Goals update

To help me stay on track with my goals, I am going to post weekly about how I'm doing on them for the remainder of July and then I'll start all over again with August. So far, I love monthly goals. I feel more motivated to stick to them, since it's only a month. It also helps that the goals I've set for this month are very doable and fairly easy to stick to.

1. Pick a running program- well this is kind of cheating but I already had one pretty much picked out. It's the Runner's World "FIRST Run Less, Run Faster" program by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr, and Ray Moss. FIRST stands for Furman Institute of Running and Scientific Training. The theory behind the program is 3plus2 which means that I'll run 3 times a week (doing a variety of types) and then strength train/cross train 2 times a week. Their theory is that by pushing harder on the 3 run days, race times will go down while endurance goes up. Disclaimer: I haven't finished the book yet, but what I've read so far has been scientifically researched, and fully tested on a wide range of individuals. I haven't started it yet but I'm excited to get going!

2. Hike more frequently (at least once a week)- The day I posted my July goals, my brother and I went on a bangin hike up a local trail. I burned over 1,000 calories in less than 2 hours, got to hang out with my brother, and take my doggies too. Now I know why I bought the Polar HRM, working out outside is a blast!

Me and my brother at the top

The beautiful view

Hot puppies :O)

3. Beef up the weight routine- I haven't done as much with this one yet. I've stuck with 3 days a week of weight training for this week but I definitely upped how many exercises I'm doing and have increased my resistance on a couple of them. Right now I'm thinking of doing one week of weight training every day (focusing on different body parts) and then one week of 3 days a week for awhile to help get used to it. 

4. Get on the job hunt- I've done really well with this one! I applied for several teaching positions in the area and have an interview next week for one. As well I have another job offer for a position with Starbizzle (hello cheap coffee!) so we'll see how it all plays out. I'm still going to keep looking until I know for sure if I have a teaching position or not.

5. Less snacking, more eating- I've been trying really hard to work on my grazing habits this past week and it's getting much better! I've been trying to focus on eating at least 4 mini meals, preferably 5. 6 times a day works great during the school year when my schedule is planned out to the minute, but in the summer it just doesn't happen. I'm also going to start tracking my food a couple days a week. It helps me snack less, and it will also make sure that I'm hitting my macronutrient ratios (protein, carbs, fat) and eating enough to fuel my workouts.

6. Do Yoga once a week- I actually tried the yoga class at my gym. Truthfully, it sucked. She was an amazing Yogi but not a very good instructor, especially for someone with basic skills (like me!). So it was not a success but I'm not giving up! I'm going to do some searching for yoga podcasts of iTunes and hit up YogaDownload for some workouts. Plus I've got Bob (a la Biggest Loser fame) to work me into a sweaty yoga mess with his Weight Loss Yoga DVD which is actually a lot of fun.

After doing the update, I feel much better about my progress towards my goals. I'm going to keep working on them and see how much more progress I can make in another week. I hope you have a wonderful Saturday. After my super long (over 2 hours!) sweat sesh this morning, I'm off to enjoy my (other) brother being home from college and do a whole lotta this:

Toodles!

i've been googled

Well Google Reader'ed that is. I've been a little low on energy the last few days, so I've been majorly slacking in the blog reading department. It probably doesn't help that I have over 40 subscriptions, most of which update regularly. I've basically left it alone for the past 2 days (except for my daily dose of crack info from my faves) and now i have 102 new posts! That's gonna take a while to get through :O) I think an afternoon of laying bed with Gilmore Girls (best show evaaaa!) and Google Reader might be in order!

Yesterday was a blasty! I went into the gym and did 30 minutes of HIIT (high intensity interval training) on the treadmill. I walked at 4.0 mph  for 1 minute and then sprinted at either 7.0, 7.5, or 8.0 mph. All at 2% incline. Plus 5 minutes on either side for warm up and cool down. In all honesty, I only ran at 8.0 mph 2 or 3 times because 1 minute is a long time to sprint that fast! By the time I was done I was a sweaty mess but I'd burned about 700 calories! Not bad at all for 40 minutes total. I'm usually the one that's in the gym for 1 1/2 hours, sometimes longer by the time I stretch and foam roll so it was nice to get in a quick but super sweaty workout.

Yesterday afternoon, I went hiking with one of my badass bootcamp chicas. It was a super steep climb, completely covered in loose slippery rock. My core must have gotten a bangin workout from trying to keep my balance! And of course my legs were practically jello by the time we got to the top.

I have to say that I adore hiking. I think it's a great workout and a lot of fun to get outside. I am blessed to live in an area that has tons of trails within a short distance. However, I am used to trail hiking. This "hike" was more like scaling the side of a rocky mountain- no trail whatsoever. For trail hiking, I just wear a pair of good tennis shoes. I've had hiking boots, but they were too ugly and uncomfortable to go anywhere near my feet. Which brings me to the interesting part of my saga. The hike was fine on the way up, if a little treacherous at points. However, on the way down, we slid almost halfway down the hill on the loose rock. It was actually a lot of fun until we hit really hard ground barely covered in loose gravel. My feet hit a slippery spot and whooshed out from under me, planting me straight on my heinie. It hurt (badly) but I kept on going thinking I was fine. When I got home and was getting ready to jump in the shower, I noticed a little bruise forming and it hurt a little. By the time I went to bed last night I had a giant black and blue bruise covering about 1/2 of my left butt cheek. TMI? probably, but it's so painful I had to share my misery with someone! I wanted to post pics but there is no way to do so without major exposure, so I won't! Not quite ready to get that personal with the bloggy :O)

Needless to say, I went out and bought hiking boots today :O)

Sunday morning kinda feelin

“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sundays for me are a day of rest. Its the day I spend the morning with my family in church, worshiping God. Its the day we sit down and eat a meal together. Its the day we spend the afternoon doing miscellaneous things around the house or out and about, together. Since I've returned to church, it has become one of my favorite days of the week, made all the more special because the brother is home from college right now. I am one happy girl :O)

 I love my brother :O)

This afternoon we went on a family hike. It was one of those times that I realized how blessed I am to live where I do. Within 10 miles, there are at least 25 (possibly many many more) trails perfect for walking, trail running, trail biking, and hiking of all intensity levels. It's wonderful :O) Over the past couple months, we've tried out quite a few new ones, and now I'm itching to start trying out some trail running.

Got the bladder ready to go! (my nickname for the

Camelback, since mine's a High Sierra)

Other brother being very silly... sister in

the background.

It was the perfect day for hiking, about 65-70F... warm enough to be enjoyable, not so hot you are dying. The trail wasn't very hilly which was nice, plus it was lined with many pretty flowers and weird bush looking things.

The doggies couldn't wait to get a move on... they've gotten used to hiking without being on a leash (shhhh! Don't tell!) but there were too many people out today so they had to stay leashed the whole time.

I used my new Polar F11 HRM today... It was amazing! I didn't worry about hitting the right zones, I just wanted to see how many calories I burned. I hit 628 calories in 1 hour and 20 min. This is exactly why I bought this! I got an amazing workout in on my rest day! Now I don't have to feel guilty at all when I skip the gym this summer in favor of an outdoor workout.

I also grabbed my pedometer to track mileage and we hit almost 4 miles in that time. It was a nice leisurely hike :O)

This is home :O)

This evening was nice and relaxing too. My padre went and got pizza from Papa Murphy's, he even got a deLite pizza for me and my mommy to help us eat healthier :O) I started off with a turkey burger to fill me up and followed it with 2 slices of pizza. Then I made pesto! I just got a fancy schmancy food processor for Christmas and have hardly used it (it's great for shredding cheese, yum!). The other day when I went shopping, I picked up some fresh basil. I followed this recipe @ Girl Heroes except I cut down on the olive oil and cheese by about half. I probably should have made it exactly like the recipe, but it sounded like a calorie bomb so I eased up a little. I'm going to try it on my Ezekiel toast in the future. 

Not tomorrow though because I made another batch of Overnight Oats! (the first were consumed this morning). I loosely followed this recipe from Oh She Glows except that my recipe went like this:

1/3 cup Oats (I used quick cooking because that's all I have at the moment)

1/2 cup milk (this morning I used 1 cup and they were too watery, so I'm cutting it down for round 2)

1/2 scoop when protein powder

I mixed it up and left it in the fridge. In the morning I'll add 1 packet Truvia, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon Almond Butter and enjoy the creamy sweet deliciousness as a post-workout recovery breakfast. I can't wait to dig into it.

I'm off to continue slugging through Jackie Warner's "This is Why You're Fat" and enjoy the last of my Sunday laziness :O)