Wednesday Weigh-In # 27

Not to much of a move 195.6 up just a tiny smidge 0.2 but I am good. I've had quite a few NSV's lately and feel great!!

Also 0.2 gain is actually pretty great considering I was away for 4 days, totally out of routine. I did make decent food choices and tried to get in a walk and did a  workout DVD ( yup made sure to bring one). But there were dinners out and some major wine consumption!  Also I skipped my 4 mile run on Sunday.  But now we are back and back to normal.

Another NSV,  it was very very cold and I so wasn't prepared
so The hubs offered his Thermal saying "sorry it might be a little
tight though"...  Ya not so much!

Liebster Award

So Bailey over at Bailey's Blog! and Eva from If Someone Else Did It on Their Own Merit So Can I!  (check them out they are awesome sauce)  nominated me for the Liebster Award WOW I'm so touched. Thanks Bunches :)

The Libster is an award where you nominate bloggers that you enjoy reading. It's an award for bloggers with less than 200 followers, but who (in the person who nominates yous opinion) deserve way more! :) (Stole the description from Bailey )

  Here is how it works:
Once you're nominated, write 11 facts about yourself
Then take a look at the 11 questions the person who nominated you asked and answer them
 Get your thinking cap on and come up with 11 questions of your own for your nominees to answer
 Then choose the 11 bloggers you want to nominate (they must have less than 200 followers) Let them know they've been nominated and remember there's no tag backs, i.e. you can't nominate the person who nominated you. 

So since I was nominated twice (can you feel the love) I will just write the 11 facts about myself then answer both sets of Questions so you'll know more about me than you ever wanted to know.

11 things about me:

1. I am a Disney Freak, we have Disneyland passes and go at least 2-5 times a month.

2. My "Day" job is a Pre-School Teacher but I also do photography on the side (I have shot 10 weddings to date)

3. She's Crafty!  I love doing anything crafty from baking, to sewing, to accessory design.

4. I commute 1 to 1.5 hrs. each way to work.

5. I am first generation American (on my dad's side, Mexico) and second (on my mom's side, Norway)

6. I love to read any and everything.

7. I have NEVER lived alone.

8. I'm afraid of ghosts (maybe why I've never lived alone)

9.  I like to listen to talk radio.

10.  I have 4 pet box turtles. Jack and Sally who had Oogie & Boogie.

11.  I have 6 tattoos.


Bailey's Questions:

1. What is your favorite exercise?  Running and Aqua Aerobics

2. Who is your fitness idol? My good friend Erin (the running god lol)

3. What is the coolest thing that you've seen this week? Ok I so don't want to or mean to offend anyone cause I am so not political but I just saw a Gangnam Style parody of Mitt Romney that was hysterical!!

4. What's your favorite type of volunteering? Unfortunately I don't have as much time to do everything I would like but I do try to squeeze in time to help in my younger daughters Kindergarten classroom, and when the teenager was in school I loved helping with the Colorguard (I even chaperoned a few trips, Vegas and Orlando, with 15-30 high schoolers) yikes!

5. What are you going to be for Halloween?  A butterfly (it has to be something non-scary for work don't want to scare the kiddos)

6. If you have $500 to spend on workout/fitness stuff, what would you get? First thing would be a Garmin Forerunner (I'm still just using the Nike+ app on my phone) then maybe another pair of "magic shoes" AKA Nike Pegasus 29

7. What is your biggest milestone? Well though it hasn't really happened yet it will soon... I signed up for the Surf City Half Marathon so I am now officially training!

8. What is your next big goal?  LOL to finish the Half Marathon

9. Do you travel? If so, where? I live in beautiful Southern California and anything you want is very close (an hour or so away) but my family and I love to travel to Mexico, Northern California, and go often to Arizona (our best friends live there).

10. Do you like to read? If so, what's the last book you read? As I said I LOVE to read any and everything, though now with training, work, and kids I don't get to do it as often as I'd like the last thing I read was the Fifty Shades series and loved it ;)

11. What trend are you currently loving? Chevron stripes... on everything! 



And these were the Questions from Eva:
 My questions for these wonderful people are:
1. What made you start blogging? I love reading blogs and found that it helped to inspire me and know that they are real people who struggle just like me. So I wanted to do the same and also to keep me accountable and have a place to connect with others going through the same thing as me.
2. Where is your ultimate dream vacation? I would love to go and travel Europe someday.

3. What is your favorite exercise accessory or equipment and why? Besides my running shoes I love the resistance band you can do a lot with that little thing in a small space.

4. Is there someone in your life, past or present, that you wish to model yourself after? Who and why? Well as I said Erin is my fitness model, but in life in general it would be my dad he is one of the most awesome people I know (besides my mom).  He came to America with almost nothing, speaking no English with a simple dream of living a better life and has totally accomplished that. He never let anything get in his way, and even when he failed he got right back up and gave it another try.
  
5. What is the stupidest thing you've ever done? Well it's kinda funny now but when the Hubs and I first got our own place we had a firepit in the backyard.  I was trying to be helpful and clean it out, I put all the ashes in a plastic trashcan and made it almost all the way through the house (to take it to the dumpster) when opening the front door it melted the can and fell on to the carpet burning a ginormous hole!!  Thank god The Hubs is handy and was able to "fix it".  LOL I'm still trying to live that one down.

6. If you could change career paths, what would you do? I would love to be a Full-time Photographer.

7. If you could live anywhere, where would it be? I would probably like to be a little closer to work.

8. What is your favourite kind of clothing you have? That would have to be Jeans.  I have always been a big girl and especially in High School way back when   I could never find jeans that were flattering or comfortable for that matter, so I was resigned to the fact that I would never wear them and always wore those god awful stretchy pants...Not anymore!

9. What is your favourite type of music, musician? I like all types of music (really I do) but right now I'm loving myself some The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons I HEART me some banjo ;)

10. Are you a morning person or a night hawk? (Or both like me!) I am a total early bird.  I am normally up before the sun on a rare occasion I'll sleep in on the weekends until 7 am.  Crazy I know.  But I consider those few hours in the AM when all is quiet my "me time".

11. What is your "red light" food? Something that if you had one bite it would send you into eating an entire bag full?.That's an easy one PIZZA. I can never stop at just three one slice.

So there you have it folks everything you've always wanted to know about me but just didn't know it yet.  Thank you so much for reading I really do appreciate every single one of you and the motivation you give me.

Since this post is all ready pretty super long I will write another post on my nominations for this awesome award and it will give me some time to come up with a few questions :)


 

Idyllwild Anniversary

It's the Hubs & I 8 year anniversary so we always try to find a little weekend getaway.  This year we went back to our favorite place Idyllwild, it's this very quaint little mountain community just above Palm Springs.  It is our 4th time here and we love it, it is just so quiet, relaxing, and peaceful just what ya need with crazy jobs, two kids, and no time.  There really is not much to do (and that's what we love about it), except get in the spa, watch tons of movies,  maybe hike a bit, and hit up a few yummy restaurants.  So overall quiet time. 

 

 

Our weekend getaway.

 

This year our cabin has wifi so both of us being the crazy and wild kids we are, are taking full advantage of that lol so much for snuggle time. So with all this quiet time I will be able to catch up on all my blog reading and write a few posts. Which brings me to my upcoming post. Bailey over at Bailey's Blog - Documenting a a Weight Loss Journey nominated me for the Liebster Award which I am working on now.

 

Isn't that romantic haha...

Weigh-In Wednesday #26

Today's # is 195.4 and is brought to you by:
 Half Marathon Training   ...lol can you tell I've been watching Sesame Street... 

That's down 2.6 pounds from last week SWEET!  

 

And to make it even a better week here are two NSV ( non scale victories)

The first is the shirt I'm wearing it's actually TaTa's she asked if I could fit into it, so I tried (mind you it is a large and she is normally a medium but sometime she likes it a bit baggy)  but so fricken what and it even looks good!!! So exciting I have officially borrowed the first of many items of clothing from her.

pardon the bathroom signs in the back but funny
thing is I have NO full length mirrors in my house
but that will be changing soon though

 

 

The second is these jeans are too big yay!  I bought them back in April and they were very tight but I figured I would eventually get in to them, now it's almost time to retire them :)

 



these babies are right out of the dryer too!

First Week Done

So my first "official" training week is done and it went really good (I'm following Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Novice 1) .  I was a little nervous at first though the running days are the same, but the mileage is a little longer.  Normally my shorter runs are from 2-2.5miles and the longer Sunday runs are 3-4 miles but now the short runs are minimum 3 miles so the mileage has definitely increased.  Also it is taking me a little getting used to the "have to run this distance" instead of "I'll see how many miles I can bust out before I go make dinner".

Overall though it's been a great week and I found a great little running/biking trail near the house.  I live in a very suburban area and it's not very interesting to look at while run (think miles of cement and houses and not much else), so this little trail is a nice change of pace. Also it's mostly asphalt so my knees are thanking me today.

So next up is venturing into the world of Gu and Shot Blocks...

This is what 4 miles looks like, a hot sweaty
feel good mess.

Wednesday Weigh-In # 25

I'm down 1.8 lbs this week not bad but I'm still up a bit from last week :(
So we are half way through October and I'm thinking a few of my goals will not be accomplished. I was pretty pissed at that but then I realized that its still not going to stop me from trying my damnedest to get as close as I possibly can.

What have I Done?

So I told ya'll I did something crazy and I was not lying... I actually still can't believe that I really did it and now I'm getting a little scared...

I am running a Half Marathon!!!

Yup you read that right to be specific I signed up for the Surf City Half Marathon in Huntington Beach California, on Super Bowl Sunday if your anything like me and pay no attention to football that's Feb. 3rd.

I have always dreamed of running walking, crawling a Half Marathon and always tell myself that when I become "a better runner" I will do it. So as I was chatting with Erin the other day  she said " Sign up... Just do it, you can totally rock this besides what do you have to lose?" And then the kicker  "if you do the half I'll upgrade to the full." Now I know this is a big deal for her, yes she has run 24 Half Marathons, but she has only ever run one full one before which was terrible ( according to her) and to quote her " I am NEVER doing that shit again" so for her to take that on I knew she had some faith in me or she is just a glutton for punishment and digs torture.

So before I could even think about it I did it... And was so happy for about 5 mins. Then I thought what the hell have I done " Oh. God. I can't possibly run a half marathon, how the hell do I get out of this one?" But then that's why I signed up without thinking cause if I had taken any more time I would have talked myself out of it like always.

I have learned a bit about myself and even a few things about other people on this weight loss life style change, like I would never become "a better runner" I would always find an excuse or a reason I couldn't do it, just like with losing weight. But I'm doing just that yes it may be slower than I like, but it's doable and I actually enjoy it (yes I just said I enjoyed eating healthy and exercising). So why not run that half marathon.  I may be slow, I may will have to walk, but I CAN do this!

So there you go that's my big news, if you have any tips I would love to hear them cause to tell ya the truth I'm still scared ....

Magic Shoes

Well TOM has finally arrived and thank Gawd if I had gotten anymore emo I would've put 30 Seconds to Mars, to shame! With that being said I'm up a ton of water weight I hope that's what it is at least. This morning I weighed in at 199.8 well crap but at least it wasn't 200 (hey there has to be a silver lining some where right).

...don't they look all moody and depressed...

So on a good great note I had a fantastic run on Thursday, I was staying late at work to meet up with my mom for a fundraising dinner so I had decided to run after work. Well when I pulled out my gym bag I realized I had forgotten my running shoes SHIT! I was so bummed, I came in bitching about it to my friend Erin who I idolize (she is a running God... she has her plan to run 30 1/2 marathons by the time she is 30 and is almost there I believe she planned it so they fall very close together ... like I said a running God) any way she said she had an extra pair in the car that she keeps there just in case (see so running God like)  and I could borrow them. borrow that <----lol get it, I kill me.   I figured heck why not, I normally I wear an 8 1/2 and her's were 9 1/2 but when I tried them on the fit like a dream and felt like I was running on a cloud!!!

Holy Amazeballs these shoes must be MAGIC!!  I had the best run. Lately I've had a hard time getting back into the groove of running more that a mile straight without stopping to walk, my endurance took a major nose dive during that summer break.  But this run I ran over 2 miles without a walk break mind you it was a slower pace but I plowed through it!!

So I am so going to get me a pair of these amazing MAGIC shoes (well the new gen any way they don't make these exact ones any more) lol cause I did something CA-RAA-ZEE!!!  (like the teaser there) so stay tuned it will blow your mind.

These are the MAGIC shoes Nike Pegasus 28.
I just LOVE  that they are Hot Pink.  She even had them customized to say
Queen 13.1 (how awesome)

It was a great view for a great run.

A Day Late and A Pound Up ...Or...Teenagers Make Me Want to Eat!

Yes I am late again with weigh-in and I'm a pound up so that makes me 197 :( not so bad but I was hoping to start the month off with a bang!  Well I guess I need to buckle down and kick those goals into high gear  which should be so easy with it being candy month and all.

So I think I'm nearing my TOM which might explain that one pound gain or it could totally be the chili dog I had over the weekend whatev',  and my total emo self lately.  Even though I'm totally emo right now and I'm sure it contributed a little bit to what happened yesterday and the reason this post was late. I now know why some animals eat their young!  OMG..the teenager is going to be the death of me.  I swear some dark magic happens when your kid turns 18 yrs. old  I'm not sure if it's the "I'm-an-adult-now-cause-the-state-says-I-am-and-I-can-vote-go-to-clubs-be-charged-as-an-adult-basically-do-whatever-I-want" or what, but TaTa and I have been having a few issues lately, and I'm seriously over it.  Is it too much to ask for a little help around the house and NOT be met with attitude or complaints.  I mean really I work all day (gone 12 hrs) then come home clean up the house, make dinner, do homework with the little one, and try to fit in a workout (really my only me time), No I don't think so.  But when you turn 18 you get the whole I'm an adult and I was out cause I don't really need to tell you what I'm doing cause I'm 18 and all,  working or going to college. Yes I get that (not the whole not saying where you are going cause you maybe 18 big shot but you still live in MY house for FREE) but ummm let me see you work 15 hrs a week and all your classes are done by noon, Uhh ya there's some wiggle room in there girlie, so get on it.

 Yea so we pretty much had it out and I was so stressed which is a a total trigger for me (seeing as I am an emotional binger and  I  find a reason to eat for almost every emotion...I'm sad let me drown my sorrow with some creamy Mac & Cheese, I'm mad I need to chomp on some salty chips the whole bag please, I'm happy let's celebrate where's the cake...you get the picture) So all day I was fighting the binge mad at her for not helping out, mad at her for making me feel this way, mad at her for making me want to eat!  I know the eating part is all me and I really tried to take a minute stop and think about it. After lots of deep breaths and a long drive home I talked myself into sticking with the plan and going to Aqua, I figured good loud music and a little sweat would get me out of my funk or at least hoped it would.  I'm glad to say it worked I came home much calmer (and to a picked up house).

I"m very happy to have worked out that stress trigger and hope it means I'm finally getting over a few hurdles successfully.

October Goals

Yay it's October one of my most favorite months it's the beginning of Fall, which normally means cooler weather except if you live in southern cali where I do and it's 108 degrees today uggg, cozy sweaters, and boots. It's also one of my favorite holidays' Halloween and,  The Hubs and my anniversary.

Last month to get myself motivated to run again I posted that my goal was to run 25 miles by the end of the month and I totally did it (though squeaking out those last few miles was a challenge) mainly due to the fact that I didn't want to be a total loser and not do it after I said I was going to I put it out there into the universe so I had to make sure the goal was met :)

So for that reason I am gonna tell y'all my goal for October so they get done cause I'm so not into public humiliation ok maybe only that one time.

So here they are

• Drink all my water 90oz. a day
• Log my food in to myfitnesspal , every bite, everyday especially on the weekends I either get to busy or lazy.
• Log in a total of 30 miles this month.  I would have put "run" but since I took that impromptu break in August I can't seem to run more than a mile straight, so I  have to take walk breaks in between, and some times I'll give it all I've got then have to walk the last mile back home. So I figure as long as I'm trying my best and putting in the miles I'll get back there.  Which leads me to my next goal...
• Run a 5k again with out stopping even if it's slow as shit.
• And last but not least lose 7 pounds (that's just under 1.5lbs a week) totally doable.

So there ya have it folks....Here's to a great October.

What are some of your goals this month?