Saturday Sign Off

Hello Internet,

It’s almost 1:30am MST and I’m just getting to bed. This isn’t an unusual bedtime for a weekend, but I have to be up in 3 1/2 hours to catch a flight.

Tyler and I had a pretty full day today: B&E for breakfast, made chocolate chip bars, ran errands, ran 5.2 miles, watched football, made homemade bolognese, brewed a batch of beer and a batch of wine, and watched Storage Wars and Locked up Abroad. Productive.

Layla on the other hand: ate, pooped, and slept. Nothing different.

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In about 12 hours time, ill be giving my mom a wet willy and telling my dad to drive faster.

On a side note: if you are in the Calgary, Chicago or Albany airport tomorrow and you see a girl in stretchy pants doing walking lunges throughout the terminal, say hi cuz it’s me. (And buy me food because I don’t have any American money on me).

I plan on posting like I regularly do throughout my trip (in case you were wondering. Which you probably weren’t.)

Last but not least:

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Leave a comment (please) so that i’ll have lots to read when I can finally take advantage of wifi in my parents house. Stupid Canadian phone will cost an arm and a leg to use in the states so i’ll be stealing any and all wifi that pops up. Most likely at a Panera.

Ok. Wait. Now this is the last comment I have for this post. For reals. The other night I dreamt I was married to the guy that plays the alien dad on The Neighbors.

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Sigh. I need to not watch that show before bed. Ever again.

Pocket Full of Sunshine

1. Yesterday’s workout was a sweaty interval workout on the bike. 35 minutes and I was done! Only two more workouts for this week and I can ‘rest’ while I sit on a couple of flights on Sunday. (I’m no stranger to lunges and squats by my gate…)

2. We sampled only one beer from our first batch of home brew and it was super good!

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3. I started packing. It’s a good thing my drinking pants are also my workout pants. Saves room to bring stuff back.

4. Took Layla to the park this afternoon. Pup was a mental beast with all the fresh snow. I took about 04957203957209 pictures, but will only bore you with two.

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5. I am making these tomorrow. Insert evil laugh and terrible victory dance here. I will DEFINITELY have to do Airport Gate Lunges if I have too many.

6. I posted this video on my personal facebook page yesterday and I still think it is hilarious. I had my iTunes playing pretty loud while I was doing stuff throughout the house, and the Natasha Bedingfield song Pocket Full of Sunshine came on. It immediately made me think of this video clip because the montage is EXACTLY what I was doing yesterday. SO. FUNNY. Seriously people, laugh with me on this one. I got like no feedback on facebook and I was just dying for someone to comment something like “hahaha wow Jen you are so funny to be dancing with your dog and doing chores while singing that song!” But no such luck.

moving on..

7. Wait, there is no 7. I can’t think of anything else to write. Perhaps I should workout to clear my head. OK!

(PS: follow me on Instagram @nutcaseinpoint. Samesies with Twitter. And like my Facebook page)

Workouts and a ‘Me’ Day

You’d think I could publish a post everyday since I don’t work, but I NEED those couple of days to get enough material to write about. Ha.

So I did manage to post on Monday, but I didn’t tell you that I got my hair done. Big whoop!

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Just a little touch up. Keeping my hair on the less-than-platinum side because I think it needs to be a bit darker for optimum wedding hair. 

I then proceeded to ‘ruin’ my salon hair by going straight to the gym for some cardio. (I did the strength portion before my hair appt). Yup, no more straight hair. But 50 minutes and 20 miles on the bike were worth it!

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Check out those chub fingers.

ImageThat was my gracious pre-workout picture from Tuesday. I think too much blood got to my brain. I completed 35 minutes of a circuit interval that LITERALLY kicked the shit out of me. 2 minutes of FULL OUT sprint followed by 3 minutes of recovery. Repeated 6 times. I came home and just about died.

Check out that bum!

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Ow OW!

I managed to clean myself up in time an head downtown to meet my friend Mackenzie for drinks. (More water than actual beer, but I had to drive home!)

Yesterday, I took a ‘me’ day and headed to Banff. A pretty easy, short (and beautifully scenic) drive.

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When I left, it was nice and sunny. Most of the snow had melted. But as I got further into the mountains, snow snow SNOW.

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I got to downtown Banff and walked around through most all the shops for a few hours. Maybe some purchases were made. I also managed to have lunch at Wild Flour Bakery. A veggie wrap that could have been better, but the ambiance was perfect.

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I ended up looping the main street a few times because there were a few gifts I wanted to purchase. I am not an impulse buyer- I literally went into every store without making a purchase, THEN went back to stores where I knew I got the best deal/gift.

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I was looking forward to getting back to Calgary because I wanted to get out of the snow. I don’t like driving in it, especially when it’s not plowed and people drive like maniacs. Oh, and wildlife. As I left, I spotted a huge buck near the train tracks. I immediately thought to myself “I come all the way out to the Rocky Mountains and all I see is a friggin deer? C’mon mountains, you can do better than that!” No sooner did I think that to myself, I got on the highway and saw about a dozen of the largest Elk I’ve ever seen. Still no moose, though. Le sigh.

The initial portion of the drive back was not fun (think bleeding hands from hardcore white knuckling and music off because I couldn’t concentrate enough)

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I just kept telling myself I’d be out of the woods soon- back to sunny Calgary.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh……no. I brought the snow home with me around 6pm yesterday and it hasn’t stopped since. Even Layla’s like “WTF man!”

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After the tense drive home, I switched into my ‘home workout’ clothes (usually really ghetto outfits that I feel comfortable sweating in, but not in public) and got my workout on. I modified the Workout B with Intervals B to Workout B with Cardio Intervals from Best Body Bootcamp. Rather than getting through the strength portion and having a separate cardio session, I incorporated the circuits with a 5 minute cardio blast after each set (similar to the format of Workout A- for those of you who are in BBB). The strength moves got me really sweaty on their own, so the addition of the cardio blasts were a one, two punch to my energy levels. 

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Please ignore the mess in the background- I am packing/unpacking/making a mess. But I did have my workout buddy with me. I do all my home workouts in ‘my’ room- the door is always propped open with a door stop, but I close it whenever I workout because I try to muffle my music/singing for Tyler as much as possible. Layla freaks if I close the door without her in with me, so she is now a regular in the room. The dog who is afraid of everything now doesn’t so much as flinch when I swing my ropeless jump rope just above her head. She just stands or sits or lays around with maybe an eyebrow twitch here and there.

Now you’re caught up.

 

 

This post has a little bit of everything.

I’ve been up since 4am. Involuntarily.

I thought I’d be able to sleep in a bit since I had a LONG day yesterday. Here’s what my Sunday looked like:

  • 6 am wakeup when dog started fidgeting and crying. Butt problems again, you know how it is. And obviously it would be a Sunday because that’s the one day my vet is closed so of course I had to go to the ER clinic and spend even more money on a routine procedure.

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I’m sick of spending money on a routine anal expression, so I had the vet teach me how to do it. Luckily, my dog is totally comfortable with fingers up her butt because I REALLY practiced. 

  • Baked these brownies. I honestly had a little too much fun making them. And that’s probably why the scale registered a slightly higher number this morning.

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  • Put Christmas away. 😦
  • Ran 32 minutes of intervals at the gym (didn’t want to do strength because TODAY is the first day of Best Body Bootcamp! And now that it’s Monday, I can tell you that I already did the day 1 workout. They consisted of pretty easy moves, except they were slow and controlled rep counts. I’ll let you know how THAT feels tomorrow). Oh, and the dog joined in on every move.

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  • Made chicken salad sandwiches for dinner. Best part: it was on a Whole Wheat Farmers Loaf from Cobs Bread. Yummo.

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  • And then I did a ton of other boring little things that don’t deserve a bullet point. The end.

Did you see my post from yesterday though about the special Pv.Body 30 Day challenge? You should check it out. *I* can save *you* 20% on awesome fitness gear. *You* with then thank *me*. Plus, if you sign up, you can join the challenge and win some sweet prizes.

Did you watch the premiere of Buck Wild last week? Because I did. What did I take away from that show? A ‘Holler’ is a place where you can holler to any and all of your neighbors and they’ll hear you. (a little red-necky if you ask me) Also, this song- LOVE IT.

I have also taken to this song as of late:

I always try to sound like her when I sing it. In my head, I’m spot on. In other people’s heads, I sound like a chicken.

Did you know that my wedding in is 6 months from yesterday? Also, my birthday is in 6 months from today. TO RECAP: The first week in July will be EPIC. My favorite holiday (4th of July, my wedding, AND my birthday within four days. Excitement cannot be contained.) 

Did you also know that I’m going back to the States this Sunday?

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So far, my dance card is pretty empty, so get your requests in if you want to be graced by my presence (assuming I somewhat know you and you are in the Upstate NY area. I’m talking to you, silent high school classmate readers. Actually no, not you. But you will find my mother and I sitting at the bar at the 99 in the mall at some point in the next two weeks. Or me at the Y. One of the two.)

If you just did some math from the above paragraph, you will have concluded that today is my half birthday. Woo hoo 26.5!

I have decided to drive out to Banff on Wednesday. I will be on the lookout for bears, wolves, and moose. I might also buy some fudge, Lululemon, and a Canada sweatshirt while I’m there. (Haha, I totally just typo-ed it to read sweatshit)

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Looking for a new deal site to add to your daily email? Honest to God, Rue LaLa is like my favorite site for deals- they have EVERYTHING. Sorry, Canada, they don’t deliver to you, so I suggest to chum up to an American friend or you set up a PO Box in your closest American town. Check that site out, yo.

Or you can check out Zulily. They ship to Canada. Pretty sweet.

Tell me something you did yesterday. Or Today. Or will do this week.

Observations, Pvbody update and a Workout

Observations at the gym

  • Wear shoes with laces. Keds never have been and never will be acceptable at appropriate gym attire.
  • Same goes with tank tops for guys. Especially if I can see your nipples.
  • Please don’t wear perfume/cologne. I don’t want to be on the bike and you walk by reeking of Abercrombie. But DO please wear deodorant. THAT can be scented.
  • The cardio and weight floor should not be immediately next to the cafe. Especially when smells of coffee and cookies are present.
  • Teen night is stupid. It allows teens to congregate around machines I need to use. And they’re probably infecting the machines (and each other)
  • There should be an appropriate distance between each individual in the stretch area. I do not need you to do squat holds 6 inches away from where I am doing core work. Especially if you have gas, which you probably do.
  • Please control your toddlers in the locker room. Also, you don’t get free reign in there just because you came in with babies.
  • Speaking of babies. I think going to the gym during normal business hours is really good birth control. I cringe when I see a room full of those brats in their Spiderman outfits with dirty hands and a screechy laugh.
  • NO SNACKS!
  • I can see you when you flex in the mirror.

Perhaps those aren’t observations, but more like what annoys me. Anyhoo….

Now back to pv.body (yes, I’m pimping it again)

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They started the new year with a 30 day challenge- and you can take part! Hint: THERE ARE PRIZES INVOLVED!

The pv.body 30 day challenge provides you with your own personal dietitian and trainer to help you meet your fitness and health goals. Everyday, our pv.body babes will be given a new challenge that they can share with friends! Challenges include workouts, recipes, meal plans, group activities and more!

You can update your progress through Pins, Tweets or Instagrams by using the hashtag: #pv30daychallenge

(In case you haven’t heard of pv.body yet- and I don’t know how you haven’t since it’s all over the blogging world- they are a monthly subscription service that send you one athletic/workout top and bottom each month. The best part is that they are high end quality brands that retail for significantly more than what you pay for the subscription- only $49! BUT, you can get 20% off that price if you sign up through me!)

Here’s how to take advantage:

1. Sign up here through my link and receive 20% off: 20% off through Nutcaseinpoint

2. Take the pv.body 30 Day Challenge here to kick start your New Year resolutions and receive tons of fun prizes: Challenge

(IMPORTANT: Please note that you will not receive the discount though the ‘Challenge’ link; you have to sign up through my link above to receive the 20% off.)

Not only am I going to write about what bugs me at the gym AND provide you with a sweet hookup for some awesome activewear and prizes, but I am also going to leave you with a sweet workout!

WORKOUT

Cardio: your choice. Incorporate INTERVALS. >It’s only for 20 minutes< Go at a moderate intensity with rest periods, then shorten the rest periods and increase the intensity. Before you know it, you’ll be huffing and puffing, but you’ll be DONE.

Strength: Lately I have been concentrating my strength workouts to specific areas (upper body, lower body, core), but this workout will be a total body one. You’re welcome.

  • Single Leg deadlift (using body bar)
  • Standing hamstring extension (same leg)
  • Single Leg deadlift with overhead press and hamstring extension (building on the original moves)
  • Bosu ball weighted squats (I do these for the length of a song- incorporating different counts to change up the effectiveness of the move. For example: 4 count on the way down, 1 up; 8 count down and up, 2 count each way, etc…)

Go through set with other leg

  • Stability ball concentration curls (10) and half curls (to fatigue)
  • Overhead presses
  • Tricep Kickbacks
  • Arnold Presses

Go through set again with curls done on other arm

  • Plank up-downs with toes on bosu ball
  • Side plank hip dips
  • Single Arm over head press and reach with side knee crunch

Done 3 x thru

 Phew! All this fitness talk makes me want to go to the gym now! 😉