Tag: weight loss

fitness and nutrition

It’s a 1/2 but it’s a start

2chicksandapen

ktend5

Today I registered for my first 1/2 marathon. I might be crazy but in about 4 months I will walk, jog, or crawl over that finish line.

I will blog about my training along the way and of course the emotions that will go along with the whole process as well.

I have 5k’s, 10k’s and one 15k in my past, but never a half marathon. My running spans over 20 years but I’ve never been a runner, if that makes sense. I am more of a 50-yard-dash kind of girl. Quick and easy and over before you know it. I also never really ran any of those races start to finish…they all had a mix of breaks built in.

Why a 1/2 marathon? I got a push from my oldest son to sign up and guess what? I took the bait. Now it’s time to see if I can get some friends in the mix.

My most recent 10k time was 1 hour 16 minutes in the July heat. I am aiming for 2 hours 30 minutes for the half marathon. Can I do it? Let me know what you think my finishing time will be. An online bet of sorts. Send us a message with your best guess!

Wish me luck! And don’t forget to send me tips if you are an avid runner.

fitness and nutrition

Murph 2019

2chicksandapen

The infamous Murph workout. Every year as a tribute to a fallen soldier. What an honor to complete!

3rd year participating in Murph. Each year I get better, but each year I struggle. Year after year I come back to do it. And I enjoying doing it with friends.

It’s a grueling workout. Done in extreme heat with limited rest. Days of recovery follow and only the craziest of crazy normally put it on their agenda.

Well, I am one of those crazies and I have many of friends that fall into that category as well.

Some complete Murph strict. Some complete a scaled version and some even do a modified version if traveling on vacation where equipment is limited. No matter what version, the community and cheering section is like no other. Nobody is done until everyone is done! Those who finish early run more with stragglers. Those who complete with friends cheer, count and celebrate. Some even come to watch and I even saw pom-poms one year.

This year was special. I did it with my 13-year-old daughter. Her first time. A test of her will, her stamina, and her grit. She completed her flavor of the Murph WOD and felt good when she finished. A feeling of triumph and a great way to memorialize a soldier.

I got to see a Mom to be complete the murph workout with her Mom and another friend who completed it weighted for the first time.

Another guy in the gym completed it in a girl’s tank top for flair. What will be next for me and others?

I will be back again next year to complete Murph. A new challenge for me: maybe a weighted vest, maybe no partitions. Time will tell.

If you don’t know anything about the Murph workout, look it up. If you go to the gym, test your skills. Trust me, it’s a good physical and mental workout.

Be sure to look at the last picture. It signifies the end of a great WOD and a throw back to our first book, The End. The end of an elephant’s butt.

Have a fitastic day!

awareness

Are You My Type?

2chicksandapen

Last week, Chick 1 posted about her Enneagram results.

As one of her business partners, she encouraged me to take the Enneagram test to learn more about myself and how I can grow. (And yes, she had to remind me more than once. I’m scattered. It’s a problem.)

Anyway, to mirror Chick 1’s approach, I thought I would share my top 3 Enneagram type areas with some comments…all three of these were basically tied for me.

Type 4: The Individualist

The Sensitive, Introspective Type:

Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

There are several things about the description of Type 4 that come to mind.  Fours are thinkers and reflect a lot.  I was a philosophy major, and lived “the life of the mind” for many years, well into my PhD. (My Dad used to say I walked around with “a little black cloud over my head” from thinking too much.)

I do love to just sit and ponder things, and I tend to still be reflective in my work at school today.  Fours are also artistic. If you know me, you know I love singing, poetry, and other creative expressions.  Fours try to be distinctive and individual.  No one would believe it now, but I was actually voted Most Original of my senior class!  My crazy Goth-girl-in-Catholic-school is not so pronounced these days…I think some of these traits have actually taken a back seat as I have aged. In my teens and early twenties, I think this would have easily been the dominant type.

Type 2:  The Helper

The Caring, Interpersonal Type:

Demonstrative, Generous, People Pleasing, and Possessive

On my good days and in my heart of hearts, I do really love being generous.  I love writing letters, giving thoughtful gifts, and trying to lift people up. I call these kinds of activities “soul-feeding” for me. I have learned in recent years that time and attention are some of the greatest gifts I can give people I love and care about, even people I hardly know who may be in need.  (And, I do have a bowl of candy in my work space at all times, just like the description states!)  All of these go along with being a Type 2.

But I do know at times in my life I have wandered into unhealthy territory with this tendency.  As I said in a recent conversation with Chick 1, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.”   I’ll write more about this comment in an upcoming post, but for now I’ll just say I have, at times, sacrificed my own health (physical, mental, emotional) to put the needs of others first.  I am still working on how to balance my personal needs with those of others.  I’ll also reluctantly admit to being possessive or jealous at times. I have to adjust my inner soundtrack to keep this tendency in check.

I do think it’s funny that my top two appear to be opposites.  An individualist, but who likes to take care of others.  But then I think, I have a hard time accepting care and help from others.  (I dish it but I often can’t take it!) Go figure.

Type 9: The Peacemaker

The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type:

Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent

This is the person I am at work, more than any other place. I aspire to be easygoing.  When I left my last job, my boss described me as “steady.” That I was a calm, reassuring presence.  That I never seemed to get too ruffled.  This was a huge surprise to me, since my busy mind is often racing and worried.  I do strive to be a peaceful presence, while hiding the storm and insecurities inside.  And the Type 9 tendency to be creative, again, isn’t lost on me.

A more negative side of this is my tendency to avoid conflict at all costs.  I often worry about conflicts being the end of a relationship.  Some of the feelings and experiences I fear the most are being disconnected from the people I care about. So, I avoid conflict for long periods of time only to explode “out of the blue.”  Embracing conflict as a natural part of relationship and even as a step to growing to deeper connection and understanding is one of my challenges.

At the end, the description tells me to embrace exercise as a way to work through some aggressions.  Thanks, CrossFit!

This is a very different top 3 than Chick 1.  In fact, I giggled when my absolute-dead-last-barely-registered-on-the-scale Type was, you guessed it, Type 8, The Challenger, which is Chick 1’s dominant type.  The other two on the bottom were the remainder of her top 3, the Enthusiast and the Achiever.  I’ve mentioned before how people say we are an odd pair.  Well, in this regard they are definitely right! Exact polar opposites.

More on what those Enneagrams paired together might teach the Chicks in a future post.  In the mean time, I’ll be over here filling up my cup so it can runneth over for others, lifting heavy stuff so I can deal with others with a lighter hand, and being artsy-craftsy in my original / expressive way.

 

Did you take Chick 1’s Enneagram challenge?  What did you learn about yourself and how you might be the best version of YOU?  Share with us in the comments!

 

dare to be different

Booty Shorts or Ass Eaters?

2chicksandapen

 

 

And so the story begins just like this…..

The nice weather is coming which means it’s time to reach into the shorts drawer. Oh no, nothing cute and fashionable is in there! I guess I just need to sweat my butt off in those leggings again. And please remember I sweat all the time when working out.

Three unlikely paired friends sync up on a Saturday morning. One with thick thighs, one pregnant and one with an amazingly cute figure. This all equates to small, medium and large or x-large buns. Yup buns-hun. Ass cheeks, booty, butt and so on.

Enter the convo on booty shorts and the brilliant idea to get matching ones for an upcoming competition. Oh, how much fun it is to shop for booty shorts! So many choices. So many options. Flair, flair and more flair. I almost forgot to mention the three girls noted range in age spanning about 20 years.  To put things in perspective those small, medium and large/x-large booties come with thighs attached and some have more mileage on them than others.

A decision is made. Lemons it is.  Big, juicy lemons on the teeny tiny booty shorts. A pinkish color to warm your heart for the sunshine weather that is fast approaching. I will have oversized lemons she said. I will have a muffin top another said. And the other said I’m so damn excited. The shorts arrive in a few short days as does the excitement and giggles. There is even a matching lemon (boobie) shirt. I am going to refrain from sharing that photo but it completes the outfit for all three of these ladies.

They fit! Surprisingly they are amazingly comfortable in the mirror and on the booty. I do my squat test in the mirror and all seems okay. Size small wears hers the next day. Compliments flow like a normal day because, guess what? She sports booty shorts all year, as in 300 plus days a year. No big news here but the new pattern is super cute.

We giggle some more and decide we need more matching pairs. One for each workout in the competition. I know we are a bit crazy but we said let’s just do it. Just like that we order a couple more pairs. What is wrong with us. Retail therapy? This time we go for cheetah print and pineapples. The cheetah were a bit outside my comfort zone due to the simple fact I am the one with the biggest butt or real estate one would say.

The new shipment arrives. I immediately gravitate to the cheetah print. All that print but I was dying to wear them. I never would have guessed it! The next day was the grand reveal. Oops, those mirror feels of comfort didn’t account for movement. Holy cow they ride up on my Clydesdale-like thighs! They ride up and you already saw the white of my legs. Holy moly the white of my thunderous thighs, oh my.

Too late. I already committed. I ironically meet a friend when I get out of my car at the gym. “What’s up, bootylicious?” she shouts. I was already like dying inside and now that she called attention me I was surely rethinking my wardrobe choice. Then the door opens and it happens. The shock and awe of “what the heck are you wearing?” from the crowd of regulars.

Oh, so many raised eyebrows. So many neck twitches. And just a few comments and giggles. I didn’t expect anything but I’m sure if somebody wore them aside from me I would be the first to make a snide comment so I moved on. The warmup is guess what? An ass bender. Yes, indeed it was. Pretty much every stretch or scoot imaginable that had your ass in the air with a gym mate behind you. The thoughts in my head are horrifying to say the least.

Did I scare the others in the gym for life?  Did they see more than they needed to? I scoot to the back of the group to be sure. I feel a chill. An ungodly chill in my rear leg/butt/crotch. What is it? It’s the rower! The poor guy finishing his row from the class before was literally air conditioning the entrance way by my thigh – every time he pulled the rower handle the air blew up my shorts. Yup, I had to move around again to avoid the chill and embarrassment.

All of this happened in just a few short minutes of my 1 hour class. I survived. My size small friend arrived and we were able to twin it up with our cheetah girl shorts. The jitters left and I owned my body and all its jiggles. The shorts were amazing in many ways. I even had the freedom to move and conquer a movement I was working on all week.

Today is just another Saturday where the small, medium and large/x-large girls connect for their Saturday showdown. A triplet trial run of the lemon shorts before our competition next week. How will it go? Will the same shock and awe happen out of the gate? Will the air conditioning issue arise again? Only time will tell.

Did we burn eyes with our lemon shorts or did we make refreshing lemonade? I think we each rocked them in our own special way. A terrific trio had so much fun flaunting their buns. Thank you Feed Me, Fight Me for the amazing comfy bootilicious shorts. What a beautiful Saturday it is when you spend time with friends laughing and being silly. #loveyourself

I hope you enjoyed this short story about my ass eater booty shorts. It’s meant to show that I test my limits often and I do get nervous sometimes but I mutter along. I push through. There are worse things in life than busting out of a pair of booty shorts.

I am starting a bootylicious challenge now. Hoping to get others to step out in those short shorts and shine their thunderous thighs no matter what size or shape they are. Pictures to follow in the coming weeks of the booties.

Until next time……

Part 2 is here!

Ahh this story continues. Of course it does. The life of the traveling booty girl shorts!

From time to time we may write a post but let it simmer for a while for whatever reason. It might not really be done or we just don’t want to post it for whatever reason. This story fell into that gray area. Do we post it? Do we hold it? Does it serve a purpose?

Time passes…..

After my first few pairs of 3″ booty shorts, I went with a couple of more conservative 5″ booty shorts for the days I run. Don’t need to have any chafing issues! and they work like a charm. No riding. No chafing. SUCCESS!

Now I get a coupon. The infamous coupon to buy more. What a sucker I am! Enter the blue shorts with white stars. I just had to have them since I think I am shining star on most days. I adore these but others find it funny when my stars expand when I bend over. It’s okay….I embrace the attention and commentary. I am such a big ham, that I can easily reply with the bigger the stars on my ass the bigger the stardom I am destined for. That normally makes people want to walk away horrified to say the least.

Then there are the donut pair. These may be my favorite pair. I don’t even really like the taste of donuts but they are fun to wear for sure. And what makes them so special? You can watch my donuts rise…..when I bend over. Too funny I know. On the serious side, my feed me fight me booty shorts are extremely comfortable and versatile when squatting, jumping and basically doing anything in the box. No matter what chuckles I may get, they are fully functional for me and that is what matters. My meaty thighs need the short shorts to get through the hot summer workouts without sweating up a storm in the gym. These shorts are also perfect for under a fun summer dress too. Talk about multi-purpose booty shorts. And if your dress does happen to blow up….well all one will see is donuts!

Then it happened! Chick 2 jumps on the booty short bandwagon. A few others did as well and that was exciting to see. Ok, so she insists on the 5-inch inseam.  So they may be more bike shorts than booty but I wear some 5-inch shorts, but they are still a far cry from the below-the-knee leggings she usually sports. A huge leap from the comfort zone but she did it. She did it with class and sass!

Her side:

It happened on a Tuesday morning.  5 am class.  Those poor people!  Maybe they’ll be too bleary-eyed to notice. (Chick 1 nods, I doubt it.)

Well, I run into a friend who immediately notices that I am wearing shorts.  What was it that gave me away?  The glaring white of my spongy thighs?  My embarrassed glances and slumped “don’t notice me” shoulders?  Who knows.  But, it was class time and I was getting it done. No turning back now.

Running was great in them, and I mean great.  It’s SO HOT running (even at 5am!) and it felt great not to be hemmed in by longer leggings.  But, they did kinda roll up on the third round of the run.  Still, an overall thumbs up.  And no one suffered shock from the sight of my thighs!  A relief.

I invested in 2 pairs but there will likely be more in my future.  I stuck with basic gray and black but maybe branching out into brighter colors will come in time.

Being comfortable is such a benefit when you’re sweating and working hard.  Feeling good matters. Check me out rocking a pair at my next Saturday class.

As this story unfolds, the beauty of women around us explode. Let’s take our friend Kim. She is amazing in so many ways but she is now rocking some booty shorts and she looks damn good in them. As a grandma in the over 50 crowd, she is setting the tone for so many. She inspires me to stay fit and keep pushing so I can be as asstastic (yes I made that word up) as her in my 50’s. Check out my pal Kim working on her booty in her booty shorts all while wearing a fashionable booty while her foot recovers from an injury. Everyone who is making up an excuse of why they can’t work out should just look at this picture and say I can do it, too.

As we wrap up this post, I leave you with you can do it to. Get fit, get moving, and most importantly get that ass in some booty shorts. Even if you start in the comfort of your own home. Be bootylicious or asstastic today.

At the end of this story you can see that even the most confident people challenge themselves to get out of their comfort zone. Be brave. Be fearless. Be you. Be-booty-licious!

 

fitness and nutrition, hustle

My Why or Why Not

2chicksandapen

I was asked for my favorite CrossFit quote today and boy did that set my mind on an infinite loop for words.

Why is that such a hard quote to put on paper? Because my CrossFit story has a beginning or an initial launch, but really I relaunch or a reset happens each day at CrossFit thanks to the constantly varied programming. Also, what I think is somewhat in the middle of my CrossFit journey is still really undefined since I have no end date in mind. Why no ending? Simply stated, I want to do CrossFit for as long as my body will allow and I hope that means into my 80’s. All of the above translates into the fact that my quotes can change daily, weekly, etc. based on where I am in my CrossFit story. Also, did you catch me on a high success day or an I need to work harder day when the quote question was asked?

Well, today this was my answer:

Snatchy, sweaty and sometimes sassy is part my CrossFit story. I love everything about CrossFit and how my story continues to evolve.

There are many highs, lows and everything in between when I reflect on my CrossFit journey, all of which has made me stronger, leaner and wiser.

I have thick and thunderous thighs. Some will say CrossFit makes you bulk up. Why do you do that?

I have strong shoulders, arms and back. Does that mean I’m not feminine? 

Nope. My gait, my confidence, my aura reflects how I start my day. I start my day grinding with a diverse group of insanely competitive, motivational and overall badass-type people at CrossFit. Together we sweat. Together we push to limits beyond initial reach. Together we document our stories. Collectively different stories but each story packs a punch. Living a great story is part of my love for CrossFit.

Each new day brings new adventures, challenges, and friends. Embrace today. Build for tomorrow. Say goodbye to the past by leaving any negative vibes in the rear view. Live like today is your last day on Earth. Make that difference in you.

Hard work requires dedication. Dedication requires time commitment. Time commitment requires prioritizing. Prioritizing means investing in you. You make the difference you want to see. Only you!

No matter what doubt others may cast on you, they have no direct impact on creating change in you. Motivation to prove others wrong? Maybe, but the reality is the power is all in your hands. You can choose to harness the power however you want to.

Remember the mind is a powerful tool. Your should only focus your mind on what matters. Don’t get hung up on what matters to others. #goalgettermindset