Because it's been literally months. I feel like a lot has happened, but nothing has really stuck with me that I really want to write about. Mostly because I'm still working it all out.
My sister and I did a 4 week Fat Loss Jump Start program. We dropped good money on it. We stuck to it like it was our religion and we would be flogged if we didn't do everything exactly.like.the plan.said. Why? Because we wanted change. We wanted different results. We also needed to be held accountable and what better way to do that than to drop money on something and have to report in weekly? But we didn't get the results we wanted. No, not just "didn't get the results we wanted," flat out didn't get results. We didn't change. Nothing changed. Need for us to adjust our expectations? Perhaps. Need for us to re-evaluate where we are in our fitness/health plans? Perhaps. Maybe just not the right program for us and time to look at something different? Perhaps. Time to just drink more? Perhaps.
Then I caught myself on fire and am still healing up near third degree burns on my hand and foot (it'll be 5 weeks this Saturday). This is a long and dramatic story that I only laugh at sometimes. Still working all that out.
The weather is gorgeous and spring is in the air and it makes me want to cut my hair, buy new clothes, roll the windows down, blast my music and head to the beach. Or Disneyland. Or both.
I started doing acro stuff with my sister, which is awesome, but also a serious, in your face testimony to whatever trust and intimacy issues you have with yourself and other people. Trusting my sister isn't the issue. I do that blindly. But having to partner with someone else, someone I don't know, sometimes a dude, and not only say, I trust you not to drop me/I trust you to touch me there, but to also reciprocate and say, I won't drop you and yes I'm going to touch you there I hope that's okay. Because sometimes that touching means they're balancing on their shoulders with their head in between my knees, with a second person balancing on their shoulders in my hands and we are face to face. Sometimes that trust comes from a place of basing (I won't drop you), sometimes it comes from a place of flying (please, oh my god, don't drop me). I wasn't totally prepared for that part of it all, because I've only ever done this with my sister. So it was a bit of a shock. Not good, not bad, just unexpected.
I passed my masters licensing exam. I bought myself flowers, and we all ate pizza and drank wine to celebrate.
I want all the red meat right now, which probably means I'm iron deficient. Bring on the carne asada!
Dear friends are leaving Tucson, which is horribly sad. Dear friends are moving closer to to Arizona, which is hopeful of actually getting to see them.
My friends' kids are starting to become little people. Not that they were somehow "less" as babies, but they aren't babies. They don't look like babies. They have the faces that they will have forever. They will grow and mature for sure, but these are their faces. They're getting old enough to start having memories, memories that they will remember as adults. My friends don't have babies (well, some of them are still babies), my friends have kids. That's nuts. Nuts I tell you.
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Swimming
This post feels really de ja vous or however it is spelled so apologies if I've written about it before.
Anyways, with my time off this summer, I've spending quite a bit of time pool side. The community pool in my neighborhood has a 25m section and while earlier in the summer it was always packed with kids and their families making it impossible for lap swimming (we have no lane lines or a designated lap time), now that the kiddos are back in school (it's year round school where I live) and I have had the pool all to myself, or close to it.
Some things that haven't changed:
1) Swimming still comes naturally to me. Even after not swimming for a couple years I can slip into the water and it feels as comfortable and as natural as reconnecting with a dear old friend or putting on a pair of jeans that never fail you.
2) Water (to clarify, pool water not deep, dark, can't see the bottom open water) is still amazingly soothing to me. Astrologically I am an air sign (traits: aloof, clumsy, desire for change, social, flexible, communicative, etc), but according to Asian calendars I was born under element of fire (traits: passionate, go-getters, intuitive, enthusiastic, leapers before thinking, fighters, power/strength, fast thinkers/doers etc - all of which can be used for destructive purposes or rebirth - think Pele). Ayurvedically I also have a lot of pitta, or heat/fire, in me (self-confident, physical strength, gets irritated if they have to miss a meal (Juan calls this part of me The Hulk), assertive, competitive, physically runs hot, tends to have skin and digestive issues etc). Taking into consideration that my strongest element, by far, is fire followed closely by air (let's all take a moment to acknowledge how air fuels fire), my pitta tendencies, and the fact that I live in the goddamn desert, it is no wonder that I find water grounding and soothing, and, well, cooling. When I get anxious or nervous plunging my hands into ice cold water has a very calming effect on me. Even when I get sick all I want is a nice cool wash cloth on my face or neck. Submerging my entire body into cool water when I go swimming is pure bliss. Floating around, allowing the water to come up around my ears so that the world is muffled and all I can hear is my breathing, instantly slows me down. My brain just kinda goes quiet, my body becomes graceful and elegant moving through the water instead of my usual, fiercely annoying special brand of clumsy. Needless to say, water is an elemental way of balancing myself and literally cooling my naturally heated system.
3) I can still choke under water. I know this is the reason why many people do not like to put their face in the water, and maybe it's because I feel so grounded and calm and comfortable in the water, but I've never felt like I was going to drown (save one time at the beach when I was very small hence my issues with deep, dark, open water). When I swam competitively it was pretty much inevitable that you were going to inhale/swallow a gross amount of pool water. In a race when that happens you don't stop. Hell, even in practice, you didn't stop. In fact, you do the opposite of what you might think and stick your face in the water and cough, hard, until you get the water out and then take a big refreshing gulp of air at your next stroke.
4) In addition to being able to choke under water, there are other little tricks I learned from my swim days. Like pulling my cap back down during a flip turn. Flip turns, period. Form - elbows stay nice and high on that freestyle. Creating that little pocket of air to breathe right above your shoulder but under your chin with your stroke. How to put a cap on without help. That perfect, snug fit of your goggles to ensure no water leakage. Tying bikinis up in ways so that they don't fall off.
5) Breast is still by far my worst stroke. Always has been, pretty sure it always will be. Freestyle I've always been strong in, as well as fly. While my endurance is shot with fly, my stroke is still spot on. Since we don't have lane lines and no flags I didn't even bother attempting back. Chances are I would have ended up beaching myself on the wading pool side in the shallow end.
6) I can also still hear my coach yelling at me every time I breathe coming off a flip turn. I can hear my coach making strange noises whenever my head would bob up during breast stroke. I can also hear my mother getting "Just keep swimming" a la Dory from Finding Nemo stuck in my head. I can also see my friend/teammate Megan counting down my distance swims for me as supposed to counting up on the laps. Something I still prefer to do in my head.
Things that have changed:
1) Obviously endurance. Cardio exercises and even strength doesn't translate over from one medium or modality to another. Each activity is unique in its own way and if you want to be good at a specific exercise you have to do that specific exercise to create the strength, endurance and power needed for it.
2) I kick now! I used to not kick unless I was doing fly because all my power came from my kick. Otherwise my feet just kinda half heartedly and lazily fluttered behind me. I kick now.
3) I cannot spend hours in the sun without copious amounts of sunscreen applied multiple times. When I was a kid and spent literally every day of summer pool side for a good 6hours at a time, I only ever put sunscreen on my face. By the time school started I was so brown it looked like I spent my summer on some tropical island and was actually a native of there. I'm still that brown now (for the first time since I was a kid) but now I have to lather on the sunscreen head to toe every hour that I am at the pool/in the sun or I burn. I have two theories on this. First, melanin apparently is like muscles in that you use it or lose it. Since I am no longer spending all my time outside, my skin doesn't protect itself as well as it used to. Second, I practically live on the face of the sun and am convinced that there is less ozone here in the desert and so the sun is literally more intense here than it is elsewhere.
So after all that word vomit, this summer has reminded me how much I love water and how, in a way, I need it in my life. So, babe, this is your fair warning that I want a pool in our backyard if we don't live in a place with a community pool.
Anyways, with my time off this summer, I've spending quite a bit of time pool side. The community pool in my neighborhood has a 25m section and while earlier in the summer it was always packed with kids and their families making it impossible for lap swimming (we have no lane lines or a designated lap time), now that the kiddos are back in school (it's year round school where I live) and I have had the pool all to myself, or close to it.
Some things that haven't changed:
1) Swimming still comes naturally to me. Even after not swimming for a couple years I can slip into the water and it feels as comfortable and as natural as reconnecting with a dear old friend or putting on a pair of jeans that never fail you.
2) Water (to clarify, pool water not deep, dark, can't see the bottom open water) is still amazingly soothing to me. Astrologically I am an air sign (traits: aloof, clumsy, desire for change, social, flexible, communicative, etc), but according to Asian calendars I was born under element of fire (traits: passionate, go-getters, intuitive, enthusiastic, leapers before thinking, fighters, power/strength, fast thinkers/doers etc - all of which can be used for destructive purposes or rebirth - think Pele). Ayurvedically I also have a lot of pitta, or heat/fire, in me (self-confident, physical strength, gets irritated if they have to miss a meal (Juan calls this part of me The Hulk), assertive, competitive, physically runs hot, tends to have skin and digestive issues etc). Taking into consideration that my strongest element, by far, is fire followed closely by air (let's all take a moment to acknowledge how air fuels fire), my pitta tendencies, and the fact that I live in the goddamn desert, it is no wonder that I find water grounding and soothing, and, well, cooling. When I get anxious or nervous plunging my hands into ice cold water has a very calming effect on me. Even when I get sick all I want is a nice cool wash cloth on my face or neck. Submerging my entire body into cool water when I go swimming is pure bliss. Floating around, allowing the water to come up around my ears so that the world is muffled and all I can hear is my breathing, instantly slows me down. My brain just kinda goes quiet, my body becomes graceful and elegant moving through the water instead of my usual, fiercely annoying special brand of clumsy. Needless to say, water is an elemental way of balancing myself and literally cooling my naturally heated system.
3) I can still choke under water. I know this is the reason why many people do not like to put their face in the water, and maybe it's because I feel so grounded and calm and comfortable in the water, but I've never felt like I was going to drown (save one time at the beach when I was very small hence my issues with deep, dark, open water). When I swam competitively it was pretty much inevitable that you were going to inhale/swallow a gross amount of pool water. In a race when that happens you don't stop. Hell, even in practice, you didn't stop. In fact, you do the opposite of what you might think and stick your face in the water and cough, hard, until you get the water out and then take a big refreshing gulp of air at your next stroke.
4) In addition to being able to choke under water, there are other little tricks I learned from my swim days. Like pulling my cap back down during a flip turn. Flip turns, period. Form - elbows stay nice and high on that freestyle. Creating that little pocket of air to breathe right above your shoulder but under your chin with your stroke. How to put a cap on without help. That perfect, snug fit of your goggles to ensure no water leakage. Tying bikinis up in ways so that they don't fall off.
5) Breast is still by far my worst stroke. Always has been, pretty sure it always will be. Freestyle I've always been strong in, as well as fly. While my endurance is shot with fly, my stroke is still spot on. Since we don't have lane lines and no flags I didn't even bother attempting back. Chances are I would have ended up beaching myself on the wading pool side in the shallow end.
6) I can also still hear my coach yelling at me every time I breathe coming off a flip turn. I can hear my coach making strange noises whenever my head would bob up during breast stroke. I can also hear my mother getting "Just keep swimming" a la Dory from Finding Nemo stuck in my head. I can also see my friend/teammate Megan counting down my distance swims for me as supposed to counting up on the laps. Something I still prefer to do in my head.
Things that have changed:
1) Obviously endurance. Cardio exercises and even strength doesn't translate over from one medium or modality to another. Each activity is unique in its own way and if you want to be good at a specific exercise you have to do that specific exercise to create the strength, endurance and power needed for it.
2) I kick now! I used to not kick unless I was doing fly because all my power came from my kick. Otherwise my feet just kinda half heartedly and lazily fluttered behind me. I kick now.
3) I cannot spend hours in the sun without copious amounts of sunscreen applied multiple times. When I was a kid and spent literally every day of summer pool side for a good 6hours at a time, I only ever put sunscreen on my face. By the time school started I was so brown it looked like I spent my summer on some tropical island and was actually a native of there. I'm still that brown now (for the first time since I was a kid) but now I have to lather on the sunscreen head to toe every hour that I am at the pool/in the sun or I burn. I have two theories on this. First, melanin apparently is like muscles in that you use it or lose it. Since I am no longer spending all my time outside, my skin doesn't protect itself as well as it used to. Second, I practically live on the face of the sun and am convinced that there is less ozone here in the desert and so the sun is literally more intense here than it is elsewhere.
So after all that word vomit, this summer has reminded me how much I love water and how, in a way, I need it in my life. So, babe, this is your fair warning that I want a pool in our backyard if we don't live in a place with a community pool.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Randoms
I haven't blogged in a month, so randoms it is.
1. Much to my dismay, I'm starting to develop plantar fasciitis. And it sucks. If shin splints weren't bad enough now my feet hurt. Though I do find that putting a water bottle in the freezer and rolling my feet out every morning and night is helpful. And not wearing flip flops as much as I like to is also helpful but, meh.
2. We went to Sedona for Memorial weekend and I am in love. It was so beautiful and a much needed escape for our day to day. I'm determined to write more on this in a different post so we'll keep it to the following: awesome, amazing, magical, lots of wine, helicopter ride!
3. Now that I'm done with school (and can I please get a big fucking amen for that whole process being over with?) I have more time to meal plan etc. So I'm back to grocery shopping more regularly. A bonus to being in school and not having time to cook every day forced me to use recipes that yield a lot and then have a lot of leftovers. Which in the long run is saving us money, so, win.
4. Also now that I have more time I'm able to walk the dog more regularly, something which we are both grateful for. I forgot how nice morning walks are. And walking is good for the body and good for the soul (good for my feet if I would stop wearing flip flops when I go walk...). This morning I was that crazy lady talking to my dog on our walk about how mommy is an idiot for wearing flip flops again and for wearing all black and how not only do mommy's feet hurt, but she's a gross sweaty mess. I must have passed a good three or four people giving me weird looks before I realized that to them I was talking to myself so I just looked crazy. Whatevs. They can judge all they want. Sappho and I had a great chat ha.
5. I'm reading again. Whaaaattt??? For the first several weeks after school was done all I could do was watch TV and nap. I watched so much trashy day time TV it was nuts. But that was literally all my brain could handle. Now I'm reading again. Still working on the Highlander series and am still on book 2. Not gonna lie, I feel like I need to write down a flow chart of who is who and who their allegiance lies with because I feel a little lost right now.
6. I'm job hunting for a social work type job. I feel perplexed about it. Not about getting a job in my degree field, that I feel good about. I feel perplexed about that whole, part time or full time, agency or hospital, stay a little picky or time to get flexible about what I'm looking for, etc etc. Yesterday I made a pros and cons list to try to find some clarity and that process looked more like, write the list, throw the list across the room, pick the list back up, cook some food, stare at the list, add to the list, swear at the list, email some mentors, and eat peanut butter right out of the jar. Productive is relative in this sense.
7. I got to spend a great Sunday with some awesome ladies doing brunch and swimming and getting drinks pool side and now I want that like, every weekend. It also brings up my need for water and my desire to go swimming. Time to start harassing the HOA people to get my damn pool key.
8. I dyed the bottom part of my hair dark purple about 4 weeks ago. It took 4.5hours to get it done, and for about two weeks every time I took a shower it looked like I had murdered Barney in my shower. Now that it has faded a bunch my hair is now less dark purple and more red/brown. It's pretty, and it's kinda like getting two colors in one, and as much as I want to do it again, if it's just going to fade this quickly, I'm hesitant to drop that much money on it again.
9. We got a living social deal for some house cleaning, and the cleaning itself was only so-so, but their customer service was hideous. I will never be using them again. We decided to shop around though for another person/service because not arguing about the cleaning and who "should" have done what and when etc is so worth budgeting in someone to come in even if only once a month right now.
10. I've taken up kickboxing (not like, cardio kickboxing. I mean I have hot pink wraps, black gloves and I wail on a heavy bag kind of kickboxing) and crossfit. I love both, but I love kickboxing more. There's something so damn satisfying about being able to kick and hit a heavy bag. That sounds really violent but I mean that in the most constructive way possible. I've been told by more than one person that I would be a good fighter and should consider training to fight. I have serious reservations about this. First, and most importantly, getting hit hurts. We partner up and hold shield mats for our partners to kick and hit and I usually partner with a friend of mine and goddamn, even through a shield bag her kicks sting a bit. And that's with me bracing into them like you're supposed to. Beyond that, kicking a heavy bag hurts me. So not only does getting kicked hurt, but giving them hurts to. I know I'm building a tolerance for it because every week it hurts less and less (except for my friend's kicks, those are getting stronger...) but one of my kicks at full force against a heavy bag definitely smarts. That being said, taking a body shot I'm much more okay with than getting hit in the face. I have no desire to find out what it feels like to get hit in the face. I also have no desire to hit anyone else in the face. Maybe if fighting consisted of body shots only I would consider it. But for now, I like my face a lot, I don't like getting hurt or hurting someone else, so I'll stick to wailing on a heavy bag.
1. Much to my dismay, I'm starting to develop plantar fasciitis. And it sucks. If shin splints weren't bad enough now my feet hurt. Though I do find that putting a water bottle in the freezer and rolling my feet out every morning and night is helpful. And not wearing flip flops as much as I like to is also helpful but, meh.
2. We went to Sedona for Memorial weekend and I am in love. It was so beautiful and a much needed escape for our day to day. I'm determined to write more on this in a different post so we'll keep it to the following: awesome, amazing, magical, lots of wine, helicopter ride!
3. Now that I'm done with school (and can I please get a big fucking amen for that whole process being over with?) I have more time to meal plan etc. So I'm back to grocery shopping more regularly. A bonus to being in school and not having time to cook every day forced me to use recipes that yield a lot and then have a lot of leftovers. Which in the long run is saving us money, so, win.
4. Also now that I have more time I'm able to walk the dog more regularly, something which we are both grateful for. I forgot how nice morning walks are. And walking is good for the body and good for the soul (good for my feet if I would stop wearing flip flops when I go walk...). This morning I was that crazy lady talking to my dog on our walk about how mommy is an idiot for wearing flip flops again and for wearing all black and how not only do mommy's feet hurt, but she's a gross sweaty mess. I must have passed a good three or four people giving me weird looks before I realized that to them I was talking to myself so I just looked crazy. Whatevs. They can judge all they want. Sappho and I had a great chat ha.
5. I'm reading again. Whaaaattt??? For the first several weeks after school was done all I could do was watch TV and nap. I watched so much trashy day time TV it was nuts. But that was literally all my brain could handle. Now I'm reading again. Still working on the Highlander series and am still on book 2. Not gonna lie, I feel like I need to write down a flow chart of who is who and who their allegiance lies with because I feel a little lost right now.
6. I'm job hunting for a social work type job. I feel perplexed about it. Not about getting a job in my degree field, that I feel good about. I feel perplexed about that whole, part time or full time, agency or hospital, stay a little picky or time to get flexible about what I'm looking for, etc etc. Yesterday I made a pros and cons list to try to find some clarity and that process looked more like, write the list, throw the list across the room, pick the list back up, cook some food, stare at the list, add to the list, swear at the list, email some mentors, and eat peanut butter right out of the jar. Productive is relative in this sense.
7. I got to spend a great Sunday with some awesome ladies doing brunch and swimming and getting drinks pool side and now I want that like, every weekend. It also brings up my need for water and my desire to go swimming. Time to start harassing the HOA people to get my damn pool key.
8. I dyed the bottom part of my hair dark purple about 4 weeks ago. It took 4.5hours to get it done, and for about two weeks every time I took a shower it looked like I had murdered Barney in my shower. Now that it has faded a bunch my hair is now less dark purple and more red/brown. It's pretty, and it's kinda like getting two colors in one, and as much as I want to do it again, if it's just going to fade this quickly, I'm hesitant to drop that much money on it again.
9. We got a living social deal for some house cleaning, and the cleaning itself was only so-so, but their customer service was hideous. I will never be using them again. We decided to shop around though for another person/service because not arguing about the cleaning and who "should" have done what and when etc is so worth budgeting in someone to come in even if only once a month right now.
10. I've taken up kickboxing (not like, cardio kickboxing. I mean I have hot pink wraps, black gloves and I wail on a heavy bag kind of kickboxing) and crossfit. I love both, but I love kickboxing more. There's something so damn satisfying about being able to kick and hit a heavy bag. That sounds really violent but I mean that in the most constructive way possible. I've been told by more than one person that I would be a good fighter and should consider training to fight. I have serious reservations about this. First, and most importantly, getting hit hurts. We partner up and hold shield mats for our partners to kick and hit and I usually partner with a friend of mine and goddamn, even through a shield bag her kicks sting a bit. And that's with me bracing into them like you're supposed to. Beyond that, kicking a heavy bag hurts me. So not only does getting kicked hurt, but giving them hurts to. I know I'm building a tolerance for it because every week it hurts less and less (except for my friend's kicks, those are getting stronger...) but one of my kicks at full force against a heavy bag definitely smarts. That being said, taking a body shot I'm much more okay with than getting hit in the face. I have no desire to find out what it feels like to get hit in the face. I also have no desire to hit anyone else in the face. Maybe if fighting consisted of body shots only I would consider it. But for now, I like my face a lot, I don't like getting hurt or hurting someone else, so I'll stick to wailing on a heavy bag.
Monday, February 11, 2013
Flourless Chocolate Cake
I wanted to make the title, "FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE BITCHES!!!!" but I thought that might be a little too much excitement for a title.
I got this recipe from The Detoxinista, which I was introduced to by my friend Jil. I dig her concept of food combining. It makes my tummy happy and I find that I'm way less bloated and gurgley when I do proper food combo meals (which might also be because I eat a lot less grain when I do proper food combo meals. I don't think it's a gluten allergy because I don't really have any other symptom other than bloating if I eat a lot of grains/carbs/gluten and gluten is in a ton of stuff that doesn't bother me at all). Anyways, enough of the TMI and on to this super amazing friggen cake.
I used ViSalus protein powder instead of the stevia baking blend, which you can learn more about here. I would NOT recommend using any other kind of protein powder simply because ViSalus is awesome and is naturally sweetened, so it can be used as a sweetener substitute. And it has the fiber in it which The Detoxinista's original recipe calls for with her stevia baking blend. Enough talk!
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
2oz dark chocolate (I use this kind)
3tbspn of ViSalus (or stevia baking blend)
1/2tspn molasses
1tspn cocoa powder
1/2 to 1tspn pure vanilla extract
1tbspn boiling water
2tbspn butter chopped up
1 egg
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degree F. In a mini food processor, grind up your chocolate until it's nice and ground up and crumbly
Step 2: add your ViSalus, molasses, cocoa powder and vanilla extract and blend until it's a sand-like texture
Step 3: take your tablespoon of boiling water and mix that in there too to get things all melted together. It should come out looking like molten chocolate, so if you need to add another tablespoon (I did) go for it.
Step 4: Add your butter and egg. It should look pretty smooth and creamy at this point.
Step 5: I don't have those little ramekin things, so I used a muffin pan with those cupcake papers. Worked great. Made clean up super easy too. According to The Detoxinista if you are using the ramekin things, no amount of coconut oil in the dish before you bake keeps it from sticking to the sides anyhow. Bake for about 20min or until a knife/fork/toothpick comes out clean
Step 6: BOOM!!! Just look at those babies! Nom! Now, if you are using ViSalus as your sweetener, it's good to note that protein powder, especially whey proteins, will make things come out fluffier. So just keep that in mind if you are using protein powder in any sort of cooking/baking.
Oh, and devour this shit! So freaking good. And this totally gets a fitness and health label too because it's totes guilt free.
I got this recipe from The Detoxinista, which I was introduced to by my friend Jil. I dig her concept of food combining. It makes my tummy happy and I find that I'm way less bloated and gurgley when I do proper food combo meals (which might also be because I eat a lot less grain when I do proper food combo meals. I don't think it's a gluten allergy because I don't really have any other symptom other than bloating if I eat a lot of grains/carbs/gluten and gluten is in a ton of stuff that doesn't bother me at all). Anyways, enough of the TMI and on to this super amazing friggen cake.
I used ViSalus protein powder instead of the stevia baking blend, which you can learn more about here. I would NOT recommend using any other kind of protein powder simply because ViSalus is awesome and is naturally sweetened, so it can be used as a sweetener substitute. And it has the fiber in it which The Detoxinista's original recipe calls for with her stevia baking blend. Enough talk!
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
2oz dark chocolate (I use this kind)
3tbspn of ViSalus (or stevia baking blend)
1/2tspn molasses
1tspn cocoa powder
1/2 to 1tspn pure vanilla extract
1tbspn boiling water
2tbspn butter chopped up
1 egg
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degree F. In a mini food processor, grind up your chocolate until it's nice and ground up and crumbly
I forgot to take a pic of just the chocolate. So this one is kind of a mix of step 1 and 2
Step 2: add your ViSalus, molasses, cocoa powder and vanilla extract and blend until it's a sand-like texture
Step 3: take your tablespoon of boiling water and mix that in there too to get things all melted together. It should come out looking like molten chocolate, so if you need to add another tablespoon (I did) go for it.
Step 4: Add your butter and egg. It should look pretty smooth and creamy at this point.
Step 5: I don't have those little ramekin things, so I used a muffin pan with those cupcake papers. Worked great. Made clean up super easy too. According to The Detoxinista if you are using the ramekin things, no amount of coconut oil in the dish before you bake keeps it from sticking to the sides anyhow. Bake for about 20min or until a knife/fork/toothpick comes out clean
I added some water in two of the other muffin portions just to make sure I didn't dry it out
Step 6: BOOM!!! Just look at those babies! Nom! Now, if you are using ViSalus as your sweetener, it's good to note that protein powder, especially whey proteins, will make things come out fluffier. So just keep that in mind if you are using protein powder in any sort of cooking/baking.
Oh, and devour this shit! So freaking good. And this totally gets a fitness and health label too because it's totes guilt free.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Randoms
I've been so tired lately that it seems that the only way I can think is to think in lists. And even that is questionable (please visit exhibit A where yesterday I spent 45minutes at the gym looking for my phone and car key...). On to the list.
1. Juanito is very sick. I literally cannot remember the last time he was this sick. He's been down for the count since Tuesday night and he still has a nasty cough and stuffy nose and he says he can feel the cough dropping into his chest. He's so sick that last night he looks at me and tells me that he wants chocolate donettes. At first I thought he was kidding, but then he kept talking about them. Then I got worried that he was dying because the man does not do sweets, but I drove to the convenient store and got him a bag of them and almost ate them all. Crazy.
2. I am le tired. (Then go take a nap and then go fire the missiles!!!) That is all to really say there.
3. Simba is a goddamn picky eater. Please view exhibit B - the several different kinds of cat food we are going to try out to try to keep him eating. Because heaven forbid he get the same flavor two meals in a row. And lord help us if it's trout. And god knows that same texture of food more than one meal in a row is an abomination.
4. Sappho isn't the smartest dog, but she's entertaining.
5. We still really need curtains for our giant doors.
6. I'm three weeks into school and I still haven't even ordered my books. It's gonna be a fabulous last semester.
7. I'm back to teaching Zumba and I missed it and it's awesome. Yesterday we worked so hard that we fogged up not only the windows, but also all the mirrors. The yoga class that came in after us got a surprise heated room.
8. It's already in the 70s-80s here. I'm half jokingly telling my clients and students that swim suit season starts next week. But it's kind of true.
9. My sister told me that she had to admit to someone how much peanut butter she eats. I thought about what I eat in excess and while I do eat a fair amount of peanut butter (though not as much as she does) I do eat quite a bit of chocolate. I found these sugar free, gluten free, 75% cocoa dark chocolate bars from TJs. I have a square after every meal. It's amazing.
10. My new house, while out in BFE, is awesome and I love it and I'm getting used to the commutes and having to fill up my tank once a week instead of once a month. Just check out these sunsets visible from out front door!
1. Juanito is very sick. I literally cannot remember the last time he was this sick. He's been down for the count since Tuesday night and he still has a nasty cough and stuffy nose and he says he can feel the cough dropping into his chest. He's so sick that last night he looks at me and tells me that he wants chocolate donettes. At first I thought he was kidding, but then he kept talking about them. Then I got worried that he was dying because the man does not do sweets, but I drove to the convenient store and got him a bag of them and almost ate them all. Crazy.
2. I am le tired. (Then go take a nap and then go fire the missiles!!!) That is all to really say there.
3. Simba is a goddamn picky eater. Please view exhibit B - the several different kinds of cat food we are going to try out to try to keep him eating. Because heaven forbid he get the same flavor two meals in a row. And lord help us if it's trout. And god knows that same texture of food more than one meal in a row is an abomination.
4. Sappho isn't the smartest dog, but she's entertaining.
5. We still really need curtains for our giant doors.
6. I'm three weeks into school and I still haven't even ordered my books. It's gonna be a fabulous last semester.
7. I'm back to teaching Zumba and I missed it and it's awesome. Yesterday we worked so hard that we fogged up not only the windows, but also all the mirrors. The yoga class that came in after us got a surprise heated room.
8. It's already in the 70s-80s here. I'm half jokingly telling my clients and students that swim suit season starts next week. But it's kind of true.
9. My sister told me that she had to admit to someone how much peanut butter she eats. I thought about what I eat in excess and while I do eat a fair amount of peanut butter (though not as much as she does) I do eat quite a bit of chocolate. I found these sugar free, gluten free, 75% cocoa dark chocolate bars from TJs. I have a square after every meal. It's amazing.
10. My new house, while out in BFE, is awesome and I love it and I'm getting used to the commutes and having to fill up my tank once a week instead of once a month. Just check out these sunsets visible from out front door!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Surgery Sucks
In case you were wondering, surgery sucks. It's true. It doesn't matter how simple your procedure, how awesome your surgeon is, how young or fit or healthy you are (all components present in my surgery), it still sucks. Even if you're such an optimist that sunshine literally shines from your ass, surgery still sucks. It's disruptive, it hurts, it screws with your whole system, your whole body, your mind, not just your surgical site.
Luckily my procedure was able to be done laparoscopically, meaning healing time was cut down, it was less invasive and, according to the scrub nurses, also meant less pain. Never having a previous surgery, I have nothing to compare this to.
Was I an outpatient procedure? Yes. Was I putting on real pants and making a small appearance at a holiday party a week and a half post op? Yes. Was there pain? Only really on the second day, and that was controlled with meds, and even at that I only needed to up my meds for half a day. At currently five and a half weeks post op am I teaching Zumba, going on short jogs with the dog, sleeping normally and for the most part living my normal life? Yes. Does it still suck? Yes.
One thing these last few weeks have taught me is that there is a difference between being fully healed and fully functional again. My doc told me my wounds would be healed within 5-6 weeks. And she was right. I ignorantly thought this meant that I would also be up to doing box jumps onto three foot platforms, doing suspension training, and doing strength moves on pole again. I thought I would be doing all of my favorite workouts that I had been powering through pre-op by 5-6 weeks post op.
This coming Friday makes it 6 weeks post op to the day. I'm jogging, yes. I'm teaching Zumba, yes. But I have to take more frequent breaks because I still can't tighten my core on command and so when I jump around, my belly moves and it's really uncomfortable. Belly dancing is a struggle to say the least. It's taken me literally weeks to be able to re-train my abs to pull navel to spine (pre-op I was practically able to collapse my belly in half). If I sit up too fast or reach too far it still hurts. I have so much scar tissue in my core that I've lost all flexibility in my ab muscles, to the point where I can barely lift my chest off the ground when laying on my stomach. I still don't have all my energy back, I get tired so easily and so quickly, and it will take me another five and a half months to rebuild the good bacteria in my gut and intestines from the bowel prep, which probably means I will spend the next several months trying desperately to regulate my digestive system (which is still not regulated no matter how much fiber I eat).
It's been such a challenge of my patience. I fully expected to be doing suspended hip raises and planks by now and I'm back to starting at simple crunches and pelvic tilts. Not being able to do any exercise for four weeks had me lose a lot of strength that I had worked so hard to build up. I've basically been sore for the last two weeks straight and I'm using close to 30lbs less (more for legs) than what I was six weeks ago. I know I'm not starting from square one, but I am definitely several steps back from where I was.
I don't say all this to be a debbie-downer, or to wallow in my own frustration and, if I'm being totally honest, disappointment for not being able to put on super-hero cape and go fight crime just yet. I say it because it's perspective. Perspective I didn't have and wasn't prepared for. And it's been hard adjusting to and accepting it.
I don't know if anything could have been done to better prepare me for all of this. I asked all the right questions, my doctor was totally open about what I was to expect. I don't know if all the talks in the world could have soothed my naturally impatient soul to slow down and, ha, be patient.
Despite surgery sucking, I have learned a lot. I usually cope with stress with exercise. I would literally work off my cortisol. Not being able to has forced me to seek other avenues. It's always good to have more than one coping skill. This must be what my clients feel like when they are just starting their fitness journey. I haven't been fit my whole life, not even my whole adult life, it's been a journey, but the beginning was now several years ago and I've come so far that this is definitely a refresher in what it as like back then. It's forced me to eat really well. I don't have the luxury right now of detoxing my indulgences away by sweating it out. I have to eat clean or I feel like shit.
I say all this because while I have been optimistic and celebrating the little steps like driving myself somewhere for the first time or getting my first workout in post op, the rest of it is still worth saying. I have learned a lot, I am thrilled to not have Jan in me anymore, and I'm simply tickled to be working my way back to my normal self and my normal life. AND the rest of it is equally as important as everything I've gained. The rest of it doesn't make me any less grateful for having access to the health care to detect Jan and then remove her. It doesn't make me any less grateful to have such a supportive family who came out and supported me. It doesn't make me any less grateful to be recovering so well and without complication.
So often and so easily we get sucked into this way of thinking that doesn't allow room for two opposing thoughts or desires to exist in the same moment. We do this by saying "but" to separate them. "Surgery sucked but I'm grateful that I could get it done." Two thoughts: surgery sucked, and being grateful for being able to get it done. The "but" devalues and cancels out the surgery sucking part. As if to say, "It's not fair or right for to to say that my surgery sucked because I should really just be grateful for having awesome health care." Saying, "Surgery sucked AND I'm grateful that I could get it done" allows for equal value of both thoughts and allows for both to operate within the same moment. Not only does it validate the way I feel and think on both ends of the spectrum, it gives me peace knowing that I don't have to choose, or feel like I have to choose between which feeling is "right."
Luckily my procedure was able to be done laparoscopically, meaning healing time was cut down, it was less invasive and, according to the scrub nurses, also meant less pain. Never having a previous surgery, I have nothing to compare this to.
Was I an outpatient procedure? Yes. Was I putting on real pants and making a small appearance at a holiday party a week and a half post op? Yes. Was there pain? Only really on the second day, and that was controlled with meds, and even at that I only needed to up my meds for half a day. At currently five and a half weeks post op am I teaching Zumba, going on short jogs with the dog, sleeping normally and for the most part living my normal life? Yes. Does it still suck? Yes.
One thing these last few weeks have taught me is that there is a difference between being fully healed and fully functional again. My doc told me my wounds would be healed within 5-6 weeks. And she was right. I ignorantly thought this meant that I would also be up to doing box jumps onto three foot platforms, doing suspension training, and doing strength moves on pole again. I thought I would be doing all of my favorite workouts that I had been powering through pre-op by 5-6 weeks post op.
This coming Friday makes it 6 weeks post op to the day. I'm jogging, yes. I'm teaching Zumba, yes. But I have to take more frequent breaks because I still can't tighten my core on command and so when I jump around, my belly moves and it's really uncomfortable. Belly dancing is a struggle to say the least. It's taken me literally weeks to be able to re-train my abs to pull navel to spine (pre-op I was practically able to collapse my belly in half). If I sit up too fast or reach too far it still hurts. I have so much scar tissue in my core that I've lost all flexibility in my ab muscles, to the point where I can barely lift my chest off the ground when laying on my stomach. I still don't have all my energy back, I get tired so easily and so quickly, and it will take me another five and a half months to rebuild the good bacteria in my gut and intestines from the bowel prep, which probably means I will spend the next several months trying desperately to regulate my digestive system (which is still not regulated no matter how much fiber I eat).
It's been such a challenge of my patience. I fully expected to be doing suspended hip raises and planks by now and I'm back to starting at simple crunches and pelvic tilts. Not being able to do any exercise for four weeks had me lose a lot of strength that I had worked so hard to build up. I've basically been sore for the last two weeks straight and I'm using close to 30lbs less (more for legs) than what I was six weeks ago. I know I'm not starting from square one, but I am definitely several steps back from where I was.
I don't say all this to be a debbie-downer, or to wallow in my own frustration and, if I'm being totally honest, disappointment for not being able to put on super-hero cape and go fight crime just yet. I say it because it's perspective. Perspective I didn't have and wasn't prepared for. And it's been hard adjusting to and accepting it.
I don't know if anything could have been done to better prepare me for all of this. I asked all the right questions, my doctor was totally open about what I was to expect. I don't know if all the talks in the world could have soothed my naturally impatient soul to slow down and, ha, be patient.
Despite surgery sucking, I have learned a lot. I usually cope with stress with exercise. I would literally work off my cortisol. Not being able to has forced me to seek other avenues. It's always good to have more than one coping skill. This must be what my clients feel like when they are just starting their fitness journey. I haven't been fit my whole life, not even my whole adult life, it's been a journey, but the beginning was now several years ago and I've come so far that this is definitely a refresher in what it as like back then. It's forced me to eat really well. I don't have the luxury right now of detoxing my indulgences away by sweating it out. I have to eat clean or I feel like shit.
I say all this because while I have been optimistic and celebrating the little steps like driving myself somewhere for the first time or getting my first workout in post op, the rest of it is still worth saying. I have learned a lot, I am thrilled to not have Jan in me anymore, and I'm simply tickled to be working my way back to my normal self and my normal life. AND the rest of it is equally as important as everything I've gained. The rest of it doesn't make me any less grateful for having access to the health care to detect Jan and then remove her. It doesn't make me any less grateful to have such a supportive family who came out and supported me. It doesn't make me any less grateful to be recovering so well and without complication.
So often and so easily we get sucked into this way of thinking that doesn't allow room for two opposing thoughts or desires to exist in the same moment. We do this by saying "but" to separate them. "Surgery sucked but I'm grateful that I could get it done." Two thoughts: surgery sucked, and being grateful for being able to get it done. The "but" devalues and cancels out the surgery sucking part. As if to say, "It's not fair or right for to to say that my surgery sucked because I should really just be grateful for having awesome health care." Saying, "Surgery sucked AND I'm grateful that I could get it done" allows for equal value of both thoughts and allows for both to operate within the same moment. Not only does it validate the way I feel and think on both ends of the spectrum, it gives me peace knowing that I don't have to choose, or feel like I have to choose between which feeling is "right."
Monday, January 7, 2013
Oh My God I Have Access to the Internet and I Have a TON to Say
No really. I have been keeping a mental tab of all the things I want to blog about when I have internet at my house (back up, we moved! And I don't get internet at my house until the 11th and I don't know if you've ever tried to manage a blog FROM YOUR PHONE. Shit is a nightmare) and trying to decide which to blog about right now has literally almost made my brains come out my ears. So, here's a list of random shit that is on my mind and I'll expound on it later.
1. We're homeowners bitches! It was a nightmare getting the loan approval and the whole closing process and getting the keys, but we have keys. We have a house. A house with no window coverings right now as we wait for them to get shipped to us and for us to install. But it's ours. All. Fucking. Ours. Boom.
2. Surgery is sucky. No matter how well it goes or simple the procedure or how bad ass your surgeon is (and my surgery went so well my surgeon was still pumped up about it a week later), it sucks. It takes more out of you than you ever think it will. You sit on your couch in a very specific position, watching movies, occasionally getting up to waddle around your house and to pee, and yet you still need naps, lots and lots of naps, because you're so damn tired all the time. That being said, I'm three and a half weeks post op and my energy is starting to come back (though it leaves me quickly still), my range of motion is almost all back, and today I did my first workout since surgery! It was a slow, light, non-exciting workout, but I am going to savor every minute of it because I got to move and my life feels like it's getting back to normal.
3. Sweet potato fondue. Holy balls that shit is delicious. I will blog about this in painful detail soon.
4. Apparently today is a heavy cursing day.
5. Today is the first day of my last semester of grad school. I graduate in May providing that I don't fall off the deep end and get committed to the loony bin and need to take a leave of absence. And someone in class just started talking about already prepping for the LMSW exam and now I'm starting to freak out.
6. I have a small list of resolutions this year, which is kind of a big deal since I usually make the resolution to stop making resolutions.
7. Cats are smarter than dogs. At least my cats are smarter than my dog. I've known this for years, but now I have actual proof. Within 24hours of being in the new place, the cats have adapted to stairs and know where their food and litter box is, they have figured out where all the sunny spots are, how to open the new doors while I'm peeing, and fell into the new routine of trying to beat me to the bathroom, then standing in my way in all the dark places first thing in the morning as I shuffle through my morning routine instantly. We've been there for more than a week and Sappho is still having a hard time with stairs, tile and where to go when we cue "backyard."
That's all for now. I should be paying attention to the class I'm in anyways.
1. We're homeowners bitches! It was a nightmare getting the loan approval and the whole closing process and getting the keys, but we have keys. We have a house. A house with no window coverings right now as we wait for them to get shipped to us and for us to install. But it's ours. All. Fucking. Ours. Boom.
2. Surgery is sucky. No matter how well it goes or simple the procedure or how bad ass your surgeon is (and my surgery went so well my surgeon was still pumped up about it a week later), it sucks. It takes more out of you than you ever think it will. You sit on your couch in a very specific position, watching movies, occasionally getting up to waddle around your house and to pee, and yet you still need naps, lots and lots of naps, because you're so damn tired all the time. That being said, I'm three and a half weeks post op and my energy is starting to come back (though it leaves me quickly still), my range of motion is almost all back, and today I did my first workout since surgery! It was a slow, light, non-exciting workout, but I am going to savor every minute of it because I got to move and my life feels like it's getting back to normal.
3. Sweet potato fondue. Holy balls that shit is delicious. I will blog about this in painful detail soon.
4. Apparently today is a heavy cursing day.
5. Today is the first day of my last semester of grad school. I graduate in May providing that I don't fall off the deep end and get committed to the loony bin and need to take a leave of absence. And someone in class just started talking about already prepping for the LMSW exam and now I'm starting to freak out.
6. I have a small list of resolutions this year, which is kind of a big deal since I usually make the resolution to stop making resolutions.
7. Cats are smarter than dogs. At least my cats are smarter than my dog. I've known this for years, but now I have actual proof. Within 24hours of being in the new place, the cats have adapted to stairs and know where their food and litter box is, they have figured out where all the sunny spots are, how to open the new doors while I'm peeing, and fell into the new routine of trying to beat me to the bathroom, then standing in my way in all the dark places first thing in the morning as I shuffle through my morning routine instantly. We've been there for more than a week and Sappho is still having a hard time with stairs, tile and where to go when we cue "backyard."
That's all for now. I should be paying attention to the class I'm in anyways.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Body Rock
I'm always looking for new things in the fitness world. I try not to spend too much time looking at fitness blogs and following too many figure competitors or fitness models or even just super duper inspiring fitness gurus because I could literally spend hours and hours and hours reading up on them and reading their blogs and doing the research on exercises etc.
I have been working out with a girl friend of mine, MoJo, who I met through pole. She was one of my students, and it wasn't that long ago that I was helping her invert and do the basics, and then she went back home to CO for the summer, trained with a champ, and came back and has been teaching me ever since. We started this tradition on Sunday mornings where I go over to her place, we work out crazy hard, then play on the pole for hours (which she has mounted in her living room). And it's been lovely and now she's back home for the next 6 weeks and I'm not sure what I'm going to do without her and our workouts. I may be a trainer, but every now and then I want someone else to tell me what to do, to push me instead of me pushing myself, to teach me something new, and Mo does just that for me. We feed off each other's energy, we get each other amped up, and we've become dear friends in the process.
Anyways, Mo introduced me to BodyRock. And I'm hooked. Hate all you want on Lisa-Marie for her skimpy outfits and giant boobs. Do these workouts and you'll be on your knees at her feet with nothing but respect. Mo and I modified the workouts to do the intervals for 50sec on, rest for 10sec and we mix and match her exercises depending on how long we want to work. Mo has the equalizers, and a set of power blocks, of which I want both to add to my home gym, and so we set up stations and rotate between strength and plyo sets, grunting and dripping sweat on the floor as we go.
These workouts though, a new fave and I try to incorporate them as much as I possibly can with my training clients, my own personal workouts and in the fitness classes I teach. They are amazing and I love them. They have given me a leg up in a lot of areas and have helped define my core in a way that I haven't been able to do in a while.
AND, the great thing about doing intervals, is that you can choose how long your intervals and rests are (I always recommend 1min total and generally don't recommend going below 30sec on, 30sec off), you don't necessarily have to stay at 100% for every on interval, you just have to keep moving, which means you can modify down if you need to and still get a crazy workout, and intervals, especially if you do plyo, burns way more calories than traditional long distance moderate intensity cardio like jogging.
Loves it. You should try it. It's amazeballs.
I have been working out with a girl friend of mine, MoJo, who I met through pole. She was one of my students, and it wasn't that long ago that I was helping her invert and do the basics, and then she went back home to CO for the summer, trained with a champ, and came back and has been teaching me ever since. We started this tradition on Sunday mornings where I go over to her place, we work out crazy hard, then play on the pole for hours (which she has mounted in her living room). And it's been lovely and now she's back home for the next 6 weeks and I'm not sure what I'm going to do without her and our workouts. I may be a trainer, but every now and then I want someone else to tell me what to do, to push me instead of me pushing myself, to teach me something new, and Mo does just that for me. We feed off each other's energy, we get each other amped up, and we've become dear friends in the process.
Anyways, Mo introduced me to BodyRock. And I'm hooked. Hate all you want on Lisa-Marie for her skimpy outfits and giant boobs. Do these workouts and you'll be on your knees at her feet with nothing but respect. Mo and I modified the workouts to do the intervals for 50sec on, rest for 10sec and we mix and match her exercises depending on how long we want to work. Mo has the equalizers, and a set of power blocks, of which I want both to add to my home gym, and so we set up stations and rotate between strength and plyo sets, grunting and dripping sweat on the floor as we go.
These workouts though, a new fave and I try to incorporate them as much as I possibly can with my training clients, my own personal workouts and in the fitness classes I teach. They are amazing and I love them. They have given me a leg up in a lot of areas and have helped define my core in a way that I haven't been able to do in a while.
AND, the great thing about doing intervals, is that you can choose how long your intervals and rests are (I always recommend 1min total and generally don't recommend going below 30sec on, 30sec off), you don't necessarily have to stay at 100% for every on interval, you just have to keep moving, which means you can modify down if you need to and still get a crazy workout, and intervals, especially if you do plyo, burns way more calories than traditional long distance moderate intensity cardio like jogging.
Loves it. You should try it. It's amazeballs.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Pole V 2.0
I haven't been on a pole since March of this year. Jigga wha I thought this girl was a pole fitness instructor? I am, but I haven't taught or even touched a pole since March.
My friend Mo, who started out as my pole student and is now a good friend of mine, spent her summer training with a pole champion and got crazy insanely good, bought her own pole, and is now back in Tucson with a pole up in her place. So what does that mean??? It means my butt is over at her place playing on her pole a lot. And that the student has become the teacher now, but that's okay, I take a small amount of pride in knowing that I helped her get her to where she is now.
Right now I'm taking care of her cat, which means I get to play on her pole (god that sounds so dirty) every day! And it's rad! It's freaking awesome! I'm sore in places I haven't been sore in a long time, but my body still remembers how to do everything and that makes me super happy.
Even though my body remembers how to do things, my body is no longer conditioned for pole. My hands don't have the calluses anymore, and I have bruises all up and down my legs from climbing and sitting, but like I used to tell my students, just gotta keep at it and your body will eventually adapt and it won't hurt anymore. One can only hope because holy shit, my shins have such deep bruises on them.
AND, my first day back on the pole, Mo taught me a new grip and a new move, which I now can do on both sides! It's complicated to describe so pictures to come later. For now, back to kicking my own ass with pull ups and pole sit ups, getting back my endurance and just overall being really happy to have pole back in my life!
My friend Mo, who started out as my pole student and is now a good friend of mine, spent her summer training with a pole champion and got crazy insanely good, bought her own pole, and is now back in Tucson with a pole up in her place. So what does that mean??? It means my butt is over at her place playing on her pole a lot. And that the student has become the teacher now, but that's okay, I take a small amount of pride in knowing that I helped her get her to where she is now.
Right now I'm taking care of her cat, which means I get to play on her pole (god that sounds so dirty) every day! And it's rad! It's freaking awesome! I'm sore in places I haven't been sore in a long time, but my body still remembers how to do everything and that makes me super happy.
Even though my body remembers how to do things, my body is no longer conditioned for pole. My hands don't have the calluses anymore, and I have bruises all up and down my legs from climbing and sitting, but like I used to tell my students, just gotta keep at it and your body will eventually adapt and it won't hurt anymore. One can only hope because holy shit, my shins have such deep bruises on them.
AND, my first day back on the pole, Mo taught me a new grip and a new move, which I now can do on both sides! It's complicated to describe so pictures to come later. For now, back to kicking my own ass with pull ups and pole sit ups, getting back my endurance and just overall being really happy to have pole back in my life!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Randoms and Such
I know, I know. Where have I been? Studying my arse off, taking a big exam, getting ready (who the hell am I kidding here?) for school. It's no excuse, but I do recognize that I've been seriously slacking on my blogging duties.
I've been studying all summer for my personal trainer cert. Going over anatomy, kinesiology, exercise physiology and program progression. I was doing super awesome with studying and staying on top of it all and then a bunch of family stuff happened that pulled me away from being so diligent, and then my sister was in town which was a pleasant and welcomed distraction. So I book my test for August 20, and come the second week of August I was starting to freak out about taking the exam because the studying I was getting time for was not up to my usual standard. If I failed the test, sure I could take it again, but I'd have to pay $200 to retake it. That's a lot of money for an exam. ANYWAYS, I review and review, wasn't feeling super confident about the exam, and the morning of the test I was so damn nervous I thought I was going to puke. The entire drive to the testing center I spent talking to myself, out loud, and telling myself very firmly that I was going to dominate the test, that I was going to pass, and that opportunities would open up for me because I would have my cert finally.
I got three hours to complete 150 questions, and I told myself that even if I had to sit there and go through all the answers 100 times over, I was going to sit there for at least an hour and a half. I know I have the tendency to speed read the question, the speed read through the answers, and then usually I pick the wrong answer because I didn't read the question thoroughly enough. So I strategized by reading each question twice, and slowly, before even looking at the answers. It took me just under 2 hours to complete, and the whole thing must have worked out because I passed! Insert victory dance here.
Since I'm done studying for my personal trainer cert, we now have our dining room table back. Juan is very happy. Until I start writing papers for grad school and then the dining room table will disappear again under mountains of papers, text books, notebooks etc. Juan will not be happy.
Even though I had my first day of school yesterday, and I've purchased my text books today and will go out and get school supplies later today, I'm still in complete denial that the school semester has started up again. Even in more denial that come May of next year I will be graduating with my masters and no.more.school.ever! "Never say never" blah blah blah, but really, I am very excited about the prospect of not having to sit in a traditional classroom ever again.
Yesterday when I was scrambling last minute to get my backpack together for school, I couldn't find Blue (who has zipper disease and I wish I had sent him to JanSport Camp over the summer while he was on vacation because now school has started and there's no going to school without him). I know we had stashed Blue somewhere where the cats couldn't sit on him and cover him in fur, but I just couldn't remember where. I almost had to miss my first day of school because I couldn't find him. First days of school without Blue just don't happen. They just don't.
I recently re-watched HP 7.2 (that's Harry Potter 7 part 2 for all you non-Harry obsessors) and the part with the dragon escaping Gringotts always makes me so sad. Poor dragon. And whenever I watch HP 7.2 I'm reminded that the saga is over and that also makes me sad. I grew up with Harry. We were 11 at the same time and now, no more adventures for me to escape to. And the, "Not my daughter you bitch!" part, to this day, makes me squeal with glee.
Apples with peanutbutter is the best snack ever. I sometimes have 2 apples a day. My sister also reintroduced avocado into my life. I now have that pretty regularly too and it is delicious. Delicious I tell you.
We're building a house. Yay! It's a nightmare. For those of you who have never purchased a home before, it's a bloody freaking nightmare. Looking at houses, walking through them, going to the design center to pick out all your preferences etc, all that is the fun stuff, and it lasts for about 5nanoseconds. All the other stuff, the loan stuff, the paperwork, the applications, the meetings, the projection of what our first born child will look like and their estimated IQ, all that crap is just ridiculous. It'll be worth it all in the end, of course, but for now when someone calls us and says, "Jump!" we just say, "How high?!"
In case you were wondering, always ice using a barrier between yourself and the ice. If you don't, and then fall asleep with the ice on, you could give yourself frost bite. Trust me, I know. My skin is currently peeling off in the place where the frost bite is healing. It's like a burn, but in a way a little bit more gross.
I've been studying all summer for my personal trainer cert. Going over anatomy, kinesiology, exercise physiology and program progression. I was doing super awesome with studying and staying on top of it all and then a bunch of family stuff happened that pulled me away from being so diligent, and then my sister was in town which was a pleasant and welcomed distraction. So I book my test for August 20, and come the second week of August I was starting to freak out about taking the exam because the studying I was getting time for was not up to my usual standard. If I failed the test, sure I could take it again, but I'd have to pay $200 to retake it. That's a lot of money for an exam. ANYWAYS, I review and review, wasn't feeling super confident about the exam, and the morning of the test I was so damn nervous I thought I was going to puke. The entire drive to the testing center I spent talking to myself, out loud, and telling myself very firmly that I was going to dominate the test, that I was going to pass, and that opportunities would open up for me because I would have my cert finally.
I got three hours to complete 150 questions, and I told myself that even if I had to sit there and go through all the answers 100 times over, I was going to sit there for at least an hour and a half. I know I have the tendency to speed read the question, the speed read through the answers, and then usually I pick the wrong answer because I didn't read the question thoroughly enough. So I strategized by reading each question twice, and slowly, before even looking at the answers. It took me just under 2 hours to complete, and the whole thing must have worked out because I passed! Insert victory dance here.
Since I'm done studying for my personal trainer cert, we now have our dining room table back. Juan is very happy. Until I start writing papers for grad school and then the dining room table will disappear again under mountains of papers, text books, notebooks etc. Juan will not be happy.
Even though I had my first day of school yesterday, and I've purchased my text books today and will go out and get school supplies later today, I'm still in complete denial that the school semester has started up again. Even in more denial that come May of next year I will be graduating with my masters and no.more.school.ever! "Never say never" blah blah blah, but really, I am very excited about the prospect of not having to sit in a traditional classroom ever again.
Yesterday when I was scrambling last minute to get my backpack together for school, I couldn't find Blue (who has zipper disease and I wish I had sent him to JanSport Camp over the summer while he was on vacation because now school has started and there's no going to school without him). I know we had stashed Blue somewhere where the cats couldn't sit on him and cover him in fur, but I just couldn't remember where. I almost had to miss my first day of school because I couldn't find him. First days of school without Blue just don't happen. They just don't.
I recently re-watched HP 7.2 (that's Harry Potter 7 part 2 for all you non-Harry obsessors) and the part with the dragon escaping Gringotts always makes me so sad. Poor dragon. And whenever I watch HP 7.2 I'm reminded that the saga is over and that also makes me sad. I grew up with Harry. We were 11 at the same time and now, no more adventures for me to escape to. And the, "Not my daughter you bitch!" part, to this day, makes me squeal with glee.
Apples with peanutbutter is the best snack ever. I sometimes have 2 apples a day. My sister also reintroduced avocado into my life. I now have that pretty regularly too and it is delicious. Delicious I tell you.
We're building a house. Yay! It's a nightmare. For those of you who have never purchased a home before, it's a bloody freaking nightmare. Looking at houses, walking through them, going to the design center to pick out all your preferences etc, all that is the fun stuff, and it lasts for about 5nanoseconds. All the other stuff, the loan stuff, the paperwork, the applications, the meetings, the projection of what our first born child will look like and their estimated IQ, all that crap is just ridiculous. It'll be worth it all in the end, of course, but for now when someone calls us and says, "Jump!" we just say, "How high?!"
In case you were wondering, always ice using a barrier between yourself and the ice. If you don't, and then fall asleep with the ice on, you could give yourself frost bite. Trust me, I know. My skin is currently peeling off in the place where the frost bite is healing. It's like a burn, but in a way a little bit more gross.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Hiking
We went hiking this past weekend (we being myself, the husband and my sister). My sister summed it up the best. 1) if you mentally prepare yourself, you can tolerate anything. 2) 2/3 of the battle of peeing in the wilderness if you're a chick is just getting the guts up to do it.
It's hot here. It's the desert. And it's also monsoon season, so it's humid. When we decided to go hiking we all knew a couple things. First, we knew we would have to be up early to beat the heat. Second, we knew we would be hot and sweaty and really gross by the time we got back to the car to head home. But we did it, and it was a blast. We've all been concerned with how my sister is coping and adjusting to the heat (maybe overly concerned or needlessly concerned) and after a bit of trying to figure out what her new water intake should be down here in the desert and the occasional bout of heat rash, she's basically a desert rat now. There was a chance of a monsoon hitting while we were out hiking and so we played around with the idea of not going until the following weekend. But it's monsoon season, dude, and so if we didn't go outside because of the risk of rain, we would never go outside right now (no seriously, the weather people are constantly saying that there's a 40% chance of storms hitting the city, and most of the time they never make it). So we said, fuck it. If it rains, it rains. If it's hot, it's hot. If it's humid, it's humid. No matter the conditions, if you mentally prepare yourself for being hot, sweaty, sticky, and possibly soaked through to the skin hauling a backpack that is also sweaty, heavy and possibly soaked through with rain water, when those conditions happen in real life, you can handle them because you've already accepted that as your reality.
Hot it was, humid it was, soaked through with sweat we were, raining it was not. The falls we hiked to were completely dry with just patches of the dirtiest water I have ever seen that were being happily inhabited by the world's largest wasps and a ton of mosquitos. Regardless of that though, we still had a great time. We took lots of pictures, Juan pointed out all the cool wilderness stuff that us non-natives wouldn't think to look for (snake holes, cacti, and OMG THE LARGEST FUCKING CENTIPEDE IN THE WORLD - blar it was so inappropriate).
While Aud and Juan went rock climbing for a bit after lunch, I was realizing that I was well hydrated, and was just about to steal down to some lower and empty pools and go pee. Then I realized that it might not be the best idea to just disappear and not tell anyone where I was, but I certainly wasn't about to announce that I was going to go pee, and then of course if I went alone, what if someone was coming down there to do the same thing and then omg I had no one to create a diversion?? So I waited until they came back and Aud and I went "exploring."
It took me FOREVER to find a place I was comfortable with. For dudes, they can stand and face a wall to pee and they basically have all the privacy they need. For chicks, you have to pull your pants down, and squat somewhere, which means that you need bushes, not trees, to create any sort of privacy, and then of course I have flashbacks to a Grey's Anatomy episode where Addison goes to pee in the woods and then gets poison oak all over her lady parts. After romping around for a while and my situation was getting dire, my sister just looks at me and goes, "Dude, you just gotta do it." So I did. And two things became immediately apparent to me. 1) peeing in the wilderness is not as complicated as it sounds or as stressful as we make it out to be. Even if you don't hike often and you have only ever peed in first world facilities, you figure out how not to pee on yourself and which way to face and what angle to hold yourself pretty quickly. 2) the hardest part of peeing in the wilderness, by far, is just getting the guts up to do it. There is no total privacy, there are people who may walk by, you're in a freaking valley with the trail up above you so someone can always see you, but you just have to stop freaking out about all of that and just effing do it. You just gotta pull your pants down, pop a squat, and get it over with. It may be the longest 25seconds of your life with your ass hanging out in the open, but it is only 25 seconds, and you're done before you know it, and probably before anyone has the time to spot you and realize what you're doing.
*Edited to add:
AND, we had these fabulous hats that kept us from getting burned to a crisp!
It's hot here. It's the desert. And it's also monsoon season, so it's humid. When we decided to go hiking we all knew a couple things. First, we knew we would have to be up early to beat the heat. Second, we knew we would be hot and sweaty and really gross by the time we got back to the car to head home. But we did it, and it was a blast. We've all been concerned with how my sister is coping and adjusting to the heat (maybe overly concerned or needlessly concerned) and after a bit of trying to figure out what her new water intake should be down here in the desert and the occasional bout of heat rash, she's basically a desert rat now. There was a chance of a monsoon hitting while we were out hiking and so we played around with the idea of not going until the following weekend. But it's monsoon season, dude, and so if we didn't go outside because of the risk of rain, we would never go outside right now (no seriously, the weather people are constantly saying that there's a 40% chance of storms hitting the city, and most of the time they never make it). So we said, fuck it. If it rains, it rains. If it's hot, it's hot. If it's humid, it's humid. No matter the conditions, if you mentally prepare yourself for being hot, sweaty, sticky, and possibly soaked through to the skin hauling a backpack that is also sweaty, heavy and possibly soaked through with rain water, when those conditions happen in real life, you can handle them because you've already accepted that as your reality.
Hot it was, humid it was, soaked through with sweat we were, raining it was not. The falls we hiked to were completely dry with just patches of the dirtiest water I have ever seen that were being happily inhabited by the world's largest wasps and a ton of mosquitos. Regardless of that though, we still had a great time. We took lots of pictures, Juan pointed out all the cool wilderness stuff that us non-natives wouldn't think to look for (snake holes, cacti, and OMG THE LARGEST FUCKING CENTIPEDE IN THE WORLD - blar it was so inappropriate).
While Aud and Juan went rock climbing for a bit after lunch, I was realizing that I was well hydrated, and was just about to steal down to some lower and empty pools and go pee. Then I realized that it might not be the best idea to just disappear and not tell anyone where I was, but I certainly wasn't about to announce that I was going to go pee, and then of course if I went alone, what if someone was coming down there to do the same thing and then omg I had no one to create a diversion?? So I waited until they came back and Aud and I went "exploring."
It took me FOREVER to find a place I was comfortable with. For dudes, they can stand and face a wall to pee and they basically have all the privacy they need. For chicks, you have to pull your pants down, and squat somewhere, which means that you need bushes, not trees, to create any sort of privacy, and then of course I have flashbacks to a Grey's Anatomy episode where Addison goes to pee in the woods and then gets poison oak all over her lady parts. After romping around for a while and my situation was getting dire, my sister just looks at me and goes, "Dude, you just gotta do it." So I did. And two things became immediately apparent to me. 1) peeing in the wilderness is not as complicated as it sounds or as stressful as we make it out to be. Even if you don't hike often and you have only ever peed in first world facilities, you figure out how not to pee on yourself and which way to face and what angle to hold yourself pretty quickly. 2) the hardest part of peeing in the wilderness, by far, is just getting the guts up to do it. There is no total privacy, there are people who may walk by, you're in a freaking valley with the trail up above you so someone can always see you, but you just have to stop freaking out about all of that and just effing do it. You just gotta pull your pants down, pop a squat, and get it over with. It may be the longest 25seconds of your life with your ass hanging out in the open, but it is only 25 seconds, and you're done before you know it, and probably before anyone has the time to spot you and realize what you're doing.
*Edited to add:
AND, we had these fabulous hats that kept us from getting burned to a crisp!
Friday, June 29, 2012
Roller Skating
In short, not as easy as I remember.
Our dear friend, Jen, had the brilliant idea to host her birthday party at a roller skating rink. Pretty sure I haven't been on roller skates since I was a teenager but I know I have strong legs, and my balance is decent, so I figured it would be relatively easy. Oh how wrong was I.
I knew I was in trouble when, mind you I'm sitting on a bench, I was putting the skates on I almost fell on my freaking face. As a fitness person, who loves squats, and whose quads are way stronger than my calves, my natural instinct is to put all my weight on my heels, especially when I lose my balance. But when you do that in skates it forces you on to the back two wheels and propels that foot forward and then you fall. While I was tying to lace up my skates I put too much weight in my heel and my foot shot out from underneath me and I totally almost ate it. Standing wasn't too bad, but moving, impossible.
I knew that the key was to keep my knees slightly bent. Somehow that didn't help because at one point I was like, I'm in an effing squat and about to fall over still. I also found out that going fast, while scary, is way easier than going slow. Proficient skaters can do the cross over foot thing to turn, I cannot. I keep both feet on the ground as much as possible. So I had to do a lot leaning and toe steering and the outside of my calves immediately started to burn. Oh my god, my legs got such a good work out.
There were of course those people who were AMAZING on skates. I don't go to roller rinks often, hardly ever, but you figure out pretty quickly that the people who don't know what the fuck they're doing stick to the walls, and the people who do know what they're doing, stay toward the middle. I was a wall hugger for sure. But there was that guy who would speed by within inches of me, making me jump and grab the wall for dear life. A friend in our party, a former derby girl, said she had to restrain herself from doing a hip check every time he came by. Thanks doll, I appreciate that.
But there was this one guy, this older guy, with glasses and greying hair who was such a sweetie, the kind of guy who would skate forward holding some terrified stranger's hands just so they could skate backward. He was that guy would would go to the center of the rink and do fancy spins and clap and dance to the music. And he was that guy who had that car, that old, vintage car with the super loud start and the custom paint job. He was also that guy that was kind enough to join us for our trunk cake party afterwards (because the stupid roller rink wouldn't let us bring birthday cake in without paying a party deposit...)
Our dear friend, Jen, had the brilliant idea to host her birthday party at a roller skating rink. Pretty sure I haven't been on roller skates since I was a teenager but I know I have strong legs, and my balance is decent, so I figured it would be relatively easy. Oh how wrong was I.
I knew I was in trouble when, mind you I'm sitting on a bench, I was putting the skates on I almost fell on my freaking face. As a fitness person, who loves squats, and whose quads are way stronger than my calves, my natural instinct is to put all my weight on my heels, especially when I lose my balance. But when you do that in skates it forces you on to the back two wheels and propels that foot forward and then you fall. While I was tying to lace up my skates I put too much weight in my heel and my foot shot out from underneath me and I totally almost ate it. Standing wasn't too bad, but moving, impossible.
I knew that the key was to keep my knees slightly bent. Somehow that didn't help because at one point I was like, I'm in an effing squat and about to fall over still. I also found out that going fast, while scary, is way easier than going slow. Proficient skaters can do the cross over foot thing to turn, I cannot. I keep both feet on the ground as much as possible. So I had to do a lot leaning and toe steering and the outside of my calves immediately started to burn. Oh my god, my legs got such a good work out.
There were of course those people who were AMAZING on skates. I don't go to roller rinks often, hardly ever, but you figure out pretty quickly that the people who don't know what the fuck they're doing stick to the walls, and the people who do know what they're doing, stay toward the middle. I was a wall hugger for sure. But there was that guy who would speed by within inches of me, making me jump and grab the wall for dear life. A friend in our party, a former derby girl, said she had to restrain herself from doing a hip check every time he came by. Thanks doll, I appreciate that.
But there was this one guy, this older guy, with glasses and greying hair who was such a sweetie, the kind of guy who would skate forward holding some terrified stranger's hands just so they could skate backward. He was that guy would would go to the center of the rink and do fancy spins and clap and dance to the music. And he was that guy who had that car, that old, vintage car with the super loud start and the custom paint job. He was also that guy that was kind enough to join us for our trunk cake party afterwards (because the stupid roller rink wouldn't let us bring birthday cake in without paying a party deposit...)
Happy Birthday Jen!
Friday, June 22, 2012
Sometimes You Just Need a Little Kick In The...
FACE! Happy Friday! And go get you some bad assness!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Belly Dance
Even though I'm not working a 40 hour week (and even when I had a 40hour a week job, I was still doing like, 50hour weeks...) I'm still pretty busy. I'm just a different kind of busy. Instead of being in an office and at a desk writing progress notes and diffusing mental health crises, I'm busy studying for my personal trainer exam, finding new music to choreograph to, choreographing new routines etc. One thing that has become painfully clear to me is that I have been seriously neglecting my creative side.
It became really clear to me because I was finding myself overwhelmed with needing to produce creative material (ie new Zumba routines etc). Usually the way I choreograph is by listening to a piece of music, breaking it down and letting my body just do what it wants, then I write it down, then I polish it up. I usually don't have to think about it, I just move. Right now I have a ton of music I want to use, and I want something different, a new move, a certain vibe, but I've been drawing blanks on how to express it. My body wants to move, but it stutters trying to find figure out how. After getting super frustrated, I accepted the fact that I need to study up, I need to get moving again, and not just in the gym, in dance classes. 'Cuz spending countless hours drooling over the keyboard while watching youtube videos of mostly botched Zumba routines (seriously my fellow Zumba instructors. I love you on principal, but post your good videos, with your good routines, and your good sound quality and with picture quality that isn't always shaking or blurry. Half the time I can't even see you because you put the camera behind a student's butt, or on the floor in front of your feet. I love you, but please use your common sense) is just killing my brain cells.
So I decided to start venturing into the dance world again. I took 1 year of professionally taught dance (sorta, it was a hip hop class) when I was a teenager, but nothing beyond that. Besides, dancing has always come easy to me. I get body movement, I can fake technique really well, and when it comes to dancing with a partner (salsa, etc) I'm really good at following and keeping time with the music.
I've never been much of a traditional dancer. Ballet is just way too structured for me. Not saying that there isn't awesome technique and body discipline in it, but bar work and turning my hips out makes me behave like a two year old. I've been itching for a good samba workshop/class, but Tucson doesn't offer an decent samba (thanks, Tucson) so I decided to drop in on one of Jolie's belly classes and two things became instantly apparent: 1 - I really enjoyed being in a dance environment again; 2 - whoever out there says belly is easy is a big.fat.liar. I have NEVER had to concentrate so hard in my life to move, and even then I still looked like a chicken. A chicken having a seizure. Jolie keeps assuring me that belly dance is nothing but a bunch of stupid human tricks, that it is not natural, and that one night I will sit bolt up right in bed, do the movement I have been struggling with for weeks flawlessly, and then punch the air in my victory because all of the sudden it will click. I am seriously hoping that a lot of clicking will be happening in my future, because right now I think I'm belly rolling up, only to look down and realize that I'm still belly rolling down. ::face palm::
So here's to new adventures, new challenges, belly roll ups, combined isolations, shimmies, and a fusion of an ancient art form with pop and locks and some lyrical inspirations. For now I will continue to roll my belly in bed, in the shower, attempt a shimmy and walk while grocery shopping and moving my chest at a different speed and tempo than my hips at the same time. Oh, and picking my brain up off the floor after watching videos like this, cuz holy balls, mind officially friggen blown.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Shoulder and Upper Back Work Out
Not gonna lie, the study snob in me wants to get all technical and be like, ::adopt British accent:: "Actually, this would be a deltoid, upper and mid trapezius work out" just to prove to myself that all my studying is not for nothing. ANYWAYS...
Form. Remember that proper form is important. You can do a million of these shoulder raises with shitty form and get no results and probably a thrown back. You might even have to drop weight to do these correctly, but better to do it right the first time, then do it wrong and eff with your body. Right? Right.
Having a soft bend in your knees when doing upper body work out is beneficial for a couple of reasons. One, if you decide to be a moron and lift WAY too much, you won't hyperextend your knees, and you have a quick and easy way to drop the weight and get from under it if you're holding it above your head. Yay safety! Two, a soft bend in the knee generally gets people to tuck their pelvis just slightly so they're not duck butting. You know, when you stand with your ass all kids of hanging out. Not having duck butt protects your low back. The bad thing with having a soft bend in the knees, when people get lazy or tired, they'll start to use their quads to get momentum to swing the weights around. It's really easy to cheat on upper body workouts because you have so many other supporting muscles that are twice as big as your biceps and delts to help lift the load. So if thinking about proper form all over makes smoke come out of your ears, pretend the rest of you doesn't exist, and concentrate on only moving your shoulders, or only moving your elbow, or whatever it is that you're working. Oh, and don't shrug your shoulders unless you're doing shoulder shrugs. Keep those shoulders down and away from your ears.
I will superset in between my bicep work out with this set, and I'll do it 2-3 times.
16 lateral shoulder raises
8 anterior shoulder raises with palms facing down
8 anterior shoulder raises with palms facing in (hammer curl)
16 upright rows
16 standing front rows
Do all of that without stopping, but if you have to stop rest for 3 seconds and get back in there.
Form. Remember that proper form is important. You can do a million of these shoulder raises with shitty form and get no results and probably a thrown back. You might even have to drop weight to do these correctly, but better to do it right the first time, then do it wrong and eff with your body. Right? Right.
Having a soft bend in your knees when doing upper body work out is beneficial for a couple of reasons. One, if you decide to be a moron and lift WAY too much, you won't hyperextend your knees, and you have a quick and easy way to drop the weight and get from under it if you're holding it above your head. Yay safety! Two, a soft bend in the knee generally gets people to tuck their pelvis just slightly so they're not duck butting. You know, when you stand with your ass all kids of hanging out. Not having duck butt protects your low back. The bad thing with having a soft bend in the knees, when people get lazy or tired, they'll start to use their quads to get momentum to swing the weights around. It's really easy to cheat on upper body workouts because you have so many other supporting muscles that are twice as big as your biceps and delts to help lift the load. So if thinking about proper form all over makes smoke come out of your ears, pretend the rest of you doesn't exist, and concentrate on only moving your shoulders, or only moving your elbow, or whatever it is that you're working. Oh, and don't shrug your shoulders unless you're doing shoulder shrugs. Keep those shoulders down and away from your ears.
I will superset in between my bicep work out with this set, and I'll do it 2-3 times.
16 lateral shoulder raises
8 anterior shoulder raises with palms facing down
8 anterior shoulder raises with palms facing in (hammer curl)
16 upright rows
16 standing front rows
Do all of that without stopping, but if you have to stop rest for 3 seconds and get back in there.
Monday, May 28, 2012
"The Thigh Bone Is Connected to the Hip Bone..."
We recently took the financial plunge and purchased my study packet and exam voucher for my personal trainer cert. Since then, I have been up to my eyebrows in human anatomy and flashcards of diagrams showing coricoid processes and drilling how the brachioradialus muscle originates from 2/3 of the lateral condyloid ridge of the humerus and inserts and the styloid process of the radius and to exercise that muscle you need to do chin ups and curls and upright rows.
So far I've had two big reactions to studying for this exam. 1) wtf did I get myself into this is a shit-ton of information that I can't possibly remember and 2) huh, I actually know a lot of the exercise physiology, what I don't know is the medical terms for bones and muscles. I know that the femur is connected to the hip bone. But I didn't know that the hip bone is actually comprised of several fused bones, all with different and funny sounding names. Your hamstrings aren't just one muscle, they're three muscles. I also learned that your body can always create and grow fat cells, but once you have those fat cells, you can't ever get rid of them. You can shrink them, but they're with you until forever. I feel like this is horribly unfair (especially after a weekend of overeating, alcohol, and cake).
It's been rough studying because right now the material is sooooo dense that it feels really overwhelming. But, practice practice, practice. Right? I have so many flashcards, that on the hours where I cannot sit and read with a highlighter, I drill my brain, talking to the dog and cats who either sleep through my out loud studying, or give me dirty looks for disturbing their slumber. Pretty soon I'll be able to sit with doctors and talk anatomy and sound all legit (hopefully).
So here's to lots more studying, lots more learning, and hopefully a passed exam and new cert under my belt come the end of June.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Killer Bicep Work Out
Where have I been for a week and a half? Studying my ass off. I got my personal training cert study package and have been eyebrow deep in human anatomy, exercise physiology and kinesiology ever since. SO...
The bicep work out! I am currently working on building endurance before I go up in weight. Power is great, and lifting heavy weights will definitely build muscle, but I also want to build endurance to gain optimal performance. So I do this with 7.5lb hand weights, and I do the whole thing 3x. I will jump up to 10lbs once I can do all 3 sets without having to stop or hulk smash a bicep curl up and lose all my form.
Speaking of form. Remember proper bicep form. Don't rock your shoulders to heave or swing the weight up with momentum. Keep those shoulders down and back, elbows glued to your sides, never bringing your elbows in front of you, as that will engage the deltoids in your shoulders. Think about hinging ONLY at the elbow. Keep everything else still. Feet together, soft bend in the knees, abs pulled in. Do all of this without stopping if you can! But rest for 3 seconds if you start to lose your form.
16 curls on a 2 count (up, up, down, down)
16 curls on a single count (up, down)
8 1/2 up curls (start fully extended, and only curl half way up)
8 1/2 down curls (start fully contracted, and only bring the curl half way down)
16 laterally rotated curls (glue those elbows to your waist, and rotate your hands out away from your body at the elbow, and curl up)
Rest
You will be super swoll afterwards and for the next day or so. Go get you some guns.
The bicep work out! I am currently working on building endurance before I go up in weight. Power is great, and lifting heavy weights will definitely build muscle, but I also want to build endurance to gain optimal performance. So I do this with 7.5lb hand weights, and I do the whole thing 3x. I will jump up to 10lbs once I can do all 3 sets without having to stop or hulk smash a bicep curl up and lose all my form.
Speaking of form. Remember proper bicep form. Don't rock your shoulders to heave or swing the weight up with momentum. Keep those shoulders down and back, elbows glued to your sides, never bringing your elbows in front of you, as that will engage the deltoids in your shoulders. Think about hinging ONLY at the elbow. Keep everything else still. Feet together, soft bend in the knees, abs pulled in. Do all of this without stopping if you can! But rest for 3 seconds if you start to lose your form.
16 curls on a 2 count (up, up, down, down)
16 curls on a single count (up, down)
8 1/2 up curls (start fully extended, and only curl half way up)
8 1/2 down curls (start fully contracted, and only bring the curl half way down)
16 laterally rotated curls (glue those elbows to your waist, and rotate your hands out away from your body at the elbow, and curl up)
Rest
You will be super swoll afterwards and for the next day or so. Go get you some guns.
Monday, May 14, 2012
"Do Not Give Up. You Deserve To Feel Good"
Feeling inspired and motivated!
FACT! It doesn't matter if you're lifting 2lb weights or 50lb weights, walking a mile or running a marathon. Weakness is a state of mind, not a physical limitation! Believe in yourself. You CAN do it!
Smaller pants and weighing less pale in comparison to feeling awesome about yourself. Don't lose sight of what really matters!
I guarantee you that you are stronger and more capable than you give yourself credit for.
And once that decision is made, all you need to do is put one foot in front of the other. There's no shame in measuring progress in baby steps!
What are YOUR awesome parts?
Totally normal
Your value and self worth are not determined by what you can and cannot do, what you did and did not do, who you are and who you are not. Your bad day didn't happen because you're a terrible person who deserves to be miserable. It's okay to mess up, it's okay to stumble, it's okay to fall flat on your face and then throw a 2year old size temper tantrum about it. But love yourself, hug yourself, get back up, and try again tomorrow.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Leg Day
Recently I did some research on how to lean down the legs and basically came up with this universal truth(s): 1) you cannot spot lose (meaning you cannot look at your thighs and go, "I will lose weight here, and just here") and if you're looking to slim down an area that is quite troublesome (like your thighs) it really all comes down to... 2) genetics and where you are genetically predisposed to lose and gain weight, which means that you more than likely have to reduce over all body fat percentage to slim down that trouble zone.
Now that doesn't mean you can't do some exercises that target certain areas to help blast fat and build lean muscle. But fat blaster exercises (high intensity intervals for example) are going to reduce total body fat, not just the fat in your legs. And when it comes to leaning down and strength training, it's always better to use your own body weight when doing strength training at high reps, vs adding on pounds at less reps. Using your own body weight at high reps will build strength and endurance in your muscles without bulking the way adding weight at lower reps will. And most importantly, less recovery time in between sets of whatever you're doing.
So here's what I did yesterday
- Sprints (you can do a broken 400 where you sprint 100yards, and then rest for double the time it took you to run it 4x. For example, say you sprint 100y in 20seconds, so you rest for 40seconds, then sprint again. You can do all of that between 2-8 times depending on fitness level. Now if you're like me where you couldn't figure out how to get the damn machine to measure your distance in yards, then sprint for 30sec, walk for 1min for 15minutes. Can be done on a bike or an elliptical etc)
- 16 regular squats, followed by pulses for 16count
- Plyo Jacks for 30 seconds (the impact on these is low and they didn't hurt so that's why I did them)
- rest for 15seconds
- Stiff legged dead lift with very low weight (maybe an 8lb hand weight in each hand)
- Plyo lunges for 30 seconds
- rest for 15seconds
- 30 toe raises with feet straight, 30 toe raises with toes pointed out
- sumo squat (2nd position squat) x16
- plyo sumo squat (sumo squat, pulse down for 3, then mini jump up and land back in the squat, pulse for three, mini jump) for 30 seconds
- Repeat everything but the sprints 3x with no more than a 1 minute rest in between each set and your legs will feel like jello!
Now that doesn't mean you can't do some exercises that target certain areas to help blast fat and build lean muscle. But fat blaster exercises (high intensity intervals for example) are going to reduce total body fat, not just the fat in your legs. And when it comes to leaning down and strength training, it's always better to use your own body weight when doing strength training at high reps, vs adding on pounds at less reps. Using your own body weight at high reps will build strength and endurance in your muscles without bulking the way adding weight at lower reps will. And most importantly, less recovery time in between sets of whatever you're doing.
So here's what I did yesterday
- Sprints (you can do a broken 400 where you sprint 100yards, and then rest for double the time it took you to run it 4x. For example, say you sprint 100y in 20seconds, so you rest for 40seconds, then sprint again. You can do all of that between 2-8 times depending on fitness level. Now if you're like me where you couldn't figure out how to get the damn machine to measure your distance in yards, then sprint for 30sec, walk for 1min for 15minutes. Can be done on a bike or an elliptical etc)
- 16 regular squats, followed by pulses for 16count
- Plyo Jacks for 30 seconds (the impact on these is low and they didn't hurt so that's why I did them)
- rest for 15seconds
- Stiff legged dead lift with very low weight (maybe an 8lb hand weight in each hand)
- Plyo lunges for 30 seconds
- rest for 15seconds
- 30 toe raises with feet straight, 30 toe raises with toes pointed out
- sumo squat (2nd position squat) x16
- plyo sumo squat (sumo squat, pulse down for 3, then mini jump up and land back in the squat, pulse for three, mini jump) for 30 seconds
- Repeat everything but the sprints 3x with no more than a 1 minute rest in between each set and your legs will feel like jello!
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