Resolution Rant

You gotta love the beginning of the year: NFL playoffs, BCS Championship Game, packed gyms because everyone is still sticking to their New Years Resolution...

Speaking of working out, I had to park like waaay in the back of the parking lot at the gym tonight. Can we just skip ahead 2 months so I can get back to parking up front? I go to the gym to workout, I don't want a workout heading to the gym HAH! 

I have a few words of advice for those of you that decided to become gym rats for the New Year, advice that is both encouraging and catty:

It is going to hurt. For a long. Long. Time. That is how you know you are doing it right. Don't let that keep you from the gym because when you decide you want to start working out again, it will hurt just the same. Just get past the first few weeks of soreness and you will feel much better. 

Just because you workout doesn't mean you can eat crap. Unless you are like in the 18-23 age range with no kids. Those years are when you have the most amazing metabolism and you can eat & drink whatever you want and not gain an ounce. But if you are hitting the gym, you obviously don't fall into that category so you will need to supplement your workouts with a good diet. Have you ever heard the saying that abs are made in the kitchen? Its true, I swear it on my daughters life (see how serious I am?!). If you feed your body crap, your workouts will be crap. You need to feed your body the right amount of food (don't starve yourselves) and the right kinds of food. Need a place to start? Keep a food diary. They have tons of apps out there, my fave is Lose It! You can set goals, enter in your meals even customize them, and add in you workouts. There are lots of diets and meal plans out there, research them to find one that works for you. 

Now for the catty part...when you buy gym clothes there are a few important things to keep in mind. Please please please PLEASE make sure your black yoga pants are not see through. So when you buy those new gym pants, keep the tags on. Bring them home, and try them on with the brightest color granny panties you have. Then in a brightly lit room in the safety of your home, bend over in front of your mirror. Your best friend. Your husband. Your 3 year old daughter....and ask them, "What color panties do I have on?". 

Another note on the panties, what is the point of wearing thongs to the gym? How in the hell is that comfortable?? Maybe that is why people quit going to the gym...People you can go commando under your crop pants for an hour while you are at the gym. Your gyno might agree with me!

The point of a sports bra is to keep those puppies locked in place during exercise. Do you know that Victoria's Secret makes a PUSHUP sports bra?? You have got to be frickin kidding me. If you are wearing one of those to the gym, I hope your boobs slap you in the face while you are running or doing jumping jacks. That is just ridiculous. Maybe if I was a single gal or one of those scandalous military wives I would be concerned about how perky my boobs are at the gym. Honestly folks if you are that worried about how you look while you are at the gym, how can you be concentrating that hard on your workout?

I am probably just bitter because I have no boobs. 

Lastly, if you are going to take up space in a packed gym class then at least put forth a half ass effort. I don't get it, why show up if you are just going to smack your gum and do the exercises whenever or however you feel like it? I understand if you are new to the class and are just learning, so I'm not talking about you guys! You peeps are actually trying. What I am talking about are the people that are busy chatting with their friend, smacking their gum, and putting forth zero effort. That is just annoying to me. I bet that person got one of the parking spots right in front of the gym too....

By no means am I trying to discourage anyone from keeping their New Years resolution. I just wanted to give a few friendly bits of clothing advice and vent about having to park a whole 4 rows back from the front of the gym....

In all honesty, if you have any questions about how I lost my weight and how I'm keeping it off I will gladly answer them! Just message me on here or on my Facebook page. I know its hard to go to the gym when you are overweight and self conscious. But I find the gym to be the one place where I can wear baggy clothes, no makeup, and get sweaty without being judged. Maybe its where I workout, maybe its because when I go to the gym its about ME and not about anyone else. 

Just remember, all the people at the gym have the same goal: Get Healthy and Stay that Way! 

 

My First Race, Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon!

Even though this race was a few weekends ago, I wanted to wait until I received my race photos before I posted about my first race!

This was right after crossing the finish line, I was very sweaty as you can see!

It has been on my "bucket list" to run a half marathon. After meeting all of my health and fitness goals last deployment, I decided to attempt my first race during this deployment. I wanted to run a 5k during the summer, but instead I pulled my quad a week before the race so needless to say I didn't run that one. 

After getting back into my workout routine after Hubs went back on deployment after his emergency leave, I saw a flyer at my gym for the Rock 'N Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach and I knew I wanted to run it. I had 10 weeks and even though I hadn't been running, I was doing alot of cardio already so I hoped endurance wouldn't be an issue. I talked to my marathon-pro buddy and she suggested I find a routine online for my running. Sure enough, I found one that suited my needs: running 4 days a week, only 2 days consecutively and gradually building up mileage every week. 

At the beginning of my training, I did really well. I still managed to do a few of my other classes at the gym as well. But as I added more mileage, my body wasn't too happy with me so I stopped doing the gym classes and concentrated just on running. I also went to a running shoe store in town and they were AMAZING! I felt like Cinderella, I must have tried on and jogged in a dozen different shoes before I found the perfect pair. Apparently, I run funny and need high stability shoes. The guy at the shoe store asks me, "Do you notice your knees occasionally colliding while you run?". My response is typical me, "Yah, but I figured its because I am a complete klutz and I was distracted by the TVs while I was on the treadmill." So it turns out I'm not a complete klutz, I just run funny (great excuse, right?). 

I would like to say I stuck to the running training schedule. Well if you have been a follower of my blog, you noticed that my life has been anything but predictable lately. In the middle of training, I began dealing with the problems concerning my niece and her custody situation. That took about 2 weeks out of my training. I was tempted to quit after that setback to my running, but I decided to go through with the race because I had already spent almost $100 on the registration for it (money is a good motivator, isn't it?). 

I did 90% of my training on the treadmill and while I was home visiting my family in Louisiana, I ran outside. 

The day before the race, I met up with 2 of my race experienced friends who held my hand and showed me what to do. We had the race expo to pick up our race packet and number. It was quite the experience and we picked up lots of free goodies. The race shirt was pretty awesome this year too!

The night before the race, I left Little Miss with a friend overnight because I had to be up at 4:30am! I met up with my friends and we took a shuttle to the start of the race. There were these very peppy racers next to us on the bus taking photos and stuff before 6am while I am still trying to figure out what in the world possessed me to think that running half marathon was a good idea...

The first pointer I got was to use the port-o-potty as soon as we got off the bus before the wait was bad. Then we walked around, dropped of my bag, and ate a hot banana. Yup, a hot banana. Apparently your body uses less calories digesting the banana when it is hot. Makes sense. But it also makes the banana taste like crap. After another trip to the port-o-potty, it was time to get into our corral!

The start of the race is pretty exciting, you see the first group of people start as they race in wheelchairs then the "professional" runners take off. Each corral starts cheering as we edge closer to the starting line, then we are off!

The first 4 miles, I had to keep reminding myself to slow down! Looking at my time, I can see I was really pushing myself the first part of the race. I just had so much adrenaline going, there were crowds gathered at the beginning of the race holding up signs and cheering!

On the advice from my friend, I stopped at the water/gatorade stations and drank only half of what was in the cups. The rest of the water I would splash on myself. It was over 80 degrees with high humidity during the race. I was so afraid of getting dehydrated I drank too much because I definitely had to stop at the halfway point to use the port-o-potty! I also had some energy jelly beans that I snacked on throughout the race to make sure my electrolytes weren't getting low or anything. They gave out the energy gels or goos along the race, but my friend told me how they felt in your mouth and she compared it to something that most women don't find appealing so it kind of scared me from using those...

I am very happy to say I ran most of the race. I only walked 3 times, the first time was at mile 7. I only walked about a half mile that time, then started running again. I stopped again to pee between miles 8-9. Then I walked again at mile 11, only for a quarter of a mile though. It was a nice race though, my favorite part was the people that had homes along the race path had their sprinklers set so they could spray us as we ran by. That was very very VERY nice of them :)

Almost finished!

By the end of the race, I was exhausted. As soon as you cross the finish line, I felt like I was on the red carpet or something because there are photogs EVERYWHERE. They hand you your race medal, then you take a photo with a backdrop, then you collect your goodies: sponges sitting in ice water, bottled water, chocolate milk, bananas, snickers energy bars, and popsicles! You could also get a free Michelob Ultra if you were 21, but that was the last thing I wanted after that race. My marathon pro friend finished about 10 minutes before me and my other friend wasn't too far behind me. 

The race ended at the oceanfront, and that is where we stayed for almost an hour after the race just relaxing. There were parts of my body that hurt that I didn't know could hurt! My lower back in particular, that hurt for a few days afterward too. After finally getting back home, I instantly regretted renting a 2 story townhome. Stairs are evil. 

The race was on a Sunday so on Tuesday I was back at the gym, but I only walked for a few miles on the treadmill. By the end of the week, I was surprised that I was back to normal and could work out like I did before the race. I cannot describe how sore I was after running 13.1 miles. 

Now that my first race is out of the way, I want to run another! I registered for a shorter race, the Wicked 10k, at the end of October. It is only 6 miles so that will be much easier than the half marathon I just ran. I am still running 3-4 days a week but I am working back in my gym classes.

Quite a few people have told me that they could never run a half marathon, but I beg to differ! With the proper training and the right mindset, you can do anything especially a race. Okay so maybe you aren't as crazy as me and don't want your first race to be a half-marathon. I don't blame you, that was kind of insane on my part. So start small, do a 5k. Just search online for free training programs for running a 5k and find one that works for you. Who knows, you may even start to like running! I know I sure do, its one of the only ways I can clear my head and just reset. I tend to let my mind go crazy and over-think situations, over-analyze everything. When I run, I just forget about all that stuff. 

I am so excited about the Wicked 10k! I am hoping I can get another friend to run with me, it will be her first race :)

So Yummy, So Yummy!

Thanks to my addiction to Pinterest, I have been trying out some new healthy recipes. I tried two new ones this week: Southwest turkey meatballs and an avocado, tomato, and sprout sandwich with creamy chive spread. 

They look yummy right?!

I discovered the recipe for the southwest turkey meatballs at SkinnyTaste, check them out they have lots of healthy recipes that look easy and delicious! I used my small ridged baker from Pampered Chef to cook the meatballs, they turned out fantastic and it only took 15 minutes to bake! I love cilantro and even though these are considered "southwest", they were not spicy at all. In the original recipe they have creamy cilantro dipping sauce for the meatballs. I didn't prepare the dipping sauce this time, I just ate the meatballs with steamed veggies. 

This recipe was very simple to make and I could definitely see myself making this for a potluck!


For the sandwich, you can find the original recipe here at KeepItSkinny!

Instead of using two pieces of bread like a traditional sandwich, I just threw everything on a whole grain sandwich flat. I used reduced fat cheddar cheese instead of pepper jack, it still tasted amazing. 

I love finding new ways to use greek yogurt, I am just amazed at how versatile it is! By itself, I do not care for the taste but when you mix it into stuff it tastes great. Plus its so much healthier than mayo, sour cream, and all that stuff.


What I really liked about both of these meals: They actually filled me up! I hate when "eating healthy" means starving yourself and eating tasteless food. For sure I will be making both of these again, if Hubs is lucky I will make them for him when he gets home :)

 

Today I Learned How To...

Today has been a pretty awesome day, I think things are finally starting to look up!

OHH, I want to thank Jen over at New Mommy Confessions for featuring my blog as her Blog of the Month! First of all, I am so flattered that people actually read my blog and secondly, I am excited that Jen is sharing my blog with her followers :) If you haven't checked out her blog, she is a fellow milispouse and SAHM. She is so funny, does lots of giveaways, and puts out great military information as well!

So 3 days ago I managed to pull my quadricep muscle so I have been icing it, wrapping it, and staying away from the gym. Which really sucks because 1. I am a gym junkee and 2. I enjoy the hour or so each day that Little Miss and I can spend apart. Distance makes the heart grow fonder folks (even if its only a few walls separating myself from my daughter!)! 

However, this was the perfect excuse for Operation: Potty Training. Little Miss has been running around for 3 days without a diaper and she has been doing very well, no accidents! But wow I have gone through an entire container of Lysol wipes. And everytime she makes her business in the potty, she gets up and dances! Which is super cute until there are droplets of pee on the floor, she is just air drying right? The only time she wears a pull-up is when she is sleeping or when we leave the house. We haven't made the transition to "big girl panties" yet, that is going to happen tomorrow wish us luck...

Since we have been cooped up in the house, I have started doing educational activities disguised as crafts and games *insert evil laugh* Yesterday we did painting and worked on our colors. Today we did an "Alphabet Bugs" game. I taped all the letters on our big glass doors and we sang our ABC's, identified the letter, and tried to put them in order. We made it all the way to "J" before Little Miss had enough. I can't force her to learn everything I want her to, things need to be fun at this age or else she may not enjoy learning later on! Keep it light, have fun with it.

The weather was cooperating so I decided to finally wash my car. Last July when we bought the RAV we paid extra $$ for Car Armor on the inside & out, and it has been so worth the money. Little Miss's messes wipe up with ease and all those nasty bugs and scratches come right off the exterior! After we bought the car, I diligently washed it every week. Well, then winter came and it was too cold for me to do that anymore so today was the first day this year I busted out the sponges and bucket. 

Then I did something new: I WAXED THE CAR! That is just one of those things Hubs always has done. Gotta love being a military wife, you learn how to do all sorts of handy things while your SO is deployed! Last month I learned how to restring the weed-eater, this month I wax the car, next month I may just possibly conquer the world! Everyone will get a million dollars and their own house and will be happy all the time...because I said so  :)

After being so impressed with my car waxing skills, I decided it was time to test out my strained quadricep. Good news, I made it through spin class with only minor modifications. Yippee!

Alright guys, I have a small confession to make: Even though I work out regularly and I eat right, I still feel guilty when I eat anything not considered "healthy". I want to conquer this love/hate relationship I have with food, so during my self-inflicted lock down I came across this weight loss app called Lose It! I have never kept a food diary and I want to have a better understanding of the balance between the amount of calories I consume and the amount of calories I burn. This app is amazing and very user friendly. You just put in your information (current weight, height, goal weight) and it comes up with what you caloric intake should be each day. You simply enter in what food you eat, your exercises, and it crunches all the numbers for you!

So today I warmed up on the treadmill then did spin class, I came home, entered the numbers online, and realized I burned off all the calories I consumed! Holy cow. This means that I can eat a few of Little Miss's seasoned potato wedges (with my turkey burger wrapped in romaine) and not feel guilty. For me, that is a huge break through. Bye Bye Guilt! Not that I am going to go out and eat a carton of chocolate ice cream now. But the numbers show me that with a healthy diet & a good workout, I can indulge a little bit and still be okay.
 

Its a challenge to look at my before & after pictures and not be terrified that I will put back on all the weight. I am at a healthy weight that I am happy with, now I want to be stronger. Like I want to look GI Jane-ish, minus the shaved head. Not scary muscly like Madonna though. I want to look as strong as I feel! Life has thrown quite a bit at me in the last 2 years and it have forced me to learn & grow. 

Overall, one of the best days I have had since deployment began! One month down folks :)