Something to Think About

One step forward, two steps back

Training... 

Sometimes I feel like "training" for me is an impossible thing.  I take one step forward and two steps back.  It's not that I can't get to the gym, it's that my stupid body decides working out is a brutally painful thing.  Now, I can work out through an fair amount of "this hurts" and even more "this sucks" but there comes a point that you know continuing is just going to cause an injury and you have to stop.  So, I stopped, took a couple of days off and then my allergies kicked in.  So for the past two days I'm been coughing and sneezing and wheezing.

It sounds like I'm making excuses not to work out, doesn't it?  I'm not though!  This is frustrating the heck out of me. I need to get back to the gym and I've just been plain unwell.  This sucks.

The "Diet"...

Last week without wine was tough.  I discovered that I had been using it to squash my cravings for something sweet.  I bought some Crystal Light Peach Bellini, and have been drinking it in a wine glass to try and fool myself.  It's sorta working.  Sunday I went crazy and finished off the 1/2 bottle of Beringer White Zin I had left from my first Sunday.  My cravings haven't been as bad this week, but I must admit I'm feeling more stressed out.

In other efforts to make myself feel younger...

I've started wearing make-up again.  It's been a good 10 years since I've worn make-up on a daily basis and truth be told the concept was a little frightening.  I'm having fun though and this morning I'm considering subscribing to one of those beauty box sample services.   I registered with "Beauty Army" and filled out my profile, I clinked the button for it to generate the perfect samples for me... and .... nothing.   Really Beauty Army?  Not helpful.  I'm already on to finding a different box.

*UPDATE* I switched browsers and got Beauty Army to work!  Squeee!



Life Milestones...

Tori, my oldest child, turned 20 years old today.  She's such an amazing young woman and one of my very best friends.  I love the person that she's become, but I don't know where the time has gone.

Something To Think About

Thanks to my vivacious friend @SparklyNicole who tweeted this picture of a sign that she ran past  on the race course during the Princess Half Marathon.  I saved it for future inspiration.

Trumps Did Not Start

Source: Uploaded by user via Kristen on Pinterest

This can be really hard to remember, but it's so important. When you read blogs and magazines and websites about running, they're all geared towards serious athletes that are out there trying for their PR. It seems like everyone wants to be fast... everyone wants to be elite. That's all fine and good, but it shouldn't take away from us slow pokes who are just happy to be out there doing anything. You may do a 15 minute mile and think how slow you are, but I'm working hard to try and break 18.  The Disney pace goal of 16 seems impossible to me, so I'm choosing to not even think about it.   I just have to get out there and do it.

I wish I knew how to remember this, and believe it all the time.   It's okay to be slow... it's okay to be last... just get out the door and start. 

Reasons Why I Can

Tori and I walked 2.17 mile last night and for the first time in 6 months I was back under a 20 minute mile.  Yay me!  We were actually also faster in the second half of the walk than in the first which made me feel strong.

It was a really rough walk though, my feet were killing me.  It was like walking in pins and needles.  Afterwards we went right to the store and bought me a new pair of shoes.  Hopefully that will make a huge different.   I can't imagine that it would make it worse.

The best part though is even after three straight days of serious walks or work outs I don't feel like I'm going to die today.  I'm a little achy but it's nothing major.  I also cleared a big mental hurdle today about the Princess 1/2.  I looked up the race results for 2012 and saw that the last person from Florida crossed the finish line at 4:32:25.  That means that they were just over a 20 minute pace and they didn't get swept!

Oh my god... I may actually be able to do this.  I was having a huge mental block about having to get down to 15 minute miles.  I have NEVER been at a 15 minute mile, but maybe I don't have to?  Maybe really the only thing that I need to worry about is my endurance.  It's a lot easier for me to just focus on one goal. 

Image Source: zsazsabellagio.blogspot.com via Debbie of on Pinterest

Wine Math...

I know I mentioned it yesterday, but it's really bothering me.  I've been pretty unhappy about my weight gain last year, largely because I couldn't quite figure out where it was coming from.  I had maintained my weight for quite some years without real effort.  However, over the last year (as I've also mentioned) I have considerably increased my wine consumption.  Last night, as I sat down to enjoy my "reward" glass of wine, I decided to do some basic math to see if it could have actually been the wine that's added the pounds. 
Okay let's do some math.  These numbers are estimates, I haven't actually kept track of how much wine I've been drinking.  But I went from maybe buying a bottle every other month, to buying 5-8 bottles a month.

2 Glasses (300 about calories) of wine a night roughly 5 days a week = an extra 1500 calories.  That's like a whole extra days worth of food a week without any nutritional benefit.

We'll guess I did that maybe 40 weeks out of the last year x1500 = 60,000 calories

Roughly 4082 calories = 1 pound, means that the wine can account for about 14.5 pounds of my gain.

Take into consideration that I've been exercising less, and I think that is a pretty fair look at what's happened without too much detail on the rest of my diet.

However, that's great news!  Because that means that with an increase in my exercise and a decrease in my wine consumption I can at the very least stop the gain right away.  Stopping the mystery gain is a first step in getting back to being comfortable with my weight.

Three simple changes...

I spent the day downtown Chicago with my girls yesterday, and today I feel like a truck has hit me.  My pain levels are through the roof!  Seriously having Fibromyalgia SUCKS!  But... so does being old and fat.  How on earth am I going to make it through Disney in June?  I need to make some changes in my routine.  I've gained a bunch a weight over the past year and I just need to get this under control or I have no hope at all of doing that 1/2 Marathon next year.  

Okay... here's my plan as it stands...

1) My wine consumption needs to go WAY down.  The only major changes that have occurred since I started putting on this weight is that I am drinking a LOT more wine.   Empty calories that I do not need. Wine is getting relegated to a once a week treat. 

2) I need to cut pork and red meat out of my diet.  Last time I did that I managed to lose a ton of weight without really trying.  Seriously it melted off of me.  I'm crossing my fingers that will be the case again.

3) If Tori and I don't get back to the gym consistantly there is no way we're going to be able to run the Princess next year.  Now, honestly I'd rather try for the 10K bu I really want a pretty Princess Medal.  We know that if we don't go together we don't get a work out in.  We're going to have to suck it up and starting going to the gym after I pick her up from work at night.  We HATE working out at night, but this is the only way that we're going to get this done. We're going to shoot for 3x's a week like in Jeff Galloway's Marathon Training Plan.

Three fairly small, fairly simple changes.  Hopefully ones that are going to make a BIG difference. 

I won't give up...

I've been crazy, and busy, and stressed out beyond belief over the past two weeks.  I really hadn't gotten a chance to go work out, and I haven't really felt well.  Last night it all caught up with me, I was watching the news while finishing up some work and when they reminded us to set our clocks ahead I was so upset at the thought of losing an hour of sleep when I was already exhausted, I just plain broke down in tears.  Seriously.

Geordon sent me to bed, and when I woke up 12 hours later I felt a whole lot better.  I'm still behind at work, and have a lot to do, but I decided to make sure that I got back to the gym today.   The little alarm on my iCal had gone off this morning reminding me that there are only 49 weeks until the Princess 1/2 Marathon.   I'm not going to get there sitting on the couch, no matter how bad I felt last night.

 Amanda Tinney had checked in with me last week with some encouraging words and they'd been echoing in my head for days. "Don't give up!" I won't Amanda... I won't give up and your reminder that folks are cheering for me means the world.

The skies here are gray, it's cold, and wet, and gross. It was warm and dry inside the gym though. I hopped on the bike and started pedaling. It wasn't a fantastic work out, I only went about 3 miles, but it was 3 miles further than I had been in two weeks.

Walking in the Snow

Walking in the Snow from Kristen Kirk on Vimeo.

Presidential Active Lifestyle Award +

Saturday I spent a couple of hours creating My 2014 Princess Half Marathon Training Plan in iCal.  It's my Ride-Walk-Rest schedule with the mileage ramp-ups from Jeff Galloway's 2013 Princess Plan mixed in.  I've got 52 weeks to make this happen and I'm as determined as ever, getting that plan to fit in nicely with the rest of the family's schedule... that's another story, but we'll see how it goes.  Tori doesn't want to go to the gym before she goes to work, so we're going to have to get some evening work outs in the plan so that she can move forward in her training plan too.   There's going to have to be some sort of compromise made.


This morning I signed up to participate in the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award + Challenge.  It dovetails nicely with my training plan for the 1/2 Marathon, so I figured why not.   Through the challenge website you can log your progress and track your goals.  The program requirements for adults age 18 years and older are:

• Physical activity. You need to be active 30 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week, for 6 out of 8 weeks. As an alternative, you can count your daily activity steps using a pedometer (goal: 8,500).
• Healthy eating. Each week, you’ll also focus on a healthy eating goal. There are eight to choose from, and each week you will add a new goal while continuing with your previous goals. By the end of the six weeks, you’ll be giving your body more of the good stuff it needs.

Right now I just need to create the healthy habits of going to the gym 5 days a week and watching what I eat a little better than before.  My Ride-Walk-Rest schedule gets me moving 5 days a week, so that's right on point.  This week my food goal is to drink water instead of a sugary liquid.

Now... if I can just remember to fill out the tracker. LOL!

Are you looking to create some healthy habits?  Why not join me and sign up for the PALA+ yourself!?

Mickey Mail!

I love it when I get Mickey Mail! We got the planning guide for our 2014 Princess Party Cruise!

Now there's some motivation...

Struggling Today, but I Am a Princess

I'm really struggling today reading all the tweets and posts from the girls down at Walt Disney World for the Princess Half Marathon Weekend. I went last year and had such a fantastic time. We were supposed to be down there this year again, this time running the Half. Instead I'm at home sitting on the couch thinking about how much I don't want to go clean the snow off of the car. Sucks.

Realistically I know that life in general got in my way and I couldn't do a race this weekend even if I had the money for the trip.  I've just started back to the gym, and my foot has not healed enough yet to put any sort of real distance down.  Traci is still recovering from an injury that occurred last year.  Becks is going crazy with work and Wedding planning.  There's no way that it would have worked out for any of us us.  None the less, I really really wish that I was there.

I need to take this angst and turn it into motivation to keep going, train hard, train safe, get healthy and really rock out at the 2014 race next year.  That being said, I need to get my butt off of the couch and get to the gym today.  I need to remember that I am a tenacious Pirate Princess.


I'm sending all my love and pixie dust down to the 2013 Princess Half Marathon Weekend participants.  I wish I were there with you celebrating the strength and vibrancy of women. I'll be online Saturday and Sunday morning cheering you on through texts and tweets.  Next year... next year I'm coming to party with you.

Elephant

My motivation has been swinging like a pendulum. Yesterday I was super motivated and thought that I would totally be able to conquer the 2014 Princess Half next year.  Today my brain is telling me that there's no way I'll ever be able to go that distance.  The weather is wrecking havoc with my fibromyalgia, and pain is a constant companion.  I weighed myself (to get a baseline) that was a really bad idea.  I feel like and elephant. 
However... I got up and off the couch and went to the gym.  It wasn't a great workout, but I did it!

Image Source: writeback.tumblr.com via Laura on Pinterest

Big Girl You Are Beautiful

I came across a post this morning on Spark People that was titled Sexy Workout Songs that Celebrate Women, it's pretty fantastic and inspired me to put a Girl Power play list of my own together.  I mean Lent starts tomorrow, seems like as good of time as any to try and give up self doubt.  Ummm... yea.

While downloading some of them to my iTunes for inspiration on the treadmill I came across one I had never heard before.  It just may be my new favorite song, I'm going to play it during warm up every day.  I don't think it would be possible for me to love the video any more either... check it out!


I want the blue corset and rumba pants... so cute!  

What do you listen to while working out?

Excuses excuses excuses

I really, really didn't want to go to the gym today.  I woke up exhausted, I had a lot of work to do, and it just seemed like a good day to blow it all off.  I was successfully chillin' on the couch tweeting with the Princess Party Crew looking for support in my laziness when I get the following from my dear best friend Becks.

 

Okay, so really, I knew that gross hair was not a good excuse to not go to the gym, but it was the one I was going with.  Yes, yes I did think it would work and I would get some sympathy.  It didn't out work that way and I had to fess up.

 
It was.. the last walk was super rough and had be doubting myself so much. I felt horrible afterwards and I didn't want to deal with that again. Then, there it was... "Jeff says so!" She really did it, she went all coach on me. 

The "Jeff" in question is Jeff Galloway, who is the official runDisney Training Consultant.  But even before he took on that role, he was someone that I really looked up to for his years of experience, and most importantly Jeff Galloway gives props to walkers.  It's not always easy to find people in the running community that give walkers their due, but Jeff... Jeff actually wrote the book on walking.   He also developed the Run/Walk training style that so many athletes today use to get themselves to the point they want to be at.  As a walker vs. a 'legit' runner I still have to give up the props to what Jeff says. 

I got off the couch, got dressed (wearing compression shorts for some extra back support) and headed to the gym.  I walked 1.5 miles in 35 minutes, the pace was slow (23 minute mile) but I felt pretty good.  I need to work on strengthening my hips some because about 20 minutes into the walk they were feeling fairly weak.

My entertainment while walking today included Travel with Rick Episode #189, which takes you along on the Castaway Cay 5K.  Check it out below!



Hopefully I will continue to feel strong throughout the day.  We'll see. 

So tell me, what stupid excuses have you come up with in the past to talk yourself out of a work out?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Walk / Flare / Cry

Yesterday I did my first walking workout in a year.  I did about 1. 3 miles in 30 minutes on the indoor track at the YMCA.  My time was slow and it was exhausting, the only guy on the track that seemed to be slower than me was an 80 Year old man using a walker.  But I didn't feel horrific during the walk just tired. 

Flash forward 5 hours and my back is really not happy with me.  Another 5 hours and I was in a full on Fibro flare with pain upwards of an 8 on a 1-10 scale.  The only thing that didn't hurt on my body was my head, but my head was causing me all sorts of other problems.  I quickly spiraled down into an "I'm fat, and ugly, and there's no way I'll ever be able to do a half marathon, I can't do this" pity party.  Crap.  I took some heavy pain medication and headed to bed.

Before the pain got out of control I remembered that when I was working out previously I was following a pattern of Ride - Walk - Rest.  I can't remember being in this much pain after walking before, but I must have come up with that rotation for a reason.  The pain is better this morning with just my back twinging.  I decided that I needed to take an extra rest day today, so tomorrow I'll go back to the gym and use that rotational schedule.  Ride - Walk - Rest to give my body the best opportunity for recovery after the walking (and eventually running) work outs.

I was doing so great with the bike rides and feeling great about working out again, yesterday's walk did rotten things to both my body and my head.  What am I thinking, can I REALLY pull off a Half Marathon?  Seriously?  I have roughly 379 days to get to the point that I can run/walk 13.1 miles in roughly 3:45:00.  Today it seems completely insurmountable. 

2014 Princess Party Cruise!!

I'm *so* excited!! I've been having a really hard time wrapping my head around what my 2014 vacation will look like. I wanted to do the Princess 1/2 Marathon, but at the same time I had promised my daughter Victoria that I would take her to Disney for her 21st Birthday so that she could drink around the world. Finances being what they are, I just will not be able to afford more than one vacation next year. Tori also needs to go on a cruise in the next year before she applies for her "dream job" with the Disney Cruise Line and discovers she can't handle being at sea.

So with a nod of approval from my frequent travel companion Erik, we decided to book a 4 night cruise directly after the 2014 Princess 1/2 Marathon! Woot! Princess Party Cruise! I'm so excited!! Not only are we booked, but Bestie Becks has said that she's in for the cruise as well! I put the idea out there to the other Princess Party Crew gals that if they thought they could swing it, they should hop on board as well.

I can't wait! Nothing quite as nice as a cruise after running my first half marathon. Any other Princesses want to join us?

Something To Think About

Source: lottaagaton.blogspot.com.au via Kristen on Pinterest

Off the Couch

Source: Uploaded by user via Angie on Pinterest

With some motivation from my BFF today, I got up off the couch, out the door and to the YMCA again.   It's frickin' -2 outside, and that doesn't include the wind chill, which is mighty.  Right now for me it really is true that the hardest part is just deciding to do it and getting up off the couch. 

I spent another 35 minutes on the bike and felt fairly good about it.

On my iPod: Be Our Guest Podcast

I went back to the gym today

I did it!  I actually went back to the gym today!  It's been almost an entire year, I've got a broken toe, the freezing weather plays havoc with my fibro, but I did it!

I decided that I need to get some baselines, because without them I won't know when I make improvements.  I'm probably going to wait a few weeks before I get on the treadmill though.  I don't want to stress my foot too much while that toe is healing.   Today I worked on the recumbent bike.  I figured that even with my broken toe I would be able to handle that, and I was right!  I just took it easy, and rode nice and steady.  I did 6 miles in 35 minutes.

The best part was that it felt pretty dern good.  That's right, I said it, I worked out and it felt good.

While I was on the bike I was browsing facebook and my friend John posted this fantastic video, which he was passing on from our friend Rick.  It was a fantastic motivator!


Be awesome my friends!

Time to just do it

Source: Uploaded by user via StyleSweets Magazine on Pinterest

Tori, Katie and I have been talking about going back to the YMCA.  We miss our gym membership, and even though it's going to be a rough sum to swallow financially, we all feel like we really need to start going back.  We were happy going to the gym, we felt good.

Lately, we have not been feeling very good about ourselves.  A LOT of that has to do with outside influences that are causing our family serious stress.  We're so sick of other people bringing us down.  It's stupid to allow ourselves to be treated so poorly when we've given so much.  We're trying to distance ourselves from those influences and put the focus back on things that we enjoy.

I drove past the Y today and it said that in January there is no sign up fee.  That means that I have today and tomorrow to decide if I'm going to get this membership.  No, not quite.  It really means that I have today or tomorrow to get in and get the membership taken care of.  I think that we have all agreed that this is something that needs to be done.   It's time to just do it.

Something to Think About

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Welcome Back To Junior High

Source: Uploaded by user via Sharon / Bear / on Pinterest

I found out last night that I the other parents at my kids youth group don't like me, so four of them ganged up and told the guy in charge of the parent group that if I stayed around that they would all quit helping out.  Obviously, the key to groups like that surviving and flourishing is parental involvement and four is more than one, so I'm out.   Even though the guy in charge said that he didn't agree, liked what I was doing, and appreciated all of my efforts.  Whatever.   It is so not worth my time and energy to put up with that.  It really amazes me that I'm obviously so important other people feel that they need to plot my removal.

I watched a video online the other day about Mom Bullies, and the person was saying that they had never run into them.  Oh... my... god... just come spend some time in my shoes.  My youngest daughter and I have actually spent the last four months in therapy because of these people doing crappy things to us.  Between the therapist and my best friend saying "leave... why are you staying... leave... take yourself out of the bad situation... leave... stop letting yourself be abused..." a sense of protecting my child from these asses kept me there.  Katie and I now more or less have our Thursday nights free again, and have lost a WHOLE lot of stress, and will save money without the therapist bills. 

Yesterday, I sat down and made out a work schedule.  I printed it out, and posted it on the wall for the family to see what I really do all day.  I'm hoping that getting my hours organized is going to open up some time in my day to fit in some other things.  Like this!  Look, I've actually gotten another blog post made here.  Granted it's more random ranting, but here it is none the less.

Have you ever taken much more time that you should have to get out of a bad situation because you thought you were doing the right thing?  Have you ever dealt with "grown ups" that forget they're not in Junior High any more?  What did you do?

What do we have here?

Oh looky here, what do we have?  It would appear to be a long forgotten blog that I started sometime shortly before my life went absolutely insane in 2012.   According to the stats page there are actually a whole 10 of you out there subscribed to this poor long lost blog that was supposed to be dedicated to me getting fit.   Thank you so much for reading, and at some point in time subscribing to my ramblings.  I hope you'll stick around. 

2012 went crazy for me and I spent most of last year in survival mode. The wheel has turned and like most American's with the coming of 2013, I've been thinking about getting in shape again.  I won't be making any resolutions, because I won't keep them, but I an very aware that I need to turn some things around.  I've just been *so* unmotivated to actually get them done.  I have to do something, I need to get moving again on many different levels.

When you work at home and are always "on call" scheduling things gets a little loosey goosey and that's part of what has happened with my life.  It's not working for me though and I need to come up with some self discipline and organization in my life.

I just came across this on the Disney Parks Blog, and couldn't love it more. It made me both laugh and cry.

That girl there, Jenna Boyd, crossing the finish line. She could easily be me. She looks like me, she just finished a half marathon. What the hell is my problem that I can't even find an hour in my day anymore to go out and take a walk.

I've got some serious re-organizing of my life to do.  If you stay tuned, I'll do my best to keep you updated on how that goes.