Wednesday, July 18, 2012

We're Moving?!

That's right, folks! Moving on to bigger and better things. (Sorry, Blogger. It's been. Fun?)

SO. That means if you stumbled upon this little blog, it means I haven't updated a link somewhere! If you could contact me at amanda@runprincipessa.com and give me a heads up, that would be super!

Oh. And don't forget to head over to the new and improved Run Principessa!

I want to give a huge thanks to Tara and Jenny for getting me all set up. Definitely check them out if you're looking for a little upgrade yourself. :)

And because I'm not the one to leave you without a smile.

(Pinterest. As usual.)

Monday, July 16, 2012

I Love Goals

Hey everybody. Good afternoon on this Monday. I hope you're having a wonderful day. And I hope that today is a day that you set some goals for the week. Because then, you can blog about The Weekly Chase too. Get there, do it! :)







I'm switching up the colors this week. Let's see how last week's goals stack up, yeah?

Groupon fitness class. Vlog. Shoe analysis. Yes! Yup! And no, but for a good reason. Plus I'm going this evening. It's really just because Paul decided he wanted to go too and our schedules didn't match up last week. I think that's an acceptable reason to move some things around. :)

Looking good, slick.

That was before my bootcamp class on Friday. Reppin' some sweatpink swag and a goofy face. The class kicked my butt pretty badly. It was upper arms and on asphalt. And I had no gloves. So my hands were pretty freaking tender when I went into work.

P.S. Have you ever tried cat push-ups? I cannot do them. Not a bit. I don't know if there's another name for them. But you're basically on all fours. Then you lift your knees up like it's no big deal and do some push-ups.

...................sure.

Onto this week's goals! 

Goal #1: Set up my blog to be pretty freaking fantastic. Yup, that's right. My blog is going through the big step transfer to self hosting. It's also getting a re-design that I could not be more excited about! I want to set it up to be glorious. And glorious it shall be. Obviously, more information will be coming on this. :)

Goal #2: Repeat my goals for last week. Is this cheating to put three goals into one? Nope. I don't think so. I want to form some sort of habits here. So I'm going to a fitness class again, vlog again, and go on a Philadelphia Runner date.

Goal #3: RUN. I must confess I've been slacking on the running front. I need to get my butt MOVING. I need some way to be inspired or motivated. That's where I'm having the troubles. I feel like my half is too far away to pull motivation from that. I know that's the wrong way to think about things, but it's where I am. And I need to get out of there!

Goal #4: Take another bubble bath. And go on a date. Oh man, am I putting two goals into one? Goal chunking is evidently the theme for this week. *Note: My bubble bath is not a date. So chunking does not mean killing two birds with one stone.

Love this guy.


I don't want this blog to be forever long, so I'm going to continue with my blog challenge tomorrow. Let's try to get through this Monday! I'm going to run some errands and then go for a bit of a run. Three miles are on my plate today. So I'm excited!

What are your goals for this week?

Friday, July 13, 2012

Vlog About Vlogging

I was going to post an Nsync song to start out this post, seeing as it's payday. But apparently I started out another post with it. Oops. Deal with it. HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYBODY!



Let's get this started, shall we?


Peanut Butter and Jenny


Day 12: My biggest accomplishment in life. Woah. Um. Honestly, my biggest accomplishment hopefully hasn't happened yet, because I'm always wanting bigger and better things. But so far, I'd have to say I felt most accomplished when I figured out the track I wanted to take. I've talked before about how I was every major under the sun before I turned to Kinesiology. But once I set on that pace, everything just fell into place. I would sit in Anatomy & Phys class spellbound by the information I was learning (who the heck talks about anatomy that way??) and everything just felt right.

Then I went on to become way more involved in my blogging than I ever thought I could be. I discovered FitFluential. I discovered Fit Approach. I tested for my personal trainer certification. I'm waiting in anticipation to hear back.

And I feel happy. Truly happy. :)

Day 13: The question is: would I rather be rich or healthy? My answer is healthy, and it's as simple as that. I need to be healthy to do the stuff that makes me happy. That's all there is to it.

So I'm officially opening donations. ;)

You'll hear about my workout on Monday as part of the Weekly Chase, so for now we're moving right along....Today I vlogged about vlogging!!



I'd love to hear your tips and tricks. And I'd love to watch your vlogs. So comment! Discuss!

And stay away from black cats today. :)

Thursday, July 12, 2012

We Have A Winner!

Yes ladies and gents, that's right. My very first giveaway has a winner!




Sheenabean13 CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have got a spiffy new pair of pink laces headed your way. As soon as you let me know where your way is, that is. :)

But wait!

I got home from my internship a little early today so I am feeling extra generous.




Katie from Wish & Whimsy, YOU GET SOME TOO!!

Both of you had wonderful answers and I'm so glad I'm able to share some SweatPink love with you guys. :) As soon as you guys e-mail me (check the about page), I can send them your way!

I'll continue with my blog challenge tomorrow because I've got to go to work now. But of course, it's a Thursday. I'm not going to leave you sad and depressed because it isn't Friday.

The ever punny Pinterest.

Your mission today, if you choose to accept it: hit me with your best puns. Help everybody get through their Thursdays to Friday!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

I'm Going, I'm Going!

Happy hump day, world! Have you entered my giveaway? You've got a little less than twenty-four hours to win a chance to make your feet the most kickin' on the block. (Sidenote: I fixed the date on the post. I'm actually dumb.)

Speaking of kickin' feet. I gave a pair to my mom because she just started Zumba! I asked her to send me a picture for the blog she sent me this picture last night to show them off.

You're jealous and you know it!

Moving right along! Yesterday I tweeted something that looked a little bit like this.

The dancing and smiling was a bit excessive, I promise.

I'm going to Fitbloggin'!!!! I cannot tell you how beyond excited I am to be going. This is my very first conference/convention/etc. and I couldn't be happier. And thanks to me, you'll be able to read all about one of the sessions. :)

I've already had one brave soul volunteer to be this ball of energy's roommate, but we're always looking for another roommate! So if you're going and would like to stay with this duo, definitely let me know and send me an e-mail or a tweet! (Look at my About Page for info!)

Also of important note, I found a brilliant thing to get me through my run! I saw some people raving about listening to podcasts to help the time pass, so I headed over and downloaded one of my idols' latest podcast.

Her picture, not mine. :)

TRY IT. I love chatting when I'm running. But now Jillian can focus on doing all the chatting while I focus on getting my run done. I'm in the market for some new podcasts to listen to, so I'd love some suggestions!

And I'll finish things off with the blog challenge to make sure that I do it for today. Wha-bam.


Peanut Butter and Jenny

Day 11: Write about the worst injury you've ever had. I feel like I'm going to be a jerk because I don't have any horror stories to tell.

Do you have wood by you? Can you knock on it? Thanks.

No, I haven't had a huge injury, but I've had lots and lots of little injuries. My knees/ankles/hips and the muscles that control those joints are always going through Hell with dance. It's fine, I do it because I love it. I've learned to deal with it. I've even broken the rule that dancers shouldn't run because it's bad for their knees. GET AT ME, now I've got some more pains to deal with. And I love it.

Also, when I used to play volleyball (oh, my knees probably didn't like that either) my wrists were POUNDED. I still do have had skinny little bird wrists that were spraining and acting up ALL of the time. When my wrist wasn't wrapped, it was a good day.

So yeah. A lot of little injuries. Hopefully they'll just add up to a big injury. That's a tough, tough hurdle to jump.

That's all folks!!

Any suggestions for podcasts for me to listen to? Want to room with us at Fitbloggin'/are you going?

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Times are A-Changin'

Yes, things are changing. But first I have some catching up to do. :) Oh! And don't forget to enter my giveaway to jazz up your sneaks while you're here! You've got until Thursday at noon!

Peanut Butter and Jenny


Day 7: If I had to pick a time period to live in, I think I would be confused. This is a question that comes up often and I never really have an answer to it! Paul and I watched Midnight to Paris a few months ago, and all that resulted was confusion from this question. I've always liked the 20s! I think it would be fun for a little while, at least.

However, one thing does not confuse me (or Paul) about this question.


If we were alive and thriving during this time, we would be big fans. Mom, you would be proud.

Day 8: Holy Moses, my life in five years. That's a big question. Well, I'm 21 now so that would lead me to 26. It doesn't really seem far in the grand scheme of life but in that time I'll need to figure out what I'm doing!

Hopefully by then I'll be out of school. Perhaps with a Master's. Doing my dream job. Working with dancers. Maybe little kid dancers. Personal training, teaching, making a name for myself. You know, that sort of thing. I'm still pretty optimistic about all of that. One thing's for sure, I'd like to be making "grown up" friends at this point. You know. Not school friends. If that makes sense. Don't I sound like a youngster?

This is generally how I envision my life. (source)

Day 9: My food philosophy! I can do that one!  Basically, I like to follow the mindset of do what makes you happy. And I don't mean everybody should use that and say "if I eat fast food everyday, I'll be happy because it tastes good."

(pinterest)

No. You know what my philosophy is? OOH. Breakthrough. My food philosophy is exploration. I used to live a lifestyle where I was gogogo (used to? I'm still like that) and my food very much resembled that. I didn't eat breakfast. My dinners consisted of an Applebee's salad/Pizza Hut/anything close to the school so I could get back in time for my activities/dance/this that or the other thing. I survived and I was happy. But I didn't know what else there was out there for me!!

Now that I've explored a bit more, I know what makes me not cranky. I know what makes me feel like I can take on the world. I still don't know everything, so it's a constant journey to find what makes me happy.

But yeah. I like that. My food philosophy = exploration.

Day 10: Woohoo! We've reached today! You want to know about somebody who inspires me? Jeez. I try my hardest to find inspiration everywhere. And a bunch of things inspire me in different ways.

My dance team inspires me to push myself, work to be a better leader, and keep things fun and interesting. The FitFluential community inspires me to become a better blogger and businesswoman. They inspire me to go after what I want and take no prisoners. My family inspires me to make a good name for myself so I have good stories at parties about what I'm becoming. My boyfriend inspires me to look at myself, challenge my opinions, and create a better person on a daily basis.

I'm getting sappy. So look at some pictures. :)

After our '12 show. :)

That's me and my sister. Cheesin'.

Paul doesn't like this picture. But I think it's awesome.

So now I'm caught up! YES! I'm going to be playing a bit of catch-up with this challenge always, I feel. And I acknowledge that. But I want to complete it all. Wha-bam. Here I come. :)

If you've made it this far, I've got a question for you. I'm looking at making my blog more professional, more awesome, etc. I'm looking to self host but I am lost. And I'm wondering if any of you fabulous bloggers have any resources for me to take a look at?

I'm calling on YOU for help!

What are your suggestions for taking a blog to the next level?

Monday, July 9, 2012

What Color Do You Sweat? {Giveaway!}

It's that time again!!






I've already confronted my goals a few days ago so you can head there if you want to check out how it went! (Spoiler Alert: there is a vlog!) With that said and done, I'm going to go ahead and declare my goals for the week!

Goal #1: Use my group fitness Groupon! I love living in Philadelphia for Groupons, because I think I get the opportunity to buy some pretty awesome ones. I bought a 30 Class Pass for Meta Body and I'm really excited because they have boot camp options. And I want to try some! So I'm going to start off slow so I can accomplish this. At least one class this week!!

Goal #2: Vlog. Oh, have you heard this one before? Yes I think you have. :) I just want to keep it up. I have my topic ready to go and stuff. So that should be happening sometime early this week.

Goal #3: Go get my feet sized up for some running shoes. I've got my eyes set on some, but I want to get them professionally sized and get an opinion on which ones will be good for my feet. Good thing I've got Philadelphia Runner to help me out. :)

Three goals this week. Get ready to go down!

So, now that we've got that under control! I've returned after a lovely weekend at the beach redder than I would have hoped. It's turning a little bit pink though, so I think that's a nice transition.

If that's not a nice enough transition, I wore my new sweat pink tank top on the beach. :)

So I've generally mentioned that I am a Sweat Pink Ambassador now for Fit Approach. That's pretty awesome itself. And I'm sure you've seen this floating around the blog world before, but I've got some stuff I want to share!

Instagram picture is a must.

Do you want to spice up your sneaks? Or do you want to do something else creative with pink shoelaces? I don't know about you, but colorful workout gear is my best friend. So taking a quick peak down at these babies while I'm running/jumping/pushing up is a quick way to pump me up.

And I've got some to give away! HINT: I don't have a million blog views so your chances are good! Enter!!

All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me how you are going to use these shoelaces. Yup, that's it. If you're putting them in your sneaks, tell me why! What you do! Anything! Get creative here, people! Depending on how many entries I get, I'll do a random number generator as well as pick the most creative/funny/impressing entry. But that's only if a good number of people comment. Otherwise, I'm sticking with the random. :)

Oh, do you want more entries? You can do a couple of things.
  1. Follow me on Twitter! @RunPrincipessa
  2. Tweet about this giveaway. I don't care what you say! I mean, I'd like it to be positive. Whatever floats your boat. Just make sure you mention my twitter handle.
And that's it! Just make sure you comment for each entry so I can count them! You have until Thursday, July 12 (12:00 noon EST) to enter. So get on that!!



Get Fit Blog Hop


Speaking of Sweat Pink, go check out this blog hop to discover some truly amazing blogs. And bloggers. You know, the people are important too. :)

That is all. Go kick butt today!! :)

Friday, July 6, 2012

Challenge Accepted-Again

Happy Friday everybody! I've gotten quite a bit accomplished this morning, so why don't I just keep checking stuff off of my list while I'm at it? I'm headed to a six hour shift today, but then I'm off to the beach. And I'm very very very impatient.

So hopefully this will not be too scatterbrained!

Peanut Butter and Jenny

First things first! My blogging challenge for the day. We're on Day 6 of July here, people. Life is speeding by faster than I expected. Today I'm supposed to tell you which celebrity I'd spend 15 minutes with. This is a really difficult question for me! There are a bunch of people that I could pick. But I think I'm going to have to go with this guy.

(source)
I've loved him since before he was Barney on How I Met Your Mother. Or at least before I started watching it. Because I guess it's been on a bit of time if I think about it. I love Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you really have some watching to do. Like, actually. Take some time out of your day and laugh a little bit, yeah?

But anyway! I choose NPH because I just want to figure out what's inside of his head. He's got a whole bunch of knowledge and wisdom up in that there head of his. I'd like to see him not on camera and see if he's any different, you know what I mean? Also, playing with his children would kind of be cool.

Plus I'd get to say I met Neil Patrick Harris.

AMAZING.

Now onto some less exciting things. Maybe. My second vlog!! So far so good. I've actually been thinking about this all week. So hopefully this vlogging thing is something I'll stick with!





ALWAYS an attractive still. What can I say?

Just to take care of my incompetence, you can find Bex and her project here. My computer spazzed and cut off my ending and I didn't have time to fix it. But what are you gonna do?

Which celebrity would you like to meet?

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Ketchup Day

So funny. So I just now came across a July blog challenge. Five days into July. It's from Peanut Butter and Jenny and I think it would be a good thing for this blog. I'm trying to grow and develop into an awesome blogger. And sometimes that requires blogging, don't you think? So hopefully this will at least get me into a posting habit.

And so, while an Excel sheet of database work calls from my internship, I will take a brief interlude and catch up with this challenge. This is going to be quick and dirty. But I'll take more time the rest of the month, I promise. :)


Day #1: My goals for the month! That's exciting! I have already started breaking out of my shell by vlogging, but I'd like to do it at least once a week for this month. Hopefully I can start to expand to more, but you have to start somewhere.

I would also like to break out by taking some fitness classes in Philadelphia! I've already purchased a Groupon, so I definitely cannot let that go to waste. I get clammy hands when I think of putting myself out there, which doesn't make any sense. But I'm going to demolish that.

Basically, July is all about becoming who I want me to be. I'm trying to be the perfect FitFluential/Sweat Pink/healthy and happy life ambassador, for example. I just gotta do what I love and share what I love and I'll be fine. Right? Right.

Day #2: Offering a newborn child advice freaks me out, frankly. I know that's supposed to be a sweet sentiment and all that. But eek. I am so not there yet. But if I were to offer some advice it would be this:  

Go ahead and make your mistakes. Don't dwell on them because they will have already happened. They make up who you are and people will still love that person. So go on and mess up. And then learn from it and laugh about it, otherwise it will have been for nothing.

So wise, so sage. ;)

Day #3: The last movie I saw in theaters. Oh! I went to the drive-in by my house and saw The Avengers. It was lovely to listen to the night and a movie at the same time. I love the drive-in. You should go.

Watch them Avenge.


Day #4: If I could rid the world of one thing what would it be? Oh boy, this is a crazy thought. I finally rid my apartment of fruit flies, so it would be awesome if they never came back...

Okay, okay. I know this is a lofty goal. But I would get rid of RUDE PEOPLE. I don't care if you're assertive. Even aggressive if you approach it in the right manner. I don't mind if you're having a bad day and you're being short. Heck, you can be Negative Nancy all day and I would still put up with you.

BUT WHEN YOU ARE RUDE. UGH. 

Maybe it's just because I had an awful evening at work last night, but people are just terrible to workers. I work at Rita's, ma'am and sir. I am not your slave. You cannot summon me with your finger. You cannot speak to me like I am not capable of conversing. Do not EVER look at my tip jar and pointedly not tip me because you are rude. 

I hate people sometimes. 

Rant over.

And finally, I'm caught up!! Day #5: The day is still young, so I'm not sure what exactly is going to make my day special. Oh wait. No, I do know. But you're going to laugh at me. 

Thank you, Trader Joe's.

So sue me. My dinner is already making me happy at lunch time. 

Are you going to participate in the challenge? Have you started already? What has made your day so far? Oh, so many questions!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Tuesday Motivation

Motivation can happen on a Tuesday too, right? Yes. I think it can. Today is one of those days where I just don't feel like I have anything exciting to say. I know. I'm a blogger. I'm supposed to have stuff to say.

But I just don't!

So instead, I'm going to share with you my new absolute favorite saying. Absolute. No doubt.



I try really hard to play it off a lot of the times, but I can have issues with me thinking a million and one things are wrong about me. Paul is probably laughing right now because he gets to hear all of them and "playing it off" doesn't quite describe it.

But we're talking about the rest of the world, so bear with me.

I think everybody deserves to see this and think it and live it and love it. Because I'm lame. So I'm posting it for everybody to see. Thanks Heather. :)

What's your favorite motivational saying? What do you think of this one?

Monday, July 2, 2012

Keep on Chasin'




It's that time again, folks! First, let me review my goals from last week. I wanted to stick to my training schedule and cater to my injured wrist. Well, first of all, my tendons are smiling once again! I really took it easy last week with the wrist. I probably babied it a little more than I should have, but hey. Anything to get it feeling better!

As far as sticking to my training plan, I actually changed it! I think I was going to be doing too much too fast and nobody wants to deal with those after effects. So I shimmied some stuff around and I'm ready to bang it out this week!

Speaking of.

Goal #1: A month or so ago I purchased the Tone It Up program because I was very, very curious about the umpteen million people talking about it. Well, I'm headed to the beach this Friday and so I thought this would be a good time to do the 5 Day Slim Down on the plan. I've done it once before, so I think I should be okay. I don't have measurements and I didn't weigh myself, I'm just interested in feeling confident and energized by the time the weekend comes! So my goal is to stick to it!

Side note, if you're doing it this week too, definitely contact me on Twitter and we can be supportive and all that jazz. :)

Goal #2: Vlog once this week! Last Friday I did my first ever vlog! I was really nervous about it for some reason, but I'm trying to get comfortable with the fact that everybody can watch me! Therefore, I am challenging myself to do more! Baby steps here, people!

But Wait! There's More!



That about wraps it up for goals, but I've got one more thing to share before I leave! I was recently chosen to be a new Sweat Pink Ambassador! Inspiring you all to be healthy and happy. ;) I was going to wait until everything was in order to blog about it, but Fit Approach has come out with a Race Program and I really want to share!

Basically, you can enter any race and represent your pink! You get some AWESOME swag when you sign up. You get your choice of a t-shirt or a tank top, a nifty wine glass, and some pink shoelaces. It's really very exciting and I think you should all sign up!

Have I baited you?? If so, head on over to this link to sign up. You want something more out of me? I see. Enter the code SPAAmandaF to grab a 10% discount. I better see everybody sporting some pink! Or at least some sweat. ;)

What are your goals for the week?

Friday, June 29, 2012

Avocado Bana-na-za!

Happy Friday!! Yesterday I left you with a list of things I wanted to talk about today. But now I don't feel like talking about a lot of them. Don't you hate when that happens? I'm going to leave one or two off today because I don't want to overwhelm you with a random blog post.

Let's talk about some running first. I did my first speedwork session on Wednesday. I waited until it was dark outside and Paul and I ran together so I was safe and all that jazz. And it was AWESOME. It was nice and cool and 4 repeats felt like cake. I guess it was just one of those days!

I've been stretching like a very good girl. But not so wonderful is that my knee is NOT taking to this training thing very well. Therefore, I've had to change my plan. Which is fine, because it's the first week. And it's better to know now than figure it out halfway through training and have a busted knee. So I'm cutting a weekly run! And I'm okay with it! Go figure.

[pinterest]


My apartment still smells amazing. You wanna know why? Banana bread. But why is there a picture of avocados, you ask? This week I put out a call for banana bread recipes and got three that I was seriously considering. But it was a comment I received mentioning avocados that won out. So thank you Teamarcia for inspiring me! :)

I took to the web and found a recipe for banana bread made with avocado. And it did not disappoint. It's so moist and delicious and wonderful. DO IT. You will not regret it!

Avocanana Bread
 Thanks to the California Avocado Commission
  • cup old-fashioned oats (I used Cinnamon KIND granola because I didn't have enough oats)
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 ripe, Fresh California Avocado, seeded
  • ¼ cup canola oil
  • 1 cup (packed) brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 very ripe bananas (I had three!)
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts (I left these out)
  • ¼ cup buttermilk (I used coconut milk...because that's all I had. Haha.)

  1. Line a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan with nonstick foil and lightly grease the bottom only.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  3. Combine dry ingredients: oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
  4. Scoop the avocado into a large bowl and mash lightly.
  5. Add oil and brown sugar to the avocado. Cream together using an electric mixer, until light and creamy.
  6. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  7. Stir in bananas, then walnuts and dry ingredients.
  8. Stir in buttermilk and beat just until buttermilk is incorporated.
  9. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Avocanana bread is quite moist and may not pass the "toothpick" test at this point. If you prefer a drier bread, bake a little longer.
Yields: 1 loaf
Make it. Love it. Make it again because it's gone.

And lastly, I leave you with my challenging thing. A few days ago, Heather from Better With Veggies put out a video challenge. And I'm taking it! I've never done a vlog before. So be nice. Or something. For some reason, it freaks me out that people I know could be watching this. I'M TRYING NOT TO CARE. SO THERE. HERE IT GOES.
Challenge. Accepted.
And please excuse my beautiful nature. I've been biking all day. Which means sweating. :)


This was the most attractive still option. That's when you know it's bad.

Have you ever vlogged before? Do you like it?

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Let Me See a Smile

Today I've got to find some way to fit three miles in my schedule. I can barely fit this blog post in! Tomorrow I've got wonderful things to tell you like:
  • How my first speedwork session EVER went. (spoiler alert:it was fun!)
  • How to get your house/apartment/etc. smelling the best it's ever smelled.
  • Am I really sticking to my stretching?
  • How I'm challenged. Well. You'll get to hear it. If that tells you anything.
  • How to have even more fun racing. :)
So it's going to be wonderful! I'm looking forward to it already! But alas, for now, all you get is this.

This is my life.

And of course I'll give you some other things to look at.

Something to Drink: I think I drool every time I look at these smoothies from A Colourful Palate. Be sure to join her July smoothie challenge if you like drinking your fruit and veggies!! :)
Something to Think: I want to shoot a huge "Amen, sister!" to Tara Burner for living life how she sees fit and reminding us to do the same. Consequently, I feel the same! So. AMEN, SISTER!
Something to Work out the Kinks: Well. I hope that wasn't a stretch. HA. So punny! But I challenge you to stop doing whatever you're doing on the computer and fix those wrists over at doyogawithme.com. It's only five minutes. GO.

Anything exciting to tell me today? :)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Just Another Hump Day

Happy Wednesday! I don't have anything super substantial to speak about today, so I'm going to do a quick post about my life! Which means, my friends, it may be all over the place. And I'm not apologizing, ya hear?


I've been a big, big Maroon 5 fan for a while now, so I bought this yesterday in a crazily excited state. I've listened to it a couple times now and I like it! I'm not sure it's my favorite CD of theirs, but we'll see. We'll see. "One More Night" passed the run test yesterday! So that's always a good thing! I think it just got released recently. So this is probably old news already. But give it a try!



On a completely unrelated note: I need a great banana bread recipe. I took a picture with instagram but I'm pretty dysfunctional when it comes to that app. Is there a way to get those pictures on your computer so you can (for example) put them on your blog? I can only get them when I tweet them. And I don't want to tweet everything!

...Then I tweet about it anyway.


BUT YES. THIS IS A CALL FOR BANANA BREAD!

[pinterest]

Lately I've been wearing skirts on my bike when I commute. I wear a pair of booty shorts underneath every time unless I forget. I think for the most part it's fine, until the wind blows and people stare. SOMETIMES I WANT TO DRESS UP, OKAY!? I should be able to do both.

My plan for today.

Speedwork confuses me. I've never done it before. I'm new at this. I feel so dumb but I really don't know how to do it. I don't have a track available to me that I know of. But I'm on the hunt, trust me. Good old Hal Higdon says this:

If you want to run at a fast pace, you need to train at a fast pace several days a week. This training schedule for intermediate runners alternates interval running with Tempo Runs..An interval workout usually consists of fast repeats separated by walking or jogging...Walk or jog between each repeat. The best place to run 400-meter repeats is on a track, although you can also use an accurately-measured road course. Run the 400s at about your pace for 5-K, or 10-K. (from here)

This just intimidates the pants off of me. Which is bad because people are already staring because I don't wear them on my bike.



So much to discuss. Sorry for making you work. :)

Monday, June 25, 2012

On the Chase

I'm BACK. After a short Thursday post, I went to the doctor and found out that I had overuse tendonitis in my right wrist. Lame. So I was on heavy wrist-rest this weekend which included no blogging and minimal tweeting. But I'm feeling better and I really want to participate in this new-fangled thing crafted by Melissa at Live, Love, & Run.




I just talked about goal setting in my Motor Behavior class this morning, so I am pumped to set me some goals. Most people who talk goals talk about setting Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Time-based goals. But in class today, I saw something that really stuck with me. Challenging Attainable Realistic Specific. It's always good to remind yourself that goals are here for a reason: to push yourself.

Goal #1: Stick to my training schedule for the week. Today starts the first day of half marathon training and I am DEDICATING myself to it this time. I want it. I want it badly. And so I will train my butt off.


I'm going to a Phillies game tonight, as you can see! Sunday asks for five miles.

There isn't any cross training on the schedule. That's a topic for another day. So I'm going to see how the speed work goes. If I have to cut back to not injure myself, those will be the first days to go. After that, I'd cut the Saturday short runs and move the long runs to Saturday. I'm challenging myself with this plan, but I refuse to challenge myself to the point of injury!

Also, stretching/yoga/foam rolling/whatever gets me limber will happen EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. EVERYDAY.

Goal #2: Don't do anything to ruin the wrist! As you can see, today is a strength day. I need to modify, modify, modify. Sure, I can run without my wrist. But can I function in every day life without my wrist? Don't I sound like a brat. Yes, Amanda. You can if you need to.

I'm just sick of trying to wipe my butt with my left hand. Just saying.

What are your goals for the week? Link up if you have a post about it here!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Meow?

Let me start this off by saying that I am not a person who is obsessed with looking at cat pictures. Nor am I a person obsessed with cats in general. I do not say meow. I actually hate cats. I'm kind of definitely a dog person.

But this made me laugh and is making onto the Make It Through the Day Thursday post.

You know. Eventually I'm going to have to name it, I guess. Maybe. But I'm too busy on Thursdays to do that. Please forgive me.

(pinterest)

I've also got some blog links for you to look at because I'm lame today.

Something to Eat: Zucchini muffins from Side of Sneakers

Something to Do: I need to find a soccer field STAT thanks to The Lean Green Bean

Something to be Proud of: A ten mile triumph from Live, Love, & Run

Are you a cat person or a dog person? Stay cool, my friends!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

Excuse the title, this song has been stuck in my head ever since I started thinking about this blog post. And I only hope to share the stuck-in-headedness with the rest of the world!

Hellooo summer.

That's what Philadelphia's looking like for the next couple of days. And from taking a gander at the map of the country, it seems that way for most areas in the States. I rode my bike to school today for an 8:40 class. It's only a twenty minute ride, but by the time I got there...oof. I was feeling a little lightheaded! So today I'm going to talk about hydration. If not for anybody else, then for me!

In general, drinking a few glasses of water today is not going to keep you functioning at 100%. Especially if you're planning on exercising even a little bit. Which I hope you are! Keep it inside during the peak hours of the day if you can!

(From Pinterest)

I found this wonderful, wonderful idea on Pinterest to help keep track of your water intake! If you're clueless about how much water you need, take your weight and then chop it in half. That's how many ounces of water you should drink! I know for certain that Tone It Up supports this ideal, but seen it popping up other places as well. Also, you should hydrate before you go to bed as well! You'll have less of a deficit that you have to make up in the morning and you might feel more ready to go when that alarm goes off. I know I can definitely tell the difference.

EAT! According to WebMD, 20% of our water intake over the course of a day comes from food. I know, I know. It's hot. You don't feel like eating. I don't blame you!! But how awesome would it be to take a bunch of fruits (bananas are 74% water!), blend them all together, and sip on a cool refreshing drink? Yeah. I thought that would sound pretty awesome. Who doesn't love watermelon?

Especially this one! (From pinterest)


So you're finally exercising, you're hydrated and ready to go. The humidity is not going to do you any favors. I used to be very against drinking while running because I thought it caused my stomach to hurt. But if you drink the right amount of water at the right intervals, it shouldn't be too bad! FOR ME, I like to take a couple sips every fifteen minutes or so. Again, this is FOR ME. You need to find what works best for you!

My anatomy professor said something during the spring semester that I think is especially important now! Thirst is a delayed signal that you are getting dehydrated. If you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated. Maybe not to an awful extent, but you're dehydrated nonetheless. You wouldn't not eat until you're stomach is clenching from hunger. So drink before you get thirsty!

Can I drink sport drinks, Amanda? Water is just as good as any sport drink if you aren't spending more than an hour outside (WebMD again!). After that, you're going to want to start putting different electrolytes back in ya. The Tone It Up girls SWEAR by coconut water, but that can get really expensive. It also turns out it isn't a miracle drink as people are trying to claim. So find what works best for you!

Abby Wambach seems to prefer Gatordade. ;)


When all else fails, look at your pee. I know. It's gross. I said it. But taking a peek can indicate whether you need to step up your hydration game! Let's just say, it should be on the paler side. If you want to know more about pee or what YOU know about hydration head over to this quiz on WebMD. Stay watery, my friends!!

Do you have any tips for hydration?

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Teacher Tuesday: Talking About Labels

It's back! It's Tuesday and I'm teaching you something once again! Because I love alliteration. And also sharing some knowledge.

Teach Me About: Nutrition Labels

I know I've mentioned how I went to this thing called Be Well Philly Bootcamp on more than a billion occasions. But now I'm going to share some information that I learned during the Nutrition discussion! The session featured Candace Robertson-James and Stella Lucia Volpe from Drexel University highlighting some important nutrition information that a lot of people don't know about.

One of our activities was learning how to read a nutrition label. A lot of people seemed surprised at some of the facts, so I decided to spread the word! I'm not going to go into all of the components, just three areas that I found interesting.

The Anatomy of a Nutrition Label

Just from Google images! Nothing specific.

Reading nutrition labels in grocery stores is going to take up more of your time, yes. But it's going to inform you what you're eating. And that information is POWER when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle! When you're wandering down the aisles, a very good place to start is the top.

Serving Size: Always, always, always pay attention to serving sizes! There are a lot of products (trail mix, I'm looking at you!) that have serving sizes that nobody would know. One bag of trail mix that we had at the session, for instance, had SIXTEEN servings in it. Nobody I know would ever be able to stop at one without specifically measuring it out, so just be conscious of that! Especially with snacky foods. 

Trick! If you buy something like trail mix with clear packaging, you can always take a marker/tape/etc. and mark off the serving sizes so you'll have a visual! So in my sixteen serving example, just eyeball the product into sixteen equal parts! Sure, it's not an exact science and measuring is always better. But time is always good too! :)

Also, you should not be fooled by marketing. There are some crazy companies out there (Pop-Tarts, ahem) that package two pieces of their product together. People assume that the serving size would be a package when in fact, that is DOUBLE all of the numbers. They can get crazy high when you multiply it all through so pay attention!

5-20 Rule: This is something that Candace taught us. It deals with the three things people are most concerned with on nutrition labels. Sodium, fat, and cholesterol! You know the percentages on the right side? That's the percent daily value for (usually) a 2,000 calorie based diet. So first of all, always make sure to keep YOUR needs in mind when comparing it to that calorie intake. 

So, 5-20. This rule is basically that anything under 5% for these three areas (Sodium, fat, cholesterol! Don't forget!) means you are good to go. They are GENERALLY healthier choices. Once you hit 20% or above, you may want to think twice about purchasing that product. Anything above that means you aren't balancing your nutrients/fuel sources/etc over the day. And you want to eat often, right? So keep these percentages in mind when you're choosing foods, as well as planning out your day's meals! 

Fiber: We all know fiber is good for us, right? But do we know what amount is good? At the talk, it was established that anything with fiber content over 3g is a good choice. Obviously, you want to shoot for more! But 3g seems to be a good starting point if you're looking to get some fiber!


There is SO much more going on in a nutrition label than what I've wrote here. I just wanted to throw out some information, not a comprehensive guide. So don't only follow the three guidelines listed here. You have to take a lot into account, and for somebody just starting to read these guys it can get overwhelming.

If you ARE looking for a comprehensive guide or just want to find out more information, Fit Bottomed Girls had a wonderful post on nutrition labels. I suggest heading over there to check it out!

Do you have any fun facts about nutrition labels?

*I am not anywhere near a registered dietician, so please don't take this as the end-all-be-all. If you have questions regarding your nutrition, please talk to your doctor!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Pretty Freaking Rad

I'm currently waiting for my post race breakfast to be done cooking. And I thought I'd tell you all a little bit about my morning. It started pretty plain. If you ignore the tutu that I'm wearing, it could have just been a normal day.

Actually, even if you bring the tutu into account, it's still a very normal day.

Check it.

He decided not to wear one. Unfortunately.

We were up bright and early to head over to the Please Touch Museum in Fairmount Park to participate in the Philly Color Me Rad 5k!


After the race, a lot of people were commenting on how there was no way it was a 5k. But I just mapped it and it looks like it was. Unless my mapping skills are subpar. Which they very well may be.

BUT ANYWAY. 5K.

There isn't too much to report about this race, I guess! It was a lot, lot, lot of fun! I didn't keep track of any time or distance and it was awesome to get blasted with color. A lot of kids were running and I think they were absolutely adorable! I got a lot of compliments on my tutu as well.

And then Paul and I got into a color fight, just to make sure we were thoroughly coated. This picture was before the big color explosion celebration at the end. Also. Somehow I got a 'stache that looks very similar to Hitler's. That's embarrassing. But mine's blue and purple. So it's way better.

SO MUCH COLOR!

And then we took more pictures. Because it seemed like a picture moment. You know?




But no matter how many pictures I show you, you won't understand the amount of color on you until you do it yourself. And then try to shower it all out. It took a good half hour shower. At least. Can't wait to see the water bill this month.

So before I go, I need to make a confession. This was the first time I ran since the Broad Street Run. That was on May 6th. One month and eleven days hiatus. I feel guilty, because running is one of my "things." But I'm back. And I am ready to go! This morning felt great, and these miles FLEW by. Like. Completely. I don't know if it's the color or I'm actually a better runner...but something is working. I never thought I'd roll out of bed and go run an easy 3.1 miles in the morning and not even bat an eyelash. (Note: I think it was the G Series Chews that I won from Bess Be Fit. :))

Awesome!

And it's a good thing because half marathon training starts in a week. :D

Have you ever done a color run?