I have someone I’d like y’all to meet

 

I’d like to introduce you all to the knee that hates me.

  Knee meet everyone, everyone meet my jerk of a knee.

Yesterday, I forgot to take my knee brace with me to the gym. And when I left the gym it was feeling fantastic. However, after the short drive home getting out of my car was a bit of a problem. Now, walking and getting up the stairs is a problem. I hate my knee… and have officially given in to going to see my doctor about it. I’m trying to get an appointment after my final, and hopefully get this stupid thing fixed. I feel so useless hobbling around everywhere. I pretty much look pathetic and to prove my point, I got a good chuckle out of my brother. 

Aside from the knee, I had an awesome breakfast.

Greek yogurt, with half a banana, three strawberries and some granola. It really hit the spot, and since I hadn’t really had a real breakfast in a while it was fantastic… my tummy agreed.

I also pulled out my DSLR for this shots and wonder why I don’t use it more often. I know it’s easier to carry around the point and shoot, but the picture quality is no where near what it should be. Once my graduation is affirmed and I have a C in my class I will be getting the 50mm 1.4f lens which will make things even better.

I’m also thinking of investing in a new camera bag, I want one that wraps around the shoulder or some other more convenient way to carry around my Rebel and lenses.

I was thinking something like this… does anyone have one of these or any other choices of camera bags that will work better then a standard shoulder bag?

Introducing 25 Days of Fitness

For the past week, I have put all extra activities on hold to study up on Chemistry and the exam coming up on Monday. From Monday to today I’ve really felt a lacking in energy, inability to gain a good nights sleep and constantly feeling tired. Not only that, but my skin has gone bezzerk on me, and started breaking out like mad. Granted I break out when I am stressed, but not to the level of breakouts that I am having right now, so I am contributing all the negatives to my lack of working out.

In order to keep myself motivated I’d like to introduce you to my 25 Days of Fitness Challenge! But first let me tell ya about this new deliciousness that I have discovered! 

Say hello to my little friend FAGE!! It is the king of all Greek Yogurts, and I love it plain, with home made cottage cheese, with fruits, on crackers and any other way that you can think of eating yogurt. It reminds me of my grandmothers homemade strained yogurt, and it is AH-mazing!



This was my breakfast. Two tablespoons of Fage plain 2% yogurt, with 3 fresh strawberries, and a 1/4 cup of Udi’s Hawaiian flavored granola. It was so good! I use to make this with just regular yogurt, and it was good, but no where near as good!

       

I couldn’t help myself, and for lunch I had some more of Fage! This time I made a plate with some Honey Oat granola bites, grapes, and a mix of home made cottage cheese and Greek yogurt. It was unbelievably good!

Bottom line, if you have been on the hunt for a new Greek Yogurt, tries this one. I’ve tried several other brands, and none of them have compared to this! YUM!

 25 Day Fitness Challenge!

I am challenging myself and anyone else who’d like to play along, to go 25 straight days with at least 30 minutes of some kind of an exercise! Studies conducted by the American Heart Association show the following:

Even moderately intense physical activity such as brisk walking is beneficial when done regularly for a total of 30 minutes or longer on most or all days.   

The benefits of regular exercise are crucial to good health. My grandfather was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and underwent a surgery that removed the lower lobe of his left lung. He survived the surgery, and is back at home after only 6 days in the hospital due to his excellent health, which shows when he rides his bike for 80 miles at the age of 78. The American Heart Association states the following regarding regular exercise:

Regular aerobic physical activity increases your fitness level and capacity for exercise. It also plays a role in both primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke and is linked to cardiovascular mortality.
Regular physical activity can help control blood lipid abnormalities, diabetes and obesity. Aerobic physical activity can also help reduce blood pressure.
The results of pooled studies show that people who modify their behavior and start regular physical activity after heart attack have better rates of survival and better quality of life. Healthy people — as well as many patients with cardiovascular disease — can improve their fitness and exercise performance with training.

So whether its getting up and going out for a walk, running, jogging, lifting weights, or taking a class such as Body Pump or an at home program like P90X, I encourage you to do at least 30 minutes of it, for 25 days and let me know how you feel afterwards.

I’ll be starting my challenge on Monday, right after I am done with my Chemistry Test! I’ll have a badge to grab up sometime before Monday!

Good News Monday

I am really starting to hate the weather in Colorado. It’s unpredictable, and changes every 15 minutes… literally!

This morning, I had to put on a winter coat because it was snowing, and it was snowing good! There was a layer on the cars parked outside, on rooftops and on the laws. My drive to school was an average of 15 miles an hour due to the snow, poor visibility and people who freak out when there is “wet” on the road.

By the time I got to the school parking lot, it had stopped snowing, a there was a light sprinkle of rain. When I got out of class, it was overcast with no rain. Then when I was walking back to school from my visit to my old office it was raining AGAIN. By the time I talked to my professor and started walking towards my car it was sunny and HOT. … Come on Colorado make up your mind!

Now that my rent is over, I can say that I had a fantastic morning visiting with my friend, who I use to work with downtown. We had coffee and breakfast!



The above mixture of yogurt, fruit and granola is one of our favorites of all time. To recreate this just follow these easy steps:

[1] Get your favorite flavor of yogurt (plain works as well)
[2] Cut up some fruit, my favorite is banana with berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and so on)
[3] Get your favorite granola

Mix the above ingredients together for a delicious, light and super easy breakfast!  

After my breakfast, I headed back to school for a meeting with my chemistry professor and give her my sob story. Well it turns out that as long as I pass my next two exams I should be good to go for graduation.

Hence, I will be cramming for chemistry in the hopes that I will actually graduate as planned in May!
The next set of good news is that my grandfather’s cancer is all out, and he is recovering fast and breathing at a 100% without extra oxygen and with only 3/4 of his lung power.

WOOHOOO!!!

When I got home I made myself a plate of leftovers, since I was starving!!!



Some BBQ chicken and mac ’n’ cheese. It was okay. The chicken didn’t taste right, so I didn’t eat all of it, but the mac ‘n’ cheese was awesome. I think it should be a food group of its own.

   

I accompanied my lunch with some Pomegranate and Honey Green Tea, and finished up my lunch with some chocolate mousse!!

Now, I’m going to attempt to make lasagna from scratch for dinner!

 

I hate it… but I love it

 

… Sore muscles and all.

After doing my 1st run of the 2nd week of the C25K I decided it was time to work on the pudg that is building around my waistline. So, I went back to my favorite at home workout program, P90X.

 

I am just going to be doing the Ab Ripper X (click here for a outline). I really do have a love/hate relationship with this. It is about 15 minutes, but feels like it lasts forever, 25 reps of everything. While your core starts screaming, the results are fantastic! I love Ab Ripper X!!!

 

Disclaimer: I was not paid or compensated in any way to talk about P90X or any other workout program. This is my personal experience and review of what I use to get my body in shape.

Q: What are some at home workouts that you do? Have you tried P90X, if so what do you think of it?