Still Playing Catch-Up

Remember how two weeks ago, for the fitness challenge, we were supposed to do a new recipe or food? Well I did, I just didn't get around to posting about it. So, here it is. I went to get my hair colored and cut a while back and while there, I had a conversation with my hairdresser about losing weight and eating right. She has lost a ton of weight recently, and mentioned that her little secret was steaming food with a rice cooker.

 

Needless to say, the next time I made a trip to Walmart, I stopped in the appliance section and checked out what they had. There were a couple options, but I went with the middle-of-the-line Aroma rice cooker and food steamer. I figured if I really liked it I could ask for a nicer one for Christmas, and being that this one wasn't the cheap (and by cheap I mean shoddy) one, it'll last until I decide what I'd like to do. If I use it a lot, a more expensive one would be worth it.

 

Anyways, the first time I used it, I put the two cups of brown rice in the bottom and turkey breasts and broccoli on the top. I didn't put enough water in it, so the food on top didn't steam as fast as it should have. As a matter of fact, after the hour cooking time was up, the turkey was still completely raw. Now, I'm a relatively smart person, but I'm completely stupid brainless unwise when it comes to cooking (thus why I rarely cook anything at all, other than things out of boxes with specific instructions printed on the label). So, I had to get my hubby to figure out what I did wrong. He said I needed to add extra water. Finally, after what was supposed to only take an hour, two hours and fifteen minutes later we had a yummy steamed dinner.

 

I've used it a couple times since and now that I know to add the extra water, the cooking time is down to what it really should be - about an hour. It's extremely convenient - all you do is put the raw food in, add water, turn in on and VOILA - dinner is served. It's pretty much dummy proof (well, unless you don't add enough water... duh). Note, the picture of the food below is actually chicken, asparagus and rice because I forgot to take a pic of the turkey dinner I initially made. But, that's proof that I've actually used it more than once!

 

Well I'm still sick and taking time off from working out. It's really bothering me because I'm jonzing to get back at it. I just know that if I try too early I'll just make myself even more sick and it'll backfire. So, I'm scheduled for my usual Saturday ride with my father this weekend, and hopefully I'll feel up to it. Knowing him, he'd be fine with just a short slow ride if necessary (wimp).

 

So I leave you with this little quote I found. It really spoke to me and hopefully someone out there finds it inspiring as well! Happy Thursday (for all you who are working right now sucks to be you that means only one day left until the weekend)!



 

Fit and Fabulous Fall Challenge Week Four and Week Three Results

Everyone is doing great!!! Here are the standings as of yesterday (percentages are based on total for the first three weeks together):

1st - Lovebug6100 -4% (WOW)
2nd - Me -2.9%
3rd - Bobbi -1.9%
(~Ashley~, Thin Lizzy, Treesa and Fat Girl's Closet chose not to weigh-in this week)

Last week's challenge was to try a new activity or push yourself further in an activity you've been doing. I'm going to get to this soon, I've really been meaning to try the kettlebell class at the Y, but being that I've been sick I didn't get the chance to do it yet.

At the end of this week, we will be half way through the challenge! Wow, it's going by fast!! This week's challenge, though, is to blog about your progress so far and set three goals you'd like to achieve for the last 4 weeks of the challenge.

Good luck and keep at it!!

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad bad bad blogger lately. Where do I begin? My last good post was a day short of two weeks ago! So let's start there.

Friday 9/21
I walked/jogged 2.5 miles with my stepmom. She's been wanting to jog with me for some time now and we finally did it. I kept it slow for her sake and we did the 2.5 in 36:24, which is a 14'20" pace. Not too bad for the first time out.

 

Saturday 9/22

My father and I rode our usual Saturday ride. We planned to go much further, but 10 miles out it started downpouring. We got back to my house soaked and wet! I do believe this is the reason I got so sick (which I'll expain later).


Then that night was the Halloween costume party/dance at the campground. It was a great night!! Check out some pics:

Of course, that's me in the orange. To be honest, I don't even remember the picture on the left being taken. Darn Jose Cuervo.

 

Monday 9/24

After Saturday night's festivities I had to take a rest day on Sunday. But I was back at it for a bike ride on Monday morning.





 

Tuesday I had to work and Wednesday I started to get sick. It began with a slight cough and a sore throat. I took both days off to rest. I did receive the headband I ordered, though! I bought it from One More Mile because the weather is turning cold and I really need something to cover my ears. I plan to buy another one from a different website, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. This one will be a little thinner and I'm going to upload an image that says 'Just Call Me ThunderThighs' for a custom design. Anyways, it arrived in a totally cute package!

Notice the address "To The Wonderful" - um, duh! Of course I'm wonderful!! Just kidding. Anyways, the headband says "I thought they said "RUM" which, if you knew me personally, you'd know is SO fitting for me! There's a picture of it on me a little further down.

 

Thursday 9/27

I woke up early and ran 3.15 miles on my own and then ran 2.56 with my stepmom.



For me that was a total of 5.71 miles! Woot woot!!

 

Friday morning my throat was even more sore, so I thought I should take another day off. I knew I was going to take a long bike ride on Saturday and my first 5k was on Sunday, so I decided another rest would be ok.

 

Saturday 9/29

My dad, stepmom and I loaded up the bikes and the stroller and headed to a bike trail a little further away for a change of scenery. It was a lot of fun. My dad and I rode 21.3 miles total and my stepmom walked with the baby in the stroller. Then we had a nice little picnic afterward. The bike path was beautiful! There were a few covered bridges over roads or rivers and it was VERY hilly. I didn't have a hard time, but my dad definitely struggled and pulled our pace way down. Sometime I'm going to have to drive out there by myself and check out what I can do when I don't have anyone else to worry about. Here are the pictures from my app - I messed up and stopped the app when I thought we were done, but we decided to keep going for a little bit more, so the total miles and time has to be the addend of both.



 

Sunday 9/30

Run for the Grapes may mean nothing to you, but to me it names two huge moments in my life - one day after the 2 MONTH anniversary of my decision to start running and my first ever official 5k! It was awesome! I didn't really feel that 'runner's high' people talk about because I was too focused on keeping up with the old man in front of me (I mean come on, how could I let a 64 year old man beat me? well, he did beat me, but whatever). But, I DID finish and I DID NOT stop running the whole time. And I KILLED my best time. I mean DEMOLISHED! I was hoping for under 40 minutes. I was wishing for under 37, which was so far my best time for 3.1 miles. Instead, I ran a full 5k in... drum roll please... 32 minutes and 33 seconds!!!!! HOLY TOLEDO!!!! I did use my Nike running app to keep track, but it's not 100% accurate. Here's the pic of the app:

Here's the actual results according to the race's official website:

That's me! 27 year old female with a time of 32:33:00!! I finished 173 out of 213 total runners. (And notice that darn 64 year old man who finished just in front of me)

The left pic is me just before the race (notice my cute headband!) and the right is my t-shirt from the race (duh, the only reason why anyone would run a 5k, for the shirt!).

Monday 10/1
Monday was the day that my cough and sore throat turned for the worse. I spent the entire day watching Breaking Bad on Netflix. This pretty much sums it up:

Only I wasn't just exhausted, I was terribly sick. Which leads to...

Tuesday 10/2
I went to the doctor's. Luckily, I was able to get in right away. Come to find out I have a white spot on my tonsils and a wheezing in my lungs. The doc gave me an antibiotic and said he thinks I might have mono. Yay me. Perhaps I shouldn't have rode my bike in the rain that day? Or should I have not ran the 5k? I don't know, but either way I've spent the last three days in bed and taking care of my baby. Finally something must have clicked in my dense husband's head because he let me sleep most of today and took care of the baby himself. That man is so helpless sometimes, I can't believe he actually let me sleep without waking me every five minutes to ask questions, but he did and I'm extremely thankful. I'm feeling a little better, which has given me the chance to finally catch up on blogging. I know I missed yesterday's reminder to weigh-in for the fall challenge, so hopefully everyone did. As soon as I finish/publish this post I'm going to go through everyone's blogs to figure out this week's standings. Speaking of which, here's my weigh-in:

Yeah, that's right, down 3.8 pounds! Unbelievable considering I didn't log my points or work out as much since I was sick, but I'm not going to question it! And I DID weigh-in yesterday, note the date on my scale, I just didn't get to my laptop to post it.

Well that's pretty much it. Finally! I feel much better after getting this all logged. I've been taking pictures and writing a little here and there, just never had enough to actually post something. Speaking of which, I've been meaning to get a picture of my new bike on here.

There she is - Lexi. What a sexy babe!

 

I guess I leave you with a few pics of my real baby! He's getting more and more handsome everyday!! Have a great week everyone! Here's to getting well and back on my feet! (I'm craving a run sometime soon!!!)



 

 



 

 



Fall Challenge Week 2 Results

Everyone is doing AWESOME!!! Here are the standings as of yesterday (percentages are based on total for the first two weeks together):

1st - ~Ashley~ -4.8%
2nd - Lovebug6100 -1.4%
3rd - Bobbi -1.2%
4th - Me -.91%
5th - Thin Lizzy -.90%

(Treesa and Fat Girl's Closet chose not to weigh-in this week)

Fit and Fabulous Fall Challenge Week 3

Here we are, week three already!!

 

Be sure to post your weigh-in if you're participating. This week's challenge is to try one new activity or push yourself harder in your current activity. So for example, take that Zumba class you've been meaning to try, or instead of walking for 30 minutes, try 45 minutes. Make sure you write about it!

 

I did the weekly challenge last week, which was to try a new healthy recipe/food, I just haven't had the chance to post it. Like I said yesterday, I have so much to blog about, just no time to do so.

 

I HAVE had time to weigh-in, though. Drum roll please...

 



That's 1.8 pounds down!! Woot woot!!

 

Not bad considering my weekend (I'll be sure to write it all out tomorrow!).

 



Quick Check-in

Hello! It's been a crazy busy last couple of days. Tomorrow is weigh-in day for the fitness challenge, so don't forget to post a pic if you're participating. I have so much to talk about, just no time to do so because I need to get to bed. I actually have to go in to work tomorrow for a professional development training. It's going to last all day, so I'll try to blog after school. I'm anxious to see how it goes - my hubby will be with the baby all day! It'll be the first time he's watched him for more than an hour or two. Anyways happy Monday! Enjoy your week and I'll see ya tomorrow!

Must. Resist. Temptation.

I'm really struggling! I had to force myself to get on the treadmill this afternoon. Not because I needed to workout, because I've done so well this week I could probably have taken today as a rest day and it wouldn't have mattered. I forced myself because I was giving in to the temptation to binge eat. I looked through my cupboards and started eating pretty much everything I could get my hands on. That's not good. I get like this sometimes. It's like I subconsciously sabotage myself when I'm doing really well with weight loss. One time I gained, like, 15 pounds in a month from going crazy and binge eating. I did the right thing, though, and tracked all the points I ate (which was 23 in a matter of an hour and only leaves me with 8 left for dinner) and got on the treadmill for 50 minutes. Now I'm sitting here, typing on my computer, doing everything I can to keep myself out of my kitchen.

 

Anyways, I decided to spend the day watching as many episodes of The Office as I can. Tonight is the premiere episode of the final season. It is truly a sad day for me. I joke and over exaggerate, but I'm actually really upset deep down. I really love that show and it's going to be hard for me that they are never going to make another season after this. I'm going to write in to NBC and tell them that they should have Steve Carell's character come back for the finale and have my baby star as his son, since they have the same name. Wouldn't that be cute? HA! I highly doubt it'd happen, but a girl can dream (yes, that's how lame I am - of all things I could dream about like money, fortune, fame, eternal youth, being thin, etc. etc. etc., I dream about being on an episode of The Office). Check out these baby blues: he'd be great for the part!

 

Well, at least I did good on the treadmill this afternoon. Four miles in fifty minutes. That's a 12:37 pace. Still sort of slow, but getting there.



 

I was messing around with Instagram today and took a nifty pic of my shoes. They are really comfortable for running. Just expressing my artsy side. ;)

 

I've been scoping the internet for running gear. I stumbled upon two Nike devices that might be a beneficial buy. One is the Nike+ FuelBand and the other is the Nike+ Sportsband. I've been sort of comparing them and contemplating which one I'd like to get. I'm really leaning toward the Sportsband. First of all, the FuelBand is $149 (the Sportsband is only $59) and it doesn't track your heartrate (the Sportsband does). The only cool thing is that the FuelBand is made more for all day purpose to track your overall activity. It uses a points system that tells you if you've been more/less/equally active than the day before, and that way you're able to set goals and focus on all activity rather than just running. I don't know. I wish I had unlimited resources so I could just buy both, but I just can't see spending over $200, that just wouldn't be realistic. GRRR! Decisions, decisions.

 

I leave you with this cute little picture I found on Google+. First of all, it helped me rethink the binging I was doing earlier. Second of all, it's a good inspiration to us all. And finally, it's probably what my kid's going to act like when he gets a little older (we are a pretty silly family).