Bucket List and Babies

Well, hello.  It looks like my last blog post was about four months ago.  Wedding preparation got a little crazy at the end and forget about blogging, there were moments I couldn't remember my name.  Even though I was married over a month ago (shocking, I know), it's taken me a while to get my bearings straight.  I didn't think I was a princess bride that made her life all about the wedding but oh my, after the wedding I couldn't remember how to function.  The lack of DIY projects for the wedding left me wondering how to fill all of my new found free time.

Relax.  I found something to do.  Eating is fun :)  So I've been married for forty-one days and I have gained approximately fifteen pounds.  Let's just call it comfort weight and take it as a blessing on the marriage.  Even though I'm all fat and happy now, I'm eager to devote my time to something other than being a complete fatty.  People who know me would logically assume that I would start filling my time with trying to have a baby.  For some reason before the wedding it seemed like a much better idea because I couldn't have it but I loved to see Alex squirm.  Now that we are married and he's told me January 2013 we could "try," it just isn't as appealing. 

My good friend Jenny just recently had her son and before she got pregnant she wanted to complete a full triathalon.  That kind of event takes a lot of time for training and babies are a huge time suck. It makes perfect sense to cross that off your bucket list before having a baby.  I have casually talked about running a marathon at some point.  Casual talking has now become an official item on my bucket list and I plan to cross it off before I get pregnant. 

Why Vermont?  I don't know.  I googled "easy marathon" and this was one of them listed.  Yes, I googled "easy marathon."  I'm sure running 26.2 miles can be a piece of cake, right?  May 26th is the big day.  A short six months to go.....what was I thinking????

Wedding Wednesday Woes

Time is seriously ticking away to the big day and I'm totally stressing out.  I felt like I had all the time in the world to get things done until we hit that three month mark.  Ever since then, I feel like time is slipping away much too quickly.  Alex has been an angel in helping me with all my wedding endeavors.  He personally bedazzled each of our invitations.

oh cell phone....

Over the weekend, I went for a trail run with my dad at Bull Run Marina.  I don't do much trail running and to be honest, my idea of a great trail run is Burke Lake with it's gentle rolling hills.  This was not Burke Lake.  This was hiking at a running pace.  My calves and quads were burning.  We ran just shy of four miles and I was exhausted.  I will never bad mouth running on a treadmill ever again. 

There was no weight loss this week.  I'm still holding steady at 176 pounds.  In an attempt to keep myself motivated in my efforts, I decided to see if there were any changes in my measurements.

June 13, 2012     August 1, 2012

187 lbs                176 lbs

39.5" bust           40.5" bust

41" waist            39.5" waist

45.5" hips           43.5" hips

Slow progress is still progress, right?

The Bean Diet

Dieting ain't just for me anymore...

My poor Leo went to the vet to get his shots updated and to add insult to injury, came home with orders to lose fifteen pounds.  I'm so glad that the vet didn't try to convince me that I would need some special diet dog food because that stuff is expensive!  Instead he told me that I can continue to feed him his regular food in the morning and for his evening meal, just give him a can of beans.  As I'm sure you can guess, he's really, really excited about it.

But I love this stuff...

Yesterday morning, I wanted to get a workout in and since Leo has some extra pounds to shed too, I decided to take him for a long walk.  We went around our neighborhood and he seemed like he still had energy so I decided to keep walking.  I think I may have overdone it a little because at the end of the walk, he had really, really slowed down.  Our walk ended up being 3.75 miles and while I didn't feel like I had a great workout, Leo was exhausted.



Why me?

I did weigh myself yesterday and was very pleased with the results.  I have lost another two pounds woo!  I may need a new belt soon :)

Happy Friday!

87 days!

It's official!  Alex and I have less than three months until we get married.  I felt like I had all the time in the world to plan the wedding but now it's definitely crunch time.  I have waaaaay too many ideas of things that I am going make or do for the wedding that I may need to start prioritizing and nixing some things.

Anyway, thank goodness it has finally cooled off a bit.  I actually went out for a run this morning and the weather was absolutely glorious!  I can't say my actual run went as well as I had hoped but that's what I get for not running more often.  My good friend Jenny gave me a visor for my birthday and I finally tried it out.  Perhaps it's the placebo effect but I felt cooler running with the visor than with my normal hat. 

I look cool, right?  ;)

The past week was good in terms of healthy eating.  I always do so much better in the summer because of all the delicious fruits that are available.  Currently, I'm in love with peaches.  Just about every night, I cut up a peach, put some cinnamon and sugar on it and pop it in the microwave for thirty seconds.  So good!  Another jewel of the summer that I discovered at the local farmer's market:  yellow watermelon!

It really doesn't taste much different than the regular red stuff but it's still kind of cool.  So with the healthy eating and getting my lazy butt out and running, it's no surprise that I lost some weight.  Currently, I'm weighing in at 176 :)

What's your favorite summer treat?

I suck at Blogging

Clearly this blog has not even come close to being on my priority list.  Clearly.  I have still been trying to be more active and have been tracking what I eat so yay for at least something.  I have actually made the switch to tracking my food on My Fitness Pal (MFP) and have really liked it. 

I like that I know people on MFP.  It definitely makes logging in every day more interesting.  You can check out what other people are eating on a daily basis and they can check yours and let you know when I am being a fat cow. 

I have been running a few times but mostly on a treadmill.  I should at least throw some incline on while I run because I went out with the Lake Ridge Ridge Runners and even the smallest hills were feeling like mountains.  I'm just a baby when it comes to the heat and humidity.  I don't like running in it.

So just a quick update, I am officially down to 178 pounds!  I got down to 178 before the Fourth of July and over-indulged to the tune of 182 but now I'm back down.  I'm trying to be wise in my food choices and logging some more miles so hopefully I will have more of a loss to report on Wednesday!

What quickly gets pushed off of your priority list?

I'm late!

It's not surprising that I am late on this post.  Only three posts into Wedding Wednesdays and I'm late.  I have had lots going on and I've also been under the weather.  Wah-wah-wah. 

This past weekend was full of parties and lots and lots of eating.  I did not exercise AT ALL and quite frankly, gave myself a free pass to eat whatever I wanted.  On Saturday, I threw a hula party for my daughter and her friends.  Clearly it was a ton of fun...

Hula Dancing is exercise, right?

There was pizza, macaroons, fruit and chocolate cake and I made sure to sample everything (several times).  Plus, that evening, Alex and I headed up to National Harbor to celebrate my 30th birthday with some of my friends.  We went to a dueling piano bar and ate bar food and indulged in some liquid calories.

I wonder why Julia never smiles normally in pics...

On Sunday, we went to the pool and went to the movies and saw Brave.  I am not afraid to admit that I had an entire box of mozzarella sticks while at the movies and did not share with anyone.  They were delicious.  It has been nearly a million years since I had mozzarella sticks and I forgot how delightful they are.

Anyway, despite the indulgences of the weekend, I am down to 182.0 lbs!  Now I just need to get over this nasty cold and start running again :)  Five pounds down!  The goal for this week is to exercise three times and hopefully break the 180 barrier.

Wedding Wednesday #2

This past weekend, I went down to South Carolina to visit my sister.  It's always a lot of fun going down there because there is always beach action involved.  I have been pretty lazy about the pics so now I will overload you.

I guess I should have taken my mom's camera and downloaded some pics from it, then maybe I would have pictures of myself to post.  Or maybe I should be saying you're welcome!

While I was in South Carolina, my dad and I managed to get out for a run one morning.  South Carolina is sooo much different than northern Virginia.  I have plenty of hill training when I run near my home but in South Carolina it's all flat and easy running.  We only went four miles though since my feet have been bothering me ever since the half marathon I ran a couple weeks ago.

This morning, I took it easy and went to a sunrise yoga session in celebration of the summer solstice.   It has been a long time since I last did yoga, but it was wonderful!  I really love yoga and should try to do it more often.  When I came home, I made myself a delicious breakfast.  I made some eggs and was looking for some veggies to throw in when I found a bag of chopped up zucchini, tomatoes and onions and decided to throw them in.  Once I tossed them in, I realized they also had slices of cucumber...

I was very concerned that I had ruined my breakfast but it actually wasn't that bad (read:  I ate every single bite).

Anyway, I have been tracking my calories (with more resolve than before) and I was pleasantly surprised this morning :)  I was very good and didn't peek at the scale all week.  This morning I weighed in at 184.6 pounds.  Almost five pounds.....Good Start!

Do you have to rely on others to include you in pictures or are you master of the FB shot?

Welcome to Wedding Wednesdays

You probably heard me say once or twice that I am getting married this year.  Even though I am trying to focus on being more active and making healthier choices in what I eat, I still know that I have a lot of weight to lose and will get smaller as time goes on.  With that in mind, I bought a wedding dress in a couple sizes smaller than I currently am....

With only 17 weeks left until the big day, I need to start getting SERIOUS!  I have no idea what that means yet but it's going to start with a workout bright and early tomorrow morning :) 

Each Wednesday I will check in with my progress towards the goal.  I have the horrible habit of weighing myself every day so I will cut it down to just Wednesdays to weigh myself.  I know it's not all about the number on the scale but as of right now, it's still a good indicator of moving in the right direction.  I will also keep you up to date on my some of my measurements too.

Starting Stats
 187 lbs
41.5" bust
41" waist
45.5" hips

On your mark.  Get set.  GO!

A for Effort??

Oh, the New Year Resolution.  How quickly you are made and even more quickly forgotten.   Since we are halfway into the year, I thought it would be a great time to revisit my goals and my lack of progress on them.

My 2012 goals (as of January 2012)

• Run, walk, and/or crawl 1000 miles (approximately 20 miles a week)
• Walk 100 miles with Julia (approximately 2 miles a week)
• Get married!
• Run a half marathon under 2:22:00
• Bring my bowling average up to 120 (haha, baby steps)
• Prepare meatless dinners on Mondays
• Continue to decrease body fat (down to 22%)
• Stay positive by writing in five things I am thankful for every day

So let's take a look...For the first half of 2012, I have run 140 miles.  That leaves me with 29 weeks to run 860 miles.  It's only thirty miles a week or 4.3 miles a day :)  Well geez, if I wasn't having issues with running twenty miles a week then thirty should be cake : /  Julia and I are at ten miles for our goal of 100.  It's probably not as far as we should be but I think this goal is still manageable. 

Get married?  Still in the works...130 days left to go....

haha, I love these

Half marathon under 2:22:00?  CHECK!

My bowling average sadly did not improve much and in fact, I'm not even sure what it was when the league ended.  My best guess would be somewhere near 114.  Oh well.



What is that girl doing?

Meatless Mondays can be filed away under failed goals, however, it's because I have not been successful in this goal that I am still getting married in October.  Let's face it, Alex is a strict carnivore.  There will be no revision of this goal, it will simply be tossed out.

Body fat down to 22%  Fail.  I'm pretty sure being on track for running 1000 miles in a year would have helped me achieve this goal as well.  Did I mention that I still have a wedding dress that doesn't fit?  Yep.

Writing my five things a day that I am grateful for has been semi-successful.  I will admit that it doesn't happen every day but I have certainly tried.  I do love the idea of focusing on the good in life rather than the negative.  It's tough to do but it's worth the effort.

I'm going to adjust my running goal to 500 miles for the year so I will have to run 17.3 miles a week for the rest of the year.  I'm also going to keep writing five things that I am thankful for each day.  The goal I would like to add is fitting into my wedding dress....

What goals have you accomplished so far this year?

Karma Got Me

So it really served me right when I showed up in my purple shirt hoping to blend in with the Team in Training runners....

And everyone else at the run was wearing orange for Team Challenge.

They were not running for Team in Training

Hi, Team Challenge!  I see you like to wear orange shirts...

Instead of blending in with the masses of purple that I expected to see, I stood out like a sore thumb in the sea of orange that ruled this race.  I have to admit that this serves me right for pretending to be a part of a charitable group in hopes of hearing a few people cheering me on. 

Despite my foiled wardrobe plan, I had a really great race.....once the race actually started....  Apparently there were transportation problems with shuttles from the hotels so the race actually started about 40 minutes late.  I'm pretty surprised that it started so late since last year they had the same problem.  I guess the race organizers didn't learn anything from their inaugural race and I wouldn't hold my breath for the problem being solved next year either.

Once we actually started running, the run felt really good.  My dad and I ran the first two miles together and then I told him he could go ahead without me.  The weather was a perfect fifty something degrees with an occasional breeze.  The course also had a significant portion that was shaded with trees, which made the run even more enjoyable. 

Me and My Favorite Running Partner

I finished the race in 2:17:04 chip time, which would have been faster had I known that the race was going to start 40 minutes late because I would have used the port-o-potty one last time and would have eliminated the bathroom break at mile two.  I paused my Garmin for the potty break and my finish time was 2:15:03.  I'm pretty sure that's frowned upon in the running community but I don't care.  In case you don't remember, my goal for this race was 2:22:00 so I beat that time by a five minutes!

I'm pretty proud of myself!  In comparison to my first half marathon time of 3:22:27, I have improved by over an hour :)  To top of my elation, I got some pretty nice finishers gifts as well.

Riedell Wine Glass.  Fancy!

I love getting a technical shirt instead of the regular cotton ones but I have to admit, this one is pretty ugly.  What $100 for this shirt.  I also really like the medal that we received.  It is a bottle stopper AND has a corkscrew on it!!  My one complaint is the medal weighed about fifty pounds and while walking around with my nice wine glass, it hit the glass once or twice and I was pretty sure the glass was done for.  Thankfully, the glass held up to the beating but maybe the race organizers should rethink that combo.

What has been your favorite race swag?

My Body Hates Summer

I did it!  I went out for a nine mile run on Saturday.  Yes, I know I promised you the thrills of a double digit run but it just didn't happen.  Let's just say that I didn't get myself out of the house to run until 10:30am and at that point it was starting to warm up.  I felt like the sun was beating down on me with every step I took.
Not only that but I've been pretty awesomely bad about doing laundry so I was stuck running in black socks...

I'm pretty sure it was psychosomatic but I was convinced that my feet were melting inside of my shoes.  Not only that but the soles of my feet were hurting from lack of cushioning too.  (I hope you stopped by for a healthy dose of whining because that is what you are getting today!)

So anyway, I nearly died of heat on my run and then decided to head off to the Healthy Kid Expo at the Pnats Stadium.  For the next three hours we walked around in the sizzling sun.  It was actually only in the mid-80's and I'm pretty sure I will spontaneously combust once July rolls around.....I really wish my body would adjust to these hotter temperatures already!

On the plus side, Kara gave me a great idea for the VA Wine half marathon and the Team in Training predicament:  Wear a purple shirt!  So simple and yet so genius.  I picked up a purple tech shirt at the thrift store a couple weeks ago so I think that's what I will wear.  It's a long sleeved shirt so I will need to bust out my Sally  Seamstress skills but let's hope it pays off in fan adoration and extra water along the course ;)

Are you more whiny in the winter or the summer?

Two weeks until 13.1 miles

So it just dawned on me that I only have two weeks left until the VA Wine Country Half Marathon (eek!).  I have been running but I haven't been doing much in the way of distance.  I have mapped out a lovely little route for today that will be a nice ten miles under my belt.  Isn't planning half the battle?

Even though I have been signed up for this race for months, I have only recently started researching it.  It turns out that not only will I be getting a medal for finishing BUT that medal will also double as a wine stopper!  Literally, this is the best news of my day :)

source

Finally, I medal that I can actually use!  For next year's race, I think they should have it double as a wine holster.

I'm pretty sure I could wear this
while running

Anyway, I read some reviews and it turns out this race starts out downhill and then continues to roll after that.  I guess my previous admission of wanting to do hill work should come to fruition if I want to be mildly successful in this race.  I also read that the participants in this race are largely Team in Training.  Some of the complaints were that the volunteers and spectators were blind to anyone not wearing a purple shirt.  I'll admit this won't encourage me during a race but I don't think it will kill me either.  Possible famous last words? 

If you could design a twofer medal, what would it double as?

Full moon at the May Day 5k

Or is it a new moon since it is covered in black spandex?



Let's just say, it's not the most flattering picture of me.  Well, I managed to run the May Day 5k, win third place AND make a new PR for myself.  Woo!  Official time was 28:28.  I'm pretty sure I have never ran a 5k in under thirty minutes so I am pretty excited about my time.  Winning third place in this race was actually a sweeter victory than third place at the Turkey Trot 10k because there were ten people in my age group as opposed to four.

I really enjoyed the May Day 5k.  It's a smaller race, I believe we had about two hundred people running it, and the running group that hosts the race is awesome!  My parent's music studio was one of the sponsors for the race so my dad played the harp for the national anthem before the race began.  Seriously, what other race kicks off with a harp performance??

Anyway, I grew up on the street that the race started on but that didn't make the course any easier.  Within the first mile of the course, we had to climb a ridiculous hill and then three quarters into the race there was another killer hill. Ashamedly, I walked a good portion of the second hill.  Doing hill sprints is always something that I think I would like to do in theory because it would help increase my speed and potentially make me less fearful of hills but is something I never really get around to doing.  Shocking, I know.

Any embarrassing pictures of you out in cyberspace for all time and eternity?

What should you do but don't?

Apple Blossom 10k

This past Saturday, I made Alex and Julia wake up at the crack of dawn so that they could watch me huff and puff 6.2 miles and then enjoy a day of carnival food and fun.  I really don't love driving more than an hour to a race the morning of but we had some serious bowling to do the night before so that's what we ended up doing.

The race took place in Winchester, VA and the drive out there was beautiful.  It really reminded me of my drives back and forth to JMU through the mountains of VA.  Anyway, not many people were out on the roads at six so the drive was quick and painless.  Once we got to Winchester, it was pretty easy to find some parking although we paid $10 for the day.  I have heard of the Apple Blossom Festival from an old roommate in college that was from Winchester but I didn't realize the magnitude of the event.  There were hundreds of chairs lining the streets along the parade route that you had to pay certain groups for the privilege of sitting there in a folding chair.  Whatever, I guess it was worth it because AC Slater was the grand marshall.

The race only had race day packet pickup which had me concerned but the process was actually seamless and enjoyable.  It took me five minutes to stop at one tent for my packet and another tent for my t-shirt.

Did I mention that the official colors for this festival are pink and green?  Seriously, We all stood out like sore thumbs since we were not pink and green clad from head to toe.  Anyway, after I got all my goodies, I walked fifty feet over to the start line.  The race is fairly small so there was no worry about getting in the right corral and there was hardly any congestion once we started. 

My favorite part was getting a
good luck hug and kiss from Julia

The course started off going downhill briefly and then turning uphill for almost the next mile.  There were lots of spectators along the course but I'm pretty confident that a lot of them were just holding their seats for the parade later that day as they weren't very encouraging.  I didn't love the course but I think that's because it was unusually hot and muggy and I felt like I was dying.  One thing I did enjoy was that we looped by the start/finish line three different times so my own personal cheerleaders were able to see me at the beginning, middle and end of the race, which I thought was really nice. 

I walked parts of the 10k because I felt like the heat was killing me and therefore, I only finished in 1:01:51.  This is only an approximation as I forgot to stop my Garmin when I crossed the finish line and they haven't posted the official race results yet.  Come on, it was chip timed.  Shouldn't it be pretty easy just to post those?

After the race, we continued on to the fair and paid enormous amounts of money for food.  I had a pretty delicious smoked turkey sandwich and topped it off with some chocolate covered bacon :) 

After eating, we decided to head out of town and get back home.  Our friend Tim was celebrating his 30th birthday at the House of Bounce and we didn't want to get stuck in Winchester since they were closing all the roads down for the parade. 

Luckily, we made it in time!

What is your favorite carnival food?

I'm turning 30 in a month and loved House of Bounce, do you have any other suggestions on how to celebrate?

Contest Winner

I'm a bit of a sucker, I'll admit it.  I love a good raffle and rarely hesitate to enter my name and address for a chance to win something cool.  A couple weeks ago, my favorite restaurant La Tasca was running a promotion for a ten dollar gift card via a facebook contest.  Basically, they cut a paste a picture of sangria onto a picture of a Spanish scene and you had to tell them how many you saw.  Let's be real, if you have the IQ of a doorknob, you could win this thing. 

Ok, maybe not so much sangria
as orange rectangles ;)

Finally, my doorknob IQ paid off!  I was the chosen winner for the second day of the contest :)  What's even better is that I told Alex about the contest and told him to enter on the third and final day and he won the third day!  Yaaaaay, tapas for all!  The ten dollar gift card barely put a debt in our bill but as always the food was delicious and I went away fat and happy. 

It was such a good thing that I went running with my friend Jenny that morning.  It was a beautiful 4.6 miles around Burke Lake Park and the weather was perfect once we warmed up.  Some guy on the trail came up behind us and said "Come on ladies, sprint all out for ten seconds!"  I immediately used pregnant Jenny as a reason not to follow his command.  Jenny may have done it had it not been for me ;)  She's a personal trainer and teaches boot camp classes a million times a week.  She's pretty amazing.

Kara?

The next day I was supposed to get up and go to Burke Lake again with the Ridge Runners but I overslept and decided to run up and down Dale Boulevard.  I should have traded in that few extra minutes of sleep for running around Burke Lake.  Instead of a beautiful wooded trail with plenty of shade, I was running on the far more hilly road and sucking exhaust while the sun beat down on me.  I suppose I thought it was going to be cold like the morning before so I put on a long sleeve tech shirt and tights.  Wrong choice.  I was sooo hot.  I literally wanted to die.  Somehow I managed not to die and actually ran seven miles.

Overall, it was a really great weekend!

Running Late

Woo hoo!  I got up and ran my three miles Tuesday morning :)  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is the small victories that sometimes need the most celebration!  It felt really good to sweat.


I'm sexy and I know it

Want to know what's even better?  No, it's not money or something delicious to eat.  I ran again yesterday for 4.36 miles.  I know, I know, I'm almost a runner again!  Not going to lie, the run was rough.  The hills really sucked the life out of me so obviously, I'm still trying to get my legs back into running shape. 

Yesterday evening, Alex and I met with our photographer for an engagement photo session in Occoquan at Rockledge Mansion.  In true Andrea style, I tried to do way to much during the day so when it came time to leave, I was still trying to put a few curls in my hair so it didn't look like an air-dried mess (I know, wah wah wah).  It was no surprise that while we were trying to get there, we hit every.single.red.light.  By the time we arrived, we were twenty minutes late, I was grumpy and completely felt like calling off the session.  Luckily, Heather  is amazing and didn't act like it was a big deal at all that she was waiting around for us.  I'm soo glad that we did the shoot.  Heather showed us a couple of pictures on the screen of her camera and they looked amazing!  She said it will take her a couple of weeks before the photos are ready for us to view and I cannot wait!  I will definitely be sharing (whether you like it or not).

Are you horrible with time management too?

Will Power is a Muscle

And mine has atrophied. I stuck to the 10k training plan for the first couple weeks (although loosely) and as of recently it has fallen by the wayside.  Alex and I took Julia to the rec center yesterday to go swimming with Stacy and her daughter.  The rec center is close to my house so I decided to after hitting the pool that I would run home.  It was a chill 50 degrees and raining and the run home was miserable.  It turned out that the distance from the rec to the my house if only 1.85 miles and I was so completely grumpy about being cold that I didn't even run up and down my street to round my mileage off to two miles.

I would be angry too if I didn't have a sports bra on...

Despite my mediocre run, I spent a delightful evening cooking dinner with my daughter.  Perhaps it's the parental controls that we are using on the TV or just a budding career in the culinary arts, but Julia's favorite channel is the Food Network.  It's so weird because I am not really one to watch that channel.  Or maybe Julia is getting tired of the meals that I cook and has decided to take matters into her own hands....

The highlight of the meal was green bean fries.  Hold on, they were good!  I promise.  Alex usually chokes down a vegetable or two but for the most part he tries to stay away from them all together.  He actually went back for seconds of these fries!  It was a vegetable miracle :)

Here's the recipe:

Green Bean Fries

8 ounces green beans, trimmed
1/2 cup wheat flour
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups Italian bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
salt
ground black pepper

I blanched the green beans (put in boiling water for 3 minutes, immerse in ice water, and dry with a towel) and then set up a three station breading area.  The first dish had the wheat flour, the second the eggs, and the final dish had the Italian bread crumbs, onion powder, chili powder, salt and pepper.  Once the green beans were breaded, I put them on a wire rack on top of a baking sheet and baked them at 425 degrees for fifteen minutes. 

They were absolute perfection when they came out. 


Anyway, I did some strength training this morning and have three miles planned for tomorrow morning :)

Advocare?

When I began this blog, I really did not intend for it to be a weight loss blog.  I wanted it to document my efforts in becoming healthier and being a better example for my young daughter.  Weightloss is a part of that journey and I will talk about it from time to time but ultimately, it's not the driving force of the blog.  I'm not sure that this counts as a confession, but I think that we are all pretty aware that over the past few months, I have not been the greatest role model in healthy eating and exercise.  It's true, I have gained around twenty pounds.  

Anyway, it's been a struggle trying to get back into a really good exercise routine and making healthy food choices.  I'm slowly getting back into the routine of early morning workouts but the food is still a struggle.  A couple of months ago, Patrice called me up and told me about a new product that she thought I might be interested in.  Once I realized that this was a new business venture for her as well, I was turned off and I told her that I would think about it.  Since that phone call, many of Alex and my friends have tried the product and have had good results from it. 

The product that she is selling is Advocare.  Like I said, many of our friends have done the 24-day challenge and have seen results with it.  Apparently, these products are supposed to help me increase lean muscle mass and decrease body fat.  I decided to give it a try and I am currently in day 4 of the cleanse.  Just for fun (and mostly for myself to see if I wasted my time and money), I have posted some before shots:

Yay, ugly bathroom photos



Good thing the flash covers up my face
so you can't tell if I was sucking in or not ;)

At the very least, I'm hoping that the next twenty four days will help me to reset my eating habits.  Twenty more days to go!

Do you know of anyone that has done the 24 day challenge?  


Do you think the word gullible starts with ME?

I'm a baby

All right, folks.  The 10k training program is off to a rough start.  I got on the treadmill for three miles yesterday but it was not a fun.  The backs of my heels have open wounds on them and running just isn't enjoyable.  I started out with some lovely spiderman band aids over them but unfortunately they were small and came right off.  I stopped after a mile and switched over to the massive band aids but alas, I was already sweaty so they didn't stick at all.  I stopped again after the second mile and took my shoes off and decided to run the last mile in my bare feet. 

It's kind of funny how much louder it is to run on the treadmill in your bare feet rather than in shoes.  I could definitely feel different muscles being used and today my calves are pretty tight.  Not sure this is something that I am going to incorporate into my regular routine but it was definitely interesting.

After I completed my sad three miles, I did some weight training.  I have to admit that I have missed working out with weights like I did with Patrice.  Although it was enjoyable at the time, I am paying for it dearly today.  Not only are my calves tight from the barefoot running but my butt and thighs are hardly cooperating today.  I was scheduled for five miles this morning and I cried uncle and stopped after a slow two miles.  I will attempt the other three tonight!

In more successful news, I taught Julia how to use a vacuum cleaner!  What's even better is that she hasn't caught on to the fact that it is work. Yes, I will be exploiting this to the fullest ;)

I heart vacuuming

Are you a baby about sore muscles?

Are you successful in getting your kids to clean up around the house?

Planned Redemption

At least, that's what my mother always told me.  As per usual, I'm not the most obedient daughter and seldom put this little gem into action.  Of course, just in everything, Mom was right and that's why I missed a new PR by one stupid second.  My next 10k is just a month away so let's get planning!

Adaptation from Mr. Higdon's Intermediate 10k

I give each and every one of you permission to check in on my progress.  Shoot me an email and I can give you my address, cell phone number and other ways to harass me about sticking to the plan.  Seriously folks, give me some peer pressure!

Am I seriously supposed to be intimidated
 by someone in an argyle sweater??

Anyway, my next race is the Apple Blossom 10k on May 5th.  I have never run this race before nor do I know anyone that has run it.  I hope that it's not 6.2 miles completely uphill so that I have a fighting chance at a PR.  Come on, 59 minutes!

Are you a crazy planner or do you fly by the seat of your pants?

Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k Race Report

So I ran the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k this past Saturday and had a blast.  For the first time EVER, we had four out of six members of my family running!  Of course, my trusty running partner (my dad) was there, as well as my two brothers, Jeremy and Sean. 

Jeremy loves to run!

We all drove down Friday night and stayed in a hotel and that was the best idea EVER.  For the Maymont 8-miler, I drove down to Richmond that morning and I was very tired to say the least.  The weather in Richmond was pretty crapolicious; it was cold and rainy.  There were about forty thousand runners so waiting to get across the start line was the most miserable part of all. 

All smiles before standing in the rain

Everyone in my group actually got to the race about 45 minutes late but there were still waves crossing the start line so we jumped in and were able to start running within fifteen minutes.  Of course, as with all large races, it was very crowded and slow going for the first quarter mile or so.  The race was down Monument Avenue and they shut down the entire road for the event so there was plenty of room for running once it cleared out a bit.  There were plenty of port o' potties along the course and plenty of water and powerade too. 
So let's be honest for a moment.  I have not been running like I should have been to meet my goal of 59 minutes for this 10k.  In fact, as of the morning of that run, my revised goal was to finish the race without walking any part of it.  Well, I was successful in not walking it and it was pretty easy to keep my mind off of how much I wanted to die by listening to the bands and spectators cheering us on along the way.  That has to be my favorite part of this run.  There are so many great groups that come out to cheer on the runners and it is a really fun atmosphere. 

Even though I didn't make my original goal time, I did finish the race with an overall 9:45 minute/mile.   I was kind of excited about that until I realized that I finished one second after my finish time for the Turkey Trot 10k I ran last November.  One second??  Ugh.  Oh well, I guess I can still bask in the glory of beating my dad and my two brothers :)

Have you ever missed a PR by one second?