26 while 26

I saw on A girl and her Mutts blog about her annual 33 while33 and 32 while 32 lists. Since I recently turned 26, I feel like I should try this. So here is goes:

26 while 26

In no particular order 

1.   Volunteer – somewhere! They really make some forms of volunteering really difficult. I went on a rampage of wanting to volunteer at an animal shelter, but none of the ones near me were taking volunteers or they required a ridiculous time commitment at impractical times. So, I am still on a mission, if anyone has any good ideas let me know

2.  Hold a baby. Babies kind of scare me, but alas people seem to keep having them, and as I get older those people seem to be closer to me. I think I need to get over this fear!  -- This past weekend I held my friend Melissa’s new baby. She pretty much cried the whole time, so it did not help to alleviate my fear but on the positive side she cried when anyone held her not just me so I did not feel as bad.

3.  Do a 365 photo challenge. This is going to be tough. I am terrible at taking pictures, I do not even know where my camera is. They may wind up being very crappy cell phone pictures and there is a good chance they will all be of Leo and Ghreylin. Almost a month into 26 and I have not started this yet so It might not be an official 26-27 documentary.

4.   Start looking into doctoral programs. Going along with my quarter life crisis, I felt I needed a change and that I may want to become a PhD to get more involved in research. Thus far that is as far as I have gotten on that mission.

5.   Do a girls trip. Beach trip, adventure trip, whatever I just need some time with the ladies.

6.   Go camping.  I go hiking on a regular basis but I have not done an over night wilderness adventure in a few years and I think that needs to be amended. Ironically right after making this list Jordan decided we need to go camping. I have enlisted the help of my father who goes backpacking frequently to help us plan a trip. We even discussed getting Leo a puppy backpack! I think he would do great with it. He is a fabulous hiker.

7.   Become at least conversationally competent in Spanish. I bought Rosetta stone to learn, but no it is a matter of actually doing it. It seems effective, but every time I do it Jordan makes fun of me!

8.   Learn to knit or sew. I have a ball of yarn and some knitting needles on my dresser that I have attempted to do something with via several websites, you tube videos and tutorials, but I still cannot seem to get past that first row of knots.

9.  Plan a trip (and ideally go on one…) We have discussed going to Colorado where Jordan’s sister lives or to Florida where a lot of his family is.

10. Read at least 12 books. I just finished The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Taking recommendations on books to read.

11. “Blog with intention” I am stealing this one (though I now cannot recall the source!) but it is very pertinent. I have a running list of these “BIG” things I want to write about, I get 2 sentences in and put them on the back burner.

12. Try a new recipe. As much as I like cooking I tend to just throw things together and Jordan refers to it as shlop.

13.  Stay better in touch with people. I have done a decent job at this the past year but it has definitely taken effort. When left to my own devices I am perfectly content with being by myself and not seeing any friends for weeks at a time. That being said I love seeing my friends and family and hate having to do the once every 6 months catch up. I know I need to make a conscious effort to contact people and make plans in advance.

14. Organize and minimalize! Donate/Throw Out/Give Away 100 items. I have the constant goal to become a minimalist but I am just so bad at it! We just have so much stuff. I feel like I do a good job about cleaning up, donating and minimalizing in the short term but as MissMinimalist would say, I am a bad “gatekeeper.”  Things seem to keep making their way into our house!

15.  Monthly workout challenges such as the 30 days of yoga and 100 push up challenge. They keep things interesting and keep me accountable.

16.  Go on a spending diet.

17.  Get out of some debt. I have no delusions I will be debt free in the next year but maybe try to be in less debt than I am now would be nice.

18.   Do a date night at least once a month. Nothing fancy, just some quality time.

19.  Submit something to be published. Ideally a science type of paper but I will take anything!

20.  Calm down – meditate. It is funny how some people describe me as so mellow and even keeled and others think I am completely crazy. I would like to be mellow and even keeled, but I have anger management surrounding certain issues, namely noise. I discovered there is a name for my “condition” – Misophonia. My goal is to be less tightly wound about the little things.

21.  26 random acts of kindness- hopefully more but at least 26 very intentional ones.

22.  Try a new kind of work out. Last year I tried trx, cross fit, barre, bikram yoga.. what will be next? Accepting suggestions!

23.  Be able to do the splits again. It is amazing how inflexible you can become without effort.  This seems like an attainable goal within the next year.

24.  Make my wedding scrapbook. I have the album. I have the pictures. They just need to go together.

25.  Attempt to make myself look acceptable at least once a week. I wear scrubs to work and come home and put on sweatpants, I tend to not try very hard. I do not feel the need to suddenly become fashionable but I think putting some effort in every no and again may be good for me.

26.  Watch the star wars movies… I have never seen them. I have been told for years this needs to be amended.

May Yoga Challenge

 It is the beginning to a new month so it seems like as good a time as ever to start a new goal. I always find those random monthly challenges on peoples blogs and pinterest half way through the month and say I am going to do one, so here we go.

With my weird/ long work hours and long commute it is very hard to make it to many of the classes I try to get to, so I have been trying to be better about working out on my own. It does not work out, especially with some people (etc) hindering my practice.

I renewed my yogadownloads.com subscription and have a bunch of new classes to try, so I have no excuses.

One dilemma I do see is that I do not want to dedicate all of my workout time to yoga. Yoga is great in so many ways. It is wonderful physically in that it helps to make you stronger and more flexible, and in many variations it gives a good cardio workout.

Mentally it does even more, teaching how to bend and not break, learning how to fall down and get back up, focus on breathing, and clearing the mind.

All that being said, if all I do is yoga, the next time I try to lift weights or go for a run, I am seriously struggling so I do want to keep this even.

My goals for May will be:

• Do yoga at least 30 minutes/ 5 times a week
• Do at least one other type of workout a week
• Continue to walk at least 5 miles a day (per Fitbit!)
• Be less reactive 
• I am a known nagger and I know I tend to fly off the handle over little things at times. I am working on being less reactive to external cues and maintaining a calm demeanor. 

Here is what I have done so far! 

I am not including Sunday-Tuesday as they were still April. I did not technically do any working out on those days, but I was teaching CPR at work, as well as my regular job, so I had a rough, long couple of days to start the week, thus by Wednesday I was all about centering and breathing! 

Wednesday May 1^st:

Yogadownloads.com - Dharma Flow

I like to do the classes at least twice before I review them so that I can get a better opinion of them, since sometimes I dislike classes purely because I am not in the mood for them, so I have very few reviews on yogadownloads.com. 

I found this class to be very engaging and intense. It was definitely at least intermediate level, but had some great modifications. The arm balancing sequence did go a bit fast.

Thursday May 2^nd:

Yogadownloads.com- Gentle Hatha Yoga 1

This was my first Hatha yoga class. I was always under the perception the Hatha yoga was "easy." Since I was sore and exhausted from a long week. I wanted something gentle and relaxing. Albeit, it was relaxing, this class was not easy and hardly gentle! It was definitely different from the vinyasa yoga I usually do, as it was much slower paced. However, it was much deeper. All of the poses were held for several breathes. This particular class also included quite a few challenging poses. Again, there were many modifications available so they were all attainable in some fashion but I think it was just such as awakening to what I always pictured Hatha yoga to be! 

Friday May 3^rd:

Friday I was wearing a shirt that was particularly unflattering to my midsection and I went home feeling lardy. I decided I needed more of a cardio/toning workout, so I did Jillian Michaels, Ripped in 30 (week 4 workout). I am pretty sure she must be one of the most cursed women in America. She is fabulous and effective, but while she is telling you what to do, several bad names tend to come out of my mouth. I love these workouts, they are quick and definitely effective. I do get annoyed that she tends to give modifications for everything except for the things I can't do! I have a bad left knee that tends to crack and give out on a regular basis, so anything that involves a lot of leg impact or jumping is a struggle. During on of her moves that i just could not do she said "This does not get a modification! Anyone can do it!" Not to be super PC, but there are always things that some people cannot do, and stating otherwise can certainly damper ones spirits. 

Saturday May 4^th:

Yogadownloads.com - Rockin Bhakti: Complete Practice  - This was a great, well paced, challenging class. It was a great combination of hip opening, stretching, balancing and some arm balances. 

Sunday May 5^th:

Yogadownloads.com Solar Flow #1 Power Vinyasa Yoga  Once we returned to Gloucester, Jordan had to leave for a photoshoot, so I was home alone on a gorgeous day. It was colder than I might have like it, but it was so sunny and pretty out, I had to be outside. This was my first real attempt at doing yoga outdoors! At first I set my yoga mat up in the grass, but I think our grass is too long and I kept sinking into much so I tried skipping the mat and just doing it on the grass, but then I kept winding up in divots. I eventually moved to the cement near our pool on the mat where I could still get a great view of nature, the grass and the ocean in the distance, but I was on some firmer ground. As with the others, this class had a great flow with some challenging postures. I find all of the classes are manageable with modifications, but I like hearing and *trying* some of the tougher apex poses to at least know what I am working up to. 

One of the apex poses in this series was hurdler pose which I had never come across in any of my classes.  I can safetly say, mine looked very far from the picture below- but now at least I know what I am aiming for!  It was so nice to do yoga outside. I am looking forward to more practices in the sun! 

Hurdler pose

I had ordered a Zumba video through a google deal back in March, and I was getting very impatient for its arrival. Finally it came on Saturday! I was relatively tired after my yoga class, and walking the dog, but I really wanted to test out the video, so I did part of the introduction video. I skipped the very basic intro video since I do have some Zumba experience and didn't feel like going through the step by step approach. The one I tested out was called "Zumba Activate" A 45 minute video with basic moves to music. I only made it through about  ~30 minutes, mostly because Jordan kept coming out of his office and laughing at me, but so far I like it! The moves were easy enough to follow, but still enough motion to get a sweat going. Unfortunately despite my best attempts my hips do not move with a quarter of as much Latin flare as the instructors! 

Monday May 6^th:

I have an appointment to give platelets this afternoon, so I knew if I was going to get some yoga in I should do it before work. That being said, I already get up at 5 am, so the idea of getting up much earlier to do yoga did not seem to appealing, so I met myself half way and did 

Yogadownloads.com - Sun Salutation Workshop   This was a 30 minute workshop, so it was some yoga, but nothing too extreme. Overall, today will mostly be a rest day. My body is sore from all of my downward dogging!  The workshop was good, it broke down all of the elements of the sun salutation and really made me focus on what my body should be doing during all of them and ensured proper alignment. I have gone through that general flow so many times, but it is very easy to do it wrong especially when I get focused on keeping up with the class. Since I am so sore, it was a nice treat to stay in the postures longer than usual. 

Doing yoga first thing in the morning also made me realize how tight my hamstrings really get! I always knew they were tight but it was so weird having gone from the day before being able to touch my hands to the floor to 12 hours later barely being able to get them to my shins. It looks like some morning stretching may need to be in my future. 

I haven't given platelets/ blood since March. I tried to give the first week of April but my iron was low. Then I got sick (which may have been why my iron was low.) Once I was feeling better, the Boston Marathon bombing happened and there was overwhelming support of people giving blood! I was unable to get an appointment! Which, all things considered, is a pretty good problem to have.  The people of Boston really came together and gave whatever they could after this tragedy. Thankfully almost everyone is out of the hospital now, though many have a very long road of recovery. I hope some of the people who became first time blood donors and platelet donors keep up their awesome work! 

Ugh! Domain… and healthy competition.

I have been trying to get on board and be all cool with my own domain. I wanted to be all like “surprise- yay! No longer at blogspot!” But it turns out I am not as computer savvy as I would like to pretend.


I bought a domain name and now have NO idea how to use it… So while I usually spend my time writing my super exciting blog posts- I have been trying to figure out how to convert my domain. ::Sigh:: so that is my excuse for my lack of fantastic content lately.


Anyways…. Someday.


On another note… I have become moderately obsessed with my mapmyrun numbers. I don’t even really run! And to any runner, my mileage is laughable, but for the past 3 weeks my weekly mileage has steadily increased and I feel like I have to keep up the trend!


This past Sunday was a VERY welcomed day of rest, physically. It was not even officially a rest day in my opinion because I had to work at Newton Wellesley this weekend and we were a “Code Orange” aka- busting through capacity! So we were busy. I was running around giving nutrition education to anyone I could get my hands on! It was 8.5 hours of nutrition-goodness to the brim! (They are very strict about hours there so I couldn’t stay late to make it less compact.) By the time I got home it was couch time.. I honestly do not even remember what I did when I went home. There may have been laundry involved. I know the night ended like a usual Sunday night, watching the Walking Dead.


BUT the point of that paragraph was that I did not map any walking/ running since I had only been running around the hospital and failed to do much moving once I got home. Consequently, Sunday started my week with a big fat 0 mileage. Now, in order to break my record from last week, I will need to walk/ run at least 6 miles a day.

Unfortunately, so far this week, if I choose to go for a jog to keep up my mileage, I have not been doing an additional work out, hence not getting in my workouts for the week! Whats a lady to do? I can't have it all!

Hows your week progressing so far? How do you deal with conflicting goals?

Weekly Wrap Up 10/14 - 10/20

 Review of Octobers goals: 

• No alcoholic beverages during the weekdays = Not so successful, but not terrible. Sunday I went out with my mother in law and some of her friends and had a glass of wine. Tuesday was Supper club and had two glasses of wine. Thursday I had 2 Shipyard Pumpkin beer with Jordan and Friday was a couple of glasses of wine with Jordan with dinner... so yea, definitely failed at drinking on day a week, but I did not really go in excess any days so I am ok-ish with it. 

• Eat more mindfully: better than last week! 
• I did a pretty good job eating the small, frequent meals. 
• I have been eating breakfast- or at least drinking smoothies, which seems to be a good start to the day. 
• Candy has still be an issue... Halloween candy is everywhere and I love candy... but I have not bought any so I only have a little treat every now and again. 

• Working out at least 4 days a week:
• Yep- I kicked this weeks butt! I worked out 6 days this week, some days more than once. I will tell you though, I am so sore. 



• Walking at least 4 miles. 
• This gets fuzzy... but I think I accomplished this. Again, I wasn't mapping everything, and I hadn't been counting what I ran during WODs which was sometimes 2 or so miles. Its also a lot harder on the days I work at Newton Wellesley, since I walk around the hospital a lot, but I drive to and from work and do minimal walking outside. I decided to order a fitbit one- and excited to see how much I actually move throughout the day - not just outside! I also hope it helps with my sleep issues. It doesn't come out until next week - but excited to give it a try! Hopefully it is worth it. 


Unrelated, but Leo looks evil in this picture... 





And a sweety 





And cute... 





So, on to a new week! 

Weekly Wrap Up 10/07-10/13

Yesterday I was planning on going to Crossfit for the Community WOD but it seemed kind of silly to drive so far on my day off just to go workout, when technically I can workout anywhere. 

Instead I started my day going for a walk/jog (wog) with Leo. It was freezing! Literally- there was ice on the ground. I thought it was going to be a short jaunt since at first Leo wouldn't even move from the doorway because he was shivering so much (even with his sweatshirt on).  With a bit of encouragement he started to run with me to warm up. 

I let him lead the way and we wound up going on a 4 mile wog. Likely partially due to movement, and the very sunny skies - the walk warmed up quite a bit! 

In the end, the jog was not anywhere as intense as crossfit would have been, and I kept telling myself I was going to do at least a little workout at home.. but it never happened, so maybe it would have been worth it to drive to Salem! / I need to find a way to motivate myself to workout from home. 

Review of my goals:

• No alcoholic beverages during the weekdays = success. No drinking since Sunday the 7^th (Monday was a holiday). I had one beer (Shipyard Pumpkin Ale) with Jordan on Friday night.
• Eat more mindfully: This week was a bit of a struggle.
• I have been reading “The Paleo Solution” which I thought would give me god motivation to eat healthier, but it has thus far had the opposite effect of making me angry and eating worse than usual.
• With Halloween approaching, candy and treats are running rampant! I cannot enter a office without a candy dish. I have shown more restraint than usual, but I do have a huge sweet tooth. On Friday we had a work party and I gave in and had a cookie AND a piece of cake.
• Scheduling has not led to the most mindful eating. There have been some days where the only time I really have to eat I have not been hungry- so I just eat because I have a chance.

• Working out at least 4 days a
• I only got in 3 ‘formal’ workouts but I did go hiking and went on a 4 mile jog so I will still consider it mostly successful.

• Walking at least 4 miles.
• I haven’t been using the mapmyrun app on my phone as much because it kills my phones battery. I am on a quest for some kind of pedometer/ distance calculator that actually works but isn’t too expensive.

Any suggestions??  

While looking for a free clipart for crossfit I came across this image, which completely embodies how I feel while attempting any jump rope workout! 

How was your week??

Goal setting for October

Last night I went to crossfit at Ironspider Crossfit in Salem. We did:

Strength:
Deadlifts: 115# 5 sets of 3 reps
Skill:
Handstand wall walk ups
WOD:
5 rounds of:
15 hand release push ups
10 kettlebell swings (20#)
5 back squats (45#)
Time: 12:27 minutes
Tonight my plan is to try out hot yoga for the first time… I am not sure if it is actually Bikram or not- but we shall see! I am hoping I will make it- it is variable if I will make it based on which train I can get on after work and if it actually runs on time.
In a quest to be more healthy I am setting a few goals.
Nutrition:

• Only drink alcoholic beverages 1 time a week (bye, bye wine with dinner…)

• Practice more mindful eating. Think, “Am I hungry?”
Activity:

• Goal to walk at least 4 miles a day

• Work out at least 4 days a week.

Do you have any goals you are working on? What keeps you motivated?

This weeks planned activities include:
Crossfit Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Yoga on Tuesday.

The cold hard facts...

This past year has been laced with some trials and tribulations, along with a lot of good stuff and accomplishments. Unfortunately, I also has been met with a lot of weight gain. I know the reason for some of it, but despite trying to work on it, I seem to keep gaining weight.

I started Crossfit about a month ago, and thus far have only gained weight - of course within the last month I have also gotten married, which entailed a lot of decadent food and drinking on many occasions - So I am in no way blaming the Crossfit for the weight gain. In fact, I am partially doing these tests now and being honest with myself so I can see any changes that occur.

Since I have at my disposal at work a variety of methods to test my body composition, I figured I might has well give it a try. Many are hard to do on myself and I have been too embarassed to ask a coworker for help, but today I did a whole body DEXA on myself with frightful results.... So to double check I did a BIA (bioelectrical impediance) which is generally less accurate- but a good secondary test, so I was pretty upset when they came out similar.

I would really like to continue to lie to myself... but I think if i air out my dirty laundry that would be good for me.

Here is the breakdown.

Age: 25

Height: 160.8 cm (5'3.5")

Weight: 59.1 kg (130 pounds)

BMI: 22.9    

BMI Classification: normal weight

Body fat % per DEXA: 36.4%

Body fat % by BIA: 35.4%

Body fat classification: Obese

Broadest waist: 97.6 cm

iliac: 85.0 cm

umbilicus: 86.0 cm

Smallest: 78.5 cm

Waist to hip ratio: 0.87

Waist to hip ratio analysis: at increased risk for heart disease and other comorbities





As a frame of reference, the last time I did my body fat results was about 4 years ago when I started at this position and I was around 23% body fat, and weighted about 115-118 pounds.

I am not trying to say at 130 pounds I am obese, I do not really like to think about weight like that, it is more about what my body can do and how I feel about it. Unfortunately, I presently do not feel very strong, in shape or capable.

I am not going to set a weight loss goal, but it will be my goal to decrease my % body fat and be able to do more.