Time keeps on slippin’ into the future….

How in the world do people find time to workout! I basically came to the conclusion that the only way I’d get a workout in, and eat healthier, is by getting up at 5:00am. Let me tell you, I have no idea how 5:00am looks. I set my alarm for 4:55am (I’m a snooze button addict) and woke up on my own at 5:40am. Sighed, realized it was too late now, and went back to sleep for another 20 minutes.

My theory was/is that if I’m up at 5:00am I have time to get up, go running with Wiley, get an ab workout in, shower, get dressed, make a healthy breakfast, pack a healthy lunch, and get to work by 7:25am.

What my morning actually looks like: Alarm goes off at 5:40am, and I hit the snooze button at least 3 times. I crawl out of bed around 6:10am, get in the shower, get out and get dressed around 6:30am, feed the dog, gather my work stuff, get in the car, stop at Safeway for a very unhealthy breakfast, and get to work by 7:25am.

Now I know what you’re thinking, what about the evenings? Yeah…about those evenings. So after spending a lovely 8 hours at work, I battle typical Portland rush hour traffic for 30-45 minutes before I get home, roughing 5:00pm-5:15pm. Then I take at least 20 minutes for myself, to relax and congratulate myself for not punching the office queen in the face today. If Charlie is already home, yay that means I get to spend some time with him! We figure out what to do for dinner, and either cook dinner or go get take out, and enjoy the few precious, conscious, hours we get together each day before heading to bed. If Charlie isn’t home yet, that means I get to spend a good hour or so cleaning before going to pick him up from work by 6:30pm, that puts us home around 7:00pm, figure out dinner, cook dinner, eat around 8:30pm-8:30pm…and then bed. Oh and I think I failed to mention that most nights there are also those joyous things called errands, the most hated of which is the grocery store.

So when do I find the time to workout?! Please, all of you well adjusted people who have your daily workouts, how do you do it?

My first 5K

Today I signed up for my first 5K race. This seems a little crazy to me, since I’m by no means a runner anymore. I USE to run…I use to run MILES and MILES like it was nothing. That was before my inhaler prescription ran out, and I got a desk job, and gained 80 pounds, and lost all confidence I use to have in myself.

I recently went to my doctor and told her I HAD to have an inhaler if I had any hope of losing weight and getting in shape. My asthma is weird; it’s strictly exercise induced. After getting my inhaler, I decided to go for a run with Wiley. It was amazing! I went about 2 miles, and it took me about 30 minutes (He just LOVES to sniff everything…) but I felt great in the end. I decided then and there I was going to start running again.

That was roughing a month ago…and while I have gone running several times, I haven’t been consistent. Consistency is my greatest enemy. I always get all worked up, and write out a whole plan, and get beyond determined to get healthy and lose weight…then I just can never find the time. I need to stop trying to find the time, and make the time…I really do.

The fact is, I’m a chubby girl, who has more than a few reasons to lose weight. Top reasons being:

My happiness: I know people love me how I am, but I don’t love me..and that’s a problem.

My health: My father is a insulin dependent diabetic, and that alone should make me hit the road at full speed on the daily.

To get off medications: I take a few medications daily, that I never had to take until I gained weight. I never made this correlation until recently, but it’s a fact I shouldn’t ignore.

For my wedding day: I don’t want to look back on pictures from my wedding day and feel disgusted with myself.

For my future children: I want to be in shape BEFORE I get pregnant, so that after I have a baby, I can bounce back. I want to be healthy and be able to chase a toddler around the park for an hour without feeling completely drained.

For my relationship: My boyfriend is an amazing, loving, supportive, and accepting man. He loved me when I was skinny, and he loves me still when I’m chubby. But I feel like crap, and that doesn’t do positive things for our relationship.

So I’m officially on a mission; not to lose ___ pounds, but to be happy and healthy. Please cheer me on, because I SUCK at cheering myself on. This mission is starting with the Color Me Rad 5K on June 1st, 2013. Of course I’ll run several times before; not going to run into this blindly, that’s for sure!

 

 

 

 

65 Books to read in your 20’s

I’m always up for a good book, and I guess I have 3.5 years left to tackle this list.

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/books-you-need-to-read-in-your-20s

 

 

More fun adventures in car land….

As if all of my engine cooling system/check engine light problems weren’t enough, my car battery went out on me last night. After sitting on jumper cables for 20 minutes, hooked up to a V-8 engine, it barely started. I got like 10 feet before all of my dash lights started flashing on and off, and my gauge needles started jumping around, and then the battery light came on. I got absolutely SCREWED on a battery at Les Schwab, because it was 5:00pm, and I was too far from home to just go get a battery and put it in myself. I limped over to the nearest Les Schwab, paid $135 to get a new battery and have them install it in the ridiculous place Dodge decided to put the battery. The guy thinks that the battery may have even been the original battery from 2005 when the car was made; it was so dead he couldn’t even test it.

But that’s not even the fun part of the whole ordeal. I was TRYING to make it through a drive cycle so that after making repairs to my car I could go through DEQ and get tags. Oh and my current ones expired 9 days ago. I’ve replaced every single part relating to my engine cooling system, and have gone through DEQ twice. After replacing the last part, driving 100+ miles, and fiddling with some fuses the check engine light that has been on for a year FINALLY kicked off. Went through DEQ and I didn’t have any codes, but just had OBD systems that hadn’t fully cycled back to reset yet. So the lady told me to just keep driving and come back next week. REALLY hoping my battery going out didn’t start that entire process over again. Ugh. Just another fun adventure in the land of car ownership.

Oh and then to make the day just extra special, my poor bunny Quigley passed away. He was 10 years old, and it was his time, but it was still a very sad day for me. Charlie is such a sweetheart, and told me that of course we could go get a new bunny soon. So the only happy moments I had yesterday were looking for Holland lop bunnies at local farms online.

Why Blog??

Why start a blog….Why not? I like to write, I like sharing stories about my sometimes-comical-sometimes-boring life, and I LOVE to take pictures! Sounds like a good enough reason to start a blog to me.

I’m 26 years old, and I live in beautiful Portland Oregon. I’m a native Oregonian through and through. From the city, to the coast, to the forests; I LOVE living in Oregon.