Look who's back...

That's right folks, I'm back.  (At least, I hope I am!)  It's been a long few months.  I bet some of you thought that my pregnancy swallowed me up and kidnapped me, right?

Well, I guess that is sort of true.

I had yucky bouts of pregnancy sickness.  And even worse, I have had zero energy.  Zero!

Mix all that together with the added, enormous stress of 4th semester nursing school....that gives you the answer of where I've been!

But I'm alive.  And the baby is kicking.  (Yep, totally feeling the baby kicks now.)  And what's even better is it seems I've found my 2nd trimester energy.

I kid you not when I say I haven't ran since my half in January.  That's almost 2 months ago people!  I've been feeling down.  I called it the winter blues, but really...I think it was the non-exercising blues.  I've missed the endorphins.  My body has punished me because it's been craving them.

I've told myself for the last 3ish weeks that today, TODAY was going to be the day I started moving again.  And each day passed, and no movement happened.

Finally, enough is enough.  I needed some good stress relief.  So I downloaded a new app.  It was one I've heard incredible things about from my dear friends Marcee and Denise.  I knew a lot of people used it.  I just never could swallow the steep price of it.  ($15 is a lot for an app to me.)

But I swallowed the cost and downloaded it anyway.  Today I broke it out and gave it a try.  Honestly, I realize it's only day 1, but I loved it!  And even more, I love Jeff Galloway's thoughts behind a run/walk race to avoid energy and finish strong.  I had done a lot of reading about the concept and knew it was something I wanted to try.

I thought today was going to suck.  Like suck bad.  (Remember, it's been 2 freaking months since I laced up my shoes!)  But I was surprised.  Don't get me wrong, I dreaded it.  Like full on tried to talk myself out of it.  But I turned on my treadmill and did it anyway.

You see, I have been putting this off for weeks (maybe longer).  I knew I could continue down that road and it would take me somewhere I don't want to be.  I don't want to gain a million and a half pounds in this pregnancy.  Pregnancy is NOT a reason to get fat.  So I knew I had a choice.  We all have this choice!

You can choose to give in to those excuses you make for yourself, or you can choose to push them aside.  Let me tell you, I've done both at times.  And after today, I remember just how damn good it feels to finish a work out!  How accomplishing a measly 1.82 miles can be.

So for you, yes YOU!  The one who is thinking of your own list of reasons to put off working out for today.  The one who keeps saying you are too busy.  Or that you'll start tomorrow.....tomorrow is not a day of the week!

Start today!  I swear to you, as much as it will suck when you begin...you won't regret it!

Surprised

I feel I haven't been completely honest and open with you, my friends.

In fact, I feel like it's been hard to share what's REALLY going on around here.  

I feel like I've been keeping a massive secret.

Probably, because I have.

That's right folks, SURPRISE!  (I know we were!)  (Actually, shocked would be a better description!)  (And we still are.....)

I hadn't planned on "coming out" with my big secret quite yet.  But, it's hard to explain to you why I'm too tired to get in my training runs (or any exercise for that matter).  And let's be honest...this is our 4th rodeo, and the belly just doesn't hide the peanut like it did in previous pregnancies.  Plus, my poor Red Kitty came in last night and asked if I was dying because I had been in bed all day.  We figured it was time to share the news, and the kids couldn't be more excited!  

I am still trying to wrap my head around this!  This was not how I had planned my last semester of school, this was not how I planned 2013!  You see, I had a lot of plans for 2013.  (most of them completely selfish...)  Including:  reaching my goal weight, running a half marathon in January, running another half marathon in Hawaii, zip lining in Hawaii, graduating nursing school, taking a trip over to San Francisco to watch my Giants play, running a full marathon in October...and so the list could continue.

But plans change.

So while I won't be doing a half marathon in Hawaii any longer, and I surely won't be running a full marathon, and I probably won't make it over to San Fran, zip lining is definitely out, and I will no longer be able to focus on achieving goal weight status (until after August)... 

I WILL graduate nursing school.  

And I still plan on the trip to Hawaii to celebrate in May! 

(because my pregnancy will NOT have any complications because our tickets are already paid for....)

I plan to have a healthy pregnancy (something I've never had...)

(Because I've always started each pregnancy overweight or obese...but not this time!)  :)

I also still plan to run the half marathon here in St. George in a little over a week.  In fact, I just registered for it today!  

I honestly took a lot of time the last few weeks debating if I should run the half on January 19th.  You see, I would never want to do anything to harm the pregnancy.  I talked with my doctor about it, I talked with Jason about it.  Here's what I've decided:

I am going to race.  The course itself stays open for up to a 16 min/mile pace that day.  Shoot, I can walk faster than that if I need to!  Ultimately, I need to do this.....for me.  (and I'll share more about why in another post...)  No, I won't be pushing to finish as fast as I can like I had originally planned.  But I need to cross that finish line.  

Just because the plan changes in life doesn't mean you have to give up....