Happy New Year

"The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." 

Lamentations 3:22 

Saying Goodbye to 2013

Hope everyone had time to rest and relax this holiday season. This is a perfect time to recoup from the craziness of the holiday parties reflect on the past year. We have been busy this year and a lot has changed. All of these changes make me even more excited for 2014! I want to share a small recap of 2013 in pictures.

Spring 2013 

Traveled to Seattle with Anna and June to attend NASP.

Went on many long runs at Wrightsville Beach

Brought home the most adorable member of our family Charleston James

Summer 2013

 

Enjoyed many days at the beach with friends

Helped out with Delta Zeta recruitment as advisor along with these amazing ladies. 

Fall 2013

Enjoyed a ECU tailgate

NC State Fair

Winter 2013 

Moved to Cary!!

Spent weekends exploring our new home

 

Spent Christmas celebrating with my family 

New Year= New Goals

A new year is a chance to turn a new leaf and start afresh. I enjoy the the new year as a chance to take a breath from the holiday indulgences and start on a clean slate. 2013 was a great year and I have no doubt that 2014 will be even greater! I wanted to share these before New Year's Eve to help give ideas to anyone who may be struggling with their New Year's resolution.

• Find a new home church and start a daily devotional. Since we moved we have not found a church that feels like home. I want to make connections with couples our age and continue to grow in the faith. I am hoping to start a book on tape or podcast as my daily devotional and make it part of my drive to work every morning. 

• Lose these pesky 20lbs for good! In keeping myself accountable, I am going to start posting weekly on my fitness progress.  I will also continue to share my weekly workout plan. I use My Fitness Pal to track my food and workouts to make sure I am on track. I have an entire post later this week on how these pounds creeped on and my plan to get them off! 

 

• Try to eliminate one vice each month. I got this idea from Lauren Conrad's Shape Up plan. I am going to switch things up and start with gluten for the month of January. I will probably switch out something for fried food and soda since I rarely have them. Joe is gluten sensitive and I have been begging him to try to eliminate it from his diet for the past year. He is on board with trying it as a New Year Resolution and I am excited to see how it changes both of our bodies. I love the idea of trying this plan as part of my New Years Resolution.  lt is a great way to flex your willpower and break bad habits. It’s been said time and time again that that it takes 21 days to break or create a habit. Through giving up one vice each month will help work toward getting rid of the negative habit. I have a well known sweet tooth that I would love to break during this plan. Here is the best part behind the plan that ties in easily to my New Year Resolution by the time summer rolls around, I will have lost those pesky 20 lbs and be amazing shape.

• Create inspiring posts on the blog 3-4 times a week. I want the blog to being to reflect what is going on in my life at the same time I also want it to inspire others through sharing my struggles. My hope is that this year I will become more real in my posts. 

What are your New Years Resolutions for 2014? 

Workout Wenesday: Runner's Wishlist

It’s that time of year when blogger gift guides pop up all day every day! I thought a nice spin on workout Wednesday would be to share my favorite fitness finds this year. 

Running Christmas List by sweetcarolinabelle

Yurbuds-  I have never had good luck with earphones…until I bought these.  I have the worst luck with buying earbuds that will stay in my ears. I typically resort to the headband type ear-buds which were the only ones that stayed in my ears for more than 3 minutes. After my last pair bit the dust I headed to Target and saw that these babies got rave reviews. The clips make them stay perfectly in my ear.

Garmin Forerunner 220- I got my first Garmin 4 years ago when I started training for my first half marathon. The watch is the perfect jump for individuals looking to start monitoring their pace and improve their time. My watch has seen a lot of love and it is time to finally find a replacement. This model is the same style number but has tons of upgrades. I love that is vibrates to alert you of notifications since I never heard the beeping on my watch due to me blasting my music. 

Handheld Water bottle - I am awful at staying hydrated during long runs. I never want to stop back by the car to refuel and never seem to pass any water fountains.  To help combat my intentional oversight I have started carrying a handheld water bottle with me. Now I have no excuse not to stay well hydrated. 

Base Runner 1/2 Zip - Battling the wind and cold on my long runs is starting to leave me wind-burnt and chapped on Saturdays. I love this pullover because it is super comfortable and could also be worn running to the store.

Lululemon Speed Tight - Can you tell I have a love for all things Luluemon? These pants are great for log runs. They are sweat wicking and never show sweat stains which is amazing after 10 miles. They also have tons of pockets which is great for storing keys, gu gels, phone and chap stick with room to spare. 

Workouts

Monday: Interval Cardio & Core

Tuesday: 3 miles & Total Body Strengthening & Stretch

Wednesday: 4 miles & Lower Body Strength

Thursday: Interval Cardio & Upper body Strength

Friday: Spin Class

Saturday: 9 Mile Run

Sunday: Hot Yoga 

Weekend Review

         Hope everyone is staying safe and dry this Monday morning. Schools here were on a 2-hour delay due to icy roads. This is our second delay in the past two weeks. I am all about snow days but, ice delays are not my thing. I am too much of a clutz to survive the apartment stairs without a tumble. Here’s to hoping I this is not common around here. However, I am excited to have a bit of free time before the kiddos come bounding down the halls.

       This past weekend we did a lot of catching up! We have let work and the cold weather get in the way of going out and getting things done. We definitely made up for it this weekend. 

        Friday night we hit the streets of Southpoint for a little Christmas shopping combined with our date night. Southpoint at Christmas is bustling to say the least! There is very limited parking and crowds are vicious. But it did not keep us away! We had a great time getting what we needed for gifts combined with some people watching. We went to dinner at Firebirds and finally watched Catching Fire. We both loved Catching Fire even more than Hunger Games but man that was a long movie!

         Saturday I got up early and headed to a spin class. Since I am not training for a race yet, did not want to risk getting sick or hurt by trying to brave the rain and ice for a long run. The spin class was a great change of pace compared to the hills I have been battling lately. If you have never tried a spin class I highly recommend it! 

           After the gym, we headed out to get some more Christmas shopping. Thankfully, I can say with the help of Target and Amazon Prime that we are 95% finished with our shopping! I just need to wrap them all up and get them under the tree. For lunch, we stumbled upon Bad Daddy’s. Joe and I were both excited as it is one of our favorite Charlotte restaurants and they just opened a location nearby in Morrisville.

         Check out the size of that burger! They have the most unique burger combinations as well as delicious sides. Another favorite here is their spiked milkshakes. Yum! We spent the rest of the afternoon watching football games and doing the piles of laundry that had piled up through this past week.

        Sunday we spent the day trying to stay dry and watching football. We did venture out to Costco in the afternoon. The closest Costco is 20 minutes away so we are not making weekly trips like we did in Wilmington. It is probably a good thing for our wallets and waistlines as I tend to go a bit overboard with the delicious snacks and prepared meals. They are great in moderation however a five pound bag of chocolate popcorn is not good for my willpower. I was able to break away for a little bit of gym time that afternoon. Then I headed out to dinner at Los Tres Magueyeswith a friend from high school. It was great to catch up now that we live close by!

      Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend. I am excited to start this week because that means only 2 weeks until Christmas break! Can you tell I am counting down the days until I get to go back to Wilmington?
Weekend Shenanigans

Recent Musings

I have been feeling  reflective lately. The holidays are the perfect time to slow down a bit and take a little time to better yourself. We have made it a goal in our home to try and spend an hour each night on something to improve ourselves or the apartment. This has kept us from spending entire nights catching up on How I Met Your Mother or playing Candy Crush.

I typically split the time between reading an article or two for work and doing a little housework. I have also been enjoying several for fun reads that have been popping up on the internet. I thought I would share my favorite finds with you.

15 Ted Talks that will change your life - I love Ted talks. These are a great round up which includes my favorite Why 30 is not the new 20.

10 things I want my daughter to know about working out- Trying to find a balance between working out for vanity and being healthy has always been a struggle for me. I have always wondered how I would pass along my knowledge to future kiddos. This sums it up perfectly.

An apology to things I used to hate- On a lighter note Dark Chocolate, your amazing.

Signs you are obsessed with your dog- Also a funny one especially if you have a dog or get annoyed by dog owners. Please don't mind that most of my photos now are of Charlie or we have a monthly budget line just for his toys and food that equals what we spend on entertainment. In Joe's words, "You can't put a price on Charlie's happiness." Oh boy are future kids are in trouble....

Hope everyone has an amazing Tuesday!!