so excited!

I just scored myself a part time job at our local Y!  Ever since Nic and I participated in the hYped class last January the group fitness coordinator has been asking me if I would be willing to teach.  Well, yesterday we finally sat down to discuss details and I start teaching hYped on January 17th!  This gig will be 4 nights a week for about an hour each class, so nothing too time consuming.

While speaking with the group fitness coordinator, he mentioned that the Y director also had me in mind to teach a teen strength class.  Umm, yes please! That would be so awesome!  This class will be about 8 weeks and they are really hoping to get quite a few girls between the ages of 13-16 to sign up.  The Y has not done a program like this before, so it will be a trial session and hopefully a lot of fun.  Good thing my work schedule is pretty flexible so that I will be able to teach this one day a week right after school lets out.

Icing on the cake - I will also be working a few weekends a month up in the wellness center.  This works perfectly with our schedules as Nic has to work every other weekend anyway.

Bonus - now we really can't go to Minnesota every.single.damn.weekend in 2011 as I will have to work. Yippee!  :)  Seriously folks, if you want to see us you will have to make the trip to Iowa - no joke.

Cherry on top - more money!  More races! Fewer student loans! New basement! Babies! (JUST KIDDING!)

I am excited...can you tell?

18 inches

Our last official day of hYped was last night. :(  Over the past 16 weeks, Nic and I have been loving our 4-night-a-week workout sessions at the Y. Not only have the workouts been great, but working out with the group of people was a lot of fun - and motivating.

I loved working out with Nic, but my favorite days were working out with some of the other guys and giving them a run for their money. Sure makes a girl feel good!

Speaking of feeling good, I woke up bright and early today to have my measurements taken by one of the personal trainers. Holy wow - working out consistently AND eating a balanced diet really does pay off! Since January 30 this year, I've lost a total of 18 inches, about 15 pounds and  3.5% body fat. WOOT! (Since March 2009 I've lost 27 pounds).

Ok - looking at that 27 pounds is pretty crazy. I don't think I was ever that fat...and I guess I wasn't really fat, but I for sure wasn't happy with how I looked. Now, I might consider wearing a swimsuit for the first time in ages this summer (harhahr), and much to Nic's delight, I don't utter the statement "I am sooo fat" every night before we go to bed. :)

I've still got a few pounds to go before I reach this goal...

Speaking of that goal...we are actually going to be working on our basement this summer. That means we are two steps closer to maybe, possibly, giving Jackson and Alexa a cousin. :)  Wait - I don't remember that "backpack in Alaska for two weeks" goal being included on the list...  Oh well, guess Jackson and Alexa can wait a few more years, right!?

Oh, hYped - it's really not over. Just taking a few weeks off before we start up the summer session. And guess who is going to be the instructor? That's right - this girl!

swimming's a beach

Wow. Tonight we were supposed to have a pool workout for hYped. But the instructor wasn't able to be there, so we basically did our own thing in the pool. We started out with 5 minutes of treading water, and then the guys decided to play some volleyball, while us two ladies chose to do some laps.

To swim a measly 1/4 mile in our pool, you have to do 11 laps (I guess our pool is pretty short). 11 laps? I can sure do 11 laps. Harharha! After what I thought must have been at least 5 laps, I turned to my friend and she broke my heart telling me it had only been 2. TWO? Are ya kidding me?! She gave up a few laps later, and I continued on, but lost count. I for sure didn't swim 1/4 mile, but I did still get in a great workout! Which is a good thing, because I decided to give the legs a break from running today.

Random - I need to get better at adding photos to my posts.

For dinner, I made this veggie lasagna. Oh, my - it was sooo good! I pretty much followed the recipe to the T (aren't you proud Maddie?!). I halved the recipe, cut the onions down to 3/4 cup, used full-fat cottage cheese (only kind in the fridge), and topped it off with some homemade red sauce, because a mix of red sauce and alfredo sauce is delish.

Off to bed!  Trying to get on a better sleep schedule so I can start doing my runs in the morning.

opportunity

So we all know here that Nic and I have dedicated a lot of our time in the past three months to our hYped class at the local YMCA and absolutely love it.

Nic is stronger than he has ever been and has some niiiice muscle to prove it.  (Check out his arms next time you see him... :)

Including weights into my routine on a regular basis has helped my running and has given me some pretty nice definition as well!  I haven't lifted this regularly since high school and it feels really good.

So tonight at hYped our instructor asked me if I would be interested in teaching the summer class.  Er, what?!  Right before we were BSing about who knows what, so I wasn't sure if he was serious...but apparently his director told him to ask me. I think our instructor wants more free time this summer! So do I. I wasn't planning on taking the summer class, but heck - if I get paid to teach it, why not?!

This could be a great opportunity to get my foot in the door with a great organization and a chance to meet some amazing people.

Not sure what I am going to do...

coming out of retirement

Nic gets a huge gold star for the day - after months and months of begging, he finally caved and came running with me!  He could not have chosen a better day to join me as I was feeling a bit sluggish due to last night's activities.  I've got to admit, I wasn't expecting a great run, but Nic blew me out of the water (I was feeling sick - remember that!).  We ran one of my go-to routes that has a few gradual hills.  At the beginning of the first hill I was waiting for Nic to stop and walk, but that little shit sped up!  Holy crap speedy gonzalez!  

"Just because I've taken a six year break, doesn't mean I've lost it."

Well said my man, well said.  As long as he doesn't decide to run a half marathon and beat me, I will be a happy camper!  We ended up doing about 3.3 miles, with a 1-mile cool-down after our back/chest workout at the Y.

Last weekend in Minnesota, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at The Local.  Mom and I ended up splitting the wild rice veggie burger - a great combination of chickpeas and wild rice (der), it was amazing.  Since grilling was on the menu tonight, I decided to whip up a batch of these.  This is where Nic gets yet another gold star.  I was going to make one of these veggie burgers for me, and grill him up a real burger.  But since we didn't get home until after 7, he agreed to try my experiment.

Verdict - the veggie burgers were okay.  They ended up breaking apart when I flipped them, so I need to figure out what to add to correct that.  They were also a bit dry, so next time (yes, there will be a next time) I need to add something else.

In the wild rice veggie burgers:

• 1 can chickpeas 
• 1/4 cup black beans (left over)
• 1/2 cup wild rice (best guess)
• 3T diced red onion
• egg white
• garlic, salt and pepper

Mash everything together and form into patties.  Grill for 2-3 minutes on each side.

We served these burgers up with some spinach, honey mustard and a side of baked kale chips.  YUM!

We enjoyed an episode of Psych after dinner and a dish of mock ice cream (frozen banana, yogurt, soy milk, cookies 'n cream protein powder & chia seeds).

it all about balance

So I did really bad documenting my food from yesterday and today.  Oh well, not that anyone cares anyway!  All I can say is yesterday, I ate super well...today not so much.  See, balance.

Yesterday I was able to get out for another run outdoors.  Was a quick 3 miler, and then I caught up with Nic and Maia on their walk.  Nic and I then headed to our nutrition class only to sit in the conference room for 30 minutes without anyone else showing up.  Well, turns out the nutritionist at the Y quit on Monday.  Thanks for telling us!  (Look at this opportunity!  I told our hYped instructor that I will fill that position in  about 3 years when I am a registered dietician!)  At hYped we did an amazing leg workout, my favorite workout that we do.  You do two - three lifts, and then do a 3 minute sprint on some cardio machine.  Keeps things interesting.

And then end of our workout, our trainer totally hit on me.  It was fantastic! lol.  He really wasn't...  I was saying that I have lost about 5 pounds since being hYped, and complaining that it wasn't enough.  Then he proceed to say, look at you, and did the curving hand gesture thing...like, look at your hot bod.  I then called him out for hitting on me.  Good thing Nic wasn't there!

Because I ate so well yesterday and woke up this morning and fit into some sweet skinny jeans, I decided today could be a day off.  A day off of working out and eating healthy.  An order of fries, and 4 girl scout cookies later, I think my day has been pretty successful!

Oh, I also created a sweet t-shirt for our hYped class...what do you think?

Now, some soup for dinner and movie night with the man.  Yeah for Fridays!

a good good day

While in the warmth of bed this morning, I knew that today was going to be a good day.  The sun was shining at 7AM and birds were chirping!  I was planning on heading out for a nice long run, but was a bit lazy and decided to just take Maia out for a walk instead.  Poor girl, since it has been so friggin freezing lately, she hasn't been getting her daily walks.

Work was good and a lot of accomplished, minus a Chamber luncheon, but I wasn't feeling so hot and can not afford to get sick this week, next week or the following week.  Daffodils are calling my name...

The sun was still shining at 4 and it was almost 40 degrees!!!!  I could not pass up the chance to get a good dose of vitamin D and decided to sneak in a 5 mile run before our hYped class.  5 miles turned into 4 as I forgot to add on a mile loop at the beginning on my run. Oh well.  We then headed to hYped for a quick 40 minutes of plyometrics, and then home to eat some amazing dinner and veg for a while.

My meals today were stocked full of veggies!  A little overkill I might add...lunch had a little too much green and I could barely force myself to eat all of it.

Dinner - amazing!  Check out this pizza, loaded with veggies, turkey and cheese and only 150 calories!  YUM.

We use these tortillas for the pizza, brushed with just a bit of olive oil, sea salt and hot pepper flakes.  Load it with veggies, some meat if you want and tonight we topped them off with chunks of Laughing Cow cheese.

Oh and I couldn't resist taking a few photos of all the pets sleeping today...

hYped - take 2

Today begins our second session of hYped.  We are way stoked for this session for a few reasons.

#1 - class begins at 6PM instead of 6:45.  This means that we will get home at a reasonable hour and won't be eating dinner at 8 every night.

#2 - now that we know what to expect, and know what most of the lifts are, we are excited to push ourselves even more and build way more muscle.

#3 - I am going to catch up to Nic when it comes to arm strength.  Watch out people - better not mess with the P-S family!

#4 - we eat way healthier now, and like WAY healthier then we did when we lived in our apartment (ie - we no longer eat frozen pizzas for lunch every day....yummmmm).  For the next 8 weeks I am hoping to learn more about what portion sizes I should be eating and how to change my diet as I begin training for half marathons and a full marathon.

#5 - I am going to lose 15 pounds!  15 pounds in 8 weeks is doable, right?  That means I would have to lose about 2 pounds per week...we'll see.  But this also means that I will have met part of this goal. :)

DRUMROLL PLEASE...the most exciting thing about beginning our second session of hYped....

We are only 8 weeks away from a shopping spree!  New hot bodies deserve new clothes, right?!

two days...

We only have two days left of our hYped class.  Tear.  I loved doing this class, and have seen some great results, but have a long way to go to be the ripped, lean, marathon runner that I have always dreamed of being. lol, like that will ever happen! I do hope that after this class is over, Nic and I will continue to workout at least 4 days a week -at least until our next session of hYped begins...on Monday.

17 in 9

Here's another follow up to my last post about how awesome I have been doing when it comes to working out and seeing results.

Here is a photo from last April - I think I weighed the most ever in this photo. (Not going to tell you, but pretty sure I know I weighed more than Leah who was what, 9 months preggo in this shot).

Here is a photo from a few weekends ago.  Since April, I have lost close to 17 pounds.  WOOT!  Only 13 more to go until we fulfill part of this plan.

We just met with our nutritionist today to plan out how what Nic and I both need to do to fulfill our goals.  So, looking forward to seeing what these next 4 weeks of hYped classes bring!

hYped - halfway mark

Today marks our half way point in our hYped class.  I am definitely seeing results, although not losing weight as fast as I would like.  However, it's not so much the weight as the inches that really matter.

So far (and these measurements might be a bit off as two different people measured me each time):
Bicep has increase .5 inches
Thigh has decreased .25 inches (my legs are definitely more muscular, so I must have lost some fat, or the measurement was a little off - I will go with the losing fat option though...)
Stomach has decreased 1.5 inches - woohoo!!  Goodbye love handles!
Body fat has decreased 1.8%

Nic went from 10% body fat to 9%.  He is in the good range for his age group, but when he turns 26 next week he moves up into the excellent range!

Looking forward to the next four weeks of class and will probably sign up for the next session as well.  Even though we have to pay for the class, it is nice working out with a group of people and being held accountable by 11 other people who will know if you skip class.

hYped

Nic and I survived our first week of hYped (healthy Y people exercise daily).  Basically what the Y did was to fit the six day P90X program into 4 days of group exercise class.  There are only ten of us in our evening group which makes it a nice balance of being able to do your workout and get some personal attention.  On top of the 4 days of the group exercise classes, we are supposed to do 90 minutes of cardio or yoga.  Since I have a goal to run at least 15 miles per week this year, I should be able to see some good results after this program is done at the end of February.

The workouts aren't that bad - we focus on 2-3 muscle groups each workout and do a few different lifts that target those muscles:

Monday - Back & Chest
Tuesday - Arms and Shoulders
Wednesday - Plyometrics

Thursday - Legs and cardio

We end most classes with a good 18 minute core workout, which is supposed to be the most important part of the workout.

This week we took measurements, figured out our BMI and body fat percentage, and took a "before" photo (of which I will spare your eyesight of that horror!), maybe I will let you see the awesome "after" shot.

are you hYped?

Losing weight, working out every week, eating better - these have to be the top new year's resolutions every year for a majority of the population.  And what happens?  People work out for a month, maybe two and then fall back into their normal routines.  Who has time to work out anyway?

Nic and I have been getting to the Y pretty consistently for the past month or two, and are loving every minute of it, right Nic?!  Beginning in January (of course) the Y is offering a new program for those who really want to make exercise and proper nutrition a priority in their life - and who want to push themselves to new limits when it comes to working out.  hYped is a 60 day challenge that is going to be intense!  Like so intense, you have to sign a waiver and promise you are going to commit to doing the entire challenge and not wimp out half way through.

So beginning January 4th, Nic and I will be working out four days a week in a group setting with a trainer for 60 minutes.  On top of that, we have to do an additional 90 minutes of activity every week and keep a food journal.  And we are going to finish!  Wimping out is not an option.

ten in 2010 goal three - Complete the hYped program and continue to workout on a regular basis for the entire year.  This includes training for 3-5 half marathons in the Spring/Summer and maybe, just maybe, another marathon.