Mom Works It Out by Angela Gillis

Angela March 5, 2014

HELP! I need to lose weight.

Every time Willie and I end up in the media, the Facebook and e-mail messages start rolling in with people saying the same thing. “HELP! I need to lose weight. Please tell me what to do.” I try to read the messages but honestly it’s just a lot of messages saying the same thing. Reading the messages makes me feel helpless and at a loss for words because I don’t really know what to say. Correction: I know what to say but I know that’s not what you want to hear. I am not an expert on weight loss. I’m…

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Angela March 4, 2014

Race Recap: The Little Rock Marathon – one EPIC …

There are lots of races I get for free or get a discount code for, this was not one of those races. It was worth every penny I paid for it (and it wasn’t that expensive) because of the perks that came along with it. The race directors were amazing and their staff/volunteers just the same! This was one EPIC event! Jes and I early started! She’s a 6 hour marathoner and she thought she needed to extra buffer. I needed to take it slow so I could run the Gusher close to 4:35-4:50 this Saturday. I also needed it…

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Angela March 3, 2014

Race Recap: The Little Rock 5K and pre …

This should have been posted this morning but I’m sick from running around in the cold and rain. Plus we didn’t get back until late last night and I just needed some rest. This weekend we loaded up the car with Jes to head to Little Rock to run the marathon. Every year the race has a new theme and this year it was all about super heroes. Everything was supposed to be EPIC! We got in late Friday night, but that didn’t stop me from getting up early to run the 5K! Thank you to the Little Rock Marathon…

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Angela February 28, 2014

Little Rock Marathon Weekend

The next two weeks are big for me because these are the two events I’ve been waiting for since November! This weekend I am running the Little Rock Marathon (and Capital Hat Trick (5k, 10k, plus my marathon)! Next weekend it’s The Gusher Marathon! So you know what that means? It’s time to hydrate and carb up! Nuun is my electrolyte drink of choice! I discovered it last year at an expo and I’ve used it ever since. Nuun is “light flavor, no sugar or carbs” and it’s good. It’s a little harder to find but I see it’s showing…

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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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