3 Years ago today

Thanks to a little app called timehop, your past social media posts are only a finger tap away. Funny that this one popped into my feed today.

Exactly three years ago an overly optimistic October Heather, signed April Heather up for a race two races. A 5k Friday night race and an exhausting 10k race Saturday morning bright and early.

You can read about how that went with the posts titled: Dear October Heather and one gem titled 9.2 Miles in 48 hours.

I say funny this popped up today because, well the thought had crossed my mind to do something similar, only instead of April the race would be in January! I do have the fact that weather will be much more on my side here in Arizona over the winter than it would have been back in Illinois over the winter (which was my lazy excuse last time) I've been throwing the idea around of starting to run, I'm not 100% feeling the snug clothes and I'm past the point of being able to say oh I just moved it was stressful, that's why I eat like crap and never go to the gym.

At the very least I will sign up for the 5k race, stay tuned. I might do something stupid like sign up for the 2nd day race too. You just never can tell here at North of 10th can you?! Also I need some way to kick my dad's butt on the Fitbit steps, that man is a beast! Anyone else fitbit? Oh and that #195 days.. it's 100 days less to prepare as of today #95days #DoubleEek

We've Been Here Before

Now that I've been in Arizona for a year now and have settled into a relatively normal pattern, it's time to focus. Focus on me and my health. I've done weight watchers two other times (3rd times the charm right?!) and I've had success with it then, as long as I was following the plan anyway. 

So here I am again. Last Saturday I joined my local Weight Watchers, I attended the 9am meeting, which is nice, not too early, not too late, and gets me out of bed on a Saturday! I was also able to replicate getting out of bed early for a second Saturday and made it to my meeting again this morning! It always seems a bit weird to go to the meetings, I imagine it's a lot like what an AA meeting would be like. We are all there for the same reason, food, but at the same time it's nice to know you aren't alone in the struggle. There are people from every walks of life and a varying group of ages. I am happy to report that after my first week, I am down -3.4lbs. (I would like to lose about 60lbs so that I am back into a healthy BMI range) Slowly but surely I will get there.

It's funny because since I've joined before and had all the materials, I kept telling myself, oh I can do this on my own and not have to pay for it etc etc. But it never stuck. I always succeed the best when I go to the meetings. I'll sometimes just remember in my head how many points the foods I've eaten were, but this time I am determined to physically write it down, it's not going to be easy but I'm all in this time.

The hardest part for me is deciding what to eat. It can seem overwhelming. I bought a nice planning calendar and plan on planning out my meals for the week and going to the store on the weekends and buying for the week. I won't lie, this will be the hard part. I might slip sometimes but I truly want to get my weight down so I look and feel better for myself. I'll search all the sites, pinterest and go into the cookbook archives to find good meals that I can make in a fairly quick amount of time.

Be prepared, this may turn into a what is Heather eating for dinner tonight blog. I've already had to fight the urge to not just order Papa John's pizza several times. (they have like 50% off every day or so, it's hard not to just order for a quick delivered meal) First step is the food, next step is the exercise, and that whole Planet Fitness membership I pay for but have yet to use... for shame Heather... for shame. I know... baby steps right?!

Wish me luck! Weight Watchers friendly recipes are always welcome! Feel free to email me any that you have tried and love! 

The Color Run

This past Saturday morning, bright and early (8am) my adventurous Arizona crew lined up at the starting line of The Color Run which calls itself the 'Happiest 5k on the planet!' and it sure did not disappoint! It was a bit breezy that morning which is unusual for us here in the valley and it was a bit chilly in the shade! 

The premise of the race is to start off clean and finish dirty, and new this year finish sparkly! There were five different color stations where colored chalk is thrown at you, Pink, Yellow, Blue, Orange and Sparkly! I should mention this was an untimed race as well aka we walked the whole way.

The Adventure crew before the race

look at that wind blowing those banners!

Do you see the unicorn? 

Pink station

Yellow station

Fun along the way

blue station (blue was the most stubborn to clean off)

Tutu and me

Orange everywhere!

The shiny sparkly finish

The rainbow finish line!

The colorful after party is tons of fun, color tosses every few minutes with a crowd of color everywhere!

We all had a colorfully good time and even have the medals to prove it! 

Free Chocolate milk fron the Nesquik bunny, sure why not! 

The leaf blowers are an attempt to clean us off (sponsored by Shout)

Post race food stop

The after after

It took a lot of scrubbing and washing to get all that color off. It amazed me that chalk could seep through all layers of clothing. I honestly still have a blue spot on the back of my neck in my hairline that I can't get un-blue and I think the sparkles will be around forever, in my hair, in the house and in the car! This was a great race and I would definitely sign up again! Who'd a thunk it that January I'd be running walking races in the desert! Have I mentioned I love Arizona!?

ROC Race, Zoo Lights & GoodGuys

November was a busy month in general, I think I had something to do EVERY weekend it seemed like. But all were fun things and with the AZ weather finally paying off, I have to get out there and do things! 

Saturday Morning: ROC Race Phoenix
The ROC (Ridiculous Obstacle Course) Race is much like that game show you may have seen called WipeOut. My IL friends who moved out here at the same time, Skinny and Tutu, joined me for this fun run. Thankfully this wasn't a timed race, so no one knows how slow fast we went. The obstacles were all inflatable and we totally felt like kids again, even if we did wipe out pretty good on a few of them! 

Saturday Night: ZooLights
Each year around the holiday's the Phoenix Zoo turns into a magical wonderland of lights! My workplace had tickets for a private viewing before it opened to the public! 

Sunday Afternoon: GoodGuys Southwest Nationals
Our family friend has a '73 Mustang that he has restored and had it in the GoodGuys show, and really what better way to spend a Sunday afternoon in sunny Arizona than surrounded by cars I'll never own! 

The Mustang!

After the busy weekend I had to head home and pack for my trip back to Illinois then onward to Georgia for NiBo's Army graduation!