Category Archives: Fitness

Hard Rock Cafe 5K Take 2 (or Trying To Not Be Frustrated With A PR)

Posted on November 11, 2014 | 9 comments

This past Saturday was the Hard Rock Cafe 5K. You may remember that I PRed on this race last year. I also recently learned a lot more about the charity that this race helps out, My Friend’s Place.

I’ve never done treadmill training prior to a race before. All my walking training has been on city streets, and I don’t do that too often. It’s not super safe with traffic and the sidewalks (if there are any) aren’t too even. So for all my past races, I hadn’t training probably as much as I should.

But this time, I’ve been spending about an hour and a half each week on a treadmill (1/2 of an hour-long class 3 times a week). And while those treadmill segments have been tough on me because of all the incline work we do, I’ve never gone into a race feeling this prepared.

But I had never really been this nervous either. My last race was back in June for the Culver City 5K, and that was my worst 5K time ever. But that was also a race that I did before I started at Orangetheory.

Packet pick up on Friday was very easy. It was the same place it was last year, so I was able to get in and out in less than 10 minutes (not easy to do when you are at a major tourist attraction in Hollywood). I got home and got my bib number ready as well as a shirt that I bought just for this race.

I also went to get my usual race bag ready. When I went to grab my personal heart rate monitor, I saw this.

I haven’t used it in a while since I use the heart rate system at Orangetheory. I’m sure that all it needs is a new battery, but I wasn’t going to run around town trying to find a watch store that was still open. So I decided to download the Map My Run app on my iPhone and use that to time myself (more on that in a minute).

I set multiple alarms for 5am, because I’m always nervous that I won’t wake up. Except this time, I woke up at 3am and could not get back to sleep. I finally admitted to myself that I wasn’t going to sleep anymore around 4:45am and started to get ready.

It was an easy drive in the dark to get to the race start. I parked, and by the time I was on the street, the sun was coming up.

I thought that I would be alone for this entire race, but a fellow blogger, Anne, decided to start the race walking with me. We got started pretty quickly and I felt like we were going a good pace. Anne stuck with me for about the first 10 minutes, but she had planned on running, so after 10 minutes she said that she’d meet me at the finish line and was off.

I was in a groove during this race. I had added some new songs to my race mix on my phone and I was keeping up with the pack of people (not getting passed every second like last year).

Then, all of a sudden the Map My Run app spoke to me over my music. It had said that just over 17 minutes had passed and I had done 1 mile.

I was shocked! At Orangetheory I average about 18:45 a mile. But I thought that maybe I was going a lot faster than I thought. But then about a minute later, I passed the 1 mile marker.

I was confused, but I kept going. Each time the app talked to me, I was averaging about a 17 minute mile but I wouldn’t see the official mile marker until about a minute later. I didn’t know if the course was long or if the app was off. Either way, I was making great time and I wasn’t hurting nearly as much as I usually do.

The halfway point was great to see. I was thinking of this race as about 2 treadmill sections at Orangetheory (since I’m on the treadmill just about 30 minutes each class). As I turned around and walked the other direction, I realized just how many people were still behind me! This was not at all like last year where at the half way point I was in the last 5 people and the van to pick people up was right on my tail.

I got closer and closer to the finish line and again at the 3 mile point, my app told me that I had done 3 miles well before I saw the official marker. But I knew that the finish line was close and I hurried up.

I crossed the finish line and looked at the timer on the app. It said 56:53 and that the race was 3.36 miles. I was really confused about the distance listed. I ended up finding someone who had a GPS watch and asked him what his watch said the distance was. He said it was 3.11. So clearly, my app was off and all my mile times it was telling me was wrong.

While I waited for the official time to be posted, I tried not to be mad and just look at the awesome medal I earned!

When my official time was posted, I did the race in 56:52! That’s a huge improvement for me! About 10 minutes fast than my 5K in June and just about a minute and a half faster than my old PR!

I was so happy to have a new PR, but I was pretty pissed about the app lying to me. If I try to use it again for another race, I might just ignore the distance it says and just look at the stopwatch feature since that was pretty accurate.

I found Anne at the finish line and she got a PR as well! We took some victory pictures and then we each had to head home (I was in serious need of a nap).

When I got home, I took a quick shower and noticed that even getting home I was not feeling as sore as I usually do. I normally have issues with my feet and hips hurting after a race, and the only pain I was feeling this time was some tightness in my legs and the pain from a massive blister that pops and shredded the skin (it looks super gross and I will spare you all from having to see a picture of it).

Even now, a few days after my race, I’m not feeling my usual pain. Seriously, my Orangetheory workouts have been paying off! Even if the scale isn’t going down the way I feel it should, the non-scale victories keep showing up! If I’m able to do more races without my usual pain, I might consider doing more races or even thinking about trying for a 10K one day (I had really given up on that dream).

While I’m still a little down that I was so excited to hear on the app that I was doing 17 minute miles when that wasn’t true, I’m trying to only focus on the positives. And what made me smile even more than getting a PR that day was putting on all the medals that I’ve earned over the past 2 years and seeing how far I’ve come.

My medal holder is starting to look full, but I know that there is room for whatever races I end up doing next year.

9 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged 5K, Hard Rock Cafe, medals, race, walking

Weird Workout Times (or My Final Workouts Before My 5K)

Posted on November 10, 2014 | Comments Off

This past week, I pushed myself extra hard in my workouts. I knew that they were the workouts leading up to my 5K. And even though I have done more treadmill training before this 5K than any of my other races, I still was a little worried. So I wanted to make sure that I was in the best possible shape I could be for the race.

Because of my schedule and not wanting to do a workout 12 hours before a 5K, 2 of my 3 classes this past week were not at my usual times.

My Monday workout was a morning workout. I might start doing more morning workouts on Monday since that is my day off from my day job and there’s no need for me to go to an after-work time for class (and deal with rush hour traffic). The benefit of going to that class was the instructor was Ashley, who I used to have a lot but hadn’t taken her class since she switched to a morning schedule. She’s a tough instructor and pushed me really hard, but I needed it.

The Monday Challenge this week was a 200 meter row. But instead of seeing how fast you can row, it was how few strokes you could row to reach 200 meters. I did ok. I wasn’t close to what the top 5 did, but I got it done quickly and had very powerful strokes and pushes with my legs (something that is tough for me).

Wednesday was my one workout in my normal time, and then I had a Thursday workout. Yup, two weeks in a row I did back to back workout days.

I was much more sore this Thursday than I was last Thursday, but I managed my painkillers carefully and did my best. It was a lot of hills in the treadmill section and my hips don’t love the hills. There were plenty of times that I had to jump on the rails of the treadmill and try to pop my hip back in (it’s as gross as it sounds). But I was grateful for a crazy hill workout because I knew my race on Saturday would be flat, so it would seem like a breeze compared to the hill workout.

And finally, I got my Thanksgiving Day workout scheduled. I will be going to the Orangetheory in San Diego (where we are celebrating this year) and my dad, my brother, and my Aunt Cindy will be attending the workout with me. I got all of us on the schedule and I’m making sure that everything is set up so that everyone has a good time at the workout. And the staff at the San Diego location were super nice to me and happy to make sure that everything should go smoothly when we come to workout (this will be my first workout at a different Orangetheory location).

This week, I’m back to my usual schedule for workouts, but I am looking into morning workouts on Mondays (that way my day is free after the workout instead of scheduling to make sure I will be done by the time my workout happens). And tomorrow, I’ll have my recap of my 5K!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged challenge, Orangetheory, treadmill, workout

Adventures In Customer Service (or Trying Not To Be The Bad Call)

Posted on November 7, 2014 | 1 comment

I’ve worked in customer service for many of my day jobs. Most of the time, I’ve been interacting with customers in person. But with my telesales job and my current box office job, I’m just doing customer service work on the phone (or in a chat feature like at my current job).

When I worked in telesales, I did discover that I was being much nicer to telemarketers on the phone. I didn’t hang up on them (unless they were robo calls) and if it was something that I know I wouldn’t be interested in, I would politely ask to be put on the do not call list.

But things have changed since I started my current box office job. I’ve had some really crazy customers since day one. I’ve never been threatened more at a job than with this one. Customers tell me that they are going to have me arrested to show up at a show and demand to see me so I can apologize for doing whatever they believed is wrong.

First of all, what saves me every day are my co-workers. While none of us work in the same city (I think only 1 other employee works in California), we are able to chat with each other through the chat feature while we work. We can ask if someone had previously spoke with a customer. Many times, customers will say that someone else told them that they could do something that is against the rules. I check with my co-workers to see who spoke to them and exactly what was said. That way, I can let the customer know that the information that they got from one of my co-workers is correct and I’m not able to bend the rules for them.

For some of the more detailed issues, we just direct them back to the location that they are attending. This is all done by email, so we have records of when we passed on a customer. Since a lot of the tough issues are not dealt with the box office, I’m grateful for that.

But ever since starting this job, I’ve noticed a change in how I deal with customer service people on the phone. I don’t believe that I have ever been mean to anyone, but I’m learning what preparation goes into making sure everything is done correctly.

For example, I ordered a DVD box set for my brother for his birthday. It was a pre-order so I knew it would take a bit of time to be shipped. I got an email 2 weeks ago saying that it would be shipped then, but there was no tracking number. I also had a charge and a refund on my credit card.

Before contacting customer service, I gathered all the information that I had gotten from the company. I knew when emails were sent to me, when the charge and refund was on my card, and when they claimed they would be shipping the DVDs. When I got a hold of customer service, I presented all my information and she was easily able to find out what happened and what went wrong (they are finally shipping the DVDs this month now).

I also recently called an Orangetheory location down in San Diego. I will be there for Thanksgiving and my dad, my brother, and my aunt all want to take a class with me on Thanksgiving. When I called the first time, the guy I spoke to seemed very confused by my request to schedule a class. He took down my information, but nothing seemed right.

After going to my Orangetheory and getting some more information about my membership from them, I called the San Diego location again to get everything straightened out.

The woman who I spoke to on the phone the second time kept saying how great it was that I was prepared to schedule everything and that I had all the information in front of me. It made her job simpler and allowed the problems to be corrected (it was mainly some typos and the previous employee using a different account to schedule my class).

Basically, from being yelled at on the phone every workday at least once, I’ve really learned that there is no reason to not do everything that I can do to make a customer service call as easy as possible. It’s not just about being nice (although that helps and I wish more customers were nice to me), it’s about knowing what had happened with your interactions with the company in the past and knowing what you need to have accomplished (as long as it is possible and not breaking any rules).

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff, Work

Tagged box office, customer service, job, Orangetheory, patience

Back To Back Workouts (or It’s Hell Week)

Posted on November 3, 2014 | 3 comments

This past week, my workouts challenged me in more ways than one. But they were all awesome challenges!

First challenge was when I worked out. I’ve been doing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday pretty much every week since I started at Orangetheory. I have done an occasional Saturday instead of Friday when there was a conflict. But I’ve never worked out 2 days in a row.

That is, until this past week. I didn’t want to work out on Friday evening because I had Halloween plans. And the only morning class that would have worked for me would have been around 6am (too early!). Saturday wasn’t an option either because I had other plans. So I decided to try doing Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I was really scared to not have a rest day between my workouts, but it actually worked out pretty well (I did take painkillers prior to working out just in case). It worked so well that I’m planning on repeating that schedule this week. I have a 5K on Saturday morning and I don’t think a workout on Friday afternoon/evening would be the best plan for me.

The second challenge I encountered this past week was the fact that Orangetheory (in all locations around the country) make the week leading up to Halloween Hell Week. So all the workouts were extra tough and had a specific focus. There was also a prize if you did all 5 Hell Week workouts, but I knew I couldn’t do that.

Monday’s Hell Week workout was all about burpees and rowing. First, I had 28 minutes of various burpees and short sprints on the treadmill. After the first round of burpees, my body decided that it was not happy. Getting my feet near my hands to get back up from the burpees is extremely tough for me (and something that I’m working on getting better at). So I ended up doing modified burpees by using the weight bench to put my hands on (instead of having them on the ground). After that, it was 28 minutes on the rowing machine! I’ve never done more than a few minutes of rowing at a time, so trying to go 28 minutes with minimum breaks was very tough and my legs felt very wobbly afterward. But I did manage to row over 3300 meters in that time.

After my Monday workout, I was so proud of myself that I did a quick post-workout selfie.

I’m still not seeing changes in myself, but others are seeing it so I have to trust them.

Wednesday’s theme was Leg Day. It was not as bad as Monday, but it was still another killer workout full of squats (I must have done close to 1000 squats in the workout) and I thought that I wouldn’t be able to sit down and get back up afterward. Thankfully, the painkillers that I took before and after my workout helped a lot and allowed me to recovery easily.

Thursday was a Hill Day. I was seriously dreading this workout because I thought that it would be hills on the treadmill without breaks. And the incline on the treadmill is one of those things that really irritates my hip. But I was very happy to see that the hill workout was being done in sprints. Everything was in 1 minute increments. 1 minute at 15% incline and then some squats, then 1 minute at 14% incline and more squats, and so on. I made it down to 9% incline within the workout. The second half of Hill Day was all about using the TRX straps and rowing.

After I was done with my 3 workouts, I was exhausted. I had pretty high calorie burns for all my workouts and for 2 of them, I spent more time in the Orange Zone (the zone that helps you burn calories after the workout) than in the Green Zone (the standard fat burning zone). That was an awesome accomplishment and helped me realize that I really have come a long way since I started.

This week is back to more “regular” workouts but I know that they will still be tough. And this weekend will be my first 5K since I started at Orangetheory and I’m excited to see what this training translates to on race day!

3 Comments

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

Tagged challenge, Orangetheory, recovery, treadmill, workout

Tough Workouts (or Having Challenges Every Day)

Posted on October 27, 2014 | Comments Off

This past week was not my best week of workouts. I still went 3 times during the week, but I was not able to really put out a full effort each time.

It’s probably a good thing that I had a bad week. It proved to me that even when I can’t do my best, I can still do something. And I did burn at least 450 calories in each class (that’s a lot in 60 minutes!).

Monday wasn’t that bad of a day. The workout went really great and I was pushing myself like crazy. I’m trying to move up in what weights I use during the strength portion. I used to always start at 10 pounds and go from there, but now I’m starting at 12 pounds. And I’m finding that for most things (except lateral arm moves) that is a good weight for me. I’d like to eventually move up to the 15 pounds weights, but I don’t have a timeline for that yet.

The Monday Challenge was a running challenge. I hate those. There isn’t always a modification for the challenge for walkers so I’m not able to fully participate in them. This challenge was running at 10.5 MPH for as long as you can. I didn’t attempt it because I was terrified that I would fall off the treadmill. So instead, I did 4 MPH at 15% incline (the highest incline the treadmill can do). I managed a little over 30 seconds at that. I wasn’t timed because it wouldn’t count, but even if I was timed, everyone was over the 1 minute mark so I wouldn’t have made it on the wall. But I tried. And when this challenge comes around again, maybe I can do 45 seconds.

Wednesday was tough because it was the day after my bad food day. Eating like that really affected my workout. I felt sluggish and had trouble focusing. I was having dizzy spells similar to what I had when I had my ear issues. I was totally thrown off and the trainer, JZ, noticed. But the important thing is that I showed up and tried.

And Friday, my hip decided that it had enough of me. My bones kept grinding against each other all day. And while I was carefully timing my 2 types of painkillers and making sure to take them every 8 hours (for one pill) and every 4 hours (for the other pill), my hip kept catching and walking was extremely difficult for me. It didn’t help either that my heart rate monitor is class was glitchy. I usually look at it to see if I’m hitting the heart rate zones I need to. And if I’m too low or too high I adjust things. But my heart rate was going from 60% to 105% and all over the place. So I have no idea if my effort was what was needed. And I didn’t want to leave class to get a new one so I just sucked it up.

After my Friday workout, my hip started to get much worse. Every time this happens I freak out a little bit. Now it’s a bigger freak out. I’ve now realized that when I have my next surgery (no matter which hip surgery ends up being my next one), I’ll be out of commission as far as workouts go for at least a month or so. If my next surgery is making my left hip like my right one (not getting a hip replacement), there is a chance that I could at least do the strength section (I just wouldn’t be able to stand without crutches and therefore couldn’t go on the treadmill).

I can’t think like that right now, but I can’t help it. Now that I’m getting in a groove, anything that alters that makes me worry that I will have trouble returning to it. I’m debating making an appointment with my surgeon again, but I don’t think that anything he says will be different from last time (I have the option to do the surgery whenever I want).

In the meanwhile, I’m looking forward to another week of workouts this week and hopefully I’ll have some more positive days!

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

Tagged hip issues, Orangetheory, struggle, workout

Seeing What Other People See (or Losing Weight Without Losing Weight)

Posted on October 20, 2014 | 4 comments

Another week of workouts are done! I had some great challenging workouts and some personal challenges as well.

First of all, the Monday Challenge this week was a mini Dri-Tri. We had a 100 meter row, 20 burpees (without the jumps or pushups), and a .1 mile run. Even before I started I knew I wouldn’t rank in the top 5, but I was still excited to do it. The row wasn’t too bad. I was exhausted from the workout, but I still got it done pretty quickly. The burpees were a killer. It’s so tough to do them and even though I’m finally done with my ear problems, my equilibrium is still off sometimes when I go from sitting or laying down to standing. So those burpees made me so dizzy! And I did the .1 mile walk as fast as I could, but everyone else at the challenge was able to run.

In the end, my time was just over a minute from what the slowest time was on the leaderboard. So not bad.

These challenges are going to be in cycles. I’ve been told that they will do 8 challenges and then repeat them. I’m not sure if that is still the exact plan, but if it is, I’m excited to see what my time will be for this challenge in 8 weeks when we do it again.

On Wednesday, I was all decked out in pink for my workout.

First of all, it was to show my support for breast cancer awareness month. But secondly, this past Wednesday was my mom’s very last day of chemo! So even though I wasn’t celebrating that awesome milestone with her in person that day, I wanted to celebrate it in my own way.

On Friday, it was a crazy challenging workout. It was a run/row day, which I haven’t had in a long time. I personally enjoy the run/rows because it means that I get to spend less time on the treadmill, which I still don’t love. But since it had been so long since doing a run/row, my transitions were slow and tough. I know that I can do better with that if I have run/rows more often, but I just focused on trying to get from the treadmill to the rower and back as fast as I could.

This week also seemed to be the week that I talked with people who have noticed a difference in how I look. First of all it was my parents who I saw on Thursday (more about that in another post). My dad mentioned that I look much smaller than the last time he saw me (which was last month).

Then on Friday, I was talking with 2 ladies who were on the treadmills next to me. One of them was pretty new to Orangetheory. That Monday (she was in my class that time as well) was her first class. And she was asking me all about the workouts. Then there was another lady who I have seen a bunch in class who joined in on the conversation. She mentioned that whenever she and I are in the same class, I motivate her to use heavier weights in the strength portion of class because she sees that I’m using heavier weights than she is.

I never realized that I could motivate someone who looks perfectly fit to me to try harder! That was pretty awesome. She also mentioned how I looked like I had lost a lot of weight since she first saw me in class (which I think was right around 4th of July).

Finally this week, I saw my brother and sister-in-law yesterday (again, a story for another post). My sister-in-law commented that I looked like I had lost a lot of weight.

What’s crazy about all of this is that I haven’t lost a lot of weight. I’m not sure why I’m not losing it at the rate I expect to, but I’m just happy that it is going in the right direction. But for example, since the last time my parents or my sister-in-law saw me, I’m maybe only 4 pounds smaller. That’s not a lot. But clearly it must be showing more than I realize.

I stopped doing photos of my progress after my initial 8 week challenge, but I think I need to go back to doing those. It’s really hard for me to see weight changes in my self (I have been diagnosed in the past with some body dysmorphia issues) but sometimes I can see them in photos. I think I’m going to wait until November 1st and then try to do them on the first of every month.

But for now, I have to trust in what other people are seeing and to keep kicking as much butt in my workouts as possible. Because obviously it’s working!

4 Comments

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

Tagged challenge, fitness, Orangetheory, progress, weight loss, workout

Orange Goes Pink (or The Week In Workouts)

Posted on October 13, 2014 | Comments Off

This past week was another killer week of workouts for me. It didn’t help that on Friday my hip decided to pop out as I was getting out of my car and didn’t want to pop back until after the workout was done. But I did my best given the circumstances.

The Monday challenge was a 2 minute row. And it was as simple as it sounds. Row as far as you can in 2 minutes. The top 5 distances for women and for men would be posted.

I was surprised when I did the Monday challenge. Only myself and one other girl decided to do it after my class. I’m not sure why nobody else wanted to.

But that was fine. She and I rowed next to each other and encouraged each other on (she had a goal to beat the distance her mom was able to do).

I did ok. I went farther than I thought I could, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be in the top 5 (there were more than 5 people who had done the challenge in the morning classes with farther distances than mine).

But what I thought was the coolest part of my week in workouts was the support that was going on because of October being breast cancer awareness month.

I think most of you reading this know what breast cancer means to me and my family. I am happy to report that I did get the results of my mammogram back and everything is fine. The only thing that makes me nervous is that the type of breast cancer that my mom had is not really detectable on a mammogram. So even though my doctor is advising me to do annual mammograms now, my mom suggested that I see about doing mammograms and MRIs on alternating years (my mom’s cancer was found on an MRI).

Anyway, back to how OrangeTheory is support breast cancer awareness. This past Saturday there was an event at the gym (sadly I couldn’t make it). For every calorie burned during class for the entire day, they were going to donate a penny to breast cancer causes. So for example, I typically burn about 500 calories in class. They would donate $5 for that. Between the calories burned over the day and some other donations that came in, they were able to give a nice donation to the charity.

They have also decided to make the orange zone on the heart rate monitors pink for the month.

So instead of striving to be in the orange zone for 12-20 minutes in class, you want to be in the pink zone.

Not only is it a nice way to show support, I think it’s pretty fun too.

Beyond that, my workouts have been pretty normal. I’m getting used to the schedule and have been able to maintain my M/W/F workouts. I’m getting a little nervous about Thanksgiving and how I will keep up my workouts then, but I’ve got plenty of time to figure that out.

But I keep thinking to myself that the fact that I’m trying to plan my workouts for something that is a month away is a major step for me. I have never been this dedicated to working out without a goal date (the only other time I was this dedicated was when I was losing as much weight as possible before my hip surgery). While the food plans are still tough on me, now that working out is seeming to be normal and expected, I’m getting better and better.

I’m excited for my next 5K (which is less than 4 weeks away). I’m curious how much progress I will have made now that I’m doing treadmill training 3 times a week.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged breast cancer, mammogram, mom, Orangetheory, support, workout

Lunch and Learn (or Learning More About My Next 5K)

Posted on October 8, 2014 | 3 comments

I was recently invited to be a part of a blogger lunch and learn for the Hard Rock Cafe 5K. I was so excited to attend since this will be my second year participating in this 5K.

The first part of the lunch and learn was the lunch section of it. We were brought back into a private room at the Hard Rock Cafe at Hollywood and Highland and we were given a sample of some of their appetizers.

It was all super delicious (and my share of what was on our table was pretty much my meal for the day).

While we were eating, I was seated with 2 other bloggers and a representative from My Friend’s Place. My Friend’s Place is a center for homeless youth and is the official charity for the Hard Rock Cafe 5K. They were actually the charity for last year as well, but I’m embarrassed to admit that I signed up for the race because I wanted the medal and not because of the charity.

During lunch I learned a lot about My Friend’s Place including some of the programs that they offer to help get youth off of the streets and into safe places. I also learned that they are one of the rare homeless organizations that will let people bring their pets with them (although the pets do stay outside).

I was so interested to learn more about My Friend’s Place and fortunately the second half of the Lunch and Learn was a tour of the facility and to learn even more about it!

It was a short drive over and as soon as I got inside, I noticed how different it looked from other homeless organizations I’ve seen around LA.

They make it as cheerful and homey as possible. We started our tour in the entry room where people come in each day (sadly, the center is only open during the daytime and weekdays right now).

At the front desk, everyone can get clean socks and underwear. It’s the little things that can make you feel like a new person. We learned that they have to buy men’s briefs because they are cheaper, but they would love a donation of new boxers to give out (I’m hoping to make a Costco run to pick some up to donate). At the front they also have a mail service. Anyone who wants to get mail at their address can do so. And they can use the address to get a state ID card. I never thought about it before, but you cannot get an ID without an address.

Next on the tour was a room right off of the entry way. And it was not something I was expecting to see.

A circus classroom! Cirque du Monde is a program that was created by Cirque du Soleil. While it might seem silly to have a circus program at a homeless shelter, there is a lot of good that can come from people learning circus tricks. Many of the homeless youth have not been in environments where they can trust others. But in Cirque du Monde, they have to be able to trust the instructors and have respect for the lessons.

After we learned a bit about the program, we were given a chance to walk on the wire in the room. I jumped up and was the first to go.

It was awesome! I was able to go up and back and it felt amazing. After I went, all the other bloggers tried it out and realized how great of a confidence booster an activity like this is.

Next we toured the classroom where they have GED classes and tutoring as well as computers for the youth to use.

Next to that was the clothing room.

While it looks full, they can always use more donations of clothes and shoes.

We then headed upstairs to see the mothering program room.

They have parenting classes and are able to provide diapers for little kids. And they mentioned an amazing idea for people to donate diapers. When your kid outgrows the size of diapers you have at home, donate the extra ones so that they will have some to give out! They don’t mind that it isn’t a full box. Any diapers are helpful.

We also learned about some of the other programs that are available at the center such as legal aid, health services, life skills (like finding a job and permanent housing), and counseling.

Honestly, while I have volunteered at homeless shelters before, I never learned as much about homelessness (and homeless youth) as I did during the Lunch and Learn. I know that when I have money to donate to charity, this is going to be one of the first places on my list to get money. These kids need help and many times they don’t have anywhere else to turn.

I highly encourage everyone to learn more about My Friend’s Place and donate either goods or money if you can. And if you want to join me for the Hard Rock Cafe 5K, you can still register and get an awesome medal as well as help an incredible organization.

3 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged 5K, charity, Hard Rock Cafe, homeless, lunch

Believing In Myself (or My Wish From Last Week Came True)

Posted on October 6, 2014 | 2 comments

Last week in my workout recap of the week prior, I talked about the Orangetheory Monday Challenges. I was so close to the top 5 that week and I really hoped that I would make it to the top 5 for a Monday challenge soon.

Well, it happened a whole heck of a lot sooner than I expected!

This past week, the Monday challenge was how many push ups you could do in one minute. Push ups on your knees were not an option, but you could do push ups using one of the weight benches, so I chose that option.

The Monday workout prior to the challenge was a crazy one, so I thought that maybe I could do 15 or if I was lucky 20 push ups. I’m not great at push ups, but I have noticed a serious improvement in the time that I’ve been working out at Orangetheory.

There were only about 6 of us doing the challenge this past Monday and there was only one person who was able to time us. So we all started at the same time and we had to do our own counting.

As soon as the time started, I was off! I have never done push ups so fast before in my life! I was so focused on just getting them done that I got 15 done pretty quickly. I hadn’t realized how quickly until after my 15 were done, the 15 second mark was announced.

I realized that I was only 1/4 of the way done with the challenge and I really wanted to see how many I could do. So I kept going even though I felt like my arms were going to explode.

I’m sure that my push ups weren’t that pretty to look at, but I kept going. My focus slipped for a moment and I forgot what number I was at, so I went back to the last number I remembered (so I’m sure I did more than I counted but I’d rather underestimate than overestimate).

Finally, the one minute mark was called and I collapsed.

I somehow managed to do 43 push ups in a minute. I have no idea how that happened, but I know I did it because my arms were killing me.

That evening, I couldn’t really lift my arms properly, so it was pretty comical for me to try to wash my hair.

I had no idea how well I had done in the challenge. I had been told that from all the morning classes, I would have ranked #2, but there are more people who work out in the evening and I knew many of them women would try for the challenge.

On Tuesday, Orangetheory put a picture up online with the top 5 men and women for the weekly challenge.

Yup, that’s my name listed as #5!!

I was shocked that I accomplished my goal of making it on to the list so quickly!

Of course, when I went to my Wednesday workout, I had to get a picture of me with the wall.

Having jello arms for a couple of days was totally worth it!

I have no idea what the Monday challenge will be today, but I know that I’ll be doing my best to kick butt at it!

And who knows, maybe I’ll make it on the wall again this week!

2 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged challenge, Orangetheory, workout

Challenge Winners (or OK Being A Loser)

Posted on October 2, 2014 | Comments Off

This past weekend was the party for the Orangetheory weight-loss challenge. I knew how much I had lost because the weigh-in was the week before, and I was pretty sure that I didn’t win.

There was going to be a men’s and women’s winner and while I had no clue who the winner for the women would be, I had a good idea who the winner for the men would be.

There is one guy who I talk with from time to time. Sometimes we are in the same workout class, but more often he’s in the class after mine. We would check in with each other throughout the challenge and made sure that neither of us were slacking off. It also turns out that we have a mutual friend.

The day of the final weigh-in, he shared with me that he had lost over 30 pounds in the 6 weeks. In my opinion, there was no way that someone else could win.

And I was right. He was the winner for the men.

On the women’s side, until I showed up for the party, I couldn’t guess the winner. But while we were all waiting for the party to start, one of the trainers and I were talking and she brought another woman into the conversation. They were discussing her weight loss and it turned out that she had lost 17 pounds (which was 10% of her original weight).

As soon as I heard that, I knew that she would end up being the winner for the women.

There were also second and third place prizes for both men and women, but I didn’t rank in the top 3.

And you know what? I’m totally cool with that. In the 6 weeks, I had lost 9 pounds. I might have been able to lose more if I hadn’t had any setbacks (including food setbacks and health setbacks), but 9 pounds in 6 weeks is great! It’s a good pace for weight loss.

As much as I want to lose it all quickly, I’ve done that twice before. And it hasn’t ended well for me. So this time instead of the quick fix, I’m going for the happy ending.

But what I’m most proud of is that I was part of such an amazing group of people for this weight-loss challenge. I have really found my community and workout home. I thought that I had found it before, and maybe one day it will become more of a workout home for me. But this time I really feel completely comfortable with the staff and everyone who works out at Orangetheory and I feel no judgement at all.

That’s a prize that no contest can award me and I’m lucky that I got it.

Comments Off on Challenge Winners (or OK Being A Loser)

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

Tagged challenge, community, home, Orangetheory, weight loss, winner

Category Archives: Fitness

Hard Rock Cafe 5K Take 2 (or Trying To Not Be Frustrated With A PR)

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Weird Workout Times (or My Final Workouts Before My 5K)

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Adventures In Customer Service (or Trying Not To Be The Bad Call)

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Back To Back Workouts (or It’s Hell Week)

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Tough Workouts (or Having Challenges Every Day)

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Seeing What Other People See (or Losing Weight Without Losing Weight)

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Orange Goes Pink (or The Week In Workouts)

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Lunch and Learn (or Learning More About My Next 5K)

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Believing In Myself (or My Wish From Last Week Came True)

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Challenge Winners (or OK Being A Loser)

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