I like p90x though, I think it is one of the best at home workout outs, not only the moves but Tony Horton himself makes it a good experience.

I thought about doing p90x all over again, but I’m just to tempted to try the Insanity workout, which is a 60 day program and looks pretty sweet!

In the meantime though I’m going get back to doing a little p90x, I’m going to follow the program until I have the Insanity workout and then I’m going to just do maybe the P90x Yoga and maybe one of the strength DVDs.

Working out is
All about getting in shape for me, that may mean switching up programs adding and subtracting some things.  The point of most workouts including p90x is to get fit and get used to working your body every day.  If a workout program doesn’t seem fun or I don’t think I’m putting in the best effort, then that tells me one thing, switch it up.  It is not an excuse to quit working out, but to find a new activity to do, so I can keep progressing my strength and fitness levels.

Breaking Workout Rules

It is fun to follow a fitness plan and accomplish what you set out to do, but really think about a workout plan before you start it and see how it works with your lifestyle.  You may have to break the rules and guidelines that some programs set up for you and rearrange the workouts to fit you day.

Some people get really amazing results doing p90x while others don’t.  This probably is because the people who are getting the results, love the workout and are really pushing themselves, while the others are just going through the motion and watch the clock through the whole video.

Although I think there are good parts to P90x and I do intend to incorporate some of the videos into my week, I’m really ready to try something else like the Insanity Workout and some heavy lifting at the gym.

But until my new videos come I’ll be dusting off the p90x weights!

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Usually when I move I have been to the place that I’m planning on going or have at least driven through it before.  But this time I decided to try a place completely new and something that has been on my mind for awhile.

Park City Utah

I have been wanting to try out this spot since last year at this time.  The mountain bike trails are supposed to be sweet, 300 plus miles of them.  Plus the snow in the winter in Utah is “supposed” to be sweeter then Colorado, which would be great.

It is totally gorgeous here!  The weather has been a little bit of adjustment since, living in Fort Lauderdale and then San Diego.  You can say it is a tad bit chilly here even in June, but the outdoor aspects, trails and views make it an exciting place to live.

So here I am in Park City now, trying out something completely new and I find it very refreshing.

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So a couple months ago I made a quick list of things to get done before I was 30 years old.  I only had about two months to get the items done, so I did not get everything accomplished, but some things are better than nothing.  Here is another look at the list and what went down.

1.    Mountain bike at least 4 different spots in CA  (This is one of the things that i keep putting off, there is so much great trail riding to be done here and I want to experience some of it)  GOT THIS ONE DONE!  Biked Sweetwater, Florida Canyon, Mission Trails and Tri Canyon.

2.    Learn to ride a skate board ( I have pretty much wanted to do this since I was 8 years old, better late then never…even though I’m sure it will be embarrassing.) CHECK!  Bought A Sector 9 Skate board and started practice riding it.

3.    Do a running trail race (I want to start trail running, it so fun getting of the road, so I decided what better way to motivate me then to sign up for a trail race) FAIL!  Never gotta around to doing this, p90x and Mountain biking took up too much time.

4.    Hike anzaborrego desert state park (This is suppose to be a really sweet state park in Southern CA, I wanted to go there last time I lived here, but never did, this time I’m going to do it) NOPE, never got around to driving all the way out there from San Diego.

5.    Read an adventure novel (Outside and Adventure magazine are always publishing the top classic adventure novels to read, I always go down the list and think I want to read one of these, but never do….what am I waiting for!) FAIL again Ha, this one was just due to complete laziness, I have no great excuses for failing this one.

6.    Volunteer for beach clean up (I really believe you shouldn’t just take from a place that you live and have fun at, you should give too)  Sad to Say Nope.

7.    Learn to ride a dirt bike (Basically another thing I have wanted to do since I was 8, I’m sure I’ll be in class with a bunch of teenagers, should be fun!) No! I really wanted to do this but the classes were too expensive to take right now.

8.    Do first two months of P90x (P90x is video workout, supposedly it pretty hardcore, I have had the videos for awhile but the plan is 90 days….so I always find an excuse not to do them…I figure if I start today I can get the first two months done and then easily finish the third one all before summer…no more excuses….I will blog about my experience with this program) Partial Pass!  I got about 40 some days into the program and then I caught a cold that hung on for a couple weeks, kinda made me push pause for awhile, then when I felt better I started really getting into Mt Biking.  Great program, plan to finish it off shortly.

9.    Get on a healthy balanced diet (Traveling makes you eat crappy, living on fast food and erratic meal times makes me feel like crud, but is an hard habit to break, I want to start eating balanced small meals through the day.  I will keep a food diary to keep on track and get balanced eating plan)  YES! For Two months I kept a food journal and ate in balance; So many carbs, proteins, fats a day.

10.  Do 8 solid pull ups (I used to pump out pull ups all the time, but not lifting weights or hitting the gym very often has weakened me, right now I can’t do ONE.  So I came up with the number 8; five seemed to easy and 10 felt to hard.) NO! I think I would have got a lot closes to this goal if I would have finsihed off p90x I started the program, by doing no pullups to being able to pump out three solid ones.

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One of My Birthday things to do before you 30 list is to Learn to ride a skateboard.  I decided I really better get on this one, if I wanted to get it accomplished before the end of April.

I know not a lot about skateboards, so I went to a couple local shops and talked to some kids….yes kids way younger then me, about skateboards.

After much debate I decided to go with a medium longer board for cruising around on.  I know I’m not likely to be one of those people you see in the skate park or going off some ramp, I just don’t have that kind of desire.  But a cruising boards sounded good for just getting my balance and skating around on.
I decided to go with a Sector 9 board called the wing.

I really thought it was a sweet looking board right when I saw it and seemed like a good size for me to handle.

I have had the board for a little over a week now and really love it.  Getting used to riding it around and it is actually really some quick transportation.

I have several years of board sport experience (snowboarding, wakeboarding, kiteboarding) so I think that helped me make smoother transition with the skateboard.

I’m not saying it is easy though, I still feel pretty damn clumsy and wobbly on it.  Thankfully I have not taking any spills yet and really I’m trying to avoid doing so.  I pick it up usually if I’m crossing an intersection.

The other day I was crossing the street carrying and some older gentleman said “You don’t ride that do you!” I’m not really what made him say that, was it because I don’t look like a rider or because I’m a girl or pushing 30, possibly it could have been because I was carrying it and not riding it…..I don’t know.  Anyhow I just responded with “trying to!”

I’m glad I bought the board though and hopefully the skills I learn will make me stronger and more confident in some of my other board sports as well.

Skateboarding is something I think you just gotta keep practicing and working on the balance and movements.  It really is a lot of fun and I’m happy I put it on my to do list or I may have put it off for the rest of my life.

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One of the items on my 10 things to do before my 30th Birthday list is two complete 2 months of the P90x workouts.  Well this is something I have started right away, so I can try and stay on track with it and get the two months completed.

I first heard about P90x from my cousin, my first thought was ‘oh another lame workout video.’  I never really have heard p90x about before he mentioned it and after his description of it ’90 days of hardcore workouts’ my interest got the better of me and I started googling away.

P90x Community
Well turns out P90xers are kind of a group of there own, many blogs and you tube videos out there, some detailing the whole program and sharing everyone’s experiences with it.  The more I watched the more interested I got in it.  I got seriously addicted to the Youtube videos!

I guess word in the blogging world is you should already be in pretty good shape to even do the videos.  You can even be expected to complete some pull ups by the end of the program.  Which is already of interest to me, since I need to try and pump 8 out by my Birthday!

The Program
Tony Horton is your “personal trainer” through the videos, some may know him from other beach body workouts and he is pretty ripped.  Anyhow there are like 12 different videos to do and you rotate through them during the week.  The videos are couple weight workouts, plyometrics, one that is sorta like tae bo (kenopa) a yoga, and a hardcore ab.

My Thoughts
Okay by now I’m saying to myself wow I can’t believe I’m interested in this infomercial workout videos.  My cousin even lent me his when he was done with them and I took them and set them in my closet that was about half a year ago.  I mean I’m more of outdoorsy, biker, runner, snowboarder type of person, when was I actually going be able to dedicate like1 hour and half to these videos everyday, I would much rather go for a jog.

Really it was reading others blogs and watching their personal you tube videos that sold me on trying it out, it sorta looked fun (seriously if you have any interest in the videos go check out the post for them on you tube there are 100s of them to view).  Plus I could use some strength training, I haven’t been doing any in the last year and didn’t really want to fork out money for gym right now.

So I figured I would put it on my “things to do before I am 30” list.  I only had 60 days though, until my 30th Bday, but I figure hey if I make it 60 days, that’s better then nothing and maybe I’ll possibly stay motivated for the last 30 days. So I figured why not give it try and see how it goes, it just felt like the right time to do it.

Conclusion
I thought I would do possibly weekly (maybe more often at first since I’ll likely have more whining to do) updates on the program; I already completed day 1 and 2 yay!  More thoughts on the program to come.

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As the big 30 approaches though, I started thinking of few last minute things I want to do.  I can be one of those people that says ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ and before I know it a whole month will fly by and I won’t have it done.  But I thought Feb. 23rd is a perfect day to make a list of things to do before I turn 30.  This will give me a solid two months to accomplish them.  Plus I want to start my 30s feeling good and motivated.

So I made a list of 10 things that I want to accomplish before I turn 30:

1.    Mountain bike at least 4 different spots in CA  (This is one of the things that i keep putting off, there is so much great trail riding to be done here and I want to experience some of it)

2.    Learn to ride a skate board ( I have pretty much wanted to do this since I was 8 years old, better late then never…even though I’m sure it will be embarrassing.)

3.    Do a running trail race (I want to start trail running, it so fun getting of the road, so I decided what better way to motivate me then to sign up for a trail race)

4.    Hike anzaborrego desert state park (This is suppose to be a really sweet state park in Southern CA, I wanted to go there last time I lived here, but never did, this time I’m going to do it)

5.    Read an adventure novel (Outside and Adventure magazine are always publishing the top classic adventure novels to read, I always go down the list and think I want to read one of these, but never do….what am I waiting for!)

6.    Volunteer for beach clean up (I really believe you shouldn’t just take from a place that you live and have fun at, you should give too)

7.    Learn to ride a dirt bike (Basically another thing I have wanted to do since I was 8, I’m sure I’ll be in class with a bunch of teenagers, should be fun!)

8.    Do first two months of P90x (P90x is video workout, supposedly it pretty hardcore, I have had the videos for awhile but the plan is 90 days….so I always find an excuse not to do them…I figure if I start today I can get the first two months done and then easily finish the third one all before summer…no more excuses….I will blog about my experience with this program)

9.    Get on a healthy balanced diet (Traveling makes you eat crappy, living on fast food and erratic meal times makes me feel like crud, but is an hard habit to break, I want to start eating balanced small meals through the day.  I will keep a food diary to keep on track and get balanced eating plan)

10.  Do 8 solid pull ups (I used to pump out pull ups all the time, but not lifting weights or hitting the gym very often has weakened me, right now I can’t do ONE.  So I came up with the number 8; five seemed to easy and 10 felt to hard.)

So this is the big list, before I wrote it I came up with 30 things I wanted to do and then narrowed it down to 10 things I really wanted to do, were affordable and hopefully pratical.

Over the next two months I’ll be blogging about getting the list accomplished and going into my 30s feeling GREAT!

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We decided to take the southern-southern route 10 West all the way to the 8.  Just to avoid any potential cold weather, also this is a way we have never driven before.  When we drive across the country previous times we’re usually leaving from Chicago.

Good Deal/Bad Deal
First stop on the route was Biloxi Mississippi.  I have never been here and love saying Biloxi Mississippi in a southern accent.  Biloxi is a like a very mini Vegas; casinos and gambling.

You can get great deals staying at casinos, usually you can get a king size room for 50 bucks.  I’m talking about a really nice room here, flat screen tv large bathroom, possible jacuzzi.  Wow whatta deal!  Alas there is no free wifi in the room or good movies on the tv, what is a person to do but go downstairs to the huge casino awaiting them.

This is where your good deal turns into a bad deal, the house always wins.

Here is how the casino wins all your money:

1. your up a couple 100, you consider that free money and decide to gamble it and you loose it….damn it you’re thinking i just had a free couple hundred dollars,
2. well you take 50 dollars more and try and double it.
3. You loose the 50 dollars in 2 minutes, damn why did I spend that 50 dollars you ask yourself, I mean you could of just broke even, but now you down 50.
4. Might as well try and win the 50 back, 1 minute later you’re down another 50.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 until your completely broke and your awesome 50 dollar room turns into a 500 dollar room.
6. Get up early the next morning, decide you should at least win something back, loose another 100.

The house is going win, even if you lucky to win a couple bucks in the beginning, it won’t stay in your pocket for long.  Of course there is a few rare exceptions to the case where you will hear of someone winning thousands of dollars.  This is where you decide maybe you will give gambling another shot, even though you swore never again last time.

This pic was my big 32 dollar win, my first five minutes in the casino, I thought it was amazing, I lost it all plus a couple hundred more about an hour later.  Mike thought we could win some back by putting 100 dollars on red……..it landed on black.

New Orleans
The next day it was back on the road with a lunch time break in New Orleans.  Neither of us have ever been to New Orleans, so it was cool to check it out.  There is still a lot of construction and road work being done as well; recovery from Katrina.  So lots of slow traffic, especially leaving New Orleans.  You can still feel the effects of Katrina and a city trying to recover in a lot of ways.

We stopped off in the French Quarters to Cafe Du Monde For some famous Beignets, which were absolutely amazing!

Afterward we strolled around the Quarters and Bourbon street, the area was just waking up, it was probably around noon.  Lot of people getting ready to party and drink, I really could not imagine Madre Gras here, it must be absolutely nuts!

A feel for Bourbon Street….many restaurants and bars, lots of different types of music blaring out from each place you walk by.

After leaving New Orleans it was a full day of driving, right into Texas.  It took all of our will power to skip going to South Padre Island (best place to kiteboard in the states) Okay well actually the weather down there was suppose to be rain for the next ten days, otherwise I’m pretty sure we would have pit stop there for a couple weeks.

Austin Texas
Instead we made our way to Austin Texas, a place I have driven by but never actually stopped and check it out.  This city is pretty sweet, lots and lots of bike and triathlon stores.  I mean more then any other city I have been to. You can find a bike store on almost every other corner there.

In fact we stopped at Lance Armstrong’s bike store Mellow Johnny’s to check it out.

The store was sweet, I can for sure drop a ton of money here.  They carry basically all the stuff that sponsors Lance ie-Trek.  It is cool spot, very large, nice cafe and a bunch of cool bike accessories and clothing that I haven’t really spotted at other bike stores.  Of course tons of bikes and even some really sweet fixed gear rides.

Another really cool thing we just happen to spot while driving around the city is this sweet BMX dirt park, it is basically right in the middle of downtown.

Oh and if you ever find yourself in Austin check out the whole foods downtown, it is absolutely amazing!  I could live in there.

San Diego California
After Austin, both of us were getting pretty sick of being on the road, and really just wanting to get to our destination: San Diego.  The worst part about taking a road trip is not having a home to go relax in, after it is all over and done with.  After living on the boat, we were both ready to get to Socal and get settled into an apartment.  It took another two days of driving, but we finally made it.

After 8 months of traveling, getting back to the West never felt so good.

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Eight Months Ago I left California searching for something different…..possibly a new place to live….I road tripped all around the country.

The Road trip looked Like this…..Yes some places we visited twice and double backed to.

What I realized when going a trip like this:

• You never quite no what you have until you leave it
• Check out one place for as long as necessary, do everything you want to, once you you get 200 miles down the road you don’t want to have to turn back because you think you missed out on something.
• Accept that you will miss a place after leaving it, enough that you may have to return and revisit it.  This happened to me after I left Durango CO, I got all the way down to Florida and after a couple months realized realized that I really want to go back and think about living there.
• I really miss CA…..I missed it about the whole time I was gone.

After been gone from CA for eight months and visiting (almost) everywhere that I have ever wanted to or thought of living….I now can return to the west coast feeling satisfied with my decision to live there.

So My New Road Trip Plan is the one that gets me to Southern CA the fastest.  Luckily I made all my pits stops around the country last year…..so the new road trip plan looks more like:

Over the last eight months of driving I have picked up some tips to planning a good road trip:

• Plan ahead (knowing where you going and where you going to stop makes things easier, booking hotels in advance online always gets a better rate)
• Don’t get upset when you have to throw your whole plan out the window cause you only made it 200 miles the first day and planned on 400.  Rerouting and reconfiguring your trip is part of the spontaneity of road tripping.
• Do some research, how are you suppose to know where the biggest ball of string is if you don’t look it up before you go.  With out research you are just aimlessly driving (which can be fun too)
• Hotel Coupon books at gas station really do save you money….usually around ten dollars a night.
• Fast food gets old quick.  Load up and grocery snacks before you leave.  Even eating at a gas station is more interesting then fast food after a 1000 miles.
• Plan the trip with someone you can laugh with.
• Comedy CDs will help you get through states like Kansas or Nebraska.

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Okay so my previous post was about the down side of living on a boat, now to tell ya how it is not all bad.

Living on a boat has been one of the most interesting experience of my life.  I am learning so much everyday, about boats, boat communities and myself.  I would put this all on the plus side of living on a boat.  With boat life your learning so many things about yourself and some of them very personal; you find out how you handle stressful situations, what makes you run, what scares you, some of it will toughen you up, while other things break you down.  It is all a very interesting process.

What type of boat you are living on and what shape it is in, will highly affect your experiences.  So each persons boat journey will be very different, from one another.

For me personal, my boat is a work in progress, we have had to do with out many modern conveniences; no hot water, no bathroom (there is bathroom and hot water where it is docked just not on the boat), no food allowed on the boat (my own rule, due to bugs), no clothes allowed on the boat (own rule again due to mildew).  So you could say I have been roughing it.  We originally came here with the attentions of fixing up the boat, but after we bought it we realized exactly how impossibly hard it would be to do, while trying to live on it.

They make it look so easy on the movie Captain Ron!

Nothing like coming onto the boat, with all the floor boards ripped up.  So we pretty much decided to just live on it as is and to resell it. Looking at as a cheap place to stay, while we have fun in the Florida sun.

With all the bad there still are definite perks to living on a boat though:

• Freedom-When you live on a boat, you have this feeling of freedom, even if it doesn’t run, you don’t feel bogged down like you do when your in an apartment, there seems to be adventure right out your door.
• Never boring-Living on a boat is never boring.  I get bored and restless super quickly, it is something I’m working on, but I haven’t been bored here once.  I could be jogging on the beach, or watching Mike chase cockroaches on the boat, there is always something to do.
• Simplicity-Boat life is simple, you end up feeling lighter and you realize all the things you can live without.
• Cheap living-If you do buy a boat and you get a cheap one like us, you may only have a few thousand dollars invested and then you have to rent a dock space for it which is usually around 600 a month.  If you ask me that is super cheap!  I have never rented an apartment for that cheap.
• Getting outside more-Living on a boat gets you outside EVERYDAY rain or shine!  My daily day is wake up, stretch, get out on top of the boat, drink a juice, go for a jog, come back do a little work, check the wind for kiteboarding and usually end up finishing the day with trail riding.
• Breaking Old Habits- Living on a boat helps you break old habits: I can easily waste a day laying around, playing ps3, but not anymore I get up and get going, i like this!
• Boat community-the boats that are docked by you are considered your neighbors, you see the people everyday and they feel like actual neighbors, you say hi and have conversations.  I have no idea who my neighbors were in Chicago, I wouldn’t even say hi if I passed them in the hall.  I guess living on a boat gives you something to talk about.
• Ocean Breeze-It just smells so good….most the time

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It just keeps piling on, one thing or another will break or you will see a way to make things better and before you know it you just dropped a bunch more cash.  I assume it is probably what happens when you end up buying a house.  Anytime I talk to someone in Florida about living on a boat they laugh and say it is way more work then you thought, isn’t it!  A rhetorical question of course, anyone who has boating experience knows what a challenge it can be.

Living on a Boat

Living on a boat is really quite a bit more difficult then i thought.  I sometimes wonder if this boat was a brand new yacht, if it would be a easier.  I think some aspects of it would, but you still have some of your basic problems, that come with any boat.  Yes I chose to live on a broken down, not even running boat, so I knew there would be some problems, but I had no idea about some of the stuff.

Basic Boat Problems that come with living aboard:

• Cockroaches: they love warm, wet, humid places.  Boat=Heaven!  Florida cockroaches are HUGE the size of your hand and bigger!  They love tooth paste and cheese I know for sure.
• Spiders: I had one crawling on me when I woke up.  It is a given they are going be on the boat, this morning was the first time I actually had one crawling on me though.
• Ants: Don’t dare leave food out. JUST DON’T DO IT!
• Never any food on the boat:  With all the bug problems that come with boats, keeping food on the boat just seems like a ridiculous idea.  Get ready to bust out another thousand on eating out 2 or 3 times a day.  We don’t keep food on the boat or eat on the boat, drinks only, I think it is a good plan, but I’m sick of Wendys Dollar menu.
• Constant work:  Boats need constant work and maintenance, things break all the time.  Like air conditioning freezing over, electricity going out, no water for some reason.
• Not Comfortable:  I know this isn’t true with all boats, but ours isn’t comfortable.  Mike is 6′3″ so sleeping in cramped spaces sucks.  Couches on boats are not as comfy as apartment sofas.
• Boats that don’t run:  If you decide to buy a boat that doesn’t run, you will feel a pang of jealousy as boats next to you pull out for a ocean cruise.
• Mildew and salt water:  It eats your clothes, it eats your bike or anything aluminum, constant moisture everywhere, never completely dry.  I have already had to throw out one pair of pants, after that I moved all my clothes back to the car, which is now my personal closet.
• Lighting:  Don’t bother with hair or makeup on the boat, the lighting will make you go out looking like a clown.  The lights are not bright at all or come close to showing you what you actually look like.  I have had to just give up on the thought of doing anything with my appearance.
• Smells: Boats just get stinky.

So these are some of the draw backs of living on boat.  Now it isn’t all bad and in a couple days I’ll write and article about some good stuff.  The main question I keep thinking on is if the bad out ways the good. The answer to this question changes daily.

Where we sleep, not much room.

Living space:  This is a previous owner picture, so imagine it with out the big TV (they took it with them) and absolutely no junk or personal stuff in it, we keep it down to the bare minimum.  See the “comfy” Sofa!

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