Exercise!

Did you sign up for Katie's February Challenge?

I did! Today's topic is "Exercise" so before stuffing my face at my parent's superbowl party, my mama and I went to the gym to hit the treadmill. The original plan was to go jogging or hike Badger again, but we scratched that with weather like this:

We decided to walk fast at a high incline today. I stayed at a 6% incline for 30 minutes. I was SO tired! I burned more calories walking at an incline than running, which I was pretty surprised about. Here were my ending "treadmill stats": 1.83 miles, 30 minutes, and 233 calories burned. Success!

Afterwards, I was STARVING and I was so ready to eat up all the yummy snacks my family made. Salt and vinegar wings, jalepeno poppers, feta dip, artichoke cheese dip, chips, french dips, dessert pizza, and KFC...YUM! My tummy kinda hurts though!

Now, let's see how my weekly weigh-in goes tomorrow....

February Challenge

Have you guys ever checked out Katie's Blog at Keeping Up With Katie?? Yes, I'm asking you- all 3 of my readers! Well she's an inspiration to me when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle. Plus, her name is Katie so I automatically give her 500 cool points.

Anyways, Cool Katie is doing a February Challenge for living a healthy lifestyle and blogging about it. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! If you have a blog, I hope you join in too!! Later tonight I will be posting my first challenge post. "Exercise". Good thing I have plans to run today before STUFFING my face and watching the Superbowl!

Come on, join in the fun!

Our Own Duathalon

My sister and I kicked some major arse last weekend when we decided to not only run 2 miles, but the go hike Badger Mountain. Needless to say, I could not walk for 2 days, but still- I'm super proud of us! Scout came and I am proud of him too.

First time on the top of Badger for this pup!

As far as my exercise this week, I've slacked. I played a Kinect fitness game and Dance Central with Parker and that's it. Don't laugh- have you played Dance Central? It's a workout!! I've really tried to focus on my eating this week and stay strong through temptations. I've been doing really good when eating at home, but going out for dinner has been my weakness! I think this week I probably will stay the same on the scale. I've slipped up a couple of times, and I know Super Bowl Sunday is going to kill my diet. My goal this week is to lose 1/2 pound, so I'll keep you posted!

Gettin' Outta The House

Mother Nature must have heard me complain and blessed us with a beautiful day yesterday. We went to the park, rode bikes, played Frisbee, and ran around a baseball field. Well, Parker did. I had to push Callie in a stroller while she wore her PJ's and was wrapped in a blanket. Oh, did I mention she forced me to let her bring a pillow and pretended she was asleep the whole time? Girl don't like the cold. She gets it from her mama.

We've also managed to find some other activites to do around town. We hit the open gym at the local gymnastic facility, we cruised the park and looked at all the birdies, and went to one of their friend's hockey practices. Parker starts a new basketball team tomorrow and I'm going today to sign both kids up for a bowling league. The kids are super excited!

Running Again. Again.

Guess what? I took a running break. A long one. After gaining a lot of weight back that I lost last year, and bathing suit weather annoyingly hovering behind me, I decided I need to start running again.



A couple weekends ago, we had some nice weather so I went running with my mom and sister. We ran for about 20 minutes, and it was super hard! Last night I decided to hit the treadmill after realizing exactly how many pounds I've actually put back on.



In September 2011, I hit my pre-baby weight goal. I stayed pretty committed to exercising and eating somewhat healthy throughout 2012, except for the end. Walked right off the plank. Jumped into the ocean of fast food and sitting on the couch. And promptly sank to the bottom. Mostly because of a fat ass. So now, I have a new goal weight and a new motivation to get back on the healthy ship.



So, back to the gym again I went tonight. It felt like starting over and it kinda bums me out. I'm sad to think about the long journey it took to get myself healthy last year and how quickly I let it go. I'm mad at myself for doing it. I never thought I would be a "yo-yo dieter", but here I am. After I beat myself up for awhile, I quit the boo-whoo'in and got motivated. Like me and Cory like to say, "Nothing worthwhile comes easy". So I'm ready to work hard again.



Here's how my numbers added up: 25 mins, 2 miles. Yahoo!

Hello Old Friends.....

Summer, I miss you.

It's been typical Washington winter weather around here lately...freezing, rainy, freezing rain, cloudy...did I mention FREAKING FREEZING?! I'm not the type of person who likes winter. At all. I am always cold, even in the summer so I dread the cold, damp weather. I love my mini heater. I love my sweatshirts and sweatpants. I love my big wool socks. And I'm talking about in the middle of July. No joke. But the number one thing I hate about the winter...the kids get cabin fever. Especially Parker.

I think when Parker was 4 months old he first caught cabin fever. He's still suffering- 5 years later. I wish someone would invent a cure.



The kids are staying up late at night because I know they just aren't getting enough good ole fashioned playin' outside. It's been in the 20's, and mama just ain't going outside when it's that cold.



We've played at McDonalds. We've played every board game known to man. We've played the Kinect. We've played several hours of "Taylor Swift Salon". (I'll have to show you that one another time..it's the best Salon in the nation!) We've watched movies, gone to the library, set up a basketball hoop inside, and even hit up Grammie's for her hot tub. Yelp, these last couple of days, we've kinda run out of things to do. But wait, we forgot- Bowling! Yes, it was super fun and the kids liked it a lot. Parker won this time. I think we found our new hang out!

Parker picking up the spare!

Parker thought he needed to walk Callie up to the line on her every turn. Then, he had to put his arm around her until her ball very sloooowly made it to the pins.

OH, and we went out for ice cream. Yes, ice cream in the middle of winter. I didn't get any in case you didn't guess. Too cold.

It's hard to get Callie to take a serious picture!

2013: My Goals!

January is almost over, but like last year, I like to share my yearly goals to help keep me motivated. I think having written goals is really important. It makes it more real I guess.

FINANCIAL GOALS:


-PAY OFF MY CAR. They always drive better when they are paid off, huh? ;)

-START 529'S FOR KIDS. Shoulda started this long ago, but better sooner than later.

-GET MORE SERIOUS ABOUT USING THE ENVELOPE SYSTEM. It's no secret I love Dave Ramsey, but I'm a slacker when it comes to using cash. I will get better at this!

-PAY FOR CORY'S COLLEGE WITH NO LOANS. I hope Sallie Mae drops dead. That's all I have to say about that.




FITNESS/HEALTH GOALS:


-GET BACK INTO RUNNING 3X PER WEEK. I've taken more than a few months off from running. I've gained weight. I don't like this at all.

- GO KAYAKING ONCE THIS SUMMER. This goal is carried over from the last 2 years...no bueno. It will be done this year!

- MAKE IT INTO MY "HEALTHY WEIGHT" RANGE FOR MY HEIGHT...146-148. Got close last year, but taking time off from exercising at the end of the year did not help.

- GET NEW RUNNING SHOES.

-EAT MEAT 3X PER WEEK ONLY. I've been doing a lot of research on health and nutrition after watching the movie, "Get Vegucated". I'm trying to make more vegan choices in my daily diet. So far, I'm doing fairly good.

-DRINK AT LEAST 1 GLASS OF WATER A DAY. This might sound easy, but I'm a Cherry Coke addict. I drink a lot of pop, iced tea, and coffee. Not very healthy.

-WALK THE DOGS ONCE A WEEK. Walking the dogs tends to fall on Cory's shoulders. He is going to be super busy with school, work, baseball, the kids, and moving into a new house. This is something small I can do to help him out. It'll be good for me too!

-FINISH A 5K. I feel like I haven't been in the running mode for so long, I'm starting over! I'm not going to try and have any PR's this year, but finishing a race would be more realistic.



PERSONAL GOALS:


-READ 3 BOOKS THIS YEAR AND COMPLETE BOOK REVIEWS ON MY BLOG.

- BLOG TWICE A WEEK.

- COMPLETE 1 ITEM FROM MY BUCKET LIST.

- BUY LESS "STUFF". Getting ready to pack up and move has made me realize how much excess we have. I hate it! I'm going to try and make an effort to try to think about "want vs. need" when buying something.

- ONLY WORK ON 1 HOUSE PROJECT AT A TIME. I tend to want to work on 86 things at once. It makes it kinda hard on Cory to complete anything because I have him spinning in circles. I'm going to try and finish things before starting something new.