The Good Cravings

Wills Park

Usually when you hear the word cravings you think of pregnant ladies who crave cheesecake or a girl who is pms-ing and needs to get some Mexican food, sound familiar? Recently I have discovered the good side of cravings. As of now I have worked out every day for the past week and have changed my eating patterns enough that I CRAVE exercise and healthier food options. I attempt to get in at least 45 or so minutes of movement a day and each day when I wake up I immediately think about how, when, and where I can get in some exercise. Luckily being blessed with the best job in the world, 4 days a week I have about a 4 hour time block with absolutely no kids. As long as I get everything done on my list then the rest of time is pretty much my own. When my apartment was 5 minutes away I use to go home and eat and shower maybe, but I have recently moved 45 minutes away and that is not a possibility any more. Fortunately there are plenty of fantastic walking trails around here so I have taken it upon myself to hit up a trail everyday for about 45 minutes to an hour right after I drop off the youngest at preschool. I have become quite fond of my morning routine and love getting my workout in early in the day. What's not to love about a walk when it looks like this!

If there was one thing physically that I could do without any issues at all it would be run. I think that something deep inside of me has been hidden or trapped by my weight issues because if I could run miles and miles, I would! My new years resolution for the past three years has been to do 1 5K a month for the entire year, my first year started out pretty ok but I only did 3 5Ks, so down the drain that went, I think the next  year I did 4 but yet again did not succeed. So I set the goal again this year and have a feeling this is going to be the year, I have so many people on board to encourage and even join me on a lot of my runs. I have already participated in 2, one for January and one for February. My time improved by 3 minutes from one to the other but I am still no where near where my fastest time was which was 35:08 in May of last year. I am running my third race this weekend, I am not sure exactly which one yet but I think I am going to do one in Powder Springs, which is only like 20 minutes from my new house. My goal this time is to just improve my time from February which was 43:16. In preparation for my race and continuing to improve on my time, I have been running more instead of just walking and running. There is a lovely track that is .2 miles around so it takes 5 laps to reach a mile. Today I decided to take a baseline of how long it takes me to run 1 mile. I hope to eventually be able to run 1 mile without having to stop and walk. Today, running and walking took me 10:54 to do a mile. I am very very proud of that mile, it has been forever since I have timed myself running just 1 mile. So small victory for today!

Are any of you on Pinterest? Oh boy am I! I am in love with Pinterest, I have been on Pinterest when you had to actually be invited and before it got super popular. Even to this day I use it for EVERYTHING. Now that I am on this journey of becoming healthier it has proven to be my biggest ally, I keep pinning things left and right to use. Currently, I am using an arm toning workout that I do every other day, I can feel the burn which I love! I have never been insecure of my arms, they have not every really been a problem area for me but lately I have noticed that they need toning and thus I began. One of my favorite fitness items that I have pinned was the Metabolism Boosting Water. My roommates and I made water like this in college often and now it's time to finally bring it back. Just one cucumber, 2 lemons, and 12 mint leaves and voila! this water tastes fantastic and makes water drinking bearable. (I am a recovering heavy soda drinker!)


That's all for today, we have 2 kids over for a play date and we are about to put cookies in the oven to be ready for when the big girls get off the bus! (Only 1 cookie for me, instead of my normal 10...)

Jenny