Cold

I have a cold. It's really cramping my style.

I made it to the gym earlier but my workout wasn't very energetic.

This is the first time this week I've gone. Ach.

Weekend

Oh hey blog, it's been a few days.

I helped my family move all day yesterday. It was good exercise, my calves are sore today. I was happy to help them and I'm excited to see them move into their new home.

Also some sad news though, on Saturday morning my Mom found Zoe, my sister's cat sick in the basement. She was just laying there panting and not moving. She took her to the vet and he said she was obviously "very ill" and for her age it probably wasn't worth putting her through all the painful tests since it was really unclear what the problem was- maybe liver failure. They made the decision to put her down. It's really sad. I think she was about 15 years old. It's so sad to lose pets, especially when you are so used to seeing them around all the time. Also Zoe was such a "farm cat", she came from a farm and was such a crazy hunter. Even though she was so tiny she was always killing things and bringing them home. We thought she'd really like the new house so it's really too bad with the timing and all. She was a really sweet cat with a funny personality and she will be missed.

On other notes... I haven't been to the gym this weekend. I studied most of the day today and went to my parent's house for a while. I learned how to use their riding lawn mower. Yay country-livin'. For this semester I think I will have to stick to 4 days a week for my workouts... I need to focus on marks not guns, unfortunately.

Here is an awesome article on bodybuilding.com about why women should lift weights, see! I told you!!
 http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/girls-get-your-guns-why-women-should-lift-weights.html?mcid=face

Rest day

Today was a long day, I had a doctor's appointment this morning, I stopped by my parents' house to do a load of laundry and then I came back, grabbed the bus, and had classes all afternoon and evening until 7pm.

I got home around 7:30pm and had one of those days where I just felt so tired, yet wanted to eat crummy things so I made myself dinner then microwave cake in a mug.

I think it's ok to have a bad day once in a while. Don't judge. Haters.

Chia surprise!

Today has been a really rainy and generally "blah" day overall so I spent almost all of it inside studying and working. I did go to the gym earlier today though for chest and tricep day continuing with my workout plan.

Something tasty that I often eat is chia. Chia could be called a "superfood"- whatever that means these days. And yes, it's the same stuff you sprout on chia pets. As a seed, it's extremely nutritious. From Wikipedia:

"In a one ounce (28 g) sample, dried chia seeds contain 9% of the Daily Value for protein (4g), 13% fat (9g) (57% of which is ALA) and 42% dietary fiber (11g), based on a daily intake of 2000 calories.[8] The seeds also contain the essential minerals phosphorus, manganese, calcium, potassium and sodium[8] in amounts comparable to other edible seeds, such as flax[9] or sesame.[10]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_hispanica#Nutrient_content_and_potential_health_benefits

Chia is full of healthy fats and other nutrients. I often eat it by mixing it in with cocoa and granola, then adding water. The chia is good at binding water and it will form a sort of thick paste. It sounds weird but it tastes good and the consistency is great. It can replace eggs in some recipes- vegans like this.

Mmm! Jer and I call it "Chia suprise". There is a cereal that you can buy for a lot of $$ in health food stores called Chia Goodness which is basically the same thing. Try putting almonds, pumpkin seeds or other nuts in too. It's a great, healthy snack.

Volunteering

Today Jer and I volunteered all day at an ultimate frisbee tournament doing the first aid. We had a pile of patients with mostly ankle injuries and various sprains and strains. It was a good day but took up my entire Sunday so I didn't make it to the gym.

Here is a cool website that you can follow at home to eventually work up to doing 100 pushups with. Jer showed it to me last summer and I was doing it for a while. It's nice to have at-home programs that you can stick to if you can't make it to a gym or don't want to invest in a membership.

You don't have to be a member of a gym to stay healthy. No excuses!

http://hundredpushups.com/

3 easy weight-loss tips

Today I went to a hairdressing school to have my hair done. I was really worried it would turn out badly but in fact it looks BETTER than when I pay almost three times the amount to have it done at the Aveda salon. Whee! Saving money on vanity FTW.

Anyway speaking of vanity I was thinking about the top three things I'd tell someone to do with their diet in order to lose weight.

Here's what I came up with:

1. Eat your carbohydrate rich meal in the morning.
It's no secret that cutting carbs means weight loss. If you are dying for carbs (which I almost always am) try to get your carb-rich diet in in the morning. This way you'll have all day to burn it off.

2. Throw healthy snacks like fruit, nuts, whole-grain granola bars or protein bars into your purse/bag.
This way you'll always be covered if you're hungry. I am big on snacking or eating "small meals" often. If you have healthy, readily available snacks you'll be less likely to eat something crappy.

3. Stop eating minimum 2-3 hours before bed.
You'll be hungry in the morning when you can enjoy a healthy breakfast to kick your metabolism on. When you sleep, you burn a lot less calories than when you're awake. If you eat before sleeping, you aren't burning many calories off and they will likely be stored as fat.

Calorie calculator

Today Jer and I decided to spend the day together to celebrate my birthday since he was busy with his brother most of the weekend. We mostly laid around, played Mario Kart and ate but it has been a great day. Sometimes you just need a lazy day- right? Yes.

So that being said my gym plan has mostly gone out the window for today. Whatever. I'm still sore in the glues and in the forearms from yesterday. I had a short back/bicep workout. I haven't done cardio in about 6 weeks. It's kind of sad. I miss running. Wah wah. Maybe I can fit it in. I just want to gain muscle and I have read that in order to do so, cardio isn't a great idea since it eats up all the calories you'd use to otherwise build muscle. Maybe as long as I'm eating enough I can do both.

It's difficult to figure out how much one needs to eat for their level of physical activity. As an "active" female I probably need around 2000 calories a day, but that isn't factoring in how much protein I need, how many carbs, how much fat etc.



This is a cool little gadget I found that is fairly accurate as a rough guideline. As a "moderately active" female I'd need around 2000 calories a day. A little more than that in order to gain weight/build muscle. However the type of calories does count. In order to build muscle, I need to increase my protein intake. If I were interested in losing weight, decreasing the number of carbohydrates would be the best place to start.

Breakfast dessert and 21-15-9

Jer bought me a Wii for my birthday! So pumped. We were playing some pretty heated Mario Kart this morning. We had breakfast and then cupcakes afterward. It's my birthday, almost, ok?

Last night a few of my friends took me out for Indian food. I had such a nice time. They also got me some really thoughtful gifts. I'm so lucky to have such amazing friends.

Today I had a short workout and a new idea for my blog, I'm going to make a "Workouts" tab so that I can keep better track of my current workout and keep my numbers updated properly. That way I can track my progress more effectively.

Tonight: dinner @ Montana's with my fam. Jer's brother is visiting because his ship is docked here so he will probably come too. Should be a nice time.
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-5:00 fast bike
-500 m row
-warmup: 10 lat pull downs 70#, 10 pushups, 10 thrusters 40#, 10 dips
-21-15-9 reps of shoulder presses @ 35#, and plate swings @ 25#
-3 x 12 50# glute machine
-1 x 12 bridges
short stretch

Rest day

First day of classes yesterday went well. I'm looking forward to them. Last night I went afterward to see how Jer had set up his new apartment. Looks great. I forgot to mention my Mom bought me a couch and TV for my birthday. Now both of our apartments are in good shape.

Between classes yesterday I managed to make it to the gym. Amazingly my legs are still sore TODAY from Tuesday's workout.
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-500m row
-warmup: 10 x lat pulldowns, pushups, dips
-3 x 12 lat pulldowns 60#
-3 x 12 lat rows 15#
-3 x 12 barbel rows 40#
-3 x 12 back extensions
-10 minute stretch

School

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the new semester. New semesters are nice, they feel so fresh. Give me a couple of weeks and I'll be complaining about it again though, don't worry. I'm taking some interesting courses at least, all nutrition and food science.

This morning I was at school by 8:15am to sort out my student loan. For some reason they figure I don't need any more money to finish my degree. As it turns out- I DO need more money to finish so hopefully they decide to give me some. After screwing around there for a while, I went to sell my previous semesters textbooks and it turns out they didn't want any of them. FML.

Oh well. I then headed to the gym for shoulder day.
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-500m row
-warmup: 10 x lat pulldowns, pushups and dips (legs too sore for thrusters!)
-3 x 12 military presses 40#, 45#, 50#
-3 x 12 deltoid flyes 30#, 35#, 40#
-3 x 12 1 minute planks
-3 x 12 ab machine... don't remember weights- why is there no roman chair in the ladies only part of the gym!?
-3 x 12 bicep curls 20# to failure, 17.5# to completion
-quick stretch

Home sweet home

We arrived home at 4am yesterday morning. It's nice to be home. Yesterday I helped Jer move into his new place, and we caught up on True Blood. Besides that we just relaxed and enjoyed labour day sans-workouts.

I caught a bit of a cold but I'm hanging in there and managed to get to the gym today for a leg workout.
---
500m row
1 mile bike
warmup: 10 x lat pulldowns, pushups, 40#thrusters and dips
-3 x 12 bw squats
-3 x 12 plie squats
-3 x 12 60# straight-leg DL
-3 x 12 leg curls 50#,55#,60#
-3 x 12 seated calf raises, 40#
-2 x 12 glutes, 50#
5 minutes stretching

Mission starfish

Yesterday morning Jer's Mom and I went out looking for starfish again. Just when we thought we were out of luck and were walking back, we realized one was brought in by the tide and Jer's Mom was fast enough to scoop it up so I could take a look at it.

In the evening we went and hung out with some of Jer's friends and a couple of them brought guitars so we had some music fun.

I'm on the beach right now getting some sun and Jer is playing volleyball with his friends. Tomorrow we are leaving NS around noon for the long drive home. Not looking forward to the drive, but I am looking forward to going home. I miss my little apartment and feel anxious about getting things ready for school.
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Friday workout:
Weight lifting warmup
-3 x 12 lat pulldowns
-3 x 12 lat rows
-3 x 12 barbel rows
-4 x 12 roman chair pullups
-3 x 12 shoulder presses @ 15#
-2 x 6 back flyes
-3 x 12 bicep curls