Looking Back on 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Yes, I realize it's a little late.

2013 was no big "year of the blog" for me. I mean, it was the year I started Just Keep Swimming. Does that count? I know I wasn't a super consistent poster, but honestly, I didn't start the blog for other people; I mostly started it as a way to motivate myself to get back into and stay in shape. It's a way for me to record my workout and recipe ideas, and my thoughts on life, health and fitness. For these reasons, I didn't exactly post everyday.....or even every month...awkward. However, just because I wasn't a huge blogger last year, doesn't mean I didn't do anything in other aspects of my life.

Picking a major:
When I first entered college, I had really no idea what I wanted to do with my life - I still don't. I started out thinking I might want to do something with physical therapy, but quickly found out that science is NOT my forte. I've always been good at English and for a while I even thought I would major in it, but I guess college is about experiencing different things, and in my case, I needed to struggle through some science classes to reassure myself that English is definitely the right choice for me. The end of 2013 marked the end of my first semester as an official English major.

Getting (back) in shape:
I spent most of 2013 gaining back the fitness I lost in 2012. Over the summer and throughout the new school year I've been more active then ever and I've been making an effort to eat pretty healthy. I definitely think the blog has helped with that, but so have other blogs like Pumps and Iron and Strong Like My Coffee, both of which post great workouts and recipes to help you live a healthy lifestyle. I also started using Map My Run to record the foods I eat and the workouts out I do daily. I'm still not in high school shape, and I may never be again, but I'm ok with that because I'm getting back to a level of health that I'm comfortable with, and that makes all the difference.

Being social
Usually I'm pretty quiet around people that I don't know, but over the past year I've stepped outside of my comfort zone. I've joined clubs and gone to shows and made a lot of new friends. Of course, I still keep in contact with all of my old high school friends and we had a blast being reunited over winter break, but it's still nice to have new friends to go back to at school.

Basically 2013 was a great year. It may have been one long, bumpy ride on the struggle bus that is my life, but it was fun and fantastic nonetheless. And now that we've said goodbye to 2013 let's look forward to 2014:

The blog:
I plan to actually get more serious about this blog...I know, woah! I'm not going to call this a resolution or anything, but I'd like to start posting more workouts and recipes, and maybe even some picture tutorials to go along with my workout posts. Hopefully I'll also manage to get at least one post in every week, but hey, I'm not dreaming big or anything, we need to start small, here.

Dat young fitness life:
I am officially registered to run the 2014 Wisconsin marathon in May. Eep! Boy am I excited! BUT! That does mean that I will have to start training....now. In fact, I have a four mile "pre-train" run on the agenda for tonight and since it's a solid 11 degrees and dark, I guess I'll be hopping on the treadmill for that one. I hope to add some sort of marathon installment on the blog. Can't exactly say what that will be or that it will be very consistent, but the key word in that sentence is hope.

Other important things:
For my French major, it is required that I study abroad for at least a semester in a French-speaking country. I'm not even going to pretend that this doesn't excite me. I am currently applying for a program in Paris! I won't know if I've been accepted for quite some time, but hopefully I'll get to spend my entire junior year gallivanting around France studying in cafés and art museums. ;)

I can't pretend that this post actually qualifies as something to do with health and/or fitness, but I promise that I will get in a good number of posts that do throughout this year of the big 2014.

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 ;) ).

Back to December

Hello All!

It's that time of year again! Yep, it's December and that means that finals are upon us. Cue the panic. For most, finals entail long nights of studying, writing papers, crying, stress-eating, coffee, and frantically trying to cram in those last assignments you forgot to do or the extra credit you need to bump your grade from a B to an A. There's no question about it, finals are stressful.

For me, this semester's finals means six new papers to write (one of which is 7 pages and another is 8-10 pages), two old papers to revise, lots of forum questions to answer, three actual exams to study for, two movies to watch, and a ton of research to do. Bleh. Needless to say, I've got a busy schedule and a hectic week ahead of me. I've already pulled more all-nighters in the last week than I have in my entire college career. Friday night I worked until 7 am on Saturday, slept for three hours then woke up and did more work until 5:30 this morning. My Sunday wasn't exactly as productive as my last two days (i.e. I veg'd out on the couch and watched football until 3:00 this afternoon before grabbing some Starbucks and working on yet another paper), but all in all I'd say I had a pretty successful weekend, homework wise. It's all about crossing things off the list and making sure everything gets done.

Of course, that doesn't mean we can neglect our health. Like I said in my last post, I tend to eat very little when I'm busy and stressed out, but what I do eat, is never good for me. Because I've been running on hardly any sleep for the last two days, my body has been craving sugary and fatty foods, like muffins and ice-cream, which admittedly I've been giving in to. Although, I did manage to fit in a workout today. This stationary bike routine from Self magazine is so great! I really worked up a sweat and felt so good afterwards. The best part? It only takes a half an hour. That's time anyone can fit in to a busy schedule! ;)

I'm not going to go on a long rant about how to snack healthily when studying or how to fit in a workout or eat well with a super stressful, crazy-busy schedule, but I will say this: for the sake of your own sanity, PLEASE TAKE BRAIN BREAKS! Sitting around for hours and hours doing nothing but homework and studying is just asking for a mental breakdown. So do yourself a favor, and give your brain the occasional break. For every hour that you study, give yourself 5-10 minutes of time to relax. Make yourself a cup o' joe; take a power nap; walk around for a bit; do some burpees. No matter what you do in those 5-10 minutes, DON'T think about finals. Just relax your mind. Anywho, you'll all have to bear with me as posts will be, if existent, sparse and very short until finals are over. Hopefully you guys have better finals schedules than I do!

Good luck to all and remember to just keep swimming! :)

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?