Thursday, January 26, 2012

Out of office...out of touch

Sorry for the lapse in blogging...

I've been doing a lot of this:

For work, I had the pleasure of driving to the opposite side of the State of North Dakota. I hate driving alone. I can only take so much of myself singing.

Due to being out of the office, and out of town - my fitness has gotten off track somethin' terrible this week.  I guess I should've planned ahead like SkinnyRunner does and checked out the status of hotel fitness rooms. But then again, the 6 drinks I may or may not have had might have detoured me from using it anyways. Not to mention those conference meals...yummy!

Anyways, this weekend I'll hit the gym up for some running and get back on my fitness track!

2 weeks until California!

My goal for next week is to try take more photos - I'm so bad a remembering to toss my camera in my bag! And to really count the calories and work hard at the gym!

Have a great day my Blog friends!



Thursday, January 19, 2012

Frequent Flyer!!

Well, I just finished booking my girls trip to Vegas!

I'm going with these two....

And some other girls... we are heading there in May for a bachelorette party! Look out Vegas!!!

Today's temp in NDak. is -13 with a wind chill of -34. That is freakin' crazy!!!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Workout Plans/Weekly Weigh In

I don't know about you, but I need to have a plan...for everything. Seriously - everything. This may drive Mr. G nuts, but tough. I'm a forgetful girl - what can I say?

This week - to hold myself accountable; I'm making a workout plan!

Monday: Interval Running Treadmill/ Strength Training - Abs/Arms Done
Tuesday: Bike 2 miles, Elliptical 2 miles, Run 2 miles (Due to time I only ran 1 mile) Done
Wednesday: Rest Day (yay!) Done I got 9 hours of sleep last night! It felt AH-MAZING!!
Thursday: Interval Running Treadmill/ 1 mile bike, 1 mile elliptical - Done
Friday: Straight Run - 3.1 Miles, Abs & Arms Strength Training - Done
Saturday: Interval Walking Routine/ Strength Training
Sunday: Rest Day

So, I weighed in this morning...Pretty excited that I'm down 4.5 lbs since last Monday (Jan. 9). I'm going to Newport Beach, California in 23 days!!! I'd like to be down another 5 lbs by then at least!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Gym Partners

I'm so fortunate to have an amazing gym partner! She keeps me motivated to push myself - to make goals, and stick to them!

Most of my close girlfriends aren't into the fitness thing - either they are naturally thin, or too busy to make it a priority. Which in my opinion, is great - hey, if you don't have to workout to maintain a fit body that's great. However, I have bad genetics. Therefore, it can take weeks and months upon months for me to lose any weight. My friends think I'm nuts for going to the gym at 5am. Well, I have to - this flab isn't going to fab by sitting on the couch!

This morning, I met up with my friend and gym partner, Claire -

We've been really working hard on interval training and weights and zumba the past year. If it wasn't for her, I probably would've given up on fitness a long time ago!!

She turns 50 this year, so on her 'bucket list' is running the Fargo Half Marathon. I agreed to run it with her! We'll start our official Half Marathon Training Program in February. I'm scared and nervous. I hope I can do it.

I was never a runner...or an athlete for that matter in High School. I was in volleyball in 8th grade, then I started babysitting after school for my cousin's so I didn't have time to be in sports. Once I was old enough to have a job, I started working a lot more. It was fun to have a paycheck that was all mine! I was in Swing Choir and Choir, but other than that - I have no athletic abilities. HA!

I started running about a year ago. I started out following the Couch to 5k plan, after reading other bloggers had great success following. I ran my first 5k in June 2011. It was fun!

June 4, 2011 - Dewey Kvidt Memorial 5k.......31:19
June 16, 2011 - Hillsboro 5k.....34:20
September 24, 2011 - Thompson 5k.....30:49 (PR)
October 22, 2011 - UND Homecoming Run 5k.....35:23 (the route ended up being 3.6 miles!)

Although my times are far from amazing...I'm still proud that I finished these. I look forward to running the Half Marathon!!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Treadmill Interval Workout

Happy Tuesday!

This is the awesome interval workout I've been doing the last couple weeks. Its a 30 minute treadmill workout that includes speed and incline changes throughout the workout to help you burn more calories, build endurance and, even better, keep you from getting bored. You'll be increasing both speed and incline and the idea is to get your heart rate up during the intensity changes and then hold a steady state. The speeds and inclines are only suggestions - go faster, slower, higher or lower according to your fitness level.

Minutes           Incline         Speed    
0-5                   2                   3.0
5-10                 2                   5.0
10-12               2                   6.0
12-15               2                   3.0
15-17               2                   7.0
17-20               2                   5.0
20-23               5                   3.5
23-25               5                   5.5
25-28               10                 3.5
28-30               2                   3.0

My goal is to do this 3 days each week, followed by a weight lifting routine. I usually ride the bike for a couple miles before doing this workout to stretch some - afterwards I like to use the elliptical for a couple miles. Makes for a great way to start your day!

Monday, January 9, 2012

I'm Back!

Sorry - I've been a bad blogger!!! I really want to keep a consistant posting schedule going, but I've been really swamped at work with Year-End and lots of stuff going on at home...


Fun stuff though... Thursday, my daughter turned 8! We had family over for pizza, cake and ice cream. We were hoping to do an ice skating party with her friends...but since the weather has been in the 40's and even 50's the last few weeks, we haven't been able to flood the ice rink in our yard.

The weather is seriously crazy here! North Dakota winters are known for blizzards and freezing temps..yet here we are in sweatshirts and no jackets!! I love it! No complaints here!!


Averie and my nephew, Rylan, playing a dance game on the Wii. Those two have some serious moves!!


My FIL (father in law) has always kept this little tradition for Averie and him to share. He keeps the turkey wishbone from Christmas to break with her on her Birthday. Pretty cute that he remembers to do this.
And the winner is...It broke equally! So, they both said they ended up with the lucky part of the wishbone.

Friday I worked off that ice cream and cake from the night before with running intervals and some ab work. Along with doing good on dieting, I've hit the gym hard - consistant workouts and weights. I'm feeling the results, so hopefully the scale will prove me right. The count-down for my California trip has begun! Less than 30 days, so I need to kick it in high gear!!

I'm looking forward to 4 hard days in the gym - 3 running intervals with some weights afterwards and maybe 1 day of zumba.

I'll post the interval workout tomorrow! It's a good one!

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Day 1...It's not a 'diet' it's a 'lifestyle change'

Workout: 2.55 miles bike + 2.15 run (lots of incline changes and speed changes) - will post later...it's a great challenge run that's quick and easy.

Well, today I finally started my 'lifestyle change' - I was told by my running partner that I can't call it a diet because diets fail. Lifestyle changes are for good.

Breakfast: 1/2 cup greek yogurt, 1/2 grapefruit and 2 hard boiled eggs.
Snack: Orange
Dinner: Chicken breast, large salad w/ minimal dressing.
Snack: Baby carrots
Supper: Buffalo chicken tender cut up over a salad with salsa.

I drank a ton of water today, so hopefully it'll flush out some of those bad toxins that our bodies hold onto.

While on the subject of lifestyle changes...while picking up my daughter from school, I bumped into a friend of mine. She told me that she just came from the doctor's office - she recently had a small lump removed from her lip. The biopsy on it came back as lymphoma. As I write this, I'm completely in shock still. She has 2 kids - both the same age as mine. It's crazy to think that at our age this can happen. There was nothing that she did that would have caused this...she's a healthy, non-smoking, amazing mom. She'll know more after another test next week, as to where the lymphoma is located and how severe it is. I can't even imagine what she's going through. Especially with 2 small kids.

It really makes you sit back and be thankful for the things you have in life.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Baby Steps

Workout: 1.5 mile run, .5 mile elliptical + some weights (didn't have enough time, but wanted to get in some cardio at least)

I was out of the office today, on the road. We hosted a booth at an Ag Show. I packed along some fruit so I wouldn't fail on the first day of really trying to stick to a diet. Well...I still failed. I didn't do too bad, but still failed in my mind. I bypassed the donuts, cookies and bars, and pulled out my apple! Baby steps I tell you...baby steps.

After my workout this evening, I boiled up some eggs, packed my lunch and snacks for tomorrow...I'm ready to stick to it tomorrow!!!

Monday, January 2, 2012

My first miles of the new year

Workout: 4.15 miles treadmill 44minutes - lazy run + the gym was about 95 degrees & did some weights

Today was a fun day with the kids and Mr. G. We headed into town and picked up groceries and visited at his parent's house for a bit. Why does dieting cost so much??? Yikes! Lots of chicken, eggs, fruits and veggies! I'm looking forward to getting started and sticking to a diet plan.

Last summer, after hearing how my grandmother had lost 38 lbs on the '17 day diet', I decided to give it a try. I ended up losing 13 lbs - which 8 of those I've kept off even after not following it for the past 6 months. I will be trying to follow a modified version of it once again - so hopefully it'll work for me! When I was on it, I felt somewhat low on energy. I'll be adding in some carbs to help with this on my long run days.

I had Mr. G do all of my measurements this morning, so I'm ready to start working out and seeing results!!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!!

Wow - hard to believe 2011 is over!

We spent the afternoon celebrating our final Christmas for this year at my mom's house. We had an awesome steak supper, then opened up gifts. Of course the kids were spoiled!

My parents offered to babysit the kids overnight so we could head to a wedding reception...


Our friends...Jeff, Lisa, Groom - Jason, Bride - Darcie, Jenna and Jeff (Me and Mr. in the back)

This was a true ND wedding celebration...A garage party with 2 kegs, lots of food and some great 80's music.

On to my New Years Resolutions:

1.  Fitness Resolution: Workout minimum of 5 days per week.
2.  Running Resolution: To complete a half marathon and complete 1000 total miles in 2012.
3.  Home Resolution: To become more organized at home with a routine of housework, laundry, budgeting.
4.  Weight Resolution: Lose 25 lbs. and maintain it. Beginning 1-2-2012...since it's no fun to actually start your resolutions on the first day of the new year! I will be starting a weekly weigh in, food tracker and daily exercise report to help me with this goal.
5.  Relationship Resolution: To communicate more effectively with Mr. G. and take more time for us!


Happy New Year!!!