The Best Part of Christmas

December 26, 2013 Kim 57 Comments

Today’s 44 was nearly a fail!!! Not long ago I did push-ups using my foam roller for the 44 of the day. The wonderful and super fit Jody suggested trying the same move but with my feet on a stability ball. Well – I’m always up for a new way to challenge myself so today I tried it!

I could not even hold the pose with my toes on the ball so I just went with the tops of my feet and still struggled!!!

This move was beyond HARD!!! I struggled and by the end my push-ups were barely going down – I’m going to have to work on this move for sure!!!

My neighbor’s daughter (she is a few years younger than me!) is still in town and she came over to workout again this morning – so much fun!! Today we did Cathe XTrain – Tabatacise!!! This is definitely a great workout. After we were done Erin asked about a challenge move (since we did the plank hold last time) so we did 10 Manmakers.

(This video clearly wasn’t today since I had blond hair!)

Yesterday we hosted our first annual Governor’s Row House Christmas Day Open House.

We had no idea if any one would come or if it would be just the 4 of us hanging out over there.

It turned out to be a really fun day. Some great friends came and hung out most of the day!

kid's playing HeadBandz — kid’s playing HeadBandz

The boys (Chris, Jordan and Hunter) played trumpet and cello tunes for us! Plenty of food (lunch and dinner!) and fun!!!

Last week I put fliers in our 3 tenants mail boxes and 2 of them came down for awhile (the 3rd, a young couple, had gone home to Chicago!).

Kelvin lives on the 3rd floor by himself (he is going to be 65 next month) and called me around 5 to see if we were still there. He came down, brought Champagne to share (nice!), ate and visited until we started packing up around 8.

He had been by himself (other than his cat) all day and would have spent the entire day that way if he hadn’t joined us. After a couple of hours he said he felt like he had an adopted family!! That comment made my day because all along, my whole goal had been to help make someone’s Christmas better than it might have been otherwise. When he got ready to go back up to his apartment he hugged me and said it had turned into a wonderful Christmas for him!

And, the best part – on the way home Jordan rode with me (I had gone earlier to clean since we had an event Christmas Eve, too) and he talked about how glad he was that we had done the Open House!!! This is big because when I first mentioned it to Jordan he did not want any part in it.

After seeing how much it meant to Kelvin, he realized that sometimes taking the time to be available to someone is the best gift you can give. (Plus he had a good time all day!!)

Happy Thursday!!!

Kim

Core, Fitness, Running, Treadmill

Merry Christmas!!!

December 25, 2013 Kim 36 Comments

Today I did one of my least favorite moves for my 44 – a Russian twist with a medicine ball. I think I don’t like the move because it makes me dizzy!

I counted a rep as hitting the ground on the right side, the left side and back to the right.

Then I did a quick run – 1.5% incline – 5.13 miles (because for some reason I had an odd # in my running log and needed to round it out before the end of the year!) in 32:56 + 0.75 cool down.

Even big boys still leave milk and cookies for Santa!!

The notes leave a bit to be desired – Oh, well – all fun!!

I hope all y’all have someone special to spend your day with!

Merry Christmas!!

Kim

Core, Fitness, Plank, Shoulders

We Baked (sort-of!!)

December 24, 2013 Kim 45 Comments

Today I tried a new to me move for my 44. I saw a similar move somewhere (sorry, can’t remember where) and changed it up just a bit to make it work for a 44.

I did a plank – right arm reach forward – right hand touch left ankle – plank – left arm reach forward – left hand touch right ankle for each rep. (the pictures will make more sense)

This is another one of those moves that about half-way through I started thinking I should have timed it to see how long I was in the plank/downward dog position – oh, well I didn’t care enough to start over!!!

My neighbor’s daughter who is visiting for Christmas came over to workout with me – we had decided last night at the Christmas Eve Eve party

to get together for our 2nd annual Christmas workout!!!

She was up for any type of workout so I pulled out one from the summer (Pyramid Boot Camp) and added a little to make it really tough!!! In the summer, we just did 10 exercises up the pyramid (10 reps each) and then back down. Today I added in 2 more moves so we did 12 up then back down.

230 squats (+ more for the squat w/back kick that I added)
110 push-ups
130 lunges each leg
30 burpees
plus all of the other stuff which I didn’t calculate

It was a good workout. We ended with a max plank hold (arms extended) – we made it to 3 minutes and called it good!!!

I’m pretty sure that I’ve mentioned more than once that I don’t bake. I love to cook but baking…..However, yesterday morning I pulled the boys into the kitchen and we baked (our version!).

The boys unwrapped the kisses and put them on the pretzels – I know they enjoyed it!!

We also made Rice Krispy treats, a simple chocolate candy that I’ve made for years and some brown sugar oatmeal cookies (I really did bake these!).

It is so much more fun to do stuff like that when the boys help out!! And, Jordan did most of the clean-up – BONUS!!!

Happy Tuesday!! Merry Christmas Eve!!

Kim

Fitness, Running, Treadmill

Balancing out the Extra Indulgences

December 23, 2013 Kim 74 Comments

Even though I’m cutting myself some slack in some areas the next couple of weeks, working out is not one of those areas!!! I decided to amp up my 44s to help balance out some of the indulgences!

Today I actually combined my 44 and my workout and did what I love – I ran!!! Not only did I run, I ran HARD!!!

The 44 – run 44 minutes (at 1.0% incline) – 7.41 miles. I decided that I couldn’t end with that odd number so I ran until 44:27 to make it an even 7.5 miles. (I also did 1.8 more mile as a cool down!)

It’s been awhile since I really tested my speed and endurance and I was dying by the end of this run – but it did feel good to really push myself!!!

It’s all about balance and enjoying life!!!

Do you work harder when you know that you will have extra indulgences?

Happy Monday!!!

Kim

Back, Butt, Cardio, Fitness, Plyo, Squats

I Am Giving Myself Permission to…

December 22, 2013 Kim 57 Comments

Today I took a couple of basic moves and combined them for the 44. I did a squat with a row. But, I wanted to make it even more challenging so I made the squat a jump squat.

I used my kettlebell for the rows – 20 pounds. This move got my heart rate way up there!!!

I don’t always work out on the weekend but since I took the entire past week off I decided to do a short workout today. I did Turbo Jam, Cardio Party 2. It is amazing how much conditioning you can lose in a short time – I was huffing and puffing through most of this workout!

I decided that I want to really enjoy the next couple of weeks and not feel guilty for certain things. So I have given myself permission to:

Sleep until I wake up and skip the normal 5:00 am wake-up alarm. Some days I wake up and feel guilty if I don’t get up super early but I’m going to give myself these couple of weeks to sleep without guilt!
Go simple with meals – use the crock pot as much as possible to make life easier. (I actually do this a lot but sometimes around the holidays I feel like meals have to be more elaborate and this year I’m letting that go.)
Spend time doing things that aren’t productive – TV, computer stuff (not work related), reading.
Hang out – after this Christmas break, Jordan only has 3 more before he will not always be home with us. I want to take advantage of the time and ~~make the boys~~ spend time together playing games or whatever.
Enjoy life and not be stressing or rushing around thinking about lists and things that need to be done. This one will be hard because I spend most of my time thinking about the next thing and the next and the next…

Basically I am going to try and just enjoy the next couple of weeks without getting stressed or feeling guilty (easier said than done!) about things.