Category Archives: Fitness

Can 4 Workout A Week Be My New Normal? (or Pushing Myself Beyond)

Posted on February 2, 2015 | 2 comments

I did another 4 workout week this week. Part of the reason is because I want to maximize my results on the cleanse, but the other reason is because the 4th workout in a week isn’t feeling like it used to.

When I did my first 4th workout in a week, I was beyond exhausted. I didn’t know if that was because it was a 4th workout of if it was because I did workouts 2 days in a row. I know now that it was probably because doing a 4th workout was pushing myself. But as I’ve been adding a 4th workout more and more, it’s not feeling so bad anymore.

This is going to help me reach my goal of 175 workouts this year, but it’s more than that now. I know that if I want to accelerate and continue having results, I need to push myself more and more. And there’s only so much more I can push myself within the class. I have to add in more workouts.

Monday’s workout was a morning one. I’m going to have to do morning workouts the next few Mondays due to scheduling issues. It’s definitely a different feeling working out in the morning compared to in the afternoon. I don’t know which one is easier, but I do prefer my afternoon ones. Probably because that’s what I’m used to.

On both Monday and Wednesday, I had the same problem during my workout. My vision started to get dark and I had to break for a moment to feel normal again. I don’t believe that that is entirely the fault of the cleanse since I’ve had this issue before working out. It just hasn’t happened recently. It does scare me a little, but I know that all the coaches just want me to work out at my own pace and if I need to take a breather, it’s ok.

Friday was a tornado class, which means that we rotate from treadmill to weights to rower a lot. This time, there were 15 rotations (5 at each section). While it’s tiring to keep switching up so much, these are becoming my favorite workouts. By the time that I’m tired of being on the treadmill, it’s time to switch. I also seem to burn the most calories in those classes because there really aren’t any breaks.

Saturday was a run/row day which is also one of my favorite workouts. The only thing I didn’t love with this particular workout was all the treadmill sections were at an “all-out” pace. For power walkers like me, this means 15% incline. I don’t like not having breaks on the treadmill from such a high incline. My only breaks were when I walked over to the rower (and I guess technically on the rower as well).

But all things considered, I did some serious butt-kicking this week. As my dad put it on the phone to me the other night, it’s incredible how far I’ve come in a year. Even compared to my first Orangetheory workout, where I couldn’t really walk for a few days after. Now, just over 100 workouts later (yes, I tracked them), I’m thinking that 4 workouts in a week could really become my new every week plan.

I love that I’m finally feeling like my transformation is happening. It’s not stagnant anymore. I’m really moving forward and not only do I feel a difference, I think I can see a difference now.

2 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged Orangetheory, progress, strength training, transformation, workout

My Fit Foods (or Looking At Some Post Cleanse Options)

Posted on January 29, 2015 | 3 comments

Now that I’m almost half way through the cleanse, I’m starting to think about what I’m going to be eating post-cleanse. While I’m going to do a small splurge, I do want to maintain a healthier lifestyle and keeping the majority of my diet fruits and vegetables.

So when I was invited to My Fit Foods in West Hollywood for a tour and hear more about their plan, I jumped at the chance!

This particular location of My Fit Foods (they have several locations in a couple of different states) is pretty close to my house and I’ve passed it when driving around town probably a few hundred times (I guess I pass it twice a week on average). But this was the first time that I ventured inside.

I was greeted right away by Chelsey who is one of the nutrition coaches at the West Hollywood location. She told me how My Fit Foods was started by a personal trainer who wanted to make sure that his clients were going to see results from the work that they did inside the gym and outside the gym. So he created My Fit Foods to help his clients eat right and get the right balance of nutrients to help them maximize their workouts (and their results!).

My Fit Foods is a meal service that has options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. People can pre-order several days worth of food or they can come into the store and buy what they need and want.

Everything that they have is fully cooked (no need to heat it up unless you want your meal to be hot) and they have lots of dietary restrictions that they can accommodate (like gluten-free, dairy free, vegetarian, Paleo, and low-sodium). And the food is good in your fridge for 4-5 days, so you can have several days of meals in your fridge and ready to go.

Chelsey explained that when most people get started at My Fit Foods, they take part in their 21 day challenge. In the 21 day challenge, you get paired up with a nutritional coach like Chelsey and they create a meal plan for you. These plans can be customized to your tastes and dietary restrictions. I got a change to check out some of the 21 day plans, and they look amazing! They have lots of different food options for each meal (all the dinners look super incredible and delicious so I can’t pick a favorite!). During the 21 day challenge, you come into My Fit Foods about twice a week and they have all the foods that you need for the coming days ready for you to take home!

It’s so simple for people to follow! I’ve done a meal delivery service before in college and for the first few days it was awesome. But because the service had so few options, after a few days, my meals were repeating themselves! I quickly got tired of the same few things rotating through. But when I looked at the 21 day challenge menu, while you might get some things twice within the 21 days, there is enough variety available to not repeat things every week!

After customers complete the 21 day challenge, most of them continue to order their foods from My Fit Foods. They can create their own meal plan or have guidance from a nutritional coach. But it is completely customizable and you do not have to order all of your meals from them if you know that there are a few days where you don’t need dinner (for example).

And for people who just need an occasional meal (so you don’t get delivery food that you regret), you can walk right into a My Fit Foods and pick up a single meal. They even have microwaves and tables there so you can eat inside if you don’t want to bring it home (or if you are having it as a lunch and don’t want to eat at work).

Finally, Chelsey showed me some of the supplements that they have available. I’m learning more and more about supplements now that I’m doing the cleanse, and what I think is awesome about the ones at My Fit Foods is that they are packets that contain everything you need (no need to purchase 5 or 6 different bottles).

It was so awesome to get to go into My Fit Foods and sit down with Chelsey to learn all about it. They are definitely going on my list of good and fast choices that I can make if I’m not able to cook for myself. It’s so much better for me to run in there and grab a lunch than for me to get some fast food. And I need to be looking at smarter choices from now on if I want to continue the path that I’m going on. And it looks like My Fit Foods will fit into that plan perfectly!

3 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged food, health issues, meal planning, meals, weight loss

Working Out While Cleansing (or Being Easy On Myself)

Posted on January 26, 2015 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts were the first workouts I did while on the cleanse. Even though I am eating (and I’m working on keeping my calories up), I’m eating significantly less protein than I’m used to.

On normal days, that is a small annoyance but I can deal with it. But on workout days, I’m discovering how important protein is for me.

Going into Monday’s workout, I was pretty nervous. I just tried to focus on my fancy new shoes. Before going to the workout, I decided to take a quick picture of my new shoes along with the 2 pairs that I’ve gone through recently (I’m not sure why I never got rid of my old shoes).

I knew that the workout was going to feel tough to me, even if I was taking it easier than I usually do. So I decided not to focus at all on my heart rate monitor and just pay attention to how my body was feeling. And it was pretty rough. I was tired a lot faster than I’m used to and I got some issues with dizziness when transitioning from seated or laying down exercises to standing ones. But I got through the workout and focused on how to better prepare myself for the next one.

One Wednesday, even though snacks aren’t allowed on the cleanse, I added a snack pre-workout. I need the extra energy and calories to help me get through the intense workouts that I’m doing. And I noticed a difference. I was still tired and a little dizzy from time to time, but it was much less and I recovered a lot quicker.

By Friday, I was finally starting to figure out what my food needs to be like during the cleanse on workout days, so I was doing even better. My heart rate doesn’t get as high as it did before, but I can’t be mad at myself for that. Again, I’m just focusing on getting through my workouts and doing the best that I can for that day.

And I finally got off the waitlist for the Saturday workout! So in my first week of cleansing, I did 4 workouts! I know that’s a little crazy. And Saturday’s workout was possibly one of the toughest ones I’ve ever done. We were all put into groups of 3 and then there was a set workout for our group to get through for the entire class. There were no breaks or switching blocks. We just went from one thing to another for the entire class. I was having some serious trouble completing the workout for the last 10 minutes, but I pushed myself through it and managed to have not only an awesome workout but one of my higher calorie burns (which meant that I had to add some extra food to my lunch and dinner).

It is definitely not easy to workout this hard when my protein levels are so low. There really isn’t a way to increase that too much while I’m cleansing, but I did buy some protein powder that fits into the cleanse rules that I can drink if I need to. I don’t like protein powders because they remind me so much of the RFO Diet, but hopefully I can drink this stuff quickly if I need it and not have to think about it too much.

I’ve currently got myself signed up for another 4 workout week this week. I’m not 100% sure I’ll be able to do Saturday, but I’d rather be signed up for it and then cancel than to be on the waitlist and maybe not get in. Even though things are tough for me, I keep reminding myself that change isn’t easy and this is all for the better. I’m not doing anything that will hurt me and that in less than 3 weeks I can add animal products (and therefore more protein) back into my diet.

Comments Off on Working Out While Cleansing (or Being Easy On Myself)

Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

Tagged challenge, cleanse, detox, Orangetheory, struggle, workout

Going To The Limit (or How To Work Out With A Broken Shoe)

Posted on January 19, 2015 | 1 comment

The past week of workouts have been insanely tough! I only got 3 workouts in for the week, even though I wanted 4. Since everyone wants to get into better shape in the new year, it’s been crazy crowded. I have to schedule my classes weeks in advance to make sure that I can get in. And when I didn’t do that for last Saturday, I wasn’t able to work out. Sadly, it looks like I might have the same issue Saturday, but I’m working on it.

Anyway, back to the workout recaps!

Monday’s workout wasn’t horrible, but what got to me was the Monday Challenge. First of all, I was the only person in the entire class to do the challenge after class ended. That made me a bit scared and intimidated, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from doing it.

The challenge was a mini Dri-Tri. So it was .08 miles on the treadmill (I don’t remember what incline it was at, but it was high) to start. Then, 20 burpees. Burpees are still a killer for me and not only do they hurt my hips, I get really dizzy doing them. After I finished the burpees (I had to take a few breathing breaks to do them all), it was a 100 meter row on the rowing machine.

My time was over 3 minutes and I was nowhere near getting on the top 5 board. But I completed it and that’s what I have to remember.

Wednesday was another crazy day where I was doing insane incline work on the treadmill. Since I have issues getting my speed up, to get my heart rate up higher I have to add on more incline than I used to. I’m getting to the point where for most of the push paces I can do the walk at 10% incline. When the push pace is for 3 minutes, that’s when it’s a bit tough for me. But considering that I used to do all my push paces at 6%, it’s a massive improvement. I’m hoping that soon I can start increasing my speed without pain, but until then, it’s nice to know that I can still push myself on the treadmill with incline.

Friday was one of those days for me where the workout was so tough that I didn’t believe that I could really do it all. The treadmill portion was a 21 minute block (many classes have 7 or 8 minute blocks and then you switch between cardio and strength a few times to get all the blocks in). It was a treadmill block that was mainly push paces. And for some reason, my heart rate didn’t want to go up to where it needed to be, so I had to keep pushing myself more and more.

Then, when we did the strength portion, I had what I could have considered a set-back. While I was doing running man on the ground (it’s a move similar to mountain climbers), my foot slid out from underneath me. I thought that maybe the floor was just slick, but I couldn’t get my footing again. I just powered through and for the rest of the workout, I had a crazy tough time doing the running man.

When we were stretching, I took a look at my shoe and realized that a chunk of the bottom of my shoe (where all the grippy things are) was flapping in the air. I had taken off pretty much all the grips off of the bottom of my shoe during the workout!

This photo gives you an idea of the damage, but the blue rubber on my shoe was also coming off.

I can’t believe I worked out for about 10 minutes with a busted shoe! And I can’t believe that when it happened I just pretty much ignored it.

After class, I showed the trainer what had happened and she cracked up. She wanted a picture of the fact that her workout busted my shoe and then she posted that along with a picture of the 2 of us online and named me the MVP of class (each trainer gets to name an MVP for each of their classes now).

As soon as I got home, I ordered some new shoes online. They are supposed to get here today before my workout, but if they don’t I’ll have to figure out something to do with my broken shoe. I’ve got an emergency pair of sneakers, but they are a little busted too.

Now that I’m on the cleanse, my workouts this week are making me pretty nervous. I’m going to do the best that I can and understand that I might not be able to push myself like I usually do. I’ll let you all know how it goes next week!

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Shopping, Weight Loss

Tagged challenge, Orangetheory, shoes, workout

Starting The Year With A Lot Of Transformation (or Who Will I Be By Next Year?)

Posted on January 15, 2015 | 4 comments

I’ve been doing a lot of transformational work in the beginning of this year. I wasn’t expecting this all to happen at the beginning of the year (that’s a little cliché for me), but the timing of it all just happened to all be in January.

The first transformational thing I have been working on is increasing my workout days. This was something that was planned in my goals for 2015. Now I’m just making sure that I’m doing what I set out to do. I’m tracking all my workouts in a simple calendar checklist app, and I’m on pace to meet my monthly goal right now (it’s way too easy to think that I’m on pace to meet my yearly goal).

The only minor setback I’ve encountered is that there are so many people who want to go to Orangetheory now that if I don’t set up my classes over a week in advance, I run the risk of being put on the waitlist! That happened to me for this Saturday. I wanted to add the noon workout to my schedule and asked if I could get in that class when I was working out on Monday. The class was booked and there was only 1 spot left on the waitlist! I’m still on the waitlist now and hopefully I can get into the class. If not, I’ll have to add another workout to next week.

I’m also starting another Orangetheory Weight Loss Challenge this week. It starts on Friday and this time, it’s a national weight loss challenge so there will be people from all the Orangetheorys around the country participating. There is a lot of money for the winners, but I’m just going into it thinking of it as a personal challenge. I looked at how much weight some of the past winners have lost and for me to equal that I would have to lose weight at a very unhealthy rate for me. Some of the winners had lost over 25% of their starting weight! That’s just not realistic for me.

Then, continuing on my cooking trend, I’ve got my 4 week cleanse coming up. I just got the materials for it and while most of it seems very simple for me to do (lots of fruits and veggies), part of the cleanse is to spend the 4 weeks cutting out dairy, meat, and processed food like bread. I can probably cut dairy without missing it at all. But I’ve gotten very used to having peanut butter on toast for breakfasts and having chicken or pork with my dinner. Fortunately, the cleanse comes with a bunch of recipe ideas so I will be taking advantage of those (and posting my favorites on here!).

Then yesterday, I saw a bunch of my friends posting on various social media sites about the Money Love Challenge. I checked it out and within minutes of reading what it is all about, I signed up. It’s a free 21 day challenge (it started yesterday so it’s not too late to sign up) to help get in control of your financial situation.

This is something that I totally need in my life. Every year I say that I’m going to get rid of more and more of my credit card debt. While I’ve brought it down, it’s not nearly as low as I’d like it to be already. And I want to see how much I can bring it down in 2015. Hopefully by doing this challenge, I will be inspired to find ways to accomplish that goal.

This is a lot of change at one time, but all of these things pretty much came organically to me and I chose to do them. I’m excited to see what the next few weeks and months bring to me!

4 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Saving, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

Tagged cooking, credit card, debt, food, money, transformation, weight loss

New Workout Gadgets And Records (or Improving On My Workouts)

Posted on January 12, 2015 | 18 comments

This past week brought some fun things to my Orangetheory workouts. The first thing was at my Monday workout.

Since I started at Orangetheory, there has always been heart rate monitors. This is part of the reason why I love Orangetheory. The heart monitors that have been used in the past are by Polar. I owned my own strap and every time I worked out, I got a pod (the device that hooks on to the strap) from the front desk. The pods belonged to Orangetheory and had to be turned in after each class.

But on Monday, we all got a nice present waiting for us at the front desk.

We got new heart rate monitors! This is the OTBeat system. It uses Bluetooth to connect in class and you can even use it for workouts outside of class (which is perfect since the battery in my other heart rate monitor still needs replacing). And now I don’t have to get a pod from the front desk (or remember to turn it back in) each workout!

The only possible glitch with the new heart rate monitor for me is the calorie count. It’s saying that I’m burning about 200-300 calories less than the old system did. And when I use the app on my phone with the heart rate monitor (while I’m in class), it says I do burn those extra 200-300 calories. I’ve told the management at my Orangetheory and we are trying to figure out why this is happening. I’m not sure if I should trust what the class calorie burn is or the app calorie burn is. Hopefully this will be resolved this week.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to do the Monday Challenge this past week. It was a 1/4 mile on the treadmill at 10%, but you couldn’t hold on to the treadmill while you did it. Since I have so many balance and walking straight issues, it was more important for me to hold on and not fall than to try the Monday Challenge.

Other than not being able to do the Monday Challenge, I had a great workout.

Wednesday I pushed myself to some new limits with my weights. The new OTBeat system shows how long you have been in the orange and red zones (the zones that help your body burn calories post-workout), so I wanted to see if I could get more time in those zones. In the past, you only knew how long you were in those zones after the workout, but now that I can see how close I am to my goals throughout the workout, I feel extra motivated to push myself farther and farther.

And pushing myself was the theme of my Friday workout. For the treadmill block, we had some distance races. The first and last 7 minutes of the treadmill block were for distance. The first 7 minutes, I got to .401 miles. My goal was .4 miles, so getting that little extra was super motivating. When we had the next 7 minute race, I made myself go even faster than last time (so much easier to do that on a treadmill where it forces me to go faster if I increase the speed on the machine).

Going faster (and at 6% incline instead of 3% which is the norm), was painful at times, but all I really wanted to do is to go for the full 7 minutes without taking a break. And somehow, I managed to do that.

When I looked at the treadmill to see how far I went, I was in shock.

That’s so much better than the first time, and I was exhausted this time from doing the first 7 minute race and the intervals we had between the 2 races.

Honestly, the rest of my workout after that was a bit of a blur. It was a blur of pain and happiness that I was able to go so much farther than I ever expected.

This coming week, I’m going to be calling Kaiser to try to get an appointment with a potential hip surgeon. I know what my old surgeon had as a plan for me, but since he isn’t at Kaiser anymore and that plan was created almost 8 years ago, I want to know what else is possible for me. My goal is to find a way to be able to walk faster without pain and to perhaps find more ways to delay the 3 surgeries that I was told that I need. Seeing how far I can push myself when I’m in pain in a workout has really motivated me to work with a new doctor to make my future workouts even better.

18 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged goals, hip issues, Orangetheory, success, workout

Sweating Away 2014 And Into 2015 (or Starting The Year Off The Right Way)

Posted on January 5, 2015 | 2 comments

With the past week, I wanted to make sure my workouts set me up for a great 2015. I decided to make it a 4 workout week and push myself to the limit again.

Monday was a good workout. Not horribly tough, but I was able to push myself and not feel overwhelmed. But then the Monday Challenge happened.

It was a challenge of full body pull-ups on the straps. Basically, you hold the straps at your waist and then drop down into a super deep squat. So deep that your butt touches the ground. And then you pull yourself back up using the straps.

We have done these a bunch in class, but I never do them properly. It’s not easy for me to squat down like that and have my butt touch the ground. My hips get stuck a lot that way and I sometimes will have my bones grind against each other when I try to stand. But for the Monday Challenge, if I wanted to participate, I had to do the full movement.

It was a 1 minute challenge and I was hoping to get to double digits. The first few reps weren’t so bad. They were tough, but I was able to do them. Then I got stuck on the ground. I literally wasn’t able to pull myself back up. I managed to stand up again after shifting my legs and hips, but it wasn’t fun. Then on the next rep, I pulled myself up so hard that I almost fell face-first into the mirror.

In the end, I was able to do 11 full body pull-ups in 1 minute. I was nowhere near the top 5 board, but I met my goal of double digits.

Wednesday was New Year’s Eve and I had an early (and half) shift at work. So I was able to attend a lunchtime workout so I would have time afterward to get ready for the party that evening. I wanted to look festive, so I found a silver sparkly headband (made by Sweaty Bands) to wear for that class.

A couple of people joked that I was wearing a tiara, but I just wanted something fun to help me celebrate the year that introduced me to Orangetheory. Going to a workout was the perfect way to celebrate the end of the year, and a lot of people must have agreed with that idea because the class was packed! We did a 3G workout, which means that there is one group on the treadmills, one group on the rowers, and one group doing strength work (instead of the usual two groups). It was a little hectic, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.

Then, just to push myself even more, I attended a workout class the morning of New Year’s Day. I was a little tired from being out the night before, but it was a later morning class so I was able to sleep in a little. My workout suffered a little from being tired, but again, this was the perfect way to celebrate the new year. And with my goal of 175 workouts this year, I need to workout even on holidays.

I did like how my new workout gloves looked with my New Year’s Eve manicure. I like looking girly and tough at the same time!

And then, to complete the trifecta of pushing myself, I worked out on Friday as well! Not only was this my 4th workout of the week, it was another time working out 3 days in a row!

I was still tired from a lack of sleep and my body was getting tired from the workouts, but since it was a strength day I wanted to see if I could use some heavier weights. I ended up doing all of my strength work with 15 pound weights. When I started, I was using 8 pounds and recently I have been using 12 pounds and occasionally 15 pounds. But I didn’t let myself go down to 12 pounds. It was tough and my arms are still a little sore, but I’m proud of myself.

Then in the cardio section, there was a new challenge for me. As a walked, when we have push paces or all-out paces, I up my incline on the treadmill when joggers and runners up their speed. But for one of our treadmill blocks, everyone became a walker. We had to do 15% incline (which is what I usually do as my all-out pace), but we were allowed to go 2-3mph (I typically am walking at 3.2mph).

At first, I wondered why we were going to be allowed to go slowly, but then I found out that it was for 5 minutes! I had never done 15% incline for more than a minute or maybe 90 seconds. I was so glad that I was allowed to go slower and I made it through the 5 minutes with only taking one quick break to pop my hip back in (I know that that sounds gross).

I’m trying to pay more attention to my body not just during the workouts but after the workouts. I was a little sore after Friday, but nothing that was worse than any other day. This just proves that I can work with heavier weights and my body is ready for that.

I really feel like these workouts got me off to a great start for 2015, and I wonder how far I will be able to push myself over the next year of workouts!

2 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Weight Loss

Tagged challenge, New Years, Orangetheory, strength, workout

What I Plan To Do This Year (or 2015 Goals)

Posted on January 1, 2015 | 5 comments

Now that I’ve reflected back on my 2014 goals and how well I accomplished them, I really thought hard about what I want my 2015 goals to be. I think I’ve got a good list going for this year and I’m excited to see how well I get them done over the next year.

My first goal is workout related. I want to get 175 workouts done in 2015. That’s pretty much 3-4 workouts every week of the year. I’m not allowing myself workout vacation time (even though my dad did suggest it). I’m sure a majority of the 175 workouts will be at Orangetheory. I have every intention of going at least 3 times a week (and trying to add in a 4th day every other week). But I’m also going to include any 5Ks that I chose to do this year as well as other fitness classes (SoulCycle and maybe trying yoga again). I will also consider including hiking, but I don’t think I’ll have a lot of hiking days except when I get to Tahoe in the summer.

My next goal is a food goal. I want to have home cooked dinners at least 4 times a week. Since I started bulk cooking, I’ve been eating something home cooked most weeknights. I usually prepare food for 4 nights and then on weekends I’m out. And many times on Tuesdays or Thursdays (when I don’t workout after my day job) I don’t necessarily eat dinner. I’ll have a big late breakfast (since my shift doesn’t start until 10am) and then have another bigger meal around 4 or 5pm. Both of those meals are home cooked, but I don’t know if it counts as dinner. So I’m saying home cooked dinners 4 nights a week. If I do more than that, all the better for me.

Next is a day job goal. I want to be down to 2 main day jobs (not counting babysitting or running the film festival). Right now, I have 1 main day job and 6 sporadic jobs. I don’t make enough each week (to the point that I’m still collecting unemployment to make up for the fact that I don’t make enough to not be eligible anymore) and this needs to end. I’m enjoying my box office from home job and if I made enough doing that job I’d be so happy. But I don’t think that will be a reality even with the raise we are supposed to get this year. And while I love being able to make some extra money babysitting, I don’t see that as something that will make enough to make up for what I’m lacking. So I need to find one more steady day job that has regular hours to help me make enough to pay all my bills comfortably. There is a chance to make the film festival another main day job, but there is no guarantee with that.

And I’ve made this a goal in the past, but I really want to get into an improv class this year. I think that now that I feel secure with my day job and have a steady schedule with it, I will be able to pick out a class time that will work for me. I’m working on saving up the money for the class right now.

Again, another repeat goal from last year, but I’d like to travel again this year. I have a trip to Napa planned in 2 months and I’m really looking forward to that. And there is a possibility of another New York trip in the fall this year. I don’t know if I’ll have any other trips (besides visiting my parents or grandparents) but 2 trips in one year sounds wonderful to me!

And my final goal which is a goal every year is to keep blogging. Not just on here, but on other sites as well. I freelance on two blogs and I’ve written a few guest posts on other sites. I had no idea when I started this blog how important and therapeutic writing would become for me. It’s an amazing journal of the past few years of my life and I love going back and reading some of my old posts to remind me how far I’ve come. And I can’t wait to track 2015 the same way.

So those are my main goals for 2015. And in a year, I’ll let you all know how I did with them.

5 Comments

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Travel, Weight Loss, Work

Tagged 2015, 5K, acting, blogging, bulk cooking, goals, job, Orangetheory, resolutions, travel

Reflecting Back On 2014 (or How I Did With My Goals)

Posted on December 31, 2014 | 1 comment

I can’t believe that 2014 is ending! It really seems like it was just a month or two ago that I was posting my goals for this year.

I just want to take some time and reflect on my year and the goals that I had set out for myself.

I really felt like 2014 was a rebuilding year for me and my family. While 2013 did have some great moments, there were also a lot of sad and stressful ones. I think of 2013 as the year that Ross and Krystle got married, that my mom was diagnosed with cancer, and my family lost two dogs. While we did technically adopt Tucker right before New Year’s Eve last year, I think of 2014 as the year he joined our family.

In 2014, so many positives happened for my family. Adopting Tucker was a big one, but the biggest was my mom being declared cancer-free. Knowing that she is ok (even though we all knew that she would be in the beginning) really has taken so much stress out of my life. I know that there are still some stressful times ahead with making sure that she stays cancer-free (and now I have annual mammograms to worry about too), but knowing that it’s all good right now just makes me so happy.

This was also a rebuilding year for me as far as my health goes. I have finally connected with a workout in a way that I had hoped for. And very recently I’ve been getting my food in a better place too. This isn’t to say that I don’t have days where I seriously struggle, but I’m taking more and more steps in the right direction.

So let’s take a look back at my goals from last year and see how I did with them.

My first goal was to continue to do 5Ks. I did 3 this year. And while that is much less than the year prior, I’m ok with that. I don’t love doing 5Ks as much as I want to, but the few races that I did do are ones that I look forward to a lot. I also got a new PR which I am very excited about!

My next goal was to make spin a regular habit. This did not happen. I stopped going to SoulCycle a while ago because I have replaced it with Orangetheory. I’m planning on going back next year every so often to spin, but I really wanted to focus on Orangetheory during the second half of this year. But since I did make exercise a regular habit, I’m declaring this goal as a partial success.

Next on my list was to track my food/exercise better. I’m still using MyFitnessPal to track my food every day. I’m much happier tracking it when I’m making smart choices. And as far as tracking my exercise, I think I’m doing pretty great at that too. It makes it easy to track my exercise in MyFitnessPal when Orangetheory tells me exactly how many calories I’m burning in each workout.

The next goal I had set was to get into an improv class. I failed to do this goal. I had every intention of getting started at UCB this year. I even purchased the book that all students are required to read. But I think the lack of stability with my job got to me. When I thought I knew when a class would fit into my schedule I would lose my job and everything changed. I’m feeling pretty stable with my current day job, but I’m still looking for something else to help me make enough each month. Once that stability is set, I think I can look into class again.

Next was pay down my debt and not add more. While I did pay down some of the debt, it was impossible to not add more this year. With some expenses having to be put on a credit card, there was no way to not add to it. But when I did have those expenses, I tried to pay off exactly what I spent by the time the bill came around.

Then I had the goal of going on another vacation. While I did go to visit my parents, those don’t seem to feel like vacations to me. They seem like getting to have family time. That’s probably because I’m either visiting them at the house I grew up in or I’m at their place in Tahoe. But I did get to go on a fabulous trip to New York with my sister-in-law this past spring. That trip was amazing and we are planning to try to go to New York again in the coming year.

My final goal for 2014 was to continue blogging. While some days are tough to come up with a topic to write about, I have maintained posting a new post Monday-Friday every week of this year. That’s a lot of posts!

All in all, even though I didn’t complete all of my goals, I think that I did a great job in trying to do them all. I’ll post my goals for 2015 tomorrow.

I hope that you all have an amazing New Year’s Eve tonight! If you chose to drink, please don’t drive. Take a taxi/Uber/Lyft to get home. Or you can call AAA for a Tipsy Tow.

1 Comment

Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Family, Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Travel, Weight Loss, Work

Tagged 5K, blogging, breast cancer, cancer, debt, goals, New Years, Orangetheory, recap, resolutions, vacation

Pre-Burning Jewish Christmas Calories (or Holiday Workouts)

Posted on December 29, 2014 | 1 comment

This past week of workout were intense! That’s good because I had a nice splurge on Christmas, but it was not easy getting through the week!

Monday and Wednesday both were Christmas themed workouts (since those were in the days leading up to Christmas). They reminded me a lot of Hell Week during Halloween and were pretty much as tough as those workouts were.

Monday’s theme was the 12 Days Of Christmas. We had a list of 12 cardio tasks and a list of 12 strength tasks. This was the cardio list.

It went 100 meter row, 2 minute push, 3 squat curls, and so on. You worked your way down the list and if you were able to complete it, you worked your way back up.

The first few things on the list weren’t too bad. It was a nice way to ease into the workout. At 7 (or the 700 meter row) I was starting to get exhausted. I slowed my rowing down to try to keep my form nice and it seemed like that row took forever! I did make it to the 1200 meter row, but I only completed about 300 meters of it before it was time to switch to the strength portion.

This was also a list of 12 tasks, but you went through the tasks like the 12 Days of Christmas song. I don’t remember all 12 tasks but the first few were 1 full burpee, 2 squat jumps, 3 push-ups, and 4 pop jacks. But instead of working down the list like we did for cardio you started with 1 burpee; then 2 squat jumps and 1 burpee; then 3 push-ups, 2 squat jumps, and 1 burpee.

Holy moly was that tough! I think I made it to 10 on that list before time was called. The last task of the day was the Monday Challenge. I saw a sneak peek at the challenge on Instagram and new ahead of time that is was going to be a 100 meter row. I didn’t have a previous record saved in my phone for a 100 meter row, but I did have a 1 minute record of 313 meters. So I set it in my head that I wanted to do better than 20 seconds. And I managed to do it in 19.5 seconds, so I was pretty darn happy with myself!

Wednesday’s workout was Christmas Eve so I tried to dress festively.

Sadly, that little Santa hat that I’m wearing broke right before I took the picture. It was attached to a headband that snapped in half when I tried to wear it. Oh well.

The theme on Wednesday was Naughty or Nice. There were 2 stockings in the room, one for cardio and one for strength. When you did the cardio section, you pulled a card from the stocking and it told you what to do. After completing that task 3 times, you pulled a new card. There were Nice cards that were short exercises and there were Naughty cards (like having to do a 5K on the treadmill or rowing machine). I was lucky and only pulled Nice cards during cardio. It was essentially run/row workouts. The first card was .13 mile run (really a walk for me) and then 400 meters on the rowing machine. My second card was a 1 minute all-out pace on the treadmill followed by a 1 minute row. I just got through those 2 cards when time was called.

For the strength section, we all had the same exercises to do. But the cards would tell us how many reps we had to do of each workout. I pulled 2 Nice cards and 1 Naughty card. In the end, I did about 80 reps of each workout.

On Friday, I was a bit tired and feeling the effects of my Chinese food, but I was ready to burn off all that junk in my system. The cardio portion was all treadmill and the strength portion was a mixture of body weight, strap work, rowing, and abs. I was doing ok until the abs portion. I’m really losing flexibility in my hips (this is actually really worrying me and will be something I discuss when I interview potential new hip surgeons), and the lack of flexibility makes sit-ups and crunches really tough to do. I can’t really have my feet flat on the floor and bring my upper body to my legs. The pain in my hips is too intense. So most of the time, I either do crunches where I don’t bring my upper body up as much or have my legs straight out in front of me.

Doing full body sit-ups with your legs straight ahead of you is not easy to do, and my Friday coach Whitney saw that I was struggling and in a lot of pain. So she came over and held my legs down so I could successfully complete my sit-ups.

It’s the little touches like that where you can really see that the coaches at Orangetheory care about you and want to see you succeed that makes me so happy that I found my workout home.

I only did 3 workouts this week. My body probably could not have taken a 4th workout this time. But with the New Year almost here I’ve got some goals set in my head that will make the 4th workout more of a regular thing.

But it’s not time for me to share my 2015 goals quite yet. That’s coming up in a few days.

1 Comment

Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged hip issues, Orangetheory, pain, strength, workout

Category Archives: Fitness

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