GREAT READ!

http://runningwithrene.blogspot.com/

For any woman who has struggled with her weight and the number on the scale...this is a GREAT POST!

looong week.

This past week was dragging.  Levi came home from Nana and Papas with a fever, and was sick ALL last week.  I took him to the doctor and he tested positive for the Flu.  Then as he was getting over it, Seth and I both caught it.  YUK!  So I've been MIA, not due to busy, but due to fever/chills/body aches/congestion/cough/etc.  It was NO fun.  Then on Sunday it started snowing. We got 5 inches of snow...and it's still lingering.  It hasn't been warm enough to melt it all away yet.  The boys sure had fun playing in it with their Daddy. 
I am finally feeling better, but had been unable to sleep Sunday night, Monday night, or Tuesday night.  I'd get about 2 or 3 hours of sleep then would wake up and toss and turn for hours, until I'd give up and get out of bed.  But I got back to running last night, and it felt like "ahhhh, I'm ME again"...and guess what, I slept like a LOG!  :-) Happy Running! 

Running

I LOVE running!!!!  However, I have been nursing an achy knee for the past few weeks. :-{  But I think it's finally starting to get better.  I actually ran hills at my mom's house yesterday for 50 minutes, and it never did hurt.  Yea!!!  I am sore today though. Mostly in my calves and booty...LOVE running those hills.  I also got to pepper-spray a yappy dog.  It ran out of someones front yard, into the street, right up to my ankle, and I moved my ankle out of the way right as it was trying to nip me...as I lowered my arm and sprayed. Nailed it right in the face!  If I can spray my own foot and hit the dadgum dog, that's a problem and it deserved to be sprayed. If it's owners didn't want it sprayed or ran over, they should keep it in a fence....anyway, I looked back as I was rounding the end of the block and it was going crazy rubbing it's face on the grass.  LOL!  I cracked up and kept on running, saying "teach you to try to bite another runner!" Maybe it will remember me next time...but I will NOT run without my pepper spray in hand...

And the Winner is....

My bestest buddy Jenni J. won the Holiday Challenge!!!!  She took home the $100 and also lost 6lbs!  You go girl!  I'm so proud of you!!!!!

Challenge Update

My best buddy Jenni is currently in 1st place, while my other good buddy Kate is in 2nd....I'm currently at 4th.  Don't count me out yet though girls.  I may have got off to a slow start, but I'm on a roll now, and don't plan to give up!  :-)
Skinny jeans here I come!  Woo-Hoo!!!!

Challenge

I'm currently in challenge with some friends of mine, to see who can lose the highest percentage of weight in 5 weeks.  I'm not real confident, since I don't have a lot to lose and am already so close to my goal weight (fyi: I gained back some weight since summer, and started the competition at 124...so I'm hoping to get back to at least 116-120 range).  It seems that the closer I get to my goal weight, the harder it is to lose and maintain.  Therefore, I've been running a lot.  Which I LOVE!!!  I'm training again, and am planning to run the half-marathon in February again. 

Also, I was thinking about our boys, and how they are learning the importance of healthy nutrition and exercise.  If I ever eat anything other than my "normal" foods (ex: oatmeal, chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, salad, fish, etc...) they say "Oooommmmm, Mom is having a Cheat day!" LOL!!!!  Talk about a couple of little tattle-tales. But I can now make sweet potato fries, and the boys woof them down!  They wouldn't even try them about a year ago, but they are learning to love our healthier options.  Don't get me wrong, they are far from perfect eaters, they LOVE their sugary treats, but they also know the difference in what's healthy and whats a "treat".  I'm proud of them.  I wish I had learned all of this stuff at their age.  My oldest has even learned how to read nutrition labels!  I didn't even learn that until I was 21! (yes...I was clueless!)  LOL! 

Anyway, I don't know why I just went into all of that....but there you have it. My thoughts for the day. 
Oh I ran 5 days in a row last week, and then sunday night after I finished running, I did lunges from one side of the football field to the other, twice.  I can barely stand up today! LOL!!! Feels SOOOO good though, knowing I worked those muscles hard...love that sore feeling, reminding me to keep up the hard work!  :-)

New Ride!

My poor little Maxima was getting very high in mileage (over 153K), and it was running a lot rougher than normal, and very rough when it would switch through the gears.  I really didn't want to get rid of it, because it was loaded with every bell and whistle you could think of.  But Stephen didn't want to worry about me breaking down in it either.  We had already replaced a $600 sensor and the battery this year...who knows what would have been next on the list.  We figured we better go ahead and get rid of it while we could still get something for it as a trade in.  So we had been searching for a few months, trying to decide what to get.  I was going back and forth with whether I wanted a new Cross-over like the Nissan Rouge or the Hyundai Tuscon, or if I'd rather go with another Nissan Maxima or maybe another Toyota Camry......hmmmm, or maybe a Hybrid.  

Well, after doing some research, we decided to go with a Toyota Prius Hybrid.  It gets 45-50 miles per gallon!!!  Talk about fun to drive to.  It takes some getting used to, because it's totally different than a traditional car.  But we are really enjoying it (and LOVING the gas savings! especially with as much as I drive!)  The display says I'm currently getting 47-MPG (after driving it for work the past two days). YES!

Here's my new ride.  A 2007 Toyota Prius.  We all LOVE it!!!  It's not fully loaded like my Maxima was, but has some other great features.  It actually feels roomier in the front and back seats, than my Maxima did, and is a much more comfortable seat/ride.  So we are very happy with the change.