How is it March 10th?!

Today's workouts:
Upper Fix from 21 Day Fix
3.41 mile run
I'm getting old, kids.  And this time I'm not just saying that because I ordered a cross stitch kit from Etsy (though that did happen) - I'm saying it because somehow, I looked up today, and it was March 10th.  How did it get to be March 10th?!  Seriously, didn't this year just start?  Didn't I just make New Year's Resolutions?  DIDN'T I JUST BLOG?!!
The answer to that, of course, is no.  I haven't blogged in nearly two months.  Have I put it on my to do list almost every day?  Absolutely.  Have I thought about it?  Yup.  But I haven't done it.  Not my proudest moment, but it's not because I was hiding.  It's because, as it turns out, I've got quite a balancing act going on right now.  Working full time job with Disney, trying to get my Beachbody business up and running, getting used to living with Jamie and our fur person, working out more, meal planning, and cooking... WOOF.  Seriously.  I don't know how mothers function.  I can barely handle feeding the cat.


But today I decided to focus on getting things done.  I made a to do list.  I finished half of it.  I'm starting to understand what people mean when they say there aren't enough hours in the day.  So in lieu of discussing how many things are left unchecked on my to do list right now, let's catch up on a few big things that have happened since I last blogged!

1.  I started and finished the 21 Day Fix!  I will admit that I didn't follow it perfectly - but it was damn close!  The one really hard part was trying to balance the 21 Day Fix workouts with my runs because I was in the last stretch of training for the Princess Half.  But even with a few changes in the workout plan and a few slip ups in the eating plan, I ended up losing 3 pounds in the 21 days!  It wasn't a drastic change, but it was progress, and that was all I wanted!


2.  I became an Emerald Beachbody Coach!  Last time I blogged, I explained that I had just become a Beachbody Coach.  At the time, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I just signed up because I wanted to get 21 Day Fix, I wanted to try Shakeology, and if I liked both of them, I wanted to help people reap the same benefits I was seeing.  Now, almost two months later, I realize what a powerful choice becoming a coach really was.  My personal commitment to my own health and fitness goals has skyrocketed because coaching has held me accountable.  My team of coaches puts on monthly challenge groups which have added to my accountability, and helped motivate and encourage me on days that I struggle.  And that's just me.  The really rewarding part of coaching has been seeing my friends and family see their own amazing results.  I had one challenger lose 8 pounds on 21 Day Fix, another lose 9 pounds, and one of my best friends in the whole world lost 15 pounds.   Fifteen pounds in three weeks!  BOOM!  On top of seeing amazing results, some of my challengers have also seen how motivating and encouraging coaches are, and how life changing the challenge groups can be.  These are the people who have reached out to me about becoming a coach themselves.  And THIS is how I became Emerald.  Being an Emerald Beachbody Coach just means that I have brought two people into coaching under me.  So I'm building a team!  This is something that I am ridiculously excited about and have some incredible ideas for.  I'm so pumped about my team I can hardly stand myself.


3.  I ran my ninth half marathon!  Sometimes I can't quite believe that I've run one half marathon, let alone nine of them and a full marathon too.  But the Princess Half Marathon on February 22nd marked my ninth official half marathon.  And coming up in May, I'll be running my tenth!  This continues to blow my mind.



4.  I started a hybrid of 21 Day Fix and PiYo!  I loved the 21 Day Fix, really.  I will admit that I had some ups and downs with it, but that was mostly due to the fact that I am terrible at meal planning, and would let myself get too hungry and frustrated.  That's something I continue to work on.  I bought myself a meal planner and am hoping that helps!  But as much as I loved 21 Day Fix, it does come with a unique problem - it's over in three weeks.  So at the end of the three weeks, I found myself wondering what I would do next.  I knew I didn't want to repeat 21 Day Fix exactly again for three more weeks, especially because it was hard to balance those workouts with running.  So I decided to make myself a hybrid.  For the month of March, I have combined 21 Day Fix with another program called PiYo, which is a blend of Pilates and yoga created by my hero and my nemesis, Chalene Johnson.  Chalene tends to create pretty tough workouts (TurboFire, anyone?) and PiYo is no exception.  But it's a great low impact break for my joints, and a great cross training for my running.  So why did I keep the 21 Day Fix workouts?  Because they're fun!  They're 30 minutes!  I really do love them and plan on using them more in the future.



Well, I think that about wraps up the big highlights of the past month and a half.  In addition to recommitting to my fitness, I plan on recommitting to this blog.  I can't guarantee I'll be blogging daily, but at least a few times a week is the goal.  Fingers crossed!

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A fresh start.

Let me start by saying I'm not big on New Year's resolutions.  I never have been.  I generally fall victim to the standard stereotype - I make a resolution, I follow through for anywhere from a week to a month or two, and then I fall off the bandwagon.  Then I beat myself up about it for a while, forget, and make the same mistake the next year.  So it's been a long time since I made a New Year's resolution. 


That changed this year.  To be perfectly honest, 2014 was one of the hardest years of my life.  Some really amazing things happened, but there were also a lot of bad things too.  I hit rough patches all year - in my work life, in my personal life, in my health.  Since coming back to Disney, I've gained about 25 pounds.  I told myself I would get back to my goal weight in 2014.  I tried to get back on the wagon with Weight Watchers and I failed.  I tried to get back to running regularly and I failed.  I tried new workout programs, DVDs, and protein shakes.  And with every single try, I failed.


I'd love to say that 2015 started and everything immediately changed, but to be honest, the first week or two of January 2015 were just as bad as 2014.  Jamie tried to tell me that we just had to get through the last of bad stuff, but I felt like the year was doomed right off the bat.  Turns out Jamie was right (don't tell him) because January 2015 was actually the start of some great things.

I broke my vow to not make New Year's resolutions.  I did make some resolutions this year.  I made them quietly, in my head, and did not share them right away.  But now that I'm making progress on them, I feel like it's okay to let them out.  So here goes nothing.

My Resolutions for 2015
1.  To get back into the health and fitness industry.
2.  To become a Les Mills instructor (especially for BodyJam).
3.  To get back to my goal weight and help others do the same.

When I made this list, my idea of getting back into the health and fitness industry and help people reach their weight loss goals was going back to Weight Watchers.  I have missed being a Weight Watchers Leader so much for the past few years and I was set on getting back to it.  But the reality is, a lot of things need to happen in order for me to be a Leader again.  I need to get back to my own goal weight first, which will take months of hard work - it's work I'm ready to do, but it's not easy, and it won't happen overnight.  Plus, it would mean needing to find a Weight Watchers center that needs Leaders, and making those meetings work with my ever changing schedule with Disney.  That's an obstacle that is much harder to overcome than my weight because it's something I don't really have control over.

Meanwhile, something came onto my radar that I was very intrigued by: a Beachbody program called 21 Day Fix.  The program combines 30 minute daily workouts with a simple nutrition plan centered around clean eating.  And when I say simple, I mean simple.  The nutrition plan comes with color coded containers for different food groups (green for veggies, purple for fruits, etc.) and guidelines on what goes into each container.  Once you understand what food goes in what container, the premise is easy: if it fits into the container, you can eat it.  The 21 days is so that the workouts and the clean eating become a habit.  It's not a cleanse, it's not a crazy crash diet, it's not one of those things that makes you cry and binge eat cake later.


I wanted to try it.  I wanted 21 days of easy nutrition and short, doable workouts.  What I really wanted was 21 days of results - something I hadn't been seeing in months of half assed running and sometimes kinda showing up to the gym.

What I got was even more than that.

I decided that if I was going to resolve to get back to my goal weight this year, that I needed to go all in.  So not only did I buy 21 Day Fix, but I bought the Challenge Pack for 21 Day Fix, which combined the workouts and nutrition plan with Shakeology, a superfood shake created by Beachbody.  I've wanted to try Shakeology for years and could never get over the sticker shock of it being $130 for a month.  Then I realized that my Dunkin' Donuts budget was more than $130 a month.  Well, damn.  That's sobering.  So I quit Dunkin' Donuts (I'm so sorry, DD) and bought Shakeology.  And I didn't just buy the Challenge Pack.  I made a decision that I have been toying with for years.

I've already met my New Year's Resolution to get back into the health and fitness industry and to help people lose weight.  I'm now officially a Beachbody Coach.

Was this a tough decision to come to?  Absolutely.  I have known a lot of Coaches over the years who are like pushy car salesmen.  I don't want to be a pushy car salesmen.  But I've also known Coaches (like my personal Coach) who aren't pushy.  They're caring.  They're supportive.  They're encouraging.  And THAT is the kind of Coach that I wanted to be.

I miss being a Weight Watchers Leader so much, but with my schedule and current location, it isn't feasible. I want to become a fitness instructor, but I'm still a work in progress. Beachbody lets me coach while still being a work in progress. In fact, I think it makes me a better Coach because let's face it, I'm not perfect - you all know that. I've got pounds to lose and bad habits to break out of. But I'd love to lose those pounds and break those habits with people I love by my side, and I'd love to help those people do the same. So if you're interested in joining me, in making 2015 the year that you see progress - please reach out.  If you're not interested, don't worry - this blog will have Beachbody stuff added to it, but it will also still be filled with running, sarcasm, and silly pictures.  But get ready for some serious progress pictures too. 2015 WILL be my year!

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Excuse me, 2014? Where do you think you're going?

Today's run:
4.21 miles in 60:00

My run tonight was everything you want running to be all the time.  The weather was lovely and it stayed light outside just long enough to let me hit the hour mark (and yes, I assume it stayed light just for me).  It was cloudy and cool, but not cold.  The run felt challenging, but invigorating and refreshing at the same time.  Seriously.  It was poetic.

However, it was also the only productive thing I've done all day today, unless you count creating an Influenster account and writing random reviews of things.  I meant to do my dishes and take out my trash, but both of those things sounded super exhausting because they required getting off the couch.


But I'm trying not to beat myself up for relaxing today because it's been a rough few weeks (months, really) and I'm trying to be better about taking care of myself.  I've gotten into a bad habit of thinking that the only way to take care of myself is to push myself into workouts and try to pack as much into every day as possible and while there are definite benefits to that, I realized I was on a very quick path to burn out.  So it's okay that my biggest accomplishments today will be an hour long run, a few online reviews, and a blog post.

I know I have a lot of catching up to do since my last post was in July.  The long and short of it is that life got very crazy in lots of great and a few really tough ways.  There were some days and weeks in the past few months that I didn't see an end in sight and I thought there was no light at the end of the tunnel.  There were some days I felt very depressed and very desperate.  I am very happy to say that I think I've turned a corner, though, and the world seems right again.

Among other things, Jamie and I signed a lease on a new place together and will be moving in very soon.  It's a big step, but I think it's a good one.  To save my sanity (and allow me to keep all my stuff like a good little hoarder) we signed a lease on a two bedroom.  It's a really lovely place and I'm really excited about it.  Plus, he's got some great job prospects up ahead, so life is good there.  I finished training to be a VIP Tour Guide (!!!) and I start a three-week stint with that team in just a few days.  Lots of exciting stuff!

But I suppose I should go take out that trash now... here goes nothing.

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I'm officially in love.

Today's workouts:
Kelly Coffey-Meyer's 30 Minutes to Fitness: Trim Down
Kelly Coffey-Meyer's 30 Minutes to Fitness: Weights

In the last few weeks, I've realized that I have started doing a lot of cardio and have completely abandoned strength training.  The gym that I go to has great classes, many of which are Les Mills.  I actually joined the gym for Body Pump, which I fell in love with years ago.  But strangely enough, I really don't go to Body Pump.  I go to Body Jam, Sh'Bam, and Zumba... and occasionally, if I'm feeling brave, I'll go to Body Flow.  When you combine all that dancing with my running, I've got cardio covered, but no weights.  So I was actually working really hard, but I didn't look like I'd been working at all.


I toyed with the idea of going back to P90X.  I tried Insanity and hated it, tried T25 and felt like I was going to die.  P90X was the only thing that got me into amazing shape that I could stick with.  But then I remembered that when I did P90X, I had no job, no social life, and my boyfriend lived in another state.  I had all the time in the world to exercise, make protein shakes, and annoy my family by complaining about how sore I was.  Now that I work a full time job (where I'm on my feet all day, usually in heels), kinda sorta have a social life, and have a boyfriend who lives two minutes away from me, I don't really have the time or energy to exercise for two hours a day.

Which brings me to my new love: Kelly Coffey-Meyer.  She answered all my prayers!  Affordable workout DVDs that I can do right in my apartment?  A great weight-lifting routine that does not require me to hire a personal trainer?  And all of this in just 30 minutes?!!


Seriously.  These workouts are amazing.  I am planning to do a full review of each one individually as I get more comfortable with them.  I originally bought 30 Minutes to Fitness: Weights based on the reviews it had gotten.  I did it twice and was so happy with it that I went back and bought several more of her DVDs.  They are all fantastic.  She has a very no-nonsense style that I appreciate - she's not barking commands at me like Jillian Michaels, she's not flexing her own muscles and bragging like Tony Horton.  And while I truly love Chalene Johnson in all her Turbo glory, she is sometimes a little too much of a peppy cheerleader for me.  Kelly Coffey-Meyer is just there to workout, which is all I need right now.  And in 30 minutes, she makes me work very hard, but I don't feel dead at the end. 

Specific reviews to come, but now I have to change out of my sweaty clothes and work on that kinda sorta social life.  Good evening, blogging world!
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I should rename this blog.

Today's workout:
3.56 mile run

When I went out for my run tonight, it was almost 8 pm and still about 90 degrees outside.  It was hot, humid, and sticky.  I was slow.  I was slow not only because of the heat but because of the fact that I was still uncomfortably full from the lunch that I had several hours earlier.


I met my friend Haylee for lunch at a place called Logan's Roadhouse.  I'd never even heard of the place before Haylee mentioned it, so I looked up the menu.  It looked pretty standard.  Not true.  Logan's Roadhouse is glorious.  It is the place where dreams come true, and I work at the Magic Kingdom, so if I say it, it must be fact.  Everything on the menu looked fantastic.  But I am only one month away from Dumbo Double Dare, so I'm trying to get my workouts in and watch what I eat.  So I was looking at a grilled chicken sandwich, but something took over my mouth when it came time to order.  It was crazy.  Instead of ordering the BBQ chicken sandwich with the BBQ sauce on the side... my mouth started asking for a fried cheese and bacon burger with sweet potato fries.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  A fried cheese and bacon burger.

I can't even lie about it - that was one of the best burgers I've ever eaten.  Whoever thought of putting fried cheese on a burger is my hero.  The burger was amazing, the bacon was amazing, the cheese was amazing... my hands were shiny because of all the grease, but I don't even care.  I can't begin to fathom how many Weight Watchers PointsPlus values I consumed in devouring that thing (yes, I absolutely ate the entire burger) so I think I'll just track it as 30 and move on.

Haylee and I had lunch about 2:30 and when it came time to get ready for my run at about 7:30, I was still full.  Really full.  I have no idea how I got through my run, especially with the heat, but even after a three mile run, I am still full.  Logan's Roadhouse, what kind of sorcery are you performing?!  And more importantly... when can I see you again?!

So maybe "Running with Pixie Dust" isn't the most accurate name that I could have given this blog.  Is it too late to sell my domain and buy "Running with Fried Cheese" instead?

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Another triumphant return/Triple Tangent Tuesday

Today's workout:
4.27 mile run

I will admit something shameful to anyone who happens to still be reading this (which I have a feeling is no one).  I have been looking at this blog for weeks.  Just staring at it.  Obviously not updating it, since my last post was in April.  I've been running, so I could have written about that.  I've started lifting weights again, so I could have written about that.  I am back on Weight Watchers and have tracked successfully for a month now, so I could have written about that.  Meaning I could have updated this blog with any of the things that I used to write about in it.

No idea why I didn't.

But here I am on my day off, after I've spent the entire day getting things done... and I thought it was about damn time I show up to my own blog.

I would love to say I had some great things to say about my run this morning, but the truth is, there's not much to say about my running lately.  Any of my runs in the past few weeks can be summed up in two facts:  it is hot and I am slow.  This morning did have a little bit of adventure though, when a bunch of guys from a lawn care company followed me in their truck and then one of them made kissy faces at me and pretended to lick me.  Why, hello there, sexual harassment!


But in lieu of pitching a fit about HOW MUCH I HATE IT WHEN GUYS THINK THEY CAN OGLE ME WHILE I'M RUNNING... I thought it would be much better to bring back a tradition that I stole from the beautiful Janae.  The Triple Tangent Tuesday!

1.  I am horribly addicted to a game called Fish out of Water.  You throw fish across the water and see how far they will go and how many times you can make them skip on the surface.  It is as dumb as it sounds, but I cannot stop playing it.  I completely drained my iPad battery playing it.  It's bad.


2.  In trying to create that image (which took much longer than it should have because I have issues), I went to Picnik and had a near panic attack when I was reminded that there is no more Picnik.  How could I add text to all of my pictures?!  How could I make them more fun and entertaining for a blog that probably no one reads anymore?!  Then I consulted Lord Google and found out about Ribbet.  Crisis averted, everyone!


3.  I have decided that I need to completely overhaul my wardrobe.  I have also decided that I need to monogram everything in sight.  It is becoming a problem, especially because I really enjoy working 32 to 36 hours a week.  I kid about marrying money, but seriously... it might be my best option.  Sorry, Jamie.  Regardless, the following are things that I have decided I absolutely must have.

This monogrammed boyfriend tank in every color.  I feel like the monogram makes it super classy and adorable, so it distracts from the fact that really, I just want to live in unisex tank tops all summer.

This monogrammed boyfriend tank in every color.  You may be noticing a trend here.  But look!  This one is different!  It has a bow and Lilly Pulitzer!  So obviously I need to buy every color from both sellers.

ALL of the Land's End totes.  I have one and now I want 15 more.  Why do I want more?  One should be plenty.  But it's not.


And that's it.  I got followed by some creepers, I am obsessed with a game of throwing fish, and I want monogrammed everything.  Goodnight!

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As per usual, I am back on the bandwagon.

Today's workout:
3.09 mile run

I am not going to bother with the whole "I'm back" blog post.  I've done it too many times and then completely failed at actually being back, so I'm skipping it.  I am hoping this means that I won't actually fail at being back this time.


Today I ran 3 miles.  Yesterday I ran 3 miles.  No idea where this surge of running energy has come from, but I am hoping it sticks around.  The plan was to run 3 miles today and then go to a yoga class at the gym.  But then Dunkin' Donuts caramel iced coffee, my couch, and Say Yes to the Dress happened.  So no yoga class.  I am planning on forcing myself into my swimsuit later to do some laps in the pool.  I haven't been swimming in a while and I kind of miss it.

It's my day off today, so I have a nice to-do list of things I need to get done.  Doing the dishes is on there, as is cleaning my apartment.  So is swimming.  Shockingly, neither online shopping nor fantasizing about the Sperry Top Sider watch that I saw at TJ Maxx two days ago made it onto the to-do list.  And yet, what am I doing...?  To be fair, there is some pretty great online shopping happening.  I have recently discovered a website called Look Human that sells fantastic shirts.  They are currently having a sale on tank tops and since it is approaching summer here in Florida (also known as the hottest circle of hell) tank tops are a necessity.  Things that may have to be purchased today, despite the fact that I have no money and a Comcast bill due:

I like running...

Exercise gives you endorphins...

Dear Lord...

Disregard the fact that I literally just complained to Jamie the other day that I hate my wardrobe and since I am nearly 27 years old (!!!) it is time for me to dress like a mature woman.  A mature woman would have a neon tank top with a movie quote on it, right?  And I know a mature woman would thank the good Lord for men in tight pants.  That's a thing.

Eeep.  I think it's time for me to stop.  I have more mature woman things to do like microwave some hot dogs for lunch.  In retrospect... maybe I should have gone with the "I'm back" post.  It would have been less embarrassing than this mess.


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