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! ;)

Thirsty Thursday IS a Thing.

For all of you who haven't started college yet or for those of you who have but have not yet had the pleasure of living across the street from a frat house, I can tell you that "Thirsty Thursdays" are officially, a real thing. At about midnight last night, raging music started blaring from the Sigma Chi house across the street. People were yelling, or at least talking really loudly, and there were lights shining all over the house. Lucky for me, I was laying in bed, listening, before giving up any hope of sleep and writing this post.

Not to be a cynic or a party pooper or anything, but I've never understood the appeal of "Thirsty Thursday". Don't you have homework to do? Don't you still have another day of classes, and lectures, and paying attention and taking notes? Why would you want to get trashed the night before only to feel hungover and sluggish during your classes the next day? Maybe it's okay on the weekends when you can spend the rest of your time lounging around and sleeping in. I don't know. I'm definitely not judging anyone that partakes in this weekly "holiday." I just don't get it. Whatever floats your boat, I guess. Who says you can't have fun before the weekend? And for those of you who can get through a full day of classes like a pro the day after a night of drinking, I take my hat off to you. I know I definitely couldn't.

I hoping tomorrow's post will be more upbeat, once I've had about twice as much sleep.

Home Suite Home

Well, school has officially started now and I am finally completely moved in and readjusted to on campus living. This year I'm living in a suite with seven other girls. There's no kitchenette but there is a nice living area where we all hang out, have [health] food parties ;), girls nights, and watch football on our big screen TV. It's a pretty good arrangement.

Reunited...at Cornfest. (I'm not in the picture)

Several of the girls living in my suite are varsity student athletes and had to arrive to campus a few weeks early to begin training with their respective sports teams. A couple of other girls are theatre majors and needed to be here a few days early for the semester's auditions. Everyone else moved on the first available move in day for normal students...except for me. I waited until the last possible day to move in because, although I tried to make it otherwise, I was not prepared to head back. The week leading up to move in day was hectic. Just when I thought I had gotten everything packed and bought everything I needed for my new living arrangements, I would remember something else that I had forgotten and still had to get. So naturally, I waited until there could be no more waiting before I shoved all my belongings into the back of my van and headed off for campus.

My van was stuffed nearly to the ceiling!

Since I was the last one to arrive to my new university home, I was bombarded with excited, girly, greetings from all my friends/suite mates. I walked in to find my room already set up nicely (courtesy of Kara, the best roommate ever!), a "welcome home" sign scribbled on the suite whiteboard, and several pieces of my artwork from my May term class hanging in the living room.

Suite (sweet) friends!

After my parents and I unloaded the van and got my room somewhat organized, we headed to dinner at  Tobin's, a local pizza joint near campus that has been around since the 60's! It still serves it's original pizza and has that old town, close community feel to it. When we finished up, my parents took me to Target to grab a few last minute groceries, then we said our goodbyes and I returned to my suite to relax and finish my unpacking.

Dorm room kitchen, complete w/ the Easy Mac essentials.

I'm really looking forward to this year and the new experiences and healthy inspiration it will bring me. Hopefully I'll be a more consistent blogger, too. I guess only time will tell. For now, though, just keep swimming. :)

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!