The End of ORB & Beginning of Some New Challenges - Bring It!

I'm here!  I know I haven't been around - I was at the cabin for Memorial Day weekend, and it was LOVELY!  The weather may not have been the best (it was a bit cold), but I still had fun.  More on that to come later.  But first.....

Operation Red Bikini has come to an end.  It seems like just yesterday I was signing up for this, and looking forward to this day.  I was hoping to be on my way to my goal weight, and also hoping to fit in to this:

I ordered a size medium, in black, from Forever 21.  I did order the dress, and it's hanging on my bedroom door.  Where it will more than likely be staying for a while.  I couldn't even get it up over my hips, and honestly haven't tried since.  Because, well, I haven't done very well when it comes to my goals.  Womp womp.  

I have to say, though, that I am proud of myself for sticking to it.  In the past, I've abandoned my blogs and just quit.  I'd quit for about a year or so, until I realized I had gained even more weight, and wanted to change.  I'm not going down that route again.  If this challenge has done anything for me, it has kept me going.  The end of this challenge is not the end of my journey.  Not even close.

Starting June 1 (tomorrow, eek!) is my summer shape-up plan.  I was hoping that this would be the summer I'd be wearing a bikini.  Sure, it may happen, but it probably won't be until August.  And it probably won't be a very pretty sight.  But I'm still going to work toward that.  

I'll be doing a #kickassjune 30-day challenge (Sisterhood #kickassapril challenge - I just changed the month).  This is what it looks like....

(I cropped this picture from the Sisterhood site so I could cut out "April")

On top of that, I'll be doing a 30 day plank challenge....

(Again, cropped to cut out April - I don't remember where I got this)

I'll also be continuing my running and adding some strength training in.  I'm not going to post all the details yet.  Starting Sunday night, I'll be posting my weekly plans - workouts and food.  

And if that weren't enough?  #NoSodaSummer!  Head on over to Freckleberry Fit if you want to join in on the fun!  No soda, June 1 - August 31.  This is going to be a toughie.  I am absolutely addicted to soda - Orange being my new crack of choice, followed very closely by Mountain Dew.  

But I CAN DO IT!  Leigh Ann's post today lit a fire in me.  I love how she continually creates challenges for herself to help her stay on track.  She is a constant source of motivation.  You NEED to check out her post today - girl looks awesome in that red bikini!!

So there we have it.  I WILL be blogging more, and some new things will be added as well.  Happy Friday, and make it a great one!!

Something's Got to Change & My Birthday

My blogging has been so sporadic lately.  I apologize for that!  It seems things keep coming up that require a lot of my attention - plus add extra stress in my life.  Hopefully things will start to slow down a bit.

With everything that's been going on my life, my diet and exercise have fallen to the wayside.  I hate this.  I hate that I struggle to stay on track.  I know what I have to do to lose weight, but I don't do it.  Something about loving carbs and chocolate, or something - I don't know.

I've been a poor planner, and that's one of the main reasons.  I just hate coming here every day, every week, complaining about the same things.  I always have awesome plans, and then fall off track within a week or so.  Or I do really well (C25K and the Cathe rotation I did in the beginning of the year), and then I stop.  And then I undo all my hard work.

The thing is, I can't stop running.  I still have 2 more 5K's this summer.  I haven't signed up for that 10K yet, but I'm thinking it's high time I do.  Or it will be too easy to just say "screw it" to those 5K's.

Here we are - the beginning of another summer - and I am not where I want to be.  Once again.  Every year I promise myself that I will finally be in bikini shape, but I never am.  I'm in the exact same place I started.

How do you do it??  How do you stay on track and stay motivated?  I always make plans, and then I don't follow through.  How do you follow through?

Something's got to change, or I'll be stuck here, hating my body, forever.

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In other, more happy news, this will be my last post until probably Tuesday or Wednesday.  I'm heading up to the cabin tomorrow for Memorial Day weekend - my entire family will be up there, and my parents just put in their new pontoon.  And Sunday is my birthday!!!  Woo-hoo!  

Hope everyone has a safe and fun Memorial Day weekend!  Make it a great one!

Spring Training 5K Challenge

I haven't participated in this link-up in a while, even though I am still running and plan on participating in the virtual 5K on June 1!  You should all head on over to Katie or Kim's blog and join in on the fun!

Yesterday was my first day back at running after my week-long break.  And boy, could I feel it.  It was only a 2 mile run, and I was struggling the entire time.  Even after the first couple of minutes, I was contemplating turning around and heading back to the car.    :-\     It was ugly, people.  I will never take a week off again.  

I didn't run the whole time, but I did work hard to run when I could.  I kept finding landmarks to run to.  I couldn't help but feel really down on myself.  But I need to remember that it will get better again - I know I'm not taking steps back all the way to the beginning.  I'll be okay.  I just need to keep pushing.  And most of all - I'm proud of myself for getting back out there again.  It would have been really easy to take another rest day!

I also did Cathe's Pyramid Upper Body (Up only premix) workout before my run.  My arms are feeling it today!!  I know how important weight training is, and I'm going to really focus on that while training for my 10K.  

That's it for today.  Short and sweet.  Make it a great one!!

Slacker Week = OVER

Hey everyone - hope you all had a great weekend!  Mine was good, I was out and about most of the weekend.  Went to bed semi-early on Friday night, because I was exhausted.  Then Saturday, I helped out at my parents' store (they own a sporting goods/outdoors store) to do some screen printing on shirts.  That lasted a majority of the day.  I got a free lunch out of it - that's always a good thing.    ;)    Saturday night I went to a wedding, and didn't get home until about 3:00 AM!  Then I got up bright and early to go to a friend's soccer tournament.  I was outside for about 4-5 hours.  I'm sure you can gather that from this picture...

Yep, I'm looking like a mighty fine lobster right about now.  I'm stupid and forgot to buy sunscreen.  And please ignore my hair in that picture...it was windy coming in to the office this morning.

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So last week was a slacker week.  I had planned on taking a couple rest days after my 5K, and that turned in to a rest WEEK.  Not only did I not work out, but I didn't go to the grocery store, so I was going out for lunch EVERY day.    :-\     Not good.  I still haven't gone grocery shopping for this week yet (I was exhausted from sitting out in the sun all day yesterday, and then it started storming as soon as I got home), but plan on doing that tonight - after my planned workout and run.

I told you I'd be doing an Xtrain and Running rotation, but I changed my mind (because that's how I roll!).  That seems to be a little much, and I don't want to burn out.  So I'm doing the next best thing and taking a variety of Cathe's vidoes, and incorporating running.  Here's what my workout schedule looks like this week...

Monday - Pyramid Upper Body + Run 2 miles
Tuesday - Imax 2 (intervals 1-5)
Wednesday - Cardio and Weights
Thursday - Run 2.5 miles
Friday - Off
Saturday - Run 3 miles
Sunday - Off

I have 2 rest days this week, because I'll be going up to our cabin for Memorial Day/my birthday weekend!  Now, when I go up north, the food is going to be a little hard to control.  We tend to have lots of goodies around - I guess I'll have to plan things as I go.

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That's it for today - I'll leave you with this....

Because I haven't posted one in a while.    :)    Make it a great one!

Bullet Points With a Weigh-In

And my weight for this week....

154.8

Which makes a 0.4 loss.  I wasn't expecting anything greater than that, so I'll take it.  This week has been full of things popping up, so I haven't even been able to go to the grocery store.  Which means I've been going out for lunch every day.  Oops.  I figure a week off from being strict isn't a huge deal, and I'm not going overboard.  I just need to make sure I get back on track for next week - ie: no skipping the grocery store, or my workouts!

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I don't really have much to talk about, so this post will be quite random and full of bullet points.

• I know I said last week that I want to create a challenge so that I start taking more pictures for the blog.  I'm still brainstorming, so don't give up on me!  I haven't forgotten about it.

• Does anyone have advice on (quickly and easily) cleaning their blenders?  I want to start having smoothies for breakfast every day, but I don't want the mess or clean up.  I was thinking that maybe after I make my smoothies, I just fill the blender with hot water and soap, let it soak for the day, and then dry it at night.  Then put it in the dishwasher on the weekends only.  Is that gross?  I'm just too lazy to completely wash it every day.  

• I'm thinking of trying the Paleo diet out.  But a more lenient version, which includes allowing dairy and/or grains (like oatmeal) in the mornings only.  Just thought I'd put that out there.  Weekends will be tough.

• Next weekend (the 26th) is my 28th birthday.  You may start sending presents my way now.  Email me danzer0526@gmail.com for my address.   :D

And with that, I'll end this random post.  It's almost Friday!  Make it a great one!!

So I Ran a 5K - Now What?

Now that all of the excitement of my first 5K is over, I found myself asking, "Now what?"  The last couple of months I had a plan.  Run 3 days a week following the C25K program, and do some of my favorite classes at the gym (Turbo Step and abs classes).  But now that C25K is over, and my gym membership is going to be frozen (for the summer months), I need to figure out what I'm going to do.

Well, look at me - I planned ahead.  Last week, I headed over to the Cathe Friedrich web site (you all know how much I love her), and got motivated again.  I wanted to incorporate her workouts in to my routine, and I wanted to keep running.  Back in the beginning of the year, I did her 30 day Xtrain rotation.  Now?  Now I'm going to be doing her 90 Day Undulating Xtrain rotation, and incorporate 10K training 3 days per week.

Wait, what?  YES, I said 10K.  Along with my 2 other 5Ks in July, I plan on putting a 10K on the calendar. I haven't decided which one I want to do yet, but I'm leaning towards the Medtronic Twin Cities 10K (they have a whole weekend dedicated to different races), which is in October.  Haven't made a final decision yet.

So, yes - I have officially gone crazy.  I have caught the running bug.  I'll be doing lots of weight training and running and other cardio workouts (HIIT and Tabata).  I'm excited to start.  I actually was planning on starting the rotation this past Monday, but life got in the way, and I've been "resting" since my 5K on Sunday.  So the rotation will begin next Monday (of course, with running incorporated, I'll be revising and moving the workouts around in the rotation a bit).  But I do want to keep running this week, so I'm thinking today I'll maybe do 2 miles, Friday I'll do 2.5 or something like that, and we'll see about the weekend.  This week is pretty loose and open.

I've made my calendars in Excel; now I just need to fill them in with my planned workouts, then mark them off as I go.

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On another note, before I wrap this post up, I do realize that I forgot to weigh myself on Monday.  Can you believe it?  I told you - life has been hectic.  I ate Jimmy John's yesterday, which means a TON of salt and bloat, but I still weighed myself this morning, and it IS a lower number than last week.  But I want to wait until tomorrow to give my official weight so I can let this salt flush out of my system.  But so far, it's looking good!

That's it for today - make it a great one!!

My First 5K

Morning everyone!  Well, yesterday was quite the day.  It was the day that these past couple months of training have been leading to - my first 5K!  I participated in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure at Mall of America.  And it was packed to say the least.  I think I heard on the radio that there were about 50,000 people there - and they raised $2.5 million for breast cancer research!  I think a lot of them participated in the walk at 9:00 though - they didn't all participate in the run.  It was definitely a great thing to be a part of.

When I first got there, I was a little overwhelmed - and cold!  It was about 30 degrees!  I'm glad I brought my zip-up sweatshirt to wear over my race shirt, because it definitely helped warm me up.  There were so many booths in the health expo - I wish I had gotten there sooner to check all of them out (didn't have time to stick around after the race).  But I did stop to get a pink Hawaiian lei and a banana, ha!  I had had a piece of toast with peanut butter on the ride there, so I thought half a banana would be a good addition.

(Source)

I got in line (there were no corrals), and they immediately started talking and welcoming everyone.  The national anthem started, and of course I got some tears in my eyes - it's that song, I tell you!  Gets me every time.  And soon after that, the race started.

It was a little slow-going at first, because of all the people.  But we took off and started running, and I started my music and my MapMyRun app.  Everyone was so excited, and I was definitely feeding off of adrenaline for the first mile.  I think I may have started too fast, because around the 1 mile marker, I felt pretty tired.  But I kept going.

A little after that, I started to get worried, because I was starting to get really out of breath.  I was sucking air, but told myself I have to keep going.  There were some people walking around me, and I felt the urge to do the same quite a bit, but I ran until I hit about 1.5 miles.  And then I walked for maybe 1 minute, and started back up again.  I kept looking at my app to check my pace, and it looked like I was a little ahead of my standard pace, so I slowed it down a bit.  Mile 2 was torture.  I wanted to die, but not once did I ever think of quitting.  I did walk a few times, but never more than a minute at a time.

Finally, I headed toward the final stretch.  I checked my app - 2.89.  This was it - I was getting closer.  Thank God!!  And when I turned the corner and saw the finish line in the distance, I sprinted.  I had so much energy, and the adrenaline returned.  I sprinted in to that finish line, and glanced at my app....

37:31

I couldn't believe it, and still can't!  I beat my goal (and previous times) by almost 4 minutes!  I was so proud of myself, and still am.  I am happy to call myself a runner.  My goal for my next race?  To run the whole thing, and of course beat 37:31.  Running a 5K had been on my bucket list for a long time.  You would think that since I checked that off, I could stop.  Nope.  I love running - it's something that has brought me so much peace, energy, and happiness the past couple of months.  It is the one constant in my life.  I do plan on running a few more 5Ks.  And come back tomorrow to hear all about what happens now that I've completed my first 5K.  I've got lots in store for the upcoming months!     :)