fun facts & flashback friday.

HI!

it’s friday. do your friday dance. do it. you know you want to.

great, now that we’ve got that out of our system.. let’s blog.

since my life has been a little hectic lately and i have no real solid information or advice to give you, i’ve decided to pull some fun facts from the things i have read lately (in emails, magazines and books!)

intertwined within my meals & moves, of course.

this morning was a do-your-makeup-in-the-car type of mornings. i know this girl can relate. what can i say, i love my sleep!

i actually had quite a bit of work to do first thing in the morning to prepare for an audit that was scheduled for later this afternoon.  that pushed breakfast back a bit further than i would have liked.. but eventually i did fill my belly.

meal 1: 1 cup egg whites (carton) + MORE edible arrangement! @ 9:30 AM

i think i am on my last day of the edible arrangement. but i find it quite impressive that i’ve been able to eat $60 worth of fruit in four days. don’t you?

egg whites were microwaved and topped with reduced sugar ketchup.

and the whole office complained about my eggs smelling every room of the building up. sorry, co-workers. i need my eggs.

that big sweetheart of a fiance also brought me coffee:

okay.. we really need to stop buying our coffee every day. i tallied up the may totals and we spent over $75 on coffee!! i just need to wake up a little earlier and make it. the coffee maker at work makes hideous tasting coffee.. i have turned into a french press snob ;) but the local coffee house has delicious coffee and the man who owns it loves marshall. he even asked where we are registered for our wedding! so although we often spend $5 a day satisfying our coffee addiction, at least we gain a nice friend and a wedding gift out of it, right? plus he gives the pups dog bones when they drive through :)

fun fact time!

i recently received this Q&A book (thanks momma b!) and it is full of solid information.

a lot of it i already knew, but there were a couple things i thought were really interesting and had to share them with you.

• you should drink cold water because your body burns more calories. the first thing your body does when you drink cold water is warm the water up to body temp.  this takes more calories than drinking lukewarm water. isn’t that awesome! i always drink a gallon a day but now i’ve been drinking extra cold water since reading this! the book said you can burn up to 500 extra calories a day through drinking cold water.
• you should try to stick to fruits that are low on the glycemic index if you are trying to shed some LBs.  most fruits are high in simple sugar and this is rapidly absorbed and if not used immediately (like in a workout), it will be stored as fat.  the lower the fruit’s glycemic number is, the slower it is absorbed into your bloodstream, reducing the chance that the calories will be stored as fat.
• you should never totally eliminate a nutrient group (protein, carbs, fat) because your body works most efficiently when every macronutrient is present.  sure, you may lose weight on a low carb diet at first.. but this is unhealthy for your body in the long run.  you need protein at every meal to build muscle and indirectly stimulate fat loss and you need carbs to stimulate the conversion of protein into new muscle tissue. if you are lifting weights and not eating enough carbs, you will probably not see the full potential results you are looking for.

there are tons more cool Q&A’s in the book. my mom picked it up at costco. you should too!

moving on..

surprise, surprise! i had a random inspection today at work! every 6 months, an inspector comes to check out our factory and quality control and make sure we are labeling our products correctly.  of course, i am in charge of this.. since i am the jack of all trades when it comes to my job description.. so i had to handle that situation.

THEN there was a 1.5 hour payroll audit that i had to deal with. because that is in my job description as well. yipppeeee!

after all the important official visits.. i was quite hungry!

meal 2: veggie plate + greek yogurt dip & wasas with cottage cheese @ 2 PM

random? yep. delicious? you bet.

for the dip, i mixed oikos 0% greek yogurt with hidden valley ranch seasoning. protein packed and super tasty.

for added protein and fiber, i paired the veggie plate with two fiber wasas and 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese.

cottage cheese is way too salty for me. i wish i could find low sodium.. any utahns know where i can pick some up? i’ve looked everywhere!

fun fact time!

i thought this by-the-numbers article on health.com was pretty entertaining! i selected a few of the numbers to share with you:

five. the upper limit for martinis (or other types of booze) each week

As a general guideline for healthy women, Mary Ann Bauman, MD, spokeswoman for the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women campaign, advises patients to cut themselves off at five drinks per week. (One drink equals 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.) What’s more, seltzer sippers should not start drinking just for cardiac benefits.

one. orgasm!

One happy ending a day might actually be ideal. Orgasms release natural opiates, which have anxiety- and stress-relieving properties, says psychiatrist Paul Dobransky, MD, director of Womens Happiness and author of The Secret Psychology of How We Fall in Love. Lowering your stress level, in turn, benefits your heart. Plus, orgasms help keep blood flowing down south, which keeps your pink tissue healthy, he says.

five hundred. the number of calories to cut each day to lose one pound in a week

Creating a daily 500-calorie deficit via a combo of physical activity and painlessly skipped mindless munching can total 3,500 calories a week, which equals a pound of fat that’s no longer on your hips. Plus, shedding even a small amount of weight can do wonders for your health.

eight. the daily teaspoon cap for added sugar

We down about 30 teaspoons per day, according to the consumer watchdog group the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Most of that’s from foods in which sugar is added (as opposed to fruits or milk, in which it occurs naturally). Sugar has its place in a healthy diet, but too much can edge out more nutritious foods, so the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends capping added sugar at 32 grams, or 8 teaspoons (based on a 2,000-calorie diet).

one. the number of hours a day max you should be “social” online

Networking on Facebook or Twittering can be fun and even help you with work. But spending more than an hour a day doing it, at the expense of things or feelings you’re trying to avoid, could be a sign that your real life needs some attention, says Toni Galardi, PhD, author of The LifeQuake Phenomenon: How to Thrive (Not Just Survive) in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval. While research on social networking is still scarce, the hour-a-day figure is widely accepted in addiction-treatment circles as the amount of time over which being online may start to negatively affect your offline relationships or work, Galardi says.

one. the number of dress sizes you can drop by gaining—yes, gaining!—3 to 4 pounds

If those pounds are muscle, not fat, you lose inches, even as the number on the scale is a bit higher. Why? Because not only does denser muscle tissue take up less space, but the number of calories incinerated by a body with lots of lean muscle is a wee bit higher than if the person’s weight is made up of fat, which means you may lose a bit more fat in the bargain. Experts suggest working out with weights or using your own weight as resistance two days a week (on top of your cardio) to reach that 3 to 4 pound goal.

three. the number of packets of artificial sweeteners you’re OK to have daily

Artificial sweeteners let calorie-conscious women (not to mention diabetics) enjoy a wider selection of food choices. Still, questions about the safety of aspartame and other sweeteners persist, which worries many women. “Based on the preponderance of evidence, these things are safe,” says Elisa Zied, RD, author of Nutrition at Your Fingertips, but to be cautious, she advises moderation. By that she means, don’t stir several packets in your coffee plus eat a diet yogurt and drink diet soda. “A couple of packets or a couple of diet sodas a day probably isn’t going to hurt,” she says.

six. the number of hours of sleep that qualifies as too little

Sleep-deprived women often find that their work—and workouts—suffer, and they’re more prone to driving drowsy (as dangerous as drunk driving!). They may find their weight creeping up, too. Lack of sleep causes a rise in the level of the hormone ghrelin, which increases the desire for food, and a decrease in the level of leptin, the body’s appetite suppressant. Most adults need 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. If you allot the time but can’t fall asleep, first check your prebedtime diet and exercise habits. (For instance, besides avoiding caffeine and alcohol, don’t work out within three hours of bedtime.) If you’re still having shut-eye problems, see your doctor to check for any underlying medical conditions that may be keeping you up.

if you are interested in finding out more numbers to live by, you can read the whole article on the health.com website here. i know that i am definitely NOT getting enough sleep and my hours of online socializing are WELL OVER one a day. how about you?

since i skipped the gym wednesday AND thursday, i knew i had to log a killer workout in today.  i am running a 5k in the morning, so i decided to give my legs and lungs a day off and and i opted for an upper body weight session.

i did a body for life style workout:

• 5 min elliptical warmup

back:

move	weight	reps
seated cable row	40# 50# 60# 70# 40#	12 10 8 6 12
wide grip lat pulldown	50#	12

*i did 25 bench tuck crunches between the first 4 sets for a total of 100 reps.

triceps:

move	weight	reps
overhead cable extension	30# 35# 40# 45# 30#	12 10 8 6 12
barbell french press	30#	12

*i did 30 seconds of butt kicks between the first 4 sets for a total of 2 minutes.

biceps:

move	weight	reps
incline bench dumbbell curl	10# ea 10# ea 12# ea 15# ea 10# ea	12 10 8 6 12
standing hammer curl	10# ea	12

*i did 30 seconds of high knees between the first 4 sets for a total of 2 minutes.

chest:

move	weight	reps
seated single arm cable chest press	20# 25# 30# 35# 20#	12 each arm 10 each arm 8 each arm 6 each arm 12 each arm
decline bench chest press (barbell)	40#	12

*i did 30 seconds of the heisman between the first 4 sets for a total of 2 minutes.

shoulders:

move	weight	reps
standing cable upright row	20# 25# 30# 35# 20#	12 10 8 6 12
seated overhead shoulder press (dumbbell)	15# ea	12

*i did 100 reps of ab work between the first 4 sets for a total of 400 reps.

• 5 min on arm bike

total workout stats: 50 minutes, calories burned 300, max HR 159, ave HR 121.

AWESOME WORKOUT.

fun fact time!

i recently stumbled upon an article that listed the 29 most healthy foods on the planet.. now, of course, that could be up for debate.. but here is the list that bellybytes.com published:

#1-10: fruits

1. apricots

2. avocados

3. raspberries

4. they skipped #4? hmm

5. cantaloupe

6. cranberry juice

7. tomatoes

8. raisins

9. figs

10. lemons & limes

#11-19: vegetables

11. onions

12. artichokes

13. ginger

14. broccoli

15. spinach

16. bok choy

17. squash

18. watercress & arugula

19. garlic

#20-26: grains, beans, dairy & nuts

20. quinoa

21. wheat germ

22. lentils

23. peanuts

24. pinto bean

25. yogurt

26. skim milk

#27-29: seafood

27. shellfish (clams, mussels)

28. salmon

29. crab

you can check out the original article here if you are interested in reading about why these foods are said to be the healthiest for you! i am going to try to incorporate more of them into my daily diet, but as of right now.. i do eat quite a few that are on the list.

meal 3: post workout protein shake @ 5:45 PM

• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 30g protein powder (vanilla)
• 60g frozen blueberries
• 40g frozen banana
• ~2 cups spinach
• xanthan gum
• ice

my eatsmart food scale it putting things in a whole new perspective for me! i weighed out my blueberries and banana and it definitely was way less than what i had been eyeballing before. i hope the use of this scale helps me get those last few pounds off before the wedding.

and you know what? the shake tasted JUST as amazing with the proper amounts of ingredients!

well that is all i have as far as meals & moves go today! i have to get going, we are going to do some grilling with our friends tonight :)

oh.. i didn’t forget…

flashback friday.

today’s flashback is short and sweet. a couple photos from the archives.

marshall and i got our engagement photos on wednesday. i wanted to share some photos of us when our relationship was brand spanking new.

first: the very first photo we took together. it was on may 25, 2007.

some of you long time readers have heard this story.. but just to fill you in, the first time marshall & i hung out outside of work was at a minus the bear concert. our favorite band! well, mine anyway. we worked together for nearly 2 years and “office flirted” every day.. but this concert was the first time we’d seen each other NOT in a work environment. he was at the concert solo and i was with my friends, so i invited him to go to angela’s birthday party after the show. he agreed. the rest is history :)

it was blurry. i didn’t know he liked me. he didn’t know i liked him. actually i don’t think i knew i liked him as much as i did. i get butterflies every time i see this photo.

we “dated” for the whole month of june 2007.

here are a couple photos from our friend’s birthday party on june 16, 2007.

next up: the night we became boyfriend & girlfriend. it was on july 5, 2007. we went to urban lounge to see del in concert.

we went outside to hang out on the grass because it was too loud in the venue.

we had a grass fight. see the evidence on my chest?

we were fierce back then like we are now. does this photo remind you of anything?

we had a lot of fun times in july. new relationships are so cool. don’t get me wrong, i love him more today than i ever have.. but i just look back at these photos and smile at the times we had when we weren’t so comfortable around each other yet. but we still were. does that make sense?

we went to lagoon together on july 6, 2007. marshall won a stuffed shark for me.

another moment i want to share was the going away party my friends and i had in august of 2007. we were leaving the country for 16 days and so we had a “see ya later” BBQ. marshall and i were so sad to have to go so long without each other!

young love had a lip ring.

it was when i got back from my trip to europe that i first said those three words to marshall. yep. i was the first to say it. although he quickly followed by saying he loved me back.

i will share our engagement photos when i get them back. super excited about those! it was so fun to take them!

well, that’s that. i have a 5k tomorrow and maybe some more BBQing with friends. definitely going to work on the house, too! i will post photos. hope you all have something fun planned for the weekend :)

Qs~

1. what item(s) do you spend unnecessary amounts of money on, even though you know better? coffee from coffee shops. and protein powder. i should really use up what i have before i buy more.

2. of the 29 28 healthy foods listed above, how many do you eat regularly? i only eat 13 of the 28 regularly, with another 8 occasionally. but 7 of them i never eat! i should..

have a great weekend!!