Sickness, Who Has Time For That?

As busy people, we don't have time to be sick. It's hard and I think it especially harder on a mom. For about the past week in a half we have battled sickness in the home. It all started with the toddler getting sick. Over a week ago she woke up and throw up all over the bed. It was not fun. At first I thought it was the spaghetti I had made, but no one else got sick. As she started to feel better, I started to feel worse. My stomach did not feel right. I was nauseated and my stomach made weird noises (tmi?), but nothing else. Then the baby daddy came down with the full blown stomach flu, and last the 9 year old. It was not fun.

This week we're all pretty much back to "normal". We ventured out last Sunday to see Santa. It was the first time that we all got out the house to do something fun. I was worried that the toddler wouldn't like the man and I feared how she would react. I also feared for what my 9 year old would say. For the past few years she has been questioning if there's any truth to Santa. I think she knows that Santa isn't real, but still plays along with me. Next year I will sit with her and break the news. It makes me sad because she's quickly growing up.

I haven't been working out as much either. I just felt too tired and pained. Yesterday I finally did some yoga to get my muscles stretched out and it felt great! Today I'm hoping to get some strength training in and then wake up tomorrow morning at 5am to get a quick run in. I haven't gained any weight (it's so easy for me to gain), but it's probably because I was sick. I do feel stressed to the max, but I blame that on the no exercise.

First Night Away

As a working mom, my job at times requires me to travel. I have been lucky that the first year of the toddler's life I haven't been asked to. Earlier this fall my boss called me into her office and informed me that I would be attending a conference in Indianapolis. I was excited, as I've been to this particular conference in the past and I knew it would be a good one. However, at the same time I was nervous. I knew the girls would be in good hands as they were staying with their Dad. The toddler still wakes up at least once at night to nurse. She still loves her nursing sessions. Many people have told me to end them, but honestly, I am ok if she continues until she is ready to wean.

My coworker and I left for Indy early Tuesday morning. I had set the girls clothes out and made my oldest lunch and left it all ready for the day. Once we arrived, it was a busy day. Workshops were about an hour and a half long with 30 minutes in between them for a break. During the break I rushed to the next one as they filled up quickly and I didn't want to be stuck with a workshop I didn't want to attend.  The day flew by.

I called home and checked in a couple of times and all was good. The toddler whined a little when she got home (she usually nurses) but was easily distracted with food and toys.

The coworker and I skipped the reception and went out for a meal at Weber's. I was torn between ordering steak or bbq. I am more of a bbq fan than I am a steak fan. I went ahead and ordered a combination of ribs and brisket. I had a hard time choosing sides, but in the end I chose to stick with the yummy carbs, garlicky mashed potatoes, and mac n cheese.

Afterwards, we decided to brave the cold night, in a city we really do not know, and head to a local bar for a drink. We both ordered the special, long island ice tea, boy was it powerful!!! One was plenty. We quickly headed back to the hotel after our drink and sat in the hotel bar area and ordered one more beer before calling it a night.

I was really hoping the drinks would help me relax. I called home once more and said my good nights. At 1:30 I woke up and frantically searched for the toddler. Then I remembered where I was at. I called home once more and they were all asleep. I fell back to sleep and before I knew it, it was time for another day full of workshops.

My night away from home wasn't too bad. The girls did fine. I was told at home that the toddler woke up once screaming her head off, but was quickly settled back to sleep with a warm bottle of milk. We shall see what happens next time.

All in all, I'm glad to be home.

Jogging with a Stroller

Although it's November, the weather has been decent here in the Midwest. Temps have been in the 60's, which I think is rare for this time of year. A few of my friends shared their "On this day" pictures from a year ago and it looked like we already had snow. I don't remember, as last year at this time, I was dealing with a new baby who didn't like to sleep. Funny, at almost a year and a half, she still doesn't like to sleep.

Since the weather hasn't been horrible, I've been wanting to run outdoors as much as possible. With little ones that can get a bit difficult. My oldest usually rides her bike along side me. I begged the man to buy a jogging stroller when we found out we were expecting. I've only used it once in the youngest 1.5 years of life. I decided it was time to put it to good use. Jogging with a stroller isn't easy.

I decided that I would complete a two mile run and take walking breaks if needed. I also decided to take it slow. I read up on how to run with a jogging stroller and many articles stated to keep to the road which I did. Makes since roads are usually less bumpy and your risk of fallen or tipping the stroller over is less than if you were to run on a sidewalk. I also kept to an area I knew well and I knew there would be no hills. I can't imagine running up a hill pushing a stroller with 20+ lbs in it.  I still have to practice my form with a stroller. As for the baby I dressed her for the weather. No blankets. Those can fall and trip you over. I brought a snack just in case she needed a break. She did not. She was very content.  I know the weather will turn bad here in the next couple of weeks, so our time with the jogging stroller is limited, I'm going to try and enjoy as much as I can.

Growing Up and Setting Priorities

Lately, the baby daddy and I, have been talking about buying a house! Exciting, yes, SCARY? Hell yeah! I want a house that I am happy with, not perfect, as there's no such thing, but happy with. It's hard. We've been looking, a few times, we thought we saw what we wanted, but I haven't got "the feeling". I don't want to feel like I'm stuck in a home that I don't like. Also while looking I started thinking about our financial situation. We have some small debts that we are paying over time, however, wouldn't it be nice to buy a house and have no debt! So what does that mean for me? That means sitting down and actually writing a budget, it means not eating out as much, or stopping to buy coffee ( I usually only stop once a week). I don't want to feel like we are living paycheck to paycheck when we buy a new house. What am I doing to get rid of debt? I have listed them all. When googling "get rid of debt" one of the first links pointed me to Dave's Ramsey's Snowball Effect. This is how I plan to attack those debts.

It's funny how much of my debt belongs to school loans. To think we work so hard to earn a college degree, to only complete college, and have a loan bigger than what you make per year. Oh well.

Going Strong

Why hello there! I'm back in action and ready to get fit again. Let me tell you it's hard! I've been going strong since the last post. I have ran at least 3x per week for the past 3 weeks. My goal is to run 30 miles in September, as of today, I am almost half way there!!

Saturday was my longest run in over 2 years. I ran 4 miles nothing less and definitely nothing more. I felt great the whole time and even pushed myself during the last mile. I ran my fastest mile so far since being back, an 11 minute mile! There's something about Eminem's Lose Yourself that pushes me. I had the song on repeat. Talking about music, I need to find some new running songs. My playlist from 2013 isn't cutting it. 

In other news, we had such a busy weekend! Notre Dame had their first home game, but we had a party to go to. The babe decided to stay home and watch, he never misses a game! I took the girls with. The weather was kind of crappy, but we had fun. We were there with our Notre Dame sportswear, cheering them on! 

Sunday, we had just as much fun. We had a small cookout at an ex coworker's home. She has moved on too bigger and better things. The food, OMG, the food! If you're a vegetarian close your eyes!!! 

Now I'm trying to detox. This weekend was amazing. It was filled with lots of family, friends, laughter, and lots and lots of love.  This is how I love spending my weekends. 

Until next time. 

Horrible at This Blogging Thing!

I don't think I have many readers, so that is a good thing right? I started this blog to document my fitness journey and I slacked big time. Let me catch you up to what has happened these past few months.

Emotional Health: I'm breastfeeding and that within itself has had my emotions everywhere. I already suffer from anxiety attacks (thank to my maternal side of the family!) and they were getting worse. I'm not one to take meds and knew that the only other thing that helped me was exercising. I have my ups and downs and thankfully these days there are more ups than downs. I think it makes everyone at home much happier. 

Physical Health: Physically, what am I doing? I have incorporated running again as you can tell from my last post. However, it's very sporadic running. I try to get at least 3 runs in a week, most times it ends up being 1 or 2. What I am doing is Body Pump 3 times a week! I love Body Pump, it makes me feel fierce! It's a one hour class that challenges all muscle groups while using light weights.

Food: Like almost everyone else I love food! Tacos, sushi, pizza, all a yum! Eating healthy has been hard. I need to try better!

Family: Both girls are keeping me busy! The little is everywhere. She recently learned how to walk (not sure why I was so excited for her to learn ;-) ) She very independent. She keeps us on our toes, as most toddlers do. Toddler, wow!, I just referred to my baby as a toddler. The big finished up summer camp. She's back in school. She is my sports child. She just completed a kids tri and is begging me to sign her up for another. Man those things get expensive. Summer swim classes just came to and end. We will be starting fall swim soon. The big is back in gymnastics.

Faith: It's a struggle to get to church on Sunday. Lately we have been going twice a month. I need to get back to going EVERY SUNDAY! Going to church prepares me for the week ahead.

That's a quick update on where I am at. Until next time!

Trying to Pick Up Where I Left Off

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. I believe we got up to the 60's here in the Midwest. After a long morning of grocery shopping and cleaning up the house my daughter begged to go for a run and stop at the park. Now, it's been such a long time since I've gone for a run. I'm thinking October, maybe November. I wasn't really looking forward to it. I'm a lot slower than I used to be. I mean much much slower. When I look at my time, it puts me down. Really 2 miles in 30 minutes! I used to be able to run a 5k in less than that. Now I didn't take into account, that the wind was 35 miles/hour, nor the fact that I was pushing a stroller that had 20lbs in it. The run was hard. I literally felt like I was going to give myself a heart attack. I know that one day I will get back to where I used to be. I shouldn't be hard on myself. It took me a long time to get to 10 minute miles, I know not fast for many runners, but fast for me. I'm going to take it one day at a time. Right now I plan on running 3x per week. Once I get back into the grove of things I'm hoping to going back to running 4 days week, with Saturdays being my long runs. Will I be running a half marathon in the near future? That's still up in the air. Hey I'm trying to run a 5k without dying.

Pressing the Reset Button

Back in June I had my second child, a girl! Although daddy wanted a boy and I said I did as well, I was more than happy to have another girl. One doctor we saw, jokingly said if we paid him well, he would switch her out for a boy. No thanks Doc!

Prior to having my second baby I lost about 70lbs. It took me almost 3 years to lose the weight, but I did it. My oldest daughter was about 5 years old and she was and still is an active little one. I could barely keep up and I knew it was because of the weight. I was unhealthy. I had anxiety attacks, at times I felt depressed. I remember looking on social media and seeing friends running and actually liking it. What?! People actually enjoy running. One of my good friends had just started running as well. We talked about running a 5k together and it was all downhill from there. I signed up at our local YMCA and started going to gym.

I was embarrassed at first. I had no confidence in myself what so ever. One thing I liked about the our local Y was that they had a treadmill, elliptical, stepper, and weights in the women's locker room. This is where I started working out. I looked up running. I found lots of blogs, many of which I read daily. I also came across the running plan, Couch to 5k. I started and restarted the Couch to 5k program. It wasn't easy, gave up many times. I changed up my meals. Tried to eat healthier, lots of fish and chicken.

Finally, in 2013, I ran my first 5k. It was a small race and it was challenging. I ran it with my friend who inspired me to start running. After completing that first 5k I had an adrenaline rush and my workouts started to get better. I added strength training. At least what I considered strength training. After about a year of not really seeing a change in my muscle tone, I started taking a class at the Y, Body Pump. I was in love. It was a whole hour of strength training, it went by fast. In 2014, I was at my lowest weight ever, 116 lbs. I went and got a health assessment done and it was perfect. First time! This was also the year I ran more first half marathon. I was in a good place.

Right after I ran that half marathon, I lost some interest in running. I wasn't excited for it! I don't know if all the training that drained me, but I needed a break. Not only did I need a break, but I had also, some point along the way injured myself. I started going to physical therapy. I was told not to run. I did therapy for most of the summer. Once I was released to run, I didn't have the desire, but I still tried. I would run a couple of miles here and there. Then in October, a few weeks before Halloween I found out I was expecting my second child. I was ecstatic! I always wanted to grow my little family

I used my pregnancy as an excuse that I could eat whatever I wanted. I ate bacon cheeseburgers with fries at least once a week, if not twice. I ate chips, sweets, whatever I could get my hands on. I had bad nausea and keeping food in my mouth was the only thing that helped. I was tired and drained all the time. Starting a new job around the same time, working until 5pm was no help. I gained weight, in the areas that are the hardest for me to lose the weight. After giving birth to my daughter I lost 20lbs of the 40 that I gained. Now, I'm stuck. My weight fluctuates between 2-5lbs. None of my clothes before pregnancy fit me.

I'm ready, I'm ready to lose the weight and be fit again. Fit physically, fit mentally. My hopes are, with this blog I will be held accountable. So here we are today, here I am writing my first post, on my journey to become fit once again.