Lookie lookie what showed up yesterday!

My Vibrams are here! Weeeeeeee!  Aren’t they funny?  This pair fit PERFECTLY!  I wore them to the grocery store and Goodwill.  I didn’t notice anyone looking at me like I’m some kind of fool yet, but I may have been keeping my head bent low under my hat. 

I’ve been torturing my dogs with them. Riley can’t get enough sniffing:

And Rascal thinks they are some sort of strange playmate and keeps slapping his front paws down and wiggling his tail in an effort to engage this new friend in a game:

So far I’m LOVING them.  I wore them around for about 4 hours yesterday.  Some of that time included running 2.25 miles.  We’ll see how the calves feel later today – I hope I haven’t made them insanely sore for tomorrow’s long run!  (Which will be done in my regular running shoes, NOT these.  You are supposed to wear these for 1-2 hours a day while your muscles, tendons and ligaments get used to them.  Obviously I’m already bending the rules, but I’m not crazy enough to try 10 in them – yet.)

I will say that running in them on the treadmill was a vast improvement over running in my socks or even sockless.  I’m DYING to get outside with them to see what it’s like on the trails.  Maybe Sunday if my legs aren’t fried from tomorrow’s run.

A definite plus:  if you are feeling bored with running, this gives you a whole new reason to be excited about it!

I’m off to get in an upper body workout before the work day starts.

Which team are you rooting for this weekend in the SuperBowl? Since neither the Broncos nor the Steelers made it far enough, I don’t really have a favorite.  But I at least try to root for an AFC team, so I guess I’ll be cheering on Colts.  What I WON’T be cheering about is the halftime show.  The WHO?  Really?  Damn you Janet and Justin for forever messing up fun and edgy halftime shows!  That was the last good one!

Have a FABULOUS Friday!

– Shari B. =)

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Hope you had a very nice weekend!  Mine was very relaxing due to the chilly weather … there was a lot of indoor lounging going on in my house Saturday and Sunday!  We did get out quite a bit too, but it was so nice each time to come home, get our “comfies” on and relax by the fire with some football on TV.

The 2.7 mile “social-cizing” session yesterday with my good friend Jen was great!  It was definitely cold out, but I bundled up in my down jacket, mittens, earband and new trail runners.  It was like hiking on little pillows.  Perfect!

Sunday eats were rather random, as they often are.  Mainly because we aren’t on any kind of regular schedule and we are usually running errands or out and about.

MSP made me a wonderful breakfast of cage-free eggs with Ezekial toast (and Earth Balance vegan ‘butter’).

On the side was a small glass of my BUBBLY but for some reason this one wasn’t!  (bubbly that is)  Which freaked me out a little… kombucha tea is made of live cultures.  If it’s not fizzy, does that mean the seal was broken?  Does that mean bad bacteria gets in with the good bacteria? Or do the good live bacteria go all rogue in there and end up bad for you?  AAAAACCCKKK!  So I had a few sips then just had to dump the rest because I was scared!  Additionally, I don’t think Mystic Mango is a flavor I’ll have again.  Odd, I know – seeing how I’m the MANGO-HOLIC.  I’ll stick with my go-tos:  Gingerberry and Divine Grape

During errands out I had a Lemon Larabar.  And a goodie from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (a dark chocolate dipped Oreo).  MSP had a milk chocolate dipped s’more.    Love our Sunday treats!

After the chilly chat session with Jen I came home to watch the remainder of the Broncos game with this plate of goodies:  kale chips, a big plop of hummus, baby carrots and baked pita chips.  Then I went back for seconds on the kale chips and have used up the whole batch I made Saturday.  I’ll have to make some more today!

When dinnertime rolled around I felt I was really lacking in greens for the day, so I made a supersized green smoothie.  This one had cucumber, kale, green leaf lettuce, spinach, alfalfa sprouts, celery, pepitas, half a banana and half a pear.  Plus about a tablespoon of hemp oil.

It made two huge glasses … and I couldn’t finish it all!  I got about halfway through the second glass and cried uncle.

I was apparently quite tired because I was out like a light at 8:30.  Which meant I woke up rested and ready for this morning’s workout:

Weight Training (Back/Traps):

• TM Warmup 5 minutes, followed by arm circles
• DB Rows 4 working sets of 12, 12, 12, 11 reps
• Upright Rows 4 working sets of 15, 11, 11, 11 reps
• DB Shrugs 3 working sets of 16, 15, 15 reps
• Lower Trap Pulls 3 working sets of 20, 15, 15 reps
• Rear Delt Flyes 3 sets of 15 reps
• Tricep Dips 3 sets of 12 reps
• Ball Crunches 3 sets of 20 reps

***

I have another crazy-long list of Monday To-Dos as usual, one of which may be to get started on my “sprouting experiment“.  I bought some cheesecloth yesterday and I have one glass jar set aside and want to try to sprout something.  I happen to have some millet on-hand and have heard that can be sprouted, so that might be my first try.

Do you do any of your own sprouting?  Have you had success?  Any tips you’d like to share with the FitFeat readers? Please drop a comment in the comments section!  We’d love to hear from you!

Also just another quick reminder that FitFeat will soon be going self-hosted, so the web address may change a bit.  I hope to ‘flip the switch’ this coming weekend but will plan to put out a post just prior to the move so you’ll know where to find me!

Thanks again for reading and commenting!  Have a great day and I’ll see ya tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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Mine is flying by as fast as the cold jet stream that’s blasting us with the Canadian deep freeze!  I don’t understand the time-phenomenon that makes Mondays drag and the weekends go by in double-speed!

Thanks to everyone who commented on the winter sports question… I am now convinced to give snow-shoeing a try again this year, but with properly sized equipment!  I’ll keep cross-country skiing as a close second on the list for now… I will have to convince MSP to try that one with me!

Speaking of WINTER, I must confess that I wimped out on the Bluffs yesterday.  It just kept feeling colder and colder outside.  We broke a record yesterday for not only the LOWEST temp for October 10 (a 109 year old record, I might add) but also broke the record for the coldest high temp on Oct. 10:  26 degrees.  When MSP and I ran errands yesterday I was so chilly that the thought of going back out in it just made me shiver.  I wanted nothing more than to curl up under my Sunbeam Heated Throw (set to HIGH) and get some warmth flowing. 

So I called up my friend and asked if she’d be allow me to be a total ninny!  I asked if she’d be up for meeting today instead since it was SUPPOSED to be 54 degrees.  Guess what it is right now?  29 degrees at 1:00 in the afternoon.  Damn the weather forecasters and their lies! 

But I won’t bail today.  Stick with me here till I get to the moral of the story below and you’ll see why! I went down to the Nike factory outlet just a little while ago, as I’ve been in dire need of some new running shoes.  And I scored BIG-TIME!! 

My old Nike Shox 2:40 running shoes have no tread left to speak of and actually have a crack in the bottom:

Close friends know that I have been addicted to Nike Shox shoes since 2003.  I would determine the costs of things based on how many pair of Shox said purchase would cost.  Plane ticket home to visit family?  Uh, no .. I could buy three pair of Shox with that kind of dough!   Groceries?   Nah, not this week… that would equal one pair of Shox. 

I’m (somewhat) over this crazy addiction, especially since I changed careers this year and don’t have any the same amount of disposable income as I had a few months back.

No luck finding Shox that wowed me enough to take money my from savings (they were all $69 and up, which YES is a bargain for Shox, but at my current income level not worth THAT much).  Instead I found a beautiful pair of AirMax Torch 3′s.  Aren’t they PURRRTY??? 

And for the BONUS SCORE, a pair of Nike ACG Trailframe trail runners for $19!  Yes, you read that right:  NINETEEN buckaroonies… Now I’ll feel like I have some traction again, instead of feeling like I’m running uphill with buttered shoe-bottoms! 

Moral of the story:  trying out new trail shoes trumps sub-freezing temps!  So now I’m all excited to get outside in this crazy cold and see how the new trail kicks do!

I’ll leave you with the “action shot” MSP took last night (his words) of me grating some raw goat cheese onto my dinner.  Yes we had pita pizza again.  I know – I’m so boring    But when something is so tasty (and healthy even) it’s hard not to crave it every day!  Soon I’ll get so sick of pita pizzas that I will probably not have them for like a year.  This happened once with Body-for-Life enchiladas:  MSP and I LOVED them, ate them WAY too often, and then the mere smell of enchilada sauce would make us gag.  Luckily we are over that…

Hope you are all having a super Sunday!  See you tomorrow!

– Shari B.  =)

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