126.3

So, I am up .4 lbs this weigh in, but all is okay. I have been between 125 and 128 for the past few months. That all ends here. I am going to kick my diet into shape and fast. Clean eating does make me feel SOOOOO much better. So, I will be going grocery shopping tonight. I haven't had time to do a grocery shop/meal plan in a few weeks with having to work 15+ hours extra a week at the part time gig. Plus, camping, a social life, cleaning, and the fair.

Did I mention we went to the fair on Saturday? Well, we did. The breeding ground for poor food choices. I had 4 blue moons(2 at the fair & 2 at home), ate less than a 1/4 of the pork and rice bowl that Love ordered, but decided he didn't want-we switched, he ate my chicken legs and rice while I had the pork with veggies and rice-and I didn't have 1 sweet treat while we were there. I wanted something sweet, but nothing sounded good. So, I skipped it! Go me! Also, I just ate the pork bowl until I felt satisfied and just threw the rest away.

The goal for my weigh in on the 6th is to be down 2 pounds into 124. Then, I will not weigh again until the Wednesday after my half marathon! So, I am hoping to be 122 or even 120 by that time.

I am off of the part time gig until next Saturday. So, I am going to use this time wisely and really focus on getting back into weight loss/marathon mode. Today I plan to grocery shop after I head out for a 3 mile run and coming home to do some lunges/squats/pushups/crunches.

I hope you all have a fantastic day! See ya tomorrow!

Approaching The Anniversary.....

Today's weigh in has me at....

124.8!!!!!

That is a 1.5 pound loss for the week. I really would like to be in the 122's by my anniversary, but 1.8 pounds is a lot to lose in 4 days. Hmmmm....I will work towards that, but not be disappointed if I don't hit my goal. I have definitely come a long way this year. I have learned a lot and am loving the way my life is heading!

I didn't think I would actually make it to my one year anniversary of my healthy lifestyle journey. I didn't know that I would make it to week 2 ha! I have learned so much this past year. I also had a couple of pretty rough experiences this past year. My grandpa passed away and instead of pushing away my feelings, I ran into them head on.

When my parents told me about their divorce, I described in the post that I was still fuzzy. Well, 10 months hasn't made that any more clear. I am still extremely fuzzy and trying to cope. Lately, I have been trying to really deal with it and move forward, but it is so hard. Especially because they aren't even legally separated, no papers have been filed, I hate my mother's boyfriend, my family doesn't talk and all my parents do is argue. Some days are easier than others, but I will be helping my dad file the divorce papers this week. That will be rough, but at least it will give me a step towards some closure.

These were 2 of the rougher experiences I have ever had, but I didn't let my depression about either stop me from LIVING MY LIFE. It may have had moments where it slowed me down, but I refuse to give up! I want to be a person people look to for inspiration. I want to help others cope in positive ways even after bad things do happen. I have learned to stay positive in dark days, because the light is at the end of the tunnel....even if you have to chase it for a while :)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

How do you stay positive when times get tough?

Luck of the Irish?!

Hi, Happy St. Patrick's Day :)

I didn't realize it was St. Patty's Day until I had left for work. No green on me today, oops!


So, weight this morning was 124.6! Ahhhh....haven't seen that number in, well, ever! I jumped right over it when I gained weight in jr. high. It gives me such a boost. Now that I am weighing, I do believe I will continue to lose it instead of up and down week to week. I feel great. Hey 110, I am coming to get you! Hoping for 122 or lower by my birthday, I think I can get there just fine.

I started journaling yesterday as well, just to give me an idea of how many calories I am consuming, what my workouts are, how much water I am drinking and my day to day weight. I am excited to be journaling. I plan on doing a food journal once a week starting soon. I really need more pictures around this joint!

Now, onto a little more substance. I have a confession to make! My sleeping habits are out of whack, and it is not because of Daylight Savings. I try to be in bed by 9:00 every night, because my first alarm goes off at 4:45AM. I feel that is an adequate amount of sleep. However, in the past month, it keeps getting later and later at night that I go to sleep. I have been getting in bed by 10, but don't fall asleep until 11 or so. Which is not nearly as much sleep as I should be getting. So, I have a plan to get my sleeping back on track.

• Hot Bath: I used to take a hot bath every night at 8:30ish and it totally winds me down from the day. Hoping I can start doing this again most nights.
• Hot Tea: I have heard tea helps when drank before bed.
• No More Laptop in Bed: My brain associates my bed with all the wrong things. For example, TV watching, Internet Surfing, and Reading. I need to break that habit and fast. 
• No Workouts for at least 2 hours before bed: I tend to do last minute workouts right before bed, which leaves me full of energy. So, from now on, all workouts will be done by 7PM.

Do you get enough sleep? How do you unwind before bed?

Have a fantastic St. Patrick's Day!

Weigh In and Knee Pain

Hi Ladies and Guys(maybe?!?!),

I still love y'all! I read the comments and am trying to catch up on your blogs. I need to organize my reader and get everything into groups. In Due Time, I Swear! The past week has been nothing but remodeling(and not knowing I was scheduled to work at my part time job today....was an hour late FRICK!). I have a headache right now. I am so excited for bed.

I did it.....7 MILES in 1:15:00!!! Under 11 minute miles....YAY YAY YAY!!! The pain in my knees during the last 2 miles was INSANE! They hurt the rest of the day. I iced 3 times and I finally felt better this morning.. I really hope y'all have some advice on helping the knee pain...PLEASE! Love suggested I stop running and maybe start biking, but I don't know! PLEASE HELP ME!

I also weighed this morning. 127.4!! Can you believe it? Down 1.4 pounds in a month. Not amazing, but still pretty frickin good!

I will be catching up every chance I get. We are still about a week or two away from being finished with the remodel!

Weigh In and Day 2!

First off, thanks for all of the comments on yesterdays post! You all had a lot of great things to say. The verdict for myself is definitely have snacks for a backup, but listen to when and what my body wants! Also, Morgan pointed out that I should be careful with the Clif bars, and she is totally right. I started eating a whole one and then went down to half, but I think that will be my AM snack for my long runs on Sundays and maybe half a bar before my evening workouts if I am ravenous! I am so excited to see NEW followers!! HI EVERYONE!! WELCOME!!

So, I weighed at my gym today and I am now at

127!!!

I lost .4 lbs and couldn't be happier! Especially because I had 32 oz. of Gelato(Italian Ice Cream) and that's A LOT! I didn't do fabulous on eating, but I think I did okay! Next week, I am hoping to see 125.something :) I am sure I can do it! Just got to stick to eating right and cutting back on the Gelato!!

Today is Day 2 of half marathon training and I feel GREAT!!! It is also Day 2 of the "30 Day Shred"!! That's right! I am going to do it for 30 days and actually stick to it!! I will be taking some before pictures hopefully tonight! It's going to be a tough 30 days, but the more I push, the better my body will be! I do need strength training pretty badly! My body fat is 26.2% and it was at 22% just a couple of weeks ago. The scale might be wrong, but I doubt it!

No Change...

Weighed this morning and no change at all!! I hate this!! I'm working out 5-6 days more often than I used to and eating less, yet nothing is changing!!!

Looks like The Shred will be making an appearance in my life starting tonight!! I'm running 6 days from today to next wednesday so maybe i'll make progress for next week, but i've heard the shred works wonders!!

2.25 Miles...

Yesterday was the big day, the day I had to run 2 and a quarter miles, nonstop!! It's the longest distance i've had to run non stop in years and damn, it felt GOOD!!

There were many points when I felt like I HAD TO STOP, but I pushed through and just slowed down a bit. I am still doing a horrible job on my times, but i'm going at my own pace. My mile is like 13 or 14 minutes, because i'm a slow runner, but they'll get better in time. I hope to be running a 9 minute mile within the next 2 months time. I start out quick and strong, but then burn myself out quick. I have 2 more run/walks and then it's ALL RUNNING after that. That's when I'm going to work on my pace. Right now, i'm doing run/walks so that's probably the reason my time is super slow.

I got a new iPod Nano yesterday. The whole time i've been doing my training, i've done it without any type of music. It was all just thoughts in my head. Maybe having music will help me focus more on the music than how my body feels and I can pick up the pace a little. I have some Kings of Leon, Alicia Keyes, KT Tunstall, Britney Spears, and many other groups who just get my heart pumping and my feet movin!! I'm excited for my run today. Also, "Loves" pointed out that i'm probably super sore because I don't stretch out nearly enough and he is SO RIGHT! I always stretch before and after, but only for a minute or two! I upped my stretch time to 4 minutes each yesterday and NO SORENESS today! Woohoo!!

I feel really good today, so I hope that I continue with this momentum! I weigh in on Wednesday morning and I really hope I have a loss. The .2 pounds last week bummed me out, but i've fixed a couple of the things I saw me doing poorly and hopefully I see the reward on the scale :)