and hello!

>> Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Since we’ve taken our long distance relationship offline for the last 11 or so months, I’ve developed a healthy loathing for many “healthy living” blogs, so if we’re going to resurrect this thing, I’m going to have to clarify some things. I just re-read my “intro” post and it grossed me out a little because it reminded me of all of the blogs that I love to hate that harp upon “healthy choices” and “balanced lifestyles” while the writers subsist solely on extreme sports and kale. I’d like to amend my past sentiments to say that, at least for me, it will be fun to write about things that I like (including but not limited to a regular more healthy routine, but also including cheese, the beach, etsy, libraries, and all of my other interests). 

My favorite blogs are the ones that evolve with the writer, and touch on many different parts of the writer’s (or writers’ in this case) life and interests. I know many of the “how to have a successful blog” pseudo-guides out there suggest sticking to a topic or loose theme to unify the content of your blog and attract and maintain a readership that is interested in the topic about which you consistently blog. That won’t be a problem here because Vii and I are not looking to garner a readership or whatnot, we’re looking to have fun together even while physically far away from each other while hopefully becoming healthier and more responsible adults. I am also seriously hoping that this can be the location of my running cheese likes and dislikes list so I don’t forget it and then be distressed and conflicted at the whole foods cheese counter like I was last night. Obviously, my priorities are in line.

With that, I would love to turn to the bad habits that I described almost a year ago when we started this thing. Since it’s kind of the new year, and last year we started this shortly after the new year, I’m curious to see if any progress has been made at all.

My cuticles: there has been no real progress here. Currently I have 1.5 fingers in very bad shape. The rest however are ok, and the nails themselves are quite nice because the one thing I have been able to do is get semi-regular (like once every 1.5 months) manicures and pedicures. This is mostly because my feet, in their natural state, resemble hobbit feet very much and that is not a sexy look.

Eating cans of frosting: Have not eaten a can of frosting this year! Success! … sort of. I have however graduated to making my own homemade buttercream, but because it’s basically butter and sugar, I cannot bring myself to eat it in mass quantities. This is a good thing.

Waking up earlier: Fail. I set my alarm every morning for 5:15 and have only been on a morning run maybe 5 times. It’s depressing being able to add that up so easily.

Healthier eating/ cooking more: success! I definitely cook more and we certainly eat less processed foods. However, because of the joy of large portion sizes and the inconsistent morning running mentioned above, I weigh/ look the exact same that I did last year, which is not exactly fitness model status.

Yoga: success! I go to a lot more yoga classes but still have been unable to do a consistent practice at home. Also, I switched from more hardcore workout yoga to a style that is much more personally fulfilling but undoubtedly burns less calories.

Taking of vitamins: Since the calcium deficiency and subsequent flurry of bone scans of 2010, I have at least managed to take calcium, vitamin D and vitamin K, so I will count this as a partial success (except for the whole allowing myself to get so calcium deficient that my teeth were cracking part).

And there you have it. I am resolving to engage in consistent cuticle maintenance by the end of 2011!

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Vitamins vs. Exercise

>> Monday, February 8, 2010

After many computer problems that all boiled down to RAM, my midterm has been presented and I can happily return to the fledgling blog (and not so happily to the healthy habits that are the reason for the blog in the first place).

As I’ll describe later, one of the main goals for me at least is to exercise consistently. Yesterday was one of those days when exercise consistency fell to the wayside because of said midterm headache. One of the more tertiary goals of the blog is to create all around “healthy” habits, including things like sleeping enough, deep conditioning, and taking vitamins. I foolishly decided that I could substitute one habit (vitamin taking) for another (yoga) and have some sort of equivalent health outcome, or at least blog points for doing something rather than nothing.


Yesterday is proof that vitamin over-zealousness does not a healthy person make. Around lunchtime I took one, and in some cases two, of every fun overpriced vitamin that currently lives in my kitchen. The list looked a little something like this:


  • women’s multi-vitamin (a must-have base, right?) calcium with vitamin D supplements (because I needed to make up for my total abandonment of cow’s milk in favor of ridiculous plant-based milks)


  • acai antioxidant supplement (pretty purple bottle, no proven health effects when I take them, but a pretty bottle)


  • vitamin B supplement (which in addition to turning your pee bright yellow, also has a horrible plant-y aftertaste)

  • probiotics (because my digestive system and other unmentionables really benefit from these little bacteria!)
  • Fish oil horse pills (because they’re supposed to be good for your heart, or something similar)


Now, this was a lot of vitamins to take at once, especially when I usually take a few before bedtime and the others once a week or so. The before bedtime is key here, because when one takes FISH oil and stinky vitamin B (which I take only because Vii’s mother forced me to years ago) in the middle of the day while their stomach has a lot of sloshing around yet to do, unpleasantness occurs. Unpleasantness in this case takes the form of horrible tuna-rancid grass (yes, that is the taste/ smell of digested vitamin B) burps. Be warned, Vii and non-existent blog readers! This could happen to you, so time your fish oil and vitamin B carefully!

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Bedtime for Vii

>> Saturday, February 6, 2010

Keely, I am glad you are the inaugural first poster! Thank goodness for computer spasms and Amanda Bynes-- I loved loved loved opening our new citrusy-colored project and finding your post! It looks so much better; clearly this blog was made to be used. If I weren't so exhausted (more on that in a second), I'd be really energized by the fact that we have finally begun! 


I hope your lovely Hack is up and running now, and purring along through your soon-to-be-done-forever homework, illegal operating systems be damned. And you put our mission perfectly. I've had it on my mind, and I keep thinking of quips, movie scenes, passages and songs that relate. I think Baz Luhrman's Sunscreen song is especially apt.

"Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine." 
I already love old photos of Keely and me. And if we go on exactly as we are now, photos in another 10 years are going to be great. But we each want to know what we can actually do, and who the best versions of ourselves are. And we want to do the future Keely and Vianne a favor by being smarter and livelier about our choices now. This is about curves, frye boots, reading labels, fitted jeans, lululemon, fresh fruit, exercise routines, deep conditioner, heart rates, pushing ourselves, broccoli, and betting on our futures. it's about changing our approach, which starts inside and then feels good in any outfit outside.


And, then... then there is The je ne sais qua. The magic of healthy, beautiful women. There is that as well. 


And so I arrive at my Day One, which was a bit of a battle. I hope the larger fight has been won, because I need to kick a terrible habit. It's numero uno, at the moment, for my plan to a revamped, healthy lifestyle. While Keely bites her cuticles and eats frosting, I stay up til 5 a.m, sleep until 1 p.m, and have lately become fixated on hot dogs on sourdough toast with mustard. from discussing magic, to mustard. oy. 


My main issue is my sleep schedule, which is why I say the larger fight may have been won.... I stayed up all night last night, in order to be exhausted now, at 11 p.m. Hopefully this will stop me waking up when the rest of the world gets off work tomorrow, and let me get a shot at absorbing some of those peak-health sleeping hours around midnight. But, before you get too excited Keely, my breakfast at 6 this morning was...you guessed it! a hot dog, on toasted wheat, with mustard. The rest of the day was great, and I ate an incredibly combination of food at dinner for my mother's birthday, and we had a wonderful time. but I am now ready to crawl under my fluffy duvet, and go.to.sleep. :) 

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Blog the First

Vii, I have been checking obsessively all day to see if you’d posted yet so that the first ever blog post would be out of the way and the tone would be set. I was hoping for your eloquent words, captivating descriptions, and knack for making ordinary things like ill-fitting jeans and penchants for eating entire cans of frosting sound a little more unique and a little less mundanely pathetic.

Sadly, It seems that I am going to be making the inaugural post after all because my “hack”intosh has had a very adverse reaction to me attempting to “auto-update” the security settings… it turns out neither Apple nor Microsoft react well to illegal copies of their operating systems going online to try to update some setting or another. Due to this very unfortunate turn of events, I am reinstalling Windows and therefore have no access to the as of yet incomplete midterm project that is due Monday, but I’ve got a laptop and an Amanda Bynes marathon on the family channel.

In such a situation, what is a girl to do but blog about her newly revamped lifestyle of healthy eating, healthy habits, consistent exercising, and minimal nail biting? Alright, I’ve already failed at the healthy habits (went to bed at 4am because some other blogger/ best friend who will not be named had me video chatting with her puppy until all hours) and at the nail biting (which is really cuticle biting and is completely unconscious, yet completely revolting).

I guess that’s really what this blog is all about, for me at least (Vii’s cuticles are generally well maintained). As she so succinctly put it, “We don’t want to be one of those 50 year old women who finally loses those 15 pounds, runs a marathon or completes some other fitness feat, and regrets forever that they hadn’t felt this good in their 20’s.”

So, we’re doing it in our 20’s, “it” being forcing ourselves out of our bizarre and sometimes destructive habits and becoming real well-adjusted adults… that will look really effortlessly good in engagement photos, bathing suits, and any of life’s other unforgiving clothing situations.

In the spirit of accountability, I made it not only to yoga today but also out for a verrry slow two-mile run. I think this block of text has gotten long enough (I promise to learn how to upload photos to the blog tonight!), so until my desktop breaks again (or inspiration strikes!), I’ll leave you with these ramblings. I know Vii will chime in to provide some focus and voice to this blog (not to mention photos and advanced formatting) and until then, I guess I have a midterm to work on!

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