Ready for summer challenge-Week 4 review

Are you ready? After all the heartache with my 18 year old daughter guess what? My brother-in-law passed away this past Wednesday. He was my husband’s oldest brother (61), and he had pancreatic cancer. He had fought this battle long and hard since last February-over a year. He was a strong man. A good man. I am thankful that I got to hold his hand the day before he passed away. David will always be in my heart.

 So I come to you, not with a heavy heart, but with peace that I have found through the Almighty. Yes, God. He really knows me now. We have had a personal relationship these past 2 weeks. One that I hope to continue.

I am moving forward. 🙂

I lost 6 pounds week before last only to gain about 4 of those back with all the good food that I have been eating this week. Our communities really came together to help our family during this time. I’m talking some GOOD FOOD!!! AND-the doughnuts came in. A Krispy Kreme Fundraiser for softball. I only ate 3 of them. At one time. 🙂 I now weigh in at 129. I think. 🙂

So my calculations are-past 2 weeks I lost 2 pounds. 🙂 I only ran 4 times in 14 days. OMG! Yesterday I ran a 5k race with my PR of 33 minutes. Yes, that is probably S.   L.   O.   W.   to all of ya’ll, but I am getting faster. 🙂Here I am after the race with my nice “hairdo”!! About to eat at Panera Bread in Auburn. I came in 25th out of 56 in my age group(40-49)-I’m 41. I normally have a pretty smile (I think), but not when I’m squinting at the sun and after running 3 miles! 🙂

My review for this past week is YUCK! Didn’t stick to anything really because of life.

But I am gearing up for this next week and hope to ONLY have a positive post for you next weekend!!

Here are my goals for week 5:

1. Eat 2 fruits/veggies each day. This might be a little hard for me since I will be on vacation. Not the fruit part-the veggie part. But I will try!

2. I am going to try and run 6 or more mile 3 times this week. I have only done that once so far and since that is my overall goal for this challenge, I know I need to step it up and make up for these last 2 weeks.

3. On my short runs this week-3 miles or less-I will try to run some little speed intervals. I never did follow through with the HIIT training and REALLY want to, so I am planning on incorporating it into my regular runs instead of thinking I can do it after I kill myself put forth my best effort with my regular running. 🙂

4. I am going to try and log over 20 miles of running this week.

I am READY! I am on spring break this week and heading to the beach tomorrow with my mom and my daughter. I can’t wait!!! 3 days of relaxing, reading, running, eating, and GOOD COMPANY!!! 🙂

 

 

 

Ready for summer challenge-week3 review

 

I’m giving you fair warning that this post is not going to be happy or positive. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 🙂

Last week I bombed on running and healthy eating because of a personal tragedy in my family. Did you know that crying burns a lot of calories? It must because I lost several pounds last week. Last weekend I was at 132. I am now 127. 5 pounds lost. Through heartache, stress, grief, being overwhelmed, you name it-I felt it.

Just to give you some kind of relief-the situation that occurred involved my 17 (now 18) year old daughter. Yes, she is still alive and well. And we will work through this and survive. 🙂 Also, in case some of you might be able to relate-she has lost her phone, vehicle, facebook, and twitter account, as well as friends and pride. I think she has found God, though. So maybe everything does happen for a reason.

This too shall pass. I hope.

So, for last week…..I lost 5 pounds, I only ran twice, and I even forgot to eat supper Thursday evening. I NEVER FORGET TO EAT.

That’s all. We are moving forward and I will hopefully be back on track this next week. But it’s going to be a doozy.

Monday-Taking the day off from school to go to some appointments. Honor’s banquet at school Monday night.

Tuesday-Eat supper with my best friend.

Wednesday-Athletic banquet at school.

Thursday-Rest. Unless I have forgotten something.

Friday-Rejoice that it is the last day of school and then SPRING BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday-5k race in Auburn and wedding to attend that night.

I “want” to run 6 times this week. We’ll see. 🙂

So my goals for week 4 are:

1. Lose 2 pounds which would put me at my goal weight of 125

2. Get those 2 fruits/veggies in EVERY DAY-not just some days!!

3. Run 6 times with one of those being a 6 miler. I want to log in around 20 miles this week total which would be my most weekly miles since I started running.

4. Attempt the interval training again since I bombed on everything last week

I did not see a mini-challenge on the Ready For Summer Challenge blog, so I am going to make my own for now. I want to try and cook a new healthy dish this week. It will probably be Friday since the weekdays are going to be so busy. I might try tilapia-I’ve never actually cooked fish. Or I might just find something on pinterest. I’ll be sure and post after I make it-maybe even with pictures. 🙂

Here is a fitness motivator:

Here is a laugh that we can all use:

Here is some inspiration that I need:

I hope everyone has a great week! 🙂

Shannon

 

Ready for summer challenge-week 2 update

I feel like I did great on week 2 of the Ready for Summer Challenge. Especially Mon-Wed. 🙂

1. My longest run this week was 6.5 miles!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohoo! And I hadn’t even planned to run that far, but just felt like I could keep running. 🙂 My time was 1:21:43.

2. I did GREAT with 2 fruits each day. *patting myself on the back* I still need to plan better for the veggies, but I did ok with them throughout the week. I didn’t reach my goal of 2 per day but I did eat: broccoli, green beans, carrots, spinach leaves, cucumbers, squash, grilled eggplant at a Mediterranean rest.

3. I am slowly getting to my goal of 125. The last time I weighed (Saturday) I was at 132 which is down from 133.4 last week. If that is different tomorrow morning I will update this post. 🙂

4. GET READY for this one. You know how I said I eventually want to get into a size 6? I know that not ALL pants/jeans/capris are sized the same so I am sure that I can still wear some size 10, BUT…..the size 8 jeans of my daughters are a little too loose. 🙂 🙂 🙂 AND-I went to Cato’s to try on a size 6. They fit, but I thought ummm..why not just try on a size 4 while I’m here? I FIT INTO THE 4!!!!! Now remember-I do know that I won’t be able to fit into all size 4 pants!!! But I fit into these!! So yes, I bought them!!!

New exercise-Interval training. HIIT to be exact which stands for High Intensity Interval Training. And because it was soooooooo high intensity-I only did it 1 time! 🙂 But I do want to continue to do this 2-3 times a week because I felt the burn!!!! It was supposed to be a 15 minute workout where I would sprint for 8 seconds then jog for 12 seconds-repeating for 15 minutes. 8 seconds is a loooong time! Just ask me or any bullrider! 🙂 I can definitely see where this type of workout will burn fat!!

Here are my goals for this week:

Stay sane. 🙂 My daughter’s senior prom is Friday!!!! Our state testing is this week at school! I have a conference that I have to go to Friday night (probably around 2 am AFTER the prom) and Saturday. I have a “Save Our Schools” Rally at 2pm on Saturday. My daughter’s 18th b’day is this weekend. So I might make a mini-goal of getting through the week WITHOUT taking some anxiety medicine. 🙂 Oh, and I forgot-I haven’t done our taxes yet!!! AND my part-time job stuff is due by Friday and I am NOT finished! 🙂

OK-where was I? My goals for this week:

1. Run 5 times this week with 1 run being 6 miles

2. Get some protein and healthy eating into my days-I want to start eating some oatmeal and fish. Not together. 🙂 Try the 2 veggies per day.

3. Do at least 2 HIIT workouts

4. 50 crunches per day with some jumping jacks and squats-I want to tone up

Good luck to everyone else on the challenge!!! What’s a new goal that you have set for yourself?

Ready for summer challenge week 1 review

It was a good week! I ran a little over 15 miles last week. 🙂 I followed Week 3 of a 10k training program (I’m not planning on running a 10 this year, just want to be able to run 6 miles on my own). My longest run last week was 4 miles. Woohoo!! I’m well on my way to meeting this goal!

 

I’m not sure how many pounds I lost last week-I always weigh on Monday mornings so I’ll post about that tomorrow.

 

I lost 2 pounds so I am now at 133.4!! Yippee!!!!

I did “ok” on eating 2 veggies and 2 fruits each day. Actually, I did better on the fruit part. That part is easy-I just make sure I have a banana or apple with me. The veggies part is what I’m going to have to work on. I usually take a sandwich with me to work, and it’s too much of a hassle to take veggies with me. 🙂 So I guess I’ll just make it 2 veggies at suppertime! 🙂

I feel REALLY good about what I did accomplish last week. My 2nd longest run was 3.83 miles this morning. I think I could have kept going, but we had planned to work out in the yard today, so I felt obligated to end my run. 🙂

I tried a new meal today that I saw on someone’s blog (and can’t for the life of me remember which blog it was!). A turkey wrap with the following:

Whole wheat tortilla

2 slices deli style turkey

sliced cucumbers

spinach leaves

hummus

It was DELICIOUS!!! I mean-OMG! I had never had hummus before, but now I am addicted. I think I will try to get up a little earlier a few days a week and make this to take for lunch. AND it is so low calorie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here’s a picture of the ingredients-forgot to take a picture after I made it. I guess I was just wanting to eat it too much! 🙂

YUM-YUM!

The mini-challenge for this next week is to try a new exercise. I’m going to do this in 2 different ways. I found an April challenge over at Shrinking Jeans that works your legs and rear (Goodness knows I need this!). So I will be trying burpees and wall sits which I have NEVER done before. 🙂 Also, I’m going to try and insert some HIIT training into my routine each week. This is a combination of high intensity exercise with moderate/low intensity exercise. I found this in a SELF magazine for their Drop 10 plan.

I have tried to recruit some people to run with me and have been pretty successful-There are about 4-7 people who are now training on the Couch25k program. 3 of them have injuries right now so they have had to rest and will hopefully be back soon. 🙂

Shanda ran 2 miles with me Friday after school-she only walked a few times and not for very long. I think she is on Week 7 so she should be able to run 3 miles with me before long! 🙂

Here we are after our 2 mile run Friday:

Friday night I went to a “Blackout” zumba-it was so much fun! Saturday morning I went to a regular zumba class. Then spent the rest of Saturday at the softball field watching my senior “baby” girl play. Here she is at bat.

Oh yeah, Friday we had our annual snake show at school. The seniors always get to go out and hold the BIG snake, so Taylor dressed up to go out and hold a snake. SMH. 🙂 Here she is.

She’s the one on the front row 3rd from the left with the jacket that she had to end up wearing over her “cute” dress since the sleeves didn’t quite “measure” up. Teehee. 🙂

AND last but not least, here is a picture of us goofing off last week.

OK. Goodnight. 🙂

Ready for summer challenge Week 1

This is the first week of the Ready For Summer Challenge, and I’m so excited to have goals set. You can link up over at their blog if you want to and join in the fun!

The challenge has you set 4 major goals to hopefully reach in the next 10 weeks. This week is week 1 so I am breaking my goal down into manageable chunks for this 1st week. (Should have posted this on Sunday night-please forgive the procrastinator in  I’mme!) 🙂

1. Fit into size 6 jeans: This week I will increase my running mileage AND do strength training 2-3 times. The strength training will consist of using my body weight as resistance since I can do this at home. I WANT to do it in the morning to get it over with because I don’t look forward to this kind of exercise, BUT I’m not a morning person so we will see. 🙂

2. 137 pounds to 125 pounds-I need to lose a little over a pound this week.

3. 3 to 6 miles-I am going to s.l.o.w.l.y increase my running mileage so that I can run 6 miles at the end of the 10 week challenge. So this week’s schedule looks like this: 3.75, 2, 2, 3.5, 4 (Not necessarily in that order) Got this from a 10k training program even though I’m not planning on running in a 10k-just want to be able to run it on my own.

4. Healthier eating (fruits, veggies, protein)- I’m going to try and eat 2 veggies and 2 fruits each day. Haven’t decided on the protein yet-need to get to work on that.

So there are my chunks! Happy challenging! 🙂