I think my head is more ambitious than my body

Yesterday, after reading Kim's blog (I met her last summer while paddleboarding and I think she's pretty awesome), I decided I needed to incorporated yoga into my daily life and not just on Mondays. At first I thought nap time would be the perfect time for some yoga. I already had quiet music on, the lights off and curtains closed to aid the sleeping of my little people and after a morning of chasing toddlers I knew I could use some zen time. However, it occurred to me that I would have to wait until the kids were all sleeping before I could start. (Believe me, the my three-year-olds would be way too distracted with the Anna show to sleep.) Once they had fallen asleep the baby needed a bottle and then I needed to eat and then... Okay, so maybe nap time isn't the best time for yoga. New plan, I would get up a little bit early in the mornings and start my day with yoga. I could do it in my jammies before I got dressed for the day and it would feel great! Guess what? I slept in a little late and had just enough time to get dressed before opening day care and getting Sami and Nevyn up for school. Oops. But I'm not giving up! Tomorrow, I WILL wake up half an hour early and start my day with yoga before anyone else in the house is even awake. 

Today I came up with another great idea to help my weight loss and fitness goals become a reality. I'm going to swim laps almost every day. Jeremy and I decided a few weeks ago to start swimming together on Friday nights. He's an awesome swimmer and his fitness background is in aquatics. I'm a pretty strong swimmer but I could use his help with technique and how to get the most out of my pool workouts. 

I'm going to brag about my hubby for a minute. He swam in the Sacramento Swim League and even set a few records (they have since been broken, sorry babe, I checked). Then he coached a rec team for ten years (+/-) and then was the head coach for El Camino High School. In addition to coaching, he was a lifeguard, and aquatics manger for our park district, and he was a lifeguard instructor for the Red Cross. He knows his stuff.

Anyway, we have yet to make our Friday night swim date. For three weeks in a row something has come up and it's been canceled but that will change tomorrow. We will be swimming. But I want to swim more than once a week and here are my reasons: 

[1]

My skin really likes chlorine. When I was a kid I never had really bad eczema breakouts during the summer. Why? Because I spent 4-6 hours everyday swimming in our community pool and chlorine in the water kept my eczema in check and killed any bacteria on my skin that would irritate it.   

[2]

It's a great way to slim down. Swimming is a full body workout, you burn a ton of calories and it tones everything. My training has been very hit-or-miss so far this year, I need all the help I can get to get back into shape. 

[3]

I think it will be good for my knees and feet to spend some time off the pavement and it will help condition me for Stand Up Paddlebpoard season. I'm really close to getting my very first SUP and once the weather (and lake water) warm up, I'm going to be out on the water as much as I can.     

[4]

Okay, this is the one that shows how much of a dork I am...  I have decided that I want to look like a surfer. Their bodies and strong but not overly buff and cute as hell. I actually went online this morning and "researched' this. "They" say the best way to get a surfer body (without surfing) is to swim as much as possible. So there you go. I'm going to be in the pool almost as much as I'm running. 

Go ahead, laugh and roll your eyes but I'm going to be ready for summer and any summer-ish activities I want to do because I'm going to be healthy and fit! 

Do you see where the title of this blog comes in? I have, in two days, decided to add yoga to my morning routine and swimming in the evenings after my regular workout. Keep in mind I still work 12 hours a day, have two kids, a husband and all of the responsibilities that come along with the rest of my life. I can logically see how difficult this will be to keep up but I'm still really excited. Tonight's plan is a 5 mile run then, at least, 20 minutes in the pool. Wish me luck!         

Yoga Monday

I usually feel like I'm in limbo on my first day back from vacation but today is an exception. I feel like it's just another Monday but after a very good weekend. It's probably because the weekend (and Friday) was really the best part of my vacation. I was grateful to be off while I was sick though. I had never had strep before and it surprised me how tired it made me. I was literary in bed for five days. Jeremy totally took care of the kids and the meals so I could rest. That was also a new experience. He's usually working when I'm sick and trying to rest up (the weekends) so I have to try to balance taking care of myself and still taking care of my mom and wife responsibilities. Thank you Jeremy!

I haven't been to yoga in about a month! I tried to go last Monday but the class was canceled, the Monday before that I wasn't feeling well, the Monday before that I was too tired to get my lazy ass to the gym and the Monday before that was when that dog ran out into the middle of the street and into my car when I was on my way to the gym. Totally different kind of down dog...  But tonight I will be there, in class, at 7:30. I'm really excited. Yoga helps keep me balanced. I leave class calm, relaxed and with an all over sense of feeling good. It's a very similar feeling I get after spending the day on the coast. 

I feel like I've been dealing with a lot of internal stress lately. I'm on edge a lot, I've been feeling overly stimulated when there are a lot of things of noises going on at the same time and I feel anxious a lot. These are all very abnormal feelings for me. I'm normally pretty laid back and can just roll along with whatever comes my way. I think part if it is my weight. I'm trying to lose weight (about 30 pounds) but I refuse to go on fab diets and meal replacement plans. I know what works but it's not working for me right now and I think this out of balance, out of self thing is playing a role in that. 

My action plan: 

 

 [1]

Running

I'm back to a normal running plan and I really think that will help with both my out of balance issue and the weight will start taking care of it's self. I love running. It makes me feel free and alive. 

[2]

 Bodypump

I'm back to going to three bodypump class a week. It'll help my running and boost my calorie burn. The after burn is amazing! I love the feeling of getting stronger and I'm working with my favorite instructor on better technique, form and adding the right amount of weight at the right time. 

[3]

Yoga

There's two yoga class near me during the week. However, they are both on Mondays at 7:30 so that leaves me with one yoga class a week. That's better than none so I'll take it. Yoga does amazing things for my mind and body. I just need to make sure I do it.

              

                                    [4]

                                        Swimming

My goal is to swim laps one day a week, most likely on Fridays. Thursdays I'm working on speed drills and Saturdays are my long slow runs so Friday would be a perfect fit for swimming. I flake out with swimming a lot. I don't have a friend to go with me to the gym anymore and for the most part, I'm fine with that. With swimming however, I feel uncomfortable going alone. I just need to suck it up and do it. 

   

[5]

Paddling

Jeremy and I are very close to getting our paddleboards and when we do, I'll be paddling on the weekends. It's a full body workout and very gentile on the body not to mention insanely fun. You forget you're doing a workout.

[6]

Nutrition

I do pretty well with this already but there's always room for improvement. I know I need to drink more water during the day and I'm drinking more milk too (organic only, of course). My biggest issue is snacking. 

    

  

That's my plan. I'm hoping to see my race times get better, my weight go down and my pudgy tummy to go away. I'm open to suggestions if you have any. If you're a 24 hour fitness member, local to the Sacramento area and you want to workout together let me know. Use the comments section below. 

I hope you have a great Monday, even if it is a Monday :o)  

Look, I remolded my blog :o)

Did you notice that my blog looks different today? It was getting too busy with all of my color choices and started to look like myspace. I hope it looks better to you too.

Happy Friday! I love Fridays like this. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the kids are sleeping. My sister and I put together a plan for a sister weekend in September so I have that to look forward to and I got to text a little bit with my paddleboarding guru friend who recently up and left me for So Cal. It's been a nice day.

Weekend plans? Do you have any? I'm planning on running about eight miles in the morning before my body pump class at 10:00. After lunch my niece will me hanging out with us and hopefully I wont be too worn out to work in the yard a little. My front and back yards are disastrous! I really want to start reading in the sun during nap time again so I've got get it nice enough for me to want to go out there.

I'm trying to keep my motivation up and continue on my weight lose journey. I haven't kept really good track of my gain and loses recently. Mostly because if I don't weight in often enough I miss seeing the losses before the gains come back. I get so frustrated. I eat well but sometimes I just don't move enough.

Sami's doing well on her broken foot. Her ankle is stiff and the itching drives her crazy but she's getting through it and so are the rest of us. She has discovered that she can't wear her skinny jeans, Jeremy's pretty happy about that. It takes her a lot longer to get ready in the morning-I didn't think that was possible, and she really doesn't like sponge baths. One week down, four to go.

The week after next the kids are off from school (president's day has turned into president's week) and Jeremy and I both took the week off too. I really want to spend a day at the beach but that might not be a good idea. I can only imagine how it would feel to have sand stuck in a cast. We'll find something fun for us to do on our vacation. Jeremy, the kids and our neighbor's son plan on spending one day watching all of the Star Wars movies in order. I'll pass, thanks. Maybe that's the day I should go to the beach, hummm. (Just kidding, Jeremy)

I registered for another 5K last night. This one is The Giant Race in San Francisco. The finish line is actually in the ball park on the field. I wasn't suppose to be able to register for this one until next week, yesterday was for past participants to register. However, the race directors posted the promo code on facebook so I tried it and it got me on to the registration page. One of the questions was "did you participate in this event last year?" I checked the "no" box and got ready for it to kick me off the page but it didn't. I felt so special! I'm super excited about this race and my sister is going to go with me. We are turning it into a sister weekend. It'll be the first time we have ever gone out of town, just the two of us (other than visiting family). It's going to be great!

More good news: Jeremy and I are getting a refund this year! It's the first time since I opened my business that we'll be getting one. I don't know if I'm more excited about getting money back or about not owing. We're not going to be too extravagant. We're sticking a chunk into savings. We'll have to pay for Jeremy's school in a few months so the timing is awesome. We're going to get Jeremy a new computer, a new mattress for us and, the most exciting thing of all, we both are going to get paddleboards!!!!! Every time I think about it I feel like I'm floating! I wish we could afford to get two more boards so the kids can paddle too but it's a great start.

So, enough about me. How's your Friday going?

   

My Selfish List of 10

Today's blog is a list. I list of all the things I'm "saving up" for.

They are numbered but there really isn't any order to this dream list. 

[1]

The America River Parkway parking pass. My family and I love to spend time on, near and in the river. I also love to run on the bike trail so a parking pass would save us money in the long run.

[2]

This parking pass is good for Cali state parks! We don't go to state parks very often but I think having the parking pass would be an extra intensive to go.  

[3]

This is the Mahina by Boga and I really like this board! I feel pretty sturdy on it without being too sturdy. I LOVE SUP!

[4]

This woul be necessarily for my board. 

[5]

I really need to get a bike. It would be so much fun to go on bike rides with the kids. Also, having a bike would make it so much easier to do triathlons.

[6]

A sweatsuit would also come in handy for triathlons. I would use it during the winter for paddleboarding too. It's been a pretty sunny winter but the water is still cold-brrr. 

[7]  

 I saw this the other night at the gym and kind of fell in love with it. I do need to get a new day pack for hiking and this one has all the right pockets in all the right places. (I have a thing for pockets)  

 [8]

I totally need this for all of my medals (currently 3) and the ones I'll continue to earn. 

[9]

At first I was going to add a double jogger to this list but since I'm dreaming, I may as well make it a tripple. Beside, it's more likely to have three day care kids once in a while than two. (I normally have five.)

[10]

A Hawaiian vacation. Need I say more?