wanderlust.ing

wan·der·lust ˈwändərˌləst/ noun a strong desire to travel. wan·der·lust ·ing: acting on that desire A few years ago, I started a blog that focused on some workouts I was doing and recipes that I liked. I didn't have many followers and really just started it to keep myself accountable for my health. Then life took a crazy turn when my mother-in-law became very sick (she's fully recovered and in remission now, PTL!), so this blog was put on hold for a little while. I've been told I am a good writer, and I really enjoy putting words together, so recently I've been thinking about what I really enjoy, what my passions are, and how I can share those with others. There are tons of exercise blogs, fashion blogs, and food blogs out there, but I want to do something a little different that also includes all of those things. I've always loved the outdoors. Growing up, my family went on camping trips regularly, and I spent the majority...

While lying in bed last night I planned out my Monday morning workout on my phone. Well of course as soon as I got to the gym I thought of all these other exercises I wanted to do/try. This always happens to me; it never fails that I will add on to my work out because I just get excited once I'm there. I told my husband the other day that the hardest part of my workouts is actually getting out of bed. Once I get to the gym, I never want to leave. So today's workout kicked my ass...literally. I was planning on focusing mostly on my inner and outer leg muscles (abductors/adductors, if you will) today, but I just couldn't leave my butt behind. Ha I'm so corny. Anyway.. Here is the workout I actually ended up doing today: -Cable Kickbacks: 4x8 -Cable Wood Choppers: 3x10 each side -Side Lunges off Box: 3x20 (10 each leg) -Hanging Squat Cleans: 3x8 -Calf Raises off Box: 3x15 (toes on the edge of the box) -Bridge on Physioball with Dumbbell: 3x12 I ended my session w...

Wednesday's workout consisted of a lot of upper body exercises while also incorporating a great deal of core work. My husband and I have been talking about upping our hiking game in the near future and explore some new places. He made sure to let me know that I would need to have myself in shape to be able to do the hikes he wanted to go on, so I went to the internet to find some ideas for the best workouts for hiking. Core work was by far the most important topic of everything I found, so I have been working to keep my exercise more on the dynamic side allowing my core to receive constant attention. This day consisted of just that, and the good thing about this workout is all you really need is a set of dumbbells and a physioball.  Below are a few of the workouts that I pulled some exercises from. I did quite a bit of shoulder, back, and chest work while seated or lying on the physioball to make it a full upper body day, plus a great deal of the ab exercises...

Today I started a new training regimen.  I'm not really training for anything specific, mostly to feel better, have more energy, and keep this body that my God gave me in check! So to hold me accountable for actually working out, I am going to post my workouts here. I've googled some stuff, pinterested, and done my fair share of crossfit WODs to be fully capable of making each workout a little different. Another minor detail is that I have a Bachelors of Science degree in Exercise Science, and I have a Masters of Science degree that required me to cover human anatomy and physiology pretty extensively. Therefore, I know what a want to target and how to do it! Today was mostly a leg day. It's funny how we say "today is legs, tomorrow is arms and back, etc." because any lower extremity work out will also involve the upper body and core, and the other way around. I started with 1 mile on the stationary bike to warm everything up. Then some lunges and air...

Well guys, tell God your plans if you want to make him laugh, amiright? As many of you may have heard, my mother-in-law was recently diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia and will be in the hospital enduring an intense chemo regimen for the next month. Altogether this will be a 3 year battle depending on if she is able to go into remission or not. Please keep us in your prayers! I now understand why God was holding off on me finding a job. He knew I could be used in a better way: to help my new family. I have been in Houston with my mother-in-law every day since Thursday, and plan to be here every day this week. I asked God to use me in this situation, and he truly has. My prayer is to continue to be strong for my family and do everything I can to help. I ask that you would pray that for me also. It is crazy how God places the pieces of your life together the way He does. On the job front, I ACCEPTED A JOB TODAY! Woo hooooo! I will be a pediatric home health occupational ther...

Well guys, today was the day. I started training for my half-marathon. Today was 4 miles, and they were brutal..  Okay, okay.. I know you are dying for some more info on the title of this post. The first time I looked at the training schedule I thought what the heck is that?! after laughing hysterically at the fact that it was called a FARTLEK! As it turns out, a fartlek is an endurance training exercise where, in this case, I ran 3 min at a faster pace, followed by 2 min at a slower pace, and I did this for 2 miles. There was a warm up mile before and a cool down mile after, totaling 4 miles. I walked part of my "cool down" mile because, in reality, it was only getting hotter and harder. I did my research before I started training and found a blog that said "it's ok to walk." Can you believe that?! Music to my ears... I keep telling myself, "this is your first big training commitment and the most you've ever run, don't be so hard on yourself....