You realize life has become quite full when just stopping to catch your breath for a second is a luxury - along with eating and getting an adequate amount of sleep - thus the long absence from posting on my blog. But alas, for those who are interested, here is the old and new news of my life.
T.H.A.N.K.S.G.I.V.I.N.G.
As a last moment decision I surprised my Grandma and Grandpa for Thanksgiving. I was able to take an extra few days off of work and drive down to their house in California to spend time with them. It was enjoyable to be with my extended family on Thanksgiving, but the real highlights of my trip were the one-on-one times I was able to spend with my Grandma and Grandpa. I am the kind of person who loves adventure and being active, but I found that doing just the little things, like sitting next to my Grandma in her recliner chair she is almost confined to or taking a ride in the car with my Grandpa were the most meaningful and memorable. I was even lucky enough to get some quality time with my Uncle. We share the common interest of road biking/spinning, so he took me on a killer ride Thanksgiving morning. My uncle was great company and continued to offer encouragement to me as I struggled to keep pedaling. It's experiences like these with those I love that leave the greatest impact.
C.H.O.P.P.E.D. W.I.T.H. S.T.Y.L.E.
With my job I spend 96% of my time in my truck driving around town with my clients. My truck is my office, break room, conference room, and everything else that comes with work (minus the bathroom except for a couple clients who think it is and have used it as such, but I won't go there). Long story short, I am always in my truck. Having long hair became a problem because each time I put on or took off my seatbelt (which was a lot) my hair would get caught in the seatbelt thingamajig above the left shoulder. Ouch. To solve the problem I either had to quite putting on my seatbelt altogether or chop my hair off. Hmmm...chance my life or cut off something that would grow back. Not a hard decision. It worked in my favor that I was already tired of my long, straight hair. My only dilemma was figuring out which style I wanted my hair to be transformed to. After a lot of researching which types of hair styles looked good on my face shape I made my decision…
(Please ignore the cheesy grin on my face as this is the best picture that depicts my haircut)
I remember distinctly the feeling of no-return I felt when the cosmetologist cut my bangs. After leaving the salon I didn’t feel completely satisfied with the cut. The cosmetologist threw in a few twists of her own that I wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of. So I went back. I left the second time in love with my hair.
C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S.
Christmas was a blessing! I again was able to travel down to my Grandma and Grandpa's for this holiday as well as everybody else in my family. The whole extended family on my mom's side was together for Christmas, minus the two missionaries serving in Mexico and Utah. It was a miracle that I was able to see unfold for the family to come together as well as witness miracle after miracle as we were together. It was a joyous reunion. Everybody came away with a few presents, but the greatest gift of all was being together.
K.I.C.K.I.N.G. M.Y. O.W.N. B.U.T.T.
After participating in a triathlon this past summer I fell in love with this style of competition. I caught wind of an extreme adventure race held in Moab, UT and decided that that would be my next race. It is a total of 50 miles and includes: mountain biking, running, rappelling, mountain biking, and kayaking. Check it out:
My efforts to find a teammate have been fruitless and so I will be participating in this race solo. Thus far I have done two things of many in preparation for this race - first, I got a personal trainer and second, I got a new (used) mountain bike. The tougher twin of my Jamis Road Bike.
My trainer created a Monday thru Saturday strength training/conditioning, endurance, and cardio workout schedule for me to stick to along with his killer one-hour session every Friday with me in order to be ready for this race. I still have yet to not get my butt kicked by the gym on a daily basis. So, many hours of my life after work are spent in grueling workout regimes at the gym. But all of this butt kicking has finally started to pay off.
On the first day of training with my personal trainer I had a body composition test done, which measures the body fat and lean muscle on my body. I received another body composition test six weeks after I starting training to see the progress I was making. I was quite frustrated with myself up until my second body comp test because I was not losing the weight as expected. Here are the comparisons between the two body comp tests:
Jan. 8th Feb. 12th
Body Fat %: 24.6% 21.6%
Body Fat Weight: 35.9lbs. 31.2lbs
Lean Weight: 110lbs. 113.4lbs.
Tricep Skinfold: 16.4mm 14.5mm
Hip Skinfold: 16.2mm 14.3mm
Thigh Skinfold: 33.6mm 28.0mm
Basically I dropped 3% body fat and gained 3.4lbs of muscle with slimming in my arms, waist, and legs. Since this last body comp test I have been tracking my calories and eating an approximate 1400/day calorie diet in order to get to the body fat percentage goal of 15% before my race next month and I have already shed several pounds from my healthy eating and workout regime. It is an exciting feeling to see the difference in my body and the progress in my workouts.
With the excitement of this adventure race approaching I started to think about what I would do after the race. I want to keep to the workout regime that my trainer has me on in order to continue to maintain and hopefully improve my fitness level, but what else? I discovered what awaits me after the adventure race. Four triathlons (located in Pocatello, Rigby, Idaho Falls, and Rexburg) and as a finale to the year, the LOTOJA road cycling race in September - a single-day, 206 mile race from LOgan, utah TO JAckson Hole, wyoming.
See what it is all about!
Always looking for racing buddies or support crew volunteers. Let the fun begin!
S.E.A.R.C.H. & R.E.S.C.U.E.
My job isn't what I want to spend my entire life doing. The right concept is there - helping people - but not the right focus I really want - mental health. The itch to move forward with my career dreams has become a lot stronger, but isn't something that I can entirely pursue right now. So I decided to pursue it as much as I can, even if it is just a little at a time. I am volunteering for Bonneville County Search & Rescue (BCSAR). I feel blessed to have teamed up with BCSAR because they are training to get recertified with Mountain Rescue Associate, which is something that only comes around once every five years. BCSAR will give me added experience and training to my certifications I currently have and will give opportunity to get a taste of a part of what I eventually want to do with my life - helping people in life-threatening situations. I am enjoying being apart of BCSAR and feel it is a step closer to my future.
