Day # 10

Hello everyone!


We are in the double digits now! I get more excited as the days go by. Because as the number of days of separation increase, the days until reunion decrease. No matter how terrible the day is, I'm okay because I know it's one day closer to seeing Mr. Bear!


Today was almost a terrible day. Nothing horrible or terrible happened...but it was one of those days that was long and cold and all you want to do is go home and sleep. I decided to fight that urge and do my workout for the day. Today was a "beach workout". There was no video posted, but there were pictures showing you how to do the exercise. You can see the workout here to follow along under February 8th. Remember, I am a day behind because of the late posting the one day. 


Here are my scores for today's workout:

Exercises		1st Run-Through	2nd Run-Through	3rd Run-Through
Sandbag Lift & Drop		18	18	19
One-Leg Push-Up & Jump		9	9	10
10 High Knees		-	-	-
10 Mountain Climbers		-	-	-
Tuck Knees & Star Jump		23	23	27

There was also an Ab Bonus that I did after I did 3 run-throughs of the exercises above. For the ab exercise portion of the workout, you get your interval timer and set it for a 50/10 split for all three exercises. Here are my scores:

Star Abs: 25
Left Oblique Lifts: 13
Right Oblique Lifts: 16

Clearly, my obliques need work. Regardless, it was a good workout! Afterwards, I made a protein and glumatine smoothie to recharge. It may be the cold I am coming down with (boo!!), but I think that the hemp protein is actually starting to taste good now.

After my workout, I got a call from Ms. Moon asking if I wanted to come over and watch a movie, which was exactly what I needed! The Hangover is always funnier when watching it with a friend!

It was nice to see Ms. Moon's place. It was beautiful, and it was nice to see she had roommates to keep her company! Part of me was really jealous of that. I had considered getting a roommate while Mr. Bear was gone, but I realized I already have the perfect roommate: he is super athletic and likes to run or walk with me, he stays late with me and sleeps in, he's not a big talker, he's super protective, and he always knows to cuddle me when I'm upset.

Bisbee...my most awesome roommate

Stay healthy, my friends (<--get it?! Instead of the Dos Equis commercial where the most interesting man in the world says "Stay thirsty, my friends"?! ehh it wasn't that good of a joke I don't blame you for not getting it)!

Ms. Bear

Day # 9

Ciao everyone!

Sorry for the late post, but I had a wonderfully filled day. I'm usually grumpy about long days, but today was an exception. I had class first, which was nothing to report on, and then I met up with my friend Mr. Marine to meet his friend, Ms. Moon. Mr. Marine mentioned to me one class that his friend Ms. Moon's boyfriend was also deploying with Mr. Bear! I don't have anyone in the area to talk to about the deployment who's going through the same thing, so I was dying to meet her!

Ms. Moon ended up being a complete delight! It was so refreshing to talk to someone who wasn't completely consumed with how horrible this deployment is. Don't get me wrong, this deployment is difficult, and this blog is helping me deal with it. But I have a life outside of my husband. I am not dysfunctional just because he's gone. Ms. Moon was on the complete same page with that and so many other things. We ended up talking for hours! What a lovely person! I am definitely going to be seeing more of her. 

When I got home, I was not entirely enthusiastic about working out, I'll be honest. But I started this 30-day work out, so I gotta finish it! Below is today's work out:

The workout consists of ten exercises. They don't have formal names so I just made up names for them. You can check out what they actually are on the video:

1. In-between knees sand-bag grab
2. Foot-to-shoulder lift (L)
3. Foot-to-shoulder lift (R)
4. Lift, squat, press (L)
5. Lift, squat, press (R)
6. One-foot burpee with push-up (L)
7. One-foot burpee with push-up (R)
8. knee-to-elbow push-ups (50 seconds)
9. mountain climbers (50 seconds)
10. starfish (50 seconds)

For exercises 1-5 you need a sandbag. I don't have a sandbag, so I took a small backpack and filled it with books until it weighed 12 pounds. I was really excited because when I finished the video I felt really encouraged. In fact, when Mr. Bear texted me, I told him I was going to go exercise and that I would be done in about 15 minutes. This turned out to be false. You see, when I watched the video again to write down all of the exercises (I watch the videos twice, once to see how the exercises are done and once to write down what I have to do), I heard the critical piece of information that turned today's workout from pleasantly easy, to ohmygodthatwasterrible hard...

This workout is a pyramid. Which means that in order to complete the whole workout, you have to do 10 reps of each exercise. But that's just ONE set. You need to go through all 10 exercises again, this time only doing 9 reps of each. Then go through again doing 8 reps...all the way until you get down to 1 rep.

I really should have read the description better...it is called the 300-Rep Challenge, after all.

Anyways, the workout took a LOT more than 15 minutes...and it was a LOT more difficult than I first imagined. But, I feel awesome after completing it!

I'm really full for some reason, so I didn't want to drink a protein smoothie so I am just going to snack on some juice, cucumbers, and rice cakes.

Deployment Update: I have some great care package ideas that I am going to try to work on this weekend if I have time. I'm super excited to make my Valentine's Day one! Mr. Bear and I aren't usually too big on Valentine's Day, but when we're apart it's fun to celebrate every holiday, like Arbor Day (April 27!)!

Here's to great friends, healthy living, and feeling great!

How are you all doing with the 30-day challenge?

Adios,

Ms. Bear

Day # 8

Hello all!


So BODYROCK was a little late in posting their daily workout (hasn't been posted yet), so I decided to make my own workout. BODYROCK challenges have you workout from Monday-Friday and then rest for two days. Since I'll be a day behind, I will just have one day of rest so I can stay on track.


One of the areas that I want to work most is my legs, so I decided to find and do this workout:



I don't want my legs to look crazy huge, but I want to look more toned and this will help with my running. I went into running a little too soon and will not be running for a little while. The whole reason I hadn't run in a long time was because of my back injury. The whole point of this is to be healthy...not to push myself to the point of injury. So I am going to keep going to therapy, and build up my back muscles so I can start running again.


So I did 5 sets of 50 seconds of the frog squats. I paired the exercise with calf raises as well.


For dinner, I had salmon with cilantro, garlic, onion, and lime. My side was tomatoes and mozarella cheese drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt.

 I haven't mastered presentation yet.

By the way, that tomato and mozzarella concoction is supposed to look like this:

Source: thepartydress.net via Renee on Pinterest

Clearly, I missed the mark on how it's supposed to look. But believe me, it tasted a lot better than it looked!


Anyways, I have been focusing a lot on fitness lately, but I wanted to mention in this post some information for those of you that have loved ones deployed.


If you would like to send care packages to your solider, you can obtain free packing material from the US Postal Service!! All you have to do is call 1-800-610-8734 and press 0 to speak to customer service.  Then request a military care kit.  This will require you to setup an account, and you will receive an ID number from the Postal Service.  The kit comes with 6 boxes, custom forms, envelopes, and packing tape.  The kits will be sent to your home address.  There is no cost to order the kits!


I've decided that during the week I am going to focus on fitness and then work on care packages and crafts on the weekends. 


What would you like to see change on this blog? What do you wish I focused more on? Let me know so I can make this blog more enjoyable for you!


Stay healthy, stay happy!


Ms. Bear

Day # 7

Happy Monday Everyone!


I said I was going to start the BODYROCK workouts today. Well today just so happens to mark the start of their new 30-day challenge! If that's not a sign to get fit and healthy, I don't know what is!


I really like BODYROCK because their workouts are 12-14 minutes long and you can do them at home. That means there's no excuse for anybody not to get fit! And if that's not enough motivation...

Source: Uploaded by user via Lillawalla on Pinterest

Maybe that photo will inspire you.


Anyways, the first video posted below is the first video of this new 30 day challenge. The second video is the Fit Test and shows how you do each exercise. The key to BODYROCK is interval training. You exercise for 50 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds.








So I did the fitness test. It only took a total of 7 minutes (7 exercises, exercise for 50 seconds, rest for 10 seconds)...but it was a rough seven minutes. The point is for the fit test to measure where you are in terms of your fitness level. Where I am is pretty pathetic, but I'm hoping to change that!


Here are my scores for the Fitness Test:


Squat Jumps: 30
Push-Ups: 25
Burpees: 10
High Knees: 100
Switch Jump Lunges: 30
Tuck Jumps: 13
Sit-Ups: 25


Yeah, not very impressive. Oh well, I'll get there. Anyways, I finished the workout with a smoothie.

Ingredients: orange juice, frozen raspberries, frozen blueberries,
mango sorbet, glutamine power, hemp protein powder

It's a super healthy smoothie that has all of the ingredients listed above. The key to muscle building is eating more protein as opposed to carbs. Proteins keep you filled up for longer so you don't feel hungry as often. Using protein powder helps give you an extra dosage of protein in the day since the average American doesn't consume enough protein (me included).


I use hemp protein because I don't like the taste of whey protein or the bloating feeling it gives you. Hemp protein is water soluble so you can put it in smoothies and you can hardly tell it's there texture-wise. The flavor is very strong. Very...plant-y. That's why I add mango sorbet (not sherbet) to add some sweetness to the smoothie.


I use the Hemp Pro 70% Powder from Manitoba Harvest. Each smoothie I drink has 21g of protein in it, which is a huge boost! Also, I'm sure most of you have never even heard of hemp protein (I know I hadn't until my friend introduced me to it as an alternative to whey), so let me tell you some facts about hemp protein:

• It does NOT make you high. It doesn't even contain those chemicals.
• It is nature's only complete protein and has organically 10 amino acids (which I've heard are good for you).
• It does not make you bloated.
• It does not give you "protein breath" that is sometimes associated with whey.
• It shows the same results as the other proteins. 

I didn't want anyone thinking I was getting high during this, so I just wanted to mention those facts before I went on. 

The other powder I included in the smoothie is glutamine powder which helps rebuild muscles after a workout. 

I paired the smoothie with some Annie's macaroni and cheese. It's got 9g of protein, 230 calories, and is SO good. I suggest you try it. It has a bunny on the box:

You will never look at Kraft the same way again...

I was also going to have salmon, but the smoothie filled me up.

Okay, well I've written a lot for today. Get on the BODYROCK bandwagon and join the 30-day challenge! 

Good night!

Ms. Bear

Day # 6

Hello all! Happy Sunday! Short post today.

So I am going to be starting the BODYROCK workouts tomorrow so I figured I would post my before pictures. Sorry if underwear offends any of you. I didn't want to wear shorts because that covers up one of the trouble spots (my behind), and I didn't want to wear a bikini because I think that's a little too revealing. So I opted for the safe sports-bra and conservative underwear combo.

Front
Before
Sunday,  February 2012

Back
Before
Sunday, 5 February 2012

Side
Before

Sunday, 5 February 2012

Back/Side
Before
Sunday, 5 February 2012

I am really excited to see results! I am excited to have something to focus on other than school. 

I want to also point out that this blog is meant to encourage healthy living, not to encourage self-hatred. I am very happy with the way I look. However, I want to eat healthier. I want to feel healthier. A lot of people get confused and think that just because you're a size 0 that you are in shape. This is very much not the case. I'm not out of shape, but I am definitely not to the level of fitness I want to be at. This blog isn't even about weight loss...muscle weighs more than fat so it's meaningless anyways.

Trust me, I am not trying to look like this (nor do I encourage anyone to try to attain this impossible figure):

I am happy with how I look...I just want to be fitter. So here's to healthy living! Here's to being fit! Here's to a living well! Be happy with who you are. Let's do this!

Ciao,

Ms. Bear

Day # 5

Note to self: do not drink a Harvey Wallbanger. Ever.

Today I went to the liquor store with my friend and they were giving away free samples. Usually it's Smirnoff with Sprite or something equally as non-threatening. But today, they had the sample pre-mixed with Orange Juice. It had Galliano and vodka in it. Any time I see a cocktail that is made with orange juice, I automatically assume that it's wonderful and that I'm going to like it simply because of my love for orange juice. My assumptions usually work out for me. Not this time.

The drink is called a Harvey Wallbanger. The Galliano has herbs and things in it. I took one sip and almost gagged, but, since this was a classier-than-normal liquor shop, I couldn't NOT finish it. So down the hatch it went.

That little sampler had me sick for the rest of the day. Served me right. 

Workout Update: Monday I am starting a 30-day challenge from BODYROCK that is supposed to show off some major results. The workouts are only 12-14 minutes long and use interval training where you exercise for 50 seconds and then rest for 10. We will see how it goes. I will post the links to the exercises I did each day.

I am not going to worry too much about my weight during this whole time. In fact, I am going to make it a point to NOT step on the scale at all. The reason is, muscle weighs a lot more than fat. It's really easy to get discouraged when you are working out and instead of losing weigh, you're gaining it, even if it is muscle. So I'm just going to avoid that entirely.

Health Update: I have decided to not wear makeup (excluding mascara and chapstick) unless I have a job interview. So far I have not worn makeup since Wednesday, 1 February 2012. So, it's only been four days, but it's still an accomplishment. I want to see how much my skin improves. 

I also am going to try to reduce the amount of bread I eat. I am not going gluten-free (I'll be honest, I simply don't have the willpower for that), but I am going to eat more proteins. When I went to the store I didn't even buy bread. Lots of rice, though.

Here are some foods that contain a lot of antioxidants, which are really good for your body and skin (and I'm sure a lot of other things as well):

Source: tortoisehare.net via Lillawalla on Pinterest

In other news, today is our 29-month wedding anniversary! We don't actually celebrate those. But since we are apart it's always a nice reminder every 4th of the month. Next month we'll have been married for 2.5 years! I can't believe how much time flies.

Ciao,

Ms. Bear

Day # 3

At 5:13pm today, I drove away from Mr. Bear's unit and left him standing in the parking lot. I kept glancing at him in the rearview mirror until I turned the corner. It was one of the hardest moments of my life thus far.

Mr. Bear...miss him already

We are horrible at goodbyes. I could have stayed with him for another hour or two, but we knew it would have just been dragged on and it was hurting the both of us to see each other so sad, so I left. We were just sitting there in the car holding each other with me crying. I know we've been preparing for this deployment for over a year, but that didn't make the goodbye any easier.

The last picture I took of Mr. Bear he didn't know I was going to take. I usually love candid shots, but not this one. His face was so heartbreakingly sad that whenever I uploaded the pictures onto my computer and found it, I immediately teared up.

Surprisingly, less than 2 minutes after I left the unit, I stopped crying, and I didn't cry again until I saw the picture of his sad face. It wasn't that I glad he left, obviously. But I absolutely hate waiting for him to leave and saying goodbye. Now that that's over, I can get on with my life. That was one of the worst parts. Not saying that this is going to be easy, but it's definitely going to be easier from here. Those of you who are reading this and are going to be experiencing a deployment for the first time, the goodbye is the hardest part. I can already tell it's getting better.  I need to keep this quote handy:

Source: weheartit.com via Lillawalla on Pinterest

Health Update: I didn't eat all day...which isn't necessarily good. But neither of us had an appetite. Later on, I had cheerios, fries (I cheated), and a cupcake. Mr. Bear bought me four cupcakes from my favorite cupcake place, Vanilla Pastry Studio. So, so, so delicious. I've had no time to do anything relatively work-outy. We were packing and running errands all day and then as soon as I got home from dropping him off, I went to hang out with my friend and her boyfriend so I wouldn't be lonely. We watched 'Boys Don't Cry' which was a fucked up movie. Very good, but messed up.

I'm vegging out for the most part right now...mostly because I'm putting off going to bed. I am dreading going to bed alone. That's definitely one of the things I'm going to miss the most. I know I'm going to get a sad again as soon as I get in bed. But what I am going to try to remember is not how sad I am, but moments like this:

Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Farewell Ceremony

I miss him.

Good night,

Ms. Bear


PS: It's technically Day # 4, but I haven't gone to bed yet so to me, it's still Day # 3 :)

Day # 2

So it's technically Day 3 since it's close to 3:30am and thus the next day...but I don't count it as the next day until I wake up. It's still Day 2 to me. I feel like saying it's Day 3 now when it's just starting is a little pretentious. Well, maybe pretentious isn't the right word...ambitious maybe? Hmm. Note to self...new goal: learn English.

Today was my off day for workout. There was just no time. The biggest time consumer of the day was Mr. Bear's unit's Farewell Ceremony. It took place at the local university's basketball arena. It wasn't my cup of tea. From the comments I was hearing from the soldiers...it was not their cup of tea either. I mean, it is a little silly. The soldiers were not even allowed to sit with their families for the whole two-hour ordeal. Sure, two hours isn't a long time, but when you have less than 20 hours until you have to drop your soldier off and not see them for 400 days?...yeah, 2 hours is a long time.

The whole event consisted of guest speakers and a slideshow that Mr. Bear helped make. He admitted prior to our arrival that it would be atrocious (the slideshow, not the speakers)...I really wanted him to be wrong about it. He was not wrong. It was a ridiculous slideshow...but so ridiculous that we could do nothing but laugh about it.

Later, after dinner with friends, we watched X-Files and cuddled. I couldn't help but cry. As I write this now, Mr. Bear is snoring next to me in bed and it breaks my heart to know this is the last time in a long while that I'm going to hear him snoring. No, it's not a relief that I won't hear the snoring. I've become so accustomed to it that it's hard to sleep without it. Here's to learning to, I suppose.

Workout Update: nothing today. BUT, I did order water when we went out to dinner. This is a big change for me because I usually order soda or wine when I eat dinner. I did have one mimosa, but that's it! I even ate a healthy dessert. We went out to the Melting Pot and instead of dipping cheesecake and brownies in marshmallow chocolate, we chose the pure dark chocolate (hello antioxidants!) with a Gluten-Free plate for dippers. I definitely eat gluten, but if you order the Gluten-Free plate, they'll only bring you fruit.

Deployment Update: found a ton of awesome sites for deployed spouses. One of my best friends referred me to Military Significant Other and Spouse Support, which she used when were boyfriend was deployed. Lots of great information.

Coming Soon: a list with links to crafts and care packages and projects to do! But in the meantime, here's this one that I'm going to try to do soon:

Source: theyoungretiree.blogspot.com via Lillawalla on Pinterest

Cute, right? I hope Mr. Bear thinks so, too.

In the meantime, it's bedtime...long day tomorrow.

Love you all,

Ms. Bear

Day # 1

So even though this is the second day of separation, it only counts as Day 1. You see, the Army does this silly thing where they count the first day as Day 0. It makes sense. If you think about it, Day 1 doesn't start until 24 hours later. Makes sense. I'm sure more organizations other than the Army do this, but for all intensive purposes, we'll just say that this is the Army's silly thing.

So today started off pretty wonderfully. Mr. Bear left around 5:30am for the unit. I woke up a few hours later for class with this on my finger:

new wedding band!

whole set

                                                                                                                                                                     
It's a brand new, platinum channeled diamond wedding band! I love it! But what I loved almost more than the ring itself was where it came from. When I called Mr. Bear and asked him where he got it (I was too excited to ask how he managed to slip it on my finger without me noticing this morning), he told me to look on the couch. And there it was. The blue box...

Screw Jared. He went to Tiffany's!

I've never owned anything from Tiffany's. I've always said that all I want is one thing from there. Well, this is a pretty nice "one thing" to have. Good job, Mr. Bear!

After admiring my new addition to my left hand, I decided to buck up and start my exercise routine. So my work out went as follows:

Workout Type: Run

Distance: 1.07 mi

Duration: 12:28

Average Pace: 11:45 min/mi

Calories Burned: 101

Now, mind you, I haven't run in over a year. I have a back injury so I'm trying to take it slow...oh who am I kidding, it just sucks. But, you know what? I have to start somewhere. I use iMapMyFitness on my computer to plan my route and then use the application on my phone (I refuse to call it an "app") to map my progress on my actual run so I get the most accurate data...even though the very accurate data is very unforgiving. I'm kind of embarrassed that it took me that long to run that, but I'll get over it. 

I finished my run with a big bottle of water, some stretching, and a bowl of homemade Chicken and vegetable soup. To drink I had an Ocean Spray Sparkling Cranberry Juice. I gave up soda months ago, so this is a nice alternative. It has the fizz of soda, without the bad stuff (I think?). It has sparkling water, vitamins, and no added sugar and only 90 calories!

Delicious and Nutritious

I hope by the end of this week I can post my "before" pictures. Mr. Bear won't be here to take them, but that's what self time is for, right?

Buenas Noches,

Ms. Bear

Day # 0

400 days starts now.

My husband, hereafter referred to as "Mr. Bear" (which makes me Ms. Bear!), started his orders today. Thankfully he doesn't leave for training until Thursday. So he gets to come back tonight! I'm glad to have him a few more days...but I hate prolonging goodbyes. We're both terrible at it. I also just hate this waiting game. I'd almost rather have him gone so I can start the countdown of when he comes back. I hate waiting for him to leave.

We tried to live it up as much as possible and be spontaneous leading up to this. One Friday we realized neither of us had ever stepped in the Pacific ocean. The next day we were on a flight to California.

Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Santa Monica Beach, California

So we fixed that pretty quickly.

We had a blast being spontaneous and slightly reckless. It wasn't all because of the Pacific Ocean...we pulled a pretty wicked surprise over on our best friend who we'll call Mr. Ranger. He was stationed in Korea and home on leave. Mr. Bear and I surprised him at his house! So awesome. It was the perfect way to send Mr. Bear off to the Middle East. I'll have that memory forever.

Now, back to present day...I unfortunately have to delay my exercising a few more days. I hadn't realized how much we had left to do before Mr. Bear left. On a positive note, I've only drank water today! I don't know why this is so big for me or why I'm even mentioning it, considering I'm not limiting myself to just water for 400 days...but I felt it was a healthy thing worth mentioning. I also have gotten rid of all of my bad snacks. I didn't really have any to begin with so that's good. That means when I'm sad and alone, I can eat a ton and not feel TOO bad about it.

Anyways, I have tons to do today, and we have dinner reservations tonight at the Melting Pot. We've gone there before for cheese and chocolate fondue, but never the whole shebang. I'm really looking forward to the meat plate.

I know he's going to be so tired when he gets home after starting his day at 5am. I wish we could stay up the whole night and talk...but he has to get up at 5am to leave for work. That's definitely one of the things I'm going to miss the most.

Off to take Mr. Bisbee out. I've been delaying it because the next door neighbor's ballerina dogs are out. The ballerina dogs are a story for another day.

Ciao my loves,

Ms. Bear