The day after Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving yesterday. I was hosting this year which took up a lot of time.  It was hard to keep up with everything and keep blogging.  I’ll give you the short version of the holiday.  On Wednesday night, we had a little get together with some friends.  I didn’t get a chance to take pictures because I was running around like a crazy person, but I did get one with my good friend Julie.

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You might remember Julie from her story.  Check it out if you haven’t!  She just keeps getting better!

Pictures from yesterday's #turkeytrot. #runchat #running #fitfluential #teamchocolatemilk

On Thanksgiving morning we all went out to run the Turkey Trot!  It was a good time seeing all my friends and pre burning those Thanksgiving calories.  Willie and I both ran the 10K. I ran the 10K in 58:56 which was not my PR but pretty close to it.  I was severely dehydrated.  I couldn’t function.  it’s kind of funny.

Thanksgiving 2014

After that, I had to go home and finish cooking the food.  We had a baked turkey, squash casserole, honey baked ham, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, turnip greens, green bean casserole, potato salad, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls and various pies.  No, we didn’t eat all of that.  I just like to have options.

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I also made these trifles.

Everything was so good!  Hosting Thanksgiving is exhausting but totally worth it.  I’m so thankful for everything in my life.  Great husband, family and friends make my life complete along with some awesome blog readers!  I hope you had a great holiday.

My Thanksgiving eating tip

My Thanksgiving eating tip

I’m so excited.  I love the holidays because this is the one of two times the family gets together and we have a good time. Of course there is always reason to give thanks and to eat some good food.  It’s always hard during the holidays to slow the eating down when you’re being tempted so much, right? I know I’ve already posted the tips on how to stay in control over the holidays but I want to stress this to you again.  Thanksgiving is one day so you should enjoy it.  But remember it’s one day! I normally get…

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For the love of root vegetables and apples

For the love of root vegetables and apples

Everyone is very focused on the holidays and looking forward to Thanksgiving, right? Fall is my favorite season because of all the great foods that come back into season.  I wanted to share with you some of my favorites of the seasons.  Spoiler alert:  you will not see pumpkin on this list.  Don’t get me wrong, I love pumpkin but I feel like most people go ga-ga over pumpkin and now we’re in pumpkin overload.  I blame it on the pumpkin spice latte. Root vegetables: Before weight loss I never met a potato I didn’t like. I loved potatoes and…

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Meal prep moved to Saturday

Meal prep moved to Saturday

Happy Saturday night.  Most people are out doing interesting things and I’m blogging.  But I wanted to let you know that I’m not dead.  I’m still here.  I’m just trying to figure everything out.  I may or may not be struggling with documenting everything on social media.  I’ll stop complaining about it because I signed up for it.  So what’s been going on with me? Of course I’ve been running. I have a few big things planned for the rest of the year so I’m trying to stay in top form before a take a break in December. I could…

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Loose skin is suddenly back in the topic …

Loose skin is suddenly back in the topic column

You may have seen the Muscle and Fitness article about the effects of extreme weight loss on skin.  John David Glaude stripped down to show you what’s it like.  The only thing I could think about when I saw it was, “he’s pretty brave.” His message is correct! He said he’s comfortable clothed but not so much unclothed so that is why he decided to do the video. This is the most relateable thing I’ve seen on the internet about weight loss. The fear of the loose skin with weight loss is real. I have people writing me all the…

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You are enough so embrace it.

You are enough so embrace it.

It’s a big world out there and sometimes it’s hard to navigate and stay true to yourself.  I remember my teenage years and all the adults claiming “you’ll find yourself as your grow older.”  Everyone has heard the “just be you and don’t worry about what other people think” speech, but it’s easier said than done, right? As I grow older though, I think it becomes harder to be who you are without being conscious of what other people may think or say. It never gets easier and it never goes away.  It’s something everyone has to work towards.  Just…

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Race recap: Pleasure Island Bridge Half Marathon

Race recap: Pleasure Island Bridge Half Marathon

It’s my favorite race of the year!  I love the Pleasure Island Bridge Half Marathon for many reasons but most importantly, it’s just a great race with great people.  I run all over the country but it’s nice to run the local races.  I’m so blessed that my community has two great local long run events. This is my 3rd year running the bridge and I wouldn’t miss it for anything.  The race is scenic and it’s always great to run a bridge, right? I didn’t have a goal this year because last year I was really sluggish at this…

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It’s holiday time but you still need …

It’s holiday time but you still need to stay fit

I walked into a store last Saturday and they were playing Christmas carols.  I had to think to myself, “wasn’t it just Halloween?”  I guess we’re completely giving up on Thanksgiving this year in lieu of the other holidays. My plan is to come up with some dishes that you can share around the holiday table without blowing out your calories.  This is something Willie and I will work on together so it will appear on both blogs.  But today I want to talk about overindulging in the holiday goodness. I know it’s the holidays and  you should enjoy it.…

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Done with being sick so I’m trying …

Done with being sick so I’m trying to get back to normal

Yep I was sick!  That’s all I could talk about but I’m glad that it’s passed.  I actually want to get moving again.  I guess the best thing about getting sick was it happened after a marathon which forced me into rest/recovery mode.  Things are almost back to normal but I can’t hear out of my ear!  It’s still blocked up. The big lesson to learn from my sickness incident is: listen to your body.  If you’re sick it’s best to get over it instead of trying to push through it.  Kind of funny coming from me since I ran…

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Weight loss makes you confront the truth

Weight loss makes you confront the truth

I was listening to sports radio today and someone spoke about losing weight.  It was asked if being overweight was an unhappy thing because most weight loss stories begin with someone saying they were unhappy with their size. I think it’s a trap people fall in after they lost weight.  I’ve said it many times that I’m happier now that I’ve lost the weight which sometimes insinuates that I wasn’t happy before.  Don’t get me wrong, life definitely had it’s down points but it also had it’s ups too! I know the weight loss forced me to confront some issues…

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If you want something bad enough you’re …

If you want something bad enough you’re going to work for it

Hello from Virginia! I arrived yesterday after two delayed flights but we still made it here. I’m running the Marine Corps Marathon this weekend and decided to bring my mom along too. I’ve been working really hard to make this trip possible and this is the one thing I wanted to do in life besides go to China. I am having a very blessed year. Last night we went to dinner at this place called Cosi. I have to shout out to how good this place was. Our options were Subway or Cosi because it was late and this stuff…

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