So I know I’m not the only one out there with a lifelong aversion to exercise… right?

I’m often asked how I manage to stay healthy with all of the baking and cooking I do. To be honest, I haven’t managed very well at all. Like many, weight has always been a big source of insecurity for me, and coupled with the fact that I have never been able to find a way to exercise that I enjoyed, I’ve been feeling pretty down about my health. For years now.

Before I go on, to fully appreciate the rest of this post, you should know that I’m secretly a 7-year-old girl and love all things silly, whimsical, and childish. I mean, come on, my personal blog is called Playing House.

So when I heard recently that there are athletic events and running races at Disney World, I got really excited. Maybe I had finally found something that I was so excited about that it could actually get me up and moving?! I went to their website in search of a 5k race (3.1 miles, a seemingly manageable first race distance), and while I was poking around, came across this: the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon. A half marathon? No way. But it’s the inaugural race on their brand new half marathon course, it’s at night, and the finish line is at the annual Epcot Food & Wine Festival. It’s not until October, so it’s just far enough away that maybe, just maybe, it could be possible.

Next thing I knew, my husband and I were training for a half marathon! A half marathon with Disney entertainment at every mile, and a festival celebrating my favorite things to look forward to at the end.

{image source}

Because I’ve never been an athlete, I’m starting with really small baby steps. The Couch to 5k is an interval training program designed for people who have never run before to train for a 5k race, and I’m loving it so far. We have plans to run a 2 mile race in February, a 5k in May, and a 10k in July. I use the iPhone app by Felt Tip Inc., which lets you play your own music and tells you when to walk and when to run.

I can’t believe how much better and more empowered I feel, mentally and physically, in the short time since I started training. If you’d like to read more about my baby steps, I’m writing about my adventures at my new running blog, The Happiest Race on Earth.

What gets you motivated to exercise??

{image source}

We’re almost half-way into January already. Wow! How many of you are keeping up with your New Year’s resolutions? I set a couple of goals when the calendar changed, but my husband and I are continuing to brainstorm ways to better ourselves and our relationship. That’s why I’m writing this post when normally I’d be sleeping. No, it’s not the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning. It’s 7:30 am–and that’s early for me!

Being self-employed, my schedule is flexible, and I normally don’t have anywhere to be before noon. When I do have to get out of the house, I typically roll out of bed around 9am. By that time my husband has been at work for at least an hour. Although we go to bed at the same time, my hubby has to wake up at 6:45am. It was his “great” idea that I get out of bed when he gets out of the shower so that we can enjoy a cup of coffee together and talk about what’s on our agenda for the day (Although I mostly think he wanted me up earlier because he was annoyed that I got to continue snoring as he walked out of the house!).

So here I am, drinking my coffee and being productive. I’ve already fed the dog and let him out (normally he’d still be sleeping, too) and checked my friends’ updates on Facebook and Twitter. I actually put a pen to paper and wrote a To Do list for today. Thank goodness I have a couple more hours today to tackle it–it’s a bit long.

My question for you is this: What time do you wake up? What does your morning schedule look like? As I know, it’s way too easy to be lazy when you are self-employed. I’d love to hear if you struggle with the same issues.

photo by George Bosela

As we all know, the holidays are filled with celebrations and gift giving. For many, the Holiday Season is also a time for charitable giving and volunteerism. To honor that spirit of charity, I will be posting about little things that we can easily do to share the spirit of the holidays.

The first is Operation You Go, Girl. I saw an interview with Debbie Tenzer founder of the website DoOneNiceThing.com. She was speaking about the female troops in Iraq. Many of these women not only serve in combat situations, they also act as intermediaries and advocates for Iraqi women and girls. For the holidays, she was seeking donations for care packages for these courageous women.

Here is the information from DoOneNiceThing.com

OPERATION YOU GO, GIRL

Far Away for the Holidays

Please help make the holidays sweeter for some female service members in Basra, Iraq. They have taken the lead in delivering the school supplies we’ve sent, and we’d like to express our gratitude.

Any of the following gifts would be greatly appreciated:

1. Moisturizers: Fragrant lotions, shampoos, soaps, loofah sponges, etc. (Small samples are great)

photo by Matthew Bowden

{Read the rest of this entry…}

(image via larskflem)

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve disappeared to this past month, here’s the answer: I’ve been dealing with a pretty serious issue, one that’s left me basically incapacitated. No, I’m not talking about swine flu. I’m talking about the dreaded Writer’s Block.

Have you ever felt like you’ve lost your creative mojo? It’s like I’ve run out of steam. For a while I was maintaining three blogs. Besides writing for EAD Living, I had my personal blog and my business blog. I thought I could keep my life separated into neat, little compartments, but that’s turned out to be pretty hard to do. And coming up with topics to discuss on a daily basis for three outlets has suddenly become very overwhelming. Despite living an active life, I find myself blanking out on what to write about when staring at the computer screen. Even writing this post has been challenging!

So I ask you, fellow EAD Living bloggers and readers, how do you unlock your creativity? For those of you who write for several outlets, how do you come up with a multitude of ideas every day?

My favourite six months of the year start in June and end up round about my birthday at the start of January. I love early summer and the excitement of the end of term, even though I don’t work in terms any more. I love summer drinks parties & balls & weddings. I love how it is usually hot in June and this year was no exception: a heat wave started on the day of our wedding and lasted for three whole weeks. I love the long drawn out evenings when swallows and bats start swooping around in the bluing sky. I love weekends sat in pub gardens, or the park, or lately, our own garden. Of the air ringing with conversation, with laughter. The taste of salt in the air, and on your face, of sand in the eyebrows and sun warmed skin after a day spent surfing, sailing or merely sunbathing. Of shorts, of flat leather sandals, of cold beer and cold Riesling and pimms and champagne and ginger beer.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Just about 11 months ago now, I made the decision to come out of the fat kid closet* and own up to having lost a massive amount of weight. It was a major move for me. I found incredible strength and support in sharing my journey with an incredibly loving online community and, in turn, great motivation to keep moving forward toward my weight and fitness goals as I approached our July wedding. To this day, I think opening up and sharing my “fat kid” photos was one of the best decisions I could have made. It was liberating and to my great surprise, inspiring for others, something I never would have imagined.

{Here is a fat kid photo. Approximately  270 lbs. Yikes!}

So, what this have to do with present day? It’s quite simple really. My weight loss journey is not yet complete, but you wouldn’t know it from the way I’ve been eating and totally slacking off on work outs since the wedding. How easy it is to start settling into newlywed life, ease off the pressure a bit to look fabulous in an overpriced dress and wham! The next thing you know your jeans are just ever so slightly uncomfortable. Not good, friends, not good. So, with just a touch of bitterness, I’m doing what I’ve done so many times in the last three years. I’m gearing up, buckling down and getting ready to put up a good fight. I’m still convinced I can reach all new heights of being physically fit and improve my approval of what I see in the mirror along the way.

{Read the rest of this entry…}

In the 14 months that I’ve been married, I’ve gained approximately ten pounds–and no, I am not pregnant. I attribute the weight to eating poorly for the five months that my husband was deployed. He is the primary cook in our household, and when he was away I survived (quite happily) on cereal, peanut butter and honey on toast and pints of Ben & Jerry’s. I blame the gain on my laziness in the kitchen combined with my tendency towards emotional eating when I’m lonely.

Unfortunately, simply knowing how I went up one pants size doesn’t cause the weight to fall right off. In the last couple of months since J has been home, I’ve been eating more well-rounded meals and have started working out with a trainer once a week like I did prior to my wedding. Still, the scale isn’t budging. I’ve realized that I’m going to need to kick my own butt a bit harder if I really want to get back to my “I do” weight.

Cue Jillian Michaels.

(image source)

While I’m not the biggest Biggest Loser fan, when I do watch the show I’m typically “Team Bob.” I just love his zen attitude. But tough times call for a tough trainer–and that’s where Jillian comes in. I ordered her workout DVD, “Jillian Michaels for Beginners: Frontside,” through Netflix, and the first time I tried it (OK, the only time I’ve tried it, so far), I was surprised by how challenging it actually was. The exercises are basic enough that anyone can do them; there are six circuits that each include two or three weight lifting moves plus cardio. The workout lasts approximately 40 minutes, but it goes by quickly (thank goodness!).

My plan is to use the Frontside video a couple of times a week in addition to doing cardio, such as power walking, at the gym. Maybe I’ll get adventurous and rent the Backside DVD, too.

What are your favorite at-home workout DVDs? Have you had weight loss success using them?

I am not an elite runner. I do not know it all. And I’m pretty much a newbie to this sport running my first real race in 2005 with the Madison half marathon. Since then I’ve run in my first full marathon, completed another half marathon, and am now currently training for my second full marathon [eek!]. I was not a track or cross country runner in high school—quite the opposite, actually. I was a basketball and volleyball jock who would rather line up for sprints and stairs and punch herself in the face before running a mile. Then came college when I was no longer exercising for 3+ hours each day with high school sports and I was deathly afraid of the freshman fifteen. So I started running about 2 or 3 miles at a time just to burn some calories, but I ended up addicted to running.

Running is such a mind game. It’s methodical, simple, and accessible. The feeling of accomplishment you feel after a great run should be bottled up and sold for ridiculous amounts of money. Whether you are training to run/walk a mile, doing the Couch to 5k program, running in your first half marathon, or even a full 26.2 you’ve probably been overwhelmed by the running world out there. I mean, there are so many things to learn, so many questions to ask, and so many hard-core runners out there that scare the crap out of us newbies [at least, in my opinion]. So when Hanna asked if I would write a post about running—must have gear, clothes, equipment, etc—I decided to take her up on it in hopes that it will help somebody out there. I apologize for the length of this post already, but I just adore talking about this stuff [you can't tell, can you?]

PART ONE = ATTIRE

A. Shoes

Absolutely the most important piece of equipment for a runner is her shoes. Now ladies, this is not a place to skimp on quality just to save some money and since this is coming from a self-professed tightwad, you should know that it’s a big deal to me. I hunt for sales as much as the next person and usually spending $100-$150 on a single item would make me blackout. But your shoes not only protect your feet but they are the basis for proper body alignment and will definitely make or break you as a runner. As soon as someone tells me “My _____ hurts when I run” I immediately ask about their shoes: are they old, worn down, or ill-fitting? If so, it’s time to get professionally fitted for the perfect pair of kicks. I don’t go by the 500 mile rule, or the 6 month rule, but I just listen to my legs and they will tell me when it’s time to make the next purchase.

I am a big fan of shoe stores that watch you run on a treadmill to observe your foot mechanics in their shoes. They should measure each foot, watch you walk in different styles of shoes, and also watch you run in them before letting you walk out the door with a new pair. They will see if you over pronate, stay fairly neutral, or possibly over supinate and then prescribe you the correct shoe accordingly. We like Fleet Feet for this purpose but I know there are other stores out there that will do the same for you.

Right now I’m wearing the Saucony ProGrid Guide shoes:

{Read the rest of this entry…}

Is anyone else feeling the strain of the time change?  If you are, here are a few energy boosters for this morning and afternoon.

A quick yoga routine….

An apple…

{Image Source}

Pandora…

A lot of water…

{Image Source}

Sunshine….

{Image via Decorno}

Today is MLK Jr. Day.  This is one of my favorite holidays because I live and work less than 2 miles from where a lot of the civil rights movement happened.  When I look at the pictures of people being hosed down and dogs attacking, I know the exact spot in the park where it happened.  I drive by the 16th Street Baptist Church several times each month.  I can’t help but ponder Dr. King’s influence, because the results of his life and death are seen everywhere in Birmingham.

One of my favorite documents is Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  It was written a short distance from my office. It is one of the most moving directives written during the civil rights movement.

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five year old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you…then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.  - excerpted from Letter from a Birmingham Jail

The holiday seems especially poignant this year.  I know I’m one of many who wishes Dr. King had lived to see this moment.  Tomorrow we inagurate our first President who is part of a minority group.  We have a long way to go, but this holiday and this inaguration is confirmation that we’re on the right track. We owe a lot to Dr. King and his friends for leading us here.