Lessons Learned on Saturday's Run

In less than two weeks, I'll be running the Glass Slipper Challenge (a 10K on Saturday and a half marathon on Sunday) during runDisney's Princess Half Marathon weekend!  As I mentioned yesterday, I haven't done a very good job of exercising lately, which means that I haven't done a good job of sticking to my training plan.

Knowing that, I've just been focused on getting in some of my training runs and not beating myself up over ones that I've missed.  I've consistently gotten in 2 runs each week, but completing my long runs on the weekends has been hard.  Increasing my mileage means being gone for a longer amount of time.  That's been hard to do when I want to use my weekend time to play with my baby girl!

Well, on Saturday, I did get in one of my long runs, and I learned a lot about running and about myself doing so.

-It's so much easier to run in cooler weather!
After running in the year-round humidity and heat of Florida for 3 years, it was SO NICE to run in 45-50 degree weather!  It was easier to breathe, and I was able to maintain a much faster pace than I'm used to on long runs.

-Just getting out and doing it makes me feel so much better.

One reason I've missed so many long runs is that I put them off for later in the day.  With an infant, things get more and more unpredictable later in the day, and that often means my long runs don't happen.  Well, on Saturday, I almost put it off again, but once M went down for her morning nap, I got dressed and went out the door right away.  I felt so, so great after running and getting it done!  I need to remember that feeling and make my long runs a priority early in the day on my weekends!

-I can be strong mentally throughout my run!
Running is such a mental sport, and normally I'm not good at keeping a strong mentality throughout my run.  However, I was ON mentally Saturday, and it's crazy how much easier the run was!  I focused on the music, I set goals for my run/walk intervals and stuck to them, and I pushed myself to finish strong. Seeing that ability in myself made me feel really good about my upcoming races, since finishing strong has always been tough for me.

-I ran my fastest 4-6 mile run EVER on my RunKeeper app.

Everything just came together, and Saturday's run was actually my fastest run of this distance since I've been tracking them with RunKeeper!  I was also really excited to see my mile splits.

A sub-10:00 pace and my fastest split for the last 0.3 miles of my run?  Go, me!!

My success with Saturday's long run gives me hope for my next half marathon training cycle.  If I'm having that kind of success with inconsistent training, then just think of what I can do when I fully stick to my plan!  For now, though, I'll be tapering until the Glass Slipper Challenge and adjusting my goals for the two races based on my inconsistent training.

I'm linking up with Erika, Patty, and Marcia for Tuesdays on the Run!

Question for you: What's a lesson you've learned from a recent run?

Coming Out of My Rut

Well, hey, everyone!  Long time, no see!  It seems the calendar turned 2016, and I just forgot all about blogging.

Truth be told, I've been in a bit of a health, fitness, and faith rut pretty much since the beginning of 2015.  Between the third trimester of my pregnancy, having M, moving, adjusting to life as a mom, and going back to teaching at a new school, I really wasn't focused on myself.  I was just focused on doing what needed to be done to take care of my family and things for work.

I don't know that I'd call it postpartum depression, but I just wasn't taking care of myself, especially in the areas of healthy eating, fitness, and my faith.  Considering that's what this blog is about, I really haven't had much to say on here!  I didn't want this blog to just turn in to me talking about M, so I figured silence was better than "fluff" posts.

The good news is that I believe I'm coming out of that rut!  I'm realizing that if I can't take care of myself, then I'm not going to be able to give 100% to any aspect of my life, which will ultimately hurt every aspect of my life.  I also want to set a good example for M as she grows up, and the woman I was this past year is not who I want her to become.

With that, I will be back to blogging!  My goal will be to post 3 times a week, though I will hopefully increase that to 4 times a week before the year is out.  I want to ensure that my posts are quality, though, so some weeks I may not reach that goal.

This week, however, I will have 4 posts for you (including this one).  Check back tomorrow where I'll be sharing about my runs from this weekend!

Question for you:  How has your year started off?
Hopefully in less of a rut than mine has!

2015 Goals: Year-End Reflection

At the beginning of each year, I like to set goals for myself.  I did just that in 2015 and reflected on those goals after each quarter of the year.
Quarter Year Check-in
Mid-year Check-in
Three-Quarter Year Check-in

It was tough to set those goals, not knowing what life would be like once Baby Fish joined us.  I tried to set goals that I thought would be attainable, so let's take a look and see how I did overall!

1. Memorize 24 verses of Scripture through the Siesta Scripture Memory Team.
Grade: F
I only selected 4 verses and memorized 3 of them.  Once I slipped up on the 4th verse, it just all went downhill from there.  After reflecting on my goals each quarter, I planned to get back on this and just never did.

I have no reasoning for why this didn't happen.  It just didn't because I stopped making it a priority.  I hate that I did that, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it.  The Living Proof Ministries community does this each odd year, so maybe I'll try it again in 2017.

2. Be the mother God would have me to be.
Grade: A for effort
This one is hard to grade.  I guess I'd need God to give me a report card on this one!  However, I am putting being a mother first and am prayerful about it.  So, I'm going to give myself an A for the effort.  I hope that effort translates into being the mother God would have me to be!

I do know that I am thoroughly enjoying being a mother.  I never imagined all of the things that come with being a mother, but it is truly a great feeling watching Baby Fish grow each day.  She's so cool!

3. Run the Richmond Marathon in November (or PR in a fall half marathon if not).
Grade: D+
I did not run the Richmond Marathon, nor did I run a fall half marathon.  However, I'm giving myself a D+ because I was flexible with this goal, as I wanted to be.  Baby Fish was my priority, and I needed to spend the fall focusing on adjusting to life as a mom over committing to training for a race.  So, I'm giving myself some credit for adjusting this goal, even though I did not meet either part of it.

I did race 2 10Ks this year, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I'm hoping to commit to training more in 2016 so that I can possibly meet the goal of the Richmond Marathon this November!

4. Take care of daily chores first.
Grade: B-
I did not do this at the beginning of the year (third trimester laziness hit me hard!), but I did start doing it after Baby Fish arrived.  I have done a much better job of taking care of things before I get sucked in to relaxing each day, and it has made me happier overall.  I plan to continue focusing on this in 2016!

5. Meal plan to ensure healthy eating and save money.
Grade: C
Again, this didn't happen at the beginning of the year, but I did much better with this during the second half of the year.  I'm giving myself a C because we didn't always stick with the meal plan, meaning that sometimes we wasted some produce I planned on using.  I really don't like wasting food, so moving into 2016, I want to actually stick with the meal plan so that doesn't happen.

Looking at my grades on my goals, it seems that I "failed" at meeting my goals overall.  However, I did make progress toward each of them (except my first goal), especially in the second half of the year.  Once I adjusted to my "new normal", I really did do a better job working toward (most of) these goals, so I won't count these a failure.

I do hope that I will be much more successful overall with my 2016 goals, though!

Question for you: Did you set 2015 goals?  If so, how did you do with them?

Highlights from 2015

Happy New Year!  I hope that 2016 is off to a great start for you and your family.

Before I completely shift my focus on to the new year, I wanted to take a moment to look back on 2015.  It was quite a big year in our lives!  Let's look back at some of the highlights of 2015:

Baby showers!

In preparation for Baby Fish's arrival, several groups of co-workers, friends, and family showered us with love!  I am so appreciative for their love and support.  It meant (and still means!) so much to me to have such great people in my life.

Joe's graduation from chiropractic school!

He did it!  Joe finished school and became a doctor on March 27th.  I originally wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it to the graduation (my due date was March 29th), but thankfully I was there to celebrate this huge accomplishment wit him!  I'm so proud of him for finishing school, finding a job so quickly, and transitioning into the "real world" with ease and success so far!

Baby Fish's birth on April 7th!

After waiting about 9 days past her due date, Baby Fish finally joined us!  It was so exciting to finally know that she's a girl, and she is such a blessing in our lives!

Moving back to Georgia!

It was just 11 days after Baby Fish's birth, but we packed up our life in Florida and moved to south Georgia for Joe's job.  I'm happy to be back in Georgia, and we are adjusting well to our new area.

Running the Peachtree Road Race

This July 4th tradition in Atlanta is a race that holds a special place in my heart.  I'm so happy that I was able to run it just 2 months postpartum!  It rained the whole time, but I was so excited to cross that finish line.

Starting a new job back in the classroom teaching high school math.
I've really enjoyed being back in the classroom!  I missed teaching and having my own group of students, so I've had a lot of fun this semester.  It was a little bit of a rocky start, but I'm ready to have an even better second semester!

Lots of visitors...

...and a few trips!

Between people coming to help with Baby Fish and traveling for some fun events (a few days at the springs, Richmond, Atlanta, and the beach), we've seen a lot of our favorite people!  It's been fun introducing Baby Fish to everyone, as well as having people come see our new home in southern Georgia.  We love it!

But, most importantly, we've had so much fun learning to be parents and watching Baby Fish grow!

She really is the biggest highlight of 2015!  Her arrival in our lives in April certainly changed our lives in the best way possible.  She is such a fun little baby, and we are enjoying watching her grow, change, and learn each and every day.  What a blessing she is!

Wow, quite a year!  With everything that happened in 2015, I'm really excited to see what 2016 has in store for us.  It's sure to be a good one!

Tomorrow, I'll share a reflection of my 2015 goals, and next week I'll be sharing my 2016 goals!  Have a great New Year's Day!

Question for you: What's a highlight of 2015 for you?

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!