Holidays...

Holidays…ah, holidays… the stress, the rushing, the trying to fit everyone into your schedule, the attempts to make everyone happy, the FOOD!! Yes, the food.  Everywhere you look.  Food.  And more food.  And cookies.  And candy.  Everywhere.  Without a doubt, this is one of the most difficult times in anyone’s life when it comes to trying to eat healthy and not go overboard on just about everything.  Everywhere you look, food, drinks, alcohol… add the stress of the holidays in general into that mixture and it is a recipe for healthy living disaster.  I completely admit that in prior years, I was guilty of too much of all of that!!  There was one Christmas eve in particular where I almost didn’t wrap any of the kids presents due to too much, shall we say, splurging in the drinking department… I wanted to nap in between each present!! I actually think I may have between a few.  Luckily I have a husband that didn’t help, but was more than happy to poke at me and make sure I didn’t sleep…  

I am proud to say that this year though, I did not fall for any of the holiday food tricks!! I wish I could say I avoided the stress and the rushing, but I most certainly cannot say that.  I also have a birthday party to plan and have the week before Christmas so I was feeling the stress full force.  With split families, the rushing from house to house trying to accommodate all those we could, will probably never end.  We had 5 Christmases this year on 3 different days.  All that being said, I can proudly say that I kept my eating well within check and that truly makes me happy.  I don’t at all feel like I was deprived of anything, I never felt so sick from overeating that I just wanted to lay down, I kept everything food related in my control.  I ate what I could at home before we went anywhere, I constantly had water with me in my hand (and only water every day!!), I ate what I wanted in moderation, I enjoyed cookies (thanks mom!!), I had pizza (with a side salad) – all in all, I can sum it up that I made the best decisions that were available to me.  I have learned through this process what is worth splurging on and what just is not.

I am, however, not proud of the lack of real exercise that I have gotten.  Oh, I have been moving, I have been on the go non-stop, but no real bust your butt, work up a sweat workouts have found their way to me lately.  That will all be ending in the extremely near future.  And I truly can’t wait to get back to it.  I miss it.

I have taken over as our Health and Wellness Coordinator at work and it is something that I am extremely excited for!!  We have a new program starting January 2^nd through Virgin Healthmiles and I received my pedometer for the program this morning.  I definitely plan on using this all as some extra motivation to get moving more and more this upcoming year.  More on this all in a future post – and yes, there will be more!! I have already started making a little checklist of what I want to change/do better and this blog is one of them.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to ring in the New Year with a new you and outlook on life!!  And remember, if you fell into the vicious cycle of holiday stress and eating, the best thing is, its over!!  Well, almost,  for those of you that actually party on New Years J Every day is a new day and another day to make the better, healthier decisions… Good luck!!

Free food and P90X...

I may have mentioned this before but, where I work, we get free lunches.  A lot of free lunches.  Not daily, but usually weekly and sometimes multiple times a week.  I used to order and eat each time, because let’s be realistic… FREE FOOD.  I am not rich, I am closer to poor most of the time so the concept of free was a huge bonus.  Things in my mind have changed.  I now see the free concept as free fat, free pounds, free cholesterol, free laziness… I think you get the point.  Now, not everywhere that we order from is horrible for you.  I will sometimes order from one place that has a delicious Greek Chicken Salad.  But, as a general rule, that is the only time I order.  There may be an occasional splurge but it is rare anymore.  I have learned and trained myself to know that free is just not worth it anymore.  I am worth more than that.  I consistently eat what I have brought for myself from home and when I am done, I am proud.  I am proud and happy that I have come so far.  It doesn’t bother me anymore to say no to the lunches.  And when I do eat them, I make smart decisions about them.  And that will stick with me.  Weight Watchers has taught me that.  I can still eat what I like, but you learn to recognize what is worth eating to you.  Some things are worth the splurge and the points, and some just are absolutely not.  But those decisions are completely up to me. You have to decide what is more important to you… your health or saving a little money.

P90X!!!!!  Jacob and I have started the P90X program this week.  We are doing the classic program and we started on Monday with Disc 1 Back and Shoulders.  It is now Thursday and my upper body still hurts!!! Last night was the 2^nd disc of plyometrics and as the day goes on today, my lower body is starting to catch up with my upper body.  But you know what??? I love it!  I worked out, I worked hard, and my body is telling me that.  Considering my motivation has been wavering lately (to say the least), I am happy to be hurting again.  Working out with my son is completely awesome!!  We have a great time, we laugh, we push each other, we run into each other (small room!) and we hurt together.  It’s bonding.

Tonight the plan is the treadmill at the school fitness center providing my legs do not completely revolt.  And even if they do, I may still punish them.  I haven’t run in over a week due to illness and laziness so I NEED to go.

Losing Motivation...

Once again, I have been seriously lacking in my posts again.  For some reason, my motivation for exercise seems to have gotten lost, or been taken hostage, or sucked into a black hole… I need to blame it on something!!  Ideas??  Here are my thoughts… the weather, work, kids, life… at any given point in the last, oh I don’t know, month, these have all gotten in my way.  Now I have a head cold. A dizzying, feel like my head will explode if I bend over head cold.  Yes, those are excuses.  No, I don’t like even saying them.  So I am.  Somebody yell at me!!!  I don’t want to use excuses.  I don’t want to sit on my booty.  I don’t want to lose everything that I worked so hard for all summer long. 

          Losing motivation is a vicious cycle.  I get tired and cranky from not working out, I don’t work out because I am tired and cranky.  I must force myself to get back into it to bring the cycle to an end. 

          Jacob and I are planning on starting the P90X program as SOON as my head can handle it.  I have also re-joined the fitness center at my kids school so that I can run on the treadmills and watch TV at the same time, instead of my shadow on the wall.  B.O.R.I.N.G.  I will get back to my kick a$$ motivation.

It has been so long since I posted I will try to remember things that happened in a shortened version…

I ran my second 5K.  I bettered my time to 27:47 and came in 3^rd in my age group (again) and won my first ribbon and instead of a trophy, it came on a pumpkin.  Loved it! It was cold!!  And rainy!  And super muddy!  And a cross country course through apple orchards and woods and it was awesome!!

With my kids after the Brown's Berry Patch 5K

I am still maintaining my weight on Weight Watchers.  Have I mentioned I love Weight Watchers????  There.  I did.  I do.  It works for me.  I get to go to my son’s 8^th grade tea and snack on hot cocoa, scones, finger sandwiches and mini cheesecakes with him and it is a memory that I will keep with me and didn’t have to avoid it because “I can’t eat that”.  I can go shopping with my husband and eat dinner out with a couple drinks.  You can eat anything within moderation and always adjust accordingly.  That being said, after being on WW for any amount of time, you will learn what is worth eating or splurging on and what is most definitely not.  You learn to eat healthy, to choose the best option in the given situation.  And that is something you can always use in your life.



Jacob and I at his 8th grade tea at school



My First 5K Run...

Well, I did it.  I made it.  I survived.  I loved it!!  It was cold and rainy, rainy and cold… but I still loved it!!  I ran my first 5K this past weekend.  It was a local race called the Genesee ARC Friends & Family 5K.  It was a pretty hilly run, not huge hills, but the gradual kind that tend to eat your leg muscles.  Luckily, the area that I usually run at home is also full of these hills so I don’t think that held me back too much.  I came in 3^rd in my age group and 61^st overall.  My time was 29.11 which puts me a little over a 9 minute mile.  I will take it.  Happily.  It was an extremely well organized event for a great cause that is near and dear to my heart.   I received a t-shirt for the race, a bag of goodies and coupons and free food.  My kids were there with me and they also received the goodie bag and free drinks and food after the race.  I will be doing this race again. 



The Finish Line!!




Sporting my Race Pink T for the 1st official time!



I actually enjoyed the idea of participating in the race that I am already signed up for another one!! Another local race in a couple weeks.  This one is more of a cross country type race through orchards, corn fields and woods.  I am very excited.  I am also considering a local turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning.  Yep, I think there might be an addiction happening here!!  There are definitely worse things to be addicted to!

After taking Sunday and Monday off from exercise due to life getting in the way, I knew, for my sake, and the sake of people around me, I needed to do something last night.  Who knew that I would be one of those people that got cranky if they didn’t exercise??  I am shocked.  I decided to go for a run.  I got a little bit of a late start so I was planning on running 3 miles and I actually got in 4 miles.  I was pretty disappointed about half way through because the air was very heavy and made it extremely hard to breathe.  I had to take 2 breather breaks.  My time was still great even with the walking breaks (9:03) so had I been able to do it without, my time would have rocked!! Ha! Have I mentioned at all that I love using the Map My Run app when running???  It tells you when you have reached each mile and what your time is.  For me, that keeps me motivated to try my best to not fall off that pace too much as I run on.  I even had it running when I did the 5K so I knew how I was doing and how far I still needed to go, since I was clueless on the course.

I have been pretty much horrible the last couple of weeks with planning my dinners or making anything new so I apologize for no ideas for you.  Last night I whipped up a little, well, I don’t know what to call it.  I made the kids spaghetti (whole wheat of course) and I didn’t want just regular spaghetti and sauce because for some reason, I don’t have a turn off switch when I eat that and before I know it, I have eaten enough for 3 people. So, I defrosted some shrimp, threw them in a can of diced tomatoes, added a bunch of crushed red pepper and just a little pasta.  Very quick, very easy and very good.

Moral of the dinner story, if you have easy healthy food in your house, when you are in a pinch, you can still come up with an easy healthy meal that won’t throw off everything you are working so hard for.

Running...

Let me start of by bragging a little bit… yesterday… I RAN 5 MILES!!!!!!!!!!  5 miles.  A whole 5!!! To some people, that is not a lot.  To me, it is like to the moon and back!  A little history for you… in the beginning of the year, I couldn’t have made it a half mile without wanting to die.  I have never been a runner,  I liked the thought of being a runner, but I have never been a runner.  In 7^th grade, I ran cross country.  I hated every moment of it.  I couldn’t breathe, I was horrible at it, when it was cold out my lungs felt like they would crack and explode.  I remember one race in particular where I was so cold and my lungs hurt so bad that I was crying and my coach was trying to encourage me to at least finish ahead of the group that had started after us.  I honestly don’t remember if I did.  I wanted to die.  Fast forward about 26 years to now… I am almost 40 (which is a whole post all on its own!!) and I just happily ran 5 miles.  On my own.  Without anyone forcing me to.  No one cheering me on.  AND I ran each mile in either under 9 minutes per mile or just over.  Happy.  Happy.  Happy.

Tomorrow is my first official 5K run.  I am nervous.  I know I can do it, but it is still nerve wracking being the first one.  It is supposed to be chilly, and rainy, and over all crappy.  Super.  First race, nervous, and now rain pelting me in my face and soaking my clothes.  Can’t wait.  The Dirty Girl race was cold, rainy and over all crappy.  Do you sense a theme??  On the bright side, my kids will be there again to cheer me on and my hubby is also going to make an appearance – I asked him to be there to keep an eye on the kids (one less thing for me to worry about) and I want him to be there at the end and be proud of his wife.  I will post this weekend on how things go!!

I have not been very good about letting you all know my daily food (as some friends have requested I do) and I apologize.  I did however, happen to take a picture of my lunch today that I will share with you.  Very simple, and very good.  I have gotten in the habit on the weekends of cooking up a pound of 99% fat free ground turkey breast to use throughout the week for meals.  It is so helpful.  I have made chili, lettuce wraps…anything you can think up!!  Today for lunch I made up some romaine lettuce wraps with the turkey, tomato basil feta, with a little Ken’s northern Italian dressing on it.  Very filling and easy.  Can’t beat that!!

Today is my husband’s birthday so we are planning on dinner out, tomorrow is my best friend’s birthday so we are planning on drinks out tomorrow night… I actually like these days because I can teach myself how to stick to plan and still be successful.  If you never face any challenges, then you never learn how to deal with them in the right way. 

MIA Dirty Girl....

I’m baaaack!!!  Did you miss me??  Ya, I didn’t think so.  Once again I apologize for being MIA but for the month of August, I spent some serious quality time with my kids and when I was at work, I was playing catch up from all my days off.  It was a vicious circle!  It will be tremendously hard to go back over everything for the last month so I will just start with my recent goings on : )

Saturday September 8^th, I participated in my first ever Dirty Girl Mud Run which for those of you who have never heard of it, is a wonderfully fun 5K course with obstacles.  Considering we have had a tremendously warm and dry summer, we were not that lucky on Saturday.  It rained, and rained, and poured, and then rained some more.  Which, for a mud run, is a great thing.  The not-so-great part was the 60 degree weather that went along with it.  For anyone that knows me, and for those who don’t, know that I do not do well when I am cold.  I can honestly say I despise being cold.  And I was FROZEN!! But I still had a never ending smile on my face because of the wonderful experience that I had there.  I am already planning on signing up this week for next years mud run.  For anyone considering this, DO IT!!!  You will not regret it.  It is not a timed race, if you can’t do an obstacle, you go around it, no big deal.  The big deal is the fun and the bonding that you will have with your friends and teammates!



After Dirty GIrl



Before Dirty Girl



I have also decided to sign up for my first 5K run which will be held on September 22.  I was very nervous about the thought of it yesterday since I have not actually completed my C25K program yet (as of this morning I have 1 measly day left).  My nervousness propelling me, I went for my run last night as soon as I picked up my son from football.  I was all dressed and ready to go and told them I would think about feeding them when I got back. Ha!  I am proud to say that I ran 3 miles in 28 minutes.  I was a very happy girl when I completed that day on my C25K knowing that technically, I ran further than I needed to in the allotted time.  So happy in fact that after just 3 minutes of my cool down phase, I decided to hightail it back home and I ran the rest of the way back home which ended up being another 6 minutes of running.  My plan is to get in as much running in the next 10 days or so as I can in preparation of the 5K hoping to decrease some of my nervousness of my first actual race.  I know it won’t actually help, but it is a nice thought.

I hereby do solemnly swear to get back to being a better and more consistent blogger…I actually do enjoy spilling my guts on here at times and hope you all (and hopefully more to come!) will continue to follow me in my journey.

Wishing you all a wonderful day filled with all things that make you smile J

Anniversary Weekend...

Let me start by apologizing for the lack of posting this past week, I really have no good excuses… oh I have excuses, just not good ones.   I was very busy at work, I was very busy at home (well, that is nothing new, and therefore, not an excuse), and I was at times, well, lazy.  There you have it- my not good excuses. 

My kids are officially done with their summer rec program which means my vacation time is soon to begin!  Tomorrow to be exact.  Tomorrow’s plan is a trip to the Buffalo Zoo with my kids and two of my very best friends!! I am very excited!! The zoo may never be the same again. Hehe : )  I can hardly wait to post on the day and fill you all in!

This past Saturday, my plans with the kids were to go to the local rodeo here, which is actually a really good rodeo, and I am all about everything country.  But, with the heat index at 100 for the day, warnings of the heat, and no possibility of shade there, we decided against it.  Brandon and I had an anniversary dinner planned and the last thing I wanted was to get fried or sick, or have the kids get sick.  That night, Brandon and I went out for our anniversary to a restaurant in Buffalo and it was a wonderful night.  The food was to die for, the ambiance was romantic, the waiter was delightful… it was all good! 



Charbroiled Portabello Mushroom



As an appetizer I ordered the Charbroiled Portabello Mushrooms.  OH. SO. GOOD.  They were drizzled with balsamic vinegar with small sides of roasted red peppers and goat cheese.  Dinner was Filet Mignon which was served on a bed of onion straws with a house salad.  I also ordered a side of asparagus spears which were cooked perfectly.  Dessert, which we didn’t order, but our waiter surprised us with, was a slice of cheesecake with strawberry sauce and strawberries on the side.  Normally, I am not a cheesecake fan.  But I did try this, so as to not be rude (ya, right) and it was really good.  I ate a bite, then another, and another.  And the strawberries.  Before I knew it half of it was gone and I stopped.

The highlight of my evening however was the beautiful Chamelia bracelet that my loving husband got for me, which was a total shock.  I was not expecting anything.  Love those kind of surprises!!

Enough of my gushing about my weekend… time to get down to business… and by that I mean exercise.  I have slacked off the last couple days and I need to make up for it.  Tonight will be my C25K Week 5, Day 3 run – which means 20 minutes without any walking.  I will be honest, I am scared.  I am trying not to be, and I try to tell myself that I can do this.  But I am worried.  But I can do this. I can.  Right?  I know one thing for sure.  WHEN I do it, I will be extremely proud of myself.   It may not seem like a lot for some people, but for me, who has never been a runner, and always had trouble with it, BIG. It will be BIG.

Please stay tuned for my next post where I get to announce that I have been chosen for a Liebster Award!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!