I love numbers, except when it comes to math

Playing a little catch-up here on this rainy evening. If it would just warm up a skosh so the windows could be open…….that would be perfect.  I love a warm, summer rain.

Last weekend we drove down to the Sacramento area to surprise my brother in law for his 40th birthday celebration.  We were at a lake all day and so I have no pictures to provide for incriminating evidence.  However…..it was my first time to drive a jet ski!  So much fun!  My husband was impressed with my skills of straight out and back.  ha!  I also drove a pontoon boat too while pulling my youngest in an inner tube.  Again, SO FUN!

Father’s Day was celebrated on the go as we needed to travel back home.  My honey was satisfied with his trip to Togo’s whereas, I made out like a bandit in getting Chipotle. YUM!  We made the trip back home safely and took the “back way” which I’m not sure my hubs will ever do again.  He’s so sweet though and actually stopped the car at not one, but TWO fresh fruit stands.  Now I DO have a picture of that!  Yep, I’m the crazy one that will take pictures of fruit and veggies with a suitcase in the background, but actually forget to take pictures of people.  In my defense, I didn’t want my phone to take a swim in the lake. I wish we could have gotten more but I knew I’d be in trouble if any of it went bad.  My husband wished there was a fresh cow stand where you could pick out a fresh steak or two.  Do they have those?

In other news…I am the proud new owner of a fitbit.  I’m still trying to get the hang of it and understand what the numbers are telling me, but so far, it’s very cool.  I’m really interested in the sleep log part of the tracking.  I’m going to see if I can figure that part of it out tonight.  Exciting stuff huh?  I’m a numbers type of girl though….except when it comes to math. ha!

Oh and tomorrow I am starting another round of the Advocare 24 Day challenge.  I’ve still been taking my normal Advocare vitamins and supplements, but the food plan has not been on point so the results have just not been magical.  Just goes to show you that there is no magic pill.  But Advocare can definitely help you get there faster and better!

So, does anyone have a Fitbit and what do you just love about it?  Is there something I’m missing maybe?  A cool thing that it does….like massage your feet?  Do the laundry?

Don’t fall off your chair, in shock that I blogged.

I took a break from blogging.  I took a break from a lot of things.  My brain is just too tiny to handle all of the chaos that was happening.  Let me explain in as little detail as possible.  The company I worked for merged and the conversion process and the final outcome?  I didn’t like it so much.  So I made some changes and now let me explain in a few less details…I have a new job in a similar industry with no stress and less hours.

Now that that’s out of the way….

Let the fitness talk begin.  And by fitness talk, I really mean, let’s talk about how much weight I’ve gained over the last five years and how little running I’ve been doing lately.

I’m in the fourth week of a new marathon training program from “Train Like a Mother” the Finish it Plan.  That sounds a little odd since I’ve finished three marathons now.  However, this “finish it” plan is actually more advanced than the other training programs I’ve used attempted.  While I’m in my fourth week, I did get off to a rather shaky start.  And by shaky, I probably mean normal. And by normal, I mean that it hasn’t been perfect.  I’ve missed a few runs here and there, and I actually didn’t run during the week at all during the last week of my old job.  Just too much stress and my biggest goal for that week was to sleep as much as possible and try to sleep through the night.  (Didn’t happen.)  I haven’t missed a long run though.  That’s good, right?!

I’ve also, once again, restarted a weight training program.  Now that I’m getting home earlier, I have time to not only cook a decent meal, but to do my weight lifting.  With the old job, I wasn’t getting home in time to even put a real effort into dinner.  Plus, I had to get up even earlier to get both a run and weights in…then there’s the energy factor to consider.  Pretty hard to lift intentionally and with good form and enthusiasm when you know you have 3-4 miles to run afterwards.  If I had switched the workouts around, then the weights NEVER would have happened.  I’ve started Jillian Michael’s Body Revolution in case you were wondering.  I’m a recluse.  I don’t go to the gym anymore.  Or outside.  Just kidding.

SO, I’m pretty excited to see how this is going to turn out.  Right now, I’m all about creating that ball of consistency.

Oh AYuuunnnddd….I’m going to do another round of the 24 day Advocare challenge.  I slacked off on taking my vitamins and supplements there for a bit and I really want to start feeling those energy levels back to where they were.  More consistency in the future for me.  Placing my order today so prepare yourself to be jealous of my results!  Har har…and I’m really not kidding.  Oh and total disclaimer here, I am a distributor for Advocare, but I wouldn’t and won’t pressure you.  Just saying so you don’t think I’m trying to trick you into anything.  Unless I was going to trick you into running with me.  Because I would totally do that.

So besides being a total stress case for the last solid 6 months, give or take another 6 months, things are definitely on the bright and happy side of life right now.  Plus, Pinterest exists.  Jesus, thank you for Pinterest.  Amen.

Please tell me you love Pinterest?

Obsessed with breakfast

I haven’t wanted to blog lately.  I think I’m still mad that I killed all my pictures with one stupid push on my smartphone.  If my phone was smarter, it would have warned me that I was the biggest computer turd on the planet.

In other areas of my life, the company that I work with is merging with a larger company.  Let your mind go crazy….stress, personality conflicts, training, meetings, training, meetings, more stress, and more stress….and yet, we put on happy faces and roll with the punches.  What else can you do?  Oh yeah, sometimes I pretend that I’m just working at a coffee stand.  It’s my little defense mechanism so I can go home at night, and sleep, and not want to punch everyone I come in contact with in the throat.

See?!  It’s working great!!

I did promise, all two of you that commented on my facebook picture, a recipe.  Behold………..

Strawberry Coconut Over Night Protein Oats

….or  SCONPO for short, since that just sounds uber appetizing!

So you take a 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats

1/2 Cup of Unsweetened, Vanilla Almond Milk

a teaspoon of chia seeds

and you stir it in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate over night.

Then in the morning, I pop it in the micro for a minute because I prefer it warm.

I then add one scoop of vanilla flavored protein powder and stir until it’s mixed in.  You could add another dash of almond milk here if you like.

I top it off with 4-5 sliced strawberries, a tablespoon of unsweetened coconut and a 1/4 cup of a granola mix (I’ve been using a pumpkin flax seed mix.)

I’ve been stuck on this breakfast combo for the last couple of weeks now, and what I’m finding out is that the bigger breakfast is keeping me fuller throughout the day.  I’m not skipping any meals, but I’m eating less calories, later in the day.

So you’re looking at right around 420 calories and 31 grams of protein.

Enjoy!

Whoop de freakin doo!

I’ve been mad at my blog.  Actually, it’s not my blog’s fault.  It was my own stupidity that deleted the folder on my phone that contained all of the images within my blog.  WHY DOES MY PHONE HAVE ALL THIS POWER!!??!!??!!

I remember thinking, “Nah, there’s no way there’s not a back up on my laptop, this folder has to be just for my phone.  No big whoop.”

Well it was a big whoop.  A big fat whoop-de-doo!  The good news is that I still have my pictures.  The bad news is that I have to go back in and add them one at a time.  Thus, I’ve been avoiding my blog.  I’m not sure I want to go back in and add all my pictures.  There’s not a huge demand to do so.  And another big question is, should I keep my blog with blogger?  Is now the time to move to self hosted?  Or Wordpress?  I have purchased my domain, and I have been toying with self hosting, but I don’t think I have the skills or patience to do it myself.  Ayynnnddd, I don’t have the budget to hire someone to do it.  Any offers of free? lol!

Putting that aside….

My running streak is still going!  Ten Days Strong!  Since my streak started on March 23rd, I’ve run a total of 21 miles.  I’m still telling myself “at least one mile.”  Most all of my runs are at an easy pace and I go based on what my body is telling me.  My long runs have been on Saturdays, and this weekend, I will undertake 6 miles.  This week, I’ve bumped up the rest of my runs from one mile to 1.5 miles and I think I’ll continue to increase each week by a half mile and a full mile increase on Saturdays.  Again, I’m not advising this kind of running plan for anyone.  I’m the weirdo that ran three full marathons before I ever ran my first “official” half marathon.  So don’t turn to me for running advise unless you want to play that game of “Do what I say, not what I do.”

The other “streaks” that I have been working on are decluttering for 15 minutes a day, and doing a leg strength training routine each day.  I feel like my legs, or at least my booty is my biggest problem.  Hello pear!

Decluttering….I did real well until last weekend hit.  This isn’t a streak I want to abandon, I just need to revise the “rules” a little bit.

Legs….Same thing.  I have been getting in some strength training moves each day, just not always legs.  I think I want to find a few full body strength training workouts that are on the shorter side and a more focused for runners.  Any recommendations?

Do you have any streaks going?

Have you ever done any habit streaks?

Is anyone hungry for steaks now?

PS I wrote this post a few days ago.  Still mad at my blog.  That or I’m busy (aren’t we all?) and I haven’t made this blog a priority.  But the running streak is still going….except it turned into a walking streak for the last two day.  I’m ok with that.

To help you ease through the transition though, I give you this.  Don’t hate me.

26 Things you never want to see under a microscope…..blergh….

Test blog with picture

 

 

Just testing this with a new picture to see if Windows live will recreate the folder I deleted on accident.

OOoh no, my pictures are gone!

Whelp…I’m an idiot.  Any help here?  I deleted the pictures from my folders….that were on my phone.  Thinking for sure they were saved on my computer.  But, I guess I was in my dropbox folders?

 

I don’t have time for this.  Or the patience.  Is there a quick fix to this????

 

Oh geez……

What a doozy of a day!

“What a doozy of a day!”  I was saying that by 10 am this morning.  It’s days like these that make me so happy that I’ve already done my workout for the day.  Not that I’m seeing a huge benefit and a greater amount of energy from working out in the morning, but that when I get home tonight, I DON’T HAVE TO WORKOUT!!!!!  I have to believe though, that had I NOT worked out, I wouldn’t be handling things as well as I am today. “Well”, meaning laughing most everything off.  “Laughing”, meaning borderline hysterical giggling. And “hysterical” meaning, you’re not quite sure if you should be crying instead.  Or popping pills.  Or drinking booze.

Speaking of popping pills…..

I remembered to take all my condoms* vitamins today!

If anyone catches me taking my Advocare supplements, they inevitably think I’m tearing in to some birth control.  Uh, yeah people.

*Speaking of vitamins, you might need them after this workout: http://www.fitsugar.com/10-Minute-Buti-Class-Video-28580417

We had a conversation on Facebook this morning that you wouldn’t want anyone watching you do this workout….but THEN….if you CHARGED them….that would make you a … oh let’s not go there.

This morning, for my workout, I continued with my run streak of one mile.  I figure, starting next week, I’ll need to start bumping up my mileage, mid-week.  Along with my leg workout streak, I also did a core workout this morning from the Turbo fire series and I have a model… She definitely needs to work on her core a little bit more.

I don’t think she approves of the girl’s posture.

So did you go watch the Buti Yoga workout video?  And would you be caught dead doing the workout?