Last year, ironically right around this time, I did my very first 30 Day Shred workout. I decided that the only way to get the full experience would be to complete the true 30 Day Shred. That means for the next 30 days I completed a shred workout each day. I spent the first ten days at level 1, then moved up to level 2 for the next 10 days, and finally finished the last 10 days at level 3. Back then I hadn’t fully invested in the program. I had the yoga mat (recommended when working out on a hard surface) but I used cans of apple pie filling as my weights.

I have since invested in actual hand weights to use during the workouts. The last time I did the full 30 Day Shred program, I did not change any of my eating habits and for the most part I maintained my running schedule. I felt like I did become stronger, particularly in my core, which felt like it helped my running.

After all of my Jillian Michaels workouts last week I kind of had Jillian on the brain. So on Tuesday night I randomly decided to complete the 30 Day Shred program again. I started on Wednesday morning with level 1.

I plan to follow the same format as last time, spending 10 days at each level before moving up to the next. I also plan to stick to a regular running schedule (although I’m not following any training plans this time around). The difference? This time I plan to try and be very mindful of what I’m eating during the next 30 days.

More salads.

The DVD cover for the 30 Day Shred advertises “Lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days!”

I’m going to put that to the test. I weighed myself before the day 1 workout so that I can keep track. I plan to try and keep my eating clean and be mindful of the portions I’m eating. I also plan to keep up my regular running schedule. We will see what happens.

Have you ever put a workout system to the test? 
About two years ago I did the complete p90x program (90 days). During that time I also watched what I was eating, and I lost close to 15 pounds and became a lot stronger. But by the end of the program I was so sick of p90x and Tony. 
What are some of your go-to healthy snacks?  

Usually the first thing I get asked about our chickens is how many eggs we get. My answer: one egg per chicken per day. So we get 6 eggs per day.

The most common follow-up question to that is: What do you do with all of those eggs? Some of y’all have even asked me that in the comments.

So what do we do with all of those eggs? Well, we eat them! I’ve always been a big fan of eggs for breakfast, and scrambled eggs with hot sauce is one of my favorites.

We also fix a lot of fried eggs for breakfast. I had never eaten eggs any other way than scrambled until our chickens started laying eggs. Then Barry and my dad introduced me to fried eggs while we were on vacation at the beach. I like to cook them until the yolk is cooked all the way through, and then eat them on a piece of toast.

Since the chickens started laying eggs, we started eating more dishes with eggs in them for dinner as well. One of our favorites is quiche. I usually use 5 or 6 eggs for quiche, and will often make a chicken rice and veggie quiche or a spinach and cheese quiche. Around the holidays we also often make ham and cheese quiche, one of my dad’s specialties, for breakfast.

A lot of the dishes we already commonly eat call for eggs, like cornbread chicken pot pie.

Much to Barry’s delight, I have also started making egg custard pie. It is one of his favorites that his mom makes, and she was nice enough to share the recipe with me. I don’t think mine is as good as hers, but it’s still pretty good! This used to be something we only had on his birthday and on Thanksgiving, but now I’ll make it every other month or so.

I also have made homemade bread a few times, using the popular braided bread recipe. I don’t make that too often, though, because it’s hard to exercise control when the house smells like warm, fresh bread!

Lately, I have been hard boiling eggs and packing one or two in my lunch each day for work. The only thing with that is that hard boiled eggs don’t peel very easily when the eggs are fresh. It would be very difficult to peel them to make deviled eggs, but they don’t have to be pretty to go in my lunch and they taste just fine.

Towards the end of the summer last year, we also traded eggs with our neighbor for produce from his garden. In exchange for eggs he gave us tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini. I’m hoping to do the same sort of trades with him this summer! We also took eggs to Barry’s parents, my dad, grandparents, and uncle (who hosted a family get-together) over the holidays. They make for a good “thank you for housing and feeding me” or “thanks for hosting” gift.

With all that being said, I don’t necessarily eat eggs everyday. But we certainly have a surplus of them and they are always readily available anytime I need them for a recipe. There were times in the past where I’d find myself running out to the store because we were out of eggs and I needed one or two to fix dinner. That doesn’t happen anymore. I still occasionally find myself having to run out to the store because we are out of milk, though. Maybe I should look into getting a dairy cow next?

What would you do if you were getting six eggs per day?

Got any good egg recipes for me?  

This week started off with some shin pain, particularly in my left shin. As a result, I focused on cross training. That worked out since we were once again experiencing sub-zero temperatures, snow, and high winds. It was kind of the week of Jillian, as I have been digging Jillian Michaels DVD’s as my main source of cross training lately. This picture pretty much sums up the week:

Monday- Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Level 1 workout.

Tuesday- Jillian Michaels Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism workout

Wednesday- Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred Level 2 workout (she should be paying me at this point…)

Thursday- Rest.

Friday- 3 mile run on the treadmill. It was actually pretty mild outside and it would have been relatively pleasant to run outside. But with my shin giving me trouble earlier this week, I thought it would be better to stick to the extra cushioning of the treadmill.

Immediately following my run, I decided to finish out the trifecta and did a 30 day shred level 3 workout. Sometimes I feel like Jillian is going to come out of the TV if I slack on my workout. If you have ever done a Jillian DVD workout, did you feel like that, too?

Saturday- 4 mile run with Kim at the Dora Trail. I had considered running some more after Kim and I finished, as much as 7 miles for a total of 11 miles for the day. But with my shin being temperamental earlier this week I thought it best to stick with the 4 miles. It ended up being a good choice, because my shin was a bit twingy when I got home.

Sunday- No More Trouble Zones Jillian workout. My muscles were definitely feeling all of my cross training from this past week, particularly my shoulders and abs.

By the way, isn’t it funny how there is an influx of diet commercials (Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, etc.) at the beginning of the new year, but they are slowly replaced by pizza and beer commercials as the Super Bowl arrives? Just sayin’.

Total Miles: 7 miles (but I also did a little over 3 hours of cross training)
January Total: 61.22 miles; Not exactly how I wanted to start out my year, but hopefully I can gradually build up to maintain at least 100 miles per month.

It is a gorgeous day here today! I cannot believe how wonderful 50 degrees feels after weeks of single digit and subzero temperatures. This morning I met up with Kim for a 4 mile run on the Dora Trail. We were talking about the weather and guesstimated that this is the warmest run we’ve had together since mid-October.

When I got home, I spent some time playing with the dogs in the backyard. They were enjoying the warm weather and had fun playing fetch for awhile. The chickens were out enjoying the weather, too, and spectated the game of fetch.

We are getting geared up for the big game tomorrow. Barry and I will just be watching the game at home together, so that doesn’t involve much. But I do have our menu all planned! We will be having crock pot BBQ chicken, pigs in a blanket (aka mini beef smoked sausage wrapped in crescent rolls), and habanero jelly with chips and crackers. My dad says that last one is called chutney. My aunt and uncle sent us this jar of jelly for Christmas and said to serve it over a brick of cream cheese with crackers. Sounds like the perfect Super Bowl snack to me!

I am excited for the game and will be rooting for…..

The Broncos!! I had a bit of a hard time choosing between the two (my dad and I take our Monday Night Football betting and go double or nothing for the Super Bowl). They each only have one Virginia Tech player on the roster, so that didn’t help me narrow it down. It would be cool if Peyton Manning wins with the Broncos and Champ Bailey plays for them, one of my favorite NFL players from back when he was with the Redskins. But then again, I really like the Seahawks’ uniforms. In the end, I had to go with the Broncos. My running buddy Kim is from Colorado, so her whole family will be pulling for them as well. She might not want to run with me anymore if I root against her team!

In addition to the game, I am excited to see the commercials. I saw previews of the Cheerios commercial and the Budweiser one, and they were both really cute. I can’t wait to see what else the advertisers have in store for us. They better be good, since a 30 second spot costs four million dollars!

Who else is having gorgeous weather today? Are you doing anything to enjoy the weather? 

Do you plan to watch the Super Bowl tomorrow? Who will you be rooting for? Which do you enjoy more: the game or the commercials?
I like both!
What is on your Super Bowl menu?

There have been many negative consequences of the snow and frigid temperatures we have had lately: having to revert to indoor workouts, and 10,000 kids being trapped in their schools and 16 hour commutes in Atlanta just to name a few. However, there have also been some positives.

For one, there’s this view of the Drillfield from the Burruss Hall webcam at Virginia Tech, which was captured on Tuesday night:

Man I love that place.

The extremely cold temperatures we have experienced since the start of the new year have also led to the New River freezing in a few spots. I had to stop on Wednesday afternoon and get a picture as I was driving across a bridge.

See that big white patch? That’s usually rushing water.

Then there’s the funny behavior of our chickens in this cold weather. Turns out they’re not big fans of the snow and seldom come out of their coop when there is snow on the ground.

One morning this week, when it was below 0 outside with the windchill, Barry saw one chicken poke her head out and then go back inside. I joked that each morning they take a vote on who has to go outside and check the weather. Then said chicken reports back to the others and they make a decision for the day. I humored them with some dried meal worms one evening, just to keep things interesting for them.

Barry and I did learn that we have to be diligent about collecting eggs each day. I forgot on Tuesday and those eggs froze and then cracked, due to the cold weather. Oops. While I was out tending to the chickens on Wednesday evening, one of them wanted a close up and I obliged.

She says I got her good side.

According to the weatherman, it is supposed to warm up a bit this weekend. Of course, you always have to take the weather forecast with a grain of salt. Earlier this week, we ended up getting a lot more snow than predicted and it was much windier and colder than predicted. The weatherman spent that evening giving us a lesson in weather forecasting, and explaining why it was hard to predict.

What did I take away? That when you mix cold with more cool it gets really cold and it might also snow. And that forecasting is really guess work. Go figure. I’d like to have his job, where it’s okay to be wrong as long as you make your best guess.

If you didn’t have your current job, what would you do?
I would be a postman or a nurse.
What positives have you seen from the frigid weather (if it’s been cold)?