Monthly Archives: December 2018

Working Through A Rough Week (or Just Keep Moving)

Posted on December 17, 2018 | 1 comment

I knew this week of workouts would be a rough one for me. I am glad that I can plan for these weeks so they don’t take me by surprise, but it doesn’t necessarily make them easier to deal with. But I just have to continue trying new things that might help my workouts (and my life) not as hard and hope for the best. And that’s the attitude I really tried to go into these workouts with.

Monday’s workout was a strength day and I knew that while I couldn’t pedal as hard on the bike as normal that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to work hard. Since there was incline/resistance work for the cardio, I went with increasing my resistance levels on the bike as the incline work was happening on the treadmill. I didn’t get quite as high on the resistance levels as I have before, but I was still doing more than my normal levels.

We had 3 blocks on cardio and the first block was 1 minute intervals between incline/resistance work and a base pace. Each incline went lower as we went through the blocks, so I started the resistance level at close to the highest that I have done to represent hill work. I went down 1 level each time but I was still above my normal resistance levels the entire block. The second block was 1 minute intervals with incline/resistance work and push paces. During this block, I was getting closer to my normal resistance levels but decided to not go below my all out resistance level for hill work. And the last block was 1 minute intervals with push and base paces and I used my normal resistance levels for these.

On the floor, every block had 2 exercises plus a row challenge. The exercises included lunges, shoulder presses, single leg squats, hip hinge reverse fly, uppercuts, and bicep curls. Each block had 1 exercise that was 6 reps and the other exercises we could choose between 6-10 reps. The idea was to be able to try heavier weights and have the option to do fewer reps. Because of how I was feeling, I did heavy weights but nothing I hadn’t done before. And the row challenge each block was to do 15 stokes slowly on the rower and see how far you could get. It’s not easy to row slowly and that’s the point of this challenge. We were supposed to get at least 150 meters each time, and I managed to do over 200 meters each time. So I guess my nausea was good for something.

Wednesday’s workout was a power class and even though it’s normally not a 3 group class it was this time. So I was at each section of the room for about 15 minutes. On the bike, we had short push to all out challenges and then we had squats right after. We did 5 rounds of push to all outs that got shorter throughout the block and the squats started at 12 reps and went down 1 each time. I wasn’t pedaling as fast as I could on the bike, but I tried my best and tried to work harder during the all outs than I was working during the push paces.

On the rower, we started with a 500 meter row and each round it went down 100 meters. And between the rows we had more squats plus squats to front presses with a medicine ball. We kept working down for the number of reps we did for the regular squats, so I started at 8 squats after my 500 meter row. My rowing time was slow, but it was steady and consistent so I tried to look at that as a good thing.

And on the floor, we had 1 long block that had 4 exercises plus continuing to work down on the number of reps for the squats. We had sumo squats with weights, dumbbell swings, weighted hip bridges, and crunches. The goal by the end of class was to be at the round of doing 1 squat (so you worked from 12 down to 1), but I didn’t quite make it. I did my round of 2 squats and was working on the other exercises by the time class was done. But considering how awful I was feeling in class, getting within a few exercises of making it to the goal is a big accomplishment.

Friday’s workout was a strength day and I was cautiously optimistic that my nausea was over. I was feeling pretty good when I woke up and went to the workout, but when I got on the bike it was only a few minutes before I was feeling nauseous again. But since I had planned for this week to be like this, it did make things a bit easier. Plus, as I’ve mentioned before I do like using the bike for strength days because I can add resistance on the bike much more than I can do incline work on the treadmill.

The cardio blocks were all pretty short and they combined having push work without hills and push work with hills. I was using my normal resistance levels on the bike when it wasn’t hill work but I went to the new higher resistance levels I’ve been using for the hill work. I didn’t get as high up there as I have in past workouts, but the hill work wasn’t as high as it has been in other workouts so that seemed reasonable to me.

On the rower, we had an interesting workout where we got to determine how many reps of exercises we would do by how we did with the rowing. We had different distances to row and we had to count the number of strokes it took us to get to that distance (very similarly to us having to count the strokes in Monday’s class and see the distance we could get). I know that I can do long and slow rowing and that helps to keep my stroke count down. After the first row we had calf raises, after the second row we had squats, and after the third row we had squat presses. I know that my number of reps was much lower than our coach was expecting us to do since I focused on rowing as slowly as possible. But I still had a lot of reps of everything.

And on the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block had deadlifts, double crunches, and bench sit-up to stands. I couldn’t do the sit-up to stands because of the nausea so I just did regular full sit-ups. And the second block had hip hinge high rows, hammer curls, sit-ups, and lunges. Fortunately the majority of the floor exercises that we had were things that weren’t an issue with my nausea, so by the end of the workout I was feeling almost back to how I was feeling before the workout.

Saturday’s workout was a benchmark day. We had the 2000 meter row which is the longest benchmark row that we have. It’s not an easy distance to do, but I’ve done it enough to have a good idea of goals I’d like to accomplish. My PR is significantly faster than I’ve been able to do any other time (I have no idea how I did the row so quickly that one time), so I don’t go into that row expecting to get a new PR. But I still try to do better than other rows so I can feel accomplished.

I started out on the bike where we had a short cardio block with a push pace and ending with an all out. Then we went to the floor to do some skater lunges, woodchoppers with the medicine ball, and lunges with tricep extensions with the medicine ball. I was trying to go easy on the floor work since I knew I’d have the 2000 meter row right after that, but I was going harder than I thought so toward the end of the block I took a break so I could catch my breath.

When I got to the rower, my goal was to see if I could do the row in under 9 minutes. It’s not easy to do that, and I was still feeling a bit off, but I was determined to do my best. What we are told to do with long rows like this is to start with 5 really hard pulls on the rower to get the water moving, then work on finding a steady pace we can maintain for the entire time. I knew if I wanted to be under 9 minutes that my 500 meter split time needed to stay under 2:15. I was able to do that in the beginning, but I was tiring out quickly. So instead of going at that pace as long as I could and then slowing down a lot, I found a pace I could stick with and just had to be ok with not making my goal. I ended up finishing about 15 seconds slower than I wanted to, but I was able to do the entire row without stopping.

After the row was done, we had blocks where we had short cardio bursts with lunges between each burst. I was on the bike and only made it through 2 rounds. I had to take time to recover after my row and that cut into my cardio time. And the last short block on the floor was lunges and superman work, which was easy enough to do even though I was so tired.

While this past week of workouts weren’t record breaking or amazing, I did try to stay in the mindset that I was doing something good. I think I found a small victory in all of my workouts even if that victory was a part of not reaching a goal I had earlier. I should hopefully be back to my normal workout for the next 2 weeks, so I should be finishing my 2018 workouts with some awesome workout days!

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Default ThumbnailA Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself) Default ThumbnailA Week Of Nauseous Workouts (or Just Doing My Best) Default ThumbnailAn Emotional Workout Week (or Just Making It Through) Default ThumbnailBack To My Normal Routine (or Working Through My Workouts) Default ThumbnailNot Exactly A Recovery Week (or Working With Different Challenges) Default ThumbnailAn Up And Down Week (or Working Through The Same Frustrations)

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A SAG-AFTRA Party (or Finally Getting Photos With My Friends)

Posted on December 14, 2018 | Comments Off on A SAG-AFTRA Party (or Finally Getting Photos With My Friends)

The SAG-AFTRA Holiday Party is an event that I love. I haven’t always gone to it, but I’ve tried to go every year the past few years. It’s not often I get to attend a union event that is all about being social and not about various union politics or issues. While you can’t always avoid discussing those things even at a party, the holiday party really is a time to relax and have fun.

And this party isn’t just a hangout. The LA Host Committee does an amazing job having a nice buffet meal, entertainment, and a photo booth. I usually don’t eat while I’m there and I don’t know if I’ve ever taken advantage of the photo booth, but I have always appreciated the options to have fun and I know that it makes so many people happy.

This year, even though the party fell on a nausea/pain day, I wasn’t feeling too bad when I got there. I was a bit tired from having a long day, but I perked up when I arrived and saw a friend of mine in line. She was nice enough to let me join her in line and that gave us a chance to catch up! Once the party officially started, the check in line went pretty quickly and we were inside within a few minutes!

Our first stop was to get some food and this year I was going to be enjoying it too! There was a really nice spread with lots of options. I had some salad, chicken teriyaki, shrimp ceviche, pot stickers, and prime rib! And there was a dessert spread too with cookies, brownies, and cake (I got some cake that had really delicious frosting!). After we all got our plates we found a table to stand at so we could eat without worrying about holding our plates.

The party was a bit crowded, but that is to be expected. And I was constantly running into friends and people I knew! I really felt amazing when I realized how many people in the union I do know. Sometimes it feels like I don’t know anyone or there are too many people there, but this year it didn’t feel like that. And even though I didn’t get to spend too much time catching up with many of my friends, I did make an effort to do my best. And I also tried to get photos with a couple of people too since I usually forget to do that!

Where we were standing to eat ended up being right next to where the quick speeches were going to be, so that worked out well for us! There was a quick speech to thank the LA Host Committee for doing such a great job with the party and to thank those of us who made it for attending. Then there was a short speech about the current strike we have with BBH. BBH is an ad agency that has declared that they no longer have to follow our union agreement and we as a union are not ok with that. They have an agreement to do union commercials and they should abide by that. So we are on strike until an agreement can be made. It’s an important issue for the union and I’m glad that they took some time to talk about it at the party so everyone there could be up-to-date on what is happening. They also had signs for us to take photos with to show our support for our union, and of course I took advantage of that!

The party was only 2 hours long as I was planning on leaving before it was over because my tiredness was starting to kick in. But of course I kept running into people I knew and got caught up into different conversations. I think I ended up leaving about an hour after I started to say goodbye, but that’s normal for events like this. I always end up finding people I know and hadn’t talked to yet and I don’t want to leave without at least saying hello and goodbye. And I was also helping a friend get an Instagram account set up and didn’t want to leave them until they had everything ready and knew how to post photos.

I’m so glad that I took a bit of a rest day earlier this week so that I could be at the SAG-AFTRA party. Even though I was still a bit tired, I think that had more to do with my early morning workout and maybe not getting enough sleep and not because of feeling overwhelmed and burnt out from too many events. I still have some more holiday parties to go to, but I am evaluating which ones are the most important so I can prioritize them if necessary. I want to make sure that I can have as much fun at any other parties as I did at the SAG-AFTRA one!

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Default ThumbnailMy First Official SAG-AFTRA Duty (or Learning What’s In Store) Default ThumbnailSAG-AFTRA Holiday Party (or Getting Ready For Elections Again) Default ThumbnailThe End Of The SAG-AFTRA Elections (or Being An Observer) Default ThumbnailSAG-AFTRA National Convention (or I Had No Idea It Would Be Like This) Default ThumbnailUnion Stuff (or My SAG-AFTRA Delegate Time So Far) Default ThumbnailUnite For Strength (or SAG-AFTRA Election Time)

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

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Trying To Avoid Holiday Burnout (or Staying Home For Self-Care)

Posted on December 13, 2018 | 1 comment

I’ve written about laziness being self-care for me sometimes. I can be very obsessed with getting things done sometimes and I know that it can lead to burnout for me. And when that happens, it usually takes me a while to get back to normal and I’m in this endless cycle of making up for lost time with being busy and being lazy. Finding the balance is a struggle that many of us have and I know a lot of us have been working on it for years.

While I don’t think I have the balance figured out, I had a small victory for me in finding it. This is the season of holiday parties and it can be very overwhelming. If I went to all the parties that I was invited to, between last Saturday and this Sunday I would be at 12 different events. This is not me bragging that I’m invited to a lot of things because many of them are with a lot of the same people or just something casual. But because they aren’t big events, I feel like I should make more of an effort to attend them. When it’s not a big deal, I can feel like I don’t have as many excuses to stay home.

I was supposed to attend a holiday party for an organization I’m a part of earlier this week. I had been looking forward to it and it was on a night that I didn’t have anything else so I thought I’d have no reason not to go. Of course, life never goes the way I expect it to go and this week is the week that I have my worst nausea and pain. And while I know I can push through it and will be doing that other nights this week, I had to prioritize myself and realize that staying home would be the best thing for me.

While I don’t love missing out on an event because it’s always a great opportunity to meet new people (especially now when I really need to find a new job!), I also know that if I go and I’m not feeling my best that I won’t make the best impression either. There would have been a chance that I would have driven to the event and already feeling like I’m ready to go home. Then the entire time that I would be there, I would be watching the time and wondering when I had been there long enough to feel like I had been social so I could go home. And that’s just not what I want to have as the impression that people would have of me.

So I stayed home instead of going out to this event. I didn’t do much at home besides catching up on podcasts and job hunting, but it was exactly what I needed to do for myself. Sometimes being anti-social is more important than being social in order to take care of yourself. And I think I’m not feeling too guilty about staying home because I have so many other events happening this week and weekend. I did not stay home from the only event I had this week and the rest of the week I’ll be bored and wishing I had plans. I found a balance and had to pick which events were a bit more important for me to go to than others. And while I could have picked a different event to skip and gone to the one I missed, I also know that I should be feeling better as the week goes on and that played a factor in the decision too.

I know that holiday burnout is a real thing and I see it happening to so many friends as well as myself. There’s no need for me to put so much pressure on myself to do it all when I know that nobody is expecting me to do that. And with self-care being a very important thing for many people right now, I imagine that if anyone wondered where I was and asked me about it, they would understand if I said I needed to do some self-care and stay home. I’m working on self-care being more than just things I do for myself but also including doing nothing when I know that is the best thing for me at that time. 

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Another Wicked Night Out (or Seeing A Show From Up High)

Posted on December 12, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Wicked Night Out (or Seeing A Show From Up High)

With this season at the Pantages, I’ve mentioned that there are a bunch of shows that I have seen before. It’s still a novelty to me to see a show more than once so it’s exciting to see shows again. I can pay attention to different details when I’m more familiar with they show and it always brings a new meaning to it. And while I love when something in a show surprises me, I love it just as much when those surprises are now expected and I can enjoy other aspects of the show.

This past week was another repeat show for me when we had tickets for “Wicked”. It didn’t seem that long ago that I had that show as a part of my season, but when I looked back at my blog post about it I realized it was almost 4 years ago! I couldn’t believe it’s been that long since that season, but I guess I’ve been doing season tickets for a lot longer than I feel like I have. All of us in my group were excited to see the show and I love when we are all as enthusiastic about a show as everyone else.

But because of holiday stuff and travel schedules, it was tough for all 4 of us to get together for the show. We can change our dates on our tickets, but we can’t always get them in the same price section as the original tickets. So sometimes if we change the date we have to pay a little bit. Since I could keep my original date and didn’t want to spend a bit more on tickets, I decided to go the night we were scheduled to be there. And Grace decided to keep her ticket the same too so it was the 2 of us out at the show that night.

Even though these tickets were a part of our current season tickets, they were an add-on show so we weren’t in our normal seats. While I love our normal seats and being so close to the stage, it can be fun to watch a show I’ve already seen from a different viewpoint. We were up in the balcony this time, but we were the first row behind the aisle so it felt like we didn’t have to be right behind a bunch of other people.

Grace had mentioned to me before the show started that she hadn’t seen the show before, and I was so excited for her to see it. But I didn’t realize she didn’t know the story that well and she had a bunch of funny moments where she was very surprised by how characters in the show connected to characters from the “Wizard of Oz” movie. I tried not to laugh when she was totally shocked, but we both had a good giggle when she was blown away by a plot point. It’s so fun to get to watch a friend experience a show for the first time and see their reactions. 

The show was just as good as I remembered it. The songs are always fun songs and the actors were amazing. The woman who played Elphaba has played the role on Broadway and currently is the actor who has played the role the longest. The Glinda we were supposed to see was also from the Broadway cast, but we saw the understudy that night. Being an understudy is a tough job since you don’t get to rehearse the part as often as you’d like, but the understudy did an incredible job. She was so fun to watch and made the role her own. And all of the rest of the cast was just as impressive.

I did miss being so close to the stage and being able to see more reactions on the actors’ faces, but being further back let me see the show as an entire piece and not just a part that I focused on. I got to see the show framed by the stage in a different way and it was interesting to see that. I’ve only sat in the balcony a few times compared to the dozens of times I’ve been in the orchestra. So I tried to enjoy the experience for what it was and enjoy having a new view of the show.

The one advantage of our seats in the balcony was that it was much faster to get out of the theater than it is from our normal seats. So within minutes of the show ending, Grace and I were outside and saying goodbye so I could drive home and she could catch the subway back to her place. But I had to take one more look back at the theater because it was so beautiful being decorated for the holidays.

Our next show is next month and I’m hoping all 4 of us can attend the show together. So far, for the 3 shows we’ve had, we haven’t all been able to be there together. I understand that all of us have slightly crazy schedules and it can be tough to coordinate things. But one of the things I love about having season tickets with my friends is getting to be with my friends. We’ve still got a bunch of shows this season to make that happen, and I know it will.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Round Of A Repeat Musical (or Seeing A Show A Different Way) Default ThumbnailA Night Of Magic (or Not Quite A Musical) Default ThumbnailBig Musical Instead of Big Game (or Another Sunday Night Out) Default ThumbnailAnother Night At Pantages (or Hedwig Take 2) Default ThumbnailGetting “Wicked” (or Santa, A Sunset, And A Perfect Show) Default ThumbnailThe Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note)

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Another OTF Hangout (or Discovering A New Local Wine Bar)

Posted on December 11, 2018 | Comments Off on Another OTF Hangout (or Discovering A New Local Wine Bar)

There have been so many organized outings coordinated by Orangetheory that I haven’t been able to go to over the years. For a long time, it was just tough for me to go to anything organized by the Brentwood studio since I didn’t drive over to Brentwood other than my workouts. I didn’t want to go there to work out, drive home to shower and change, and then go back that way for a happy hour. It was sad I never really could make it, but I knew that it just wasn’t meant to be for those.

But since the Culver City studio opened, I’ve been making more of an effort to attend the different events that they do. And I have felt such a part of the community at that studio that I am more motivated to try to go. I’ve been able to make friends at the Culver City studio much faster than I could in Brentwood, but I think that is mostly because of how comfortable I am in the workouts. I’m not so terrified or feeling out of place that I can’t focus on who is in class with me. I’m still in my own head a lot and don’t notice who is always in class with me, but I’m trying to get better about it.

So when I found out there was going to be a fun Saturday evening hangout at a wine bar for the Culver City studio, I put it on my calendar. The day of, I was feeling a bit nauseous and debating about not going. But one of my workout friends texted me about an hour before to ask if I was going to go. Since she was going to be there, I decided that I could do my best to ignore how yucky I was feeling because it was going to be worth it to be hanging out with people I usually only see in workout clothes.

This hangout was held at Stanley’s Wet Goods, which I hadn’t been to before. My favorite wine bar in Culver City closed a little while ago and I hadn’t found a new place to go. So when I saw that this was a wine bar, I was excited to see what they had to offer (even if I really don’t drink). 

When I got there, I was a little bit confused at first. The space looks like a wine store with a side section with tables where you can order wine. I didn’t recognize anyone at first, but everyone else was looking as confused as I was and we realized we were all there for the Orangetheory hangout. Then we found out that there was a back room that was reserved for us so we all got our things to head back there. And just as we were going to the back room, my friend arrived. So I was feeling much better about knowing people and not feeling alone.

Once we got to the back room, we all sat down at the tables there. We were trying to figure out if we were in the same classes or not (I really think the name tags we get need to include a section for us to write down when we go to class). I always feel bad when someone recognizes me from class and I don’t recognize them, but everyone seems to understand that when you are super focused on your workout you aren’t always looking to see if you see the same faces each week in your class. But it didn’t really matter if I recognized someone or not because everyone was introducing themselves to each other and I never had to feel embarrassed that I didn’t know someone that I should have.

For most of the evening, I was sitting at the same table because it was pretty central in the room. I was sometimes sitting the people seated on the other side of the table and sometimes I turned so I could face the other table. It wasn’t a huge room so it never felt like I was really missing seeing anyone. And I was getting pretty involved in a couple of different conversations so I wasn’t really thinking that I had to find other people to talk to. It was nice not having moments of feeling left out or wondering who else I could talk to. I always felt very much in the middle of conversations and I loved all the randomness that we were all talking about.

We talked about coaches we love, people were asking me about the Brentwood studio since many of them haven’t been there before, we talked about people we see in class and don’t know their names (and they weren’t at the bar), and as it seems like so many conversations go to we talked about dating in LA. It was funny to hear the crazy stories that other OTF people have had dating and of course I had to share a couple of my best crazy ones.  It’s nice to have people to talk to who are going through the same issues with dating that I have because it helps me not feel like some of the issues I’ve encountered are due to me. It might be due to being in LA or the guys that we are meeting here, but it’s not something I’m bringing onto myself.

By the time I was heading back home, the room we were in cleared out. I didn’t realize so many other people had left already because I was focused on who I was talking to. But it did help me feel a bit less guilty for leaving because it seemed like the night was winding down.

I’ve said this before, but it’s so hard to make friends as an adult. There aren’t as many opportunities to make new friends once you are done with school, so I am always grateful for events like this that help me meet people I already have something in common with. And hopefully I’ll start recognizing more people in class with me (or they will remind me we met at the outing) so I can have even more friends with me in class.

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

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A Week Of Tough Workouts (or Frustration As Motivation)

Posted on December 10, 2018 | Comments Off on A Week Of Tough Workouts (or Frustration As Motivation)

This past week of workouts weren’t my best. I had issues with the weather affecting how I was feeling plus I had to deal with nausea. These issues are frustrating to me, but I really tried my best to not let it get to me too much.

Monday’s workout was an endurance day, but it felt a bit like a power day with how the treadmill section was formatted. I was on the treadmill, but my hips were a bit off so I was power walking the entire time. I tried not to be frustrated since the format would have been a great running day, but I am struggling with feeling ok with not being able to run sometimes.

On the treadmill, the first block was a 1 minute all out pace followed by a walking recovery. Then we had 3 rounds of a 30 second push to 1 minute all out pace. The next block was 2 rounds of a 2 minute push pace followed by a 30 second all out pace with a walking recovery in the middle. And the last block was a 4 minute progressive push followed by a 30 second all out pace. And we ended with a walking recovery and one more 1 minute all out pace. I was keeping my inclines on the treadmill at the inclines I usually do, but I was having to take more breaks than I normally do. My hips were just feeling tight and off and I wasn’t sure how to fix that.

On the floor we had 3 blocks and each of those blocks included a 1 minute all out row. I was able to get better every time I did the row so that made me feel a bit better after the treadmill. In the first block we also had lateral lunges and squats, in the second block we had lateral lunges and regular lunges, and the last block was a core blast. The core blast included plank work, push ups, and sit ups.

Wednesday’s workout was a power day. And I thought I had been frustrated to not run on Monday, but Wednesday was even worse for me. We had rainy weather and that always makes me hurt. So I had to use the bike and it was hard because this was another perfect workout to work on my running if I could have done it.

On the cardio side, it was a timed run/row format. All of the runs were 90 seconds long with a 30 second push pace, 30 second base pace, and 30 second all out pace. For the bike, I tried to go 1 or 2 resistance levels higher than I normally use since it was so quick. And after those 90 seconds we switched to the rower where we had 3 rounds of 30 second all out rows with 15 seconds to recover between for a total of 2 minutes. We did the treadmill/bike part 5 times and the row 4 times before switching to the floor.

On the floor, it was timed as well and it matched the cardio side. Whenever it was a 90 second round, we were doing a form of burpees. Whenever it was 2 minutes we had ab work following the same pattern as the rower with 3 rounds of 30 seconds of work and 15 seconds to recover. I pulled the bench down to use it for my burpees, but I still had to do some of my burpees stepping back instead of jumping back. The burpees started basic and we added on every round to include things like using weights, doing bicep curls, doing shoulder presses, and doing ultimate burpees. The ab work switched between sit ups and weighted double crunches.

Friday’s workout was a 3 group workout and I was starting to deal with nausea that morning. I used the bike for my cardio to keep the nausea to a minimum. It wasn’t that bad when I started class, but I knew it was probably going to get worse as the morning went on.

We switched between the blocks so I had 2 rounds on the bike, 2 rounds on the rower, and 2 rounds on the floor. On the bike, I wasn’t thinking too much about what I was doing. I just didn’t want to feel sick. I used my normal resistance levels for my push and all outs, but I wasn’t pedaling as fast as I know I can go.

On the rower, we had sprint rows with half squats between each row for the first block and slightly longer rows with calf raises between each row for the second block. My speed on my rows was within the time we were supposed to be at, but they weren’t my best. But I was able to get through my half squats and calf raises quickly so I got a lot of rounds on the rower done.

And on the floor, we had mini-blocks within the blocks. The first block had push ups and plank reaches as a mini-block, pull ups on the straps and triceps on the straps as a mini-block, and plank low rows and pop jacks as a mini-block. And the mini-blocks in the second block were the same but we had them in the reverse order so we didn’t miss out on doing any exercises. I struggled a bit with some of the plank work, but it was much better than I expected I could do.

Saturday was a strength day and a day that my nausea was a bit worse. I was pretty happy to be on the bike because I do know that even with my nausea being bad sometimes I can do some great things with my resistance levels.

And that’s exactly what I did. I was usually higher resistance levels for almost all of my hill work on the bike. I was trying to push myself more than I normally do and there were a few moments that I could do exactly that. And when I was using the resistance levels that I’m used to, I was working on pedaling faster than normal to make up for it. I did have to take breaks to let the nausea pass, but I used those as my regular breaks and then tried to go harder when I was working.

On the floor, we had 2 blocks and the big focus was on doing single arm clean to presses. We had so many of those to do and then we had other exercises between. In the first block, we had 3 rounds of single arm clean to presses with bench overhead extensions, bench sit-ups to jump squats, and a 200 meter row. I had to split up my bench sit-ups to jump squats to crunches and then doing squats because I couldn’t take going from laying down to standing that much. And the second block had single arm chest presses, plank work, and a 200 meter row between the single arm clean to presses. I had to do my plank work using the bench, but it wasn’t the worst workout for me to deal with my nausea.

I know that I probably sound like a broken record because I am always trying to figure out how to tolerate my nausea in my workouts. It’s not something that is easy to figure out, even 2 years into the process. But I am trying to use the 1-2 weeks a month that I have it as a motivation to try to find where I can do better work. I think I accomplished that a bit this past week and I’m looking forward to trying to do that even more this week.

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“Life…In A Word” (or A Wonderful Holiday Giveaway)

Posted on December 7, 2018 | 4 comments

I’ve written about my friend Kevin E. West before on here regarding the amazing actor group he created, The Actors’ Network. When I started at The Actors’ Network, I didn’t know Kevin but I got to know him over the years that I’ve been a member of the group. We had become friends and our friendship has only grown stronger over the years. He is one of the leaders of Union Working so we have continued to work together through that group (and I’m an admin for the Facebook group for The Actors’ Network). He is such an amazing friend and I love that we can be brutally honest with each other and I know that the honesty comes from a place of love.

Kevin has written some books on acting in the past and they have always been very helpful and full of great knowledge. I always recommend them to actors or people looking to buy books for actors. But more recently, Kevin has written a book that is not about acting and I highly recommend for everyone!

“Life…In A Word” is an amazing book that is like a dictionary for a selection of words. Each page is a different word with a short story that is an example of the meaning or definition. I loved that the stories weren’t a straightforward example and you sometimes had to read the entire short story to understand how it relates to the word. It made the book feel like a journey and exploration of what words really mean.

I love books like this that I can open up and just read a section of when I need inspiration or a mood booster. It’s something that I can turn to when I need a quick pick me up or want to escape whatever is happening and be in another universe, even if it’s just for a moment. And I can see this book being a wonderful conversation starter or self-help tool. I knew that Kevin is an amazing and insightful person, but this book really brought that to a new level for me. It really was an incredible read and my only wish was that it was longer (but I do believe there will be more books like this coming from him in the future).

And I’m so excited to share that I have a copy of “Life…In A Word” to give away to one reader on here! Not only do I have a copy of the book to give away, but it’s a signed copy!

As with my other giveaways on here, you can enter to win through the Rafflecopter section below. The required things to enter are to comment on this post if you want this book for you or if you want this book to give as a gift to someone else, to follow me on Twitter, and to follow Kevin on Twitter. You can also earn extra entries for follows on social media as well as bonus daily entries for tweeting about the giveaway!

I can’t wait for one of you to win this book! I’m sure you will love it as much as I do and I hope that for those of you who don’t win that you go to buy a copy of the book. It really is something I think everyone should read and that everyone will love it. There is so much variety in the book that everyone will find something that they connect with and will make it such a special addition to their personal library.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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My Dad Is A Trendsetter! (or A Martha Stewart Menorah)

Posted on December 6, 2018 | Comments Off on My Dad Is A Trendsetter! (or A Martha Stewart Menorah)

My dad is a very crafty person. I’m not sure how long he has been making things, but it’s been as long as I can remember. I remember when I was little my dad made ski boot holders for us out of PVC pipe and they all were customized with our names (I still have it). He has also built planters for me out of bark, made a special shelf to cover the sink in my utility room that doesn’t work (so now I have a counter there to store things), and has helped me build countless things that we have gotten from furniture stores.

I try to be as crafty as my dad, but he’s just really good at seeing something and finding a new way to use them. For example, after a project he did years ago, he had lots of paintbrushes that weren’t going to be used again. Instead of throwing them out, he dipped them in pain and put them upside down in a flower pot. Now the paintbrushes look like flowers! I’m not inspired like that, but I do try to recreate things I see online even if I’m not successful all the time.

Most of the things that my dad has made have been very unique and I’ve never seen them anywhere else, but earlier this week I was shocked to see one of my dad’s crafts on tv!

I was watching Martha Stewart on the Ellen Show and she was doing some holiday drinks and decorations. I wasn’t paying too much attention because I was also going through my mail, but all of a sudden I had to stop what I was doing and looked up at the screen. Martha Stewart was making a menorah out of a branch. She painted it and added holes to put the candles in before decorating it. I know this isn’t the best picture of it, but you get an idea of what the finished product looked like.

Well, I guess my dad is a trendsetter because the custom menorah that he made for me 3 years ago looks very similar!

Mine isn’t painted or as decorated as the one Martha Stewart made, but it’s pretty close! I know that there’s probably other people who have done the same thing, but it was still the first time I had seen one of my dad’s projects made by someone else.

Of course, I had to tell my dad all about it. I didn’t want to just take a screenshot or video and send it to him. So I made a FaceTime call to him so I could play him the clip of the menorah being made. And I think he was just as surprised as I was that his menorah was being made by Martha Stewart. And of course, we both agree that mine is better. I like that you see the wood pattern on mine and that it looks very natural. The painted white look is nice too, but it’s not the style of most things I have so it wouldn’t fit in with my decor.

My dad and I got a really good laugh out of watching the clip and joking how Martha Stewart somehow stole his idea. I called him a trendsetter and we were wondering how many people might make a custom menorah now that they have seen it done on tv. I’m sure a bunch of people will do it, but I doubt any will look like mine. And I love that I have something so special and one of a kind that was made for me.

Now I’m wondering what other crafts that my dad has made are crafts that other people have made and posted instructions for online. There are too many things for me to try to search for them, but maybe I’ll discover something else on tv or randomly online that matches something my dad has done. And I’m sure if that happens, my dad and I will get just as much enjoyment out of it as we did from watching this Ellen Show clip.

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A Hanukkah Dinner (or Sharing Some Traditions With A Friend)

Posted on December 5, 2018 | Comments Off on A Hanukkah Dinner (or Sharing Some Traditions With A Friend)

I’m Jewish, but I’m not really religious or celebrate most Jewish holidays. That’s just how I was raised and it’s not something I think about much. When I was little my family did do Hanukkah and sometimes Passover, but we really didn’t do other holidays or celebrate every year. When people ask me about being Jewish, I say that I’m much more culturally Jewish and religious. But whenever a friend wants to celebrate a Jewish holiday with me I’m always happy to share what limited knowledge I have about the holiday.

My friend Christopher (who wrote the short film we starred in together) asked me very early this year if I wanted to have a night of Hanukkah with his family. They are not Jewish, but they wanted to celebrate it and to have their kids learn about holidays that other religions celebrate. I loved that he asked me very early so I could put it on my calendar before other events were filling up my time. So of course, I said yes and we figured we’d talk more about what they wanted to do closer to the date.

Christopher started to text me questions about Hanukkah because he wanted to make it exactly how I would celebrate it. I told him that I don’t really celebrate, but I let him know different things that I think of when I thought of Hanukkah. I told him that latkes or donuts are traditional foods since you usually eat things that have been fried in oil. And I gave him my mom’s brisket recipe since he was asking for a good main dish options, but I knew that since that recipe takes a long time to be made that he probably would just save that one for another day.

Christopher also did a bunch of research on his own and decided to make dreidels for his kids! I was just going to buy some at the store, but he’s really great at making things so he took a look at some and made plans on how to make them from scrap wood. I was very impressed when he sent me a text with a photo on how they came out!

I also wanted to bring things with me to help celebrate Hanukkah. I was going to bring the menorah my dad made for me but I also wanted to bring little gifts for the kids. I went to Party City where I was super surprised by how many Hanukkah things they had! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a wide selection of Hanukkah stuff. Even though it’s still a fraction of the Christmas stuff, it’s still a big improvement over what I’ve seen in the past.

I went over earlier this week to celebrate with Christopher and his family. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get to their house at sundown (when you are supposed to light the menorah), but since this was a casual thing I was fine with it and told Christopher that it didn’t matter if we were doing things the traditional way. I got there just in time for dinner and that worked perfectly.

Christopher went all out with the food he made! He got brisket from a BBQ place (which was delicious), but that’s because he made 3 types of latkes and 2 types of donuts! He made traditional latkes, sweet potato latkes, and French onion latkes along with sour cream and applesauce on the side (I’m partial to sour cream on my latkes).  And he made regular donuts and blueberry filled donuts. I wish I had taken a photo of the food, but we were all enjoying it and I wasn’t thinking about documenting it all. But I think that’s a good thing since I don’t want to live my life through my phone, I want to be more in the moment.

One of the biggest memories I have about Hanukkah as a kid is what the holiday smells like, because it always smells like oil. I don’t make latkes at my house because it would make everything smell like oil and my house is so small that all my clothes in my closet would smell that way too. But when I walked into their house, one of the first things I said was how much it smelled like Hanukkah and I think they loved it. And I’m so happy that not only did it smell like the holiday but it tasted like it too!

After we were done with the food, the kids started to play with the dreidels and I was teaching them how to spin them. We didn’t play the game with chocolate or pennies, but I did bring them some Hanukkah gelt to enjoy anyway. I just didn’t want to complicate things with them on trying to teach them how to play when they were just enjoying trying to spin them. And while the original plan was to light the candles on my menorah, it was getting late and Christopher and his wife found a wood menorah with stickers to look like candles. So I showed them what order the candles go in so they could “light” it properly.

And of course, the kids had to open the gift I brought for them. I tried to find little things they could share so I got some Hanukkah stickers, temporary tattoos, and a puzzle (which is a bit more of a family gift since it’s not a super easy puzzle). And whenever you give kids temporary tattoos, you know that you are going to have at least one of them on your skin.

By the way, I discovered that nail polish remover does a great job at removing temporary tattoos!

After the kids went to bed, I had time to chat with Christopher and his wife. It was fun getting to chat and catch up and talk about all the randomness in life. They are doing a holiday party soon that I am hoping to attend, but I know at parties like that it’s not always easy to talk to the people hosting it. So it was fun getting time to talk when they weren’t worried about being good party hosts or they were distracted by tons of different things.

Time seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was much later than I was planning on being there. I wanted to get home at a decent hour to get some sleep before my early work shift and it was already pushing that time. So I said goodbye and headed back home.

I don’t know if I’ll really be doing any other nights of Hanukkah this year. I’ll probably light my menorah at least once, but I’m not planning on doing anything big like I did at this dinner. So it was nice to have one night feel special and like I was celebrating it instead of just acknowledging the holiday and not doing anything for it.

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Recapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself)

Posted on December 4, 2018 | Comments Off on Recapping A Few Challenges From Last Month (or Getting Ready Stop Going Easy On Myself)

I usually would just be doing my monthly challenge recap in this post and then announce my next monthly challenge, but I’m going to do things a bit differently this time. I’m going to recap 2 challenges I had last month and that will lead into what my challenge will be for this month.

First, last month I challenged myself to work on getting back to feeling like myself. I knew that I was feeling a bit lost and not like myself and I wanted to find what I needed to do in order to feel that way again. It was another challenge that wasn’t easy to track so I looked at it as a goal for the month versus a challenge.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that in the middle of the month I actually forgot what my challenge was. It wasn’t something I had to think about every day or had a reminder to do, so it was easy to forget about it. I tried to put a positive spin on it and say that I must be back to myself if I wasn’t focused on doing that anymore. And I do feel like I’m back to being me and I’m very happy about that. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that I really didn’t have to do much for this challenge and it really was kind of a wash.

I also had a challenge last month to participate in NaNoWriMo again and to get up to date on all my online dating stories. I hadn’t done a lot of work on the book since last year and I had a lot of stories to add. I started off on a great note with getting chapter names for all the new stories, writing a few of the stories down that I hadn’t done yet, and updating the few stories that have had changes or new updates. I knew that I wasn’t going to hit the word count goal for NaNoWriMo since my stories aren’t necessarily that long, but I wanted to work on the book until I was current on it.

But after that initial motivation and got a few things done, I did nothing else with it last month. I am glad that I wrote down the stories that I want to write because there were a few that I had forgotten about. I plan on writing more stories than I probably would actually have in a book so I have options. It’s better to have to edit a book and stories down than to need to find more to add because it’s too short. There’s no real good excuse for why I didn’t work on my book more other than I was lazy and just didn’t do it. I had the time between my customers at work on work on them and it wouldn’t have taken that much time. I just didn’t do it and I am a bit upset with myself that I just let that go and didn’t work on it like I planned to do.

From both the book and my monthly challenges being kind of a fail and I went easy on myself for not really doing much, I knew I needed to make a change. My monthly challenges used to be real challenges that pushed me and made me work toward a change in my life. I haven’t kept all of the monthly challenges as a part of my life, but many of them are still daily habits that I enjoy and know benefit me.

So technically my challenge for this month is another one that will be easy to slack on, but it will be better for me in the long run. My challenge this month is to plan my monthly challenges for 2019. I would love to have a list of at least 16 challenges so I have some options to use next year. I want to pick things that can be tracked and measured so I am held accountable to them. And I want to pick things that will truly challenge me and hopefully make me a better version of myself. I’m hoping I can find a good mix of physical challenges (like stretching and yoga), educational challenges (like how I’m working on learning French), and mental challenges (like my meditation challenge that I’m over 900 days into). I know having a mix will be the best thing for me and will help me not feel too overwhelmed.

I know that this month is another challenge I can slack on and not make an effort every day toward, but it’s the first step in making sure that I break this bad habit and have some amazing challenges in the new year!

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