gym

WHISTLE GIVEAWAY!!!!!! and new goals.

~ loveandlunge ~ 2 Comments

I had to take a break from blogging for a little bit for a whole host of reasons.  Mainly because I was so busy prepping for a big test while simultaneously taking a Financial Accounting course online and dealing with an onslaught of extra work from my day job.  So, after crossing most of that off of my list, I’m back y’all.

These last couple of months have been tough stuff.  I have been traveling like a mad woman and working towards this huge personal goal I have of going to business school and it has taken all kinds of tolls on me.  I am very excited to be back in a good mindset and ready to take on new challenges.  I have a half marathon coming up in January that I’m running with one of my dearest college friends and while I’m having a great time training for it, the half marathon distance is becoming more and more attainable…which is both an awesome and scary thing.

It’s awesome because yay, fitness!  Look at me go crushing double digit mile runs repeatedly!  But also GAH!  That means to challenge myself next I’ve got to set my sights on the big ole marathon.  So, I’ve semi-decided that in my 26th year I’m going to run 26 miles.  Or at least attempt to pending no injuries.  This is still a maybe goal since I haven’t really decided if I’m up for the challenge of running for 3+ hours straight but we’ll see.

At least I’ve got the most epic training buddy in the world to get me through it.  I always say that if I didn’t have Boo, I wouldn’t move nearly as much.  This pup keeps me on my toes and keeps me active all day everyday whether I like it or not.  If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know that I am obsessed with tracking metrics.  I have a Polar watch, a Garmin, a Jawbone Up, a MyZone, and seemingly every other type of tracker in between, so when WhistleLabs reached out to me to get Boo in the game, I was all for it.

The Whistle is this genius little device that clips on to your dogs collar and uses GPS and an accelerometer to track minutes of activity and where your pup is in the world.  It’s seriously Genius.  I had always wondered how much activity Boo had been getting compared to her other peer dogs, and was really happy to see she was consistently above the norm.

The tracker syncs up with an app on your phone and provides you with a unique community to talk to and share all the puppy pictures your heart desires.  It’s awesome.  Plus, you get a notification on your phone when your dog goes out of a pre-set range you determine.  This thing is perfect for escape artists, I’m telling you now.

GIVEAWAY TIME:

I’m giving away 1 Whistle and 3 months of service to a reader!

You can enter in the following ways.  Do one of the below and comment what you’ve done and you’re entered!:

  • Instagram about the giveaway, using the tag #WhistleFit
  • Tweet about the giveaway, tagging #WhistleFit
  • Follow LoveandLunges & Whistle on Insta, Twitter, or Facebook

Restrictions: 

  • U.S. only
  • 1 prize per person

You can use the code WHISTLEFIT for $30 off!  This is such a great holiday gift and highlyyyyy recommended.  I know Boo loves it.

 

-sj

 

 

 

why I’m thankful for the fluidity of fitness.

~ loveandlunge ~ 1 Comment

Dear lord, I have been busy.  I remember setting up my calendar for September and going, “Oh woof, I’m traveling a lot”.  Little did I know, on top of all of that travel, I would also have a couple major projects due at work, which required more late nights and weekends on my laptop than I’m proud of.  So let’s get started on a little recap of what’s going on over here:

My boyfriend was in Thailand for three weeks, which was all fun and games on paper.  But, in practice, it was a nightmare for me.  I had to travel a fair amount while he was away, to Dallas to New York to Philly, so my poor little dog, Boo, had to spend a good amount of time at Doggy Daycare.  I’m not going to lie, there were often times when I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.  In fact, I still kind of feel that way.

Enter last week.  Welcome to my wonderful world of traveling around visiting business schools.  It’s awesome and so fun…or it would be if I also didn’t have two massive proposals due.  I flew out to Chicago to visit a couple of schools and see my family.  Although I was massively stressed during a large part of the trip, I got to balance it with ample amounts of play with my family.  I am very #blessed to have an extremely a) hilarious b) supportive family and love spending time with them.  One of my biggest regrets is that I don’t live closer.

I spent Friday hopping from the Starbucks on campus doing work to taking many a campus tour of a University I more or less grew up visiting weekly, so when the work day was done I was beat.  Naturally, I took out my stress on a plate of nachos and with a side of good company.  Saturday morning, cousin, my aunt, and some of her friends laced up for a 7 mile run around the campus I had visited the day before.  I cannot express how thankful I was for this run.

Running is such a unique activity.  There’s not that feels quite like it.  Lately, I have found myself aching to just run when I’m standing still.  All of the anxiety, stress, and frustration that is building up within me makes me want to just launch into a sprint.  I could have run forever on Saturday.  My legs were energized, I had an appropriate carbo-load via nachos/taco dip, and the conversation was amazing.  Being able to unplug my brain and just move was all I could have asked for.

I headed back home on Sunday morning and sat on the flight reflecting on where my head has been these past couple of weeks.  Truthfully, I have been viewing fitness as an outlet more than anything else.  I have so many goals I’m working towards in other areas of my life, I don’t really have time to focus on any in my gym life.  And, I’m okay with that.

Because I’m not wrapped up in my daily performance on my runs, lifts, or aesthetics, I treat my gym time as brain time.  I can watch a mindless show or listen to a podcast while on the treadmill or doing weights and that is what I need right now.  I have goals in my fitness life that I’m eager to crush in a couple months, but right now, I have to focus my energies elsewhere.  The gym is just my daily mental break.

I’m very thankful that fitness is fluid.  The day I realized that every workout didn’t have to be better than the last was one of the best days I’ve had.   Knowing that my workouts can be challenging during the week, but recovery days are just as important was a fact that took me longer to learn than I care to admit.

All this being said, I’m not just throwing away my progress.  No, I’m focusing on just maintaining for now.  I’ll throw in some speed workouts and heavier days now and then, but for now my drive has to be refocused on the real world.

By the end of next week, I will have been in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas all within a months span.  Needless to say, I am crazy.  And I’m busy. One may venture to say I am crazy busy as well.  There’s a time and a place for goals and right now, my goal is to stay afloat.  By no means am I throwing away any hardwork, just restructuring how I’m going after it.

-sj