communing with nature.......or something

I have a new obsession, and it's long walks through beautiful scenery. I try (as I've said before) to run, but I just can't find a way to truly enjoy it in a way that makes me want to do it for fun (aka not a race). But now that the Michigan chill has FINALLY broken, I want to spend every second outside forever.  

Tuesdays I usually go to an absolutely phenomenal hot vin yoga class, but this week the sun was shining, it was beautiful, and stuck in a dark, hot room at my gym for an hour was just not what I was feeling, so I headed out to Stony Creek for a nature walk instead!

This is the first year I've bought a park pass, so I'm determined to make the most of it and go as often as I can. I had heard they had gorgeous walking trails so I sought them out and intended to walk the 2.5 mile Habitat Trail, but when I finished I wasn't satisfied...so I tried to hop on the 1.5 mile Landscape trail, but apparently I'm not very good at signs because I ended up doubling back on myself twice and walking almost 5 miles...oh well; at least I made a nice dent in my huge backlogged list of podcasts. 

I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out that this was my first opportunity to try out my new BondiBand headband! A really fantastic store called GearBox Rx opened up in downtown Rochester Hills recently, selling CrossFit gear of all kinds, from shoes to apparel to hear & equipment, to my favorite part - a huge, huge selection of Paleo snacks from all over the internet. No longer do you have to submit to $8 shopping charges on one jar of almond butter or bottle of wing sauce, and no longer do you have to order a months supply of treats at once (at least if you live here). Plus the guys who run it are super knowledgable, personable, and assure me I will always be able to get my fix of Rickaroons from them (they also carry Steve's Paleo Goods, Nikki's Coconut Butter, PaleoTreats, Meenut Butter, Nohmad cookies/chocolates... Basically go there right now because everything delicious is literally at your fingertips. ANYWAY the BondiBand is AWESOME - kept the hair and sweat out of my eyes without getting irritable or itchy or hot (and as I am temporarily growing my hair out, this is the most important thing in the whole world, because I am decidedly NOT use to hair on my neck). New favorite!

Afterward I was feeling so summery that I stopped and picked up some fresh cut flowers for my condo - amazingly it's been 2 days and the cats have only eaten one or two flowers...... (This is why we can't have nice things.)

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Do you have spring/summer fever, too? How are you adjusting your workouts?

double brew day

The best thing about brew days is that you literally get to spend them sitting outside sampling brews, smelling delicious malt, and eating tasty appetizery food all day while your wort boils away - and then when the hard work is over, there's always an epic dinner (and, if you're me, a cheesecake!) to be enjoyed.

Memorial Day weekend because of the long weekend holiday we decided to go extra ham in the brewing process and make two batches in one day! That meant (after a nice early morning 3 mile walk to counter the effects of all that beer), setting up and starting the burner up around 11 am so we could literally brew alllllll day.

We started off with a simpler extract brew, but a recipe I created from scratch, for an oatmeal stout (I went really light on the oats, though) brewed with some farm-fresh buckwheat honey that a coworker provided me with. This was kind of my "scraps" beer, since I had some leftover LME & hops from precious brews that I wanted to use up - but it will also be the first brew I try priming with honey instead of corn sugar. It smelled sooooooo good!!

The new set up - check out that fancy ass Dark Star burner hanging on the wall above my healthy collection of sample brews ;)

Our brew mates started to arrive around the time this batch was finishing, so after a healthy dose of snacks (yucca chips with guacamole & a metric ton of shelled peanuts for this girl), we got everything not the carboy & set up for the main even: an all-grain Pliny the Elder double IPA clone. 

Let me tell you how fun it was to lift up those 14 lbs of
soggy 2-row malt + 1,000,000,000 lbs of water.

Almost immediately we realized we had a problem - we just splurged on a shiny new Dark Star burner and a gigantic 18" brew kettle, but we haven't build our sparge system yet so were still doing BIAB - and no paint strainer bag is big enough to fit around the lip of an 18" pot!! We ended up having to construct a metal "table" for the bag to sit on at the bottom of the pan so it the grain wouldn't burn. Not the most technical approach, but it got the job done!

Not gonna lie...this one smelled sooooooo good and fresh and hoppy. There are so many hop additions that the wort actually looked green at some points!!!

While it was boiling away, we dug up the last bottle of an old brew a friend of ours made nearly 4 years ago - it was a phenomenal double IPA at the time, but woooooow was it ever strong now. There's a reason those aren't meant to be aged (or, as it's brewer says, hoarded)!! We also sampled Atwater's Maibock, Blue Moon's Pine in the Neck, Lagunitas Undercover IPA, Rogue Ales Yellow Snow, and our very own PCP - a chocolate porter with cocoa nibs that was my very first all from scratch recipe (and it came out better than I expected!)

Post-brew dinner was a BBQ rib feast with corn, potato salad, fruit salad and most importantly PRETZEL JELLO(!!!!!) - but we were so hungry I never bothered to snap a picture.

Both beers started fermenting super fast (probably due to the honey in the stout and the high alcohol content in the Pliny clone) - by the next morning the stout's airlock was already clicking away so loudly I could hear it from across my living room...

My new babes, settling into their temporary home.

The Pliny is just days away from being transferred to secondary and its first schedule dry hop now - can't wait to see the gravity on this baby ;)

cardio blast & my weekly workouts

I admit:  I'm a cardio junkie.  When I first started working out & switching over to a healthy lifestyle, it was all cardio all the time - and it did wonders for me, too.  I know there are a lot of people who knock it, but I've always enjoyed cardio 400% more than any other kind of workout (except running - ohhhhh do I hate running).

All winter long I subjected myself to strength & resistance training - and I'm not going to say I didn't get anything out of it, because I love love love my back/shoulder muscles, toned arms, & the way I am finally able to look in a mirror and appreciate that my ass isn't COMPLETELY flat - but as soon as the weather starts getting warmer, all I want to do is jump around and sweat...which is exactly what I did all week long:

Selfies on the beautiful CTC campus.

Monday - I spent the work day at the Chrysler Tech Center, which has a beautiful campus, so I took advantage of my longer than average lunch break between classes (after scarfing down an amazing free salad) to do a few laps of the property, which was blissful.  After my seminar was over, I had a couple hours to kill, so I changed, headed out to Mae Stecker park to do some more walking (now that it's beautiful outside, I can't stop!) and then shot down to Lifetime to take a Zumba class with my friend Emily & one of my favorite instructors. Monday/Wednesday the class I take is super dance-oriented, so I feel like it not only works my body, but also my brain - I was never a dancer as a child so I can only hope to look even remotely as good as the instructor!!

Tuesday - After a looooooooong day at my actual job, I took a hot vinyasa yoga class with my favorite yoga instructor.  She strays from the typical Lifetime Yoga format of sun salutation A, Sun Salutation B, a longer flow, and then some stretching & a cooldown & instead adds a lot more longer, more challenging flows, complete with oodles of balancing work (which is one of my favorite things about yoga!) and a horrible (but awesome) core section in the middle. I never knew boat pose variations could hurt so good.  Then I came home and did a nice few laps around my condo complex while listening to a couple podcasts (the newest episodes of Barbell Shrugged & Strange Brews)!

Wednesday - Met my friend for another Zumba class with the same instructor as Monday.

Thursday - Normally every Thursday I take a Dance Jams class with my all time favorite instructor, but she was having a sub I don't care for as much this week, so instead I swapped Lifetimes & tried a new instructor at the Shelby gym, and he was WONDERFUL!  A friend of mine who had gotten there early graciously swapped spots with me so I could get close to the stage & actually see what moves I was supposed to be imititating which was sooooooo helpful.  The guy who was teaching had lost 100+ lbs doing Zumba, which is what made him want to be a teacher, and he was GREAT. The class was hot hot hot, everybody was yelling and dancing and interacting, which made it a million times more fun than the usual Zumba class - plus he was super interactive with the crowd & got up in your face a lot, which isn't something everyone likes, but it's something I LOVE.  Considering I passed up free beer to go, I'm glad it was so perfect!!

Friday - This morning I got up and went to yet ANOTHER Dance Jams class - I had the day off because of the holiday, and a friend of mine teaches only morning classes, so I never get to go, and therefore I justified yet another bout of cardio ;)  Later I plan on biking over to my parents' house to do some pre-brew shopping & then hit up a homebrewer meeting!!

Saturday - The instructor I normally take on Thursday nights is going to be back, so yes.....I'll be doing Dance Jams yet again.  The more I type, the more I'm starting to feel ridiculous...  (On a sidenote - I forgot my FitBit this morning & I got so upset that none of my steps were going to count.....and then, like a genius, I read the help forums and found that you could manually update your steps in!!  I guess that might just tempt some people to cheat, but I was sooooooo glad my hour long efforts were recorded after all - when I got home and saw I only had 184 steps, I wanted to cry!)

Sunday - AT LAST! Sunday is my big brew day (we're making two batches in one day - never before attempted!) so I need to be up & at 'em earlier than normal, which means I'm taking a super early morning hot vinyasa yoga class. Hopefully it'll stimulate those creative juices & help me make some tasty beer.

And finally, the holiday Monday - A special 1:15 long Dance Jams + Strength class with my favorite instructor and another who I've never had before - I can't WAIT for this class!!

A little ridiculous on the amped up cardio, I know - but I feel great!!  I'm getting my high-impact endurance back, and I've been really rocking out the past few classes, sweating and getting my jams on.  I'm trying to find a new strength class I enjoy to work into my routine, but in the meantime, I love what I'm doing & I'm seeing results, so I'm not going to let anybody tell me too much cardio is all bad!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What do your weekly workouts look like?  Are you a cardio junkie or a strength training buff?  Does the weather impact your workout regime?

free stuff is the best!

Greetings from a four day weekend!!!  Between the holiday Monday, my plant (I work as a materials & release analyst in the plastics division of an engineering plant that does tooling, CAD design, foam, seats, plastic injection molding...you name it) being shut down today, and spending two days this week at the Chrysler Tech Center for supplier training, it feels like I've been on vacation for days already.  Fabulous!

Here's another thing that's fabulous: Influenster.  Basically, you sign up (my friend Dannie referred me a couple months ago), go through their laundry list of interests, pick what suits you best, and then take surveys, review products, and answer other peoples' questions until eventually you earn enough "influence" to qualify for free giveaways!  Every once in a while, the site will send you a survey to see if you qualify for a specific giveaway, and if you do, within a few days you'll get a surprise delivery of a box full of awesome free stuff for you to sample:

AND THE SPOILS ARE....

This box was specifically catered to an active livestyle - in fact it's called the #GoVoxBox, because it promotes all sorts of health and fitness related brands.  To be fair, I've gotten a few free things from the company before, but they were all one-offs of featured brands, and while I'm always up for trying out new free things, this is the first time I've been really really stoked to qualify for a giveaway.  As part of the idea behind Influenster, the point of being given all this free stuff is to turn around and share my thoughts on it with the internet - so here we go...

Blue Diamond Fruit Flavored Almonds - This was admittedly the thing I was the most excited about when it came to this box.  I love love love Blue Diamond - my faves are the low-sodium roasted almonds, the cocoa roasted, the salt & vinegar, the coffee roasted, & the coconut almonds...can you tell I'm a fan of nuts?  However, I'm not really a "sweets" person that often, and the idea of "fake" fruit flavor kind of grosses me out, so I was too skeptical to ever buy these on my own, so I was mega-thrilled at the idea of sampling them without commitment, and they were delicious!!  Granted, they were a little sweet for me, and I don't know if I would shell out my own money for them, but they were a really good fix for a sugar-craving, and the blueberry was actually quite good, and didn't taste like fake sugary garbage at all.  Awesome job, Blue Diamond!

PROFOOT Pedi-Rock - This was another one I was stoked about.  Working out as often as I do, I get the grosses callouses on the bottoms of my feet, and no matter how many exfoliating pedicure nonsense products I buy, they just don't seem to get any better.  I used the pedi-rock this morning & while it didn't take care of my callouses completely like those fantastic skin-graters they have at the nail salon, it made a HUGE impact.  My only concern is that it seems like after only one use, the exfoliating outside of the rock was already pretty worn off?  I'm unfamiliar with products like this, so I'm not sure how long they're even supposed to last, but after one use, mine already looked like this ---->

Aqua Spa Relax Collection Body Creme in Lavender Chamomile - I was less excited about the lotion itself and more excited about the scent!  Lavender Chamomile has been one of my favorite relaxing aromatherapy scents for years - when I first moved into my condo I pretty much bought out Bath & Body Works of it's lavender chamomile aromatherapy line & it's been the scent "theme" of my bedroom ever since.  The lotion itself is really nice, not greasy, and really nice for post-shower pre-bed relaxation, but the best part by far is the awesome smell.  I think it's even stronger than the Bath & Body Works version!

The Vitamin Shoppe Next Steppe Fit N Full Meal Replacement Shakes - The GoVoxBox came with 3 flavors of these meal replacement shakes - Swiss Chocolate, French Vanilla, and Fresh Berries.  I'm not a "meal replacement shake" person - they don't seem to fill me up or leave me satisfied - so I can't speak to using these that way, but I have been using them bit by bit as whey protein powder additions to smoothies and yogurt, and I will admit they're quite delicious that way.  I even made Paleomg Sweet Potato Protein Chocolate Chip Cookies with the vanilla yesterday & they were fabulous!  The best part about this part of the giveaway was that Vitamin Shoppe was nice enough to also include a quaint little mini blender bottle, which is the absolute PERFECT size to stash in my gym bag for those days when I really need a quick shot of pre-workout.  Awesome!

Muller Greek Corner, Corner & FrutUp Yogurts - This one was a coupon for a free yogurt - obviously sending one via US Post wasn't quite feasible.  Luckily most grocery stores around here carry the brand & I was able to pick one up pretty easily.  I enjoy yogurt, but again I don't like fake or syrupy fruits (even when they're not the totally sugary processed gross bad ones), and I normally just get plain & add my own mix-ins, so I wasn't quite sure which Muller I was going to choose, but luckily I found a Greek Corner flavor that's just vanilla yogurt with caramelized almonds to mix in - I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to add a whole lot of fresh fruit when I do!

The box also came with a couple other treats - a Vitamin Shoppe coupon for more Next Steppe products, a 16 pack of Playtex Sport Fresh Balance Tampons (which I can't review because I haven't had the need for them yet, haha), and a PROFOOT Traid Orthotic shoe insert that I haven't tried out yet either.

These products were all supplied to me free through Influenster, for reviewing purposes, but the opinions are my own.  Hopefully some of you can gain some insight to some products you might want to try based on these reviews!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Have you signed up for any programs like Influenster?  What's the best free sample you've ever received?

blog version 2.0 (and a little throwback friday)

I keep thinking, I need to make a post about _____.  And then I don't, because it doesn't seem "relevant" enough or "big" enough or "important" enough, and so my blog, which I created because I'm a writing major, and I miss writing and I miss tracking memories & being able to go back to them whenever I want, sits here and gathers dust because the things I feel like posting about don't fit into my pigeon-holed ideas about what the blog "needs" to be about.

And that's stupid.  I'm not a fitness blog, I'm not a beer blog, I'm a me blog and those two things just happen to be what I'm most interested in.  So now I'm going to write about me, and I'm going to write more often, and if you only want to read about the cool things I'm brewing or the cool classes I took, or how much weight I can lift, you'll have to learn how to skim.

We picked the bracelets with the bells because
we love to be annoying!! (My shirt says "I
HATE RUNNING" FYI....but I don't hate dancing!

ANYWAY, to start things off, last night I went to a 2 hour "Spring into Summer" Zumba Bash at Ken
Jackson's Fitness Factory (which is one of my favorite "small" - maybe private is a better word? - gyms/studios, because every time I go in that place I can't help but feel totally badass.  Maybe it's the giant mural all over the wall, or industrial feel, or the garage doors that open out into the parking lot, or the giant tires strewn about and the punching bags hanging from the ceiling, but it's really just an awesome space, period.  I took my friend Alisha, who is really trying to get into working out & being fit, which is great because it is SO fun to have someone to work out with again!! Especially now that it's getting nicer outside, so we've been incorporating a lot more walks & bike rides & outdoor stuff into the routine.

The cool thing about this jam was that it was taught by Ivy Mitchell, Terri Harrick, Nancy Bara, Dru Roby, Terri McCartney & Nancy Graybill (one of my Bokwa mamas!), some super longstanding Zumba instructors in Michigan, and the "theme" was kind of a throwback to the roots of Zumba.  Say what you will about Zumba - yes it's silly and no it doesn't feature barbells and heavy weights and giant muscles, but it's what really got me into fitness a few years back, and dance fitness classes in general are still a big part of my routine, and a huge part of the weight loss I accomplished.  I'll always have a soft spot for it - and it's just plain fun!!  Nancy started the class off saying how they're all 102 years old, but these ladies (and gentleman!) absolutely brought it for two straight hours.  Plus, I've been doing Zumba for about 3 years now, but it's been around for a lot longer - so it was really cool to see some styles & hear some music from basically the inception of the workout.  I'm not going to lie, my favorite dance class at the moment is 100% different - full of hip hop music & club dance styles and full of a lot less salsa & meringue, but it was really cool to go back to the roots.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What got you into fitness & how has it (or you!) evolved since then? 

beer #1 - ipathermia tasting!

My Brew Master Glamour Shot ;)

I just went to the mall and no joke, bought leggings with donuts on them. Multicolored, sprinkle-covered donuts. And since I used to work at Tim Hortons (and since I literally don't think I've eaten a donut since), I thought I needed them. And so on, and so forth.  ANYWAY more importantly......yesterday was the official tasting date for my very first 100% on my own homebrewed beer!

We've brewed again since then (stay tuned for updates on EAT YOUR WHEATIES, a low-gravity milk stout brewed with freshly roasted coffee extract), and we've brewed before this, but this is the first time I've been able to genuinely say we did it all ourselves, with no resident beer gurus guiding us through the process.

The verdict..........a success!  IPAthermia has a strong hoppy scent (although not as citrusy as I would have expected given the quantity of Cascade hops), a typical IPA flavor (a little sweeter than I wanted, and I think I attribute that to the malt extract - can't wait to get into all-grain brewing to confirm!), and a punch of hops at the end which mellows a little into the aftertaste.  Pretty solid first beer, I'd say.  Now, just one more week before we can bottle the next baby :)

#IMWITHCUPID

What an attractive looking group of people ;)

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!  Hopefully everyone had a good one, whether it was spent out with someone special, or sitting at home with a bottle of wine (for me it was at a hot yoga class followed by some shawarma and a big ass bowl of bananas, peanut butter, & almonds...don't judge me). But more importantly the day AFTER V-Day........

 I literally thought after the cold that was the Winter Classic & Alumni Games, I was completely done with being outside until winter went away - but I had signed up for the 2014 Cupid's Undie Run, & it's an awesome (and super short) race, for a great cause, plus I was doing it with some friends I hadn't seen in ages, so I decided to be cold one more time.  The idea of Cupid's Undie Run is simple - dress up in your underwear and freeze your ass off for about a mile or so - with a big Valentine's-themed party full of pink cocktails before and after.  The Detroit race was sponsored by major local radio station Q95.5 last year, so it received a ton of coverage and got even bigger heading into this year.  The race party central moved from Cheli's Chili Bar to The Fillmore Detroit, & went from having a "meal" ticket you could redeem afterward for a quick lunch, to having a huge buffet table full of fruit & veggie cups, PB&J sandwiches, granola bars, bananas, apples, & the like.  The race also expanded to have an actual bag check this year which made a HUGE difference. No more racing back to your car in your undies frozen to death.  So a big shoutout to the organizers for improving an already awesome event!

I'd met up with a friend who I used to work with at my old job & a few of his friends, so we were able to run the race in a group which made the event even more fun! The route changed a little bit from last year, and it seemed like it was over practically as soon as it had begun - I'm honestly not sure it was even a mile!!

The ladies with our new friend outside trying to keep warm before the race started.

Ready to race!

Working on warming ourselves up again afterward.

Following the great Undie Run success, we made our way to Green Dot Stables for some post-runnin' sliders & beer.  For some reason I didn't take any pictures of the vast spread of food, but it was all phenomenal.  Green Dot boasts $3 rotating Bells & Shorts taps, as well as $2-3 fancy sliders, of which we ordered practically every option, along with some poutine & some venison chili cheese fries.  Topping my list was the catfish, the current week's mystery meat (which was a bison short rib & scallions), and my absolute favorite, the Korean (a burger with kimchi & peanut butter).

The Detroit vein of the Undie Run raised $203,217 for the Children's Tumor Foundation, & the run as a whole is nearing the $3 mil. mark - plus they're about to get another $25 from me, because who doesn't need this t-shirt???
 

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Well.........would you do a mile run in your undies in mid-February??