I get it now...

I normally don't watch the news. Sometimes I feel like the last person to know something that's going on but I don't mind. I really don't enjoy watching the news...

And as for the weather. It's Arizona- we have 350 sunny days every year. My husband and I joke that meteorologists in Phoenix have the easiest job... "Tomorrow it's going to be sunny, Friday it's going to be sunny, and look at that... this weekend will be sunny too."

And this time of year, it's hot. Regardless of whether it's 105 or 115, it's FLIPPING HOT!

Today the news just so happened to be on while I was working on the computer. Here's what I learned...

• We've had 10 consecutive days of an Excessive Heat Warning and it's expected to continue until Friday & maybe even through the weekend. This is one of the longest stretches of excessive heat warnings we've experienced.
• This year, we've had 30 days of 110+ degree temps. The average per year is only 18 days.
• Yesterday we broke the daily record with a temp of 113 degrees.
• Today we are expected to break the record again.

In other words people, it's FLIPPING HOT! Hotter than I realized! And honestly, it makes me feel soooo much better to learn this. Our workouts the past month have been so sketchy. I've had very little energy and I've felt sluggish big time. Michael too. We didn't know why. We've stuck so close to our paleo diet so we couldn't blame our eating habits (which is usually the culprit).

I honestly think it's this streak of heat. It's just wearing me out and I'm soooo sick of it. I don't want to even step outside. I don't want to workout because if you recall, we workout in our garage and it is simply not fun right now.

We leave in the morning for Michigan and the timing couldn't be better. It should be mid 70's and 80's while we're there and 60 degrees at night. Their evening temps will be 50+ degrees cooler than what we've been experiencing!

Maybe I should pack some sweaters...

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What do you think?

What do you think of the new layout? I was going for something lighter and simpler...

Hope you like it!

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No regrets

Tonight, we had every intention of working out. We even knew which workout we were planning to do and who was coming over.

But, something very important was happening tonight as well...

BACHELOR PAD!

Yes, the TV show where men and women live in a house, hook up, and kick each other out. It's awesome. It's stupid. I love it.

Normally I watched it on Hulu the day after it airs but my girlfriend had a rough few days. She came over and we enjoyed some wine, watched some stupid drama, chased the kids around the house, and just hung out.

And I'd do it again if given the choice. It was a fun night!

There's always tomorrow to workout :-P

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Working out mad

Normally I get a text from my husband during the day to let me know we have people coming over that night to workout. If I don't receive a text, I assume that either 1) we're not working out or 2) Michael and I may workout but no one else is coming over. Our friends that come over have two kids- about 3 and 1.5 years old. I absolutely adore the kids and love when they come over. Abby (the older one) says "she's working out" and gets on the rower, does squats, or swings on the rings! It's so fun to watch her! I love that they come over, I love working out with them, and I love that Abby & Emmett are learning at a young age how important it is to be active and have fun with it.

Well, tonight I never got a text from Michael so I (foolishly) assumed no one was coming over. I have clients coming over tomorrow morning at 8am and again at 10am. The good thing about having clients coming to the house is that I've had to be good about keeping the house clean. So at 5 tonight I decided to start cleaning for tomorrow. I seriously just finished mopping when the kiddos come through the door. No! Mopping was the last thing I did- I swept, wiped down our glass end tables in the living room, vacuumed, etc. Having a 3 and 1.5 year old come over is like a tornado come through your house (normally one that I welcome). This is not a characteristic specific to Abby & Emmett- just any kid that age. I totally would have waited to clean until after working out had I realized they were coming!

I was pretty mad at Michael for not telling me. He says he was too busy but it takes 2 seconds to send the text "working out" and hit send. And those 2 seconds could have saved me quite a bit of time cleaning our house.

Anyway, the point of the story is to tell you why I almost didn't workout-mainly because I was annoyed, I wasn't dressed for it, I hadn't planned for working out, etc. I was just peeved. But, I decided to workout and I'm so glad I did. I felt much less moody afterwards & wasn't mad about it anymore. And it helped that when we came in from working out, Michael picked up the toys that were left out & put away the sippy cups so I didn't have to... In other words, working out is GOOD for the SOUL! :)

We did a burpee and dumbbell power snatch workout- each minute on the minute do 1 of each, then 2 of each, etc until the clock beats you. I was the only one that made it through 8 full rounds and I did all but 2 snatches in the 9th round (so 9 burpees and 7 snatches each hand). I was cruising through the burpees and felt really strong. Those last 2 rounds SUCKED though :)

Well, I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

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Craptastic

I love when I repeat a workout and I see that I'm either stronger or faster than I was before. At the same time, I'm equally disappointed when I repeat a workout and I get slower or weaker.

The latter happened this evening.

Tonight I did Lynne- 5 rounds of bench press and pull-ups (until failure).

Here's how I did the previous two years-

 Tonight I did just slightly better than 2009 but a lot worse than last year.
Bench press: 6, 7, 8, 6, 5 = 32
Pull-ups: 6, 9, 7, 5, 6 = 33

Total bummer. At least I worked out though right?

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Look who's on a roll?

Okay, working out twice in one week probably does not constitute being on a roll, but it's an improvement so I'll take it.

Tonight I did a workout called the "Bear Complex". I thought I would start out at 45# (just the bar) and work my way up every so often. I ended up sticking with the 45# the entire time. Every round felt a heck of a lot harder than the round before it so I figured adding extra weight wasn't necessary.

In this workout you do the following:

Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press

You repeat those motions consecutively 7 times without setting down the bar or letting go of it. After 7 times through you can rest but you have to go through it 5 times. It's actually a really fun workout and I enjoy it. The hardest part is the push presses for me-after a few times through, those felt hard.

This past week, two different people recommended this local farmer's market to us. One was my husband's patient who told him about it then the other guy was a random fella who stopped me when he saw how many fruits and veggies were in my cart at the grocery store. Total unrelated but both conversations happened this week so I decided to go check it out this morning after volunteering. Holy cow, it's awesome. We've lived here for a few years now and never heard of this place before! I FILLED UP my cart (seriously) with fruits and veggies and my total was $20.65! They had green peppers 5 for $1 and red peppers 4 for $1. They had 8oz containers of strawberries 3 for $1. And I don't know how much asparagus is where you live, but out here in the desert, it's insane- usually $3.99/pound. They had it for .89/pound. I was so happy! I was in heaven because asparagus is one of my favorites!

It was definitely one of the highlights of my day! What was yours?

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Oh snap

Guess who worked out tonight?!??  THIS GAL!

That's right! FINALLY! After a full "work" day (volunteered from 8-9, then 3 meetings from 9:30-11, then 11:30-1:30, and 2-4:30, then home) I got my ass into the garage gym and worked out tonight. I did 4 rounds of a 500m row with 3 minutes of rest in between. Here are my splits-
2:14
2:10
2:10
2:15

It sucked. Big time. I thought I was going to barf that whole last round. I kept thinking to myself, "I'm so out of shape, I'm so out of shape." The last time I did this workout was September 2010 so almost a year ago. My splits then were:
2:38
2:27
2:19
2:13

So even if I do feel out of shape for not working out the past month (or so), I guess I'm faster/more efficient than I was a year ago so that's good! It's so funny to go back and read old posts like that one. We were eating according to the Zone diet back then and we loved it. But it got old really fast and now we've been eating Paleo for so long, I can't imagine eating any other way. It's just funny... Today I had a lunch meeting where subs or salads were provided. I had a salad with grilled chicken of course and tried to pick around the cheese as best as possible. There were cookies everywhere- you know the kind with the big chunks of white chocolate or huge pieces of peanut butter? Oh man, I'm proud to say that I resisted but it was not easy!

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Missing routine

Hey there everyone, I'm here. I'm definitely struggling with finding time to workout these days. I guess the good thing about my last job was although I worked a lot of hours, they were pretty consistent. So I could plan my schedule easily and workout at the same time every night of the week. It was easy in that way.

But now, each day is different. Some days I have appointments back to back, other days I don't have any and it's a "work" day. This past week for example, I was only home for dinner one night because the other nights I was out meeting with clients. Fiscal Fitness is going wonderfully if you can't tell. I'm definitely busy and I'm proud of where the business is heading. I'm still trying to figure it all out. I meet with clients when they're not working- so I schedule quite a few evening and weekend appointments.

I don't mind, except that it makes it very difficult to get into any kind of routine. And I like routine. I do better with consistency. It's crazy to me that it's only been 5 months since I left my last job. ONLY 5 MONTHS! Seems like forever ago and I feel like a totally different person. I'm certainly much happier but it's still too soon to say I have it all figured out. I don't but I learn something new every day and I know it will get easier eventually.

This coming week I actually penciled "workout" in my planner on specific days and times. I'm hoping that will help because I need to remember that I'm in control of my schedule and if working out is important to me (which it is) I can set my appointments accordingly.

If you have a fluctuating or random schedule, I'd love to hear from you and learn any tips you have for keeping your workouts an important part of your day.

There are some very exciting things happening with Fiscal Fitness and like I said before, I'm figuring things out. It's unbelievable to even me just how good this new adventure has been, but I don't feel like I can share too much about the business and it's growth. I have 5 presentations scheduled for August, two of which were last week. They turned out terrific and resulted in a number of new clients. Besides some "general information" I feel like I need to edit myself slightly on this blog. As a result, this blog will be about fitness and I won't be posting my budget or financial information anymore.

But just know that leaving my job to pursue this dream full-time was the best decision I made and I'm confident it will be successful. 

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