I like to play!

Blond Duck: I’m curious–what’s your workout routine?

Let me begin by saying that I don’t need to lose weight, maintain weight lost, or gain weight and I’m not training for anything (a race or sport, etc). So what I have to write about fitness has nothing to do with any of those things. So in my case, I work toward fitness because I want to care for this body I’ve been given. I want to be healthy and strong.

I haven’t always thought the way I do now. Just a year ago I was still spending an hour at the gym 3 days a week (mostly treadmill and weight lifting) on top of doing 2 fitness videos at home every day and walking 2 nights a week. But after we bought the house, we had to renovate it before we could move in which meant that it consumed every waking moment so I had no more gym time. But I realized that 8 hours spent painting in the 90 degree weather was WAY more of a workout than I was getting at the gym. That’s when it hit me: When I was a kid, I didn’t go to the gym to be fit, my life just included more activity.

So while I can’t walk everywhere, I can park far away at the grocery store and spend an extra minute walking. I can walk more briskly to pump up the heart rate. I can take the stairs instead of the elevator. I can put a little more OOMPH into kneading dough for homemade bread. And more than anything, I can PLAY!

You guys, I believe in playing for fitness. Hula hooping, hopscotch, skipping, jump rope, volley ball and on and on. And you better believe that when I clean, the music is on and I’m dancing.

Playing basketball with my sister (yes, we are in jeans. I don’t have any shots from the times when I play in shorts/teeshirt)

Hiking!

Volunteering at the Humane Shelter is a SERIOUS work out! Between chasing puppies around and walking 100lb dogs, it sure keeps you busy!

Playing in a softball league with Christopher’s coworkers. Yes, we were the “paper tigers” haha!

Taking walks with Little Girl (and chasing her around… oh my goodness, she is QUICK!)

Climbing trees!

Swimming!

Now, with all that said, I do like for my tummy to be flat and my arms to be toned. So if I feel like whatever play I’ve done that day hasn’t exercised my abs or arms then I’m likely to do my sit ups, plank, triceps strengthener and wall push ups. BUT all of that takes a total of maybe 10 minutes so we aren’t talking about a hardcore work out here. I want to ENJOY every moment of fitness, not suffer through it. I know, I know, I’m like the poster-child for things you shouldn’t say regarding working out, haha! But playing is just so much fun!

What better place to play than a PLAYGROUND?!

Pushing Kenzie on a swing at the playground!

Also, if I have a goal to work toward then I find a way to work out specific to my goal. For example, last year Christopher and I decided to run our first 5k. I hadn’t run since freshman year of college, haha! So it took some readjusting, but for a couple of months leading up to the race, I ran a couple of miles every other day. It was a fun experience and the important thing to us was that we FINISHED!

After our first 5k! Melissa is on the right and her mom, Penny is on the left.

In the cold months, I do actually work out a lot more  than the rest of the year. 2 reasons: 1. It’s cold so I eat lots of comfort foods which means it’s easy to pack on a few pounds. And 2. It’s so cold that I have fewer opportunities to play (unless it’s snowing). So right now, I’m still on my winter routine of rotating a couple of exercise DVDs (Jillian’s 30 Day Shred, Tank Top Arms, Bikini Belly, Boy Shorts Bottom, and Miracle Mile Walk) OR some treadmill with an arms/belly/legs routine. However, the more time I’ve been getting to spend outside, the more running around the backyard playing with Oreo there has been. So as the weather warms up, I expect to be playing more and working out less.

This is a shot of me with Oreo before we adopted him when he was still at the Humane Shelter. Lemme tell ya, playing with doggies is serious exercise!

Year round, I have the wonderful opportunity to have a ‘walking ministry’ of sorts. It used to be every Monday and Thursday but now it’s moved to only Mondays since the gym is closed on Thursdays. Basically, it’s just a couple of ladies (usually 3 or 4 sometimes up to 7) who get together and walk the track while we catch up on life. So again, not a ‘hardcore’ workout, but the important thing is that I’m always moving and having fun while I do it!

“Sword fighting” with Christmas decorations in a lobby. Oh yeah, we’re goofy, but at least we’re active!

My ultimate favorite workout is always dancing. I love it. I dance all the time. Seriously. And sing. All-the-time. Haha! I absolutely love love love it! I have TONS of photos of me dancing, here are a few:

Dancing with Mary (one of my old roomies/coworkers) when we used to work for the Benson House Management Team in college

Dancing with my lil sis the day before my wedding!

Dancing with Kenzie the day before my wedding

Okies, so this is ridiculously long. Here’s the summary: I like to play!

Oh, where is my hair brush?!

Please tell me that someone else knows the reference in this post title…

Today is the final Q&A question! However, if you ever have a question, still please feel free to ask. If I don’t answer you publicly, I will at least shoot you an email.

Mrs. Fish: What hair products do you use?

I actually switch up all the time. I find that if I use the same thing for too long, my hair seems to adjust to it and I don’t get the super great results I want. I’ve used (and loved) these shampoos/conditioners:

Fructis Sleek and Shine
Herbal Essences Hello Hydration
Aussie Moist
John Frieda Brilliant Brunette (this one doesn’t do much of anything the bottle promises, but it does smell amazing, haha!)
Organix Soft & Silky Vanilla Silk

My current favorite is Pantene Pro V Frizzy to Smooth for Medium-Thick hair.  And no matter what shampoo + conditioner combo I’m using, I always love my Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum. Just the tiniest dab goes such a long way in taming flyaways and making hair looks smooth and silky.

Here’s a little tip for ya – if you want your hair to have that pretty little shine, you can use a blast of cold water at the end of your shower. It closes off the cuticles and makes your hair more smooth which in return makes it more shiny. I’ve heard that a blast of cold air after blow drying has a similar effect, but I haven’t experimented with that since I don’t blow dry my hair unless I’m in a huge rush (I don’t think I’ve ever blown my hair dry more than 3 times in one year). Normally I just let it air dry to avoid any unnecessary heat damage.

Speaking of heat damage. I straighten my hair about twice a week and I nearly always try to use my V05 Extreme Heat Defense Spray to try to protect my hair as much as I can.

With straight hair (photo from last Sept)

I have naturally curly hair, but that means I also have naturally frizzy hair (if I do nothing to my hair at all after showering then I’m likely to look like Princess Mia before her transformation) so if I want to wear my hair curly then I rarely trust it without 1 of 2 things. Either I use mousse (no favorite here, I’m always switching around) or I use my Conair hot rollers which I LOVE!

Used mousse this day (yeah, this picture is old. It was taken in ’07 just before I cut my hair for locks of love)

I used the Conair rollers this day

To be honest, my hair is nearly always in a ponytail or braids, though. I play with it way too much when I leave it down, haha!

This shot is also from summer ’07 right after I cut all my hair off (see the second pic of me up there)

I’d share photos of my hair in a ponytail, but the majority of the shots I share on this blog have my hair in a ponytail, haha! So I’m sure most of you recognize that look already. Okies, I think that is about as long as I can talk about my hair, haha!

Again, if you  have any questions please feel free to ask! I’m happy to answer!

This Italian Villa

Susan: Where did you get the inspirations on how to remodel your home? When we first bought the house it wasn’t in livable condition so we had no choice but to repaint and renovate it. The garage was the only thing that we didn’t really have to do, but it was one of my requirements when we were looking at houses. Originally I had said I didn’t want this house because it didn’t have a garage, but when we realized that we could rip out a wall and build one ourselves… well, we took on the challenge. As for color schemes and such – we used Google Image search a lot, haha! Mostly we picked favorite color combinations and just slapped them on the wall. If we didn’t like it then we painted over it.

We actually documented the whole renovation process and made a series of eight 10 minute videos. I would share them here, but they are full of references to our last name and where we live. So instead I thought I’d put together a couple of clips from the videos and let you guys get a taste of what I’m talking about. It’s 3.5 minutes long. If you don’t have time to watch it all and want to enjoy a little mushy-gushyness, skip to 1:42 and watch from there. Or if you just want a real quick laugh, skip to 2:48 and enjoy laughing at us.

For a couple of before and after shots, be sure to check out our Rome page. This year we are working on outdoor projects! So excited to start in just a couple of weeks!