Mom Works It Out by Angela Gillis

Angela February 28, 2014

Let’s Move! Turns 4

The First Lady’s big push to end childhood obesity, Let’s Move!, turned 4 yesterday! On Wednesday I had an opportunity to speak with Executive Director of Let’s Move!, Sam Kass, about the program and where they want the program to go in the future! The childhood obesity rate has decreased since the start of the program and this is something they want to keep going in the future. It’s the gift that keeps giving! Childhood obesity is something that weighs heavily on my heart! I was always the “bigger” kid growing up and it was cool back then, but when…

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Angela February 26, 2014

Travel Tuesday happened on Wednesday

Yesterday was supposed to be travel Tuesday but I missed it. My intentions were well but it just didn’t happen. So y’all want to know what we’ve been up to concerning our trip to China? Yesterday we did passports! No picture for this one, but this was something that should have been done long ago but we didn’t. NOW it’s done though. On Saturday, Willie and I ventured to the Asian market to see what we could get into! I love Asian flavors and we pretty much have something Asian influenced every night. We are wicked excited to go to…

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Angela February 24, 2014

That proud feeling

People often ask me why I run. I run because I love it. People never ask me why I run so many races but I know they always wonder. I run the races because it’s about pushing past boundaries for me. Every time I line up at the start and cross the finish line I know I’ve accomplished something. Those are the moments I use to motivate myself to keep moving past those boundaries and push toward new goals! I’m using my running a race as a way to explain the thoughts in my head today, not because I think…

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Angela February 20, 2014

Interesting read about calories and strength training

When we started the weight loss journey it was all about calories. We counted those suckers like we counted pennies out at the register. We used Lose It! to help track our calorie intake. In the beginning we had a lot of calories to eat, but as the weight came off the calories we were allowed inched down. I remember the day my calories reached 1300. I remember struggling during that time because working out as much as I did and just eating 1300 calories wasn’t working. My friend Aimee posted a link from Sophieologie about 1200 calories and I…

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Angela February 18, 2014

Not the best day

Today hasn’t been kind to me. The day started out great but it went down hill shortly after I taught my cycle class this morning. My ankle has been bothering me but I trucked through the class. I really enjoyed teaching the class this morning and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Teaching this class was probably the best thing of the day. I don’t know why I was so excited but I woke up at 3 am for my 5am class. I was an eager beaver to motivate those who came to class this morning. Things started to go down…

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Angela February 17, 2014

Race Recap: Love.Run.Marathon Trail Race

Willie and I are training for Great Wall of China Marathon (GWCM). I’ve been trying to get some out of the box things for us to do because training for the race is not like any other race. The Great Wall is old, broken and steep! Willie has only run the roads and we definitely won’t be doing that in China! It was important for us to at least get a trail race in our training sessions so we’ll be ready come May! My answer to the questions was the Love.Run.Marathon in Huntsville! First off, this race for a a…

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Angela February 14, 2014

It’s a day of love

Happy Valentine’s Day my friends! I am not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day because I think there’s too much pressure to express love to people that you love everyday anyway. BUT it is a special day just to share your love with the world! Today is not a day of hate, it’s a day of love. For my cycle class participants I put together a little goodie bag for them as a gift of appreciation for coming to my class week after week. I’m not one to skip on the healthy stuff so I tried to keep it interesting.…

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Angela February 12, 2014

The training for China conundrum

I’ve have some running events coming up but my focus has been on China. Everything until that point is just training. I shouldn’t be pushing for PRs or making a certain time. I’m more interested in getting us on our feet for longer periods of time. I’ve tried to explain to Willie the physicality of what is happening is the least of the problems; it’s the mental aspect of what is going to happen. I don’t know what I want to run The Great Wall of China Marathon but I do! I guess I want to do it because it’s…

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Angela February 11, 2014

Race Recap: The Biggest Loser Run/Walk Series – …

I’m a racing fool! I like the energy and it keeps me motivated to run! Sometimes I can just go out there and do it and other times I need people screaming at me to keep going. It’s what works for me. The Biggest Loser Run Walk series is going across the country for these events. Originally we were supposed to do the one in Beaumont but it was moved to May during the time we couldn’t do the race. Race organizers were nice enough to let us transfer our registrations to another race so of course we chose Mobile…

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Angela February 10, 2014

Motivation Monday to get back on track

It’s Monday and all the blogs I read do motivation Monday. I don’t really do that because everyone else is doing it. Today, I needed a little motivation. I’ve been off track. I haven’t felt like myself and I know I haven’t been holding myself accountable. I’ve been stuck in a rut because I’ve been resting for the marathon and then I ran another marathon two weeks later. It’s really left me feeling weird because I’ve been in a constant taper. My working out was limited…and I felt the need to carbo load. In New Orelans all I ate the…

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Angela February 5, 2014

In the defense of the Biggest Loser Winner

Last night the winner of The Biggest Loser was chosen and people don’t seem to be happy. I will admit, I don’t watch the show. I really don’t like how the show doesn’t take it’s moment to educate the viewers on losing the weight, it strictly about the game. In the end, it’s all about it being a reality show and game and there’s nothing wrong with that. I know a lot of people look to show for a source of inspiration and motivation so I just wish there was just a little bit more education going on sometimes. So…

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