What have I been up to…

I have been busting through Tina’s Best Body Bootcamp. I have really been enjoying it and I feel like I have been getting stronger. I am using weights I have never used before, hello 15′s!  

About half way through bootcamp I wasn’t happy with what the scale was telling me so I decided it was time to make a change with what I was eating. I decided it was time to get back on the Weight Watchers train.

Side note: I just learned that the picture above is Jennifer Hudson doing a duet with her younger (heavier) self. I am probably the only one who didn’t realize that when I originally saw the commercial.

Anyway, about a year ago I tried Weight Watchers Online. I enjoyed it and followed if for 3 months, but I never really lost weight. I fluctuated between 3 pounds. After my 3 month membership I gave it up.

Then there I was (3 weeks ago) a year after my original WW stint, close to 10 pounds heavier than I was last year, so I decided it was time to give it another try.

Now here I am after 3 weeks on the plan I am down 4 lbs! I’m pretty happy about it.  I have realized that I was eating way too big of portions and way too much. Plus Tina’s Bootcamp has also helped keep on track with my workouts. I am planning on sticking with it through the 3 months and maybe even longer.

Also in my time away from the blog I got offered a new job. I don’t like to talk professional life here but I will just say that I got offered an awesome job doing business development for a local credit union. My time in radio sales is almost over and I am pretty excited.

I have a few blog posts brewing in my head (going to see Wicked tonight!) so I am hoping not to be away for too long after this post!

Overview

In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child.

CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she also knows what happened to the missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own. Now Timothy Gleason is facing the death penalty, and she has another choice to make. Tell the truth, and destroy her family. Or let an innocent man die in order to protect a lifetime of lies…

**If you haven’t read this book yet and plan to, you may want to stop here**

1) Was it a good book? Yes. I have never read this author before and after reading this book I am very interested in reading more of her books.

2) Would you recommend it? Yes! Right after I read this book I told a bunch of people that they had to read it. In particular I told one of my friends that I know that loves to read crime related books.

3) What did you like about it? The shocking plot turns. My mouth dropped many times as many things happened that I didn’t see coming. Genevieve being pregnant when she got to the cabin was one of the most shocking things.

4) What did you dislike about it? Tim and his brother and the things they did to CeeCee. Although CeeCee did agree to do these horrible things I did feel bad for her. She was so young and innocent and just wanted to be loved.

Other comments/thoughts/questions:

This book really makes you think about mistakes you have made in the past and more specifically mistakes you made when you were younger.

It also made me thing a lot about mother daughter relationships. CeeCee’s sweet  letters from her mother, Eve’s relationship with Corrine. The lack of relationship between Vivian and her mother Genevieve. Lots of mother/daughter relationships here!

Overall I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Have you ever read a book by Diane Chamberlin? If so, what one?

I got in my corral at 7:40am yesterday and was ready to go. There was some rain on the radar so I was ready to get going in hopes we would miss it. 8:00am quickly arrived but the race didn’t start. The normal music and announcers weren’t on the PA. Time continued to pass and nothing. Then the announcers came on and said less than 5 minutes to start time. Again more time would pass. 8:30 rolled around, the sun started coming out of clouds, people around me started getting restless. Then again the announcers came on saying less than 2 minutes to start time, people started booing. I stood there amazed. In the other 4 times I had participated in this race it had always started right on time at 8:00am and now it was at least 45 minutes late.

Everyone waiting…

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Finally at 8:55am it started! I crossed the start line a little after 9am and instantly I could tell my legs were already tired due to standing in our starting corral for so long. I told myself that they would warm up after a mile and I was right, but the temperature also warmed up. By 1.5 miles I was already feeling the heat and humidity. We got onto to the bridge and there was a nice breeze, but the incline of the bridge was still tough. I did some walking but made myself go back and forth between running and walking.

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Coming down the bridge was better, but it was getting warmer and warmer and I was getting hotter and hotter. I pushed myself to make it off the bridge where I knew there was a water station. It didn’t work, I did some walking but as I got closer to downtown I was able to keep a better pace.

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Once downtown I was tired but it helped to know I only had a little under 2 miles left. Once we got onto King St. there were fans cheering us on and I knew I could make it across the finish line with out anymore walking.

Finally we made the last turn and I could see the finish line. When I crossed I looked down at my watch and had 1:07:50. No personal records set, but after a late start I knew that would be hard to accomplish. I made my way to finish festival, but with all the hot sweaty crowd I knew I needed to get out of there fast and head home.

Overall, it was an ok race this year. I did hear that some people had issues getting water, but I had no problems with this. I did start near the front of the pack though. I will probably race again next year but with my fingers crossed that it goes back to starting on time.

 I first ran the race in 2007 and have participated every year since (except for one year and I can’t remember why that was). The race sold out early this year with around 44,000 participants, so it makes for a crazy experience race.

One of my favorite parts of this race is that it is a point to point race. We start in Mt. Pleasant and end in downtown Charleston. That does make for some logistical difficulties but over the years I have gotten it figured out. On Friday night I drop my car off in a garage downtown and then on Saturday morning I get a ride or get dropped off near the start line. Then once I am done and ready to go I hop in my car and head home.

I am getting pretty excited for tomorrow. I have my race packet, outfit and playlist ready to go. I always hope for a sub 60 minute time but I am slower than I think. I am crossing my fingers for a finish time around 63 minutes tomorrow. This is my first time running a race with my Garmin so I should be able to pace myself pretty well.  

I will be back tomorrow with the results!

Do you have a favorite race?

With all the hype of the movie release of The Hunger Games I decided to pick it up and get reading. It had been sitting on my book shelf for close to a year.

1) Was it a good book? Yes. Although, I did think it was highly predictable. It could be because it is EVERY WHERE right now.

2) Would you recommend it? Yes. When books are so big in pop culture I always think you should read them.

3) What did you like about it? Katniss. I loved her strength for such a young girl. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I hear she is played very well.

4) What did you dislike about it? It was predictable and some times I thought it was cheesy. I am not an expert writer but the writing bothered me. Many times I had to go back and re-read sentences.

Other comments/thoughts/questions:
I hear the movie is really good and even people who didn’t read the book like it. I also hear guys like it. I am hoping to go see it in the next week or so.

Overall I would give it 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on the fact that I went in with such high expectations. It let me down a little.

Have you seen the movie yet? Do you buy into all the movie/book hype?

One thing that sounds pretty crazy to admit is that I am really excited to start Week 3 of Best Body Bootcamp. This week starts a new phase and I am ready to change up the workout routine! I can’t wait to get off of work and go home and get started. It sounds crazy because even though my brain is fried, I am ready to just workout.

I know its short but that’s all I got for right now, and right now I feel like something is better than nothing.

Breakfast: One of my current favorites…

Lunch: I had to take a client out for lunch and we went to Sesame Burgers and Beer. I had the Burger Bowl. It was a beef burger on a salad with shredded cheddar cheese and bacon crumbles. The dressing was their house vin, which I think was Basil Pesto.

Afternoon snack: One small banana and one Hershey Kiss (seriously only 1!).

Pre-workout snack: a cup of Cheerios with milk (no picture)

Dinner: Bertolli Frozen Meal (Shrimp Scampi) and roasted broccoli.

Roasted broccoli is one of my new favorite side dishes. Hoping to post my recipe soon. The frozen pasta dinner is so fast and so easy, but tonights was blah. We probably won’t be buying that one again.

And that is it for the day!

What is your favorite veggie side dish?

1. Tina Reale’s Best Body Bootcamp! So far I have completed 4 of the workouts for the week and I am planning on completing #5 later on today. Going into the week I thought it would kick my butt and I would be exhausted, but I am feeling gooood!! I also love the additional goals I have set for myself. I have been eating a lot more veggies all week long.

2. Sunday is the beginning of Daylight Savings time! I love when it stays light out long after I leave work.

3. Spring in Charleston. There are so many great events to get excited for. The Family Circle Cup and the Cooper River Bridge run are two of my favorites (the Bridge Run actually sold out this week)!

4. Our yard sale on Saturday. We have a ton of stuff to sell so I am hoping we make some cash money.

5. And since we have a yard sale tomorrow I took the day off! I am enjoying the day by sleeping in, eating some tasty oatmeal, going to Target, organizing for our yard sale and getting in workout C for Bootcamp.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!

]]> http://chasingamile.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/its-friday/feed/ 3 Five-for-Friday chasingamile Five-for-Friday spring_ahead_daylight_savings_time_poster_or_print-rf0696135f2ef4fdab7a9bb8e85b9d5fa_wvy_400 fcc bridgerun2012 yardsale1 http://chasingamile.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/dave-ramsey-financial-peace-university/ http://chasingamile.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/dave-ramsey-financial-peace-university/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:55:33 +0000 Chasing a Mile http://chasingamile.wordpress.com/?p=333 Continue reading »]]> This week Chris and I graduated from Dave Ramsey’s Finanical Peace University.

From Dave’s website…

A little history on the subject…

I started working for a group of radio stations almost 5 years ago. One of the stations is a News/Talk station which Dave Ramsey is on in the evenings. After learning about his show and listening I found it to be very interesting. Some of my co-workers even started taking his FPU and I saw them living on a budget and quickly paying off debt. I wanted to do the same.

While planning our wedding last year I found a class that was going to be starting at our church in January. I told Chris I wanted to do it, he agreed, and we signed up.  Here is my review of the class.

Pros:
1. Taking the class really helped us to budget and track money. I now feel like we have more money because I write everything down! Dave says its important to balance your check book and going online to check your balance is not balancing it!
2. I feel like that class really helped me and Chris to feel more like a team. We talk more about money and where its going. We also have a common goal in mind.
3. Dave’s Baby Steps are easy to follow.
4. It taught me that I need to have patience. Growing wealth takes time.
5. I understand insurance, Mutual Funds, and mortgages better. I actually want to learn more about Mutual Funds!

Cons:
1. Our teacher condensed our class into 8 weeks instead of the 13 weeks. This left no time for class discussion and made for really long days.
2. Lack of class discussion, due to above. One of my co-workers said her favorite part was talking to other people in their class.

There was a ton more I learned, but I don’t want to give it all away here. If you have even considered taking this class I highly suggest it!

I am happy to report that me and Chris are well into Baby Step 2 (Debt Snowball, we will pay off our 2nd credit card later this month) and we even have more than the recommended amount in our Emergency Fund (moving towards Baby Step 3, 3-6 months living expenses in savings).

Questions:
Have you heard of Dave Ramsey?
Do you follow a strict monthly budget?
Feel free to ask me questions!

So true, sometimes you just gotta get out there and get going.

So why no shin splints today? I came up with a few things:
1. I wore my older running shoes.
2. Rest. I haven’t attempted running since Tuesday.
3. Running capris. They were tight on my legs and came below my knees. My legs felt strong all throughout my run.

I am going to continue to pay attention to my shin splints in hopes that I can keep them away.

I have a pretty exciting week lined up. I am starting Best Body Bootcamp tomorrow. We finish up our Financial Peace University class on Wednesday (review coming soon) and then I am off on Friday to get ready for our yard sale on Saturday. I’m going in to the week with positive thoughts!

What do you have planned for the week?