Operation Red Bikini

First of all, woo hoo for Christmas!
It was great fun and I am so glad that it is over. 
I get so exhausted around Christmas time, plus I enjoyed myself and ate, a LOT.
No regrets though, it all tasted wonderful. 
I am a little sad that I am out of the LastLoserStanding challenge though since I gained back two pounds, oh well.

  I still have Operation Red Bikini!
Thanks Kassie and Leigh Ann for putting together this challenge!

 

And

 These jeans are my red bikini

I know I live in the hot lands of southern Arizona but I still wear jeans all summer long. 
So come May 31th I am going to be sporting these beautiful Citizens of Humanity jeans. 
They are my favorite pair of jeans, when I was thin enough for them to actually fit they were so comfortable.  I haven't been able to wear them for almost 3 years. 
I want to fit into this bikini pair of jeans so badly.
It will happen. 
Watch out, you never know, maybe I will be too small for them come the end of May.
Wouldn't that be amazing. 


Onto New Years

I want to make a couple New Years Resolutions.
 I prefer to just call them goals though, I don't know why but calling them resolutions makes me all nervous. 
But I am having trouble deciding what I want them to be. 
I have all of my fitness ones, then I also would like to actually save some money this year, and I want to be a more purposefull (I know that isn't really a word but I haven't figured it out yet so bare with me) parent.
 I think I will post my resolutions goals once I pin them down. 


Happy New Year Everyone!!
 

Wednesday: weigh in day

The scale keeps going down! 

 

Slow but steady, I weighed in this morning at 175.2!

I hit 175!  I get to celebrate now right?! 

Except, no cause I am exhausted, I have been up all night with a sick bugger.  The stomach flu is so disgusting, especially when they are too little to get to a bucket fast.  I am going to celebrate by doing loads and loads of laundry.  Yeah!  Actually, I don't mind today, I mean come on, I only weigh 175.2.  Woohoo!!!
 

 

Also this week Melinda, my sister in law, and I are challenging ourselves to see if we can make it till Friday without sugar.  I don't know if I can do it.  I LOVE sugar.  That is why we are only trying to make it five days.  I can do five days...right?  I have made it two hopefully I wont cave before Friday. 

 

I am so very addicted to sugar. 

Pile On The Miles 2012

A quick update with my POTM total. 

 

 Are you ready? 

 

 I am still at 2.5 miles!

 

 Yep, I didn't go running after Monday last week.  I have had another stupid head cold and I hate running when I can't breath through my nose. 

 

Am I the only one like this? 

 

Do you run when you have a head cold? 

 

I just can't force myself, but I am feeling a lot better and could actually breath today so I hit the pavement running today.  I have to make up for a lot of missed mileage.  Wish me luck.  I am still aiming to hit that 50 mile goal. 

 

Watch out!
 

Pile On The Miles



 

It is time for the first "check in" of Pile On The Miles 2012. 

So here I am checking in.  Thing is, I sadly have nothing to check in.  November so far has been an incredibly busy/frustrating month. 

 

Thursday, the 1st, I overslept and was unable to go running, that was the beginning of a very busy day.  Friday, the 2nd, Jon left for work super early so once again I wasn't able to go running, I went to the gym and tried to run on the treadmill but after only half a mile I was BORED out of my mind.  (Hey, I guess I did half a mile, better then nothing)  Saturday was confusing, Jon was planning on taking the two big buggers camping but had to go work for two hours first so I thought that he was leaving super early again so I didn't set my alarm but he overslept throwing off the whole morning.  Wow, holy run on sentence batman!  Anyway, I ended up taking the kids to their soccer games, that I thought we were skipping, then they all left for camping.  Leaving me to not have gone running and now alone with two little children and no way to escape.  Ahhhh!  What a scary story.  Just kidding, I had a great weekend spending some one on one time with my two babies.  They are a lot of fun but I was not able to get any running in.  Props to all those single parents who are able to fit workouts in their schedules, I don't know how they do it. 

 

But I had a great run this morning, I was able to get in 2 miles.  I had talked with Jon last night and he was not leaving early today so I set two different alarms and I made sure to be up on time.  Now I only have to somehow run 47 1/2 more miles during the rest of November. 

 

 I can't wait to read how everyone else is doing with this challenge. 

 

Have a great week!

Pile On The Miles

I signed up for Pile On The Miles over at RunEatRepeat. 
 

 

Melanie @ 4Kottez blogged about how she signed up, I followed her link and decided that I wanted to take the challenge too.  My mileage goal for the month of November is 50 miles.  Some of the women who are participating have goals that just seem insane to me, there are a range of distance goals starting around 20 and going up to as many as 200 miles.  Seriously!  200 miles is incredible.  I can't wait to follow these women and be inspired by their ability.  Wow, I mean, 200 miles in a month!  I am just amazed by that distance.  I think that I am going to have to push it to make my 50 miles. 

Anyone else up to the challenge?  

My first real race

Man, I had every intention of posting this first thing Monday morning but Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and now almost all of Wednesday have come and gone and I still haven't posted.  This week has been nuts, fall break at the kids school equals a busy time for me. 

 

Back to the run. 

 

This past Sunday I ran in a fun run 3k.  I was super nervous and my only goal, which I am pretty sure I mentioned before, was to run this nonstop.  I didn't care what my time was, well, we should say that I never verbalized that I cared what my time was.  I had a number in my head that I really, REALLY wanted to beat but I guess I didn't want to get greedy and I knew that just being able to run the whole thing was going to be hard enough. 

 

 Well guess what?!!! 

 

Not only was I able to run the whole 3k, pretty easily I might add, but I beat the number in my head, which was 24 minutes.  That's right!  Melinda, my sister in law, and I were able to finish in 23 minutes and 20 seconds.

 

23 MINUTES 20 SECONDS

 

Sorry about all the bold caps but I am pretty excited about our time.  We had done some "checkin' out the course" runs and had finished in about 26 minutes.  And I had been running at about a 13/14 minute mile when jogging in the mornings, I am by no means a fast runner.  I really didn't think that I was going to be able to knock off 2 minutes.  2 minutes!!  Ok, I'm done now. 

 

Here is a picture of Melinda and I after the race.

Jon isn't the best photographer, but I love him anyways

 

  Jon and the kids came out to support us but they completely missed us finish.  Oh well, maybe next time. Since there will definitely be a next time.  I am running the 5k portion of a relay triathlon this coming Sunday with some friends.  I hope that race goes as well as last weekends.  

Wednesday: weigh in day

It happened...

 

I lost weight!

 

 

I finally busted through and am down on the scale.  I am very excited about this.  I think that I might owe Jillian a big THANK YOU.  The 30 Day Shred is the only thing that I have been doing differently and now I lost weight.  Wow, I really hope the scale keeps moving downward.  I can't wait to hit that 175 goal, hopefully that will happen next week. 

 

Here it is, my weight is...

 

 

176.4

 

that is right, I lost almost 4 pounds! 

 

Yippee!!!

 

 

I weighed in over on Roni's blog again, go check her out.

Checking out the course

Sunday morning I met up with my sister in law to attempt to run the course for the Jim Click Run & Roll 3k we are signed up for on October 7.  She hasn't run outside in a long time and we both wanted to know what we were getting into.  I wish that I could attempt every course in life before attempting to complete it. Now that I know what I am getting into I feel so prepared. Does that mean that I completed the two mile course with ease, heck no, I wasn't even able to run the whole thing. Well my brain wasn't able to run the whole thing, my legs and body could have kept going but I psyched myself out a little over a mile in so we walked some then ran about a quarter mile then in my mind we still had MILES to go so I made my sister in law walk again. When I realized how close we had actually been I was annoyed with myself. We finished strong. But when I think back I have no doubt that I could have finished the whole thing non stop.  We are going to run it again next Sunday, I am excited to make myself finish it. 

We're all in this same boat together

It kills me every time Jillian says that towards the end of the 30 day shred video.  I want to scream at her, "no, we are not in this same boat, you three are already skinny!"  It kills me!

 

Besides that I think that I am doing ok with the shred.  I just finished day five.  I really had to talk myself into doing the video today.  Tuesdays are my busy day, I attend a women's Bible study group on Tuesday morning.  Which means that I have to have all five of us, me and the kids, ready to go by 7:15am.  It is rough, usually I only need to worry about the two big kids, Rexy is usually still in jammas and I am most likely in stinky workout clothes.  Today went pretty well though, I actually got out of bed after the alarm went off the first time at 5 am, mainly because Rexy was up and I needed to put her back to bed for at least another hour.  Since I was up I made it out the door for my morning run, this usually gets bumped on Tuesdays so that I can sleep a little longer.  I finished two miles with only walking a little, I actually ran most of it which I was very excited about, I might make that goal of three times around the park.  But since I had so many things to do this morning I opted for a shower instead of doing the 30 Day Shred, fully knowing that I might end up not doing it today.  But I did it!  I tried really hard to talk myself out of it.  Jon was home when the kids and I all got home this afternoon so that was my first excuse to not do the video.  I hate doing a workout video when other adults are home, I feel like I am on display, I don't know, maybe I am weird.  Jon ended up leaving to a job site though so there went that excuse.  Then my brother in law asked if I could watch their kids for a little while so I thought well I can't do the video with 7 kids in the house but he didn't leave them for as long as I had thought so excuse #2 gone.  I was sitting on the couch reading books to the kids when I finally convinced myself that I had to get my big booty up and complete this thirty day mission.  And man, other then Jillian's annoying comment, I am glad that I did the workout.  I might stink now but I am that much closer to my goal.  Plus I was totally able to complete all the cardio in the final circuit.  Up until today I am wasted by the third set of cardio and feel like I am going to die but today was different.  I felt good, still exhausted but like I was stronger.  I finished strong today and am now looking forward to tomorrow. 

 

Back to my crazy Tuesdays, I am extremely excited about this year.  My church offers several class options through our women's ministry and I usually take the Moms class, which is awesome if you are in the Tucson area.  But this year I decided to take a different Bible study and today was our first class, I am really looking forward to digging in and learning to hear God.  I know that it is going to be awesome because we have only met twice so far and both days my car, which hasn't had any problems, acts up.  Last week my battery died while waiting for my friend who was riding with me.  Then this morning it randomly turned off while stopped waiting for a school bus.  I am sure that eventually the battery or alternator or something will need to be replaced but it seriously never gives me any problems except on Tuesday mornings, must mean the devil really doesn't want me to be there.  Can't wait to see what God has planned for every women in attendance.  

She's goin' the distance...

But not goin' for speed.

 

This morning I decided that instead of training by time, like I have been doing for over two months, wow, has it really been two months?  It has.  Wow.  Anyway, instead, I am going to go for distance.  My new goal is to be able to run around the park by my house three times without stopping.  It is about 3/4 of a mile around once, so three times is roughly 2 1/4 miles.  Right now I can make it around 1 1/2 times so I want to double that.  I am not to worried about time, I just want to make the distance.  Once I conquer the distance then I will work on upping my speed.  My timeframe to accomplish this goal is two weeks.  I think that it is doable, that is about adding a quarter mile every other day. I am serious about this, I can do it.

This is my serious face

 

This is my "oh ouch, sweat in my eye" face

 

 

With the Jim Click Run & Roll coming up in October I am feeling really motivated.  Plus this is my first race and I am petrified that I am going to show up then fall flat on my face, so I want to go in knowing that I can complete it.  The farthest I have been able to run without stopping is 2 miles, but I haven't been able to do that on a daily basis and I want to be able to before the race.  So here I go, I better get ready for more sweat in my eye. Want to join me?
 

Wednesday: weigh in day

179.1!!! 

 

That's right, I lost weight this week!

  Now if I can make it another week with that number going down instead of up things will be good.  I think that I might throw a party when I reach 175.  I know that is not even my goal but I feel like loosing weight is such a challenge that I need to start celebrating the smaller milestones. 

 

On a totally different subject, I am loving watching old episodes of The Biggest Loser on Netflix.  I didn't start watching until the fifth season and now I am able to watch the first four.  Poor Jon is tired of watching.  He is good about me watching it once a week but now that I can watch whenever I want he is done.  I swear every time that he comes in the room one of the contestants are crying, it is now a joke.  I don't what it is about this show but I love watching it.  Sorry Jon, I will be all caught up soon. 



I am weighing in again over at Roni's Weigh.  

Jeans

I love jeans.  I am a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl.  I would love to wear jeans every day of my life.  The problem is that I don't own one pair that actually fit me right now.  This past weekend I stuffed myself into my "fat" jeans, yes, I don't fit in my "fat" jeans.  It sucks.  I bought these size ten jeans after my third bugger.  They fit then and were my go to jeans until I lost the weight from that pregnancy.  It takes everything in me not to cry thinking about how I have gotten so overweight that I don't even fit in my "fat" jeans.  And wearing them this weekend, even though they were extremely tight and I had a horrible muffin top, even with that, I loved it.  I have been wearing yoga pants or basically any stretchy pants for 7 months now, since the fourth bugger was born.  I can't wait to get back to wearing jeans everyday.  I know I could just go out and buy a pair of jeans that fit at this size (12/14) but I just really, really don't want to.  So I am not.  I am just going to be happy with my stretchy pants until I fit into the dozen pairs of jeans that I already own.  Yep, that's right, I already own at least a dozen pairs of beautiful designer jeans.  I have a few in each size, 6, 8, and 10.  The benefits of having my friends loose weight before I do is that I get their hand-me-downs.  I LOVE hand-me-downs!  For me or the kids, I think free clothes are the best kind.  Especially when you get designer jeans that have hardly been worn.  I can't wait to wear each and every pair.  I am so happy that my friends have expensive taste.  Anyway, here is a picture of me attempting to rock my too small jeans.  Sorry the picture is so dark, not the best, my five year old bugger was my photographer.  =)



Ready...

Why do I always feel like running the night before my morning run?  Here I am sitting on the couch watching a tv show with Jon thinking about how I can't wait to go running in the morning.  Of course, most likely come morning I will roll over and moan about not wanting to get up.  Very rarely do I wake up still having those same exciting thoughts about running.  I really do hope that tomorrow I wake up that way, I haven't run all week and I would love to get in one good run this week.  Maybe finish a 3k, why a 3k?  Well, because my sister in law and I signed up to run a 3k on October 7th.  My sister in law has been having some trouble with her leg during our couch potatoe to 5k training and she was getting really nervous about running our A Mountain 5k.  So when my friend Linette sent me an invite to join her works team at the Jim Click Run & Roll event I invited my sister in law.  I had a feeling that this race might be a better starter race for us.  It is a flat course and a shorter race, being only a 3k instead of a 5k.  My sis in law was so excited about the change that we registered right away so there was no backing out.  I am excited.  I am happy to start with a 3k over a 5k, not that it makes a huge difference for me for nerves since I am running the 3k on October 7, then running the 5k portion of a triathlon on October 14.  I know, my first races ever and they are a week apart, I am probably crazy.  But I am really looking forward to it!!!

 

 

Want to try out a race?  Come join us at the Jim Click Run & Roll.  

Half a dozen donuts

My oldest turned seven today, I can't believe it.  I feel like it was yesterday when we brought him home to our tiny apartment.  He was the best baby in the entire world and we were so excited.  Today he is the best son, older brother, second grader, swimmer, soccer player, friend... the list could go on and on.  He is such an amazing kid.  He has such a caring heart.  We love him so much and am so glad that God put him into our family.  I want him to stay young forever but at the same time I can't wait to see the young man he is going to become. 

 

Happy Birthday!

This picture was taken on our annual camping trip to celebrate his birthday.  We always have alot of fun on this trip, we invite all of our friends and always end up with a great crowd. 

 

 

 

Tradition in our family is to have donuts, I know that they are really spelled doughnuts but since we always buy from Dunkin Donuts I spell them that way.  Anyway, so our tradition is to have donuts for breakfast on the kids birthdays.  They LOVE donuts and so do I.  That is why the tradition started, because I LOVE donuts and could eat at least half a dozen in one sitting.  I had to limit myself somehow or I might have made the tradition to have donuts every Sunday morning which would have been bad.  I was very proud of myself today, I only had two donuts, this is major!  And guess what else, I didn't finish off the donut remnants from the kids.  I know that sounds disgusting to some people but I seriously have a problem when it comes to donuts so if there is frosting left on the kids donuts I will totally finish it for them.  And I didn't today, I just threw them away. I am so impressed with myself, maybe I should reward myself with donuts.   Ha ha, just kidding!



I'm back on board...

the running train that is. 

It was hard getting up but I did it.  And I was SO glad that I did.  It amazes me how fast I forget the beauty of the morning sky and the sweetness of the fresh morning air.  I LOVE being out early in the morning.  It is so refreshing, yet somehow when it is time to wake up I completely forget about all of the beauty that I get to experience while running outside.  If I continue on a daily basis I do better, the glory of the morning slowly engraves itself into my mind and I look forward to getting up early and spending time by myself, running, praying, thinking.  But miss one morning and it is like the memory is wiped away and it takes way more effort to get myself up and out.  Then when I finally make it happen I want to kick myself because I had forgotten all of the splendor of the early morning.  And yet, I find myself repeating this scenario over and over again.  I should make it one of my goals to not fall off the train (the running train).  To somehow remember how much I love it.   

I had a great run this morning.  Like I mentioned in my last post I have to make up for last weeks training schedule by completing last weeks first then starting this weeks.  Which means no slacking.  This morning was the first run from the week I missed,  it was run 5 minutes, walk 3 min, run 5 min, walk 3 min, run 5 min.  I was impressed with how well I did.  Until now 5 minutes was the longest I had run nonstop and today's run was easy.  I found myself wanting to stop during the last 5 minute run but I didn't have a reason for it, it was like my brain thought that I should be tired so I needed to stop but when I really thought about it I wasn't hurting anywhere, I just needed to keep going.  It is strange that my own subconscious attempts to stop me, I guess I need to somehow reset my body.  I wonder if after I complete the 9 week training that my mind will stop telling my body it is tired when it isn't.  

Wednesday: weigh in day

It happened!!  I lost 3 pounds!  I am weighing in this week at 178.  I am so happy the scale is finally moving down.  I feel like I have been stuck between 181 and 183 forever.  I couldn't believe my eyes when the scale said 178, especially because we had been out of town all week and I didn't go for one run.  I am feeling very motivated to keep going and possibly add in some extra workouts.  I am thinking that I might start Jillian Michaels' 30 day Shred again.  That video always kicks my butt and I love how I feel after. 

Woohoo!!! 178!!! 

I am 3 pounds closer to my goal.

6 Months

This adorable little guy is six months old today.  He is the sweetest baby ever, EVER!  I seriously don't think there has ever been a sweeter baby.  He has the best temperament, he lets all of his siblings love on him all the time and never fusses about it. He has more patience then any of my other babies, doesn't mind waiting his turn which is great since he is the youngest of four.  I love him so much and can't imagine, or remember, what our lives would be like without him. 

But him being six months means that i only have six months to complete my goal.  I will do it.