Fitness Challenge Update: End of Week 1

It's time for a Sunday Fitness Challenge update. I would like to declare Week 1 a success!

I'm really pleased with how this is going. I find the most difficult part is the "Shred before the clock hits double digits" rule. For 23 years I have been a morning person, always the girl who woke up hours before everyone else at slumber parties, the annoying early riser. While I still sleep lightly and wake up quickly and easily, the sleep routine is very different here. Going to bed before 1am is basically unheard of some waking up early to Shred is not always easy. I'm proud that I managed to do it every day. I often said "just get up, you can nap later" but I didn't nap once.

I also went to Boot Camp 3 day this week, as planned. That meant Monday and Wednesday I had to go to Boot Camp from 8-9 and then immediately come home to do the Shred. It was hard on Monday, but Wednesday I actually felt really excellent while shredding. Thursday I did Shred in the morning and Boot Camp at night. The double work out days were not nearly as hard as they first sounded.

Emily and I agree that adding yoga to this challenge was an excellent idea. Since the Shred is an intensive circuit training work out, you feel fine the day of but the next day you are terribly sore. The yoga really helps keep my muscles toned and well stretched. Also, with my Boot Camp stuff I am in danger of over-training or injury, the yoga helps protect me. In fact, before this challenge started I was having some bad pains in my left hip. Thanks to the yoga, the pain is almost gone. 

I keep my sticker sheet right where I can see it while I work out.

Since I finished the week, I got to reward myself. I bought myself Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford for my Kindle. I really like it so far.

I'm pumped for the next week. Halfway through we have to switch to Level 2 on the Shred. Bring it on!

Casa Rosada Adventures

A couple days ago I went to the Casa Rosada (Pink House-- the government house here. The presidents don't live there anymore but they used to). My friend Magu's mom, Mirta, works there and let us check out some non-tour sights, mainy related to the Perons. These photos are from her blackberry but I thought you guys would want to see them anyway.

In Evita's private elevator

Sitting at Evita's desk with her photo.

Full view of the fancy desk. Note the barrier I was allowed to duck under.

Hanging out on Peron's balcony. No big deal.

And on the 5th Day, We Rest

Actually, we'll generally be resting on the 7th day (just like the God) but as this is the first week of Emily and I's Fitness Challenge and Friday is the agreed upon rest day, we shall rest today. I actually started doing the Shred last Saturday so it has been 6 days for me on that, 4 for the yoga.

The challenge is going great. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday I even managed to go to Boot Camp and do my challenge stuff. My sheet is full of stickers. I'll save the details for my Sunday update.

I've had a pretty excellent couple of days. Here's some highlights/small victories:

• I was interviewed for Cheap Talk Radio. (I start at 31m)
• I finally got my Christmas present package from Abby. She included some squeak toys for Padfoot (one of which he immediately destroyed) and this amazing book called How to Be an Explorer of the World. It has all kinds of adventures and exploration challenges. It's so much fun and totally me, a combo of art, scrap booking, collecting and general child like joy.  
• I always seem to get double Hendren love. When I came home from picking up Abby's package I had one waiting from Mama H. She sent me Monster Cookies and (of course) treats for Padfoot too.

•  I went to the Cosa Rosada, which is like the White House (Cosa Rosada means Pink House). The president doesn't live there anymore but they used to. Magu's mom, Mirta, works there and she was helping me out with some paperwork. She took me and Magu to some restricted areas, we got to stand on Peron's balcony, ride in Evita Peron's personal elevator and sit at Evita's desk. Mirta also made me a beautiful necklace with bird charms all over it, just because she is nice. Magu and her mom might be the two cutest and sweetest people alive. 
• I managed to get ALL my paperwork in order and Fed Exed to my mom and the FBI (my mom has to get an Apostille, I need a background check from the FBI).
• I'm about to have wine and chat time with Liz who is finally back in BA. 

•  After wine, Liz and I are meeting up with Sara to try the new pizza place by my apartment and going to the movies. I even made it to the movie theater earlier to buy our tickets in advance.

•  I got my Kindle! I am so amazed by it, I feel like a grandmother who is constantly talking about the magic of technology. I bought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When I finished my first week of the challenge I can buy myself another book. Yes! 

•  Fed Ex just happens to be next to this amazing ice cream place that makes legit sundaes, a rare find here. The guy recognized me from my visit to Fed Ex/the ice cream shop last week (mildly embarrassing?) so he challenged another employee to make a better sundae for me. This resulted in the guy going totally over the top with the portions and extra fruits and cone cookie things. Kindle and ice cream = Heaven.

30 Day Fitness Challenge

Rease and Emily's 30 Day Shred and Yoga Challenge

I would first like to say that my fitness challenge has nothing to do with the New Year. I don't make resolutions and I certainly don't think fitness is a quick fix thing. If you know me, you know I work out a lot, that I enjoy it and that I certainly do not strive to be a bikini model.

That being said, Argentina is not a healthy place. I work out every day, but it's not enough to battle all the sodium, carbs and sugar packed into everything in this country. I don't start my new job for at least another month, so I was planning on doing an intensive fitness routine. Just in time, Emily asked me if I wanted to do some kind of 30 day challenge with her. We outlined some rules for ourselves, but here are the basics:

• The challenge will last 30 days (January 10th-February 6th)
• Each morning we must complete the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout before 10am
• Each evening before bed we must do a 20 minute night time yoga routine
• Friday is our only rest day
• At the end of each week, if we have done both workouts every day we get a reward. It cannot be food related so it will likely be something like a new book. The final week is a new outfit.
• Every Sunday we must report our progress on our blogs. It makes us accountable to people other than ourselves and each other. Also, you guys can cheer us on!

We wanted to do measurements and weight but I'm having some issues with that. Mainly, I don't own a scale or a tape measurer. I did a rough measurement using a jump rope, a dry erase marker and a ruler I printed offline. Obviously, it wasn't very precise. I'll attempt to find something better.

I will also be doing Boot Camp classes 3 times a week because I love them and I already bought my membership. This makes things especially hard because twice a week I will have to come straight home from an early boot camp class and immediately do my Shred workout. I did it today. I'll just admit it-- it hurt.

I'm really excited about this. I made a chart for me to check off each work out. It will live on my wall for the next month. I like working out and I really like checklists. I hope you guys will check up on Emily and I each Sunday and cheer us on!

Rant of the Moment: Creepsters

If you are a woman, you will surely be able to relate to this post on some level. Creepsters happen to all of us.

During my time in Buenos Aires I have had 4 fanáticos of varying degrees of creepiness, dangerousness and general ability to annoy the crap out of me. They ranged from ages 19-40 and were all pretty different. However, they all had these things in common: arrogance, persistence and creepiness. Their persistence is what really made them stand out because let's face it, creepsters are a part of any woman's life, especially women in Argentina. However, admitting that fact does not pardon creepsters, so here is my open letter to the creepsters of the world.

Dear Creepsters,

You are pathetic. No self-respecting woman would even walk on the same dog-piss stained sidewalk as you if they could avoid it. No one cares if you have money, it certainly couldn't buy you class and we can earn our own money and buy our own damn dinner. Quit staring at our chests and acting like our breasts should be honored to have your grubby eyes' attention. Your gaze makes us want to shower for days on end. Calling us queens and sweethearts while you drool all over your dirty face is not going to win us over. Believe it or not, we are not flattered by your use of pet names while you try to get our attention as we speed walk through your Creepster stench. We know you think you are God's gift to women and we would be so lucky to be graced with your company, but chances are you live with your parents and expect us to relish the idea of cooking you dinner. Turns out we went to college, have our own apartments, practice proper social etiquette and are and always will be better at life than you.

To those creepsters who were lucky enough to weasel some sort of interaction out of us: please do us a favour and forget what we look like, where we live, our phone numbers and that you were ever allowed to interact with us in any way.

Lastly, stop making excuses for our rejection by calling us prudes or lesbians and saying we need to "get some". We would rather let the entire human population die off than go through the agony of a night with slimy loser like yourself.

Sincerely,
The women of modern society.



Ladies- What was your biggest Creepster nightmare?

Men- Have you ever been guilty of being a Creepster or being friends of one? Also, please note that I'm not saying Men=Creepsters. It's a separate breed.

2010: Blog Stats

I completely stole this idea from Emily Sims, but I knew she wouldn't mind.

History

I started this blog on June 28, 2010. Since then I have published a total of 39 posts. I definitely want to up that number in the next 6 months. The longest I ever went without posting was 12 days, between 7/27/2010, Crazy Nights and Lazy Days and 8/8/2010, Re-ocupada

Visitors

Since the birth of this blog, it has been viewed 2,189 times. Those viewers came from all over the world, the top countries including: United States, Argentina, South Korea, Russia and the United Kingdom. I like that I can probably guess that all those South Korea views were Cole, but I don't know a single person in Russia so I find that stat really interesting.

Most people found this blog through Facebook, Travelated, 20 something bloggers, Emily's blog, blogger, or Jorge's blog.

This blog received a total of 77 comments. I hope to up that number as well.

What I wrote about

My most used tags were:
Jobs
Baking
Christmas
Emotional Goodbyes
Food
Photos
Yoga

Silly Searches

This was my favourite part. I love looking at searches that lead people to Travelated, I don't know why it didn't occur to me to look at the searches for my blog as well. Here are the top searches:
"the plane i didn't i expected"
"the years the loss of kathy"
"the years the"
"'cecilia whitaker' or 'patrick farbiaz' or 'kirchner'"
"'feria americana' 'buenos aires' records"


Somehow I doubt those people found what they were looking for most of the time.


Thanks for reading everyone. More to come in 2011.

Buenas Cosas

I just wanted to post some good things (Buenas Cosas) that make me smile.

First and foremost- I got a job!
Not just any job, but a full time job including health insurance and a work visa. I'll be working for Avature, a software company. Technically it's customer service but it's not the terrible phone answering variety, more like client relationships with companies around the world. I also work with Jorge.Thanks Jorge for recommending me! Also thank you Galo, Michael and Flor who put a good word in for me as well.

Shobie being in town makes me look at Buenos Aires in a different way. I've been exhausted but the good news is I had a pleasant experience in Colonia, Uruguay. If you haven't read about my first experience, read it here. Shobie was set on seeing a beach. Here's the thing people- Buenos Aires isn't always hot and it's not a beach. However, it is summer right now and thus incredibly hot, but that doesn't change the beach situation. Colonia is only an hour boat ride away and has a nice river beach. I turned several shades darker, I may even be a different race now. I don't actually have any photos of me on the beach (no swimsuit shots, thank you very much) but here's a photo of me enjoying another good thing, Cookies and Cream milkshake with vodka supplemented by a game of Jenga.

I just got the job offer today, so I'm still beaming. It just so happened that I had already made plans with Magu for her to meet Shobie and I and go to this cupcake place nearby that she loves but I had never been to. It was a great way to celebrate. I had a chocolate orange cupcake with an iced dulce de leche coffee. Decadent and delicious. I don't have a photo of that yet, Magu has that, so I'll just leave you with a photo of a photo of Magu and I with Santa and two other girls, Ana and Caro.