coffee Archives - Page 2 of 2

Cardio, Cardio, But Not a Dumbell in Sight

November 2, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hi friends! Well, Winston had a pretty great 2nd birthday I think. He started his morning with a treat and ended it with a walk around the block. Walks are his favorite. All I do is say “Go for a walk?” and he starts actin a fool! I started off yesterday with an abs/upper body work out and Spin with my fav teacher Linda! Class was awesome as usual except for one thing! She got off her bike about half way through and started checking everyone to make sure they were at the gear she thought they should be at. She walked around and checked every single bike in the room except for mine! I’m in the corner and I just got skipped. Of course me being a total teacher’s pet wanted to raise my hand and say “Wait wait wait!! Check on me check on me!!! Validate me, my spinning, and my gear!!” But luckily I have some social grace and just kept spinning haha. I was always that kid in school raising my hand super annoyingly so I could get called on and show off how smart I thought I was 🙂 Anyway, I ended spin feeling really good and getting in some decent mileage.

Came home to some delicious oats in a pumpkin butter jar! Sooooo yummy

This morning I went on a 3 mile run all alone since Kara has a lame schedule today, but I maintained a pretty good pace!

Came home, dip 50 dips and called it a tricep work out. I really suck at the strength training lately. Someone please say something motivating so that I can get my butt back to the weight room! I was also surprised with a skinny peppermint mocha from my fabulous husband! I love surprises and coffee surprises are often the best ones! Off to drink more coffee because I’m addicted. Have a fabulous day everyone!

Running for Donuts

October 26, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hello friends! This Wednesday started out absolutely perfectly! Well, maybe not started out, but within the first hour it got fabulous. Getting out of bed at 5:45 this morning was no picnic because I stayed up too late working on my running playlist on my ipod. I finally got out of bed, was running late and then my stupid GPS did not give me correct directions and my phone wouldn’t work and blah blah blah. But finally about 10 minutes late, I met up with Kara at Kiwanis Park. Can you believe I actually needed my GPS to drive there? For some reason, I have never actually been the driver when going and I don’t pay attention. Ever.

Kara and I started out on our run around the park and my legs felt tiiiiired. Like lead. Maybe it was my interval run Sunday, followed by Monday’s hike, followed by spin yesterday? Also, there were several small hills throughout the park and this girl is used to flat flat flat. Although our duck filled lake route has some small inclines, these were definitely steeper. Kara and I both acknowledged that today was seeming super challenging, but I gave us a little pep talk (which I needed just as much as her) and realized that we were actually making pretty decent time. I said “I have a surprise for you, but we have to rock the end of our run for you to get it!” When we finished, I showed her this amazingness

My previous (and the only time I had ever actually done 4 miles before) 4 mile time was 40:58. Almost 2 whole minutes off!!!!

And the best part, I didn’t realize until later

We ran our 4th mile in 8:57!!!!!! I don’t think I have EVER run a sub 9 min mile before!!! I almost cried. I know I will most certainly cry when I cross that half marathon finish line. I know I’ve said it over and over again, but I just never imagined that I would be able to do this. I was the kid in PE who walked at the back of the pack when we were supposed to run the mile. I told myself for so many years that I couldn’t do things. I so believe that it is all mental, and that we can do anything if we want it badly enough. I need a shirt for the race that says “I can do anything.” Nothing makes me feel better than those 4 words.

Now onto the super fun part (as much fun as wanting to do at a 9 min pace is, food is much more fun)! On our last long run, we ran by Bosa Donuts.

It smelled so freaking good that we wanted to just stop right there and get a donut before finishing our run, but we knew that ~~if we stopped, we would never stop again~~ that wasn’t a good idea. We did promise ourselves that eventually we would go try a donut though. I honestly cannot tell you the last time I went out for a donut. We walked in and I was so overwhelmed I didn’t even know where to start.

Today is Mona’s birthday (YAY!!! Happy birthday my amazing friend!! I love you!!!) so we were bringing a box of donuts to Starbucks with us. We carefully selected 12 donuts (who has a hard time choosing 12? Apparently us) including what ended up being my favs: blueberry cake and buttermilk. It smelled so freaking amazing. Kara in all of her excitement exclaimed “We’re going to be consumed by donut air!!!!!” And we were. We left with this

So excited we could hardly contain ourselves

When we finally got to Starbucks, I got an other delicious iced coffee with sf vanilla and sf peppermint. Just like yesterday.

And when the line died down, we dug into the donut box! We wanted to sample lots of them, so we got plastic knives and went to town!

I took pretty small tastes of several of them, probably totaling about a whole donut all together. I was trying to keep it closer to half a donut. Maybe we’ll just pretend it was more like half 😉 After we dug in, the box looked like this

Mona with her birthday (and not just any birthday–21!!!) donut

While I was there, I had an unexpected visit with an old co-worker, as well as getting to see Bekki and Amelia and one of my favorite student mom’s, Beth!! Beth has the three loveliest girls on Earth and it is no surprise because she is totally amazing herself and any time I see her, she always makes me smile! Plus I hardly ever get to see Amelia and she makes my heart happy, and Bekki I just love. Amazing morning.

I also helped Kara set up her new blog!!!! “Ranting and Running” Go check it out!!!

My 100th Post!!!

October 21, 2011 · by Ari ·

HOORAY!!!! This is officially my 100th post since I moved on over to wordpress and my own domain. I started the Skinnified blog a long time ago, but it has only been the last 2 months or so that I began to take blogging seriously and told Steve “I want my blog to be something. I want to inspire people and I want to change people’s lives.” I have no idea if anyone other than me actually gets anything out of this thing, but I get a LOT out of it, so that’s something 🙂 Today I got up in the dark again for my long run. Kara met me at my house @ 6:15 and we set off. The first mile, I was really slow. I think I was nervous and trying to pace myself, but seriously I was like a snail, but we picked up on mile 2 and ended up finishing our 6 miles in 1:03.

When I decided to run the Susan G Komen 5K, I remember saying to Steve “By the end of the year, I want to be able to run an hour without stopping.” At this point 30 minutes still felt so hard. He said “It’s going to be hard, but I think you can do it.” Well, friends, today is October 21st and actually with my training schedule, it looks like by the new year I will be running for more like 2 hours. I didn’t just accomplish that goal, I stomped all over it and kicked it to the curb in place of a better one: 13.1. Sure the race is Jan 15, but that is basically the start of the new year and I plan to kick it off with a bang!

Our run ended at The Good Egg where I ordered whole wheat pancakes with oatmeal and blueberries cooked in and 2 scrambled egg whites. I could only finish the eggs and one of the pancakes so now I have a second pancake for later 🙂 We met Bethany and Steve for breakfast. I was feeling a little out of it at this point and desperately in need of iced coffee. After breakfast, I took Bethany to her mom’s because she leaves for her first cruise today! I’m so excited for her. She works so hard and deserves to have some FUN! Then I met Kara at Starbucks for the COFFEE. Most important part of my day, seriously. I started off with my usual sfc iced coffee, but then got a refill that was AMAZING! It’s not officially out yet, but this year sugar free peppermint has arrived!!! I made a skinnified version of a peppermint white mocha

Grande iced coffee

1 pump white mocha

1 pump sf vanilla

1 pump sf peppermint

soy milk

light ice

You’re welcome. All the rich deliciousness of my favorite seasonal treat with about 100 calories. Yes, please

I even got to write my own cup which made me feel super special. Kara and I hung out with Mona on her break and enjoyed out iced coffees, some sunshine, and the accomplishment of being finished with this week’s long run!

My joints are feeling it a little today, but we walked over to the gym for some stretching and foam rolling (I hate you foam roller) and I will spend lots of time icing this evening. I also plan on hitting up the ibuprofen bottle to hopefully knock out any pain that may be coming my way.

I feel pretty great about the way my training is going. I know there will be challenges and times I question why the f I would ever want to do this, but right now it is bringing me so much joy and every week I achieve something that once seemed impossible. Every week I affirm the fact that

I.Can.Do.Anything.

I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

Okay, I promise the next post will include my new cookies and their recipe. But now I have to go to the tmobile store AGAIN because my stupid phone ate the new battery they gave me and now will not come back to life AGAIN. Annoyed.

In happier news, tonight is Opening Night!!!! So excited. Come see Aladdin!!!!

Rest Day

October 20, 2011 · by Ari ·

Today I woke up and had no idea what to do with myself. I never take a rest day on a Thursday. No run. No spin. Derrrrrr….what do I doooo? I decided to try to get some use out of my free morning and started out by making some oatmeal. Steve was at work and I wanted pretty pictures, so I took out his fancy shnazzy camera to document 🙂

I always chuckle when I cook my oatmeal in the Paula Dean butter warmer. Irony. What would oatmeal be without nut butter on top?!

Are you ready for the best part? Okay, let me preface with the fact that I really do not drink a lot of soda. I used to live off of it–no water, only soda, then gave it up completely, then reintroduced it occasionally, drank too much again and now I am back to every once in a while. Well Michelle came home last night with one of my favorite things in life–diet cream soda! Yes, I drank one at breakfast, I have no shame!

Yummmm. Breakfast of champions.

Winston and Clementine also enjoyed their own breakfast of champions.

“Moooommmm, stop staring at me and let me eat my breakfast! All those clicks you’re making are really ruining my moment here”

“Also, I’m long and cute. Jealous?”

After breakfast, I decided that if my morning wasn’t going to revolve around my work out, then obviously it had to revolve around food. Confession: I LOVE grocery shopping. It can (and this morning DID) take me up to 2 hours. I’m a freak. We’ve acknowledged this. Let’s move on. I will go to multiple stores and browse and read labels and look for neat new things I’ve never seen before. I love actually having the time to not have to rush through it every once in a while. Today was TJ’s and Fry’s.

I also got a hot coffee (whaaaatttt? It’s still almost 100 degrees here, but I wanted it!) on the way home. It was almost free, but then it wasn’t. I prefer it when it is free ( 😉 )

“Look I cost money, therefore I am less cool. But I have steamed soy milk, therefore I am awesome.” Yes, my coffee speaks, doesn’t yours?

It appears I may have a ~~small~~ pumpkin and fig problem…

I spent the rest of my time before work baking some pretty amazing cookies, but you will have to wait until tomorrow for them because it is 10pm, I barely got home 30 minutes ago, I’m beat and have to be up early to run 6 miles tomorrow. Yikes. I’m scared. But excited. Stay tuned for a post tomorrow I’m super excited about! 🙂

PS: LOOOOOK!!! I can take pretty pictures too! I took all of these myself!

So Much Coffee

October 19, 2011 · by Ari ·

Every time I wake up early, Winston stays in bed and stares at me with the saddest longing eyes like he’s saying “Mom, please don’t go. Come back to bed and snuggle with me.” Yes, I legitimately cuddle with my dog in bed. You are free to judge me. It won’t stop me. I got up at 5:45 to meet Kara for an early morning run around the lake. I love this route. Each lap is almost exactly a mile, slight hills, adventurous travels through the apt complex, nice scenery and of course, the ducks!

This time we must have encountered them 3 or 4 different times and each time they angrily quacked at us like they were pissed that we were interrupting their important waddle time. Those ducks crack me up. We finished 3 miles with a 9:55 average pace. Whoot.

Mile 1: 10:45

Mile 2: 9:50

Mile 3: 9:13

Talk about negative splits! My first mile is always soooo slow. It’s like it takes my body the entire mile to get warmed up and ready to actually run. I need to work on that my next week day run. Tomorrow is a rest day because Friday we are running 6 miles!! Every long run makes me equally nervous and excited. New challenges, new accomplishments! After our run, we headed to Starbucks for water and iced coffee. I got my usual: Grande SF caramel iced coffee with soy, light ice (light ice=MORE room for coffee!) I also ordered Steve a coffee to take back to him, but then I got home and this happened

Second time in a week I’ve tried to surprise him with coffee and he had the EXACT same idea. Ironically there were no days in between where either of us got each other coffee. Steve laughed and said “We need to coordinate or something.” I don’t know, looks like we’re pretty in sync to me! Two iced coffees hanging out in my fridge, soon to become one 🙂

After our I showered and got ready, I met the other Kara (hair Kara) at Forever 21 for some shopping. The new-ish one in AZ Mills is HUGE and I’d been wanting to go. I got a pair of shorts that are about 10 years too young for me, a super cute emerald green shirt that I didn’t even try on because I loved the color so much annnnnnd, the most exciting part, an ALADDIN SWEATSHIRT!!!!! I saw it and new I had to have it since we open on Friday (get your tickets, peeps–these kiddos are amazing!) I will take pictures of the new clothes (including my super awesome pumpkin shirt I bought at Target for $10 to be festive) once I have Steve around to take actually good pictures.

After shopping I had to make a super annoying trip to the tmobile store because my battery full on died–like unable to be brought back to life died. Soon my over heating phone will kill this battery as well and then MAYBE they will give me a new phone that actually works. By the time I got home I was soooo hungry and wanting the fastest lunch possible, so I took out this frozen pizza I bought at TJs a while ago.

I jazzed it up with some crumbled red fat feta cheese and sriracha on top, but I was so hungry I didn’t want to wait for the oven to preheat. My oven seriously takes years. It’s annoying. So I set it to ~~burn~~ broil and cut the cooking time almost in half. Well the burn button did it’s thing and I ended up with a pizza that was cold in the middle and burnt on the outside. I’m an awesome cook, can’t you tell?

Well, like I said, I was ready to gnaw my left arm off hungry, so I put it in the microwave for 40 seconds and then ate it anyway. It was not great my friends, but not awful. It did the trick. I would buy it again for an easy meal, but even cooked correctly, I don’t think it would have been anything too fantastic. Alright, off to get some life errands done that I’ve been neglecting, then off to work. Have a good day everyone!

A new PR for me!!!

September 11, 2011 · by Ari ·

Good morning everyone!!! It is the most beautiful morning we’ve had here in Phoenix in quite some time and I couldn’t be happier! Finally the weather is good enough for a beautiful morning run. Let me preface with the fact that I hardly ever run and when I do, it is almost always on a treadmill and I have never gone outside and even measured my distance, but today was different, because….

I have an announcement to make!!!

I have decided to run my First.Race.Ever. The Susan Komen Race for the Cure. I didn’t want to announce until I was certain I could do it and wouldn’t back out. Running has been incredibly hard on my body in the past due to my very short achilles tendins, and has caused a lot of pain, but it is something I can and WILL push through because I have dreams of one day completing a marathon. Starting small.

I have only ever run 3.1 miles ONE TIME in my life. It was on the treadmill and I remember when I was done I wanted to cry. I went from not being able to run a full minute to running a legitimate race distance. I felt so proud. I did it that day in about 37 minutes. Not fast, but I am not speedy and I’m okay with that.

This morning I got up early, realized my window to take advantage of 75 degree temperature was small, and got my booty out the door to see how I did in the great out doors. I not only met my goal of making the 5k (I wasn’t sure I’d be able to outside since the one time was inside and almost a year ago), but I made a new PR that I’ve only been dreaming of–29:59!!!!! Just barely, but under 30 minutes!!!! I kind of wanted to cry–again.

The first mile flew by and I started to wonder why I wasn’t going for a longer race! Mile 2 still felt good, but I started to wonder when the end would come. Mile 3 I just wanted to be done haha. It was getting warmer out, I was tired, and I remembered why I am doing a 5k to start haha. The good news? My run ended me perfectly at Starbucks for water and iced coffee!

I don’t know how some people take pictures of themselves for their blogs after workouts and look super cute. I was a red, sweaty mess.

But ohhhh so happy. Now Jason and Nacho are coming over for an impromptu breakfast!

The tale of the bad bodyworks teacher

September 7, 2011 · by Ari ·

Good morning everyone! I just returned from the gym and Clementine is currently chewing on my finger while I try to post. The puppies do not like when I don’t pay attention to them as soon as I return home. I wonder how they got so attention needy. Couldn’t be from me 🙂

This morning I met up with Kara for bodyworks. I’ve taken the Wednesday class before and I remember it being good, but it’s been a while. Once we got in, we recognized our hard core yoga instructor from last week and we were super excited. But then super awesome yoga teacher peaced out, and it was all down hill from there. One time a few months ago, we journeyed over to an other gym for bodyworks and were less than thrilled (to say the least) with the instructor. I mean, it was hard, but there was lots of yelling and it was no fun at all. Plus, my biggest pet peeve is when we just sit there and lift weights focusing on one body part at a time. I can do that on my own. I go to bodyworks because usually it’s a bunch of things combined that I would never think of on my own and I get a cardio work out and a strength training work out in at the same time. We left that day totally not feeling it and decided we would not be returning to that gym for that class time again.

So of course today after super cool yoga lady peaces out, who walks in, but the instructor from the dreaded class of bodyworks past! As soon as I saw her, I wanted to leave, but Kara convinced me to stay and then her friend Bekki arrived and sticking it out seemed inevitable. Then, we were informed that the stereo was broken and there would be no music. This may not seem like the hugest deal, but imagine this filled aerobics room, and all the sudden we begin the class doing toe taps on the step in front of us and all you here is tapping feet. NOT GOOD. And definitely NOT fun. That’s the other bonus to group exercise–the music! I definitely had my sour puss face on and was having a hard time taking it seriously.

About half way through our half hour of shoulders (uuggghhh) this older woman starts asking the instructor to slow down the movements. I guess I just assumed she was having a hard time keeping up and tried not to judge, but was definitely taken back by her outspokenness. Well, about the fifth time she made a point of drawing attention to herself, she decided to share that she’s “been doing this for years and if you do it quickly, it doesn’t do ANYTHING.” Wow, lady. She did keep me pretty entertained though.

All in all, I still got strength training in and spending half the class on shoulders, while annoying, was probably good for me since my shoulders are un-proportionally weak. I was a little disappointed in myself for my inability to push through with a positive attitude. I bet I could have gotten even more out of it if I wasn’t focusing on the lameness the whole time. But, at least I didn’t leave! Kara was the only one to look on the bright side.

Bekki and I were cranky. You can’t see it in the picture, but I am giving the class a big thumbs DOWN!

But on the plus side, after class we walked over to Starbucks where I got more pumpkin spice! Yummmm.

After we got coffee, we discussed kind of a touchy subject, and one I have very mixed feelings about. This particular instructor happened to be overweight. Not obese by any means and obviously strong and capable of doing everything she asked us to do (I have seen work out classes where the instructor pops a squat and watches and yells–IMO, there is no controversy in this case, it is just LAME), but she definitely was not in ideal shape, or even really close to it. Bekki and Kara both stated that they want an instructor who is in better shape than them. I mostly agree with this, but it’s not really a secret that I’m not at my goal weight. This fact provided me a lot of fear and reservation in terms of entering the healthy living blog world. I felt like people would have that same reaction. I have also wanted for quite some time to become a certified personal trainer. I feel like it’s something I would be really good at, especially with overweight clients (not necessarily body builders haha), but the same fear comes with that. I feel like I am perfectly capable of teaching a work out class or working as a trainer. Does not being at my goal weight actually affect my abilities?

What do you guys think? Does a person’s size/weight/appearance make a difference in their effectiveness as an instructor? Does it affect your opinion as a work out “student”?

I’m off to make some oatmeal–I’ve been craving it since yesterday, and had no time to make it yesterday morning! Have a great day!

Happy Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Day!!

September 6, 2011 · by Ari ·

Hooray!! Fall is coming! Pumpkin spice is BACK! Am I a huge nerd for being so excited about this? Don’t answer that…

Today was the craziest day, but it has actually been awesome in every way. It started out with 9:15 spin. Side note: it is time to invest in bike shorts. Anyway, in the middle of peddling my little heart out I realized that the dance class my friend Carson and I decided to take over at MCC started TODAY @ 10:20–OY! So I decided I would skip the cool down, be a couple minutes late to class and everything would be okay. I made it 26 miles in an hour, and I definitely feel like I’m getting stronger. I wanted to get a picture of myself completely soaked in my own sweat, but this home girl was in a hurry!

I sped over to MCC (still covered in sweat–yeah, I’m gross like that), got to the dance class at about 10:30 and realized all I’d eaten was a slice of ezekiel bread with a light spread of peanut butter. Whoops. Class was hard. Like, I kind of wanted to quit. All these 18 year old girls can drop on the floor and roll like it’s nothing. I felt old. But it’s good for me, and I wasn’t the absolute worst one, so I know I’m in the right place. I need to push myself, I just haven’t really danced since graduation and I was expecting to ease back into it, but looks like I took a giant leap.

So class ends at 11:55, and I teach at 12:45 on Tuesdays. I was planning on Tuesdays to just peace out a few minutes early, but today I had to stay to the end to get the ad slip signed. Then I got stuck at the parking lot, and didn’t make it home til 12:10–starving, sweaty, and without my morning iced coffee–EEK! I knew I had to leave by 12:20. On my way home, I called Steve (I knew he was home on lunch) and begged him to get me coffee and being the world’s best husband, he obliged.

Okay, are you ready for the amazing part? I showered, got dressed, made a smoothie to go (and it was like the best smoothie EVER) and left my house in 11 minutes. I am magical.

Got to work, had a great class with my kiddos, then met up with Bethy for a trip to the most dreaded spot ever: The DMV. Gross. I even tried to be nice and funny with the employees and all of my funniness was lost on them. Thankfully, I had Bethy to keep me company. Once we were done, I took her for coffee to say thank you and I finally got to experience what I’ve been dreaming of all day long–PUMPKIN SPICE!!!

I usually try to avoid the sugary syrups, or if I do get them, not to get the full amount. I got a tall iced coffee with 1 pump pumpkin spice, 2 pumps sugar-free caramel, soy milk and light ice. Yes, my coffee is complicated. I usually get a sugar-free caramel iced coffee with soy, light ice. If you don’t say light ice, you get all ice, no coffee–no bueno!

Finally, I came home and made a big, delicious salad out of Sunday dinner’s left over’s (Steve made a sandwich with his half of the left overs and loved it), and went out for some fro yo for a perfect end to a crazy, but awesome day.

Happy Pumpkin Spice Day!!!

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