Today was a productive day for all of us.
Brian spent the day driving around Wake County taking pictures for his Web site, which he's in the process of updating. This is very exciting news because it hasn't been updated in a very long time.
Gatsby spent the day sleeping.
I met up with my friends Laura and Kara at Neomonde in Raleigh for lunch, which was AWESOME. I had a really yummy platter of tabouli, hummus, baba ghanouj, and stuffed grape leaves. Kara brought her daughter Whit, who is freaking adorable (for adorable shots, visit their Web site: www.thegammonfamily.com; Kara's husband, Jed, is a super photographer).
Whit was the star of the whole place. I think nearly everyone who came in there (which was A LOT of people) stopped by our table to see her. She's such a smiley, happy baby and I can't believe she's already 4.5 months old!
It was really great to see Laura and Kara--it had been entirely too long!
After lunch, I headed back east and went to Kohl's in Knightdale for some shopping (yay for perpetual sales and 15% off coupons!) I tried on about a million things, but stuck to my plan to only buy three tops (and two bras, but I doubt y'all care about that). I badly needed some stuff to wear to work because I've pretty much just been wearing the same three things over and over again in different order.
I also just have to take this moment to say that I am not down with all the nonfitted shirts that are à la mode right now. They pretty much make nearly everyone look like they're wearing a tent. If you want to wear a tent, go camping!!!!
So, anyway, it was a very good trip. Most of the shirts I bought were size medium, which was fantastically awesome and super surprising. Also good news is that I got $20 in Kohl's cash and $10 more to use during the tax free weekend, so next weekend I can go and get a pair of pants for free. Yay!!
Afterward, I went to Target and got a little half-length sweater thingie, a jacket, and a super cute purse. I think Brian's probably more happy about the jacket than I am, because now I will shut up about being so cold at restaurants and the grocery store. (Hopefully.)
When I got home, I was feeling all productive, so I spent the late afternoon/early evening cleaning out my closet and dresser. Now, we have two HUGE garbage bags to take to Goodwill tomorrow. Well, minus one pair socks that Gatsby stole midprocess. Yes, my dog steals from the Goodwill. :-(
I tried to be more ruthless this time and I think I did better. Last time, I couldn't bear to get rid of any of my App. stuff. This time I got rid of like 3 App things. However, I still have 11ty billion more. Maybe during football season, I'll try again and can make a bit more progress.
It's really silly how you get attached to clothes. I find myself making excuses not to want to get rid of something and them I'm like, "Dammit, Laura. This is stupid. The shirt is 7 years old. It's time." So, I'm gonna try to do this every few months or so until I reach my goal and then maybe annually thereafter.
I was very pleased to free up so many hangers!! We were at the point where we didn't have one extra hanger in the house. In fact, we had one hanger fewer than articles of clothing, so if all our clothes were washed and we were wearing pajamas, one piece of clothing got no hanger. Complete insanity.
***
After a super late dinner, it was too dark to go run, so I did my "30-Day Shred" video (www.tinyurl.com/30dayshred) and my "Basic Pilates" video. I stepped it up and did level 2 of the 30-Day Shred and it went really well. It's a very short workout (which I don't really like, because I'd rather do 45-60 minutes a day, instead of just 30), and the premise is three 6-minute workouts that consist of 3 minutes of strength work, 2 minutes of cardio, and 1 minute of abs (so, 9 minutes strength, 6 cardio, and 3 minutes abs per workout). The workout is very hard, but I'm not convinced that's the best way to do it. However, it's a good one to have around if you don't have much time or are looking for something different.
The pilates video I have is some 20 minute deal that I've had forever and completely forgot about until the other day. It's a decent introduction and another good one for when you want something different. I could definitely tell that my abs were considerably stronger than the last time I had done the video (maybe 2 years ago?). I'm not 100% down with pilates, but I'll definitely do it again and maybe look around for a different video (I think I got this one in a bargain bin at Walmart).
One thing I am down with is a cool yoga DVD that I got. It has two workouts--30 minutes for in the morning and 30 minutes at night. I've only done the night one, but I absolutely loved it. It was pretty basic, but the stretching felt great and I went to bed feeling completely relaxed. Eventually, I may have to look around for a yoga class to take (but I definitely don't want to join a gym just to take it).
Oh yeah, and on Friday, I did a workout that was in Shape that I really liked (this stupid rain is really messing with my running schedule):
March in place or walk to warm up (Minutes 0-3)
Jumping jacks (3-5)
Run (5-7)
Mountain climbers (7-8) [http://tinyurl.com/mjluur, for workout description]
Squat thrusts (8-9) [http://tinyurl.com/lua94b]
Lunges to front kicks (9-10)
Run (10-12)
Mountain climbers (12-13)
Squat thrusts (13-14)
Lunges to front kicks ( 14-15)
Run (15-17)
Mountain climbers (17-18)
Squat thrusts (18-19)
Lunges to front kicks (19-20)
Push-ups (20-21)
Run (21-23)
Push-ups (23-24)
Run (24-26)
March in place or walk to cool down (26-30)
I skipped the cool down and hopped on the elliptical for 25 more minutes afterward. It was a FANTASTIC workout. Really hard, but lots of good transitions. I'll definitely be doing it again. Gatsby also loved chasing me around as I was running all over our upstairs.
***
Earlier this week, I completely trashed all the music that was on my computer because I had like 15GB of stuff that I never listened to and it was completely unmanageable and slowing my computer way down. I had been listening to a lot of Brian's music, so I decided to use his music as a base and start over. So, from that, I created a playlist of uptempo music to listen to while exercising (www.gribblenation.com/personal/laura/exerciseplaylist.pdf). I am absolutely horrible about remembering the names of songs, so if you can think of any others that would be good to add, let me know! Having good music makes all the difference!
No comments:
Post a Comment