Finally Sun!

For the first time in what feels like weeks, we had an afternoon of sun today! I spent the day lounging out by the pool after an intense spin class taught by my 2 favorite instructors at my gym (and in my opinion the best instructors).

I started my morning off with a cup in a half of pb bumpers cereal in skim milk. I got up too late to run before spin class so I headed off to the gym. Afterwards I stopped at the store for a powerade zero, a diet coke and some peaches. Ate a luna bar on my way home from the gym and came home to shower and lay out.

Around 1 pm I got hungry for lunch so I microwaved a veggie burger and put it on an arnolds sandwich thin with a slice of 2% cheese and a few pickles. Then I heated the sandwich on my george forman grill to make a panini. Sooooooo good! On the side I had a peach and a carton of Breyers lowfat vanilla yogurt with some strawberries, blueberries, and a handful of cheerios mixed in. Pictures above!

I spent the rest of the day sweating by the pool and getting some laundry done before coming inside to make chicken and spinach calzones for my family for dinner! Pics to follow...

Well I am off to finish preparing dinner, I am trying to eat early tonight so I can digest before heading out on a 3-5 mile run with a friend. It is so humid so we are trying to wait until later on tonight. Have a great day!

Protein-Packed Snack!

Although it appears kind of messy and not very pretty, I wanted to share my go-to snack with you all. I eat this almost everyday, either as part of my lunch or for my afternoon snack. It consists of a carton of non fat vanilla chobani greek yogurt, 1 cup pb bumpers cereal, and whatever type of berries we have in the house. It is a yummy snack that has a lot of protein (which I tend to not get enough of during the day), calcium, and it gets in a fruit serving or two.

Recovery Day

After a 4 mile run and an intense toning class last night, I took today as a recovery day. I slept in until 9 and then went to the gym. I did 10 min on the elliptical to warm up and then did a strength training routine that I had a personal trainer develop for me. It was a quick workout and my legs were begging me for a break from cardio today. I came home and had a big bowl of oatmeal. (packet of lower sugar maple nut oatmeal with 4 strawberries sliced up, a banana sliced up, and a spoonful of pb mixed in).

For lunch I hit up Subway with my mom and sister and got the veggie delight on flatbread. It was amazing! Finished lunch off with a chocalate chip cookie.

Now I am just messing around with this blog and will start to take some pics of my food starting with my snack this afternoon and tonight. I am off to do a session of runners yoga from yogadownloads.com. Have a great afternoon!

My story

** I had pics up but took them down....they will be back up soon!!! Thanks for all the compliments though!! :)

All through my childhood until my freshman year of college I was super skinny. I went to college my freshman year and decided that I was not skinny enough so I crash dieted and lost 10 pounds. Because of my poor nutrition, this was not maintainable and I gained all the weight I had lost back, plus an extra 30 pounds over the next two years. For someone who had always been skinny and active, I was miserable in my own skin.My senior year of college I had to take a gym class where we wrote a paper about the goals we wanted to accomplish in the class. My goal was to lose weight. I am a perfectionist and since I wrote a whole paper on my goal, I had to achieve it. My sister, an avid runner, found a 8k that took place on Thanksgiving and convinced me to sign up for it. I also learned to control my portions a little bit and cut down on drinking that semester. By the end of the semester I had lost 5 pounds but I could definately see a difference. I ran that 8k on Thanksgiving in 45 minutes. I was so proud of myself but could never imagine running any farther.Throughout my senior year of college I lost a little more weight as I took up spinnning but was still not skinny by any means. I graduated and moved home, unemployed and bored. I joined a gym in my town and was instantly motivated by all the accomplishments of the people who went to the gym. I became a regular at the spin classes and took tons of cardio and strength training classes. I also decided to train for a half marathon.Throughout all this, I was slowly cutting back on my calories and weight was dropping off at a pretty decent rate. By September, when I ran my first half marathon I had lost 20 pounds since college and was feeling pretty awesome. I did not fuel myself properly during that time though and was exercising a few hours a day. I signed up for the Philadelphia half marathon with the goal of beating my time. I lost more weight before that race and trained harder and was able to shave 4 minutes off my time.I continued to run and decided I would run a spring marathon. My hours long exercise sessions and poor nutrition caught up to me in January when I was started having IT band problems. I refused to slow down and ran through the pain. I dropped more weight during this time and people started telling me I looked gaunt and not well. Being as stubborn as I am I still kept trying to lose weight and run through the pain until April when I knew my knee was just shot. I took off from running until the first week of June, gained 10 pounds back and am now waiting to start my marathon training on July 6. It is my goal to listen to my body and eat to fuel my running.Overall I lost 40 pounds since college, but since gained 10 back. I am now at a good weight for my height and of course would love to lose 5 more just for vanity reasons but I could lose 5 and still be at a healthy weight. I will not lose more than 5.

First Post!

Well hello everyone. I have been a long time reader of health and fitness blogs and have decided to take the plunge and create my own. I plan to chronicle my quest to train and complete a marathon while improving my eating habits. I have also been unemployed since March and will include stories on my job searching, my travels, and my attempt to become a better cook!

I am training to run the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington D.C in Oct. I have completed 3 half marathons. My first two I ran in under 2 hours (1:58 and 1:54) but during my most recent half in May I had terrible ITBS (illotibial band syndrome) and participated in the race only to finish it, not to race it. I ended up having to walk 9 miles of it but managed to finish in 2:44. After that I took over a month off of running and have been making my comeback ever since!

My goals for the Marine Corp Marathon are to make it to the starting line without getting injured, to finish in under 4 hours and to fuel my body properly to make it through the intense training.

Earlier this year I struggled with finding a balance between exercising and food. I was exercising over 2-3 hours a day and that was when my injury occured. I am now trying to find a balance and not take exercising or eating healthy to extremes. As a result of that, I am trying to become a better cook and will be taking pictures of many of my meals.

Besides running, I love to swim, spin, and take cardio/toning classes at my gym. I am an avid reader and love to shop. I am pretty much your typical 23 year old girl!

I hope you all check back regularly and if you have any suggestions on how I can improve my site please feel free to let me know.