90 Days Challenge by Mark Lauren Halftime - And some Lindy Hop

I know, I know. I haven't been writing in quite some time.

The reason might be that I had a few days of motivation black hole, meaning I just couldn't bring myself to do the workouts and eat according to the plan. Last weekend we have been on a nice trip with the van, as Thursday was a public holiday here and we had taken the Friday off work. I am proud to say that I managed one workout "on the road", which I did in the van. Space was scarce and therefore it wasn't my best workout ever, but I was glad I did it.

We saw the preparation for a fox-hunt, all the riders dressed up and excited

When I went back to work things went downhill. Every day when I came home I was so tired, I could not even lift my arms, let alone lift myself onto my arms. I collapsed on the couch and fell asleep immediately. Three days in a row. No idea where this came from. Maybe it had to do with the weather changing or with some cold my body was fighting off.
After this short backlapse I managed to get back on track however. My nutrition is also getting better again. We are eating a lot of protein, cooking with veggies and good meat and I can feel that my body has much more energy again. Maybe the bad eating habits a few days before made me suffer from the tiredness. And now I am already at day 45! Wow, halftime! I feel like it is only the start of a longer journey however.

The last three days I managed to go back to my plan and redo the workouts I missed. Yesterday's workout was called "Burner" and I can tell you, nomen est omen. My arms were burning the whole day afterwards. A pretty good feeling after days of laziness.
In the evening I went to a Lindy Hop concert of Meschia Lake and The Little Big Horns. Everybody was dancing like crazy, it was awesome! I have danced some Lindy Hop before, but that was about ten years ago, so you can imagine how much I sucked on the dancefloor! The great thing about Lindy Hop is, that no one cared. People in the scene are really cool and helpful. After some time I got better and more confident. It is so much fun, I want to convinve Mr. Schön of joining me in a class. Cross your fingers that he agrees! Dresses and hairstyles are also great to look at. Some guys even danced in woolen suits or leather jackets. Knowing how hot I already felt, they must have been close to their melting point. But, no pain no gain! I love men in suspenders and with rockabilly hairstyles. Some of them looked so cool, dancing with their beautiful partners. I sometimes took breaks from the dancing, just to look at them (and to take a break I have to admit...). The singer from New Orleans`voice blew me away. Even while talking, her husky voice baffled me. Check her out here. In the video you can see that even without a mic her voice is so strong, unbelievable, as are her dance moves. Really cool! I had never been at a concert before, where everyone was dancing like that. It must be a lot of fun when you perform on stage and see this kind of reaction.

Spring was really pleasant those last few days and we had the first big picnic in a park nearby. The baby in our bunch will soon be a year old already. As his mum is too busy with everyday life I will make him a photo- and memory album of his first year on Earth. I adore the album my parents made for me, which might be why I think this so important. It is great fun to choose the pictures and arrange them, more like in a scrapbook. If I were paid for that I would be happy to do it all day long.
With all the working out and the good weather, there hasn't been a lot of time for knitting lately, but I want to get back to that during the next two days, which are holidays in Germany as well.

Did someone say "barbecue"?

Have a great weekend!

90 Days Challenge by Mark Lauren - Fourth week

Yummie!

Wow, I am on day 30 today, so one third of the Challenge is over. I cannot actually remember what I did before that. The challenge does not take up all day, merely 60 minutes per week till now, but it still somehow is deep in your head all the time. Your nutrition, the planned workouts and last but not least, the sore muscles remind you of the challenge you are on.

The facebook group has been a great support and motivation for me. There are people who do the challenge in all kinds of stages and levels, so you have a lot of experience in one place, where you can ask questions and also post motivations. To me it is always great to see how fit people can get within this time if they eat according to the plan.

I still do not eat according to it. From time to time cake still finds it way into my mouth. My protein intake is much higher though than before the challenge. I eat cooked eggs, fish and creamcheese or Greek joghurt with banana and strawberries on a regular basis.

Before blending

A few days ago we spent a lazy evening watching documentaries on Netflix and stumbled upon the great „Sick, fat and nearly dead“. A guy from Australia travels the US for 60 days and all he eats is juiced fruit and veggies. He loses a lot of weight and feels exhilarated, telling everyone about juicing. I watched it and felt like buying a juicer immediately and putting kale into it. And you know what? We bought a blender and are making green smoothies. My first one is sitting in front of me right now, Orange, apple and spinach. It tasted really great. Looks a bit odd, though. Or looks very healthy.

After Blending - Very Green

Our new Blender: Very practical, you mix your smoothie in your cup

The challenge has reached a major step, because from this week on, I will do four instead of three workouts. Yesterday was officially the first „two-workouts-in-a-row-day“ and it sucked. No workout has been as annoying and hard as this week's Opus. I sometimes even paused during the active phases, because I just couldn't do it. Sweat was running down my face, my chest, my belly. I had to shower immediately and wash my clothes the minute the workout was over. (I hate sweat) But I was really happy that I have done it even though I didn't feel like it all day.

If you look closely. You can even see a bit of mucsles in my belly and arm, which is motivating me to eat better and keep up the work.

Emerging Muscles - So proud :)

90 days challenge by Mark Lauren - Third week

Paradise Beach offers a great view on Düsseldorf's tv tower

It is day 23 of the challenge and I am quite happy with it. During the last days it somehow felt as if nothing was changing anymore and my lower belly seemed to stick out just as before... But:
I measured myself, just like on every other "evaluation"-day and I am still getting slimmer in the waist. This is a big aim for me, because I tend to have a more "straight" figure and adore people with hourglass shapes. My chest and waist measures are quite ok, it is just the waist - and the upper arms - I would love to reduce. I am really glad I measured myself, because it can be a great motivator to see the progress in the numbers, if you cannot really "feel" it. And on the scale not much has changed, but then again muscles are heavier than fat, so, that doesn't count anyway.

1st week:                                         2nd week:                                   3rd week:

Breast: 92 cm                                  Breast: 88 cm                            Breast: 90 cm
Waist:  75 cm                                  Waist:  72 cm                             Waist:   71 cm              
Hips:   93 cm                                   Hips:   93 cm                             Hips:     91 cm
right upper arm: 27 cm                    Arm:   26 cm                             Arm:     26 cm

I guess the breast measurements change within the cycle, so they have not much to do with the challenge. But my waist and hips have been reduced quite a lot within two weeks, which feels great! Yay!

Not pretty. Workouts arent't pretty I guess.

Eval is a training you do every week to measure which fitness level you have reached. There are three and till now I have only trained on level two, but today Eval told me that I am ready to start with trainings on level three. Knowing that tomorrow's workout is going to be "Tyrant" is a little bit intimidating, but I will try my very best. Uff

Next level, here I come. (I know, all those loose pieces of paper! Some people write all their results into notebooks. But that's how I am.)

Doing the workouts has always be the fun part of the challenge and I have do admit I didn't really pay much attention to the nutrition. This is definitely one of the reasons that my belly doesn't want to disappear. It has been incredibly hard for me to eat enough protein, as I have always been a carbohydrate-fat-junkie. But today, I really made an effort, I even bought Protein-muesli. My lunch was gyros, so only meat and for tonight I bought lentils for Indian lentil soup. According to my lifesum app I managed to reach my protein goal of more than 100 grams for the first time - like - ever! So proud! So, may the muscles come! (I just hope I will resist having something sweet for tonight. Mr Schön is away, to poker with his guy-friends and Lisek and me are home all alone.

The protein-muesli. Quite ok, but not as yummy as some other mueslis can be :)

The weather has been gorgeous today, warm and sunny. After a very busy conference yesterday, I took a day off and didn't do anything work-related, which was perfect. I took the dog out and we went to Paradise Beach, which really is a sandy beach just outside the harbour area of Düsseldorf. I can easily walk there from our flat, which is great on such a sunny day. (I have always wanted to write a post about all the things I love in Düsseldorf. The beach will definitely be part of it.) Lisek was hilarious. He got some sand into his eye I guess and he tried to get rid of all the sand in his face by rubbing - in the sand. (He would be successfull on grass, but, yes, with the rubbing in the sand the problem was, that the sand of course didn't come off.) And he loves the Rhinewater, walks in, and always dips his face in. I have never seen that in a dog. It is incredibly cute. I took a dog frisbee with me we have once gotten as a present. To make it short: It didn't pass the Lisek-test. Now it is a mrere ring of thick rope, which is also fine.

Roarrrrr

And now?

Isn't that pretty? Ten minutes from the city center. Düsseldorf, I love you!

Last weekend we spent some awesome days at the Niederrhein, a post about it with all the pictures I took will follow. Take care and think about doing the 90 days challenge, it is really great fun!

90 days challenge by Mark Lauren - Second Week

Hey folks,

how have you been? The last week was my second week in the 90 days challenge. It doesn't sound like a long time but I already wonder, what I have done all the time without the workouts. I feel almost addicted to them, the rest days are kind of boring to me. On some of them I have done some Yoga to feel like I have done at leas something.

My Eval workout showed me that I am fit enough to train on Level two now, which made the upcoming workouts - fittingly called Tyrant and Hammer - all the more challenging. But I managed. The only problem occured with the last unit in Hammer, as my right thigh muscle cramped. Maybe I have to spend some more time with the warm-up in the future.

Today it is Eval time again and I will try to do the Eval level two. That will be fine I hope. During the first week the sore muscles were almost killing me, but that got better soon. I still feel my workouts the next day, but I am not so sore anymore that I cannot move. Already I can see changes on my body happen, especially on my arms, and - surprisingly - on my waist.

I measured again today and some things have already changed a bit:

The numbers last week and this week:

Breast: 92 cm - 90 cm
Waist: 75 cm - 72 cm
Hips: 92 cm - 92 cm
Right Upper Arm: 27 cm - 26 cm

I could definitely tell that my waist seems a bit more firm. But I guess 3 cm is a bit much, measuring is not very accurate here I guess. But I am definitely making progress and this motivates me.

My only problem so gar is my nutrition. I have been better at eating more during the day, having breakfast and everything, but I didn't keep my hands away from the chocolate. (hello? again?) I am succeeding at eating more protein, which has been a challenge for me as I am a carb person through and through. I am managing though and getting used to it. Mark Lauren also tells us to drink only water, which is not such a big problem for me, as

So let's see what the next week brings me. So far I can totally recommend the challenge, it is a lot of fun and makes you feel like you accomplished something every day!

Sugar Fasting – Recap and 90 days challenge by Mark Lauren - First week

Thank God it was Easter last weekend! It wasn’t that bad, but the great the whole sugar-fasting started, the more difficult it was during the last days of the fastening. Initially, I was really proud how well I managed to stay away from candy of every kind. After a while I ate chocolate from time to time, but only with alternative sweeteners and very mindful.

Once I went to see my grandma. She had made a cake for just the two of us and I told her that I had eaten no sugar since Ash Wednesday, but that I would make an exception for her cake. I could not have lived with disappointing her that way. As it was in the end still my decision to eat those two pieces of apple pie, I could deal with it. There are more important things than diets. It was interesting, how my body reacted to the sweet stuff. At first I was really happy and content and then on the way back home I got lost on the way to find a gas station and when I was finally in the station I was so tempted by the candy bars lying there in front of me, it was peculiar. My blood sugar had dropped apparently and especially in the stressful situation of driving in an unfamiliar neighbourhood, my brain cried for sugar. Interesting. And it felt oddly liberating to finally see and feel very consciously what sugar can do to our brains.

Last weekend we had an absolutely lazy chocolate evening, Mr. Schön and me. I went to the Kiosk and bought a whole bunch of caramelly, nutty chocolate. It was gorgeous to finally eat them again. And I had some nasty ways afterwards. But you know what? I do not feel bad about it. It was a time when I needed some chocolate and it is ok. I know I can fast again, I know I can quit sugar if I want to and that is fine.

Sports have basically not happened this year so far. I am doing some Yoga, sometimes I switch on the Wii for some Zumba, but we have not been running often and apart from the above mentioned, taking the dog for a walk is the most exercise I get. Until now. I am not a big fan of fitness studios and I am lazy, so even though I love swimming, packing my stuff, driving to the pool, changing, swimming, changing again, drying my hair, etc. is just TOO MUCH effort. Workouts have to be as efficient and as homebased as possible. Running is great, because you do not need much equipment and can basically start at your own door. But – here kicks the laziness in again – I am a sunny weather runner. When it is gorgeous outside, I often get motivated to run. If it isn’t (like most of the time in Western Germany) I do not.

A trend that fits my priorities is the whole “Be your own gym” movement, which is weight training without any equipment, but your own body / home. Strolling through a bookstore (one of my favourite leisure time activities of all times), I found a whole bunch of books that introduce workouts only using your own body weight that you can basically do everywhere. And as I like a challenge, I got the 90 days challenge for women by Mark Lauren. (Find it here on amazon. I don’t like the design of the book much, but you know the saying…

In the book you find a lot of explanations why HIT-High Intensity Training – works best for muscle growth and which kind of nutrition helps with the challenge. Mark Lauren is rather critical of cardio training like running, but I think a combination of both should be what makes us super healthy. A typical week in the 90 days challenge consists of three (later four) workouts in different levels of intensity. (So far level 1 is my friend). Between the days of workout there are days of recovery, where you can find tips for your general health, nutrition, well-being, and so on. They are easy to read, informative and a nice change if your body hurts from the brutal work-outs. Lauren used to be a trainer in the US military and the workouts are not easy. But very efficient. Saturday, after I had done the second training session, I was barely able to walk. The muscle pain was really bad. Sore muscles of course always give you feedback on how something is changing in your body and I was surprised at how sore my body got from a few lunges and push-ups. No training so far has taken more than 20 minutes, which is great, because even the hardest training goes by fast in 20 minutes. Today is one day of recovery, but I can already feel how tempted I am to do at least a little bit… I want to take before-pictures and maybe even measure my belly, arms, etc. because I have the feeling that this training can have a lot of effect. And don’t get me wrong, I like my body and I don’t have a weight problem, I just feel that everything could be just a little more toned. Especially my arms, they consist of pudding mostly. But you know what? Even after just five days, I can not only feel but see the effects on my body. My arms have already gotten a bit of a bump. Can you believe it? I had thought I wouldn’t see any effects before two weeks or so. I only just managed to take the "before" pictures or rather "after one week" pictures, but trust me, they count as before. You see that there is a lot of work to be done. I also took my measurements, as weight does not really count if you build u muscles, My measurements in the first week of the 90 days challenge are: 
Breast: 92cm
Waist: 75 cm
Hips: 92 cm
Right upper arm: 27 cm

The plan is to measure again from time to time and take new pictures with the same outfit in the same position to see progress. As mentioned above, even after only one week, I can see the effect in my arms and a bit also on my belly.

It feels really great to actively form the shape of your body and I think Mark Lauren is right when he says that the 90 days challenge can also tone your mind and make you more focused and happier in general. It feels as if that effect is already on it’s way. Let’s see how it goes, I will keep you posted. 

Bouldering, what a joy!

Hey folks, what have you been up to these last months? It has been an amazing time for me with a lot of

short trips, weddings, parties and a lot of work, which is why I am looking forward to my holiday in Mallorca starting this Saturday. Friends of mine have been there for a climbing holiday and this is exciting me even more, as Mr. Schön and me have been discovering climbing as a new passion. Or let’s be more specific: bouldering. For those who have never heard of it before, it basically means climbing without the use of ropes or harnesses, only with either water underneath, or more common bouldering mats, crashpads, or in halls just very soft floors you can fall onto. You do not boulder in heights people reach when climbing, roughly four meters is the maximum, in order to give you the possibility to jump when you lose your strength.

I am afraid of height, I even hate crossing bridges sometimes and being in a crag in Cologne last year made me freak out, so you can imagine that it was not my dearest wish to try out bouldering. I have been climbing, with the harness and this kind of stuff, but I never really enjoyed it. Especially not the part about sitting back in the harness and coming down again. But when I heard that a friend of ours who suffers even more from vertigo than me is coming I felt like a wuss not to go too. We went to a great bouldering hall in Dortmund, a new, huge one, with all kinds of problems (the path a climber takes is called a “problem”. Fitting if you ask me. You can see the problems easily, they are all of one colour.) The climbing walls were about four meters high and when you reached the end of your path you could climb on top and just sit there or walk to an easy ladder-like path to climb down again. I loved the hall, the people who helped one another and how easy bouldering actually was for me. My legs and feet are pretty strong from running, so the straight and leaning-towards-the-wall kind of problems were cool to climb.

There was some horizontal climbing which was a lot of fun, too, as height was not much of a problem here. Almost all of our group were newbies, but whenever we had difficulties with a path, someone gave us good advice. Most of the time it was something like “Try to place your right hand here instead of your left hand” and you know what? It worked! I was impressed at seeing how much skill in bouldering derives from tactics and not so much from strength. It was good that difficult and easy problems were mixed in the hall, in order to also mix experienced with non-experienced climbers. Even my friend with the huge fear of heights got over her fear and climbed fairly high. I think that day was kind of a triumph for her and it was great for the atmosphere in the team. After two hours though, my arms and shoulders were pretty weak, so bouldering a day is out of the question at the moment. It is great though to just sit and watch people solving the most difficult problems. I have seen people do things that I would have thought are impossible.

After our experience in Dortmund we searched for halls nearby, and found a hall in Düsseldorf, which sadly is not nearly as impressive as the new hall in Dortmund. It is a) much smaller and b) not as well equipped for beginners as the one in Dortmund. There are a lot of problems including overhanging surfaces where you have to rely heavily on the strength of your arms and shoulders. As mentioned above I have some work to do in that area and was therefore kind of frustrated by the hall in Düsseldorf. They have some interesting and challenging problems for beginners however and we will definitely go again soon and maybe get some climbing shoes on our own. Maybe we will even have the chance to try some Deep Water Solo, as the climbing water is called in Mallorca. Try it, and tell me about your experience!

This video gives you a good impression of what bouldering is, much more impressive than a video of our feeble first moves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrvLoxFAM4

Bouncing

The last two weeks have been great fun, Mr. Schön and me spent them travelling around Germany, visiting friends in Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen, we went canoeing in the area of the Spreewald and went to the Baltic as well as to the Northern Sea. Before starting the trip I did some research about what not to miss (including the Blutsgeschwister store in Hamburg, my moneybag is still in mourning) and found a store where you can try so-called Sieben Meilen Stiefel, I will call them bouncing boots, as bouncing is what you do with them.

My better half has been wanting to try them for a while now and I thought it would be a great opportunity to visit the store in Hamburg.

Zlatko helping me putting the boots on for the first time

http://zzet.de/

 I am really bad when it comes to sports done on anything other than my feet on the ground. It took me ages to learn how to rollerblade, I never tried skiing, for a reason and ice-skating for me means trying not to fall. So you can see why I was a bit sceptical about getting on the stilts.

In the shop a leaflet read that you need between 5 and 20 minutes to learn how to walk on them, so I thought, 20 minutes don’t sound so bad. Zlatko, the shop’s owner is a great, positive and interesting guy, who made me feel safe and comfortable from the first moment. The shop in Hamburg is ideal to test the boots, you can hold on to a ballet-like banister, a bit higher than in balletclass, as you are about 30 cm taller than usual and after a while, Zlatko takes your hands and winds them around to show you that you don’t need to hold onto anything. It is a great feeling. We spent two hours in the shop, learning to walk, to jump and to run, feeling a bit like kids learning to stand on their feet. It is a lot of fun, though very exhausting. Even when standing on one spot you are constantly moving a bit, which is a great challenge for you back and belly muscles.

Proud bouncers after two hours of trying

Now that we are back home we have used the boots almost every day and we get braver every time. The muscles are already getting used to all the training and it feels great to get fitter in such a fun way. If you happen to go to Hamburg, Zlatko’s store is definitely a good address to stop by, he is such a positive guy. Sundays hold a special treat: a long walk with other “bouncers”. Even as a beginner you can join them with rent boots from Zlatko’s shop and walk through the city of Hamburg. I guess with experience bouncers it is even easier as they have a lot of good advice and make you feel safer in the pack. You don’t need to buy them, Zlatko in no way urges you to, which may be a trick, as we bought them in the end, paying about 350 each. As we had our training on seven year old, heavily used boots, I am sure we will enjoy them for a long time. Try it! 

Running is even more fun than just walking. But twice as exhausting :)

Winning at losing Weight

… is the plan for this summer. Mr. and Fräulein Schön have a plan to get in shape for summer and as everything is more fun with a little bit of competition we have a bet going on: whoever is in better shape by the end of June / middle of July (we should really set a date here, shouldn’t we?) has to pay for a weekend trip for two. The one who loses can suggest the place, but the other person has to be ok with it. So just going to Cologne from Düsseldorf does not work. Although… could also be nice.

So far, sorry honey, I think I am a little ahead of you. Although we still have not the desirable middle-of-May-weather, at least it is not freezing anymore and the days are significantly longer, so being more active, doing exercise is much easier than it was during the horrible winter. As I cannot torture my peers and colleagues with a grumpy and hungry me, I definitely cannot do much of a diet. So plan 1 is: less sweet stuff, but other than that: eat healthy, not less but exercising more than before.

I installed a very nice app on my phone, shape up. The green design is refreshing and instantly makes me think of health and sports. You enter your personal data, plus the aspired weight and the program will calculate how many calories you can eat per day in order to loose weight. I know that it can only be a rough guide, as every metabolism differs hugely from another, but still it is a great motivator. Entering what you ate doesn’t take long, as everything is either there in the program or you can search it in their database. A plus is also that you can see how much protein, carbs and fat you consumed and can thereby decide what is still missing in your nutrition. Sadly, vitamins are not on the list, which should also be given some consideration. Every exercising shall be entered as well, which rewards you with a reduction of your calories, or leaves you with more calories yet able to eat. To be fair, I only started a few days ago, but I am always so motivated to put some nice food or exercise in there and see the effect, it is amazing. I don’t know whether I lost any weight yet, but I definitely feel better already.

One of the exercises I have been doing lately is Zumba. We used to do a lot of running and I still like it a lot, but I have to admit that I am a bit of a clear-blue-sky runner and as there is so little of that lately I am very grateful for my Wii-Zumba. I also considered a gym, but as I have very irregular office hours, plus always a full schedule of free-time activities as well I decided to at least start with the Wii game. And what can I say, I love it! Me, who has never enjoyed videogames or computergames. But dancing in front of the tv, hoping that no neighbours will see you, because it might look really stupid, is a lot of fun and very exhausting. I always knew with my background of ballroom and Latin dancing I would enjoy Zumba for sure, but hey, it is not only fun, but an even better training than running. Cardio, muscles, fun! Plus, you definitely improve your dancing skills, handy in your free-time as well. I sometimes meet up with Eva-Melina to dance and I don’t need to tell you that this is even more fun. Although I will probably never have a body like the zumba-trainers, for the obvious reason that I am not a Zumba-trainer, I am already looking forward to the next training. 

I have never been someone that uses new media excessively, funny being a media scientist, which is why I came to blogging quite late, I guess I am a bit conservative when it comes to digital changes. Still, I love digital innovations when they have a positive effect in what I like to call the Real World. So I love that Maps on my phone help me find my way (necessarily a lot of times…), the Shape Up app, that helps me eating healthy, Zumba on the tv that makes me sweat so many times a week and many more. I will let you know about the weekend-trip I am going to win ;)