Hello, all of my Spuds, Studs and everyone in between.
I made it safely to my Northern abode. Let me tell you, it is amazing how quickly you can forget things about a place where you've spent most of your life.
It's amazingly green and lush up here.
I wanted to let you all know that I will be in no-man's land for the next five or six days, livin' it up old school, with no internet. But rest assured, I will be keeping my booty off of that couch. If you remember from my very first post, I introduced you to my metabolically gifted brother, and pain-loving sister... well they will be enjoying this little vaca with me, along with the rest of the crew (16 in all), so we are planning on getting lots of exercise and physically strenuous activities in. I'm really excited about this!
*Let me interject quick and brag about myself for a second. While spending the night in the middle of Kansas somewhere, at, what I would consider, a 2.75 star hotel, I layed a towel down on the floor and spent about 20 minutes stretching and doing some yoga postures. Yep, even on a long road trip I'm managing to do more than just sit on my behind. Props to me.
For the past few years Minnesota has decorated it's highways and freeways with billboards encouraging people to "groove their body 10 minutes, 3 times a day". So, while in MN, I will be doing as she asks... groovin' this bod as much as I can.
I will miss telling you about my ever so exciting life, but be ready for some mildly entertaining stories when I return.
Keep that booty groovin'.
Peace, love & booty shakin'
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
On The Road... Again
Well tomorrow I begin my two day journey north. Unfortunately I will not be able to experience the deliverance from this heat that I was hoping for. It would be nice to not have sweat constantly taking up residence in places where it shouldn't. But alas, it is summer in the great state of Minnesota, and contrary to popular belief, it does actually get really hot up there. The heat is following me. Minnesota, I'm sorry.
Core Dynamics at the Applied Fitness center has a new instructor. I was not aware of this until just before getting to class yesterday, so I wasn't sure what class would be like. The new instructor quite literally just landed here at Fort Hood and she has already been recruited to be an instructor. Pretty neat. Anyways, the class was quite great. It was different than what we have been doing, which is always nice. I don't know about you, but I'm interested in knowing all of the options I can "think" about doing while I veg on the couch.
Time out. I need to share an observation I just made. I'm sure you remember me mentioning my lovely little husky puggle, Theo. Well, if you have never seen him, you need to know that, if you could choose a human body type for Theo, it would have to be beach body builder. They are always sliiiiightly husky, but have these big "peacock" chests, and tiny waists or legs. Anyways, thats Theo. Sometimes I have to slit the neck of his t-shirts because his chest protrudes so much. He's dead sexy. As I was sitting here on the couch typing, he and Lily began their evening "run/wrestle/body slam" session. Our house is not very big, but our couch is located somewhat in the middle of the living room, creating the perfect "oval" track for Theo to get his run on. He goes so fast sometimes I swear he leans in a bit on the corners. You can hear his nails digging desperately into the carpet with each stride, trying to create as much grip as possible, allowing optimal speed and maneuvering. So, they are chasing each other, and I'm typing. The epiphany took place when I heard the very common sound of Theo's body slamming into the wall as he rounds the kitchen table. Nine out of ten times, he doesn't clear this turn. What I realized tonight though, is that I admire Theo. He has no shame. No shame in his mistakes, his downfalls, his "failures", as some perfectionists might call them. He slams into that wall, gets his butt back up and keeps on running, tongue out, ears flapping. He has no shame. Even when he has to stop and lay down on the cold tile after about two laps, he is still happy.
I want to be more like Theo.
To enjoy being active, no matter how stupid I may look. Do it till I need to lay on the cold tile, and then when I can breath again, get back up and do it all over again.
Here is the difference between Theo and your average Venice Beach meat-head: While the meat-heads, hard as they may try to seem "cool", more than likely know deep down that they look kinda silly. Theo has no clue. He has no clue because he doesn't live his life according to what others think or say about him. (Trust me, if he did we'd all be in a world of hurt.... there are a lot of laughs at his expense in this house. And a lot of (more than likely) inaccurate commentary of his life.)
I wish I could be more like Theo. (With the exception of the big burly chest).
So that's my observation. Let's all be like Theo, ok?
Well, I'm off to finish my packing and hit the hay. After all my packing and spin class this afternoon, my bed is calling my name.
Peace, love & uninhibitedness
Core Dynamics at the Applied Fitness center has a new instructor. I was not aware of this until just before getting to class yesterday, so I wasn't sure what class would be like. The new instructor quite literally just landed here at Fort Hood and she has already been recruited to be an instructor. Pretty neat. Anyways, the class was quite great. It was different than what we have been doing, which is always nice. I don't know about you, but I'm interested in knowing all of the options I can "think" about doing while I veg on the couch.
Time out. I need to share an observation I just made. I'm sure you remember me mentioning my lovely little husky puggle, Theo. Well, if you have never seen him, you need to know that, if you could choose a human body type for Theo, it would have to be beach body builder. They are always sliiiiightly husky, but have these big "peacock" chests, and tiny waists or legs. Anyways, thats Theo. Sometimes I have to slit the neck of his t-shirts because his chest protrudes so much. He's dead sexy. As I was sitting here on the couch typing, he and Lily began their evening "run/wrestle/body slam" session. Our house is not very big, but our couch is located somewhat in the middle of the living room, creating the perfect "oval" track for Theo to get his run on. He goes so fast sometimes I swear he leans in a bit on the corners. You can hear his nails digging desperately into the carpet with each stride, trying to create as much grip as possible, allowing optimal speed and maneuvering. So, they are chasing each other, and I'm typing. The epiphany took place when I heard the very common sound of Theo's body slamming into the wall as he rounds the kitchen table. Nine out of ten times, he doesn't clear this turn. What I realized tonight though, is that I admire Theo. He has no shame. No shame in his mistakes, his downfalls, his "failures", as some perfectionists might call them. He slams into that wall, gets his butt back up and keeps on running, tongue out, ears flapping. He has no shame. Even when he has to stop and lay down on the cold tile after about two laps, he is still happy.
I want to be more like Theo.
To enjoy being active, no matter how stupid I may look. Do it till I need to lay on the cold tile, and then when I can breath again, get back up and do it all over again.
Here is the difference between Theo and your average Venice Beach meat-head: While the meat-heads, hard as they may try to seem "cool", more than likely know deep down that they look kinda silly. Theo has no clue. He has no clue because he doesn't live his life according to what others think or say about him. (Trust me, if he did we'd all be in a world of hurt.... there are a lot of laughs at his expense in this house. And a lot of (more than likely) inaccurate commentary of his life.)
I wish I could be more like Theo. (With the exception of the big burly chest).
So that's my observation. Let's all be like Theo, ok?
Well, I'm off to finish my packing and hit the hay. After all my packing and spin class this afternoon, my bed is calling my name.
Peace, love & uninhibitedness
Monday, July 18, 2011
LOST: Motivation
REWARD: $1,000,000
If found, please report to
Laura Jean's couch where
you will most likely find
her.
Guys, I don't know what's happened. I am experiencing a motivation drought. Maybe it's because the day is drawing near where I will finally be reunited with my bestest of friends, T-Money. Maybe it's because I'm anticipating being out of my normal routine for a few weeks. Maybe it is that I have peaked in my new-found active lifestyle, and I am finding myself tempted to revert back to my spud-like ways. Oh Lord, I pray it is not the last one. I definitely still enjoy spending five of my days a week being active, sweating, and challenging myself, don't get me wrong, but that drive to push harder than the last time seems to have taken some vacation days. I'm running a 5k in Minneapolis at the end of the month, and I've been spending so much time trying to improve my short distance run time that I believe I am completely unprepared for the 5k. But I realized today on the treadmill that the area where I need the most preparation is mentally. Why do I so easily give up on myself? This is not only common in my physical life, but in my emotional, my spiritual and my every day life. What is it that makes us (or me, rather) want to give up so easily? Maybe it is because we become so comfortable in the life that we are familiar with, that to imagine ourselves achieving something we've never done before seems scary. Not scary because of the nature of the achievement, but scary to let ourselves truly and vulnerably believe in ourselves. I think I become so fearful of failure that I would rather just let myself down on purpose than to try and try and realize that I can't do something. Perfection... it's such an ugly beast. But don't we all strive for it?
Well today I went to the Wellness Center to get my body fat percentage measured to see if it's improved since last time. I've lost 2% more than when I last checked... so I am heading in the right direction! S-L-O-W-L-Y. But slowly is better than not at all.
I was hoping to be able to get my tape measurements from the last time I was there, but unfortunately they were unable to find them... and I threw the book away that had them from back in February... so today's lesson is: write your starting measurements out and store them in a safe place.
I ran for about 25 minutes today, and I'm trying to run at faster speeds than 4.8... that's really more of a jog and I would like to be able to have some more flexibility in my running. I wanted to say that I stopped after 25 minutes because it was hard running that much faster, but the truth is, it wasn't really. I was just bored. Why do I get so bored? *sigh*
Core class tomorrow. Can't wait to make my abs hurt like crazy. I've been potentially given an opportunity to teach a class such as Core... but I feel as though because I lack in the simple abilities to complete half of the exercises as they should be, that I am not a qualified option for them to use. M says thats not true, but I'm not sure if I believe her. Thoughts? If you were in a class where the instructor couldn't necessarily go as hard as you, but still made sure to keep the counts steady and made sure the class was challenged, would you consider them to be an adequate teacher?
I need a massage.
Peace, love & million dollar rewards
If found, please report to
Laura Jean's couch where
you will most likely find
her.
Guys, I don't know what's happened. I am experiencing a motivation drought. Maybe it's because the day is drawing near where I will finally be reunited with my bestest of friends, T-Money. Maybe it's because I'm anticipating being out of my normal routine for a few weeks. Maybe it is that I have peaked in my new-found active lifestyle, and I am finding myself tempted to revert back to my spud-like ways. Oh Lord, I pray it is not the last one. I definitely still enjoy spending five of my days a week being active, sweating, and challenging myself, don't get me wrong, but that drive to push harder than the last time seems to have taken some vacation days. I'm running a 5k in Minneapolis at the end of the month, and I've been spending so much time trying to improve my short distance run time that I believe I am completely unprepared for the 5k. But I realized today on the treadmill that the area where I need the most preparation is mentally. Why do I so easily give up on myself? This is not only common in my physical life, but in my emotional, my spiritual and my every day life. What is it that makes us (or me, rather) want to give up so easily? Maybe it is because we become so comfortable in the life that we are familiar with, that to imagine ourselves achieving something we've never done before seems scary. Not scary because of the nature of the achievement, but scary to let ourselves truly and vulnerably believe in ourselves. I think I become so fearful of failure that I would rather just let myself down on purpose than to try and try and realize that I can't do something. Perfection... it's such an ugly beast. But don't we all strive for it?
Well today I went to the Wellness Center to get my body fat percentage measured to see if it's improved since last time. I've lost 2% more than when I last checked... so I am heading in the right direction! S-L-O-W-L-Y. But slowly is better than not at all.
I was hoping to be able to get my tape measurements from the last time I was there, but unfortunately they were unable to find them... and I threw the book away that had them from back in February... so today's lesson is: write your starting measurements out and store them in a safe place.
I ran for about 25 minutes today, and I'm trying to run at faster speeds than 4.8... that's really more of a jog and I would like to be able to have some more flexibility in my running. I wanted to say that I stopped after 25 minutes because it was hard running that much faster, but the truth is, it wasn't really. I was just bored. Why do I get so bored? *sigh*
Core class tomorrow. Can't wait to make my abs hurt like crazy. I've been potentially given an opportunity to teach a class such as Core... but I feel as though because I lack in the simple abilities to complete half of the exercises as they should be, that I am not a qualified option for them to use. M says thats not true, but I'm not sure if I believe her. Thoughts? If you were in a class where the instructor couldn't necessarily go as hard as you, but still made sure to keep the counts steady and made sure the class was challenged, would you consider them to be an adequate teacher?
I need a massage.
Peace, love & million dollar rewards
Thursday, July 14, 2011
So. Very. Tired.
So. Very. Sore.
These workouts this week have been draining me. The weird thing is I'm not doing anything really out of the ordinary, with the exception of some intervals. I guess it's just one of those weeks.
Core Dynamics was HARD today. One would think that after taking a class for months on end you would be able to be a little bit more impressive with your performance.. not the case, my friends. Definitely not the case.
Read about some very interesting different workouts that I'm thinking of adding to my routine. I am enticed by these variations to the plank. I also think that these look kind of fun (call me crazy, I know... I said "fun"). I think it's important to really look into good variations to your usual routine, so that you don't get bored and so that you keep your muscles "on their toes". But, as my wise friend told me, be sure you are taking precautions. You definitely won't be turning into a stud if an injury gets in your way. Only do what you know you are capable of, and maybe work up to the more challenging exercises. Remember, the girls who "demonstrate" in the magazines are completely different beings than us... They get paid to work out and have hot bods. We don't.
Alright, all you little potatoes and pretties, I'm outta here.
Peace, love & a comfortable bed
These workouts this week have been draining me. The weird thing is I'm not doing anything really out of the ordinary, with the exception of some intervals. I guess it's just one of those weeks.
Core Dynamics was HARD today. One would think that after taking a class for months on end you would be able to be a little bit more impressive with your performance.. not the case, my friends. Definitely not the case.
Read about some very interesting different workouts that I'm thinking of adding to my routine. I am enticed by these variations to the plank. I also think that these look kind of fun (call me crazy, I know... I said "fun"). I think it's important to really look into good variations to your usual routine, so that you don't get bored and so that you keep your muscles "on their toes". But, as my wise friend told me, be sure you are taking precautions. You definitely won't be turning into a stud if an injury gets in your way. Only do what you know you are capable of, and maybe work up to the more challenging exercises. Remember, the girls who "demonstrate" in the magazines are completely different beings than us... They get paid to work out and have hot bods. We don't.
Alright, all you little potatoes and pretties, I'm outta here.
Peace, love & a comfortable bed
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
S-W-E-A-T
Sweat. I found out, for the first time in my life, that it actually can begin to bead up and drip off of my skin. I owe this recent discovery to spin class and the hard a$* awesome teacher that teaches it. There is nothing like a tightly squeezed room full of sweaty people yelling "up" loudly with every up of a push up, while the teacher continues to tell us that we're just warming up... (even though we've been riding hard for 35 minutes of the hour long class). Pure awesome-ness is what it is. I have this cute little green towel that I got in Germany that I keep in my gym bag for "drip" duty on my sweaty days, but I think it's about time I retire that bad boy... It's really not cutting it, I'm sorry to say. I am looking forward to investing in a Sport Towel from Norwex, because I think that will do a much better job of cleaning up the nasty.
Before spin started I went to pay the treadmill a visit for some interval action. I truly enjoy doing those. Fortunately for me, my elderly brain forgot that the incline was supposed to be at 12%, so I ended up spending all but the last interval at an incline of 7%... shucks. It was still hard, and it still made me sweat and breath heavily. Therefore it was a success.
Seeing as I have a short time before "T-Day", it is crunch time... I am upping the ante and trying to be strict with my sugar and dairy intake... so why is it that up until two days ago, I had no issues with this... then all of a sudden, BAM! I want sugar every five seconds! Ok, not every five seconds, just right when I get done with a workout, mostly. Sometimes the cravings are almost unbearable... and I have no food in my house, so I usually end up getting a small spoon and dipping into the peanut butter jar (don't worry, I eat the natural stuff). Does someone want to come monitor my eating habits? I'd appreciate it.
Well tomorrow I'm running, and I can't wait. I'm also going to the grocery store... I'm almost out of peanut butter. Shame shame.
peace, love & peanut butter
Before spin started I went to pay the treadmill a visit for some interval action. I truly enjoy doing those. Fortunately for me, my elderly brain forgot that the incline was supposed to be at 12%, so I ended up spending all but the last interval at an incline of 7%... shucks. It was still hard, and it still made me sweat and breath heavily. Therefore it was a success.
Seeing as I have a short time before "T-Day", it is crunch time... I am upping the ante and trying to be strict with my sugar and dairy intake... so why is it that up until two days ago, I had no issues with this... then all of a sudden, BAM! I want sugar every five seconds! Ok, not every five seconds, just right when I get done with a workout, mostly. Sometimes the cravings are almost unbearable... and I have no food in my house, so I usually end up getting a small spoon and dipping into the peanut butter jar (don't worry, I eat the natural stuff). Does someone want to come monitor my eating habits? I'd appreciate it.
Well tomorrow I'm running, and I can't wait. I'm also going to the grocery store... I'm almost out of peanut butter. Shame shame.
peace, love & peanut butter
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
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
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
Saturday, July 9, 2011
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
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
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