Something personal

My dad lost his job last Wednesday, and I haven't been able to care about much else lately. It was for a b.s., unfair reason, but as my dad has always taught me, life isn't fair and you have to get back up.

I've been spending all my spare time helping my dad apply for jobs, use all the online tools and sites I know of, and connect with recruiters. I don't mind helping him at all, because he's the best dad and has done so much for me. He has 30 years experience as a restaurant manager. The good news is he has gotten a phone call every day, even the very same day he was fired. He got a call last Wednesday, Thursday, 2 on Friday, and another today. He has an interview on Wednesday and another on Thursday. I think that with his industry and experience, he will get something pretty soon, but it's still really hard to not get worried.

The stress had me standing in my kitchen tonight shoving 4 chocolate chip cookies in my mouth. I am definitely an emotional eater. I had an amazing workout tonight too, but I know I totally wrecked it at this point. Our regular boot camp instructor is on vacation, so we had a guest instructor today and MAN this guy was tough! I'm glad I went to the class because it made me feel a lot better.

I want to run in the morning this week, we'll see if I get there...with all that's been going on, it's hard to care about much else.

The next time you say you can't do something...

I was just watching Celebrity Fit Club on VH1, which I'll tune into once in awhile. The episode I just watched featured a challenge led by Ironman triathlete Sarah Reinertsen. She totally blew me away. In case you're not familiar with the Ironman Triathlon, it includes:

1. 2.4 mile swim

2. 112 mile bike

then after all that...

3. run a FULL MARATHON, which is 26.2 miles!

Do people actually do this and finish this? YES.

Those who participate in this event are certainly amazing, but Sarah even more so - she completed the triathlon with a prosthetic leg.

The next time you think you can't do something...think again!!!!!

Feeling...excellent.

Over the last week or so, I've felt GREAT! It feels so good to say that. Not sure what brought this on, maybe all the California sunshine and being able to run outdoors again...but tonight I realized I've felt really good recently. I feel more toned and healthy than I've felt in a long time. I went to my boot camp class tonight and the mirrors in the aerobics room always seem to have a carnival mirror effect on you where they make you look rather awful. Tonight, I thought I looked fine even in the "fat mirrors." It's so nice to be comfortable with yourself : ) We should all strive for this feeling!

This morning I went to breakfast with Robin and had eggs, 2 bacon slices, and some rye toast. Oh, and hash browns of course. Whenever I have a "traditional" breakfast like this, it really keeps me going the whole day. We were busy at work with a production shoot starting at noon, so I didn't eat anything the rest of the day. I know this isn't good for my metabolism...but I really didn't even think about eating! Then as 4 p.m. rolled around, it seemed pointless to bother making something when I'd be home in a little over an hour for dinner.

My mom made some chocolate covered strawberries at home...they were delicious...helped myself to about 6 I think, lol. As you can see they're mostly half-dipped, so I like to tell myself that most of it was strawberry...

My mom signed up with Vocalpoint some time ago and she gets tons of Kashi coupons from them - a lot of them are for free products! I love Kashi products. You usually get at least one free coupon and then 5 or 6 coupons for $1.50 off or something. Yesterday, I picked up my free box of Heart to Heart Cinnamon cereal. It's really good! Had some post-workout tonight.

Head over to that website and get yourself some free coups! ; )

Time flies...

Wow, where has the last week gone?! I meant to blog a lot more from San Diego, but it just didn't happen. I had such a great time! The conference for our company went very well, and I loved being in California. I worked out every day we were there except for one:

Saturday - ran 3 miles on the treadmill

Sunday - worked out in the morning - various weight machines and 30 minutes on the elliptical. Then walked around the boardwalk and its shops for an hour and a half, and about 2.5 hours walking around the San Diego zoo! Lots of exercise that day.

Monday - 3 mile run outside around the marina and boardwalk

Tuesday - late night workout on the treadmill, 50 minutes jog/walk combo

Wednesday - rest day

Thursday - 4 mile run outside (I ran from the hotel to the airport, haha!) then when I got back to the hotel, I decided to climb up all 17 floors of stairs to my hotel room! By the 8th floor I wanted to sneak off to the elevator, but I forced myself to finish and I did!

I was definitely spoiled while we were out there! Since we were told to charge our breakfasts to the room, I ate at the hotel restaurant every day. The first morning I was there, I ordered an oatmeal and granola yogurt parfait. Guess how much this cost?

$20!!!! Also, I didn't realize how big this parfait was when I ordered it : ) there was definitely way too much food here. I barely got halfway through the parfait and ate about a quarter of the oatmeal. That parfait was AMAZING, though! I ordered it for a couple breakfasts. I would love to recreate it at home.

I also had a fair amount of seafood while out there. If you read my previous post, you know that I've considered myself a "seafood hater" my whole life. But throughout the trip, I got to know crab cakes, mahi mahi, halibut, and salmon and loved them all!!! I'm not going to classify myself a "seafood lover" and am not going to touch scallops, mussels, clams, or oysters anytime soon. But I did pick up some frozen, already cooked salmon and tilapia fillets at the grocery store today. I've wanted to like seafood for some time, as it's very healthy for you and low cal, low fat. I don't know how low fat my dishes at these fancy restaurants were, considering they were drowned in delicious sauces, but hey... gotta enjoy the free dinners!

Met Robin at the gym tonight and even though I worked out regularly last week, it still felt good to be back at "my" gym and get back into my routine. We did 20 minutes on the rowing machine and 25 minutes on the Stairmaster. Excited for boot camp class tomorrow, because I've missed the last 2 classes of it.

Getting back into the regular work schedule tomorrow is going to be tough. I sure do miss this San Diego view:

Good night!

Blogging from San Diego!

I made it to San Diego! I was a lot more nervous about the plane ride than I thought I would be. Did not enjoy taking off! The last time I was on a plane was 6 or 7 years ago, so I didn't really remember what it's like. We hit some turbulence near the end of the flight, but it wasn't too horrible. I hope I don't ever have to go through major turbulence!

At the airport, I had a breakfast burrito from Burrito Beach. Nutritionally, this was a pretty awful choice. 657 calories and 31 grams of fat, according to their website!!! *However*...this was the only thing I ate all day. We arrived at the airport at around 10:30 a.m., didn't board till 12:15 p.m., and didn't get to California till 4 p.m. PST. So really, splitting it across both my breakfast and lunch wasn't that awful. You don't have many options at the airport for healthy eating!

When we arrived at the hotel, I was scared that I already messed up something with this business trip. A few months ago, we booked 6 hotel rooms because we weren't sure who would all be coming from the company. On Thursday my boss asked me to cancel all but 4 of the rooms since that's all we needed. I verified that we had 6 room confirmations, so I canceled 2.

When we arrived at the hotel, they told us we only had 3 booked. In my head, I started panicking. Were there only 5 rooms originally?! Did I cancel one too many? Seriously, if I screwed something up already, I'm just going home! My boss pulled up all the confirmation numbers and proved the hotel wrong. It was interesting how the hotel manager insisted she had no extra rooms available, then once we had our proof she was able to magically come up with something!

Here is the view from my room's private balcony:

Woo hoo!!!

I must say, I did a terrible job of packing clothes for this trip. I thought it was going to be way warmer and I have mostly tees and tank tops, a hooded sweatshirt, and a jacket. Well the sun and 65 degrees feel MUCH better than Chicago's weather right now, I definitely should have packed some more sweaters!!!! There is a mall nearby the hotel...might have to hit that up tomorrow ; )

For dinner we all went to a Hawaiian restaurant in the hotel. There was nothing to choose from on the menu besides steak and fish. I often insist that I hate seafood. My boss said I should really try the mahi mahi, it's a good starter fish. Since the menu only had about 8 items on it (I'm not a huge fan of steak), I reluctantly ordered the macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi.

DELICIOUS!!!! As you can see from the photo, I ate almost all of it! It was pretty much like chicken, but more moist and juicy. Didn't have a fishy taste to it at all.

After dinner, my boss and I (she is a huge workout fanatic) stopped by the hotel's 24 hour fitness center. It's awesome!!!!! There is a ton of cardio equipment and several of the Life Time fitness machines that I use at my gym. I'm really excited that I can keep up with my workouts on this trip. There isn't much else to do at night anyway!

Tomorrow my good friend Greg is driving down from Los Angeles to meet me out here. We're going to lunch and the San Diego zoo. Can't wait! I will take lots of pictures!

****

Update: Just got done with my run, which is pretty insane considering it's almost 1 a.m. Chicago time! But I managed to run 3 miles in about 33 minutes on the treadmill - nice after my loooooooong day! : )

Taking a much needed shower and going to sleep in the nice fluffy hotel bed! Goodnight!

Greek Yogurt

I bought some Chobani strawberry Greek yogurt almost 2 weeks ago and FINALLY decided to try it today.

When I pulled back the lid, I almost screamed in terror. It looked DISGUSTING. It looked like cottage cheese with some strawberry lumps throughout. Here it is after I stirred it some:

Somehow, I willed myself to try it. And...IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!! Seriously, tastes like regular yogurt but not so sugary. I really, really like it! A little high in calories for a snack (140) but excellent protein - 14 grams for one container. Pleasantly surprised with this little treat!

I've been a bad blogger and exerciser this week. I'm going to the gym after work tonight and that will just be my 3rd time for the week. With this upcoming company trip to San Diego, I've had so much stress making sure we have everything we need for our booth at the conference that I can hardly think about or do much else! I am definitely packing workout gear into my suitcase to hit up the hotel gym while I'm gone!

5 days in beautiful California...I'm so excited! Eating will be more of a challenge since we'll be on the road, but I'm happy to say that I've noticed a huge decrease in my appetite the last week or so. My meals are half the size they usually are. Want to shrink your stomach? Just get the flu! Haha.

Well I have to box up some last minute things to ship out to CA. I'll be blogging from Cali next!

Feelin' Good!

Well, I've taken a hiatus lately because I came down with a nasty case of the flu. It started on Wednesday night with a slight fever and chills and was full blown by Thursday. I had 3 layers of clothing and 2 blankets on and couldn't stop shaking or get rid of the goosebumps all over my body. My whole body ached - the ache you get when sick where even your clothes touching your skin feels uncomfortable - and my head was so congested I thought it would be that way forever!

I ended up being referred to the hospital because the doctor's office was so overbooked that there was no way they could see me, and I had to get some antiviral meds. As soon as I got my hands on those marvelous pills (lol) I felt SO much better.

So, with some proper rest and recovery, I felt better in just a few days! Tuesday night I went back to the gym and did 2 sets of weights for arms and back. Then I did 30 minutes on the cross ramp machine, mostly at an incline of 11 and resistance of 8 to 10. Felt good to get back into the swing of things : )

You're only human.

This week isn't going to be a very good one as far as working out goes. I did an hour of cardio and some weights Sunday night and my boot camp class Monday, but that's been it. I intended to go today but I'm coming down with something. Body aches, chills, and I feel like a gorilla is inside my head pushing against my skull.

I got off work early and took a 2 hour nap when I came home, that helped a little. Going to take it easy the rest of the night.

At first I was feeling guilty about my not-so-healthy eating the past few days and lack of exercise, and finally I've just said to myself, "Stop." Are a few off days really going to wreck everything? No. I thought back to that week in January I had to take off for my back to get better and even though it seemed like a huge deal at the time, in the grand scheme of things it really didn't matter. I got back on track with my workouts and eating after it was over.

It's important to remember that eating right and exercising is a journey. You're going to hit a few bumps along the way - and that's fine.

I know a few friends who are training for 5K's, half marathons, and two are even training for body building competitions! Many of them have much more dedication and self-control that I do. But one aspect of being healthy is to stop comparing yourself to others and just try and make yourself the best "you" that you can be. If you have a few off days, you're not a failure. Just get back up and running when you can.

Hope that helps anyone who may be feeling the same way I am right now! : )

Stress binge

I was so stressed out at work today that I've been bingeing on junk food mostly all day. 6 cookies. Half a bag of Goldfish crackers. Gushers. Hey, I never said I was perfect with my eating. This blog is titled "wannabe" health freak for a reason.

Thanks to my trashy eating, I felt like I was going to throw up in boot camp class today. The class was really tough. I didn't even do any cardio afterwards, which I normally do. The realization that I felt like crap makes me want to eat better tomorrow.

I went to Meijer after class and was super excited to see they have some Greek yogurt! I've been wanting to try it but haven't had a chance to go to any grocery stores besides Meijer or Wal-Mart in recent weeks. Yoplait is now making a Greek yogurt, so I grabbed one of those and some other brand. I know you're supposed to stay away from the sugary fruit ones, but this one didn't seem as bad. 12 grams of sugar...is that OK? Anyone know?

Well, I'm spent. Sorry if I am a boring blogger lately!