Sooner or Later....

.....I'm going to write a post about how great my workout was, and how awesome I did with logging my food. 

But today isn't going to be that day.

I'm just going to cut to the chase here....I ate crappy.  Monday and Tuesday, I basically ate nothing but crap.  I am struggling with wrapping my mind around the fact that a day off of work doesn't mean a day off of being healthy. 

Monday morning, I had planned on running.  I don't have any other excuses as to why I didn't run, other than the fact that I have missed my husband and didn't want to leave him.  Lame, I know, but he's been working weird hours so we haven't seen each other much. 

So after sleeping in, we spent the day just hanging out.  We went out to dinner with Cody's brother for his birthday, and then went to Target.  After we shopped, we went to the Drive-In to see Brave.  While there, I ate wayyy too much food.  Popcorn, pretzels, chocolate, chips....I don't know what was wrong with me. 

The next day, I had a stomach ache from all the crappy food, so that was my excuse as to why I didn't go run.  I don't know why I didn't take that as a hint, because Tuesday was spent with more junk.  We took Remy to a local dog park/daycare.  In order for them to take her for a day for daycare, or boarding, they need to go through a test, to check and see if the dog is well behaved enough to go.  She, of course, passed with flying colors.  This place is awesome, because not only do they have nature trails, fenced in areas for small and big dogs, 2 ponds for dogs to swim in, but they also have agility courses, daycare, boarding, grooming, and training.  It's kind of expensive ($10 to take your dog through the parks/trails/ponds, and $25 a day for daycare), but totally worth it.  We took Remy through the trails, and she went swimming for the first time.  French Bulldogs aren't always the best swimmers, because they are top heavy, but she loved it! She was pretty scared of the water at first, but she did great, and didn't want to leave!

After we got home, we cleaned up the house a bit, and Cody mowed the lawn, and then we headed out to go see a baseball game.  I love going to the ball park, and mostly because I love beer and food.  And to add to the mix, they had $0.10 hot dogs.  I could get full on 10 hot dogs for $1! Yes, please! I didn't eat 10, but I had a few.  As well as some nachos, and ice cream, and beer.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!  It's like I was asking to gain the 13lbs I have lost back in two days. 

I was determined to get up and go this morning....but that determination wasn't awake at 7am when I had planned on going.  Because of all the junk, I had a stomach ache again.  So, instead of going to the gym, I got back in bed.  I just need to find where my motivation went, and get it back.  I wish I could bottle the feeling I have when I'm done running, and just take it every morning when I can't seem to pull myself out of bed. 

I am going to the gym tomorrow morning though.  I promise.

Sorry :(

I've been such a slacker lately when it comes to this blog! I feel like I just don't have anything important to say.  I've been going through such a weird funk when it comes to running.  I wouldn't necessarily say I'm bored with it, but I feel like I'm not progressing.  And I have been feeling like I want to try other things, instead of just running.  I think that what I really need to do, is find a week to completely, 100% recommit myself to fitness.  I need to still do my run 3 times a week, and maybe add a day or two of something else. There's a 30 minute beginner spin class at the YMCA that I want to try, but I'm sooo nervous because I have always been so intimidated by spin class.

There's also a 10am Saturday morning Zumba class that I may be interested in trying sometime.  I'm a terrible, terrible dancer so I'm not sure how Zumba would work for me.  I also feel like I need to work on my upper body, so maybe a weight training class?  I'll figure it out one of these weeks, and really get my fitness figured out! 

Sorry this is going to be another short post, but the husband and I are getting ready to go to a drive-in movie, and then we're going to the zoo tomorrow!

Nothing Going On

Sorry I've been really lacking in updates.  There isn't much going on to talk about though! 

This week I started my 10k training. It's basically the c25k program that extends to a 10k, and I decided to just start the whole program over.  So this week it was 60 second run, 90 second walk.  Pretty easy.  I wasn't supposed to run until today, but I did my third run yesterday because there is a big run going on here today, and my gym is kind of the center of it all, making it impossible to get to.  I am kinda sad I didn't sign up for the race.  I was nervous because I thought they only did a 15k, and I wasn't ready for that, and I thought it would be wayyyy too hot, and today it ended up being much cooler than it's been. There's another run happening in a month that I'm planning on doing.  And there's a 5k in October that I'm looking at doing, which is one that you can run with your dog! I'm gonna have to start bringing Remy out for runs with me so she can get used to running on her leash. 

Other than that, nothing exciting is happening.  I've been kinda hating my job lately.  I am waiting patiently not so patiently for an email from the company that I interviewed with.  Because of the change of management at the two different restaurants, I'm sure they're just busy trying to figure everything out.  But I wish I knew what was happening!  If they aren't considering me for the job anymore, then I wish I'd know so I can start looking for something else.  

So, my dreams of running the Princess Half Marathon may be coming to a halt.  The whole plan around the race was that we were going to rent a van, and drive down on Thursday night-Friday night, and then do the race on Sunday, and then spend the rest of the week playing at the parks/going to Universal/relaxing, and leave Orlando the following Saturday and get home on Sunday.  My parents, and my sister and her friend were coming too, so it would be like a big family vacation.  Well, my parents are running into some financial things that are costing them way too much (a new driveway, my sisters hospital bills from when she was in the hospital around Christmas), and they aren't sure if they're going to be able to afford the trip.  We're doing all we can to make sure that we make it very inexpensive (which is why we are driving, and we're renting a house instead of staying on property).

Cody and I have been talking about going down one year for the Food and Wine Festival in October, and so something that Cody suggested is that maybe, him and I go in October for a few days, and then we postpone our family vacation until Fall 2013.  I think we will be able to go in October, regardless of if we end up going in February, or if we postpone it to the fall.  I hope we don't have to postpone, just because I REALLY want to do the half marathon!!  Plus, we decided that after the Half Marathon, we would start trying to get pregnant.  If we wait until the fall to go to Florida, that will push our baby plans farther back, which will make me kind of sad! 

Either way, I'm excited about the possibility of going in October! I miss WDW!

Short and Sweet :)

This is going to be a super short post, because I have a heck of a lot of cleaning to do. 

I found a 10k running program that is just a continuation of the c25k.  I found it on my phone, and I've been doing that instead of doing the half marathon training I started doing.  I think I found my perfect running speed.  I ran at a 5.2 this morning, and I wasn't out of breath, but I was working hard enough to where I felt like I was getting a work out.  Perfect! :)

I made a new smoothie yesterday that I think I'll be eating for breakfast for a while.  It's 2 frozen bananas, a cup of milk, Cocoa Powder, and PB2.  IT's so yummy, and filling! Love it! 

Okay, off to clean I go! :)

Getting past the bump in the road

I can't put my finger on why, but I've been feeling very unmotivated lately.  When I first started running/going to the gym, I didn't have any issues getting up early and going.  I generally sleep until 9, 9:30, except on Gym days, when I get up at 7.  For some reason, the last week or two, I haven't been able to pull myself out of bed as frequently.  I have managed to go at least twice in the last week, but there were two days where I set my alarm and either slept through it, or turned it off and went right back to sleep. 

I think I'm just finding myself discouraged.  I was able to get up to 8 minutes straight of running before my race, and I took a couple of weeks off of running (I was still walking, through) and now 90 seconds of running is pushing it.  I feel like, I've been running since February, I should be a little bit further!  Maybe I'm just not pushing myself far enough?  I don't know.  It's making me feel like I just am not meant to run.  I'm going to keep at it, but I just wish I'd show SOME progress, ya know?

I found a 10k app on my phone that I decided I'm going to do, it's from the same company as the 5k app I used, so we'll see.  I think I'll try to complete that, and then I'll take on the half marathon program.  I like having the app because I don't have to sit and watch the time, it will beep for me.  And until I get some kind of something like a garmin that I can program, the phone app will have to do. 

I had my weigh-in this morning.  I'm down to 247.4, which is a 2.8lb loss!  Which brings my total to 12.8lbs so far! yay! 

Well, it's my Saturday so I think I'd better get ready to go and do something.  Have a great day!

My Disney Past

As I sit here watching some tv show about Walt Disney World, I find myself wanting nothing more than to get on a plane tomorrow morning and make my way to Orlando.  My heart is completely torn between my home in Michigan, and my home at WDW.  I realized that I haven't really explained to all of you my connection to Walt Disney World, and why I chose the Princess Half Marathon to be my goal race. 

I have always been a big Disney fan, and up until 2003, I had only been there once with my family, back when I was 15 years old.  My Senior year of high school, I met a girl named Amber who became one of my mentors.  As I got to know her more, I found out that she had once spent some time living in Orlando, and working for Disney.  She encouraged me to find out more information about the WDW College Program, and she thought that it would be something that I would be interested in doing.  I looked up as much information as I could, and decided that I absolutely had to get into this program.  My mom was sure that there would be some waiting list, or hidden cost for this experience, but told me that if it was something I wanted to do, that her and my dad would support me.  The WDWCP recruiting team was going to be coming to a local college, I made sure I was there.  My interview went well and I was feeling very confident.  A few weeks later, I got a packet saying that I was accepted into the College Program, and I would be working Attractions!  It was a dream come true! I would be living and working at Disney from January 2003 until May 2003.  Since I was accepted in October, I had to wait quite a while before going, and it was the longest few months ever.  I had been going to every single website about the college program that I could, and I found a message board of other people who would be doing the Spring 2003 program.  This is where I met my roommates, my best friends, and my (at the time) boyfriend. 

Moving away from home was a bit sad, but I honestly had never been more excited.  I was living with 5 other great girls (2 of which I still stay in contact with, and one of those girls is my best friend and was in my wedding), I found out I'd be working at Pirates of the Caribbean at Magic Kingdom, and life couldn't be better.  I had the BEST time down in Florida.  I made so many amazing friends, and memories down there during my 5 months. 

I came back home for about a year, and was miserable.  I missed it so much.  I made a plan (on the way home) to work for about a year, and save as much as I could, and move back down and work Full Time at Disney.  Luckily, one of my best friends, Acacia, wanted to move down there to go to school.  We moved back down to Florida in August 2004.  We moved to a town called Winter Park, which is where Acacia's school was, but it was about 45 minutes away from Disney.  I started out working Part Time at DisneyQuest in Downtown Disney, and I was also working part time for David's Bridal.  Even though I was making more hourly at DB, I signed up to become Full Time as soon as there was a position available at DisneyQuest.  I only worked at DB for about 2 months, because I finally got Full Time at DQ! I was sooooo happy.  I made so many friends at DQ, and once again, made some of the greatest memories.  Unfortunately, I wasn't making enough working attractions at DQ to afford all my bills, and after 13 months, I decided that I needed to go home and finish college, and then I would come back down to Florida. 

And I haven't moved back since.

I ended creating a life here, met and married the man of my dreams, and we bought a house.  But even through all of that, I still think that part of my heart lives at Walt Disney World.  I have been back there quite a few times, even a couple of times with my husband (including our Honeymoon).  If my husband told me today that he would move down to Florida, I wouldn't even think twice about it, I'd be back there in a heartbeat.  Sure, I would miss my family.  But I have a constant hole in my heart that yearns for my life back at Disney.  I loved being able to be a part of a families dream vacation.  I loved having the opportunity to help create life long memories for people all over the world.  I was given the tools to create magic for children.  I absolutely loved working there.

When I decided that I wanted to run the Princess Half Marathon, I decided that I wanted to make it into a family vacation, not just a long weekend where I go to the park, run a bit, and go home.  So, in February, my husband and I, my mom and dad, and my sister (and probably one of her friends)  are going to be spending 10 days down there. I can't wait to make another memory down there, one of where I achieve something that I would have never even imagined doing, like running 13.1 miles.  There's something about Disney Magic that pushes me to train for this race, so that I am able to run with the Princesses.

Slacking.

Our weekend was a pretty fun one.  We always try to do fun things on our days off, just because we are not sit at home type people.  So monday, we went to lunch with Cody's brother.  He had to put his cat to sleep over the weekend, so we got him a nice frame to put a picture of her in it, and her collar.  And his birthday is coming up, and they're hurting for money right now, so we gave him an early birthday present and paid for the urn that they are going to put their cats ashes in.

After lunch, we went home and decided to take Remy to the beach.  There's a beach by us that will allow you to take Dogs, so we took her.  She was a bit afraid of the water, but I think she had a good time playing in the sand. We then took her to get her first ice cream cone, and she loved it!  Then we went to dinner, and came home and relaxed.

Tuesday we went down south about an hour to a small town and Remy spent her first day at a Doggie Daycare.  We spent the day shopping in all the little shops.  We mostly bought food items (Cody bought some mustard, and some spices, and we bought a cookie and a cupcake).












Then we went to a local winery and got to try some yummy wines.  We bought a bottle of my favorite Riesling, and they were having a deal on their new boxes of wine (it's not as un-classy as it used to be! haha) so we got a box of white wine.

After that, we went to a local mansion, the Felt Mansion.  It is said to be haunted, and it's super creepy so it wouldn't surprise me.  The man who built it was the man who invented the cash register. He built it as a summer home for his wife, who died before she had the chance to live in it.  It because a catholic school, and then a correctional facility, before it was abandoned for many years.  They recently (2000, I think) renovated it and it became open to the public for tours, and weddings.





Cody had to work for a little bit on Tuesday night, so I went home and took a short nap while he was working, and then we went and saw Prometheus.  It was a very good movie, so go see it!

Because we had such an early morning and late night on Tuesday, I decided to skip my run on Wednesday, and move it to Thursday morning.  I was scheduled to have Thursday and Friday as rest days, so I figured taking Wednesday and Thursday off instead wouldn't be an issue.  Well, I must have needed sleep because Wednesday night, I could not keep my eyes open.  I went to bed a little early, and ended up sleeping through my alarm Thursday morning. I guess I turned it of without even knowing it.

So I decided to do my run today, and then hopefully do it again tomorrow.  Today's run went alright....nothing to brag about.  It was 2 miles of 90 second run/90 second walk. I must have been really slacking, because 90 seconds is a LONG time it seems.  I'm running faster (5.6, where I used to run at 4.8 or 5) and I'm also running on a 1.0 include, so maybe that's why, but man it just seems like it's harder than it was.  We are doing the Color Run in August, and my goal is to be able to run the entire thing.  It's going to be HOT out, and I have a bunch of friends/family who are doing it with us, so I want to be able to run the entire thing to show that I haven't been slacking! Also, if I can't run a whole 5k by August, I'm going to either have to a)REALLY step up my game or b) rethink doing the Princess Half Marathon.  

I also have been having a hard time getting my eating back to normal.  I have issues with going way over in calories on my days off.  I am the type of person that needs a "cheat" day. Maybe not so much an entire day, but at least one meal.  On our days off, Cody and I generally do a lot of eating out. I know it's possible to stay under your calories when eating out,  but sometimes we go to restaurants where it's basically impossible to both log, and stay under.  And I'm okay with that, as long as I'm able to stay under my calorie goal throughout the week.  But for some reason this week I've had a hard time getting myself to want to count again, and eat like I should.  I tend to do this...after a few weeks of being good and losing some weight, for some reason I just decide I don't want to do it anymore, so I stop.  I am working hard to get over this hump but for some reason I'm just losing the motivation.  I need something to get me excited again. 

I had a bit of a binge last night.  I wasn't going to write about it, but I think that writing about it to you guys will help keep me accountable for it.  I had a TERRIBLE night at work.  Cody and I went to lunch at a local pizza place for their pizza and salad buffet. I made sure to eat a big, yummy salad, so I wouldn't eat so much pizza.  I made sure to log it all, and made sure to have a salad at work for Dinner (I love Salad, so it's okay).  We were suuuuuper busy at work, and I had a new girl closing with me so I basically had to do everything, people were rude, it was just an all around bad night.  And generally what I do is I eat part of my dinner at work about 4 or 5, and then the other part of my dinner when I get home from work.  Well, because we were so busy I wasn't able to make the other part of my dinner, so I was starving on my way home.  Because I was stressed, and hungry, all I wanted was McDonalds.  So, against my better judgement, I stopped and got a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, fries, and chicken nuggets.  The whole time I did it, I felt guilty about it, but at the same time, I didn't care.  I need to figure out how to make my better judgement kick the crap out of my old eating habits so that I don't do that again!

One good thing that happened so far this week though...remember that job interview I had a while back, and I was trying to decide if the 45 minute commute would be worth it?  Well, I had another interview with the same restaurant, and it turns out that the GM of the restaurant I want to work at quit, and the GM of the restaurant I would be working at is going to the one that is closer to me, and if I'm hired, would want me at that restaurant...so I'd be working at the one that is closer to me!  I hope so badly that I get the job! Unfortunately, it would mean I would have less time off with Cody, but it would mean more money, better insurance, and a great opportunity!  YAY!

Week 2

Today is Monday, which means it's weigh in day! I got up and got right on the scale, and I am down 4.2lbs, which means I've lost a total of 10lbs!! YAY ME!!  I'm super excited, I don't think I've ever been able to make it this long, so I'm super proud. 

Todays run was only okay. I accidentally slept in on Saturday when I was supposed to do the last day of week 1 (which is technically week 2 of my training, since I skipped the first week), so today I started on week 2.  It's just 90 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking, but or some reason it was super hard!  I was able to do the full 90 seconds for the first mile, but the second mile, I had to cut it short and only did 60 second runs.  I don't know why it's always so hot in the cardio room at the YMCA but geeeeeez...it makes me sweat SO MUCH.  I think that may be part of the reason I got tired.....who knows.  I'm for sure not skipping any runs this time.  I'm supposed to take Thursday and Friday off, but I may end up running one of those days.  Depends on how I'm feeling, I guess.

Today was a pretty fun day.  It was our day off, so we went and had lunch with his brother, and then came home so we could pick up Remy, and brought her to the dog beach.  It was her first time at the beach, and even though she was by the water at the campground last week, I think the size of the lake scared her (we live right on Lake Michigan, so the beach is HUGE) and the waves were loud.  She was more interested in playing with the other dogs than playing in the water.

Which is a good thing, because tomorrow we are going down south to a cute little town that has a bunch of cool shops and restaurants, and we're going to drop Remy off at a Doggie Daycare down there.  We have a daycare around here that we want to bring her to, but it's really expensive, and we aren't sure how she's gonna do.  The one we're taking her to tomorrow will give us her first day for free, so we figured this would be a good opportunity to see how she does, before paying to take her somewhere.

Okay, time for bed! :)

Giveaway Winner!

Sorry this wasn't done early this morning, but I overslept and had to have some breakfast with the hubby! :)

Before I announce the winner, just wanted to say Thank You to all of you that entered!  It makes me happy to know that you all are reading, and going on this journey with me.

Also, I used random.org to pick the winner. And since I can't figure out how to edit this, or get just a picture of the winner picker thing, I'm going to do a print screen picture....



If you look really close at the Random Number Generator, you can see that the winning number is 25....Which means, the winning comment is from.........

Drumroll please............






I like to add suspense...........







Miss Carrie Anne from What Have I Got To Lose?!!!! YAY! Congratulations Carrie!  You have 24 hours to contact me here and tell me where to send your brand new Bondi Band Armband!

Thanks again for all of you that entered, I look forward to doing more giveaways in the future!