Christmas 2015: Baby Fish's first Christmas!

Hey, everyone!  I've been living up winter break from school to the fullest--getting things done around the house, traveling for Christmas, and enjoying time with my family!!  Now that things have settled after a great Christmas holiday, let's recap what we did!

First, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  We wish you a Happy New Year, as well.

Our Christmas card photo

I spent last Monday through Wednesday getting my last-minute shopping done, as well as hanging out with this little girl.

I dropped her off at day care for a few hours each day, which made shopping and errand-running A LOT easier.  I missed being with her all day, though!

On Christmas Eve, we woke up and got ready to head to the airport to fly up to Virginia for Christmas at my grandparents' house.  My mom called as they were leaving the house, saying that our flight was delayed about two hours.  

We hung around the house and continued to check the flight status as our plane got further and further delayed before Delta ultimately cancelled it.  Certainly not ideal!  When I called to try and change our flight, we weren't able to get anything until Christmas day, since the issue was bad weather in Atlanta.  Needless to say, we were frustrated and disappointed, but the customer service agents I spoke with were very helpful in getting us booked to leave as soon as possible.  Thank you, Delta customer service!

Our change in travel plans meant that we spent Christmas Eve day watching Christmas movies on TV. In the evening, I cooked a beef tenderloin roast (yum!) and we attended Christmas Eve service at our church.

Christmas Eve dinner

She loved the candle holder!

When we got home from church, we opened our stockings.  Baby Fish loved looking into the stocking to see if there was anything else!

Her first stocking

By the way, Baby Fish's name is Meredith (in case you couldn't tell from her stocking and her shirt in the first picture)!  I'll keep calling her Baby Fish on the blog though ;)

Pablo the cat even got a present, and he loved it!

Sitting in his little cube

Christmas Day was spent driving to Jacksonville for our flight, flying to Atlanta, and getting delayed for about 3 hours in Atlanta before we finally made it to my grandparents' house!  I don't think I've ever been so happy to arrive somewhere!

That evening, we ate dinner together with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, my aunt and uncle, and my grandparents.

So tired after a long day of travel

Then, we opened presents!  Baby Fish wasn't much for tearing the wrapping paper, but she did enjoy playing with everything BUT her gifts.  Silly girl!

Paper, galore!

The next day, we went over to my dad's mom's house and had our Christmas celebration over there.  It was great to see my grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins play with our little girl.  I was enjoying the time so much, I forgot to take pictures!

We went back over to my mom's parents' house and spent the evening watching the Virginia Tech bowl game.  It was our head coach Frank Beamer's last game, so it was quite emotional to watch!  Luckily, the Hokies pulled out a victory and everyone was happy.

Go Hokies!

Fun fact: I was born the year that Frank Beamer started coaching at VT, and Baby Fish was born before his last year.  I love that when my mom took the picture above,  Frank Beamer just happened to be on the screen!

On the 27th, we flew back to Jacksonville before driving to Joe's grandparents' house to spend some time with his family.  It was so fun to watch all of the little ones together!

Playing with her cousin

We enjoyed catching up with his aunts, uncles, cousins, and brother that we haven't seen in a while!

Since then, Baby Fish and I have been hanging out at home during the day while Joe goes to work.  It's kind of nice to be home for the week with very little to do!

I hope you had a great Christmas with your family.  I'll be back tomorrow with a reflection of the year 2015, as well as check-in with my goals for the year!

Question for you: How did you spend Christmas this year?

Turkey Trot 10K Race Recap

Since I started running and blogging back in September of 2012 (has it really been that long?!), I've recapped each race I've run (well, almost all of them).  I haven't run that many races in 2015 thanks to having a baby, but I did complete one race recently that I have yet to recap!

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran my first Turkey Trot race!  I love that these races have popped up all over the country to encourage people to get moving first thing on a day dedicated to eating lots of delicious food.

The sign welcoming runners on race morning

We were in Gainesville with Joe's family for Thanksgiving this year, so I signed up for their Turkey Trot 10K.  The race is run on the campus of Tacachale, a residential facility for mentally handicapped people, and the proceeds of the race went to support their work.  Exercise for a good cause?  Sounds good to me!

The course was a mixture of trails, grass, and roads, which made things a bit challenging.  I am not much of a trail runner, so navigating the tree roots and soft ground slowed me down a little bit.

Entering one of the trail sections

One thing's for sure, though, such a course kept me from getting bored!  I was constantly on my toes and wasn't paying too much attention to my distance or time.  It made the race seem to go by faster!

I ran/walked the race, since it was my longest run since the Peachtree Road Race in July.  I felt pretty strong throughout the whole race and seemed to be making good time.  I had splits around 10:30-11:00 pace at first, but I wound up slowing down in the last two miles.

Because the course wound through some trails, there were not that many water stops.  I wish they had them a little closer together or provided that information beforehand so that I could have brought my handheld water bottle along.

Overall, though, I was able to finish strong!  For a lack of training for this distance, I was pretty pleased with how I did during this race.

Finish Line Selfie

My time, according to my RunKeeper app was:

My RunKeepr stats

Just a few seconds slower than my Peachtree time.  Considering the terrain I was navigating, I'm pretty pleased with this time.  I thought to myself that if it was a complete road race, I could have easily shaved off 2-3 minutes, which would have been really good for me!

This race has me excited to keep training for the Glass Slipper Challenge in February!  Based on these results with little training, I think that I can continue to push myself to increase my speed at the 10K distance (and beyond!).

(Check out yesterday's post for a review of MealEnders and enter my giveaway to win yourself 4 packages!)

Question for you: Did you run a Turkey Trot race this year?  What are your thoughts on running on trails?

Time for #FitHolidays with MealEnders! (Review + GIVEAWAY)

Disclaimer: Through my status as a Sweat Pink Ambassador through Fit Approach, I received MealEnders in exchange for an honest review.  All opinions are my own.

Confession: I have a hard time with self-control when it comes to food cravings.  When I get a taste for something, I have to have it, often to the point of over-indulgence.  I'm also a serial bored-eater, particularly when I get home from work in the afternoons and over the weekends.

I'm working on changing my mindset when it comes to food, which is a bit of a process.  That's why when I heard about MealEnders, I jumped at the chance to try them!  

MealEnders is a brand of signaling lozenges designed to curb over-eating and teach portion control.  The company designed these lozenges using a combination of behavioral psychology and sensory science.

The four tasty flavors of MealEnders

Each MealEnders lozenge contains two components: the outer sweet layer provides a dose of "dessert" associated with the end of the meal, and the inner core engages the trigeminal nerve (which senses taste) to cleanse the palate with long-lasting cooling sensations.

Simply suck on one MealEnders lozenge when you know you've eaten enough but are having trouble stopping.  The lozenge is designed to occupy your mouth during the 20 minutes it takes your stomach to signal to your brain that it's full.

As the holidays approached, I knew I needed something to help myself avoid over-indulging.  My sweet tooth is in overdrive during the holidays, so I was interested to see if MealEnders would actually work.  

I tried my first MealEnders after dinner one night when I really wanted some dessert.  Each flavor is sweet at first, which definitely satisfied my sweet tooth.  Then, as I finished letting the lozenge dissolve, I realized that I really wasn't hungry anymore and focused on things other than eating.

I also used MealEnders in the afternoons.  Once I ate my afternoon snack, I had a MealEnders lozenge to prevent myself from eating just because I was bored.  Worked like a charm!

While I'm sure there is a mental component to this product, I was really pleased with how much they helped me reduce my over- and bored-eating.  It was just what I needed as I work to break myself of these bad habits.  

Plus, the flavors are delicious!  When I originally saw the four flavors, I thought Mocha and Chocolate Mint would be my favorites.

After trying all four, though, I actually the Cinnamon and Citrus flavors!  All of the outer layers have a great sweet taste, though.  The inner core tastes a little different in each of them, so just be aware of that once the outer layer is gone.

Are you interested in trying MealEnders for yourself to help you have #FitHolidays?  Here are two options for you:

• Purchase MealEnders from their website!  Enter the code "FitHolidays20" at checkout for 20% off your purchase!
• WIN four packages of MealEnders (one package of each flavor)!  MealEnders is offering this to one lucky Run with Perseverance reader.  Simply enter the giveaway using this Rafflecopter widget before 11:59 PM on Friday, December 18th.

Giveaway is open to US residents only.  One prize per person. If you win this giveaway, and have already won another prize from MealEnders through another blog, please disclose that you have already won so I can choose another winner.  Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM on Friday, December 18th.

Question for you: What strategies do you use to prevent over-indulging or bored-eating?

Meal/Workout Plan 12/14

Hey guys!  How's everyone doing?  We had a pretty fun weekend attending a wedding and visiting Joe's mom!

The wedding was just south of Tampa, FL so we got enjoy some beautiful December weather in Florida!

The wedding was so nice, and we all enjoyed catching up with some friends from Joe's chiropractic school.  Baby Fish also seemed to enjoy her very first wedding!

On our way back home, we stopped through Gainesville and visited with Joe's mom before coming home on Sunday.  While in Gainesville, I got some baby snuggles that were just awesome.

Gotta enjoy them while I can!

Meal/Workout Plan 12/14
It's hard to get back in to the work week after a great weekend like we had, but here we are on Monday once again.  As I normally (try to) do, I wanted to share my meal and workout plan for this week!  I've found that when I actually do this, I'm much more likely to stick to it.

So, here are my planned dinners and workouts for each day:
Monday: Broccoli-stuffed Chicken / Strength workout (probably the Dirty 30 workout from 21 Day Fix)
Tuesday: Chicken 'n Dumplings / 3 miles of speedwork
Wednesday: Take-out from our favorite Mexican restaurant / rest day
Thursday: Grilled Salmon and veggies / 3 miles
Friday: Southwestern Qunioa / rest day
Saturday: Dinner Out / BodyPUMP + 1.5 miles
Sunday: /6 miles
Breakfasts for the week will be oatmeal with a spoonful of peanut butter.  Lunches will be a salad topped with veggies, black beans, and quinoa (sides of fruit and yogurt).

I'm in the middle of training for the Princess Half Marathon in February, so it's really important for me to get in my scheduled runs!  My training has been a bit sporadic, but I'm making a commitment to myself starting this week to stick to it so that I can be confident for my first postpartum half marathon!

Question for you: What's your healthy meal plan this week?  What are your planned workouts?

And then we got food poisoning...

Hi, everyone!  Anyone else feel like it's so much harder to go back to work on the Monday after a holiday weekend?   I know I'm feeling that this morning!

I planned to set myself up for a great week on Sunday by food prepping, getting ahead on school work, decorating for Christmas, and getting my normal Monday blog post ready...

...and then we got food poisoning.  Yuck!

Needless to say, none of that happened yesterday!  In fact, not much of anything happened other than napping and taking turns entertaining Baby Fish.  Thankfully, both Joe and I were able to stomach some food at dinner time and are good to go today!

Oh, and having a baby while both parents are sick is QUITE the challenge.  We are lucky that Baby Fish took lots of naps on Sunday!  Otherwise, I'm not sure how we would have done it.

I'll be back at the blogging tomorrow to share a fun way to motivate yourself on runs this holiday season!

Question for you: Have you ever had food poisoning?

Thanksgiving Survey

Hi everyone!  I hope that all of my American readers had a very happy Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Family picture on Thanksgiving

We enjoyed our day with Joe's side of the family.  I think Baby Fish likes Thanksgiving, too!  Especially when I give her little tastes of sweet potato casserole.

I saw this survey on Julie's blog and thought it'd be a good way to round out this Thanksgiving week.  I love reading about how people celebrate the holidays, so I thought I'd share a little about what we do for Thanksgiving.  Enjoy!

• Favorite Thanksgiving food item?

My favorite Thanksgiving food item overall is my Mama Gen's creamed potatoes.  Think mashed potatoes but melt-in-your-mouth smooth!  In general, though, it's a tie between stuffing and sweet potato casserole.

• What is one of your favorite Thanksgiving memories?

Our football game from 2014

I love my family's traditional older siblings vs younger siblings mid-afternoon football game!  The best one was probably the year my brother and I kept trying to tackle each other (the game is two-hand-touch).  So much fun!

• Do you go to a movie on Thanksgiving?

Not usually.  

• Any Thanksgiving foods that you do not like?

Cranberry sauce.  I'm sure I'd like the taste, but the appearance has kept me from trying it!

• How do you feel about stores interrupting Thanksgiving now by starting their sales on Thanksgiving day?

I am NOT a fan.  In fact, I turned down an offer to go shopping yesterday because I would not support the stores being open on Thanksgiving.  The early Friday morning was bad enough for the workers, let them just enjoy their Thanksgiving!

• Do you hit up the sales on Thursday/Black Friday or do you avoid them like the plague?

Generally avoid them.  If I shop on Black Friday, it's later in the day.

• Do you typically run a race on Thanksgiving or go on a run on your own or take the day off?

My normal activity is a football game when we do Thanksgiving with my family, but this year I did a 10K Turkey Trot!  

Full recap next week!

• Do you prefer a big get together for the holiday or to keep it small?

The ladies on Joe's side of the family-2013

I prefer a big gathering of all the family.  That's what we did growing up, so if we don't have that, it feels lonely to me!

• What is your food assignment for this year? Are you in charge of the whole thing or are you going out to eat?

We brought store-bought pies and I made the sweet potato casserole this year.  Both were a hit!

• What time do you typically eat Thanksgiving dinner?

With my side of the family, we do Thanksgiving lunch around noon with my dad's side then Thanksgiving dinner around 5 with my mom's side.  Lots of eating!  With Joe's side, we normally do "dinner" around 1:00.

Question for you: Your turn!  Answer one of the questions above about your Thanksgiving traditions!

Life Lately 11/23/15

Hey hey, everyone!  How's it going?  It's been quite a while since I've regularly blogged, so let's quickly catch up, shall we?

-This fall has been busy, busy, busy (as always)!  I absolutely love everything going on in the fall, but we've sure had a busy one around here!  We took a trip to Athens, GA in late September,

 

had visitors in early October for Baby Fish's baptism,

 

attended quite a few high school football games on Friday nights,

With my co-worker Erika

traveled to Gainesville for our friends Chris and Taylor's wedding,

Beautiful background for their vows

got dressed up for Halloween,

went up to Richmond for my 10-year high school reunion and to see Kristie, Joe, and their baby!!,

and my mom came down for a visit.

Phew!!  Busy, busy!  But lots of fun, of course.  Things aren't slowing down any time soon, either, with Thanksgiving travels next weekend, and then all of the Christmas excitement!  Maybe we'll rest a little in January?

-Having a child and teaching is a lot harder than I imagined.  I knew that going back to work after having Baby Fish would be hard, but I was NOT prepared for just how different and challenging it is!

When I come home now, all I want to do is hang out with Baby Fish after not seeing her all day.  Then, after she goes to bed, I have chores to do and preparations for the next day (bottles, lunch packing, etc.).  Once all of that gets done, it's right around my bedtime!  I don't have much relaxing time, much less time for any grading or lesson planning.  

At first, it was really affecting my job.  I wasn't getting my lesson plans done until the night before, and grading took over a week sometimes!  Thankfully, I finally feel like I've gotten more efficient with my home/family responsibilities and can get some school stuff done in the evening.  It sure has taken a little bit to get there, though!

Side note: I do all of this with my wonderful husband, and I feel like I'm running around crazy.  This makes me have mad respect for all the single parents out there!  How y'all do it and keep it all together, I have no idea.  You really are super heroes!

-We're in the process of buying a house!  Looking at houses is taking up our evenings now, and we sure have looked at a bunch of them!  I think we're finally honing in on what we want, so hopefully this process will be over soon.  It's taken a little longer to find one than I expected, but as our realtor said, it's a big decision and a lot of money to invest, so we should take as long as we need!

-I finally joined a gym and have a gym buddy.  One of my coworkers and I got a buy one-get one membership together and have been going to some gym classes together.  She's also a new mom, so we're doing a good job keeping each other accountable!  It feels great to be back in the gym and working out again.

I'm also now in training for the runDisney Glass Slipper Challenge in February!  I haven't done such a good job keeping up with my training plan, but I have at least gotten in about 2 runs a week over the last two weeks.  

Aaaaaand I think we're all caught up!  I should be back on the blog tomorrow and Wednesday before enjoying Thanksgiving with family.

Have a great Monday!

Question for you: What have you been up to during my blogging break?

Hemp Hearts Review + GIVEAWAY!

Disclaimer: I was sent one package of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts in exchange for an honest review as a Sweat Pink Ambassador.  All opinions are my own.

What do you use to add nutritional value and staying power to your meals?  There are a lot of different ways to do this, but a common answer is increase your protein.  In my mind, I hear that and think "add meat", but there are a lot of other ways to add protein to a meal.  One of those things is using seeds or nuts.  I recently was sent Hemp Hearts (aka raw shelled hemp seeds) from Manitoba Harvest to try, and they were a fantastic way to add nutrition and staying power to my meals!

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I decided to try this product at all three meals to see how versatile they are.  Spoiler alert: they were easy to incorporate and added value to all three meals!

At Breakfast
I first tried my Hemp Hearts during breakfast time.  I topped my morning oatmeal with a sprinkle of hemp hearts in addition to my normal peanut butter and really enjoyed it!

They didn't change the taste, but they really did add to the staying power of my oatmeal, keeping me full for an additional hour.  After I first tried it, I've been using them at breakfast time ever since.

At Lunch 
Next up, I decided to incorporate Hemp Hearts into my lunches.  I started packing salads to take to school for lunch, and I added a sprinkle of hemp hearts for a week.

They added a slight crunch to my salad, which was a nice change of texture.  It also added staying power to my lunch.  Without changing anything else about what I packed, and I wouldn't need to eat my afternoon snack until I got home when I used Hemp Hearts on my salad.

At Dinner
I needed some inspiration for how to use Hemp Hearts during dinner, so I turned to the Manitoba Harvest website.  They have some great recipes that incorporate Hemp Hearts into every meal or snack possible!

The verdict on Hemp Hearts: I love them!  This is definitely a product I would use in the future, particularly because of the staying power they add to each meal.  As a teacher and a breastfeeding mom, I need my meals to fill me up as much as possible.

And now it's YOUR turn to try Hemp Hearts!  The people at Manitoba Harvest are gracious enough to offer one package of Hemp Hearts to one lucky reader.  All you need to do is enter to win below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends at midnight on 11/15.  One prize per person. If you win this giveaway, and have already won another prize from Manitoba Harvest through another blog, please disclose that you have already won so we can choose another winner. 

Question for you: Have you tried Hemp Hearts before?  What do you add to your meals for added health benefits and staying power?

2015 Goals: Three-Quarter-Year Check-In

Hey, everyone!  Long time, no talk!  I've been busy with life and getting our routine down.  Now that things are finally in a groove, I'm starting to add "extra" things (like blogging) back in to the schedule.  Plus, I've missed y'all!

I'll do a catch-up post here soon, but for now, let's reflect on my 2015 goals.  Believe it or not, we are in the second to last month of 2015!  I started reflected on them at the end of September, but never finished this post.  So, let's talk about progress toward those goals today!  Better late than never, right?.

1. Memorize 24 verses of Scripture through the Siesta Scripture Memory Team.
Unfortunately, I have not made this goal a priority since mid-February.  However, I'm not going to give up for the rest of the year!  I'm going to commit to keeping up with this goal for the remainder of the year.  While I may not memorize 24 verses of Scripture over the year, I can still equip myself with about 12 verses this year!

2. Be the mother God would have me be.

I sure do pray that I am being the mom that God will have me be!  I know for sure that being Baby Fish's mom is definitely my #1 priority right now, and I have really adjusted my daily activities to reflect that.  It has taken some time, but I really feel like we are in a groove with getting things done and still having fun together!

She's definitely a blessing to us, and I am so thankful that I am her mother!

3. Run the Richmond Marathon in November*.
Well, I haven't been talking about marathon training on the blog, so I think this one is pretty obvious: I decided not to sign up for the Richmond Marathon this year.  I wasn't keeping up with my running when it was time to start training, so I knew that properly training for my first marathon was probably not going to happen.

I also have not signed up for a fall half marathon, which is probably a really good thing after falling and spraining my foot.  My running focus for the rest of the year is going to be  training for the runDisney Glass Slipper Challenge during Princess Half Marathon weekend in February.

I started my training plan last week and will focus on sticking to that plan for the rest of the year.

4. Take care of daily chores first.
While they may not be the very first thing I take care of every single day, I am definitely getting chores done around the house!  I usually get them done while Baby Fish naps when we get home and after she goes to bed at night.  I'm definitely doing well at meeting this goal!

5. Meal Plan to ensure healthy eating and saving money.
Since school started at the beginning of August, I've been doing a really good job of this!  I'll make a rough plan of what we'll eat during the week and grocery shop according to those plans.  It's made making dinner each day so much easier because I know exactly what I'll be making and am able to prepare for it beforehand.  It's also helped us use up the perishable items before they go bad, which makes me happy because we aren't wasting food or money!

Overall, I'd say doing well with 3 of my 5 goals for the year is doing pretty good, considering all of the life changes this year has brought.  Making progress toward those 3 goals will hep me be able to focus on the other two, which are goals that pretty much put me first,, for the rest of the year.

Question for you:  What are your goals for the rest of the year?

Friday Five: Favorite Fitness Bloggers

To say I've been lacking in the fitness-related posts (or any other type of post, for that matter) lately is an understatement!  I have, however, continued to read my favorite fitness blogs while I've been on my maternity leave/getting back in the groove hiatus.

Today's Friday Five topic is Favorite Fitness Bloggers, so I thought I'd share mine with you!

While I read many more fitness blogs, I chose these five bloggers because of how awesome they are.  They're all so different, too!  Hopefully today's post will introduce you to some new fitness bloggers that will also strike a chord with you!

Julie from Peanut Butter Fingers

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Julie's blog was one of the first fitness blogs I started reading and ultimately inspired me to start my own!  Her commitment to and consistency of working out has always impressed and motivated me.  She also posts great workouts that meet a wide variety of needs (treadmill, at home, cardio, lifting, etc.)!  Julie just had her first child about 3 months after I did, so I'm hoping that her return to fitness will help me get my butt back to the gym (literally and figuratively!).

Annette from Enjoy Your Healthy Life

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Annette is another great influence in my fitness journey, as she is also consistently working out and super positive about it!  She is a Les Mills instructor and shares some great reviews of the program releases, which I love reading after taking the classes myself.  Another thing I love about Annette's blog is her posts about faith and family.  Her faith in God is so evident, and I love that she is a positive light for Him while also sharing about her health and fitness journey.  She's also just had a baby (her second), and I've used her blog posts as references quite often while preparing for and dealing with Baby Fish thus far.

Kathryn from From Dancing to Running

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Kathryn's blog is a favorite of mine because of her focus on running.  What drew me in to her blog is that we were at a very similar running pace.  I loved reading about her training, because it was so relatable!  Since then, she's done an excellent job of training and increasing her pace, and it's been great proof of what can happen if I were to stay as committed to my training!  Fun fact: Kathryn is also pregnant with her first baby and has kept up with her running while pregnant!  You go, girl!

Chelsea from Chelsea Eats Treats

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Not all the blogs I read feature new or soon-to-be moms!  Chelsea is a 20-something living in DC who does a great job of keeping her fitness routine fun and interesting.  She's always trying out new workouts that sound like so much fun.  I love reading her reviews of these workouts, as well as seeing how well she balances her healthy living with plenty of fun, as well.  Something that makes her blog unique is all the travel she does.  I enjoy living vicariously through her travel reviews (and watching how she stays active all over the world, as well!).

Erika from MCM Mama Runs

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Erika writes another running blog that I love!  Her goal is to run a half marathon in every state, and it's fun watching her meet that goal!  I also appreciate her honesty and willingness to admit defeat.  Life gets in the way of fitness and running, and I love that Erika shares everything with her readers--the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I have to say thank you to three other ladies that also have pretty awesome fitness blogs (Courtney, Mar, and Cynthia) for the Friday Five link-up!

Question for you: What are your favorite fitness blogs?  What do you like about them?

Hope you have a great weekend, everyone!  People on the East Coast, please stay safe with all the rain and the possibility of Hurricane Joaquin!

Getting My (Healthy) Groove Back: Running

Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing a series of posts detailing how I'm getting myself back on track health and fitness wise.  Between having a baby, moving, school starting, and an injury, I've really fallen off the healthy wagon.  I finally feel like I'm back in the groove, so I wanted to share what I've done to get myself to that point.

Today we're going to talk about getting my (healthy) groove back in the area of.... running!

Truthfully, I'm not fully back in the running groove.  In fact, my last run was a short 2 mile run on August 3rd!

Why haven't I been running?  Well, the big thing hindering me from running lately was falling and spraining my foot back at the beginning of August.

Honestly, I've wanted to run, but it was painful just to walk from my house to the car to get to work.  It was painful to stand and teach.  It was painful to walk in my classroom.  Shoot, it was painful walking the 30 steps into the baby's room to get her when she'd wake up at night!  So, as much as I wanted to run, I knew I needed to take it easy once I got home.

And take it easy I have.  For about a month after my injury, I didn't do much on my feet other than getting around.  Around the beginning of September, I was finally able to walk a little more with no pain.  I started walking Tequila as far as I could until my foot started hurting.  Then, I started walking a little bit further as my foot got better.  Two weekends ago, I was able to walk about 2 miles with no pain at all!

Now, just under 2 months since my injury, I'm finally feeling back to normal enough to attempt a run this week.  I'm going to strive for 2 miles, running the first mile then using run/walk intervals during the second.  I don't want to re-injure it, so I will be listening to my body to see what I'll be able to do!  Slow and steady will certainly win the race here.

Over the last two months, I've learned a pretty valuable lesson.  The quickest way to get back into your running groove after an injury is to rest!  If I hadn't taken it easy then slowly worked in more activity, I doubt my foot would feel healed at this point.

So, what's next?
Well, I'm hoping that a run this week will go well enough to sign up for a 5K at the end of October.  I also need to begin training for the runDisney Princess Half Marathon weekend 2016, where I will be running the Glass Slipper Challenge (10K on Saturday, half marathon on Sunday)!  Having these goals, as well as my desire to get back out there pounding the pavement, should help keep me on track with scheduled runs!

(I'm linking up today with Erika, April, and Patty for Tuesdays on the Run!)

Question for you: How do you get back in your running groove after an injury?

Stay tuned for the next installment of Getting My (Healthy) Groove Back series...Healthy Eating!