Short But Sweet (in so many ways!)

I did a sweet run last night. No picture - and here's why.

I found a SWEET deal on a Garmin 305 on Amazon. SWEET deal. So, I bought it. I couldn't get the damn thing to go last night. I was having a crazy hard time setting it and the direction manual was NOT helping me. I went running with someone new last night and was rushing around - so didn't even get my Nike+ going.

BUT - my newest running partner is a speed demon! She would have slowed up for me no problem, but I went ahead and we just went. Since I don't have a time (BUMMER!) I can't confirm this. I didn't really even look at the clock before we left. HOWEVER, I know we went faster than usual. I felt AMAZING afterwards. But I'm SORE today!

Hmm could I CAPITALIZE anymore words?

My knees are also bothering me, but I iced them last night using the Walgreens ice packs - because The Biggest Loser told me too - and it worked really well. My left foot is also sore - I have a history of tendonitis in that foot, so I'll have to keep a watch on that!

But I still felt GREAT! Taking a day off tonight and running again tomorrow :)

Even though...

This morning was horrible. My kids are both sick again, it's near impossible for me to stay home with them, my husband had to teach today (he's a college professor), and I just feel horrible about that all the time.

I was in a complete tizzy this morning, ended up having a total meltdown, and was completely unprofessional at work (although nobody else seems to think that...)

I came home right after school and skipped a meeting I was supposed to present at because my sweet mom, who came over to watch the kids, needed to be somewhere at 4.

I was exhausted.

And moody.

And my head was throbbing.

I sat in the dining room for a little while by myself and thought about how sorry I feel for myself.

Then, my sweet hubby came home and started making suggestions of things I could do - one of them was run, which I didn't do yesterday for many of same aforementioned reasons.

So I just did it. I quickly got dressed and went for a run - and here it is:



I'm still not in a great mood - in fact, while I was running I was imagining taking a picture of myself flipping off the camera.

But I didn't.

And when I go to bed tonight, I will be grateful for a few things:

1) The support of people at work
2) The fact that even though my day sucked, the learning that occurred in my classroom was actually quite good
3) My husband who honestly puts up with a lot
4) The fact that I did it! I went for the run!

Dear....

Dear Steak-n-Shake,

Seriously, I think I am over you. Really really over you. Getting over you is all a part of my process.

Love,
Teachermama

Dear Students Who Challenge Me Everyday,

I love the challenge. Thank you.

Love,
Teachermama

Dear Half Mary Training Schedule,

I need to redo you so I have a day between running and weights. No More Trouble Zones you rule me. When I conquer you I will be tough and buff no doubt!

Love,
Teachermama

Dear Overnight Oats,

I am really really really looking forward to eating you tomorrow!

Love,
Teachermama

Dear Bad Day,

You are officially over.

GOOD NIGHT!

Love,
Teachermama

I'm still here!

My life, since I've gone back to school, is really unbelievable. Today on my run (see post below), I realized that since I've been off for my two week break, quite a few things happened:

1) I hosted our staff party. Not a huge deal, but makes your mind work hard for sure!
2) Our house got broken into - while we were home. (Horrible night. Everything is fine, nothing was taken but man was it scary! We now have a dog and alarm system)
3) We had to ask someone to resign at work. Asking teachers to resign in the middle of the year is a really hard decision to make. It simply wasn't working and if our school is going to work, we need teachers who are truly dedicated to it. This decision and the aftermath wore on my mind quite a bit over break.
4) Celebrated the holidays (thank God we didn't travel!)
5) It ended up being decided that I would take over the teacher's position until we found the best possible person. COMPLETE job switch in the middle of the school year! I've been teaching for 13 year and know what I'm doing, but still it took me quite a bit of time to adjust (like the past two weeks)
6) I am now writing progress reports for kids I taught for 2 weeks. That's next to impossible. I am seriously in progress report hell.

Last night I was exhausted. I barely remember going to bed. BUT, today was a great day. I went for a great run, ate great meals with my family, took a nap, and Ryan organized every single toy and book in the house. AWESOME! There are a few posts below. Enjoy!

First Official Training Run

So, I'm signed up to do the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in May. I can hardly wait! I created my final training schedule on Friday. I've decided to use Jeff Galloway's half training program. I like that he thinks about preventing injury, and my legs can become a wreck if I don't take it easy. So, that's the plan. I'm so excited!

On the docket for today was a 3 miler. And I did it! I went with a friend who hadn't run in awhile. We walked a bit more than I would have liked, but I still felt like I had a great workout. 3 miles at a 12:18 pace (too much walking).



We ran a three mile loop along the canal in downtown Indianapolis. This was our view during most of the run.



Even in the gloomy morning, the canal was awesome. You run past great houses, the Indiana State Museum, the NCAA headquarters and Hall of Champions::


Oh how I wish I would have taken NCAA softball more seriously. I was more into drinking my freshman year - annoying!

and at various points can come up from the canal and see the State House. This is a backside view of it at the end of our run!


I think the Indiana State House is a beautiful building. I don't always love what happens inside, but the building itself is just beautiful!

I felt great - and was cooooold on my ride home (I drove about 10 minutes to meet her there). Tomorrow we are going to meet again. I don't have an official run on my schedule, but would love to go again. I'll probably take Monday off and make sure I do an awesome STRETCH :)

Haven't Run in Forever...

We got a bunch of snow. Not anything like when we lived in Wisconsin, but enough that if sidewalks weren't shoveled, it was going to be impossible to run. Plus I swear Central Indiana shuts down when it snows half an inch! I could have gone to the Y - we put our membership on hold and I would have to pay...plus I really HATE running on the treadmill - it just wasn't happening. I LOVE snow - but when you need to be running, snow isn't such a great thing!

The best part about snow! THIS!




We took the kids sledding last weekend with my brother. They loved it but they got cooooooold! Look at Adelyn's sweet face!



However, in the end, sledding is quite the workout - especially on a pretty long, steep hill! I definitely felt like I had worked out at the end of that afternoon!

Six O'Clock Scramble

Ok, so we heard about this thing called The Six O'Clock Scramble. It's where you get a newsletter once a week that has 5 recipes listed and a shopping list to go with it. The shopping list is broken down into the categories of essentials (like flour, butter, salt, etc.), shelved items (like spices, pastas, etc.), produce, meat....and I think that's it. You can pick and choose what you want to print. For example, if a meal simply cannot be made vegetarian, I choose not to print it. Not only does the recipe not print, the shopping list doesn't include the ingredients from that meal! Plus, most of the meals are for 6-8 servings (some are for only 4) and we had LOTS leftover for lunches! IT IS AMAZING!

The biggest thing? The recipes are SUPER healthy! I mean, SUPER healthy. All of the nutritional information is included - for just the main dish and also for if you choose to use the sides she recommends. On this week's menu is Quinoa and Black Bean Burritos. Anyone who knows about quinoa gets an A+ in my book. I love the stuff!

We got a two year subscription for something like $65.00. We've only been using it for a week, but last week we spent $56.00 on groceries, only went to the store once, and I didn't have to do any thinking.

One of the downsides if lack of room of creativity. I LOVE looking through cookbooks and trying new recipes. However, this week, every recipe was new, and something I would have tried anyway if it was presented to me. So in the end, the convenience factor has definitely won out! Bottom line is, if I'm planning a special meal or something, I'll use my many cookbooks!

I printed off next week's shopping list today. I chose 3 recipes and my shopping tomorrow is going to be soooo easy!

I HIGHLY recommend checking it out. You can do just a 3 month subscription to give it a try. We went ahead and paid for the 2 years. Nothing wrong with just having it!

Green Monster Lovin'

In an effort to obtain my goals for Jan., I bought a huge thing of spinach at Costco. I have loved some seriously good green monsters and have been adding Amazing Meal to all of them. They are soooooooo good. If I use chocolate Amazing Meal, I add nut butter and substitute the whole thing for my breakfast. If I use regular or fruity amazing meal, I just use frozen fruit and have something else for breakfast later. :) Yuuuuummmmmy! I also got the family involved....here are some pics to document :)

First I had Ryan try them. He was pleasantly surprised! He's trying to embrace my healthy eating and vegetarianism. It's hard for him but he said this week he's eaten better this week than in a long time!




We toasted our Green Monsters.



Abel was going crazy because he wanted to try one too! I gave him some sips. There is kids Amazing Meal as well...I don't know how it's different - maybe I'll look into that! My kids are pretty decent eaters and will try almost anything!



This past week my green monster drinking wasn't as good. I had a seriously upset belly. I'm almost 100% back though!

Brrrrrr It's Cold Out There!

Today, I was in a funk. Funkity funk funk funk. One minute I was happy, the next minute I was sad and crying. I'm dreading going back to work on Monday. I don't want to get into my work stress on this blog, but it's there and I'm dreading it. Once I get into work and going, I'm usually ok, but my current stress is pretty extreme - at least it feels that way today. I had a TERRIBLE time getting motivated. It's sooooo cold (my car read 18 degrees when I went out on an errand). I just wanted to watch TV and vegetate.

Ryan saw what was happening and really encouraged me to go out and do my run.

"It's too cold," I said.

"You know it'll make you feel better after you do it. It's day two of your plan, are you really going to let it go today?" He replied.

He's so right.

So, I laid down with A1 and took a little nap. Then, I dropped hubby off at the car dealership to get our new car (we lease cars, it's just easy for now that way), and came home ready to run. Here's me all suited up (that's our new blue Civic in the background - Ryan put it there on purpose :) ):



Here's what my Nike+ said at the end --- I pushed stop at 2 miles (my goal was 3 miles today, but honestly, it was really cold and got dark at the end) - but it kept going, so I think my pace was actually a bit faster seeing as I walked for a bit at the end.



When I came home, I stretched and then did some Ab work on my new Bosu Ball I got for Chrismas - but just a little bit because I'm doing the Shred and WMM 3-4 days a week. Here are some pics and prior to posting them, I have to say, I feel like I look HORRIBLE in these pictures. However, this is the reality of who I am physically right now and what I'm working hard to change. I'm also working on form on all of my exercises.




Don't you love what I'm wearing? It was my bottom layer of my run :)

SO, thanks to the hubby and my own internal motivation, I'm 2 for 2 with my Jan. schedule for exercise. Holla!

2010 Goals

Ok, so I have thought and thought and thought about how to set goals - it's so hard.

My GOAL is to live a healthy life and make decisions that people around me will be inspired by. That's what I want to do - not just this year, every year.

However, this goal is one that is not easy for me to obtain. I am turning 35 this year. We're talking 35 years (almost) of not very good health and eating habits. I've been sneaking food and exercising on and off since I was a little kid. If I've been doing that for 30+ years, how many years will it take to get out of the habits? I took some really great steps at the end of 2009, so I'll keep plugging along!

Big goals for the year are:

1) Run a mini-marathon in May. Other running goals will be made after that one is achieved!

2) Eat clean. Make wise food choices that are processed - e.g. a Clif bar or Amazing Grass (that I can't WAIT to try!) is ok.

3) Make the right choices at the right time. If I don't feel like running, I need to do it anyway. If I don't want to order what I should, I need to do it anyway. If work is stressing me out, I need to take a step back and determine how big of a deal this is. I know how doing the right thing at the right time makes me feel in the end, and I need to remember that often.

4) Move with my kids. Take the dog for walks. Take them in the jogging stroller with me. Bike with them when it warms up. Make it a family habit.

Ok, so those are yearly goals - or really, other than #1, lifetime goals. Of course, in there, is lose weight. I need to do that. Yesterday, I took measurements, weighed myself, the whole thing, but I'm not sure I want to post that and make a big deal about that on this blog. I'd rather this blog be about my healthy living. If I do that, the weight loss will come (and I'll keep you posted on that!)

So, I decided that I would set monthly goals in order to help achieve these lifetime goals. So, here are my January Goals:

1) Stick to the exercise schedule I have made. For the month of Jan., I have myself alternating running and doing the 30 Day Shred along with Whittle My Middle 1. I also worked in one day of Yoga a week. I'll do this using Fit TV Namaste Yoga for this month.

2) Eat out only one day a week.

3) Drink a Green Monster 5 out of 7 days a week. Look! My Green Monster recipe is on Angela's site! So proud....so proud!

4) Wash my face every night - with all the stress I've had lately, my skin is a wreck. I have the face of a 12 year old (and I know a lot about 12 year olds as I work with them every day!)

5) I'm really contemplating going Vegan. I'm partially there... So, I'm going to commit 3 out of 7 days a week Vegan.

So those are my 5 January goals. Pretty attainable - as I post, I'll keep you updated on how I'm doing!