What I learned from Chalene Johnson’s podcast.

So while I’m working my day job, we can listen to music and stuff, but sometimes (more often than not)  I just don’t  feel like listening to music all day. I know. I’m crazy-weird. I just can’t listen to it all day long and then listen to the same stuff while I’m working out. OR. I can’t concentrate at the same time i’m trying to work. I’m blonde, remember?

Anyhow, I saw a link on Facebook the other day for Chalene Johnson’s podcast, so I spent the day listening to some of her podcasts. One that I listened to today, ‘11 healthy eating habits of the super fit‘, was really interesting. Some of the tips reminded me of what I did before to lose fat and weight, and some of the tips validated some of the stuff i’m already doing.

Here are some of my take-aways:

1.  They eat a lot of the same foods everyday. They are very habitual in their eating, and this allows them to not have to count calories or think about what they will eat.

~ I can totally vouch for this method! When I started attempting to lead a healthier lifestyle – NOT “diet” – this method is pretty much what I did to have success. Since I wasn’t used to eating healthy foods AT ALL, I just found a few healthy things that I loved, and I stuck with those. And after a while, I no longer needed my fitness pal app to track everything because I knew what I was eating and knew if I was consuming too many calories. I really didn’t get bored with this method, but if I did want a change, I found it easier to find something else healthy to add into the mix. It worked for me. I liked it. I loved what I was eating. And I just got into the routine of knowing my body and what it needed and when. And I lost weight doing this. Plus I was able to maintain the weight loss after that. Now I just need to get back to this method because I “lost it” when I had my surgery and my taste buds got all messed up. But that was a little over a year ago, so time to stop making excuses and get rid of the few pounds I gained from “emotional eating”. 😉

Salads for lunch EVERYday.

2. They don’t start the day with a big breakfast.

~ I LOVE THIS TIP! I am NOT a breakfast eater, so I was cheering for this one. 🙂 She did have a lot to say about this though if you are a morning workout person. She talked about how it can be a good thing to workout first thing on an empty stomach, and then eat your breakfast a couple hours later. I found that for me, I’m just not hungry first thing in the morning, so I just eat breakfast when I’m hungry. And that is usually around 9ish. And my breakfast is fruit. I personally found, that since I workout in the evenings after work, I don’t like to eat anything heavy during the day. Otherwise, I get tired, I feel heavy, and my workout sucks. So it works for me to just eat breakfast when I feel hungry, and not have it be super heavy. And I think it’s better to eat fruit in the morning since it has so much sugar. My rule of thumb has typically been no fruit after 2:00, but usually I’m done with my “fruit breakfast” by 11:00.

3. They hydrate

~ I think we all know this. It not only fills you up and makes you feel full, but it’s needed for your workouts. I personally drink a gallon of water a day. I will drink 8-12 glasses before my lunch at noon, and then the other 4-8 glasses after that, or during/after my workout that evening. And I don’t drink with meals because I believe it messes with your digestive process.

Oh wait. Not THAT kind of hydrating….

 

 

 

THIS kind of hydrating!

 

4. They eat smaller, more frequent meals, at approximately the same time every day, and make your biggest meal of the day around a brunch/lunch time.

~ I personally don’t eat a bunch of “meals”, but I do eat a snack or something every few hours. It definitely keeps your metabolism going, keeps you from getting to that starving point where you will eat anything and everything in sight, and helps you to feel like you are getting to eat “more”. Just choose the healthy snacks. 😉

Maybe this isn’t quite a “healthy snack choice”….

This is probably more like it…

5. They become experts in nutrition.

~ I’m NO expert on nutrition, but I do love to research everything. Nutrition included. It’s just really helpful to know little tips and things/ingredients to look out for. It’s worth knowing that buying something ‘fat free’ or ‘lite’ is NOT healthier.

These are a few of the “reads” on my bookshelves.

 

6. They are not picky eaters, they don’t diet, they are not obsessive; but they are balanced and careful eaters. They read labels and choose the best options and fuel for your workouts!

~ Um, can’t say i’m picky. But sometimes I am…I’m an in-betweener. And I definitely don’t obsess! Or diet! And i’m a HUGE advocate of reading labels! Goes right along with #5 – become an “expert” and know ingredients, chemicals, bad stuff, etc…Be deliberate in what you are putting into your body because it WILL affect how you feel and perform later on!

7. They eat whole foods.

~ I’m not 100% a whole foodie, but I believe in more is better on this one! It just reminds me of the saying: “If it comes from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, DON’T!” 🙂

8. They shop healthy. If it’s in your house, your going to eat it. Just keep it out of the house to begin with. And as soon as you get home from the store, clean it, cut it, prep it, and keep it at eye level.

~ We all pretty much know this. If it’s in the house, in your sight, you will eat it. Or at least I will. 😉 If you insist on bringing ice cream in the house, choose a healthier one – dairy free, etc…or choose little snack sized “treats”. I think the biggest thing I learned on this tip is to clean and prep everything as soon as I bring it home. I just need to start doing my grocery shopping earlier in the day on Sundays so that I actually do this! When I wait until the evening to do the grocery shopping, it gets to be too late and I never feel like meal prepping and making our salads for the week. Then the week is just downhill from there. Plan, plan, and plan some more! Be ready and prepared for those moments of complete starvation, b/c they will happen! 🙂

9. They stop eating at night at a particular time.

~ I can’t be the picture of this one. I typically eat a later dinner since I workout after work and I don’t eat dinner until after my workout. But i’m sure this is a good tip. 😉

10. They are politely picky eaters at restaurants.

~ There is typically always a way to create a healthier option at a restaurant. Drink water before you go. Eat an apple or something small and healthy before you go so that you aren’t super hungry and in turn, over-indulge because “everything looks good”. Share an appetizer and order a salad as your meal. Or fill up on salad first. But you don’t have to ban going out to eat for the rest of your life! Eating out is a fun, social thing to do and enjoy. Just find ways to enjoy it without sabotaging yourself. But also remember, if your already following a healthy lifestyle, eating a not-so-healthy meal one time, will not kill you. Just don’t make it a habit.

11. They find something other than food to cope with their feelings and emotions. They take notice of how they are feeling when they are mindlessly eating/nibbling/snacking. Are you bored? Tired? Stressed? Depressed? What void are you trying to fill?

~ Let’s be real. Most of our bad eating, binge eating, stuffing ourselves passed the point of feeling full, is all due to feelings. There really is some underlying issue for turning to food as a comfort thing and coping mechanism. It’s imperative that if you want to lose any weight or fat and maintain a healthy LIFE, you HAVE to figure out what the root causes are that are driving you to turn to food. A magic pill is NOT the answer. It is not something you can maintain for life and all you would be doing is covering up the issue. You would be dealing with the symptoms instead of the issue and that is NOT in any way, a means to a healthy life. You CAN overcome the root issues! Just face them head-on and deal! You’ve got this! 🙂

So there.  Any of these tips you love and want to incorporate? Do you already do some of these things??

 

And again, the link to her podcast is here. 🙂

Organizing my life. And a pizza update. And some other stuff…

It’s Saturday morning. I’ve been up since 6:45 am. My brain is a jumbled mess, my office floor looks like a bookshelf because I’m in the process of moving my bookshelf from the living room to the office, my desk looks like a tornado flew over it, and my bedroom floor looks like the closet and dresser threw up. Since it’s a fresh year, fresh start, and I’m finally done with training for my 2nd job (which means going forward I’ll be working it from home in the evenings), I feel like I can finally breathe and get my life put back together and work on some of the stuff on my to-do list. 🙂 It’s a great feeling to have a minute to get myself re-organized, but at the same time it’s so time consuming because I get side-tracked from things I’m finding…

 

 

First of all, let me say that the month of December was rough as far as workouts go. With being in training from 6-10 pm Monday through Friday, it left me little time to get in a great workout. Or at least a workout comparable to what I’m used to. Sure, I worked up a sweat every time, but they never left me as sore as I’m used to being. 😉 And after finally making it to strength class last Monday, I realized just how much I kinda “lost fitness”. After 20 minutes of class, my entire body was jello. AND, jello sounded really good at that moment. After 25 minutes, I looked at my mom and said, “I’m going to die.” I know now what dying is going to be like. My marathon was easier than that. Obviously, after almost cancelling my gym membership all together, I decided to NOT cancel it. 🙂

Side note: do you keep track of your miles per year? I actually did last year. Kinda. I mean, I write them in my little handy-dandy purse calendar – along with ALL of my workouts – so I was able to go back and add them all up. 🙂 668.5 for the year of 2014. I think I can do better this year. 🙂 Like, 1000 miles at least. Especially considering all of the races I wanna do! My best month was August with 103.1 and my absolute worst month was December with a total of 13 – THIRTEEN! – miles. I over did myself in December…

Next random: I started my boards. I have my January “resolutions”/goals written down in front of my face now. 🙂 And then the other board is just for blog notes, ideas, etc…

Next random piece of information that I need to share with you because well, it’s just too funny to NOT share with the world. 🙂 My mom. She has always hated coffee. The smell. The taste. Coffee breath. Everything about coffee. And she drinks energy drinks for the “kick”. And I yell at her about them. 🙂 So when she was with The Hus at my marathon in October – ya know, waiting around in the cold, early, hours for me for like, 5 hours, The Hus bought her a peppermint mocha from Tim Hortons. She loved it. She then went on to form a habit where she stops at the gas station every morning on her way to work (at 5 am) and gets a peppermint  cappuccino with shots of espresso. Hard core. So when she was at our house for Christmas last week, she actually tried “straight” coffee with peppermint creamer. When I say “straight” coffee, I mean, she had some coffee with her creamer. She put so much creamer in the drop of coffee, that she had to warm the coffee creamer up.

See? I never let down with the funny stories. 🙂

Sit back down. I’m not done with the randomness. Here is another game we play: ‘Where’s Roxy? We can’t see/find her…’

Oh, I’m not done yet! You won’t wanna go anywhere for this important announcement! It involves New Years Eve and pizza. And Bellacino’s. 🙂 New pizza place. New year. = great night.

Oh. My. Goodness. Gracious. Great box of pie. We got a plain cheese for The Nephew, a veggie for my mom and I, and a buffalo chicken. I don’t know about the cheese pizza, but the other 2 were beyond great! And The Nephew ate the whole small cheese pizza, so I’m gonna guess it was pretty good. 😉 Not a super thin crispy crust, but it wasn’t super thick either, so it was still good in my book! Perfect amount of toppings – not too much – and the sauce was REALLY good! HIGHLY recommend! 🙂

Will Run For Pizza: 

The Hus: 

The Mom: 

The Nephew: 

Aaaaaaand, I think that’s all I need to share with you today. For now. 🙂 Back to working on blog stuff which involves moving from WP.com to WP.org and getting set up on Blue Host. And then hopefully next week, after the stress of this move wears off, I’ll make the change to a Genesis framework and a new theme. 🙂 So please forgive any “messes” you see on the blog right now…or if it goes down or something. I’m an IT/web “dummy” trying to do it all by myself so that I actually learn some ins and outs of my website. 🙂

Have you had to switch over to a self-hosted site? Any tips, ideas, heads ups you wanna give me???

What did you do for New Years Eve??

What is one of your favorite holiday traditions growing up and did you create a new tradition once you moved out of your parents house???

 

The start of a New Year.

 

 

 

 

The start of a NEW year. NEW beginnings. Fresh starts. Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Typically I don’t. I just figured, eh, no one ever keeps them so why bother setting them anyway? But it’s still not a bad idea to just look at your life, look at the past year, and evaluate the direction you are headed and if that is the direction you want to be going. I think something I might try to do this year, is to evaluate my resolutions on the first of each month. Maybe write some goals – resolutions – in my office above my desk, so that they are front and center, in my face, and then they will remind me each month to check to see if I’m moving in the direction I wanted to go (or change).

A bad habit that I’m going to break: keeping myself so busy that I’m always in a hurry and end up putting The Hus on the back burner because “he’ll understand I’m busy, and he needs waaaaaay more alone time than me”.

 

A destination I’d like to visit: Um, I don’t even know where to start here. I wanna visit the freaking WORLD. But this year? Let’s just go with Myrtle Beach. I’ve been there a LOT because growing up I had family that lived an hour from there, and now we have The Hus’ uncle who lives ON the beach, but I haven’t been there in YEARS and we SERIOUSLY need a vacay!

I’m going to work harder at: “disconnecting and unplugging”…I want to work harder/more on my blog, but at the same time I want to have a day (probably Sunday) where I am 100% disconnected from all technology and social media. 1. I need that; and 2. My family needs that. 

A project I’d like to finish: making a wine cork wreath. This sounds ridiculous typing that, but I have had the wreath idea for at least a year and I’ve been saving corks for longer than that. I even have my mom’s hot glue gun to do it. I think the glue gun has been in my closet for a year? (Still can’t decide which one….obviously the ‘M’ would be a ‘G’. 🙂 )

A class I’d like to take: Schwinn cycling instructor class in April! And hopefully classes to become a certified health coach. 🙂

I’d like to spend more time doing: biking and kayaking! We bought bikes last year and went maybe twice. I want to go on more bike rides this year. And we went kayaking for the first time last summer and I LOVED it, so I want to do that more this year – so relaxing and peaceful and a GREAT upper body workout! 😉

A food I want to eat more of: veggies. This can ALWAYS be an improvement, right?!

I want to wear more: non-workout clothes! Hence the membership with stitchfix. 😉 

A good deed I’m going to do: volunteer with Girls on the Run! And hopefully make it to my church’s food pantry more!

A race I’m going to run: So far, on my list for the first half of the year: Run The Bluegrass half in Lexington, KY; Kentucky Derby half in Louisville, KY; Cap City half in The ‘Bus; and Pittsburgh half in PA! And that is hopefully just the tip of the iceberg for 2015 races. 😉 And hopefully TWO fulls. AND! After watching desert runners, I THINK I wanna try my feet at an ultra. Two that I’m looking at: Laurel Highlands Ultra in Ohiopyle, PA; and Burning River Endurance run in Willoughby Hills, OH.  So if anyone wants to run and have a road trip with me, you don’t even need to apply! – your IN! 🙂

A book I’d like to read: give me some suggestions!! I LOVE to read, but have gotten out of the habit of reading the last 5 or 6 years because while I was in school, the last thing I ever wanted to do, was to read more! My goal: at least 1 book a month. (I think this was a resolution last year and I did read a few books last year, but I want to read MORE!) I can read a book in a day or so, but at least 1 a month would make me slow down for a day. 🙂

So our NYE was great. I was fast asleep on the couch before 10:00pm. The Hus woke me up at 12:30 to go to bed and said he and my nephew watched the ball drop. After making it to bed (I was a total zombie), I laid there for a good 2 hours. Wide awake. Thinking. And thinking. Aaaaand thinking. 🙂 Good times. But we DID have pizza from a new place so I’ll be sure to share that with you later! 🙂

Part of my sleeping problem lately though, is due to a 2nd job. This is the reason for my crazy-busy schedule the last 2 months. I was in training for a 2nd job, part time,  Monday through Friday from 6-10 pm. Doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to do much of ANYTHING! But Friday is my last day of training, and starting on Tuesday, I will be working from home, so that will allow me to be able to 1. have time for working out in b/w jobs, or running errands; and 2. pay off the ridiculous amount of medical bills. This year. Apparently it’s more expensive to have a miscarriage than it is to have and raise a kid for 18 years. 🙂 I kid. And I can joke about it now, but that’s really what it feels like. But i’m done being mad about it. I’m done being rebellious. I’m done being bitter. I’m done being sad. I’m ready for other adventures. Time to put on my big girl panties and Dave Ramsey the crap out of them in ONE year – so there’s another resolution! 😉

So tell me, how was YOUR New Years? What did you do??
 What are some of YOUR resolutions???

I am now off to do something that I should have done a loooooong time ago! – Sign up with Bluehost and switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org! So wish me luck and hopefully you won’t see anything messy with the blog! 😉

Christmas hangover.

Well, the nephew went home tonight. Since we got him on Christmas Eve, the time together actually didn’t just fly by either! It was nice to just hang out and relax and enjoy the holiday weekend. There was a lot of lego building, baking, movies, and video games. After my lego masterpiece, I was told that lego’s aren’t for girls.

I think they were just jealous that I was more creative than them.

I finally got my baking started ON Christmas day! 🙂 I’m on top of things like that. I even made chocolate peanut butter baklava for my mom. She loves the stuff. I had never made it before, but when I saw this recipe, I knew what had to be done. It actually wasn’t hard! Just time consuming with all the layers. Apparently this is now a Christmas tradition…

And that’s it. I mean, that’s not really all that went down for our holiday weekend, but I’m ready to go lay in bed and watch some TV so I’ll catch up with ya on the flip side. 🙂

How was your Christmas?

Whadya get??

Do you have to go back to work tomorrow?

Monday madness, Z pizza, & desert runners.

I’m just gonna come out with it: I came home today and took an hour long nap and skipped working out. There. I said it. Do I feel guilt? None. Nada. Zip. Zilch! I feel like I just need some chocolate really…Plus I’ve been waking up with a scratchy throat the last 3 or 4 mornings, so I’m popping zinc tabs and Kold Kare and eating oranges like they are going out of style. So sleep needed to be part of that “don’t get sick” regimen.

Now it’s 11:06 and I’m wide awake wishing I had my TM so I could run right about now. I’m all kinds of messed up. I mean, I could spin…but it’s just not what I want right now. If The Hus would run, I’d drag him out for a night run. But I’m pretty sure it would have to be a cold day in hell before that would ever happen!

Since I’m still on a tight schedule, I’ve still been aiming for 3 workouts during the week and a run on the weekend. But last week was a spinning workout one night, a boxing & “glider” workout one night, and a short 3 mile run on Saturday morning.

 

Obviously, I’m still learning my left from my right.

 

It was also a little madness and crazy over the weekend because last minute, we found out my nephew will be here for Christmas. We didn’t think we would be seeing my sister and nephew, so we were just ordering all of his presents online and shipping them to him. Now that there will be a kid here, we have to get in the Christmas spirit and actually celebrate! So we were shopping over the weekend so that his presents were UNDER the tree instead of arriving in boxes. 🙂

PLUS! I got to meet up with my running buddy, Rachel, for a new pizza – Z Pizza!

 

We split the Mexican pizza – avocado, red onions, green onions, salsa, mozzarella, cilantro, lime chicken, and sour cream. SO good! And they have wheat crust which makes it even better. And then I had a discount card for $2 off a large, so we each ordered a large to take home to the Hubby’s. HIGHLY recommend Z pizza! And they are natural, non-GMO, organic, MSG free pepperoni, and they even have vegan options! It’s a thinner crust, not crispy, but everything was perfect. Just the right amount of toppings.

Will Run For Pizza – 

Rachel – 

And THEN! She told me about a documentary on Netflix called Desert Runners. So I watched it last night. And now I’m obsessed. All I’ve done since I’ve watched it, is research Samantha Gash, the main girl in it, research the race series, and now i’m looking up ultra-marathons nearby…I MUST  be getting sick. Desert Runners is about ultra-marathons in the most extreme deserts – Atacama Crossing in Chile (the driest desert), Gobi in China (the windiest desert), Sahara in Egypt (the hottest), and the last one is Antarctica (obviously the coldest). To do Antarctica, you have to have completed at least 2 of the other races. Each race is 250km. Over 7 days. 155 miles. Over 7 days. 155 miles. In. The. Desert. Carrying all of your food and gear on your back. It’s a self-sufficient race. 155 miles over 7 days. This isn’t just something you train for. I don’t think you COULD possibly train for it. You have to go into it KNOWING you are going to be in physical and mental PAIN, for 7 days. You are pretty much running a full marathon (usually a little more, and even one day in one of the deserts, is 99 km in one day), every day for 6 days. And camping out at night. I have never seen blisters like they had. I’m now obsessed. I want to torture myself like that. I have a high tolerance of pain and I love a good challenge like that. It’s on my bucket list. Just ONE. I’m thinking Chile because I don’t want hot, can’t do cold unless I do 2, and my contacts and eyes don’t do good with wind…If you do all 4 races within ONE CALENDAR YEAR, you get the grand slam title/bling. Nothankyou.

The Roving Race, which is part of the desert race series, goes to different places every year, and in 2015 they are running in Ecuador. It looks gorgeous! Here is the link to the 4 deserts website. Go be amazed. Anyone wanna do one with me? I did find some 50k’s, and 50/100 milers around here that I thought I should start with…but for some reason the desert one seems more doable. Why? Because you are “only” doing a marathon in 1 day, for 7 days. In a 50 or 100 mile race, you are doing that in 1 day typically. You are expected to walk a lot in the desert race. Ok. Enough of this. It’s just ridiculous that I’m even talking like this. but it’s on my bucket list for maybe, 2 or 5 years down the road… 😉

If you have Netflix, you should watch it.

P.S. I’m addicted to these. They are my new dinner. Every day. With sriracha, cheese, and guac.

 

If I don’t talk to ya anymore this week, have a great Christmas and enjoy your family! 🙂