Jul 29, 2011

Boot-camp Boot-camp Ghali

My husband loves that name and calls me Boutros from time to time. Most of our pet names are actually rude.

It was my fault. I started feeling like I was in great shape and boot camp was no longer the enormous challenge it was before. I did it to myself, really.

I have been going in the afternoon which I think definitely helps. More food in the system, not sleepy, had all day to kind of talk myself into it. We have plans tonight and I couldn't sleep thanks to my crazy back, so I decided to just get up and go like 10 mins before I had to leave the house.

Usually we do 4-5 circuits of things 4-5 times. It is tough, but doable.

Wednesday we did circuits of: TRX rows, TRX squat jumps, weird tubing rows, weird tubing chest press, run a bit, kettlebell squats, kettlebell deadlifts, partner assisted running with bands (aka my arch nemesis). We do about 45 seconds each part w/o rest until the end of the 4th circuit. This is our usual routine though the exercises usually vary. At the end they usually make us run about 1/3 to 1/2 a mile, then back for ab stuff.



Today he decided to do some kind of evil new plan.

3 minutes each to do: 50 squats then 50 burpees, run this terrible weighted bag up and down a hill, drag a tire, as many pushups as possible, 50 weighted squats and then 50 medicine ball slams. I did not make it to 50 by the end. We got a super rejuvenating minute of rest b/t all these.

Then it was on to 1.5 mins of V sit-ups, resistance twists (standing using your core. same basic trunk movement as swinging a bat), standing oblique reaches with kettlebells. Then! 50 bicycle crunches x 2, these weird crunches where you reach up and touch your raised leg, and these terrible ones where you get into bicycle crunch position but just lift a straightened leg up and down. I'm terrible at describing these things!

I was dying. I did not have enough breakfast for this!

Jul 22, 2011

Epic Chinese Dinner

I've been a terrible poster lately. I kind of just feel blah and like I don't have a lot to say. Unless you want to talk about Harry Potter, in which case I'm there. 

So instead, I thought I would just post about 10 pictures of the insane chinese dinner we had in Toronto. I just embraced my white girl-ness and just took pictures of everything. Everyone at my table thought this was funny. Along with my accent.

 First up is the random meat course! There were like 4 types of meat. I didn't know what any of them were. Also, you know that Coke and wine are mine! I was so psyched for coke and alcohol, y'all don't even understand. I started stealing cokes from other tables by the end.

Course 2: Shrimp/Crab? Poof! There was rice in there. It was not terrible.
Course 3: scallops and some veggies. That is a little fried rice noodle nest and is actually really tasty!  
Course 4: Shark Fin Soup
I tried this b/c it is a delicacy and super expensive and special occasion food(for example the last time my MIL had this was at her wedding 40 yrs ago!) but I felt really terrible about it. I find the fishing of shark fins to be pretty unnecessary and cruel. I know I also eat meat and dairy, so it isn't like I am being un-hypocritical here. I just had a moral/ethical problem with it.

For the record, it wasn't very good. It tasted like ham/chicken broth but with a gelatinous texture. The texture really grossed me out and I am not someone bothered by mouthfeel (which is a totally gross and awesome word used in my cooking classes that I try to use all the time.) 

Course 5: mushrooms. I don't even know. A lot of these courses that look like they have this kind of clear/shiny sauce taste the same to me. I am not a huge fan of the sauce flavor, so it all tasted kind of vaguely the same. 

At one point during this course one of my table mates turns to me and says "Do you know what you are eating?" Me: "Oh, God. What? Don't tell me!" Her: "Fungus!" Oh, yeah that's fine. I knew that. 

Course 6: Duck
Yes, we are still eating.


Course 7: Lobster and crab. 
Tasty, but let me tell you how difficult it is to crack a lobster claw WITH CHOPSTICKS! The entire table was entertained by my efforts. Finally they told me you are allowed to just pick it up and eat it that way. 

Courses 8,9,10
Cake-which was amazing and I started looking around at other tables to eat theirs
In the background you can see rice in a lotus leaf and noodles.
Then it was the traditional Chinese dessert of bean paste. It is like a black bean soup with sugar. It is fine, but it is not dessert!

It took roughly 5 hours to eat all this!! I was exhausted from eating. I took pics of everything b/c I find it so interesting and SO different from my regular life. I just embrace not knowing what is going on or what I'm eating.  I've learned what to eat and what not to eat! 


Anyone had a crazy dinner like this? Have you ever eaten for 5-6 hours?? What is the weirdest food you have ever tried? 

ETA-I took pictures of the food for the entire table (10ish people.) So each plate for each course was a very small amount of food. One shrimp, 2 small pieces of duck, etc. Each course was about the size of 1/2 my fist or so. Christina asked how we could eat so much! It is a looooot of food, but spread out over hours (and hours and hours) and in small increments. It is like going to a party and just snacking the entire time. It was still quite a bit of food and I was pretty over it by course 3!

Jul 19, 2011

Harry Potter Nerd Alert

TODAY I FINALLY GET TO SEE HARRY POTTER! DYING OF EXCITEMENT!

I love Harry Potter. Unashamedly. I wanted to go to the midnight showing of DH2, but we literally had to get up at 3:30am to catch our flight to Toronto. You can imagine how I felt about this. Then yesterday M was on home call, so we couldn't go. Tonight, as God as my witness, I will be seeing Potter.

Since I knew I was going to be spending hours in planes/airports, I decided to re-read Deathly Hallows. I really could not remember 75% of what happens in it b/c I just speed skimmed it through to the end. It remains amazing the second time through. I was finishing it up waiting to board our first plane out. I basically just had to close it and put it away like 30 mins before we got on...because I was about to start openly weeping. I thought I could not cry the 2nd time. Wrong. I know I'm going to be a blubbering mess at the theater. The Forest Again? The Prince's Tale? TEARS. Plus no more Potter. My heart can not go on
.
 I can't y'all.

So in preparation, I'm reposting some pictures from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which was super fun and amazing, though sadly pretty small.)

OMG I'M AT HOGWARTS!


Butterbeer is delicious and amazing
 

I could literally post picture after picture. The detail in the castle was fantastic and I took pics of each piece. The portraits, house points, Dumbledore's office, the Goblet of Fire...I geeked out about all of it. 

Does anyone else love Potter? Have you seen DH2 yet? If you haven't read them: DO IT!

Jul 18, 2011

Exhausted

Just got back from a very quick and busy trip to Toronto! We went for M's Chinese side reunion. This side is enormous! I think there were about 70+ Chens all over the place. It is very entertaining to be the whitest white girl at a Chinese reunion. Even better, they all found my southern accent hilarious.

I will recap more later. Mostly it is pictures of food. We had a 9 course Chinese dinner one night that lasted, no joke, 5 hours. We were taking walk breaks in b/t courses. That is just too long to sit and eat! We were so busy. I don't feel like I have slept.

Jul 7, 2011

Obviously

It would figure that the day I posted about how much better I am at boot camp and how I've totally turned a corner would end with me getting my ass handed to me at boot camp. Inevitable.

It was bad, y'all. First off it was late Friday before a long weekend and there were 4 of us there. Let me tell you, you do not want individual 1 on 1 attention at boot camp! I have no idea why, but I just felt like crap the whole time. Wednesday had been an all arms day-and I had done amazingly well at it, which is surprising as I have the upper body strength of a 6 yo. So Friday was all legs. I had no stamina, my muscles were killing me, and my back also got jacked up. My trainer was even like "what is wrong with you today?!" I don't know! It ended with 40 squat jacks, 40 mountain climbers, and 40 burpees. About 30 into the squat jacks he just told me to lie down and do crunches. I was only getting exhausted, and not getting good reps.

We are off this week, so I've been, ahem, resting. I still ran a few times, but I'm not doing hard core intervals or weights. My slacker gene rears its ugly head!

Did you have a fun Fourth? We were pretty low key, but managed to eat some really good food! Are you like me-taking week long breaks occasionally?

Jul 1, 2011

Happy July and Goals

I feel like I haven't written anything of substance ever in a long while. I'm in a rare quiet mood. I think it strikes a lot of people in summer. Can't blog, gotta go play! Anyone else feeling this way? So I thought I would post a bit about what I've been doing and how awesome I am at it.

What I'm Doing

BOOT CAMP! Woot! I'm actually seeing a lot of improvement in my ability to do it and not pass out. In the last week and a half, I feel like I've turned a corner. I don't know if it is me getting better (unlikely), or because I've been going in the afternoon, or if it is the addition of peanut butter to my pre-workout snack.

Results: I've gone to 13 classes in about  6 weeks (missed a few while on vacation). I need to take some pictures, because I can't tell anything just by looking. I think I may do a month by month pictures. I can't promise to share those! Unless I look super hot and you can see my banging 6 pack. So any day now. I definitely feel stronger and I'm able to keep going through each circuit without having to stop. I feel like I have more endurance, and my muscles don't start screaming at me nearly as fast. Plus, I'm not so sore I can't move the next day (which, to be fair, makes me feel like I'm not working hard enough. Masochist.) I'm waiting for this increased endurance to translate to running, but it hasn't really thus far!

-I've pretty much stayed the same weight. But, I did go to FL and drank ate everything. So I am up 2-3 and then down 2-3#s. I do have to admit that this frustrates me. Trying to focus on the non-scale victories. I don't talk about weight much on here, largely because I find if I fixate on it too much I start descending into too much calorie and food restriction. That isn't mentally healthy, nor is it physically healthy. This is one of my biggest struggles-empirically knowing what to eat and do, yet feeling like it isn't good enough or won't work for me. I’ve been feeling discouraged by the lack of scale movement. I need to get over myself. I would like to lose another 10 lbs or so, but would happily stay this weight and go down a few sizes.

-I did measure myself just to see. Last time I measured it was February (oops. way to be consistent there, Carrie) and I weighed about 7# more than I do now. But I seem to have lost about an inch everywhere: waist, hips, thighs. Since I wasn't consistently measuring, I'm not sure if that is from the weight lost or boot camp.


 

Do y'all like to hear what we do each day so you can laugh at me? Or is it boring to read?

I've seen a few people do monthly goals, so I'm just going to steal that idea.

July Goals

1.) Boot camp x 12.

I am totally addicted to boot camp. I have more energy, my back feels a bit better, and I feel like I can do anything when I am done. It is awesome! The hardest workouts I have ever done, yet the ones I have enjoyed the most.

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I'll be out of town for one-we are going to Toronto for a weekend for M's extended family reunion. This is always hilarious because it is his Chinese family...and neither of us speak Chinese. Plus, there is just this random giant blonde girl in all the pictures. It is pretty awesome.

2.) Running 2 x per week on non-boot camp days.

B/c it was kicking my ass so hard, I have been taking the day after BC off. It is hard to run when you can barely tolerate putting weight on your legs! When I run like this I usually do 30 mins or so of intervals. I'm still getting killed whenever we run in the middle of boot camp. I mean, sure, lets do 30 mins of heavy weights and then go run laps! I totally have that much energy left! Who needs to breathe anyway?

3.) More water. Less Diet Coke.

Don't judge me. It is my vice. I love it. I need caffeine to live, and I don't really like tea or coffee.

4.) More focus on diet.

I realize I'm being hypocritical in this post talking about weight loss/not focusing on the scale. Lately I've been just kind of eating whatever, whenever and thus not really making progress in wt loss or any kind of fitness goals. So I'm back to tracking what I eat everyday (which I will not post here as I find most of those posts amazingly boring.) I just want to get a better handle on what I'm eating and how much. I'm not a huge meal eater, but I am a non-stop snacker. I will occasionally food journal just to get an idea how much I'm actually eating. I am a big fan of journalling for most-it can show you how much you are eating, deficiencies, patterns (ie I eat like 50% of my calories after 7pm.), how you are feeling, and basically just teaches you more about how your body works.  Weight loss/maintenance should be just the science of calories in vs. calories out, but it isn't. Everyone's metabolism works differently, so it is always beneficial to know what works for you.

Ok, this got very long! Sorry for the just walls of text, but you should read each word as it is genius.

Do you have any July goals? Any fun plans for the 4th? Any advice on how to get out of my head about the stupid scale? Anyone else fixate like I do? Do you ever food journal?

Boot camp descriptions? y/n?