Lent

Last week we celebrated Ash Wednesday.

Alistair and I went to Mass in the morning, received our ashes and were reminded that one day, we will be ash as well. I forgot it was there most of the day. I went to pick up Elyse from dance, and her ballet teacher went up to me, grabbed my hand and said "you're so good for going. I need to go there tonight too". I had NO idea what she was talking about and just smiled.

Walking to the car I was perplexed. Was she talking about the gym? On occasion I will run into a vaguely familiar face, and they will greet me and talk to me as though we've met. I can't say I've gotten better at pretending I remember. Then  I will see them in my class at the gym the next week. So I thought... do I look like I went to the gym??

I got in the car, and saw my ashes in the mirror and the light bulb went off. Church. She meant Church.

I hate to say it, but Lent creeped up on me this year. Being the start was on Valentine's Day and on a week Cole was gone. My life was busier than normal. But I couldn't decide between no treats (cookies, candy, cakes, cupcakes, etc) and no shopping (random things I decide I need, like clothes, books, stuff...). But groceries, gas, food, minimal family entertainment being okay. Two things that would be hard for me to give up, but at the same time good for our family. So I picked both.

So far, so good. Lent is 40 days and nights from Ash Wednesday to Easter. Not including Sundays. Sundays are a day of rest. I could have chosen to add something to my life instead of a sacrifice, but honestly, one more thing in my schedule, while my husband is gone, is more than I think I can handle right now.  (plus no meat on Fridays!?)

Girl Scout Cookie Time

Did I mention, Elyse is a Daisy this year?

Whats a Daisy? - First level of Girl Scouts(the one before Brownies)(K-1st grade)

Yours truly is one of her Troop Leaders. Yes, I added MORE to my already busy workload... for free. I do not get paid for the 10hrs a week I dedicate to planning meetings, and figuring out cookies, and staying on top of paper work, and planning crafts and getting badges.

Since we all think "what do I get out of it?" is that I get to have some extra time with my girl. She is definitely proud that her mommy is one of the leaders. Not only that, 3 other of the daisies in her troop are also in her class!! Plus, 2 others go to her school(all in 1st grade) and another is one of her closest friends growing up(Ellie)! The girls play "girl scouts" at recess now and it made all the volunteer work worth it! We truly have an awesome group of 9 girls!!! (yes 9!!)

That being said, the other troop leader(we are co-leaders) and I have spent the better part of January growing grey hairs, stressing over the cookie sales. There are a lot more logistics involved than I realized! Our original plan was "ehhh if they sell, great. If not, no biggie". Then we got the FACTS! Daises typically sell the most cookies. Why?? They are cute, little and this is likely the first year friends and family are getting hit up for cookies! So we were encouraged to give it a go... so we did.

Elyse even spent time writing a script, memorizing lines and having me film her for her cookie video posted on her site. She was VERY proud of it!

If you order online, and have it shipped, cookies will get to you in 2-10 business days. If you choose "girl - delivered" they will not get to you until roughly 2/19. We get the boxes to deliver on 2/18. So with the shipping cost, you get cookies early!

Let me know if you are interested and I will send you the link!

New Year, New Goals

So I love to make goals.

Even if I don't end up accomplishing them in the time frame I had hoped, or at all.
These are my goals to 2018:

- Do 3 New things
- Complete a fitness program
- Blog 2 times a month (at min)
- Read 3 books
- find a happy work/life balance
- Lose 20lbs.... okay 10... or 5..
- stop trying to make everyone else like me (professionally and personally)
- cuddle more

Goals from last year that I know I completed:

- become a Catholic
- Pass my Personal Training Exam
- continue my fitness education (Zumba, Strong and gold)
- try 3 new things (tubing, Cove bar, teaching at a gym)
- going to the Dr when im sick

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Well the weather in Seattle has officially turned to rain and wind storms.

It's been very cold, dark, windy and rainy and more is to come! Hopefully it will ease up for Halloween night. As much as the rain is welcome, I don't enjoy wearing rainboots. I prefer the normal drizzle we get, and it allows me to wear my uggs!

Turned 33 yesterday. Cool.

The hard thing about not living close to where you grew up, is definitely holidays and birthdays. Not just for me, either. For the kids as well. Yesterday, although I got lots of texts and birthday messages via soical media, it was a very lonely day. Luckily I was at work in the morning at the Y (Admin Lead work) and I LOVE my job. So that was nice, and even then only a few people knew it was my birthday so it was nice to not make it s big deal at a new job. But lonely, rainy lunch and afternoon. Then work again, prepping and coaching my Lose to Win group. Picked up take out sushi, and got home after 8pm.

It was nice coming home to the family singing me happy birthday though.

But heres the difference and through my OWN fault. If I lived near my family and friends, I would have seen  SOMEONE, outside of my 4yrs old son possibly for lunch, or a quick coffee. I don't mean the (appreciated) gifts or fancy outings(which I do also enjoy) but the in person visits. Being gone for so long, that when I have a visitor, it means a lot. So I'm an adult, I can get over this stuff. But for my kids, it;s different.

I am hesitant to plan birthday parties for them up here because I fear no one will show up. It's not that I don't trust that they are capable of having a lot of friends, but as we all know, Parents control the schedule and the plan. If you don't know the parents well (which, how am I suppose to know them when I never see them!) there is a 40% chance of them coming. So the kids haven't had a real birthday party in a couple years.

I've stuck to traveling to California and having them celebrate with their family over spending $300 on a bouncing place and inviting all of their school friends. I do feel like the kids would prefer to play with their friends(no offense to family, but if you're not a 4yrs old to 8yrs old...) and I feel bad. But its the reality is that I can't get the excited for an event, that I'm not confident will happen. Nor do I want to spend all that money to rent out a place and only 2 kids show up!! How sad would that be for the kids!

So I have been trying to plan something with just one family. Easier to plan, easier for the kids and the parents. If you've been wondering "why haven't I gotten an invite for the kids party?" or "Did she throw they a party?" for last year, the answer is no, I didn't. I made a mild effort. 98% of the people couldn't make it, so I scratched it. Life happens! We definitely can't make it to all the invited we get and its understandable!

However, school gets out for Elyse June 22, so I may actually let her have a real party with school friends this year. We will see!!!

work work work work work

So, I can't pick up where I left off, because that was OVER a year and a lot has changed since! (and who's life doesn't change a lot over a year?)

But I like to try to return to this because I know that those of you that read it are close to me, and sometimes people I don't get the opportunity to update all that often.

Few things to catch up on since June of 2016:

Health and Fitness Career: I think last I posted, I was fully into Beachbody and trying out all of their fun variety of programs, teaching for Fit4mom : Stroller Strides and Body Back.

Now,  although I do still teach for Fit4mom as a contractor(thats the only way), I also work at the nearby YMCA.

The Y growing up, I always thought were these run down buildings and gyms that did help for the homeless. There are 13 in the Seattle area and most of them are recently remodeled or brand new. They are awesome people to work for as they do work for the community but can still be more than a "gym". It's a safe place to hang out, their kids care is wonderful and all of the staff make an effort to know your name!

I started on as a sub last year, and in Feb 2017, got my own Tuesday Morning Strength Training class. Typically a pretty full class, but I was replacing an instructor that was ready to let the class go to someone else. This instructor has a huge following and I am blessed to have been slotted into a class that already had a big group! All I have to do it keep the class big!

However, in the mean time, I also spend many months studying for my Personal Training certification from National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) certification and passed on my first try! (this caused me to start growing grey hairs....)

Trained in Zumba, Zumba Gold and STRONG by Zumba(SBZ) which is now my FAVORITE class to teach. I am currently a sub for SBZ for the last 4 months for an instructor who had surgery. She will be returning next month. I am sad to give the class up.

I also got a brand new Bootcamp class! This has been tough but taking on any new class is. I'm still in the "proving myself" phase with these members. But so far, so good!

I also trained as a health coach for a class called Lose to Win. More of a facilitator and accountability coach, but its effective and helpful for the members!

Lastly, I am an Admin Lead at the Y. Its a small temp position but could lead to bigger things down the road. So heres my week (and don't forget all the pick up and drop offs and dance and soccer lessons sprinkled in!)

Monday - Bootcamp, Admin, Body Back
Tuesday - Strength Training, SBZ
Wednesday - Admin, Lose to win
Thursday - Body Back (every other week)
Friday - Stroller Strides
Saturday Body Back

My week has gotten pretty full!

Why am I starting up this blog? Well, with Fit4mom, I signed an agreement that I wouldn't work for anything similar in the area for 2 years after I quit. Basically putting any fitness knowledge I have out of date. When I had signed it originally, I had no plans to really further my career in this field. But as my kids grew out of Stroller Strides and it was getting hard and hard to make it all work without a childcare facility or anyone to rely on, I was convinced I was good enough to teach at a gym.

When I got the job as a sub at the Y so quickly, I was shocked and tried to leave Fit4mom, but decided on a "breather" instead. I didn't teach there for 2-3 months. My franchise owner told me it was okay with her if I worked at both places as long as I didn't offer any kind of program that was similar to what Fit4mom offered(no prenatal, no stroller fitness classes). But also, to not advertise or persuade our current members in anyway, to leave Fit4mom and come to the Y. As they are in the same territory.  I thought it was fair terms, and I will always have a soft spot for Fit4mom as they are responsible for my love of fitness and weight loss.

However, due to those terms, I can not be open on my own facebook page about what I'm doing or how I'm feeling about ANYTHING at the Y, because I worry I will be crossing lines or violating those terms. So I post mostly only pictures and only on instagram. Which is unfortunate for those that don't care about where I work, but care about what i'm doing. (because you are my friend or family)

I thought, maybe blogging would help that outlet a little! Yea, I have a long list of other things I should be doing besides this.... but I need an outlet, just like a need to log a certain number of couch hours a week. (Champagne problems?) With all my friends mostly moved away, I have filled up my time with family and work and not a huge social outlet. So, even if no one is listening, (besides Cole)...

The Budding Ballerina

Oh my goodness, a post that isn't all about me!!!!

So my daughter, my first born lil preemie baby.... She has impressed me so much over the years. I know they say girls mature faster than boys, but she feels mature even for her age. But she's also tall for her age so she looks like she's 7 yrs old rather and 4. She shows so much compassion and tolerance for her little brother and friends in school that other friends don't get along with. (which kind of sounds like me when I was little. I would always become friends with the new kid, which is why I am still close friends with some of them!)

Recently she lost her first and second tooth. Both where painless on her side. It's possible they wiggled out early because she is a thumb sucker, however, it's not incredibly uncommon for kids her age to lose their first teeth either. Anyhow, she's working on it and we've found a way to help her.

Moving on, she starting taking pre-ballet this month. I kind of forgot that most dance studios take the summer off from classes and are usually only available during the school year. But our rec center had a one month class available, for dirt cheap too!!! Elyse has been asking and asking to do ballet. I had been really hesitant since when we put her in a dance class before, she was all over the place. Then again, she was 2. Now she is 4, about to be 5 and her listening skills have improved tremendously. 

She currently finished 2 weeks, (2 classes) and is in love with it. (yea, a former dancer's dream come true right?)We were watching the So You Think You Can Dance episode from this season, which is about kids, and a ballerina came on and Elyse says "She's a ballerina!! I'm a ballerina!" I did have to break it to her that she's a pre-ballerina, but she was still very excited about it. In the first episode, there was a very tall dancer. She is 13 and 5'10. This gave me hope that even though Elyse is tall, she could still be a ballerina if she wanted to!

So here I am, looking up classes to nurture her desire to dance. However, as one girl said on SYTYCD, "Dance is expensive!" we will have to see how much we can do for her!

I asked her last night, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I excepted her to say "mermaid" or "princess" or "jedi". She said "Ice skating Ballerina".  Might need Sharon Emo to train her on that!

The life of the Less Caffeinated

Some thing I have been sticking to since my 3 Day Cleanse is that I have been sticking to drinking less caffeine. I love coffee. I mean, LOVE the way it tastes and smells and everything about it. However, I have been having such trouble losing weight and getting my body the way I would like it. So, its time for a change!!

2.5 years ago, when this whole "I need to change my eating and (lack of) fitness habits" started, I gave up soda. I would only have soda at restaurants or parties or in a mixed cocktail before anyways. I didn't really keep soda in the house out of habit. My mom never really let us have sodas in the house growing up.


So now, I still only have soda on the rarest of occasions. I've maybe had 1 soda in all of 2016.  With that I want to start with reducing my caffeine intake. My kids are kids, not babies, which means they sleep through the night and can occasionally entertain themselves and are less and less reliant on me. Which leads me to believe, I don't NEED a full cup of coffee, everyday. I've been having decaf or teas. This is why I say "less caffeine" and not "giving up caffeine".  There is still caffeine in decaf, and there is also caffeine in some teas, such as green tea, or black tea.

So far so good. Since I had to go through the first days in the 3 day cleanse anyways, which were the worst. I would hate to let myself get back in the habit of having caffeine just to attempt to cut it out again.

Also, in the beginning of the year I gave myself a goal of 1000 miles in a year. Thats 1000 walking or running miles. Lets say with the end of June being my half way, and I should only 500 miles left to go from there... I'm VERY behind. With that in mind, I have been trying to catch up a little and started running again.

Running this week has reminded me why I've stopped. I have been walking/running a lot this week and besides all the mileage that came with it, I also revamped my plantar fasciitis, have insane sports bra rash and blisters all over my foot. Yay!!!

I will be going back to long fast walks for awhile trying to catch up!!!