Moods

Hey everyone!
So today I wanted to address another change I have noticed in myself since making fitness a priority. On a serious note, there is an emotional part of me that I don't often share but I have seen such dramatic changes recently that I feel it's important to tell you all about. Like many people, I have struggled with depression and anxiety for years. I was put on anti depressant medication when I was about 15. I didn't mind it and it has always helped quite a bit. Last summer, my grandpa passed away and during this rough time I was concerned about some of my depression coming back. In August I decided to take up running, I wanted to lose some weight but I also wanted something to do for myself. When I first started running though it was hard I always felt better after, and as I made more improvements I started to feel better emotionally. Living in Idaho the winter lasts a long time and its dark a lot, which would somehow seem to worsen my anxiety. Although antidepressants helped they never cured any of these feelings. The past couple weeks I have been doing major cardio and weights together, and I feel better than ever. Any kind of cardio for 40 minutes length or more gives me the best feeling ever. My anxiety and other symptoms are completely gone and I haven't had any medication in months. I do notice after 4 days or so (hello, vacation) that the anxiety will come back pretty quick. I'm still not dropping pounds super quick but mentally I feel healthier than ever. The way I feel lately and the way running has helped me with my anxiety, depression and overall happiness is even more motivation for me to continue. Sure, I still have bad days and sometimes there isn't anything that can help some anxiety from appearing but it is tremendously better and less frequent than what it used to be. Cardio exercise (for me spinning, running, a hard stair workout) gives me time to myself to think and analyze my feelings. Shortly after loosing my grandpa, it was a way for me to deal with some of those feelings and to just be by myself. I get to lose everything else in the world and throw myself into something that allows me to push my limits and accomplish things I never thought possible. I average about an hour fifteen minutes or so at the gym total between cardio and weights and I can't stand skipping a day. I can't wait to start training for another half! Race season is coming in boise! Happy Thursday everyone!

New foods

Hey all,
Recently, I have been trying to get better at planning and menu ideas and I thought I would share a few of them with you today!

First, Skinny baked potato soup from SkinnyTaste. This soup doesnt taste quite like a loaded baked potato, but it is really yummy and if you are craving something creamy/hearty this is the way to go! The texture of it is creamy, but its more from the thick and hearty texture of the potatoes and cauliflower.

The soup, you can see its creamy but doesnt have cream!

Here is my next go to recipe, Taco soup. I'm sure you have seen this one floating around the blogosphere, its pretty popular! That's probably because it is delicious and a small serving is so filling! Plus, this whole recipe is super cheap because it calls for a lot of canned goods, I usually buy 2 of everything so I can make two batches! This also makes tons of leftovers so its great for grab and go meals! Oh, that pink can is one of my favorite kinds of champagne- in fact this exact picture is most likely going to be my dinner this friday!

The next "skinned up" food I made recently is Mac and Cheese, I know healthy mac and cheese doesn't exist. Now don't get me wrong I wouldn't eat this daily, or even weekly but if you are having craving (Thanks a lot periods) this is a pretty decent option as long as you use wise portion control. Even though its not a perfectly healthy or clean meal I found that it curbs cravings without a crapton of calories! Sorry, I didn't take pictures of this the one night I made it because I was Hangry. 

That's it for new recipes this week, I will try to do some more fun experiments after I go do my shopping this week. Now, for some fun news when I get to 30 followers I will do a giveaway! I'm thinking of doing a few of my favorite things, or maybe something running related! If you don't officially follow now is the time because I am 2 followers away from that! Happy Wednesday!

Weekend update

Hey everyone!
I had an amazing weekend, really one of the best ever. Friday I had to work and some errands to run, when I finished that the hubs and I headed over to his dads for dinner. We had homemade fajitas and I only ate one though I wanted more. One of my friends who I've known since I was tiny had called me and wanted to meet for drinks later that night. I left the family at 9 so I could meet her. We went to a little restaurant right near my house and stayed there until 1:30 am even though I only had 3 glasses of champagne all that time. I DO not stay up that late ever! Ugh I can't stand feeling all sleep hungover the next day. I definitely felt it when I had to go to work for a few hours on Saturday. It's all good though because Saturday night was date night. I ate real minimally that day knowing we would probably eat somewhere that night. So we first headed to the movies to use a gift card we had. We don't go to movies in theatre ever because for 30 bucks we could do something a lot better. Anyway we went and saw django unchained. May I just say BEST MOVIE EVER!!! If you haven't seen it, trust me go! It will be a very good decision. It's such a brutal, emotional, fabulous movie. I'm gonna be pissed if it doesn't win an Oscar. I normally don't even care about the awards but this was honestly borderline life changing amazing quality movie. The hubs and I then grabbed a glass of wine before heading out for a late dinner. Dinner was amazing. I had spinach pasta and only had 1 drink and hubby had steak with truffle sauce. OMG foodgasm. We will definitely be back to that place sometime. We couldn't stop talking about the movie most of the night. It was such an amazing date. We had a blast! Now I'm ready for the next weekend again! Sunday we did a lazy day and then celebrated my sister in laws birthday! She's one of my best friends and we had a lot of fun. I am back to work today so that's about all I got. Il leave you with some food pictures from the weekend!! Have a fabulous Monday!!

My adorable puppy



Ummm yeah that cheese fondue happened

 



Love me some New Age wine!



Amazeballs pasta!

 

How was your weekend? Anyone else LOVE Django Unchained??

 



The aftermath of the vacation

Hey everyone!
I want to say hi and thank you to all of my new followers! I am so excited to have you here! As you know , I ate like crap on my vacation and yes I ran a half marathon and walked ALOT (I burned at least 2,000 calories a day) I came home with an extra 4 lbs. NOT good. The good news is now that I am out of school and focusing on finding a job, I have time. I've gotten back into my diet and workout plan. It feels good. This week I am back down another 3 lbs. I find that for me I really can't cut out carbs because I love them and I get faint/weak super easily. Carbs help me get through my workouts. I am a very picky person so I am back to what works for me which is 6 planned 200 calories mini meals per day. Some of these snack meals include an egg, a slice of whole wheat bread with a tiny bit of peanut butter, 1 cup whole wheat pasta, 1 diced grilled chicken breast, 1 lean taco and of course salads. There are other options that I allow myself to have but in the past this schedule has worked really well for me. On Wednesday I trained legs and for cardio hit the stair master. Yesterday I trained some arms and hit a spin class. Yay for burning those calories. I'm hoping to hit the gym again this weekend for some more stairs, arms, back and abs. This is the plan I will follow for a while. Il keep you updated on how it works! I've got no real exciting plans for this weekend , the hubs and I will probably go see a movie and I am letting my self have some wine one night. I'm not drinking during the week and I'm sticking to only champagne when I drink my one day a week. See you Monday!

Me and my nephew this week

After the gym

 

At the dentist this week ugh

Sweating on the stairs

 

How is everyone's week? What meal plans worked best for you to kick off your diet? I need arm exercise suggestions' favorites?

 

 

 

 



 

Vacation part two

Hey everyone!
I know I am late again on my posting but I am really going to try and be better about it this week. I need to get back into a routine! So now to finish the recap of my trip, because a week away is too long for one post! So picking back up the day of the half marathon, you would think that'd be my only activity for the day but that wasn't my choice or option. Post half they ran out of the promised and promoted food (wtf?!) so I was starving and getting hangry for anything I could get my hands on. My husband loves sushi (I hate it) but his friend had promised him sushi on this particular day so we went to a sushi and teppanyaki place. I got chicken which is good because I needed some protein and hubs got his sushi. My body was pretty dead but we went ahead and went on a whale watching boat after lunch since our tickets had already been purchased. I haven't had very good luck with this type of thing in the places I have tried to see whales before but I was surprised this one was awesome. We saw lots of fin whales and the boats will actually follow them and get pretty close. After the whale outing we got to go drive out and visit some of my family friends who I hadn't seen in about 5-6 years. It was so much fun! I missed them so much and it was great to catch up. I've known them since I was about 5 so it was really awesome. I hope I can keep in touch with them and visit again next time I am in the area. The next day (Monday) the girls and guys split up. Rachel and I went to a nail salon and I got a gel mani and a pedicure. I'm so lazy about my nails I rarely ever make the time or want to spend money to go but since I didn't do any shopping on our trip I figured it was justifiable. We also looked around the market and window shopped. I ate a donut because the market donuts are amazing. I also indulged in In-N-Out burger because we don't have them anywhere near me and that is my weakness. More on how the food affected my body later.
Tuesday we hit up seaworld because my husband had never been and its one of my favorite places in the world! It was so fun. We did the "dine with shamu" lunch where you pay and sit about 5 feet away from the orca whales. It's worth the little bit of extra money and a special experience if you love animals like me. The park was also dead so we were easily able to see all the exhibits, rides and shows without any wait.
On our final day in LA my husband went rock climbing (I watched because my ankle was dying) and then we did a little Hollywood tourism and happy hour.
Overall, it was a great trip but it feels fabulous to be home. I'm back to the grind working, looking for a "real" job and working out. I'm really focusing on cleaning up my eating. I'll be back tomorrow for more on the eating/working out. Happy Wednesday!

How is everyone's week going? What's new in the blog world since I am so MIA??

The group with Shamu

My Love and I

Turtle at Seaworld

Husband looks high at the aquarium

More Turtles

Our last night! Happy hour

uhh yeah cookies n cream cheesecake cupcake from Georgetown cupcakes

Me and Shamu

I'm Back!

Hey everyone!
I am BACK from vacation and I am so happy. It was a blast but also very tiring and it feels nice to relax. I got home Thursday at 2 pm. So I will be doing a recap of the trip and of my second half marathon! We flew to LA on Thursday the 10th and from there we just layed low, we stopped by the Santa Monica pier and went on the rooftop of a building then spent time with our friends. It was really fun but we didn't get a whole lot of sleep before the flight, so we crashed hard.

Hubby and me at the Getty

Another Getty photo

On the rooftop of a building

We visited the Getty museum and the endeavor exhibit on Friday then went out for a couple hours to dinner and a bar. I Am a huge foodie so I loved getting to try the different bars and restaurants in downtown LA. I had literally the best burger ever! Yummy! I didn't follow a very healthy diet for the entire trip but I did burn 1500-3000 calories per day depending what we did. I didn't gain any weight and it was worth it to eat yummy food on vacation.

The Santa Monica Pier- suppperrr windy!

In line for Space Mountain ride

Our one night at an L.A club, where we had 1 drink

Another shot from Disneyland

Saturday we were up early to hit Disneyland. We spent the entire day there. It was exactly my type of amusement lark. I've been twice before but not as an adult so it was fun to try all the rides after so long. None of them were too scary or crazy for me. I don't do well with roller coasters or rides with big huge drops so Disneyland was nice. I drank a lot of water and ate pasta with grilled chicken since my race was the following morning. We left the park around 10 and I crashed again.

Okay so now for the longest part of this post. The half marathon! I was dropped off at Venice beach on Sunday early morning where I lined up ready to run. The most awesome thing about this race was that it was sponsored by Allstate insurance which equals big money for the event. They gave out a finishers medal, a super nice t shirt and they had food and drinks along the course. They also had entertainment set up throughout. Mostly bands and dancers. It was really fun and I really like racing in a bigger city. The races here usually average about 2000 people and this one in LA had over 5,000 runners. The weather was gorgeous I would guess about 45-50 degrees and pretty sunny with a breeze. I took lots of pictures of the scenery. I did finish this race 40 minutes faster than my first one which was good but I was 20 minutes past my goal time. Oh well. Mentally I felt great this whole run. I was happy and felt prepared and it was a lot easier for me than the first one. It could've partly been the fact that this one was a flat race or maybe because I'm more used to running now, I'm not sure. Either way I was able to dig deep and jam out in my own world and finish the run. My only real challenge this race was some arch pain. Ok not some arch pain- a severe arch and ankle pain. In fact, my ankle hasn't gone down in swelling since. I've been prone to ankle issues in the past and I think the whole Disneyland vacation and the events we did after the run pushed my feet too far. I'm considering seeing a physical therapist about my ankle and foot pain. I have a theory that my arch pain is mainly due to my severely flat feet. I don't get pain until about mile 9 but then when it hits, it hits hard. My ankle does need to be looked at for sure though but that is an entire story for its own post. My husband and our two friends rode their bikes along the route and stopped to wait and watch me. It was nice having people cheering me on every so often. It helped motivate me. I loved this race so much I had a blast. I am really looking forward to jumping back into training and running this week. I'm going to start slow and build back up again. I need to give my foot some healing before I push it again and start full marathon training. My next registered race is in June, but there are lots of races coming up within the next 3 months that I want to get in to. Anyways, I'm going to end this here and I will finish the vacation recap tomorrow! Happy Friday people its good to be back!

Pre-half in the morning

My post-half reward?? A Mai Thai and grilled chicken

Coming down the finish line!

Running my ass off... I think this is around mile 6?

The view from the starting point

My yummy dinner before the race day!

What do you do for flat feet? How do you get rid of pain during a race or prevent it? How was everyone's Week?

It's winter

Hey everyone!
I have been totally off the grid from the computer this week, I got super sick this past weekend and have to get on a plane Thursday so I am trying to shake it before then. My whole head is throbbing and I have all that fun stuff. I really want to be better for our vacation this week. Anyways, not much going on over here- I have been boring! Working and sleeping = my life trying to get ready to leave for a week. My next half marathon is Sunday! Yay! I am so excited and I cannot wait to run in some sweet L.A. weather. Speaking of weather- our Idaho weather sucks and is really making me frustrated. Last winter wasn't that bad but this week we got 6 inches of snow and ice which means I cannot run outside. I dont want to risk injury by slipping and hurting myself but I cannot stand only being able to workout at the gym. It is pretty sucky. I guess after this half I will be stuck inside until this shit melts. I hope thats soon! I have several races I want to sign up for in the coming months. Sorry about the shortness of this post, but I feel like crap and I am going to go crash now. No new pictures today because I dont remember when i last wore normal clothes and makeup- it was Friday I think and I don't do no-makeup pictures. I will be back for one last post before our trip tomorrow!

How is everyone's winter going?

It's a new year and random rambling

Hey everyone!
The holiday's are officially over- YAY! but the bad news is the weather here SUCKS, its so icy everywhere and that is really cramping my ability to run outside. I hate it. I don't mind the cold so much but its pretty much impossible to run on an icy sidewalk. I guess I am going to have to stick to the gym until we come home from our trip. That's ok. I have work everyday from now until we leave so hopefully I can fit in some gym and running time in between now and then. I am SO excited about my next half marathon coming up on the 13th! I can't wait to see my improvements from this time compared to last. Other than that there isn't a whole lot of news around here- just trying to get back into routine and finally starting to cook more. We made grilled chicken for dinner last night, so that's good. It's a new year and I am most looking forward to seeing my goals and improvements in running come true. I don't have too many resolutions except continuing my path to being healthy, but if I called it a resolution then that would be the same every year. We leave for L.A. on the 10th and I cant wait for nicer weather and all the other things we will get to do. I will leave you all with some photos of the new year so far!

Me and the Hubs at new years dinner!

This is our best friends baby boy. Had him for the day on Monday. Such a sweetheart!

Me at dinner

And me again haha

How was your new years eve? What are you most looking forward to in 2013?