Um, yeah.

Today a friend wrote to me with a picture of an exceptionally cool product (an umbrella for a dog) and said, "You should totally buy this for your dog."

How does one respond to that? My decision was to say, "I totally would, except my dog died a few weeks ago. Hey, that's awkward."

That's literally all I have to blog about today. I've had a boring Thursday. Here's what happened:

1. Woke up.
2. Showered and got ready.
3. Ate delicious omelette.
4. Went to work. Worked. Spoke Spanish and English, and got confused cause my brain hurts when I switch from one language to another. That's how Spanglish happens. Ate lunch consisting of a delicious hummus/veggie/turkey wrap and a banana.
5. Came home. Called father to ask what he's eating for dinner while my mom is working an evening shift and told him to eat vegetables.
6. Ran 5 miles.
7. Said "Ouch."
8. Halfheartedly attempted to allow Jillian to shred me.
9. Ate delicious chicken and veggies.
10. Watched DVD's of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" while writing a blog.

The end.

Taco Soup.

Shawna and I have decided to post a blog per day for the month of September again. She asked me earlier today what my post was going to be about, and I replied, "Taco soup." Why, you ask? I have no idea. Seriously though, taco soup is freaking awesome.

So speaking on that topic, I had taco soup for lunch today. My coworker made a batch of it, I brought a salad, and we shared. It was lovely. I'm going to miss my coworkers when I move to my new job as of October 1. I've only been at this job about five months, six by the time I transfer, but it's weird how settled in I feel already. This has quite possibly been the strangest year of my life, full of ups and downs and twists I never saw coming--I have to say its exhausting. I'm really going to need a nap by the time I turn 25 in a few weeks. I feel much, much older than that sometimes.

Since this is my last month to rock the age of 24, I have several plans for it:
1. I will rock the marathon training. Watch me. I'll finish that bitch.
2. I will quite possibly allow Jillian Michaels to shred me for 30 days. She did today, and it hurt a little.
3. I will find somewhere in the community to volunteer, as I think giving back in some way will definitely improve my current mental state. Also, bonus karma points.
4. I will eat taco soup again, as it is tasty.

Those are my resolutions for the month. Happy September! Now go eat some taco soup.

Top 5 Fitness Inspirations

I like television. I like television so much that I enjoy watching workout videos for fun sometimes. Once in a blue moon, I actually participate but that's a rarity. Instead I choose to absorb the awesomeness of certain fitness personalities through the wonder of osmosis. Here's a list of the top 5 fitness rock stars who have affected my life in reverse chronological order. If ever I did get off the couch, it would be for them.

5. Jillian Michaels

"Unless you puke, faint or die, keep going!"

Jillian Michaels is my current fitness inspiration, and she is awesomeness personified in a rock-hard, no nonsense body. She will most likely kill you and eat your honky tonk badonkadonk if you don't listen to her and give 200% of your energy in her 30 Day Shred and in life. Actually she won't because of all the calories, and was that a really gross image?

Anyway, Jillian is great because she makes you want to cry, and curl up in the fetal position... but you won't because she'll just yell even louder. And just know, her shouting comes from the heart... a tiny Grinch-sized heart.

4. Denise Austin

"I find new elements of health and fitness to motivate people all the time. The sky’s the limit. Look at America - I still have a lot to do."

I first discovered the peaceful creature named Denise Austin in college when a roommate would workout to her Lifetime show in the mornings. Of course, I would not workout myself, but I enjoyed sitting on the couch and listening to her hypnotic, soothing voice as she transported me to different exotic locales in each episode. This woman has got to be like some sort of mind-altering drug.

I remember one particular episode where Denise kept talking about blueberries and she would not stop praising the blue fruit. (Warning: completely falsified quote here in hippie voice) "I loooove blueberries. Mmm. I always put them on my daughters' cereal in the morning, and it's so good for them. So many antioxidants. Oh, why don't you eat some blueberries tomorrow, please? Now, let's do pilates in front of the Grand Canyon and braid eachother's hair."

3. Billy Blanks

"Discipline is remembering what you want most, not what you want now."

Tae Bo was THE THING in the nineties, and you totally know it. Everyone everywhere was caught up in the kickboxing craze that Billy Blanks began, and I was no different. Both my sister and I begged our mother for Billy's Tae Bo video boxed set of which I got and promptly set aside after 2 or 3 sessions. Do you notice a pattern here?

I am uncoordinated and peaceful. I choose not to kick. But Billy is still dreamy and awesome and could beat you up.


2. Richard Simmons

"Never, never! ... I get tired of negativity in our country. I get tired of people who only want to know dirt. I get tired of people who don't believe in themselves. That's why I'm here."

Know who else is dreamy and awesome? Richard Simmons! (Also, I use the word awesome too much, don't I? Oh well... Not going to stop 'cause it's my favorite word, so neener neener!)

So, Richard Simmons. Awesome. I actually did used to participate in "Sweatin' to the Oldies" extravaganzas of fun. Dancing + oldies music? How could this ridiculous amount of entertainment possibly be a workout?

Ricky, as I like to call him, is the person on my list I would most like to invite to a tea party and play dress up with. I think he would enjoy the cocoa chai and I would totally rock that sequin tank top. BFF!

1. Barbie

"I'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world. Laughing plastic... It's fantastic!"

And now, the toughest broad of them all, Barbie A. Doll. She may not look like much, but this chick knows how to get results, one pre-teen girl at a time. I got this video for Christmas when I was 8 years old, and I was COMPLETELY in love with it. The peppiness, the pink! Oh, the gloriousness. Yes, animated Barbie was kind of creepy-looking back in the day, but look at those arm warmers! You've got to admit, the kid's got style.

Also, little know fact... Jennifer Love Hewitt was one of the back-up "dancers" in this production!

If you desire experiencing this pink wonder for yourself, you can enjoy the entire video below! Yay for technology!


Who are your fitness inspirations?

Two things:

1. I almost lost a foot to a vicious chihuahua while out on a run today. I ran about six miles and was almost back home when a tiny, possibly rabid dog ran at me and attached itself to my foot. Logically, I didn't do anything except shriek and shake my foot in attempt to dislodge its teeth from my shoe. I'm just glad it got my shoe instead of my ankle, as that little fucker was out for blood. The owner had to pry it loose, and was very apologetic--most likely because she thought I was going to sue her. I actually thought it was pretty funny until 20 minutes later when I realized that it could have ended very badly. I'm glad I am not missing any flesh.

2. I've been doing the 30 Day Shred for the past week (I took Saturday off, whoops) and in attempt to mix it up a little I've been alternating the levels. For instance I'll do level 3, then level 2, and then level 1 and start all over. This is probably not what I'm supposed to do but it keeps me amused. If I'm not adequately shredded in 30 days then we'll all know its because of my rebellious level-alternating ways. Anyway, the point of saying this is that today was a level 1 day and I noticed something. Natalie, the hardcore move demonstrating woman (I can't help but remember their names) is a big fat CHEATER. I believe it's during some lunges/bicep curls, when Jillian goes to show what Anita (the other one) is doing, as the camera zooms in you can see Natalie stop doing lunges and just do bicep curls. Of course, the rest of the time she's very hardcore and awesome and incredibly impressive. Still... CHEATER. It makes me feel much better about my own sometimes slackerish tendencies (don't get me wrong, I'm a lunging machine 99.9 percent of the time). Even the fitness model cheats sometimes! We should be best friends and not do lunges together, probably.

My dog is a rockstar.

Suzy is a 15-year-old (as estimated by her vet, no one really knows how old she is exactly) beagle that I adopted a few years ago when I first moved here. Also, she is basically clinically insane. I mean it—the dog has issues. Sometimes she spins absentmindedly in circles while lying down in order to scratch her belly, and she grunts a lot and stares at people. Often she will wake me up by breathing on my face. No barking or whining, she just stares and breathes until I wake up. It’s very disturbing.

Incidentally, Suzy is the reason I first started losing weight. I got a dog because I live alone and need companionship and didn’t want people to accuse me of being a crazy cat lady. Suzy is overweight herself, by about 15 pounds, and so when I adopted her we started walking regularly in the evenings. We still walk about a mile and a half together each evening, but try as we might she doesn’t seem to be able to lose more weight. She seems happy though, so I’m not worried. As our walks progressed in the beginning I saw some success with my weight loss and it motivated me to continue and adopt other forms of exercise as well. Now when I go for a run people in town—who I met originally because they were fascinated by the ancient wonder that is Suzy—often say hello. One would assume that the dog benefits my healthy lifestyle. Even when I don’t feel like exercising I never skip our daily walk. I tried once and she looked so sad that I felt terribly guilty and we went anyway. Even if we are just able to walk a few blocks she flips out with extreme amounts of joy.

Sometimes, though, she likes to distract me. I’ve mastered the art of pushups with a dog involved—sometimes she stares, other times she snorts and tries to lick my face, and once she decided to see if she could jump on my back. She’s a feisty little thing. Last night I was “diligently” completing a workout from the 30 Day Shred (if by “diligently” you mean answering my phone when Shawna called me during the middle of it… the pause button is just too accessible!) and Suzy was wandering about the house.

All of a sudden she appeared at my side, raised up on her back legs and started jumping around while staring at the screen. That’s right, my dog does workout DVDs with me. It was so hilarious that I started laughing and gave her a treat so that I wouldn’t bruise her ego too much.

I bet that was her plan all along. She’s so manipulative.

December

It is a new month! Soon it will be 2009! I love pie!

That was a random burst of enthusiasm. I have so many things on my mind today, and so little concentration with which to type them. I love the beginning of a new month almost as much as I love the holiday season. Have I mentioned that Christmas is my favorite holiday of all time? I am already almost done with my Christmas shopping, have ordered hilarious Christmas photo cards, and am really looking forward to my long vacation later this month.

I forgot to mention yesterday that besides the family nonsense my Thanksgiving went splendidly. I ate some pie. It was delicious. Today my coworker and I weighed in for our holiday weight maintenance challenge at work and somehow I actually lost a pound and a half last week… I attribute this to working out hardcore pre-Thanksgiving, mostly. Also, clearly I did not eat as much pie as I should have. That 75-pound mark is so freaking close!

In other news, Shawna and I have started doing another fitness challenge through Elastic Waist. This one is called the 30-Minute Fitness Challenge: Holiday Edition! I didn’t really know what it was called, so I just looked that up. Again we are trying to do 30 minutes of activity for 30 days out of the next 36, with six days of 60 minutes of activity or more. This time I paid attention to the fact that I get six days off, and also I have already discovered that I am far more active than I think I am. I meant to go running while I was at my parents’ house this past weekend, but due to my horrendous cold (which is still sticking around) I didn’t go even once. However, I did do some hardcore cleaning for a couple hours one day, lugged boxes up and down the stairs for at least 30 minutes another day, etc. There was some activity while I chased children around and threw my tiny cousin in the air multiple times that I didn’t count. I thought I actually had one day without activity until my sister pointed out all the walking we did while shopping and I realized I could count that. Basically, that is cool. The sister also suggested I count my “high kick” demonstration, but I chose not to. According to her, watching me kick my legs in the air is hilarious because they are so short. It led to many demonstrations. Some while helping to assemble the white trash Christmas display in my parents’ yard—and yes, it does include an inflatable snowman and ice skating penguins. Hey, I should have counted that for my activity as well.

Also, due to the fact that I bought the 30 Day Shred DVD and have only used it a couple times, I am declaring that December will be my 30 Day Shred month o’ fun. I am going to see if I can do it every day for the next 30 days (paired with some other cardio like running or my elliptical or high kicking). I know I said I was saving it until I could successfully complete 100 pushups and was done with that challenge, but I really am satisfied with 76. It’s a much more unique number. How many people do you know that can say, "Oh yeah, I can do 76 pushups." In random running-related items, I ran the quickest 4.5 miles ever yesterday! I averaged just about a 10-minute mile even on all 4.5. It was sunny and moderately warm and apparently my body enjoyed the little break I gave it.

Bring it on, December!