Fit Friday: Week 2

Image via hellobrit.com

WEEK 2 UPDATE:

--Begin with a 5 minute warmup walk, then run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes, for a total of 20 minutes.

Monday, January 9--1.76 miles--181 calories

Wednesday, January 11--1.8 miles--184.3 calories

Friday, January 13--1/85 miles--188.8 calories

Okay, I had a breakthrough!!  On Friday I was really tired after my run, but I didn't feel like dying!!!  I sat down for a minute and then I felt so good I started playing Dance Central, and let me tell you, if dancing could kill I would have had a room of dead bodies (I'm really glad that it can't, though, because it was just me and the baby in the room...).  I felt so good all day!!  Even during the run I felt better than I had the previous week.  

Scott and I also started this five minute plank challenge earlier this month.  If you don't know what a plank is (no, not this kind of planking...), look at the first picture at the beginning of this post.  So, you start just doing a ten-second plank, then every day you add ten more seconds until you're at five minutes.  Easy, peasy.  We got a late start, so we figured we could just start at one minute and then add ten seconds every day, and we would still be done by the end of January.  Aghhhhhhh I'm dying.  About 30 seconds into my plank I would rather be this guy:

image via plankinglol.com

But we're sticking it out.  We've missed a few of days (the first night we just plain forgot and then the next night we were out late), so we'll see if we can get to five minutes before February.

Update on the Homemade Detergents

The laundry detergent--I like it.  I LOVE IT.  I need (to make) some more of it.  The single batch I made to try it out lasted about a month and a half.  I do about 5 or 6 loads of laundry a week, so if you make the tutorial it should last at least 30 loads.  I just started using less detergent (about 1 1/2 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp of Oxi-Clean), and my clothes are still coming out just as great.  So it could last even longer this next time!!  And you better believe I'm quadrupling the "recipe" this time because I love it so much.

The dish detergent--HATE IT.  I've been using it for about a month, maybe a little longer, and I absolutely hate it.  I was using vinegar as a rinse aid, and for the first couple of washes I thought it was great, but after a few more loads the dishes that I wash repeatedly (bowls for baby food, tupperware containers, glasses) started accumulating a super nasty film.  I ended up washing the dishes after they went through the dishwasher more often then not, so I switched back to the store bought detergent, and, still using the vinegar as a rinse aid, I have sparkling dishes again!  I haven't even used half of the detergent I made (I may have doubled the "recipe" for the dishwasher detergent because of my false expectations), so I'm trying to figure out if I can tweak it to use for my laundry!  I can't imagine the salt would hurt anything, but I don't know how I feel about washing my clothes in lemonade...

The Sock Bun

This little guy is a cool one!  I found this video (via Pinterest) about, wait, what???  A sock bun??  Yes!  A bun using an old sock!!  

At first I was skeptical that this would even come close to working on my hair (or anyone's hair for that matter...) since it's kind of thin and I don't have a ton of it.

But this worked amazingly well.  You can either wear it as a hairstyle, OR (this is where it gets good) use it to curl your hair WHILE YOU SLEEP!  It's basically like using those old school foam curlers, but you get soft waves instead of tight curls.  I'm still perfecting this, so I may do an update with some pictures of that when I get it right.

This is so easy.  You get an old sock (I used one of my husband's longer, black trouser socks--don't worry, it had a hole in it so I didn't steal it, I "saved" it from the trash) and cut the toe off.  Then you roll it up so it looks like a donut, and then you slide your hair (ponytailed) through the middle, and roll it up.  

For more detailed instructions watch the video on Youtube.  The major trick is how you roll it.  Once you have a roll or two, start spreading your hair out so that it's rolling around the entire sock every roll (rather than spiraling the hair around the sock-donut).  This stayed pretty well all day, and I didn't pin it at all.

How great, and EASY, right??  Thank you, Pinterest, you've done it again.

Fit Friday: Week 1

For the record, this isn't a New Year's Resolution, it just happens to be January when I'm deciding to do this....so maybe it is a New Year's Resolution and I'm just in denial...but I'm seriously doing this.  I'm training.  So far it's only for a 5K, but I have this crazy idea that I'm going to do a mini-triathlon this summer.....so we'll see what it turns into.  But going from a mostly sedentary lifestyle to trying to run is HARD.  So here we go.

I found this 5K training plan that I'm using.  It says it's for beginners, so I don't know what that means I am...!  It starts with running a minute at a time--easy, right?  It KILLS me by the end!!

I'm going to update on how my past week was every Friday, mostly just to document how I'm doing.  While this isn't really my normal crafty project, it's definitely going to be a project, and I need some accountability to keep me on track.  I'll be running three times a week using the training plan I printed out and hung in front of the treadmill.

FIRST UPDATE:

--Each day, start with a 5 minute warmup walk, then run 60 seconds, walk 90 seconds, for a total of 20 minutes.

Tuesday, January 3--1.654 miles--170.1 calories
Thursday, January 5--1.7 miles--174.1 calories
Saturday, January 7--1.8 miles--185.5 calories

I'm hoping this gets easier.  Waking up a half hour early just to make my body ache feels like torture.  The positive side is that since I started this plan I've been more productive than I have been in a long time (maybe since I first had Duncan 8 months ago?).  I think starting my day off right is making a difference.  Now I just need some Wheaties.

Pepperoni Roll Ups

When I saw this idea, I just knew my husband (and I) would absolutely love this.  Think about it--cheese and pepperoni surrounded by a flaky crescent roll--doesn't it just sound delicious?!

I didn't have the foodorial (like tutorial...it will catch on someday...) pulled up, so I just guessed on the assembly.  

I separated the crescent rolls into triangles, layered on some pepperoni slices, and laid an entire string cheese on top.  On the site I saw these on, she only used half a string cheese.  Then I just rolled them up (trying to stretch everything to make it fit).

So...this is what I ended up with.  I used a crescent "square" instead of triangle on the one in the middle.  I was trying to see which would work better.  Oh, and the other two in the middle were just string cheese--I was thinking breadsticks...

When they came out of the oven, they looked pretty delish.  But, even with marinara dipping sauce, they just were not doing it for either my husband or me.

THE FINAL REVIEW:  I probably won't do these again...I didn't love the buttery-ness of the crescent rolls with all the oils from the pepperoni and cheese; it just didn't seem to mesh.  If you're looking for some awesome pizza-style appetizers, try these pizza bites.  I could literally eat all of them.  If I made them when my husband wasn't home.  Otherwise, he would smell them and come running.

For a Laugh--Angry Birds

In case you wondered where the Angry Birds came from....

From my LOL board.

How to Make Dish Detergent

The same time I was learning how to make laundry detergent, I found this tutorial on how to make dish detergent.  Since it had mostly the same supplies as the laundry detergent, and I already had all of that, I decided to give it a try.  I really hate buying dish detergent even more than buying laundry detergent.  It always seems so expensive, and it never seems to last as long as I think it should.

For this you need 1 cup Borax, 1 cup Super Washing Soda, 1/4 cup salt, and 2 packets of Unsweetened Lemonade Packets.  Be careful, because I've read that other flavors of Kool-Aid will stain your dishwasher.  Only use lemon!

Just throw it all in a container (I used one with a spout so I could pour it like the regular dish detergent boxes) and shake it up.  It's really that easy...

And use 2 Tbsp per load.

...And find/make a label if you want to beautify your detergent, because that really is necessary   :)

I used the same label that I tweaked for my laundry detergent; I just tweaked it a little more...

This was less than five minutes to make.  It is so easy and so cheap!!

I've found that you probably want to use vinegar as a rinse aid to keep film off of your dishes (it sounds like that may be an issue with this detergent...but I've been having that problem with any detergent I've used lately anyway).  I've read that you can also try to use a little less detergent (1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp instead of 2 Tbsp) or put a few drops of liquid dish soap in the box with the dry detergent.