A few nights ago, I was on Facebook and a post from a friend of mine popped up.

She had just signed up for a half marathon.

My breath caught in my throat.

Two years ago, I was on the cusp of running and completing my first (and only) half. I was in the best shape of my life.

Let me go back…just before seeing her post, I had been editing photos from my daughters first birthday. There were several of me and they were all ‘aha’ moment photos. You know, the kind where you don’t even recognize yourself. Really bad.

I mean, how sad is it that I wanted to edit myself out of all of my daughters first birthday pics?

Seeing my friends post for the half, and her invite for others to join felt like divine intervention. Like someone was throwing me a lifeline, a chance to get back to me.

Before I could over think it, I clicked through to the race page, whipped out my credit card and signed up.

And just like that, I’m going to be running a half marathon in October. The panic has set in and I’ve questioned my sanity, but I honestly need to have the fear of humiliation seared into my brain to motivate me to get my weight/health/LIFE under control. The fear of the sweeper van will push me to train.

I feel like I have a great support system…both here, with my newly formed training team, and online, with my Sisters. From time to time, I’ll probably show up here all whiny. Please feel free to verbally kick my ass.

I never knew peer pressure could be so necessary, so positive. But that’s what it took for me. And I will continue to bend to this positive influence all the way to my next finish line.

Breakfast has never been a priority for me.

Like, ever.

Honestly, I can remember as far back as middle school, trying to skip breakfast. And it wasn’t because I was dieting or anything. I was just too busy or not hungry or whatever. Like I said, it just wasn’t a priority.

As an adult, I know that breakfast is important. The most important meal of the day. But I still find that I’ll blink and it’s already 11 am and all I’ve had is a pot of coffee. It’s so bad. I mean, the kids have been fed, sometimes twice (breakfast and snack) and here I am, subsisting on a few stray goldfish and caffeine.

Of course, lunchtime rolls around and I’m ravenous. And it all snowballs. Spoonful of peanut butter while I’m making sandwiches for the kids lunch. A handful of animal crackers. The string cheese I keep trying to feed my four year old that I know he won’t eat but I keep trying anyway (probably so I can finish it).

And then I eat lunch.

Basically, I’m digging myself in a hole, nutrition wise.

I’m sure I’m not alone.

So, why is breakfast so important? First of all, it’s the fuel that helps your brain function. This piece of information should be enough to get me on the breakfast bandwagon. Cause my mommy brain has reached ridiculous levels of forgetfulness.

Also? People who skip breakfast are 75% more likely to be overweight than those who don’t.

HELLO?!

You might be wondering, what exactly is an ideal breakfast (I was)?

Here it is: 53% carbs, 27% fat, 20% protein. You want to aim for 25 to 30% of your daily calories at breakfast – if you’re trying to lose, that’s about 400, if you’re maintaining, 500, and if you’re very active, 625.

You may have every excuse in the book as to why you’re a breakfast skipper – too busy, not hungry, saving calories for a splurge later in the day – but the bottom line is that skipping your morning meal is terrible for YOUR BOTTOM LINE.

How can you make breakfast work for you? Here are a few ideas:

- Be prepared. Keep individual baggies of frozen fruit in the freezer so you can chuck it in the blender with some greek yogurt and psyllium husks for a quick smoothie.

- Keep it simple. Whole grain toast topped with natural peanut butter and 1/2 banana. Done. That takes all of three minutes. You have three minutes, right?

- Nosh on leftovers. Breakfast doesn’t have to be ‘breakfast’ food.  Heat up last night’s quinoa and vegetables. Your body will just be thrilled to be getting fuel.

- Keep an emergency stash. So you ran out the door without grabbing anything for breakfast…but you remember you have a little bag of almonds and dried apricots in your bag. Try to keep a small meal in your purse or your car that you can fall back on in a pinch.

- When you feed your kids, feed yourself. Obviously this only applies if you actually have children (though you could use your pets as a cue as well). I try to sit down and eat with my children in the morning. It forces me to slow down and fuel myself, and also sets a good example.

I’ve been making an effort to eat breakfast daily, and I have to say I feel much better when I do – and I notice my children eat better when I sit down and eat with them.

So, are you a breakfast eater? If so, what are your go-to eats? If not, what’s your excuse? Spill in the comments!

Hello, Internets!

It’s my first ever ‘Toot Your Horn Tuesday’! I have to say, this is a great exercise for me. Because I’m going to have to really dig deep to find something to toot. It’s not that I’m really down on myself…it’s that I’m so exhausted lately that I can’t remember what the heck I’ve been up to!

Also, I’m sitting here giggling to myself because my four year old son has taken to telling me I ‘smell like pee pee, poop and toot’. Nice, right? Thanks, preschool. And it’s all I can do to keep a straight face.

Anyways…

Here’s what I’m going to toot about. Juggling.

Right now, I’m juggling Shrinking Kitchen (which I am so very proud of), taking care of my family, watching 20 month old twin girls in addition to my children and somehow, I’m keeping up. Well, for the most part. Some days the house looks a little worse for the wear. Some days I don’t get a shower.

But I’m surprisingly cool with it – I feel like I’m actually accomplishing things.

That’s most definitely toot-worthy (in my book).

What do you want to toot about? Let us know in the comments!

I’ve been busy as a bee over at Shrinking Kitchen. Menu planning. In fact, I’m getting pretty great at menu planning.

The rest of my life? Well, lets just say I need to apply my menu planning skills to other areas of my life. I don’t know what it is…mommy brain, being flat out too busy, getting older…but I can’t remember anything.

I can’t even remember what day it is half the time.

A few years ago I went from working full time out of the home to being a stay at home mom. In my previous duly employed life, I had planning down to a science. Microsoft Outlook wss my homie. There honestly was no way to function WITHOUT planning. I was out of the house from 6 am to 4 pm and then came home and had to take care of all teh household things – cleaning, cooking, childcare. Planning wasn’t optional, it was a necessity.

When I was laid off and became a full time stay at home mom, I completely threw planning and calendars to the wind. And it was glorious. My son and I lived for the moment. Flew by the seat our pants. It was a great time. For a few months.

Then I realized that if I didn’t plan, have some sort of structure, we would go through entire days without accomplishing anything. Namely, exercise. Also, keeping up on correspondence. And laundry oh the laundry!.

Let’s face it. Life is pretty much like a job. It needs to be managed. And to a point, planned. I’m not saying that it isn’t great to be spontaneous once and a while, but for me, I need some structure or I will let EVERYTHING go.

Things like working out, spending time with my friends, even sitting down and paying bills meh need to be penciled in or they simply won’t happen. And the more lax my scheduling becomes, the more lax I become. Everything snowballs.

I’ve been slacking on life planning lately – I’ve been forgetting to imput things into my calendar. I’ve been forgetting to CHECK my calendar. I haven’t been making my handy dandy checklists. I haven’t been making any goals for myself.

Time to get organized.

How do you organize yourself? Are you a slave to your smartphone? Do you write everything out on paper? Are you freewheeling and spontanesous?

Tell me in the comments. I’d love some new ideas on getting my life under control!

A few weeks back, I started watching a pair of 20 month old twins in addition to my 11 month old daughter and four year old son. It has been lots of fun but SHEW! I am completely wiped by the time 5 pm rolls around.

Okay, honestly? I’m wiped pretty much an hour after I roll out of bed in the morning.

The boundless energy that the children have? I think they have drained it from my body.

Cute little leeches.

Seriously, I need more energy. I don’t like feeling run down, I don’t like drinking an entire pot of coffee daily (that is not a typo). Turns out, I’m not totally barking up the wrong tree. Caffeine IS good for increasing alertness – maybe just not in such massive quantities. Check out these ideas for boosting your energy levels in a HEALTHY way.

Caffeine: Caffiene actually helps your body fuel itself – it stimulates the breakdown of stored fats into fatty acids, which can then be used by muscle and other tissues for energy. But watch your intake. For optimum benefit, try to take in no more than 150 millgrams per day – that’s about a cup and a half of coffee. And switch to decaf after 2 pm to avoid keeping yourself awak at night.

Music: Create a playlist that lifts your mood. It doesn’t even need to be up tempo. That said, something that will get you moving and grooving is always a good thing.

Going Outside: Try to get outside for at least 15 minutes if you’re dragging. Fresh air and deep breathing helps carry more oxygen into your blood and provides a boost.

Water: Being dehydrated can make you feel fatigued, unfocused and generally down. Drink your water!

Better Sleep: Easier said than done, right?  Try these tips:

• Aromatherapy, especially lavender, can help lull you off to dreamland.
• Take a hot bath: Sleep comes most easily when your core temperature drops. You’d think a hot bath would be counterproductive, but this is how it works – if your hands and feet are cold, your core holds onto heat. A hot bath warms your extremities , so your body gets the memo to start cooling itself. Add a few drops of lavendar essential oil to your bath water for a one–two sleepy punch.
• Unplug: Blue wavelengths in natural light have a big impact on our circadian rythym and slows the production of melatonin, which is the key to drifting off to sleep. Avoiding blue light, which is prevalent in many of today’s high efficiency bulbs and the screens of laptops and tablets, can help sleep come more easily. Try turning off technology after dinner and dimming the lights an hour before you hit the sack.

Snacking: Keep it at 200 calories or less, and make sure it’s a balanced combination of carbs, fiber and protein. Try a hard boiled egg and a small banana, or a 1/2 cup of blueberries with a cup of plain lowfat Greek yogurt.

Exercise (duh). Even 15 minutes of cardio daily will work wonders for your energy levels.

So, how are you all feeling? Worn down? Or are you always reading and raring to go?

Any tricks you use to keep up with your kids/animals/life in general?

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You’re getting ready for a workout. You’re all dressed, shoes are laced, shades are on.

But you’re not ready. Not even close. You still need music. A heart rate monitor. A gps. Your phone.

Okay. Maybe it’s just me. But I’m a complete gadget-a-holic. I once forgot my GPS when I was visiting my parents and almost convinced myself I couldn’t go for a run without it. I know! Pathetic!

I’ve often daydreamed of running gadgetless, but the reality is, I don’t think I can do it – I at least need my phone. In case there’s an emergency. And music. You know, for motivation. And my GPS. So I don’t get lost.

Crap.

Why can’t all those things be in one self contained gadget?

Wait…they can. They ARE.

Behold. The Motorola MOTOACTV.

This baby is is pretty amazing.

First of all, it is a GPS, a media player, a heart rate monitor all in one… and it allows you to stay connected to your Android smartphone so you can received texts and calls while working out.

Pretty amazing. Especially since it’s small – 35 grams. It’s about much the size of an iPod Nano. You can wear it as a watch, clip it onto your clothing, strap it on your arm or mount it to your bike.

Some other cool details:

• The MOTOACTV’s display has a light sensor that adjusts for indoor/outdoor and day/night lighting.
• Using Motorola AccuSense, it can track the details of every workout to help you track your progress.
• MOTOACTV can hold up to 4000 songs. It’s smart music player learns which songs motivate you by tracking your performance against your music to create a personalized motivating playlist (how cool is that?!).
• The MOTOACTV is sweat-proof, rain-resistant and scratch-resistant. Which is so necessary for any workout gadget.

Plus, A.C. Slater uses one:

The MOTOACTV starts at $249.99. Which is a pretty sweet deal considering how much you’d pay for a seperate GPS, MP3 player and heartrate monitor.  If you’re in the market for a new GPS, take a look at the MOTOACTV and streamline your workout gear!

Disclosure:

I received the Motorola MOTOACTV from Motorola as part of the Motorola Insider program. I was not paid to review the MOTOACTV. My opinions are 100% my own!

This is not me. In case you were wondering.

*Winner has been chosen! Check the comments to see if it’s you!

Okay, this is probably TMI, but I have to admit that when I run, I wear three sports bras.

You read that right, three.

Ugh.

It is ridiculous – not to mention, it’s a lot of laundry! But it’s necessary to keep the girls in check.

Enter the Jubralee from Moving Comfort. I received one in the mail not long ago to try out and I am amazed. Seriously. AMAZED. I can run WITH ONLY ONE SPORTS BRA. It’s a miracle.

Jubralee is Moving Comfort’s first sports bra to be tested in their state of the art biomechanics lab.

Here are a few fun facts about the biomechanics lab:

• In the biomechanics lab, Moving Comfort tests on various sizes including D cups.
• Moving Comfort tests in all directions that the breasts move when running – vertical, horizontal and in/out. This helps minimize potential discomfort.
• 56% of women say they experience pain when working out. There is no reason to experience pain if you are wearing a well designed and properly fitting sports bra.
• Moving Comfort combines their lab testing with wear testing. They call this their head and heart strategy. Moving Comfort bras are “Girlfriend tested, lab approved”™.

The Jubralee is super comfortable – which is pretty amazing considering the support it provides. It features:

• hidden side and under bust support
• shaped front adjustable straps with concealed hook and look closure
• seam free interior molded cups (no more uniboob!!)
• subtle contour shape cups

The Jubralee comes in sizes 30-40 B-E and 42-44 C-DD and retails for $54. Did I mention the fabulous colors? I love that I can get a supportive, stylish sports bra! Mine is the Sunset/Red Hot color and it’s gorgeous.

If you are in the market for a new sports bra, I cannot reccomend the Jubralee enough. I’ve never had such a supportive, comfortable and pretty sports bra.

You know where a new sports bra might come in handy? Our virtual race, Run the ‘hood! It’s a fun opportunity to participate in a race without having to travel – your race can start at your front door!  Also, we’re starting our Couch to 5K training series today, so even if you’ve never run before, you can train and build up to a 5k! What are you waiting for? Sign up!

But wait! There’s more! Do you want to win a new sports bra to wear during your training?

Moving Comfort is graciously giving us one Jubralee to give away to one of our lucky readers!

To enter, simply:

1) Comment on this post and tell us if you’ve ever had to wear more than one sports bra. Or something embarrassing. I need some solidarity here, folks!

That’s it! I’m keeping it simple.

This contest ends at 11:59 PST on Friday, March 30, 2012. Winner will be announced on Saturday, March 31. Please make sure you leave a valid email address in your comment so we can reach you if you win! If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, we will pick another winner.

Good luck!

Moving Comfort provided me with product to test and also product for this giveaway. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. As always, all opnions are my own.

So yeah, it’s Daylight Savings tonight. Spring forward, peeps.

I can’t tell you how many times we were late to Sunday School when I was a kid because of Daylight Savings. Of course, we wouldn’t realize we were late until we pulled the burgundy minivan into the full parking lot and entered the empty hallways of the church.  Then, even though I was mortified, my parents would make me shuffle into my Sunday School class AN HOUR LATE.

So I could stew in my humiliation for the remaining twenty or so minutes of class.

Scarring, I’m telling you. Scarring.

Thus began my hate/hate relationship with Daylight Savings.

Now, as a parent, I’m even less of a fan. Because kids don’t care if you GAIN or LOSE  an hour of sleep. They’re going to sleep when they want and getting up when they want.

But, as with any cloud, there’s a (kind of) silver lining.

First, it’s lighter “earlier”, so if you’re one of those morning runners, you can be out pounding the pavement earlier.

Second, spring Daylight Savings means we’re *this much* closer to spring and summer. hurry up summer, I miss youuuu

Thirdly…well, I’ve got nothing. I think two positives are pretty good considering we are facing major schedule disruption. Right?

I’ve got one more thing…this whole Daylight Savings thing was Benjamin Franklin’s idea. So basically he’s lost all credit with me and I’m letting this completely eclipse all his other contributions. Bifocals. Meh. Lightening rods…whatevs.

My best advice is to go ahead and set your clocks ahead an hour now and start pretending it’s later. This also means that it’s 5:00 pm earlier and you can have cocktails.

See? Maybe Daylight Savings really IS awesome.

How do you feel about Daylight Savings? Sound off in the comments!

Photo Credit: cookieeater2009 via Flickr.com

Wait. WAIT. This challenge is over? It’s February 29 already?!

Read it and weep, peeps. This challenge is in the books. Over. Done with. Finito.

By now, you know the drill. Weigh, blog, check in.  Let us know – how did this challenge go for you? Did you reach all or most of your goals? Did you manage to get your weekly quota of exercise (20 vigorous minutes three times per week OR 20 minutes of moderate exercise five times weekly)? Did you hit some road bumps/blocks? Tell all.

One final thing before I leave you to your task: even though this challenge is over, Christy’s still going strong with the 52 Small Changes challenge over at the ‘hood. Even if you haven’t been following along, it’s not too late to join in and make one weekly change for the rest of the year toward a healthier you.

(Oh yeah, have you checked out our new site, Shrinking Kitchen? You should. It is awesome and we’re posting scrummy recipes daily.)

Have a wonderful week and stay tuned for our next challenge!

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Today, I feel like I need to talk about water. Partly for you all, and partly as a reminder for me.

I have to admit, I am pretty much the worst at remembering to drink water. And when I do, I don’t like it. My normal scenario is basically realizing that I haven’t had any water all day at um…about 9:00 pm. Then I guzzle as much as I can handle, knowing I’ll be up several times during the night to visit the bathroom.

True story, guys. Right now I’m staring at a massive glass of water – the first water I’ve had all day. Yikes.

So right now, I’m going to try to scare myself into drinking more water.

Maybe it’ll help you too!

Water is important because:

• Water protects your tissue, spinal cord and joints.
• Water helps your body remove waste.
• Water aids in digestion.
• Water prevents you from becoming dehydrated.  Being dehydrated is bad, okay?

How do you know if you’re getting enough water? There are many different ideas – the old 8 glasses a day recommendation, or that if you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.  I’m sure drinking 8 glasses a day is ideal, but realistically, doesn’t always happen. Basically, if you’re unsure about your hydration, let your pee be your guide. The clearer, the better.

Now, the tricky part. You know you need more water, but ugh. It’s boring. And inconvenient.

But it doesn’t have to be. Make it more appealing, people!

• Spruce it up with sliced lemons, limes or cucumber slices. Or, if you’re feeling really fancy, fresh herbs, like rosemary or mint.
• Find yourself a special vessel (I rhymed that – you’re welcome). It doesn’t have to be fancy – my two faves are my Sigg bottle and a huge glass I saved from the recycle bin at my old job. Seriously. It’s huge – something like 28 ounces – and for some reason, encourages me to drink more.
• Leave water in places you’ll drink if it’s convenient. For me, it’s my car. I try to leave a water bottle or two in the console of my car – I am always surprised at how much water I’ll drink when I’m shuttling my kids around. Plus, it helps keep me away from the espresso stands.

Water. It’s so important. And with that, I’m off to pee refill my glass. Cheers!

Photo courtesy of superpco