kettlebell

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Finger Lickn’ Good

wp-1664239035405

Since I was off today, I was doing chores and didn’t do any cardio. I decided to keep up with the kettlebell workouts to build my muscles and strength. It’s only an 8 pound kettlebell but with all the reps I do, I can feel the pain.

As is my habit, I like to have a major cooking day at the beginning of the week if I have the day off. Today, I baked a whole chicken with sweet potatoes and onions. I brined the chicken overnight in saltwater and lemon pepper with some sage, thyme, and garlic powder. I dried the skin off, seasoned it inside and out with kosher salt and pepper, then put a slab of butter inside the bird while it cooked. I also put butter on the potatoes and everything turned out juicy and delicious. I portioned out some for lunches tomorrow (one for me, one for the kid) and there was still some left after I stripped the meat from the bones.

The temperatures are dropping and this was the perfect comfort dinner. It’s gonna need to cool off more before I have a pot simmering for hours making broth but this was just right. And it has plenty of protein and vitamins I’m lacking from my last blood tests. While this is more work than just nibbling on a gummy vitamin, this tasted much better.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: I made it…

Holy shit, I made it… I worked from last Sunday to this Sunday and I finally get a day off tomorrow. Man, I wish I could sleep all day but, there are chores to be done; including meal prep for the rest of the week.

wp-1664151265819

Part of my life goals in general is to use up food that’s in the house and I had some sweet Italian sausage but no veggies in the house. I literally Googled the meat and saw whatever the most popular recipes were and bought some green and yellow squash before I went to work. I just sliced up some garlic and onion and this was a good meal! Even the kid liked it (who claims to hate squash) and I have some left over to eat tomorrow.

Screenshot_20220925-213659-046

I was able to break 4k steps today and I just needed a fucking break from cardio so, it was kettlebell time. Now, the reason why I focused on shoulders and back is since I have been making some progress, I tried on the cosplay dress this morning. I was able to get it on better but not zip it up. I rummaged through my closet and found some shapewear that I bought and never used and when I managed to squeeze my fat ass into it, the zipper went just a bit higher. The problem? *sigh* My boobs. They are just too powerful for the dress…

I kid (mostly) it’s more like my back area just under and around my boobs. But I’ll tell ya, I have a completely different opinion on shapewear now. I decided on a lark to try on a dress that I bought years ago (and it was the same size as two other dresses in the same order but somehow was too small) and not only did I get into it but… I was kinda hot? Like, dangerous levels of confidence here.

This inspired me to work on the back fat and look into some shapewear that will also minimize my chest area to maybe finally get that zipper closed. Eda’s dress is pretty conforming to the body and other than my back, it looks amazing. Even with my big ass.

Before and after pics? Yeah, no thanks. If I fail, I don’t need this immortalized on the internet to taunt me even after my death. I have 10 more days of veggies, protein, and a lot of workouts to see if I can reach my goal. It’s going to be an adventure since I have some extra long days coming up where I won’t be home at my normal time to workout after work… This is why I want to meal prep on my day off so I don’t need to cook for a few days. I’ll probably drift into the house like I’m haunting it and fall into bed rather than cook anything. But we’ll see what I get done tomorrow.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Long day

I managed to squeeze this in on a day where we were short staffed and I ended up helping this very nice man with his Google Docs for over an hour. While darting about helping other people. Good news is I helped him out and learned that you can merge Google Docs with an app. That’s pretty cool.

This was dinner after having a gyro platter for lunch (no pic, I forgot). I get my gyro platters with no dairy so it’s less calories; basically, it’s a salad with some lamb meat on the side.

Yup. I broke. I walked into the house after work and faceplanted right into my bed. My brain is fried and my body is tired. I need a treat or I’m gonna fall down. It’s just one and I have my kettlebell workout to do later. I’ll burn it off.

I also got in a walk during my lunch break; a quick 20 minutes and later I’ll do the kettlebell workout for 15 minutes. I think I need an extra stretching session to wind down more and get ready for work tomorrow. I am mentally so exhausted. And I’ve still been writing every day. I think I deserved that one beer.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: The rest on repeat

I did the bike and kettlebell today and man, my thighs were feeling it again.

Since my food was just a repeat of the previous day, I didn’t take any pictures. It was exactly the same meal and I didn’t make anything for dinner because I was still full from lunch.

Mostly, I am so tired from working so many days in a row. It’s almost done so I can finally have a day off soon. Then I can actually put two words together to make a longer post.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout and Food: Too Salty for ME?!

Screenshot_20220922-204706-226

I felt the need for some muscle work today so I brought out the kettle bell and did some squats instead of all cardio all the time. Building muscle burns fat and also, repetition can get boring.

As it was my late night, I slept in through breakfast so I only managed to grab a grapefruit and some almonds for lunch and had a big dinner. My last blood tests said my iron was low so I put steak in the electric lunch box today. I had some bok choy from Misfits Market and some snow peas to use up. What I noticed is since I’m trying to slim down quickly and lowered how much salt I eat, the soy sauce I used to marinate the steak was overwhelming. And I’m the type to put salt on a salt bagel.

When I prepped my dinner for today, I made the same for lunch tomorrow. I’ll have to water down the sauce. I actually got a bit of a headache from all that salt. Luckily, I don’t have any problem drinking plenty of water to flush out my system.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Triple Threat

In addition to using the under desk peddler, I had to walk up to the store to get hot sauce (my kid is obsessed) and some sesame oil (that’s getting expensive so not buying that for awhile…), I picked up the kettle bell after a super light dinner. My only cheat was a small portion of Tipsy Scoop for dessert. Raspberry Limoncello Sorbet, if you’re curious. Very nice as a cap to the evening.

I am really feeling these arm workouts. I think I’m back in the head space where the soreness is letting me know I’m doing a good thing for my body. The sad part is I’d skipped weight training for so long, I have a moment where I think “Wait, why am I sore again?” before my stupid brain makes the logistical leap.

All I need to do is my 50 squats and stretch before bed and the day is done! I have the feeling with more days like this I’ll get back on track.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Numbers

I went in for my annual and they did my regular blood test. I clearly got too complacent in always getting great numbers because this time was not good. My bad cholesterol went from 155 to 177. Holy shit. I guess I treated myself a bit too many times here…

wp-1651686026520

wp-1651706489679

Now, my plan is to do extra workouts daily. I have the desk bike at work and I grabbed my kettle bell today. I know I do have a weight loss goal for the scale but it’s more important for me to get healthy and have a better quality of life as I age. I may not be able to run like I did in my 20’s but I want to be able to walk when I’m in my 60’s.

One of my little tricks is to do 50 squats whenever I brush my teeth and considering I’m gonna try extending my desk peddler time to at least 40 minutes, my legs are gonna be burning. My arm muscles are already trembling from just 10 minutes of kettle bell so I am CLEARLY not in as good a shape as I could be. I mean, I have good endurance that I can walk for long distances and the bag I carry daily has to be about 20 pounds and I don’t struggle much to lift it. I have a lot of work to do.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Kettlebell for the stress…

Since I have to work this weekend (cries softly in the corner), I decided that my runs will be Mon, Wed, Fri and do weights on the off cardio days. 

The stress? Not having to work the weekend (although that is a contributor) but I learned today that Draft2Digital, where I self-publish all my books, has aquired Smashwords… After I went through all the *@&%@&$%@-ing trouble of manually adding all my books there…

I guess I’ll just use D2D going forward (since it’s SO much easier) but this couldn’t have happened in a more ironic way since I just released my NaNoWriMo project on both platforms. When I’m 18 total titles deep at this point…

Moving forward, I guess I’ll just use D2D and manually add books to my profile? Heck if I know. I’m tired.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Quick Strength Training

wp-1642552507750

Not that I think I’ll ever develop six pack abs without having some kind of skin removal surgery; I’d like to have a smaller belly. I know cardio is best for fat burning but I’ve focused too much on straight up calorie burn in general and need to build up more muscle. Besides, I hear it’s not good to run every single day at my weight and age. It’s hard on the knees and I barely make enough money to make ends meet, much less be out of work and pay for knee replacements.

And given the issues I’m STILL having with my Saxenda prescription, I don’t trust my insurance company to do the right thing at all right now. I don’t blame my doctor but for some reason, the insurance company doesn’t think this weight loss drug should be prescribed for weight loss and keep asking for all this extra authorizations! I’m technically medically obese, that’s a diagnosis. This drug is to treat that diagnosis. There’s no reason other than to be petty to deny me this prescription and these games are fucking annoying.

I do see my doctor this month and I’m hoping that the around 20 pound weight loss since I started this will be some leverage to stop this nonsense.

Follow me on BlogLovin.

atthequillsmercy

Today’s Workout: Derailed Again.

I was so ready to continue with c25k today but I did something to my knee yesterday. I woke up in the middle of the night in agony and couldn’t get in any sort of comfortable position to get back to sleep. I was hobbling around all day really annoyed with myself but I was able to do a kettlebell workout of mostly my arms and leaving my knees completely out of it.

I hope my knee heals soon. I was looking forward to running again. I mean, I needed to get more strength training in anyway but this isn’t how I wanted to go about it.

Follow me on BlogLovin.