Marathon Training

As I near the end of my semester, my marathon draws closer and closer. I don't think I've ever been this excited to do something so physically demanding. As a former swimmer, I've been conditioned to enjoy grueling workouts and I find new physical challenges really fun and exciting. There's no denying how ready I am mentally to run this marathon, but at the same time, I am a little bit nervous.

I have just about four weeks left until the race and I haven't even hit my peak mileage yet. The farthest run that I have to do before the race is 20 miles, which makes me a little nervous. That's adding a whole 6.2 miles onto the actual race distance! But I guess there's power in a plan, and I've been following mine fairly well. True, I do adjust my plan to fit my weekly schedule, which means that if I don't have time to do a 7 mile tempo on Monday, I'll swap it for my Tuesday 4 mile and do the tempo the next day. But no matter matter what, I always make sure that I get in the necessary runs. I'll have to trust that my plan will have me physically prepared to run this race.

Another thing that makes me somewhat apprehensive about running this marathon is that I have absolutely no idea what to expect. What do I eat the night before? The morning of? Afterwards? Am I even going to be hungry afterwards? I really hope that I don't vomit, or worse, get randomly injured. I'll have to know my body, know when I need to walk, when I need to grab some gatorade, know when I should stop and take a gel pack. Should I even take a gel pack or should I do some of those weird running espresso beans or fruit snack things? Again, part of this goes back to the training, experimenting on my training runs so that I know what works for me and what doesn't. But aside from this, I also don't really know what to expect from the course and the race organizers. I can only take comfort in the fact that people organizing it have definitely done this before and know what they're doing. As far as the course goes, I guess I'll find out once I get there.

Pushing aside all of my concerns, I really, truly, am very excited to run this marathon! I can't wait until race day, when all the adrenaline of toeing the starting line and running with the huge crowd will pump me up and allow me to forget all of my worries. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted on the remainder of my training, the actual race, and, of course, what I liked and maybe didn't enjoy so much about the whole endeavor. Until then, just keep swimming! :)

This has nothing to do with running but I felt that this post needed a picture.

Olympic Inspired Workout

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of post lately, I've been quite the busy bee. Before I start, let me just preface this post by saying that I am fully aware that the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games have been over for 2+ weeks now and I realize that this post comes a little late. Moving on......

I love, love, love watching sports. The Olympics are always my favorite time of year (during the years that they occur) and so when they start, I'm pretty much glued to the TV. This year I even downloaded the NBC Olympics app on my iPhone. I think we can all agree that the Olympics are a good thing. They bring people around the world together to aim for a common goal, and even those that don't reach their goals can still be happy and celebrate for their fellow athletes'/coaches' athletic success. Aside from just being a uniting event, the Olympics also, for me at least, are extremely motivating. Whenever I watch the Olympic athletes competing in their events and rocking their sports, I automatically get the urge to get up and do something. In fact, I think that watching the Olympics this year even made two weeks of my marathon training go better.

Now, on to the superficial part of this post. Can we take a minute to talk about how pretty much every olympian has a freaking beautiful body? I mean, six pack abs, hugely muscular thighs and legs, seriously toned arms. Who wouldn't want a body like that? Seeing these people's bodies alone motivates me to go workout. So in celebration of the not so recently passed Winter Olympics, I give you my original, Olympic-inspired workout. Try it out and let me know what you think! :)

I intended to have tutorial pictures but my little camera broke. :/

The Breakdown:

Set an interval timer for 24 rounds of 30 seconds of work. Rest for one minute between each completed circuit (all eight moves). Keep track of how many reps you get through in each round and try to beat that number the next time you try the workout!

1. Speed Skaters:  Start in squat position with knees at 90 degrees. Jump to the left landing as softly as possible on left leg, using arms to get momentum. Jump to the right, landing softly on right leg. That's one rep. Continue to jump from one leg to the other, trying to maintain as much balance as you can without putting your other foot on the ground between jumps.
2. Skeleton Plank Pikes: Get in pushup position, arms straight, back and butt flat, body in a straight line. Move your weight to your arms, using your abs to pull your legs feet off the ground, creating an upside down V with your body. Using your core muscles, kick your legs up into the air, keeping your knees as straight as possible. Return to start. That's one rep.
3. Luge Supine Plank: Sit straight up, legs together and extended. Place your hands by your butt, just outside your hips. Using your core, lift your legs, butt and hips off the floor, extending your body in a straight line and keeping your weight in your hands and heels. This should look like a plank only instead of facing the floor, you will be facing the ceiling. Hold for 30 seconds to a minute. 
4. Ice Dance Jumping Lunges w/ Twist: From standing, go into a lunge, right leg forward, both knees at 90 without back leg touching the floor. Push off into a jump and while in the air, use your core muscles to twist 180 degrees to the left. Land in a lunge with left leg forward and right leg back, both knees at 90. Repeat, only this time twisting to the right and landing in a lunge w/ right leg forward. That's one rep.
5. Half-pipe Box Jumps: Stand next to a gym box with your left side facing the box. (Don't face the box head on). Jump laterally to left, landing softly and quietly on top of the box. Jump off the box laterally to the left so that your right side is now facing the box and repeat. That's one rep.
6. BOSU Ball Snowboarders: Put a BOSU ball ball-side down, flat-side up. Stand on the flat part and center yourself so that you are balanced in a squat position with legs hip width apart. Using you legs and engaging your core, begin to transfer your weight onto your right leg. Quickly switch your weight to left leg. Keep moving your weight from leg to leg as quickly as possible, tipping the BOSU ball to the side that your weight is on. Hold your hands together in front of your face. Do this for 30 second to a minute.
7. Ski Jump Burpees: From standing, jump back into a pushup position. Do a push up then quickly jump your knees to your chest, feet between you hands. Keeping arms at your side, use your legs to jump yourself up and forward. As you land, jump back immediately into pushup position and repeat. Each time you land back into pushup position is one rep.
8. Figure Skating Fliers: Using two 5-20lb. dumbbells, go into your best arabesque, balancing on your left leg, keeping a soft bend in your knee and letting your arms hang with one dumbbell in each. Using your back and arms, lift your arms out to the side, as if you are flying, maintaining your balance on your left leg. Return your arms to start. This is one rep. Do 10 then switch legs and start over.

Give it a go and let me know what you think! I hope you guys enjoy it!

What's your favorite Winter Olympic sport?

Rock Climbing and Injury Prevention

Hello again! I had a pretty awesome weekend, what with the Olympics starting and going rock climbing and all. How was your weekend?

So, I'm pretty sure I've talked about rock climbing on the blog before. I love it. So much! At first, making it all the way up a wall can seem a little daunting, but if you don't look down and if you tell yourself to not think about how high you are off the ground, it is so fun! I have a membership at a local climbing gym, Upper Limits, and the majority of the walls at the gym are in silos! It is so cool! I've been working on improving my upper body strength while simultaneously enhancing my strategy skills as I climb. The bottom line is, rock climbing is a super duper fun activity and while it is really difficult, it is so rewarding when you finish a wall. I climbed this weekend and introduced a couple of friends to the sport. We had a pretty great time and even tried some bouldering (low-wall climbing without ropes).

Getting my climb on!

I also had another long run this weekend in preparation for my marathon! Yesterday's run was a treacherous 8 miles in over a half a foot of snow. Yes, I am used to having more snow around than that, but I usually don't have to run in it. Usually people do that thing where they clear the snow off their part of the sidewalk. What's that called again? Oh yeah, shoveling! Well, apparently the good people of central Illinois didn't get the memo, so I got to run 8 miles in this:

The snow went up to my mid-calf!

But, as I've said before, winter running is my favorite! Part of what I like about it, is the challenge of running in difficult conditions, so as inconvenient as it was to run in nine or more inches of snow, it was so fun! And I felt great (and exhausted) afterwards!

In other news, Valentine's day is coming up! Is everyone excited? I don't really care about Valentine's day or anything, but I know that lots of people like it, and if you have a significant other, or even if you don't, Valentine's day is one of those days that we like to use as an excuse to buy (and eat) a lot of chocolate. Now, normally I wouldn't use this blog as a way to promote any sort of political agenda, BUT today is an exception. 

Many chocolate products contain palm oil, which is contributing to the decreasing population of orangutans. In order to grow the plant that produces palm oil, companies are cutting down lots of trees and destroying orangutan habitats. Rainforest Action Network has gone around and talked to many of the big name chocolate brands and tried to persuade them to stop including palm oil in their products. Most of these chocolate companies have agreed to start processing palm oil out of their products and to at least put labels on those products that do contain conflict palm oil. 

Yep, unfortunately even Lindt chocolates contain conflict palm oil.

Now, I don't claim to be any expert on the subject, but if this interests you and you want to get involved in the fight against palm oil and deforestation, visit ran.org to find out more about their Last Stand of the Orangutan campaign and how you can get involved.

....Aaaaaaaaaannddd rant done. For this week's marathon something-or-other installment, I wanted to talk a little bit about injury prevention. I have been prone to knee injuries ever since I sprained my meniscus playing soccer in high school, and my knee pains especially act up when I run A) high mileage, and B) consistently. Since I will be running both high mileage and running consistently in order to train for my first ever marathon, I am pretty nervous about my recurring knee problems flaring up again. I also am hoping to avoid shin splints for as long as humanly possible. I could go on for days about the different ways to prevent injuries and all that jazz, but today I'm just going to give you guys my simple routine that I do at least three times a week. 

When I ran cross country in high school, my coach was really big on avoiding and treating injuries. As part of our injury prevention routine, he had us do a lot of exercises that engaged the glutes, which running doesn't really do, and increased the flexibility, strength and range of motion in the hips. I've started to incorporate these moves into my post-run exercises three to four times a week. I usually do the following routine on workout run days (tempos, hills, fartleks, etc.) and long run days.

 In order to prevent muscle tearing, you should doa dynamic warm-up before every workout, so that you're not going into a super intense workout or run with cold muscles. Lunge matrix and Myrtle should be done on alternating days and I usually pair the push-ups and abs with myrtle. Always make sure to stretch well after your workouts, too, but I probably don't need to tell you guys that.

Another way to prevent injuries like shin splints and various knee problems, is to ice, ice, ice! And heat! Immediately after my long runs, I fill up a mid-thigh-high trash bucket with ice and freezing cold water, and I stand in it for 10-15 minutes. I do this once or twice a week, depending on how much time I have during the week and how sore I am after a particular run/workout. Once I'm done icing, I wrap a heating pad around my knees and sit with that on for about 20 minutes. So far, *knock on wood*, my routine has helped me avoid any recurring knee pain and shin splints. Gosh, I hope it keeps working!

The heating pad is always rewarding!

P.S. NEVER stay in an ice bath for longer than 20 minutes or else your cells will start to die! (I'm sure there is a much less scary, way more scientific way to explain this, but honestly, that's all I know).

Cheers!

Just Keep Swimming...Literally

Hi all! Want to know what I haven't done in a while/ever? Posted a real workout. I may have posted one or two workouts before, but I have a whole inventory of different workouts that are fun and hard and most of which are easy to do at home. Remember when I said I wanted to get more serious about the blog and post workouts with pictures? I am holding true to that resolution, well minus the pictures. I'm still working up to the whole, "let's post picture tutorials instead of writing out how to do the workouts" thing, so I do apologize for my lack of picture/tutorials. I will just try to be extra detailed in my instructions on how to do these exercises.  Maybe the next workout I post will have pictures? Don't hold your breath.

Anyways, today's workout is way different from anything that I have posted/will probably ever post. Why? Because the only pieces of equipment you need are a swimming pool, kick board, and a pull buoy. Yep, that's right folks, today's workout is a pool workout. I thought it was reasonable to post this seeing as yesterday was a cross-training day for my marathon training.

I used to be a swimmer in high school and my blog is called "Just Keep Swimming" so I found it fitting to post this workout for you guys. Now, because this workout is in a pool and because it requires you to swim long distances, please only do this if you are really comfortable, and I mean REALLY comfortable in a pool/swimming at all. This is a distance set and you will repeat the main set twice. The warm-up is broken into two parts. The first part of the warm-up (1x50 and 2x100) will be repeated twice and the second half of the warm-up will be repeated four times. Also, please note that if you don't feel comfortable or know how to do breast or back strokes, just stick with freestyle (your basic front crawl).

Also, just as a reference for those of you who don't know your pool distances:

• 50 yards = 2 lengths
• 100 yards = 4 lengths
• 200 yards = 8 lengths
• 300 yards = 12 lengths
• 400 yards = 16 lengths
• 500 yards = 20 lengths

Here it is:

Only do what you're comfortable with.

So there it is! If you like to swim, give it a go and see what you think! Keep your eyes open for more pool workouts and more dry-land workouts in the near future. Oh! And I'm probably over due for a healthy eating post, too. Until next time, just keep swimming, literally! ;)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

When it's 10 degrees and snowing, running is LAST thing I want to do. Winter weather may be my favorite kind to run in, but I'm more of a 20-35 degree kind of girl. However, I absolutely HATE treadmills, so even if it's negative 2 degrees outside, I'll probably still opt for the outdoor run...or no run at all. ;) Being from Wisconsin pretty much has me conditioned to love winter and cold things, so typically a nice chilly run in the snow is a breeze, or at the very least something fun to do. Yesterday, however, wasn't exactly the easiest run I've ever had. It was snowing pretty hard, it was windy and SO COLD! Now, I can handle the cold, but we're talking borderline single digits here.

I had checked the weather before I left, so I was mentally prepared to face the frigid Wisconsin winter, but that didn't mean I was looking forward to it. In fact, I'd been debating with myself over whether or not to run for about a half an hour. But, I'd told myself the night before that no matter the conditions, I had to run the next day, so I suited up and braved the cold for a short, twenty minute run. I felt so good afterwards. Even though it was a shorter run than usual and was, in truth, a lot more difficult than I thought, I felt refreshed and remembered why I love running in the winter.

For those of you who don't like to run at all, let alone in the winter, and for the others that do like running but resort to treadmills and ellipticals after October, here are some reasons why I like winter running and feel that you should give it a try ;) :

1. Your legs go numb after about 5 minutes of being outside (i.e. they don't hurt as much in the cold)
2. Running in snow makes your legs work harder giving you more bang for your buck (a better workout).
3. Yeah the cold air might hurt a little at first, but personally, my lungs feel better after a cold weather run than a warm weather one. 
4. Target has really cute cold weather running gear. ;)
5. Running on ice gives you more excuses to walk and/or stop when want need to. ;)
6. You don't feel as sweaty and gross at the end
7. Any workout after a challenging winter run feels a thousand times more conquerable! 

I know that the cold isn't everyone's cup of tea, but maybe these  reasons will make getting out there and running in the snow and cool temps a little more appealing. Give it a try and let me know what you think! :)

Moving on, I recently purchased one of those ab roller wheel thingies. Oh my gosh does it work! I've used it several times now and each time, my abs have felt insanely sore (in a good way) the next day! My ab wheel is just a simple one, a peg through two wheels, so I can really only use it for one exercise. But there are others that have straps on the handles so that you can fasten them to your feet and do other exercises with your wheel as well. No matter which wheel you use, you're still getting an excellent workout. Just be careful that you only go as far as your body feels comfortable, otherwise you run the risk of pulling a muscle.

My post run workout yesterday consisted of as many ab rollouts as I could stand, a lunge set, squat jumps, hip strengthening exercises and about twenty minutes of stretching. I'll post the exact workout next time (maybe with pictures?). Until then, just keep swimming (or winter running ;) ).

Emotional Eating

Today's post is a little bit more serious than usual. Recently, I lost my cat of 12 years to cancer. Since I'm away at college, I wasn't home to see him before he died but I knew that he was sick. When my dad called me to tell me the news, I cried for the longest time. For people that don't have or have never had pets, it might be kind of hard to understand just how heartbreaking it is to lose something that feels so much like a part of the family. It may seem silly to get so upset over an animal, but this cat was my friend, my cuddle buddy, my comic relief, and the one I fed fish to under the dinner table (I really hate the taste of fish). So when he died, I was torn apart emotionally. Don't worry, I'm doing much better now! I think I just needed a solid day to cry about it.

Now, there are many different things that people use as emotional outlets, some of which are healthier than others. Lots of people turn to food in times of stress, depression, anger, etc., but I have discovered that I am an emotional non-eater. When I get stressed or  sad or even super mad, I tend to lose my appetite. Nothing ever looks good enough for me to consume and I never actually feel hungry. I will eat, just not a lot. Emotional eating and non-eating, while different, are very similar and neither are healthy ways to go about handling your emotions.

Ironically enough, the day before I found out about Hunter (my cat), my friends and I had talked about emotional versus bored eating. That was when I made the realization that I'm an emotional non-eater but a bored eater. So when I got the news, I made a conscious effort to make sure I wasn't neglecting my health during my time of sadness and self-pity. It's extremely important to make sure you're at least maintaining your physical health even when you feel like you're mind could explode from emotions or stress. Trust me, I know it's not easy, but it's so worth it. When you take care of your body, even when your feelings are out of control, you can begin to feel better emotionally so much quicker.

I know that I'm not a doctor or anything, but here are some things that I found useful when trying to avoid bad habits I give in to when I'm emotional*:

1. Set a food goal: Aim to eat a certain amount of food during each meal of the day. If you tend to overeat during rough times, try aiming for a smaller, more normal portion size. If you tend to under eat, make it a goal to eat every meal. For example, even though I didn't necessarily feel hungry the morning after my cat died, I forced myself to eat my usual breakfast of fruit and cereal. My lunch and dinner portions were smaller than usual, but something is always better than nothing. 
2. Don't wallow: For an entire day, I was SUPER mopey. I don't think I smiled all day. It was awful. But even allowing yourself to think one happy thought or flash one 50 watt smile can make your day 10 times better. It's difficult to try and force a ray of sun to shine through a thick layer of clouds, but even one ray of sunshine lights up the earth a bit (yeah, yeah, I know that was cliché).
3. Naps are good: Sometimes, all you need is a little nap. As long as your emotions aren't interfering with your ability to face the day and to function, then a short little cat nap can be beneficial and who knows, maybe you'll even wake up feeling better!

Well, hopefully these suggestions can help you out the next time you're having a rough day or even a hard week. I'll be back on to peppier posts soon! 

*Note: These recommendations are just for when you have those occasional bad days that just seem impossible to conquer. Everyone gets them every once in a while, but if you experience feelings of sadness on a regular basis or if you often have difficulty facing the day, you should probably seek professional help. Depression is a serious health problem and if you think you may have it, then you should speak to your doctor.

Tips for Food/Exercise Tracking

If you read pretty much any health magazine article, they will tell you that counting your calories is one of the most important ways to lose weight and keep your health in check. This may be true, but I don't exactly like writing down each calorie that I consume; I find it too tedious. Of course, there are websites that do all the work for you, all you have to do is enter the foods you ate during the day.

For me, it can be pretty hard to be consistent with my food and exercise log, and often times I don't know how accurate the calorie count is for the foods I'm entering, especially because most of my diet comes from the school cafeteria. If you're like me and find food logging boring and/or you just forget to keep up with it, here are some tips to help you keep your calories tracking in check.

1. Find a good calorie tracking website (I like Map My Run, but you can also use My Fitness Pal or another calorie tracking site)

2. Be honest: The most important part of tracking your calories is to be 100% honest about what you eat and the exercise you do during the day. Record everything you ate and how much. The same goes for exercise.

3. Set a reminder: Put a reminder or an alarm on your phone to go off at a certain time everyday to tell you when to record your daily intake. When your reminder goes off, drop whatever you're doing and hop onto your calorie tracking site of choice.

4. Write it down: To help you remember what you ate during the day, carry around a small notebook and write down everything you eat after each meal, then at the end of the day, take everything you wrote down, and put it into a tracking site.

Hopefully you'll find these tips helpful, now I just have to take my own advice! ;) Happy food tracking!

Peanut Butter Protein Smoothie!

Do you like peanut butter? Do you like chocolate? What's better than those two things separately? Putting them together!! The smoothie I'm about to tell you about is the perfect combination of peanut butter and chocolate blended together into one glass of nutritious deliciousness (even if it is pretty calorie dense)!

Ok, so first things first, I LOVE bananas, so I will pretty much find any excuse to use a banana. That being said, this recipe does involve bananas, but if you aren't as great a banana fan as me, then you really don't need to include them in this recipe.

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas
1/2 scoop chocolate whey protein powder
2 tbsp. all natural peanut butter
1/2 c. ice cubes
1/4 c. skim milk

Directions:

1. Put in ice cubes, milk, and bananas.
2. Add in peanut butter and protein powder.
3. Blend together until smooth.
4. Pour in cup and enjoy! :)

*Makes about two tall smoothies

Of course, if you don't like chocolate or peanut butter, or whey, etc. then this smoothie probably isn't for you, however it's one of my absolute favorites! I make it whenever I get the chance. I love to make it as either a post workout recovery drink or have one in the morning for a nice, protein packed start to my day! Try it and let me know how you like it!

I'd love to hear about your favorite smoothie!

The Benefits of a Workout Buddy

Sometimes it can get pretty difficult to motivate yourself to work out, at least for me, anyways. I always know that I need to get my exercise in, and usually I'm pretty diligent about getting it done, but then there are the days when I just want to be lazy and sit on my bum. One day leads to another, which leads to another, and so on until an entire month has passed since I ran or did any form of activity that didn't involve a remote and a large screen television. I'm proud to say that this has not happened to me since I've arrived at school (knock on wood) and that's partially due to the fact that I have access to a fully equipped gym, complete with a pool and indoor track. But mostly, it's because I have a buddy.

At home, I have several friends that I can run with and I play soccer and ultimate frisbee over the summers, but I'm never very consistent with my workout regimen. At school, however, I have a workout partner that motivates me to get up and exercise even when I don't necessarily want to. Her name is Rachael and she's pretty neat! We run together, swim together, lift weights together, we practically live together. She's in my suite ALL the time! Needless to say, we're pretty close. Exercising is how we bond and boy, have we been doing a lot of bonding this year! :)

Me and Rachael Post-run

What's great about working out with Rachael, aside from just having company and motivation, is that she holds me accountable for exercising. She'll keep my pace in check when we run (so that I don't move like a turtle) and she makes sure I put a solid effort into our circuit/strength training sessions. But most of all, she tells me to get off my butt and stop being a lazy poop on days like today, when I will pretty much try to find any excuse to not go to the gym.

This afternoon, after sitting in the stands for about three hours and playing with Titan pep band at our school's football game, I would've given anything to sit on the couch and play Dots for hours. I was in the midst of a really intense round of Dots when in walks Rachael. She asked me if I wanted to go for a run and I groaned that I didn't really feel like it, but she begged and insisted that I come with her. She told me she was going to change into her running clothes and when she came back, I'd better be in mine. I knew she'd go whether I came along or not, but I knew I'd regret it if I didn't run with her, so I reluctantly changed and went along for the jog.

It turned out to not be so bad, which always happens. We had a good life talk during the course of our run and finished up our exercise for the day with a post-run strength workout. We did box jumps and BOSU ball squats and a couple of different ab exercises. The point is, I worked out today, and all because Rachael guilted me into a run.

Having a friend to workout with is great for many reasons. For starters, they can at least get you out the door and moving. They give you a reason to workout, someone to keep up with or compete with and best of all, they give you a wider range of exercises to do. There are plenty of workouts out there that you can do with a partner, and many times, they're harder than exercises that you would do by yourself. Having a partner also gives you a spotter for things like bench presses and hand stand push-ups, which I've never personally tried before. Personally, I love having someone to workout with. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love exercising no matter what, but it's so much better when you have someone you care about to do it with.

What about you? Do you like working out with a buddy?

Quad Day Color Run!

Yesterday, my school had a campus wide "Quad Day" complete with inflatable amusements, free food (Cherry Berry FroYo and Chipotle!) and a Color Run 5k! It was so fun! I ran the 5k with one of my suite mates, Amanda. We ran an 8:17 pace. Not bad for someone who usually runs 9:30 on her own. Since it was more of a fun run than an actual we race, we kept it comfortable and ran it easily. Amanda is a varsity cross country/track athlete on campus, so she definitely had to slow it down for me, but I appreciated her company nonetheless.

The Color Run was so much fun! I'd been wanting to do one for so long and I even thought about doing one over the summer, but I never got the chance. So when I heard that my school was going to be hosting their own color run, naturally I jumped on the opportunity. I showed up about a half an hour early so that I could get a free t-shirt. I didn't even have to pay a registration fee! They didn't throw color around during the race, but we were bombarded with colored powder at the finish. After we finished everyone was given a few bags of the color powder and we just attacked each other with it. It was so much fun! I got so many pictures!

     

My shoes are currently unrecognizable because of all the powder on them. But I Clorox wiped the crap out of them so they're slowly returning to their normal appearance as they dry.

Left Shoe = Cleaned Shoe; Right Shoe = Post Color Run

Anyways, even if you don't like running, I would strongly recommend doing some sort of fun run. There are tons of different theme runs, like the Color Run, various mud and obstacle course runs, not mention costume runs. Many of these types of runs have 5 and 10k options. Participating in fun runs makes running more enjoyable, even for people that don't typically take pleasure in it. They also take away any pressure to run super fast or even to run the entire thing. If you need to walk, that's fine because tons of people are probably walking, just like you. Everyone just does these types of events for fun. It's a great and supportive environment. So if you currently hate running but think you might be interested in trying to get into it or if you just want to participate in a fun run, I'd encourage you to sign up for a Color Run! It's super fun and, of course, crazy colorful!

After all the colorful festivities

What's the most fun race/event you've ever done?

Eating Healthy in the Cafeteria

Four weeks into the semester and I'm already sick of cafeteria food. Everyday is the same old same old; there's always pizza that's WAY too greasy, pasta with fattening sauce, and, of course, the entrée made of mystery meat and pickles. On occasion, the main food bar in my school's cafeteria serves something worthwhile and delicious (well, delicious by Sodexo standards), but for the most part, the food they serve on campus isn't quite up to par, especially when it comes to eating healthy.

Being on a college meal plan doesn't exactly leave a lot of room for pickiness. I try my darnedest to eat healthfully on a regular basis, but I'll admit that I cave to cafeteria pizza and the occasional cone of Froyo. Well, I'm tired of feeling guilty every time I eat in the cafeteria, so today's post is all about to eat healthy on campus.

For starters, when eating in the cafeteria, make sure to look around at ALL the options. I usually go straight to the vegetarian section, but if the vegetarian/vegan entrée doesn't look appetizing, I'll look around at all the other food bars. If all else fails, I'll just have soup (I stay away from the thick, creamy soups) and some hummus with pita bread. That's a pretty safe way to do things. We also have a make-your-own salad and sandwich bar in my school's cafeteria. There's almost always spinach at the salad bar and an abundance of vegetables, dressings (go for a non-fat vinaigrette), and other salad/sandwich toppings, so of course making your own salad or sandwich has the potential to be the healthiest option in the cafeteria.

Most colleges and universities have plenty of dining options outside of the traditional cafeteria. For example, beneath the cafeteria at my school, there's a small restaurant area that has Subway, Starbucks and Chipotle style dining along with an international cuisine line and a separate soup and salad line. So far, I've tried everything except the soup and salad bar. When getting something from a food line that doesn't allow you to serve yourself, it's best to choose an option with a lower fat content and load it up with fruits and/or vegetables and, of course, guacamole and hummus are never bad toppings. :) Of course, you can always choose to stay in and make your own food. When I eat in my dorm, I like to make oatmeal topped with fruit and cinnamon or I'll have some hummus with carrots and wheat thins.

I'll admit that eating on campus or in the dorms, especially when everything is self-serve, makes it harder to control portion sizes. To keep myself in check, I record everything that I eat on Map My Run.  That way I'm less likely to eat to crappy foods or even overeat the healthy stuff, because I hate having to own up to three servings of chips or a large bowl of ice cream. I also track my workouts on so I can compare my calorie intake to the amount of calories I burn.

These are just a few tips to eating healthy on campus, most of which I'm sure you already knew. I'll probably have another post on more healthy campus options in the near (or not so near) future.

What healthy options do you have on campus?

Monday Hits Hard

After a long weekend of sitting around, reading and enjoying the start of the Packer football season, Monday hit me like a brick wall. I woke up this morning feeling as though I could've slept the whole day through. I made my way to my 9 am class sluggishly and felt groggy and spacey throughout the entire period. Now, I'm not really a morning person to begin with, but 9 is a pretty good time for me. I can wake up, eat, brush my teeth and head to class feeling energized and ready for the day, but today I was NOT feeling it.

As soon as I got back to my dorm I headed straight for my bed and crashed for a couple of hours. When I woke up, I felt as though I hadn't gotten any more rest. In my free time after my nap, I just couldn't bring myself to do a workout, even though I knew that I needed one. Instead, I cleaned my room and decided to catch up on some homework readings.

I could go on more about how I was tired and sulked my way through the day, but you guys really don't need to hear me complain. The point is that life happens. Some days (especially Mondays) hit you hard and make you feel like the only thing you can do is sleep and sleep and sleep. Sometimes, you just need those days. Take a nap, give yourself a rest day, eat some ice cream or a slice of pizza, and let the day pan out the way it's supposed to. And you don't have to punish yourself about eating some junk food or not working out. The next day will be better. Nobody can be perfect at all, let alone 100% of the time.

That being said, we can't let everyday get to us. We can't make excuses for our laziness everyday, but it's ok to let that happen every once in a while. So, in short, I did not have the most health happy day today, but I know that tomorrow will be better. I'm not letting my one day setback bother me. I'll just kick my butt into gear tomorrow and just keep swimming. :)

School Year Kickoff

As the regular NFL season begins, so does the academic year. Friday I finished up my second week of my sophomore year of college. Since I've been on campus I've gone on approximately 6 runs, 10 bike rides, 1 swim, and have made several trips to the on campus gym. I have taken only two rest days and I feel better than ever. Thursday, I joined my friends for a bike ride uptown where there was a "Light the  Night" event where everyone biked uptown for free bike tune-ups, LED bike lights, live music and free food. The key word in all of that was "free." I love free things! It was a really fun event and the band was great! I should try and find out who they are.

As you can see, Kirsten and I were the only ones concerned for our safety. ;)

Live Band at Light the Night

While the workout scene at school has been pretty dandy, the cafeteria has not been on a winning streak as far as the food goes so I've mainly been eating my own food. That's not for lack of options, though. Over the summer, my school spent over a million dollars renovating the "Underground" (the area underneath the cafeteria) putting in hardwood floors, granite countertops, a soup and salad bar, sub shop and an international cuisine food bar. There's also a Starbucks-esque café, complete with a Freshens frozen yogurt stand (I treated myself to my favorite peanut butter protein shake the other day). Not to mention the Titan bar and grill on the other side of campus that we can eat at.

Aside from the food, though, the first couple of weeks on campus have been pretty good. I love all of my classes so far, though I'm still waiting for a couple of books to arrive. My teacher's aid job has started as well and working with all the little children makes me so happy! I just know that this is going to be a great year!

More pictures, posts, and stuff about health and fitness to come, but for now, I'm going to watch the first regular season Packers' game of the season! Go Pack Go! ;)

What Time is it? School Time!

It's getting to be that time of year again. You know what mean.  The time when kids spend as much time as humanly possible out of the house and when you can find frantic moms desperately digging in the one cent notebook and folders bins at Staples. Yup, it's back to school time, and for some of us that means it's time to pack up all of our favorite belongings and move into a small, cramped dorm room. Come next Saturday, I'll be packing my stuff into my minivan and starting my sophomore year of college. Woohoo!

Whether it's your first year at college or you're a returning student, packing up and moving out of your home and into a dorm (or apartment) can be a pretty stressful time.  As I'm sure many of us can agree, when our schedules are packed it can get kind of difficult to fit in a workout and grabbing a McDonald's hamburger always seems so much more convenient than making a meal. However, it's still important to make sure that we're fueling our bodies with the proper nutrition and getting in at least 10-15 minutes of exercise a day.

I don't know about you, but I'm definitely a list maker. On a busy day, I like to write down all the things I need to do so that I know what has to get done. That way, I can see exactly what I need to do for the day and check off the things I've already accomplished. And I ALWAYS make sure to include a workout on that list. Even if I don't have to time to go for a run or make a trip to the gym, I know that I can still do my own workouts at home. There are plenty of quick, no equipment workouts that you can do in your home and are available online. I like to find some on Pinterest, but I also like to make up my own. When I only have ten minutes to spare, I give the following workout a quick go and carry on with the rest of my day:

2:00 High Knees
1:30 Plié Squat Jumps
1:00 Alternating Forward Lunges
0:30 Wall Sit

2:00 Jumping Jacks
1:30 Burpees (w/ tricep pushup and jump)
1:00 Plank
0:30 Boat/ V-sit

Even when I'm crunched for time, I still like to make sure that I'm eating properly, so I always keep my cupboards stocked with quick and healthy food options. When you have a full day ahead of you, plan your meals out beforehand. Try a simple menu, something like this:

Breakfast:

1 serving Oatmeal w/ cinnamon and fresh fruit
Glass of water

Lunch:

1 Morning Star Black Bean Burger on whole wheat bun
1 serving hummus w/ carrots and cucumber
Glass of Water

Dinner:

Strawberry Mango Salad
Glass of water

Hopefully your back to school shopping and moving experience won't be too hectic. I sure hope mine won't be! But with a positive attitude (and a nice, stress relieving workout) ;) I think it'll be just fine. Good luck to everyone in the 2013/14 school year!

Whoops! Back Once More.

Whoopsie daisies! I guess my whole "let's blog all summer long" idea hasn't exactly gone as planned. Oh well. Life happens.

This summer has been a summer of firsts. I got my first ever summer job as a nanny for a family about thirty minutes away; I joined my first official ultimate frisbee team; received my very own pair of rock climbing shoes (they'll be great for my university's rock climbing club outings!); went to Michigan for the first time; and I played my very first game of sand volleyball. Basically, I've been trying a bunch of new things this summer and have found a few activities, places and, of course, foods that I absolutely love! I've developed a strong liking for Ultimate Frisbee, a sport I never thought I could ever be interested in, and decided that I quite like sand volleyball, although I'm an absolutely horrendous player.  I've even gave tennis a shot, and while I can't exactly say that I'm an amazing tennis player (hand-eye coordination = not my thing) I can say that I do enjoy hitting the courts.

I think it's safe to say that this summer may just be one of my most active summers yet. I managed to squeak in a few runs a week for most of the summer while also playing soccer at least twice a week and being on an ultimate frisbee team that plays twice a week. And of course watching three pre-teen kids keeps me pretty active as well. It's turned out to be a pretty health happy summer for me. I've even managed to eat pretty healthfully despite the busyness. I'm feeling better than ever and I can't wait to see how much more progress I can make. Side note: I've also been rocking the TOMS tan lines all summer. That's different than your typical flip-flop tan, eh? ;)

Have you tried anything new this summer?

HIIT Training/Tabata Workout

As I'm sure many of you already know, HIIT (also known as high intensity interval training) workouts are really popular. There are plenty of classes, DVDs, and web videos that show you how to do several different exercises very quickly in short bursts of time. HIIT workouts have lots of perks. For example, they rev your metabolism to keep you burning calories for hours after your workout. These workouts burn fat and calories while simultaneously building muscle. Muscle burns more calories than fat, even when you're not working out, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn during low intensity, everyday activities.

Recently, I've discovered tabata, one type of HIIT exercise. During a tabata workout, you do one exercise, push-ups, for example, at your maximum effort for twenty seconds, then you have ten seconds of rest. You repeat this cycle of twenty seconds on/ten seconds off with the same exercise eight times. In just those four minutes of exercise, you can burn up to 600 calories.  Sounds easy enough, right? Well, I can tell you first hand, that a tabata workout is no walk in the park. The first time I tried doing a tabata, I died after about the fourth circuit of the first move. I definitely needed the motivation from my friend, Selena to get through it. It was pretty difficult. Tabata definitely kicked my butt and I left the gym feeling sore but so accomplished. It was totally worth the sweat and effort.

Tabata is also a crazy great workout to do at home because you can choose to do moves that don't require weights or other equipment. You can do entire tabata workout using only your body weight and it would still be super effective! I made up my own tabata workout and did it in my basement. By the time I was done, my legs felt like jell-o and I couldn't lift my arms. The next day, I was super duper sore but I knew that my workout had been good. Here's

Here's the workout I did. Give it a shot and let me know what you think! :)

Fresh Mango-Strawberry Salad

Today was a very busy day. My grandparents came over this morning to spend the day with my family and support my sister, who graduated from the 8th grade this afternoon. I'm so proud of her and I'm really excited to see how she enjoys high school but at the same time, it's so weird to think that my cute little sis' is going to be a high-school kid next year. She can't possibly be growing up that quickly, right? Anyways, after her graduation, everyone came back to our house for lunch and socialization before heading to my mom's and my soccer game. Needless to say, it was a pretty busy day.

As I have said plenty of times already, this summer is my "get-your-butt-in-gear" summer. So far I'm doing a pretty good job eating healthy and getting in at least a little bit of exercise everyday. I hope to post a new workout soon. Today for lunch I decided I was sick of my usual cup of non-fat greek yogurt and wasn't feeling much like eating greasy cook-out food, so I experimented a little bit and came up with this amazingly light and tasty salad that left me full until dinner.

Ingredients:

Handful fresh spinach (no stems)
Handful green leaf lettuce
1/2 mango cubed
4-6 strawberries sliced
1/4 tomato chopped
1 tbsp. Craisins
2 tbsp. Walden's Non-fat Raspberry Vinaigrette
*Optional: sliced raw almond or other nut

Directions:

I think it's pretty self explanatory but basically you just chop up all the fruit, add all the ingredients into a bowl and toss until you have tasty, summery salad!

This salad tasted like summer and instantly made me feel happier and more energetic. I still have a lot of fruit and greens left over so I'll be having plenty of salads for quite a while! Yum!