Weigh-In Wednesday - June 4

Important day, today. This morning Annual Passholders and Disney Vacation Club members got their shot at early registration for runDisney's newest addition: the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend offering kids races, 5K, 10K, half marathon and more. And you'd better believe I was ready to register myself thanks to a good friend who is an AP holder. I'm officially registered for the Rebel Challenge, meaning I will be running the 10K (6.2 miles) on a Saturday and then the half marathon (13.1 miles) to following day.It's going to be an adventure!

But the rest of that is a story for another day. First a recap of how my brand new challenge has been shaping up so far:

For starters I did something new that I've been meaning for some time now: Go out and explore some new terrain to run. I've lived in Anaheim for 2 years now and I have yet to really see anything outside of my apartment and work (however amazing I think Disneyland is, it's not all there is out there. But it wasn't just about exploring - I needed to get some exercise in as well and the treadmill just gets so mind-numbing sometime so after some quick online searching I settled on taking an adventure to Peters Canyon Regional Park in Orange, CA and hitting the trails for a hike/run. Man, oh man were the hills intense towards the end of my 5+ mile trek but it meant a really good work out and I couldn't have asked for more than that. I was out there for over an hour, which was definitely a great start to my 30 minutes of exercise challenge. As for the trails, I have to study the map a little better if I ever go back again (and I do plan to go back) because I did get a little turned around and just retraced my steps when I reached the halfway point (or thereabouts) of my training App, which I'll detail on another day. But there are a few options for trails so you can get a little bit of variety every time you go. Not a lot of shade so I plan to go earlier in the day whenever I do make it back. And lots of hills and inclines! It's almost the perfect location, minus that lack of shade and the amount of dust I brought home with me. On the downside though, it is a bit of a drive and I can't quite spare that much gas money at the moment so it wont be an every-run thing. But definitely a once a month thing!

Next week I'm thinking of tackling Huntington Beach for my long run. Maybe, we shall see!

My other choice of activity this week has been to get back into yoga with Jillian Michaels' Yoga Meltdown DVD. It's a great combination of a variety of yoga poses I am already familiar with and repetitions and movement - it's like body weight training at home. I love more traditional yoga, but sometimes I need something that's a little faster paced and this certainly is. Eventually I plan to add in some more traditional yoga along the way, but that's for another day and another week.

6/1: yoga

6/2: running @ PCRP 5.7 miles

6/3: yoga
6/4: yoga

And with that, I'll leave today's Weigh-In Wednesday with an actual weigh in:

SW: 141.5

CW: 141

... everyone starts somewhere ..

Another Golden Afternoon

... You can learn a lot of things from the flowers,

for especially in the month of June ...

If by 'golden' we mean very sunny, and very warm! I don't know how June got here so fast, but here it is and all I can remember of May was how warm it was and how much my allergies were driving me Fruit Loops. Earlier this year runDisney announced that they would be moving the Tinker Bell Half Marathon from the month of January (which has been the Tink race month since the inaugural race in 2012) to Mother's Day Weekend in May starting in 2015 and continuing forward. January was a perfect race month for me personally, and now all I can think about is how I'm going to run my race during a month where I can barely breathe.

But I digress. Tink is still almost a year away and registration isn't even until August! There's plenty of time to stress about that over the next few months.

I really mean to update how my life has been over the past two months since attempting this whole soda sober thing has been working out for me. The good news? I am completely soda free! I made it past the first few, very rough days and I survived. I made it past the first month and I survived. Now it's June 1st and I'm not even tempted by soda anymore (or at least not that I will admit). My water intake isn't exactly what I would like, but it's still improving and in the meantime my life has revolved around iced teas and lemonade with as little sweetener as I can stand. I think it's safe to say that my first goal has been a success!

Now it's time to move onto another goal and get into the habit or working out!

For the entire month of June my plan is to work out every single day. My work out of the day can be a training run, a long run, yoga, or anything else that takes up at least 30 minutes of my day. If I can make it through the month it should be easier for me to stick to any other schedule without just pushing it off. It's still going to be tough to balance between work and other work but if I make it my priority I can do this.

I. Can. Do. This.

In fact, I've already started. 30 minutes of some pretty intense yoga at home done. Did I complete the workout 100% on my first day back? No, but I tried and I came pretty darn close. Only 29 more days to go. The main goal is to get myself running again, but I do want to get the variation in there as well. So let's see how I do!

Second goal: 30 minutes, 30 days

Say aint so...

...da

get it?
 

 

I have an addiction to soda and have for as long as I can remember. I never used to think about it all that much until I decided to start running again. It's not healthy for me, and to be completely honest I spend far too much money on this little habit of mine. I've tried to quite before and I've even made it as far six months quitting cold turkey but every other time I've tried to cut back or stop drinking soda I've barely been able to make it through 24 hours and definitely not past day 3 which for some reason is always the hardest.

And here I am on day 5 and I have barely had a thought about it at all so here's to hoping that this time it really sticks.

It's really funny though. I noticed something awhile back whenever I attempt to do things. I have a much better success rate when I start at the beginning of something. Just last month I tried quitting on a random day in the middle of the month and couldn't make it 12 hours but in the past when I've tried quitting on a Sunday (the start of my week) or the first of a month or the first of the year I've always made it at least a week which is a step in a better direction. So here I decided to give this another go and I made the plan to start on the first of the month - and no it wasn't an April Fool's joke on myself.

But maybe it was on the soda.

Either way, here I am on April 5th. No soda! Now, I wont lie. I didn't quit caffeine cold turkey. I've had an occasional coffee to get me started on an early work morning and I'm trying to make a switch over to drinking tea. But the main goal was to cut out the soda itself and then maybe cut out the caffeine when I had that under control.

Here's to hoping I can make this one stick. First goal: make it to my next running event (the Color Run OC) in May. Keep you updated.

Come on, everybody! Here we go!

... Think of a wonderful thought,

Any merry little thought ...

 

I'm back at it again, even if I'm the only one who knows it. And by "it" I mean blogging as a way to help keep myself motivated for one reason or another; mainly running and keeping a healthy lifestyle. I'm sure this one wont be seen by too many, but hopefully later on down the road I wont be traveling alone.

 

But for now here is my introduction!

 

My name is Jessica, I'm a 27 year old northern California transplant living in Orange County, and it shouldn't take anyone too long to realize that I'm a huge Disney nerd (and I say that with love). I dropped everything 2 years ago to do something I've wanted to do for the longest time and got a job at the Happiest Place on Earth where I get to make people smile every day - something that to me, at this point in my life, is far more important than how big my bank account is at the end of the year.

 

My love for Disney is actually what got me started running in my adult life and working towards an even better me. It's all about the bling! I really wanted a shiny medal from runDisney and so I jumped feet first into the deep end and signed up for my first event and I haven't looked back. Here I am, 2 1/2 years and 6 half marathons later and I'm counting down the days until my next one. But I don't just want to run, I want to run healthy, and I want to be able to run for many, many years to come.

 

I know it's still a few years down the road but I'm really looking forward to these last few years of my 20's and ringing in the big 3-0 with the happiest and healthiest version of myself that I can be and to run my first full marathon. That's the goal and I'm looking forward to how I'm going to get there.

 

This blog is here for me to chronicle that journey and to connect with and support others out there and maybe even to share a few of my other passions along the way. Anyone game to stick around?