Spring Break camping

Hello all. I know I haven't written for a while and I'm honestly quite embarrassed about it. In all truthfulness, I've been trying to stay focused on school but don't worry, I have been keeping up with my normal workout schedule. I'm also happy to say that I've lost 10% of my starting weight and I intended on losing more. Some short updates:

Run4Love: If you've been over to my running goals page, you'll see that the Run4Love has come and gone. My boyfriend and I ran it together and it was an absolutely fantastic way to start of my season of racing. Of course we didn't win but we passed a lot of people (we accidentally started in the back, with the "walkers"... which made me think of Zombies so we really ran in the beginning). Being that the weather has been its typical Oregon self, we haven't had much time to get outside to train but that Zumba stuff was a huge help. One little thing to mention - the website and everything said it was a 5k... there's a difference between a 5k (3.18 miles) and 2.1miles (I tracked it on my phone while running). Oh well, it still felt good to do it and all the money went to support a local organization (Love Inc).

Cycling: Now this is especially depressing for me. I've only had a chance to ride my new bike once! That is for two reasons, 1. as I said I've been trying to stay focused on school and this month was a sprint to spring break in all my classes and 2. it's been raining whenever I do get a free few hours. On top of that, once I got my bike, I left Mr.commuter for a tune up but I wasn't able to pick it up for almost 2 weeks (when it was sunny) so I had no choice but to drive to class. I know, a lot of complaining. I plan on getting out much more this coming month, hopefully to get in enough miles to participate in the Monster Cookie Metric Century.

CAMPING!!!: I am finally getting to go camping - today! I am so stoked. I didn't sleep very well last night because I was so excited. Okay, and a little anxious about forgetting something. This is the first trip that I've planned (it's always been my parents or my boyfriend's dad). I now understand why my parents were always so grumpy by the time we got to the camp site. Here are a few sites and such that I found helpful in my planning:


1. Cheesecake in a jar -

Cheesecake in a jar

my boyfriend loves cheesecake and, when he saw this on my pinterest, gave me the puppy dog eyes and asked me to make 'em for our trip. How could I say no? I substituted a few things tho: 40% fat free cream cheese (instead of not fat free), homemade huckleberry jam and fresh strawberries (instead of strawberry jam and rhubarb), and cheap graham crackers (instead of graham crumbs - same thing, just cheaper)


2. Cake like desserts in an orange - now we're also doing cinnamon rolls but I've seen lots of other sites doing the same thing with brownies, cakes, and other such things.Once again, my boyfriend loves cinnamon rolls and I thought this would be a fun idea (plus it meant getting and eating oranges and I love me some oranges).

Cake like desserts in an orange

DIY fire starters

3. DIY fire starters - definitely made these! Since we don't plan on bringing any sort of stove, we definitely needed something to help us get a fire started. I made, I think, 54 of these lil guys (3 18-pack egg cartons). I really hope they work because melting the candle wax took a long time (I used a cheap 200 pack of tea-light candles that I got at Fred Meyer a while back for $2). I'm praying they work, though I can't really see them not.






4. The Ulimate camping list - Now, of course, I didn't need everything on this list but it was a great help just being able to go through and make sure I had everything. I was reminded of a few things that I didn't initially think of (though at the moment I also can't think of any examples to give).

The ultimate camping list

Yeah, just four. I had a few others that I browsed through courtesy of pinterest but these were the ones that I turned to. I'll admit, many of the ones that I went through were about food because my boyfriend loves food and I'm always worried that I'm going to cook something uneatable and... yeah. After 5 years, I still worry about things. Anyway, now that he's finally up, we can get the car packed up, clean the house, and get goin'. I'm so excited! So I'll leave you with this.

 

Until next time, live long and prosper!

p.s. That reminds me! Today is Leonard Nimoy's 83nd birthday so happy birthday to him and buy yourself something star trek!

It's here

That's right! I finally got the bike I've been wanting for over a year. Went to the bike shop and picked it up but, since I rode my commuter bike to class today, I had to leave my old bike there for a much needed tune up. Then I, obviously, got to ride it home. Some things I learned in that 3/4 mile ride:

1. The seat is rock hard. I was hardly on it and my butt already hurts... may need to get a new one (didn't think of that until I was sitting on it)
2. It shifts quite easily especially since the shifters are apart of the brakes (push the gear to the inside, it increases; push the brake to the inside, it decreases)
3. The tape on the handle bars is much more comfortable than my commuter bike (pretty teal and padded too)
4. Brakes work great... okay, well, they work like they're supposed to. My commuter bike's brakes are not as effective when you use them so to use the new bikes brakes was surprising at first and then really exciting (I won't die when I try to stop!!).
5. It's much easier to carry up the stairs then the other bike. I was really worried about banging it against the railing and such on my way up but it didn't go rogue like the commuter. Plus, I'm fairly certain that it doesn't weigh as much.

 So there ya have it. My initial review of my new bike mainly compared to my commuter which I will continue to ride as... the commuter bike. I can't wait to go for an actual ride with it. I need to figure out how the clip in shoes work. That's next on my to do list. Also, when I get a chance to take a picture of it outdoors, I will do that and post one or two here.

In other news: tomorrow morning is Zumba, grocery shopping, and possibly a bike ride (my boyfriend might even join me!). Grocery shopping because I have little food worthy of making a meal out of (PB&J without the bread or noodles without any sauce). I've seen some tasty and healthy looking meals on Pinterest recently so I think I'm going to shoot for more healthy like food - more fresh veggies and fruit and less pop it in the microwave foods. These two meals ( Fajita-style quesadilla and chicken, tomato, & cucumber dinner salad) in particular look delicious:



If you follow this link, it'll take to the website where I found these two meals, along with 18 other healthy meals [under $3 each]. That's all I have for you now. Until next time, live long and prosper!

Hardcore

This morning I had such a difficult time rolling out of bed for 5:30am Zumba but I'm glad that I did. We started off slow, working on very specific areas of our body - first arms with different kinds of push ups, then legs with various squats, and on to core with crunches, bicycle, and scissors. My goal, beyond loosing weight, is to get through the exercises that we do without stopping to take a break and to push myself each and every time. This morning I certainly did that. After working specific areas, we did a few dances (as per usual), final ab workout, and cool down.

The last ab workout, man oh man, was a killer. For at least half the song we did just sit-ups. Now, I never realized that there was a difference between crunches and sit-ups. Maybe you don't either so here it is: crunches are the half up, squeeze your stomach, ones. Sit-ups are the sitting all the way up, pulling up as if there was an imaginary rope, then going back down slowly. This has only been the second time that we've done full sit-ups in Zumba - the first time I maybe did every other one that we were supposed to do. Today? I did every single one. Yup, pretty hardcore, I know :) With that said, I'm going to be crazy sore tomorrow.

I have some tips for ya'll:

Put in at least a little workout every day - I always think that a workout means sweating so I get so discouraged when I know I may have time to workout but not enough to shower. This week, though, I'm going to try to get in a least a little workout (probably crunches or push-ups) so you should join me in this.

Small goals!! - I know I've said this before but I'm a person of repetition. Once again, I get so discouraged when I don't lose weight as fast as I'd like and forget about the other areas that I am improving in (like being able to do all the sit-ups). 

Eat - yup, I said it. In conversations I've had with people and looking at my own misconceptions I've noticed one key thing. That is, we assume that if we eat a little less, that'll start us off on our weight loss or getting healthy. While that's partly true, it's also very wrong. If you don't eat enough and then try to workout, your body holds on to what you just ate so that it has enough energy. So, eat less junky food and more good food.

That's all I have for you today. It's a bit overcast here but the weather report says it won't be raining so perhaps I'll get to ride my bike to class. I encourage you to stretch yourself and take 30minutes to push yourself. Today is a great day to start losing weight/ working out/ getting healthy. Until next time, live long and prosper.

Slacker

There are some weeks that go by where the only thoughts I experience are all the negative ones and I have no motivation whatsoever. Last week... was not one of those weeks. I felt so fantastic and motivated last week! It was great!! For that reason, my time was spent catching up on the homework that I had let slip by. While I was slacking on posting here, I did not slack off on working out. So, while I haven't posted in a little over a week, I'm not going to make this long (I have two exams this week, eeeekkk):

First off, if you have that burst of motivation, take advantage of it!

ZUMBA-ING: I went to Zumba on Monday evening and butt-crack-of-dawn Friday morning - it was all fantastic. I did get up and go to Zumba on Wednesday morning but when I got there, I found out that the instructor was sick so I came back home, did homework for an hour, then took a 3 hour nap :) I'm starting to notice changes in my ability to keep up with the songs and not take breaks in the middle of songs - Yay! However, I'm struggling with bicycle crunches because there's this one spot on my back that hurts when I do it. Suggestions on how to ease the pain and do the crunches?

CYCLYING: I've been riding my bike to and from class more and it is a great feeling. I can't wait for the sun to stay out longer so that I can ride it everywhere else I need (except the store since I do a once a month shopping trip). I also finally got my tax refund check which means that I was able to buy the bike I've been hoping to buy since this time last year (the Dolce Sport Compact Specialized Women's road bike). It'll only be used to my long rides but I'm so stoked to get started on training for those rides. It should be in by Friday so be on the lookout for pictures!

RUNNING: Yeah... that hasn't happened. Since I've been cycling and zumba-ing, I've let running go. Even though I have homework and such, I do hope to get in at least one or two runs this next week. That Run4Love is quickly approaching. Maybe I can even get my boyfriend to join me (since he promised he would also do Run4Love with me).

MOTIVATION: There has been some awesome weather this last week. I love the sunny weather, even if it is a bit chilly still. Just waking up to the beautiful clear sky, motivates me to get outside and workout. In addition to that, on Saturday my youngest brother had a wrestling meet and was talking about Biggest Loser. I used to watch it and eventually stopped because I would get awfully down when the contestants were all weighing in less than me. After hearing him talk about it, I decided to start watching it again so that the thing that used to discourage me would now encourage me to get off my butt and workout. I'm considering coming up with workouts that go along with TV shows I watch (kind of like a drinking game but working out rather than getting drunk).

So with the nice weather comes a chance to get outside more. That means I'll probably be posting more things about camping, hiking, traveling, and the like. Be watching for that so, until next time - live long and prosper!