I'm back!

Man, I've really missed blogging! I'm going to have to research a blog app. I randomly think of things that would be great to blog about but by the time I get 5 minutes to myself to sit down at the computer- the thought has passed. But anyway- I'm getting back into wogging. (walking with a mix of jogging) I still have my goal of running a half. I think the race fee is what is holding me back now! I looked one up yesterday and it's $80! Man- that's almost 2 tanks of gas!

I did 5 miles on the treadmill yesterday- all walking. It's definitely not a great time- but what's the saying? A mile is a mile no matter how long it takes? Well, I did FIVE baby!

I'm just trying to get back into the groove and then I'll start pushing myself. I was very disappointed to get on the scale this morning and see it went up instead of down. So, I'm debating on re-joining Weigh-in-Wednesdays or do another "hide the scale" experiment. I'm leaning towards number 2. I would like to set a goal to complete my Turbo Jam series with a before and after weight. I'm thinking about starting that on Monday- mainly because the workout plan that comes with it starts on a Monday.


I'll keep ya posted. So.. fill me in? How have all of you been?

Has it really been this long?

I am so thankful I decided not to delete this blog. I feel off the blogging wagon for awhile... actually a LONG while. I even started up another blog but just like this one- I ran out of hours in the day and didn't have time to blog! But, I want to try it again! Please stick with me! 

I'm still running.. I've completed two 5ks. I would like to complete a 10k before the end of the year. I'm having a hard time finding an official one, plus money is a bit tight. So, I think I'm just going to map one out and do it myself.  I also have plans to participate in a HALF MARATHON next year. I can't believe I just typed that.. but yes. I'm going to do it. 

Here's a quick update for ya. This is what I posted on Facebook today. I thought it would be better to just copy/paste that post instead of trying to explain everything all over again. 


Good Morning friends and family. Happy November 1st and more importantly, Happy Friday! Every year many of us participate in the "Thankful Challenge" where you post something you are thankful for everyday for the month of November. This year, I am not participating. My lack of participation is not because I have nothing to be thankful for- it's just the opposite. I have so much to be thankful for, that instead of simply posting a FB status stating it, I want to show it. I want to give back for everything I am thankful for.

Last November, we were in a car accident. It wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been but after ending up in a ditch with your children- it really makes you realize how fast your life can change. In February of this year, just after finishing my first 5k, N went missing. He was only missing for maybe 5 minutes but those 5 minutes still haunt both J and I to this day. Those were the scariest and longest 5 minutes of our lives. Over the summer J's Dad was in the ICU and we didn't know if he would ever come out. A few weeks ago, my Mom was in the hospital and I didn't know if she would make it either. These are just a few of the "highlights" (for lack of a better word) that make you really take a step back and think about everything you have in your life that you should be thankful for. So, with this not only being the month of Thanksgiving but also the month I turn 32- I want go out of my way to give back. I want to do more than letting someone in front of me in traffic, more than leaving an extra few bucks for a tip, more than donating my change to whatever fundraiser bucket is sitting on the clerk's counter.

Today- Day 1. I want to bring your attention to a group that I joined a few months ago that has brought such joy into my life. K joined as well and it has been a very humbling experience. If you are a runner, walker, or someone that is just willing to dedicate your exercises to those who can't- then please consider joining IRun4. If you, or someone you know, has a special needs child- please tell them about the group as well. As it has been said many times, God gave me the gift of mobility- but what about those who don't have it?

I Run 4 Bridget. Her Mom, K, has welcomed me and my family with open arms, and we have welcomed her and her family, including Bridget's sister M who's son is also a part of the group and has his own runner. On my down days, I remember Bridget and how she is able to find joy in everything. If you want to know more about the group, visit www.whoirun4.com. 

Bridget- My first act this month is to dedicate 100 miles to you! K gave me a funny look when I told her I was going to run (with probably lots of walking) 100 miles this month but as my favorite saying goes "If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough".

So there ya have it! Those are my plans. I'll fill you in on more tomorrow. I need to get my munchkin in bed before the new Undercover Boss comes on!

Happy Fall Ya'll! 

Shin Splints Suck

My title says it all... they suck! I ran the 3 miles on Tuesday, yesterday I was sore but had planned to at least walk on the treadmill. That lasted all of maybe 10 minutes. So I decided to try some weights. There were a couple of muscular guys  there and I just felt so out of place. I was having to read the directions on all of the machines. I just felt like an idiot. So I left feeling defeated.

Last night, my legs were really sore. I grabbed a football to try rolling my leg (I was desperate) and it felt good but I needed something that rolled easier. I found one of son's legos. It was long and round and worked awesome! It hurt but felt great all at the same time. I might seriously consider investing in a real roller.

I was telling my husband yesterday morning that I would really like to participate in a Mud Run one day- hopefully within the next year. Fast forward a few hours and a friend that I did the Color Run with tagged me on Facebook. She found a mud run in April and wants all of us to get together and do it. It's a women's only run. Talk about timing! I'm so excited.

This morning, I woke up feeling kind of icky. My kids have been sick and I woke up with a sore throat and a cough. But, I have a mud run to prepare for so off to the gym I went. I was determined to get my 3 miles in. I stretched in the locker room before heading out to the gym. I walked for about 4 minutes as a warm up then started jogging. I was feeling great but after about 2 minutes I started getting out of breath so I tried slowing down to walk and that's when they started.... the evil shin splint! I couldn't stand to walk.. so I ran. When I ran they didn't hurt at all but I couldn't breathe. So I tried walking to catch my breath and couldn't stand the pain. I tried pausing and stretching it out then walking again and nothing helped. After a mile I had to stop.

The lady on the treadmill next to me asked if I was ok and I told her I had terrible shin splints. She said she used to get them too so she had a runner friend watch her run. The friend told her that she was looking down when she ran and had her chin almost to her chest. Once she straightened her posture and made sure she was looking straight- her shin splints disappeared.

I posted on facebook page about my problem this morning and I have had several people offer suggestions. I think I'm going to start with compression socks as well as try out some new stretches.

In the meantime, I'm trying to gather enough courage to try out a spin class at the gym. Oh.. and I've recruited my niece to hopefully run/walk a 5k with me in March that my oldest daughter is also participating in. (it will be a first for both of them!)

I'm also still working on trying to change the blog around a bit. But I think I want to change the name and I can't come up with anything cute...

Have a great Thursday!

Weigh In Wednesday & Gym Time

So it's Weigh In Wednesday and I have come to a few conclusions over today's weigh in. First- I lost weight. Not much.. only 0.2 lbs. But, we ended up back down at my parents' house this weekend which meant lots of eating out and no exercise so to see any kind of a loss is a huge win in my book. However, since I started weighing in on Wednesdays (December 27th) for a challenge I was participating in, I've been taping my weekly weights on the wall. I counted them this morning- 10 weights. 10 weights/weeks times a 2 lb loss means I should have lost if not 20 lbs at least close to 20 lbs by now. Guess what I've lost since December 27th? 4.4 lbs. That's it. 4.4 lbs. That's unacceptable. I need to realize this weight isn't going to come off as easily as it did 10 years ago. I have to commit myself and STAY committed.

So with that said, my husband and I rearranged our schedule a bit. Before, he would take our daughter to school, hit the gym and then go to work. Then if I wanted to go to the gym, I could go in the evenings when he got home. The problem with that is- he gets off at 4. Guess what I'm doing at 4? I'm cooking dinner. After cooking dinner comes eating dinner. Then showers/homework. He can do the showers/homework part but I don't want to go workout right after eating dinner. I have before and it sucked. Nor do I want to go workout at 4 and then not even start cooking dinner until after 5. Yes we do crockpot meals but I can't do them every single day. So, now I take my daughter to school in the mornings and go workout while he stays home with our son. I finish before he has to leave and he's going to go to the gym straight from work. 

Today's the first day of the new schedule. We'll see how it works. 

I did go to the gym yesterday (he was off work). I did a 5k on the treadmill. My time wasn't nearly as good as my Color Run but it was the first time I had ran since then. (sad isn't it?!) So just the fact that I went and ran/walked it makes me super proud, I hit the gym again this morning but was only able to do 10 minutes on the treadmill. My legs were just too sore from yesterday and my shin splints were killing me. I'm thinking of investing in some compression socks. I think I've mentioned that before? Either way.. I need to research them a bit. I don't know anything about them other than that they are supposed to help with shin splints. 

Depending on how my day goes and what time my husband gets home, I might go to the zumba or yoga class tonight at the gym. I went to the zumba classes before my surgery in October and I really enjoyed them. But I don't care for the tot drop there and my son hates it as well. So it's hard to enjoy my workout when I'm stressing over my son. 

I'm thinking of changing my blog around a bit too and actually set up a domain so stay tuned for some changes. Still researching how I want to do that. 

Don't forget to check out Erin & Alex and join in on Weigh in Wednesday. Erin is setting up a dietbet for a $15 buy in. Check out her page if you'd like more information.

Please leave me a comment and let me know you stopped by! I'd love to hear how you did this week as well as any advice you may have for me!

Time for a Change

Let's get started with Weigh In Wednesday! I'm up a little bit and I'm ok with that. The kids had a super long weekend (SIX DAYS) and my husband got deployed. So me and the kids loaded up and headed out to visit my parents'. I usually over indulge by a lot but I didn't this weekend (although I know I went over my calories). I also didn't get any exercise in because the weather was horrible. When I got home I was up 3 lbs and as of this morning I'm down 2 of those 3 (so overall up 1).

Don't forget to check out the other bloggers that link up with Erin & Alex .

So last night I came across Hungry for Change on Netflix. It was definitely eye opening and led me to follow up by watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. My husband watched it along with me and we were both in awe of the transformations. The movies were inspiring to say the least and had me looking up their websites as soon as it was over. We have both decided to try the 3 day juicing detox. I actually just finished making out of our grocery list. I have to admit that I have never eaten many of the vegetables on this list which is in itself inspiring to me. I know I need to eat more vegetables and if the only way for me to get the nutrition from them is by juicing- then so be it. I also hope to incorporate juicing into my children's daily lives. Let me add in the disclaimer that I am NOT in anyway having my children participate in the detox. But I think adding in a daily juice will be of great benefit to them. I'm very excited to see if it will improve my daughter's vitiligo. 

If you're interested in the different plans you can visit reboot with Joe.  I really encourage you to watch the movies (especially Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead) to understand the process. You can sign up for a free one month trial of Netflix and watch it for free.

I'm looking forward to sharing the results with all of you.. as well as blogging more but my husband and son are horse-playing next to me and they keep side tracking me!

Happy Wednesday!

My First 5K

It's over and I did it! I had hoped to post everything yesterday afternoon- right after getting home from the run- but when you hear how my day went, I hope you'll understand why there was a delay.

Friday night my son decided he didn't want to go to sleep until around 11:00 p.m. then turn around and wake up at 3:00 am Saturday morning- for the day. Not just a wake up, take a sip of drink and then go back to sleep. Nope- he was up FOR THE DAY! My husband and I tried everything to get him back to sleep and nothing worked. Our alarm was set for 6:00 a.m. and at 5:30 I told my husband- if you get him back to sleep I'll turn the alarm off and we'll skip the race. I was serious too! I was so incredibly nervous the day/night before that I was coming up with every possible reason not to go through with it. Then, with my son being up so early I thought that would be a good excuse too. 

But he didn't go back to sleep. We got up (and started functioning) at 6, got ready and headed out the door at 7. The race started at 9 and it was about an hour away so our goal was to get there around 8- which we did. 

Of course my son fell asleep on the way so my husband was sitting in the van with him while I was getting ready. He snapped this picture of me trying to position my number.

And here we go... all ready!

Our team made tutu's in Coast Guard colors because we were all either a CG wife or a member. Yes- I know they are also the colors of the Florida Gators and although my husband is a die hard fan- I am not. Let me tell you here in case I forget to tell you later- I will never run in a tutu again. I had been warned that the tulle would bother you when you were running (getting in between your legs) but I didn't have that problem. My issue was my arms rubbing against it when I was walking/running. There were several times during the run that I considered ripping the thing off and throwing it in the grass. But there were cops everywhere blocking the streets and I was afraid I'd get yelled at. So I suffered through.

This was the starting line. The announcer said they had over 3000 runners! That's a lot of people! 

Here's a picture of the 1st wave making their way around while we were still waiting to be let go. 

And when it's all over... you usually look a lot messier than me. I joked with a few people and said that I was just running so fast that the color didn't stick to me. But I really don't know how I ended up being so clean. My face was really dirty (although you can't tell from the picture) but my clothes were almost spotless compared to others. 

I was still trying to catch my breath and I was in desperate need of water. They were handing out bottles of water at the starting line but they said there would be water along the race so I figured I would just wait and get water later. Well, I was wrong (technically they were wrong). They didn't offer water until after about 2 miles in and it was a little cup that had maybe 3 sips in it (although I was grateful for those 3 sips). But the powder/cornstarch that you run through to get colored really hit me harder than I thought it would. It was hard to breathe through. I heard parents telling their kids to hold their breath when running (being pushed in a stroller) through it. But I was already running (and out of breath) so there was no way I could hold my breath while running through the clouds of color. (although I tried) So then I was even more out of breath after getting colored. Then I would walk to recover and try and catch my breath. 

While reuniting with my family and catching my breath (and drinking water), they call everyone into the middle of the area (I didn't go) and everyone throws their color packets that were included in their race packets. It looked like this:

Then while we were taking pictures, my son unbeknownst to me- followed me around that gate that you see. My husband thought I had him, I thought he had him. Pictures were done and my son was gone. He's 2. A worker walked up to me asking if I was looking for water and I told her I was looking for my son and that I needed her to have the DJ make an announcement. She didn't know what to do but asked what he was wearing. I told her then made my way to the stage and asked everyone I could along the way. I ran up to the stage and started pounding on it to get the DJ's attention. He didn't hear me. There was a lady on stage who acknowledged me and I told her- she also tried getting his attention and he didn't hear her either. So I jumped on stage and got in face. I told him I needed him to make an announcement because my son was 2 and he was missing. The DJ looked at me and said, "Really?". I yelled back, "No fakely!" so as I was giving him my son's description a runner walked up carrying my son. She said she found him walking around and he looked lost. I grabbed him from her and just started bawling. The term "Your legs go weak" yup- I know what that's like. If there had not been a railing there, I probably would have collapsed. I was so overcome with emotion that it was nothing like I have never experienced and pray I never do again. The whole ordeal probably lasted maybe 2 minutes- but it felt like it went on for hours. 

After that- we were ready to go. There was a lot of music and color being thrown around but we were so shaken from what had happened and plus there was so many people (remember the 3000 runners- now add in their family and friends) so we headed back towards home. There was a Mardi Gras festival here in our town that we walked through for a few minutes (small town=small festivals). Then came home and took a nap (finally!). Well, actually my son wouldn't lay down again so we put him back in the truck and took the kids for ice cream. My son fell asleep on the way home from that and THEN we got a nap which was much needed for obvious reasons but also because my husband had planned a date night for us. This is more special than you may realize. We've been together for almost 8 years and he's never planned anything like that for us. He set up the babysitter and everything! (and wouldn't tell me where we were going). 

This is where he took me:

It was lots of fun! We definitely need to have date nights more often than every 8 years. 

I'm told I clean up pretty good. 

So if you've made it this far... 1. Thank you for reading this insanely long blog post but as you can see, we packed a lot into one day. and 2. I hope my first 5k inspires you to sign up for your first 5k. I definitely plan to do more and the best thing about it- is my 2 girls (age 11 and 6) now want to sign up for one!

Pre- Race

Picking up the race packet this afternoon for tomorrow's 5k. I'm so nervous!