Fitness Philosophy

Today I was randomly thinking about my passion for fitness, and I realized I’ve worked out regularly since the end of 8th grade! In a very “Forrest Gump” fashion (ha ha ha), one day I just started running and it kind of stuck. Haha…that analogy is pretty funny, not to mention I love Forrest Gump. Am I the only person who watches it every time its on TV?! Anyways, back to my point…I just found a passion for running and working out, and looking back its crazy to think a 14-year old could be so dedicated to something healthy like that! To be honest, I wasn’t raised that way. I mean, as a child, I pretty much stayed outside and rode my bike or ran around outside, but my parents weren’t (and still aren’t) marathoners or fitness-crazed people like I am now…haha. My dad will ride his bike from time to time and my family will go on long walks or hikes, usually with my prompting…but that’s it. So I don’t know how that spark for fitness and health was instilled in me. I do have to give my parents cred: my family eats pretty healthily, at least 85-90% of the time. Its not perfect, but its pretty darn good :)

Anyways, when I started running way back in 2003, I would run like a mile at most. In 9th grade, when I started cheerleading, we had conditioning during the summer and we would run a mile, including up and down the stadium bleachers. I remember how everyone hated it, myself included. But it didn’t take long for me to start to appreciate it, and I remember the first time I did a mile run+bleachers at cheer practice and then I went home and ran another mile. Two miles in one day! That was a huge deal for me at the time, and looking back, its crazy to see how far I’ve come! I remember all throughout high school, I came home and did Pilates every single day after I ran, I kid you not. Wow…I don’t even do that now, but I work out harder and longer as a whole nowadays. Pilates is awesome though….maybe I should revisit my high school philosophy!

My junior year of high school, I joined the YMCA and would go about three or four times a week, on nights I didn’t have to cheer at basketball games. This is when the calorie-counting really began…seeing it on the cardio machines as I worked out. You know, I actually think I had a healthier philosophy before I joined the gym and seeing how many calories I burned after my workout! I even shared my struggle with the numbers in this post, which happened in college. However, joining the Y back in high school did make me more interested in new workouts, and when I went to college, I started doing group fitness classes at least half of the week, alternating with running or elliptical the other days. This is also when I started using workouts to burn off calories I knew I was going to drink away on the weekends. Bad philosophy! After using my freshman year of college as an excuse to go partying crazy(!), I grew up finally. I rarely ever drink now…a glass of wine here and there and at weddings or big parties…okay, I tend to go overboard but its so much fun…guess I haven’t grown up completely! But overall, I’m a lot healthier now. I have a healthier relationship with exercise, sleep (going to bed at 2am used to be normal), and alcohol (no more Wasted Wednesdays!). My running ability really has metamorphosed since that first day in 2003, and sometimes I’m shocked when I look back and see how far I’ve come! Fitness is a huge part of my life, and I love that my family and my boyfriend respect that enough wake up at 5am to go support me at races and to not think I’m crazy to wake up at 6:45am on a Saturday to go to Spin class! To me, it’s just fun…I look forward to it. The key is to find something you enjoy, and you’ll find that you really love how being fit makes you feel!

-xoxo

A Little Less Ordinary

Well today has been quite an interesting day! I was thinking that my college would have at least a two-hour delay this morning because of all the snow we had over the weekend, but no such luck! I almost busted my butt walking to the bus stop (the bus was necessary because my car was buried in knee-deep snow!). But surprisingly enough, all of the roads were clear in town, so I guess there was no reason to have a delay anyways. I went to my two classes and my plan when I got back to my townhouse was to dig out my SUV. Without a shovel. I had to get creative with this one…so I took a small trashcan and started hauling snow out from behind my car. That was quite a workout actually! A guy happened to walk by and I think he felt bad for me…ha ha ha. He walked up and started helping me…it was so nice of him! Then a girl that lives in a townhouse across from me offered to let me use her bigger trashcan, which is what she used to dig out her car earlier. So that helped save some time…but then another neighbor offered to use his shovel to do the rest. So sweet! My SUV has four-wheel drive, so all we needed to do was just get rid of the huge pile of snow behind my car. It ended up not taking long at all with all the help I got! Some people are just so generous :)

My goal after unburying my car and working out (one-hour strength/cardio video…really good workou actually!) was to do some major grocery shopping! I got lots of veggies, fruit, hummus, tofu and other good things so I can cook good food all week! I needed to stock up since we are supposed to get ice after midnight tonight and all day tomorrow, so I think I’ll be stuck inside yet again…not to mention the snow we are supposed to get this weekend! It looks like its neverending around here…I will be so happy to get out of the townhouse and go home next weekend for Valentines Day!!! Not looking forward to the five-hour drive, but its well-worth it to see my family & my boyfriend :)

Speaking of my boyfriend…I think that one of the most challenging things for me is being away from him. He is my rock and I know he supports me in everything I do (as does my family), and its hard to be so far away and not be able to spend time with him on a regular basis. Regardless of the distance, though, he always puts a smile on my face. If I’m having a bad day, he knows how to make me feel better. Granted, I’d MUCH rather be at home in his arms, but just talking to him still makes everything better :) Ah that was pretty sappy…I’m not much of a sappy person, but I’ve found myself becoming increasingly that way…love is an emotional thing, isn’t it?! ha ha ;)

-xoxo

Variety is the Spice of Life

Because I don’t want to get in a workout rut, I decided I would try something different today. I did BodyStep, which is the Les Mills take on Step Aerobics. The Les Mills program is the same one behind the BodyPump workout I did on Monday. I hadn’t done a Step class in almost a year actually! It was fairly challenging, but I wouldn’t say it was too tough of a workout. I did a fast mile & a half-mile walk on 10% incline before the class, so I think altogether it was a decent workout. Its just nice to have some variety and work out different parts of my body throughout the week!

Afterward, I made a grocery store stop to pick up some veggies, hummus, and cereal. I spend a lot of money on groceries…I think its because I always buy healthy foods, some organic…plus Greek Yogurt is sooo expensive around here! But I love it too much to not buy any :) What’s bad is that I have a mealplan on my college campus, and there are lots of good places to eat…I’m just picky and I prefer to cook healthy meals for myself. I mostly use my mealplan $$$ on coffee between classes and the occasional cup of soup from ABP for lunch. Oh well. I wanted to stock up on all of my favorite healthy foods because the weathermen are calling for a snowstorm this weekend…anywhere from 6″ up…and since anything over an inch is going to keep me from driving out, I though it was good to keep the kitchen stocked for the weekend! This weather is getting in the way of my running though…I want Sundays to be my designated long run day, but it looks like this is the second weekend of that NOT happening! I might have to hit the clubhouse treadmill again this weekend…

-xoxo

Little bit of this, little bit of that…

Well I should mention that since my post from last Friday, I’ve been attempting to improve my diet. More along the lines of not skipping meals and eating more protein-rich foods. I’ve made an attempt to have at least three meals a day…that means not skipping lunch…but I still think it may be better to have 5-6 small meals in a day instead of just three larger ones. So I’m definitely working on that! I’ve been reading The G-Free Diet by Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and the book really makes a lot of sense. By no means do I have celiac disease, but I think that generally varying your diet and not relying on refined carbohydrates is a much healthier way to live. As I’m getting ready to move into my apartment (Saturday!), I hope to start cooking & eating a cleaner, healthier diet. Oh, I also have been reading the Abs Diet…just to read up on different eating styles. I find my diet already resembling the Abs Diet very much…which is also a healthy way to eat. That’s the good news, I suppose…I eat healthy foods, I just need to stop skipping meals!

Sunday I went shopping with my mom to get some things for my apartment…a new comforter set and a few prints for the walls, shower curtain, and room decor. Afterwards, we went to the Fresh Market. As much of a health-food freak I can be, I’ve never been to the Fresh Market before. Well, the nearest one is 35 minutes from my house so I guess its understandable. Anyways, I walked inside and fell in love! Everything is so fresh, they have every kind of healthy food (including lots of gluten-free foods!), and they even have an extensive deli with soups, meats, fish, and healthy prepared meals. I picked up a few Larabars, which were actually on sale…I’ve heard good things about them and figured I should try them out. We got some organic lemons to add to ice water…I’ve gotten addicted to lemon water lately…at least its good for you! Then, completely going against The G-Free Diet principles, we bought a loaf of ciabatta bread. See, there happened to be a case of fresh mozzarella in the produce section, right by the fresh tomatoes and fresh basil…and I got the brilliant idea to make a mozzarella/tomato/basil sandwich on ciabatta with olive oil vinaigrette. Delish! And its pretty healthy, too. So you win some and you lose some…and since I’m not exactly suffering from celiac disease, I don’t think having bread one day is going to screw up my healthy eating. I think I’m going to seek a more balanced approach…just cutting out the refined carbs and eating healthier carbs like sweet potatoes, beans, potatoes, rice, oats….and maybe try a few new grains that the G-Free Diet recommends.

I had plans to go to the gym today for strength training before Spin class and Abs class…however my little 2 hour at-home workout yesterday has left me extremely sore. Lots of cardio plus a 20-min Arm toning video, 20 min leg-toning video, and a 10-min ab workout…I think I always underestimate how intense you can work out on your own even without being at the gym. So I’m thinking weights may not be a good idea today since my muscles are pretty exhausted…leave the strength training until tomorrow ;) I’m feeling like doing a long run right now…hope my leg doesn’t make it too difficult!

-xoxo