What's Your Dream?

It is that time again! I will be running the Seattle Half Marathon in the morning. Today Anthony and I had a crazy adventure into downtown Seattle to pick up my race packet. We couldn't find parking and then when we did we couldn't get out of the parking garage! The stairs didn't go up all the way into the building and the elevator wasn't working. We ran around until we caught a ride on the service elevator with some employees. Which we were so thankful for!    We we got to the expo things went much smoother. There weren't as many people there as I thought there would be and we loaded up on give freebies. It was a really great experience for Anthony, he had never been to a race expo before. We packed up and headed out, mission completed! But... then when I was driving into work I realized I forgot my running shoes! Who does that!? Who forgets their running shoes for their race they just packed for? Well ... the fellows I work with are thankfully being...

Okay all y'all, I do still exist! It is just been so busy that I can hardly breathe yet alone stop and write a new post. On Sunday I volunteered at the Green Lake gobble with Trisha and then we walked it with Anthony. It was an interesting experience it started off with pouring down rain and unorganized volunteers but the day ended up being great we tried out blender bikes and went to brunch afterwards to fill up our bellies.  Then Monday and Tuesday I was running errands to prepare for the week, then Anthony and I celebrated our one year anniversary on Tuesday. Which was completely wonderful! He took me out for dinner, window shopping, ice cream, dancing and we went back and cuddled up on the couch for TV time. Could not have been a better anniversary.  Then on Wednesday before heading into work and I got up extra early and baked four pies! A blackberry pie, cherry pie, sweet potato pie, and a pumpkin pie. I decided to bake everyone's favorite pie for Tha...

Hello all! This is my official Tea Review post! Sounds silly and not nearly all of the teas that I drink will be in this review, however, many are. I hope you can sit back an sip a cup of tear while you read.  As far as I know you can buy all of these Teas at QFC. I have also included a link for each tea. :) Coconut Cocoa , this tea is more cocoa tea than a coconut tea. I am personally not a fan of coconut but this tea is still pretty yummy. It is a stronger tea that has a wonderful cocoa aroma. It is decaf so it won't give you a caffeine fix if you are looking for one. This a tea that I will drink towards the end of my work shift to help keep me awake but not keep me awake once I get home. 3 out of 5 stars. Lipton Tea used to be a staple in my household growing up. However, no that I am an avid tea drinker I have moved away from Lipton and don't drink it very often. If you keep the bag in your cup too long the tea gets too strong and there are tea "crumbs" a...

I will officially be hosting my “Meet a Runner” Series in December, however, due to recent events I felt like Heidi’s story should be shared sooner rather than later. Please take a moment and read Heidi’s very moving story. I didn't glam up her story or edit her responses in any way. This is 100% Heidi. Heidi Arnold a kick butt 40 year young runner from Philly and this is her running story. Heidi started running in around 2010 “I always said “I am not athletic”. I took a class that taught me to see my assumptions about myself and let go of them. Since then, when presented with an idea, instead of saying no, I say “do I want to do this?” and I’ve tried a bunch of things like climbing mountains, and found new joy. So, I was on the YMCA treadmill walking to get healthy, and started going faster, and found myself running. When I noticed, I was surprised, because I have always hated, HATED, running, and at this moment, I didn’t hate this. One day I saw a button on the treadmill t...

For those of you who don't know, my very first race EVER was a Turkey Trot in Springfield , MO. It's one of the largest Turkey Trots in the United States! There were almost 10k people that year. My mom and I did it together and now Thanksgiving themed races have a very special place in my hear. This year I will be participating in the  Green Lake Gobble 5k ! Firstly I will be helping out at the registration tents and then I will be walking the 5k with my friend Tricia . I normally wouldn't walk a race but I have done a couple of races now with Tricia and I have yet to actually "do" one with her!  So I am really looking forward to Sunday, should be a nice and chilly, wet day for the race. AKA a typical Seattle Fall day! So I have a pretty warm outfit picked out. Mismatching colors and all. A race recap to come! Keep on Running!

The  Half Fanatic October Newsletter has been released! Why is this exciting? Because I am in it! Go to page 11 and look for #9279 and there is my name :D I am so proud of being a part of this group, it is such a huge accomplishment for me. Check out the Newsletter, it has lots of fun photos and stories.  Keep on Running! 

So I started Nurtrisystem in February, I lost 20 lbs very quickly on it then I switched plans to a Maintenance plan , which I have been using only on the days that I work,and lost another 8 lbs or so over several months. I have been struggling a bit with my eating the last month or so, so Anthony and I talked it over and I decided to go back to Nutrisystem 100% and he would help support me through the next month and a half. My whole goal of the next few weeks is to just avoid the holiday weight gain that EVERYONE seems to do every year. I am hoping that going back to NS full time I will be able to resist temptation and keep my weight off.  I will be going back to the  Weekends My Way Select Plan , which gives me Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Desert for Monday-Friday and I will be able to eat whatever I want on the weekends. But I will still be on the NS guidelines for the weekends. I will be taking Thanksgiving Day, Anthony and I's Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas ...

Well, I am still here. I have just been in recovery mode from the last two weeks of complete Crazy. I took my weekend off from Everything! I haven't been working out either. Sadface :( I just feel completely drained. The GREAT news is (drum roll please) I will be going to day shift in December! I am beyond ready and I am very excited to change shifts. The only sad part is I will be changing supervisors too and I have the best supervisor ever! I will miss him that's for sure. T-Minus 10 days and I will get my life back! (Hopefully that's the official date, still working on the details.) My current shift is (Every other Wed) Thu-Sat, 6pm-6am! I will be changing to Sun-Tues (every other Wed). Do you know what this means!?! I will have Fri and Saturdays off! OMG!!!  It is 818 days from the start of my Night Shift Imprisonment to the end Or 2 years, 2 months, 27 days!  Other ways to look at my night shift imprisonment: §   70,675,200 seconds ...

This week has been a huge test and I feel like I failed. Miserably. On Monday evening I suffered from a severe leg cramp which I decided to rest from for a couple of days because my leg really hurt. On Wednesday I decided to go and complete the first half of my virtual half marathon and then Thursday I completed it but that night I was tossing and turning all night because my leg hurts so bad. So yesterday I took the day off and today I took the day off because it still hurts when I go up and down stairs so I'm hoping by tomorrow my leg will be fully healed.  Then tonight we had a really really bad night at work so I stress ate about six handfuls of chips and one slice of pizza which is really really bad, thankfully it's something I don't normally do but I can also say tonight at work was a very abnormal night and it's not usually this stressful.  I'm also on the second week of my flipping ba ck and fourth between day shift and night shift which has put me in...

I have had leg cramps my whole life and there just isn't a whole lot that I can do to prevent them. No medications have worked so far but eating at least one banana a day sure helps lower the frequency of them. Source Here . What are muscle cramps? A  muscle cramp  is a strong, painful contraction or tightening of a muscle that comes on suddenly and lasts from a few seconds to several minutes. It often occurs in the legs. A muscle cramp is also called a charley horse. Nighttime leg cramps  are usually sudden spasms, or tightening, of muscles in the calf. The muscle cramps can sometimes happen in the thigh or the  foot . They often occur just as you are falling asleep or waking up. What causes muscle cramps? The cause of muscle cramps isn't always known. Muscle cramps may be brought on by many conditions or activities, such as: Exercising, injury, or overuse of muscles. (One of my causes) Pregnancy. Cramps may occur because of decreased amounts of minera...