Mid-Week Check In

 I've decided that I'm sick of paying for the childcare at my gym.  It's only $3 every time I bring them, but if I'm bringing them 4 or 5 mornings  a week, I'm suddenly paying about 60 bucks a month for a gym to which I have a free membership!  That's total craziness!  So the good news is that by not paying anymore, I'll be helping us (me) stop wasting money, but the bad news is that now I need to figure out when in the world I'm gonna work out.  OhMyGod... where are you going with this?  Right here, people- I'm back to preaching about early morning workouts! 

I've actually forgotten how much I enjoy them.  It's 7:13 in the morning here, totally quiet in my house (miraculous!) and I am already loving this day. The alarm went off bright and early this morning and I actually got up with it and strapped on the sneaks.  Instead of rolling out of bed once I hear the little monster start to wake everyone else (his brother)  up, I now have 3 miles, some free weights, and some abs completely done.  I am loving it.  So much in fact, that I literally do not care that Husband just stuck his head out of the bathroom door and told me that he's pretty sure the towel he just used to dry himself off with has pee on it, and he realized it once his body was dry and he wiped his face.  Yes- instead of being irritated that someone peed all over the floor, I will embrace this and be happy that the mess was cleaned and the towel was rehung. 


Cat's out of the bag, Cherubs... one of you is a
floor-peer.  You're still cute though.
Gross, but cute.

Ok, they're starting to wake up, so the rest of this needs to be short and sweet:

1. Workouts so far this week:

• Monday: Power Body
• Tuesday: a mile on the treadmill and Zumba (another early bird special. Yeah!)
• Wednesday: nada. I couldn't figure out when to make it happen, so it just didn't. Boo.
• Thursday: 3 miles outside, upper body free weights, abs

2. It couldn't have been a more perfect morning to run.  And that's saying a lot, because I think by now, everyone is well aware of how much I dislike this activity.  It's finally no longer 100 degrees here. In fact, this morning it was a perfect 65.  I actually had my iPod charged and ready to go for once so I got to listen to more than just my pounding feet and my heavy breathing/panting/gasping. I got sweaty but not too hot, and basically feel like I might want to do it again tomorrow.  Weird, I know.

3. I love summer and don't ever want to go back to work.  I ran in to the mother of one of my students at the gym on Tuesday and this thought was instantly confirmed. 

4. You readers are making it very easy for me to not post.  I'm not quite sure at this point if you like/care what I have to say; or even if you exist at this point.  So I'm begging you to leave me a comment once in a while.  I don't even care what you tell me. Do you have a 3-year-old who drives you insane? Do you read blogs to avoid cleaning your house? Do you drive a black car?  Please.  Give me some sign that you are alive and well. 

Have a healthy day,


J

Hell Yeah For Summer Vacation!

First things first- did everyone check out my debut on Skinny Mom? I'll be on there every Wednesday and Friday, so you can hit me up over there all the time. Tell your friends and tell your enemies.  And then leave me a comment telling me (and the editors) how much you love my posts.  Please and thank you. 

Ok, now. Let's talk about more important things.  Like the fact that I am on summer vacation!!  And it has gotten off to a great start. I've had a week full of playdates, field trips, cleaning the house, swimming, showering, and working out. (And yes, I know that last cross-out is grossing you out.  Sorry.  Not-showering much is happening.  I'm aiming for once a day.  Whether it comes 5 minutes after a run or 12 hours after is another whole issue.)   

I know I've said this before, but early morning runs are good.  It's not always easy to get out of bed on a non-work day to strap on the sneakers and move your legs, but it's *always* worth it.  By Monday morning at 7 AM, I had already run 2 miles and done a load of laundry.  I thought, "Wow, I might actually be productive over these next couple of months".  On Tuesday morning, I slept through my alarm.  Oops. But I did walk 4 miles with the stroller.  That counts, right? (Even though I stopped at my sister's house 2 miles in and ate some strawberry shortcake? Just kidding, that didn't happen.  Ok, fine, maybe it did.)  Maybe "productivity" will take on a few different personalities this summer.





Anyway, moving on.  Strawberry picking happened on Monday, too.  Fun!  This is the last week for strawberries around here, but the first week for raspberries.  The boys had fun gorging themselves on berries straight off the plants, and my mom and I collected as many as we could. Since Monday, we've had them sliced, in parfaits, frozen in smoothies, in shortcake, and as stovetop jam.  Yay strawberries! 


 CJ got to see some of his preschool friends for a sweaty playground playdate (and Ty got to be totally miserable cuz his brother dissed him for a while). My spoiled kids have gotten to swim, ride bikes, go to a (kindof weird yet oddly entertaining) singing/drumming show put on by a crunchy guy with bare feet and an animated face, meet a totally bootleg Superman,  and play at the gym while I've worked out.  And it's only Thursday!  I'm already tired of this entertainment s*#t.   There's gotta be a camp or something that starts soon.  After all,  I need to clean my house sit down.

Happy Summer everyone!!  What fun things are you doing to get this season started??

Have a healthy day,

J

PS- pics to come.  I know you're anxiously awaiting their arrival.  My camera battery is dead.  Chill out, they'll be added soon.

Getting Back On Track

We made it through our crazy weekend relatively  unscathed. Summer vacation is so close I can smell it, and my cellulitey (yes, I just made that word up) thighs are terrified, as they should be.  Bottom line- I HATE THEM, and have decided they need to be gone.  Enter Operation: Buckle Down. 

Two birthday parties, a neighborhood party and Father's Day meant that our weekend was filled with food, drinks, lack of sleep, being totally stressed out, more food, more drinks, and zero gym time.  We had fun and it was absolutely worth it.  I mean, seriously, how could you not have fun when cupcakes, presents, and Dude Club shirts are involved?

Wearing this girly-looking fuzzy hat was not his favorite party moment.  Yet he
still let me take his picture.  It may have had something to do with the fact that I said,
"Put the hat on and act like you enjoy it, or I'll eat your cupcake myself."



Let's not talk about the fact that the personally requested RED frosting
actually turned out looking kinda pink.  Nor should we talk about the fact that
the venue we picked ended up being the biggest waste of money ever.



Look at these guys... I am so lucky.

We ate, we drank, we were merry.  Good times.

And this morning I got this week started on the right foot.  Or maybe it was the left. Whatever.  I got up at 5:30 and went running.  It was hot and I was sweaty within about 3 seconds.  I wasn't sure if I could make it, and I pretty much hated every second of it.  But I hate feeling fat even more.  So I kept going.  And after about 20 minutes and 2 miles it was over.  Going to work with a workout already completed is such a great feeling.  I'm thinking about running another 5K on the 4th of July.  Totally doable, don't you think? 

Between that little run and the Power Body class I'm teaching tonight, my online food journal (another way I'm getting back on track this week) told me that I've earned an additional 688 calories!  How awesome is that?!  20 minutes of exercise before work, plus a class that I'm getting paid for, and I get to eat 688 calories and still be on track!  Yes please. Another totally doable plan.  

And with that,  here are some of my goals for the week: 

1. 5 morning runs

2. Online food journaling every day

3. Sign up for one of the million races that are happening around here on the 4th.  

What are you doing this week?????

Have a healthy day,

J

I RAN A 5K

It happened!  I woke up on Sunday morning and was so nervous, and anxious, and excited, and totally ready to go.  I just kept imagining the sense of accomplishment I was about to experience, and it happened.  I ran 3.1 miles without stopping.  And it felt amazing. 

The race I did was an annual event to raise money for The Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester.  I love that all of the money raised (which the news said was over 20 thousand dollars!) stays right here at home.  I went to pick my registration stuff up on Saturday. The cancer Supporters got a light pink bandana, and the Survivors got a dark pink one.  I was totally psyched to put my stuff on bright and early on Sunday morning, but my friend told me that I absolutely COULD NOT wear my race shirt to the race.  She told me I'd look like such a rookie.  (Duh, who would want that??)

So instead, I wore this:

That lovely guy I'm married to bought me a brand new running outfit for Mother's Day.  I felt so legit. He used to actually be a real runner who broke records and stuff, so his support was awesome.  I've never in my life owned real running clothes, and now I do.  And yes, I posed for pictures instead of, oh, I don't know, stretching or something silly.

Of course, the first thing I had to do as soon as I got out of the car was go to the bathroom.  Unfortunately, so did everyone else.  This is just a tiny portion of one ridiculously long line. There were about 6 lines of the same crazy length.  I decided I didn't really have to go that badly after all.



So finally it was time to line up.  I might be somewhere in that crowd.  

Or maybe I'm in this one.

Wow, look at all those rookies.  (And do you see that one lone GUY?  Yeah, he must have missed the memo that this was a women's only race.   Seriously though, that sea of pink was so energizing, motivating, and inspiring. 

I hope my feet don't fail me now...

That thing on my shoe was my time chip.  Cool, right?



And then we were off.  And it was exactly at this time that I realized I had made perhaps my most fatal ROOKIE mistake. When it was time to line up, there were little markers down the path with numbers on them.  You were supposed to line up according to how fast you were going to run. Since I was planning on finishing in just about 30 minutes, I stood with the 10-minute crowd. 

People kept telling me to just plan on going slowly at first since I'd have to weave in and out of a lot of people.  Once the crowd thinned out, they'd said, I'd be able to get in my zone and just go.  Well, the crowd was literally so thick that not only could I not weave anywhere, I also couldn't get in my zone.  There were about 4 thousand runners there, and I'm pretty sure that 3500 of them were also planning on finishing in 30 minutes.  I WAS SO ANNOYED!!!!  The clock was ticking away and I was seriously stuck for about a half a mile in a painfully slow moving crowd. So note to self: next time, stand with the 7-8 minute group. Wear your legit clothes again and act like you belong. They'll never know the difference.

So I finished (with my friend Jessica, who I found at the turn!) with an official time of 32:34. That totally should have been 28 or 29 something, but that brutality at the beginning completely messed me all up.  But the most important thing here is that I FINISHED!  And I didn't walk at all, and I didn't die at the end. 

(My mom ended up running it, too.  I wish I had remembered to get a picture of us after we finished, since it was Mother's Day and all. But I'm kindof an idiot sometimes).

And then it was time to go eat!  My brother, sister and I made lunch for our mama.  This was one of my contributions to the table:

 

oooohhh, I'm so crafty.  Too bad it tipped
upside down on the way over there.
Husband told me it was due to my
crazy driving.  I told him he wasn't holding it well enough.
We love each other.



And in case you're wondering what else we made her:











Missing from this picture is my brother's contribution
of pizza logs and Doritos.

And cupcakes.  We ate cupcakes.  How delicious do these look?!
They were from an all-natural bakery.  I could have eaten at least 5.

Oh, one last thing.  I'm pretty sure I received better gifts than any other mother on this planet.  I mean, seriously. 

A beaded necklace, a bird with pink sequins (it's a pin!) AND hand painted flower pots??!?  Wow, I must be really loved.  I hope your day was as wonderful as mine was.

Have a healthy day,

J

Running at Night

Imagine this, at night.  Not cool, Creepy Guy.

When I was in college, I used to make really good decisions. (Didn't we all?)  One such decision was to binge drink at my friend's apartment and then walk by ourselves to the nearest bar.  We're not exactly talking a couple of college-town blocks.  Instead, we're actually talking a few long blocks of city streets that were poorly lit.  I was so smart. 

One night, my girlfriend and I were walking as usual, (inappropriately dressed for the weather no doubt) when all of a sudden a total creeper JUMPED out of a hedge of bushes at us.  No, this was not a fellow college kid trying to be funny. This was an old man who was trying to scare the crap out of a couple of drunk girls. I'm actually not sure if he was old or not because I'm not actually sure that I truly looked at him.  I am pretty sure my friend told me he tried to grab her boob before he ran away.  Again, I'm not positive of this, and I may be making it up to make the story better; I honestly can't remember.  (Erin, do you remember this?????)

We were so cool in college. 

The other night, I got the boys to bed on time for once, and it was still pretty light out.  Since I had been lazy it had been raining that morning, I decided to lace up the sneaks and head out.  By the time I got just about a mile away from home, it started to get dark.  (No need for concern- my old age has taught me how to stay on either main roads or ones with superb street lighting). Just as I turned the corner to head on to a side street, I realized that the first house I had to pass had an entire (huge) yard lined with neatly trimmed bushes.  Instantly, the previous story jumped in to my head. And that is so weird because I literally haven't though about that story since it happened- 10 years ago!

Someone was obviously about to jump out and grab me, so I ran faster.  And then I decided I just really wanted to be home watching reality TV. So I kept my new pace.  By the time I could no longer breathe and sweat was soaking through all three shirts I was wearing, my driveway was in sight.  Not only had I made it, but I PR'd it! 

The moral of the story:  If you want to run your fastest, put yourself in a potentially unsafe situation and then visualize the scariest thing EVER happening to you.  You'll be done in no time. 

Have a healthy day,

J

Have I Mentioned...

...that I'm running my first 5K soon?  In 2 weeks from yesterday to be exact.  And I'm nervous!  3.1 miles in a row?!?! I've NEVER in a million years thought that I would be excited to run for multiple miles, but I am.  I have been working hard, and I'm excited!  (And you can sponsor me if you feel so inclined.  I would really love it, and so would the amazing cause that's sponsoring the race. Click here to kick me some dough.)


I totally understand that to a lot of people, running 3 miles is practically nothing.  But to me, it's going to be a huge accomplishment.  I've had to teach myself how to run, and it hasn't been pretty. Nor has it been fun.  But I'm finally feeling stronger, and more confident that I can make it.  As long as I don't have too many mornings like today.  I got my arse out of bed at 6:15 and the shoes were hitting the pavement by 6:22. Usually, the cold air greets me with a gentle punch in the face and I get moving.  Today, however, I never felt like I really got in to it.  Physically, my feet were moving, but it never felt comfortable.  According to mapmyrun.com, I ran about 1.6 miles.  My legs felt heavy and I wanted to stop the entire time I was going.  Boo.  It was the longest 16 minutes of my life.  (Ok, I exaggerate.  Moments in my life have felt longer.  Like labor.  Being in labor was worse than this morning's run.)  It's alright though.  I made up for it with an AWESOME class tonight at the gym!  There was such great energy in the room, and we had a great time.  I even recruited a couple of new members!  Note to self:  buffalo chicken bites and french fries for dinner on Sunday, no matter how stressed out you are, make for a very bad Monday morning workout. 

Last year, I organized a team at work.  We all wore matching shirts, complete with glitter. Some walked it, some ran it, and all had fun.  It was so amazing to pull together such a diverse group of people who were just out to do something healthy.  A couple were pregnant, a few were workout fanatics, and one was even a breast cancer survivor.  I was so sad that I couldn't run it with them :(


Hi team!  You guys were so great.  

Even my mom and sister ran it.  Well, my sister ran the whole thing.  My mom started out on the walker's route, but decided half way through that they were moving too slowly.  So she cut over to the runner's course. Totally legal in an official race. 



Can we go out to eat after the race?  I'm gonna be starving...

So while everyone was running their little hearts out, I did what I do best- took pictures of myself. I had some pretty cute props with me, don't ya think? 



Happy Mother's Day to me!

But this year will be an entirely different story.  I have since parted ways with my team, so I will not be sporting a College Prep glittery tee.  Don't worry, though.  My girlfriend and I WILL be donning pink together.  She is thinking it will be in the form of socks and bandanas; I'm rooting for sequins and headbands.  I'll let you know how it turns out. 

Wish me luck.  I need it. 

Have a healthy day,

J

Vacation from vacation

Hi!  I know it's been a while, huh?  I'm off from work this week, which is in turn, throwing my entire schedule off as well.  I always try to jam as many fun things into one week as is humanly possible, which always ends up backfiring and leaving the boys and I crazier than usual, and exhausted.  Sheesh, I'm totally gonna need a vacation from this vacation!

While I have been drooling over perusing friends' pictures on Facebook of their fancy migrations South, I have been living it up here in the ROC. Yep that's right, we've been coloring Easter eggs, eating our weight in jelly beans (oh wait, maybe that's just been me), going to swimming lessons, trying to catch up with friends who we never get to see because my stupid job gets in the way, and getting on eachother's nerves because we are never around eachother for this long at a time.  (Tune in to my other blog for my true feelings on spending a week "off" with the kids...) Butttt.... you don't read this for updates on my glorious life with two young heathens; you read it as a supplement to your healthy lifestyle.  So here are all of the healthy things I've been doing since I last posted 5 days ago:

1. Running!  OMG, it's true!  I officially signed up to run in the Mother's Day 5K to support the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester. This will be my very first 5K (since my health crapped out last year at just about this time, and I didn't get to do it). I'm excited, I'm nervous, and I still can't believe I'm really gonna do this.  So anyway, now that I've committed, I have been running three mornings a week.  I usually do anywhere from 1.5-2.5 miles.  Now for all of you runners, I totally get that this is like, nothing.  But for me, it's nothing shy of miraculous that I can actually run for 2 and a half miles without stopping.  Oh, hey, wanna sponsor me? Here's the link.

2. Pilates!  Yes!  I've done it 2 and a half times since my last post (the "half" comes in to play because there's a lot of pilates-type stuff the class I teach). I went to a class on my own will the other night, and then got to teach a class last night.  It was my first time in this particular gym, and it ended up being a great time.  I'm not sure if the best part was that I got to teach on a stage, or that I wore a sequin headband.  But those are just minor details. Hooray for working the core for an hour straight!

3. Zumba! I love it. True story. I've moved up to the front of the class. That's probably a really embarrassing thing to admit, but I don't really care. I'm sick of standing behind people who are either off beat, moving in the wrong direction, or both. So now people get to stand behind me. HA!



4. Making moves! I can't really elaborate on this one yet, but suffice it to say that I've been doing a lot of thinking about what's coming next in this game of Life. I think I'm coming to some agreements with myself, and I like where my thoughts are taking me.  I have no idea whether or not any of these thoughts will come to fruition, but whatever happens will surely be healthy for the mind and soul.

What healthy things have you been doing?  I'd love to hear. C'mon- inspire me!

Have a healthy day,

J

Trying something new

I know you've all been anxiously awaiting my follow-up to Thursday's cliff hanger.  Just WHAT did she do the other day when she was so stressed out she thought she was about to jump out the window?

Welllllll..... in case you haven't figured it out yet, after an entire night of not sleeping, I dragged myself out of bed before the sun came up and I... drum roll please... RAN. Yes, that's right.  I, who never ever runs, went running.  I've done this little running kick before as I was training for a 5K last year (which I never even got to friggin' run- I've mentioned that before, right?) Anyway, I haven't actually gone running in about a year.  And the other day, I did.  I ran 2 miles in exactly 19 minutes. Which, by the way, is the fastest I've ever done that.  What's that term that runners use? PR? :)

I recently read somewhere that a great way to stay motivated during a run is to chant something positive to yourself as your feet hit the pavement.  (Stay.Strong. Go. Long. Stay. Strong. Go. Long...) I don't know whether it was that, or the perfect weather, or the ridiculous stress I'm feeling; but my feet never stopped.  I might actually do it again tomorrow! 

6 AM (ok, it was closer to 6:30) is brutally early, but I had company out there. I passed dog walkers, shopping cart pushers, and teenagers moving slowly to bus stops. And every time I approached someone, I felt like shouting, "Look at me! I'm running!!" Don't worry- I didn't. I just smiled and kept to myself. But I did return the quick wave from the fellow runner. Ha, I was a fellow runner!

 I'm not a runner. I'm a very slow jogger at best. And I certainly don't do it consistently.   But I ran (well, jogged).  I actually kindof liked it.  So there it is.  This is so WEIRD.

And on that note...

Have a healthy day,

J