A week in the life

Wow, I have been terrible at updating this blog lately!  By the time I get home I am ready to crash.  I have been hitting the gym and running hard.  First let me start off with this....this is the time of year I really hate traffic and going to Wal-mart due to the college kids flocking back. BUT the new and improved scenery at the lake where I run is a perk.  I am running more with less walk breaks in case Hottie McHottness comes around the corner.  With my schedule like it is I have even had to start cleaning my house in the morning in bits and pieces because that is the only time I have enough energy.  (If you can see the pic below, which I am not even sure it will show up, it was supposed to be a before and after shot but it is only showing the after. So there is your standard "here's my bicep" shot)




Here is my typical routine:

Monday-gym 10 min. elliptical warm up, legs, Body Pump 5:30-6:30. Run home, quick shower & head to trivia night to meet team by 7:30.
Tuesday-gym 10 min. elliptical warm up, biceps & triceps.  Stephens Lake run 3-5 miles
Wednesday-gym 10 min. elliptical warm up, back & shoulders. Stephens Lake run 3-5 miles
Thursday-gym 10 min. elliptical warm up, chest & abs (sometimes legs again instead b/c I love legs, hate chest) Stephens 3 miles
Friday-rest day guilt free
Saturday-Body Pump 9:00 am. If energized after Stephens for 2 miles sprint intervals.
Sunday-sleep in, hopefully not too late. long run day. Followed up by plopping on couch and watching Breaking Bad marathon or Dexter, my 2 latest discoveries.

Sometimes I will throw in one more rest day in there if something comes up. If so I usually cut out chest & abs.  I get grouchy if something messes up my routine by more than 1 day though. I love the structure of it, knowing exactly what i am doing everyday. I love packing my gym clothes every night. So far my longest run has been 8 miles.  I feel like I have the cardio endurance down. Now it is just convincing myself my legs aren't really that tired.  In this new routine Caylea jas discovered she loves baked potatoes, bonus. Easy to microwave & I feel like I am "cooking" her something.

Saturday, Saturday

So far today I hit the gym for Body Pump. I started with 15 mins. on the elliptical and then did my class. Apparently I missed a guy coming in and having a fit. He didn't belong to the gym but he was refusing to leave until the girl that cut him off on her way to the gym came out for him to confront her. She was in my class and was explaining how he had pulled out in front of her and cut her off. She didn't think it was a big deal. I couldn't figure out why the guy was so mad if he cut her off. Well then she said he fell off his motorcycle but he wasn't hurt so she didn't stop? Oh yeah then I guess he would be mad since she didn't feel the need to stop, even if it wasn't her fault. He threatened to throw a rock through her windshield and left. So that was exciting!  After class I splurged on a strawberries and cream scone from Panera. Now I am heading to the pool with my friend Kelly to enjoy the sunshine!

This moment, we own it

My motto lately has become “This moment, we own it.”  I guess it should say “I own it” but it is from a song by Wiz Khalifa.  It is from the Fast and Furious 6 soundtrack.  This morning I got a text from Caylea that said “Why did I wake up at 7am to you listening to RAP MUSIC?”  LOL, because it pumps me up for the day.  The song reminds me to walk around like I am owning it.  Because I’ve been getting into a weights routine.  And by getting into I mean I’ve done 2 days of it so far.  But so far I am loving it.  I was super intimidated by going to the gym with the big boys all around doing weights, however, I picked a great week to get started.  Seems like everyone is on vacation so the gym has been pretty empty.  I am really loving having a schedule and something to keep me on track.  Monday I did chest and triceps and last night I did back and biceps.  The weights are a lot different than body pump.  I realized just how much Body Pump is muscle endurance where as weight lifting is strength and I don’t have a lot of it.  It really is easy to walk around like I know what I am doing.  Everyone pretty much does their own thing.  I do get a little self-conscious at times wondering if my outfit is too tight, I am comfortable in it but I seem to get attention from older men.  Like much older.  I’ve turned down 2 dinner invites this month from guys probably 20 years older than me.  Where are the cute, young guys hiding at?   Anyways the routine I am doing I got from bodybuilding.com (and no I am not going for that look!)  I have been reporting in every day with a guy at work who goes to the gym quite often with his girlfriend.  I have been thinking that I will have to tell him if I slack off so I have some accountability there.

 Serious guys at gym..................................Me

I’ve also been working on this Advocare 24 day challenge.  The first 10 days are the cleanse phase.  Let me just talk about the Herbal Cleanse.  Day 1 of Herbal Cleanse I mixed it with water.  Big mistake.  Disgusting.  But I sucked it down.  Day 2 of Herbal Cleanse I mixed it with OJ but didn’t chug it.  I mixed it up then thought “I will just drink it on my way to work in the car.”  I went to take a drink and it had turned into cream of wheat.  By day 3 I had it down, mix with OJ and chug.  Still gross.  Another part of the program is drinking Spark in the morning.  Spark is supposed to give you energy and a lot of vitamins.  Spark I love.  I have fruit punch and mandarin orange.  Fruit punch is pretty good.  I still chug it because it’s pretty sweet but I do like how it gets me going.  Then there are some Omega plex pills to take at night which are like fish oil type supplements.  Now I am on to the Max phase.  This phase still has me doing the Spark, yay for that!  Then I take some pills before breakfast.  Breakfast is a protein meal replacement.  Then I take some pills before lunch.  Then I take 6 pills with lunch.  Then the Omega’s(2) at night.  And the pills are not small and they have that vitamin-y smell which sometimes makes me want to gag.  I can honestly say I am over the pill taking.  I counted 9 that I took this morning with the Advocare pills plus my normal daily meds.  And this is only like day 3 of this 14 day portion.  The first half of this deal I didn’t take the eating part so seriously but now I am really working on it.  And I already feel really good and losing some cravings!  I’m drinking 64 oz. of water a day minimum.  At first that was hard.  But when I do 10 oz. of water for my spark drink, 10 oz. for my protein meal replacement, 2 20 oz. bottles during the day, and a 10 oz. portion to take a pre-workout supplement I have been taking prior to the gym I am golden.  I usually have all this water done before I even get home at night.  Then I can have some black iced tea with dinner and not feel guilty. 

I went to Wal-Mart and stocked up on meat.  I never have meat in the house.  I’m going to try to make a couple recipes tomorrow. 

Turkey burgers

Turkey meatloaf muffins

So this first 4 weeks of the weights program says “no cardio.”  The thought behind it is you don’t want to burn off the calories you need to build muscle.  Well….I went and signed up for a half marathon last night.  I mean when you find out there are hot men standing at the finish line handing you jewelry….why not?  I have yet to figure out another way to get a hot man to give me jewelry.  So my half marathon training says “no weight training.”  Hmmm….totally contradicting training plans.  Oh well, I’m doing both.  We will see how much I kick myself here soon.  Been 2 years since my last half.  It’s time. 

 The rest of the song includes “I’ve never feared death or dying, I’ve only feared never trying.”  So it’s fitting right…cause this training program may just kill me.  And yeah, I am getting inspiration from a rap song. 

180 days

I watched this video recently that I loved and got me thinking.  2013 is halfway over.  What have I accomplished?  What do I want to accomlish in the next 6 months?  There are 180 days left in the year.  Do I want December 31 to roll around and say "time to make the same resolutions" and "where did the past year go?" or do I want to say "wow, I really did accomplish my goals."  So far this year I am saying "where did the past 6 months go?" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6PjrhFeq3c

I sat down and listed out my goals, what it is that is standing in my way and how to overcome those things.  I hope when December 31 rolls around I can look back and see what I've accomplished! 

Hummus dreams?

So the other night I had a very strange vivid dream.  It involved a guy at work, on roller skates needing a ride.  My dreams aren't ever quite as detailed as this one was. I told the guy about it the next day and he asked if I ate anything different that night.  I had just happened to eat hummus, which I very rarely ever eat. I didn't really think it was the hummus.  Until it happened again.  This time I dreamed a huge, monster spider had made its way down from the ceiling and was heading up to my face as I slept. Now this dream was SO vivid that I went into full blown ninja mode. I lept out of bed while swatting the air, flipped on my lamp on my nightstand and started shaking my hair in case this spider of death had already launched his attack.  I was awake at this point but really thought there was a super spider after me. Then it hit me that I wouldn't have been able to see said spider in the pitch black. Just to be safe I checked under the blankets and pillows before crawling back in bed. So I have to wonder what exactly are they adding in to this hummus I am eating!?

Caylea is loving her trip to Paris and London. She is on a train to Barcelona tonight. While she has been gone I did a massive clean up of her room and bathroom.  Her bathtub wasn't draining. Two bottles of draino later and it still was iffy.  So some guys at work suggested I buy this plastic snake thing at the hardware store for a few bucks and snake the drain.  Well that sounded like a ton of fun. So I bought one, armed myself with rubber gloves and a pep talk and went in. I knew it wasn't going to go so well when I couldn't get the snake even half way down the drain when the instructions said put it all the way in until the handle meets the drain. Halfway in and I started to pull it back out and thought I may pull the whole tub up with as hard as I had to yank. What happened next made me realize plumbing would never be on my radar in a million years. I pulled out enough hair that we could've donated it to locks of love. I said a few words starting with holy and put it all in the garbage bag behind me. I turned back around for a brief second. Soon I realized my next mistake. Jazzie must've thought she hit the jackpot and legit caught herself a squirrel because she had grabbed the hair and ran. More words were spoken as I chased her around the house in an attempt to exchange a treat for the hairy squirrel. I am sure if someone would've witnessed it they would've been quite entertained. At the time I was not amused. So...these are the exciting things I have been up to while Caylea is galavanting around beautiful Europe!  We are definitely having different adventures on different sides of the world.

Hello blog

Hello little blog, it's been awhile.  I've been neglecting you lately.  I've been spending a lot of time with Matt Hussey, watching his YouTube videos, reading his book, and just trying to soak in his wisdom.  Been back at Body Pump at the gym which has been nice.  Trying to get back into a running routine.  Excited about my new Garmin running watch.  Caylea is getting ready for her Europe trip in a few weeks.  She is going to London, Paris, and Barcelona.  I'm sticking close to home for the most part.  Trying to focus on self-improvement, which I guess is an ongoing process right?  Sorry I've been neglecting, I'll vow to get back to updating more often! 

Self-discovery

I feel like I am trying to make this effort to be on this journey of self-discovery.  I am reading books, thinking about what I want and how to get it, trying to make peace with the past, and trying to find ways to be a better me.  It's not an easy thing by any means and last week I let stress get the best of me.  Some things have jumped out at me lately:
-Matthew Hussey said "If you are nervous to the point of speechlessness around him, what are you overvaluing about him and undervaluing about yourself?"  How many times do I forget that I put others on pedestals they don't deserve to be on while I forget my own worth?
-I was also reminded of this tonight while I have been texting a guy who doesn't seem to hide the fact that he is interested.  And as my wise friend Julie pointed out, I shouldn't have to guess if a guy is interested or not, I should know.  This guy reminded me tonight "you have all the leverage"  My response was "I do have the leverage don't I?"  I literally forget that I have value and what I have to offer.  I start to put too much emphasis on other people and what they have to offer I forget what I have to offer.
-tonight during boot camp we worked out outside.  We skipped for 3 mins. and I felt like such a kid again I giggled most of the time.  Then when we were doing a Pilates bridge we were on our backs on our mats and had to hold a medicine ball up with our thighs for two mins. We all were laying there and one girl said "wow this is so relaxing" and I completely agreed.  I had already been staring at the sky thinking I was speechless. I forgot how awesome just looking up at the sky was and how little it made me feel.  There is something about staring at the sky that made everything else, all the worries and stress just disappear.  It was an awesome moment.  I can't remember the last time I just looked up at the sky.      It was easily the best workout so far.  It didn't feel like a workout. When she told us it was time to stretch we all said "wait, that's it?" We all felt refreshed.  It was so cool.  We all agreed we were happy we had our little group of 3 and we all click so well.
-Probably one of the biggest things I am working on is forgiving myself.  I feel like I say or do some stupid crap. A lot.  So when I do I tend to dwell on it and beat myself up.  I am trying to let myself say "ok you said it, don't say it again, move on" and forget it.  I don't remember stupid stuff other people say so why do I think other people dwell on my bad moments instead of my good ones?
- I have found some great quotes lately.  "I have reached a point in my life where I feel it is no longer necessary to try to impress anyone.  If they like me the way I am, good. And if they don't its their loss."  Need to live by this because too often I worry what others think, but I am getting over it.
-"you have to be willing to get happy about nothing."  This weekend I rediscovered the joy in some little things, like meeting a friend for breakfast and running at Stephens Lake.  I am so grateful for such amazing friends.
-"Be positive, patient, and persistent."
-and possibly my favorite quote I stumbled on this week "the highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgement."