Photo Shoot With Scout

This is Scout.

He is our stray that followed me home from a jog one evening.

He drives me crazy with his anxiety issues.

But I understand that's common with rescue dogs.

Other than that - he is much like a cat...

...in the sense that he mainly lays around all day.

ATC: Twofer! Autumn and Rackspace

I missed a few weeks of updates. Well, I missed one week of ATC and posting the two that we actually did.

So, with no further ado - behold the fruits of "Autumn"

"Fall Tree" by Gabriel

by Ethan - he explained that this is a fall bush with a tiger

by Ethan - we are so lucky because he also created on the back. This is an autumn tiger.

by Rebecca. I was going for a wrapping paper kind of look.

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On to our next theme! It was Rackspace. Now I know that's not totally fair because not everyone knows or cares about Rackspace. But we sure do! Anyway it's still fair because as of right now  - no one else is participating (that we know of).

We were inspired during a recent visit to the Rack. There is already so much creativity and inspiration oozing out of the building. So we made it an ATC theme. 

Rackspace logo by Gabriel

by Ethan - Rackspace slide

Rackspace logo by Ethan

"Slide" by Rebecca (with the Rackspace guy on it.

I think perhaps Ethan's inspiration may have been his own interpretation of what G and I were doing on this one.

The next ATC theme will be .... Picasso!

My Little Tennis Pro

Waiting for the balls at his first lesson!

He didn't miss even one!

 

At this lesson they learned to hit the ball like this, some coordination drills and the forehand. Pretty good for a day's work!

ATC: Cubism wrap up and next theme

 Our first week of ATC (Artist Trading Cards) was super fun! Here are the boys' cards:

Ethan's cubism (untitled)
Medium: colored pencils

Gabe's cubism: titled, Dottol Man / Mr. Meter: Awesome
Medium: colored pencils

My cubism: Alley Cat
Medium: Pastels, Crayons, Pencil

Next week we chose a broader subject: Autumn. So consider the smells, tastes, scenes, feelings of Autumn and find your inspiration! Email me with scans of your trading cards and I'll post them up here next week!

Bootcamp Week 8

Day one: This is the last week of bootcamp!!!! I can't believe it! Its just flown by so quickly! Today's strength training was the same from last week, but instead of 4 sets, it was 5! Last week I didn't think I could get through 3 sets but surprised myself and did all 4. So this week I told myself, "Self, you did 4 last week do four this week. And then do at least half the reps for set 5." So I thought about all the days I skipped a workout because of motivation or because I was sick and dug deeper. I did all 5! And I focused on my form so they would be GOOD sets and not sloppy sets. Oh my word. I can't believe I'm so close to the finish line.

Day two: Its a cardio day. I daydreamed about strength workouts all day. Its so weird. I was such a running / aerobics / dancing girl before and now all I ever want to do is play with weights. Maybe its my age or my season of life but at the end of a weight workout I feel like a million bucks! At the end of a cardio workout I feel tired.

Day three: Migraine city. No fun at all. 

Day four: Tennis and walking with my gal pal. I wish I had time to squeeze in some of those weight routines. I feel kind of bad, like I cheated myself, for all the days I missed but just because this is the last week of bootcamp doesn't mean its my last week of doing Tina Reale's workouts. I will do BBB3 and I'll fill in the gap with the workouts from BBB2. Its all good.

Day five: I can't wait to share my results! If I had done the program to a T these results would be phenomenal. Since I didn't, these results are just plain awesome!!!!

Check it out!

I don't know what' happening with my hair in 9/2012

	Before	After
Height	5’3”	5’3”
Weight	137.5	128.0
Waist	34.5	28
Hips	38	35.75
Chest	33.5	33
Bicep	12.5	12
Thigh	24.5	21

Those are my physical results. I'm more confident, my posture has improved, my attitude has improved, my outlook is more positive, my daily routine is more structured and my energy level went up a notch. 

Woot! I'm so excited! The plan: I'm going to really stay at the same level of exercise and nutrition that I'm at now until BB3 starts - then I'm going to step up my game.

Bootcamp Week 7

Day one: I don't know if I have stressed just HOW much I love this program! Take today for example, today I am on a road trip and will not be able to work out - but I can't get my mind off of how excited I am to get back to it. Thank you Tina Reale!

Day two: My allergies are AWFUL. And just getting back home from our brief excursion, I need to channel my energy towards catching up on all things housework.

Day three: Ok - for as much I said I wanted to get back to it, I'm not acting like it. I just couldn't get into it today and the next thing I knew it was 10pm. Argh. I hate days like this.

Day four: Woot! This is it! This morning, I got in some tennis. Our first game in a few months. The heat and humidity sapped a lot of energy out of us so we spent the rest of our time together on a brisk walk. Sadly, it was too much time outside and a bad bad headache followed up. Darn allergies. But I did the strength training anyway. If I wait for a day that I feel good with no ailments, I could be waiting a long long long time. At one point, I thought my brain was going to explode through my eye sockets. At the end of it, I was glad to have finished it - I love weight lifting! And even though I endured some discomfort, I didn't cause an injury so its worth it.

Day five: I ignored Tina's cardio recommendation and jogged 2 miles. Her workouts are so awesome for many reasons and one of them is the flexibility. You can almost pick and choose what you can work into your schedule. But be careful: you don't want to take too many licenses or you might sabotage your results. She has this thing down to a science. Have I complained about the allergies yet today? No? Then let me begin. I'm regretting being outside for more than 5 minutes - but I'm not regretting running. My body - no, my MUSCLES feel amazing. My nose and ears and head feel like poo.

Picture of the day: rock climbing. Oh boy - its been far too long since we last went climbing. Love this stuff!

Adventures in Art

The G boys are about to explore the wonderful world of art!

It all started when my friend Jaime, a gifted artist, came over to give me an art lesson for my birthday. Ethan asked if he could join us and she generously agreed. They were so cute, I almost didn't get any of my own painting done. She sat with him and talked to him about color, mixing colors, blending colors. He was such a natural! 

Ethan's painting and the original photo he worked from. 

Then Gabriel wanted to paint and we spent a Friday night painting a portrait of Duncan. They really enjoyed it.

Since before I can remember, my mom took me to the St. Louis art museum. We would usually tour the visiting exhibit but often go spend an afternoon in primitive art, or modern art, or the classics. She taught me how to look at it critically, to see more than the strokes on canvas. She went so far as to drive me to Chicago and Memphis to visit their exhibits that didn't have St. Louis tour dates. As I got older and experienced the turbulence of young love, trials of an entry level career and the uncertainties of independence, visiting the art museum was something that brought me a lot of joy.

Now its my kids turn!

In the early 90's there was an artist movement in Zurich called Artist Trading Cards. These progressive, avant garde artists were creating their work on baseball card sized cards and trading them, sharing them. This movement has gone global and now it has arrived in my world.

This is a great opportunity to teach my kids about different styles of art, techniques, mediums, artists. We are going to pick a different theme each week, along with some of our adventurous friends and create our cards.

If you would like to join our artist's movement in the Grigg household, please do! I'd love to post what yall create too.  Here is a quote I found in an article about the trading cards:"There are just two rules in ATC," announced West Hartford, Connecticut, artist and teacher Erika Davis-Pitre at the beginning of the first ATC workshop Quinn and I attended. "Every card must be 2 1/2- by 3 1/2-inches in size, and they can be traded but never sold. Otherwise, no rules: your card is waiting for whatever you can dream up." ....   Erika laid out a few guidelines. "Write your name and the year on the back of every card," she said. "And think about giving it a title when you're done." As we worked, she passed along more valuable advice: take your time, do your best work, use the whole card, and remember, there's no such thing as "wrong" in art.

Our first theme is cubism. Some famous cubists are Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris. I think my living room rug is inspired by cubism. If you've never visited my blog before, I'm obsessed with my rug. Its one of my favorite things ever. So go to town. Google it.  Google image it.

I'll post next Sunday from the fruits of our labor!

Bootcamp Week 5 & 6

Day one: Weights! Yay! I wasn't sure I could finish all of the sets. In between sets there was a 90 second exercise - some core, some cardio, all of them HARD!

Day two: Its an interval cardio day. I don't own any cardio machines and its 10,000 degrees outside so I did Fire 45. Felt great! Followed up with some yoga.

Day three: I am loving the weight lifting but its not loving me back. I added some plates to my dumbbells. It was really challenging. All day my neck was killing me. Maybe its the bootcamp, maybe its the way I slept. Did yoga after my workout again and that didn't help my neck. So I headed down for a chair massage (its pays to have friends who are massage therapists!) and felt lovely afterwards.

Day four: What's wrong with me? I felt sleepy all day. Even through my workout, I felt like I was sleep walking. At least I showed up. Or not. It couldn't have been very effective.

Day five: Woke up with a migraine. Not a good day for one (if there ever is a good day for a migraine). Throwing a party with my 12 best girlfriends this evening so apart from wanting to get through bootcamp, there are many preparations to be completed. So, this is an off day. I spent the morning resting  in a dark place with a dozen ice packs and taking a number of over the counter meds. I went through the workouts on today's "menu" and they are awesome! Will get to them tomorrow. And throw in some cardio bc one of my gal pals who is coming is also a pastry chef and she informed that she is coming bearing gifts!

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Day one: Loving all this strength training! Today had an optional extra set of reps. I surprised myself yet again by doing the extra set! Woot!

Day two: Worked through Fire 45 again. Felt really heavy. Also sniffly.

Day three: Definately feeling bad today. I'm just going to sit down for a bit. Don't mind me.

Day four: Back at the doc. I have a sinus infection. He advised me to rest - not even housework - until next week. I am so bummed! So close to the finish line and yet I've been benched!

Day five: Resting seems to include chocolate today. :-) Just a little... 

On a side note: this was the kids' first week of school. Here  they are - on the way out the door!

Handsome-est kinder and 3rd grader our school has ever seen!

Bootcamp Week 4

Day one: Today was tough! I spent all day psyching myself up to do it and then when I did it - it took me 75 minutes to complete. But I'm glad I got it done either way. And I'm glad my schedule is getting back to normal.

Day two: Fail! I spent all day psyching myself up again and the next thing I know, it's 10:30pm. I ate well though. That's something.

Day three: Again with the surprises! The final super set was so super hard I didn't think I could do it. I didn't think I could do the last 5 min of cardio (I chose plyo) after that set. I did it! I did them! Another wonderful thing about Tina Reale's bootcamp is that when you sign up, you are invited into a private Facebook forum to discuss the workouts, nutrition, motivation, victories, etc. Yesterday I was so bummed about - well, about being lazy and one of the other participants wrote this: "... just get up and do it! Don't talk ur self out of it!!!:)" Its so cheesy, but I repeated that to myself today until I got sick of hearing my own voice say that and did it! 

Day four: I keep seeing these ladies post on the private FB page about how their clothes are looser or that they have lost weight. I'm a little jealous. My clothes aren't looser and I don't think I have lost weight (but I'm trying to wait until the end to weigh myself). I do feel taller, stronger, more confident and overall just terrific! I should really focus on those things than simmer in envy. Otherwise, today's workout was great. 

Day five: It turns out that I'm far too curious to wait until the end to weigh myself. Surprise! I've lost 5.5 pounds! Yay! Today's workout was 3 sets of ten minute circuits which I did. But I'm also to do a 20 minute cardio today and I'm pretty much out of motivation. The day is not over. I think I'll pop over to the FB message board for some encouragement. Have I mentioned lately how much I love this program? 

I hate not having a picture for every post. This is totally random. It's my 2nd grade school pic. My hair cut was the consequence of wanting to look like Martha Quinn. And my dress? I have no excuse.

Martha Quinn in the '80's

Bootcamp Week 3

Day one: Woot! Today was awesome. For my first day back I was pretty energetic. Its probably from all that rest last week. Ha! Hubs gave me a mio watch for my bday. After I read a 200 page text book on how to operate it - then spent an hour programming it I got to finally use it! Calories burned = 586!!!! Victory! Using this watch has really motivated me. I love seeing how many calories I burn as I work out.

Day two: We packed up the family and drove to the beach for our Grigg Family Summer Adventure! After check in, I sauntered down to the hotel's fitness center for my workout. It was about 100% crappier than it looked in hte pictures on the hotel website. But they had a treadmill and I had some cardio to do. I deliberately shortened my workout from 50 min to 35 min from the get go bc I didn't want to arrive for vacation and then abandon my fam for too long. The core workout for today said to do 2-3 sets. I thought I would do 2 sets at the highest rep IF I could. Well, I did all three! I just love surprising myself.

Day three: I am now officially guilty about doing bootcamp during our family time. Besides, the hotel gym doesn't have weights. Instead I opt for swimming in the pool and the ocean. Ocean swimming is much harder than I remember but I love a challenge. We also walked. a. lot.

Day four: Our last day at the beach! More swimming at the pool. And a lot more walking.

Day five: Ok - makeup time. LOVE the strength training routines Miss Tina puts together. Seriously, if you have ever been curious about weight training or maybe you used to do it but stopped bc life happened (it happens to us all) I HIGHLY recommend this bootcamp. Today's workout was a mixed bag for me. Some exercises I went up in weight and with one exercise in particular, I used 5lb dumbbells and struggled. Ha! I'm almost nervous about what week 8 will bring. But if I keep surprising myself in the next 5 weeks, then I'm sure it will be a piece of cake.

This or That Healthy Lifestyle

Thanks to Glenneth for this fun meme! 

1. Run/workout in the heat and humidity or freezing temps and snow?

 I wish I had a choice but in south Texas it's either hot, or hotter. 

2. Have washboard abs or flat abs?

Flat abs. 

3. Dr. Oz or The Doctors?

I don't know them. Should I?

4. Cardio or strength?

Strength! The best shape of my life wasn't when I trained for marathons - it was when I did P90X.

5. Cravings: Protein or carbs?

Carbs. Mainly ice cream.

6. Jillian Michaels or Bob Harper?

Jillian. I miss her. 

7. Frozen Yogurt or Ice Cream?

Fro yo is so much more fun!
 

8. To train: Upper body or Lower body?

I've always wanted sculpted and lovely arms. And I like being able to do a lot of push ups and pull ups. But my lower body is stronger so that makes it kind of fun to work out. Its a tie. 

First Lady = First Rate arms!

9. Protein powder or food with protein?

Food with protein. Mainly beans. 

10. Lunges or squats?

Squats. I can do both legs at a time! Ha! I'm so lazy. 

11. Sweet or salty?

Sweet. Chocolate. marshmallows. Have I mentioned ice cream lately? 

12. Workout attire: cute or comfy?

Comfy. I don't think I own any cute workout clothes. Since I play tennis 9 months a year, I would love to have some cute tennis clothes. Its not a priority. 

13. Body Pump or Heavy lifting?

Heavy lifting. 

14. Yoga or Pilates?

I love both and used to teach both but I prefer yoga. 

This is me and one of my besties at the studio. She owned it and I taught classes a few days a week.

15. Nike or Adidas?

Nike! (Maybe a Nike tennis dress is in my future...)

These are my shoes! My husband tells me I look like a smurf when I go running.

16. Running on the treadmill or outdoors?

Outdoors. Treadmills bore me. At least outdoors I can try to outrun potential attackers (I think about this way too much) also, mangy stray dogs and vicious chihuahuas protecting their turf.

17. Whole Foods or Trader Joes?

I buy corporate produce from HEB. I know its not fashionable. But we eat soooo much produce we would go broke if we bought organic. 

18. Summer or Winter Olympics?

Summer! Love love love summer Olympics. I'm kind of sad that its almost over BUT Shark Week couldn't be timed better if they tried!

19. Wine or beer?

Beer beer beer. Beer in my belly. Since starting bootcamp, I've laid off the beer - and ice cream. Basically empty calories are out of the question. 

20. Steamed or roasted veggies?

 That's a choice?! I love them both! Its like Sophie's Choice. How can choose?

Bootcamp Week 2

Day one: Alive and kicking. Barely. Fevers, body aches, chills sore throat all weekend. My birthday had no beer. No ice cream. I think you are not supposed to workout until fevers are gone.

Day two: Still coughing up my lungs.

Day three: Went to the doc. It's a boy! I mean, it's bronchitis!

Day four: Resting.

Day five: I feel pretty good but still have that nasty cough. I WANT to workout but I'm afraid if my immune system hasn't recovered that it will set me back.

This week is wash. Ok - no prob! Tomorrow is a new day!

Well Hello Again....

Hello? Hello? Testing 1....2...3... Can anyone hear me?

I thought I'd gone for good but alas, I'm back.

And why? Well, less of an adventure of my boys and more of an adventure of my own. Best Body Bootcamp by the lovely and fit Tina Reale!

The weight keeps coming on and my health keeps getting more complicated. So what better way to stay focused on healthy living than an 8 week fitness and lifestyle commitment? Because all I really want to do is drink beer and eat Ben and Jerry's by the pint. But what I don't want to do is see what kind of fruit that kind of living produces. So I'm putting aside my desires and picking up Bootcamp - and subsequently my old blog.

I don't have any internet appropriate before photos (I took my before shot in a bikini) so I'm working on finding a good outfit for a pic I can post. I'm going to go out on a limb here and post my current measurements.

Height 5'3"
Weight 137.5 (Agh! only 2.5 lbs away from my weight at week 40 of pregnancy with my youngest!)
Waist 34.5"
Hips 38"
Chest 33.5"
Biceps  12.5"
Thighs 24.5"

Aside from completing the exercises every week I have 3 more goals:
Drink 8+ glasses of water each day
Log my calories each day
Do yoga 3x's a week. Remember when I used to teach yoga? I've really gotten out of practice. How did that happen?
-Oh yeah, and document my experience.


Week one, Day one: Love love love it! Love her strength training exercises. Love the flexibility of the cardio options. Love the structure of the program. For my cardio today I put in Turbo Fire HIIT 20. Overall, starting off the program with a bang. :-)

Day two: Did Wednesday's workout instead so I'll do Tuesday's workout tomorrow. Still loving it though! Anyway, I got it knocked early this morning bc we drove to College Station, TX to see a specialist (3 hours one way!). It was nice to be done with it and not worry about squeezing it in later in the day. If only I had that kind of discipline every day.

Day three: Ok, its getting tough now. My body does not want to move the way my mind wants it to.

Day four: Its really tough now. I got my workout in at 11 pm and strayed off the program somewhat. I replaced cardio with yoga. But I did do the core workout though. Seriously, my body is in a lot of pain. I feel old. Missed the mark on my water goal. I logged all my calories but due to an impromptu pity party, they were way high. Oh how I love sweets. Oh how I loathe calories.

Day five: Wheeee! Strength training was a fun challenge today. Yesterday's yoga really paid off. At this writing, I haven't completed the cardio portion of my day but I may still fit it in somewhere.Or not.

Snapped a couple before shots! With one of the dogs and one of the sons.

Tomorrow is the optional cardio day AND my 35th bday. Perhaps I'll do some laps. I defo want to get in some more yoga. But since its my bday I probably won't be logging calories. There will be beer. There will be ice cream.

Goodbye Blog

In the beginning, blogging was a major part of my life. I had two wee ones and family 1,000 miles away. It was important to me, to be able to show them what's going on in our lives and also to document those years. Now with Facebook and whatnot, I feel like my family blog isn't needed. So, goodbye, blog.

It will stay up for a while but I'm officially no longer posting on here. If we're friends on FB, you'll see that I'm starting a newsletter for my family that is 1,000 miles away. Its still a way to keep in touch but they can opt out and I won't feel like I'm talking into the great big void.

It's been real.

Adios.

Click here for a trip down memory lane: The first blog post on this blog.