This is my first winter having a toddler and trying to stay in a running routine. I am finding it next to impossible. The only solution is to get a treadmill I am saddened to say. Here is my dilemma, weekends aside, I can only run when it is dark out. My running choices are either 5:30am or 8pm. I have to run before Harper is awake, that is my rule. I only see her about 3 hours a day and I am not going to "waste" one of those hours running. This winter has been the iciest and coldest in a really long time and it just doesn't feel safe. Now I will admit I let myself get out of the running habit and wasted a few decent days, but for the most part, it just hasn't been possible. So, in our new house I will be getting a treadmill for sure, so next winter I will have to learn to use it, ugh. I never run on the treadmill, I hate it with a ridiculous passion. I will do an alternate exercise before I get on that hamster wheel. But I will learn, I have to. In the spring I will just take Harper with me and not feel bad b/c we can sing songs and talk and it's good for her to get some fresh air. Do any of you have the BOB weather shield? If so, at what temp do you think its safe to take them running?

Hey everyone. So, I was away reinventing myself. Imagine that. A psychiatrist would probably love to read this blog and identify my ridiculous repeat phases. Phase 1 – go gung ho. Phase 2- start to get tired of the routine. Phase 3 – completely quit working out for a week, gain all the weight you lost in that single week, stuff your face. Phase 4 – wallow and hate yourself for a few days. Phase 5 – find a new routine!

So, I do love P90x, I do. But it’s just not working for me right now. My weight has gotten really high. I weigh more than I ever have as an adult, aside from when I was pregnant. None of my pants fit and my thighs are rubbing together. I am disgusted with myself and wishing there was some fast fix. Alas, I am smart enough to know there is not. So, I have gotten over my wallow phase and made a few choices.

· I need to run. I miss it. I had a kickass 8 miler last week, plus I have a marathon in 17 weeks and running once a week isn’t going to cut it!
· I am going to follow a 12 week marathon training plan. That gives me a month to get back to running 3-4 days a week, no exceptions so that I am ready to start the plan with a long run of 10 miles.
· I will keep doing P90x, I do not want to lose the muscle I have gained. I can see a difference in my arms and waist for sure. My plan is to run 3-4 days a week and do 3-4 P90x DVDs, I will rotate them. I will likely do core synergistics and plyo each week and then 1-2 of the upper body routines.
· I work out on lunch twice a week, that is going to be ab ripper
· Food. No more sugar. I am swearing it off for awhile. I am going to participate in a diet challenge group that Whole Foods is putting on based on the Engine 2 diet. The challenge starts next week. It is a vegan diet. No oil, sugar or white flour. So basically I will be drinking shakes and eating veggies, fine by me.
· This challenge will force me to pre plan dinners, which will likely save us some money anyway.
· Oh yeah, and I am going to start growing my hair out. Yuck, it’s going to be awful. But I don’t have enough self esteem right now to rock the Halle Berry hair.


In other news the house selling is coming together. We are listing in March. Hubby is almost done with our bathroom rehab. I have packed up pretty much every non necessary item in our house. We are looking at houses starting this weekend. Exciting and stressful times.

Good day Bloggy friends. I have been crazy busy and haven’t had time to blog. I went to Vegas for work last week. It was great to get to go to Vegas for free, but a bummer b/c it was over the weekend and I lost out on much needed family snuggly weekend time. The weather was gorgeous. I didn’t do so great with P90x that week b/c I took the DVDs with plans to work out all 3 days and they wouldn’t play on my laptop! So, I ended up only doing 2 P90x DVDs (plyo and arms) and running 3 times. But I am okay with that, I contemplated doing week 5 over but decided against it. I have to start marathon training soon and the sooner I am done with P90x the better. I am rocking week 6. Although I have to say that I have not made my 5am wakeup call one time this week. I have been stuck doing the workouts in the evenings and I hate that. I do not look forward to working out at 8pm at all. I have done them for the most part around 7 when Harper is awake, but feel bad from taking time away from her since I only see her about 3 hours a day. The first 20 mins or so of a workout, she likes to play along, run in place and do her own little downward dogs. It’s pretty funny to watch her mimic me. But then I have to keep pausing it to deal with whatever tantrum or bad thing she is getting into and my 58 min workout takes 90 mins. Seriously, last night I ended up doing the sneaky lunges while HOLDING her! So, all those lunges on my toes holding a 30 lbs kid on my hip. But it is what it is, you make do and get it done. Here is my schedule for this week:

Monday – rest
Tuesday – Chest, Triceps, Shoulders/ Ab Ripper
Wed- Plyo
Thurs – Legs and Back/ Ab Ripper
Fri – Kenpo
Sat – Yoga and 4-5 mile run
Sun – Biceps, Back/ Ab Ripper and 8-10 mile run

Now on another front, my weight has shot back up. I am back to 137 and spitting mad. I can tell a bit of a difference in my body. Mostly my stomach doesn’t seem as big, but I am so sad when I see that number on the scale. I will keep forging ahead. I can work on cleaning my diet up a bit, but there’s not much to clean up (disregard the 3 donut holes I had this morning please). I still 6 more weeks of P90x and I pray that things start to change on the scale. I hope that adding in the miles from here on out will not mess with my weight further. I swear I am the only person in the world who has a harder time losing weight when she is working out. I honestly think I am cursed with one of the world’s worst metabolisms.

It is February and that means that I have got to get back to running. This week aside b/c the weather screwed me, I need to try for 3 runs a week. Usually that will be a Sat/Sun and one week night run. My June marathon will be here before I know it!