random is my middle name

happy monday! boy was i not ready for today. i had an extremely productive weekend. i cleaned the house from top to bottom, and have made quite a dent in what needs to get packed for the big move. btw . . . i can't believe we're moving again. and it's only been a year. *sigh* my, oh my has this past year f-l-o-w-n by . . . anyways, back on topic. my weekend was full of getting ish done. checking off to-do list items like a motha. felt a-ma-zing. and exhausting. the only downside to a get-er-done weekend is how much i don't feel like i had a second to relax. but, no bigs. we carry on. c'est la vie. :)

my mind is super random, so instead of attempting a "normal" blog post that has purpose, i am going to take this opportunity to purge all the little thoughts and tidbits rattling around inside my noggin. kind of like dumping out a handbag. let's see what shakes its way out.

on the brain . . .
books. books. and . . . more books! these five lovelies are the latest editions to my alex cross series by james patterson. swoon!
the ol' brain is still 100% on vacuum mode. anything my eyes see, my brain immediately wants to munch on. not a bad thing, eh? from new articles, to blog posts, to books, magazines . . . this brain must devour it all! eat all the books! haha.




















this morning, i was greeted by a neatly wrapped little package that contained my pottery piece from my team outing a couple weeks back. a cute little elephant figurine. i have absolutely no clue what on earth i am going to do with it. truthfully, i would have preferred to paint a mug or dish (something i can actually get some use out of), but the selection of pottery pieces that fit within our team budget were minimal. oh well. i will find somewhere to put this little guy.






























in my belly . . .
what a blast there was to be had, cooking up a storm in the kitchen yesterday. i made:
1. homemade pasta sauce, which i paired with fettuccine-style rice noodles.
2. from scratch "KIND" bars.
3. handmade turkey meatballs (a la skinny minnie). her recipe is for teriyaki meatballs, but i didn't make the accompanying sauce. instead, i added them to a sweet potato bisque (a la trader joe's) and created a bean-less, low FODMAP chilly sort of dish.
* i am lacking on food pics this time around (because my stomach rules me and has absolutely no respect for proper documentation), but will try to remember to sneak a few snap shots in before tucking into my meals tomorrow. oh, and i will post the accompanying recipe links as well. :)

i finally found something to fill my afternoon crunch craving! carrots. they offer both crunch and a slightly sweet taste (since they're just wee little bebes).

and no excuse needed here because chocolate . . . found these delightful treats while galavanting through cost plus. if you haven't been, you simply must! it's like someone threw trader joe's, pier one, home goods, and anthropology (think exotic soaps and trinkets) into one store. *sigh* my little shopper's heart just skipped a beat.

and pancakes . . . because i made these two weekends ago, and simply cannot wait to make them again. they are gluten-free, low FODMAP blueberry pancakes. to die for, i must say! oh, but i cannot take credit for them. this batch was a pre-mixed flour blend. i simply added the blueberries.

fit as a fiddle. healthy as a horse . . .
i have never once understood either of those idioms, but i digress. for your viewing pleasure (or not perhaps lol), sweaty pics of your truly. ;)
i don't usually wear glasses to the gym, but when i do . . . it's because i ran out of contacts. lame. must remember to order them.

current obsessions . . .
do you suffer from wild, unruly, 100% untamable hair? if your answer is no, then i hope to goodness you thank the big man upstairs for winning the gene-pool lottery. if however, your answer is yes . . . well then you, my friend, neeeeeeeed to own a wet brush. nope, this is not a dirty item. it is however, heaven for your hair. cuts this grizzly mane of mind like butta.

silliness . . .
because please, live a little.
this is how dexter helps me pack. i flipped the box over to tape the bottom up, and mr. slinks here shimmied his way under the flaps. what an adorable fool.

i promise i'm helping out, mom.

***
what have you been up to? 
care to share any yummy eats? 
do you have any current obsessions?

peace. love. :)
yay

lemme see you sweat!

hey there, sunday!

sunny, sunny days. can't complain! just love soaking up this gorgeous weather by throwing open all the windows and letting the cool breeze dance from room to room. in a blink of an eye, it will soon be 105F+, so i am making sure to enjoy the few weeks of spring weather that we get!

this girl has had another successful, almost painless week of sweet, sweaty workouts. my upper back and neck pain crept in towards the end of the week. nothing a light massage and back adjustment, a la my dude, couldn't fix. woke up feeling much, much better today. :)

i have been trying to get better at using my Movescount profile to track and log all of my cardio workouts. went off the grid for a while, but this week i was on point with it!

dedicated 3 of my 4 workouts to HIIT, and 1 day to spin.

i am loving how great my body feels post workout!

uploaded from my Movescount profile

still gotta finish meal prepping, so this will have to be a baby post for now.

on a random note, wish i could stay up and watch Revenge tonight! it's getting so darn intense, i can barely handle it! eek! but let's be realistic, i will be in bed before it even airs ;)

do you have a guilty pleasure show?

peace. love. :)
yay

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she glows

happy sunday! it is sunny, nearly cloudless and cool in my neck of the woods. a truly beautiful spring day. if being an adult didn't come with the responsibility of grocery & necessities shopping, cleaning house, doing laundry, etc . . . i would be outside from sun up to sun down. but, being a grown-up does come with a pretty long to-do list and priorities. sundays are my prep-for-the-week day, so i should probably stay on track ;)

my back is still achy from my last workout, but i am so proud of my body! this girl conquered 3 amazingly intense cardio sessions this week! it may not seem like a lot, but i was able to get through each one without being in loads of pain during or after. that in itself is great! post-workout pain-pill-popping is not the norm for me, but it was necessary this past week, and has really helped reduce the usual muscle inflammation and stiffness that renders me 100% miserable. and that was my short and sweet ode to western medicine lol . . . 

my workouts for the week were:

1. 42 minutes of HITT training
2. 48 minutes hill-climb-focused spin class
3. 39 minutes of HITT training.

post cardio glow

i took my heart-rate monitor strap off after spin, and boy was it gross! i was literally dripping sweat. #proudgirl lol

holy yuck!

big hair . . .

. . . don't care :)

well, i am off to run errands. costco. vons. petsmart. possibly target. between costco and target, my pocketbook may need a bit of luck haha

is there a store that tends to empty your checkbook?

peace. love. :)
yay

after clouds, sun

i left off on a pretty blah note tuesday night. understandably so, i hope. i like to keep things real. i'd never want to paint a picture of rainbows and butterflies, when in fact things are more grey skies and stormy clouds. that being said, i also don't want to be a constant rain cloud. this week has been a little off for me. not entirely bad. mostly just meh... so i decided to take a step back and hit reset.

i feel like i don't have much to say about the week's happenings, and yet i have a ton of pictures haha. i can be rather snap happy. ;)

such a bookworm ;)

we have a general rule of no furry pals on the furniture... but sometimes, just sometimes their cuteness wins out. in the case of me vs dexter... well, as you can see, dex won. we snuggled on the couch as i read. i know i've said it before, but i can't seem to put this book down!

should i assume he finds my book boring? haha

why's my right eye look smaller than my left?

wednesday's spin attire. i really needed my endorphin fix. 60 minutes of spin did the trick!

my socks NEVER match haha

thursday was back and bi day. i really wasn't feeling it all day, but once my heart started that familiar thump, thump and those endorphins started flowing... well, i just killed it!! left feeling tired and elated all at once. :)

warm up:

10 minutes on the treadmill 

back
* wide grip pull up (assisted):
   8 reps (displacing 58lbs)/ 8 reps (2 sets displacing 52lbs)/ 8 reps (displacing 40lbs)

* close grip pull down:
   60lbs 8 reps/ 70lbs 6 reps (2 sets)/ 80lbs 6 reps

* cable row:
   60lbs 8 reps (3 sets)/ 70lbs 8 reps
biceps
* standing dumbell curl:
   10lbs 8 reps (2 sets)/ 10lbs 6 reps
* incline bicep curl:

   7.5lbs 8 reps (2 sets)/ 10lbs 8 reps
* dumbell preacher curl:
   7.5lbs 8 reps (2 sets)/ 10lbs 8 reps

pre-run snack attack

friday was supposed to be a rest day, but i woke up with an itch to take a little run. soooo, i got the poodle doo ready and off we went!

my poor heal is still sore and blistered from monday's trail run

what a happy pup :)

hot + humid day = frizzy hair and sweaty sunscreen streaks 

finally a pic of my pasta toss (among other snacky snacks haha). i've pretty much been inhaling my food all week. i eat. turn around. and boom. insta-hungry. i'm surprised i even got these snapshot before they were devoured. got the chips and salsa to go with my burrito bowls (which were too unphotogenic ??, although yummy, to take a pic of). the guac (one of my hands-down favorite foods!) was a spur-of-the-moment snack that my stomach decided it just had to have. 

the rest of my afternoon and evening were spent with my best friend, my sister (from another mister... and momma haha), my confidant. we were well overdue for some girl time. first stop was thai food. a cheat meal for sure, but i did make a decent decision by opting for chicken satay instead of the usual pad see ew. next was a hip, new coffee shop, where we chit chatted until the sun went down. now, we're both sweet fiends, so it was no surprise that we ended up at our favorite vegan ice cream shop. i could feel guilty, but really, it's quite amazing. :)    

all ready for my girly date!

carmel vanilla latte with almond milk. yum!!

a little vino? why yes!

i love how time just stops, and at the same time flies by, with friends. we'd planned on lunch, but of course ended up jibber jabbing the night away. :)

let's not take each other for granted

i'm not sure what sort of post this will turn out to be... happy. sad. confusing. i just don't know, so i apologize in advance if i'm everywhere. and nowhere.

today began as and was almost entirely a good day. any other day i'd probably start out by saying, "happy tuesday!" today however, it just doesn't seem appropriate... i received some really sad news just before leaving work. my great aunt passed early this morning. she lost her fight against lung cancer. it was inevitable, but still comes as a shock to me. now, i may not have been super close to her in my adult life, but my childhood memories of her are all bright and shiny. i never got to see her before she passed. in fact, she was just diagnosed four weeks ago. it was never caught in time... and for some reason my mind wandered almost immediately to how i'll now have to remover her from our wedding guest list. such an insignificant thing to think about, but that's where my mind took me... it's hard to think that she's just gone. that i'll never ever get to see her again... i feel guilty for not being the emotional type. but i'm not. i think. i shrink inward. crawl inside of myself and think. that's just how i handle stress.

does that make me insensitive? weird? not all right in the head? 

this is the most "recent" picture i can find (Christmas 2010).
that's my great aunt on the right. you're resting soundly
and painlessly now. 

***
prior to this my day was pretty happy for a monday-tuesday (a tuesday that feels like a monday because there was a holiday the day before).

made overnight oats in a jar that i was pretty proud of. used my empty Bettern' Peanut Butter jar. added a scoop of vanilla protein powder, chia seeds, cacao powder and unsweetened vanilla almond milk for creaminess.

still made it to the gym after work. honestly, i think i needed it today more than anything. working out keeps my mind from turning too many gears at once.

today was chest and tri's.

warm up:

10 minutes on the stairmaster

chest

* barbell bench press:

   55lbs 8 reps

   60lbs 8 reps

   65lbs 6 reps (2 sets)

* incline bench press:

   50lbs 8 reps (2 sets)

   55lbs 6 reps (2 sets)

* cable crossovers:

   20lbs 8 reps

   25lbs 8 reps (3 sets)

triceps

* close grip bench press:

   50lbs 8 reps

   55lbs 8 reps (2 sets)

* lying tri extension:

   25lbs 8 reps (3 sets)

* dips (assisted):

   8 reps (displacing 58lbs)

   8 reps (displacing 52lbs)

   8 reps (displacing 46lbs)

it's a pretty sorry looking flex and bad full-body pic, but that's all i got. growing muscle and although you can't tell, very veiny arms. i'm very vascular in generally, so all my veins like to pop out when i lift. new ASICS shorts i got with birthday money. totally can't tell in the pic, but they have a herringbone pattern and are supper lightweight with a 4-way stretch. i was excited when i first got them...

anyways, i don't have much else to say. sorry if this ended up being a blah post. part happy. part sad. the happy things seem sort of meaningless in the wake of the sad stuff. ughhh... i should get in bed.

here's to health. happiness. and love. i hope you are all wealthy in all three.

night.

holiday weekend & what's on the menu - week 3 (abridged version)

happy labor day y'all! i've been spoiled with a l o n g four-day weekend. definitely much appreciated. and much, much needed.

i feel like i haven't done much. probably because i took last week off from the gym to get over that danged cold. and yet, i feel like i've done a ton this weekend. my thoughts are in about a million places right now, so i think i'll make a list of 7 things that happened over the past few days.

1. i finished reading Yoga Bitch. you can find a full synopsis here. i found it to be Eat-Pray-Love-esque, but with a much more twisted, outlandishly sarcastic, and boldly honest tone. i literally LOL'd several times while reading it.

2. i started reading my new "book club" read (posted a pic of it on saturday). a few girls at work started a sort of book club last fall. we tapered off after the holiday season, but are ready to pick it back up. the first book, The Passage, was selected by one of the girls. i've never really been a fan of fantasy, or zombie/vampire novels, but this one actually sounds like a legitimately good read. i'm about 85 pages in and find it hard to put down so far. aren't those the best kind?

3. went house hunting yesterday. we're moving to the opposite side of town. roughly between 20 and 25 miles away from our current apartment. our lease is up in october and with rent getting out of hand (and they want to raise it again if we resign!!), we thought it'd be a good move to relocate to a house. more space for sadly about the same we're paying for a two bedroom apartment. what is this world coming to? ugh. economy woes...
oh, and i had to stop for coffee and a sweet treat. my favorite doughnut shop is on that side of town. since i only get to stop by everyone in a blue moon, i figured this was as good as a blue-moon-kinda day.

my guilty pleasure

4. did my weekly Target run and grocery haul. surprisingly, i made out with only spending $40 at Target!! hallelujah!! happy dance!! stuck to my list and refrained from doing a lap around the store. that's usually how the add-ons end up hopping into the cart. :D
TJ's was a madhouse today! as was Whole Foods. it's like everyone in the city opted to all do a year's worth of grocery shopping on the same day, at the same store, at the same time LOL.

5. i should probably apologize ahead of time for #5... i just can't get it out of my mind. i saw a lady relieve herself. in the grass. in front of a bus stop. less than a mile away from my house. she just did it. right there. not 10 feet from the street. so casually! like she does it all the time! without a care in the world. not an ounce of shame! as though it's perfectly normal! as though we all do it!!! now, i'm not saying i live in the fancy part of town, but i do live in a nice neighborhood. stuff like this just doesn't happen!! i'll say it again, what is this world coming to?!!

6. the highlight of my day. week. year. okay, maybe not quite year haha. i mean, it's not over yet! went for a little trail run before dinner. there's a MUP path just down the street, and alongside it runs a drainage wash. the city built a few little trails down in it, but mostly it's just all sand, rocks, small boulders and scree. perfect for those off-road crazies like myself. the mileage was short. just 2.82mi. the pace, relaxed (read slow haha). but it was delightful. rock hopping and plodding through wet, and in some places deep, sandy terrain mostly. also lots of splashing lol. there was a very mini river running from the recent rain storms. not a ton of water at all. i'm smart enough not to run down there when there's a sizable amount of runoff. we get crazy flash floods here. anyways, i'm a sucker for running through water puddles, mini rivers, etc... descended 69 feet. climbed 89 feet. the air was heavy and wet. hello humidity! and, oh hi asthma!! turned back when i did because a) the dude strained his ankle last week and it began aching a bit, and b) because dark storm clouds came rolling in, and a light rain began to fall. these summer storms are known to start pouring without much warning, and again, being in a drainage wash, we were erring on the side of caution.

the Kinvara TR2 is my go-to trail shoe right now

testing out my new Tifosi shades... & of course no trail run is complete
without a minor scrap. ironically, it started bleeding heavier right
after this pic... i'm a born klutz. 

7. each time jared cooks on the cast iron grill, the whole house fills up with smoke. it's pretty funny and annoying all at the same time. tonight he opted to use coconut oil instead of olive or safflower... and he set the smoke alarm off!!! hahahahahaha... in the three years we've lived here, i've never heard so much as a beep out of it. tonight though, he learned that coconut oil smokes at a much lower temp than some others.

and now a little, what's on the menu (week three) update. i've got a few things in the fridge that i must do something with, so i'm keeping things pretty simple. being resourceful. green and thrifty. :)

breakfast: french toast. no recipe here really. i have about half a loaf of gluten-free bread left, and since i'm all sandwiched out, i figured why not turn it in to something else? french toast was the first thing that popped into my foodie brain. plus, i have a few eggs to use up as well. i use unsweetened vanilla almond milk, a dash of cinnamon, and voila! french toast. i was terrible at capturing a single pic of last week's food goodness, so this week i will make an honest effort not to disappoint. 

lunch: keeping with the simple meals and making burrito bowls. you could probably wing it, but i like to use this recipe i found on the Food Network site a while back. i'm making mine meat free and vegan, so i'm using vegan sour cream and cheese as substitutions, and skipping the meat entirely.

dinner: i'm using an old, all-time favorite, go-to, cheap recipe. it's a pasta toss. i found in an old issue of Self magazine. you can find it here. for this dish, i'll be subbing whole wheat pasta with rice pasta (it's gluten free and tummy approved) and vegan cheese for parmesan. i also prefer to use heirloom tomatoes.

what's on your menu this week?

anyone have a fun, exciting, or productive holiday weekend? or did you have to work?

any good books you've read recently?

mini monday check in

can't decide if i've pushed myself too hard today.

i've felt kinda cruddy all day. cold meds kept me going. i didn't feel bad enough to leave work, and actually started to feel pretty good by the end of the day.

i had my heart set on trail running, but with a huge summer storm system sweeping across the valley, i thought it'd be best to stick to the road instead. plus, i received a pair of Cloudrunners from my On running rep this morning and was pretty giddy to surf the clouds. so, road it was!

i had a great run. nice easy 4.33 miles at an average pace of 9'34 for the first half and 9'04 to bring it home. i'm not the fastest, but i felt too elated to care. also finally got to test out my Suunto and i am in love!

i'll have to do a shoe review. on first impression, they are a big on the wide side and the forefoot isn't all that forgiving flex wise. you can actually feel the CloudTec though! anyways, i'll have to break them in a bit more before formulating an well-rounded opinion.

fast forwarding a bit... made dinner and prepped my breakfast casserole. no pictures of either yet. the lighting in my house is so yellow it didn't do my pizza justice. the casserole, well that's still in the oven...

all the while, i began having these terrible, side-splitting pains in my abdomen ever since i got home. they're so bad i've doubled over several times and even shed a few tears. and i'm one tough cookie generally. it takes quite a lot of pain to get me to slow down. i'm nauseous and in pain. my head feels a mess. my muscles are so achy and fatigued all over, even though i took it pretty easy. i don't know, maybe my normal light effort is a bit too much for my body right now. be gone germs! i'm so through with you!

ughhh... i think it's time for bed...

breaking yoga & 28 candles

workouts: 
i took a little break from cardio this week and only incorporated it as a warm up for lifting days. i've been craving a good long run outdoors, but it's been so miserably hot and stormy (read: fiery, humid, and just gross). the treadmill just isn't doing it for me. plus, i bought a Groupon for bikram a while back and realized i only had until Friday to start my 1st of 10 drop-in classes. i haven't done bikram in a good 2 years!! it's one of my absolute favorite yoga classes, but my pockets just aren't deep enough to practice regularly. 

anyways, so tuesday i went into bikram trying not to have super high expectations for myself, being that it's been a while since i've gone. i still practice yoga (mostly vinyasa flow, ashtanga and hatha) at home (just not regularly like i did a couple months ago), but bikram is quite a different animal. i expected needing to sit a pose or two out because my body isn't used to practicing in a room heated to 105F with 40% humidity. to my huge surprise though, i was able to get through all 26 poses sans break. 

side note: it's absolutely incredible and disgusting just how much you sweat in hot yoga!!

SO sweaty, yet so happy i made it through :)

ironically, thursday was a different story. i went at the same time as i'd gone on tuesday (7:30pm), and although i made it through, i did have to sit out one set of 3 poses because a title wave of nausea kept rolling in and out. my mind wasn't all that clam either. i found it tough to really stay in the moment at times... and to be honest, i just didn't connect with the instructor as much as i did with tuesday's. she read from the same script of course, but it really bothered me how she chose to make corrections. i'm used to the gentle-handed, whispery-voiced master yogi that floats about making delicate, yet strong handed adjustments and soft verbal suggestions. this instructor however, chose to make examples of yogis throughout the room with judgmental, lecture-like speeches... like, "you (directing her voice and eyes towards the victim of the moment) don't need water right now. water is unnecessary for practice. it is just another mental distraction, as well as a distraction to those around you who are working so diligently through their poses while you are sitting out sipping water." honestly, if a yogi next to me had to reach down and take a drink, i wouldn't hold it against them. if anything, i'd think he or she deserved a sip for working so hard. i mean it's 105F for crying out loud! so, yea, she made snotty little comments like that (that you could tell were targeted and meant to call that person out publicly) all throughout the entire practice. by the time savasana came, i was just glad to have her leave the room...

but aren't we all??

have you ever had an instructor (yoga, personal trainer, class instructor) that managed to crawl under you skin?

okay, so back to my workouts for the week:

tuesday
bikram

wednesday
back & bi
warm up:
15 minutes on the elliptical
back
* wide grip pull up (assisted):
   8 reps (displacing 58lbs) 
   8 reps (2 sets displacing 52lbs)
   8 reps (displacing 46lbs)
* close grip pull down:
   60lbs 8 reps (2 sets)
   70lbs 6 reps
   80lbs 6 reps
* cable row:
   60lbs 8 reps (4 sets)
biceps
* standing dumbell curl:
   10lbs 8 reps (2 sets)
   10lbs 6 reps
* incline bicep curl:
   10lbs 8 reps   7.5lbs 8 reps (2 sets)
* dumbell preacher curl:
   7.5lbs 8 reps (3 sets)

thursday
bikram

friday
legs and shoulders
warm up:
10 minutes on the elliptical
legs
* squats:
65lbs 8 reps
75lbs 8 reps
85lbs 8 reps
95lbs 8 reps *my most so far!*
* deadlift:
50lbs 8 reps (2 sets)
66lbs 8 reps
* leg curls:
40lbs 8 reps
45lbs 8 reps (2 sets)
* leg extensions:
50lbs 8 reps (2 sets)
60lbs 8 reps
* standing calf raise:
300lbs 15 reps
315lbs 12 reps
315lbs 10 reps
345lbs 8 reps
shoulders
* military press:
   40lbs 8 reps (2 sets)
   50lbs 6 reps (2 sets)
* dumbbell lateral raise:
   7.5lbs 8 reps (3 sets)
* bent over reverse fly:
   7.5lbs 8 reps
   10lbs 8 reps (2 sets)

hello muscles!!

***
tunes:
okay, so lately i just cannot get enough of these songs when i'm working out:
zedd - clarity
teagan & sara - closer
jason derulo - the other side

***
life:
it's been a pretty good week. no real complaints. 

my team celebrated my birthday on thursday (since it fell on a weekend day). i walked in to a desk decorated in a Breaking Bad/Grumpy Cat theme. it was pretty awesome. :)

i spent a good 5 minutes lol'ing

they brought in strawberries, brownie bites, and this delicious wine that tastes just like chocolate! chocolate and wine, they know me all too well lol. it was low key and sans birthday-song lyrics just how i like it. 

confession: i've never really been a fan of my birthday. too many eyes on me. too much direct attention. not that i'm shy, i just don't like being center stage. confession#2: not a fan of surprises... i try to like them (i really do), but the anxiety of "not knowing" is too much to handle. 

well, i like real surprises. like the kind you have no clue about and that just happen. what i don't like is being told that there's a surprise waiting for me. it's not a real surprise if i know that something's coming lol! like when someone says, "you're going to LOVE the present i got you," a week before your birthday. that just gives me waaaaaay too much time to think about what it could be because i can't stand not knowing what's under the pretty wrapping paper. weird, i know. and it's probably tied to some deep rooted need for control, blatty blah, blah, blah... my fiance know this, so naturally he enjoys taunting me by dropping hints about presents or surprises to come. he spent all of yesterday parading two lovingly wrapped presents in front of me. what a turd haha! funny thing is that i know it kills him to have to keep presents a secret because he just wants to blurt out what he bought. 

it's just screaming, "OPEN MEEEEE!!!"

i must say, he did well. :)

i've been wanting this Breaking Bad tank ever since i saw it on Etsy.

and THIS... i have been going on an on (and on and on and on and on...) about wanting a multisport watch, and have had my eyes set on this beauty for quite some time. i put it on my wishlist just so i could go back and "window shop." never in a million years did i think i'd ever get it. but here it is! and i can't wait to test it out. :)

since i'm the birthday girl, i've been charged with planning out the entire day. anyone who knows me, knows i'm more of the go-with-the-flow, let's-just-do-whatever kinda girl. so having to chose what to do and where to go drove me a little nuts, but i think i have a pretty good day planned out. 

first up is hiking! haven't been since february!!! should be a cardinal sin IMO...

next, is having a painting party at Color Me Mine. remember my crummy owl?? yea, gonna give it a second shot.

and lastly, dinner. heaven knows i LOVE to eat. and it's my birthday, so i'll chow if i wanna! ;)

any fun plans for the weekend?

monday punday!

gonna try and make this a short one!

today sped by lightning quick! which never happens on a monday!

work, work, work of course. got to tour our new headquarters finally! it's funny to think that our company's move-in date is 9/6, and it still looks so much like a construction zone. yikes!

completed pancakes :)

hard hat zone!

zipped off to the gym once i got off for chest & tri day:

warm up:

15 heart-thumpin' minutes on the starimill

chest

* barbell bench press:

   55lbs 8 reps (2 sets)

   60lbs 6 reps (2 sets)

* incline bench press:

   45lbs 8 reps

   50lbs 8 reps

   55lbs 6 reps

   65lbs 6 reps

* cable crossovers:

   7.5lbs 8 reps (4 sets) did these on the Free Motion machine this time and the weights felt completely different!

triceps

* close grip bench press:

   45lbs 8 reps

   50lbs 8 reps

   55lbs 8 reps 

* lying tri extension:

   25lbs 8 reps (3 sets)

* dips (assisted):

   8 reps (displacing 64lbs)

   8 reps (displacing 56lbs)

   5 reps (displacing 40lbs)

today's gym jam

and in honor of monday punday (saw this for the first time on IG lol), a punny pic. :)

this had me rolling... no, for real haha