Worth Mentioning

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well, it’s Monday. I’d say its back to the grind, but that’s not really the case…. for me anyways. It won’t be back to the grind until I’m home in Calgary where I have my routine with the pup, etc. And especially when I’m back to my usual eating habits! This isn’t technically a vacation, so I don’t think it’s ok that I have gained 5 pounds (not important in the overall scheme of life, but very important for the wedding dress fitting). Until then, it is what it is!

So…some things worth mentioning:

-check out Athena’s recap of this past weekend. She did a way better job than I did.

-have you heard of Vine?

It’s an app that is similar to Instagram, except with 6 second videos! I recently joined, so if you find yourself on Vine, make sure to follow me!!

-I had a bowl of oats this morning for the first time in almost a year! I topped it with a bit of brown sugar, cinnamon, wild bluebs, and walnuts. Accompanied with a couple cups of strong coffee, and I was super satisfied.

I think I was reluctant to get back into oats because they are usually calorie dense with all the add-ins, but I knew I needed some of the nutrients in addition to the staying power!

– Today’s strength workout was courtesy of Best Body Bootcamp. I only slightly modified it to make it look like this:

Round 1 (to be continuously repeated for 15 minutes)

Round 2 (to be continuously repeated for 15 minutes)

I made my own cardio intervals to be done on the treadmill. It looked like this:

And since its snowing cats and dogs, I’m hoping to get back on the treadmill tonight to walk while I watch Biggest Loser!

– I got an email from Citizenship and Immigration Canada today that said I have passed the initial assessment for my permanent resident application! Such good, happy news. I can’t even begin to explain to you the frustration, tears, and anticipation Tyler and I have he’d over all of this. (The tears were min, obviously. Boys don’t cry)

-because of the above mentioned bullet point, there is current a bottle of prosecco in the fridge.

-my Nike+ Fuelband broke last week. Apparently, you are not supposed to charge them through a wall outlet. It’s only supposed to be charged through a device that had a time chip. But, since Nike doesn’t tell you that, you kill it, and then wind up talking to customer service for an hour attempting to troubleshoot only to have to have a replacement sent. Run on sentence? Yes. Frustrated? Heck yes.

-mama is making a Wacky cake. Yay!

Fitness Friends Weekend!

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well hello there.

The weekend is winding down, so I thought I’d sit and push through a post via my iPad. Since the last time I checked in, my Boston gym friends Athena and Ashley drive out to stay with me for the weekend. I had so much fun. And I think they did too. I seriously just really loved having a healthy dose of girl time- filled with good food, drinks, a workout, and fitness talk (my secret favorite indulgence).

Once they arrived Friday afternoon, we headed over to Davidson’s for some food and drinks. We split nachos and I had a bison burger (I keep wanting to ‘moo’ when I say Burger, but since it’s a bison..I’m a little lost as to what noise to make. Ok wait, I just googled it- YUP I’m making this noise and this face every time I say Bison. From now on.)

Saturday, we went to the gym. Obviously! I didn’t take any pictures, so…..sorry. But Athena did and she will probably post them on her blog soon! We chose to do 2 ROUNDS of the deck of cards workout. For the first round, we designated the following:

Diamonds: push-ups
Clubs: burpees
Spades: reverse crunches
Hearts: weighted squats

I shuffled the deck, then got to flipping. For each card, we would do that number of reps for the designated suit. 10 reps for Jacks, Queens, and Kings; 11 reps for Aces. (If you do the math, that’s 94 total reps for EACH move.) 52 cards later- we were only halfway through our workout.

After a quick break, we broke into round 2. For that, we switched the exercises:

Diamonds: tricep dips
Hearts: kettle bell swings
Clubs: jump pliés
Spades: V-ups

We were sweaty. We were shaking. We were tired. we were happy ~~to be done~~. Phew!

Sidenote: just the day before- Friday, before the girls came- I had done Workout C for this phase of Best Body Bootcamp. It was an endurance strength workout which had us doing super sets of exercises repeatedly until we reached 100 reps for each- then we would move onto the next superset. It included weighted squats, lunges and push-ups (among several other exercises), so I was already feeling the burn by the time we did our two deck of card workouts!

Late lunch was at Rock Hill Bakehouse. One of my favorite lunch places to hit up when I am back home. Vegetarian black bean chili and a spinach salad.

Last night, we had my parents drive us down to Saratoga. (Responsible adults, since we knew we would be drinking!!) We stopped into Cantina. There were a few rounds if Pomegranate margaritas first…..then dinner. and another round.

And the only photo I got of the three of us:

We managed to stay there for a bit, but did go to another bar were I had two of the best beers ever.

After the girls left today, I managed to have a nice salad plate topped with eggs, some melon, AND-although being incredibly sore from yesterday’s workout- I used my ‘off’ day from workouts as an active rest day and walked 4.5 miles on the treadmill.

That’s all I have for now! I wrote this entire post with the towel still on my head, so on top of nearly my entire body being sore, my neck is as well!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Question: have you ever done the deck of cards workout? If so, what exercises did you do?

Hi blog

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hi blog.

It’s been a whole week since I posted anything. Not because I didn’t want to, but more because I didn’t want to from my iPad. Terrible excuse, I know. You can stop reading now if you want.

I thought I’d pop in real quick to show you some pics of what’s been up. Here goes:

Basically: food, booze, BBB workouts, relaxing. It’s my life.

Oh, and I tried on my dress. My wedding dress. Fits like a glove.

Oh, and my Boston gals Ashley and Athena are coming for a visit this weekend. Can I get a WOO HOO?!?!!

Have a good weekend!

Friday ‘Fings (instead of ‘things’. Haha get it? Ok, nevermind)

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

So it’s official, my masters came in the mail yesterday. I also got a separate diploma for my certificate in marketing.

Not too shabby. Although, it does make me wonder how employers look into the credibility of these- do they just take my word for it that I hauled ass for an extra 4 years (and $30,000)?

Recapping yesterday:
-I ran errands with my mom
-I did a 40 minute treadmill interval
-I went to the local watering hole for a few hours (and managed to ONLY drink H2O!)

This morning I woke up feeling like crap. Couldn’t blame it on booze since I had none. Methinks it was all the second hand smoke. As a matter or fact, I can still taste/feel that nasty stuff in my lungs. I chose to make a hearty batch of whole wheat pancakes topped with Nutella to go with my daily POT of coffee.

I totally forgot how much the altitude plays a part in baking and cooking! My pancakes in Calgary are usually supah dupah flufftastic, but these (same recipe) were flat as a pancake. I guess that’s pretty appropriate.

I only put about 2 tbsp of the chocolatey goodness on the stack, and they tasted like CAKE. yum.

After an indulgent (but healthy- minus the Nutella) breakfast, I headed over to the mall to get some staples. 2 shirts from JCPenney’s and some FRS chews that we’re on sale sale sale.

I wasn’t hungry at all by the time my parents opted to go out for lunch, but I accompanied them since it was at a local brewery whose beer I had yet to try. No brainer there.
Anyways, Cooper’s Cave is just around the corner from home, so we zipped on over. I saw the special for 6 5oz samples of their home brew (only $10!). Here’s what I had to choose from:

I got the top 6. All were tasty except the Red Ale. Not my cuppa-tea AT ALL.

I also decided to get a house salad so that my lunch was not strictly liquid. There were SO many yummy things in the menu, but I just wasn’t hungry. I can’t wait to go back there again before I leave so I can take advantage of some other goodies!

Tonight’s workout was Workout C with cardio intervals courtesy of Best Body Bootcamp. I took this opportunity to run up and down the stairs for each 5 minute cardio blast. Talk about a A) perfect way to annoy your parents when they’re trying to watch tv, and B) great way to change it up from the typical jumping jacks, jump rope, yadda yadda.

So here’s a funny story: (WARNING: it’s not a funny story at all) my mom gave me a nice belly button ring for Christmas like 8 years ago. About two years ago, the stone fell out. Me, being the lazy bum that I am, left the ring in *sans stone* and with twisted prongs. It wasn’t until I came home this past week that she got me another ring to replace the nasty one.

I guess what I’m trying to say is Thanks Mom.

I am currently in my jams watching everything that’s being aired on Bravo, since we don’t get that network in Calgary. I am entirely too addicted.

Night!