Polar Vortex

 

Greetings from Central Illinois and the Polar Vortex!

 

 

One of my Small steps for weight loss...

 

committing to working out

1 day a week then eventually 5

Here is the week we finally made it to the gym all five days!

We've been lifting more and running but switched to a routine of

Run-lift-run-lift-run  3-6 miles 5x a week

 

The MAN has been off ice climbing!

Here he is at the Michigan Ice Climbing Festival

 

Sending me his love...

I've been finding lots of time for my couch...

sometimes with a sick kid or on a weekly snow/cold day

 

 

 

 

Newest yummy! Spring Rolls with Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce

I made these last week twice!

I want to purchase some brown rice wraps but we aren't exactly in a metropolis so it was just the regular rice paper wraps until I order brown rice wraps online.

 

I had leftover chicken and added some Asian seasoning with ginger in it

cut up carrots and an English cucumber

another time I used bagged broccoli/Kale slaw

wet the rice paper and lay it on a cutting board

Roll up the chicken (measured 1 oz) and veggies

1 point each

 

The Spicy Thai Peanut sauce

PB2-2 T

1T water

1T soy sauce

Ginger-fresh or dried

1T rice vinegar

1t-sesame oil

1/2 clove of garlic

sirracha to taste for spice

pulse that all in my magic bullet

 

(this recipe is about 3 points but my husband and I could share it)

 

 

Not much to report on the fitness end!

It is so so cold here in Illinois that long workouts are hard to come by.

I am missing my longer running and my weekly running partner, Pam.

I ran a winter trail race on Saturday.

 

This is my husband running "Superman Hill"  This is only half the hill!

 



This race was probably harder for me than the 30 mile race I did in October. 

It's only 4.25 so that says LOADS!

The snow was high and after getting packed and run on just totally killed my calves and ankles.

 

We added screws to our trails shoes!

 

 

This is me toward the end.

 



And it's been one year since I was in the midst of my vocal chord paralysis.

Praise God there are no other issues!

 

 

Deck of cards

I love to workout with my husband.  It's hard at times because we run different paces and are at different levels when it comes to strength training but we have managed to find ways to work out together over the years.  He keeps me so motivated and I have tried many things I would never have tried on my own...and I am healthier for that!

Recently, I have been learning about the benefits of strength training for weight loss. I used to think if I just ran and ran and ran I would off set the calories I ate.  But I am learning that becoming lean and burning calories is most effective when you add in strength training or even plyometric work outs.  So now We usually have one rest day and then alternate running and strength.  

A typical week looks like this: 

Sun-alternate strength training such as this Deck of cards work out

Mon-recovery run-middle distance

Tue-Body pump at the gym

Wed-Speed work and shorter run

Thur-Body pump at the gym

Fri-Rest

Sat-Long run

Here's a great little article from RUNNER'S WORLD about it all.  It touts the following

1.  Muscle burns more calories: 

"Your body typically uses about 4.5 to seven calories per pound of muscle every day. If a 160-pound runner with 20 percent body fat increases his muscle mass and lowers his body fat to 15 percent, he'll burn an extra 36 to 56 calories a day at rest—simply by adding muscle."

2.  You'll be more efficient:

A study published last year in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research showed that runners who add three days of resistance training exercises to their weekly program increase their leg strength and enhance their endurance. 

3.  You'll be less injury prone:

  If you increase your strength, you'll also increase your joint stability, reducing your risk of repetitive stress injuries," says McCall, citing a study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which showed that incorporating moves such as squats, single-leg hops, and ab work into a workout can not only prevent lower-body injuries, but improve performance as well.

Between my chiropractor and what I have learned about workouts I know this to be absolutely true!

So this brings me to the title of this blog... a fun little workout for my husband and I that really mixes it up and makes for a great work out!

The Deck of Cards

We choose 4 activities.  We try to choose things that will allow us a total body work out.  You might want to do  it multiple times a week arms one day, legs one day, core another.  We run for a mile or about 5-10 minutes to warm up.  We like to set the timer on our phone and try to move quickly from one to the next.  It keeps the cardio up and we try to beat our previous time if we can.   

Our 4 go to activities are.

goblet squats

Weighted ball sit up with partner

Burpee

and the pull-up

I use the machine at the gym and the hubs starts with pull ups then he adds a box for one leg or switches to the machine if he needs too.

BAM!  You're welcome!

Rotisserie Chickens

So I have been traveling lots with the family and my husband.  One of my greatest trials at keeping on track with weight loss and staying health is to fail at eating well and exercising are when I am away from home and out of my routine.  I am proud to say...not this time! Hubs and I have discovered the answer to all that travel...at least for us!  Rotisserie chickens.  

Ha Ha.  It's really more than just chickens... but that is how it started.  We take a cooler with us and have learned along the way to find grocery stores to purchase our snacks and even some meals!  I'm a small town girl and we don't have big city healthy food stores or amazing healthy grocery stores.  On this last trip we found a Whole Foods.  

<Pause sunbeam and angelic singing>

Whole Foods is THAT good.

Here is our hotel fridge after our trip.  Top left is a smoked chicken with barbeque sauce.  Top right is a ginormous salad that we will share.  Bottom left are two soups (local yumminess creole, seafood kind of soups), shrimp cocktail in the center and fruit on the bottom right.  Almost all hotels have microwaves these days at least in the lobby if not in your room.  You can also use the gas station microwaves if you need to!

That's another love of mine!  The Jimmy Johns Unwich.  No bread, lettuce leaves to hold in all the goodies.  I know the meat is processed and not "clean" but in a pinch it's a good choice and easy to eat while driving.

This little gem travels well too.  At the start of my trip I might eat it out of a paper cup (mixed it up at a rest stop) with some celery sticks I brought along.  At the hotel I mixed some up and then broke off hunks of banana to get that goodness into my mouth for a snack so I wouldn't over eat at dinner.  

I paid $7.50 for this bottle of water and cup of fruit!  Dang.  If I was smart I would have refilled my water bottle and stuck some of the fruit they served at breakfast in our fridge.  Sometimes the ambiance of purchasing a snack is worth it.  See the live Jazz band in the back ground?

Other snacks we take along?

bags of baby carrots-sometimes I need to mindlessly eat and they are crunchy and I don't have to feel guilty

cocoa roasted almonds-although a 1 oz serving is only about 20 nuts.  

microwave popcorn -pop it at a gas station microwave!

bananas, oranges, apples

I also cut up strawberries and cantaloupe before we left the last time.  

Having the containers was handy after another grocery stop too!

And back to the chickens.

Well, we have learned that the ones at Walmart are actually VERY yummy.

Hubs drives while I eat half.  Their Barbeque sauce is good (smokey) and we share a little cup of it.  They have napkins, forks, knives, everything.  Then when I am done we switch and I drive.  We remove the skin and I sometimes don't eat the wing or leg and leave it for him-he can have more calories than me.  Once we did this two days in a row lunch and dinner trying different chickens...Target, Walmart, Kroger, local grocers ha ha ha

I know. It's weird.  

We bought a bottle of BBQ for $1 that was pretty good actually and had like four meals for $25 for two people.  See...weird and cheap.  I'm winning ya'all over aren't I?

All in all at the end of vacation, I gain .4 (not even a half pound).  That is a victory.  In the past I would have gained 5 lbs and probably stopped all my healthy ways.

I enjoyed my meals while out on the town knowing I had done well on the trip down and back.  I continued my workouts.  I am learning to LOVE running in new places.  It has mixed up my training.  I have adopted some weight lifting strategies that allow me to do strength training with no weights if I need too.  

Does is seem humid here to you?  I think it's a bit humid.

Holy headbands that's gross.  I forgot my pony tail holder and there I am in foggy, humid, damp New Orleans running along the river.  It makes me laugh to look at it.

It's not a diet.  It's life.  Indulge if you want. 

But keeping the weight off and the work it takes to plan and do it is far worth the work.

Vacation shopping.  Honey can I get this?

The thoughts in my head

While running on the dreadmill this morning I did battle again with the thoughts in my head. First it starts out that I think I am racing the people around me.

Can I pace with them?

Am I faster?

Can I out last them?

I wonder how long he has been here?

That actually works for me.  It challenges me and keeps me going.  That is why I like to run with the hubs.

We rarely talk while we run but I know he is there and that we committed to a distance or time.  That makes all the difference.  Today he was out of town.

Then my running partners (aka complete strangers) leave.

Now I am left to my thoughts.

At first it's good and I would say that God tries to help me out.  He DJ's some good tunes and I continue.  But then I am soon bored with that too.

Time to battle and here are some of the thoughts that can derail me.
You have to go to the bathroom. 

You need to stretch.

You aren't going to have enough time to finish.

You worked out enough this week.

It's good that you just got here today.

This is a fine distance to stop.  Good job.

Do more tomorrow than you planned.

SHUT IT!

Today my answer was to run faster.

I don't know if I thought I would out run those thoughts but it worked.

Might have been that I was running so hard for my usual pace that I couldn't think about anything else except for not falling off the back of the dreadmill.

And bam.

Done.

5 miles in 46 minutes

I think you could have done 6.

SHUT IT!

Hunger and Temptation

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.  God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13

There are times I am so hungry or having a craving so badly I go to great lengths to appease it.

Like when I really want something sweet and chocolaty but we don't have it OR I am fighting it.

Then I am basically an addict in a crack house.

I'm serious.

I do things like this:

This is my attempt to make a healthy brownie or breakfast bar that has a chocolate taste.

It was gross.

The good news is that I wasted time and took my mind off my quest for chocolate.

Yesterday, I ran 10 miles.  My longest run this year.... and maybe even last year.

I got up at 4:30 which meant by 10 am I was hungry for lunch then at 2 pm I was hungry again.

(I might tell you about this every post for a while.  I am pretty happy with myself.)

I tried  everything!  This was a lunch concoction.

IT. WAS. SO. HARD.

Here's a little back ground on tracking my food intake and activity output to get you to speed...

On Weight Watchers I can eat 26 points a day.  I get 49 weekly points.  I also get extra points for activity.

My run gave me 18 extra points.  I can use any or all of those weekly and activity points through the week.

Yesterday, I ate all my daily points then 21 more.  That's a lot.

Most days I go over 3 to maybe 10 points.

It felt like a fail.

Because of feeling icky, losing my voice, and gaining weight I have come to believe that most of what you put into your body should be for the purpose of fueling it.  

The "Eat to Live" mentality.  

Finally,  after thinking about this from about 2 pm until 8 pm I ate a peanut butter (Smart Balance not PB2) and jelly (Fruit spread) indulgent sandwich (White whole wheat bread) that measured out to 10 WW points.

It was my crack at that moment.

I then settled down and fell asleep.

In reading the verse at the top, at first, I couldn't think of a way in the world that God provided me a way out of that temptation.

Then I realized it was probably the run itself.

That over eating yesterday was offset by the run itself.

God gave me the strength to run that run and I have no shame at all in eating like I did yesterday.

I only hate the amount that I thought about the food.

That brings me shame.

Sometimes when I think back I hate this obsession with food.  

It causes shame to me to take up so much of my time to count points, plan, shop, research and find recipes.

I feel like it's not Godly to be so fixed on something.

So many people in the world are just trying to live until the next day!

But I also know from that verse that everyone in this world has their vice. Maybe more than one.

My struggle is not unique.

My struggle is my own and it IS BIG to ME.

And God wants me to learn to trust in Him and lean on Him.

I shouldn't hide these struggles AND I SHOULD give him glory in the victories.

So I am thankful today that I could run those 10 miles with the man of my dreams.

I am thankful today that I am not sore because I had the right food, clothes and equipment to run.

(sorry love these shoes)

I am thankful today for the Chiropractor God put in my path that is helping me to heal.

(those are the acupuncture needles)

I am thankful today to be surrounded in prayer by my church, family and friends.

I am thankful that I have the courage to write these things on my mind.  

The greatest satisfaction would be that they might be a testimony to someone in a similar situation someday.

Praise God for all that I can do and all that I have in this life.

Please help me to concentrate more on that than on what I don't or can't have in the moment.

CAN I GET AN AMEN?!

For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Philippians 4:13

(I wish I had a picture flexing here.  That would have been so funny!)

Weight Loss

This weight loss roller coaster is never easy. NEVER.

It takes planning and time and sweat and MONEY!

It's rare that I am able to pull it all together so that I can have success.

This time it helps that:
the hubs is on board,
my mom works at her weight,
my sister joined weight watchers and is eating healthier
and I am surrounded by friends at work who also watch their weight!

Planning & Time

 I probably spend $150 a week on our groceries for a family of 4. Maybe more.

The leanest cuts of meat, fish, and chicken breast.

Fresh produce.

Natural and organic at times.

It takes me some time to figure out a dinner menu, make a list, and then go to 2-3 stores to gather it all.

I used to use more coupons and price match.

I need to make time for that again.

That's a snack at work. Half a gallon bag full of veggies.

I had this day off.  

I planned and made these yummy stuffed peppers with turkey sausage and quinoa for my lunch.

So good and filling on a cold winter day.

I like variety.  Variety is not budget friendly either.

SWEAT

So I have been getting up early.  

First at 4:45 to get to the body pump class at 5:30.

But I usually hit snooze twice and went there without a very happy heart about it all.

This morning I set the alarm for 4:30 (that is AM).

I got up-no snooze.

I had coffee.

I pooped 

(running or lifting when you need to take a dookie only causes embarrassment, pain and is a bad look for your cute gym outfit).

I got dressed and was at the gym in time to set up the weights and warm myself up.

I ran around 3 miles and lifted at body pump for almost an hour today.

Home around 6:45 in time to shower and start the circus of our morning routine.  

I love it.  I love the days I stay at home with the kids. Love.

MONEY

Money for weight watchers. 

Although, I am three weeks from maintenance which will mean I don't have to pay anymore.

Plus I really think it was worth every penny. 

I hunkered down and did what they said and it worked.

Money for the groceries.

I wish I had a picture of my shopping cart.  Maybe I can edit to add that in later.

Money for the gym fees.

Not my best but I'll take it.

Money for the clothes.

I know I posted that one but I seriously am in love with these shoes.

I get to wear them tomorrow.

The benefits?

My hope is-

less medical problems

That I won't yo yo and need to keep buying clothes

All the time I spend with the hubs working on this positive goal together.

positive recreation for me

a positive image for my kids

Energy

Hallux limitus

Not to be confused with I am Spartacus!   

Ha Ha stole that from the hubs!

Hallux limitus

That's not my x-ray but it might as well be.  Mine looks very close to that.  Basically, it's arthritis in my big toe joint.  I still run but I can't wear heels (GASP!) and I can't do plyometric workouts or even lunges very well.  Jumping-that's out.

I have had for maybe 9 months.  The  Chiro took a stab at it but she says I need a podiatrist.  That makes her super awesome too.  I just love when people can say. "I don't know." I think that's classy.  You don't have to know everything and I respect you more for admitting it.

So I went to the podiatrist.  She explained that I need the orthotics but they might need adjusted.  Since I no longer have plantar Fasciitis problems I thought the orthotics started this whole toe thing.  Apparently I need a rigid surface underneath that toe.  I also have to get the inflammation under control with a stronger anti-inflammatory.  I tried a natural anti-inflammatory for the last four days but I don't feel like it did a darn thing.  Lastly, I need to put some biofreeze on that nasty thing before I go on a run or whenever it hurts.  

I might need stock.

I'm still running and doing body pump and all those goodies. That's me with the trainer at the gym.  That girl is due in May....with a baby.  She is amazing!

Trail Running

Ahhh the outdoors.  I just love it.  It's weird because I hate being cold and I have this crazy wavy hair that makes me look like Einstein when it's humid.  But for whatever reason let me run outside and it's a good and satisfying day.

So this is a picture of the Hubs.  We went to a trail near our home to scout out a race course for a trail race coming up in May.  It build my confidence up this way...running the course several times so I know it's something that I can do.

So, we come to this spillway and there is NO other way across.  I tip toed out to that huge concrete block.  Hubs tried throwing other rocks to make a path across...no luck. Then he hoists me up before I can argue and carries me fire man style across the way.  With soaked shoes we had to run over 2 miles and I was so worried but we ran-cutting off a bit and he said he warmed up just fine.  I can't imagine. He's my hero tho.

I got these new kicks this week just for trail running and I super love them!  I tried on some much more expensive Solomon's but they were just too narrow for me.  I got these at Kohl's for $70 but used Kohl's cash so can you say FREE!  I need a wide toe box because they swell and I get blisters and what not.  I bought these puppies a whole size and a half bigger but they grip great and I feel so legit!

Trail running is new for me these last two months but it really makes me feel like I am incorporating strength training and running. The pace is great as we often walk the hills and it gives me time to recover.  There are tons of runners in our area that just say when they are going out and you can join them and we've done that a couple times to learn the courses.

Looky what I got at my first race....a 4 miler in January

That's no participation medal folks.  That was 3rd in my age group (sure there were only 6 of us who cares). Next time I shoot for....actually just finishing.  I'm not very competitive like that.  Ha Ha