Workout Re-evaluation

Hello my friends!

Big news: I OFFICIALLY HATE THE TREADMILL. For the past few weeks, I’ve been secretly avoiding it in my workouts. Today, I forced myself on and realized.. I hate it. I don’t wanna do it. Well, remember my post about not doing things you don’t wanna do? After about a mile of being bored out of my mind and glaring at everyone who walked within 5 feet of me, I stopped.

After about 2 minutes of musing, I made my official decision. I will not run inside on the dreadmill unless I feel like it. Instead, if I can’t run outside for my workout (increasingly a possibility since it’s cold and poopy out), I will put in my miles on this magic machine:

Non-elliptical of the foooture.. My new love.

What is that? Why, it’s an Adaptive Motion Trainer! DUH! Basically, it’s a super fancy elliptical that allows a wide range of motions that you control. So, you can go from having a long stride length to stair stepping to a long backwards stride to a short forwards stride in like .2 sec without a push of a button. I really like this machine. It feels almost like running, and I can do other cross training things on it, like simulating running backwards up a hill (WHICH IS HARD TO DO), step training, etc..

I think this machine will really increase my fitness for rugby a lot, and even help with my running. It makes me feel like I’m getting a great workout, while my treadmill workouts usually only make me feel so-so. This thing will be my new go-to at the gym when I can’t run outside.

I’m hoping to be able to try and get out for two-three runs/week over this winter. This will be hard because I hate the cold, but I’m gonna have to suck it up because I really love to run outside. We have to sacrifice for the things we love, eh?

This is why I love running. I love watching the sun rise feeling the fresh air in my lungs. I do NOT love pounding out miles in the hot sticky gym.

So, that’s where I am workout-wise. After my treadmill realization, I did a great 30 min workout on the AMT which got my heart a’pumpin like none other! It’s hard to describe the workout, but I’ll try to eventually.

I then did a little bit of legs in the form of 50 wall squats and some leg presses. Theeeen, I was pooped so I left the gym, happy with my new plan.

Tired but happy!

Do you ever get tired of doing something at the gym and need to change it, or do you stay away from routine to avoid this? What’s your favourite thing to do at the gym? Do you like running on treadmills?

Chelsea

Five Goals!

Hey guys!

I’m going to interrupt the regularly scheduled programming of five friday faves for FIVE FRIDAY GOALS! Since it’s a new month, I’m doing what a lot of bloggers did yesterday, setting goals for myself for the month. I’ve been lamely attempting to address some of my faults, but this month I want to pick 5 and stick to changing them.

SO, here we go!

1. Stop eating out of containers. THIS IS MY WORST HABIT. Whether it’s nut butter, yogurt, cottage cheese.. I always just end up taking little spoonfuls of it throughout the day. I’m also really bad with nuts and chips. It srsly needs to stop. Instead of realizing, “I’m hungry” and grabbing the closest thing to me (usually my beloved PB jar) and GOING AT IT, I want to smartly decide what I want and not eat it out of the container. It’ll be tough. But I can do it.

..Maybe I'll turn into a hamster if I eat too much PB from the jar. That's a drawback, right?

2. Read two books for fun. I have been wanting to read Room and The Help since the summer. Seriously. At college, it’s so hard to find time to read, but I’ll be going home soon and I can defs get through them, I believe.

3. Be on time a little bit more. I have a horrible habit of being late to everything (except my 9am class, in which case I’m an hour early). My mom’s the same way, and I don’t want to be known as “the late one” forever.

That's a cool clock. Maybe if I had one of those, I'd look at it more and realize I was gonna be late.

4. Spend more time with my friends. When I’m stressed, I turn into a legit hermit and hide in my room/our science center. This week, I realized I hadn’t seen one of my suitemates WHO LIVES ACROSS THE HALL for two and a half weeks (only one of which I was on break for). Ummm, that’s ridiculous. But, when I get busy, I convince myself the world is ending, leave my room at 6AM, and then don’t come back until 9PM.

5. Be more decisive. I mainly mean this in a sense of what I’m going to do at the gym, but ideally decisiveness will spread to my life. Why? Because I’m the most indecisive person ever. It takes me 30 min to decide when to eat lunch. Problem.

This is me. All the time.

So there ya go! This is what I’ll be working on this month. Some things will be a real challenge (not eating out of containers..), while I think others will be completely easy as long as I plan ahead (being on time and spending time with friends).

Even though I didn’t do Friday Faves, it’s still FASHION FRIDAY! This is actually my outfit from yesterday, because I forgot to take a picture today. BUT, I like this outfit better anyways.

I really like that purple sweater.. Can you tell? Also, that is my fav red hat!!

And, I leave you with an interesting fact. I almost fell off the treadmill this morning while sprinting. I tripped over my own feet. Treadmills are dangerous things, guys. BEWARE.

Danger danger.

Wait, I lied. I actually leave you with my first attempt at not eating out of a container. Instead of nomming on PB, I made myself a fudge-topped rice cake for my dessert. Yes, a bit of a pathetic dessert, but I have food allergies and making this was easier than baking. And it was deeeelish.

A delish way to start out achieving my goals..

Are you working on any bad habits that you have? Have you ever tripped yourself while running?

See you tomorrowish!

Chelsea