NEVER SAY NEVER

I've been wanting to write a post about the 5K the Hubs and I did a few weeks ago, but never got around to it.  Since I have some extra time on my hands right now, I thought I would share that experience.

First off, I think it's important to touch on my background with running/working out. I said in my about me section that I have a love/hate relationship with working out, let me explain...

As a child I was very active always playing sports (particularly basketball, volleyball and track).  I did dabble in running cross country for a summer, but decided I wanted to play volleyball instead and couldn't do both since they were the same season.  After being a three sport athlete in high school I decided to play basketball in college.  After a season and a half of sitting on the bench, I decided this wasn't the best option for my life, so I quit.  But I did not quit working out.  I ran all the time and worked out with my sorority sisters as well.  I loved working out and had the time to do it while I was in college.  At Christmas of my senior year, The Hubs proposed to me and I began the beginning stages of wedding planning.  I was determined to be the skinniest I have ever been (mind you I was probably about 135-140lbs when I was thinking this) for my wedding and spent most of my last semester of college and all summer working out.  I would run, lift and go to boot camp classes.  I was literally 115-120 lbs and I'm 5'7.  People started telling me to stop losing weight as I was getting too skinny.   So I did.  And that was the beginning of my burn out from working out. That fall after graduation I quit working out cold turkey.  I was working full time and finishing up the wedding plans and I was stressed to say the least.  I gained a little weight back before the big day in November but was still in a size 6.  My original dress was a size 2 which I tried on in April or May and by November I was in a 6.  

Our wedding day.  I was around 130-135 here and in a size 6 wedding dress.

After the wedding the Hubs and I would eat out almost every night or get to-go.  We gained weight together and fast.  We both decided to go back to school to become teachers and working and going to school left NO time for working out.  And we gained more weight.  I can't remember getting on the scale at this point in my life so I'm not exactly sure what my weight or size was.... maybe a size 8-10 and I probably weighed around 150, is my guess.  Not huge, but big for where I've been for the majority of my life.  Two and a half years after we were married we were pregnant with Ella. This is where my serious weight gain began.

The Christmas before I found out I was preggo with Ella--about 145-150 here and probably about a size 8-10.

While pregnant we continued our eating out and my pregnancy craving was ice cream!  I was huge in the middle of the summer (Ella was born on July 17) and hot and all I wanted was ice cream.  We hit up Sheridan's or Cold Stone almost daily! :)  I'll never forget getting on the scale at the doctor's office and it reading 185.  I had gained 35lbs while pregnant with Ella, and at my 6 week postpartum appointment I had only lost like 5 lbs.  (How is that even possible I was nursing and Ella weighed 7lbs when she was born!).  You would think that was enough to get my butt in gear...oh no my friends, it wasn't.  I stayed at this weight (give or take about 5lbs) for about a year after Ella was born.  I was wearing a size 12-14 in my clothes and was not happy.

First family picture.  I maybe was a little smaller than this, but for the first year after Ella was born I was this big--around 180 and in a size 12-14.  Yikes, I was huge!  

After about a year of "not caring"--I decided I must do something, especially if I was going to get pregnant again!  So I started Jazzercizing, and following weight watchers...we didn't actually sign up, Sean knew how to calculate the points and we did our own thing.  Sean and I also started doing P90X once or twice a week.  We always enjoy working out together.  I am pretty athletic, so it doesn't take me long to get back into shape, but those first few weeks/months are brutal.  I mentally have to fight through it to keep going.  Once I get past the barrier, I always ask myself why I let myself get out of "shape" in the first place.

Right before I found out I was pregnant with Mia.  About 153ish here.  (I think!)

Moving on...I dropped about 25 lbs with the working out weight watchers methods and was back to right around 150-155...not quite where I wanted to  be, but at least back to where I was before Ella.  And bam...pregnant again! I would have liked to be around 140-145 when I got pregnant again, but I didn't quite make it.  This pregnancy I was determined stay fit and not put on a lot of weight...that worked for a couple of months, and then it stopped.

About 8 months pregnant with Mia here.  Sorry I don't have a standing up picture of me while preggo with her--ahh the joys of being the second child!

I gained about 20 lbs with Mia and my ending pregnancy weight was around 170 lbs.  Not too shabby for not working out and not really watching what I ate.  The thing is I never loose a lot of weight after delivery.  It doesn't work for me.  I'm not sure why but I stayed right around 170 after having Mia.  The difference here is I didn't wait a whole year to start working out again...I started when Mia was about 3 months old.  I did the Couch to 5K with a friend and did the Susan G. Komen 5K in August.   That was the start of my final weight loss count down.  It's been a slow process, but totally worth it.  I haven't followed any specific diet plans, just using MyFitnessPal to track calories and exercise.  I don't use it too much anymore as I've kinda figured out what I can and can't eat.  And hey, now that my weight is down, running is becoming a lot easier--go figure!  I still want to lose about 5-10ish more pounds to get right around 130-135, but if not,  I'm good just maintaining this weight...I'm definitely not going to stress about it. I'm just enjoying my new found hobby of distance running...who knew?!?!

This was taken about a month and a half ago--I need another updated photo of myself.  I was about 148 here .  More recently, I'm down to about 140 ish and in a size 8, pushing a 6 again, but not quite yet...  :)

I used to say I would never run longer than a 5k...that three miles was my limit and that anything else was just boring...ha, ha.  Then I started running a little further and a little further and realized, hey I can totally do this running thing.  So I signed up for a 5k with the hubs (the one pictured below) and did it in  about 27 minutes.

Terrible picture from my old phone

I thought, that wasn't so bad...and I wanted to sign up for more...so I did.  And then I thought I could totally do a 10k (that's coming up next weekend), and oddly enough I signed up of a half marathon as well.  I've trained minimally for this race...maybe a month with one long run a week.  (I'm running 10 this weekend), but I'm going to give it a shot and hope I don't die! :)  So my advice to myself...never say never because I truly NEVER thought I would ever run a half marathon...who is this girl?

Wow, I've never really written or thought much about my weight loss/gain story.  It's feels good to write it down and get it out...

Talk soon,
Brit

I LOVE Drug Store Make Up

It's such a fun feeling when I go into the drug store (sans kids) and can shop for make up!  I love just browsing around and looking at all of the new stuff.  It's like I'm in high school again!  On Wednesdays at school I have an extra long lunch break because of the way the schedule works out, so I took a trip over to Walgreens to get some new mascara.  I always like to try new products, so this time I went with a Revlon mascara--not usually my go to brand, but it was buy one get one 50% off today, so I went for it!  We shall see how that decision turns out tomorrow morning! :)

I hope you had a great end of the weekend and beginning of the week.  Our weekend shaped up quite nicely  with some beautiful weather!  On Sunday, I went for an incredibly long run with my friend Ryan.  We are quickly training for a half marathon coming up in a couple of weeks (and when I say we--I mean I pressured her into doing it with me).  We ran 8 miles on a trail by my house and it wasn't too bad.  There were a couple of icky hills that we walked, but over all a pretty good run!  This weekend I have 10 miles on the books, so we shall see how that goes...Ryan has a daughter the same age as Ella and they are so cute together.  Ryan brought some of Madden's shoes that she's outgrown over for Ella.  Ella was so excited and wanted to wear Madden's ruby red slippers all day!

Here she is bright and early with the slippers on PJ's and all...the smile is ridiculous.  

After my run, and while Mia napped, Ella and I got pedicures.  With all of this running I've been doing lately my feet needed it!

 She was so excited to sit in the big chair and soak her feet like mommy!  Adorable!

 The finished product, with flowers!

My finished product...glorious!

After our pedi's I cleaned the house and ran to the store to grab some grillin' grub for dinner.  My dad (Grandpa Chris or Daddio as he is better known at our house) came over to play with the girls and eat dinner with us.  Both of my girls adore my dad--like seriously love him to death--probably because they can boss him around and he does whatever their little hearts want.  :)  Sean grilled burgers and corn for us while grandpa Chris played in the yard with the girls.  This beautiful weather (minus Tuesday) is making me want to be outside all the time.

 One of Ella's favorite things to do is swing.  She could literally swing all day.  We had to drag her in to eat dinner.

As you can see, Mia is quite the swinger as well.  Check out the photo bomb by Ella and Grandpa Chris in the corner....They are crazy!

It was back to school on Monday with our regular Monday routine.  Grandma (Sean's mom) watches the girls on Mondays.  It's so great to have her come to our house so the girls can sleep in a little....sometimes.  :)    This past Monday though was a little out of the ordinary.  Mia took a head dive into the coffee table (it's leather, but she must have hit it just right) and got a pretty good cut on her eyebrow.  After a few hours in the ER on Monday she was good as new...sort of.  Luckily they didn't have to stitch it, they used the glue stuff.  She still screamed her head off in the ER and wanted nothing to do with those crazy people.  She screamed so much that the second they finished and I picked her up she fell asleep on my shoulder--before we even left the hospital!  It didn't help that this whole fiasco happened during nap time.  I'm pretty sure I (and grandma) was more traumatized than Mia.  She was back to her old self after her nap!  Ella freaked out a little as well...worried about her little sister.  Head wounds bleed so much, that I think all the blood freaked her out just a little.  Now, she keeps showing everyone Mia's ouchie!  It's really cute!

Look at that sad little face.  This was before the glue...it looks much better now!

The rest of the week has been pretty normal for us...let's hope it stays that way.  I did wake up early this morning for a HIIT Treadmill Workout that kicked my butt, so I will be going to bed early tonight!  

Happy hump day--almost to the weekend!

Talk soon,
Brit

A Crazy End To The Week

Hi there!  It's been awhile....

On Thursday I took a group of students on a field trip to the Microsoft Store.  They put on a pretty cool workshop for high school students about their products and marketing strategy.  The best part of the day though, (for both me and the students) was getting to eat lunch at the food court in the mall!  Why is the food court so good?  I was also able to shop a little after lunch before we had to be back for the afternoon session.  Overall, it was a great day and the students loved it.  They were even able to play Dance Central on XBox in the middle of the mall!

The kids spent a good hour playing competing against each other in Dance Central--they were unable to get me to participate despite their best efforts.  For anyone who has seen me dance, you understand this...  :)

On Friday at school we had no students, but I still had to work.  :(  It was a really busy day of teacher meetings and I didn't have a second to post.  On Friday night, Sean and I had a date night.  We haven't had a date night since Feb. 15th when we went to the Zach Brown Band Concert for Valentine's Day.  This was long over due.  My mom watched the girls and they had a blast a nani's house--mainly because she feeds them whatever they want and they usually get a four course (at least) meal for dinner!  She's no slouch in the food arena.  Sean and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner--if I'm going to be a serious blogger (ha!) I must begin to remember to take pictures of my food!  We also went and saw the movie "42".  It was a good one, we both really liked the movie and highly recommend it!

This morning I was able to sleep in a little--until 7:50 am!  I fed the girls breakfast and headed out on a run!  I accomplished a 5.6 mile run today in a little under 50 minutes,  I think it ended up being about an 8:55 mile pace if I did my calculations correctly--which I probably didn't.  :)  After showering incredibly fast and feeding the girls a quick snack Sean headed to his double header and I took the  girls to meet some friends at Cosmic Jump.  I had a free jump coupon that I've had since Valentine's Day and we finally used it!  It was a blast and my girls are taking a nice afternoon naps right now because it wore them out!  We let the kids jump and play for about 45 minutes and then an enormous church group came in and we decided that was our cue to head  to lunch.

 Later we found out they were breaking all kinds of rules by climbing up the blue mat...apparently they were supposed to stay on the actual trampoline...Ella was leading the climbing charge, of course!

 Is she actually going to jump?

Ella's got air!  Future basketball star like her Mama?--I think so.  :)

 Mia with her buddy Bradley.  (He's only a few months older than her--If my friend Brook and I have control over it, they WILL get married!

Those balls are heavy (I know--TWSS).  Mia would not put them down.  :)

Tonight, I'm hoping Sean takes me to get my new IPhone...I've been so patiently waiting and tonight might be the night--get ready for some high quality photos people!  Hope you are having a great weekend so far!  We are enjoying every minute of the weather--sunshine finally!

Talk soon,
Brit

Early Morning Workouts SUCK!

Howdy ya'll!  Ok, I just cant swing the whole, "ya'll" thing...it's totally not me, but I thought I'd give it a shot.  :)

The last two days I've been waking up at 5am to get my workout in.  With Sean having baseball every night until the wee hours of the evening, it's been extremely difficult to get a workout in after school.  My after school workouts usually consists of me getting off the treadmill 10 times to re-focus Mia on a different toy--I mean there are are only so many snacks I can give this child, and that usually only lasts about 10 minutes into my workout.  She doesn't want to snuggle with me at any other time, but if I'm on the treadmill she wants to be held! :)  Plus, Ella likes to ask questions when I'm doing the most difficult part of my work out.  It's like she knows I can barely breath, so she's going to ask me 15 questions!  Basically, I needed some peace during my workouts, so I'm trying this new strategy of waking up early. 

Yesterday, my workout was terrible.  I tried to do some interval training on the treadmill and my legs would not go...I could not get into a groove.  I forced myself to stay on for 30 minutes so it wouldn't be a complete waste of a workout.  I stuck with it again today...Instead of doing a treadmill workout I decided on a Jump Rope Circuit  that incorporates some squats and arms exercises, along with some push ups and crunches.  It was a much better choice for me today and after the workout I felt pretty good. Although I am dragging today at school.  It doesn't help that's it's been raining all day.  I think I'll need an afternoon nap--def. not gonna happen...I hear it takes 21 times to get used to working out at a different time of day, that only leaves me 19 more days--I totally got this...maybe. 

Talk soon,

Brit

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend!

Here is a quick recap of our weekend in pictures....from my crappy phone.  New IPhone coming this week!

The girls eating FroYo on Friday night! 

 Ella driving Mimi's new car before Mimi does!  

 Hangin' in Mimi's new car.

Taking a driving break to ham it up with mom. She cracks me up with that smile!

On Sunday, Sean and I headed to the game with some friends...they won in the bottom of the 9th.  I forgot to take pictures so this is the best I could get at the last minute.

Ella with her newly won stuffed animal--from the bear claw machine at Wal-Mart. :)

Sean wins almost every time, I won't say how much he spends to win, though!

That's it, our weekend in pictures.  As I blog more, I hope to get better at taking pictures.  Hope you have a good week!

Talk soon,

Brit

I'mmmm Baaaaaack...

I know you really didn't miss me from my 4 year hiatus from blogging, especially since I have like 2 readers, but it still feels good to be back!  I plan (keyword here is plan) to stick with it this time as a way to keep record of my life.  I'm actually pretty terrible at scrap booking and keeping any time line for my kids, so hopefully this will help!

Since my last (and only) blog entry, Sean and I have had two baby girls that are growing up way too fast! Ella is now 3.5 and Mia just turned 1 last month. They are our world and keep us incredibly busy.  Besides spending all of our time with them, we are both still teaching business/computer classes, spending some time with family and friends and trying to get an occasional work out in--those are hard to come by with two small kiddos!  Sean and I ran our first 5K together last weekend, and I'll post about that crazy experience soon--we are both super competitive, but decided to run friendly for this race! :)  I hope you come to enjoy reading this blog as much as I hope to enjoy writing it.

 Mia's birthday at Chuck E' Cheese (I have a love/hate relationship with this place--so does Ella.  She used to be terrified of Chuck E., but has been doing better with all people sized animals as of lately.  

The fam at Mia's birthday party...love both girl's faces in this picture.  Sums up their personalities nicely!

Talk soon,
Brit  (PS My mom hates when I shorten my name, but everyone calls me this, so she'll have to get over it!)