Level up with loot!

This is not a sponsored post. It’s also about a month old because I never hit “publish” lol..

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I’ve been chugging along for 2 months to the day,  back on the wagon.  I took my weights and measures today to see how I did and the results were less than stellar. 

In case you can’t read my chicken scratch,  I summarized the results by saying that the difference could just be in the way the measurements are taken. There is no concrete change one way or another. 

I’m motivated to keep going. Despite the heat,  I’m still jazzed about Pokémon GO. Earlier this week,  I walked for 2.5 miles just to hit up a pokemon gym. 

I don’t even walk that far to the regular gym. Of course,  that’s because I quit my membership,  but still.  Hahaha 😁

My most consistent work out has been playing with Little Elfkin. We go for walks,  which is great for my core because in bent over holding her little hands. I rough house,  which is great for lats and traps because I throw her into the air and catch her multiple times daily. 

To keep the motivation going,  I’ve developed a Loot List:

1. Trip to Target (something from the One Spot)
2. New nail Polish
3. New book
4. Fun pens
5. New t-shirt
6. ???

I’m just weeks away from my first big loot, which is the shirt featured at the top of this post. Active Apparel might just be a new go-to for big loot at the end of challenges. I already ordered the shirt and even received it, but I’m saving it up as a reward for a 4 week nerd fitness challenge or something similar. I see the package daily and really want to earn it. 

New Fitness Center!

Over the weekend I:

– walked in the Heart Walk

– threw a party (where myself, Jeff, my step-dad, his daughter and my friend were the only ones to show up–woo hoo more food for us!)

– received a 45lb kitchen cart in the mail and watched Jeff put it together

– started playing Final Fantasy VI for the first time

– logged a couple hours on Aion

Oh yeah, and I WORKED OUT!

The new gym is pretty awesome for being at an apartment complex.  The old home gym was a rickety treadmill stuffed into a storage locker with a couple of hand weights just for fun.

I started out on the treadmill.  It has been a *long* time since I have had a good work out.  I wanted to be conscious of that, but at the same time, I wanted a sweat-huff-and-puff workout.

One of the cool things is that I was the only one working out.  There are two tv’s and one remote so I got to pick what I wanted to watch.  No compromise 😉  I tried setting it to HGTV, channel 229, but one TV changed to channel 2 (public programming) and the other changed to 29 (fox).  I tried to change it again and I was foiled yet again!  The technology was telling me that I was there to work out, not vege out…

Hint taken, I mashed the buttons on the treadmill and started my cardio workout.  Some beeps and boops and I was gripping the heart rate monitor and off with a steady stride.  The idea of a cardio program on a treadmill is that it lets you set your own pace, say, 3.5 mph, and then it raises the incline until your heart rate meets the desired level.

Well, I don’t know if my heart rate was good or bad, but the incline got up to 13.5% before jabbed the down arrow and reigned it in.  I lasted about 15 minutes and then decided that the treadmill was too intense for me.

I switched to an elliptical for another 15 minutes and enjoyed the view outside almost as much as the view on the TV.  I had found a show on DIY where a guy remodeled a room to be ‘strong and manly’ but ended up looking like a hodge podge of reclaimed (read: garage sale quality) greek artifacts (read: plastercast).  I was done with my cardio and done with TV, so it was off to the free weights!

If you will allow me to admit… I adore working out to Dub Step.  A half hour flew by like mad.  I have been thinking about photographers for the wedding and it kind of solidified for me that photos are for. freaking. EVAR.

In that respect, I knew that I needed to work on my arms like whoa.  I started on the 5-way cable machine and did some “lat” pull downs (I did the pull-downs to the front).  Next, I did tricep kickbacks with a dumbbell.  I used a 15 to do some tricep skull crushers on a bench.  It must have been tricep day…I took it to the mat and did my crunches with a ball.  Out of nowhere, I decided it would be fun to throw the medicine ball into the air as if I were setting a volleyball.. So that was a thing.  After that, I attempted to do some push ups, but those were verreh verreh difficult, even doing them in a modified position.

Arms Workout: 

– Lat Pulldowns

– Tricep Kickbacks

– Skull Crushers

– Crunches w/ a medicine ball

– Medicine ball sets

– push-ups

Lather, rinse, repeat–3x.

Meatless Monday! P1W2D1 ST + Veggie Chili

I feel as if the more I do that is ‘mature’ or ‘adult’, the more I feel matured and like an adult, and the easier it is to do those things.  As an example, I made the menu for our household yesterday and got the grocery shopping done.  Originally, we were going to have stuffed peppers for dinner tonight but when I realized that I wasn’t going to be home this evening (Gotta get my Warrior training in!), I switched things up.

Before I even changed out of my pajamas this morning, I was in the kitchen loading up the crock pot for vegetarian chili.  It is such an easy thing to do… open up 10 cans of  various types of beans and sauces, add chili powder, add veggies, cook for 10 hrs on low.  🙂  Note to self: 6 Quarts of Chili is probably too much for 4 adults.  Since I wasn’t going to be home to cook dinner, I got it cooking before I even left the house.  Aren’t I nice? 😛

I thought that the chili had really good flavor.  I’d mix it up a little and add probably twice as many mushrooms next time and half as many black beans.  Total cost for this recipe was only around $20, though, and it makes 24 1-cup servings.  Not a bad deal!

Veggie Chili:
3 16oz cans Bush’s Best Chili Beans (Hot Sauce)
3 16oz cans Bush’s Best Dark Red Kidney Beans (Rinsed Well)
3 16oz cans Goya Black Beans (Rinsed Well)
1-2 pounds white mushrooms (Quartered)
46 oz Campbell’s Tomato Juice from Concentrate
Chili Powder to taste

Toss it all in a crock pot and cook for 10 hrs on low.

I tried to take a picture of it, but honestly, the lighting was not great and it was not so visually appealing.  I think this might even be a vegan dish if you skip the sour cream or cheese on top, but I don’t know enough about vegetarian- or vegan-ism to know for sure.  If you know, please chime in!
The rest of the day went really well as far as my eating goes.  I only had 1 “slip up” where I bought a pack of Sour Patch Kids, but the rest of my food was on-par.  I had my oatmeal for breakfast, an apple and peanut butter for snack, 1/2 sandwich and cottage cheese for lunch, sour patch kids in the afternoon, HELLIFIED WORKOUT!, banana, apple, 1.5 cups vegetarian chili.

Feels so good.  Now about that hellified work out… This is the 3rd round of strength training so far.  Just starting Phase 1, Week 2, Day 1 and I’m using the same methods as we were working on last week.  This time I made it all the way through the workout and didn’t skip any sets.  The gym was closing by the time I was done, though, so stretching and hitting the showers was kind of out of the question.  When I came home, I approached Rah-rah and asked if I could have a “Nice big sweaty hug!” and he said “Sure!” and swung his arms open for me.  Then he retracted and said “Uh.. how about you go through the shower first?” I didn’t notice, but apparently I had a big line of sweat on my front and a big patch of sweat on my back.  Are you workin’ hard or hardly workin’?

After I cleaned up, it was time for dinner (8pm by now) and I listened to my roomie’s reviews of dinner.  They missed meat and commented about throwing in some beef or bacon and a stick of butter next time.  They’re tolerant of my cooking adventures, but they definitely have their preferences in place.  I hate to admit how appetizing bacon chili sounds…

All in all, it wasn’t too bad at all!

[Edit: Cassie at BTHR is doing a give-away!  She opened a new online shop.  Check it out, show some love, get some swag: http://backtoherroots.com/2011/09/19/bthr-on-your-sleeve-giveaway/]

Warrior Dash: Week 1 Day 1 (Phase 1)

I tried for a few minutes to find a photo to represent how I felt after my first personal training session yesterday.  I googled the words “triumphant” and “proud” and scrolled through a few pages of photos of people caught in those feelings, but none of them really grasped what it was like.   So then, I read a small book of Wisdom from Ariel Books. I found the following quote to be most suiting: 

Don’t wish me happinss–I don’t expect to be happy….Wish me courage and strength and a sense of humor–I will need them all.  – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Yesterday morning, I showed up for personal training at 6:50am and changed into my workout clothes.  My mom, who had come for the core class at 6:00am was just finishing up with her workout.  I got a sweaty hug from her as we crossed paths.  I bid her good job on her work out and she wished me luck on mine.  It started out innocently enough on the treadmill.  3.5MPH for a little bit.  Just to warm up, then he wanted me running 5.5MPH, then 5.7.  After that he started adding in the strength exercises.  Over here to the ball–chest presses, go! Back to the treadmill, no stopping! 3x. Now over here to do standard-stance squats with a bar, now back to the treadmill–go go go!

Overall I think we did 4 strength exercises spaced by sessions on the treadmill.  I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet and so we were really tapping into the harder-to-access energy reserves that I have.  It felt weird and challenging and difficult and once I thought I might just toss my cookies.  But I pressed through it–because I signed up for this.  I asked for this.  I need this.  On and on it went and it was challenging enough to push me but not so hard that I would give up.  I could hardly think about what I was doing let alone anything else.  It was kind of liberating, in a way.

When I was all through and he told me I made it, I was already laying on a mat and he just rolled the exercise ball out from beneath my feet.  Unexpectedly, I found tears cascading down my cheeks and I just felt momentarily overwhelmed!  I was so proud that I hadn’t given up.  He gave me a few minutes to collect myself and when I was back to good, he told me that he was proud of me for pushing through–that a majority of his first-timers need at least 10 minutes rest at the 30-minute mark because they feel the overwhelming desire to or have given in to the desire to throw up.  He also told me that since I have a track-record of working out and an established fitness base, he is starting me at something more like Phase 4.  He said I could be ready by December.  I could have 6 months to do anything I wanted.

The other trainer called me last night to finalize registration for the Warrior Dash.  She asked me what size shirt I wanted.  I said Medium.