New Beginnings

Hi guys,
I know I have been away for a bit. I have honestly had so much going on in my life that I haven't been able to see straight. Now that things have kind of slowed down a bit, I have decided to get back to the hobbies I enjoy. I know you are probably thinking why am I sitting here writing to you if I am trying to enjoy taking on my hobbies again. Well you see, writing this blog is one of my hobbies. It is one that I threw to the way side when things got tough. When all in all, I should have taken the time to write more. It would have helped me through some dark times.

I have started this new lifestyle change and I would really love if you guys would be apart of it with me. Some may call it a diet. Some may call it a fad. It is neither. It is a lifestyle change. I am facing my fitness, my mental and my personal life head on. I am taking the reins back and not cruising on autopilot any more. I am also working on not letting others effect me the way I have let them. I have given too many people full reins of my emotions and allowing them to control how I feel. It wasn't fair to me and it wasn't fair to my family either. For so long I have eternalized others actions, words, and situations and put myself down for it. It was like I was ALWAYS carrying this huge rock on my shoulders and all anyone wanted to do was add more on. I became exhausted with the day to day struggle. I wasn't being the best me I could be. So after some serious soul searching and some recent events that slapped me back into focus, and I mean a literal slap, I am taking back me.

Not the me that I have ever been either. See, I was the kids who would always befriend the ones no one wanted to be friends with. I was the one that got bullied because no one liked me. I was shy, defensive, and to be honest, I was letting my home life effect my social and academics.  I let the situations I was facing at home keep me from being happy. Don't get me wrong, I use to be happy back when I was in like first or second grade and a little before. After then, life in all accounts was literal hell.  Every time I would start being happy, I would sabotage it. I thought I wasn't meant to be happy. That if I was, I was a bad person. That is the kind of mindset I am trying to get myself out of. I deserve to be happy and loved. Heaven knows I haven't even loved myself much either.

That's where I am taking my life in a new direction. I will no longer be the "I'm Sorry Girl" when things that are out of my control happens. I'm not sorry because I have no reason that I should be. I am going to start standing up for myself. It is too exhausting being a doormat that people can walk all over. I deserve better. I deserve more! So I am going to start being a little more selfish. I am going to take a little bit of that happiness I know I deserve. I am going to look in the mirror and be like "hey beautiful, it's a new day!" or "Hay beautiful, I know things are hard now but keep your head up and keep trudging. This wont last forever." Goodbye self-hate monster. Your services are no longer welcome here. Hello to New Beginnings and the adventures that are yet to come!


Above all, don't forget to #SweatPink

My Ideal Race!

Hello everyone,

I am sorry it has been a long time for me to be posting. A lot of things have kept me away recently and I have been longing to come back. I am able to do so here and there but as a mother who works 2 jobs now, it may not be as much as I would like it to be. Anyways, I was recently approached by someone wanting me to do a blog post for you guys to talk about why I race, what have I liked/disliked about some of the races I have gone too and what would be my fairytale race? Well hold on to your seats guys because this is about to get interesting.

Well the first question wanted me to answer why I race. To me that is easy. I am a mother who works 2 jobs and maybe gets 20-25 hours of sleep on any given business week. When I am not working or sleeping, I am playing games with my kids. We love playing soccer and being active. At times though, I need a little bit of ME time. A time that I can be one with myself and screw my head back on straight. I get that by doing races. Especially OCR races. For those of you who don’t know what OCR stands for, it is Obstacle Course Race. Meaning you are not just stuck in one same pattern doing the same step after step for a long distance. You actually run for a designated period then are faced with an obstacle. You then have to figure out how you are going to go over, under, around, or through this said obstacle. If you really look at it, it is kind of like life. It always seems to throw things at us when we least expect it. Leaving us to figure out how to overcome the obstacle at hand. With my life being as scrambled up as it has been lately, it is no wonder why I get the satisfaction of being able to overcome obstacles at a race. It makes me feel like I can get through whatever life throws at me. Its like, scared of heights? Here, go over this 20 foot wall. Claustrophobic? No problem.. go through this tiny tube and crawl 20 yards to the other side.  As in life, you may not like the obstacle or you may fail it a few times but in the end it makes you much stronger than you where before you came across it.

As you guys can read, I have done many races before. I have done all kinds of races like mud runs, color runs, road races and more. I have had mostly good experiences with the races I have done with exceptions to a few incidences. My biggest fear in a race is to be left alone on a course. That is why I normally run with the Lone Star Spartans. More times than not, when participating in races with other people, I end up being left behind or made to feel like I am just holding them back. With LSS, no man is left behind. No matter what happens. I am a country girl and big cities scare the living crap out of me. Especially if I don’t know the city too well. SO going to a race where they shut down parts of the course that runners still have not seemed to make it to, the slower runners like me, make me never want to do that race again. I have had that happen and I was hurt. More than just physically. I mean I know it was my fault for letting myself be talked into a longer distance than I have ever done, and not trained for I might add. But, there were too many times that I found myself in an area where I was not in a good position to be in.. ON COURSE!! To add to my holy-crapness.... the police escorts that were supposed to be encouraging, most were just the opposite. They tried to get me to quit instead of encourage me to keep going. The only one who did was a police officer who runs marathons who was the final one to pull up next to me. He kept playing encouraging music from his patrol car and talked me the whole way. I was crying before he came but was able to push myself through it and not give up.  There have even been races that are extremely hard that have sort of Dropped The Ball so to say, on water stations in a much needed area. I mean if you know an area is in a tough area to be in, and you know there is supposed to be a water station at one point that everyone is looking forward to coming across. Just to find when they get there, no water station is to be found. Causing a good bit of people to get dehydrated and have to have medics come remove them off course. To me that is a HUGE slap in the face and a disappointment to myself if you try your hardest to complete a race only to have to get a medic to come take you off course. Especially with the rates of some of these races nowadays.  I have seen some races go higher than $200 per entry. Let me tell you this, I have hurt myself on course but I drug my foot with cracked bones and torn ligaments for the remaining 3 miles to cross that finish line. I was not about to let all that money go to waste. 

There are some perks to some of the races I have attended. For example, some offer a free are entry if you volunteer. For someone like me who has to rob Peter to pay Paul, that is a HUGE bonus. Some even offer you incentives for getting others to sign up. Like a free race if you get 20 people or more to sign up. I have even seen some give you special VIP treatment if you pay a little extra for there VIP passes. The fun part about most of the races I have done is... You get to dress up without people thinking you are a nut case.  Even though I have thought of me and a friend dressing up like one of us is a doctor while the other is wearing an untied straight jacket. Having the Dr. chase the “Patient.” Now tell me, wouldn’t that be awesome to see? Ok back on topic. LOL. Don’t take my idea for a race costume idea now lol. I’m kidding. If you do however, comment to this post or hit me up on social media with pics cause I soon want to see.  Anyways, I have also quite enjoyed some of the prizes at the end of some of the races and/or the activities they have while in the race. One of the most care-free all out fun races for me happen to be either a Zombie race at night or any that involve foam, black lights, lots of glow sticks... Yep, you guest correctly. I like some of the night races. As long as there is plenty of people and stations that are filled with fun. As you can tell, I am not a long distance road-racer. TBH, I really don’t prefer road races anyways unless there is fun involved. Partly because I get bored WAY to easily and need something to keep me interested. I could never see myself doing a marathon or a Long distance relay like a Capitol To Coast race. I would freak out after mile 3 from being bored. Or worse, if it’s at night and I am someplace I have never been.... Yep! Not for me. 

The final question the was asked of me is, What would be my dream race if I could create one? This one is actually quite difficult to answer because there is so much that I would put into one. Which in turn would make the race way to long for most people to handle or too crammed together to make it a true race. I do know I would love to incorporate obstacles, black lights, glow in the dark apparel for a night race or: obstacles, mud, some water to get you all wet, mud, fun water stations, mud, some team/ group events, tires to flip, pink color somewhere along the way. Oh did I forget to mention MUD! Yes I love muddy races. I am not to gun-hoe about electricity shocking you or terrain that will kill you if you accidentally take a 1/4 of a step off the 1 foot wide path. Heights are okay to an extent. I would make it where it is challenging yet it wouldn’t hinder those who are just starting out. I HATE HATE HATE being in a race and having people bash and trash talk others who are just starting out. The way I see it, there path has just begun. So lots of encouragement along the way would be nice. I would also like a day race to be not just on hard surface but to be on trails as well. Seeing as I prefer to be on trails than road surfaces anyway . So all in all, my day time races would be a mixture of a mud run, OCR, and a color run all rolled into one! Maybe even a couple adult bounce houses thrown into the mix would be awesome! My night race would be an OCR, Foam, blacklight, maybe a Zombie character here and there kind of race. 

I have wrote and rewritten this blog post quite a few times and each time I end up erasing it or Blogger does it for me. Just about my luck TBH.  I think I have finally gotten this post to a point where I can finally take a breath and feel comfortable with posting. If you have any questions or suggestions about this post or any post, drop me a line below and I will respond. Or hit me up on social media ( my info is in the About me section) and we can chat. If you have any ideas on future topics you would like me to discuss, feel free to shoot me a line in either location and we will talk it through. I am always open to new ideas. Especially if it involves trying something I have never tried before or a blogger review. For now, Stay active, Have fun, and most of all, Sweat Pink!

Thinking of putting together your own race? Did my post spark an idea in your head for an awesomely cool race? Well the staff at eventbrite.com are there to help. just follow this LINK to there event management page to help get you started.

Be on the lookout!!

A heart to heart post to come!

Nutrition at it's best! Freekah review and giveaway!

Sorry for the post today guys! My computer bit the dust and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Well, enough with the depressing aspect of the post. Let's get into the reason this post is being created to begin with. 

Recently I had the honor of trying Freekah for the first time. Okay, I have a confession to make about this. sighs! Well, I am addicted to trying new healthy foods! So when I got the message that I was chosen to try Freekah out, I was excited. I admit even if I try a product out for the first time, I may not be as excited about the product afterwards. Is that wrong? Not at all. It means I am human. When trying Freekah however, I was just the opposite! I liked it! 

There were a few things I didn't like about it but the taste wasn't one of them.  I will get into a little more detail about what the pros and cons were in a moment. First lets get a little more info about the origin of Freekah!

Freekah is a middle eastern dish that was discovered over 2,000 years ago. According to the website, it was discovered when farmers wheat crops were accidentally set ablaze. According to Wikipedia, I use it quite often while doing research, The wheat is harvested while the grains are yellow and the seeds are still soft; it is then piled and sun-dried. The piles are then carefully set on fire so only the straw and chaff burn and not the seeds. Then they are sun dried for the flavor. 

So, while most wait until the wheat is brown and the seeds are hard, the Middle East cut some down early to create this dish. Hmmm, maybe they are onto something we are not. 

Freekah is mainly eaten as a breakfast meal but it can be eaten and mixed with basically anything. For example, I ate mine with sautéed mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus, and ground beef. Have to admit, it was good. 

Okay, I know you guys love hearing the pros and cons of things. It helps sell or condemn products. It also helps in deciding whether or not trying the product is worth it. So buckle up buttercups. It's time for the grind of the review!

I will start off with the Pros that i experienced followed by cons. As most who know me know, I am a texture freak! If it's slimy or gritty, nine times out of ten, this chick will not eat it. The texture was that of oatmeal. Not as slimy but had the same consistency. It also absorbed the flavors of the food that it was mixed with while still keeping its own flavor as well. I even gave some to my kids and they ate it. Bonus points for mom! I even made some for my kids for breakfast with a buffet style selection of fruits and nuts for my kids the next morning. They asked for 2nds! Talking about one happy mom! It is also budget friendly as well. For a case of 6, it will cost you $14.50. Each bag is 4 servings. That is about $.60 a serving. More change in the pocket! 

Now for the cons. After opening the bag, I took a big sniff of the content of the bag. It reminded me of bird seed. The whole time I was cooking it, it is cooked just like rice, my house smelled like bird seed. If you like that smell, awesome. I have recently lost my bird so it was a smell that brought back memories. Other than that, I have nothing! This stuff is good! 

Still don't believe me? Want to try it for yourself? Well head on over to my fb page and comment on the picture of Freekah to be entered to win your own! 

important info:

http://www.freekeh-foods.com

https://m.facebook.com/pages/Freekeh-Foods/304009796295786

https://mobile.twitter.com/FreekehFoods

https://www.pinterest.com/freekehfoods/

I was not paid to write this review. I was given the product to try and give an honest review about. All testimonies are from my personal experiences and mine alone!

 

Puritans Pride!!

I’m so excited to fuel my #1MillionMinutes goals with Puritan’s Pride! All summer I plan to train my way to a healthier, fitter me, and I’ll need help staying hydrated and fueled during all my awesome adventures!

 

I will make sure I stay on track and will rely on bcaa's to keep me well fueled before, during and after workouts, and my coconut water to keep me hydrated!

 

I’m most excited to try ISO pure zero carb whey protein isolate and workout stack from Puritan’s Pride because they look amazaballz!

 

One supplement I’ve never tried but am curious about is 7-keto DHEA. I think it might make me extra awesome!

Bring it, #1MillionMinutes! I’m ready to go!

Bounce Bounce!

I have just 3 words to say about this! Bounce House 5k. I am just kidding. I have way more to say about this race than that. I had the privilege to be able to participate in the Insane Inflatable 5k OCR race. Let me tell you what, this race makes you feel like a kid again. 

Okay now into what you guys really want to know about. The race itself. Well, after arriving at the race site and paying our $10 fee to park, we walked up to the venue. Check in was kind of, how do I say this, cluster of crazy! With this race I highly recommend coming at least an hour before your race. I say this because their where only 4 lanes open to register people in. If you missed your wave from standing in the lines for like forever, then you where denied the privilege to race. To me that is crap because most people got their 30 min. early and missed there wave by 5 minutes and where denied entry because of this. They at least should have a designated wave at the end for those who couldn't make it to registration on time. So many people were angry and to be honest, I really don't blame them. I got their 2 hours early and it took me 45 min to get to the registration person. Other than that, the race wasn't that bad. Not saying it was horrible but it wasn't the best either. To get into the corral to do your wave, you were squeezed into the corral that was not big enough to fit everyone that was in that time slot but we all had to fit so we could run our waves. I got my rear grabbed quite a few times and my boobs a few well. So I stood as close as I could to my team mate Peggy. Making sure to hold hands so we didn't get separated by people trying to push into the starting area. 

Once race started, it was kind of fun. Well other than the lines and the kid at the Big Balls obstacle. Throwing a ball as hard as he could and hitting my team mate in the face with it. I wanted to pull that kid aside and give him a few words but we just left it to keep from getting even madder. When I mean lines, I mean you are waiting from 10-45 min per obstacle. They were fun yet if we had to wait any longer for some of them, we would have just gone around them like others did. The one that was the funniest, yet the worst was the finish line. The volunteers where making everyone take off their shoes. Most people waited to take them off till they were at the front ready to go on. This made the line a 45 min wait to do the only obstacle you couldn’t go around. My favorite one happened to be the wettest. It was called Jump Around. Let’s just say I dodged the gun on this by maybe a foot or 2. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

So all in all it was a fun race. A little unorganized and the volunteers needed a little more supervision. Other than that it was fun. Makes me want to do it again! 

Warrior Dash Race Recap. Muddiest Mud Run I have ever done!

I am so sorry for being absent lately. Lives has hit me so hard lately and have had to take a breather from everything I hold passion for. Unfortunately my blog was one of those passions. Now. I have to play catch up to make sure everything is caught up and posted.  With that being said, Time for some awesome reviews. 

Okay this first race I will be talking about will have any lean freak cringing and wanting to jump in the shower from just reading. Those of those who love to get a little dirt behind our ears, listen up. It is called the warrior dash. When you look at their site, it talks about how it is a mud run/OCR. Is what they didn't tell you is the entire race was in mud. Not bad at all but very interesting at the least. It was raining, and muddy everywhere. From the driveway, to the parking, to the entire race. A dream for a country girl like me. Other than the part where my car had to be towed out. I will go into that later on. Okay we get there and if you can make it into your parking spot without sliding into another car you are good. I was very disappointed with the people directing people to park cause they had me park where they were directing the other 4x4's and not where they were letting the small cars park. This was on the far side of the field, the farthest away from the venue. So by the time I got done, there was only 1 truck around me and my tires where sunk into the ground. So when it came to parking, they really dropped the ball on it. I was thinking to myself that if the race was going to be as bad as it was the parking, I was not going to be happy. 

After the not so easy walk to the venue, and being yelling at the "police officer" who was directing traffic for slipping and falling on the walk across the road to the venue, I finally made it to the festivities. Other than it being true to its name of being an MUD RUN, it was actually pretty cool. They offered everyone powder to keep from chafing in the wet conditions. Every participant got a shirt, medal, an awesome looking hat, free adult beverage at the end. I ended up giving my beer ticket away because I don't drink beer. Would have been awesome if they had something for those that didn’t drink but hey, no one else does. SO us who don't drink just deal with it and give away our ticket. I missed my wave time cause of the 3 hour wait my teammates had to wait in the long line of cars for parking but we finally got onto the course. 

To me it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Well other than EVERYTHING being an obstacle. From the hills, to the entire trail lol. The obstacles were challenging for every fitness level which is what you come to expect at any OCR. The lines where not long at them either. This is because they were spread out enough that there was no time to really build up lined to get into the obstacle. My favorite one happened to be pipeline Followed closely by the Goliath. I wasn't too fond of the 20+ foot wall you had to climb with the rope but heh, to each his own lol. The funnest, or should I say funniest, was going down a hill across the little creek and back up the other side. I was lucky to make it down before it happened. It allowed me to watch what happened Well all of us where treading along the sides to keep from slipping. Well most of us. One decided to slide on her rear while there where others walking in front of her. Let’s say it looked like domino's toppling all over each other. It kind of upset me that this woman did this because someone could have gotten really hurt. If she knew she was going to slide on her rear, she should have waited till everyone was off the path first. My friend had to jump off the path and almost hurt herself trying to avoid the avalanche of people. The fire jump as kind of funny cause me and my team-mate, ran up to it, turned around and warmed our butts before finally jumping over it. Hey we were cold lol. 

So other than other people's stupidity, the course was actually kind of fun. The Alcatraz was actually pretty fun as well other than with it raining; I was not going to risk it. So I swam around it. Crossed the finish line and got my medal. So all in all the race itself was pretty well organized and put together. Now for the part about getting stuck. After helping 3 people out by pushing their cars through the mud until they got traction, started heading to where we parked. My team mates where parked where the rest of the cars were parked and were able to get out fairly easily. Well other than where the dumb truck owners where "mudding" causing huge ruts in the drive path. I got half way to my car and noticed a jeep coming behind me carrying someone on the side of their jeep. I asked for a ride as I was parked a pretty good distance away still. I stood on the side of this guy’s jeep while the other guy stood on the other. We were betting on who was parked further. Can you guess who was? That's right, I won that bet. Due to all the ruts made by the trucks doing donuts in the pasture, we were constantly landing in them and getting covered in mud. I swear I got more mud on me in the parking area then I did on course. Anyways, I finally made it to my car, Changed clothes and started trying to get out because I had a 3 hour drive home to get to work. Of course my little Honda Accord Got stuck not even 10 yards from where I was parked. So did the 4x4 truck of the other guy I was riding with. He was fortunate to have the jeep owners get him out with a wench. I on the other hand was able to flag down a tracker to pull me to the gravel area. I want to thank the mystery guy in the silver truck for trying to help me till he got stuck and for the 2 guys in the red jeep who gave me a ride to my car. Without them, I doubt I would have gotten out because it was that far from everyone else. I wouldn't have been seen. 

So a recap of my experience, the ace itself was great. They do however need to work on their parking for next year because it royally sucked. They dropped the ball on that part of it.  Would I recommend this race to others? Yes I would in a heartbeat. I would just recommend that if they will be in a pasture to please carpool with someone who has a 4x4. 

*I had to use a lot of pictures from the website because my camera got broken at the race and all the pictures I took were lost :(* I was not paid for my opinions. These are from my own experiences.