I got a Pocket of Sunshine!

What a weekend it has been. To add to it all, the weekend is nowhere near over. Honestly, it hasn't been a good one. The bad part is, it seems to be one let down after another. Like I can't get out of this rut I am in and get a break. Even if it is just a little one, it would be a blessing. I know we all have been in these ruts before and we all will overcome them. Rather it is because you are doing everything you possibly can to lose weight and the scale and tape measure are seeming to be locked on 1 number.  Or you are hoping for a certain promotion or opportunity that always seems to pass you by. We all have been their and honestly, at times, it feels like we are always stuck in that one rut. When we finally get that little bit of an up and start moving again, we fall back down into a deeper rut that is worse than the one before. I honestly have been their. Lots of times, it feels like I am joining you in the exact same spot. I get discouraged because I try my hardest to lose weight and the numbers never seem to change much. That and a lot of stress that has been added to my life lately. To be honest, it really makes me feel like the light in the end of the tunnel doesn't want to be gotten. Like it is running away from me to make sure I never get to my dream or where I want to be.

When I get into this rut and feel that I have nowhere else to go but to give up and take what hell has been given to me till it eats me away, I sit back and take a deep breath and say the following from a song I have fallen in love with just because of the lyrics that follow.

I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine
I got a love and I know that it's all mine, oh, oh
Do what you want, but you're never gonna break me
Sticks and stones are never gonna shake me, oh, oh

I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine
I got a love and I know that its all mine, oh, oh
Wish that you could, but you ain't gonna own me
Do anything you want, you can't slow me down, oh no

 The reason for the kids version is this is the one my children sing :)

This reminds me that no matter how hard and unfair life gets, their is always a little "Pocket of Sunshine" close by waiting to be found. You just have to close your eyes and open your heart to find it. This little "Pocket of Sunshine" you will find, is the love you have for yourself. It is a very hard lesson to learn that in the end, their is no one but you. Now before you get all mad and close this post, please read why I say this.  When I mean that in the end, it is only you who can make you truly happy. Others can assist but if you aren't happy with yourself then you always find yourself back in the same hurtful place as you where before. Please don't get me wrong, I struggle with this all the time. I have had years of being made to feel like I would never amount to much and have always been made to feel bad about myself. As most of my really close friends and readers have learned about me is to this day, I am still made to feel inferior to others. I get this from my In Laws and other family members. I have had dreams and plans that have seem to get put down and shattered at every turn till I have had to come to the reality that in the end, it's only me. I have spent so long believing what others say about me that I have lost myself. Lost what makes me happy and lost sight of what my dreams are. Only recently have I started to figure out that I am not what everyone says I am.

Yes I still fall back into the rut where I feel like I will not amount to much but then I see my children's faces. This is my "Pocket of Sunshine", what makes me happy. Seeing that no matter what anyone says to me or tries to crush who I am inside, their are 3 wonderful souls who love me for me. Not for what I look like or how little I have accomplished in life. They love me for me and they are, by far, my greatest accomplishment. If you don't remember anything else about this blog post, please remember that you are never truly alone. Someone has been in your shoes and walked the same path you have. Maybe not at the same time or place, but their is always someone who has walked those rough miles like you have. Some may have thought to take "the easy way out" while some have walked it and finally found that light at the end of the tunnel and found that courage to lift their head up high. To finally feel that sun on their face and feel the warmth of accomplishment and self love. Once you find that, you will notice things aren't as bad as they seem. You will finally have your own "Pocket of Sunshine"

I was honored and surprised to be nominated for the sunshine award by my very own mentor and friend Joanna Broadbent from Sports Bras and Sippy Cups!   The award is circulated to those bloggers to let them know that their posts brighten your day. I honestly wasn't expecting it and to be honest, I never really thought I could bring a bit of sunshine to someone before. Since I got the nomination, I have noticed more and more people telling me how empowering and inspirational some of my posts are. I am honored to be able to pass on this sunshine award to fellow bloggers.

The Rules:
1.  Include award logo in a post or on your blog (I opted to do both)
2.  Link to the person who nominated you – Joanna Broadbent from Sports Bras and Sippy Cups!
3.  Answer 10 questions about yourself that the person who niminated you asks.

4.  Nominate 10 bloggers to receive the award. (make sure to link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs letting them know you have nominated them)

Joanna's questions for me are:

1. What made you start blogging? Back in January, I was told that I had to change the way I was living or I would end up following in my fathers footsteps. (He had a heart attack at 30 years old) I have 3 beautiful children and I want to be here for as long as I can. 

2. What is one of your favorite kid movies? I am stuck between 2 on this question so I am going to write about both lol. I really like Despicable Me and Brave. Both are really cute and they are just awesome.

3. If you could live in any State, where and why? This for me is another tough question because their are 2 types of places I have always dreamed of. One place is anywhere on ocean front. I have dreamed for the longest to work with marine animals and I have a strong passion for them. The second place is anywhere with a beautiful mountain view that is surrounded by woods. I have had dreams of waking up one morning and making some coffee then wrapping up in a warm blanket and with my blanket and coffee in a wooden porch swing overlooking a snow covered mountain  and watching the forest animals play in the snow. 

4. Do you prefer hot or cold weather? I honestly like them both. I love warm days with a nice breeze blowing and I like cold days wrapped up in a blanket in front of a fire. 

5. What is one of your favorite indulgent treats? Chocolate. I LOVE chocolate. It is one of those treats that is really hard to say no to. Which is part of the reason why I am very excited about doing the Hot Chocolate Race :) I get to run for Chocolate. What better treat is their? 

6. If you get a week’s vacation, all paid, where are you going?  I am going to say... Either Scotland or Ireland. I am Scottish and Bohemian and my husband is Irish so I would love to visit them and get to see where I have come from and my heritage.

7. Who has been your biggest life inspiration? My children are hands down my biggest life inspiration. They are what keep me going when I am ready to give up. 

8. Name one thing that terrifies you. My biggest fear that wakes me up in the middle of the night crying is the thought of something happening to my kids or me to where I can't be their for them. If I am not here to protect them, honestly who will?  They are my world and I will do anything to protect them. 

9.  Do you have any nicknames, if so, what are they? Yes, actually I have 2 nicknames. They are Aphrodite and Stormy. Very long story on how I got these two. It would take hours of reading to even skim the surface of both lol.

10. If you won the lottery and was to donate part of your winnings, who would you choose to donate to? I would have to say that is I won the Lottery, I would donate part of my winnings to the St. Jude's Hospital. I love children and when they are in pain, it hearts my heart real deep. SO I would gladly donate to them to help find cures to stop childhood diseases and Cancers. 

The blog's I nominate are:

1. Leafy Not Beefy

2. Whole In Three Six Five

2. Mice In The Kitchen

3. Fit Running Mama

4. For Two Fitness

5. Mindy's Fitness Journey

6. Fitness Mom In Wine Country

7. Fitness, Health and Happiness

8. Run With Kate

9. Tough Chick

10.Travels With Mary

My Questions are:

1. What is the most memorable thing you have ever done?

2. What has been one of the hardest things you have experienced in your health/ fitness?

3. If your life where a movie title, what would it be called?

4. If you could have anything for your birthday, what would you ask for?

5. If you were to get a call today from your dream job saying you where hired, where would you be working?

6. If you where to win the Lottery, what would be the first thing you spent it on?

7. If you could go to any time or place, where and why would you go?

8. If you could give yourself your own name or nickname, what would that name be?

9. What is your dream living place? 

10. If the world where to experience a natural disaster (god forbid) what kind do you think it would be and how do you think you would survive it?

These awards help me get to know my fellow blogger and allows me to show appreciation to those who inspire me. So this is an honor to pass on this award to 10 inspirational bloggers. Congratulations!

Looking for workouts in all the wrong places

I know I have been working out with HHA now for 3 months and not really seeing much results. I am also doing the wave workout. You would think that with me doing these daily, along with the races, that I would be losing inches and showing some sort of progress. Well, after talking to a friend, she thought she may have a little bit of a solution. My body has gotten use to the workouts. With this being said, I need to start looking in right places to get ideas for my workouts and possibly even taking on a meal replacement shake durring the day to use as my lunch (post workout) meal.


With this being said, here is where I am reaching out to you, my loyal readers. I am looking for more intense workouts and meal replacement shake ideas/ product testing. With me not having enough calories and macros in my diet, I could use the shakes to help with my weight-loss. If anyone has any ideas or knows a company that is looking for someone to product test their shakes, meals, or work outs, please let me know. I would be very interested in talking to them. Thank you a lot and hope your week is fun and your fitness journey goes the way you dream it to go :)

Hot Chocolate 5k/15k

I Scream.. You scream.. We all scream for… HOT CHOCOLATE!

Yes oh yes, you did read that right. I will run for Hot Chocolate or for any chocolate for that matter. This year I have the opportunity to run for this decadent treat in Dallas Texas. How do I get this opportunity? With the HOT CHOCOLATE 5K/15K that is how.  Oh yes, if you are like me, I can guarantee that I have you up on the edge of your seats wanting to know more. Well here is something that I can bet will seal the deal even more…. In most races, you get a shirt to wear for your race, a race bib, and possibly a little bottle of bubbly afterwards. Not this race! You get a hot Chocolate Hoody, Your race bib, and at the finish line……. Okay enough of the wait lol, you get a cup of Hot chocolate, Banana and even more chocolate goodness.  This is the deal sealer for me.  This s part of the reason I became a Hot Chocolate Blogger. I not only because I get to know all the yummy details about the race, but I also get to work with these wonderful people throughout the year.  For some bloggers like me, this is just as exciting as the race itself. The People you meet while being an Ambassador, allows you to get to know others and form a friendship you really couldn’t get much anywhere else.

The Hot Chocolate 5K and 15K is currently in 14 cities. These cities include Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and St. Louis.  The Dallas race, the one closest to me, will be on February 8, 2014. Making this race America’s Sweetest Race!

Another reason why I am honored to be a Hot Chocolate blogger is because of the charity they are raising funds for, The Ronald McDonald House of Dallas Texas. You guys know how I love to support charity’s that involve children. Mostly because I have 3 kids and would never want anything to happen to them. If their where something wrong, charities like the Ronald McDonald House would be there to help.  So any race I can run to support a charity like that, I would do it proudly.

 Race Course

This race looks like it would be so much fun to do. I mean seriously, an awesome charity to help amazing kids, and Hot Chocolate and goodies at the end. Not to mention the awesomely awesome race sweatshirt you get in your goody bag.  Sign me up! Now that I have shown you all the goodies and information I can, wouldn’t you like to come run this with me? Well then, head on over to the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K and get signed up. AS an added bonus, sign up using the code DALMUG5 and get an awesome travel mug so you can drink Hot Chocolate anytime the craving arises. (this code doesn't limit you to the Dallas race, you get the cup goodies when you use this code to sign up for any race)

That are you waiting for, go take a look!  ^^^^^ Finish Line Goodies^^^^^

So sorry guys. Sick child equals absent momma

As most of you have read from my Facebook status, My 4 year old has been pretty ill for the past 3 weeks. It started with strep, where they have found lumps in his tummy. Then for the past week, he was running up to 104 degree temp for 5 days in a row. I am so sorry for letting you guys sit their hanging but I have been focusing on my baby to get him better. I will be catching up on my posts these next few days. So keep your eyes open because I have a post about food, and socks a few other exciting items of interest coming out within these next few days. Love you all and again, I am sorry for being absent.

Color Run, Funner Run!

As most of you have read, I recently had the honor of participating in the Color Run in Austin Texas. I have to admit, this race was a blast. From the time I arrived to the time I left, I had lots of fun. I had ran it with my 3 children and it has to be the most fun I have had in a race so far. I think this is the case because I am not as scared and nervous before each race like I have been before. Is what set this race apart from the race was the staff.  All of the staff went out of their way to make sure everyone had a great time. From the littlest, to the off the couch to the more experienced runners. They took it upon themselves to try to insure all had fun. I really do have to admit, my favorite of the staff and the race was the DJ. He made it so much fun for all ages. My son has his frisbee taken from him while we were in the area in front of the stage and he went out of his way to make sure my son got a new one. This was a huge deal for my 4 year old son. This is a huge part of the reason why this has become my favorite of the races I have participated in so far.  I have never been to a race that took that much care into making all of their participants happy and having a great time. I will definitely be making this a yearly event for me and my family.

Now it is time to really get down to the Nitti Gritty part of this post. The actual events that took place on September 7^th 2013.  I arrived the morning of the race around 4 am while they were still taping off the race course and setting up.  Even though we had gotten lost on the way there, I will totally get into all of that towards the end of this post, I was not tired. I decided then to go try to see if they needed any help setting up or anything. At this time I helped them set up their swag booth and their final water station. I got to meet the wonderful staff of this race and by doing so, I knew that this race was going to be different than the races I have participated in before. The race started about 8:15 am and my middle daughter decided to run it with my sister’s best friend who has the nickname “fancy pants” So It left me, Jill, my oldest daughter and my son to walk jog the race. I wasn’t able to run this race due to me hurting my leg yet again not even a week before the race. So I stayed with my son. This was an eventful experience to really say the least. See, my son loves to run but he was really tired so he was whining. About ¼ of a mile into the race he was looking back behind him as he was running and saying “I am a champion” when disaster struck. He toppled over and skinned his knee, which made the rest of the race a little slower than normal but it was worth it.  I tied my bandana around his bleeding leg and gave him my sweat band and we started again.  My son’s favorite color was the blue. He called it “magic healing blue” The best part he loved was at the color stations there was music that he knew so he was singing through all the stations. There was one lady who was running through a station and the volunteer didn’t put the lid on the bottle all the way so she ended up with a face full of powder. This did not make her happy at all. It was an easy mistake but it was not a pretty site.  Anyways my daughter, who I am very very proud of, finished her race in ……. Wait for it……….. Keep waiting for it………….35 min! Oh yes, I am one proud mama.

Anyways, it took the rest of us an hour to finish walking the race but we didn’t care how long it took us. We were having way too much fun. The after party was a blast, in more ways than one. Not only did I get some awesome pictures but the kids had a TON of fun dancing to the music and watching everyone have fun. There was a few times that we had to step away from the stage because we couldn’t breathe due to all of the powder and there was a few times, I even caught myself throwing up from inhaling it.  This occurred because of all the people so close together, all throwing powdered color into the air to the point it was too dense to even breathe. This had nothing to do with the race itself but it was something that had us getting out of the after party sooner than later due to my 3 kids and making sure they were okay.  I am very happy for the experiences of this race and really wouldn’t change much about it other than their needed to be seating for people to sit at after the race or for those who were waiting on their racers to cross the finish line. I honestly recommend this race to everyone. It is fun, upbeat and it was well organized.  From the water monsters full of water at the water stations to the DJ who was having a great time entertaining everyone.  If you have never done a race like this before, I highly recommend you doing this one. It doesn’t matter if you are a couch potato or a seasonal runner, you can either run or walk this race and still have lots of fun. If this is a race you would like to do, and trust me you would love it, then head on over to the Color Run website and sign up for a race near you. 

After the race was exciting to say at best. The clean up. It took all of us 3 days to get the color off of our skin and hair. I bathed all 3 kids as soon as we got home and my tub turned purple. You can even see where my children's bottoms where in the tub. Jill, had her ankle looking like she got into a fight with a bunch of ninjas and lost, while my arms and other places, looked like I was beaten. I guess that is what happens when you are fair skinned. My girls, Still to this day, have pink in their hair. It has been 4 weeks since the race and it is still pink. Oh well, they really wouldn't change it for anything.  The charity that was sponsored for this race was Color Cancer. They offered race bracelets for those who wanted to run for someone who had or is fighting cancer. I honestly feel strongly for this because of the cancer that has run in my family. It makes me feel honored to be participating in a race that helps charity's that sponsor a charity.

 

Now, for the fun part of the post. I said earlier in the post about  how we got lost, yeah I would say we got lost. Due to construction going on, the road we were suppose to take, was blocked so we ended up driving around Austin for 30 min. First, we stopped by IHOP thinking, someone around here should know where the civic center was? Man where we wrong. Other than getting hit on and flirted with, they sent us on a wild goose chase. So we decided to stop by a gas station. This poor clerk could barely speak English and didn't know at all where we were looking for.  We had to finally stop by the hospital and get directions from the Police officer on staff. Hey, we at least got to see the capital. lol. We were very glad we left as early as we did and have determined that My son may not be running the next race I have next month. I really hope you guys have enjoyed my post. Don't forget to eat right, get plenty of exercise and as always, sweat pink :)