I’ve been pretty active on my Pinterest page lately. I’ve been pinning a ton of recipes and craft ideas and I’m super inspired to do all of these ideas.
Except I’ve done none of them.
I went back through the recipes that I’ve pinned lately and they all look amazing to me. I want to make all of those meals now. Some of them are even slow cooker recipes so I can cook them while I work (but I don’t feel comfortable leaving my slow cooker on while I’m not home yet).
But then I look at the ingredients and realize that I have to do a shopping trip just to get those things. I don’t keep a very stocked fridge or pantry, but I feel like I have to do that so I don’t go crazy with food. So I can’t just “throw something together” because I don’t have the something to throw together.
I’m trying to do some planning about maybe going to get the ingredients on a day that I can make the dish, but then when I get to the store, I’m just motivated to get the things I usually eat (lots of salad ingredients and frozen chicken).
I’m not sure if my lack of motivation is due to not wanting to make the food or the cleanup involved afterwards. It’s also not motivating when I’m just cooking for myself. When I have company, I’m happy to cook.
Crafty ideas I’m getting a bit better about. I saw a pin about cute placemats for Thanksgiving. I went out and got all the things needed to make them and I’ll be working on them on the weekend (it involves multiple coats of paint so I want a day that I’m free to work on this). I’m much more willing to fail with crafty ideas than I am with food.
Everything looks so beautiful on Pinterest and not necessarily achievable by “normal” people. There are even websites devoted to Pinterest fail. I understand that with many things that are pinned on there, failure is almost inevitable because many pins are done by professionals.
I just have to get over myself and take the risk at making these foods I’ve pinned and maybe I can become a Pinterest success story!
This one is to get a free pair of Nike IDs (and who doesn’t want to get some free workout shoes?)! There are a lot of rules to this challenge, but I’m going to make a checklist for myself so I make sure that I complete all the tasks.
The first part of the challenge is to go to 15 workouts between November 17th and December 17th. If I had all my regular workouts each week, that still wouldn’t be enough. Plus, one workout the week of Thanksgiving is going to be at a different location. So in order to complete this task, I know I’ll have to add a 4th workout a few times. I’m looking at maybe adding a few Saturdays in there, but again, I’m going to make a checklist so I can make sure that I get all 15 workouts in there.
Then I also have to post 7 photos on Instagram. That actually shouldn’t be a problem. When I was working out during my personal 8 week challenge, part of my deal with Orangetheory was to post a photo on Instagram after every class I attended. This time, there are rules and themes to each photo, but I’ve looked at the list and they shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, I think it will be pretty fun!
The 3rd rule of the challenge is to complete 2 Monday Challenges. This will be the easiest thing for me to do. With the exception of the first week of Monday Challenges (where the instructor forgot to mentioned the Challenge), I’ve done the challenges every week. And I have no intention of stopping!
The final rule is something that I need help with. I must have 3 friends come with me to class over the 30 day challenge. So far, I’ve had a bunch of friends say that they want to go, but it’s hard to get people to commit to a certain date. And even though not all 3 guests have to come to the same workout, I need those 3 guests to be there before December 17th.
So I’m putting it out there that I would love some blog readers to come work out with me between November 17th and December 17th. I would love the support and I need it in order to win free shoes!
Posted onNovember 12, 2014|Comments Off on Doubling Up On Pain (or Physical and Mental Pain Together)
Yesterday was definitely not a good day for me. I’m still dealing with the blister issue from my 5K. It’s gotten worse and it’s starting to get painful to put my foot all the way down. I can’t really do too much for it right now because it just needs time to heal. But I’m not wearing shoes with backs on them unless I have to (like for my workouts). I’m putting as little pressure and stress on my skin as possible.
Then, if that wasn’t enough, I’m having some serious hip issues. Part of it is from the race because I pushed myself and then spent time being inactive after that (I had to babysit that evening and spent my time on the couch listening to the baby sleep). But it’s also due to weather issues and the change in pressure in the air. I’m back to regulating my pain killers like I do at times and making sure that I’m always medicated (3 of my painkillers a day equals 24 hours of being medicated).
This was one of the panic attacks that I can’t explain (I’m not going to the dentist or flying anytime soon). This wasn’t the worst one I’ve had lately, so that was good. And the timing was not bad since the attack started right after I was done with my work shift.
But it was still annoying.
I went and tried to lay down on my bed to make the dizziness stop but that seemed to make it worse. So I sat on my bed with my eyes closed and tried to focus on anything besides the feeling of impending doom and like I was about to die.
The attack ended up only lasting about 45 minutes and afterwards I was able to get back to my day (I usually am extremely exhausted after attacks so this was a nice change).
While it may sound like I’m ranting (and I am a little bit), all of this was just a reminder that most of these issues (not the blister one) are pretty much going to be with me for life. I need to be able to function while having these problems and not let them affect my day. I’m getting better doing that with my hip. But when I’m in the middle of a panic attack, I can’t do anything else yet. I just have to let it pass.
And maybe allowing myself to not do anything and let it pass is doing the exact right thing at the time. It may throw off my day a bit, but I don’t have to let it ruin it.
This past Saturday was the Hard Rock Cafe 5K. You may remember that I PRed on this race last year. I also recently learned a lot more about the charity that this race helps out, My Friend’s Place.
I’ve never done treadmill training prior to a race before. All my walking training has been on city streets, and I don’t do that too often. It’s not super safe with traffic and the sidewalks (if there are any) aren’t too even. So for all my past races, I hadn’t training probably as much as I should.
But this time, I’ve been spending about an hour and a half each week on a treadmill (1/2 of an hour-long class 3 times a week). And while those treadmill segments have been tough on me because of all the incline work we do, I’ve never gone into a race feeling this prepared.
But I had never really been this nervous either. My last race was back in June for the Culver City 5K, and that was my worst 5K time ever. But that was also a race that I did before I started at Orangetheory.
Packet pick up on Friday was very easy. It was the same place it was last year, so I was able to get in and out in less than 10 minutes (not easy to do when you are at a major tourist attraction in Hollywood). I got home and got my bib number ready as well as a shirt that I bought just for this race.
I also went to get my usual race bag ready. When I went to grab my personal heart rate monitor, I saw this.
I haven’t used it in a while since I use the heart rate system at Orangetheory. I’m sure that all it needs is a new battery, but I wasn’t going to run around town trying to find a watch store that was still open. So I decided to download the Map My Run app on my iPhone and use that to time myself (more on that in a minute).
I set multiple alarms for 5am, because I’m always nervous that I won’t wake up. Except this time, I woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep. I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t going to sleep anymore around 4:45am and started to get ready.
It was an easy drive in the dark to get to the race start. I parked, and by the time I was on the street, the sun was coming up.
I thought that I would be alone for this entire race, but a fellow blogger, Anne, decided to start the race walking with me. We got started pretty quickly and I felt like we were going a good pace. Anne stuck with me for about the first 10 minutes, but she had planned on running, so after 10 minutes she said that she’d meet me at the finish line and was off.
I was in a groove during this race. I had added some new songs to my race mix on my phone and I was keeping up with the pack of people (not getting passed every second like last year).
Then, all of a sudden the Map My Run app spoke to me over my music. It had said that just over 17 minutes had passed and I had done 1 mile.
I was shocked! At Orangetheory I average about 18:45 a mile. But I thought that maybe I was going a lot faster than I thought. But then about a minute later, I passed the 1 mile marker.
I was confused, but I kept going. Each time the app talked to me, I was averaging about a 17 minute mile but I wouldn’t see the official mile marker until about a minute later. I didn’t know if the course was long or if the app was off. Either way, I was making great time and I wasn’t hurting nearly as much as I usually do.
The halfway point was great to see. I was thinking of this race as about 2 treadmill sections at Orangetheory (since I’m on the treadmill just about 30 minutes each class). As I turned around and walked the other direction, I realized just how many people were still behind me! This was not at all like last year where at the half way point I was in the last 5 people and the van to pick people up was right on my tail.
I got closer and closer to the finish line and again at the 3 mile point, my app told me that I had done 3 miles well before I saw the official marker. But I knew that the finish line was close and I hurried up.
I crossed the finish line and looked at the timer on the app. It said 56:53 and that the race was 3.36 miles. I was really confused about the distance listed. I ended up finding someone who had a GPS watch and asked him what his watch said the distance was. He said it was 3.11. So clearly, my app was off and all my mile times it was telling me was wrong.
While I waited for the official time to be posted, I tried not to be mad and just look at the awesome medal I earned!
When my official time was posted, I did the race in 56:52! That’s a huge improvement for me! About 10 minutes fast than my 5K in June and just about a minute and a half faster than my old PR!
I was so happy to have a new PR, but I was pretty pissed about the app lying to me. If I try to use it again for another race, I might just ignore the distance it says and just look at the stopwatch feature since that was pretty accurate.
I found Anne at the finish line and she got a PR as well! We took some victory pictures and then we each had to head home (I was in serious need of a nap).
When I got home, I took a quick shower and noticed that even getting home I was not feeling as sore as I usually do. I normally have issues with my feet and hips hurting after a race, and the only pain I was feeling this time was some tightness in my legs and the pain from a massive blister that pops and shredded the skin (it looks super gross and I will spare you all from having to see a picture of it).
Even now, a few days after my race, I’m not feeling my usual pain. Seriously, my Orangetheory workouts have been paying off! Even if the scale isn’t going down the way I feel it should, the non-scale victories keep showing up! If I’m able to do more races without my usual pain, I might consider doing more races or even thinking about trying for a 10K one day (I had really given up on that dream).
While I’m still a little down that I was so excited to hear on the app that I was doing 17 minute miles when that wasn’t true, I’m trying to only focus on the positives. And what made me smile even more than getting a PR that day was putting on all the medals that I’ve earned over the past 2 years and seeing how far I’ve come.
My medal holder is starting to look full, but I know that there is room for whatever races I end up doing next year.
Posted onNovember 10, 2014|Comments Off on Weird Workout Times (or My Final Workouts Before My 5K)
This past week, I pushed myself extra hard in my workouts. I knew that they were the workouts leading up to my 5K. And even though I have done more treadmill training before this 5K than any of my other races, I still was a little worried. So I wanted to make sure that I was in the best possible shape I could be for the race.
Because of my schedule and not wanting to do a workout 12 hours before a 5K, 2 of my 3 classes this past week were not at my usual times.
My Monday workout was a morning workout. I might start doing more morning workouts on Monday since that is my day off from my day job and there’s no need for me to go to an after-work time for class (and deal with rush hour traffic). The benefit of going to that class was the instructor was Ashley, who I used to have a lot but hadn’t taken her class since she switched to a morning schedule. She’s a tough instructor and pushed me really hard, but I needed it.
The Monday Challenge this week was a 200 meter row. But instead of seeing how fast you can row, it was how few strokes you could row to reach 200 meters. I did ok. I wasn’t close to what the top 5 did, but I got it done quickly and had very powerful strokes and pushes with my legs (something that is tough for me).
Wednesday was my one workout in my normal time, and then I had a Thursday workout. Yup, two weeks in a row I did back to back workout days.
I was much more sore this Thursday than I was last Thursday, but I managed my painkillers carefully and did my best. It was a lot of hills in the treadmill section and my hips don’t love the hills. There were plenty of times that I had to jump on the rails of the treadmill and try to pop my hip back in (it’s as gross as it sounds). But I was grateful for a crazy hill workout because I knew my race on Saturday would be flat, so it would seem like a breeze compared to the hill workout.
And finally, I got my Thanksgiving Day workout scheduled. I will be going to the Orangetheory in San Diego (where we are celebrating this year) and my dad, my brother, and my Aunt Cindy will be attending the workout with me. I got all of us on the schedule and I’m making sure that everything is set up so that everyone has a good time at the workout. And the staff at the San Diego location were super nice to me and happy to make sure that everything should go smoothly when we come to workout (this will be my first workout at a different Orangetheory location).
This week, I’m back to my usual schedule for workouts, but I am looking into morning workouts on Mondays (that way my day is free after the workout instead of scheduling to make sure I will be done by the time my workout happens). And tomorrow, I’ll have my recap of my 5K!
I’ve worked in customer service for many of my day jobs. Most of the time, I’ve been interacting with customers in person. But with my telesales job and my current box office job, I’m just doing customer service work on the phone (or in a chat feature like at my current job).
When I worked in telesales, I did discover that I was being much nicer to telemarketers on the phone. I didn’t hang up on them (unless they were robo calls) and if it was something that I know I wouldn’t be interested in, I would politely ask to be put on the do not call list.
But things have changed since I started my current box office job. I’ve had some really crazy customers since day one. I’ve never been threatened more at a job than with this one. Customers tell me that they are going to have me arrested to show up at a show and demand to see me so I can apologize for doing whatever they believed is wrong.
First of all, what saves me every day are my co-workers. While none of us work in the same city (I think only 1 other employee works in California), we are able to chat with each other through the chat feature while we work. We can ask if someone had previously spoke with a customer. Many times, customers will say that someone else told them that they could do something that is against the rules. I check with my co-workers to see who spoke to them and exactly what was said. That way, I can let the customer know that the information that they got from one of my co-workers is correct and I’m not able to bend the rules for them.
For some of the more detailed issues, we just direct them back to the location that they are attending. This is all done by email, so we have records of when we passed on a customer. Since a lot of the tough issues are not dealt with the box office, I’m grateful for that.
But ever since starting this job, I’ve noticed a change in how I deal with customer service people on the phone. I don’t believe that I have ever been mean to anyone, but I’m learning what preparation goes into making sure everything is done correctly.
For example, I ordered a DVD box set for my brother for his birthday. It was a pre-order so I knew it would take a bit of time to be shipped. I got an email 2 weeks ago saying that it would be shipped then, but there was no tracking number. I also had a charge and a refund on my credit card.
Before contacting customer service, I gathered all the information that I had gotten from the company. I knew when emails were sent to me, when the charge and refund was on my card, and when they claimed they would be shipping the DVDs. When I got a hold of customer service, I presented all my information and she was easily able to find out what happened and what went wrong (they are finally shipping the DVDs this month now).
I also recently called an Orangetheory location down in San Diego. I will be there for Thanksgiving and my dad, my brother, and my aunt all want to take a class with me on Thanksgiving. When I called the first time, the guy I spoke to seemed very confused by my request to schedule a class. He took down my information, but nothing seemed right.
After going to my Orangetheory and getting some more information about my membership from them, I called the San Diego location again to get everything straightened out.
The woman who I spoke to on the phone the second time kept saying how great it was that I was prepared to schedule everything and that I had all the information in front of me. It made her job simpler and allowed the problems to be corrected (it was mainly some typos and the previous employee using a different account to schedule my class).
Basically, from being yelled at on the phone every workday at least once, I’ve really learned that there is no reason to not do everything that I can do to make a customer service call as easy as possible. It’s not just about being nice (although that helps and I wish more customers were nice to me), it’s about knowing what had happened with your interactions with the company in the past and knowing what you need to have accomplished (as long as it is possible and not breaking any rules).
This past weekend was the second show for my season tickets at The Pantages. The first 3 shows are pretty close together, so I’m getting my fill of musicals in.
This time, we saw “Pippin”, which I’ve never seen before. My only experience with the show was seeing the performance on the Tony Awards when it was nominated for Best Revival Of A Musical. I knew very little about the show. Pretty much, all I knew was that there were circus acts and acrobatics (I saw that on the Tony Awards).
I took the light rail and subway to get to the show again. And this time, my friend Dani (who is also in the group of us who got season tickets) joined me. We had a bit of confusion when transferring to the subway due to trains sharing tracks, but we made it to the theater with plenty of time to spare.
The show was really great! The performances were amazing and I loved the circus and acrobatic tricks! There were several cast members who had been in the Broadway cast and that was exciting to see.
My only critique of the show was I felt like the second act was a little random and rushed, but that did not affect how much I enjoyed the show too much.
Dani and I got back on to the subway for the ride home and had yet another adventure with the subways sharing tracks. It turns out that due to construction, the trains going both directions had to share a track at the station we were at. It was a little confusing, but we managed (unlike some other people on the train who kept insisting we were wrong and only realized that we were right when the next station was announced).
Even with the confusion, Dani and I made it back to the Culver City station quickly and both got to our cars safely.
My next show is coming up in less than 3 weeks (like I said, the first few shows are back to back). That time, Dani won’t be attending the show with us so I’m debating about if I want to take the subway there. I know that it’s pretty safe, but I always feel safer when I’m with someone else. I’m fine taking the subway and light rail alone in the day time, but when I’m riding at night I’d rather have a buddy.
I’ve still got some time to plan out how I will be getting to the next show. But for now, I’m just so grateful that I get to see so many shows so close to me! I know that my sister-in-law and I are planning another trip to New York for next year, and this is holding me over until then.
Posted onNovember 5, 2014|Comments Off on Halloween Hangout (or I’m Just A Regular Puppet)
With Halloween being on a Friday evening and my earliest work shift being on Saturday morning, I had to do some planning so I could enjoy going out that evening.
The first step was to switch my Friday workout to Thursday so I could have time after work to get my costume ready (and not have to shower and change after a workout). Then I made a plan to go to the party early and try to leave on the early side as well.
Not all of my plan worked.
The party was held at my friends Chris and Marie’s house (whereallthebestpartiesare!). It’s about an hour drive away from me in traffic so since the party started at 7, I had a plan to try to leave around 6.
I spent a lot of time getting ready. I had seen a marionette costume on the Party City website, and after trying to figure out if I could build the headpiece on my own, I ended up just ordering it (this was about a month ago). Then I did a lot of research online about marionette makeup. I’m not a great makeup person, so I tried really hard. And this is what I came up with.
I know that a lot of the makeup tutorials online were more detailed, but my makeup supply isn’t too extensive and I didn’t want to have to buy a ton of makeup (I did have to buy that eyeliner to make the mouth lines).
My costume was impossible to drive in, so as soon as I parked I got into my costume and headed inside. Everyone seemed to love my outfit.
I don’t always go really elaborate with costumes (due to a lack of creativity and money), but this one seemed to be a winner with everyone.
The only thing was every kept asking me if I was some sort of special puppet or just a regular puppet. I wish I had worn a shirt that said “I’m just a regular puppet”.
The party was a huge success and there were so many people in awesome costumes there. Even the rainstorm didn’t affect the party atmosphere.
For the costume contest, I didn’t make the top 3, but I did get some votes. So that’s better than most years.
I had a plan to try to leave by 11pm, but the costume contest didn’t really start until after midnight. So I left a bit later than expected, but there was no traffic coming home and somehow I managed to get to bed quickly so I wasn’t too exhausted working in the morning.
Thanks again to Marie and Chris for being the most amazing hosts! They seriously do such great parties that I would be scared to have a party at my house because I know that it will have no chance at being as great as what they do!
I only got a picture with Marie that evening, so sorry Chris that I don’t have a picture of us to put on here. I think you were too busy being a great host and making sure everyone had an awesome time!
Posted onNovember 4, 2014|Comments Off on Testing Some Water (or Continuing My No Soda Streak)
FTC Disclosure: I was given a free sample of the Waiakea water in exchange for my review. All opinions are of my own and were not influenced by the free product.
It’s been almost 2 years since I’ve had soda in my life. There have been a few times I’ve had a sip (for example when some Sprite was in a punch that I drank at a baby shower), but my last intentional soda was in January 2013.
Considering how much Diet Coke I drank every day, I can’t believe that I was finally able to kick an unhealthy habit like this. I’ve also pretty much cut back on the flavored sparkling water I loved so much. I sometimes will get one at the store, but I probably average one bottle a month (if that).
So I’m pretty much only drinking water these days (with the exception of the occasional cocktail or glass of wine). So when Waiakea Volcanic water offered to send me some samples of their bottled water, I said yes!
I’m not usually a bottled water drinker. I have a water filter at home and I think that it is much cheaper to drink filtered from home water (and I don’t have to carry heavy water bottles home). But for a splurge or when I’m out and about and getting thirsty, I get some nice bottled water.
I have a few brands of bottled water that I love (and yes, they do taste different to me), but Waiakea was a new brand to me and I was very curious what it would taste like.
And I have to tell you that it was very yummy bottled water! It was really crisp and fresh tasting and didn’t have any of that gross plastic taste that so many bottled waters have.
I wish that the bottles came in a sports top option (I like having those for when I’m drinking bottled water in my car), but that is not a big deal. I now know that when I’m getting bottled water when I’m thirsty that this is a brand I will be on the lookout for.
And as a bonus, Waiakea gave me a promo code to share with you all! If you would like to try their water for yourself, they have an online store so you can have it shipped right to your door (and not have to carry heavy bottles around a grocery store). You can go to this website and place your order. Then use the promo code BOMBSHELL20 for 20% off any orders that you place!
I know that reviewing water might not sound so exciting, but for someone like me who is a water drinking fanatic, knowing that there are more great options for bottled water makes me so happy!
This past week, my workouts challenged me in more ways than one. But they were all awesome challenges!
First challenge was when I worked out. I’ve been doing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday pretty much every week since I started at Orangetheory. I have done an occasional Saturday instead of Friday when there was a conflict. But I’ve never worked out 2 days in a row.
That is, until this past week. I didn’t want to work out on Friday evening because I had Halloween plans. And the only morning class that would have worked for me would have been around 6am (too early!). Saturday wasn’t an option either because I had other plans. So I decided to try doing Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I was really scared to not have a rest day between my workouts, but it actually worked out pretty well (I did take painkillers prior to working out just in case). It worked so well that I’m planning on repeating that schedule this week. I have a 5K on Saturday morning and I don’t think a workout on Friday afternoon/evening would be the best plan for me.
The second challenge I encountered this past week was the fact that Orangetheory (in all locations around the country) make the week leading up to Halloween Hell Week. So all the workouts were extra tough and had a specific focus. There was also a prize if you did all 5 Hell Week workouts, but I knew I couldn’t do that.
Monday’s Hell Week workout was all about burpees and rowing. First, I had 28 minutes of various burpees and short sprints on the treadmill. After the first round of burpees, my body decided that it was not happy. Getting my feet near my hands to get back up from the burpees is extremely tough for me (and something that I’m working on getting better at). So I ended up doing modified burpees by using the weight bench to put my hands on (instead of having them on the ground). After that, it was 28 minutes on the rowing machine! I’ve never done more than a few minutes of rowing at a time, so trying to go 28 minutes with minimum breaks was very tough and my legs felt very wobbly afterward. But I did manage to row over 3300 meters in that time.
After my Monday workout, I was so proud of myself that I did a quick post-workout selfie.
Wednesday’s theme was Leg Day. It was not as bad as Monday, but it was still another killer workout full of squats (I must have done close to 1000 squats in the workout) and I thought that I wouldn’t be able to sit down and get back up afterward. Thankfully, the painkillers that I took before and after my workout helped a lot and allowed me to recovery easily.
Thursday was a Hill Day. I was seriously dreading this workout because I thought that it would be hills on the treadmill without breaks. And the incline on the treadmill is one of those things that really irritates my hip. But I was very happy to see that the hill workout was being done in sprints. Everything was in 1 minute increments. 1 minute at 15% incline and then some squats, then 1 minute at 14% incline and more squats, and so on. I made it down to 9% incline within the workout. The second half of Hill Day was all about using the TRX straps and rowing.
After I was done with my 3 workouts, I was exhausted. I had pretty high calorie burns for all my workouts and for 2 of them, I spent more time in the Orange Zone (the zone that helps you burn calories after the workout) than in the Green Zone (the standard fat burning zone). That was an awesome accomplishment and helped me realize that I really have come a long way since I started.
This week is back to more “regular” workouts but I know that they will still be tough. And this weekend will be my first 5K since I started at Orangetheory and I’m excited to see what this training translates to on race day!
Stock The Crock (or I Hope This Gets Me Back On Track With Cooking)
