Days 342-344: Aspens & Abs

Day 342:  Mike and I both had Sunday off and we decided to take a drive to Nederland, CO for a hike around Barker Reservoir.  We hiked for about three miles and took in all of leaves turning on the Aspen trees and the cool mountain breeze.  It was a perfect beginning of fall hike.

Day 343:  Yesterday I went to Pura Vida with a potential lululemon new hire.  The enthusiastic young fella boasted that he went to these two classes back to back a few times per week.  Mad Abs followed by a bootcamp.  How hard could it be?

During the class I felt fantastic and was feeling inspired to add in higher intensity workouts after my post-wedding hiatus.  How I am feeling today is a totally different story.  My legs keep giving out because it’s so hard to straighten them all the way and it hurts to laugh when my abs flex.  Seriously.  Mike was watching me walk earlier and laughing.  Happy one month wedding anniversary jokester!

Lesson learned- switch-up my workouts more often to avoid soreness paralysis.

Day 344:  Working out today proved to be hard because of the aforementioned issue above. I decided that the only thing that I could do was walk everywhere to run my errands.  I walked for over an hour and only ran into a hedge once.  I consider that very successful!

Days 275-277: Drowning in Sweat

Day 275:  When I first purchased my unlimited month at Core Power Yoga, I made a goal to go to Sculpt everyday for thirty days, but after two days in a row, I tossed that one out the window.  Although it is my favorite workout around,  my body wanted something different…or maybe just not so sweaty (see super soaked bra, eek!).

Day 276:  Yesterday a big group of lululemon friends went to Bonza Bodies for a 50 minute cardio circuit style class.  The room was not as hot as the heated Core Power classes, however it’s quite possible that I sweated even more.  Although I spent the entire 50 minutes catching my breath, it did not seem that bad since I had ten friends going through the same thing and laughing at our instructor, Jamie Atlas.

Day 277:  This morning another group of lululemon friends went to Pura Vida for Billy Potocnik’s 6 a.m. power flow.  He started off the class with a five-minute meditation that focused on gratitude.  It helped me focus on what I wanted to emotionally dedicate my practice to and concentrate on how to stay more present in my life….normally, I would share this wisdom, but I’ve been up since 5 a.m. and now I can’t remember what the key to that was.  I will ask him the next time I see him and make sure to put it in the blog 🙂

After an hour of some intense power yoga, I came home and made my new favorite smoothie and rode my bike into work:

-1/2 cup pineapple, 2 cups spinach, a handful of basil, half a banana,  1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt, 1/2 cup of cucumbers, ice and water*

*I don’t actually measure out any of my green smoothies, this is just an approximate guess.  If you are trying to get into drinking them, just play around with ingredients that you like and you’ll find the right amount of servings of fruit/veggies to put in.

Days 213-216: Someday

Day 213:  Friday morning I went to Pura Vida for a 6 a.m. Anusara Yoga class for an event called, Pur-a-thon.  It was an all day fundraising event that benefit Brent’s Place, http://brentsplace.org/    The instructor, Roger Martin-Pressman, talked a lot about the people who have supported us throughout our lives and asked us to dedicate our practice to them.

My mind immediately went to a fellow life coach friend of mine, Rebecca, who has helped, inspired and led me through the last two years of my life.  Her love kept me strong when I felt weak and her words guided me through a new career and lots of uncertainty.   I sent her all the energy that I could in every pose and my body felt spent after the 60 minute practice.  The next day my body was sore, but I felt like I had tapped into strength.   The strength that had guided me through the past few years and had given me a voice to lead myself without doubt.

Day 214:  One hour walk around my neighborhood.  I am officially taking a break from running and tough workouts to let my body recuperate before my half-marathon on Sunday.

Day 215:  Yesterday I went to Edwards, CO with my friend Jenny for some quality girl time.  We walked out her back door and into some of the most beautiful landscape that I have seen in a longtime; snow-capped mountains, thousands of rows of bright green Aspen trees and more Pine trees than the eye could take in.  It took my breath away.

We hiked for almost an hour and as we were headed home we hit a steep downward hill.  I turned to Jenny and said, “make sure to dig into the hill with the side of your shoe, it will keep you from falling.”  Not even one second after that awesome tip, I fell hard and ungracefully on the side of my body.   We laughed for a few minutes and then I collected my pride up off the side of the mountain and called it a day.

Day 216:  This morning Jenny and I went for another hike around Edwards while we sipped our hot coffees.  I made the promise to myself that some day Mike and I will live in the mountains again.  They are too beautiful not to live in, retire in and play in every single day.  Someday…I promise.

Days 75 & 76: Merry Christmas!

“This is the message of Christmas: We are never alone.” – Taylor Caldwell

Day 75:  On day 75, aka Christmas Eve, I went to Pura Vida gym and squeezed in as much intense cardio that I could in one hour.  I started out running for 30 minutes, then switched to the big stair-stepper machine for 15 minutes and ended out the hour with 15 minutes of bicycling.  I was a hot sweaty mess afterwards.  I definitely had to squeeze in a nice shower before the evenings candlelight service

Before the church service started the Pastor came up and asked me what the best part of my day was and I immediately got tears in my eyes and said, “skyping with my fiance.”  He just put his hand on my shoulder and told me a joke.  Next he shook my hand and said, “my name is Michael.”  Of course I already knew his name, but the way that he said it made me smile with all my heart and made me feel like my Michael was right next to me for the next hour.  At one point I imagined him whispering something funny in my ear to make me laugh.  Even though I was physically alone last night and today, I could feel all the love in my life to the point where I was overfilled with gratitude.

Day 76:  On a sentimental holiday I like to treat myself to lots of sentiment.  Of course I chose to go skiing at my favorite mountain, Keystone Resort.  Only 38% of the mountain is open to ski right now, which made me a little apprehensive to make the 75 minute trek up.  However, it ended up being more than worth it.  My skis were happy to find fresh powder in a few spots, nicely groomed trails in others and loads of happy skiers ready to chat about anything.  I skied for three hours and called it quits once I felt my thighs quiver on my last run.

Although I was not quite sure if I would love skiing on Christmas day, I may have stumbled upon a new tradition.  Hopefully in the years to come I will have hoards of family and friends with me to celebrate after a day on the slopes!

Merry Christmas everyone!  *As a side note, I am really hoping that my fiance (in the scuba diving picture above) knows how to spell my name and that “Besty” is just a fun play on words!*

Day 73: Body Fat Blasted

Almost two years I was 10 lbs heavier and had 20% body fat.  As of today, I weighed 133 lbs and had 19.4% bodyfat.  I felt bad for the woman at Pura Vida who used the skin fold caliper on me today.  Not because she had to touch my chub, but because I get so awkward when people touch me that I start babbling about anything and make zero sense to even myself.

Because this is a blog about challenging myself and goals, I wanted to share some goals of mine with you.  By the end of this challenge, in 292 days to be precise, I want to have 15% body fat.  I’m not sure why it’s 15%, I just know what 19.4% feels like and I think that -4.4% would feel nicer. 

I am in the process of coming up with my other goals for 2012 and will share them with you on New Years Day.  A gal’s gotta have goals, right?  I typically set goals for myself every month or so and update anything that’s been outdated or needs some perking up.  It just keeps me focused on what I want and helps me manifest my dreams.   Whosh, sorry for all the goal talk.  New year’s and goals just gets the coach in me all jazzed up!

….so after that lovely body fat and goal detour I suppose I should tell you about my daily workout.  Today I went to Pura Vida and rode the bike for 45 minutes, followed by some ab work.  I am still feeling a bit under the weather, so I didn’t want to push my pedals too hard (pun intended).

Days 67 & 68: Boozy Flow

Day 67:  Yesterday was one of those days that I had to get up at 5:00 in order to fit in a workout.  At 5:00 a.m. I drug my little bum to Pura Vida in Cherry Creek and did the elliptical for an hour (my intention was to run, but it was just to early to bust out those speeds), followed up by a weight circuit with abs mixed it.  It was just what I needed to help me get through my long long day.

Day 68:  Today I was pooped.  All I wanted was a nice candlelight flow somewhere in Denver.   After looking up at least ten studio schedules to no avail, I decided to have my own flow in our guest bedroom.

After work my friend and I stopped by a local pub for a beer and a quick catch-up session before I hit my mat.  It felt pretty strange to have a bubbly beer noggin while trying to flow in my own home.  It was even harder to keep my mind still long enough to balance.  If I can’t even have one beer and then flow, no wonder drinking and driving is so dangerous!  Although I was a bit woozy, I did have a mini lesson.  When I tried to complete tree on one side I immediately reached for my desk to steady my balance.  After I did that I realized that I did not need the help at all.  My body was perfectly fine adjusting to standing on one leg with my hands pressed in prayer at my chest.  On the next leg I did not reach for anything.  I just set my pose and concentrated.   This made me think about all the times in life I just depend on things that I do not really need, things that just make me feel comfortable.

Sure touching the desk helped me feel stable at first, bit it wasn’t necessary.  How many other desks do I have in my life that are enabling me from growing my own strong tree?  As soon as I get rid of those comforts, I start to grow my roots and become more active in my own life.  So what are your desks?  What is preventing you from doing in your life and how do you overcome reaching for them?

Days 60 & 61: Cram Sesh

Most of you are probably so busy right now that you might delete this post before you even read it. PHEW, because the pictures in this actually make me feel uncomfortable.  So go back to being that busy holiday shopping, cookie baking, tree decorating, carol memorizing, house cleaning person that you were before you got this.

Day 60:  My only requirement for working out on day 60 was that I would leave enough time in my day to shower at home.  This may sound strange, but the last seven days my only showers have happened at gym and with all of my beautifying contents jammed into a gym bag.  It’s no way to live a (clean) life.  So in between my workday and social engagements, I ran four miles and left myself 60 minutes to take a hot shower in the comfort of my own home.  It felt like a huge reward for cramming in a run on a day when I would have rather spent 100 minutes getting ready and fussing around my house.

Day 61:  Today was another one of those super busy days. I squeezed in a 70 minute workout at Pura Vida between work and an evening of babysitting (no showering in between, in case you’re wondering).  I was craving a lot of cardio today, so I spent 60 minutes watching Serendipity and powering away at the elliptical and finished off my workout with a fast one mile run.

*These pictures were taken on day 61.  I know that I did not post a monthly shot after one month and I apologize.  A girl is allowed to have a little privacy if her belly isn’t feeling the best- aka, no photo shoot at day 30 for you.  So here they are.  I know what would have been airbrushed out if I were a model, but I’m not, so these are my Dove style photos for your curious minds.   My body feels stronger than it did 61 days ago and my energy level has skyrocketed.  The best part though is that I never think about excuses to skip my workouts, I just power through.  It’s actually nice to give myself the permission to sweat everyday and forget about the lying (aka the “excuses”).  Lastly, I forgot about the promise to get a spray tan before taking this picture and to be completely honest, those don’t look good on me anyways.  It’s like seeing a 70-year-old without a wrinkle on her face- you know it’s not natural, so why even bother!?

Day 59: One Dozen Lemons

There were twelve lululemons that showed up for a 6:00 a.m. Anusara yoga class with Roger at Pura Vida.  Douc.  Douze.  12.   That’s a lot of team inspiration at such an early hour.

Whenever I was in downdog I had a full view of all my co-workers behind me.  I was in awe of all of the (upside-down) women that were breathing, sweating, practicing and uniting on their mats.  At the end of class one of my friends hugged me and said, “practicing next to you makes me feel so peaceful.”  I am writing that with the humblest of intentions because my practice still feels like just that; a practice.  I am constantly calming my heart, my mind and my body.  To have someone say that my being feels peaceful added a sense of ease to my practice and to my day.

What a beautiful way to sweat and start the day.  Thanks to all who made me smile today before I even had the energy to wipe away yesterday’s makeup.

Day 28 & 29: Well Rounded

**Day 28 disclaimer:  I drank a little too much wine at a dinner party and then wrote this post.  I have not changed it since, I hope you find it amusing and confusing.  Additionally, my internet is down again.  Sorry for another delay. **

Day 28: Working out for 365 days in a row is going to prove to be difficult at a point.  Today was my point.  This morning I went to my first restorative yoga class at Core Power Yoga. Restorative yoga is to sugar what power yoga is to a double chocolate chip cookie.  It’s incredibly tame, to say the absolute least.

This morning was my first attempt to practice this type of yoga and it was actually a lot more difficult than anticipated.  Holding stretching poses for four minutes does not just test your muscles, but it tested my mind as well.   Many of the poses promised to “help sleep better at night” and “decompress a stressed back.”  I have no clue how to measure that, however, I am willing to try many times as long as this is considered a workout.

Day 29:  Today started off beautifully.  A dear friend was in town this morning and I had her over for coffee and breakfast.  Her dog and my cat toyed with the idea of playing, but settled on some good ol’ butt sniffin’.  After hours of chatting we went on a walk at Washington Park.  It was sunny, there were hundreds of geese and her dog chased every squirrel he saw…it was perfect.

That was going to be my workout, but since I declared today my day off from work I decided I actually wanted to do more.  I went to Pura Vida and ran two miles and then did 30 minutes of cardio on an elliptical.  I followed this up with 45 minutes of weight lifting and 15 minutes of abdominal work.  Afterwards I iced my sore (maybe arthritic) wrist and called it a day.  Tonight they are calling for the third snowstorm in two weeks in Denver and I am so prepared;  two movies, a new cat toy, extra firewood and a skype date with my fiancé in the Phillipines.  What a great end to a perfect day.

Day 27: Be Still

This morning I went to a spin class at Pura Vida in Cherry Creek.  It was my first time spinning in over six months and I can already feel my inner thighs screaming from all of the “up/downs” that the instructor had us doing.

The instructor, Jasmine, kept reminding us to “be still” on our bikes.  At first I didn’t understand what she meant.  She explained that we had to keep our upper bodies still and let our legs do all the heavy work.  I have a strong feeling she was speaking directly to me since my upper body was boppin’ away to the tunes.   Once I calmed my upper body down and concentrated on my legs, it became a much more difficult but I could tell that if I stuck with that movement then it would yield more results.

As I was trying to be still, I thought about all the times in my past that it has felt like a tornado has hit me and I let myself get caught up in the eye of the storm.  Lately, I have realized that the best way for me to get out of a storm is to remain calm and present.  Not flailing and bouncing to music, just still and present.  Be Still.  What a nice reminder to get through life and workouts with a more gracious ease.