This Week in Workouts: A Week of Running

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So, did anyone else notice a strange lack of post on Friday? Me too. Turns out that the article I wrote ahead of time and scheduled to publish did not actually get scheduled to publish. By the time I noticed (Friday was quite the busy day), it was far too late to post anything of use to anyone. Instead, that post will be up next week for your internet perusal and viewing enjoyment. For now though, we can talk about this week and the not one, but two 4-mile runs I went on. 

Running outdoors in Michigan is one of my favorite things to do, even though the hills are completely butchering my run times... I am currently 2-minutes slower than my average time without hills. Whaatt?!!? Now I understand why so few run the San Francisco Marathon. 

Other than running, we were able to visit this awesome restaurant in Grand Rapids which was quite awesome. The whole place is HUGE with beautiful indoor and outdoor seating. I wanted to sit outside but it is Michigan in the summer and everyone else had the same thought I did. Instead, we sat inside and got to listen to The Mainstays, a 90's reggae band that was playing while we were there. Afterwards we were able to walk around Grand Rapids, in the Amway Grand Plaza (most beautiful hotel ever), and over four bridges spanning the Grand River. Yea, we got our steps in that day! 

The days of the week got a bit jumbled in my mind this week. Although I know what workouts I did, I have absolutely no clue which days they were done on. Yes, there were three days of running, two runs were 4-miles and one was 2.5. There was yoga on one day and bum workouts on another (all links to videos listed below). My main break day was the one with lots of walking, and I am not sure about the other day of the week... It went into a black whole where some of my memories seem to find themselves. Maybe I ran, maybe I did another workout, or maybe I sat at my computer watching YouTube videos where the only workout was the formation of my laughter. Who knows. 

Hopefully though, I will remember to log all my workouts next week so this silly day-missing does not happen again. If you have any ideas what I did on this lost day, I would be so happy to hear them. Your guess is, quite literally, just as good as mine :)

The first bum workout I did. Pretty great! I was definitely feeling it by the end and this one turned out to be a great warm-up for the next. I would definitely recommend doing these two together!

The second bum workout I did. This Cassey Ho workout has been featured on the blog before, mainly because I just love it.

This yoga flow was my first time following anything by Leslie Fightmaster. Really, the main reason it caught my eye was her name- someone on yoga being names "Fightmaster" just makes me laugh :) But seriously, this King Pigeon flow is great! 

Yoga for Super Hero Strength came next. Because really, is a home workout complete without some Tara Stiles? 

This is just my apology for skimping on posts this week and letting my brain fall into a black hole where no memories of workouts can be found. Happy Sunday! 

Easy Food Logging

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I recently heard someone say that you have no idea what you are eating until it is logged for a month. Honestly, I have never really logged what I ate or seen the importance of it; until hearing this. Maybe, this random person who said that random thing is right, I could be thinking that I am eating healthy, or not-so-healthy, and be completely wrong. Logging every. single. thing. we eat can, for sure, show us things that we skimped over, and more importantly, show us those nasty habits in our eating schedule. 

What I have really found from this is 1) I am a snacker and a person who only eats one big meal a day, and 2) the days I drink more water I have more energy. Although I have not been food logging for an entire month yet, it is very easy to see the rewards in it. What is even more important for a girl on the go like me, however, is the ease of use. I have tried a handful+ of free apps and decided that my absolute favorite is MyDietDiary. Although, MyNetDiary's takes a close second. 

The absolute best thing about MyDietDiary is that it has a bar code scanner. This app takes a picture of the bar code and logs all the nutritional information for you. Of course, it is better if we are not eating foods with bar codes, but snack bars, protein shakes, and even fruits and veggies have them. Chances are, however, that if we are eating something with a bar code (healthy or not) we are a bit too stretched for time to also look up the food we are eating, or worse, have to sit and input all it's nutritional information. Really, could there be anything else less likely to happen on a busy day? Probably not. 

This app is also super pretty and, like most others, calculates how many calories you should eat each day to achieve your weight and health goals. There are also tons of pre-logged activities where all you need to do is select which activity you completed and add the number of minutes. The app will calculate the calories burned. So far, the calculated calories seem to be pretty close to what my HRM says as well! If you have a FitBit, Jawbone Up, or use Run Keeper, you can just connect your devices to the app for easier logging. 

A place where MyNetDiary has it beat is with the interface. If you are all about the bells and whistles and do not mind taking a bit more time to log things, MyNetDiary may be more your style. On MND you can add body measurements, before and after photos,  diet plans, and you can log vitamins. Since I do take vitamins, that is something I seriously wish was on MyDietDiary. 

Both these apps do have charts, calendars, and communities to get support from. Really, either one is a great option, it just depends on how much effort you are ready to put into logging what you eat. 

Running in The Rain

One of my absolute favorite things about being up in Michigan is being able to run outside on these country roads with the fresh air that has ridiculously low humidity compared to Florida. Since we are in the country, the air is clean and running is more off road than on. All of this made one of my most recent runs very interesting since it was about 3-miles of running in a downpour.

Although the run itself was one of the most fun things ever, my shoes did not look quite the same by the end. Puddles? Yes, there were puddles. Mud? Oh yes, plenty of that. Massive amount of water being all but thrown at me? I think you are getting the idea. I was fortunate enough to have a rather thick hoodie on so the rain barely got anything but my head wet, my shoes were not so lucky. 

A few months back, Elle from According to Elle wrote a blog post that I never thought I would need. She talked all about running in the San Francisco precipitation and how to get shoes dried.  If you are a newbie outdoor runner, her advice just might change your life. What Elle has found works best for her shoes is to remove the insoles and place crumbled newspapers inside the shoes to dry. The newspaper absorbs all the water and your shoes are left nice and dry for the next run! 

Although I am not the usual newspaper reading type, this is a great way to recycle those old newspapers that seem to always find their way into our house. Of course, you can always put those shoes in the dryer on heat for a few minutes, but this option will save your dryer from some dents and your ears from some very loud noises. 

Do you run outside and when was the last time you played out in the rain? 

Things I am Loving

Happy Friday! Will you be doing anything super fun this weekend? Staff training starts up here at camp and I am so excited. This week is one of my favorites and the weather in Michigan is simply beautiful right now... Except for three days ago when it sounded and felt like the world was going to end. That thunder storm was beautiful, but quite a bit intense! 

It seems like it has been f-o-r-e-v-e-r since we did a "things I love" post, and with all the things to love this summer, today seemed like the perfect day to do it. Do you have anything you are currently obsessed with? This will not be on the list, but I think I have worn this pair of jean shorts five out of seven days this week. Surprisingly, they look and feel freshly cleaned! 

My new favorite running app I am soooooo excited to be doing this with all of you and am LOVING logging my runs to see my little avatar move along the route. It is so much fun and has gotten me back running again after a few weeks off. 

Outdoor running One of my favorite parts of being in Michigan is running outside on these country roads. Being up here does not feel official until my first run. Then, jogging in the crisp, clean, refreshing air is a better start to my day than all the guilty pleasures in the world! To log runs, I have been using the Nike+ Running app and loving it! 

Graze We talked about it on the blog yesterday, and I am still loving it. Yay to snacks and yay to yummy snack popcorn that does not leave me feeling like a buttered-up turkey after eating it!

This article My sister-in-law wrote it, so, I may be a bit biased since she is one of the coolest people I know, but it is great! Our whole family has gotten into running this past year and the article is all about it. Yay for having a family of fitness enthusiasts and writers, gotta love it! 

My iPad mini case I love this case. It was bought to second as a clutch when needed and works great as both clutch and case. I have also recently discovered that it is [somewhat] water proof. Since my iPad was in it at the time, I will forever be grateful for this little guy! 

This shirt The hubs found this shirt and showed me it telling me that it is the perfect description of me on a shirt. It is nice to be so known by a person; he was completely right. After seeing it, I did the most mature thing a 27 year-old who sees something they like can do... I jumped up and down and begged him to buy it for me by simply singing "buy it for me, buy it for me, pllleaaaassee" over and over. Yes, I know, my maturity is far beyond my years ;)