I’m a Warrior Machinist

So, what the heck is a Warrior Machinist? I have no idea, it’s something silly that I made up to sound cool and interesting. LOL. You all know I have been slacking in the fitness department; a walk at lunch here, a dance party on my Xbox Kinectthere.  My family really started to get on my case. My parents are uber concerned about my health, and my little sister started going to the gym without me. I told her that the next time she went, I was determined to go with her. I tried to be as prepared as possible. I had my hair tie, my iPod, Nike+ , my Yurbuds, my Waist Trimmer Belt and my sports bra. She picked me up when she got off her after school job and we went to the gym. I started on the elliptical machine. We pedaled for 30 minutes while watching The Big Bang Theory on TV. It’s my best friend’s favorite show. I always thought it was too weird to have a show about socially awkward nerds, but that show was hilarious. I laughed out loud several times and didn’t care who heard me. After the elliptical I moved on to the treadmill. I searched for my name under Artist on my iPod and played Week 1 of the Couch to 5K. I’ve heard it so many times that I said every word right along with my recorded voice. For that first 60 second interval run, I really pushed it at a level 5. Then my chest hurt, my head hurt, my back hurt. I decided to take it down a notch especially since I had just finished 30 minutes the elliptical. You have to push yourself, but you also have to listen to your body. In hindsight, I should have run first. But, I still completed each interval with a wog (walking and jogging) instead of a run. Then I heard BBD’s Poison and I knew I was almost at the end of the training session.  Finally, I completed the last interval “run” of Week 1. I was ready to go home, but my sister had this crazy 900 calories burn goal. So, she moved on to the step machine. I just watched her for a few minutes, I was exhausted. Then I felt silly just watching, so eventually, I got on the new Recumbent Bike. The seat was super soft and comfortable. I pedaled with my arms and legs for 19 more minutes. I forgot to turn on my Nike+ to track my distance on the treadmill, I was upset because I wanted to show you guys a pretty picture with my charted distance. But, instead you get a sweaty exhausted no makeup pic of me on the bike. I hobbled out to the car, in my tank top soaked with sweat feeling like a Warrior Machinist for conquering 3  different machines at the gym. I reminded myself that I often regret not working out, but I’ve never ever regretted a workout once I was finished.

Sisters In Sweat

Yesterday was my Dad’s 60th birthday party. My mom threw a get-together at the house, because he didn’t want a “party.” So, this get-together included bar-b-que, green beans, corn on the cob, spaghetti, potato salad, pasta salad, appetizers, peach cobbler, birthday cake and ice cream along with about 50 of our closest friends and family. My family does not understand the definition of an small get together. But, we had a blast! My Daddy was so happy. My sister made a beautiful DVD with photos of my Dad from infancy, to meeting my mom in college, to us growing up in Kansas City, all the way to Christmas with my niece.

 There was so much food everywhere. I ate just one plate and loaded it with the corn and green beans. However, I did go overboard with the desert. I had cobbler and ice cream and cake AND ice cream. I didn’t beat myself up about it though. I am adjusting to the mindset that there is no “on plan/ off plan.”  I just enjoyed my family and the food.  However, I knew that today I had to make up for yesterday’s desert debacle. I packed my to-go plate with chicken and veggies only and at that for lunch today. No cake, no cobbler. This afternoon I watched “Water For Elephants,” a cute movie about a 1930s veterinarian that runs away with the circus and falls in love. Later on my little sister invited herself to my house. She wanted to play the X-box Kinect, but I really needed to walk  in preparation for my half marathon in a couple months. So, we put in Leslie Sansone’s walk at home DVD. I told her that we would walk for two miles, but really I knew I wanted to walk three miles. (She is sitting next to me now as I dictate this blog post, looking at me in shock and horror, that I once again tricked her into a lengthy routine.) LOL! Anyway, she was surprised that Leslie talks through the whole routine, I told her that’s just what Chatty Cathy does. We had fun and even broke a sweat. Leslie said we were her “Sisters in Sweat.”

I was glad that my sister came over and helped me stay on track. After the workout I was hungry and cooked dinner. Still making up for yesterday, I opted to prepare a meal with just a few carbs. I made baked tilapia seasoned with roasted red pepper and garlic with a side of mixed veggies and cheese. The fish was delicious, very similar to the Parmesan encrusted tilapia recipe that I posted a while back. I’m anxious to see what the scale will say at the weight watcher meeting tomorrow. But, honestly with my new approach towards being healthy, I won’t let it impact my behavior. I’m using the scale for information, not judgment. My pants feel looser and my attitude is brighter. So regardless of what the scales says, I tracked every day for a week (except last night), got in some activity, remained positive, and got right back on plan after a relaxed night of fun. In my book, that’s success.

Red October

I had such a fun-filled weekend.  Friday night was game 7 of the World Series in Major League Baseball.  St. Louis was on fire!  I was sitting at home alone watching the game before called my Big Little Sister and suggested that we go somewhere and watch it together.  We went downtown to the Casino and watched the game on the giant projector screen.  It was so much fun!  After the Cardinals won, there were tons of hugs and high fives from whatever stranger was closest to you.  It was crazy wild energy.  We waited around for about an hour, thinking that traffic had died down.  We were wrong!  Traffic was still bumper to bumper and Cards fans were everywhere.  They were drinking, celebrating and dancing in the street.   My sister is a bit more adventurous than me and she drove right towards the stadium into the madness.  We held our arms out the windows into the cool October night air and slapped high-fives to everyone that walked through the traffic.  We had a blast. 
The next morning, my Mom and I went to the Farmers market.  She got 8 crates of strawberries for $5.  Sometimes you pay almost $4 just for one at the grocery store.  I bought some new spices like Lime Chipotle and re-stocked my favorite one “Soulard Grill” which tastes good in everything.  My Special Friend was “Busy” and didn’t want to “commit then cancel”  hmmmm…So, that  evening I went to the movies with two of my good friends from high school.  We saw Paranormal Activity 3.  I love scary movies, and it definitely had some cringe worthy parts.  But it wasn’t as good as the 1^st one.  I came home and fell asleep watching “Bad Teacher” with Cameron Diaz.  I’m such a movie fanatic.  I thought about writing a blog for movie reviews, since I usually watch at least 5 movies each week, but when would I find time to do that? 
Sunday, I finally made time for the gym.  Barely.  My little Sister and I chatted it up for a half an hour on the elliptical machine, before heading to Wal-Mart.  Silly me I decided to wait until the day before Halloween to get a costume. There was nothing left at Wal-Mart, so we headed to Target.  The only thing left was a horrible bloody arm and a Monopoly board game costume.  Then I saw it!  One glittery white glove, sent down from the costume gods.  It wasn’t even in the original packaging.  I took it to the register and gave the checkout boy a “don’t mess with me look” as I handed him a pack of lace costume gloves to scan in exchange for my unwrapped MJ glove.  He obliged, even though my sister said I was holding up the line.  I ransacked my closet at home and pulled off a pretty Smooth Criminal  look if you ask me.  My “Brother from another Mother” joined me at my friend’s Halloween party about 2 hours later.  We had a good time.  I could have eaten a little better, drank a little less and worked out a little more, but I still had quite a fun weekend.

Take 2

On Thursday, I was supposed to walk 25 minutes. However, I did not sleep well Wednesday night.   So, by the time I got home from work on Thursday evening I was exhausted. I realized that meant I would have to come home and walk on Friday night, but I was just that tired and willing to do that. Friday after work, Nyah and I went for a quick walk in Forest Park. I came across the most interesting little creek. There were these strange plant-like things growing out of the water.   There were so many of them, it looked like they went on for miles.   I snapped a quick picture with my cell phone, because I hadn’t really seen anything like it before.  I was chatting on my cell, getting updates on my niece, while talking to my Big Little sister, and I was finished with 30 minutes before I realized it.

Today, the schedule called for 3 miles. I have not walked 3 miles in a while. My little sister came over after church, and we set out on a mission to find the tree within the tree… (Again) Apparently, she said that Tuesday was not the first time that we were supposed to look for the tree within the tree. I reminded her again that it was not that exciting, but I decided to participate anyway. We walked about a mile before we got to the sign pointing towards the tree within the tree.

This time however when we got to the fork in the road we went right instead of left. “Do you think we will find it she asked?” I told her we probably would, but that I honestly could not remember where it was. Soon after, we arrived at the mysterious magical amazing tree within a tree. Can you sense my sarcasm?
She looked at the small bare tree within the large hollow decaying tree and stared. “I don’t get it!” she exclaimed sounding confused. I just laughed; I told her it was nothing but a dead tree. However, the tree did look like that it had been struck by lightning at some point.  Now, it’s glory days are over. We walked closer and saw that there was an unknown white powder sprinkled round the base of the hollow tree, as well as pieces of cloth and a small frog-like a statue. I suppose the old Osage Indian tree means something to someone. Then, after further inspection she said in a voice almost as if she had been bamboozled, “it looks man-made.” I read the plaque that was closer to the path in front of the tree, and it said that the smaller tree was planted in the hollow tree around 2004. We got a good laugh, as we both had assumed that the smaller tree had naturally grown within the hollow tree. “Oh well” she said, ”at least we found it.”

Since today was a 3 mile day, I let her lead the way, and we continued along the gravel path instead of heading back towards the car. We continued to walk through the woods. She said “this is pretty cool”, to which I replied it reminds me of the crime scene. And she too had to admit that when she heard stories of girls being chopped up in the woods, her first reaction is “what were you doing out there anyway?” So, in good fun, she pulled out her iPod Touch and begin filming a video, just like they do in the scary movies. She said maybe the rescuers would find her iPod to explain what we were doing walking alone in the woods. LOL! We were both laughing so hard at our foolishness, knowing that were weren’t in any real danger. I told her she forgot to tell Mom and Dad Thanks, and that we love them. Luckily, the gravel path turned back into pavement and we were soon near the picnic grounds with family reunions, church picnic’s and birthday parties. We survived the treasure hunt in the woods part 2 without being eaten by some animal or running into any crazies hiding amongst the trees. We must not have been in there as long as I thought, because we still had more than a mile to go. My lower back was hurting a little bit but I was glad that physically I wasn’t out of breath or tired. We walked around the back side of the zoo, and peeked through the fence to get a glimpse of the zebras.

We could have walked through the zoo, but I’m pretty sure that my dog Nyah would not have been allowed. After climbing the giant Hill and heading around the east side of the zoo, we made it back to the car safe and sound. We city girls, found the tree, survived the man made forest, and walked just over 3 miles, mission accomplished!

Going on a Treasure Hunt

My little sister joined me on my walk in the park today.  She came out of the house wearing her family reunion t-shirt that we got down in Mississippi.  Coincidently, I had on mine too.  We both laughed at the thought of how silly we would look walking through the park in matching t-shirts looking like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. …Oddly enough, Me and my Big Little Sister frequently have on the same style clothes and the same colors, almost every time we see each other and it’s never planned.  Sometimes we try to outsmart the other, and we change clothes so we won’t be dressed alike and still end up looking like we planned to coordinate.  When I talked to her on the phone before my friend’s b-day party the other weekend, she said, I know we won’t be dressed alike.  But, when she walked out of the house, we both had ruffle shirts, cute ripped jeans and black studded flip-flops.  Isn’t that strange?! …  But, this was a first for the Me and my Little Sis.  Anyway, once we got to Forest Park, she said she wanted to see the Historic Tree within a Tree site.  I told her it wasn’t that interesting the first time I ran across it.  But, she still wanted to see it.  I reminded her that I saw the tree during my Half Marathon training, and that I had no idea how deep in the woods the little tree really was.  I couldn’t even remember exactly where it was, and wasn’t planning on a six mile Treasure hunt on a Tuesday evening to find a dead tree.  We walked toward the mini forest that was totally green and full of life, it was the complete opposite of the barren trees during my winter training. 

When we got to a fork in the unpaved road nearly hidden with plant life, I went left, back towards the car.  It was hot, and I had stuff to do at home.  After a few minutes we realized the tree must be the other way. She turned around.  I did not go back, and I told her to meet me at the car.  I knew she wouldn’t stay in the scary forest by herself, especially since it would be getting dark sooner rather than later.  A few minutes later, she wasn’t too far behind me with a pouty face because we didn’t find the hidden treasure.  However,  I on the other hand was satisfied.  When I got back to the car, I had walked for 45 minutes, 20 minutes past my goal. Yay! I’ve earned another Pink X.