The Liebster Award!

So a few weeks ago my blog was nominated for The Liebster Award by not one, but two awesome bloggers, Cathy over at My Pursuit of Happiness and Skinny Jeans and Jocelyn at No Longer Working On It. Thank you both so much!

The Liebster Award is for up-and-coming bloggers who deserve some recognition and support to keep on blogging! As a winner, I need to do three things:

11 Facts About Myself

1. I am a high school Health and Physical Education Teacher.
2. I’m on maternity leave and have to go back to work in January 😦
3. I just ran my first sub 2-hour half marathon – 1:59:38….yep, I cut it close!
4. My favourite donut is a walnut crunch – not so easy to find these days 😦 and I’m blaming nut allergies!
5. My favourite tv show, and pretty much the only tv I watch, is Greys Anatomy.
6. I teach BodyAttack for fun at GoodLife Fitness.
7. I love Starbucks Chai Lattes.
8. I met my husband working a McDonalds in high school.
9. I desperately want an iPhone, and will get one as soon as I go back to work 🙂
10. I have a dog named Clyde.
11. I hate coffee!

11 Questions I Have to Answer From My Pursuit of Happiness and Skinny Jeans

1. Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging this past March as a way to stay motivated and on track in my quest to lose my baby weight. I figured if I put it all out there than I would be more accountable and more likely to stick to my plan of healthy eating and exercising to reach my goals. At the time, I had no idea how much fun blogging would be, and how many great bloggers I would meet along the way!

2. What is your favourite snack?
Lately my favourite snack is veggies and hummus, surprisingly I’m all about something healthy right now 🙂 Weird!

3. What is your favourite season of the year and why?
I love summer. The warm weather, spending time with family, relaxing at people’s cottages, not having to work….does it get any better than that?

4. Best book you have read lately?
I’m still reading it, but I’d recommend Girl Gone by Gillian Flynn

5. Cats or Dogs?
Dogs, definitely dogs! I love my Clyde! Such a cutie!

6. What’s the scariest thing you have ever done?
Its pretty lame, but I’d have to say going zip-lining in Mexico on my honeymoon was probably the scariest thing I’ve done!

7. Do you own a pair of Crocs?
Yep!

8. iPhone, Blackberry, or Android?
I have a crappy Blackberry Bold that I absolutely hate…10 weeks until I’m getting an iPhone! Yay!

9. Favourite brand of running shoe?
Asics. I have been running in Gel Nimbus’ for years and love them!

10. What is your biggest accomplishment?
Fitness-wise I’d have to say my biggest accomplishment to date would be running a 1:59(:38) half marathon.

11. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
In 5 years I hope to be taking a year off work to spend time with my family and do some travelling. As a teacher I have the opportunity to do what’s called a 4 over 5… Take 80 percent of my salary for 4 years and bank the other 20% to be paid out during the 5th year (my year off)….pretty sweet, eh!

Blogs I am Nominating for a Liebster Award
The rules say that the blogs nominated are to have less than 200 followers…I’m not sure if these do, but I’m nominating them anyways!

1. Go Fit Gals

2. Little Runner Girl

3. megan gahan

4. sailor vee

5. Better With Sprinkles

6. sayyestohappy

7. HealthHappinessHumour

8. One Fit Mamma

11 Questions my Nominees Need to Answer

1. What are your three favourite workout songs?
2. What’s your favourite health/fitness app?
3. What’s your go-to, short-on-time dinner meal?
4. Tea or coffee? Favourite flavour?
5. If you could go on vacation next week, where would you go?
6. What’s your favourite snack?
7. What’s your favourite restaurant?
8. How many pairs of running shoes do you own?
9. Can you do a chin-up? If so, what’s the secret?
10. Sweet or salty?
11. What’s one book you would recommend I read?

Happy Blogging!

Motivational Monday – Halloween Challenge!

With Halloween only a couple of days away, the temptation to dig into those mini chocolate bars and sweet treats is building. If you are anything like me, you have trouble stopping at just one or two.

So, to help me get through Halloween without totally tipping the scales, I’ve decided to do join Kristen (befitwithkristen.com) in her Halloween Burpees Challenge.

So, starting today, for every piece of candy I eat, I will be doing 10 burpees. I will be tweeting about my candy consumption for everyone to see at #EarnedMyTreat

Why not join me?

And for those of us with serious candy issues, here are a couple of tips to help minimize the binge!

1. Don’t buy your candy until the last possible minute and for extra insurance, buy the candy you don’t like!

2. Set a candy limit – allow yourself 1,2, maybe even 3 pieces of candy a day and think about when you would like eat them so you are sure to really enjoy them.

3. Save your wrappers – whether you keep them in a glass jar or a ziploc bag, having a visual representation of the amount of candy you are putting into your body is a huge eye-opener. Keeping that jar or ziploc in site might make you think twice about reaching for another piece.

4. Figure out how much exercise you need to do to burn off that piece of candy. Is that mini chocolate bar (80 calories) actually worth walking for 22 minutes? (source).

5. Get rid of the extras! Once trick-or-treating is over, give it to a neighbour, take it to work, or throw it out!

Well, I’m off to do 20 burpees – thank goodness the leftovers from the daycare treat bags are almost gone. I’m not buying anymore until Wednesday afternoon!

How do you avoid the Halloween binge?
Are you going to join me in the Halloween Burpees Challenge?

Three Things Thursday Friday!

Wow, what a week! It’s been so busy that I’m a day late (again) with my post…oh, well…life happens! Hope you enjoy this week’s three random things…

1. Last Sunday I ran the Niagara Falls Half Marathon. I was both excited and a little nervous about this race. I had a personal goal of completing the race in under 2 hours, but since my previous best time had been just over 2:03 (and that was about 10 years ago), I wasn’t exactly sure if I could do it.

With some last minute coaching from my friend Kathy, I decided to try and and change up my 10-1 plan (run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute) to do 10 and 30 seconds for the first 8km, then 10 and 45 seconds for the next 8km, and then 10 and 1’s for the last 5km. Here’s how things actually went…

lap	time	distance ran
1	5:35	1.79 km
2	5:34	1.80 km
3	5:24	1.85 km
4	5:17	1.89 km
5	5:26	1.84 km
6	5:27	1.83 km
7	5:32	1.81 km
8	5:36	1.79 km
9	5:41	1.76 km
10	5:44	1.74 km
11	5:47	1.73 km
12	5:35	1.78 km

Overall Results:
Chip Time: 1:59:38 (5:41/km) I DID IT!!
Age Group: 51/224
Gender: 300/1281

2. Yesterday I did my first ever BodyAttack Release Class 🙂 If you’re not familiar with BodyAttack check out this video – it’s a wicked workout and this latest release is jam packed with awesome new moves….like tuck jumps between your jump lunges and burpees in the running track…cause BodyAttack wasn’t already enough of a workout!

And as an extra bonus, I needed to wear an orange top last night, so I just had to go and buy this cute tank from lulu! Love it!

3. I am once again jumping on the Clean Eating train! While training for my half marathon, I was pretty much eating everything in site and none of it was really that healthy. For some reason things have been crazy busy and meal planning and food prep went out the window 😦 So, its time to get back on track – and my timing couldnt get any better as the lastest issue of Clean Eating Magazine showed up in my Zinio account today, and hubby and I are off to the sunny south for a little vacay in just a few weeks! If having to get into a bathing suit is not incentive enough, I’m not sure what is! Unfortunately, this is the first recipe that caught my eye (its for apple and pecan crumble – yummo!) Why do I love sweets and treats….why can’t I love broccoli and carrot sticks!!

Motivational Monday! Respect, Honour, Cherish

Deep Thoughts – Mile 13.1

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Deep Thoughts – Mile 12

Three Things Thursday – It’s Almost Race Day!

1. This Sunday I will be running the Niagara Falls Half Marathon…I’m super excited but also pretty nervous. I’ve decided that I DO NOT enjoy tapering. I’m feeling lazy and my legs feel like bricks! I think I was much more prepared for this race two weeks ago than I am today 😦

Is this a typical taper feeling?

2. I came across this article today on Facebook, and its timing is perfect! It’s all about your pre race meal and includes info on timing your eating to maximize your performance. Just last weekend I was telling my sister that I’m not a 10am runner…which is exactly when the race starts…I actually prefer to run earlier because I feel like I have more fuel in the tank. Turns out, I’m probably not eating enough and I need to eat closer to run time.

My routine worked perfectly in my training runs…I woke a 7, ate breakfast (usually toast with peanut butter and a glass of juice), then downed a clif shot on my way to the running room, about 20-30 minutes before we headed out to run. I had great energy throughout my run. However, when I did my last two runs, around 10am, I ate the same foods at about the same times, by didn’t feel it. I know what I’m eating works for me, I just need to time it better!

3. It’s time to get race ready!

Deep Thoughts – Mile 11

Deep Thoughts – Mile 10

Deep Thoughts – Mile 9