Mel Runs

I’m headed away for the weekend, so I’ll leave you today with a reminder of how to think about fitness in a way that’s manageable. You got this, friend . This post was originally published on December 5, 2011.

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Two things happen when people I meet find out I’m studying to become a personal trainer. First, they immediately look me up and down, sizing me up to see if I fit the bill, as if they expect to see my abs shining through my shirt or something (shyeh right). Second, they start confessing to me how much they’ve been slacking with working out, but have seriously been considering making a commitment to getting back to the gym (and I think: shyeh right).

It’s funny how being in the presence of an “expert” immediately makes people judge themselves and throw out excuses. Of course it’s only natural, but the reality is that I’m not judging anyone! And most likely, no one is judging you either–at least not as much as you think they are. I struggle with the same challenges everyone else does: a really comfortable couch, being tired after a day of work, and an insane weakness for chocolate and Teddy Grahams. I don’t always win against the cards stacked against me, but often times I do. Some nights, an empty box of Teddy Grahams appears in the garbage pale (fail), others involve sweat sessions at the gym (victory).

In my experience working out over the past twelve years, switching from running, to weight training, to you name it, there are a few things I’ve learned about battling the couch-feels-so-good-on-my-behind battle. Here’s a list of my top four realizations, or mantras to live by. Hopefully they help you on your journey. Feel free to steal, print, and reproduce this by the 100′s so you can tape it up around your house .

1. Sweat once a day. I love this rule. It’s so simple, and gets to the basic point of exercise. It could mean walking around the block twice, knocking out some push-ups, or doing an intense full body workout at the gym. No matter what the method, the goal is to kick our body into gear every day. Raise that heart level and get the blood pumping for a sweet dose of endorphins, and a kickass attitude to carry around with you all day. If you break a sweat from washing the tub, it counts .

2. Something is always better than nothing. When I was very into running, I would envision a four mile, forty minute run, and immediately not want to go. Forty minutes sounded so long and laborious. And if I didn’t have time? Forget it. Now I realize that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. A twenty minute sweat is better than no sweat at all. Always. So if you’ve only got ten minutes in the morning, make the best of it and hit the floor for some lunges and push ups. Every little thing counts.

3. Make yourself proud. At the end of the day, this is a challenge between you and yourself. I used to have an ad that I ripped out from a magazine hanging on the back of my front door that said MAKE YOURSELF PROUD in all caps, and it helped me think of the bigger picture that I wanted to achieve. It’s not just about immediate gratification, it’s remembering the long term goal that you always daydream about achieving, and recognizing that it’s the everyday resolution that will build the road that takes you there. This goes way beyond just fitness-you should strive to make yourself proud with everything you do.

4. Set attainable goals. Envisioning your end goal and the bigger picture is awesome, but Rome wasn’t built overnight. You can’t expect too much too fast from yourself, because all you’ll end up with is a load of resentment towards another failed fitness plan, and a bout of depression to boot. Instead, make goals that are reachable on a short term basis–like two miles of any kind of cardio this week, three more push ups in your sets next week, or two pounds gone in two weeks. Give it a time limit, a realistic result, and make a plan you know you can follow. Smaller, attainable goals will help motivate you every time you reach them, too.

Have anything to add to the list? Share it in the comments!

• Comments 0 Comments
• Categories Austin Living
• Author melruns

Sometimes I don’t want to do my workouts on a timer. I LOVE interval training–fact–but I like to used the extra time I have on the weekends to break out of the 12 minute “50 seconds on, 10 seconds off” box and change things up a little. Since just getting back to my routine last week, I really wanted to get some good cardio in to kick my butt a little more than usual, so I set up a different kind of workout.

The plan was as follows:

Do 100 high knee jump ropes (that’s definitely not grammatically correct), followed by a set of 10 of any exercise I want–up until I reached 10 rounds total. That would bring me to 1,000 high knee jumps, and 10 different strength exercises in between. High knee jump rope is basically doing high knees in place, while flipping the jump rope overhead at the same time. The key to doing these successfully is keeping your back very straight like a soldier (I learned that after many mess-ups and self-inflicted jump rope whippings). For the in-between exercises, I went for mostly abs because, well, that’s what I felt like on Saturday, but anything in between would have worked! My workout looked like this:

• 100 high knees
• 10 bicycle crunches
• 100 high knees
• 10 knee raises
• 100 high knees
• 10 leg drops
• 100 high knees
• 10 push ups
• 100 high knees
• 10 jump squats
• 100 high knees
• 10 bicycle crunches
• 100 high knees
• 10 knee lifts
• 100 high knees
• 10 push ups
• 100 high knees
• 10 leg drops
• 100 high knees
• 10 walking planks

It kicked major ass. I did it was quickly as possible, but I wasn’t on the clock to start and stop, so I could breathe a littttllleee more in between sets if I needed to. At set 3 I was completely out of breath already, but you gotta keep on keepin’ on to make a difference, my friends. In total I think it took me somewhere between 15-20 minutes, plus a 10 minute warm up on the treadmill and light stretching after.

Wanna try this but can’t do jump rope high knees? It’s cool–just try regular jump rope, however you can manage it. Or try high knees without the jump rope. If 100 high knees is too difficult, try 50. And if high knees are impossible altogether, jog in place until each foot hits a count of 50 for 100 total.

If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I followed this bad boy up with a 7 minutes in heaven oatmeal pancake–a great post workout meal due to the ratio of macro nutrients (complex carbs from the oatmeal, protein & fat from the eggs). I can’t get enough of these lately. I definitely go through phases where I eat one thing for way too many days in a row, and then can’t possibly dream of eating it anymore. I might have done that with my two eggs every morning habit.

7 Minutes In Heaven Pancake Recipe:

• 1/2 cup raw oats. I use the slow cook kind, but quick cooking works, too
• 1 splenda
• dash of salt
• dash of baking powder
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 egg and 1 egg white

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Crack in egg and egg white. Mix it up. Spray a small pan with cooking spray and heat on medium heat. When hot (you’ll know by sprinkling some water in to test it–if it sizzles, you’re good. If not, wait longer). Pour the batter in the pan, and spread out with the back of a spoon so it makes a nice lil’ circle. Wait about 2-3 minutes. When you see bubbles start to form on top, it’s time to flip! Do it. Flip it. Wait another 2 minutes. Annnd donezo. Serve with whatever toppings you desire.

Pancakes, I hope I never get sick of you (covered in sugar free maple syrup, with strawberries on the side). I loved this breakfast. Sancho, however, refused to give it a chance.

DO you save your long workouts for the weekend? Or use your weekends for rest days?

• Comments 2 Comments
• Categories Austin Living, Eating In
• Author melruns

Welcome to Mel Runs! If you’re just joining, the latest news (in addition to workout and healthy eating tips) is that I just adopted a dog. To read part 1 of the story, click here, and then continue on to part 2 below. Happy reading

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The Austin Pets Alive (APA) staff member told us that everyday the organization updates their website at 10am to show where the dogs will be taken that day. Since we knew Sancho was going to be out at an adoption site, my plan was to sit in the front of computer the next morning like a stalker and hit the refresh button on my browser over and over while staring at the screen. I got up at 8am on Saturday, announcing, “It’s doggy day!!” and ran into the kitchen to begin the website stalking process.

Dave woke up too, and together we sat in the kitchen drinking coffee while he worked, and I refreshed my screen repeatedly. After an hour and half of this very important time investment, I lost my cool, and sent an email to APA asking them if they could confirm for me where Sancho would be (partly because my index finger hurt from hundreds of clicks, partly because I really, really needed to know already). Within five minutes, I got a response back saying he would be at the PetSmart on Brodie Lane at 12pm ready for adoption. Okay! we got his location. The Pet store was about 15 minutes away by car–we’d never been there before. The plan? Leave our apartment at 11am to make absolutely sure we were the first ones there when Sancho was brought out for show. We were not going to lose this dog

At that point, instead of staring at my computer screen, I stared at the clock and counted the minutes. 10:15…. 10:20… is it 11 yet? I was off the wall anxious. Kind of like when you’re in college and you know your grades will be posted at 9am the next day. Or like when you’re going on your first job interview in the city, and you need to take public transportation to a place you’ve never been to before, so there’s a good chance you get lost and get there late and blow the whole thing. When the clock turned 10:45, we started hustling around to get ready. I put on my clothes thinking to myself, “So these are the jeans my dog is going to meet me in… this is shirt I will be wearing when I take home my dog…” Really, Mel?

We got in the car at 11:05 and carefully punched the PetSmart address into the GPS. As I watched it give us directions I was very nervous it was going to pull a busted GPS moment and “reroute” us every two minutes, but it didn’t. I swear though, mine and Dave’s eyes were glued to the road the whole time like… (help me, I need a good movie reference here… Gone in 60 seconds? Back to the future? Grease? YES! Grease)… like the car race scene in Grease when Danny beat Leo (ya know, that doesn’t work that well).

At 11:20 we pull into the PetSmart parking lot. This was it. We were going to save our puppy. We walked into the store like we meant business, immediately yelling out, “Excuse me! Where’s the dog adoption area?!” We were told that the store has no affiliation with the outside adoption agencies. The organizations show up independently and PetSmart just allows them to use their real estate to try to get pets adopted. But when they do show up, they usually set up outside. So Dave and I walked outside. On the right of the store entrance was a woman with a bunch of folded up cages who was hosing down the sidewalk. We started to walk over to her to ask if she knew about APA, and as we got closer we realized–it was the same staff member, Devin, who told me at APA that I should take Sancho for a walk just the night before.

YES!

We jogged over to her and she looked up. She recognized us right away and said, “Awesome. I’ll go get him.” She walked to her van, and out popped Sancho. His four paws hit the ground, and he shook his whole body like he was shaking off the remnants of cage left on his little frame. He jogged over to us, and Devin handed us his leash.

An hour later, after signing a bunch of paperwork and shopping around PetSmart for an hour, Dave drove us home while I sat in the back with Sancho next to me, his head on my lap. He knew he was going home.

Sancho on day 1:

• Comments 10 Comments
• Categories Austin Living, News
• Author melruns

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