Anniversaries, Birthdays, Fitbits, and Zebra Print Gloves. oh my

It’s been a while since I have updated.  After Sandy I was booked solid in the salon and I was still working out really hard at the gym so it made me super tired, and I suppose uninspired to write.

Last week was a big week, November 11th, was Jake and my 1 year anniversary.  We celebrated it like any normal couple would, I fell asleep about 20 minutes after I got there lol.  So lame.  Without Jake helping me and inspiring me to work on myself and help me at the gym I wouldn’t be where I am today.. So I really do thank him for that.   Every influence he has had on me has been positive, so hopefully I do the same for him.

Not the most flattering picture of either of us, but its still perfect, and judging on the most clicked photos on my blog (pervs) we all know he usually looks extra cute lol.

The past two weeks my gym totals have been above and beyond.  Did I meet my mini goal of making it to my 40 pound loss by Halloween?  Nope!  What gives man.. But I did lose 1 more pound bringing me up to 38, and my muscles are getting a bit more defined I suppose.  The one thing that helps is at least fitness wise I am seeing a difference.  I can run further than ever, and I am controlling my heart rate so much better and can now run long distances for an hour (the treadmills at the gym stop after an hour lol) while maintaining my heart rate within my 3rd zone.  So yay for at least being more fit.

the week of Sandy

last week

gotta love that chipped up nail polish!

This week I also bought a few new things, you know me and my gadgets and zebra print, so when I saw this stuff I couldn’t resist!

I am really excited for these!  Since I have been doing a lot more strength training I have been noticing that I was starting to build calluses on my hands.  Thats not hot, so I started searching around for women’s workout gloves.  Jake had given me a pair but they were way to big (and red! ew!) so I didn’t want to wear them.  I stumbled upon a brand called Femme Fitale and they have a TON of really cool prints and the solid colors have swarovski crystals on them!!!  I mean were these made for me or what!

I also got a Fitbit zip! or as everyone has been calling it, my fitness tamagatchi lol.

I think this is pretty cool because unlike my heart rate monitor, which I still wear at the gym, I wear this all day.  This little teeny thing tracks my steps, distance, and calories burned for the day, which I suppose is a handy thing to know.  Its so small you can hook it on your bra, or your pants (but I don’t wear those!) and you don’t even notice that it is there.  It has a tiny usb thing that you put in your computer and every time you are close to it it syncs up the info with your computer and it also syncs with your phone with bluetooth, so fancy.  Today is my second day using it, I beat the heck out of my step goal yesterday so we will see what I do today.

Last but very much not least.  Tomorrow is my birthday!

So you might ask what does someone like me do on their birthday?  Zombie Burlesque of course!  So excited to see it tonight!  Tomorrow I plan on sleeping in, Jake plans on us going to the gym and then going to his dad’s house for lunch… I still plan on sleeping in lol.

My Week in Instagram, New Shoes (Again!) Plus A Mini Goal

This week I almost was going to say that it was uneventful but as I was typing it I realized it wasn’t totally boring.  Tuesday my friend Julie brought me as her guest to see a live taping of the Wendy Williams Show.  I have honestly never watched the show, I know her whole “How you doin” schtick but thats about it, but I figured what the heck, why not get up at 5.30 am to go be in an audience lol.

7.30 am in line

Apparently she always does an “Ask Wendy” segment so while we were in line the show’s pa’s were yelling at us to write down a question and turn it in on our way to to the holding area.  I had one, which was apparently a good one and they almost chose me to ask it on the show, but I think when they saw the name Kristin Jackson they were thinking a different type of person was going to show up and they looked a little shocked haha, needless to say I didn’t get picked, phew, i really didn’t want to ask a question anyway. And no I will not tell what it was haha.

After the show we went to lunch at a restaurant in Chelsea called Cafeteria.  So good!  I had been craving a good veggie burger for days and Cafeteria fit the bill completely.

Vegan Veggie Burger with Parmesan Truffle fries! heck yeah I ate those fries!!

Getting up that early in the morning you definitely get a ton done lol, after lunch since I was in the city and it was only like 1 in the afternoon, I figured I would run over to Jack Rabbit and get fitted for some new shoes.  I wanted to see if I could try a different brand because I wasn’t too sold on the cushioning on the Brook’s Adrenaline12 that I have been wearing.  Plus I pretty much tore through them already and I only got them the end of June!  But I guess going to the gym 6 days a week will do that to a shoe.  And lets face it, they were ugly!  So this time I am trying the Saucony Hurricane 14’s

First I would like to thank Saucony for making me a pretty(ish) shoe that is good for stability and comes in wide width (stupid feet).  Towards the end of wearing the Brook’s I noticed that they were getting way too wide, if I did a side lunge or something my foot would slide in them so hopefully that doesn’t happen to these.  So far I like the padding in these a lot better, and the guy who fitted me said that they are encouraging me to be more of a mid-strike runner, rather than a heal runner.  Apparently in the Brooks I run all kinds of wacky and am a mid-strike runner in my right foot and a heal runner in my left!?  Which kind of explains why I was always just getting shin splits in my left leg.   So bottom line, I am happy, I got a pair of black and pink running shoes that fit my feet correctly!  If I love them I am so going to buy another pair to last me through the summer when all the shoes go back to being ugly and white.

My next mini goal to conquer…

I just just hit the weight i was after I finished my juice cleanse, so I am up to 37 pounds lost, I would like to make it to 40 pounds by Halloween.  My weight loss has definitely slowed down so 3 pounds in less than a month is going to be tough, but I have been putting a ton of extra time into the gym.  So much that I have already reached my heart rate monitors weekly goals for everything, and I still have tomorrow to workout so I am going above a beyond and hopefully the momentum will continue.  On Wednesday we closed the salon so I took advantage and went to the gym over time

Yep that says 2 hours and 46 minutes, and yes I burned 1081 calories, I did about an hour of strength and cross training, then the arc trainer, elliptical, and treadmill!

So hopefully I can get these 3 pounds off by Halloween!  Hold me to it!  Typical goth girl, I lose weight for halloween when most girls try to lose weight for “bikini season” lol but i don’t know, I think those sexy halloween costumes are way less forgiving than some bathing suits!

The one bonus of me losing weight in my mid-section so slowly is that right now it looks like i have hips, but once that is gone straight square little me will come back. wahh wahh

 

 

What a Longggggggg week

amazing color and style i did at my salon

This week has been super eventful and packed so I haven’t been able to update my blog, but have kept up with my workouts and stuff, in fact worked harder.  I was decently busy at work and also hired a trainer that I worked out with twice last week.

My trainer, Alex started with me on Tuesday morning.  He did more cross training stuff with me, but did a pretty good job showing me some new moves to help get me out of my slump.  I woke up the next day with super sore legs, so sore that I walked noticibley funny, and i made it worse by wearing platform flip flops so i just walked awkward all day.  I worked out by myself Wednesday then Thursday I was back with Alex again at my meathead gym which was fun.  Friday and Saturday I went to Planet Fitness by myself and did intervals on the arc trainer and abs.  Sunday is usually my day off from the gym because I usually stay at Jake’s house for the weekend and his gym won’t allow guests (lame!)  but this weekend Jake stayed over beacause one of my best friends, Tina was in town so we all went to the gym together Sunday and Monday.  Sunday I did an arm day with Jake which was really fun, we usually don’t work out together because a lot of the stuff he does I can’t do, but I definetly want to try to do that more with him.

my stats for the week thanks to my Polat FT60

I really worked out 8 sessions but on the first day with Alex I didn’t wear my heart rate monitor, and on Sunday when I was doing a bicep curl the monitor unsnapped and fell off and didn’t count it!  I’m super excited because I ordered the S1 Foot Pod to track my running, so I can’t wait to see next week what it says!

Tina came up to not only hang out, but also to see Jake wrestle, he had a match Saturday night which turned out to be really fun.

Jake is front and center ❤

For the main event every minute a new guy entered the ring, and the only way to be disqualified was to fall out (or be thrown out) of the ring.  It got pretty crazy, but it was really exciting, I was glad I got to go to this one.

If you live in the New York area, and you like wrestling, you should totally like the Warriors of Wrestling’s facebook page and go to a match!!

We also got to see the new Batman movie, shopped in Time Square, and ate at one of my favorite restaurants (and the place Jake and I went on our first date) Wild Ginger.  yum!

I tried out a recipe for a protein peanut butter cup that my roommate Lydia found on a YouTube channel called Lean Body Lifestyle

I followed his recipe however I used my vegan protein powder by Vega.  The vega protein needed a lot more water than if I used a whey protein, so mine came out a little thicker, but its still pretty good, I can’t eat a whole one, it filled up a whole cupcake wrapper!  but i will definetly make them more once i finally finish the two that i made haha.

Someone got a heart rate monitor….

I have to admit, sometimes I get sold on stupid things that I see on the internet, and I for sure have nickle and dimed myself on a ton of things that don’t work or aren’t comfortable etc.  I had been curious about heart rate monitors for a while especially when I see my friend Jill Hanner instagram photos of her Polar FT40 heart rate monitor [HRM].  When I was at Jack Rabbit buying my shoes I noticed the display and was super close to buying one but I wanted to do my research before i just splurged.

Then a blogger that I follow made a post about how he got a HRM for father’s day and said that it helped him get through his plateau that he had been stuck in and raved about how great they were…

Being that I am pretty much stuck where I am with my weight loss right now, I figured now was the time to try it out, so I bought the Polar FT60.  What made me choose that one?  The short answer : the Polar website told me too lol.  But really there was more to it than that.

The FT60 creates a training program to help you meet your goals, and updates them weekly.  It also gives you feedback on how you are doing which I think helps as well.

I have worn it for two days so far.  Yesterday I didn’t really get it, there are three heart rate zones, when I set my HRM goals to lose weight it wants me to stay in zone 2 for a majority of the time.  In zone 2 my heart rate is between 135-152 which is difficult for me to stay in this range at the intensity that I like to work out.  My monitor has a graph of the amount of time that it wants me to stay in each of the three zones for the week and just from my hour long run yesterday I went over the amount of time alotted for the week of zone 3!  When I am on the treadmill the only thing that keeps me in zone 2 is by not walking over 3.5 mph and keeping the incline below 6.  That is kind of annoying to me, I feel like it is holding me back.

Today is my longest day at the gym because i don’t have work, or other commitments for the day so I usually stay there for at least 2 hours.  I did an hour of strength and an hour of cardio.  This time I used the arc trainer for 45 min and did intervals of 1 minute at high intensity and 1 minute of low intensity.  This kept me in zone 2 for most of the workout, then I went over and did 15 minutes on the treadmill hoping to get some running in by trying the intervals but it got annoying how often I had to lower the speed  to bring down my heart rate.

woohoo!

So what else have I learned by using this?  That the amount of calories that the machines say I burn or even myfitnesspal say are totally over-estimated.  If I would have typed that stuff into myfitnesspal it would have worked out to well over 1000 calories burned, and even on the machine the arc trainer alone said i burned over 600 calories and that was only 45 minutes of my workout.  So that part is kind of a bummer.  It did tell me that I did good today though haha.

So what do you guys think?  Should I just work out like I was, or listen to this and lower  the intensity that I work out to maintain my heart rate in this sweet spot?

now just to add a little cute-ness… here is my perfectly measured out dinner in 1/2 cup hearts.

get in my belly!

quinoa, mashed sweet potatoes, jamacian jerk black beans, and sweetfire love beets. yum!

skinny, skinny fat, fit fat, or just fat…

photo from Equinox

I have been reading all these articles that have been coming out about being “skinny fat” which is the term used for normal weight obesity.  It is basicly saying that you should not only be concerned about your weight but the distribution of your weight of fat to muscle.  You could be super skinny but have very little muscle mass, in fact if you are a woman with over 30% body fat (25% in men) you are considered obese no matter what size jeans you fit in.

Its kind of crazy to think about… I never really noticed many people that fit that mold, until i started going more regularly to Planet Fitness.  At my “meat head” gym everyone there is super huge and muscley and fit so I had nothing to really compare things to, but at Planet Fitness there are people of all fitness abilities.  The other day when I was on my beloved arc trainer I saw first hand just how unfit skinny people really can be.

Two girls got on the arc trainers next to me, one had to be no bigger than a size 4, the other maybe a 6, obviously way skinnier than I am yet there they were huffing and puffing and struggling after only doing a few minutes on a very easy setting.  In fact they were so out of shape they got off after about 10 minutes, breathing heavy and complaining about how hard it is.  Then I look at myself, who is considered over weight and I could run circles around these girls, I do 45 minutes- an hour on the arc trainer when I am on it and by at least the last 15 minutes I am doing it at high intensity on the hardest level.

Its just kind of crazy to me, and honestly not fair at all that this happens.  Here I am working my butt off and its only coming off slowly and there they are not struggling with their size but struggling to be active. I mean really i suppose i would rather have it my way…. maybe.

So sure I want to be smaller, but definetly not like those girls.  So back to the gym.  Back to the treadmill and the arch trainer.  and back to the strength training for me.

I got new Shoes

You might be wondering… why is that significant.  Well I’ll tell you why.

Because they are UGLY!

The week of the Run Amuck Festival I was running on a treadmill as I usually do and got a really bad shin splint in my left leg.  It has been happening randomly for a few months as my running has been increasing, but last week it was horrible,  so bad that last monday I basicly hobbled off the treadmill after only a half hour.  I gave my legs a break and went back to the arc trainer for the rest of the week since I knew the run that Saturday would be really strenuous.

I have been wearing Reebok Premier Zigfly SE, I loved them, I thought they were comfortable, and most importantly they were cute and matched my pink, black, and hint of white world.

pretty!

But they seem to be the problem, I am sure they work for a ton of people but unfortunatly for me I am doomed to the ugly shoe section.  I remember a while back I went to a running store in NJ and they recommended me to wear Mizuno’s but I really never wore them because I thought they were hideous (mostly because of the color options).  I even had decided that I was going to wear them to Run Amuck because they were going to get ruined and was prepared to throw them away.  Then that morning of the race I put them on a realized what a comfortable shoe actually felt like.  But I still wore them to the race, and I still threw them away after lol…

So Tuesday I sucked it up, I rode over to the store Jack Rabbit and got fitted for real big girl running shoes.  Jack Rabbit is a cool place, They have treadmills set up with video cameras on the ground behind them and tvs on the wall in front.  They have you run in each and every pair of shoes that you try and record it, then play it back for you so that you can see how each shoe effects your running.  I have to give the guy who helped me credit, he had a ton of patience and tried to bring out the most attractive pairs of shoes first, but my luck the ugly pair was the best.  Damn my high instep, high arches, pudgy toes and skinny heals!

So I keep calling them ugly, i kind of feel bad but like I just hate white sneakers, they get so dirty and they clash with all my clothes.  I know that should be the last thing that I should be worrying about but I just can’t help it.  I do have to admit, they are really comfortable and I do feel a difference.  of course.

So what shoes did I get? the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

my feets

Time will tell if it helps prevent the shin splints.  Hopefully it will now that I am more supported and my landing is improved.  I might order them in the only other color option that I have, goth girl black which is guess is better, still boring but at least with those I can get hot pink laces 🙂