Day 3...What I am Thankful for on This Sunday!

Today I am thankful for the ability to get up and run! I don't always feel great about this...but I know that by getting up on Sunday and doing what I know is right for me makes me feel thankful for this ability. I know there are so many who are not for whatever reason able to do this...And it was such a beautiful morning.
We ran the Mount Vernon Trail and we tried a different starting point. Man, was it hilly!! I know I will be feeling it tomorrow. I actually run next to Craig the entire way...This is the first time we have ever done that. I always feel that I hold him back...but since he isn't training for a marathon right now, he felt he could take it slow with me. I complained the entire way...I know I was annoying him. But at the end of it all...I ended up doing 8 miles instead of the 7 I was scheduled to do. AND...I ended up shaving 5 minutes off my previous 8 mile run in August.
Even though, I constantly complain about how long this journey is taking, I know that I am getting stronger...and faster...and slimmer.
Running is helping me to meet my goals...and I love the fact that I able to get up every Sunday morning and hit the trail. Thank God that He has blessed with me with this ability for now...

Here I am...not looking my best after 8 miles...but still smiling.

Happy Fall Back Day! I just wished it didn't get so dark so early! 

What are you thankful today?

45 DAYS!!!

Today, I learned a VERY VERY valuable lesson!
If I ever take a week off from training, be prepared for the consequences!!!
YIKES! I totally did not think that by not fully doing my program for a week that it would be so hard to do once I started again.
I went to the gym tonight with the expectation of doing my 30 minute maintenance run. WOWZER!! Maybe it was the time off....or maybe it was because of the stupid treadmill...but it was seriously hard work today. I couldn't keep up with my 2/1 intervals. Now I am totally afraid for my run this weekend...4 miles...Holy Cow! I don't think I can make it!
I was able to get 2 1/4 miles done in 45 minutes....and even though the aches and pains in my knees and feet, I didn't feel too bad. 
So, now I am wondering how to get over the treadmill hump. I know that because of the crazy heat coming up in July and August, how the heck am I gonna make it through the summer and be ready in time for my 10 miler in October...Once again! What the heck was I thinking?!?!?!?
Well...I will just keep on going along and see what happens. As long as I believe and have faith in myself to get through this challenge, there is nothing that I can't do!

Well the next fact of the day...I opened my Dream Days app and realized that I have 45 DAYS til our 10th Wedding Anniversary trip to DISNEY WORLD!!
First of all...hard to believe that it has been 10 years since we were married...
Second, if anyone knows me....this trip was totally Craig's idea! I wanted to go on a cruise (a Disney cruise...but nonetheless...haha)
I am so excited! And to commensurate this day, I received my recent order the Disney Store which included my Duffy the Bear costume. However, the costume was not for a Duffy bear.
Quick history, for Valentine's Day, Craig got me a sock monkey from the Georgetown game. We had so much fun taking pictures and getting him the jumbo screen at the basketball games. Now we take me almost every where and document his travels...:)
Fast forward...I have been looking for Mickey ears for a while for my Sock Monkey and found the Duffy outfit...fingers crossed that it fit!!!

From the looks of it from the box, I wasn't very hopeful! 

IT FIT!!!!

He actually looked adorable in this Mickey Mouse Club outfit! The Mickey ears are ridiculous too big and seem a little out of place...but now Sock Monkey is ready to take on Walt Disney World!Boy, is Craig in for a surprise...haha!

So please bear with me for the next few days as I count down to the most magical trip ever!! 

Until next time....have a magical day!

Jessica

Day One...Update!

Holy cow! What an incredible day....
I sat at home and dreamed of having a tall, dark, cold glass of Coca Cola product...Any Coke product!! It is amazing to me at how addicting it is. I really don't need but the taste of it is what I was craving.
Even while getting in line at the grocery store, I felt like each and every bottle in the aisle fridge was staring right at me! LOL!! But I kept my promise to myself...no more.. and I did just that!
I know it is gonna be a long battle with myself but I need to do this for me...

SO I decided today to make a list of all the things that I want to get done this summer. I am gonna set up another tab and as soon as I start adding to the list I will link it up...Just another reminder that I need to make goals and live by them!

Here's the link... Summer To Do List
What do you think so far?? Any other ideas that I should do this summer?

As always...wish me luck! 

First Day of Summer and I Say Good Bye...

So I know I have posted in awhile....So I will start with today and back up a little...

Today is my first day of Summer Vacation!! Thank Goodness! I thought it would NEVER get here! The last 2 weeks have been crazy busy at work and at home. About a month ago, Craig decided to bite into a Tic-Tac...and VOILA!! Cracked tooth!! One problem, the first dentist didn't catch the crack and 2 weeks later of progressive pain, it started to abscess. He ended up with another dentist at Walter Reed Med Center and he had to have an emergency root canal. After further investigation, the crack was so deeply embedded in the canal of the tooth, the team decided to completely extract the tooth. UGH! All of a sudden he went from pain to intense pain...

Needless to say, here we are today, and I spent the day with my husband at the medical center for his post-op follow up. Honestly not a bad way to spend my first day of summer vacation. Moral of this story...DON'T CHEW HARD CANDY!! NO MATTER WHAT....I do find myself as well as Craig's co-workers being more cautious about how we chew what is in our mouth. Honestly, I have to say how bad I have felt for my husband...however, having a diet of soups, frozen yogurt, and milkshakes didn't sound bad after all...:)

Well, during this last 2 weeks, I have to admit publicly that I did NOT stick to the plan as planned...OMG!! What is wrong with me?!?!? No excuses! Honestly, I shouldn't use my husband's illness as my reason not to put myself first...but I am really not sure what I was thinking or doing....
I did manage to get my 2 mile run in last weekend...As I walked down the stairs knowing that I had to do this by myself...I couldn't help but get a little scared...Knowing that Craig would not be meeting up with me frightening me a bit...I have never done this by myself. Honestly...this is what I was thinking...

I still truly believe this...however, I think I need to frame it and say it every time I walk out the door. ugh! Either way, I made it out the door and completed my 2 mile run...It actually turned into an "about 3.5 mile run" because I actually ran a little farther than expected and walked the rest of the way back home.

And I did it in new shoes too... :)

 And I guess my app does time splits now...Check out those time splits at mile 2 and 3. WOW!! I totally never thought I would get to that point.

Of course you would think that this would motivate me to keep going...Not quite. While I was extremely excited, I still can't get motivated to do this on my own yet.

Once again, this brings me back to today...my first day of Summer Vacation. When this whole tooth thing started, Craig mentioned that he wanted to sit down and talk with a nutritionist. Now honestly, I cam not completely sold on the idea....so I will have to wait and see.What can it hurt...cuz honestly, I haven't been that faithful to any diet lately. 

So, after a interesting meeting with this lady, I am still open minded and interested in what she has to offer. Now, we only met with her and talked about recent eating habits, our goals, and next steps. Now I did disclose to her my weight (something I would never do to anyone...) and she did my BMI and body fat % with the hand held thingy....and I was not really surprised with the results but I was surprised at the fact that it wasn't where as bad as I thought it would be. 

After our meeting, we decided that we would have one last meal that we probably won't be doing for a while....so we ordered pizza and decided to say good bye to a friend that I have had for many years...

Coca-Cola has been like a best friend for many many years....through good and bad times. I have done it before...I have given up cokes before, and knowing that I have been able to give it up before, I figure I have to try this again.
As Craig and I walked out of the nutritionist's office, we both knew that by our next meeting she was going to expect a weight loss from what we told her where we are right now...With that said, we are starting our "make shift" dieting tomorrow, hopefully we can be successful and prove to ourselves more than anything that we are capable of doing this. Pretty interested to find where this will lead me and to see if I have enough will power to get through this....and especially now since Craig was given a "almost" clean bill of health with regards to his surgery.
One thing that the nutritionist mentioned that is on the list is Magnesium supplement. She said that magnesium has proven to curb the "sweet tooth" I am really interested to see if this works....off to Vitamin Shoppe tomorrow, in addition to well needed grocery shopping.
Any suggestions on healthy snacks or recipes that you've tried. Let me know...would love to hear what you are doing.

Well...I hope to be more regular. This is my first day of summer vacation...and I am ready to let it be the "Summer of ME!" I have already promised several people at work that once I return at the end of August I will be a totally new person...so here I go, keeping that promise to every one...but most importantly to myself.

Week One....COMPLETE!!

After what seemed like a LOOOOOONG day at work on Friday, I finished my work week with ZUMBA!! (Love ya Lo!! But that squat song...Holy Moly!!) I was finally really run down and tired by 3:45 that I really felt that I wasn't completely into it. But, I made it through, and I was super glad that I did.

Well, I was bummed earlier, though. We were suppose to go to the Nationals game that evening, but since it had literally been raining since Thursday evening, it was postponed until Sunday evening.

So, that night after dinner, I sat on my very-comfy couch, and it decided to sing me a lullaby. This is becoming a regular for me if we have nothing planned on Fridays....probably not a good thing. However, after working and working out all week, it is probably my body saying, "Rest up, lady!"

Saturday....I had to get up relatively early to take my PRAXIS exam. For those of you who don't know, I am a special ed teacher, and I have been for 13 years now. And I figured that I need to try a different path...so I am taking my PRAXIS in math to be certified as a middle school math teacher. I know right??? What the heck am I thinking? No matter what, I know I am definitely going to heaven. :) At the testing site, I just happen to be in the same testing room as my former Director of Schools. He is leaving to be a superintendent out of state, and I have worked closely with him for the last 2 and a half years through our intramural sports program. He made me feel really good by telling me how much he has seen me grow as a leader and really encouraged me to move on with my plans of becoming a school principal.

So, after sitting a testing for TWO HOURS and having a short and meaningful conversation with my former "boss," I walked out of the testing center on cloud 9! I was totally feeling good about the test AND I was totally feeling good about the choices that I have made in my life up to this point.
There have been many times that I have felt and wondered, "What the hell am I doing?" And, "How the heck did I end up here?" I have been lying to myself for years I believe that I was truly happy with my choices. Don't get me wrong...I have the best husband ever, and I don't regret a single choice that we have made together. But I now realize that I was probably fooling myself! And now I have finally decided that I am going to be truly happy...and not just tell myself that I am.

Well, from this feeling of realization, I was finishing up our Saturday chilling out night by surfing the Internet and found a 10K race in July...The Biggest Loser Run/Walk.

And guess what?? Yup!! I signed up for it!! OMG!! What am I thinking?!?!? Middle of July...in the heat and humidity!! I must really want to do this. Never in a million years would I ever be caught dead outside in the hear in the summer....much less actually running in it. HA!! Well, I am finally here to prove myself wrong!

So before bed, Craig and I agreed to run first thing Sunday morning. I had already decided not to work out on Saturday since I had gone to the gym every day this week, so I had to do my day three run...it was only a mile run...but I knew it was important to get it done before the end of the week.

Well, old Jessica would have told Craig to leave her alone when he asked her if she still wanted to go running first thing Sunday morning.....BUT NEW and IMPROVED Jessica got out of bed when Craig asked her. Now granted, I didn't jump right up when he asked me....I did get about 15 more minutes of sleep in...LOL!
Needless to day, with the weather we have been having here in DC, it was actually a beautiful morning.

SO I started my run/walk with a nice walking warm up, I have kinda conditioned myself to start to matter what after this slight hill on the trail. It is all psychological...I know...but it is just something that I have been doing since my first outside run in March. Anyways, I started running and low and behold, my ankle started killing me!! Seriously?? I was so annoyed! It was kinda giving me trouble during Zumba on Friday but that was 2 days ago. I worked through it for the first interval, and by the time I was on interval 3, the pain kinda magically disappeared.That's a good thing.

Have I to say....I was using my new Garmin watch. And I really liked the notifications letting me know that it was time to change up during my interval...What I didn't like is that I had set the intervals based on my 10 mile run in 17 weeks at Disney so I wasn't able to stop it after I was done with the first mile. Guess I need to read more on it before trying again. Plus, I wasn't able to upload data from today onto my computer. That is a job for Craig to help me with. He's been using his Garmin for years now....so he's an expert. Maybe??

Always as a back up, I do have my phone recording as well. And to make me feel even better, I realized that this Jeff Galloway program that I started on Monday, ACTUALLY WORKS!!! According to my RunKeeper app on my phone, I did a 12.01 min mile!! OMG!! Are you kidding me?!?!?

YAY ME!! 

To make a long story short....I ended up run/walk a mile but ended up putting in a total of 3.1 in 37 minutes. WOW!! YAY ME AGAIN!! My first 5K was on St Patrick's Day and I completed it with A LOT less running in 54 minutes. In 12 weeks, I have been able to take off 17 minutes off my time. Now I am really not worried about this 10K in July!!

To sum up the week....I ran/walked a total of 7 miles....worked out 6 days this week (I know too much...but I really enjoy going to Zumba on Wednesdays and Fridays)...and lost 3 pounds. (Now time to get my diet in check...) Not bad for my first week of making it real!

Off to bed to start Week 2!! Only 9 days left of school....I know I can do it!!!