A Few Updates

My busy season is starting to slow down, thankfully. Although, we actually haven't been all that busy. I may actually be able to say that I went through an entire busy season without working a single Saturday. All the CPA's out there know how unheard of that is. Have I mentioned that I love my firm??

I have apparently inspired my BF Tiffany to do a 101 List. You can see her list HERE. She did a condensed version and as of now, her list has 71 things on it instead of 101. I'm hoping to help her explore more possibilities and add to her list to get it up to 101 soon. She actually has a lot of things on her list that are on mine as well, which is awesome because we can mark them off together :)

Next topic, workouts. I have started the P90X program. I am IN LOVE with it. I'm in the middle of my second week and I can ALREADY see results! I am not following the food plan that it suggests, but I am more or less doing my own food plan. I've started expanding my horizons on veggies. I've added broccoli to my list of sides for meals, which is probably shocking to those of you who know me best. In order to not die from pain while doing the workouts, I have decided to keep up with my protein intake. I've started using the Special K protein mixers with my water and they are FABULOUS! My fav is the strawberry kiwi flavor. This is actually useful for me (getting use to flavored water) because when we're in Africa, we have to drop tablets in our water that makes it clean. The downside of that process is that it makes the water taste bad, so our guides have suggested bringing flavored water packets.

Back to the actual P90X workout. I mean....WOW! A day hasn't gone by that I haven't been sore, but I am absolutely loving it. So far I think my favorite workout is the Kenpo workout. It's kind of a mix between boxing, karate, and self-defense. My least favorite so far is Plyometrics. Plyometrics means "jump training" and that is all you do for 58 minutes. JUMP. You would be surprised how quickly your legs wear out. My heart rate doesn't go below 150 during that entire workout and it's the one where I burn the most calories, usually around 700. In the words of Tony Horton "I hate it....but I love it".

While keeping a goal to workout more and eat better, I must admit I have been doing AMAZING with my New Years resolution. I made a resolution to drink more water. On average, a person should be drinking about 2 liters or so a day. The P90X workouts help me make this goal. I usually drink one liter while at work, another liter during my workout, and maybe an additional bottle/glass afterwards. This is incredible for a person who, while in high school and college, drank 6 Mountain Dew's a day and NEVER drank any water at all. I love my new found favorite drink. Downside - I have to pee every five seconds. It's annoying.

Next topic, Africa. If you're getting annoyed by the constant talk of Africa, I'm gonna need you to get over it and look elsewhere for the next year. Climbing Kilimanjaro is the biggest and hardest thing Justin and I have ever done (at this point at least) and there are seriously no words than can express my excitement. I'm like a four year old that won't go to sleep because I am waiting to see what Santa is going to bring me. No joke. Justin and I had to fill out applications for our guide company in order to even be allowed to go on the expedition. We got an email yesterday that we were both approved and our names are on the list and we are officially part of the 2010 Kilimanjaro Christmas climb team. What's funny is that on the application, there's a section that you have to fill out explaining how you will be training for the climb. I get amused at the fact that some people with ZERO climbing or hiking experience think you can climb that without rigorous training. I'm guessing that's why IMG (our guides) put that section on the application.

I certainly think the P90X will be a massive help, especially on the legs. My 90 days for this go around will be up around mid-June. However, I will be pulling these bad boys back out come October so that I know I'm fit and trained enough to climb the mountain. Another thing Justin and I will be doing to help train us is carrying about 20+lbs of weight in our day packs and go hiking in Oak Mountain or various other places. If we had a stair climber at home, I would throw on the weighted pack and stay on it for about an hour, but we don't own one and I don't really want to get funny looks at the gym.

That's about it for now. Until next time...