This week in words

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Crap, it’s Sunday already. No es bueno. Since I have been pretty M.I.A. in posts this week (besides my minor tangent on relationships through music) I decided to recap the week. Do you care? No. But I have been reminiscing all day so I’m going to write about it anyways.

Monday

Workout: Strength Circuits in my room

Other: Group tasting for my wedding food. It did not go well. And by ‘not well’ I mean that I decided to go with the company I met with last week instead.

Tuesday

Other: Bought my Wedding Dress! (Not showing anyone but Kysha and Katie and my parents until next summer) Here’s the best part: since I have a freakishly irregular shaped body, I had to customer order the gown. How freakishly irregular, you ask? (Think in dress-size terms. Boys: skip ahead) My chest is size 5, waist is size 8, and hips are 14. Woof.

Workout: Liz’s Kix class and Athena‘s circuit training. After I bought the dress, I headed out to Boston to see my gym family and have a 2 hour workout. Best 2 hours ever. Super sweaty, pain, laughs…basically all of my favorite things.

Wednesday

Workout: I stayed overnight at Athena’s and she taught spin the next morning. I haven’t taken a spin class since March, even though I have been using the bike in my own workouts. She had fantastic music, and used some of Tina’s intervals from Best Body Bootcamp (If you can’t tell already, Athena and I are fitness twins. Except, sometimes she can do way more regular pushups than me.)

Other: After spin, I went shopping. Actually, is was more like wasting time. But I did buy a shirt. Then I headed to Kysha’s surprise baby shower! I hadn’t seen my bestest friend in a year, and she looks fantastic. Better than fantastic. Once the shower was over, I headed up to my cousin’s house to crash. I was a total couch surfer this week. And I put 1,000+ miles on my parents car. Whoops.

Thursday

NO WORKOUT.

Other: I helped my mom buy a wheelchair for my aunt. Yes, a sentence I never dreamed of typing. I also met up with my high school bestie- she lives right across the street from my parent’s house and we may or may not have matching tattoos that were established roughly around our 18th birthdays. We had a drink- she introduced me to a Baby Guiness (a shot with Kahlua on the bottom and Bailey’s on top)- and stayed out till 3 am. Insert headache here. Not from the booze, but from the late bed time.

Friday

I’m not even kidding, I sat on the couch from when I woke up (11:30am) until 11pm. What was I watching? The Police Women of Memphis and Police Women of Broward County on OWN. That’s right, Oprah stole a show from TLC.

Workout: I actually fell to the floor somewhere between the hours of 8 and 10 and did lots of ab work.

Saturday

EARLY WAKEUP, Y’ALL. I had to pack, do my homework, paint my nails, workout, and do my hair before my 11 am departure time. Which turned into noon.

Workout: I trekked down to the basement for a good, sweaty 60 minute session. I did intervals on the treadmill and strength circuits. Here’s how I broke it down:

Once I got BACK to Boston for the second time this week, I slapped on some makeup, and we all met up for my girls night/bachelorette party. (I took a whopping ZERO photos, so I am waiting for Athena to post her recap and I can direct you guys to her!)

We started off with dinner at Granary Tavern then headed over to Ned Devine’s for the Improv Asylum’s bachelorette/drag show. One of them kissed me ON THE MOUTH.

And I capped off the night with street sausage. I do recall referring to it as ‘saw-seeeeeeeeige’ for quite some time.

Sunday

Today sucks. I left Boston, got stuck in redonk traffic, and was crammed with a few hours of plug-n-chug homework. And I still have to work out. Since my brain is fried, it will probably be something similar to yesterday’s.

To end on a funny note, I will tell you that this picture can pretty much sum up the entire night last night:

A HUGE thank you to all the girls who went out of their way to make last night super awesome! I can’t wait to get back to Boston already!

Back Home

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hello from NY!

Ok, I just gotta say it: Yesterday was one of the best days I have had in a LONG ASS TIME. Sure I woke up at 2:30am, and yes I sat uncomfortably close to a dude on the plane. BUT. My 9 hour layover in Chicago was a-may-zing. Katie picked me up from the airport and right away we started gossiping. Oh god, how I miss that! We got to her place and immediately hit the pavement for some exploring. First stop: a bar. Obviously. At 11:00am. Sam Summer Ale, how I love you so. Fast forward a few hours, and we had shopped, hung out at her place, and hit another bar for apps and more drinks. Back at the airport by 6pm and more bevvies while waiting for my connecting flight. I can’t wait for my return flight in a couple weeks (Ok, i can wait. But it’ll be exciting) because I have another 9 hour layover in Chicago!

Today was recoup day.

And go to Target day.

And eat homemade guac and salsa (ALL the ingredients were from the garden!) day

And little old ladies (aka: mom) walk around the house in my brand new shoes day

And ravage my parents ~~forest~~ garden for some goodies day

And steak and veggies for dinner day (minus the steak- I just wasn’t feeling the whole red meat thing today. I think somewhere pigs are flying right now)

And Frozen Dreams for dessert day. I was LONG overdue.

Workout of the day was 20 minutes of sprint intervals on the treadmill followed by some full-body strength exercises that incorporated the ideas from Best Body Bootcamp‘s Phase 2 workout schedule. I changed up the tempo of the movement for each exercise- so I varied between 1, 2, 4, and 8 counts for both direction of each move. It really fatigued my muscles a lot faster and I was able to get in split squats, weight bosu squats, chest press, flys, deadlifts and tricep dips in enough time to get home for dinner. I didn’t want to overdue it because I’m looking to do a long run around the neighborhood tomorrow. Sidenote: I was able to increase my speed on the treadmill this week (maybe it’s the lower altitude?)

Toodles!

July Foodie PenPals!

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I have no idea why I am so cheery today. I woke up at 4:45, laid in bed for another 20 minutes, and somehow I had the urge to jump out of bed and get my workout done for the day. Even the dog was like, ‘realllllly ma?!’ I put my sneaks on, skipped over to ‘my’ room, popped in the ol’ headphones and got to work.

Today’s workout was yet another from Best Body Bootcamp (sorry if it gets annoying to read, but Tina really does run a great program. She gives you a Google Doc checklist that’s only visible between you and her, and you’re supposed to hit your activity and 2 weekly goals at least 5 out of the 7 days. You have no idea how motivating it is just to aim for getting that ‘x’. I mean, I’m always motivated to work out, but when there are prize incentives AND you read about others’ journey through their blogs- it’s even better.)

So today’s workout was lower body supersets + 20 minutes of steady state. It was identical to last Tuesday’s workout, except this week we were supposed to add another set of the ‘to fatigue’ exercises. Best part: I upped my wall-sit time by 30 seconds!

My favorite move from this workout? Sit-n-stands. To spare my explanation, check out this video:

It’s about 100x harder when incorporated with other lower body exercises, AND when you hold weight (I did 20 lbs).

Now on to more fun stuff….Foodie Pen pals!

First, the details:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.

-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!

-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!

-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)

-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.

-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa.

If you are interested in participating for August, CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

Ok, onto what I got this month!

Drew sent me this pile of goodies:

Not gonna lie, I ‘oohed and aahed’ for a good 5 minutes after opening this up. It was all new-to-me stuff and I couldn’t wait to try it all!

There were teas (yummmmm)

Seriously the coolest flavors ever. And the salt water taffy! It was first to go.

I haven’t tried the spreads yet because I haven’t been in my toast phase lately, but it’s going to be a great treat when I get to it!

Thanks again, Drew!!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Pooped

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

I feel like I have nothing good to say. Probably because I’m EXHAUSTED.

I cleaned. I ran errands. I shopped. I did homework. I worked out. I walked the dog (aka: workout #2). I watched more of the Olympics. And now, I’ve gotta somehow spit all this out so I can get to Tyler’s football game.

So, I’ve been watching one of the American channels to get good coverage of the olympics (Bob Costas is WAY better than any of these lame-o Canadian broadcasts. Fo’ real) And they recapped the opening ceremony- music included. I SWEAR TO GOD I’VE HEARD THAT INTRO SONG BEFORE. And then it hit me- this is where I know that song:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d7e5ec2c55/highfive-from-almost-twins-jake-bob-turton-and-jack-packard

I might have to reenact this. Any volunteers?

I had Layla wear her name scarf

I painted my nails in a variety of purple

And I painted the bathroom

Tackling those cupboards next. Anyone know the best way to do that? Spray paint? Help!

Today’s workout was courtesy, once again, of Tina from Best Body Bootcamp. It was almost identical to last Monday’s sweat session, except we did an extra set of the ‘to fatigue’ exercises. 4 rounds of upper body supersets and 20 minutes of 60/60 HIIT. I actually got to the HIIT portion just as the US Men’s Beach volleyball team played Poland, so I ditched the idea of going to the gym and did my intervals in front of the TV. After 20 minutes, the US lost and I won ~~a lot of sweat .~~

Is it sad that one of the things I’m most excited about when I go home is my workouts? I have been in Calgary for 5 months and have been adjusting to the high altitude. I can’t wait to see my running capability when I get back to NY!

(Sidenote: I am selling my Kayak, paddle, life jacket, and Thule rack since I can’t take it back to Calgary with me. If you are in the upstate NY or Boston area and are interested, let me know! BTW, the Kayak is pink. So I’m guessing I’ll have no male takers.)

I am also excited for Frozen Dreams (this is right down the street from my parents house. I am totally walking there everyday. EVERY.DAY.), Trader Joe’s, Dunkin Donuts, and TAR-JAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY (Target, people. You have no idea how good you guys in the states have it. There are no Targets here. And I am unemployed. DO YOU KNOW how much time I can waste in that store?! SO EXCITED TO USE MY TARGET CARD. AHHHHHHHHKLKHGSLDHSDF(—-> that’s a little too much excitement). I’m also gonna buy a shitload of stuff while I’m home. I’d rather pay the $25 baggage fee per bag at the airport than have my mom ship stuff to me. Or buy it here.

(Sidenote: There are a lot of the same stores up here, but man oh man so I miss me some American Malls, y’all. Macy’s, I’m coming for you. And Urban Outfitters, watch out. Seriously)

I just mapped the route Layla and I took for our walk. We went 3 miles (4.83 kilometers). Girlfran hadda plunk it on someone’s yard for a bit. It was hot. And hilly.

I hosed her down when we got home. Considered doing the same to myself. But I didn’t want to scare the neighbors.

Still looking for people interested in guest blogging. I’d be insulted if you didn’t volunteer. Pleaseeeeee?!

Bunnies!

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

My neighborhood is infested with bunnies. Correction: small child eating hares. Yesterday, I saw about 300 of them in my front yard…and I actually got pictures to share.