Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh--I've Been Tagged!

Highlight of my morning, aside from waiting for my roomie's new mattress set to be delivered--oh wait, that's not fun!

Tenecia at Boobs, Barbells, and Broccoli tagged me in this simple but fun blog game--let's call it The 12 because I have no idea what it's really called. Here goes nothing!

Here are the rules:

1) You must post the rules.
2) Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3) Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
4) Tag 12 people and link them in your post.
5) Let them know you've tagged them!


The Facts

1. I am the only redhead in my immediate family--this means I'm adopted I've endured numerous jokes from my siblings about being adopted, etc. Obviously they are just jealous!
2. I believe your car should reflect your personality, but unfortunately for me, mine does not do so well in that regards. 2004 Toyota Corolla, you may be reliable, good on mileage, etc., but you are not the car version of me. Honda Element--I would love to drive you! ...Oh wait, I am reliable and good on mileage? Hmmm, I guess I need to rethink this!
3. I am exactly as I appear on my blog--extremely sarcastic, witty, and decent on the eyes. That last part only has a strike-through so I don't seem vain. Apparently it's better if others call you pretty but you don't willingly admit that. I defy these rules.
4. I have absolutely no idea what I want to do with my professional life. I have a few ideas I'm working on (or have been but got thrown to the wayside while I was travelling for my current position at Loft), but I am one of those people that doesn't know if they like something until they try it. And if you recall correctly, the last time I tried my hand at a full-time job, it was a bust. Hey, I learned what I don't want to do though!
5. Small cities annoy me (ever run into people you can't stand/want more than anything to forget??). Dirty cities scare me (prime example is downtown Richmond--I don't want to walk out of my apartment building at 8am to see degenerates STILL drinking out of brown paper bags). I would love to live in the fast lane for a while, and somewhere like Atlanta has definitely been on my mind. Or South Carolina somewhere. At least in a city relatively coastal. Somewhere that a bikini 24/7 is suitable--yes, I'd sleep in that sucker on the beach in a chaise with a fun cocktail in my hand and carbs don't matter. I think Atlanta is a little too far inland for that?
6. I can eat completely healthy as long as unhealthy food is not present. I can resist unhealthy food at the grocery store and opt for the better options. But if there is unhealthy food, I will eat it and feel like utter guilty shit later.
7. I'm kinda sorta afraid of heights--let's just say back in elementary school when we had field trips to lighthouses (keep in mind I grew up in Virginia Beach), I could climb to the top of the spiral stairs, but as soon as we got to the last bit--the ladder to the top--I couldn't do it.
8. I'm extremely ticklish and make many crazy noises while being tickled, gasping for air, and trying to yell "stop!"I secretly find it somewhat fun(ny) though! <--Forget you read that last sentence.
9. I'm selfish when it comes to health. I don't like to be around sick people, I don't like people in my space at the gym, I often blow off plans to workout or because I'm tired from working out. And (don't hate me!) I don't want kids because I work hard for how I look and don't want a baby messing that up I'd rather be Auntie Liz to all my friend's assumingly adorable kids.
10. I've been asked if I'm from an exotic island before. This was back maybe 3 years ago, when I was much paler than I am now. And no, the person asking was not referring to Ireland. In actuality, I'm only 1/16 Irish...which would help explain why I am able to tan so easily. Maybe I should roll with this whole exotic persona for a while. I think I can pick up an accent if I really wanted to.
11. I pronounce some words VERY oddly. Recently, the most noticeably oddly pronounced word is "home." Something with the "o" that I can't really explain. Maybe too much enunciation? Regardless, I embrace it...and then point it out so others can joke me for it.
12. I also use some very odd terminology. I've been joked for using the word "joke" as a verb (although it really is a verb as well as a noun!). I refer to the television remote as the "tuner." Things like that. Around certain people I consciously correct myself... I think that's part of why my grandma used to point out how "southern" I am when I was younger and used to visit her in upstate New York.

My Answers

1. How do you like your eggs? Omelet-style! With tons of hot sauce, some onion powder, a tad bit of garlic powder, and spinach/some other green leafy veggie mixed in. I have this down to a science that I execute every morning. But I use egg whites only. True story.
2. Favorite movie quote: The only one I can think of right now: "Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't." --From Legally Blonde. Really I just love Reese Witherspoon.
3. Last book you read. Does my Medical Sales Training Program count? If not, do magazines count? How about a picture book that my Bestie made me for Christmas? No?? Well darn it, I have no clue then! Yes, that's extremely sad, and I'm aware of it.
4. If you had $500 to spend on whatever you wanted, what would you buy? Hahahaha, I would want to buy a lot, most notably a Garmin GPS watch, but I'd feel bad for spending that much money on one item... So I'd probably buy some (much-needed) new jeans and spend the rest on workout gear--clothing, some weights, etc. Really, I should just invest the money instead.
5. What's your "go to" recipe? Lean meat with some mix of Mrs. Dash seasoning, garlic powder, and onion powder. Don't worry, my oral hygiene is excellent and I carry a toothbrush/paste around with me in my purse. I'm also a pro at baking peanut butter blossom cookies--I have the recipe practically memorized!
6. What concert(s) will you be going to this year? Uh, this isn't really on my agenda for this year. Change "concerts" to "states" and I can answer with: West Virginia, and wherever I move (my lease is up in May--eek!)
7. Favorite candy: Cinnamon bears! But they are SO hard to come by. I would essentially have to order them offline if I really wanted them that badly.
8. What is the best piece of advice you've received? Focus on yourself. There will always be other competitions, etc.
9. What was the first job you ever had? I was a hostess at a local BBQ restaurant called Jake's Barbecue. I'd come home smelling like smoked food. It was pretty gross.
10. Do you untie your shoes before you take them off? 99 times out of 100, yes.
11. What is your best feature/body part/characteristic? EVERYTHING! Kidding--obviously my hair. I think I would get yelled at if I answered with anything besides that.
12. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be? I would love to learn to be an entrepreneur. There's one aspect of that which doesn't need to be learned, but I would love to be able to put my ideas into action. Business/commerce school would probably help with this.

My Questions!

1. What has been your favorite age so far in your life? Why?
2. If you could be cast in any television show, reality or scripted, which would it be?
3. What is your biggest pet peeve?
4. If you were cast on Fear Factor, what would be your downfall?
5. If you were given the option to have one life event do-over would you take it? What would it be?
6. Do you have any unusual bedtime rituals?
7. What bad habit do you just NEED to break?
8. If you had an unlimited budget and could live in any sort of living arrangement, where would you live (aka apartment, condo, house, etc) and how would you decorate?
9. If you had to shop in only one clothing store for the rest of your life, which would it be?
10. What would your ideal day be playing hooky on a warm day?
11. What is your favorite non-alcoholic beverage? Alcoholic?
12. Would you party with me?

My Tags!

1. Wendy at Connecticut Cupcake
2. Ayla at AAlexandra
3. Libby at Feel My Hustle
4. Lisa at Lisa's World
5. Kristin at Size Matters
6. miss t at A Protein Martini
7. Nini at A Fine Balance
8. Hollie at Fueled By Lolz
9. Donloree at Bikini or Bust

Hmm I think that's enough of you gals for now! Have at it!

PS Excuse the odd white highlighting--don't know how to fix that!

WILW: 2012 Edition

Today's edition of What I Love Wednesday is brought to you by recent events! And sponsored by yours truly! Note to self: blogging while watching primetime television is hazardous. Let's skip the blah intro and just get right down to it.

What I Love (in 2012) Wednesday

• New PRs-- That's right, yesterday I PRed! Although (definitely) not a lifetime PR, it was definitely a recent one. These past few weeks, I've been having friendly treadmill "races" with PIC. This may have been preempted by me kicking his ass during one of the earlier Crossfit workouts we did a couple weeks back. So I suppose it was only right that he redeem himself by kicking my ass on the treadmill. Since then, we have been having unspoken "competitions" during our workouts...until yesterday, really. Although I wanted to bet on that shit and finally kick his ass into silence redeem myself via friendly competition, I decided to make my own goal during our run and was hoping for a time under 22 minutes. At one point, I thought it would be only half impossible possible to make sub-21:30. Well, I was wrong about the latter, but I made it under 22 minutes with a time of 21:57! Thank you Vibrams (even though you are obnoxious as hell)!
• Thank you letters-- ...From my momma! She's such a sweetie! Not only does she send her children thank you letters for Christmas/birthday gifts (her birthday is 2 days after Christmas), but she uses Ratatouille stamps! Pretty badass, right?

Grr, can't get this to rotate!

I tried stalk-proofing the envelope...

• Self home-improvement projects-- So I may or may not have broken ALL the hooks off our mail/key holder the other day. Blame my stupidity or my rush at grabbing the keys off the hook and instead of pulling up, I pulled outwards. Needless to say, the result was regrettable. Lucky for me, not only did Target have wall hooks on sale, but my apartment walls are so terribly thin that I can hear my neighbors thinking I was able to do it all by myself! Tada:

Above: 3 broken hooks. Below: new in-tact hooks.

• T-shirts that describe me completely-- I tend to make a few noises that people apparently attribute to me. These include "meh," "merrr," and generally sounds that begin with M. Why Ms? I have no idea. Why noises? Because it's more fun that way. A few days ago I was hanging out with Megan as she was looking at nerdy silly chemistry t-shirts. When she stumbled upon this beauty, I couldn't help but laugh--it's me in a nutshell on many occasions!

Tehehe!

You should be glad that I don't use such terribly fun terrible noises while writing my posts. I'm better than that (but not by much).

• Sam's Club-- ...and the ability to sub out my protein options. Chicken just doesn't cut it for me. Enter: all this shit lean protein goodness! 

TUNA!

Why yes, I am that girl that goes to Sam's club and waits in line for half an hour in order to purchase 3 items. And yes, I have walked out, leaving my shopping cart in the middle of an aisle on a Friday evening because I didn't want to wait in line for 2 hours.  Fair warning: grocery shopping with me is like taking a kid to a candy store--I get extremely indecisive. Except I don't get everything that I want. If that were to happen, I really would turn into a puffy panda--yikes!

Well, there you have it--first WILW of 2012! Not too shabby (I think?)!

How Unseasonable!

What a weekend! Friday through Sunday, Charlottesville was graced with pleasant temperatures from the upper-50s into the 60s! You know what that means--take your workout(s) outside! And that's exactly what I did!

Friday Shopping Failure

Friday was an unsuccessful shopping trip, in search of some new workout gear. While I did purchase two pairs of tights, I have recently concluded that I just bought them because I needed some and not because I'm terribly fond of them. I also needed to spend Christmas money that I was explicitly told "not to spend on bills." So long story short, I will be returning said tights and holding out until I find some that I do love, not just accept for what they are.

Saturday Scramble


Not only did Saturday start with scrambled eggs an omelet, but it included a scramble of other sorts, aka rock scrambling! Central Virginia is pretty well-known for numerous beautiful hiking spots, so a couple friends and I took our workout to the trails--and what a workout it was! We ended up busting out the 8-9 mile hike (9ish if you factor in the fairly long walk from the parking lot to the trail head) in around 4 hours! And this was no walk-in-the-park hike--it was fairly vertical at times, full of rock scrambles, and we kept on at a pretty good clip. And that included our stops for photo ops along the way.

This was much more easily staged for the
 ~5-foot Megan than for me.

Finally on the summit! And apparently Jared is #1 since he gets to be head
of the human pyramid.

When we finally did reach the top, some dark clouds rolled in which made our descent a little cold and rainy, but halfway down, the weather turned again and we were once again graced with sunny weather. Needless to say, that evening's plans of dinner and a movie turned into dinner...and passing out on the couch. Twice. A girl needs her rest, right?!

Sunday Wipeout

I think it's time to revisit my New Years resolutions...already. Solely based on the adventures I've gotten myself into the past few days, I only think it's right to add a third "Try as many new things as possible" resolution into 2012's list. Sunday I was invited to participate in an activity that I've only done once before. It required a getup like this:

You know you like it!

If you guessed riding motorcycles, you are incorrect...for now. If you guessed ATVing, you may have hit the nail on the head! And of course, any adventure involving me and my partner-in-crime (PIC) has to have a silly story attached to it. This is no exception! Unfortunately, there is no photographic evidence of actual riding, but being that I'm fairly new to the ATV scene, PIC decided to take it easy on me and not try the stuff he normally would. Well, scouting out a fairly tame route that involved a decently steep ditch, I was told to "hold on tight." Even though I generally tend to disobey directions, I did as I was told...and landed on my ass in the clay dirt. Don't get me wrong, I was still holding on tight...and PIC was still sitting on the seat, but the seat had become unattached(!!) from the ATV. It was one of those situations that happened so fast and was just too ridiculous that you couldn't help but laugh. I made a pitiful attempt at dusting myself off, but I was too riled up with laughter to really care. Needless to say, I received some badass points on Sunday. The verdict: I'm ready for Round 2--bring it!

Prep Changes

I finally got my new plan for prep--macros are a bit different, as are meal orders, but all-in-all, I think it will be manageable. I know I've expressed that I'm concerned/confused about starting so early, but after talking to Pleasants, I am a bit more at ease. He wants to take a different approach--deplete me at first, cut me down a little past where I need to be, and once I lose more body fat, we will start to incorporate more meals, more supplements, etc. He doesn't want me to start on the fat-burners just yet since I am a little under 17 weeks out, and I personally don't think I need them yet anyway. Carbs are fewer and further between, but at least Sunday is pretty much a prep-friendly carb fest! I wish I could say that I enjoy carb loads, but I just feel like a puffy panda bear when Sundays roll around. I really shouldn't complain...seeing as Wednesday through Saturday leave me running on empty (read: ZERO carbs aside from greens).

Workout plan is back to a 6-day split, thank goodness!! It took all my energy not to lift according to a 6-day split when I was supposed to be reduced to 4-days when "building." Yeah, I'm stubborn. And I've been getting in more enjoyable workouts--hello, Crossfit!--though I've been told to scale back on those... Like I said before, I don't follow directions well--so sue me!

Upcoming this Week

Let's just say I have an event which will require me to wear this:

The super awesome spender in me spent
less than $10 out-of-pocket for a $90 dress!

I have mixed feelings about the outcome of this event, but no harm, no foul. More on that later.

And...back to winter. Yesterday we saw some snow. It looked a little like this:

...but less artificial and not indoors. Those pictures were actually taken on New Year's Eve when I had to take down the snow-laden trees at work. As you can see, I was amused to be so festively adorned with fake snow!

Until next time--which will hopefully be sooner rather than later!

2011 + 1 = 2012

Yeah, I don't really know what my little math equation is supposed to mean either. Although, if I had to guess, I would say that it means I must will one-up 2011 in terms of awesomeness this year. 2011 was full of half-realized goals and I'm ready to go all the way with them. I got 3 weeks out from my competition over the summer and I'm beyond determined to finish out those last three weeks and in better shape than previously!

Prep Version 3.0

I suppose when more time is involved for prep, then it's almost impossible not to look and feel better. But only time and dedication/determination/motivation will tell! My second failed attempt at prep went a LOT worse than the first, but that was due to work stresses. I have to admit, I'm much better prepared mentally this time around, and even if I wasn't I have over 17 weeks to get my shit together. Yeah, that's right. I'm officially 17 weeks out as of this upcoming Saturday. Half of me thinks it seems a bit excessive, the other half of me thinks it seems a bit excessive hopes it's enough time? This weeks goal: cut out carbs. Just for the week. Shoot me?

Luckily, I don't actually have that mentality when it comes to carb depleting--a. I've done it twice before, and b. it's only a week...and I don't really eat straight-up carbs too often (or so I tell myself). I'm definitely not much of a bread/cereal/grain person, but I do enjoy the daily occasional drink and fruit...and nuts--which reminds me, I gotta give my stash away SOON! Oh, and then there's c. After a week of carb depleting, my body tends to feel amazing (as opposed to tired/worn-down). One day down, five more to go! And I meet with Pleasants Wednesday(?) to get my new plan. It's supposedly harder than before. Oh hell!

Crossfit (Games)

Despite the fact that I make everything a (fun) competition in my mind, I've been having a blast incorporating some crossfit workouts into my training! Sometimes it's just really nice to get out of the rut of structured lifting, and I enjoy the challenge and variety of the WODs. This is one of the many beauties of Total Performance--it has plenty of space and equipment to do crossfit workouts uninterrupted! Oh, thank goodness! I also like that crossfit is fairly adaptable to individual fitness levels, and you're competing against yourself rather than your male workout partner anyone else... Did I mention I kicked ass? (Yeah, probably gonna hear about this later. But I just had to throw it in there).

The workout to which I allude was increasing sets of push presses and goblet squats coupled with 10 sets of 5 pushups. If that doesn't make much sense, it looks like this:

• 1 push-press, 1 goblet squat, 5 pushups
• 2 push-presses, 2 goblet squats, 5 pushups
• Repeat until 10 sets are reached (for time)

It sounds plenty easier than it actually is! And I was actually down 10lbs on push-presses than is generally recommended for women. But I gotta start somewhere, right? Cool down: 3 mile run...in an unfortunate 24+ minute time. So that may not seem too bad, but like I said, I make everything into a competition... In the words of my workout partner, "You beat the crossfitter at crossfit, and I beat the runner at running. I couldn't lose at both!" Touche!

Workout Gear & Opinions

On a rather different note, I'm in the market for some new cold weather workout gear and would love to hear your go-to brands. Generally I'm a Nike/Under Armour kinda gal, but I'm trying to broaden my horizons. And please do not suggest Lululemon--I'm not a yogi (nor will I ever be), and I'd much rather not give up my first-born child (ha!) for a pair of tights. 

Resolutions

Oh yeah, this was supposed to be a resolution-type blog, I think??. This year's resolutions are not the fitness-resolutions that most people turn to. I'm pretty happy with where I am and where I'm headed, given that I'm starting prep at 125lbs. That's a little over 10lbs lighter than when I first decided to compete in a competition! Hopefully I can work on taking some progress pics to go along with numbers/percentages this time. 

But back to resolutions--although I may be straying away from the fitness resolutions, I am staying with the health category. I'm hoping to spend more time working on general health and wellness. So my resolutions as of right now are to floss more and wear my glasses while driving at night more often. Yeah, I'm bad about those things sometimes. Silly resolutions, but definitely for the best. These are the more appropriate of my three resolutions. Some just need to go unspoken (and are even less serious).

Resolutions--make them? Keep them?  Could care less?

Here's to you, 2011+1!