Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Do pigs really sweat?

Here's a funny story. Last night I was working out, getting my burn on. Sweating like a pig, hot as baked potato and down right exhausted. TT (Trainer T) had a master plan last night for D and I to pump some serious iron. I often find myself laughing when I attempt to lift weights because of various distractions. Example: One man was taking his lifting very seriously but was wearing slip on Ked shoes, circa 1990! Yep, I took one look at those suckers and started laughing. Laughter=Weakness Another time this man was talking about how he didn't need to work on his abs because he had good genetics. Sorry to say, I burst out laughing and had to walk away. Don't worry, I mostly laugh at myself when I'm trying to focus on lifting my 15 pound weights over my head. It's really funny when I grunt and it's only 30 pounds. Okay, back on track. Sorry for that tangent. So last night we were working on our gluts (BUTT) doing this hip thrust move. It's okay if you just went there when I said hip thrust because I always giggle (yup I'm 27). There we were, shoulders on the bench 60 pounds on our lap, thrusting our hips up while burning our asses off. That's how I felt anyways. Second set, people had started to gather near a studio door for a class that would start in a few minutes. Here comes the greatest part of the entire workout...the second set of glut burning seemed a lot more challenging so extreme concentration was a must. Half way through my set, the concentration was gone because I realized I was grunting while thrusting. Yep! I honestly burst out laughing because heaven forbid anyone heard me. So there is my funny story, Celeste hip thrusting and grunting at the gym. It's amazing that I even continue showing my face at that place.
Happy Tuesday!

If you must know pigs don't actually sweat. People think pigs are a dirty animal because they roll in mud but that helps them cool off. Due to the reference that a pig is dirty, the saying "sweating like a pig" basically means that you are a dirty dirty sweater.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Happy Friday!

I sang this song on Wednesday while "pumping" iron at the gym. I think it works for this fabulous Friday!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Running the stairs with Rocky

Let's go back in time to the popular Rocky movie where he trains so hard, wears his body out, trains some more, sweats a lot, and finally runs up the stairs of the Philadelphia Art Museum and fist pumps his heart out! I visited those steps in December with my Aunt and we each took turns "sprinting" up and jumping for joy at the top. (Let me just tell you, Rocky makes it seem like those steps are like climbing Everest. They are more like steps to a museum, not a lot and well spaced.) Now, let's compare Rocky's training and my training. The obvious difference is I'm am not training for a fight club and I lack that sweet accent. When making the decision to change my life I needed to have a purpose and goal. First of all, I needed to find my Mickey.Mickey found and she's more than willing to kick my butt, hold me accountable and give praises when deserved. I've even found some dedicated fans who also cheer me on, hold me accountable and assist in the butt kicking. Now, Rocky had a goal, to kick some major heinie in the boxing ring. My goal is to lose some major heinie, gut, and pump up my muscles. Rocky and I have both jumped rope a million times, lifted weights, dripped sweat, cursed, hated Mickey, but most importantly conquered! At one point Adrian asks Rocky "Why do you want to fight?" Rocky's response "Because I can't sing or dance." Why do I want to fight? Because I can't go on eating what I want and not care about my health. In order to become the fighter I must continue my training. More importantly, I must recognize the times that I have won. I have yet to do this, so I'm going to visualize standing next to Rocky at the top of the Art Museum steps and fist pumping to the following successes:
A fist pump to staying in the gym for over a year.
A fist pump to losing over 50 pounds.
A fist pump to my first 5k.
A fist pump to my first half marathon.
A fist pump to running up Galena summit.
A fist pump to my fastest time for a short distance (even with a pit stop.)
A fist pump to eating healthier.
A fist pump to believing in myself.
A fist pump to increasing my weights.

There are 6 Rocky movies, thus there are 6 reason for Rocky to struggle during his journey of becoming one of the best fighters in the world. Unfortunately my struggles will not be finished in six movies. This is a life long fight. I will always have days that I want to give up. Days I will eat more junk that I should. Days I cry because I feel I have not accomplished anything. Days where I have to muster every ounce of strength just to walk into the gym. The biggest fight I need to win is continuing to recognize all the positive changes I am making. So, along with my friend Rocky, I will continue to run up those stairs to reach my goals. Won't you join me?




Apollo creed: Stay in school and use your brain. Be a doctor, be a lawyer, carry a leather briefcase. Forget about sports as a profession. Sports make you grunt and smell. See, be a thinker, not a stinker.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

I'm tired.

Here's my issue:
I'm so tired today. I can't seem to get my mind out of the sleep fog. I swear I'm still dreaming. My bed and my pillows are calling me wanting to know when I'll be home. This morning I opted not to take a shower (even though I workout hard last night) because all I wanted was to sleep in. I drug myself out of bed and remembered our coffee maker at work isn't working. CRAP! Within a few minutes, I started feeling sick. I know it's not really sick, it's tired sick. Then I see Shayne still sleeping in bed. Lucky! Now I'm forced to remember the following:
1. I don't have a physically demanding job
2. I only work 8 hours a day
3. I have no children
Now I feel guilty. I see how hard my BF works and how he's so tired every day but still gets up and goes and works 12 hour days. Then I see my friends who are mothers/fathers. I'm proud of them. They have now sacrificed their sleeping in for their children and I'm not quite ready to do that. I guess I'm just going to be selfish for a second. I want to sleep, I need to sleep, my body is shutting down. I want to be ready for this race on Saturday (did I tell you I have another race?)but more importantly, I want to keep my eyes open at work. No coffee for me today, even my stomach hurts. Ugh! I will sleep on Sunday, all day and I don't even care if I am called lazy. This gal is desperate for some serious zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Good night

Thursday, June 2, 2011

You mess with the bull, you get the horns!

Many months ago, I posted a blog about becoming an elite member of the "Let's eat raw bull testicles" club. In one day I joined the club but unfortunately I have willingly withdrew my membership to said club. It just involved too much slime (that's what I'm calling it) for me to stomach. During that nut cut/hide burning is when I must have messed with the wrong bull. Word traveled fast that some blonde gal was out to participate in another hide burning and banding of the bull parts. Two weeks ago was my first branding at C. Ladd Holmquist's farm. Mind you, I love the calves at this farm and I named them and tried to save their mothers from being sold. My opinion has changed...5 of us gathered for the operation with one man running the head catch, another running calves into the chute, Shayne branding, the new guy giving shots, and ME the only girl. At first I gave shots too but then when the calves were being unruly, the nice man struggling to run the head catch would go "assist" in pushing the calf up the alley and forget about his responsibility. This is when Wonder Woman (that's how I felt that day) stepped in and ran the head catch. Let me boast: I was dang good at it! In one swoop, I got the head, squeezed the body and flipped that table. Mind you these weren't the small cuties anymore, my babies are growing so quickly. Wonder Woman continued mixing medicine, putting the band on the de-nutter/band-thingy, refilling syringes, running the head catch when someone was distracted. Needless to say even with Wonder Woman present, the fist half of the day did not go smoothly. I was introduced to a new side of Shayne. He just didn't even care, he hates every aspect of cows and obviously with branding being apart of bovine management, he does not share the excitement that I have.

I had fried chicken and cookies for lunch. (The no sugar thing lasted until Saturday)

After we ate, we had to gather the second bunch. I was determined to make the afternoon run smoother than the morning. When running the cows and calves into a smaller corral to sort, I step on what I thought was dried poo. WRONG! Fell in past my boot only to struggle to get my foot free before getting run over. Don't worry, Juan just stood there and laughed. Sweet, thanks Juan. After we got them all in the corral, it was time to sort the cows from the calves. I was manning the gate making sure only cows got through. Don't worry, Thor was in there as well.
He's the BMOC (big man on campus) but don't be intimidated because he loves to have his head scratched and eating corn cobs. Usually he's in his own corral but it was business time, so he was in with the ladies. (If you know what I mean. Wink, wink) Things were going okay, I showed off my skills of not being intimidated by the raging cows bucking at me or the 3,000 pound bull strutting around like he owned the place. We had one more corral to push the calves into and by the end, we had about 3 cows that got put in with the babies. One of these lucky mothers was my main gal-pal Nadeen. She's always been so sweet until we tried to take Khloe away from her. This is when the mama bear took over to protect her cub! After waving my magic red cape, Nadeen ran out to leave her precious baby. During the mumbo-jumbo two calves escaped back in with the cows. OOPS! Well, this oops was just enough to send Shayne into blackout rage. He took his fiber glass sorting stick and smashed it into a fence post. Well my friends, karma is a *BEEP* thus the broken stick came back to create a nice cut right above his eye. Yep...this was the icing on the cake. The kid was pouring blood and I kindly but firmly reminded him he needs to calm down. There's nothing we could do about the situation. Fast forward 10 minutes and 2 cigarettes later (Shayne smokes not me.) We were back in the barn ready to get the second bunch done. Back to my determination to run the calves though in a more timely manner, I asked Juan if he needed a break. That's my way of helping the man keep his ego while I burst it 3 seconds later by swiftly guiding a calf though the alley and into the chute. I took the mission upon myself to push the calves through the rest of the afternoon. I received many praises from the guys about how well I handled the calves and managed to keep up with the branding. I only got kicked once and then I exchanged some words with that calf and it apologized. One thing that always makes Ladd and Shayne mad, is when Juan will just let the calves run by him. Well sucker step aside and let Wonder Woman show you how you DO NOT let the calf run by you. So with my brute strength I grabbed those suckers necks and reminded them who was in charge. It worked. Just saying. Okay, okay, I'm moving on. We had about 12 calves left when I realized my knees were starting to hurt. I had no idea why because I know the secret to not getting kick. Stay right behind that beauty as you run/push it up the alley. What I failed to realize is the calves hocks were hitting my knees. (For those of you who don't know, I bruise like a peach) Once we finished I came to realize the abuse I had taken all afternoon.(These are my $60 pants I donated because every other poop pants I own are too big) Now please see picture of my arms and legs but at the same time, please do not judge the size of my thighs...I became well aware that I need to increase the amount of squats I do.
Let me wrap up this EXTREMELY long post. When I ate those Rocky Mountain Oysters (in a half shell) last fall, I messed with the bull. When I opted to bring out Wonder Woman two weeks ago. I got the horns. Moral of the story? There is none. I had a great time and I can't wait until the next branding. Until then, I'm going to start eating more spinach for the iron. I need to rid myself of these bruises.
Have a great day!