Workout Schedule & printable

I try to workout just a little bit every day. I'm talking like 5 minutes. Obviously, that's not a lot, but it's do-able and it's better than nothing. And sometimes I just do 10 lunges from my bed to the bathroom before I get Jason in the morning - that's more like 15 seconds of workout. But I'm trying to do just a little more.

I typed up a workout schedule to remember what to do which days.

It's hard to read in this format, but if you want to print it, it should be clear as day. (You could always convert it to a pdf or word format with THIS site too, so you could read it before printing.) I didn't write down how many reps or sets so that you can personalize it to what you want or can handle. And I didn't want it set in stone paper for myself either, that way I can increase reps/sets without having to cross off or erase or reprint.

Basically, I do lunges (10) right away every morning. And every day I do calf raises (2 sets of 20) in the shower (that way I'm not taking more time away from Jason). And then I alternate days for push-ups (10, the girl-kind) and sit-ups/crunches (50). And since my thighs are what really need some toning, I do one extra thing every day to work on them. That varies every day so that hopefully every muscle group in my thigh gets a little attention each week. Some of those aren't obvious as to what they are, so at the bottom I put the website - the one I used to choose those extras - in case you want some explanation or a reminder.

One, however, you won't find on that website, and I don't remember how I came up with it. I'm pretty sure it wasn't my own idea though. I call it 4-square lunges. With your right leg, you do one lunge in front, then one to the side, then one backwards. Then with your left leg, you do one backwards, to the side, and then the front. So it's kind of like you're making a square. Or maybe a circle? Anyway, I do 5 rounds of those.

Philosophy: I love running, but I always come up with an exuse not to do it. I know it'd be good cardio and good leg-toning, but it just doesn't happen. But if I can do something in the house, without equipment, before I shower, I'll do it consistently. And I believe that a lot of times the trick to weight-loss or muscle-toning is to get your body used to exercise, even if it's just a little bit each day. I think it takes our bodies a while before they figure out, "Oh! I'm supposed to be burning fat!" They're just slow at "getting" it. But once they do, you actually start seeing a little progress.

Of course, you gotta eat healthy too. Other than eating well-rounded meals, I avoid soda pop and candy - pure sugar turns into pure fat. I love dessert, though, and have to have something sweet after dinner. I think desserts are a million times better than candy or pop b/c even though they have sugar, it's not concentrated sugar and it usually has other good ingredients that your body knows how to use - eggs, flour, salt, cinnamon, cocoa, fruit, milk, etc. Oh, and if you eat dessert pretty soon after dinner (like 30-45 min), at least two good things happen. 1 - Your metabolism is still working hard and your blood-sugar levels won't spike. And 2 - the saliva in your mouth is still working hard, which means you won't be as prone to cavities. Yay!

I'm no expert, by any stretch of the imagination. Those are just things I've picked up in reading or through talking to my dentist. (He also suggested if you're drinking pop to not sip away at it because that just means the sugar is sitting on your teeth longer, giving it more time to eat away at those pearly whites. I'm sure the same goes for any sweet - don't eat a bite here and there over a period of time. Just eat it!) They're also just things I've philosophized over the years. :) So, you know, grain of salt, k?

Dress-up & Mischief

First the dress-up:

And the dress-down:

And now the mischief:
You'd think 6 inches would be far away enough from the counter's edge...

But you'd be wrong, just like I was.

That's probably 3 inches worth of paper towel.

Quotable Me

Haha. That title sounds so pompous. But I just thought of something and think it'd make a great Pinterest quote ;)

It is always best to end the day with chocolate and prayer.

:) Am I right or am I right?!

Anyone want to create a little picture quote of that? Haha

Things that Make Me Smile

- When I wake Jason up, sometimes he lets me in on what he was dreaming about. Today his first awake words were "Dog... toothpaste... Dog have toothbrush..." Haha, sounds like an interesting dream :).

-His most requested song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and when he requests any song, he says, "Mama sing twinkle twinkle little star how I wonder what you are up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky." Haha. So if he wants me to sing the Alphabet Song, he says the whole thing, and same for other songs. It's so funny to me.

-When I've been in the bathroom blowdrying my hair or if I've been cooking dinner, or after I put him to bed and start cleaning up, or anytime he's playing by himself and I later find things like this:

or this:

or this:

He's in a stacking phase. He calls anything stacked "tow-a"
i.e. tower.

or this:

or this:

or this:

Finding these things always makes me smile.

Hanging Spree (edit)

I recently came across a video of how to hang things on different types of walls. They show a better type of butterfly drywall catch thingy. So if you attempt something similar, I would suggest watching THIS VIDEO from Lowe's and using what they suggest. :)

Hanging Spree

I first saw this idea on Pinterest, through Merrick's boards, but it originally came from ButtonBirdDesigns. Of all the jewelry hanger things on Pinterest, I liked this idea best. And completely unintentionally, I painted it the same color as the original. Maybe it was just locked in my brain as the color it was supposed to be, but I looked at a loooot of stores to find a good color that would go w/ gold, which is the color my bedroom is full of - gold beadspread, gold framed mirror (yet to be sprayed a diff color), tan carpet, light brown dresser set.... And this was the best color I could find for it. Valspar Tropical Oasis.

Here's my stash:

Most of the necklaces were hanging on that gold jewelry hanger. (Nina, if you're reading this, here's another ode to you! Do you remember that jewelry hanger? You gave it to me before you guys moved to Florida! Haha I still have it!) The hanger was way too full and getting the necklaces off was often a time-consuming job of untangling. Oh and that's not even all of the jewelry - I don't think we laid out bracelets or earrings. Some of the stuff was in that little box underneath and in another jewelry box. That side table is about 3x3' so we figured something 4x4 would work a little better. And that's the size pegboard comes in, so we wouldn't even need to cut anything. Yay :)

At Lowe's, my Dad & I discovered that the 4x4's were a little thicker than the 2x4's, so we went with 2 2x4's (less weight on the drywall = a good thing). Then we got to spraying. Ugh. Spraying & I never work well together. I tried to do thin, even coats, spraying the right distance away, keeping my arm moving - everything you're supposed to do to get good looking coverage - and no matter how hard I tried and how many coats I applied, it came out splotchy. Like, some parts were glossy (yay) and some spots were matte (boo). So once I could tell that more coats wasn't fixing the problem, I called it good and dead.

At ACE Hardware, we picked up some special drywall hanging things and nails.

Works like this: You screw the nail into that rectangular thingy above, shove the whole thing into the wall, and the rectangular thing butterflies open, catching against the inside of the wall. We also used a washer so the nailhead wouldn't go through the pegboard holes.

We held up one to see where I wanted to position them and then drew inside the holes where the screws would go. I can't remember if we checked to make sure that one was level. But to make sure they were evenly spaced, we did this.

Held the level inbetween them. Then drew inside the other pegboard holes.

With the biggest drill bit we had, my dad drilled the screw holes.

Then Mom and Dad got on a plane and flew home to Ohio. So it was all up to me to actually hang them. Sadly, because those butterfly things are so wide, I had to almost double the size of the drywall holes in order to get them through. And then once they were through, the drywall holes were waaaaaaay huge for the screw... But they're up and sturdy. I did one panel by myself (with Kitten's supervision) ...

See my jewelry box collection to the right?

...but the second one was giving me grief for some reason, so I asked my friend Karah to come over and hold the pegboard while I drilled.

By the way, drilling is one of my new favorite things to do. :)

And voila!

I started out hanging them all up at random (as pictured above) but then realized it would be annoying to relocate the peg hook when putting a necklace back up. So I organized them like so.

And this is how they currently are. Bracelets and earrings have yet to be hung or put up somehow because I ran out of hooks. Oh, and Lowe's didn't have the small size hooks so those came from ACE Hardware too. Well, I guess they do have the small size, but they come in a package w/ assorted sizes. And I wanted only the small ones.

Someday I think it'd look nice to frame the pegboards, but for now, they add lots of awesome color to my otherwise monochromatic gold room and have a paneled artwork feel. I love paneled art. Oh, and that last picture is the truest color (at least on my computer) - a medium teal color.