Catch-up not Ketchup

The weekend was great. Relaxing time spent with both Jason, my Sister and nephew. Friday night after work, Jason and I met at La Reunion in Helena. If you live in the area, you know about this little hidden gem. They serve very yummy food and have a great environment for hanging out and playing games. Friday nights, they do trivia. It's both maddening and fun to have that going on in the background while we concentrate on our game. However this particular night, we were learning how to play a new game, Settlers of Cattan. It doesn't come with instructions, rather an Almanac! I'm not very good at reading and following directions, so we sometimes make me figure out how to play a game to stretch me. After about 30 minutes of having no idea what I read, I passed the buck to JP. He, on the other hand, is good at figuring stuff out. (In fact, there's really not much that he can't do.). Remember there's very loud trivia going on around us so this takes skill of concentration.  I got put on charge of ordering dinner. We shared an egg salad sandwich (pretty good) and a Asian chicken salad sandwich (yum) and potato salad (amazing!).

After much reading, (along with a hefty learning curve), we finally figure out how to play. For a total of nearly five hours we played! At ten, they closed and we carefully moved everything to the front porch. What a fun game! Since it requires at least three players, we both played two people. That was sometimes confusing but helped both your opponents.

Time always passes too quickly with Jason around. It's like a vortex an the next thing we know it's Sunday night. But this weekend held a lot I adventure!

Saturday day, I spent time with my sister and nephew. We went out to eat, wandered around Target then headed to her house. Somewhere during that time, I developed a headache, which quickly turning into a migraine. By the time we arrived at my sister's, I collapsed int middle of my nephew's bedroom floor. It was dark, quiet, and cool. I was laying in corpse position, trying to get the pounding to stop. I'm pretty sure I scared my nephew. He was so sweet though. He would quietly come check on me. Sometimes standing right next to me. Other times, he laid in his bed next to me. Never saying a word. Just quietly loving me. Sweet baby! I eventually fell asleep and woke up about 40 minutes later feeling nearly completely better. Praise the Lord!

I was to meet Jason for a concert, Act of Congress. I'm so thankful my head got better, I would have kicked myself for missing that concert. They are incredibly talented musicians who play excellent bluegrass [http://www.actofcongressmusic.com/]. Check them out on iTunes as well.

Sunday, Jason and I got to go to the McWayne Center! We've been wanting to go there for two years now. We had so much fun playing with all the exhibits and even watched an IMAX movie on coral reef. It was a fun day filled with wonder an excitement.

Monday's workout was a no-go. My fault entirely. I couldn't get up. JP told me to go back to bed and I slept another 2.5 hours!

Today's workout was great! We did Bob's Warrior Yoga again. I'm finding some things getting easier; flexibility within stretches but I have trouble on ab work. Obviously those muscles haven't been used in a while and even though I tell myself not to complain, I still yell at Bob! (Good thing he can't hear me! He'd make me do more, I'm sure!)

I just found out that Jason won't be able to workout with me next week, so it'll be the true test of my endurance and commitment for myself to get up out of bed and put in the work. I'd like to say ill be strong, but it'll be so tempting to sleep in. Augh. I can't even think like that! I actually enjoy working out in the AM instead of at night after a long day at work.

On TBL tonight, they were driving the point home that exercise doesn't have to be boring. There's so many different activities that are fun and burn calories. I need to find my niche, so I'll look forward to working out. Once I start to see results, I know that'll be the push that motivate me more than anything.

What about you? What form of exercise do you do that's fun while getting a good workout in?! Anyone doing ZUMBA?! Please let me know what's helped you!

Exhausted

I'm so unbelievably sleepy. I can't wait to go to bed! It's only 8pm too! Today's late post is because I slept through this mornings workout. I woke up around 5, but Jason said he'd been calling and texting me with zero reply. I don't know why I'm so exhausted!! So he went to work early and I went back to sleep for TWO hours! In a way, it was nice but I missed working out this morning. I'll make up for it tomorrow. 

Bob's new Inside Out Method DVD set arrived today. Fun! I need to take "before" pictures before we start changing! 

I'm too tired to say anything intelligent, just wanted to give a quick update. I'm going to bed now. 

We Are Warriors

Last night, Jason and I celebrated our second year anniversary! All along, we've been celebrating the day we met, every 19th of the month. We've been counting the months up to 24. I told him last night we need to start with 2.0 now. Ha. So next month will be 2.1. I know it might seem silly to some but we are so thankful God ordained our meeting two years ago! 

For some reason we both had it in our heads that our anniversary was today (Tuesday) so we were surprised to find out it was yesterday. We met after work and went to P.F.Chang's for a yummy dinner! I even brought home leftovers so I get to relive the experience again tonight! 

I wanted to challenge us a little for today's workout. We did Bob Harper's Inside Out Method Warrior Yoga Workout. If you'll remember, we did the 15 minute abs the other day and nearly died. So there was some apprehension coming into this workout. I knew we could do it though. 

It starts out fairly normal, breathing through your nose as you rotate through the poses: downward dog, baby cobra, plank, warrior 1 & 2, triangle, chair, etc. I noticed early on that we were sweating a lot more than when we do TBL workout. We were also doing moves we've done before and therefore I believe we gained confidence in our strength. The title "Warrior" can be a tad intimidating but with Bob as our guide, he teaches you that you're far more capable than you give yourself credit for!

Its actually a 60-min routine but we only have 30-min. We made eve minute count. I know I pushed myself in ways I haven't been able to before. There's a pose where our thighs are on fire but we have to sink a little lower and reach for our ankles. Mr. Bendy never has to even think about this move but I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it after a bit of warmup. I was able to actually reach my ankle! Score one for Mer! 

We had a great workout! I was actually sad that our 30-min was up. But in order to get 60 in, I'd have to get up at 4:30am. I'm not quite ready for that type of commitment. :) I'm doing good to get up at 5. I need to do better about getting to bed earlier though. 

I'm sitting here blogging, as Jason comes in to tell me goodbye (about to leave for work.) He leans in for a hug goodbye and say, "Whew! You stink!" I take that as a compliment. It means I worked hard and sweated! He said, "I bet I'm going to read about this later, aren't I?" I said, "Yep, you gotta be careful about what you say around a blogger. You never know what I'll use!"

I think we're going to the second half of the DVD tomorrow. From what I saw, it looked like ab work. Whew, we're gonna be hurting... In a good way! 

Happy Trails! 

Week 2 Day 1

I had an interesting weekend.  They're never as long as they need to be to recover from the week, but I'm thankful for having weekends off.  At different times in my life, I wasn't so blessed.  Friday night, Jason and I went to one of our favorite hang out places in Montevallo called Eclipse Coffee.  They have a great menu and so we tend to overeat.  But this time, we only ordered one thing at a time and shared while playing games.  We found that we really didn't need so much food (Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, Tuna Fish sandwich and pretzels).  Good for us.  They also serve the most amazing peanut butter chocolate milkshake!  I'd been thinking about it all night.  Wrestling with whether I should get one or not.  I had been so good all week and hadn't had any sweets.  Oh, it was calling my name!  I finally decided it was OK.... and.... they were out of ice cream!  Noooooooo!  So my craving went unfulfilled but my waste line didn't increase.

Saturday, I headed to Sybil's Stoneycreek Farm with some close girlfriends to have a farewell luncheon for our good friend CPH.  Her husband is in the Navy and they are being transferred to Virginia.  Sybil was a fabulous host as always; excellent food, great company.  It was fun to hang out with one another, chasing after little ones, taking pictures and just generally enjoying the day.  All the while, remembering that at the end, I'll have to say goodbye to my friend.  We've been friends for 10+ years.  Hard to believe.  I still remember the day we met.... Thanks D$ for introducing a life long friendship.

After our tearful goodbye, I raced home as I needed to make a dessert for the game night my friend was hosting.  I had the idea to make it a special St. Patrick's Day dessert, in that I used hidden green things.  I wasn't sure people would go for it, but everyone loved the creativity.  After dinner, we played Telestrations, which is the visual equivalent of the classic school-yard game "telephone." It's a fun-filled sketching game in which everyone's attempts at "art" can turn hilarious. The game starts with a secret word that is passed from player to player. As the word is sketched, interpreted, and then sketched again, it undergoes a visual transformation that will surprise and delight everyone.  We laughed and laughed and laughed.  Love that game.

 

Sunday, I met Jason at church.  Wow, what an incredible service!  I could write a whole blog about the lesson and maybe should.  It was powerful and touched many.  After church, we were supposed to go to McWayne's, but I had a massive allergy attack!  I couldn't quit sneezing and my head was killing me and I felt so sick.  It came on so sudden and unfortunately will last until there's a good rainstorm to wash all the pollen away.  I have a tolerate/hate relationship with spring.  I hate that it got in the way of our fun day.  Oh well, we both had a nap instead and watched a movie.

 

 Which leads me to Week 2 Day 1 of waking up early to workout.  Nothing exciting to report, really.  We did Dance Praise, which my knees and hips will be screaming at me later, if they aren't already.  We laugh the whole time though, so that's a lot of fun.  We need more cardio in our workout though.  We either need to make time to go back to the gym for a little bit or get out and walk or something.  Personally, I'm going to avoid going outside at all costs during this season.

I ordered Bob Harper's (from The Biggest Loser) Inside Out Method DVDs the other day for only $20!!  I know Bob and he's going to kick our tail, but that's exactly what we need.  I can't wait for those to arrive to kick start our workout routine.  We've also talked about doing Turbo Fire too.  I think it looks like a lot of fun but hard work too.  My friend has done it and seen amazing results.  We'll see... 

OK, I feel like I'm just rambling, so I'm going to go get ready for work.  Have a great day all!