Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Race 5...Check!

The Acorn Race took number 5 on the list of 10 races this year.  Halfway done!  What a good feeling.  This race was a lot of fun.  It was at Tall Oaks, a beautiful place for retreats, small group gatherings or family vacations.  As for the race itself, it was challenging.  Sure the distance was only a 5K but it was an out and back.  The out was great but coming back was a different story (wind gusts of up to 30 mph). It was fun participating with Johnna, Keaton and Robin.  A big thanks to Sondra for putting on such a fun race! 

Monday, April 26, 2010

Motivation Monday: Health and Wealth

This weekend we finished up Financial Peace University.  The last DVD was the best one and it's where I came up with today's Motivation Monday.

Don't spend all of your health trying to get your wealth.  You'll end up spending all of your wealth to get your health back.

It's so easy to overwork, overstress and overextend ourselves when we're feeling good.  Maybe almost taking advantage of our healthy body without the notion of self preservation.  Work on self preservation because if we're physically overextended, we're most likely emotionally and spiritually drained.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Monday, April 19, 2010

Movie and Movin' and Munchin'

Beautiful outside, isn't it?! I hope you'll consider joining me this Saturday at 9am for a walk only or a walk-run workout to celebrate the weather and the ability we have to be outside and enjoy it. We'll meet at Pinnacle Physical Therapy to start our workout and then we'll bring it full circle by ending with a yummy stretch.
After the workout think about heading with me to munchin' and movin for Marley, a funderaiser for a 2 year old battling cancer that lives in the Liberty area.





Food Inc. will be on PBS this Wednesday, April 21st at 9pm
It will change the way you think about food. Please, hit the record it and save for later if you don't have time on Wednesday.
"The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000..."

--Michael Pollan

Motivation Monday: Nonaesthetic Progress

It sounds good in theory but tastes magnificent when it happens: lifting a heavier weight, going from 12 push-ups to 68, or the sensation of the palms of my hands touching the floor while keeping my legs straight in a forward fold. Ah, pure sweetness! It happened this weekend, after 2.5 years of yoga averaging one class per week my hands will touch the ground...not just my fingertips. I tell you life is different in that position.

I know we all want to workout and eat better to look slimmer in a pair of shorts but the truth is that the overwhelming empowerment of accomplishing a physical fitness milestone is a rush. It's the feeling that all the little steps worked. I've never had the time to realistically make it to my favorite class more than once per week so I know I have to allow myself years of practice in order to keep having these fun moments of what I call "nonaesthetic progression.

Be on the lookout and pay close attention to the physical fitness progress that's made. Maybe it's being able to complete a mile a little bit faster than previously recorded. It's anything that we're getting better at because we continue to plug along. Sadly many of us have days or weeks where we don't see any progress, it's just realistic to see this happen. The psychology of not seeing any progress when hard work happened over and over again is incredibly common. Unfortunately sometimes we throw in the towel just before our body catches up to what we are doing to give us that shiny result we'd been longing for. Motivation this week is to keep plugging away. It will work.  It has to, its science!  (And yes to answer the question we all are thinking, I do have pants on in this picture, just cropped out the hips and the shorts I had on)


Friday, April 16, 2010

Race 4...Check!

The 2010 Brew to Brew.  A race I won't forget.  It was the most fun I've had at a race to date.  It was a 44 mile relay from downtown KC (boulevard brewery) to downtown Lawrence.  There were 4 of us on this team to complete 44 miles although the original plan was 6.  I was prepared to run 8 miles that day but instead was pleasantly suprised with close to 12.  At the end of the day, I felt what I always love to feel...accomplishment.  I think it's a mix of good endorphines and type-A goodness of checking 12 miles off my list. 

Maybe the best part of the race was the team.  I've known my sweet friend Johnna for almost 4 years but met Courtney and Ivan that day.  I have to say we make a great team and so I think there may be more relays to come in the future!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Motivation Monday: Fitness with Friends

This weekend I was so lucky enough to participate in a race with friends both old and new.  It was the most fun I've ever had at a race.  The thought is simple this week....round up friends (maybe even some people you don't know) and sign up for a fun race to complete together.  After all, it's much more fun working out in a group than by yourself.    

Monday, April 5, 2010

Motivation Monday: Keep Searching

This week I want to share Renee's story.  I think the tale of her journey thus far is a good example of the importance of never giving up.  Renee did what so many of us do...overwork at the gym and underwork on food intake.  Ultimately my hope is that this story will inspire something inside of us all to never give up and keep working for the unique balance our body needs to be most effective.  There is a different formula for everyone...which makes the searching that much more uncomfortable at times.  There is no one size fits all when it comes to weight loss and fitness because age, gender and genetics play too big of a role...in my personal opinion.
Love will find you...
I should probably start with a little background…. 10 years ago I lost 55 pounds by eating well and moderately exercising. Through the good habits I learned while I was losing weight, I’ve kept most of the weight off except for the 2 years I was pregnant. 18 months after both of my pregnancies, I was back to my goal weight.

About a year ago I began exercising more and more until I was working out (mostly cardio) 60-90 minutes per day about 6 days a week. When I started exercising this much, my diligence about food journaling and watching what I was eating began to decline. After all, I was working out like a crazy woman, so therefore I should be able to eat a little more, right? Wrong! The number on the scale started creeping up and I started to get very frustrated. I began training with Mandy last summer because I wanted to incorporate some strength training and I wasn’t sure where to begin. I continued my crazy-woman workout schedule and while I was eating mostly healthy, I still wasn’t recording what I was eating. The number on the scale was creeping up ever so slowly and I was becoming increasingly frustrated. I went to the doctor because I was sure there was some medical reason for my weight gain, only to be told everything was normal and maybe I should relax a little bit. Relax? Workout less? If I did that surely the number on the scale would go up even faster! The holidays rolled around and after the first of the year I found myself 9 pounds up from my original weight even though I was working out more than ever.


I was ready to just quit all together when Mandy brought up the “X plan”. Hummmm, food journaling. I decided to give it a shot. After all, it worked 10 years ago when I was losing my weight, so it was worth a try. During this time I had also started running more, so I decided to focus on a fitness goal instead of the number on the scale. I started a 10-K training program and decided to cut back on working out a bit. I continued to do strength with Mandy and focus on the 10-K training schedule. I decreased my workouts to 4 days a week (2 cardio/2 cardio+strength) and began writing down everything that went into my mouth. I focused on a calorie goal, drinking a lot of water (80+ ounces/day) and not eating after 8pm. Once I decreased my cardio, increased my strength training and began food journaling, something crazy happened. The number on the scale started going down! And it kept going down…. So far it’s been 8 weeks and I’ve lost 10 pounds. I’m at a weight I haven’t seen in over a year! The best part is I feel great and don’t feel like I’m killing myself at the gym with no results. I feel like I’ve achieved a good balance thanks to Mandy and her guidance. As is evident by my crazy-woman workout schedule, I have a tendency to become obsessive about exercise. Mandy is awesome at keeping me grounded and helping me find balance. I encourage you to find balance as well. The results are worth the effort.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Sweet Cravings Cured???

The idea is that our brain operates on simple carbohydrates (also called glucose) and when it's running low it and needs more it sends us a signal that we typically interpret as needing to eat sweets (or chocolate).  Dawnie suggests trying to eat a fruit every 4 hours along with a glass of water in order to keep our brains fueled with enough glucose.  Hey...it can't hurt we probably don't eat enough fruit anyway!

Sweet Cravings Cured!