…and we’re back?!?!?

after a long hiatus i felt like writing again.  and update on life stats…

I turned 30 in October, like WOAH!

I’m no longer playing Rugby, just running, yoga, and the usual gym routines to stay fit.

I got married in March in Jamaica!  woohooo… I ran a Half Marathon with one of my bridesmaids the weekend before which was awesome.  I also ran the morning of the wedding on the beach in Jamaica.  It was definitely not your traditional pre-wedding prep, but it was so me.  I also had a very lean muscley arm in the photos of my embrace with the hubby on our first kiss.  My arms are my thing I guess, which is nice that I feel like I don’t need to consistently work that one body part out.

I guess everyone told me 30 was the age they remember feeling like their body changed and it wasn’t all french fries and 5k’s anymore with no weight gain.  I definitely have noticed over the past year that I can easily put on anywhere from 5-10lbs in a few weeks before I even realize it.  And it def. is a bigger struggle to take it back off.

I’ve been loving hot yoga for an extra sweaty workout that is always a challenge no matter how in shape  I am.  the class i have been going to is a fusion class so it blends various styles of yoga so it is never the same workout which I love.

Sarah and I are doing the ROC Race at Gillette Stadium in August, which I am also super excited about.  Looks like it will be a blast and totally fun time.  Think wipe out with a 5k mixed in!

Thats all for now… hopefully I will write more often!

Oh also I got a Fitbit, so if you have one message me and we can follow each other!

Bringing Sexy Back…

Well at least that is the goal… after skipping the JT song on my playlist this AM, I thought I should post something about my new goals.

I’m going to put a better effort into being strong and training my brain as well as my body for the next few months.  I want to bring sexy back to this bod by the time I turn the ripe wonderful age of 30 at the end of October.  I’m hoping to be able to post some before and after pics of my results of 70-ish days of positive thinking, eating, and doing.  If you don’t see the pics until December, then they were still a work in progress.

I’m lumpier today that I was freshman and sophomore year of college.  The 1 hr of hard core gym time a day just isn’t cutting it for me anymore when I sit for about 85% of the  remaining waking hours in my day.  I’m going to try to journal through the last few months in my twenties as well.  I feel like I’m at a limbo stage in my life where everything is just on the brink of change one way or another.  I will try to share more as I continue this self-proclaimed whole body wellness journey that I am jumping wholeheartedly into.

Procrastination

As of the first of this month I am 33. That is mind blowing to me because I still feel “young” but the truth is that I’m closer to 40 than 20! My husband has a magnet on our fridge that says “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?” and I love that and always think about it when people ask my age. My current first reaction is 30 even though that was three years ago now. At least I now kind of feel like I’m in the right decade. 

I haven’t had much to write about recently, mostly because I have been super-slacking fitness wise. I have such a bad tendency to talk myself out of a run, walk, etc. when I’ve been out of the habit of it. I tell myself that I will “start tomorrow” or “start Monday” when it’s been a while since I was last in a good routine. That kind of rationalization can really hamper your health. My goal for my 34th year here is to stop the procrastinating and just make attempts when I have the time and energy. I don’t have to be perfect 7 days a week, but if I had 3 or 4 “good” days in there, or 5 or 6 “healthy” meals that’s so much better than 7 days in a row of saying, “I’ll just lie here on the couch and order pizza for dinner, on Monday I’ll hit the gym and eat nothing but veggies.”

My little running buddy (the dog) is as out of shape as I am, so she and I both need to go slow and ease back into our routine.

2 posts in a row! tic tac toe!

Ok that is not tic tac toe, but it rhymed… anywaayyys….

This morning I had fully intended to take a pic to blog about my new breakfast of choice but I drank it too fast so I will try to do that tomorrow.  Instead you get my favorite lunch…

Yumm…

Spinach, Tomatoe, Avocado, Cucumbers, Almond slivers, and blue cheese, or gorgonzola, I forget.

This morning I had a pretty tough workout at the gym.  I ran 1.5 miles for a warm up at a gradually accelerating pace.  Got it up to 6.5 min miles!  BAM!  Then I I hijacked a trainers workout that they had made for someone else and that they had posted on the wall.  It was an alternating TRX/kettlebell doozy.  I know my legs are gonna be hurting tomorrow from all the kettlebells swings.  I did three circuits of 6 different excersises and in between I did 100 jumping jacks.  After the 3rd round I did 200 jumping jacks.

Jumping jacks are a full body workout, I think even my intestines were mad at me… TMI.  It felt good to end those jacks gasping for breath and my legs were jellyish.  If you want a good quick workout do a few 100 rep sets of jacks… trust me you won’t regret it and you will see how I felt. They were slow ones either I tried to jump as fast as I could.

Till tomorrow…

My promise to start re-blogging again…

SOOOOOO much has happened this past year!  I finally ran a full marathon, I got engaged to my best friend and a great running buddy during a half marathon about a month after that, and now i’m all signed up to repeat the full marathon that I did last year.

I never posted about my marathon experience but i can say that the training and preparation, which i thought would suck, was not bad at all.  Luckily I had an enthusiastic partner in crime that is soon to be my sister in law’ sister (you do the relation math there) that joined me for the ride.  I do have to say that if I didn’t have to meet Erica at the dunkin donuts between our houses at 6am all those saturday mornings last summer, i probably would have bailed on the marathon again.  We trained together on Thursdays with an 8mile tempo run after work along the river by my house, and met up for Saturday morning long slow distances on a flattish neighborhood between our houses.  She repeatedly got texts from people that saw us running and said we looked great, so that was encouraging.  (i have no friends in the suburbs so I got no texts haha) She developed planter fasciitis which definitely made it tough for her, but she was a champ.  By the time we ran our 22 mile training run I knew we would be just fine for the marathon.  We were greeted with marathon morning of 40 degrees and rain.  Looking back on it only one of our training runs had even a drizzle.  Are bodies probably would have dealt better with the 90 degrees and humidity that they were used to.  So that being said I am doing the same marathon this year, solo training effort this time, unless my fiance decides to bite the bullet.  I hope to break the 4 hour mark!

Since the marathon, when i weighed in at about 125lbs I packed on some winter weight and am closing in on 140lbs, not such a good number for my 5’4″ body.  I wish all my excess weight from pizza and chips would go to my boobs, but alas it lands on my midsection and gives em the dreaded love handles and muffin top that just don’t go so well with a bikini.

I have been hitting the gym pretty regularly again, but I set a goal to myself to try my best to run at least 1 mile a day even on my rest days So that I wouldn’t got three days with slacking off.  I also decided to give up chips for the rest of the summer.  A true test to my willpower.  Nothing is better than chips and dip for me.  So here goes another body experiment and running test.  I’m following the same plan i used for last year which starts next Saturday but I am going to actually do the Wednesday runs that are optional and the cross training that is prescribed.  After all I need to fit into a body hugging wedding dress on the beach in Jamaica in less than 9 months!!!

I am tracking all of my food and workouts on a iphone app called “lose it” i have been measuring out my portions of nuts and keeping tabs on the size of chicken breast i have been eating as to not cheat on the calorie counts.  I took some before pictures and home to post great after pictures in 9 months at my wedding in my thong string bikini  (jk about the thong)

I also love this inspiration blog: http://reasonstobefit.tumblr.com/

Baby Carrots Won’t Kill You

Just to elaborate on our intellectually stimulating convo from today, this is what I was talking about: http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/carrots.asp

This rumor had me so freaked out that I had stopped eating baby carrots altogether even though I love them (especially with hummus). I’m very glad that snopes.com told me they won’t kill me. They are extra-good roasted w/brussels sprouts and bacon! Seriously, try it. It will change your world.

Time to Restart Blogging…

Our intellectual convo today:

me:  Discovery,

petite carrots are better than baby carrots

I dunno why

maybe cuz they are more the thickness of frenchfries

haha

 Sarah:  have you heard about baby carrots?!?!

 me:  what?

what about them

what?

the suspense is killing me

 Sarah:  well i just looked up what i was about to tell you to make sure it was true

and i think it’s an urban legend

but todd told me that they were soaked in chlorine

but apparently they just use a little, which is like what’s in tap water

so nevermind

 me:  hahaha

to kill the dirt prob cuz carrots are grown in the ground

And we shall blog more, because of how funny we are and how much we miss being gym buddies! Our blogs will hold us accountable, starting….. NOW!

Beast Mode!

We’re at it again, this time it’s the Spartan Beast at Killington, VT. http://www.spartanrace.com/vermont-obstacle-racing-the-beast-2013.html

We have about 7 months to train for this, so we really have no excuse but I’m sure I will find some 🙂 I’m excited for this race, the Spartan Race was the first obstacle style race JVK and I did, and it was back when they only had one option (5k) so it will be interesting to see how it’s grown! Can’t believe our first race was 3 (I think?) years ago!

I also have a $10 off coupon for this race is anyone feels motivated to join us. First comment gets it!

 

Is Less More?

Yesterday morning I was scrambling around the apartment trying to get ready for work I ran into three time-suckers that I find incredibly annoying but for some reason I haven’t done anything about it. I have too much stuff. Mostly clothes and shoes, also makeup and accessories. I was reading this article on simplifying your wardrobe and I am going to make some time to evaluate EVERYTHING in my closet and drawers. Off the top of my head, I think I have 4 black dresses that are all very similar, 40 pairs of shoes, 5 bathing suits, 20-25 t-shirts, 7-8 pairs of jeans, 4-5 pairs of dress pants that I haven’t worn since my business casual days, a million tank tops that I don’t love, sweaters that don’t really fit, jewelry I don’t like (cheap trendy stuff), way too many pairs of underwear, ratty workout clothes that I hate, etc. I think I am going to come up with a list of how many of each item I need and pair it down to that number. I do not NEED 3 pairs of sweatpants with the cuffs cut off…actually I probably don’t need any of those. I am going to try to sell the high quality stuff and put that money in the bank to save for some high quality items I do need (a new suit, a nice belt). 

Some of that old crap will be hard to part with, race t-shirts, team sweatshirts, etc. but once it’s gone I won’t miss it. I don’t need a t-shirt to remember how much fun I had in college or the fact that I ran a race, I have photos for that and they take up WAY less space 🙂

Search Terms and Back Aches

I was just checking out the stats on our blog and some of the search phrases that brought people here are hilarious. There are a TON about Jillian Michaels (JVK, that’s your doing) and my personal favorite “nobody “likes” burpee’s”, but some of them are just so out of left field it’s amazing. 

Just a random thought while I’m taking a break from the gym waiting for my back to heal up the rest of the way. So far so good. One big lesson learned with this round of back issues is that you should never put heat on a sprained/strained back because you’re just adding to the inflammation. Considering how many breaks, sprains, bruises, etc. I’ve had over the years you would think that this would be common sense but putting a heating pad on my sore back always feels so good. Unfortunately, the best thing you can do it ice, ice, ice. That’s not a ton of fun when it’s seven degrees outside but I’m bouncing back from this sprain so much better than last year it’s unbelievable. I owe it all to this little guy (and ibuprofen):