Days 252-262…milestones!

So much has been going on!  Some HUGE milestones that I have been waiting for, as they are huge indicators that June is on it’s way and my hubby will soon be home where he belongs!  End of internship, finals for grad school, my half marathon, among other things…so busy yet a really happy kind of busy!

First I need to share this awesome mini path we found to a local beach.  My friend Tim came to visit and we decided to go to a seafood place a town over that my husband loves.  Now when hubby is home, he is way too excited for food to bother going for a walk around the town, so we have never found this awesome path before!  Excited to show him when he gets back!

My internship has drawn to a close!  300 hours in one year DONE!  I know 300 doesn’t sound like a lot, but when they are 300 unpaid hours that you are fitting in along with 2 parttime jobs and a fulltime grad class schedule, plus a deployed husband, it’s definitely a big chunk of time! 

My last day outfit…

The gifts I made for my supervisors…

The nice flowers my supervisor gave me:)

The weather has been fabulous and the puppies have enjoyed MANY hikes lately…gotta love the springtime!

In honor of earth day, I busted out one of my favorite qyotes from one of my favorite books…I would love to get this as a tattoo someday…

Or this…. can’t decide…maybe I’ll get both…

Been keeping up with eating healthy, mainly because I eat the same thing every single day…an example of my tuna burger and broccoli lunches…

I’ve started adding dinner into my routine…trying to get an extra serving of protein and veggies into my diet, especially on days I work out extra hard…

I saw this shirt on tumblr and I WANT IT!

 

Another hiking picture…just because it’s been a huge part of my week…

I think this is one of the greatest pictures ever….as soon as a lay out my blanket to tan, the little monster wants to join me…just as I went to take a picture of her she yawned and she looks like a total monster with her mouth open haha!

Little boy enjoyed the sun as well!

Really ramped up my training for my race…and I’m getting my awesome running legs back!!  Love feeling strong and fit!

 

I’ve been trying to master fallen angel pose in yoga…it’s not perfect but I’m getting there:)

THE COUNTDOWN IS GETTING SHORTER!!!!!! (this countdown is in no way accurate for actual homecoming dates….we only know he is coming home in June, so I have the countdown for June 1st…no security violations here!)

Another hike…this time to the giant field of sand dunes!

MY idea of a perfect day…puppies, sun, and a giant mug of tea!

Yesterday was my long awaited half marathon!!!  A beautiful early start at the beach!

 

Luckily my sister is law is smart and brought an extra long sleeve shirt…I wouldve been FREEZING waiting around in my tank top!

My old roommate came to run with us!  Note her post-race carbo fest…muffin and pizza haha!

I ran with my Pro Compression socks and OH MY GOD…not a single blister!!!!!!!!!!!!  Also my feet didn’t go numb…and my legs are SOOO not sore!  I am in LOVE with these things!!!!!!!

It’s SPRING! THERE ARE TULIPS IN MY YARD!!!!  I love spring, if you couldn’t tell:)

 

 

Look how short that paper chain is getting!  Remember when it went to both sides of the mirror and then over to the lamp!?!  So close!!!!!

And like a true nerd…had to wear my race tshirt to work today:)

Days 215-221…yogafit level 4 and getting cleared to run again!

Do I always start off my posts with pictures of the dogs?  ….yes, yes, I do…

Nothing beats sunny days and puppy kisses!

And cute puppy naps!

I am SO excited to run our yoga mala 108 sun salutations event tomorrow!  We are going to bring in the spring and hopefully get the warm weather back since we had a freak snow storm Monday night!

I made a quick whole foods stop on my way home before yoga Wednesday night…needed to buy lots of yummy food to prepare me for my 4-day YogaFit Level 4 training in Boston!!!

Day 1:

A beautiful view from our conference room…

Love me some free shirts:)

The training was at the Boston Hyatt Harborside and the views were amazing!

I really really enjoyed learning basic Sanskrit for the pose names.  I forgot how much I LOVE and excel at learning languages.  I would really love to learn even more Sanskrit and am once again dedicated to relearning Spanish and at least one other language in my life.  I am having so much fun going over the pose names in my head and learning the unique pronounciations.  I am excited to bring some of them to my classes as well!

My dog sitter sent me this funny series of photos that totally sum up the pups…

Chloe’s stick…

Jack’s stick…

I got home from the 2 hour drive around 830, made lunch for the next day, then slept and woke up once more at 5am to beat the traffic and get there by 7…

Another lovely day!

Delving into the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutras…LOVE love love the yoga philosophy part of teacher training.  I have always been drawn to sutra 1:33, “MAITRI KARUNA MUDITOPEKSANAM SUKHA DUHKHA PUNYAPUNYA VISAYANAM BHAVANATAS CITTA PRASADANAM.
By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”  Now that I can pronounce the Sanskrit, I am really considering getting the script for this as a tattoo…I feel like it is such an important lesson to remember every day…

I absolutely loved the vinyasa classes each day!  Day two was the day of backbends…my specialty!!!  I may not be able to do handstands or headstands or crazy hip openers, but give me a chance to drop from standing into wheel or flip a downward dog to wild thing and I’m there!

Day three brought another 5am wakeup, and I made it to the 7am bonus class!  Day 3 also brought the need for some extra caffeine…

I’ve had these malas hanging up in my room for I dont know how many years…I dont even remember where I got them from!  Sadly they are somehow missing one bead, so they are a 107 mala!  Oh well, I still think they are pretty and I love the mysterious aspect that I have no idea where they came from!

Watching the sailboats on the harbor took up my afternoon…

More Sanskrit!  So much fun!

During break we took a little walk on the water…so gorgeous out, even though it was pretty cold…

I have a problem with taking too many pictures!

Of course I needed to do some crazy yoga poses while we were outside…who doesn’t do yoga in the 30 degree weather?

Onto day 4!  It was amazing how fast the weekend went by.  A 4 day training seemed so daunting, but it was the last day before we even knew it!  This had a lot to do with our instructors, Tracy and Lisa…they were truly amazing and inspirational each step of the way!

Day 4 is inversion day…and with orthostatic hypotension, I can’t really go upside down.  But I totally love this halfway up modification we learned in level 3, so I stuck with this for the practice.  All the benefits of an inversion without the passing out lol.

Another photo shoot followed lunch…my friend Ashley and I had way too much fun coming up with crazy poses to do in front of the city skyline…

Fun partnering poses!

….annndddd TADA!  My Level 4 certification!  Now I just have Level 5, retrain level 1, Yoga for Seniors, Yoga Back , and I think one other one-day workshop and I will have my 200!  I’m getting there!  It will happen:)

Now onto other random things from this week…

Runner’s World sent me this great article on strengthening exercises…this one for shin splints looks awesome and I definitely need to build more lower leg strength so I can’t wait to try it!

First day back after Level 4….I was planning on an easy day with some cardio, but my friend needed a last minute Pilates sub, so I jumped in!  With some green tea, I was ready to go and it was fun to incorporate some new moves into the class I had learned this weekend!

I had such a good idea on carrying multiple yoga mats for our event on Monday night…I felt like a genius…

I don’t know why I got such a laugh out of this, but I paused the Biggest Loser finale at a random moment when Allison Sweeney looked like a zombie and texted it to my friend Katie and we laughed about it for a good ten minutes….

Freak snowstorm …really?!?!?!

I’m trying to make an effort to eat REAL dinners most nights of the week.  Usually I just eat a snack for dinner, but I am trying to incorporate more healthy proteins into my dinner now.

 

This picture summed up my entire day…

Wednesday came with a trip to the orthopedist to make sure I wasn’t developing a new stress fracture in my leg (yay I wasn’t!)  The doc helped me to figure out how to change my gait to avoid putting pressure on the outside of my leg and how to stregthen around my knees to avoid the pain I’ve been getting.  I’m hoping I get through the half in April with no injuries!

Days 207-214…life is busy, life is good!

I’ve been away from the blog for one whole week!  Everything has been happening all at once and life has been crazy!  But no complaints here (mainly because I have been complaining too much the past week to everyone else and I’m tired of it!)…I am taking a look at the positive side of everything and enjoying my life one day at a time!  To start off with, all these crazy happenings have just made the last week fly by, and that means it is that much sooner until hubby comes home!  Another plus is that dealing with household emergencies and a crazy work and internship and school schedule just reassures me that I am totally competent and in charge of my life right now, and that feels great!

A nice surprise pick me up came in the mail last week….cute gifts from E!  I love the random teddy bear with greetings from Afghanistan…matched my Kuwaitit camel from last deployment!  Also, I am a huge sucker for precious stones…forget gold and diamonds and bling, give this hippie girl lapis and jade and turquoise and I’m good to go!  I really loved my gifts and it felt nice to be thought of.  Good job, husband!

And now, a picture that totally sums up our two pups…Jack running for his life and Chloe with a crazy open mouth “im coming for you!” grin!

The past two weeks have been a total running party…speed workouts and all types of fun stuff (until my old injuries started acting up which I’ll talk about later…)

This was my first sub 30 5k in I don’t know how long!

Rocking my new necklace and loving my hippie hair getting longer and longer!

We got a surprise random blizzard on Friday…the dogs were NOT impressed.  “Mom…wtf???  Why is that white stuff back?!?!”

…guess we’ll just have to hide under the blankets all day!

Ok…everyone in the world is going to either judge me or secretly are also hiding their bad habit, but….

After giving it up almost all winter, minus going once or twice , I caved and went tanning again… the blizzard totally threw me and my SAD was like “oh HELL no, winter is supposed to be gone, this is horrible and the world is ending!” …so I jumped in the fake bake bed for 10 minutes…let the judging begin.  I wanted to share only because I know there are still closet tanners out there and I am doing so good at beating my tanning addiction, but as long as I live in New England there are going to be those winter days here and there that I just can’t get away from it!

I saw this on pinterest and about died laughing…this is SO me every deployment…but hey, let’s be honest, I’m not exactly in the smooth legs club all the time when hubby is home either.

Another sub 30 5k!!!!!!!  Yay!!!!!!!  And a blurry picture because I was still running haha….mad skills at life.

Vicious pit bulls that have to sleep with their head directly on your chest so they can feel your heart beat….preciousness overload!

My friend sent me this and it is SO true.  I am totally that girl and proud of it….as evidenced by today’s completely random and in no way sporadic post haha!  Common themes that run through a post?  Who DOES that?

AAAaaaaannnndddddd…..SPRING IS BACK!  Let’s celebrate by laying in the grass happily!

I think I see a discrepancy in toy size to dog size ratio…

Somewhere in between all of these things was spring break…which wasn’t really a break for me, but I did have no class and there were no students on campus which made work a lot easier haha!

Then came the weekend…

I SOOOOO wish Eric was home to see the gem I discovered on SyFy network this weekend….a movie about military engineered camel spiders?!?!  Oh hell yes.

Sunday morning yoga was fun, and one of my friends came so it was great to have her come to her first Theresa-led yoga class.  Afterwards, her husband and our other friend helped me with some things around the house that I couldn’t figure out on my own.  Did I tell you in addition to all the structural problems we had last week, that our septic almost overflowed?  Yay…crazy murphy’s law of deployments…  So we drained the washer out to the garden and now there will be that many less gallons of water to cause sewage chaos in our back yard…aren’t you excited to read about sewage?  I know I sure am…lies…all lies…

Sunday afternoon it was time for a nice relaxing hike!

We found a random teepee in the woods so I of COURSE had to go inside!  Who wouldn’t?

And when you find a rusty old tire swing in the middle of no where who DOESNT swing on it?

…same with rusty old gates…

I was SO happy that the surprise baby shower I threw my boss on Monday went well!  It is SO hard to surprise her and we NAILED it.  She was almost mad that we got one over on her haha!  Everyone had a blast and she was so happy.  I made her two paintings…one for the baby’s room with inspirational quotes and one for her other daughter’s room with a cute quote about sisters on it since she will be a first time sister soon!

With Monday came structural repair week!

So….turns out I wasn’t paranoid and that big center beam that was sagging so bad?? …Yep…..it’s resting on  a TWO BY FOUR….someone TOOK OUT A WALL and rested the CENTER BEAM on a TWO BY FOUR…are you kidding?????

Totally safe….not.

To escape from the $7000 disaster that is my house, I took the pups for a nice hike…so much fun.

And at night I went for a lovely run!

I had to share my conversation with my best friend from home as she was trying to motivate me to go out for my run…I love that even 1000 miles apart we are still best friends.  By the way go check out her blog…. Eat well, Run hard, Love yourself…

Sadly, after my run, the old injuries I’ve been ignoring all started to rear their ugly heads again…old fractures, old achilles, old knees, and old ankles… all at once!  Not sure if it was the hills, the speedwork, the distance…or maybe everything combined, but crap…not good!  I am taking a few days off and I got a referral today to go see an orthopedist.  I have a sneaking suspicion that my horrible running form and really weird gate are the root cause of my injuries.  Running is the only thing that causes my injuries to flare up, which sucks because running is my favorite thing….but I’ve had a few people tell me, in the nicest way they could, that I run like a total weirdo.  This is the same reason I teach dance instead of perform…I have tibial torsion so my feet point outwards, which means to run normally, my feet either have to go out like I’m in first position in dance to keep my knees facing forward, which then torques my ankles and hips, OR my knees have to bow inward to keep my feet straight.  Yes, I’m aware I am a giant trainwreck…I’m just hoping that the doctors can figure it out…I don’t care if I have to wear Forrest Gump leg braces, I just want to be able to run again!!!!

My new favorite cold drink…honestly it is AMAZING go try it!  And no, they aren’t paying me to say this…although I wish they were…with a lifetime supply of these drinks haha!

I love taking the dogs with my to run errands…can you spot the pit bulls?

Since we cant go in our living room, I drug a recliner to our dining room to relax and watch tv.  The doggies of course KNEW it was for them too and decided we should all pile on there together…this was such a comfortable set up for all involved.  Just look at how snuggly we all look?  Five minutes later the recliner collapsed and scared us all half to death…fun night.

Days 198-202…despite the fact that our house is falling down, I’m feeling good!:)

As always, lets start out with a nice big hello from the kiddos…

“Hi! …can we have our treat now?”

So let’s start out with the bad news….our house is basically falling down.  Yes, along with the theme of “f— it all february”, it turns out we missed something pretty big when we bought the house…

Yeah…that’s a good three foot section of the main support beam MISSING…vanished…cut out…gone…out of the picture…

Never a good thing…

But I’m handling it surprisingly well!

Case in point:

Excuse my french….was just SO happy and SO positive I had to enhance it with colorful adjectives… ughhhh!

I was really upset and overwhelmed with all the house stuff, and trying to figure out taxes, along with the 50 other house projects I’ve been working on….oh and work and school and interning AND being sick….. you get the picture.

But then I took a step back, took a deep breath, and reminded myself that I am so lucky and grateful for the life that I  have.  I am surrounded by loving friends and family, the two cuddliest puppies every, I have great jobs and internships, I’m in school, and our deployment countdown is slowly getting smaller and smaller.  AND the weather has magically gotten brighter…instant spring!  No matter what happens with the house, we have been super responsible and saved up enough to cover anything that needs done.  No matter how much I may want to complain, I dont deserve to, because I am in such a good position in my life and this is nothing I can’t handle.

Time for an inspirational Thich Naht Han quote, since he sums things up better than I ever could…

As SOON as the snow melted, we needed a hike!  So this week, with the cold and mud and damp, I laced up my boots and out we went!

It was so nice to be out in the fresh air again!  We have been cooped up far too long this winter!

And there is nothing like the peaceful puppy sleep you get after a hike!

Wednesday was great…I taught two wonderful yoga classes and it felt so good to be healthy enough to really teach all out.  Yoga is so therapeutic!  I woke up to a message from the studio owner asking me to add another of my yogalates classes to the schedule!  Last night was PACKED and she wants to put another one on the schedule!  Everyone loves it!  I was SO happy:)  I made a new playlist of my favorite songs of the month, so here it is!

Spring Yoga Mix from theresa913 on 8tracks Radio.

Today has been wonderful…I was supposed to give a big presentation but class got cancelled!  So I packed up the pups and drove an hour to our FAVORITE secluded beach!  3 miles of shoreline…and it was the perfect day!  No one else around…just the sand and the waves and the wind and the sun….oh my goodness, spring is really coming!!!!

I wanted to get a cute picture…but when I asked the puppies to sit it went a little like this….

Sit? WHY?!? Are you tricking us? Is there another dog you are distracting us from?!?!

Stay? Nooooooo….you must mean come and give me kisses if you are sitting in the sand!!!

Oh…picture time?  Why didn’t you just say so…let’s look regal and adorable…ready go!

Tonight should be fun…off to the gym to train a client at 7, then working (aka working out) til close at midnight.  Not the biggest fan of late shifts, but it’s a good excuse to get a long run in on the treadmill or track since I’m stuck there for a few hours.  I NEED to get my mileage up.  Last week’s illness put me off track and I want to be ready for the race in April….5 miles is my long run now…gotta get comfortable with 13 again and I have two months…time to work!

Day 188… Happy Valentine’s day!

Valentine’s morning started of with an epic dog makeout session on the couch.  Jack decided to pin Chloe by her neck and obsessively lick her face for about 10 minutes..I’d say love is in the air…

“I LOVE YOU! Let me kiss you!!!”

Because I have no romantic life, I just sat there and laughed at how cute they were and took pictures. 

Before I left for work, my grand Valentine’s Day gesture was cooking up a plate of fresh swordfish for the doggies for lunch.  Yes, that is where my life is right now…I cooked up a fancy gourmet feast for the dogs for this holiday…

Despite the snow, the sun really warmed things up today…45 degrees!  I needed some vitamin d, so I deemed it tropical PJ shorts weather and sat outside while the dogs played with snowballs.  Utter class with my pjs and hiking boots…my poor neighbors have probably stopped looking out their back windows at this point…

Partly because I’m feeling nostalgic and partly because after the contractor came to do our kitchen estimate, he realized that we may have structural issues that need addressed in the living room instead…I’ve been pondering keeping the current layout of our dining room/kitchen…

We were going ot take out the archway and the china cabinet and just open up that whole corner of the house so the kitchen and dining room were one big area.  

However:

A)The old fashioned craftsmanship of the built in cabinetry is growing on me, and

B) It is going to be super expensive to take out walls and move vents and things like that….at first we were fine with it, but if we are going to be paying for a new beam in the living room, I’m thinking no…

So my new plan is to leave the layout as it is, but update everything.  I already removed the island (it was orange and gaudy and 50s…it used to be where the fridge is now…the fridge was in the far back corner that nees new electical work but will go back there after its done).

I think with updated cabinets and appliances, and ripping out all the upper walls (like I did on the right side of the photo below), the kitchen will feel more open and new even if it is still back in the corner of the house.  I’ll have to wait on that estimate before I make my decisions..I am also strongly considering paying someone to do the electrical and plumbing, but doing the cabinets and floors and tiles myself.  We will see…

I’m stuck at work til midnight…not like it matters that it’s Valentine’s Day because my Valentine is halfway around the planet and probably has totally forgotten what day it is anyway.  I am waiting for a call so we can discuss the home repairs and some money issues, so maybe I’ll at least get to talk to him, but who knows.  I’m SO over this deployment.  It’s just to that point where it’s like okay, whatever, this just needs to end and in the meantime, I’m going to be a bitter old lady about it.  I have stopped returning the FRG phone calls because I feel like I might slip up when they ask how I am or if I need anything…something like “Well actually, between my two jobs, interning, and classes, I haven’t really gotten around to normal things like dishes and laundry, not to mention that my house is falling apart and my husband keeps pestering me to do the maintenance on his car that is under 2 feet of snow….wanna get started on all that? Should I make a check list for you?!?!” 

I am committed to working out all night to stay awake and to get some of those feel good endorphins going.  My friend and I attemped to lift for about 20 minutes but I am so not in the lifting mood tonight…although I do LOVE my new lifting gloves! 

We ran two miles on the track, but I think I’m going to head out to the arc trainer for round two of cardio in a bit.  Shoes are all laced up, I’m just looking for the motivation to get my butt out there!

Days 183-187…distance running and a new diet for spring!

As always, let’s start out the day with cute puppy snuggles.  What would I do without these two?

I was happy with my simple yet classy outfit on Monday…I needed something that could get me from work to class to workout with minimal changes…I also was a big fan of how my lazy curly hair was looking, so I snapped a pic!

School definitely should have been cancelled Monday…the roads in the city were NOT safe at all, but I made it in on time!

After being cooped up all week, I needed a run…but the treadmills were full, and also I’m sick of treadmills this winter, so I hit the indoor track!

Typically I get through about a mile down there and give up…it can be monotonous and the surface isn’t too forgiving on your shins….but I was desparate for a long run!

So instead of counting laps, I just started running at 4:40 and told myself I would stop at 5:20 or 5:30…whichever felt better.  I know I usually average out to 10min/miles on a long run so I didn’t count laps, just time, and man did that help make track running less horrible!

I ended up going the full 50 minutes…5 whole miles on a 1/8 mile track…that’s 45 laps!  With the right music and a good attitude though, it really wasn’t bad!  And afterwards I was feeling great!

So, let’s move on to diet…I’ve struggled for years with finding the right balance between working out and healthy eating.  I struggle to eat the right balance of proteins and carbs and fats because of all of my allergies, I have a wicked sweet tooth, and body image issues only compound everything else.  I don’t know why, but no matter how much I work out, no matter how many calories I burn, if I eat over 1400 a day I gain weight.  It doesn’t make sense, and I know this from my personal training background, but for some reason the simple mathematics of calories in versus calories out doesn’t equate with my body.  I tried to do things the mathematical way…I tried to escape the cycle of dieting obsessively and weighing myself everyday…I relied on the fact that as long as my net calories for the day were under 1000 after exercise, I’d be fine.  I’m not.  Somehow I gained 15 pounds since last June.  This is so not cool.  I know some of it is muscle because I finally have my vitamin deficiencies under control and have been able to hit the gym hard and lift heavier…but I also did a new body fat test and it is not all muscle gain, as much as I’d like it to be.  My body fat % went up almost 5%.

So, with perfect timing…I’m a lapsed Catholic and Lent seems as good a time as any to start a new diet…I am starting fresh.  I am going back to my old diet…more vegan focused choices like fruits and veggies for more meals…big breakfast and lunch, just snacks for dinner…and under 1200 calories most days ( I will go up on days I run long or lift heavy).

I figured I’d post the quintessential ‘before’ picture…the start of my latest fitness journey.  What do I want to change?  I want my abs back and to get rid of the layer of fat on my stomach and hips.  I want the definition back in my thighs.  I want the lean toned look in my arms and back again.  And I want to lose about 10 pounds.

Wednesday was day 1 and I was feeling great!  I forgot how good it felt to only eat when you are REALLY hungry.  I definitely fall into emotional eating more than I like to admit.  It is good for me to focus on eating clean and only eating when I’m craving something healthy.  Yesterday was mixed berries and almond butter for breakfast, broccoli and beans for lunch, chocolate chip cookie for a snack, and figs, pumpkin, applesauce, almond butter, and chocolate chips for dinner.

Continuing the healthy theme, I went to Whole Foods last night and  bought a giant salad for today…I couldn’t help myself, I started off the day eating half of it for breakfast!  Spinach, green leaf, carrots, roasted potatoes and yams, quinoa, cranberries, and hummus!  Delicious!

Also, I splurged and bought my FAVORITE…rooibos tea…obsessed!

The puppies are being cute as always…couldn’t resist a fun photoshoot yesterday…

And a nice update on the former foster pup…my mom sent me a pic of him with his favorite soccer ball…he looks so happy:)

I cannot wait for spring…it is getting hard to drag myself out of bed on these chilly days…so of course I just snap pictures from my cozy, colorful retreat instead…

I’m not the only one who hates the cold!  Can you spot the pit bull in this photo?

On a side note, we are starting to get the estimate for redoing our kitchen and it SUCKS.  Everything is so expensive, I don’t know where to start.  Initially we wanted to take a wall and an archway down to open the room up into the dining room, but now looking at the budget I’m starting to think, hmmm…maybe we can live with the outdated layout and just buy new cabinets and such…. I hate spending money so it’s hard to make big decisions like this!  Has anyone else redone a kitchen on a budget?

Days 173-175…wonderful weekend…puppies, yoga, art, running, and food!

 

It’s finally FEBRUARY!  And my homecoming calendar says it’s about 4 1/2 months til hubby comes home!:)  E’s birthday is this week and I feel so bad I don’t get to spend it with him…his last deployment he had leave for his birthday week.  Although, I would much rather have this shorter deployment and no leave time…9 months is a lot better than 11-12!

We had a HUGE windstorm this week that knocked down a lot of branches.  The doggies thought that toys had miraculously fallen from the heavens and had a super fun weekend with all the debris.

Since it was a heck of a lot colder this weekend than it had been all week, and since I was exhausted from getting back into the swing of teaching yoga/dance almost every day, we had a LOT of snuggle time this weekend…

Can you find me in the last picture?  I’m hidden under two big pit bulls…snuggle monsters attack!

Saturday was another fun filled class at the studio and a fun picture afterwards since I wanted to show E I wear the bracelet he got me when I teach…lapis is such a calming stone, it is a great way to have a relaxing class. I have also become obsessed with tiger’s eye this week…I’ve been wearing my old bracelet made with tigers eye and it really does seem to bring a sense of clarity and peace. I can’t explain it, but I’m totally becoming obsessed with precious stones!

We also installed a new door lock since our old one was literally getting blown open by the WIND…not super safe.  I told hubby now he can tell everyone that he left for a deployment and his wife changed the locks on him…

Chloe dragging an entire tree branch across the yard…she must be able to pull 3 times her own weight…

I had the genius idea this weekend to rip up the ugly linoleum in our bedroom…but underneath the tile and on top of the wood is a gross felt-like layer that is NOT coming off.  So sad…whoever did the flooring in this house was an ass.  They covered up all the hardwood with horrible adhesive and linoleum…no sheet in between to save the wood floors.  So frustrating.

Yesterday I went to teach my normal Sunday class…and I waited and waited….taking random pictures of the studio…

And random pictures of my mat…and my feet…

But no one came!  Then I remembered a) it was about 20 degrees and most of my clients walk to class, and b) it was apparently Superbowl sunday…..

So I drove over to the gym and jumped on the treadmill for an easy 4 miles!

It was a great run!  I averaged a 10min/mile pace, but I did intervals.  Started out at about 10:50, then 10:30, then 9:40, then 9, and for the last half mile 8:30!  I am new to the whole speed work thing, but progressively going faster as I go longer seems to work for me…not sure if there is a real name for it (thought I should since I’m a personal trainer and have now been running for 7 years…oooops).  I felt amazing afterwards though!

More cute puppy time after the gym…I couldn’t help it, I was a crazy obsessive doggy mom this weekend!:)

I also got a chance to do some fun yoga art….I love doing pieces of art around favorite quotes.

I added it to my fireplace collection…although I dont know how happy E will be to come home and find his sports memorabilia moved and my paintings in their place!

For a small extra bday gift for E, I saw this quote on pinterest and thought it would make a cute painting…I’m going to attach ribbon to it and hang it up in our room!

Last night’s dinner was one of my easy favorites…wild brown rice with broccoli and carrots, mixed with Trader Joe’s refried beans, and salsa.  Quick, easy, and perfect winter comfort food!

I have been eating more and more calories lately….in an attempt to be healthier and get my metabolism back to wear it needs to be after years of restricting and dieting.  It’s a hard process, but I’ve found, as I have at other times in my life, that running is the best thing to do when you want to regulate your diet.  For me, running helps put me in touch with my hunger…I know after I run that I need to fuel my body and that my cravings are because I actually worked hard and need the food.  Getting back into heavy weight training and running have made me look and feel so much better…and overcoming the vitamin deficiencies I had been struggling with has been amazing.  However, it never gets easy seeing the numbers on the scale go up….which is why I’ve been making an effort to only check my weight once every week or so.  Today I realized I have officially gained 15 lbs since last summer…but I know that I look so much better than I did then.  I’m not saying I don’t have room for improvement (2 desserts some day isn’t the healthiest option!)…but I am a strong believer that you can be healthier and happier at a heavier weight.  I just need to keep reminding myself that having energy, running distance, lifting heavy, and looking and feeling great have nothing to do with numbers on a scale and everything to do with being a balanced, healthy, strong person.  I may still struggle sometimes, but I’m getting there!

And as the perfect ending to this post…remember, sometimes you just need to hide your face, bury yourself in the corner of the couch, and hide away from the world for a day…oh, little brown dog, you are ridiculous…

Days 170-172…fitness frenzy and a heat wave:)

Rocking my new favorite winter style…I wear this scarf just about daily either as a scarf or shawl…I’m hoping hubby will take the hint and send me more:)  It is the perfect winter/spring attire especially when you work in buildings where the heat is all wonky!

We began our monthlong spring break weight loss program this week and it has been a huge success so far!  We are over booked and the girls all seem so into it!  We did their measurements and gave them notebooks to track their progress!

We also have been having a bit of a heat wave this week!  I was so happy to be able to sit out in the sun!  Mr Jack is giving me a look like “My mom is crazy…”

I bought my bridesmaids dress for one of my best friend’s weddings this summer!  She just gave me the color she wanted me to get and I found this awesome dress for sale from David’s!  I ordered it a size smaller than I measured for because it is extra incentive to get back into shape for the spring/summer.  I’m so excited to get it…it actually looks like it’s going to be really pretty!

I had to share this ecard…it totally sums up the Friday nights my old roommate and I have been having…we meet up after work, gossip about life, wake up early for yoga, then spend the weekend doing crafts…

This morning was so nice that after my internship I took the puppies for a much needed hike!!

It was super windy, but we had a blast! 

I love my awesome hunter hat…I feel kind of badass in it…

It was a gorgeous day and the puppies loved it!…So did I!

Chloe took my lawn chair as an open invitation to sit on my lap, so we had some fun cuddle time!  I love this spoiled little monster girl.

I’ve been on a chill music kick the last two days…yesterday was stressful after teaching an unexpectedly packed yogasweat class to 20 loud college students, then having some home repair trouble…so I blasted chill 90s songs and made a new playlist before teaching my second yoga class of the day…it totally helped and I continued the theme today to stay chill and focused!

I couldn’t help myself…I had to work late so I caved and bought veggie sushi!  And ate it ALL!

Today I am super proud of myself.  I ate more than I’ve probably eaten all year.  Honestly, I don’t eat this much unless I’m running 10 + miles.  But I worked out so much I know I needed to fuel myself.  And I’m turning Thursdays into my splurge and workout a ton days…if I have to work til midnight, I might as well get my big workout in! 

I hiked the dogs, personal trained for an hour which probably burned more calories than I counted for it, ellipticalled for 40 mins, lifted heavy for 30 mins with a friend, and ran for 10 mins.  I’m feeling great!  And only about an hour til closing time!

Days 163, 164, & 165…last semester begins!

This is the last first week of grad school!  I will be done in the spring!  Of course I’ll still have to get a few more credits for my licensing, but my master’s will officially be done as of June 2013! 

It was a bit of a stressful week getting everything ready for the students to retrun…finalizing the fitness schedule, going to meetings, getting back into the swing of things at my internship, and teaching yoga at my other studios…as well as going to my first classes of the semester, which I think are going to be great! 

The fun part is planning a big yoga workshop I will be leading Monday about setting healthy intentions for the new year, using yoga and art…these river rocks with reminders of our intentions are going to be one of the art projects, along with a nice journal to keep track of the healthy goals we make!  Not sure how many students will come, but I think it will be fun anyway!

My dogs are so bored with the cold weather lately, that they just sit on the couch and kiss each other all the time…Chloe looks so annoyed…

My mom sent us this cute card for Valentine’s day…I LOVE sappy Valentine’s cards haha.  Yes I am still 8.

My old roomies had a fun Texas roadtrip that I couldn’t get time or money for, but the other day in the mail, I got 4 postcards from their trip all at once…it felt nice that they were thinking of me even though I couldn’t be there!

With this frigid weather, I’ve gotten creative with my outfits.  Hubby bought me this scarf in Kuwait last deployment, and I’ve been using it as a shawl/head wrap to deal with the cold.  My friend from school called it my ‘babushka’ like old Russian ladies wear haha.  Her and our other friend were laughing at me, but tempered it with, “No no no…that’s totally your style…very unique..very Theresa…” …haha not sure if that’s a good thing or not, but I’ll take it!

Last night I taught a great Yogalates class…7 people in our nice small studio…great workout and great energy!

Tonight was personal training…I forced my very running, functional training-oriented client to do a bunch of difficult yoga stuff just to change things up.  She enjoyed the challenge, but I don’t know if I have her completely hooked yet!

Since I’m trying to readjust to working til midnight again this semester, I have decided to get my mid range training runs in on these nights in preparation for the half in April!  It really helped the night go by and gave me energy so that I don’t even feel like it’s already 11pm!  (Might also be because I just ate blueberries and a sugar cookie…need to work on my post-run nutrition…I always just want SWEETS after I run…anyone else have that issue??)

All in all I was happy with my run…4 miles, but feeling great the whole time!  Started out slow because my hip had been bothering me for a few days, but it felt okay, so I was able to do some speed work, alternating between 10 min pace, 930 pace, and finally 830 pace…going to faster intervals as I neared 4 miles.  I don’t know jack about speed work and make up my own drills as I go, but it was fun to push myself to go faster as I got more tired!  All in all it was a great workout!

Days 159-162…a surprise 10k and a birthday care package!

Friday was an all day work training….oh joy.  So glad I went early to jump on the elliptical or else I would’ve gone crazy sitting around all day!  I was disappointed at the ‘healthy’ food options though…I got halfway through my berries only to realize some of them were MOLDY!  Ugh!!

We had a few nice days…but it was still a little chilly…pupster had a blast when she realized the water bowl had created a giant ice toy…

After yoga on Saturday, my old roomie and I decided to go for a quick run because it was semi-nice out…sunny and in the 40s!

Don’t mind my giant man-sweatshirt…it’s my ‘Don’t bother me, I’m busy running’ shirt!

What started out as a quick 5 k turned into a 10 k!  My dear friend, who has never run over 3 miles, turned out to be one of those lucky naturally talented runners…we hit miles 3, 4, and 5 and she was still on fire so we just kept going!  I think I was feeling it more than she was!

Getting to the finish was awesome…we had a celebratory photo shoot!

Running buddies!

The drive home was wonderful…gorgeous sunset on the bridge!

And with all that working out, I got to eat lots of cookies that night:)

I decided to go for it and attempt the cake in a jar for E’s birthday care package on Sunday.

It turned out just how it was supposed to!  I was very happily surprised!  I hope it holds up well in the mail!

I also finished my art projects for our bedroom…I love getting decorations up on the walls!

Today was a wonderful workout day…elliptical and some intense weights!  I love getting strong again…I feel great being able to get back into my old routine.  I am already seeing my body going back to how it was…I love feeling muscular and strong instead of just trying to be ‘skinny’.