Happy Birthday to...ME!

Today was my 36th birthday and what a great day it was.  I started it out with a strong 5k bringing my total so far this year to 31k!!  I'm very proud of this and am also very happy to have run on my birthday!  It's the first birthday that I have actually run on and I'm considering making it a tradition. 

I returned home, got ready and headed out for the day.  I am very fortunate to work for a company that decided several years ago to make out birthday an extra holiday.  Adrian didn't work until 5:30pm so we had the whole day together.  We ran a couple of errands, went out for lunch and coffee then got the girls from school.  Christina had to go for a follow up from when she broke her leg so I took her for that while he made me a delicious dinner.  I've spent the evening hanging out with the kids, Meag came over and brought me a bottle of wine which is yummy!!

All in all it has been a great day!  I'm looking forward to a great year of fun, family and fitness!!!  Thirty-six will be my year!!

Always Room to Learn!

This week we have been in a bit of a deep freeze in Southern Ontario along with many other places.  Tuesday it was so cold that many things got cancelled including my run.  Thursday was much less cold so I went out with a friend and ran 5k.  It was a great run and I felt good at the end.  After that run and last Sunday's run I decided that I was going to up my distance today.  I ran just under 8.5k and it was tough but felt great at the end.  The funny part today was that I wore carpris, a tshirt and thin jacket and was much to warm for a good part of the run.  I even took the jacket off for a bit.  That was annoying though because then it was tied around my waist.  Overall it was a good run though.

I discovered something this week.  I don't really think it was a new thought but a much clearer thought.  I would much rather run in cold winter temperatures that the dead heat of summer.  Part of that thought came during Thursday's run when I was talking about a friend that is away this week enjoying a much deserved vacation in the sun and sand.  She borrowed my Garmin so that she could track her runs while she is away. I was without a tracking device during my run which made me think of her in the heat.  In that moment when my bottom lip and chin were frozen I thought to myself that I would rather that than sweltering sun.  I love the sun and heat but only if I am sitting in a chair not moving.  Running is a much better sport for winter, spring and fall.

I've been running for over 3 years now and every run teaches me something new.  Today I learned that despite the fact that I let my distance slide, I can still go for 8k and be standing at the end.  Perhaps that Half Marathon will be a much better one than I think!!!

By George I Think She's Got It!!!!

So who came out of the holidays weighing less than they went in?  This girl did that's who!!!  

The holidays are a season (or few weeks) where so many people think they are supposed to gain weight. "It's no problem I'll just work really hard in January and it will be gone."  We have all heard it.  All the socializing with family and friends.  Lots of food to eat and so busy that it's hard to get workouts in.  It's like we have been conditioned since childhood.  We are inundated by the media with the advertising for weight loss resolutions and the discounts at gyms for January, the kick start your year messages.  I am certainly guilty of this thought process over the years.  However this year I made a very conscious decision that I would not gain a bunch of weight.  I wasn't concerned about losing and I definitely had some treats.  The interesting part is that I made a very big effort to enjoy the treats without over indulging.  Not once through the holidays did I sit down at the end of the day feeling sick from too much junk, too much candy, too much food.  I often left meals feeling pleasantly full but never sick full.  I also worked out fairly regularly.  I was signed up for the Resolution Run and needed to be able to run that 5k on New Years Eve so I had to keep moving before then.  Boxing Day I went out and ran, a couple days later I went to the gym and then I ran the race plus two more runs.  Sunday I even ran 6.32k!!  I had set out to run just 5k but it was so nice out and I just felt great so I kept going.  It was awesome!  

One of my goals for this year was to keep closer track of my running and keep a closer eye on my weight.  I started with a weighin on January 1st and was pleasently surprised to find that I was actually one pound less than I was before Christmas!!!  Then I got on the scale today for my regular weigh in day and found that I am down another pound!!!  This year is certainly starting out on a good note:)  Today the scale said 227 which is the lowest I have seen in a long time!

I think I have finally got this lifestyle figured out!!  Will I never eat junk again?  Of course I will!!  Will I overindulge at times?  Probably!  Can I make it through a special event or holiday season without gaining weight?  Sure can!!!  

Happy New Year!

Another year has come and gone!!  What a year it was.  Although it didn't end as well as we would have liked it was mostly a great year.  I'm looking forward to this year and the great things that are going to happen.

I like to look at January 1st as a new and fresh start.  Everyday is a new day but given the fact that today starts a new year it's a great time for reflection.  I'm happy with where my journey is right now.  I'm back to running regularly, continue to eat healthy and am happy with most things in my life.  I have a few goals for this year that are not that different than last year.

I would like to continue to work on my running.  This year I am going to actively track my mileage though.  I have never actually kept track of my total kilometers for the year so this year my goal will be to reach 400k.  That might seem like a lofty goal but really it isn't.  In the last 4 months I have run just around 120k so to reach 400k won't be too big of a stretch.  Given the fact that I will be training for a half marathon over the first half of the year I should be able to reach that goal without much work.

I would like to maintain my healthy eating.  I have let things slide over the last couple of months and haven't been making my lunch as often as I should. This often results in unhealthy choices and money spent that doesn't need to be spent.  My job makes it hard for me to eat the things I would like to for lunch at times.  This time of year I would love to be able to have a hot lunch everyday but I am out of the office and don't have the ability to heat things up.  I need to take things that I can eat in the car and perhaps even eat while I drive.  This often means sandwiches which I do not love.  I will take cut up veggies and fruit or cheese and crackers.  That gets boring though.  I could buy a good thermos to take soup in but I like my soup really hot and after it sits in the car all morning it isn't very hot anymore.  Clearly what I really need to do is plan better and find things that are portable and yummy.

My other goal is to save up enough money to go on a mini vacation for our 10th anniversary this year.  If I can work things out right we will leave the girls with friends for a weekend and go away, just the two of us.  We have never done that before!!  Simply by not buying my lunch so often I should be able to save enough in time for a nice weekend away.

Stay tuned for some updates as the year goes on!

December

It's been a bit of an off month for us.  On December 15th my dear father-in-law passed away.  He was 83 and had lived a full and amazing life. He was an amazing musician, playing the violin for most of his life.  He played at my wedding and I walked down the aisle to him playing Pachebel's Cannon. He was also a school teacher among many other things. He was ill and it was just a matter of time but it was still a shock and still sad.  My mother-in-law took care of him for the last several years as he became weaker and more frail.  She will be lost for the next while.  We spent the week leading up to Christmas saying farewell to him and helping her out.  There is never a good time for someone to pass on but this time of year it just seems so much worse.

The hard part was to keep things as normal as possible for the little girls while making sure they understood that Grampa John wouldn't be here anymore.  They are young enough that they don't totally understand death but are old enough to know that things have changed.  While every holiday is about spending time with friends and family and we have always emphasized this, we decided to make it even more of a focus this year.  During the planning and funeral we got to see many family members that we don't see often.  We spent a lot of time with family and talked to the girls a lot about why it's so important to stay close to family.  We talked a lot about the fact that Christmas isn't just about material gifts but more importantly the gifts of the heart.

Grampa John with Adryanna

Grampa John with Christina

Christmas wasn't all grieving though.  We had many laughs and shared many stories.  The girls got to spend a lot of time with their older siblings and got to be silly and be kids.  They waited anxiously for Santa to come and were so excited Christmas morning when the tree had gifts and the stockings were full.  We all enjoyed a day of fun.

Gram with all her grambabies and grampup:)

Now it is time to get ready for a new year.  The girls will start gymnastics for the first time in January and have both been moved up a level in swimming.  I will end this year with the 5k Resolution Run on New Years Eve and will be signing up for the Women's Half Marathon in Niagara Falls in June.  I will continue on this journey and will be a better mother, wife and person because of it.  Here's to making 2014 the best year!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

  

The Weekend That Was

Two more weeks of work until Christmas vacation!!!  Well two weeks and two days really.  I am working the Monday and Tuesday of Christmas week.  I have had to use too much of my vacation time for Adryanna's heart appointments and her surgery in the summer so I don't have quite enough left to take the full two weeks.

This post is about this weekend though:)  It's been a good one if you ask me (which is weird because there was a lot of shopping and I hate shopping).  Yesterday both girls had birthday parties to go to at different times and places.  Christina's was first so we dropped her off and I took Adryanna shopping for the gift for her friend and groceries.  We went to Chapters for the gift.  I got a Starbucks (there may be an addiction there) and then we went searching for the gift.  While we were there we also had to search for Booky the Elf.  He is an Elf on the Shelf and it is fun to try to find him in all the stuff at Chapters.  Thankfully they keep him to the kids section.  It took a while but we found him.  I enjoy taking Adryanna to Chapters because she loves books and loves to spend time there just looking.  She always wants to buy something of course.  She is a fun age to do that kind of thing with now.  She has some great interests and loves to learn so we had a great time.  Grocery shopping is always fun for me because I like to get new and interesting things.  I don't think I got anything new yesterday but it was still fun to pick out lots of yummy and healthy items.  After all the birthday parties were over Adrian and I got to go to the movies.  We had to do the late show which is insane because usually I am in bed before the movie even started!!  I made it through though and it was a great movie!

Today was an at home day.  We spent the morning cleaning the girls bedroom and getting rid of all the stuff they never use anymore.  I discovered that they have so many books that there are some I had forgotten about and some that I didn't even remember they had!  I then decided to run since I missed going yesterday.  I did about 4k which I was very happy with.  I am really stuffy and got quite wheezy today so I didn't push things too much.  Tuesday is another day and I'm sure it will be a better run.  After my run I decided to bust out my Jillian Michaels Ultimate Challenge game that I got for my birthday a couple of years ago.  I haven't used it much because when I got it I was starting my training for a half marathon and after using the game a couple of times I was in so much pain that it was interfering with my running!!  It's good pain but not when you are starting training for something that you aren't even sure about.  Today though I decided I could handle it.  I got stuck in the exact same spot as I did every time before.  The idea of the game is that you are on a mission to get through an evil drug factory.  The factory is working with an evil food company to make everyone sick.  You have to make it though and shut it down.  To make it through there are lots of different exercises that you have to complete and complete well.  It's a Nintendo Wii game so it can detect your movements and if you aren't doing things just right you get caught and have to start over.  I get caught every time.  So today I tried again and got caught multiple times.  I will defeat this game yet!!!  I think I'll to do it on nights that I can't get to the gym or run.  It's good strength training!

So now it's Sunday night.  I'm tired, I've had a great weekend and I'm ready for the week at work.  It's going to be a good week because I say it is:)

Slow and Steady:)

Last night I was feeling a little nostalgic (and maybe a little bored).  I was getting things ready for today's run and started thinking of the fact that it has been a little over 3 years since I ran my first 5k.  I started thinking of all I have done and all the miles I have put in.  I pulled up my Garmin Connect account and went back to my first recorded run.  It was in February of 2011!!  I had been running for a few months at that point but hadn't tracked any of it.  I was lucky enough at that point to get a friends old Garmin because she needed a new one with a battery that lasted more than an hour.  At that point I was definitely not running more than an hour so it was great for me.  The first run I have recorded with it was 4.95k and my "moving time" 46:15. That isn't completely accurate because I clearly forgot to stop my watch when we stopped to stretch and there is a huge chunk of time that I wasn't moving.  Since then I have trained for and run several 5k races, one 10k race and one half marathon.  I haven't run any races in a year and a half and that is very clear when I look at my mileage.  I plan to change that in the next several months starting on New Years Eve with the 5k Resolution Run.

The part that gave me a bit of a laugh was that my time today is very close to all the 5k the times in that list.  My pace has gotten a little better but only by about half a minute per kilometer.  I haven't worried too much about getting faster over my running time but I have focused on doing the distance.  Running for me isn't about winning races.  I started running to get healthy and live a long life for my kids.  I keep running for the same reason but also because it has made me feel so much healthier and happier.  After a good run my body feels better but so does my brain. I feel happier and clearer.  I feel like I can take on the world.  I feel more confident.  Before I started to run I wouldn't speak up for myself, I wouldn't volunteer for anything at work and god forbid I had to talk to someone new.  Now I still have a problem speaking up for myself but I am much better at it than I once was.  I volunteer for many things at work and I will spend tomorrow morning with someone I have never met and will answer a lot of questions.  I love the new confidence I have and I'm so glad I took that first, very difficult, step.

Who knew back in September 2010 that running would be such an important part of my life.  I may not get a whole lot faster and I will never win a race but all the other rewards are so much better!!