Tag: running

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2020 Goals — Here We Go AGAIN!

January for me seemed to fly by — I have already started working on my goals for this year.

I have seen/heard a lot of people coming up with 20 in 2020 lists, so I decided that I wanted to do that as well — at least for a couple things:

I will read/listen to 20 Books in 2020. I will go to 10 new restaurants in 2020. I will try 10 new recipes at home in 2020. I will go on on monthly date nights. I will practice SELF LOVE. I will blog. I will run (Ragnar Sunset, Grandma’s Marathon, and Ragnar Relay – so far). I will have a gratitude practice.

I have started reading/listening to books already this year — I have completed at 5 books so far this year. All of them so far have been on audible, because that is easier for me to do with my busy life, but I’m still getting it done. The books that I have listened to so far have been Mindset by Carol Dweck — so so good talks about the differences between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and helps you try to find the ways to get out of a fixed mindset and into a growth mindset. If you love the Netflix show You then you would love listening to or reading the books You and Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes. They were really easy to listen to and the first book was pretty close to Season 1 of the show. These two definitely kept me engaged and I literally couldn’t stop listening. Another fun read was The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines it was such a sweet book and it was fun learning more about their story of how they came to be, and the bonus of the audible version was that it was read by both of them. #couplegoals Another book that I listened to was Not a Diet Book: Lose Fat. Gain Confidence. Transform Your Life. by James Smith — very informative in all the ways. I first learned about James Smith from one of my best friends, she sent me his instagram and I started following him and would watch his story and have listened to his podcast. He really knows his stuff, and I loved listening to him read this book on audible.

As for my other goals, I have tried one new restaurant Momo Sushi in Minneapolis, such an amazing “cheat” meal!! I love sushi so much, just in case you didn’t know that about me. We got a sous vide for Christmas and we have made quite a few different meats using that (chicken — so juicy and steak). I would count that as one of my new recipes, because it was a new way of cooking. 🙂

The monthly date nights have been working well, because we have made a plan with another set of parents from our daycare that we switch off with them one weekend each a month, and they take our kids one weekend and we take their kids another weekend. So far it has worked out, and the kids have had a lot of fun.

Self love and gratitude is an on going work in progress for me — I am trying to get back my confidence in myself and figuring out my balance of fitness and being a wife and mom. I would say this year is off to a much better start than last year. Last year I lost weight and felt great and so confident, but I was becoming addicted to going to the gym and would be so upset at myself if I cheated even the slightest bit on my diet — my diet was very restricted. This year I started training with Okon Fitness, and I am in love. From the weekly check-ins not only looking at weight, but also measurements, and photos it has made a world of difference on my mind. They are also part of an app where there is a group of strong women that are part of the program and we motivate, inspire, and lift each other up. It’s such a great feeling.

The running — well in October of 2019, I was planning on signing up for Grandma’s Half Marathon in Duluth — well by the time I got around to signing up — that race was FULL, so I just decided to go for it and sign up for the full. Why would I do such a thing … you might ask. Well, I LOVE, like literally, LOVE Duluth and Lake Superior, and I have always heard that if your goal/dream doesn’t scare you a little bit then its not big enough — well needless to say — I’m scared for June 20, 2020. My goal going into this is to finish, I don’t have a time that I need to beat or anything like that I just am going for the experience and the challenge. Fun Fact: When my husband, Dan, and I were up in Two Harbors in April of 2019 we randomly met this great girl and her friend at a small town karaoke bar. Her and I connected so well that we became friends on Facebook, and started following each other on instagram. Each time that I’ve been up to the north shore, I have met up with her. Her and her fiancé are letting us stay with them for grandmas marathon weekend!! So excited to get to know her more!

The Ragnar runs — a group of my crazy FXB people #teamstupidstuff decided to run the sunset Ragnar as well as the full road Ragnar running from St Paul all the way up to Duluth. Again — I’m so scared, but so excited at the same time.

I will blog this year! I am making that promise to myself, the only way to get better is to practice…so here I go.

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What has been going on with me

Hello all!! Sorry I have been MIA for a while.  So much has happened since I last made a post… where do I begin….

Well, at the end of the last FIT challenge at Farrell’s, there was a training that came up to become a kickboxing instructor.  I was scared, but I decided that now is as good a time as ever.  I have taught 6 full classes on my own and have a few more currently on the schedule.  So far I love instructing, it brings out a more outgoing and confident side of me.  Sure I’m a little nervous every time I put that microphone on to teach a class, but once I get started its all good.  I am so thankful for all the people that believed in me, even though I didn’t.  It sure makes me feel so happy that I have such a large number of people that push, inspire, and motivate me to do my best.

Since I have started instructing kickboxing at FXB, it has motivated me to start thinking about yoga more often, and possibly work on finding the courage to teach that — even in a community ed or just for fun setting.  I have my certification.. maybe now is the time to do something with it.

Well, after I completed the first three kickboxing classes, we went on a family vacation to Branson, MO to visit family friends. I was excited to have a vacation, but also not excited to miss my morning FXB workout for 9 days in a row — especially since I had not missed a workout all year.  I know that it is good to have balance, and I think it was good for me in the long run to have a vacation from FXB — I was able to sleep in, and we all know how great sleep is for you!

Our vacation was great, I worked out a couple times, but definitely not as hard as I would have back home — at least I was getting activity in.  I was even able to get a couple small runs in which felt really good, since I had kind of fallen off the running wagon.  Which brings me to now, last weekend a good FXB friend of mine talked me into signing up for the Twin Cities 10 mile drawing.  How it works is if your “team” is chosen in the drawing, then you are able to run in the TC 10 mile. I kept telling her how nervous I was, and that I couldn’t run 10 miles… that’s almost a Half Marathon.  She consistently would tell me to stop telling myself that I couldn’t do it, she also told me to believe in myself, because she does. Well to make a long story short — our team was one of the many chosen to run the TC 10 mile.  Let the training begin!

I haven’t been running as long of distances as I should be at this point, but at least I’m running some.  My goal for the TC 10 mile is just to finish the race — I will not beat myself up if I walk/run the whole thing.

Along with that training, a new FIT challenge has begun at FXB.  This time it is FIT Olympics.  We each pick a few categories to “compete” in and there will be prizes for the winners as usual.  I also decided to go in on a small challenge with some of my girl FXB friends based strictly on weight loss. So far, I have been running at least twice a week as well as being more strict with myself on food.

Also, in regards to being a Kickboxing instructor, every class feels different to me, and the more classes I teach the more comfortable I am.  I love every second of it, I have a lot of fun doing it and hope that the FXB members taking my classes have fun taking my classes too.

I am so thankful for my fitness family, they are amazing and are always lifting me up.  This morning 4 of us ran 1.59 miles before LEG DAY… well it turned out to be my fastest mile time ever 10 min 15 sec — all because when you work out with others you knowingly and unknowingly push each other, and that’s what makes it so great!

Find things in your life that you enjoy, and that you can be with others — find balance in your life between work and play.  I haven’t been blogging as much as I originally wanted, but I WILL commit more of my time to focus on this blog — my next post will be something in regards to food. YUM! 🙂

 

 

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Believe …

….Deep Breath….

The past few weeks have been very empowering and emotional for me.  The first week of this month, I started running.  For those of you that know me, I am definitely NOT a runner by any means.  I ran a mile outdoors and only stopped to walk once.  I was so proud of myself. I couldn’t believe that I did it. My close friends and family members were really proud of me too.

The next morning I got a text from my husband saying that he ran a mile — I inspired him to get out there and do it. I was very happy for him and kind of excited to see what new aspect this could bring to our lives. When I got home that day, we decided that we would start running together 2-3 times a week.

On the 4th, there was a 4K run/walk supporting Hope4Youth, which I had known about for about a month.  I was too afraid to sign up to do the run/walk — even though I totally could have just walked the whole thing.  There was a group of friends from FXB doing the 4K, and one in particular, Marilee, thought I had signed up.  She called me wondering if she needed to pick up my registration packet…I told her that I hadn’t signed up for the run, because “I can’t run a 4K” and “No one will go as slow as me” and “I’m scared”.   Marilee has always been a huge supporter and told me that there was nothing to be afraid of, and that I didn’t have to run any of it if I didn’t want to.  She also told me that she believes in me and that if I couldn’t do this 4K that she would get me out of my comfort zone and do a 5K with me.  We hung up the phone with each other, and I thought about it for about 5 minutes or less — I called my mom to see if she would be able to be home to watch the kiddos, and called my husband, Dan, to see if he wanted to run the 4K.  Everyone said yes…with that I called Marilee back and she signed me and Dan up for the race.  She was so excited for us to do the race.

When I got home from work, after talking to Marilee, Dan and I decided to go running.  My thoughts were that we would run a mile and be done — his thoughts not so much. We ran the mile (I ran the whole thing without stopping!! FIRST TIME EVER!) and then started walking and talking.  As we were walking, I decided that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and we decided to do another mile.  I ran that mile without stopping too.  I was so proud of myself, I’m still tearing up a little typing this.  I made a goal in my head that I was going to run the whole mile and then I did, even though I didn’t think I could. That was proof to me that if I get out of my own way, I can do anything that I put my mind to.  All I have to do is believe in myself!

When it got to race day, I was nervous.  All of my FXB friends just kept saying you will be fine. You got this.  We went to the starting line up and started the run.  I ended up running by myself, but that was OK with me because then I could just run and focus on my breathing.  When I got to the 1 mile marker I hadn’t stopped — I said to myself, “I can keep going”.  I kept going — I definitely thought about stopping, but told myself that I didn’t need to.  I was still breathing and pacing myself just right — I got to the 2 mile marker.  I nearly started crying — this was the first time EVER that I had run without stopping for that long. “I have gone this far — there is only .5 miles left — I got this”.  The finish line was just in reach — I heard Marilee, Dan and some of the others cheering me on — I pushed harder.  I ended up passing the finish line at 29.02.  I felt amazing, I cried. I couldn’t believe that I did it!!

I ran a 4K without stopping, what else could I do that I had previously been holding myself back from…only time will tell.

I really enjoyed running — I decided to make some running goals for myself:

Run a 5K by mid July.  Do the Rugged Maniac with Marilee in September.  Run a 10K by October… and the biggest goal… Run Grandma’s 1/2 Marathon in 2019.

“Yes I can!”  All I need to do is believe in myself.  If you have any running tips, tricks, or must haves let me know in the comments below!!