Keepin' Up with the Big Boys

I've been waiting since Monday to post this NSV because I wanted it to be part of the linkup!

My workplace is currently in week 9 of 13 in our Biggest Loser competition, which consists of 10 people (2 girls and 8 guys).

Since starting, I've gone back and forth between 2nd and 3rd place. Well this week, I pulled ahead into FIRST PLACE.

We all know that guys lose weight faster than girls. It's a given. So the fact that I'm keeping up with the guys, this far into it, I'm fricken ecstatic.

Not even going to lie... I kind of feel like a bad ass right now and this is how I'm walking (or dancing) through the office... (at least I am in my head.)

2nd place isn't too far behind me though, so I can't slack off too much.

Color Run this weekend in Louisville so look forward to a Weekend Recap!

Weekly Goals 5/29

A little late, since I like to do these posts on Mondays, but better late than never. Memorial Day threw me all off. However, I wouldn't have traded it for anything!

Recap of last week's goals:

1. Clean my bedroom.

DONE. And it is fabulous.

2. Actually stick to my plan.

Better than the week before, but not 100%. That's okay though. Life happens.

3. Get all of my runs in.

I got 3 out of 4 in. I didn't get my Sunday run in, but my friend and I did go hiking on Monday.

This week's goals:

1. Clean my craft room.

Yes, I have a craft room. No single person needs two guest rooms so why not use it for something functional? Right now it's kind of a "catch-all" and just a mess.

2. Do core work everyday.

I said that I was going to do a 30 day ab challenge, but I haven't. 

3. Stay under my calorie goal everyday.

I tend to go over at least twice a week and that crap adds up.

4. Cook what I have.

I do NOT need to go to the store before next Tuesday. I've got a pantry and new fridge full of stuff so I need to make that work.

How did you do last week? What are some of your current goals?

A Dolla Makes Me Holla DietBet

Have you heard of DietBet.com?

I'm not even kidding you, I wish I had come up with the idea, but unfortunately, I did not.

DietBets.com is a sight that basically coordinates a competition between your friends and even strangers. You set up a game, invite people to join, throw some money into the pot, and then you have 4 weeks to lose 4% of your body weight. Whoever in your group loses their 4%, splits the pot.

I did one of these last month and ended up making some money, so I've decided to started another one.

Dolla Makes Me Holla (round 2)

Buy In: $25

Starts: June 1, 2013

In no way, shape, or form is DietBet paying me for this. I just want more people to join to make the pot bigger inspire others to get healthy.

So get to movin...

Put down the fast food...

and maybe a dolla will make YOU holla AND move a little fasta!

Click here to sign up!

Workout Wednesday

I workout.

A lot.

I honestly feel like it is now a necessity for my mental and physical health and on days I go without it, I feel like CRAP. Now granted, I have not ALWAYS been this way, but I'd say I've been pretty consistent for the last 9 months or so.

So this post is about to be a modge podge of stuff about working out and some of my motivation for writing this is that if I write it and post it, it will make me more accountable for actually DOING it all.

As you might have read, I recently ran a half marathon. As soon as it was over, I had my friend Allie come up with a plan for the next one, and here is what she came up with:

My goal when she made this was to run the race in October with an average pace of 12 minutes a mile, since my pace for the last one was around 13:35. She did say that about halfway through, we'd reevaluate the time and pace for my long runs and see if we should set a more aggressive goal. (Maybe finishing in 2:30:00?!)

Yesterday, she sent me the speed workout for tomorrow. It is kind of ridiculous how excited I am about this...

She told me that I might puke and my response was "I've always wanted to workout so hard that I puke." She also asked how I felt about doing stadiums once a month and I said, "Sounds like I'm gonna be a total bad ass by the time you're through with me!"

Umm ...

wait ...

what?!

Who AM I!??!

You can see on my half marathon schedule I also go to BodyPump 2 days a week. Allie said that my rest days will be on Fridays, (which they might be after these speed trainings), but I'll probably still go to BodyPump on Fridays if I don't think I'm dying. I know that you're suppose to have "rest" days but aint no body got time for that.

So in addition to these workouts, I am starting THIS wonderful plan. I've heard that you can work your core everyday without a rest day and seeing as how my stomach is probably my LEAST favorite part of my bod, might as well work on that too.

30 day challenge starting today. Anyone else want to join in?!

That's all I've got today. What are your favorite workouts? Head over to Skinny Meg and see what other people are doing!

Weekly Goals 5/20

Yall... I can't even tell you how much I sucked at life last week. Fortunately this is a NEW week and I'm hitting the reset button.

Let's recap last week's goals:

1. Set up the night before.

I did better about this one this week, but not great.

2. In bed with the light out and phone put away by 10:30pm every night. 

HA! That's funny. EPIC FAIL.

3. Drink 120oz of water a day.

Not the greatest of weeks for this, but OH WELL.

4. Try a new recipe.

Yay! I did do this. I made stuffed bell peppers. Check out the recipe HERE.

5. Clean my bedroom.

Yeah that didn't happen.

So as you can see, this past week wasn't the greatest, but this week WILL be better.

This week's goals:

1. Clean my bedroom. 

I'm going to do it this week. No excuses.

2. Actually stick to my plan.

Last week I think I rewrote my eating plan about a million times, but I've already posted my new on one on my new fridge (!!!)  so I have no excuses to not follow it.

3. Work out this weekend.

A lot of times when I go home to Huntsville I half-ass my workouts but I will NOT do that this weekend. Hold me to that, please. (decided not to go home, so have to come up with something else!)

4. Get all of my runs in.

As I was typing this, my friend Allie sent me my speed training workout for Thursday! I'm so excited! She said that I might end up puking by the end of it, but that's okay with me! LAST CHANCE WORKOUT! (I'll just picture Dolvett screaming at me with his pretty white teeth). I've got 3 miles today, 3 miles Thurdsay, 3 miles Saturday (I'm actually doing a 5k!) and 3 miles on Sunday.

Just because I don't want to type anymore, here is my weekend excitement in pictures:

Yeah, that's me on the left. No make up. Getting the hair colored. Obviously make up is my friend. Not 100% sold on the coloring yet, but I'm going to give it a couple more days.

Sign of adulthood #362: You are more excited about a new fridge than you are about Christmas

Dog sitting this weekend. Look at that FACE!

As I said, I sucked at life this week, so much of my weekend consisted of lounging around on the couch, surrounded by dogs.

I've had this patio furniture for almost 2 years now, and suddenly Mr. Bentley likes to dance on the tabletop. 

Ended the weekend with a Sunday night run. As I posted on Facebook, lots of walking, a sore back, and heartburn, but a bad run is better than no run at all.

Stuff Yourself with Some Stuffed Peppers

Pinterest is an amazing thing. It causes you to stumble across things you never thought of or recipes you've never tried. I kept seeing stuffed bell peppers pop up under the Food & Drink category and always thought they looked delish but I had never tried them.

One of my weekly goals this week was to try a new recipe, so why not give them a try?

After looking at a few different recipes, I came up with this concoction, so feel free to try it out yourself.

Ingredients: Bell pepper, shredded chicken, mexicorn, rotel, olive oil, black beans, mild cheddar cheese

Cut the pepper in half and take out the stem and seeds.

Spray the peppers with the olive oil and place in a baking dish and cook for 20-25 minutes in the oven at 400 degrees.

Mix the chicken, beans, corn, and half the can of rotel together.

Be careful not to step on the dogs that are patiently waiting for you to drop something. (No, I don't have three dogs. The one in the front is Jefferson, I'm dog sitting for the week.)

Once the peppers are roasted, flip them over and fill with about half a cup of the chicken goodness. )I put the leftover filling in the freezer to use for other recipes.) Pour the rest of the rotel over the peppers. Put them in the oven for another 15 minutes.

Sprinkle with cheese and pop them back in the oven for 5 minutes. Then ENJOY. 

Final review: Really good and low calorie, but I think it needed some taco seasoning or something a little more spicy. Not bad though!

I Ran Like a Mother...

Well I did it.

I ran a half marathon.

Yup. 13.1 miles. No, I did not "run" the whole thing, but pretty much damn near all of it!

This past October (I think it was October), two of my gym buddies and I decided to add in the Couch to 5K program into our routine. Now understand, I've done the C25K program before and I'd even ran a few 5K's, but I set my sight on a half marathon and was determined to do it (with a little motivation from my friend Erin). Before we were even done with the C25K program, I signed up for the Paducah Iron Mom Half Marathon. That gave me 7 months. 7 months to go from "running only when being chased", to running 13.1 miles because I WANTED to.

Holy.

Crap.

Misery love company so I convinced two of my cousins to do it too! (Side note: One cousin, Kelly, is a single mom who works 2 jobs. My other cousin, Emily, is a mom of triplet boys, age 6, and works a full time job. I don't want to hear ANY excuses about how you don't have "time" to train for a half marathon or "time" to workout. Call it what it is... an EXCUSE... [end rant]).

I can't even tell you how important it is to have a support group for something like this. We would text each other and follow each other on Nike Running+ and just keep each other motivated, even though we lived hours apart. The last part of my training, my friend Allie started running with me. Allie is a beast. She and her husband completed a dang IRON MAN FOR GOSH SAKES. I'm one of the world's slowest runners, but she stuck with me during the training and wow... What a difference that makes.

When I first signed up for the half, I said that my goal was to finish in 3 hours. Well after some shin splints and falling behind on some of my long runs, I changed my goal to "just finish and not come in last." A couple of days before the race, Allie emailed me my split times for finishing in 3 hours and told me numerous times that she really thought I could do it.

I didn't believe her. I just shook my head and smiled, thinking, "you're nuts!"

Fast forward to race weekend. My cousins came into town, along with my aunt, and Friday night we carb loaded... the best part about running. :)

Grilled chicken, baked potato, green beans, rice, salad, and rolls

Saturday morning rolled around and my alarm went off at 4am. No, I didn't get any sleep. I was too nervous!

After eating a big ol' breakfast I had some time to spare so I decided to do what Allie said and I taped my split times onto my water bottle. I still didn't believe I could do it in 3 hours. She said to start my watch at the start line and then when I got to each mile marker, look at my sheet and that would be the time I'd need to be at. Having it with me couldn't hurt, right?

We got to Paducah and we were ready to go. Of course, we had to snap a few pictures beforehand.

My aunt with her mascot. Couldn't miss it!

Emily, me, Erin, and Kelly

Waiting at the start line... in the BACK of the herd. :)

Emily and I had been running around the same pace during our trainings, so we thought we'd stay together until we needed to split. Gosh I need a tan.

At 6:30am, we were off. 

Mile 1: 12:30 something. Holy crap I'm ahead of my split time on my water bottle. That's just a fluke. Surely I couldn't keep that up.

Mile 2: Holy crap I'm still ahead of my split time.

Mile 3: OMG. STILL ahead of my split time. 

Emily and I ran the entire first hour. Yes, we ran for an HOUR. Holy crapola. 

[I realize I am saying "holy crap" a lot, but seriously, when you are trying to do 13.1 miles, what else is there to say?]

Emily and I were going along when I saw a sign way ahead that read "Smile if you're not wearing underwear." I made a comment about that being the best sign I had seen so far. We get a little closer, and from behind that sign the person pulls out another sign that says, "GO KIM GO!" ... hey ... that's my name ... HEY! THAT'S ALLIE AND SCOTT! And not only did we see them once, but we saw them like FOUR TIMES on the course! I can't even tell you how motivating that was- Allie with her signs and just SCREAMING and Scott with his BONGO DRUM! So amazing. What friends wake up at the butt crack of dawn, and drive 45 minutes just to cheer someone on? Amazing friends, that's who. I'm kind of tearing up just thinking about it right now. So. Awesome. 

I didn't get a good picture of them at each spot (trying to run and hold my phone at the same time and all), but you get the idea. One sign said "That's not sweat, it's your fat crying" and another said "Your feet hurt because you're kicking butt!" I think there was another one in there too, but I can't remember exactly what it said. But I assure you, they were funny and totally noticeable.

Around mile 7 or 8, Emily and I split off from each other. I was determined now to finish in 3 hours. I actually thought I MIGHT be able to do it! My plan was to run until I couldn't run anymore, then run to the next mile marker. At each mile marker after that point, I walked for about 1.5-2 minutes and then ran until I got to the next mile marker, then walked for a couple of minutes and ran again. I just kept doing this and it seriously felt like the miles were getting shorter and shorter!

One thing Allie told me that she did in every race she's done is thank all of the volunteers. She said that it puts you in a positive mind set, and she was so right. You can't thank someone without smiling, and there were a ton of volunteers so I just kept smiling! And let me tell you, some of those cops and fire fighters... HELLO! I wouldn't mind running after a couple of THEM. :)

Finally, I saw it. Mile 13... Then the finish line.

Holy crap.

Obviously you can see from my face, yes, I was excited. When you neared the finish line, they announced your name, so as I was coming in, I saw SO many people I love and care about. Erin and her family, our friends Katie and Sam, Allie and Scott, my aunt and cousin Kelly, and 2 of my coworkers who also ran that day.

I did it. 

2 hours, 58 minutes, and 7 seconds.

I crossed the line and actually teared up! It was seriously a feeling I have never felt before. Not to get all mushy and crap, but its amazing to know I did it!

Just a little sweaty.

Best cheerleader EVER.

 So what do you do after you just ran 13.1 miles?

You put that 13.1 sticker on your car that you so proudly earned...

Then you get pedicures...

Then you go to Patti's Settlement and order the best dinner ever...

along with dessert...

Because hell... you earned it.




... And then you begin training for the next one.

Second half marathon: October 13th in Pensacola, FL.

Bring. It. On.

Weekly Goals 5/13

Another Monday is here so that means a Weekly Goals Link Up!

Here's a recap of last week's:

1. Don't eat in front of the tv.

This is definitely something I do NOT plan on sticking to. I understand you're not suppose to be "distracted" when you eat, but screw that. It's boring. I stuck with it all week, but tonight I will be heading back to my place on the couch. 

2. Clean my laundry room and bathrooms.

Done. Was up until 11:30pm last night going through stuff in my bathroom, but I did it. Also threw away 2 big garbage bags of stuff out... if that tells you anything.

3. Set up the night before.

Epic. Fail. Going to try this one again this week.

4. Complete a half marathon.

I DID IT! When I first signed up, I thought I would try to finish it in 3 hours. Once I got into training, I threw that out the window and said I just wanted to finish and not come in last. A couple of days before the race, my friend said to me "I really think you can finish in 3 hours" and guess what... I did! 2 hours and 58 minutes. :) More on that later.

Now for this week's goals:

1. Set up the night before.

Since I failed at this one, I'll do it this week. So that means having my clothes laid out, my gym bag packed, my food ready to go.

2. In bed with the light out and phone put away by 10:30pm every night. 

I have a bad habit of going to bed but then laying there on my phone looking at Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest until close to midnight.

3. Drink 120oz of water a day.

Yes, this was one of my first ones, but I'm going at it again this week because I slacked this past week on the water intake.

4. Try a new recipe.

Any suggestions?!

5. Clean my bedroom.

Since the last two weeks have included cleaning some part of my house, I'll keep that going and say my bedroom this week. This includes going through the closets, getting my comforter dry cleaned, the whole nine yards. 

Weekly Goals 5/6

Whoever thought of this Weekly Goals Link Up: Genius. I never write down my goals (even though they say you should) and wow, what a difference it made. Let's recap last week's...

1. Drink More Water

Omg. I thought I was going to float away. Monday night I realized I was short about 50 oz. of my goal, so what did I do? I chugged it. At 9:30pm. I seriously got up and peed 4 times that night. I did really good Monday-Friday with this goal, but Saturday and Sunday were tough. I didn't have my trusty water bottle with me. Big mistake. Gotta remedy that this weekend.

2. Clean My Kitchen

SUCCESS! I got home from Huntsville Sunday night around 5:30pm and got to work. I knew if I sit down, it wouldn't happen. But since I knew I'd have to account for my actions today (via this blog), I had to get busy. Check out the before and after pictures (but don't judge my kitchen. It's a work in progress with tha painting and cabinets and all that)...

Before:

Pantry

Fridge

Sink (after I cleaned out the fridge)

I have a love affair with Lock n Lock and Tupperware.

Another shot of some messy messy cabinets

And now for the afters...

Pantry (and Bentley photo bombing)

Baking goods

Even reorganized my magnets

Fridge and freezer. I need to do some shopping.

Sink and countertops

ORGANIZED!

Dishes and cups

Can finally see the top of the kitchen table!

Coffee station

Chloe just chillin like a villian. She hates when I sweep.

3. Lose 1.8 Pounds

BLEW THIS ONE OUT OF THE WATER! I lost 5 pounds this week! Even with a trip home to Huntsville, I still managed to drop the weight. Running and watching what I eat. That's the only way to make it happen. I've officially lost 43.2 pounds since my highest weight.

Fan. Flippin. Tastic.

NOW ONTO THIS WEEK'S GOALS

1. Don't eat in front of the tv.

This is going to be so hard, but I've heard that it's a good habit to get into. Now that I've cleared off my table, I can eat there! Being single without any roommates (except the dogs), sitting there at the table by yourself can feel lonely. But I'm going to give it a go and see if it makes any difference. Not saying I'm going to stick to it, but I can do it for at least 7 days.

2. Clean my laundry room and bathrooms.

Since cleaning my kitchen was last week's goal, (and the only reason I did it was because I posted on here that I would) I'm going to make the laundry room and bathrooms this week's projects.

3. Set up the night before.

It never fails, in the morning, I am running around trying to figure out what to wear, pack my gym bag, pack my breakfast, lunch and dinner if I need to. This week I'm going to do all of that BEFORE going to bed.

4. COMPLETE A HALF MARATHON.

Months of training and it's finally here. On Saturday morning, I will be completing my first half marathon. I'm nervous but excited at the same time. When I first started, I had it in my head that I wanted to finish in 3 hours. Now, I just want to finish. Can't wait to put that 13.1 sticker on my car!


What are you goals for the week?