Brie Fit

Shamelessly stolen from Temerity Jane via Sundry.  Thanks, ladies that are cleverer than I.

1. What did you do in 2010 that you’d never done before?

I went to Alabama and Vegas and Napa and Fort Lauderdale and Idaho and Arkansas and Atlanta and Texas and New Orleans and Mexico.

I ran a half marathon.  And another one.

I got married.

I ate hummus.

I ran a marathon.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Kinda.  And maybe. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My sister-in-law had our awesome nephew Henry, and my best friend had our awesome fake niece Isabel.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Tim’s wonderful Aunt Melinda lost her battle with ovarian cancer in July.

5. What countries did you visit?

Mexico on our honeymoon.

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

A new job for Tim, a house, and the beginnings of a baby.

7. What dates from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 8 and October 10.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Running two half-marathons and a marathon.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I destroyed a perfectly good batch of chili in the slow cooker.  That  was sad.

I didn’t do a very good about not becoming a crazy emotional freak in the weeks leading up to the wedding.  Like, Tim and I look at each other sometimes and are like, “Remember April?  Man, that sucked.”  And then I think about that day that I cried in my office with the door closed and my boss found me and think, man, I’m never getting married again.  I don’t think I was Bridezilla, but I am not very good at putting up with the crazy that came out of some others.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

No major illnesses.  I remember one nasty summer cold, but that was it.

Injuries…well, I think running kind of changed my barometer on this.  Major shin splints, giant blisters, four missing toenails, occasional knee/foot/ankle pain…but nothing too awful that wasn’t ultimately solved by rest.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Nook, Diva Cup, and Bondi Bands.

12. Where did most of your money go?

Student loan payments. Thankfully, in 2011, we have a mega-debt-repayment spreadsheet going on, as well as the discovery of the income-based repayment plan, which will hopefully mean we don’t get bled dry every month.

We also put a good chunk of change towards the wedding.

13. What did you get really excited about?

The wedding.

And if by “excited” you mean “wanted to vomit into/up my artichoke dip,” the marathon.

14. What song will always remind you of 2010?

Uh.  Probably Born To Run.

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder?  Happier by a smidge.  About the same.
– thinner or fatter? About the same.
– richer or poorer? About the same.

16. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Crafts.  And dog training.

17. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Comparing myself to others, and wasting time on the internet.

18. How did you spend Christmas?

Like so.

19. What was your favorite TV program?

I am very much enjoying The Wire on DVD, and go around spurting lines like “these are my tetras” and “I shot Mike-Mike in the hind parts” because they make me giggle.

20. What were your favorite books of the year?

I read 38 books in 2010, which isn’t too shabby.  I’m going to shoot for 50 in 2011.

Favorites were probably The Help, The Book Thief, Moloka’i, and Columbine (which is only a favorite in that it’s fascinating and well-written, not that I’m a creepy murderer).

Least favorites were Cleaving (wanted to throttle the narrator the whole time) and Let the Great World Spin (I felt like the entire book was just patting itself on the back the whole time, if that makes sense).

21. What was your favorite music from this year?

Katy Perry.  (hangs head)

22. What were your favorite films of the year?

Winter’s Bone was epic and awesome. I also really enjoyed Inception.

23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 26.  Tim made me pancakes, I got a Nook, and we saw a car that looked like a hamburger.

24. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Teaching Milhouse to shake.  We’ve been trying all year with no luck.  It’s hard to say…I feel pretty satisfied with 2010.  2011 is going to be a year of change and flux, so I feel like there’s more at stake coming up.

25. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

I discovered long necklaces and painting my nails a color other than clear, and I refuse to look back.

26. What kept you sane?

Tim.  Long, venty e-mails to my best friend.  Ben & Jerry’s and running.

27. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.

(crickets)

It’s not really that hard to pee in a wedding dress.

No, but really.  I think that one of the things I’m finally coming to terms with this year is that being driven by jealousy leaves me (duh) completely unfulfilled and just makes me stew.  When I channel those feelings into something productive and choose happiness instead, I feel much better.

(Example: I was nervous I’d go into a jealousy funk after spending time with my friend’s newborn this week.  I decided before we went to not approach the visit that way, and instead focused on how genuinely happy I am for my friend and her husband and their baby.  I used the visit as a learning experience, and came home and channeled that baby fever drive into a new slick budgeting and savings plan for 2011.)

So, yes.  No jealousy.  Just positive action driven by goals.

Hi friends!  It feels like April here.  Today the temperature was in the 50s and slightly rainy, and we’re supposed to see 60 degrees tomorrow!   Talk about a huge shift from the foot of snow we dealt with in Chicago.

(And yeah, I’d actually prefer a nice blanket of snow.  I hate seasonally inappropriate weather.)

Now that I have a new camera, I’m going to do more food photography.  I forgot to photograph my lunch until I was almost done today!  It contained some delicious leftover homemade cream of chicken and wild rice soup I made last night, a slice of homemade bread, and two clementines. 

A few more Christmas gift pictures.  I love my new purple mug and framed drawing!

Today I used my new JVC headphones at the gym.  The sound quality was incredible!  However, I think I have one giant ear canal and one tiny one, because the right earbud kept popping out.  I think I need to put a smaller rubber thingy on it.  (If I can find it.  The odds that it got lost in Christmas unpacking is pretty high.)

It’s hard to get a good portrait of Southie—she’s a little camera-shy—but I caught her tonight.  I love her freckles!

Sidenote: I’ve already named our future pets.  If we get a girl, her name will be Ramona Quimby.   If we get a boy, his name will be Stringer Bell.

Anyway.  After work, I was all psyched for a 6 mile run, and then I realized I left my water bottle at home, so I lifted instead and will run tomorrow.  I don’t feel like typing it all out, but it was basically a full-body “Brie’s favorites” special.

Also, last night, I was thinking about the mysteries of adulthood.  Like, I feel like there are all these things I’m supposed to know how to do, but don’t.   Such as…

1. How do you get the duvet to not move around in the cover?  I swear I want to beat our comforter to shit every night because I wind up with75% cover, 25% warm duvet, and Tim gets 75% warm duvet, 25% cover.  Is this just my cover-hogging husband, or can you get it so it stays put? 
2. How do you get fitted sheets to not pop off the corners of the bed?  Those elastic things don’t work, either. 
3. Speaking of fitted sheets, how do you fold them that doesn’t involve rolling them into a ball of frustration?
4. Uh, how do you clean floors that you can’t vacuum?  Like tile?  I have a mop, and a Swiffer, and use them, but they seem to just push dust into little wet piles and then I get frustrated.
5. What do you do with holiday decor when it’s not the holiday?
6. How the hell do I develop any kind of design sense in our house?  It still looks vaguely like a mish-mash of law school furniture and wedding pictures.
7. How do you throw a good adult party?
8. How do adults make friends?  Like, normal friends that you don’t want to sleep with or meet in a sleazy bar.
9. At what point is it awkward to still refer to adults you knew as a child as “Mrs. Smith” or “Mr. Jones"? 
10. Which section of the department store do I shop in?  I’m too old for Juniors but don’t feel quite like hitting the matronly Women’s section.

What haven’t you figured out yet about being an adult?

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had lovely Christmases.  We definitely did.

We both worked all day on Wednesday, and then flew out to Chicago late that night.  We stayed at my lovely mom’s house, and then drove three hours to my aunt’s house.

She lives next door to my cousin, so we had about twenty people (and five dogs) staying in two houses!  It’s crazy, but I’d never want to do Christmas any other way.  As you can tell, there was no shortage of gifts!

We spent most of Christmas Eve lounging around the house, wrapping last minute gifts, and shopping for stocking stuffers.  I gave a few piggyback rides, too.

On Christmas Eve night, we open one present.  I was gifted a beautiful tiara to wear during the Disney Princess half marathon from our flower girl, Maddie!  (And my aunt is making a tutu to match, too!)
We stayed up quite late on Christmas Eve drinking various cocktails (both homes have full stocked bars, as you can see in the background!)  I’m not usually a big drinker, but I probably had 4 or so drinks that night and was definitely feeling it. 

My uncle’s basement also hosts a collection of 800+ Christmas candles.  He’s going for the Guinness record when he gets over 1,000!  You can read about it here. 

Anyway, stockings were stuffed, and we woke up on Christmas morning, opened stockings, had breakfast tacos, and got started on gifts.

I got lots of great gifts that were total surprises, including this awesome framed print from my dear alma mater.  (Tim got one to match!)

I cleaned up quite well this year…I can’t think of everything, but I got an iPhone charger for my car, really nice new earbuds, spatulas, silicone baking mats, a microplane grater, a few cookbooks, and lots of giftcards for Ulta and Sephora.

And, most importantly, blog readers, thank Tim for replacing my camera that broke in June, thus necessitating photo-less or iPhone photo posts the last six months.  Hooray!

Another fun surprise was this giant iron H from my mom.  I really love it and kind of want to start collecting Hs around the house now!

And, of course, Tim got me another ridiculous calendar for my office.  I had one last year and it makes me smile whenever I look at it, so I don’t really care if I look like kind of a nitwit.

We drove back to my mom’s house on the 26th, and on the 27th we were lucky enough to meet my best friend’s new baby Isabel.  She’s an absolute angel…slept the whole time we were there, let us hold her without making a peep, and has perfect little peach fuzz hair.  She even farted while I was holding  her and it was still cute! 

We flew out from Midway this morning, which was quite eventful.  Alarm was set for 3:30, we were at the airport by 4:45 for a 6:00 flight and were stuck in such long lines only made our flights by sprinting across the terminal in stocking feet.  (I gave myself an asthma attack.  It was intense.)

Now we’re home, mostly unpacked, and I’m playing with my new camera.

(Milhouse got a new Mizzou collar for Christmas.)

   I love it!

Anyway, it’s back to work (and the gym—I’ve been a total slug the last week) tomorrow.  I work Wednesday and Thursday, and have Friday off.  Tim and I are planning on spending a quiet night in for New Year’s Eve—just us, a fun dinner (taking suggestions!), and The Wire on DVD.  We’re getting old!

What was your favorite holiday gift this year?

(Not really our actual Christmas card.)

(Also, we were pretty drunk at this point.)

(Recap later.)

At the beginning of 2010, I made some resolutions.  How’d I do?

Resolution 1 was to run a half marathon.  (With some other sub-goals.)

I’d say I pretty much killed this one.  I finished two half marathons and a marathon in 2010, and wow, I never thought I’d be able to say that a year ago.

Half #1:

Half #2 (holy hell, that was a hot and unpleasant race):

And the full:

So that goal was a resounding success.

I also had a few sub-goals under this heading.  Such as…

• run the entire half (Yes, for the first one, aside from a few aid station traffic jams; no for the horrible humid second one)
• run a half in under 2:10:00 (Nope, not yet, but maybe for Disney Princess.  Time isn’t hugely important to me anymore anyway.)
• run a second half (Check!)
• remain in half-marathon shape all year (I’m pretty sure that from March onward, I could crank one out without too much trouble at any time.)

Resolution 2 was eat mindfully.

This is still in progress, but I think I’m getting better about this.  I ate like a horse during marathon training and gained a bit of weight, now that I’m lifting and running less, I’m eating less and it’s coming off.  This resolution won’t ever really be over, but I will constantly try to work on it.

Resolution 3 was to strength train reglarly.

Fail.  I pretty much ignored strength training this year until November, but, happily, I’ve now rediscovered my love for it and won’t abandon it again any time soon.  I think it will help make me a stronger runner in 2011!

Resolution 4 was to take up road biking.

I didn’t do this because it’s expensive and wouldn’t work super well with my schedule; but considering all the running goals I accomplished instead, I’m okay with it.

Resolution 5 was NO WEDDING REGRETS.

I’d say this one was successful.  I look back at our wedding now fondly, and then think, “I never want to plan another wedding, ever.”  I suppose I do have a few minor regrets, but they’re pretty insignificant and I certainly don’t lose sleep about them.  I guess the small regrets I have would be:

• We didn’t get a whole lot of family photos, and I wish we had one of my mom’s family and Tim’s mom’s family all together.
• (long pause while I think of other regrets)
• We perhaps should have given the DJ clearer instructions on our introduction and first dance, but whatever.  Hindsight is 20/20.

What I remember most about our wedding are the things I absolutely DON’T regret doing, despite various objections I had to sift through.  Like how having a first look would ruin everything (absolutely not):

(See?)

…or how having pictures of your cats on the table numbers was silly…

..or how it would be weird to take pictures in a mall.

(And I generally, definitely do not regret marrying Tim!  He’s a keeper.)

Anyway, that’s how I did this year.  How’d you do?

So, yesterday, I bought my first ever LivingSocial deal.

For $13, I got one CSA organic delivery box from Door to Door Organics!  Today I scheduled it to be delivered on Monday, January 3rd and I am crazy excited.  This is a sample of what we might get:

Pretty good deal, huh?

Anyway, I am admittedly terrible at buying and consuming enough vegetables, largely because the ones at our grocery store never wind up being all that great, and I’m not adventurous enough to try ones I’ve never cooked before.  We’ll see how we like this first one and then may see if we want to continue it.  It would be about $50/month to get a box every other week, so not cheap, but not insane, either.  I’m excited!

Today I tried Susan’s 30 Minute Full Body Weight Lifting Workout.   If I’m being honest…I wasn’t feeling it.  It wasn’t the workout, I was just kind of blah.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.

Now, we’re packing up for our Christmas trip!  We work all day tomorrow, fly to Chicago late tomorrow night, and will be driving to Indiana to stay with family on Thursday.  We’ll return to KC Tuesday morning…I can’t wait!

So, I will be MIA until then, so, Merry Christmas!

What are your holiday plans?

How about a vintage holiday photo to get the week started out right?

Me and Alf.  I loved that show.

So, I was MIA all weekend, as usual, doing all kinds of holiday things.  Highlights include…

Friday: Ran a strong 4.5 miles after work, then baked the most incredible chocolate bundt cake ever for a holiday party.  (Throw some crushed peppermints on it to make it EXTRA festive!)  Run and bake, yo.  That’s how I roll.

Saturday: Grocery store, last minute Christmas shopping, Christmas party with Tim’s family where I bring said bundt cake.  Holiday merriment ensues, including discovering a wonderful Christmas song that involves Toto’s Africa.  Win.

Sunday: Clean house, watch The Wire (seriously, fantastic show, Netflix it NOW.  And pay attention!), chill.

Today it was back to work.  It’s absolutely dead.  And that’s okay with me!

After work, I ran a reasonably-paced, strong 5 miles.

I keep kind of forgetting I’m running a half marathon at the end of February, and I’m okay with that.  I keep going, “Yeaaaah, I’ll make a training plan one of these days” and then I don’t.  I’ve done the serious training plan thing, and they kind of make me hate running.  So, I’m going to do a loose training thing for this race.  Here’s my “this is not a training plan” training plan:

• Run 2-3 times a week.
• Make my long run longer each week.   I did 5 miles this week, will do 6 next week.
• Cross-train once a week.  Elliptical, rowing, biking, my friend’s fun Crossfit workouts.
• Weight train twice a week.  I feel infinitely stronger and better about my body when I’m lifting. 
• Stretch.  Like, for real.  Don’t skip.

The name of the game is “well-rounded.”  I’ve done the “run 4 times a week and do nothing else” thing, so now we’ll see how this goes.  Should be fun!

Anyway, Shelby tagged me today, so here goes.

1. Vacation: beach or mountains?

Beach.  I don’t have the constitution for camping.  Being allergic to trees and grass tends to be a problem.  I’m not actually a giant beach fan, either, as I tend to burn easily and don’t like getting sand in my crotch, so my ideal vacation is probably something like Napa…lots of delicious food and wine and shopping, relaxed pace, et cetera.

2. Luggage: check it or carry it on?

You guys, I feel very emphatic about this.  CHECK THAT SHIT.  I exclusively fly Southwest, which has a wonderful “check two bags free” policy.  I loathe hauling bags around the airport into the frigging bathroom stall with me, and shoving them into tiny crevasses on crowded planes.  Check it and forget about it.  Even if I’m flying on a quickie overnight trip with a tiny bag, I check it.  Seriously, it doesn’t wind up taking all that long, and makes airport wandering much more fun.

3. Bed: make it or leave it a rumpled comfy mess?

Somewhere in between.  In our house, we tend to pull the comforter up enough so the cats don’t get hair all over the sheets every morning, and that’s about it.

4. Races: smaller or bigger?

Bigger.  I like nice t-shirts, swag, tons of aid stations and fans.

5. Toilet paper roll: over or under?

I’m fine with either.

6. Pancakes: thick and fluffy or thin and crepe-like?

Thick and fluffy!  With chocolate chips.

7. Alarm: get up or hit snooze?

This is the #1 worst habit Tim has gotten me into.  I used to hop out of bed as soon as the alarm went off, but he’s a snoozer.  And now I’m a snoozer.  Our alarm goes off at 6:05 am every day…and I don’t  get out of bed until at least 6:30.  It’s bad news.

Please leave your responses to 1-7 in the comments!

So remember how I told you my best friend was into Crossfit?

Here is us, vintage style, in January 2006:

(Yes, I had braces for most of college, and it sucked.)

And here’s us now! 

Don’t we both look so much better?  Eesh.  College was rough, dude.

Anyway.  Love. Her.

She challenged me!  (All the way from Boston!)

And who am I to turn down a challenge?

Today after work I did this.  It is deceptively simple looking, but man, I was wiped at the end!

I don’t think I was particularly speedy…I rowed 500m in 2:22, and then completed the 5/5/5 challenge in15:26.  By the end, my abs were burning and my arms were on fire!   I wore my heart rate monitor and I was up in the 160s most of the time, which is bananas.   If I do this workout again, I’d probably grab a medicine ball for the squats—bodyweight squats just don’t do much for me anymore, even when I’m going ass to the grass.  

So, in sum, less than 20 minutes in the gym (score!) for an awesome workout.  I don’t think I’ll be a regular Crossfitter just because of my gym’s set-up, but I can definitely see incorporating these when I travel (no equipment, holla) or on weekends (we live 30 minutes from my gym and it’s real cold). 

It’s so nice to have a friend with similar interests—we’re always exchanging workout ideas and motivation via e-mail and it’s a great way to stay motivated!

Other stuff: four days of work until Christmas vacation!

And there was a heated exchange on  Twitter today about Ugg boots.   Basically…as far as casual shoes go, I’ve converted to ballet flats for spring and fall, and wear sandals all summer, but I needed something cozy for winter.  I’m usually in heels and running shoes only Monday through Friday, and let’s face it—we aren’t exactly the pinnacle of cool on the weekends.  I’ve always thought Uggs were kind of ugly, but they look so cozy!

However, I couldn’t justify $150 on shoes I would only wear on weekends.  I could, however, justify $50, since I got a $100 check in the mail from my aunt for Christmas.  So I bought this pair of boots from Endless! 

I have come to terms with the fact that they’re kinda ugly, but they will keep my toes warm while we grocery shop, walk the dog, and do our other weekend casual tasks.  And I’m okay with that.

Do your friends motivate you to be healthier or drag you down?

1. hot showers after tiring workouts
2. down comforters
3. Milhouse snuffling in the snow
4. soup
5. warm kitties
6. fuzzy slipper socks
7. two new babies in our circle
8. The Wire
9. mittens
10. anything involving peppermint
11. reading time in bed before
12. having a full-size (albeit fake) Christmas tree with lights
13. the return of my afternoon cup of herbal tea
14. Christmas music
15. heating pads
16. all things fleece
17. the promise of a new year around the corner
18. Southpaw’s birthday and Buckley’s gotcha day (January 22 and January 2, respectively)
19. a slow month at work in December
20. getting a new (huge!) monitor for my work computer

I’m currently nursing a tweaked back with a rest day.

What do you love this winter?

I was hunting for a fresh weights workout today since I’ve exhausted much of Susan’s good ones over the last few weeks.  So I went with an old friend.

I had stored some of these workout logs on my computer and just happened to have them with me, so I dashed one off quickly before I went to the gym.  (Did this program back in 2008.  Love it.  Can’t wait for their new program to come out in a few weeks!)

I did:

• Wide-grip deadlifts: 2 sets of 10 reps at 80 pounds (side note: the squat rack, where I used to do deadlifts at my old gym, isn’t equipped really to do them at this new gym.  There are weird bars that prevent me from doing the full range of motion—like, I’d only be able to go halfway down.  So I used a pre-loaded bar, and it wasn’t heavy enough.  Suggestions?)
• Underhand grip lat pulldown: 2 sets of 10 reps at 60 pounds and 72 pounds
• Bulgarian split squat: 2 sets of 10 (both legs) with a 25 pound plate
• Dumbbell prone Cuban snatch: 2 sets of 10 at 20 pounds (10 per arm, admittedly not great form)
• Reverse lunge with forward reach: 2 sets of 10 (both legs) at 20 pounds
• Bicycle crunches: 2 sets of 10 (too lazy to track down the Swiss ball, like the book says)
• Reverse crunches: 2 sets of 10
• Prone cobra: 1 at 90 seconds (OW), 1 at 60 seconds (I tried)

And, as recommended, finished it off with my first HIIT session in a loooong time on the treadmill.  Which was…

• 2 minutes at 5.1 speed
• 1 minute at 7.3 speed
• repeat X 5
• cooldown walking

I can honestly say that when I think back to when I was my fittest and felt the best, it was during this program.  I think I will definitely incorporate more of these in the future!

Also, my bestie has been raving about Crossfit to me via e-mail lately.  I would really love to try some of these workouts, but when I tried piecing them out in my head, I don’t think they’d work at my gym, logistically.  (I’d be running from the weights to the opposite end of the gym to do push-ups and back again—just not efficient.)  I’m sad, because they look really cool. 

In other, happy news, my Christmas shopping is officially done!

I also got this excellent new (cheap!) work bag in the mail from Zappos today.  (The lining of my old one ripped and looked bootleg.)  I’m excited to use it tomorrow!  My requirements for a work bag are 1.  must be ginormous (I stuff my work clothes in it and use it like a gym bag after work); 2. must zip (so when I fly with it and stuff it under the seat shit doesn’t fall out all over the plane); 3. must not have tons of charms and logos and crap on it; and 4. must not look obviously fake.  This one fits the bill!

Any good shopping finds lately?