Today was hectic but productive. I was finally able to sort out my classes so I am now set for the Spring semester. Hallelujah!
This semester I am taking:
English Composition II
Principles of Accounting I: Financing
United States History II
Introduction to Anthropology
I also got to have fun in the kitchen coming up with some cooked vegan recipes for my mother and I's healthy lifestyle transition book. I spent so much time playing in the kitchen that time just flew by and I didn't have time to go to the gym. Instead, I opted to just bundle up, grab my bicycle, and go for it!
Today (Tuesday)
3 mile bike ride
100 jumping jacks
100 crunches
A merry heart does good, like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.
~ Proverbs 17:22
I love it when a day works out for the better. Later!
I just love weekends, particularly the ones that last three days instead of two. I spent all day Saturday relaxing. I slept in, laid in bed and read, took our family dog, Charlie, for a walk with my mom, and went crazy with my Chocolate (Black) Sapote.
You remember this decadent fruit from my last post?
I had bought quite a few sapote from jourdansbeautifulfood.com. However, unlike the last batch, these sapote ripened all at once. Yikes! Now don't get me wrong, I love eating massive amounts of sapote mono meal style, but after a while I was ready for a new spin on this scrumptious fruit. So I turned on my culinary creativity, went to work, and came up with this luscious meal that I dubbed. . .
Chocolate Silk Breakfast Pudding
Despite its name, I love this meal so much that I have it for more than just breakfast. I often enjoy this pudding 2-3 times a day and as a result, I'm almost out of sapote. Oh no! I better go order some more. Chocolate Sapote only comes around once a year and I want to have my fill of it before the season ends.
Yum yum. . . eat em up! LOL
Another meal that I have been enjoying 1-2 times a day lately is this tropical thirst quencher. . .
Punchy Pineapple Smoothie
I just love how rich the color is because it gives the food the aesthetic appeal we humans often need to enjoy our meal.
The ingredients and prep work is really simple: take one ripe pineapple, chop it up, put pineapple pieces in the blender, add enough water to blend (I just use a splash of coconut water), and blend until frothy. That's it, your all done! Now just pour yourself a glass and enjoy. =D
The rest of the weekend went well. By Sunday it was time to stock up on food, so the entire morning was spent making the Whole Foods and Farmer's Market rounds with my mom. I was really lucky that all my favorite fruits for the season were ripe (or almost ripe) and were being sold in bulk (it really saves me money). I ended up buying a box of large pineapple (6 pineapple), 2 boxes of persimmon (28), 2 lbs. of red grapes, 4 Organic red mango, 15 lbs, Organic bananas, and 2 Organic Hawaii Papaya (score!). I also got a bunch of greens and un-sweet fruit (e.g. tomato, bell pepper, cucumber) for giant dinner salads.
Today(Monday) went less smoothly then the rest of the weekend. My college classes are supposed to start tomorrow and this morning all the classes I had registered for have somehow managed to unregister themselves and I can't seem to get them back. Hopefully someone in the administration office can help me get that sorted out tomorrow morning.
Then this afternoon I accidentally drove all the way to the gym and back with my emergency brakes on. I feel like such an idiot about that. I'm just praying that I didn't total the emergency break. *sigh* I guess I'll find out when I have the car checked out later in the week. *chuckles* The things that life throws at you huh? I just do what the penguins did.
Well, it's getting late and I have a full day tomorrow, but before I wrap this post up, my weekend workouts:
Saturday
Day off - 20 minutes walking dog and 20 push-ups
Sunday
8 miles cycling - avg. 16 mph pace
1 hour of yoga (my 2nd class and my arms are still feeling it!)
What a week it has been so far. Sunday night brought loads of beautiful snow and to my great pleasure classes were cancelled for Monday. I spent that day running and playing in the snow, enjoying all the beautiful cold white fluffy goodness! Alas, the beauty swiftly turned into a nightmare.
Tuesday the beautiful snow turned to thick sheets of hard glass-like ice. It's now Thursday and the ice still isn't gone! Today was actually the first day I was able to drive because of the roads being so bad. It was just in time too; I was going stir crazy being stuck at the house for 3 days in a row. The ice was so menacing that I couldn't even go running outside. My one attempt to do so resulted in me almost breaking a leg. Fortunately I have only a few bruises to show for my idiocy.
On the bright side, being cooped up gave me plenty of time to work on our (my mom and mine) book. I mean one can only watch episodes of Murder She Wrote so long before becoming desperate to do something more productive. And don't think that just because I couldn't be physically active in the ways I wanted to be deterred me from continuing my training. I decided to use this time stuck inside to work on some of the muscle areas I don't normally focus on such as my abs, glutes, thighs, and arms.
With just a mat and a pair of 5 lb. weights I worked up quite a sweat. . .
Monday
1 hour playing in the snow (e.g. snowball fights, walking, running, snow angel making)
100 crunches
20 push-ups
Karate Dude
Tuesday
100 crunches
20 push-ups
30 minutes of stretching with some random yoga moves thrown in.
50 squats (ouch!)
20 minutes weight lifting
Vibram Foot Prints
Wednesday
5 minutes Mountain Climbers
50 squats (double ouch!)
30 minutes weight training
20 minutes stretching
1 minute intervals running in place (5 rounds/reps)
100 crunches
20 push-ups
By late morning today the sun had been out long enough to melt sufficient amount of ice for my to go to the gym where I finally got RUN!!! :-D
So for Friday I decided to use my workout time for experimentation by attending my very first yoga class. The rest of the day was spent shopping for fruit, cleaning house, and trying to get things in order for the upcoming Spring semester.
As Saturday is my sabbath, I decided to take the day off. I slept in, ate loads of fresh organic fruit, danced like an idiot in my room to songs from Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, and read for most of the day. It felt good to just let all the stresses of every day life just fade away.
As for today, Sunday, I went to LA fitness where I had a free appointment with a personal trainer! His name was Gre and my session with him turned out to be very informative. I may have learned a lot about health and fitness, but I still struggle with improving my upper body strength. When I was younger I was incredibly strong from working on a horse farm and all the karate, gymnastics, and swimming I did. Since I haven't had the opportunity to participate in most of those things anymore (besides swimming) it's been difficult to work on toning my arms.
Gre was very helpful in showing me how to use the equipment as well as giving me advice on how heavy a weight(s) I should use and how many reps. Another great bonus added to this session was that I got to have my BMI (body mass index) and lean muscle mass calculated. So far I'm in a really good range, but I'm aiming to shed a bit more body fat and gain more lean muscle mass. According to Gre, as long as my muscle mass stays the same or increases and my BMI doesn't go below 12% I will be fine. This is going to take some work but I'm up to the challenge. I'm willing to put in the effort to improve my race times!
Today was the first day of my New Years resolution to up my training and better my athletic performance. Today I drove over to our local LA Fitness and became a member. I can afford it because the cost of attending our local community college isn't very high and I'm make monthly payments for membership and can terminate my membership whenever or if ever I need to. What's also amazing is that they have all sorts of classes that I can attend without any extra cost (e.g. yoga, kick boxing, pilates, modern dance).
I spent the next 2 hours working out and having the time of my life! =D I would have like to have done more running but I didn't want to over do it seeing as my right ankle is still recovering from an overuse injury.
Cycling: 13.56 miles - 60 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
Elliptical: 1.3 miles - level 5 - 20 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
Running: 2.56 miles - 25 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
Only four days into 2011 and it's still hard to believe that time has flown by so quickly. It seems like only yesterday that I was welcoming in 2010, and now it is passed. 2010 was a wonderful and eventful year for me and I hope it was the same for all of you.
With this new year comes changes in my life. I enjoyed my first semester of college immensely. I feel that having the chance to live away from home allowed me to grow and explore who I am. I made some amazing friends and had the opportunity to try new activities. I got into rock climbing/bouldering and outdoor cycling; I was able to try my first triathlon and to preform a flying squirrel. However, all good things must come to an end and I am back at home. Union College provided me with a wonderful education but the tuition was just to high for me to stay. So I am now attending my local community college while I look for some scholarships and save my money. If I play my cards right I will be able to attend a very good private university for my last two years of undergraduate studies. My goal is to graduate with my bachelors degree debt free.
Don't worry though, I still plan on keeping busy and updating this blog more frequently. I have so much planned for the future. Currently I am collaborating with my mom to write and publish a vegan recipe book. It's going to be half raw (mostly LFRV) and half cooked vegan recipes. The goal of this book is to help those who are transitioning from being SAD or vegetarian to being vegan and eventually (hopefully) raw or high raw. Personally, If I get enough feedback from you and those who purchase the finished recipe book I may publish a recipe book with just the raw recipes for those people who have already transitioned from cooked and just want the raw recipes. Also, I am working on starting up my own part-time business this summer. Stay tuned to find out what it will be! =)
This year I also plan on training as hard as I can while going to school and improve my athletic performance. I have another half-marathon approaching in March and an obstacle course race called The Warrior Dash. I will training outside as often as possible but I will also be training at a gym on the days where the weather is unfavorable. My fitness goal this year is to become a bit more versatile in my athletic abilities.
I will be working on developing my upper body more this year. I plan to do this through weight training, rock climbing, swimming, and yoga (hopefully). I will still be running and cycling, I just feel that increasing my upper body strength will improve my running. Remember that in running stronger arms give you more power to quicken your pace.
How does all this effect my blog? I plan on documenting my training more often along with pictures of what I eat. I'm going to try to blog every day that I train, giving as much detail as possible. Blogging my progress will hopefully encourage me to really give it my all and maybe give you readers some ideas.
