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.