Swimming, my first love.

I swam today. It was SOOO nice! I miss swimming. I used to swim all the time. So, I wasn't 100% sure what to do for a workout since it'd been SOO long. I started out with freestyle. I did 100 freestyle and at first my body wanted to breathe every 3 strokes like I used to, but that only lasted 50 yards before I had to start breathing every stroke. After I warmed up some I did 100 breast stroke, 100 side stroke, 100 freestyle, 100 breast stroke. After that I was feeling a little beat, so I pulled out the kickboard and switched off and on for 50 yards between flutter kick and breast stroke kick. I swam for 30 minutes and when I got out of the pool my arms were a little wobbly. I guess I didn't realize how much of a work out it really was. 800 yards in 30 minutes, not bad! I bet I will feel it tomorrow. All these new muscles that haven't been worked in forever. 

I'm really excited to do this every Tues and Thurs. The girls did great at the child center while I swam. Rose played and Emmett slept, what more could a mom ask for!?

Lost my mojo

Ugh... 

See, this is what happens when I don't eat as much as I should, I lose my mojo halfway through the workout. I was running off of 230 calories. That's not enough for a nursing momma. I stopped at 25 min, but pushed 5 more min to make it an even 30. I need to eat more before a workout and I need to drink more. Poor little Emmett wasn't too happy with me, his milk wasn't as filling as it normally is. 

Tomorrow I'm swimming. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my new swimming days. I'll run M,W,F, & SAT, but Tues and Thurs are going to be swimming. It's been forever since I've swam. I was on the swim team in 7th grade. As a teen I was a lifeguard and I'd swim 500+ yards like it was nothing. Now, I'm hoping to use it to shake up my exercise and get in better shape. I remember in high school telling my PE teacher that I'd swim a mile before I'd ever run a mile. LOL! 

4.5 miles! Yeah!

I did 4.5 miles in 60 min!! Yeah!! I felt great!! I ran 5 min/walked 2-3 min. I was SO excited to hit 4.5 miles. My max pace was 6.5, but that was only for a couple minutes. I walked at 4 and ran at 5. I even got it done earlier in the day. 

I like it!

Yesterday I took a rest day. Today I exercised. I walk/ran again. I got the first 25 minutes done before Emmett needed to eat. Mmmm... sweaty milk. lol! It wasn't until an hour later that I was able to finish my workout. The second half I started out run/walking and did 3 minutes run 2 minutes walk. I did one section that was 5 minutes running 3 minutes walking. I was feeling good, so I kept going to the full 5 minutes. I even ran one of the minutes at 6.0! Yay! I am really liking this run/walking. It makes the workout go by faster and I feel less warn out. 

I feel good today. It's nice to get my exercise done way before bedtime. I should really do it first thing in the morning, but I've gotta get all the sleep I can right now. Maybe in a couple months. 

Walk, run, walk, run, walk, run... repeat

So, I upped my time this week to 50 minutes. Today, rather than pushing my knee trying to run the whole time, I decided to run/walk the whole time. I walked the first 5 minutes and then ran 2 @5mph and walked 3 @ 4mph over and over until I hit 50 minutes. I feel like I got a better workout doing it that way and I didn't feel COMPLETELY exhausted after. I may have to keep doing it like that. I like the little break cause it helps me push it during the running part. Tomorrow I'll do the same. I may switch it to run 3 walk 2. We'll see. My knee was feeling good. It wasn't hurting, but I know if I pushed it, it would have hurt. 

Today's my hubby's 32nd birthday. Birthdays are a big deal in our family. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner...with 5 kids. HAHAHA! It wasn't easy.... Honestly though, the kids did pretty well. I think what made the situation tough was the fact that we have done SO well eating right for the past month and then went to and had this heavy fat loaded dinner (Country fried steak, 4 rolls with honey butter, a house salad with Italian dressing, and LOADED mashed potatoes). You never feel good when you're doing something wrong, no matter what it is. Today eating wrong changed the tune of our whole night. So much so, that we didn't even do a birthday cake. We felt so bad for eating that stuff that we couldn't bring ourselves to eat the cake too. Tomorrow we're back on track 100% and we'll do his birthday cake knowing that we earned it with eating right and working hard.

Gotta stay positive.

My knee's still aching some, so I've been trying to take it easy.

I got a new pair of shoes and we've been doing a 3 mile route around the lake as a family on a couple of the days (Saturday an Monday). Today I tried out the new shoes on the treadmill. I kept it around 3.5-4 cause my left knee was bugging me some. I keep telling myself that something is better than nothing and I've got to keep going even if I don't want to get out there. I didn't lose the weight last time by skipping out an cutting myself short. I lost it by working hard and being consistent. I'm almost at 5 lbs down. Not too bad for only doing this a couple weeks.

I tried making this sweet potato cauliflower soup for lunch today. It was SOO BLAND! Which reminds me... I had no meat today. Weird. I've never really done that before that I know of. I made eggplant Parmesan for dinner tonight. It was pretty good! I've never had eggplant before. The thing I noticed about today, I actually ate more today than I do on days I eat more protein. Interesting.

Tomorrow I hope to go outside again and get a walk in, but that will all depend on the weather.

Saturday's walk. The kids had fun, the weather was GREAT! We loved it!

Monday's walk was COOOOOLD!

The older kids did well scooting on their scooters, but the wind had such a COLD bite to it that the little kids were miserable halfway through and we had to cut it short. 

Slow 3 miles. I walked 90% of it between 3.5 and 4.

My hubby's SO great! He took me to get some new shoes after our walk on Saturday. I LOVE these shoes! Great cushion and they fit GREAT!

A little ache

Well, the past two days I didn't get any runs in and I can make excuses, but the two main ones are: I got my exercise through cleaning the house and my inner knees are aching a little. I think they needed a break from the treadmill. Today I couldn't get up to the pace I was hoping for until 35 minutes into it. Oh, well...at least I got up and did it. Tomorrow I'm hoping to run outside. If I'm still sore, it's either my shoes or the fact that the race I did had a BIG down hill and BIG up hill or that my I'm pushing it too much on the treadmill. 

I'm feeling good though. I feel like eating right and exercising is making a difference. My clothes aren't fitting any different yet and I'm not feeling totally sluggish on my runs, but I know it'll pay off the more I do it. I just need to not think about running and just do it. 

^That was me a couple times this week.

Keep on keeping on.

Jason's arm showing off the BodyBugg.

On January 24th Jason and I got our BodyBuggs in the mail after seeing this post by Our Best Bites. We've been using them and tracking with them every day since then and I LOVE it! As a mother of 5 you don't really realize all you do around the house. You don't ever really count it as exercise cause, well... it's what you do every day and it's not "exercise". After wearing the Bugg I can tell what days I do more chores and what days I just let it go. It's really been helpful in keeping me moving through out the day. The only downside I have seen is the syncing between the iphone and the Bugg. At first it was working great, but for some reason it started deleting my steps and syncing to the last sync. One day I did over 8500 steps and I synced it and it dropped down to 4200. Yeah, I wasn't happy. Now, I just plug it into the computer throughout the day and the info will show up on my iphone. 

1. (1-24-13) I started watching I Love Lucy while getting my exercise in. The goal is 15 min of vigorous and 30 min of moderate exercise.

2. (1-25-13) We went on a walk as a family around the lake in the cold. I'd say we got in about 2.5 miles. 

3. (1-28-13) 25 min on the elliptical and 20 min on the treadmill. I even ran (slow) for the 20 minutes!!

4. (1-29-13) "Ran" 15 min walked the rest. :) It was more of a trudge than a run, but I wasn't walking so, it counts! lol

5. (1-30-13) More Lucy, more treadmill. Gotta get back into running shape.

6. (1-31-13) Getting into a groove. Going farther in the same amount of time. Yay!

7.  (2-1-13) The joys of running on a treadmill.

8. (2-2-13) A walk around the neighborhood and then back and forth in the living room while watching Groundhog Day to finish off my 8000 steps for the day.

9. (2-4-13) They kept me company while I ran and upped the time by 5 min. Hit 4.7 on the treadmill.

10. (2-6-13) YES! I hit 3 miles! Ran 18 min of it. Yeah! Hit 4.8 on the treadmill

11. (2-9-13) Hale Freezes Over 5k!! 

12. (2-11-13) 3 mile walk/run!

13. (2-12-13) I didn't want to, but I did it anyway!! :) I ran a majority of it too and hit 5.0 on the treadmill. 

I'm going to try my hardest to get back to writing on here everyday. It's really nice to look back and read and see how far I've come. 

Oh! My starting weight on the BodyBugg was 220.6. My eating has been under control and I still have more than enough milk to feed Mr. Emmett. Yay for not losing my milk!

Hale Freezes Over 5k

This morning I got up and fed Emmett around 7 and then got everything ready for the race. I had to pick up my Bountiful Basket at 8, so I had to make sure I had everything ready to go. The forecast called for snow and temps in the 20s. I figured I'd bring my Yaktrax with me just incase it's really bad. Though, when I woke up there was only a light dusting of snow and I knew I'd be ok. I got everything all set up and ready and headed down to Orem for the race.

I was one of the first people there. I like being there early, it's a lot less stressful then trying to find a parking spot and such with everyone else. I picked up my packet while the race director was telling all the volunteers that the roads were slick and to tell everyone not to try for a PR. I was glad I brought my Yaktrax, but I was still debating on using them. I went back to the car to keep warm when one of the volunteers came knocking on the window cause I forgot to grab my bib. Well, duh... I totally forgot about the bib. Goes to show you how long it's been since I've ran a race.

It was about 45 minutes til the race started and I thought it'd be a good time to pump. I figured it'd feel better to pump right before the race... Gotta lighten the load. LOL!

It was time for the race to start. We headed down to the start line and I stood off to the side. I always stand off to the side towards the back of the group. I'm too slow to get up where everyone else is. I started out fine. My lower legs started aching while they warmed up, but I kept trudging along. I ran the first 1.6 miles without stopping. I knew there was a BIG hill coming up, so I chose to walk for about a 1/4 mile so I'd have enough energy to get up the hill. Once I came to the hill I started running again. I kept telling myself not to look up the hill. I didn't want to get discouraged. I made it up the hill, snow, ice, and all. I kept running and finished off the race strong. 

My goal was to beat the time I ran it the first time which was 44.49. I ended up running in 42.05. Not too bad considering I'm starting from scratch. 

My next race will be the South Jordan St. Patrick's Day 5k.