The Lakehouse by James Patterson

The Lake House by James Patterson





I bought this at a library sale for $2. Guess I'll see if there was a reason why they were purging it...




This book was just okay. Kinda stupid storyline. Pretty predictable ending, saw it coming from the first chapter. I suppose it was worth my $2. If you want it, let me know.




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Stella and her lazer eyes...

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Well, Hello....Its Been Awhile

Hi Blog World. Yes, it has been over 2 weeks. Alot has been happening. I finished painting my living room on my time off between jobs. It looks fantastic, if I do say so myself.... Then started my new job this past Monday. So far, it is all good.

I have been slacking in making any new Spin profiles lately. For one thing, I haven't come across any great new music to inspire me, and Two, I haven't had alot of free time lately. I know, I was off for work for 8 days plus 2 weekends, but the first weekend was Labor Day and we went to visit my parents for a long weekend. The second, Jonas and I went to Houston, TX to see Dave Matthews at The Woodlands (which was AWESOME), and then to stay with his dad for a night. But the show made it completely worth the long 2-lane, backroad drive we had on the way to The Woodlands.

Anywho, that is what I have been up to lately. I hope to soon have some kind of inspiring super ride profiles to give out in the near future....

Weekend Workout - And I Ran!

I had a very productive weekend workout this past weekend. I usually take Friday and Saturdays off. But for some reason, I was itching to go Friday after work.

I started off warming up on the treadmill for about 8 minutes because I was planning on working my legs. But after my 8 minutes had passed, I figured I would jog for a little bit just to get my heart rate up some more before I started my exercises. 50 minutes and 4 miles later, I realize that this is the longest and the furthest I have ever ran in my entire life! I know, You are thinking, WHAT?! That's crazy, right? Because I am a Spinning instructor, and teach about 5 classes a week. Four miles should be no big deal.  But no. I have always hated running with a passion. It usually makes my ankles hurt, my knees ache, and my lower back throb as soon as I start picking up the pace. But for some reason, that stuff wasn't bothering me, and I think I was actually enjoying myself! But I stopped at 4 miles because my cross-trainers were starting to rub my ankles, not exactly the best running shoes. I hopped off the treadmill feeling pretty proud of myself for obtaining that small goal, and proceeded to my leg weights. I was still sore this morning in the calves from that run. But good stuff!

Saturday morning, I headed over to the Madison 51 Courthouse to sub a Spin class. Great group over there, we had a good class and I think I may have taught them a thing or two.

Sunday afternoon, I was back over at the Lakeland Courthouse for my 2:45 hour Spin class. I had spent the previous hour making a new playlist on my wonderful ipod 4.0 (see previous post about why I hate the upgrade). Synced the ipod. Got to the gym, and looked at playlist again, and only half of it was there. Wonderful. Had to throw some random songs in a play list and wing it. By the way, nobody at the gym could find the key to open the spin room, it took 15 minutes to find the key, so at least I had a little time to make up something to do in class. Went a little late to make up the time so that my people still get their Sunday hour of spinning in, then worked my shoulders and arms.

All in all, very successful weekend workout! And had myself some chocolate ice cream Sunday night. (Yes, it was Edy's Slow Churned with 1/2 the fat, but it was still ice cream!)

As of Monday morning, calves are still sore from that run on Friday! Might just have to do that again sometime....

Breaking the Rule

So I'm breaking the the unwritten cardinal rule to never blog about work. It is never, ever a good idea.

But I only have 2 days left at ESF, today and tomorrow. I have to say, it is bitter sweet. I have been here for over 5 years. This is my second home, here in my little grey cubicle staring at my double monitors working on various student loan issues. These people are like family. I definitely see them more than my own family. Occasionally, we wear jeans to work, and flip flops on most days. We even have cake once in a blue moon, and today since they are sending me off with a few extra hundred calories to celebrate my contribution to this place. We all have our cell phones conveniently placed beside our keyboard in case we get a personal call. Ipods and headphones are sitting around most desks as we make sure we have some tunes to listen to throughout the day - which is where I get more of my inspirations for new Spin classes. At any point in the day, you can hear people sitting around talking, and more than likely not about anything work-related. We all talk about what we have eaten for the day, the workouts we had the day before, some talk about their kids, others talk about somebody else's kids.

Needless to say, ESF has been such a great first job, and it was an extremely easy transition from full-time college student to full-time employee working 8 - 5. I am a little reluctant to leave the familiarity and the ease of this place, but it is time to move on. I would have been stupid not to take the opportunity that presented itself.

I start my new job on September 13th, and in the meantime, I will just be here and there. I have aspirations to paint the living room while I'm on vacation, but that probably won't work out since Labor Day weekend is coming up, and a final trip to see Dave Matthews is the following weekend.

As of Tuesday afternoon at 4:00, I will no longer be reporting in at 7:30 in the mornings at ESF. :(
To all my friends there, I'll see you when I see you, and Good Luck!

Dexter By Design

Dexter By Design by Jeff Lindsay


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


First of all, I am a huge fan of the Showtime series, and watched seasons 1 - 4 before I ever picked up any of the Dexter Novels. I'd like to think that watching the show first does not skew my perception of the novels, but a friend pointed out to me that when I read the books first and then watch the show in most situations, I like the books better.


So, with that said, I like the show better. Not to say I have not enjoyed the books. Dexter in the Dark threw me off a little, and I was a little concerned about where the series was going, but Dexter By Design has put it back on track for me.


Isn't it nice when things just work out? This book was moving along rather nicely, like most of the Dexter novels, with last few chapters having the big finish. Dexter has gained most of his wits back from the last book, but still has a hard time getting back into his usual routine, due to a new nemisis prowling arounnd in Miami. While ending with a slightly assumed clif-hanger, I am still excited for Jeff Lindsay's new Dexter novel due out September 7!




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Best Dressed!

My picture, along with Meg and Owenne, was one of 13 selected for the Best Dressed blog from MyScoop (picture #12)! This was taken last Saturday at the Belhaven Nights street festival. Fun Times!

Since I'm a goob, I was kind of excited about it! Here is the picture:

"These three lovely ladies looked great in their tanks and shorts. From right to left: Meg, Owenne, and Lacey Outlaw."

I would like to thank Belk for the shirt I bought......and I have no idea where my purse or shorts or shoes came from. :)

Netflix Move Night - The Blind Side

So I finally got The Blind Side from Netflix and started to watch it. I had heard that it was a tear jerker, and I'm not big on watching movies that make me cry.....but we finally decided to watch it.

I have to say, this was definately one of the better movies I have seen in a very long time. Loved Sandra Bullock, she definately deserved that Oscar for her role. If you haven't seen it, go watch it right now! Don't worry about crying - I didn't cry once, but not to say it wasn't touching.

Great movie. 5 Stars.

Is This "Healthy"?

Ok, so the word around the office is that someone (who's name I won't mention has been trying to make healthier choices due to a health condition that he has) ate a "healthy" meal, which consisted of bbq ribs and a cheese/broccoli casserole. He's not overweight, so he doesn't necessarily have to worry about eating healthy for that reason, but this medical condition definitely affects his health in a negative way when he makes poor food choices.

Let me start with the Ribs. In no way, shape, or form are ribs ever healthy. It doesn't matter if you don't put anything on them and bake them or grill them or smoke them or whatever. They are never a health food! Pork is the fattiest meat you can ever eat, regardless of what cut it comes from (except maybe the tenderloin) or how much "fat" you see on the meat. "Lean" babyback ribs have about 17 grams of fat, 240 calories, 850 grams of sodium PER 2 RIBS. Not 2 racks of ribs. But per 2 single ribs. I do not know a single person in my world that I have ever seen only eat 2 ribs, and my family goes through a lot of ribs.

Now, I certainly am not going to turn my nose up at eating some babybacks when my husband has been smoking them for hours on the grill, but I'm certainly not going to kid myself into thinking I'm eating something healthy. I know what I am getting into before I start, and try to limit myself to about 5 ribs.

Ok. Cheese and Broccoli casserole? Come on now. Anything with the name "casserole" is guaranteed to be bad! Isn't butter in there? And white rice? And not to mention cheese? That's like a sugar/sodium explosion! I'm not even sure what to say about that. That little bit of broccoli has no chance to try to make that a healthy dish!

So, my answer is No! This is not healthy! Don't trick yourself into thinking that it is. :)

Ipod Touch 4.0 RANT

Read this if you are thinking of up grading your iphone or ipod touch to the new software. I finally upgraded my Ipod from the original software that it came with, which was 2.(something), to the new 4.0 software that is available.....against my husband's recomendation to not do so.

BIG MISTAKE.

This is my story.

Gripe #1:

I use my ipod as my sole method for playlists in my Spin classes. I rely on this thing pretty heavily. I have put hours and hours into organizing my music and making playlists to have a good flow that not only sounds good from song to song, but also creates a mood for the ride and correlates to the movements that we are doing. I think being able to pull together music that has feeling in the ride is what makes a class special, and it has worked for me so far.
Last week, the next day after the upgrade before I knew things had gone badly, I selected a playlist and the class description from my notebook for class that day. Plug it in, and start the warm up. I get the correct warm up song, the correct second song, but wrong third song which was also the last song on the playlist which should have had up to 13 songs. So in the middle of class, they had to sit there while I found random music that could get us through the class. I did not like this one bit. After class, I glance through the rest of the playlists that I had made, and they were all the same. I was going to have to sit down re-load every single playlist that was on my ipod. Just counted them to be sure, and there are 82 playlists.
I'm not happy about this.

Gripe #2:

Back into the Spin classes. In the Settings option, I always select the Gereral>Auto-Lock>Never option so that my screen will stay on for the entire class. Before the upgrade, I just hit the "never" button, then the Home button, and go straight back to my music. Well, it doesn't work that way anymore. And for awhile, I thought I would not be able to use the Never Lock option and would have to constantly Unlock my ipod every couple of minute that I didn't touch the screen. Not Cool At All. But as I sat down and played with it for a little while, I realized if I hit the Never lock option, then go back to the General screen, then back to the Settings screen, then back to Home, then back to my music, that it would stay. Not that big of a deal if I do it before hand, but why couldn't they just use the ease of keeping it the way it was before??

Gripe #3:

The 4.0 software's supposed cool new thing is its ability to organize all of the apps into groups on your first screen so that you don't have 5 or 6 different pages of apps where you can never find what you need. Such as having all your games together in one block, your social apps in one, and your entertainment apps in another. So I took the time to drag all of my apps to make all of the appropriate categories. After I had organized everything, I noticed the Facebook App had a notification. So I tried to open it. It pops up, and immediately shuts down. Do I delete it and try to reistall it, thinking something had messed up when I was moving things, and the same thing happened. Then I try to open another app, and it does the same thing. Finally I tried syncing my ipod to itunes, and then it magically worked. So this was not that big of a deal either, but with all the great "user-friendly" crap you hear about ipod, you never hear any bad press about anything.

Gripe #4:

This doesn't necessarily pertain to me, but Jonas is the guy in charge at his work of helping anybody that has a company issued iphone that has trouble with syncing their work outlook email. Most of the time, it doesn't work the way it had in the past, and he has to go in and change a bunch of settings. He advised everyone at his work to not upgrade at all until Apple puts out a newer version that will import the email so that the average user can actually figure out how to load their own email and won't have to use his IT skills to fix everybody's phones.

Gripe #5:

The battery runs out super fast.


Ok, just to be fair, there is one thing that I do like about the new software. As I was fussing in Gripe #1 where all my playlists were screwed up, I found that if I opened a playlist and pulled it down, that there are now editing buttons and a search bar at the top where the playlists can be edited on the ipod. With the old software, only a tempory "On-The-Go" playlist could be made. But now, I could make several new ones and save them each without having to go to the computer. This is very cool.

So my point in this whole ipod soap-box is that you hear all this crap about how cool and easy and hip it is to have any Apple product, and then you hear all this bad press about any Microsoft product....but WHO CARES??  Well, Apple has its flaws too. And just because you put a bunch of Apple stickers on your Toyota Prius (yes, I'm talking to that jerk that cut me off on I-55 the other day that had 5 Apple stickers on his car signifying all the different Apple products that he owns) does not make you cool and hip.

End of Rant.

Gotta New 'Do!

So, I don't like to keep my hair the same for too long, and since I've been blond-ish for about 3 months, it was time for a change. Started my fall hair early. Maybe the fall hair will help the fall temps get here sooner.

Gotta teach Abs, Turbo, and Bootcamp all by my lonesome tonight. I hope I don't have red sweat dripping from my head.

Mimi's 90th Birthday!

This weekend, we celebrated my grandmother's 90th birthday! I felt it was kind of a big deal, so I took alot of pictures. If anyone wants to download any, you can find the large picture on my picasa site:

Mimi's 90th Birthday!

Here are a few!

Here is Mimi with her strawberry cake!

slightly blurry picture of Aunt Betty, Dad, Uncle Wesley, and a rare picture of Mimi laughing!

Mimi and Mom

Mom, Mimi, and Lisa, with some stellar poses! :)

Me and Mimi

My dad and Tommy

Sandy and Aunt Betty

Aunt Betty, Uncle Ken, Dal and Sandy

Lisa frying up the okra! Yummmm!!

Uncle Wesley trying to stay cool

Busted Dad sneaking a bite of chick off the grill!

Mom and Me

Mallary and Sandy

Mallary, Sandy, Dad, Me, and Kristie

My brother and myself

Wes and Kristie

Lora Lee and Shelby

Mom and Dad

Cody and Mallary (and no, I don't think your eyes are what looks alike, it is the nose.)

I didn't put every single picture on here, so if there is one you were looking for, but didn't see, it's on my picasa site. So make sure you check that out too!

Happy Birthday, Mimi!

Book Review: Exile

Exile: A Novel by Richard North Patterson


My rating: 2 of 5 stars


When it comes down to the story of the book, it was good. But all the history and details of the story were what made it so long, and to me, what made it so boring. It took me over a year to get into it, and was never really interested in it. But I hate to leave a book half-read, so I had to finish it.



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Gubna

So good, they have to serve it in little glasses!

Road trip snack!

This bag has been sitting on the bar all week, waiting to go with us to Asheville on Sunday. It is amazing I haven't broken into it yet.

When we go on vacation, chocolate is what I like to eat for some meals. I just hope it doesn't melt in the car.

Greek Marinated Cucumbers - or Cuke and Onions

Oh.....my......gosh......

So Keifer's is one of my most favorite places in Jackson (maybe of ever) to eat. Jonas and I probably go about 3 times a month. I almost always get the gyro with melted feta on whole wheat. And I almost always get the cottage fry to go with it to share, plus it's only like $3. But sometimes I like to mix it up and get the Cuke and Onion.......actually, I believe they re-did the menus and it is just called Cucumbers and Onions now.

Anyways, they are marinated cucumbers that come with feta dressing to dip them in, and it is one of the best things I think I have ever eaten. But they are like $5 or $6, and not much food, so I don't always get them.

Well, I figured out a marinate that makes my cucumbers taste almost exactly like theirs! I was so excited about this that I had to put this out there for you all to try. It may not be the most healthiest of way to eat cucumbers, but you are still getting your vegetables! And this is delicious! I don't even use any feta dressing with mine and it is still good! And so easy!

2 very large cucumbers or 3 medium/large cucumbers. Washed, skinned, and cut up however you prefer. I just sliced mine.

One small onion, sliced. (if you don't like onions, add them anyway for the flavor, and pick them out. However, I do not like the taste of white onions, but they are good after soaking in the marinade)

For the marinade:

1/4 cup of lemon juice
1/4 (or less) of Italian dressing
1/4 (or more) of white vinager

1 1/2 tablepsoons of sugar (more or less)
1 1/2 tablespoons of salt (more or less)

Pepper to taste
and I added some onion/garlic seasoning as well

Mix up all ingredients for marinade, then add cucumber and onion slices. Be sure to stir very well, and stir every hour or so.

Allow to sit in fridge for 3 - 5 hours (or longer) before devouring these delicious cuke and onions!

I just eat them right out of the bowl as a side dish, but they would be soooooo good on a salad as well.

Hope you enjoy!!

Chocolate Milk for Recovery Drink?? This is HUGE!

As a pseudo-certified, self-proclaimed gym rat, I hate to admit that I rarely ever drink recovery drinks after intense workouts.  I think I am getting plenty of protein in my diet during the day, but I am thinking I need a little something extra to add to my routine to really kick it up a notch.  Here lately, I don't feel like I am bouncing back as fast as I should be able to at this point. So I have decided to invest in a Recovery drink to try. I say "invest" because these things aren't cheap. Here are the two that I have been reading about:

BeachBody's P90X Recovery Drink:

This is actually the more affordable alternative, at $43.95 + $6.95 for s&h, totaling at $50.90, with 25 servings per tub, which comes to $2.04 per serving. Which is not terrible considering I probably exercise about 20 - 25 days a month. So to start adding this supplement would mean about $50 extra a month. Notice the almost 4:1 Carbs to Protein ratio, and only 2 grams of fat.

My second option, which is almost the more expensive but also more in line with what I think I need is the EAS Pro-Science FINISH Powder:

This stuff comes in at $42.87 + $6.95 (must be the magic shipping and handling rate), totaling at $49.82, with 20 packets, comes to a total of $2.50 per serving. The reason I think this would be the better recovery-drink option is because it states "A post-training recovery powder that delivers essential amino acids to help build muscles and increase lean body mass. It contains high-quality protein and a structured lipid system that help muscles refuel, while beta-alanine boosts carnosine levels in the body, helping to reduce muscle fatigue." It is not only in EAS's Recovery Drink category, but also their muscle endurance category. The carb/protein ratio is completely different than the p90x, at 25 grams of carbs to 35 grams of protein. But what got me was 3 facts they stated:

• Refuel and build lean muscle
• Beta-alanine delays muscle fatigue
• Structured lipids support fat-soluble nutrient absorption

That pretty much is what I am looking for. But still not completely satisfied, so I continued my search........


......until I found this article: Chocolate Milk's 'Natural' Muscle Recovery Benefits Match Or May Even Surpass A Specially Designed Carbohydrate Sports Drink, dated June 2, 2009.

Well, this was right up my alley! I have heard of this before, and even briefly mentioned it in a previous blog, but never took it seriously. Never looked into it. Just used it as an excuse to get to drink chocolate milk.

A quote from this study states:

"This new study adds to a growing body of evidence suggesting milk may be just as effective as some commercial sports drinks in helping athletes recover and rehydrate. Chocolate milk has the advantage of additional nutrients not found in most traditional sports drinks. Studies suggest that when consumed after exercise, milk's mix of high-quality protein and carbohydrates can help refuel exhausted muscles. The protein in milk helps build lean muscle and recent research suggests it may reduce exercise-induced muscle damage. Milk also provides fluids for rehydration and minerals like calcium, potassium and magnesium that recreational exercisers and elite athletes alike need to replace after strenuous activity."

So I kept reading, and found another article : Chocolate Milk May Help Repair Muscles, Restore Glycogen After Exercise, dated June 3, 2010. This study was done by the American College of Sports Medicine, the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the WORLD. They conducted 2 studies which you can read about in the article. A couple facts:

• those who drank fat-free chocolate mild during recovery had heightened markers of muscle protein repair (compared to the carbohydrate drink)
• choc milk contributes to replenishing glycogen stores in muscles, showing a higher content of glycogen compared to those who drank the carbohydrate drink

Their conclusion? They state that chocolate milk may be a worthwhile post-exercise recovery beverage.

My conclusion - Chocolate milk is delicious. And cheaper, at around $2.50 for a gallon (or less on sale). And will at least give me something to drink in between those more expensive recovery drinks, if I decide to try one or both. But for right now, just sticking with the fat-free chocolate milk.

Wednesday Morning Funny

I usually get up in the mornings around 6:00 am, then hit the snooze button for 20 minutes for Jonas to wake up around 6:20. When I get up, I usually feed Stella, fix my cereal, and sit down to watch the news for about 20 minutes before I start getting ready for work. While I was watching tv, I notice the time is 6:25 and Jonas hadn't gotten up yet. So I tell Stella to go get him, and she runs to the back, but the door was shut so she didn't go in the bedroom. At 6:30 when he is still not up, I go back to the bedroom to wake him up - and he is still snoozing while the radio-alarm is playing. I tell him hurry up! It's 6:30, you are already 10 minutes late......

So he rolls out of bed and throws on some clothes to take Stella for their morning walk. He tells me he'll be back soon and I hear him walk out of the door. So I head to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, and he walks back in the door holding the kitchen scissors.

So I ask him, "what were those doing outside?" because I assumed he found them outside and was bringing them back in.

He responds, "I grabbed the scissors instead of the leash to take Stella on a walk...." and sets them on the counter next to the leash, grabs the leash, and walks out the door.

Ok, so maybe it's not that funny, but I could not stop laughing this morning. It usually does not take much at all to amuse me. At least it started my day off with a laugh. :)

Happy Tuesday!

So, a long weekend is now behind us all. We had a big cookout in Mashulaville at the camphouse, as usual. Ate too much, as usual. Some fantastic red velvet cake that was delicious made by Kristie. We finally made it back home on Monday in time for me to do a round of P90X then run to the gym to teach my 5:30 Spin class where we did Stage 8 - high hills.

Tuesday: Same old thing at work. Ate the same stuff as usual. Left to teach spin at 4:30 - Stage 9, high hills. Great class, even if I do say so myself. Stayed for Bootcamp, and burned 1433 calories. yay.

Well, I also decided today that I am tired of logging my calorie count every day. So, I will do today, then I am done. For now anyways. Whenever anything else exciting happens, I'll report. Until then, here goes my last calorie count!

CALORIE COUNT:
Cereal - 337
Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers - Grilled Basil Chicken - 270 (not good at all) but supposedly has 20 grams of protein, though I don't see how since there were barely 5 small pieces of chicken. I'm not happy that there are 3 more of these in the freezer at home. Should have stuck with my bbq chicken pizza.

*Pictures can be deceiving!*








Fuji Apple - 116
Pure Protein bar - 200
Chocolate Skim Milk - 200
Pasta -  appox 590
peanut butter - 100

Total Calories Consumed - 1813
Calories burned - 1433
Calories remaining for the day..............380

Turbo + Eclipse

I had a super busy, productive day today. First, work all day (as usual) then head to the gym where I taught the second part of Turbo because Shelly had to leave. I did OK. For some reason I was feeling super sluggish and had a hard time finishing. Maybe I needed to eat something closer to time rather than at 3:00 when I work out at 5:45. Luckily, the numbers were low for bootcamp, so I skipped team teaching and was able to shower and change before heading to Malco to go see Eclipse!

On my way, I had to stop by Wendy's for something to eat - 2 grilled chicken go-wraps. Then made an important phone call which may bring big changes to my life (more on that if/when those changes develop), then made it to the movie just in time.

Eclipse was definitely the best of the three Twilight movies. When Bella and Edward kiss, it is not as weird and awkward as it is in the first two. The action is good, and the werewolves are adorable! :) I obviously knew how the story was going to go so there were no surprises there, but I still found myself completely absorbed throughout the entire movie.....except when people would cheer or clap. That broke my concentration, but it was expected.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars!

7/1/10 Calorie Count

Breakfast - 337

Pasta for lunch - 575

Protein Bar - 200

Banana - 100

2 Chicken go wraps for Dinner - 520

handful of Reese's Pieces at movie (maybe less than a quarter cup) - 210

Total Calories Consumed - 1942

Calories Burned - 944

Remaining Calories for the Day......................998

Spinning - Stage 7: Tournus > Station Des Rousses

Here is the profile for the Stage 7 ride that I did last night in class for anyone who may be interested. I used both the profile and the route to design the ride:

The Route:

And the profile:

We start off with a long flat road with a very gradual increase, followed by 6 increasingly harder hills. I used the route to determine when we would need to get out of the saddle for jumps or runs, used the brief downhills for short recoveries, and used the super steep hills as markers for using a 3rd position climb.

Playlist and Notes:

1. Clash (Junkie XL) – (5:06) warm up and describe class: Max HR = 85%

2. Hello Again (Dave Matthews Band) - (3:56) flat > alt flat and run or slow jumps to increase heart rate to 75%

3. Not Myself (Christina Aguilera) - (3:25) moderate climb for 3 minutes, @ 3:00, 1 passing jump (**a passing jump is when you move to third position to pick up speed (not quite a sprint) for a brief period, then sit back in saddle keeping climbing pace up - I queue "get ready to pass somebody!")

4. Stockholm Syndrome (Muse) - (4:05) flat recovery for 1 min 30 sec >@1:30 moderate hill, @ 2:30 gear down low hill

5. Fight For Your Mind (Ben Harper) - (3:41) flat road recovery if needed, maintain high cadence @ 1:00 add every 30 seconds to standing climb

6. Mr. Brightside (The Killers) - (3:41) gear down to low hill for 30 seconds
@ :30 jumps on flat for 1 min (to mimic going around the turns)

7. 999 (Lords of Flatbush) (< Free download!) - (4:21) seated flat 1 min, run 1 min, saddle 1 min
@3:00 find hill in saddle

8. Mercy (Duffy) - (3:40) jumps on hill through sharp turns to top - sets of 4, 8-count jumps
add a little gear last 30 seconds - Ask if anybody is crying for Mercy yet!

9. American Woman (Lenny Kravitz) - (4:21) flat road 1 min,
@1:00 run 1 min, @ 2:00 back to saddle for a fast flat
@3:30 low hill

10. Invaders Must Die (Prodigy) - (4:55) gear up for last 2 passing jumps, finish with strong climb to the end!

COOL DOWN! Take at least 5 - 10 minutes here if they will stay in the saddle that long....And my people really like it when I take a map of the ride I am doing, so they can visualize what is going on or where we are going. It seems to give them a goal. Sometimes I tell them that there is a pool bar waiting ahead they can all relax in once we get there.

Calorie Count for Wednesday, 6/30/10:

Breakfast - 337

Leftover hamburger and potatoes - 420

Banana - 100

Handful of Zapp's Voodoo Gumbo chips - 120

Pasta for Dinner - 550

Sierra Nevada - 190

Total Calories Consumed - 1717

Total Calories Burned - 911 (which includes spinning + weight lifting afterward)

Total Calories Remaining for the day...........................806

Newsflash: Mississippi is Fat

Congratulations, fellow Mississippians! For the 5th straight year in a row, Mississippi is once again the fattest state in America! The percentage of Mississippians that are obese - a whopping 33.8 percent. Although last year, we had 35.6 percent of our population obese, but we are still 2.2 % fatter than the second fattest state, which is Alabama.

Here is the link if you don't believe me: Fattest States 2010

So apparently, most of the stuff I talk about in my blog is common knowledge in other states. Educate yourself and strive for change! Here in Mississippi, our Southern grandmothers and mothers always told us to "Clean your plates if you want dessert!" and then we get dessert, some type of delicious pecan pie or cream cheese pound cake. And usually that plate was full of fried chicken and casseroles and breads and green beans cooked with bacon grease. And then we are rewarded in life by getting Happy Meals at McDonald's with french fries and a cheeseburger with a stupid toy. Then we go to the store and get a Snickers or Reece's Peanut Butter Cups for a snack, and chase it all down with sugar and chemical-packed Coke, Pepsi, or Dr. Pepper.

These are not good food choices, people!! Get it together!!

Deep down in your heart, you know this is not good for you. We have to make a conscious effort to take control in our lives if our state is ever going to get out of this fat rut.

NO, it is not easy to be healthy - it takes constant planning and calculating, and YES it can be expensive. But when you make the change and realize you don't have to continue to go to the doctor and pay for medication for problems you were having due to being unhealthy, well, those more expensive foods are well worth the extra price.

And of course, it's not just about what we eat - it's all about our exercise too. Find an exercise program you like. Get a heart rate monitor. Track your progress: Count your calories coming in and going out. Keep a journal. Start a blog. Do whatever you need to do to help yourself stay aware of your daily intake. And most importantly, do it for yourself - not anyone else.  If you don't know where to start, ask somebody! Start today!

A good place to start tracking your calories and to get a good ideas of how many calories you should have in a day - check out this free website at livestrong.com: The Daily Plate

Spinning Stage 7 + Bootcamp

Finally I am finished with the "plains" stages of the Tour de France! Doing Stage 7 this afternoon: Tournus > Station Des Rousses:

Hills! Whooo! Although I LOVE hills in class, I'm suddenly a little cautious about teaching them today of all days since I have to teach bootcamp afterward.....but the temptation looks like so much fun! My solution is to throw together some tunes for the class, and see how many people show up. If it is low numbers, I'll repeat Stage 6 from yesterday, and do this Stage 7 tomorrow. If I have a big crowd show up, we'll do this Stage today and Stage 8 (even BIGGER hills!!!) on Wednesday!

Ok, back from the gym, and I stuck with repeating my class from Monday since I had a low crowd and wanted to save my legs for bootcamp. Bootcamp went well for my second time teaching all by myself. But it was good practice and I loved doing it! Thank goodness some of my peeps were there to cheer me on. :)

AND I now have a nice hill class for tomorrow. Yay!

CALORIE COUNT
Cereal - 337
leftover pasta from last night - 475
Protein bar - 200
Burger on onion bun with cheese/ketchup and new potatos for dinner - 675
peanut butter - 100

Calories Consumed - 1787
Calories Burned - 1487
Calories Remaining..........................................300

New Yard

So I decided to take a few picture of my yard that I worked in all weekend. I totally wish I had before pictures so the full effect could be seen, but we'll have to do with a little after pictures.

Still not completely finished, but I've got a good start I think. First, Jonas and I pulled up 5 very old box woods from the front of the house. No, we didn't waste time digging them up. Jonas tied a tow rope around the base, and we pulled them out with the truck. I knew there was a good reason for getting it. :)

 We ended up planting 4 camellias in place of them, and put 6 pieces of ground cover in front that I hope will fill in a bit later.

Here they are together:

Just don't look at the grass. We haven't gotten that far yet.

Next we dug up and extended the bed on the left front side of the house. I planted 4 small Azaleas, and 3 Hostas in between the azaleas and a fern on either side. It looks so much better than before, but I cannot wait for it to grow in.

One of the azaleas:

One of my ferns, but you can't see them in the next picture. They are on both far sides.

Full side yard

We still have so much to do, but it's a HUGE improvement. Plus, it's my first time to ever do any landscaping, so I'm pretty proud of myself. I still want to put a boarder around the bed in the picture above, and I want to get new St. Augustine put around the rest of the yard. And the boxwoods need to be trimmed back (in the fall, I hear). And I probably need more mulch. But I think it is a huge step in the right direction. Any comments, suggestions welcome!

Don't Foget To Hit Reset

Monday morning, for me, is usually a time to hit the "reset" button, and start fresh for a new week.

Its time to make up for the Keifer's gyro, cottage fry, and pitcher of Amber Bock I had on Friday night, the large Domino's pizza Jonas and I split Saturday night, and the hamburgers we cooked on Sunday along with the beers I had after working in the yard.

Its time to get back on my workout schedule since I didn't do anything all weekend (except for work outside in my yard for Saturday and Sunday - which quantified plenty of sweat, but still not the same.)

What happens when that reset button doesn't work? OR - what if I didn't hit that reset button in my mind? What if I just told myself, "well, you've done messed it all up now and gained a few pounds back. No point in starting over again...."

Well, that would make me a quitter - and that is something I am most certainly not.

When Life throws you lemons, make lemon-flavored water! (Because lemonade has too much sugar, and sugar is off limits!)

So headed to the gym at 4:00 for my usual Monday routine: Vinyasa Flow Yoga at 4:00, followed by my Spin class at 5:30. Still doing the Tour de France rides in class, and today we did Stage 6: mostly flat roads with a few very small hills. We will keep a fast pace, trying to keep heart rate around 80%.

Whew! That ended up being a killer ride! 655 calories burned in 45 minutes! Tomorrow, Stage 7 + abs class + bootcamp. Gonna be a long day.

Calorie Count:

Breakfast cereal (+ vitamins) - 340

Lunch - BBQ chick pizza - 340

Banana - 105

Dinner - 540

Half a protein drink with skim milk - 190

Total Calories Consumed - 1515

Calories Burned -  724

Total Calories Remaining -----------791

One Hundred and One Honda Accords...

This is my car:

One of the most popular cars on the road right now - or so it seems.

So, last night when I was leaving out of the gym, I was tired and I was digging in my bag for my keys. By the time I got to my car, I still hadn't found my keys, so I sat my bag on top of the car hood and continued digging for keys. Finally, I find them and hit the unlock button.

Nothing happens.

So I hit unlock about 5 or 6 times, and still nothing. So I think, well, this is weird.... and I glance in the back and there is a suit hanging in the back hanger. I'm thinking, why in the world is a suit hanging in the back of my..........oh wait......................crap.

Not my car.

I look around and there are 2 more graphite accords in the parking lot, but I spot mine with the Hinds county tag and head toward it.....looking around to make sure nobody else sees me walking around the parking lot like an idiot because I don't know which car is mine.

In my defense, I've only been driving it for 4 months, ok?!

Bye Bye, Margarita!

Oh man, feeling those weights from yesterday - and it's Turbo Thursday. Those punches and burpies are going to be rough tonight! But so glad I am going to be able to burn off all those calories from the margarita and the chips and the fajitas I had last night.

Did you know how many calories are in one margarita? One 16 ounce margarita has about 300 CALORIES.
That's about 3 beers.

So, yeah, I'm ready to get to the gym and work it off! This is why I don't feel bad about eating crazy stuff every now and then because I know what I will be doing the next day. Plan your workouts ahead of time and stick to it.

I get home and decide to practice my round in Turbo before heading to the gym, so I started my calorie counter then. Then I get to the gym and hop on the treadmill for about 15 minutes to keep me moving. Then Turbo starts, and right after, Bootcamp. As soon as I get in the car, I check the HR monitor - and  whopping 1979. I believe that margarita is loooong gone! whoooo!

Ok, this is one of the reasons why I love Mexican food: we ordered fajitas for 2 (steak, chicken, onions, green peppers, and tomatos stir fried), but first filled up on chips, so brought a big doggie bag home, and I had a fajita salad for dinner tonight. Yum Yum!

Calories:

Breakfast (cereal) 340

Lunch, LC Bacon Alfredo pizza - 340

Pure Protein bar - 200

Medium Banana - 105

Dinner - guessing about 450 + a little peanut butter at 100
grapes - 75

Total Calories Consumed - 1610

Calories Burned: - 1979

Calories Remaining for the day............. (-369)
Normally, I wouldn't like to have that many calories in th enegative, but because I went way over yesterday, and I will probably go way over this weekend, I'm not too worried about it.