Monthly Archives: April 2009

Bootcamp in the am + Dave Matthews concert in the pm make for a very tired Lee.

More to come.

I signed up for Boot Camp along with two of my friends. It officially begins next Tuesday but part of the deal was that if you went to the Bring A Friend Day last weekend, you could come to any of this week’s sessions for free. It seemed like too good of a deal to pass up for a few extra hours of sleep. So I sat my alarm for 6 am and managed to get in bed and fall asleep before 10:30.

There are several boot camps going on in the morning at Piedmont Park. I like the one I signed up for because it’s a lot smaller than some of the more popular ones. Today, there were six people, me and my two friends included. A smaller group allows the instructor to pay more attention to everyone. This morning actually seemed a bit easier than Saturday. Here is what we did:

Some running
Step Ups
Triceps Dips
This relay thing that involved running up and down a hill and doing pushups and sit ups
Walking Lunges

My hamstrings and glutes are finally feeling less sore from Saturday but now my quads are burning, I guess from the step ups. I really wonder how much of a difference this class will make in my general fitness level and my appearance. I am a little nervous that I am going to lose my ability to run long distances because I’m constantly too sore from boot camp. I guess the soreness will pass and by next week, I’m hoping that I will be able to do boot camp in the morning and run some evenings. Ambitious thinking, I know.

I probably should get ready for bed now. Getting up at 6 am is going to take some getting used to. Plus, I’m going to see Dave Matthews Band tomorrow night right after work so it’s going to be a very long day. Fortunately, there is no boot camp on Thursdays.

I somehow neglected to mention in my last post how sore I am from bootcamp yesterday. OMG. My butt and hamstrings are crying. I texted Jaime and she said the same thing. We figured it was from the combination of the lunges and the stair climbs, but really from everything.

I got bored today so made a trip to both Target and Whole Foods for some goodies.

I find that in order to get the best prices, I have to shop at a bunch of different grocery stores. Sometimes I’m too lazy, but usually if I’m at..say Kroger, I won’t buy things at I know are cheaper at Trader Joe’s until I go there. Here’s a rundown of a few things that I like to buy on a regular basis and which store has the best prices.

Kashi Products – these go on sale a lot at both Kroger and Publix, but when they are not on sale, Publix is definitely cheaper. They are also reasonably priced at Target.

Amy’s Products – Definitely Target. I wish I had a Super Target near by because my Target’s food selection is pretty limited.

Morningstar Farms – Again Target by a landslide. Although these do go on sale periodically at Publix and Kroger.

La Tortilla Wraps and FlatOut Wraps – Publix. I’ve never even see FlatOut at Kroger.

Shirataki Noods – Whole Foods. They are a good 50 cents cheaper.

Greek Yogurt (Fage, Chobani and Oikos) – Whole Foods again.

It’s difficult to compare Trader Joe’s with the other stores since they have a lot of their own brands but generally I find that the frozen shrimp and chicken and the cheeses are way cheaper there.

You’ll notice in the picture that Zevia soda. I’d been wanting to try this for a while but never saw it in single cans until today. I got the root beer flavor and I didn’t really like it. It wasn’t the Stevia, I don’t think, although I don’t like the taste of that too much. It just sort of tasted like a natural soda and I guess I crave chemicals. I also bought carob chips and didn’t really like them. This might not be such a bad thing though since chocolate chips are one of those, “I’ll just grab a few more straight from the bag” things. Maybe the carob chips will be better if they were melted.

I mentioned a few days ago that I found this website that had all these half off coupons and one of the things on the website was a boot camp. I’ve always wanted to try one but it’s been too expensive and I couldn’t justify the expense. Seriously, they normally range from around $250-$350 per month. Who can afford that? So, when I found this deal for $125, I told a few friends about it and they were interested too.

One of my friends, Jaime, found out that they were having a bring your friends day on Saturday. You didn’t actually need to have a friend currently in the class, it was basically just a day where anyone could try it out. So, Jaime, her friend Ali and I met at Piedmont Park at 9 am to see what the deal was.

There were only about 8 people there, including the three of us. They split us into two teams and had a race between the teams to complete a set number of exercises. And man, was it hard! We basically had to a pick a number from a list of 1-12 and they’d tell us the corresponding exercise. Some of them were burpees, squat jumps, plank, crab walk, stair runs and walking lunges. It was really hard! Especially the crab walk and the burpees. It was a good hard though. I tend not to push myself very well when it comes to working out. Sure, I run a lot but, unless I’m training for something, I tend to do the exactly same distance at the exact same pace. I need to shake up my routine. Badly.

So I think I’m going to do it! It’s at 6:30 am which is going to be difficult but also will probably be very good for me because it will force me to go to bed at a decent hour and not drink during the week.

I used my Free Kashi entree coupon to get something that I hadn’t tried, the Tuscan Veggie Bake. I’ll come right out and say it, this was probably the worst Kashi meal that I’ve had. I’ve tried a few of the Kashi frozen meals and they’re mostly decent but this one was really bad. It looked like it was some sort of vegetable filled lasagna. But all that stuff that looks like cheesy goodness in the picture was really some sort of gross tasting sauce. The noodles and some of the veggies were okay tasting but this weird sauce sort of permeated the entire dish. I really am not sure what the sauce is. I looked it up on the Kashi website and it just talks about a spicy tomato sauce, which is what is on the top, but there is no mention of this odd cream-colored sauce.

The nutritionals were fine and it was filling enough for a frozen entree, but the taste was just…bad. This might be one of those love it or hate it type things because the comments on their website about it are either on one end of the spectrum or the complete opposite.

The latest development in the “Lee kills all electronics that she gets her hands on” saga. (seriously, my computer at work wouldn’t turn on for 10 minutes today for absolutely no reason. Then it randomly just started to work again.) I have a new Iphone. And, I think it’s a brand new one. I had purchased a refurbished one online but there was something wrong with the LCD screen. I drove to an Apple store about 10-15 minutes away on my lunch break to see if they could fix it. They determined that there was a problem with the phone and it wasn’t just me being dumb and said that since I didn’t have anything on the phone, they’d just give me a new one all together! So, I think, but am not sure, that I might have gotten a brand new Iphone for the price of the refurbished one! Score. I might or might not have spent half my afternoon trying to look busy but secretly downloading apps. Speaking of, can anyone recommend any good ones? I’ve only begun to look at them, but I’ve downloaded Facebook, Pandora, NPR addict and Allrecipes.

I bought a new cookbook when I was at Target the other day. I kept going back to it in the store and finally just bought it. It’s the Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast cookbook. Most of the meals have 5 or less ingredients and can be made in 15 minutes or less. My kind of meal! I made my first recipe out of it tonight and really enjoyed it. These were refried bean stuffed poblano peppers (they are pictured on a small plate).

I’m feeling pretty guilty because I didn’t work out today or yesterday. I will go tomorrow but I always feel bad when I skip two days in a row. Perfectionist tendencies, I suppose.

I ordered a refurbished iphone for my birthday. It arrived yesterday and it’s broken! There appears to be something wrong with the touch screen and it won’t recognize anything touching it. So now, after being on the phone with AT&T for almost 45 minute, I have to go into the Apple Store and get them to fix it or give me a new phone. It’s not a big deal, but I wanted to play with my new toy!! I guess that is what I get for ordered a used one. I was just trying to be economical.

On the plus side, this week seems to be flying by. I’ve gotten some running in too. Yesterday I did five miles and Monday I did two. I need to start incorporating some longer runs in on the weekend. It’s hard for me to figure out exactly how far to run when I don’t have a training plan telling me how far. I guess I could pick another race to train for, or even just follow a plan for one and not really race if I don’t want.

I’m also seriously considering a bootcamp class. I found one that meets T, W, F and S for a month and I found a site that where you can sign up for $125. That seems pretty decent considering it’s normally like $250-$300. I think it’d be really great for whipping me into shape because besides increasing running distance, I’m not especially good at pushing myself. I need to just bite the bullet and sign up, right? I don’t know why I’m scared!

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have enough time in the day. Specifically, I don’t have enough time in the after-work hours. I got home tonight around 6:15. Murphy was very energetic so we went on almost an hour walk. I guess I could have taken him for a shorter time, but it was nice out and he needed exercise. By the time I made dinner and ate, it was already nearly 7:45. Now I need to digest my food some and then go to the gym and the grocery store. See why I’m always tired? It’s just go, go, go until I go to sleep.

A few days ago this huge box arrived. Inside was a very small (compared to the box) package of ravioli. It came from Foodbuzz’s Tastemaker Program.

I decided to cook these tonight with marinara sauce that I “beefed” up with some cabbage. The ravioli was delicious. It was mushroomy but not too woodsy tasting and had some creamy cheese flavors too. I probably wouldn’t have put it in a tomato sauce if I had known, because the tomato flavor sort of overpowered the mushroom filling

It was a little high in calories for my liking. The package contained two servings at (I believe) 320 calories each. I don’t think I would have purchased this in the grocery store for that reason, but it was very tasty. Plus, one serving seemed to be pretty satisfying. I have the rest in the fridge but I really wasn’t tempted to pick at it.

I had a small cereal binge after dinner though. I just wanted more to eat and kept going back to the box of cereal. I wish I could finish dinner and then be done. I have some issues snacking after dinner is over.

The 5K didn’t go exactly as planned. For one thing, I could not sleep on Friday night. It was awful. I think that it was a combination of being excited for Saturday’s events and being nervous that I wouldn’t get enough sleep for them.

We got to the race start at about 10:30 and picked up our numbers. As soon as the race began, I knew that this was not going to be a race to try to get a PR. It was very crowded in the beginning and you basically had to walk for the first couple of minutes. Additionally, parts of the course were on trails which created somewhat of a bottleneck since a lot of people were walking. But aside from all that, there were HILLS. I’ve run this race before and knew it was hilly, but didn’t remember quite how hilly it was. Seriously, it felt like 75% of the race was uphill. I told myself that I was not going to stop and walk and I did manage to run the entire thing, albeit some of my hill running might have looked more like shuffling. My finish time was around 33 minutes, although I’m not really sure.

This race was part of a festival so afterwards we hung out for a little bit. They gave all the racers a ticket for a free beer so we sat on a hill and listened to the band that was playing and enjoyed the beer.

When we got home, I tried very hard to take a nap but again could not fall asleep so finally just gave up. At 6:45, we went to dinner at El Taco. I really had no idea which of my friends would show up and who would be a no-show. About 15 people came which was a great turnout! Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to talk to everyone. The restaurant was decent. I had a salad with shrimp. I also had to try the frozen mojito and a glass of sangria. Okay, fine, and a beer but it was my birthday and I wasn’t driving!

There was also a Carvel cake courtesy of my friend Joan.

About half the group came out to a bar afterwards. I’m basically known in my group of friends for getting tired before anyone else. I can’t help it. It’s like I’m fine and then BAM, the tiredness hits and I have to go home and go to bed immediatly. I exceeded everyone’s expectations and was able to stay out until midnight. I know, what a wild child, right? What can I say? I just can’t party the way I used to. At all.

I made up for my lack of sleep on Friday night by sleeping for almost 12 hours on Saturday night! Jason had the entire weekend off for once. It was so nice to be able to spend time together during the day. We met up with another couple that we’re friends with at the Dogwood Festival. It is a huge art festival that they have every year with tons of artists setting up booths. There was probably almost a mile of booths set up. It’s fun to just walk around and look at stuff. I have purchased art in the past but this weekend we just browsed. We stayed at the festival for about three hours and afterwards were sort of exhausted so we just ordered a pizza. I really never order delivery pizza but we didn’t have any food in the house and I didn’t feel like going to the grocery store. I also reasoned that it was my birthday weekend so I could eat badly if I wanted.

So now it’s back to life as usual. I was really looking forward to Saturday and now that it’s over, I sort of don’t know what to do with myself. It’s kind of like I live my life looking forward to specific events and then feel sort of let down when they’re over. I mean, I have plenty of things to look forward to, but none in the immediate future. Jason has to work tomorrow, which is my actual birthday, and that kind of sucks. I mean, I’d rather he come out over the weekend, which he did but it still sucks. My iphone is coming though, so that’s something to look forward to. Although the additional charge for the data plan is not!

ETA – I just found out that one of my friends fell off of some sort of bike and cut her head open and has a major concussion. I don’t know if she was wearing a helmet or not. She was released from the hospital but was kept there for 12 hours. This happened while they were visiting family in California over the weekend. How scary. They were supposed to come back to Atlanta yesterday but are going to stay until Wed. so they can keep an eye on her.

So Rose didn’t tag me in her survey but I thought it might be fun, so I’m tagging myself!

8 Things I’m Looking Forward To:

1. My birthday party tonight
2. Mexico trip in September
3. Peachtree Road Race in July with Jason
4. Warm weather
5. Various concerts (DMB, U2, Depeche Mode)
6. My iphone coming
7. Buying a house with a yard at some point
8. Running more half marathons

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Went to dinner at Mu Lan
2. Watched the movie Transamerica
3. Went to work
4. Went to the mall with a co-worker and bought some new shoes
5. G-chatted with some friends
6. Drank a Raspberry Kombucha
7. Played Karaoke in the house with Jason. This is just really me pulling up lyrics to songs and belting them out while the song plays in the background.
8. Bought an Iphone

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:

1. Run a faster mile
2. Really stop drinking diet coke
3. Throw a ball more than three feet.
4. Have a job that I really enjoy
5. Lose 10 pounds
6. Straighten my hair in quicker than 45 minutes
7. Get out of credit card debt
8. See my family more often

8 Shows I Watch: Don’t make fun!

1. The Office
2. The Real World
3. The Hills
4. Intervention
5. Jeopardy
6. What not to wear
7. Man vs. Food
8. Unwrapped

8 People I Tag:
I don’t know if 8 people even read this, so consider yourself tagged if you want.

I’m running a 5K tomorrow morning. It’s actually at 11 am which is great since races typically start a lot earlier. I’ve been running since my half-marathon but not a ton. I did do a 5-miler yesterday with Joan and that was pretty enjoyable and felt easy enough so I am confident that the 5K will be a good one. I have a sub-30 goal in mind but I’m kind of wary of setting a speed goal for myself because I know that if I don’t achieve it, I’ll be mad at myself. So, I’m going to still try but try harder not to be bummed if I run slower.

I’m also going to be celebrating my birthday tomorrow night by having dinner with a bunch of friends at El Taco. I’ve never been but it’s on my running route and I always want to try it. Supposedly they have frozen mojitos. My birthday isn’t really until Tuesday, but no one, including myself, really wants to go out on a Tuesday night. There are a few good things happening on Tuesday though to mark my turning old. One, my iphone is coming! Yes, I broke down and bought one. Did you know that you can get a refurbished on for $99? And secondly, and probably of more interest to the rest of the world, Ben and Jerry’s is giving away free ice cream! We stop there a lot to get water on our runs and the last time I asked the guy about it. He said that you stand in line and get a free cone and can get in line as many times as you want.

What’s your favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor? Mine is Cherry Garcia. I also like the old classic, Heath Bar Crunch.