What a wonderful… and sweaty… weekend! I was so pleased to have very few commitments this weekends and took full advantage and got in as many sweat sessions as I could.

I kicked off Saturday morning with a short run followed by an hour of yoga at Beyond Yoga in Vermilion. I was SO THRILLED to learn of this new studio opening so close to me! Two winters ago I was very diligent in my yoga practice by hitting up Solaluna in Oberlin regularly but since then I’ve hit up a class here and there and half-assed some moves at home. Over the past few weeks I’ve been itching to get back into a studio so it was divine intervention at it’s finest that Beyond Yoga has opened! I felt honored to attend the very first yoga class ever held at this beautiful location.

Today I started the day with a serious sweat session at Psycle in Westlake. It’s been a few months since I’ve been there and as usual it did not disappoint. I left drenched in sweat, with shaky legs and a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. An added bonus was sweating next to some good friends I haven’t seen in far too long.

And to top off the weekend, another class at Beyond Yoga. Since it’s their first week open all classes are donation based so I’m going to be trying to try out as many instructors as possible before ponying up to full price! But let’s be honest, I’ve already purchased my 10 class pass for after this week!

To say the least… it was a sweaty and tiring weekend. One I’d like repeat over and over.

Last week was also my first week back on the running wagon, officially. First week of the Earthday Half training schedule is complete! 15 more to go…

How about you? Any good sweat sessions this weekend? Dying of excitement about Downton returning to the tube tonight?

In similar fashion to 2011 and 2012 I’m setting myself some annual goals. I like the idea of goals rather than resolutions for me personally. I’m pretty jazzed about these as well. Let’s rock 2013!

Continue with 2013’s goal of better skin care. Also add in better hair care. I loved this goal last year and felt I definitely did better than I ever had. I want to keep down that path and continue to improve. I’ve kept the tanning bed urge at bay in 2012 and hope to continue to do so in 2013. Another recent addition to my regime is dry brushing and more regular use of all-over scrubs. I don’t want to limit great skin care only to my face.

Another new addition in 2012 was somewhat more regular manicures which has been good for my cuticles! And I’m newly on the biotin supplement train so I hope it helps bring out the best in my hair and nails!

Keep on sweatin’. Again, somewhat of a repeat of last year! I want to keep up on my gym visits (which have been stellar lately) and keep on runnin’ too. 2012 wasn’t a huge year for running and not that I have any big full mary plans in 2013 I do want to focus a tad more on running compared to 2012. This includes a half mary PR at my spring half. Check back later this week for the 2013 race schedule!

Organize. I have written out 52 notecards containing some sort of cleaning/organizing/purging activity relating to our home, running of our household, finances, etc. I have really felt like the general clutter of life has been closing in lately. Could be all those new Christmas gifts that don’t have homes yet. Each week-ish I’ll pick on out and go for it. Some weeks I might tackle a few, some weeks I might tackle none. Let’s just hope I can tackle them all by the end of 2013!

And here’s the doozy of my goals. The one that might be the hardest for me personally…

Clothing spending freeze until May 1st, 2013. (Not so coincidentally my 30th birthday). I looooooooove clothes, you guys. But honestly I have a closet bursting at the seams and lots of things I don’t even wear. It’s time to get creative, save some cash and start figuring out what clothing I really want/need rather than splurging on all the latest fashions.

Well, here we go! What are your 2013 goals?

So today I did something I have honestly NEVER done in my life. I bought a membership to a gym. This may strike you as odd but here’s why…

• In HS I had the weight room and I ran XC track.
• In college the same as above.
• After college we had a small workout facility at our apartment building.
• Once we moved to our house we bought a treadmill and had some basic weights and plenty of room to get down to some workout DVDs. Plus there really wasn’t any great gym options nearby.

When I started my job at Hyland I gained full 24 access to their on-site gym. I was psyched about this. However I have only used the gym about 3 times in the past 4 months. Weird, right? Well, in my case… I’m either way too distracted to hit the gym while at work. I think about it and even bring my gym clothes but when the time rolls around I’m way too worried about getting an extra 45 minutes of work done and can’t tear myself away from my desk. Pathetic? Yes. You’d think I’d just hit the gym after work but honestly I’m too worried about getting to daycare to pick up Miles. I don’t want him to be the last one picked up! Silly worry? Probably yes. So I just don’t hit the work gym like I hoped. And it’s not close enough for me to drive back to at night after Miles goes to bed or on a Saturday morning.

Over the past 6 years I haven’t had much trouble motivating myself to workout at home but lately… I just can’t do it. Again I get too distracted by my work laptop or laundry or my couch.

I decided that enough was enough and I needed to find a new place to take my sweat sessions. I wanted it close to home so that I could get their relatively quickly and I wanted really flexible hours. I hit the jackpot with both goals when I found a no frills gym that is 15 minutes away and has 24 hour access. Done and done.

Today I decided to go check it out and sign up for a year if I liked it. I scored a year membership for $395 and the best part is that my employer reimburses up to $300 a year for a gym membership so I got this shiny new membership for the low price of $95! I mean, awesome right?

It’s nothing too fancy but nice enough for me to be comfortable. A variety of cardio equipmment, weight machines, free weights. There are also some 5 am classes available that I definitely plan on purchasing once I get a few weeks of working out back under my belt.

Tonight after I signed all my stuff I hit the treadmill for a 1 mile warm up, then around 30 minutes of various weightlifting and then 10 minutes on a bike to cool down. I haven’t lifted any weights since my making the cut attempt and I’m telling you, I could barely hold my apple on the drive home. I can’t imagine what washing my hair will be like tomorrow morning. However, I can’t wait to go back!

So what about you? Always have a gym membership? Never?

Saturday I went to the Cleveland West Road Runners Club Spring Classic 10-Mile and 5K race. Normally this probably isn’t a race I would sign up for but I deferred my registration from the Fall Classic Half Marathon to this race since I was injured at that time. I still went to that race and hung out with Sarah OUaL. That was fun!

But since I already had a bib and t-shirt paid for and I needed to get in a good long run I figured I might as well do the race. The race is held in a metro park in Strongsville. I knew my good buddy Mason would be there since he also deferred a registration from the Fall Classic as well.

I got there an hour before the race so I could pick up my goodies and also score one of the close parking spots so I could stay warm before the race. I picked up my stuff, used the porta pot and shortly after Mason arrived and we just chatted until about 10 minutes before go-time.

Normally I don’t love out and back courses with switch backs but I really liked it during this race. It was a small race so it was nice to see the faster runners, how many runners were behind me, etc. I got to see and cheer for Mason a few times.

I started out a tad fast but my legs just felt so fresh. I’ve been running very low mileage so fresh legs have been abundant which is nice. The first 3.5 miles you are heading out with one switch back.

Mile 1 – 9:06

Mile 2 – 9:38

Mile 3 – 9:47

Mile 4 – 9:36

Then you head back towards the start and see some of the 5K racers as well.

Mile 5 – 9:40

Around this time I remember thinking OK, it’s time to crank it up a bit. There were a few ladies in my sights I wanted to pick off. I started working hard and picked off a pair. I caught the next one and she decided she wasn’t having it and she started to pick up her pace as well. I would chase her the remainder of the race.

Mile 6 – 9:13

Mile 7 – 9:17

Around mile 7 you go right by the finish area. Basically the 10 mile racers do a 7 mile out and back and then do the 5K course.

Mile 8 – 9:26

Mile 9 – 9:23

The last mile I continued to try to hunt down the girl in front of me. I started closing in but just ran out of road. She ended up finishing 10 seconds ahead of me.

Mile 10 – 8:56

It felt good to finish strong. I was winded but still felt good. I wish I would have kicked it in a little sooner.

Official time: 1:33:21

6/13 in my age group

75/128 overall

So I totally crushed my A goal! And have a new 10-mile PR by over 8 minutes! Woo!

Me and Mason after the race. PR Party for all!

Remember why/how I started this blog? It was originally called ‘Size 5 for our 5’ and was centered around my journey to get back to being comfortable in my body by our 5 year wedding anniversary. Obviously now I talk about a lot more than my weekly weight loss and lifestyle change but at the heart I think that’s still what my blog is about, and the journey I’m still on to change my life and my body for the better.

So it’s been a while since I’ve shared my progress.

I’ve been tracking every single calorie I’ve taken in and put out since the beginning of the year using My Fitness Pal (add me, I’m asliceofkiwi). I was definitely doing it before that too but my streak since January 1 has been on point. At times it feel monotonous and depressing like oh wow, I just ate 700 calories worth of cookies and am still hungry. Other times it is empowering to have such a great insight into my diet and exercise.

Here’s today’s breakfast!

Obviously I’m a huge fan of sweat and getting down to business running, cycling and whatever else but at least for me the key to my weight loss (and healthy lifestyle) is food. Dang, I sure wish it wasn’t. I wish I could eat anything I wanted and could just burn it all off but that doesn’t work for me. I have to make better choices, measure my portions and pass on dessert sometimes.

My daily goal of food intake is 1,200 calories. On days I burn calories I try to not to eat those calories but on days where I’m burning more than 400 during a workout I definitely do eat approximately half of them. Or some days all. And some days all and then some. I definitely don’t hit my calorie target daily. I still have days where I eat close to 2,000 calories when I splurge on a meal out or pizza.

Another tool I’m using that I love is our Withings wi-fi scale. It’s no secret that Mike and I are tech junkies and after our old school scale died we made the splurge for this fancy scale. You hop on, it weighs you, measures all the other stats and immediately uploads them to your own password protected site and syncs with the app on my phone. Mike and I are daily weighers so we like it, a lot! The more I step on the scale, the more accountable I am. Not everyone works well that way but to each their own.

My long term goal is to lose 22% of my body weight. I’m happy to report that as of today I have lost 14.96%. Another fun but useless fact is that today I weigh 54.5 lbs less than I did on the day before I gave birth to Miles. Wow knees, you must have been really annoyed back then.

So while I’m feeling good lately I definitely still have some progress to make. I have lbs to lose, muscle to gain and confidence to build. Below are some before and after pictures. The before pictures are from the first week of December so the progress reflects about 3 months. They changes aren’t significant but regardless it’s progress!

I don’t have any huge initiatives in front of me. I just want to keep tracking without being miserable not letting myself have things I enjoy. I’d rather make this slow and steady progress and change than yo-yo.

What have you done for yourself this year to make yourself feed good?