Cheeseburger in Caseville

This past weekend my husband and I took a scenic drive to the thumb of Michigan, where every city is at least 20 miles from the next. We drove to Caseville in Huron County. Every year Caseville hosts a week long event called Cheeseburger in Caseville. The festival is a tribute to tropical paradise, cheeseburgers, and Jimmy Buffet with over 100,000 visitors during the 10 day long festival that takes place in August. Activities at the festival include sandcastle making contests, nightly concerts at the county park, beach volleyball, cheeseburger eating contests, Cheeseburger Walk/Run 5K and much, much more.


This year I decided to participate in the Cheeseburger 5K race. It was the first time that a race course has taken me through a scenic county park that borders Lake Huron and out on to the Caseville break wall. The wind was so strong on the break wall that I could hardly breath, but at the same time it was an awesome experience. I didn't run my fastest race, but it one of the more memorable, because of the scenic beauty that surrounded me as I ran.

One of the down sides to the Cheeseburger festival if you are trying to watch your waistline is all of the cheeseburgers. We ate cheeseburgers for lunch and dinner for three days! Restaurants around town compete each year for having the best cheeseburger. You can't eat a cheeseburger at the same establishment more than once, you need to try cheeseburgers at different restaurants and stands and decide for yourself who has the best cheeseburgers. We decided that the best cheeseburgers came from the places that had the best condiments. My favorite was the stand that had green olives on their condiment table....yum.

Last week I blogged about setting goals and my commitment to regular workouts and eating healthier. Well guess what? I'm human and I fell off the weight loss bandwagon for the weekend. Unfortunately, real life often intrudes into the best intentions. I could do one of two things at this point. I could use this past weekend as an excuse, and before you know it, one skipped workout turns into two, and three...and I decide that it just isn't worth it and give up. OR I can admit that there are going to be times and situations that prevent me from staying on the path that I have set for reaching my goals. This past weekend I ran into a rock in the road. I have to find my way around the rock and get back on the path to reaching my goal. It is so easy to abandon our goals. You decide, are you going to make excuses and abandon the path or work hard to find your way around the rocks in the road as you journey toward a healthier life style? I found my way around the rock, come join me!

INSANITY: THE ASYLUM™

This week I started a new 30 day workout program called INSANITY: THE ASYLUM. This program is recommended for people that have completed THE INSANITY program. I completed INSANITY several months ago and have since been doing ChaLEAN Extreme. So when my daughter, Alicia purchased INSANITY: THE ASYLUM and asked if I wanted to start it with her after we returned for the Beachbody Summit I said sure. We both started on Sunday by doing the Fit Test. The Fit Test is about 25 minutes of Agility Heisman's, In and Outs, Pull ups/Push ups, Mountain Climbers, Agility should taps, X jumps, moving pushups, agility lateral shuffle and agility bear crawl. The program comes with a plastic/strapped ladder that you lay on the floor and use to jump and crawl between the rungs of the ladder. We completed the fit test and I thought if this is a preview of what's to come, I'm in trouble.

DAY 1 - Speed and Agility. I thought I was going to die! I have not worked up a sweat like that in a very long time. I have this love/hate relationship with Shaun T. He pushes you to dig deeper and not give up. I gave the workout 100% although I was not able to keep up. But being 52 years old, I felt very proud of myself when the workout was over.

DAY 2 - Strength. I liked this workout because it involved weights and strength training. I was able to keep up with most of the workout until the end where the pushups started to get the best of me. I ended up doing pushups on my knees but again stuck with it and did my very best.

DAY 3 - Back to Core. I was so sore in the morning that I could hardly move. I put the workout off until later in the day when my body had time to loosen up some. My shoulders were so sore from all of the pushups in Day 2. This workout works your back and would not be bad if my shoulders weren't already so sore.

DAY 4 - Vertical Plyo. OMG! Another hard workout. I'm going to be honest, I could not keep up with this workout. There is a lot of jumping moves and my heart was beating hard. I again worked up a sweat like never before.

So far I would have to say this is the hardest workout I have ever done.The program is advertised as, "With INSANITY you focused on improving your cardiovascular endurance and on total body conditioning. So, what's left? How about improving your balance, agility, power, strength, and coordination? Jump higher. Run faster. If you want to become an elite athlete or just improve your game, THE ASYLUM is your winning strategy." It definitely stands up to its advertisements. I haven't given up yet, it's only a 30 day program so I will stick with it and give it my best.

Setting Goals

One thing that has always motivated me in life is setting personal goals. A year ago I decided that I was getting married on January 1, 2011 and I was not going to have wedding pictures of me being fat. I mentioned in my previous post that my daughter, Alicia made me feel guilty about not working out with her. I had a whole barrel of excuses, she wasn't buying any of them. I finally decided to get serious and set goals.

One thing I really love about the Beachbody workout programs is that they help you establish the goals. Slim in 6 is a 6 week program, Insanity is a 60 day program, P90X is a 90 day program and ChaLEAN Extreme is a 120 day program. You decide what your goal is and when you would like to accomplish it by and then select a program that fits your goals. You can automatically schedule your complete Beachbody® workout program in WOWY SuperGym. Each day when you log in to WOWY it will tell you which workout to complete within your selected program.It doesn't get much easier than that.

When I finally decided to get serious about losing weight, one of the first things I did was to take pictures and measurements. After months of dabbling with the many different workout programs I finally decided to do P90X with my daughter. We took our before pictures and committed to working out daily. After the first 30 days I have to admit I was ready to give up. I was not losing any weight, I was gaining. Everyone kept saying I was building muscle and muscle weighed more than fat. I wanted to believe that, but it wasn't until I took my next set of pictures and measurements that I believed it. My measurements were changing and I was seeing visible results. This encouraged me to stick with it and to keep "pushing play". Tony Horton became my next best friend. I found myself picking up on his catchy phrases like "do you best and forget the rest". When I say I completed the P90X program, I have to clarify that I did my best and forgot the rest. It is an extremely hard workout regiment, but I did the best I could each day and just kept pushing forward. I am so glad that I stuck with it and reached one of my goals.

I got married on January 1, 2011 and lost the 20 pounds that I had set out to lose. I had gone from a size 14 to a size 8. When I purchased my wedding dress and tried it on for the first time they told me it could be let out in size if necessary. There was no way that was happening, I was going to lose the 20 pounds so I could fit in the dress and I did it.

What goals have you set in your personal life? What motivates you to reach your goals?