Day One P90X and Week One of Spanish

Well, Travis and I kicked off our Tuesday evening with P90X!  We did the chest and back routine.

Yikes!  I know I am gonna feel that one tomorrow and the next day for sure!!! 

Travis is making dinner now and I have been studying my spanish lessons on Rosetta Stone and am just getting ready to start going through my textbook and work on grammar and verb conjugations!  Gotta study some vocabulary too!!!

I am having a blast!  Onward!

End of the month Wrap-Up

Wow, I can hardly believe this month is almost over!  The weather has been fantastic this year!  SO WARM!  It hardly feels like winter at all.  This morning, I started my day off with a kale, pineapple, strawberry and apple juice.  I then went to work on some original songs for the first time with a few talented musicians and have since come home and worked on learning Spanish.  I have not said too much about this yet, but earlier this week I started to think about how nice it would be to speak Spanish.  I have a few employees who speak English as a second language and it inspired me to learn Spanish and be able to communicate in both languages.  If they can learn English, I can learn Spanish!

Ten years ago, I had learned quite a bit of Spanish and had gotten to a point where I could understand a decent amount.  Since then, I stopped practicing and learning and had forgotten most of it.  So, I pulled the dictionary and old textbooks and notebooks out and reviewed my notes.  Friday evening, I bought the first software set out of five in the Rosetta Stone Totale language learning program for Latin American Spanish.  Friday evening, Saturday and today I have been working through the software, and also making note cards to refresh my memory as well as get back on track and learn more.  I was super excited today when I got to the end of unit 1 and looked at several short stories based on the unit one vocabulary and I was actually able to read all of the stories and translate them into English!!  It felt so good to see that I was actually making progress!

While I don't recommend the Rosetta Stone on it's own (although it is a very outstanding program).... I think it is a super way to supplement other sources (classes, text that really explain grammar, Etc).

So, I plan to continue to learn Spanish and hopefully become a fluent Spanish speaker one of these days! 

The other thing I am excited about is that Travis and I have decided to get back into the P90X workouts.  We are not going to do the 6 days in a row routine as we just cannot seem to fit that into our schedules.  Instead, we are going to do three workouts a week.  On two of the days we are not doing P90X, I am going to do some cardio and use the treadmill.  The insanity begins this Tuesday.

That just about wraps up my month of January.  The Breville juicer is working like a champ and I have juiced every day since (except two) since I purchased it.  The Rosetta Stone and other Spanish textbooks I have are helping me achieve my language learning goals.  I am playing music again and LOVING it!  So, all in all, I'd have to say.... LIFE IS GOOD!

Getting back into an Exercise Routine

This morning I had a delicious juice and I ran into work early.  I keep telling myself I am going to get back on the treadmill and get back into working out and it seems like something always comes up and I let it become an excuse for not working out.  So, when I got home from work today I decided it was time to get back into a workout routine.  I got on the treadmill for an hour and a half and went about 4.25 miles with a decent incline.  I have to ease back into things with my poor aching knees.  I have to say that I love working out on the treadmill so much more than working out on the elliptical I had before.  So, I am back into the swing of things and now I just need to keep it up and build my strength and add other routines in as well.  I am proud of today's accomplishment and look forward to future workouts!

Today's Juicing Recipe

Today's recipe:

This juice was very interesting.... The ginger was really strong.... But it tasted pretty good!

Kale: 5 leaves
Spinach: large bunch
Celery: 1 1/2 large stalks
Apples: one red and one granny smith
Carrots
Strawberries
Ginger root

This morning's juice recipe

Five leaves of kale
Two carrots
Celery
Two green apples
One peeled orange
Six slices of pineapple

My grocery store trips mainly consist of....

Fruits and veggies.

I have been making some killer juices in the mornings and it has been an adventure in flavors. Strawberries, pineapples, carrots, apples, oranges.... Oh my! So many different options!

This is the juicer that makes my morning juicing routine easy! It's the Breville Juice Fountain Plus! This thing is an 850 Watt mean juicing machine!

And so, it begins....

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new week and it is time for me to get back on track with my health. This week, I am going to continue juicing which has been going really well for the last week and a half. I have been feeling a lot healthier and even though I have been getting over this cold, I am feeling like I have more energy and a sense of health that I cannot seem to explain. Maybe it is all in my mind? I don't think so.

I need to get back on track because I ate a bunch of junk... Even though I was drinking the juice. This week, no more excuses and no cheating. I will be sticking to a 1200-1300 calorie diet daily and will be juicing every breakfast and lunch although I will also be eating a little at each of those meals as well as a decent dinner.

So, on top of tho healthier eating, I will get back to working out. I am going to start off slow and use the treadmill three days this week. This is the week to work toward a healthier lifestyle. I really need to start looking into gardening techniques and tips. With all of this juicing, I have been making many trips to the grocery store. Travis and I prepped the yard for a garden last summer and we are planning to plant a bunch of veggies this spring. We need to get started. I have been using all the pulp from the juice I've been making and throwing it ino our compost bin. That will come in handy for spring too!

On again, off again.

It seems like I keep going in cycles and this time of year always seems to be when I start thinking about the year ahead.... I think about house projects, goals I have accomplished and goals that I have not even come close to accomplishing.

I find that writing my goals down helps me to achieve them. So here they are for 2012:

Plant a garden

Continue juicing and complete two three day juice detoxes.

Go on three good hikes this spring.

Do P90X workouts. Goal is to do at least two per month although I would like to do one or two per week. Baby steps....

Use treadmill or walk/run outside 3x week at minimum.

Pay off more student loan debt... Make a conscious effort to work on that.

So, those are my goals this year. I am excited.

The beginning of 2012 has been a little rough on me. I have had this gnarly cold/flu virus since before christmas and I have a lot of sinus pain.... I have been tring to get over all that before going hung no on the workouts and all.

I am finally starting to feel better and am ready to ease my way back into the groove.