Treadmill Workouts

I am weird.  I like running on treadmills.  I have what I call a 'bounce problem' and prefer to keep it indoors ha.  Plus, I don't run in the cold, yet.  And, my available run times are late at night and I am not going outside where animals can run out and get me just to run.

So yeah, I like to use the treadmill.  I keep it 'new and fresh' by trying different work outs.  I run, I walk, I jog, I do a mix.  Right now I am loosely following through a 5 week to 5k plan I found in Shape Magazine from October? I think.  I am way behind my magazine reading

Anywhoo, I am preparing for a 29 day February Challenge of using my treadmill EVERY DAY.  Now, I know better than to run every day and walking can get a little boring so here is where I am asking for some help.

What are you favorite treadmill workouts? I use the preset ones, I find some from people's blogs but now that I am trying to put together a good mix of them before I start this in Feb.  I'd like some help from those of you out there who also don't like being bored on treadmills. 

Here is one that I am going to do tonight, and I apologize if I stole this from your blog, I apparently didn't write where I got it from, but it was saved in a Word file I found this weekend.

Treadmill Workout – 40 minute

• 0:00 – 4:59      5.0
• 5:00 – 9:59      5.5
• 10:00 – 12:00  7.3
• 12:00 – 14:00  5.3
• 14:00 – 16:00  7.3
• 16:00 – 18:00  5.3
• 18:00 – 20:00  7.5
• 20:00 – 22:00  5.5
• 22:00 – 26:00  7.5
• 26:00 – 28:00  5.5
• 28:00 – 29:00  8.0
• 29:00 – 30:00  5.0
• 30:00 – 40:00  3.5 (5% incline)

Are you taking part in any physical challenges?

Feb. Group Read - State of Wonder Ch. 1-6

"Hope is a horrible thing, you know.  I don't know who decided to package hope as a virtue because it's not.  It's a plague.  Hope is walking around with a fishook in your mouth and somebody just keeps pulling it and pulling it."  pg. 43

So to quickly recap, Marina is a doctor that works for Vogel, Anders is a doc that works for Vogel.  Anders gets sent to the Amazon, dies, and Marina is sent to the Amazon to track down Dr. Swenson.  Marina gets horrible nightmares and we end with her traveling down a river into the jungle.
1. Do you agree with Marina that naivete is key? That if we know how life is going to go we might never start the path we do take?

2  Did you anticipate Marina losing her luggage when she put the phone in her suitcase?

Personally, as soon as she did that I knew that she was never going to see that phone again. 

3. How would you describe Marina Singh

I would say smart, but completely lacking in how to deal with people.

4. Would you call the relationship between Mr. Fox and Marina love? Do you think they have a future?

5. “Marina was from Minnesota. No one ever believed that. At the point when she could have taken a job anywhere she came back because she loved it here. This landscape was the one she understood, all prairie and sky.” What does this description say about the character?

I personally feel like Marina should have gone back to Minnesota and told Mr. Fox to get himself to the Amazon if he freaking wanted answers!

Any thoughts, quotes, feelings that stuck out?


Next discussion will be January 27th over the whole/rest of the book!

Suggestions for February's Group Read..

It's that time of month again.  I know I mentioned that we might combine Feb/March, but I think I am going to do one book for February. ;)

Here is what we have already read...

State of Wonder
The Invisible Bridge
The Postmistress
The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Still Missing
The Sandalwood Tree
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Something Borrowed
The Blue Orchard
Sammy's Hill
In the Woods
Shanghai Girls
The Weight of Water
Water for Elephants
The Color Purple
The One That I Want
The Secret Garden
House Rules
American Wife
Firefly Lane
Middlesex
The Reader
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
The Awakening
Pride & Prejudice
I See You Everywhere

Since February is so short, let's try to keep our suggestions under 300 pages.  Happy suggesting!

Mind Mush

I was reading Beth Anne's blog the other night, Heir To Blair, and I was like YES! ME too.  I am so freaking busy these days, but I feel like I've got nothing to say/share about it.

I get up waaay earlier than I deem necessary, play with, feed and nurture a 7 month old, get myself ready for work, her ready for daycare, try to get in a pumping session, go to work, come home, play with her, feed her, make dinner, feed myself and husband, bathe her, read with her, put her to bed, get ready for the next day, clean up the house, exercise, shower, pump, try to catch up with friends/reading and go to bed.

That sounds super busy and it is.  I should have lots to talk about and share.  But when I get to the computer? My mind is mush.  My mind is mush as I write this and really don't know if I have a point besides, yeah, that's why I got nothing of importance lately.

Yeah, I have choices in life on how to spend my day, but honestly? I haven't had a full night of sleep since May 24th, 2011 and that was in a hospital bed with a sleeping pill 41 weeks pregnant.  Yeah.  I'm not working with a full deck of cards here anymore.  We won't even talk about how many pots of coffee I've tried brewing with either no water, no grounds or without putting the water spout thingie in the right spot.  It's not cool.  And I'm not complaining, just stating, that I have no interesting thoughts, or I do,but can't remember to write them down!

It irritates me.  I want to have thoughts of importance and say witty intelligent things.  I want discourse. But dude? I can't even hold a train of thought anymore.

A day in the life of Papps...

Happy Tuesday, today we have Papps.  Papps has been one of my online friends for over 2 years now and she has the most adorable baby girl, Amelia.  Hope you enjoy!

Hi everyone! I’m Papps from Our Arduous Journey. I decided to pick Tuesday, January 3^rd to write about since it was my first day back to work after a 3 month maternity leave. Part of me knew what to expect since it had only been 3 short months, but now add a baby to the mix and it’s a brand new ball game.

5:00am- The first alarm goes off. It’s dark out and the house is silent. I hit snooze.

5:05am- Second alarm goes off. Hit snooze again

5:10am- Third alarm goes off…. I finally roll over, look at the baby monitor to make sure she is still sleeping, then roll out of bed and drag myself into the shower

5:20-6:30am- Grab cup of coffee and get ready for work all the while tip-toeing so I don’t wake up Amelia. I play on the Internet for a bit while eating breakfast, then pour one last cup of coffee and I’m out the door for my half day at work

I should add I got myself a Christmas present.

So I’m driving to work in my new car, loving having an automatic instead of a manual. I try to push back the thought of leaving my daughter for the first time, but it doesn’t work. The tears come pouring down. I know she’s in good hands since my husband is staying home with her, so that helps, but still hard.

6:54am- I arrive to work.  As I’m walking up to the entrance, I run into 2 co-workers who greet me with excitement. Man is it good to be back! I miss these people.

7:00am I start to unpack my boxes and put my desk back together

7:02am- I run into my neighboring co-worker who proceeds to give me a big hug and we chit chat while working/unpacking.

8:30-11am- Today is more of a free day to go through my 1000+ emails and get re-acquainted with my daily tasks. I also show off recent pictures of Amelia as I put them on my desk.

11am-1:43pm- I get home and my husband has Amelia down for a nap. We chat about my day at work and how their day went. I make lunch and fold some laundry

1:43-3:30pm- Amelia wakes up from her nap, I’m there to greet her. I shower her with kisses, play with her on her mat and change her.

3:30-4:22pm- Amelia and I head off to the store to grab food for the next week or so.

4:30pm- We come home to a picked up house, I put away the groceries and play with Amelia a bit more before she goes back down for a nap at 5:30.

6pm- We sit down for dinner and watch an episode of Walking Dead (yes, we’re one of those who occasionally sit in the living room and watch TV while eating)

7pm- I do the dishes and get her bath stuff together while my husband plays with Amelia.

7:30-8:30pm- Bath time, bottle then bed for the wee one

9pm- One more episode of Walking Dead then off to shower!

10:42pm- I finally lay my head back down and it’s lights out.

Thanks Emily for having me share a day in my life!

Thanks Papps! The first day back after baby is a rough one.  Do you eat dinner at the table or in the living room? We are starting to eat more at the table with Isla but typically, we eat out in the living room.

State of Wonder Update

So this is like a bajillion days late, but for all you playing along this month we will discuss chapters 1-6 next Friday, January 13th. Rest of the book / whole book will be January 27th. ;)

Thanks!

Ugh..

The following is going to be a dump/spew of words that I hope make sense.

I think mothers enjoy making other mothers feel like crap.  I also feel like mothers feel they need to defend their decisions when  other people make them feel like crap. It's quite stupid.

I'm all for breastfeeding  Dude, it's freaking cheap! I will support you and cheerlead you and say whatever I have to say to help you through it.  But if you decide to use formula? Who cares.  I will say I will not advocate for the formula until you've decided to do it yourself.  Why? There are far too many others who will push the formula and say, "It's soo much easier.  It's okay, I did it!"  With the first statement, that is a matter of opinion.  With the second statement, just because you did it, doesn't mean it is WHAT the other person wants.  And also, helping someone else make the choice to use formula because you did it, and need someone else to use it to feel less guilty? Not cool.

Now, in the above pretend scenario, you will have others who will judge you for going to the formula.  They will say things like, "Well, you have to do what's best for you and your family, "all the while, thinking, your poor kid.  But ya know what, it IS that persons decision to use formula, but when you make asinine statements like the one above, it just makes someone who already probably feels guilty or a failure WORSE.  I honestly think that line is one of the worst to be said.  Especially when followed by a smiley face.  (As per yesterday's twitter convo, I hate when people say a statement and follow it up with a smiley.  I may have said it makes me think the person is a smug bastard.)

Want to know another fun topic? Cloth diapers vs disposable.

Cuz ya know, if you use disposables you are clogging up the landfills, exposing your kids tush to chemicals, lazy etc.  Really?

How about you make your decisions and I make my decisions and Joe Schmoe makes his decisions and you just say GO YOU, your kid is alive, you rock! And I will say, GO YOU, your kid is alive, you rock! And Joe will do the same! And we can judge silently as opposed to using passive aggressive catch phrases? That way, people won't be afraid to help others and share their experiences.

Not everyone is confident in their decision making but they made that choice.  Support it or ignore it. The kid is fed and alive, that is always the goal. I get so angry for others when they are silenced because of the fear of other people criticizing their choices and they really need to be talking and asking for help as opposed to silently wondering what the eff they should do.

A day in the life of Amber!

Hey everyone! This was supposed to run last week, but with the flu and all the crazy that it caused I didn't have this up and going.. Thanks for being patient Amber! Today, we have Amber from Girl With the Red Hair!  I think Amber was the first person to comment on my blog, like ever.  And if she wasn't she was the first one to keep coming back! We found each other while reading blogs over at Glamour, and it's funny that I never go back there anymore, yet it introduced me to some great blogging friends!

Day in the life: Sunday, December 18
Hi readers! I'm Amber from Girl with the Red Hair posting for Emily's fun Day in the Life series. I did a weekday day in the life on my own blog a couple of months ago so I decided to do a weekend day for Emily's blog! This chronicles Sunday, December 18 for me :)

7:00 AM - dog wakes me up, I take her out to pee. I feel like a zombie since I was at a Christmas party until late the night before.

7:10 AM - crawl back into bed and plan to sleep for another hour or so.

9:47 AM - wake with a start, sun shining through my window. Crap! Slept way later than planned. Oh well.

10:00 AM - bring laundry up to my room, make coffee, stream Drop Dead Diva while I fold laundry and drink my coffee. Baked banana oatmeal is in the oven!

11:00 AM - sit down to eat my oatmeal and drink some more coffee. Still streaming Drop Dead Diva.

11:30 AM - time to start cleaning! I designated Sunday 'scrub the house top to bottom day' so I swept, vacuumed and mopped all the floors, pulled our couch and bed out and cleaned behind them, washed the walls, scrubbed the bathroom and vacuumed and cleaned the carpet on our stairs. This process took me just over 2 hours.

1:45 PM - collapse on the couch in a heap of exhaustion from all the cleaning.

2:15 PM - drag myself into the kitchen to make and eat a late lunch. Stream more Drop Dead Diva.

2:45 PM - think about the 7-9 mile run I was planning to do that day. Continue streaming Drop Dead Diva and eat some fudge.

3:20 PM - decide to get my butt in gear and take the pup for a hike since she's been cooped up in the house all day while I clean. Decide that a hike will suffice in place of a run.

4:30 PM - return from the hike. Make a grocery list and head to the grocery store to get some supplies for the week.

5:30 PM - pour myself a glass of wine and prepare to do some food prep for the week. Prepped teriyaki tofu for Monday night dinner, enchilada sauce for Tuesday night dinner, and made a double batch of dough balls to take home for the holidays (all from Mama Pea's cookbook).

7:00 PM - sit down to eat dinner. Two poached eggs on an english muffin and a glass of orange juice. Read blogs while eating dinner. It's my first time opening Google Reader all weekend so I have a lot of reading to do!

8:00 PM - park myself in front of the couch with a second glass of wine, a bowl of dough ball dough and start streaming Love Actually on netflix. Have to pause the movie several times to switch dough balls in and out of the oven.

10:30 PM - movie ends! I wake up two sleeping pets who are right on top of me because it's time for bed! Take the dog out to pee then do my getting ready for bed routine (brush teeth, wash face, put on PJ's).

10:45 PM - crawl into bed with plan to read for only 15 minutes.

11:15 PM - crap! Lost track of time because my book (The Book of Negroes) was so good. Time to go to bed, 6:00 AM is going to come early. Lights out!

Thanks for letting me share my day on your blog Emily!!

Thanks again, Amber! I really need to checkout that cookbook!

What do you do on a typical Sunday?

Better late than never...

Christmas 2011 went by in the blink of agh n eye! We had a very busy Christmas weekend filled with family, food, carols and presents! It was awesome.  We barely got any presents for Miss I and we didn't actually end up wrapping any for her, because it was kind of pointless, even though she loved the tissue paper and bags.  I figure we have a lifetime of spoiling her and she frankly, didn't need much.  And I will buy her other stuff as she needs it. 

Christmas Eve day we spent with the in-laws eating a yummy brunch and Miss I even got to try sweet potatoes with the good stuff on them, brunch dish and cheesy potatoes.  She also ate her mum mums and some applesauce. ;)  After stuffing ourselves we opened presents where some gift highlights for me were an appetizer cookbook, sweater/shirt, books (Cutting Stone & Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Little House on the Prairie Set), food processor and new hair curlers.  Miss I got some clothes, books and a Little People Zoo set up.

Christmas Eve night we went over to another relatives and hung out and ate some more food until Miss I was getting cranky so we brought her home to get ready for bed, had a photo shoot and then my husband and I opened presents that we got each other.

Christmas Day my parents and brother came over and spoiled Miss I.  She got more toys, clothes and books.  My parents very generously bought my husband and me plane tickets to accompany them on spring break this year. ;)  I am very spoiled.  We ate brunch dish and cinnamon rolls and then after Miss I took a nap we headed into my aunts house where we ate MORE food and visited with relatives until after 7.

Our house is a toy store and we have one happy little girl.  She was such a trooper with all of our plans and I couldn't have asked for a better 1st Christmas for my girl.  The only thing I would change? Get someone who could work our camera so we have a decent photo of the three of us!

How was your Christmas? Did you get any books? What was your favorite gift?

My favorite books read in 2011

I think 2011 was a sad year for my reading.  I read 44 books (more than half-way down with the 45th but I am technical like that and will count it towards 2012 since the end date will be either today or tomorrow).  While, 44 books is amazing, especially with a newborn, I just didn't have any one book stick out so much that I would be like THAT was the best book I read this year.  I need to find some better books for 2012!

So here are the high-lights of my 2011 reading..

Laura Lippman's Tess Monaghan Series - I flew through the first 10 books and I seriously have the 11th on my bookshelf but have been swamped with other reading commitments to finish it.   I am also a bad reader to the point, that I don't even know if the next one (is there going to be a next one?) is out yet.  Tess is a former journalist turned PI, and she is pretty entertaining.

Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles Series - I started in 2010 and then finished what was out through this summer.  I love them.  Basically, Rizzoli is a cop, Isles is an ME and Gerritsen writes some pretty grizly tales.  Also, now a tv show!

The Blue Orchard by Jackson Taylor - I loved this book! Honestly, it may be the best non-series book I read in 2011.  We read it as the May Group Read and I'm glad we did! Based on the stories of Taylor's grandma it is an interesting look into a nurse who illegally helped TONS of women get abortions in 1920s.

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens - Another, group read, this one kept me on the edge of my seat! It is about a realtor who is kidnapped and kept on a mountain for over a year and has a child with her captor.  She eventually escapes but the quest to find out who her attacker is what kept me turning the page!








Honorable Mentions
Dreams of Joy - Lisa See
The Sandalwood Tree - Elle Newmark
The Scent of Rain and Lightning - Nancy Pickard

What was your favorite book read in 2011? How many books did you conquer?