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By kilax, June 5, 2013 6:11 am

Isn’t it funny how you can hear a song (or even part of it!) once and think “OMG! I have to download it RIGHT NOW!!!!”?

[“Same Love,”* “Blurred Lines“]

Or how you hear a song and at first you don’t care for it, but then you hear it so much it grows on you and OMG YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD IT?

[“#Beautiful”**]

Or… how you hear a song once and NEVER like it and have to change the station whenever it comes on? Heh heh heh.

[“Payphone,” ANY Avril Lavigne song]

Funny enough, one of the things I was most nervous about in regards to teaching strength class was the playlist. Tunes can really make or break a workout. And I wanted my playlist to be in the “make” category. Ha ha.

But there is a problem in that I am not a big music buff. I stick to Top 40s, Classic Rock, and a mix of 60s-80s music. At first I tried mixing these genres together for my class playlists.  But as I have become more comfortable with it, I’ve branched out a bit and done more “themed” playlists. I talked to my brother-in-law about some alternative tunes and made an alternative playlist. My sister recommended I download a new song from The Great Gatsby film and that lead me to find a lot of other new music and a new playlist.

Basically, I spend all the money I make on new tunes to teach class.

Just kidding.

Anyway. Downloading all these new tunes has made music fun again. I hadn’t been keeping music on my phone until I started teaching class in March, but now that it’s on there, I am more apt to play it when I am walking somewhere or when I am in the car. And it puts me in a good mood.

What song are you playing over and over again right now?

*If I was eloquent and could put my thoughts together, I would write about how much meaning that song has.
**What’s up with songs putting the number sign in front of the title?! There is a Justin Bieber song that does this too.***
***I understand what hashtags and Twitter are. I am not an idiot. I just don’t understand why you would want a song to have one in front of it. 

Comments (29)

By kilax, May 22, 2013 6:36 am

The awesome thing about the ACE Personal Trainer Manual that I am studying is that it is super repetitive with major concepts. So if you miss something, no worries, you are going to read about it a few more times.

The annoying thing about the ACE Personal Trainer Manual that I am studying is that it is super repetitive with major concepts. So you are reading the same things over and over. Enough already, I get it!

Heh heh heh.

The most comical thing, lately, is how much the book is drilling in about client adherence. I get it. You want to develop a program for a client that they will adhere to – you want custom plans that are not too easy, not too challenging… you want the client to want to come back. You want them to eventually like exercise. I get all that!

Data is the a great example of adherence. A few years ago, he would just slither around in his harness! Now, he has built up to long walks. Go Data!

It’s just so funny. Almost any instructional section I have read lately is followed with a warning paragraph.

(My wording)Varying the intensity of workouts not only engages different muscle fibers, it also keeps things interesting for the client. BUT OMG! ADHERENCE, PEEPS! DON’T MAKE IT TOO INTENSE OR NO ONE WILL EVER COME BACK TO YOUR STUDIO EVER!!!!! EVER!!!!!!!

I suppose it’s funny to me, because one of my top concerns* in developing exercise programs is keeping it challenging. I really want people to leave the workout feeling like they got a great whole-body exercise, and challenged themselves. I don’t want them to feel like it was easy. I want them to feel the workout was worth their time.

But that is minor disconnect between the book and real life, for me. A lot of the people in my classes already have the adherence – they are already committed to exercise, taking the class, and doing other cardiovascular activity on the side. So, while I get where the book is coming from, I think it is too cautious at times!  

I was thinking about this, because I am reading about it, but also, dang, I am so sore from the class I taught Monday night. In fact, someone in my office asked me if I am hurt because I am walking so slow. Ha ha ha.

I’m that “good” sore. That “ooo, I worked some weaker muscles” sore.

So that made me wonder. Maybe not everyone has that “good” sore. Maybe for some people, all sore is “bad” sore. Maybe, my perception of good sore needs to be altered if I need to focus on adherence.

What do you think? Do you have levels of soreness? Is there a “good” one that comes from a challenging workout?

*Obviously, safety and comfort is first (among other things).

Comments (33)

By kilax, May 18, 2013 9:34 am

A few times, Bobbi and I have discussed how we have such great groups of friends now, and aren’t sure if we have room for more friends. I’ve wanted to talk about this here, but wasn’t sure how to do it without making myself sound like a huge ass. I think I figured out a way.

Maybe?

Last night, I did trapeze with Erin. ZOMG!!! So fun! I can see why she loves it. But we’ll get to that below.

Huge thanks to Erin for getting me the photos!!!

We were redeeming a Living Social deal that included dinner after trapeze. Erin and I sat at the end of the table with the rest of the Living Social peeps*, and spent most of our time talking to a young couple. 

I was sitting there, talking to them, enjoying our conversation SO MUCH, thinking, “There are so many wonderful, interesting people in the world! I want to meet them all! I want to be friends with them all**.” WANT ALL THE FRIENDS!!!

No, Kim, no. You do not need to make friends with every interesting person you meet. You don’t need to chase down runners in your hood. You barely have time with your closest friends, say, take for instance, the one with you?!?! Gah, if anything, this awesome evening with Erin made me miss all the time we used to spend together when we were training for the Milwaukee Marathon. 

Sigh.

I just get this urge. When I meet someone and get a good feeling about them, I think “I want to spend more time with them!” I don’t think about the fact (right away) that I barely have time to spend with my close friends now. 

And that is why I sometimes think, “geesh, maybe I should not be trying to make more friends – maybe I have enough.”

So. If that makes any sense. 

Moving on…

The Living Social deal we purchased included introductory lessons with trapeze, silks and acroyoga at Trapeze School New York. There were maybe 20 of us, and we were split in to two groups – one did trapeze while the other tried silks and acroyoga, then we switched. 

My group tried trapeze first (Erin was in our group and just practiced advanced moves since she has been there quite a few times). Holy cow! I tried not to be afraid, but just getting up to the platform to jump off, my body was shaking. Oh, endocrine system. You so smart.

But it was a huge thrill, and I loved it. I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie!

I actually thought playing with the silks and trying the acroyoga was super cool too. 

I made sure to try it out with my dad (my parents are in town for a helicopter tour of Chicago) later last night. Ha ha.  

Since I was able to swing from my knees and extend my arms during my go at trapeze, they let me try a catch. Which… I totally messed up the hands part. Oops! But that was really cool! I got everything else right!

I had so. much. fun. And am so happy that Erin asked me to go. I am not sure I would have thought to try this on my own! I definitely want to go back and try it again… in August. After I take that test in July. DO ALL THE THINGS IN AUGUST! MAKE ALL THE FRIENDS IN AUGUST!

*I was thinking “Who would want to eat dinner with a bunch of strangers?” But if you like making conversation, it’s really fun. I bet that is what it’s like when you get paired to eat dinner with certain couples on cruises. 
**Slight exaggeration.

Comments (28)

By kilax, May 17, 2013 6:41 am

FGF #1? Ha ha ha. Just kidding. I am not starting some annoying new series on my blog. 

Have you ever had someone see a quality in yourself that you weren’t really aware was there?

Gosh. Something I would love to write about, but just can’t wrap my head around, is how we perceive ourselves… as compared to how the outside world perceives us. And not that I am saying how you are perceived should be a huge concern – do what makes YOU happy, yo. But sometimes, when someone acts particularly odd, I think to myself  “do they even realize how they are coming off right now?!” And then, “maybe if they did, they wouldn’t act this way? Or maybe they know and don’t care?!*”

I think it would be interesting to spend a day seeing yourself from other’s people’s eyes. Just to get an idea, of how the ingrained daily acts we follow actually appear to others. For example, I realize I am really obnoxious. And that I tease a lot, often, too much. I sometimes wonder how that comes off. Would you want to see how others perceive you? Anyway. THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS POST IS EVEN ABOUT! Oops!

Moving on…

This year is turning out really differently than I expected it to. Not that I had any idea how it would turn out… and I guess that is it. I didn’t plan for anything exciting to happen this year, so it’s cool that it is. 

And yes, yes, yes, I talk about it a lot, but the exciting thing is that I am teaching a strength class, doing one-on-one strength sessions, and taking the ACE Personal Trainer Certification exam in July. 

I am not going to say “never in my wildest dreams” did I think I would become a personal trainer, because, yeah, I had thought about it. But in that wildest dream sense. In that “yeah, it’s my passion, but how would that even work?!” sense. So I never even let the logical part of my brain try to figure it out. 

But then, my trainer pointed out to me all the qualities that I had that were material for a good trainer. And then I started to see myself from his perspective. And with his encouragement and a HUGE amount of support, I decided to go for it.

And that is making this year really exciting for me.

So, anyway. It makes me feel good that someone else saw an opportunity for me, pointed it out, and is supporting me on getting there. I hope other readers can share similar experiences!

68 days and 23 hours until the exam**. Ha ha.   

NOTE: my blog is doing some funny commenting stuff in Chrome. Comments still seem to be going through, but going to a weird error page. Please let me know if you see this error. 

*And acting that way is what makes them happy?! Ha ha.
**As I am reading the study material, it seems like it would be so crucial to have some experience before going in to take the exam… but I realize a lot of people need to certification to get the experience. I am lucky that was not the case for me.  

Comments (32)

By kilax, May 2, 2013 6:20 am

• It’s getting hot out! That means running mileage is going to go down… and biking mileage is going to go up! And! Steven got me schweet new wheels for my bike. And the blue tires are finally on. Hells yeah.

• Speaking of biking, I retracted from being a Venus de Miles ambassador. My schedule is nutso crazy with no unplanned weekends in sight. I tried to combat the spring blues with a full calendar and it just made me crazy… and left me not wanting to take care of myself. So. Time to free up the calendar (especially if I want to take on more work with my other job). I still think Venus de Miles is a great event and if I decide (closer to the event date) I do want to participate I will pay the entry fee and do the fundraising.
• And speaking of my other job (and really, the Multisport club), we got some schweet cycling jerseys!!!

• Someone I know just got braces! Exciting!!!

• When Erin told me that classy cat shirts do exist, do you think she meant this one too?

• So, we are watching Les Misérables. I like the story and all, but I think I am more of a fan of musicals with singing acts, rather than singing dialogue… if that makes sense. I would rather they talk in between singing. No sing talking. Ha ha ha. I have to have the closed captioning on so I can understand what the heck they are saying, too.

Other Random Thoughts Thursday Posts: 38, XXXVII, XXXVI, XXXV, XXXIV, XXXIII, XXXII, XXXI, XXX, XXIX, XVIII, XXVII, XXVI, XXV, XXIV, XXIII, XXII, XXI, XX, XIX, XVIII, XVII, XVI, XV, XIV, XIII, XII, XI, X, IX, VIII, VII, VI, V, IV, III, II, I.

Comments (36)

By kilax, April 23, 2013 6:28 am

… from work?

Um…

I didn’t mention this before, but the reason I finally decided to go to Utah* is because my mom was headed there for a work conference. I figured I could do my own thing while she was in the conference and we could hang out at night. 

I promise I took pictures other than at the Salt Flats. They were just sooooo cool.

Anyways. My mom was super jazzed about work** and was telling me how much she loves her job on our Saturday night drive back from the Salt Flats. Earlier in the year, she worked hard on putting together a performance plan for a team, then reviewed it with them. The team leader saw immediate improvement after my mom facilitated the review. My mom said she felt so proud that something she spent the time to create and implement actually helped another team perform their job better. Then she asked me, “Have you had any really proud moments like that at work lately?”

Chirp. 

I couldn’t come up with anything, and she remembered right after asking that I had earlier told her that I was trying to avoid thinking about work while on vacation. Ha ha. 

But. 

I thought about that question more as I came home. And while I still cannot think of an example for my day job, I can for my night job. 

I was really nervous to teach my first strength class. It’s one thing to do strength moves on your own. But to have people pay to take a class you teach?! Uhhhh… I wanted it to be awesome. So anyway, my trainer and I developed the first class structure together, then I followed that for the next two weeks with a few tweaks that I went over with him***. For the second cycle, I was proud that I came up with some ideas on my own. I’m on the third cycle now. My trainer just gave me some ideas and I put it together and showed it to him, and he liked it. 

Well, guess what? I taught it Monday night last week, and thought it was mediocre. There are a lot of reasons for that. It was hard to be peppy and teach last Monday night. Anyway, moving on…

So this week I revamped the workout before I taught it. And I liked it a lot better. And I was proud that I did that on my own. I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I was initially concerned that I wouldn’t be able to come up with whole body workouts on my own. Duh. I know all this stuff. Especially as I study more. I just had to start doing it to realize that I could.

So! Mom! You don’t read my blog, but I found my proud “work” moment. Ta da!

Tell me your proud work moment. Or any proud moment. Or tricks you use not to think about work while on vacation. Ha. 

*After wanting to for quite some time
**Because of the conference
***I teach a workout for three weeks then go on to something new

Comments (26)

By kilax, April 10, 2013 12:19 pm

Last week, I was contacted about being an ambassador for the Venus de Miles bike ride on July 28. Exciting!!!

Venus de Miles is a 25 or 61 mile supported, non-competitive, all women’s road ride in Lake County, Illinois (where I live!). Each entrant pays to participate as well as fundraises $75 to support Greenhouse Scholars, which provides scholarships to “high-performing, under-resourced college students.”

But I was kind of waffling. 

I am so damn busy. 

I have something going on every weekend until mid July. The idea of putting one more thing on my calendar freaks me out.

And then there is the other issue.

Sigh. 

I recently wrote my “On Sponsored Giveaways” post and have just been thinking a lot about what I promote on here. I am still getting weird offers for things. And requests from people for me to randomly blog about stuff that, well, I just don’t want to blog about. Why would I promote something I don’t use or an event that I have never heard about?

So. I had to think about whether or not Venus de Miles was something I wanted to blog about. As an ambassasdor, I get a free ride, one to raffle off, some gear, my photo on their site, etc. And I just have to write for them (and do the ride, obviously). 

Why was I so torn on this?! It was really bothering me that I couldn’t make up my mind. Here I was, given an opportuntity to do something I already wanted to do, and for free! Who wouldn’t immediately say yes?! Why was I overthinking it?

I guess my online integrity has become really important to me, lately, for some reason. 

So, what did I decide? To do it. I already wanted to. I know I will have fun – even if I am out there on my mountain bike. 

I just wanted to be honest with you guys, and share my decision making process. 

Anyone else over thinking their blog lately?

Comments (43)

By kilax, April 9, 2013 6:14 am

On Saturday, I attended my multisport club’s clinic “Benefits of Self Massage,” given by one of the personal trainers (who’s also a massage therapist). She showed tools to use for myofascial release, and even showed us how we can help massage a friend!

Moving on…

We went through these tools:

• tennis ball
• tennis ball in a sock (for accessibility to back)
• two tennis balls taped together
• foam roller
• the Stick
• Myo- Release Ball

What the heck. I had not even heard of the last one, the Myo-Release Ball. How is that possible?

The Myo-Release Ball is made out of foam… like a foam roller (derp). And you use it like it’s a foam roller, only, since it’s a small little ball, you can really target in on areas. My right gluteus maximus tends to get sore, so I sat on the ball for a good amount of time (like this), and felt awesome afterward.

Anyway. I won’t get in to the benefits of myofascial release, as I am not a certified personal trainer (yet!) or massage therapist (errr…), but I really like this tool and went out and got one right away.

And one to giveaway, too!

Myo-Release Ball Giveaway Rules

1. One reader will receive a Myo-Release Ball.
2. Required to enter the giveaway: leave a comment telling me your favorite self massage tool (let’s try not to be creepy, okay? ha ha) or one you’d like to try 
3. For a bonus entry: like my Facebook page and let me know you have. 
4. For a bonus entry: post this contest on Facebook, and let me know in a comment that you did. 
5. You can leave all entry comments in ONE comment if you’d like.
6. This giveaway is open until 5:00 PM CST on Thursday April 11. I will announce the winner on Friday April 12.
7. This giveaway is open to all US readers.

Comments (67)

By kilax, March 28, 2013 10:18 am

You know which post on my blog has been getting the most traffic for years? You might be surprised. It’s a post I wrote in April of 2009 about a Crystal Renn swimsuit photo shoot, called “Props to Glamour and my “eye patch and dental floss bikini story.”

In the post I talked about how pleased I was that Glamour had a realistically sized model showcasing swimsuits. Then I had to share the ridiculous story behind this suit of mine: 

Heh heh heh.

My mom called that my “eye patch and dental floss” bikini, because it showed so much skin. I wore it in Spain in summer of 2002. Geesh, mom, you know women go topless there, too, right?!

Moving on. 

I think that is probably the last time I wore a bikini? For the past few winters, I have thought to myself, “Hey! I should work on slimming down! Maybe I’ll wear a bikini this summer!”

And… it’s never happened (the slimming down or bikini part). 

Now. I am not one to be ashamed of how I look. I run around shirtless in the summer. I don’t feel like I have to “cover up” my body. I’ll wear a one-piece to the beach. It’s more practical for the type of running around/playing I am doing anyway (you don’t want your bikini bottoms sliding off when you are tubing/skiing/being stupidly reckless). 

But why do I come back to this thought, every year? It seems so stupid!!! What does wearing a bikini even say? I am proud of my body? I am not ashamed of my body? Well geesh, I feel that way now, and I don’t have to wear a bikini to feel it. 

Yikes. This post is not going where I thought it would, but I kind of like it. 

So. The reason I was thinking about all this, is because I was wondering what it would take to have more defined abs. Something more than a “flat” stomach (Uhh… not that I have that now. Mexican food for dinner. Not oops.)

So I ran across this random article in Competitor (click to see larger) – “Get Six-Pack Abs.”

And you know what I decided?

It’s not worth it. 

Caring that much about how I look, is just NOT worth it. I don’t want to think about it that much. And I don’t want to be so strict with my diet, either.  I am going to be making soft abs in my kitchen, and I don’t care. 

Of course. I didn’t actually TRY to get defined abs, nor did I obsess over it, or ever feel bad about how my stomach looks… I just played this all out in my head as I read that little blurb and thought… “no thanks.”

I drafted up a whole “not worth it” blog post with a list of items that I don’t particularly care about… but it got a bit negative. So, we’ll skip posting that. You can tell me though…

What’s on your “not worth it” list?

And here’s another question – why do people care so much about how they look in swimming suits? I mean, I am in one maybe… 5 days a year? Maybe 10? Seems like a lot of trouble for such a short amount of time. 

 Oops, I got so caught up in this, I forgot – I wanted to add the link to the article that inspired the “Think of it as ‘passing’” post. Here it is (pdf here).

Comments (24)

By kilax, March 27, 2013 11:45 am

Today I am guilty of the office dump.

Wow. That sounds really bad, doesn’t it? Ha ha ha! I will let you decide how bad it really is… once I explain what the heck I am talking about.  

Don’t worry! I am not talking about anything that involves a visit to the bathroom. But I am talking about food. Again.

I hauled this big-arse (heavy!) bag of food to the office today. But it wasn’t full of things to fill up my snack drawer.

Sigh. It actually had my lunch and it, and a bunch of snacky stuff from our pantry (snacky stuff in bag below on left, lunch on right).

My food hoarding got the best of me this month. I might write more later about my tendency to stock up on not-so-healthy treats then not eat (all of) them, as an exercise in self control… but we’ve already had enough disordered food talk this week. So I’ll save that topic for another day.

But anyway, I eventually sabotage myself by having so many not-so-healthy treats around, because when I want to binge, there they all are. So! I took a lot of them* out of the pantry, and brought them in to work. Hence – the office dump – dumping my snacky food off in the office pantry. GUILTY!

Are you ever guilty of the office dump?

I sure am. I work in a huge office, and food goes fast. When I used to bake more, I would bring in the extra stuff. Sometimes I feel bad about it, like I am encouraging other people to eat junk. But whatever. I see what some people eat on their own… if I wasn’t providing it, they would be!

And that huge bag was mostly gone by 9:00 am.

*Not all. I don’t follow  the “don’t have any not-so-healthy snacks in the house” policy as a way to stay on track with my eating. I believe in small indulgences each day. We just had WAY too much stuff, because I was food hoarding.