Random Exercises for those days..

Today..and yesterday.. the whole workin out thing just wasn't looking very appealing to me. I mean, I wanted to workout, but I didn't know what to do. So I was starting to convince myself that I didn't reallllly need to go. Always bad. So yesterday, instead of forcing myself to do some random exercise that I would half ass, I literally made a list of exercises that I like to do and did them twice through after suffering through 20 minutes on the stairmaster. One of the stairmasters was broken and this guy was literally breathing down my neck waiting for me to finish. Needless to say, he got some dirty looks. Do not rush me, sir. It's only been 10 minutes. 

Anywho, this was my random workout: 

Some of this is going to make absolutely no sense, because I don't know the name for everything, I just write down the motion so I know what I'm referring to. So yea, sorry bout that one. I burned almost 600 calories so I'd say it's effective. I'll probably do it again if I'm ever feeling super bored. Today I got home from work a little later than usual because I had to buy the furball more food from some fancy dog food store. Remember how I mentioned a while ago that I buy her expensive shit for her sensitive stomach? Yea. A nice little chunk of paycheck is gone now. I don't wanna talk about it.. So after buying her food I got home around 5:40 or so. I'm kind of weird/OCD about when I get to the gym, so if its going to be past 6 that I get there, I don't go. It's just one of my things. So I did 2 workout videos that I found on youtube. The BeFit channel is great for that, so look it up if you ever need to! They have a huge variety including yoga, cardio, and my girl jillian michaels! Try some of them and see what you think! 

ALSO! Tomorrow I'll be featured on Run Tri Mom's blog! I'm pretty excited about it. It was completely random how it happened too. I follow her on instagram (@runtrimom) and she posted something about all the distances she's run since she became a serious runner and she asked about her followers distances. So I, along with a lot of other people posted our longest distances, so I said I'd run my first half marathon this year after not being able to run one mile last year. Well she answered back saying how amazing my story was and that wanted to feature me! I can't wait to see it on her site tomorrow, so please check our her blog if you get a chance!

-Crystal

Weekend/Race Recap!

Hellooooo out there!

Ok so this weekend was very relaxing, but very busy.

On Saturday, I had to work at the dog daycare and it was actually a pretty low key day, until the end. Of course. Two doggies got into a bit of a scuffle, one dog's whole ear basically got mauled, and I ended up being the taxi cab to the vet. The dog drooled all over my car, I'm assuming from anxiety of being in a new car with a towel wrapped around her head. So that kind of threw off my day.. Afterwards the boyfriend and I went apartment hunting, just for shits an giggles. It all seemed so perfect, until the leasing consultant was completely and unnecessarily rude to a current tenant asking a question about the elevators. The boyfriend made a point that if she talked to him that way, I would be next if I moved in. Good point, darling. And I do not handle sass well. We took a tour of the apartments, and then we were told that heating and air is not controlled in unit (uhh not ok) and there are only two washer/dryers per floor...mind you there are about 30-40 apartments per floor (HELL no). Needless to say, we will not be considering that one when we move in together. The rest of the day was pretty low key; we got pho for dinner, followed by froyo (my weakness) and I ate my weight in frozen yogurt. Completely bad, but I didn't have time to eat anything after breakfast because of all the dog daycare shenanigans, so I didn't feel bad at all for eating alllllll the chocolate at the frozen yogurt shop. Don't judge me - you don't know my life! 

But I digress.. I got home around 10 and started to plan my outfit for my 10 mile race the next day, and then it hit me.

I forgot to pick up my race day packet. UGH MY LIFE. I checked the race website, and of course it says, "Absolutely no race day packet pickup" Well, you know me, waterworks commenced as I'm freaking out and looking for a contact email or number. Got my shit together and emailed them, to which they responded with a simple, "come to the info tent and get a new bib" BOOM calmed the fuck down and went to sleep.

SUNDAY FUN DAY RACE DAY! (I just made that up and it's hella cute. Right? No? ...whatever)

I woke up at the buttcrack of dawn (whyyyy are races so early? I would soon find out) to get the shuttle point for the George Washington Parkway Classic 10 Mile Race with my friend/fast as shit runner/running partner Becca. The shuttle is about a 30 minute ride, but time passes quickly while Becca and I catch up on life (I hadn't seen her since our half marathon a month ago!). There was about an hour before the actual race started, so we got some food, got my bib, and just hung around laughing and talking. The race started and its a downhill first! We quickly were reminded though of the course description : rolling hills. So so so many hills. I wanted to take some pictures but I was just trying not to fall honestly. I just tried to google the views from the parkway, because they're GORGEOUS, but google pictures are lookin kind of lame at the moment. Sorry folks. Use your imagination. Anywho, as I was saying about the whole starting early thing. It was hot as hell. Sweating profusely by mile 2...that kind of hot. It was a good run though, and I'm glad I did it. 

It's the last one that I've signed up for, but I think I'll do a couple more this season, and definitely another half in the fall.. Yikes! I've convinced one of my sorority sisters to run it with me, and it'll be her first, so I need to find a fun one! I'm open to suggestions!

After the race I went to IHOP with this cutie! It's our race day tradition. Judge me all you want, it's the fatty in me begging to be set free amongst the egg white omelettes, hash browns, and bacon.

Ugh, can't get enough of that face.

I may or may not have had more froyo after IHOP...... Ok, now you should actually judge me because I'm out of control. Thank God I'm starting the Advocare Cleanse! It came in today actually, so I'm pretty excited about it. I'm going to start it next Monday. I'm moving this weekend and our kitchen will obviously be in shambles, so I'd rather not waste the cleanse when I don't know what my eating situation will be this week!

-Crystal

(I spent a good hour trying to create a signature online, and it just wasn't working. kill me)

Cleansing, Real Life Issues, and a NSV!

Oh hellooo there!

First things first, the cleanse. I've decided to do the Advocare 10 day herbal cleanse. I've seen a TON of other bloggers do it with great results, so uhhh yea. I'm hoppin on that train real fast. Basically I'll be eating super clean, drinking a fiber drink that will most likely be gross, taking a probiotic, maybe some other pill, and avoiding dairy and coffee. Yea, coffee. So I'm not exactly sure how that's gonna work. We've discussed the fact that I'm a coffee addict right? Yea, I caved today and drank a cup. I was trying to see if I could go without and obviously the answer is maybe, but probably not. I didn't use creamer if that counts....If you'd like to check it out, I ordered mine through Lora Young, a fellow blogger. The link to her advocare page is HERE.

Next, I'm having some real life struggles. The time has finally come to start thinking about moving out of mama bear's house this year. The boyfriend and I are going to move in together, but his lease doesn't end till October and my mom wants to move in the next month or so. That puts me in an awkward limbo of moving out and living alone for a few months/being dead broke for a few months and bumming off my boyfriend or moving with mom and then leaving again in a few months. It's all very annoying and frustrating. I'm going to be a full time employee soon since my temping days are almost over (!!!) but I'm also paying bills and paying for my dogchild, so I'm basically still poor. I pretty much have no solutions, obviously. I just need to stop spending money and save more.

my life.

Lastly, I tried on my size 8 jeans and those suckers zipped AND buttoned. There may or may not be a muffin top hangin around on top of those jeans, but ya know what? I'm taking what I can get here folks.

Please ignore my junky room. I promise those clothes behind me are clean.

Night night folks. Scandal is on and it needs my full attention, obviously.

-Crystal

Driving the Struggle Bus...All Aboard!

Hey friends, my apologies for no post yesterday. Our electric company shut off the whole neighborhood's power to do some work, and then forgot to turn it back on. Yea, that happened.

Moving on, today was a big ole mess in my mind. Not really in my outward life, but in my head I just felt very all over the place. Anyone else have these days? Because I have them often. If I sound crazy, just go ahead and move along to another blog for the day. Just a crazy overstressed person, nothin to see here..

 I've been struggling a lot lately with this whole losing weight thang, as I've said maybe 972,000 other times before today. I get so close to a real loss and then the scale says, "LOL SORRY JUST KIDDING!". It is the absolute worst. I completely agree and understand that I shouldn't judge progress solely on the scale, but uhhh when I've been dancing in circles for 5 months between 174-177, I'm gonna start to go a little bat shit crazy. It's a vicious cycle - I do really well, get to 175, keep doing well, scale shoots back up to 176, I eat everything from DC to California because I'm frustrated, scale ends up back at 177 or 178. Start cycle all over again. So this morning, little bitch scale says 178 and I was about 2 seconds from hulk smashing some shit. I mean, I knew it wouldn't be a glorious number seeing as though I did enjoy some Ben&Jerry's this weekend, but still. A girl can dream, right?

So I get to work and I'm cruisin through instagram, hating life and trying to avoid my coworkers for fear that I may rip someone's neck out if they look at me wrong, and one of my favorite accounts on instagram for inspiration, This girl I've been following for a while, Kristin (@kristinkashuba) pops up with some words to brighten my day. She basically talked about how she took a much needed break and tried to incorporate balance in her life and that while she loves fitness and being healthy, she realized that family, fun, and friends are just as important and to not beat yourself up for falling down or falling behind, as long as you get right back up. Well, you know me, eyes got all watery and I had to pull my shit together real fast. Can't have the coworkers thinkin I'm a big softy (even though I totally am). So Kristin wrote this back when I commented that I really needed to see that and that I really appreciated it.

Her response made me even mooooore teary eyed, and I plan on keeping this screenshot for a while. I've heard these same comments a million times, but for some reason it really struck a cord with me this time. Who knows. Maybe I'm just an emotional mess. That's perfectly fine with me, as long as I'm gettin shit done.

side note: Everything above this was written last night. I promptly passed out because it was most definitely past 11 pm, and ya girl was tired. 

HELLO, HI! It's Wednesday now (wednesday night to be specific. I'm going to bed soon.) So today was much much better than yesterday, mentally and workout wise too. I woke up with a lets-kick-some-ass attitude. At work, my boss ordered pizza and it smelled deeelicious. Did I have some? NOPE. Badass, kept it movin and ate my salad. Would I have liked some pizza? HELL YES. But I know I would have hated myself later for it. Didn't drink any coffee today either! I'm doing a cleanse soon, and you can't have coffee, so I'm trying to prepare myself for that. More on the cleanse tomorrow! After work, I went to the gym and killlllled my leg workout. I set some new PR's (personal records) for myself and I felt great. I squatted 120 pounds and leg pressed 305 pounds. I was feelin unstoppable. I'm hoping tomorrow will be just as great. Because ya girl, is feelin good and trying to trust the process over here. Work with me, universe!

Sorry for the lack of photos, my phone is actin dumb, per usual.

Saturday Shenanigans

It's Saturday night, aaaaand I'm blogging. So that gives you some insight on just how interesting the life of this 22 year old is. I'm currently making some whole wheat waffles that are probably not the best for you...yes they're frozen. Judge me. I haven't had waffles in forever, so sue me for enjoying the hell out of these little babies. Check out the spread.

Boom Chicka Pop is hands down the best healthy popcorn out in the world that does not taste healthy. Yea, I eat healthy for the most part, but I'll be damned if I'm going to choke something down just because it's a better alternate. Heeeeeell no. Notice the 2 redbox movies? It's about to go down. The boyfriend abandoned me for the night to catch up on work, so it's me, Tiger, American Hustle, and About Time tonight! American Hustle is my 3rd Oscar winning movie from this season that I've seen, so I have high hopes. I saw 12 Years A Slave in theaters about a month ago and Ohhhh my goodness was it good. Gave me chills, made me bawl, SERIOUSLY bawl, and really made me think. All the good things. Last week I got Dallas Buyers Club from Redbox; also seriously amazing. Incredible performance from Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.  

Anyways, back to my wild Saturday night. I've also got some Victoria's Secrets Rewards cards on the menu because I have a shopping problem. Story time: When I was bigger I would just stare at their swim section and imagine what it would be like to own one that actually fit. I remember buying a black bikini top, and it was so plain because I didn't even think it would look good on me. How sad is that? Literally depressing. Anyways I would wear it, and then put a shirt over it and sit at the pool with a book instead of getting in the water. Way to go, Crystal. My sorority sister who I was living with at the time always made me feel really good about myself though, even when I would just beat myself up about how I hated going to the pool and hated the way the top looked on me. So thanks, Stef. Cut to now, I bought 2 bikini sets and hot damn those tops are colorful and they look good on me. Better believe I'll be in alllll the water this year. Story time over.

I can't find anything to buy with my rewards cards though, because 1) all THREE of them are only worth ten dollars each. Assholes. 2) You can only use 1 card per transaction. I suppose VS caught on to me and the rest of the world saving those suckers and using like 5 at a time to get something crazy expensive basically for free. Whatever. Give me a visa gift card next time, jerkfaces.

Excuse me while I window shop and curse a bit at VS, watch some good movies, and eat my Boom Chicka Pop.......there also might be a pint of Ben & Jerry's in my freezer. Does it make it better that it's the froyo version? I'm going to justify it with the fact that I'm doing Body Combat and Body Pump back to back tomorrow morning. It's fine. 

Jealous yet? No? Ok.

Enjoy your weekends! Anyone see any Oscar winning movies? Thoughts?

How to have a spoiled rotten dog

Step 1. When you adopt her, take her on a shopping spree. I clearly remember the day I adopted Tiger from a family member who couldn't keep her. I also clearly remember spending nearly $200 of my hard earned dollhairs at Petsmart on her ass. Somethin about those puppy eyes sucks you in.

Step 2. Buy them expensive ass food that you most definitely cannot afford. But I can't let my precious child eat Kibbles n Bits! She can only have the best! (My mother says I act like this because it's my first child...side eye) Anywho, her bowls are cute.

Step 3. Let her have the bed to lay on while you sit on...the floor. Yes, I'm sitting on the floor so I don't wake her up. Please don't judge me more than I'm already judging myself.

Step 4.  Take them on runs with you, while they prove to you that they are not worthy of your precious therapeutic time. ex: Tiger sniffing grass while I'm trying to finish out 4 miles.

Step 5. Don't hate them when they bark at every living (and non living) creature. Tiger's favorite things to bark at are men, rabbits, leaves, poop, and children. Yea, I know, I got a psychopath winner as a dog.

Step 6. Give them their crazy people pills, without judgement. Not everyone can be sane and fabulous. Tiger has really bad aggression/anxiety problems. She gets aggressive when she's scared or overwhelmed and I'd rather take care of that little issue before homegirl takes off a child's pinky finger. Lately though, it hasn't been working as well, so we might try a behavioral specialist instead. My name is Crystal, and my dog most likely needs therapy.

Step 7. Only withhold treats (all natural, of course..no but really, anything but all natural and my sicko dog is barfing in my car. yea, that happened.) for 2 days when they decide to chew up your remote control. She didn't even offer to buy me a new remote..lil bitch...literally. awkward.

Step 8. Let them get some morning snuggles in...while taking over your pillow and pushing you away. Most mornings I get a paw or two to the throat while Tiger insists that my pillow is most definitely hers. I would show you the evidence, but you'll have to kill me before you see me with my head scarf on and no bra. sorry folks.

Step 9. Let them have play dates with their friends on the regular. Lord knows Tiger needs friends. She really is a big little bully. She's only 23 pounds but she has to play with the 60+ pound dogs at daycare because she hates little dogs. 

(Tiger and my cousin's dog, Tyson! Tiger took his toy and then got mad when he wanted to play with it. Typical.)

Step 10. Love them just as much as the day you welcomed them home! Puppy breath and all.

The day I brought her home in September 2013!

I hate April Fools Day.

I woke up this morning and thought, finally, I'm in the corporate world, so surely there will be no pranks. Turns out I was very wrong. I get to work around 8, and around 8:30, the woman who I have a love/hate relationship with, named Mary (I'm changin names because I feel like it dammit) comes to my desk huffin and puffin about something I've done wrong. So she rattles somethin off and then tops it off with "you billed the wrong client, you probably just typed in the invoice number off by 1, but still its a $100,000 job and Joe (my boss) won't be happy..he'll probably wanna talk to you about it since it's a high priority client." So at this point I'm not even freaking out, I'm just frustrated because she's always telling me I've done something wrong and I really didn't think I'd messed up anything that big.

So my other coworker who I like a lot more, Amy, comes by and I fill her in and she looks at me like "uh oh, that doesn't sound good..." so NOW I'm freakin out. I'm literally a week away from being offered full time employment and now this crap comes up. Surely Joe is going to fire me before I'm even hired, I'm never gonna move out, I won't be able to afford my bills anymore, Tiger won't have her medicine, my mom will be pissed. Yes, that's my train of thought. To top it off, 5 minutes later I get an email from Joe saying to come to his office when I get a chance because all of this needs to be fixed immediately to avoid problems with the client. So at this point, I'm thinkin, well I might as well pack my shit, because I will most definitely not have a job afterwards.

Do not pass go, do not collect your paycheck.
Aaaaand cue tears. Yep, sittin at my desk snifflin and snottin and crying because I'm just so sure I'm going to be fired. Amy walks by asks whats going on, so I tell her about Jason's email, to which she hugs me and whispers, "April Fools, I sent the email, it was all me!"

I hate everyone.