I have taken a little hiatus from blogging as the past week has been a little hectic. The whole family went to Charlottesville, VA for my cousin's wedding (CONGRATS SARAH AND FRANCESCO!). It was absolutely beautiful and I had such a fun time with my family.
But now, its back to the grind. I fell off the wagon hardcore last week. I was sore and unmotivated last week and then decided food, drinks and family were more of a priority this weekend than working out. Its hard not to feel guilty for not working out for 4 (!) days, but it is important to take rest days and enjoy all the other parts of life.But now I am back and right back to it. I'm a lot more motivated after some rest days.
On a different note, I've been thinking about adding some structure to my blog. A lot of the other blogs I read have themed blog days and it makes it more interesting and fun to read. I look forward to reading about a similar topic on various days of the week. I am also hoping it will help to structure my workouts and eats for the days. I think I'll reveal my big plan next week.
For now, I am in charge of the house. NOT FUN. Herding two young girls and a wily dog is quite the chore. Not to mention, I keep cutting up watermelon which makes a huge mess.
Its been really hot here in NJ an I am SERIOUSLY considering buying a blow up pool... am I too old for that? I think I'll use the girls as an excuse to be 22 and sitting in a baby pool, but I need a suntan and some cold water.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Its just been one of those weeks
Ever have the feeling that you're getting things done, but oh-so-slowly? I felt like I couldn't find my groove this week. I'm such a routine person that when things shift around, I get lost. I haven't gotten nearly enough workouts in, but I have been spending MUCH more time at the barn and riding... does it even out? For this week it will have to.
I'm hoping next week will be a little more normal... something tells me not though. I'm still adjusting to moving in with dad and find myself spending a lot of time shuffling back and forth helping mom and seeing Ryan. Things will even out, they always do.
My food has also been all over the place. I've not been as hungry as I always am and seem to find myself gravitating towards watermelon and pineapple. That's seriously all I want. I'm really trying to listen to my 'inner nutritionist' and giving my body what its telling me what it wants (which is usually a giant glob of peanut butter and chocolate cake which doesn't happen. I need to draw the line). I'm eating when I'm hungry, stopping when I'm full and not beating myself up over a few french fries or that peanut butter I love so much. So far its working. My jeans aren't as tight and I feel a lot better. I'm going to stick with this instead of managing every. single. thing. I. eat. That's no fun for anyone.
Tonight, I am going to eat more watermelon and pineapple and listen to some more Latin music. That's another thing I've been craving too.
I'll be offline for most of the weekend... my cousin is getting married in Charlottesville and the whole family is headed down there... SO EXCITED! Enjoy your long weekend :)
I'm hoping next week will be a little more normal... something tells me not though. I'm still adjusting to moving in with dad and find myself spending a lot of time shuffling back and forth helping mom and seeing Ryan. Things will even out, they always do.
My food has also been all over the place. I've not been as hungry as I always am and seem to find myself gravitating towards watermelon and pineapple. That's seriously all I want. I'm really trying to listen to my 'inner nutritionist' and giving my body what its telling me what it wants (which is usually a giant glob of peanut butter and chocolate cake which doesn't happen. I need to draw the line). I'm eating when I'm hungry, stopping when I'm full and not beating myself up over a few french fries or that peanut butter I love so much. So far its working. My jeans aren't as tight and I feel a lot better. I'm going to stick with this instead of managing every. single. thing. I. eat. That's no fun for anyone.
Tonight, I am going to eat more watermelon and pineapple and listen to some more Latin music. That's another thing I've been craving too.
I'll be offline for most of the weekend... my cousin is getting married in Charlottesville and the whole family is headed down there... SO EXCITED! Enjoy your long weekend :)
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Highlights of the past few days
I haven't had time to sit down and blog over the past few days, so I'll throw in some of the highlights:
1. I made homemade pizza with my brother and boyfriend on Sunday: grilled veggies + thin crust + pesto + goat cheese = heaven. We ate three whole pies and didn't even leave it on the table long enough to take a picture
2. My stepmom taught her first Zumba routine to a fitness class!
3. Riding horses just makes me a happier person... and it makes my legs a lot more sore
4. Speaking of sore, I was overly ambitious in thinking I could do a hill workout today. My body is having a rough morning, so its looking like a light workout. Those hills can wait until tomorrow.
5. I'm trying to convince my boyfriend to go to the mall today... I need shoes for the wedding this weekend.
6. Wedding this weekend!
Pretty random, but such is life. I'll post something more productive tomorrow :)
1. I made homemade pizza with my brother and boyfriend on Sunday: grilled veggies + thin crust + pesto + goat cheese = heaven. We ate three whole pies and didn't even leave it on the table long enough to take a picture
2. My stepmom taught her first Zumba routine to a fitness class!
3. Riding horses just makes me a happier person... and it makes my legs a lot more sore
4. Speaking of sore, I was overly ambitious in thinking I could do a hill workout today. My body is having a rough morning, so its looking like a light workout. Those hills can wait until tomorrow.
5. I'm trying to convince my boyfriend to go to the mall today... I need shoes for the wedding this weekend.
6. Wedding this weekend!
Pretty random, but such is life. I'll post something more productive tomorrow :)
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Saturday Morning Sweat
Yesterday was actually a great day/not so great day all rolled in one. After having a few too many drinks on Thursday, it was slow going Friday morning. But a turkey sandwich, several glasses of water and some gingerade Kombucha saved my life. I spent the rest of the day babysitting at the barn in the beautiful weather. I also got to ride two horses and lamented about how out of riding shape I am. I'm surprised I can walk today because I was sore after two long rides.
I was so excited to come home from the barn and hang out with Ryan when my car died... AGAIN. I noticed white steam coming from my car, decided pulling over on the highway was not in my best interest and got off at the next exit where my car was billowing white steam from the engine. I spent the next 45 minutes on the side of the road in my riding pants and boots... FML.
But, alas, its saturday afternoon and my car is A-ok. After a good night's sleep, I woke up, had some peanut butter toast with honey and strawberries. I read my favorite blogs and drank some coffee (by now this should sound familiar, I'm a routine person) and decided to craft a workout to do outside in the sunshine!
Women's Health Magazine has a page of 'finisher' workouts, designed to give an extra challenge at the end of a workout. They propose 5 different choices, but why not roll them all into one workout?
Here's the workout:
- Part 1: perform each move for 20s, rest for 10s, move on to next move
-- Squats
-- Burpees
-- Mountain Climbers
-- Lunge and skip (do a round on each leg)
- Part 2: perform 12 reps of each move (10lb weights)
-- Deadlift
-- Bicep curl
-- Squat
-- Shoulder Press
- Part 3: place two cones (or in my case, flower pots) about 25 yards apart
-- Sprint 6 round-trips, 90s rest
-- Sprint 3 round-trips, 90s rest
*Do parts 1, 2 and 3 three times*
-Part 4: 12 reps of each move then repeat x3
-- Plie squat & upright row
-- Static skinny squat & lateral raise
--Lunge right
--Tricep press
-- Lunge left
I was in the mood to take my time with my workout this morning, so this took me about 50 minutes, including a 5 minute warmup.
The rest of the day was spent in blissful relaxation. I had some vegan chicken salad from Basil Bandwagon on Ezekial pita for lunch... SO good. Then I had some steamed veggies and brown rice with some drunken noodles, pad thai and crispy duck from a local Thai restaurant. I absolutely had seconds :).
I'm spending the rest of the night relaxing, contemplating doing homework and figuring out how to work this blog... anyone know how to make posts in individual pages. I want to create pages of workouts so I can store them neatly in my 'workouts' page and not take up so much space in the posts... any help would be appreciated!
Happy Saturday!
I was so excited to come home from the barn and hang out with Ryan when my car died... AGAIN. I noticed white steam coming from my car, decided pulling over on the highway was not in my best interest and got off at the next exit where my car was billowing white steam from the engine. I spent the next 45 minutes on the side of the road in my riding pants and boots... FML.
But, alas, its saturday afternoon and my car is A-ok. After a good night's sleep, I woke up, had some peanut butter toast with honey and strawberries. I read my favorite blogs and drank some coffee (by now this should sound familiar, I'm a routine person) and decided to craft a workout to do outside in the sunshine!
Women's Health Magazine has a page of 'finisher' workouts, designed to give an extra challenge at the end of a workout. They propose 5 different choices, but why not roll them all into one workout?
Here's the workout:
- Part 1: perform each move for 20s, rest for 10s, move on to next move
-- Squats
-- Burpees
-- Mountain Climbers
-- Lunge and skip (do a round on each leg)
- Part 2: perform 12 reps of each move (10lb weights)
-- Deadlift
-- Bicep curl
-- Squat
-- Shoulder Press
- Part 3: place two cones (or in my case, flower pots) about 25 yards apart
-- Sprint 6 round-trips, 90s rest
-- Sprint 3 round-trips, 90s rest
*Do parts 1, 2 and 3 three times*
-Part 4: 12 reps of each move then repeat x3
-- Plie squat & upright row
-- Static skinny squat & lateral raise
--Lunge right
--Tricep press
-- Lunge left
I was in the mood to take my time with my workout this morning, so this took me about 50 minutes, including a 5 minute warmup.
The rest of the day was spent in blissful relaxation. I had some vegan chicken salad from Basil Bandwagon on Ezekial pita for lunch... SO good. Then I had some steamed veggies and brown rice with some drunken noodles, pad thai and crispy duck from a local Thai restaurant. I absolutely had seconds :).
I'm spending the rest of the night relaxing, contemplating doing homework and figuring out how to work this blog... anyone know how to make posts in individual pages. I want to create pages of workouts so I can store them neatly in my 'workouts' page and not take up so much space in the posts... any help would be appreciated!
Happy Saturday!
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Productive Days are the Best Days
Thursdays can be a little hit or miss for me. Its not quite the weekend, but it could be if I want it and thats what I chose today. I woke up excited for oatmeal and a long run. I ate breakfast, took care of some homework (these summer classes may kill me), read my favorite blogs, drank some green tea and sent emails all before 10am! I won't lie, I was procrastinating my run, but I found my motivation in the form of a great playlist and hit the road.
Last week I set the goal of a 65 minute long run. My long term goal is to get up to a half marathon time, around 2:30. However, I was all aboard the Struggle Bus on my run last week. For some reason, my body was telling me 'no way'. Even on the flat roads and a slow pace my heartrate was up around 182, telling me something was off (a moderate pace keeps me at 165). Maybe I was overambitious or maybe my body just wasn't up to it last week, but I wanted to try something a little different today. I went with another interval workout to keep my mind in the game and I'm really pleased with the workout.
I actually had a lot of fun challenging myself on the way back. I had originally planned to repeat part 1 4x, but I was feeling good and wanted to work some more on pushing outside of my comfort zone. It was a challenge sprinting at the end, but it felt good when I was done!
The rest of my day was spent running errands (read: buying a new dress), cleaning up my moms and doing some yard work. My bro came home today, so we're celebrating with a bbq and drinks! I just had some DELICIOUS grilled corn and I'm ready for some strawberry-mango frozen drinks.
Enjoy the rest of your beautiful Thursday and till next time...
Last week I set the goal of a 65 minute long run. My long term goal is to get up to a half marathon time, around 2:30. However, I was all aboard the Struggle Bus on my run last week. For some reason, my body was telling me 'no way'. Even on the flat roads and a slow pace my heartrate was up around 182, telling me something was off (a moderate pace keeps me at 165). Maybe I was overambitious or maybe my body just wasn't up to it last week, but I wanted to try something a little different today. I went with another interval workout to keep my mind in the game and I'm really pleased with the workout.
- Part 1:
- - 5 min walking warmup
- - 10 min run; moderate pace
- - 2 minute walk, 1 min fast run (past a comfortable pace), 2 minute walk
- --- I repeated this twice, making up half of my workout---
- Part 2:
- - 1 min fast run (past comfortable...sprint last 10s), 1 min walk (x5)
- - 2 minute walk, 1 min fast run (past a comfortable pace), 2 minute walk
- ---I repeated this twice, making up the other half of the workout
I actually had a lot of fun challenging myself on the way back. I had originally planned to repeat part 1 4x, but I was feeling good and wanted to work some more on pushing outside of my comfort zone. It was a challenge sprinting at the end, but it felt good when I was done!
The rest of my day was spent running errands (read: buying a new dress), cleaning up my moms and doing some yard work. My bro came home today, so we're celebrating with a bbq and drinks! I just had some DELICIOUS grilled corn and I'm ready for some strawberry-mango frozen drinks.
Enjoy the rest of your beautiful Thursday and till next time...
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
What I Ate Wednesday and an Interval workout!
Yesterday was pretty uneventful so I figured I would spare you all the boring details of my life. But, I have some good stuff for today! One of the reasons I started this blog was to motivate some more challenge in eating healthy and working out. Giving something interesting to read every few days is inspiring me to step outside of my comfort zone and try a lot of new stuff.
So, today, instead of my normal 3 mile jog, I decided to step it up with some intervals. I started with a 2:1 ratio of work to recovery, then 1:1 and then 1:2. Working with intervals is a fun way to break up your workout and can work on the bike, in circuits or cardio machines at the gym. Here's the workout:
To my surprise this worked perfectly with the 3.1 mile loop. The whole workout took about 30 minutes. Average heart rate was 162 bpm, max heart rate was 193 and total calorie burn was 367... not bad for a 30 min workout. This was much more effective than jogging the route like I normally do.
I think I am going to try something similar for my long run tomorrow. I struggled last week so hopefully some interval running will break it up a little bit.
I also got to go grocery shopping today! Unlike most, grocery shopping is one of my FAVORITE activities. I love looking at all the products and reviewing ingredients and planning my meals for the week. Some goodies I picked up: champagne mangoes, tomatoes, Larabars, Kombucha and a new protein powder.
I was attracted to this one because its comprised of several different sources of protein... especially chia, which is an up-and-coming superfood. I liked the flavor of it, but it was really chunky with just almond milk... this powder needs to see a blender and would be great in smoothies.
Last thought, in keeping with the title of this post, What I Ate Wednesday:
Question of the day: Any good interval workouts? Let me know if you try this one or something like it!
So, today, instead of my normal 3 mile jog, I decided to step it up with some intervals. I started with a 2:1 ratio of work to recovery, then 1:1 and then 1:2. Working with intervals is a fun way to break up your workout and can work on the bike, in circuits or cardio machines at the gym. Here's the workout:
- - 2 min walking
- - 2 min running: normal pace, 1 min walk (x3)
- - 1 min running: pushing the pace past comfortable, 1 min walk (x5)
- - 30 second spring, 1 min walk (x4)
- - Repeat or finish out your workout with a jog
To my surprise this worked perfectly with the 3.1 mile loop. The whole workout took about 30 minutes. Average heart rate was 162 bpm, max heart rate was 193 and total calorie burn was 367... not bad for a 30 min workout. This was much more effective than jogging the route like I normally do.
I think I am going to try something similar for my long run tomorrow. I struggled last week so hopefully some interval running will break it up a little bit.
I also got to go grocery shopping today! Unlike most, grocery shopping is one of my FAVORITE activities. I love looking at all the products and reviewing ingredients and planning my meals for the week. Some goodies I picked up: champagne mangoes, tomatoes, Larabars, Kombucha and a new protein powder.
Last thought, in keeping with the title of this post, What I Ate Wednesday:
- Breakfast: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1 cup water, 1 cup almond milk (extra liquid = more oatmeal!), 1tbs peanut butter
- Snack: greek yogurt, 3 strawberries
- Lunch: hummus wrap, mango, Kombucha drink
- Dinner: tilapia taco at Blue Fish Grill (surprise dinner from the boyfriend!).. I may have had some fries too ;)
- Snack: protein powder, almond milk
Question of the day: Any good interval workouts? Let me know if you try this one or something like it!
Monday, May 14, 2012
Happy Monday!
It may be a happy Monday, but its definitely not a sunny one. It was very hard to motivate to get out of bed this morning... considering I was woken up by a 95lb chocolate lab jumping on the bed at 7:30. I was hoping to get a workout in before breakfast, but I was too hungry so my oatmeal was priority.
Until next time!
Then, in keeping with trying new things, I've been working on Shape Magazine's "Fit in a Flash" workout. Its 24 minutes of 4 moves repeated 6x. Its quick and pretty effective, so I'll do it a few more times this week. I paired this workout with hill runs. My dad lives in a hilly area, so I picked the biggest hill and ran it 3x. The whole workout was about an hour.
After that, it was my first day on the job as a babysitter. I've not been around a teeny tiny baby in such a long time and I cannot tell you when I last changed a diaper. I was a little unsure of my skills, but I guess changing diapers is like riding a bike? I picked it back up pretty quickly.
Besides that, its been a nondescript Monday. I think I'll finish out the day with the boy and some playoff basketball. I'm also trying to read a few more chapters of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". It was a recommendation from a friend and I definitely suggest you read it... very interesting and captivating non-fiction.
Until next time!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
There's no time like the present
So I've been thinking about starting a blog for a long time. I've been making excuses for putting it off, telling myself that I'll start in the beginning of May and then it was pushed back to after I move home, and then ever further by telling myself I'll start "when things calm down". Well, things are calm and I have no reason not to start my blog other than the trepidation of putting my life on the internet. Yet, I think about it all of the time, and I'm ready... there will always be an excuse not to do it.
I'm not sure what kind of blog this is and I'm thinking its going to end up being a bit of everything. What I'm really hoping to get out of it is the sharing of ideas (mostly about food and fitness) that I've found on similar blogs online. I think it will also be a good way to catch up with friends after graduation (a la this blog from my bff who is on her way to the Peace Corps in the Philippines http://alisonbhoffman.blogspot.com/).
So today marks the first day of my experiment in trying new things. I need to step outside of my comfort zone. I need adopt the same attitude I have toward my fitness: I've been struggling a little with new workouts and increasing my fitness... nothing changes if things stay the same. So here I am, making my plunge into the blogging world. Welcome to my grand experiment!
I'm not sure what kind of blog this is and I'm thinking its going to end up being a bit of everything. What I'm really hoping to get out of it is the sharing of ideas (mostly about food and fitness) that I've found on similar blogs online. I think it will also be a good way to catch up with friends after graduation (a la this blog from my bff who is on her way to the Peace Corps in the Philippines http://alisonbhoffman.blogspot.com/).
So today marks the first day of my experiment in trying new things. I need to step outside of my comfort zone. I need adopt the same attitude I have toward my fitness: I've been struggling a little with new workouts and increasing my fitness... nothing changes if things stay the same. So here I am, making my plunge into the blogging world. Welcome to my grand experiment!
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