Habitat for Humanity

Last week I volunteered for a wonderful charity called Habitat for Humanity.  The company I work for gives us on volunteer paid time off day a year so we can give our time to a charity of our choice. They partner with Habitat for Humanity for people who want to volunteer with their team at work, so its team building and doing something for the local community.

On Wednesday, keep in mind I kicked my butt all day packing and then doing a weight lifting workout on Tuesday night, I headed over to Northeast Minneapolis near Broadway and 3rd where the current project is building 8 townhomes.

My team was in charge of putting in pieces of wood above all the wall/window framing that drywall can be attached to.   We scavenged scrap 2x4s and 2x10s and measured them out to fit in the spaces and then used a pneumatic palm hammer to put it in. 

I got to use a Miter saw for the first time!

See that sunburn forming? whoops!
Sawing was so fun, go me!

The other half my team was putting in the boards:

I know this post wasn't super health oriented, but voluteering is good for the brain, its good for the soul, see what you can do to support your commmunity and help deserving people in need!

Oh and the next morning....I did a leg workout and 20 minutes of elliptical...GO ME!

Ooh I better take a bunch of pictures, as tomorow is Wordless What I Love Wednesday!

What volunteering opportunities or charities do you like?

How do you support them?

Grocery Shopping

This weekend I moved in with my boyfriend, whoa that was lots of work and we still have boxes around, but they are slowly being emptied and organized.

On Sunday we started thinking about the week ahead and filling up on groceries.  Ryan asked me about *sides* for dinners.  I said we had plenty of brown rice, quinoa, whole wheat pasta and potatoes, but he felt that was getting a little boring and repetitive...how about some asparagus? I was floored! "Ryan, we already have romaine and spinach salad, are you saying you want asparagus as a side with that?", Ryan says, "I like asparagus that would be great!"

Whoa baby! This started a conversation of him sharing more healthy meals with me and basically putting in a couple requests for our grocery list but leaving the rest of to me! Oh wow, am I a happy camper! No longer having to stare at packages of dried buttered noodles or longing for some frozen mashed potatoes, whoo dog!

Check out some snapshots of our grocery trip (we didn't really need any protein this time, after combining refrigerator/freezers we have plenty of chicken b00bs, steaks,pork chops, and ground beef for now)

Asparagus, Sandwich Thins, Chobani!

bananas, peaches, romaine salad, raspberries!



Better Oats and Chobani!!



oranges, milk, cucumber!

Lean Cuisine Thai Spring Rolls
as a last minute time saver when needed

Kashi TLCs and Smart Ones Mini Cheeseburgers
not a regularly eaten food, but great for cheeseburger cravings!

Do you guys like any of my choices?  What should I add?  Oh and, umm, what's the best way to make asparagus? I don't want them to get mooshy in the microwave, should I broil them? We LOVE the flavor of grilled asparagus!

What did you shop for this weekend?

Calorie Tracking

First off, thanks Kris for the great suggestions and motivation yesterday. I will hit up Sports Authority for a hand held water bottle for sure.

I think I want a Polar HRM cause they work with the machines at LA Fitness and lots of friends love and recommend them.

I'm still going to shop for some pocketed running pants somewhere

Now...CALORIE TRACKING!

I know it works because I have witnessed my friend Corryn exercise and track her bootie off to the tune of 20 lbs (congrats girl!) in person and over on Still Chasing Skies. Her blog is insightful and not all about weight loss, but I want to give her credit for her awesomeness :)

I also know it works because when I log everything I eat all week I lose about 1 1/2 a week, sometimes a bit more if I exercise a lot.

But man, sometimes its so annoying, and not because I want to make a crappy choice and "get away with it" or because I want to eat more, but just because some things just seem to take forever to enter in, whether its a hand written log, or online, or on my phone. 

Does anyone else get this frustration?  Mostly the stuff that gets annoying are things like add as I go salads at the salad bar, stir fries, homemade tacos.....I get so frustrated that I just want to eat Lean Cuisines every day cause they are easy, but they are not as healthy as homemade stuff so that's not good!

Today I had a little salad from the salad bar:

spinach leaves
grape tomatoes
a scoop of egg crumbles, mostly whites
a sprinkle of bleu cheese crumbles
a few walnut halves
a small spoonful of sunflower seeds
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

I mean this is healthy, right?  But gah, I don't have measuring things at the salad bar at work! I can't always make my lunch at home, my work has healthy options so I don't feel I have to...but boo tracking this sucks. Separate entries for each one, trying to figure out a good measurement.

This makes me think I always have to pack lunches at home so I can measure as I go, <whine> do I haaaaave tooooo? </whine>

I think this is also why I don't track on vacation, not because I'm eating crap or trying to hide or be off plan, its just that I'm on vacation I don't want to work....or be starting at my phone during a family meal at a restaraunt or running to a computer.

I think I might fit into the majority on this, I *do* track 99% of the time...that 1% being the few times a year I'm on vacation.

Am I being a baby about this?

Run Run Run!

Yesterday I ran 25 minutes nonstop to finish out Week 6 of Couch to 5k!


I looked head to see that week 7 is three more 25 minute runs, so okay its improve my speed week apparently, I can do this!


I've been mostly running on a treadmill, except for one run in Washington last week, it was gorgeous outside and the temp was perfect, that is not happening in Minnesota for awhile, but I want to be ready to run outside when I do!


Things I love about the treadmill
 - controlled environment
 - holds my water bottle
 - holds my music
 - tells me how fast I'm going
 - tells me how far I've gone
 - tells me how much time I have run and how much time I have left
 - great for controlling speed and doing intervals since it controls *me* by how I set it


Things I don't love about the treadmill
 - I feel like a slave to the speed I've set
 - boring when I'm doing long runs
 - I can tell I'm going to get tired of the treadmill when I'm not doing intervals
 - too many people around me on some days
 - I have to go to the gym to use one, fine on weight training days, but I want running to be   more natural


Things that kinda freak me out about running outside
 - I don't know my stats at the end of the run, I love knowing my pace!!!
 - I don't know how long I've been running or how much time left without messing with my ipod
 - I don't know my current pace, or if I've gotten to the pace I'm working towards, etc
 - I can't check my heart rate, if I work to hard, I might not make it through the end if its a time goal
 - I can't stress enough I serious need to know how well I did during my run to be able to keep myself motivated during my run and for future runs, I'm a goals and stats girl!


These are things I think I need:


1. HRM

- so you people that post those awesome maps of your routes and your speeds on each leg of our runs and all that, can one HRM do that or are you using multiple tools? I mean I could run with an HRM on my wrist and carry my phone for map my run I guess?

2. Hand held water bottle

3. Running pants with some kind of pocket cuz I need a place for at least keys


4. Road ID


Where should I get these? What do you have? Any suggestions of things I should add? Also, I'm planning on doing a 5k trail run in September, I need to go get different running shoes for that, right?

Okay so I know this was lots of questions, I hope you guys out there can help me, but I'm also going to do some research and try and answer them, too.

I'm back from WA!

Hey all!  I had a relaxing and fun vacation in Washington state.  Eating is always a challenge on vacations. I did have local favorites and treats here and there, but I also walked all over and I ran 2.6 miles on country roads the 2nd day we were there. It was awesome running on a quiet road, about 60 degrees out with a mist coming down. I definitely was challenged my a slight grade hill on my way back, but that made me even prouder to have done it. I think I'm in love with running outside, now for some cooler weather here in MN and I'm going to do it again soon!

My family stayed in a beautiful beach house in Olympia, WA where we watched the tides come in and out, gazed at stars at night and saw Mt. Rainier during the day.  Ryan and I took two days on our own to venture up to Seattle so I could show him the sights, too.

Here is a little photo diary of my trip :)

Enjoying a sugar free Ring Pop!

A fav snack

Fresh clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
@Lowell's in Pike Place Market

Crab roll @ Lowell's 

My niece and mom!

Jellyfish!

Hamma Hamma Oyster Shots

3 men to BBQ salmon?

Huge pancakes, I could only eat one!

A nice harbor in Bremerton

Ryan and I on a ferry

My favorite food

The Experience Music Project
 @Seattle Center

Top of the Space Needle

View of Seattle from the Space Needle

View of Seattle from the ferry

What works and doesn't work for vacation

I have another vacation starting tomorrow, its 5 days, with my family and friends in Washington state.

On my trip a couple weeks ago to Cleveland, I was visiting my boyfriend's family for the first time, visiting Cleveland for the first time, and attending a wedding.  So a bit of uncomfortableness that could have led to eating, a wedding which usually leads to eating, and touring a city that can lead to "try this speciality and drink this specialty!"  Well guess what, I had some extra food at the family potlucks, I tried a corned beef sandwich at a special deli, I even tried local beer...and well, I had fun, didn't feel stressed out, put on about 2 lbs and lost it within 1 1/2 weeks of coming back from my trip. 

No harm, no foul? That's what I'd say!

How is Washington going to be different?

1 - I am the tour guide for my boyfriend, I can pick where we go and also what do you eat in Washington SUSHI AND SEAFOOD! I'll be in tasty, healthy heaven!

2 - I love everything in Washington, but I also grew up there and have visited every year since we moved away, there is nothing there that I feel the need to stuff in my face, gorge on, drown in, etc

3 - Unlike Minnesota the weather is BEAUTIFUL there right now, yeah it might rain, but so what, rain there is awesome...but its not all day everyday, so I can run outside and be able to breathe fresh oceany air I'm so excited!

4- My family is staying in a vacation home with a full kitchen, we will be grocery shopping for ourselves when we get there, so I don't even have to pack a bunch of safe foods, my family is a bunch of healthy eaters! YAY! (hehe, my boyfriend may OD on being offered veggies, Hahahahaha!)

5 - No stressful feelings about this vacation cuz there are no new people, my parents rented and put together everything, I just had to get my own rental car and schedule visiting some of MY friends, YAY!

So....this trip should ROCK. It is a vacation I may indulge in a couple local brews on my "treat" day, but I think this is gonna be awesome!

I may check in with some photos while I'm gone and some reports of my eating and exercise!

Coming up Next Week:
I want to buy a HRM, I'd really like one that'll do GPS...think about the ones you like and be ready to talk me through a purchase! (Oh I also have  Polar discount that I got from Jen - A Priorfatgirl so I will most likely be buying from them

I also won a prize from Kris@KrisGetsHealthy and it has lots of cool stuffs in it! I'll tell ya'all about that next week, too!

Hot Fun Food Run

Hello from the hottest/highest dewpoint in the world for the last for days! Minnesota! Can you believe it?

Today our heat index is 110 and the temp is 95, both are higher than the Amazon rainforest...yup, lovely.


I spent most of my weekend indoors packing up my apartment or just staying cool in AC..except for Saturday evening, whoo even after 5pm it was hotty boombalotty!


I was going to try and do my run on Friday, but I was still sore in the calfs and hips from getting my butt kicked in a leg workout on Thursday morning, Plus, I fell asleep after dinner for a few hours and slept a full night after that. Yup exhausted, probably from staying up super late on Thursday night seeing Harry Potter!


Saturday was my busy day this weekend! Lots of errands in prep for two parties I was attending!


I first popped over to Muddy Paws Cheesecake and picked up a "hand selected slices" cheesecake made up of Nutella, Raspberry Swirl, Chocolate Decadence and Key Lime for my friends. I also picked up a "toffee sampler" cheesecake to be delivered to the birthday party I was going to! Oh man, it was so hard not to eat them in the car!!


Then it was vet time, Shorty was great, only disliked the thermometer in the "bum" but Isis hissed, batted and growled, she didn't hurt anyone, but we did a very quick exam so she wouldn't stress out. Poor girl, she hates being anywhere but home.


Got my nails done, aaah its nice to have a little bit of a mini vacation at an inexpensive nail salon while they soak your feet and you get to sit in a massage chair, its the little things people!


Finally, I popped on a sundress and headed over to Tiger Sushi 2 in uptown for a birthday party, yes it was still 90 degrees outside, but we were on a covered patio so we enjoyed the hot temp and the breeze, but no beating down sun.  It was nice to enjoy sushi and cool drinks in the warm weather.


I had a custom roll here it is!

Does that look yummy? I love sushi, its my favorite food. When I have a craving for a specialty type of roll I will only get one because they always have some extra caloric treats in there like tempura, spicy sauce and probably extra rice.  I'll then round my meal out with some edamame or seaweed salad.

If I'm feeling like I need more than "one" at a sushi restaurant, I will get a combo of sashimi (which is just fish), some nigiri (which is fish on rice), and some basic maki (fish, rice, wrapped in seaweed).  My favorites are yellowtail and super white tuna!

After fun times at the sushi restaurant, my boyfriend and I headed to a suburb in the NW corner of the cities to gather with old friends. There was beer (I only had one!), ribs that were smoked all day, a freshly made kale salad (so good! I've never had one before!), and lots of catching up.  Once the sun started to set, the temp outside was *only* in the low 80s so it was a lot more tolerable, so we actually sat on the patio until us girls decided to go inside and get away from the mosquitoes, the boys were roughing it, haha. 

On Sunday I did my first 20 minute, non-stop run on the treadmill! It was week 5 day 3 of C25K and I did it! I ran a little bit slow with an average of about 4.1 mph total (4.3 mph running, but also a 5 minute cool down and warm up during the 30 minutes).  I'm so happy!! I've never ever run more than 8 minutes all in a row so this is such an awesome milestone for
me!

Yay 20 minutes!

Thanks for reading my weekend wrap up, I hope you all had awesome weekends, too!