21 Day Fix: Day 2

This morning I woke up with sore legs, a sore butt, and just a general overall soreness. It is the feeling you get after you know you have busted your butt doing a good workout. Needless to say, I knew that today's workout was going to be harder than I figured simply because of the soreness.

I woke up late and before I realized it, I had not eaten all day. I got up and moving around 4 and took myself to the local Japanese restaurant where I ordered myself a dynamite roll. It met part of my meal for the day, but I know it was a no-no to simply not eat all day. I wasn't sure what the measurement was, but I knew that I had not met my daily quota, so I'm calling it a draw.

I completed the Day 2 workout which was called The Upper Fix. It worked on the upper body and much to my dismay still caused me to use my legs, which are still super sore. After the workout I finally had more mobility. I'm thinking the more I workout the better I'll feel. I've got to get these legs out of the sore phase and ASAP.

After the workout, I helped myself to another chocolate and peanut butter protein shake and am finally getting to relax. Hoping tomorrow's workout goes as smooth.

Until later,
Jana

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21 Day Fix: Day 1

Well, it has been a while since I last logged in and made a post. As usual, life happened and a lot of things got in the way. My relationship of 9 years ended and it has been an endless journey of trying to cope and move my life forward. I mention all this because it was (and still is) an important part of me. As I am moving forward, I am excited about some of the more positive changes coming. Some of which include a new job and a new town. I have accepted a new job teaching 6th grade Social Studies and I am very excited! I'll be moving closer to my family as well. But anyway, all of this will be reserved for another post. Onto the 21 Day Fix.

Monday on June 8, 2015 I began my 21 day journey to a healthier me. As I haven't really worked out much since returning from Disney in February, it is high time I get my butt into gear. I have signed up for the Disney Half Marathon in January of 2016 and its time to get prepared to start training. I'm excited because B is running the full marathon, but I'll leave that to her to tell you all about! :)

The premise of the program is you eat food that fit into these color coded boxes for 21 days and follow the workout plan and it is supposed to help you lose weight, tone up, etc. Each box represents a certain food and based on your weight determines how many times you get to fill each box.  If you know me, I am always up for trying something different, and given that I have had several friends recommend this program, I figured why not. You can read more about the actual program here.

Prior to starting, I read through the nutrition book and got to really know each of the containers. I took sharpie to mine and labeled them, but some people prefer to make real labels. I simply wrote the number of times I am allowed to fill each box a day and wrote the type of food that could go inside of it. So for example, I wrote the number 6 on the green box and labeled it Veggies. That means I can fill that box up to 6 times a day with veggies. I then checked out the shakeology cup that came with my set and looked through the videos that came with the kit. I actually sat down and watched the first DVD so I would know what to expect. Upon watching the videos I noticed that they did advertise for shakeology a lot. Shakeology is the nutritional meal supplement that is supposed to help with recovery after a workout, however it is a little more pricey than I could afford. I simply found a protein powder that was similar and more in my price range by looking online and reading a few nutritionists blogs. 

I also know that taking your measurements and pictures for starting was important. I typically would go ahead and post my before pictures and measurements, but I think I want to wait until I'm done with my first 21 days. I really want to see what kind of difference there is. And I'm a little embarrassed if I'm completely honest with myself. 

For my first day, I started out the best way I knew how. I made a pre-workout shake (chocolate protein powder, 8oz water, half a banana, and ice) and waited for it to kick in before launching into my very first workout which was the full body fix. Needless to say, it lived up to it's name. Less than an hour after finishing, my glutes and quads were KILLING me! I know it is because those muscles haven't been pushed that hard since February. I know now that I really need to get my butt in gear so that's not an issue. After the workout finished, I once again fueled up with a recovery shake (chocolate protein powder, 8oz water, 2 tsp peanut butter, and ice) and took a hot shower to help soothe the soreness. 

According to the plan, each of the shakes constituted a red container, the peanut butter constituted 2 teaspoons, and the half a banana was considered a purple container. For lunch I enjoyed a salad with chicken tenders on top with some avocado lime ranch (4 green containers, an orange, and a red) Dinner was a red container of pan seared chicken, 2 green containers of broccoli, and a blue container of cheese. Believe it or not, I still had plenty of options left to eat. It felt good to know that I'm making good choices for myself and I can still have other things to eat should I feel hungry. I really think this program is going to be a good one. I can't wait to hit Day 21. 

I'll be making daily posts or posting every other day in hopes that anyone else interested can do this as well. If you have any suggestions, please drop them in the comments and I look forward to updating soon!

Always,

Jana

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Watch me Go...



For those of you who don't know, I've been battling severe allergies since the beginning of October. Between sneezing, coughing, and feeling bad I have been struggling to get my runs in. That on top of a full plate at work and you get why I've been terrible at posting. I'm still a little under the weather, but I'm done letting that stop me from reaching my goal of completing my first half marathon. I've been getting in about a run or two a week, but they are pretty slow and I've only run about 30 minutes at a time.

Today was the first day I've felt really good in a while, and minus some coughing, I had no other issues. I warmed up around 3:45pm and took off on my first distance run in a while. 5 miles is a lot of mileage as the most I've ever run at one time was my 10K almost a year and a half ago. I expected a really bad time, but I was surprised to see that I'm not as far behind as I thought.

I finished my run and was flagged down by one of the guys who does training for a local gym. He often brings his classes to the track to run and use the equipment. (I am always cheering encouragement at them as I see them go through circuits and they are always cheering on the runners out at the track.) I waved at him and stopped by to see what he wanted. He told me that he had noticed my running form was MUCH better and he wanted to let me know that he could really tell a difference. I smiled and told him I was concerned because my time had slowed down as my form began to change. Apparently that is normal and as long as I keep running, I should be fine. The fact that he stopped me to tell me I was improving really  made me happy. It made me realize that you never know who is watching you. It makes me want to push myself even harder to ensure that I reach my goals in time for my big race. (And I told him about getting ready for the half and he gave me some really good advice on nutrition goals and pacing. :) For free...which is the best thing.)

It's hard to believe that we are only 111 days away from race day! It seems to be passing so quickly! I can remember when we were at 250 days...now we are almost down to double digit days! It will REALLY hit me when we get to single digit days! B and I are so ready and pretty much text non-stop these days about what all we are going to do! I can't wait to get there!

 

Enjoy your evening,

Jana

 

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J and B's Runiversary

July 29, 2014 was mine and B's 2 year runiversary. It seems so surreal looking back over that amount of time and how far we have come. I didn't even realize it until August 1 and of course I had to send her a message to let her know we had missed it. She and I both agreed that it would make for a good blog post, so here we are. :)

I know we post a lot about our running and how far we've come. I just want to say, I'm so proud of B! She had a 14 minute mile the other day! And not just 1, but 3 of them! When we started this journey I know I could barely do a 20 minute mile. The fact that we are up to 14 minute miles speaks volumes about our journey and we are hoping to only get faster the longer we practice.

Instead of writing all about our journey, I want to share a few pictures instead. Please bear with me as this will be a photo heavy post. :)

 These were taken after we finished our very FIRST 5K in September of 2012. We finished in under an hour and we were the last two to finish, but we finished! So blessed I had this girl in my corner. 

 Fun times at our very first foam race! As you can see, we enjoyed the face painting. :)

 Of course I had to throw in a few college throw back pictures. :) As you can see, we had a lot of fun. 

 When Brit and I started our running journeys, we inspired several others to join us for the Color Run in Jackson, MS. As you can see, it was a blast!

 Our very 1st 10K in Auburn, AL (War Damn Eagle!)

Random pics from Days Gone By!

I'm so looking forward to many more adventures with this girl and I can't wait until we get to post all about our experience at the Disney Princess Half Marathon! :D

Until Later,

Jana

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The Week That Was

It has been quite a busy week/weekend around these parts, so I figured it was time for a little life update!

Last Monday, my husband and I finally closed on our home, and I'm so happy that it is now OURS all OURS, it is absolutely perfect for us. Every time we go over to the house, we are just filled with so much joy that it is now owned by us. We can't wait till we can get all the way moved in. Alas, we are still at the apartment, buying our time till move in day. 

Last week was the last week of our summer camp at work. It was rewarding but so much work!! I'm glad for it to be over. We had a great last week though. Graduation Day! Chuck E' Cheese Day! Splash Pad Day! We also had the children reflect on what they learned from summer camp, I loved this response we got. Also isn't that top photo cute? That was the teens we hired to help this summer, taking selfies with my phone when I was out of the room,  I just discovered them today. It cracked me up.

Saturday morning, we got up super early and headed over to the house to paint the guest room. Two of the bedrooms in our new home were children's bedrooms, and they were very brightly colored. So I wanted to switch them up. Neither Adam nor I have ever painted before, so we were somewhat nervous. But I love how it turned out! I decided to go with a darker, less shiny blue. I can't wait to get it fully decorated in my nautical theme! Jana keeps telling me this is her bedroom!  So I told her she will have to make a sign for the room that says, "Jana's Room: Keep Out!" Just as we would have done when we were children.

Saturday night, Adam and I went to my 10 year class reunion. Holy Cow! It has been 10 years. Like what? How has it been 10 years? Our reunion was at the Space & Rocket Center, which was such a cool location. I was nervous having not seen these people for so long, but it was so nice to see everyone. Especially some of my best friends from that time, it was just like old times. And everyone was so nice about my weight loss! I'm proud to be a graduate of Athens High School Class of 2004!

I woke up Sunday morning, and I did a run on the treadmill because it was HOT, HOT, HOT outside. I did 2 miles at a 4.0 mile pace, getting up to 4.2 eventually. I love that I'm speeding up on the treadmill now. It makes me hopeful I can get my pace way up for Disney.  I feel like I have been playing it really careful with my injury, but I have had no extra pain lately, so I'm ready to start amping it back up. I want to be back up to 3 miles by this weekend. Next week, I'm going on a family beach trip, so I'm hoping to get in some pretty beach runs. 

Also, I spent a few hours at the waterpark today. Soaking up some Vitamin D and floating in the lazy river. It was so fun, and it was a perfect ending to this wonderful week. I even got up some courage to go down the big water slide (yeap, that is me gliding on the water), now that was one wild ride.

Have a great week chickadees,

Brittany

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