Cajun sausage stuffed mushrooms

Up in the air

Guys. I am on the internet. While flying in a plane. 10,000 feet in the air.

TECHNOLOGY IS AWESOME.

Chaya - see you sooooooon!

Maya - wish you were going to be there toooooo!

Guess what I am having for dinner!

I know what you're saying to yourself right now, Maya had a glass of chocolate milk for dinner?! Whaaaaa?! 

Oh no, mon friers, this is no glass o' chocolate milk. It is a power smoothie! Spinach, bananas, blackberries, coconut milk yogurt, and almond butter. And, totally paleo! Woo! 

It's so thick I need a spoon to drink this. 

I also had my crazy fitwit workout today. It was brutal - but more so because of the weather - sticky, hot, HUMID. I could barely breathe. I'm not sure what to do about this. I'm going to try allergy meds and see if that helps. 

so many workouts to update you on!

i have been slacking on my fitwit updates!

• Last Friday's workout was the TIMED fucking mile. Seriously? I haven't done that since middle school. I'm pretty sure I was "sick" for all the times I needed to do it in high school. That said, I did it in 11:38! I was stoked, not gonna lie. I was pretty sure it would take me 15 minutes to run it haha. My next goal is to run it without stopping.  My 1/2 mile time was 5:20 or something like that so I think if I train regularly/properly, I will be able to run a 10 minute mile someday which would be cool.  The person who had the fastest time a) was a girl (woo!), b) looks like a fucking gazelle, and c) finished in 6 minutes and change. Whoa. I was really impressed. She won the CoW award. (Camper of the Week).  I find it hilarious that it's called COW and it's a "fitness" award. 
• Saturday: Running workshop where I learned proper running technique:  keep a 180 bpm cadence, lean forward (only slightly - about 2 in from upright position), short strides, land on midfoot (not heels). I bought new sneakers which are amazing - see my instagram for a picture of them. I was also going to go to the kettlebell workshop, but breakfast with some of my new fitwitter friends won out over kettlebells. 
• Sunday: tried making baby booties. hella difficult. they're so fucking big, they look like they're for bigfoot's baby. ugh. No workout. Sat on the couch..all...day...long.  
• Monday: this workout was called the WALL WALKING DEAD. and as the name suggests, i was definitely walking funny the day after. I don't even know how to describe this other than a circuit of insane exercise combinations, which of course was timed. The minimum goal was to do three complete circuits.  This shit was so hard that I could only get through 2.5 circuits. Only one person reached the "goal" (5 circuits). 
• Tuesday:  this was a short workout b/c FitWit built in some "team building" time (for the morning campers, they paid for coffee for the group @ a nearby coffee shop, for us evening campers, we just had a short workout and went out to dinner).  However, let me be clear that a short workout does not make an easy one. We had to do burpees and wallballs. BRU-fucking-TAL. Wall balls are when you throw a medicine ball high against a wall, catch it, squat and repeat. Those things are AWFUL after you have just done a number of burpees (drop to the ground, throw your feet back, bring your feet back in, jump up).  We had to do a "ladder" of these meaning that starting with the first minute, we had to do 4 burpees and 5 wallballs. Every minute, we did the same number of burpees, but increased the # of wallballs by 1 each minute... we did this for sixteen minutes. I was pretty sure I was going to puke. Thankfully, I didn't.  
• Wednesday: off day from fitwit, but i did free yoga @ Atlantic station (sponsored by exhale spa).  It was a harder class than i expected - I really just wanted to stretch out on the grass - but it was really nice to do yoga outdoors.

I'll add tonight's workout with my #s assessment in a new post. Gotta run to a meeting.  TTYL!

Ugh

Having the worst 2.5 weeks of my life probably. Between my neck and my car, I am feeling pretty low. The car leaked out all its coolant at some point on the way home while we were still not far from Vegas, in the Mohave desert. The temperature gauge went to HOT. We pulled over and got towed to the nearest town. We left the car with the mechanic and got a rental to go home. Were fucked up the ass on prices for everything. Thought it would be a $1,000 radiator replacement. Just found out today that the head gasket looks like it's blown too? Getting a price quote on that. Might just leave it in the desert. But, without a car, out thousands of dollars, and feeling pretty damn sorry for myself. Now I have to go do what I meant to start 2 weeks ago, which is plan the itinerary for next week. Sorry Jaya, I don't have anything but some vague ideas on that so far. To be honest, not looking forward to having D here at this time, I fear we will spend all week arguing about purchasing a brand new car for me, which I most certainly cannot afford.

it's 6am and i've been up for an hour and a half...

because i have 30-something reflection papers to grade. to all my teachers and professors i've ever had: i really, really appreciate how difficult grading is.

i need some coffee.

weekend was fun - dinner on friday night at la calaca feliz (mexican restaurant that we tried to go to when you were here, maya, but it had the 2 hour wait? i was smart this time and made a reservation haha) - so that was chorizo tacos and guacamole and a beer. saturday dinner was at dasiwa (saturday night sushi instead of friday!) with kira's parents and her aunts janice and penni - both of whom are very excited to meet our whole family in scotland, by the way haha.

AHHH I CAN'T WRITE THIS RIGHT NOW. all i've been doing is procrastinating. must get back to grading. the reason i am writing this: what's the deal on your bday, maya? still thinking about CA? if you are, would you be willing to go in sept, instead of july??? because i'm seeing all these fares for around $300 r/t for fall travel to LA.... and that seems a lot more feasible than airfare would be for july. :-/ at least for me, anyway. let me know!

Day 3, Week 2 Bootcamp

i don't know how i'm doing this math. i think it's day 3. it's definitely only week 2. HOWEVER, i just made the decision to go ALL IN and commit to a 12 MONTH membership to this madness. 

there.  proof that mental illness runs in our family. 

oh well,maybe the physical activity will cure the madness?  i can only hope. 

so, i'm getting bored with my paleo breakfast options. i can only figure so many variations on eggs and bacon. what else is there to eat in the AM that is paleo-friendly? 

i think i'm going to make my amazing turkey taco lettuce wraps for dinner tonight. or maybe i'll just do that tomorrow, i am getting pretty tired and don't really feel like cooking... but i should eat dinner. OH! i'll make myself a green smoothie. i haven't had one of those in ages. will post a pic later.

today's workout was a paired up workout where one person had to get through the board of exercises (pushups, star or tuck jumps, shoulder presses, burpees, etc.) while the other person went through the agility course as fast as they could (bear crawling around a bunch of obstacles and then going under some hurdles and then over some hurdles).  it killed me after about 4 minutes. it is HARD to crawl around like a bear.  those things are beasts! 

Today my ____ is: (1 is the worst or least, 10 is the best or most) ...i'm not sure my scale is working for stress and anxiety indicators. 

- stress: 4/10 - not too stressed, had a good day at work with my minions (though a couple of them are driving me nuts), but i didn't feel really stressed out.
- anxiety: 4/10 - don't feel very anxious! 
- energy: 7/10 -  i have more energy! i just feel like i can do more - like when i came home after work/before leaving for bootcamp (i had about a 35 minute window) - i finished up some laundry and cleaned up the kitchen! Normally, I'd just sit on the couch and "relax". 
- mental focus: 5/10 - not as foggy as last week, but still feel some "residual" fogginess 
- fitness: 2/10
- quality of sleep: 5/10 - I think i need to go to bed earlier. I only woke up once (at 4am) but i snoozed until almost 8am :-( 
- happiness: 6/10 - i feel ok today, had a relatively good day at work, had a fun workout today. I had a fun car ride home from the gym - windows down, radio blasting.  that was fun. 
- financial discipline: New indicators: (1) ahead of schedule/ (2) on track/(3) behind schedule/ (4) holy shit what did I just do. Today, I'll give myself a 3. This should be a 2 or even a 1, but I went grocery shopping after bootcamp and spent $75 on groceries!  WTF!!!  I bought veggies, fruits, meat, coconut milk yogurt, dark chocolate almond milk.  that's it!  no wine, no junk. ugh. i also tried to buy the fruits and veggies that were on sale too :-( Oh well....