{life through instagram}

I haven’t been very good about posting pictures in a long time. It is probably due to the fact that many times during the winter my camera goes into hibernation and I hardly ever pull it out. I am missing my camera something fierce and know that I should be pulling it out for more than just photoshoots for clients. In the mean time, here are some snapshots of our every day life courtesy of my phone camera and instagram. If you are friends with me on facebook and/or follow me on instagram, you’ve already seen these…

Family shot at the bowling alley. Even though my lover boy isn’t looking, at least he has a smile on his face, hehe!Selfie in the mirror! Love the natural light our whole entire house has, makes for much better selfie pictures! Yup, I just wrote that!Warming weather means this girl is getting her run on outside more and more often these days! The track behind our house has been plowed and I took my first run there with the sun shining! I’ve decided that running around the track is just about as fun as running on the treadmill and by that I mean it isn’t. Little man and his cousin playing some games on the iPhone. Those two are going to be inseperable! Oh how I love that Ayden has so many cousins that are his age! We are so blessed!Beautiful sunset with the wonderfully frozen lake yet!All of my race bibs to date! Going to be adding a sixth one in just a few weeks for my half marathon! Getting nervous and excited! KNOW I can pull it off though! Here is my pretty Easter outfit for the day! I am all about lots of color these days and to me, the brighter the better! I totally rock those pink skinny jeans, I don’t care what anyone else says, I do it with confidence!Have I mentioned that I like color! Check out my colorful striped running socks and my awesomely colorful shoes! Obnoxious with the color, no?!Earlier this past week, we were blessed to have potato pancakes and Grandma Hoerth cake tops for supper! A night spent with grandparents and parents with some hilarious Uno in the mix, yeah, I’ll take that any night of the week!Little man recently rocked a Social Studies test at school! 100%… oh yeah! Considering this for my half marathon outfit should it be warm enough that day! It is pretty obvious by now that I like to stand out! Hoping the weather is warmer than my last run that day! Sweet sleep shot of the little man. Oh how I could watch him sleep for all hours of the day!Me and the little man, Quinn, Jay’s cousin. We are super tight, hehe! He lives in another state, so we don’t get to see each other too often, so when we do, it’s extra special! Although, he hung on Ayden a little more this time, which was equally as heart warming to me! I love impromptu family get-togethers!That’s all for now, back to regularly scheduled programming in the coming days!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{wednesday blabbering}

I've been having a hard time this past week formulating any sort of coherent blog post that ya'll might even want to consider reading. I'm not here to announce right now that I have the blog post of blog posts going on in my head right now, but after more than a week of silence from me, I just feel the need to write. So, beware, this blog post very well may not blow you out of the water like all of my other blog posts, or like I think all of my other blog posts do, hehe!

Last week was difficult for me when it comes to working out. I ran on Tuesday and Wednesday and my knees hurt both days. I made four miles by pushing myself pretty hard on Tuesday and on Wednesday, by three miles I needed to stop and walk for the last mile. It was definitely a buzz kill to me, even though I pushed myself for that last mile by increasing the incline to a severely dangerous level and making myself speed walk it. Well, it may not have been a dangerous incline, but it was definitely high!

I took Thursday off from working out, I didn't make it to hot yoga on Friday (although Victoria and I did go for a three mile walk and yes Victoria, I know it was exactly three miles because I took us on my usual three mile run route), and Saturday and Sunday were a wash as well. I have even been slacking on my exercises of the day challenge because I've just not been in the mood. Totally not me... been bumming about the icky crappy cold weather that is still sticking around, bumming about my knee pain, and well last week was super busy at work so I just didn't feel like working out.

Despite weekends in the past where my eating has gone completely out the window, I am proud to report that this weekend I did fairly well with my eating and water guzzling. And that is something to be proud of because I was home alone all of Saturday afternoon where I could have put anything and everything in my mouth, but I didn't, even giving the laziness I was displaying by sitting on the couch the entire afternoon doing nothing but watching stupid shows on TV and taking a nap or reading something smutty. The scale was still nice to me in the morning on Sunday. And yes, weigh in days are Monday and Thursday with me and Victoria, but I just knew that the scale was going to be nice on Sunday morning and I needed to see a nice number instead of something rude. Even though it shouldn't be, it was a morale booster. Eating Sunday was pretty good as well. Jay and I had Applebee's for lunch, but I just had a salad and soup and it was so yummy and I did okay for supper. Even though I weighed in Monday, I still stepped on the scale this morning and like I thought, it wasn't very nice. It wasn't overly rude, but without my nice Sunday reading, I would have been upset come Monday seeing the same number.

I cannot believe how ungodly fast this week has been going. Not complaining, but dude, slow it down a little bit... pretty please! I'm not asking for much, am I?

Last night was great. Jay's grandparents invited us over (at my request) for potato pancakes! I am seriously in love with Jay's grandma's potato pancakes (and her cake, and her meatballs, and her just about everything). So, we headed over there, along with Jay's parents and brother, and enjoyed a night with his grandparents eating good food and playing some hilarious rounds of Uno afterwards. And really, what meal at Grandma Hoerth's house wouldn't be complete without some Grandma Hoerth cake tops?! Yeah, love that woman like none other! It was a blast! The night flew by and before I knew it, it was morning time again and here I am, more than halfway through the week!

I am happy to announce that the weather has been great this week and I have already gotten in two outside runs. A 4.5 mile run on Monday and 3 miles yesterday! My left knee is still bothering me about two miles in, but in all fairness, I was kind of pushing myself on both runs this week. Taking today off from running, but I am going to hit the bike tonight. Looking for 15+ miles and I'm going to do it. Would love to be outside biking today, but it is kind of windy and well I'm just not ready for that. We'll stick to the inside for today anyways.

CIAO for now! LOVE ME!

{17k COMPLETE!}

Before I jump full force into race day recap for you, I thought I would jibber jabber a little bit about the days leading up to race time. The rest of my week went on as usual. Victoria and I hit up hot yoga on Friday night. I did my challenge of the day exercises before yoga because I didn't want to have to be doing them getting home from Jay's parents at 9pm at night and I didn't want to miss doing them either. The only thing that I didn't do before yoga was my two minute plank because that I figured I could do after getting home from Jay's parents house. What's two minutes quickly before bed time? Yeah, I thought so to.


Yoga was great. I was looking forward to the nice warm room all day long and it didn't disappoint. The teacher kicked our butts though and I definitely got a good workout in. I don't usually sweat buckets at yoga (am I doing something wrong), but I was definitely dripping sweat on Friday. I even got my two minute plank in during class thanks to the teacher! I don't know if it was exactly two minutes or maybe even a little bit more, but I got at least close to two minutes in and then knew I wouldn't have to do it at home. Yoga is just so relaxing, I love it! Way more than I thought I was going to.

After yoga, Jay, the little man, and I headed over to his parents for some fish for supper. Jay's brother baked a northern for us. The one thing I love most about going to his parent's house (besides the good company and good food) is the fact that during the winter it is ALWAYS warm now. They have a wood burning fire place and that baby keeps the house WARM! Stepping into their house was like stepping back into the hot yoga studio! Everyone else was complaining it was too warm, but for me it was just right! Albeit, it would have been too hot for me to fall asleep in for the night as I think everyone likes it a little colder at night so they can cuddle with the blankets, but in any case, it was just so nice! And the food, oh the food! We had salads, cheesy broccoli soup, fish (which everyone else thought was good, but I could do without), mashed potatoes, and corn! Quite the feast and it was SO yummy! And then pudding and whipped cream for dessert! Fill that belly and yes I did!

Saturday Ayden had bowling in the morning and Jay and I had bowling at night. During the middle, we didn't do too much. I cleaned some at home, did some laundry, and then just relaxed as much as I could with the impending race on my mind. Jay made the most yummy potato soup for supper. I bowled three pretty decent games, and then we celebrated with blizzards from Dairy Queen. It was a pretty good day. I slept well that night, but I did end up dreaming about my race the entire time. Ugh, bad dreams!

And then enter... RACE DAY!

I had a bright and early wake up call. Actually, it wasn't bright when I woke up. It was still dark out. Ick, impending dark! I was excited for the race, especially since Victoria would be accompanying me for the first 5k! We got all decked out in our St. Patty's Day gear and got a pretty decent parking spot at the race starting location and then went to get our race bibs. I'd have to say that one of the best things about the pre race set up was that we were able to stay inside a warm building until right up to race time. It was cold yesterday morning, my friends, very cold! Like probably a whole 10 degrees at the beginning of the race. The sun may have been shining, but it sure wasn't warming us up very fast.

As everyone started to herd out to the starting line the nerves started to kick in. What the hell was I getting myself into?! A 10.5 mile run! My longest run to date prior was only 9 miles and I ran that two weeks prior!Before I knew it, everyone was off and going. Okay, here we go. The first mile to two miles, my feet and hands were cold, but before I knew it I was coming up on mile three where the 5kers split from the 17kers and I was on my way for the rest of the run. By this point the sun was shining full force and we were running straight into a slight wind. The ONLY good part about that was that we would be running with the wind on the way back. I picked a husband and wife couple that was right in front of me that I wanted to keep up with. I'm happy to report that the husband totally jacked me out of the water and finished probably a good minute or two before me and I ended up finishing about a minute ahead of the wife. (At least I think they were married.) In any case, they didn't know it, but they helped keep me going.

This race had lots of water/gatorade stops and despite my stubborn self trying to get the best of me and tell me that I didn't need to hydrate, I did grab some water at most of the stations. That is the only time I walked, for about the 15 seconds I was trying to gulp down some liquid goodness. I also popped some sport beans along the way too. This was only the second time I've tried the sport beans, so I haven't really formed a solid opinion on them yet. They taste good and I'd like to think they helped me. I do have some GU Chomps that I'd like to try out yet as well. 

I hit a pretty hard wall at about mile 9. It was mostly mental because I knew I was venturing into territory yet unran by myself (and I was going up hill at that point), but I kept pushing forward. I had a goal of finishing under two hours and I finished in 1:51:45.08 (yes, I looked up my official chip time)! I couldn't believe it! What made it all the more special was that not only was Victoria cheering me on at the finish line, but Jay, little man, both of Jay's parents, Jay's mom's parents, and my mom had shown up to cheer me on as well (in the bitter cold)! How awesome is that? Do I have the best family or what?! 

After quickly eating half a banana and stretching a little bit, we all headed home. I just wanted a warm shower! Unfortunately, I didn't realize the amount of stress and strain I had put my body through and by the time I attempted to get out of my car 40 minutes later, I was walking like I needed a cane or something. S.O.R.E. doesn't not begin to explain what I was feeling. We headed to my sister's house for some lunch and ice cream cake to help celebrate my mom's birthday that was a few weeks ago and then I spent the rest of the afternoon curled up in a warm bed not moving a muscle.

For the first time since decided to run a half marathon next month, I actually think it is possible. I started out this thing called running with no idea how it would go. Me, a runner. Hell no! Me, run a mile. Hell no! Yet, I pushed forward like no one was holding me back and I've run double digits in one run. Double freaking digits! Bring it on 13.1, I will make you my bitch!

(Pictures to come!)

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{insecurity}

Sometimes Usually when I write my blog posts, I have diarrhea of the fingers and just let them go and whatever comes out, comes out. As I was rereading my last blog post, after having already posted it because who would proofread it before actually posting it, I had some thoughts... lets call them minor revelations.

I probably came off sounding like a whiny little bitch, complaining about a few pound weight gain. I weighed freaking 124.5 lbs... I know people who would literally kill to weigh that and here I was complaining about it. What the F! Seriously, where do I get off?! Even when I started my fitness journey to lose weight over a year ago, I wasn't considered overweight. I was definitely leading a lifestyle and had food habits that would have led me there given the time, but I certainly had nothing to complain about. And yet, there I sat yesterday, letting my fingers pour out bitchiness after bitchiness about a few pound increase on the scale. My apologies, friends, readers, whomever. I mean, I don't really write this blog for anyone other than me, but I definitely don't want to come off sounding all whiny and complaining... ALL of the time, haha!

The thing is, when you are almost at your goal weight or don't have that much to lose in the first place, it is THAT much harder to lose the weight. It took me a solid six months to get rid of just 15 pounds. 15! The amount of kick ass work I had to put in during those six months and how I had to completely change my eating habits almost made me turn around and go back to my old ways, almost!

So, yeah, at this point in the game, I do get upset with a small increase in the scale, whether they are just the average daily fluctuations, weight retention from a sodium ladden brat I may or may not have had for supper last night, or the week leading up to TOM... it irritates me. The other thing I failed to realize is that maybe that increase is muscle gain and not fat gain. How do I determine which it is? And if it is muscle gain, how am I going to learn to accept seeing the scale go up? Oh why does it own me so?

My clothes are still fitting great, well despite the fact that most of my jeans are too big. Sad face here and yet happy face as well! So I guess I should take that as a sign that I am continuing to do something right. With all of the hard work I put in and continue to put in, I struggle with the minor upsets. Sometimes, folks, lets face it, it is a one day at a time thing and sometimes even a one hour at a time thing. Take last week for example... back to counting my calories and I did pretty good. I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes one night (actually 29 min 40 seconds, but who's counting) and then biked 4 miles in 17 minutes. I was pushing for 15, but didn't realize I could probably hit 4 in 15 until five minutes in and then I had to really kick it into gear, but I was a tad too late. Did that make sense? Anyways, breakfast and lunch good. Lots of water, lots of bathroom breaks. Supper, semi good. Stayed within my calories, but had a delicious juicy Johnsonville brat on a nice large bun and then some carrots and fat free dip. Oh was that brat good! Sodium ladden, yes, but SO yummy! I filled up on food and then kept telling myself I would stay away from the ice cream. And stay away from it I did, but it took me telling myself almost every five minutes to not give into the temptation. However, before bed, instead of ice cream, I did have a Nature Valley Sweet and Salty granola bar which curbed my craving for ice cream and was definitely not as many calories as a bowl of ice cream. And, even with the granola bar, I was within my calories.

A good plus!

Rambling aside, I may bitch and moan about my journey, but it's just that, some griping here and there. In the end I'll survive, trust me, I will.

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{scale intervention}

I needed an intervention with the scale. It had to come. Seriously! I stepped on the scale last night and literally almost threw up in my mouth! The scale read 124.5! A freaking number that I haven't seen in OVER six months! For the last couple of weeks the scale has been slowly and steadily increasing and I CANNOT take it! I HATE seeing it go up! Although, honestly, who doesn't?! I cannot let it get to me the way that it does, but I do! I have been consistently working out about 3-4 times a week and getting my sweat on and consistently doing my challenge of the day exercises for March so far (no frowny faces yet, even busted out my exercises at 9pm one night because I didn't want a frowny face). And when I'm working out at the gym, I leave with sweat dripping off my face, so it's not like I'm just half assing my workouts. Am I working out less than I used to, yes, but I don't think that that is why the weight is slowly creeping up. Let's be honest here, my eating has kind of gotten out of control again. I think I thought to myself that, hey, you are maintaining your weight pretty well, you've been doing good for about six months, you got this. And then I sort of gave into all of my cravings. Lots of chocolate, bigger portions, second helpings, I couldn't stop. And wouldn't you know, the scale has gone up. So, it is back to using My Fitness Pal on the phone and tracking my calories and portions a little bit better in hopes of decreasing the number on the scale again and learning to curb myself. A bowl of ice cream every now and then, that's fine... a bowl of ice cream every night, not so good! Okay, I lie, it is delicious, but definitely not helping any, haha!

I've also decided that I need to stop letting the scale determine how my day is going to go. So, what did I do? I texted Victoria, vented to her, found out she is having the same kind of frustrations and we've decided to limit our time on the scale. I thought weighing in once a week would be good, but she wanted at least twice a week, so that's it. Mondays and Thursdays (to start) are our now official scale days. Have I mentioned how much having someone keep my accountable has helped my journey and keep me motivated to keep going?! Why yes, yes I have, a million and two times now, well I must say it again, love that girl! She probably has some inkling of how much she keeps me motivated day in and day out. Having someone right down the road that I can call at the drop of a hat and say, hey you want to go work out, and she'll agree is amazeballs! It's all about having that buddy! I didn't realize how much it helps until we moved back to town and Victoria started to work out with me. I cannot wait for this summer! I see many many runs, walks, rollerblading journeys, hikes with the kids, and playground exercises that will kick our ass together! Hear that Victoria... come summer, it's you, me, and our own bootcamp... screw needing to pay for a class, we can make our own!

Speaking of summer, someone please tell me that it is on the horizon?!?! I mean seriously, we are almost halfway through March and it is still snowing and 30 degrees out! The high for my race on Sunday is supposed to be 28 degrees and the high is usually around noon or later! That means my race is going to be like 20 freaking degrees! Ugh! So not excited for the weather, but definitely getting more and more excited for the race itself. As nervous as I am, I know that I am going to push through and rock it! I want to prove to MYSELF and no one else (well mostly no one else) that I can and WILL be able to finish it! It is going to be great!

Even though the weather is still kind of cold. Oh, who am I kidding, it is still way too freaking cold, with daylight savings time, I am a much happier person. Light outside until after 6pm, hell yeah, I'll take that! I don't mind it being darker in the morning. That just means I get to see the sun rise on my drive to work and really, that is pretty gorgeous most mornings, if I don't say so myself! And even if it is cloudy out, it isn't super dark when I leave, so I can still deal. The being lighter later thing is really my friend. It just makes the day seem like it is so much longer. I am itching for some 40 or 50 degree weather and the snow to melt to really move my workouts outside more. I am definitely an outside person. I may not be considered outdoorsy per say, but I love just being outside in the fresh air! There is nothing better, in my eyes, than a hot summer day with the sun on full force sitting out on my swing with a good book... nothing better! Well, hugs and smooches from the little man rank right up there too! Plus, warm weather means I won't be so cold all of the time! Definitely getting sick of that, and paying for a ginormous heating bill. Hello, last year at this time we had a week of 70 degree weather! Mother Nature, you hear that! 70 freaking degrees! I'd at least take 40s or 50s right now, come on, cut this chick some slack!

I try to stay hydrated throughout the day. Staying hydrated means having to pee a LOT! I think my coworkers must think I have bladder problem for all of the times I am using the bathroom throughout the day! Seriously, it's cray cray! Every morning for the last couple of months, when I get to work I have a cup of hot chocolate. It used to be just 8 ounces, until I realized I could make the Keurig give me 10 ounces, yeah I know, I haven't quite figured it all out yet. So now, in a matter of about 15 minutes each morning, I am downing 10 ounces of hot chocolate. I drink it pretty fast because #1, I'm usually cold and it helps warm me up, and #2, it's just yummy goodness, and #3, I like to get it gone before seeing my first patient, otherwise it is cold by the time I get back to it and cold hot chocolate, not so yummy! Then, throughout the rest of the day, I am guzzling at least 75 more ounces of water from my cup. If my pee ain't clear, something's wrong, lol! I usually do pretty good at keeping up with the water intake while at work during the week. At home during the weekend is when I suffer.

Okay, that is enough mumbo jumbo for the day...

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{at this moment}

Despite the crappy rainy, albeit a little warmer, weather this weekend, it has been pretty good. Well, at least yesterday was! I was able to leave work a little early on Friday because of our no patients/possibility of losing power thing I blogged about last time and came home and managed to do nothing. The weather was fantastic and I kept telling myself that I should get my butt off the warm couch and go outside in the sunshine and run my little heart out! I didn't. Instead, I took a short nap on the couch. Ayden stayed and played with Alexis at my dad's house for a little while after school.

Later in the night, Victoria and I headed over to my cousin's house for a 31 party. We had a great time there and both spent way too much money! I can't wait to get my products!

Yesterday was a great day! I slept in. Once again, I thought about going for a run while Jay took Ayden to bowling. Instead, I stayed home and went to bowling with them. Afterwards, we ran to Walmart to pick up a few things before heading out to go rollerskating/blading with my dad's side of the family at a semi-local skating rink. It was mega busy at the rink yesterday, but we all had a blast! At first Ayden was adamant about not skating, despite remembering how much fun he had last year after not wanting to skate. He started out slow and by the end of the afternoon, he was going around by himself. He definitely fell his share of times, but he just kept getting right back up and going going going! So proud of him!

After skating, the family headed over to a local pizza buffet and we all shoved ourselves crazy full of pizza! Oh yum! Loaded baked potato pizza and chicken bacon ranch pizza, HELLO yum! I definitely had more than I needed, but oh, it was SO good! And even better, after skating, almost everyone headed back to my grandparents house for homemade ice cream and birthday cake! There was just something about everyone being together and makes a girl happy! My dad's family is pretty big (although not as large as Jay's dad's family), so there was lots of people and lots of noise! If I sit and count there are about 50 some people in the family and I'd have to say probably 30 or more were there last night. On top of the delicious pizza we had, the homemade ice cream was amazing! Sitting and eating a bowl of homemade ice cream with homemade fudge with all of your family around, it just brought back a ton of good memories and the night ended well! Ayden and I headed home around 8pm and I crawled into bed while Ayden and Jay went bowling with my brother.

Lovely day light savings had me lose a precious hour of my time today, but that is okay. Instead of going on a run on Friday or Saturday when it wasn't all rainy and super crappy, I went out this morning for a 4.5 mile run in the rain. I enjoyed the run in the rain. The weather wasn't actually too cold, but the entire run I was freaking myself out about my run next weekend. The 4.5 miles I did today was kind of tough on me, but I wasn't really feeling it and next weekend I have to do 10.5 miles, over twice the distance I went today. A small part of me believes that I can do it, and a big part of me believes that I am way in over my head. I need those to switch around. I know come race day my adrenaline will kick in and I will definitely pull this off! There really isn't any other option!

I've been getting lots of questions lately from almost everyone I come into contact with about how the wedding planning is going. At this point I just want to say I don't even care. I am so anti wedding planning right now and I don't know why. I find that I'm kind of waving back and forth between loving planning and hating it. I'm trying to avoid any extra stress in my life right now and I know if I concentrate too hard on wedding planning, I'm going to get too stressed and crabby and bitchy and I'm just not feeling those moods right now. If I could snap my fingers, have it be wedding day and everything done already for me that would be great, haha! Alas, I cannot. Despite knowing that I can and should be doing some stuff now, I can't bring myself too. I just want to concentrate on getting through the rest of this semester, graduating, and securing a job before throwing myself into full on wedding stuff. Can you blame me? Probably.

I want to do a Tough Mudder race. It's a 10 mile obstacle race. It's a crazy ass 10 mile obstacle course race... and I want to do it. I want to do it two weeks before my wedding. If you know what a Tough Mudder is, you probably think I'm crazy. If you don't, google it, and then you will think I'm crazy. I turned down the Hot Mess Mud Run a week before my wedding, but I can't turn down this race. The runner in me won't allow it. If you live life in fear that you will get hurt you won't go out and do anything. I don't want to be one of those people. Besides, I'm one of those people who won't allow herself to get hurt, haha! Victoria and I, and a bunch of other people, are going to earn that orange headband! We have all summer to train! Plus, after my half next month, I need something to keep my motivated for throughout the summer! It's going to not only kick ass, but it is literally going to kick our ass! And we say, BRING IT ON BIOTCH!

Jay and I were supposed to get our engagement pictures taken today, but with the crappy rainy weather we had to reschedule. I'm hoping for less snow, warmer weather, and bright sunny skies at the next attempt! We'll get them done at some point, so I'm not worried about it!

Back to the grind of work tomorrow! Going to be another good week!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{LONG week}

It's finally Friday... right?! It better be Friday because I am SO ready for this week to be over. I am writing this while at work waiting for the power to possibly go out. You see, well actually you don't, you read, haha... a transformer right outside our building blew this morning and according to the power company, there was a good chance that the building would probably lose power at some point during the morning. Therefore, we saw our two early morning patients and then ended up rescheduling the rest of them for the day because you can't exactly see patients in the dark. Well, you could, but you really wouldn't want to, now would you? Didn't thinks so. The last thing we needed was an elderly patient walking down the stairs to our office, the power going out, said patient tripping and falling, and ending up in the hospital, or worse, someone getting stuck in the elevator. Now that would really be a riot!

So, instead of seeing patients for the day, I have been helping the front office stay fold, stuff, and seal envelopes for the upcoming battery sale. Oh joyous world! Actually, it has been a nice relaxing morning, just what this chick needed. That, and I don't ever mind helping out someone who needs it, well most of the time I don't mind. Well, I never mind with the people that I work with. They have seriously become like family to me and if I end up having to leave at the end of my externship, I'll be sad to say goodbye... but honestly, it probably wouldn't be goodbye because I'd keep in touch! I even still miss the people I worked with while I was in Point. I was at that office for a good seven years and they really WERE like family to me! I love small atmospheres with good people and have been blessed to have two great work environments thus far!

Fitness wise this week, because I might as well get that out of the way at the beginning of this post, or the middle of it, whatever you want to call it... it has been pretty good. Even with the extra water retention this week (week before TOM, not that you cared), the scale has been kind of nice to me. I've also made an effort to really try and drink a lot of water each day. Typically I drink about 60 ounces per day, which is average I would say... I know I could definitely be drinking more. This week I've been averaging about 75 ounces per day and with that increase in fluids intake, there has also been an increase in fluid outtake, lol! Once again, not that you cared to know! Food has been okay. That is always my weakness, but suffice to say, I haven't shoved EVERY morsel of food that I've come across into my mouth. Anywhoo, I ran four miles on Monday, biked 9.5 miles on Tuesday, did absolutely nothing on Wednesday, not even my challenge of the day, and yesterday I was a BEAST I tell ya, a BEAST!!! I ran four miles after work, then I went and did an hour of hot yoga, and then yet... came home and did my challenge of the day, which just so happened to be... 25 chair dips, 35 push ups, 45 sit ups, 65 squats, and 1min 45 sec of plank. Okay, I lie, I didn't do it all at home. I did the squats earlier in the day at work during lunch, I started my push ups before yoga started and counted some core work at yoga for 20 of my sit ups and we did plank at yoga; however, I know it wasn't for 1 min 45 seconds. Even still, I busted my butt!

Yoga was great, as usual. Victoria and I typically go on Friday nights, but we couldn't make it this Friday, so Thursday night it was. Friday night class is usually pretty full, although not packed. Last night's class was packed. There are two different instructors and we've had both now for several sessions and they both teach the class in their own ways. There are different things that I enjoy about each of them and they both make the experience about yourself, which is the best. I was surprised and happy to see some other friends at yoga that I hadn't seen before which made it even better! I have to say, because the class was so full, I was a little self conscious at the beginning, but then I let it all go and just was. I concentrated just on myself and that was it. I did the yoga for me and relaxed. Once again, it was a kick butt workout, but it always ends so relaxing!

I got home, the rest of my night sucked for reasons I'll not post. I woke up this morning just exhausted. The last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed and come to work for a long day of seeing patients. Guess things work out in mysterious ways, eh?! Haha! However, I have to say that the patients we did see this morning definitely did put a smile on my face! I had every intention of not working out tonight because I'm just so tired, but the sun is shining and the weather is great and my legs are itching for a good outside run in the sun and warm(er) weather... so just another quick 3 or 4 mile run might be in the books before going to my cousin's 31 party tonight. We shall see! I know that at least I will get my challenge of the day in the books because I want no frowning faces on this months calendar. I had one in February, so none in March! It can, and will be done!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

{fab february turns into marvelous march}

My friend (by now you should know she’s my friend), Victoria, and I did a fitness challenge throughout the month of February in addition to whatever else exercise that we would do on our own. In involved doing a specific set of exercises 6 days a week. We did push ups, sit ups, squats, and the plank, and the numbers increased a little bit each week. I am happy to report that I was successful in completing the challenge minus one day! I also discovered that I was only working out about 3-4 days per week during February and during March I would like to increase that to 4-5 days per week.

Here is my colorful February calendar with all of my ‘X’s indicating finished days! Victoria and I liked the challenge so much that we decided to continue it into March. Okay, maybe she didn’t like it as much as I did, but she’s joining me none the less, hehe! I’ve also added in chair dips as an exercise. I put our rest day on Sunday again; however, much like February, my rest day will probably end up more on Fridays or Saturdays, haha! I also got smart with March and did it on the computer because I’m anal like that and want things all pretty and neat looking.March started off great workout wise as I did my first run outside in weeks! I took heed of the warning on my headband and ran ran ran! I ran for 9 MILES! 9 FREAKING miles! 9 FREAKING MILES PEOPLE! How I managed it, I have no idea!And here is the proof! I was nervous that I wouldn’t hit 9 miles by the time that I hit my driveway and was kind of bumming because there was no way I was going to be able to run past it and wouldn’t you know, just as I hit my driveway, it hit 9 miles! Blessed! Not only was this my longest run since before Christmas, but it was also outside in 22 degree weather (that felt like 9 degrees according to my phone’s weather app) and 15 mph winds! Can we say COLD! But I did it! I just had to keep going!

I am running a 17k (about 10.5 miles) in just two weeks and I needed to feel like I could actually finish that race before going ahead and actually registering for it. I’ve been too scared to pick the 17k and have actually entertained the idea of just doing the 5k with Victoria, but after this run, I know I can do it! It has also helped me believe that I can start and finish my half in April. To be honest, since getting sick at the end of December I wasn’t feeling too confident that I would ever get to that half mark. I was on such a roll before getting sick and then couldn’t talk myself back into it. Just goes to show that SO much of it is mental and I can’t let my brain take over!

My legs are still kind of feeling it today. Last night, Victoria and I hit up hot yoga again and it felt amazing on my sore muscles, although my left knee actually hurts today when I go up and down the stairs. I’m hoping that it goes away soon!

No actual workout today (besides the calendar), but Ayden and I did finally make it to the sledding hill that is honestly right behind our house. There is absolutely no reason (other than me hating the cold and snow and being lazy) for first making it sledding on March 2nd, but we made it. The sun was shining and it was relatively warm for a Wisconsin winter day. My workout was… walking back up that darn hill every time my stupid self decided to slide down it, haha! That was a good workout! I have no idea where Ayden gets his energy from because I swear he was up and down that hill three times as much as I was! It was insane! My legs were definitely feeling it! CIAO! LOVE ME!