April 25, 2009

Body Crap Out

I feel like a grandma.

My body is seriously falling apart before my eyes.

As I mentioned in previous posts, I had ACL/Miniscus reconstructive and repair surgery nearly 6 years ago and since the Eagles Cheerleading Try-outs my knee has been swollen. It is a numb pain that gets 100x worse duing/after exercise (duh).

The x-ray of my knee showed "narrowing of the bone" and lots of fluid which made my doctor worried....sooo bring on the MRI. I went for the MRI on friday and am anxiously awaiting the results.

During all this right knee drama, my right ankle began to hurt. I broke this ankle twice resulting in occasional discomfort through the years which I have learned to deal with. I let it slide for the past week and a half assuming it was just tender from overcompenstating my crappy ass knee.

Well my ankle has gotten 10x worse my friends. It is swollen, and actually is way more painful than my knee. It is even tender to the touch. Like a shooting, aching pain...esp. after I exercise (once again DUH).

So now I am forced to get an X-ray of my ankle to see what is going on. I have done some reasearch and I am thinking (worse case scenario) that I have a stress fracture.

I'm sooo annoyed by all this because of a lot of reasons:

1. Who likes to be in pain and injured AHHH!
2. I just started running...and don't want to lose my endurance I have worked so hard to build up.
3. I am scared of what the doctors are going to reccomend/ MAKE me do.
4. I work out everyday. Without working out my life would literally be turned upside down. I would be ONEEEE sad girl if i couldn't work out for awile.

I know you are supposed to listen to your body and allow it to heal and take a break when you are in pain, but I have complelty done the opposite which is so not good. Denial of injury? Yes Sir. I still have been running and working out everyday...just sometimes modifying things if it was unbearable. NOT GOOD. I KNOW I KNOW!

I just want to know whats wrong with me :(

Juice Fast starts tomorrow. I have been feeling bad lately so I need a good cleanse.

After that selfish little tirade of nonsene, I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to Jenna from Eat, Live, Run for the terrible loss of her little brother. I can't imagine the pain she is going through right now...send her some love.


April 21, 2009

Booze, Babies, & Bad Girls

Now that is one random blog title :)
Saturday night my friends and I had a dinner party. We basically just bring whatever we want to munch on, laugh, drink, and talk all night. We were all having so much fun we decided to bring the party out to a bar where other friends were. Teenie, who is 9 months preggers, decided to join us...YES at a bar haha....and her finace' and his friends met us out.


(us with the mommy to be)

(looking at her belly! Cutest prego girl ever)
(way too many LIT"s comsumed that night)

My friends and I closed the bar that night and I ended up getting about an hour of sleep BOOOO! BAD GIRL!

I woke up Sunday morning, NOT feeling so hot...OBVI. The only cure my bestie Christine and I wanted was some diner hangover fuel (aka vegetarian omlets). Then I went home to get ready for Teenie's surprise baby shower and also her fiance' and her surprise engagement party. Although I think some of us might have drunkenly ruined her surprise saturday night...haha....oh well.

The shower/engagement party was beautiful! It was at their house which is right on the water and the decorations made everything so special. They opened presents for honestly 3 hours....sooooo much stuff! Teenie's brother is a chef and his girlfriend is a pastry chef leaving everyone in food heaven! We also played funny baby shower games, and then eventually as the "adults" departed BEER PONG!


(Teenie & I)



(the proposal pose with her ugly shower/engagement vail HAHA)



(diaper race!!! Girls won OF COURSE!)



Andddddd this is how I got home that night..... ;)


So yesterday and today I have been trying to get back to my normal routine: gym, class, work...you know the drill.
Oh and I go for an MRI thursday for my knee. The X-ray results came back and were not promising....ohhhhh geez. Well see what happens. Wish me luck!

April 15, 2009

Romantic Rain

It has been quite the stereotypical rainy april here at the jersey shore. The past two days it has been nothing but downpours, high winds, and gray skies. It isn't pleasant to walk to class in ARGH! but sometimes I welcome the rain. It makes me feel mellow and want to cuddle with someone!!!

Like Edward Cullen!!! I finally watched Twilight with my sister the other night and I have fallen madly in love with that hot vampire Edward. Although I didn't read Twilight (yet I swear I am soon!) I really loved the love story and how romantic and dark the movie was. Perfect type of movie to watch with all this gloomy weather.

I'm super sore from the past couple days of workouts. Def. dreading the shred today...but I will gut it out. I do level 3 on most days but have been switching it up every now and then to the other levels just to not get bored. I'm on day 16!

I also plan on going to Zumba after classes (barfffff), and then swimming with my friendies! One of my best friends is nearly 9 months pregnant so swimming is obviously her exercise of choice and I figured I would join.

I made the most delicious fruit juice this morning:
1 mango
2 apples
5 strawberries

The mango makes the juice thicken creating a smoothie like texture...mmmmm. Mango is my favorite fruit to juice!

As far as weight loss goes I have stayed pretty much the same the past couple weeks. Damn you easter candy ;). I am really motivated right now though to stick to my healthy eating EVERY DAY which is the only way to see results. I'm going to continue with my juicing at least once a day. Only a couple more pounds to go before my goal :)!

I'm off to go get ready for classes. Sighhhhh...

April 12, 2009

Happy Easter

It's currently 12:26 am making it officially easter!

I hope the easter bunny brings you all lots of yummy chocolate mmmmm.

Lots of drama in my life lately & I hatttte drama (mostly boy related BLAH). My eating has been suffering because of it....moslty lack of appetite :(. I did make it to the gym everyday since I last posted and have shredded everday too! I also have been keeping up with my daily bikini challeges.

Not enough juicing the past week. I usually juice at least once a day--but as I said before this week hasn't been my best. I miss my little juicer! On monday I think the juicer is going to become the new man in my life!

I did get to visit my best friend at her college on thursday. We went shopping and I did some serious damage but I did get a bunch of things I can't wait to wear when the weather warms up!

My Easter plans include a possible bike ride to my gym?!, workout, cooking and hanging with my family, a serious room clean ( it is always a mess! UGHH!), and homework.

Talk to you all soon!

April 6, 2009

5k Recap!!

Saturday was my first race EVER and I absolutely loved every second of it---minus the 40mph winds ;).


The Ship Bottom Sprint for Life was held on the beautiful Long Beach Island, NJ. My sister and I got there around 10am, picked up our numbers and free stuff (woo hoo), and then waited till around 12:00 to head out of our car and brave the winds to warm up.

(Before the race-our hair shows just how windy it was!)

Our parents came to support us---so nice of them! While we warmed up they gave us some encouraging words, and before I knew it it was almost 12:30 so we walked to the starting line.



(my sis, dad, & me)

The race had around 400 participants and the course went through some winding residential neighborhoods right on the bay-making us even more vulnerable to the raging winds.


I had my Ipod "Run" playlist ready and took off at the sound of the gun.
I decided to get ahead of most of the crowd just so I had some breathing room. I felt pretty good the first mile and even took advantage of the tall men in front of me who blocked some of the wind-haha.


Before I knew it I was almost at mile 2 and I was at a really comfortable pace! I had no idea what my pace was exactly because I have no garmin and didn't set my stopwatch on my Ipod. After turning down a side road we began to make our way back to the start. I saw my sister, who was only a few minutes behind me....we slapped 5 when we passed eachother!


At mile 2.6 I picked up my pace a little
. My chest felt heavy with congestion which would sometimes nearly make me choke..yuck. But the competitive side of me pushed me to pass a couple people I had paced with for most of the race. Woo hoo!


Finally, the home stretch
...I saw my mom and dad and the crowd cheering everyone on! Then I saw the clock ticking....I realized I could beat my personal record and come in under 25:00 if i sprinted to the finish line.

(almost at the finish line!)


I did it!!! My official time was 24:58 averaging a pace of 8:02 mile-a personal best even with the horrible winds!



I wasn't expecting much because it was my first race and I just started running/training 11 weeks ago. I honestly just wanted to do my best and hopefully finish at a decent time. I think I accomplished my goals so I'm thrilled!


(Right after crossing the finish line-happppy!)


Erin finished soon after and clocked in at 32:10 which is amazing! She JUST started running recently and I am so proud of her!



We chatted with our parents and then headed over to see the results that were posted. I ended up coming in 68th place out of approx. 400 runners.


I knew they were giving away awards for the top 3 male and female runners in various age groups (mine is 20-24) but I wasn't expecting anything.


All of the sudden they called my name for 2nd place in my age group! YAYY!





(I was completely surprised!)


My sis and I haddddd to celebrate so we stopped by the after party for some delish beers and not so delish food. Whatever...I was and STILL AM on cloud 9!



The celebration continued with my girlfriends and I that night. We went out for drinks and went to a party. All in all...the PERFECT day!





When I started running in January, I would have laughed at you if you told me I would win an award at my first race. I tend to be really hard on myself so this race really opened my eyes and forced me to appreciate all the hard work I have done.



I'm beat!!! I had classes all morning and then my sister and I had a marathon of a workout today:
-3.4 mile run
-30 day shred Level 3 (going to shred everyday!-I'm on day day 7)
-1 hour Cardio Strength Class
-75 minute Yoga Class)

My knee that had ACL and miniscus repair surgery a couple years back has been hurting/swollen since the eagles try-outs :(. I have doctors appt. tomorrow EKKKK! I'm so scared!

Check out this Danskin give-away! Please please let me winnnnn!

Later loves:)

March 31, 2009

Eagles Cheerleading Try-outs & The 30 Day Shred

(edit: I added pics and a link to a great give-away!)
Well I survived the eagles cheerleading try-outs!
It was a very nerve-racking but fun experience!
My girlfriends and I got to Lincoln Financial Field at 8:30ish-before most of the others (400+ girls AHHH!)

(in the car...wasting some time...)
Once the doors opened, we filled out paperwork, got numbers ( I was 219!) and then were split into two groups. Each group learned a short dance and then waited anxiously to peform in front of two groups of judges in groups of 5.
My friends and I were so nervous! I kept practicing the dance over and over in the hopes I wouldn't freeze and look like an idiot in front of the judges- you only get one first impression!!!
Before I knew it, my group was up and we went into the judging room.
It was INTENSE. I have competed in dance & cheer competitions before...but this was more intimate-I could see the judges literally looking me up and down....AHH! I forgot some of the moves but managed to make it through the dance okay! My friends weren't so lucky: Two of them froze and forgot half the dance, and my other friend had another girl fall into her and mess her up. Booo!!
(right after round one)
We then waited for the judges to make the cuts. They were announcing the numbers that made it to the next round (150 out of 400 girls would move on).
(waitingggggg w/ my loves)
My number was called YAYY! I made it to round two!!!! My friends unfortunatly didn't make it but were happy for me.
I then got a new number (97!) and was immediately sent to go through that entire process again. I did muchhhhh better the second time-but there was sooo much competition!

The girls that make the 2nd cut move onto semi-finals (about 60 girls)...and sadly-my number wasn't called. WAHHHH! I felt really dissapointed....I still do actually. SIGH. But I'm glad my friends were there to cheer me up.

All in all, I loved the experience and now I know what to expect. I have more of a sense of what the organization is looking for-so I think I will def. try-out again next year.

Needless to say my friends and I drank our sorrows away saturday night and I had a litttttle too much fun ;). Well worth it though.

(at the bar of course haha)
Juice Fast
My Juice fast stopped saturday-I was dancing for 6 hours straight so I ate a Pro-Bar (LOVE THEM) at the try-outs and since then I have eaten normally. I really want to complete a substantial fast (more than just a couple days) but lately my work-outs have ruined that plan. I have the 5k sat. so I don't think a consecutive fast is going to happen this week. Oh well. NEXT WEEK! My dad is actually on day 6 of his current juice fast-he is a rockstar!

The 30 Day Shred
SPEAKING OF ROCKSTARS! Today I finalllllly got to try Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred DVD! But shhhhh I got it from YouTube, which apparently has all her dvds. HOORAY for free things :).

Being the dare-devil that I am I decided to start with Level 3!

The Verdict:
I really enjoyed the video but I think it is more for cardio and light toning as opposed to building muscles. I prefer heavier weight training but I would supplement this video on light work-out days.

Those damn rockstar jumps were tough! I loved all the planks she did and the traveling push ups were nice too. I also liked how quick it was! Go Jillian!

******Give-away alert: Head over to the blog Inner Workings of a College Graduate for a chance to win some yummy treats...Check it out Here!******
I have to rush off- you know how it is ;)

March 26, 2009

Bring on the Bikini!



I decided to participate in Angela from Oh She Glows Bikini Body Boot Camp Challenge! I hope to look as good as the disturbingly perfect Marissa Miller in a bikini by June 1st.

HAAAAA---Heyyyy a girl can dream right? ;) All joking aside, I want to do this challenge just for kicks; it's something new, and I'm all about variety with my exercises.

If you are also interested in participating in this fun challenge head over to Angela's inspiring blog now and shoot her an email.

Today I have no work or class making me one happy girl. I went to Zumba this morning w/ my sis for a super fun workout- always is! We also did 4 ab exercises after the class.

Juice Fast: Day 2 & 3
Yesterday I was running around all day which didn't leave much time for juicing. I was hungry making it a pretty tough day overall- I made it though!

I woke up this morning & felt good...was craving some juice! So after the gym I made a yummy vegetable concoction:

-1 beet
-1 apple
-5 kale leaves
-handful of cabbage
-1/4 green pepper
-4 romaine leaves
-4 med. sized carrots

This yielded a little less than 1 quart of juice. It was creamy and satisfying!

The rest of my day will consist of lots of errands, studying, homework, strength training class at 7pm, a run? and maybe shoulders & chest, and some relaxinggggg.

Happy Thursday :)