Healthy Tipping Point

“Don’t wiggle, Qlaire!” <—Henry says Claire with a Q.

I’ve started doing a bootcamp at my gym.  I’m committing myself to ten classes for the month of March, and then ten more in April.  I’ve decided that part of the reason that I’m historically slow on the bike ride portion of the triathlon is lack of muscle in my legs – even when I was doing long rides of 70 miles, I never got much faster.  My problem is strength, not duration (well, duration is also a problem right now, but you know what I mean!).

The classes are a High Intensity format.  On my first class, I did the above workout.  I had to have the teacher explain it to me because it was like reading Chinese…

Set 1:

48 seconds of burpees, followed by 12 seconds of rest. 48 seconds of tuck jumps, followed by 12 seconds of rest.  Repeat whole thing 4 times.

Set 2:

48 seconds of boom shuffles with a 20 pound soft ball, followed by 12 seconds of rest (a boom shuffle = I’d squat, pick up the ball, drop it, and then shuffle a few feet sideways to switch place with a partner, then I’d pick up her ball and repeat). 48 seconds of toe taps, followed by 12 seconds of rest.  Repeat whole thing 4 times.

Set 3:

48 seconds of 10-pound dumbbell curls and presses, followed by 12 seconds of rest. 48 seconds of bicycle crunches, followed by 12 seconds of rest. Repeat whole thing 4 times.

Step 4:

48 seconds of lunges while passing a 10-pound soft ball back and forth to a partner, followed by 12 seconds of rest.  48 seconds of jumping jacks either holding the ball or not, depending on who had it last on the lunges, followed by 12 seconds of rest. Repeat whole thing 4 times.

It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hard.  I was sore within hours!  But it was also really fun and has motivated me to go back. 

Is anyone else watching House of Cards Season 3? We’re six episodes in. I’ve heard mixed things about the season overall but so far – I love it!!! I wish we could binge watch it but – alas – that just doesn’t happen with our schedules anymore.  So one episode at a time!

It hit 75 degrees on Wednesday! GLORIOUS.  I am so glad that the snow is gone.  I hope it stays this way…

I “deconstructed” my Spinach and Artichoke Greek Yogurt Muffins – it was yummy, but not as good as the original recipe.

This is probably a post on its own, but check this out…  On the left are Carter’s Size 6 Month boy pants.  On the right are Carter’s Size 6 Month girl pants.  I’ve been thinking that Claire is a giant but I’ve recently realized it’s just that baby girl clothes are a lot tighter overall than baby boy clothes.  Like – a LOT.  She’s swimming in those boy pants and the girl pants are nearly too tight.  Interesting, huh?

I got my USAT card in the mail!  So excited.

And last, but not least, I tried Emily’s Sunflower Butter Balls recipe.  Huge hit!  I replaced the sun butter with almond butter and used almonds instead of seeds (because it’s what I had on hand), but it was sooooooooooooooooo delicious.  We inhaled these! 

What’s up with you?

A few weeks ago, I went through a serious closet purge and donated almost all of my remaining race cotton shirts.  I was discussing the situation with a few other racing friends via text, and one suggested that I turn the leftovers into reusable shopping bags as shown in this NO SEW tutorial on Mommypotamus.  I have been saying “no, thank you” to cotton race shirts for a while now, but the result of this DIY project was so cute that I may begin taking them again!

Step 1:  Grab Your Race Shirt

Step 2: Cut off the arms and neck.

Step 3: Cut a fringe on the bottom.  You want the fringe to be about as long as a finger.

Step 4: Turn the shirt inside out and tie each fringe from the front of the shirt to the corresponding fringe on the back. Do a double knot.

Step 5: Turn it back rightside out and – TADA! – you’ve got a shopping bag.  So cute, huh?

Again, check out the original DIY tutorial for all the details on how to make the bag.

Other fun Internet-inspired DIY projects that I’ve tried:

DIY Swiffer Pads and Solution

Winter Blend Spice Mix for Coffee

DIY Cupcake Stand

DIY Cleaning Solution with Baking Soda

DIY White and Oil-Rubbed Bronze Chandeliers

DIY: Toy Rotation

DIY Mirror Frame

DIY Painted Clay Pots

DIY Painted Baskets

DIY Pumpkin Spice Mix

Happy DIYing!

I’ve shied away from the fitness tracker trend because I always thought they felt a little Big Brother-ish.  But over time, I got really, really curious about the hype.  So a few heavy-handed hints to the Husband later, I received a Misfit Shine for Valentine’s Day.  I decided to go with the Shine after hearing great things about it from the ladies in the Get Fit Blog Friends Facebook group.

One thing that really drew me to the Shine was its appearance.  It’s really pretty -  like a little jewel (it comes in a bunch of fun colors).  Some other trackers look more utilitarian, so the Shine’s, well, shiny look and pretty white lights was appealing.

I also thought it was neat that you can wear it multiple ways.  It comes with a watch band and a clip for your pants, but you can also buy this totally cute stainless steel necklace!  I want.

As you can see in the stock photo above, there are little lights around the Misfit.  The Misfit translates your daily activity into a points system, and as you approach your goal, more and more lights light up.

I really wanted a tracker because I thought that it would entice me to be more active in my daily life.  I thought if there was one more light left on the circle, I’d be more willing to get off the couch and go for a walk to make my goal.  Did it work out like that?  Well, yes and no.  It doesn’t necessarily get me off the couch at the end of the day if my goal isn’t complete, but it does make me run a little further on the treadmill at the gym or spin for a few extra minutes at the end of class – I like to see the lights fill up! 

One big thing that the Shine has taught me is that I am wayyyy more sedentary than I think I am.  WAY MORE.  I think a lot of stay-at-home moms believe that we’re constantly running around and doing physical stuff with our kids, and maybe that’s true when you don’t have a small baby in the winter… But right now, man – I sit on my ass a LOT.  The tracker does not lie!  This has been rather eye-opening for me, actually.  The tracker app presents your data as a line graph, and it is always startling for me to see that my day is often flat line-flat line-flat line-HUGE spike associated with gym time-more flat lines. 

Below was one of my better, more generally active, days (I swam 1500 yards and ran 1.5 miles, then we had an active afternoon).

The Misfit tracks everything active as a run (unless you change the default activity in the back end), but then you can go into the app later and adjust the activity to something else, like swimming, soccer, yoga, dance, and more.  Also, the Misfit is waterproof, so you can swim with it on, and if you want to use it to track a bike ride or something else where your hands are stationary (like the stairmaster), you can just attach it to your shoe.

I don’t count calories, but it is also pretty illuminating to realize how many calories I’m actually burning on a day I workout – it’s generally not as much as I would’ve thought, even though I intellectually know this stuff (I wish Misfit had a “breastfeeding options” to add in those calories, but I just mentally tack them on).  

I also like how the tracker app combines all the data into weekly views so you can see trends on a larger scale.  It’s been interesting to me to see that, even on the days I work out, I don’t necessarily reach my movement goal (you set your movement goal to be whatever you want).  For example, last week, I worked out five days but only hit my goal on three, which were the days that I really went balls to the wall with workouts.

And last, but not least, the Misfit has a sleep tracker.  Here’s a night where Claire only had one wakeup, God bless her.

Based on everything I’ve read online, the data associated with these sleep trackers is kind of wishy-washy.  The Misfit tells me my “restful sleep” hours, which I think is REM sleep + Stage 3 deep sleep (it’s not really clearly stated anywhere that I could find.  Basically – when you don’t move around a lot).  The sleep tracker strikes me as “cool to know, but now what do I do with this data?”  Knowing your total hours is great, because it can motivate you to get to bed earlier, but I don’t know what you’re supposed to do with your restful sleep data. 

Oh, my number one complaint about the Misfit is that I have a ton of difficulty syncing it with my phone. It often takes several attempts to sync, which is frustrating.  However, I dropped my phone a few months ago and damaged it, so I’m not sure if it’s my phone or the device.

All in all, I really like my Misfit.  I’ve never tried another fitness tracker so I have little to compare it to.  The biggest selling point for me is the appearance of the Misfit.  The app is pretty good but has some limitations that I wish they would sort out.   I’ll keep wearing it, though, because it sure is a fun way to track my progress, and it also encourages me to be a little more health-conscious when I can.

Do you have a fitness tracker? Which one? What do you like or dislike?

Killer workout with my buddy Brandi yesterday!

We wanted to swim, so I pulled up my Pinterest of Swim Workouts and selected one that I haven’t done in a while.  This workout was SUPER fast.  I haven’t swam 1500 yards in for-ev-er and probably would’ve struggled to just straight swim that distance – but the workout really broke it up mentally and made it seem more attainable.  I actually haven’t swam at all since BEFORE Claire’s birth, so I was proud of myself for going so far.

(I also have a fun list of Track Workouts, Elliptical Workouts, and Stairclimber Workouts).

After our swim, Brandi and I quickly transitioned and headed to the track for a run.  I ate a packet of Gu that I found in the bottom of my gym bag – I kind of feel like Gu never expires?  It may have been there for a while…

We did 1.5 miles on the track.  We were planning to do a mile but went a little further!  It is so nice to have a friend who is also into triathlons – I’ve had lots of running buddies but never a tri buddy before! I can’t wait for our races.

After our workout, we went to a Purim carnival hosted by the Jewish community center.  It was super gloomy and chilly yesterday, so outdoor play was out, and it was awesome to have something like this to do!  It was so much more fun than I was expecting.

The kids had a blast.  A BLAST.  They went on the obstacle course bouncy house over and over and over again until the workers actually deflated it and kicked them off.  Hah. 

Claire sat on the sidelines.  Maybe next year, dearie!

Book A Week

Man – I owe you a review! Last week, I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.  I read this book quickly – in two days – but I kept on forgetting to write my review.

Station Eleven is centered upon an event that wipes out humanity as we know it: the “Georgia Flu” swiftly kills 99.9% of the population, leaving few survivors to grapple with a world with no electricity, no Internet, no government, etc.  The book jumps back and forth in time between a handful of people.  Their stories intersect in odd and interesting ways, but at the center is Kirsten, an actress with the “Traveling Symphony,” a group that roams the Great Lakes region, performing Shakespeare and music to small communities.  It’s “a novel of art, memory, and ambition [that] tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.”

I love apocalypse books, so this one ranked favorably with me.  It was a quick, engaging read, and I really liked the characters (and trying to figure out how everyone related to one another when it wasn’t so clear).  The author did a great job scene-setting and fleshing out the characters. 

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.  If you like end-of-the-world novels, you’ll like this one.

Here are all my books of 2015 – can’t believe I’ve read 8 so far!