Meathead Monday

For starters I'd like to introduce Meathead Monday. Lemme give you a little weekend recap and then we'll get down to business.

Solid weekend! Spent Saturday on a relaxing with a buzz canoeing with Ben, just the two of us. It was pretty damn awesome. I ended up catching a big ol' bass and had a smile plastered on my face for the majority of the day. It was the most perfect weather! We're hoping to do the same thing next weekend, so much so that our canoe is still on the truck. Haha I swear it's not because I didn't wanna help Ben unload it...

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. Dinner with new friends and a couple beers with old ones. I will politely point out that grocery shopping post patio beers will make you forgetful as hell. There's a shopping cart somewhere with a case of bottled water still on the bottom. If you find it, let me know, I paid like $5 for that sumbitch. Shit.

 

So I'm trying a little something I'd like to call Meathead Monday.  I'm sure my weekend adventures are incredibly entertaining, but this'll give me a way to challenge myself and be held accountable.  In the past I did Weigh-in Wednesday, but since the scale hasn't moved I don't really wanna play with it anymore.  Instead I'll take Monday as an opportunity to share something super meatheady.  This week, PROTEIN.  Today, and the rest of this week, I will be eating a shit ton of protein.  I'm already off to a decent start this morning and the rest of the day's looking pretty promising.

 

First, I destroyed my little biceps at the gym.  I woke up a little late and yelled at Ben for not waking me up sooner (relax, I already apologized).  I went to the gym all in a rage and did a teensy bit of cardio followed by the bicep exercises below:

30lb barbell - 10 reps x3
20lb barbell - 10 reps x3
10lb dumbells - hammer curls - 10 reps x3
24lb pulley - 10 reps x3

Then, I got home and did something I rarely do.  I cooked breakfast.  By some kind of miracle I still got to work on time.  Then I packed my lunch and did some math so I could add up my protein #'s for the day.  Today I have consumed, or will consume, the following:

• 2 egg whites
• 1 strip turkey bacon
• 1 cup spinach
• 1 cup 2% milk
22g of protein

• 1 tilapia filet
• 1 small chobani yogurt
30g of protein

• 1 small chobani yogurt
7g of protein

• 2 grilled chicken drumsticks  (no skin)
• 2 servings of fresh mozzarella
50g of protein

109 total grams of protein ain't too shabby!  A good question is How Much Protein Do Women Really Need? and after doing the math it looks like I should be around 90.  So I'm pretty good to go.  I'm curious to see how a protein increase affects my hunger and energy levels for the day.  I'm hoping to go for a run this evening and a few other nights this week!

Luckily my roommate totally fits this description.

Tomorrow I'm gonna annihilate my triceps so that I look extra good in a tank top for dinner with my girl crush one of the nicest people I know!  Yeah, that's right, I may have already picked out my outfit.  Don't judge me!!

Do you have a fitness challenge for yourself this week?  Tell me about it!

Goodness

Goodness, that's what my weekend was filled with.

Friday I was terribly horribly sick, and by that I mean I had a premeditated mental health day scheduled.  Why?  So I could spend the day with my BFF, Bran, before she goes back to shaping America's youth ;)  We lucked out with the weather like crazy and went to our favorite vineyard (expensive wine, but an awesome atmosphere) and had a little picnic lunch and did a wine tasting.  We bought a bottle of their finest cheapest tasty wine (that shit was still $28, I'm bringing a flask next time) and settled in for a relaxing afternoon.  No matter what kinda mood I'm in, she's the fixer.  I can't think of many other ways I'd rather spend an afternoon!  Good luck going back to school Mrs. H – and I can't wait to hear the endless flow of kid stories!  Oh yeah, and let's start Friday HHH back up regularly, it's the only way I'll continue to survive.

Then, while beginning my daytime hangover, Ben and I headed down to a near and dear friend's place to celebrate her birthday with a little HHH.  She went a little bigger than the typical crowd I have at my place, but we met some crazy nice people!  Ben's still talking about the calendar he got signed by Ravens cheerleaders who were in attendance, seriously, wanna see it?  He'll go get it and show you, then he'll say, "This one's my favorite!"  Gotta love being surrounded by incredibly nice people, the bday girl being one of the kindest ones I know.  I mean, how can you not love someone that has this up on their wall?!

 

Saturday was complete with crabs.  A day with crabs requires no further explanation.  Also, we wanna buy this Nova, because it's badass.  Can I borrow $3,500?  Thanks.

The rest of the weekend was super laid back, just the way I like it.  Looking forward to a week of healthy eating and some solid exercise.  Tomorrow's two-a-day Tuesday and I'm starting body pump back up with the BFF, I've been skippin for a little while.  Speaking of, when it starts to cool down again I think I wanna start hot yoga again.  I.  Love.  Sweating.  And I'm gonna be doing a hell of a lot of it this week…are you?

Dear Healthy Lifestyle

Dear Healthy Lifestyle,

I realize I haven't been around for a couple, ok maybe a few, weeks.  I'm sorry, kinda.  I'm gonna be honest, I felt like I was putting in the effort but I wasn't getting much in return.  It's a two way street, ya ass!

So I did it. I cheated on you. I fucked around on you with UNhealthy lifestyle and it felt damn good.  I skipped the gym for 2 weeks and caught up on my sleep, I ate relatively shitty more often than I wanted to (like a foot long sub in one sitting).  I drank…lots…and on weeknights.  Yeah, you drove me to drinking.  I may or may not have eaten cookie dough.  Go hard or go home, right?  Don't judge me.

Well, as much as I'm a little ashamed, I think I needed it.  Sometimes a break can be good right?  I think going forward I'll learn to appreciate you a lot more.  I missed so much about you!  I love the way you make me feel and the fact that you make me feel better about myself.  You make my pants fit better.  You reduce the likelihood of a muffin top situation by like 80%.  You increase my confidence exponentially.  We might need to have a talk about how you peer pressure me to go shopping…but let's talk about it while we go shopping, shall we?

I'll have you know I went to the gym this morning and wrecked my arms.  Serious case of spaghetti arms.  What can I say, I'm trying to look good for you.  Then I took this selfie, wearing your favorite shirt.  You're welcome.

I'm gonna go ahead and swallow my pride though, and ask if you'll take me back despite my cheating ways?  I promise I'll be good to you.  Whatcha think?  I'll be waiting by the phone for your call, or lezbehonest, you'll probably text me.

I love you and miss you.

Rain Rain Go Away

Ok ok so I haven't been the most timely with my posts.  But here's a little weekend recap.

My father in law, step mother in law and brother in law came up for the weekend.  They hadn't been up in a while so we were pretty stoked for their visit.  The men had planned a canoeing/fishing trip for Saturday that I was gonna join them on, that was kinda the main focus of the weekend.  Obviously I had one too many beverages on Friday, which made getting up on Saturday a little bit of a chore.  But we hit the road around 8.  It rained for about 2/3 of the trip (we were on the river from 10-4), I didn't catch any fish (I stopped giving a shit after a little while) and my father in law saw me peeing on a little rock island in the middle of the river (I'm talkin full eye contact, aw fuck he just saw me).  But, at the end of the trip the hubs told me he was proud of me for not bitching being such a good sport and that trumped the fact that I was cold, wet (not in a good way) and just a little bit closer with my father in law.

My parents came over for dinner and drinks on Saturday evening.  This sober sister watched the dads get wrecked on some bourbon and sat there watching them talk about how much they loved each other.  It was pretty awesome.  Old men for the win.  It was a quality weekend surrounded by family and friends.

On Sunday I headed out for my third ever blind date.  Ok ok, blind date sounds creepy, but I went to meet a blog reader/instagram follower that happens to live close by.  We had been emailing for a while and finally got some plans in place to grab lunch and a beer at this cute little restaurant where the waiter says "groovy" a lot.  I'll admit, blind date track record is pretty spotless, I was 2/2 going into this one  and kept hoping that a third wouldn't be pushing my luck.  Well, it wasn't, we had a delicious lunch, a delicious beer and then we sat and shared some great conversation for abouuuut 3 hours.  The place was totally empty so we weren't holding anyone up or being a waste of space.  While we were sitting, these random little girls walked up and gave us bracelets they had made.  It was pretty adorable and cough cough, generous.  I'll go ahead and say the bracelets are a reward for neither of us shanking the other on this epic blind date.  I love meeting people that have a similar outlook on life, don't get offended easily and enjoy laughing as much as I do.  Can't wait to have another 3 hour lunch!

In other news, I haven't been to the gym in who knows how long.  I'm just not feeling it!  I don't know why, I'm exhausted in the mornings (I have been staying up extra late to do work) and I value my sleep more than normal.  Here's hoping I have better gym news to report the next time I write, because right now I've got absolutely nothing.  I did plan some tasty meals for lunches this week, so that's good, because if it was unhealthy I wouldn't be doing a damn thing to work it off.

It's raining today and rain makes me wanna throat punch people.  Come back sunshine, I feel less murderous when you're around!