Stitches

In just the first week of our move to Orlando we’ve already located and visited our nearest Urgent Care. We really like to get to know our city quickly, but I hope we don’t become regular patrons…I should have asked about a frequent visitor punch card.

Our new place has required some handy man work by David, as it did not have a single light fixture. Now 90% of David’s tools are still in Kansas City with my parents so while I used a plastic knife to open all of our boxes, David has been using a box cutter to do pretty much everything.

We’re like MacGyver and a toddler. I didn’t touch the box cutter because I KNEW it would result in me getting injured. I am injury averse. In fact, I have {knock on wood} never broken a bone and only had a couple of tiny stitches due to a knee surgery in high school.

David on the other hand actually broke his arm as a child, but didn’t tell anyone for a WEEK, so that he could continue playing at the lake. I am not sure whether he’s brilliant or insane, but he got what he wanted. This is also to say that he can endure a lot of pain {hmm maybe why he runs faster?!} and rarely complains.

Have I relayed the time where he nearly cut off his finger and left me a voicemail that calmly said “Honey, I’m in an ambulance, when you have a minute call me back.”?!

Thus Saturday when he came hunched over to me as I was unpacking with the statement “this isn’t good”. I was concerned, but knew there were no electrical tools insight and everything still appeared fully in tact. He had however managed to slice his palm open with the box cutter. {you’re welcome that I did not take pictures}

Next he actually called his mom {a nurse}. Seriously he called his mom, he hates the phone so much I often think they wonder if he knows how to use it. Yup this was serious.

We waited another 6 hours before actually going to Urgent Care because who wants to see a doctor when you can bleed to death in your own home. Luckily the place here was clean, quiet and SUPER friendly so within just an hour he had 5 stitches and we were able to head back to our little abode with no light fixtures and no cable… when I said I wanted to simplify our home this wasn’t what I had in mind exactly.

How many times have you had to get stitches? Broken bones? Do you handle pain well? 
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Gratitude Journal
May 18
I am grateful for all of the amazing women I am meeting this weekend and the support of David for me doing these crazy things.

Vega and Lock Laces at Blend Retreat

You’ve probably seen enough tweets and pictures now to know that this weekend is Blend 2013! I promise not to drive you crazy with posts, but had to give a quick shout out to Vega and Lock Laces…so many brands are providing great swag, but I’m working with these two to spread a little extra love this weekend.
You know all about my love affair with Vega, so I promise not to rub it in repeatedly that we got more goodies this weekend and my belly is so happy. Of course this time I am able to share the love with all of the attendees and a fellow ambassador Heather!
Even if you aren’t sure about using Vega, you gotta checkout the free Thrive Forward Sport Edition Videos.  Tony Horton among other trainers and athletes in the videos provide helpful tips about the entire spectrum from endurance athletes to strength training. I believe my nutrition will always be in progress and I love these for keeping me excited about WHY!

Lock Laces was a great sponsor for the Spring Challenge, sending a pair to every participant. Both David and I have been using them in all of our workout shoes since then and I am excited to not only test them out on hike, but get them in the hands of some other crazy workout women to see what they think .

REMINDERS
I’m also super excited to say, the Clean and Lean Challenge sign ups where blowing up, so I may have to cut off registration…don’t wait!  This challenge is all about finding what works for you, in the meantime don’t forget to join the Under Armour Clean and Lean team to start getting feedback and motivation! 

Fingers crossed tomorrow I will be doing a 10 mile run at altitude…hope these ladies are strong enough to carry me back if I drop dead.
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Gratitude Journal
May 17
I am grateful for sponsors who make it possible to keep following my passion and find out where it may lead.

Clean and Lean Challenge

COMBINING YOUR WORK IN THE GYM YOUR WORK IN THE KITCHEN AND YOUR MIND FOR LONG-TERM RESULTS.

Think of this as the previous 30 Day Ab challenge and 30 Day Clean Eating Challenge on steroids!  28 days to re-shape your thinking and get committed!

This challenge is designed to provide support, encouragement, tips and motivation to create habits and a lifestyle that support your goals.

• Discovering YOUR best diet
• Changing thoughts to change your body
• Getting healthy without feeling like it’s a full time job
• Easing in to new habits for lasting change
• Eliminating sugar cravings
• Increasing fruits and veggies with ease
• Core workouts to define those abs
• Conscious selection of the foods we eat

CHALLENGE INCLUDES
June 3 to July 1 -- First email with preparation details June 1

• Daily email with a focus area (i.e. detoxing, core workouts, meals vs snacks)
• Email will include links to tons of resources
• Email will include mantras, recipes, tips
• Private Facebook group for consistent support, daily check ins {lifetime access} 
• What’s Beautiful Clean and Lean Team page to shout your awesomeness to the world
• Group tracking log (what we measure we manage)

OPTIONAL: You can use this plan to discover hidden food sensitivities by removing foods each week. Details for this will be provided.

IT IS NOT: An eating plan. While you will receive recommendations and recipes, this is about creating YOUR best diet to achieve your goals. No single way of eating works for everyone.  It’s not a fast. It’s not a juice cleanse.

HOW TO GET STARTED

• No need to buy a juicer or any other fancy tools to do this challenge.
• Read the daily emails and use the group for support .
• Pay what you want -- You got it, this time around you can simply have it for only the charity donation cost of $2 or if you feel that RTTF has helped support you previously and/or you see the value in this program join for a few bucks to support the ongoing efforts here. Either way I hope it works for you.
  

In 28 days I want you to look in the mirror with confidence. Knowing that you stayed true to your word and have made choices and changes that are moving you in the direction of your goals. When you can answer this you’re ready to enjoy life no matter where you are!

Amanda is a Certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Nutrition Specialist. Information provided will be from her own weight loss/maintenance experience, experience working with many others over the years and that of many other fitness professionals. For individualized recommendations and nutrition assessments, please see a local RD or ask for a recommendation! I know a few good folks.
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Gratitude Journal
May 15
I am grateful that David has taken to making daily fruit smoothies and always gives me some without me even asking!

Strong is not the new skinny or sexy

All right I’m just going to lay it out there…

I am strong (or working at it)! I don’t want or need to be sexy. But daily I’m being bombarded with images and people I respect telling me “Strong is the New Sexy”.

Strong is not the new skinny either. Skinny is skinny, strong is strong…both work for different people for different reasons. Why are we so excited to make physically fit women seem less powerful by relating them to terms like skinny and sexy?

Strong: Physically powerful; in good or sound health
Skinny: Very thin, lacking in flesh
Sexy: Intended to provoke sexual interest

I workout because it makes me feel confident and proud, which I fully believe shines through in my outward appearance…but not because I’m trying to look like Twiggy or provoke someone’s interest. Is it no longer acceptable to simply want to feel our best? Test our limits?

Can we/Do we only lift weights and run because it will make us “the new version of skinny and sexy”?!

We finally started move away from thinsporation (skin-and-bones) to focus on building healthy fit bodies, but it quickly morphed in to fitsporation (seriously lean and chiseled). The fitness and health industry strives on insecurity which is created by striving after ideals on the far end of the spectrum. It’s not to say that it can’t be achieved, but there is a reason it’s an ideal and not the norm.

I fully admit that many of the fitness images on Pinterest motivate me. Just as reading a great running book motivates me because I have an idea in my mind of what strong and healthy for ME looks like.

But have come to realize that life is a balance of pushing myself to achieve more and appreciating exactly where I am. Which is why in my running I often cycle through periods of aiming for a PR and simply running because it brings me a whole lot of joy.

A great deal of respect goes out to women like Laura and Candy who train HARD and focus on clean eating to reach their fitness competition goals. Thus I would never negate their dedication by equating them to skinny or sexy.

Part of what has continued to draw me to the Under Armour What’s Beautiful platform is that is serves as SUPPORT system rather than a competition of women who are all defining beautiful in their own way.  If you are on social media or in the blogosphere you’ve probably seen a jump recently in posts about “What’s Beautiful”. Though I’ve been on the platform for over a year, I am excited to be refocusing on it with Fitfluential. I’ll be talking more about it later, but if you’d like to get connected for some support in your own journey to getting strong, here is the team page I’ve start Clean and Lean Team and my Personal Profile page

I’ve got to ride off on my high horse now, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

How do you define strong? Do you like the “Strong is the new Skinny” campaigns?
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Gratitude Journal
May 14
I am grateful for the opportunity to meet a variety of women this weekend who are all examples of strong in their own way.

Accountability Monday: Healthy Inside Out

Rest. I’ve talked about recovery lately, but the truth is I’ve never been terribly good at it. I enjoy being very active and fit lots of movement in to every day…this week I forced myself to SLOW down and it was all about healthy inside out.

What does healthy inside out mean?!

Feeding my mind with good thoughts.

Feeding my body with wholesome foods.

Allow my body to heal, rest, repair, restore, recover!

Moving at a measured pace.

Doing ONE thing at a time.

As people who enjoying working out we often focus on our time on eating the right things and moving, while neglecting one of the biggest components of health which is our mind. This is something that took me a long time to understand…no amount of green juices will make you healthier if your mind is toxic.

Just like training to run a marathon takes consistency and time, so does retraining your thinking. Particularly in a world that moves at such a quick pace. This week I actually spent more time chewing my food, which sound ridiculous! But I realized I was rushing through meals and that probably wasn’t helping my digestion any.

How do you clean out the mental garbage?

Goal Check In: Success I actually managed to read some great uplifting things every day, meditate and not go crazy with catching up after a few weeks of being in and out of office.

Goal for the week: Finding a balance between intense focused work and play.

Checkout the purpose of Accountability Monday’s>>
Want to participate? Fill out this form and I’ll be featuring people each week (see Your Goals below)!

SUCCESS:  I didn’t know if I could truly stick to not getting my sweat on, but I did. I’m sure being busy helped a lot! I feel more relaxed…though I am nervous to see if I’ll be sluggish when I start moving again!
Goal for this week: Add back in 1 speed work session, enjoy the 10 miler at altitude during the Blend retreat!

May 6
AM: Fly home from Puerto Rico, drive to Orlando

May 7
AM: 30 min of Detox Yoga from Bex Life, meditation, walking errands

May 8
AM: 35 min easy yoga from Tara Stiles and BeFit, walking errands

May 9
AM:  45 min yoga from BexLife Summer Series, meditation
PM: Easy walk with David

May 10
AM: 30 min walk, 30 min yoga, meditation
PM: Easy walking around town to dinner

May 11
AM: 60 min walk, meditation
PM: 20 min stretching

May 12
AM: meditation, 50 min walk, 2x 5 min easy jog
PM: Stretching

30 Days Stronger challenge is now on day 13! I have been diligently making time each day for a few exercises to help my hips and core! I know over 100 of you are also participating in the challenge.

Last week many said they meant to, but forgot…which is the whole reason we are all doing this challenge together. I hope this week went better!

Here is a quick round up of some strength exercises for runners:
Competitor.com - 5 Essential Strength Training Exercises for runners
Shape.com - 6 Exercises every runner should be doing
Runners World - Strength exercises to help you run faster 

Kelly - Committed to eating clean and getting 5 quality workouts
-- If you are looking for more clean eating support, check out the Clean and Lean group I’ve got going on the What’s Beautiful platform!

Don’t forget to share your goals for accountability and tell me how are you being healthy from the inside out?

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Gratitude Journal
May 13
I am grateful for meeting up with new friends in Orlando this weekend to already help it start feeling more like home.