Those Corwins » Working on the 101 List

30 Flippin’ Days of Fitness

Steph — Wed, 06 May 2009 04:23:01 +0000

Miss Sensibly Sassy held me accountable for my workout fail today. Well maybe not in the “Stephanie I can sense that instead of working out you are parked on the couch with a bag of fritos in your hand. I can smell them from San Jose,” but in the super nice way of crediting me for the inspiration for her own 30 day workout challenge. And as much as I wanted to revel in that credit and continue with my fried corn chip goodness, my conscience just won’t let me. Here is my confession: I have skipped my workouts for almost a week now. Don’t bother going to do the math. I think I made it about three days before throwing in the towel.

At least I gave myself a fail in a cute font and cheerful color.

But anyway, I just can’t let Sarah down. I can’t let myself down. I need this kick in the pants. I need either someone or something to keep working out in the front of my mind. Enter:

THE CHECKLIST/COUNTDOWN/CALENDAR/HOLDING STEPHANIE ACCOUNTABLE SUPER FANCY SHEET OF PAPER!

Oh yes folks. The excessive amount of money I spend for monthly dues at a gym. The countless fitness DVDs. And I am relying on a sheet of paper, carelessly divided up into 30 boxes with a Sharpie. Each day that I complete my workout, be it the 30 Day Shred (even though it’s technically 27 minutes, I’m going to count it as 30. I think the thought of doing both the Shred and yoga to make up for the shortage in time was hindering my plan instead of helping it), Running, Swimming, Power Yoga, and maybe even making it to a spin class at our gym, I will mark it down on my checklist. Then at the end of the 30 days, I will have a written record of all the workouts I’ve done. Plus, as a more visual person, I think this will help me much more than just thinking in my head that I have to do a workout a day.

~~So hopefully this will work~~. This is going to freaking work. Does anyone want to join us with our 30 days of fitness? Maybe if we twitter-pressure each other into working out everyday we’ll all be able to get back into our workout routines that have fallen by the wayside over winter. Am I right?

If you are like me and need motivation to get off your hiney, here it is: 30 flippin’ days of fitness. I’m holding a contest. A contest that is completely relying on the honors system and is really put into place just to motivate. From May 6th through June 5th (there are 31 days in May), work out everyday for at least 30 minutes (the Shred counts as thirty). Then at the end of the month, I will post a blog asking who made it. Those people will be entered to win a bunch of goodies from my favorite etsy shops. I’ll get those details sorted out soon and release the prize details sometime next week.

Spread the word! You are welcome to yank that badge from my flickr and post it on your blog. There is strength in numbers, and I’d love to have the whole lot of you working out alongside me.

EDITED TO ADD: I know it’s getting later in the week and the word is spreading. I don’t want to discourage anyone from participating if they wander here late (and you know, since I decide to spontaneously start a contest the day before). Please join us! Chances are I won’t get around to drawing names for prizes until the week after the end date anyways since I’ll be in VEGAS! So if you don’t get to start until the 9th, then that’s a-okay. But that’s the cut-off for the official contest. But you’re more than welcome to join just for the health aspect.

Some Sidebar Love:

Week 1 Update and Prize Details

Things that are making me smile

Steph — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:23:55 +0000

How I Met Your Mother. For reals. Which one of my friends wants to start acting like Barney? Because I think he is what is missing from my life.
Seeing two adorable little babies this weekend. Oh yeah and their moms too.
NOT having heat stroke on Sunday. Though just barely. Because I most definitely got into the heat exhaustion arena Sunday evening. Dang you Bakersfield; I move away and lose all tolerance for extreme temperatures. This may be your way of getting back at me for bad-mouthing you, but making me sick… not going to make me like you any more.
Somewhat related: Buying an air conditioner for the cottage. Because my body and my marriage cannot handle another summer without it. I most certainly get cranky when I’m overheated.
Susan Boyle: Normally I have zero interest in any sort of singing/dancing/talent reality shows. But after seeing the name Susan Boyle all over the internet I finally googled her. Wow. I mean I was just speechless. One of the many reasons I don’t watch those kinds of shows is because I despise the auditions. It just makes me cringe knowing how many people are just judging these poor people. They really think that they are great, and I feel it’s generally mean-spirited and never constructive criticism. So when Susan walked out my first instinct was Great it’s just another William Hung-type thing. And then she sang. It was so honest and real. My eyes watered. It was marvelous.
Looking forward to a weekend away in June. A weekend away in VEGAS. With bloggers. Where I am rooming with wishcake herself! And a few others who have yet to be confirmed. So if you don’t already think I’m crazy, you have this right: I am getting on a plane, flying to Vegas, to spend an entire weekend with people I do not know “in real life” and will be sleeping in a hotel room with people I do not know. To get over my social anxiety nerves, you better believe there will be cocktails involved.
Starting 30 days of 30 minutes of exercise a day from my 101 list. Today. Because a trip with bloggers will most likely include photographs. And busy season left me zero time to work out. And plenty of trips for fast food. You get the picture.
Knowing that I’ll be able to get off work at a decent enough hour to go to the grocery store. That is a new feat in itself.

We can’t forget this guy! This crazy guy who is letting his wife go to Vegas with a bunch of people without him. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he has the LSAT that Monday and would like some peaceful and quiet study time.

What has been making you smile lately?

Blowies, Bedspreads, and Blu-Ray

Steph — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:33:23 +0000

If you were to sum up my weekend in an alliteration, it would be: Blowies, Bedspreads, and Blu-Ray. Intrigued? Yeah I guess by the sound of it, it sounds like a pretty dirty weekend. But it’s not as it sounds, and I will explain. It was just a plain wonderful weekend. One of those weekends that you wake up on Monday morning, not sad because it’s the start of a workweek, but sad because the weekend was so wonderful that you wish it didn’t end.

Friday night I got off work later than most, but earlier than some. Early enough to grab a late dinner of sushi with my husband, to make it to Target and get through checkout right at closing time, and to see a late showing of I Love You, Man (the blowie portion of this blog title). Have I talked about our sushi place before? It’s amazing. The food is good, but the owners know us and are the kindest people ever. It’s so great to have a place that makes you feel at home, in a city where we really know very little people. At Target, we were roaming the bedding. Ours was disgusting. Really. People with dogs: do you let your dogs on the bed? For us it’s going to stop unless they are clean and specifically invited. Because woah, our Pottery Barn quilt could not stand up to the destruction of our two dogs. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Target had a quilt similar to what I was looking for, but in a color I liked better! I’ll post about that a little later. After Target, we got to the theatre just in time for the last showing of I Love You Man. This movie was SO FUNNY. I highly recommend it.

The rest of the weekend I got to clean, something that has been much needed in our little cottage. The dogs got groomed on Sunday. Combine that with the new bedding and a nice freshly cleaned home, I was on cloud nine. The weather on Sunday actually turned out quite wonderful, after a light rain on Saturday, so Cale was able to test out our new push mower on the lawn.

This weekend we also sat down with a couple of blu-rays we got through Netflix. The first was Milk. Oh that movie was amazing. Really. Even though the ending was quite sad, the movie is so uplifting because it shows that change can happen. It might not happen right away, but it will. It really lifted my spirits and showed me that it just takes perseverance and a good heart. Someday. Someday.

I also sat down and watched my third French movie, allowing me to cross an item off my list. It was Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long). It was very touching. Of the three French movies I watched so far, this is my favorite. I loved this item on my list. I enjoy foreign films, after all Life is Beautiful is one of my all-time favorite movies. And getting back into them is just a wonderful way to spend a few hours. A peek into another world. And I’m hoping the more I immerse myself in the language, the easier it will be for me to start learning. We shall see.

Another item on the list I’m planning on crossing off after this week is #11 Go an entire week without turning on the TV. So my dears, under no circumstances shall you tell me what happens on Grey’s this Thursday. Understand? I’ll have to wait until Monday to be able to watch it. But really I’m excited for this week, and I believe Cale is even more excited. I have a couple books to keep me busy, and last night we went to the gym for a couple of hours. I’m hoping this can help us get into a healthier routine during the week without the TV sucking us in and wasting our evenings.

So there’s a little snippet into my life right now. Later this week I’ll finally update you on some home decorating items that I’ve been working on, including showing you our fabulously soft and clean new bedding.

So how have your lives been?

Already starting to conquer the list

Steph — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:04:31 +0000

The other night for Cale’s birthday, we had a great dinner out to Claim Jumper. Was that the surprise I had planned? No! But stupid yelp got me all paranoid at the last minute, as I briefly ranted about in that video. I was printing out directions to this local brewery that has a beer Cale really likes thinking Gosh Stephanie you are such an awesome wife. So thoughtful really, I mean knowing that this place has Cale’s all-time favorite beer, and taking him there as a surprise?! Gold stars for you. Well stupid yelpers made me second guess my great idea, saying that the food had gotten worse since they’d changed their menu, and it was not a good date place. Well… dang. So I thought Pyramid brewery is right in Walnut Creek, that would be perfect. But once again, snobby little yelpers saying that the food was crappy had me all worried. What if this was a bad idea, and Cale was looking forward to steak or something? Eeep!

So by the time I got home, I presented Cale with the directions to the two breweries with the open end that he could choose somewhere else, “You know like sushi or Claim Jumper or whatever you want.” So Claim Jumper it was. And it turned out fabulous. Their veggie burger is good, and I had half left over for lunch yesterday. I got my favorite martini (the Buttered Rum Martini), and we ate until we were stuffed.

While we did end up having a wonderful birthday dinner, I still hate yelp. There are always those snobs who go on there and give bad reviews that make me nervous about every place I go to now! Does any one else notice this? There is always that one person who says “I’ve had waaay better (insert whatever you could think of).” I bet these people never have anyone go out to dinner with them because they are such pains-in-the-you-know-what. Gr.

Then we got home nice and early, and I curled into bed with my book (The Memory Keeper’s Daughter) with two hundred pages left. And before I knew it there was only one hundred pages left. Then at midnight when I was finally going to fall asleep with about seventy pages left.. things got interesting, and I could not put it down. Finally around 1:30am, I finished. And ohh it felt good. This was the first for-pleasure book I’d finished since Pride and Prejudice that both Cale and I read to each other during long train rides on our Honeymoon. I really felt awesome. I finished a book. I used to be such an avid reader. I would curl up in my papasan chair in my childhood bedroom and read for days. But through high school and college I found myself having to read so many other things that by the time I had time to myself, the last thing I wanted to do was read. But that is something I have wanted to change. I love reading. Getting lost in the pages, hearing the characters’ voices, and feeling their emotions. Now I can mark #49 on my list as in progress. Sweet!

An early morning Daily Steph

The Almighty List

Steph — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:38:35 +0000

I have a tendency to get overwhelmed. Can you tell.. you know since I’ve been MIA for about a week? I mean just the task of blogging is too much for me. And working out is just plain daunting. Yet I continue to beat myself to death and put far too many things on my plate. So when I can’t accomplish everything I am angry at myself and end up doing nothing I set out to do. Why? I think it’s because I also have a tendency to just give up. I feel overwhelmed, and in my own way of fighting back, I do absolutely nothing. I evolve into the laziest person alive because I either work too much, need time to myself, or insert any other irrational reason here.

Then I saw this 101 in 1,001 days list floating around different blogs. The list began with an idea at Day Zero, followed by your wishcake, Cusp of Normal, Sara McGinness, Love, Shannon, and Ashley.Star. Yes it took all these people making lists before I finally decided to join in. I really sat on it for a while, cautioning myself against a new list to obsess over. I didn’t want another thing around to pressure me when really sometimes all I feel like doing is nothing.

Then I realized, this could actually be just the motivation I needed. A point in the right direction. By taking the time and thinking carefully about the things I wanted to accomplish, the way I wanted my life to be, I could use this list to boost me out of my laziness and channel my energy into the things that were important to me. This wouldn’t be a chore, but a choice. I specifically chose items that were tangible, ones that I could achieve. So you’ll see a lot of doing such-and-such for thirty days, ten times, etc. I’m relying on the idea that if you do something for thirty days it can really make an impact on your life. So we’ll see. Otherwise these next 1,001 days are just going to end up being expensive.

complete. in progress. ~~nevermind~~.

The Healthy Steph

Run a half marathon
Maintain a bedtime routine for 30 consecutive days
Do 30 minutes of exercise everyday for 30 days
Go to a yoga class at our gym
Play tennis with Cale
~~Finish eye therapy so that I don’t need glasses anymore (Dr said no need. so cute reading glasses it is!)~~
Walk the dogs every morning before work for one week
Spend an entire day without touching a computer or my PDA (ten times): 7/18/2009
Spend an entire day outside, from sunrise to sunset
Go entirely vegan for 30 days
Go an entire week without turning on the TV: 3/23/2009 – 3/29/2009
Go on ten bike rides
Make a workout playlist on my iPod and update it at least three times
Be able to swim a 200 IM again
Take the dogs on a hike ten times: 10/31/2009

The Married Steph

Plan three surprises for Cale
Design our new wedding photobook and have it made
Make new copies of our wedding video and put together with wedding photobook
For one month, first thing every morning, give Cale a kiss
Do Cale’s chores for him three random times: 3/28/2009, 10/18/2009
Stick Cale’s towel in the dryer and have a warm towel for him once he gets out of the shower five times (3/1/2009)
Dress up in corresponding Halloween costumes one year
Dress up and go to one fancy-pants dinner
Dress up and make him a five course dinner at home
Go to a concert that Cale would want to go to
Go on a date night 15 times: 2/27/2009, 3/21/2009, 11/13/09, 2/14/2010
Go an entire month without falling asleep with the TV on:
Finally decide on “Our Song”: Calico Skies by Paul McCartney
Go to a spa together to get pampered (2/14/2010, couples massage. aka the best day of my life)

The Well-Traveled Steph

Visit the UK
Go camping in Yosemite
Visit three new states in the US
Go tequila tasting in Mexico
Camp on the beach with my husband and the dogs
Perfect a British accent
Do all the tourist-y things in San Francisco
Visit five of the “1,000 wonders of the world”(The Las Vegas Strip at Night, Yosemite National Park)
Take ten spontaneous weekend trips with my husband (Not counting Bakersfield): Santa Cruz 3/29

The Intelligent Steph

Read one philosophy book
Finish my Jane Austen novels
Get the Intellectual Devotional and make time for it each day for one month: 2/16/2009 – 3/16/2009
Complete at least half of my Masters in Tax degree
Complete a French Ecole lesson a day for a month
Watch three French Films: (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, Le Battement D’Aile du Papillon, Il y a longtemps que je t’aime)
Watch three Spanish films
Speak Spanish for an entire day
Learn a new Spanish word a day for a month
Learn a new English word a day for a month: 2/13/2009 – 3/13/2009
Finish ten books (The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, My Lobotomy, It Sucked and Then I Cried)

The Creative Steph

Complete one whole year of a photo a day
Have an album printed of my photo a day year
Write in journal once a week at least for three months
Finish Cale’s afgan
Learn to play 3 songs on the guitar
Get prints of my photos made once a month for six months and update the ones in my cubicle
Take a photography class (online or in person)
Paint one painting that I love

The Practical Steph

Start a “House Down Payment” separate savings account
Pay off the remainder of our credit card debt
Pay off my car early
Organize our digital photos and back them up at least bimonthly
Go two weeks without purchasing anything in a store
Finish backing up all home videos to DVDs (Mom don’t kill me if it really does take this long, but really… it might!)
Go an entire month without stepping foot into Target
Get re-certified in CPR
Use my Mint.com account to make a budget and stick to it for three months: Feb 2009
Get things in order “If Something Happens to Me”

The Domestic Steph

Have people over to our house for a BBQ
Host one holiday dinner (so what if it’s just flag day)
Make 1 recipe from Veganomicon weekly for 1 month
Plant and Maintain my garden for an entire season
Teach the dogs one new trick
Make breakfast every Sunday morning for four weeks
Make hand squeezed orange juice
Print new pictures for the frames in our living room once a year
Make prints of pictures from all trips taken and put in a photo album
Bake a birthday cake and use my pretty cake stand
Go to an antique store and find one “perfect find,” whatever that may be

The Kind-Hearted Steph

Volunteer at an old folks’ home
Go three days without complaining
Send out 10 hand-written cards or letters for no reason (2/10)
Donate money each Christmas to a charity: 2009
Complete five random acts of kindness
Let five people know the five things I love the most about them
Send out five “just because you’re you” gift packages

The Vain Steph

Update my hairstyle once a year (2009)
Get botox
Buy a pair of Christian Louboutins
Figure out how to wear eyeliner without looking goth
Tell myself one great thing about myself every morning for one month
Open up my Lucky magazine and pick one outfit to buy for myself, accessories and all. Then buy it.
Find a swim suit that I actually love
Buy a skirt to wear to work and actually wear it at least ten times: (2/10)

The Living-Life Steph

Ride a rollercoaster
Go to a country music concert in boots, wranglers, and cowboy hat (whiskey optional)
Go Scuba Diving
Attend a professional soccer game
Use my bocce ball gift card
Find and make my own signature martini
Go wine tasting
Swim in the ocean