Back at it!!

I'm back at running or at least walking now! I feel like I have been slacking this past winter and have been needing to get back out there sooner than I now but at least I have decided to do it now! I decided this past week that no matter how much I was overweight and how slow I am, I wasn't going to let that slow me down! I wasn't going to let that stop me from continuing my journey.

I am going to continue is going to walk and attempt to run and is going to try to blog more about my journey no matter what. I have prayed about my journey and how it has been going and no matter how it has been going, I seem to give up just when I seem to get to a point to where I am doing good. I have a primary care physician that doesn't seem to care to help me in acheiving my weight loss goal and has given me a piece of paper to go by but says that I should eat what is on that paper but when you are allergic to just about all of the items on it what do you do? How do you eat healthy when you can't eat what is on the paper? You can't eat fish because you're allergic to it...You can't eat the fruits because you're allergic to most of them and a lot of the veggies too. So frustrating to get shot down when you go to the doctor and tell him that your joints and muscles hurt all the time and you need for him to check your vitamin D and he tells you that you are nuts and there is no reason to check it even though in the past you have a vitamin d deficiency. Just is heart breaking to see a doctor you see who doesn't care about his patients at all! I am however going to make an appointment with a new doctor this week to get seen and get help! I am going to make an appointment with a specialist to get seem about the muscle pain and joint pain that I have had for years and have been told it's because of my weight but I know for a fact that it's not because of that! It gets worse when I workout or when I sit for a period of time. I look like an old person in the mornings getting out of bed. Haha.

But for now, I'm going to focus on getting my life back and work on getting my health back to where I need to be! I am going to work on getting where I need to be to be able to run this Half Marathon in November! I continue to sign up for them even though my body hurts and aches because it gives me motivation to continue to go and not to let that slow me down! I won't let whatever is going on with my body slow me down! Even if I do have asthma! Now let's bring this Half Marathon Training on this summer!!

Goals & Dreams

One of my goals that I have made for myself is to run more for 2015! So far I have only run 1 race and I just got cleared on Friday to start running again by the doctor. Such good news there. But I have also made other goals for myself as well. I have set goals like signing up and running the Wine & Dine at Disney World in November which I will complete this year. But my main goal is to do the Dopey Challenge in January of 2016.

The Dopey Challenge is where you will run 4 races in 4 days. These races will include the 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon. I actually told Jason that I wanted to run the Goofy Challenge which was just the Half and Marathon but after talking more about it I thought to myself, I am going to do that then why not go the whole way! I mean it's just adding two more races to the mix of things! I know I can do it. I have to start training now for it and I know that I can do it! If you can put your mind to something then you can do it! I believe it will be just before classes start too for me so that will be an added bonus for me as well! I won't take Olivia out of school for this race of course and this will be most likely me going down by myself for these races. I may just while at Disney in September upgrade my tickets to an Annual Pass since I will be going to Disney a lot for these races. I am excited about my goals and dreams that I have.

2014 was a great year for me but I can tell that 2015 will be a even better year. I have already started it by just completed the Princess Half Marathon and I want to complete the Wine & Dine in under 3 hours! That is another big goal I have for myself. I will begin my training again on Tuesday which I am very excited about doing.

Dinner before the Half Marathon!

For dinner the night before the half marathon, I decided to head to the resort and check out what they had. I decided on doing the Create Your Own Pasta and so glad I did too.

I went over and stood in a line that I felt was neverending. It didn't take long to get up to the counter but man it felt like it at the time. I soon ordered Fettichine noodles, with marinara sauce. And choose chicken, garlic (the lady was going to give me a huge scoop and I told I wanted only a little bit), mushrooms and tomatoes to put in my sauce. They soon had it cooking up for me and soon it was ready for me to go pick up my drink and my dessert. I soon paid for my meal using a meal credit and then found an area for me to sit. The food court was pretty empty and I had no trouble finding a place to sit. I found a seat near a window looking out at the water.

My pasta dinner

Jason's Dinner

Soon Jason decided to get the same thing for dinner and he chose chicken alfredo and picked up a cheesecake and a drink. I am so glad that we had saved one of our meals from Friday so that we could use it for lunch and still have a credit for dinner. I can't believe that after starting on my pasta meal I have to say I ate just about all of it. It was so good and this is something that I would definitely get again from Port Orleans Riverside. I soon headed to the room to take a shower and to get some of my things put together. I also before leaving the food court decided to get a "Runners Breakfast" and paid $7.49 for it. I am so happy that I got it. Made life a little easier the next morning!

I also laid out Flat Charlotte before heading to bed. That way it would make life a lot easier the next morning too! I'm so glad I did as well. Felt like I was actually prepared for the race for once! Yay!

Clifbar Review & Giveaway

Before we left for our Disney Racecation I received a nice sized box from Clifbar of Clifshots & more! I reached out to the company to be able to do a review on their product and they were generous enough to send me a wonderful collection of their Shot Bloks, Clif Shots and Hydration Shots. I was more than impressed with the amount that they sent me and I waited until the race to go ahead and use them. I figured that I would be able to really put them to the test for that weekend.

So fast forward a few weeks and it was race weekend. I packed up everything that I had in that box into my bag and it was time to set off to head to Orlando, Florida! I was ready to go ahead and get a headstart on trying out these amazing products. I had already tried the strawberry clif blok before and loved it. But after trying the margarita one it soon became my favorite one and I had to grab several more at the expo to get me through the race too!!! That one became my lifesaver for the race because it helped me not get any cramps which for me was amazing! I normally get severe cramps in my legs and sometimes in my feet and this go round I did not! Amazing!!!

I also tried several of the shots which I have tried before the GU Gel's and I honestly hate the way that those tasted so I was a little hesitent in trying these out. I tried the Razz out at the Expo and was plesantly surprised that I liked the taste and the texture so when picking out what I was going to take with me on the run Sunday I chose the Razz and a few others like the Mocha and Cherry Chocolate. Very good! I didn't have any of the hydration shots while running but I did have them as recovery while I was walking the parks on Sunday and it was nice to be able to get those going. Gave me energy that I just didn't have. I highly recommend using these when training, running, or just on the go!

Clifbar was so generous to send me several and some that I would never use so I want to share with two readers! I will send two readers each a ClifShot Gel and a Hydration Shot! See the Rafflecopter Below:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 "This review has my own opinions on the products but the company did provide the product to me."

Funk

So lately I've been in a funk. I haven't been running like I should and I need to get cracking! The race is just a month away from today and honestly I hope that I can finish the race. I feel like this funk has just put me in a mood that I don't want to be in. I don't lately want to run and yet I still want that medal so badly it hurts. Yeah I know it's crazy.

So I have been thinking...what if I had a running buddy? What if I did decide to join a gym just for a month to train? Would it be worth it? I don't know if it would or not. I am excited about the friends and new people I will get to meet and yet I am still nervous too. I think all of this goes along with it being my very first race. I was going to run in Rocky Mount but I am still not sure about it. I want to spend time with Olivia and Jason on that day so we shall see.

But thinking of what songs to put on my playlist got me thinking...one of the songs that I love to listen to while running is "Shake it Off" by Taylor Swift. That song is so catchy and honestly I have been known to stop dead in my tracks and dance to it as well. Yeah I love doing that. So what is something that you like to do while you run? I wish I had a treadmill here so that I could go ahead and run right now while I'm somewhat out of my funk but I might go for a quick little run later. We shall see how I feel that is.

WDW Marathon Weekend & Dopey Challenge

This weekend has been the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend and Dopey Challenge! I am so happy for my friends who have accepted the Dopey Challenge and just completed it today! I am so proud of them for doing this challenge because not only is it a big challenge to take on but it's something that one day I would love to do.

The challenge that I am speaking of is the Dopey Challenge. With this challenge you have to complete the following races in order to get your Dopey Challenge medal: 5K, 10k, 1/2 Marathon and Marathon. All these races have to be completed in order to receive your medal! I would love to do this of course with my husband but he would have to start to run in order for us to complete this together. Maybe one day I can get him to commit to run. Just haven't gotten him to commit just yet. I need to get to running now because the weather is only going to get colder and nastier this week. :( I'm not looking forward to it.

I thought about joining planet fitness but the problem with joining planet fitness is I have to drive to town and honestly I don't feel like driving to town half of the time. I normally don't go to town unless I have to. Yes that's lazy or that's smart to save on gas. We are also looking into purchasing a treadmill for me to be able to train at home. I only wish we had a home that had a basement because then I could go to the basement and train right there and it wouldn't matter what I looked like. I am still self conscious about myself and I'm working on that but for now I will continue to be self conscious.

I do however need to go to Walmart to get some running tights to be able to run in outdoors. I need something warmer than what I run in. What do you suggest?

Getting Excited...

I have to say that since December is almost over...I'm getting really excited knowing that the race is only 2 months away from Monday! It's hard to believe it will be here before you know it and yes I still need to book my resort and room and all that and I will do that but I am so slack lately on it. I need to crack down on it. We have been trying to figure out if we wanted to fly down and where to stay and all that so we may have figured it out. Jason said he would look more at it when he comes home next week and he has a little more time to really look at it and the prices since he will be the one paying for it all. I have been looking for a used treadmill that I can set up in the garage to run since I have been wanting one. Whenever we move we will take it with us but it will be nice for me to use on the super cold days and I can play my music via my speakers and all that out in the garage. If we had enough room in the bedroom, the treadmill would be coming upstairs in the room with us but right now we don't have enough room.

Speaking of treadmills...I will be posting a different post just asking some advise on one. Since I am looking at a used one instead of a new one I will be asking very specific questions. But until then, I will leave you with a picture of me showing my progress of what I looked like last year compared to just this past week. I feel great too which is very nice to feel after feeling like crud all last year! The picture above is from tonight from when I arm knitted this beautiful infinity scarf for myself. It's not perfect but that is ok with me!

Day 1 of C25k completed

Today was day 1 of my couch 2 5k training to get me started with the half marathon. After I complete this training I will start on the half training and so forth! Come February I WILL be ready for the race. Or if I set it in my mind that for every mile I complete then that's done and my final end result will be the medal at the end of the race! I need to work on my pace as well so along with this training I will be able to do so! 

Anyways I did my first day and let me say I can't believe I ran almost 1 mile. That's a big improvement from last week! I will continue with my goal of running 13.1 miles and so this is something that won't be easy but it's worth the big challenge. 

What are your plans for this weekend? Are you running a race or are you just taking it easy this weekend? 

Glass Slipper Challenge Or Just the Half Marathon?

Recently I found out the cost of the Glass Slipper Challenge and whoa! I didn't expect to see the price so high just for two races. I have talked to Kristen and we both have a big decision to make if we want to still run the Glass Slipper Challenge or if we want to run just the Half Marathon. If we do just run the Half Marathon, I might run the 5k that Friday through Epcot or just walk it and enjoy it. I am also looking at running a half marathon this fall to get my time in so I will not be in a corral I shouldn't be in.

I feel good about this decision that I have decided about running in the Princess Half Marathon and possibly the GSC. I have been looking at treadmills and not sure if I am going to get one yet or not but it's something that I have been checking into.