Squishy

You guys. I'm going to try to keep this short, and to the point. And take it back to my roots of writing about health and fitness.

We - as a world -  including myself - can be incredibly lazy. We like it when things are easy; our lives are constantly being simplified by advancements in technology.

Example: There are buttons, little clicker things, that you can now order on Amazon and keep in your pocket/purse whatever. When you click the button, it will re-order the product that you are out of.

What.

"Honey, can you click the Tide button - we are almost out!"

6 hours later a bucket of Tide is sitting on your doorstep courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

That's cool and all, get yourselves as many clicky re-order buttons as you want. Here's what really irritates me when it comes to trying to make things easier/cutting corners.

Fitness.

Exhibit A, on the left:

When I open Pinterest and see pins like that I want to bash my head into the wall.

Now - I've literally written about this on here before, but the fact that I still see crap like this splattered all over social media makes me feel like I need to reiterate.

There are not six exercises to BANISH SQUISHY BACK FAT. You will not simply just do six exercises over and over for 20 days - and suddenly have a back that looks like that.  Also what in the F@%K is squishy back fat? Why is that even a phrase? Do some people have hardened back fat?

If you want to lose weight, if you want to build muscle, if you want to lose fat, you have to put in work and you have to sweat. If you want to "tone up your butt" - you can't just focus on your butt - that's not how it works. That's called spot targeting/spot reduction and it's a garbage catchphrase. It doesn't work.

This article here sums the statistics up well if you're interested.

I'll wrap up, because honestly I'm kind of fired up and could angrily type about this for the next hour. If you are trying to get in shape - if you're looking for some kind of fitness results - there are plenty of great workout regimens out there that can help you do that. The amount of 'boutique' style gyms in this world is now mind-blowing, you have unlimited options to find something that you like that will make you sweat and help you see results.

You also have the outdoors, and a pair of running shoes. And sit-ups, and air squats, and push-ups, and burpees - the lists goes on - and all those things are free.

Lastly and also importantly, I will copy and paste exactly what I said over two years ago. Remember, the phrase 'you can't out-exercise a bad diet' is more true than you want it to be. Pizza and beer for dinner five days a week will catch up with you - no matter how often you may be working out. Abs are made in the kitchen - Google will 100% back me up.

Last but not least, drink your water. 

I rant, because I care. And because I've made all these mistakes myself.

Cheers -

Kait

Investments

I like the kind of questions that make me stop me in my tracks. The kind that get down under my skin and really make me think, forcing me to repeatedly revisit it.

April has been nothing short of a whirlwind, with two fantastic weeks of back to back visitors. First we had the honor of hosting Andrew's brother and wife, who then went on from here to Greece. Two days after I headed back to the airport to scoop up three of Andrew's high school/middle school/elementary school (IDK these guys have been friends forever) buddies, who we had a blast running around Israel with.

Andrew's friend count of visitors: 5

Kait: 0

(not including family)

Where ma' girls at?

Since the dust settled this past Monday and the boys went on to their next connections - including Andrew who had a work trip - the apartment has been eerily quiet. Too quiet. So quiet that I made a point to hardly be in it at all, jumping from working in coffee shops to dog walking to visiting new babies to the gym, etc.

But it was the quietness and loneliness of this week that made me revisit the question that one of Andrew's friends asked me last week - What would I even be doing with my time in Israel if I didn't have an interest in fitness.

The question honestly left me without an answer, and my response at the time was to laugh and shrug, admitting that I had never even thought about that.

Think about it though. Think of the most prominent interest/passion that you have in your life, whatever you are most invested in and love, and then pretend you actually don't like it at all. Wipe it off the map. What do you think your fall back would be?

I'm still scrapping my brain. I would say my runner up is writing - but how do you make friends through writing? Attend slam poetry contests? Maybe a local writers workshop hosted in Hebrew?

Perhaps I would get heavily invested in dogs. I mean I already am - and genuinely, heavily miss being a dog mom every single day. I've always had in the back of my mind to volunteer at one of the local shelters - and have even looked up courses as to how you can become a dog trainer. Dogs are probably my second passion tied with writing.

I don't know why, but the question shook me and simultaneously made me step back and really appreciate what this passion has done for me - actually for both of us as a couple - in regards to the life that we have built here in TLV.

Outside of the fact that fitness-related activities take up a lot of my time and are slowly but surely intertwining with my career, it's also how we have made roughly half of our friendships in Tel Aviv. So to imagine removing that entire portion of my life actually makes me wince a little.

It's an odd thought to have, but I found it to be an equally productive brainstorming session. At any moment passions/loves/interests can quickly be extracted from our lives, and perhaps it's smart to know what you can fall back on when it comes to dedicating your time and energy.

Just felt the need to share, and let the general realm of health and fitness know that I'm appreciative of it. On that note - I'm off to swim. Have a great weekend!

Cheers - 

Kait

L1

I'm the worst at self-development.  Literally.  It stems from being lazy about reading, and if there are too many big words or large paragraphs or the topic doesn't fully hold my attention, I ditch it.  So when I sat down at the beginning of this year, I tried to be reasonable about goals.

One goal that has been creeping around my mind for the past few months has been ways to develop my fitness background, professionally.  Then, through a series of cool events, that goal got fast-tracked - and this past weekend in Athens (which was a crazy story in itself) I went through the Crossfit Level 1 Training Course.

Yep, I was in a gym for most of my weekend in Greece.

A massive, beautiful gym for the record.

Crossfit North Zone

I learned way more than I anticipated - covering aspects of nutrition, how to calculate work and power, details around movements, etc. I could go on all day.

But what I really loved, is that I was the only American there (besides the instructors). I got to spend the weekend next to 7 Greeks, 2 Turks, 2 Egyptians, and 1 Cypriot, learning about constantly varied, high-intensity, functional movements.

While the course was in English - it was a second language for everyone but me.  Which wildly impressed me (there was a translator on hand who helped with some of the technical concepts - I really can't imagine learning about 'food blocks' in another language).

Stories were shared - crazy cool stories.  I sat next to a guy who had been doing Crossfit for three months, and loved it so much he decided to MOVE across Cyprus to live closer to an actual gym.  Then two months after that decided to take the L1 course.

Something else that really resonated with me is that we only had 4 females out of 13.  Compare that to the numbers I found for the 2016 Crossfit Open  - 42% female participation - to 31% females in my course.

I don't have numbers to back it up, but I'm pretty confident in suggesting that the female participation rate in Crossfit at an international level drops off big time if compared to just the US. It's more normal than not to find myself as the only female during classes in Tel Aviv.

Yet that doesn't really  discourage me.  It encourages me, because that shows potential for growth.

It also - for some reason - puts a chip on my shoulder to go harder.  Because it's not just that I'm a female in Crossfit - I'm also 5'11'', and I love running - two things that existentially go against Crossfit stereotypes.  I can't even tell you how many times I had to be corrected over the course of the training because I have these long ass femurs that refuse to track over my toes - my body is nowhere near compact - therefore I have a larger margin of error to f*ck up a movement.

Excuse my french.

It's my grind though. I might not "look" like I should be doing Crossfit but man do I love it, and how it's changed my outlook on both fitness and life.  Mentally it's made me stronger than being a Division 1 athlete did.  And I'm convinced I can be good at it, get down all the movements, and eventually coach it.  As a tall, gangly female.

But why?  Why Crossfit - why don't you just stick with running Kait?

Because Crossfit is running.  And rowing, and swimming.  And slamming balls around and swinging around on bars, walking upside - it's everything.  It's being able to move the bookshelf across the room without having to wait for your husband to get home to help, and it's being able to throw your 6 year old over your shoulder when they're having a temper tantrum in public.

It's cliche but it truly is training for life, and

I dig that.

But I think even more - I dig the camaraderie.  When you're grinding through crapiness together day in and day out, you realize that you actually have a team to help you get through.

And at the end of  Day 1 last Saturday, when the instructors (who were rockstars) threw a golden workout of thrusters and burpees at us, we had one classmate teammate struggling through the last set.  So you know what we did?

The rest of us - the 12 who had already finished - started hitting the floor with him.  The words 'I can't' left his mouth and we were like oh hell no, and we were up and down with him, grueling through, until he finished those freaking burpees.

And that's why I wanted a Level 1.

I've seen it change people's lives, I've seen people lose massive amounts of weight, kick habits, take on new hobbies because of it. But it's the knowing that you have people who believe in you - really truly - that's why it works.

Anyways, if you're reading this and rolling your eyes and thinking I'm brainwashed, I promise I'm not.  Or maybe I am, but I also know the facts. I've loved health and fitness for pretty much as long as it's been on my radar.  I jumped from globo gyms to niche gyms, consistently ran my face off through stress fractures and broken toes.  I've bought passes to hot yoga and cycling studios, and it's all great, I've enjoyed it all and still do.  But I've never seen or felt changes like Crossfit - and I've never seen fitness transfer into my other passions like this has.

Anyways, thanks for reading if you got through this whole thing.  I'm excited about what's to come, if you can't already tell.  And huge thanks to my husband & my "boss" -  who both enthusiastically got behind me to pay for the training - that sh*t ain't cheap - and it was one heck of a bday gift/work perk.

Signing off, just in time for the Crossfit Open to kick off.  Oh, and to drag my butt 13.1 miles (21.1 km) tomorrow morning.

Cheers - 

Kait

Eggs Eggs Eggs

This past week has been a tad abnormal for me. This weekend is actually looking to be the same. It’s one of the last weekends until June that we don’t have packed full of travel/activities, and so we literally have zero plans, outside of church on Sunday and some kind of Easter meal.

I was working out of a different office all week, so my gym has been too far away to make the commute after work. I’ve been mixing up my workouts between biking and interval stuff – last night I hit Brooke’s Dirty 30 pretty hard, the sesh looked something like this, with some jump rope mixed in –

http://www.babblingbrookelyn.com/

We haven’t talked food in awhile, and I think we should.  I committed hard to green smoothies for breakfast every morning this week, along with a hard boiled egg. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be filling enough, but it actually held me over well until my mid-morning snack. This past Wednesday I made this paleo Deconstructed Spaghetti Squash Carbonara, and added in a little sausage because I knew Andrew would want a little bit of substance…

and I poached eggs for the first time ever!

Wild success. He loved it, and said he would love to make the meal a weekly staple. I love when I can make him love paleo meals. I also love that we watched Frozen afterwards :)

What should I do this weekend? I’m thinking some hot yoga, and maybe some hiking if it’s nice? There’s also an apparently awesome Juice Bar in Fed Hill that I’ve been wanting to try.. maybe some egg dying is in order too?

Fingers crossed for another beautiful weather weekend. Any fun Easter traditions out there?? 

Linking up with Whitney to #Backthatazzup this Friday. Leaving you with one of my favorite songs right now - it's been my alarm all week to wake up to :)

Cheers!

Kait

April Strong Showers

It rained, all day yesterday. All. Day. It was quite the downer, and all I could think about was crawling into bed after work. Instead I crawled onto my bike and watched an episode of Suits, then got into my PJ’s shortly after.

This may be a bit more of a rant than confessions, a ranty Hump Day Confessions if you will.

I’ve come to hate the word skinny. 

I hate what it stands for actually, and that it is such a commonly used, positive descriptor.

That quote makes me want to punt a small animal.

Skinny girl brand, skinny taste, skinny this skinny that. 

I hate that girls are still striving to be “skinny.” And not even just girls, grown ass women.

Let me insert a disclaimer really quick. I’m not directly bashing 

anything, any website, any brand, anyone. 

The Skinnygirl line has some great tasting products out there, and I have tried some delicious recipes off of Skinny Taste and those kinds of websites. I have no beef with that.

It’s the word, and what it represents.

I personally, do not strive to be skinny. I’m over that. I’m SO over the mindset of 

“I’m a woman therefore I should be slender and thin and skinny and always need a man's help with heavy things.”

No.

As a woman, I strive to be strong. I don’t drag my ass out of bed at 5 AM and do kettlebell swings and push-ups before work to with the hopes of looking malnourished. I don't drag myself to hot yoga on a Friday night after work hoping I sweat off some weight before the weekend.

Confidence is sexy. Strength, in so many forms, is sexy. Desperately striving to conform to look like the airbrushed models and what society has consistently brainwashed women to think is the ‘norm’ – that just ain't sexy in my book. Nor is it healthy. So stop.

Healthy is beautiful. Strong is beautiful. (Most days) I take pride in honoring my body by what I put in it, and the amazing things I get to do with it. The joy that working towards handstand push-ups brings me is fantastic. The pride I have in being able to deadlift the prescribed weight in a crossfit workout last month is still hanging around. Strength workouts not only give me some shape to my 5'11'' frame, but they keep my muscles happy. 

When I moved into my house in Baltimore this past summer, I moved in alone. I moved my bed, my double mattress, my two dressers, by myself. And I'm damn proud of it.

Yes, this is another one of those love your body rants. But for the love people Girls, can we please stop with the idolizing skinny crap once and for all?  It's going to be the end of me.

My confession? I hate the word skinny.

Cheers to strong, and muscles, and fit.

Kait

I'm Baaaack - Confessions part III

I didn’t have to wear a coat to work this morning, so that’s encouraging. KEEP IT UP SPRING NICE WORK.

I’m feeling a little lax with my blogging this week. I’m not sure exactly what it is, possibly the busyness, possibly the anticipation of my sis and her man coming into town tomorrow. Love you guys, but I’m never gonna apologize for disappearing from the blogosphere for a couple days.

However, I’m not too busy not to link up for HumpDayConfessions, so let’s get after it shall we?

I keep a small bottle of hot sauce in my snack drawer at work. It is immensely handy when I bring eggs for breakfast. Or as a dressing on my salad. Or when I just need a snack.

Love me some hot sauce.

I confess that I wish Jillian Michael's was a little more screamy in her workout videos. I know she can be an absolute asshole terror from what I’ve seen on The Biggest Loser, and I wouldn’t mind an occasional insult or bash while I struggle through her side plank crunch things in her six week 6 pack video. (those will be the death of me)

Another confession – I like doing her workouts barefoot.

I snap chat too much. It may be a problem. I wouldn’t be surprised if my friends unfriend me soon on there.

...

HOWEVER, a good app that I’ve fallen in love with that is actually productive and helping me to do something with my life – Duolingo (thanks Les). Currently I’m working on sharpening back up my Spanish skills – I was one class away from minoring in it in college, and figured I may as well start getting ready for Puerot Rico, right??
                   

It’s free, has several different language options, and is actually really fun. Try it!

I hate washing my sheets. I do it, don’t get me wrong, I understand it’s politically correct or whatever. But after every time I wash them I feel it takes a couple nights to break them in again. Does anyone else feel me on this one? I get the vibe that most people love the feeling of clean sheets – don’t worry Bri and Jase, I’m washing my sheets for you guys as we speak – but I’m just not on that train.

A (good) confession – I‘ve gotten back in the habit of adding mint and lemon (and sometimes lime) to my water. I normally let it sit overnight to get maximum flavor the next day.  It looks a little weird - someone asked me at work last week why I had lettuce in my water – but I love it.

I confess, this may be the last time you guys hear from me for a couple days again. Sister time is sister time – there’s no room for blogging interruptions.

Confess something to me. Then be jealous that I only have one more work day left (after today).  

Cheers –

K8

Hump Day Confessions - Official Part I

Welp, we're in that that awkward mid-week place again when we all can’t decide if we should start getting excited that the weekend is coming, or feel defeated that we are only halfway through.

I don’t have an answer to that, but I do have some Hump Day Confessions that may help distract from your confusion.

Vodka & Soda

When first moving into my lovely Baltimore house with my two other roommates, our landlords hooked us up by arranging a cleaning service to come every other month.

Confession: I LOVE WHEN THEY COME. Nothing makes me happier then walking into a sparkly – smelling house, and a perfectly made bed. It makes me feel like I'm living in a hotel... until I wake up the next morning and I've torn my bed to shreds once more.

Confession: I don’t have an opinion on crunchy versus creamy nut butter. None. I like both evenly. Is that some kind of sin?

Confession: I rarely ever ‘do’ my hair anymore. It’s long and curly and I don’t even own a straightener right now. Most days = throwing together some kind of sloppy braid and hoping for the best.

beautiful, just gorgeous.

Confession: I hate bras. I guess this isn’t really a confession...  what girl LOVES bras? I think they are annoying and the highlight of most days is when I can put on my sports bra instead.

Confession: I love group texts. Maybe too much. I’m kind of a group text slut, and any chance I get to start one, I do. Any friends reading are welllll aware of this one already.

Confession: More recently, I’ve become a fan of splitting my daily workout in halves. For example, yesterday I woke up and rode my bike for 40 minutes before work, then after work I went to hot yoga.  It seems I just find more joy in the occasional split up.. it’s kind of like, ‘Nice, I cleared out two chunks of time today to do something I enjoy instead of one.’

Last but not least, my current favorite phrase is ‘I am the champion.’ It can be used pretty much anytime and anywhere you want – ‘I had Chipotle for lunch today because I am the champion’, ‘That guy has badass shoes on, he is the champion’,  ‘Didn’t wear makeup today, I am the champion.’

It sounds dumb but it’s catchy and I can’t stop (like the song). Because I am the champion.

How’s that for some confessions? Give me some of your own, will ya? And remember -

Jetting to Dallas tomorrow morning, it may be a few days until you hear from me again...
If I haven't posted by Sunday night, someone phone the authorities.
(KIDDING)

Cheers –

Kait

I wanted to tell you guys

Do any other bloggers out there keep a weird running list of things they want to blog about?

Or even if you're not a blogger,  maybe a list of things you want to remember to tell people?

(I do that a lot with my boyfriend, not gonna lie)

Normally I either keep track by taking pictures, or keeping a list of random phrases in my ‘notes’ app in my phone that would make absolutely no sense to anyone but me.

Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you guys about….

How I’ve been doing Kettlebell swings wrong for the past year. Figured that one out at Crossfit on Wednesday night.

Apparently it’s all in the hips. I’m sore today everywhere, and it’s glorious.

I wanted to tell you guys about…

The fact that I reach a point every morning where my body basically rejects coffee. I would say that I average about 1 – 1.5 mugs of coffee per morning. My mug is big – maybe about two-ish measurable cups? Anyways, usually a few sips into my second mug my body is like ‘ok I’m awake, switch to water.’ It sounds weird, but I swear I feel it daily.

I wanted to ask you guys…

If I need this scarf from Target? Maybe? Probably not, because apparently Target sucks lately.

I wanted to bitch cry to you guys about…

yesterday....

The weather. (YA COOL KAIT YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE)

But seriously, enough is enough winter. Go home.

Pretty sure wind chills were in the teens this morning.  I wore a scarf to work. I literally cannot wait until all I wear to work is a short-sleeved shirt and I’m sweating through it.

Oh, and I wanted to rave about how my favorite TV show lately is House of Cards. I started season 1 a few weeks ago with my one month Netflix trial, and am hooked. So intriguing. Love watching it while I pedal away on my bike.

HAPPY FRIDAY!! You made it! Today is Jeans Day at work, Sunday is the start of March Madness, and Monday is St. Patrick’s Day!

PUMPED.

Linking up again for #Backthatazzup Friday - how 'bout a little fun.?

Am I the only one who struggled with KB swings? Anyone else excited for some March Madness action?

Cheers - 

K

Monday Blues

If we are being dead honest, I had a serious case of the Monday blues this morning. So no better of a reason than to link up for a Marvelous in my Monday post to sum up my weekend, and announce the winner of my Blogiversary Giveaway!

Marvelous was going to our first ever REI garage sale. We had no idea what to expect when pulling into the parking lot at 8:30 AM – and were really surprised when we saw a line of about 50 people deep. They passed out tickets by color depending on what time we had arrived by – we were the third group to be called back.

For those of you have never been to an REI garage sale, it’s basically when they put out products that have been gently used/returned, marked down to an insanely low prices. We managed to snag a sleeping pad for our (hopeful) camping endeavors this summer, and I got an awesome pair of North Face workout capris that were marked down to almost nothing.

I also have a Marvelous recipe to share. Last night my roommate Megan showed me a delicious looking gluten-free pizza recipe on the blog inspiralized. It gave the option to use either sweet potato or regular potatoes, so we decided to have a cook-off. I made the version with sweet potatoes to make it (almost) paleo (minus the mozzarella cheese), and she made the version with regular potatoes...

Meg's

Mine

 We then had Andrew do a blind taste test. He claimed to liked them both, but could ‘tell that mine was healthier’ and liked Megan’s better because he ‘could house it a lot easier.’

Fair enough. Round one goes to Megan.

Last Marvelous the day? It's a little bitter sweet, because I have a confession to make...

I cheated on running... and spinning... and I liked it a lot.

Awhile ago my coworker showed me a LivingSocial deal for a new crossfit gym near our work - Blue Crab Crossfit. I purchased it (10 beginner classes) and then literally put off going for a solid two weeks. Monday morning kicked my ass hard, and I knew I needed a literal ass kicking workout to lift my spirits, so I nervously headed to the gym after work.

In short, it was great. We practiced overhead squats after a short warm-up, and then the modified beginner WOD consisted of:

12 mins, every minute on the minute:

-8 wall balls (14 lbs)

-6 burpees (no jump)

I managed to finish 11/12 sets. My lungs were screaming at me after the fact, and I left feeling pretty damn good.

  AND finally, the winner of my Larabar giveaway is....

Congrats to Nicole over at Not Before My Tea, who ironically moved from Baltimore to Chicago a year or two ago. Opposite life stories, both runners, but she has funnier jokes than I do.

Cheers my friends - 

Kait

Trainer Love

Happy Thursday! Holy moly has this week been a struggle for me. I was at dinner with Andrew last night and we were talking about how hard it’s been to get up for work this week – and then realized that spending 10 + straight days in the Mountain Time Zone waking up at 9 AM (11 AM E.S.T) is most likely the culprit. Oh well.

I’ll give myself until next week to stop hitting snooze four times in a row.

However I have to admit, it feels pretty great to have an organized schedule back. It also feels great to be eating a little more regularly, and not having about half of my meals consist of Colorado craft beer (although I will admit, I had a Great Divide beer at date night last night).

back on that plantain pancake wagon

Andrew has adopted a couple favorite phrases the past month or so, which I have of course come to adopt as well. The most popular?

New Year, New You

Which was his favorite excuse over the holidays to eat whatever we wanted.

‘I mean, if we don’t put on at least a couple pounds before 2014 then we will have nothing to strive for. 2014, New Year, New You.’

Fair enough.

While I like to also use this sentence outside of the context of just our bodies, it’s still a fun phrase to throw around excessively. I said it to myself a few times yesterday while taking my bike trainer for a trial run after work.

I’m in love I think. Biking as hard and absurdly as I want in the comfort of my own bedroom, listening to whatever music I want.

Speaking of music, I found some awesome spin/workout playlists last night when I searched ‘spin’ on Spotify. This guy rocked my socks for a solid 60 mins:

The workout went a little something like this:

Start watch

Spin to the 15 minute mark, get off bike and keep watch running…

50 air squats

40 jumping jacks

30 sit-ups

20 tricep dips

10 pushups

20 tricep dips

30 sit-ups

40 jumping jacks

50 air squats

Spin again until the 45 minute mark, repeat above sequence…

5-10 minute cool down

In all, that took me just over 60 minutes. Followed by some abs with my best friend, Mr. Red Ball.

I think I need a name for my bike trainer, since him/her and Beth will be best friends. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Guys, tomorrow is Friday. And aside from the fact that I fell on my run today through the city (don't ask), things are really looking up.

I don't want to talk about it. I'm still mortified that I literally wiped out while running along one of Baltimore's busiest city streets.

Friday. Focus on Friday.

Cheers –

K