Ashley, meet Kettlebell

Last night we at at Cracker Barrel, I had chicken fried chicken smothered in creamy country gravy with mashed potatoes {also smothered} and carrots.  It was delicious, until it wasn't. {pretty sure I ate to much} A bit later I was lounging on the couch watching infomercials with my dad. {yes its funny - infomercials?!} It was about some Kettle Worx DVDs. 

My mom, dad and I all bought kettle bells about a month ago and havent done a whole ton with em.  Well one of them came with a DVD by Trainer Bob from the biggest loser. So someone {Mom} suggested we pop that sucker in.  Now I would like to say, everything I've read and heard about kettlebells have ensured me that it will be one of the most effective workouts you've ever done.

And let me tell you.

They were not kidding!

At just about ten minutes I was sure that I was gonna lose my dinner. I sat on the floor and after being told my lips were about the color of chalk I crawled into the bathroom. After spending a second hugging the porceline throan I headed back out to try to keep up. 

Thirty minutes from the start of our workout we were done {ten of which I wasn't even part of} and my legs were spent, exausted, numb. I stood to walk across the room and by the time I got to where I wanted to be. I though I might collapse.

This morning, I'm sore. Not I'm gonna die if I move a muscle sore but there is definitely some lactic acid built up in my body. Especially my legs.

I'm writing this to share but also to talk a second about making workouts effective.  After a day at work I have zero interest in spending an hour or more at the gym or even working out at home.  I just can't commit to doing that. Twenty minutes to a half an hour? I'd be willing to bet my thunder thighs on that one!

There isn't any need to work out for hours and hours and hours {MOM} You just have to make every move count which is why the kettle bell is such a great thing. When used correctly it requires the use a multiple muscle groups to do a single move. Every swing requires the cooperation and work of your calves, thighs, butt, core and arms.

My goal? Kettlebell workouts 3 days a week at least thirty minutes a day. And a nice, long walk with my cute energetic puppy on the others.

Oh Man

       Gosh...alright, so usually I love my job, just to reiterate. However, *sigh* on days when it's my time of the month, I can almost loathe it. All I want is to eat everything in sight!! Oreos, peanut butter cups, chocolate chips, all different flavors of icings, cupcakes, cookies, cake pops, aww geez, the list goes on and on. And sometimes it's more than I can handle and I do eat everything in sight, lol...but it doesn't end up being funny at the end of the day when I feel all gross and bloated and disappointed in myself because I ate crap all day... (I decided to write about this not only because it's yet another week for me to struggle through it but because I know I am not the only one who goes through this crap.)
       Anyway...I like the days when I do fight it and I eat the still tasty snacks that I have. The only problem with those days are that at the end of them I have the most annoying sweet tooth that just wants me to eat sugar sugar sugar! Usually it's chocolate that I crave the most, mmmm. Chocolate, with its yummy creaminess and smooth texture. With its peanut butter and crunchies and raspberry and strawberry....oh man! I could eat chocolate all day every day and I tell myself it's okay because it's good for you... ;-). (Granted in small doses but hey, I'm not going around popping your bubbles.)
       Today was sort of eh on the not eating crap scale. We just improved our cupcakes (yes, Ashley, read it and weep, lol, did you think they could get better??) so all I've been wanting to do is eat them anyway...then to make matters worse we just got a bucket of buttercream in. Now, for the cupcakes and the cakes we make at my bakery we make our own buttercream from scratch. We actually cook it and everything. We finally ordered a bucket of pre-made buttercream to use for last minute writing on cupcakes, people who need dairy free, things like that. It's Brill brand and I could eat an entire bucket of it. Not even kidding, entire bucket, no problem. *sigh* Needless to say, I've eaten it on several cupcakes the last few days...know what though? I don't care. Not even a little. I've eaten a good breakfast lunch and dinner all those days as well and I actually went for a walk yesterday with my dog, Lizzie, and tonight Jonah (RJ's son) and I went for a bike ride.
         All in all I feel pretty darn good about my eating habits today.