Posted onNovember 27, 2023|Comments Off on Another Week With A Holiday Workout (or Continuing My Own Tradition)
Even though I did my family Thanksgiving workout during Fake Thanksgiving, that wasn’t going to stop me from still doing what feels like a tradition with working out on Thanksgiving. It’s nice that it fits in perfectly with what is now my normal workout week, so it didn’t feel like much of a change for me. But I’m still proud of completing 10 years of Thanksgiving Day workouts!
My first 3 workouts of the week were my normal workout time before work. I have been dealing with some extra stress due to a few different things happening in my life, so I haven’t been sleeping or eating well. That affected my workouts and I was having more moments of lightheadedness. I know this is something I deal with from some of the medications I take and having poor sleeping and eating habits makes it worse. I still struggle to force myself to eat when I’m not feeling like it because that’s the mindset I’ve had for so long. But when I skip dinner and then work out the next morning, it’s not a good combination. I am lucky that I can make that feeling go away quickly if I just stop what I’m doing and sit down to take some deep breaths. It’s not ideal, but it’s manageable. And when it’s due to something that is somewhat my fault, I’m glad that I don’t have to totally ruin what I can do in my workout that day.
On Thanksgiving Day, I allowed myself to sleep in a bit and do a later morning workout. It was still a morning class, but it was about 2 hours later than I’m used to. This is the class time I normally do when I’m able to sleep in due to a holiday or a day off of work. If I didn’t have my day job to log into in the morning, I probably would take a class at that time because it’s still early enough to get it done and have the rest of the day, but it allows me to get a little more sleep. The only negative with that class time is that I take my morning medications before going to work out, so I have a few side effects that I sometimes have to work around. It’s worse when I do a later class on a Monday since I do my injection on Mondays and that really affects me. But with my other medications, I have things like elevated heart rate and dropped blood sugar which can make my workout a little harder. But just like having lightheadedness, it’s something I’ve learned to work with and it’s manageable.
But the Thanksgiving Day workout was probably the toughest workout of the week. It was a 2 group class, which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s harder or easier. This time, there was a lot of going from cardio to rowing, so that was an added challenge. I also pushed myself a little too hard on the rower the first time I was on it because I didn’t know what other rowing I had coming up. I still think my rowing is getting stronger, but my last row of the workout was a lot worse than how I started off the block. I don’t believe in the idea that you have to work out in order to “earn” certain foods on holidays, but I do like how I feel when I work out before a celebration like that compared to not working out before. And my workout was early enough that I had some time to be lazy at home before I started cooking dinner.
As much as I would have loved to work out with my family on Thanksgiving Day, I think this workout would have been harder for them than the class we did a few weeks ago. So I think that Fake Thanksgiving was the better workout choice for us.
I’ve got 2 more holidays that I can do some workouts around, but I’m not sure yet if I’ll do a Christmas Eve workout. That’s a day that I usually don’t work out, so I might not go in. But I’ll find a way to make it work for me to work out on New Year’s Eve, even though that is normally a rest day too. That’s one of those traditions I’ve created around Orangetheory that I will go out of my way to make sure it continues.
Posted onNovember 22, 2023|Comments Off on Another Fake Thanksgiving (or A Busy Day Without Many Pictures)
My family did our Fake Thanksgiving 2 weeks ago. I think we will continue the tradition of doing our Thanksgiving early each year since that’s a cheaper time for everyone to travel. It makes it a little harder for some of our schedules, but that’s probably a smaller problem than the crazy cost of traveling during the actual holiday. It can be a bit tough with my work schedule to spend too much time on whatever Fake Thanksgiving we have, but I do my best to make it work. We have been doing it over Veteran’s Day so that at least gives me time off from my one of my jobs. And I just have to take time off from one job on that day.
This year, we had Fake Thanksgiving in Santa Barbara, so it was just a drive for me. I was looking at possibly spending more than just the day there, but with schedules and other things, it was just going to be easier for me to drive up that morning and drive back home that evening after dinner.
There wasn’t much scheduled for the day that I would be up there. I drove up that morning and spent some time with my parents and the dog before my dad and I went to our Orangetheoryclass. I was hoping we would have a larger group for the workout, but it was just my dad and aunt joining me. I know my brother wanted to join but he couldn’t at the last minute, and my cousin wanted to come but she was recovering from an injury. But it was still a good workout and I’m so happy that tradition continued!
After the workout, I went back to the rental house my parents were staying at so I could shower and get changed for dinner. But as I was getting ready, there was a press conference announced regarding the end of the SAG-AFTRAStrike. I was able to watch while I got ready for dinner, but that also meant I wasn’t really being social with my parents. I think they understood why I wanted to pay attention to that, so hopefully they didn’t mind too much.
Fake Thanksgiving dinner was held at the country club that my brother and sister-in-law belong to, which is where we had it a few years ago. And most of my family was able to be there. We were missing 2 of my cousins and one cousin’s husband, but everyone else was at dinner. It was a little overwhelming since dinner was the only time that I was going to see most of the family, so I didn’t really get to catch up with everyone as much as I would have liked to.
But I was excited to give my niece and nephew their early Hanukkah presents. I got them both really cute toddler digital cameras. I thought it could be fun to see what types of pictures they might take during dinner. I haven’t seen all of those photos yet, but we got to see some of the photos on the screen as they took them. The ones I did see were mostly selfies and crazy close-ups of random things. But I think they will have fun as they learn how to use them.
I wish I had taken more photos with my family while I was there, but I only got one photo during dinner of my place setting. Nothing fancy or anything, but it was all I got when I looked back at what I took that evening.
But a lack of photos also shows that I focused on being with my family and in the moment. I was sitting next to my cousin and she and I spent most of dinner talking and catching up on random things. And she was telling me about a road trip that her family will be doing hopefully next summer which would bring her to LA. I would love for her to see my place and get to see her more than just once a year!
And as dinner was finishing up, I started to talk to some of my family about where Fake Thanksgiving would be held next year. And after talking a bit and thinking about some logistics, it looks like I might be hosting it for the first time ever! I never could have all my family at my place when I lived in my tiny rental. And even though I don’t have a huge place now, I have the space to get a rental table and make it work. My parents came to LA a few days after Fake Thanksgiving and we were talking about me hosting it, I think we all agree it’s totally feasible and that’s what we will be doing in a year! My dad is already sending me articles with Thanksgiving ideas so I’ll be prepared for next year.
For tomorrow on actual Thanksgiving, I’m not sure if I’ll have company over. I was talking to a friend about if they wanted to come for dinner, but we both have agreed that we’ll see how we feel. But I am cooking some of my favorite Thanksgiving things and I’ll be trying a dry brine on a turkey breast that I might use for next year.
And if it’s a low-key Thanksgiving Day, that’s fine with me since I already feel like I got my Thanksgiving celebration during Fake Thanksgiving!
This past week of workouts, I had 3 of my regular workouts at my normal studio. I usually go Monday-Thursday, but this week I was there Monday-Wednesday. Those workouts were pretty good for the most part. I struggled a bit more than normal on Monday because I was still dealing with pain and nausea, but it was a lot less than what I had dealt with the week before. And I was feeling almost back to normal by Tuesday, so my workouts weren’t affected that much after the first day.
Even though I love those challenges, it was nice to be done with HellWeek. I don’t feel like I can push myself as much during Hell Week by using heavier weights or doing new things on the bike or rower because I’m just trying to get through those workouts. They do challenge me, but because I have had goals to see improvements in my workouts, my goals and how I push myself are different. That meant I was able to get back to trying to improve in normal workouts. I’m still testing out if I can increase the bike resistance level and I think I might start trying to change one of the levels I use instead of trying to change them all at once. And I have noticed my rowing continues to get stronger and faster, so that’s awesome. I still have some issues on the rower because of my foot, but I’ve been adapting more to what I need to do and I’m glad that’s not setting me back too much. I still have a lot of work to do on my rowing endurance, but it’s baby steps towards what I want to do.
But the best workout of this past week was the one workout not at my normal studio. My family had our Fake Thanksgiving this past week, so I did a workout on Friday at the studio in Santa Barbara since that’s where our Fake Thanksgiving was held this year! This was the second time we worked out at that studio, so it was fun to have another repeat studio for our tradition. And this was the 10th time our family had a workout before Thanksgiving or Fake Thanksgiving! Our first family workout was in 2014! And now we’ve gone to 4 different Orangetheory studios and had 1 year with each of us doing a workout at home. I love that this tradition has continued for 10 years now and that my family still joins in for a workout. Sometimes it’s a bigger group and sometimes it’s a small group, but it always happens!
This time, my dad and aunt joined me for the workout. It was a 2 group class, which is something I don’t usually get to take. And it was also a run/row, which is even more rare for me since those only happen in some 2 group classes. I do like that the run/row workouts almost feel like a 3 group class to me a bit since there is a lot of rowing, so I was happy that was the workout we happened to go to.
My dad and aunt kicked butt in class. I know it’s not easy for them since they don’t normally go to Orangetheory so they aren’t used to the pattern and rhythm of class. But the coach was really good about helping to guide them to the right things and I also checked in with them to make sure they knew what to do next. Sometimes in these workouts, my dad and I challenge each other a bit, but this time we were both just focused on getting in a good workout. And I thought it was a really good class with a nice mix of upper and lower body work. I also was able to challenge myself by using heavier weights for chest flys. I felt sore after doing that, but it was a good sore feeling.
And of course, after class, we had to take a family photo with the coach so I could add it to our collage!
There have been a lot of things that I have celebrated about working out at Orangetheory, but this is one of the things I celebrate that involves others. My family doesn’t have to join me for these workouts and I would go on my own if nobody else wanted to go. But for 10 years (technically 9 since one year we all worked out at home on our own), at least some of my family has decided to keep up this tradition and that’s something I’m so happy about and proud of!
Now I just have to figure out how to be the host of my family’s Thanksgiving (or Fake Thanksgiving) so that we can do our family workout at the Culver City studio and my family can see how awesome my coaches at my home studio are!
Posted onNovember 29, 2022|Comments Off on A Very Low-Key Thanksgiving Day (or At Least I Was Only Cooking For Me)
Because I had Fake Thanksgiving with my family 2 weeks prior, actual Thanksgiving didn’t feel as big of a deal to me. Usually, Thanksgiving is the main holiday my family does, but our Fake Thanksgiving feels pretty much the same as the holiday so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on too much. There are a few differences when you don’t celebrate on the holiday, but they are so minor so I don’t think about it too much.
So since I already had my Thanksgiving, I knew I wasn’t going to do anything too big for Thursday last week. I did have the day off from both of my jobs, so that was nice. I had the day off that Friday from one job, but since I worked a full day for the other it didn’t feel like a break to me. So I decided to try to enjoy my Thursday off as much as I could.
Because I get up so early most days, I struggle to sleep in even when I have the chance to do so. I only slept in about 20 minutes later than normal on Thursday, and I had a few hours before I really had to get out of bed that morning. I was going to go to Orangetheory, but I scheduled a later class to give myself the opportunity to sleep in if I was able to do so. I did wish that I had not scheduled it quite as late as I did because I was just sitting around my house waiting for the class, but it was ok. I didn’t have much else to do that day so I wasn’t in a rush to get home to do anything.
After my workout, I spent the rest of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon really being lazy. I mainly just read my book and rested until it was time for me to start making some food.
I didn’t feel the need to make a lot of Thanksgiving-type foods, but I wanted to make something that felt a bit special for me. So I made my 2 favorite sides that my family has at Thanksgiving. One was the green beans with shallots that I really should make more often because it’s such a simple recipe and the other was a corn casserole that my mom makes that I had never made on my own before. Both recipes are very simple and didn’t take much time to put together. And I didn’t want to make turkey since it’s not my favorite thing to eat, so I decided to make meatloaf because it’s very easy to put together and I knew I would be able to make all 3 dishes in the same time frame to have dinner ready at the same time.
The green beans turned out good, as I expected them to. The corn casserole wasn’t exactly how it should be, but it was still good. It ended up a bit more like a bread than the texture it normally has. That didn’t make it taste bad so I was ok with that. But something weird happened with the meatloaf. I don’t know if an ingredient went bad or if I put something in by mistake, but it was bitter and sour. It was unfortunate because I was hoping to use the leftovers for a few days, but it really was bad and I had to throw it all out. I’m glad that I was the only one who had to taste the mistake I made because I would have been so upset if I ruined dinner for multiple people. And since this was my second Thanksgiving, I was less disappointed than I might have been if I didn’t have my family time a few weeks ago.
And after my dinner, I continued to be lazy that evening. I cleaned up my cooking mess and watched a little bit of tv. But there was nothing else that I needed or wanted to do that evening. It would have been fun to do something with friends, but I was ok being on my own. And because I don’t get that many days off, I just enjoyed having nothing that I had to do that day and just being able to relax. My days off are typically spent doing errands and things to get ready for my week. I’m working on trying to shift that so I’m doing more errands on work days so I really have time off on my days off. But because most places were closed on Thanksgiving, I was forced to take it easy and do nothing. It was a reset that I think I needed before getting back into my regular schedule and some of the craziness that might be coming up.
It might not have been the most traditional Thanksgiving for me, but I think it was the perfect way for me to spend the day. I don’t know if future Thanksgivings will be like this or if my family will eventually switch back to being on regular Thanksgiving. But at least I took advantage of this year and I feel like I did exactly what I should have done on the holiday.
Posted onNovember 28, 2022|Comments Off on Another Round Of Thanksgiving Workouts (or Still Keeping Up With My Regular Schedule)
I had a very mixed week of workouts this past week. I’m still dealing with the cold that I caught and I started the week also dealing with the end of having nausea. I’m glad that I know I’m getting better with the cold, but I think getting over it will probably be a longer process than I would like. I seem to take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. So my mornings were hit or miss with how I would feel. But that never stopped me before so I wasn’t going to let it stop me this past week.
Monday’s workout was a good mix of endurance, strength, and power. It was the workout I felt most nauseous, but it was much better than it had been the week before.
For cardio, we had 3 blocks and each block was focused on one type of workout. The first block was more endurance and we had longer push paces and base paces with an all-out at the end. The second block was more strength and we had a mix of base paces with or without inclines. And the last block was power and we had 30-second all-outs with 45-second recoveries.
On the rower, each block focused on one distance on the rower and we had lunges between each row. The first block had 600-meter rows, the second block had 400-meter rows, and the last block had 200-meter rows. Even though I wasn’t feeling my best, I did pretty well with the rows. I was worried about how I would do with the 600-meter rows with my nausea, but I was able to keep doing all my rowing without taking breaks, which is the goal I always have for myself.
And on the floor, each block had 2 exercises. The first block had high rows and curtsy lunges on the straps. The second block had shoulder presses and sumo squats. And the last block had push-ups and bench tap squats. Even though each block only had those 2 exercises, since the blocks were short it went by quickly and I didn’t get to do too many rounds of each exercise.
Tuesday’s workout was an unexpected 2 group class. I rarely have a 2 group class, so I’m much more used to having equal time in each section of the room. But it’s always good to have a bit of a change, so I knew this would be a good class.
For cardio, we had the same thing for all 3 blocks but each block had a different goal. In each block, we had 3 rounds of a 30-second base pace, a 30-second push pace, a 30-second all-out, and a 1-minute recovery. In the first block, the goal was to increase the base pace each round. In the second block, the goal was to increase the push pace each round. And in the last block, the goal was to increase the all-out each round. I stuck with my normal resistance levels on the bike, but I tried to increase how fast I was pedaling as we were supposed to increase each round.
And on the floor, we had part of the time on the floor and part of the time on the rower for each block. Each floor block had 4 minutes of exercises and then we were on the rower for the last round of base, push, and all-out that cardio had and we did that on the rower. In the first block, the exercises were single-arm marches with overhead weights and rollouts on the straps. The second block had front squats and squat holds with a calf raise. And the last block had clean presses and y-raises on the straps. Since we only had about 90 seconds of rowing in each block, it was a lot less rowing than I’m used to. But I did get more time with cardio than normal so it balanced out.
On Wednesday, I know there was still a mix of endurance, strength, and power but it felt a lot more like an endurance day. I was finally over being nauseous, but I was dealing with the cold that I had so it balanced out a bit to where I was still having some of the same struggles I’m used to.
For cardio, we started with a 90-second push pace and a 90-second base pace. We continued to alternate between a push and base pace, but the push paces increased by 30 seconds each round while the base pace stayed the same. And we ended with a 1-minute all-out at the end of the cardio block.
On the rower, we started with 3 rounds of a 200-meter row. We were supposed to try to maintain the same wattage and speed on the rower each time. After 3 rows, we had standing knees to elbows. Then we repeated the pattern but with a 150-meter row for 3 rounds and ended with a 100-meter row for 3 rounds. For the 200-meter rows, I was pretty steady from round to round. But for the other rows, I actually was able to improve each time which I wasn’t expecting.
And on the floor, we had 1 long block with thrusters, single-arm chest presses, lunges, hip hinge swings, and hop-overs. It wasn’t the best floor block I’ve had recently, but it wasn’t too bad.
And even though I did my family workout for Fake Thanksgiving, I still did a Thanksgiving Day workout. I did take a later class than I normally take since I wanted to try to sleep in a little bit. Last year, I did a Lift 45 class for Thanksgiving Day, but they didn’t offer that this time. But the regular workout was still a tough one and I know I worked hard!
We had 3 blocks for cardio and each block had the same pattern. We had a push pace, base pace, all-0ut, recovery, push pace, and all-out. In the first block, every interval was 30 seconds. In the second block, the base pace and recovery were both still 30 seconds but the push and all-outs were 45 seconds. And in the last block, the base pace and recovery still were 30 seconds and the push pace and all-out were 1 minute.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. In each block, we went back and forth between a timed row and an exercise. In the first block, we had 30-second rows and shoulder presses with a medicine ball. In the second block, we had 45-second rows and a front press with a medicine ball. And in the last block, we had 1-minute rows and calf raises.
And on the floor, we had one long block that was focused on super sets. We had 3 mini-blocks and 2 exercises in each mini-block. And we did each mini-block 4 times before moving on to the next one. Each round went down in reps, so we had 8, 6, 4, and 2 reps for each exercise. We had chest presses to reaches and tricep extensions, sumo deadlifts and sumo squats, and high rows and bicep curls. It was a good mix of upper and lower body and I was ready to rest after I was done with class!
Next month, my workouts might be moved around a bit to fit in with different challenges that are going on and to work with the holidays. But I think I got myself off to a great start with my Thanksgiving week workouts!
Posted onNovember 25, 2022|Comments Off on Focusing On Gratitude (or This Probably Could Have Been My Thanksgiving Post)
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I’ll write more about my day later, but I spent the day on my own, which is fine. But being alone for most of the day did allow me to reflect on things in my life. And in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I focused a lot on what I was grateful for in my life.
I write a gratitude list every day at the end of the day. I just write 5 things that I’m grateful for that day. Sometimes I have some really awesome things to be grateful for. On other days, it seems like I don’t have much positive in my day and I have to remember how lucky I am to have some basic things in my life. On the days that I struggle to think of what I’m grateful for, my list usually has things like my job, the books I’m reading, or the tv shows I’m enjoying.
I think focusing on what I’m grateful for every day is important because it always allows me to end my day on a positive note. And it forces me to reflect on the good in my life and what I have that other people wished they had. And I wanted to share some of the big things I’m very grateful for.
I’m very grateful for my family, both my immediate family and my extended family. I know that not everyone is close to their family or knows their extended family. But I am lucky that I get to see part of my family every year. At Fake Thanksgiving, there were 3 generations of the family there. I don’t get to see some of my extended family as much as I would like because they live on the other side of the country. But I am able to stay in touch with them through social media or texting. And I know that I’m closer to my parents than a lot of people are. I’m very lucky that they have always supported me. And yes, they did help out financially before such as with my condo, but I appreciate their emotional support so much too. I know I don’t have the most traditional life or career path, but they have never tried to make me change what I wanted out of life.
And speaking of my family, I’m so grateful for my condo. I know that I never could have had this place without my parents helping me. But it’s not just being able to have this place that I’m grateful for. I have worked on turning this space into my home and I’m so happy with how things look so far. Living in a space that makes you feel happy and you are comfortable is very important. I haven’t always had that in my living space. In my first apartment, it was fine when I moved in but I became very uncomfortable living there due to situations with my neighbors and because the setup made it have no privacy and it was always very hot inside. So I know what it’s like living somewhere that you don’t want to be. But that’s not the case for my place now. It wasn’t the case for my last place either, but I’m even more comfortable here than I was there.
I’m very grateful for my friends. Like many people, I had a lot of friends leave the area in the past few years. But we have been able to keep up with our friendship and I have been able to rekindle past friendships that had slipped into being more acquaintances than friends. I still have times when I feel like I have no friends left here, but those moments are fleeting and I usually have something coming up in my schedule that allows me to spend time with my friends so I’m reminded that’s not true.
I’m grateful for my day jobs. I’m still juggling 2 jobs right now, and I think that’s probably what I will do for the foreseeable future. It’s not an issue with either job (and they both know that I’m working another job) and I think everyone would do the same if it helped them make more money. I am making more than I did before and I’m in a better financial spot. I still have things that I can’t afford and have to save for, but I know no matter how much I make that will be the case. But more importantly than how much I make, I am enjoying my work. I still would prefer to be acting, but to have day jobs that I enjoy is something rare. I don’t love everything every day, but I’ve never enjoyed work as much as I do now. I feel heard and respected and my ideas are considered and not ignored. I have been able to create my own job position at my main day job and it allows me to do work that uses my skill set instead of making me conform to someone who I’m not.
And the last big thing I’m grateful for is a very general thing. I’m just so grateful for my life. I get to do things I enjoy. I mostly spend my time doing what I want to do and not what I have to do. As much as I wish I wasn’t single, I’m grateful that I’m not in a bad relationship or putting up with someone who doesn’t treat me the way I should be treated. I don’t always love getting up as early as I do, but I love working out in the morning and feeling so strong all day. And I am working on some health things still, but I think that I’m healthier now than I’ve ever been. I know I’m not the thinnest I’ve been, but I also know that when I was at my thinnest, I didn’t have the same strength that I do now. I think enjoying your life is a privilege and I know I’m lucky that I feel that way. I still know that I want some things to be different, but I also appreciate my current life situation and know that it’s for the best for me at this time.
When I look back at my past, especially the negative part of my past, I wonder how much better I could have made my life if I focused on what I was grateful for. I know that even in some of my lowest times, there were positives in my life. But thinking back at those times, I really can’t remember any because my memories are just the negatives. But I’m glad that is not how I live my life anymore. I know that things aren’t perfect, but I can always be grateful and appreciate everything that I do have going on in my life.
Posted onNovember 24, 2022|Comments Off on Happy Thanksgiving! (or I Hope Everyone Is Having A Great Day!)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I know that not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving or spends the day with others, but I hope that everyone is having the day that they wanted to have. If you have the day off, I hope you are able to relax. And if you have to work, I hope that it’s not too bad of a work day and any customers you have are nice to you.
I’m not going to write a long post here because I hope that most of you aren’t reading this and are spending time doing what you want. I’m spending the day on my own and I’m going to be making some of my favorite things from my family Thanksgiving to have on my own. I thought about trying to organize something with friends, but since I’m still getting over the cold that I got, I thought it would be best for me to not be around too many people.
I’ll do a recap of my Thanksgiving later, but I just wanted to do a quick post here to say that I hope everyone is able to enjoy the day. Whether that means you are with your family and doing a big meal, hanging out with friends and ordering in, or just spending the day alone; I know all of those can be perfect options.
So go and spend your day doing things that make you happy, I know that’s what I’ll be trying to do!
Posted onNovember 17, 2022|Comments Off on Fake Thanksgiving Weekend (or A Few Days With My Family)
This past weekend was my family’s Fake Thanksgiving. As I have mentioned before, this was up in Portland and I was there from Friday until Sunday. I was only able to be there for part of Friday since that was a holiday and I didn’t have work. But it worked out so I was there for dinner on Friday through around lunchtime on Sunday.
After taking the train to meet my parents on Friday, we immediately went to my aunt’s house for a casual dinner. Almost everyone who would be at our Thanksgiving was there for Friday except one cousin who was coming the next day. But it was nice to have a casual dinner with everyone and catch up since I hadn’t seen most of the people there since last year. It was crazy to see how tall my cousin’s kids had gotten since the last time I saw them they were all shorter than me. But one is now taller than me and another will probably be taller than me very soon. I tried to do my best with being social, but I wasn’t feeling great that evening. I know a lot of it was due to the anxiety from flying still affecting me. But being around my family was a good distraction from that feeling.
On Saturday, I had a very chill morning. And it was very clear that my parents’ dog had missed me because he spent his morning leaning against the couch to sit with me (he can’t sit on the furniture, but he can butt up to it and lean).
Then a bit later in the morning, we had our family Orangetheory workout. This was the 9th year we had a Thanksgiving workout (although in 2020 we all did workouts in our homes) and it was only my dad and me this time. Some of my family have been dealing with medical things that prevented them from working out. And since nobody else does Orangetheory regularly, doing just one workout when they have been having medical issues isn’t the smartest choice. But at least my dad and I were able to keep up the tradition!
I went a bit easy in the workout since it was my 5th workout in the week. But we still both had a great time and I love that this tradition helps to make me feel a bit more productive on a day that I know can feel a bit sluggish with all the food.
I’m sure at some point, I will have to make the collage multiple images, but at least for now, we can still put all 9 photos in one to celebrate this tradition.
After the workout, we had a bit of time before we had to head over to my cousin’s house for dinner. I didn’t get a ton of photos during dinner, but that just means that I was focused on enjoying the time with my family. But it was a fun night. I had never seen my cousin’s house before and it was really cool! Their basement has a small basketball court in it and they have added different mats and springy floors so you can bounce around and do gymnastics and stuff like that on there. We all had a lot of fun hanging out in the basement and goofing off.
And when we were all upstairs in the main living area, it was awesome to see different things that were my grandparents’ in my cousin’s house. The dining room table my grandparents had is now my cousin’s. And there were also little things like vases or decor that I recognized. I think pretty much all of us have random things from my grandparents and it’s cool to see how each of us has incorporated them into our homes.
And of course, we had to do a family photo. But with so many of us (including my niece and nephew who are still little), it’s not easy to get one photo where everyone looks good. I got the photos we took and used the photo stickers you can do through iPhone and was able to do that to photoshop people into the photo and make sure we got one where we all looked ok. And the photo above the fireplace was originally of my cousin’s immediate family, and I changed that to be a photo of my grandparents. I think the end result looks pretty good considering I don’t have real Photoshop.
My last day with my family was on Sunday, and I had to be dropped off at the light rail around 1pm in order to get to the airport on time. That morning, I went with my parents to take the dog for a walk and explore the neighborhood we stayed in. And then my friend Dani, who lives in Portland, came over to the rental house to hang out for a bit. Even though we had just seen each other recently when she had to stay at my place, it was nice to have a hangout that was much more chill.
And that’s pretty much it for my Fake Thanksgiving weekend. I got to spend a good amount of time with my family and have a lot of the traditions that our family has had for a while. I think we are going to continue doing Fake Thanksgiving since it is a lot cheaper to travel when it’s not the holiday. And it doesn’t really matter if we celebrate a few weeks early as long as we still get to have our traditions.
Posted onSeptember 23, 2022|Comments Off on Finally Having A Trip Planned (or It’s Been A Long Time Since I’ve Been Away From LA)
I know I’ve written about this before, but I haven’t really gone too far from LA for almost 3 years now. Since November 2019, I have not been further from my home than Santa Barbara. And I do know that doing day trips up there does count as being away from home, but it’s not really the same. It’s a 90-minute drive to get up there and I haven’t been gone for more than a day trip. The last time I was further was when I went to Thanksgiving in Sacramento.
I know that a lot of people didn’t travel anywhere in 2020 due to the pandemic. But since then, so many people have traveled. Some people have gone to places they can drive to but they were there for a weekend. Others have flown out of state or out of the country and have gone on a real vacation. I was due for a vacation before the pandemic. Now I feel like I am very overdue for a trip and getting to explore a new place.
It will probably still be a while before I plan a trip somewhere I haven’t been before. I have ideas of places I’d like to go, but I am still a bit anxious about traveling. I know that if I do get sick, I might not be too sick because I have been vaccinated and gotten the newest booster, but it still makes me nervous. I also don’t love the idea of being on a crowded plane with a lot of other people.
I might not have a big trip planned just yet, but I will be on a plane in about a month and a half. My family is continuing our new tradition of doing Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving because it is less expensive to travel then and it’s usually easier to find places to stay. Last year, we did this in Santa Barbara and I was just up there for the day and drove home after dinner. I originally was going to stay longer, but it is easier just to sleep at my own place when I know I’d be driving home early the next morning. But this year, our early Thanksgiving will be up in Portland so I’ll be flying up there for a weekend in November!
I haven’t been to Portland in a long time. I’ve been up there to visit friends who used to live up there and I’ve been there to be with family. But it’s been a very long time since my last trip up there. We have been trying to do Thanksgiving in Portland a few times, but it just didn’t work out before either because of travel issues or the pandemic. Even though I’ll only be there for about 48 hours, it will be nice to get away from home and see my family. And at least I’ll be hanging out with my family longer than I did last year when I was in Santa Barbara for less than a day.
I am still anxious about getting on a plane, both for my normal reason of not liking to fly and because of being around so many other people in a tiny space. I know that masks aren’t required on planes anymore, but I will be wearing one for sure on my flights. When I was looking at flights, I picked ones that were non-stop, so I only have to be on one plane and I don’t have to worry about making a connection. So that should help make my anxiety a little bit less. But I know I’ll still be very nervous flying and I’m just hoping that it’s not too overwhelming like some panic attacks have been for me in the past.
I still want to do a lot more traveling. It’s something that I have said so many times that I want to prioritize again in my life. I usually don’t have the time or money, but I feel like there are ways I could work around it. Some of the things I want to do aren’t that cheap, but I could find alternative trips that I could take. I’m still working on figuring out the perfect budgeting system, and I know I’m spending less and making more than I did before so I probably could afford a trip soon. Maybe this short weekend away to Portland in November will help kick off getting things together so I can go on a trip. But even if it doesn’t, I’m glad I have a little trip planned so I can have a break from my day-to-day life and have some fun away from where I spend pretty much all my time.
Posted onNovember 29, 2021|Comments Off on A Thanksgiving Week Of Workouts (or Still Keeping Up A Tradition)
For this past week of workouts, I knew I would likely start dealing with some pain and nausea, but I tried to not let that stress me out before it happened. Instead, I tried to focus on the good things coming up during the workout week. I had a slightly different workout schedule, but having that allowed for something pretty cool.
Monday’s workout was a strength day, and it was a pretty normal strength-based workout. For cardio, we had 2 blocks. The first block was rounds of short distances where we added to our incline/resistance level each time. We were on our own for this block since everyone would have different timing with completing the distances. But we were supposed to remember our distance from that first block and use it as a goal for the second block. In the second block, we had rounds of a 90-second push pace at an incline with 30-seconds of a base pace between each one. Because the timing was different from when we were going on our own, we had to try to make sure we could beat our distance from the first block. With the bike, you don’t see as specific of a distance as you would on the treadmill (the bike goes one decimal point and the treadmill has three decimal points), but just as the block ended I beat my first block’s distance!
The rower had a lot of medicine ball work with a little bit of rowing. This was because the next day was a rowing benchmark (I wasn’t going to do that workout, but I knew it was happening) so we weren’t supposed to burn out too much. In the first block, we had ground to press, front press, and squat to press with the medicine ball first and then a 100-meter row. Each time we had the row, we increased the distance by 50 meters. And in the second block, we started with a 100-meter all-out row and then had more medicine ball exercises. We had bicep curls, overhead tricep extensions, and calf raises. And again, each time on the rower we increased the row by 50 meters.
And we also had 2 blocks on the floor. In the first block, we had single-arm chest presses, concentration curls, and shoulder presses to stand. I was really struggling with the shoulder presses and then standing, so I split that exercise into shoulder presses alone and then squats. And in the second block, we had single arm low rows, push-ups, and hip hinge reverse flys. I think I did a lot better on the second block than I did with the first.
Wednesday’s workout was a mix of endurance, strength, and power and it was themed around cluster exercises. The idea with cluster exercises is that you do one thing for 3 different rounds and you work until fatigue for the rounds so you don’t necessarily have a specific number of reps or time for cardio to complete.
For cardio, the plan was to have a 30-second all-out followed by a 30-second recovery. Then we did an all-out as long as we could followed by a 30-second recovery. And finally one more all-out as long as we could followed by a 1-minute recovery. And each round, the incline/resistance level for the all-outs increased by 1. The idea was that you should never be able to do an all-out longer than a minute or your all-out isn’t hard enough. For me, I usually managed to stick it out for about 45-seconds before I needed the recovery.
For the rower, we had rounds of an all-out row and a recovery row with a medicine ball exercise in the middle. We had 3 rounds of 10 strokes of an all-out followed by 5 strokes of a recovery row. Then we either had an overhead press or a front press with the medicine ball before going back to the 3 rounds on the rower. I know 10 strokes of an all-out row doesn’t sound that hard, but when you only have 5 strokes to recover is gets really tough!
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. In the first block, we had seated low rows and chest presses on the straps. For the seated low rows, we did 5 reps for the first round, had 10 seconds to recover, and then did 2 more rounds until failure with recovery between those rounds. And for the second block, we had weighted chest presses and high rows on the straps. For the weighted chest presses, it was the same as the low rows with the 3 rounds with recovery.
Even though I had my family Thanksgiving workout 2 weeks early when I worked out with my dad and brother, I still wanted to do a Thanksgiving workout. And since I had the day off of work for the holiday, I had a lot of flexibility with what time I would work out. So when I was looking at the schedule, I noticed that there was a Lift 45 class as the last class of the day (which was still in the morning). Lift 45 is a really unique class. Instead of working with cardio and the rower, it’s a 45-minute class that is only on the floor. My studio does Lift 45 classes each week, but the times they are scheduled are always times that I’m working. So I decided to take this opportunity to try something new that I’ve been wanting to check out!
We had 4 blocks for the entire workout, but we started with a group warm-up on the floor since nobody was warming up on cardio (which is what I’m used to). The first block had goblet squats and jump squats (which I did as squats with calf raises). The second block had hip hinge swings, step-ups (which I did as lunges), and sit-ups to squats using the benches. The third block had sumo squats, single-arm deadlifts, and mountain climbers. And the last block was all lunges, which had different types of lunges but I had to modify them to just be regular lunges for the entire thing.
Obviously, this workout was a lower-body class. The Lift 45 classes are split into upper or lower body workouts. And while lower body is usually harder for me, I didn’t know how hard this workout would be without cardio. I was pleasantly surprised to see that this may have actually been harder than a regular workout for me! Maybe I pushed myself more because I knew I wouldn’t have cardio. Or maybe I’ve been going too easy on the floor in most of my workouts. No matter the reason, this was the first workout that made me seriously sore after it and I loved that! I wish this class was offered times I could go, but maybe in the future, I’ll have more opportunities to take them. The only real downside for me in this workout was this was the first workout that my nausea really hit me, so I had to go easy when I wanted to push myself. But at least the nausea wasn’t that bad so I didn’t have to limit myself too much.
And even though this was my actual Thanksgiving workout, I still used my workout from 2 weeks ago in my photo collage of all my family Thanksgiving workouts that I shared online.
Being sore from Lift 45 made my Friday workout a bit harder. I also had a bit more nausea in that class, but it still wasn’t as bad as I know it can be. This workout was a power day, and I’m glad it wasn’t another strength day. But we had a lot of similar exercises to what I did on Thursday, so that was a bit tough.
We had 3 blocks for cardio. The first block was all about 30-second intervals. We had rounds of a push pace to a base pace and ended with an all-out. The second block was a 3-minute distance challenge. And the last block was all 45-second intervals with a push pace, all-out, recovery, and one last all-out.
On the rower, we also had 3 blocks. The first block had rounds of a 1-minute all-out row followed by lunges. The second block was rounds of a 30-second all-out row with squats and the goal was to try to beat the distance from the first row (which I didn’t quite get to). And the last block was timed out with cardio with the 45-second intervals. I really struggled on the rower overall because of how I was sore, so I rowed slower than normal to make sure my form wasn’t too bad.
And on the floor, we had 2 blocks. The first block had deadlifts, hip hinge swings, skater lunges, leg raises, and sit-ups. The deadlifts and hip hinge swings were especially tough since I had done them the day before, so I went a bit lighter with the weights than I normally do. And the second block was timed with the rest of the room with 45-second intervals and we alternated between hip bridges and v-ups (which I did as crunches).
While I have done weeks before where I do 3 workout days in a row, I wonder if having the Lift 45 class made things a bit harder for me. But I still am so glad I took that class since I don’t know when I’ll have another chance. And I might have a chance to try out doing 3 workouts in a row again because there is a chance that this week and next week I won’t be able to work out on Saturday. I have toyed with the idea of not doing Saturday workouts since I have to do them so late in the morning because of my work schedule. So this might be a good test to see if I want to switch to only doing weekday workouts. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how it goes!
Thanksgiving Workouts (or Continuing A Tradition)
