LEVEL 12! And possibly a new morning routine!

As it turns out...I can take Buddy on a decent walk/jog in a matter of 20 minutes...5 minutes for him to do his business, and 15 minutes for us to squeeze in a 1.5 miler! And with the weather cooling off, it felt SO nice to get out there and sweat it out and burn off some of Buddy's excess energy with this cooler weather!

I will admit...there will be mornings where we just run out so he can potty and then run back inside so we can cuddle on the cough...but I do like this new idea for a routine :)

We went on a 1.5 mile jog this morning and a 1.5 mile jog this evening...a total of 3 miles today! It felt awesome; the weather was great, Buddy had a blast as always, and now I can treat myself to a bowl of fruit loops for dessert ;)

And by doing that...I managed to LEVEL UP today!!!
12 it is :) Now I have 2,745 points until level 13...I'll be aiming to meet that goal by Wednesday, November 7th!


Tomorrow the plan is stretching/pilates while watching ALIAS! I've been trying to think of a good workout game while watching that show...so far I've come up with:
*Every time a city name comes up during Sydney's travels
*Every time Sydney meets with Vaughn
*Every time Sydney kicks someone's ass
*Every time Rambaldi's name is mentioned
*Every time K-Directorate is mentioned

...now I just have to put exercises to those ideas! haha

Anyway, staying on track and feeling great still!
Can't wait to see future results as long as I keep this up :)

Great day today!

So, today I slept in...A LOT! It was absolutely fabulous getting to relax, watch TV, snuggle with Buddy...definitely a great way to spend my weekend day :)

Plans changed a little bit...instead of laying out by the pool and reading, I decided to take Buddy to the dog park and he LOVED it, as always!!! This was our first visit to the Dr. Phillips dog park and man was it nice! Had a beautiful lake view, lots of nice people, and tons of room for Buddy and his friends to run and play! We will definitely be going there for our next weekend :)

As for my workout plans today, I did my very first Cardio Strength class and it was awesome! I can definitely tell that I'm building up my stamina and strength, because if I had tried to take this class when I first joined the Y, I would've died during it hahah
After the cardio strength class I decided to stay and do their Latin Cardio/Zumba class! Man those are so much fun!!! I wonder what it takes to become a certified Zumba instructor...that would be a side-job I would have SOOO much fun doing!!!

Overindulged...blah!

I had my biometric screening today at work! Everything was great: blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI...and then something happened...I went to the weigh station (the one I was dreading OF COURSE) and then...I discovered that I've lost EIGHT POUNDS since I joined the Y!!! Holy moly was that a great feeling!

So the fall festival was today and it was SO SO SO much fun!!! The food was delicious, the pumpkins were impressive, and it was all around a great time!

But I think I decided to splurge a little too much and I don't think my body was ready for that much of an intake of junk food today, so I ended up getting home and not feeling so great :( But I took an awesomely long nap, had a small/healthier dinner, and continued watching Once Upon A Time and just took some time to rest and unwind for my day off :)

Tomorrow I plan on being more productive; I've got some fruit that needs to be eaten, I've got yoga and cardio strength penciled in for tomorrow, and I will take Buddy for a nice walk and relax by the pool for a while and finish the book The Art of Racing in the Rain!

I've definitely been so happy since joining the Y; it's very motivating when you start getting to know your group exercise instructors and they ask you where you were last week haha when you can't hide from slacking off, it's a lot more motivating to make sure you get there!

Anyway, ready for tomorrow to get here so time to go to sleep!

Strength.

Wow...today was a bit of a rollercoaster day; started off great by taking Buddy on a 1 mile run (which he absolutely LOVED!) then got to go to Bahama Breeze for lunch with the team.
Then I was reminded of Uncle Jerry and things took a turn for the worst :( It was kind of a cascading effect where first I thought of him, then I thought of other things that were happening around the same time, then I thought of things that had happened in my past and I was a wreck.

I had my time to cry it out, then I pulled myself together again.
Reminded myself of everything good that I have in my life.

That's when Ranier and Khyber made my day a little bit better again :) I was setting up for Khyber's analogy session, when Ranier pops up and is looking at me through the square frame at the first window after I hung it up! So I was just talking with him and thanking him for being so darn cute because it made me smile! THEN as I was hanging up the circle frames in the next window, Khyber comes over and does the same thing! They were  both just hanging out, looking at me through the frames and being their adorable selves, and it turned my day back around :)

Then I got home to see Buddy, took him for a nice walk, then went to kickboxing.

Got 584 points on Fitocracy thanks to my workouts today :) And finished WAAAY under my calorie goal so I treated myself to a couple of cookies!

So far I'm keeping with the weekly plan...tomorrow? Spin class in the morning...let's do it.

Level 11! Already on my way to 12

So I made it to level 11 on Fitocracy after I did my "Super Sprint" triathlon on Friday!!!
That workout consisted of: 1.56 mile run, 6.22 mile bike ride, and 400 meter swim.
It was the first full brick workout I've done and it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting!

Since I've been doing a lot of cardio workouts and I can already start feeling them getting easier, I'm going to start mixing in more cross-training and working on strength and flexibility next.

One thing I need to get back on track with is working out in the morning though, because by the time I get home from work I know I'm not nearly as motivated...and I've definitely been slacking in my "turning into a morning person" department...so I'm going to try to keep working on that as well.

I have 1969 point until I level up to 12, so here's the plan for the rest of the week:
Tomorrow: Take Buddy on a short jog (1.5-2.0 miles) in the morning to enjoy the beautiful cool weather outside, then Cardio kickboxing at 6:30p
Wednesday: Spin class at 5:30a, Stretching at 6:00p
Thursday: Stretching at 6:00a, Cardio kickboxing at 5:30p
Friday: Pilates at 8:30a, Yoga  at 9:30a/11:45a, or Cardio Strength at 9:30a/5:30p
Saturday: 1.5-2.0 mile Buddy walk/jog in the morning and evening with stretching
Sunday: 1.5-2.0 mile Buddy walk/jog in the morning and evening with stretching

That's the plan so far!
Now I just need to follow it...and I WILL.

Hoping to level up by Sunday! That's a lot of points...but I can do it :)

Level 10!!!

I made it!
Spin class helped me get to Level 10 today :)
It totally kicked my booty too, but it felt easier than the last class I took; it was a different instructor, but I'd like to think it's because I'm getting stronger and building endurance ;)

So I have about 1800 points to Level 11 and the workout plan for tomorrow is kickboxing after work!
I'm planning on leveling up by Sunday :)

Gotta get to sleep, but I have my interview with Behavioral Husbandry tomorrow! Fingers crossed that all goes well :)

Think Pink Success!!!

Well, although I didn't get a chance to train as much as I had hopes I would get to for this event...it was a complete success! :)

I made two PR's today!
5K run in 27:44
400m swim in 8:15

 

Today was a very inspirational day for me; I made a huge milestone for my fitness today, I was lucky enough to be a guest speaker for the GETSMART program and spoke to middle school and high school kids about STEM fields of study, and I got to network and get information from the graduate school and career fair at HENAAC, and continued to figure out more and more about my future :)

All of these opportunities motivate and inspire me to finish my paper by the end of this year so it can be published next year and study as much as I can for the GRE so I can eventually get into a graduate program where I can conduct marine mammal research.

Things have definitely been looking up and I'm doing everything I can to keep it that way :)

I have my interview for Behavioral Husbandry on Tuesday, I am thinking that the workout I did today for the event might become a regular thing for me so I can build up to a triathlon sprint, and I discovered that my bathing suit doubles as a pretty fantastic sports bra! ;) Haha

Biathlon/Duathlon fitness challenge accomplished...

Triathlon Sprint?

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Another success!

I actually did 30 minutes of Cardio Yoga this morning! But man, am I feeling sore from kickboxing yesterday! hahaha So painful...but it feels so good!

Tomorrow I'm going swimming in the morning :)

This quote was in my magazine, and I feel like it's very fitting for the past couple of months, but it is true and as much as it sucks at the time; it's worth going through the pain to gain the strength.

Much like working out; no pain, no gain, right?!



Think Pink Biathlon, 5K run and 400m swim, is in 3 days...let the countdown begin!

I'm racing in memory of my Auntie Joyce, for my Bama since she's a survivor, and for my mom and myself since we are high risk for breast cancer.

LEVEL 9!!!

So, I decided to take Buddy on a run and then go to Cardio Kickboxing class...and it got me 655 points, which was enough to level up on Fitocracy!!! :)
The kickboxing class was SO much fun! Totally kicked my booty too hahaha I was inspired to go to the class because I just found out that ALIAS is now on Netflix!!! I used to be so addicted to that show and wanted to be just like Sidney Bristow ;) She's such a badass! Not to mention...she had her pick between Bradley Cooper and Michael Vartan....YUMMY! ;)

Since I think I'm going to be uber sore tomorrow, the plan is to do some cardio yoga in the morning to stretch it out :)

Also...things have been going GREAT!!!

Sunday was SO much fun with my former roomie, Amanda, and her brother, Chucky, who was visiting this weekend! I got them into Epcot and then took them behind the scenes at the Seas!!! It was so awesome to see them get as excited about it as I do! :) After I got off work, I met up with them at Soarin' and we rode that...Chucky and I saw the Coronado Bridge; our former/future home city! haha Then we went to Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks :) It was so awesome! After the fireworks the place kinda cleared out and we were able to ride Pirates, Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Philharmagic!!! That was definitely the most that I have laughed in a really long time and it was great to spend time with some awesome people in the most magical place on earth ;)

Then there was today...I FINALLY got an interview for the Behavioral Husbandry Internship at Animal Kingdom! :-D I'm so excited!!! It will be next Tuesday so I have a week to prep :)
Also, this wasn't something I wanted to publicize on Facebook, but a few weeks ago a lump was found in my mom's last mammogram and it was extremely scary to think it might be cancer, so waiting to hear the results has been miserable; but she heard back from the doc and things look okay!!!

All in all, things are looking up :) Oh, finally!

I absolutely LOATHE being sick!!!

Wow...so the past few days have been rough...fever, sore throat, ER visit because of the sore throat (I swore I had either strep or tonsilitis!), and now just sniffles...which I'm actually thankful for now that the worst is over *knock on wood*

Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on the days that I haven't been able to work out due to illness because I can't help that I got sick (trust me, I tried EVERYTHING in my power not to...)

Just time to look towards the future!

I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to take Buddy on a decent walk as long as the weather holds out and as long as I'm not gasping for breath since I can't breathe through my nose at the moment haha

Level 9 awaits! So does a 9 day workweek thanks to my sickness screwing up my weekend...but anyway, the goal is to make Level 9 by next Wednesday; which I should be fully recovered and ready to go! I'm actually being quite generous since I have my biathlon coming up in only 10 days...but whatever! I'm ready :)

Time to rest up and get ready to take on the world once more!

 

I felt like this pin was fitting considering that I probably had a virus...and it made me feel like a zombie lol