Numbers

Hi. I think this might be a random post because I have a lot of random things on my mind.

1. Sorry if yesterday's post was too snarky. I think I was in a bad mood. I'm better now.

2. Even though I just said I was sorry about complaining about things, I'm going to complain about one more thing: guy at the gym, if you have to GRUNT that loud, your weights are too heavy. Also, don't ever use the phrase "sling some iron" again. Seriously.

3. I got my lip waxed today. Never done that before. I've been doing my eyebrows for some time, but I have really light hair and have never had a problem with the lip before. Lately though, even those light fuzzies have been bothering me. So off it went. It hurt like a mother, but I think I like it. When it comes to my lady parts, I stick to shaving. I've done the waxing thing down there and I guess I'm just too sensitive (aka I'm a wuss).

4. Foodwise, I have been AMAZING this week. I am so proud. The weekend will be the test as per usual, but I am feeling great. The food landmines start at lunch out with my sister, then happy hour with friends tonight, then the boy and I are going to this new fancy "local food" restaurant tomorrow, so we shall see. Oh and it's labor day so I know there will be a BBQ and beer involved somewhere. I will persevere though. I am kind of a badass like that, don't know if you knew it or not.

5. Workouts: eh, not sure if I'll make the 350 minutes this week. I ended up taking a rest day yesterday and did ten minutes on the stepmill and about 40 minutes of weight training today, but that leaves me with 100 minutes to do tomorrow. Don't think that's gonna happen. Oh well, still had lots of great workouts and I'll get close enough. Maybe I'll ride my bike to happy hour. That counts right?

6. So we have a hot tub right? We've had it for the entire time we've owned our house (3 years) and it has never worked. For some reason the boy has taken it upon himself to get it up and running, and the word on the street is he is close to fixing it. So I might have a hot tub soon! Yippeeee! I can't wait to sit in it after snowboarding this year.

7. I love my dog so much.

8. That is all for now. Have a great weekend.

Maybe You Should Just Wear a Garbage Bag

So yeah sore from yoga? Kind of an understatement. I am pretty much half dead. But in different places than I thought I would be. My obliques for one thing, are screaming, and so are my glutes. But it's good because it makes me realize that maybe I'm not working out these muscles quite as well as I should be. So there will be another yoga class in my future, but maybe not right away as I need a little time to heal. I'm totally taking an Epsom salt bath or something. Friday night, woo! I am such a rockstar. 

This morning I did get up and jog on the treadmill for about 45 minutes (with walking interspersed) at the gym, then I did the stepmill for about ten minutes when I was done, because seriously that is all I can handle on that death machine. And of course the girl next to me is wearing a fleece jacket, a hat, and she's been on there for like 90 minutes or something and she's doing like level 1, but she's reading a book and acting like she's lounging about instead of working her ass off. What is it with people like that? They make me so mad. I know I shouldn't waste my energy thinking negative thoughts about other people just trying to get their workout in, but I can tell she's so used to doing the same thing over and over, she never changes it up and she's there because that's what she does. It's her thing and her routine and she thinks maybe if she wears a fleece jacket she'll sweat more or something? Well maybe you would sweat more if you actually tried a little harder, ever thought of that? 

Okay rant over. Sorry.

Yeah. ANYWAY. Husband and I are going out to dinner (post-Epsom salt bath I guess) but we haven't decided where yet. He'll probably want pizza or Italian and I'll probably have to veto that due to my new found resolve, so I'm off to scour Yelp to find a new and exciting place where I can eat a salad. Yay. Peace out! 

Pokes Head Up

I may finally be on the mend. I'm still coughing a bit and for some reason I can't shake this sense of utter exhaustion, but besides that I'm feeling a zillion times better. I don't know what this plague is all about but is an absolute ass-kicker. And what is it about the plague that just makes me want to eat? There is this new Mexican place down the street from my house that is so freaking amazingly delicious and I wish I hadn't tried it. But of course I did and now all I want to do is drown myself in bean burritos. Ugh.

I attempted to hit the gym for the first time in a full week on Saturday morning before I had to go to a friend's baby shower, but I lasted a paltry 20 minutes before I had to get off and go lay on my couch. After lounging about pretty much all day Sunday and Monday, I finally managed to make it back to the gym this morning for a boot camp class, and although it was super tough and I can tell my body still isn't 100%, I was SO happy to be back. I really have made fitness a part of my life, and while it amazes me, taking more than a week off from working out really makes me crazy. I miss the movement, I miss the sweat, I miss the way my body feels when my heart rate is up and I'm sucking wind. I actually like inflicting pain on myself. :)

But, with the lack of working out over the past couple of weeks and the crappy food intake, my goals have sort of fallen by the wayside. I feel puffy and bloated and yucky. And it's not just because of the plague. I'm ready to get myself back on track on all accounts. AND, I need to take advantage of my current jobless situation while I still can, because (fingers crossed) I had an interview last week and I think it went really well. So while I'm trying not to get my hopes up, I am cautiously optimistic about potentially having a day gig to go to soon! 

So what does that mean for this week? Back to the gym, back to kickboxing and the treadmill and hopefully, even back to broccoli. I need to get my mojo back stat.  The boy had to go out of town for work so it's just me and the dogger, and I think this is the perfect time to get moving.

New Career Path?

First, I must say hi to anyone who found me through Jess. Welcome, and make yourself at home. Wow Jess, I have to say, you sent a lot of visitors my way. I got home from a trip to the mountains last night and checked my stats and immediately became paranoid about writing a new! exciting! post so that my new visitors would want to stick around and read. After watching some old House reruns and somehow getting sucked into the Celebrity Apprentice (don't want to talk about it, it won't happen again) I decided I didn't have anything new! and exciting! to say. So I went to bed. 

Here I am this morning in the same state, so I think I'll just stick to what I usually do. Which is just babbling on about fitness and food and booze. Since I continue to toil about with no job and no hope of one in sight, I tried to go snowboarding on Friday with some girlfriends. Well, we got up to A-Basin and it was snowy and cold and windy and we took one run and turned around and came home. Not worth it. Saturday ended up being beautiful and we went to Breckenridge, along with pretty much every other person in Colorado and all the tourists too. The lift lines were long, but we had a great day and I am experiencing some wonderful delayed-onset muscle soreness today. Enough that I'm thinking I should probably just spend most of the day on the couch relaxing, even though it is supposed to be 72 today. I'm sure it'll be nice again tomorrow too. 

Also contributing to my desire to veg is the fact that I think I may be getting sick. We spent the weekend with my brother-in-law's cute little mutt of a dog and I thought my throat was hurting and ears were itching due to allergies, but I've been home for a while now and it is still happening. Boo to sickness. I can't be sick. I don't even have anywhere to call in sick to. Isn't that the whole point of getting sick? 

Tonight I'm going to see Jimmy Eat World at the Ogden, which I could not be more excited about. I love this band, loved them since high school, and even though I'm sure I'll be surrounded by way too many screaming teenagers, I am going to rock out to every song. And then I'm going to come home and make myself a cup of tea like a grown up. No booze tonight because of course this weekend was a little nutty, although I am quite proud of my food choices. My goals are still in place; I am a woman on a mission.

It's funny, we were talking with some friends this weekend about what I could do with my time since I'm having so much trouble finding a job in my field right now, and it came up that I spend a great deal of time at the gym, so why don't I think about becoming an instructor of some sort. I've thought about it a lot because I do enjoy classes and I'd really like to spend my day working with other people on their fitness. But here's the thing: I'm not a hard body. I'm not in perfect shape. And my roundhouse kicks are sort of pathetic. Somehow I think I have to be a perfect specimen of fitness in order to even think about going in that direction. 

I know logically that's mostly not true, although I'm sure there are fitness tests and what not you need to take in order to be an instructor of say, kickboxing. But in terms of what I look like, what my body fat percentage is and what size my pants are, it shouldn't really matter should it? Yes I want to lose some weight, but I am a firm believer that you can be fit and fat, so why shouldn't I be able to teach a class? Or do some personal training? Is it because I'm so vain and obsessive about my size? I've had so many issues over the years I'd be afraid of everyone judging me? Is it because I'm afraid I'd fail? 

I'm sure people have written about overweight fitness instructors somewhere. Have you ever had one? What do you think about it? 

At The Gym: Taking Some Classes

Oh hello. I am in a much better mood today and not so worried about my life and my future and all of those things. I swear I am so up and down I must be bi-polar. Not really, but it never ceases to amaze me how much my moods swing. Hormones anyone? Wow. 

Actually I think one reason I'm feeling better is the fact that I've been getting my ass to the gym and working that shit out. I am a big believer in exercise being a mood enhancer. Now I'm not going to lie, it's not as good as some of the pharmaceuticals out there, but hey, sometimes you have to work with what you've got. 

Yesterday I knew I really needed to hit some weights, but I just DID. NOT. FEEL LIKE IT. I dilly-dallied all day. Had lunch with my mom and sister. Went to the mall and tried on shoes. Ate some chocolate-covered almonds. Read all about Chris Brown and Rhianna (side note - will be taking his songs off of my workout mixes. NEVER EVER is violence okay). 

Anyway, around 4 I decided to check out the gym's class schedule, and wouldn't you know it, there was a class starting at 4:30. I decided to go for it. The class, called Camp24 at my local Biggest Loser sponsored-club, is described as a circuit designed to improve cardiovascular  and muscular strength. I figured it was kind of like a mix between Body Pump and step class. I was basically right.

Well I got there at about 4:20 and the room was already packed, all the girls had their steps all set up and their weights ready to go. So I scurried over and set up my step in one of the only places left, of course at the very front of the room, and sat down to wait. What is it about a room full of women waiting to get their work out on? Honestly it kind of scares me. It must be all that estrogen. 

When the instructor came in and told us it was a mix of strength exercises and cardio based on kickboxing moves, I relaxed a little. I'm obsessed with kickboxing right now, so I knew it would be perfect. We did lots of fake jump roping, jumping jacks, running in place, that sort of thing and then mixed it up with your basic weight moves - lunges, squats, bicep curls, chest presses, etc. I liked it and I think I got a good workout, although my muscles aren't really as sore as I think they should be after a good weight session. I really wish I knew how many calories I burned, but for some reason my heart rate monitor isn't registering my heart rate consistently right now, so it didn't give me a very accurate reading for the workout. 

So yeah, I'm liking classes right now. I'm liking that taking one class gets me in the gym for a full 60 minutes, and I'm liking that I don't really have to think about what I'm supposed to be doing. I just follow the instructor like a robot. An intense, hardcore robot. Umm yeah. I went to regular kickboxing this morning, and I'm betting I can find another good class tomorrow or Friday. That's three good classes for the week, couple that with a few runs on my own (okay maybe just one) and maybe one weight circuit, and that should be a really good week of workouts. 

What about you? Do you take any classes I should check out?