Workout Wrap Up

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Oh Hello there. It’s Monday which means despite all the lovely things that may be in my life- I slightly hate the day. Mostly because it forces me to put pants on and go to work after 48 hours of pajama-wearing and lounging. (meeeep- typed most of this post this morning, but am just now sitting down to finish up. So, Monday isn’t that bad now that it’s practically over!)

If I were to focus this post solely on what I did over the weekend, there would be absolutely no content. Unless you’re interested in my cleaning the house and watching tv. I did workout though! And with that, I though maybe- since most people are looking to improve their health/fitness with the coming of the new year- I would share my latest workouts. I used to share my weekly workouts all the time, but recently fell out of it because I was forgetting what I was doing. (Um, hello I can’t even remember what I ate yesterday! Oh right, Nutella and trail mix. Oof). I might bring it back on a more regular basis, who knows.

Sunday: 5-4-3-2-1 run intervals with 20 wall balls between each interval (increasing speed w/each interval as well.)

Monday: Pyramid Run (1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1), abs

Tuesday: Athena’s Bosu and Row workout (except I did stationary cardio and ran the stairs since I did this workout at home)

Wednesday: Traditional Hot Yoga at my favorite place

Thursday: 20 min speed work, Tina Reale’s Upper Body Blast . PS: I was the first person to use the new gym in my office building! There are some obvious kinks they need to work out though. All in all, I’m pretty much in love with it.

Don’t mind me and my creepy face. Just look at that beaut of a new facility!

Friday: Off

Saturday: Tina Reale’s 25×25 Lower Body Burner + 4 cardio/lower body Tabatas

I’m pretty pleased with the workouts overall because they were diverse. I could have done a little extra cardio though to get my heart rate up. And to justify some extra drinks/eats had throughout the week. (Not dissing myself here, I’m happy I made time each day to be active!)

***Reminder: I’ll be picking the winner of the Kinnikinnick giveaway TOMORROW (Tues, Jan 7)

****Reminder #2: My half birthday is TOMORROW. So I’ll be Old 1/2.

Going on a Ramble

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I’m going to ramble a bit because I seem to be pretty good at that. The less fluid I can make a post, the better. It keeps you on your toes. Here goes:

I’ve posted this on instagram and on my personal fb page, and since I think it’s hilarious, I’mma post it here, too. Backstory: I made a batch of The Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon buns this past weekend. They were extra sticky because I improvised on the icing ingredients. Ok, boring part of the story out of the way. Reggie (the beagle) hopped onto the center of the dining room table and got to one of the pans. Since he is a master of hiding things, we suspect he ate between 8-10 of them (10 are missing and we only recovered 2). He is obviously the worst dog ever for doing this, [No he’s not] so I subjected him to a bit of dog shaming. Also, Layla is jealous of everything, so I had to make her a sign too. Please note: she was not an accomplice.

I went to hot yoga yesterday. NEW YEAR’S DAY. And my sweat stunk of alcohol. Pro: I actually worked out and didn’t die. Con: The yoga instructor actually massaged my feet at one point during savasana and she probably went home and chopped off her hands. Also, the following picture is so true:

Except I’m probably way worse.

So, my office building just opened a gym which is great for a butt-ton of reasons:

it’s cheaper than any other gym
it’s convenient and I can workout at lunch
can free up my evenings
d all of the above

Only little qualm I have about the whole thing is now I’ll have to lug yet ANOTHER bag into work with me everyday. I have my trusty Lululemon bag that I’ve been using for a couple years, but I found out this morning it’s not conducive to public transit. Meaning, I practically take up a whole bench seat with me and all my bagcessories. [Can I make that a new word? Yup, just did.]

Does anyone have any bag recommendations that are easy to carry for my commute and somewhat roomy? I’m thinking enough to hold my sneakers, outfit, iPod, and 3,564,785,642,345 baby wipes for dry showering. For the record, the gym has showers. And for the record, I never use gym showers. Shall I go on a tangent? YES I SHALL.

Picture it (Actually, PLEASE DON’T) it was junior year of college and our volleyball team had a weekend tournament in Pennsylvania. So it was like a billionty hour bus ride. Since this is a shower story I won’t go into the fact that our coach hoarded our travel money and spent it on Wal-Mart rotisserie chickens, Oreos, and peanut butter for us to live off of. (One of the many reasons we did not do well at that tournament). Anywho, after our last match on the last day, we all agreed we’d rather shower in the gym than waste time going back to the hotel and getting back on our own campus even later. Cut to the locker room where it’s a GROUP SHOWER. And it was ONLY COLD WATER. And we only had ONE tube of shower gel to use and maybe 2 towels. There was a lot of screaming and a lot of ‘don’t look at me-s’ and basically just terror.

So yeah, I’m not a fan of any public showers. And here’s a pic of me playing volleyball. I was really good at it.

Also on the topic of recommendations, let’s hear about your favorite headphones. I am sick of my earbuds that fall out when I jump too much or get too sweaty. Yurbuds maybe?

Today, I got added to a group on facebook for my friggin high school 10 year reunion. Yes, you totally just did the math to figure out how old I am. And no, I’m not going to it. For a few reasons:

Just NO.
I only went there junior and senior year.
I really only remember about 10 of them.
I live in Canada and that’s a stupid ass waste of airfare.
Refer to #1.

Except now that I think of it, I WOULD be staying at my parent’s house if I went…

No, Jen. NO.

And to end on a happy note: In just over a month from today, my best friend from high school (ok, so I did make at least ONE friend at that high school) is coming to visit! Do you understand my excitement that I’m actually getting a visitor in Canada?! I’ve on been here for 675 days. Who’s counting? There are so many things I want to do, I can’t even stand it.

Let’s all laugh at my little motivational snippet taped to the dresser: “Running. Good for you.” Bahahaha.

2013

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Well…shit. Another recap. I’m hypocritting to the max this week.

This one is just a general ‘Shit that I did this year that stands out in my mind’ recap. Surely that’s ok, especially for some newer readers who probably never bothered to shuffle through old posts. Because let’s face it, my blog isn’t interesting enough to really do that.

Without futher ado to my readers both old and new (1. Shit, I’m a great poet. 2. I’m saying ‘shit’ a lot in this post), here’s all the shit I remember from this year- and liked:

Going home to NY and seeing Ashley and Athena. And drinking a lot.

(picture taken from Athena’s recap of that weekend, which can be read here)

Getting my Permanent Residency in Canada. (originally posted here)

Going to Seattle and visiting my BFF. And drinking a lot. (originally posted here)

Celebrating our Anniversary. (originally posted here and obviously I suck and didn’t get a picture of us together!)

Getting Reggie. (same post)

Our Wedding. And drinking a lot. (recap here)

Getting my first job in Canada. (announced here)

Quitting my first jon in Canada and starting my second job in Canada a week later. (announced here)

Getting my first new car! (originally posted here)

Going to Las Vegas to visit fam. And drinking a lot. (originally posted here)

So there you have it. Some of my favorite things from 2013. Sorry that was boring.

In the comments: What was your most memorable thing form 2013?

Pizza Pizza

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I’ve decided that I can’t stand recaps. (probably temporary)

The whole idea of ‘first I did this, then I did this, then I saw this, then I ate this” is somewhat nauseating. I admit to falling into that habit now and again (moreso when I wasn’t working) and realize it’s actually probably more interesting to the writer that they ate pizza on a Saturday night than it is to readers…who probably did the same thing.

So here’s my recap of Saturday night….we went out for pizza. (see what I did there? Bash on something then do the EXACT thing that bothers me. Hypocracy at it’s finest. Feel free to judge, but only say nice things in the comments if you even bother to comment!)

After running mundane errands, I ran over to the gym to bust out this workout. (wanted to share that workout in case you’re looking for something new that will challenge you!)

On to dinner….for a LONG ASS TIME now, I’ve wanted to go to Una Pizza + Wine on 17th Ave. I follow them on twitter and they almost ALWAYS have a wait for tables—> they don’t take reservations. After our fabulous dinner out last week, we agreed that now was the time to finally indulge in what is rumored to be some of the best pizza in Calgary.

We got there around 6:30 and was told a table for 2 would be ready in about 30 minutes. Since the place is practically a hole in a wall, they take your phone #, encourage you to get a drink at a nearby bar, and call you when your table is available. SWEET DEAL, YO. We walked across the street to National and enjoyed some fun, new-to-us brews before the call quickly came telling us to head back to Una.

True to it’s name, the restaurant has a rather large wine selection, so we opted for an entire bottle (c’mon guys, you KNOW me) and it ended up being a great selection! A really smooth wine that paired perfectly with our pizzas.

We both ordered The Beltline pizzas, except I added pineapple on mine- per the recommendation of a friend. You’d maybe expect the flavor to be a little outrageous, considering the combination of ingredients, but it was totally and completely perfect. We were spoiled because what we originally thought to be a less desireable table turned out to be the best spot to watch them prep and cook every order. (I even broke out my stopwatch to see how long it took to cook the pizzas. 7 minutes if you were wondering).

The pineapple on my pizza was cut SUPER thin and the sweetness of that combined with just the hint of maple syrup that was drizzled over top really balanced out the saltiness of the bacon and sausage. There- is that descriptive enough for you? My mouth is watering and now I want another pizza.

We left Una with full bellies and conversation filled with how much we loved the entire dining experience. Now if only we can manage to move to an apt a block or so away, we’d be getting takeout from that place ALL THE TIME.

Also, they had the best bathroom sign ever.

PS: Don’t forget to enter my giveaway here. Deadline for entry has been extended to Jan 7th.

Giveaway Update

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey everyone! Just wanted to pop in real quick and let you know that I’m extending the Kinnikinnick giveaway for another week or so and will be announcing the winner on Tuesday, Jan 7th. Just wanted to give more folks a chance to enter since I believe a lot of people are ‘unplugging’ during the holidays.