Water

I've been having a harder time lately getting my water in.  So, I decided to buy a gallon size jug of water.  My goal is to drink one of these a day.  I am a very visual person so it will let me know how much I have left to drink through out the day.  Hope everyone is having a great Cyber Monday and finding great deals!! :)

~Heather

Recipes

I found a great website with a ton of healthy recipes!  Check it out! Skinny Taste

Importance of Rest Days



My new goal weight! lol


After speaking to a friend (who will remain nameless :)) today I decided to do a little research on the importance of giving your body a break every once in a while.  I fully believe that your body needs time every once in a while to recover.  I also fully believe that your mind needs a break.

My reasons are:

• You don't want to burn out.
• Your body will get used to the work out and plateau.
• You can hurt yourself.

Now, those are just the reasons I came up with, with no evidence to indicate one way or the other.  So, after searching the good ole' world wide web, I came across this article.

Runners World Article

Their reasons are:

• Prevents overuse injuries
• Restores glycogen stores
• Prevents mental burnout

I know for me personally, I sometimes feel that if I'm not doing things 100% then I'm failing but that's not true.  Last year I was having a lot of hip pain caused from my back.  I was currently working out and doing a lot of the elliptical machine.  That is extremely low impact but it was still causing my pain to flare up.  After talking to my surgeon, he encouraged me to continue to keep working out but the second I felt just the slightest twinge of pain to stop.  He said even if it was only 5 minutes to stop.  5 minutes was better than nothing but 10 minutes certainly wasn't worth hurting myself more.

 

So, my personal opinion, I think you will ultimately do yourself more harm than good if you don't give your body a break.  You have to take care of yourself, first and foremost, otherwise you might just miss a months worth of workouts vs 1 workout a week.

Family Picture

We had our family pictures taken last week while John's family was in town from San Diego.  We do it every year and it is fun to see how much the kids change from year to year.  While I'm not a fan of chain picture places, I decided to go ahead and get them to snap a few pics of my family since we haven't had them done lately. 

Well, this one particular picture would be so super cute if I didn't look so freakin' huge! lol  So, I'm using this as my motivation and a "before" picture.

From left to right: Preston (3), Me, Carter (5), John, and Liam (2)

This is the picture that I'm going to get printed .  Probably in black and white to hide even more of me.  Sounds really pathetic when I say that out loud.

And this is one of my favorite pictures of my boys! Love them!

Preston, Carter, and Liam

~Heather

When you don't give up..You cannot fail

Gobble Hobble 2011 - Very First 5k

I did it! I ran my very first 5k and had a great time! Alyssa picked me up about 7:45 in the morning and we made our way to Richardson and got there about 8ish. We picked up our bibs and t-shirt and started stretching. We found a nice little spot out of the way.

They started at 8:30 with a 1 mile family fun run. We used that time to run to the potty and get ready to start at 9. While we were stretching Troy Aikman walked by us. He was there with his family and ran in the race too. He is much cuter in person, I think. And extremely tall. Who knew he was so tall??

Alyssa and I before the race.

Troy Aikman

Anyways, we got lined up at the starting line and right at 9 am we started. As we were crossing the starting line I spotted my family cheering us on. John and the kids and my mom were there. I knew they planned to come to finish line but I didn't expect to see them at the beginning. It was very motivating to know they were already there. How cool to have your own cheering team!!

We started out running and then walked/jogged the rest of the way. We did get stuck with this lady who was with two young kids. It was actually quite annoying as she was just constantly yelling at them. We would try to get ahead of them but they would catch up. lol

The wind took me by surprise. In the little training I've done, sure there has been wind but I could also just turn down another street to get away from it or go a different direction. My lungs took a beating due to the wind. I was wheezing quite badly by the end of it. We turned a corner and could see the finish line. And I could see my family standing there cheering us on. We ran across the finish line while hearing my 3 boys yelling, "Go, Mommy, Go! Go, Mommy, Go!" Seriously, I think that is the best part of it...having the support and encouragement.



John and Preston giving me a hug after I finished!

 We crossed the finish line and grabbed a banana and bottle of water. We did it! We finished! AND WEREN'T LAST!!!!

My official time: 50:06.4
Pace: 16:10/mile
Placed 751 out of 817 (that is the best I can tell from looking at the results page)
Age Bracket 30-39 placed 108 out of 117

I'm not extremely happy with my results but I accomplished my goals.
1. I finished!
2. I wasn't last!

My next goal is to finish in less than 45 minutes. My ultimate goal is to beat the 71 year old that finished #32 at a time of 22:40.1!! lol

I'm going to try to committ to a 5k each month. And I also plan to go cheer on friends in other races. So, please let me know what races you have coming up and if you would like to join me in my future races.



You can see me and Alyssa right at the 0:51 mark in the far right hand side.

A huge THANK YOU to Alyssa for joining me on my first 5k. I love you dearly and so happy you were by my side the whole way! You are one of my most encouraging friends and I'm extremely blessed to call you my friend! Nothing is better than going through this journey than with friends by your side!!

We did it!!!! 

~Heather

No Excuses!