Things I am Loving Friday

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Goodness, can you believe it is Friday already?! In two days we will be celebrating Easter, and then it will really feel like spring! After Easter, I am hoping to hit up Trader Joe's for a few new orchids to add to my collection. Trader Joe's orchids should be on this favorite things list since they are just so nice, pretty, healthy, and CHEAP. Thirteen bucks for a two stemmed orchid that is actually healthy enough to live past a few months- now that's what I call a good deal!

Do you have any fun Easter plans?

Usually Sundays are long run days for my run buddy and I, but since this Sunday is Easter, we have opted for a long run today, well, today at dusk to be more exact. Florida has left winter in the dust! This long run will be the longest I have ever run (something tells me that will be said ALOT before November comes) and after last week's not so great 5-miler, I was hoping for an easy, pretty view. Victoria answered all my hopes with the idea of running one of the trails down by the bay and next to the beach. This long run goal is to have beautiful scenery that will make those miles tick by without care! 

And now, some favorite things...

1. This blog post over on A Cup of Jo. It reminds of that year in college when I lived on my own and had to grow up. Not being afraid of what is lurking under the bed seems to be a milestone in life. 
2. @genpink on twitter. These ladies keep posting my blog articles and that kind of simple pleasure makes me so happy when reading through not as exciting e-mails! Thanks ladies for all your tweets with great links to other great articles!! And, of course, thanks for putting a smile on this face :)
3. Maybe I am feeling a bit nostalgic, but this article on what makes San Francisco, San Francisco is just beautiful. I considered having this be the only thing on the list so everyone would maybe read it, but options are good too, I suppose. Seriously though, funny and beautiful read! 

And there we go! I am sure there could be about 500 things more added to this list and a solid 50-100 would not be pictures of my cats from this last week. But, something tells me there is only a small demographic of people who would actually enjoy 447 pictures of my cats. And something else tells me that I should probably cut back on taking pictures of said cats....

Happy Friday and Happy Easter! 

April Book Club: The Run-Walk-Run Method

Happy Thursday! I hope your April Fools Day was good and there were only funny pranks involved ;) Every year the hubs plays some kind of April Fool's prank on me, and this year my phone was the weapon of choice. As a joke, he made the home screen a picture only and moved all the other icons to different pages. I feel so ridiculous saying it now, but I seriously thought my phone was broken. None of my apps would open and when I tried to change pages, they all just overlapped onto each other.

After showing said trickster and him not being able to fix it (ha!) I resigned to visiting the Apple store for help. Thankfully, the hubs let me know it was a joke before I drove over got talking to a Genius about my wallpaper issues.

But, today is a new day and there should be no pranks involved, fingers crossed! Last night I started reading a new book to get a better understanding on running, and thought some of you may like to read it as well. So, for April, we will resurrect the book club for Jeff Galloway's book, The Run-Walk-Run Method.

This book goes into further detail about Galloway's run-walk-run method and how it can work for newbie runners and veterans alike. Although I am interested in all the perks of this method, the main reason I am reading it is to better understand this Magic Mile and the interval time I should be using.

If you have not read the book yet, or even if you have, you can read it along with me in hard copy or kindle version, found here. Then, we will have a nice review of the book, the insights, and all the little details towards the end of April. So far, it is a very easy read and seems quite short, so it should not take long at all!

A Common Sense Way to Loose Weight

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Believe it or not, but I have been searching for a common sense way to loose some pounds and keep them off. You see, over the summer a packed on over ten pounds and it has taken me to March to get it all off. Where is came from, what I did to get it, and why it took soooo long to get off is an honest mystery to me. Before summer I was already five pounds heavier than my "comfort zone" weight, so adding another ten pounds to that was not something normal. It was also the heaviest I have ever been.

That being said, the idea of just loosing it all (plus a few of the 5 lb's extra, thank you ;)) to simply bulk back up while race training sounded AWFUL. But then, I was listening to the Mickey Miles podcast with listener questions with Fitz Koelher and she said something so simple it was like a punch in the face. Her insanely easy method for not bulking and helping people loose weight without yo-yo dieting is to take your ideal weight and tack a zero on the end. That number, my friends, is your total calorie count for the day.

Whaattt?!?! I know.

Fitz says that the average calorie expenditure for usual activities is 10 calories. With that in mind, it makes sense that we would only need our target body weight, times ten. With this simple number, Fitz has found people to be able to slowly and safely bring their body's down to only needing that much energy... I like to think of it as a goldfish- they will only grow as big as their space will allow them. Likewise, our bodies will only grow as far as we feed/energize them.

But then, I had a few questions...

1. What should these calories be?
2. What about workouts? I cannot guarantee anyone's safety when I am hangry and working out+ low cal could make for a very hangry Jenni. 
3. Is using your name in the third person acceptable? Is it a sign of oncoming hanger?
4. What if I have a fast or slow metabolism?

Thankfully, Fitz went over most of these questions, in detail, on her website. You can read the full explanation here. My shortened version is below :)

1. Any diet should be well rounded and consist of lean meats, fruits, veggies, and healthy carbs and fat. This is not exactly the super fun town of eating, but who said being healthy means we get to eat fried chicken for breakfast daily? You know who, no one. ever. And, of course, we are in control of our diets, so we can decide when to cheat and when not. Hello adulthood, I will have that small fry. JK! Kind of.
2. Workouts should not increase your calorie count unless you are running 10-20 miles or doing the equivalent with some other workout. We do not need those extra calories and, if anything, will find those lb's come off faster if we do not supplement the calories lost during a workout. Keep in mind that a) you should not have an unhealthy number that your body cannot live on anyway and b) most workouts will burn between 200-500 calories an hour. Not quite bracket breaking. Also, eating lean proteins and a mix of proteins and healthy carbs after a workout will help you be satiated for longer. So maybe we won't actually break walls in a hangry rage!
3. Every body is different. Fitz recommends playing with the system a bit. If you are finding that weight is just falling off at an unhealthy rate or your are lethargic during the day, you probably have a fast metabolic rate and need to add on a few calories. If nothing seems to be changing, you may have a slower metabolic rate and need to reduce those calories a bit  more. Simple enough, now for the doing!

Please let me know if you are trying this and if it seems to be working for you. I have been trying this method for about a week now and, so far, are liking the results a bunch!

Last Week in Workouts- Week 3 of Half Training

Yes, I know! We are starting up the workout sum-ups, again! The reason for this is two-fold and mildly selfish. First, these are some of my favorite posts on other blogs because it helps you see 1) people are doing what they write and 2) it gives me inspiration to workout and ideas on how. Seeing someone else go through the sweat hours makes it so much easier to do myself! And, secondly, I want a catalog of what I do during this whole half marathon training experience. What works, and what are the worst things that I could ever do and want to never do again.

I know that the half is almost two full training segments away, but really want to feel over-prepared for it, especially considering running fast and far is not usually my favorite thing. Well, that was, before I got a goal. Let that be a lesson to myself and the eyes reading this, goals change things in a BIG way. In fact, you will probably hear me talking about that a lot in the near future.

But, back to my week. It was not as workout centric as I wanted it to be. Actually, I have not gone on my long run yet. Yesterday was an unusually busy and cold day for me (and Florida), so, with my running attire on and my headphones in hand, I procrastinated. I did not go on my long run and by the time that it was too late to get out and get my everything else done for the day, I decided to run tomorrow. This has become a bit of a pattern with me- when my running buddy is not available on Sunday, I tend to push my run back to Monday. So, here is my, somewhat, lack-luster 3rd week of training!

Monday: My long run of 4 miles. I did this on the treadmill, but did not hate it as much as I planned. I have started running more outside, which means running on the treadmill is the literal worst. This run, however, was not too bad!

Tuesday: Rest Day!!

Wednesday: 30-minute run. This was the first time doing the Galloway run/walk system outside. Man, it is so much easier/better outside than on a treadmill. I don't think I will ever do intervals on a treadmill again! It was also great to look back at the Nike+ Running app and see that when I wanted to keep my runs the same pace, I did. And, when I wanted to increase or decrease my pace, I did that as well. My energy excursion matched my performance and that is not something that exactly happens every day here!

Thursday: Hot Yoga! It was my first time back in a while and my run buddy came with me! Great class and the substitute instructor told me I did well a lot. Not the worst thing in the world ;)

Friday: 30-minute run. This one I did around a nearby park that I love. It is actually the day that the picture above was taken. The sky's were stormy, the wind was (ummm) windy (?) and it rained a whole lot. But, I finished the run because, let's face it, there is no gaurantee that the Wine and Dine will have beautiful 65 degree weather for our run. Best be prepared.

Saturday: Bridge walk on this super pretty, tall bridge we have in our hometown. This was a great post run workout and my quads are still feeling it a bit!

Sunday: I think I did some laundry, maybe?