Brie Fit

Fourth workout this week!  I’m killing my new goals.  Boom.

Saturdays at CrossFit are partner days. It’s kind of funny, because it’s always a little middle-school-like to be like, “Do you want to be my partner?” and such.  Plus, Saturdays are usually a different crowd than my 5:30 am crowd, so I don’t have my built-in pregnancy support system.

Anyway, today’s WOD was kind of scary looking.  Now that it’s warm out, we’re running a lot more! 

I found a partner who was new to CrossFit, so we didn’t mind taking it relatively easy.

So, basically we switched off doing 200m sprints, then did 3 rounds of the 20/40/60/80 thing, then finished up with more 200m sprints. 

The fun twist in this WOD is that the deadlifts were partnered—so we lifted the bar together.  We did 125# together.

My favorite part of Saturday workouts is that we run by a grocery store that cooks some sort of delicious brunch, so every time you do a sprint you smell bacon and fresh bread.  Drool.

Anyway, we finished last in the class, but everyone stayed to cheer us on until we were done. 

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, which I sorely needed after working so hard this morning!

We also have a start on our gallery wall for the nursery.  I found the frames today and framed a few things I’d collected—more are on the way.  I have to admit, I felt terrible cutting pictures out of books, even though they were destined for the trash pile at the library, saved only by my crafty mother-in-law.

(Arrangement will change.)

We just finished up dinner out (disappointing) and watching The Muppets Movie (delightful!).  The baby’s been quite squirmy and active today, which is bizarre but fun.  He barely moved yesterday!

Happy early Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!  I admit, I don’t feel quite like I can partake in the festivities yet, but have requested pancakes for breakfast from Tim anyway.  I hope that’s okay.

It’s been a crazy one over here so far!

After work on Friday, I rushed straight to the grocery store, since I knew we desperately needed food but didn’t have much time this weekend.  We made a quick dinner of homemade pizza and we were off to CrossFit for a poker tournament!

It was a $20 buy-in, BUT you got an extra $20 in chips if you did a WOD first, so of course we did.  We did a poker themed WOD—the coaches split us into groups and split a deck of cards.  Each suit stood for a different move (push-ups, sit-ups, squats, jumping lunges) and we had to do the number on the card.  So, it was fun.  But we finished!

And then I won the poker tournament.  And Tim came in 2nd, so we collectively took home the $240 pot.  Baller.

This morning, I slept late and again headed to CrossFit.  (Glutton for punishment, right?)

Today’s WOD was a little different.  We did the following exercises, first in a set of 45 seconds work/15 seconds rest, then two minutes rest, then 30 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, two more minutes rest, then 20 seconds of each move, no rest in between.  Complicated, but fun!  The moves were:

• Box jumps
• Push presses (65# for me)
• Mountain climbers (ugh)
• Air squats
• Power cleans (65# for me again)
• Push-ups (toes for me, yay, though they weren’t pretty or fast)
• Burpees

A few thoughts:

• I like box jumps.
• I liked doing a WOD that was time-based, rather than reps-based, because I lifted heavier and slower.  It didn’t matter that I only did, say, 6 or 7 push presses in 45 seconds, because they were heavier than I normally do. 
• I have a hickey-like bruise on my collarbone from power cleans.  It makes me feel hardcore.
• I am less hopeless at burpees these days.  Some guy explained that it didn’t matter that you were doing a pretty push-up at the bottom of the move, and that you could basically just slam your chest down and jump your hands up to your feet from there, and that helps me, a lot.
• Push-ups are ugly, but I’m getting there.  Unless we’re doing 100+ reps, I’m going to make myself do toe push-ups this month to achieve my 10 perfect push-ups goal this month.
• My body feels fried from five days of CrossFit in a row.  I need a rest day tomorrow!

Then, today, we went furniture shopping and bought a couch and a loveseat that we desperately need.

It looks beige there, but it’s really grey.  I am looking forward to having a place to sit now!

I also bought two sweaters, jeans, a dress, and a necklace with my winnings.  Good times.

And finally, for your enjoyment…we have this awesome mirrored headboard (sarcasm font) that we haven’t taken down yet.  Milhouse proved he is genius last night by growling at his own reflection for about twenty minutes.  It was sad, but also adorable.  Please excuse my wheezy laugh.

Now, we’re jetting off to our neighborhood Christmas party.  Fun!  I am looking forward to meeting the neighbors.  I hope I’m not too awkward.

How’s your weekend going?

So, today was the first time I’ve run more than 400m since mid-September.  I was a wee bit nervous—running is tricky.  But ultimately I decided to trust my CrossFit training and just go for it.

Before the race, we picked up our bibs and I put the official Turkey Trot shirt on under my CFN shirt.  Since we were doing it as a group, we engaged in some team spirit.

Tim joined me for the race today.  He hasn’t done much running since he started his new job with longer hours, but we decided it would be fun to give it a shot anyway.

Anyway, we lined up and were off.

If there’s one word I can use for this race, it would be CROWDED.  It was on a very narrow trail near the Missouri River and it was muddy.  It was a 5K run combined with a two mile walk, which presented some challenges.  I had to slow to a near walk at two points on the course when we went over a narrow bridge.  I was kind of gunning for a PR, but with the crowds, it just wasn’t going to happen and I gave up on that goal early in the race.

The weather was gorgeous, and the sun was shining.  I took the whole thing at an easy pace (I didn’t really have much choice in that) and finished in 30:48.  The whole time, I just kept thinking, “Wow, this is both way easier and more boring than CrossFit.”  Heh.

Despite the crowds, it was a great way to start out our Thanksgiving day!  I think I might look for a less crowded 5K in a few months to try to PR again, but I’m fairly sure my long distance days are done for a long while.

We took a CFN photo post-race. 

(Tim finished a few minutes after I did, which is totally awesome for doing a 5K with no training!  Go Tim!)

In other news, Milhouse’s Christmas photo bowtie arrived yesterday.

(I tried it on Buckley, and he was less enthused.)

Anyway.  Here are just a few things I’m thankful for today:

• Tim.  It’s so nice to have someone who just gets me, and when he doesn’t, he’s mostly just amused by me.  I love having a drama-free marriage.
• My mom and sister, who I can’t wait to see next week for the first time since July!
• Having non-crazy in-laws.  They are pretty excellent.  I got lucky.
• Our (almost) house.  I can’t believe we’ll be homeowners in less than a week!
• Healing.  It’s been a rough month, but I feel like I’m in a good place again.  It’s nice to feel hopeful again and not sad.
• Hummus, cheese, Greek yogurt, and clementines.  Enough said.
• My job, and Tim’s new job.  It’s hard to not take these for granted sometimes, but I am so thrilled Tim has a position he loves with people he loves.
• CrossFit, and my excellent trainers who push me.  I’m so glad going to the gym is something I look forward to now, and not something I dread.
• My best friend who introduced me to CrossFit, and responds patiently to my crazy e-mails.  I’m so excited for her baby girl coming in February.
• The possibility of having a baby next Thanksgiving.  I hope, I hope, I hope.
• The Sing-Off.  Shut up.  I love it.
• Milhouse, Buckley, and Southie, who amuse me more than they probably should, and who cuddled me through the awful miscarriage last month.
• Tivo.
• YOU.  Having positive, supportive readers who come back day after day to give me the “attagirl” I sometimes need.  And who help do amazing things like the Blogs for Dogs registry for Joplin and The Great Fundraising Act.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks.  Enjoy the turkey.

So, fun morning.

Woke up at 4 am to the sounds of a yelping, whimpering beagle. 

Our poor guy was clearly in pain, so Tim whisked him to the vet as soon as they opened.

Diagnosis: slipped disc-type injury.  He should be fine, but is on muscle relaxers and two different kinds of pain killers.  He seems to be feeling better already.

The funny part is that whenever we pick up Milhouse from the vet, the staff completely fawns over him.  They LOVE him.  He is such a little charmer, and will just stare at them with his big beagle eyes and make them all fall in love.  He had three women scratching his ears and cooing over him.  Mad skills, right there.

I mean, come on.

Anyway, despite the extra early morning, I made it to CrossFit.  I’m super glad tomorrow is a rest day (no Thursday morning classes) because I am sore this week!  My calves, glutes, and hamstrings are especially tight from those 500 lunges on Monday.

Today’s WOD was “Helen”.  3 rounds for time of:

• 400m run
• 21 kettlebell swings (as Rxed, @ 35 lbs)
• 12 pull ups (with the green band and a little helping hop…getting closer to being 100% hop-less, though)

I finished in 9:40:

I really like kettlebell swings.  I think it’s mostly because I really enjoy thrusting my hips forward emphatically.

Like Duff Man.

I also got my nifty CrossFit Northland shirt for becoming a charter member.

It has a fun logo on the side, too.

I got bacon grease on it making dinner, though.

(Breakfast for dinner: 2 eggs with a sprinkle of goat cheese, 2 slices of bacon, 3 pancakes with a tidge of maple syrup.  Heavenly.)

I actually ended up leaving work a little early—I’m not sure if I’m dealing with a cold, or allergies, but I’ve been all stuffed up and coughing a bit.  Hopefully I’m feeling better in the morning.  Gross!

Favorite Simpsons quote/character/episode.  Go.

It’s been a few days since I’ve foodcasted, so to speak, so here goes!

We woke up reasonably early and had breakfast before church.  I’ve been into smoothies lately, so I made one with frozen strawberries, blueberries, peaches, yogurt, and milk, with a Babybel on the side!

After church, I made lunch!

(one egg + one slice bacon + goat cheese on a multi-grain English muff, sliced apple with almond butter + Nutella for dipping)

It’s been chilly and dreary and rainy here today, so we spent most of the afternoon relaxing around the house.  I did several loads of laundry.  Milhouse snoozed.  A lot.

I did manage to make it to Sephora to purchase an eyeliner brush and brush cleaner, and got a 500 point gift filled with skincare samples to try.

And I snacked on some cherries and a square of this Ghirardelli chocolate, which I received from Foodbuzz as part of their Tastemaker program.

This Sea Salt Soiree stuff is off the hook.  Between the two of us, um, this bag is almost gone after just a few days!  I love sweet and savory together and this stuff is delish.

For dinner, I decided to embrace the soup weather:

I found this crockpot creamy chicken with wild rice soup recipe on Pinterest and knew it would be perfect.  I made some homemade whole wheat bread to have on the side, along with a spinach salad.  It hit the spot on such a chilly fall day!

Are you watching the Emmys?  Who are you rooting for?

First things first:  the winner of my Click Protein Powder giveaway is…

…Tracy, who said:

Tracy, email me your address at thefitbride at gmail and I’ll get it out to you!

Anyway.  Weekend time!  It’s been terribly boring, actually, but we’re trying to be budget-conscious so…options are limited.  There’s been a lot of Netflix and Hulu streaming—we finished Friday Night Lights, watched a bit of Veronica Mars, and have been re-watching Mad Men.

You’re getting the food highlight reel today since the majority of our meals were uninteresting—homemade pizza, burgers on the grill, eggs.  Snooze.

For breakfast today before church I had Kashi GoLean cereal, to which I added some freeze dried strawberries.

I always really liked the Special K kind that had berries, but it’s pretty low in protein and high in weird ingredients, so this is a good substitute. 

And I can’t get enough carrots & hummus and cherries.  (No hummus on the cherries.  Duh.)

To make this weekend even less thrilling, our air conditioner went out and our cable was finally shut off.

Milhouse is not amused.

I’m going on staycation Wednesday through Friday, but I have to work tomorrow and Tuesday, so it’ll be a short week.

What are your favorite ways to entertain yourself on a budget?

This weekend came out of nowhere!

Yesterday I worked a whole lot.  I was at work before the sun came up and clocked out after the sun went down.  But, it was a blast—being busy makes the time fly.  As I’ve said before, I work in admissions, which is why I travel so much and why I’m all pumped about the school year.  It’s the time of year where I get to finally meet all the students I’ve been shepherding our way, and it’s very rewarding to see my work pay off after eleven months in the making. 

There was a lot of this over the last two days…

…along with a fair amount of unhealthy eats.  Five of my last six meals were provided by work, and they included hot dogs, hamburgers, donuts, and more donuts.

It wasn’t great, but I ate reasonable portions and snacked on fresh fruit instead of cookies.  Small victories.

Now, I’m finally home, I’m wiped, and I’m enjoying an ooey gooey single serve brownie after grocery shopping (we were barren).

We also got a little bit of good news today, which reduces my stress level by a good bit for the next month or so.   (Again: apologies for being vague. One of these days I will probably explain the last several months, but not yet.)

And finally?  Beagle ears.  They are my favorite part of Milhouse.  And he is very relaxed about playing with them.

I’m looking forward to catching my breath this weekend.

Is your job rewarding?  What is your favorite part of your job?

…since I posted a gross foot picture.  More on that later.

Today was a pretty busy day at work.  I had some cereal for breakfast.  Then, around 11, I found out I was being called into a noon meeting (which should be outlawed, BTW), so I split my lunch in half and had a peach beforehand.

These peaches aren’t great, but for $.99/pound, I suppose you can’t expect greatness.

After my meeting, I had the rest of my lunch.

Leftover pulled pork, tiny cheese, kiddie Greek yogurt.

After I wolfed that down, I had to run to the Barkery for more raw for Milhouse and Southie.  (Buckley is our lone dissenter from the raw lifestyle.  Not shocking.)  If you’re in KC, I can’t recommend them enough—their staff is always friendly and they are so knowledgeable!

Anyway, an aside about raw feeding: it’s kind of a pain in the butt to package it all up and remember to thaw it, but there are some cool benefits I very much like.  Southie’s mysterious lifelong dandruff has disappeared, and Milhouse poops less than a squirrel.  So, we’re fans. 

Snacktime:

This banana was perfectly overripe.  There is nothing worse than an underripe banana, no?

After work, I had a most excellent four mile run on the treadmill.   I watched the beginning of the last season of Biggest Loser on Hulu Plus, since I can’t bring myself to sit through two hours of it under normal circumstances.  But it’s great motivation while actually working out.

So here is the aforementioned gross foot picture.

I don’t know WTF it is about my feet, but that same area gets ridiculously blistered and callused over and over and over again.  It falls off, and grows back.  And now it’s got a giant blood blister on it.

(Sidenote: Remember Blistersquatch?  Were any of you around in the Blistersquatch days?  I’m glad I finally discovered the joy of wide width running shoes.  This is nowhere near as bad, but still irritating.  Literally.)

For dinner, we tried a new recipe for Saucy Garlic Chicken.

I healthified it a bit by using half the butter, whole wheat pasta, 1% milk, less cheese, and double the spinach!  (It’s under there, I promise.)

It was pretty tasty, but fairly labor-intensive for a weeknight.  I think this is a make-on-Sunday, leftovers-on-Monday kind of meal!  Luckily we have leftovers for lunch tomorrow. 

Anyway, tomorrow I’m going to do our regular grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s instead of Target!  Exciting.  I’ve never gotten to take advantage of their frozen or refrigerated foods section since I’ve been transporting it long-distance or going on my lunch hour at work. 

Any cold TJ’s suggestions?  What is wrong with my feet/shoes?

First of all—I loved all the comments on my Pill-free year in review post!  It’s kind of a weird subject to put out there, but I thought it was important to provide a charting-to-avoid perspective, since most charting info out there is geared towards those trying to have babies. 

Anyway.  Tim and I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday down in the Ozarks with his parents.  I took zero pictures, but it was lovely to spend some time relaxing in the country together.  There was no exercise and there was homemade ice cream. 

Except for this part.

The part where Milhouse threw up copiously all over Tim’s car, five times, on the drive down. 

He’s never been a great traveler, and has puked before, but Friday’s journey was epic.  It just kept coming, and coming, and coming.  It ruined a blanket and one of Tim’s winter scarves. 

Thankfully, we gave him some Dramamine for the drive home and he was puke-free.  But still, it was not pleasant.

But anyway.  Tim woke me up this morning by physically bringing a plate of chocolate chip pancakes into the bedroom to wake me up.  It totally worked.

I then went grocery shopping for the week, and had some breakfast (eggs, toast, yogurt, fruit) for lunch.

It was all in all a lovely day.  We lazed around and watched TV and had a nice little BBQ for two for dinner.

I also attempted a bread project I’ve been wanting to try for a long time—double-braided challah!

Before…

…and after.

I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks absolutely amazing. 

Related: I don’t know what I did before I had silicone baking mats.  I do not miss scraping baked goods off the cookie sheet one bit.

After a weekend of indulgence, I’m looking forward to hitting the gym (or maybe pool) hard this week.  I fly out to Atlanta on Thursday for three days, and it looks like the hotel has a decent gym that I plan to take advantage of.  I’m hoping to keep up my speedy running streak and do at least one good swim.

Did you travel this weekend?  Did you go anywhere fun?

You know, some days just start out good and keep delivering all day long.

Today was one of them.

I’m not going to lie.  It started out this morning with an extremely satisfying zit pop.

Then, I opened my office door to find this delightful little gift on my desk.

Our administrative assistant and I had a deep discussion about the merits of various snack foods on Friday, and I complained heartily that I cannot find small bags of Cool Ranch Doritos in Kansas City.  I refuse to buy a full size bag, because it will be gone in no time flat, which is why I occasionally like the small bags to scratch the itch, so to speak.

Anyway.  She found them.  And brought me one.  God bless that woman.

Today was kind of a munchy day.  I never really sat down and ate lunch, but I just ate bits and pieces of it (and my afternoon snack) all day long.

That small bag of Doritos?  I had the awesome self-control to only eat half of the small bag.  The other half is safely paper-clipped shut in my desk drawer.  Ten points for me.

After work, I was super excited to get back to the gym after a rest week.  I pounded out four miles in the steamy hot gym in 37:40.

More importantly, I discovered what I think *might* be the holy grail.

Running shorts. 

That are cute.

And don’t ride up between my thighs, which will never NOT touch.  Ever.

And right now I am resisting the urge to buy ten more pairs.   (Excuse the food baby.  This was taken post-dinner.)

Specifically, they are the lululemon Run: The Fastest shorts and I want to hug them and squeeze them and pin them to my wall with a big heart around them.

Since I’ve been running, I’ve tried all kinds of shorts.  The only shorts I’ve ever been able to run more than 3 miles in are these lucy Propel Run Shorts, which, while highly functional, are decidedly un-cute, and just kind of point to your legs and say “OH HEY THIS GIRL HAS THUNDER THIGHS.”

The cute shorts ride up.  Always.  Except these didn’t, at all, over the course of four miles, which is a big. freaking. deal.

So.  Ahem.  I’m thrilled about that.

And dinner was another win!

I pinned this recipe on Pinterest last week and could not stop thinking about it.  Hence, Monday night dinner.  And it was so good that we both went back for seconds.  It’s a great weeknight recipe—cheap, easy, usually have the ingredients on hand, and healthy!  We added a little grilled chicken, but it’s also normally vegetarian, if that’s your thing.  Definitely worth a try.

All good days end with cat pictures.

And ice cream.  Which is where I’m going right now.

What was the best part of your day today?