Happy New Year! A look back...

So tell me, how was your 2014? Are you a better person today than you were 365 days ago? I definitely feel like I am!! 

Last year I set 14 goals... Today I'm confident I hit 5 and I know I made a respectable effort on an additional 5... I'd say progress in 10 of 14 areas the first year I set goals like this is something to feel great about AND gives me room for improvement in 2015! 

Time for me to start writing my new goals, but before I get into that here's a summary of last year:

1. 14 date nights with Mike love that man!
2. 14 workouts with Mike (no, not that kind...) We were going to the gym together off and on all year.. A valuable effort to keep up with in the future :)
3. 14 loop walks with Mike Thank you puppy!
4. 14 creations (art / paint / sketch / flowers / videos / crafts / etc.) 2013 was such a creative year with all our wedding stuff I was really hoping to carry that over into 2014 but I didn't quite hit this goal. I did create our 2013 BYE book and a photo book for mom for Christmas. I made a shadow box with memories from our cruise. I tried to get creative with some of the Coke bottles we had collected, and I did redecorate our built-in in our living room. And for Alyssa's shower I put together a tub of wines for different milestones - at the shower we painted cherry blossoms and also decorated wine glasses - plus for the wedding I made a video of pictures of John and Alyssa growing up. 
5. 14 new-to-me recipes I think I'll have to make it a goal to blog any new recipes in 2015.. I know we made some good stuff this year.. just didn't keep track!
6. 14 new-to-me beers Do I get credit here even if I didn't keep track of everything? :) Between our beer of the month club and Taco Mac I'm confident I hit this one. 
7. 14 new-to-me movies I know I hit this one! Netflix plus our flights to and from Europe plus TV.. Win!!
8. 14 industry webinars (attend and write about here in the blog) I don't know if I even attended one of these this year! I'll have to find a new means of professional development for 2015!
9. 14 articles (read and write about here in the blog) Here is one that I lacked in motivation - lots to read this year but I did not do much to hone my writing skills. Thinking I will need a twist on goals 8 and 9 (and 4) to make progress in 2015. 
10. 14 jump rope workouts per month I never successfully worked this one into my workout lifestyle
11. 14 stretching workouts per month I believe I worked towards this one every month but never found the consistency I need. I want to keep this as a focus in 2015 for sure!! 
12. 14 fitness "challenges" I did not keep great track of this one! I know I did a bunch of stuff and fitness was an overall huge focus for the year, will work on better tracking in 2015! 
13. 14 language lessons a month on Duolingo I totally lost interest in this, even with a vacation in Europe!  Thinking I may need to recruit a buddy if I want to do this for real.. Hmm...
14. 14 random acts of kindness (I'll need to search for ideas so they'd won't be entirely random) Something to work on in 2015 I think... wonder how I could get started with this...

Where did December go??

Wow! I totally thought I wrote a post earlier this month - just goes to show how much of a whirlwind of a month it was!  Let's remedy that with a quick recap of the month, shall we?

I think four things really stood out this month (five if you count my workouts falling to the wayside, but that isn't something I want to highlight too much):

1. Eric Church concert!!  Matt and Dana Lotz drove out to join us.. Halestorm opened and EC put on a fantastic show!

2. Stout's first road trip!! Heading northbound for Christmas in Pennsylvania our pup figured out how to  ride like a champ!

3. Transiberian Orchestra concert!  Kristina organized a family outing to see TSO at Wells Fargo and we had a blast!

4. A Cogill Christmas!!  What a weekend - we helped John and Alyssa host Christmas Eve... headed over to Jim and Kelly's for Christmas dinner and a showing of Elf... and icing on the cake - Tim and Kristina organized and hosted Cogill Christmas with dad's side of the family!  Awesome trip overall :)

Quite a December if I do say so myself!  Now we are heading back to GA to bring 2014 to a close and kick off 2015!  #bringiton! 

HIIT #6 (yes I skipped #5)

So the 25th was our travel day, #slacker didn't get a make-up HIIT in... I did have tennis on the 24th, got to the gym on the 26th, did yoga on the 27th and ran a (treadmill) 5k on the 28th - so not a total waste of a week. 

November 30th - last High 5 HIIT of the month!  And I did it Tabata style!

4 minutes

 - jumping jacks

 - butt kickers

 - high knees 

 - ski twist jumps

4 minutes

 - chair dips

 - squats

 - push ups

 - inner thigh lift (left, then right)

4 minutes

 - plank

 - side plank dips, left

 - side plank dips, right

 - mountain climbers

Short workout but pair it with two good puppy walks and I'm feeling pretty good!

Let's bring on December!

High 5 HIIT #3 and #4

I'm delinquent in writing these but I have been keeping up with the workouts!

#3 

5 push-ups - 10 squats - 15 dips - 20 alt. lunges - 5 jumping jacks

5 squats - 10 dips - 15 alt. lunges - 20 push-ups - 5 jumping jacks

5 dips - 10 alt. lunges - 15 push-ups - 20 squats - 5 jumping jacks

5 alt. lunges - 10 push-ups - 15 squats - 20 dips - 5 jumping jacks

50 second plank

#4

From the Tone It Up girls: https://s3.amazonaws.com/ToneItUpDownloadDocuments/Workout+Printables/Love-your-body-HIIT-Tone-It-Up-Printable-fat-burn-cardio.pdf

Three Rounds / Five Exercises per Round / Perform Each Exercise Twice / 20 sec on 10 sec off

#feelingawesome

High 5 HIIT #2

2 minute dance party!

Tabata (4 min):

 - jumping jacks

 - skaters

 - butt kickers

 - high knees

no rest...

30 seconds each:

 - high plank

 - low plank

 - right side plank

 - left side plank

 - plank up and downs

 - plank jacks

 - rolling T's

 - low plank

no rest...

Tabata (4 min):

 - jumping jacks

 - squat jumps

 - plyo lunges right leg

 - plyo lunges left leg

3 minute cool down and stretch

Tonight was a High 5 HIIT and Roll as after I stretched I rolled out the lower body!

In full disclosure, I did this workout today, the 11th, not the 10th as intended... but I rocked it!!

High 5 HIIT #1

2 minute dance party!

Tabata:

 - burpees

 - jumping jacks

 - mountain climbers

 - butt kickers

90 sec rest...

Tabata:

 - burpees

 - jumping jacks

 - plank jacks

 - tuck jumps

2 minute rest...

30 seconds each:

 - air squats

 - calf raises

 - left leg pendulum lunges

 - right leg pendulum lunges

 - left leg step ups

 - right leg step ups

 - left leg island hop

 - right leg island hop

 - plié squats

 - left leg side kicks (pulse leg while in a squat)

 - right leg side kicks

 - squat jumps

2 minute rest...

30 seconds each:

 - walk out push ups

 - plank

 - rolling T's

 - plank

 - alternating Spider-Man push ups

 - plank up & downs

 - left side plank with dip

 - right side plank with dip

 - mountain climbers

 - diamond push ups

 - plank jacks

 - plank

2 minute rest...

Tabata:

 - burpees

 - jumping jacks

 - skaters

 - high knees

No rest...

Tabata:

 - burpees

 - jumping jacks

 - right leg plyo lunge

 - left leg plyo lunge

3 minute cool down and stretch

.5 mile walk with Stout

Hello November!

As I'm sure you're expecting... I'm kicking off this month with new goals!  

But first, a recap - October was great.. I really enjoyed the Tone It Up FriskyFall challenge, at least 5 weeks of it, not a total win but definitely not a loss. Stout and I did tons of walking, I wish I had a full count for the month. Still not meeting my stretching goals so going to switch that up for November. 

Now to look forward...

 - Even days = stretching days

 - Odd days = extra long walk days

 - 5 days (5,10,15,20,25,30) = High 5 HIIT workouts

I'd also like to get Stout better trained...

 - No jumping to greet people

 - Recall

 - Stay

 - Go chill

I'm no master dog trainer so we'll see how this goes!

Meet Stout

Chocolate "Stout" Kubicki

Mike and I have been considering adopting a puppy or dog for some time... and back in September this guy showed up at our house in need of a home - it was meant to be!

A neighbor of ours rescued this stray puppy who was found at a storefront on the side of a pretty busy road not too far from here. She got him cleaned up and checked out at the local vet and then found him a home up the street!  

He was about 4 months old and in need of some love. It was a little weird at first, just having a puppy in the house, but it's working out nicely.  This last month with him has been pretty awesome!  He and I wake up early (I aim for 6:30 am) and walk between 1.5 & 2 miles, we try to get one or two additional walks in throughout the day as an outlet for puppy energy. 

Stout is overall pretty chill and a lot of fun to have around. 

Mid-October Fitness Check-in

Wow! This #FriskyFall challenge is no joke! The #ToneItUp girls are a lot of fun!  I am really enjoying their workouts... I'm not finding myself bored or wishing I had chosen a different workout which is huge for me (I'm doing this to have fun after all). I've now completed weeks 2 and 3 of the challenge, getting into week 4 now.  Yesterday did not kick off on the right foot, poor time management and I had a tennis match after work so I think today (Tuesday) will be day 1 and then I will add in an extra workout Saturday morning. 

I have not been tracking all my miles as diligently as I did when we first got the puppy, but I've been working to get to my 3.5 miles a day... I'm going to have to track a few days each week to make sure I'm hitting my goals!  He is so much fun to walk with and I really enjoy when Mike and I both take him for a walk.  I'm toying more and more with running, wondering if I'm slow enough that it wouldn't hurt the pup's growth and all that. I need to remember to ask the vet about that one.. see if we can get some variety to the outings. 

I really need to step up my stretching routines... Especially with tennis starting back up again. Suppose there's no time like now to get restarted with that!  Three weeks left in the month to balance out this goal.. I'm on it!

Thanks for checking in with me and helping to keep me accountable with these goals... They're a lot of fun to track this way and I can't wait to see where this blog takes me!

Week 39 Lessons... Life with a Puppy

So I have been tracking workouts here, however right now I'm spending time figuring out how to live with a puppy in the house. 

Fitness wise this means walking three to four miles a day, sometimes five on Saturdays! This week the puppy and I walked over 23 miles together!

Mike and I walked to the gym on Sunday where I did a variation of last week's workout... one of my favorite parts of the weekend for sure :)

I decided I'm swapping out this upper body challenge with a more intense one I found online from the ToneItUp girls (Alyssa first told me about them and has done a few of their challenges in the past.. looks to be good stuff though I can't say I'll be doing any toning in my bikini). 

I'm setting some refreshed goals for the month of October... Now that I'm more used to the puppy schedule I'm hoping this new challenge will get back to "training".  

October Goals:

 - walk 3.5 miles / day with the puppy

 - Tone It Up's Frisky Fall challenge: http://toneitup.com/2014/09/friskyfall-challenge/

(I'll be starting with week 2 on their 3rd week..)

 - stretch or foam roller three times / week

Week 38 Workouts & Stuff

Flew home Sunday evening and was definitely suffering from allergies / cold / hangover... Something bringing me down - but I wanted to stay above that... So:

Monday.. Walk to the Enclave (about a 12 min walk) where I did my #lbd workout in the park:

 - 60 tricep dips

 - 60 jumping jacks

 - 60 mountain climbers

(I did three sets of 20 of each (from what I recall)

.. then I walked home

Tuesday.. Still under the weather but I did manage to rock the end of my #lbd challenge!

 - 60 high knees

 - 60 squats

 - 60 lunges

Tuesday night, things got crazy here in the Kubicki house when I took in a stray puppy that my neighbor rescued on Monday. So with fighting a cold and taking in a puppy, my strength training was kind of put on hold - but my walking increased a TON! 

Wednesday Thursday and Friday (and Saturday & Sunday for those keeping score) I woke up and walked the puppy at 6:30AM for about 30 minutes. 

Wednesday Thursday and Friday I took a couple breaks throughout the days to walk the puppy and we probably did 20 minute walks in the evenings. 

Saturday was killer! Got my walk in with the pup at 6:30 and THEN ran into a crew about to walk the loop and so Mike and the puppy and I joined... Bringing my day up to about 70 minutes of walking!  Not much after that, just low key taking the puppy out and stuff. 

Sunday I FINALLY made it back to the gym!  Mike and I walked up to the gym where I did a killer lower body workout:

 >> 3 times through:

 - 10 squat jumps

 - 10 knee tick jumps

 - 20 squat with alt. press (12.5 lb weight)

 - 10 "Island Hop" lunges each leg (12.5 lb weight) ((front lunge, side lunge, reverse lunge 10x one moving leg then switch)

 - 20 dead lifts (12.5 lb weights)

 - "Glute Burner" (10 leg lifts, move leg to front and do 10 more, bend leg and lift while kicking back, tap knee to knee / ankle to ankle 10 times... Repeat then switch to other leg)

 - 20 "Body Surfing" (like a superman with leg curls)

 - 10 One Leg Booty Bridges each leg

 - 20 "Booty March" (marching high knees while in a bridge)

I also kicked off a new 30 Day challenge (woo!) so in between the tree rounds I did:

 - 6 tricep dips

 - 4 push ups

 - 8 mountain climbers

And after the 3rd round I did the R.I.P.P.E.D ab workout (4.5 min)

Felt good so let's see where next week and this new challenge (oh and that puppy) take me!

Week 37 Workouts & Stuff

On the road again... Late nights and little sleep didn't do the body much good - I did get in two solid workouts and I'm looking forward to stepping up my game when I get home next week!

Monday.. Walked to the gym and did my #lbd workout (45 jumping jacks, 45 burpees and 45 high knees) and then I did the R.I.P.P.E.D ab workout - def counting this as a cardio day!

Tuesday.. Travel day.. if only that was a workout in itself! Office and work-dinner so no workout

Wednesday.. Up an to the office and out for a team dinner - no workout today

Thursday.. Woke up today ready to take on the world! I claimed up from the hotel basement to the 3rd floor then hit the gym!

I did the below circuit from top to bottom and then reversed it (just one 100 sec plank as the peak of my pyramid). 

-100 jumping jacks

-20 squats (one 20lb weight)

-20 plié squats (one 20lb weight)

-30 tricep dips

-30 mountain climbers

-40 leg lifts (20/side)

-40 bicycle crunches

-50 lunges (two 15lb weights)

-50 sec wall sit

-100 sec plank

Friday.. Travel day again

Got a killer workout Saturday morning as well in honor of the little brother's 30th! 

September Goals:

- Strength workouts: Thursday (sorta Saturday?)

- Cardio workouts: Monday (sorta Saturday?)

- Loop walks: 0/5 (toward monthly goal)

- Rower workouts: 0/5 (toward monthly goal)

- Current plank time: 100

- Fruit consumption: There has got to be a way for me to think fruit when I'm on the road!  Got some good eats over the weekend thanks to Kristina! 

Week 36 Workouts and Stuff

Happy September Y'all!  I'm finally writing this post on Sept 12 and realizing I gotta get back to doing this regularly so I get better notes about what my workouts were and how I felt!

Monday.. Kicked off this month with a good workout up at the gym! I warmed up with a 5 minute walk on the treadmill next to Mike, then when he got into his run I hit the weights...

I used 12.5 lbs weights the whole time except for the forward step-ups with shoulder press, I dropped down to 10 lbs for the 2nd round of those. 

Once I finished the #lbt set at the bottom I went through the leg routine as a single circuit (1x on everything, none of the timed parts). Again with the same 12.5 lbs / 10 lbs combination as before. 

At this point Mike was still cooling down so I did a quick 8 min ab routine: 50 sec work / 10 sec rest.. 

- rolling t's

- bicycle crunches

- high plank knee circles

- penguins

- up/down planks

- flutter kicks

- Russian twists

- superman hold

One word for today... KILLER!!

Tuesday.. Hit the gym after work with Mike then rocked this arms & abs workout using 12.5 lbs weights

After the above I had a few minutes before Mike was ready to leave so I did the ab routine from R.I.P.P.E.D.

Wednesday.. Pretty sure I did something this day but cannot remember!!

Thursday.. Some days you have to make time... I had about a 40 minute break before my end of the day conference calls so I got my butt up to the gym!  Quick lower body workout with some cardio worked in... I owned it!

Friday.. No workout but I tried to make up for it by hitting the gym with Erin on Saturday AM!

September Goals:

- Strength workouts: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 

- Cardio workouts: maybe Wednesday?.. Gotta step this one up!!

- Loop walks: 0/5 (toward monthly goal)

- Rower workouts: 0/5 (toward monthly goal)

- Current plank time: 90 sec

- Fruit consumption: 2 apples this week...

Week 34 Workouts & Stuff

Summer is coming to a close and so last weekend Mike and I took a trip to Cinnamon Beach in FL - great little getaway HOWEVER the trip messed with my blogging routine!

We got home from FL late Sunday, and then I traveled to RI for work with a lingering head cold so week 35 was a travel / recovery week... We all need them every once in a while, right?

Anyway, I wanted to record a quick summary here, as best as I can remember (and get myself back on track for next week!)

Monday... Tennis was rained out so I went up to the fitness center in the evening and rocked 22 minutes on the rower

Tuesday... I hit the gym at lunch 

and then Miriam and I got in our final tennis match - another 3 set win!!

Wednesday... Just a walk at lunch, I was outside for about 30 minutes

Thursday... travel day - no workout

Friday... 60ish minute walk on the beach with Becky

August Goals...

 - 3x Strength Workouts (incomplete just Tuesday)

 - 2x Cardio Workouts (complete Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday!)

 - Total Loop Walks (month): 4/4

 - Total Rower Workouts (month):  3/5

 - Current Plank Time: 70 sec

I think for September I'll aim for 5 loop walks and 6 rower workouts... It's a shorter month and I have a couple of trips again but I've got to keep myself moving forward and feeling great. 

I'll keep my strength and cardio goals and add in that I'll do 3 more 30 day challenges this year (I'm currently half way through the 'Little Black Dress' challenge) and I'll be sure to share summaries as I complete them. 

#bringingtheawesome 

Week 33 Workouts & Stuff

Monday... PM gym workout!

 - Rower 20 min

 - BOSU-ball workout 2x through, approx. 15 min

I am still feeling some of Friday's workout.. mix that with walking 10 miles yesterday and my legs are tired like no other!  Tonight's workout was low key but still a grind as I work through the pain saying bring it on!  Tomorrow is a new day and a new workout!

Tuesday... AM workout!

Time to work in some upper body attention - I pulled out an old Self workout that I had really liked (read actually felt after) when I brought it to the gym a few months ago. I decided to get the most out of my time I'd work in some Tabata intervals between sets... I can't speak to true health benefits there but it kicked my butt and felt AWESOME!!

Wednesday... AM workout!

I found this workout on FitnessBlender.com called "Best Butt Workout" and just had to try it!  I started my morning with a walk (approx. 27 minutes), then hit the basement for a workout that proved to keep the sweat flowing. I used 12.5 lb weights for everything except for the last set... and next time I do this I think I'll try 15 lb weights instead. After lifting I went for one more cardio blast with a little 4 minute Tabata before I cooled down and stretched. Great start to the day!

Walked the loop tonight!

Thursday... my glorious day of rest this week!

Friday... Lunch time gym workout!

Today I used my lunch break to walk to the gym with Miriam.. I got ready by putting on sunscreen then doing my 5 minute booty workout then head out to meet Miriam. Once we got to the gym she hit the machines while I set my GymBoss for 10 rounds or 50 seconds work / 10 seconds rest, then came up with the idea to do the above circuit... 10 rounds was twice through the circuit then I rested before going through the whole thing again... I felt a little unorganized but good overall!

Miriam took me through the R.I.P.P.E.D. ab workout which was 5 minutes (a tough 5 minutes too!!). 

Great way to get out today and kick off the weekend. :)

August Goals...

 - 3x Strength Workouts (complete Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday)

 - 2x Cardio Workouts (complete Monday and Wednesday)

 - Total Loop Walks (month): 3/4

 - Total Rower Workouts (month):  2/5

 - Current Plank Time: 60 sec

Week 32 Workouts & Stuff

Monday... T2 Tennis with Miriam - about 90 minutes including warm up (and a 6-2, 6-4 win!)

Before I hit the showers I did 2.5 min of abs and 5 min of legs 

Tuesday... Up early and to the basement for this morning's workout:

 - http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Natural-Brazilian-Butt-Lift-Round-2-Thigh-Shaping-Butt-Lifting-Workout/dt/

Wednesday... Up and to the gym!

 - We started with the 10 minute warm-up pyramid

 - Then the Core Workout took about 25-30 minutes to go three times through

 - When there was still time left in our hour Kris jumped on the elliptical and I claimed the rower

Thursday... Event at CCI

Friday... Up and to the gym! 

 - T2 Tennis with Miriam - About 2 hours including warm-up (and we won 3-6, 6-2, 6-3)

August Goals...

 - 3x Strength Workouts (complete Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday)

 - 2x Cardio Workouts (complete Monday and Friday)

 - Total Loop Walks: 2

 - Total Rower Workouts:  1

 - Current Plank Time: 30 sec

Hacking My Work Day

This morning as I was enjoying my quiet cup of coffee I got to thinking... "there has to to be a way to be productive and enjoy my day more!" (and yes I had the thought with that exclamation point). Perusing my Twitter feed and reading some on LinkedIn when I came across the 'Pomodoro Technique' and did some digging. 

This technique is a "time management method" that breaks down the day into intervals. This seemed interesting... I like intervals in my workouts so why not in my workday?

My work day flounders when I get caught up in something (like e-mail) and then poof - hours of my day are just GONE!  And the worst part is I have so little to show for all that time and in the end I'm more annoyed than anything else. So I was looking for a work-day-hack and this one seemed it could fit the bill. 

So I set out with my to do list and turned it into a schedule of sorts - 25 minute intervals with breaks worked in. The cool part is that I was in control of my to do list rather than the other way around. 

Another thing I had read about in several different articles was e-mail management (you know, don't let it manage you).  Many people claim that you should not start your day by checking your e-mail because then your to do list is created by someone else (outside of your control), and in that spirit I've been waiting until I'm in the office before I look at my work e-mail, that way I get my morning coffee hour to myself and am not sharing it with my job. Since today was a new work-day-hack I thought I might take this one a step farther and not schedule my e-mail time until late morning. 

All that said, today was awesome!  I feel like I got stuff done which is SO not how I typically feel on a Monday afternoon. One observation from today was that I'm more naturally drawn to a 30 minute interval.. But I think I will keep pushing myself towards 25 minutes just because I like the flexibility it creates... plus it's less intimidating when I need to tackle a task I'm not overly interested in. 

I totally want to do this every day this week, and next, and the next!  In reality I want to keep myself honest here and see if I can make this my new working style. That's how much I liked it!  It will be interesting to see how I can work this around my meeting schedules (and maybe in time change my approach to meetings).

#WorkDayHack #TimeManagement #BringingTheAwesome 

Week 31 Workouts & Stuff

Accountability is key.. Right?  Here I am again keeping myself honest with my fitness goals. I enjoyed tracking everything last week so I'm going to see if this log can help drive better habits and maybe some change (August feels like a great month to lose some LBs!)!

Monday: T2 Tennis with Mike, about 90 minutes including warm up (and we won 6-3, 6-3)

Tuesday:  Typically my gym day but we are in the process of applying for life insurance and have someone coming out here for blood work in the afternoon so that means no food after 9:00am.  Going to take it easy so I don't get too hangry before they get here!

Got some stretching in after work:

 - http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Upper-Body-Active-Stretch-Workout-Arms-Shoulder-Chest-and-Back-Stretching-Exercises/hp/

 -  http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Lower-Body-Active-Stretching-Routine-Low-Impact-Workout-to-Tone-and-Stretch/hr/

Wednesday:  Gym Day with Kris

3x: 50 jumping jacks, 40 mountain climbers, 30 high knees, 20 plank jacks, 10 burpees

3x: 20 bicep curls (12.5lb), 20 tricep extensions (12.5lb for 2, 10lb for 1), 10 overhead presses (12.5lb), 10 lateral raises (10lb)

3x: 20 'ab lifts' (10lb ball), 50 crunches on stability ball, 20 walking lunges (10lb), 25 bicycle crunches

Thursday:  I decided to add an extra week day workout this morning!  Here I combined two workouts I found on Pinterist:

As Many Rounds As Possible:  50 mnt climbers, 50 alt lunges, 50 plank taps, 50 suitcase crunches

AMRAP = 3.25 today (I got through the circuit 3 times plus one extra Mountain Climber set)

And who doesn't love some Tabata in the morning?!  

20/10: Burpees, Jumping Jacks, Push-ups, High Knees, Squats, Butt Kicks, Rev. Lunges, Plank, Bicycle Crunches, Mnt Climbers

This was 'only' 20 minutes of work, but I think the intensity level qualifies it as #awesome!

T2 Tennis with Miriam, RAINED OUT

Friday:  Gym Day with Kris... Only we walked the loop instead since neither of us were feeling great when we got up. 

Once I got home I made sure to get in some lower body exercises:

4x:  http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Booty-Blaster-Killer-5-Minute-Butt-and-Thigh-Workout-Challenge/ci/

An awesome week! So glad I added in that Thursday workout... I think 3 a week will be a good adjustment for this month!

#ibroughttheawesome #bringontheweekend #soawesomeithurts 

Week 30 Workouts & Stuff

So to help keep myself honest I want to start sharing my workouts here. I figure this way I'll have a record of what I've done and hopefully be motivated to keep pushing myself. 

Week starting July 21...

Monday:  T2 Mixed Doubles with Mike, 2-hours including warm-up (and we won 6-3, 7-6)

Tuesday:  Supposed to be my gym morning but I woke up SO sore and groggy that I went back to sleep (not normal for me!). This means I had to work in my workout throughout the day, so I found some shorter routines that I could do in my office

  - 3x http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/5-Minute-Butt-and-Thigh-Workout-for-a-Bigger-Butt-Exercises-to-Lift-and-Tone-Your-Butt-and-Thighs/ie/

  - 2x http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Booty-Blaster-Killer-5-Minute-Butt-and-Thigh-Workout-Challenge/ci/

Mike and I got out for a 30 minute / 1.7 mile walk at lunch!

T2 Mixed Doubles with Mike, 2-hours including warm-up (and we won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4)

Wednesday:  

Ultimate Singles, 2.5-hours including warm-up (and I won 4-6, 7-5, 6-4)

Thursday:  glorious day off!!

Friday:  Gym day #2.. Did not happen - I miss my gym buddy!

 - I know my core needs work so I did a quick workout: http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Fitness-Blender-8-Minute-Abs-Workout-No-Equipment-No-Excuses-Abs-and-Obliques/fj/

 - I did walk to lunch with Nicole (two 18-ish minute walks to the club house)

 - While I was searching for Tuesday's workout I also found these stretching workout that I wanted to work in since I always lack in this area... http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Lower-Body-Active-Stretching-Routine-Low-Impact-Workout-to-Tone-and-Stretch/hr/ and http://www.fitnessblender.com/v/workout-detail/Upper-Body-Active-Stretch-Workout-Arms-Shoulder-Chest-and-Back-Stretching-Exercises/hp/

Ultimate Singles, 1.5-hours including warm-up (and I won 2-6, 6-2, 6-3)

In summary - a TON of tennis this week!

#ibroughttheawesome #bringontheweekend #soawesomeithurts 

July is when I actually start blogging...

What a fun weekend!  There was supposed to be a good bit of tennis.. Friday night Miriam and I played in the rain (not fun.. not really smart either), but then my singles match was cancelled on both Saturday and Sunday due to the rain. It was nice to relax but I still have to make up that match so now we're scheduled for Friday afternoon. On top of that this week I have matches scheduled tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday nights and our forecast is rain rain rain so we'll see how this goes!

Saturday I got up to the gym with Mike and then I rocked a second 2014 goal when we stopped at Taco Mac for a late lunch and I had a Sam Adams 'Everyday IPA' with our wings. It was an easy-to-drink IPA that was perfect on a rainy Saturday afternoon.  That night Mike and I went out to dinner with our friends Kris and Jon to one of our favorite local spots, Goin' Coastal. Great drinks, Great food, Awesome night!  After dinner we walked to their sister restaurant and had some drinks and enjoyed live music with our friends Becky and Brian.  We had a great bit of fun that made up for the gloomy weather!

Yesterday we grilled some yummy kabobs and I made a tasty dressing for some broccoli slaw tossed with cherry tomatoes, nothing elaborate but still a new recipe that I may need to bookmark and make again!  I'm very much enjoying salads with cherry tomatoes this summer.. I'll have to find something else to make with them this week since they're so good!

I'm also quite excited to almost be done with one of my annual creations - our 2013 photo album!  I'm just waiting on a few more pictures from friends then should be good to order. Next up I need to figure out what to do with our vacation pictures. Our Mediterranean cruse was awesome and we have almost 700 pictures from the 11 days we were in Europe, I think that may warrant it's own album!

This week I'm on my own at the gym, I'm in no rush to bust out the jump rope, but I'm sure I'll find something to kick my own butt... this week I want to do upper body on Tuesday and lower body on Friday. I've also started incorporating stretching into my evenings before bed... Feels good and I think it's a method I can keep up with!  Now I just need to figure out what to do about my jump rope goal.  If I replace it I'll do something else fitness related for sure, maybe learn how to do a handstand - maybe not - we'll see what I come up with!  

March... April... May... June... How is it July already?!

A few months ago I posted about how I hadn't been doing so well with my 14 in 14 goals... and then not only that but I disappeared from the blog-o-sphere for over four months!!  Good thing the year isn't over yet and there is still time to redeem myself!

14 New Recipes - We have been cooking in this house for sure!  Just this past weekend we made a Tomato and Corn Salad from a cook book that Erin and Mark gave us as a wedding gift, and some delicious grilled apples with a butter and maple syrup glaze to accompany the pork tenderloin Mike smoked on the Traeger.  All of the dishes were so DELICIOUS!  I'll have to see if I can organize a list of the new recipes we've enjoyed this year... I'm confident there will be at least 14 this year!

14 Jump Rope Workouts a Month - Now this one has been hard to start let alone maintain... I just cannot get myself into the jump rope this year!  I'm thinking it might be time to find a new fitness goal, I'll work on that and get back to you.

14 Industry Webinars - Another one that is just not jiving with my year... this is something I was into last year but times have changed.  

14 Articles - This one I've very much been doing the reading part, but not so much the follow up here on the blog.  Again - no big deal I can remedy this before the year's end!

14 Stretching Workouts a Month - I'm going to start holding myself accountable here... there are more than 14 days left in July so it's time to get moving (or stretching if you will)!

14 Date Nights with Mike - I will say we have been having quite a fun year... I haven't been keeping track of our dates like thought I would for this goal, but I think we've been out - just the two of us - at least once a month PLUS we just got back from an AMAZING 7-day Mediterranean Cruise so that's gotta count towards this, right??  

14 Workouts with Mike - We have been to the gym a few times so far this year... let's estimate 4??  I'll work on at least 10 more workouts between now and New Years.

14 Loop Walks with Mike - This has been a GREAT year for walking the loop!  Mike and I have been out at least 5 times and we're trying to get into it a few mornings during the week too.  I hope we keep up with that because it's such an awesome way to start the day!

14 New-To-Me Movies - Hmm... I have seen my fair share of movies this year.  Off the top of my head I know I've watched The Lego Movie, Frozen, The Great Gatsby, Saving Mr. Banks, Captain Phillips, Anchor Man 2, Wreck it Ralph, Premium Rush, In Time, A Good Day to Die Hard - that's (at least) 10 so far!  I am totally ROCKING with the movie goal!!

14 New Beers - Here is one I know I'm on track for but I will need to pull together a list later.  

14 Random Acts of Kindness - I struggle here because I'm not sure how to define a random act of kindness... I'll have to work on that so I can keep track of my good deeds!

14 Creations - Well for Alyssa's bachelorette party earlier this year we painted wine glasses AND did one of those wine & painting parties where we painted cherry blossoms... and I think pulling together the shower gift for Alyssa was pretty creative... but I might need to step up my game here too.

14 lbs Lighter in December - How much did I weigh on Jan 1?!  I think I was up over 190.. maybe 195??  Well I'm holding strong here and going to keep at it to try to be 180 or less by the end of the year!

14 Fitness "Challenges" - This one has been quite fun... The Biggest Loser was awesome, and now I forget how I ended with the 30 Day Burpee challenge, I'll have to see if I kept track in my calendar.  Throughout the month of June I did a '100 challenge' where I rotated 100 squats, 100 push-ups, and 100 crunches every day (Sunday's were off).  Hmm... that's only 3 and the year is more than half over - next week I'm going to have to jump on this!

Ok, that was a long update but now that I'm back I'm excited to rock this blog and rock these goals!

February's 14s Check-in

So for those of you keeping track at home... February was apparently a month to slack!  Not only did I fade in my 14/month goals, I also didn't track them all that well, like I said, slacker!  

I will comment that this month I had a big win in that I've found a way to deal with an ankle issue that I've had for a WHILE, amazing how a little ankle brace can make the world of difference.  I am no longer in pain after walking / zumba-ing / jumping rope / etc.

14 Jump Rope Workouts / Month... January I had 4 jump rope workouts, and as I mentioned above I didn't track this month well at all.  As I look back at my calendar I only see 3 mentions of jumping rope - clearly the wrong direction for meeting my goal, but I'm staying hopeful for what I can do in March  #stillnoproblem #itotallygotthis

1. February 12: Jump Rope @ home
2. February 14: Jump Rope @ home
3. February 25: Jump Rope @ hotel fitness center

14 Stretching Workouts / Month... This one I simply did NOT track this month - I had such a great start with this goal and I really think writing it down would have helped me more but I can't go back in time and fix this, I can look forward though!  

Our local elementary schools have a "Word of the Week" on their signs, and ours has said "FLEXIBILITY" for quite a few weeks now.  At first I was disappointed that it wasn't changing but now I'm using that as my motivation to get moving and get more flexible!  

I'm going to take a new approach towards this goal and really focus on doing some stretches every day, ideally when I wake up.  I found this article: http://www.rodalenews.com/easy-yoga-poses and so I'm going to start here and see how this goes.  I will also do a better job of tracking that I do this (I'm the only one who is going to hold myself accountable) and that I keep up with the foam roller.

14 Language Lessons / Month... Total 0 - My only complete success in January faded away to nothing!  I have no excuses, HOWEVER I have new motivation to get on this one... Mike and I will be flying to Barcelona this June - we just booked ourselves on a Mediterranean cruise!!!  I am SO excited and think that might be just the ticket to get me re-motivated on this language goal!

Overall...

I didn't do so great in February with my monthly goals, but I am consciously working to make this a really great year and so far I can say that every day is better than the last.  I have lost weight, I'm active at least 4 or 5 days a week, often times more.  I'm still cooking a lot at home with Mike and just enjoying married life.  

I'm excited for March as I see it as a chance to redeem myself with these monthly goals!  I'm also looking forward to hitting the Woodmont Fitness Center with Kris - we're planning on getting up to the gym hopefully twice a week and we've challenged each other to a 30 day Burpee challenge (I hope it goes better than the 30 day Plank challenge that I started in February).

February Fun - A Look At Wedding Details Part 5

Our AWESOME Bridal Party and VIPs!

I'll be honest, we have quite a few VIPs in our lives - and there were so many people who we knew we wanted to be at our wedding, but when it came to picking our bridal party - it was so natural to keep it all in the family and so that was what we did.

So let's take a look at who we have in that picture up above... 

starting with the flower girls and ring bearers:

 

From the left: Isabella Cogill, Stephen Cogill, Owen Mack and Kylie Cogill

Owen fit right in with these Cogill kids and made friends pretty quick.  He and Stephen played the role of Co-Ring Bearers... Stephen carried a big pillow with the letter K and Owen carried the sign we had borrowed from Matt and Dana's wedding that read "Here Comes the Bride".

Kylie and Isabella were beautiful flower girls - their dresses had ruffles just like mine which turned out to be a really neat look and I just loved having them carry the large sunflowers.  Bella was a trooper, after having a bit of a growth spurt after buying the dress shoes we couldn't find a larger size (in PA or GA) so she rocked shoes that were a bit too small!

They all did such a great job and really made the day so fun!

Dan Edson and John Cogill were our groomsmen, Danny taking on that critical role of "Best Man".  These guys did a great job helping Mike relax and enjoy the day.  I don't know all of the details but I believe they made it a point to watch College GameDay and also cooked a delicious breakfast including 3 pounds of bacon smoked on our new Traeger!

I grew up with three awesome brothers, and no sisters - lucky for me my older brothers married two amazing ladies who were up to the challenge of standing with me on my wedding day.  I couldn't choose just one so I went with "Co-Maids of Honor".  

These girls were awesome, helping with every last detail from picking up my dress super last minute to getting up and partying with me in our Wedding Day Zumba.  They also put together a beautiful toast that I am glad we have on tape because it was too good to only hear once! 

We needed some quality music for our ceremony, 

so we asked Ryan Cogill and Alyssa Krauss to play a duet for our processional

 

They performed Jesu Joy of Man's Desire, and then Ryan switched over to the trumpet to play a duet of the Trumpet Voluntary with John Cogill when I walked down the aisle.

I always knew I wanted my little brother to play the trumpet when I walked down the aisle, and I was so excited to have some additional performers with him - this was just another one of those details that made our day so extra special.

Alyssa also performed a solo of the Ave Maria during the lighting of our Unity Candle.  I'm pretty sure she decided on that song while I was getting hair and makeup done - I'm very glad she resisted the peer pressure to play the Notre Dame alma mater!

We had Dan's beautiful wife, Lindsay Edson read for us - 

The best part is what you can't see in this picture - 

Lindsay was wearing some beautiful cowboy boots for the occasion!

Last but not least we asked Jim and Tim to be our ushers... I was excited to have this option so that Dan and John could hang out with Mike and not worry about doing double duty.

These guys did a great job of escorting our guests to their seats while our DJ was playing some super fun music by a band called the Vitamin String Quartet - they do string variations of pop music!

 You see here Tim stepped in and brought the video camera, Mike and I did not hire a videographer but I couldn't resist having our ceremony caught on tape.

Parents aside, I think this covers all of our VIPs with a special shout out to Kyle King who took ownership of the video camera during the ceremony!

February Fun - A Look At Wedding Details Part 4

DIY and Personal Touches

What bride doesn't have a few great ideas for DIY projects??  

As you see above, we had the idea to welcome everyone to Atlanta with a bottle of good old fashion Coca-Cola.  We turned these into our escort cards (telling people where to sit) and they doubled as a wedding favor.  You'll notice the name tags are cut in the shape of the state of Georgia... hand cut I might add (my advice to a new bride would be to choose a shape like a square - lol!).

I still think these were such a cool and fun idea - and Mike and I have 12 bottles left so we are sharing a Coke on the 19th of every month for our first year as a married couple :-)

Since the card box sat right across from the escort card table - we kept with the Coca Cola theme and found this old crate on Etsy for people to leave their cards in for us.  I made the burlap bow on the corner - I'm not a professional in that department yet but I think my couple of wedding bows came out pretty good (for an amateur like myself).

Here you can see the card box in the mirror

I carried the "Georgia" idea into our table numbers.  From my first planning days I knew I wanted to do something fun for our table numbers.  I even considered turning it into some sort of puzzle that everyone had to figure out in order to determine their table number - lucky for our guests I didn't have time for that!  We did pick fun and unique numbers that each had a story - and we printed them on cards again in the shape of the state of Georgia - here you see one of them on the table:

Our tables were numbered:

• 02 - The day in September when Mike proposed & Sarah said Yes!
• 19 - The day in October when Sarah & Mike were married!
• 21 - The day in December when Sarah & Mike shared their first kiss
• 13 - 2013... Best Year Ever!
• 45 - The address of the W Atlanta Downtown where Mike proposed
• 412 - The number of days that Sarah & Mike were engaged
• 447 - The number of weeks that Sarah & Mike have been a couple
• 07 - ...all we truly know about Old No. 7... ...is that it was important enough for Jack to put on his bottle
• 29 - the day in March when Mike & Sarah closed on their first house
• 137 - Mike & Sarah's address on Hedgewood Lane

It was so much fun to think of those table numbers and I think at least some of our guests enjoyed them - and if people didn't like it, too bad - it was OUR day!

Another area where I had some fun was with our programs.  I discovered that I had Adobe Photoshop on my Mac (who knew?!) so I started to play around with it - at the same time I was exploring on Pinterest and Etsy for different program ideas and ended up pulling together a few different ideas to tell a cute little story about our big day.  On one of our trips to PA earlier in the year, my mom had given us an extra basket that she had for us to use for our programs - so I took the burlap ribbon and wrapped it around the handle and added a bow on one side... then I fanned the programs as you can see in this picture here so that they filled it.

Funny thing - we had some last minute changes to our reader, so I did not actually print and cut the programs until the Thursday before the wedding - while Mike was out golfing with some of our guests... I suppose every bride has her last minute things as well, right?!

One last thing that I pulled together was our Unity Candle... as Mike and I were putting together our ceremony details and decided we wanted to light a Unity Candle, and after the fact I realized this was something we would need to find / buy / etc.  Another Pinterest inspiration led me to the idea of having a lantern for the candle - and then I picked out a fall colored (and scented) candle to fit in with our decor, and took the opportunity to add some burlap ribbon to the candle itself.  I don't own straight pins so I took wire cutters and cut off the sharp end of a safety pin and used that to fasten the ribbon on the candle - one pin right in the back, worked like a charm!

White columns provided the column and glass for the candle to sit on, and on the other side of the ceremony space was the beautiful display that Sarah and JoAnn put together - I think I mentioned before it was one of my favorite things so I just have to post the picture again here!

All of these little touches really made the day extra special for me... I really feel like I put myself into everything that became our wedding.  I know not every guest knew what I had put into this, but overall I think everything came together so beautifully I just couldn't be happier!