Run Forest! Run!

Last night I felt like Forest Gump. I hopped on the treadmill to get in a run in an attempt to maintain the progress I've made in the running arena and much to my surprise, I could not stop running. I told myself initially that I would aim for twelve minutes of continuous running since I've only been able to do about ten minutes continuously for the past few weeks. Well, ten turned to twelve and twelve to fifteen and I still felt great. Before I knew it, twenty five minutes was coming right up! I stopped at twenty five minutes but I felt like I could have kept on running. It was amazing! I really don't know what made the difference with this run. Might have been all the stretching I did this week, or the crazy inclines that I walked earlier in the week, or just the lack of pressure... who knows. I just know that I am happy with the way my body keeps surprising me. Last Sunday I picked up my Jeanette Jenkins Pilates DVD after weeks of not practicing and busted out this move at the end for the first time ever!!!!

The Rollover

That's twice in one week that I surpassed my own expectations! That is one of the things that I love most about this fitness journey.

How junk food affects the body

I just had to repost these videos. Sooo giving up my sugar addiction! Any thoughts?

How Junk Food Affects the Body Part 1/4

How Junk Food Affects the Body Part 2/4

How Junk Food Affects the Body Part 3/4

How Junk Food Affects the Body Part 4/4

NYX and Stila Mini Haul

This is my first makeup post so I'll start by saying that I LOVE shopping for makeup and creating new looks. I won't be doing swatches of any of the products that I am sharing (I'll leave that to the pros) but just wanted to show some of the things that I bought recently and sort of give my opinions of them. So, here we go...

I bought these items from the NYX website after going to my local Ulta and not finding them. I waited until there was enough stuff that I wanted because I had to pay shipping. Here's what I got...

In the first photo (from left to right) are Mocha and Dusty Rose. In the second photo (L to R) there is a Highlighter and Love, both are mosaic powders, and the last item is the Purple Smokey Look kit and it has two lip colors in the bottom row. I got these items mainly because I wanted to add to my collection of blushes and I really wanted a highlighter. If you are familiar with NYX then you know that these items are very highly pigmented yet very affordable. I fell in love with the Smokey Look kit when I saw it on their website this summer and because I LOVE purple (blame it on my alma mater :-)) I had to have it. That kit was $11. The blushes were $6 each and the mosaic powders were $8 each.

I also ordered from Sephora.com (releasing exam stress here!) and got the Stila travel palletes. These pallettes are very affordable ($10 each) and allow me to do a makeup look in no time.

The first two are Moscow and USA and the last two are Paris and Tokyo. In total there are five so there is one left to be released. There are four shadows and one convertible blush (aka both blush and lip color) in each pallete. Some of the lighter colors look like they were washed out by my camera but you can find them here. I used USA and Tokyo (haven't gotten to the other two as yet) and I really like them. I was able to put together a simple and professional daytime look in under fifteen minutes. Of the two I think I love the Tokyo pallete the most. I look forward to trying Moscow and Paris this week. They are easy to use, I got good color payout and best of all they fit into any purse or bag that I own, no matter how small it is.

I also got a small Makeup Forever High Definition powder to try out. I might do a review of that one at a later date. That's all folks!

Race Day

  In my last post I talked about possibly running a 5k (3.1 miles). Well, the race day was yesterday BUT because I didn't get a chance to train the way I wanted to and was sick for a good part of the previous week, I chickened out of doing it. What I did do however, was sign up to be a volunteer- hence the T-shirt and bib number (they gave us one so we could participate in the raffle). The race was the Dr. Richard Sarkin Memorial Run/Walk in honor of Dr. Sarkin who was a Pediatrician in Western New York.

 I came up with a whole lot of reasons why I shouldn't/couldn't run the 5k- I think it was mostly anxiety because it would have been my first. In addition, I have never been to an actual race before. Thankfully, I read in someone's blog post a few days ago that a good way to familiarize yourself with the process is to be a volunteer and so that's what I did. Overall, I had a blast! My job was to stop traffic in the area that I was assigned along with one of my classmates when the runners came through. Thankfully there was also a cop there because those people were not trying to listen to us. A few of my classmates ran the race and it was fun to encourage them and the other runners along as they passed us. One thing that stood out for me was how appreciative the runners were as they were passing by. Many of them thanked us and I thought that was really nice - something to keep in mind for all of you race runners out there :-). My classmate who I was with and I got to know each other better and talked about our interests in running. It turns out that she was using Couch-to-5k as well! While she is more ambitious than I am and hopes to run a marathon in the future, maybe next spring we can be running buddies.

When I got home I was so inspired and realized that I really could have run the 5k that day. There wasn't much to it. So, I got on the treadmill in hopes of redeeming myself and close to an hour later.....

... my 5k was done! 3.1 miles in 51:36 minutes. Not bad considering that I haven't been running seriously for over 2 months. I look forward to running an actual race (next spring maybe... it's getting too cold for ME to run outside). And the moral of the story... if there is something that you really want to do, volunteering is a great way to familiarize yourself with the process and also inspire you to make it happen!

What one thing could you do (that you aren't doing now) that if you did on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference in your personal (or professional) life?

Quote of the Day

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
-Albert Einstein

Six Months In!

Time does fly when you're having fun. Last week marked six months into my fitness journey; let's see how much progress has been made. First and foremost I lost a total of about 20.5 pounds! The majority of that amount was lost in the first thirty days and for the last thirty (most of the summer) I pretty much stayed consistent and then surprisingly lost a few more pounds in the last 1-2 weeks. I was happy to see the scale moving again after the post-vacation bloating!

Over the past six months, I learned a lot about how to eat properly and was mostly able to focus my workout ADHD and create somewhat balanced workout plans. I also developed new interests as it related to eating and exercising like clean eating and Bikram Yoga (haven't done it yet but its in the works). I spent time in injury recovery from running and discovered the benefits of cross-training; I did pool running, biking, Yoga, Pilates and also spent some time falling in love with the elliptical again. After recovering, I went back to run/walking and found some beautiful trails in Oakbrook, IL (photos in the last post). I learned how to take my new-found healthy lifestyle on the road (I spent the better part of the summer elsewhere other than my home) and trick and strategies to do so. I have mostly retrained my taste buds so now processed and restaurant foods taste "too sweet" or "too salty". "Too salty" is a frequent complaint these days. My blood pressure has improved drastically, I don't recall the exact numbers but it was low enough to catch my attention. All of these changes have been wonderful however the most important one is that I feel STRONGER. I was grateful for the hours I spent in Body Pump this summer when I had to carry five dozen bagels, two dozen pastries and my book bag from my car into a lecture hall a few weeks ago. 

I have an fall/winter workout schedule planned and possibly a 5k coming up....Finally! More on that in later posts. I am resuming my Couch-to-5k training this week in preparation for that and adding in two strength training classes and one Yoga or Pilates class per week. Well, that's all for now folks.

Success: Congratulations (and a huge THANK YOU) to my workout partner on achieving his weight loss goal; he lost 30 lbs over fourteen months! I appreciate having a workout partner even though it is long distance because we keep each other accountable and there is someone to listen to my crazy workout ideas and recipes.

Share: Do you utilize a workout partner to keep you accountable?