Journal

Ch-ch-Ch CHANGES....

2012-01-07T22:09:49Z

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.... Man can I hear that song in my head when I write that. Whoa how they came fast and furious in the 2nd half of 2011. People that I keep in touch with often say that I have “so much going on”... well as of July and on...even I couldn’t keep up with the pace that life brought to me. So I started 2012 with a new hair color and a sign of the changes I would choose to bring into 2012.

One of the largest transitions was losing my job in July of last year. I was ever so grateful to find a new one by September but I didn’t even slow down to understand some of the new habits that needed to come with it. I was moving from 4+ years of working out of my home and I went to a 1hr+ daily commute to the office. WHOA!!! I lost being able to do laundry during the week, my middle of the day workout time, my ability to work in sweats, my lunch hour to do twitter and blog... AND I COULD GO ON AND ON!! LOTS of other change news in the youtube video below ;) So now that I have got use to some of these changes, I am looking forward at how to make it a great 2012.

First one I am concentrating on this week is food planning.... tomorrow is list writing and meal and snack planning. Jump back next week and hold me accountable to how I do :)

Rock N Roll Chicago Recap

2011-08-18T01:17:47Z

HERE WE ARE - at the finish line and with medals... and smiles ;)

This race was more of a mental surprise than a physical one. Not gonna lie... I was pretty scared at 4:30am on Sunday morning wondering when I might need to force myself to finish. Happily I am here to report that I thoroughly enjoyed the race and was HAPPY up through mile 8. After that I have to give some HUGE props to one of the race sponsors - XSport Fitness. They had teams of 6-8 people at each mile all dressed up in rocker gear and extremely energetic to cheer us on! Coming into mile 9 I was slowing down and doing some walking and the team was so fired up that it was contagious and got me through another mile. PURE AWESOME! Thank you XSport! I am proud to say I am a happier member of your gym now!

The wheels came off my bus totally just before mile 12. We were in the Bears tailgating parking lot and I was dreaming of sitting on a chair and having a beer instead of trying to make my legs keep moving. Pretty much every part hurt by then. A total and complete stranger stopped and asked me my name... then proceeded to say her name was Sue and she was going to help me breathe in strength and exhale fatique for the next 10-15 minutes. WOW. Truly took my mind off how bad my feet wanted to cramp... my knees felt like they had been hit by a baseball bat... and I was soaking wet as it had started to rain. Sue - if anyone knows you - YOU ARE MY ANGEL!

So with all that drama I crossed the finish line at 2:30. I made it out there! Which is more than Bret Michaels :( who cancelled his appearance last minute. LOL... And 10 minutes off what I have done in my last two. I was thrilled that I had that finish and reminded myself once again - when the heck am I going to start take training for these things more seriously! Rock N Roll Vegas is December 4th... I do have a chance to redeem myself....

But on to the more fun part of the recap is my amazing shopping finds at the Expo! I show case them here in my vlog and I must say I have not taken off these new Zoot shoes in 4 days - AMAZING!! I mean a girl has to have a reason to run 13.1 miles... I can't think of a better one that some cute new finds ;)

Ready or Not... Here I RUN!

2011-08-13T15:16:13Z

Oh... you know how when you haven't golfed for awhile sometimes you hit your best holes because you aren't trying to kill the ball or swing too hard... well do you think that is true for running? :) well let's hope so because as I explain it seems before every race I feel like I didn't do enough and this time - ANY running in the last month. Life caught me and gave me a big dose and now I am just determined to stick with being a runner and give myself a finish no matter the time.

Loving my new goodies from the Competitor Group above for racing. They were really a turning point in my running preparation mentally this week as I talk about in the video. WELL... gotta run and go pick up the girls to head to the Expo and shop. CROSS your fingers and toes for me about 8am tomorrow morning which is when my first "Why the hell am I doing this" will probably kick in.

Progress Pics

2011-07-07T19:50:48Z

Today my CrossFit Challenge went to 9 sets and we are almost the end of teaching Amy how to do big girl push ups and building some lats. So I thought I would take the opportunity to celebrate the progress and also look back to an old photo where I weighed the same (pre-baby even) and realize how much I have changed my body and mind without changing the scale. Yes I even gave you a glimpse of said picture in this video. This picture was 10 years old and I have made most of my changes in the past 4-5 years on diet and increasing my water intake. But man when I look back at how much happier and stronger I feel - I wanted to remind myself and others that the number on the scale and the abs are not the thing to focus on - it's the health. And one of my favorite quotes of all time right now is You can not have a happy ending with an unhappy journey. And I am enjoying the process and the fun of trying new things and seeing what works in my life and what doesn't. It's all just part of the process... and progress ;)

Zaarly Party Pics

2011-07-06T18:58:29Z

Ms. Kelly Olexa and I hosted a kick off party for the holiday weekend and we had a blast. Zaarly was a pretty fun service to play with as people helped us pull together our idea in just days! Food, bartender, and party ware was taken care of with a few keystrokes. We will do a more detailed review soon but wanted to get the party clips up first so you could start thinking of the possibilities of where Zaarly would be helpful in your area. Kelly picked out her dream of Zaarly-ing boys to come wash her car... yes it's all in the video. :)

Rocking my Runs!

2011-06-30T16:52:35Z

Have you downloaded your free RockMyRun.com mix yet - I am in Love. I want them to personally DJ all my run and talk to me specifically during my weakest miles ;) I feel like it's been a little party in my ears when I am running. Rock N Roll Chicago training is officially starting for August. I have to get my short runs up to 5 miles to try for a different result at the finish line and I am doing fairly good thanks to some help.

I have been kicking up my mileage with friends. I LOVE running with PEOPLE!! ;) It is so much easier to keep your mind on something other than the mind games of running and talking to girls while I run is really helping my cardio! Good for the lungs, legs, and soul - find a friend!! LOL!

I was going to show a video of my push up progress. Didn't think of the fact the 8 year old didn't know how to use the video camera. Ooops. More to follow. :) Also will be posting some happening video of a Zaarly party that is kicking off the holiday weekend!!

Kelly and I will be tweeting from the Zaarly party tomorrow with awesome pics and your chance to DJ our party from afar -- so if you are around - tune in and join us!!

CHEERS!!

Do you like a challenge?

2011-06-20T13:02:42Z

Seems both physical and mental challenges have been popping up on my radar screen lately. :) I have been working on the push up/pull up/squat circuit still and am moving this week up to 8 sets of each. I can really notice the difference in my cardio ability from changing it up. Just when I was starting to feel a little comfortable, the Combine360 challenge pops up from a trainer at our local XSport. The guys and the girls do the same challenge on camera and get scored based on their time and doing the circuit correctly. My husband did it on Saturday and now is egging me on to try it this weekend. OYE! Of course he is saying that b/c he had not tried it before and killed it with a 4 minute time and was able to place among the men. Check out his video.

I am proud of him! Mike, the Under Armour trainer at the gym, is has dangled the carrot of winning Under Armour clothing as my incentive to get out there and try it.... what do you think? 10 minutes of a near death experience for a workout outfit. OK maybe a little dramatic but the butterflies in my stomach are just what I remember when I tried my first half marathon. I have the TRX up in the basement now so I did try to the very end of 25 rows and I see that as being the hard part being at the end AND when you are dead tired.

I started my running this week. And I would be going right now if it would stop raining in the Chicago area. The other part of the BIG challenge for this week is to get my mileage WAY up. I want to get comfortable doing the 5 mile distance. I found some girlfriends to help hold me accountable and drag me out there. Today marks less than 9 weeks until the next half marathon so I need to do something different to get a new result. One thing I have ALWAYS been bad at is following the schedule and getting my weekly mileage not to fall below 15.

All these challenges kicking off this week! I love the adrenaline of a new challenge but man this not knowing how I am going to do... I could do without that :) Wish me luck stepping up to the plate this week!

Some PR for Mr. Sun

2011-06-08T17:29:23Z

This time of year always increases the amount of press I see on tv and magazines about the dangers of the sun. Most of these messages hit our fear of disease and cancer. I think some times the sun needs a PR department to say that avoiding it entirely does not provide a balance for our bodies that have depended on sunshine for their life. I think every person is individual and each body needs and tolerates the sun differently so the point of my vlog today is learn what your body needs. Get a Vitamin D test and understand what skin type you have so you can find harmony with the sun in your life.

Back to the Drawing Board

2011-05-24T20:55:59Z

Blog today had a little bit of everything in the video today. I pushed out my pushup/pullup deadline to August and incorporate some running in again. Also released some of the strictness to the Paleo diet and it seems I am choosing to eat still pretty clean on 50% of my meals. I must say I did feel “lighter” without the breads but emotionally, I am not ready to let go of them 100% :)

I say I didn’t QUIT Paleo or the Challenge just adjusted. Is that like saying I bought a pair of shoes because they are on sale? Hmmm....

I extended out my crossfit challenge and updated my run training into August and kicking off race season. I am running Rock and Roll Chicago on August 14th and I am hoping to take 10 minutes off my time!! (WHOA did I just put that in print???) I am excited as I learned some AWESOME things at Fitbloggin from Holly Perkins. I am ready to devour some information on HIIT and Interval training and how that relates to cortisol in your body.

So much new news on some fun things I saw at the conference that are must have so I will share on that later in the week!!

Lifestyle vs. Diet

2011-05-14T15:04:27Z

I have been a cooking fool this week as I got through the sugar headaches and am HUNGRY. :) I feel like all I did this week was eat as I was looking to find things to fit cravings without jumping off the ledge. I talk in my vlog about the cookie and bars I made. The only down side is all treats start with a nut base so it’s hard to get a different flavor. I am going to try a hint of vanilla extract on my next ones or add dried fruit. I must say the winner of the week was turning cauliflower into something more tasty. I made a rice out of it with garlic, onion, and celery.

I shot this vlog last night and you can see - by the end of this week I was wondering how am I happy on this diet. All the blogs I read that are paleo are lifestyle blogs where the person is not “dieting” they just live paleo. That is the thing I am missing. Every positive change that I have kept has always been a lifestyle change, not a diet. So last night I ate a tortilla and beans. CRAZY I know. I was so happy that I furthered my binge to ice cream with a little chocolate syrup.

AND

THEN

BLAH!!! Sickness. I felt miserable. I was burping and felt like my stomach was going to blow up. I went to bed and was feeling rather reflective on what is the happy medium for me?

So this morning, I made these paleo pancakes from Everyday Paleo. I couldn't believe it but they even got the kid approval!

They aren’t sweet again but the blueberries with the almond meal base made me think of like a cobbler taste/feel. A gift that those 10 days have brought me is learning what my body likes and doesn’t. So over the next week, I am going to listen to my body a little more and stop feeling so restricted and when I want something take a few bites and leave it. I think alot of the paleo elements will fit into my lifestyle but I am ready to choose for them to be there. So this morning, I chose not to have sugar in my coffee and for some reason... it tasted so much sweeter.....

Maybe it's back to the basics of just reducing junk while creating good habits? For every craving... say ok to one and no to the other and build a foundation for a lifestyle.