No Caffeine

You know what doesn't mix well with 5 a.m. workouts, thrice-weekly two-a-days, and a full-time job that involves corralling imparting knowledge to 14- and 15-year-olds?

No caffeine.

I'm not a "chug-caffeine-all-day" kind of gal (after all, if I drink caffeine after noon, I'm up all night), but I generally drink a go cup of coffee every morning.  It has become quite the routine, and it offers a nice little jump-start to my morning and, therefore, my entire day.

This is all I want right now.

And, let's face it: it makes me sane.

Well, while I get this whole heart issue under control, I'm avoiding caffeine.  I had a cup of coffee yesterday for the first time since Friday, but I decided that I'd better just go completely without until I glue on my Holter monitor on Friday and have my echocardiogram next Wednesday -- and then get the go-ahead from the cardiologist.

(I'm also avoiding alcohol, but that's not as big a deal since I was maybe drinking once a week anyway, and even then it was a glass of wine or two.  I can live without that.)

So, I write this at 6:30 a.m. after a tough workout and before a long day of work, already tired and wanting to go back to bed.

I may just go to Caribou and grab a cup of decaf.  The placebo effect is a real thing, right?  :)

Ugh.

Wish. me. luck.

Market to Market

Before jumping into my race recap, I have to apologize for the lack of posting last week.  You know, when I was in Chicago, I planned ahead and had posts up every single day.  And when I was in Des Moines, I did not plan ahead for exhaustion and completely neglected the ol' blog.

Oops.

While I should be doing a million and a half other things right now (grading essays, completing Spanish homework, cooking dinner, etc.), I just had to recap the race I ran this weekend.  It was amazing.

Six of my closest friends and I ran Iowa's inaugural Market to Market Relay, a 75-mile relay from Jefferson to Des Moines.

We woke up at 4:15 a.m. and headed across the countryside to the starting line.

It. was. frigid.

We were all bundled up quite warmly while we waited to cheer Runner 1 off on the first five miles of the journey.

At each exchange point, about half of us got out of the car to use the porta potties and to cheer in our runners.

The exchange points were super cool.  Several of them were on local farms, literally next to combines and tractors.  After all, we were in Iowa.

I was super nervous for my first leg of the journey for a few reasons.

First, I felt super unprepared: while I have been running with the kiddos, the furthest I have run since the marathon in October was a measly 2.4 miles.  My first leg was 2.9 miles itself.

Second, I have been dealing with some heart issues lately; according to the doctor I saw on Friday and the EKG, I have "frequent PVCs," and I am seeing a cardiologist tomorrow.  Essentially, it feels like my heart skips a beat and then makes up for the skipped beat by purging a whole bunch of blood with the following beat.  It does not feel good and pretty much wears me out, making me feel super weak.  Interestingly, the only times I don't notice the PVCs is when I'm sleeping or working out.

Third, everyone on my team was über fast and in much better shape than I.

Despite those worries, I pretty much killed it:

I ran 2.86 miles in 30:49.  I started out with an 8:30 pace.  An 8:30 pace.  Who am I?!  Granted, that pace didn't last for long, but whoa.

I know that this does not seem fast to many, but was quite quick for me, especially since the last mile was completely uphill and I actually walked a few times.

I didn't feel super great after that run, but wow, was I proud of myself.

After stretching for all of 30 seconds, I hopped back in the car, and we started driving across Iowa again, passing lots of towns I never even knew existed:

Yes, apparently Jamaica is in Iowa.  Interesting.

Throughout the whole relay, I was trying to eat well and stick to the Farrell's nutritional plan.  Unfortunately, that does not work so well with running races.  Pretty much the last thing I wanted to eat for lunch was the cottage cheese and vegetables I had packed.

So, when we stopped at a convenience store, I picked up some goods:

The Nutri Grain bar went down in approximately two bites, and the cinnamon bears functioned as GU -- immediate carbohydrates -- prior to the second leg of my trek.

And if you thought I was nervous for the 2.9 miles, you should've seen me for the 4.6 leg.  I was a basket case.  My teammates said that they could just see the stress and worry emanating from me.  By the time I was scheduled to hit the pavement yet again, the wind had picked up tremendously (like, gusts of 45 miles per hour), and it was no longer at our backs.

I thought I was going to die.

But...I didn't.

In fact, I kicked ass:

I ran 4.6 miles in 50:30 -- at a faster pace than my first leg.  I didn't stop for one second during that race, not even to walk.  I. crushed. it.

I was so fast, in fact, that my team wasn't even waiting for me at the exchange point.  They thought it'd take me another ten minutes or so.  I loved showing up as early as I did, as goofy as that sounds -- I felt so accomplished.  And, I'm pretty sure I felt the runner's high for the first time ever.

And then I had the best piece of pizza of my entire life:

Casey's sausage pizza.  Seriously.  Get in my face.

After I ran my final leg, we still had four legs to go before finishing as a team.  After an entire day of being in the middle of cornfields, it was nice to finally be back in familiar territory in Des Moines and in our neighborhoods.  Seeing the familiar was wonderful.

Throughout the day, we had been filling in our team scorecard, keeping track of just how long the race had taken us.  We finished in ten hours and 29 minutes.  Yes, it took us that long to run a race.

However, we pretty much kicked butt.  Per the official results below, we finished 15th in our division and 46th overall.  Considering there were over 200 teams, we were pretty darn pleased.

I cannot do this race justice.  Seriously.  I wish I had brought my computer along on the trip so that I could've documented how much fun we were having while we were having it, but alas, you'll have to deal with this lame recap.

Honestly, I had so much fun that I want to do it all over again right now.  Seeing parts of the state I had never seen before was pretty darn neat.  Hanging out with six of my friends all day was so fun.  And running the best race of my life was awesome.

Team Sorta Neat will definitely be back in 2014.

Hunger Solutions

I like food.

No, no I don't.

I love food.

Mmm...snow cones.

I like eating food when I'm hungry.  I like instant gratification.  I mean, why wait to go home and cook when I pass by a Taco John's, a Subway, a Hunan Garden, a Wendy's, and more just trying to get there?

I knew from the get-go that hunger was going to be a difficult factor in this whole healthy-living adventure.

However, I have had relatively few issues with being starving, which I think warrants its very own post.

So, without further ado, here are some tips to avoid tummy rumbles:

Happens all. the. time.

First, plan meals.  I cannot stress this enough: it is so über important to create meal plan and stick to it.  Figure out just how many grams of protein and carbs (or calories or fat or whatever is best for you and your body to count) and create a schedule that requires you to eat every so often.  For example, I schedule my meals three hours apart, and my body has learned that it will intake 30-ish grams of carbs and 16-ish grams of protein.

If I take too long to cook or I forget my snack at home or for whatever reason do not eat every three hours like my body has been conditioned to, I turn hangry (not just hungry...hangry) in approximately 30 seconds.

Also, because my body knows that it will be eating again in a short amount of time, it knows that it does not need to overeat; it knows that it can be satisfied with a smaller amount of food.

Second, eat a lot of veggies.  No, vegetables are not zero-calorie goodness, but they are infinitely healthier and lower calorie than a bag of chips, a handful of crackers, or even a mound of fruit.  The water and fiber content in a bag of baby carrots or a few sticks of celery does wonders to quell hunger.  If I know, for whatever reason, that my lunch may not fill me up as much as usual or that my activity-level is greater than the snacks I brought with me, I load up on veggies and am a very happy girl.

Plus, munching on crunchy carrots or celery keeps me occupied.  Let's face it: half the time we think we're hungry, we're actually just bored...

...which brings me to my third point: drink water.  It's absolutely insane how full you can get from water.  Generally, if I'm "so starving" that I can't wait for a meal or a snack or whatever, I chug a glass of water, and, without fail, am not nearly as hungry as I once thought.

I cannot stress enough how much meal-planning, veggie-eating, and water-drinking have helped squash the crazy hunger that I anticipated would accompany healthy living.

Yes, there are times when I'm hungry for a bag of Skittles or a Thin Mint (or two or twelve), but very rarely (as in so far not ever) does that craving overpower one of the aforementioned tried-and-true tactics.

The ridiculously delicious snacks and meals I've been preparing don't hurt either.  I mean, it'd be pretty hard to be hungry when you're scarfing down Dessert Oats, Crab Cakes, and fruit smoothies.  :)

What are your avoid-the-hunger tips?

Out-of-Town Meal Plan

This week I ditched Des Moines for a fun-filled, crazy week conference in Chicago.  As you can imagine, leaving town for four days makes for interesting meal planning, especially for someone who is über anal about what she eats, someone who is a crazy cook for nearly every meal, and someone who has not yet strayed from her plan.

But, I did it...kind of.

First, I went grocery shopping as usual on Sunday.  I made sure that I was stocked up on essentials: sunflower butter, apples, string cheese, bottled water (I am so picky with other cities' water), baby carrots, Luna bars, and protein drinks.  On Monday night, I packed a cooler to the brim and stuck it in the fridge until I was ready to grab it Tuesday before we left.  With all of this food packed and with me in the hotel room, snacking will be much easier.

Protein drinks, apples, string cheese, sunflower butter + (somewhere) baby carrots, wheat thins, and wasabi peas 

Luna bars, a bowl for the sunflower butter, a sharp knife to cut the apples,  and a spoon

Second, I looked up where the nearest Starbucks was in relation to the hotel.  I then scoped out the breakfast menu and figured out what the best choices were nutrition-wise.  I figured out far in advance that I would be eating steel-cut oats with the fruit/nut/seed medley or the bacon and gouda artisan sandwich every morning.

The one thing I couldn't do, however, was plan out lunches and dinners.  Unfortunately, I do not know yet where we will be dining.  When I do know, though, I will look at the menu in advanced and plan out what I will order and how much I will eat.  I know that this week's meal plan is not going to be as strict or as accurate as it has the past five weeks, but I will try my hardest not to stray too far from Farrell's recommendations.

After all, I'm pretty darn pleased with the progress I've seen thus far.  I definitely do not want to mess it up now.

But there may be an extra glass of wine or two this week.  After all, I am on vacation.  :)

How do you maintain a healthy lifestyle on vacation?

Strength-Training

As I have mentioned before, Farrell's consists of three components: cardio, strength, and nutrition.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we are huffing and puffing like crazy while we kickbox.  This is a great cardio workout that burns over 600 calories.  We start the session with a brief warm-up, follow that with five minutes of stretching, continue with ten more minutes of cardio/shadow-boxing, and then roll out the bags to start punching and kicking with power.  We finish the session with a group stretch.

On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, however, we keep the wraps, gloves, and bags stowed away and instead focus on resistance training.  A surprisingly large number of people forgo strength-training, as they fear that they will bulk up and not look as slim as they would without the muscle-building.  On the contrary, building more lean muscle mass will actually pump up your resting metabolism, causing you to burn more calories for a longer period of time.  So instead of bulking up like a body-builder, resistance-training will actually cause you to burn more calories and shed more weight than if you only focus on cardio.

As opposed to CrossFit or Body Pump that focus on free weights or a gym that boasts top-of-the-line weight machines, Farrell's advocates for strength-training with resistance bands.  The bands are easier on the joints than free weights, and it's much easier to isolate muscle groups using resistance bands.

We alternate upper-body and lower-body days.  On upper-body days, we exercise five muscle groups: the chest, the back, the shoulders (which suck...a lot), the triceps, and the biceps.  On lower-body days, we exercise another five muscle groups: the quadriceps, the hamstrings, the abductors/adductors, the gluteals, and the abdominals.  Regardless of the day or type of set, we complete four exercises for each muscle group (with the exception of abductor/adductor -- we complete one exercise for each -- and gluteals -- we complete two exercises).

There are three ways we workout with bands:

• Classic Sets: we complete three sets of 16 reps for each exercise.  The first set of 16 is slow, and it is followed immediately by a fast set of 16.  The goal is to burn out the muscles to the point of not being able to finish the second set.  After the fast set, we take a brief pause and then complete another slow set of 16.
• Drop Sets: we complete three sets for each exercise, but we start with 12 very slow reps with a band two colors above our normal choice, then we drop down a band color and complete 16 faster reps, and then we drop down to our normal color of band and complete 24 fast reps.  The goal here is to find the color of band that makes it impossible to complete the set of 12 reps: we want to achieve muscle-failure.
• Super Sets: we complete two sets of 16 (one slow and one fast) for each of the four exercises in the muscle group, and then we go back to complete the final slow set of 16 or each exercise in the muscle group.

I really enjoy drop sets, as using a much more difficult band is quite the challenge.  Super sets are also super difficult, but it's too frustrating for my liking since I achieve muscle-failure almost immediately with this workout.

Today was interesting, however: we did more of a circuit-type workout and incorporated classic sets, drop sets, and supersets while mixing up muscle groups (i.e. adductors + quads, for example), and in between sets, we did a pyramid of push-ups, jumping jacks, and mountain climbers.  So in addition to the hellish lower-body workout, I also did 120 push-ups this morning.  Lovely.

In addition to simply completing the workout, we are asked to log our progress by identifying the specific exercises we complete each day, the band color we use to complete the exercise, the type of sets and number of reps we complete, and our goals for the next round.

While I feel like the nutrition part of Farrell's is super logical and just makes total sense, I am also always starving on strength-training days.  Seriously, my stomach generally starts growling when I am halfway through the workout, and my appetite is hugely insatiable for the rest of the day.  My body loves getting stronger, but it also thinks that it needs a whole lot more nutrients in order to do so effectively, apparently.

It's getting better as we progress week by week, but the tummy is still a-rumblin' every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Ugh.

But you know what?  My tummy is just gonna have to deal with it.  After all...

Now go do some squats.  Or lat raises.  Or shin tappers.

And love the burn.

What is your favorite strength-training exercise?

Just Another Manic Monday

Today was a super busy day, but it was a great one.

First, it started with the biggest butt-kicking I've ever had at Farrell's.  Seriously, I think our instructor wanted me to either a.) throw up, b.) pass out, or c.) die.  I'm not sure which one was her goal, but I was close to all three.

If someone else tells me to do a squat jump or a plank or a mountain climber or a fire hydrant, I might still throw up, pass out, and/or die.

But anyway...

I'm heading to Chicago tomorrow after school and will not be back until late Friday.  (Do not fret: there will be posts up while I'm gone.  I wouldn't want to disappoint my thousands of fans mom.)

As a result of the pending trip, my day has been jam-packed.  At school, I was feverishly trying to compose sub notes, grade miscellaneous assignments, email directions to various colleagues, clean my classroom, pack the supplies I'd need for the conference, make copies of everything my kiddos would need while I was gone, etc.  While it made the day fly by, it also made for an exhausting several hours.

After school, I headed to the nail salon.  I mean, I couldn't very well head to the big city with raggedy nails, could I?!  I also hit up Target for some last-minute supplies, including healthy snacks and, of course, a brand new scarf.

Because you know what I need?  More scarves.

In my defense, though, I saw this scarf months ago but "didn't need it" and left without it.  I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it some more, and I decided that I did, in fact, "need" that scarf.  So, I went back to Target to get it.  And when they didn't have it, I went back again.  And then I went to another Target.  Again.

And again.

And again.

I had totally resigned myself to the fact that this must've been a mystery scarf, that it must have been a figment of my imagination, and that I was just out of luck.

And then today, I saw it -- and threw it in my basket so fast that it didn't even know what hit it.

(Yes, I just spent three minutes writing about a scarf.  You're welcome.  But just wait 'til you see it: you'll understand.)

When I got home from the nail salon, Target, and the bank, I packed up my cooler, loaded my suitcase, and crammed a string-bag full of water bottles, tennis shoes, and resistance bands.  Good thing we're taking an SUV to Chi-town because whoa: apparently I'm going to need the space.

As I was sitting on the couch contemplating what to do for dinner (my meal plan was a little empty this week due to leaving tomorrow), The Boy suggested we head out for a dinner date.  At first, this stressed me out, as I was panicking over what the heck I could order.

Then, I decided to say "screw it" (kind of) since I'd be ditching him for four days and kinda wanted to hang out with the dude.

We checked out a few menus online and settled on Noodles & Company, which is conveniently located just a couple minutes away.

I opted for a small Whole-Grain Tuscan Linguine:

For 350 calories, 38 grams of carbs, and 12 grams of protein, I figured this was totally do-able.

And whoa, was it good.

We had an absolutely lovely evening dining on the patio and chatting about (as usual) the most random topics.  I sure love The Boy and might miss him a teensy tiny bit while I'm out of town.

Therefore, I'm going to go hang out with him now.

Peace out, yo.

Five-Week Testing

Believe it or not, but I have been on this crazy healthy-living journey for five weeks now.  After five weeks of perfect attendance at Farrell's (three days per week kickboxing and three days per week strength-training) and five weeks of nearly-perfect nutrition, I am proud to say that I am kicking major butt.

Remember how I broke up with the scale?  How I haven't stepped on the scale for the last five weeks?

Well, that all changed yesterday.

Before we get to that magic number, let's talk about inch-loss.  At Farrell's, they measure inches in five areas of the body: chest, waist, arm, thigh, and hips.  In total, I lost 11.5 inches.

Yes, let that sink in: eleven point five inches.

I lost 2.25 inches in my chest.  This is unbelievable to me, as my boobs are still spilling over my bra.

I lost 5.25 inches in my waist.  Again, this doesn't seem to make sense because I don't feel like my pants are any more comfortable, but I guess the measuring tape doesn't lie, huh?

I lost 0.5 inches in my arm.  I was one of the only people to lose inches in this area, as our strength-training really builds up muscle, which in turn increases the measurement of the arm.  I have a lot of fat yet to lose in this area, but as soon as that's gone, I look forward to this number increasing as I get buffer and buffer.

I lost 0.25 inches in my thigh.  Again, this number generally goes up rather than down, as our legs are bulking up like crazy.  I can feel the muscle here, so I'm okay with a small number of inches lost.

I lost 3.5 inches in my hips.  This is the area where I feel I need to lose the most inches, so I'm pretty pumped that the number is already that big.  I look forward to it decreasing a whole bunch more in the next five weeks.

My body fat percentage only decreased by 1.2 points, but I really don't think the method they use to measure this is accurate.  So, oh well.

Regarding fitness testing, I pretty much rocked it: my push-ups increased by 26, my sit-ups increased by 11, and my mile time decreased by ten.

And now, folks, the moment you've all been waiting for:

I lost eight pounds in the last five weeks.  While eight pounds doesn't seem like a whole lot, I want you to consider the amount of muscle I've been building.  Eight pounds is a whole heck of a lot of weight when you consider how ripped I'm getting.

And while I don't feel like I look crazy-different, The Boy assures me that I do, and my besties are all quite complimentary, too.

FF and I were so excited about our testing results yesterday that we decided to partake in a little too much celebration.  Both The Boy and BFF called this the "anti-Emmy" day since it was everything I don't do on a normal day, and they were both proud of me for "letting go" and enjoying myself.

I'm proud of me, too, but there is no way another way-too-much-fun day can happen anytime in the near future.  I'm still recuperating!

But you know what?  Eleven point five inches was something totally worth celebrating.

Yay, me!