Food for Thought

I'm in a place right now where I'm having to think a lot about these things and what they mean to me.  What do they mean to you?  Is your world the global sense of the word, or just your life?  How can you be an agent of change?  We can't control other people or the world around us, we can only control ourselves.  Life is 90% action and 10% reaction.  And all those other inspirational quotes to inspire self reflection.  

Exfoliation Sensation

I don't know if it's because I exercise a lot, and when I exercise I sweat a lot, or if it's the dry heat here in the desert and so my skin is always on the dry side, but I love exfoliating.  It's my favorite part of pedicures, it's my favorite part of my showers.  Nothing like scrubbing away dead, loose skin cells to make a girl feel extra clean and fresh.  

When loofas first came out, first you could only get them in extra rough.  Then you could get them in soft, medium or rough.  Now you can only get them in soft. Or at least, that's all I can find them in.  And I think that's uber lame.  I don't just want lots of soapy bubbles when I scrub down after my day, I want to scrub the day away.  So after purchasing, like, three different loofas hoping for rougher textures and being disappointed each time, I decided to get a bath brush. 

I suggest getting the plastic ones.  I had a wooden one but the wood would got warped and all nasty from living in my shower.  

Mine is hot pink and is the best $5 indulgence ever.  I get myself all covered in soapy bubbles and then scrub away with my awesome brush.  It's amazing.  It helps my skin so much.  After every shower I put lotion on to help keep the moisture in and getting rid of that dead skin allows me to put lotion directly on my healthy skin.  Oh, and ashy elbows?  Haven't seen them since.  Scrubby brushes also come with the benefits of helping to reduce body acne, and depending on which articles you read, can also help reduce the appearance of cellulite (jury is still out on this one).  

The other recent purchase I made that is an exfoliating dream is this new St. Ives face wash I got.  

My sister introduced me to it over Christmas, and while I loved it, I still had my fancy $30 organic face wash at home.  It was Aveda Outer Peace foaming face wash.  I love that stuff.  I have really oily skin and that stuff makes me feel really clean without over drying my skin.  It doesn't have an exfoliating component, so I would use a face scrubby I got ages ago from some other face wash that I didn't like (L'Oreal maybe).  But it's expensive.  And it wasn't really helping my skin regulate it's oil production.  So when I ran out, and wasn't really in the mood to drop that much money on face wash, I decided it was high time to change my face wash up and got the St Ives stuff instead.  Target sells it for about $5 and it is worth every cheap penny.  It has these amazing scrubby beads in them that really exfoliate your face, getting deep down into your pores and cleaning out the dirt and oil from your day.  It's keeping my skin clear, AND I've noticed that my face is less oily throughout the day.  

My grade on both products? A+

My Car is a Popsicle

So this weekend I was writing about how it was getting warmer and making me want delicious frozen beverages.  Today, it's effing cold and hailing.  HAILING.  


Observe:

I was only in Target for 15minutes max and came out to this.  My poor car is a popsicle.  It is days like today I wish I had Ugg boots.  I haven't bought any yet because I live in Tucson and I would only be able to wear said boots for like, 2 weeks, and that seems like a waste.  But today, today I want them.  Better yet, today I want someone to bring them to me so I don't have to leave the coziness of my blankets and tea.  

Low Calorie Frozen Deliciousness

I have tons of things to blog about, most of which is overdue, but I'm really excited about this concoction I just created, so I'm going to post about this instead...  For the third time in a row since I just blew up facebook about it (sorry, Jil.  I promise not to email you about it too).  


ANYWAYS, after an hour of TRX this morning and then an hour of Zumba this afternoon (not even gonna get started on this massive endorphin high I've got going on.  In short, I feel a.ma.zing.), and with the weather getting warmer, and with me being officially the sweatiest person alive (I had to change shirts when I went to the store because it literally looked like I went swimming in my clothes), I was really craving one of those frozen lemonade things.  But lemonade is ridiculously high in sugar and I see no reason to drink my calories.  Especially empty calories.  So in a moment of pure genius, I got those Crystal Light lemonade packets (see "recipe" below) and I'm currently enjoying my frozen deliciousness.


Low Calorie Frozen Lemonade (aka: Frozen Deliciousness)

Ingredients:
1 packet of Crystal Light lemonade
1 glass of water
1 glass of ice


Step 1: open up your Crystal Light lemonade packet in a glass and fill with agua.  Stir until mixed.  Dump in blender


Step 2: using the same glass that you mixd your lemonade in, fill that glass with ice.  Dump in blender


Step 3: blend to perfection


Step 4: give self brain freeze while trying to enjoy too quickly.

The result?  A delicious 5 calorie frozen beverage that is totally satisfying that sweet, icy craving I was having.  All for FIVE calories.  I could have another one and not even begin to care about it let alone feel guilty about it.  Not to mention, with all the jumping around I've been doing from the three brain freezes I've already given myself (see step 4 above), I'm probably burning off all five of those measly calories pretty quickly.  You could probably even dump some booze in this bad boy and have a party for less calories than those "skinny cocktails."  All I'm missing for this awesomeness is a curly-q straw and an umbrella.  And according to Jil, vodka.    


Afterthought: You could make this frozen beverage even smarter by using Special K pink lemonade protein water mix.  That stuff has 5g of protein and 5grams of fiber and is delicious, though you would probably not want to use the whole packet for a regular glass 'cuz those packets are meant to be dissolved in a liter of water.  

Babysitting

I never babysat when I was a teenager as a way to make extra cash.  I was always doing sports and never home until people no longer needed babysitters.  Plus, as the youngest in my family, there was no one to look after and my baby experience/exposure was literally zero.  I didn't hold my first baby until almost a year and a half ago, and that baby was 8months old, solid, super easy going, and was more interested in her plastic keys than she was in the weird, overly anxious person who was holding her while sitting.  That baby is now almost 2years old, she's still super easy going and cute as a button, and frequently demands "up!" to anyone who is around her.  Toddlers I'm cool with holding.  Pop the hip and bam, they go right there.  But babies, babies just seem so damn fragile and droppable.  


I have now babysat twice in the last 6months.  The first time my husband, sister-in-law and I wrangled a 3.5 year old and a sick six month old who only wanted to be help by people with boobs.  This came as quite a shock to my hubby as he is so good with babies it's crazy.  My sister-in-law got her to stop fussing at first, but as soon as she put her down to go pick up food for us adults, she started to cry.  As the only other person with boobs in the house (I had every intention of just playing with the three year old.  She likes being swung upside down by her ankles, I can handle that), I had to woman up and hold her.  Two things became apparent quickly.  One - there really is some biological knowledge to sway and bounce slightly when holding a child.  As someone who had only held two babies before this one (after the 8month old I held my friend's baby the day she was born.  Sitting on a couch and propped with pillows of course), I had no idea what to do to soothe them, what would be comforting, and always just assumed that when I held one, I would hold it like a football.  Nope.  I was able to cradle her right into my bosom, and I started to sway and bounce without even realizing it.  Two - babies get heavy really quickly, no matter how small they are.  As I walked and bounced with her for a bit to get her to quiet down, every time I stopped, she would wake up and fuss, so I kept at it.  Thankfully, by the time I thought my back was going to give out, she was totally passed out and so I was able to sit down on our recliner and rock her.  I was totally impressed how something so small and tiny could get so damn heavy so quickly.  


This second time of babysitting, was with our friend's one year old (who was the first new born I ever held) and I realized two things again.  One - babies are pretty sturdy creatures.  C (we'll call her C) is starting to stand and cruise furniture and she falls and stumbles and accidentally whacks herself with toys she's swinging around, but she's fine.  She's a little tonka truck.  Flip her over and she just gets right back up.  Two - babies are like kittens and curious about everything and into everything.  I kinda knew this one already being around my friends' kids.  But I never really realized how much until I was responsible for keeping an eye on one all night.  They are like little curious ninjas.  Constantly moving at stealthy high speeds and getting into everything.  And because of that, you become more aware of sharp corners and uneven ground and drum sticks sticking out of the couch (that she put there) at an odd angle as these hazards that she's just creating and heading toward with deadly accuracy.  It's kinda stressful.  No wonder parents go a little crazy.  And thank god that I can see my friends with their kids, see how mellow they all are and I can model that behavior because like I said.  Up until recently, my baby experience and exposure has been zero.  Now, I look at these babysitting opportunities (and there will be plenty as we are the only couple in our group of friends without kids) to test drive and learn about these little buggers and to become more comfortable around them.  Babies, you are not as scary as I originally thought you were.  

Too Much of a Good Thing

This post was inspired by a blog I recently read about a health and fitness nut who couldn't stop eating her organic and healthy nut butter (get your brain out of the gutter - I mean like, almond butter), and that even though these nut butters (stop giggling...) are "good for you," eating them in excess still got this woman to be an extra 5lbs heavier than she would like to be.  The solution: stop buying it.


For me, my "healthy addiction" has been Trader Joe's Powerberries. 

You can't even see that... 

There we go!  Powerberries!  As you can see, a great source of vitamin C.  Acai, pomegranates, blueberries and cranberries are already power fruits by themselves, and dark chocolate is high in antioxidants, has less to no dairy and therefore lower in fat and it just tastes WAY better.  Answer to my sweet tooth!  

At first, I started off buying just one pouch of these bad boys, threw them in the freezer, and I was able to eat them in small handfuls at a time.  Which meant that the pouch would last all week.  And that was with the hubby and I sharing.  Then all of the sudden, Wednesday would come around and we were both fishing in the bag trying to find the very last one.  Then I started bringing home 2 bags, which would last us a week.  Then both would be gone by mid week because I just could not.stop.eating.them.  I knew that I should slow down, knew that pretty soon I would be wrestling little children for the last bag on the shelf, knew that it would all show up on my ass pretty soon.  But then that little voice in my head was like, "pshh, don't worry too much.  If you're going to indulge in anything, might as well be something healthy."  And that's how I would always buy more.  

Yesterday was the end of a long week.  I knew we were very low on Powerberries, and I wanted more, dammit.  So I swung by TJs on my way home, and the Powerberries weren't in their normal spot.  I shrugged it off and started going up and down the isles in search of them.  When I got to the produce section and I hadn't seen them, I was convinced that I had missed them and started retracing my steps.  When I got to the wine section which is on the opposite side of the store from the produce section, and I STILL hadn't seen them, I started to think the impossible: Powerberries might be seasonal!  I went over the store one more time looking for them and when I couldn't find any for the third time, I walked out of TJs in utter disbelief.  How, why would they not sell those little packages of deliciousness ALL THE TIME?

Who knows.  Maybe my TJs was just out of them yesterday, maybe they are seasonal.  The point is, that little trip of defeat just made it easier for me to stop buying them.  Hopefully they'll stay gone for a bit, I can detox from Powerberry addiction, and when they come back, I can hold onto my chip of Powerberry sobriety with pride and look temptation in the face and come out on top.  

TRX

When it comes to exercise, I'm a firm believer in doing something that you love.  If you love it, you'll stick to it.  And on those days that you really just want to sit on your couch and define the phrase "couch potato," it'll be easier for you to get out there for 20minutes if you get to do something that you love.  I also know that in order to keep challenging your body and forcing it to adapt and change in the way you want it to, you have to have variety in your routine.  Running is great, but your biceps won't get any bigger or more defined no matter how many marathons you run.  This means you gotta shop around.  Try a tango class, a yoga class, go rock climbing, or hiking, join a volleyball league, whatever floats your boat.  

Right now my boat is being floated by TRX.  TRX is suspension training that was designed by Navy SEALS as a way to get fast and effective workouts using little equipment and needing little space.  It's designed for the user to manipulate their own body weight to get results.  There are SO many studies out there that show that using your own body weight is the fastest way to burn fat and build lean muscle mass.  Now, I'm not knockin' weight lifting.  Weight lifting is awesome and whenever I want to really isolate a muscle group to improve, I go to my weights.  But as a woman who is not a body builder, my attention is always piqued when I see the phrase "lean muscle mass."  

I've taken two TRX classes so far, and I am in love.  As a pole instructor, my shoulders don't get sore very often (with the exception of my Zumba training where I was doing chest shimmies for nine hours), nor do my biceps or my upper back muscles.  I've spent the last three years hauling my ass up and down a pole using nothing but my arms.  Pole has also given me a pretty strong core. All this in mind, I naturally assumed when I signed up for my very first Intro to TRX class, I definitely swaggered my way in there thinking I was going to dominate this class.  So naturally, I got my ass handed to me.  My delts were sore, my abs were sore, my back was sore.  Reaching for my seat belt was an unpleasant surprise the next day and for 4days after I would grimace as I reached for it.  

Now, the instructor who taught that intro class said he wasn't giving us super beginner moves because my friend, Sara - a fellow pole instructor who took class with me, and I were clearly strong and stubborn and determined enough to keep up with some of his regulars who also go to the advanced class.  

We did shit like this:

My chest flies (upper left) were not that insane.  I was standing and leaning out to about a 45degree angle for my chest fly.  But that's the beauty of TRX.  You can be a beginner in a room full of bad asses, or start off as a bad ass, then realize you can't maintain 2more sets of that bad assness (totally me), and just stand up a little straighter to lessen the resistance, but you're still doing the same exercise as everyone else.  

We totally did the piked abs (upper right), where you maintain a suspended plank the entire time (see how her feet are in the straps) and pike up like shown.  This was one of those moves that started off feeling easy, only to have me collapsing 10reps in.  We also did atomic push ups, where you are in a suspended plank with your feet in the straps.  But instead of piking, you bend your knees drawing them into your chest, then extend them back out to your suspended plank, and then do a good ol' fashioned push up.  I had to do these in sets of five, and then collapse on my face, rest, and then do it again.  I'm usually one of those people where when things get tough, I get super focused.  I once had a trainer tell me that if I'm wasting energy if I scrunch up my face, and I should send that energy to the area I'm working to help me out, and that really stuck with me.  Those atomic push ups though, them bitches required some animalistic grunting 'cuz I was hurtin' way passed just staying focused.  

I'm a big fan of the suspended lunge (bottom left).  You would assume that it is isolating the non suspended leg.  Oh no.  It burns both just as badly.  We did those and then added a little hop up at the top to get that plyo work going.  And then we did burpies with a foot in the strap.  Awesome.  

That bottom right stretch we did not do.  I don't think the average person can do that.  Her head is practically touching her ass.  

Final verdict?  Awesome.  Rad.  Love it.  It can be a work out you can coast through on a day you need an easier day, but it can also be a work out that will make you want to vomit at the end of it.  You can take it with you to hotels and on vacation, to the park, you can take it anywhere and always have a work out in your back pack.  Totally in love with this work out, can't wait to go back for more.