The first of November and then some...

November 1
Phew. Halloween HH was a hoot.

November 2
2nd to last 101 at ITF.  Movin' on up...

November 3
Chiropractor - woo! And then our dear friend Amanda came into town to see The Record Company. We had a blast. We got our steps in walking all around.

November 4
Last 101 class and graduation (see photos). Voted early. Worked half a day and had a girls' day with Amanda and Katie and then the boys joined us for a nice meal at Canoe. However, I started to feel ickies in the late afternoon - like I was coming down with something. Yep, I was.

November 5 - 90's Party Day
Yoy. Woke up feeling not so great, but better than the night before. Kept loading up on meds and vitamins and tea. We all had brunch at Superica and came back to prepare for the evening. We had so much fun prepping and decorating and a BLAST at the party. Also (see a few photos).

November 6
A day to lay low. It was lovely. What wasn't lovely was the coughing that ensued after sleeping, so I decided to sleep elevated...

November 7
...bad idea. My lower back hurt a lot and had to cancel our first big kid class at ITF. I went to the chiro and he said sleeping like that plus coughing had tightened my hip flexors and put stress on my back muscles. I got adjusted, stretched, iced, and used my tens.

November 8 - ELECTION DAY
Back still wasn't 100%, and at the suggestion of my DC, I decided to give it another day of rest and tens. I think this was a wise choice. We had another event at our complex and enjoyed the company of others without having the election on. Was a fun evening.

November 9 
Boy, oh, boy. I've never seen such reactions! It's just bananas. We finally made it to ITF for the evening class and it felt good to sweat it out again! Movements included I wore my "From Sea to Shining Sea" tank top and USA zip hoodie. 'MERICA

November 10
Hit up ITF this AM and I have to say it feels great to have my form reevaluated in so many respects after so long. Old habits die hard, but I'm convinced I'll be broken of them. We picked things up and put them down. Good stuff. Heading to B-Town, IN tonight for the weekend! Yay for a fun family weekend.

Happy Halloween 2016!

Well, as before, it's been a little while since the last update. So here goes...

FRIDAY 10/21 

Had 101 class in the AM and picked up my race packet in the PM.

SATURDAY 10/22

Met the Soup Nazi at a super nice Kroger and purchased some delicious soups.

Saw Allen Stone (for the 2nd time) at City Winery. He's such a talent. Was a much more intimate show than the first time seeing him at Georgia Theater this summer.

SUNDAY 10/23

Ran the 10 Miler! It was a beautiful crispy morning to tackle those hills. I ended up being pretty pleased with my performance, even though I always wish I could have done a little bit better.

Relaxed for awhile afterwards and then went over to Atlanta Streets Alive with Piggy and met up with some folks at Hi-Five, one of our fave spots. Had a fun afternoon and evening!

MONDAY 10/24

Had a wonderful massage at Elements with Maryam. She's the bomb. I joined the membership club and will be going back on the regular.

TUESDAY 10/25

Had my semi-annual dentist appointment - no cavities for me! Gold star!

WEDNESDAY 10/26

Hit up the Chiropractor again. Always feels great.

THURSDAY 10/27

Enjoyed a nice dinner and networking with some ASUG folks at South City Kitchen; the hangar steak was a delight as was the company. Small world - Chris, the fellow who organized it, grew up right down the road from me and graduated from the same class at a different high school.

FRIDAY 10/28

Attended an ASUG SAP Solution Manager event in Buckhead for the day with some coworkers and met some lovely GSU Grad students along the way. Both meals were served there and I did my best to de-carb them, but then added a chocolate chip cookie. Then the craziness ensued; two of my closest childhood friends (Andre and Katie) were at our place waiting for me! Chad had let them in earlier in the day. We hung out for awhile and then headed over to Antico, our favorite pizza place, and then came back to enjoy the Indians game! GO TRIBE!!!

SATURDAY 10/29

We enjoyed some eggs and bacon as well as some Sublime Donuts. Then we drove around town to show them the sites - including Walking Dead sites - and landed at Ponce City Market for some shopping and lunch. Finally had an H+F burger and it certainly delivered. Yum! Then we headed back home to veg and freshen up before ADELE!! But first, we enjoyed dinner at Superica, another favorite, that resides in the awesome Krog Street Market. Then it was off to Philips Arena for what was to be an amazing show by the one and only Adele. She's truly incredible and someone with whom you'd want to be best buds. What a fun night!

SUNDAY 10/30

After a late evening, the early morning rising was a bit tough, but we took our friends to the airport. It was kind of a lazy day for the most part, but I knew I had to get my bum moving for at least a few minutes before we met my college bud, Kristen, and her folks for brunch. So, I ran a quick 2 miles - paling in comparison the Sunday previous - just so I could at least say I did something this weekend. It's way less than I have in quite sometime, and I don't want to make it a trend.  After a fun brunch, we hit up Trader Joe's for some groceries and remained in our apt all through the evening. I stayed up for as much of the Indians game as I could, and unfortunately, it didn't go our way. So, here's hoping for a WIN tomorrow evening!!

MONDAY 10/31

Had our last Monday of 101 on the last day of October. Felt pretty good. We are meeting with our resident coach and nutritionist, Steph, this afternoon after we get out of work a little early. We want to hone in on some more ideas of what we could/should be doing. We really do kind of know and have done it in the past, but a reminder/refresher/reintroduction to all of that is always helpful. Then, of course, Steelworks is hosting a Halloween Happy Hour, so we will attend to show our appreciation of our staff who have become more like friends!

As you can see, there was a whole lot of indulgences that occurred this weekend, and that's something we have to be better about, even when entertaining. I know I could have done better, but chose not to, while feeling somewhat guilty all the while. 

So, here we start somewhat anew, on this Halloween, hoping to reign some of it in throughout the week. However, we have our friend Amanda coming into town on Thursday, The Record Company Thursday night, and our 90s Party on Saturday. So, will have to make adjustments on the off times to account for the indiscretions. It's a marathon, not a race - sustainability is key, right?

Until next time...

Here We Go, Now

Several things have transpired since my last post:

We have attended 4 more 101 Classes - it's so great to get back into it!

Gotten our sweet new kicks (see right) for being Founding Members and for me "referring" Chad

Gone to the Chiropractor twice - Dr. Sebastien is awesome!

Traveled to SC for our friends' beautiful wedding        

         
Run at Berkeley Hall - said wedding site and where we stayed

Seen a few more concerts - Brett Dennen and The Hip Abduction

Witnessed the Indians clinch the American League Pennant - WORLD SERIES BOUND!

Finished reading The Girl on the Train (I've got to see the movie!) and started reading How to Get Run Over by a Truck, a fantastic memoir by my fellow DU Alumna

Continued with our Fresh 'N Fit meals, but had a few CHEATS during wedding weekend and concerts. Could have been much worse, was definitely more mindful for the majority of them, but some of it was consistent with what has been our norm. However, sustainability, remember? It's a journey and there will be ups and downs - it's not all or nothing. 

Tomorrow marks halfway through 101 - 2 more weeks then we are official graduates and can enter the normal Tribe classes! Soup Nazi Saturday afternoon and Allen Stone Saturday evening (early show, thank goodness). Then it's 10 miler time early Sunday AM hopefully followed by some Atlanta Streets Alive!

Ciao for Now!

It's Been Awhile...

Greetings. 

It's been quite some time since I've written. However, I’m compelled to do so since we are turning over a new leaf, so to speak. Granted, it’s a little after September 22, the first day of Fall, but nonetheless, we are attempting to start anew once again.

We’ve been through a lot of transition over the past year and half since the last post. We moved to Atlanta in July 2015, started working out at a gym that later closed (but LA Fitness honored our memberships until they expire this month), started a new gym called Orangetheory Fitness Midtown, which is a GREAT workout. Chad left awhile back, and I just left after giving it a go for a year. I did really enjoy it, but I waned off the workouts as I have been experiencing hip issues since last Fall. I also needed a change-up. Since I had cut back on that, I have been supplementing with group classes at LA Fitness and at Norfolk Southern (Bodyworks, Kickboxing, Yoga), and running. I’ve run the Hot Chocolate 15k in 1:28:36 in extreme cold (Chad the 5k), I’ve run the Peachtree Road Race 10k in 59:34 in extreme heat, Walked to End Alzheimer's (and Dementia), and I’ve been training for the PNC Atlanta 10 Miler, which takes place on Oct 23. Hills are nuts around here. Hence the Run ATL shirts which don “Heat, Hills & Humidity…welcome to Atlanta!”

But, most recently, as of yesterday, we are new members of Iron Tribe Fitness West Midtown (I signed us up several weeks ago). We started the 101 on-ramping class that is 3x week for 4 weeks before we join the rest of the Tribe. While we have been missing aspects of CrossFit, we still weren’t 100% ready to get back to it. However, Iron Tribe is similar - thus filling that void, but different in ways by which I’m very intrigued. Our biggest hesitancy has been injury as we both suffered from multiple injuries during the years we did XF in gyms and on our own (see earlier posts in this very blog).

We also very well know that we have been taking in Atlanta’s sights, sounds, food, and drink to the max over the past 15 months, and it is time to check ourselves before we (further) wreck ourselves. Just shy of 7 months from now, I’ll be hitting the magical age of 35. Yes, 35. I can’t believe that. Then, of course, 5 days later, Chad will do the same. We have got to get our asses in gear and get to healthy weights. We have been tipping the scales and I'm not about to start out my official mid-30s heftier than I'd like to be. Especially since your 30s pose more difficulty of losing weight than the earlier years. What worked before certainly isn't working now...obvi. I look back at photos from a few short years ago and we were fitter (and younger) people. I'd like to get back to the former as the latter isn't possible anymore! 

So, we are attempting to get our diets back to something resembling a sustainable Paleo-esque nature. Iron Tribe is giving us that extra push we needed. Plus, we just started Fresh 'N Fit a few weeks ago - thanks to our friends Dan and Katie - and have been curtailing our plans to the low-carb and Paleo meals to get ourselves reset. We definitely need to get back into the prepping and cooking thing again, but this is a great way to get it going for a bit, or even supplement what we do on our own.

Here's to holding ourselves accountable; writing about our journey really helps us to do so. Thanks for reading and we'll see you soon! 

I'm off to run at lunch in this beautiful weather! Just kidding. Forgot my sports bra. And towel. #fail

PS - Speaking of Tribe. Go Tribe! #WINdians #CLE