Fitness – Page 3 – Fervent Foodie

Recap–the (almost) 14 day fitness challenge

November 28, 2011 No Comments

Whelp, it has been 14 days since I proposed the 14 day fitness challenge and made it my goal to exercise every day for 14 days straight (including the Thanksgiving holiday). The first 7 days went as planned and I exercised each day. Boo. Ya.

Here’s how the second half of the challenge stacked up:

Day #8: Power Pump class at the YMCA
Day #9: Woke up with knee pain, so I decided NOT to exercise.
Day #10: 15 minutes on the elliptical, 1 hour of strength training & free weights
Day #11: Turkey Trot! 5 miles in 43:48!!
Day #12: 30 minutes on the elliptical
Day #13: 3 Mile Leslie Sansone walking video with my mom
Day #14: Stuck in traffic on the drive home from Ohio and got home 2 hours late – AKA no exercise.

So the 14 days fitness challenge was more like the 12 out of 14 day challenge. Even though I missed the challenge goal, I’m happy with what I was able to accomplish. First off, I listened to my body and decided not to run when my knee was bothering me. This is HUGE for me. Normally I am stubborn (and stupid) and try to run despite pains, which is exactly how I hurt myself two summers back. Second, I EXERCISED ON THANKSGIVING. Insane!!!

The Turkey Trot was the first race I have run in, and I’m already searching for my next race.

Half marathon here I come!!!!

Fitness

Fitness Challenge

November 20, 2011 6 Comments

Normally at 11pm on a Sunday night I’d be curled up in the fetal position on the couch swaddled in a big fluffy blanket praying to all that is holy that time could somehow remain still and allow me to savor a few more hours… let’s be honest.. DAYS of weekend. This evening, however, is one from a different tale because I’m in the midst of an extended Thanksgiving holiday back home in the Motherland. There’s still a couch and a big fluffy blanket but that typical Sunday anxiety for the impending workweek is delightedly absent. Instead I’ve got thoughts of plans with friends, family festivities out the wazoo, lasagna, the upcoming Turkey Trot I signed up for (my first race EVER EEK!), MORE lasagna, oh and of course the mental preparations for my annual Black Friday Blitz.

When I started preparing for this long trip home, I knew in my gut that it would involve a ton of food and a ton of exercising… wait…. shopping counts as exercising, right?! Right. So what my gut was REALLY saying was that the trip home would involve a crap ton of food and next to nothing in the physical exercise department.

Ugh.

I came up with the idea to challenge myself to a 14 day fitness challenge to ensure I kept my butt in gear (literally) over the holiday.

14 days of back-to-back fitness.

Here’s what I’ve accomplished in the first 7 days:

Day #1: Ran 3 miles
Day #2: Body Pump!
Day #3: 30 minutes of high intensity interval training
Day #4: Body Pump!
Day #5: Ran 5 miles
Day #6: 1.5 hours of Strength Training & cardio randomness
Day #7: Ran 3 miles

So far so good! This challenge really helped me to stay on track during a rather stressful week that included MANY instances of trying to talk myself out of going to the gym. Too tired. Too much to do. Too far behind… etc. Too, too, too. Blah, blah, blah. Each of these days I’d remind myself of the challenge I posted on this here blog and how extremely disappointed you all would be in me if I did not hold up to my end of the challenge. Am I right? Just the thought of your sad faces has gotten me out there doing SOMETHING physical every day.

To that I say THANK YOU!

Oh by the way, did I mention I have this whole week off of work? Oh… I did?

Hmmm… well I guess there’s nothing else to say then. EXCEPT to announce the winner of the NuGo slim giveaway!

The winner is….

Katie! Congratulations!! Please email me with your mailing address!

Fitness, Ramblings

14-Day Fitness Challenge–Turkey Trot Edition

November 13, 2011 6 Comments

I don’t know about you guys, but my level of motivation to exercise is dwindling downward along with the temperatures. Add to this the impending holiday of gluttony, and I’m a wee bit concerned my pants aren’t gonna fit come the new year. Let’s just face the facts. I’m not one to turn down delicious grub, and my food intake around the holidays can be downright excessive. That’s just me. I love food. I definitely make an effort to be “conscious” of what I’m eating, but when you give me fifty options there’s no way I’m walking away from that buffet line without a mounding plate of glorious home cookin’. There will be pounds of turkey slathered with cranberry sauce.. and several hot buttery rolls… and potatoes in every fashion: mashed ones, and cheesy ones, and sweet ones topped with melty marshmallows and brown sugar, and a potato salad… or three. Let us not forget about the dessert table. I can hear the angels singing now…. I have to sample everything. It’s tradition, and not doing so is just, well, downright rude in my family.

Hence the aforementioned pants fear.

Since I function best in life when I have goals to strive towards (Type A? Moi?!??), I’m rolling out a personal fitness challenge to get me amped up to exercise over the Thanksgiving holiday. This isn’t just ANY fitness challenge, this is the 14-Day Fitness Challenge – The Turkey Trot Edition. The goal of this fitness challenge is to exercise every day for the next 14 days. Yes, that includes Thanksgiving… and my beloved Black Friday. Every.Day. For 14 days. Here’s the kicker: I’ll also be running my first EVER race — The Cleveland 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day.

Can we all keep our fingers crossed for no snow, please?!

I WILL EXERCISE EVERY DAY.

Who’s with me?

Feel free to add this badge to your blog! Just copy and paste the code below:

Fitness

A rogue toenail.

August 29, 2011 21 Comments

Well if that title didn’t furrow your brow then you my friend read with unshakable candor.

I survived the Great Attack of the Rogue Toenail and all I got was this lousy Band-Aid.

Perhaps we should back up a few steps….

Sunday morning I snuck out of bed early to make myself breakfast, drink excessive amounts of black coffee, and sprawl out on the couch to catch up on blog reading and a good hour of budget reconciling. Ahhhh nothing brings me more joy than a nice breakfast and a nicely balanced budget 😉

I absolutely adore those peaceful morning hours when the rest of the sane world is still cuddled up with their blankies sucking their thumbs while I’m off doing whatever my little heart desires. It kind of reminds me of sneaking out of the house as a teenager. Something about being awake when no one else is feels rebellious and thrilling to me. *Perhaps* I’ve traded in sneaking out to meet my friends for sneaking out to play with excel. But that’s ok. This is a judgment free zone. Sadly these special hours seem to only present themselves on Sundays and this is precisely the reason for which I dutifully savor ever ounce of every Sunday morning.

Once my breakfast settled and I started to feel the caffeine from my coffee IV kick in, I decided to head out on my Sunday long run. I hadn’t been on a long run for two weeks–since the day I ran a whopping six miles—the *ahem* farthest *ahem* I had EVER run. Yesterday as I set out, I was motivated by Lindsay’s post about reaching her new 8 mile long distance running record. So I got my butt off the couch and laced up my sneakers. As soon as I stepped outside I realized it was kinda hot out. As in I’d been outside 3 seconds and I was already starting to perspire. The mental games immediately started. I began to talk myself down and lower my expectations. It’s hot. Just go for a quick run and get your butt back inside. If you’re too tired, you can always stop. Etc. etc. Mind games to keep myself from heading back in. Maybe I would make a good salesman…

After pretending to stretch for a minute or two, I was off. Miles started to tick by. I ran to the pizza shop, to Target, to the coffee shop, to the grocery store… Everywhere I could think of. Each time I reached my destination I gave myself a new one. Toward the end of mile 4 I seriously contemplated calling a cab to come get me. I had taken an unfortunate turn that put me at the foot of a rather steep hill, and I actually had to clasp my hand against my chest as I weased my way upward right past a Two Men and a Truck Van with unloading in process. They looked concerned, but they didn’t try to stop me and I kept going. And going. And going. And finally, after an eternity of running, when my Runkeeper ap declared that I’d reached and unfathomable 8 miles I said “mmmmmmkay yeah that’s enough.” And I stopped.

8 miles. Absolute ridiculousness.

How’s that for blogosphere motivation?!

If I’m going to keep doing this long run business, I really need to look into getting one of those little runner’s fanny packs to carry a bottle of water. Dehydration is no friend of mine. I’m thinking something along the lines of this Fuel Belt:

Any recommendations?

I was RIPE after the run. You know it’s bad when you can smell your own stank. When I undressed to hit the showers I was shocked to see that one of my toes was completely covered in blood! At first glance I thought the entire side of my toe had sliced open! After a momentary freak out moment that included me hobbling out to the patio to show the BF my war wound, I took a closer look and realized the toe was still one solid appendage, but rather my crazy pinky toenail had stabbed the one next to it in an apparent angry rage! What the heck?! I’ve always had squirrely pinky toenails. I mean, when I paint my nails I basically have to paint my whole pinky toe and then wipe off the excess because the nail is so small and peculiar shaped. I just never realized that thing was locked and loaded!

Lesson learned: Always be on the lookout for rogue toenails, especially before long runs.

Fitness

The crazy things I get myself into.

August 25, 2011 19 Comments

For weeks and WEEKS I’ve been talking about getting a bike. I just kept talking and talking about it. And himming and hawing. Then I texted. I emailed. I tweeted.

Still no bike.

At the beginning of summer, I saw this bike at Target and was immediately in love.

The Schwinn Gateway City Bike:

So many factors contributed to my love: the vintage look & color, the adorable little luggage rack, and especially the big comfy cushiony seat for my old lady bootay.

The other day, when I randomly checked Target’s website for the bike and found that it was gloriously on SALE I knew it was fate (am I the only one who interprets “sale” to mean “fate”?). I quickly checked the store inventory, and found the bike was SOLD OUT at all but one Target in the Charlotte metro…

Crap!

After work I sped-walked (speed-walked? Hmmm… how bout walked at an embarrassingly fast pace?) the 1.25 miles to the nearest target. I was hot and sweaty by the time I got there, probably due to the giant bag of work crap and lunch tupperwares I was carrying on my shoulder. I felt like a Black Friday shopper as I did the excited half run/half walk to the bike aisle… And there she was. The LAST bike of this model and color in the Charlotte Metro area. As I wheeled the beautiful bike triumphantly to the front of the store I realized that not only was I going to have to ride the bike 2 miles home, but I’d have to do it while carrying this GIANT bag of work crap on my shoulder.

Awesome planning. Awesome.

Once outside it dawned on me that I’d have to do something about all the tags if I was going to have any sort of street cred. I tried ripping them off, then sawing them off with my keys, and finally managed to remove everything BUT the manual, which I left dangling on the side of the bike.

I’m so cool.

About 7 minutes into the ride home as I was awkwardly fumbling with my giant bag o’ crap, I noticed I had forgotten to remove the big bright green paper display signs in the wheel spokes of the bike. Soooo classy.

Two minutes later while riding on a particularly narrow patch of sidewalk on a particularly busy street I managed to side swipe a brick wall. Whose idea was this?!

It seemed like it took entirely too long to ride the two miles home. Google maps must have miscalculated the distance… Or, (more appropriately said) holy cow bike riding is hard.

Once home, I tried to finangle getting the bike through the condo entrance whilst holding my giant bag of crap by backstepping as I held the door with one hand and the bike with the other. Did I mention I was wearing flipflops during this excursion? Oh yes, flipfops. Well, as I was back stepping, my flipflop flipped backward, I stumbled and then proceeded to do a 20 second tightrope teetering act until my fight or flight instincts kicked in and I realized I needed to either save myself or the bike. So, the bike went crashing to the ground as I stumbled backwards recovering my balance. Lucky for me I had an audience during this whole fiasco.

Well hellooooooo there. I’m Hot Mess Mary. Nice to meet you!

After refusing to get on the elevator with the innocent bystanders and waiting for a solo ride, I wheeled my bike onto the elevator. When the doors opened at my floor, there were two new bystanders waiting to get on. At the site of them, I got all flustered and proceeded to try and turn the bike around IN the elevator. I gave it three good attempts, wheels bumping into either side of the elevator, before realizing the bike was clearly too large to maneuver in the elevator, verbally declaring the whole situation “AWKWARDDDDD” and proceeding to ever so carefully backstep my way off the elevator.

After all that, I made it home. I have my bike, which I have already received two compliments on I might add Smile

« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 … 7 Next »