12/08

#MicroblogMondays // 02

I survived my first half marathon!!

Not gonna lie…it was ROUGH. I was doing okay until about mile 9 and then I hit my wall. The temperature was dropping, the wind was brutal and my leg muscles were tightening by the minute, but thanks to a new friend, I made it all 13.1 miles! We both wanted to cry when we crossed the finish line, but we held it together. I couldn’t have done it without my accidental running partner and I’m so thankful that fate intervened.

Before the race, I thought, “I just want to get this over with. I’m never signing up for anything longer than a 5k ever again!”

Races are addicting though. I’m proud of myself for finishing, but part of me says, “You did great, but you can do better!”

So, now I’m thinking, “Never say never!” 😉

posted by katiehigg 1 Comment
Filed Under: Fitness, Inspiration, microblog mondays, My life Tagged: half marathon, my first half marathon, running a half marathon, running a half marathon without training

12/06

Run Like a Diva

Tomorrow is the day! In 12hrs I’ll be at the starting line of my first half marathon.

(I think I’m gonna throw up)

I haven’t trained.

Like at all.

I’ve done 2-3 mile spurts here and there, but that’s it. And I’m not fast by any stretch of the imagination.

This isn’t me. I don’t run long distances without proper training! When I signed up at the beginning of the year I had a training plan in place, but because it was so far away, I procrastinated. <—— THAT is definitely me.

I thought about just not going. But I don’t want to be a quitter. I’ve quit a lot of things in my life and I know that I’ll be disappointed with myself if I don’t at least try.

I succeeded in sufficiently psyching myself up to run/walk it and while I wasn’t necessarily feeling confident, I felt, “I can do this! It’s gonna hurt. I’m going to be slow. But I got this.”

Today was packet pick up day. I’ve had butterflies in my stomach for the past 72 hrs knowing that D-day is coming. When I picked up my race bib, two thoughts kept bouncing around in my head like ping pong balls.

1. While checking out the competition (I should mention that I know for a fact that you cannot tell how well someone is going to do in a race by looking at their outward appearance, however, the irrational side of me was ignoring this little detail) I thought, “I think I can keep up with some of these ladies!”

2. While checking out the merchandise and gear at the expo, I started to hyperventilate. “Holy crap. 13.1 miles. That’s not like a 5k, Katie! That’s THIRTEEN POINT FREAKING ONE miles! I can’t do this! What the hell was I thinking?! I’m gonna die tomorrow!”

I’ve been such a hypochondriac and drama queen for the past 24hrs. I’m ready to get this race over with. It’s time to suck it up buttercup! It’s time to go eat my obligatory carb meal and get ready for an early wake up call.

Wish me luck! I’m definitely gonna need it!

posted by katiehigg Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Fitness Tagged: run like a diva, running a half marathon, st. augustine

11/02

Say it with me…mod-er-a-tion!

This photo has been making it’s rounds on social media

and every time it pops up, it annoys the hell out of me!

First off, IMHO, moderation is the key to success. If you can’t eat one small piece of candy without feeling like you need to “work” it off, you may have a problem. If you eat one fun size snickers, it is not the end of the world. You will have enjoyed a piece of candy, realizing that you can have treats here and there and not pay any consequences. You will NOT gain a pound, you will not have fallen off the wagon, you will not have ruined all your hard work! Remember, you would have to eat a surplus of 3500 calories to gain ONE pound. 3500 calories! To put that into perspective, one fun size snickers is 2.5% of a pound (in layman’s terms, that would be 2 1/2 cents out of a dollar). Tell me again why I should care about 2.5% of a pound. Oh right, I shouldn’t.

Secondly, exercise is not a punishment for unhealthy eating! I repeat…NOT a punishment! If you workout to punish yourself, working out will always be just that, a punishment. You should workout because you love yourself and you want to take care of your body as best you can.

Thirdly, if I were trying to work off candy I ate, I would wear my heart rate monitor to decipher how much work needed to be done because depending on your size/weight/age/muscle mass, everyone’s burn rate is different. I could also just take the dog for a walk and probably work off my candy.

This is my take on Halloween candy (or any candy/goodies for that matter). Mindfully have treats. Don’t go overboard, but don’t beat yourself up if you do. Being aware of what you’re putting in your mouth is half of the battle.

And instead of doing these ridiculous exercises, maybe suggest that the whole family do something active together. Go on a hike, a family bike ride, play a game of tennis/basketball, go rock climbing, walk the dog, play hide and seek, etc.

FWIW, according to this stupid chart, I am supposed to do 15 min on Jacob’s ladder and 100 burpee’s. NOT gonna happen! I’m going to go into the gym on Monday thinking, “let’s do this!” and get my regular workout in. No punishments. Just taking care of myself! 🙂

posted by katiehigg 2 Comments
Filed Under: Fitness, Inspiration, NaBloPoMo Tagged: exercise is not a punishment, halloween candy, nablopomo, you ate it now negate it

07/12

Healthy Train Five on Friday (Err…Saturday)

I have finally come to terms with the fact that my half marathon is only 5 months away.
Holy crap…5 months! What was I thinking when I signed up for this?!

I admitted to myself that I’m not just bloated and those 10lbs are not going to magically disappear tomorrow.
Maybe my clothes are shrinking?

It was time to get back on the healthy train and get on it for realz this time.
No pretending to watch what I eat while “rewarding” myself on the daily!

So, this week, I’ve had health and fitness on the brain.

This has been my usual attire…sports bra, tank/shirt, stretchy bottoms. I don’t think I’ve put on real clothes all week!

I have several reusable water bottles, but there is something wrong with all of them and I eventually stop using them. The biggest issue is that most of them won’t fit into my cup holder in the car so I would have to hold onto it while driving or it would go flying. I have one or that fit in my cup holder, but they aren’t insulated to withstand this FL heat! I finally sat down at the computer last week and was determined to find a water bottle that fit my needs. My non-negotiables were insulated and it had to fit in my car. I also wanted a straw or sippy lid, but apparently that was like finding the holy grail of water bottles. I finally settled on this pretty little bottle by S’well.

S’well is 18/8 double-walled stainless steel, non-toxic, non-leaching and BPA free. Not to mention that a portion of the proceeds of each bottle sold goes back to WaterAid, which provides sustainable access to clean water and sanitation in the world’s poorest communities. I’m loving my bottle so far! I got the 17oz so it would fit in my car and as long as it keeps performing well, I’d love to get the kids the 9oz one to take to school. I did read about some issues a few people were having with the seal in some of the bottles, but I’m hoping that doesn’t happen to mine. I seriously spent WAY too much time researching reusable bottles to start my search over again.

Since June was so crazy and I knew I wanted to workout more, I decided to print a calendar to schedule in some fun time with the kids, but also some sweat time. Our first week was a little too high on kid fun and my workouts were a little more squeezed in than I would have liked. Hoping to do better next week!

Btw, did you know you can get have 3 fitness apps running at the same time? I usually have Polar Beat running for my HR, Runkeeper to keep track of my distance as well as my music playing in the background, so I don’t know why I didn’t think I could also have the C25K app running to give me audio cues. For some reason I thought I had to choose between knowing my distance or having my run/walk audio cues. [Hi my name is Katie and I’m a dork.] FYI, it doesn’t work with Hulu+ if you’re running on a treadmill and you’re trying to watch tv. It showed me visuals of when I needed to walk/run, but not the audio cues.

Last but not least, I was frantically looking for some camera items I was missing, which I found thankfully, but I also found my beloved FLogg journal (that sadly isn’t sold anymore)! I love using MyFitnessPal, but I hate that you have to enter what you ate and the calories for everything at the same time. Sometimes I don’t have time to look up the item and say how much I ate. Sometimes I just need to jot it down quickly and then get to the specifics later when I have more time. Sometimes I don’t necessarily want to count calories, but I want to journal what I ate for reference. There may quite possible be an app for that, but nothing beats pencil and paper! I plan to carry this baby around everywhere!

Friday I was supposed to run again, but instead, I napped and listened to a wicked thunderstorm all night. It was a super lazy day that may or may not have ended in ice cream (okay, okay, so I’m still working on cutting out the treats!). 😉

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

posted by katiehigg Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Fitness, My life Tagged: s'well water bottle

02/05

Groundhog Day

Working out with Shaun T and T25…

First I do a little stomping around and whining.

But, eventually I come to terms with having to get it done and I’m all, “Let’s do this!”

5 min into my workout…”I hate you, Shaun T. Stop telling me to focus! No one cares how good Derek’s squats are or that he’s 45!”

15 minutes in…”I..can’t..do…anymore…please make it stop!”

And when it’s all over…Yuck, sweat is pouring off of me

But, I’m done! Yay!

It’s like groundhog day…every.freaking.day.

And every day I have an overwhelming urge to junk punch Shaun T…”you know why!!”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPJAEbOe5kU&w=420&h=315]

Okay, okay, that’s a little harsh. Seriously, I wouldn’t hurt a fly and I do love Shaun T, but in the middle of these torture sessions, it’s probably best for everyone to just keep their distance from me. 😉

posted by katiehigg Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Fitness Tagged: beachbody t25, junk punch, shaun t, t25, working out with shaun t

12/13

Favorite Gifts 2013

Tory Burch fragrance :: Diana glass lens (dslr) :: mirrored polka dot jewelry box
jewelry tray :: Gorjana-Griffin ring :: quick charger
Polar Loop :: Kate Spade mug

even more gifty goodness…

Photo Credit :: glitter bokeh background

posted by katiehigg 2 Comments
Filed Under: Fashion, Fitness, Inspiration, Randoms Tagged: gift guide 2013, holiday gift guide fashion, jacksonville fashion blogger, photography, tory burch

11/11

Week 2, complete…sorta :: checking in

Soooo,

my week two wasn’t so awesome.

I didn’t give up on my goal, but I sure as heck slashed the other 3 tires this weekend.

Things were going pretty poorly throughout the week because I hadn’t planned my meals/workouts, but over the weekend, I really fell apart.

If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail! ~ Benjamin Franklin

The only thing I consistently did was to get my water in. I drank at least 48oz of water a day.

I was following through on my exercise daily, but on Saturday I spent over half the day out of the house, the place was a mess, I ate horribly, we were all a tad on the cranky side and all I wanted to do was curl up in my sweats and be a couch potato for the rest of the night. Sunday was better feeling wise, but we were again, out of the house for a better part of the day and I just didn’t have the energy to work out when we got back. I should have done it earlier in the day, but I was in a groove of getting dishes & laundry done and I didn’t want to lose my momentum.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way. I’m getting up and brushing myself off! On to week 3!

I am not off to a good start…tile demolition this morning in the master bath, no water this morning due to the tile demo, hubby with a headache and kids home from school…but I’m determined to do better this week! I’m going to get some kind of plan together tonight hopefully so that I’m not winging it every day.

My exercise totals for last week were 5 days, 226 min and 1514 calories burned.

Upside, I burned 1500 calories…downside, I probably ate a surplus of 1500 calories!

*sigh* C’est la vie, I suppose.

*Cheers* to a better week!

posted by katiehigg 3 Comments
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Fitness, Monday Motivation Tagged: 30 day challenge, failure to plan is planning to fail, polar beat

11/08

Gettin’ mah groove on

Happy Friday my party peoples!

I haven’t been doing so hot with my 30 day challenge this week (check in update on Monday) and after working out late in the day 2 days in a row, I decided I needed to get my workout in early today.

I was dreading it. I’ve had a case of the “I don’t wanna’s” lately so today…

I should have run…

but treadmill dancing just sounded like so much more fun…

posted by katiehigg 1 Comment
Filed Under: Fitness, Inspiration, My life Tagged: exercising can be fun, get moving doing something you love, how to make exercise fun, selena gomez, treadmill dancing, walk like a champion

11/04

7 days and counting…

Woot! We made it through week 1!

Giving myself a virtual pat on the back because I…

drank 48-72oz of pure water per day
kept track of what I was putting in my mouth with the exception of Sunday (my free day). They weren’t always good choices and I had several days this week that made me want to throw healthy eating out the window, but I did practice a little self control
made 3 dinners at home, only had breakfast out once (Sunday) and ate lunch at home several days
did some form of exercise every.single.day giving me a weekly total of 309 min of physical activity and 2,067 calories burned

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar

Need to do better…

cleaning up my messes in the kitchen. When it’s a mess already, it’s hard to get motivated to make it a bigger mess.
planning and sticking to it. I plan out my days, but then I don’t follow the schedule and I end up cramming exercise in where I can and many daily chores fall through the cracks.

homemade chicken salad with greek yogurt :: easy way to keep track of my water intake :: cauliflower pizza crust with a bottle of hard cider :: Polar Beat history log

A few observations from the week…

going from not enough water to a good amount, flushed mucho toxins out via my pores. On day 3 I started breaking out like crazy on my face and considering I had eaten pretty well at that point I was sure that it was all the water I was drinking. People online say they’ve had the same reaction.

cooking dinner (and breakfast/lunch) creates a huge mess that seems to be never ending. As soon as I make a dent, I create more mess and my sink is even fuller than it was!

Not eating out or pre-packaged foods makes it hard to count calories. I’m not too focused on a specific caloric goal per day, but I am trying to be more cognizant of what is going in my mouth and making your own meals from scratch makes it take even longer to input your calories. Thankfully myfitnesspal has a nifty little recipe calculator that helps ease my pain slightly.

Remember in my first post about the challenge, I mentioned I was going to use the Lift app. Well, not having used it before and only hearing about it from my hubby, I mistakenly thought it was just a workout app. It’s actually an app to help you create good, healthy/productive habits, break unhealthy habits or just anything you want to remember to do on a daily basis. There are a tone of different goals you can “check-in” with every day such as, taking a vitamin, brushing your teeth (not sure who needs an app to remember that one, but whatevs), getting up on time, inbox zero, spend time with my kids, etc. Other people can “like” your check-in’s and the app will tell you how long of a streak you have going each day. If checking in and getting “props” for your check-in’s isn’t enough motivation, you could even promise yourself a reward when you hit a 30 day streak or if it’s something really challenging, a 7 day streak. My hubs is currently on his 89th day of exercising every day. On day 100, he’s going to celebrate with a work friend by going out to lunch! How fun is that?!

________________________________________

Your turn! Feel free to check in with your weekly accomplishments and what (if anything) you’d like to improve on. You can comment, message me or just make a note to yourself.

Don’t be too hard on yourself, but be real. Give yourself props for doing the things you did well and acknowledge what you fell short on, but then brush yourself off and get ready for week 2!

posted by katiehigg 1 Comment
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Fitness, Inspiration, Monday Motivation, My life Tagged: 30 day challenge, cauliflower pizza crust, drink more water, eating at home is messy

10/27

30 day challenge

I’ve gotten a little too comfortable being sedentary lately. Sure I got back on the workout wagon recently, but like always, I get distracted and workouts fall by the wayside.

My eating has also been horrible. So bad that I can count the number of meals I eat at home during the week…on one hand. Yikes. That is no bueno! So, I thought a 30 day challenge might help me get back on track. *the image below is just for the image, I’m not following that 30 day challenge. My challenge is outlined underneath.*

img source

30 days of moving :: Instead of aiming for 3-4 workouts a week, I want to be doing something everyday. Walking, running, weight training, dancing, rock climbing, yoga…anything goes! At least 30 min of fitness a day!

30 days of tracking my calories :: This one is harder than the first. It’s just a pain in the buttocks to weigh your food, look up calories and input them. But, I know that it works to keep me accountable and it’s a great tool for seeing how much you’re actually eating. I’m going to give myself up to 4 freebie days. That is approximately 1 each week. I don’t want to use them, but this isn’t my first rodeo. I know that it’s hard to keep track of calories and sometimes you eat something that you have no idea what calories are in it.

30 days of more water, less caffeine :: I have been drinking far too little water lately. I rely mostly on coffee in the a.m. and then unsweet tea with water coming in last. My goal is to get at least 60 oz of water a day.

I want to challenge myself, but I want to be realistic too. I know I won’t eat at home every meal, but I’m shooting for at least 3-4 dinners a week at home and less breakfast trips to Panera (their roasted tomato & feta souffle is SO delicious!). I’m not really going to berate myself too much if I don’t stick to this as long as I can count my calories and stay around goal, I’ll call it a win.

I’m starting tomorrow (no time like the present!), October 28th. Which as it so happens, is exactly 31 days before Thanksgiving so I can get through my 30 days and then eat my little heart out the next day. It couldn’t have lined up any more perfect for my little OCD/perfectionist mind!

I desperately NEED some accountability, which I’m hoping to get just by blogging about it, but I’d also love to have some company during this 30 days! Either in spirit, or by sending me a message or leaving a comment and letting me know you are joining. Even if you start late, you can still join in!

*We all have different things we need to work on. This is my personal 30 day challenge. Joining me doesn’t mean you have to follow my same challenge. You can choose only part of what I’m doing or completely make up your own! Doesn’t matter what you follow for 30 days, we can still be each others accountability partner! 🙂

source

Tools to keep me on track…

myfitnesspal :: an online tool and also a mobile app to track calories. If you haven’t used this site, I highly recommend it. Makes counting calories a little less painful.

lift :: an iphone app and online community to track how many days in a row that you work out and offer support in reaching your goals

Waterlogged or Plant Nanny :: iphone apps that helps you track your water intake. Waterlogged is a clean/simple design and it’s free in the app store, but if you’re looking for a cute/whimsical way to keep track of your water, Plant Nanny ($.99) may be the way to go.

Polar HR monitor & Polar Beat app :: I love seeing how many calories I’m burning. Nothing like instant gratification! If you don’t have an iphone, there are many other Polar HR monitors that work with their watches to keep track of your calories burned.

C25K & Sign up for a race :: I started the Couch-to-5k challenge again when I got back on my workout wagon, but since I need some accountability to keep me on my C25K schedule I am going to sign up for a 5k or 10k (depending on how far out the race is and what the local race schedule looks like).

Meal/Workout planning :: I’m not a huge fan of planning, but I know that when I schedule something, I usually get it done. So, much to my dismay, I’m going to plan my workouts for the week on Sunday and plan at least a few days of dinners. Of course, I know that I won’t always be able to stick with the plan and sometimes I’ll have to improvise, but at least I’ll have an idea of what I’m doing most of the time and I can schedule the rest of my day with fitness included instead of my workouts being an afterthought. I plan on using something similar to this to schedule my workouts/dinners. Simple is best. I just need something to write what’s for diner and what my workout is going to be.

Hmm. I think that’s all the apps/tools I’ll be using, but I’ll add to the list if I think of more. Sorry that they are mostly iphone apps. I’m an iphone user so those are the apps I use, but I’m sure there are similar ones on other platforms.

posted by katiehigg 2 Comments
Filed Under: 30-day challenge, Fitness, Inspiration Tagged: 30 day challenge, drink more water, get more active, get off the couch