Well well

I've been running. Just in case you were beginning to wonder, I have been hitting the pavement. Melissa and I have been going weekday mornings at 6, and it's been great. Well, as great as it can get when you are a complainer like I. Yep, that's right. I complain. Too much, actually. This morning, as I was feeling completely lame due to my performance on the track this morning, I realized why it is that I complain. I complain because it is what I have always done. If you recall from my very first post, I am a hardcore quitter. A quitting addict. A quitter extraordinaire. Even now, I am grabbing at straws to complete all of the work for my online class that ends in TWO DAYS. And trust me, there is more than two days worth of work due... and all the while I am still tempted to throw in the towel and just quit the class... What's the matter with me?! It's like I have this quitters poison pumping through my veins, and inevitably I will reach the point of no return... and no completion. Sigh. Sometimes I suck. Ok, so all of that leads me to my thought this morning. I have been running for quite a few months now, and I haven't quit yet... now don't get too excited, there is a "but" coming... BUT I HAVE succeeded in backing out of two of the three races I've planned. So, as I train for yet another race, and my biggest yet, I am really being challenged by my old ways. It's almost as if I have a little voice quietly telling me with every stride that it's not going to amount to anything because I'm never going to get there. Stupid voice! You suck! Guys, I desperately don't want to be a quitter. Thankfully, my running companion has no qualms about yelling at me to keep it going and get my butt up by her. Going forward, into tomorrow, my goal is to push. Push and know that it is worth it. Push against my old ways and into new, liberating habits. Habits of a marathon runner. Apparently only 1% of American's run marathons... at least thats what I've been told. And I WILL be part of that 1%. Pray for me, if you read this. Pray that I won't be a baby. Because I have proved to myself in other areas of life that I am strong. Strong of heart. Now I just want to be strong of mind.

I've begun journaling again. Putting my cries down on paper. It helps, by some strange magical way, allow me to feel progress. To feel like I am going somewhere down this road of change and improvement. Actually, not improvement, because that makes it seem as though there is something wrong with me currently. Betterment, how about that? We can all become better than what we are now.

December 12th,
"Lord, I am currently standing at a crossroads, and I desperately choose You. Take my selfishness, pride, impulse and addiction. I do not need them. I need You." "I am certain that I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be encouraged and let your heart be strong. Wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27:13)

My selfishness: choosing my desires over what is good. Over what is pleasing not only to Him but to this body He has entrusted to me.

My pride: thinking that I've got it. I know how to do this thing called "life". I know how to be "healthy" while diving into a bucket of sugar cookies time and time and time and TIME again. Pride.

My impulse: underneath my seemingly "good" personality lies an extremely impulsive woman. A cookie here, $40 there... impulsiveness makes me feel alive-for a matter of seconds. Impulsiveness makes me feel guilt- for hours and sometimes days.

My addiction: to selfishness, pride and impulse. To quitting. To doing what I want, regardless of whom it hurts- myself included.

This is it, dear friends. You may not have signed on for this much reality, but I just hit you with it. And now I will hit you with this:

"I am certain that I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living."

Push yourself with me, let's see how far we can go.


Peace, love and believing you're worth it

Could It Be A Thing?

I got up again this morning and ran. Wow! We only ran about a mile and a half, so I went home and did Insanity. T'was tough, but I think that I maybe push harder when I do it 1)in the morning, and 2)by myself.

You know how I was flying high and loving myself yesterday morning for all that I had accomplished? Well, I learned a valuable lesson yesterday afternoon... if you are feeling like that, stay as far away from a scale as humanly possible. Had to see the doc yesterday and upon checking my weight for their records I shed a little tear as I felt all of my self esteem empty out of me in a matter of seconds. A wise woman told me to just stay away from the scale. If it makes me feel poorly about all that I am doing, and causes me to entertain the idea of giving up, it's not worth it.

So that is all for today. Gotta ice my shins so I'm ready to run tomorrow.

Peace, love and a world without scales

Up All Morning

It's 9:24am. So far today I have done the following:

1. Ran 2 miles
2. Done abs and chest
3. Walked the dogs
4. Not only showered but actually PUT ON MAKEUP
5. Made coffee
6. Made scrambled egg whites, fried turkey and healthy breakfast loaf for breakfast.
7. Watched an episode of 3rd Rock From The Sun
8. Sat down to begin homework

PHEW! That is more than I sometimes do in an entire day. Ok, so I'm not super proud to admit that, but it's a fact... can't deny it now. Another thing I can't deny...

How wonderful it feels to actually get up and get my run in before the sun comes up. Wow does that ever feel awesome! And holy crap is it cold in the morning! I definitely wasn't ready for how chilly it was, but fortunately my internal heater kicked in after about a quarter of a mile. All thanks goes to Melissa for asking me to run with her before she went into work today. I think that I might end up doing this more and more because it really truly does feel great. More than anything, my sense of accomplishment feels the best.

So an update to my Insanity endeavor from last week. It took 5 days for my calves to get back to fully functioning condition. Maybe that was more so due to the 3 miles I ran afterwards, but still. That sort of put a damper on doing insanity the days following. T was talking to his friends at work about how I made him feel lame (or lazy or something to that effect) because I went and ran afterwards. Ha! It felt great to hear that! I've never been "hardcore" before, and any sliver of that feeling I can get I get pretty stoked about. Then yesterday I asked him if he wanted to do Insanity with me, and he said he wasn't feeling up to it, so I went into the guest room and rocked out another sesh. Mind you, when I say "rocked out" that includes a lot of laying on the floor for the 30 second break, a lot of head between the knees and a LOT of vocal expression of strain and frustration. I felt hardcore again. Not because I did awesome at Insanity, but because I was actually the one choosing to workout. In all of my 26 years of existance, this has RARELY happened. Maybe even never. So thank you, husband, for allowing me to feel pretty hardcore for a little second.

One of the things that Shaun T (haha, what a name, huh?) asks the others in the video is if they can feel their body changing. Ok, so he doesn't ask it. He yells it. Over. and over. and over. And to him they scream, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" So, as I was dying I was telling myself, scrunched face and all, that my body is changing. And I guess I want to challenge you to do the same. When you are exercising, even if it's walking, or running, or lifting... whatever it is, tell yourself over and over, when the pain is awful and you just want to QUIT, "MY BODY'S CHANGING! MY BODY'S CHANGING!" I guarantee that you will find the will and the strength to kick your own ass into gear and finish strong. Because no matter your level of fitness, when you are overcoming your own personal limits, you are changing your body. You might not see it. You might feel like death. The truth is that your body is in the process of becoming better than it was before you started. How incredible of a truth!

Here comes my reality: I have always struggled with the same insecurities. Every day. For as long as I can remember. No matter how my hair has changed, my size has changed, my skin has changed, it has never been change enough. As I have begun to change my life over these last several months, I have not experienced huge change in my appearance or in the areas that I am most insecure. So, just yesterday I had to remind myself that it is possible for those things to change. I need to stick with it, because that, dear Laura, is the one thing you have never seen through. You've done it for a short while and then called it quits because the change wasn't there. The difference between then and now is that I am changing mentally. I am changing emotionally. I am growing stronger in my pride. I could've floated around my house this morning because I was so proud of myself. When in my life have I been so proud of myself for accomplishing a physical activity? Rarely. So, maybe my outsides aren't changing... yet. But my body is changing. My mind is a part of my body, and boy let me tell you, it's changing alright!

So go! Change your body! Do it because you can!


Peace (with yourself), love (for yourself) & welcome change (in yourself)

It's INSANE...

... how long it has been since I've posted. I could say, "Oh but I've been working out still, so don't you worry.." but let's be honest, we all know that would be quite a stretch. I have been working out, just not as regularly as I once was. Last week began my first ever HALF MARATHON training program! *loud roars from the stands* I wrote it all out, week by week, complete with an inspirational quote on the bottom (of which I will rarely read). I truly do find inspiration from a quote on a fortune cookie I got at the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon expo. It said "Good things come slow- especially in distance running". So basically, this man has given me a reason to be ok with my slow, lazy pace. Works for me!

Another reason why blogging has been sparce is that I have been preparing for and living through the homecoming of my beloved other half. He is officially home from his tour, and I couldn't be happier! So now we are doing what we can to get back to "life as we know it", although we have never spent a solid year together in the same place... so I guess we don't even know what that "life" is supposed to look like. I don't know about him, but I'm quite excited to find out!

Today we began our Insanity program. It was tough... and by tough I basically mean insane. Yep, there's a reason why they call it that, folks. But the thing is, it's not me who is the insane one... it's all the freaks on the video! They are so dang motivated, ripped and all around tough SOB's! While they were still "going strong", I was sitting on my knees with my head on the floor, practically between my legs. Maybe that was in effort to not barf all over... or maybe it was in order to regain my ability to breath in semi long breaths. Either way, I am not even close to being "Insane", but I'd like to say that I tried. So tomorrow we will continue on schedule.

But maybe I'm a little more insane than my husband because today, after sweating my boot-ay off with some of that insanity, I bundled up and went for my Tuesday 3 mile run. Yep, you read that correctly. I did 45 minutes of at home plyometric cardio and then I went and RAN THREE MILES!

BE IMPRESSED!!! 

It felt AWE-SOME! I ran around our neighborhood, which can be mildly sketchy, so maybe that put a little speed in my step. Rest assured, I carried my mace with me. Thanks to my sister, I don't think I'll run without it. LISTEN UP LADIES: If you're going to run outside, BRING MACE or something to defend yourself with. I have learned from a reliable source, that pervy pervs prey on runners. Don't be stupid just because it might be an inconvenience. Just do it, ok? You can get really cheap mace at sporting goods store. I got mine at Academy Sports.

Anyways, my calves are OUT OF CONTROL right now. Way, way sore. It's pretty great!

Tomorrow is insanity and a two mile run. I'm gonna git 'er done.



Peace, love and husbands

Always A Spud?

Having taken two weeks from running, I am extremely frustrated to say that I am still experiencing pain in my ankles and knees. It is very disheartening.  I do, however, toy with the fact that I shouldn't be hard on myself. If there is anything I've learned from talking with others who have tried to change their lifestyles through diet or exercise, it has been the affects of too high of expectations and not being able to give yourself credit for what you have done. I was talking with my grandma yesterday, trying to encourage her in a new adventure she is about to embark on, and I told her that no matter what, she needs to be proud of herself. For the little victories. For taking it one day at a time. And basically I need to practice what I preech.
So having said that, I am, unfortunately, not going to be running in my 10-mile race, in order to take care as to not permanently injure myself. I know (at least I tell myself this) that I cannot possibly be the only one who is building a collection of shirts and gear from races she has not been able to run... right?

In other news, my manly man will be gracing me with his presence in the very near future! And with that comes some Insanity. I mean, it very well may be insane in multiple ways, but more specifically, the Man and I will begina 60 day Insanity challenge. He told me the other day that he gave one of the workouts a try, and that... well... I don't think he really actually said much after that. He just breathed a few heavy breaths which communicated to me that there is a pretty good chance that I miiiight die one of the first few days. Welcome home honey! Let's go kill ourselves! Yep, we're pretty crazy.I'm excited! And I think it will be great for my legs and ankles to take a bit of a break from the same stress day after day. When we start, I will let you know our beginning "Specs" and our ending ones. T says that if we aren't ripped by the end of this then it will never happen. So at least I will be able to set my mind at ease knowing that I will just never be ripped. But I have a feeling we'll be looking pretty fly by the end of this.

I haven't been very good at keeping up with my spudly efforts. As of late the only thing my arms have lifted is a paint brush and a roller. That is all about to change.... I guess I'd better go enjoy my last couple of weeks on the couch.


Peace, love and insane husbands and wives

I have no idea what day it is

Well I injured myself running. I guess it's kind of no surprise, considering I was training so much more than I am used to, and working, and doing crazy active things with my nieces. So yes, this last week I spent more time with an ice pack than the road. I was quite frustrated about this for the first few days. I went and got yet another pair of good, supportive running shoes yesterday, hoping and praying I was making the right decision for my seemingly needy feet. I took them out for a jog today, hoping to only do about 2.5 miles, making sure as to not injure or irritate my ankles and shins further. After a few strides they seemed alright, but the problem seemed to lie more in my dang feet. They were numb. And yes, I stopped several times to adjust my laces, making sure they were not too tight, and I STILL couldn't get the numbness to go away! FRUSTRATING! I just want to run! And feel confident that I will be able to cross the finish line on the 29th! Sigh... Man! But I do have to admit, it was quite nice to be lazy this week and not have to work so hard. But after a couple of days I began to really miss how much better I feel when I run... and the lack of guilt when eating m&m's that I would normally feel had I not burned a few calories. Life without exercise is a life full of guilt... because I don't have the excuse that I ran today, so I deserve those m&m's.

A great thing that I realized this week is that I have achieved three of my few goals upon starting this blog.

1) Use it as a guilt-tool to get me to exercise because I know people will wonder why I haven't blogged about it.

2) Get someone who is not a)my mom, b) one of my sisters, or c) any person I have ever met, to comment on one of my posts.

3) Find others who have been "encouraged" by my feeble efforts and begun a running career of their own. What a humbling honor to be able to encourage someone to go down the hellishly rewarding road I've been on!


Thank you, to you two or three of four people, who read this. You help me get off my butt and do something (most of the time).


Peace, love & encouraging one another

Day 21: It's all about day nineteen

I'm busy.  The spud in me is crying out for a couch because since arriving in the great north I have had few opportunities to really, truly just veg out on the couch. Between working 40 hours a week and then training, and then seeing family and friends, it's been an entirely different experience than my usual day to day routine at home. Once again, I am not complaining, I am simply stating that the couch potato in me is like, "what's up with this?".

On Friday I only worked a half day, so I was able to enjoy the absolutely breathtakingly beautiful weather. We're talking 66 degrees, clear blue sky, awesome breeze and sunshine. The trees around here are incredible these days, as they prepare themselves for the frigid winter. I am so thankful to be here during this brief time of the year. When people ask why one would enjoy living in the north, what with the never-ending winters, it is no surprise to hear that it is because of this short period of time. It makes the rest of the year completely worth it.
I went to the lake, setting out to do two laps around it. One lap is 2.5 miles, so I was ready to go and break another record with 5 miles. Prior to arriving at the lake, I went to Schuler Shoes and purchased a new pair of running shoes. As you know, I have been having a lot of problems with my toes and my calves. Based on my foot needs, my foot strike, and what feels comfortable to me, I have done a lot of research on the New Balance Minimus Trail shoes. I understand that they are made mainly for trail running, but they can be worn on the road. I have gone back and forth with shoes that provide more support and shoes that mimic barefoot running, and after much debate, decided to give the Minimus a try. Either way I knew I would want them for when I'm back in Texas and give the trails a go. So I went to the lake set out to do my first lap in my new kicks and the second in my old. It took about 3/4 of a mile to get into the groove, but after that I felt great in my new shoes. My calves didn't hurt at all and my toes never even got close to cramping up. On my second time around, in my old shoes, I no more than started and my calves were on fire. I had to stop about 4 times to stretch, and it was all I could do to make it around that last lap. So, I can safely say that on Friday, I learned the importance of good running shoes. They will make or break your running experience.
All in all my time at the lake on Friday was just wonderful. The weather, my attitude and my body were all in sync and I was happy. I did make an observation. Minnesotans are extremely active. Young and old alike are out running and biking and walking. It makes me happy to be around so many people who are doing what they can to take care of their bodies (until an older man blows past me while running. A little part of me struggles to not consider myself completely pathetic. But then I remember how freaking lazy I am, by nature, and I run on with my head held high, knowing that no one else knows my inner spud. I intend to keep it that way, and trick those around me into thinking that I'm a super hot athlete.)

After spending the day climbing stair after stair and the waterpark yesterday, and anticipating rock climbing today, it's safe to say that my derrier can expect some good couch time tonight.



Peace, love & athletic old people

Day 17: Well Hello There, Grim Reaper

I ran 4.5 miles today.


I think I might die now. If you don't hear from me for awhile, you'll know what happened.

Day SixTEEN: Dang You, Achilles!

Shame on me... I just caught myself wasting precious blogging time perusing facebook. That stupid social networking site has stolen many hours from me... but I will continue to let it take them.

I ran Saturday with my nephew. He did awesome!


I did not.

I mean I didn't do horrible, but I also did pretty much not great. We ran in a new place, and I was with a person, and we only went 2 miles... so I didn't have a chance to reach my awesome mode and rock it out. All in all I felt pretty bad afterwards because I knew I didn't push myself.


I also ate pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast. That might have had something to do with it.

Yesterday I sat the day out (from running, not life) due to an extremely painful Achilles tendon. Not sure why it hurt, but it hurt real bad. Icing it definitely helped me be better prepared for today. I ran, once again, in a new place (which always poses as a problem for me), and was able to do four laps before it got dark. That ended up being 3.78 miles, which is definitely not 4 miles, but is still my furthest distance yet.


Tomorrow I have to do 4.5... PLEASE pray for my calves. They are not up to speed on this newfound running career.

Peace


and love and such

Day 11:"I Feel Hardcore"

That is the chorus to the techy tune I finished my run with tonight... and let me tell you, I felt pretty hardcore. I had settled on the idea that I would only run three miles today, because I was tired, overslept, had issues with one puggle, and felt achy while painting... so three miles sounded like plenty. But, I decided to text my girl Mel and ask her what she thought I should do. Really? Did I even have to ask? She told me to "push myself" and do more than I thought I would. "Go for 3.5". Of course, I was not surprised to read this. She's a trainer, thats what she's supposed to do. As if she would say, "Nah, I think three miles is plenty. Actually, why don't you just do 2.5... you don't want to push too hard." Pshh, yeah right!
So I ran 3.3. I could've done 4, for reals, but it was dark, and I had sweet potatoes in the oven at the house. You see, I am not a fast runner, so to commit to 3.3 miles, let alone 4, seriously hogs my time. So, with sweet potato volcanoes (my recent invention. Totally scrumptious and totally easy!) on the brain, and my mother calling on my phone, I ran back to the vehicle to head back. But I think I might have been floating, I felt so light on my feet. I was running harder and faster than I have, ever... well, ok, not ever, but consistently, not while doing an interval, and out of doors. As that song was playing, and he said he felt hardcore, I thought to myself, "you know what, dude? I feel pretty hardcore too! Yeah!" But do you want to know what is not hardcore? Not stretching. I didn't stretch last night. I hurt this morning. So, as you can guess, I'm not doing that again!

I guess you could say I experienced my first ever Runner's High, and I have to say, it is so awesome. Everything it is cracked up to be, for sure. You just feel happy. You feel proud. You feel powerful. You feel thankful. You understand your body in a way you never have before. You feel... high, haha. [Insert "like" button here]. And I actually caught myself not thinking about running... I laughed at myself. I was thinking about tattoos. That's pretty dang impressive for the almighty convincer here.

It was a good night. Now to soak my cares away and hit the sack.


Peace, love and getting high

Day Nine: What Am I, An Old Lady?

So I'm sure you remember me saying that I was beginning a painting job on Monday. Well, I can sure tell that I have spent the last year "unemployed". I am not going to complain and say that it is tough... but... I really want to. Ha! First off, let me just ask all of the high-jean wearing mama's out there a question:

How do you go, day after day, wearing those horrible mom-jeans? I am pretty positive I have a rug-burn like circle on my UPPER stomach from the denim wearing against my skin. Pants are not meant to be worn that high. Not to mention the fact that, I've come to the conclusion that the jeans are to blame for some of your self-esteem issues. You get down on yourselves because you may have a hard time bending over to grab something or tie your shoes, all the while assuming that you are a)getting old, or b) getting fat when in reality it's the damn jeans cutting into your abdomen, causing you to be unable to bend as much as you probably could.

I think about this, nearly every time I have to bend down to paint the bottom of the door frame. My heart goes out to all of you. If you have any pointers for how to make the experience less horrific please let me know.

Anyways, yes, painting is a lot of work. But having said that, I am realizing that it is also a great leg workout. There is a lot of squating involved, and stepping up and down off of the step stool. I like to tell myself I am doing what the cool CrossFit girls do when they step up and down off of their big box things. But lucky for them they don't have to do it in pants that go up just under their "girls". So I'd say I just might be working harder than they are. Yeah, right. So my thighs are really sore, therefore I am making sure to stretch like a crazy person these days. It's definitely helping, Lord knows what I would be like if I weren't stretching every 10 seconds. But I am still sore. I almost don't like sitting down because I know as soon as I do that part of my body is going to start to ache.

So let me just interject here and say, in my defense, I am sore from painting AND running... I'm not THAT much of a pansy.

Anyways, I am trying to get my mom to stretch, because she is painting with me, and knowing her, she will wake up the next day and be oh so sore. I had to remind her three times yesterday to stretch. Do you think she did? Nope. I scolded her this morning. But tonight, as our soup bubbled on the stove, we proceeded to stretch on the kitchen floor. I am quite proud of her for taking nearly twenty minutes to stretch with me! We used chairs, a towel, stools... we were doing the darn thing. It might just be us, but have any of you ever noticed that you could probably stretch further if your belly weren't in the way? Yeah, I'm blaming the belly. So our stretching session ended with my mom sprawled out on the floor of the hallway, and I felt successful. I won't mention how many different "poses" it took to get her on the floor. It was almost a whole sun salutation just to get her down there. Mom, if you by chance read this, I'm sorry... don't be embarrassed!

Anyways, on to the running part.

Tonight I ran my longest distance to date. 3.5 miles. I understand that this is just slightly over a 5k, but I've always run on a treadmill, so when I hit that 3.2 mile mark, I am D-O-N-E. So running that far felt great. I sort of might have been beaming or something, because I was so proud of myself. The only problem was that at around 2.5 miles I got a pretty rad cramp in my right toes. I tried to just keep going, but eventually I had to stop, take my shoe off, and stretch my toes real good. I'm not sure what that was about, because my shoes were not too tight, and they are still in pretty good shape. And, of course, it happened on a moderately busy street, so I made sure to really stretch it like a pro. I didn't want people to think I was lame and had to stop on the side of the road. But how do you not look lame when you are standing on the side of the road with a shoe on your left foot and an orange and black tye-dyed sock on your right? Maybe I should rethink my sock choice next time.

Time to let these poor old lady muscles rest up and get all kinds of tight before I wake up tomorrow. Too bad you can't sleep stretch. That'd work out pretty well for me right about now.


Peace, love and old ladies who rock ugly jeans

Day Seven: Feet Like Feathers

I went shopping today. If we could go back in time, about three to ten years, I would say, "OMG I looove to shop", but because I am in the latter half of my twenties, and have become "a woman" I have lost almost all of the joy I once found in clothes shopping. It has been replaced with home decor shopping. I could (and would) buy things for my home every day.. but my husband would fly home from across the world and personally scold me and cut up my debit card. So I don't do this, but I do window shop and dream. What I feel like most young women don't think about is how very much their body will begin to "suck" someday, unless they make the effort to show it some love. So, having said that, I think you can get an idea as to why I hate clothes shopping... because I'm a little behind on showing this bod some "love", and my "behind" has a few things to say about it. By the Lord's sweet, sweet grace, today's shopping experience wasn't a complete self-esteem slapper. Let me tell you, TJ Maxx and Marshall's are the places to go when in the market for some decent active wear. I got some sweet deals... like a super hot wind and rain resistant jacket that was originally $130 and I got it for $34.99... Yeah buddy! It's the perfect weight to run in on cold, rainy days like today. Needless to say, the success of this shopping trip paved the way for an awesome running sesh today.
I mapped out my route and got in 2.3 miles. I know it's not very much, but please remember that I am not a runner. I'm a walk/run/walk-er. I'm a "run for 45 seconds and realize that my calves hurt so really seriously think about stopping" type of "runner". So to run so far that a random passer-byer could actually mistake me for an athlete is such a huge success it's ridiculous. If there were little thought bubbles popping out of my head with each car that drove by they would read something like this, "Man, I wonder if I look like I know what I'm doing. I wonder if they think I look like I'm doing really awesome. I wonder if them seeing me is making them feel bad that they aren't out running in this crap weather. I wonder if none of those things are possible because of the snail pace at which I am running." Those are a lot of thoughts, you say? Yeah... my brain is pretty high-speed. Unlike my body.

Annnnywaaaays, I ran. It felt great. Actually, it sucked major until about 1.45 miles, then I began to kick some serious ass and was running faster, harder and a million times better. I mean, I was nearly to my vehicle and I decided to detour and keep going, simply because I didn't want to end such a rare experience! It was like a glimpse into what other real runners must feel. I liked it. Actually, I loved it! It's really too bad it took me so long to get to that point. It'd be awesome if it felt that way right out of the shoot.

So anyways, there you have it. AND, I remembered to bring water with me. AND I stretched... a lot. I was very much at the top of my game tonight. Be impressed.

I began reading a book that a dear friend of mine told me about quite some time ago. I am very encouraged about where this book will take me. I believe that one of the reasons why I am twenty six and still trying to get this figured out is because I don't like doing things when I'm told I should. I usually only like doing them when I want to. So, with that said, I don't believe that I will ever find success if I keep doing what others tell me I "need to do". I'm going to do what I "want to do". Through this book, I am being given the opportunity to shed light on why it is that I crave what I do. Why I resort to defeat 9 times out of 10. What I'm actually craving. I look forward to sharing with you, as I figure out the ever-so complicated thing that is my mind. All I can say is that it's a good thing I left my stash of candy at home. If you are interested in reading more about the book, you can go here.

Tomorrow I start painting. Tomorrow I begin my journey to completely ripped arms and shoulders. Tomorrow I begin painting number one of eight hundred-some door frames. Oh, tomorrow...

Peace, love and thought bubbles

Day Two... and 3 & four and so on...

To the Ladies,

To the Gentle Man,

Please don't fret. I am still here... I just have a list of pretty great excuses... if you would like to hear one or all of them just inquire. I would be happy to share.

I am pleased to say that I did workout more than once this week! Wowie! Tuesday I did some strength training AT HOME (!!!!), which is exciting simply because I pretty much should never be allowed to work out at home... because I usually only end up actually doing strenuous activity for approximately five minutes and then I end up sitting on the couch, laying on the floor, or bouncing and rolling on my stability ball, whilst watching the other ladies do the exercises on tv, or singing along to whatever "motivating" music I happen to be playing. But on this particular day, the clouds parted, and God struck me with hundreds of volts of motivational electricity and I worked out. Ok, so the electricity I was struck with came in the form on a newly created playlist on 8tracks.com, but still... it was motivation nevertheless. I created a pretty rad playlist for strength training, with some good beats to use to your advantage. I think that if you want to get your butt off of the couch, you should listen to it. It's called songs to make you work that @$&. You'll like it.

WEDNESDAY, I was lucky enough to accompany a friend of mine to Gold's Gym (for my first time... if it were the early 2000's I would totally want to buy a t-shirt as a "fashion statement", because I remember being in high school and wishing there were a Gold's in MN so I could get a t-shirt and make it look like I worked out there... I'm so glad I missed that "trend") and seeing as I had a sick puppy at home I declined the invitation to Spin with her and opted for the "Cardio Cinema" instead. Pretty neat room. It had a huge tv screen (playing the awesome hit "The Pacifier" with the greatest actor of all time, Vin Diesel), and row after row of elliptical machines and treadmills, complete with dimmed lighting, providing the perfect environment to sweat AND watch Vin Diesel. Because who hasn't wanted to do those two things simultaneously, right? I know I have. Check that off of my bucket list. Anyways, I was all ready to rock the mill and I realized that I left my water bottle outside in the car... Maybe not a big deal to some, but I don't drink water, ever, so if I want to be even slightly successful at running, I need to drink a lot of water while I do it... otherwise I suck. So yeah, you guessed it... I kinda sucked. Not as bad as it's ever been, but could've been better. But I did it. In the dark. With Vin Diesel in the room. Then afterwards, while going to throw my cleaning supplies, a little asian lady snatched my treadmill before I had a chance to grab my things. I think she was extremely confused. I also think she might have been wearing a visor in the Cinema Cardio room... if that doesn't explain a lot then I'm at a loss for words.
Beyond that I have nothing for you. My mother came into town, we explored the lovely scenery of the Hill Country, and then the next day we hit the road. I am looking forward to training in the brisk northern air... it will be a nice relief from the mean, nasty sun... but now I have to go get some "cold weather" gear... great... shopping.

You will be glad to know that, fortunately for me, I forgot my bag of Tootsies and Dots in my pantry at home. Marlene, if I could give them to you, trust me, they'd be all yours! (Ok, so I would probably snatch like five... or twelve, and shove them in my pockets before you answered the door... but don't deny that you just might do the same.)

Until tomorrow, be sure to keep it real...


Peace, love and fricken long road trips

Day One: Tough

"Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord holds his hand." Psalm 37:24

This is my verse for week one. I chose it, thinking that when I felt that strong desire to give up, that I could remember that He is holding my hand, pulling me to keep going. Today, I desperately needed that pull. I decided that I was going to run in my neighborhood, because in the past I've done most of my running on a treadmill, forcing me to really struggle when I would run outside. I really want to get to a point where I am familiar with both, so I ran outside. The problem is, even though it is September and the weather is "cooling down" to the mid to upper 90's, it is still very hot for Minnesota me. I left the house at 10:30am, ambitious and ready to do the darn thing. There are hardly any trees in my neighborhood, so when you run on the street, you are running on hot blacktop, with the sun beating down on you, screaming at you that you cannot defeat it. That it will wear you down until you are a sad, crying little puddle of defeat, baking in it's hot, steamy glory. Well, I am proud to say that I didn't cry or turn into a puddle, but it was a close one. I did find a block of street that was lined with nice big trees so I got a little break from the hot hot heat, but other than that, I kinda resembled an egg. I was out for twenty five minutes...


...It took me an HOUR just to get the migraine that I picked up along the way to leave... I didn't even have a chance to stretch, between getting an ice cold wash cloth and laying spread eagle on the bed with the fan blasting on me while my dogs laid next to me, more than likely wondering if they were soon to be abandoned by their dead mother (or at the very least, passed out mother).  People, run in the morning. Drink water before you go. Don't wear black. These are all things that could have dramatically changed the outcome of this mornings run.

Now I've enjoyed my tuna sandwich for lunch and I'm off to go stretch. We'll hit the pavement a lot better prepared Wednesday.


Peace, love and trees that provide shade

Shame Shame!

August 16th!! That's the last time I posted!? What am I, Crazy!? I'm pretty sure that would be true regardless of the last time I posted (and, coincidentally worked out... wow is that ever hard to admit. Sigh... I guess if I'm honest with myself, a lot of people haven't worked out in a lot longer than that, so I'm ok ;) ) Well I am here to tell you that my month of traveling, saying good bye to my best friend, crying over the farewell, spending time at the beach with a dear lady, and going to the ER, I am jumping back on the horse and this time I have an immediate goal in mind!!! APPLAUSE, please! I am running (Lord willing) the 10 mile Monster Dash in St. Paul, MN on October 29th (complete with a halloween costume, so suggestions are welcome! Preferably something that works for two or three people as I will more than likely have some running buddies with me)! I am quite excited and QUITE nervous, because, as you all now know, I haven't worked out in quite some time... and I wasn't even that impressive to begin with! Ha! But, with the Lord's help I know that I can give it my all... and that's really all I am aiming to do with my running... just give it all I've got.
So here is my plan, and hey, if you think it's good and could work for you, then join me these next seven weeks! It's going to be tough, but worth it! (PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!!!)

Physical:
This first week I am planning on just getting my legs back in gear. Running two miles, or at least working up to consistently having a good 2 mile run. After that, my wonderful girl Mel will be guiding me as far as interval training and distance running each week leading up to the race. I'm also going to try to do 30 minutes of strength training on the off days (every other), so that I can build my core to help my posture or "gate" as it is apparently called.

Diet:
In the past I have used an awesome app called MyFitnessPal, which also has a great, easy-to-use website that will help you track your calories and exercise. I've usually only used it for my calories, but you could do a lot more with it than that. I went ahead and input a "mock" days worth of eating, to see what out of my normal diet I could eat and still stay under 1500 calories. From there, I took those foods and wrote them out on index cards to tape to my pantry door. I usually eat pretty much the same things, so this will make it a lot easier for me than following someone else's diet (I'm picky... there, I said it!)

Emotional:
I have eliminated certain words from my vocabulary. Weird, you say? Yeah, well it's what works for me... and you'll figure out what works for you. But whatever it is, have someone close to you in on it, and they can catch you when you let that mean nasty word fly about your beautiful self. I bet if someone were to count how often I say my "word" it would definitely be in the double digits for sure.. and thats just in one conversation!

Spiritual:
I am saved by grace. Jesus has saved me. I have spent the last nine years hearing of amazing stories of freedom and redemption from old sinful ways of life... God has been so unbelievably good to me in my life, through health and family and relational challenges. But after nine years, I am still bogged down by the same strongholds and lies. So, with that said, I have prepared a memory verse for each of these next seven weeks to repeat and say aloud before each run, and after. To pray in the morning, and before I go to sleep. Because I have made countless attempts to make it over this gigantic wall in my life, and I have yet to have the strength to clear it. So I am resorting to the only "fool proof" way I know of... His way. I encourage you to invite Him into the active part of your life... after all, He is the only one who really REALLY knows what your body is capable of, right?

Anyways, thats my plan... and I have to confess something to you...


As I sat here and did my research and wrote out my plan, I ate 4 tootsie rolls and a small baby box of dots.

SHAME!!

So much shame!!!

Praise the Lord tomorrow is a NEW DAY!

(But the Dots and Tootsies are still in my pantry ahhh!)

Good luck to me, good luck to you and may the best effort win!



Peace, love and wildly achievable goals

Back To Life, Back To Reality

Well people, here I am... back home and ready to go. The only problem is that my husband is not quite as ready to go as I am... We got back into town yesterday, so naturally I was ready to get back into the swing of things with Tuesday night Spin Class at Abrams. I thought that me and the hub had communicated that Spin class was taking place today AND tomorrow. Well, I guess there was some confusion. "So what?" you might say... "Just go anyways". Well here's the thing... I'm trying to make up for seven months without him, so to leave him for only an hour is terribly hard. I had to go to the grocery store yesterday and that was definitely not as fun as it could have been had he been with me... simply because he could be. So yes, I am caving in... I'm not going to spin class, and I am probably going to end up eating instead. Dang. Any and all of you Army spouses know what I am talking about. It's quite difficult to let them out of your sight unless absolutely necessary (we're talking bathroom breaks here, people... thats it).
I will say, that during my three week vacation I managed to work out an amount of times that can only be counted on one hand. Shame on me. I started out well, though! The first day of my vacation to the lake my sister and I went for a run. It felt good to run up north, where you can actually breath because the temperature is at a normal number for human lungs. Because of all of our activities (of which are SO different than my day to day life) I found myself being the first to bed every night, and far too tired to go out and do more activities. Am I making excuses? Possibly. Am I not as much of an athlete as I thought? Yes, this is true. I will say that I am quite anxious to get back on the horse and keep up with my efforts to become a stud. I have also picked up some useful information regarding diet, of which I intend to put forth full effort in changing in our lives as a family. Let me just say, it is terribly hard to have a good understanding of the do's and don'ts of "eating healthy". Namely, all of the "diet" foods that are offered. Low fat breads, cheeses, crackers, meats, drinks... all of it is actually doing the opposite of what you want it to do. So I'm trying to lean more in the direction of "sugar free". You should give it a try, too!

Alright, well my honey's off trying to make dinner so I'm going to go help him. I'll be sure to give you a detailed description of my hellish spin experience tomorrow!

Peace, love & lazy feeling lovebirds

Groovin' My Body

Hello, all of my Spuds, Studs and everyone in between.

I made it safely to my Northern abode. Let me tell you, it is amazing how quickly you can forget things about a place where you've spent most of your life.

It's amazingly green and lush up here.

I wanted to let you all know that I will be in no-man's land for the next five or six days, livin' it up old school, with no internet. But rest assured, I will be keeping my booty off of that couch. If you remember from my very first post, I introduced you to my metabolically gifted brother, and pain-loving sister... well they will be enjoying this little vaca with me, along with the rest of the crew (16 in all), so we are planning on getting lots of exercise and physically strenuous activities in. I'm really excited about this!

*Let me interject quick and brag about myself for a second. While spending the night in the middle of Kansas somewhere, at, what I would consider, a 2.75 star hotel, I layed a towel down on the floor and spent about 20 minutes stretching and doing some yoga postures. Yep, even on a long road trip I'm managing to do more than just sit on my behind. Props to me.

For the past few years Minnesota has decorated it's highways and freeways with billboards encouraging people to "groove their body 10 minutes, 3 times a day". So, while in MN, I will be doing as she asks... groovin' this bod as much as I can.

I will miss telling you about my ever so exciting life, but be ready for some mildly entertaining stories when I return.

Keep that booty groovin'.


Peace, love & booty shakin'

On The Road... Again

Well tomorrow I begin my two day journey north. Unfortunately I will not be able to experience the deliverance from this heat that I was hoping for. It would be nice to not have sweat constantly taking up residence in places where it shouldn't. But alas, it is summer in the great state of Minnesota, and contrary to popular belief, it does actually get really hot up there. The heat is following me. Minnesota, I'm sorry.

Core Dynamics at the Applied Fitness center has a new instructor. I was not aware of this until just before getting to class yesterday, so I wasn't sure what class would be like. The new instructor quite literally just landed here at Fort Hood and she has already been recruited to be an instructor. Pretty neat. Anyways, the class was quite great. It was different than what we have been doing, which is always nice. I don't know about you, but I'm interested in knowing all of the options I can "think" about doing while I veg on the couch.

Time out. I need to share an observation I just made. I'm sure you remember me mentioning my lovely little husky puggle, Theo. Well, if you have never seen him, you need to know that, if you could choose a human body type for Theo, it would have to be beach body builder. They are always sliiiiightly husky, but have these big "peacock" chests, and tiny waists or legs. Anyways, thats Theo. Sometimes I have to slit the neck of his t-shirts because his chest protrudes so much. He's dead sexy. As I was sitting here on the couch typing, he and Lily began their evening "run/wrestle/body slam" session. Our house is not very big, but our couch is located somewhat in the middle of the living room, creating the perfect "oval" track for Theo to get his run on. He goes so fast sometimes I swear he leans in a bit on the corners. You can hear his nails digging desperately into the carpet with each stride, trying to create as much grip as possible, allowing optimal speed and maneuvering.  So, they are chasing each other, and I'm typing. The epiphany took place when I heard the very common sound of Theo's body slamming into the wall as he rounds the kitchen table. Nine out of ten times, he doesn't clear this turn. What I realized tonight though, is that I admire Theo. He has no shame. No shame in his mistakes, his downfalls, his "failures", as some perfectionists might call them. He slams into that wall, gets his butt back up and keeps on running, tongue out, ears flapping. He has no shame. Even when he has to stop and lay down on the cold tile after about two laps, he is still happy.

I want to be more like Theo.

To enjoy being active, no matter how stupid I may look. Do it till I need to lay on the cold tile, and then when I can breath again, get back up and do it all over again.

Here is the difference between Theo and your average Venice Beach meat-head: While the meat-heads, hard as they may try to seem "cool", more than likely know deep down that they look kinda silly. Theo has no clue. He has no clue because he doesn't live his life according to what others think or say about him. (Trust me, if he did we'd all be in a world of hurt.... there are a lot of laughs at his expense in this house. And a lot of (more than likely) inaccurate commentary of his life.)

I wish I could be more like Theo. (With the exception of the big burly chest).


So that's my observation. Let's all be like Theo, ok?

Well, I'm off to finish my packing and hit the hay. After all my packing and spin class this afternoon, my bed is calling my name.


Peace, love & uninhibitedness

LOST: Motivation

REWARD: $1,000,000
If found, please report to
Laura Jean's couch where
you will most likely find
her.


Guys, I don't know what's happened. I am experiencing a motivation drought. Maybe it's because the day is drawing near where I will finally be reunited with my bestest of friends, T-Money. Maybe it's because I'm anticipating being out of my normal routine for a few weeks. Maybe it is that I have peaked in my new-found active lifestyle, and I am finding myself tempted to revert back to my spud-like ways. Oh Lord, I pray it is not the last one. I definitely still enjoy spending five of my days a week being active, sweating, and challenging myself, don't get me wrong, but that drive to push harder than the last time seems to have taken some vacation days. I'm running a 5k in Minneapolis at the end of the month, and I've been spending so much time trying to improve my short distance run time that I believe I am completely unprepared for the 5k. But I realized today on the treadmill that the area where I need the most preparation is mentally. Why do I so easily give up on myself? This is not only common in my physical life, but in my emotional, my spiritual and my every day life.  What is it that makes us (or me, rather) want to give up so easily? Maybe it is because we become so comfortable in the life that we are familiar with, that to imagine ourselves achieving something we've never done before seems scary. Not scary because of the nature of the achievement, but scary to let ourselves truly and vulnerably believe in ourselves. I think I become so fearful of failure that I would rather just let myself down on purpose than to try and try and realize that I can't do something. Perfection... it's such an ugly beast. But don't we all strive for it?

Well today I went to the Wellness Center to get my body fat percentage measured to see if it's improved since last time. I've lost 2% more than when I last checked... so I am heading in the right direction! S-L-O-W-L-Y. But slowly is better than not at all.

I was hoping to be able to get my tape measurements from the last time I was there, but unfortunately they were unable to find them... and I threw the book away that had them from back in February... so today's lesson is: write your starting measurements out and store them in a safe place.

I ran for about 25 minutes today, and I'm trying to run at faster speeds than 4.8... that's really more of a jog and I would like to be able to have some more flexibility in my running. I wanted to say that I stopped after 25 minutes because it was hard running that much faster, but the truth is, it wasn't really. I was just bored. Why do I get so bored? *sigh*

Core class tomorrow. Can't wait to make my abs hurt like crazy. I've been potentially given an opportunity to teach a class such as Core... but I feel as though because I lack in the simple abilities to complete half of the exercises as they should be, that I am not a qualified option for them to use. M says thats not true, but I'm not sure if I believe her. Thoughts? If you were in a class where the instructor couldn't necessarily go as hard as you, but still made sure to keep the counts steady and made sure the class was challenged, would you consider them to be an adequate teacher?

I need a massage.

Peace, love & million dollar rewards

So. Very. Tired.

So. Very. Sore.

These workouts this week have been draining me. The weird thing is I'm not doing anything really out of the ordinary, with the exception of some intervals. I guess it's just one of those weeks.

Core Dynamics was HARD today. One would think that after taking a class for months on end you would be able to be a little bit more impressive with your performance.. not the case, my friends. Definitely not the case.

Read about some very interesting different workouts that I'm thinking of adding to my routine. I am enticed by these variations to the plank. I also think that these look kind of fun (call me crazy, I know... I said "fun"). I think it's important to really look into good variations to your usual routine, so that you don't get bored and so that you keep your muscles "on their toes". But, as my wise friend told me, be sure you are taking precautions. You definitely won't be turning into a stud if an injury gets in your way. Only do what you know you are capable of, and maybe work up to the more challenging exercises. Remember, the girls who "demonstrate" in the magazines are completely different beings than us... They get paid to work out and have hot bods. We don't.


Alright, all you little potatoes and pretties, I'm outta here.


Peace, love & a comfortable bed

S-W-E-A-T

Sweat. I found out, for the first time in my life, that it actually can begin to bead up and drip off of my skin. I owe this recent discovery to spin class and the hard a$* awesome teacher that teaches it. There is nothing like a tightly squeezed room full of sweaty people yelling "up" loudly with every up of a push up, while the teacher continues to tell us that we're just warming up... (even though we've been riding hard for 35 minutes of the hour long class). Pure awesome-ness is what it is. I have this cute little green towel that I got in Germany that I keep in my gym bag for "drip" duty on my sweaty days, but I think it's about time I retire that bad boy... It's really not cutting it, I'm sorry to say. I am looking forward to investing in a Sport Towel from Norwex, because I think that will do a much better job of cleaning up the nasty.

Before spin started I went to pay the treadmill a visit for some interval action. I truly enjoy doing those. Fortunately for me, my elderly brain forgot that the incline was supposed to be at 12%, so I ended up spending all but the last interval at an incline of 7%... shucks. It was still hard, and it still made me sweat and breath heavily. Therefore it was a success.

Seeing as I have a short time before "T-Day", it is crunch time... I am upping the ante and trying to be strict with my sugar and dairy intake... so why is it that up until two days ago, I had no issues with this... then all of a sudden, BAM! I want sugar every five seconds! Ok, not every five seconds, just right when I get done with a workout, mostly. Sometimes the cravings are almost unbearable... and I have no food in my house, so I usually end up getting a small spoon and dipping into the peanut butter jar (don't worry, I eat the natural stuff). Does someone want to come monitor my eating habits? I'd appreciate it.

Well tomorrow I'm running, and I can't wait. I'm also going to the grocery store... I'm almost out of peanut butter. Shame shame.

peace, love & peanut butter

Toes

I know that I have been keeping you all well informed of my newfound love for stretching. I just love how it makes me feel when I'm done. I feel so much better than I did before I started, no longer tight and sore. It's wonderful. But two nights ago something miraculous happened. I was doing my nighttime routine, and was spending a good amount of time in a forward bend with my legs straight out in front of me (the worst stretch for me because I can usually barely sit up straight, let alone get anywhere near my toes). As I continued to breath into the pose, I realized that I was holding on to my ankles... I had a moment of shock, and then, with a load of ambition, decided to keep pressing for the toes... and wouldn't you know it, I touched them for the very first time without bending my knees!!! Miracle of miracles! Now I tried again today, and wasn't quite as lucky, but I think I just need to spend some time getting into the stretch... at least thats what I'll tell myself.

How many of you are able to use exercise as a way to channel frustration or anger or any sort of overwhelming emotion? The past couple of weeks I've been experiencing some of those emotions and have thought about how I should go for a run or something to work through it. Unfortunately I wasn't in a place where I could run when the thoughts occurred to me, so I tucked them away for later. It is with sadness that I have to confess that I am not one who is able to use exercise as a way to channel those emotions... I'm just not. I wish I was! It would be awesome to be able to burn calories and moods at the same time. I guess I could say that there will probably be some times when it might work, but as a whole, It's a lost cause for me. Dang.

I'm really looking forward to my handsome dude coming back to me soon, and I'm trying to prepare for some good running sessions while he's here. Remember, we've never gone running together, so I'm getting a little nervous about it... He's going to be practically walking at the pace I jog... I'm sorry, honey! But I told him tonight that I am focusing on doing more interval training, or shorter distance training because I would really like to improve my pace as well as my cardio endurance. Wish me luck, and keep me accountable!

Well, tomorrow is spin class, and I can't wait. Wednesday Spin at Abrams is pretty bomb.

It's 8:30... I'm going to bed.

Peace, love & toes you can touch

Intervals

I treated myself yesterday to a lovely coffee/chat date with a friend I haven't seen in quite some time. I suggested meeting at Barnes and Noble so that I could check out some magazines, get what I wanted from them, and leave without spending a dime. After we were through visiting, I went to the magazine racks, picked out four that appealed to me, and went to the comfy chairs to peruse. One of the magazines I picked up was Women's Runner (or something to that effect). There was a ton of wonderful information in there, and I have to say, if you want to get motivated to exercise, try investing in one of the neat "gadgets" they feature in those magazines. I made a mental list of at least five things I want to invest in someday, one of which is a heart rate monitor and watch that works without the use of a chest strap. Sounds fantastic! That would DEFINITELY get me out and increasing my heart rate more often (at least for a little while).  Anyways, I stumbled across this little box that gave guidelines for Interval Training. It goes as follows:

3 min. jog to warm up
15 second sprint (at 8mph and 12% incline)
15 second rest (feet on the sides of the treadmill, with the belt continuing below you at max speed)
15 second on/off intervals for 3-4 minutes
3 min walk to cool down

Now, as you all know, I am not a super athlete, so I adjusted the speed and incline slightly to make it a little more realistic for a woman such as myself. But I'm getting ahead of myself..

Last night I could not sleep... I think it might be because I was SO excited about a couple of things that I just couldn't get myself into "Z" mode, so I fell asleep with the tv on at around 2am. I woke up to infomercials, and I was hooked for a longer-than-necessary amount of time. I partially watched two different informercials selling home workout programs that mostly consisted of high-intensity workouts that didn't last as long as your average hour or so at the gym. So between seeing all those hot abs on tv and remembering my new insight into intervals, I got ready for the gym with a lot of spunk in my step, ready to sweat like a pig with the expectation of someday looking like an infomercial mama.

I actually REALLY enjoyed the intervals. I mean, they were really REALLY hard, but it's crazy how fast you can start to really sweat. I did the ten minutes or so, and then I did about another three minutes of intervals and a cool down. All together I was on the treadmill for fifteen minutes. It felt great. But something funny happened... as I walked to the yoga room to do some strength training, the spunk that seemed to be present before mysteriously began to vanish with every stride. I did do some pikes, some push ups, and some leg lifts, so it didn't completely disappear, but it's pretty safe to assume that my abs look the same as they did when I woke up this morning. I was able to do about twenty minutes of stretching and some yoga postures, so that was definitely beneficial after tightening up my leg muscles on the treadmill.

It was good to start my Saturday off with a bang, and I was so happy to see so many others at the gym doing the same thing! Lots of ladies enjoying some booty shaking bliss at Zumba, too... if you haven't tried that before, you just have to! It's a blast.

Peace, love & bashful abdominals

Nuts? Cooky? Off The Rocker?

It's quite possible I am one or all of the above.

I have been cursing at inanimate object the past two days... and it's no coincidence that the ones I'm cursing at, let alone talking to, all have something to do with my fitness goals.

Go figure.

Yesterday as I ran on the treadmill, I purposely cranked the speed up because I knew I would only be running a mile and I wanted to challenge myself. (Please note that when I say "crank the speed up" I mean run at 5.5 as opposed to 4.7... it's truly not all that impressive.) As I approached the seven minute mark I remembered that my best mile time from Saturday's 5k was 11:55, so I thought, "hey, I can beat that. Easy." Wow... wow, wow, wow. I really had no idea how much faster I run outside compared to the treadmill. I was running and running and the seconds kept ticking by, and I found myself calling the treadmill (out loud, mind you) a "beast", because no matter how much I increased the speed, it seemed like I was only going to come in a measly 15 seconds faster than Saturday's time. Lame-O.

Then today, since I have been doing really well with eliminating excess sugars from my diet, and trying to cut out a lot of the milk and cheese that I consume, I thought it would be "interesting" to give the scale a go. You all know why I said "interesting" as opposed to "fun", "great", "encouraging" or "the best thing I could do for myself today"... because "interesting" is a safe way of admitting that a small event like this could really truly make or break the rest of your day, week or month. So yeah, I convinced myself it would be interesting. Well, today that scale was called a "MOTHER!" (I use that word a lot to substitute, well, a variety of cuss words... makes me feel unique). She didn't break the day, but she also didn't make it either. *Long, exasperated sigh* What's the deal with being a woman.

So these, my friends, are two of the many reasons why I just might be off the rocker. Or maybe I'm completely ordinary. Either way, I talk to myself, my dogs and anything that frustrates me on a regular basis.


Peace, love & trash talk

the UPSIDE of stretching

When I run, walk, jog, spin, crunch, lift (I think you get it) I can safely say that 95% of the time I do so without stretching afterwards. If I do actually stretch, it's usually rather quickly and awkwardly. I-am-not-flexible. I don't think I have ever been able to touch my toes (without bending my knees and enduring a lot of pain). I have a difficult time stretching my arms behind my back... it's just plain sad. Sad sad sad. It is because of this that I give stretching so little of my efforts. It's painful, nothing changes and I lose interest. On July 1st, I began the 30 Day Yoga Challenge, on July 2nd I ran my first 5k and on July 3rd I woke up with really tight, sore hips and glutes. So in keeping with the challenge, I have been doing a lot of slow, relaxing stretches before bed. One of the advantages I've noticed is that I have been sleeping a lot better. For any of you Army spouses or those who experience separation from his or her spouse, it is not uncommon to experience trouble with sleeping. Or even if you are going through a stressful time in your life. I have found that allowing my body to relax and stretch out that tension has given my mind a chance to relax as well. Doing this has also addressed a lot of the pain in my hip. For some reason, since I ran on Saturday, I have had a significant amount of pain when I walk. Due to this, I have found myself stretching multiple times throughout the day. This morning I was doing downward dog, before Core Dynamics I spent a good 10 minutes doing forward bends. I have to say I am pretty excited about my newfound appreciation for stretching. So with all of that said, I encourage you to take 15 minutes before bed and just do five basic stretches. It's pretty safe to say that you will feel really great from doing so.


I know I was going back and forth between Spin and Crossfit for my workout yesterday. I went to Spin. Boy did I get the crap kicked out of me. The instructor yesterday was Jose (whom I've never had as an instructor before) and I sweat so bad in that class you could've rung me out. At points I felt slightly light headed, I am quite sore today (good thing I'm stretching) and it was straight-up awesome! The music was loud, everyone was yelling and sweating and spinning. Good, quality fun right there. If you have never been to a spin class I really encourage you to go. It is the type of workout that can be adjusted to your own personal fitness level while giving you the chance to challenge yourself too. If you don't belong to a gym, find one that has spin classes and does a free week-long membership. That way you could give spin a try for free. There are also some places that are non-membership facilities where you can pay for the classes. It is such a fun workout, and depending on your weight and age, you can burn nearly a thousand calories in a class. It's awesome!


Ok, but seriously, if anyone wants to buy me an hour long massage, I would not mind...


Peace, love & sweaty awesome fun

Oh Theo

So I was in bed, enjoying my sleep when my little chubby puggle began to bark. Now, I am the type of person who freaks myself out, and basically creates and performs a horror film in my mind in a matter of seconds. So, needless to say, it took some time, guts, and a weapon brainstorming session to get out of our room and let him outside.

He just needed to poop.

So here I lay, in bed, eyes wide open, for the last hour and a half. I can't fall back asleep. Dang it! This is definitely going to alter my workout plans for the day.

I know I've decided to run every MWF at 9, but there are two things that I would like to try today, consequently hindering my running schedule (which is alright by me, considering my 5k is in the past). I am tempted to try out the Wednesday Spin class again, and see if I can have a better go at it now that my leg is healed up. Also, I am reaching a point where I am getting sick of just watching all of the awesome CrossFit chicks and want to become one... by starting with the beginners class (woo hoo!). That is Monday and Wednesday nights... so, I think that when I do finally get up (which might be sooner than planned) I will have to decide which one I will do (because I just might die if I do both... and burn my whole days worth of calories in the process).

I can't lie to you. I'm nervous to try CrossFit. As much as I talk about how I know how we all feel when we workout, I have my no-fly zones in the gym.. and the CrossFit area is one of them. It's right in the middle of everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. I'm not dumb, and neither are you... we can all admit to watching people in the gym, and can also agree that doing so is one of the perks of going. Don't lie. So, walking into a situation where I feel as though I could be one of the lame-O's who is being "watched" is rather unsettling. But thats the point of this blog, and my adventure, isn't it? To try it all out so that you guys don't have to go in without knowing at least one person's opinion on the matter? Well, alright, I guess I will try it. Either today, or next Monday... or maybe next Wednesday. I can do this all day, so I might as well just stop myself now.

Something I have been thinking about recently is all of these diet pills, drink mixes and other rubbish. Now, I am not a believer in using them, mostly because I don't want to be the person who feels that it's ok to take something "unnatural" to my body in order to get results that I could get if I just got my big butt off of the couch. Also, I have heard of people becoming quite addicted to them, and I try to make it a habit to stay away from addictive things. I already have a hell of a time with sugar, why add anything else to the mix. Anyways, in order to feed my curiosity I decided to research them a little online, because really, I didn't even know what exactly was bad about them in the first place. As I read reviews and ingredients, there was one thing that really stuck out to me and was unsettling... so many people were raving about how they were losing "x"lbs. a week and they "weren't even exercising at all!" Ok, maybe that sounds like awesome, brag-worthy information to them, but to me it is just sad. Maybe it is the fact that I have learned so much about what my body is capable of, and what I am capable of through becoming more active that I just couldn't imagine taking the easy route on this one. That is part of the whole deal... experiencing the horrific pain, waking up unable to move and sweating more than you ever thought possible. To the couch potato, the above list could easily sound like the most horrible thing ever. But to the Studly workout buff, it sounds just wonderful! And I gotta say, I am so thankful to be on the side that enjoys those feelings. Because even if my body hasn't changed much in these last 5 months, I know that I have. And I am a much better person than I was 5 months ago. So I implore you... don't take the easy way. It will never be worth it when it comes to your health, I can guarantee you that. Do the work, sweat the sweat and come out of it better than you were going in.

I was able to find a really good, organic multi-vitamin to take, that also helps with endurance and an active lifestyle, and I am looking forward to seeing how that helps. I never realized that the best place to start, with regards to supplements and exercise, is a daily multi-vitamin. So I guess all of those Flintstone vitamins were supposed to teach me a lesson all of those years ago. If you're curious and thinking about starting to use one or more supplements, take the time and do the research. You'll be glad you did.

Alright, I should just get up and make some coffee...


Peace, love & puggles who poop in the night

Achy, Breaky Hips

Maybe I'm older than I thought. Or maybe my hips are older than I thought. Both of these are things to consider, although extremely unlikely. I completed my very first 5k, and my reward for all of my hard work has been alternating pain in both of my hips... but at least they've been nice enough to alternate, and not both hurt at the same time. How thoughtful of you, dear sweet hips. I appreciate all that you do for me.

I'm sure you're all surprised that I did not jump on my blog, still sweaty, after completing my run, so I could tell you all about it. Call it the potato in me, but I just didn't feel like it. So I shall recall to you all the events as they played out. (Ok, not all of them because that would be a long, uneventful story).

I decided to bring Lily, my adorable little puggle baby, with me to the race to participate along side me. She was quite excited to be leaving the house with just me, and no Theodore (the other chunky puggle baby, who is much more of a potato than basically anyone else). We showed up, got all ready to go, with the ipod set, calorie counter counting, and heart rate monitor monitoring. We sang the national anthem, got ourselves ready to go, and with the shot of a gun (not really) we were off. Lily was quite freaked, I must say. For a dog that is about a foot and a half tall, all of the legs running around her was a little nightmare-ish. As we were running, she kept trying to jump up on my legs, as to express to me her fear of her surroundings. So we made our way to the outside of the bunch and kept going. By 8:00, it was already quite warm outside (Husband, dear, I am sorry to complain. I know that you are enduring significantly worse heat than I) and my hat and sunglasses weren't really doing much to keep the heat of the sun from hindering my performance. But we kept trekking along, and Lily seemed to be enjoying herself. We did have to make a couple of stops to walk (due to my lack of stamina, not hers) but we ended up completing the race in 37 minutes and 45 seconds. I have to say, the excitement of knowing that, for the first time in the 26 years of my life, I took part and completed an organized race was quite thrilling. For most people who have been involved in sports most of their lives this may seem like no big deal, but for an ever quitting couch potato such as myself, it was quite wonderful. I know my time wasn't the best it could be, and I know that I didn't run the whole entire time like I wanted to, but I completed it. And you have to start somewhere, right?

Another observation that I made is that people really, truly do end up looking like their dogs. I saw many examples of this while running and used that as a means of distraction to get through some of the long stretches.

In other news, I am participating in a 30 day yoga challenge (of which I already missed day 2... sheesh! Sorry Caitlin!). I am feeling mixed emotions about this because I know that it will be very advantageous for a cripply old lady like myself, but the process is just not as enjoyable as it should be (for the same reason). I am not flexible. My muscles are always tight. And I lose interest fast. So, with that said, this will be a really good discipline for me to exercise over these next 30 days. If you would also like to take the challenge, you can click on the banner at the top of my page to get more information.

Now off to find ways of entertaining myself on this very hot Sunday afternoon.

Peace, love & compression bras

Cupcakes and Nerves

Well tomorrow is the big day... my first ever race. Granted it is only a 5k, but I decided tonight, that I have to stop belittling the race, just because it's not a marathon or something. I've never done one before, and three miles is a significant distance for one such as myself. Either way, my week of running has been slightly disappointing, so I am just hoping to get through tomorrow with a good attitude, and not tooooo high of a heart rate.

Additionally, I made some cupcakes today, and I hate to admit that I indulged myself a little too much. I recently adorned my pantry door with a cartoon drawing of a bag of C&H sugar, knocked out in the corner of a boxing ring. I've been empowered lately with the reality that the longer I let my addiction to sugar get to me, the longer I am living my life defeated by a food that is depleting my quality of life. This cartoon accompanied me through my first two days, and now I can look at it every time I feel the desire to eat an unnecessary sweet. Well, today as I baked my cupcakes and missed my husband an extreme amount, I decided it to be the best idea to lick the batter bowl clean, and then to taste test some of the cupcakes. Dang it... stupid sugar bag won out today.

Praying for tomorrow, for the ability to push myself, mentally and physically, and for the perspective to see the victories.

Peace, love & compression bras


(& an occasional cupcake)

Bleh!

Texas has not been a very good friend to me today.

Let me say, first and foremost, that there is an astronomical difference between running on a treadmill and running outside. Plain and simple. Today, that lesson was officially learned. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are now my "running" days, allowing me to spin on Tuesday and Thursday and then have the weekends off. Sweet. Well, even if you run at 9:45 in the morning, it is already upper 80's and this Minnesota girl cannot handle it. S-U-C-K. I couldn't even do a full 5k, because my heart rate wouldn't stay below 178 unless I walked. Bad news for me and my little heart. Then I went into the gym and did the lat pull down machine, because I really need to begin to strengthen my back. Afterwards I went and asked one of the trainers what another good exercise would be for my back and he told me pull ups. I thought to myself, as my eyes were huge in disbelief and uncertainty, "he can't be serious". Yep, he was. So I seriously said to him, "what if you can't do a pull up?" To which he told me to do these jumping pull ups, where you take a box that brings you to the proper height where you are able to reach the bar while standing, and then you are to proceed to jump up as high as you can, while pulling your body up, aiming to get the bar at about chest level. Can I just take a second to explain where these pull up bars are located in the gym? RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERYTHING! There would literally be people on almost every side of me, able to watch me probably die trying to do this... not to mention all of the awesome-ly hardcore Crossfit women sitting at the base of the pull up bar, having just finished an hour long workout. Not a chance, Mr. trainer dude... I'll stick to the pull up bar that my husband hung in the doorway at our house.

Another thing... sweat and electronics do not mix. I think I might have nearly ruined my ipod today.

Here is a healthy tip for making your personal fitness goals. If you are looking to make some sort of physical goal, such as fitting into certain clothes or dropping x pounds, one of the best ways to judge the appropriate range for your body to be in is to take your height, in inches, and then cut that in half. Take that number, and aim to have your waist measure that number or less. Not your hips, as most people measure, but your waist, right where you belly button is, or where your side bends when you lean to the right or left. Mine is 33", so I have about 3" to lose... and I WILL do it!

Of course, Dr. Oz showed me this... I guess he's not all that bad.


Alright, the couch is calling me, and I can't seem to ignore it.

Peace, love & air conditioning

P is for Peace. and Pants. and Push-Ups.

Today was my "strength training" day, and I am proud to say I actually did some strength training, without any wandering around the gym involved. Score! Probably because I just stayed in the yoga room, pretty much by myself... but still, I did some pretty moderately hardcore stuff. Prior to going to the gym I was having a conversation with a friend who has had some amazing successes in changing her lifestyle and her health by becoming more active. I came away with a lot of encouragement and conviction through our time and I am excited to move forward.

Here are some things I learned today...

# One) As you all know, I usually sign off with "Peace, love  & compression bras", and today I thought a lot about peace. As a woman, I am not sure that I will ever meet the goals I set for myself if I do no learn how to have peace with what I currently have. Peace is a pretty rad thing, if you really think about it. There is personal peace, which I am sure we all hope for for ourselves and those we love. Being able to look in the mirror, despite everything and know that deep down, you not only accept what you see but you have peace about it, knowing that who you are is always changing. Then there is what we will refer to as "outward" peace. This, people, is something I have learned that quite a few individuals lack. As human beings, we have the right to affect others around us by the way we present ourselves, the way we carry ourselves, and the way we communicate to others around us. This can refer to the way we dress or simply the greeting (or lack there of) that we give to others as we pass by. I am ridiculously sad to say that I have seen and heard of people who have taken it upon themselves to disrupt others' peace about themselves by sharing their opinion about what they think of them. Does that make sense? Ok, so here's a scenario (that is completely made up, but represents what I'm dealing with here): Sally is your average woman, exercising on the elliptical at an average pace, when June hops on the machine next to her. Sally has just started working out, and has finally gotten herself to a place where she is confident enough to workout at the gym. Sally is pushing herself, and really working hard. Meanwhile, June is striding at the speed of lightening on the machine next to her. June, who has been exercising since she was in sports as a child, is very impressive in her capabilities, from an athletic standpoint. As Sally finishes up and is wiping her machine off, June leans over and says to her, "Guess you'd better stick to the couch, huh? You seem to really have a hard time with that. Thats too bad." and then puts her earphone back in and keeps striding away. Now let's be honest. Was it necessary for June to disrupt Sally's new found peace with herself just to tell her that? Not one bit. I mean, come on June! Just because it comes easily to you doesn't mean it should be a make it or break it situation for others. June, you had a chance to build Sally's personal peace by giving her a smile or chatting with her while you both "ellip-ed". What is it that stops us from encouraging one another while we are all working so hard towards the same goal? I ask this question because I had a chance to do that today and I didn't take it. There was another gal in the room with me, who was working really hard and seemed very nice. I could easily have said hello, and shared some exercises with her. Instead, I kept my "peace" to myself and opted for some Metro Station on my ipod. "L" is for Laura and LAME. And Lesson #1

# two) You really need to wear the right pants when you go to the gym. Man, have I failed at this far too many times. You'd think I would get the idea, but alas, I have not. I have a drawer (and a big one at that) F-U-L-L of "workout" clothes, and I think I have one single "bottom" with the proper functionality that I need to get the dern job done. What's the deal? Well the deal is, when I'm running, don't look when I relieve the bunch of shorts that has built up between my legs (stupid thighs). When I'm doing crunches on the BOSU, don't mind that with every crunch, a slight wedgie begins to form and I have to pause every 7 or so crunches, just in time to prevent an embarrassing situation. AND (my biggest pet peeeeeeeeeve) things such as "Chami Butter" (or other sorts of friction preventers) are unbelievably necessary when I'm running or walking long distances in shorts. Ouch.

# three) I suck at push-ups. It's just that simple. You would think, that after six months of continually doing push-ups and hovers and other chest/arm/back exercises that I would be able to pump out more than 15 girl push-ups. Well, I can't. Ok! Don't judge me. And yes, I still can't do more than two real push-ups. Geez. I guess "P" is also for pansy.

So remember, you ain't never gonna get that booty you desire, or get rid of that juice pouch until you bring a little peace into the mix. And while you're at it, help a sister or brother out and give them some props... you're both working towards the same thing anyways.

And please, please get the right kind of pants. I'm telling you... it's worth it.

PEACE, love & compression bras

ATTENTION MOM!

MOTHER: The following pertains to you. I have now allowed comments to be made on my entries by "anonymous" people, so now you (and anyone else who would like to) can comment on my entries with little to no confusion. Phew! Glad we got that worked out.

Moving on. Today I tried out a new(ish) gym on post. I've been to Burba a couple of times to do spin and some weights, but had not had the chance to use their treadmills. You see, I always run at the Functional Fitness Center, and according to one of my lovely friends, their treadmills are repulsive. A couple of weeks ago we went to Burba and she showed me their lovely, pretty, clean and technologically advanced treadmills. I  became quite excited to try running on one of those. They have a place to plug your ipod in, a screen with four different views of your run, and even a trainer to guide you through your workout. Awesome! Fast forward to today. Since my workout on Tuesday showed me that my calf was good to go on a run, I planned to give those deluxe treadmills a shot. First let me tell you, Burba is awesome simply because they keep their air conditioner up really high. Soo refreshing... except I noticed that when it's cooler in the room, I don't sweat as much and having become a "sweater" only recently, that is something I very much look forward to. So these treadmills face the wall, that has mirrors covering them all around, with the weights located in the center of the room. After running for about ten minutes I realized the downfall to these treadmills and I think you will agree with me. At the F.F.C. I face a red and blue painted brick wall with a tv located just above me that is usually streaming footage of the Casey Anthony Trial (which usually distracts me long enough to make the 5k run a little less painful mentally). While I am running, I am able to stare at that blank wall, and focus my thoughts on what my goals are. Where I want to be, with this body, weeks, months and years from now. I can visualize myself running in my first 5k. I can visualize my husband running in 110 degree heat. All of these things help my mental run, because to be honest, that is the part that is even harder than the actual run itself. I struggled today. I struggled physically, somewhat due to it being my first run in a week and a half, and also because I was able to watch myself as I ran... I was able to see my skin flush, watch my compression bra not compress as much as I would like it to and basically observe the gym etiquette taking place behind me. All of this leads me to the height of my struggle today. The mental struggle. Oh I got so bored! Yes, the cool little "track" that you can watch while you run is neat, but when you are a woman who loses interest ridiculously fast, it's almost torture. It seemed to take FOREVER! Also, I decided that someday I would really enjoy going to the gym with blinders on. I think that if I could just focus on why I am there, and not allow myself to be affected by the others around me, I would have an incredibly different workout than usual. The gym is like a dog show. Everyone is trying to look the toughest, the most bad a*$ or the hottest... or simply the most like they know what they are doing (guilty).  Not to mention, when has it ever been a good idea to take a normal looking woman, with average qualities and complete (well, almost) satisfaction in who she is, and then shove her in front of a mirror for 45 minutes? Um, hello! Even the most content woman in the world will begin to question certain attributes of herself when she is forced to look that close for that long. No thank you. All this to say, I almost let the gym get the best of me today, folks... but I've learned that writing about my workout endeavors and being completely honest with you all has really helped me to evaluate where I want to take myself with my thoughts. And today, I just didn't want to go there. So miracle of the day: I stopped those self-deprecating thoughts dead in their tracks. And to celebrate I will enjoy an indulgent  night of quesadillas  and the Bachelorette. It's the little things in life.

On another note, I am a Malt-o-Meal fan. I always have been. I will say, that as an adult I add significantly less brown sugar than I did as a child, but it is still enjoyed never the less. I decided to finally make the "Magic Muffins" that they advertise on the side, substituting 2 bananas for the 3/4C of milk, and let me tell you... they are pretty magical. Delicious. Not too sweet. Just plain Yum!

                                           So this, my friends is the way to start your day.

Peace, love & magic muffins!

I Want to Pump You Up

So I conquered my fear (sort of) and hit the free weights (kind of) today. I was able to try out running today on the treadmill, and my leg seemed to handle the ten minute warm up alright. I got to the gym about 45 minutes before it closed so I knew I didn't have much time, but since I am determined to make my arms awesome I knew I had to utilize that small window and go for the weights. Yeah, it was a little lame. What is it about boys that allows them to scare us off so easily in the lifting area of the gym? Do they know they have that power over us? Or me, for that matter? Why do they have to make us feel so lame? Well I guess that question can be asked in more realms than just exercise, but since this is an exercise blog we will not journey down that road.
So I did the chest press, then moved on to one of those lame ab machines (I hate those. They are so awkward and I'm pretty sure they don't do much for my abs), did one set and then attempted to find some sort of lat machine. I couldn't find one right away, and in order to not risk embarrassment by wandering around looking like an idiot, I held my head high and headed for the yoga room as if that had been my plan all along. I literally walked to the back, picked up a stability ball, attempted to do some tricep extensions and then I thought of this blog. I thought of how often I have the attitude of conquering your fears and insecurities and how I am trying, with all of my might, to do the things that I feel the least comfortable in, and here I was hanging out in a vacant room in order to not be seen by others. Hypocrite? Maybe just a little. So I put the equipment away and walked straight to the free weights (*GASP!*). Yes, people, I picked myself up a ten pounder (big money right here) and bent over on the bench (an exercise I HATE because I'm not the kind of girl who enjoys sticking her rear end out for all to see) and rocked three sets of tricep extensions. Bam. Then, I went over to a bench with a back rest, and did those overhead press things, rockin' the ten pounders again, and I finished her off with some bicep curls... yep, thats right, I felt like a hot body builder from the '80s pumpin' some iron... I really felt like I needed some black and hot pink spandex shorts and possibly a mullet. Anyways, after that it kind of went down hill because I attempted to go back and do some abs and such on the stability ball but couldn't. You see, I was one of those people, today, that ate a really bad ice cream bar about 30 minutes before I hit the gym. Dumb, I know. Anyways, just for your future, might I advise you, to not do that? It's one of those things I guarantee you'll regret. (I will have you know, at my husbands leading, I later went to my freezer and threw out that last ice cream bar, in order to avoid this in the future).

So there you have it, people. My sincerest gratitude to all of you, for being the motivation I needed to help me conquer my fears and pump up these guns like the big boys do (at least for today).

Peace, love & compression bras

Under the Weather

Let me tell you, making your workouts partially a social event is quite a benefit on days like today. I woke up not feeling all that well today, but still managed to make it to Core Dynamics. Knowing that I had some great ladies to see when I got there was basically the only thing keeping me from talking myself into staying on the couch. But hey, we are all allowed days like that, right? So today's lesson: Make friends at the gym! It helps, big time.
On a different note, does anyone know of a good way to get rid of flabby arms? I mean, I have some killer bi's and tri's in there... it's just the lovely cushy padding I am looking to get rid of. I do biceps  and triceps regularly, and I do cardio, but alas, they seem to be changing ever. so. slowly. So any insight on that lovely topic would be appreciated.
I am not a fan of daytime talk shows, or really any show other than Bones and the Bachelorette, but I found myself watching Dr. Oz yesterday because the topic perked my interest. He was going to introduce us to the "ONE FOOD WE ALL HAVE TO GET OUT OF OUR KITCHENS"! I thought, for sure, I can't have this horrid food in my kitchen. But it turns out that it is my favorite food of all. Sugar. I watched it, and I must say, it has gotten me thinking every time I crave some Lucky Charms or a cookie. I've always known sugar is bad for you but seeing what it actually does to the body really has made me think twice. You can watch the video on DoctorOz.com, and he has a Sugar Detox Challenge, which is pretty simple, not incredibly informative, but still interesting.  I understand that every day of our lives is about making decisions that will affect our futures. I do not want myself or my husband to end up with Liver problems or high blood pressure because of our love of sugar... but at the same time I am torn because at this point in my life, if I am being honest, food is a bit of a comfort for me. So shoot me. Ohh well, one day at a time, right?
Well ladies and dudes, take your sore little hineys and hit the sheets. We can sweat this out tomorrow.

Peace, love & compression bras