Recuperation

I woke up this morning to find my cold fully and solidly in my chest. Thanks a lot for nothing, you lousy cough! And of course, I'm still 100% wiped out by being sick. Due to all of this, the gym is off limits, not only because I'd like to try and clear my chest out a bit for attempting any exercise, but also because there is a strict clause in the rules at my gym to stay away when you're sick. Which makes sense, because who enjoys watching someone sneeze and cough all over the equipment?

However, I enjoyed some time out in the snow with E and the pups on Sunday, and while the bracingly cold air felt fantastic, I also think it helped my chest cold wiggle even deeper into my lungs. My diet mainly consists of cough drops at this point - and I don't recommend it in the slightest.

The other main part of my diet is made up of all the holiday goodies pouring into the office at the moment. Ahem. I'm not too proud of that fact...

So while I would love to start posting workouts and meals and anything else that even remotely relates to the title of this blog, I am instead going to share some links I found that should help me through getting sick.

First off, I'd like to be soaking in this bath. Or maybe sitting in this.

55 ways to take care of yourself...always a good idea!

A bowl of this soup would undoubtedly make me feel better.

Sometimes you just need a drink to warm you up from the inside.

Speaking of which, my two favorite teas.

Stay healthy!
xoxo
amanda

Switching It Up

The semester has finally come to a close. Final exams are being looked over, final grades are being pieced together. Just as with every preceding semester, I'm relieved that it's all done. Not because I hated my classes (I generally love them) or because I even wanted a break (If I didn't work, I could probably go straight through a whole year without a break from school).

Instead, I'm looking forward to the new semester looming on the horizon, like a shiny and just-minted penny. I don't think there is anything more satisfying in this life than wiping the slate and starting over. For school, it means I get clean notebooks, new subject matter, and fresh professors. I get to customize my learning and studying habits to these new classes and teachers, gauge how much effort it will take, and then re-start my journey to earning a good grade. Even though each individual semester builds on those that have come previous, working together towards the main goal of a degree, your learning process actually begins anew eight times in a typical four-year college trajectory.

As a child, I abhorred change. My father worked for the park service and we seemed to be moving constantly from park to park. I envied my classmates who had lived in the same town and had the same friends all their life. I wanted the stability and happiness that I believed a constant childhood home gave them. But since venturing out on my own, my father's restless spirit has taken up residence in me. I hate to feel "stuck." I want to leave town on my days off, I daydream about month-long vacations to Mexico and Europe, and I have a list of places I'd love to move to for graduate school. 

Why then, with all the excitement I find in starting fresh and all the love I have for new adventures, do I continue to get stuck in a rut when it comes to diet and exercise? 

Sometimes, I think all my life problems can be traced back to my swimming career. Even when I was a swimmer who swam upwards of fifteen to twenty miles per week, could go for fifty yards underwater without taking a breath, and qualified for the state championships every single season, my cardio capacity was poor. I couldn't run to save my life. And swimming was my life - it was literally all I did. At some point, two truths got imprinted in my head.

1. I wasn't good at anything but swimming. So why should I try getting my exercise any other way? And once my swimming career was over, why try to find anything to replace it?

2. Swimming is boring (because really, swimming is the most introverted, boring exercise there is. All you hear is your bubbles). Swimming was exercise. Therefore, exercise was boring.

Fast forward to now, eight years after I stopped swimming on a team. My body still reacts best to being in the water, almost as if my muscles are coded to a blueprint from my swimming days. But I hate dislike it. Ultimately, swimming was the one thing I was truly good at, and yet I wasn't good enough. 

In the end, this is why I have never been a very active person...because I can't really do anything else.Well, except for the elliptical, and in that case I'd rather just be fat if that's my only form of cardio. 

This week, then, will be devoted to mixing things up and surprising myself (should I actually recover from the nasty head/chest cold combo that has been dealt to me). I'll be integrating a few things into my fitness plan that I've previously never done!

• A "song workout" for abs
• Medicine ball ideas
• A three-week plan to completing a pull up!
• Unfortunately, I just finished Season Two on Netflix, or I'd be all for this The Walking Dead workout!

Also, this week I'll be shifting my focus towards homemade food instead of strictly healthy food. Eventually, more homemade meals will lead up to eating healthier overall, and without school for three weeks I have the time to cook! On the menu for tonight: this delicious beef with horseradish mashed potatoes. Yum!

xoxo

amanda

So Far...

So far, this week has certainly NOT been the week of fitness that I hoped it would be! On top of studying for finals, I came down with a chest cold that has worked itself back up into my head. I seem to be living on a diet of DayQuil, Robitussin, and whiskey with honey and lemon...healthy, right?

Oh, also add in orange juice and blackberries, which are A) cheap right now, and B) the ultimate cravings when I am sick. I may not be the most in-tuned with my body, but I do find out some interesting things when I listen to it. For instance, citrus juice and berries are all it wants when I'm sick. And if I eat too many crap foods, my body screams for salad greens. Our bodies truly are amazing organisms that function on so many deeper levels than we recognize!

On a positive note, finals are going well, and I only have one test left, which will be a 2-question, intensive essay final for macroeconomics. Then I'll have half of each day free to bake Christmas cookies, relax, and exercise!

xoxo
amanda

It All Starts Here

I first took control of my health and weight almost exactly three years ago. I remember the tipping point well. I was working in the emergency room and had just consumed half of a Meat Lover's Pizza from Pizza Hut after a particularly stressful shift. I drove the hour home and had problems just climbing the stairs from the basement to the first floor of my house. My legs hurt and my breath came in painful, ragged breaths...all after fourteen or so stairs! That night in the shower, I inspected the body that I didn't even know anymore, because I had stopped looking at anything but my face in the mirror months earlier.

So I decided to take the reins. I started an account on Sparkpeople.com, which was highly motivating for me, and instantly started tracking my diet and exercise. When the weather began to warm up, I added hiking to my established routine of calorie counting and Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred, and the weight continued to drop. I relished my new defined muscles and strong body and smaller waist - but I was also ashamed of the weight I still was. I looked in the mirror and still labeled myself "fat." Now I look at pictures of myself from that time and regret the negative self-talk I was still engaged in. I could have defined abs and be at my goal weight by now if only I'd recognized that my hard work was paying off! But after months of hard work, I wasn't where I wanted to be, and a lot of this, sadly, had to do with the social outlet of Sparkpeople.

This is by no means a bad review of Spark. It helped me start on my journey and has been a wonderful tool and form of encouragement for so many people, and the site has generated loads of success stories. In the end, though, it was those successes that killed my own motivation. I looked at the members who had achieved whittled waists and toned bodies in just a few months, and garnered tons of on-site support and recognition, while thousands of us that were making slower gains and facing more struggles were almost forced to bask in their glory. Maybe I was almost too dependent on outside support, and maybe I was wrong to need the recognition of others, but in the end I was just tired of witnessing those things go instead to the people who could have, ultimately, achieved the same results on their own.

So this time there will be no Sparkpeople interaction other than using the tracking tools to better gauge my progress. Instead, there will be this blog. And whether or not people step out to support me, I will have a better understanding of what I need from myself to make this possible.

Plan for Monday, December 10th:

• Breakfast: coffee. I normally actually eat something, but today has been rather low on the activity scale so far.
• Lunch: leftover Pork and Hominy Stew with cornbread.
• At work: no treats, drink 2 Nalgenes, stay strong!
• Dinner: Maybe a big salad?? Still undecided.
• Workout tonight: at least P90X abs, maybe a gym run as well depending on how I feel.
• Also: studying - two finals tomorrow but no work!

xoxo
amanda

Where I'm Going

It's taken me a few blogs to try and get to this point of laying out my plan for a better and healthier me. I realized last night that I'm really just trying to find my "writing voice," something I last possessed in high school, when I wrote numerous short and creative pieces per week. I've also learned, in retrospect, that I did my best, most detailed work when I was sad, and it shows in the short stories I completed. Teenage angst made for stellar writing, it seems.

My journey starts for real this week as I undergo finals, inarguably the most stressful week of the semester, before settling into three weeks of winter break. I have three areas of concentration: Food, Fitness, and Mental Health. 

FOOD

• Whole foods and no processed crap!
• At least 2 Nalgenes (64 oz) of water per day
• Increase veggie/decrease met consumption
• Cook at home for 18 of 21 meals per week
• Cook and plan ahead wherever possible - batch cooking, overnight oats, etc.
• Keep alcohol consumption at 1-2 drinks per week
• Practice restraint with the upcoming Christmas cookie baking spree!

EXERCISE

• Hikes outside as weather allows (OR snowshoeing if it ever snows!)
• Weight/strength training - work on large focus areas 
• Make it to the gym 6/7 days per week
• P90X Ab Ripper X 3x per week
• Shoot for losing 5 pounds over break - take measurements and pictures every Monday

MENTAL HEALTH

• Read each night before bed (I already have a book - The Distant Hours by Kate Morton!)
• Purchase one magazine of choice per week to get new ideas about fitness or healthy recipes
• Soak in a hot springs at least once during winter break
• Go sledding/have a snowball fight/act like a kid again
• Find opportunities to help or give to others whenever possible
• Buy myself some new bath products and nail polish and have a home "spa day"

Today wasn't especially fabulous - the boy and I are both sick and trying to stay afloat by self-medicating with DayQuil tablets and LOTS of orange juice as we study our little butts off. I'm going to cook us up some delicious Ancho Pork and Hominy Stew (and maybe this cornbread!) so we can power through this very windy and cold night while hitting the books. Tomorrow the real journey begins...can't wait to chronicle it right here!

xoxo

amanda

Where I Come From, Part II

I met the love of my life while I was working in an ER in Denver. I wasn't really looking for a relationship, and neither was he, but he liked my sassy, sarcastic attitude and I liked his sense of humor. He and I bantered for a few weeks before he finally asked me out to breakfast after an especially long night shift. I said yes, of course, and we talked for hours over coffee at a restaurant that doesn't even exist anymore.

Five years later, we've had our fair share of ups and downs. I've had times where I couldn't love him more, and times where I honestly, flat-out believed I wanted to leave him. I'm sure he's felt the same. But in the end, the beauty of our relationship has been that we love each other more than anything else. Well, except for good beer and delicious food...

A typical vacation of any length for us involves immersing ourselves in the local food culture. My main checklist involves ferreting out local coffee, ice cream or gelato, and beer. Yelp is our #1 travel app as we navigate cities looking for the best grub and local breweries. This summer it helped us essentially eat our weight in Kansas City barbecue. In D.C., we indulged in 10-oz burgers topped with Havarti and bone marrow, sampled soft-shell crab sandwiches, and filled up on infamous chili dogs. And in San Diego, Yelp brought us a jewel of a restaurant, a breakfast joint straight out of the 1950s that served the best bacon waffles this side of the Mississippi. Because, like I said before...food is a beautiful human experience.

The trick, then, is to be able to balance our love of food and drink with our wish for health. Both of us aspire to be healthy, and we're ultimately in this together, but neither one of us want to get there by eating plain turkey patties, raw vegetables, and unseasoned quinoa. And I guess if that's what it takes to get me six-pack abs, then maybe I never needed them in the first place.

But I've seen from the experiences of others that you CAN have a healthy relationship with delicious food and still get the body you aspire to. I won't be entering any figure competitions, but that's never been on my list. 

The key to all of this is to evaluate our food history together and all the hurdles we have in regards to food in our current life: 

At the very core of the issue is that we like tasty food, pure and simple. If it tastes good, we will more than likely polish it off in its entirety. 

Secondly, food seems to be a primary memory-maker for us. As I said in my earlier blog, it obviously runs in the family. On a trip or even an indulgent day at home, we'll not only eat out for the three main meals, but also snag treats between meals at coffee, chocolate, and ice cream shops. 

Lastly, right now we live in a house with multiple roommates, and there are numerous days where we'd rather just go out to eat. This is fueled by the fact that I get off work at 7pm, making it a late dinner time most nights, and who honestly wants to cook a meal that late in the day?

Ultimately, we need a healthy cornerstone to base our relationship around, as well as a plan to keep our eating habits healthy far into the future. Part III of this blog series will help formulate this plan :)

xoxo

amanda

Where I Come from, Part I

**This doesn't really have anything to do with College OR Cardio, but it's a look back at one of the major shaping factors of my life. Maybe I need to understand how I've become who I am before I can truly figure out how to proceed with my fitness goals. My next entry will focus more on my relationship and the numerous challenges it presents.**

Whew! Last day of regular semester classes before finals is DONE!

I like school. I really do. I enjoy learning new things and sharing my knowledge where I can, and I absolutely have adored every single experience and (most) professors that I have taken classes from. Maybe this is because I am finally getting as close to the "real college experience" as I can. Let me explain...

My grades started slipping in high school, and I was very unmotivated about going to college. My mom and dad forced a life plan out of me, which basically amounted to me following in my father's footsteps, and I grudgingly agreed. Their conditions for paying for college were that they wouldn't pay for a traditional college experience until I began to show some effort and got as close to straight As as physically possible. My first semester at the local community college, I took my EMT class and that was that. Emergency medicine had exerted its hold on me. Soon enough, I had a job working in the field and decided to put my classes on hold while I figured out my life. And for 5 years, my EMT certification was enough.

While I have decided to move on from medicine, I by no means regret the role that it played in my life, or even the fact that I put off school to pursue it. Yeah, it has been beyond frustrating some days to watch my former high school classmates celebrate their college experiences, graduate, start and finish grad school, and start planning the next steps in their life, like marriage and babies. I want a lot of those things too! But then I think about all the experiences and opportunities I received through my chosen path that those classmates will NEVER experience.

I witnessed both birth and death in the ER by the time I was 20.
I was instrumental in saving lives.
I rode the streets of a city in both ambulances and fire trucks, letting their wailing sirens reverberate to my very core. That sound will always have a place in my heart and always make it quicken...
I watched many times as a helicopter took off, rushing to bring patients back to us, patients who had injuries that are barely believable.
I comforted.
I cried.
I reprimanded the drunks who said dirty things to make any normal woman blush.
I washed blood off of skin and out of hair.
I zipped body bags.
I held babies.
I lived and learned.

My life has been a juxtaposition of both good and bad, but what shines through the darkness the most is that emergency medicine brought me an amazing and intelligent man with a good heart and a kind soul.  If I had made on single different choice on the navigation of my early life, I wouldn't have found him.

xoxo
amanda

SORE

On Sunday, I clocked a half hour on the elliptical and then alternated between 10 assisted pull-ups and 10 air squats for three rounds. I did it around 8 o'clock at night when I was feeling especially jazzed, and it felt delicious to shower at the gym, come home, and sink into bed with a very tired body. 

On Monday, I was so sore that another workout was out of the question.

Today, I can barely stand up straight! Even though I woke up sore, I decided another workout might possibly loosen me up and warm up my dormant and lactic acid-filled muscles. I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical again before doing sumo squats and shoulder presses with a 15-lb bar and some bicep curls with a medium-resistance band. And now I'm having no luck with either Advil or Tylenol in relieving the ache! My arm hurt, my legs hurt, my abs are STILL aching from Ab Ripper X on Sunday. Yikes - I'm a mess!

But even with the hurt, and not being able to walk right, and being uncomfortable all day long, I love it. My muscles are being worked, and they're pissed, but they'll get over it. And once this first level of working out gets mundane, and they start to relax, I'll hit them hard all over again. Pain means progress, especially in the beginning! Still, come Saturday, I'll be begging for a yoga class to open up my tight hips and chest.

Why did I ever let myself get out of shape again?

xoxo 
amanda

Satisfying Snacks

After my earlier blog, I went to the grocery store to scour the aisles for multi-tasking snacks: food that would fill me up without blowing the daily calorie budget, as well as being at least somewhat healthy. To me, healthy doesn't just mean lower calories - it also means trying to steer clear of unnatural ingredients - the less of 'em the better. Here's a breakdown of my snacks:

Super-Healthy

• Whole fruit - apples, pears, oranges, grapes, and berries
• Vegetables - carrots, celery, snap peas - with my favorite Sabra hummus
• GoGo Squeez apple sauce squeeze packs - these things are delish!
• Nuts (sparingly) - my favorites are pecans, cashews, and pistachios
• Horizon squeeze tube yogurt (do you see a theme here?) in strawberry and blueberry
• Wallaby yogurt cups

Healthy-ish

• Simply Sprouted Way Better Snacks - Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips. These chips not only taste awesome and are lower cal than other sweet potato chips, but they also have the added benefits of chia seeds and quinoa
• Orville Redenbacher Smartpop! with butter - single serve bags
• Luna or Clif bars
• Taza Stoneground Chocolate - salted almond
• Craisins

Not Healthy but Still Yummy

• Ben and Jerry's Frozen Greek Yogurt in Peanut Butter Banana

Happy snacking, everyone!

xoxo
amanda

My Food View

Let's talk about food. I love food - always have, always will. And I grew up in a family where the food made the memories when it came to events like vacations. When the question is asked "Hey, do you remember when we went to XYZ?", the response is, more often than not, "Oh yeah, we ate that delicious <insert food or meal here>."

I grew up with the mindset, and still put into practice in my adult life, that calories do not count on vacation. Not a healthy method when you're trying to lose weight, right? Sometimes this idea is somewhat okay, like when my boyfriend and I went to Washington D.C. and ate all kinds of amazing, ridiculous foods, and then returned home lighter than we left thanks to all the walking we did. But there's always the chance that you're consuming WAY more than you're expending, so overall, it's not a healthy practice.

And yet my biggest challenges with eating healthy are often faced on the home front. Whether its PMS, work and school fatigue, or copious holiday goodies at the office, my daily life consists of a minefield of unhealthy foods, especially when you're like me and just don't have enough willpower to ignore the damn stuff. And yet still, I will never be the girl who adopts a rigid "food is fuel" mantra and only looks at my food for the energy it can give me. If anything, food is LIFE. Just look at my dogs, who inhale their kibble without even taking the time to chew it. Having the taste buds that allow us to taste and enjoy all the nuances of food is arguably a strictly human trait. And for thousands of years, we've kept food as a main gathering point to bond with family and friends and meet new people (dinner dates, anyone?). Luckily, we've evolved so that we're no longer wearing animal skins and gathering around the fire pit for animal d'jour on a spit...instead, we gather for a multitude of cuisines and tastes including, my favorite family meal, FONDUE!

But I digress. My goal is to always have snacks on hand that satisfy my two main cravings: sweet and salty/crunchy (because salty things should NEVER be anything other than crunchy). I'll brainstorm throughout the day while I'm doing homework and shopping to replace my roommate's tea kettle that I clumsily broke, and will report back later.

xoxo
amanda

Let Me Introduce Myself...

Hi, I'm Amanda! 

Welcome to College and Cardio, which will be my sounding board as I navigate the tricky waters of fitness and nutrition while working and attending college, both full-time.

I've done this once before - two years ago I motivated myself to lose almost fifty pounds. I was fit and happy, but even more critical of my body. Looking back at pictures from that period, I shudder to think that I honestly thought of myself as still "fat."  

I have numerous reasons for doing this. I want to feel comfortable in my own skin. I want to rock a bikini, whether I'm scuba diving in Mexico or water skiing in Lake Powell. I want to climb mountains. I want to buy smaller clothes. And I want to make my boy proud.

This blog will have three major components. Not only will I post Motivation for myself (and for you if you need it too!), but I'll also post about Food, focusing on portable snacks and healthy meals, and Fitness, which will include daily workouts or workout ideas.

I'm ready to start the journey again. And this time, I'll be even better.

xoxo
amanda