Thursday, November 3, 2011

30 before 30

It's been pretty drab here at this blog lately! Sorry. It's photo season and I've been very busy! www.iowawildflowerphotography.com

I've also been busy lately with a health challenge I'm doing with some friends. You throw $10 into the pot and then the person with the most points wins. You get points for eating 3 veggies, eating 2 fruits, not eating 2 hours before bed, not eating sweets, not drinking soda, getting 7 hours of sleep, taking a vitamin, drinking 48 oz water, and exercising an hour a day. So, I've been devoting more time to exercise and struggling to fight my sweet tooth addiction!

Also of note in regards to my hobbies, since this is a hobby blog, is my 30 before 30. I'll turn 30 in about 2 years. Yes, I'm young. Thank you for telling me.  I have a friend who made 30 goals to acchomplish before she turns 30 and I liked it so much, I did my own, too! Here it is:

  1. Visit 7 new states with Alex (Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland)
  2. Plan 10 year anniversary vacation
  3. Read President Monson's Biography
  4. Learn how to make homemade tortillas
  5. Go Hang-gliding
  6. Get my name in Amy's Christmas letter
  7. Run a 5K
  8. Read 50 books
  9. Do a 1 mile Nauvoo Handcart Trek with the family
  10. Attend the temple 30 times
  11. Read the Book of Mormon in Spanish (El Libro de Mormon)
  12. Learn to knit
  13. Publish 100 blog posts
  14. Print 2 blog books
  15. Rekindle a friendship
  16. Make a new friend
  17. Do temple work for 10 ancestors
  18. visit 3 new temples
  19. Decorate my house
  20. Finish basement on House
  21. be in a musical (Community Theater)...
  22. taste 30 different types of frozen custard (Ted Drews, culvers, Kill Devil, Rita's)
  23. Try 3 new Iowa City restaurants
  24. write a novel
  25. Learn to play 30 songs on the piano (15 hymns, 15 children's songbook songs)
  26. Write a song
  27. complete Faith in God program
  28. Try 30 exercise videos



Yes, it's not finished yet- I still have 2 years, right? And, it may be changing, too, because my goals may change, and that is okay! Some goals are rather easy and will probably happen on their own and some are really rather challenging! (ehem... writing a novel? we'll see if that stays...)

So, I'm trying out 30 exercise videos and I have a feeling that it will not take very long at all to finish that goal. Luckily, our library has a large collection! Here's what I've tried so far and my reactions to them:

  • Cardio burn Dance for weight loss with Patricia Moreno
    • Review: dancy-pants. If you really like dance, you may like this. It was basically learning a dance routine. For me it was too tricky and not enough exercise/cardio/strength
  • Hemalayaan Bollywood Booty
    • This wasn't particularly cardiovacularly (not a word, spell check? should be.) challenging, but it was really rather fun!
  • Women'sHealth Perfect Body Workout with Amy Dixon
    • I think this was my favorite. Good work out, but not ridiculously hard. (aka, they did planks, but only 4 reps) Also, the girl talks about loving your body no matter what type. And, she's from Utah, so she say fun things like "o my heck" and she challenges us to pretend speed skating and fencing. 
  • Dancing with the Stars cardio dance
    • This was probably my favorite dancing video. That's probably because I"m actually familiar/comfortable with ballroom dance more than hip-hop. 
  • Barefoot cardio
    •  When at home, I like to exercise barefoot, so this was good. It seemed like a mash-up of all things barefootish- ballet, yoga, pilates, all with a good cardio heartrate. I liked it.
  • 10 minute solution Hip Hop dance mix
    • Skinny white girl pretending to be a rapper? I just couldn't get into it.
Well, there's six so far!