What's Your Resolution?

"Stick to a task till it sticks to you. Beginners are many, finishers few."

As I've confessed, over the past few months I've let my work out regimen slide a little...okay a lot. I haven't stopped all together but, I've taken it easy. Yesterday I knew I needed to take the boys out for a jog. Honestly, I didn't want to. I wanted to stay home, clean, eat M&Ms and have one more lazy day. Randomly, this little saying started playing in my head. Arg! I put on my big girl pants, bundled my boys and took a jogging stroller run. It was hard. The wind blew and my boys are heavy. Luckily, they were happy and by the time I got home, I was glad I'd gone. It gave me the momentum to get up this morning and run with one of my favorite running buddies, Celeste. Even though I'm a little sore, I'm pumped that I'm back in the saddle. It's gunna be a good...great year.
I came across an interesting article on RunnersWorld.com about keeping your resolutions. Check it out for some motivation.

This Year I Will...

By Bob Cooper

Happy New Year!

Today is our first real-life post holiday day. We are all on detox from our Christmas and New Year's adventures. Our one healthy Christmas moment was this run with Santa at my husband's work. Besides that it has been treats, no sleep, lazing around and enjoying the excitement of the holidays. I've loved it but now it's time to get back on track.

I love the New Year. I love the feeling of a new start and making goals. I always get a little rush of adrenaline at the start of the year...like I can accomplish anything.

This year I plan on improving my 5K time and completing at least one half marathon if not more. I also plan on being more consistent with my training and my ability to maintain healthy habits. I'm excited to share my progress with you and am hoping that I'll get to celebrate your progress as well.

Here's to an awesome new year. Hooray for 2012!!

Joy Bauer

Today I've been thinking about strategies to avoid gaining a million pounds this season. I remembered a segment featuring Joy Bauer, nutritionist on the Today Show, about making smart decisions during the holidays. I love her tips because they are totally do-able (says the girl who's eating a frosted sugar cookie while writing this). One of my favorite Joy Bauer tips is her "Rule of One."

"Follow My "Rule of One"If you keep your portions in check, you can enjoy every highlight of your favorite holiday meals and events without going overboard. Stick with just ONE of each deliciously tempting hors d'oeuvre, one plate of food, one alcoholic drink, and one dessert (or a sliver of two, if you can't decide)."

Get more advice from Joy here.

Enjoy Holiday Hoopla Without Gaining a Pound

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

I ran the Edmond Turkey Trot with my family and a couple friends on Thanksgiving. After that, I spent the rest of the day stuffing my face. It was pretty much the perfect day. I didn't get my best time...partly because my speedy little three year old ran a little with me and I had to run him back to Daddy (notice how he's celebrating his running success with my race t-shirt). Running with family is my favorite. I love getting people excited about running and races. I love seeing their excitement at reaching their goals. Notice, my awesome mother in law placed in her age division. Now that I've done this with my family, I can't see myself passing it up in the future. I guess I should say, "Warning, if you come to Thanksgiving at my house, you have to run before you get to eat." Does that make you want to celebrate with me?

Vacation Running

I'm not one of those people who log major miles when I'm out of town. The point of vacation is to take a break...right? With that being said, I usually do take time to do something active while I'm out of town. For one, I really enjoy running and it's a fun way to discover new places. Also, I always eat more junk food when I'm out of town and logging a run makes me feel less guilty about it (by "less guilty" I mean not guilty at all). Typically travel involves a bit of stress...you know, trying to get everything ready to leave, coordinating schedules, etc. Running helps me decompress and enjoy my time away. I spent Labor Day weekend in Portland with my husband's side of the family. My brother in law got married. It was fun, beautiful...basically anything positive you can say about a wedding and being with family. My husband's cousin, Emily (pic above) is an awesome runner (right now she's training for the Chicago Marathon...amazing!!) and agreed to go for a vacation run with me. We thought we'd do something like three miles. We spent our run chatting and enjoying the sights of Portland. At the end we discovered we'd run five miles rather than three. We even ran faster than planned. Because everything was new (the sights, a running buddy, etc), I still felt like I was on vacation even while exercising. Thanks Emily! By the way, Emily also has a running blog: Chicago Runner's High. Can you believe it...two Emilys who write running blogs? How cool can one family get?

Speaking of my cool family, my brother in law also ran with me. I may or may not have guilted him into it, "You don't have to run with me but I'm going. I'm sure no one will assult me while I'm out by myself."
Thanks Mike! Another way I get exercise on vacation is walking, walking and more walking. My husband and I are both directionally challenged and neither of us really like to drive in unfamiliar places so we always end up walking a ton when we're out of town. I love it. I end up seeing a lot more because I'm not worried about parking places, traffic, etc.

Voodoo Doughnuts was across the street from our hotel in Portland and I pretty much at my body weight in them. Holy cow...so good!!! Because of all my running and walking, I felt zero guilt when indulging. Hooray for vacation running!

Over-Indulging

You may remember me talking about my amazing cousin Fleur who lost 65lbs by making healthy life changes. I asked her to give us some advice about how she avoids over-indulging during the holidays. Learn more from her at http://www.fleurshrinks.blogspot.com/.

"I have over-indulged a few times. I proved to myself that I have changed some of my habits though- because eating too much junk made me feel awful! I had about two days of cookies and candy (I have found the most wonderful caramel recipe), then I didn't even want to look at another sweet. I had a salad and it tasted so good! In my "old life" I could eat almost nothing but cookies and candy for days and days and not feel a thing. Now, I am still surrounded by goodies, but I'm not scarfing them down. I love baking, especially this time of year. But, I sample one bite from every recipe (just to make sure it turned out the way it was supposed to), and then I give the rest away. I'm really not even all that interested in it. I make myself remember how hideous I felt after those two days, and then I eat balanced meals with small treats here and there. I am maintaining my goal weight (well, within five pounds), so I know my current approach is working. I guess my advice is pay attention. Pay attention to how you feel after eating something. Allow yourself treats, but don't go overboard. Think of the treats you really want (the ones you can only get this time of year, or the ones that it just wouldn't be Christmas without) and leave all the rest alone."

What a smartie! Thanks for sharing Fleur!!! Merry Christmas Everyone!

Trick or Treat

I LOVE candy! I know I should be smart and walk away but I just can't...I mean don't. SO, here is my questions for you. How do you avoid over indulging during the holidays?

Tis the Season for Candy

These are my weakness lately. I LOVE M&Ms and have to admit that I've had more than my fair share this week. Today I was reading one of my favorite new blogs: Fleur Shrinks. I love the way she is open and honest about her success and challenges with creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.



Her most recent post is about resisting the urge to binge on Halloween Candy. If you're like me, I need all the help I can get in that area. Click here for her wonderful words of wisdom: Tricks for Treats.