Hi Buddy.

I had a really emotional week. We had to call the police because our neighbors are actually insane and think we're harboring their black Pomeranian in our bathroom. I wish I was kidding. Also, my birthday was last week and I didn't think I ate out of control or anything, PLUS I exercised every day blah blah. I stepped on the scale on my Tuesday-weigh-in and I gained 4 lbs.!?!!!?!!!

I was like SHUT THE FRONT DOOR. No. I. Did. Not.

So then I lived in denial for approximately three hours before I came to terms with the fact that it had to be water weight. It had to. I went through what I'd been eating recently in my mind and I thought, maybe they were a little more sodium dense than I thought...!

But then I was all, NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER SURRENDER.

So on Thursday I got back on the scale and those 4 lbs. were gone and I was like ...what bitch. What's up. What's good. What are you gonna do. That's right. Nothing.

So, the point is, you just have to try and remember that the scale sits on a throne of lies. You have to know your body. Yes, I really did gain 4 lbs. Yes, most (if not all) of it was water weight from eating too much sodium. Just try to remember that not all is lost. Please try. Because if similar things happened to me like that every week, I would have given up 5 months ago.

Oh the hopelessness.

So this website changed its format and it's really confusing and I don't like change and it should know that there was nothing wrong with the original format, albeit it did look a little dated. But I digress.

Hi.

I've found myself in the past week in an un-tantalizing, incredibly aggravating rut. Not a plateau, just a rut. Not a big enough rut to deter me from working out everyday, but a rut that is just big enough to encapsulate my boredom with my current workouts. I mean, come on, I've been doing the same workouts since December, basically. This was bound to happen.

Going hand in hand with the boredom is the lack of motivation. I have no idea why there is suddenly a lack of motivation. If anything, there should be more motivation. In fact, half the reason I'm typing this out is to remind myself that I should be more motivated NOW then I was 5 months ago. Get. It. Together. It would be so pointless to give up now, considering this is the farthest I've ever gotten. Ever.

So this is totally a pointless blog post, but I just wanted to remind you that even when you feel like giving up, is that really what you want, or is it what you want right now...today...in this moment, because you don't feel like putting any effort in?

When you feel like you don't want to keep working on your healthy lifestyle, remind yourself why you're doing it in the first place. Remind yourself who you're doing it for. Just keep going!!!

And There You Have It.

Don't be a crazy person, I haven't forgotten this exists. I've just been so busy, um, working out.

I just wanted to pop in and include you in the reality that is my life: 30 Day Running Challenge didn't work out so hot. I ran 7 out of the 8 first days, and then I got busy doing other things in regards to my workouts. A lot more dancing, soccer, etc. So I failed on that one, but I'm not that worried about it.

I went for a run this morning, just an easy breezy 2.15 miles. And guess what. After "falling off" my consecutive-running-bandwagon, it still felt great. I thought I was flying at one point. The rain was hitting my face and my fucking earbuds wouldn't stay in my ears, my jacket came unzipped from the bottom up as I was running and my iPod unclipped itself from my pocket and dangled in between my legs as I struggled to fix everything that was happening to me while I continued running.

Yes. I kept running. Not once did I stop. Sometimes when the world is working against you, the best thing you can do it just be like FUCK YOU WORLD, I'M GOING TO KEEP RUNNING, AND YOU KNOW WHAT, THE RAIN FEELS GOOD! SO KEEP RAINING!

On another note, I have some tips for those who have a Friday or Saturday night drinking problem, read: you just really like going out with your friends and drinking beer (or whatever). Here is how to not gain weight:

1. Workout that morning. Get really sweaty. Fall on the floor. Feel like you're gonna vom. It's fine, you'll be fine. Work it out so that you can work it out.

2. Drink water. Drink a lot of water. If you spend all day drinking 80 oz.+ of water before you even leave for the bars, you are doing mighty fine.

3. Trick some Coast Guards (or any good looking guys, really) into thinking that you aren't good at pool. Hustle them, but don't be a beyatch about it. Enchant them. Make them go to the next bar with you.

4. Pick one of the Coast Guards (or normal, non-military guys) and make him your dance partner when you go to the next bar.

5. Dance with him for at least an hour. At least.

Boom. No weight gain. You just have to be smart and find a Coast Guard.*

*If you can't find a dance partner, you grab your girlfriends and do the same thing, except you could probably skip step #3, but playing pool for a little while is a fun "workout". It's not a workout. But you do burn calories. But it's not a workout. So don't actually call it a workout because you'll only be embarrassing yourself.

30 Day Running Challenge

Alas, spring break is over. Alas, I did not gain any weight whilst I was home.

Alas, my roommate and I split a medium cheese pizza at 11pm last night.

I already told you I'm not perfect. That pizza was so good. I was so hungry and I don't get my Financial Aid until tomorrow, so when my roommate and I were driving home from our friends' place at 10:30pm and she was like, are you hungry? I was like, yes. And then we were right by Pizza Time. And she had her wallet. End of story.

Besides making the point that I'm far from perfect (OMGawd I had 2 peanut butter cookies with strawberry ice cream in between them for dessert last night!!!!!!!), I wanted to make this about something else: I really don't like running. Here's why:

1. It's running.

2. You get SO sweaty, so fast, because your heart is just accelerating itself and it's like oh gosh please slow down because I'm working really hard. Oh, you're not going to slow down? Okay, well I'll just keep complaining.

3. You can be running for a solid 10 minutes and just. be. exhausted.

4. You can be running for a solid 15 minutes and want. to. fall. over.

5. You can be running for a solid 20 minutes and then suddenly everything is fine.

RUNNING is so mental. It doesn't matter if you're listening to music or not. You can still hear your own thoughts. And somewhere (at least for me) around 1.5 miles, my body is like, why are we still running? And I'm like, because we can.

So, I've decided that for 30 days, I'm going to run at least 25 of the 30 days allotted. Running is horrible, but it does so many amazing things to my body. And when I say running, I mean at least 1.5 miles. I know that I can run 3 miles, so running 1.5 is really kind of a bitch-move at this point. So the chances of me actually only running 1.5 miles is really, really low. It would keep me up at night if I only did 1.5 I know it. And who knows, maybe by the end of this challenge my distance will be upped. If I could get to 4 miles (or even 5!), that would be a beautiful thing.

Here's hoping, yeah? I know I could though. So anyway, March 26 - April 25. Oh snap. April 25th is my roommate's birthday. That'll be a double reason to celebrate. Eff yeah. So I'm 2 days into it, with 2 miles done each day. I'm giving myself 5 sick days, but I'd like to not use them. Let's DO it!

One Fine Line.

You would think that because I've been dedicated to this little life project of mine for over 110 days now, that I would have learned that fine balance that is give and take. For example, yesterday my mom sneaked me into the gym at the YMCA. Disclaimer: she's a member, I swear, but I am not. However apparently I'm already in the system, which freaks me out a little bit. But I digress.

My warm-up yesterday was 10 minutes on the elliptical for a total burn of 125 calories. After that, some unspoken force came over me and I decided that I would do a 5k run. Have I ever...done that...before...ever? No. Why did it suddenly happen? Honestly, it was a mental thing. By the time I had finished (27 minutes exactly, not bad for my first 5k), I wasn't exhausted. I wasn't crumbling to the ground. I was fine. I just changed the speed of the treadmill back down to a brisk walk and walked for about 8 minutes to just make sure I wasn't going to throw up. Total burn 400 calories exactly and a huge ego boost.

After that I rode a bike a couple miles for 75 calories (you know, because I'm OCD and wanted my machine burns to be an even number). And after that I just went to town with abs and push-ups in a separate room. Solid workout at the gym, yes? Yes. Anyway I'm guessing that total, I burned around 700 calories-ish.

THIS IS WHERE THE BALANCE COMES IN. Oh, no I had a great day nutritionally until about 9:30pm. Did I mention it was St. Patrick's Day? It was. One of my best friends and I split a 6 pack of microbrews at a party. Did I mention there were cream cheese filled cupcakes at this party? There were. There were also plain vanilla ones and plain chocolate ones. Oh, there were a lot of cupcakes. I had half of one. Not bad right? Pretty decent in regard to [drunk] self control.

BUT if that wasn't enough. One of my nemesis-es (what the eff is the plural of nemesis?) showed up at this party. And by nemesis here I mean, very good friend but we pretend to be mean to each other sometimes. Like pushing each other into the refrigerator. What. Anyway, he brought more microbrews. And I had 2 more. OMG. Reflecting on this the morning after makes me really bummed out about myself. The only pluses I can find from this are there were a lot of carbs in the beers, and since I hardly touched carbs yesterday as it was even with the 5k, it was probably a good move to have some carbs.

But you better believe I'm going to bring it in my workout today. I guess my point is, even if you can do some crazy awesome hard calorie burning workout...that doesn't mean you're golden. Learning to balance your input with your output is really, really hard and one of my biggest challenges that I'm working on. But if you can do it, I can do it. Thank you for being my inspiration!

Hold It Against Me Choreography

As promised. My roommate and I went hard today at our "studio". Here is some Britney Spears choreo for you, courtesy of Dima the guy from Israel.

Pick a Passion

No I haven't forgotten about you.

My roommate and I recently stumbled upon this choreographer from Israel who is doing some big things. He's pretty dope, as they say on the streets. Did you know that hip-hop dancing is a really good workout? It's more than just moving your legs. I think that at some point in my [very comparatively short] dancing career that I've used almost (if not all) of my muscles at some point during a hip-hop dance. To quote a recent dance instructor, do you feel it in your core?

Anyway, so our favorite choreographer is Dejan Tubic from LA, but Dima from Israel is quickly on the rise. Plus he's just like, um, hot. Hello. Here's the link to the choreography that my roommate and I are going to be doing in the "studio" (a.k.a. the baller-mirror-lined-private-room-at-the-rec-center) tomorrow. Maybe I'll post a comparison video if we get good enough to film it tomorrow.

But I just wanted to say that, when it comes to working out, find something that you really love doing. Running, playing soccer, dancing, scorpion push-ups. Whatever. Pick something you can get passionate about that involves exercise. That way you want to do it. Have I mentioned that my roommate and I have been getting up earlier to go to our "studio" on Tuesdays and Thursdays than we get up to go to CLASS on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays?! Crazy sheit. Once you find your niche, hold on to it. Dancing for me is a way to forget about everything else that's going on in my life for 20 minutes to 2 hours.