Some early morning reflections on Day 13

Day 13, almost two weeks into the Whole Life Challenge. Things have been going really well, surprisingly.  I have accumulated some brief reflections so far. And I KNOW you have been dying to hear them. So, I shall keep you in suspense no more. 

Here they are.
* I really enjoy eating meat.
* Bacon, specifically turkey bacon is amazing.
* I set my sleep goal for 6 hours and 30 minutes each night. I should have set it higher, stretched myself a little more. I'm getting about 6 hours and 50 minutes each night.
* I'm sleeping like a rock.
* Fruit tastes AMAZING! I think it's because I haven't had processed sugar that I'm appreciating naturally occurring sugar.
* I am not missing bread at all.
* I would like a cookie.
* I would also like some peanut butter fudge.
* I still hate stretching. We have to stretch for 10 minutes a day.
* This week we have to turn off all electronics for an hour as part of the challenge. We are doing this as a family every night and I LOVE IT! This practice may continue.
* I haven't cheated. Not once. I'm blown away by this.

* I've eaten A LOT of eggs. See below!  

* I've earned some indulgence points. If you eat well for a few days you can have a treat.
* I ate CAKE with one indulgence point. This cake....Mmmmmm!

* I've lost some weight. Weight loss was not my primary goal, but I'm ok seeing a couple pounds go away.
* I'm becoming more aware of my hunger/cravings.
* So far, I'm happy I've done this challenge. I won't continue to eat this way, but I am learning a lot about myself. I have plans to start training for some running events and this is not the diet for a runner. And that's ok!

Question.....

What is your FAVORITE indulgence food?

A short mid day reflection....

It's almost lunch time on day 5 of the Whole Life Challenge and I've been thinking a lot.  A lot about my coffee.  I know, deep thoughts!

Prior to this challenge I would have never given up my creamer.  Never!  Why?  Because there was nothing "good" associated with giving it up.  Yes, I know creamer is bad for you, it has chemicals, added fat, unnecessary calories....blah, blah, blah.  But it tastes SO. DARN. GOOD!  Knowing the negative aspects of something does NOTHING for me, absolutely nothing!

So then this challenge started and I decided that I was going to give it my all, and it's a competition (sort of, more so of a competition with yourself).  You get points.  And I'm competitive, so I want all of my points.  Yes, I know I'll lose points during this challenge and that's ok, but if I can NOT lose points by something small, you better bet that I'm doing it.  So, shortly before the challenge started, I decided I was giving up my creamer.  I had just purchased a brand new french vanilla creamer, large sized of course.  So I sat down and drank it all.  Right from the bottle.  Ok, I'm kidding.  I didn't drink it from the bottle!  It's still actually in my fridge.  I should dump that out now that I'm thinking about it.  And now, by giving up my creamer I'm gaining something from it....I'm gaining those stinking points every day!  And, I'm gaining some pride.  There is a huge sense of pride in knowing that I can set a goal, make my mind up and do it.  And that to me is something GOOD!

On a side note, people have been giving me ideas of alternatives to put into my coffee.  Great ideas too!  But, I'm not doing any of them.  Why?  If I'm giving up my creamer (extra calories, extra fat, extra ickiness for my body), I don't want to replace it with something else.  Many of the alternatives, although "healthier" are just as high in calories and fat.  So if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this 100%.  Goodbye creamer!

What has been one of the hardest things that you have given up when it comes to healthy eating?  Maybe you were only able to give it up for a day or two.  Share with me!

Some "Whole Life Challenge" reflections on day 4

As you know, I'm always on some sort of wellness journey.  A few weeks ago I committed to joining an 8 week challenge, The Whole Life Challenge (WLC for short).  You can read more about it here if you'd like: https://www.wholelifechallenge.com/  It's pretty much the Paleo diet.  If this was the only component to this challenge I would have said no. Completely and totally NO!  I don't fully agree with the Paleo diet and would never choose to live my life eating like this.  It's great for some, just not me.  So you're probably wondering why I said yes to the challenge then, right?!  Well, there are things to be learned and I know that I can learn a lot about myself and my food choices by adapting a new way of eating for 8 weeks.  The WLC also incorporates many other components of wellness.  Sleep, water, mobility, exercise, short daily reflections, and a new weekly practice (this week is to journal for 10 minutes).  I FULLY believe that so much more than exercise and diet contributes to our overall wellness and the WLC picks up on some of these.  My husband also really wanted to kick his wellness journey into high gear.  Now, I eat pretty well and exercise everyday, but I cannot for the life of me get Brian to join in on the healthy eating part.  So, when he expressed interest in this, I ran with it.  I figured if we could do it together, we would have a shot at a getting some good habits going together.  The challenge is being hosted by Studio 223.  As an instructor there, I also knew it would be a great idea to join the challenge and support so many of the members that are doing it.  I am impressed by the amount of people that signed up.  So, let me share with you a few reflections so far.  Keep in mind, I'm only on day 4 and it's still early in the day.

• To start, I frickin love, I mean LOVE sugar.  There is no sugar allowed during these 8 weeks (normal occurring sugar is ok, like in fruit). I'm going through sugar withdrawal.  No joke.  I'm cranky, tired and all I can think about is chocolate cake.  I didn't think I ate that much sugar.  Obviously I did.
• I am giving it my all for this challenge.  I mean, I'm pushing myself.  I'm not cheating!  This means I gave up my beloved coffee creamer.  Black coffee is for the birds.  But I'm drinking it. People say I should mix some coconut oil and cinnamon in there, blend it up a bit.  Well let me tell you, I've got no time for that!  Can you tell I'm cranky?!  I'm drinking it black and I keep telling myself that I LOVE it.  
• The limited carbs (we're staying away from a lot of grains, highly processed crap) is actually going really well.  I thought I was a carb girl.  Turns out, I like carbs, but I'm doing ok with a limited amount.  Or maybe this is just one of the effects of the sugar withdrawal, I cannot totally understand what is happening to my body right now.  Regardless, I'm happy I'm not in carb withdrawal! 
• Sometimes I think about not having sugar and I get really mad, like resentful mad about this challenge.  I try to find someone to blame and think about reasons why I should have sugar.  It goes like this...."They don'y understand, they don't get it, don't you know that life is about balance and cake is part of that balance, I just want to be happy and having that piece of cake will make me happy".  Oh lord, I can't even believe I shared that.  First off, these thoughts are all product of my withdrawal right now.  I am really good at talking myself into bad things.  Really good!!!!!  Secondly, I don't even have cake in my house.  Although I've contemplated going to Costco and buying one of those delicious chocolate cakes. (I don't even have a membership, nor have I ever been there, I've just had the cake once!) There is a reason I signed up for this, and it wasn't to be mad!  So I switch my thoughts around and re-frame what's happening. This is only 8 weeks, there are indulgence points built into this challenge, so I know at some point I can have that dang chocolate cake (maybe I won't even want it at that point).  And I want to better myself, I want to learn more about why I eat what I do and how food impacts my body.  
• Having accountability is HUGE for me.  We check in everyday on our team page.  We share struggles, tips, ideas, etc.  We get points for completing things.  I'm very competitive, so although this is good for me right now, I can foresee this becoming a challenge in the future.....maybe! 
• Having my husband on board is AWESOME!  Had Brian not signed up for this with me, I would have cheated already.  I love having his support. 
• I am loving that I have to journal for 10 minutes a day.  I forgot how much I love to write and this reminded me.  Probably why I decided to blog about it on here actually.  So, thank WLC for "making" me journal.  I added a piece to my journal where I have to write down 5 things I am grateful for each day, 5 different things.  I'm loving it, it's helping my negative sugar withdrawal attitude!  

That's all for my reflections right now.  There will be more to come!   

Questions for you all:

Which do you prefer: carbs or sugar?

If you had to give up one, which would you give up?

And finally, I'll leave you with this.....or maybe this is more for me!

Mankato Marathon Recap!

I was up early on race morning. My little gal Charlotte was up a lot in the night, almost every hour. She was not feeling well at all. Thank goodness I got a great nights sleep the night before. I ate a great breakfast of oatmeal, a bagel with cream cheese and peanut butter, cup of coffee and a bottle of powerade.

Brian dropped me off at the start line around 7:40. I met up with my friend Molly who was running the half. It was great having a friend to wait with. I was very nervous at this point!

8 a.m. time to start!! I lined up with the 10:18 minute mile pacer. This would put me at a 4:30 finish. If my knee held up I knew I could make this goal.

Half a mile in: My knee is hurting. I know it's going to be hard. I figure I can run through it for as long as possible. What's the worst that could happen? I mean, legs don't just fall off.

I kept with the pace team for quite a while. I saw my friends Kris, Beth and Kaysie around mile 10. It was great seeing them! My knee at this point was killing me. I sent Brian a text telling him I hurt. I hurt very bad actually. I knew I would be seeing my family soon and I thought about how I was going to tell them I was done. I had made it 11, maybe 12 miles and I was done. I was still close to the pace team at this point. I turned a corner and saw my sister in law Erin, Jackson, Hunter and my nephew Chase. I wanted to cry. Then I saw the rest of my family. Instead if stopping I said, "my knee hurts bad" and just kept on running.

At this point I knew I couldn't stick with the pace team. I slowed down. It was windy and hilly. I have never been sui thirsty in my entire life. I drank two cups of water at every water stop. I ate energy chomps every three to four miles. Knee still feeling terrible.

Around mile 17 I saw my family again. My friend Beth ran with me for awhile. The wind was still awful! Thank goodness for my friends and family who were cheering me on.

Shortly after this I found myself running with two guys. They were super friendly, having a great time and giving me pointers. I ended up running most of the rest of the marathon with them.

Everything after mile 18 is foggy in my brain. I was tired and in pain. I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. And at some point I was at mile 25. And then mile 26.

As I came upon the finish I say my friend Kris. This awesome girl grabbed my hand and said "let's get you to your friends, they'll get you to the finish line". Kaysie and Beth were just ahead and ran with me until the finish chute.

Somehow I finished. I don't know how I did it. My knee hurt so bad. My body was so tired. I tried to eat a bagel chunk and had to spit it out because my mouth was so dry and I couldn't swallow! I can't explain the feeling I was having. I had just finished a marathon!!!

Mankato Marathon Pictures: KidsK and Race Expo Fun

I'm happy to share with you some of my memories from the Mankato Marathon! Here are some pictures from the KidsK and the race expo.  

Hunter is doing a little stretching before the KidsK!

Jackson needed to stretch too!

Jackson getting his medal.  Jackson and I ran together and he did great!

Hunter's turn.  Hunter ran like a champ.  Brian ran with him and I think Hunter tired his dad out!

The race expo had tons of fun games for the kiddos.  Here is Hunter taking a turn at the Angry Birds game.

Jackson had a blast on the rock climbing wall!

Jackson and his cousin Chase were excellent rock wall climbers.

I'll post more pictures and a race re-cap later in the week about the Marathon itself.  I think I'm still coming to terms with finishing that bugger!

Lots of checking in to do!

So far so good with the insanity journey!  I am still doing my workouts each and every day!  Here's just a short update of what I've been doing over the last week!

Thursday  4/25: Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.  I won't talk much about Pure Cardio since I've already talked about it a few times.  About 40 minutes of craziness just sums this one up!  Cardio Abs is a new one.  This is a shorter 20 minute workout just focusing on ab work, but no laying on the ground and doing sit ups or crunches.  Lots of jumping around and plank work.  There are some super hard jumps where you have to jump and get your knees as high as possible and touch them to your elbows.  This is hard!  You also do a lot of moves in the "C" position.  Looks like this:

My abs were shaking after doing tons of exercises in this position.  Eventually he makes you lift your legs off the ground and at this point I'm pretty sure my stomach muscles exploded out of my stomach!  Overall, the Cardio Abs is a great ab workout.  I liked it!

I also did a practice 5K for my upcoming race on Sunday.  It was SOOOO windy.  It was actually horrible.  It felt like the wind was coming at me at 50MPH the whole time.  I finished in 28:37, an average 9:13 minute mile.  I'm happy with that.  It's much faster than my usual pace, which is very surprising because of the dang wind.  Maybe insanity is helping my running pace :)


Friday 4/26: REST DAY and that is what I did....RESTED!

Saturday 4/27: Fit Test
Fit Test Results
                                     Day 1               Day 15
Switch Kicks                100                   108
Power Jacks                 41                     52
Power Knees                82                     94
Power Jumps                29                     38
Globe Jumps                 8                       11
Suicide Jumps               16                     20
Push Up Jacks              17                     22
Low Plank Oblique       67                     65

I did better in every exercise except the last one, low plank obliques.  I pushed really hard and I think my body was just too stinking tired to give anymore.  But overall I am very happy with my improvements and it's obvious by the numbers that Insanity is working :) 

Sunday 4/28: Today was supposed to be Cardio Circuit, but I skipped it because I ran a race and had a super fun family day!  (I did a separate blog post for the race recap)


Monday 4/29: Cardio Circuit (made up from yesterday!)  Since I'm writing this days after I did the workout I am struggling to remember this workout.  I honestly can't remember a thing about it!  Ha!  Oh wait, what I do remember is that I kept Hunter home from daycare (Jackson was at school) since I did not work today.  He was playing farm while I was working out.  He must have gotten bored because he started playing on top of his huge barn.  So for 35 minutes of my workout I heard, "Mom, Mom, Momma, Mom, Momma, watch me, Mom, Momma, watch me, Momma, Momma, Momma, watch me."  No joke, this kid said this the entire workout.  I would look at him and smile in an effort to show him that I was paying attention to him, but he would just keep saying "Momma, Momma, Momma!"  It is very hard to talk during my workouts and Hunter just doesn't quite seem to understand that eye contact, a smile and a head nod is confirmation that I am actually watching him.  So over and over I had to say, "Yes Hunter, Momma is watching."  Maybe this is why I don't remember the workout, because I was talking to Hunter 98% of the time!  

My workout was very much like this Family Guy Episode:

Tuesday 4/30: Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.  Before I did my workout I wanted to get in a little run.  I decided today that I would go out into the country.  Since we live right on the edge of town, it's easy to do.  I headed out and planned to do around 4 miles.  I thought I knew where I was going.  I thought the gravel road I was on would connect over to a familiar road which would take me back into town.  It did not.  At one point I had to stop and turn on my GPS on my phone to see where the road would connect.  It connected, in about 5 more miles!  So I turned myself around and followed my path back home.  My run ended up being almost 7 miles today!  It was hot and windy and I was tired at the end!  

I still had Insanity to do, so I hopped on it once I was home.  I had two hard ones to do; Pure Cardio and Cardio Abs.  What's another hour workout on top of my 7 mile run.  Oh Lord, was I tired!  I felt like Gumby.

Wednesday 5/1: Cardio Recovery.  I welcomed Cardio Recovery today.  This is a boring workout, but was much needed after my Insane workout day yesterday.  Usually I would do some sort of extra workout with Cardio Recovery since it is so "relaxed", but not today!  I took it easy the rest of the day!

Thursday 5/2: Cardio Power and Resistance: Today we had record snow falls.  I think it ended up being like 84 inches or something.  Just kidding, it was actually only 15.5 inches :)  Because of all of the wet/heavy snow that came so fast, the roads were terrible.  No travel was advised by MN DOT, so I followed their orders and stayed home from work.  So did Brian!  We had a fun family day with the kiddos which included, you guessed it....INSANITY!  Brian and I did Cardio Power and Resistance today while the boys played "construction".  I was VERY tired.  I could tell that I had eaten like crap.  I had some eggs for breakfast, which was good.  But it went downhill from there.  I had cake dip for snack and ice cream for lunch.  It was a snow day which in my book means a junk food eating day!  And let me tell you, I could tell that the junk food did nothing for me in terms of energy.  I was sluggish through the entire workout.  I just wasn't feeling it today.  So to make things better, we went out for supper and I had a margarita, a big greasy cheeseburger and fried kettle chips.  Mark that in the book for a spectacular eating day....BAM!  

Race Day Post

Spring Fling Diva Dash

Sunday 4/28: Before I did my Insanity workout today I had a little race to run!  I ran in the Spring Fling Diva Dash 5K in Rochester which supports Ovarian Cancer research.  It's an all women's race.  The weather was PERFECT!  

I was up early, had a little breakfast and was out the door, only to quickly return because I had forgotten my Garmin.  I have fears about running without that puppy.  She's like my best running friend.  We run everywhere  together!  So a quick turn around to get her and I was off.  Well fast forward two minutes and I look at her (I should probably name the Garmin!) and it won't turn on!  WHAT?  This has never happened.  Well it turns out after hours of stressing and trying to figure out how to turn it on that the battery was actually dead.  So disappointment sets in when I realize I wouldn't be running with her.  But that's ok, because I have RunKeeper on my phone which will pace me throughout the race, or so I thought!  

I set off running and the RunKeeper chimed in to tell me my pace, but not into my earbuds, but instead out loud, so everyone running by me could hear it.  And to make matters worse then my music would not play into my ear buds.  No one wants to hear my crazy weird selection of music nor do they want to hear my RunKeeper update me every couple minutes.  I decided at that point that I just needed to turn off the electronic devices.  Insert super sad face here!  So, my next best option to stay motivated, I picked a girl that looked to be running at a comfortable pace and I got behind her.  I could tell I was running a little faster than usual, but it felt good so I kept going.  When I crossed the finish line the clock read 27:20....WHAT?!!!  That would be my fastest race ever!    My official time ended up being 27:15 which is an 8:47 pace.  YIKES!  Blew myself out of the water on that one.  I still can't believe it!  I guess it just goes to show that I don't always need my Garmin or music to rock my run :)  

Next race: Stay out of the Sun Run on May 17th.  I've signed up for the 10K for this one.  This race supports Skin Cancer research which is something that is near and dear to my heart as my dad passed away from skin cancer.