Friday, February 3, 2012

Death by Kettlebells - Workout of the Week (Plus Weird Workout Motivation)

Happy Friday!

Boy, did this week fly by.  My workout of the week is from Tuesday: Death by Kettlebell Swings.

Honestly, this is one of the strangest Crossfit workouts I've done.  When the timer starts, you do one kettlebell swing.  Just one.  Then you wait till the first minute is up and do...wait for it...two kettlebell swings.  And so on and so forth, until you could no longer complete the number of reps at the specified minute. 

Yup, iWorkout in skirts.
There was so much standing around, it didn't feel like Crossfit!  The good (?) news is that by round 8 or 9, it started to feel like a workout, and by round 20 I was toast!!!  For those of you non-math majors, that's 210 kettlebellswings in 20 minutes. 

Top - Nike Thermafit, running skirt - lululemon,
socks - Target, shoes - Nike
I used the 26 pound kettlebell.  I thought about going up to the 35, but my arm felt a little odd and I didn't want to risk getting injured.  In the end, I think it was the wise choice.  As it was, I was sore until this morning!

I'm a nerd.

Okay, so I don't wear socks with sandals or use pocket protectors.  But I'm kinda crazy about spreadsheets.  Even when I was young I would make lists of what to pack on a trip...not on paper.  In Excel.

So, you ask, what do I do to motivate myself to eat healthy and workout when I feel like sitting around and eating gelato?


EASY.  I have a spreadsheet for that.

I started my tracking my workouts with Google Doc spreadsheets back on 9/13/10.  I put down what I did (racquetball) for how long (40 minutes).  Then I have handy-dandy formulas that add up my time each day AND each week.  (I'm so fancy.)

I've also added other things to the list that I want to remember to do...like how many hours I sleep on weeknights, how many servings of veggies I've had on weekdays, and whether I rememberd to take my magnesium. 

Here's what this week looks like so far:


I only weigh myself about once a month, and I do my body fat testing around the same time, since I care a lot less about how many pounds I have and a lot more about how much of me is muscle.

I don't track veggies on the weekends...cause I sorta eat whatever I feel like.  And I don't track sleep those nights either, because I tend to get plenty.

For some reason, this little tool has kept me going strong for a year and a half.  It makes me really happy to go and plop my numbers in and watch them add up as the week goes by.  It also allows me to plan ahead what workouts I wanna do which days.  I shoot for plenty of variety to avoid getting injured, bored, or unbalanced.

And there you have it.  Pretty spreadsheets, committed girl.

You tell me:  What do you do to stay motivated?  What are you proud of accomplishing this week?  Do you think it's weird to stand around during a workout?  ARE YOU EXCITED IT'S THE WEEKEND???

3 comments:

  1. Yes, you are a nerd. I still use spreadsheets, too.

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  2. I pay myself to workout. I track it by hour and get $5/hour of working out for clothes shopping. If I don't workout, I save money. It's worked for me for 8 months!

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