Monthly Archives: January 2014

Starting The Year Off Right (or Spinning Away)

Posted on January 3, 2014 | Comments Off on Starting The Year Off Right (or Spinning Away)

I was very lucky to have New Year’s Day off from work. Again, nobody wants to be making phone calls on a holiday. So I tried to make the most of my day.

I did sleep in pretty late. I had gotten home just around 1am but I stayed up a bit later trying to get some work done while I felt awake.

I knew that I wanted to go to spin class on New Year’s Day, I just wasn’t sure exactly when I wanted to go. There were some special classes that day that were 90 minutes long (double the length of a normal class), but I didn’t think my body would be up for that.

Fortunately, Patrick was teaching one of the regular length classes in the early afternoon. That gave me time to get some food in my stomach and relax before sweating out all the fun I had the night before.

The class was great and exactly what I needed. I got in a great workout and according to my heart rate monitor, I burned more calories in this spin class than I had in any previous class! Part of that may be due to the fact that during the weights portion of class, I got heavier weights than I’ve ever used. But I’d also like to think that is has something to do with me getting fitter, stronger, and able to push myself harder.

I left the class super sweaty, but I look at the sweat marks on my clothes as something to be proud of. I don’t even mind walking back to my car in my sweaty clothes without covering up. If people think I look weird all sweaty, who cares? I did an amazing workout.

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I got home and ended up taking a nap after class. I was still pretty tired from the day before and the class wiped me out. The rest of the day was spent hanging out at home and reading a book, which helped to make the day a perfect day off from my day job.

But I did do some of my goals for 2014. I got in my spin class and I tracked every single calorie that I consumed that day. I was under my calorie goal and made lots of good choices for the day. It’s tougher for me to plan my meals when I don’t do spin class first thing in the morning, but I’m proud of the job that I did with my food choices that day.

I’m definitely off to a good start this year.

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Weight Loss

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New Year’s Eve Fun (or Making Sure 2014 Is A Lucky Year)

Posted on January 2, 2014 | 1 comment

I had a pretty low-key New Year’s Eve. I started off my day by working at my day job. Our typical shift on Tuesdays is from noon-8:30pm, but since nobody wants to be making calls in the evening on New Year’s Eve, our shift was changed to be 9am-1pm.

After work, I headed home to take a nap. I needed it so I could stay up until midnight (I woke up at 5am that morning). I spent the rest of my afternoon relaxing and getting random chores done.

Then I headed out to Marie and Chris‘s house. They were hosting a relaxing hangout for New Year’s Eve, and that sounded perfect to me!

I spent most of my evening just catching up with friends. Some of the people at the party I hadn’t seen for almost a year (since I missed the Halloween party this year).

There was also a fire in a fire pit in the backyard. Besides just being cool, many of us decided to spend New Year’s Eve making sure that 2014 would be a better year than 2013. So one of the people at the party brought paper for everyone to write their wishes for 2014 on. And as we finished them we put them in the fire so the ashes would rise up and the Universe would see our wishes.

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I don’t know if New Year’s wishes are the same as birthday wishes, but just in case I jinx myself, I’m not going to share them. But you can pretty much figure out what I want based on my goals for this year.

We also put cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices in the fire. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are supposed to be good luck spices. And besides giving us good luck for 2014, the spices made the fire look amazing!

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Yes, we were all being safe around the fire.

As it got closer to midnight, the party headed inside to watch the NYC ball drop on tv (even though in reality it happened 3 hours earlier). We all got some champagne and celebrated the end of one year and the beginning of another.

And I did get a New Year’s kiss (on the cheek) from a friend of mine.

Since Marie and Chris live about 30 minutes (in no traffic) away from me, I wanted to head home pretty soon after midnight. The bars close at 2am and I knew that I didn’t want to be on the road when that happened. I left about 12:30am and got home safely and quickly.

Overall, it was the perfect New Year’s Eve party. Relaxing, fun, and surrounded by so many friends. I know that this will be the start of an amazing year for me.

 

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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2014 Goals (or Hoping To Get More Goals Done This Year)

Posted on January 1, 2014 | 4 comments

So last year, I didn’t accomplish as many of my goals as I would have liked. That’s ok. I picked some goals that were very big stretches for me and while trying to do them I learned a lot.

I’ve thought a lot about my goals for this year. And for some of them, I’d also like to explain why they are worded the way that they are worded.

Continue To Do 5Ks

One of the things that I’d like to do in 2014 is to keep doing my 5Ks. I did 9 last year and that was amazing. But the reason I don’t have a number that I’d like to do this year is because last year, I picked some races that I really didn’t care to do just to see how many I could do in a year. And the races aren’t that cheap. For a while, I thought that it would be cool to make a goal to be 10 5Ks in 2014 (that way I would have raced 31 miles and I’m turning 31 this year). But I don’t want to have that pressure on me. I want to do the races that I want to do and that’s that (plus, each race entry fee adds up!).

Make Spin A More Regular Habit

While I do go to spin pretty regularly, it’s not as regular as I would like. I pretty much go every week, but I still don’t have set days/times that I know I will go. And if I don’t schedule my classes ahead of time, sometimes I’ll schedule other things in the times that I should be going. So I need to sit down with my schedule and SoulCycle’s schedule and pick out the classes that will become my regular ones.

Track My Food/Exercise Better

I’ve been using MyFitnessPal for a couple of years now. It’s easy to track my food on there. But sometimes when I’m eating foods I’m not happy about or overeat, I stop tracking my food for the day. I need to own up to everything I eat whether I’m within my calorie limit or have gone many times over. And tracking my exercise is much easier now that I have my heart rate monitor. I just need to remember to wear it all the time or pack it in my bag if I’m working out after work.

Get Into An Improv Class

Meant to do this last year and didn’t. I’m not going to keep putting it off. Currently looking at the schedule and figuring out which class I can take.

Pay Down My Debt And Not Add More

I know that I can’t stop using my credit card completely. There are some charges, like Netflix, that are charged every month. But I can stop frivolous spending. I need to work on using cash for most of my needs.

Go On Another Vacation

I loved having time off of work and getting out of LA. I need to do that again to help keep me sane. There is a trip in the works right now and hopefully all the plans will fall into place. But if that one falls through, I’m going to try to plan another getaway from LA at some point.

Keep Blogging

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.

That’s my goal list for this year. I’m optimistic that it can all be done. And if it doesn’t I know that I’m going to try as hard as possible to do each one.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Travel

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