WIN!

Well my friends, it's been an excellent and highly successful morning!

I woke up in plenty of time to make breakfast - I made Orange Bran Flax Muffins, possibly the healthiest muffins ever (that still taste good, at least.) If you want the recipe, it's posted at Basil and Buttercream. So Mark and I ate breakfast, talked through our plans for the day, and I sent him off to work with his lunch packed. (Wife win!)
Then, I cleaned the kitchen (of course, while rockin' out to my favorite playlists on my iPod...)
And then I did my morning workout. (Well ... I call it my morning workout. It's the second workout I've done in a LONG, LONG time.)
It went well. I think, for now, I've found a solution that works for me. Basically, I started with about 15 minutes of calisthenics to get me nice and warmed up. Then I ran, then walked, then dragged myself up and down the stairs for the entirety of Maroon 5's song "Harder to Breathe." (SO appropriate, right?)
And THEN ... I had my own personal dance party. For like 20 minutes! So exciting! I'm positive that I looked like a TOTAL goofball, cause let's be honest, I'm a really, really white girl, and I can swing dance and waltz with the best of them, and I've got rhythm (It seriously just took me about 6 tries to spell that word right) ... but I don't have much there to shake. So it was a lot of jumpy/bouncy/kicky stuff. But it was fun, and it's all my favorite up-beat music, and my heart rate was up for a good 20-25 minutes, so that's all that matters, right?

But still. I wouldn't want to have a PUBLIC dance party. I might invite my sister to join when she visits. But that's about it. Because (and I'm about to embarrass myself here), it'd be a lot of this (which was taken AFTER the dance party, not during):

And really, who wants to see that? (Besides all of you in BlogLand, of course.)

So anyway, all that to say I had a really great morning. I was pretty tired after my workout/dance party, but I didn't feel like I was going to die like I did yesterday.

So hopefully I can be at least semi-productive this afternoon, and then tonight is Girls' Night! So excited ... I haven't had a good girls' night in a while.

(EVERY night will be Girls' Night when Kelly comes to visit again though! Can't wait!)

Hope all of you have a fantastic Thursday! It's almost the weekend!

Humble Pie

Okay, so I know this is my third post in like 4 hours, but I feel bad.

I just ate a pretty humongous slice of humble pie...

Let me explain. This morning, when Mark wouldn't get up to work out, I wasn't necessarily very nice about it. In fact, in my head, I was thinking he was a slacker. So then after he left, I decided that I needed the cardio as well, and I'd just head on downstairs, pop Tony in the DVD player, and do the darn thing by myself.

Well. Let me just tell you. I couldn't get through the first 10 minutes of the video - INCLUDING the warm-up.

A lot of times people think that because I'm skinny, I'm in shape. Sometimes I'm fooled into this illusion as well. But let me tell you, a fast metabolism does not an athlete make. I turned off the video and decided that I REALLY did need the workout, and made up my own (WAY turned down than the P90X version.) I ended up doing 25 crunches, 25 leg lifts each side, 25 bicycles forwards and backwards, and 20 reps each of bicep curls, lateral raises (where you have your arms at your sides, then raise them straight out where your body makes a "T" shape), and upright rows (for forearms, I guess, where you have the dumbbells in front of you and pull straight up), with 3-lb. weights. And then I ran in place for maybe a total of 10 minutes? And! I did 15 push-ups! Probably the worst form imaginable, and you can bet that my nose didn't come anywhere near the floor ... but I pushed my self up and down without falling on my face a total of 15 times.

Anyway, all that to say ... I was worn. flat. out. 30 minutes of basic calisthenics, and I was D. O. N. E. DONE. So, I feel kind of bad for lecturing Mark about "not being serious" about working out and being healthy. As soon as he gets home, I'm going to apologize, and I'm going to try really hard to focus more on MY lack of cardio, and let him handle it on his end.

I can't believe I'm that out of shape.

Exercise.

Exercise has always sort of been the bane of my existence. I don't know whether it started in the seventh circle of hell gym class when I was younger, or because I feel like I'm just no good at it, or because I hate most conventional methods of exercise, or what. But I just don't like to do it. Now, put me on a dance floor and play some Big Band, and I'm all for dancing for HOURS. (And if you've ever swing danced, you know THAT makes a good workout.) I need to join a gym, but Mark doesn't really want to fork out the money while things are as tight as they are.

Things I have tried (or aren't an option...)
-Running. Ha! Do any of you guys remember when I was going to train for a HALF MARATHON back last fall? So do I. That lasted all of about 2 weeks. I hate running. Always have.
-Walking. This, I could do for hours. This, I love. But it's so gosh-darn hot right now, and I really want to walk with Mark, and he doesn't like the heat, and never wants to walk as far as I do. (I would happily walk five miles or more a day. Every day. Great exercise. But ... I don't wanna do it by myself.)
-Swimming ... well, I've not tried it, but I can't really swim all that well. I know, embarrassing, whatever. I want to learn. But I feel like I wouldn't get all that much of a workout because I'd be trying to keep my head above the water. That just makes my neck tired.

I want to try a spin class, or a zumba class. (That would require a gym membership, though ... see first paragraph.)

So all of this to say ... Mark has finally decided that he wants to re-start P90X. But I think we're going to do it a bit differently this time. I'm not following that stupid diet. (Not stupid. Sorry Tony. Just stressful, and I turn into a demon when I can't eat carbs.) Also, I think we're just going to do the cardio part (and any other video that is cardio-esque ... and hopefully the ab one, because that's something that I can do, and feel good doing, and Mark needs to do.) We're going to try for 30 minutes of cardio every morning. I'm not looking to lose weight ... I just need a good cardio workout in my life. And I honestly think that Mark would lose weight if he HAD a good cardio workout in his life. The full P90X program is just too intense, I think, and there's no possible way that I could do the upper body part. (I can't even do one real pushup.) So we're going to start over, a bit slower. And try to do it together. That's always a good motivator. (I hope.)

Wish me luck! Because I have to wake Mark up in, oh, about 20 minutes. And we'll see how it goes.