Back in the Saddle.......

The clouds are starting to clear...
 

This week was exhausting but it was such a great week.  It was a roller coaster of emotion and at one point I said to my friend Sherry.."Bring it on, what's next!?"  Her response was..."Quit asking for it..."  She is so right.  Ever since my Dad died in 2006, with the economy tanking, it has been one thing after another.  I generally have a positive outlook and try to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I must admit, when I broke my ankle 9 weeks ago, I felt defeat.  My exercise program was the glue to keeping me whole and feeling sane.  I felt great and was looking great.  Then I hit the wall.  With Jay out of town, Stevi being sick a lot, business down, the broken ankle, the house flooding, my Mom's dog dying, the IRS chasing me, getting food poisoning, losing our house, my Harley and closing the salon I worked so hard to build, I sometimes wanted to crawl into a hole in the fetal position and just go to sleep.  Not being able to sleep is a big issue especially emotionally and physically.  It begins to take its toll on anyone.

Since Jay is now home, he got laid off and starts a job in Incline Village on Monday working 4-10's which will be awesome, and Stevi just finished cheer season, we will be able to have family dinners again.  Also, with Jay home, I won't have to do all the running around and with a possible diagnosis for Stevi's constant illness, we now are forced to change the household to a Wheat free, Gluten free zone to make it easy for her.  I just finished Cross Fit this morning and it was an amazing workout that felt so good I could of cried!  I didn't crave the usual daily naughty coffee, but instead stopped at the Jus Bar and got an Age Reversal juice with spinach and chugged that down feeling even better. There are a lot of Sun ray's coming through the clouds, we got the flooring replaced this morning and after 5 weeks, I may be able to actually do our laundry at home.  Stevi will have more free time and wants to start going to Cross Fit with me and probably start dance again as well as Volleyball and practice her singing.  I now need to look forward to what life has to give instead of looking back to what life has taken.  We are all struggling to survive.  I now  realize that I had lost my ability to see all the good in the world and I chose to start living happy and stress free.  My neck is back in place, weekly visits to the Chiropractor have helped me with that, I have eliminated my freebies, given the kids money towards their wedding at the end of June, gotten through cheer seasons hectic schedule with Jay living out of town , I am able to hike again, run a little and exercise.   Now we will be eating healthy and my body can already feel the difference.  So I chose to dismount my horse I've been riding to the pity party and start this rodeo all over again, after all, it's not my first.

I survived.......

My Mom doing 50 Burpees
As you know , I started my week with a wonderful 3.1 mile hike on Monday then that evening ended up finishing my Monday getting food poisoning which put a damper on my plan to jump right back into my fitness routine.  The only change I am making is one less 'run' day which I will now call a 'Cardio' day until I feel my ankle is ready to take a pounding since I generally run on pavement.  God's way of holding me back, I am sometimes unable to do that myself because I just don't have it in me to quit.  Thursday I felt OK and was hoping to get to Cross Fit but ended up getting over booked that day to get caught up from being sick....Thank you again to my "Higher Power"  I'm sure I needed that extra day of rest.  So as of now, my schedule is Mon and Fri Cardio, Tues, Thurs and Sat. Cross Fit.

Sierra Nevada CrossFit Gym...Love it! 

This morning my Mom thankfully agreed to the 9 am class, as much as I would rather sleep in a bit longer, I really enjoy my Saturdays with my family, especially since Jay is still living in Susanville while he works and comes home on the weekends.  So today was officially my first day back, (I tried once but I wasn't ready).

Of course the 'Eye Candy" showed up as we were leaving...
We started with a warm up of running the Switchbacks up behind Mayberry Park.  As you can imagine, I was told to hike it, not run it.  It has been 8 weeks today since I fractured my ankle and I must admit, I have been a bit scared to re-injure myself because it was really a painful couple of months.  So I listened to Kat (My beautiful Trainer, I want to look like her when I grow up) for about 5 minutes.  I was listening to my body and my body told me to try to run.  I did for about 30 seconds.  Still too tight in my Achilles tendon, so I kept walking.  On the way up the switchback my body begged me to try again, so I did and even though it was uphill, my ankle let me go, but being 25 degrees out at that time, my lungs told me to stop.  Walking at a quicker pace now I was starting to feel good, actually great, not just physically but mentally, although I was completely aware of just how out of shape I had gotten.  It took 10 weeks to get where I was before my injury, and 2 weeks for it to be all gone.  Very discouraging but I will fight it head on.  I ran a bit but mostly hiked to the top to meet the others...(I wasn't last though!!! Yay Me!)  then Kat was sweet enough to make us do 100 back lunges.  Thanks Kat, because my ass has fallen and it can't get back up.  On the way down I felt warmed up and very inspired, my body said "RUN LIKE THE WIND!!"  I tried and ran most of the way downhill but the only wind I think that was happening was my lungs saying "Are you f'ing serious right now?" and my Mom's lips causing wind by saying "Be careful, Lisa, don't overdo it!"  Love you Mommy.  She told Kat to tell me to stop and Kat's response was "If she won't listen to her own mother, do you think she will listen to me?"   She knows me well.  But I WAS listening to my body and I felt great, so great in fact on the last stretch back, we all ran (slowly) in. I could have cried I was so happy, then I almost did when I saw the WOD (work out of the day) board.
Everything listed was followed by 100.....


http://www.crossfitsierranevada.com

My trainer Kat Baltierra is the hottie with the naughty body in the middle.. To train with this amazing young woman you can click the link above for the gym or contact her personally @ 775-772-8991

I was amazed at how well I did, as well as how out of shape I had really gotten.  I took it very slow, at that point I now needed to really modify so I didn't hurt myself, a very humbling experience for me.  Back to the black bands for the pull ups, the burpees I had to step back instead of jump and step forward and rather than jump up, I had to do toe raises.  The box jumps ended up being step ups, I use a lower box generally but I did choose a bit taller of a box since I wasn't actually jumping.  I completed all of those exercises, very slowly, the burpee to pull-ups I had to separate into two different exercises instead of all in one so those only ended up being 50 of each....Still hard after laying dormant for 8 weeks and the last exercise  I only got half way through were the straight legged sit-up....I got to 50 and it was time to stretch, which on the left was actually harder than the exercises themselves.  I have recently become obsessed with Lingerie Football and Kat said she can get me to look even better than those girls before Jayson and Guoda's  Geez you're a maniac)  And thank you God for slowing me down this week, I'm sure I needed that!

Obviously my new iphone has kept me occupied.

I'm sorry I have become one of "those" bloggers, I guess it's like missing a day of exercise, all of a sudden you are off the wagon!

I

can't believe I haven't blogged since October 25th, but I guess so, a lot has happened. If you look at my weekly updates, you can see how many hikes my mom and I have accomplished. We are both getting into incredible shape, the gym has become a second home for both of us and we both started to work out because out clothes were getting uncomfortable. So now since both of us need a belt or our pants will literally fall off of us, I am handing down my pants to her, and pulling all my "skinny" pants out of hiding, some of those are even too big, it's great, I can't afford to buy a new wardrobe so looks like my sewing machine may have to come out. I bought hiking pants and well, they are way too big, but I make them work.

Stevi turned 13 on the 23rd of November and a few of her friends met us at the skating rink, we had a blast, she always chooses such nice kids to hang out with. They say if you don't like your children's friends, then you probably would not like your children when they are out hanging. So that always makes me feel good.

We had the most handsome boy in the world stay with us for a few days over the Thanksgiving Holiday and he was perfect. We took him to go see a movie, which was interesting, we tried to get into Planet 51 which was sold out and ended up seeing A Christmas Carol, not really a children's movie, but when the ghosts were flying thru the air, Jack would say "Weeeeeeeee!" And that kid can eat popcorn like no other, I wonder, when I was pregnant with Jayson I could go through a large at the movies before the previews were done. I guess it is a genetic craving!

I survived Black Friday with my sister and Stevi, only I started at Midnight so I was awake for 33 hrs. Jack, Stevi and Papa let me take a nap for around 4 hours when I got home and then thanks to Jacks hugs and kisses, I was rejuvenated.

And today, Sage and Willow, Liz and my Mom came over and we had a gingerbread house building party as well as gingerbread boys and girls. It was so much fun! The girls did a great job and ate a lot of the decorations but hey , at least I didn't! So all-in-all, I am trying to get back to reality.

Oh Yeah, AND, Stevi was scouted for a travel soccer team, tried out and she made it. Practice starts on Wednesday but the season isn't until February. She is also on an indoor soccer team which just got moved up to competitive level because they were beating the other teams so badly, so we played on Saturday and when we showed up, there were some big boys on the field. We ended up getting beaten for the first time and the score was 29-0, when the boys took off their indoor jerseys, the shirts they had on underneath said "McQueen Highschool Soccer Team" The kicker, most of them drove themselves! It was unreal! They got pretty rough with the boys , excuse me, young men though, I think they were getting pretty frustrated, but they survived, Stevi has some indoor field turf burns on her arms and legs because she went down hard a couple of times, but when she realized who they got beaten by she felt better about it, I mean those boys had facial hair!!!! Geez!

Sleeping Beauty.....

I don't get out much anymore, so last night was a big deal. Felt like I partied like a rock star. I wasn't in bed till 3 and didn't wake up until after noon today. Stevi had Cierra spend the night and since Jay wasn't feeling well, I invited my mom to come along for dinner, (I had 2 50% off entree coupons for Carrow's, don't laugh, it actually wasn't that bad) and Stevi and Cierra needed to shop for Crazy Week at Shaw, so while they walked around Summit Mall, my mom and I had a martini and a mocha latte at the Chocolate Bar, then we all went to go see Fame. The movie was ok, but I was hopped up on caffeine, so last night we got home after midnight and I stayed up and finished Season 2 of Dexter. Finally got tired after taking Black Cohosh and didn't wake up until after 12. We are going on a 10.1 mile hike tomorrow off of Hobart Rd. in Washoe Valley, the west side, so I guess it is ok that I skip exercise today, I added Ball Blast to my schedule for Wednesday, so don't worry, I am not slacking off.....it's fun, anyone want to go with me!?

Gray Eagle Creek Trail

We were expecting snow up in Graeagle. According to the forecast, it was to snow until 3 am this morning. The temperature was only supposed to reach 55 today, so we didn't know what to expect. Since my dogs basically only have lincoln logs for legs, I left them at home just in case. I really felt bad because they would have been fine.

Cheri brought her beagle Simon with her today and he and Chyla took a moment to get to know each other but after a bit they were fine, I think only having one new dog for Simon to meet is probably a good thing since he is normally a leash walker.

The weather was a bit chilly but all in all the hike WAS moderate, there were some hills but nothing like Fridays hike. I don't think Cheri thought of throwing rocks at me once this trip.

It really is beautiful up in the Plumas National Forest area, next week we will be hiking on Tuesday at Hunter Creek which is in the Mogul area, so we won't have to travel, however it is a 7 mile hike so it will take us 3-4 hours. Cheri showed up sporting new hiking boots and said they really made a difference, so tomorrow after Mom and I do our "Fitness Express" class at noon, we are going to head over to Sierra Trading Post to see if there are any boots in our budget. (Budget, hate it, hate it, HATE IT!)

Check out the dew on this leaf, it really was gorgeous up there. We had a great time, Cheri was a trouper and I think we now have a hiking partner!

Cheri gave me a boost up for a photo opp. ......it didn't work as I had fantasized, I got up and slid right back down.......oh well! Got to love friends with a helping hand......