Can't Wait for Tonight!

I'm so EXCITED for tonight, I get to see my three nephews!  My mom is having all of us and my grandpa over for dinner.  We haven't all gotten together in awhile so it will be nice to hang out.

Today and tomorrow are filled with doctors appointments for Chris and I.  Today Chris goes to an allergist and I'm going tomorrow.  My allergies have been really bad lately.  I've never been officially tested, so I want to see what it is I'm allergic to and then what I can do to make it better.  I hate waking up every morning feeling like I've been run over by a bus.  Chris also has really bad allergies and believes that some of them are tied to his high blood pressure so we want to get it figured out.  Tomorrow afternoon is the most important appointment though, Chris is seeing a new cardiologist.  Thanks to my Aunt Jeanne for both doctor recommendations, but especially the cardio doctor.  I'm optimistic about getting Chris's blood pressure under control.  I know I'm greedy, but I kind of want him around for the next 50+ years or so :)

I completed day 3 of week 3 for my 5K training today.  Not as bad as the first day in week 3 :)

Wasted Saturday

I wish my blog post meant that I had fun drinking all day Saturday, but quite the opposite.  I wasted my entire Saturday sick in bed :(  Friday night Chris and I went out to dinner with two of our friends and even before we left the restaurant I wasn't feeling well.  All four of us got food poisoning!  I seemed to have the most severe case though.  NOT FUN.  I honestly cannot remember the last time I was laid up all day from being sick.

On a positive note though, since I had so much sleep on Saturday that meant I was up and ready early on Sunday!  We went to the Frankfort Farmers Market.  Now talk about a Farmers Market!  That one is awesome.  They had entertainment, a petting zoo for kids, food stands, veggies/fruit, flowers, drinks, etc.  I haven't been as impressed with some of the markets we've gone to recently, but this one hit it out of the park!  Highly recommended :)

I started week 3 of my 5K training yesterday.  WHOA that's a tough one.  5 minute warm up, jog for 90 seconds, walk for 90 seconds, jog for 3 minutes, walk for 3 minutes, repeat the 90 sec and 3 min cluster again and then a 5 minute cool down.  The 90 seconds that seemed impossible last week was a breeze compared to the 3 mins this week :)

 

Lead Legs

I did my 5K training again this morning and my legs felt like lead!  I'm glad that I did it because it got me moving, however I didn't feel good about the run.  I may redo the training day.  I think I need to maybe take a day off in between the runs.  Even on day's that I don't feel all that great about my workout, I have to remember that it's better than nothing!

Since it was so nice out last night, we decided to grill.  We made some Steelhead Trout, portabella mushrooms and eggplant.  I put some Dijon mustard, italian seasoning and garlic on the trout before putting it on the grill.  I also put balsamic vinegar on the mushrooms.  Everything turned out great!

Fish Tacos and a Morning Run

Last night we had a really good dinner!  We'd taken some Mahi Mahi out of the freezer the other day and I planned on just grilling it.  The night before Chris and brought up fish tacos and I couldn't get that out of my head, sounded really good, so we made home made fish tacos!  YUM.  We grilled the Mahi Mahi on the Foreman Grill and then shredded it.  I bought some lower calorie wraps at Whole Foods and then we each topped them with what we wanted.  I went with plain greek yogurt (my "sour cream"), broccoli slaw for crunch, fresh herbs from the garden, avocado, the fish, some olive muffalata and topped it with some feta cheese.  I had two and was full.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 and after a bit of a delay due to technology not working I went for my morning "jog" for my 5K training.  Chris was still in bed when I left the house.  About 10 minutes in I spotted a very cute biker :)  Chris decided to join in on the morning workout, only on his bike instead.  It was fun having him ride by every few minutes.  This morning's jog was a little rough.  My legs kept cramping up.  I probably should have stretched a bit before I started.  I'm glad I went though, the weather was awesome.  A little chill in the air almost, perfect workout weather.  

Back to the Podiatrist

Last night I had visit #2 with the podiatrist.  My foot isn't quite reacting how it should be to the inserts and steroid shot, so we have plan of attack #2.  I got another steroid shot in my heel (OUCH) and now they are making custom inserts for my shoes.  The inserts are not covered by insurance, but if it's going to make my feet feel better I'll bite the bullet and get them.  They made casts of my feet and sent them out and I should have them back in three weeks.

In the mean time she said that I could still continue my 5K training (YAY!!) as long as I promised to do better in terms of stretching and icing afterwards.  She also taught Chris the proper way to tape up my foot so that I had some additional support prior to my inserts arriving.

Chris started his training for the 5K yesterday, it was fun to have a buddy along the route (even if he was in front of me the entire time!)  I worked from home yesterday so we were able to do it over the lunch hour which was pretty cool.  When we got back I made a protein shake for lunch, chia seeds, coconut water, blueberries, pineapple, strawberries and spinach.  It was pretty darn good.

I Got My Juice!

The juice craving continued through yesterday so at lunch I went to the new Mariano's by my office and got a Super Kale Fruit juice!  It was so good.  It had kale, coconut water, apples, grapes, banana and cayenne pepper.

The pepper added an interesting kick and after I was done drinking I could feel the spice in my mouth, but nothing too overwhelming.  I may be hooked!  I have to go to Orland today so I may need to stop at Whole Foods and see if their juicer is working (unlike the one we went to on Sunday).  

After work I went to the cardio-sculpt class and then did zumba afterwards.  My foot has been hurting pretty bad since the stupid piloxing class so I have another appointment with the podiatrist tonight to hopefully figure out how to treat it so that I can still workout but not be in quite so much pain.  I am really excited about our 5K and don't want to stop training for it.  

Craving Healthy Food

Chris and I both noticed a change in ourselves this weekend.  It was a strange, yet exciting feeling.  We went out to dinner on Friday night and even though I TRIED to order well, it didn't work out that way.  Long story short, I ordered fish and when I got it there were TON of bones in it.  I'm not joking when I say that of the 1 inch of fish that I tried eating it had about 16 bones in it.  I ordered the fish broiled, which apparently they don't do a lot of.  She said all of their other fish is fried so that usually dissipates the bones.  She offered to get me something else.  By that time I was getting angry.  Chris's dinner came out wrong, the wine I ordered was sour, so I just asked her for a recommendation.  She said they were known for their Ruben's so I just said fine.  After it came out I regretted not getting something more healthy.  I ate about 2/3'rds of it and gave the rest to Chris.  Instead of fries I ordered the red potatoes.  The rest of the night I felt horrible.  I think my stomach has gotten used to eating healthier so when I put garbage in it, it didn't react all that well.

At breakfast the next morning Chris and I talked about how, now that we're eating better, our bodies are craving are different things.  I want to eat well, the garbage food isn't quite as appealing to me anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think that pizza will ever sound bad to me, but I am making much more of a conscious decision to eat more healthy.  Yesterday Chris and I were out grocery shopping and I all of the sudden had a craving for freshly squeezed juice.  Not just orange juice, but a veggie/fruit combo like we made in our juicer.  I even made a pit stop at Whole Foods hoping to get some, but their juicer was broken :(  

On Saturday my foot was finally feeling better.  As I mentioned last week, Piloxing won't happen again for me!  I wanted to keep up with my 5K training so I did my 2 1/2 miles outside.  Chris was at the gym, so I met him there and we did another 30 minutes on the treadmill together, then moved onto some weights.  Well by Saturday night my foot was killing me again and on Sunday I had a hard time walking around.  I guess I'll be calling the podiatrist again, ugh!  It actually upset me yesterday that I couldn't workout because of my foot.  Baby steps I guess :)

    

Piloxing and I Don't Mix

I was SO excited to finally get to try Piloxing last night.  It's one of the classes that got me really excited about buying the Groupon.  It's a combo of Pilates and Boxing.  It was nice because the class only had 6 people in it so it wasn't cramped.  The instructor told everyone to take off their shoes unless they wore orthodics or had feet issues - that's me!  So I kept my shoes on.  The class was a ton of either a lot of jumping back and forth or balancing on one foot or the other for long periods of time.  My feet were screaming at me to stop.  I thought, hmm maybe if I take my shoes off it will be better.  In the back of my mind I heard my podiatrist saying "never go barefoot."  I did it anyway, bad idea!  About 1/2 way through the class during one of the water breaks I apologized to the instructor, told her about my feet and let her know I'd be leaving.  She was very nice and told me to try it again sometime.  I was kind of bummed because I was supposed to do my 5K training after the class and there was no way that was happening so I went home, took Advil, iced my foot and let it rest.

I'm looking at the positive though.  I tried it, I at least burned some calories and now I know I never want to do it again :)

New Salad

Last night I took the night off of working out.  I needed a few things from the grocery store so that was our plan.  I knew better than to go out hungry though :)  A few nights ago I'd taken some chicken out of the freezer to thaw and it was ready to be cooked.  Well it's way too hot out to grill and to turn the oven on (this one I'm still trying to understand, since the air conditioning is on, but I go along with it) so I pulled out the George Foreman grill.  The chicken breasts where ginormous!  I could really only cook one at a time.  While it was cooking I cut up a watermelon that I'd bought a few days ago.  I've been wanting to make a watermelon salad since I saw it online a few weeks ago, so I gave it a shot.  I combined watermelon, feta cheese, some of the mint from our garden, some balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt.  YUM!  I'm a fan :)  Next time I'd probably add more balsamic.  The recipe that I saw called for olive oil, but I didn't want to wast the calories.  Also said to add pepper, but that didn't sound good.

When the chicken was done I was curious as to how much it weighed so I put it on the food scale, 16 oz!!!!  Crazy!!  I split it in 1/2 and Chris ate one 1/2 and I ate the other.  I cooked the rest of the chicken too and weighed each one and split them into individual baggies with how much they weigh and how many calories that equaled, yes odd but it will help with meal planning/tracking in the future!  Most of them are 7 oz/175 calories.  I put most of them in the freezer.  One of them is on top of the salad I brought for lunch today and the other is in the fridge for dinner tonight.  

Starting to Notice a Difference

Last night my 5K training did NOT happen outside.  It was still 90 degrees when I got home from work so there was no way I was going to attempt to run outside.  I didn't let that deter me though, I walked in the door, went straight upstairs, changed into my gym clothes, had some yogurt, got Chris and headed to the gym.  It seemed that every treadmill that we got on was broke!  We tried starting our workout on 3 different machines before we finally found some that worked.  Time for the gym to fix those machines!  I'm still on the first phase of the 5K training which is a 5 minute warm up, 60 seconds of jogging followed by 90 seconds of brisk walking on and off for 20 minutes and then a 5 minute cool down.  I noticed that my walking pace and my jogging pace are increasing and I'm still able to continue which is awesome.

Little did Chris know that I had gone onto the gyms website earlier in the day to see what classes they offered last night.  There was a new one that looked interesting that I wanted to try.  I was a little nervous to try it though, but I think I'm gaining confidence in going to classes since I've been using my Groupon at the other gym.  It was 7:20 pm when we finished our treadmill workout and I asked Chris how long he wanted to stay at the gym (once he's at the gym he will literally stay there until I drag him out) and his response was "until I'm tired."  So I told him there was a class at 7:30 that I was thinking about taking, which was an hour long, and he was all for me going.  So I went and stood in line (classes at Xsport fill up SO fast) and waited for the class to start.

The class is called WERQ.  It's described as "a fiercely fun dance fitness class based on pop, rock and hip hop music.  The warm-up previews the dance steps that will be used in class and the cool down includes balance and yoga-inspired poses.  Everything in between is just pure fun!  Are you ready to WERQ?"  It was a LOT of fun.  Kind of Zumba-ish but more actual dancing.  It was a sweaty, hard, fun workout.  I literally had to wipe my face after each song because I was dripping in sweat :)  There were a few times I almost gave up, but I just kept saying to myself "just wait one more song" and then the next song would be a song I loved so that motivated me to stay.

A few months ago I would never have been running on a treadmill and I especially wouldn't suggest taking a class after already having worked out.  I am actually starting to enjoy this.  I think what's really making this stick this time is the variety in it all.  It's not all just elliptical/treadmill then weights.  It's different kinds of classes, training for the 5K, personal goals I'm setting for myself for my calories on my heart rate monitor, etc.

Two Classes in One Day!

Yesterday was another first.  I conquered two exercise classes in one day!  Back to back in fact.  I left work a little early yesterday and got to the gym for the 4:45 pm cardio-sculpt class.  The description can be found in this post.   After that there was a 5:45 pm Zumba class so I stayed for that.  I was really upset because my heart rate monitor was running out of batteries and it was not giving me a proper reading.  It only worked for 1/2 of the time and at that time I was at 645 calories.  I decided to look at what I burned for the last Zumba and Cardio-Sculpt classes that I did prior (they were the exact same classes/routines I did y'day) and came up to 1000 calories :)  I'll take it!!

On the way home I was STARVING.  When I walked in the door Chris was just finishing up making me and egg white omelette.........BEST HUSBAND EVER!!  I realized when I was done eating that I'd only had like 760 calories for the day so I added some yogurt, granola and dried fruit.  I also drank a TON of water yesterday, I couldn't get enough of it!  The only downside was that I didn't sleep all that well last night.  A lot of tossing and turning.  I'm not sure if it was because I had a low calorie day or a high cardio day or a combo of both.

I need to do my 5K training tonight and I really want to try and do it outside, but it's SO HOT.  It will depend on what it's like when I get home from work whether I run outside or head to the gym.

Active Weekend!

We had a great weekend!  On Friday we went over to my friend Eve's and she and her husband made us a great bbq dinner!  Salmon, burgers, steak kabob's, asparagus, etc. YUM!  Saturday morning Chris and I went to the Brookfield farmer's market.  It was ok, we were a little disappointed that a few of the vendors that we really wanted to purchase stuff from didn't take credit cards.  We came home with a few things so it wasn't a total bust.  Eve told us that the Frankfort farmers market on Sunday's is awesome, so we may have to check that one out next.  After the farmers market we did a bunch of other errands and got home around 4:30 pm.

I was going to go to the gym to complete my 5K training but decided to just try to do it outside since I'd heard that outside "running" (that is NOT at all what I do, hahaha) is so much different than the treadmill.  It was pretty hot out but I was determined to do it.  In my 30 minute session I covered 2.07 miles.  Not stellar by any means, but I'm doing it so I guess that's all that matters.  I was a sweaty mess when I got home and I didn't want anything hot/warm to eat so I made myself a protein shake.  I combined vanilla protein powder with some almond milk and frozen strawberries, blueberries and pomegranate seeds.  I also packed the blender with...........SPINACH!  I read on a blog somewhere that a shake is a good way to get in your dark greens and veggies.  Honestly I couldn't even taste the spinach.  I made enough for two servings so I put the other one in the freezer so that I could have it in the morning.  I'm not sure I liked the frozen pomegranate seeds.  Maybe I didn't leave the blender going long enough, but they just added a bunch of hard seed leftovers that was annoying to eat.

On Sunday we had our 10th annual family golf outing.  The golf course is right by the walking/biking trails so I woke up early and loaded up my bike and went for an almost 6 mile ride.  When I got back to the golf course I had my other shake!  Then I quickly went to my mom's, showered, and got back to the course to help set up for the event.  I don't golf, but I do get to drive around the beer cart as well as take the pictures!  This year I had two very special helpers, my two nephews!  I had SO MUCH FUN hanging out with them.  It was pretty hot out, so the beer cart was very popular :)  

All in all it was a very fun, sweaty and active weekend filled with lots of friends and family time!

Happy Friday!

Yesterday I had every intention of going to the gym to take a class, but the dizziness and headache feeling never quite went away, in fact it got worse throughout the day.  So I went home, ate dinner and did something I NEVER do, fell asleep at 7:30!!!!!!!!!!  My body must have been fighting something because I usually cannot fall asleep that early, EVER.  I think I remember Chris coming to bed at some point but I quickly fell back asleep until 6:30 this morning when my alarm went off.  I cannot remember the last time I slept for 11 hours.  I woke up feeling SO MUCH better than yesterday.  I have a slight headache still but nothing like yesterday.  Even Chris commented that I looked a lot better.  I guess my body was trying to tell me something.

I'm excited for this weekend.  Tonight we're going to my friend Eve's for a bbq, tomorrow we don't have anything planned (except 5K training) and Sunday is my family's annual golf outing where I get to drive around the beer cart :)  The golf course is right by the trails, so I think I'm going to go there early and ride my bike and then get ready at my mom's in time to help for the outing.

Day 1 Training Complete :)

I know I have a loooooooooooooooooooooong way to go, however I'm happy to say I survived day one of training for the 5K.  The app I downloaded for training is pretty cool.  It talks to you and tells you when to walk, when to run, etc and while that's happening I can still listen to my music.  I did a 5 minute warm up with a brisk walk and then I'd "run" (my run is more like a jog) for 60 seconds and then walk for 90 seconds.  I did that for 20 minutes and that was followed by a 5 minute cool down.  Each week the intervals change to raise your ability.  Chris came to the gym with me as well.  He warmed up for a bit on the treadmill then went and did some weights.  After I was done with the program I went and joined him and we worked on arms together.

Chris wanted to do a few more things, but my hunger/dizziness set in and I needed to eat.  There is a Jason's Deli pretty close and they have a good salad bar so we went there for dinner.  I need to try and figure out how to not get so dizzy at the gym (and really just in life in general).  It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen quite often.  I even ate some yogurt before I went to try and combat it, but it didn't help.  This morning I was dizzy again (yes this is a common occurrence for me) so I asked Chris to get out his blood pressure cuff so that I could see if my bp was ok.  For someone who is so overweight, my bp is surprisingly low.  I'm usually somewhere in the 112/80 range.  This morning Chris checked it three times, the first one was 103/78, second was 98/70 and third was 101/74.  No wonder why I'm always so dizzy :)  It could be worse, I could have horrible BP!  I asked my dad this morning if he was sure I was his daughter because his is high (well better now because of his meds).  Chris also has really high bp, but he's in the process of hopefully figuring all of that out.  So if anyone has any ideas on getting rid of the dizzies (nurses I'm looking at you) please feel free to pass them along.

Training for a 5K

As I mentioned the other day our friends Eric, Ann, Chris and I are going to sign up for a 5K.  Eric's work is sponsoring the run on September 7th.  http://www.theneonvibe.com/  It's actually a run at night.  During the run they get you with crazy neon, glow in the dark colors.  Everyone gets a white tshirt to run in, so it makes the neon stand out.  I think it also said that there are black lights throughout the run and at the end.  There is also a party afterwards.  I'm excited for it!  I've done a few 5K's before, but I've always walked them.  I'm going to attempt to jog at least part of this.  Thanks to those of you who have sent along training plans!  I think I'm going with the C25K plan.  That's Couch to 5K.  There is a free app for your phone and you download it and it tells you what your plan is for that day and helps train you.  I'm excited for this new challenge!

What a FUN Weekend!

This was one of those weekends that's making me have the Monday morning blues because it's over.  It was SO much fun that I want to go back and do it all over again.  Our friends Eric and Ann came up for the weekend and we all stayed at a hotel in Schaumburg.  We all met up on Friday night at Big Bowl for dinner, YUM!  After that we went back to the hotel and stayed up talking and having some cocktails.  On Saturday morning we planned to get up early and go on a bike ride (we all brought our bikes up there) but that didn't happen so we just met up for breakfast.  After breakfast Ann had a doctors appointment that she went to and Chris, Eric and I went to the gym.  It felt good to sweat out the alcohol and dinner from the night before.  Once Ann got back we showered and changed and headed out for a very fun afternoon and evening!

We got massages and then went and walked around the mall until our 5:30 dinner reservations at The Melting Pot.  Not the healthiest option I know, but it was so GOOD.  We had a lot of fun making our own food and mmmmmmmmmmm the cheese and chocolate :)  It was Chris's first time there and he really liked it, score one for Ann who picked the restaurant.  After dinner we went to the Improv theater at Woodfield and saw Rocky LaPorte.  OMG he was SOOOO funny.  Actually all three acts were great.  We all left there talking about how much our cheeks hurt from laughing so hard (true story!)  On Sunday we woke up and went to breakfast and after that finally got to use our bikes.  We went to Busse Woods and did the 11 mile loop.  This was Chris's and my first ride of the summer AND our longest one ever and we're a bit out of shape so to say we were tired at the end is an understatement.  However, it was a lot of fun and and I burned 829 calories so I'm glad we did it.  I would have liked it if it weren't quite so hot though :)  After that we went to the Bolingbrook Promenade and walked around, did a little shopping and had some dinner before it was time for Eric and Ann to head home.  I love the fact that we worked in workouts throughout the weekend, it made me feel not quite so guilty for over indulging in food and drink!  Next up we all decided that we're going to train for a 5K together that's coming up in September!

Tonight we're going to the Cubs/Sox game so at least I have that to look forward to while I'm at work!

Whoa.......Did That Just Happen?!?!

So many updates for today!  First Happy belated 4th of July!!  Chris and I had a pretty chill evening, we bbq'd, hung out outside and watched the fireworks around the neighborhood.  A few of our neighbors had some really impressive shows so we didn't have to go anywhere.

So let's back up a few days.  Wednesday I did make it to the Cardio-Sculpt Circuit class.  While I liked the class (it was pretty intense) I did NOT like the instructor.  She thought she was Jillian Michaels x10.  She screeched at the top of her lungs, was a bit condescending and you could clearly see who her favorite students were because she gave no one else attention.  I'm glad I went because I sweated up a storm and burned 400 calories that I wouldn't have otherwise, but I will not be attending another class taught by her.

Yesterday I met one of my friends for breakfast at Panera and after that I went to the gym.  Yes, the gym on a holiday.  That is a new concept for me!  Chris was shopping for inventory and after my 30 mins on the elliptical I went over to do my 30 mins on the treadmill.  I sent him a picture of how sweaty and gross I was, but that I was going to get more sweaty with my next 30 mins :)  His response was "do two more 30 min sessions at only 50% effort."  At first I thought he was nuts, an hour and a half of cardio?  Me?  Uh NO.  Then after about 10 minutes I said what the heck, I'm going to try it.  Minutes 20 - 30 DRAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGED on.  I had the towel covering the timer and I thought I have to be at least at 35 minutes now and I took the towel off and I was at 23 minutes!  Seriously ridiculous, but I powered through.  Then something WEIRD happened.  At 47 minutes one of my favorite songs (Raise Your Glass) came on and I got a burst of energy AND I STARTED JOGGING!  That has NEVER, EVER happened before.  I know they say there is such a thing as a "runners high" but I never believed it.  I jogged for 4 minutes.  I know it's not that long, but I'll take it.  At the end of my workout I sent Chris a text with this picture and all I typed in was BOOM!

After working out I went to Jewel to get some goodies for us to grill.  Hamburgers, corn, asparagus and mushrooms.  I knew I'd want a cocktail since we planned on hanging out outside and watching the fireworks so I picked up some MGD 64 (64 calorie beer) so I didn't feel quite so guilty about drinking.

Last night we also attached our new bike rack to my car.  We are planning on meeting our friends Eric and Ann this weekend and going on a bike ride.  Hopefully the rack is on correctly :)

Longest post ever!  Finally I just have a quick question for anyone who may still read this.  I know that I've lost a few readers, I was just wondering if anyone still read this?  (Ted and Jeanne I know you do and THANK YOU!)  Have a great weekend!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today two of my favorite people in the whole world celebrate their birthday's.  My nephew Ethan and sister-in-law Danielle.  I cannot believe that Ethan is EIGHT!!  I vividly remember the day he came home from the hospital.  My brother called me and told me I could come over and that I was the first one they had called to say they were home, so of course I raced over to get some one on one baby time.  When Rusty handed me Ethan to hold I immediately had tears in my eyes and was overwhelmed by the fact that I could have so much love for someone so fast.  I've had pretty much the same reaction for the other two nephews as well, but Ethan was the first so I'll always remember it, plus he made me an aunt for the first time :)  I love that role!  Speaking of roles, I have Danielle to thank for giving me a sister!  I think I've said this a lot before, but Danielle has been a part of our family since she and Rusty were in 6th grade so I feel more like she is a sister than an "in-law".  She was my matron of honor at our wedding, a great friend, someone that always has my back, always thinks about others and is always the life of the party!

I did not go to the 5:45 am class this morning.  It's not because I didn't wake up, I intentionally decided not to go.  I forgot that today was the day before a holiday, our offices usually close pretty early which meant that I could make it to another class I've been wanting to try at 4:45 pm (a much more reasonable hour, lol). It's called Cardio-Sculpt Circuit.  It's described as "A full body workout that combines total body sculpting with bursts of fat-burning cardio movements.  Using a variety of strength training equipment including balls, tubes, weights and benches this class works all major muscle groups to help achieve strength, definition and blast calories.  An overall Hi-Lo workout!"  

Feeling Good!

I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things with working out, blogging and tracking my food.  I did Zumba last night and no power outages so we were able to do the whole class :)  My foot hurt for about the first 15 minutes but after that I was good to go.  I think I'll need to try and get to the gym a little earlier to stretch it out more before I work out.  I also made sure to stretch after.  I burned 602 calories so that felt good!  When I got home I made chicken sausage, peas with some feta sprinkled on them and had some hummus and mushrooms.

A few weeks ago I talked about my herb pot.  I've been using the herbs in a lot that I make now.  I put parsley and chives in my omelettes, basil in my salads, but my favorite thing that I've been doing is putting mint in my water.  I usually don't have a problem drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day, but putting the mint in adds a little something extra to it!  Maybe I'll try basil water, not sure how that would work out.

I'm going to attempt to get up at 5 am tomorrow to make it to the gym by 5:45 for a Body Pump class.  I haven't done Body Pump before, but it's described as "The original LES MILLS barbell class, will sculpt, tone and strengthen your entire body, fast!  Great bodies aren't born, they are transformed, using the proven Body Pump formula: The Rep Effect a breakthrough in resistance workout training.  Focusing on how low weight loads and high repetition movements, you'll burn fat, gain strength and quickly produce lean body muscle conditioning.  Body Pump is one of the world's fastest ways to get in shape as it challenges all of your major muscle groups while you squat, press, lift and curl."

The thing I love about using the Groupon Chris bought for this gym is that it gives me the chance to try out all of these classes that I've never done before in an environment that is all women so I don't feel so self conscious.

Happy Birthday and Food!

Yesterday was one of my greatest friends golden birthday's!  Happy birthday Eve!  Eve and I have known each other for a very long time and met through Snowball.  She is a great friend and an awesome motivator!  Thanks Eve for everything :)  Also big kudos to her.  She has lot a ton of weight, works out almost everyday and has truly made a lifestyle change.  Thanks for being an inspiration!

Yesterday I went to the gym and tried a new class.  It's called "Get Strong" described as "a functional training class using body weight and basic equipment to work on strength.  Develop strong bones, control your weight, and improve your overall well being while pushing your body to work hard."  Work hard I did! I left there a sweaty mess.  We used things like bands, light weights, our mat and our body weight to do exercises, each one lasted about a minute long.  I'm sore today, not nearly as sore as I was for that circuit class, but it was a good workout!  After the gym, Chris and I went and did some grocery shopping.  It's always better for me to go grocery shopping after a workout because it makes me not want to get the bad stuff that I probably otherwise would have been inclined to buy.