Work hard, play hard!!!

Summer is here and I couldn't be more excited. I have always loved this season.  I love going out on the boat, lake days, swimming pools, and water parks!  I am thrilled that Joel and I have kids who enjoy those things too.  We decided to take our first family vacation at the beginning of June. We went to the nearest beach, which is in Galveston, TX.  It was amazing!!!!  We packed as much fun as possible into every day.  Beach, pool, great food, and activities every day.  I definitely have a work hard, play hard mentality. I don't want to count calories the whole time I'm on vacation and I don't want our family schedule to revolve around my workout routine.  You can always find ways to stay on track during vacation and still have a great time, and maybe make a few more exceptions than normal.  Fortunately for Joel and I, we LOVE seafood. Fresh seafood was one of the main attractions to our beach vacation : )  It's very easy to find healthy seafood meals, that way there's room to splurge on a drink here and there or some room service late at night : )  We also cut out snacking by simply not keeping any snacks in the hotel room.  We ate out for every meal, so it was breakfast, lunch & dinner for us, with no snacks in between.  When you're staying busy on vacation you don't even notice or miss the snacks, which often times we are only eating out of boredom anyway.

As for exercise, we got creative.  Luckily The San Luis Resort has a huge stairway up to the main entrance. I can't tell you how many times a day we walked up and down those stairs... to the pool, the beach, the restaurants, the square!  While down at the beach we took several walks and a few runs in the sand, which is a great workout.  Trying to catch waves on a boogie board is quite a workout as well!  Every night we went to the pool for several hours.  As the kids are floating in their inner tubes, instead of standing beside them I decided to tread water on and off.  Treading water really helps to build stamina.  So we had a very fun, relaxing, and easy going vacation, while fitting in creative workouts and not going overboard on unhealthy foods. 

If you are lacking motivation to exercise or just feel the need to change things up, sign up for an event.  Year round there are triathlons, 10k's, marathons, etc going on.  About 5 weeks ago I signed up for "The Hottest Half", a half marathon in Dallas, TX.  Called that due to the heat that time of the year : )  Having a training schedule helps to keep me motivated and push myself each day to stay on track in order to meet my goal in August.  This won't be my first half marathon, but it has been a quite a while since the last one I ran.  At the time that I signed up I was running 3 or so miles at a time, and the half is 13.1 miles. I printed a 12 week training schedule, and tweaked it a bit to fit my personal routine.  I have up to 1 1/2 every day on my lunch break to run if I want, so I made sure all of my long runs are on week days.  I made Saturdays my strength training days because I like to do a yoga video at home. If you've never tried power yoga I highly recommend it. It's harder than you'd think.... but in a calm sort of way : )  While building core strength it helps to improve flexibility and stamina.  It's not something I want to do every day, I enjoy more intense cardio, but having it in the mix is great. 

So far the marathon training is going well.  It is SO hot outside, but feels great to come back from a run sweaty and knowing that I got a good workout.  If you have an iphone there are SO many great apps when it comes to health and fitness.  For running I use "map my run".  It tells me how far I go, run time, average mile time, calories burned, etc.  I love it.  This has caused me to set goals for myself each run. I try to improve my average mile time a little each week.  Friday was my 6 mile run, the furthest I have gone since starting the training schedule.  I mostly run outside but for this run I was at the gym on a treadmill.  It is pretty boring to be honest, and easy to want to give up or start to feel tired.  Here's a simple trick if you're running on a treadmill.  If it starts to feel too fast, bump the speed up as fast as you can handle for 60 seconds.  When you go back to your previous speed it feels like you're really giving yourself a break and you're able to continue without slowing down : )  I averaged less than 8 minute miles, which for me is an improvement.  When it comes to running the actual half marathon I'd like to average 8 1/2 minute miles, but we will see.

Another good tip, TELL lots of people about your goals.  The more people you tell, the more accountability you'll have.  I have so many people asking me each day "how far did you run today?" that it actually pushes me while I'm running to do my best. 

Random food tip that may or may not be helpful to you:  I have a tendency to eat cereal for dinner when my husband is out of town.  It may be low in calories but it's definitely not the most nutrient packed food you can eat.  I really struggle with cooking just for myself. My kids are fine with sandwiches so why go through the trouble of cooking and cleaning just for myself?  It seems more worth my while if I can save some of what I cook to pack for my lunch the next day.  So spend 15-20 minutes cooking lean meat and vegetables, have a nutritious dinner, and lunch already prepared for the next day that beats having a sandwich or a frozen meal : )

Does anyone have any quick and easy "on the go" breakfast ideas?  I have a problem with giving myself enough time to get ready in the morning. My coffee is set on a timer, so that is ready, but when it comes to breakfast I have to pretty much grab something for the car and go.  Lately I've been doing toast which holds me over, but I'd LOVE suggestions if anyone has a good idea. I have to be able to take it in the car. Oatmeal is a good choice but I can't drive and eat something with a spoon...I have tried : )