I Would Walk 10 Thousand Steps…

That’s one of my favorite songs of all time. I seriously love it so much.

So I bought a pedometer on Amazon on Saturday. It showed up yesterday (so fast!), and I started using it this morning.

I’ve wanted one for a long time, but I didn’t know what kind to get. I ended up getting an Omron HJ-112 Digital Pocket Pedometer because of it’s simplicity and awesome reviews (It’s so light weight!). Weight Watchers is a big promoter of just getting out and walking. Moving more. Jessica Simpson recently talked on Katie Couric about how she wears a pedometer, and tires to reach 10,000-14,000 steps a day. This is a good little article about the reasoning behind 10,000 Steps. It’s not a magic number, but its a good way to know your moving a fair amount. Apparently you take about 1,500-3,000 steps in just your daily inactive life, so 10,000 means you really are pushing yourself to just move more, I like that. 10,000 Steps is approximately 5 miles of walking. Trying to hit these goal can be especially important if you have a desk job where you sit most of the day. I’m looking forward to having it motivate me to keep moving.

Coffee+Pedometer=win

This morning I walked to get coffee. I got a Tall (small) non fat Pumpkin Spice Latte (5 WW+Points), and logged about 3,000 steps. Walking is one of the few workouts that I really don’t mind. It’s low impact, and moderately interesting if you are walking outside (I’m not a fan of indoor walking).

This weekend Mr. Gaunt and I are celebrating our one year anniversary! He has planned a 4 day trip to the Olympic National Forest. We plan to do lots of beach and forest walking. The place we are staying even has a little kitchen if we decide to do a little cooking at “home”. I’m really looking forward to it, just the two of us, no phones, so so nice.

Oh and in case you need some music inspiration, a friend of mine is a DJ and he created this “chic work out mix” for his wife who owns a gym. It’s really upbeat and fun. Listen to it here for free!

Last I’m on a big 90’s TV show soundtrack kick. Such fun nostalgic fall music, I listen to the Pandora/Slacker stations for all of these….YOU’RE WELCOME.

 

Herbed Potatoes and Bikini Bodies

Quite the title isn’t it.

Mr. Gaunt and I went on a long hilly walk today, I’m kind of hating the gym lately, too hot and stuffy. I’m loving the nice weather, and feel awful not taking advantage of it, so we have been walking a lot. Today we walked to the Post Office, the Library, and strolled through Maritime Heritage Park (which is a beautiful park that unfortunately ends up being kind of sketchy with all the homeless that hang out there). Needless to say our walk ended up being exactly three miles. So that’s nice.

I did have a little breakdown on our walk. I feel so unhappy about my weight right now. My physical fitness has to pick up, and my decadent splurges have to go down stop. I need way more veggies, and way less cheese and bread. I just know how much better I would feel minus 30 pounds. Lordy. It’s never-ending is it? I feel like my ass and stomach are larger than they have been in a while though, which is just so unpleasant. Consider me on a diet!

For dinner we had grilled chicken sausage, asparagus, and herb potatoes.

The potatoes were leftover from Mothers Day that I sliced up. Then I just cut some thyme, dill and oregano from my garden, tossed with some olive oil, pepper and salt, and baked at 425 for 15 minutes. Super yummy, and not too bad for you.

Also in super exciting news!!!! Mr. Gaunt got a promotion today! He will now be a supervisor, which is more responsibility, but also more money! Yay! We really could use more money. I also have taken up a twice a week cleaning gig at my moms wine bar via our other business, which will be bringing in a nice little monthly paycheck. I have also sold 3 paintings this month, and booked our largest wedding yet for November! Mr. Gaunt has also started a used media shop on Amazon that he is done really well at so far. You would think with all our little business adventures that we wouldn’t be nearly so poor. The funny thing is, all this money will be coming in later on, so far now we just have to keep treading water and hope for the best. HARD WORK! HARD WORK! HARD WORK!

Mr. Gaunt and I spent time the other night talking about our jobs, and how hard we are working, and our dreams. We have a philosophy that it is better to work our butts off trying to work for ourselves, and have freedom, then to just work a basic 9-5 for someone else. The saying “If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life” rings so loud for me. The passion and desire I have to build a career around my life, and not build my life around a job, will continue to fuel me through the hard times. We will make it. We will work for ourselves. We will be able to do the things we want to do. We will get everything we need.

On that note, I did ZuzkaLights ZWOW #19 video tonight. I did it the best I could, and my abs feel it. She says its to prepare me for my bikini body…yeah…uh huh. You should really do it too! It’s not to bad, and its super fast.

http://www.youtube.com/zuzkalight#p/a

 

Thighs and Yoga

I’ve been doing Yoga now for a month and a half now, on Tuesdays at my gym. It’s basic Yoga that my gym offers for free, but its taught by a real Yoga instructor, and not just some gym employee. It’s easy enough that I don’t feel embarrassed, but hard enough that I leave sweaty. I love it.

I’m actually really flexible. I can stand with my knees straight and put my palms flat on the floor. I can grab my hands behind my back and balance while holding my foot in the air. I can do a Sun Salutation fast and fluid at least 5 times before getting a winded. I feel like I’m built to do Yoga…well, except one thing.

I have the biggest thighs on earth, and Calves, both of them…HUGE. When I’m in Yoga, sometimes I get fixated on looking at my legs in the mirror. They are massive. One might think this would depress me, and although I have spent years hating my legs, in Yoga, I’m more fascinated by them. I see where my hips touch on the mat compared to everyone else. I see how much higher I am when we sit on our knees. I see how high in the air my butt is in Childs Pose. The sheer thickness of my legs makes my body move in completely different ways than everyone else in class.

So far there are only 3 (basic) positions I have found close to impossible. One is something similar to a spinal twist where you wrap your arms around your back and legs. There is no way in hell my hands could ever touch. Another pose is where you sit on your knees, and lay back slowly so your thighs are underneath you. this proves to be just too much weight/pressure on my knees. I also am not able to do a traditional cross-legged pose where you bring your feet up.

The thing is, I’m not even really bothered that I can’t do these few poses. The rest of me is strong and balanced, and I can confidently do most of the other poses. There are tiny girls in the class who fall over, or get to tired and fall behind, but I don’t. I find my inner strength and focus and breathe through any pain or uncomfortableness I feel. I pay attention, and I push myself to be faster and more accurate each class.

I am obviously so very much in the beginning stages of learning Yoga. I would love to eventually take a real class and learn more accuracy and technique. It’s very expensive though, so I’m happy with City Gym Yoga. And I’m even accepting of my huge thighs too. At least black yoga pants are moderately slimming….right?

I should probably invest in my own mat too some time soon.

 

Balsamic Asparagus and Zuzana Light Workouts

Roses from Mr. Gaunt. Tulips from my mom.

Tuesdays are our eat early nights. Although there is something weirdly nice about eating dinner at 5pm. It just sort of gets that task out of the way, and reduces the likelihood of it getting “too late, and too tired” to make anything. Resulting in eating garbage.  I wish I could convince myself everyday to just come home, straighten my house and make dinner. I’m working on it. So Tuesdays I have yoga and Mr. Gaunt has class at 6:30, so we eat early.

Using what we had on hand I went for easy and classic. The chicken is just breaded with Italian bread crumbs, and the Black Beans and Rice is a boxed thing. The Asparagus though was done Mr. Gaunt’s favorite way, with balsamic!

It’s nothing fancy, just trim, throw on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with olive oi, balsamic, and salt and pepper. Bake for 10-15 minutes on 345. Comes out a little crisp on the edges and very tangy.

________________

The last couple weeks I’ve been working 9 hour shifts at work to help train new season employees. It’s definitely challenging, but more entertaining than my previous task of doing NOTHING! Our busy season has just started, so the hours may get longer and longer. I need to stay on top of my working out and not use long work days as and excuse to be lazy. I’m continuing to go to the gym right after work at least 3-4 days a week, plus yoga on Tuesdays. Recently I read a post from Emily Martin (The Black Apple) about a great online workout video series that I have decided to try! They are short, like 12 minutes and super intense I guess. Has anyone tried these?

Zuzana Light from bodyrock.tv

Daily Eats – Day 23

Just a few new things. Almonds, Craisins (in an attempt to kill my Hot Fudge Sunday craving. It worked….for now. For dinner Mr. Gaunt made me Collared Greens, Sausage, Lima Beans, and Eggplant. Amazing.

Gym today was super lame as ALL the cardio machines were full (I hate my gym) so we did the rowing machine. We will see if my shoulders want to fall off tomorrow. As soon as our contract is up next month we are going to try out a different gym.

Daily Eats – Day 19

Tomorrow is Friday. Yipee! Not because the weekend will be here soon, but because supposedly all this ice and snow is supposed to melt on Friday, with a high of 45. I’m over the snow. Sooo over it. My car is useless in the snow, Mr. Gaunt and I don’t work the same schedule, so I’ve been depending on my mom for rides. Today I took ANOTHER snow day, which sorta sucks, but did give me time to sign up for online Quick Books and get all of our business finances together, which is awesome.

Bagel Thin with 1 Egg and 1 Egg White, Mushrooms and Greens (I only ate half this as it wasnt that yummy). Non Fat Vanilla Latte. Thai Lime Cashews.

Turkey Burger with mushrooms and a little cheese on 1/2 a Bagel Thin. I used the other half under that Veggie Pattie. Sweet Potato Fries. Dried Date with Coconut.

Mr. Gaunt was really cold all day, so instead of going to the gym we went to the pool and swam laps and hung out in the hot tub. It felt like a good workout and a nice change of pace. I’m nervous about weigh in this week, so I’m going to try extra hard to eat good, small portions. 2 pounds loss is the goal!