Stereotypical 2012 resolutions

I know everyone is posting their resolutions and goals for 2012, and I am no different.  I will try to keep them short and sweet because I am sure there are a million of these types of posts out there.

1.  Lose 25 and FINALLY get to my goal weight.  I was so close and I screwed up these last few months.. I WILL get there.  And to get there, here are a few of my subgoals
   ** drink at least 6 bottles of water a day
   ** get back to only one diet coke a day
   ** track food again for at least 30 days to get the portions and calories back in my mind

2.  Start eating healthy again.  Since October I have been allowing more processed and easy foods back into my diet.  About that time I noticed my depression flaring up as well as my acne getting worse again.  Not sure if it is a direct result of the chemicals in the food but its definitely worth investigating.

3.  Become more fiscally responsible.  My running and races cost money.  Because of that I need to get control of my "for fun" shopping.  We aren't poor by any means, but I feel like we could be putting money into savings.

4.  Incorporate more cross-training and weight training into my life.  I love running but I need to work on these types of things to help reduce my chances of injury.

5.  Train for and successfully run a full marathon.  This will be my ONLY running goal this year.  I want to improve my times and run lots of fun races, but I want to make sure that my focus is on staying healthy for the full marathon that I will run in December 2012.

6.  Successfully raise money for St Jude.  I would LOVE to raise $2,620 That works out to $100 per mile.   I figure what better time to raise money than my first marathon and St. Jude is SUCH a great cause.  I am scared about trying to raise that much money but hopeful that somehow I will pull it out!  Any fundraising suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I am hoping to solicit some donations from a couple running companies to do some giveaways but outside of that I have no clue.  I also have NO clue how to go about soliciting donations, so... I may end up purchasing things for a giveaway instead. Hah.

The holidays are coming...

well, actually... they are here already. Halloween has come and gone and unfortunately the candy is still haunting me from the garage.  I can't wait until the kids finish up the candy - I am so tempted to just throw it out but they would be devastated!  I would venture to say I really don't like this holiday a whole lot now that I am an adult who is struggling to stay healthy, but then I have to remember the joy it brings my kids.  Here are a some pictures of my adorable kiddos... the princess costume was from last year, but we decided to reuse it for her preschool party.  

Besides Halloween, I have been busy with running and racing.  Of course, I had the RnR half Oct 23rd, Pumpkin Run 5k Oct 30, then this weekend I am running a 5.3 mile trail race called WOOF.  The WOOF is about an hour south of me.  After the WOOF we will be packing up and heading north to Ann Arbor to have family photos taken with my hubby's family on Sunday.  (Two hours NORTH of my home)  I have big plans for next weekend too!  Should be fun!

Thanksgiving should be good, I plan to do a race here in town and we will be hosting my in-laws.  Of course, there is always the FOOD.  Where there is food there is overeating!  I did VERY well last year, all I can do is hope that I can do as well as I did last year.  Of course, last year I was less than 2 months into my journey of healthy living and I was so much more motivated. 

Christmas is always hard for me... obviously I want to create our own traditions for our family.  This would mean staying home.  With family so far away though, the temptation is always to travel to be with family, because isn't that what the holidays are all about anyways?  It's further complicated by Tommy's employer requiring a week vacation around Christmas. You see, my family lives 10 hours away, so when we visit them we have to take a week or so to make it worth the drive.  So, it seems like a given that we should take that time to go visit with my family.  Of course though I feel like we can't always be with  my family - and thats ignoring the logistics of traveling in the winter.  I always worry we will get caught in a major winter storm.  And of course, whats a holiday without temptation of food... for Christmas its always cinnamon rolls.  It's our families tradition, cinnamon rolls Christmas morning before presents.  Last year I did monkey bread because I had a "lower cal" recipe and it was much easier than trying to do cinnamon rolls from scratch! 

Now that I have rambled endlessly about something that is totally off topic with what my blog is supposed to be about I suppose I should get back to what I am supposed to talk about... healthy living!  I have been doing pretty well since RnR St Louis with my running and work outs.  Despite having twice weekly physical therapy I am back to following a running schedule. 

I have been working REALLY hard to stay motivated on my eating, but with the cold weather upon us I find it to be extremely difficult.  When its cold all I want to do is eat comfort foods, and while I have adapted some of my favorites - its just not quite the same.   Also the dreary weather we had the last few weeks left me very unmotivated to get in the kitchen and cook a meal, so we were falling back on prepared foods which we all know are definitely NOT healthy.    Hopefully I can get back on track, but I could definitely use some help from my readers.....

Do you have any healthy recipes (comfort food recipes would be a bonus) that you can share? 

The easier the better!  

Success!

First, to make this post slightly less boring, a photo of me before bed last night after gallivanting in downtown Fort Wayne! :) Last night I spent some time with my friend who came to visit me from out of town. We went downtown and walked a couple miles and then decided to go to a local restaurant - Club Soda. I ordered a caesar salad (sans dressing) and thai coconut chicken lettuce wraps and paired it with a flirtini (I think? my friend ordered it for me. haha). After dinner we walked back to the car, didn't get home til around midnight. Between the martini and the late night, I was petrified about how my run would go this morning. Add to that my hamstrings that were still burning from my 3.5 hours of weeding earlier in the week and I was sure I was doomed.

6 am rolled around and I made myself get up, get dressed and run downstairs. I have been struggling with stomach cramps while running, so I decided to try something different this morning. I ate a plain toasted english muffin and got my hydration belt ready while my friend got ready ready to go with me. We headed to the YMCA trail where I did a combination of the loop around Salomon Farm and the short Pufferbelly trail. I did a total of two loops around the farm and did the Pufferbelly trails 2.5 times. I managed to find someone running around the right pace and decided to fall into stride next to them. We had a nice conversation and it made the first 3 miles much more enjoyable. I made a pit stop to the rest room around 3.4 miles in.

I took two energy shot bloks between 3 and 3.5 miles. This seemed to work better than last week, so I will try that again next week to see if works again. I also plan to try eating a light breakfast before hand - it really seemed to keep the stomach cramps at bay today. My friend must have known I was struggling because they checked in with me around mile 5 and gave me a little pep talk. Knowing someone was there that would know if I was walking gave me the little extra push I needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other. At about 6.5 miles in, I gave myself a pep talk and said "I've got this.. I won't let this beat me." Unfortunately my ipod died around the same time. I kept trucking but at about 7.5 miles I was really dragging and was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish. However, at that point I was determined to finish up without walking so I pushed through despite the burning in my legs. I hit 8 miles and I don't think I could have had a bigger smile on my face - seriously felt like a huge hurdle cleared.

Good thing I burned over 1000 calories because I took my friend to breakfast at Flat Top followed by an afternoon snack of frozen yogurt at Yo-Yos! Not looking forward to getting on the scale tomorrow - but, I will have to remind myself I am dieting to be healthy and enjoy life. If I can't have a day where I eat without worrying, its not going to work in the long run. It was worth every calorie - the visit with my friend was overdue and gave me a much needed mood boost.

In addition to the running, I walked 2-3 miles throughout the day to loosen my legs up and hopefully prevent me from being too sore tomorrow. We will see how it goes, praying my approach works. :)

I am planning to head to bed shortly - I am EXHAUSTED.

Readers Question: What did you do this weekend?

Pink Eye!

Bad news for me: I have pink eye! Because of that I wasn't able to go swimming yesterday. Instead I ran twice outside yesterday. Let me tell you that I can't wait to get done with this heat!
3.63 miles - 32:51 ran most of this, except for about a quarter of mile
2.65 miles - 35:36 run/walk with my half marathon classmates, SO fun :)

Running at two different times of the day made me realize that as an outdoor runner, I have two choices when it comes to suffering. So, this brings me to my first question of this blog post. Do you prefer to run when its a cooler temperature with higher humidity or a warmer temperature with lower humidity?

I missed swimming yesterday so I decided to go this morning. However I decided to just kick with a kick board to keep my eye out of the water. Because this is REALLY boring I only did 30 minutes, but after swimming I got out and ran 2.53 miles in 21:41. I really struggled this morning, the humidity seems impossible to handle. However, one more run marked off the schedule, now I can look forward to my 7 mile run on Saturday.

Speaking of my 7 mile run on Saturday, I will be out of town so I get to run with some new scenery. I mapped out a route online using google maps and sent it to my hubby so he knows where to look for me if I don't return. I am hopeful that I can manage to stay on track diet wise while we are down visiting family! Which brings me to my second set of questions for today:
- How do you manage running when you are in an area you are unfamiliar with? Will you run alone? Run on a treadmill?
- Any helpful tips on how to stay on track with a diet when you are traveling and/or staying with family?

Sorry nothing more interesting today, I will harder to be exciting next time! :D