It's Official.

Yes, I finally did it! I signed up for my first 5k EVER! Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post, you all gave me a lot of encouragement to JUST DO IT! The race is Aug 28th. That doesn't give me to much to train but I just want to run one for the hell of it and to know what it feels like. If all goes well, then I will sign up for another one on sept 4th.

Today, I started running in preparation for my first 5k. Let me tell you, it felt so good to run. I used to hate running. Like I would rather swim with sharks than run. I just never really enjoyed it. When I started blogging, a lot of the people that I talked to started doing 5ks which turned into 10ks which turned into half marathons. They looked so happy after they were done racing. I wanted that. I wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment when I cross that finish line. I want to enjoy running, I want to love running.


August 28th = The start of something new and awesome!

First possible 5k.

So, alot of the amazing people I blog with run. I started running during the first couple months of my weight loss journey but now since I stay home and do my workouts in the garage, I go on the elliptical. Sometimes I'll take a jog around the block but for the most part, I haven't really just ran in a while. As I've been reading blogs and looking at pictures they post before and after races, it looks like they are having so much fun. I miss being competitive ever since high school. Sports were my life. I want to get that competitive nature back and I can do that by racing.

My sister has been bugging me all summer on trying to find a 5k to run before the end of summer. Yet, I've put it on the back burner because of number of excuses. I think I have found a my first 5k to run. It's at a huge church just down the street from my house. I think know this is my first 5k. I am nervous to sign up because of how much I haven't run. I think I might just do it to get the nervousness out of the way. What do you guy and gals think?

My first 5k


Any words of wisdom?

Operation B-e-a-utiful.

Today as I was getting ready to workout, I was reading Mary's blog. I loved it so much because it reminded me of one of the reason I knew I HAD to lose weight. Last year at my job I was with a group of girls. We were getting ready for swimming. I was standing waiting for the rest of the girls to get ready, while I talked to a smaller group of girls who was already done and ready to hit the pool. One of the girls literally looked at me and asked "Are you pregnant?"... I was so embarressed. I tried to make it into a joke by saying something else and it just made all of the girls laugh. That moment has stuck with me in the back of my head ever since.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I was outside with two girls playing a game of mancala. One of the girls started talking about her weight and grabbed the excess skin on her stomach and said the she was fat. This girl is 12 years old and is no where near fat. I looked at her and told both of them that they are beautiful the way they are and I grabbed the excess skin around my stomach and said that I was working on getting rid of it. They both told me that I was skinny and beautiful and that I didn't need to lose weight. I was wearing sunglasses, thank God because I teared up a bit. That only happened about a month ago, but that has stuck in the back of my head also.

I believe today girls need good role models to tell them that they don't need to be a size 0 to be pretty. They need role models to tell them to play sports, to try new things, be adventurous, dress appropriately for their age and to just enjoy their childhood. Too many time they are calling each other Fat and talking behind each others backs. When I go to work, I try to be the best role model possible for these girls because some of them don't have one at home.  I try to encourage them to step out of their comfort zone and try new things, to play with the boys and to just try and make them enjoy this stage of their lives. You only get one childhood, make the most of if.

Now, back to Mary's blog. Operation beautiful. You take a post-it and write something positive about yourself and take a picture and post it on your blog. As I was on the elliptical this morning, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to write on it. Something that people would look at and be like, that's an awesome post-it. Here it is...

STRONG is the new Beautiful. Do you agree?

Coffee and its benefits to losing weight.

So like a lot of other people, I love a good cup of coffee in the morning. It just puts me in a good mood. Coffee has a lot of benefits to drinking it, but did you also know that it helps in weight loss? I looked up some articles online and here is something I found. Read it. Share it with others. Maybe this will help you in your weight loss.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article856751.ece

http://www.articlesbase.com/weight-loss-articles/drinking-coffee-for-health-and-weight-loss-65694.html

Back to the state of Beer and Cheese.

Wow, I havent been on the internet in awhile- a week to be exact. The reason, I went on vacation with my friend, heebs and her parents. We drove from Wisconsin to North Carolina. We stayed in Sunset Beach, which was kind of close to Myrtle Beach. This vacation was what I needed to just sit back and get some well deserved R&R. I did manage to work out a bit. We got a pass for the fitness room and worked out 4 of days we were there. They didn't have too much to chose from in there fitness room, so I stuck to my elliptical. I went on it for 50 mins each time at a good incline. After we were done, we would just go lay by the pool until 3 and then head back to the condo to get ready for dinner. It was the good life. Easy to get used to but hard to leave from. The hardest challenge for me on vacation was eating, especially when we went out to dinner. Since we were down south, a lot of foods were fried. I also noticed that I drank a lot of diet coke at dinner. As we got to the end of the trip I tried getting water with my meals. I just really missed cooking my own meals by the end of the trip. It was really hard being out of my routine and comfort zone but I managed to get through.

It's funny, the thing I missed most while on vacation was my blogging friends. I wanted so bad to talk to them and hear their words of wisdom to give me. I have become accustom to talking with these people everyday and then for a week I couldn't. I also noticed that when we would be on the road and stopped at a place to eat, I would get a weird feeling after I was done eating at a restaurant. It was like I felt dirty or something. Back home, I rarely eat out or try to not eat at certain restaurants. Before I lost weight, I would eat out a lot with friends and wouldn't care what I ordered or how much I ate or if I felt full I would still eat. I noticed that if I was full, I stopped eating. That's a big deal for someone who has been reteaching them self to eat for four months. I'll admit, I did make poor decisions some night eating out, I'm not going to cry over it. I know that this week, come monday- I'm going to work hard and get back into my RAWR mode. I got to get back to losing weight instead of just maintaining. Tomorrow, I get back to work, I get back on track, I get back to eating good and start losing weight.

Here are some pics from the trip, enjoy!

Me at the UNC basketball Museum, so cool!

We got to go into Duke's Gym...be jealous.

Duke's Chapel, we would have gone in but there were weddings going on.

What's up Sunset Beach! Getting out tan on.

Virginia Tech's mascot...the hoakie- Don't know his name but we look pretty B.A.

Woke up the last morning to leave and watched a beautiful sunset rise. Good way to end vacation.


If you had to chose one which would you chose... UNC or Duke?

Me- UNC all the way! (That's right Eric, UNC ;) )

Disney. New Supplement testing. Back to work.

I got home yesterday around 10am. I had been up since 2am-slept on the flight on the way home but was still tired. I ended up going to church then came home and made some breakfast-which was healthy compared to the stuff on vacation I was eating and then went to take a nap. I woke up at 6pm. I thought I was going to go on the elliptical but man was I tired. I know, excuses excuses right. Dont worry guys and gals, today I worked out for 2.5 hours and burned 2000+ cals. It felt good to do a legit workout again! I also tried a new supplement I got at the convention. It's called No Shotgun- It's a pre-workout drink. I really thought it helped my workout. I didn't feel tired, the reason-caffeine but it also has other stuff in it to help. The taste is a little blah, but I managed to drink it.

As for Orlando, it was a good trip. The weather was hot, a little rain here and there but otherwise it was Florida weather in the summer. We did a lot of walking around, which was good because that means calories burned. I got two 55min workouts in with my sister at the hotel. I did the elliptical on level 12. I got a good sweat going and it felt good to start out the day dripping sweat. We went to only two places in Disney, Downtown Disney and Epcot. Epcot was really cool. I really enjoyed the ride in the Epcot ball.

Me, my sister and my lil bro (he's 6'4'')

We also took pictures with a couple of characters...

Chip N Dale!

A cat from the Arista-Cats. Forgot the name-Sorry Kitty Cat.

Mulan! I spotted her and we didn't have to wait in a line to take a pic. She wanted us to pose like that, btw.

And, finally Mr. Schmee.


I enjoyed going to all the countries. It was neat to see how many people from around the world really come to Disney. It's crazy! We went to ESPN to eat dinner and they were doing a live show- The two announcers asked where we were from. We replied "Wisconsin!" They immediately said, " Oh, the land of beer and cheese." haha. So true. They also asked us about Brett Farve (Barf) We told them, we dislike him and he's a traitor. Across from us, were Chicago Cubs fans..BOO! There is nothing worse than a Cubs fan, that's a fact.

The guy asking my brother for his answer to a question.

The T-shirt we won for a correct answer. WooHooo!

Overall, the trip was a success. I didn't over-do it on food and I got to workout. I enjoyed myself a lot and hopefully, someday I will get to go to the other Disney parks that I didn't get to see. The last night, we dressed up for a little dinner shindig.

The siblings. Btw, I'm wearing my new size 14 shorts :D

It's back to work tomorrow morning, bright and early. Got to make that money- Then on friday it's off to North Carolina with my friend Heebs and her rents. Have any of you gone on vacation? Do you watch your calories and exercise or do you not care? Any good workouts you have in mind for when I'm on vacation?

The motto of the trip: Just.Keep.Moving.

What's up everyone! Hello from Orlando- I managed to steal my dad's laptop and WIFI in the hotel room. It's been fun down here but just wanted to do a little blogging on my down time. I have been working out every morning with my sister here at the hotel. I've done the elliptical for 55 mins and on level 12. Both times I have burned over 1000 calories! I have been trying to eat "healthy" and make good choices, like eating chicken and drinking water. I splurged a little tonight and got some cookies and cream low fat yogurt in a dish. It tasted like ice cream and was delicious! We have done a lot of walking around which is a plus-burning more calories! Today all we did was sit by the pool and tan- that's what I'm talking about. I got a tad bit burnt but it will def turn into a tan. Hope all of you have had a great week, I wanna give a special shout out to Tara for joining me and many other's in the great place of One-der-land! Congrats Tara and keep working hard :)

I get back to Wisconsin early on Sunday. I hear it's supposed to be in the 90's and sunny so I may hold off blogging until later that night or Monday. See ya then!