood to do ab work? Surprisingly, for possibly the first time ever I did enjoy the ab workout in my Zumba class taught my Dominic; one girl in the class said he had the best ab workout ever and I do believe she is right.

So yeah, after the machines and skipping abs, I did another mild 25 minutes on the treadmill. In hindsight I guess I only put in about an hour and a half of actual working out, which is nothing to true gym rats, but quite a lot to couch potatoes Internet Junkies like me.

Honestly, it’s not working out that gets me, it’s just GETTING myself to the gym. Or GETTING OUT of bed early. My original goal was to do ActivTrax 3 times a week. Now that I’m over my 10-day cold, that seems attainable but we’ll see. Right now I’m happy with establishing good habits of just DOING something on a regular basis. I still probably prefer classes but it was nice to have a “virtual” personal trainer of sorts. And I like checking things off lists so it’s got that whole mental thing going for it.

Andy showed me his guns the other day and after his nearly consecutive 40-something workouts, I can honestly say I can truly see the results. I’m a long way from 40 workouts but I’ve got a start at least.

ActivTrax Day 1: Or Not

Last Wednesday when I did my orientation day the trainer showed me the files they kept for members and said, “Okay, your first workout will be ready for you tomorrow!” As in Thursday. I felt a little guilty knowing that I most likely wouldn’t make it Thurdsay, definitely wouldn’t make it Friday, and thought maybe, just maybe Saturday (today) would be the day.

After a nice Zumba class this morning at Bettendorf Life Fitness Center I was feeling like an overachiever again and thought I’d head to my usual gym to do my first ActivTrax workout. I was actually looking forward to it. After a few minutes of flipping through the files I told the lady at the front desk I couldn’t find my file. “Oh, no problem” she says. “I can get it for you. ActivTrax went down last night so maybe it didn’t get entered.” I did not point out that it should have been entered three days ago.

“How about you warm up and I’ll get it ready for you?” she asked with a smile. I told her thanks, but I just finished a class was already warmed up, ready to go; I’d just wait while she printed off my sheet.

Several minutes passed then she went into the back office. I ran into someone I knew so we chatted for a few minutes. Several more minutes passed and I decided I should have printed of f my workout myself. I even considered doing so this morning, just in case. I swear I have psychic moments and I should listen to them more because when she finally came back she apologized and said they were having computer problems – could I warm up a bit while she got things figured out. Unfortunately no, I could not. We are headed out of town today and I didn’t think I had enough time to wait. Plus, in the back of my head I think I was waiting for any excuse to NOT work out. Grrr.

This did NOT make me happy. It’s hard enough to get my lazy butt up and TO the gym but when I do I’m fine; I don’t need any more hurdles to overcome when I’m there!

Oh well…maybe I’ll be motivated tomorrow night to try again. I have no choice…I have GOT to get in the habit of exercising.

ActivTrax, My New Buddy

After 2 months Andy has convinced me that I need to try ActivTrax, a web based application that acts as your very own personal trainer. Basically you take a fitness test (for which I am scheduled this evening) and it will generate a new workout for you based on your individual needs, goals, and abilities. 

Andy has become addicted to the gym in large part to this program. His gym has offered an incentive that if he goes 4 times a month the $20 fee is waived. My gym has added the program as a free perk. So, there is no extra incentive to get me there on a regular basis other than my nagging husband (just jokes – love you babe!), my bulging waistline (gross!) and evil scale (liar!)

Actually, I have another friend who goes to my gym and has been doing ActivTrax for about 6 weeks. She too has become addicted and goes nearly every day. And when we do a Zumba class she doesn’t even count that towards her cardio! I only hope I can get in that routine.

Both people have said that they haven’t dropped much weight as indicated by the scale but they have noticeably increased their strength and flexiblity and are confident that they are losing fat and gaining muscle which isn’t being reflected on the scale yet.

Last night I ran into the mother of one of my brides. She told me her daughter was in a fitness and nutrition program and did’t see much weight loss in the first six weeks but by the end of the second six weeks she had dropped 2 sizes and lost 18-20 pounds going from the mid 140s to the low 120s and now has a bit of a six-pack. WOW. For some reason that hit home.  Maybe because I never thought I’d see my scale that low again, nor thought I could ever in my life get a six pack that I didn’t buy at the liquor store. Guess it gives me something to strive for…maybe it’s not entirely out of reach.

Stephanie, Natalea and I were talking the other day and decided that this is about as good as it gets people. Most of us are currently in our prime. (Actually, Stephanie & I decided our best was Halloween three years ago so perhaps I should dig up a photo and use that for inspiration.) We decided we will never look better than we do now and it’s all downhill from here. Yikes. Scary but possibly true. I would like to be an exception to that rule. Hopefully ActivTrax can help.

Control

This is a post about control. My control. Control of what I say and control of what I do. And this time I’m going to do it my way….

Okay…that was for all you Janet fans out there; You know what I’m talkin’ about!

Anyway…just a little update on my “healthy living” / 30 Day Shred idea. After looking for the DVD at several different stores (that apparently didn’t have it) I decided to go ahead and order the darn thing online. So, it’s on the way. Baby steps.

 

This morning I tried a “Green Monster Smoothie”  (which I found here - scroll down) only I added more berries so it was more like purple sludge. Never mind my little mess. Note: The Magic Bullet wasn’t the best option, the blender worked better.  

Ingredients included 1 cup Almond milk, 2 leaves of kale, small handful of spinach, small handful of each frozen raspberries & frozen blackberries, a banana, and 1 tablespoon of milled flax seed. Sounds gross, huh? Good news is that it tasted really good. Seriously!

Around 11:30 am I was close to gnawing off my right arm because I wanted to eat a donut the work peeps* brought into the office. Instead I decided to confess to you, Internet, so that I will maintain control.  But to be completely honest, I did help myself to some breakfast pizza. Though I managed to avoid the donuts during our morning meeting. Then they put the treats in the office directly across from me and I swear they were calling my name. I decided to manage another half hour until I devoured my portion controlled healthy lunch I packed in my new Fit ‘n Fresh lunch container I picked up at good ‘ole Gordman’s last night.

 

*Speaking of peeps, I have to remember to share some funny photos with you later!

30 Day Shred Challenge?

Now that I have a brief break from school I am starting to think about what I will do with my “free time” when we’re totally done with grad school. Andy hopes to get back on his health/weight loss kick (he has lost about 16 lbs in 2009!) and we’ve been making better food choices, which I have enjoyed. Considering I’m a little up in the lb department, ahem, okay, truth be told I’m nearly to my lifetime max (eeek!) I should probably work a little harder at joining him this time.

I was poking around the Internet and found a couple interesting and inspiring blogs such as Ash is Fit & Oh She Glows. They got me thinking about jumping on the 30 Day Shred bandwagon for several reasons:

• The treadmill isn’t all that enticing
• I don’t care to join the gym (again)
• The weather isn’t consistently nice yet to go outside (and honestly, I don’t go out all that much when it is…working on it)
• The DVD is only 20 minute per session and there are 3 levels
• Comments and reviews have been very favorable
• Some of the results have been amazing

I won’t list the cons of this program. But, I will say right now that I know for a fact this DVD will kick my lazy butt from Day 1 and likely up until Day 30. If I make it that long. May is a busy month, at least on the weekends. But I’m still thinking about TRYING.

I certainly don’t expect to “lose 20 pounds in 30 days” as some reports claim. Honestly, I’m just looking  to DO SOMETHING physical on a regular basis. I’m a total cybergeek hermit. I’m not lying. Ask Andy. I’ve never been much for exercising. No, I take that back. When I was a 10 year old tomboy I did work out often, using weights even. I was convinced I was going to make the wrestling team when I got to junior high. Yeah, don’t ask. I was obsessed with WWE wrestling (back when it was WWF Wrestling, and “real.”) Like I said, don’t ask. That was :::gulp::: literally twenty years ago. Wow that sounds bad…

But I digress…Come on lurkers, SPEAK UP! What do you think? Have you tried the 30 Day Shred? Want to join me? What got you motivated, and more importantly, KEPT you motivated to be active?

SOMEBODY help me stop being so lazy!!!! (Yeah, I know, that’s MY job. I’ve got to really want it.)

4:30 AM

That’s what time we’ve been getting up. 4:30 AM. Then off to the gym for eh, about an hour. Half hour on the treadmill followed by weights. It sucks. But it feels great. My dreaded workout is done and over before I realize I’m awake. And I’m not rushed getting ready for work.

It’s only been two days but yay for us anyway. Less than 7 months before I’ve gotta get in that dress. Let’s see if that keeps me motivated enough to keep going. (Nevermind that it’s a corset back so I’m pretty safe either way.)