20 mile run & new products!

Hey there!!! How is everyone doing?? I feel so bad for not being a better blogger. I keep meaning to do a new post, but there are only so many hours in the day & my life is full of kids to take care of and a husband who wants to spend time with me! It's good to be needed, but it makes it difficult to fit in everything that I want to do :)

SO- I have some news. I am one step closer to crossing off one of the things on my 2013 resolutions, I signed up for a 20 mile training run in September!! I am on my way to running a full marathon this year!!! I even found one that I want to do, it is in Indianapolis in October. The Chicago marathon is crazy expensive & was crazy to get into this year, there was a lottery this year due to their website being messed up when registration opened...anyways, I am getting excited!! I've taken a few weeks of from running, I've been concentrating on lifting more, but my training starts in June, which is quickly approaching. I can't believe we're over half way done with May! I am excited & nervous to train, to run further than I have ever run before. I KNOW I CAN do it, but it's still intimidating to think about. These legs are willing, but my mind is weak right now.

OK, SO, my new products :) There is a company called "NLA for Her" NLA for Her website & I had ordered some whey protein for them. Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of the taste; I ordered it thinking that it would taste chocolate-y, but it tastes VERY cinnamon-y & I can't get over it. I contacted their customer support & asked if I could try their other products b/c I wasn't happy with their whey. I was thinking I would send their whey back to them, but they never asked for it back, so I've used it a few times more & I still don't like it LOL If I add a banana, some almond milk & peanut butter, I can make it taste OK, but it's still not my favorite.

The other products that they sent me were their aminos (to take when I work out) and their thermogenic fat burner. Let me tell you, I LOVE them!!! I really enjoy the Pink Lemonade flavored aminos, which are gluten free & sugar free. I end up filling up my water bottle A LOT, just so I can keep drinking them! LOL They increase endurance, build lean muscle & enhances recovery.

On to their fat burner, called Shred Her. I was curious to see how this works, since I am in the May challenge for the bathing suit & I really want to win!! So far, I haven't noticed any side effects, other than feeling amazing. I take one before I work out & then another one a few hours later. The ingredients include: Green tea extract, Raspberry ketones, caffeine, citrus aurantium extract & ursolic acid. I am hoping to see a big difference in my progress pics from May 1- May30, although I've only been taking these supplements for about a week.

the struggle

I went for a run yesterday, just me, my shoes & my Garmin. A perfect trio! :) Without my Ipod, I was able to enjoy the sound of the birds, I could focus on my breathing, I took in more of my surroundings than I normally do when I run with music in my ears. I loved it!! I did a quick 3.75 run, if I had to run longer, I might have wished for some music, but sometimes, it's better to enjoy the run, rather than try to tune it out. Anyways, it got me thinking about my "get fit" journey.

As I was running I saw a woman in front of me, she was walking quickly, obviously working out & had weights in her hands. I loved it!! I got excited to see her moving & taking her health into her own hands! When I caught up to her, she turned to look at me as I passed & I said "good job" and gave her a thumbs up :) Hopefully it was encouraging to her, but I don't know. It made me think of where I began.

I started getting interested in health & fitness a few years ago, after I had my son. I really wanted to lose the "last 10 pounds" and get back into pre-baby shape. I ate better & started doing workout DVDs & running again. I started to get serious about fitness when I came across cross fit in the fall of last year & really wanted to look like the cross fit girls. They were strong & healthy and looked amazing, no matter what age they were. Soon, I  felt called to begin a fitness ministry at church in the winter/spring of last year. Unfortunately, I took the summer off of working out/running & ran a few races in the fall, but that was about it. By the end of last year, I had gained back some of the weight I had lost & I was just feeling upset with myself. I felt like I always had to hide my tummy or mask my muffin top. I didn't like my thighs & I was self concious of how I looked.

I finally decided that what I was doing wasn't working, I didn't love myself, I was ashamed of myself & I decided that I HAD to do something different than what I was doing. That's when I decided to do the Whole30 in January. I lost 8 pounds that month & kept up with clean eating after the month was over. March was a little dodgy as I kind of ate a lot of crap, along with eating clean. In April I signed up for a detox/meal plan with Cathy Savage and have been following it since then. I am down to my lowest weight since even BEFORE getting pregnant with the twins in 2007.

I am finally proud of my body b/c it is a result of all of the hard work I've been doing this year. I am not totally to where I want to be, I don't necessarily want to LOSE weight, I actually want to gain weight b/c I want to gain muscle. I am working hard at lifting & fueling my body properly. It is a sacrifice b/c I have to give up junk like pizza, cookies, and sweets, but it is SO worth it!! My husband asked me if I felt deprived last weekend after we went out to pizza & I got spinach and a chicken breast and I could honestly tell him No. I remember how I felt about myself when I was eating junk & I don't want to feel like that anymore. I love how I feel about myself now!! It is definitely a motivator to keep going & keep working hard. I look back at pictures from Jan-Now & I love seeing the progress I've made! It makes me want to keep it up & be able to see even MORE change in the future months. :)

Protein Pancakes & bathing suits

So this morning I embarked on a culinary adventure!! I made protein pancakes for the very first time. I heard about them awhile ago, but never had the motivation to make them, although I've been intrigued by them for awhile. I found a recipe online that called for oats, eggs, greek yogurt, a few scoops of protein powder, some cinnamon, etc. It was pretty easy to threw together & it smelled delicious when I was cooking them in the griddle. The kids even came out of their room to see if I was making cookies LOL I had really high hopes for the pancakes b/c they smelled so good, but then when I took a bite, they were pretty dense & didn't really have a taste. I promise I put even more cinnamon than the recipe called for AND added a dash of vanilla, but those things didn't help with the taste. I am wondering if it would have tasted better to use vanilla flavored yogurt, instead of plain...I also want to try making them with a different flavor of protein. I used vanilla flavor, but I wonder if something bolder would have stood out more. Here's the pics of my pancakes this morning:

The pictures that motivated me to undertake protein pancakes had ooey gooey, creamy goodness all over them. http://well-girl.com/vanilla-chai-zucchini-pancakes/  At first I wasn't going to try any of that, however, when the pancakes turned out to be tasteless, I had to do something!! My sister had made me some sweet potato pancakes when I visited her in KY this weekend & she had made some YUMMY peanut butter creamy topping to go on them. I threw together what I thought she mentioned she had used to make the topping. I had to add water a few times to make it more gooey, and the topping tasted pretty good, although I used almond butter....so all in all, it was kind of a fail! It makes me sad b/c I was really hoping to find a new & yummy & high protein for breakfast. Now I want to try to make the sweet potato pancakes that my sister made me this weekend. They were sooo good!! Here's the recipe: http://www.sprint2thetable.com/recipage/?recipe_id=6038451

SO bathing suits....I already have a few, but the cleanse/detox group I am a part of started up a challenge for May. We are done with our cleanse & are working on our maintenance  and the leader of the group said that whoever has the best transformation pictures for the month of May, will win a FREE bathing suit!! I am SUPER excited, it finally gives me a goal to work towards LOL A lot of the people in the group are doing figure competitions, which is not something I'm currently doing, so they have a show date, which gives them more focus. I'm kind of just doing the maintenence to help me eat clean, but the challenge is definitely motivating me to clean up my diet even better than I have in April. So I told Nick, that for me, May would be a pizza-free month!! I did it in January, I know I can do it again. (we eat a lot of pizza in this house!) I am also trying to stick closer to the meal plan. Our meal plan has a cheat meal built in, but now I'm debating if I should even do those or not. I am trying to lift heavier so that my muscles will change even more than they have in the past few months. I really want to WIN!!