Guest Post: Flexibility Training

Well, another weekend come and gone. Between the big game yesterday (I noticed today that all my nails have mysteriously been bitten off) and some wine tasting today with my parents, these two days just flew! Thankfully, I'm excited to have one more awesome guest post for you as I gear up for a full week off. (Rough life, I know.)

I had the pleasure of meeting Katie at BLEND Retreat this year, and she and I both happen to be studying for the same exam. Her post today is incredibly informative and beneficial--for me and you! Enjoy!

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Hi Everyone!

My name is Katie and I blog over at Talk Less, Say More where I share my healthy living journey, fitness tips and sometimes even some good music!

 I’m a music manager turned healthy living and fitness enthusiast and like Julie, I’m in the middle of studying for my NASM Certified Personal Trainer exam.  Fingers crossed for some good news in the coming weeks... ;) <-- Good luck, Katie!!!

While Julie is busy studying away, I’m so excited to be able take over her corner of the internet for a little bit today.  You see, I too should be studying but when Julie asked if I’d be interested in guest posting for a day, I couldn’t say no.  Besides, a little writing would be a good break from having my head stuffed in a book and I figured I could find a way to also make this beneficial for both myself and Julie.  <--Thanks! 

You might be asking how?

You see Flexibility Training is an important aspect of a fitness training program and often one that can be overlooked.  And since it goes a bit deeper than sitting on the floor and stretching it out after a workout, I thought I’d take the moment to share the different kinds of flexibility training programs and what they consist of.  I hope you’re able to take something away from this (and Julie - study up! ;) )

Now don’t go yelling at me for talking nonsense (just yet), I’m going to break down the different stretching techniques which will hopefully make this easier to understand.

I hope that info-graph helped break down the various stretching techniques.  If you’re anything like me, you might be slightly intimidated but think about your workout regimen and what’s missing - chances are it’s flexibility training.  And if you’re really like me, you’re highly intimidated by foam rolling (self-myofascial release); I promise that despite it being a bit awkward at first, there’s no reason to be afraid - just do it!

And as always, remember that flexibility techniques should only be performed on muscles that have been identified as overactive or tight.

Hopefully you were all able to learn a little something about flexibility training or at least understand the importance and different techniques.  And hopefully I didn’t scare you all too much. ;)

Stop by Katie's blog for more of her awesome healthy posts!

Veterans Day Weekend

A weekend filled with what weekends should be filled with.

Pancakes on Saturday morning...

Game night with friends, including Jenn's Southwest salsa...

This tasty wine that I kept calling Antonym...

New games--Dixit (a French game)...

and Survive...

 (both games were SO fun!), and I made this dessert.

On Sunday, this happened...

Uggs!


Honestly, the weekend was really nice. I studied, graded, cleaned house, caught up on quality time with the hubby. We even tried to go out on a little date Sunday night--dinner and a movie--but the movies were all sold out and we didn't feel like waiting an hour and a half for dinner. So burgers and a movie at home it was!

And now it's a short week of work, but I have quite a bit going on between now and then. Aside from the usual grading and studying, I'm especially looking forward to a little Thanksgiving feast at work! All the teachers are bringing festive dishes (I'm providing a green salad--simple but perfect because I don't have a ton of time), and we'll feast during lunch.

And finally, tonight's workout rocked!!! Tina's Best Body Boot Camp called for about 35 minutes of cardio, and I looked forward to it all day. Particularly after a tough commute home, a sweat session felt amazing. I incorporated some hills into my running! I ran between 6.5 mph and 8 mph with inclines of 4 to 8. It was a nice challenge, and I'm certain I'll be nice and sore tomorrow.



I apologize for a rather disjointed post tonight; I'll be back with a WIAW tomorrow!

And in keeping with the random theme: What are your Thanksgiving plans?
I'm so excited for next week!

Guest Post: Instant Motivation

Hope you had a lovely Wednesday out there. Do you realize we only have two weeks and one day until Thanksgiving? Not that I'm counting...

As you may have noticed yesterday, I'm trying to find small ways to take some stuff off my plate. So I asked Alex if she would be interested in writing a guest post for me, and you lucked out! She has some awesome advice about motivating yourself to be active.

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When I was asked to guest post for this lovely lady, I was pumped. She is one of the newest blogs I started to follow and I am sure glad I did. I mean isn’t everything better with burgers?

For those of you that don’t know me, I am Alex from The RunWithin. I am a distance running, sarcastic 22 year old trying to find that balance in life after college. With a full time and part time job, I struggle to find time to do everything. But one thing I never let fall by the way side is my training. I know I am that rare breed that just goes out there and runs for miles, but what I have found is that everyone can get that little motivation to just do something. How you ask?

1. Find the prime time for you. So I am an early bird, waking up daily at 530 am to get my runs in. However, not all people function so great in that hour. I am all about finding when you most enjoy getting your sweat on, even if it is just a walk. Maybe you are a night owl and can jam out at 8 pm (as I cuddle with my couch…). Maybe you have a lunch break that seems the most ideal. Experiment to find the highest points of motivation.
   
2. Ask for help. Tweet, text, call, do anything to your fellow friends to ask for that motivation. I can bet, one tweet that says, “I am really struggling to get out the door” will be responded to in an instant with positive mantras. I love the community that has formed through the blog world where even in your most unmotivated time; there is someone there to motivate you.
   
3. Plan it out. I am all about laying out my clothes the night before so that when I wake up, I have them staring at me. Maybe it is packing a gym bag the night before that works for you.
   
   
   
4. Positive affirmations. Kind of goofy, but I am all about posting up some self talk mantras around my apartment if I know the workout is going to be a tough one. It is always nice to have that little reminder that you won’t regret your workout.
   
5. The most important…. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. So, maybe you are lacking motivation because your body needs a break. Burn out can happen so be patient, take rest days, really take care of your body so that it wants to have those workouts rather than dreading them. Pushing too hard will only make working out about all the wrong things. I work out for energy, stress and endorphins. Find your real reason for exercising.

We all need a push sometimes so I hope this list got you in the groove! Now go sweat!

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You can check out Alex's blog, The Run Within, for more words of inspiration and sarcasm. :-) My favorites!

Thanksgiving in August

Today I have another guest post over at HealthDecide! Check it out, let me know what you think. Hint: It's all Olympics-related!

I'm loving all your comments and thoughts on last night's post. I think we can all continue learning--from each other, from life experiences, from ourselves--and I appreciate your input!

Speaking of yesterday, man am I sore today! Boot camp is no joke, and Tina really changed things up this time around so we're challenged in a whole new way. This week we're working on "push" and "pull" exercises on different days. I really like the way Tina designs these workouts and am excited to be learning more about different ways to approach strength training and cardio. As I said, I'm already sore today and can't wait for tomorrow's challenge! As Barney would say...

(Source)

Today, Terry and I laced up our sneakers yet again and hit the pavement for a five mile doozy. I tried something a little different and listened to a few chapters of Harry Potter on audiotape while running, which made the time fly. As much as I love running with Terry because he really pushes me, I also struggle running in complete silence. Terry would be perfectly content to run 10 miles with no iPod, no conversation, but I need a little something. TV, music, chatting, I'll take what I can get (and a variety is ideal!). I usually fire up my iPod about halfway through a run because I don't want to force Terry to chat with me (though I am very interesting, of course), but I don't want to just think about how much it hurts to keep going.

Actually, though, today was a perfect opportunity to try out the audiobook, because I felt an ache in my foot about five minutes in. Since it was my surgery foot (<--awesome swollen foot photo), and since I also felt a pain in it on Sunday, I opted not to push it. Walking didn't hurt at all, so Terry went ahead while I walked a shorter route (maybe three miles). I think I'll spend the rest of this week completing lighter cardio in order to manage our long run this weekend. Since we're so close to our half marathon, I don't want to cause any injuries! And of course, RICE: rest, ice, compression, elevation. Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Target tomorrow to grab some compression socks (hate when that happens... :-).

The highlight of the day today was dinner! I found some turkey breast cutlets at Trader Joe's last week and froze them until today. I marinated the cutlets in some homemade chicken broth for about two hours and grilled them up on the stove. Meanwhile, I boiled some small potatoes, and finally, I whipped up two batches of Courtney's zucchini latkes (minus the red onion because I didn't have any). And to top it all off, I whisked together a little gravy, which tasted awesome on everything.

Who says you can't have a turkey feast in the middle of summer? The turkey was a welcome change from chicken, and the gravy and potatoes made for fantastic comfort food. Despite the heat (our apartment has been sweltering all day), this meal really hit the spot. Plus we have a few leftovers for tomorrow!

I hope it's been a great week for you so far! And now, I leave you with a montage of Scout, playing while I changed the sheets today.

Don't forget to check out my post at HealthDecide!

Do you work out with music? Podcasts? TV? A friend? In silence?
I just don't have very interesting thoughts, because cardio in silence makes me want to cry.

What I'm Loving Lately

Be sure to check out my guest post over on Health Decide's blog today! I'm excited to have been offered the opportunity to provide a recipe and some tips on cooking at home for Orca Health. Here's a little more about them:

Ora Health provides 12 patient education apps for the iPad and iPhone.  

The point of each, from SpineDecide to BreastDecide, is to deliver best practice patient  education in the most elegant and engaging format possible. When we receive feedback from users where they describe “playing” with our apps for hours (which we frequently do), we know we’ve hit our mark. In addition to being used by patients to learn more about their anatomy, condition and assistance in Finding a Specialist, doctors and non-MD healthcare professionals use our apps to aid their interactions with patients. 

One of our apps, EyeDecide, was chosen as the ‘Best of the iPad/iPhone Medical category in App Store Rewind 2011. It, along with FootDecide, was featured in the iTunes ‘Apps for Healthcare Professionals’ Section. Orca Health was featured in the StartUp Mobile Health Pavilion at the 2011 mHealth Summit. Additionally, we won the Health 2.0 Europe Startup competition, beating out competitors from France, Germany, and the UK. 

Our apps are all rated 4.5/5 on the App Store and are regularly featured as ‘What’s Hot’ for the Medical App Store. Several of our apps have also have debuted as the #1 downloaded free (EyeDecide) and paid (SpineDecide, AgingSpine) medical apps. The leading industry publication, iMedicalApps positively reviewed ShoulderDecide and KneeDecide and characterized them as “a great asset to improve patient-physician communication.”

Check them out and show them some BLWB love!


What I'm Loving Lately:


Reese's. Dark chocolate Reese's, to be precise. I had to buy them to make some cupcakes, and we've been snacking on a few here and there since.

I keep getting ones that are double-wrapped. 

Our apartment. Which is where I spend almost 24 hours a day lately, without complaint. I've been cleaning and organizing, and today I rearranged some wall decor so I could hang Terry's gift (first photo below). Our apartment is tiny, but it's home and it makes me happy. It's where I come home to my husband and my cat, where I cook, where I work out sometimes, where I feel safe and comfortable and relaxed.

Summer nights. It's HOT here. Usually our neck of the woods doesn't get too crazy hot because we're fairly close to the beach, but the breeze just hasn't been a-blowin'. Poor Scout is too hot to do much of anything, so he just plops down wherever he happens to be at the moment. But hot isn't all bad; summer means we get to relax and watch TV and do crossword puzzles and chill (well, not literally). 

Strength training. I've been doing a lot less of it lately. As we're training for our half marathon, strength training is the first to go if I can't fit in a whole workout. Here's today's workout:

So sweaty!

I'm also stoked for Tina's Best Body Boot Camp. Remember, registration ends TODAY!!! (Friday!) If you need more convincing, check out my reasons to boot camp your booty. I'm so excited several of you have decided to join me in getting a good butt-kicking!

Superhero movies. Tonight Terry and I had tickets to see The Amazing Spiderman. Yep, that's two movies in one week! It was certainly better than Magic Mike, but not as good as The Avengers. But I love comic book movies because you get to sit near super nerdy folks who laugh too loudly at the awkward romantic scenes.


So much to love, so little time. Off to enjoy some love with my boys before bed! (Terry said that sounds bad.)

Belize - Guest Post from Terry

Hey everyone! Julie’s husband, Terry, here. This is my first post to BLWB, so go easy on me. Julie asked me to share a recap of my week in Belize.

Wish you were here!

Sitting on a dock in Belize

This trip goes back further than just a few weeks ago. You may recall Julie’s post about her not-so-great experience learning how to scuba dive. Well, my thoughts on that event were the exact opposite, and I’ve been actively diving ever since. I do pretty much all of my underwater breathing with a fantastic company, PCH Scuba, and I could not recommend them more. So if you’re ever in the LA area and want to get certified (or need a dive buddy), look them up!

Anyway, PCH put together a group trip to Belize that was too good to pass up. Julie and I had originally planned to both go, but due to restrictions in Julie’s schedule, she wasn’t able to get the time off. And because I have the most amazing wife in the world, I was still able to go.

My trip began with landing in Belize to turn around and hop on this little puddle jumper. 

Cute, ain't it?

Twenty minutes later, I landed in beautiful San Pedro on Ambergris Caye and took a cab to Banana Beach Resort. Now, there are plenty of resorts on the island, and let’s just say that they’re probably on the nicer end. Ok, definitely on the nicer end. But Banana Beach was extremely affordable, had great A/C (it’s pretty darn humid in Belize), two pools, an excellent restaurant, and sits right on the beach! My only complaint was the internet, which was shoddy at best and would not allow for any voice chatting with Jules.

Home away from home

Pool #1

Pool #2

Yep, that's a sliding glass door as the front door.

Room to beach in 30 seconds

One of the many great views in Belize

When I wasn’t in the water, I was probably eating. Lucky for me, there was plenty of great food in San Pedro. Fish and chicken reign supreme on the menus of Ambergris, but if you happen to go at the right time of year, you can catch lobster and conch season. Unfortunately, we were a bit early to enjoy the alleged deliciousness that is conch, but that just means I’ll have to go back (with Jules!). The rock star entree in the area is jerk chicken, and it’s featured on pretty much any menu you come across on the island. You may have had a jerk dish in the states, but I guarantee it doesn’t compare. And that’s 100 times truer if you visit Robin’s Kitchen, just down the street from Banana Beach.

Robin’s Kitchen may not be much to look at, but man, can Robin cook. The restaurant is literally a shack on the side of the road equipped with 3 smokers. Three of my dive buddies and I ventured on down the road and decided to try it out. Luckily, Robin had three chickens and a fish left, and prepared them just for us. Both options were absolutely delicious, and served with sides of coconut rice and beans, and coleslaw. Turns out, Robin runs the shack all by himself and is extremely friendly. He invited us back and told us to swing by early in the day to tell him what we wanted to eat, and he’d have it ready for us. Needless to say, we provided a lot of business that week. 

Robin's Kitchen - Jerk Chicken

My second favorite place to eat was Elvi’s Kitchen, which was located in downtown San Pedro. I ended up frequenting this place a few times: once for dinner and twice for lunch. A few of my dive buddies had been there a few nights prior and were raving about the garlic roasted squid appetizer. Since they wouldn’t shut up about it, I ordered the appetizer... and subsequently ordered a larger version for dinner. It was phenomenal! Melt in your mouth, smokey, garlic goodness. I’m not even sorry I didn’t get to try the rest of the extensive dinner menu. But I was lucky to go back later. Elvi’s is right around the corner from the dive shop we dove with, so it was perfect to hop on over for lunch.  My midday trips allowed me to sample their fried chicken, ceviche, and tacos. All were excellent, and were great with a Belikin beer, the only beer brewed in Belize.

Garlic Roasted Squid

Fried Chicken

Pulled Pork Tacos

I mentioned earlier that the restaurant at Banana Beach, El Divino, was exceptional. Most of the meals I had here were breakfast, and I usually had the Belizian Breakfast. It sounds a lot cooler than it really is, as it was just a scramble with fry-jacks (fried tortillas), but those fry-jacks were delicious, especially with a little sugar on them. Dinner and lunch had large menus, but the noteworthy items were the shrimp burrito (perfect balance of spice, and loaded with grilled shrimp), and the ceviche. I had seen someone get the small order of ceviche, which came in a soup cup. I knew this wouldn’t be enough for my appetite, so I ordered the medium. I don’t know who’s responsible for defining the portion sizes, but it’s a pretty drastic jump from small to medium. But hey, I’m not going to complain about it. I enjoyed every bite, and even ordered it again on my last night.

That's an iPhone for comparison... the large must be the size of the table

 

There were many other restaurants (Wild Mangoes, Fido’s, Caramba’s) and meals (really, just lots of fish and chicken) that were delicious, but they didn’t top the list like the above, with the one exception of the homemade frozen custard. Yeah, that’s right. Good, old fashioned, Pennsylvania frozen custard. We stumbled across DandE’s Frozen Custard, which is owned by a lovely Pennsylvanian couple that decided to retire to Belize. Let’s just say I’m not surprised it’s ranked #1 on TripAdvisor in San Pedro.

And it wouldn’t be a vacation without a few tropical drinks. I mentioned Belikin, which is a great lager (and they also have a pretty good Belikin Stout), but I thoroughly enjoyed the local spiced rum. Forget the top shelf stuff; if you’re ever in Belize, stick to the local spiced rum and coke, or a spiced rum and punch. They’re yummy and dirt cheap($1.50 for a rum and coke!). Speaking of inexpensive, the joke in Belize is that for Americans, everything is half off. That’s because the exchange rate is 2 BZ: 1 US, so you can find some fairly good deals.

My poison of choice

 It would be wrong of me to write a blog post about my dive trip to Belize without at least mentioning the diving. I bet most of Julie's readers don't give a shark's tail about scuba, but there were some pretty amazing things to see under the water. I spent 6 days diving off Ambergris on the world's 2nd largest barrier reef! Of those days, four were just off the coast from the resort, one was in Turneffe Atoll (pronounced "Turn F"), and another was at the Blue Hole! On the reef, I saw plenty of nurse sharks, sea turtles, spotted eagle rays, sting rays, lionfish, and grouper! We saw more of the same at Turneffe, along with the beautiful mangroves and beaches! Unfortunately, I don't yet own housing for a camera so I can shot underwater, but I was lucky to be diving with some awesome fellows who do! The following photos were taken by my buddies, Chris Kerr, Brian Ko, Dan Hienzsch, and Abe Rolick.

Two soaring spotted eagle rays! (Photo by C. Kerr)

Clear view of an eagle ray (Photo by A. Rolick)

Caribbean Grouper - yummy! (Photo by C. Kerr)

Lionfish - beautiful, but deadly (Photo by C. Kerr)

Nurse sharks feeding - don't worry, they're harmless (Photo by C. Kerr)

Sting Ray (Photo by C. Kerr)

Resting sea turtle (Photo by C. Kerr)

"...tourists... let me be." (Photo by C. Kerr)

Young sea turtle in the shallows (Photo by C. Kerr)

"Let's put a smile on that face!" - Moray Eel (Photo by B. Ko)

Colorful coral on the reef (Photo by A. Rolick)

A tiny sting ray! (I took this one from the surface)

Perhaps the highlight of my dives was my day at the Blue Hole and surrounding reef. The Blue Hole is a perfect circle in the ocean that drops to about 450 feet. It's thought to have been a dry cave, and then was flooded when the Ice Age ended. 

Source

We got to dive to 130 ft (the deepest recreational divers can go). As you can see from the above photo, there's a light ring around the blue hole. That's a sloping sand bank that drops to about 45 ft. After that, it just drops away into blue nothing-ness. We followed the wall down to around 110 ft, where the stalactites formed! These formations were at least 30 ft tall, so at 130 ft, we were swimming right around them! Due to decompression limits and density of the compressed air we're breathing (I won't go into all the dive theory), we only spent about eight minutes down there before starting to ascend. Not much wildlife aside from a few reef sharks, but it was extremely cool to experience!

Stalactites (Photo by B. Ko)

Swimming through (Photo by C. Kerr)

Reef shark creeping around the Blue Hole (Photo by B. Ko)

 Overall, I had a fantastic time! Not nearly as good a time as I would have had if Julie had been able to make it, but it just means we'll have to make the trip again.

Me free diving (Photo by A. Rolick)

Just clowning around (Photo by D. Hienzsch)

Wow! That was exhausting. I have a new found respect for you bloggers out there that do this on a regular basis. 

Happy travels!