Hello, October (goals)

I honestly don't know where September went, but I know it flew by in a flash. I think this is the case for a lot of parents, but we don't even have school-aged kids yet!! I guess life is just busy ;) I did manage to read a lot of books in September, and I can't wait to share them soon! I don't think I watched a single movie though...but hoping to watch one or two with Brian this weekend.

October is a great month in Nova Scotia. The leaves change colour, Thanksgiving is October 12 so we get a holiday with family AND turkey dinner!! and then Halloween at the end of the month. In Calgary when I was growing up, it would also usually snow by the end of October, but not so much here in Halifax!! The weather is usually beautiful, and this year has been no exception (save for a pretty windy/rainy day today).

This quote makes me want to re-read Anne of Green Gables :)

Today I wanted to share some goals that I have for the month of October.

1) Finish my first 10km race since 2009 in under 70 minutes on October 25.
2) Do some updates to my blog
3) Compile a perfect fall playlist (and sort out my running playlist for the race)
4) Stick to our meal plan and grocery budget
5) Try 3 new fall recipes - I am thinking of this pumpkin delight dessert, this butternut squash soup with chickpeas and this chopped salad. Here's another awesome round up of fall recipes.
6) Be less absent-minded. In the past week and a half, I dropped my cell phone and shattered the screen ($100 to fix but it's ok now), lost my driver's license and credit card somewhere unknown to me, and forgotten my lunch at home twice. I need to get my mind out of the clouds and focus on being a bit better organized.
7) Make an effort to stay off my phone more when the kids are awake

I think this will keep me busy enough for this month. I think October is a great month to pursue some new goals because we're almost into the "holiday season" but it's not winter weather yet so it is PERFECT for running and working out, it's not as busy as September so that excuse is gone, and although pumpkin spiced blah blah blah is everywhere, pumpkins can be healthy too!! :)

Friday Favourites tomorrow with Amanda!!

14 Things I'm looking forward to in 2014.

Happy new year!!!!

I do have parts of a Christmas recap typed up, but I have been wanting to post this forever as a start to the new year. 14 is my favourite number (I'm so creative - I was born on Aug. 14), so I am pretty excited about the year 2014 which is likely the only 14 year I will see in this lifetime! That being said, there are a lot of things that I'm really looking forward to in this upcoming year.

1) Giving birth to our second child/not being pregnant anymore (this one is a given)
2) The Veronica Mars movie (can't wait, but Brian won't come and see it with me...any takers?)
3) Divergent: the movie (I can probably talk Brian into seeing this one with me because he likes The Hunger Games)
4) Being off work with 2 children for a year (will be nice in some ways and likely overwhelming at first)
5) Watching the hubby turn 30 (he is freaking out about it but I think it will be fun)
6) Celebrating my sister's graduation from med school and her husband from law school (and hopefully watching them move to NS!)
7) Seeing my parents and brother in the summer (overjoyed!)
8) Having a raspberry beer (mmmmmmm)
9) Working on my blog (including a blog design and some weekly posts)
10) Participating in a book club: either Bonnie's or Laura's or both!
11) Running a 10K in the fall (this is a goal!) and losing the baby weight.
12) Enrolling Molly in soccer in the summer (Can't wait to watch her play)
13) Reconnecting with friends and family who have or will be moving closer to us
14) Molly's first concert, thanks to Nanny and Papa (a Christmas gift) - Raffi!!

And a bonus one...I am going to be keeping a VERY brief 5 year journal. I saw a book for it at Chapters before Christmas but I will be following the prompts from this site. It is only a sentence or two a day, but you can compare over the 5 years and I think it will be really interesting to see my responses over the next 5 years of changes!!!

Hope 2014 brings joy to everyone!

Running for Maggie Virtual 5K

As I mentioned awhile ago, I recently signed up to run a virtual 5K in honour of Maggie, a young woman who lost her life far too sign in a tragic car accident. Sami over at Simply Sami is running a half marathon this fall in memory of her sister Maggie, and she organized this Virtual 5K too.

So those of us who signed up to do the Virtual Race were set to do it from August 5-11. I did mine (surprise, surprise) on Sunday, August 11. haha. My dad did it with me! We walked a couple of times, but our final time was around 37 minutes.

Here's me PRE-RUN!!

 

And here's a shot of the display on my new Garmin Forerunner 110 (thank you hubby!!!) post-run!!!

I have a lot of other news to update you all on, but I will do that tomorrow!! I think I am back in the blogging game. 

XOXO,

 

Summertime and the livin' is not easy

Happy 4th of July to all of the patriotic Americans out there!! I've spent a 4th of July in the US and it was really fun! LOTS of amazing fireworks (and fireworks are one of my favourite things!).

I've been fighting a brutal summer cold/cough all week. NOT fun. Last night, I only slept about 3 hours because I was up coughing in the spare room the rest of the time. Needless to say, I can't wait to kick this cold. Brian has it too, and we all know what a man-cold is like (haha) so that's been pretty fun. Luckily, Molly doesn't seem too sick (knock on wood!).

Last night I was thinking of skipping my workout because I was coughing so hard that I couldn't breathe, but I popped in the 30 Day Shred (see this challenge! Trying my best to fit it in!) and honestly, those 25ish minutes were my best and healthiest of the day. I even got in an arm workout afterwards. I wasn't coughing, I wasn't concentrating on my breathing, I wasn't sniffling...I was just exercising. Granted, I don't think I put 110% effort into the workout, but I got through it all, and I was proud of myself for doing it.

Exercise is such a mental activity. I find that I crave it on the days when I don't exercise now. The reason I like following the 30 Day Shred (on top of my regular Journey 2 Wellness workouts) is that I find I am able to push myself a bit harder when someone (i.e. Jillian Michaels) is pushing me. I have come to the realization that I am not the best independent exerciser. How do I plan to change this?

1) Find a running buddy.

2) Continue with online videos that will push me harder

3) Find someone to be accountable to (I need to use my J2W facebook group for this!!)

4) Participate in small, manageable challenges (i.e. 30 Day Shred, July 8 Journey 2 Wellness challenge begins!)

My other biggest problem is my eating.  I have not gotten in all of my small snacks this week simply because I have no appetite after coughing constantly. I really need to try to eat small meals more frequently.

I'm loving the summer weather the past couple of days after a week of rainy weather. Can't wait to play frisbee tonight and have some fun this weekend!! :)

Weekend 5K Recap & Moving Forward

In case you missed me talking about it last week, I did my first 5K (since having Molly) on the weekend! I've done a few 5Ks before & even a few 10Ks but I was in way better shape (and it was about 4-5 years ago). This particular 5K was a pretty casual one put on by Mountain Equipment Co-op and it took place at a trail system about 5 mins from my house. My main goals for the race were:

1) Finish. haha.

2) Run the whole thing

3) Finish in under 45 mins.

I surpassed these goals, overall! I did walk a little bit, after a big hill, but it was for about one minute/50 m and I needed to catch my breath. It was 30 deg Celsius for the run and I was DYING from the heat. I think my official time was 33:38, and I finished 16/26 runners. This race included a 5k/10k/Half marathon and it was an out and back course, so we turned at 2.5km and ran back the way we came. It was a bit confusing because we all ran on the same course, but those doing the 10K/Half just kept on running when us 5Kers turned around. It was an interesting set-up, and I think it would have been messy if more people had participated in the race. I liked the out-and-back concept because I knew what to expect on the way back. I ran faster than I expected to, and I think it was partially because it was SO hot out that I really wanted to finish and get some water. Haha. Molly and Brian came to cheer me on, which was super nice of them!! I know running a 5K means nothing to some runners, but this one was a big deal for me since I have only been running sporadically lately and it's always been run/walk intervals. I am feeling very able to survive the Natal Day 6 mile run with my Dad on August 5...but gotta get back into training seriously. There's a big difference between a 5K and a 10K!!

Here's a scenic pic that I took during the run (totally passed that girl about 2 mins after this was taken!)



And a pic of the awesome treat from my hubby post-run:

(iced coffee from Tim Hortons = awesome recovery drink? haha)

So, goals moving forward:

1) complete the Journey 2 Wellness 6-week intense challenge that is coming my way on July 8

2) Train hard for the 6 mile (9.6Km) Natal Day Race and finish in less than 1:05

3) Get back into core work and strength training (I have been doing this, but not to my full potential).

4) Tweak my macros and stay on track with my eating as we get into the temptations of summer food/drink consumption

We spent the rest of the weekend taking it pretty easy, but also spent 2 hours on Sunday afternoon in the doctor's office with Molly and her two red & swollen eyes. Turned out to be an eye infection on the tail end of Hand, Foot & Mouth, so the wait in the doc office was worth it...got her on some antibiotic eye cream and she is way better already.

I also finished Inferno by Dan Brown last night and I am itching to get into some other similar books this summer. I loved reading it on my Kobo since Dan Brown's books tend to be BIG, haha. I'll post some thoughts on the book later this week, but I liked it waaaay more than The Lost Symbol. I think Angels and Demons might still be my favourite overall, but I'm not sure. I will probably re-read them all this summer for something to do. I always miss some details because I am anxiously flipping pages to find out what is going to happen next.

That's all for today - but I'll leave you with an awesome little summer ditty :) We saw Bruce Springsteen live last summer and he was AMAZING!!!