Gluten Free 3

Happy Weekend Everyone!

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Is anyone else glad the work week has finally come to a close? I know I am!
The only small down side is that my long run outside tomorrow will have to be postponed because we are supposed to be getting 6-8inches of snow throughout the day. Yeesh!

Anyway, work has been crazy as usual, but I love it. I got to meet 4 new groups of girls this week and so far, they all seemed to like the activities I had planned out. (Did I mention I work for a non-profit group?) It's been keeping me busy busy busy! But, I still managed to get in 1 night of Zumba and 2 nights of Wii Just Dance 3. Hooray! Sadly, no real running this week, unless you count all of the running around I did for work... *insert drum hit here*. Corny, I know. I can't help myself sometimes.

In other news, week 3 of gluten free is going pretty well. I went out to hibachi/sushi with a group of friends the other night for a birthday dinner and managed to make some very good, gluten-free choices. For those who may not know, I LOVE SUSHI/HIBACHI!! However, going gluten-free means I cannot enjoy terriyaki or soy sauce.. so I had to be smart with my choices. No hibachi for this kid. I did, however, enjoy two very yummy rolls- spicy salmon and an ocean roll that had practically every type of sushi in it rolled in white seaweed with cucumber and avocado.

 SO YUMMY!!

I also passed on the fried ice cream (seriously, I'm SO proud of myself for that- I should get a medal or something).

The other day, I stocked up on some more gluten free foods at Ocean State- some more pasta and crackers, along with some ginger snap cookies and gluten free granola! Holler! Even though I do have some cracker/cookies/granola... most of my snacking has actually been fruits and vegetables/hummus. I've had salad for lunch 3 of the 5 days this week and, overall, I just am feeling healthier. I may extend my gluten-free expirement another 30 days, just to see if there continues to be improvement in energy/digestion/etc.

How is everyone else doing with their goals so far?

Happy Holidays

Ok, I'm a little late on the holiday message, 

but I hope everyone did have a Great Holiday!

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I was very very spoiled by both my family and my boyfriend- much more than I deserved!
I got a great stash of exercise stuff (what better way to re-motivate myself into working out again!).
A 5lb kettle bell, Wii Just Dance 3 (cause we all know how much I love that game), and a new BRIGHT PINK running jacket are just some of the goodies this kid got to open on Christmas day!

Needless to say I've already sported my new jacket (just to see how it felt) and I've done a Just Dance 3 workout (epic!!) and a kettle bell circuit. I know I gained some weight over the holidays (I went up 8 lbs - boo! hiss!!) so I'm determined to drop those pesky 8 and another 15 by my birthday at the end of February.

For now, Just Dance is going to have to suffice, at least until my cough/chest congestion is gone. It's hard to run when one cannot breathe. I finally gave in last week and went to the doctors. Got put on antibiotics and allergy meds to help dry me out. The doctor then told me he wants me to start drinking a gallon of water a day. A gallon!? I mean, I hydrate pretty well. I usually hit my 8-10 eight ounce glasses of water per day... I always have a water bottle stashed somewhere... but a gallon seems a bit much. I'm doing my best though (even if my bladder isn't happy with me).

One problem I've been running into though is how much I crave salt while drinking ll this water. I think I'm flooding my system a bit too much so my body is trying to get some electrolytes in there (same as when running long distances, right?). So, I may have to add a bottle of gatorade in along with my new hydration plan. I'm also working on spacing out my cups of water. Sometimes I intake about 3 glasses of water in a very short period of time (because I get thirsty), so I'm trying to slow my pace and drink one glass of water every hour and a half or so (unless I get thirsty... but I figure if I'm maintaining a steady intake, I shouldn't get overly thirsty, right?).

Anyway, how was everyone else's holiday?! Anyone get any fun/exciting/new/unusual presents?!

Who Says Cross Training Can't Be Fun!

 Whoever said cross training is boring never had the cross training day that I just had! And he/she should be jealous!! Originally, my goal was to go to the gym and do the bike and/or elliptical with some weights and core work. But when I woke up today it was all rain and gross and blah out. Makes one not want to drive to the gym... or anywhere, for that matter. So, instead, I decided to pull my Wii console out of my room, bring it down to the living room and pop in my Just Dance 2 game. There is a setting on the game where you can choose how much of a work out you want to do over the course of the day/week, and then you go to it. As you dance, you earn "sweat points"and depending upon what work out level you choose, depends on how many sweat points you want to earn.

I chose to do the "Tough" level, which is actually the middle level, where you have to earn 1000 sweat points in a day/7000 in a week. Easy peasy! My mother and her friend sat down on the couch to watch me embarrass myself on my Wii and I did my first song: It's Raining Men. It took me a bit of time to be able to follow the feet for most of the songs, but my lack of dance experience helped me along. Eventually, my mother and her friend got into it as well and decided to get up and dance the songs with me. Some of the hits we performed were: Proud Mary, Wake Me Up Before You GoGo, Jungle Boogie, It's in His Kiss, TikTok, Hot Stuff, Jump in the Line, and Walk Like an Egyptian.

 As per request, my mother took some photos of my performance for your blog-reading pleasure.

 

This was one part during the Jump in the Line dance

 

(check out that awesome leg pop I've got going on! Chelsea would be SO proud!)

 

Walk Like an Egyptian! (Don't judge my outfit too harshly haha)

Check out all the rocking moves I had going on! (I know, you're beyond impressed. It's okay, I am too.)

We played the Just Dance 2 game for an hour and earned 3,058 sweat points! Take that Wii! We kicked it up not one, not two, but THREE notches for our sweat points! So proud of us and our work out. A few moments after we finished our dancing, my brother came home and decided to bring his Xbox Kinnect downstairs for us to play as well. We did a Kinnect Adventure game which had water sports, a brick-breaker game and an obstacle course. Fun times all around! I'm very happy with all our exercising and I'm impressed that I managed to get my mother, my brother and my mother's friend all up and moving. I fear that a healthy lifestyle is spreading around the house- and I'm LOVING it! Now, I'm off to destroy my abs with one of Chelsea's core workouts. Yay!

Questions of the Day:

1.  What is your favorite activity to do for cross training?

2. Have you ever used a Wii or Xbox Kinnect system for exercise purposes? If so, what games/activities did you do?

Healthy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to everyone!
I hope y'all had a fantastic holiday weekend with loved ones, I know I did. :)

I did a lot of cooking this weekend: kielbasa and sauerkraut, bbq kielbasa ham, turkey, broccoli cheese and rice casserole, chicken curry, cocktail sauce for shrimp and a key lime mousse pie. Phew!

I ate little bits of different things, but managed to not go overboard thankfully.
I also used some of Kurt's ideas from his blog and did little spurts of exercise throughout the day. Calf raises while cooking, bicep curls while carrying dishes, played with my new Wii dance games and my brother's new Xbox Kinnect. The Kinnect is pretty awesome and I fell in love with the Kinnect Adventures Rallyball game. Sooooo much fun. My brother and I also played beach volleyball, river rafting, agility courses, and bowling.

I also received my S2H Replay watch that I had mentioned in an earlier post. I've already wracked up over 60min of exercise time and got my first points (yay!) Some people think the watch is weird but I think it adds some extra motivation to my life. I can get gift cards to Best Buy, Dick's Sporting Goods, a Spa, Farmville, all kinds of crazy places. I love it!

Kurt also gave me my own headwarmer for when I run, since during the race I had to borrow one of Chelsea's. (Another very exciting gift!) I also received a lot of candles (I have a passion for candles and scarves lol), a really cool infinity reflections candle holder, Wii exercise dance games and lots of healthy foods (pistachios, soy protein, hummus, etc). All in all, a fantastic holiday!

Leave a comment and let me know how your holidays went and what cool presents you received!