Top Five Friday

Ladies and gentlemen for today's Top Five Friday I give you....

THE TOP FIVE SONGS ON IPOD REPEAT RIGHT NOW!

#1-Suit and Tie, Justin Timberlake-Yes, I love me some JT.  Every since he brought sexy back (really, if I'm honest since he told us bye, bye, bye) I am a fan.  At first I was really disappointed with this song but it has seriously grown on me. 

#2-Stay, Rhianna featuring Mikky Echo-I am NOT a Rhianna fan.  At all.  I honestly couldn't even name 5 of her other songs with a gun to my head.  But I LOVE this one. It's so melancholy and beautiful at the same time.

 

 

#3-Heart Shaped Wreckage, Katherine McPhee and Jeremy Jordan (from SMASH)-I am a Broadway nerd.  Love it and I have many musical numbers on the old iPod.  So it is no surprise that I also love the show SMASH (which I heard yesterday may be getting cancelled-BOO!) This is a beautiful story of love lost and a journey to reclaim it-sappy enough for you?  Other than that these two can SING.

 

 

 

#4-Pirate Flag, Kenny Chesney-I love KC.  Deeply and forever.  He never lets me down and is the sound of summer-which may be why, with snow all this week (in MARCH!!!) I've been digging this tune.

 

 

 

#5-Sure Be Cool If You Did, Blake Shelton-I also love BS.  He is hilarious, I love his music, love him on the Voice and think he would be a blast to hang out with.  On top of that I love the line "standing in the neon, looking like a high I wanna be on..." Nice.  Really nice Blake. I'd stand in the neon with you but I'm pretty sure Miranda could take me.

 

 

 

So there it is-my Top Five Songs lately.  I suggest you check them out if you haven't already. 

 

What song can't you get enough of lately?

Reboot

So I feel like the blog is in need of a reboot.  The whole Fitness, Faith, Fun title is a tad long but it got me thinking of doing a letter theme (I am, after all, a kindergarten teacher.  The alphabet is my life).

So welcome to the new and hopefully improved "To the Letter".

Clearly there will be the aforementioned letter theme and I will also start a regular Friday post entitled "Top Five Friday" which will include top five list on everything from food to tv to music to Bible verses to nail polish. I encourage you to share your lists with me each week!

Let me know what you think about the upcoming changes and I welcome any suggestions.  I'd like to get this blog out there a little bit more and am constantly looking for effective ways to do that.

Catching Up

So I am kind of in a blogging lull.  Don't really feel like I have a ton to say so I'll just do a little FFF catching up.

Fitness=frustration!  I am having a horrible time lately.  I am sticking to a diet and working out like crazy but am either maintaining or, this week, gaining! AHHHH!  So I am cracking down and allowing myself NO cheat days, upping my cardio, tracking calories on My Fitness Pal and upping my already large water intake.  Hopefully I can break through this never ending plateau soon.  My body is very happy here-I am not.

Faith-I made my public declaration of faith last Sunday and am getting baptized in April.  It was, obviously, one of the biggest moments in my life and was terrifying and amazing all at once. I think I am still processing.  All I can say is that the people at my church are some of the most amazing, supportive and encouraging I've ever met and I am blessed to be becoming a member there.

Fun-Fitness and Faith sometimes leave little time for the third F.  Saw "The Call" this weekend with friends.  Oh my goodness! I recommend it but will also say I was a nervous wreck leaving the theater and could have thrown up.  I will also say my female friends and I are now planning on taking both self-defense classes and concealed carry classes following this viewing.  It was far too scary in a realistic, this could happen to me, way.

I am also now firmly obsessed with all things Duck Dynasty-I held out a long time but after one episode I was hooked.  It is fantastic.  Check it out if you haven't already. And for the rest of the week....

Menu

2 posts in 1 day! Craziness :)

I was working in s clean/healthy eating menu for a friend of mine and thought I would share. They're are examples of what I eat for each meal when I'm really serious and eating as clean as possible. Some are tips & ideas from trainers, others from friends. I am obviously not a nutritionist but this works for me. Since being back on it for the last week I'm down almost 3 lbs! After a never ending plateau that get a - WOO HOO! Hope it helps :)

Workout Buddy

The value of a good workout buddy cannot be overstated.

I'm lucky to have several. I have some running buddies, some Zumba buddies and even a buddy who I never actually work out with but we keep each other accountable and encouraged via text on our eating, exercising and weight loss.

A workout buddy, an accountability partner, is a great tool and makes the whole experience much more enjoyable.

But you know what's even more vital?

Self motivation.

Sometimes your workout buddies will have other obligations. Sometimes one will have to sit it a sessions of boot camp or have an appt or whatever. And the most important thing is that you keep going on your own. No one else can do this for you, no one else can make it happen. If you are not accountable to you and for you it's not going to work. I've gone to exercise classes alone, knowing basically no one. I've ran on my own, walked on my own, come up with menus on my own.

It's better, more fun, to do it with a partner. But it's crucial to be able to do it alone. You gotta dig deep and soldier on. Fight the plateaus and mind games and get it done.

Race Re-Cap

So this post is about a week late-blame it on the stomach bug.  It hit me post race Saturday night and had me praying to the porcelain gods until the next morning. It then proceeded to drain the life and energy from my body until Wednesday resulting in 1 1/2 sick days, numerous hours in bed and 6 lbs lost!!  Whew.  Add to that a crazy busy week/weekend and now that all that's over I can regale you with tales of....

Color Me Rad 2013

 

 

 

It was fantastic.

 

I had my doubts.  The day of the race I woke up to nearly an inch of snow on the ground, 33 degree temps and flurries.  Not the ideal condition for my first race. Or any race in my opinion.

 

I geared up and made the trip to Lexington.  My alarm went off at an alarming (see what I did there?) 5:30.  Yikes.  Met up with my team members and we headed to the race site.  But not before taking some before pics. 

We waited, narrowly escaping hypothermia, and away we went.

 

And it was awful.  I am not lying when I say I thought I would die during the first 10th of a mile.  My muscles were cold, the air hurt to breath, my nose and eyes were running.  Not fun. 

 

But then, it got better.  We made it to the first color station, got bombed and settled on a walk/run plan of action.  Our team stuck tight.  Each color station added more bombs of color to out outfits.  (Which we were complimented on, making the whole race a success in our eyes.  We worked hard on those suckers!)

 

At the end there was a wild dancing, contest having, color bomb throwing, screaming, jumping party. It was so fun.  We took pictures that will live in infamy as some of the most hilarious I've ever taken. 

 

And you know what I was doing about an hour later after scouring the color off my hair/face/body?

 

Researching upcoming races.

 

I've got a fever.  And the only prescription?
 

 

MORE 5K!