A Different Day of Thanks

Today is a weird day for me. Every year, especially after tough things happen throughout the year, on the day after Thanksgiving, I remember an anniversary that was my "big life moment".

13 years ago, in the evening on the day after Thanksgiving, I was in a horrible car accident that I literally should not have walked away from. The specifics I will spare you, but I left my car with only a few scratches on my left arm, leg, and foot. The EMTs told me at best, I should be paralyzed from the waist down. The towing company told me there's no way I should have walked away from the accident.

Everyday when I run, play with my kids, hug my husband, you name it, I am thankful for the miracle of life I was given that day. Yet, I am more thankful for the after effects of that accident than surviving the accident itself.

I know if that accident had not happened, my life would be entirely different right now. Not bad, per se, but completely different. I most likely would not have my husband, my boys, my best friends, my in-laws, none of the people I hold so close to my heart. I know I probably would not have changed my major in college, and my career path would have been totally the opposite. Most of all, I would not know my purpose in life like I do now. Granted, it’s been a long, hard road finding my purpose, but during that journey, I realized I learned everything along the way has been leading up to now to bring me clarity and a sense of feeling fulfilled. Most of my runs over the last three years have helped me figure this out.

My purpose:

Be the best mother and wife I know how to be.
Help people in ways that are in accord with my own talents.
Spread and show love to every person possible.

This year, I give thanks on a different day of the weekend to kickoff the holiday season. I give thanks for the gift of my legs and feet to continue on with my training. I give thanks for every person I know. I give thanks for the three people I would do and give absolutely anything for. I give thanks for finding my way, even a little delayed, to make sense of this crazy world.

Austin Komen for the Cure 5K

This past weekend, P and I ventured down to Austin, Texas. A combined adventure of his gig at the Punk Rock Food Drive and my 5k, Komen for the Cure. This trip was also a treat because we were also kid-free ( a rarity for us)!

Friday night, Saturday, and Saturday night was a combination of going out, seeing Austin, seeing friends, going out some more and P's show. Needless to say, there was very little sleep and lots of tacos. Surprisingly, even with meeting a virtual friend from my Running Moms group, I only drank two, yes, that's dos, beers the entire weekend. Yet, I wander off subject.

Sunday morning came way too early. The night before I got in about 12:30 a.m. and finally to sleep around 1 a.m. Getting to sleep that late is usually the second time I've fallen asleep in a night, not the first. The 6 a.m. alarm stopped my heart, I believe. I seriously cannot remember the last time I jumped out of bed that fast. I had 45 minutes to wake up, get dressed, and drive to the race, park and find the start line. That I even did pretty quickly (thank you, pre-organization)!

Thankfully, I a. know how to navigate maps and areas I don't know very well and b.) knew a little bit of the layout of Austin. It's pretty similar to Denton, in my opinion. Drive time andparking took no time at all. Thanks to my Running Mom friend, Bethany, I had my packet early so after parking all I had to do was go straight to the start line.

And then the nerves hit. This was the first race I've ever done completely alone. No one to run with, no one to see me at the finish line. I suddenly felt silly in my tutu, even though my friend Nycole at Lil' Darlin' Designs did a kick ass job making me a custom tutu. I choked up. I almost walked back to the car. I suppose fortunately for me, the starting announcements were going on and I was stuck in the middle of the crowd of timed runners. The gun goes off! Crap...I start running at a diagonal to get to the side to let all the speedsters get by. I don't remember much other than hills, the 11:30 mm time at the Mile 1 marker, turning on 6th Street, and then rounding the Capitol building towards the end.

I do remember walking a couple of more times than I wanted and reminding myself that I am pretty friggin' tired. I do remember turning the corner to the finish line and crossing my fingers that my posse showed up. (Nope.) I remember finishing and thinking, "Oh my goodness, I have to pee, " and "I need coffee". That's me post coffee and post pee.

My first race in 6.5 months ended up being fairly "normal" and overwhelming at the same time. Oh, and this lady PR'd on her 5K time at a 39:05...not bad for 5 hours of sleep and late night fuel of 1/2 of a trailer taco. The cool thing about the Komen is the cause. I dedicated this race to my friend Marissa's mom, Nancy, who completed her treatment in October.

No matter how much I wanted to quit running and how much I wanted to cry at the last 0.14 miles, I know whatever I was going through was nothing compared to what Nancy and millions of other women have gone through or are going through. They are the true heroes of the Komen.

New Kicks and a Tutu

I haven't raced officially since April at the Running Moms Rock 5K. Maybe that's why I'm getting so excited over an invite from a fellow running mom to do the Komen while I'm in Austin this weekend. Turns out that do to a foot injury she can't run it, but I'm still getting my race on!

Today I received my custom tutu from Lil Darlin' Designs. Nycole normally does tutus for little girls, but when I asked if she could do a custom one for me, she was more than happy. Therefore, in true Komen spirit, I got a hot pink combined my classic black racing color.

I can't wait to run in this!

I also finally purchased new kicks today! My feet were cursing me for way too long. I do know it's not always best to get new shoes a few days before a race, but I still have 2 runs on tap this week before race day. My feet are already thanking me just from when I tried them on. The big deal about the new kicks...I made a brand switch. I love my New Balance shoes, always have, but I jumped at the deal I saw on Saucony Grid Cohesions. They are rarely on sale when I have to trek into Sports Authority. I made the color switch from my standard blue to pink as well.

I can't wait to get pics of the whole racing outfit pieced together! Man, I love new running gear.

The Ever Loving Battle with Alarms

We love to hate them...not our training runs (well, maybe), but I mean, our damn alarms. Two scenarios always happen:

1. They don't go off and you really need to get up early/on time/anything before 10 minutes before you absolutely have to get up
2. They go off and you begin the 5-10 minute dance of hitting snooze and sleeping in and you end up oversleeping anyway.

I've been having an intense love/hate relationship with my alarms the past couple of weeks. I get mad when my phone alarm doesn't go off and I sleep until P gently wakes me up with bright closet lights, noises from the kitchen and a gentle "B******* (I will not disclose his pet name for me), you need to wake up." All I hear is "Get your lazy a$$ out of bed, and it's too late for a run."

I'm two weeks into my Cowtown training, and I've ran, oh, like 4 miles out of the 25 I should have logged already. Tonight, I'm holding nothing back. A regular, loud, annoying alarm combined with the Jillian-Michaels-30-Day-Shred-music-please-don't-yell-at-me-anymore type alarm.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Yes, that's why I also enlisted some of my virtual running mama friends to not only text me at 5:30 a.m. to make sure I am running or have already ran, but also check in with me later in the day. Accountability, that's the desperate measure.

P will be hating my 5 a.m. alarms right along with me...at least he gets to doze off for another half hour, and not be out on a 5-o'clock run in the predicted 39° temperature for tomorrow morning. Cool (almost cold) and windy = [bad.ass], right?

Such a Super Saturday!

This past Saturday, I attended a Super Saturday event through my coaching business. All the buzz leading up to this Saturday, was getting to do a LIVE Asylum workout with Shaun T.

Yea...that guy ---->

After an early wake up of 4:30 a.m. on a Saturday and an hour drive to Arlington, I excitedly waited for another hour and a half for Shaun T to kick my ass...and he did. Remember, I'm totally a P90X girl. I've loved the muscle confusion and specific muscle workouts. But Asylum totally put my fitness into perspective, and how I needed to improve even more. The warm up started, and 10 minutes and about 200 calories later, I was drenched in sweat and yes, already panting. Total sports conditioning. What? It was like no other sports conditioning I have EVER had, and I've been an athlete all my life! I hung in there, though, between all the crazy push ups, sports moves and even the surfers!

I truly got the meaning of digging deep when it came to the core work. I'll be the first to admit that my core is weak, but the V-sits and flutter kicks worked my core like crazy. As you can imagine, core work has gotten a top priority in my training now. And plank tucks! Yea, my butt just quit hurting today.

Even though the live workout with a celebrity trainer, all the awesome answers he gave in a Q&A (which will be shared within later posts), and the training for my coaching business, the SUPER part of my Saturday was the people I met! I met a fellow coach and her guests, and they were some of the nicest people I've met in a long time. (Made me really proud at the fact that Texans are known as some of the nicest people on earth!) Here's all of us after the Asylum workout.

That's Kim, Sheri, Jerome, and then me sporting the P90X2 shirt. By the way, that was my second shirt of the day. Like I said, they were so nice to let me hang out with them all day, and they all had fabulous stories. Yet, Jerome's story was amazing! We hit it off as fellow runners, you know chatting about training, races, and injuries, but his journey started on December 28th, 2009 and he transformed his body and his life by losing 100 pounds in a year! He's running his goal race at White Rock on December 4. I could tell you how he did it, but he graciously shared his vlog with me so I could share it with you.

We both are runners, and perhaps one day, we'll get to run a race together, but the biggest thing...we're both on a mission. Mission Possible: to End the Trend of obesity. His story is one of many I encounter as a Coach. I get inspired by every story to keep doing what I'm doing: making a difference in people's life to lead them to live healthy and fulfilling lives! I am so thankful I became involved with Beachbody to meet new and inspiring people every day (and getting my ass kicked by celebrity trainers LIVE once in a while).

Join My Exclusive P90X Challenge!

Monday, November 14, I will begin an exclusive P90X Challenge that will incorporate both P90X & Shakeology.

I will only accept 5 people for this challenge!

I only want you to be a part of this if you are ready to take charge and commit:

• pictures and measurements (not to broadcast – but for you)
• one Shakeology meal a day
• daily P90X workout (I will tell you the workout to do based on the calendar)

I am convinced that after the first 30 days you will look and feel wonderful, and you will be HOOKED and on your way to living a healthier life! I am already excited for you!!

I am ready to give 110% to each of these 5 people. It will be the six of us working together, so we can see results together — we will commit to our fitness goals and hold each other accountable.

Starting November 14, the six of us will all be doing the same workout scheduled for P90X, drinking Shakeology, tracking our progress, staying connected in our private Facebook group, etc. I will help you develop meal plans and give you daily access to my coaching, even beyond my normal coaching hours.

If you are thinking “well I don’t have Shakeology” ~ well then, YES what I am saying is you will have to commit to getting on Shakeology and drinking it once per day!! Don’t worry! It is one of the best commitments I have ever made!

This will be a commitment for the 5 people I take in and I want us all to be 100% committed…

By joining my challenge and purchasing a P90X challenge pack (available November 1), you will automatically get 1 month FREE of Beachbody Club membership— this is a great tool to have for all of us because we will all be starting at a different point in our fitness so with the club membership you will get a customizable meal planner that will make reaching your goals easier. Another bonus — 10% off all your Beachbody products and being entered into daily ca$h drawings just for tracking our workouts!

It is simple, though...5 easy steps for 5 committed individuals:

I know it sounds like a lot of info - right?

1. DECIDE & COMMIT to joining my P90X Challenge.

2. Commit to P90X for a full round of 90 days.

3. Choose Chocolate or Greenberry Shakeology to drink once per day for 90 days.

4. Receive CHALLENGE CONFIRMATION email from me with tips on how to track progress, how to measure, when to do your fit test, recipes, fitness tips, goal setting, how to schedule workouts, how to join our PRIVATE Facebook challenge group, etc.

5. Succeed ~ Look & Feel Great!!

FAQ. Based on questions I've already received:

• What if I already own P90X or drink Shakeology daily? Great! We'll make this challenge work for you as long as you are committed to BOTH for 90 days.
• Do I have to live near you? Not at all! These products are meant to give you success in your home on your schedule. This challenge is a commitment to yourself and to me to make a major transformation in yourself!
• What's the cost? On November 1, exclusive challenge packs will be available at $205 which includes the entire P90X program, your first month of Shakeology, a 30 day trial of the Team Beachbody Club with free shipping. Additional costs will be equipment you want to purchase and your next two months of Shakeology at $120 per month ($4/day). We can talk about possible discounts and the cost differential if you already own the program/drink Shakeology.

Beat the New Year's bandwagon and invest in yourself and your health! Start your transformation now.

A Month Off

I've been a bad blogger. I left you hanging about my final P90X results and then proceeded to not blog for about a month. Bluntly said, $h!t hit the fan. That's the best way to explain the past month for me. Personal issues led to major stress which led to barely training which led to dead air. In retrospect, I should have kept blogging because writing helps me sort out things, but I hit that moment where I asked myself, "Is what I'm writing actually worth it?".

I realized I push myself really hard in all aspects in my life and I needed a break. I couldn't get a break from work and my family, so I did what I could. I took a break from training and writing and anything else that I felt could make me feel pressured. That's what I needed to relieve the stress in my other areas.

That said, I've been running here and there plus my soccer practices and games. Nothing too spectacular with the exception of my first goal in 2 seasons since my move to defense. It was pretty awesome, and I've been told there's still some talk about it too.

Let me update you on some things that have been going on:

• I've begun belly dancing classes. I realized how uncoordinated I really am, but I'm having fun.
• I began a Walk to Get Fit club for people who want to do something other than traditional workouts or go to the gym. Right now there's 3 of us. My goal is to get up to 11 by the end of the year.
• I found my local running club (YAY!) and once soccer season is over, the plan is to join them on their Sunday morning runs.
• My coaching business got put on the wayside during my stress period, and I've set new goals to get where I want to be in that aspect. I went to a Super Saturday event yesterday that really put things in perspective for me and I got to do a live Asylum workout with Shaun T (look for a blog post super soon).
• I've laid out my running plan to get me trained for the Cowtown in February.
• What lead me to where I am today...health, fitness, mental. I am a totally different person that I was 3 years ago.
• Biggest thing...I've been thinking about how I want to incorporate more of my life other than running into my blog to get me posting everyday, well, at least 5 days a week.

What does this mean for you?

• Blog about my first full round in P90X
• Blog about my live workout with Shaun T
• Blogs everyday about more of what happens to me other than my runs
• Blogs about my training for Cowtown.

Thank you for continuing to read and hanging in there.