Three Things Thursday – Late Again!

Hey everyone! It’s the weekend! WooHoo!

1. I’ve been a little MIA lately…things have been crazy busy – with summer school, hubby working out of town and 2 sick kids, I just haven’t been able to find the time to blog 😦 Snuggles with my kids and sleep have overruled! I hope to get back on track soon 🙂

2. As I mentioned 2 weeks ago now, I went to my first official CrossFit workout with my sister and…I loved it – once it was over, that is! No, it was awesome, but OMG, it was tough!

We started with a warm-up, two laps of the building, lunges, burpees, squats and sit-ups and then we had a little lesson how how to do the two moves involved in the WOD – thrusters and knees to elbows. I think I was the only newbie there, but Coach Ryan was a great teacher.

Here are videos of the 2 moves.

Thrusters

Knees to Elbows

It took me a bit to get used to the thrusters – I was totally using my traps and shoulders to support the bar instead of letting it rest on my upper chest, but once I learned to relax my wrists and keep my elbows up, it got a bit easier.

The workout was a partner workout, so my sister and I were a team, which was awesome. She has been doing CrossFit since January and absolutely loves it. She goes 3x a week and has gotten really good at the moves and has really increased her strength and overall fitness!

We did 5 rounds each of 2 minutes AMRAP (as many reps as possible) of 12 thrusters and 8 knees to elbows.

We used the yellow bar for the thrusters (35 lbs) and since I can’t really do knees to elbows, we did the modified “knees to wherever”, which for me was a little higher than waist height. Man, this workout was HARD!

We did 13 rounds in 20 minutes, which I’m think was pretty good. There was absolutely no way I could have worked any harder!!

I’m actually thinking of joining a CrossFit box before the end of the month. There is a one that just opened in my area that has a wicked deal on right now…50% off…and even tho I’m not sure how often I will be able to get there, at only $75 a month, if I only get there 2x a week, it’s less than $10 a workout!! Which is ridiculously cheap in the world of CrossFit!

3. I think I might start running again! A friend of mine has asked me to run a half marathon with her in the fall and I’m actually considering it!

I went for a couple of run last week, the first was not too bad, the second – well, I hope it wasn’t a sign from the running gods, cause I got caught in a wicked downpour! My plan was to run 4k, but once I got started I could see the gray skies moving in, but figured I would head out and see what happened. Well, I ended up only doing 3k and I got soaked!

And so did my phone 😦 It guess it only got a bit too wet because everything worked but the microphone, I couldn’t hear a thing – not music, not phone calls, nothing! I popped it into a bag of rice, left it for 24 hours, and it was good as new when I turned it back on 🙂

Oh, and within two minutes of getting home, the rain stopped and it started to clear up.

And 20 minutes later… it was bright an sunny again!

I haven’t been out for a run since, but I hope to get out once this weekend since my training program starts next week! Lets hope I don’t get soaked again!

Do you do CrossFit? Is it worth the $$$?

Are you training for a fall race? If so, which one and when?

13 in 2013 – February/March Recap

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend! We were pretty busy but managed to sneak in a little down time, and even a family nap on Sunday – it was awesome!

 

It’s time for a 13 in 2013 Recap. I totally missed February’s so here’s a February/March combo post letting you know how I’m making out with my 13 goals for 2013.

 

1. Spend less, save more – I am happy to report, we are spending less and saving more!

How are we spending less? Well, we are planning meals, grocery shopping only once a week, buying many items in bulk from Costco, and have not eaten dinner out in what seems like forever!

How are we saving more? Back in January, I came across this idea to help save money. We started right away and since it seemed so reasonable and allows for some flexibility, we decided to double the weekly amount. So, 14 weeks in we have just over $230 saved and didn’t notice it from our budget at all. By the end of the year, we will have set aside $2756! So easy!

 

2. Run a 1:58 half marathon – I plan on running two maybe one half marathons this year. My original plan was to run one in the spring and one in the fall, however, I’m thinking the spring one is not going to happen. I’m a little bummed about it, but really, I’m not loving running right now, and finding/making time to do it has been difficult with my husbands crazy busy work schedule. I’m disappointed because for the first time in forever, I actually ran over the winter. I joined the Winter 100 Challenge and it totally motivated me to run all winter. It was awesome, and I loved running. However, once the training schedule came out and running needed to follow a structured schedule, it totally took the fun out of it for me. Running hills on my lunch, taking time away from my family every Sunday, and having to miss out on other workouts I love, made me start to not love running anymore 😦 

So, with that being said, I’m going to get back into running for fun. I hope to run 5,6, maybe 7k on my lunch a couple of times a week, and hope my mojo comes back!

And if I’m loving running again, maybe I will sign up to do a half this fall and aim to do it in 1:58!

3. Try one new clean eating recipe a week – As far as Clean Eating goes, February and March were pretty good. I made Dark Chocolate Chip No Bake Cookies, Blueberry Crumble Muffins (Clean Eating, Aug/Sept 2012), Potato, Leek and Cheddar Soup (Clean Eating Classic Comfort Foods), Oven Baked Chicken Parmesan (Clean Eating, March 2013), and Kale Chips.

You can find some of these recipes on the NEW Clean Eating Recipes Page above.

 

4. Become a certified RPM instructor – I am was totally planning to on attend(ing) the March 23/24 training weekend HOWEVER, with my husbands crazy work schedule, and the launch of Gillian Michael’s BodyShred at GoodLife, I decided to hold off. As much as I love RPM, I would really, really love to get certified in BodyShred! Unfortunately for me, so would like a million other instructors and since numbers are limited, I’m not actually sure when this will happen for me 😦

In the meantime, I’m super excited to let you all know I am officially on the schedule teaching BodyAttack starting next week! WooHoo!

 

5. Do 10 chin-ups – This is yet another thing that totally took a hit when my half marathon training started 😦 I got into a funk and working out was of little interest to me – which is totally crazy, cause I love it! I will make this happen though! I’ve incorporated a chin-up challenge into both of my fitness classes this semester and will be re-starting the program mid-May.

 

6. Build Strength – I am getting stronger! Mixing up my workouts, adding in some CrossFit, Tabata and a bunch of other stuff is working! How do I know? I actually did the ENTIRE push-up track in Attack yesterday morning WITHOUT modifications, well, on my knees of course, but that’s how I roll! Amazing!

 

7. Go to bed earlier – I’m totally rocking this one! I have no idea when the last time I saw 10pm was!

 

8. Blog more – My goal was to blog 5 days a week – which would mean about 40 posts since my last update. How’d I do? Well, in February I posted 17 times and in March I only posted 11. So, my plan is to get back on track, make better use of my time and hopefully I will get back to 4 or 5 posts a week.

Anything in particular you’d like to read about? Let me know, I’m always looking for ideas!

 

9. Run 3x a week – As I said in goal #2, my plan is just to get running again. I hope to be running 3 times a week before the end of April. I want to keep if fun and love it again!

 

10. Drink more water – As always, room for improvement here! Bring on the warm weather so I can stop drinking WARM tea and starting drinking COLD water!

11. Read 52 books – Week 14 and I’m on my 9th book. Not bad. Maybe I need to chose some shorter books! Hehehe! Check out the Books I’ve Read page to see what I’ve been reading. Have you read a good book or two lately? I’d love some recommendations!

12. Take at least 2 family trips – Work in progress… Our trips will most likely occur during the summer, so we have a bit of time to choose where we will go and what we will do.

13. Date night once a month – Our February date night was dinner out at one of our favourite Mexican restaurants. We hit up Made in Mexico where the food was delicious and the Corona was cold!

I don’t think we actually made it out for date night in March 😦 Will have to try for two in April!

 

So that’s where I’m at. Not great, but not too bad either! I’m hoping April is the month where I get back in track, have time to enjoy the things I love, and continue to grow as a Happier, Healthier, More Fit Me!

How are you making out with your 2013 goals?

Three Things Thursday – March Break Edition!

So, once again, I’m a little late with my post, but we have been super busy enjoying some March Break fun! Here’s a bit about what we’ve been up to:

1. Check, check and (hopefully) check! We’ve almost done everything we were hoping to do over March Break and even a little extra! We’ve been to Kitchener to visit my sister and her boys, we’ve been to the Maple Syrup Festival, we’ve moved all the toys to the basement and created a nice playroom for the kids, Ryan had her friend Lauren over for a playdate, and tonight we are having more friends over for dinner and to hang out. I’ve also been to the gym a few times, and if we’re lucky, we might make it to the zoo before the weekend is over! Isn’t this a cute picture!

2. We’re looking for a new car – well, actually an SUV. We need some sort of 7-seater so that we have room to carry extra people. Right now, with the two carseats in the back there isn’t room for even the tiniest person to squeeze between them 😦 We are considering the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder,  Ford Explorer,  Chevy Traverse and the Mitsubishi Outlander….

…Any recommendations?

3. One thing I haven’t been doing is running 😦 And I just realized today, that the Toronto GoodLife Half Marathon is only 7 weeks away! YIKES! I better get moving!

I’ve made a calendar and have planned all my runs (and a few workouts) between now and race day – its pretty jammed packed and doesn’t include workouts to be done with my classes at work! I hope I can swing it!

I’ve had to abandon my original plan and move onto something a little less intense – I don’t feel as though I have done enough running to be running an 8km tempo run and a 17km long run this week! So, I’ve back things off a bit and feel like I will have a good run if I commit to these workouts. I will post my modified schedule once I figure out how to make it fit on the page!

What’s the least amount of time you have trained for a half marathon in, and still done well? I’m thinking 7 weeks might be cutting it a bit tight!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I look forward to reading your comments 🙂

13 in 2013 – Week 4 Update

Wow, it’s hard to believe we are already approaching the end of January! It’s crazy how fast time is flying by!

I know you are not ‘average’ so you don’t really fit in with this stat, but did you know that of those who make resolutions or sets goals for the New Year only 64% stick with it through the first month!

Source

Are you part of that 64%? Will you be part if the only 8% that stick with it all year long? I guess it’s time to ask yourself…

I am happy to say I am still doing well with my 2013 goals. Although I’ve been sidetracked with illness and injury, I feel as though I am still in control and on track. After 4 weeks, here’s where I’m at:

1. Spend less, save more – as always, this is a work in progress. As I was browsing the Internet for easy ways to save money, I came across a couple of great sites that I thought I would share with you:

Money Saving Mom, a blog dedicated to helping you find great deals, stretch your hard-earned dollars, and live on less than you make, so you can save more and give more. Each Monday in 2013 Crystal will be sharing a different way you can save money this year, check it out!

The Nourishing Gourmet is doing something similar with 52 ways to save money on a healthy diet. Check out her site for more money saving ideas!

This weeks money saving focus: do laundry only once this week – on the weekend, during low cost hours.

2. Run a 1:58 half marathon – Things are coming together! I’ve decided on a 12 week training program to prep me for my May 5th half marathon. Training officially starts February 12th! I will post a copy of my training schedule over the next few days if you are interested.

3. Try one new clean eating recipe a week – Last week I made 2 clean eating treats.

I made Dark Fudgy Brownies with Avocado from the January/February 2013 issue of Clean Eating Magazine. They were absolutely delicious! You should give them a try!

I also made Eat Clean Apple Crisp that was probably the BEST apple crisp I have ever had. You can find the recipe here.

4. Become a certified RPM instructor – I’ve finally made it back to RPM! It almost killed me after such a long time off, but I loved it! This latest release is intense!

5. Do 10 chin-ups – Week 3 of my chin-up program was put on hold as I dislocated a rib last Monday and needed to give the surrounding muscles a chance to heal. I will be taking another week off and getting back into it next Monday.

Maybe I’ve finally learned to start listening to my body!

6. Build Strength – I’ve also had to put my strength training workouts on hold too, but will also be restarting those on Monday too.

7. Go to bed earlier – I’ve mastered this one! Last week I went to be ridiculously early – like 7:30 early – on more than one occasion. It was awesome!

8. Blog more – Last week was another great week in the blogging world. I posted 6 times and I’m hosting my first ever giveaway! I am also working on building a Happier, Healthier, More Fit Me Pinterest account and Facebook page.

9. Run 3x a week – Last week was a terrible week run-wise. With the crazy cold front that hung around most of the week, running outside was pretty much impossible. I did make it to the gym for a treadmill run once, but overall, I’m pretty disappointed with my progress last week 😦

Stats: 1 run, 4 miles, 38:29, 424 calories.

Goal Check: 100 miles by February 28

Yikes! Better get running if I’m going to reach my goal!

10. Drink more water – Getting better, but still need to drink more water!

11. Read 52 books – Last week I finished my 2nd book of 2013 – The House of Sand and Fog – and I’ve now started to read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and Run Less Run Faster by Runner’s World Magazine.

12. Take at least 2 family trips – planning in progress

13. Date night once a month – Thinking dinner at the Keg to celebrate hubby’s birthday will be our night out this month!

So, overall, not too bad. I can definitely say some of these goals have become habits and are now no brainers. There are a few things I still really need to focus on, but I feel as though I am moving in the right direction! Now that I’ve made it though the first 4 weeks, I am going to be doing monthly rather than weekly updates.

How are you doing with your 2013 goals? Are you on track? Losing momentum? Or kicking butt? I’d love an update!

13 in 2013 – Week 3 Update

Well, we are a full three weeks into 2013…how are you doing with your goals?

So far, I’d have to say I am doing quite well! Of course there are things I am still struggling with, but I have definitely made progress!

Here’s where I’m at:

1. Spend less, save more – Although we were on track again last week, we need to get back to meal planning and grocery shopping only once a week. Why? Well, because by meal planning and shopping only once a week we save because…

• I don’t have the chance to buy those on-a-whim, usually not-so-healthy extras – since I’m not in the store!

• I prepare meals that provide leftovers for lunches and/or another dinner which helps us avoid expensive lunches from the school caf and last-minute take-out meals for dinner on busy evenings.

• I plan Friday night treat meals, like Buffalo chicken wraps and sweet potato fries, which satisfies our urge for take-out, without the added expense and extra calories!

2. Run a 1:58 half marathon – Well, I’ve officially signed up for the Goodlife Fitness Half Marathon in Toronto on May 5th.

Now to decide on which training program I am going to follow to help me finish in my goal time…

Do you have an awesome Half Marathon training program you swear by? I’d love to see it and find out why you love it.

3. Try one new clean eating recipe a week – I’m totally loving this goal! I can honesty say that if I had not committed to one new recipe a week, I would have skipped out on it for sure! It has been great trying new meals and have found some that will become regulars.

This week I made Kung Pao Chicken from Clean Eating Comfort Foods 2012. The recipe is quick and easy and DELICIOUS!

4. Become a certified RPM instructor – I didn’t make it to RPM last week, and with it being LMI release week, I may only get there once this week – Friday. I am so looking forward to next week and the beginning of semester 2 when I can go to RPM on my lunch! Woohoo!

5. Do 10 chin-ups – Week 2 of my training program is complete and I can now do 2.5 continuous chin-ups! I am defintley motivated to continue with these results! The program amps up these week, but I’m ready!

6. Build Strength – Week 1 of my strength program went well, however I have decided to switch to a 3x/week program that is very similar to the 5x/week program I started with. The main are reason for the change is that this new program has 3 strength and 3 cardio workouts a week (rather than 5 strength and no cardio). This fits in much better with my plan of running a half marathon in May and getting my RPM certification. I feel that this is a much more balanced workout plan and will only require the odd double workout day as opposed to multiple per week.

This weeks workout schedule looks like this:

• Monday – BodyAttack
• Tuesday – super sets workout
• Wednesday – run
• Thursday – circuit workout and BodyAttack
• Friday – core workout and RPM
• Saturday – fitness blast workout
• Sunday – rest day 🙂

7. Go to bed earlier – Heading to bed before 9:30 is working well. I have a bit of time to tidy up, relax, and hang with my husband. What it doesn’t really allow for is time to read and comment on other blogs, which totally sucks! I think I’m going to have to figure out a way to squeeze that into my lunch, or after work – before picking up the kids.

8. Blog more – I feel like I have now developed a blogging routine and 5 days a week works really well for me. Finding time to blog on the weekends is a bit harder since I am busy with family stuff, and although I will continue to try and at get in at least one post in on the weekend, I still kinda feel that any weekend blogs are a bonus 🙂

9. Run 3x a week – last weeks run stats (on the right):

I am hoping to get in a couple of runs this week, unfortunately we are in a crazy deep freeze and temperatures are around -25 Celsius with the windchill! Looks like I will be hitting the treadmill – which is way less convenient 😦

10. Drink more water – Getting better, but still room for improvement! It’s so darn cold here that all I want to drink are warm beverages!

Click the image below for some great tips to drink more water.

11. Read 52 books – I’m still on book 2 – my mini goal is to finish this book before the weekend.

12. Take at least 2 family trips – Planning in progress…

13. Date night once a month – Brainstorming February date ideas. It’s hubby’s birthday so maybe a nice dinner at the Keg is in order! Yum!

13 in 2013 – Week 2 Update

1. Spend less, save more – this weeks money saving strategy…making my own tea rather than heading to Starbucks for a chai latte (or two) a week. Since I used up my gift card this past weekend, lattes are back to costing me $4.80 each 😦

2. Run a 1:58 half marathon – We have pretty much decided to run the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Half Marathon on May 5th. Next step – decide on a training program to get me race ready!

3. Try one new clean eating recipe a week – Last week I actually made TWO clean eating recipes.

• Clean Eating No Bake Honey Peanut Butter Balls

• Spaghetti Squash with Chicken, Pears and Parmesan

Both recipes made a ton! There’s enough for lunch all week!

4. Become a certified RPM instructor – I didn’t make it to RPM last week, but did ride the bike a bit at work. I definitely need to get my riding legs back if I’m going to go for training at the end of March. With BodyAttack release week just around the corner my focus this week will be on learning choreography, so realistically I will only be able to make it to one RPM class this week. I’ve penciled in a bike workout for lunch on Thursday with plans of returning to at least two classes a week starting the week of January 27th.

5. Do 10 chin-ups – After only 1 week of the program, I can already do 2 FULL chin-ups in a row! Crazy! I’m super impressed with my progress and feel like I might actually be able to do 10 chin-ups by the end of June!

6. Build Strength – This week I am starting a 12 week strength training program. It calls for 5 workouts a week, which I think is a bit much considering everything else I am doing. So, for now, I’m planning on doing 3 “hard and heavy” workouts a week.

• Monday – Quads, Glutes, Chest and Biceps – I actually did this one yesterday and loved it!
• Wednesday – Core
• Friday – Hams, Calves, Back, Shoulders and Triceps

7. Go to bed earlier – I did much better at getting to bed earlier last week, making it to bed before 9:30 every night except for Saturday (date night) and Sunday (9pm soccer game). I think this is the biggest contributor to my finally feeling better, and will make it a focus again this week.

8. Blog more – 6 days last week, yay!

9. Run 3x a week – Last week I actually ran 4x, Tuesday, Wednesday (twice) and Friday. I ran a total of 13.3 miles which took me 2:07:32, giving me an average pace of 9:34/mile. I burned 1356 calories.

I have now completed 27 miles…only 73 to go before the end of February!

10. Drink more water – I’m still struggling with this one. I lost my Nalgene bottle two weeks ago at soccer and was drinking from a metal one and did not like it at all. I could taste the metal when I drank and it was deterring me from drinking. So I bought a new BPA free plastic water bottle over the weekend and I’m trying to drink one full bottle each period while at work. So far, so good!

11. Read 52 books – I’ve just started my second book – House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III, and am having a little trouble getting into it. I’ve heard it’s a great book – it’s part of Oprah’s Book Club – it’s gotta be good, right? Hopefully after a few more chapters, I won’t be able to put it down!

12. Take at least 2 family trips – ​Still in the planning stages for this summer’s big adventures.

13. Date night once a month – Dylan and I went on our first date night of 2013 on Saturday, it was awesome! You can read a bit about it here.

How are you doing with your 2013 goals?

Share your successes and struggles in the comments action below! Lets keep each other on track.

Three Things Thursday!

1. I’m running again! And loving it!

Since running the Niagara Falls Half Marathon in late October, I haven’t done much any running. This seems to be the way things go for me after training for a big run – I’m not exactly sure why – but for some reason, I always end up taking a few months off before running again.

To keep me motivated this winter, I joined the Winter 100 Challenge hosted by Kristen at The Running Mom. The challenge is to run (or walk) 100 miles between December 1st and February 28th. I also signed up for The Resolution Run, a 5k Run hosted by The Running Room on New Year’s Eve.

Unfortunately I’ve been sick since returning to work in late December and have not logged many miles to date. So I was super excited to for The Resolution Run as a way to get me back on track and start the new year running!

I ran the Resolution Run with my sister Cathy and my friend Jo. None of us had done any prep for the run so we didn’t have a time goal, basically, we just wanted to finish in one piece! I’m glad we didn’t have a goal time, cause the route was ridiculously crowed and we ended up walking most of the first kilometer. We ended up finishing in 39:29.

Here’s a picture of us after the run.

As far as the 100 Winter Challenge goes, I’ve only run 3 times:

Which works out to…

11% done! Not bad for only 3 runs! Looking forward to tomorrow’s 5Ker!

2. I’ve joined Fitness Cheerleader’s 31 Days to a Healthier You. We are 3 days in and I have completed all of the challenges so far – I’ve set my goals for 2013, devised a plan, and today I moved for 30 minutes – actually I did a 55 minute RPM class at the gym – which I totally struggled through, but it was great to get back on the bike again! Hopefully by next week I will be breathing better and able to push myself more 🙂 . I love RPM!

3. I went to the spa yesterday for a little ME time! It was Ah-mazing! I had a facial and a pedicure! It was so nice to be pampered! Hopefully it won’t be another year before I get to go back! What’s also amazing is that I have a massage booked for tomorrow! What a great way to end my holiday!

Do you have 3 things to share this week?

What are you doing to help keep you on track this year?

How often do you go to the spa?

My Action Plan

Yesterday I wrote about my goals for 2013, now I need to take it one step further and devise a plan of action. So, here we go:

1. Spend less, save more – For this to happen, we need to create a family budget. Since my husband is self employed, our family income is constantly fluctuating, which makes budgeting for our family a little more difficult. I will be doing some research over the next few weeks on creating a budget with a fluctuating income and will have our budget hashed out by the end of January.

Right off the bat, I can think of a few small changes we can make to save more money.
– Meal plan and grocery shop only once a week.
– Get rid of our home phone (which we actually did today).
– Borrow books from the library rather than buy them.
– Shop at Costco for items we use/eat frequently.
– Eat out less.

2. Run a 1:58 half marathon – I plan on running two half marathons this year, one in the spring (May) and one in the fall (October). I have training programs that I’ve used in the past, and will be starting my official 12 week training program for my spring race in February.

3. Try one new clean eating recipe a week – I have a ton of Clean Eating magazines and cookbooks with recipes I want to try already flagged. Each Saturday I will choose what I will be making for the week so I can pick up everything I need on my Sunday grocery shop.

I’ve already selected my January recipes:
– This week: Hash Brown, Sausage and Egg Muffins – Clean Eating, Nov/Dec 2012, p. 40
– Week of Jan 6 – Spaghetti Squash with Chicken, Pears and Parmesan – Clean Eating, Nov/Dec 2012, p. 75
– Week of Jan 13 – Kung Pao Chicken – Clean Eating Classic Comfort Foods, p. 96
– Week of Jan 20 – Dark Fudgy Brownies – Clean Eating, Jan/Feb 2013, p. 56
– Week of Jan 27 – Leek, Potato and Cheddar Soup – Clean Eating Classic Comfort Foods, p. 26.

4. Become a certified RPM instructor – I am planning to attend the March 30/31 training weekend and will submit my Certification Assessment video before the end of June.

5. Do 10 chin-ups – I am very fortunate to teach two fitness classes this semester, and next semester too, and found this 3x/week 8 week training program so I’m all set to go!

6. Build Strength – I am committing to 3 strength workouts per week. I’m not yet sure whether I’m going to follow a specific program or do a variety of workouts, but will get that sorted before I head back to work on Monday.

7. Go to bed earlier – For me to be in bed by 9:30, I need to get the kids to bed by 7:30, make my lunch and give myself a bit of time to relax and unwind.

8. Blog more – My goal is to blog 5 days a week.

9. Run 3x a week – My plan is to run at work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I will run on my prep or my lunch and if the weather is too bad and I can’t run outside, I will stop at the gym on my way home for a treadmill run. To be successful I need to run before picking up the kids because there is very little chance of getting a run in after that.

10. Drink more water – I will carry a water bottle with me everywhere I go.

11. Read 52 books – Read one book a week (on average).

12. Take at least 2 family trips – Our trips will most likely occur during the summer, so we have a bit of time to choose where we will go and what we will do.

13. Date night once a month – In preparation for monthly date night, we need to choose a date, secure a babysitter and choose an activity.

For more information on how to Plan For Success, check out Fitness Cheerleader’s 31 Days to a Healthier You.

Well, it’s 9:40, I’m off to bed!

Have you written out your goals for 2013?
Have you devised an action plan?

I’d love to hear what it is you want to accomplish in 2013, let me know in the comments section below!

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