Wednesday, April 27, 2011

So...it's been forever.

It has been forever since I've posted, but there has been a lot going on.  Let's take a look at the list.

1. I worked a bunch the few weeks before Easter and customers suck.
2. I have been keeping up with running through all that (yay!)
3. I reached 6 miles last week and am going for 6.5 tomorrow.
4. We got our foster care license!!!  We should be able to start visitation next week!
5. We started potty training our big boy and he is doing better than I could have hoped.

So lots of big things.  I am 1.5lbs away from my 10% goal with weight watchers and I would like to hit that this week, but with last weekends free for all and trying to rein in my sugar cravings this week, it's doubtful.  The 6.5 mile run tomorrow should help.  I also decided that I should start running to my meetings on sat. morning.  It's 3 miles round trip.  It breaks it up, but it still counts, right? 

I've been struggling with motivation and self sabotage lately, so I started a facebook page to find some online workout buddies.  No else is really posting, so it kind of sucks, but maybe it will take off eventually.  It's called  Leah's Fitness Friends if you're interested.  In the meantime, I am very proud of myself for reaching my goal of running three times a week.  I really need to work at adding two weight lifting sessions back in though.  One down this week, still need to carve out time for another one.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Running, running, running, SQUIRREL, running, running, running...

Yesterday I ran 4.3 miles at an average of 10:59 pace.  I will  call that successful since my goal was 4 at 11:30.  I ran with Phil on a running path at a park nearby.  It was really nice to  be in some nature instead of having to look out for cars all the time.  Although, a squirrel was really close to me at one point and I was very tempted to chase it.  I refrained, but barely...

I have one more workout to reach my goal this week, but I really don't feel like driving to the gym.  I think I'm going to do my last weight lifting session at home instead.  After all, we do own weights, a weight bench, an exercise ball, tension bands...wait, why do we pay for a gym?!?  Oh yeah, because it's waaay to easy to sit on my butt here instead.

Now I would like to do some comparisons between country running and city running.  Just a few things I've noticed since I've started running here.

Country Running
  • Dirt roads are waaay easier on your knees than pavement
  • No stop lights or crosswalks
  • No sidewalks
  • Few cars
  • Few people
  • More animals
  • Smell of manure in the air
  • Shade from trees
City Running
  • More potholes and puddles
  • Many fellow runners/walkers
  • Scary people at bus stops
  • Smell of fried food and cooking meat in the air (mmm!)
  • Parks with set running trails
  • More small dogs barking constantly
  • Greater need to ice my knees when I'm done
  • Many more paths to take
So, there you have it.  Just a few differences, good and bad, about country and city running.  Both have their pros and cons, I guess I'll just run wherever life takes me!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Grounds in the coffee throw off the whole day!

I woke up at 8 this morning feeling pretty good (I usually don't get up until 9ish).  So, I thought, what the heck, why not start the day before Danny wakes up.  I had Bible study at 9 and this gave me a chance to actually get there on time.  On Tuesday mornings, I always have my coffee and breakfast at church.  So, I get settled in and sit down to drink my mocha and it taste, well....less than delightful.  Therefore, I did not get my coffee.  That combined with waking up earlier made me very sleepy. 

After I left church, I went to my mother in law's house to drop off D so I could go to the gym.  I dawdled for a half hour or so and finally decided that if I didn't go lift today that I would not meet my goal of weight lifting twice and running three times.  So, I dragged my butt across the street to the gym and put in my time.  Some days I feel awesome after a workout, energized and whatnot.  Today I felt like I needed coffee!

Then there was work.  I am not fond of work.  When I worked at Ruggero's (Italian restaurant) I didn't like going to work, but at least all my friends were there with good food.  Where I am now just leaves me drained.  I am usually by  myself for hours and am expected to push the suggestive selling on everyone who walks through the door, or even past it, it seems!  I am just not a sales women.  I am nice, pleasant and a hard worker, but I like to save money and don't like pushing things that people don't want or need.  I cannot wait until the day I can say good bye.  Phil, my husband, has told me that I can quit at any time, but I would feel guilty right now.  I like my manager and that would leave her in a real bad position to be another man down.  So, I will wait until at least after Easter.  My plan is to just keep working a little bit until we get Blake and then make being a mom to both him and Danny my full time job.  I know it won't be easy, but at least it will be something I'm passionate about and want to improve on.  So, for now, I will let my three followers get back to their, undoubtedly, more interesting lives and I will go to bed so I can get up and go back to work in the morning where there is a chance the vice president of the company may show up.  I really, really, really hope not...

Sunday, March 27, 2011

You ate HOW many pieces of cake?!?

Not even going to tell you how many pieces of creamy, melty, snickers blizzard ice cream cake I had.  Every piece was totally delicious though.  I failed miserably with the weight watchers plan yesterday at Danny's 2nd birthday party.  I ate so much junk I paid for it later.  I slept terrible, waking up with a head ache, hot flashes and racing heart beat more than once through out the night.  Yes, body, I understand, waaaay too much sugar!  It was good to have a pig out day, though.  If for nothing else to remind me how important it is to eat healthy for not just my overall health, but for my day to day energy level and comfort. 

On that note, I did run 3.1 miles tonight to try and off set some of the damage.  It felt good to be out there again.  I only got in a couple workouts last week with my crazy work schedule and getting ready for D's party.  Back on track now.  There is a 5k in town that I would really like to run in a few weeks and I know I will get a PR even if I just maitenance run at this point.  I do wish the weather would warm up though.  I'm really sick of this 30 degrees crap.  I didn't wear any gloves tonight because it looked so nice out with the sunshine and all, but I was wrong.

Moving on with life, our home study for our foster care license was finished last week and we are hoping it will be sent out to Lansing this up coming week.  If all goes well, we could be visiting with Blake by the end of June!  We're very excited about this, it's been a very long time coming (about 15 months now because of some stupid people in the system).  We just pray that, for once, things may move quickly because there is a little boy out their who's been waiting a very long time for a family.  So, if you think about it, keep that situation in your prayers.  We need all the support we can get!

Goals for this week:

Stick to my weight watchers points
Run at least three times
Weight lift twice.
Also, I have been working on patience, so be more patient!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Well, at least I ran a little.

I ran today, I didn't want to, but I did.  I had no time, but I decided to bust out 20 min. anyway.  To maximize this time, I set the goal of keeping my average mile under 11 min.  I succeeded by 10 sec.  Good enough for me.  Tomorrow, it's back to the gym for some lifting.  It may be the only actual time at the gym I get in this week.

Danny let me sleep in until 9 this morning.  Actually, he didn't wake up until closer to ten.  This all due to the fact that he had a nightmare of something last night that kept him up until almost 11.  Poor little guy.  So, we had a late morning.  I sat and made a list of all the things I need to get done this week before Danny's 2nd birthday party on Saturday.  It will be the first time we've had this many people over (around 30, which we don't really have room for, but we'll make it work) and the first time a lot of them will see the house.  This all on top of working everyday until Friday.  Ugh.  Work.

Some lady at work today totally unloaded on me about having Lupus and how her family doesn't believe her .  Then she told me how she's cutting them out of her will.  On top of that, she told me how her dad used to beat her and how the school discovered it  and that she was sent to a safe house.  Weird.  Maybe she just needed someone to talk to.  That was fine by me.  I was left alone in the store for 4 1/2 hours with very few customers.  SO BORING!

On a good note, my husband and I have been working on adopting an 11 year old boy out of the foster care system.  After 16 months of dealing with stupid people in the stupid system, we finally found someone who cares enough to do their job correctly and we now have all our paperwork to send to Lansing.  Hopefully, in the next 4-6 weeks we will be licensed for foster care and able to see our future son again.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Ahhh, life! Quit chasing me, I forgot to eat!

It's been a crazy few days.  I haven't ran since Thursday and it went something like this:
My Body:  I hate you, why didn't you feed me?  No energy here.
Me:  Shut up, use the energy you've been saving around the hips!
My Body:  No, we're like this (crosses fingers)
Me:  I don't care, find some new friends and, oh yeah, RUN!
My Body: grumble, grumble, grumble.

See what I have to put up with?  It was a pretty pathetic run though.  Lesson learned, I need fuel for my runs and coffee doesn't count. 

The reason it has been crazy is because I went into work the other day and one of my co-workers got fired.  So, now I've gone from my comfortable 10-15 hour weeks to 25-30.  Not happy.  This is supposed to be just a small side job (my real job being a mom).  All I can say is that my boss better get the new girl trained fast because they don't pay me enough to be their slave.  Although, I guess that statement doesn't really make sense since the whole point of being a slave is that you don't get paid at all.  On that note, I suppose I'll add a link about really slavery going on today.  My pastor gave a great sermon last week about human trafficking and such.  Therefore, become aware and make a difference!  http://www.free2work.org/

My son will be two on Wed.  I can't believe he went from being a 32 week preemie at 2lbs 11oz, to a stubborn 2 year old who tells me "no" on a daily basis.  He is the love of my life though.  I could not have asked for a better child.  As far as two year olds go in the behaving category, Danny scores about a 7 out of 10.  I'll take it!  We are throwing him a crazy hat party, cheap and fun, that's our motto!  I just hope I can find enough time this week to get everything ready.  Lots of cleaning to do for people to come and make it dirty again!  Circle of life I guess.  Hopefully, I can find time for a work out or two also.  Alas, we will just have to wait and see...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The First of Many

So, here's to blogging!  I am a mom of a beautiful, very active almost 2 year old.  I started running the summer before I got pregnant.  I let it go for awhile, but trained for The Crim 10 Mile run in Flint last year.  My time was slow (average of a 13 min. mile) but I finished it running! 

Now it is time for a new season of training.  With the weather turning I can't wait to get outside.  I feel as if I am going into this year smarter than last.  I have been weight training and recently added in interval training and I am down to a comfortable 11:30 min. mile and falling.

I have also been on Weight Watchers since the beginning of the year.  I just wanted to take off the 10 lbs. of baby weight I was still carrying, but I have shed those and am 9 lbs. away from my goal weight.  Really hoping to hit that by summer!


Today was so beautiful, I took the opportunity to go to the zoo with my son, Danny and my mother in law, Brenda.  There were six chimps out and D loved watching the "monkeys."  He also really liked chasing the butterflies in the butterfly house.  Then, after dinner, Phil, my husband, took D out to play and had the genius idea to walk to the ice cream store.  Therefore, I logged about 4.5 miles walking today.  Not a run, but some good exercise!