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Thursday Musings

I have a lot on my mind tonight but unfortunately this cough, which I thought was finally gone, is driving me insane. So instead of fighting it any longer, I’m going to put these random musings into one post, curl up with some warm herbal tea and go to sleep early again tonight! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll finally have up another Friday Face Time, if my cough and sexy hoarse voice allows it.

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  1. Other than walking 20 blocks last night and tonight, I haven’t worked out since Sunday. While walking does allow for some beautiful New York moments such as the above, it just isn’t cutting it for me right now. For some, this lack of sweat may be nothing new but for me this is the longest I can remember going without a sweat session. Part of the break has been therapeutic. When I’m truly feeling sick I know my body is screaming for rest, nourishment and a break. But, now that I’ve been doing the whole 9-10 hours of sleep, soup for two of my three meals, and no workouts for more than 3 days I’m going a bit stir crazy. This leads me to my next point.
  2. I’m ready for a plan again! By the time I finished my second half marathon in March I was ready for a bit of a breather before I started training for Reach the Beach and the New York City Marathon. I never realized it would be this long of a training break due to my Papa’s funeral down in Savannah, a crazy work week, Hawaii, and now this dang annoying cold and cough. But, distance makes the heart grow fond and that is true for my legs and body. I’m looking forward to opening Gia’s training plan for Reach the Beach and dive in starting Monday. Until then, my goal for the weekend is to run 3-5 mile runs on Saturday and Sunday along with some plank and ab work.
  3. I miss weights. In three short weeks I’ve felt a lot of my headway slip away in the muscle definition department. I know some of this is a gross exaggeration but I’m ready to get back in the gym with Lauren and start amping the workouts back up. One change you’ll see is that one day a week I’m going to be with Lauren, my personal trainer, and the other day each week will be a boot camp workout that Bo and I will do together at Equinox, with Theodora tagging along if we can convince her! Bo loves boot camp style workouts and actually does a great job designing and leading them when we’re on vacation together.  While the twice a week workouts with our personal trainers were a great way to kick start our health and get us on track. we feel that we’re at the point now where we are ready to hold ourselves accountable for at least 50% of the work. Luckily our trainers are supportive of this plan and have even offered to help give us some workout ideas!

4.    Soup is great but sometimes you just have to change it up! After 6 meals of soup, I was more than ready to spice it up a bit today and lunch. I’ve been bringing Progresso soups which I bought on sale at the grocery store to save money and keep the sodium and calories in check. On the side of my soup this afternoon I enjoyed one of the most delicious and inexpensive sandwiches ever! A new little café has opened in my office building and they offer made to order sandwiches ranging from turkey and ham to delicious warm Caprese sandwiches. This sandwich, albeit only a half, felt like such an afternoon indulgence! This sandwich two basil leaves, three tomato slices, a roasted pepper quarter, and two slices of Buffalo mozzarella melted between nine grain bread.

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5. If I make it through my May and June travel schedule, I am treating myself to one hell of a cocktail and a spa day. Tonight one of my friends asked me why I’ve overscheduled myself for May and June. Walking home tonight, I laughed to myself as I realized that, for once, this schedule is in no part due to my doing. Only one of the trips, which was committed to months in advance, is related to anything having to do with something other than weddings, graduations, and work.  Our friends mean a great deal to us and we do everything in our power to make their weddings; which means that during May and June we’ll travel to Philadelphia, Chapel Hill, and Macon to toast their big day. In addition, it just so happens that my company needs me to travel heavily during May/June and September due to seasonal planning and market tours. It just so happens that all these events occur at the same time this year! So, if I seem to be traveling every week the next 7 weeks, it’s not an illusion and nor is it me exaggerating. But, what I can promise you’ll find here is someone who is going to fit in each of her damn workouts because feeling out of shape in July, the start of marathon training and peak of skimpy cute summer dress season, is worse than wearing white to someone else’s wedding.

Curious where my crazy travels are taking me? Houston, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Athens Georgia, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Chapel Hill, and Philadelphia.

Have a great night and catch you tomorrow!

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Ashley D /

Last Resort Workout

On Friday, when I asked for guest posts, I was lucky enough to have some followers send posts over within minutes! The last thing someone wants to think about after a death is what to blog about. Therefore, over the next four days, you’ll see a mixture of posts such as the ones I wrote yesterday and Saturday, along with guest posts.

Today’s guest post comes from Katie, the creator and blogger of MomsLittleRunningBuddy.com, fitness junkie, former fitness competitor, runner, triathlete and working mom in the healthcare industry.  She’s been blogging since 2009 and has a passion for sharing her experiences and tips for staying fit and healthy while trying to maintain a balance. 

She carries that love of fitness into her extracurricular activities, which include sitting on the planning committee for Celebrate Fitness in St. Louis and motivating anyone who needs it. 

Her motto is “Make it Worth it” and wants everyone to know that it is possible to make time for maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  Even if its 10 minutes to cook, make sure that 10 minutes is focused and purposeful.

I’m pretty sure I have some attention issues. There are days where I feel like that little kid in the outfield of a little league game who cannot pay attention to anything. It is on those days that I find it hard to have a consistent workout. Running for an hour seems insane and focusing long and hard enough to do a good weight workout is out of the question. So what do I do? I turn my gym into a big obstacle course of sorts.

This workout can take as long or as little time as you want but the goal is to burn calories. Remember, this workout is best used when you didn’t really even want to workout to begin with. Ready?! Let’s go:

Let’s start with a small cardio circuit:

1. Walk for 5 min

2. Jog/Run for 5 min (for me this is about a 6.2 or so)

3. SWITCH…Elliptical for 10 min (every minute increase your resistance)

4. SWITCH…Stair Machine (Every 2 minutes increase your speed)

Wow, that was a quick 30 min huh?! Now we should do some resistance training. Compound movements are the name of the game here. I will not lie; these are a combo of some of my own and favorites from the Nike Training Club App. Repeat these three moves three times resting only for a few seconds between.

1. Pushup/Chaturanga – Starting on the ground in the push up position, push up, then move arms so that your upper arm is sitting right by your rib cage, lower down to just above the floor and hold it for 2 or 3 seconds. Then raise back up, replace your arms in pushup position, execute a pushup and repeat. (I can do about 10 of these and then I’m shaking).

2. Alternating Forward Lunge with Arm Curl – You’ll need some weights for this. I use 10 lb dumbbells. Step one foot out, and drive down through your front heel, bring leg back in and curl the dumbbells up to your shoulders. (15/20 each side)

3. Sumo Squat with Lateral Raises – You’ll need some weights for this. With feet wide and toes out, squat and bring the dumbbells down towards the floor in front of you. Come up and lift your arms out to the side parallel to the ground. (15)

Then it is back to the cardio circuit for a final 20 minutes:

1. Run for 10 minutes. I like to try to be my best 1 mile time here and then some, so in other words…RUN FAST!

2. SWITCH…Elliptical. Cool down by doing a nice easy 10 minutes at your own pace.

Ok, that’s it. Pretty crazy huh? I usually leave the gym on nights where I do this working feeling like I really accomplished something. I have burned some calories and probably got a little extra energy back after a VERY long day. I hope that you will feel the same. Go ahead; try it. Let me know what you think.

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Ashley D /

This Week’s Superlatives

This week has been a bit more relaxed than most. I was able to work from home part of today and I balanced a busy work week with plenty of sleep and some great workouts and meals. I thought it’d be fun to round up some of my favorite things from this week in a little superlative post.

My hardest workout this week was definitely yesterday morning’s spur of the moment workout class. My personal trainer is pregnant and unfortunately sleep hasn’t come easy for her lately. When she texted me that she was exhausted and needed more sleep, I turned to Equinox’s group fitness schedule in hopes of finding a substitution. The 45 minute Cardio Sculpt class with Caitlin McGowan was a perfect substitute. The cardio bursts were intense and some of the lunges and step ups challenged my legs. My only wish was that the chest and arm section had been a bit longer.

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My favorite lunch salad concoction was a protein filled salad with a few new flavors: arugula and romaine mix, egg whites, 1 egg, grapes, beets, red onions, tomatoes, celery, half serving of blue cheese, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was delicious and the extra protein really made it stick while the hard boiled yolk gave it a creamier consistency since it mixed throughout when they chopped the salad.

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I’ve fallen head over heels for juices, which is bad for my wallet but great for my skin and body. The winner of this week’s juices was the green monster: kale, spinach, ginger, apple, lemon, and pineapple!

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Last but not least, the thing that left me with the biggest smile this week was last night’s Junior League social event with my committee. Our social sub-committee is making a concerted effort to provide activities which bring our group together outside of our volunteer commitments and monthly meeting. While we’ve tried the normal happy hours or dinner outings, last night’s pottery painting at Little Shop of Crafts was more fun than any of us expected! While some of us are more talented than others, I can’t wait to use my University of Georgia mug for my morning office coffee.

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What left you smiling this week?

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