Find Your Motivation

I'm 5 runs in to my new running program. Every runner will tell you that it's a mental game. I get that, but my body tells me I'm playing a different game.
The thought of running for 40 straight minutes frankly bores me.
I need to mix it up. The new app has me running for 3 minutes, walking for 2, and sprinting for 1, rotating through that for 40 minutes. I tell myself I can do anything for 3 minutes. I'm starting to see the truth to the mental game.
Now that my mind is on-board, I need my body.....so I went shoe shopping.
I learned that I need to size up in order to have enough room for my feet to swell. I wonder if that's true for my running pants? Or maybe just an overall theme for my jeans.
The new shoes did the trick. I shaved about a minute off my pace. (Although I only had room to go up.)
Here's what I learned today from the running app's tips.

• Size up for swelling
• Dress like it will be 15 degrees warmer. (Something that Brooke does every day.)
• Bring a 1/2 frozen water bottle, fill the other 1/2 with water. (You'll have 1/2 a frozen hand.)

And my own tip - Don't try to schedule a run at the same time every day. If your schedule changes often, like mine does, just jump in when you can. I made the mistake for years trying to schedule exercise. Now I see an open hour, and fill it with a run. 

Most importantly: Find any motivation you can.....mine was in the form of new shoes!

Can't wait for tomorrow!

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Day Trip

Finding a day trip that excites a 7, 10, and 13 year old is not as easy as you might think. They each have their own unique interests, each of whom think the other's isn't as interesting.

Brooke is the easy one. At 7, everything is still new and exciting! If we are all together, that's the only thing that matters, and of course if it has a souvenir shop.

Jack is in the 10 year old video game stage. He wants to hang out online with his friends with no interruptions, all day, every day. Yesterday he told me that Winter is his off season, and the only time he has to play video games. I'm surprised he hasn't moved to tropical climates during his "off" season.

And Nate, the leader of the pack, the one that sets the tone for the day, is happiest if everyone else falls in line, and nobody does anything "cringy". Translation = embarrassing. He has a great interest in world affairs, and is craving travel. He's made it very clear that he loves big cities, and cold weather. So a Maui vacation doesn't fit his idea of adventure. Now you can see our dilemma, Nate's day of fun doesn't fit with Jack's off season goals.

I had one more day off after President's Day and decided to take all three to SF. We've done a lot of touristy things in the past, so I thought we would try a new museum. I chose the Cartoon Art Museum simply because it's right next door to Ghiradelli and if it was super boring then the ice cream would fix it. Turns out my theory was true for 2 out of 3 of them. (Let's call them the naysayers.)

It's a cute little museum that showed pictures of how animation is created, and famous comic book series from the early 1900's. The best part for the two naysayers was a cartoon creation station. Each of us had the opportunity to draw our own cartoon character. It went South when the naysayers laughed at the happy one's Mickey.

At that point, my patience had run out, but I wanted to salvage what time we had left, so we ordered some sundaes and then called it a day. You can see from the photos that at least the weather was perfect. :) Here's hoping the forecast for the teenage years starts to look a bit sunnier.

More than 5LB

I read a tip recently where the woman said her secret to staying at her goal weight was to never let herself get more than 5lbs away. She then scales back everything she eats until she gets back to the weight she wants. While this sounds doable, maybe 13 years ago, I'm not sure it's still that simple anymore. What happens if your 5lbs have turned into 17?

If I take a close look at my daily routine, the main difference now is my lack of exercise, maybe a little more cheese and the addition of girl scout cookies.

When the kids were babies, I used to strap them in the jogger and go out for a run. I can't even pick them up anymore, those days are over.

A few months ago I joined a morning bootcamp, which fit perfectly into my schedule. The class started at 6AM, was 2 minutes from my house, and was done by 6:45AM, just in time to get the kids to school. After about a month, I started to feel like I was 80. My knees were killing me and I couldn't take the stairs at work.

I needed something new, a real reason to motivate. As if the 17lbs weren't enough. I signed up for a 10K.

Training started early last week, but then I caught a cold. I'm a total wimp about running with a stuffy nose, I already feel like I have one lung. I'm back though, and just finished day 3 with my new running app. "Running for Weight Loss". This will either be the best $10 a month or I'll file it with all the other apps I've purchased that need to be canceled 30 days later.

One additional perk is the meal suggestion at the bottom. Guess what my family had for dinner?

No Excuses!

President's day, aka the start of ski week here in Northern CA. An entire week off for the kids, with just one measly day for the parents. 

We had plans to take the kids to the snow, but mother nature stepped in. A series of strong storms closed the roads for days making travel impossible, so we scrapped our plans and figured we would do something better.....which we haven't figured out yet. 

I'm still in my New Year's resolution mode, which means I organize, and exercise until the end of February. And if you haven't noticed, I typically start writing in my blog and tell everybody this is the year I'll do it more.  I think it's only fitting to quote George Washington today, "“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one." And to quote my husband, "The key is to never stop trying." So between George and Doug I now feel exonerated. I've let go of my failed resolution guilt, and I'm back in the game. 

When i started this blog 9 years ago, my focus was on how to manage life with 2 rambunctious boys. Boy, literally, how far we have come. Nate is now 13, Jack is 10, and Brooke, our pink addition will be 8 in just 2 short months. 

I've grown too, a little older and wider, I mean wiser. Even though this is the busiest time in my life between work, the kid's activities, school volunteering and managing our household, somehow I also feel somewhat balanced. So this year, I'll shift the focus of my blog on what I've learned along the way, what keeps me sane, and how I'm managing it all!

Here's to 2019 - No excuses, just changes!