7.31.2011

Another month in the books

It's July 31st and it seems like a good time for reflection. How are your fitness goals going? I am happy with my progress during July. I have stuck to my workout calendar and continued with healthy eating. And more good news to report....I have lost 4 pounds. It doesn't sound like much but for me it feels wonderful. I have struggled with the scale for months now. No matter what I do, the scale doesn't move. I think the increased workouts have helped. And using a calorie counter has kept me below my daily calorie goal. I'm glad I have made progress this month. August, I'm ready for you!



I'm looking forward to doing a 5k on the 20th. Time to amp up my training. I'm more worried about the heat than anything. It can get dangerously hot and humid here in Tennessee during August. I'm also used to running on the treadmill. I'm doing this race with my hubby and it will be our first event together. We are trying to figure out how we will deal with our pace differences. We will probably alternate walking and running on this one, since it's our first. I am very excited about this!

I can tell such a huge difference in how I feel since I've been working out more. I can breathe better, I sleep better and I have more energy to make it through long workdays. That alone is motivation to keep it up. I hope I can remember that if I ever start slacking off!

It's time to plan my weekly meals and workouts. Failing to plan is planning to fail....

I'm loving my life!


7.30.2011

I Welcome the Weekend

It's been a long week for me. So I welcome the weekend with open arms. Do you have some exciting plans? I need to rest up for a busy upcoming week. And believe it or not, school starts back this week. Where did the summer go? I suppose back to school shopping should begin soon. I don't have little ones, but a teenager in high school. So I don't have to get the markers, fiskars scissors, and crayons. For my kid, buying new clothes will be on her agenda. Thank goodness Tennessee has a Tax Free Weekend beginning August 5th.

First things first....it's time for some cardio. Zumba, Body Pump or Tae Bo? Let me decide.





Here is my weekly report. I was successful in sticking to my exercise schedule and healthy eating plan for the week. I was able to get some good workouts in and I kept my food log every day. I've been able to stay under my daily calories goal, even if that means adding a cardio workout in the evening. Seriously, I haven't had any problems staying within my limits. In fact, some days I have had trouble eating enough calories. My Fitness Pal has helped me stay on track and I love it.

Last night, I had my monthly massage at Massage Envy. What a wonderful way to end a stressful week!  There's not much better than a massage followed by a glass of Merlot on a Friday night. I slept like a baby.


Now, it's time for me to get started with my cardio. I hope your weekend rocks!

7.24.2011

My Fitness Pal

I recently got a new Android phone and I'm loving it. It took a little while to get used to, especially the touch screen. I love the apps. I started using a calorie counter app, called My Fitness Pal over the weekend. I think I'm gonna like this. I like that adding foods is easy and I can keep up with how many calories I have left for the end of the day. It also tells me if I have satisfied the requirements for carbs, proteins and fats. I also like that this reminds me to exercise too. It's much easier to use this app than to log in to websites I've used in the past or jotting down info in a notebook.

I'm hoping that by using this tool, I'll be able to keep track of my eating easier and hopefully find out why I haven't had much success in the past in dropping more than a pound or two. I know its easy to eat/drink more than I'm aware of and that is probably the case. Wish me luck!

 It's going to be a busy week for me, so I'm taking this time to schedule my workouts and plan out my meals for the week. The weekends go by so fast! Have a great week everyone!

7.23.2011

Zumbathon

What a fun morning! I enjoyed working out and supporting Cystic Fibrosis at the same time. Now my workout is done and I have the rest of the day to enjoy with my family. After having a migraine for 2 days, I was worried about being able to participate in this. Thank goodness I feel so much better today! :)


7.22.2011

Fish Tacos for dinner :)


Healthy eating - PMS gets in my way

I'm frustrated. I am trying to figure out the reasons and find solutions for my unhealthy eating during PMS. I have been keeping a food journal and have found that I stay on track pretty well except for a few exceptions. The times I struggle are the afternoons during the workweek and the week I suffer with PMS.

The afternoons at work are usually easier to deal with. I keep healthy snacks at work and actually choose those over a piece of candy or sweet treat. I have also found that chewing sugar free gum helps some also.

The second one is another story. It seems like I am almost a little crazy during PMS week. Even if I have healthy food in the house or at work, I do not want that. I want something with little or no nutritional value, like Oreo's or chocolate cake.


I do not like this and I do not want to give in to these cravings. I understand its all about the hormones and being an older woman doesn't help me either. (by older, I only mean that I'm not in my 20's.) I'm determined to find a way to overcome this feeling of frustration.




I do find that exercising during this week helps me feel better. I just wish I didn't get these food cravings when I am doing so well at eating healthy. I'm going to continue keeping my food journal and see how my moods affect my eating. I'm not a dietician or nutritionist, so this will be a challenge for me.

7.19.2011

Body Pump

I was looking forward to a good workout on Monday after work. I went to the gym soon as I got off work. After running for 35 minutes on the treadmill, I decided I needed a change. My ankle began giving me problems, AGAIN....so since I was at the gym I thought I would try a class. I decided to try the Body Pump class. I wanted to so something to give my ankle a break.


I was afraid at first to go in. I've never done this before and didn't want to look like an idiot. The class was almost ready to start when I went in and I noticed the others already had their equipment ready.  As quickly as possible, I went to the equipment closet and grabbed what I thought I needed. I tried to look like I belonged there.

I also tried to not go overboard on using heavy weights since this is my first time. I don't want to be terribly sore afterwards. For the first few sets, I used hand weights instead of the barbell. As I got more comfortable with the class, I switched to a barbell with light weights.

I surprised myself and was able to finish the class (without passing out) and enjoyed it. Now I'm glad that I have experienced Body Pump and hope to do this class once a week at least. I'm not letting my ankle problems take over. If I can't run as much as I want, I'll switch to some other cardio exercise. I'm not giving up!

What changes do you make when injuries get in your way for fitness?

7.16.2011

Hotter Than Hades Virtual Half - Ready, Set, GO!

July 15 begins the Hotter than Hades Virtual Half Marathon. I was anxious to get to the gym to get some miles in. I printed off my race bib from their website, but I didn't wear it at the gym.

My race bib!
I had the best running interval workout in weeks! I was so proud of myself. For the last few weeks, I have had terrible foot/ankle pain when running. I started off wearing an ankle brace, but removed it after the first interval. It's very uncomfortable on the bottom of my foot. Usually when doing the intervals, I am fine for the first few but then I get tired or the pain starts. This didn't happen today. I guess this is why runners run. Everyone has bad days but you keep running for the good days. I ran 2.5 miles in 40 minutes and cooled down on the stationary bike for about 20 minutes. It was a great workout! Now, I'm able to log 2.5 miles for the virtual half.

After cooling down, I came home to spend time with my family. I had a glass or two of Merlot and we played Rock Band, one of our favorite family activities. Here is my rocker daughter....
Rocking out!
We are fortunate that we don't really have any plans for the weekend. I welcome that after two weekends of constant activities. Of course, we will do more than be lazy....workouts, family time, back to school shopping, and church will be included. But it's so nice to know we are not on a schedule.

I hope you have a great weekend!

7.14.2011

Challenge - Virtual Half Marathon

While browsing on Twitter last night I came across this cool challenge for the summer. It's the Hotter-than-Hades-virtual-halfmarathon. What a cool way to connect with others in my goal of staying fit and training for the 5k's I will do later this year. I almost signed up for a half marathon myself, but I feel I need to successfully complete several 5k's first. This way I don't have to do all 13.1 miles at once, but have a month to complete it. Awesome!! Click the link above for the details and join me! Be looking for posts on my progress for the next 30 days.

7.13.2011

Wednesday's Workout

I planned on going to the gym today after work. I packed my bag and took it to work as usual. I tend to have more success when I change clothes before leaving the office. Workout clothes - check. MP3 player - check. Running shoes - Oh no! I left them at home. So, since I had to go home for my shoes, I decided to do a Taebo workout there. My legs were very sore today from doing squats and weights a few days ago. I'm sure I groaned every time I got out of my office chair. I was hoping the kicking and punching would help my legs.

First, I did a cycling workout on my bike for 20 minutes to loosen up. Then I popped in a DVD. This time I chose an abs workout.
Taebo DVD
It was a very intense and exhilarating workout. Great choice!

I didn't really have dinner, so for my after workout snack, I had a multi grain waffle with peanut butter instead of syrup and a glass of Silk light. Yummy!

After workout snack


I'm glad I'm back on track with my workouts. It feels good to update my Active.com calendar and post on Daily Mile on my progress. I'm starting to see muscle toning that I hadn't noticed before. Even though it is almost impossible for me to get the scale to move, these little details are what keep me going! I'm not giving up.

Now it is time for a detox bath and a little relaxation. Ahhh!

7.11.2011

Fitness First

It's Monday and I'm back on the fitness kick! I signed me and my hubby up for a 5k together. Its the Fenton Payne & Fred 5k Run in my town on August 20th. I'm thrilled that he wants us to do this together. I better get back to my running training. After a busy week in the office last week and a class reunion weekend, its time to get back to the gym.


For some reason, I've been stressed out at work today. I even had to shut my office door for several hours. I look forward to getting to the gym tonight. A good sweat session always makes me feel better!

I went home for lunch and had a BIG salad with romaine, carrots, a cucumber and sunflower seeds. I also had an applesauce cup with it. Very tasty! After a weekend of eating too much, a fresh salad was just what I needed. I'm also on track with drinking water today.



How is your Monday so far?

7.10.2011

Class Reunion - Part 2

On Saturday, I met with my fellow classmates for a picnic in the park. We rented a pavilion, and we brought food to share. We had barbeque, fried chicken, potato salad, fixins, desserts and plenty of fruit tea. We met around 3:00 in the afternoon to eat, drink, talk and visit with each other and their families. It was very hot outside. I think I started sweating as soon as I arrived. It's a good thing I didn't spend a lot of time on my hair and makeup. But the pictures didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, since I was so sweaty!

Class of '86 group picture
My friend, Todd and my mom - she had to crash the party!

It was a fun day. We are such a very small group and most of us have kept in touch over the past 25 years. We are still good friends. I guess that is the good thing about going to a small christian school. The friendships we made have lasted through the years. We can sit down together every 10 years or so and pick up where we left off. We did talk about doing a reunion soon to include other classes as well. This would be good since we are such a small class. I brought my senior yearbook along and we enjoyed looking back at the outlandish fashion we wore. It was funny!


Now that the reunion is over, its time to think about the upcoming week and plan my schedule. I have been so preoccupied with the reunion planning, that I didn't complete as many workouts last week that I would have liked. I also didn't get to workout this weekend.  But tomorrow is a new day. My goals for the upcoming week are to workout at least 4 times, to eat a balanced, healthy diet, and to save time to spend relaxing alone. That's a very do-able plan.


Have a great week!

7.09.2011

Class Reunion Weekend!

It's time for our 25th year class reunion! It's hard to believe its been that many years. Surely we can't be that old! I went to high school at a small private school and attended there K-12 grades. Our class had 13 graduates!


We were a close group and look forward to our reunions. Unfortunately, somehow I was put in charge of planning. Don't these people realize I am not a planner? Anyway, somehow it all came together. And most everyone is more concerned with spending time with each other instead of what we are doing.

On Friday night, we had dinner at Maple Street Grill. This is one of my favorite local places. We had a nice dinner and enjoyed conversations as we reminisced about high school days. After dinner, a few of us stayed at the lounge upstairs, Uncorked. It has a very nice, intimate atmosphere. There were tables gathered around the bar area with candles and a very nice selection of music playing. I enjoyed a pomegranate sangria, well maybe 2. I took a few pictures.



We laughed so much it hurt!

You will notice my Sangria on the table. It was yummy!

On Saturday, we are planning a picnic at a local park where we will bring food and enjoy the day together. More people will attend this event and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone. I'll update this in another post.




It is so much fun getting together with old friends and finding out what they are doing now. I even think my hubby enjoyed himself. He got to hear stories of our high school days and things about his crazy wife that he didn't know.

7.05.2011

Fourth of July weekend - Food, Family & Fun

It was a nice long weekend. I spent lots of time with my hubby since we are celebrating the anniversary of our first date. On Friday, I took a vacation day off work and had lunch with John. Before our fun began, I went to the gym and had a good workout. I did a walk/run workout. I usually limit my treadmill workouts to 30 minutes, but I pushed myself and did 45 minutes. I walked more than I ran, but with my recent ankle/foot problems, I thought this was a wise decision. I'm glad I didn't slack off too much over the long weekend on my fitness goals.

We went to lunch at Pisghettis restaurant in our town. The place we met for our first date is no longer in business, but after some careful checking, John found that this place was owned by the same people that owned our place. We decided to "recreate" our first date as close as possible, so we did lunch instead of dinner. We had a nice lunch and decided to head down to the Murfreesboro square for Friday night live music.

That was a lot of fun. We took lawn chairs and sat outside to listen to the music for an hour or so.

We started getting hungry so from there we headed to one of our favorite barbeque places, Nobody's Sports Grill. I had a margarita and a pulled pork sandwich with sweet potato fries. Mmmm. Very good.



John surprised me with tickets to Motley Crue & Poison in Nashville for Sunday night. I love 80's music and this was awesome.




On the 4th of July, I was very glad to sleep late. It feels so nice to be able to relax without worrying about deadlines. After waking up, I decided to do a Taebo workout.


Power. Strength. Energy. It was exhilarating! After my workout, we decided to invite my mom over for a cookout. We had steaks and hot dogs along with a salad I threw together. She stayed over for most of the afternoon and we sat on our deck to watch the fireworks display from our neighbors. It was nice to enjoy the show without having to pay for it!

Spending time with family is one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy spending time with everyone and relaxing!
I hope your holiday weekend was fun, also. Now it's time to get back on track with work, eating healthy and working out.

7.03.2011

Meeting the man of my dreams - Part 2

After chatting for long hours for a few weeks, we finally got up enough courage for a phone call. We were contemplating meeting for our first date. I called John on the 4th of July. I remember calling him once before but he was not at home, so I left a message with his roommate. It's funny how nervous I was just thinking about hearing his voice for the first time. My roommate, Stacy and I took my kids to the lake for a relaxing day. I was nervous the entire day just thinking about meeting this guy.

We talked on the phone briefly to plan our date. He lived a few hours away but he agreed to drive to my town to meet. We decided to meet on July 6, a Saturday. He was familar with the Ramada Inn because he had been there before for baseball card shows. So that's where we decided to meet. I remember it took me such a long time to get ready for this date. I changed clothes about ten times. I was having a bad hair day. I'm never satisfied with my appearance. What if he saw me and changed his mind?

I finally agreed on a casual outfit and headed out to the Ramada Inn. The drive there was only a few miles but it seemed to take forever. I was still very very nervous, but also excited about seeing this guy for the first time.

I pulled into the parking lot and saw John in his truck immediately. I parked my car and got into his truck. I remember as I walked over to his truck, hearing him whisper, "nice". That was a good sign.

We decided to have a late lunch at one of my favorite places, Milano's Italian Restaurant. It was mid afternoon and the place was fairly empty. We were both very nervous about this day and didn't eat much. I was very glad to get the initial meeting over with. He was as nice as I had thought. Things were working out fine.

After lunch we talked about seeing a movie, but had several hours until it began so we went to my house for a while. My roommate and I shared a house and it was out of the city limits so I'm sure as John was following me there he was wondering, "where is this chick taking me"?

We wanted to see the movie, The Bourne Identity, but unfortunately it was sold out. We settled for Minority Report. I like Tom Cruise, so it sounded good. We found ourselves looking over at each other during the movie to exchange glances. How sweet!

After the movie, we went back to my house. Since John lives so far away and it was getting late, I suggested he stay the night (on the couch of course). I remember sleeping in my room and thinking how awesome it was for John to be sleeping just a few rooms down the hall from me. We had a great first date. I'm so glad I gave him a chance. I'm sure I'm leaving out some details, but it's hard to recall everything from 9 years ago.

After this initial date weekend, we began seeing each other every weekend. I longed for the time we could spend together. Since he lived a good distance away, we planned time together on the weekends. I was currently going to college and was laid off from my job during the summer, so I had enough time to spend time with my new guy. This was one of the best summer's in my life. We dated a while, moved in together a few months later, and became a couple.The rest is history.

John actually kept some of our "first" emails to each other. I wish I could have kept them too, but at the time, I had a MSN hotmail account and deleted it. So, all of my saved emails were deleted. :( Around this time of year, he usually forwards a few to me so I can relive the experience. That is such a thoughtful gesture! I love it. Its interesting to read the emails and see how nervous, insecure, and cute we were. Love that guy! I wish I had more pictures from our early years, but here are a few even though they are more recent. I think we are a good looking couple! Thanks, John for 9 years of love, laughter and fun. I'm looking forward to many more years with you.




7.01.2011

Meeting the Man of my Dreams - Part I


 We are nearing July 6, the anniversary of our first date. Our love story is so sweet. I feel the need to share it. During the month of June, 9 years ago, I received an email from John Lennon via Yahoo Personals. I had recently placed a personal ad because I was very frustrated in my search for that special someone. I was divorced with two young daughters, which didn't make dating easy. A few guys had contacted me but most were only interested in a one night stand or someone to have an affair with. I only agreed to meet a couple guys in person for a date. Those didn't work out for me. At this point, I didn't have too much faith in this personals thing.
A picture of my daughters a few weeks before meeting John

I read John's email and was intrigued. It is always exciting to receive an email regarding the personals ad. Its a much better feeling than NOT getting emails for your ad. His email was short and sweet and he sounded like a nice guy. I vividly remember reading his email. I was going to college and found myself in the MTSU library in between classes.I didn't respond to his email right away but I didn't delete it either. I didn't want to appear too anxious and I was busy with school. Should I respond and give this guy a chance?


I noticed that his email address had a different name than his signature. How weird, I thought. Especially since his signature was John Lennon. I remember asking about this when I replied to his email. I said, "Is John Lennon your REAL name?" For those of you that don't know who the Beatles are, this won't mean much to you. But if you do, you have heard that name before. Obviously, this was not the first time he was asked this question.  We joke about it now, but he doesn't care for people joking about his name. It's similar to the scene in Office Space, when Michael Bolton is being interviewed by the efficiency experts. If you haven't seen it, definitely check it out.

Now, back to the story. I found out that John is a pretty smart guy. He didn't use his real name as his Yahoo user name. So John Lennon, I think I'd like to get to know you.



We exchanged a few emails and pictures. I remember thinking, "Gosh, I sure hope he really looks like that. And I hope these pictures are recent, not an old photo that isn't an honest representation of himself." I'm sure he was thinking the same thing. That was one fear I always had when dealing with the personal ads. People would post pictures of themselves when they looked more attractive (like in high school), then when you meet them, you would be shocked.

This is one of the first pictures I sent him

After the initial emails, we agreed to meet via Yahoo Messenger - not in person just yet. For the next few weeks, I found myself at my computer screen at all hours of the night so I could chat with this guy I am so intrigued with.


To be continued...