A For Effort & An "Ask Me" Answer

It is an absolutely gorgeous day today. I was so pumped to lace up my shoes and hit the road for a 4 miler. However, not even 1/4 mile later, I'm huffing and puffing. W.T.H. I'm sure I looked awesome bent over and hacking in front of the office lol. I pounded out 2 miles - with a few lung rattling coughing breaks thrown in there - and headed back. Hopefully the doctor will call me back soon. Benadryl, you are not cutting it for me! It still felt great getting out and getting my run on though!

Pre-run snack were grapes and come chocolate mint tea.

For lunchie, I'm having leftovers. But VERY delish leftovers.

• tomato & lentil cous cous
• steamed broccoli
• chickpeas

Throw them together in a bowl. Easy, peasy. For dessert, I'm having Oikos Chocolate flavored yogurt. Jealous? LOL.

My first question (I broke it down into 3 parts): "i want to know your AHA moment!" 

I addressed my "aha" moment a bit in this post. I always knew what I should or shouldn't be doing to lose weight/get healthy. But I never truly felt ready to tackle my unhealthy habits until after I had Baby Boy in 2008. It's actually a little funny because most people assumed my new love of running was because I was a few months shy of turning 30. Like, maybe it was a mini mid-life crisis? But no matter who tells you that you need to get your act together or how much you tell yourself, you have to be completely READY to tackle those bad habits and form good ones. I realized after years of struggling with weight and poor body image that you CANNOT overhaul everything in one day. Past Retta had to learn in baby steps to tackle one thing at a time.

I started slowly by keeping a food journal. I was breastfeeding Baby Boy so I didn't want to do anything crazy and drastic by slashing calories. I kept it around 2000 for the day. I'll be honest. When I started the journal, I didn't care about the quality of food as long as I stayed at our around 2000 calories for the day. When I look back on it now, I realize how crazy I was. Not for keeping the journal - because it worked for me - but becasue of the mentality I had about food. I was ingesting crap but felt ok about it because of calorie count. (I'm totally rolling my eyes at Past Retta right now). I could definitely tell my crap intake was affecting my workouts so I slowly started phasing Crap out and bringing more unprocessed, whole foods in. I noticed how much better I felt physically and my endurance got better as well.

Another big lesson I had to learn was to FORGIVE myself. Instead of totally beating myself up because I had Swiss Rolls (by the way, Past Retta was obsessed with those!) for dinner, I had to tell myself, "You'll do better with the next meal. It's ok and let's move on." You certainly wouldn't tell your best friend, "Wow, you are a fat pig!" so why the hell would you tell yourself that? Once I moved past that, I started working on the "well, I just messed this meal up, might as well mess up the rest of the day and start tomorrow." Why wait for tomorrow? Start NOW. :0) If I keep putting it off, I won't do it.

Overall, it's a slow and steady process with a few hiccups along the road. I still "mess up" but Past Retta no longer drags me down. Present Retta is at a healthy and happy place and still continues to learn. Now, when I look in the mirror and feel negativity about something - say, my stretch marks - I tell Present Retta, "You carried two babies in your body. They are healthy, smart and the loves of our lives." Or if I'm feeling a little down about my pace time, I have to remind myself that just a little over a year ago, I couldn't even run for 30 seconds!

What plans you have after the marathon?

To be announced at a later date! But I may have something interesting teehee.

"When we're getting a tattoo. :)"


Baby Sis, you make me laugh. Let's plan on when the breastfeeding days are over for both Big Sis and me. And after your wedding.
 
Seriously, I could not have gotten this far without the support of my family and friends. That includes my work family as well! Big smooches to all!!
 
Did you have an "AHA!" moment? What or who inspired/inspires you?

To Tweet Or Not Tweet?

Check out my Mother Love product review at the end of the post!

Work has been sailing smoothly. Playing catch up is always fun, isn't it? Overall, I didn't have a ton of voicemail and only about 60 emails so not too shabby! I wish the pile of filing had magically diminished but no luck. I seriously detest filing but it's a necessary evil!

My huge brekkie held me over through the morning. I decided to run a tad bit earlier than usual today since I had a 130 PM meeting scheduled. Even though I was still stiff from yesterday's run, it felt good to get my 3 miler in. My legs loosened up quickly and it felt great. I got a good sweat on. Don't you love that? I hit the groove early and that always makes for wonderful running sesh!

Lunch was great! Big Sis recommended I try a pear and cheese sandwich since I love the apple and cheese combo so much.

• 1 sliced pear
• farmer cheese
• WW pita
• 3 carrots
• hummus on the side

I really did like the combo of pear and cheese! It would have been better if I had been able to toast my pita but those are the breaks. For dessert, I had a mini-tower of GS mint thins. So delish . . .

Mother Love Product Review

Mother Love sent me products from their organic and cruelty free line to review in February. I know it's been awhile since I received the More Milk Plus, Nipple Cream and Diaper Rash & Thrush Cream. However, I wanted to give the More Milk Plus some time to work :0). Let me break it down for ya!

More Milk Plus - I think every nursing mother has worried about supply at some point. I know I have. Even though Baby Boy is older, I wanted to give it a whirl. I saw an immediate increase in milk production within two days, over two weeks saw a total increase of 1 oz each side with pumping.

Nipple Cream - Because I am not a new nursing mom, I didn't feel like my review on the product would be a real review. However, Big Sis had recently had her second baby and I knew she was having nursing/nipple issues. Her words, "Non-greasy, light, but instant relief!! Kept breast pad from sticking also helped form an airtight seal on pump. Plus that it didn't have to be wiped off. (helped the healing process, since wiping would cause more friction & more pain!) I even used it on my dry, cracked knuckles, wonderful protectant!" Sounds like her boobies were happy after using the cream!

Diaper Rash & Thrush - I was lucky enough to not have had thrush but diaper rash? I know you well. Or should I say, Baby Boy knows you well. The cream has a pleasant smell, non-sticky or greasy. Cleared up the rash on Baby Boy within two applications. For you mamas that have had babies with diaper rash, you know that it is so heartbreaking to see their discomfort. Clearing up diaper rash within two applications? Amazing!

My overall opinion? Give Mother Love a whirl, ladies! I know both Big Sis and I are in love.

So Tweeting is the in thing. I've been wondering if I should sign up for some time now. It seems that it would increase readership on my bloggie and of course, who doesn't want more readership?

So what do you think, Bloggers? Has it been a great tool for you?

Is That Sunshine?

Don't forget to enter the Newman's Own Organics giveaway!
Good morning, all! Baby Boy is officially on the mend! We've been puke free for over 24 hours and his appetite is slowly coming back. Raise the roof! I'm so glad. I hate when my boys are sick.

We have family pictures scheduled today. The Lover is so not excited haha. We definitely need them done. The last time we have professional family pictures of our immediate family was when Big Boy was 3 months old. So yeah . . . it's way overdue. I'll be sure to post pics when we get them back. I'm super excited! I know they won't like sitting and posing but it's nice to have family portraits. I especially love black and whites. The sun is shining and it's hurting the eyeballs a bit. It's been a long time since we've had sun! It's also supposed to get close to 60 degrees today. What, what!

For dinner last night, I just wanted oatmeal so I made a heaping bowl of pumpkin oats.

My oats contained:

• 3/4 cup oats
• 1.25 cup water
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 5 choppd almonds
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• cinnamon
• flaked coconut

For breakfast this morning, I decided on a a roasted veggie omelet. I always manage to mess them up somehow but this one turned out really well!

My omelet (am I spelling that right) contained:

• 2 eggs
• 1 parsnip
• 3 mushrooms
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/4 cup soybeans
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar
• salsa on the side

I roasted all the veggies except the mushrooms on 400 degrees until the parsnips were semi-soft. I threw it in the omelet, added mushrooms and shredded cheddar (why do I keep forgetting the dairy thing!) and whad up, yo! It is delish!

OK. Time to get crackalackin'! Mama needs to do some ironing and primp for the pics! See you soon!

Surprise Lunch Date

I was just working away when I got a text from The Lover and that he had gotten off work early. How nice! We decided to meet for lunch and swap vehicles since he would be picking up the boys. Again, I have to say that I'm a lucky girl. Instead of relaxing on this sunny day, The Lover will pick up Baby Boy from Nana's and later, Big Boy from daycare. We met at a pizza place that is down the street from the office. I ordered a small cheese pizza.

Just the way I like it! Very light on the tomato sauce and cheese. It was delish! I had three slices. I also had this for dessert.

Mmmm . . . hot fudge sundae with nuts and whip cream. Unfortunately, I was just too full and ate 1/4 of it and threw the rest away. Don't worry. I made sure I ate all the nuts off first!

After eating the pizza and sundae, I realized I was supposed to cut dairy from my diet. Oops. Baby Boy is still nursing and it's best he doesn't ingest dairy while he has the tummy bug. Evidently a tummy virus and dairy don't mix. He won't be happy about that but maybe I can distract him with something else. In case you were wondering, breast milk is not dairy. Interesting factoid, huh?

My run will have to wait. I think I seriously need a new pair of shoes. I've put many miles on my current pair and I'm really feeling it. (Hint, hint to The Lover!)

Don't forget to enter the Newman's Own Organics giveaway!