Excuses

Excuses, excuses, excuses.  My excuse for not posting in a few days: it slipped my mind.  However since i am not being paid to write this blog, it isn't a source of income, nor does anyone really read it, if I forget it is my bad.  My excuse for being overweight.....i enjoy food.  This is at best a half truth.  I find myself eating so fast i am not enjoying the food at all.  Then find myself so stuffed I don't feel good.  Though I should say that is the old me.  I am really trying not to back down that road.  I am done with the excuses.

Like many of Americans, I have been a yo-yo dieter.  Lose 20 pounds this year, gain it back over the following year.  Last year, 2011, started great.  I did wonderful on my "diet" for three months, lost 30 pounds even, slid a littler here and there with no gain, then packed it on at the end of the year gaining back 10 of the pounds I lost, all while running three days a week.  My excuse then....there are a lot of birthdays and the holidays at the end of the year.

This year......stop the excuses.  I am nearing the end of my three months (my typical diet window before i lose focus) for this year's diet/exercise regimen.  No more excuses.  I will make the time and I will make the effort and I will succeed.   I have a great support system in some friends on the myfitnesspal app.  I have running partners.  I have exercise goals to keep me focused with a half marathon in another four and half months. No more excuses.  When my mind tends to wander off track I look up to the quotes posted on my dresser.  When those aren't enough, I go to pinterest.com and look at my work-out board and that does the trick.  I get back in the mind set.  NO MORE EXCUSES.

Of course this can be applied to most aspects in life.  If we stop making excuses, we will make better decisions to create better outcomes.  I am not saying it will be all sunshine and roses but when you know you have done the very best you could there is nothing for which to make an excuse.  To quote the wonderful Walt Disney, "If you can dream it, you can do it."  So dream big people!!!!

this is me

(in 2010 and my reminder to stop making excuses)

The Power of Positive Thinking

Let me start this by saying I have bad days.  However, I am trying.  In the last few years I have tried hard to think more positively.  I find when you look at the positive side of things, all you begin to see is the positive.  My grandma always taught me to think positive.  And many years later, they made a movie "The Secret" all about the power of positive thinking.  Essentially, it is about putting what you want into the universe and believing you will truly receive it.

There had been some stress in my life for probably the last year, pressure I put myself under.  And when I find myself starting to really feel it I try to imagine a future with those problems solved.  Today, it was like a light came on.  Not only was a major stress relief lifted from my shoulders (Praise to the Lord....he truly works in mysterious ways) but possibly an answer to another challenge was answered too.  I cannot explain how great my mood was this afternoon, and still is.

I have found the same feeling with my running recently.  I wanted to learn to run because I couldn't.  It seemed like such a fundamental thing, running.  After I got chased by a dog, twice, and winter hit I put up my running shoes.  Then last August, I watched an episode of Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition and saw this lady who weighed maybe 300 pounds run the Disneyland Half Marathon.  And I thought to myself, if she can do it, I can do it.  I bought a treadmill of craigslist and started training.  It went ok for a few months.  Treadmill broke, bought a new one (still cheap but gets the job done) and got back on track.  I refocused and started my serious training this February and it was going decently.  Then about a month ago a friend stressed the importance of reading the book Born to Run.  Such and amazing book.  It changed the way I ran, the way I view running, and how I now want running to be a part of my life for the long haul.  My workouts aren't as tedious and I find myself more joyous after the fact.  God made for us these incredible bodies and we aren't using them as we should.  We are made to move, made to run.  We have gotten so far from that, our muscles have forgotten how to work properly.  I may not be a great runner, or a fast runner, but I am a RUNNER.

this is me

(2011 Primo's 5k, my first race)

Good Times!!!!

Roller Skating!!!!!  I put on my skates again after about 5 years of the sitting in the closet.

I LOVE Roller skating.  

It brings back so many memories from my youth.  There were so many field trips and birthday parties at The Golden Skate.  One such field trip in the fifth grade garnered me a detention for entering the rink early, without my teacher.

I went to a small school where every grade had two teachers, the mean/weird/crazy one and the nice one.  I did not have the "nice" one for 3rd, 5th, or 6th grade.  But I did have one of my friends in my class every year from 1st-6th, so it was bearable.  It's not that my teachers weren't nice but the other was always nicer.  I guess I had a case of the grass is always greener from a young age.

I also accomplished finishing my Minnie Mouse clip-on ears for Bay to Breakers today.  In truth I just had to glue everything together.  It was all pieced together about a month ago.  I hope they last through 7.46 miles.  They should, I am not a fast and furious runner.  And i have over two hours to finish the race...i have up to five hours.  Our primary goal is to finish under two hours.  Our insanity goal was 91 minutes, but we have both (myself and my running partner) been hit with minor injuries.  You never know, five more weeks to go.  :o)

This is me

(in the ears i made for B2B)

Rainy Day

So today my run wasn't all that great.  It had nothing to do with the rain since I run on a treadmill in the garage but because my son jumped on me and I fell on my knee.  OUCH!  So this afternoon I did what my husband always accuses me of.....sit on the couch.  Although I was accomplished in that I made my menu for the week, my grocery list and a spreadsheet to figure out who get's what school picture and in what size.  (My son had to go and take 8 awesome shots in one sitting, making my job all that much harder.)  I designed a team logo for the color run (Team Yensid--bonus points for you if you know that name without looking it up), did some computer updates, made a better running play list for Bay to Breakers and I suppose writing this entry is another thing marked off my list without leaving the couch.  :)

In between all that I browsed Pinterest.  Oh how I LOVE LOVE LOVE pinterest.  A place to find all the things I never knew I needed.  Why I found a cake slicer today...a mere $54 plus $12 in shipping from Amazon (and no Prime shipping) for all the layer cakes I make.  (note: extreme sarcasm) HOWEVER, my mind works in such a way that if I were to get this fancy piece of equipment then I would WANT to make more layer cakes.  They are delicious after all.

Martha Stewart's Ultimate Coconut Cake

http://www.marthastewart.com/260375/ultimate-coconut-cake

(seriously the best cake i have put in my mouth)

In the cake above, my husband so kindly cut the layers and it was a very bad day for the diet.  This cake was worth every ounce of effort that was put into it.  IF you are adventurous and like to bake --- go for it!  If you are looking for a mild, plain cake- just make the cake portion of the recipe and forget the rest.  And don't worry about the coconut extract, the taste is so subtle you won't notice.  My husband wants the cake part with chocolate frosting.  He HATED the vanilla bean frosting recipe that came with this recipe, but as a sweets and frosting fan, it was to DIE for.  I would have eaten it all day.

That's all for today.  I need to get my son under control.  He has decided he will be playing with his toys today. And by playing I mean grabbing a bucket of toys, bringing it to a different room, and going through them one by one and then piling them everywhere.  Oh the joys of a five year old.
Until next time.......

This is me

(holding one of our pet scorpions, who is now deceased)

New to this

So here I am, starting a blog and of course my brain stops working.  What to write about???  Is it strange that i don't really want to give out my personal information, even just putting my name on here seems weird.  I'm sure I will, in due time.  


Currently I am sting on the couch watching "Last Man Standing" which I do find quite funny despite the laugh track which has been annoying me of late.  I am sure a lot of my posts will come from the couch since that is when I have some down time. 


Anyhow, it is raining out and we so desperately need the rain.  More so we need the snow in the mountains to give us lake water all summer long so my boys have plenty of fishing.  I actually love the rain.  More so when I get to sit on the couch and watch it out the window rather than having to commute in it.  

So some things that I will probably write about will be my weight loss journey, my running journey, Disney fun facts and memories, favorite recipes or failed attempts at new ones, and whatever random dribble that my brain comes up with.  (yes, i know it's a dangling preposition.)  

 This is me 
 (when my husband and i were dating 8 years ago)