Still truckin...

Ah, the benefits of exercise are many and varied. I've been on a crazy loop of going out of town for multiple weekends now. More parties, more socializing...more time away from exercise and the routine of healthy eating. It's amazing to me how invigorating just a few quick sessions of exercise can be. I have actually run three times in 11 days. Woo Hoo. Is this a new leaf? A return to my running self of last year? Who knows... I don't want to get too hyped up and put too much pressure on myself. I just want to enjoy it. I want to run without pain. I want to look forward with anticipation to my next run, not dread. So, for now, the pace is slow and steady. I've also committed to a routine of my IWTB dvds. I've slipped in a few days of walking to and back from work from a spot where I park my car. Just that extra hour of walking does wonders for my self confidence. And now that overtime is no longer an option, I'm back to time winning out in the money v. time endless debate. After 50+ hour work weeks, it's crazy how short an 8 hr day seems. So, looks like for now, I'll be broke as a joke but I'll have some toned muscles to show for it.

Carry on.

Breakfast of champions

This cereal is sometimes what gets me out of bed in the morning! Pathetic? Maybe. But we all need those little treats. Even better than the taste is the nutritional punch that this is packing.

• 100% RDA of Folic Acid, Vitamin E, Vitamins B6 and B12
  
• only 1.5g of fat
• 120mg of Potassium
• 5g of fiber

And it's made even more delicious surrounded by floating raspberries. I love this breakfast. It's a pretty solid way to start the day. This is really important to me lately with all my out of town traveling and the commensurate shake-up of any sense of routine. I'm eating BBQ food for weekend dinners. I'm shoveling snacks and chips inbetween meals. You know how it goes. Things take on a different turn when you're away from your own kitchen and cupboards. So, when I can get a few bowls of this during the week before a work day, it's a satisfying way to sneak in some healthy food for myself.

I've managed two workouts this week and feel pretty positive about that. On Wednesday I made it to the gym for an hour of cardio, which included 20 minutes of running until my back started jolting with each step. Yesterday I got in a sweat packed hour of the IWTB series. Well, two workouts in one week isn't the training of champions but it's the best I could manage.

She lives!

I apologize for the dearth of posts lately. My schedule has been pretty messed up---albeit for good reasons. I only worked two days last week. Then I spent a long weekend at my cottage celebrating my dad's 60th with my family. So now I am going to try and get back to a routine and figure out where to head from there.

This post actually owes a big THANK YOU to my cousin Lauren. She is training for a fitness test at her work so she was doing some running up at the cottage. The slacker that I am, I haven't run since that hill episode with Ed. Was that seriously weeks ago? Geesh... Well Lauren was kind enough to humor me trotting alongside her. We ran for 40 minutes straight in some blistering heat! It was a terrific jolt to my system. I always go in and out of phases of loving running and I've been on the outs for awhile now. It's good to know that I can still pull off a few miles even without any practice whatsoever.

We'll see where I go from here!

An update

Reggae Fest is coming right up. I am incredibly excited! The camp site is gorgeous. I haven't slept in a tent all summer. I coaxed some new friends into tagging along. I can't remember the last time that I heard any live music, let alone outdoors with a lake as a backdrop. With all of this in mind, I have been dutifully adhering to my 100 abs a day goal. Last week I went Tuesday through Saturday before finally taking a break on Sunday. I've been hitting the gym and was just at Body Pump again last night.

This weekend jason and I went to a friend's beach house on Lake Michigan. We engaged in the best kind of exercise--the kind that is so fun and you are laughing so hard you don't even realize you're working out. The wind was fierce all day Saturday and so the waves were rolling and breaking and churning with a lot of force. It was hard work not getting sucked up by the current but wow it was so much fun!

Here's a (not too exciting) video I took. That's Jason out there and the incredible noise is simply the sound of the waves.