Another Month Down

We are over 6 months into this deployment. About 2/3 done, which is a big accomplishment of it's own. I posted about my struggle with motivation over the past couple of months yesterday. So today I am choosing to post about the success I've had so far. Since this deployment began right at the beginning of January, it is safe to say that is also when all of these changes started taking place (or rather that is when I decided to make forever changes). Since then, I've completed 5 half marathons, lost 43 pounds, discovered many new healthy recipes to cook at home, and have really just felt better overall. It's been a great journey so far, and one that I am ready to continue on.

Choosing my blog name took a little time. I wanted to have something creative, but when it comes to creative word play, I am not the best. I thought about how running (or really any exercise) makes me feel. It makes me feel calmer. When I run, I usually have music, but it still gives me the opportunity to think about what I want to accomplish over the day or about what goals I want to set for myself and my family. So I settled on Running In Sanity- because that is how it makes me feel- like I am just a little less crazy when it comes to the everyday aspect of life. Because let's face it, four little ones can make for just a little bit (okay, a lot!) of crazy :) But I do find my patience for the craziness is increased when I've had that little bit of daily exercise.

I'm explaining my blog name now because after 6 months, I am ready to share this blog with more people. Some of my readers were told about this blog from the beginning because I needed the encouragement, but I wasn't ready to share with everyone. Over time, as I began to change in appearance, local friends would compliment me and sometimes ask what I was doing, ask how I was managing to squeeze in half marathons, and I would share this blog with them. Some have found this blog by chance or because I follow other blogs and occasionally I have a comment to offer :) But I am hoping to expand my readers because I am finding that I am really enjoying the support of the running community. I love that a runner can be anyone- fast or slow. Everyone fits. I never thought I'd finish a half marathon- now I've finished 6! I love that I can run my own race- the only person I have to compete with is me.

All that being said, I hope that you will share this blog with your friends and also join me over on my Facebook page Running In Sanity so we can all support each other while we work towards whatever goal we have!

Confession Time

I've been in a slump since the Diva Half. I'll get a good start and good program going for a week and then get off track. Not sure why that is, but I am ready to get refocused again. I am very proud of what I have accomplished from January to May, but I still have so much more to accomplish. I have definitely fallen off of my plans over the past few weeks. I'm frustrated that I can't seem to get motivated to get back on track. But, this is it...tomorrow is Monday (my favorite day to start a new routine!). Meal plans are back in action, back to double workouts (running in the morning, JMBR in the evening). I really need to get back into the good habits that I had created for myself back in the spring.

With summer being here, I have been kind of flying by the seat of my pants with plans. And I'm finding that is not working well- it never really does. Some days the kiddos and I are fine with a day without plans, but most of the time we need some kind of plan to help keep us all on track and happy. So now I am going back to what has worked best for us and that is a plan- meal planning, activity planning, chore planning, etc.

So, with that being said, there should be more blog posts coming up, more meal planning and recipe sharing, more workout reviews. I've got three races already scheduled for the fall. I've got goals for each of them and I am really hoping to reach all of them. I do know it'll take work and I am willing to put in the work, I just have to remember to make it a priority.

So, here we go, over the past 2 months, I've gained 5 pounds. I know that I have not made the best food choices overall and that will be changing. I will be continuing with my training for my fall half marathons. I will return to my workouts tomorrow- I will be starting JMBR week 6, which will include workouts 5, 6, and cardio 2. I also was able to purchase a used spin bike from someone in the neighborhood, and I am looking at adding in some spinning for some more cross training. I love variety- it really makes it easier for me to meet my goals.

Looking forward to continuing on this journey and ready to get closer to my goal!

Training with Kiddos

This morning I took my oldest out this morning on my run. The plan was for me to do intervals, I decided to take him with me since it was something I could do at the track. He was so excited to get to go running with me this morning, he had his clothes all laid out the night before. We headed over to the track to get started. He did great, didn't complain and just kept going. He is looking forward to his next run- he'll be doing the ASYMCA Mini Mud Run along with one of my other boys in August.

Today we also celebrated a deployment milestone, and my oldest had requested red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing so after dinner we sat down with cupcakes.... As my fellow cupcake runner Run Find Your Happy Pace says "will run for cupcakes!" They were a hit!

Still going strong

So it's been a little while since I've posted, but I am having trouble finding time for blogging with school being out for summer and entertaining all of my monkeys and still keeping up with my exercise. I did set out a schedule and I completed about 75% of the workouts that I had laid out for myself, and I am happy with that. This week I had a loss of 1 pound. Better than nothing, but I was thinking it would be more. I don't think that I have been drinking enough water though. When I was losing more weight per week, I was drinking much more water and I think it was really helping. I also only had 5 solid days of eating well as opposed to the 7 days a week that I was eating well. So both of those are things I will be working on fixing this week.

I started week 2 of JMBR, which meant workouts 1 and 2 and cardio 1. Usually I will do a running workout every morning- interval, speed work, short run or long run and then the JMBR workout in the evening followed by JM ab workout as well. I'll admit, I've only made it halfway through the ab workout this week, so I'm hoping to add in the full time starting on Monday. But I will also say that I am thankful for a couple days off the ab workout- it's pretty tough :)

I'm lucky to have one of my sister's visiting me for a couple weeks so I've been able to get out and run my short and long runs outside instead of on the treadmill in the mornings. I am finding I need to get up early and get out the door to get them done before it gets too hot though. So I alternate and get a few outside runs in as well- it's really helping to be able to run outside and not always be on the treadmill.

Hopefully there will be some meal planning to post about on Sunday....

And on track...

At least so far (it is only Monday!). I stayed up way too late last night and had a little trouble waking up, but I am glad I ran first thing. It definitely helped me wake up. This evening I started week 1 of Jillian Michaels Body Revolution again. I felt really good during the workout. I used heavier weights to have more of a challenge. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of results I see over the next 90 days.  For the first JMBR that I did (up to week 10), the total loss is 22.6 pounds and 28.5 inches.  I'm pretty happy with this considering that I did fall off track part of the way through and did have trouble getting focused. So now I am starting new with numbers and we'll see where this second attempt at the full 90 day program goes.  I'm hoping that a more relaxed summer schedule (well, at least the kiddos don't have school!)  will help me be able to keep up with the workouts and be ready for fall half marathons!

Starting Again....

So, I've made it to JMBR Phase 3. But, I've had a really hard time keeping up these past two weeks. I think that Jillian may have over-estimated my abilities when she designed phase 3 :) So tomorrow I will be going back to phase 1 and work through the 90 days again. This will put me finishing around mid-September. I am hoping that by starting again when I get to phase 3 this time I will be able to complete the whole 90 days. I do have a final weight loss and inches loss for the time I did JMBR this round. I will post that soon- not sure of the totals right now. I am planning to start a new set of measurements for this round. The plan is still to do running in the morning and JMBR in the evening. I got in several miles last week and I am still focusing on speed and I am planning on a long run at some time this week or weekend.

I don't have a meal plan laid out yet for this week. I've got a couple things that didn't get cooked last week, so I may be cooking a couple of those recipes. I am planning on some zucchini pizzas that I found on skinnytaste. I am actually having some success with my garden (for the first time ever!), so we are starting to have some yummy veggies to eat. Though my younger boys are starting to make faces when I tell them we are having zucchini....they do seem excited to start getting tomatoes though- the first of those should be ready this week. As the weather really starts to heat up, I don't usually like to cook as much. This summer I am planning on more salads. I have one kiddo who really loves salads, so just 3 more to win over!

Sunday Meal Planning

So baseball is done- we had a great season, and Caleb really enjoyed it, so I am so glad that we did it even though it did make our lives a little hectic over the past couple of months. One of the things that suffered the most was our meal planning. I tried in the beginning but when we started with rainouts and make up games it just got to be a little too much. I'd have a plan and then it'd get changed at the last minute, so eventually I decided that it was better just to do the best we could.

But this week we are back to normal-ish, so back to meal planning.....

Monday: Broccoli and cheese stuffed chicken

Tuesday: Quick dinner (open house for the two oldest at school)

Wednesday: Crusted honey mustard chicken

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Chicken Cordon Bleu

Saturday: Hot dogs (hopefully following a fun outside day!)

Sunday: Leftovers or Kids' choice

This week also starts a new summer schedule for me. My kiddos still have 2 weeks left of school, but I am going to start a new training schedule for the fall halfs that I have coming up. I also have a couple things planned for the summer months, I am still planning on a half a month. Those halfs will be very low key- I am really working towards more of a time goal for my fall halfs, so that is what I'm concentrating on. When it comes to my summer halfs, I am thinking that I may split the distance over a couple different runs- maybe in the same day, maybe two different days. I just don't want to push so hard that I can't meet my ultimate goal that I have in place for the fall.

I am also going to go back to evening workouts for JMBR. I have found that time works so much better for me when it comes to that. So starting tomorrow I am planning on running in the morning and JMBR in the evening. I am really hoping that will work well for me.