Been a while.... :)

Wow!! My apologies that it has been what seems like a LONG time since the last post!! We were on vacation in Florida a couple weeks ago (which was wonderful, but I was ready to come back to my mountains... :) ) and the week after we got back I started a new job, so needless to say it has been quite a hectic last two weeks in our household!!

I'm having to re-adjust my workout schedule and remember how to pack healthy lunches and snacks and remember to drink all my water all while working a normal person desk job now after being a house honey for six months!! :) Getting used to doing our workouts at 6pm is taking some getting used to!  Luckily one of my workout girls has agreed to workout with me and my bf has been really great and works out with me a couple days too :) He just doesn't get dinner until 7:30 or 8pm... :)

On a Crossfit/workout note.... :) I wanted to bring up something that I have heard sooo many times from different women over the last several months since I "drank the Crossfit kool- aid..."... So many women have asked me "why are you doing weight training/Crossfit? You're just going to get all big and bulky and manly and will lose any girlyness...." And I'm pretty sure most of us women that do this type of workout have had this asked of us at least once...

I wanted to address this . :) .... What these women, and some men, either don't know or forgot from any science/nutrition/fitness class they took, is that women naturally are NOT going to bulk up (in the way they see in body building magazines) because our bodies/muscles do not bulk up like that from just doing weight training. We are not genetically made to naturally become bulky from just doing weight training. Now, let me clarify... if you are taking muscle building supplements, creatine, etc then yes, you are going to bulk up. The body builder women are typically the ones that have those types of physiques because they do use those supplements and such to look that way.  The Crossfit/HIIT(high intensity interval training) workouts do not bulk us up, they make us stronger, leaner, healthier, sexier women and men! Just to show what I'm talking about... My favorite female Crossfitter, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet is one of the top women in Crossfit (and my current girl crush... :) She is a strong, beautiful, feminine(not manly at all!) woman!!

I hope that these women will understand that the weight training that we do makes us not only more fit, but healthier, happier, and satisfied with ourselves and we are NOT bulky, manly, or big! And I guarantee you we are still girly!!! We still wear makeup, high heels, dresses, and fix our hair! (just not in the gym....)

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!! 

Elizabeth

Guest Blog!

Hi!! I am on vacation for the week, so I asked a really cool fellow blogger, Claire if she wouldn't mind doing a guest blog while I am away :) I also included one of my pics from this morning for everyone as well :) Hope you enjoy!!! I know I did!!!

"Making Time for Active Rest

Hey folks! This is Claire from The Ascent Blog coming to you while Elizabeth is at the beach! Jealous of her vacation? Me too!

Before Elizabeth left for the beach, she posted on my wall and asked for some suggestions for travel workouts. I started thinking about sit-ups, squats, lunges, push-ups, and other bodyweight movements that were easy to string together… but then I stopped. Why not just let a vacation be a vacation, even from working out?

Don't get me wrong--as a CrossFitter, I love dropping in at new CrossFit gyms when I travel. I also personally find exercise to generally be enjoyable (did I just say that? yikes), so the thought of NOT working out for a whole week while on vacation sounds like a bummer. But I also think that vacation should be a time for branching out and just being active, instead of worrying about getting your "workout" in for the day. 

Sometimes you need to give your brain a break from the calculations and the stress of every day life (and every day workouts)… but that doesn't always mean that your body needs a break, too! Being on vacation gives you a chance to explore a new place by bike, sprint down the beach just to scare a group of seagulls, spend a few minutes being ok with being the adult on the monkey bars, or even just go for long walks. In my mind, those things definitely count as exercise--and even though they might not contribute directly to your specific fitness goals, I think that they can be even more valuable than hitting a PR or working on your hill sprints, because they bring you back to the root of WHY being in shape is fun. Because let's be honest, how much fun does it really sound to be doing Burpees or worrying about rep schemes while you should be hiking up a cliff so you can jump back off into the ocean, or hanging onto a tube for dear life as you're whipped around behind a speed boat?

One of my favorite things to do on vacation is to go surfing. And not because I am awesome at surfing--actually, I suck at it. I can barely stand up on a surfboard, and when I do, it's for about one millisecond before I am back in the water, swallowing the next wave that's crashing down on my face. I can only spend about 15 or 20 minutes surfing at a time because otherwise it sort of turns into drowning. But I still love it, because it always means one thing: I am on vacation! 

I also absolutely love going to Moab, Utah, which is a very hot desert with the Colorado River running right down the middle. And even though it isn't technically "working out," I never feel more deserving of a cheeseburger and a milkshake than after a long day watching my fiancee rock climb.

Do you feel the need to work out in a gym on your vacations? What is your favorite thing to do when you're on vacation that keeps you active but isn't necessarily "working out"? "

Whew....Its Friday!!

This week has been a bit crazy!!! Workouts this week were a little off my normal schedule, which i found I kinda liked :) My better half and I did our Wednesday workout on Tuesday because we spent ALL day Wednesday on the golf course...(not playing, but working..) He was making sure that no one got hurt or heat exhaustion and I was taking photographs for the University that was putting on the golf tournament to raise money for the athletics.. :) We had a blast!!! I'm learning how to photograph golf, which is a bit more tricky than you might think.... :)

Back on a workout train of thought... Monday's workout consisted of chain squats, band bench, power cleans, band pull thru, low band row, glut ham, 3 way calf raises, step ups, and single leg RDL, triceps dips and clapping pushups!.. Tuesday's workout was a doosey and kicked my butt!!! Tuesday was overhead press, rope lat pulldown, rear felt, GHD punch, reverse curls, chaos inverted pull-ups, regular pull-ups, farmer carries (to the 50 yard line), and 10 lb plate flips....YIKES!! Needless to say my forearms were on fire!!!!
Thursday I went in with the intent of doing some core and then going to run.....Not what happened!! We ended up doing Med ball slams, med ball wall pushes (not sure if thats really what they're called..), Cable crosses done with resistance bands, core work with weighted punches and weighted jabs, crosses, and upper cuts and finished up the workout with 4 stadiums and two 50 yard sprints...Whew!!!
And then..... We finished this week out with an Upper AND Lower body workout today!!! Box squats, deadlifts, band lat pulldowns, chaos kettle bell incline press, floor press, kettle bell stone pick ups and ended with ladder sprints on the football field (100 yrd, 90, 80, 70 yrd...etc) Wow!!! I'm already sore!!!

Now I get to go sit on the beach for week!!!! Going to try and get up early in the mornings and get some sort of Cross Fit workouts in on the beach without weights.... :)

Until next week!!! :)

Warrior Dash!!....

We survived our first Warrior Dash!!!! It was SOOOO much fun!!! I would recommend everyone to try it at least once!! 3 miles, 12 obstacles!! Below are a several pics :)

New workouts scheduled for next week!!! You know you're hooked on workouts when you look forward to Monday's workout!!! :) Such a great feeling!!! I need to work off all the food we ate to prepare for all the physical activity from the run... :) No worries though!!! Enjoy the pics!! More on our new workouts this week!!