Mom Works It Out by Angela Gillis

Angela January 12, 2014

Lost and broken

I hate to do this to you but I’m going to have a “let’s get real” moment with you. It’s just something I need to get off my chest because I really think it’s been weighing me down. So here it is: When the St. Jude Marathon was canceled it broke me! I know I ran the miles, but in my mind it wasn’t good enough! I started training for that marathon in June and I did almost every single run on my training plan except for 5 runs and those were always short runs I bailed on. I invested…

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Angela January 10, 2014

Recipe: Quick pasta sauce

Last weekend (and probably again this weekend) I suggested that Willie take his go at making fresh pasta! We had a deal, if he made the pasta I would make the sauce and meatballs. I’ve always wanted to make my own sauce but I thought it would take a long time. Maybe I’ve just hung around too many italians and just envisioned standing over a pot all day and nurturing it. No doubt, one day I would like to do that but in my life I don’t have time for all that! Here is what you need: 2 (15 ounce)…

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Angela January 9, 2014

It’s our anniversary

Four years ago I married my best friend! It was a very cold day in January but our hearts were filled with love and joy as we celebrated the day with family and friends. Willie and I have been on an amazing journey together and I know we still have more to conquer out there in the world! On our first anniversary our gift to each other was the commitment to prolonging our lives by changing our lifestyle. Many people didn’t understand, many people criticized, many people doubted us BUT we pushed on TOGETHER to make our lives better. Every…

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Angela January 8, 2014

Tips to avoid the new work out burn …

It’s the beginning of the year and a LOT of people have resolved to get fit. That’s how the year always starts off right? People flocking to the gym, getting gym memberships and flaking out come February. Those people never see the gym until January of the following year when they plan to do it all over again. All I have to say is: the treadmills and elliptical are packed at my gym around 5:30pm! On a side note, don’t be mean to the new people at the gym. These people are coming to the gym to accomplish the same…

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Angela January 7, 2014

Let’s talk about snacks

A LOT of you have pointed out that I don’t talk about what I eat enough. Sorry guys! I’m working on it! The problem with me talking about what I eat is I never find it too interesting but y’all seem to enjoy. I also eat the same thing everyday at the same time so it’s really nothing to me. I eat the same thing for breakfast every morning because it can be made in advance and it’s just a grab and go situation. Always oatmeal of some kind. I tend to do overnight oats because I can make it…

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Angela January 6, 2014

Taper makes me think

Today I was on the phone with a friend and they asked, “What’s the good word?” The good word is taper. For all those who don’t know, taper happens close to a race where you scale back your mileage so you can rest up and recover for the race. Taper is a good and bad thing. It’s good because I won’t be running mega miles on the weekend but it bad because I’m not focused on running the mega mileage on the weekend. It leaves room to think about other things. The thing that’s been on my mind lately is…

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Angela January 5, 2014

Fresh pasta and meatballs

Yesterday I had a very brutal run. It was my last long run before the marathon and it wasn’t really a fun run. It was windy and I gave myself a mental beating throughout the run. I talked myself out of running the marathon twice over the those 16 miles. Willie was there to supply me water/Nuun/words of encouragement every three miles. It was a very hard run but I made it through. And when I finished I noticed I ran those miles faster than last weekend. I just can’t believe that I let myself get mess with my head…

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Angela January 2, 2014

Good luck and prosperity

It was a lazy new year’s day. After hanging out with friends in the morning, came back home to have a lazy New Year’s Day. It included a lot of watching of television. Willie took a nap on the couch and I continued by Big Bang Theory marathon! I’m working my way through the seasons. We both love the show so much, but Willie was tired. I needed him to rest up before we started on dinner. New Year’s Day is a great time for me because I get to eat all the foods I love but Willie hates. Well,…

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Angela January 1, 2014

A new year of goals

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2014 and all that comes with it. Last year was great but I want to make this year even better. I started off my morning with a 7.70 mile run. If I would have known I was that close to 8 miles I would have kept going. We ran the resolution run with our friends to start off the year. I ran a little over 3 miles before we left home to meet the running group. I did a little bit more before the running group started and finished with the group. To my surprise,…

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Angela December 31, 2013

My year in running

When I started off the year I had only run two races in 2012, both half marathons. Who would have thought I would run 14 half marathons the next year? This wasn’t how I thought the year would go. The big question is: what fueled my racing desire? The answer: my running group! I told Jeremy I wanted to do RnR Dallas and he said he was doing it so that kind of pushed me to do the race. That was two weeks after the Gusher and I had never run a race that close together, but I did it.…

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Angela December 30, 2013

One crazy year filled with media

This year has been a crazy year for us! I really don’t know how it happened or why it happened, but I’m VERY glad that it happened. At the beginning of the year, I sat down with Willie and told him I wanted to blog about our weight loss. People were asking us questions, mostly the same questions, and I thought a blog would be the place to get the information out there. I had no idea that someone at CNN would be searching the internet for weight loss stories and stumble across the blog! The funny thing about the…

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