New Year: New Workout!

Good morning! Okay, so it's not quite the New Year, but I'm starting a new workout routine today since it's the start of a new week. Since I just finished Insanity and I took the holiday's off for working out for the most part, I did some digging to find my next workout challenge. I actually didn't have to do much digging at all, as the answer arrived in my mail box. I'm going to try Fitness magazine's Lose 10 Pounds workout that is published in the most recent issue (January 2013).

But first off: breakfast. Let's just say my holiday's left me *cough* four pounds heavier *cough* Not a huge gain, but this does not make me a happy camper! Eating healthy again starts today! Today's spread includes two of Van's whole grain blueberry waffles, half a cup of nonfat Fage Greek yogurt, half a cup of fresh blueberries, a dash of cinnamon, and a little drizzle of raw honey. Delish! Also, note the adorable dishware I used today. The "Mrs." mug and plate were a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law. You can't see it, but the plate has the Eiffel Tower on it along with little French owls wearing berets. Love them! I'll probably be eating breakfast exclusively off these plates from now on!

But back to my new workout routine... 

The Plan 

The plan is laid out in black and white and is very time-friendly. The workouts include separate strength sessions and pick-your-own cardio sessions. For strength, you do 8 different moves as a circuit and repeat it once for a full circuit, doing it three times a week on non-consecutive days. For cardio, you can pick any cardio you want - running, biking, elliptical, etc. - as long as you do the minutes of cardio required for each week. You also have the option of adding an abs routine as an extra each week as well. Each week ramps up cardio and strength reps from the week before. The plan looks like this: 

• Week 1: 60 minutes cardio (at 30 min. each), 12 reps of each strength move 
• Week 2: 90 minutes of cardio (at 30 min. each), 14 reps of each move 
• Week 3: 135 minutes of cardio (at 45 min. each), 16 reps of each move
• Week 4: 150-180 minutes of cardio, 18-20 reps of each move 

Besides an intense looking workout, the diet plan includes eating healthy fats, whole grains, a lot of fruits and veggies, at around 1,500 calories a day. The best part? It's all laid out easy-as-pie (or, not eating pie, I should probably say) with this super-organized calendar to mark it all off! This baby is going on my pinboard, asap! 

There's a checkbox for strength workouts, cardio workouts, the abs routine, and eating healthy. There's a place where you sign your name and write the date you start the program as a kind of contract with yourself and the routine (in the yellow box). It lays out all the instructions for each week on either side. It's so easy! I absolutely love when workout plans include a calendar. It makes my little organized heart burst with happiness! 

Why I Chose this Plan 

There a ton of workout plans I could have tried, but I chose this one and for good reason. While this is called the "Lose 10 Pounds" workout, I am not doing this with the intention of actually losing 10 pounds because I don't need to. I'd like to lose five pounds because that's all I really see that I "need" to lose. This plan is much less about losing weight, though, than it is about a challenge and sculpting an awesome body. I chose this plan because... 

• I haven't done a plan that has separate strength and cardio sessions for a while now. Insanity has strength and cardio combined. When I trained for the half-marathon, I was doing only cardio for the most part. And some other workout DVD's I've done have been all combined HIIT training. Time for something I haven't been doing for a while now!

• It's not a workout DVD. For most of 2012, I was reliant on workout DVD's. This is definitely not a bad thing, but I'd like to be able to workout on my own too and step outside the box, literally. 

• The idea of ramping up cardio and reps each week seems challenging to me. Anything that's a challenge inspires me!

• The workout calendar was too good to pass up. I mean, it's just screaming for me to check all these awesome workouts off my list! 

For me specifically, I think I am going to try and have M/W/F be my strength days and T/TH/S be my cardio days. For cardio, I am going to try and run as much as I can, but considering that New England just dumped a foot of snow - we'll see about that. I have access to a treadmill, though, so hopefully I can still eek out the mileage. I'm also going to track my food on the My Fitness Pal app to keep things in perspective. Overall, if I can eat generally healthy (or at least better than I did over the holidays!), complete all the workouts, and have fun while doing it, it will be a month well spent. Off to try my first strength session! 

• Question for you: What are your fitness goals for 2013? What workout plan are you following now? 

An Early Christmas!

Yikes, was I busy the last week or so! Working nonstop, getting ready to go on vacation, and preparing for our early Christmas! I wanted to write this post the day we had our early Christmas, but life seemed to have kept me from blogging away. Better late than never! Anyway, because the hubs and I were leaving our place before Christmas day to spend it with my in-laws, we had to open our gifts to each other early. Don't mind if I do! We had our very own little mini-Christmas, and it was quite lovely if I say so myself. I wasn't really keen on the idea because I was concerned it wouldn't "feel" like Christmas. But we did everything we traditionally do: open stocking first, take turns opening presents, and then have a traditional breakfast afterwards. It definitely "felt" like Christmas, and for that I'm thankful.

It's funny because I stocked the Christmas tree full of presents all month until our Christmas, slowly adding more to the hub's pile of goodies. However, two days before we were supposedly supposed to open our presents, I still had nothing under the tree with my name on it. Grew me a little worrisome? Yes. Should I have worried if "Santa" would come for me? No way! Here's what lay under the tree to surprise me the day before we opened gifts:

Whoa! I couldn't stop asking," What's in the box?!?!" As soon as I opened it, I found out it was our fake tree's box and all my presents lay inside. Look how good Santa was to me! Thank youuu, hubby!

Pictured is... 

- two sweaters 

- Christmas kitchen towels

- my favorite bath bombs

- tons of my favorite foodie items 

- a Paris-themed journal

- a Beatles book called A Hard Day's Write 

- a travel size skin care set from Dermalogica 

- a new travel mug 

So many goodies! My favorite of all is my new running outfit: 

I am soooo excited about this outfit! I was seriously lacking some winter running wear, so this will come in handy for a brisk winter running season. The jacket is a VSX Sport jacket - lightweight but very warm. The running tights and shorts are C9 brand from Target. I love the C9 brand. It's just as nice as more expensive athletic wear for a more wallet-friendly price :) Anyway, I'm absolutely thrilled to have this outfit. Hopefully I won't let the cold be an excuse for not running anymore. 

To end our early gift exchange, the hubs and I made some of my family's tradition aebleskiver: 

 

More on that later! 

• Question for you: Have you ever opened Christmas presents early, and if so, why? Does is still feel like Christmas to you? 

Peanut Butter Blossom Bliss

Good afternoon! 

I'm about to run to work, but I thought I'd make time for a quick update. Last night after my peanut butter disappointment, I ended up making my favorite holiday cookie ever: peanut butter blossoms. Every year at Christmas, my mom and I usually made these together. I love them - chocolate kisses + peanut buttery cookie. What's not to like? 

Two most important ingredients ever: chocolate & peanut butter!

Last night, I just used the Hershey's recipe that's on the back of the back. All the other recipes I found were for cookie exchanges, aka made a ton of cookies, which I did not need. Last year, I definitely used a different recipe and it was a little more moist. These cookies were quite dry and not quite as peanut buttery as I wanted them to be, but still - amazing nonetheless. 

Today for my workout, I decided to go on a run instead of Insanity. Insanity's schedule called for a really easy video that I was just not feeling. But my run was terrible! It was 38 degrees, even at 10 am. My toes were frozen before I even started running. I had that burning feeling in the back fo my throat the whole time and I felt like I was running like a slug! Either way, when I finished, I felt great as usual - and much warmer. Talk about motivation to finish a run! I was seriously freezing! 

Welp, off to work I go. Toodles! 

My Year in Fitness: 2012

Being close to the end of the year (and an amazing one at that), I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately. Reflecting on how I've spent my time, and the progress I've made in certain areas, especially in fitness. 2012 was an amazing year of fitness for me. This and last year were the first years that I truly worked out all the time with a specific plan and accomplished specific goals. I've really come a looong way in terms of fitness. I went from nothing to half-marathoner in just a few years. I'm proud to look back on this year and see what I've done - literally - with my body!

My Year in Fitness! 

• January

- I worked my way almost all the way through Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30 DVD. I really liked this one as it was harder than the 30 Day Shred, which I did in 2011. But I got really sick my last week and a half, so I kind of fizzled out of that one, but there was nothing I could do about that one.

• February - April

- Started and finished Insanity (60 day program) before my wedding in June
- I love Insanity. Period. I was so afraid I wouldn't be fit enough to do it or that I'd hurt myself, but it was so worth all the effort. It wasn't that scary, either.
- I got such awesome results that I had to get my wedding dress resized a month before my wedding (eek!) because my strapless gown was literally falling off of me. I didn't actually lose much weight at all (maybe 3-5 pounds?), but it transformed my body from head to toe. My body was just a different shape after and it was awesome.

• May

- wanted to keep my results from Insanity but not start a crazy workout plan since I was busy doing wedding stuff
- did a combination of Hip Hop Abs & Turbo Jam, which was really fun to switch things up. I liked both videos for the variety but I probably wouldn't do either again because I felt they were too easy in terms of fitness but also too hard to follow since I'm not a born dancer.

• June

- again, right before my wedding so I didn't have a lot of time but...
- I did a combination of cardio (either outdoor running or indoor elliptical) & Jillian Michael's Blast Fat, Boost Metabolism and her No More Trouble Zones (both changenging hour long circuits that I LOVE)

• July - October 

- Signed up for the Boston Half-Marathon on July 11th (I remember because I had to sign up that day at a specific time because it sold out in only a few hours!) 

- Officially started training for the half on July 16th with Hal Higdon's 12 week plan

- Finished the half-marathon on October 7th! Byfar my favorite personal accomplishment of the year besides getting married :) 

• October (after the Half) - December 

- started round two of Insanity on the 16th 

- threw some running in once in a while when the weather was nice enough

And that's my year in fitness! In the next 19 days of the year (omgosh), I plan to finish Insanity on December 19th, then while I'm on vacation I will probably just take a break from working out besides a few runs, and I might throw in some old Jillian favorites if I have the time!

Some things I learned about myself & fitness this year are: 

• Good workout clothes are totally necessary and worth the price (usually). Without the proper gear, workouts aren't fun! This definitely goes for shoes too. I had to get new shoes when I trained for the half, but it was one of the best purchases of my life! 

• Sometimes I'm motivated, sometimes I'm not. But what keeps me motivated, personally, is having a plan. If I have no plan for a workout that day, I am waaay more likely to not workout at all. Making a calendar or schedule in advance has been totally key to my success in completing so many programs. 

• Even though scheduling workouts is good, I've never followed a schedule perfectly. This was especially true with my half-mararthon training. Some days, I could only eek out 3 miles when I was "scheduled" to do 4. Oh well. Stuff happens. You do what you can and you move onto the next day with a smile on your face :) 

• Running is awesome. Yes, I learned this this year. But it's been a truly valuable lesson. Running is one of the very few things that clears my head, which I have trouble doing these days. The mere thought of running right now makes me excited, motivated, and yet focused. I love it. 

• I am not a super-fast or "really great" runner, and that is okay with me. I can run, and however I can do that is super awesome. No comparing. No shame. 

• The lady who lives below me hates my fitness addiction. ;) This is where you either laugh or cringe. 

• I can really only workout in the morning, period. Other times of the day = no bueno. 

I love sharing my success with others because all this that I've written about has changed my life. I can only hope to encourage and connect with others with my accomplishments. That being said... 

• Question for you: What's your fitness goal(s) for 2013?