Clothes

HI!!!

So being a woman, and a girly girl at times, i love clothes; But i lack that fashionista gene that most amazingly dressed women have. I am slowly discovering that i can create this fashionista gene the more i look at Pintrest and stalk other peoples blogs and look in magazines and watch certain TV shows. I am actually quite enjoying expanding my fashion horizons. However, if like me you are not super rich, we do not have the money to keep buying a bunch of different things. What i am slowly learning is that you spend your hard earned money on a few very good quality neutral pieces that will never go out of style (or that you will at least love for a very long time) and supplement it with fun and funky (but cheap in price and quality) pieces from places like Target, Walmart, Old navy, Forever 21 etc. Also SALES, shop the sales at your favorite expensive places, you may go 3 times and find nothing but that 4th time you’ll strike gold with that item that got left behind on the last sale that is now double discounted and you love it and its your perfect size!

Another great thing to do is follow those plans for travel that everyone is posting. Like beach vacation: 22 pieces that make 40 different outfits.

Here are some of my favs:

Winter outfits

http://www.outfitposts.com/2013/02/one-suitcase-winter-vacation-capsule.html?m=1

European vacation

http://www.outfitposts.com/2013/08/one-suitcase-european-vacation-capsule.html

beach vacation

http://www.bloglovin.com/viewer?post=1840106237&group=0&frame_type=a&blog=3889345&link=aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRwcm94eS5nb29nbGUuY29tL35yL091dGZpdFBvc3RzL34zL3dWREp2cExVVWxnL29uZS1zdWl0Y2FzZS1iZWFjaC12YWNhdGlvbi1jaGVja2xpc3QuaHRtbA&frame=1&click=0&user=0

business spring

http://www.outfitposts.com/2013/04/one-suitcase-spring-business-casual_29.html#.U02C6VVdUwE

I found these in my wanderings and really like them. I am slowly building up these wardrobes so i am set with many outfits without using all my money to buy clothes. As i create my outfits i’ll post some follow-ups 🙂

These are just a starting point take what these women have created and tailor it to your style.

Post some pics of the outfits you create, I would LOVE to see them 🙂

Talk to you soon.

 

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Hiking

Happy Monday!!!!

I hope everyone is having a great day! Let’s talk about one of my favorite outdoor activities….hiking. Hiking is actually one of the first things I did to start the turnaround of my life.

The community college I went to had this bunch of classes called continued education, or something like that. There was this class called Reno’s Best Urban Hikes, it was, I think, 4 hikes over a few weeks; it was all local so I didn’t have to buy much gear. I used my school backpack and just put some snacks and extra layers in it. I LOVED the hikes and had a great leader who taught us the essential things you need to carry with you .

A year or two later, with the same trainer, I took her train for half dome class, it was 10 hikes each getting longer and longer. Unfortunately I couldn’t go with them to half dome because I was in the middle of summer school but it was a great summer thanks to so many hikes.

In 2010 I hike the Andes to Machu Picchu….wow what an amazing experience! This was during the first big step in my life changing habits and boy was I sooo not in shape for that hike. I was the last person to make it to the summit but I refused to get on the horse or let my guide carry my bag (I can be quite stubborn hahaha). I got altitude sickness the first night of the hike and wasn’t drinking enough water, my guide finally gave me a Gatorade that I am pretty sure saved me from dehydration since I didn’t have a hydration bladder and wasn’t drinking from my giant water bottle enough.

Making it through that 4 days hike was one of the hardest, most grueling things I have ever done and also one of the most rewarding, life affirming things I have ever experienced. I will one day go back and do it again when not under a time constraint so I can hike the entire thing 🙂

Bring it to the present where I went on a beautiful hike last weekend

Beautiful Waterfall

Definitely not my sexiest photo ever hahaha

AND I am just starting my planning for hiking the first section of the Pacific Crest Trail about this time next year.  I am splitting the PCT into my own sections; I am going to about 3 weeks next year and do a few weeks each year until I have it done 🙂

Comment and tell me about the hike that stands out the most in your memory or the a big hike on your bucket list.

Talk to you soon!!!

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Rock Climbing Date

Howdy!

Here is quick post about a fun date night option. I am currently single (please no crazy stalkers Lol) and have signed up on Match.com, and let me tell you, you can only go to so many movies or cocktail hours or coffee dates before you try to get creative, or start gaining weight from the theater food, alcohol and sugary coffee Lol.

So a week or two ago I have a first date with a guy and we decided to meet at an indoor rock climbing gym!

Now let me tell you I hadn’t done rock climbing in a good 5-7 years. OMG what a workout for my arms! And it was fun and different! We would sit and talk while watching other people and picking our next route up, then each go on the wall once or twice then talk some more. It was very fun and laid back; it burned some great calories and helped build some muscle. And best part…..if it’s a dud of a date you can just spend a little more time on the wall then you do actually talking to your date lol.

Also this will show you whether you will have fun working out with the other person or if they are a little too serious and crazy about their workouts.

What is your go to first date option? What would be your perfect first date?

Talk to you soon!

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Refueling

Hi!

I hope everyone is well! Things are good here and training is going great! Let’s talk a little about hydration and refueling.

A few years ago, when I got the crazy idea of starting to run from watching the contestants on the biggest loser starting to complete a marathon at the end of their seasons, I got the running bug and decided I wanted to do that. I talked to a friend of mine who ran a little and had competed in a few races and she suggested the book “The Marathon Method” by Tom Holland to me. I ordered it from amazon and absorbed the first few chapters and thought, “yes! I am totally going to do this!” Fast forward 4-5 years and now I am FINALLY going to do this hahaha.

Don’t get me wrong I started slow just working up to even running a mile and now my average mile on the last 7 mile run I did was about 13:30 min/mile (not a record setting pace lol) but I feel great and love it and will continue to improve.

When I started working out more my great friend told me to make my hydration drink 1/3 of something like Gatorade or PowerAde and 2/3 water. This way you still get the benefits of the drink with the extra sugar and electrolytes when you are sweating but don’t go overboard with the sugar and salt. In Tom Holland’s book he recommends taking a drink of water every 10 minutes, this will obviously be a little different from person to person, 10 minutes usually works very well for me.

When I got passed the 4 mile mark I knew it was time to start thinking about refueling, my friend B (who is running most of these races with me) and I went to REI to get some refueling gels and whatnot. Thankfully REI has pamphlets for almost everything they have so we were able to look at all the different selections and have them broken down for us. We both bought a handful to try, I got some honey stinger gels, some GU gels, some energy Jelly beans and some PowerBar chews; At Whole Foods I grabbed a few Vega refueling gels.

The consensus between B and I was that the Honey Stinger gels tasted the best and didn’t leave you too uncomfortable, GI wise. B is slowly gathering all the ingredients to make her own energy gels (continuing to buy them can get mighty expense at $1.50/each) I’ll let you know how it goes. Though B did not try the Vega gels, I really liked them as well, they didn’t taste as great and were a little thicker but they are vegan which makes me feel a little better about them. Vega gels are also just over an ounce and a half whereas the honey stinger is only about an ounce. I definitely did feel like I had a little more sustained energy from the Vega but the honey stinger is sooooo yummy. I will continue to go back and forth between the two until I possibly start making my own gels.

Oh and we definitely preferred the gels over chews or jelly beans.

Now for timing on refueling; Tom Holland does every 30 minutes, B and I settled on every 2 miles. If we are going slow this could be every half hour for us or if we are running out 13:30 average it is every 27 minutes for us. If we really push ourselves it may only be 25 minutes but you get the point. Play around with it all and see what works best for you.

 

What is your favorite mid-workout refuel?

Talk to you soon!

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New Life

Hello!

Long time no see. Since I last posted, which was FOREVER ago, I have graduated college, moved to another state and started “real” life hahaha.

Part of my “real” life, aside from getting my first apartment and my first full time, grown-up job has been to find that drive to work out again and become the athlete I was when I was younger. Last May I mentioned starting to run and running my first 5k. I accomplished that and fell in love with running.

Me after the 5k.

I even convinced my mother to do it with me!

After graduating and moving I finally got back to running this January and have gone a little crazy  I am signed up for and training to run my first half marathon on May 18th. I am up to running 7 miles and this weekend I make the jump to 9 miles.

Along with the half marathon I am going to volunteer in the morning at a rugged maniac race then run in the afternoon….the weekend after the half marathon. Then in August I will volunteer at a tough mudder on Saturday and run it on Sunday.

My plane ticket is already booked to run a marathon in October in a different destination, then fly back home and two weeks later run a smaller marathon up here with a college from work.

After I complete the marathons in October and rest a little bit, I want to start training for a triathlon. Some new life goals of mine are to run all 29 Ironman triathlons, and run marathons all over the world, along with always exploring new fun ways to workout and be healthy.

Ready to take this training journey with me?

Tell me if you love or hate to run and why?

Talk to you soon!!

*In case you don’t know, the Rugged Maniac run is a 5k obstacle course run in the mud, and the Tough Mudder is a 10-12 mile obstacle run in the mud. I didn’t know before this year hahaha.

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