Holy Stepmother of Competitive Stair Climbing!! (I’m totally doing this.)

Call it fate or call it misfortune. Call it 21 Levels of Torture?

Call it whatever the hells ya want, but I’ve crossed paths with this bad boy and I’m not backing down.

I’m all signed up for the American Lung Association’s “Fight For Air” stair climbing event this November. Yeee-haaaa! Greedy Kid #2 has agreed to climb with me.

The event is being held to raise awareness of children with asthma, lung cancer, teens who are pressured to smoke, and other situations related to lung disease.  Greedy Kid #1 was terribly asthmatic as a youngster. There were many emergency visits to the hospital when she was small. Watching your child struggle to breathe is such a scary thing.  

Yet Delaware’s tallest building isn’t THAT tall. It’s 21 flights (500 steps). But the event’s “Kilo Climbers”, as they call it, will be climbing the building twice, so that’s 42 flights for 1,000 steps.

I’m registered as a Kilo Climber, of course. That’s how beastmode does it.

This is the building I’ll be climbing…

[photo credit]

I sometimes climb stairs at my job in the winter months as an alternative to lunchtime power walks in the freezing cold. I don’t want my booty cheeks to go numb from the frostbites, ya know. My winter program involves re-climbing the same 4 flights of stairs (there’s obviously a lot of up & down going on), so I’ve easily climbed over 1,000 steps in any given day. But whoa — I’ve never done that in a straight shot up 21 flights before.

I think I’m gonna be fine. I got this, right? I’m gonna make those stairs my beyotch, you say? Well golly gee, thanks for your encouragement.

**All climbers are required to raise a minimum of $100 prior to event day to benefit the American Lung Association. Won’t you be one of my lovely sponsors? Please visit my Fight For Air page to make a tax deductible donation. I appreciate your sponsorific generosity of any amount.

…and now I’m suddenly hyperventilating with increased heartbeats over the thought of 1,000 steps. Somebody slap me.

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Ive TOTALLY got it covered!!*

(Click the cover! Click the cover!)

OK, People. As Im sure youve heard a million times already Shape Magazine is having a VOTE FER YER FAVE FITNESS BLOGGER! competition.

Ive been fortunate enough to be picked and Im here, on bended CREAKY knee, to ask you to take a second and vote for me.

Im not a fan of the vote asking and yet SHAPE has such a special place in my heart.  Ive been reading them since they first published (1981 ya’ll I was a twelve year old misfit!) and the fact the winner gets to shoot a video series with SHAPE, which will be featured on SHAPE.com and possibly in an upcoming issue could pretty much make this woman do anything.

Even ask for your vote.

If I had the opportunity at 42 and a HALF to do a video series with them and MAYBE just MAYBE be in their pages representing us OLDER WOMEN WHO ROCK, well, as the Tornado says IT WOULD BLOW MY MIND OUT. 

So, if YOUR mind wouldnt mind, please to consider voting for me!

I heard there’s some kind of competition. I dont really know anything about it or care either way if I win.

You might wanna check it out.

Or not.

No biggie.

**And no. I have nothing covered, but if I did that title would be all kinds of pun’y.  Apparently I will never be nominated for Best Blog Post TITLE Writer of the Century.

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4C Totally Light Cranberry Pomegranate Antioxidant Sugar Free Drink Mix Review

Because it's summer, I've been trying out a lot of different beverages and drink mixes, some naturally delicious (like, Natalie's Orchid Island Juice Company 100% Florida Grapefruit Juice (Gourmet Pasteurized)), but with quite a bit of sugar; and some low calorie i.e. sugar free or close to it, like Crystal Light Margarita "Mocktail". 4C Totally Light Cranberry Pomegranate Antioxidant Sugar Free Drink Mix belongs in the that latter category.

NUTRITION FACTS
Serving Size: 8 ounces
Calories: 0
Total Fat: 0%
Saturated Fat: 0%
Sodium: 10 mg, < 1%
Carbohydrates: 0 grams
Fiber: 0%
Sugars: 0 grams
Protein: 0 grams

A serving size of 1/8th tub (which makes 1 cup of drink) provides less than 5 calories, i.e. has 0 calories on the nutrition label. The first time I tried this, I really didn't like the intense, metallic tart flavor. A look at the ingredients list shows that citric and ascorbic acid are the 1st 2 ingredients, so I should have expected such an intense acidic taste. The next time, I added even more water, and although it was still tart, it seemed more manageable and I didn't hate it quite as much.

The other ingredients include, artificial cranberry flavor, potassium and sodium citrate, acesulfame K, purified polyphenols (antioxidants), natural and artificial pomegranate flavor, sucralose, gum arabic, magnesium oxide (prevents caking), FD&C Red 40, tricalcium phosphate (prevents caking), FD&C Blue #1.

A container of 4C Totally Light Cranberry Pomegranate Antioxidant Sugar Free Drink Mix, which has 7 tubs, costs $6.99 - each tub makes 2 quarts. I would buy this again if it were deeply discounted - like if I saw it at the Dollar Store. Otherwise, I'll stick with Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea (Review).

{Website: 4C Foods}

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This Friday Totally ROCKED!

How NICE was it out today?!? Here in Maryland it was in low 70's and sunny. I took a nice mile walk at lunch and brought little man to the park after school. That was two nice strolls for my pregnant butt. Plus some fresh air and SUN! ohhh the sun. It has me even more ready for Spring!

This week was hectic as usual. I wouldn’t have it any other way. :)

Posted Wednesday – I DID it! Ugliest thing I ever drank but pleasantly surprised!
I’ve been experimenting with kale in my smoothies. Long story! Will post more on GreenLiteBites soon!

Posted Thursday – Irish is loving the baby bump. She has a new spot. :)

I’m almost done with my presentation for the WordPress Meet-up in Baltimore. Now I’m really getting nervous!Continue planning FitBloggin’Finish washing all the baby clothesI’m working on a post about PointsPlus and discrepancies when calculating for recipes. I brought up the questions on this salad idea. Planning on going to Boot camp tomorrow. Not sure how much I’ll do. I’m getting real uncomfortable.

Ok, that’s about it for me this Week. I’m shutting down and disconnecting. The husband and I are about to watch a movie. We have Buried!

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My Totally Awesome Yet Completely Insecure Video Shoot

What a crazy day! By 8:30 in the morning there were all these strangers in my house setting up lights…

Today was the day of my Weight Watchers Ice Cream Video Shoot. I’m currently helping them with a campaign as a spokesperson. This is a completely new adventure for me but one I’ve been excited to experience. I love Weight Watchers, I love Weight Watchers Ice cream AND I love to talk about weight loss. It’s like a marriage made in heaven except for the fact I don’t feel much like a success story being pregnant and up 30 lbs but more on that later.

The crew took about an hour to set up while I got my makeup on.

Thankfully they were a fun relaxed bunch.

The morning consisted of filming me over and over and OVER again. It wasn’t hard just tedious and I was SO nervous recording in front of a crew. I messed up a TON. You’d think I would be fine especially after recording 3 years worth of Ask Roni Videos plus cooking ones for GreenLiteBites. All of which I do in one take with little or no editing.

But this is TOTALLY different. There was a script–that I could NOT stick to–lighting, microphones, sounds checks, professional makeup, props and a Director!

Here’s what I learned about myself: I have no problem being natural in front of a camera when I just react and talk but give me a specific script or line and I’m horrible! Let’s just say I could NEVER act. I don’t know how people do it and look natural at the same time.

Thankfully my speaking parts were all done by lunch. Then we did b-roll shots all afternoon.

Half of them were like the shots above and half had me in them do fun things like stealing cookies and arranging magnets on the fridge.

By the end of the day we were exhausted!

It was a long day but super fun. Overall I felt good but very self conscious. I really wish this opportunity happened when I wasn’t pregnant. I just don’t feel very confident in my skin at the moment. I’m struggling with a bit of body image issues. I’ve been self-conscious of my super short hair and I just feel like I’m starting to look, well, old. I’m in the trifecta of self doubt (body, hair, age) and I totally stuffed all these feelings down with pizza for dinner. Too, too, much pizza. Ugh.

Then I hit my inbox to catch up on some work and I read a comment that made a WORLD of difference. Allison left this on my Exposed: One Year Later post.

What a great post. You go girl. Love following along with you. Keep doing what you do, which is inspire others.

Allison totally made me smile and then I re-read my post and cried, in a good way.

I blame pregnancy hormones.

:)

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