My Relationship with Running

I have been running off and on for 4+ years. It started when I wanted to lose the baby weight of my 3 rd child and just couldn’t slim down my stomach. Believe it or not I bought a Wii Fit and started running on it. I started off with a very short time in the winter and by the spring I was running 20 minutes at a time on it. The nice weather hit Ohio and I decided to do my first outdoor run…..talk about a shocker. It is completely different running outside on the road compared to inside on the carpet. That first run was a very exhausting day for me, but I was on my way.

Fast forward to 2012….I was pregnant and was walking, running and participated in the Susan G. Komen 3 day for the Cure (20 miles a day for 3 days and camping at night). I felt pretty fit up until 3 months before I was due when kidney stones knocked me down for 6 months….a lot can happen to a body in that time. My 4 th child was born in December 2011 and I wanted and needed to get back on track. I revamped my diet and started running again. It was definitely slow go at first, but I knew that all I had to do was put one foot in front of the other and at a pace I was comfortable with. That first time out I ran a mile and haven’t stopped since.

I signed up for a 13 in 2013 challenge to run 13-5ks in 2013. I have done 10 to date….not to mention the countless training runs I do. The other night I wanted to run 5 miles which is a distance I have not hit before. I started on my journey with a comfortable 68 degrees and a little breeze going. My 18 month old went along for the ride in her jogging stroller and off we went. Somehow along the way I stopped my GPS on my running app and missed part of my mileage which irritated to me to no end. I am a very visual person and needed to see that 5 miles register on my app. Instead I saw 4.25. I finished 4.25+ miles in a little less than 49 minutes. I ran the entire time with a pace of 11:28 per mile. That is not fast by any means, but I was not in this for speed, but for distance. I did what I set out to do and ran the entire time farther than I have ever run. I had my daughter with me and loved seeing her face when we got home and she got out of the stroller. Her smile was priceless.

Next time I will “see” the 5 miles on my app, but for now I am satisfied with what I accomplished. It’s like I said earlier….one foot in front of the other. Once you set a comfortable pace for yourself anything is possible.

HopePeaceFit!

Food Discipline

I was making my oatmeal and peeling a hard boiled egg this morning in the break room at work and someone was there with me that said “now, that’s a healthy breakfast.” And I thought….blog time. We continued the conversation and she said she wishes she could be that disciplined instead of eating a huge piece of pie (as she referred to it) for breakfast. I told her I am pretty disciplined in what I eat and that it didn’t come easy at first. She said she usually grabs a pop tart thinking that it’s a quick on the go “meal”, but then she winds up hungry an hour later. This got me to thinking about what I eat and I thought I would share some of that with you. This week I had oatmeal and a hard boiled egg pretty much every day for breakfast, along with my cup of coffee with flavored creamer (can’t and won’t give that up). I usually make hard boiled eggs every other week as if I made them every week I would get tired of them. Part of the discipline also includes changing up what you are eating. Some people say they get tired of eating the same thing when they are eating healthy. You don’t have to…and shouldn’t be….eating the same things all the time. For me, it’s all about prepping and making sure I have a variety of healthy options in my fridge to accommodate my meals for the week. Some of the meals/snacks I’ve had this week consist of:

· Cobb salad with homemade honey lime dressing (recipe below)
· Celery and carrots with peanut butter
· Taco meat with rice, lettuce and avocado
· Yogurt
· Grilled chicken with green beans
· Nutrigrain bar (not the best, but it filled my sweet tooth)
· Edamame
· Banana
· Protein shake with half a banana, ice, skim milk and peanut butter
· Broccoli
· Pretzels
· Cheesecake (for my Mom’s birthday)

I really don’t track what I eat, so I’m sure there are things I’m missing, but the point is that, if you look, most of what I have is pretty healthy. I don’t eat a lot of carbs and when I do eat them it is sparingly. The thing I want to point out is that I am not hungry when I eat right. The foods I eat are filling and nutritious. When you fill up on things that are full of calories, fat, sodium and carbs your body reacts and craves more thus resulting in the constant hunger cycle. Now that the weekend is here I will have my cheat meals. I must do that so I don’t feel completely deprived and let's be honest...who doesn't love some pizza on a Friday night? What I do notice though is that if I go all weekend and haven’t had enough vegetables I am craving them. My body misses them and reacts accordingly by feeling sluggish.

Honey Lime Dressing Recipe

· ½ cup mayo (I use Hellman’s lite) · 1/3 cup honey · 2 T lime juice · This is very flavorful so I only need a tiny bit on my salad to bring it all together for taste.

Go out there, be active and eat healthy. Your body will thank you. Happy Friday everyone…..Hope Peace Fit!

Today is my Mom’s birthday. I’m sure to most of my readers this is kind of an irrelevant piece of information, but to me, it is monumental. It is just shy of 6 months since my Mom was diagnosed with stage 3A lobular invasive breast cancer. She’s been through 5 rounds of chemo, has lost her hair and is now on shots to shrink the tumor more as well as the lymph nodes that are affected. Her cancer thrives and grows on the estrogen in her body and these shots help to stop the flow of estrogen. She will very soon have a mastectomy. Just last night she was commenting to me that she wants to get the surgery over with. She said she wants the cancer out of her body. I reminded her that the oncologist would like to shrink the tumor and lymph nodes further. I said that she may lose some feeling in her arms or have permanent numbness if they remove the lymph nodes before they have shrunk enough. Her response was quite simple….she said “I don’t care about that…..I want my life.” That kind of stopped me in my tracks and I really didn’t have much of a response. How do you respond to this constant will to live? As usual, her strength and conviction continue to amaze me. Looking at my Mom you wouldn’t have a clue that she has cancer or that she is sick in any way if it weren’t for the fact that she doesn’t have hair. I love to watch her continue on with her life and not let the big “C” word get in the way of anything she wants to do. Today she is at home with my kids taking my two oldest to swim team practice and then taking all 4 of them to the pool. She told me to have our nanny come later this morning as she likes to be there in the morning with the kids by herself. I couldn’t ask for a better Grandma for them. She could easily be laying around feeling sorry for herself, but not my Mom. She does quite the opposite and lives life for all it is worth. So, today I celebrate the life of my Mom and how much she has taught me about love, compassion and perseverance. Happy birthday Mom. I love you.

This week’s blog is all about taking care of your own self. There are so many times we get caught up in day to day life that we don’t take time out for ourselves. At church we have been learning about the trials we face, temptation, being accountable, not worrying about what others think about you, how to persevere from evil, how to be quick to listen, but slow to anger (trust me that’s not always easy) and to really know that God is there for you through everything. He accepts us with all of our faults, He does not take responsibility for them, but will be there for you in your time of need.

I think about all of these things and how my life relates. I think about the many times that I am not accountable for my own actions….probably mostly when I get upset with my kids. I really try to be a good Mom, but sometimes anger gets in the way of just letting kids be who they want to be. I need to let them yell in the house and be glad that I have 4 kids that are running around our home able to do that. I need to not get so stressed when their rooms aren’t cleaned to my satisfaction because they wanted to play outside. I need to be grateful that I have kids that enjoy nature and the love of outdoors. I need to listen more instead of saying just a second for the 3^rd time. My kids are my life and they know how much I love them, but I want them to know as they grow older that I was always there.

Part of being there involves doing for me. For me, that involves my alone time at the gym or on the road running. I do both of these things for me and no one else. Sure, I do it because I want to be healthy and know that doing so will enable me to be there for my family when I am older, but I have to want to do it for myself foremost. I watched my boys play soccer this weekend and I was reminded of their love for the game, love for the outdoors, love to run, but mostly for the love of life. Kids know how to do for themselves and I am relearning that as well. While they will always be the most important part of my life I know that I must not lose sight of myself in that process. I must not lose sight of the individual relationship I have with my husband in that process either. I must not lose sight of the time I get to spend with the rest of my family….my parents, my sisters, my brothers, my nieces and nephews and my friends who are like family to us for they are all part of my being and part of who I am.

So, for this week I want you to all think about yourself and what in your life could be different. If you say nothing, then you are fooling yourself as we all have something that can change or make better. Think of that something and make the change or at least the effort to change.

Tonight I turned on the sprinklers and really enjoyed watching my kids run through them.  My phone was inside on the counter so as not to interrupt us, I sat and talked with my 10 year old on the front step about growing up and just enjoyed the evening with them.....it is an amazing feeling being their Mom.

Have a great week everyone!

HopePeaceFit!

A Day In The Life

Many times the comment has been made to me of “I don’t know how you do it.” That “it” is keeping up with my crazy life and schedule. Today I thought I would walk you through one of my busier days so you can experience that with me.
Thursday, May 2^nd.
· 5:30am – alarm goes off…shower and get ready for work
· 6:30am – pack breakfast and lunch food and make coffee
· 6:45am – leave for work
· 7:30am-4:30pm – work
· 4:50pm-6:05pm – at gym for an intense chest/bicep/back workout
· 6:15pm – stop at home to make a protein shake to go
· 6:20pm – meet my husband at soccer practice for our 7 year old (although I do not have to be there for these, I feel it is my job as a parent to attend….plus, I really enjoy watching these little guys practice)
· 7:10pm – help 10 year old finish her project for music class (thankfully this was my husband’s day off so all other homework was already completed before I got home)
· 7:50pm – take something to a neighbor (of course, we ended up chatting)
· 8:20pm – put kids to bed
· 8:30pm – clean up kitchen while husband gets kids book bags ready for next day
· 8:45pm – eat dinner
· 9:00pm – sit down in my comfy recliner, read through Facebook posts, watch a little TV, chat with hubby
· 10:30pm – bedtime
· My meals today consisted of breakfast (oatmeal and a Special K bar), lunch (chicken, spinach, artichoke and pine nuts with whole wheat pasta, green beans and an apple with peanut butter), pre workout snack (banana), post workout (protein shake with ice, milk, protein powder, banana and peanut butter), dinner (steak and broccoli).
This is a very typical day for me with changes in the evenings based on what the kids have going on, if it is my husband’s night to work until 6pm, if I am fitting a run in before bed, but basically the picture is the same…..busy, busy, busy.

You may be wondering why I am sharing all of this with you. If one of my readers gets something out of this then I have done what I set out to do. You can always accomplish whatever you put your mind to. There is always time in the day…you just have to commit to make that time. Whether that time be for taking care of your kids, going to the gym or just taking some alone time for yourself (which we all need, by the way). Life gets in the way all the time. You need to take control of that on your own accord. Hey, no one else is going to do it for you, right?

May you have a wonderful weekend!

HopePeaceFit!

Happy Monday everyone. I feel like my weekends fly by. My husband worked all weekend so I did not get any gym workout or running inL We had a friends First Holy Communion and party, a kids birthday party, grocery shopping, laundry and cleaning of the house. My 2 oldest kids reorganized their art room with me so we felt very accomplished on Sunday. I feel very sluggish when I don’t get to get out and be active. I’ll make up for it this week with:

· Monday - chest/back/biceps workout before running home for my son’s soccer practice. After practice and getting the kids settled I’m going out for a run.

· Tuesday - leg workout and then heading home so my husband can get our other son to a cub scout meeting.

· Wednesday and Thursday – hoping to get runs in each evening and/or a shoulder/tricep workout

· Friday – rest and I have a mass scheduled for my Mom who is batting breast cancer

· Saturday – Color Vibe 5k

· Sunday – baby shower for a neighbor, so not promising anything. I would love to get to the gym or do a run that morning, but we will see how time permits.

I have also planned my dinners for the week, in no particular order, as I will do each night what I am in the mood for and what my kids seem to want. With 4 kids I can never keep them all happy with regards to food, but I do my best to ensure they have well balanced meals each day.

· Cobb salad with spinach/romaine, hard boiled eggs, chicken, corn, black beans, avocados, blue cheese and a homemade lime dressing (ok kids won’t want this so I will probably make them homemade mac and cheese which is a favorite at our house)

· Grilled chicken with sweet potatoes and green beans

· Burgers and salad

· Couscous with sautéed veges

· Spicy chicken and broccoli

Enjoy your week – mine is going to be a busy one!

HopePeaceFit!

My First Blog

So, today I write my first blog. First and foremost, I am a Mommy to 4 amazing children ages 10, 7, 5 and 1 and a wife of 12 years to a husband I adore. I got into running short distances for weight loss about 3 years ago. In the past year I have incorporated weight training into my fitness routine. I never thought I would be interested in doing weights, but the combination of weights and running is just what I needed. I have run 6 virtual 5ks in 2013 and one actual race that I did in my city last weekend. I have also signed up with a friend to do the Color Vibe at the end of April as well as a host of other races throughout the rest of the year. I have always been very fortunate and haven’t had a lot of issues with weight in my life, but just can’t seem to get rid of the belly fat after having a baby. I’m sure the constant sugar loaded sweets didn’t help my cause either. I have completely revamped what I eat on a daily basis and have made a total lifestyle change. I still allow myself sweets and extras on the weekends and I definitely haven’t given up my wine….hey, a girl needs that some evenings, right? Overall, I feel like I have more energy than I ever have, I don’t feel exhausted by the time the kids go to bed at night and most importantly, I am setting a positive example for them. I always tell them that they are eating and living a healthy lifestyle because they have to, but as they grow to be adults my hope is that they choose to do so on their own. Being healthy and fit can add years to your life and overall, you just feel better. I’m not sure what exactly I will blog about or how often as I don’t know how much time I will have. You’ll probably see some recipes, some things about my kids, some of my 5ks or workout plans. Mostly, I just want to be a positive motivator for others along this journey.

So, I will end with this…..may you find hope in humanity, peace in yourself and the determination to be fit…..HopePeaceFit.