Holiday Weekend

Yesterday was Memorial Day, fka Decoration Day. Thank you to corporate America, the general public follows the traditions of barbecuing and searching for big sales at Sam's Club, instead of taking time to decorate the tombstones of fallen soldiers, remembering the sacrifice they all made for our country. Ashamedly, I am one of those citizens that shopped and failed to recognize the reason for the holiday. So, for that I am sorry.

So, with that confession said, I'll give a re cap of my 3-day weekend. Friday night Brad and I met up with some friends at Mars Hill Cafe for dinner. Thank you, Corky, for the amazing dinner and the mango tea. Saturday I don't remember the details. I really hate when that happens. I do remember that I slept in some, worked out at the gym and went to see the new Indiana Jones movie with Brad, Will met us there. Thanks Will, for saving us seats.
I really liked the film. It got rave reviews from tough Hollywood critics, but the general public is kinda "meh" about the whole thing. I thought it was great.

Sunday we went to the morning service at church, People of Mars Hill and then I did some grocery shopping. I also bought a jalapeno plant. That day Brad worked in the yard and I cleaned the house. We had our "small group" friends over for a grill-out that evening. We wanted to do one big get together to visit before Brad left for his long trip. Man, the food kept coming! I made baked beans (for the first time, my own recipe), roasted potatoes, queso dip, and a strawberry shortcake. It was a bring-your-own-meat deal, and I filled up the grill three times, I think. It was a great night. Brad was awesome, he did most of the clean up while I was still visiting with friends.

Monday we really took the day off. I meant to go for a run, but it didn't happen. We slept in, watched some Monster Quest on the History Channel, then decided to do some shopping. He needed electric guitar strings and I wanted some more herbs. So we went to Musical Walmart, I mean, Guitar Center, then to Lowe's. We bought a few hanging planters, a thyme plant, and a cucumber plant. So now, in the yard we are growing:
tomato
cucumber
jalapeno
thyme
sweet basil
rosemary

Over the weekend, we discovered we have 6 gladiolas plants! For the past 3 years we thought they were only tall decorative grass. This year they are budding in bold red flowers. I am ecstatic! We plan on laying a pallet of sod in July. Our backyard is shaping up beautifully.

I took a few pics of some things we are growing and I also got a few of the babies.
Here's Lucille looking like she wants to kill me.

Here's a pic of my sweet basil plant, and you can see Arwen in the back ground going to town on a rawhide.

Here's Batman with HIS rawhide, in his favorite "chew spot".

And last but not least, is our fearless feline, Robin.


I finished the 6th Harry Potter book last night. I wanted to re read it before the movie came out. It'll be released in November, so I'm kinda ahead of myself.
Now I will finish reading Echoes of His Presence. I should have that done by next week if I don't allow myself to get too busy and distracted. After that I'm going to dive into more C.S. Lewis. I'm not sure where to start. I began to read Mere Christianity this past fall, I may just start that one over and go from there.

Today is a weight lifting day. I'll do that after work, hopefully I'll have time to put in some good cardiovascular exercise afterward. I have already cleaned the house for small group tonight so I have no excuse.

I'm looking forward to our discussion tonight. Jack's teaching this past Sunday was really good. I need to listen to it again though.

Hummph... I'm having a hard time getting into the swing of things today.

Maybe, maybe not.

I'm thinking about starting another running program. It's going to be in the 80s this week. I haven't run since February so I'm a little nervous. I do miss it and there's a 5k later this year that I definitely want to do. I really don't think I'll ever want to train for anything more than a 10k.

I haven't quite decided yet what I'm going to do.

I don't really like running on a treadmill. When I started to run on those over the winter, my knee pain started. I'm not convinced that the treadmill is responsible, but it is definitely a possiblility. I love running outside, even in the heat. I don't know, it's more freeing I guess. I do not want to over work myself. I'm thinking I may run twice a week, doing cardio in the gym on either the bike or elliptical trainer as well, along with lifting twice a week.

I've been reading further into New Rules of Lifting for Women. Even though I do agree with the program and find it holds sound information, I don't think I'm going to complete it. My reasoning is that some of the exercises are just too silly for me. I'm going to take the exercises I like and put something rough together for myself to follow. I'm still going to follow the premise of reps and weights and how often I increase the weight. I'm just not going to follow the program outlined in the book, persay. How it breaks down is this: start with an exercise that uses the entire body and do reps heavy (ex: squats w/ barbell), then start alternating exercises for lower body and upper body (ex: lat pull down and step ups). Do two different variations and finish with core exercises (ex: planks, reverse crunch). Complete with about 15 minutes of cardio, get in some protein within half an hour of the workout. If I am not lifting on a particular day I'll consider that a cardio day and put in about 45 minutes of whichever exercise I'd like to do.

I was getting to the point where I was dreading doing some of the exercises in the program and I knew that's when I needed to change it. It's hard enough to fit something like this in one's busy schedule. If I don't like it, I won't do it. So I'm going to create something that I do like.

I was sleeping in just a bit on Sunday morning. I did one of those full body stretches to wake myself up. The skin on my legs have been itching due to a sunburn. So as I was scratching my leg during my stretch I notice my quads were harder than they have been before. Yeah, baby!!! So, with that evidence on top of the slight drop in weight I can say that I am an advocate of NROL4W, it's just not for me...exactly. I'll take gems from it and make my own product.

New Workout Program

I’m putting together my grocery list, here’s what I have so far:
Sugar for tea
Oatmeal
Peanut butter
Bananas
Pita
Brown rice
Can tomato sauce
Can stewed tomatoes
Apples
Salad stuff
Broccoli

Here’s my new workout plan. I have to do each exercise 4 times before moving to a new program. So, basically I have to do Workout A 4 times, and Workout B 4 times, alternating them on my weight lifting days then I get to move to something else. I do 15 minutes of cardio intervals after each lifting session, then on my non lift days I do a full session (35-45 mins) of cardio. Lately I’ve been favoring the bike or cybex trainer. It’s like an elliptical. Here are the workouts:

Workout A

Front squat to a push press
This is basically the movement you see alot of Olympic lifters doing. I'm a little scared.

Step up
Yay. I can’t tell you how much I hate these. But I do them anyway. Dot would be proud.

Dumbbell one-point row
I couldn’t find the correct illustration for this, but basically you are balancing on one foot, making a T with your body. Stomach and one leg is parallel with the ground. You pull the dumbbells to your waist in a row motion. This will be interesting to see people’s response.

Static lunge, rear foot elevated
Um, I hate lunges too.

Push ups
I actually like push ups.

Plank
I love these!

Cable horizontal wood chops
I really like that I can do an exercise called a wood chop! Basically this is where you stand next to the big cable machine thing and in motion pull the cable away, twisting your body. These will be fun.

Workout B

Wide grip deadlift

Bulgarian Split Squat
What makes this a Bulgarian? Well, it's just a nice term for the worst lunge you'll ever do.

Underhand grip lat pulldown
I love exercises for my back!

Reverse lunge from box w/ forward reach
Yes! More lunges… ((groans))

Dumbbell prone Cuban snatch
Um, yeah, I don’t really know what this is either. There’s a picture in my book somewhere..

Swiss ball crunch
Reverse crunch
Lateral flexion

And that’s it!
So you may be wondering… What are Paige’s goals? Great! I’ll tell you. It’s basically what a lot of people are on the constant search for:
Stronger muscles
Leaner body
Less fat
Stronger bones
….well basically I just wanna get ripped…in a feminine sort of way.

This will be interesting.

Y - M - C - Hey!!! Get off that treadmill!

I've been going to the "Y" for 2 months now, I think. I have worked out at gyms before, never really noticed anything strange. I mean, you always see strange things at the gym, but I didn't pay attention to how the genders worked out. I went on Thursday after work to lift weights and do some cardio on the elliptical machine. It was then that I had noticed something I had never realized before. ALL the women at the gym were in the cardio area (treadmills, bike, elliptical, stairmaster) or they were in spinning class. I was the only female in the weights area. Now that I was thinking about it, I'm always the only female there. Yeah, I'll see women on some of the machines and ab devices, but it's rare. My mom works on those when she can, so I'm excluding you from this thought, m'kay? Love you.
So, why don't more women pick up free weights, plates on barbells and do some REAL push ups? Those aren't just men exercises. They're just exercises. I understand that intimidation could easily be the factor. Well, that and the fear of a woman getting 'all jacked up'. I too get intimidated, but I have to get over it if I'm going to workout like I want to. I usually stick to the cardio area on Mondays and Tuesdays because the weights area is so packed, I am too impatient to wait. But later in the week I am over there 75% of my time. I love cardio, it's so good for you, so definitely do it! But don't let the men intimidate you. Get in there and do this for yourself. That's what I have to tell myself. I'm not there to impress anyone. (The only person I want to impress is my husband, anyway.) Me being there isn't going to make someone think I'm weird. I'm there because I want to be in better shape. There are studies out stating that lifting weights regularly DO aid in stronger bones in women. That's pretty good motivation, I think. I'm short already, I don't want to be even shorter as I get older. I'm sure it's inevitable to some extent, but I'd like to halt it as much as possible, you know?
I know that for myself, I just feel better after lifting weights. It's like I get an ego-trip or something. After doing a set of push ups I want to flex my arms and Ggrrrrr!!!!!! But I don't. That would be weird.
But, going to the gym is a great way to meet people and make friends. It's definitely an "exercise" in social skills. At first I went in a little on the defensive, not making eye contact, avoiding conversations, but now I want to enjoy it more so I talk to people in between sets and it's more fun that way. It also helps me relax when I'm initially intimidated. I would recommend lifting weights to any woman, unless her doctor said, "no". It's good for the heart, it's good for the bones, it's good for your muscles and overall physique, and it's good to just make new friends.
Right now I'm going through the New Rules of Lifting for Woman program. It's a good book, I recommend it. There's a wonderfully illustrated section in the back of exercises and it's puts the reader on a lifting schedule, moving in phases. I'm starting phase 2. You do a phase for 4 weeks, increasing your weight to be lifted each week. I think there's 6 phases total. It also includes cardio if you want faster results, which I would feel odd going to the gym, lifting weights and going home. I mostly feel like I need to do something else.
Now hear this, I'm not downing any woman, or man, for that matter who sticks to the treadmills or bike. Some people simply prefer that. Maybe building muscle or losing weight isn't a goal for you. I'm really putting this thought out there for those who have thought about lifting, or would like to, but are too afraid too. After researching some benefits, you're going to want to. The hard part is getting past some initial intimidation. At least, that was (and still is) my issue sometimes. I think all people should involve themselves in some type of activity (socially is possible) on a regular basis. I think it helps clear our minds and shed some stress. I'm thinking about joining a tennis league. My sister has inspired me to do it. She really has a great time doing it, and I know she's been able to meet some people doing it too.
That's just my thought for the moment. Maybe you disagree, that's fine. Trust me, I'm not always right. You may leave a comment, but please make it nice, I'm a little sensitive.

I don't know...maybe these cardio people know something I don't....