And so it begins... The beginning of a new year and a new decade. Instead of falling into the trap of creating a New Year's Resolution and then falling off two weeks in, I am taking a totally different approach this year. This is the year I learn how to reduce the amount of plastic I throw away or recycle. Seems easy enough, right? The more I dive into this commitment, the more I realize just how much plastic there is to get rid of or reduce. Single use plastic is absolutely everywhere. So where do I begin? Over the next few weeks I will post about the changes I am making. Feel free to follow along and suggest ways that you are reducing single use plastic in your life! We only have one planet, so EVERY PERSON MAKING A CHANGE COUNTS!

This is an easy one. In the last couple years, businesses are trying to come up with new ways to get rid of the plastic straw. It is estimated that 500 million straws are used and tossed each and every day. (Even if it's less, do we really need to spend time arguing about how many are used? It's wasteful even if it's 10 million) So what is the solution? Starbucks thought of using paper straws and has made changes to the design of the lid of their cold drinks, and that is at least a start.  Some businesses have switched to biodegradable/compostable straws. Again, that's better than plastic, and at least sturdier than paper. I bought a Final Straw and loved it at first but at $25 it's not something everyone is going to buy to replace single use straws. We need MORE people making a change. Not just the once who can afford a $25 straw. 

So I have been thinking about this for some time and decided to get on Amazon and look up reusable straws and there it was: Bamboo Straws. Bamboo is inexpensive, grows like crazy, and when it is hollowed out, makes the perfect straw! I was excited to purchase a bundle of six for about $9  from a company called "Jungle Straws" and it came with a carrying case so I can keep one in my purse. They clean well and came in multiple widths so they are good for iced coffee or a thick smoothie. 

Bamboo for the win on this one!

This one blew my mind. I didn't even know this was a thing until a Facebook friend comment on a post I made about reducing my plastic use. She said she used shampoo bars...

"Shampoo bars?? What in the world is that?" 

It's a game changer... Let me explain.

Wanting to get this "ditch the plastic" challenge started ASAP, I got on Amazon once again to compare products and to have something to use within two days. I'm spoiled when it comes to two day shipping. I added lots of different products to my cart and then made my final decision. I decided on Reef Repair, a company who claims that their products are "all natural, chemical, detergent, preservative and sulfate free, making them extremely safe for use in and around delicate natural eco-systems like coral reefs, marine parks, and aquariums. Can be used in Hawaii, Florida, Mexico, The Caribbean, Maldives, Great Barrier Reef and all other marine parks where chemical shampoo use has been restricted or banned."

Okay, so I don't live anywhere near coral reefs and don't plan to wash my hair in the ocean, but I feel like if it's safe to use around delicate sea creatures, it's safe for my hair, my city drain pipes, and where ever the water in my drain goes. I might be going a little overboard on this one, but I like it. It's also vegan (didn't know that was a thing) and has no palm oil which has it's own awful environmental impacts that I honestly don't know enough about to sound like I know what I'm talking about. This shampoo bar isn't tested on animals, and can't we all agree that we live in an era where animal testing shouldn't even be a thing anymore? Yes. We all agree.

So I used the shampoo bar for the first time last night and it lives up to it's claim. My hair is clean, shiny, and smooth. It doesn't lather up like traditional shampoo because it is free of sulfates which is the main ingredient that makes things lather. It's what makes us say "This is cleaning something because I see bubbles." It's all in our head so get it out of your hair!!!

Want to know more about shampoo bars? (Yes, you do!) Check out this blog that goes into more details! Who knew these were popular in the 1940s? You learn something new every day...

I have a few other products I am working on purchasing so that I can try them out to see if they hold up to their claims of being more environmentally friendly, reduce plastic, and improve quality of life. 

​Our planet needs us to do better and be better. Help others by sharing what you do to make this world a better (cleaner) place. What are you doing to make a difference?

Oh my gosh, where do I even begin? Clearly I have been busy, as I have not posted since the end of January. Here's everything in a nutshell:
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- I'm still rocking it out with Orange Theory Fitness (almost 100 classes!)
- I got married in May!
- I spent a week in Hawaii with my husband when school let out for the summer.
- I'm now teaching 5th grade
- I think I'm going to quit racing

OTF has been a life changer. I have completed about 96 classes and I am right around the corner from 100! The goal I set in the beginning of the year was to complete 150 classes by the end of the year. I will push myself as much as I can to make this goal, but I have had a few times here and there where I miss too many days in a row. You should be proud of me: I went to OTF when I was in Hawaii on my honeymoon. #FitnessPerson I have only been charged a no-show fee ONE time and that was a week before my wedding. Two weeks before my big day. my hair and makeup guy quit, I nearly had pink eye, and then broke out into this crazy itching rash that even the doctor couldn't quit diagnose. I missed a Thursday workout and I didn't even care. Decision Fatigue is real!

Overall, I am kicking so much ass at OTF. I completed the Dry Tri (in April?) in about an hour. It is coming up again at the end of this month but I will miss it due to the Lake Hinson 24 Hour Ultra that my husband and I are signed up for. I'm lifting heavier weights and dropping my times in the OTF benchmarks so while the number on the scale isn't moving, things are definitely changing! I'm very happy with my overall fitness goals.

On May 26th, 2019, Adam and I tied the knot! The wedding planning was exciting, sometimes stressful, but worth every minute. I eventually I got to the point where I hit "Decision Fatigue" and was about ready to say "Let's just getting married in the backyard!" I am so happy that two of our dogs were able to be a part of the ceremony. I was so nervous before walking down the isle, but then my maid of honor, Wanda, brought my dog Haro over to me and my nerves were instantly calmed. After Adam and I said "we do", the party got started with friends and family! It was a hot day, but oh so beautiful! 

We had to wait a few weeks to go on our honeymoon since I was still in school. We took a trip to Hawaii and it was the most beautiful place! We swam in the Pacific Ocean, drank from coconuts, saw pineapple fields, sea turtles, hiked to the top of Diamond Head, and swam with fish in a volcanic crater. We were so busy all week and it felt like we were there for a month! 

I remind my students every day that they are the seniors of our school. My school is K-5 and those kindergartners look up to the big kids. We are only a week into the 2019-2020 school year and we are all setting high expectations for ourselves. This year I am teaching 5th grade math and science instead of all subjects. I am excited about this opportunity because my heart is in science. You better believe we have been talking about incoming Hurricane Dorian! We will be learning a lot about hurricanes this week, even though I'm supposed to be teaching "human body." I can sorta be a rebel teacher when it comes to going off the pacing guide (Sorry to my principal if she's reading this!) In my defense, this is a teachable moment, and shame on the pacing guide for not teaching weather in the 1st 9 weeks of school. Anywho, it will likely be a short week at school anyway, so I'm going to have these kids as prepared as possible!

I can't thank my ability to be able to run enough for where it has gotten me today. I started running in 2008 and it has taken me to many cool places. I have met some great people that I wouldn't have met otherwise. However, I'm just not in love with it like I used to be. I appreciate the experiences it gave me and how it opened my eyes to the little things around me. I love the energy of racing, but I don't love the training like I used to. 

Example 1: Adam and I signed up for Hinson Lake 24 Hour Ultra with the plan to run/walk a 50k (31 miles).  My longest training day has been like 4 miles. I just can't get it together.

Example 2: I signed up to run a marathon at the beginning of November. I haven't trained a bit. 

So I'm just going to use the training I'm getting at OTF to power me through it. I'm going to use the mental power that I gained when I trained for Ironman Maryland in 2016. I'm going to use the lessons I learned from all those years of training to just power through. Sounds smart, right? As for Lake Hinson, my goal is no longer to do 31 miles. If I do 10 I will be happy... or 15, or 20. I'm just looking forward to camping out again! Who cares what the mileage is! Adam is aiming for 31 miles, so this year I will get to support him with it, and who knows, maybe I will be with him side by side for the whole 31 miles. It's going to be a fun time no matter what, as long as the hurricanes don't try to destroy the course like they did last year!

So here I am trying to decide what life looks like after running. I will still be active with OTF, and my plan is to focus on that more than any other fitness goal. Maybe I will hike some of the Mountains-To-Sea trail. Maybe I will set a goal to hike all of the state parks by a certain year. 

In the end, running, triathlon, and gymnastics have taught me that anything is possible. Dream big, and the world is yours.

Orange Everest. This is an Orangetheory Signature challenge. It’s a combination of strength and endurance and you have to pace yourself because this challenge is 23 minutes long! In this challenge, you “climb Orange Everest” with increasing inclines (1% every minute until you reach 15%) and then you come back down the mountain with decreasing inclines. To finish the workout you end with a 60 second ALL OUT run.

Where to even begin….

Today I was off work because of the MLK holiday so I worked out at noon instead of my regular 5:30pm workout. I chose this time because my friend Michele works out during the day and just recently joined OTF so I wanted to take the same class as her. Before leaving the house I checked the OTF Greenville Members Facebook page just to see if anything had been added to the page since it is pretty new. I wondered if they might post a motivational quote or tip of the day. Monday is going to be reserved for “Monday Miles” and I clicked on it to see what mileage was posted by other members. Instead, I saw, “Can’t remember the mileage, but I conquered the mountain!”
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“Oh no…” I thought to myself. Remember I said some time ago that I am a HUGE Orangetheory nerd and I know the company inside and out it seems. I knew exactly what she was talking about: Orange Everest.

We are still about a week out from starting the national template, so right now members are basically getting preconditioned for the workouts to come later! Orange Everest? I knew this was going to be tough. I started on the rower like I usually do, and thank goodness because I would not have stayed strong as long as I did if I had run first. The floor workout had a heavy focus on arms which was good because we would need our legs for the treadmill. I kept hearing all the calls on the other side of the room, “Treads, take that incline up another percent in 3, 2, 1, let’s go!!!!” I stayed focused on what I was doing, but a little part of me was feeling anxious for our turn.

Soon it was time for us to climb Orange Everest. After a couple minutes of warming up, we stopped our treadmills and listened to the first instruction. We were to try to try to maintain a pace that we could keep for as long as possible, starting at 2% incline and increasing by 1% every minute until we reached 15%. After that we would start going down 1% until we reached the bottom and we would finish with an ALL OUT. “Okay, I got this.” I started out at a 4.3 mph pace, knowing that I could hold that for a while uphill. For how long, I didn’t know, but I wanted to try to run until at least 10%. Every minute passed and I felt strong, “Keep going, just keep going!!” I told myself. I watched the monitor and saw my heart rate was in the orange zone and staying at about 88%. I was still feeling good. Then we hit 8% and I was trying to maintain speed. I said to myself, “Get up to 10% and then you can bring down the pace a little bit.” At 10% I needed a walk break! I thought that surely I would throw up those egg cups I had for breakfast! If it wasn’t for having people around me, I surely would have quit this workout!!

At 12% everyone was walking. I waited until there was about 3o seconds left at 12% and I bumped up to a run, just to see if I could. Once we hit 13% I brought it back down to a power walk. Once we hit 15% and stayed there for a minute we started to decrease by 1% each minute. At one point, if you were a jogger or runner you could bring it down 2% each minute. I think I waited until joggers and runners were at 4% before I joined them for the final couple minutes. As if this wasn’t all hard enough, we finished the workout with a one minute ALL OUT. At the very end I was running 8 mph (dying inside) and saw for a few seconds I made it into the red zone.

I felt like such a bad ass after that workout. It took me a little bit to come down off that last effort and I still wasn’t quite sure if I would be seeing breakfast again! Check out my stats for this workout though! (Even my Workout summary looks like a mountain!) It’s a great start to the OTF Transformation Challenge. I got this!!

Overall Stats
Calories Burned 455
Splat Points 22
Average Heart Rate  140

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The best thing about this day was that when I got home, my OTF sweatshirt arrived! I thought it was very fitting that it arrived on what is technically my 10th OTF official workout (the first two classes were VIP classes) I am so happy to be part of Orangetheory and it has changed me in such a short amount of time. I have not stepped on the scale since starting, and my clothes feel the same, BUT I feel like I am more positive, I love working out again, the studio makes me happy, and I can see on the monitor that my heart is responding by getting stronger. In the end, isn't that what REALLY matters? Yes, I want to lose weight and inches. Who doesn't? But what I want more than that is to have a strong heart that can take me places. Take that, bathroom scale!

In other news, I know this isn't the healthiest thing in the world, but I could be doing worse, right? Fresh juice from Fresh Vibes in Greenville, NC is so good! There is no easier (more delicious) way to get some vitamins! It takes everything I have NOT to go there everyday after class! 

OTF Workout #5 - Toni promised a good workout, and boy did she deliver! Today was my 5th Orange Theory workout and it was fantastic! For the first time in a LONG time I find myself EXCITED to work out. I enjoy ultra running (walking) but since my days long ago of doing gymnastics, nothing has quite made my heart smile the same way. Except maybe triathlon, but there were a lot of workouts that I didn’t look forward to or enjoy. With gymnastics I was always excited to jump out of bed and go to the gym. I feel that same happiness with OTF. Anyway, I’m getting off track here. Back to the workout!

Once again I started on the floor and left the treadmill for last. I like how this is working out since most people try to get the treadmill first because that’s where you earn most of your coveted “splat points” because it is your cardio block. I want to focus of form on the floor, then I can get my points later! On the floor we used dumbbells for sumo squats, reverse crunches on the floor, then burpees. Another floor block was uppercuts with dumbbells, spiderman, and jump squats on the TRX straps. We also did jump squats but I can’t remember now what block that was in. I feel like I am forgetting something else we did…The workouts go by quick and I honestly have forgotten the rest of the floor workout! My gym is doing the first 45 days of “Studio Launch” workouts before we go on the national circuit where everyone across the country does the same workout, so I can’t even look it up.

After that we headed to the treadmills/rowers! The workout consisted of the following blocks:

Block 1 - Run .50 miles at 2% at PUSH pace
              Row 200 (:30-1:00)
Block 2 - Run .40 miles at 4% at PUSH pace
              Row 200 (:30-1:00)
Block 3 - Run .30 miles at 6% at BASE pace (I wanted to die)
              Row 200 (:30-1:00)
Block 4 - Run .20 miles at 8% at BASE pace (I didn’t make it this far)
              Row 200 (:30-1:00)

Sadly, I only made it through the 3rd block. I was disappointed, but then again, wait a minute, why am I DISAPPOINTED??? I’m working out on a Sunday morning - on winter break! I could be in my pajamas with the covers pulled up, but I’m not! The workout was over and I was proud of myself. I love my workouts and I feel like I am making progress towards being who I want to be. As we stretched, I leaned over and told a friend, “For the first time in my life I am working out for HEALTH, not because of a race or some other goal.” Do you realize how big a deal that is????? Five workouts in and I’m already a different person. Oh, and I burned 468 calories and earned 25 splat points! Fun fact: I am reading the book Push - A Guide to Living an All Out Life: The Story of Orange Theory Fitness by Ellen Latham and she said that “SPLAT” is the sound of a fat cell exploding. LOL, sounds good to me, Ellen!

Did you know the first class at OTF is FREE??? I would love to have more company at the gym. If you live near me let me know if you want to try out a class. I promise it will change you!

Oh, and guess what else? I am signed up for New Years Eve AND New Years Day classes! #FitnessPerson #DrinkingTheOTFKoolAid