Disney Princess Half Recap

My Princess weekend started on Saturday! I was really nervous, I didn't really properly train for my half marathon because I am a running diva! I do not run in the cold, rain, or ice. It's just not for me and I am pretty sure it is a result of me being in the Army and finally having control. I was also reading on Facebook that people were having a horrible time at the Expo which was necessary for us to attend in order to pick up our bib and goodie bag. So I get in the car try to relax and bit and enjoy the ride. 

We get there, we check into our hotel at The Pop Century Resort at Disney. We chose that last minute because the bus would transport us to the race without us having to fight traffic to park (FYI there are 23,000 people racing). 

It was a cute hotel but we didn't even go there when we checked in LOL. We got there at three so right to the Expo we went. Let me tell you, if you aren't doing any of the other races for the Princess than GO LATER there wasn't a line when I went to pick up my bib and goody bag. We were there for 30 minutes and most of that was me looking at the merch. Seriously the people that were complaining must have been the first in the door. I will tell you that my procrastination paid off this time for REAL! ha ha! After the expo we went out to eat dinner and then hung out in the hotel room. 

2:30 AM came quick and I set 4 alarms and so did my son so that we wouldn't miss the race. We got up I tried to do my hair in pig tail buns but I was so frustrated I just put it in a high bun ha ha. I was off to the buses and let me tell you they have like 10 of them lined up ready to take us to the race which was really awesome there was AGAIN no waiting. I was like WOW this is a flawless experience for me anyway ha! I am loving this! So we get there early they have a DJ playing music and they call us to go to our corrals. I was Corral F which was pretty lame because even though I wasn't trying to PR I wanted to run. 

So we get to the race line and the fireworks go off and we are running. I knew the first mile was going to stink as far as getting to go so I was already ready for that. I just steadied myself and weaved around the people as best I could, sometimes I got stuck behind a wall of walkers which was really not cool but I was patient. That's pretty much how the run went, I weaved around people and was looking at all the scenery and texting my husband at every mile which made things go by faster for me. Mile 5-6 was VERY narrow you could not get around people if you wanted to! It was seriously a line of people looking like they were moving but really going no where it was pretty cool to see all of us doing the same exact thing. I found myself getting lost in the people, reading their shirts and seeing that they were running for a cause or trying to put some humor in the back of their shirts. One of them said I sure hope that there is at least one person behind me reading this ha ha! It was pretty funny. Mile 9 I felt the blister on the bottom of my foot and I thought I was doomed but it never popped Thank You Jesus! I don't know what I would have done if it did pop. Well I do now my A** would have run through that finish line CRYING ha ha ha! I wasn't going to walk through that even if it killed me. 

The rest of the race was pretty much a blur until the end because you get that antsy feeling that you are done but you are SO FAR away from being done which is a crap situation to be in but in the end was where most people were running which was good for me I improved my time and picked up the pace. I wish I had not gotten my husband to be in charge of the camera because we let it in Mass :( so I have crap cell phone pictures but I do have some of them that I am going to purchase later and get them printed out. Once I get them I will post them here so you can see them. 

I would seriously do the race again but this time I would bring a camera and stop to take pictures with the people at the race. I am mad that I didn't get all the pictures that I wanted to but it's ok I have the memories and I have the 13.1 magnet for my car to prove it LOL. It was a great experience and it was totally worth the $150 registration fee. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a blast!!!!! I love love loved it. Here are some of my crap cell phone pictures :) 

The medals at the end of the race

Getting ready to run around and then through the castle!

Salad Tips

Les Mills Pump and Insanity Hybrid

If you are looking for a hybrid here is one for you to try and follow for 30 days and see how you like it. This hybrid is more focused on the Les Mills over Insanity.


Week 1

1 Pump Challenge
2 Rest Day
3 Pump Challenge
4 Plyo Cardio Circuit
5 Pump Challenge
6 Cardio Power and Resistance
7 Rest Day


Week 2:

1. Pump and Burn
2. Cardio Power and Resistance
3. Pump Challenge/Hard Core Abs
4. Flow
5. Pump and Burn
6. Pure Cardio
7. Rest Day

Week 3:

1. Hardcore Abs/Plyo cardio circuit
2. Pump and Burn
3. Pure Cardio
4. Pump and Burn
5. Flow/Hardcore Abs
6. Pump and Burn
7. Rest

Week 4:

1. Pump and Burn
2. Pure Cardio
3. Pump and Burn
4. Plymetric Cardio Circuit
5.Pump and Burn
6. Pure Cardio/Cardio Abs
7. Rest

Transformation Friday! Melissa P90X

This is Melissa, she has finished P90X and I asked her to guest blog about her experience and why she chose to go with a Beachbody program.  I am so partial to P90X because even though it is a TOUGH workout (there is no doubt about that!) P90X does wonders for a woman's body it is unreal, I love it and plan on doing another round after Body Beast. Happy Friday and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. What made you want to do a Beachbody program and P90x?

Rewind to 3 years ago, I was overweight and miserable. I used to be super skinny in high school and then gained the freshman 30 in college. (I'm pretty sure I gained all that because my metabolism slowed down and I still ate junk food and never once worked out.) I got to a point where none of my clothes fit and I had to go buy bigger sizes (this was NOT fun). I hated the way my body looked and I got tired of trying to hide my muffin top through baggy clothing. I missed the days where I could get away with wearing tight pants and not worry about there being any fat on me. One day a light bulb clicked on inside my head. I could get rid of this weight, I could finally be happy in my own skin again, if I took action. I read somewhere online that you could work your way up (working out wise.) So i started slowly working out 10 mins at a time. Before I knew it I started to work out an hour at a time! And doing it 5-6 times a week! I ended up losing 40 lbs on my own!! Fast forward 3 years, I kept most of the weight off, but 12 lbs crept on since the holidays hit (this was in January of last year, 2012). Unhappy and ready to change FOR GOOD this time, I told myself to start over. I started doing 10 min trainer 2 times a week, then added some power 90 cardio, then eventually added free weights. 5 months later I started adding p90x videos to my workout (to take the guess work out). I found it was so much easier to have someone tell me what all of my weight routines were instead of having to come up with them all the time. (Side note: I actually had p90x for a while (my dad gave it to me) and was always too scared to do it. For the longest time I thought it looked way too intense and too challenging for me to ever try.) I saw that yes, they were challenging workouts but I was READY to tackle the program as a whole. My first month was brutal, I admit I cried at some of the workouts, I couldn't do some of the moves but I never gave up. I ended up completing the first round but wanted MORE. So I started over, and then started over again (round 2, and round 3 complete!). Now i'm currently on my 4th round! I'm so glad I found p90x, it is now my "work out routine" of choice. I have to say, I'm ADDICTED!

2. What was your biggest struggle during your transformation?

I can't list just one. The actual workouts were SO HARD. And pushing through them. Also, just getting up and making myself do the workouts EVEN when i didn't feel like it. Either I was TOO TIRED, TOO SORE, TOO BUSY, and so forth.The nutrition part was hard too...i'm not gonna lie I still have trouble sometimes! Eating clean is NO JOKE. I struggled making sure I ate enough, and with my fat %, carb %, and protein %'s.

3. How did you overcome that?

 Just doing the workouts anyway, through the exhaustion ,through the pain, through the craziness. 

Also, once I started tracking my calories, fat %, carb %, and protein % I found that to get MUCH easier. 

4. How have you changed since you completed P90X?

Oh my gosh, my whole LIFE has changed! I now have NEW habits-every night when I get home from work I make sure to get my workout in-when before I'd wait til tomorrow (and the day after that, and so forth lol.) If I was too tired I'd give into it and go to bed. Now I work out even when I am EXHAUSTED. It's my #1 priority! I schedule my life around my workouts-when before my life came before and I'd never get to my workouts. I have cleaned up my diet, I used to not get enough protein, now I get MORE than enough. I have so much more ENERGY, and have started motivating others to get active as well! Now after all that I've been through and the CRAZY results I've gotten, I want to help other people get the same results (because trust me, I've been there, it's HARD to get started!) I now am a Beachbody Coach and I help people get in the BEST shape of their lives! And to train them to help others as well! I love my job and I love the people I get to meet and help. It's an amazing opportunity and I'm SO GLAD to be a part of it! :)

5. What were your results?

3 years ago, I weighed 170 lbs and my body fat was at or around 33%. NOW I weigh 120 and my body fat is 19%!! That's 50 LBS weight LOST! This program WORKS people!!! If you want to CHANGE your life and get CRAZY mind blowing results-p90x is FOR YOU. Tony Horton makes it FUN and is HILARIOUS! I do have to warn ya, it is a VERY challenging intense workout. Make sure you are READY for it by doing an easier program FIRST! Work your way up! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Get started, TODAY! Your future self will thank you for it. ;)

My newest "thing" I want to try

I am hanging out in Florida with kids and family and finally found some time to blog. I am getting really excited about the Disney Princess Half Marathon on Sunday and I am really nervous about it too. I can't wait to do it but at the same time since I did not train properly 13.1 miles seems like a trek for me. I am not the kind of person that likes to give up so I know that I will make it through and run the whole time but in the same respect I don't want to "fail" either. I am really excited to take pictures and all of that and be able to share my experience with you all.

Well I finished reading The Beauty Detox Diet and it was a good book with plenty of excellent references mainly The China Study, but overall it had a lot of good points. She seems to suggest going to a plant based diet which is something that I have heard before but what I like about her approach is that she isn't pushy about it. Even though she had great principles she didn't really do great with the examples and the menu plan was only for a week and she suggests for the plans to be for months......I think a month long plan would have been sufficient even if she was going to alternate two weeks. She is coming out with a cookbook I suppose it is to support the phases that she has in the book. There are recipes for each thing that she wants you to eat which is also a plus. What Kimberly Snyder is more famous for is the Glowing Green Smoothie. She suggests that you should use a Vitamix blender but all of us can't afford that so use what you have I suppose. I am very eager to try the smoothie so when I go make I go home I will let you know how it tastes and if it makes a difference in my diet or if I notice any changes with using the smoothie. It is supposed to be a meal replacement so we shall see. The recipe is below.

If you try it out before I am able to post my review of it let me know what you think of it. I saw in Hoda and Kathy Lee in the morning show that they have and they said that it was good too so, I can't wait to try it when I get home.

Body Beast

So Body Beast came in the mail on Saturday while we were on the road. I am not officially starting until March 4th but I wanted to get started on reading and figuring out how were were going to eat. Since this is a body building program eating is essential to any workout but if you are trying to gain mass it appears that you will be eating more than working out it seems LOL. Yesterday I calculated my body fat percentage at 22 percent but I don't really know if that is accurate or not because of the fact that it seems like a lot but I want to check with my calipers when I get home. My calorie adjustment it 2800 calories, I guess that seems like a whole lot to me because I eat between 1600 and 2000 per day depending on what I eat so it seems like I am going to be gaining some serious weight but I will trust the process and see how it goes. 

So we got home yesterday evening and it was so nice to be home. As much as I like being in the Coast Guard there is nothing like the feeling that I get when I come home. I know where everything is, I can just relax and my Mom does everything so it is just nice to be able to enjoy my children. I came in the house yesterday and my son B was like Mom look! I got you something for Valentines Day! and THIS is what I came home to. 

I love them and I couldn't be happier that he chose ME to be his Valentine :) I love my little man so much he is the sweetest guy ever. He makes me so proud every day! 

Later today we are going to do our family photo session this afternoon, lets hope that my boys cooperate :) Well off I go to enjoy more family time, I hope that you have a wonderful Tuesday!
 

Ultimate Reset

 I am not the biggest fan of this thing called cleansing but I was reading a book called The Beauty Detox Solution and I have also watched Fork Over Knives and these principles have been nagging me since I first saw the movie. I can't really explain it but it makes so much sense. Some of you may think that it's all hogwash and that is totally ok I understand where you are coming from because I was once there. 

 

In the book Kimberly Snyder talks about our body holding onto fat because the body keeps it around to block the organs from the totoxicity that we put into your bodies. She also talks about how we are very similar to monkeys and gorillas which makes sense too and how are bodies and intestines are similar to theirs and they are vegetarian animals which rings off sirens in my head too. I mean what if we were MEANT to be vegetarians! How crazy would that be? I am not totally sold on the book but I have read numerous research articles on the subject and it all makes sense. Think about it.......why do we drink milk? Cows make it for their babies while we make our own milk for our babies so why would we drink cow baby milk? It just makes sense if you REALLY think about it. Anyway.....I have been toying with the idea of doing the Ultimate Reset. It is based off of the principle of transitioning to going vegan and it is a 21 day cleanse. I am even more curious to see how it works now that I am reading this book and recently saw Forks Over Knives......I am not through reading the book but I will post a review on it when I have finished it to let you know. For now, it is a very informational read that has plenty of references for me to check out and do research on my own. 

 

If you are wondering what the Reset is check out below and there is information on the phases and what it is meant to do for your body. I have also attached a small video for you to check out in the mean time.

 

How It Works: The 21-day Reset Occurs in Three Phases.

• Balance Body Chemistry

  Constant consumption of preservatives and chemical-laden foods along with exposure to toxins and pollution impair normal body processes. During Phase 1, you'll balance your body chemistry with four of the six supplements in order to optimize its systems. This will also reduce cravings or dependencies on items such as sugar or caffeine.*
  

• Remove Toxins & Reset Digestion

  In Phase 2, you'll be reversing the effects of poor habits, unhealthy foods, and environmental toxins. You'll modify your diet so that your digestive system won't have to struggle, and digestive problems you may have experienced before such as bloating and indigestion will be significantly reduced as your gasotrointestinal tract is cleansed.*
  

• Rejuvenate Your Health

  When you reach Phase 3, you will experience a profound positive change in your mood and energy level. During the final week, you'll eat foods of high-nutritional value whose nutrients are easily absorbed and return healthy bacteria to your freshly scrubbed digestive tract with pre- and probiotics. This will set you on the path to long-term healthy living.*