Need your help-give me your thoughts!

Okay! So....I am a very goal driven person. I like to know what the goal is, how we're going to get there, and what the reward is when we do. I love to meet goals and have a reward at the end.

I've tried to get back into running and working out in general. But I just cannot for the life of me get motivated. I would like to lose 5 pounds and 10 would be my ultimate goal. BUT, I am very aware that losing the weight won't get me back into my pre pregnancy jeans. My body has changed, I know this. But I want to get back to being healthy and in shape.

I think diets are dumb. I know eating healthy and exercise is where it's at.

The summer after my junior year in college, I stayed on campus to work. My roommates were mostly gone or doing other things and the kickboxing class I went to was over. I knew i needed something to keep me on track to work out. So I took two paper cups-one was for weekly goals and one was for monthly goals. In the weekly cup, I had written little rewards on slips of paper. If I worked out 3 times a week, then at the end of the week i could draw something from the cup. The rewards were small, but something I wanted and wouldn't normally do. Like, buy a new thing of nail polish, rent a movie,etc...

If I worked our every week for a month, then I could draw a reward or treat from the monthly cup. These rewards were a bit bigger, like buy a new shirt, or spend $10 at Target. It worked really well, and I was super motivated and driven to complete my work outs each week so I could get a treat. And I hated the feeling of failing if i didn't complete my work outs. 

So my point.

I've decided to do the same thing for this summer. I'm not focused on weight loss at all, but I want to get back into running consistently, try to get my mileage back up, and my pace back down. I don't have specific goals set for when this has to be done by. I want to focus more on the consistency of working out again.

Here's what I'm thinking:

If I work out/run twice a week, then I get to draw a reward from the Weekly Cup. I know twice a week doesn't sound that challenging, but it is. Especially now with Paige. Because for me to run in the morning, means I have to get up early, pump, then run. I have to get up earlier than I used to because I just can't throw on my running clothes and go out the door. Running twice a week will be a challenge for me right now.

If I run twice a week for 4 weeks straight-then I get to draw a reward from the Monthly Cup. Now if i miss a week because I'm really sick or something, then I'll take that into consideration.

So....THE REWARDS!!

I picked things that are real treats for me, that I rarely do or buy. I don't want the rewards to be too big or expensive, or too small to where I could care less if I get it or not. I'll write each reward on a slip of paper, then draw one out each week.

Here are my thoughts so far for the Weekly Rewards:

Foot Massage ($4)
Hair Wash ($4)
Salad from a Western restaurant ($5)
Snapple Drink from the import store ($2)
Starbucks bottled Frappuccino ($3)
Candle from Ikea ($2)
Magazine on my Nook ($3)

Monthly Rewards:

Buy a season or TV show on Itunes ($15)
A book for my Nook ($10)
New dish or mug at the dish store near our house ($10)

Those are my ideas so far. I didn't want the rewards to be too focused on food, or too expensive. Just little things that I would really enjoy.

I've decided I will do a weekly blog post on Friday's to recap the week and share what rewards I got.

This is where you come in!

Do you have any thoughts or ideas about other rewards?

What should I title the Friday post? 

I've thought about Running Rewards, Friday Findings, Friday Finals, Friday Fortunes, Friday Fix, Weekly Rewards....... what do you think? any other suggestions?

Does anybody want to join and do this with me?

SO EXCITED!

love

laura

Detox

We made it back. We were gone for 2 weeks for vacation, medical stuff, and some time learning how to live life better here.

But ya'll......can we please talk about the food?!?!?!

First, I love a good hamburger, fries, and coke meal as much as the next person. But oh my good grief, we ate, ate, ate, and ate. While we were gone we ate at the following places (and most of them more than once): Chili's, TGIFriday's, Dunkin Donuts, Mister Donuts, McDonald's, Burger King, Auntie Anne's, Starbucks, and many many local food stands that were certainly not winning any healthy cooking awards.

But the body can only handle so much. It's amazing how Daniel and I both felt so gross after eating high calorie, high fat, greasy foods. We're just not used to it. And to tie that in with very little physical activity to boot.

While we loved getting to spoil ourselves a little bit by eating western food, it was a huge reminder that what we eat is important. We got home this afternoon, so we'll probably go to the market tomorrow. But can I tell you how I have been longing to make some homemade oatmeal or peanut butter toast or something that wasn't fried or covered in chocolate?? Seriously, homemade nutritious food has never sounded so good.

I can not wait to hit up the market to get lots of good fruits and veggies. Granted, while we were travelling fruit was actually pretty easy to get, so I did have a lot of fresh fruit smoothies (no sugar or anything added), and I had fruit pretty often, but the lack of good green veggies in my life these past 2 weeks is shameful. Especially when I have a fruit smoothie seconds after eating a chili cheese hot dog and fries. True story.

Don't worry, I'll try to post about our vacation tomorrow. I don't think I have enough to do a day by day (you're welcome), but we did have such a great time in Malaysia, that it needs a few posts of its own.

I don't want this to come across as a negative post, it's not intended to be at all! But in this moment as I'm writing, it's what I'm feeling. And it just makes me really thankful to be able to cook at home and eat (as best we can) healthy meals.

and p.s we've been up since 4:30am so I'm also tired and not all together with it :)

love

laura