Waking up is hard to do.

I'm so. gosh. darn. tired!!! You'd think starting the workday an hour earlier than your previous job would not be that big of a deal, but I'm still trying to adjust to the schedule change.

In my last post, I laid out some goals for the week and said they were attainable ones:


1. At least 4 boot camp sessions for the week

2. 3 cardio sessions at LA Fitness

3. Keep a food diary for the week to monitor my eating and prevent
overindulging

Have I attained them? No.

When my alarm went off Monday, I could not drag myself out of bed for boot camp. I wanted to, but I didn't. =( I did on Tuesday morning though! And that's been it so far this week. I attribute a few things to my lack of motivation:

On Monday and Tuesday, I went straight from work to car dealerships. I visited several on Monday until 9 PM. I test drove a Mazda 3, Hyundai Sonata, Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Accent, Chevy Cruze, and a Nissan Sentra. I decided to buy new this time because I want this next car to last me a looooooooong time. My previous two cars were used, and my last one needed $1,200 of repairs within the first 6 months. I've also been paying higher car payments and higher interest on my used cars in the past. When Phil bought his new car this April, I was shocked at how much lower his monthly payment and interest were - so I decided to buy new this time around. My dad went with me for the first two cars I've purchased in my life, but I was feeling confident and wanted to try to do it own my own. I stood my ground at each dealership and since I presented myself well, no one tried to "swindle" me or take advantage. I got the deal I wanted on a 2012 Nissan Sentra SR!

I love my new car!!! The interior is awesome, and it has an iPod hookup that I'm pretty excited about. SO relieved that this process is finally over. I talked to my State Farm agent today, and while my rates are going up (not surprised, knew they would), the difference between the increase on my insurance and the decrease in my car payment is a wash, so I can still move forward with my plans to move out in February.

My new job is still going great, I love it! The people are work with are great and I'm really liking the recruiting and staffing world so far. I am really going to have to ramp up my willpower though now that I've started working at this office - at my old job, I was alone about 80% of the time, so there were no coworkers asking about going out to lunch or bringing yummy treats in. I'm encountering that now - especially with Christmas cookie season! I really need to start buying enough healthy lunches and snacks to keep me satisfied, and start doing more meal planning. As I've said before, this will be easier when I've moved into my own place and am not fighting my family for fridge space or room to prep dinner.

On the plus side, the building I now work in his five stories and today I went up and down the stairs several times during my lunch break - if I can squeeze that in every day in addition to my regular workouts, it should help!

Well, that's where things are at - just wanted to update!

Car Wreck, New Job and Pigging Out

Life has been pretty crazy lately and filled with changes, some good and some not so good. Let's just go ahead and start in chronological order.

The workout I wish I'd skipped

When my alarm went off for morning boot camp on Friday, December 2nd, I considered resetting it and getting another hour of sleep. I had trouble falling asleep the night before and was up until 11:30 or so. After a few minutes, I decided I would feel better if I just went and got my last boot camp in of the week, so I went ahead and dragged myself to class. I headed home a bit before 7 AM and was at the last stoplight intersection before my side streets. I don't want to get into too much detail of what happened just in case recording it on the Internet somehow comes back to bite me in the butt down the road, but another driver hit me at the intersection.

Photos taken at the collision center

Thankfully, no one was physically injured, but both cars were totaled. This is the second car I've owned and unfortunately, the second one I've totaled. My immediate reaction was absolute panic - I'm supposed to move into my apartment on February 1st. While things worked out just fine with the payout I received from my insurance (I'll have a decent amount of money to put down on a new car, which I will need to make a decision on in the next few days), I have no idea what is going to happen to my insurance premium. My agent is working on that and I should have an answer tomorrow. If it is going to significantly impact my monthly budget, moving out may have to be delayed. I did not sign a lease yet, so I would just lose my $100 holding fee that I've paid for the apartment so far. The situation definitely sucks and is horrible timing, but I'm trying to see the positive in it - my monthly payments on my used car were pretty high, and the payment I'll have on a new car is going to save me $70 a month. So as long as my monthly insurance doesn't go up higher than that, I'll be within the range of my original budget. I was also concerned about how long my Nissan was going to last me - I still had two years worth of payments on it and it had 107,000 miles, needed some repairs, and was already starting to show signs of rust. Again - I'm hoping that in some crazy way, this turns out to be a blessing in disguise.

New job

Monday, December 5th was my last day at my job that I've worked at for two and a half years. We had a big event going on that day that we were hosting, and it was a great way to end my time there. The event went really well and all of the staff who work in other states were present, so I was able to see them all one last time and say goodbye in person.

I started my new job on Tuesday. Everyone I've told this to is shock that I didn't take a few days off before starting the new job - just wasn't something I thought about! I dove right in on Tuesday. I was exhausted the whole week though - couldn't seem to catch up on sleep. I also only made it to one boot camp class - my exhaustion and adjusting to my new work schedule caused me to completely lack motivation to exercise at all. I figure it's not a big deal to take a week off and then get back on track this week. However, I've also been eating like absolute garbage! It's Sunday night and I'm feeling pretty lousy about myself right now. Definitely going to get back on track with things tomorrow the best I can. I will also be attempting to make my first 5:30 AM boot camp - I have previously been attending the 6:15 AM, but my new job starts earlier and I'll never make it to work on time if I go to that class! There was also a lot of bad eating throughout the week - coworkers took me to lunch on Tuesday, pizza was ordered for the office on Wednesday, a holiday party for the building was on Friday and then I went out for drinks and food with coworkers Friday after work. Throw in Mexican food with my friend Steph on Thursday night and lunch with the family on Saturday and you have almost an entire week of bad eating!

Back to the job - I love it so far! Everyone is really nice and have been working there for quite some time, so they are very knowledgable about the industry and happy to share their experience. The amount of information I need to learn is a little intimidating, but I seem to be catching on so far. There is a thorough training manual that we are going through, so I'm not expected to fend for myself. I'm very excited about this new challenge and all there is to learn.

Goals for this week

OK, so let's set some goals for the week! I realize that Christmas cookie temptations are about to kick in hardcore, however, I would really like to be in control over them this year. A cookie a day is not going to be the end of me. But a dozen? Just a bit problematic!!!

Week's goals:

1. At least 4 boot camp sessions for the week
2. 3 cardio sessions at LA Fitness
3. Keep a food diary for the week to monitor my eating and prevent overindulging

When focusing on healthy eating and fitness, I feel it's important to keep things small so that you don't feel overwhelmed. The goals above are ones that are attainable to me, and they don't feel overly restrictive - if I say no cookies for the week, I'll probably binge by Wednesday. But monitoring my food and allowing some sweet treats here and there will satisfy my cravings as well as prevent me from going overboard. (Or so I think!)
Good night and I hope everyone has a great start to their week tomorrow!

Thanksgiving Weekend

So Thanksgiving 2011 has come and gone. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and relaxing holiday weekend! We generally keep our Thanksgiving small - my mom always cooks the Thanksgiving meal and my dad and brother are of course always home with us. My mom's youngest sister, my aunt Sandy, always comes over along with my dad's mom.

*I always need a photo with my favorite!*

I totally maxed out on Thanksgiving food, as I know most of us did. I don't want to do that next year! I felt sick the entire rest of the day. Starving yourself until the big meal is not a good idea. I can't really say I ate well the rest of the weekend either. Friday night Phil and I were suddenly starving around 11 PM and maxed out on some Spaghettio's and meatballs. Whoops! I really cannot wait until I move into my own apartment - I know it probably sounds like I'm making excuses, but it is really hard to eat well when living at home and then spending a lot of time at my boyfriend's place. There is too much bad food temptations at my house, and then Phil is never stocked up on groceries. This usually leads us to bad food decisions on the weekends. I feel like once I'm in my apartment, I can have structure and good, healthy food on hand. I can't wait to go to boot camp on Monday morning and get back on track for the week.

I did go to boot camp on Thanksgiving morning. The workouts have been really tough there lately! They got some new equipment in and there's always a new exercise to learn. Heaven & Hell now has a Facebook page, so if you're curious about the setup, here is the studio:

Anyone in the Lisle/Woodridge/DG area - if you'd like to come try out a session, let me know! Everyone is allowed one complimentary visit to see if they like it. I did boot camp 4 days in a row last week. By Friday, I absolutely could not WAIT to give my muscles a rest! Then I hit up my regular gym with Phil on Saturday morning and got a good 40-minute cardio session in.

This is going to be my last full week at my current job. I've worked there for 2 and a half years, and it feels quite strange to know that this week will be my last. I don't want to get into a lot of the details, but I was presented with another opportunity and decided it's time for a change. I better make sure that I'm prepared for it, because my schedule will be changing too. I currently work 9 to 5; at the new job I'll be working 8:15 to 5:15. This means that if I want to keep up with morning boot camp, I will have to switch from the 6:15 AM class to the 5:30 AM class in order to make it to work on time. I will also be getting home later, so I have to acknowledge that that could affect my drive to exercise in the evenings. I guess there will be some trial and error until I get into a schedule that works for me.

Have a great week, everyone!

Sky Rise Chicago

Thanks to my flood of Facebook posts and pics, most of you know what happened today: The Willis (or Sears) Tower Climb! Whatever you want to call the building, the climb today meant one thing - walking up 103 floors!

Phil and I woke at about 7 AM and made a protein and carbohydrate balanced breakfast: scrambled eggs with cheese and whole wheat bread with grape jelly. I may or may not have snuck in a small bowl of Apple Jacks as well! My scheduled start time was 10 AM and Phil’s was 11 AM, so I didn’t feel bad about eating a large amount of food – I figured it would be mostly digested by the time of the climb.

We left around 8 AM and made it inside the tower around 8:40. The buzz inside made me even more excited for the climb. Participants who had already completed the climb were walking around with their medals. None of them looked too worn down, so that encouraged me. We picked up some coffee at Corner Bakery to give us a bit of a boost, then checked my bag with my sweats and jacket at the gear check. We asked the information table if Phil could start with my 10 AM group instead of waiting until 11, and they said that wasn’t a problem. It was nice that we could start the same time – but I told him I wasn’t going to wait for him during the climb, and I didn’t!

We got in line around 9:30, and realized we didn’t have to officially “wait” until 10 – they kept advancing the line, allowing climbers to enter 6 seconds apart from one another. By 9:40 it was my turn to get started!

This being my first stair climb, I had no intention of running the stairs – I was not even sure how to train for the event or if I had trained properly. I wanted to climb them at a steady, pretty quick pace similar to what I do on the stair climber machine at the gym. After my first few steps, I realized each step was probably double the height of what the stair machine’s are! In all honesty, by Floor 5 I was thinking, “I’m never going to make it!” Still I stayed focused and before I knew it, I had come to the first water station on Floor 24. Even though it was early into the climb, I was sweating up a storm and felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest.

The stairs weren’t very crowded, for about half of the stairwells I was by myself. Sometimes you would come across 3 – 4 people, but usually I would find just one other climber. There were roughly 10 steps (when taking the stairs one at a time) in each flight.

There were some really cool signs posted along the way – some with information about the RIC, others telling you how far you’ve climbed compared to other famous monuments. There were signs that said “You’ve now climbed higher than the St. Louis Arch”...the Eiffel Tower...the Empire State Building...etc.

Floors 50 – 70 seemed to take for.ev.er. I remember the 60’s being particularly challenging, as I was feeling a bit dizzy and lightheaded. Once I hit 75, I knew the end was near! I powered through to Floor 80, 85, 90. By 90 I was feeling pretty pumped and wanted to try to run up the rest of the flights, but here things got a little annoying. The stairwells from floors 85 and up were much more narrow than the others, and many other climbers were starting to get very worn down. You were supposed to climb on the right to allow other climbers to pass you on the left. Well, everyone was taking up the whole stairwell! I was trying to pass people and couldn’t push through. I ran up flights 100 – 103, and as I approached 103 could hear people cheering. I hustled up the stairs and got my medal!





Photo credit goes to my cousin Rachael, who also made it to the top! Congrats! Since you so nicely photographed the medal, no need for me to go through the trouble of taking one and uploading it :) haha.

Surprisingly, my legs do not feel all that sore (we'll see what I say tomorrow!). I really feel like all the squats 4 times a week in boot camp helped strengthen them, plus my 45 minutes I spent on the stair climber a couple time a week. The cardio aspect of it hit me a lot harder. As of right now, I still plan on going to boot camp tomorrow morning. Official race results are supposed to be posted on the site this evening, so far I can't seem to find them but will keep checking!

We stayed on the Sky Deck for a little bit, taking in the awesome view of Chicago.




Thank you again to all of you who supported my fundraising for this event. The climb benefits the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. RIC provides world-class rehabilitation care to patients - children and adults - from around the globe for traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, as well as stroke and cancer.

In this month of thanksgiving, I am thankful that my body allows me to do what I did today. Walking is something we take for granted while some patients of RIC must work hard to learn to walk again or be able to do other physical movements we do without thinking. Today I thought about how so many of us criticize our bodies on a daily basis when we should be thanking it for all it does on its own and all we can push it to do. The stair climb is the last event I had planned for 2011 - I participated in the Warrior Dash, the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon, and now this. Thank you, body, for allowing me to do what I have done this year!

***UPDATE*** Race times posted!!! My official finish time was 26 minutes, 51 seconds

The Best $20 I Ever Spent

A month ago, I purchased an Amazon Local deal for Heaven and Hell Boot Camp in Lisle - $20 for one month of unlimited classes.

This was the best $20 I ever spent! I am fully addicted to these classes. When I signed up for them, I had a few goals in mind that I hoped the class would help me reach:

1. Become a morning exerciser. I still hate hearing that alarm go off in the morning. I never jump out of bed enthusiastically. But once I'm in the car and on my way to the class, I can't wait. Not once have I regretted the decision of sacrificing an hour of sleep for these classes. Regret for skipping them? Yes, I did feel that when I skipped a class! I haven't missed any since. I thought working out in the morning would make me tired throughout the day, but most days I feel the exact opposite. I have much more energy and focus when I go to class in the morning. Bonus: working out in the morning burns more calories throughout the day than evening workouts!

2. Get past the exercise plateau. I've been doing the same exercise circuit for awhile - stair climber, crossramp, treadmill, outdoor running, etc. I always mix up the intensity, but it gets a bit stale at times. Every boot camp class is comprised of 6 to 8 stations that do a variety of strength training or anaerobic exercise - jumping, kettle bells, squats, push ups, pull ups, so on and so forth. I'm never bored and always challenged. I lost 2 and a half pounds with the classes, and that is with zero changes to my diet and weekly indulgences. 2 and a half may not seem like a lot, but that depends on how much you need (or want) to lose. I've wanted to drop "those last 5 pounds" for a year now. When you reach a certain weight, it gets much more difficult to do that.

3. Do more resistance and strength training. Obviously, this was an easy goal to reach since that's what the class is focused on. When it comes to my regular gym workouts, I am a cardio addict and have a very hard time making myself lift weights or do abs exercises. When I do do them, I often do a set or two and then stop. I've noticed a huge change in my strength and overall fitness by doing more strength training with these classes.

The instructor gave us Amazon Local users a discount membership rate if we joined once our vouchers expired. This rate was still pricey to me at $59.99 for unlimited classes. I contemplated quitting LA Fitness and joining Heaven and Hell only, but I didn't want to give up my cardio equipment access or have to pay initiation fees again if I decided to rejoin LA Fitness at some point. I talked to the instructor this week, and he lowered it again to $39.99. So...I decided to sign up for another month of classes! I know I'm supposed to be saving up for my apartment and all that jazz, but it's really not that much and can definitely be taken from other areas of my budget.

On Thursday, we were introduced to yet another interesting piece of equipment: the power wheel.



As the instructor strapped this on his feet and prepared to demonstrate, I was thinking we were going to have to maneuver it like a unicycle - no thank you!



Turns out that's definitely not what you're supposed to do! More like this:

You started in plank position and then had to pull yourself 1/3 way across the room. Then you stopped and did 5 knee strikes - pulling your knees to your chest. Then you pulled yourself across the room again and did 4 pikes:



Then pulled yourself a little further and held plank position for 30 seconds. WHEW!!! My abs were on FIRE!

The Willis Tower climb is THIS SUNDAY...I can't believe it's here already! The year is flying by.

Cough, cough, cough

Looks like my seasonal cough is here - hooray! The one that lasts for 2 to 3 weeks and stays calm and quiet for a couple hours, then sends me into a 20 minute coughing fit, then repeats. The one that wakes me up at some random time in the middle of the night to lay away coughing for an hour. Fun!

Despite this, I've still been going to morning boot camp. Before my cold hit, I happened to read Andrea's blog about working while sick. Andrea is an acquaintance of mine from NIU and we are both friends with my "big brother" Greg. We've been chatting a lot more via FB in recent months about working out, running, blogging, eating healthy. I love her blog, Onion in My Hair. It's put together very well, entertaining and informative. Case in point - I remembered her recent post about working out with a cold when I awoke on Tuesday morning with terrible congestion. It motivated me to go work out anyway (thanks, Andrea!) and I was really glad I did. It may not have been my best workout ever, but I felt fine afterward and didn't have to battle the regret of missing a workout! I took my Tylenol cold pills before class on Wednesday morning, and that helped me give a better workout performance since it got rid of my headache.

Friday was a bit more of a challenge. I felt more tired than normal when the alarm went off and went into a coughing attack right away. I really wanted to stay in bed and get more rest, but I knew I would hate missing Friday morning boot camp. So, I dragged myself out of bed and once again, I found I would have regretted missing class more than anything else. My coughing ceased for awhile and my congestion cleared up quite a bit.

When I got home from work yesterday, a UPS package was waiting for me. It was my packet from Skyrise Chicago! The Sears/Willis Tower Climb is a little over a week away, next Sunday the 6th.


Not too many free goodies with this one - a wristband and a water bottle - but I think there should be some good freebies after the race. The realization that I'll be climbing 103 floors didn't hit me until I read the info packet: "Water stations will be on floors 24, 33, 42..." Seeing it laid out like that freaked me out a bit! This will definitely be an interesting challenge...

Remember that you can still make donations to my personal fundraising page for the event!

Double Workouts, Cereal and a Cold

I pretty much always work out on Sunday, but that didn't happen yesterday. I was feeling a bit guilty about that, so I did two workouts today. Kicked off the workweek with boot camp at 6:15 this morning. Now that there are only two weeks left of my promo rate for the class (sadness!!!), I'm trying to write down the circuits we do so that I can try to mix up my workouts on my own later. Of course, I won't be able to do everything we do in the class because there is certain equipment there - like the suspension workouts - that I just don't have access to. But I can definitely do things like jump squats, kettle bells, or military press.

I received an email from the morning instructor today that they if you join before the Amazon Local deal expires, they'll waive the joining fee and offer a discounted rate for the memberships. I currently pay $39.99/month at LA Fitness, so if the rates were comparable, I'd consider dropping my gym and joining the boot camp. The unlimited classes at Heaven and Hell would be $59.99/month. I'm not sure I could justify that, especially with moving into my own place in a few months. As I did 60 minutes of cardio tonight on various machines, I contemplated joining Heaven and Hell Bootcamp because the classes make working out go by quickly and are both challenging and fun. If they were $49.99/month, I'd probably do it. But it looks like I'll have to pass on this one.

I've been meaning to give a review of this new Kashi cereal I bought a couple weeks ago called Golden Goodness.


I'm generally a fan of Kashi's tasty, high protein cereals, but I'm not a fan of this one. The main reason is because I like crunchy cereal, and these thin flakes get soggy awfully quick. They also don't have much variety or flavor. I'll be sticking with regular GoLean and GoLean Crisp!

Finally...I have a cold creeping on, damn it! My throat is super scratchy and sore, and I'm starting to have a cough. My head isn't feeling too great either. I really hope this clears up for the weekend, I wanna go out and have fun for Halloween!

New beginnings are around the corner

The past week was so busy and went by so quickly that I didn't even have a chance to write in here. I did 4 boot camp classes again last week - they're still going great! I'm going to be really sad when the classes are over. I've lost a pound and a half already and a 1/2 inch off my waist - no complaints here!

On Friday I had some friends over for a girls' wine night - we had a blast!


I made this amazingly delicious pumpkin pie dip for wine night, courtesy of Skinnytaste. I love the low fat recipes on this site! The dip was served with apple slices and graham crackers, and boy do I have a ton of it left - the recipe made 6 cups worth.

Photo credit: skinnytaste.com

I'm having a really hard time focusing lately because I'm distracted by some exciting news...I found an apartment!!! I'm slightly nervous about making it on my own, but I've crunched the numbers and it should all work out okay. I don't have a move-in date yet - I'm on a waiting list for the particular layout and unit I want to be available. But good news is, no one is ahead of me on the list! They said you usually wait 2 to 4 months, which is good because it gives me some time to save money. Starting November 1st, I'll be enforcing the budget I created for when I do have my own place. The apartment is in Naperville and it's a 1 bedroom. It has lots of storage space, great size rooms, and a washer/dryer in-unit. The apartments were financially the best deal I've found, I love the area they are in, and most importantly, I know that I feel safe there. I've been living at home since I graduated college in 2008 and I'm grateful I've been able to save money by doing so for as long as I have. But now that I know I really am moving, I am beyond antsy to set up my own space!

Now the only thing on my mind is furniture and decorating. Scrolling through Craigslist furniture postings on my iPhone (the app is SO much easier to go through than the website, because there's a thumbnail of the photo next to each title) has become a full on addiction. I gotta love some of the posts you come across. Many of them sound like this:

"We are selling our 8 year old sofa. It has a tear on one cushion, my dog peed on one area of it, my kids colored another portion with a Sharpie, and it sags in the middle. I paid $700 for it, so I'm looking to get $400 out of it."

If it wasn't obvious, yes I made that up. But that's what many of the posts seem like! However, there are definitely some worthwhile things you come across too. I need to stop looking through all this though - I have nowhere to store a sofa, couch, etc. right now and I'll probably change my mind a million times before moving in. So for now, I guess I'm just trying to gather ideas. I'm not fully against buying new furniture, but I like a challenge and want to try to save as much money as possible on Craigslist finds.

Hope you all had a great weekend and let's hope the week goes by quickly - I'm so excited for Halloween weekend!

More Birthdays, Homecoming & Boot Camp Week 2

Another crazy busy weekend gone by! I'm going to do my best to recap without writing something too long.

I worked out for 6 of 7 days last week - haven't done that much in awhile, it feels great! With all the festivities that have been happening so far this month, I have to do it to keep the pounds away. Here's a quick recap of last week:

Sunday - 4.3 mile run outside
Monday - 6:15 AM bootcamp
Tuesday - 7:15 PM bootcamp
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 7:15 PM bootcamp
Friday - 6:15 AM bootcamp
Saturday - 40 minute stairs and crossramp cardio combo (say that 5 times fast!)

To kick off this week, I did 40 minutes on the Stairmaster yesterday - 20 minutes on the fat burner setting and another 20 on the aerobic training setting. I try to simulate real stair climbing as much as possible by not holding onto the machine. I also increase/decrease the resistance throughout the workout to get myself to run up the stairs several times throughout the workout. The Willis Tower Climb is fast approaching, it's on Sunday, November 6th. I'm not quite sure how to train for this thing, but I feel I am in pretty good shape for it. I don't plan on running the stairs, I just plan on getting up them! An hour of cardio is no issue for me and all the squats and wall sits in bootcamp are helping strengthen my legs.

By the way, I surpassed my required fundraising goal of $100 and am currently at $150. But if you would still like to make donations to this great cause - the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago - you can support my personal fundraising page here. Remember, any amount helps out the RIC! RIC provides world-class rehabilitation care to patients - children and adults - from around the globe for traumatic brain and spinal cord injury, as well as stroke and cancer. The funds raised through SkyRise Chicago will directly impact patients' lives by supporting advances in patient care and cutting-edge research at RIC.

Weekend recap
On Friday night, Jacklyn and I went over to Lisa's place to celebrate her birthday. We've been friends for 20 years! We went out to Aurelio's pizza and I definitely ate a lot of pizza. Plus we split a cookie monster dessert. Between us 3 girls and Lisa's hubs Joey, we all did equal damage! We had a great time reminiscing, laughing and making some confessions ; ) Then we hung out at Leese's place the rest of the night.

*My longest friends!*

Saturday was a day I've been waiting for for months...NIU Homecoming!

Me & Carlene

Jermaine and I

Now, since I only get to DeKalb about once a year now, I HAD to stop for some DeKalb indulgences. This included cheese nuggets at Pizza Pro's...beer nuggets at Lukulo's...and later an Oreo shake from Ollie's. Pretty positive my entire week of workouts went to waste! Guess it will all balance out in the end...perhaps...!

Today kicks off Week 2 of bootcamp. We did Kettlebell Khaos again today and I was pleased to find it was already a little easier than last week. Might have to up the weight!

I never thought I would say this...but...I *might* be becoming a morning workout person. AHHH!!! At least a few days out of the week, anyway! It feels nice to come home from work and not worry about getting to the gym. I was able to finish switching out my fall and winter clothes tonight, so now I don't have to worry about it this weekend. This may sound a little strange, but I feel more pressured to stay in shape during the winter than I do the summer. Summer clothes are generally looser and to me they seem more flattering. I always feel much more comfortable in my summer clothes. Sweaters, on the other hand, often make you look bulky. Jeans feel so damn confining. Blech, I hate winter clothing!

Evening Boot Camp and Cat Drama

Tuesday night was my first evening boot camp class. The class size was about 10 people, so you still get personalized attention. Mike is the evening instructor, and like Damon, he was very nice - no drill sergeant type attitudes at these classes! However, I didn't like 2 or 3 of the stations, as they were kind of "eh" to me. One station required you to do one-legged crab walks across the room and I couldn't understand what I was working out or trying to accomplish through those. Another station was just push-ups, which I'm probably complaining about simply based on the fact that I don't like doing push-ups :)

The rest of the stations were great, though. We did some more work with kettlebells, including squats and swings. Then we also did some new stuff with the harnesses - suspension planks!



You can do a lot of variations on these for your abs - LOVE IT! You can swing your legs out to the side to work your obliques, or pull your knees to your chest to better engage your core. I did a mix since we do three sets of these. By the third one I was pretty worn down so I just held the plank position and still felt the burn!

I decided to skip Wednesday morning's class for a couple reasons. The first was that I felt my muscles need a day of rest to recoup and get stronger. I will still be going to classes Thursday and Friday, so that's 4 days of boot camp; plus I did a regular workout on Sunday and plan to do stairs this Saturday and Sunday. I feel I'll be able to finish the week out strong if I give my muscles a day to repair.

Beyond that, there was a more important reason to me for missing - my cat, Lucas. Some of you may remember he was really sick earlier in the year. We noticed on Tuesday that he was squatting and trying to pee in strange places all over the house, but nothing was happening. We put him in the litter box and he would try to go, but couldn't. My aunt, a vet tech, told us that we should take him to the emergency animal hospital, but we were told that it was going to cost $600 - $800. We love Lucas and want to do anything for him, but how are you supposed to scrape up that kind of money at 11 o'clock at night? Especially after I just had to shell out $1,000 for my car accident. All we could do was pray that he would make it until the morning so we could take him to the vet.

Since I was up late, I was already concerned about waking up the class, but I woke up a couple minutes before my alarm went off at 5:30 AM. That's when I knew I wasn't going to go - Lucas was laying next to me and I thought to myself, "If he's really sick and this is the last morning I get to cuddle next to my cat, I'm going to do that." So I stayed with my baby.

Just look at that face. How can you not fall in love?!

THANKFULLY...this little mischief maker is going to be OK. He had a very bad bladder infection, they helped him clear out at the animal hospital and gave him some antibiotics to get him well again. There aren't enough words for how much I love this cat!

Kettlebell Khaos

Whew, what a day! Hope you all had a good start to the workweek! Today was my second boot camp class, bright and early at 6:15 AM. Errrr...maybe I should say dark and early, since the sun wasn't out yet! My hamstrings were still sore from Friday morning's class, but that was no excuse for ditching. Today's workout circuit included a lot of things I haven't tried before, one of which involved an exercise harness. Using the form below (except knees straight, not bent), you pulled yourself forward, working your arms and back.


The exercises at each station were completely different from the ones we did in Friday's class, even used different equipment. I like that the class size is not big, there were about 7 of us in the class this time. Tomorrow will be my first evening class (doing those Tuesdays & Thursdays), so I'm interested to see if the class size will be bigger.

At the end of today's class, we did something called Kettlebell Khaos. Holy WOW, it was tough! It consisted of 6 different kettlebell moves that you did for 30 seconds each. I was wary of the one arm swings and didn't really partake in those to avoid hurting my lower back again, which most of you know about by now. I hate having to stand there and not participate because it makes me feel everyone else is thinking I can't do it, but better to be safe than sorry.

I am really excited about these classes because they're introducing me to new exercise moves, as well as forcing me to get used to some morning workouts. I have to admit that it felt really good to just relax after work this evening knowing that my exercise was done for the day. I wasn't feeling too great last night thanks to a bad migraine, so I didn't get my normal Sunday tasks like grocery shopping and laundry done. One of my favorite things about grocery shopping on weekdays is the 40% off produce deals you often find, like these fruit bowls!



I never buy them regular price, but when they're on sale I pick up 1 or 2 for an easy snack. Good way to keep me away from the Smith's House of Horrors, AKA the Smith's House of Sweets.

Feeling pretty tired at this point and pretty excited about going to sleep at about 9:30! Good night everyone!

Whirlwind Weekend!

This was a crazy busy weekend! Friday night was a surprise party for my mom's 50th birthday. We successfully pulled off the surprise!

*Mom when she first walked in!*

*Me and my family*

I was glad my mom had a great time at her party. Around 8 PM, my legs started feeling pretty sore from Friday morning's boot camp class. I tried to stretch for awhile and hoped it wouldn't be worse in the morning...

Saturday

Ow. OW. OWW!!! I pretty much have not done squats since May, so my legs and butt were not at all used to this and were killing me! Phil and I were meeting up with my friends Lisa, Cheryl and Ingrid and their fiancés and husbands at Scarecrow Fest in St. Charles. The weather was beautiful and the St. Charles area is gorgeous. Finding parking was a nightmare, though! I had been hoping to work out in the morning but given how badly my legs were hurting, I decided to skip, especially because I knew we'd be doing a lot of walking at the fest.

*Phil having a deep conversation at Scarecrow Fest*

*Just one example of the different types of "scarecrows"!*

After the group split up, Phil and I enjoyed some burgers and a pitcher of beer on the rooftop of one of the restaurants nearby. We were pretty tired, so we just stayed in for the evening.

Sunday

Sunday was my mom's actual birthday. She got another surprise in the morning!



I watched some of the Chicago marathon in the morning and saw the first finisher, Moses Mosop, cross the finish line. It was absolutely amazing to watch. I finished my half marathon in 2 hours, 13 minutes; this runner finished the full in 2 hours, 5 minutes! Much of his mile pace was 4 minutes, 40 seconds. So incredible what people can accomplish. I cannot imagine running a single mile that fast, let alone keeping up that pace for a marathon. My legs were still aching just as much on Sunday morning, so I decided to work out to see if that would loosen them up. After watching the marathon, I definitely didn't want to confine myself to an indoor workout on such a beautiful day, so I hit the pavement. I haven't run outdoors in about a month, so I was pleased I ran 4.3 miles. I loved seeing all the beautiful trees and feeling the leaves crunch beneath my feet. While it was a nice run, it didn't do much for my muscles. Still sore and aching!

Then it was off to Phil's second cousin's 2nd birthday. I love Hannah, she is such a little cutie!

*Me and the birthday girl!*

This is where the food overload began. I had a sandwich from Potbelly at about 1 PM. We ate at Hannah's party around 4 - I tried to keep my servings small, food was catered from Qdoba so I just made a mini nacho plate for myself. I wish I could have stayed at the party longer, but it was off to my mom's birthday dinner at Jameson's Charhouse. I had to order something, otherwise me being there was kinda pointless! I got a cheeseburger and ate about 3/4 of it. When we got home, I fell asleep on the couch for a good hour. Food coma!

The amount of sweets in our house right now is pretty awful - may the force be with me this week to avoid these! Look at all this sugar in a house of three people - ridiculous!

Chocolate covered strawberries, Halloween cupcakes,

brownies, Oreos, Chips Ahoy and leftover birthday cake

Well, off to bed - have to be up bright and early for boot camp! I just hope my legs can make it there!

Heaven and Hell Bootcamp

Tuesday nights are usually a designated workout time and Wednesday nights I usually rest because I stay at Phil's place and generally want to spend time with him instead of going to the gym. I have a busy weekend ahead of me and have been looking at my closet in dismay these last few days, feeling like I have nothing to wear. I was in a cleaning and organizing mood last night, so I decided to sacrifice my workout in order to get some things done that needed to be done. Success - I realized that there are plenty of clothes in my closet and I don't need to go on an emergency shopping spree!

This morning, I intended to wake up at 5:45 and get to the gym a little after 6. My alarm went off and I hit the snooze button. 10 minutes later it went off again. I shut off the alarm and lay there for a minute, contemplating if I should continue sleeping or not. "You're never going to get all your workouts in each week if you don't start going a few times in the morning," I thought to myself. "Plus, you're only going to get about another hour of sleep anyway - that's practically nothing." FINE, brain. I'LL GO.

*Sun isn't up yet, but here I am!*

I made it to the gym at about 6:20, and needed to leave a little after 7, so I had to have a shorter workout. Taking baby steps here when it comes to waking up early! I did 2 sets of 3 weight machines focusing on my arms and back, then got on the treadmill. I only had 20 minutes for cardio, so I made up an interval workout. It went something like this:

2 minute warm-up at 5.5 mph on a 1.0 incline

Alternate 1 minute walking at 4.0 mph pace on an 8.0 incline,
then run 1 minute at 6.0 mph on a 1.0 incline

Minutes 10 - 20 same thing, but run for 2 minutes at a time instead of 1

2 minute cooldown at 3.0 mph, 0 incline

I felt surprisingly awake and energized for the rest of the day and feel positive about making morning workouts for the rest of the week. I still prefer evening workouts - they help me feel I am working off the stress of the day. I also don't feel as pressed for time as I do in the morning. But a short workout in the morning is better than no workout at all!

On Monday, I purchased a deal through Amazon Local (they are starting to get some good stuff! I check out their site, Groupon and Living Social every morning) that was $20 for a month of bootcamp classes at Heaven and Hell Bootcamp in Lisle. Regular price is $85 for the month, so this was an awesome deal!

I've been contemplating for a couple days if I should take on the morning or evening classes. Feeling inspired by the fact that I got my butt out the door this morning, I called and booked my classes as soon as I got home from the gym. I decided to do a mix - class at 6:15 AM on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays and then 7:15 PM on Tuesday and Thursdays. The classes are 30 minutes long. I opted for this schedule because I meet my good friend Christina for breakfast every Tuesday, and I stay over at Phil's from Wednesday to Thursday, and he lives a bit farther from the classes than I do. I like this schedule as it doesn't completely lock down my evenings, but also doesn't require me to wake up early for 5 days in a row either ;)

I'm going to attend my first class this Friday. I'm a bit nervous about my back...so shhhh, don't tell my chiropractor about this! I'm looking forward to this challenge and changing up my workout routine, but I know I need to be smart about it too. The chiropractor explained to me back in May what type of exercise can be bad triggers for my lower back, so I will just have to modify or avoid those types. Basically, anything where you are leaning over at a 45 degree angle and using weights is bad for your lower back. I plan on mentioning my back issues to the instructor before the class.

Check back Friday to hear how the first class went!

October Already?!

I pretty much say the same thing on the first of each month: "It's [month] already?!" I just cannot believe how quickly the year is flying by! As you may have noticed, I finally figured out how to change the look of my blog a bit. What do you think of the new layout?

I welcomed fall by spending time with friends and my boyfriend. On Saturday morning, I hit the gym around 9:30 AM. I save my treadmill interval workout for Saturday mornings, because I am usually antsy to get on with my day and don't like to be at the gym too long. Since I tend to indulge a bit on Saturdays, it's crucial to start my day with a calorie deficit! I love this 30 minute workout, which I clipped out of Fitness magazine about a year ago. It's always challenging and goes by quickly.



If you give it a try (and I really recommend you do!), let me know what you think!

I then met up with my friends Jacklyn, Brittney and Julie at Binny's Beverage Depot for a wine tasting. There were a few wines we sampled that I liked, but I didn't buy any of those because I was too excited to see this:



Pumpkin wine from Prairie State Winery! This winery is located about 30 minutes from DeKalb and I was introduced to their pumpkin wine a few years ago while up at NIU. I was planning on picking up a bottle when I go to NIU's homecoming next weekend, but now I'm all set! It is a sweet white wine with pumpkin (obviously!) and spices. It is unique and yummy. After the wine tasting, we were all pretty hungry so we decided to walk next door to Gordon Biersch. I love this restaurant! I didn't feel too guilty about eating all of my pulled pork sandwich - we were eating mid-afternoon and I stayed so full that I had a small dinner.

*Me & the girls at Gordon Biersch*

Then my boyfriend and I went to Oktoberfest in Naperville. It was fun to just kick back and enjoy some beer outside in the nice fall weather.





Phil had some of the food there, but I'm really not a fan of German food (hate sauerkraut...hate sausage...) so I didn't eat anything besides some apple strudel. See what I mean about indulging a bit on Saturdays?!

Sunday I had some coffee before my morning workout, which I don't usually experience because I work out in the evenings. It really did amp up my workout! I did the stair climber for 25 minutes on the aerobic setting, then another 20 minutes on the fat burner setting. After that, I did an added 15 minutes on the crossramp machine.

I have some busy nights ahead of me this week, so I am going to try very, very hard to make it to the gym Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning. We shall see what happens...

The Half Marathon

It's been one week since the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Chicago, and I haven't really known what to do with myself now that training has ended! It feels strange to know that I don't have to go run long miles at the end of each week anymore. I must be honest - for the week after the half, I pretty much paid no mind to what I was eating, and I only exercised once with a 5 mile run on Thursday (August 18th). I had cheeseburgers, fries, ice cream, pizza and wine throughout the week. Although I know it's not the right mentality to have, I felt that I deserved it and that 6 days off wouldn't be the end of the world. Yesterday (Sunday) I got back on track. Now, to review the race!

Friday, August 12th

You had to pick up your bib number and race packet on either Friday or Saturday prior to the race at McCormick place. I was grateful that I got to ride along with my boss Lindsay who was also doing the same half, because I HATE parking at McCormick place with a passion - as Lindsay very well knows, since we were at a conference there last fall for 4 days and I got lost looking for my car EVERY day! At the expo, there were all sorts of health and running vendors who you could score freebies from. At check-in, we got a bag full of goodies and your T-shirt:


There were also a lot of food and drinks you could sample, and I made a couple purchases. The first was Nuun.



Nuun are these little tablets you put into your water that add flavor and electrolytes. I sampled the strawberry lemonade and lemon lime flavors, and they were delicious! They had a deal of two containers of 12 tablets each plus this cute plastic water bottle that has the pull top that I like for $10, so I went ahead and got it. I took it with me running today, and learned something important...tastes kind of gross when it gets warm! So I won't be taking it running with me anymore, I'll drink it post run.

The second purchase was from PR*Bar. Now, I didn't actually talk to anyone at their booth or read information, just sampled their product which tasted REALLY good and then decided to jump on their 3 for $5 deal. After checking out their website just now, it looks like they market it as meal replacement for weight loss, which I don't agree with. But, I am willing to give it a try as something to have pre-workout and then have a smaller meal after working out, which I often like to do. I got the iced brownie bar and chocolate peanut butter bar. These bars are unbelievably soft and smooth - not gritty like some energy bars are.



Saturday, August 13th

Took it easy and rested up. Knew I needed to load up on carbs and had a craving for waffles all day long, so I ended up eating them for breakfast and dinner! I did have a turkey sandwich from Spicy Pickle for lunch, which was good for protein. I went to bed at 10:15 PM - early, but not early enough considering I had to be up at 3:30 AM! =(

Sunday, August 14th - RACE DAY!
Alarm went off at 3:30 AM. My first thought? "F this." But there was no turning back now, so I dragged myself out of bed. Lindsay was coming from Aurora, and so it was easier for her to pick me up off I-88 rather than I-355 where I live, so I parked near my boyfriend's apartment. We left at 4:30 AM. The race started at 6:30, and the roads start getting closed off around 5:15, so we had to get down there to park.

Us bright and early!




I felt a little nervous, but I was definitely way more nervous before the triathlon I did last year. My wave started running around 6:40 AM. I ran pretty slow in the beginning, because many warned me to not start off to quickly and burn yourself out. The race did not go by as quickly as I was expecting. My 10, 11 and 12 mile runs didn't seem to bad, but honestly this seemed like an eternity! I didn't see mile markers until mile 4, and I was expecting it to be mile 5.

I kept trying to make up my time and was monitoring my watch between mile markers, but no matter how hard I tried to go just a little faster, my pace kept hovering around a 10 minute mile. When I saw it was only mile 4, I was like "Are you KIDDING me?!?!" By mile 8, I was really tired. Mile 10, I kept thinking "I cannot wait to NEVER run again!!!" By mile 12, I wasn't sure I would make it. Once the finish line was in sight, I had to push myself like never before. The look on my face for the finish photos shows how badly I wanted it to be over!



After the race, I got my sweet medal:



The temperature for the race was perfect - about 70 degrees - but it did rain a few times throughout the race, and that made it kind of cold. I wanted to check out some of the vendors that were at the race and snag more free stuff, plus get my two free MGD64's that I wore my darn wristband for all weekend! (You could get your ID checked at the expo to avoid waiting in line after the race, provided you wore this yellow wristband that I had to keep on all weekend long). However, it was raining pretty steadily at this point and we were freezing, so we left.

I had a celebratory breakfast with Phil, Julie and Mike, which ended up being free because poor Julie bit on a piece of glass that got into her eggs! Besides that, breakfast was delicious. I've never finished a huge breakfast portion like that, but I was ravenous! Then as soon as we got back, I passed out for a nap. That night I went to bed at 8:30 and slept until 7 the next day!

So now that it's over, I'll be training for the Willis Tower Stair Climb. However...I have come across a Naperville Half Marathon that is happening Sunday, September 11th. I would just pick up the last three weeks of my training schedule to prepare. Kind of crazy that I'm already considering another one! But it's cheap, it's close by, and best of all...it doesn't start until 8:30 AM :) I only have a couple days to decide, as I would need to get back on my training. But Phil and I were going to go to Wisconsin September 9 - 10th, provided that he gets a 1/2 day request approved at work. If we go, I won't do the race. If we don't...I'm considering it!

1/2 Marathon Training: Final Week

Just 6 days until the half marathon! I'm excited and feel ready for it. It's felt a little strange winding down my training knowing that there is still a 13 mile race ahead...last week my long run was 9 miles, this week I'm not supposed to do more than 4 or 5 miles on any given day. Part of me is nervous that my endurance will wear off, but overall I know that I've trained properly and am ready to go! I'm looking forward to doing different cardio workouts again - I'll keep up with the running somewhat, but definitely cannot wait to take a break from these running blisters!

Now that my training is almost at an end, I feel that I need to get my eating back under control. I lost two pounds during training, which isn't a whole lot, but given that I still ate fast food, cookies, cake, cheeseburgers, hot dogs here and there, it's fine by me! All the running leveled out any extra calories. I was also stuck between two clothing sizes at the start of the training, running helped me move down a size and stay there.

I purchased a Groupon for a small, private owned grocery store in Downers Grove called Lemon Tree. They carry a lot of quality produce, organic foods, and healthy foods. The deal was $12 for $25 worth of groceries, so I jumped on it right away. Here's what I got:



I bought some convenience produce that I normally don't waste money on - like $4 on pre-cut strawberries and blueberries, for example. The grocery store also has a cafe, and so the shopping area was a little cramped in my opinion - I regretted choosing a cart instead of hand basket. I might have to cough up the extra cash on a regular basis for the deli turkey and provolone cheese that I got - it's DELICIOUS!!! Melts in your mouth! Was about $5.50 for the 1/2 lb of turkey and 1/4 lb of cheese, I will get 4 wraps out of that, so not bad when you consider most deli sandwiches cost you about $6 anyway.

I have been OBSESSED with Flatout wraps as of late.



I like the mini ones (pictured above), but also bought the regular size ones today since I have so many more veggies to add to my turkey wrap I've been eating for lunch. I spread roasted red pepper hummus on the wrap, then add lettuce, tomato, turkey, cheese, and now will be adding yellow and orange bell pepper slices. So much more filling and satisfying than my Lean Cuisines I've been eating the past year!



I also really like the mini wraps for a midday PB&J snack. The package recommended trying this with fresh strawberries and banana slices with a sprinkle of granola - YUMMY!



I have been wanting to eat more eggs in the morning but am usually too lazy or running too late to do so. Since I often reheat breakfast leftovers, I realized I should just do the same thing. So I made some scrambled eggs tonight (1 full egg and 2 egg whites) mixed with feta, tomato, and bell peppers. I will try it in the morning!



After the marathon training, I'm excited to focus more on toning and strength. I'm always so concerned with fitting my running in that I haven't done a whole lot of strength training, which is a main reason why I want to start eating more healthy and fresh foods. When I started eating the wraps, I noticed that if you start looking forward to your fresh foods instead of thinking about the things you aren't allowing yourself to eat, you're a lot more satisfied overall and not tempted by the unhealthy foods as much. I am now trying to focus on wanting healthy and fresh foods - it seems to be doing the trick!