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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Bloglovin

I recently heard that Google was discontinuing Google Friend Connect (wtf!?  are you kidding me!?)  So, since I want to keep following the blogs I currently follow (because, if you're unaware, I only follow blogs I love!), I established a Bloglovin account.

Follow My Blog with BlogLovin

I also heard that it was only for non-blog formats, so maybe it won't affect us bloggers?  I hope not, because I really, really love GFC:)

Love you guys, be sure to follow me!

Until Next Time,

Ashley

Saturday, February 25, 2012

My Exercise Playlist

Where's the fun in working out/exercising/breaking up a sweat without some kicka$$ music to keep you going?  I love music- just about all kinds.  There's everything on my iPhone from Hawaiian reggae to opera to some really filthy rap (for those extra special parties with my best friends!).  So of course, any self-respecting music lover has a playlist, mental or otherwise, for every occasion.

Presenting my exercise one with their music videos:

1 Ai Se Eu Te Pego by Michel Telo


2. Around The World by ATC


3. Futuristic Love by Katy Perry:

(The video is for E.T., but since I don't like Kanye West, I just listen to Futuristic Love.  Either way, it's a supercatchy song to move to!)

4. We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris): Rihanna


5. The One That Got Away: Katy Perry

(I know, I know, another Katy Perry song!?  This girl is just damn addicting!)

6. Sun is Up: Inna


7. Sweat: Snoop Dogg & David Guetta


8. Touchin On My: 3oh!3


9. Suspicious Character: The Blood Arm



I know some of these are a bit outdated, but whatever works, right?  Mine is just over 30 minutes, which is perfect for me...I like them enough to let it repeat if need be:)

Do you have a playlist for exercise?  If so, what's on it?

Until Next Time,

Ashley

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Half Point Fit Test

So, half way through the 30 day challenge, we do another fit test (ughhhh)!  I wanted to compare, and see how far I've come in only 15 days:

Exercise                       Fit Test 1                      Fit Test 2
Squat Jumps:                   23                                 30
Push Ups:                       12                                  15
Burpees:                         11                                  13
High Knees:                   90                                  98
Switch Lunges:              19                                  23
Tuck Jumps:                  18                                   20
Tricep Dips:                   20                                  30
Straight Abs:                  16                                  17

I'm pretty happy with myself over these scores.  Some, I improved dramatically (squat jumps, High Knees, etc), and some were only marginal (stupid Straight Abs...), but they all were improvements, which is what I'm aiming for:)

In other news, Happy Mardi Gras/ Fat Tuesday, everyone!  The austere season of Lent begins tomorrow, and I know many of us will be giving things up...as for myself, I'm still debating what to let go for the season.  I'm thinking being lazy would be a good one:)

If you're giving up something, what is it?  Let me know in the comments!

Until Next Time,

Ashley


Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Bodyrock Week 1 & Food Update

So I have a confession to make....I didn't do the entire first week of the February Bodyrock challenge.

Oops


I was super sore after day two, forced myself to do Day 3, and ended up just going hiking everyday from then on.  But hey, I got some exercise, right?

Anyhow...


Results:

Day One: Fit Test

The point of the fit test is to see what fitness level you're at.  It's also a good workout:)

Squat Jumps: 23
Push Ups: 12
Burpees: 11
High Knees: 90
Switch Lunges: 19
Tuck Jumps: 18
Tricep Dips: 20
Straight Abs: 16

No easier modifications for me!  Before the fit test, I had only done a few Bodyrock workouts, but before that, I couldn't even do a full push up.  For me, being able to go from not-even-one to 12 in 50 seconds was unbelievable.  I can't wait to do the next fit test to see how far I've come:)

Day 2: Rep Challenge

Rep Challenges are different from the other workouts.  Instead of doing one for 50 seconds, resting for 10, then moving on to the next one, you just have a certain number of each exercises to do, and you time the entire thing.

Day 2 was a pyramid challenge, which is my favorite: you start out doing 10 of each, then you do 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, etc. until you're finished.  You feel sooo accomplished by the time you get down to doing one of each exercise!

Time to do the entire workout: 17:28 without abs, 20:28 with.

Day 3: Difficult workout that I was too sore to do well in:(

This was another 50 second timed workout. Pretty sure I prefer those pyramid ones:)

Sandbag Shoulder Lift & Drop: 26, 21, 25
Leg pushups & jump over the sandbag: 7, 9, 11
10 High Knees & 10 Mtn. Climbers: 5, 3, 3 (these are full sets, as in 10 High Knees + 10 Mtn Climbers = 1)
Tuck Knees & Star Jump: 14, 15, 18

Abs:
Star Abs: 20
Right Oblique: 15
Left Oblique: 16

Even though I only did three days of the challenge, I already see and feel results.  If you haven't looked into bodyrock and you're looking for something new to shake up your workout and challenge you in every way possible, you should definitely check it out!

And for the food update....

Remember last month when I posted this?  Well, I finally made the first dish, Vidalia Onions stuffed with Rice-Lentil Pilaf last night!

And as bizarre as the dish sounds, it was soooo delicious!  Even my super picky father liked it:)  Some notes if anyone decides to make it:

1) There's no salt in the dish, so be sure to keep a shaker handy.  We're not even big into salt (compared to people who eat a lot of high-sodium, processed food), but we found the need to heavily salt this dish.

2) 10-20 minutes was not enough time to finish cooking the rice and lentil pilaf.  It took more like 30-45 minutes, so be sure to allow enough time for that:)

It is a very time consuming dish to make, but it's surprisingly easy- no complicated maneuvers in this one!  I also made chocolate mint brownies, using the same basic recipe as before, but adding chocolate mint chips (you can find these seasonally, or at specialty food stores) and adding 1 tsp. peppermint extract to the batter.

I would add pictures, but everything was eaten by the time I came home!

It's been an amazing week so far for me, how about you?

xoxo

Ashley


Saturday, February 11, 2012

What Happens to Your Body When You Consume Gatorade & Ramen

I know that most of us consume pre-packaged, or heavily processed food on a regular basis.  We're busy people, right?  We don't have time to make things from scratch.  Nevertheless, I think all (or most) of us can agree that prepackaged < homemade food every time.

Not only does it taste better, but it's also vastly better for you.  Take a look at this video, which tracks ramen (something us broke college students eat on a fairly regular basis) and blue gatorade (which is the weekend savior of some people that drink heavily).

This is a huge warning to anybody who watches it (and really, everyone should): Do not watch this just after, during, or before you eat anything, especially if it's heavily processed.  It's a little graphic, but short and so worth it.

Until Next Time,

Ashley

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Bodyrock.tv

I first heard about Bodyrock.tv around the middle of January and saw that they had a 30 day challenge running.  Of course, since it was already in the middle, I just did their other exercises, but soon saw that they were going to do another one...

If there's one thing I love, it's a challenge.

(you can see where this is going...)


I decided to take the 30 day challenge starting Monday and I'll update at the end of every week with my results!  I'm super excited, because I love finding new ways to exercise, especially if they produce such toned bodies like the ones seen on the website.

I know they follow strict diets as well, which I'm not going to do.  I feel like life is too short to deprive myself of the foods I love, but so much of what I love to eat is fairly healthy.  In short, I'll be looking for healthy (meaning mostly vegan) recipes that aren't too difficult to make.

I'm already hooked based on the workouts I've already done- I get bored so easily, so it's really nice that they put a new one up everyday:)

Anyone going to take the challenge with me?

Friday, February 3, 2012

20 Weird Things I've Seen/Done Recently

                                      Icky (and suggestive) picture taken at Sephora Waikiki

                                            "Art" at my old college
               Another piece of mysterious art.  To this day, I still have no idea what that is.
Napping with the art.  At this point, I'd like to mention that this is the second floor "quiet" area of the library, and that he was snoring loudly enough to be heard on the first floor.  Yikes.

There were douchebags in my dorm and I didn't even know about it (Disclaimer: If there had been names/real identifying information on the note/if it had been private, I wouldn't have posted it.  This, however, has no names/room information, and was taped to the wall in the hallway.)

Dude took off his shoes and basically took up the entire row of seats.  Later, he stretched out on the bench and took a loud, noisy nap.  Before anyone interjects with how common that is, I'd like to say that it is NOT common in the area I was in, and that a ton of tourists were on that bus, looking absolutely horrified/disgusted.

                                                    Hahahaha.

The pictures a little small, but I'll elaborate: a shirt, undershirt, underwear, and jeans, all laying on the side of the road.  I kept expecting to see a news story about a mysterious naked man scampering through the city, but I never did.

Mysteries, Mysteries.....

We had to defrost our freezer ASAP but couldn't just leave the door open...sooo hot pans to the rescue!

                                              Phallic art in the library.

                                    The secret is that it's really, really nasty.

Four Liters of Mayonnaise at a Costco just outside of Montreal:)
I'm not, no.  How about you?


I still kinda wonder if anyone ever bought that hat.

It isn't about the message on the board, but I just love the look on the guys face.


This isn't weird, I just thought it was funny.  I love how radically different the Southwest is from the Southeast:)

Tombstone, Arizona:)

Is this just in my area, or do other people have squeeze tubes of herbs in their grocery store?  Better yet, how do you GET herbs into a squeeze tube without doing unmentionable things to them!?

In a random store on the way to Chattanooga, TN

Cheap wine goes really, really well with pancakes and Kinder eggs at ten o'clock at night when you're freezing your ass off at a Canadian camp ground:)

What's some crazy/weird things you've seen/done recently?  Tell me in the comments!

Until Next Time,

Ashley

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

New Year's Resolutions: January Check In

So as I mentioned in comments, I decided to keep myself accountable this year by publishing a monthly post detailing how well I've kept up with the goals I rashly made on 31 December/1 January.

Original Goal: Lose Weight.
How I've kept it:  I used all Jillian Michaels this month.  The DVDs I used were:




Side Note about Yoga Meltdown: I love it.  I'm hooked on it, and I look forward to it everytime I do it, but...

....and so do I:p

More than anything, the "losing weight" bit is about getting stronger and improving my endurance with the circuit/interval training workouts I've gotten into this last year.  As a plus, I lost three pounds:)

Original Goal: Make all A's this semester.
How I've kept it:
 This is the one I've had the most trouble with so far.  I've only had a few assignments, but I haven't done as well as I wanted to on them.  It's mostly little mistakes that add up, so I think focusing on spending more time on each assignment instead of rushing through them would be best right now.
Best part: Made a 95 on my first Math test:)

Original Goal: Get accepted to all my transfer schools.
How I've kept it: N/A at this time.

Original Goal: Assorted blog goals.
How I've kept it: I had 29 followers when I first made this resolution, and now I have 47!  I live in a really isolated area, so I don't get to talk to many people...I love all the comments I get on my blog posts, especially ones from areas far away from where I currently live:)  For me, it's absolutely mind-boggling to post something at one time, and then a short while later, have someone from another country comment on it!  The world feels so connected now, I love it:)


Original Goal: Stop stressing the small things and go to Church more.
How I've kept it: I've been stressing less, mostly by hiking and yoga.  As for Church, I went a grand total of....

ONCE

this month.  Bummer.

Nevertheless, these are resolutions for the entire year, not for the month, so I still don't feel like a failure:)

Did you make New Year's Resolutions?  More importantly, are you keeping them?  Let me know in the comments!

Until Next Time,

Ashley