God bless us each and every one!!!

With Christmas just two days away I like to look back over the year and see the things I'm thankful for and see the things I could have done better at. This year has been a year of mostly ups. I have been so blessed this year its almost not fair. lol First of all I have such a wonderful husband and two wonderful sons that have been trying their best to help me out and be supportive (even Mason who hates smoothies but will drink one to show he loves me). Second I have so many loving and supportive friends and Dr's (that I work for) who tell me every day how proud they are of me and are so happy for me when I accomplish a goal. I was accepted on the Covenant health biggest winner/marathon team and I can't even start to tell you how much it has already improved my life. I have so much more self esteem and for the first time in a long time I don't hate myself when I look into the mirror. I see so much potential in myself and I haven't been that way in years. The team has also given me lots of new friends and you know you can never have too many friends especially ones who are working for the same goal as you are. Ok enough of the mushy girl talk lol. I'm sure you all are wondering what I did with myself this week. First I have to let you know that we have been slammed at work so this week has been a slow one for me as far as exercise goes. I've done mostly 30-40 min on the recumbent bike and about 45 min of weight training at the gym. One of the funnest and greatest exercise I have found is my husband had bought me a x-box kinect with a game called your shape fitness evolved. It is so much fun and it makes sure you do the exercises correctly. I'm also thinking about getting the biggest looser game it looks fun also. when I did get a little time away from work this week I also got some of my other stuff done. I went back to see the dietitian Barbra. I have to say I love to go see her. I know she will call me on what I do wrong and she helps me so much to see how I can do it differently. She does get on me about not eating enough carbs. I think me whole life I have been taught carbs are bad so it is very hard for me to get out of that way of thinking but I'm honestly trying very hard. She did tell me that she was so proud of me because I make healthy food choices though. This time when I went to visit her she taught me how to read labels. I have to say I didn't have a clue. This is what you look for: 1. serving size 2. total fat need 5g or less a day. 3. sodium needs to be 300mg or less for a serving and no more than 2400 a day. 4. Total Carbs 12-19 gr = 1 carb serving, 24-38 = 2 carb servings. need 2carb serving for breakfast and lunch and 3-4 carb serving for dinner and 2 carb serving for a snack a day. 5. protein ...7gr = 1oz of meat. Also if the fiber in your food is 5gr or greater you can subtract this number from the total carbs and most importantly for me a meal must be over 200 calories anything less than that is just a snack. I hope I didn't confuse you with all the info I just found it very informative. It was another light bulb moment for myself. I also did my runners evaluation this week and found out the main reason my hips hurt when I run is because my hips are very weak especially in my right leg which is my bad leg. I was given a blue band and a set of exercises I'm to do three times a week to try to strengthen my hips up. It was kind of crazy to do the runners evaluation because it reminded me so much of my times in P.T. after my wreck and some of the exercises I'm having to do are the same ones I had to do to get back walking. Oh forgot to tell you when I got on the special scale they have at the weight loss center it showed that I'm still at 6lbs weight loss, but I have converted 13lbs from fat to muscle. woohooo go me!!! Well I'm going to go wrap some Christmas presents and spend time with my boys. I hope each and every one of you have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Try not to eat too much and when your with your family (even though they might drive you crazy) look around a take the time to realize how wonderful your life is. I'm not saying life is perfect or at times very hard I'm just saying that family is special and having a chance to be close to them tell them you love them and heck having them there to get under your skin is a huge blessing that I think sometimes we forget.

so sore it hurts to breath.

I've decided that until Christmas/New years is over I'm only going to be able to blog once a week. I've been a busy busy girl with work. This week has been no exception. This week I have been working on drinking more water and watching what I'm eating because I've had to cut down to 30min workouts this week. After the race last Saturday I must have somehow pulled my quad just a little. I was so determined to run across the finish line that I pushed myself past the pain to run. I learned that is not the best idea because you pay for that idea for days. I started icing my leg as soon as I got home and taking ibuprofen. Two days later I did a little heat. It took like 2-3 days but my leg is back to normal now. While I have been trying to recoup I've been doing the stationary bike and trying to do upper body workouts. One night I even tried belly dancing I've not laughed that hard in a long time. She was trying to teach us how to move our pelvis in a figure eight motion and I looked as if I was having a seizure. Don't think it was the sexy look she was going for. I did start doing planks and was able to hold it a min a few times a day. You wouldn't think holding yourself in one spot would be hard but it kicks my butt every time. On Saturday morning I met up with my biggest winner team at runners market Western plaza at 7:50AM. We ended up doing 5 miles. We were told to walk at first then to pick it up. My coach Missy Kane helped push me to push past my comfort zone and to see what I was capable of doing. When I was doing it I wasn't so sure I was going to make it, but I did. I got done with our workout and went home to get ready for my work Christmas party and to take some ibuprofen because I was already feeling my workout. I was worried about the food and if I would be able to eat anything. I think I did well I only ate off the salad plate and I drank tons of water. Plus we danced from 7-11 last night only coming off the floor long enough to get some water. I had so much fun. I wish every night was Christmas party night. I can honestly say I slept like a baby, but today when I got up I'm soooooo sore. I think I'm going to get on the treadmill at least for a mile and see if I can't get a little of the soreness out. I also wanted to thank you all for reading my blogs.

Jingle all the way!

Just got done doing the Jingle bell run with my two boys and it was great. The Jingle bell run is a fun 5k run put on by the arthritis foundation and it is tons of fun with people dressed up. I had signed everyone up as soon as I found out about it because its for a great cause and because it sounded like a fun outing. I think we did ok for the fact it was my kids first race and for the fact I think I've pulled my right quad muscle we did 3 miles in 47min. This week for me has been a very busy week on Tuesday I did an hour on the bike and then my team met up with Chris O'Hearn our life coach and personal trainer. He is such a great guy with tons of information. He talked to us about setting goals and how we are the author of our own stories. I believe this to be so true its only when we loose sight of our goals that we quit. I'm working very hard to keep my goals at the front of my thoughts at all times. On Wednesday I went to a class at the weight management center about stress. It was a very good class and I learned a lot about how type A and type B people handle stress and how they need to cope with that stress. The thing that I found the most interesting was the fact that Type A people (which I'm their queen) need to do exercises that they have to think about like tennis or taking a class, because if they do mindless exercise like walking or swimming they think about their problems and rehash them the whole time and it doesn't do a lot for the stress they are under. Type B people are the total opposite on the exercise they need to do things like walking so they can think about some of the things they need to get done. On Thursday I did an 30min on the treadmill when I got home from work because I was working late. On Friday I did an hour on the treadmill and then met up with my team and our coach Missy Kane at Market square to do an episode of live at 5 at 4. That was so much fun and it was great getting to be on TV. I'm glad we were able to see our other team mate Lee Ann who was having to stay at the studio because she is the producer of the show. I was so proud of her too when they showed the footage of her doing the stairs at work that is wonderful. Before I forget to tell you also in Monday's Knoxville News Sentinel the Covenant Healthwise page will also feature our team. There are so many exciting things going on and I'm so glad I have such great people to get to share it with. Also you can check out some additional info about our team, as well as links to some of my teammate's blogs here: www.covenanthealth.com/biggestwinner. I'm so very thankful every single day that I have been given this opportunity and I'm going to do everything in my power to do my best and to play it forward. Oh I forgot to tell you all also. I have made it a point to only get on the scale once a week because I stress so much if I don't see changes when I way everyday and this morning when I got on I had lost two more pounds. So that is 6lbs so far I was supper excited because I had not lost nothing in like a week or two so today was a great day. Well I guess I've told you all everything I can think of about my week. I'm going to go grab an ice pack and try to rest this quad so I can be 100% again. Thanks you all so much for supporting me, you have no idea what a blessing that is to me!

pushing past my comfort zone

Today I met up with my teammates at the new Runners Market in West Knoxville beside the Fresh Market. We met up with the Knoxville Track club to do a run. We were told to do a little more than we usually do so most of us did four miles. Lee ann and myself decided today we needed to job a little so we would walk from one light pole to the next then we would job from the next light pole to the following one. Doing intervals like that helped get my heart rate up without my chest feeling like it was going to explode. I love Saturday morning team time. I have to say that the people on my team are the most supportive people I have ever met and our coach Missy Kane is always so supportive and helpful. It is good to have positive feedback when you are pushing past your comfort zone. I also got to see some of my other friends while I was at the Runners Market Amy,Brantly and Doug. It was great to see that they were proud of my accomplishments. I've decided that Saturday is my long workout day so after I left my team I went to Ijams. I started off my going down near the river board walk then I ended up going to the forks of the river and back. In total that is 4.5 miles. If you have never gone to Ijams I so recommend you do it one day. It is a must visit. They have trails with wood chipping and also paved walking trails so anyone and everyone can enjoy it. It also is one of the most peaceful places I have been in a long time. I'm able to think about things when I'm there and do a little meditation. Needless to say though when I got done doing my 8.5 miles I was soooo tired my hands were swollen, my feet were achy and my hip was killing me but I got into my car smiling because I had done what Chris had said in spin class. I pushed past my comfort zone and it felt dang good knowing I was able to do it.