Toes

I know that I have been keeping you all well informed of my newfound love for stretching. I just love how it makes me feel when I'm done. I feel so much better than I did before I started, no longer tight and sore. It's wonderful. But two nights ago something miraculous happened. I was doing my nighttime routine, and was spending a good amount of time in a forward bend with my legs straight out in front of me (the worst stretch for me because I can usually barely sit up straight, let alone get anywhere near my toes). As I continued to breath into the pose, I realized that I was holding on to my ankles... I had a moment of shock, and then, with a load of ambition, decided to keep pressing for the toes... and wouldn't you know it, I touched them for the very first time without bending my knees!!! Miracle of miracles! Now I tried again today, and wasn't quite as lucky, but I think I just need to spend some time getting into the stretch... at least thats what I'll tell myself.

How many of you are able to use exercise as a way to channel frustration or anger or any sort of overwhelming emotion? The past couple of weeks I've been experiencing some of those emotions and have thought about how I should go for a run or something to work through it. Unfortunately I wasn't in a place where I could run when the thoughts occurred to me, so I tucked them away for later. It is with sadness that I have to confess that I am not one who is able to use exercise as a way to channel those emotions... I'm just not. I wish I was! It would be awesome to be able to burn calories and moods at the same time. I guess I could say that there will probably be some times when it might work, but as a whole, It's a lost cause for me. Dang.

I'm really looking forward to my handsome dude coming back to me soon, and I'm trying to prepare for some good running sessions while he's here. Remember, we've never gone running together, so I'm getting a little nervous about it... He's going to be practically walking at the pace I jog... I'm sorry, honey! But I told him tonight that I am focusing on doing more interval training, or shorter distance training because I would really like to improve my pace as well as my cardio endurance. Wish me luck, and keep me accountable!

Well, tomorrow is spin class, and I can't wait. Wednesday Spin at Abrams is pretty bomb.

It's 8:30... I'm going to bed.

Peace, love & toes you can touch

Intervals

I treated myself yesterday to a lovely coffee/chat date with a friend I haven't seen in quite some time. I suggested meeting at Barnes and Noble so that I could check out some magazines, get what I wanted from them, and leave without spending a dime. After we were through visiting, I went to the magazine racks, picked out four that appealed to me, and went to the comfy chairs to peruse. One of the magazines I picked up was Women's Runner (or something to that effect). There was a ton of wonderful information in there, and I have to say, if you want to get motivated to exercise, try investing in one of the neat "gadgets" they feature in those magazines. I made a mental list of at least five things I want to invest in someday, one of which is a heart rate monitor and watch that works without the use of a chest strap. Sounds fantastic! That would DEFINITELY get me out and increasing my heart rate more often (at least for a little while).  Anyways, I stumbled across this little box that gave guidelines for Interval Training. It goes as follows:

3 min. jog to warm up
15 second sprint (at 8mph and 12% incline)
15 second rest (feet on the sides of the treadmill, with the belt continuing below you at max speed)
15 second on/off intervals for 3-4 minutes
3 min walk to cool down

Now, as you all know, I am not a super athlete, so I adjusted the speed and incline slightly to make it a little more realistic for a woman such as myself. But I'm getting ahead of myself..

Last night I could not sleep... I think it might be because I was SO excited about a couple of things that I just couldn't get myself into "Z" mode, so I fell asleep with the tv on at around 2am. I woke up to infomercials, and I was hooked for a longer-than-necessary amount of time. I partially watched two different informercials selling home workout programs that mostly consisted of high-intensity workouts that didn't last as long as your average hour or so at the gym. So between seeing all those hot abs on tv and remembering my new insight into intervals, I got ready for the gym with a lot of spunk in my step, ready to sweat like a pig with the expectation of someday looking like an infomercial mama.

I actually REALLY enjoyed the intervals. I mean, they were really REALLY hard, but it's crazy how fast you can start to really sweat. I did the ten minutes or so, and then I did about another three minutes of intervals and a cool down. All together I was on the treadmill for fifteen minutes. It felt great. But something funny happened... as I walked to the yoga room to do some strength training, the spunk that seemed to be present before mysteriously began to vanish with every stride. I did do some pikes, some push ups, and some leg lifts, so it didn't completely disappear, but it's pretty safe to assume that my abs look the same as they did when I woke up this morning. I was able to do about twenty minutes of stretching and some yoga postures, so that was definitely beneficial after tightening up my leg muscles on the treadmill.

It was good to start my Saturday off with a bang, and I was so happy to see so many others at the gym doing the same thing! Lots of ladies enjoying some booty shaking bliss at Zumba, too... if you haven't tried that before, you just have to! It's a blast.

Peace, love & bashful abdominals

Nuts? Cooky? Off The Rocker?

It's quite possible I am one or all of the above.

I have been cursing at inanimate object the past two days... and it's no coincidence that the ones I'm cursing at, let alone talking to, all have something to do with my fitness goals.

Go figure.

Yesterday as I ran on the treadmill, I purposely cranked the speed up because I knew I would only be running a mile and I wanted to challenge myself. (Please note that when I say "crank the speed up" I mean run at 5.5 as opposed to 4.7... it's truly not all that impressive.) As I approached the seven minute mark I remembered that my best mile time from Saturday's 5k was 11:55, so I thought, "hey, I can beat that. Easy." Wow... wow, wow, wow. I really had no idea how much faster I run outside compared to the treadmill. I was running and running and the seconds kept ticking by, and I found myself calling the treadmill (out loud, mind you) a "beast", because no matter how much I increased the speed, it seemed like I was only going to come in a measly 15 seconds faster than Saturday's time. Lame-O.

Then today, since I have been doing really well with eliminating excess sugars from my diet, and trying to cut out a lot of the milk and cheese that I consume, I thought it would be "interesting" to give the scale a go. You all know why I said "interesting" as opposed to "fun", "great", "encouraging" or "the best thing I could do for myself today"... because "interesting" is a safe way of admitting that a small event like this could really truly make or break the rest of your day, week or month. So yeah, I convinced myself it would be interesting. Well, today that scale was called a "MOTHER!" (I use that word a lot to substitute, well, a variety of cuss words... makes me feel unique). She didn't break the day, but she also didn't make it either. *Long, exasperated sigh* What's the deal with being a woman.

So these, my friends, are two of the many reasons why I just might be off the rocker. Or maybe I'm completely ordinary. Either way, I talk to myself, my dogs and anything that frustrates me on a regular basis.


Peace, love & trash talk

the UPSIDE of stretching

When I run, walk, jog, spin, crunch, lift (I think you get it) I can safely say that 95% of the time I do so without stretching afterwards. If I do actually stretch, it's usually rather quickly and awkwardly. I-am-not-flexible. I don't think I have ever been able to touch my toes (without bending my knees and enduring a lot of pain). I have a difficult time stretching my arms behind my back... it's just plain sad. Sad sad sad. It is because of this that I give stretching so little of my efforts. It's painful, nothing changes and I lose interest. On July 1st, I began the 30 Day Yoga Challenge, on July 2nd I ran my first 5k and on July 3rd I woke up with really tight, sore hips and glutes. So in keeping with the challenge, I have been doing a lot of slow, relaxing stretches before bed. One of the advantages I've noticed is that I have been sleeping a lot better. For any of you Army spouses or those who experience separation from his or her spouse, it is not uncommon to experience trouble with sleeping. Or even if you are going through a stressful time in your life. I have found that allowing my body to relax and stretch out that tension has given my mind a chance to relax as well. Doing this has also addressed a lot of the pain in my hip. For some reason, since I ran on Saturday, I have had a significant amount of pain when I walk. Due to this, I have found myself stretching multiple times throughout the day. This morning I was doing downward dog, before Core Dynamics I spent a good 10 minutes doing forward bends. I have to say I am pretty excited about my newfound appreciation for stretching. So with all of that said, I encourage you to take 15 minutes before bed and just do five basic stretches. It's pretty safe to say that you will feel really great from doing so.


I know I was going back and forth between Spin and Crossfit for my workout yesterday. I went to Spin. Boy did I get the crap kicked out of me. The instructor yesterday was Jose (whom I've never had as an instructor before) and I sweat so bad in that class you could've rung me out. At points I felt slightly light headed, I am quite sore today (good thing I'm stretching) and it was straight-up awesome! The music was loud, everyone was yelling and sweating and spinning. Good, quality fun right there. If you have never been to a spin class I really encourage you to go. It is the type of workout that can be adjusted to your own personal fitness level while giving you the chance to challenge yourself too. If you don't belong to a gym, find one that has spin classes and does a free week-long membership. That way you could give spin a try for free. There are also some places that are non-membership facilities where you can pay for the classes. It is such a fun workout, and depending on your weight and age, you can burn nearly a thousand calories in a class. It's awesome!


Ok, but seriously, if anyone wants to buy me an hour long massage, I would not mind...


Peace, love & sweaty awesome fun

Oh Theo

So I was in bed, enjoying my sleep when my little chubby puggle began to bark. Now, I am the type of person who freaks myself out, and basically creates and performs a horror film in my mind in a matter of seconds. So, needless to say, it took some time, guts, and a weapon brainstorming session to get out of our room and let him outside.

He just needed to poop.

So here I lay, in bed, eyes wide open, for the last hour and a half. I can't fall back asleep. Dang it! This is definitely going to alter my workout plans for the day.

I know I've decided to run every MWF at 9, but there are two things that I would like to try today, consequently hindering my running schedule (which is alright by me, considering my 5k is in the past). I am tempted to try out the Wednesday Spin class again, and see if I can have a better go at it now that my leg is healed up. Also, I am reaching a point where I am getting sick of just watching all of the awesome CrossFit chicks and want to become one... by starting with the beginners class (woo hoo!). That is Monday and Wednesday nights... so, I think that when I do finally get up (which might be sooner than planned) I will have to decide which one I will do (because I just might die if I do both... and burn my whole days worth of calories in the process).

I can't lie to you. I'm nervous to try CrossFit. As much as I talk about how I know how we all feel when we workout, I have my no-fly zones in the gym.. and the CrossFit area is one of them. It's right in the middle of everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. I'm not dumb, and neither are you... we can all admit to watching people in the gym, and can also agree that doing so is one of the perks of going. Don't lie. So, walking into a situation where I feel as though I could be one of the lame-O's who is being "watched" is rather unsettling. But thats the point of this blog, and my adventure, isn't it? To try it all out so that you guys don't have to go in without knowing at least one person's opinion on the matter? Well, alright, I guess I will try it. Either today, or next Monday... or maybe next Wednesday. I can do this all day, so I might as well just stop myself now.

Something I have been thinking about recently is all of these diet pills, drink mixes and other rubbish. Now, I am not a believer in using them, mostly because I don't want to be the person who feels that it's ok to take something "unnatural" to my body in order to get results that I could get if I just got my big butt off of the couch. Also, I have heard of people becoming quite addicted to them, and I try to make it a habit to stay away from addictive things. I already have a hell of a time with sugar, why add anything else to the mix. Anyways, in order to feed my curiosity I decided to research them a little online, because really, I didn't even know what exactly was bad about them in the first place. As I read reviews and ingredients, there was one thing that really stuck out to me and was unsettling... so many people were raving about how they were losing "x"lbs. a week and they "weren't even exercising at all!" Ok, maybe that sounds like awesome, brag-worthy information to them, but to me it is just sad. Maybe it is the fact that I have learned so much about what my body is capable of, and what I am capable of through becoming more active that I just couldn't imagine taking the easy route on this one. That is part of the whole deal... experiencing the horrific pain, waking up unable to move and sweating more than you ever thought possible. To the couch potato, the above list could easily sound like the most horrible thing ever. But to the Studly workout buff, it sounds just wonderful! And I gotta say, I am so thankful to be on the side that enjoys those feelings. Because even if my body hasn't changed much in these last 5 months, I know that I have. And I am a much better person than I was 5 months ago. So I implore you... don't take the easy way. It will never be worth it when it comes to your health, I can guarantee you that. Do the work, sweat the sweat and come out of it better than you were going in.

I was able to find a really good, organic multi-vitamin to take, that also helps with endurance and an active lifestyle, and I am looking forward to seeing how that helps. I never realized that the best place to start, with regards to supplements and exercise, is a daily multi-vitamin. So I guess all of those Flintstone vitamins were supposed to teach me a lesson all of those years ago. If you're curious and thinking about starting to use one or more supplements, take the time and do the research. You'll be glad you did.

Alright, I should just get up and make some coffee...


Peace, love & puggles who poop in the night

Achy, Breaky Hips

Maybe I'm older than I thought. Or maybe my hips are older than I thought. Both of these are things to consider, although extremely unlikely. I completed my very first 5k, and my reward for all of my hard work has been alternating pain in both of my hips... but at least they've been nice enough to alternate, and not both hurt at the same time. How thoughtful of you, dear sweet hips. I appreciate all that you do for me.

I'm sure you're all surprised that I did not jump on my blog, still sweaty, after completing my run, so I could tell you all about it. Call it the potato in me, but I just didn't feel like it. So I shall recall to you all the events as they played out. (Ok, not all of them because that would be a long, uneventful story).

I decided to bring Lily, my adorable little puggle baby, with me to the race to participate along side me. She was quite excited to be leaving the house with just me, and no Theodore (the other chunky puggle baby, who is much more of a potato than basically anyone else). We showed up, got all ready to go, with the ipod set, calorie counter counting, and heart rate monitor monitoring. We sang the national anthem, got ourselves ready to go, and with the shot of a gun (not really) we were off. Lily was quite freaked, I must say. For a dog that is about a foot and a half tall, all of the legs running around her was a little nightmare-ish. As we were running, she kept trying to jump up on my legs, as to express to me her fear of her surroundings. So we made our way to the outside of the bunch and kept going. By 8:00, it was already quite warm outside (Husband, dear, I am sorry to complain. I know that you are enduring significantly worse heat than I) and my hat and sunglasses weren't really doing much to keep the heat of the sun from hindering my performance. But we kept trekking along, and Lily seemed to be enjoying herself. We did have to make a couple of stops to walk (due to my lack of stamina, not hers) but we ended up completing the race in 37 minutes and 45 seconds. I have to say, the excitement of knowing that, for the first time in the 26 years of my life, I took part and completed an organized race was quite thrilling. For most people who have been involved in sports most of their lives this may seem like no big deal, but for an ever quitting couch potato such as myself, it was quite wonderful. I know my time wasn't the best it could be, and I know that I didn't run the whole entire time like I wanted to, but I completed it. And you have to start somewhere, right?

Another observation that I made is that people really, truly do end up looking like their dogs. I saw many examples of this while running and used that as a means of distraction to get through some of the long stretches.

In other news, I am participating in a 30 day yoga challenge (of which I already missed day 2... sheesh! Sorry Caitlin!). I am feeling mixed emotions about this because I know that it will be very advantageous for a cripply old lady like myself, but the process is just not as enjoyable as it should be (for the same reason). I am not flexible. My muscles are always tight. And I lose interest fast. So, with that said, this will be a really good discipline for me to exercise over these next 30 days. If you would also like to take the challenge, you can click on the banner at the top of my page to get more information.

Now off to find ways of entertaining myself on this very hot Sunday afternoon.

Peace, love & compression bras

Cupcakes and Nerves

Well tomorrow is the big day... my first ever race. Granted it is only a 5k, but I decided tonight, that I have to stop belittling the race, just because it's not a marathon or something. I've never done one before, and three miles is a significant distance for one such as myself. Either way, my week of running has been slightly disappointing, so I am just hoping to get through tomorrow with a good attitude, and not tooooo high of a heart rate.

Additionally, I made some cupcakes today, and I hate to admit that I indulged myself a little too much. I recently adorned my pantry door with a cartoon drawing of a bag of C&H sugar, knocked out in the corner of a boxing ring. I've been empowered lately with the reality that the longer I let my addiction to sugar get to me, the longer I am living my life defeated by a food that is depleting my quality of life. This cartoon accompanied me through my first two days, and now I can look at it every time I feel the desire to eat an unnecessary sweet. Well, today as I baked my cupcakes and missed my husband an extreme amount, I decided it to be the best idea to lick the batter bowl clean, and then to taste test some of the cupcakes. Dang it... stupid sugar bag won out today.

Praying for tomorrow, for the ability to push myself, mentally and physically, and for the perspective to see the victories.

Peace, love & compression bras


(& an occasional cupcake)