Hoop there it is!

Hello bloggers!  What a productive past couple of days it has been.  Tuesday afternoon our wonderful team appeared on Live at Five at Four, and we were great.  We looked spectacular and we all had some weight loss.  I haven't enjoyed these snow days too much, but it was back to the grind today because spring semester began for me.  I have a pretty challenging schedule, but I have full confidence that I'm gonna nail it.  This morning I woke up and packed my lunch as if I was starting Kindergarten.  I had my snacks, and my sandwich all tucked away in my Vera lunchbox and I was off for my big day.  Following a long day at school I headed to the gym.

Spent the first hour at the gym doing my usual kickboxing class.  Loved that of course.  Then I marched down to the basketball courts and asked if I could play the next game.  The boys willingly let me and I took pride that I was the only girl among the group.  I contributed a few points here and there for my team and even managed to nag a few rebounds.  I haven't played ball since the 6th grade, so its good to know I still have some game.  Basketball is really a tougher workout than you might think because you are constantly running and moving.  After I wowed the gym with skills that could rival Pat Summitt, I went to our group session with Chris.  Another fabulous night of his motivational words and encouragement.  We did some tough exercises with the stability balls, and worked a lot of our arm muscles.  Overall it was a great day, and I hope yours was too.  So, stop reading this and get out and move :)

Boston Bound

The snow is still pouring down.   It is really amazing how as a child I would wish for snow all the time, but now that I'm an adult and actually have things to do, I just wish for summer.  I missed my training appointment yesterday due to inclement weather and I had planned on going to kickboxing this morning, then to film with Missy Kane for her Fit and Fun tv show.  Thanks to the snow, all of these things were nipped in the bud.  Hopefully some of the snow will melt and I can make it out for our appearance on Live at Five at Four today.

See that?  That is my confirmation email for volunteering at the Boston Marathon this year.  The most famous marathon in the world falls on my birthday weekend, so I thought it would be a great thing to apply for.  I set my alarm to get up early just so I could have dibs on being on of the first applicants.  I was number 14.   Go me!  But volunteers get a behind the scenes view of how everything works, and they also get to see the elite who run in the front.  Every volunteer gets to go to the post race party and they even get an Adidas volunteer jacket.  I love the idea of all the race perks, but no sore legs.  I will know on March 18 if I got picked or what I got picked for.  Hopefully in three months, I'll be Boston Bound. 

Top of the morning to y'all.  I went to the gym today for a class called Body Combat.  Told you I would!  It incorporated a lot of the kickboxing punches I have been doing, but added some self defense and karate in too.  Our instructor Jackie was the absolute stuff!  So much fun and kept us all motivated.  And of course, I saw the sweet little lady who convinced me to go too.  I really need to get her name because I feel guilty calling her sweet little lady, but for now, that is what she will be affectionately referred to as. 

Tomorrow I am meeting Chip for a training session if the weather will allow it.  Praying for strength since my body has had four rigorous past days.  I go back to school this week too so I am anxious to see how I can adapt to going back to a set schedule each week.  I know that with dedication I can make it happen and come April 3, I'm going to be unstoppable at the marathon.  Check out the pictures below for some snapshots from our training session with Chris.

                             This is the classy way to do a crunch.

                             Pam, myself, Katherine, and Jules. 

Feeling a little down this week about yourself or your body?  Read Psalm 45:11  and Psalm 139:14.  I read those two verses today and they were a little pick-me-up for my self image.  Remember that God created the world and saw that it was good, then made us and saw that it was VERY good.

Non-Sedentary Saturday

Okay, I'm not going to lie.  I had to be at the Health Shoppe in Suburban Plaza today before 8am.  But when I awoke to see that it was 7:19 and snowing outside, I was very much tempted to crawl back in bed and just blame the weather.  None of that nonsense!  I took a shower so fast, the water did not even have time to get warm, then threw on any clothes I could find and had to drive like a grandma to avoid wrecking on the icy roads.  Finally made it and was so excited that almost the entire team was able to make it.  Did I mention it was snowing?   We walked carefully down to the greenway, which was made visible by footprints left by the front of the pack.  Our team did our own thing and just went at our own pace.  I was a little worried at first because so many cars were sliding on the roads and we were running right beside them.  Obviously, we lived to tell about it.  No snow is gonna stop the biggest winners from "losing".  Afterwards, we had a nice little time of fellowship at the Starbucks next door.  Join us next week for our training run!

It was snowing so hard!

The infamous slippery road.

Trying to get warm at Starbucks.

Following the 6 miles of our training run, I headed to the gym for my kickboxing class.  I was so excited to use my new pink gloves and everyone commented on how my nails, wraps, gloves, shirt, and shorts were all pink.  Apparently they were uninformed that pink is my signature color.  I was grateful to spend an hour punching the bag and releasing some stress/energy.  The sweetest little lady in my kickboxing class has convinced me to go back tomorrow to the Body Combat class.  Not sure that "combat" is a word in my fitness vocabulary, but we will see!  Looking forward to it.

Tough as Nails...Pink Nails!

Woo this morning was a meeting with the wonderful Barbara Foster, the dietician at Covenant Health.  Today's meeting had a much better vibe and not as much tears/kleenex.  As of today I have officially lost 21 pounds.  Go me!  Ms. Barbara said she was very proud of me for sticking to my meal plans and for having such huge success.  She even gave me a Bruce Pearl shoutout.  See below.

Hey Bruce, I really wish your team was #1 like me.  Anywho, so following that, I decided to try a new group fitness class today.  Kickboxing.  I've participated in some forms of TurboKick before, but I have only ever kicked air.  Today I wrapped my hands and put on some boxing gloves to kick/hit/punch/jab the bag for about an hour.  Afterwards, I traveled down to Dick's Sporting Goods to purchase some pink gloves to take to classes from now on.  I figured that my gloves had to be pink since they were covering up my beautiful pink nails, and of course pink gloves match virtually  my entire wardrobe.  So good ole Kelsey has been a tough little gal today.  Now it is my time to unwind and relax because I am being treated to a one hour full body massage today.  Yay :)

These are SO me. 

2011: Bring It On!

To me, New Year's is just another day.  I rarely make plans for New Year's Eve, and I would not dream of making any kind of resolution.  But since starting the Biggest Winner, we have been talking a lot about setting goals.  Obviously, my ultimate goal would be to drop down to my target weight and win this competition, but we have been taught to make smaller goals that all lead to the bigger picture.  So I began a list of things I would like to accomplish.  You can call them goals, resolutions, or crazy ambitions but these are things that are important to me.  As follows:

1.  Run all the way up Chesnut Hill.
2.  Weigh less than 200 pounds.
3.  Be comfortable wearing a sports bra and cutoff shirt to the gym
4.  Ride 50 miles in one day on my road bicycle
5.  Complete a half marathon in less than 2:30
6.  Be forced to buy a complete new wardrobe
7.  To climb the Alpine Tower
8.  To be able to do a training run with friends Tahnee and Jaena.
9.  Run a 5k in under 30 minutes.
10. Be the Biggest Winner.
I know that with time and training, then my effort will pay off and I can slowly start marking these goals off my list.  I'm not stopping til I have completed all 10 of these goals.  Can I do it?  Yes. I. Can.

Chimney Tops

This photo does not even begin to do my recent adventure justice.  One of my closest friends from high school, Emily Holloway, came to visit me and after a super girly day of shopping and manicures, we decided to have a sleepover.  After a night of girly fun, we woke up and decided to trek to the mountains and do a little hike.  We settled on hiking the Chimney Tops since it was only 4 miles round trip.  Longest 4 miles of my life!  More than half of the trail was covered in slippery ice and we were constantly gasping and squealing when we would slide.  After a long 2 miles, we finally made it to the rock face in which we had to climb to actually see the view.  The above picture was taken at the bottom of the rock, and we managed to make it halfway before calling it quits.  We still had a spectacular view and the pride of a job well done on climbing dangerous mountains with fresh manicures.  By the time we made it down to our car, it was almost completely dark and we had bruised butts. Overall it was a great trip and we were so blessed to have fun while exercising.  Look on for more pictures from the trip.

Climbing back down the rock face.  Notice pink fingernails.

Resting a little over halfway there.  (And waiting on Emily to climb up)

My attractive bruise the next day after falling.