Mobile Home on the Range

Okay, so now that I have had the baby and no longer have excuses not to be careful with eating and exercise (or lack thereof – eating I mean, not exercise, because suffice it to say I have definitely had a lack of exercise!), I suppose now is as good a time as any to motivate myself to get back into the swing of exercising…ahem. Have you ever gone awhile without exercising and then just jump right back into it? Yeah, me too. It’s hard, isn’t it? Kind of like when you are really busy and the housework goes by the wayside for a time and then there’s so much to do and you’re so overwhelmed you don’t even want to get started? KWIM? (I have wanted to use that for awhile now!) Yeah, that’s where I am. But shortly before I got pregnant, I ordered Dancing with Lisa (kinda catchy, no?) and I really enjoyed it. So, in between feedings, spit up episodes, diaper changing, typing, cleaning, meal preparation, and laundry, I may try to squeeze in some salsa dancing. But then again, I may hide myself under Mount Laundry so no one can find me. So, in the spirit of jiggly thighs and baby weight to lose (and then some), let’s get motivated to move and get back to working out (or continue for those of you who were good and didn’t get out of the habit)!

What kinds of things do you do for motivation? I like to read people’s success stories and see their before and after pictures. And also, I like to imagine myself in a cute little black dress! I need all the motivation I can get because, let’s face it, it’s hard to lose weight! I will hopefully be posting more often on here of my progress and maybe some helpful hints or tricks of the trade. But, maybe we should start all this exercise and eating right stuff after we pig out eat healthy at all our July 4th barbecues!

Uh *cough* hi…here I am again. I’m sure you all missed me something fierce. I really don’t know why I just get so gung ho about blogging and then peter out after awhile, especially when I was embarking on something totally new. I’m sure you all want to know if I indeed ran a 5K. Well, to satisfy your curiosity…yes! I did!!! I was so excited I wanted to call my old PE teacher from grade school. Well, ok, maybe not, but it was/is pretty exciting! The first 5K (Lisa, you mean you ran more than one?! Well, technically not, but I’ll explain in a minute) was in April in a little town a little ways from here. My good friends who had been training with me all carpooled. Let me tell you, I was nervous! I felt like I was running “The Mile” all over again, except it was a lot longer. So, we get to the place where we start, and it’s at a golf course and we were all like, where’s the pavement?! The entire course was on grass! Not only that, but it was pretty poor terrain, hilly in spots, and poorly planned out. At times, we had no idea where we were going either. And that last hill…I just have no words except that I was barely running. It was little better than a fast walk, but I was still technically running. My, my my. I was beat! Wanna know my time? It was 31:25. I was completely shocked because before that I ran 3 miles around our neighborhood and my time was close to 39 minutes. How in the world I shaved off over 7 minutes was totally beyond me, especially considering the last hill and the terrain. So, we find out afterward – it wasn’t a full 5K!!! What in the world?! It was probably more like 2 miles or so. I didn’t really feel like I had accomplished my goal of running in an actual 5K, so my friend, Cara, and I signed up for the Race for Ronald McDonald at our local lake. After this race, I wasn’t sure I really wanted to sign up for anymore only because it cost $30 and that is just too expensive for my economical blood. Anyway, the race was at the beginning of May

For as bad as the first race was, this race was so much better! First of all, it was absolutely gorgeous that morning, a little cool, definitely not cold, and the sun was shining through some puffy grey clouds onto the lake. It was beautiful. To top it all off, we ran on pavement the whole way! And want to know what else? I ran the whole way without stopping once. 3.1 miles, people. For a girl who never thought running would be something in my future (unless I was running from a robber ). My time? 41:04. Yeah, not great, huh? But David said, “At least you ran!” That’s right. And I got a $30 shirt out of the whole deal too. And this is kind of funny but the guy who got first place ran the whole thing in 19 minutes and 22 seconds. What I think is kind of comical about the whole thing is if he ran the whole thing twice…he still would have beat me! Oh well.

So what have I been doing this summer for running? Absolutely nothing! I’m sorry, people, but unless it’s a balmy 70 degrees outside (which it isn’t in late summer in Kansas), I’m inside with the AC running full blast. But I have been letting Jillian Michaels whip me into shape with her 30-Day Shred. And I’ve been working out to Level 3! But the weird thing is, today I went back and did Level 1 for something a little easier…and it was SO HARD! I’m not sure what happened there. Maybe my body just wasn’t used to doing those kind of exercises. I really hope this fall I can get back into running. I actually miss it. Who knew I would ever say that? There is a 5K on September 11th here in town which I would like to participate in. It probably won’t be 70 degrees, but hopefully it won’t be 100. If it is, I’ll probably think about all those hot, sweaty runners out there and eat my ice cream cone at Dairy Queen. In air conditioning.

Coming up next (and hopefully soon), I have a cinnamon-raisin biscuit recipe that is pretty much the bomb (in my humble opinion) that a friend requested I share. So you have that to look forward to. And if you run while eating a cinnamon-raisin biscuit, you will probably spill crumbs everywhere, but at least the running may cancel out the calories. And if you run long enough, you may even be able to have 2! Wouldn’t that be nice, huh?