|
|
I have never watched the news so much in my life. I know over the next few days and weeks the news coming out of Boston will fade, but right now, it is still very fresh in my mind. Emotionally, it’s pretty weird. I feel like I go up and down between anger, sadness, and frustration.
I continue to watch the news I guess because I want them to find someone. I know it doesn’t matter what their motive was as long as they are brought to justice, but I still want to know why. I want to put a face to this crime…again, I’m not sure why. Maybe moving on is the best revenge but I’m just not there yet.
I was glued to the tv yesterday in anticipation of the FBI’s press conference which never happened. Also, when rumors of an arrest were made. Is it just me, or are there a huge amount of rumors surrounding this event? I guess I’ll believe they have someone when I see them.
I’ll leave you with a positive video from The Colbert Report about the people of Boston.
This is probably going to be somewhat of a rambling post, but I felt like I needed to post something.
When the bombs went off I was about a half mile from the finish line. I heard them go off and immediately thought..fireworks? But honestly, they did not sound like fireworks. Then I thought, well, there was a Red Sox game maybe they do something wild after those? Runners around me were asking, “what was that noise? What was that??” Obviously, we had no idea what was going on.
Very shortly after multiple cops stopped us and threw up a gate in front of us. That is when people started to freak out. Runners started crying immediately assuming it was a terrorist attack. The cops didn’t tell us anything, probably because they knew as much as we did, all they said was there were explosions near the finish line.
Runners near me were obviously freaked because they all had family and friends down there.
I just saw my parents at mile 25 so I figured there was no way they could have been down there by then. I saw my husband and daughter at mile 23 and they, for all I knew, could have been down at the finish line. I tried calling my husband and parents over and over but the phones weren’t working. I knew my husband was taking the train and for all I knew at the time, bombs went off in the subways so you can imagine there was some panic.
Finally, I got through to him and he was on the train and the train was stopped and everyone was evacuated. So my whole family was safe.
We still didn’t really know what was going on. A woman near us told us transformers exploded near the finish line so I was somewhat relieved it wasn’t bombs. My dad ended up asking a National Guard solider and he was the one who told us that they were actually bombs. All we knew at that point was we needed to get out of there.
So, first of all, thank God my family and friends are all safe. That being said, I am so disgusted and upset about what happened at the race. It’s one of those life events that is impossible to understand so it leads to frustration which leads to tears. This magnificent event was just ruined…completely ruined…changed people’s lives forever and why? We have no idea. I just don’t understand.
I’ve read articles where some people say they’ve lost hope in humanity. I haven’t. For every sick individual there is out there, there are thousands of others who care. You can see that in the images that are coming out now after the bombs went off. People helping people. People running towards the chaos to help others get up, people donating blood, acting selflessly…it’s pretty amazing.
Not sure what else to say except my thoughts are with all the victims.
Wow, 2 days in a row can you believe it? I decided that while Brooke naps, it’s time for mama to ramble on her blog.
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about this, but I am still training for the Boston marathon. Doesn’t it seem like I’ve been doing this forever? I guess I’m having flashbacks of last year. Well, training hasn’t been perfect that’s for sure. It is without a doubt, harder to train with an infant child around….in the dead of winter.
I think what comes to everyones mind is, can’t you take her outside with you in a jogging stroller? Well, yes, but not when it’s 25 degrees outside! That, coupled with lots of travel, has led to some poor training. That being said, I’m still running it!
The past few weeks were especially rough but this past weekend I managed to do my 20 mile run! I also managed to get severely sunburned….just a reminder, we’re really close to the sun up here. The 20 miles wasn’t terrible. I actually ran faster than I anticipated so I’m happy. I have some hip pain, but I ran 20 miles so what do I expect? I’m trying to ice and stretch and just stay injury free. The race is in less than 2 weeks!
I’m a little disappointed in the training (or lack therefore). I know people work so hard to qualify for Boston and I’m lucky enough to be entered and basically didn’t bother training. I realize I have a pretty good excuse (baby..right??), but still. It’s kind of a bummer that I’m not trying to get a certain time or beat my last PR. At this point, I just want to finish.
I know it shouldn’t bum me out so I try not to think about that part. What I’m focusing on is the BOSTON MARATHON! How cool will that be? My parents are coming out to watch (again..oops) and I’ll have my little girl waiting at the finish line…pretty cool.
Hope you’re all having a good week!
Hey all! Yeah, it’s been a while. I am officially the worst blogger in the blogosphere. But hey, I’m tryin’. This post will be short and sweet! I wanted to share it with you because I thought it was so easy and delicious.
I love sushi. My favorite type of sushi is salmon sashimi (raw salmon). It sounds kinda gross-raw..ew, scary- but I swear, it’s like butter. Since I live in the mountains, fresh sushi grade salmon is not readily available. So I picked up the next best thing: smoked salmon.
I’ve made actual sushi rolls before but it can take time and you need the proper utensils so I opted for a bowl instead. So easy!
Deconstructed Sushi Bowl
- Annie Chun’s Sprouted Brown Sticky Rice-1 Bowl (you don’t need this, you can use any rice you’d like. I find this at my regular grocery store in the Asian foods section).
- Cucumber chopped up
- Carrots chopped up
- Smoked salmon
- Half an avocado
- Seaweed snacks (also in Asian aisle-you don’t need these either)
Awesome and so quick!
Sorry for the quick post….the baby’s wakin’ up!
Do you like sushi? What’s your favorite roll?
Hey guys! So, as you know I’ve been trying to eat healthier and hopefully drop a couple lb.’s in the process. That being said, I’m not following any particular diet or being super restrictive with my calorie intake because I am still breastfeeding and don’t want to dry up!
My husband and I are pretty routine at night. We have dinner followed by dessert…some sort of dessert..every night. He loves ice cream (who doesn’t?) but obviously, I don’t want to stuff my face with Ben and Jerry’s on a daily basis…I mean, I do, but I shouldn’t. So, I decided to give Arctic Zero ice cream a try.
When I first picked this pint up, I assumed it was a scam because usually anything that seems too good to be true, is.
150 calories for that entire thing? Seems suspicious to me.
Seriously? How is that possible?
The list of ingredients isn’t horrific either.
Most of those ingredients I know or have seen before. The one I wasn’t familiar with was monk fruit concentrate which turns out is a sweetener made from the Chinese fruit of the same name. It seems to be the next up-and-coming “natural” sweetener (I put natural in quotes because I’m sure it’s processed in some way).
I, personally, like that Arctic Zero has whey protein added to it so at least there is a tiny bit of nutritional value.
There are multiple different flavors but I’ve only tried Cookies and Cream and Coffee. My favorite so far is coffee (I love coffee anything!). The thing about this “ice cream” is it’s more like an ice cream replacement. The texture is much different. It is not creamy like your typical Baskin Robbins scoop. I’m not sure how to describe the texture…more slushy like? I leave the ice cream out for a little bit to soften it up..it’s definitely better that way!
I had some coffee last night with a little Light Hershey’s syrup on top…yum!
So, here are my pro’s and con’s of Arctic Zero:
Pro’s
- calorie count and overall nutrition for a dessert-not bad
- tastes good (I read some people hate it so could go either way)
- good dessert replacement-satisfies the sweet tooth!
Con’s
- price- this pint almost costs $5
- texture-not the same as ice cream
- processed- this is most definitely a highly processed food. The ingredients are straight forward, but I’m still skeptical because it just seems too good to be true.
I also read that The Today Show did a report on diet ice creams and found that this one in particular was actually under on their calorie count. The Today Show reported that in reality, Arctic Zero ice creams had about 46-68% more calories than they claimed. The company of course said their calorie count is correct…but who knows. (Here is the story).
Overall, I think it’s pretty good but there are definitely other desserts that are a healthier choice like fruit (lame) or banana soft serve. That, in my opinion, is the best. It does an awesome job replacing ice cream-it’s delicious and healthy! Perfect.
Some nights I’m just not in the mood to deal with a food processor. So on those nights, Arctic Zero will do just fine.
Have you tried Arctic Zero? Thoughts? If not, what’s your go-to dessert?
So, I’m still trying to figure out just how much food I’d need in order to prep my meals for the week. I think this week I way underestimated how much food it takes to make lunch and dinner for 5 days. I’m pretty sure the food I prepped will last me, oh about 2 maybe 3 days if I’m lucky. So now I have a better idea. Basically, it takes a lot of food to prep all your meals (not including breakfast). This is for two people by the way.
Yesterday, I went to Costco and tried to stock up on produce and meats. I actually didn’t but much in the meat department, only chicken. We have a ton of elk meat to we will also be working on that.
I cut up all the veggies so I’d have lots of accessible healthy snacks around. I buy a big bag of peppers at Costco and just cut them up. I love them plain or dipped in hummus.
I also bought a large container of butternut squash and cooked it yesterday so we could work on that at lunch or dinnertime.
I love roasted butternut squash! It’s so easy to cook and delicious.
Roasted Butternut Squash
- 2 cups butternut squash, cubed
- 1 tbsp of coconut oil (or olive)
- 1 tbsp maple syrup (or brown sugar is good too)
- salt and pepper to taste
Cook at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until the pieces are soft. I also mix the squash around midway through just to make sure it’s cooked evenly. It could use a little more sweetener but I’m trying to cut down on it. It’s also good with cinnamon added!
Besides the squash, I steamed a big bag of broccoli too-no excuses not to eat your veggies! I baked 5 large chicken breasts just to have on hand but now I see that’s not near enough. I’d basically have to have a chicken cooking sessions with multiple cookie sheets going at one time. That’s alright, I’m learnin!
I love having the veggies accessible. I always have a hard time eating enough vegetables so now there’s no problem!
I’ve been hitting the gym too and that’s been going well…although it’s getting harder as Brooke gets older.
Cry baby!!
I love her death but man she’s been a pain lately. She basically cries every time I put her down so as you can imagine, it’s hard to do anything. I would assume she’s sick or something but when I pick her up, she stops. Learning manipulation perhaps?
She also started waking up a million times a night again too. Brutal. The best feeling in the world is when I wake up and the sun is out (no night feedings)! Hopefully tonights the night  .
Hey guys! The past few days have been pretty good on the workout front. I’ve been able to lift weights Monday and Tuesday which is great. It’s always somewhat of a challenge because I bring Brooke with me to the gym…like literally, carry her around in a car seat. It gets a little weird sometimes…me and Brooke..surrounded by big muscly dudes. I’m sure they’re wondering what kind of mother brings their baby to the gym….? Well, this one.
Anyway, both workouts were good but kinda short. I always cross my fingers that she will fall asleep on the way to the gym so I can workout for as long as I want…but I think that’s happened like, once. Usually I have to entertain her off and on and I’m only there for about 20-30 minutes. It’s something at least!
Here’s the workout I did Monday:
I realize now that that post makes no sense so I’ll break it down:
My goal was 3 sets of 4-6 reps-
- Pull Downs on Machine- 70 lb.s 5 reps
- Machine R0ws- 70lb. 4 reps
- Assisted Pull Ups- with 45lb. of assistance 6 reps
- Back Extensions Machine- 115lb. 12 reps
- Fixed Pull Downs Machine- 70lb. 6 reps
- Captains Chair (ab move) 3 sets of 10
I never got around to single arm rows..next time!
I was sore yesterday so I think it was a good workout. I feel like my back and general core are areas that I need to work on still. I notice that I slouch a lot more than I used to I think because I’m still weak in my core ( I blame Brooke). Back muscles are easy to forget but man they look good when they’re toned!
Yesterday’s workout was focused more on legs and biceps and chest. I wanted to do more but I ran out of time AKA Brooke was about to go nuts.
Legs are tough to work these days since I’m also training for the marathon. I don’t want to push it too much, but I also don’t want to have a freakishly huge upper body and chicken legs (not that that would actually happen..but ya know). So, I did a couple leg moves yesterday including:
- Hamstring Curls with a Swiss Ball- 3 sets of 15
- Deadlifts- 3 sets of 15 with 30lb. dumbbells.
- Step Ups onto Bench- 3 sets of 10 on both legs holding 20 lb. dumbbells
Then I went on to do some heavy bicep and chest moves:
- Bicep Curls- 3 sets of 5 using 15lb. dumbbells
- Concentration Curls- 3 sets of 6 using 15lb. dumbbells
- Hammer Curls- 3 sets of 3 using 20lb. dumbbells
Chest:
- Chest Press- 3 sets of 10 using 25lb. dumbbells
- Chest Fly- 3 sets of 6 using 20lb. dumbbells.
I like lifting heavier weights, but I can tell that I’m going to have to move to barbells for some of these exercises. The dumbbells tend to hurt my wrists. I don’t know why but I find barbells a little intimidating. I think it’s because I’m not 100% sure I know how to add/take off weight and I don’t want to be the one who drops weights all over…especially when I’m carrying a baby around. One of these days I’ll have to buckle down and just try them! I’m sure they’re not too complicated.
On the diet front, things are going pretty well! I’ve been eating “clean” now for about a week and I feel just fine. My husband has these amazing tortillas that I’ve somehow managed to say no to so I’m proud of myself. I had a weird impulse buy at Costco the other day:
An extremely large amount of tupperware. Kind of random….I’m motivated to food prep I guess! I’m not sure what you use the teeny tiny ones for though…nut portions maybe?
Do you prep your food or meals for the week? Any tips?
Hey guys! So, I’ve been doing some thinking since my last post and I’ve decided to scratch the Paleo challenge. Maybe one of these days…but right now I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think I’d be setting myself up for failure which is never a good idea. So, instead I’m just focusing on clean eating.
When I say clean eating, I basically mean no white stuff (white flour, white sugar) and limiting processed foods as much as I can. That doesn’t seem quite as overwhelming as Paleo which is cutting out all carbs, beans, and dairy. What can I say, I like my beans!!
Although eating clean is somewhat straight forward, it can be tough. I think preparation is key so I’m going to designate Sunday as food preparation day! This means cutting up veggies and fruits for snacks, grilling chicken to eat throughout the week, and just having those healthy foods readily available when we are hungry.
I love peppers!! I buy a big pack of them at Costco…awesome with hummus.
So, I feel pretty good about the whole diet thing. I haven’t been craving sweets…yet. I know that’ll come…but we have none in the house so I guess I’m out of luck!!
On the fitness front, I’ve been doing my marathon training but am already burned out unfortunately. I know the race will be fun, but I’m ready for other forms of fitness besides running. I’ve been trying to incorporate some weight lifting during my training but it ain’t easy! Training takes up a lot of time.
I would like to add some muscle if I can though. I felt pretty weak after having Brooke…especially in the abs (obviously) and back region so I’m attempting to start lifting “heavy.” Basically, lifting heavy means only being able to perform 4-6 reps in a set. I tried my hand at this method the other day during a bicep and tricep workout:
It seemed like such a short workout but it definitely burned! I’m going to try and keep track of the weight I lift to see my progression over the weeks.
Today I’m going to tackle this back workout:
- Wide grip lat pulldown
- one arm dumbbell row
- bent over barbell row
- seated cable rows
- underhand cable pulldown
- chin ups
- hyperextensions
I’ll probably look just like that chick when I’m done .
If you lift weights, do you lift heavy or keep it light to tone?
Hi there. I know, I am officially the worst blogger ever. I’m gonna stop starting posts like that though. The reality is, I’m probably not gonna blog everyday. I would really like to…but, clearly I haven’t been so I’ll try!
Things have been going well on our end. Brooke is doing great-she’s 4 months now! She just had her 4 month dr. appointment yesterday..shots and all  . I cry every time they give her shots…I don’t know why?! Just that awful cry that comes shortly after makes me so sad. But it’s all for the best!
Anyway, I’ve been training for the Boston marathon! I feel like I just did that…because I sort of did. Training so far this year has been kind of a pain mostly because of weather. It is MUCH colder this year (I knew that would happen!) so I’ve been dealing with more ice/snow which is somewhat inconvenient. However, I do have a gym membership this year so no excuses…although 7 miles on a treadmill? Really? I have a hard enough time with 3….
This week my long run is 12 miles which hopefully I can do today. So far I haven’t had much pain in my knees or hips so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they won’t become a problem.
What I’m really trying to focus on these days is my diet. During my pregnancy, I really let myself slip up on diet a lot…I mean, I was pregnant after-all so ya gotta live a little. The problem I face now is a major sugar addiction. The holidays did not help (they never do!). So, I’m really trying to get over that.
I thought about attempting a Paleo 30 day challenge (again) for the month of February but now I’m not so sure. Maybe I should just concentrate on clean eating instead of such a drastic change. I feel like when I attempt major changes to my diet, I set myself up for failure. Immediately cutting out carbs, dairy, and beans could be tough…
I’m not sure though. On the other hand, 30 days is not that long. I should be able to do anything for 30 days right? I donno…I don’t trust myself. My husband said he’d do it with me so that would help and we’re not going out of town for the month of February. Leaving town always seems to ruin the diet.
So, I don’t know what to do. Maybe start with just clean eating.
What do you guys think? Paleo or Clean Eating?
Oh hi there! It’s been a while huh? Like months. Sorry about that. I had this plan that I’d blog every day with or without baby…apparently that’s not working out to well for me.
To be honest, I felt I didn’t really have much to blog about..oddly enough. It seems like there’s a lot going on but I had nothing to say? Weird.
The last few months have been great! Brooke is now 3 months old can you believe it? She’s doing really well too.
She’s a great baby. Not that I have experience with babies but I’m pretty sure she’s a good one .
So what have I been doing? I haven’t started working again yet. My work schedule is pretty flexible since I work from home so I haven’t started back up yet. I think after Christmas I will get back to it.
Brooke and I hang out all day everyday! I’ve actually been able to take her with me to the gym too. My gym has hours in the morning that moms can bring their infants in with them (weird right?). So far, it’s been pretty good. Usually she fusses mid way through my workout so I rock her to sleep then continue. Yesterday was the first time I had to leave…she wasn’t going to stop…
The workouts have been really good. It’s felt amazing pushing my body to the point of being sore for days…does anyone else love that? Are you sick like me?
My regular gym days are gonna change a little though now since I have to start training again for BOSTON! I have to admit, I’m a little annoyed I have to train again for this damn thing but I know it’ll be fun. I guess I’m still burned out when it comes to running. A part of me wishes I did it last year so I could focus more on weight lifting and running whenever I want (and whatever distance I want). Oh well, just a few months right? And this time I don’t have to worry about being preggo.
This week is the first week of training. I’m actually doing the Novice 1 program from Hal Higdon. I don’t know if I’m a novice or not but I feel like one. I haven’t ran much at all in the past 10 months so I feel like I’m starting over! My long is today (I’m switching the schedule around a bit) and it’s 6 miles. Ughh…wish me luck!
Anyway, I wanted to pop in and say hi! Let you know I was still alive and well. I’m going to try and have a set schedule to blog on actual interesting topics like workouts and food..mmm.
Before I sign off I have to show you this shirt I bought..
That’s right. Is this not the coolest shirt you’ve ever seen? I’m wearing it all the time. I just hope people understand the reference…
|
|
