Tales from the Scale- July Edition

 My favorite client stories so far...

Client A- Trying to lose 25 pounds as a gift to her husband for his birthday...  She is my favorite.  She will do anything/everything that I ask her to, and NEVER complains.  It's AWESOME.  She's already made huge improvements in the short amount of time I've been working with her.

Client B- 60 year old male with a 29 year old heart.  Yes. My heart transplant patient.  Two years ago he received a new heart, and has shown me ALL of the scars that went with it.  Definitely never used a gym before now.  Very challenging to just to get form correct, but motivate to lose his HUGE GUT- "Ms. Jonna, if you can help me get rid of this huge gut, I'm gonna buy you lunch!"  That's enough motivation for me!  :-)  Oh, did I forget to mention the 25 year old girlfriend?  No wonder a new heart was needed ;-)

Client C- New graduate from Texas A&M University.  Absolutely AMAZING.  Awesome athlete just needing to tone up after the "college" years.  We get along really well seeing as we're almost the same age and she loves a good challenge.  Unfortunately, she was unable to raise her arms after our first workout.  Oops!   

Coming up with exercises that they like while still challenging them has been interesting, but I'm definitely 110% more confident than I was two weeks ago. 

June-July 2010

Originally we started this blog so that we would be able to remember things that happened in our "early" years.  Unfortunately, once a lot started happening, we didn't update this....so here's a backlog of events:

Jonna:
-Started working for 24 Hour Fitness as a Personal Trainer on June 18th (currently the only female trainer at the location).  It's definitely a new challenge that I am SUPER excited about.  Definitely more stories to come about my adventures in the gym...

-Took an amazing (48 hour) road trip with my favorite sister to St. Louis.
-Found out the truth about babies belly buttons.  -Stayed with our favorite Gpa in his new bachelor pad.
-First timer at Ted Drewe's amazing frozen custard of heaven.  


-Went through a lot of Gma's treasures, found some interesting keepsakes from dad's childhood, and said goodbye to 640 Gateswood Dr.  

Bryan:
-Started a different assignment with Oncor and is currently working in downtown Dallas (I'll let him explain when he wants to).
-Reading, thinking, reading, thinking, reading.   :-)

Us:
-One Year Anniversary (May 31st, 2010)!!!  Memories/moments from our first year will be another post. 
-Starting to get more involved with The Village church.
-Possibly starting to look for a house. 
-Went to our first Estate Auction...interesting.

We'll try to get into doing this more regularly, but no promises.  ;-)

NASM-CPT

Tuesday, May 11th, I passed my NASM test to become a certified personal trainer.  Currently working on job applications and program designs...

-Jonna

The Omnivore's Dilemma

Disclaimer: It may be silly to do so many 'book reviews' on our blog, but the purpose of them is more for us.  

We have become library junkies lately.  Currently we have 50 books checked out.  Bryan and I both have had huge eyeopening experiences in the past few months.  After four years of college, we realized that a lot of the information we were given in classes was based purely on our professor's opinions but taught as facts.  It wasn't until we started checking out book in our areas of interest that we realized how many other points of view there are out there. 

I recently finished two books by Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma.  Both of these books made me do some reevaluating and deep thinking.  If you haven't read them, I strongly encourage you to do so.  Fair warning- do not read before eating...

I want our children to know where food comes from.  As I was thinking, I realized something about my roots- as we moved across the country (literally), my dad would always grow something native of that state: Texas- peppers, cotton, & strawberries; Hawaii- Pineapple; Pennsylvania- tobacco.  Although we never used these 'crops' for sustainability, I think it must be deep in our genes.  Jordan & CJ now grow peppers and have joined their local CSA program which has been quite fun to hear stories about their random box of vegetables.   

As for us, we will slowly but surely be making some big changes over the next couple of years.  If we are going to make sure that our kids know how to grow fruits and vegetables, we need to figure that out as well!  I'm not sure how I feel about meat right now either.  Don't worry, I don't think I'm going to become a vegetarian any time soon, but where our food comes from will start playing an important role in our lives. 

 

And the quote that has been on my mind for weeks is: Shake the hand that feeds you. -Michael Pollan   

-J

A Happy Blurb

This is Bryan again.  No worries.  Just a happy blurb. (Okay, just got done.  Not really a blurb.)

About a month ago we joined the Dallas Running Club and registered for a 5 mile race.  After running for just six weeks, and this being my first race, I wasn't sure what to expect from anyone...including myself.

I've built up my mileage slowly, and last Sunday I wanted to give the full 5 miles a trial run.  Jonna didn't come; she's been pretty sick the last two weeks.  So I drove out to White Rock Lake, fully expecting to finish hard and feel one of those personal, life-changing moments.  I went out 2.5 miles and was pretty tired by the time I hit the turnaround.  I walk/jogged the last half and finished in about 58 minutes.

I felt completely defeated.

Needless to say, I was determined to perform better on race day.  I read up on running nutrition and (thanks mostly to the bodybugg food log) carefully tracked my calories and percentages of protein, fat, and carbs.  I took it pretty easy during the week, doing a 4- and 3-mile run.  I rested all of Friday and then...

We woke up at 6 this morning to prep for race day.

Of course...we didn't get up at 6. 

Frantic mornings are worth it when you get a few extra minutes under the covers :)  We threw on clothes, and barreling through the kitchen I thought, "Banana. Cereal. Water. iPod. Keys. Wallet.  ... ... SHOES."  And we were off.


Thankfully, there was no check-in line for pre-registrations.  Jonna pinned on my bib, number 3838, and we headed towards the starting line.  The race was handicapped with staggered start times based on age and gender.  The first group was scheduled for an 8:00 start; the last group was supposed to take off at 8:30.  Being a strapping young lad, I was in the alpha male group.


Excited and nervous now.


From the start, I settled in at the back with Larger Fellow.  By "at the back" I mean we were the last two out of the 360+ runners.  That's okay though.  I had a plan.  By the time I hit the first mile marker, Larger Fellow had to take a breather and I set my sights on Water Bottle Man.  I paced myself behind him and didn't see anyone until the 2 mile mark.  These were, however, people running towards me that had already hit the turnaround.  Great.


Keep moving.


Another half mile up the road, I passed Water Bottle Man and reached the turnaround cone.  Glorious.  I didn't think there was anyone within a quarter mile of me in either direction.  Then I saw him.  And heard him.  Surely, an angel.  A volunteer's exuberant yelling and applause made sure I didn't keep running forward indefinitely.  To his surprise, I jogged past the cone, and we stuck our arms up for a MASSIVE high five.


Halfway there.


I checked my watch and was about 27 minutes into the run.  And I hadn't walked yet.  I was on pace to finish in under 55 minutes, which was probably my only goal.  I knew I would have to walk at some point.  I found my groove on the way back, which was more of a gradual downhill, and actually passed a few people.  I made it through 3.5 miles, and by the time I passed mile marker 4, I could see the finish line.  That was it.


I picked up my pace for the next half mile and soon came around the last corner.  I saw the finish line.  I saw the clock.  I saw my wife.  I was less than a minute from the end, and in that moment realized that I was almost 5 miles into the beginning.


I crossed in about 50:20.  The bibs were chipped, and we'll know my official time after it's posted.  All that I know is that the time really doesn't matter.  I ran as hard as I could.  And I'm going to do it again.  Crossing the finish line, I found that personal moment that escaped me a week ago.  

Oh, and I never walked.