Gotta Hit Everything Workout

Hey guys! So I have to write a super quick post, because my father-in-law is coming to stay with Ryan and I for the night and he will be here soon. As soon as he gets here we are going out to eat, so I need to be ready!

Today was my school’s first day of school, and it went great for me! I love the fourth grade class I am in, and I have an incredible mentor teacher! I know it was just the first day so the students are always better on the first day and their true colors come out later, but I still know it’s going to be a good year. 🙂

I didn’t make it out of bed in time for a workout this morning, so I had to this afternoon when I got home. But I also needed to clean and pick up the house before Ryan’s Dad got here, so I knew whatever I did it needed to be quick! I wanted to make sure I worked out almost everything though, so I very quickly came up with this workout. (By the way, I will eventually use PicMonkey to make a cute picture with my workouts, something that is Pinterest worthy, but I just don’t have the time now. Bullet points will have to do!)

Gotta Hit Everything Workout!

• 10 burpees
• 15 dips
• 15 squats (with weight if you have it)
• 50 mountain climbers
• 12 bicep curls
• 30 jumping lunges
• 50 bicycle crunches
• 12 tricep extensions
• 20 jump squats
• 12 hammer curls
• 50 Russian twists
• 12 shoulder press
• 30 jumping jacks

Go through this circuit for a total of 3 times if you can! Or however much time you have. 🙂 Try to go straight from one exercise to the next without stopping to keep your heart rate up. After you have completed the circuit, rest about one minute before doing it again.

I really loved this workout because it worked out my arms, legs, abs, and there were several cardio exercises that left me breathing heavy and got my heart pumping! I realize I didn’t quite workout everything, which means my name for this workout isn’t totally true, but let’s just say it’s close enough. 🙂 Besides, I was trying to think up a cute name, and since I am on a time crunch my mind obviously wasn’t working and this was all I could come up with. Oh well!

As always, please let me know how you like it if you do it!

Questions:

1. Did you go back to school today?

2. If you didn’t go back to school today, tell me one fun thing you did today!

3. Do you try to make it a point to get some type of workout in, even if you don’t have much time? I definitely try to! Of course some days are busier than others, making it impossible to workout, but even just a plank is better than nothing! 

Rest Days and Listening to Your Body

Happy Sunday! I absolutely love Sundays! It is usually full of church, family, friends, good food, and relaxation for me. Although lately Sundays haven’t been as nice because Ryan has to work all day.  😦 But we are both trying to make the best of it, and we know that God has a plan and a purpose.

Yesterday morning I got up and did a 10 mile run and then fueled up with this delicious, veggie and protein filled breakfast!

I scrambled tomatoes, spinach, onion and bell pepper with two eggs, had two slices of Ezekial bread topped with sugar free grape jelly, and some strawberries and blueberries. I have just started getting Ezekial bread this summer, and I love it! I realize it is more expensive than regular sandwich bread, but when I look at the short ingredient list for this bread and compare it to other normal sandwich breads, I feel like it is well worth the money! Plus, one loaf usually lasts me a while.

I spent the rest of the morning relaxing in my procompression socks, blogging, and eventually enjoying a delicious protein smoothie!

I was in need for a morning like this. I don’t let myself relax much, so it was nice.

I spent the rest of the day meal planning for the week, grocery shopping, and getting food ready for the week.

Sidenote: I walked in to Walmart and a worker there asked me, “Would you like to enter a raffle? Oh, but you have to be 18; how old are you? Sorry, I can’t tell.” I told him I was 21, but it was okay, it was typical for people to think I was 16 years old. However, on my way home I started thinking, and I wished I would have told him that I wasn’t 18, but I would have my mom come back later to enter. 🙂

Yesterday I also got to make Amy’s  banana protein muffins that she wrote about on Heather’s blog.

These were so good! The batch ended up making 14 muffins, so I have plenty for the week! I highly recommend this recipe! The rest of my night was spent eating dinner with the Hubs and enjoying a brownie with ice cream for dessert. 🙂 It was so good I ate it before I could even think about snapping a picture!

This morning was my day to sleep in  sleep as late as my body would let me (6:07 a.m. today) since Sundays are always my rest day. I woke up hungry (typical) and wanted to try something new so I looked for a new recipe on some blogs. I decided to try the spinach protein roll up from Morganne’s blog. I ended up adding a little vanilla and honey to the batter to make it a little sweeter, but it was still good!

I ended up not rolling mine up, but I just left them like pancakes and used the yogurt protein filling as a topping with bananas and blueberries. It made for a perfect Sunday morning breakfast!

Rest Days

Okay, so let’s talk about rest days. Rest days are super important in case you didn’t know. You can’t expect to work your body hard, seven days a week, and expect it to never get tired. This is something I have had to learn over time. I hate not doing anything, so I always like to be busy and active. I feel lazy if I don’t work out one day, but I have finally learned that it is good to let your body rest. As much as I wish my body was indestructible, it isn’t. This means I have to care for it if I want to keep being active for the rest of my life.

It is necessary to have at least one rest day a week. It is certainly okay, and I think best, to still have active rest days where maybe you do some light yoga, go for a walk, or play a sport with family or friends. But don’t go all out with a workout like you would the other days of the week. I say at least one rest day a week because we are all different and some people might need more than that. The important thing is to listen to your body.

This past Thursday I had no energy in my workout. I planned to go for a 7 mile run, but ended up only running 6 miles. I had no energy, and my time was much slower than it had been. I didn’t know what was wrong. When I told Ryan he simply said, “It’s because you’re exhausted.” And I knew he was right. That morning I woke up more tired than I had been in a long time. Because of this I took Friday as an unexpected rest day. I knew my body needed this, and if I wanted to have a good long run on Saturday morning, I knew I had to regain my energy. Needless to say, I felt great running yesterday and totally energized!

Some of you might be saying, well my body never tells me I want to work out, so does that mean I should never work out? No. If you aren’t used to working out, most likely you won’t want to. I have finally learned how to tell if my body is actually telling me I need to rest for a day, or if I am just being lazy and don’t want to get out of bed. I wake up about 5:00 every morning to work out, and if I wake up thinking, “Man, I do not want to go work out today. I just want to lay in bed a little longer.” I know that my body is fine to work out, I am just still trying to wake up. However, if I wake up and I really want to work out, however, I just feel so exhausted and out of energy, then I know I need to let my body rest. The difference in these two situations is that in the last circumstance I still want to work out, but am lacking the energy. In the first situation I am lacking the motivation. Big difference.

So learn to listen to your body and take care of it. Work out hard, challenge yourself, and make positive changes in your life. But in order to do this you have to give your body time to rest rejuvenate.

Questions:

1. What do you normally do on Sundays?

2. Is it hard for you to take rest days?

3. What do you like to do for an active rest day? I enjoy yoga, stretching, tennis, or going on walks.

What is a Hero?

Yesterday morning I went to my school’s convocation for all of the teachers  from the school district. I honestly wasn’t too excited about this because I just thought it would be a boring ceremony where I would have to listen, or pretend to listen, to some speaker while I thought about anything else I could think of in my brain.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised when I actually really enjoyed the convocation and loved the speaker! The whole theme of the convocation was being a hero and how teachers can truly be heros to their students.

Teachers don’t get the smartest, brightest kids; they get the abused, the dyslexic, the mentally challenged, the ADHD, the poor, the rich, the hungry, the homeless, and then they get a few kids who have the perfect home life. Teachers, then take these kids and try their best to teach them, not just subjects, but about life and morals. Teachers care for their students, they discipline them, and they love them.

I am pretty sure we can all admit that kids today need to be loved and disciplined. As I sat through this convocation I began to think about what exactly I thought a hero was.

Here is my definition:

Hero: Someone who is selfeless, cares for others, and lives his or her life for everyone else but themselves. A hero is hardworking, and knows that laziness does not lead to prosperity. A hero is positive, and shares that positivity with others. A hero realizes that doing what is right and good is not easy and is not popular with most of the population today, but despite knowing this, they do what is right and good anyway.

So, needless to say,  a hero is so much more than what we sometimes think of.

As I thought of my definition of a hero, many people came to my mind. Here are some of my heroes.

1. Jesus Christ is my hero. I have some amazing people in my life, but none of them compare to the Lord. He came to this sinful world in the flesh, lived a perfect life, and then died a horrible death so that I and everyone else could live eternally with Him one day. He took on all of our sin and took the punishment we deserve. He loves me more than anyone ever could and more than I could ever imagine. I am forever grateful, and because of this I live my life for Him.

2. Ryan, my amazing husband, is my hero. I know I constantly write about what an awesome husband he is and how much I love him, but words can never describe just how extraordinary my husband is and how much he blesses me. He is such a Godly, selfless, hardworking, loving, supportive man, who is extremely mature for his age. He has a hard schedule, but he works every single day to provide for us so that I can finish my last semester of school without working. He has never once claimed our money as his, even though it all comes from his paycheck, and I know he never would because that isn’t the kind of man he is. He is selfless, and would do anything for me. Every night he washes the dishes for me (after getting home late from work), and always asks if there is anything else he can do to help. At the young age of 21, when most guys that age think about nothing but partying and different girls they can be with, he asked me to marry him and immediately started looking for a job to have when he graduated from college. At the young age of 22, he married me and made a covenant between the two of us and God. He continues to always keep God the center of His life, and he loves me just as Christ loved the church. (Ephesians 5:25). I can honestly say that Ryan makes me a better person, he makes me happier, and I have grown so much in the Lord since he came into my life. He always says I am out of his league, but the truth is, he is way out of my league. I love him more than anyone on this earth, and I am so proud to be his wife.

3. My mom is  my hero. She is such an amazing woman and has showed me how to be a Godly wife, mother, and friend. She always has such a positive and fun outlook on life, and I love that so much! She fought cancer when I was 10 years old, and she beat it with a smile on her face! She is one of the most giving, selfless people I know, and I seriously would be lost without her. I always have so much fun when I am with her, and I hope I can be just half the wife and mother she is.

4. My Daddy is my hero. By watching him, I have learned how a Godly husband and father should act, and because of him, I knew how a man should treat me. He always provided for our family, but never let his job come before any of us. He made sure he never had to miss a cross country meet, a volleyball or basketball game, a tennis match, or a track meet. When I was little he played Barbies with me every day, he got up in the middle of the night, every night, to get me water, and he didn’t get mad at me the time I threw up on his pillow. If I ever need or want to talk, he is always there. He is now my favorite person to run races with, and this is something I treasure very much! So pretty much he is SuperDad. 🙂

5. My big brother, Ben, is my hero. I mean, first of all, he has put up with me being his annoying little sister who asks a million questions about everything  for the last 21 years. That should probably make him a hero right there. 😉 But seriously, Ben is one of the most hard working, dedicated people I know. When he sets his mind to something and makes a goal, he gets it done. And he doesn’t just barely get it done, he does whatever he does successfully and tremendously. He graduated college with his bachelor’s degree in 3 and 1/2 years while working part-time, and then graduated with his masters degree in a year and a half while working full time. He had it set in his mind that when he graduated with his masters he wanted to move closer to home and work at a hospital. Guess what? He graduated on a Friday, moved to an apartment closer to home on a Saturday, and started his new job at a hospital on a Monday. Like I said, he sets goals and he accomplishes them. Also, I have to mention that even with his busy, hectic schedule, he always makes time for his family. I love him so much, and I know he doesn’t realize how proud I am of him.

6. My in-laws, Bob and Debbie, are my heroes. They have raised three amazing young men, one of whom I think is extra amazing because he is my husband. 🙂 They brought him up well and taught him to fear the Lord. They also took me in as family and always loved me. Right before Ryan and I started dating they moved about 6 hours away from where we were attending school. Because of this, they didn’t get to meet me for a while, but as soon as they did, they welcomed me with open arms. They took every chance they had to get to know me and include me in whatever their family was doing. They love me and have let me become part of their family, and for this, I am so grateful. I can honestly say I love my in-laws and have been blessed by them!

7. My second, third, and fourth grade teachers are my heroes. Why these three teachers specifically? Believe me, I have had some incredible teachers, but these three really went above and beyond what their job required, and they impacted me so greatly that I still remember much from them today. I remember how my second grade teacher would take the time to come to my little league basketball games. I remember how when I told my third grade teacher I wanted to be a writer when I grew up, she looked at me with one of the most genuine smiles anyone could have, and she said, “I honestly believe you will be some sort of writer someday”. And my fourth grade teacher still cares enough about me today that she continues to keep up with me through my Mom, and she even came to one of my bridal showers. These ladies taught me so much more than just subjects in the classroom, and are part of the reason I decided to pursue teaching as a career.

Sorry, I don’t have any pictures of these three. 😦

In case you can’t tell, I am extremely blessed with some amazing people in my life, who I honestly think are heroes. I know there are many more heroes, but these are the first people I thought of. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and none of them are the same. I do think it is important to think about who are your heroes, and let them know. They obviously mean a lot to you, and they have done something to impact your life. I am sure it will mean a lot to them if you tell them how much you think of them.

So my question for you is, how would you define a hero? Who are some of your heroes? 

I also want to challenge you to let one of your heroes know how much you think of them. 

I know this is kind of a long post, but this had been on my mind since yesterday, and I wanted to write about it. If you read this whole thing, kudos to you! 🙂

Fartlek Runs and The Wise

Okay, so this post definitely wins weirdest title for my blog so far. But did it catch your attention? 🙂

First I want to talk about my fartlek workout I did on Tuesday morning. In case you don’t know, a fartlek run is when you run at a faster pace for a shorter amount of time, and then a slower pace for a longer amount of time. (If you are wondering why it’s such a funny name, I looked it up and “fartlek” is Swedish for “speed play”. I learned that here.)

Tuesday I decided that I would run two minutes at my regular pace and then one minute fast(trying to sprint the whole time), and I wanted to do this for 30 minutes. Well I got to 30 minutes and I was really close to being at 4 miles so I kept going for 33 minutes. 🙂 What can I say, I like to try to run exact miles and not stop short!

So I had 11 minutes of sprinting that 33 minutes, and even though I was tired, I felt great when I finished! I was super happy with my time!

I averaged 8:08 for four miles, which I know isn’t all that great, but ever since I got back from our honeymoon and my knee started giving me trouble, I have really had a hard time getting my speed back! This was the best run I have had in a while, and I was super happy! Also, please notice the sweat droplets on my arm in the picture. I was seriously done with this run by 6:00 a.m., and I still sweat that much. That is a Texas summer for ya 🙂

I used to only do long runs because those are my favorite, but I know that won’t help me get any faster, so I have started to incorporate some speed training into my workouts, and I know it helps! I like fartlek runs because since you are always changing your speed it makes the workout go by fast and keeps it from getting boring.

The Wise

Yesterday afternoon I was going out for a bike ride when I noticed the old lady who lives across the street from us was getting out of her car to go inside. I hadn’t got a chance to meet her yet, but I had really been wanting to. I thought, “This is my chance. I can go over real quick, introduce myself, be a good neighbor by telling her if she ever needs anything she can call us or come over, and that would be it.” So I walked over, introduced myself, and just said that I had been meaning to come meet her ever since we moved in this past June but just never got the chance. She quickly smiled and introduced herself too. The conversation that I thought would be short and quick ended up lasting about 20 minutes.

In this amount of time I learned that she has lived at her house on our street ever since people first started living here, and she even told me some cool facts about our house we are renting! I got to learn about how much the neighborhood and area has grown and changed over the years. She also told me about her life and her family. She told me that she sees me outside running and exercising all of the time, and that she used to do all of those things too! “You just can’t do that when you get older though,” she told me with a smile. Every single morning though, she gets up, goes to the mall to walk, and then has breakfast with girlfriends. Now that is someone I look up to! She is still finding a way to exercise, even if her body can’t handle the way she used to work out. She even used to be a fitness model a long time ago! What a cool lady, huh? I can honestly say that I really enjoyed talking to her and listening to all of her stories!

It was such a good reminder to me that the older generation has so much wisdom to embark on us because they have lived through so much! I feel like we often find it easy to ignore older people because we feel like they don’t understand today’s world or what we go through, when in all honesty, they understand the world much better than we do! They probably understand what we are going through better than we do because they have learned from their own past.

I feel as if people also get so caught up in their own lives that they don’t want to take the time to sit and talk with an older, retired person. This is so sad, because where would any of us be today without that older generation? We have all had someone who is older than us invest themselves into our lives, and we should invest our time in their life too. This can be done just by sitting down and talking to them. You know older people have to get lonely at times, especially those who have already lost their spouse. Make someone’s day by inviting them over for lunch or dinner, or just for a drink one morning or afternoon! I can almost guarantee that by sitting down and talking to an older person you will learn at least one new thing about that person, about life, or about the world!

I am so glad I went over and introduced myself to our neighbor across the street. I learned so much in that 20 minute conversation and was reminded how important it is to make relationships with elderly people and learn from their wisdom. It is true, that wisdom comes with age. I hope that as I grow older, I continue to grow wiser so that I can impact younger people one day.

I have been very fortunate to have some amazing grandparents who are extremely wise, and who I look up to and love very much! Because of the basis of this post, I want to dedicate this post to my four amazing grandparents! I am not sure if they will even read this, but if y’all do, I love you MawMaw and PawPaw and Mammy and Pappy! Thank y’all for everything y’all do for me and for sharing y’all’s wisdom with me. 🙂

Questions:

1. Do you ever do fartlek runs?

2. Do you enjoy talking to elderly people? 

3. Tell me one fun memory of you with your grandparents!

My Bachelorette Party!

This is the start of me finally posting about all of my fun wedding festivities that occurred! Today I will write about my bachelorette party, and later I will write about our rehearsal dinner, then our wedding, and finally our honeymoon! (I know, about time right?)

My bachelorette party was the night before the rehearsal dinner, so I was definitely super excited to get married, and everything was finally coming together. This party might seem weird to most of you, but it was absolutely PERFECT for me! My maid of honor, Marlee, definitely did good planning this for me! I guess I could say she knows me pretty well! 🙂 Love this pretty lady!

Krystal was my only bridesmaid who couldn’t make it, but she had work and her three kiddos to take care of that night, so I completely understood! But since she won’t be in any of the pictures, here is a picture of me with my beautiful sister-in-law so that y’all know how much I love her!

Krystal is the one on the left, I couldn’t find one of just me and her. Brigette is on the right and is another one of my beautiful sister-in-laws!

We started out the party by going to the park for some yoga!

One of my favorite instructors and coworkers, Sarah, from the gym I worked at in college came and taught an hour long yoga class for us outside. It was so fun! It was a great workout, and I think the heat outside made me like it even more! It definitely made me want to try hot yoga sometime!

After yoga we all went and changed into some cuter clothes, touched up our makeup and hair, and tried to hide our smell with some perfume before heading to dinner.

I had no idea where we were going, but I was pleasantly surprised when we showed up at a Japanese steakhouse. It was one of those fun places where everyone sits around a table, and they cook the food in front of  you. Not only do I think dinners like this are so fun, but the food is always so good! Marlee and I split a plate that came with chicken, salmon, rice, veggies, soup, and salad! Sadly, I didn’t get a picture, but trust me, it was good. My lovely, soon to be sister-in-law, Kaleigh, was sweet enough to take some pictures of the whole night so I didn’t have to worry about it.

Brigette had to fly in so she couldn’t make it in time for yoga, but she showed up to the restaurant at the same time as us, so it was perfect timing! Above is the whole group! Aren’t my bridesmaids beautiful? I love each of them so much!

This is a very lovely picture of me attempting to catch a piece of broccoli the cook threw at me. I failed. 😦

Marlee, however, was way better than me and caught her piece when the cook threw it at her. What can I say, my MOH has skills!

I had to include this fun picture of these two lovely ladies. 🙂

And here is an awkward picture of just me I decided to throw in for laughs. I mean, is it just me or are pictures by yourself extremely awkward to take? I never know what to do with my hands, and I feel like I have no friends.

After dinner we headed back to Marlee’s parents’ house since it was close and we all spent the night! It was so fun having all of my closest friends together for a sleepover! Obviously we stayed up way too late talking about the most random and unimportant things ever. But it was perfect. 🙂

So if you can’t tell, I’m not exactly a crazy, partying type. I know to most people my bachelorette party seems super lame, but to me, it could not have been more perfect. I got to work out, eat, and just have fun with my closest girl friends! That’s hard to beat! I will remember that night forever, and I am so thankful for my amazing friends who made the night so special for me! Thank y’all for always being there for me and supporting me not only on my big day, but all of the days leading up to my big day! 🙂

P.S. Even though I am not really the partying type, I do not judge anyone who likes to have fun differently than me. We are all different, and that’s what makes the world fun! 🙂

Questions:

1. What did you do for your bachelorette party? If you aren’t married what would you like to do for yours?

2. Favorite type of workout to do with friends?

3. Favorite restaurant to go to with friends?