Oh here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again.

Well look at that. Haven't written in this blog for, oh, 7 months! So much has happened since then. I moved into my very own apartment, and I couldn't be happier with it. I love my place, how it came together and the feeling of complete independence. Of course I lived away from home throughout college, but this is the first time I don't have a roommate and the place is all mine.

Funny that when I moved into my place, I expect to buy a ton of fresh food and cook a lot of healthy meals. Hasn't really happened! A lot of nights I'm content with waffles, a bowl of cereal, or some mac 'n cheese for dinner. Pathetic, I know. Or, I'll go out to eat with friends instead of cooking. It's rather challenging to buy food for meals for just one person and use it all before it spoils. I still hate dealing with raw chicken (barf) and ground beef isn't something you should eat every day. I've used Morningstar's veggie crumbles quite a bit, and I actually like them more than ground beef!

I've made veggie tacos with black beans and have also used them with whole wheat pasta and marinara sauce. If you use them for tacos, mix in a bit of taco seasoning. A lot of people cringe at veggie meat, but I say give it a try! I can't stand ground beef in my pasta sauce, but this stuff is great.

About a month or so ago, I tried to go vegetarian for a week (succeeded except for giving in to a Buona beef sandwich for lunch one day). I didn't miss eating meat, but I felt unbelievably tired. I had protein from sources like eggs, beans, peanut butter, and the Morningstar crumbles. I also took an iron supplement each day, since I already have low iron. Still, I felt awful. Probably should have done more research on going veg before I tried it, and I may try it again in the future, but I really doubt I'll ever go full vegetarian. I love burgers too much for that!

On the workout side of things, I've mostly kept up with my regular training - except for boot camp. When I joined in October of last year, I was working for JSTN and could attend the 6:15 AM class since I didn't have to be at work until 9. With my new job, I have to be at work at 8:15...which means I have to go to the 5:30 AM class. I did pretty well with it for a few months, but when the season change started happening in April, I seemed to have a more and more difficult time getting up. In fact, getting up for work feels impossible most days. I'm still not sure why I have felt so exhausted - it's not something I'm used to. Even when I was able to wake up, I was completely wiped out by 2 PM and struggling to make it through the work day. I will say that my new job is a lot more stressful and challenging, and I'm still getting used to a lot of things there. Of course I had to make sure I was rested enough to do well at my new job, so boot camp has fallen to the wayside. I went sporadically in April and May, and then for the month of June, I completely stopped going.

I've been meaning to cancel for a few weeks, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I finally went there today, and decided I'm going to try one more time to get back into it. Even though I know a lot of the exercises now and could do them at home, it certainly won't be with the same intensity or number of reps. I never felt as toned and in shape as I did when I went to boot camp.

Alarm is set for 4:50 AM tomorrow. Let's do this!

My new year starts February 1st.

As usual, it appears the holidays got the better of me since I haven't blogged since December 15th. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Also as usual, my workouts have slacked off a bit - averaging 3 to 4 times a week instead of 5 to 6. I've still been doing boot camp. I set my LA Fitness membership to freeze at the end of January - I have hardly gone since joining Heaven & Hell Boot Camp. I find boot camp to be more engaging and a better work out - it's really helped me tone up and I work out in 35 minute as opposed to slaving away on boring cardio machines for an hour or more. I move into my apartment on February 1st and can use their fitness center along with my regular boot camp visits until it warms up outside. Then I'll be back to running outdoors again - cannot wait!

While many are launching their new year's resolutions and trying to eat better, lose weight, get organized, etc., I'm just keeping up my regular lifestyle for a few more weeks. To me, my new year will begin February 1st - the day I move into an apartment of my own for the first time. I had an apartment for two years in college; each time with a roommate. I've been living at home since graduation, paying down college debt and saving up money. This will be the first place I have entirely to myself. I'm beyond excited! I cannot wait to have my own place to stock with my choice of healthy food, cook my own meals, and have a bunch of space to myself. Right now, I feel suffocated in my bedroom as boxes line the walls alongside my bed. I can barely navigate around my room to find workout clothes, organize papers, etc. so that is part of the reason I'm cutting myself some slack on establishing a routine - it just feels impossible right now!

One goal of mine when I move out is to cook more vegetarian meals. I've been making small steps toward this - reading about vegetarianism online, received a great beginner vegetarian cookbook for Christmas. At my dad's restaurant, Smashburger, I've become fully addicted to the black bean burger - I don't even crave meat burgers when I go there anymore!

Smashburger Black Bean Burger

I find the black bean burger to be much more tasty and satisfying (though I do need to lay off the fries when I eat there!). I can't wait to make some black bean creations of my own.

I'm not sure if I'll become a "real" vegetarian; right now I'm just thinking most of the time. I mostly want to do it for the health benefits, although the animal aspect does play a role as well. Part of me just feels I could never go without eating turkey on Thanksgiving day, having a hot dog at a baseball game or passing up delicious wedding food, but I'm going to stick by the "never say never" phrase on this one - a year ago, I never thought I'd be able to run a half marathon but I did.

Speaking of half marathons...! I am officially signed up for the 2012 Chicago Half Marathon on September 9th. My main reason for choosing this one over the one I did last year, the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon, is it was almost 50% cheaper than the Rock 'n Roll. I also just want to try a different one.

I know many people have jumped into some resolutions to lose weight. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to start slowly. I know you want to lose weight. I know you want to lose weight fast. However, if on January 1st you swore off every type of bad food, candy, dessert and drink known to man, I promise you you're only setting yourself up for failure. Start by making small changes a few at a time: focus on eliminating soda. Make a goal to eat more vegetables. Plan meals and plan ahead for dinners out with friends. The people I know who have been successful at losing (and keeping off) weight - myself included - have taken this approach. This should be a lifestyle change, not a short lived resolution. Make sure the changes you're making are ones you can live with long term.

Hope you all have had a good start to your new year. I wish all my family and friends good health, financial stability and happiness this year!

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.