Monthly Archives: April 2014

Liebster Award Part Deux

Posted by hellyontherun in Award, Bloggers, Fitness, Running and tagged with , , , , , ,

A while back I was nominated for the Liebster Award, an award acknowledging bloggers and helping readers find new bloggers.

liebster

Well, I’ve been nominated again! 🙂 Thanks Laurie aka Better Late Than Never! (Check out her page–she rocks!)

The Rules for the Liebster Award:

1. You must link back to the person who nominated you.
2. You must answer the 10 Liebster questions given to you by the nominee before you.
3. You must pick 10 bloggers to nominate.
4. You must create 10 questions for your nominees.
5. You must go to their blogs and notify them of their nomination.

Here are the questions I have to answer:

1. What inspired you to start writing/blogging?

My answer to this is similar to when I was asked the first time I was nominated for this award. I love running and I love writing. I’m an English teacher so I think it’s just a natural thing for me to love 🙂

I like Laurie’s answer to this question. Like her, I didn’t start this blog to amass followers or make a business out of it. I love being able to look back on how I felt about things–certain runs, certain races, goals I had/have–things like that. I think a lot when I run so this was also a good place for me to put those thoughts 🙂

Finally, my BRF Salt inspired me. She was a blogger before she had her running blog and always had to good things to say about having a place for your thoughts and “meeting” people with similar thoughts and interests.

2. What is your favorite trick to staying healthy on the go?

Well, those of you who have been reading my stuff for a while know I’m not the healthiest person/runner out there. I guess my only positive healthy thing I do is when I go to restaurants I order water instead of a soft drink or juice or tea. It lets me better enjoy my meal and saves me a few bucks too.

I also take a bottle of water whenever I leave the house. Helps curb hunger cravings when I might not really be hungry and if I’m thirsty I’ll have that instead of getting a Big Gulp (which is always what I really want).

3. Mountains or oceans? Summer or winter? Why?

I live in Arizona so I love my mountains. Plus, I’ve never been a fan of large bodies of water. I don’t like not knowing what my feet are touching.

Summer. I don’t do cold very well and would much rather deal with my 120 degree summers than a polar vortex any day.

4. What is your favorite “clean” treat? Link to a recipe.

………yeah

5. Name three things you cannot live without.

Well, I won’t include people since the task says things….hmmmm

My phone. Really so that I can call my mom and not so much for the social media connection of it.
My closet. I love my closet and everything in it.
Coke. I probably could live without it but it’d be a hard knock life for sure.

6. What is your favorite workout and/or body part to work out?

Fave workout, running 🙂 Body part, I’d have to say abs. I actually like working my core and think it’s cool how strengthening it helps out with so many things.

7. Is blogging your profession? If not, what do you do outside the blogosphere?

Right now, I’m a stay at home mom but I’ll be returning to teaching in the fall. I teach high school English. I love my job and am very exciting to go back after taking a year off.

8. Name three guilty pleasure books, T.V. shows, and/or movies that you’re sorry not sorry you like.

I looove watching Dancing With The Stars. I get said when there are rumors the show will get canceled 😦
I subscribe to quite a few girly fashion magazines–Vogue, InStyle, Elle are my faves..
This wasn’t part of the question but I’ve never seen Star Wars and I’m sorry not sorry that I have no desire to ever watch it.

9. What advice would you give your eighteen year old self?

Try hard in school–you’ll actually miss it when you’re older.

I wish I could go back and take some of the classes I took in college over. I’d really read the stuff and not just pan over it. And I’m sure I’d have a lot more to say about things now than I did back then.

10. Five things that make you the happiest.

-My husband
-My kids
-Running/working out
-Reading
-Shopping

These are the blogs I’m nominating (I’m being a rebel and nominating 6). Check them out!

Let’s Go Running
 I’m Going Slightly Mad
 The Sideache
 Fun Mother Runner
 Meg’s Life Running
 Slacker Runner

Here are your questions!

1. When people ask you, “Why do you like running?” How do you respond?
2. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
3. Someone received an award they cheated to get. Do you notify someone or keep quiet?
4. What’s your favorite food?
5. Do you speak any other language besides English? If not, what language would you like to learn?
6. The Voice or American Idol? (or none)
7. What is the last book you read?
8. If you could time travel, would you go the past or future?
9. What are you most looking forward to this year?
10. What is your favorite holiday?

–Join in and answer one of the questions above!

–Reading any cool blogs? Tell me!!

Weight Loss Denial

Posted by hellyontherun in Fitness, Healthy Eating, Running, Weight Loss and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I wrote a couple of months ago how I was able to lose the pregnancy weight after two babies back to back and how I was so happy to be at my pre pre-pregnancy size.

I love clothes and nothing made me happier than finally fitting in to them 🙂

Since that time though, I’ve lost a few more pounds and while some might ask, “Wait, isn’t that a good thing?” it is, but I’m having some trouble accepting it.

I’ve never been below my pre-pregnancy size. High school and earlier not counting, I’ve always been the same size and I worked out to maintain that comfortable, healthy-for-me number.

But as I’ve been shopping, and I do that a lot, I’ve been noticing that size not fitting like it used to. I’ve chalk it up to design and cut and still buy it because I like it.

On one shopping excursion, my husband was with me. I chose a few things to try and on and he waited for me to come out and model for him. I love getting his opinions and he actually likes going shopping with me (I have a winner!).

He took one look at me and said what I couldn’t for some reason let myself say out loud, “I think you need to try a size smaller.”

“It’s not going to fit.”

“Just try it.”

I’ve never had any major body issues (thankfully) but I also don’t like not fitting into things and I was scared of the possibility of sardine-ing my way into a pair of pants I knew wouldn’t fit me.

Except they did.

I’m not a big scale person but I do weigh myself from time to time and I’m actually a few pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. So while I’m in my normal size of clothing, the number isn’t what it used to be. (Further proof that you shouldn’t live by the scale.)

I bought the new size pants but with the bag of new jeans I carried away a feeling that they would most likely collect dust in my closet.

But why? I know that my fitness plans are not changing. My diet has changed a bit as I’m no longer consuming insane amounts of McDonald’s but that’s not changing either. There’s nothing to say that I won’t continue to maintain my body the way it is now. In fact, with MCM in the fall and Phoenix Marathon early next year, I might even lose a few more pounds and/or tone up a bit more as my training increases.

So why am I in a weight loss denial?

I brought this topic up to my Healthy Moms online board where several moms have also lost weight. A few of them agreed with me that there’s something scary new about losing weight. Will I stay at that weight? Should I invest in new clothing? Will I eventually go back to my old size? The pounds will surely come back, right?

Why is hard for us to accept accomplishment and trust in ourselves to continue and embrace our new lifestyle? Because for me it was never about about dieting. It was is most certainly about changing the way I approach working out and eating right. I wasn’t looking for a number to reach and stopping when I reached it. I started taking running seriously because I wanted to challenge myself with goals I hoped to reach–and then challenging myself by setting new goals. I don’t think any of that is going to change soon.

While I’m learning to accept this new body and embrace, I made a pretty significant breakthrough yesterday.

I was at a small hotel gym getting some treadmill miles in. It was really hot in there but I figured it had something to do with our 98 degree weather outside. About a mile in, I was sweating profusely and decided heck, no need to suffer, I’m taking my shirt off.

I’ve NEVER ran in just a sports bra. Not even pre pre-pregnancy, not in high school, not because of our scorching summers. Never. But somewhere long the way of losing weight, I’ve gained self-confidence. I could see my body in the multitude of mirrors in the gym and I was perfectly fine with what I saw. No nit-picking, no self-judging, just me running.

In fact, I looked at my two baby body with pride. I’ve worked hard.

I’m working hard.

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–Have you lost weight and felt uncomfortable with the newness?

–What are your thoughts on weight loss denial? Why do you think it’s hard for people to accept weight loss?

Thanks for listening friends. This was a personal piece for me.

Tailwind Nutrition Review

Posted by hellyontherun in Running and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Rock ‘n’ Roll Madrid is getting closer and closer and I’m starting to get really excited. I think what has me looking forward to this race is that it’s a no pressure race. I’m not looking to PR having reached my goal at RnR Arizona–quite honestly, if I never beat that time I think I’ll be okay lol. With Madrid, I want to enjoy being in a different country with my husband doing what we enjoy doing: running

What I am concerned with is that when I get back from Europe May 3, I have that dreaded mandatory Death March 17.8 mile run/hike the next morning. With jet lag and the exhaustion from being gone a week, I think I’ll be a good representative of that hike’s title. My running group leader has been getting on us to make sure we’re prepared telling us that temps at the bottom of the canyon can go up to 100+ degrees. Fueling and hydrating is super important and because of that, I’ve been trying a few things.

I tried Energybits a few weeks ago (my review) and during Sunday’s 14.75 mile hike I tried Tailwind Nutrition for the second time. Tailwind is a mix you combine with water and it comes in several flavors–all the ingredients are natural and organic. The berry flavor I tried was amazing . (I’m one of those that when I hear natural and/or organic, I automatically assume I won’t like it (I know, dumb) ). It was sweet but not overly sugary and had zero aftertaste but it def gave my water a little extra yummy oomph.

Berry amazing :)

Berry amazing 🙂

Having not eaten anything before the hike–I usually eat a Nutrigrain bar but my daughter snagged the last one the morning before– Tailwind surprisingly kept me full the whole time. I was really worried I’d be starving during the run/hike but I starting drinking about 15 minutes in and throughout the entire way and was perfectly fine. In fact, I sucked my hydration pack dry by the time I reached the end lol! It was really really yummy and actually very satisfying–it’s advertised to meet your calorie, hydration, and electrolyte needs so no need for gels.

I’ve also tried the lemon flavor (yum!) and have yet to taste the Mandarin Orange. They also have a flavorless mix. I’ll keep you posted on the last two.

Tailwind came recommended from a buddy in my running group who swears by it and I’m glad I gave it a shot. Here’s the website: www.tailwindnutrion.com I love how they offer single packages (the berry flavor is on my weekend buy list).

Let me know if you decide to try it. So far it’s a winner in my book.

–What do you use for fuel?

–Do you like mixing things in your water?

I was sent my package of Tailwind free to test, however, my opinions on the product are my own. I do plan to continue using the product because I truly like it.