Week 3

This whole week went pretty well calories wise, but I kept going over my sodium.

Yesterday Kimmie and I attempted level 2 of the shred and it TOTALLY kicked our butts. I'm not sure if it was because it was after my run, or because it's just that much harder. Either way, I sweated. Yes, I actually sweated. Which means I didn't feel bad about going over my sodium that night.

The real reason for this post:
I lost another pound! 6 pounds in three weeks. I'm feeling pretty good about that :D

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Weight Loss Tools

Work It!

I haven't had a bacon burrito in 31 days.

I bought new running capris that I'm officially in love with.

I ran 3 miles today just because I could.

I timed in at just under a 12 min mile.

I burned almost half of the calories I consumed at lunch.

I love multigrain english muffins.

I am still going to Shred tonight.

:D

Attack of the Sodium!

So I've been trying to lower my sodium during this expedition to healthytown, and have been struggling. My main difficulty has been the amount that comes in my favorite things like cottage cheese. And cheese in general. And bread. Yum.

I digress...

I seem to go below my calorie allowance quite often, because I'm trying to stay below my sodium! I feel like sodium is more dangerous than calories. It makes you retain water, it's bad for your heart and your cholestorol, and I'm pretty sure it's what they inject in the Farm Home food to make the kids gain weight so they don't run as fast.

Okay, I'm officially rambling.

Bottom line:

• Sodium sucks and I can't seem to get away from it. It's in everything I enjoy except apples and splenda (and I'm not so sure about the apples).
• I've been shredding a lot and it feels fantastic! I might be ready to move on to level two.
• I haven't run since Sunday. I don't want to run in the rain because I'm a sissy.
• I love cooking healthy dinners!!

That is all my beloved readers :D

End of Week Two!

Two weeks down, five pounds down as well!

Had a pretty good work out last night, Shredded again. I also made some AMAZING cupcakes yesterday, based on a recipe I found on myfitnesspal. I'll tack it on to the end of this post.

I technically lost four pounds this last week, which is a lot! I think I lost more than a pound my first week, so what I lost this week is tacking on. Either way, I'm down five pounds, and ahead of my goals by two weeks!

My goal is five pounds a month, so I should be scheduled to hit my goal weight by December. Now that I'm ahead, I may shoot for November! :D
Oh, and I haven't had a bacon burrito in 25 days!!

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

And now for the awesome cupcake recipe:

1 Box White Cake Mix
10 oz (1 1/4 Cup) Ginger Ale
2 Egg Whites

Mix the ginger ale and the egg whites to gether a little bit, then add to the cake mix. I mixed mine in a blender and just kept it going till all the lumps were out. Then pour in to muffin tins, lined with cupcake liners. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes.

Makes 24! And only 94 calories per cupcake, so help yourself to two!

Long Time No See

Sorry for the major delay in posting!

Recap:
I lost 1 pound at the one week mark!! I also hit the road for the first time in a long time, and busted out a 12:30 mile for 2.4 miles. It felt pretty good (afterwards) knowing that even though I didn't stick with what I had started back in Jan/Feb, I was able to dig deep enough to push through discomfort and finish.

I'm coming up on the two week mark and so far have Shredded for five days in a row, and ran once more. I was on a retreat this weekend, and woke up fourty minutes early to go on a trail run. I'm not sure how far I went, but I was out running for 30 minutes. It felt pretty amazing to be the only person not tired at breakfast because I had already been pumping blood to my muscles.

In bigger news:
My roommate joined MFP with me! She hit the one week mark today, she hasn't updated her profile so I don't know what her progress is yet, but I'm excited to find out. It's motivating to have the person your living with say "Hey, want to Shred tonight?" when you get home. Or to say "I had to steal your recipe for taco salad, it was so good!" or "I still have 300 calories for today, do you have allowence for dessert?" Now when I feel like I want to give in to cravings, or skip a work out, I turn to her for motivation. We have a conversation about what we ate today, or how long we want to work out. It's pretty great.

Tomorrow is weigh in day! I'll keep you posted. :D

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Five Days

I have sucessfully logged in to MyFitnessPal.com for five days now! AND on a more important note, I had my last bacon burrito (from Muchas Grasias, possibly the most fattening fast food on the face of the planet) 15 days ago. This is an AMAZING feat for me, seeing as how not but three weeks ago, I was hitting that drive thru at least once a week. (Think of all the money I've saved as well!)

I've started a pattern of alternating yoga and The Shred for my fitness routine. I went three days strong, took a break (and by break I mean nap) yesterday, and finished off with the shred today. My goal is to add a run to yoga days. This will take A LOT of motivation! I have a major mental block, because I'm afraid it's going to be really hard and a little painful.

AND I don't have a race to train for. There is a half marathon in July, but I really don't think I'll be ready for it. But maybe that would be the motivation I need...

What's up for MAY?!

The votes are in, and the public wants to see me not produce any trash for a month. A great idea, however, it takes some research in order to embark on such an endeavour. SO that is on the shelf till June.

According the the votes, the runner up is Altered books. I fear my lack of creativity. I appreciate the interest though.

I've decided to restart a fitness regime. Including tracking my caloric intake! I'm a member of myfitnesspal.com - a free food diary and exercise log - and I'm secretly in love. You calculate your goals, current weight, daily activity not working out, and how often you want to work out a week. It breaks it all down for you - down to the calorie! - so you can stay on track. And hold yourself accountable.

I'm going to take on my old training schedule of running four times a week, and cross training three times a week. I'm going to double up one day (a short run day) so I'm garunteed one day of complete rest. This of course is the plan, let's see how it goes. I haven't been running for a long time, so I'm going to start pretty much at square one.

I'll try to post daily!

The Screenplay

Okay, so I lost the 100 pages in 30 days challenge. I tapped out at 75, which is still technically passing. I plan to finish in the next couple of days because I WILL finish something that I start!

I did kind of lose steam in the creativity department, and I'm not sure why. I think I tried to edit too much as a wrote. Anyway, I know how it's going to end, I just need to make it happen.

I'm still satisfied that I tried it. I learned something, well, I learned a lot of things, and I totally watch movies differently now. And I have a hell of a lot more respect for screenwriters!

VOTE!

What should I try to accomplish next month?! Take a second to vote on my poll and let me know what you want to see me accomplish during the month of May.

Some ideas I have:
*Art - I have a few art projects I've started but never finished. Mostly an altered book for a good friend who has been ever so patient with me as I keep promising I'll finish it for her. It's been three years I think.
*Retraining - There's another half marathon coming up in July that I could begin training for and blogging about.
*No trash! - I read an article about a couple who went a whole year without producing any trash! I was inspired.

Week Three...plus

Okay, it's been a little past week three.

I was able to write a little more, very little. I'm at page 75, and the end is staring me in the face taunting me for not being able to power through.

I mean, I can power through, I'm sure, if I turn the reality TV off and turn the creativity on. I plan to do that today! After this episode of Pretty Wild of course.

I have about ten scenes left, and I've visualized how most of them should play out, so if I'm lucky, I can finish this sucker today!

Silly me, I thought I'd run out of challenge before I ran out of page count!

Week Two

Okay, so it's a little bit passed week two, but bear with me.

This last week was hard to keep writing. I totally lost steam and my creativity seemed to just fizzle out. I forced myself to write a little bit each day, which in turn made my dialogue sound forced. It was hard to sound natural, and it was hard to get my characters to do anything.

So a took a couple of days off, and let my creative juices reboil.

They didn't come back full force, but I was able to hammer out six pages today. I just kept in mind where I wanted to story to go, and how it needed to get there. It helped some, but I miss the days where I'd sit with my laptop open, music on and all of a sudden I'd be twelve pages ahead.

I'm on page 61 (technically 6 days ahead of where I should be), which means I have 39 pages left to tell my story. I'm not sure I have 40 pages of story left to tell! I don't want to fall short! That could be some of my creative hang-up. Too much pressure to fill the pages, not enough confidence that my story can handle it.

Week One

Well, it's officially the last day of week one in the Frenzy. (That's what us savvy participants call the contest, the Frenzy. Or Screnzy if you want to get silly.) The Pages Per Day average should be 3.3, if you want to finish 100 pages in 30 days. So far, I've powered through 45 pages of scripted material. At this rate, my movie should be about...four and a half hours long. ;)

This process is amazing though! I've rarely been able to tell a story on paper from beginning to end. Or even come up with an ending! Or even wanted an ending! (I think I really like the idea of stories, but I love my characters so much that I don't want to end it.) And now I'm outlining plots like a pro!

It's actually thanks to the Young Writer's Program that this contest also hosts. They have some basic tools (meant for high schoolers....) that get you thinking about your story and how to tie it all in. I was afraid it'd be over outlined, thus making the writing process not as fun (because half of the excitement comes from letting my characters do the work), but it totally wasn't. It actually got me to rein in my ADD habits of story telling and forced me to organize them.

And being 45 pages in, I'm about halfway through my plot! Which means I'm right on target - story wise. If I finish this project early (ahem, like by the end of week two), I've got another one floating around in my head. So who knows, maybe I'll come up with two scripts by the end of this month!

Meet My Characters

As promised, here are some intros to the characters of my screenplay.

Alison (Ali) Banks: Main Character.
Ali lives in San Fransisco, and works for the contemporary, cosmo-like magazine The SanFran Beat. Well, she actually works in the blog department on the online verson of the SanFran Beat - the BlogBeat. She's a relationship guru, answering emails and posts about people's relationship blunders and busts. She would love to one day write for the magazine, if she could ever convince the editor-in-chief that her advice (and writing) is quality work.
Likes: Jogging in the park with her corgi Harley, expensive coffee, and Lady Gaga.
Dislikes: Office functions, her editor-in-chief, and Twitter.

Brayden Scott: Love Interest.
Brayden's originally from Colorado, but stayed in San Fransisco after college to persue his dream of being an out-of-work freelance photographer. He'd love to make it big one day (wouldn't we all?), but cares too much about working with clients individually to sell out to a big company.
Likes: Taking his golden retriever Ruger to the soft pretzle stand, photographing weddings, and picking up girls in bars.
Dislikes: Girls that smack their gum, getting dumped, and tall women that wear heels.

Vienna Whitmore: Antagonist.
Vienna is perfect...according to Vienna. Failure is not an option for her, and thus taking chances when it comes to running her magazine is her least favorite activity.
Likes: White, pilates, and her big office.
Dislikes: Bloggers, coffee, and big events that don't serve white wine.

Coreen (Cory) Mitchell: Best Friend.
Cory and Ali have been friends since college. She's always supported Ali's dream, and thinks that her advice are words of gold.
Likes: Tequila shots, working with her best friend, and wearing expensive shoes.
Dislikes: Working five days a week, paying for cabs (she'd rather walk), and paying full price for drinks when happy hour is such a great deal.

Harley: Corgi.
Harley is a sweet little tri-colored corgi that loves Ali. He takes care of her when she gets too drunk to get up for work on time, and always provides snuggles.
Likes: His squeeky newspaper, strutting through the park, and kibble.
Dislikes: Waking up early, seeing Ali sad, and sleeping on the floor.

There are a few other characters involved, but I guess you'll have to wait till I'm done to read about them!

April Showers

I hate rain. Okay, that's all I'm going to allow myself to say about the sucky weather that has taken over this month so far. Yes, I know it's only the third day, but I'm ready for Spring damnit!

Moving on. April's goal/project/resolution is...drum roll please...
Write a Screenplay!

Yes that's right. I'm writing a movie. I've joined ScriptFrenzy.org, a website operated by the fabulous people that bring you National Novel Writing Month (or NaNo WriMo). It's a 30 day challenge, to write 100 pages of a script. Any script will do, as long as it ends up being 100 pages! I've chosen a screenplay, because I dig movies, and I think I only have the attention spand to tell a story in a two hour segment, versus multiple (like a tv show).

I'm nervous about putting this out in the blogosphere, for the world (okay, mostly my friends) to see. I don't usually share my writing with people I'm close to...but the truth is, writing is a huge part of my life, despite what people may think. And I can't let fear stop my from sharing it.

I'll probably be posting every couple of days to update on my progress. BUT big rule of the screnzy, is no sharing! I'll give you breif charater intros, and basic synopsis, but none of the script will be posted till the end.

March Recap

Remember when I said I was back on track, and going to kick ass in my DIY projects? Maybe those weren't my exact words, but they were my intensions. Turns out my intensions didn't over power my procrastination.

I have a couple of excuses (I worked a funky schedule one week, which threw me off; I got sick; blah blah blah), but the truth is, I never got around to fully planning how to attack the furniture painting. Or the picture project (select photos to hang in my awesome frame set I got for christmas). Or the office project. I even told my roomate I was going to organize my corner of the office. She laughed. I think she knew that I'm a lot of talk, and little action.

But that was supposed to change this year! I'm supposed to be accomplishing each thing I set out to do each month. But...I'm really just finding more things I want to do, and adding them to the list of things I haven't done.

What I did in March:
1. Ran a half marathon (woot! Still proud of that)
2. Bought a laptop
3. Fill out my tax forms

What I wanted to do in March:
1. Run a half marathon
2. Repaint my furniture
3. Hang my photos
4. Organize my office

I'm going to take this month as a teaching point. I'm teaching myself that I was unhappy not accomplishing something, or even dedicating myself to something for 30 days at a time. I was much happier in Feburary when I had a goal, even if I didn't finish it (I'm talking about the Shred, not training). Maybe I wasn't clear enough with myself in March as to what my goals were. So next month (er, this month) it's back to basics, one goal at a time, focus focus focus!

March Madness

March is half over already? When did that happen?

DIY projects I have NOT completed thus far:
1.) Organizing my office space.
2.) Organizing and hanging my pictures.
3.) Painting my furnature.

DIY projects I HAVE completed thus far:
1.) Running a half marathon.
2.) My taxes!

Okay, so the half marathon took up a lot of time, and then I had a funky work schedule. Bottom line, instead of spending my free time doing projects I really want to do, I slept. And went on facebook. BUT I'm back in the swing of things, and will hopefully finish organizing my office space tonight. Wish me luck!!

March

Okay, quick review of how my February goal went:

Meh.

I wanted to Shred every day for 30 days. Instead, I completed 25 Shreds in 29 days.

What I learned: Shredding and training for a half marathon is hard. Sydney said it makes me hard core. I think it makes me tired. She said my body will adapt. I think it makes my body hurt. I noticed when I increased the shred to level two, I started getting tired. I had a couple of good days, but mostly average days. Anyway, it was a partially completed project, but I tried something new, AND have found a fun way to strength train.

So I'm going to keep the shred as an every other day thing. Post half marathon, I'll continue to run 4 days a week, and shred the other three. I think this experience has taught me that I am capable of doing anything I put my mind to, and I'm capable of reaching my dream of becoming a runner. It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

March: My original idea for my March project was to complete Making the Cut. I feel I'd be biting off more than I can chew, so I'm going to keep it simple. This month, I'll focus on completing my DIY projects! Project one: Repainting my night stand. Also to come this month: Repainting my dresser, photo collection framing and hanging, and operation office organization. The last one may take all month, but I am determined to have it finished by March 31st.

Wish me luck!

Gettin Shredded

For the last three days (okay two, the first day was a little rough), I owned level two. Yes the plank work is still hard, but today and yesterday I was able to do both plank jacks and squat jumps! The chair squat and shoulder raises are getting easier too.

Both Kimmie and I have noticed that our endurance has definitely improved. Instead of feeling like we're absolutely about to die in the middle of circuit 3, we're happily sipping our water at the end of the cool down. Does it still make us sweat and work hard? Of course! But we still do it.

Haven't really noticed much of a change in the body build, except my thighs are epic. And my calves, I could look at my calves all day. I just wish my shoulders and arms would get the memo.

Longest Run Yet

11 Miles. Holy cow.

I geared up by walking around a bit first, then hit my 5.5 loop - but this time I'd be doing it twice. The first loop around was stellar! It felt almost comfortable, except my hip gave me a little trouble towards the end. I was absolutely burning up in my full coverage of running gear, so I made a quick hydration and wardrobe change stop at home.

Seven minutes later I was back out the door. About a mile in to it, I discovered the major difference between running tights and running shorts (besides length, duh): Running shorts = Chaffing. Holy cow! My thighs were on fire! I clearly didn't think my wardrobe change all the way through. I took the second loop slowly, walking when I needed to, and really tried to listen to my body. Apparently 6 miles is about all my hip wants to do. The last 2 miles were a struggle, but I made it!

11 miles in 2hrs 19mins. (That's with the 7 minute wardrobe change subtracted).

Shredded XVIIII

I think I just did Shred 19...I'm getting confuddled. This is the problem when you randomly take a day off. Or was it two?

Either way, I did level two again. The plank work is still kicking my ass, but I was able to do two full walking push ups! Holler at your freakin mom!

I feel like level two is making me stronger and fitter even if I do the modified versions of the movements. Because there really is no rest! You're either in plank doing a jumping jake, or just in plank. You're either in a half squat, or full squat. I used to think that I couldn't sweat, until I handed my body over to Jillian. She can make me sweat (some).

Only 10 more shreds to go!