Weekend Wrap Up - Tahoe Edition

This past weekend was our somewhat annual cabin trip with some of my college friends.  I say somewhat annual because we have skipped years here and there due to weddings and other events.  Basically we get a cabin, a bunch of booze, and a bunch of junk food, and hibernate for most of the weekend.  Saturday night we usually venture to stateline and gamble/dance the night away.  This year was no exception.

The sad part?  This is the only pic I have:

I just realized after looking at this pic that the girls were significantly outnumbered by the guys....

Anywho.

I almost didn't make it up to Tahoe.  JB and I had planned to head up around 1pm and carpool with some of the other folks that were going.  I woke up Friday morning feeling not right.  You know that feeling your body gets when you are going to get sick or have a fever or something?  Just kind of foggy and tingly?  No?  Oh, guess it's just me.  So yeah, I felt like that.  I refused to acknowledge it and pushed through my morning routine put my suitcase in the car, and headed to work.  A few hours into work, I was not feeling better.  In fact, I was feeling worse.  I was terrified it was going to be that stomach bug that has been going around, so after my morning smoothie, I didn't want to put anything else in my stomach.

By 11am I had resigned myself to the fact that it would be better to wait out the night and head up in the morning if I felt better instead of getting up there and wanting to die all weekend while all I can hear is everyone else having  fun.  I let my friends know to head up without us and I headed home and passed out on the couch.  When JB got home a couple of hours later, I still felt weird, but less so.  I had him get me a sandwich since I hadn't eaten since my smoothie and decided if I felt fine after eating and digesting a little, we could hit the road.

We reached the cabin by 6:45pm and proceeded to party with our blue solo cups.  I have felt fine ever since.  It was seriously the oddest thing.  Unfortunately, one of my friends who went up at 1pm ended up in bed early and stayed there the ENTIRE WEEKEND.  Poor guy. 

Saturday night we headed out to the casinos where some of the folks in the group played (and won!) craps until about midnight when we headed to the club to get our groove on.  I realized something that night...

I.Am.Old.

I used to be able to dance the night away for hours on end and after a couple of hours my knees were hurting, my quads were sore, and my feet were KILLING me.  I was also trying to be conscious of how much I was drinking because I was scared of the hangover I would end up with the next day.  Yeah, OLD.

All in all, it was a great weekened.  Great times with great friends.  Do you have an annual trip you take with friends or family?

Fitness Friday - Why Women Should Lift Weights

I was going to share with you my breakfast smoothie recipe today, but I came across this article that I thought was important to share.  All to often women think that cardio is a main component of losing weight and toning up, but the truth is, you can't tone what you don't have and prolonged stints of cardio actually burn muscle.  I found this article to be straight and to the point so I wanted to highlight some key points here:

1. Strength training can help you lose weight.

Too many women focus on cardio workouts or diets alone for weight loss. In reality, our muscles are the "engines" that actually burn the calories we consume. If we don't use that engine and keep it progressively tuned, it can't burn the fuel. Strength training is a powerful tool to help you achieve your goal weight.

2. Strength training can help reduce stress.

If you’re looking for something cathartic, try a good strength workout. There is nothing more stress-relieving than deadlifts, kettlebell swings or ball slamming. Heavy work raises the levels of dopamine and serotonin in the brain. Most antidepressants work by doing the same thing. Strength work can give you a happy boost and calm you down as well.

3. Strength training makes you stronger.

Having functional strength helps with everyday life. Ever rearrange your living room? Do you lift children or groceries or both at the same time? Training makes you feel empowered when you no longer need to recruit a man for help.

4. Strength training is good for your heart.

The American Heart Association recommends strength training as a way to reduce the risk of heart disease in cardiac rehab patients. By making your body stronger, you also increase your endurance which puts less stress on vital organs.

5. Strength training can reduce your risk of osteoporosis.

The "use it or lose it" rule applies here. When you lift weights, you are putting a healthy dose of stress on your bones. This continual stress builds bone density and can help keep your bones strong and healthy.

When I have more time available, I will do more weight lifting, which was a main component of the Live Fit Trainer I was doing late last year:

"Many women are convinced that lifting weights will transform them into fist-pounding, growling wrestling stars. I get it. No woman wants to look freakishly ripped. However, unless a woman is taking large doses of hormones and eating pounds of protein a day, she won't be able to look like a man.

Women don't have enough testosterone to get the big muscles. A program of whole body functional movements (lunges, dead lifts, squats, presses) with low repetitions of progressively heavier weights will make you stronger, not bigger. This is key."

I put that last paragraph in bold because this is the thing women fear the most about strength training.  I definitely got leaner as I was lifting, not bulkier.  And now I feel strong and find myself checking out my muscles in the mirror sometimes :)

When I don't have a lot of time, or if I am really trying to lean out, I will do high intensity interval training:

"These circuit exercises are short in duration (between five and 20 minutes) and usually involve more than one repetitive movement. You will be breathing hard and they may have you teetering on the edge of passing out.

Even though this type of training tends to be short, it increases your metabolism rate and burns calories even after you've finished. You may be sore for days."

A lot of times, hubs will train me at home with some HIIT.  The workout lasts 20 minutes, tops, but I work hard in those 20 minutes and it takes me a while to really cool down from that.  I like my workouts to be efficient and effective and HIIT really gets that done.  A great resource for these types of workouts is BodyRock.Tv.  They have great tips on eating as well as 30 day challenges with videos that can all be done at home with minimal extra equipment.

I hope you got as much out of this article as I did.  What are you waiting for?  Get to work!

Baby, Baby, Baby, Oooooooooh!

I just realized that title could make you think this is a naughty little post...if you're a sicko!  Get your mind out of the gutter! 

In all seriousness....

Justin Bieber is now legal. 

How do you feel about that?  I saw this tweet today:

"Justin Bieber turns 18 today.  Congrats to Selena Gomez, you're no longer a statutory rapist."

I almost spit water on my keyboard and computer.  So funny because it's true...hence, funny.  I hear he sounds a lot more like a man now, but I haven't heard anything from him in a while.  Regardless, I love that little lesbian.

Happy Birthday Biebs!!