Monthly challenges

Oh my, how did it get to be the ninth already? Boy oh boy!

So this week warranted my full time return to workouts...and I fell flat this morning. Monday and Tuesday were fine, except that Monday was cardio day, and apparently all the resolutioners were determined to keep me off the treadmill at 6:30 in the morning. So after spending ten minutes stretching and staring at them in what was probably borderline getting-kicked-out-of-the-club-creepy, I gave up, and spent ten minutes on the elliptical - which is valid as far as cardio goes, because cardio is cardio, but gives me a wub face for hoping to build my running back up again. It's been several weeks since I've logged any jogging time, between hives/ER and holidays.

I was really disturbed to find that after just ten minutes on the elliptical, I was painfully out of breath - not just out of shape out of breath, but I was starting to have chest pains out of breath. This is not a good thing. This is a Jess-is-on-too-many-allergy-meds-and-it's-messing-with-her-system thing. At least, that's what I think. It's possible that because I wasn't able to alternate a calmer walking pace with a jogging pace that it was too much of a push, but I wasn't exactly slamming it. I don't know. So that was a big part of my reason for not going this morning.

Tuesday was weight training, and that felt GREAT. Need for all caps and bold GREAT. I was down with the free weights - 30 on the barbell and 25 on the dumbbell as opposed to 35 and 30, respectively - and I did ten fewer reps with dead lifts and bench presses than I'd like, but I still felt AWESOME. I also included lunges, because I finally learned what those are! Yay! This is making me think that I might modify workout schedules, to either being M/W/F is hardcore weights day and T/Th is medium to low core cardio (whatever that means - cycling? jog/walking? I don't know), at least until I'm off meds and my body is back to 100%. I'm sure the hives themselves are taking a toll on the ole meatsack. If weight training makes me feel AWESOME and cardio is making me feel TERRIBLE, that's not a hard thing to figure out. If it gets real bad, I might even do something like all weight training and no cardio at all, like M/W/F is upper body and T/Th is lower body, but my current routine is really nice because I'm alternating working legs and arms and core, and that makes me feel like I'm not dying all the time and like I can really put my all into whatever I'm doing. So we shall see!

The other bummer is that I'm planning on committing and signing up for my first race. A 5K, to be exact. I have one in mind, we'll see how that plays out in the next couple days, and I'll post about it if I do. But! This year, I'm getting SRS. As in SRS BZNSS. SRSLY. And I want to get up to good jogging speeds and give myself something to work for! Goals are essential, yo.

Oh! So that yearly challenge I mentioned in my last post. I kind of used up too much space talking about lousy junk like working out, so I'll talk about food now!

~THE OMGLOL FOR FUNZIZZLE MONTHLY CHALLENGE OF 2013 (working title)~

For 2013, my plan is do to a Monthly Taste Challenge!
Here's how it'll work:

I'm going to assign each month a taste based on totally arbitrary REASONS THAT MAKE SENSE (to me, at least). And I'm going to do two recipes a month (give or take) based on that flavor, and I'm going to blog about it, and maybe even vlog about it! That's right...

I'M GOING YOUTUBE, BAY-BEE.

Or so that's what I plan!

Because last year's monthly challenge was a kick in the keister, I'm going much easier on myself for this one. I kind of put off doing this so January will hopefully have two recipes, but if not, oh well! I will do three in another month, or something.

I'm also planning on doing a four week sugar cleanse (I'll blog about that later too probably) so that month will have to have no desserts! *stern face* which is sad because I love baking *sad face* and desserts! *obvious face...who DOESN'T like desserts?* *I don't want to know if you don't like desserts.*

But my kind of sketchy outline idea for this plan is that of the two recipes, one will likely be a dessert type thing, and the other will probably be a side type thing (like a soup or a stir fry or a salad or a smoothie I don't know). We'll see how this goes!

Also, I haven't decided if I'm going to make every monthly flavor a secret or not. Mwahahaha! >:D

But for now, be content with January!

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!

The Flavor of the Month for January shall beeeeeeeee...!!!

Mint!

Why?

January is still *technically* winter (*stares at 48 degree weather outside*) and with winter is that crisp, clean feeling of falling snow. Mint might associate with candy canes associate with Christmas (and other holidays probably) but to me, if snow had a (stronger) flavor, it would be totally rad if it tasted mint.

Not everyone is a mint fan, I know...I live with one such person, sadly. But not everyone will be a fan of every flavor! Haters gawnna hate, yo. So expect to see two mint recipes sometime before the end of January!

Bonus: I'm going to try to make them (relatively) healthy! Even the 'zerts! Try to contain yourselves, I know this is overwhelmingly exciting.

Welp, that's all for now! Ta ta!