Hello World!

Hello Bloggies!

Long time no blog, huh? The last couple of weeks have been filled with lots of cooking, baking, and relaxing but now it's back to reality! I started working nights again last Friday so I'm back to working full time. So far work hasn't been that bad but then again I've only been working for about four days now... Think positive though, right? On to the things that have been on the blog to-do list that I just haven't accomplished yet....

• My mom's 48th birthday party was combined with her best friend's 50th and we threw a huge celebration that included lots of tasty eats that will be coming in a separate blog post.
• I finally discovered StumbleUpon which is like meth for people prone to procrastination (like me) but unlike boiled down formaldehyde and Tylenol it's just a bunch of websites that correlate to my interests. Despite the fact that this time leeching website distracted me from studying during finals I did find a lot of great recipes and DIY crafts. Since being home I've made this amazing Italian herb cheese bread, brioche cinnamon buns, chicken spaghetti with a white wine cream sauce, as well as a couple of other things. I'm going to make a post for each of these recipes because even if they weren't the healthiest they were definitely a hit with the family!

Season two of the Annie show has officially begun. Stay tuned to see how this busy (soon-to-be) 20 year old manages a full time job, college classes, blogging, working out and trying to maintain some sanity!

Will she ever be able to kick a debilitating Diet Coke addiction or is the monkey on her back here to stay? And for God's sake why is her hand so awkward?! ....oh the suspense!

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Todays Workout

20 Box Jumps, 5 Pull Ups, 5 Heavy Sandbag Push Jerks. 5 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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Todays Workout - Sandbag Strength

Sandbag Back Squats and Pull Ups. Find the max weight sandbag you can get up onto your shoulders then perform a max set to failure with the weight. Immediately follow this with a max set of Pull Ups. Take a 3 minute rest and then repeat this sequence for a total of 5 rounds.

Record your total score and weight.

Train hard!

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Todays Workout

Squats, Sandbag Push Press, Sit Ups, Sandbag High Pulls. 1 minute on each exercise, max repetitions. Rest 1 minute between each set of four exercises and repeat for 3 total rounds.

Record your totals.

Train hard!

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Todays Workout - 10 to 1

10 to 1 of Sandbag Deadlifts, Press Ups, Pull Ups, Sandbag Zercher Squats. Complete 10 repetitions of each exercise, then 9, then 8 etc.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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Why Do You Exercise?

I do some consultation for the healthcare industry and I recently had the opportunity to sit down with a number of individuals and speak to them about their exercise, dietary and lifestyle habits. A large proportion of these people had the same response:

"I've hated exercise since childhood"

or

"I had a bad experience exercising once"

and even

"I don't like to get hot and sweaty"

It got me thinking - why do I exercise?

I enjoy physical activity and sports at lower intensity levels but the truth is, my training sessions are tough. When I go out into the garage I know that I'm going to be pushing myself to the point where I won't want to continue - the point where that one extra repetition feels like the hardest thing in the world. There is no point in 'sugar-coating' the fact that exercise, especially at the levels that are beneficial, is hard work.

So why do I do it?

No matter how hard the training session has been, afterwards I get a huge sense of achievement - even if I've just managed to add a little weight, do an extra repetition or on some days just get through it. I feel like I just climbed a mountain. That sense of success and elation is powerful and addictive. It's a change of mental and physical state.

While it's nice to maintain a low bodyfat, look good and be able to do lots of cool stuff - it's really about the state change that exercise brings. Everything else is just a bonus for me. And, after 20 or so years of consistent training I know that it works for me.

One thing I've noticed is that people who consistently fail to stick to exercise programmes have one or more of the following traits:

• They think exercise is a chore and they think the idea of discipline as being negative
• They overly focus on the arbitrary goals of aesthetics or weight loss
• They've followed bad advice without first asking "does this make sense to me"  

So, if you've struggled to follow an exercise programme before, try shifting your focus a little. Exercise is your opportunity to set goals and achieve them - not matter what they are. Discipline is a positive thing, especially when you are exercising control over yourself. I think this is one of the major reasons people don't stick to programmes - it's not that they are too hard, it's because they're too easy. Not only do they not achieve results but people don't feel challenged. I mean, if I had to spend the majority of my training time in the fat-burning zone I think I'd go mad. 

When people tell me they dislike exercise I have to laugh to myself as I imagine getting that 20th repetition in a squat set or finishing 100 pull ups and I think, "yeah, me too".

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Todays Workout

Sandbag Fitness is one year old! So, you get to do:

100 Sandbag Thruster Burpees.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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A Big Hello to Our Finnish Friends

Take a look at Juha from Sandbag Finland getting in some good work.

If you have any sandbag training pictures we're always happy to feature them for you and provide a link back to your site.

If you want to get hold of a sandbag, like the one featured here, please see our friends at Brute Force Sandbags.

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Todays Workout

Hi Guys, sorry for the delay since the last post - things have been so busy here.

30 Squats, 20 Sandbag Strict Overhead Press, 10 Sandbag Step Ups, 5 Strict Pull Ups. 5 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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Homecoming :)

As promised I finally got the pictures off my other camera from my 'homecoming' on Sunday night! I had such a long day of traveling! Saturday night I got to see all my friends one last time and we went out to the Hofbrau. The Hofbrau is a great restaurant and beergarden. There was a Jason Aldean cover band playing and we all just kind of chilled out for a while before Neyaz and I had to go back to the condo that we were staying at and pack! We basically had a really late night and then woke up at 5:30 the next morning to clean up the place and finish packing. My flight left at 9:00 so I didn't get to the airport until about 7:30 and got through security and all that no problem. Basically up until that point I still had not recovered from being up for basically 5 days straight during finals so I was so exhausted. To be totally honest I hardly remember the trip back to Washington, all I know is that it was waaaaay to long. My daddy and brother met me in Bellingham and when I got home I was warmly greeted with some delicious spaghetti :)

My brother surprised me by making some Mazurka! Mazurka is not only a folk dance but a delicious bar type of dessert that is normally decorated with candied orange peels and almonds and other dried fruits and nuts. My dad makes it only once a year at Easter because it is quite a bit of work. Apparently he's passed the recipe down to my brother though and I came home to this...

Should say... Welcome Kuła

I still don't understand why the non-native english speaker was delegated the task of writing the english word and the non-polish speaker wrote the Polish name. Kuła is my Polish name which is a nickname for a cuckoo. There is a lot of debate as to wear this came from but the name has stuck nonetheless and it's very rare that someone in my family actually refer to me as Annie or AnneMarie.

The dinner and mazurka was delicious! While coming home is very bittersweet I know that I'll be back in Texas sooner rather than later and I should just enjoy the time that I have here now :)

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Todays Workout

25 Box Jumps, 25 Sandbag High Pulls, 25 Sandbag Push Press. 3 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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Todays Workout

25-15-10 of Sandbag Thrusters (Squat and Press), Sit Ups and Sandbag High Pulls.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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Todays Workout

5 Pull Ups, 10 Press Ups, 5 Sandbag Deadlifts, 5 Knees-to-elbows, 10 Sandbag Round-the-worlds (each direction). 5 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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Just a Quick Post...

to say that I'm home!

I got home pretty late Sunday evening to rain and clouds and nothing makes me you feel quite like your in Washington then some good ol' drizzle. I'm going to recap the rest of that evening in another post because my pictures are on a different camera. As for last night though....

I've had a super relaxing couple of days and last night I headed over to my best friend Kate's for some good eats. Her mom had made some spicy chicken taco filling so I just constructed the taco part. Two mini whole wheat tortillas, half a tomato, one quarter avocado, and some of the 'good stuff' (that's how Kate and I refer to Tabasco sauce) later and I had two delicious chicken tacos. So yummy!

The rest of the evening was spent in sheer idle laziness :)

This morning I was very politely woken up by my brother jumping on my bed (he's 18...) asking me what he should wear for his senior boards. After he decided that there was no way that I was going to get to go back to sleep I got up to make myself some breakfast. I made the two of us a couple of smoothies.

Our fridge was frighteningly empty though so I had to make do with a Chobani yogurt, some frozen strawberries, milk, and Splenda. He wasn't very happy that I didn't include any protein powder but I didn't feel that the walk that I took my dog on yesterday was such a workout that my muscles really craved some artificial protein.

Since it was also so close to lunch time I also decided to make a delicious salad with whatever was left in the refrigerator. I was able to find some tomatoes, Romaine lettuce, and avocado.

After chopping up all my veggies I had to hunt down some salad dressing. After realizing that we didn't have any I discovered that I did have a packet of Italian seasoning hidden in one of my cupboards. I mixed it with some vinegar, oil, and water and poured it onto my salad. I also added some tasty croutons and voilá! a delicious salad!

My delcious salad and smoothie combo was a wonderful way to really kick off my day! Now it's time to continue filling out applications and then go for a run in this fabulous weather that we're (shockingly) having!

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Todays Workout

10 Knees-to-elbows, 15 Sandbag Zercher Squats, 20 Strict Sandbag Overhead Press. 3 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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Todays Workout

25 Box Jumps, 25 Sandbag High Pulls, 25 Sandbag Push Press. 3 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

You have read this article with the title May 2011. You can bookmark this page URL http://jrhehjg.blogspot.com/2011/05/todays-workout_10.html. Thanks!

Todays Workout - Finally Hit Sub 10 Minutes..And Almost Sub 9

5 Pull Ups, 10 Sandbag Deadlifts, 10 Press Ups. 10 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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Just a Quick Post

Just to say...

I wish I was exercising, cooking, blogging

instead of

studying.

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Todays Workout

10 Sandbag Push Press,
10 Burpees,
10 Sandbag Back Squats,
10 Pull Ups,

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes.

Record your score.

Train hard!

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Todays Workout - A Double Dose of "Death By..."

Press Ups and Sit Ups. Complete one repetition of each in the first minute, 2 repetitions of each in the second minute and so on until you cannot complete the required number of repetitions of each exercise in any given round.

Record your score.

Follow immediately with:

Sandbag Back Squats and Sandbag High Pulls. Complete one repetition of each in the first minute, 2 repetitions of each in the second minute and so on until you cannot complete the required number of repetitions of each exercise in any given round.

Record your score.

Train hard!

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Tough Decisions

Sometimes, even though it sucks, you have to make the tough decisions and choose between fun in the sun or staying in. This weekend was our sorority's formal and, like the adult I pretend to be, I made the tough decision to not go in order to stay in and study. I'm pretty bummed about not going especially since Neyaz went but I have a huge final on Wednesday along with two papers due so it would have been irresponsible of me to partake in the festivities. Regardless, I thought that I would include some pics of my own little 'vaca' at the chateau le dorm, I even got to use my formal tumbler!

It's kind of hard to see it here but the tumbler has every PC on it from 08 to 11 around it as well as our name (or whatever name we wanted to put on it). Instead of sipping a delicious marg from it I made myself a yummy smoothie.

And... instead of including pictures from the beach here's my delicious strawberry smoothie and I about to hit... the books! Coincidentally this is also my weekend/finals outfit - pants optional of course.

I'm going to get back to studying so I probably won't post for awhile!

Have a wonderful week ya'll!

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Todays Workout

10 Sandbag Deadlifts
10 Sandbag Thrusters
10 Pull Ups
10 Sandbag Power Cleans
10 Knees-to-elbows

4 rounds.

Record your time.

Train hard!

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