Jasmine & his dumbbells

Saturday Morning Day 6 and Summary

Week 1 of my Lake House Fit Challenge is almost finished, and what a pretty amazing week it's been.  My mind is set on wearing my 2-pc to the lake house so it's been worth all the prepping for my juices and smoothie lunches and even making some "real" foods instead of grabbing a Chobani and an apple when I'm in a hurry.  

I've been feeling pretty good about the foods I'm been eating.  I'm also very happy to say that my cravings have pretty much not existed and my only day of struggle was Tuesday, Day 2.  I think it was because I skipped my M4 and I was hungry and my sugar balance was off so I wanted something sweet like cookies or such, but instead I chose to make a TIU healthy banana split.  Not craving sweets is seriously the best feeling ever! and it feels great knowing that I can live a day even a week without wanting to sit on the couch and binge.  My body is loving me more as I #RestartResetRefresh my bodies normalities and become a lean mean eating machine and I'm looking forward to continue success in my #fitlife journey.

  

 Healthy Banana Split

I've also been making a habit of choosing foods that TIU followers, like MadisonCary_TIU, and MegNolan_TIU, are eating as I know they are eating the right foods, exercising with TIU and they look fantastic.  At some point I would like to sign up for the TIU Nutirtion Plan so I can have my own copy of the recipes, including the META-D.  However, for now my budget doesn't allow so for now I simply follow and hope that they link the recipe or note the ingredients.

I was happily surprised that the #bombshellspell recipe from @TIU was public, because I can definitely use the benefits offered from drinking apple cider vinegar.  I did, however this week, annoyingly and regrettably forget to drink my #bombshellspell 3 times  I was in a hurry for work and didn't see them in the fridge, because I had moved them to the bottom shelf.  I did finally remedy this Thursday night when I made 2 more batches and made sure to put them on the top shelf.  Friday and Saturday I happily drank my spell. 

Daily Check Ins
AUG 5:   Day 1:  Eats &  Workout
AUG 6:   Day 2:  Eats &  Workout
AUG 7:   Day 3:  Eats &  Workout
AUG 8:   Day 4:  Eats &  Workout & Eats
AUG 9:   Day 5:  Eats &  Workout
AUG 10: Day 6:  Eats &  Workout
AUG 11: Day 7:  Eats &  Workout

Recipes
M1: TIU BombshellSpell
M1: Blueberry Greek Parfait 
M2: Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls 
M3: Beet Juice
M3: TIU Green Glow Smoothie
M5: Pineapple Chicken / Turkey Meatloaf Muffins & Roasted Brussels Sprouts
M5: Spinach Quinoa Peach Salad

Monday Night Day 1
During my workout Jasmine decided to keep me company and found safety on my hand weights.  For the first part of my workout he was trying to play with me feet, which wasn't his best choice with me jumping around during my HIIT workout. 

After my workout I headed over to my mirror for some snap shots and Jasmine followed me over.  He's pretty cute when he wants attention. 

If you want to join along the challenge I'm using #RestartResetRefresh and #LakeHouseFit or feel free to follow me on instagram to view my daily check in's.

finding my balance part 2

The Social Dancer

Another part of my life that needs balance is my social life, which for the last few years has revolved around dancing.  Before I started dancing 7 years ago, and even up until about a few years ago my social life was pretty varied; I attended church, participated in young adult groups, hiked, hosted an occasional dinner party, and  when I lived in Colorado I used to bike.  However, this last year my only social avenue has revolved around dance events and exchanges;  Lindy Hop, Blue's Balboa, West Coast Swing and Fusion.  There is nothing wrong with it per say as I really enjoy the connection time off the dance floor that I've had these past few months traveling to the Baltimore, and D.C. scenes.  I've really felt apart of the scene especially in D.C. and I am making more of an effort to make the 2-hour trip down.

However, it would be nice to have some friends locally that I connect with in that same manner, but with my social focus being around dancing it's hard to meet anyone locally and even the closest scene would be York or Lancaster, and they are still 30 minute to an hour drive.  My main thing really is to have the quality time and there are a few friends from my old church or even old hobbies that who I miss hanging out with and some one-on-one time to catch up would really be nice. 

That's me in the pink shirt under the spell of Bitter Dose Combo, a favorite band, as they perform at DCLX 2013 on Sunday afternoon. photo credit: Jerry Almonte.

------------------------ becoming a fit dancer ------------------------

It's amazing what you learn about yourself just by watching other dancers who are in their realm and it didn't take me very long to realize just how mediocre my so called "creative dance style" is and that I've got some work to do if I'm going to spice things up, so I've decided to dedicate an hour a week to practice different moves that will expand my dance move library so I can more flavor on the dance floor.

check out my vanilla moves

Here are a few of the moves I plan to work on:
* lock turn w kick ball chain
* eggbeater (in link above)
* heal stands
* helicopter
* falling off the log (6:05)
* the mess around
* hip thrust
* susy q. 

------------------------ dancing is exercise ------------------------

Lindy Hop (LH) is not only a social avenue for me, but it's also a way to keep fit since you can burn 1,000 calories in only a few hours depending on the advancement and intensity of the dancers in your scene.   My local scene is primarily East Coast Swing / Jitterbug, which doesn't compare to the original intensity from the 1920s and 1930s.   There are exceptions like on our Monthly dance in Colombia when most of my Happy Lindy dancers are present and I leave dripping sweat, which is a sanctifying feeling.  I also get a chance to catch up with some of my favorite people in my scene. 

Hooked On Swing Dancing
by BadZKarma99

I plan to start attending a weekly dance in Baltimore that gives me the intensity I desire and will be counting it in my weekly routine as an alternative cardio day.   The drive can sometimes be rough at 1-1/2 hours, but I also plan to treat myself to my favorite Starbucks coffee - soy latte and 2x shot of raspberry.  This also keeps me traveling outside of my scene where there are more advanced dancers to remind me how vanilla my moves really are.

Keep in mind that any Arial moves {seen in the video above} are reserved for the competitions and are not appropriate / respectful to be done on the social dance floor.  

part 1: Fit Life
part 3: Home Care

Finding my Balance part 1

This last month I've haven't really felt like blogging so I've been mostly posting mini updates on instagram and facebook about what's been happening around the house, with my workouts, and any fit and happy eats that I think you'll enjoy.  I'm not sure if my lack of blogging has been a result of doing to much and I just haven't had much time to post more then just snip-its or if it's because I've been spending a lot more time reading about other bloggers lives as lately my bloglovin stream has been increasing.  I've really been enjoying reading about the new workouts and eats from The Purely Twins, and She Rocks Fitness, along with reading about organizing and home decor ideas from Bowl Full of Lemons, and Oh So Lovely.  

Living a Fit life

The Purely Twins have been where I've been spending most of my reading time lately, especially since they are new to my feed.  I've been drooling over Lori and Michelle's tasty eats, and after seeing their plantain pancakes, Salmon, Spinach and Mushrooms and plantain egg breakfast on instagram I want to buy some plantains.  I've also done a few of their plank based workouts on youtube, which have been very challenging.   I appreciate that they do the videos in real time so you can workout with them and not have to worry what move is next or setting a timer.  They also do a quick breakdown of all the moves before they start each workout. I find them to be similar to the original bodyrock.tv host Z, now at Zuzka Light, in the sense that they are easy to follow along with during the workouts despite their awkward video personalities. 

 

Outside of that I've been working on creating a balance with running, dancing, working on the house, and strength training, so I do not get burnt out.  I'm hoping that as I learn the balance it will allow me time to fit more of the things I love without feeling overwhelmed.  In the past I've have high expectations for myself, instead of being realistic and I tend to get depressed thinking about all the things I need and want to do and end up overworking my body.  This only results in being super sore and depressed and state and it gets harder each time to pull myself back out. 

I've started simply scheduling my workouts weekly.  This allows me to look at the week ahead and determine what workouts are best with the weather forecast and my evening schedule.  You can see my schedule so far for May and I've done very well at successfully completing all of my workouts. 

I plan to incorporate 2 running days, 2 HIIT days, a dance night, a practice night, and an active rest day / rest day.  By broadening my workouts I hope to build my balance, endurance and add variety in my workouts so I'm not running every day and ignoring my strength training.   

What are some ways you are helping to keep the balance in your fit life?

part 2: The Social Dancer (coming next Monday)
part 3: Home Care