My Inner Cave Woman - Movement

I've decided to kick start this weight loss challenge of mine by getting in touch with my inner cave woman by following Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint. Now you can go and spend almost $200 and buy all of his DVDs and start-up plan, or you can sign up for his eNewletter and get basically the same info for free. Obviously I went with the free version. All you have to do is click on the link above and then click on the "Freebies" tab and sign up with your email. Remember to save the email once you are registered because that has the password you will need to access the free eBooks. In point form, what I've gathered of the plan so far is:

• 5-7 hours of slow steady movement each week, you're heart rate should be between 50% -75% max heart rate. You can split this time up over the week or do it all at once; for example a long hike on a Saturday. This will actually be kind of challenging for me because I work a desk job and I sit all day long. I may have to dust off that pedometer.... I got in at least one hour on Friday with a hike at Taughannok State Park in Trumansburg, NY. 'Twas a beautiful fall day.

•  One day of sprinting. Sunday are the designated days for this torture exercise, I sprinted 50 yards, 6 times. I wanted to throw up. J tells me this gets easier with time...
• Two days of strength training. This will occur on Tuesday & Thursdays for me. You do a fitness test so to speak to figure out where you start. This gave my flashbacks to middle school, but it's not that bad. It helps you figure out where you start in the plan. There are four basic movements: squats, push ups, pull ups, and planks. Again, these are all progressions, if you cannot do a full push up, you will start with an easier variation and move onto harder versions once you master it.
• Then you have days of play/rest/slow movement. The point of this plan is to replicate how our ancestors moved and ate, because that's what our bodies need.
• Our society has become obese because we fill ourselves with processed foreign foods that our ancestors never had to deal with. I haven't gotten to the nutrition plan yet, but I've heard it's basically carb free. Hmmm, not sure how I feel about that.

Last Saturday night J and I went to the movies to see Sinister (soooooo creepy) and being the loyal Regal Rewards Card Member that I am (gimme free stuff Regal Cinemas!) I earned enough points for a free small soda. But guys I was dying of thirst. So I did the responsible thing anyone trying to watch calories/waistline/health would do, I passed up the free soda and opted for a large bottled water. It cost me $5.25. WTF?!?!? Seriously America you have your priorities effed up when the soda is free and the bottled water cost more than a magazine.

Weekend Dish

Saturday I went to the Autumn Fest at The Market at Traders Village. Clockwise from top left: pumpkins & gourds (random fact about moi: I hate carving pumpkins...probably because I'm terrified I will puncture my hand because I'm wrestling a damn pumpkin with a knife), Seneca Salted Caramel ice cream from the Cayuga Lake Creamery (om nom nom nom), wine tasting, & quilts.

A Day in the Life of Lazy Girl

Yesterday I work work worked like a busy bee to finish everything in-time because I took Friday off. Then I hopped, skipped, and jumped into my car to go home where  I promptly changed into running gear, because 1) I NEED a run (who am I?) and 2) my foot has been feeling better, and 3) I haven't ran since the 5K last Saturday. Well....

then this happened. Literally 10 minutes in, the ball of pain from hell started again and the run promptly turned into a walk. My face says it all (attractive no?).

So then I did 40 minutes of yoga on YouTube, which I have to say did make me feel better. And then I looked outside and saw this beauty happening.

 So of course I had to bathe in this beautiful light before I jumped in my car to meet one of my best friends for dinner.

Where this was consumed at the Happy Family in Seneca Falls.

 The Chicken Szechuan Style with white rice and veggie egg roll.

This is an actual sit-down restaurant and the food is fresh-ish (more-so than a buffet would be anyway), however even though I only ate half of that monstrosity of a veggie egg roll, I had some serious Chinese-food-regret going on. Perhaps my body is trying to tell me something? Perhaps it's telling me, "Hey Amanda, don't eat deep fried food, because you may think you want it, but it's only going to hurt your stomach!" When will this lazy girl ever learn?

There is nothing quite like seeing yourself on camera (coughYouTubecough) to kick your butt into high gear for losing weight. Tonight I had my first podcast with the lovely Tiffany Collinsworth. The video is kinda awkward, but it was our first one. So yeah....remember how this was suppose to be a weight loss blog? It still is. The weight is still there. That's one of the biggest reasons why I couldn't bring myself to delete this. It felt like giving up. But truth be told, I haven't really been even trying lately. My foot does feel slightly better, I'm rolling it over a golf ball as I type this -according to my marathon-training brother-in-law I may have an inflamed tendon and this helps. J also gave me a foot massage; he's pretty much the best :) All gushing aside I am going to be starting a 6 week challenge tomorrow to help shed some of the lard and it ends on Thanksgiving!

Oh if you'd like to see my awkwardness in all my glory watch the video. Stay tuned, tomorrow I will be posting my goals for week 1 tomorrow.

So after about 6 minutes of searching for it on the YouTube link thingy here on blogger I could not find it so here is the URL link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WL0yT3T4XI&list=UU-LFkVkC-2ci1BRxQp9Dx0Q&index=1&feature=plcp 

hey bitches

I've been thinking about this a lot; whether I should continue this blog or not. I've devoted the past few months to a much-less-personal & much-more-hobby-focused blog about cupcakes cupcakesbymandy.blogspot.com. Even though I stopped writing on here, I couldn't bring myself to delete it. After much consideration I am going to start posting much more actively on here once again. So you dear readers probably deserve an update about what's been a-happenin' in my life:

• I "graduated" from RIT for my Master's. Now I must note I cannot actually put a "M.S." after my name. Why? Because I still have to write my thesis and defend it. ugh. There will probably be a lot of bitching & moaning discussion about this to come in an effort to psych myself up for it. (Seriously what program gives you 7 (?!) years to complete the degree? ) It's not like I'm getting my Ph.D. here. But on the bright side I no longer have to commute to Rochester for classes 2-3 times a week! On the darker side I now have to pay my parents rent because I'm done with classes for good. Eww.
• I've become obsessed with #whatshouldwecallme. I'm actually kinda pissed I never thought of this before because that website is seriously my life. 
• I will be co-hosting a vlog! Eek! Tomorrow is our first show and I'm slighting freaking out. So if you're curious as to what I sound/look like head on over to fingerlakes1.com and give it a view.
• Over the course of 3 months I ran five 5Ks! ahhhh! big deal people, no, HUGE deal. But right now something is wrong with my left foot. It happened this past weekend around the 2 mile mark, when something felt very wrong with my foot, but being the trooper that I am (lie: I had no choice really) I finished strong and even shaved a minute off my last 5K! More to come on these runs.
• I am about to go visit a new born baby and his mama, and therefore need to cut this short.

Work is trying to make me fat

With these donuts... But I will be strong and not fall to their temptation. *ok 5 PM you can hurry up now* only another half hour!