NYE 2011

I’ve had quite a busy last 2 days of 2011.  Yesterday I met up with my family (lots of them) back home for breakfast – 3 aunts, 2 uncles, Mom & Pops, 3 cousins, 1 2nd cousin, and one cousin’s spouse.  I’m sure to many of you this is practically nothing, but my Dad’s family is spread all over so it’s quite a treat when we can all match our schedules together.  It was so nice to see everyone.

After breakfast, my mom and I met up with one of her friends to do our Christmas exchange and eat at Cracker Barrel.  Normally I don’t stray from my usual (biscuits & gravy & apple butter), but yesterday I wasn’t really feeling it and went with the beef stew instead.  Corn bread or biscuits?  While I LOVE cornbread, I went with the biscuits for a few reasons: less calories, less fat, less sugar, and I just love CB’s biscuits w/apple butter.  Win-win!

I hit up an evening hot yoga session afterwards.  I’m always a morning workout girl.  My introverted/sensory-overload self gets so drained from the day so I can’t mentally or physically drag myself to do any form of workout if it’s not in the morning.  But my back (my problem area lately) was much more stretched out and loose from bee-boppin’ around all day compared to the tightness I feel in the morning.  Down side?  My neck is more tense in the evening from the normal stress of the day.  So there you have it…50/50.

I was extra tired, hungry, and sore this morning at hot yoga…I should have just stayed in bed and gotten extra rest, but when my stupid internal alarm clock wakes me up crazy early I just can’t fall back asleep for anything.  So a nap is a must if I’m going to be awake to see 2012 come around!  Honestly, I’ll doze between 8p-10p and wake up with my 2nd wind…it always happens.  I’m so cool.

NYE plans?  No crazy parties or bars in our plans so as of now we plan to veg and do something CRAZY like get a Papa Murphy’s pizza to treat ourselves.  Do we live on the wild side or WHAT?!  I did just take a swig of sparkling wine that’s been corked in my fridge since December 2010.  Big drinker in the house! 🙂

On a sad/happy note…my tree and most of my decorations are put away.  I mostly decorate with snowmen so I can leave some of them up until February since they’re “wintery”.  I hate to take the tree down because I love the coziness of the lights, but it’s nice to have a lot more room in my apartment.  It almost looks naked…I need to buy that buffet I’ve been talking about.  Maybe after a few more paychecks…HA!

Happy New Year’s Eve Eve

Short post since I’m running late this morning…

My calves and feet were pampered and babied yesterday.  Between practically living on the foam roller and using the roller stick, I alternated with heat (also an all-day thing).  They feel A LOT better today, but are still considerably sore.  They held up during boot camp though, which was also great today.  We did 50/10s: Good morning kettle bells, split squats, farmer walks, split rows, alternating press/curls, followed by 8 rounds of hops (in any form) and in-place sprints.  I don’t feel “tanked”, but it was a good work out.

Headed home to meet up w/my parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin that I haven’t seen in 20+ years.  I’m missing my planned hot yoga session (last week I piggy-backed the boot camp & hot yoga and it was awesome).  I’m a little annoyed to miss it, but I’ll try to go to the 5pm session instead (I HATE working out in the evening BTW…and having to shower twice in 1 day…grrr).

Gotta run – I still need to get ready…I don’t want to scare anyone 🙂

Sore Feet, Sore Calves, CHOCOLATE

I’m STILL feeling the effects from Tuesday’s boot camp.  The jumping and lateral leaps kill my arches and calves.  Strangely, my calves weren’t feeling particularly tired during or after that workout.  But this morning when I got up for a gym workout, they were so stiff & tired I could barely walk to the bathroom.  So, another hot bath w/epsom salts was a must after my workout this morning.  Gym line up today:  4-mile run (WOOO!), arm workout, ab workout, 30-minute interval training on the bike.  My body is feeling a little tired & run down.  It could be from my work out schedule, but it might just be from my feet & calves being so sore – since they are the first things that support your body when you stand, this could be the attribute.  I’ve been nursing my soreness with Advil, a bed buddy on my feet, and a heating pad on my calves – Old much?

Yesterday seemed non-stop.  I finished editing my last dissertation (6.5 hours of work…whew!), grabbed Subway, mozied around Walmart (only because it was next door to Subway…my heart belongs at Target!), then ran home to get ready for my “girl date” at the Chocolate Bar.  I haven’t been feeling top-notch lately so I wasn’t planning to really get anything (alcohol or dessert related) since alcohol and excessive sugar is the culprit to my bladder/tummy yuckiness.  But, take a look at the menu.  I chose the “Very Dark” martini (dark chocolate liqueur, Kahlua, and some other yummy ingredient I can’t remember).  It was smooth and rich.  I’m not a big fan of martinis, so the fact that I liked this says a lot!  After we finished our Very Dark martinis (and after we shared some pizza and a yummy cheese plate), we all split an ice cream martini.  OH MY GOODNESS.  It was so decadent, smooth, sweet, and perfect.  So yeah…the alcohol, chocolate, cheese, tomato sauce, and sugar aren’t helping me feel my best today…but geeze, it was so good.  What better way to celebrate friends, share mutual passions, and gripe together than with good food, eh?

Next up on today’s to-do list? Besides doing nothing I plan to finish up Glee on my DVR.  I forgot how much I love this show.  Last spring I wasn’t feeling it, but after watching them all back-to-back, I have fallen back in love.

Currently deciding if I want to make another pot of coffee…tough choice for a tough life 🙂

“Aw, I farkled…”

Yesterday was quite a productive day.  After the sweeping, mopping, and laundry were done, I got extra crazy and decided to finally hang my bedroom curtains.  I had to secure the brackets & rod to the wall before I could hang them.  Once they were up I realized they were too long so I “hemmed” them so they didn’t drag on the floor (huge pet peeve of mine).  Now all I need to do to complete the “hang curtains” on my to-do list is to hang the sheers in the living room so I can open the blinds without peeps seeing me being lazy on the couch 🙂

After all that productivity and a few episodes of Glee on my DVR, I worked on editing my last dissertation – I’m a little over half-way!  I will definitely get it done today so I can have one less thing hanging over my head this week.

We had a game night with some friends of ours.  Farkle was the game of choice.  Did I win?  No. But I wasn’t last either (at least not in both games!).  Lots of fun, lots of laughs.  We called it a night around 10:30 because we’re old.

This morning’s workout was an oldie but a goodie.  45-minute interval session on the bike, weighted squats, weighted backward lunges, side squats, side planks, weighted ab twists, and hamstring curls followed by 20 minutes of intervals on the elliptical.  It was a good workout and my legs were so tired from previous workouts.  But, I wanted to get it out of the way so the “build-up” of workouts doesn’t hit hard tomorrow.  I took a hot bath with epsom salts to help with my achy and tired legs.  Hopefully that helps with the healing process.

Breakfast?  It started healthy: 1 poached egg, half a piece of ham (yum!), half a grapefruit, and 1 featherbed roll with sugar free jelly.  Then, I decided the roll was so good I went back for another, and some almond butter granola, and a dark chocolate truffle.  I’m pretty full, but I might as well live up break week, right?! 🙂

I’m meeting some friends from my SLU grad school days at the Chocolate Bar tonight.  I know it will be such a fun time – now I just have to study the menu to see which diet disastrous dessert to indulge with!

Awkward Moment: Yesterday, someone asked me if I had a cold because I, apparently, sounded nasally & congested.  I don’t have a cold. This is not the first time someone asked me if I had a cold when I didn’t.  Have I become that nerdy & annoying person that always sounds nasally?  Maybe I need to load up on the Allegra…

Ladder Workout

Merry December 27th!  Yesterday wasn’t much better of a “food day” for me, although the calories consumed were done so over a much more spread out period of time.  Therefore, today’s boot camp “Ladder Workout” really hit the spot.  The line up:

1. In place sprints
2. Lateral leaps
3. Feet Flutters
4. Plank
5. Horizontal Jacks
6. Jumping Jacks
7. Burpees
8. Your choice (I chose burpees because I’m a glutton for punishment)

Each “round” goes for 30 seconds with a 30 second rest like so:  Round 1 > Rest > Round 1 & 2 > Rest > Round 1, 2, & 3 > Rest, etc. until you get through all 8.  WHEW!  GREAT workout!  My heart rate was up to 183 by Round 8.   I definitely liked this workout better than the stations/rotational training we’ve done previously.  Only 3 of us showed up for this great workout because we got 1 to 1.5 inches of snow over night (probably between 4am and 6am…prime boot camp time).  I was so giddy for our first snow.  Odd, since I’ve hated snow in the past.  BUT since I only have a 5-10 minute drive no matter where I go these days it’s not so bad 🙂

I came home and the productivity bug bit me.  By 8am I’ve swept & mopped my bathroom & kitchen floor and have done 2 loads of laundry (one of which is bedding).  So there…2 chores that I hate the most: mopping & sheets.  Although I still have to put the sheets back on the bed (which is the worst part of bedding laundry day).

It doesn’t make sense to vacuum or dust until I put the Christmas decorations away, so I’m rationalizing my temporary laziness.  I’m technically not THAT lazy since I am watching some DVR’ed shows, which IS on my to-do list! HA!  I still need to tackle 1-2 more things on  my vacation to-do list to make sure I’m on track!

Breakfast post boot camp: half of a grapefruit, 1 featherbed roll w/sugar-free honey, and plain non-fat Greek yogurt w/frozen berries, almond butter granola & whole grain shredded wheat.  YUMMMM! Breakfast is not complete without 2 massive cups of coffee (which is probably the equivalent of 4 cups of coffee).

No work = very minimal awkward moments.  Life is good 🙂

Tis the Season for…Detoxing

Oh my goodness.  Christmas is harder for me regarding food than Thanksgiving.  I just can’t stop eating our traditional Christmas food like I can with Thanksgiving food.  Baked ham, Texas potatoes, sweet potato casserole (which is at Thanksgiving, but whatever), 7-layer salad (also at Thanksgiving…), Waldorf salad (that was at Thanksgiving too…), green beans, and my Grandma’s yummy & yeasty featherbed rolls.  Okay so about 50% of those foods are also at Thanksgiving, but I just kept shoveling it in.  Add on top of that the apple pie and mini cheesecake bites and WOW.  Consider me full.  After lunch, my parents and I went our separate ways for a much needed 2-hour nap.  Just your typical Christmas at our house!  Everyone agreed it’s been a really great Christmas – organized, peaceful, enjoyable.

My Christmas started out insanely early (at 5:30) with a hard-core Sunday runday workout.  I was the only idiot at the gym for a good 1 1/2 hours.  My legs were so tired from my 6-mile run (6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) that my weight workout/leg nuking was difficult and very tiring.  And yes, 6-miles IS the farthest I’ve run since February.  Like I’ve said, any distance “breakers” from here on out will be the farthest I’ve run since February, but I still plan on saying it.  So deal.

Christmas Day ended with spending time with my favorite boys, watching Home Alone, and playing Farkle for the first time.  Naturally, I lost.  I was in the lead and doing well until I mentioned that I was winning…then the Farkle & luck gods stopped what they were pre-occupied with, realizing I’m not allowed to win anything and my lead was taken away.  *sigh*…story of my life.

Today was a rest day (and much needed at that).  I drove back home to have breakfast with 6/8 of the Crazy 8s.  It was a great time.  I love grabbing breakfast and sipping coffee with my friends and family and it’s so good seeing the girls (mostly) all together.  We all agreed we definitely ate, drank, and were merry and feel an instant need to simply not eat for a few days to detox.  Sadly, I wouldn’t get hungry in those 4 days.  Oh well, I’ve got some left-overs to tackle in the next week (I’m really bad at keeping/eating leftovers longer than recommended) so I’ll have to tackle them in severe moderation.  Although, I haven’t beaten myself up too much given my recent weekly workout routine and, after all, Christmas only comes around once a year.

Merry Awkward Christmas!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Today started out with a 90-minute hot yoga session.  There were only 6 of us there today so it was much more enjoyable than yesterday’s class that had 17 people!!!  The 17 98-degree bodies on top of the 98-degree room (sans the group 98 Degrees…oh come on…that was FUNNY!) made it for the sweatiest session I’ve ever had.  My towel (beach towel-size) was SOAKED.  I was so hot that I think I might have gotten too hot because I was chilled all day afterwords.  However, stacking hot yoga on top of the cardio boot camp session turned my body into a furnace all day and I could not get full for anything.  I ate, and ate, and ate, then when I was finally full, I STILL ate.  My appetite is a little bit more in-check today although I did eat 2 chocolate chip cookies and I went back a few times for that peppermint bark I made for my mom.

Funny observation in yoga: the encouraging words from the instructors.  The instructors I’ve had always say “You guys are doing so great”, “Beautiful”, “you’ve been working so hard!”, “We’ve got a class full of great breathers today”.  These wonderful ego-boosters always make me feel like I’m a 3-year old again when someone told me my macaroni necklace was the prettiest they’d ever seen.  Then reality kicks back in and I remember they most definitely say those things during each class they teach.  Then I go back to feeling just average, nothing special.

After hot yoga I just wanted to veg and sip my peppermint flavored coffee, but I had to bust a move to make sure my laundry was folded/put away, bags packed for my overnight stay at my parents’ house, church clothes ready,  Christmas presents & food loaded in the car, and a quick jaunt to the gas station and Hallmark (which also turned into an additional jaunt to Target and the kitchen shop).  Target surprisingly wasn’t too bad.  I’m just thankful the store was open given the recent fire in their storeroom that caused an evacuation AND closure for nearly 4 hours yesterday.  My heart nearly stopped beating at the thought of Target being out of commission.  Now THAT’S what I call a Christmas Miracle! 🙂

Is it sad that I measure the “effectiveness of church on my soul” based on the awesomeness of the music?  Music is my favorite part of Mass because it just soothes my soul.  Sure, the readings are great, the prayer time is super, and the Gospel/Homily is supposed to be the take-home message.  BUT the music just does it for me.  I always hope they’ve selected Silent Night, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, and O Holy Night for Christmas Eve Mass.  They’re my favorites and just give me cold chills.

Awkward moments:  Oh. my. goodness.  Last night’s Christmas party rendered TONS of awkward moments: being practically run in to more times than not because I’m apparently so awkward that I’m invisible, standing by myself because everyone else has someone to talk to and the people I would talk to were gone momentarily, and so so so many small talk conversations to count.  Honestly, I could have slipped out and no one would have noticed.  Ugh.  Dear Santa, for Christmas I want to NOT be awkward.

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve!  My first day of vacation started out with a cardio boot camp session.  I was a little more frustrated with this session.  Apparently I arch my lower back so I need to work on focusing on my core more.  Which is annoying because I have a pretty strong core (except for my back…which happens to be 50% of “core”…go figure).  Anyhoo, it was a good workout regardless.   Post-workout breakfast: plain Greek yogurt, frozen berries, and homemade sugar free almond butter granola.  Delicious, light, & protein-packed!

I came home and made a double-batch of almond butter & flaxseed granola (my favorite of the 4 types I’ve made) AND peppermint bark for my Mom.  Both happen to be delicious, if I do say so myself 🙂  Both recipes came from another blog I read and “pin” often: http://www.pbfingers.com.

Since my fabulous employer let us leave around 2pm yesterday, I was able to finish all of my wrapping and bake the remainder of the chocolate chip cookie batter I made earlier in the week for the Christmas party we’re headed to tonight and for Christmas Eve dinner.  I am quite the productive little lady the last few days.  I’m so on top of things this holiday.  Usually I blink and Christmas has passed and I haven’t gotten anything accomplished.

Tomorrow is another busy day: hot yoga in the morning, any last-minute shopping (still need to get a card for my parents and a present for my doggie!), a little bit of cleaning & laundry, Christmas Eve dinner w/Jeff’s fam, and “Midnight” Mass with my Mom.  We’ll split a White Russian after we get home (that’s if I can even keep my eyes open during Mass.  Then I’ll get a few hours before I get up extra early (5:30am early…gross) to get in my “I can never miss” Sunday killer workout.  It’s stupid that I refuse to give that one up, but my week is pretty structured with the 3-4 different types of workouts I have scheduled so I gotta stay on track!
Gotta run – off to a 90-minute hot yoga session that I will probably regret since my body decided it was time to wake up at 4:30 this morning…my circadian rhythms are headed back in the direction of “sleep” so I will definitely need a nap after yoga (after a shower of course!).  Can’t forget to do laundry so I have something to wear the next few days 🙂

Happy Holidays to all!  I used to be very “anti-Happy Holidays” and very “pro-Merry Christmas”.  Funny how things in people’s minds change.  I’m not necessarily doing it to be conscientious of everyone’s beliefs, I’m just being more inclusive AND including the New Year celebration in there too.  Win-win.  I don’t care what people celebrate.  Just as long as they feel that they have reason to celebrate.  [stepping down from my soap box…]

Vacation To-Do List

Ok, I decided if I list what I have planned to do over Christmas break, I’ll be more inclined to do it since it will be burned in my brain:

1. Take the car in for an oil change
2. Put up my curtain rods/curtains
3. Hang my bedroom ceiling fan.  I miss it and have survived without it for 3 whole months. But I know I won’t make it in the Spring/Summer without it.
4. Clean my apartment
5. Take down Christmas decorations (sad about this one…)
6. Take on 2-3 pinterest projects
7. Finally finish reading The Magicians that I’ve been reading since August.  It’s shameful, I know.  It really is a great book.
8. Clear out my DVR.  My TV and I have a LOT to catch up on.
9. Watch this past season of Dexter.  I have only seen the first 2 episodes.  Apparently it’s a great season.

There you go…think I can do all of it?  Probably not.  My laziness and desire to lay around and do nothing will probably take over.  Therefore, #s 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9 could possibly get accomplished.  We’ll see.  I almost need to designate certain days for different tasks so I can do it all without feeling like I didn’t have a vacation.  Isn’t that the worst?

After work lets out today (probably around 2!), I’m heading home to finish wrapping presents.  Tomorrow I plan to go to Boot Camp, then hit up a hot yoga session, THEN bake cookies for our Christmas party tomorrow night,  THEN make some peppermint bark for my mom for Christmas.  I’m crazy productive in the mornings, so I’m willing to bet money that these will all get done.

Any exciting plans out there over the holidays?!  Aside from presents, food, and signing those Christmas carols of course 🙂

Today was a 3.5-mile run day.  I was only planning on 3, but felt so good I wanted to go for 4, but stuck with 3.5 just to be safe.  Honestly, I felt a little queezy this morning up until 1/2-mile mark.  Even seeing a pile of table salt on TV made me a little nauseous.  I was so glad I decided to do legs  yesterday and arms today.  Arms always seem like “easy” days since I get to do more sitting down during my weights session.  HA!  Lazy enough for you?

I just typed this post AND cleaned my desk all at the same time.  I’m kinda awesome.

Happy December 22nd 🙂

Did he just…WHOA!

Do you ever have one of those nights that you sleep SO well that your body aches when you wake up?  I’ve been having those sleeps lately.  It’s not the kind of hurt that I feel after a hard workout or from feeling run down.  It’s like my body is so tired from sleeping so hard.  Which is great, except I still feel tired when I wake up because my body “hurts” in some respect.  Hm…The researcher in me needs to figure out why this happens.

Yesterday was a pretty uneventful Tuesday.  With students gone for break, I have so much time to prepare for the Spring semester programs & schedules and also have freak out moments when I realize “omg…it’s so much closer than I kept thinking!”.  Is it May yet…?  I also bought the 1-month of unlimited boot camps that will piggy-back off of my 10 consecutive boot camps Groupon.  I know I’ve only been to 2 so it’s a little premature to make that extra purchase, but it’s such a great workout to supplement my normal workout routine.

While I was at the boot camp studio purchasing my boot camps, a guy was receiving a private training session.  He was doing box jumps.  I am irrationally terrified of box jumps.  I can’t even step over a shin-high rope without thinking I’m going to miss and fall.  His box height?  36 inches!!!!!  I saw the two 18-inch boxes stacked on top of one another and thought “oh, he’s just going to do some standing push up or something”.  Then I saw this crazy, incredibly springy guy JUMP up on top of the boxes!!!!!  I just stood there in awe.  I couldn’t stop watching and I’m sure my chin was nearly down to the floor.  36 inches comes past my belly button, folks.  I’m still amazed, clearly.

This morning was a “normal” workout at the gym.  I say “normal” because I wasn’t doing crazy things at boot camp nor was I contorting my body at yoga.  I started out with 45 minutes of 1-minute intervals on the bike, lunges, tons of squats & split squats, ab stuff, and 20 minutes of 2-minute intervals on the elliptical.  My legs seriously hate me.  I’m just waiting for the day they give out on me at work.  I picture them saying “We’re tired of your crap, lady!  We won’t be treated like this any more!”.  I wasn’t feeling too hungry this morning so I didn’t eat anything before my workout, which turned out to be a mistake.  I rushed home to scarf down half of a grapefruit.  Then I rushed to get out of the shower and get ready because I was STILL starving.   While sipping my coffee, I rested the arches of my feet on a heated “Bed Buddy”.  This really seemed to almost rid my feet of the soreness…figured one more day couldn’t hurt.  How did I get so old?

Along with breakfast, I treated myself to the breakfast snack of champions: cookie dough.  It happens to go perfectly with coffee.   Then I wrapped 2 Christmas presents, which was a mistake because once I get going (on anything) I feel the need to go until I stop.  Since I knew I couldn’t wrap the rest, I got them out from my closet and have them organized according to “presentee”.  Fun 🙂

Tomorrow, tomorrow (!!!) is my last day of work until January 3rd.  WOOOOOOT!