Sweat it Out:
50 minute walk burning 550 calories
4 leg/arm supersets

For reals.  I’ve been on a 3 week vacation from life, and I couldn’t be more ready to get back into my daily routine.  Apparently Hanna is feeling the same way and woke up at 6 am too excited to get back to normal living.  So what did we do?  We went for a walk at 7 in the morning (the earliest I have exercised in a LONG time).

What have I been up to?

Visiting family in Utah for the past week.

A good time was had by all, and so was a stomach bug that knocked us all out on our butts.

I got thrown up on once by my darling daughter and then had to clean up a MASSIVE puke fest when we decided as a family to eat at Chuck-a-rama (I’m pretty sure I will NEVER eat there again).  I spent the first 15 minutes of my meal cleaning up regurgitated toddler foods off of the floor.  Funny thing is that none of the other patrons seem to mind or even notice that my 20 month old was in nothing but a diaper, and I was on my hands and knees with a stack of napkins.

Between the waves of nausea that we were all experiencing we did manage to get in a trip to the zoo, and two fabulous swimming sessions at two different pools.  It turns out that my baby girl LOVES the water and loved being dunked over and over again.  This couldn’t make me happier considering that I have a bit of a fear of water and only wish that I loved floating down the Colorado river, jumping from rope swings, and of course, being able to do laps in a pool the “real” way (I also have a fear of getting water in my ears, I know I’m weird).  Don’t get me wrong, I can swim just fine, but it definitely does not come natural, and forget about me getting in large bodies of water.  Who KNOWS what lies under their murky depths.

One of the major things that I was looking forward to this past week was going to an ACTUAL running store and getting my running/walking stride analyzed and then try on copious amounts of shoes until I found the right pair, no matter what the price tag said (that’s the part that made my hub’s nervous).  After having the sales lady watch me run outside she said I have a pretty neutral stride, which was good to hear that I didn’t have anything wonky going on with my feet.  The tricky part for the poor sales girl is that I have enormous feet.

I wear a size 11-12 in regular shoes and was just informed that I would need an even BIGGER size for running shoes. She was reluctant to tell me that she probably wouldn’t be able to find me the size I needed in a woman’s shoe.  I eased her concern by letting her know that I don’t even remember the last time I owned a running shoe that was made for woman and she felt a lot better about the horrible news she thought she was breaking to me.

I am happy to say that I found a pair of running shoes that I love more and more everyday.  I ended up getting the Brooks PureFlow in a men’s 11 (!!!).

I have walked in them for the last couple of days and they have been wonderful.  Also, the saleslady  showed me a new way to lace them up so that the top of my foot doesn’t hurt like in my last few pairs.

I still LOVE my Five Finger Vibrams, and they have been great for my knee pain but then I started having other joint pain.  I think I will stick to using them when lifting weights.

On the blogging front.

I love blogging.  I love being able to get words onto to paper (or computer screen), and be able to preserve those thoughts that I have in everyday life.  But I have found lately that I have a lack of subjects to talk about.  I also have limited access to writing time, and a toddler that has recently become a MAJOR momma’s girl and wants my constant attention. And of course I have to mention the fact that my weight loss has been at a standstill for what seems like forever!  My point is that I will be posting more sporadically, or when I feel I actually have something to say.

Example: My toddler is whining and slamming her head into me as I type this.

Hopefully I will get out of this writers block quickly and back to regular posting because in all actuality I miss it.  But I’m also not going to post some canned words that have no heart.

Thanks for reading peeps!

Need some inspiration?  Check out Kim from Healthy Strides who was just recently on “The Today Show” for her amazing weight loss story!