Ok, here’s my summary of my redo from Week 4 of my 10 week workout challenge. And don’t forget to check out the intro, and Weeks 1, 2, and 3 for the whole journey!

Let’s just say it was a better attempt then my first run, but still nothing to brag about… :/ But hey, I’m only human, and I’m more motivated then ever to really get back on track!

*Monday: Rest day
*Tuesday: Yoga 36 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Wednesday: I usually do the Elliptical but we moved it into our bedroom during Thanksgiving to make room for all of our house guests, and we didn’t get a chance to move it back, so I skipped it and instead, did more yoga! When in doubt, do yoga <3. Yoga 36 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout
*Thursday: Yoga 41 minutes, DVD – Crunch Fat Burning Yoga Workout.
*Friday: Yoga 36 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Saturday: I really *really* wanted to run this weekend. I even brought cloths with me to my parents house for the weekend. WE just didn’t get around to it. BUT I did rake a bagillion leaves in my brother and SIL’s yard, and that was definitely a lot of work. So I’ll take it.
*Sunday: Skipped working out to sew pillows. OH well, it happens.

So, overall, I got in really no cardio, and the weekend was a complete flop.

But, week 5 is already a better week (geeze, its already Wednesday!), so I can say that week 4 was just a weird, crazy week that just wasn’t working for me. I’d rather move on then dwell on it.

I finally went food shopping again, and was able to juice this morning, so week 5 is going to be awesome! Now if I can just make sure to get my runs in, I’ll be golden and right back on track. Wish me luck!

Well, week 4 was a huge fail for me. With hosting Thanksgiving for 12 people including my 2 year old nephew, housing a house full of people for a week, and eating copious amounts of left overs for 4 days straight, there was just not much time for anything else. I managed to do some Yoga on Tuesday night with my nephew. It consisted of him sitting on my head as I rested between cobra and climbing up my legs as I tried to do downward dog. It was ridiculously cute, nonetheless.

So, I decided to redo week 4 this week, and pretend that last week just didn’t happen. Or maybe just pretend that last week was a rest in between weeks 3 & 4, because let’s face it, you never want to pretend that Thanksgiving didn’t happen… I mean, it’s just one of the best times of the year!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I never got a chance to jump on here and wish everyone a happy one, so better late then never! A [belated] Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Here’s to a better week “4” this week!! And make sure to catch up on my other weeks, follow along as I get back into shape!! : Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3.

Why yes, those are pumpkin whoopie pies! And they were delicious!!!

All I can say is, thank god it’s Monday. Which is weird, because Monday’s mean the beginning of another week… back to the daily grind. But I got to bed late, and I didn’t have to get up early to workout today because today is my rest day. And thank god for that. Rest. Ahhhhhhh. If only I had gotten enough!

If you missed my previous recaps for my 10 Week Challenge, you can read them here:
Intro
Workout Challenge Week 1 Recap
Workout Challenge Week 2 Recap

My goal of getting more sleep didn’t really pan out in week 3, so I will be repeating this goal this week. I’m not hopeful though, because this week is Thanksgiving and That usually means a house FULL of family, including my 2 year old nephew. Sleep? Not so much this week! But I’ll try.

I’m also considering adding in one more day of cardio, as my run on Saturday was extremely tough and I feel like I’m not building up enough stamina only getting 3 days of cardio a week. Greg runs with me on the weekends and he literally doesn’t even get out of breath, whereas I can’t get rid of the stitches in my side for the life of me! Sunday, however, was a much better run, and I had my best time of a 9:08 min/mile run! So, we’ll see.

My recap for week 3 looks a little like this:

*Monday: Rest day
*Tuesday: Yoga 36 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Wednesday: Elliptical 25 minutes. .78 miles, 164 avg. heart rate, 301 cals burned.
*Thursday: Whittle My Middle Core workout: planks, side planks, and squats 20 minutes.
*Friday: Yoga 36 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Saturday: Running 3.51 miles (with Greg!) 9:59 min/mile pace, 362 cals burned. Yoga 36 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Sunday: Running 3.51 miles (with Greg!) 9:08 min/mile pace, 365 cals burned. Yoga 36 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.

For week 4, I’d like to add in more water consumption. I’ve noticed that I’ve really fallen off the hydration wagon, and I can be better then that, so I’m actively trying to drink around 64 oz a day for week 4. And we’ll see about adding in another day of cardio… depending on how much turkey I eat this Thursday!

Here’s to a turkey filled week 4! Who else is ridiculously excited for Thanksgiving this week? I’m hoping to squeeze in my workouts in between all of the eating, game playing, and movie watching we have planned for the week and weekend.

Week 2 of my 10 week workout challenge FLEW by! I mean, it’s already Monday of week 3! I was SO incredibly glad that I had today off. Monday’s are my day off from working out, and when I decided to star this 10 week workout challenge, I figured if I felt so inclined, I would probably do some yoga on my off day, if anything. But I really needed today to rest. I’ve been waking up at 6/6:30 every morning and going to bed at around 11. It’s not enough sleep, and I really had to catch up this morning. For the next 7 weeks in this challenge (and really from here on out), I’m going to focus on getting 8 hours of sleep each night. I’m definitely one of those people that needs 8. Some need less, some need more. I need 8. I just feel so much more alert, and overall just “better” when I get 8 hours. This past week has been littered with 6 hour sleep nights, and I could really feel it all week. I even fell asleep on my friends Betho and Catherine Saturday night while we were watching Miracle on 34th st.

My workout week recap:

*Monday: Running 3.51 miles at 10:33 min/mile pace, 373 cals burned.
Yoga 35 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Tuesday: Yoga 35 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Wednesday: Elliptical 30 minutes. .95 miles, 161 avg. heart rate, 358 cals burned.
*Thursday: Whittle My Middle Core workout: planks, side planks, Yoga online videos 20 minutes.
*Friday: Running 3.51 miles (with Betho!) 9:56 min/mile pace, 366 cals burned.
*Saturday: Yoga 35 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Sunday: Running 2.8 miles (with Greg!), 9:37 min/mile pace, 294 cals burned.

Every day this week I was tired and felt just generally drained by the end of the day (8pm.) I could barely stay awake some nights. However, yoga is getting easier and I can already feel my legs becoming more limber and loose, which is awesome. My hips hurt a lot less too, which is nice. As I get older, my joints, especially my hips become stiff if I sit too long is an awkward position, and the yoga is really helping my joints feel so much better. I love it!

I also had my best pace for running this week at 9:33 min/mile. In my prime, I used to run around a 7:30 – 8 min/mile pace, and I’d really like to get closer to that! I’m on my way, and I’ll be focusing on that this weekend.

I’ve also realized that juicing is *expensive*!!! I love my juice so much that I was making my 32 oz. in the morning and drinking 24 oz in one day. ONE day! Yikes. Unfortunately, as the weather is cold here, most fruits and veggies are out of season, making them very expensive. So, I have to bring that down to probably around 12 oz. a day, in order to not drive Greg and I out of house and home. We’re actively price shopping now, looking for the best deals (while still trying to buy as many organic veggies and fruits as I can!). If you know of any killer deals on greens, sweet potatoes, and berries and apples, let me know!

Week 3 looks like it’ll be an awesome one, so stay tuned to find out if I can beat my running pace, and continue to work on my Yoga poses!!

My first week of the 10 week workout challenge went pretty well! I really wanted to focus on just getting into a routine of getting up before work, and spending 30 minutes each morning focusing on my workout. And I did really well! Greg even came for a jog for me on Saturday, which was so nice!

Here’s what my week broke down to:

*Monday: Rest day
*Tuesday: Yoga 25 minutes (online videos found browsing youtube).
*Wednesday: Elliptical 25 minutes. .8 miles, 150 avg. heart rate, 278 cals burned.
*Thursday: Whittle My Middle Core workout: planks, side planks, and squats 20 minutes.
*Friday: Yoga 36 minutes, DVD – Crunch Perfect Yoga Workout.
*Saturday: Running 3.51 miles (with Greg!) 10 min/mile pace, 368 cals burned.
*Sunday: Planned to run another 3.5 miles, but time got away from me and I ended up skipping this day, so instead I took the usual rest day from week 2 (Monday) and ran on Monday (Nov. 7) instead.

My thoughts: The yoga was AWESOME! I have only done yoga here and there a few times, but during week1 I actually followed a DVD that I found on Amazon, called Crunch The Perfect Yoga Workout.

I really liked it and plan on adding more days of yoga to the routine over the next weeks, especially after my cardio workouts. It’s a great way to get in stretching, which I tend to neglect because I find stretching so boring. I also, of course, felt great running again and plan to keep my schedule of running on Saturday and Sunday.

Other random musings:

I started juicing (stay tuned for a post on this really soon!!), and I LOVE IT. I got a Breville juicer for christmas last year and I’m embarrassed to say, since then we’ve used it maybe twice. BUT That’s all going to change. Today, I made a big batch of fresh juice that consisted of: kale, Swiss chard, spinach, strawberries, blueberries, sweet potato, apple, orange, banana, carrots, and beet (plus stem and leaves). Sounds totally crazy and gross right? IT WAS SO GOOD. Like, I want to go make another batch right now and drink it all. It made just about 32oz. and I drank 1/3 for breakfast and have been stuffed ever since. This stuff is nutritious and filling. <3 I think this will be a great post workout drink and I really hope to make juice every morning! I’m also experimenting with one day old juice. I know the vitamins start to breakdown as the juice sits, so I don’t want to leave it too long, but I know it would save me so much time to be able to make a couple of servings at once. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow morning!

Wish me luck this week, now that day light savings has ended, its dark and dreary and I’ll need all the motivation I can get to keep this workout challenge going strong.

How do you stay motivated to keep working out in the fall and winter, when its cold and dark and dreary?? I’d love some advice

I used to be a runner.

And I’m sad that I’m not, anymore. Somewhere between graduating from college and today, I just stopped running. Growing up, I used to run with my mom every day. EVERY DAY. We’d rarely miss a day, we loved running so much. And then I went away to college, and I still ran and kept up with it, but slowly, life got more and more busy. And now I just don’t run anymore. NOW, there’s rarely a day that I DO run. And, again, that makes me so sad.

So rather then sulking in my misery and remember the days that I used to be in shape (and when my butt did NOT shake and jiggle like a bowl full of jello), I’m doing something about it.

The other day I printed off 10 copies of a workout log that Angela Liddon, from OhSheGlows posted on her blog. Why 10 copies? I have no idea, it just seemed like the right amount. I didn’t even have the plan to do this 10 week challenge at the time… Maybe my body and heart knew what my mind took some time getting around to… that I’m ready to get back into shape.

In an effort to really make this stick, I’m posting about it. Here. On the blog. For everyone and anyone to see. Not only that, I’m also posting my measurements. ::gulp:: Yes, you read it, my measurements. I figure, with it all laid out here, in the open, I’m accountable. And that will surely help me stick to the workout regime I’m setting up for myself. At the end of the 10 week challenge, all that really matters to me is that I fall in love with working out again. We used to be so in love, working out and I… we’d spend hours together every day, and I’d pour some of my deepest and darkest hopes and desires out when we were together. And I miss that. And I want that back. So. Here it is. Week 1 of my 10 week workout challenge. It would be awesome if you wanted to start a challenge of your own!! Just head on over to OhSheGlows for the pdf of the workout Log. And any encouragement would be greatly appreciated, too, so don’t be shy!

Measurements:
Height: 5’6″
Weight: 136 lbs.
Chest: 34 in.
Waist: 26.5 in.
Hips: 37.5 in.
Thighs: 22.5 in.

There you have it. You can now make a wax figure of me I’ll measure my self again, at the end of the 10 week challenge and we can see if I was able to transform my body at all.

My goals are: To at least maintain my weight, as I stated in my 2011 New Years Resolutions post from earlier this year. Last summer, I started a healthier eating plan, and lost 20 lbs. Its pretty huge for me, because I’ve never been able to take the leap and actually put forth a weight loss effort like this before. And I’m so comfortable with my body now, and I just want to tone up the lose jiggly parts (like my butt. lol)

I also really really want to start running races again, as my mom and I also used to do that all the time, too! 5k’s were our specialty, because they were fun and pretty easy. And when I was planning my wedding, my mom and I even ran the Disney World Half Marathon!! It was amazing, and I so badly want to run another half marathon some day (hopefully soon!) I’ll be looking into this more in the near future!

At the end of this week, I’ll post a recap of my week, how my workouts went, how I felt, what I want to change for the following week, what I really liked, what I didn’t, if I skipped any days that I meant to work out on, and overall how I felt that week. I’ll continue to post weekly recaps on either Saturday or Sunday, every week, for the next 10 weeks. And then I’ll do a full, in-depth recap at the end of 10 weeks.

Okay, well, here we go! Wish me luck!

It snowed 8 inches on the 29th… Happy Halloween? It is so strange to see this much snow, this early in the fall… usually we don’t get snow until close to Thanksgiving. Weirdness aside, it was really pretty to see the snow falling in huge thick flakes all around the neighborhood’s skeletons, gravestones, ghosts and ghouls… Good thing its going to warm up to about 50 today for the kids to trick or treat!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Sunday evening, after the bulk of the rain and wind of Hurricane Irene passed through CT, Greg and I got in the car and decided we’d try to check on the family’s beach house down in East Haven. We heard Cosey Beach Ave. was hit pretty hard, and that there was a lot of damage out there, but we never expected to find what we did…

The road was closed and the National Guard was walking up and down the street, checking out the wreckage (a.k.a. the houses that lined the coast). As we made our way through the side streets in knee high water, we could only get as close as the opposite side of Carolina Creek, but didn’t dare wade across, for fear of getting yelled at by the big men in army pants and guns strapped to their thighs… so we hung back a bit, and I used my zoom lens to grab some pics. At first glance, it looked to be mostly cosmetic damage to the house we have come to love and cherish for the last few years.

You see, Cosey Beach is more then just a house to us. It’s a place of so many great memories that we Cucinelli’s have created over the years. It’s a place we get together and have way too much delicious food to eat just because it’s Saturday. It’s a place we get together to laugh, to share in life’s good times. It’s a place to enjoy each others company, to create beautiful sewing projects, to spend time with new family members (like my beautiful niece Julia… check her out here!) and old (I’m not sayin’ who’s “old” I’m just sayin’) …

But when Greg’s oldest Brother, Chris, snuck into the house Sunday evening, he captured a few pics (before getting kicked out by the Guard) that told the true story of what happened when Irene reared her ugly head upon Cosey Beach Ave. This morning, they all trekked down to asses the damage to the house. It’s pretty bad, but the good news is that the street was rightfully evacuated before the storm hit, no one was home when the worst of it blew through, and no one, not a single soul living on Cosey Beach Ave, was hurt. That’s some serious good blessing, right there!

These next three are interiors of the neighbors houses… which are, as you can see, in considerably worse shape then ours.

Again, at least no one was hurt. Everyone on Cosey Beach ave was evacuated Saturday, and though the cleanup and rebuilding will take a long time, we can at least feel good about the fact that a few nick nacks and furniture were the only things lost to this crazy storm…

This past weekend I went to visit my BFF in MA. While up there, we embarked on our 2nd annual trip to Martha’s Vineyard for a day spent in sunshine, drinking fun drinks, eating delicious cupcakes, and enjoying a fabulous day off. Betho, I had SO much fun, thanks for having me up for the weekend. Can’t wait to see you again!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope you have lots of hotdogs, hamburgers, go swimming, and see great fireworks today!!

These were some of the fireworks we saw last weekend at the annual East Haven town fireworks. Taking pics of fireworks is one of my favorite things!! If you need tips on how to make your fireworks pics really POP, send me an email at: michelle@michellecucinelli.com or leave me a comment!! Enjoy