Happy 1st Birthday Ty Ty.

To My Sweet Baby Ty Ty,

Happy Happy Happy 1st Birthday! This has been the fastest, crazies, most exhausting, and most rewarding year of my life.

One year ago tomorrow you were born in the comfort of our home in a room full of strength and love.  When you were put in my arms you were so quiet.  It took you a minute to let out your first cry and even that didn't last more than a few seconds.  You snuggled into me and just looked around at the big, cold, bright, new place and fell asleep.  Those first few minutes of your life sum up your personality to a T. You were the hardest baby to grow but have been the easiest, sweetest, snuggliest, little man since you took your first breath.  You've sat through volleyball practices, t-ball games, and long runs with me without a peep. You could live your life being carried around all day and be perfectly happy.

It's no secret that you were a HUGE surprise in our life...But EVERY day I am thankful God blessed us with you. I'm thankful for you snuggliness...your infectionous belly laugh...your sweet, sweet personality...the way you just go with the flow of our crazy life...but most of all I'm thankful for how having you made me realize that my life was missing something I didn't even know I needed.

 

In the last few weeks you've started to find your voice in our house and learned that to be heard above your crazy brothers you need to be LOUD.   You're also not afraid to join in their antics without a second thought...climbing, wrestling, and always trying to keep up.  Raising you and your brothers is no joke. You are a busy bunch....But what makes it all so much easier is how each of you love your mama oh so much...And what I want you to know not just today but every day...is that I love you more than you will ever know...at least not until you have your own babies and watch your heart walk around outside of your body every.single.day.

Happy Birthday Baby Ty Ty. You will forever be my favorite surprise of a lifetime.

Love, Your Mama.

Changing it up with some new workouts!

Last week I had 3 friends invite me to try some new workouts.  I'm game for just about anything so I tried them all ON TOP of my usual running...My knees are PISSED so I'm taking it easy this week with spinning and swimming only until Sunday. And by easy I mean my ass will still be kicked but my joints will just get a break. So I thought I would share my two cents about each of the new things I tried.

Body Pump: Loved it.

My friend Erica got the DVD for Christmas so I went to her house so we could do it together. It was awesome. I really like how a lot of it moved to the beat of the music.  I always workout better with music. My legs were SHAKING after the first round of squats.

We were doing it on my hub's lunch hour so we did the 30 minute workout and it was a GOOOOOD workout for the amount of time!  I should have used heavier weights for the arms......WELCOME TO THE GUN SHOWWWWW......Definitely a good at home workout.  I dreaded sitting on the toilet the next morning.

Crossfit: Not my thing.

I went with my friend Chelsea who is a crossfit lover.  I've witnessed it drastically change her body so there's no question if it works.

This is a hard one to review because from my understanding each "Box" is different. I think this one did not mix very well with my personality.  Like....someone telling me what to do in a somewhat drill sergeanty way. I spent my entire life doing the EXACT OPPOSITE of what my parents told me to do...so when someone tells me to run to get something...and run FASTER.... MORE HUSTLE... my first instinct is to walk.very.slowly. with both hands in the air and my middle fingers up.

Running is my first love. The reason I love it so much is that I am the only one telling me what to do. I'm the one telling me to go faster. More power. Be better. You can do more.

When I first met the trainer at this Crossfit I told him I'm a runner and THE FIRST THING he said was "well we may have to dial back your miles." STRIKE ONE, TWO, AND THREE.

I think my dislike for Crossfit boils down to being told what to do by a man that didn't have my respect yet. I-am-woman-hear-me-roar-ish.....most defiantly.

ROAR.

Swimming: Holy crap.
This is so much more of a workout than I ever imagined. I learned about this class through a friend and since I'm doing my first triathlon in June I knew I needed to work on my swimming.  Right now I can swim to save my own life...but not to compete in a triathlon. So that's what we are working on.

The first thing she had me do was swim 200 meters. I'm all like...oh yeah...200 meters that's like down and back right? The instructor looks at me like I have 3 heads and says....No, that would be 4 down and backs.

Oh snap.

So I swam it...and by swam I mean stayed above water.

By then end of the class I had swam roughly 1,600 meters using all different strokes and methods to improve my swimming efficiency....so I do more by working less.

This is COMPLETELY out of my comfort zone.  I HATE deep water, I haven't had swimming lessons since I was in grade school, and I still vividly remember our high school gym teacher making us tread water with our hands above our head.....scarred me for life. I've always used the swimming pool as a place to get a good tan and exhaust my children.

This kind of swimming is a whole new echelon of badassery.

Body Sculpt: I've been sore for 4 days.

This class is awesome for so many reasons.

1. It's a ministry put on by Chelsea Free Methodist Church called Faithful Fitness.

2. It costs $2 and INCLUDES CHILD CARE!!

3. They have different workouts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so there's lots of options!

My biggest weakness is my strength and this class showed me muscles I didn't even know I had. I'm really excited to go back and again... $2!!!!!!!!! WITH CHILDCARE!?!??!?! For a GOOOOD workout!??! Can't beat it.

So there's the new things I've tried. Out of my comfort zone. Yes. But the best thing about them all is I tried them with friends. Friends make working out and new experiences so much more fun.

This morning I went to spin class since I was NOT running with a sore knee AND -15 windchills. The picture on the left is what my workout looked like this morning and the picture on the right is from April 25th, 2013 when I first started spinning.

Top Number: Average RPM\'s
Second Number: WATTS or the amount of effort exerted (my goal has always been to be around 160)

TALK ABOUT A NON SCALE VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the picture from this morning was AFTER cool down. When I looked after the workout my WATTS were 209. My ass was kicked.

These pictures are from the exact same days as the ones above. 

left: January 21, 2013

Right: April 25, 2013

Just.Keep.Going.

Why I Just Keep Going

A few months ago I was introduced a group of women that have completely changed my perception of myself and what I can do.  They inspired me to run my first half marathon, get moving on days I just want to stay in bed, and push myself farther than I ever thought possible.  

They taught me that girls compete with each other...and women inspire each other...

The question I get asked the most often is, "What's your motivation?" 

Here's the answer to that question.

Looking at my 2014!!

This year is going to be filled with a shit ton of badassery.  However...I must share first my last run of 2013... It sucked.

It was 7 degrees outside.

It was snowing.

The sidewalks were not shoveled and where they were shoveled it was filled with wet slush that crept into my shoes after the first block.

I didn't have one single second of runner's high....aka the goosebumps/adrenalin rush I work for each run.

I set out to run 6 miles to round out my 50 miles for December and only could muster 4.5...

It was the longest 4.5 miles I've ran in a LONG time.

Coming down the HILL OF DEATH I've ran a million times I realized that when I started running in April I couldn't run up this hill...I couldn't even run one mile and here I was bitching to myself because I wasn't going to run 6 MILES!?!?! So I stopped the pity party and kicked the last mile square in the ass.

Yes...My sister already very lovingly notified me that I need to have my eyebrows waxed............................I said I need the extra facial hair to run in the winter.

So after my run I got home...took a toasty hot shower...and thought...hm...It's the last day of 2013...I should see how much I've lost before the New Year starts...

I get on the scale and BAM... KAPOW.....HOLY SHITOLI 

I WEIGH 1 POUND LESS THAN THE DAY I GOT MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've learned a lot about the true meaning of health and fitness since I started this blog...I used to use the scale as a tool to determine if I was going to eat for the day.....................................

Now I use it as a tool to determine if what I'm doing is working...I give myself a 3ish pound window with a low and a high.  My low is the lowest number I've seen on the scale to date which had been stuck at 167 for a couple weeks...but with the holidays and the endless amount of cookies Dana's patients bring him.....I mean I can't just throw them out!! And I don't want the kids eating all that sugar because that would throw them into hyper active gremlin mode........................................... So I was ok with my low number not moving to much...My high number was 169...I hadn't been above that in 2 weeks either.  This window idea had completely changed how I look at the scale.  

But when I saw 165 I was over the moon!! I finally did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the past 4 years I've wanted to just get back to what I weighed when I got married.  

Boom.

Now my low number will be 165 and my high number will be 168 and we will just keep going! I've had a lot of people ask me how much more weight I want to lose...I could not lose another pound and be happy.  BUT with all the running I'm doing in 2014 I REALLY think my body would thank me if I could gain more muscle and lose another 10 pounds of extra jiggle. 

Speaking of 2014...at 12:25 p.m. on January 1st, 2014...I registered for the Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon!! Whooo!! 

It was a rockin New Years Eve I tell ya.....................

I'm SO SO SO excited for this run!! There's a LOT of people which makes running so far so much easier.  There's TONS of people all along the course cheering you on which makes me 

1. Ugly cry 

2. Not focus on how far I have to run.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!  So excited!! And this half marathon I get to cross the Canadian border...which will be the first time in my life I've been outside of the country!! AHH!! I ALMOST signed up for the full...But I've learned that whatever distance I set out to run has to make me happy...and right now 13.1 miles makes me happy.  26.2....not quite there yet...

The gremlins need to get a little older...and sleep a hellaba lot better. 

The Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon will be the culminating event of my amazing year of running. Here's a look and the links to all the big races I will be doing.

My first big race will be the Fifth Third River Bank Run on May 10th... it's a 25k and from what I understand a very large race...and there's a whole tribe of badasses I know that are running it.  Perfect way to start the running season.

Next will be my sister's wedding on May 31st where I run all over creation making sure this day is PERFECT for her. Pretty much equivalent to my first full marathon.

On June 22nd I will be doing my first Sprint Triathlon...The Iron Goddess...I'm good with everything except the swim...........................

Then on September 21st............ZACK'S 5TH BIRTHDAY..........I'm sure I will cry the first 5 miles thinking about how fast these last 5 years have gone.......I will be running the Detroit Women's Half Marathon.  I was going to run this last year but ran Women Rock Chicago instead.  I've heard great things about this race and how well organized it is.  I'm really looking foward to it! And the medal they gave out last year was a pink Detroit Tiger's D....It was awesome. And let's be honest...it's all about the bling.

Then finally on October 19th will be The Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon.  

I'm also hoping to run The Crim which is considered one of the largest 10 mile road races in the U.S. I couldn't do it last year because I had a volleyball tournament on that day..But I THINK I can this year!! 

So there's a look at my running plans for 2014...The most important thing to remember....I started running 8 months ago. It doesn't take long...It just takes a commitment. 

Left: April 2013... 3 months post baby number 3...weighing 200 pounds

Right: December 2013...11 months post baby number 3...weighing 165 pounds

Just.Keep.Going.