A City Girl's Guide to Camping

The hubs and I will be going on our first camping trip together starting Friday. This will be my first camping trip since I was about six and to say I am nervous, but excited would be an understatement. We are starting out simple with what they call "car camping". This is where you simply pull your car up to the camp site, hitch your tent, and enjoy. There will be a bathroom station with flushing toilets (apparently this is a big deal?), cold running water, and something else that seems quite expected but I cannot remember.

We have invested in a super nice tent, an air mattress, queen sized sleeping bag, lanterns that turn into flashlights, a semi bear-proof cooler that keeps ice frozen for 24-hours in 100 degree weather (whhhaaatt?! awesome), camp cookware, fire starter, a First Aid kit, and emergency food- because this one gets hangry. Something the husband has also found for me is a pretty conclusive and easy to understand how-to on camping. This web series on How Cast is done by Heather Menicucci, author of Let's Get Primitive: The Urban Girl's Guide to Camping.

Heather gives packing lists, first time camper tips, backpacking tips, and lists on what to avoid. She also ads nice things like How to Camp, How to Pick a Camp Location, how not to sleep, and what to avoid. It is awesome. This quick web series will help those who have camped before but maybe it did not go so well, those who want to expand there camping knowledge, and those who consider camping a 2-star hotel.

So, when was the last time you went camping? Also, how important do you think bear spray is in the Smokey Mountains?

A Squat-tastic Workout

The July Squat Challenge officially comes to an end today and I have been LOVING IT. Have you noticed a difference in your rear? I have. It seems to be a little less giggly and a little more apt to defying gravity... Which, like the song, will get a standing ovation from fee any day!

There are two things I have been considering since this July Challenge began. The first is to keep it up and start all over in August. Sure, my glutes may be stronger than they were when we began doing six reps of each, but they could always use the reminder. The second thought has been to simply do a massive squat workout that would set fire to the muscles of our bum, thighs, and heck, core. For now, let's go with the second option.

The entire squat workout will take about 15-minutes and leave your legs quaking. Get ready, 15-minutes of squats may not seem like much now, but it is! By minute three I was dripping sweat and convinced this workout was a bit too crazy. Then, it ended and all was right with the world again :)

If you are really feeling good, try doing this on top of the final day of the Squat Challenge. You will have quite a few squats under your belt, my friend. If you are not sure what something is or how to do it, I have linked how-to's for each squat below :)

Jump Squat

Calf Raise Squat

Split Squat

Goblet Squat

Pistol Squat

Narrow Squat

Side Leg Lift Squat

Second Position Plie Squat

Frog Squat

The Original Squat

Narrow to Wide Jump Squat

Wall Squat

Calories Burned at Disney World Parks

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I, along with about half the US, am so excited about our Disney trip planned this summer! Every year we try to plan a day trip to Disney World on our way back from Michigan, and every year we end up not doing it. That is, until this year. Business will be taking us down the mid-line of the state and it just makes sense to stop in along the way... Especially since it will give me so many possibilities for healthy Disney blog posts in the future!

In the past I have done totals on calories burned at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. Although the information has been hecka useful in the past, it has never been condescend into one simple post talking about where we burn the most Calories at Disney and why.

There have been rumors that one walks the most in EPCOT and therefore burns the most calories. I am happy to say this myth is completely untrue. In fact, the park that will burn the most calories is Magic Kingdom- the place almost all of us go on every trip to Disney World. This is partially due to all the back and forth walking and partially due to the inclines you have no idea you are hiking. Next after Magic Kingdom is EPCOT since it is just so big. This is followed by Animal Kingdom. Then, way in the back is Hollywood Studios. This really cannot be much of a surprise since Hollywood Studios is just so darn small.

Below is a handy dandy chart showing my averages for all parks over 8-hours of time. Of course, your steps and calorie burn could be way different than mine depending what you do and how you get there. In almost every situation we drive or take the bus. Then, we tend to go on 3-8 rides in 8-hours and sit down for 1-3 shows, depending on the park. There is also eating time that we are not walking and lots of back-and-forth time for things like Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom or the Pirate Quest in Adventureland.

It is also good to take into consideration that there are very few people who will spend a whole 8-hours in either Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. Although the calories burned is for 8-hours in each park, these two parks are more likely to be 4-6 hours, tops.

This Week in Workouts: Summer!

The Michigan weather has been wonderful this week and I have been able to take advantage of that with a few wonderful, albeit short, runs. Thankfully, that pesky plantar facialis has gotten itself cleared up and running is no longer a super big pain. Unfortunately though, not running for a week+ has made getting back in the groove a little more difficult. I ran through this and am now, pretty much, back up to the usual running distance and speed.

Good news! I have also been talking with a few of the runners we have at the Leadership Reunion (one of them being a Guinness Book of World Record holders for running) and have plenty of tips for marathoning and half-marathoning along with a great recommendation from marathon training that we will be talking all about in the future! For now though, let's get to those workouts...

Sunday: Sunday was quite busy here and ended up being a rest day with about 12,000+ steps added in.

Monday: That foot was still acting up so this was a fantastic yoga day centered around the bum. I ended up doing this Tara Stiles flow twice, one play-through for each side. This Tara Stiles Yoga Flow for Lean Legs was next.

Tuesday: My new favorite flow for runners by Lesley Fightmaster!

Wednesday: 2-mile slow run that felt quite nice!

Thursday: 3-mile trail run onto some of the camp's old horse riding trails. It was so fun to trail run through past areas the hubs knows so well! The picture above is also from that run :)

Friday: Rest day

Saturday: A 15-minute Squat-tastic Workout that will be on the blog later this week! Man, it is a doozy, but soooo good!

Weekly Workout Goal

We will be running more this week in general and this week will be my last time for a while to run during the Michigan Summer. For this reason, my big goal this week is to run at least three times and run 15-miles during the week!