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Exercise, Running, Training, Triathlon, Weight loss

Envisioning the Finish

Today I had a horrible run. It’s been raining all day and the roads were steamy, the air was muggy, and my body felt like it was in a sweaty hell.

For the past few months, I’ve been using Active’s Couch to 5k program and today was day one of the final week. The last week! Today’s run was a straight 30 minute run with a 5 minute warm-up and cool down. I wanted to give up before I even started running. It was so hot, I’d been feeling mildly sick all day, and I was still a little tired from my workout the day before. Each step was miserable.

I reached the top of the first long hill and spent the next 5 minutes trying to work myself out of the cramp in my side. Meanwhile, my face was dripping in sweat and I had to keep wiping it off on my T-shirt turned sweat-rag.

I forgot to bring my headphones so I spent the run thinking about the next couple of weeks and how much work I feel like I still have to do to get ready for this triathlon. I started to envision the finish line and how amazing it’s going to feel to reach that goal. I began thinking about how two months ago when I started this program, I could barely run a minute and a half without feeling like I would never be able to take another breath. I also realized that I’ve managed to lose 15 pounds from working out this summer.

So while it did feel as though I was running through a swamp, all of my positive and happy thoughts kept pushing me forward toward my goal.

I can’t wait to finish this race!]

July 29, 2015 by meaganleanne

Exercise, Triathlon, Weight loss

Pushing Limits

Sleep has not been my friend the past week. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because we’re moving out of our first nest a month from today and I haven’t started packing. Maybe it’s because dad’s getting married the day after we move back to Maryland. Maybe it’s because life is going to be changing a lot over the next couple months and I don’t know if I can handle it… but whatever it is, it’s causing me to have anxiety and sleep has been quite elusive recently. s causing

Today I slept in quite a bit and didn’t eat much this afternoon… and when it came time to go to spinning class I felt weak and tired out even though I hadn’t done much at all. I had decided I wasn’t going to go. I started feeling guilty because I had missed last Wednesday’s class due to back pain and after a few minutes giving myself excuses, I got off of my butt and ready to go within 5 minutes so I wouldn’t be too late.

What a day to be late. I almost got stuck with one of the crappy bikes. Over the past month, there haven’t been more than 3 participants in one class and there were 5 new girls today.

spinning intervals — My Camelbak Eddy (affiliate link). I love this water bottle. Straws make drinking more enjoyable.

I felt like I was dying. More than I have on any other day because today we were doing intervals. We pushed hard while we were on the bike and then we did multiple one-minute intervals of quad-killers, including squats, burpees, and high knees. At one point, I looked at the clock thinking the class must be almost over and it was only halfway done. This is why I go to classes… I don’t push myself hard enough when I’m by myself and working out with others who are going through the same thing as you make it a little easier.

spinning intervals-2 — Dripping in sweat and trying to catch my breath.

I texted hubby while I was in the sauna following class and I said, “If it sounds like someone fell down the steps in a few minutes… they did. It was me.”

It’s been almost 4 hours since class ended and my legs still feel like jelly.

spinning intervals-3 — How many exercise balls are in this photo?

I haven’t lost much weight yet, maybe 5-7 pounds, but I feel myself getting stronger and my endurance is growing. So here’s to pushing limits, finding new strength, and overcoming obstacles on the way to a better me.

June 16, 2015 by meaganleanne

Exercise, Hiking, Triathlon, Weight loss

Stormy Hiking Adventures

Our canoe trip was canceled… 🙁 So on Saturday, hubs and I decided to be healthy humans after a day of sitting inside and doing nothing. I convinced him to go with me to Warren Dunes State Park in Southwestern Michigan for a little dune hiking. The giant hill at the dunes is great if you want a really good lung workout. It’s a killer.

Well, I missed out on that joy this time because hubby suggested we actually do the hiking trails. What?! There are hiking trails? I’ve been to this park so many times over the past 5 years and I just assumed the lakefront and all the dunes towering over the parking lots was the majority of the park. But there are actually a few miles of trails.

The trails were actually quite nice. Not quite as nice as the trails going through Ludington State Park that we traversed a few weeks ago, but still enjoyable. The sun was out. The humidity was high. But all in all, we were having a pretty nice afternoon walk. At about the halfway point… A minimum of a mile hike away from the car, we started to hear some rumbling thunder. I figured a little rain wouldn’t be too bad because I was already drenched in sweat… but I also didn’t want to become a lightning rod out in the sand once we got out of the woods and back onto the dunes.

I wish I had a picture of intensely dark clouds looming over the dunes/woods behind us as we came out but at that point, it was starting to rain we were beginning to hustle. I did manage to grab a photo of the horizon so you can get an idea of what was coming.

By the time we got to the beach, this was headed towards us.

stormy adventures-3 — Deep haze in the distance = heavy rain

While to our right, it almost seemed like we were just going to be enjoying a nice sunset.

Within a few minutes, we were being pelted by large heavy raindrops that might as well have been bullets being hurled against us in hurricane-like winds. You can kind of see the rain in the next couple of photos.

For some reason, I had decided to wear makeup and at this point, my mascara was falling off my eyelashes and running into my eyes. I had to take my glasses off because it was raining so hard and glasses wipers don’t exist (?).

At this point, we had been hiking for at least an hour and a half, I was drenched and I figured why bother rushing to get back anymore? The worst of the storm and ugly clouds were to the east of us and we’d be out of the rain soon. Once it did stop raining, I had to take this photo because it was hilarious. You can see just how hard we were walking into the rain. At least the phones stayed dry.

What an adventure.

June 15, 2015 by meaganleanne

Exercise, Healthy eating, Recipes, Weight loss

Nut Butter Banana Smoothie Recipe

So I registered for the Iron Girl Columbia on August 16th and I’ve just completed my first week of training! Since I’ve been out of shape from the winter, I’m primarily working on rebuilding my cardiovascular endurance. Here’s my general workout and my favorite snack – a Nut Butter Banana Smoothie – for the past week:

Monday: Picked up a lot of healthy groceries at Whole Foods! (Not exactly a workout but hey, I took a lot of steps and eating home more is important!)

Tuesday: Signed up at the gym, did just over 21 minutes of hill intervals on the elliptical and a couple of various machines before going home. I also did a “My Routine” with about 20 minutes of Yoga on the Wii. I also started calorie counting on My Fitness Pal again today.

Wednesday: I swam laps for about 25 minutes and I did 600 meters. I played on the Wii Fit Plus for half an hour when I got home including my 20 minute Yoga Routine (I’m horrible! Really needing to work on my balance some more.)

Thursday: Zumba on the Wii. Wii I find that doing Zumba in my house helps me feel a little less stupid when I don’t know what I’m doing. I definitely feel like I have two left feet sometimes and when I try to add my arms… But it’s a nice variation to my workouts and it’s a good 30-minute workout.

Friday: I swam 400 yards in just under 17 minutes (including breaks) so I made improvement!

I made a Nut Butter Banana Smoothie today in an effort to replenish my tired body and I figured I’d share my recipe for it because it was just that amazing. This is a very loose recipe so that you can customize it to your preferences! More frozen bananas to less milk ratio will give a thicker smoothie bowl consistency.

Nut Butter Banana Smoothie

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Author: Meagan Leanne
Total Time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 1x

Print Recipe

Description

Refreshing healthy breakfast smoothie. Cinnamon is the magic ingredient in this recipe, so don’t leave it out!

Ingredients

Scale

1–1.5 large frozen bananas
1–2 Tbsp of your favorite nut butter (I like peanut or almond) or 1/8 cup of walnut halves
1–2 cups of milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
A few shakes of cinnamon
1–2 tsp Cocoa powder (optional)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and well combined. Pour into a clean glass and enjoy!

Switch out the nut butter for a small handful of walnuts if you like. It’s also a delicious combo.

Notes

Add a small amount of ice to cool it down if using a fresh banana.
This is a very loose recipe so that you can customize it to your preferences! More frozen bananas and less milk will give a thicker smoothie bowl consistency.

May 8, 2015 by meaganleanne

Healthy eating, Triathlon, Weight loss

Motivations and Incentives

For the past so many years, I’ve had trouble staying with a routine longer than a month because when you’re a student, life is hardly predictable. Yay for graduation coming this Sunday! I feel like I need something to kick me into gear and really get me motivated before next winter comes and I’m trying to start again next spring.

I was looking into maybe signing up for a 5k in a couple of months so that I had something to train for and then I found the Iron Girl sprint triathlon in Columbia, MD this coming August. That’s about 3 and a half months from right now. I’m definitely not in the greatest shape currently but I already swim fairly well and I know how to ride a bike so the challenge would be building up endurance and improving my skills.

If I could do this, I can imagine myself crossing the finish line and just being so overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment… I want this to be my goal.

April 27, 2015 by meaganleanne

Healthy eating, Weight loss

When the Clothes Don’t Fit…

I went shopping last night and found quite a few tops and dresses that I thought I would like at TJ Maxx. By the time I got to the dressing room, I had about 11 items to try on. Now I gained my “Freshman 15” five years ago when I started college and I guess I’ve gained the “Marriage 15” since getting married last summer. It’s really hard to try on clothes and struggle to get them over your newly puffy body. It’s discouraging to realize how much weight you can gain without realizing that it’s happening. It’s hard to think about how the new lose 15 lbs goal will only get me back to where I wanted to start losing from in the first place.

I want to be healthy. I want to feel healthy again. I’m tired of being dragged down by my weight and feeling discouraged every time that I look in the mirror. So I’m going to try the positive talk thing… you know, the “You can do this Meagan!” thing. I hope I can keep myself accountable this time. Graduation is 3 weeks away. 5 pounds is reasonable for 3 weeks. Here goes…

April 10, 2015 by meaganleanne

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