FINALLY! It's Friday!

This has been one long freakin' week in our house.  It's been a pretty good week - lots of fun, smiles and tons of sunshine to finish off our last official week of summer vacation.  But maaaaaaaaaaaaan!  It's been L.O.N.G.

The husband finally returns tonight from his weeklong trip to San Fran and I could not be happier to see his face.  Whenever he goes away for longer than a night or two, I find a renewed sense of awe for how single parents do this 24-7, 365 days of the year.  I mean, don't get me wrong, the husband works a lot and long hours even when he's not traveling, but at the end of the day, when the kids are in bed and the house is quiet, it's nice to have someone to cuddle up to, to make all the stresses of the day fade away.

I must admit however, that my kids have been amazing this week.  They have been helpful, funny, respectful and truly enjoyable!  We've had fun going for bike rides, playing at the park, bowling, going on rides at the local Fun World, making pickles and so much more.  We've watched movies, we've played with their best buddies - we've really had the best week ever in their eyes!

Now, before you slam your computer shut and scream at the top of your lungs that I'm full of monkey-poop, let me also say that at the end of the day, no matter how angelic my little boys have been, there were moments.  Moments where it could have gone either way - as in either me drinking or crying!  Luckily, I had some pretty good company this week spending time with both my Bestie and Charlie who both made my days so much brighter!

As the seconds tick by though, and I sit waiting to get the text from the husband that he's safely back on the ground, I'm glad and a little bit sad that this week is coming to an end.  Glad because, well, it really has been a long one with each day jam packed to the fullest.  Sad though, because, next week my baby boy is going off to kindergarten and I'm not going to see his smiling little face as often anymore.  Be prepared for sappiness next week.  It's definitely coming!

Happy long weekend everyone!

I'm a bad, bad blogger!

Whoops!  It would seem that my weighday Monday has come and gone and I was AWOL from this here space!  Don't think for even one second that I didn't pull my sorry butt out of bed on Monday morning, pee and strip down to what my momma gave me to weigh in, because I sure did!  AND the results were totally positive which is why it's pretty funny that I didn't run right out to my laptop to record them for the world to see!  I blame my lack of blogging on the husband being out of town all. week. long. We'll talk about that in a minute though.

Without further ado, may I please announce to you all that I finally, after 2 years, have broken through the 180 mark!!  I was so happy - I can't even tell you how ecstatic I was to see 178.4 waiting for me when I was done saying my little prayer and then prying my eyes open with toothpicks since I was squeezing them shut so fiercely!

So, once I broke through that horrible barrier that has been haunting me for the last two years, I was finally brave enough to go into the dark, depths of my closet and pull out the jeans I've been using as my goal jeans for almost 2 years now.  Once, about a year ago I was able to squeeze into them, but had to really suck everything in to try and do them up.  When I did, I was pretty sure that once I took them off, I was going to be like the magician's assistant in the box after the sawing the body in half trick!  That wouldn't be scaring for my kids at all, would it?
Anywhoooo, I pulled them on *note, I said pulled, not squished all my pudge into* and did them up with next to no effort at all!  They still don't look how I want them to look - I'm probably a 1/2 size too big for them still, but the real victory for me was first of all the fact that I could easily get them on without looking like a jack-in-the-box having a grand mal seizure and secondly that I could actually breath with them on!

You know what the best part about all of these mini successes are for me?  That they are all motivating me to stay on target and continue working towards my goal.  We are 1/2 way through the dicks vs chicks competition right now which means I still have another 6 weeks to try my very best to get to the 12 week goal I set for myself - 165 lbs.  Normally by this point in my weight loss journey, I would have given up my dedication and have resigned myself to being fat.  Not. this. time.  I'm on a mission, and nothing is gonna get in this girl's way!

So back to the husband being away for the entire week.  It's not fun.  Sometimes he drives me crazy when he's here and makes mess all over the house, but I miss him when he's gone and so do the kids.  I can't wait for him to get back and for the long weekend to start!  We've got BIG plans!  We always say we're going to do something big and exciting for the last long weekend of the summer, but things have always gotten in the way.  Now that we don't have our sweet Molly-dog anymore, we are free to come and go as we please without worrying about her.  This weekend should be tons o' fun!  What are you up to this weekend?

Found this on Pinterest and thought it was perfect for today!

It happened...

I finally made it into the 170's!!  I stepped on the scale yesterday morning to do my mid-week check, closed my eyes really tight and said a silent prayer hoping that it would say 179.something and when I opened them, it said 179.0!  If only I'd known that all you had to do was scrunch your eyes tight and say a little prayer, this would have been done a loooooooooong time ago!

I've been trying to take the running easy this week because my legs have been a tiny bit stiff from the run on Saturday night.   Now that I'm extra motivated to keep the pounds coming off, I don't want to sit on my butt either!  Last night however, I sat.  I spent the entire day cleaning my house yesterday.  I vacuumed, I scrubbed, I wiped, I tidied - I think, based on the 5 hours I spent cleaning that it's safe to say I burned about 500 calories cleaning.  So, that's why my couch won last night.  Today, however, I've got 4 miles on the treadmill because it's gotten super hot outside again.

I'm trying to decide what I should work towards next in terms of running goals.  Another 10 k?  Something more?  I'm not convinced that I have the dedication to do more yet.  I don't know that I want to do another 1/2 especially since crossing that 15 k finish line was extremely satisfying, don't get me wrong, but it was tough.  The question is what, where and when?

Suggestions?  Anyone...ANYONE??

Found this on Pinterest today and thought I'd share.  Well, let's be honest.  I put it here to remind myself that I should be doing these things on a weekly basis!

I loves me a PB!

Nope, not peanut butter (although, I TOTALLY love peanut butter in pretty much anything!)  This time, I loves me a new personal best!!  The 15 k - which I might have mentioned a billion times once or twice over the last few weeks - was this past Saturday.  So, rewind selector just a teeeny tiny bit and you'll discover that never before have I actually done the majority all of the runs suggested in order to train for a run.  Even for the 1/2 I did in 2010!   So, committing to my running schedule for the last 5 1/2 weeks was actually a hugemongous thing for me.  I went into the race on Saturday feeling a bit nervous because I wasn't sure how actually training for a run would affect the end results.  

I think I've mentioned before that I'm a slow, steady runner.  I'm definitely not going to set any world records at any time in my existence, but I will always get the job done.  When my Bestie and I ran the 10 k in May, we finished in 1 hr and 19 minutes (I think.)  As I said on Friday, as long as we finished the full 15 k in under 2 hours, I was gonna be a happy chiquita.  So......we got to the race on Saturday and the Bestie realized we'd forgotten her Garmin (our 10 and 1 God and pace keeper.) At first it was kind of weird not knowing if we were going too fast or when to take our walk breaks, but then it actually became kind of freeing.  We started walking at the 2 km points and then after walking for what felt like about a minute, we just started running again.  It was GRRRRRRRREAT! (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!)

Finally at the 10 k point, we found someone who was wearing a Garmin who very kindly told us that we'd just finished the 10 k in less than an hour and 15 minutes!  Whaaaaaaaaat?  We shaved at least 4 minutes off of our last time!  Amaze-balls!  

NOW, I have to come clean and let you know that at the 12 k point I was starting to crap out.  My legs were getting tired and my knees were starting to feel it to.  We started walking more but we still ran more than we walked.  Our final time for the full 15 k was I believe 1:55!!  We came in 5 minutes UNDER the 2 hr mark!  

I know, I know, it's not amazing by any stretch of the imagination but we almost totally stuck to the walk/run rule throughout the entire race AND we finished strong!  I'm really happy with the results and next year (yup! there will be a next time!) I might even dress up with my Bestie (but I'll still wear my Run Swiftly underneath it all - but I've got more to say about that later!)

For now though...An after shot (so pretty in my post-race glory, aren't I?)

ps, the scale said 180.9 this morning.  Sooooooooo close I can taste it!  Next week is gonna be good, hold on to your hats!

Freak out Friday!

Oh shiiiiiiizzzzzzza!  Tomorrow is 15 k day and I'm feeling a whole hell of a lot tiny bit nervous about the whole thing.  I did however, tag along on a quick mall trip this morning with Charlie so that I could get my well deserved and earned Run Swiftly shirt!  I got the hot pink one, so there will be no mistaking me for anyone else there (well, except for the other 50 mamas who went out and bought the same one and will be wearing it tomorrow!)

Game plan is this, take it easy tomorrow, drink as much water as I can between now and 3:00 tomorrow afternoon.  I'm hoping to get lots of protein rich snacks in as well like my delicious, honey, greek yogurt and perhaps some egg whites.  I haven't run since Wednesday, so my legs should be well rested since I'm definitely not walking tonight.

The hope (note, fingers are crossed and I'm squeezing my eyes shut really tight while typing *hope* - talented, I know!) is to finish in under 2 hours.  It's 9 miles - well, a tiny bit over if you want to get really technical. Like 9.32 miles to be precise.  If we average 11 minutes/ mile, that should bring us in at the hour and a quarter mark-ish!  If we can be done in under 2 hrs, I'll be super happy!

So, cross your toes, your fingers, your eyes - whatever you've got for me and I'll post results on Monday.  Maybe, just maybe there will be photos to go along with!

FREAK OUT!

Make that $56!

Whaaaaaaaat?  How did I go from $4 to $56?  Woooooot!
I know it's not a lot of money and in reality it will probably only buy me a shirt from LuluLemon, BUT I earned every single one of those sweaty little dollars and I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment!  I have one more little run before the big 15k which will bring my Lulu jar total to $58.  Which means, I'm getting this!

I've also decided that to reward myself for not missing A SINGLE run over the last 5 weeks that I'm going to gift myself with another $58 because, well, I'm pretty sure that I deserve it!  Now I just have to decide what I'm going to get with the extra money!

Today was a fairly easy 2 miles outside.  The first run I've done outside at home in a really long time and not my worst time ever so I'll take it.  Hopefully doing these little runs outside this week will help me not want to die on the side of the trail on Saturday.  Hopefully...!

So, what should my next workout incentive be?  A spa day?  New shoes?  New non-workout clothes?  What to do, what to do???

aaaaaaaand I'm back!

Annnnnnnd, I need a vacation from my vacation!  Thankfully that little foray into the woods happens but once a year and I now have an entire year to recover and prepare myself for our cottage 'vacation' again next year!

Some good definitely came from this trip away though.  The first is that I for the most part stayed on track and didn't eat like crap as I normally would.  I actually don't even think I had one delicious beverage the entire time we were there - maybe I should have!  There's also a pretty huge plus to having to literally walk up a hill to get to the bathroom - it means calories are burning on a regular basis!  It does however mean that my water intake was down over the week (for which I blame my minor weight gain today.)

Oh! speaking of which, I weighed in at 183.6 today which is up .2 from where I was last Monday!  Yup, that's right, there was a scale on premiss for our little trip to the woods thanks to the head Richard himself, my brother!  It actually helped to keep me on track which was good.  At one point after a run, I weighed myself at 181.6 which was why I was so disappointed this morning when that number showed up.  However, I can get back there an am aiming to be below 180 next Monday.

I ran outside a lot this past week and it was glorious!  I love running at the cottage.  The shade of the trees, the breeze off of the lake...it's amazing and really invigorating.  I wish I could do that every week!  Now that the cooler weather is here, I think I'm going to aim to hit the lakefront trail here once a week after dropping the boys off at school.  There's a great trail down there - not quite as pretty as the one at the cottage, but there's some pretty nice little spots and a couple of decent hills to keep me going strong!

I've got my big 15 k on Saturday.  I hope that this run is way better than my most horrible run, jog, exasperating walk that happened last weekend!  I tried to do 8.5 mi on a treadmill in the gym while at the cottage and it really wasn't a good idea.  I'm really not sure why, but every time I try to run on a treadmill other than my own, it really doesn't work out so well.  I can never get the pace right, I feel super hot because I don't have my tiny built in fan blowing cold air on my belly button (one of these days I'm seriously just going to tape that thing in place so it will actually blow on my face!)  Generally, it's a really sad display and this time was no different.
I assumed going into manual mode would  allow me to run as far/long as I wanted.  I really shouldn't ever ass-u-me.  After 30 minutes of already the worst run ever, it went into cool down mode.  When I tried to up the time, it just kept ramping down.  So then I got mad, stopped it and started all over again.  I hopped off for a minute to get a paper towel to wipe my sweat drenched face with and the thing shut off again.  By this time, I was furious and frustrated so I started walking more and more and feeling worse about the run.  I did however, get the distance in, but there wasn't a whole lotta running happening, that's for sure.  After that, I decided I wasn't running on that machine again and did the rest of my runs outside all week - even in the rain one day!

So, this week it's lots of little runs, lots of water and fingers crossed that we get down below the 180 that's been plaguing me for the last year!  I'M GONNA DO IT!

Ahhh, vacation time!

I L.O.V.E. vacation time.  I don't love the work involved with vacation time though.  Let me rewind a tiny little bit. Every summer for my ennnnnnntire life, my family has rented a cottage in the exact same place at the exact same time.  I use the term cottage very loosely because although there are four exterior walls on this building, there aren't exactly full walls on the inside.  Nor are there bathrooms in any of the cottages or hot running water.  These cottages are not palatial by any means, in fact our tent is probably nicer.    However, within those four not-fully walled buildings, there have been a lot of happy memories.  It's the one place in the whole world that I can still vividly feel my mom's presence.

My husband, on the other hand, does not share my passion for this place.  He sees the bugs and the gap between the ceiling and the walls and the lack of running hot water and well, the bugs (mostly in the walk-to bathrooms that by all accounts are not very nice on the men's side!)

So, clearly without hot running water there's a lot of extra work involved come vacation time.  It means boiling water when you want to wash the million and one dishes that seem to invade the small counter every day because who wants to do dishes?  We're on vacation!  It also means a lot of walking because did I mention that there aren't any toilets in the cottages?  And while walking is good, walking in the wee hours of the morning because your bladder decided that it just had to wake you up to make you go pee simply because you can't take 15 steps and be at a toilet, is not so much fun.
It's at the cottage in the middle of the night when it's quiet and all of the other cottages are dark when I am convinced that every skunk in the world is about to walk in front of me firing squad styles, turn their big, bushy tails on me and let their stink fly!  Funnily enough, it's very rare that I actually come across a skunk in the wee hours of the morning so my fears are fairly unfounded!

Normally cottage time is a battle of good food versus getting enough exercise in to not come back weighing more than I left.  This year however, with the Richards vs Chicks competition, it's a little bit different.  We're all committed to not having badness in the cottage which is a step in the right direction.  I have a running schedule that I have to stick to in order to keep on track for my 15-k (which just in case you're keeping score I run in 2 weeks!)  If I can get some extra swimming and biking in there on top of my extra walking to and from the bathroom 50 times a day, I'll easily keep on track!
I'm going to try and take the scale with me so I can weigh in on Monday, but probably won't post until we're back!  I will attempt photos, but can't promise those will turn out in my wall-less cottage!

Stay tuned and wish me luck!