Family Fitness and cleaning things up:

Good morning blog family,
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I had a great time celebrating Father's Day with wonderful husband. He really is the best dad; my girls are truly lucky to have a dad like him.

I too, have a wonderful dad, and even though I did not get to spend the day with him yesterday I thought of him often. He sent me a picture of himself holding the gift we mailed him (a gift card for new clothes since he has lost so much weight!). I don't have his permission to publish the picture so I will have to ask him if I can add him to a future blog post! He just looks so fantastic; the 40+ pounds he lost took about 10 years off of him; he looks like a baby! I am proud of you dad and I am proud to be your daughter! Hope your Father's Day was fantastic.

One thing I have discovered on this fitness journey is that the goal to get healthy begins to expand beyond just weight. Both Jon and I have different attitudes; we've realized that negative factors in our life just aren't worth the negative energy. It's been really refreshing to just have a more positive mindset and to enjoy life more. Part of that enjoyment of life has been coming up with ways to manage our time better.

When we cleaned up our budget (Thanks Dave Ramsey!), and cleaned up our diet/exercise, we realize that the patterns we are setting are life long lessons for our girls. This week, we initiated a new "chore chart".  We each have one that will hang in the kitchen. Each one is a fun color and there are spots for stickers for completed tasks. The end of the week will earn the girls extra money in their commission jars. We started implementing the new chore chart on Friday of last week (after I had worked hard to do a deep clean of the house.) So far, it has been great and we didn't spend our entire weekend cleaning. It feels great to be in control.

I think before we really began to focus on our fitness there was a certain level of apathy in our lives. We didn't always clean up the dinner dishes at night, or sweep the floor, or make the kids pick up their toys. But then, on the weekend, it would take us a long time to clean up the mess from the week. I've realized that if we stay on top of things, we had a lot more freedom on the weekend. It's only been a few days, but I think this new routine will be one that stays for the long haul. 

 The last new development is that Emma has decided that she wants to run a "marathon." (Really, I will sign her up for a kids fun run 1 miler and work her way up from there! But any race she says is a "marathon.") She is very in to art and doesn't really put a lot of effort in to playing/exercise. When we are outside, while Abbi is running around like a crazy person, Emma would much rather get her sidewalk chalk and draw. This has bothered me for awhile, not that she loves art, but that she does seem to want to be active. Her interested in running a "marathon" was my chance to get her in to running and exercise and build a little mother/daughter time in as well. I took her on several walks last week while waiting for my teeth to heal (and they are feeling much better!) but I didn't really stress the running part. Today, we went for our first "run." There were a few tears because it was hot and muggy (Emma HATES hot weather) but overall she did great. We did a full mile (she ran parts of it). Her pace is an 18 minute mile right now. I think, had we gone earlier in the morning before the full sun was blasting on us, she would have run more and not gotten upset about the heat! Tomorrow morning, we will go much earlier. Anyway, our goal is a mile a day until she runs the whole thing. We will still do our bike rides and fun play time, but this little running venture gets Emma some alone time with me and also helps her build up some endurance. She wants to play soccer again in the fall, so the extra running is just all in all beneficial. Plus, I get an extra mile in (I did a 5k at 6 this am at Planet Fitness so the extra mile outside was welcome!). Here is a pic of Emma post-workout. She immediately took her shoes off because she hates sweaty feet!

I hope you all have a happy Monday!

Working our way to fit (as a family!)

Kati

Holy Hills and Humidity

You know I was all revved up to go run yesterday; I had my mental muscle ready to fight my own negativity. I was ready to tell my self to shut-the-eff-up, I had running to do. Well, in all my insight I decided to run (dramatic pause) OUTSIDE (dramatic pause) because I wanted to prove my own progress. Running outside isn't really a big deal; I love to run outside. However, I chose to run outside for the first time since I had my wisdom teeth taken out (and my pain problem was/is a dry socket), in 100% humidity, in 88 degree weather, and through my exceptionally hilly neighborhood. There was a whole lot of genius happening when I made those plans.

So, the run was not as terrible as I make it sound, though I was not pleased with my time on my mile splits:

My overall time was 44:41 for 3.14 miles. That's not entirely accurate since I stopped to stretch and did not turn off the GPS--so my real time was like 42:00 or so.  I learned a few things about myself and running with this trip. First off, Running in the air conditioned Planet Fitness with a steady treadmill (even at an incline) is a lot easier that the heat and humidity and hills. However, I like running outside so I plan on mixing my treadmill and outside running.

I also learned that last year when I started running, I had little mental milestones that I hoped to hit (I hope I can run to the end of this street before I walk). I was "running a 14 minute mile and walking a 17 minute mile). Last night, I found myself hoping to hit the same length benchmarks in my intervals; however, I had trouble pacing myself. I found myself looking at my running ap and realizing I was running at a 9 min/mile. So those distances were reachable, but they were more challenging than I anticipated. My most consistent pace right now is between a 10:30 and 11 min/mile. I need to practice running outside more and get myself use to pacing what I know feels good. Obviously, I was pushing to fast and then not able to keep up the endurance to go beyond my little benchmarks.

I can say that I broke through some of my mental barrios using some of the techniques in Runner's World, but in all fairness I need a trip to Planet Fitness where I can pace myself more accurately and beat my own mental roadblocks that I have stopping me. I think on less humid days, I will do my running outside, it was a nice change. I also have some new baseline times to beat--you know me, I am all about competition with myself ;)

Until next time,
Working my way to fit,
Kati