50 lbs, Yo!

Happy to have hit the 50 lbs lost post-baby milestone!  Lately I've been in "off season" mode not exercising much or tracking diligently, but I'm happy that I'm still losing - it shows I'm on this track to stay :-) I'm not even worried about it. I will get there when I get there!  On a related note, the Santa Shuffle is this weekend and I've only run ONCE since the wine run a few weeks ago! Ah well, it's for fun and I'm just going to wing it. No Biggie!

In the meantime, I've been focusing a lot of my time and interest in getting to know my camera and learning some editing skills.  I'm a total amateur, but so far I'm truly enjoying learning more about photography and capturing my little guy growing up.  My goal is to create a digital scrap book every year for him and our family because ever since the digital photo world has taken over, I really haven't made an effort to put them to print and we all just keep getting buried further and further with more and more pictures and no printed product!  I think now is as good a time as any to just jump in and commit to transforming them in a tangeable form.  I bought a TeamBuy ticket for Album Pro last year and used it to do Cameron's first year.  The only problem is that I didn't read the fine print that the ticket was for only 24 pages and my end product was 118!  Let's just say, the price tag STUNG big time, but after all of the time and effort I put into making it and in consideration of it being our first year with our first baby, there really wasn't a price tag for that.  I still don't have wedding photos and regret that I never got those edited and done (next project!), so I wasn't going to let that happen again!

Most of you haven't seen many recent photos of our little guy who is now 15.5 months old (I know!), so I thought I would share with you a few from the last month.

Mid-October, Thanksgiving weekend at the park

Wearing one of Mommy's hats

Out for a stroll in his wagon

Helping Grampie & Daddy string up the Christmas lights

I think it's obvious where he gets his eyes :-)

Feeling excited to sit at his table like a big boy for his lunch

Silly boy :-)

Have you made a digital scrapbook or photo album before?  If so, what product did you use and did you like it?  I'm thinking about using iPhoto for the next one. Thoughts?

P.S. I am going to be reviewing a cook book in the near future, so stay tuned if you're interested!

Pre-2012 Brain Dump

I went for a run on Sunday. The first one since the Wine Run which was two weeks ago.  Just a slow "see how I'm feeling" run with the pootch.  It's amazing how easily you can put running (or any exercise) on the back burner in favour of running errands and all the other goings ons of life.  While my training plan leading me up to my first 10k definitely had me running more frequently than I ever have before, I loved the experience.  I loved the discipline that it required and I loved succeeding at following it through.  I did the best I could in my own circumstances and it did amazing things for me.  

I also meant to blog that I've returned back to "onederland" with my weight loss! Yayyyy!!!!  In fact, I'm within 10 lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight and 25lbs back to my goal of 170lbs.  Overall I feel back to "me" again!  I can honestly say that should there ever be any future babies, I will no doubt, without question be keeping close tabs on my calorie intake and counting my way through. I can also say, however, that this journey getting "back" to my goal weight is bringing with it something I don't think I had before.  I don't know if it's a natural new perspective with being a mother,  the new distraction and  natural re-prioritizing of being a Mom, or maybe it's because my husband and I are on the same page getting ourselves in a healthy place, but I feel so much more at peace with listening to my body now.  My appetite is completely in control and I listen to my body.  I indulge and of course have my moments where food choices could be better, but expecting perfection from yourself is setting yourself up for failure.  I'm ok with not being on par with my calorie deficit as long as I'm under my maintenance and so far it's working.  It's of course a slower weight loss process which can be painstaking when you don't see "significant" losses regularly, but since my mind is focused on being a Mom, I hardly even notice the time passing.  In fact, it's when you have a baby growing and developing before your very eyes that you realize how quickly time passes.  I'm very close to hitting 50 lbs lost and this is why.

I let go of any guilt that goes along with going "off the wagon" because that's only a slippery slope.  Guilt does nothing but perpetuate rebellion against staying on track.  I feel like I've been through enough to honour myself and give myself grace when needed.  I'm not perfect and trying to be is a losing battle. The truth is that you can be successful losing weight if you are reasonable, realistic and allow yourself the grace you deserve.  Not confusing that with excuses is the tricky part ;-)

It is no secret that my journey to health has taken me to a place that has me yearning to achieve more with my running shoes.  My biggest goal I wish to achieve is running a half marathon.  I had been brave enough to agree to register to run the Bluenose Half Marathon right before I found out we were expecting our little guy and who knows if I would have been able to keep up with the training, but I was brave enough to want to go for it "out loud."  I still do want to go for it, but that's another story for another day...

I'm not sure what 2012 will bring in the running department, but I'm excited to be doing the Santa Shuffle in a few weeks (remember when I did it the year before last and didn't even know I was pregnant then?) and I'm also signed up to do the Resolution Run on New Years Eve.  All I know is that I want to be either signed up for an event or in training for one in 2012!  I love how it feels being a part of the running community and getting out there and being active.  I've proven to myself that I can handle the 10k distance if I listen to my body and have tons of room for improvement, so I want to at least keep my running fitness "in 10k shape" through 2012.  I've already gotten my sights set on quite a few events, but of course will always have to be mindful of my physical limitations and play it by ear as I go along. 

Truth be told, I can't quite put into words how it feels to have injuries that sometimes hold you back from being able to do what you know your mind wants to do.  And I will just leave it at that for now because that's another story for yet another day too.  I promise that some day when the time is right, I will shed more light on that area a bit more because I have LOADS I want to say on various topics related to it, but for now, it's best I leave it out of the blog for the most part [insert legal disclaimer here]. 

I do not write about this often for various reasons, but one of them is that this blog is a positive place for me - a place I created to harness all of the positive things I have proven I can do for myself.

And that's what she said...

Muir Murray 10k Wine Run: Race Recap

Today, I got out there and I did my first "10k" race fun run at the Muir Murray Estate Winery in Wolfville.  It was only a fun run and a chance to run and drink wine, but to me, it was all business and I trained for 10 weeks following this plan to get my base training into 10k running shape.  Because it was a "fun run" I wasn't intimidated to get started and to go for it.  Sometimes that's the hardest part ;-)

I car pooled with Conny & Jessica and we arrived right at 9:00 and scored a great parking spot right at the winery.  It.was.cold. We had to heard into the distillery to get our race bibs and I was starting to worry about how flipping cold the wind was. I didn't feel like I was prepared for the cold run.  I had no ear warmers or hat, no gloves or anything that everyone else seemed to be wearing around me.  Uh oh. Dudes, it was COLD.

So we decided to head on inside and wait in the longer line for the "warm bathroom" while we waited for the time to pass:

I'm not frightened, I swear!

Then we decided we'd head to the car to get our Garmins and whatever we needed (and stay warm) and since we scored such a great spot, it was literally a hop, skip and a jump from the start line.  There were still lots of people getting their bibs, so we were pretty sure the 10:00 start time was just a "guide" as to when we'd start, but sure enough as we're sitting in the car, off goes the gun to start the race! lol  It was no big deal because the race wasn't timed, but it was our cue to get going and get our run on!

The run was at the winery, so as you can imagine it was rustic:

The first pit stop was at the 2.5 kms mark (half way for the 5k runners) and you had the chance to drink some of their white wine (and water too), but I only stopped for a split second to take a picture and I was on my way.  I couldn't imagine being able to drink wine and run! lol

I said it was rustic!

The wind was so cold at times it took your breath away

Once you got accustomed to the freezing cold wind & cow poop, it's all good

The second (and last) pit stop - no way I was waiting in line during my "race"

I found my stride fairly early in the run right where I wanted to be.  I had always taken walking breaks in my training runs, but today I felt like I didn't "need" them.  My goal was to finish 10k in 1:15 which is an average pace of 7:30/km, so I felt good keeping my pace in the 7:20 range for the most part.  But I have to say, I don't think I saved very much time by not stopping (I stopped very briefly only a few times to take a drink).  I think throughout the duration of the run, my overall pace averaged out and if I kept to a 10:1 plan or give myself 1 minute walking breaks intermittently, I think I would have been able to run faster at some parts.  But instead, I kept my pace pretty steady the whole time which was fine too because it was a pretty comfortable pace.  By the last 2 kms, I was definitely losing a bit of steam and I wonder if doing the 10:1's would have made a difference there.

Our one lonely spectator

I really do love my Garmin. I love being able to pace myself and to see what distance is yet to come.  There were no distance markers on this race (at least none that I could see), so unless you had a GPS, you had no idea!  If there is only one thing I would give feedback to them about this, it would be to stick up some distance markers because it's nice to see as you're going by, especially when spectators are lacking ;-)

I knew that I was getting close, but was expecting another 5 minutes of running ahead of me when I approached the spirit crushing rocky hill at the end that was near the start line.  I knew there was still supposed to be another 0.7 left to go, but there was our speedy gonzalas Conny standing there taking my photo (and the spirit crushing hill that slowed me down BIG time):

This was the "easy" part of the hill

We of course took a sweaty/foggy "I'm finished" self-photo:

Yes I stick my iphone in my sports bra and it makes the camera steamy

Not far behind was Jess! That girl is awesome!

First 10k Everrr!

 And sure enough, the Garmin doesn't lie, it was quite short of 10k and we finished in around 9.29kms

Must be a gift from the spirit crushing hill

Next up was to go and grab your swag bag and into the winery for boozin'.

We decided to forgo the boozin and gave our drink tickets to a friend of Conny's in favour of going to get a hot meal and it was off to Paddy's Pub!

Love the swag!

There was of course a t-shirt too, but I love the wine glass etched with the Muir Murray logo and snack tray that holds your glass! #genius

All in all, it truly was a "fun" run and I'm glad I did it.  It was so relaxed that truly anyone could have participated and enjoyed themselves.  You could run if you wanted to or walk and mingle at the rest stops as much as you pleased.  In all honesty, I would have truly appreciated the route to be the full 10k because well, it's a "10k!", but I guess I'll just have to make up for it in another "real" race :-)