Half marathon training week 1!

I'm finally on my 1/2 marathon training plan!! To be honest it's pretty intimidating. I keep looking ahead to weeks 13 and 14 wondering how the heck I'm ever going to accomplish something like that... This sure is quite the undertaking. I can only pray that I continue to stay motivated, healthy, and that my health/weight continue to head in the right direction!

The plan: 
I chose a 16 week training plan that I got off of Garmin Connect. The workouts are sent right to my GPS watch so it tells me exactly what to do right on my wrist. What I love about this plan is that it includes so much more than running. I'll be cross training, lifting, and even doing some swimming and pilates! I figure this program will help me get on track to becoming a well-round athlete ( <---- did I just say ATHLETE!?) by the time this is all said and done.

The first week: 

Day 1: Cross training- 30 minutes! I ended up on the Arc Trainer :) that thing is HARD!

Day 2: Easy run

- Run, easy pace, 30 minutes

- Cool down, 5-10 minutes

- Stretch 

Day 3: Cross training - I got myself over to a "Core & More" fitness class that really kicked my butt

Day 4: Easy run - Same run as day 2, but I was SORE from the day before. I was SO HAPPY to make it to rest day! 

Day 5: REST DAY !!! *Today actually :) I'm planning on going to the gym with a book to do some easy walking. Trying to hit my step goal 30 days in a row! Oh, and a sauna will probably be happening too! 

Day 6: Pilates - I plan on heading over to The Balanced Life youtube channel and doing the first four videos in the Pilates Summer Series! Each video is 5-10 minutes long so it's totally doable!  

Day 7: Run - This was actually listed as 'long run' on my plan which is funny because it's actually shorter than the others! The plan is to bump up the speed a bit :) 

- Walk, brisk pace, 10 minutes

- Run, easy pace, 20 minutes 

- Cool down, 5-10 minutes

- Stretch

So far I'm loving this plan and feeling great! :) thanks everybody for your support and love! 106 days to go! 

Looking back, moving forward

Looking back, 2014 was a huge year for me. I finally took control of my health and started moving (literally) in the right direction. I lost over 80lbs, gained countless relationships, and accomplished tasks I once thought impossible. Sure, I struggled... but I pushed through. Now that the new year is here it's time for those new challenges and resolutions. 2014 was probably the first time I was aware of my goals throughout the whole year and I truly attribute that to this blog and my few followers keeping me accountable. Even though I didn't accomplish all my goals within the year, giving up is no longer an option for me. I will acknowledge my accomplishments, move the goals I didn't reach in 2014 to the '2015' list, and add a few more for good measure. :-) Thank you all for your endless support and love.

Looking back: Accomplished in 2014

- ran a mile without stopping 1/16/14

- lost 50lbs 2/19/14

- I am no longer morbidly obese 2/24/14

- raced another 5k 4/12/14

- ran 5 miles without stopping 5/31/14

- lost 70lbs 7/11/14

-  Stopped shopping in the plus size department 8/10/14

- moved 365 miles in 2014 8/25/14 

Looking forward: 2015 goals 

- lose 85 lbs

- lose 100lbs 

- Reach 'potential' goal weight of 150 *121lb loss

- Hit my step goal continuously for 30 days in a row 

- Run a mile in under 10 minutes
- Race my first 10k 

- Race my first 1/2 marathon
- Complete Jillian Michaels 30 day shred 

- RUN 712 miles in 2015

- Complete a beachbody 'Piyo' program 

- Get out of the obese category

 - Get out of the overweight category

Again thank you so much for everything. I can't wait to see what 2015 has to offer. This is MY YEAR! 

"Enjoy the journey, fight for the finish" - Me

When coffee fell from heaven...

Some days it takes having too much of a bad thing for your body to finally let your brain know how bad it is for you. It's a well known secret by many of my friends that I struggle with sugar. I love it. It is probably one of the main reasons I gained so much weight in the first place. When I made the choice to have bariatric surgery I was told that there was a good chance my body wouldn't tolerate sugar anymore. After praying and praying for that it be the case it had seemed like my wish didn't come true. I seemed like I had a sleeve (my post surgical stomach) of steel that could tolerate whatever I put into it (as demonstrated by my last post where I ate tons of holiday treats). Today I learned otherwise. Sugar in a liquid form is the devil....

I have been enjoying my expensive coffee drinks quite frequently lately but I go for the sugar-free version. I did this to avoid the large amounts of calories that usually go along with these types of drinks. Well today when Micah and I went out for coffee I saw that the 'special' was an eggnog latte. Sounds amazing right!! Goodness that tasted like a piece of holiday heaven. However about 15 minutes after the cup was drained the nausea started to settle in.  I became dizzy, my heart started racing and I just felt sick sick sick. Turns out sugar in the liquid form moves through your system much faster which gave me minor case of dumping syndrome.

With all the talk about how artificial sugars are horrible for you I had been considering turning away from them. After today my body made it perfectly clear what it prefers.

Sugar-free for me!

Shame

Today was rough. Really rough. It started out well. I woke up, had my shake, then went to work. They were having a holiday party and I had a brilliant plan to only pick out one treat to have.

Before I knew it I had a full plate, and kept going back for more during the 3+ hours I was there. It's like that old fat person just came right back out and decided that stuffing my face was worth any consequences that it may have...

The rest of the day just spiraled down from there. I felt sick, depressed, and lost all motivation that I had for the day. I was ashamed. After all the hard work that I've done over the last year it's scary how quickly the old me can come back. The head games are real.

Sorry for the negative post but I am so sick of hearing how if you have weight loss surgery weight loss will be so easy and it will just fall right off. I've worked my butt off in the gym, refused my favorite foods countless times, and it's not like that is easy. I have the ability to stuff my face like today all the time. I CAN eat crap and I can eat plates full of it. If I give up today I could easily gain back all of the weight I've lost in the next few months.

It's days like this where I have to pick myself back up and start again tomorrow. I've come too far to give up.

Tomorrow is a new day.

December Goals

1. Complete my first Project10 Challenge

2. Complete all 30 days of the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred

3. Give PiYo a shot and start working on my flexibility

4. Don't be afraid of strength training

5. Use swimming as 'active recovery' instead of doing nothing when I'm sore


Short and simple. :-)

Moda VoxBox from Influenster!

Hey all!

I've been pretty quiet lately, but I can assure you things are still going strong! I haven't eaten the best over the holiday but thankfully the in-laws have a treadmill that I can use whenever I want!

I'm dropping in tonight to share this awesome VoxBox that I got recently from Influenster! (<- invite link) For those of you who don't know Influenster is a really sweet website where you review products and post about them to social media. Occasionally, they even send you a box of free (often full size!) products to review! This is called a VoxBox. I have been lucky enough to receive a good handful of these boxes and am excited to share my latest one with you. This has to be the best one yet!

Contents of the box:

- Rimmel London Scandaleyes Rockin' Curves Mascara

- Rimmel London Moisture Renew Lipstick (red)

-  Rimmel London Moisture Renew Lip liner

- Puffs Softpack

- Jergens Ultra Healing Extra Dry Skin Moisturizer

- Resource Natural Spring Water

- Hair Food Moisture Hair Mask + Coupon!

- Packet of Swiss Miss Simply Cocoa + Coupon!


Pretty awesome box of free stuff huh?! I can honestly say that I enjoyed testing every single product.

My favorite things by far were the hair mask and the cocoa. The hair mask smelled simply amazing and actually did a decent job taming this wild mane that I have going on here. Sadly it can only be found at Target so I haven't gotten a chance to use the coupon yet (nearest Target is 100+ miles away) ....but next time I head into Marquette I plan to try out Hair Food's line of shampoo and conditioner too! The Simply Cocoa was also amazing. I loved that it only had 5 ingredients and it was a perfect thing to come inside to after a few hours of shoveling.

The part of this box that I wasn't too excited for was the make-up. I'm not a big make-up person to start with so I felt pretty clueless. I even ended up googling how to use lip liner. Overall it just wasn't 'me'. The color made me feel silly and the lashes were a bit TOO big. This could totally be because I'm a make-up newbie and have to idea how to correctly apply these things, but either way I personally wasn't a fan.

The other contents of the box (the water, tissues, & lotion) were good products, but nothing to write home about. The water was good but I prefer my reusable water bottle over plastic and the tissues were.... tissues? I liked the lotion but the hubby was not a fan of the scent. Too bad because it felt great on my skin!

It was so much fun trying all these products! Thank you Influenster for the awesome box!


I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. All opinions are my own. 

My 1/2 marathon training plan

In case you missed it in my Project10 video I have recently come public with a very intimidating goal of mine to complete a 1/2 marathon in May of 2015. I'll be doing the Journey's Marathon in Eagle River, WI! It's the hubby's home town so it's the perfect location to visit. 

I have been spending a lot of time researching different training plans trying to figure out what would be the best for me. As of now I am not promising myself that I will run the whole thing. My goal is to finish, and if that requires a little walking along the way that is ok with me. However, if I were able to complete the race without walking that would be such an accomplishment! That being said my current plan is to train and plan to run the whole thing, but not to be disappointed if I don't! 

After a ton of research I think I have finally nailed down a solid plan. Starting now I will be working through my Couch-to-10k app three days a week. If I factor in missing a few days (probably due to snow storms) and a few repeat weeks, this should bring me into the middle of January. When I complete the Couch-to-10k program I will be at a point where I can run 60 minutes without stopping (or having to rest for a week afterwards), which is exactly where I want to be when I start my official 1/2 marathon training!! 

I have chosen an 18 week training program off the Garmin training site. This program not only includes 3 runs a week, but cross-training, Pilates, and body-weight exercises! Even if I am not able to run the whole 13.1 miles by the end of it at least I know I'll be a well balanced individual. I have also decided to invest in a Garmin Forerunner 220 to help me with my training at this point. It's a GPS watch so I can track my pace, distance, and time.Best of all I will be able to download my training program from Garmin's website onto the watch so the watch will give me alerts on when to run/walk/rest etc! I am so excited to have this nifty tool. 

Well there you have it! As of now I am super motivated and excited to embark on this couch to 13.1 plan! I'll be sending in my registration soon so I will have NO OPTION to back out! I'm sure the upcoming winter will give me quite the challenge, but I think I can do it!

P.S. Anybody looking for a running buddy?

Have a fabulous Sunday!