New Years Resolutions

So I’m not making any big serious New Year’s resolutions, but I do want to get back to blogging. Especially since my friend Karen did such a nice job on this website 🙂 I will be focusing on the eat, run, travel theme, but my main focus is my family–and taking care of myself. Part of the reason I took such a Loooong break from blogging was that I was SO darn tired from the pregnancy and after Asher was born, naturally I was tired from having a newborn.  But now, 7 months later, I finally have my energy back.  Plus, the little dude slept a 8.5 hour stretch last night so I’m feeling a lot better. Praise the Lord! He is currently nursing and I am dictating this in an email to myself… a nice shortcut 😉

As for eating, I have been doing a lot of it lately LOL! I don’t recall being this hungry when I was nursing Gabe but with Asher I need to be eating all the time. I’m actually back at my pre-pregnancy weight without trying too much (Thank you Lord!).  Both pregnancies, and both babies, were opposites in almost every respect.  This time around, I’ve been eating pretty healthy and just trying to stay away from junk foods.  I’ve read a lot about fat lately and how a lot of people don’t get enough of it so I make sure especially for my baby that I get enough fat in my diet–mainly from trail mix, avocado, & meat/eggs/milk/yogurt.. I will let you know my usual routines in a later post, because some of you have asked for it. I’m going to try to make 2 to 3 new recipes each month and blog about them. I’m no Pioneer woman (love her!)  but I sure will try 😉  I did post this darn good chili recipe already!  I’m going to follow the 80/20 rule (80% of the time eat healthy), eat whole foods, steer clear of sugar… and generally eat clean to power my workouts and give me energy in 2015.

As for running, I started running very slowly six weeks after Asher was born.  During the pregnancy, I ran until week 28, I believe, then switched to swimming laps twice a week and just trying to get 1-2 other strength workouts or walks in.  I missed running & couldn’t wait to get back to it, but I didn’t want to get hurt or overdo it either.  I think I did a great job of easing back into it slowly with lots of run/walks and gradual mileage addition.  My first race back was the Moonlight madness 5K in Winston-Salem.  I ran it as fast as I could and my results were as expected: pretty slow but steady, 29:17. It was a hilly course and I didn’t expect to get 26 minutes like I did last year. Next year though I have high expectations. I ran a much faster 5K at the beginning of December, the Mistletoe 5K, also in Winston. My time was 25:11 and I was really pumped to get close to my best which was 24:45 while deployed in Iraq, in May 2009. The Mistletoe was my best 5K in recent years so I’m very encouraged about getting faster.  I’m ready to smash all my PR’s in 2015.

In October & November, I follwed  an 8 week 1 mile training plan in case you are curious. I’ve also been doing a strength training routine from Runners World.  My next big race is a 1 mile “fun run” against my coworkers for fun in March, and my next race that I signed up for is the rock ‘n roll Raleigh Half marathon on April 12, my birthday weekend. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate turning 30–break my PR for the half marathon! (1:57:08 set in May 2010, just a few weeks pregnant with Gabe). I actually have very high hopes of smashing my PR, and that is due to a newfound sense of confidence and accomplishment that I discovered after giving birth to Asher. More on that in a later post, & I will lay out my running goals and training program and a later post. Speaking of Asher, he is now crawling, eating solid foods, and has one tooth. He really keeps me on my toes but he is such a blessing! I really need a baby gate for him because he’s wandering all over the house.  Here he is sneaking up on his big bro:

As for travel, obviously with two kids we don’t expect to do a whole lot of it LOL. However we do have a sweet Beachhouse booked for August with the family. My husband and I are also hoping to go to Charleston for a long weekend at some point. Gabe just said “if you guys do not be good to me, you will not go.”  And now he’s frowning at me. And now he just hit me. Love this stage he’s in…womp.  We are really really hoping to get to Puerto Rico over Christmas or New Year’s but time will tell if we have enough resources to make that happen. But my goal for travel this year is just to see a few new places so that will be fine.

Gabe just said “hello? Germany? Mom is not coming.”  On his new Spiderman flip phone from Walmart.  LOL this kid!

So my goal for this year would be to eat well, run fast, and travel often with my husband (& sometimes the kids!), even if it’s to a close by location. I want to enjoy the small simple things in life and also simplify my life, get rid of clutter and extra stress that is unneeded.  Less is more!
My plan for simplifying is to follow Living Well, Spending Less, and reading my new subscription of Real Simple magazine–along with my current fave Runners World.  I will share my tips on here because I know that we all could use less stress 🙂
If you made it this far I’m impressed, thanks for reading and I will do my darndest to make it at least once a week that I post.

Til next time!