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...