10 on Tuesday

A little late. Who cares? lol

1. I have been so busy these past few days getting stuff done for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). Especially yesterday and today. It's a good thing. A little stressful at times, but overall good. Since I am coordinating it with Danielle we have had so many things to do lately. A massive check off list of sorts. :) Thankfully, I am very organized when it comes to this stuff. That's just in my nature to do that. It's awesome seeing it all come together and getting together with all of my friends. I love those women.

2. Ok, well I already confessed my gain from last week (.4)..but look out everyone. This week is going to be awesome. I'm not going to spill the beans yet. But I have already been doing great. This writing down everything you eat is really working. What a concept! lol

3. I ran a 5K last night. I'm happy to report that my foot/heel feels fine. It definitely likes the shorter distances better. First of all I can't believe I'm calling a 5K a short distance. I said the same thing about a 10K the other day. Because compared to the longer ones I have been doing, those feel short now. I caught myself saying it too. Weird. I am so thankful it's ok today. My leg on the other hand is hurting. It started giving me a tiny bit of trouble on my 10K last Saturday but got better and I didn't think anything of it. Then almost the whole 5K last night it was hurting. Especially at the end. It's at the top of my leg like around it. I wonder if that is the hip flexors. I'll be resting tonight and tomorrow for my long run on Friday. 9 miles this week. EEEK!!

4. How does my house become a mess so fast. Oh wait! I can tell you. 2 kids who run around taking things out and not putting them back. ahh At least their rooms are still clean.

5. Not sure how healthy this is, but everyone asks for my meatball recipe. It's really not a recipe at all. Just putting a couple things together. It's totally cheating, but everyone thinks they are divine. 2 packages of frozen meatballs (Italian is the best....yes totally cheating), one bottle of Masterpiece BBQ sauce, Dr. Pepper That's it folks. You put the meatballs in the crock pot. Then pour in the bbq sauce until you cover all of them. You'll have to stir it around a little. Then pour in the Dr. Pepper until it reaches the height of the meatballs. Put on low for several hours or on high for a few.

6. I want to get one of these SpiBelts. So awesome. That way I can carry my phone with me and my key without worrying about needing a phone on my runs or my key coming off my shoe.

7. I just changed my picture for the header for my blog. I kept wanting to change it since I look so different. The last one was from Easter.

8. As of right now Skyler wants to be a black kitty cat for Halloween. (She got the idea from Dora's Halloween DVD). Courtney wants to be Jack Skellington (from Nightmare Before Christmas). Why she wants to be Jack and not Sally? I don't know. lol I'm sure they will change their minds before then. I'm really surprised how long they have said they want to be these 2 things. Quite a while.

9. Wow, it's hot here. We didn't have to have our ac on for a week and now I had to put it on. It's on 80 degrees and still the ac can't keep up with it. Actually, right now I'll go turn it off again and open the windows again. We get a good cross breeze here.

10. I've been trying to drink a lot more water lately. And since that's really all I drink, that's an even better thing. Occasionally I'll have a Sprite Zero, but I can't have too much of it or it will make me sick. Speaking of water....gulp

5K Around My House

I went for a run this morning with Shauna. We set out to do a 5K around my house for the first time together. I have done it one time before by myself and had to stop a bunch of times to walk. I am so happy to report that I RAN THE WHOLE THING!!!!!!!!!!!! 36 minutes 17 seconds (according to my Nike+ Sportband). We both were wearing one and they were so different. So, we realized we both need to calibrate them. :) I don't know why I haven't done it yet. Hers said we did 3.33 miles and I had to keep running to get my 3.1 in. I ended up doing 3.11 miles.

Two great things about this run. First of all it was a slower pace and I was loving that speed. I felt like I could keep going when we were done. I felt strong and capable of going much further today. And it was so nice to run outside and with a friend. It's nice to have company. Even if I slow her down. ;) I have been doing so much of my running in the gym that it was so great to just run outside with the wind blowing on our faces. It did end up getting a little sunny by the second lap, but still nice. We went early in the morning so it would be cooler and because she had to get back home.

This has been a great start to a new week of weight loss. I feel like I am doing so much better eating during the weekend. And I am exercising every day too so I should be losing this weekend instead of gaining. That would be an awesome change.

I tried on a shirt from my closet that I had yet to wear and it was feeling looser then when I tried it on. I was really enjoying that feeling until I dropped a strawberry on it. Oops! That is some hard stuff to get out. Even when I went straight to get it off.

We had our last day of MOPS on Thursday and my friend, Amy won both hair cutting packages. She generously gave one to me. I am so excited. I need to call to schedule my free haircut! I'm going to chop it off!!

10 on Tuesday

ya ya so it's a day late. Who cares?

1. Please pray for my husband's job. Right now if you can. He and his whole department yesterday were asked if they were mobile (willing to move to another refinery far away to keep their job). He said no because really, we don't want to move away. I'm hoping they are going to weed out those who can just switch to somewhere else instead of being let go. His company is doing massive lay offs. He said it's getting scarier today because he sees people being walked out (being let go) today. PLEASE pray hard. We are just barely managing to get by WITH his paycheck, let alone if we didn't have it.

2. I ran 4 miles yesterday!!! That was a major accomplishment for me! I haven't ever run that far let alone in 49 minutes. It was hard and felt like torture. I didn't have my running buddy with me, so that's probably partially why. It's the first time I went past 3.1 miles (5K).

3. My asthma is driving me nuts. I keep feeling it come on. I had to use my inhailer 2 different times yesterday. Yet, it was fine during my run. Go figure. I can feel it again today too.

4. Courtney has her 1st ever softball game tonight. I'm excited and hope it doesn't get rained out. 5:15pm at EWMS.

5. I'm now in a 2 way tie for 4th place in the challenge. I lost 5.6 pounds last week. Insane. I can't believe it was only 2.2% for the week though. ug!

6. Why do cookies have to be so good?

7. Last week we woke up to find 2 chocolate bar wrappers on the table (with no chocolate in them). We knew there had been some candy thieves. Then all of a sudden we noticed 20 little dimes piled on the table. See, the night before we told them that they couldn't just eat the softball candy we were selling. They had to buy it. Then we let them eat buy a candy from the money in their piggy banks. We had a lesson about coins and they ended up paying in dimes. I guess I should have explained that they couldn't just buy as many as they wanted. It was a one time thing. lol But cute that they now know how many dimes are in a dollar.

8. Taxes are done. Woho! That was a huge accomplishment of last week. The whole process stresses me out.

9. Can't decide if I'm going to the gym after writing this blog or going to skip it today. My body says skip it. My mind is reminding me of how little we have til the final weigh in. Maybe I'll just do a smaller workout.

10. I should have a PartyLite shipment coming soon. I finally spent a bunch of gift certificates I had been saving to get some new product. I will probably be hosting my own party in April (PL's anniversary month) and have all kinds of stuff to sell off my table as well as all of the incredible specials and catalog they always do.

50 Pounds Lost!!!!!!!!

I am so excited to be at 50 pounds lost! Wooohoooo!!!! One pound at a time. ahh it feels good. I'm so amazed at how much support everyone is giving me. I am overwhelmed by love. The wonderful comments are helping motivate me to continue every day.

The pictures aren't the best this time. The differences in cameras is a little bit more noticeable this time. Oh well. We get a new camera in a little over a week. I can't wait for that. Ahh to be able to take pics whenever I want again. That will be awesome. The photos are so small on the blog. I made them smaller for the blog assuming the full size would be too big. If you want to see a bigger version, you can go to my facebook page. I don't know why the tops are being cut off of the photos either. Oh well. You get the idea.

I had another 5K run today (3.1 miles). It was so much better today. I actually ran it the whole way. Minus the signals we had to wait for. Shauna and I ran on the trail in Whittier. It was nice having markers every .1 mile. That made it more encouraging to go further.

On a side note, I can't wait for the Biggest Loser to come back on. Don't they know I'm missing that extra motivation they provide me??? Those darn Olympics. haha I really enjoy the Olympics. It's fun to watch. I just can't wait for my Biggest Loser to come back.

It's hard for me to see the differences in these pictures. It might be camera differences, or angle, or distance. Or the fact that it was at night so my pants weren't freshly washed and you usually are heavier at night. Not sure if that makes you look bigger. lol Just a thought. It's probably just the camera. I can't wait to get our new one.

Running

I've been running more lately. I did my second and third 5K (3.1 miles) this week. My first 2 were on the treadmill. The last one (yesterday) was out on the street and it was in the hills near Macy school. Wow, that was hard with those hills, but I'm glad we got through it. It is getting easier it seems. My time keeps improving.

1st 5K: 40 minutes 25 sec.
2nd 5K: 37 min. 51 sec.
3rd 5K: 36 min.

However, I think I'm holding on to all of that lactic acid and just my muscles getting used to the running. I lost .8 at home and NOTHING at the challenge weigh in. Oh well, at least I didn't gain. I really thought it would be a better weigh in since last week it didn't show my loss really. This week the scales were off by 5 pounds. ahh This last week was hard for me too. It was just a different week for me. I seriously couldn't remember the last time I hadn't worked out on any particular day. I really had been working out every single day. Either at home or the gym. Then this week happened and I didn't work out 3 days this week. So, that compiled with whatever is going on with my muscles from running.

Ah, whatever. It really in the grand scheme of things is all worth it. This challenge isn't the end all be all. It would be great to win this challenge, but in the long run, my overall health is what is important. I did lose on my scale and that is what will keep me going. And exercising is so important to overall improved health. Especially when you are losing weight. This way what's under all that fat will be fit or fitter than if you hadn't been working out. You want to be strong not just skinnier. Because what's the point if you can't even do simple exercises if you are thinner? You won't be as fit. I want to be fit and I'm getting there. I'm always amazed when I can keep up with some of the thinner crowd at the gym. Just wait until this weight is all off, then I'll be seriously rockin' it at the gym. So, watch out. :) In the meantime, I will not be afraid of not losing because I'm exercising. I will just adjust when I run to the beginning of the week instead of right before a weigh in. Plus, there are only 5 more weigh ins to the challenge.

I hit a milestone this week too. I made it to my all time low since having Skyler. WOHO!! My next goal is only a few tenths of a pound away. I was soooo hoping to make it to there today. Oh well. So the next pound marks 50 pounds lost. And then I can post new pictures. I love it when I can do that. It really helps me to see the changes if I take pictures. So, I get all excited when it's almost time to do so.

50 seems like such a huge number to me. Even though I know I still have so much further to go, I can appreciate how far I have come. 50....half of 100. Wow...I'm so close. I'm hoping to get there tomorrow. I'll post when I do. I need to borrow a camera to take some pictures. Yes, our camera is still broken and we can't buy a new one for at least another week.

10 on Tuesday

1. I'm officially a "Purple Pixies" fan! That's the name of Courtney's new softball team. Oh how exciting this all is to see her playing a sport that I love so much. She LOVES going to practices and can't wait for the next one.

2. I seriously need to make some cards. I guess that's what happens when you enter birthday season and I just gave out a bunch of thank you cards too. Time to re-supply my stash.

3. Courtney's birthday and party is this Saturday. I'm going to take her to Disneyland most likely the day before. Just the 2 of us since we are the only 2 with passes right now. Then her party is on Saturday. I was getting worried since some of her close friends couldn't come. Then the rsvps started coming in. ahh no worries at all.

4. The Fab 4 will be in full effect on Saturday. That's Courtney's little group of really close friends at school. (Or what I just now decided to call them.) Jaden, Erika, Avahry, and Courtney....those 4 could spend all day, every day together if they could. I'm glad that Courtney initiated talking about introducing school friends and church friends to each other so everyone can be friends and have fun.

5. Skyler is sick right now. She has green snot. Oh lovely! She had asthma issues last week, then a fever, now the fever is gone so I thought she was all better, now the green snot. I put a call into the advice line and they either want her to come in to get an obvious prescription (hello..do it over the phone), or wait it out to see if it goes away. ug I'll have to take her in and waste $25 so they can give me a prescription that is so obvious that she needs so that she isn't contagious at the party. Oh joy. (Oh and it doesn't help that her doctor isn't in right now so this is based on some other doc.)

6. I'm so thankful for the people in our life who continue to help us.

7. I really want to get the band for the Nike running shoes. I have the sensor and all of that but need the band so I can start running on pavement and not just the treadmill. I need to train more. The band tells you how far you have gone and your time while you are running. Then you plug it in to your computer, I believe to see all of your stats.

8. I don't think I ever blogged about the 5K. Shauna and I are doing the La Habra 5K together. My cousin, Bryan (her hubby) is also going to be running, but he'll be way ahead of us. ;) The race is on March 27th. 5K is 3.1 miles. I just ran my first 5K on the treadmill last week and it took me 40 minutes and 25 seconds. I hadn't ever tried it before so I thought I would go for it. Also, I'm trying to see how much I can do since 2 people want me to do a 1/2 marathon with them in September. That scares me a bit. But the 5K I think I could do. Even if I end up having to walk some of it. I'm sure I will because I'm not trained enough to run the whole thing. It's making me nervous just thinking about it.

9. Ah Summer...it's so nice during the winter months to feel like summer. What a blessed relief from the downpours we have been having. The warm sun has been such a treat. It's been nice to be outside with the kids enjoying the weather and not be as freezing at softball practice. (It started off warm, but turned cold this last time.) Of course this makes me think of all of those poor people who have been snowed in forever. ah the perils of living where you do. I love California weather. You WILL NOT be able to convince me otherwise.

10. Want to buy some candy? $1.00 each. haha