Dreadmill Run

Pace: 18’59

Weather: Warm inside the gym

Distance: 2 miles

Monthly Total: 51.95 miles

I do not like running at the gym. UGH. I want to get a strength training program going again but I will not run on the dreadmill again at the gym. It was brutal and boring. nope. nope. nope. 

Springtime Tally 10k Training Group Run

Pace: 15’11

Weather: HOT

Distance: 2.27 Miles

Monthly Total: 49.95

This was my fastest mile, and i even walked a little of it. OMG. There is a goal smashed into the ground as I run all over it. 

Split:

Mile 1: 14:22

Mile 2: 16:15

Mile .27: 14:15

Letter to Myself E.11

You have been slacking this last week on your runs. You tried to get out and do them, just not hard enough. You are going to have to rely on other people to watch Ryker so that he isn’t stuck in a stroller the whole time that you have to run. You are excited to start a training program with the Gulfwinds Track Club this week.  

You got a new fridge this weekend. That is one way you know you are an adult, excitement over new appliances. You have lots of healthy foods in there now. It is a great way to start your healthy, vegan lifestyle.

I’m so proud of you for telling Trav about you dietary choice. He only made one joke last night about where you are going to get protein from. Maybe you can make a list and put it on the new fridge. You brought this up in an adult manner instead of telling him how things are going to happen. You told him this is a choice you are making for yourself and he can join you or not. If he is going to want meant at dinner then he is going to have to make it. He sounded ok about making vegan dinners for your family. It will be nice for everyone to eat more veggies during the day. 

Plans for the week:

• begin training for the 10k
• plan out dinners for the week
• pick up packet (Saturday)
• get enough sleep (Saturday night)
• Race time (Sunday morning)

Why Vegan?

Many people are wondering why have I decided to go vegan. This is where I am going to explain it to you. I am currently in a weight loss journey. I have done so many different diet and none of them have really kept the weight off. Yes, I did lose some here and there but I regained it back plus some once I stopped doing that diet. I have been reading a book called Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman M.D. which has shed some light on why I should go vegan. He talks about all the things that meat does to the inside of your body. It all sounded really bad and I am worried that I may not have changed my lifestyle in time to completely eliminate those disease from me. I am mostly vegan for the health reasons but the cruelty to animals has also been shown to me in the true light. I watch a video on youtube by Gary Yourofsky where he gives his speech about being vegan. It was very empowering and made a lot of sense to me.

I want to lose weight in a healthy manner while eating the most nutrients that I can. A vegan diet is going to allow me to get all of my nutrients that we as a human species are designed to. I am not here to preach to you about how you should go vegan. You can scan the rest of the internet to look for that. I am hear to give you insight into my journey to go vegan and living in a house divided; meaning my husband and son are not vegan.

Dinner Experiment

I did an experiment at dinner tonight. I did it because I mostly haven't told my husband I have gone vegan and because I actually wanted to see how meat, cheese and even ice cream made me feel after I ate them.

The Little Things V.1

This is the first time I have done this installment of my blog. I am trying to get my week wrapped up in this post. I hope to do these every week now. It is where I will post the instagram pictures that I want to share with you guys. Once Ryker really starts talking I will probably add some of his quotes. I might talk about the things we did that didn’t really get some talk in during the week.

This week has been amazing. We have had a few good nights where we can just sit as a family together. Here is a picture of us watching the Goodnight Show on Sprout. He always seem to have a good time together as a family. Ryker is talking so much now that we have started speech therapy. I am excited to get this cleft palate surgery past us and move on with everything.
He is starting to interact more with technology and games. He has a few games on the iPad that he can comprehend but there isn’t a ton of them. H really likes to sit with his puppy dog in the morning. He thinks they are best friends, she has other opinions.

Throwback Thursday 02

I was Columbia for a friends halloween birthday party in 2006. Her party theme was Rocky Horror Picture Show. My mom made my entire outfit. 

My Dinner; First Vegan Dinner

• Whole Grain Brown Rice

• Chick Peas cooked in a curry spice mix

• Sautéd brussels sprouts

Dinner was absolutely delicious. Travis didn’t even care that there wasn’t any meat. Ryker, on the other hand, didn’t care to much for it all and ate blueberries instead. 

Finally made a appointment for my yearly physical

I haven’t had a physical since I gave birth to Ryker almost 2 years ago! I have lots of things to discuss with her at this appointment too. 

• diet change

• exercise plans (running)

• emotions

• anger issues

Half W3D3 Training: Long Run

Pace: 20:12

Distance: 8.92 Mi

Weather: sunny

Monthly Total: 47.23 miles

Splits:

Mile 1: 19:33

Mile 2: 18:30

Mile 3: 19:03

Mile 4: 21:12

Mile 5: 21:12

Mile 6: 21:34

Mile 7: 20:42

Mile 8: 20:45

Mile .92: 19:13

Feel the Burn; Long run down the St. Marks Trail

This weeks weigh-in was short and sweet. Just mom and I because almost everyone else was out of town. My mom lost 10 pounds over these last two weeks and she looks amazing. I was to try and show you a before and after/during of her. I, on the other hand, gained 4 pounds. It didn’t help that I ate lunch before weighing in, plus the fact that Flo has come for a visit this week. UGH.

After the weigh-in I invited mom to go do my miles with me. I needed to get 9 in and she thought she’d only be able to manage 2. Uh, my mom is a badass because she stomped out 6 miles. 

My friend KT, http://puhpuhprinceharry.tumblr.com/, joined me though. You’ve seen a lot of her because we are going through our running journeys together. I think we did a really awesome job with out run. I know I am proud of us!

Letter to Myself E.10

You have been doing amazing as you train for your half marathon. Especially since you just began your training at the beginning of the month. You are going to finish your first half marathon strong. Hopefully you will have all of your family and support there to cheer you on.

I'm so proud of you for deciding to turn your health around and make it a habit to eat healthy, nutritious foods. You may not have had a great weigh in this week but it you can stick with your new habits and lifestyle the weight will begin to melt away.

Something that you struggle with is keeping up with your home. You need to set goals to get things done around the house. It isn't fair that you get to stay home all day while your husband works. You have to get Ryker to somehow play by himself either in the living room or his bedroom.

Just keep up the amazing work you are doing now.

I weighed in today

I gained about 4 pounds but Flo has come around so there is that. I was proud of my mom though, she lost 10 pounds in two weeks. GO MOM! I think I will have a better weight drop at the next weigh in because Flo wont be around. 

After we weighed in, we drove to a trail that is popular in town and walked down it. I did my 9 miles today and my mom did 6 miles! Wahoo. Mom is on a roll now. 

My feet are killing me right now. While I was walking the mid-part of my foot was hurting a lot. Not quite to the ball of my foot and not at the arch either. 

Starting my new habits tomorrow. I am going to keep track of everything on MFP and with what I’ve been tracking recently I am going to be under my calories most of the time I think. 

If you have any advice on getting through the withdraws I will be experiencing this week send them my way or just some kinds words would be great!

Throwback Thursday 01

Here is a picture from high school, 10th grade to be exact. This is me posing with a cousin in Atlanta at a cheerleading competition. At this point I was driving and my mom didn’t really have a control in what I was eating. That is kind of where food became and addiction. I miss cheering tumbling. I was really good at it too. I was able to do a full before I decided to not try out for my senior year of high school. I always wonder how different things would be if I had stuck with cheering my senior year and conquered more of my tumbling dreams. 

Half W3D2 Training-NSV

Today was really amazing. As you may know I hit a fitness goal today of running a whole mile without stopping. Yep, this is one happy girl right now. 

1. Pace: 18:35
2. Weather: WINDY
3. Distance: 5.36 miles
4. Monthly total: 38.21 miles

My Splits:

• Mile 1: 14:37
• Mile 2: 22:06
• Mile 3: 18:45
• Mile 4: 19:24
• Mile 5: 17:44
• Mile .36: 19:35

Half W3D1 training

1. Pace: 20’11
2. Weather: 71 degrees and cloudy
3. Distance: 3.5 Miles
4. Monthly total: 32.85 Miles

This went really great. I started out running down my moms street and I usually can’t make it all the way down. I went all the way down her road and halfway down the next road without stopping. I was trying to go for a while mile but I was about 1/4 of a mile shy of not running. I have to stop at the 1/2 mile mark but then I ended my first mile strong. 

• Mile 1: 17:32
• Mile 2: 23:12
• Mile 3: 20:30
• Mile .5: 18:49

I had to stop in my moms house and use the bathroom during my run. While I was there I realized that I am chaffing pretty badly. I put baby powder on it and went on trucking. When I got back around to her street I realized I couldn’t keep going with how bad I was chaffing. I was a mile short of my goal miles for due to my lack of proper shorts for fat girls. 

Half W2D3 Training

1. Pace: 19’35
2. Weather: warm but not too warm.
3. Distance: 8.14 miles
4. Monthly Total: 29.35 miles

I got up on time and was pretty nervous about this run because once I got to a specific road there really wasn’t going back. just after mile 1 I started to get some really back shin splints. I almost turned around, actually I did and walked a couple steps but those steps down hill felt great. I knew I only have a few more up hill struggles but everything else would be mostly down hill. I am so glad that I kept on going. 

• Mile 1: 19’33
• Mile 2: 22:26
• Mile 3: 19:30
• Mile 4: 20:23
• Miles 5: 18’01 (my fastest mile on this route!)
• Mile 6: 19’10
• Mile 7: 18’48
• Mile 8: 18’38

after mile 6 things were so much better even though I was going through hills. I kept getting faster faster. I was pushing myself harder and harder. It felt really good. I am now excited about my half marathon and my time goal is to finish in 4 and a half hours. I just have to keep a 3 mph pace and I will be good for that!

Half W2D2

1. Pace: 20’
2. Distance: 2.5 mi
3. Weather: 75 degrees
4. Weekly Total: 13.66 miles
5. Monthly Total: 21.21 miles

This was a really bad run for me. I did however run all the way down a road that I have never been able to. So, that is a NSV!

Half W2D1

1. Pace: 18’57
2. Distance: 4.14 mi
3. Weather: 64 degrees
4. Weekly Total: 4.14 miles
5. Monthly Total: 18.71 miles

I met up with my friend at her apartment for this run. We even had two more girls run with us. It was good at first, we did half a mile without stopping. After that we did more walking than running but my pace was in the normal range for when I do my runs. I am so happy to have friends who are running with me. It makes me work harder then I would if I were to do a run solo. 

Half W1D1

1. Pace: 18’57
2. Distance: 4.14 mi
3. Weather: 64 degrees
4. Weekly Total: 4.14 miles
5. Monthly Total: 18.71 miles

I met up with my friend at her apartment for this run. We even had two more girls run with us. It was good at first, we did half a mile without stopping. After that we did more walking than running but my pace was in the normal range for when I do my runs. I am so happy to have friends who are running with me. It makes me work harder then I would if I were to do a run solo. 

Letter to Myself E.09

You did amazing this past week. You completed your training runs for the Half marathon. When you couldn’t get all the miles in one day you made sure to make them up. You did 7 miles yesterday. 7 miles. that is the furthest you have ever run. Look at all you’ve accomplished this week. You are doing so great. Starting off the year in the right mind set and going to have so much happen this year that you have no idea how excited you are going to get. You have found something that you can truly say you enjoy. I am already so proud of you that you are just going to sky rocket off the proud charts!

Half W1D3: Long Run

Ran 7 miles today. I was worried about my time being slower than the last 7 I did but I keep telling myself not to care about that. I am really excited about this half marathon that I am training for. I am just going to go out there and run. I hope to forget that I am in a race but instead out for a fun run with my cousin. I am truly finding out how far I can push myself. 

1. Pace: 19’10
2. Weather: cloudy and cold
3. Distance: 7.02 miles
4. Weekly Total: 7.02 Miles
5. Monthly Total:  14.57 Miles

2013 Goals

Personal

• don’t get angry so easily
• laugh more
• learn self control

Health

• run 365 miles in 365 days
• lose 50 pounds by my birthday (Oct. 18)
• become flexible again through Yoga