Category Archives: Fun Stuff

A Routine Workout Week (or The Multiple Studio Life)

Posted on March 26, 2018 | Comments Off on A Routine Workout Week (or The Multiple Studio Life)

This past week of workouts was a pretty standard week for me. I am getting into my new routine and am still loving having a studio so close to my house! I can’t believe how I’ve been able to get into morning workouts when I thought I’d only be ok with the afternoon ones, but I’ve found the transition much easier than I thought it could be. But I did have some struggles this past week mainly due to nausea. Fortunately, I’ve been dealing with that long enough that I know how to modify things for myself.

Monday’s workout was at the Brentwood studio and it was a 3 group workout. I was able to start on the treadmill this time and each section of the room had an element of choosing your own workout plan. On the treadmill we could pick from 3 different distances to start with. After we did that then we had a walking recovery and we could pick from one of the other distances we didn’t do. I started with the longest distance and worked my way down to the shortest since I figured that would be the easiest for me. I did struggle a bit on the treadmill, but it wasn’t as bad as it’s been in the past. I was keeping my inclines to my usual incline plan and that helped when I had the longer treadmill distances.

Next I was on the rower where again we had 3 distances to choose from. After we completed a row we had 3 rounds of squats and sprint rows before going back to pick another row distance to do. Again, I started with the longest distance thinking that would make it easiest for me. What I wasn’t expecting was about halfway through the row my legs were starting to be really sore! I think I didn’t allow my body to recover enough from the Dri-Tri and that’s what I was feeling. So on the long distance, I had to take several breaks to stretch out my legs before continuing. I didn’t make it through all the rowing distances before moving to the floor, but that was ok.

And on the floor we had 2 blocks. The first block was bicycle presses, sit-ups, and lunges. We had 100 of each to try to do and we could break up the reps however we wanted to. But whenever we switched from one move to another we had frogger squats to do. I broke them up by doing 25 at a time and I made it through 2 rounds before that block was done. The second block was the same idea with 60 reps of front raises, mountain climbers, and Y raises on the straps. This time, I did them 20 at a time and again I made it through 2 rounds before time was done. Our coach knew we wouldn’t get all 100 reps or 60 reps done, but he wanted us to do our best and I think doing at least 50% each time was pretty good.

Wednesday was another morning workout at the Culver City studio. Unfortunately, I had a horrible night sleep and I was exhausted. I probably only slept about 2 hours and while it was tempting to sleep in and miss my workout, I knew I had to hold myself accountable. Along with being tired, I was having a bad hip day, but I figured I would go in and do my best. It ended up being an endurance workout and I was starting on the treadmill.

We had 2 blocks and the first block was decreasing push paces starting at 3 minutes and ending at 1 minute. I started at my normal speed but realized that my body was just not handling it well. I thought about going on the bike but decided to stick it out on the treadmill but reduced my speed to be between my normal power walking speed and my walking recovery speed. It helped having the speed reduced and I was still doing my normal inclines. The second block was similar to the first with the decreasing push paces. But in the middle of the second block, I was hit with a bad wave of nausea. I knew that there was a chance to feel nauseous that morning (I’ve been getting good at figuring out my body’s patterns) but I was hoping it wouldn’t happen. But it did so I stopped my treadmill to run back to the lockers to take an anti-nausea pill. My coach was worried about me and I wasn’t thinking about how she doesn’t know my issues with nausea yet and how I need to remember what to warn the coaches about. I’m going to try to be better with that for the first few months at the Culver City studio.

On the floor we also had 2 blocks. Each block started with a 500 meter row. Because I was feeling nauseous, I was a bit slow on the rower. I was a bit slower than the goal time but I did the row both times without stopping with is always good. The first block was lunges, seated rows with weights, and chest flys. And the second block was power jacks with a medicine ball, lateral lunges with the medicine ball, and bicep curls on the straps. I took my time with each move (the power jacks didn’t help my nausea) but I was able to get through 2 rounds each time and that was pretty good. I was also using slightly heavier weights and a heavier medicine ball than I usually would so I was very happy with that.

Friday’s workout was a power switch day, and it came right after I had been hoping there would be a switch day at the Culver City studio. I knew that with them doing the transitional workouts that they might not be bringing in switching for a while, so it was a nice surprise when I arrived and found out it was a switch day! I was still dealing with nausea so I went with the bike for the cardio portion. It was my first time using the bike at the Culver City studio and it was a bit weird being behind the treadmills (instead of next to them), but it wasn’t bad and I did feel a bit less cramped in that location. The format for the workout was 2 blocks, switch, do the 2 blocks on the other side, switch, and then it was one long block left on each side.

For the cardio, it was decreasing push paces starting at 2 minutes and then being 90 seconds or 1 minute. Sometimes we also had an all out pace right after the push but mainly it was going back to base pace. I tried my best to go hard on the bike and I was able to get to my highest resistance on one of the all out paces, but I pretty much stuck with the resistance levels that I’ve been doing for a while. I did have to take a few breaks on the bike when a wave of nausea hit, but overall it went pretty well considering how I was feeling.

On the floor, the first block was squat thrusters with weights and burpees. I wanted to do the burpees but my body wasn’t having them so I did squats followed by push ups after to replicate the moves the best that I could. The second block was chest presses on the straps, roll outs on the straps, and sit ups. And the last block which was the longest had medicine ball squat presses, torso rotations with the medicine ball, plank jacks, and 200 meter rows. Since I was feeling off I focused on doing longer pulls on the rower with breaks to keep my stroke rate down. It’s easy for me to try to row super fast, especially for sprint rows, but I also know that taking my time allows me to focus on the movement and can sometimes get my wattage up. I did ok with my row times but they weren’t my best. But I figured that was because I really wasn’t focused on how long each row was taking me but instead on my stroke rate.

Saturday I was back at the Brentwood studio. It may have been my last Saturday workout there because I will probably start going to the Culver City studio on Saturdays because my friends will be hopefully working out with me (and the class times are changing soon and they will be better for me after work). But it was a great workout if this did end up being my last Saturday at the studio. It was a 3 group workout and for the first half of class it was a pretty standard class (I was on the bike instead of the treadmill, but everything was pretty normal).

Then for the second half of class, we were in 3 people teams and we had a capture the flag challenge on the rower. One person was at each station and the person from the floor controlled the switches. The floor person did squat twists with the medicine ball, push-ups with the medicine ball, and crunches. Once they were done they tagged the treadmill person (who was running for distance) and the treadmill person tagged the rower (who was rowing for distance). You didn’t reset the rower between each person and the goal was to row as far as you could get in 23 minutes. I think the goal was at least 3,000 meters but I wanted my group to get at least 4,000 meters. I was the last person on the treadmill and when we were done I was pretty happy with how far we got as a team!

Overall, this was a great week of workouts. It was weird going to different studios during the week and I do miss my coaches I have had during the week in Brentwood. But to do an afternoon workout there (and deal with the rush hour commute home) isn’t worth it when I can go to a studio just minutes from my house. I’m sure I’ll get used to this new routine soon. It’s only been 2 weeks so far and I’ve had almost 4 years of workouts at Brentwood. So I just need to give myself time before this totally feels like my new normal.

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Default ThumbnailAn Emotional Workout Week (or Just Making It Through) Default ThumbnailA Short Workout Week (or 3 Workouts In 3 Different Locations) Default ThumbnailA Good, Strong Workout Week (or I Really Love Feeling Like Myself) Default ThumbnailBack To Balancing (or A Pretty Routine Workout Week) Default ThumbnailAnother Normal Workout Week (or Getting Back To Everything Feeling Routine) Default ThumbnailThis Does Feel Like A Normal Routine (or Another Full Workout Week)

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Another Time A Friend Found Me A Job (or It Really Is About Who Knows You)

Posted on March 23, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Time A Friend Found Me A Job (or It Really Is About Who Knows You)

There’s a saying that it’s all about who you know. While that is true, I think the more accurate statement is that it’s all about who knows you. Knowing someone is good, but someone else knowing you and thinking of you for a job is even better. My 2 main day jobs are both from friends knowing I needed work. My box office job is from a friend who worked for that company as an actor and knew I did box office work in the past. And my research job is from an old boss who is now my current boss at the new company she is at. And now I’ve got another job that I’ll be doing because of a friend thinking of me.

One of the actors I know through my SAG-AFTRA slate is a part of a new web series. They’ve completed their filming and are getting ready to promote it and release it. They are also looking at doing more seasons of the show. And since they are in the promotion phase of the project, they needed someone who is good with social media to do their posts. And my friend thought of me since I’m pretty good at social media and have taught others how to do some things on it.

My first worry was that I didn’t know enough to do the job. I have friends who have degrees in social media management and it’s not as easy of a job as it can seem. There are lots of things to do that are beyond just posting and monitoring the conversation. But I agreed to talk to the producers of the project to see what they needed and hopefully it would fit what I could do. And after chatting with them, it did seem like they only needed work that I knew how to do and they didn’t need the complicated things like analytics like some companies would require of a social media manager. So we worked out the terms of what the contract would be and I started working for them this week!

The job fits in perfectly with my other jobs and I’m so grateful for that. I’m aware of how lucky I am that I’ve managed to find jobs that work around the schedules of the others and that none of my jobs affect the performance I can do at the others. I’m in a really privileged position right now and I’m always shocked when I’m able to add another job that works with the others. I’m always worried if I find another job that I want to do that I would need to quit at least one of the others. But that hasn’t been the case yet.

And I do need to keep looking for more work. This new job will help me financially, but as of right now it’s only for a month. I think it will be extended beyond the month, but it’s not a guarantee yet. But financially things haven’t been as great as they were in the past. The hours with my research job were cut back by 2/3rds due to the contract that I’m under. It’s got a maximum they can pay out for it and my boss doesn’t control that so she can only offer me what they offer her. She is looking for any other contracts I can work under so I can get some more hours, but right now there aren’t any others I can take on.

And I recently had dinner with my boss from the research job and we were able to talk about work a bit. I asked if she knew if I’d be getting a new contract after the current one is done and she really didn’t know. She is still going to be looking for any other contracts I can work under, but the one that has been renewed each year since I started there isn’t necessarily going to renew again. That can always change and as soon as my boss knows she will be telling me. But I’m glad that I know now that it’s not a guarantee yet like it was in the past.

Maybe I can make this social media job into something more than what it is right now. Maybe the producers of this show will be really happy with my work and will bring me on for another project or refers me to others. I know the power of referrals and I’m always working hard so that hopefully I will get a referral in the future. I’m not totally sure what the next steps will be since there is still so much up in the air with my research job, but for now I’m just so grateful that another friend referred me for an awesome job!

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Default ThumbnailJob Hunting (or You Never Know Unless You Ask) Default ThumbnailPositive Thinking And Putting It Out There Worked (or Working For Another Old Boss) Default ThumbnailA Little Job Update (or It Was Silly To Be Scared) Default ThumbnailTime To Make A Game Plan (or Guess I’ll Be Doing Some Job Hunting) Default ThumbnailTemp Job Time (or Feeling Like It’s An Old Job Again) Default ThumbnailJob vs. Career (or Being Undercover At My Day Job)

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The Henry (or Checking Out A New Restaurant With A Friend)

Posted on March 22, 2018 | Comments Off on The Henry (or Checking Out A New Restaurant With A Friend)

Sometimes because of this blog I get invited to soft openings of new restaurants and I get to write about them. And sometimes a friend of mine is invited and then invites me and it inspires a blog post. This is about the second type of invite.

My Orangetheory friend Lindsay texted me the other night asking if I was free and could meet her in West Hollywood in 30 minutes. She had gotten an invite to the soft opening of The Henry and her boyfriend couldn’t make it and she wanted to know if I was free. She apologized for it being so last minute, but since I was free it was fine and I quickly got dressed and got in my car.

I wasn’t familiar with The Henry, but it turns out that the restaurant has locations in Arizona (when Lindsay is from) and they also own North Italia which is an amazing restaurant that has a location in Santa Monica where I recently had a date. Lindsay was so excited to get to go The Henry and once I took a look at the menu I was pretty excited too. I got there right on time for her reservation and we went inside. It was a bit crowded and people were taking a bit longer enjoying their dinners than I think the staff expected so it was a long wait for a table. But there were 2 seats at the bar left so we grabbed those.

Since this was the soft opening, the meal was complimentary. We were given the full menu as well as the rules for ordering that night.

We each got to pick an entree and we split an appetizer and dessert. That seemed like a good plan to me (I probably would have done that even without the rules) and we had a pretty similar plan on what we wanted. We got the truffle fondue with pretzel bread to start, we both got steak dishes as our entrees (I had the NY strip), and we got a chocolate peanut butter thing for dessert.

Everything was delicious and I was so full at the end of the meal! Also included with the soft opening menu were drinks! Normally alcoholic drinks aren’t included in those sort of things, so it was pretty special that it was. I’m not a big drinker (my last drink was back at my birthday party), but I figured I should at least try one of their drinks. Since it was free, it didn’t matter if I didn’t finish it. So I decided to try a drink with vodka and berries. It was really good and I drank more of it than I expected to!

But of course, with any meal out, the highlight was getting to hang out with a friend. Lindsay and I used to see each other pretty much every week at Orangetheory. But we haven’t been working out together for a long time. So we have made an effort to stay in touch and we try to get together from time to time. We had dinner together a few months ago so to see each other again was nice. Sometimes it can be way longer between seeing each other so I was grateful that I was able to join her for dinner (although I did feel bad that her boyfriend had to be sick so I could be her plus one).

Our conversation was just catching up on lot of randomness. She wanted to hear funny stories from online dating and she was telling me fun stories about her work. And we shared updates about people we both know from Orangetheory. Some people are still people I work out with and others are people that she knows from social media and was able to update me about. We kept getting distracted by how good the food was, but we had a pretty lively conversation too.

We were there for a few hours and then I had to get back to my car to head home. But I really could have spent more time there to hang out more with Lindsay and to maybe try another drink. I know I’ll have to go back to The Henry once they are open (which is this weekend) to try more of the entrees. Plus, they are supposed to have an incredible brunch and I love finding new brunch places!

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Default ThumbnailA Birthday Celebration (or An Orangetheory Reunion) Default ThumbnailBar Food Hangout (or A Quick Friend Catch Up) Default ThumbnailOne More Outing To Bar Food (or A Friend Leaving LA) Default ThumbnailChecking Out A Local Restaurant (or A Birthday and Pizza) Default ThumbnailOverdue Happy Hour (or Trying A Neighborhood Restaurant) Default ThumbnailGrownup Dinner (or Seeing A Gym Friend Outside Of The Gym)

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Another Year Of Marathon Watching (or We Tried Our Best)

Posted on March 21, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Year Of Marathon Watching (or We Tried Our Best)

For the past few years, I’ve gone out to watch the runners for the LA Marathon. I have always enjoyed watching the runners and cheering them on, even if I didn’t know anyone running. This year, several of my friends were supposed to be running but had to back out for one reason or another. I knew I had 1 friend running and I wanted to be out there to support him. Plus, it always seems like I find out I had more friends running once I’m out there.

I’m usually at the same spot each year because it’s pretty close to my house and it’s easy to drive to. With all the street closures for the marathon, I like to minimize the issues I run into by driving to the marathon path. Plus, since it’s close I can get there early and not worry about how long it would take me to get back home.

This year, I was going to watch the marathon runners with a friend who wanted to go watch it from near the finish line. I had never done that before and figured it could be a fun adventure! Plus, we were both having a lazy morning and if I had gone to my usual place I would have missed my friend running by. So we made a plan to meet at the light rail station to head into Santa Monica. The end of the light rail was only a few blocks from the finish line, so we figured that would be the easiest way to get there.

And while it did end up being the easiest way to get there, it wasn’t that easy once we were in Santa Monica. The crowds were pretty crazy, especially compared to what I’m used to at the location I normally watch from. And there was a sea of people past the finish line lined up while the finishers walked through after collecting their medals.

I had been using the race tracker app to track my friend and he crossed the finish line pretty soon after we got to where we were watching. But then we realized that there was no requirement for him to walk all the way to where we were watching. I had no clue where he was meeting his family and we gave it about 20 minutes before we figured he must have left the race area before he got to where we were (I found out later that he left the race area 2 blocks before where we were).

We did enjoy watching the other finishers go by us and we both were amazed by how many of them seemed so casual for just finishing a marathon! There were some people who looked tired but so many others weren’t sweaty and I would have guessed they were waiting to start a marathon and not just done with one. I know I look so much more exhausted after doing a 5K than most of those marathon runners looked!

After watching for about 30 minutes, we realized that it was just getting a bit too crowded for us and we weren’t going to see anyone we knew. As much as we wanted to keep cheering people on we knew it was time to go. We walked back toward the train station but decided that we wanted to do a bit more walking around. It was a really nice day out and I’m not in Santa Monica that often. We walked back and forth on the promenade and then went to the mall at the end of the promenade to get some lunch.

We had a nice relaxing lunch outside (it was way less crowded than it normally is in Santa Monica on a weekend and we were enjoying not feeing super packed in) before heading back to the train to go back home. There were so many marathon runners on the train with their medals and that was so cool to see. Hopefully none of them were too tired to get up from their seats when they got to their stop!

Even though this wasn’t what I was expecting with watching the marathon, it was a fun adventure. But I think I’ve decided that next year I’ll be back to watching from where I normally watch. Plus, my friend who watched with me was talking about maybe running the marathon next year and I want to make sure I’m in a spot where she can find me and I can have some awesome signs to cheer her on!

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Default ThumbnailDoing Some Marathon Watching (or Helping Random Runners Power Up) Default ThumbnailBeing A Spectator (or Watching And Not Wanting To Do The Marathon) Default ThumbnailLA Marathon (or Cheering On My Friends) Default Thumbnail26.2 (or No Marathon For Me) Default ThumbnailMarathon Viewings (or Olympic Trials and Workout Friends) Default ThumbnailBeing A Marathon Supporter (or Cheering On My Cheering Buddy)

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My First Dri-Tri Relay (or Trying To Not Be Disappointed In Myself)

Posted on March 20, 2018 | Comments Off on My First Dri-Tri Relay (or Trying To Not Be Disappointed In Myself)

I’ve done a couple of Dri–Tris at Orangetheory in the past. And as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my 4th workout last week was another Dri-Tri. But this time, the Dri-Tri was going to be a relay event and it would be my first time doing that.

With the Dri-Tri relay, you have a team of 3 and each person does one section (rower, floor, or treadmill). I immediately knew I wanted to do the rower. First, it would give me a great opportunity to try to PR on my 2,000 meter row. Also, I knew how tough the floor work was for me each time and I didn’t think I was ready to do a 5K (or 1/2 5K as a power walker). So the rower was what made sense to me. I tried to get a team together, but many of my Orangetheory friends weren’t able to do the Dri-Tri. Fortunately, the studio would help find a team for me so I signed up to do the row and figured I’d find out the day of the Dri-Tri who my team would be (I wouldn’t be at the studio doing the Dri-Tri until the day of since I went to the new Culver City location).

The day of, a bunch of people who signed up ended up dropping out so there was a bit of work done by the staff to put together new teams. Also some people decided to do the Dri-Tri solo instead of being on a team. I thought about if I should do the full event, but I hadn’t really prepared properly for it so I didn’t push myself. But they figured out a team for me and since the rowing was first I got ready to start.

I knew that I didn’t want to overdo it with the row in the beginning. I’ve made the mistake in the past of starting too big and then not being able to sustain that. So I tried to start slower than I thought I should because it was at a speed that I knew I could maintain for a while. I had the PR time in my head and as I was getting further into the row I kept doing the math to see if I would beat my PR time. It seemed like I was on pace to do that once I got to the halfway point and I just tried to stay focused on staying steady and not focused on the time or distance as much.

I have to say that my teammates were so amazing while I was rowing. They were cheering me on and super supportive. I wasn’t expecting that and I never had that experience when I did the Dri-Tri solo so it was a nice surprise for me. It helped me get any negative thoughts out of my head when I was starting to struggle and they were able to tighten the foot straps for me (they sometimes get loose when I row) so I didn’t have to stop and do it myself.

Once I got to the last 200 meters, I realized that it was going to be much closer to my previous PR than I thought. There was a chance I wasn’t going to beat it and I wasn’t mentally prepared for it. Even though I had already been rowing for 8 minutes and was exhausted, I kicked my butt into gear and was rowing so hard that I probably was doing too much (I was starting to struggle to catch my breath but refused to slow down). And when I was done, I was pretty mad.

My previous PR was 8:45.2. I missed it by 2.4 seconds. That is pretty much like missing it because of 1 or 2 pulls on the rower that could have been a bit stronger. Honestly, I would have rather missed it by 20 seconds than missing it by 2 seconds. It was about 40 seconds faster than my last Dri-Tri attempt, but that wasn’t cheering me up. I had my heart set on beating my PR and I failed at it. I’m so competitive with myself and it was tough to know that I failed at something that I felt was so certain to happen.

But I couldn’t stay upset for long because I needed to go support my teammate on the floor. We were cheering her on and when she was on the second round of the floor work I was cheering that she was done with push ups/burpees/whatever the move was each time she was done. And then we went to support our teammate on the treadmill and we kept cheering whenever he hit a milestone. I don’t remember exactly what time our team was done with the entire event, but it was pretty much in the middle of the pack which was awesome considering I was the last person to finish the row.

After we were done, we were cheering on the rest of the people on the treadmill. The great thing about the Dri-Tri is that everyone seems to stay in the room and as each person is close to finishing their treadmill work they gather around to cheer. And it was the same this time and I loved getting to cheer for people. Some people hit PRs, some hit goals they thought would take months, and some completed their first Dri-Tri. Every person in the room accomplished something awesome (and yes, even though I was mad I had to be a bit proud that I rowed 2,000 meters without stopping and almost matched my PR).

And this year, they were giving out medals for the Dri-Tri! So of course we all needed a photo with the medals.

Even though it was good to do the Dri-Tri relay, I don’t know if I would do the relay again. While it was nice to not have to worry about doing anything after the row, I also felt a bit like something was missing. I think if I had worked harder leading up to it, I probably could have done the full one. But who knows how I will feel the next time we have one. Also, I might be doing the next Dri-Tri at the Culver City studio. I’ll just have to wait and see.

But for now, I’m just enjoying knowing I did another Dri-Tri and loving how my medal looks on my medal hanger.

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Checking Out A New Orangetheory (or So Many Morning Workouts!)

Posted on March 19, 2018 | Comments Off on Checking Out A New Orangetheory (or So Many Morning Workouts!)

I had a pretty amazing past week of workouts this past week. I accomplished things that I didn’t think I would be able to do, and I got to go to a new Orangetheory location! But the best part was that with the new location I think things are going to be so much better for me now!

Monday’s workout was at the location I’ve been going to since I started going to Orangetheory and wasn’t what I was hoping for. We were dealing with rain in LA, and when it rains I sometimes have hip issues. I hadn’t had any during this rainstorm, but on Monday morning my hip was not doing so great. I was hopeful that once I got to the workout things would be better (sometimes I am just a bit more sore because I slept funny), but I knew it wasn’t going to be feeling the way I want my body to feel. I was optimistic and tried starting on the treadmill, but I ended up heading over to the bike during the warm-up because I knew that I didn’t want to feel worse.

It was an endurance day and the cardio was all shorter push paces with a 1 minute base pace after each one. I was working on getting my resistance up on the bike for each of the push paces and when we had the shorter pushes I was able to get the resistance up much higher. And with the base paces, I focused on have a steady cadence while pedaling. Having a steady pedal speed did help me get my breath down after each push pace so that worked to my advantage. Since my heart rate and breath were almost back to normal before each push pace, I could go harder during the pushes than I thought I could.

On the rower, we had one long block. We started with 3 rounds of 1 minute all out rows. After the first row we had squats with the medicine ball, after the second row we had overhead presses with the medicine ball, and after the third row we had squats to overhead presses with the medicine ball. After those 3 rows, we did another round but instead of rowing for 1 minute it was rowing for 45 seconds (with the same exercises in-between each row). I did pretty decent with the rowing considering how I felt. I know I could have gotten further with each time, but I did my best. And when I was on the floor, both blocks were focused on using the Bosu. The first block was kneeling scaptions on the Bosu, Bosu push-ups with one hand on the Bosu and one hand on the floor, and squats with one foot on the Bosu and one foot on the floor. And the second block had kneeling shoulder presses on the Bosu, scissor kick crunches, Bosu burpees, and Bosu running man. It was a hard floor block and I had to do some of the work not using the Bosu, but I was feeling a bit better by the floor block so I was doing more than I expected.

Wednesday’s workout was my first one at the new location near my house. Ever since I started at Orangetheory, I have gone to the same location (except for my pre-Thanksgiving workouts). With no traffic, I can get there in about 10 minutes. In traffic (like when I drive home after my afternoon workouts) it can take an hour or hour and a half to get home. I’m fine with that since I work from home and don’t have a commute, but I’ve been wanting there to be an Orangetheory location near me. And finally this past week, Orangetheory Culver City opened!

It’s a 5 minute drive for me to get to and from my workouts which is incredible! I will still do some workouts at Brentwood, but I will be doing at least half if not more in Culver City now. And many of my friends from the Brentwood location are coming to Culver City too so I’ll still have many of my workout buddies.

I was so happy to get to go to the studio near my house, and that also means that I can change up my workout schedule a bit. On Wednesdays and Fridays, I have always worked out after work. That’s because I don’t want to do 6am workouts and that’s what I would have to do in order to work out before work and make in home in time. But now that I have a studio so close to my house, I did my first before work workout on Wednesday!

When I got to the Culver City studio, I had to sign their liability form and have them register my heart rate monitor in their system. I got there early to do that and had lots of extra time before class. The new studio is so nice and clean! There are more stations at the Culver City studio than at the Brentwood one which I’m sure will be needed when more people are attending classes.

They still have the same lockers and shower rooms as the Brentwood location does, but I doubt I’ll ever shower there because it’s so quick for me to get home. But I’m grateful that they have the same lockers as the Brentwood one does because some other studios only have cubbies and not lockers. While I don’t think someone would steal anything from me, I’d rather lock up my purse than leave it out in a cubby.

The workout was a strength workout. I started on the treadmill and was determined to stick with the treadmill for the class. There is still a bike, but since I knew my focus would be a bit scattered since it was a new studio for me, I wanted to be on the treadmill where I have much more of a routine. I didn’t really do the inclines the way that power walkers were supposed to. I pretty much stuck with my standard of 4% as my base pace, 6% as my push pace, and 8% as my all out pace. It was tough being on the treadmill and the treadmills are a little different at this studio, but I’m so glad that I stuck it out because I felt amazing when it was time to switch to the floor.

On the floor, the first block was lateral lunges with weights, triceps on the straps, seated rotations with a weight, and scissor kick crunches. The second block was hammer curls with weights, reverse flys with weights, and single leg sit-ups. And the last block was rounds of tricep kickbacks with weights and 250 meter rows. I was able to do my first row in 56 seconds which is pretty awesome for me especially considering it was at the end of the workout. It was a bit weird trying to figure out where everything is on the floor and having a different layout of the room, but the workout was familiar enough to me that I was easily able to adjust and I didn’t waste too much time figuring things out.

Friday was another morning at the Culver City studio. It really felt good to be able to get up and do my workout first and I’m wondering if this is going to be something I can keep up for the long run. Once the studio is open for a bit of time they are probably going to be adjusting the class times, so I’m hoping that when that happens I will still find a good time in the morning to go before work. But for now, I’m going to keep trying to go in the mornings when I can.

The workout on Friday was endurance, strength, and power based and it was a run/row. It was actually the first run/row for the studio so things were a bit less complicated than I’m used to. But that was good because it gave me time to focus on form and not what the plan is for the workout. The run/row had a pretty basic format with each run portion getting a bit shorter but higher on the incline each round and each row was 200 meters. I was on the treadmill again and did the inclines for power walkers on the plan so I was at 4, 6, 8, and 10%. I’m glad that I’m getting back on the treadmill more often and it was a good workout to be on it since I was never on the treadmill for more than about 5 minutes at a time. The first time I was on the rower I did go all out with my 200 meter row and got it done pretty quickly. But I was starting to feel exhausted (the combination of working hard and having such an early workout) so I took it a bit easier for the other rows I did. I still was always under the goal time, but I focused more on being steady with my pace on the rower.

The floor had 3 blocks and each block had 3 things in it. Those included sumo goblet squats, Spiderman planks, reverse crunches, lunges on the straps and without the straps, supermans, burpees, pop jacks, and upper cuts. It wasn’t the most complicated floor work, but I took the opportunity to work on my form and to use heavier weights. I was using 25lbs while doing my squats and now thinking back I could have probably gone heavier. But I would usually pick up 20lbs so at least it was a little improvement. And when we did the supermans, I really focused on making sure I felt my muscles working instead of making the movements more fluid. I could easily do those without working hard so I took my time and made sure that I was maximizing the movement.

Overall, it was another really great class. The coach is someone new to me but she was really amazing and encouraging! And I’m sure it’s weird having me do all my random modifications on my own without her having to check in on me so I was grateful that she let me do my own thing and wasn’t questioning why I wasn’t doing the exercise the way it was demonstrated. I’m trying to not be a know-it-all or anything in class, but it’s tough when with my other coaches they’ve known me long enough that I can do my own thing at times and it’s not a big deal. It’s a balance for me to figure out, but at the same time having new coaches gives me a chance to see what modifications they would recommend and maybe I’ll find a new way to try to do an exercise that my hip struggles with.

My 4th workout of the week was doing my first Dri-Tri relay, but that will have to wait until tomorrow’s post!

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Another Adventure In Bra Shopping (or I’m Glad I Took Another Chance)

Posted on March 16, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Adventure In Bra Shopping (or I’m Glad I Took Another Chance)

I’ve written about bra shopping on here before. It was a pretty horrible experience. I was essentially fat shamed for trying to find a sports bra in my size. Since that post, I haven’t really done a proper bra fitting. I did a somewhat decent one at a mall store where I’ve gotten bras in the past, but I knew those bras weren’t the right size. And that store was either unable or unwilling to do a proper fitting for me. But because of my past experience, I was nervous to try another store (because I was never going back to the one that shamed me).

But this week, I realized that I really needed to go get a bra fitting. I had recently bought a new bra at that mall store and it was showing signs of being too big and too small at the same time. I did a little bit of research on where to get a new bra since I’m not someone who fits into most standard sizes. And if they do carry my size, they are a mall store that doesn’t do fittings or they are a store that only has one ugly white/beige/black bra in my size. I wanted to go somewhere that made me feel like a valued customer but was close enough that I didn’t have to drive an hour to get to and that didn’t only sell bras that were double or triple my budget.

But it seemed like I found a pretty great place while doing my research. Jenette Bras had a location that wasn’t that far from my house and while I wouldn’t have as many bras to choose from as some other people, they did carry bras in my size. They specialize in bras that are D cup and up, which is what I needed. I was only nervous about how many options they would have in my band size. But it seemed like they were the best bet for me so I headed there after work this week.

As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by one of the bra fitters and she was super friendly! I explained that I needed a new bra or two and that I was on a budget so I couldn’t afford anything too crazy. She said that would be easy enough to do and she brought me back to one of the fitting rooms. This isn’t a store where you walk around and look at what they offer. You hang out in the fitting room where they figure out your size and then they go and bring bra options that will work. And after each bra you try, they see how the fit is to make any size adjustments and get your opinion to see if the style was right.

I didn’t mind not going around to shop. When I do that, I usually get frustrated by the lack of options in my size. Or I focus too much on price tags when I should be looking at style. And of course, you never know how things will look on your body when they are on a hanger or in a drawer so I’m quick to judge. But since I wasn’t doing the shopping, I got to hang out in the super cute fitting room waiting for options to be brought to me.

When we figured out my proper size, it turns out I was right that my other bra was both too big and too small. My band was too big (yay for losing some inches!) and my cup size was too small (I guess my weight loss wasn’t in my chest?). And once that was figured out, they started to bring back lots of options for me to try on. Some of them were just not my style and some just didn’t fit my body right. But there was never any judgement from anyone at the store about anything I tried on. Even with the ones that didn’t fit my body correctly they never said it was wrong for my body. They just said that it wasn’t the right fit and that they would find something more comfortable.

In the end, I ended up buying 2 new bras. One is similar in style to what I was wearing before (just in the correct size) and the other is different but still cute. Plus, the different one happened to be on sale so it was actually less expensive that the mall bras I had been buying! I also tried on sports bras while I was there since I could always use another one. I did find one I liked, but I didn’t like the color and the brand was going to be coming out with new ones soon. So they wrote down the brand and size for me so I can come back and try them on when they have them in better colors.

Even though the bra that wasn’t on sale was a bit more expensive than I would have liked to have spent, since the other was on sale it pretty much cost me the same for these 2 really nice (and perfectly fitting) bras as it did for 2 of the ill-fitting mall ones! Plus, having a properly fitted bra really does make you look better in clothes! I know that if I lose weight I will need to buy new ones and that can get expensive. But I think this is an expense that is worth it and I can’t skip on buy something because I am hoping I will lose weight. But I also know that when my weight is lower and I need another fitting, I now can go to Jenette Bras and I don’t have to be worried about how I will be treated!

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Turning Myself Into A Morning Person (or Continuing On My Productivity Kick)

Posted on March 15, 2018 | Comments Off on Turning Myself Into A Morning Person (or Continuing On My Productivity Kick)

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been so motivated to be productive lately. I’ve had my giant cleaning spree and I’ve been working on figuring out how to make my downtime at work more productive. And my motivation kick seems to be continuing which can only be a good thing for me.

I know there are some people who say that you are either a morning person or a night person and because that’s how you are it’s pretty difficult to change. And I used to believe that. I know that I naturally am a night person. I could easily stay up until 1 or 2am and then go to bed (I’m sure for some night people that still seems early, but for me that’s late). And when my work schedule was later, I would sleep in to make up for staying up late. But because I wasted my morning and my late nights weren’t super productive either, I always felt like I needed to work on catching up and I didn’t like that feeling.

I’ve tried to become a morning person several times and it’s never really stuck with me. But for a while, I’ve been working on regulating my sleep schedule and I think it’s finally helping me become a morning person. On my earliest work days with my day job, I need to wake up at 7am. So I’ve been working on getting up every day at 7am. And I know that 7am isn’t super early and there are plenty of people who get up at 4 or 5am, but for me it was early since there were days I would be sleeping in until 9:30am. And I know that I need about 7 hours of sleep so I have a goal of trying to go to bed by midnight. I don’t always accomplish that, but like with so many other aspects of my life just being aware of it is helpful.

It’s taken a long time and I’ve had lots of setbacks, but I’m finally starting to get more into my sleep routine and it’s becoming much easier for me. I’m starting to feel tired when it’s getting closer to midnight and I’m finding it much easier to get up at 7am. I’ve also been noticing on my Fitbit that I am not as restless while I’m sleeping so I’m getting more sleep in those 7 hours than I have in the past. Most of the time I still need an alarm to get up (or if I’m being honest, multiple alarms), but I’m not hitting snooze like I used to and there have been the rare occasional morning when I naturally wake up right before my alarm goes off. It does feel so great when I wake up naturally and I’m hoping that it happens more often.

And with getting up at 7am even on my later shift days, I’ve had a few hours in the morning to get things done. I’ve been doing a lot of errands like going to the grocery store or other things like that, but I’m looking at more ways to spend those few hours in the morning being productive. It’s also nice to feel like I’ve accomplished a lot before I get stuck sitting at my computer for several hours. If I’ve gotten a lot done in the morning, I don’t feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m home but can’t really do much.

There are still plenty of times that I know I will sleep in (or want to sleep in), but I really do want to try to make it the norm that I get up at the same time every morning. Having some consistency is helpful and I know that getting into more routines will help me stay calm and figure out when I can get other things done. I also have to take my medications in the morning and when I do oversleep I usually don’t end up taking them since they are stimulants and if I take them too late I won’t be able to sleep (and that puts me into a bad cycle of staying up too late). So if I’m getting up early every day that helps me stay consistent with medications and I can be a better judge on if they are working or not.

I have no idea what the next productivity thing that I’ll be motivated to do will be, but I’m seriously feeling so amazing about how I’ve had so many different productivity things in my life lately and I know this can only benefit me in the long run.

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Feeling The Need To Clean (or Working On Quality Over Quantity)

Posted on March 13, 2018 | 1 comment

I’ve written about doing big cleaning spurts before, but recently I’ve experienced one of the weirdest needs to clean I’ve ever had. This started a few weeks ago after a friend of mine went to Mardi Gras and was telling me about a moment of clarity when they realized how wasteful everything seemed. She couldn’t believe how many people were taking beads when they would be throwing them out later. And the streets were cluttered with trash and she just couldn’t believe that she was in the middle of that.

It didn’t hit me right away after my friend shared that story, but after reflecting back on it for a little bit I had the same moment of clarity in a way. I was looking around my house and just had a feeling of panic over how cluttered and messy it was looking. I know that it wasn’t that bad and none of my friends felt it was messy, but to me I just couldn’t take it. And then I had the feeling over being overwhelmed by having just too much stuff.

I’m not a hoarder in any sense, but I do have a tendency to over-shop. A lot of this is with clothing because when I find something that fits me I usually will get multiples of it. I’m really trying to get out of that habit, but it’s hard when I find something that I really like. I’ve been working on cleaning out my closet and drawers and have had bags of things to donate. I also had the opportunity to reorganize as well since I finally had more space.

Another place I seem to have an unintentional collection is with water bottles. I get a ton of them as a part of swag bags and then there are some that I have bought as well. But I usually use one of only a few water bottles. And I finally bought one that I had been wanting for a long time (it’s sold by a company that only does bulk orders but I was able to order a single bottle from them). And when I got that perfect water bottle and I was trying to put it away, I realized how ridiculous my collection had become.

And after taking that photo I realized there were more bottles that I forgot about! I sorted them out and put the ones I use and the ones I have sentimental value with on one side and all the rest on another. I had 10 or 12 bottles that I don’t care about and I didn’t want to keep in my house. Another friend of mine mentioned how their kids are always losing water bottles so I gave her all the ones I didn’t need. It was a win-win because I got them out of my house and she got something she needed for her kids.

And I spent part of yesterday working on getting as much of the other stuff in my house organized. The box I had been using for holiday decorations wasn’t big enough so I got a big plastic tub to store them in. I got organizers and baskets for my bathroom and threw out products I don’t use. My house still could use more decluttering, but I’ve made a huge step in the right direction and I don’t feel as overwhelmed anymore.

Every time I have a big cleaning like this, I tell myself that I won’t get that way again. But it always happens. And that’s because of my over-shopping tendency. But I’m much more aware that I have that issue and I’m hoping that knowing it will help me not be as bad about it. I really don’t need to own a ton of the same thing if I could just get one nice version of it instead. For my water bottles, I didn’t need 10 bottles that were ok when I could have just bought the 1 that I really wanted. It’s tough because the better thing is usually more expensive, but in the long run it ends up being cheaper than buying multiples of the less expensive thing.

I have a dream that my house will be one of those minimalistic dream homes, but I know that it would be tough to make that happen because I do have so much in my house that I love and want to keep. But I can work on storing things properly and out of the way so it doesn’t feel as full as it really it. And I have a feeling that for the next few weeks I’m probably going to keep working on what I’ve started and I may have something much closer to that dream than I ever had before.

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Another Friend Happy Hour (or We Both Know We Need To Do This More Often)

Posted on March 9, 2018 | Comments Off on Another Friend Happy Hour (or We Both Know We Need To Do This More Often)

I’ve definitely been focusing on trying to have more time with my friends lately. I’m aware how crazy all of our schedules are and when we can figure out a time to meet I make it a priority. My friend Rayshell and I had made a few attempts to have a happy hour dinner, and things just kept happening to make us reschedule our plans. I was probably more at fault because of schedule changes and then being out-of-town. But we both understand that neither of us are rescheduling because we want to. Life just gets in the way. But fortunately, we were able to figure out a time to meet up this week.

I originally offered to drive to the valley because we try to alternate which side of town we meet on. But Rayshell offered to stay on my side of town after work and we went to Westside Tavern. We both were having a craving for the food there so that was fine with me! I had some time after work before meeting her there, but I underestimated how crazy traffic would be in my neighborhood and ended up meeting Rayshell a bit late.

Since I had been craving Westside Tavern I had been checking out the menu and picked out a few things that sounded good to me. And Rayshell had looked at the menu before I got there and picked out some things too. Somehow, we both picked the same things! We ended up splitting the burrata to start, I had a chicken sandwich (Rayshell got a burger which was something else I was thinking about getting), and even though we were a bit full we split apple bread pudding for dessert.

It was a lot of food, but it was so delicious! But as with all our hangouts, even though the food was awesome the company was even better! Both of us have had a lot of things and a lot of nothing happening in our lives. It’s weird, but it made a funny hangout with us each remembering random things to update each other on.

Rayshell is one of my friends who loves to hear all the craziness going on with online dating. She asked me about a story that I posted on social media about a guy who basically stood me up. He never showed up where we were supposed to meet and when I texted him he told me he was home which was just around the corner from the coffee shop we were supposed to meet at. I told him no and left because I knew something was fishy about the situation. Rayshell and I were joking about how he probably was some sort of weirdo and would wear my skin or something. I know it’s not good to joke about things like that, but I’m pretty careful with my safety so I know I wouldn’t be put in an unsafe situation.

I also have gone out with a few new guys lately and have had some good and some bad stories about them. A lot of it is about self-discovery and me allowing myself to express my opinion and not feel the need to conform to what someone else wants me to be. It’s a weird thing, but I think all of my friends get a kick out of hearing about the random guys I’ve met and the weird profiles I’ve found online.

Rayshell was telling me about the series that she produced that is currently in post-production. I can relate to wanting something to be done in post-production quickly when you don’t have control over it. I just hope that her project is completed soon because I really want to watch it! And Rayshell is also now a regular OTF person (but she works out at the studio by her), so we were talking a lot about our workouts and what we’ve been enjoying about them.

We were at dinner for a good chunk of time before we decided we should head out so she could get back to her side of town. It was just so nice to have a couple of hours to hang out with a friend one on one and be able to focus on them. We both agreed that we will do another happy hour dinner soon, but we also both know that even with the best intentions that doesn’t always happen. But at least we both put in an effort to make it happen and when it does we always have an amazing time!

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