So Distracted

So I have been a huge slacker. UGH! And by slacker, I mean so busy I literally get home and go straight to bed. I have so many updates I want to post about! Knee progress (or regression!), Vegas trip, work, apartment hunting, new workout pants (love them!)...

My goal tonight (fingers crossed) is to have a nice long post about why I have had ZERO time to blog. I seriously intended to over the past few weeks, but I have been too mentally tired to sit down and compose anything. Also, the weather makes everything seem so much worse...but spring is on the horizon! I heard birds chirping this morning...I can't wait until I get sick of them because that will mean the warm weather is here to stay!!

Stay tuned internet peeps...

Sara

WTH Weather?!

Well, it has been a weather roller coaster here in Virginia!

 

Last week, this is what my commute home looked like:

Don't worry, I was stopped - Saftey first!

 

 

And this week the temperatures have been in the 60's!! I feel like this is just a tease though and it is going to get cold again and then I am going to be so sad. Today is in the 50s and that makes me sad already haha.

 

So a recap of the the last week or so because my schedule has been nuts and I slacked on posting. I am thinking I need to create some generic blog posts in my spare time (haha, spare time, what a concept) so I can still post when I don't have time to write out my every thought.

 

Last week was singles awareness day Valentine's Day, as I am sure you are all aware of. So instead of spending a romantic night with my non-existent boyfriend, I decided to hit the gym and be healthy. The teacher of the bodyflow class even brought us roses! So nice! I did end up getting a frosty from Wendy's later that night with my other single friend while we watched He's Just Not That Into You. Very appropriate for our feelings.

 

Over the weekend I went to Sam's club with one of my friends who has a membership and while I was there, discovered the most amazing treat EVER! It is greek frozen yogurt. Um, YUM. It tasted fantastic and it is relatively guilt free, because, greek yogurt is a super food. Duh. I definitely suggest checking it out. Another treat I got this weekend was a Jetty Junior from Tropical Smoothie...not so healthy, but my friend was in town from Richmond, so we did a crossfit style workout (because she is a crossfit expert!) and I thought I was going to die afterwards so she bought me a smoothie haha...the perks of a crossfit death!

Yesterday was so beautiful so I had a ton of energy so I hit the gym for a great workout followed by a healthy dinner. My workout consisted of:

5 minute bike (high intensity)
40 lunges (10 regular, 10 angled, each side)
20 plank walks
50 mt. climbers

Repeat 3x

5 minutes on the rowing machine
and then my leg exercises (leg dips, front step ups, side step ups, backward step ups)

My dinner was homemade chicken noodle soup (which was okay, my seasoning wasn't strong enough I don't think) and a small salad. All-in-all I felt pretty accomplished!

 

 

 

 Today is going to be long. I have to work all day, and then all night, so I dragged myself out of bed this morning to get in 30 minutes of cardio. Needless to say it is not yet 9am and I am already in need of a nap. It is time for a BIG cup of green tea!

Sara

Photo Challenge Fail

I don't know if you have noticed, but I haven't been doing great with this photo challenge. I just get so wrapped up in my day that I forget to take a photo. So the photos below May not have been taken on that actual day, but are still applicable to the day's topic.

Before we get to the photo challenge, here is a weekend recap:

Friday night was spent lounging at my parent's house. Saturday morning I met my friend at the gym and we had an unintentionally hard workout. We started with 5 minutes on the bike, followed by 40 sit-up things ( I don't know what these devil move's are called, but you lay on your back, knees bent out so that the bottoms of your feet are together, then sit up to touch your toes), 5 minute bike, 40 devil sit-ups, 5 minute bike, 40 devil sit-ups. Then 2 minutes of the rowing machine (which was way harder than I thought it would be) and 3 rounds of 12 rep dead lifts with a kettle bell. Just when we thought we were ready to wrap up, one of the trainers came by and gave us another set of exercises to do. Normally, that would be just fine and dandy, but I was already exhausted! After the gym was apartment hunting, then straight to work. Sunday was a rest day (20 minutes of easy yoga) because I was SO sore. I'm not kidding, I had a hard time standing up straight because my core hurt. Sad and pathetic, I know. What is even more pathetic? Me sitting in bed tonight, Monday, with a heating pad on my stomach because I'm STILL sore. I did make it to the gym for cardio though...see, here is proof!

I also had an AMAZING lunch. I made chicken tacos in the crockpot (2 chicken breasts, a can of rotel, and half a packet of taco seasoning) on Sunday, so I used a piece of iceberg lettuce, spread some mashed avocado on it, added the shredded crockpot chicken, and topped it with reduced fat Mexican cheese blend. It was so good and a great low carb taco idea!

YUMMMMM!

Ok, so there is my recap. Here comes my sorry excuse for the photo challenge:

February Photo Challenge (from thefittrain.blogspot.com)

February 5: What I'm Eating

So last week, my lunches were crockpot BBQ chicken with a side of blueberries:

February 6: Favorite Pasttime

Well, usually my favorite Pasttime is anything out doors. But the weather has been pretty sucko this winter so I've taken up my tried and true pasttime...my DVR. Don't judge, love is complicated.

February 7: Plank

Friday I was having a pity party because I was so exhausted and overwhelmed by everything going on in my life right now that when I got off work, I skipped the gym and went straight to my parent's house to lay on the couch and watch the Olympics...so, no plank. But look at this nice lady who is not me planking:

Also, when I googled plank, this image also came up and I just couldn't resist sharing it. You're welcome.

February 8: My favorite body part/feature 

This was easy. I happen to love my hair! I chopped it off just before the new year, but want to grow it back out already.

February 9: Quote

I love Jillian Michaels so anything she says is quote worthy to me, haha. I really like this one though because it emphasizes that making a change in your life, starts out with a mental decision :

February 10: View from my window

Right now it is dark outside so my view is black...but during the day it's of some trees and a parking lot. So instead of that, here is a view of some beautiful blue sky as seen from my balcony a few weeks ago when it was a rare day I could spend some time out there.

So that's that. I'm going to pass out on my stomach now so the heat really sinks into my ab muscles and I will be able to stand up straight tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Curse you, devil sit-ups.

Stress Relief

Today has been a LONG and stressful day. I was crazy busy at work because of all the snow days that we had, so it's catch up city. I also have been dealing with a bunch of stuff for the FOUR weddings that I am in this year so everything is falling at the same time (dress purchases, gifts, bachelorette parties, bridal showers, fittings, plane ticket, hotels). Did I mention I was stressed? Don't get me wrong, I love my friends and think they deserve the best, but OMG could they have staggered the dates a little?! So, I've been budgeting, booking, shopping and planning and on top of all that, my coworker is going to be on maternity leave during all of this so I have been taking on tasks for all the spring and summer events. Basically, my life is not my own until October 2014. Yay. 

So, usually when I am feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted like this I eat my weight in carbs. But today I literally couldn't wait to get to the gym. I pedaled my heart out on the rolling hills of a stationary bike and it felt great. Then I ate chicken and broccoli for dinner. I actually love broccoli but I'm usually to lazy to cook it. But I was motivated today. Maybe I should get stressed out more often haha (that's a joke and I hope the universe doesn't take it as a challenge!). The point is, I am hoping that my mind set is changing to automatically view exercise and healthy eating when I need a release. I sure feel better right now than I would have if I came home, sat on the couch, and ate an entire bag of Lays Sour Cream and Onion chips. 

So Internet peeps, if I can do it, you can do it!

On to The Fit Train's photo challenge (www.thefittrain.blogspot.com)...

February 4: Workout Shoes

I absolutely LOVE fitness clothes. They are so cute nowadays. I have several pairs of shoes. My really old ones (that I couldn't find to take a picture of) that I use for color runs and will use for my first mud run this year that I'm super excited about. Then I have my cross training and strength training shoes: 

They are grey and neon coral Nikes. They are super cute but give me blisters when I run. Then (lastly) I have a neon green pair of Saucony's that I use for running. They are specific for me because I ten to run on the inside of my feet so they are supposed to stabilize my stride (or something like that...that's what the guy from the running store said anyways):

A girl can never have too many pairs of shoes, amiright?

February Photo Challenge

So, I made it through the polar vortex, and most of the snow has melted (thank god!). Now it's cold and rainy. Funny, I don't remember moving to Seattle - but here I am in precipitation hell. 

In spite of the gloomy weather. I have been able to get some good workouts in and meal prep for the week. Saturday I hit the gym for nearly an hour and a half and it felt AMAZING. I did the stationary bike for about 30 minutes and then did my knee strengthening exercises which takes 30 minutes. To wrap it up, I hopped on the treadmill to walk it out! The effort burned just under 800 calories according to my heart rate monitor. BOOM BABY!

Also, I love it when the gym is empty! It gives me room to spread out. If you are like me and have no life, I recommend hitting the gym late afternoon on a Saturday! 

Because I am new at blogging I figured I needed to find a way to think of topics to write about. While I was perusing the latest posts of some of the blogs I follow, the February Photo Challenge on thefittrain.blogspot.com caught my attention. So I am giving it a try to see if I can keep up with it. Clearly I didn't blog Saturday or Sunday (FAIL), but I did take pics so I will back track a little.

February 1: A photo of me today.

So, there I am on Saturday about to go grocery shopping. I'm not completely unhappy with my body. I've always been thin, but not necessarily fit. So my journey is to be healthy and toned. And this is how I'm starting out.

February 2: A photo of my gym or workout area.

I work out at the gym most of the time, but when I don't feel like being around people (the struggles of an introvert on occasion I guess) I have a nice little area set up in my living room for working out.

February 3 (today): Sweat.

Now the plan was to go to the gym, but it was cold and rainy so I went straight home after work. But because I needed a picture of sweat for my photo challenge, I knew I had to do some sort of workout. I chose a yoga video from a website called www.doyogawithme.com. It has tons of free yoga videos ranging in type, length and practice level. I did a beginner video and the lady was explaining the poses while we held them and I only made it half way through before my muscles were completely fatigued (they are still shaking a little right now!). In my picture you can't see sweat because all of was pooling in my hands haha. Also, I was obviously ready for a nap.

So tomorrow has to do with style (one of my favorite parts of working out is cute fitness clothes!). I actually found a shirt on etsy that said "will squat for peanut butter." If you knew me you would understand how perfect it is since I eat pb every day. It's so yummy! 

Anyways, off to bed so I can attempt to make it to work on time tomorrow morning!

Polar Vortex - Take 3

YUCK!

This week has been annoyingly similar to last week. But, as you can see in the picture above, we got significantly more snow. 6-10 inches to be exact. WTH. It is absolutely ridiculous. While having the occasional day off in the middle of the week is a treat, it SUCKS when you spend it snowed in. I'm getting cabin fever. I don't have a roommate and I don't really talk to my neighbors, so needless to say, I have been so bored. Tuesday my work closed at 1:30 pm so I went to the dentist, the grocery store and best buy. Mind you, it didn't actually start snowing until like 7pm. 

Yesterday, I was pretty productive. I did several loads of laundry, did a workout with my kettle bell in my living room, and cleaned my kitchen from when I did meal prep on Sunday. That's right...it took me 3 days to clean up after myself after meal prep! I was just so exhausted. I mean look at all this:

I made garlic Parmesan chicken, red mashed potatoes, asparagus, chicken for salad, lime chicken for tacos, egg breakfast sandwiches, and a big pot of tortilla soup. Everything was good, the recipe for tortilla soup made WAY too much though so I will be freezing most of it. This week I'm going to make less of a variety because it was a long night haha.

So yea, messy kitchen is now clean. My kettle bell workout was pretty tough, but totally worth it because I had so much energy afterwards!

These were the moves I did with a 10 lb. kettle bell repeated 3 times:

10 reps around the body

10 reps each arm bent rows

15 reps dead lift with upright row

10 reps figure 8's

15 reps kettle bell swings

15 reps front squat

10 reps each side windmills

50 jumping jacks

The first set felt easy but by the time I got to the 3rd I was getting pretty tired. MAN I need to get back in shape haha! The athletic trainer did give me the okay to start running again but only half my usually mileage and only on the treadmill since it's lower impact than running outside. BUT since the weather has been pretty sucko, I haven't made it to the gym. Boo winter. 

Today was much different. I literally laid around all day watching Graceland (SUCH a good show!) and working on some things for our event at work on Friday. HOPEFULLY the snow will melt so people actually show up. 

This weekend the weather is supposed to warm up so I plan on taking my new bike out for a spin! Then make something for a Super Bowl party...any ideas on something healthy/simple to bring for the potluck?????

Snow Day!

Here in Virginia, we have no idea how to drive in the snow. If an inch accumulates, our whole area shuts down (including my work! Woohoo!). So, today we are having a SNOW DAY!

So my plan is to relax and maybe clean my bathroom, and definitely do laundry. One thing is for sure though, I will not be making it to the gym today. The last time I tried to drive on snowy roads, I slide into the curb and became "that" girl who called her daddy and begged him to come pick me up. No, I am not ashamed. In full disclosure, I was prepared to spend the night at my parents last night just in case I did have to go into work and needed my dad to drive me. I'm pathetic! But really, your welcome Virginia residents that a terrible snow drive would not be on the road. It really is a public service having my dad shuttle me around.

Anywho, since I will not be making it to the gym, I wanted to get in some sort of workout so I will be breaking out the kettlebell!

Also, in honor of humpday, one of my favorite blogs to follow is Fitness Blondie and she does a Hump Day Blog Hop. So check out some of the other blogs that have joined it! I know I will!

Sara

Busy + Sickly + Polar Vortex Take 2...

Good Morning!

The year of 2014 has really begun with some challenges (hopefully not foreshadowing much!). I have spent the last couple weeks freezing, sneezing, and calculating my expenses for each month this year. All of that has been just about as fun as it sounds. I got a cold right as the new year started and it just kept escalating. And right when I thought I was getting back on track with eating and working out, I was confined to my couch. I did catch up on my DVR though (sorry, sorry...no DVR talk!).

On top of being sick, I was also FREEZING because of the "polar vortex" that Al Roker has been talking about. And apparently another polar vortex is going to come through the rest of this week...but this time bringing snow. SNOW. NO. I hate snow. I am most definitely a warm weather kind of person and I am one of "those" people that everyone hates because I CANNOT drive in the snow. Seriously. One time I slide into a curb and now I am completely traumatized and refuse to drive if there is even a chance it will stick. Hopefully work will be cancelled tomorrow so I don't look like this:

Have a mentioned I hate being cold?

Anyways, I have been trying to make it to the gym a lot more. The athletic trainer at work gave me some workouts to strengthen my knee so I can start running again in the next month or so. Here are the moves he taught me:

One legged step downs (10 reps x3)
Front lunges (10 reps x3)
Angled lunges (10 reps x3)
Front step ups (10 reps x3)
Side step ups (10 reps x3)
And a new one I haven't tried yet - backwards step ups (10 reps x3)

The one legged step downs are pretty tough because my knee wants to twist to the inside which causes some pain, but as long as I do each move slowly and keep my form correct, they really help strengthen my hips and quads, taking the strain out of my knee. Good news is I have been given the okay to start on the stair climber!

I have also been trying some healthy recipes. Now, I am by no means a chef of any kind. I have been known to screw up hamburger helper in the not-so-recent past. So, trying new recipes is a little daunting. I chose something called Rainbow Rice to try. It is made with brown rice, chicken, broccoli, black beans, carrots and corn. Sounds good right? Looks good right?

Tastes good right? WRONG! I am sure I did something wrong, just not sure what. And I made SO MUCH of it. I felt super bummed throwing it away, but I knew I wouldn't eat it. Next time I try a new recipe, I will be sure to make a single serving first to test it out.

This week, I had MLK day off so I was able to do some meal prep for the week (with recipes I already have made before!). For breakfast I made a couple omelets using fresh spinach, 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg. Then I used them to make sandwiches with whole wheat english muffins, a slice of turkey bacon and a piece of 2% american cheese. I had it this morning and it was delicious! For lunch I cooked up some vegetable radiatore noodles from Trader Joe's and mixed it with ground turkey and tomato basil pasta sauce for spaghetti. For dinners, I made some taco meat (using ground turkey - which I think tastes MUCH better than ground beef because it isn't as greasy) and plan to make taco salads. I also picked up a bunch of apples, strawberries and bananas for snacks throughout the week!

Planning my meals and making them in advance really helps me eat healthy because I usually have no desire to cook anything when I get home from work.

So begins the second polar vortex, but hopefully this time I will steer clear of Chipotle (however hard that may be!).

Just for nostalgia, here is a picture of when I was sitting on my balcony YESTERDAY in 60 DEGREE weather. Seriously, Virginia?

Sara

Happy 2014!

Happy 2014!

This past year (2013) has been crazy! The biggest thing is my new job that I started in August. I was so nervous about leaving my old job and all the people there (including my boss who was amazing!) but so excited about starting my new job in collegiate athletics! The last few months have been great and I am learning so much here. I also discovered my love for having a personal trainer - and also how expensive it is. I wish I would've been able to continue with once a week sessions, but unfortunately I ran out of money - i.e. I chose to be able to pay rent and eat instead, haha.

The last week of 2013 was incredibly relaxing. I spent most of the time lounging at my parents house for Christmas. And speaking of presents...LOOK WHAT I GOT!

My parents are the greatest! It is a hybrid (cross between a mountain bike and a road bike). It will be perfect for the sprint triathlon in July that I signed up for and I CANNOT wait to take it out once the weather is a bit nicer. And in order to stay awake on these long bike rides I intend to complete, my parents got me the cutest little Keurig ever!

Yum, Coffee!

 

That was my first cup that I made with it. It was some sort of hazelnut flavor that I wasn't a big fan of so I went and bought my favorite type of coffee - mocha! I mean, who doesn't like chocolate coffee.

 

Hopefully with my brand new coffee maker, I will have so much energy all I will want to do is exercise - okay, maybe that's some extreme wishful thinking, but a girl can dream.

 

So, here is hoping that 2014 is going to be a fit and fun year! I mean, I already started it out on a positive note! My mom and I walked 2.014 miles on New Year's Day (get it, 2014! It took someone explaining it to me to get it...blond moment). It was really cool because it was at the local botanical gardens and they still had all the Christmas lights up! I was so proud of my mom; she was hustling and even ran through the finish line! The picture is a little dark at the top so it's hard to see her, but she is smiling, I promise!

 



Happy New Year!!

Sara