Filed under: Cooking, Nails | Tags: Cooking, Day 4, Food, Nails, Other
It’s still all snowy outside, so another snowbound day!
Nails: Today went well. 
Cooking: I made two egg sammiches today, one for me and one for Rosie. She was impressed with the GF english muffins. She said that had I not told her, she wouldn’t have been able to tell. I’ve been pretty impressed with everything Kinnikinnick makes.
Filed under: Cooking, Nails | Tags: Cooking, Day 3, Food, Nails, Other
We got a lot of snow. I love staying in when it’s blizzarding outside!
Nails: I had a hangnail that I bit off, but other than that I was good today!
Cooking: I had an egg sammich today, which means frying an egg. English muffin (GF) goes in the toaster, then sandwich it all together with a slice of cheese. Yummy! I also made some tea for Rosie and me since it’s snowing.
Filed under: Cooking, Nails | Tags: Cooking, Day 2, Food, Nails, Other
I went grocery shopping today on a quest for Andrew&Everett cheese which has been my favorite brand since I started eating cheese again. I finally found some at Sprouts, but they didn’t have my string cheese! 
But I did get some cheddar slices, so it was burger night!
Nails: It went pretty well today. I wiped out pretty bad by the mailbox yesterday and my hands are still pretty sore from falling on them, so I didn’t have much interest in chewing on my nails. Hey, whatever works!
Cooking: Rosie made herself a cheeseburger and brought it over, and I microwaved a Sunshine Burger and a GF bun for myself, and then baked some fries for the both of us. Burger night!
Filed under: Cooking, Nails | Tags: Cooking, Day 1, Food, Intro, Nails, Other
It was a close vote and we ended up with a tie for first place. For the next 21 days, I will focus on not biting my nails and having at least one home-cooked meal every day, meaning I need to use the stove or oven.
Nails: I almost slipped up once at work today, because I tend to bite my nails more when working, but I made it through today OK. One day down!
Cooking: OK, I kind of half-assed this one today, I’ll admit. I had edamame, which just involved boiling water and tossing the edamame in. But I had to turn the stove on at least!
Filed under: Journaling, Juicing | Tags: Food, Intro, Journaling, Juicing
Jen and I were talking about how we both need to start a new 21, and we decided to start one together. We’re starting on the first, so the numbers will be easy to keep track of. She said she’s going to do food journaling, and I had tossed around the idea of getting back in the habit of juicing daily. I’ve decided to do both. I will be keeping track of what I eat on SparkPeople (a very handy site) and making myself at least a cup of fresh juice every day. All I have to say so far is I forgot how fabulous fresh juice is!
Filed under: Cleaning | Tags: Cleaning, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 8, Day 9, Other
This was definitely more a week of “cleaning out” more than “cleaning up” or straight up “cleaning.” Mostly in the bathroom. I filled a garbage bag with stuff to get rid of, and I think there’s still more that needs to go. The guest room closet is really coming along well. I need to decide what books I want to keep and pack those up and sell the rest, then it will really be nice. I need to find a good home for the shelves in there. Anyone need some plastic shelving? They’re pretty decent as far as plastic shelving goes. This upcoming week I’d like to focus more on the “cleaning” side of things. Scrub the bathtub and take a bath, for example.
Filed under: Cleaning | Tags: Cleaning, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Other
Week 1 went fairly well. Unfortunately I am not yet at the “maintenance” stage. So far I have gone through a lot of stuff to clean it out, and I got rid of a lot of stuff, which always feels awesome. The closet in the guest room is starting to empty out, finally. I only did two loads of dishes, which is kind of silly, but it’s better than nothing.
My bathroom is currently a disaster area. I’m trying to clean out things I won’t use. It’s much harder than it seems like it should be! I may need to have someone come over and help me go through each item and say “Yes I use this” or “No I will never use this” to get this figured out! My goal for this week is to get the bathroom done, then clean it top to bottom, and clean the kitchen top to bottom. Wish me luck!
OK, back to the routine. I’ve been slacking so much, and I’m running out of excuses!
I am putting in my 60 day notice on my apartment this week, so I will be moving out by the end of June.
This means I have this week to get the place show-worthy, and then I’ll have to maintain it for 2 months! That’s the worst part about moving out of an apartment.
The goal needs some concrete definitions. By the end, all I should need to do is a little daily maintenance (make sure there are no dirty dishes in the sink or laundry in the hallway, for example), but to begin with I’ll need to do some serious cleaning every day. I’ll do at least 30 minutes a day until it’s as clean as I’d like it to be.
I start tonight! I SWEAR this time. 
Oh 21 blog, how I have missed you.
Life has been very crazy for me, and in the middle of blizzards, doctor appointments, and floods, I have been neglecting my 21ing.
Life has settled town again, and I am ready to start again. I’m going for a fairly simple goal to get myself back in the swing of things. For the next 21 days, I will do at least 30 minutes of cardio (walking, jogging, running, biking, boxing) and at least 15 minutes of strength training (Total Gym, situps, pushups, yoga, pilates) every day. I’ll try to do my cardio outside as much as the weather allows, though that’s easier said than done. The weather is really fickle this time of year here. I start this weekend!
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 9, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
This was a really busy day for me, so my walking ended up being walking around Target. It still counts though, right? My calves and shins hurt from Tuesday, but otherwise I’ feeling better, knees included.
Running: 30 minutes of easy walking.
Situps: Rest day.
Girly Pushups: Rest day.
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 8, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
Today was the first day we added in any running on the running program. I kind of felt like I was going to die a little bit. The weather was a lot nicer, which helped a lot. Still cold, but less wind. I think I was dressed more appropriately this time, too. Better layers on top so I didn’t have the bulky coat this time. I was gasping for air through my mouth for a while, and when I switched to try breathing in through my nose and out through my mouth like we did in boxing class, that helped a ton. I just need to focus on doing this.
The path had a lovely little patch of about 5 inches of snow that no one had bothered to shovel. The last set of running had us running through that. That was really hard! I ended up with a nice little side cramp after that. by the time we got back to the store, though, I had walked it off.
Running: Alternate 5 minutes walking and 1 minute running for a total of 30 minutes. Either one of our walks was 6 minutes, or we only went for 29 minutes, though, because we walked 5 times and ran 4.
Situps: Rest Day.
Girly Pushups: Rest Day.
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 7, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
One week down! So far so good. I am definitely noticing an improvement in the situps and girly pushups. The running program has all been walking so far, which I was already good at, so I haven’t really noticed anything there yet, but tomorrow we begin adding in running, so I’ll be noticing something! Here’s hoping it’s improvement and not coughing up my lungs.
Running: 30 minutes of easy effort walking.
Situps: 5 sets with 60 seconds resting between each set. The sets were 17, 22, 14, 14, and as many as I can do but at least 20. I ended with 20 on the last one for a total of 87. I may have been able to do more, but I was running short on time.
Girly Pushups: 5 sets with 120 seconds resting between each set. The sets were 8, 10, 7, 7, and as many as I can do but at least 10. I ended with 10 on the last one for a total of 42. Again, short on time.
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 6, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
Sunday is a rest day in all three programs. I kind of don’t like this, because I was just a waste of space all day. Maybe on the days where it’s a rest day for all 3, I’ll make sure to get some biking in no matter what, or something. I’ll figure something out.
Running: Rest Day.
Situps: Rest Day.
Girly Pushups: Rest Day.
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 5, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
I realize this is only the second time I’m doing the situps and girly pushups, but I feel like I can already feel a difference. Not much else to post, other than I fell down the stairs (I’m OK, my foot just slipped off a few steps from the bottom. Ouch.) so on to the numbers.
Running: 30 minutes of medium effort walking.
Situps: 5 sets with 60 seconds resting between each set. The sets were 15, 18, 15, 15, and as many as I can do but at least 18. I ended with 30 on the last one for a total of 93. Already an improvement!
Girly Pushups: 5 sets with 90 seconds resting between each set. The sets were 6, 8, 6, 6, and as many as I can do but at least 7. I ended with 15 on the last one for a total of 41. I am impressed.
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 4, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
It looks like WordPress ate my first posting of Day 4. I hope I didn’t say anything too brilliant! I’ll repost the stats, and that’s all I’ve got.
Running: 30 minutes of medium effort walking.
Situps: Rest day.
Girly Pushups: Rest day.
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 3, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
It feels good to have an “On” day. I suppose this is what Jen feels like on her “Down” days with her ADF. It wasn’t anything too strenuous, but it was something!
Running: 30 minutes of easy effort walking.
Situps: 5 sets with 60 seconds resting between each set. The sets were 15, 18, 10, 10, and as many as I can but at least 14. I ended with that last one at 25, for a total of 78. Not too bad!
Girly Pushups: This is set up similar to the situps. 5 sets with 60 seconds resting between each set. the sets were 6, 6, 4, 4, and as many as a can but at least 5. I ended with 10, for a total of 30! I was impressed with myself.
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 2, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
Today kind of felt like cheating. It was a rest day for all 3 things. But I’m following the plans, so I guess it’s still success! Melalvai commented that she’d have a hard time with something that isn’t every day. I’m inclined to agree here.
I went to the dentist today. I was all excited to tell her about my success in flossing thanks to the 21-day plan. And it showed! She said I removed 6 out of 8 bleeding points. Everything looks good, no cavities, etc. Woo! Success! Next time I will have those last two removed as well.
She was also curious about the 21-day thing in general. She said, “So that means I’d have to go 21 days without eating McDonalds to break my McDonalds habit?!” I nodded and she said she’d never be able to do that and that she can’t even go one day. Ugh. I can’t even comprehend that. Yuck.
Running: Rest Day.
Situps: Rest Day.
Girly Pushups: Rest Day.
Filed under: Girly Pushups, Running, Situps | Tags: Day 1, Exercise, Girly Pushups, Running, Situps
OK, yes, I gave up on another 21-Day Cycle. It seems like if I put too much focus on what I eat, I cannot eat properly. So I am giving up on food cycles for the time being. I do still plan to follow the 4-day rotation, more or less, I’m just not going to stress about it. Instead, I am back to exercise!
Yesterday, I started a 12-week Beginner’s Running Program through Dick Beardsley Running Company which will take us from walking briskly for 30 minutes all the way up to running a 5K. This will be just in time for the Fargo Marathon’s 5K on May 9th, which I am signed up for. I’ve never been able to run, so I figured signing up for a structured program wouldn’t be a bad idea. My friends Tia and Mandee signed up for the program with me, which will be a huge help in motivation.
A couple days ago, on Darin’s Facebook, I saw a group he joined called Two Hundred Sit-Ups Challenge. I went to check it out and found a link to a 6-week training program to be able to do 200 situps. There was a point in my life when that would have been nothing to me. Sadly, that is no longer the case. So I decided I’d try this, to. I mentioned to Darin that I’d also like to try something with pushups, since I’ve never been able to do them. He informed me that there is a very similar program with a 6-week training program to be able to do 100 pushups. How handy! My initial thought was to do the situps with the first 6 weeks of the running program and the pushups with the last 6 weeks of the running program. My main problem with this is the fact that currently I can do a total of zero proper pushups. Sure I’ll have a lot more cardiovascular endurance and core strength in 6 weeks, but that doesn’t help my upper body. So my new plan is to follow the push-up program for 6 weeks, except do girly pushups instead. You know the ones, where you’re on your knees instead of your toes. I can do a few of those! They kind of hurt me knees, but if I’m kneeling on a pillow it’s not so bad. I will do those along with the situps for the first 6 weeks. Then the next 6 weeks I will move on to real pushups.
Here is what I’ve accomplished today:
Running: 30 minutes brisk walking.
Situps: Initial Test: 22 situps. Oof! That hurts my pride!
Girly Pushups: Initial Test: 7 girly pushups. Not bad!
Here was today’s plan:
Breakfast: Dried Figs, Grapefruit, Raspberries, Flaxseeds
Lunch: Wild Rice, Spinach
Dinner: Amaranth
Snack: Apricots, Pistachios, Pumpkin Seeds, Sunflower Seeds
Once again, I did not eat all of this. These next 4 days the focus will definitely be preparing the food the night before and then eating all of it.
Part of the beauty of meal plans is supposed to be that you can prepare food the day before and not have to rush in the morning, right? I seem to have forgotten then, because today I arrived at work with no breakfast and only half of my lunch. Lesson learned. Here was today’s plan:
Breakfast: Pineapple, Kiwi, Carrot-Apple Juice
Lunch: Brown Rice, Broccoli
Dinner: Brown Rice, Tomato + Red Pepper + Onion + Garlic + Mustard Seeds sauteed
Snack: Hummus and carrot sticks
I did run home on my lunch break to make up for some missing food, which helped, but I still didn’t eat all of this.
