Sometimes I feel like my blog posts don’t give you a good idea of what life is really like these days for me. So instead of giving you a recipe, a shoe review, or what I’m loving lately (even though I do love writing all of those posts too), I’m giving you a run down on what I’ve been up to.
Work Life
Currently I have multiple jobs–all of which I love. I primarily stay at home with Cullen during the week and work at Skinny Raven Sports on the weekends. I work on the sales floor selling shoes, which is so fun because I get to talk about running all day. Plus, I love my coworkers and the atmosphere of where we work; it’s really a dream job. I also am a coach for two training groups we have going on through the store. Right now we have the Raven Run Club and an Intro to Run group. I coach 3-4 sessions per week either before Craig goes to work in the morning or after he gets home in the evening. It gets to be a lot of tag-teaming, but we make it work.
During the week–along with watching Cullen, I am working on this blog and everything that goes with that: keeping it up-to-date, posting on Instagram, working to improve my website, and updating Facebook.
I also have several athletes who I coach online. I am constantly checking in with them, updating their plans, FaceTiming with them, reevaluating their plan to ensure I am doing everything I can to help them reach their goals.
Finally, my work with Beautycounter is another job I work on during the week in between everything else. I continue to love the products Beautycounter produces and want to share that love with you guys.
Running Life
I was really struggling with my running the first few months after the Twin Cities Marathon. I still don’t know why. I usually give myself a month to recover after a marathon, but this lull lasted much longer. I finally felt like I turned a corner shortly after the new year and have been feeling much better. I haven’t nailed every workout, but in general things have been much better.
I was hoping to hit 60 miles last week, but it didn’t happen, so I’m trying again this week. The snow and cold are getting to me, and I am ready to be done running on the ice and snow and multiple layers every day.
I posted this video on Instagram, which is a great place to follow me for daily updates, but I had to share this vide here because I’m really proud of being able to get flat with this ab roller. I continue to lift twice a week, which I know I’m in the minority for enjoying. I usually drop Cullen off at the child care and take the time to stretch, foam roll, lift, and do core work. I always have intentions of doing these things at home, but that rarely happen.
Family Life
With my work schedule, Craig and I don’t get a lot of time together, but we try to use our free evenings to do something. Tonight we’re going to have a family date night, and Craig is off on Monday as well for President’s Day, so we’ll be able to hang out then as well. Plus, we have a family vacation coming up in a couple of weeks, which we are stoked about!
Otherwise, like I mentioned before there is a lot of tag teaming, as we each carve out time to go to the gym, spend time with friends, doing our respective hobbies, and our work schedules.
Food
I feel like this is an ever-changing target as more research is done and the scandals in previous “research” are revealed. Craig has been listing to multiple podcasts and audio books such as The Big Fat Surprise and The Case Against Sugar and opened my eyes to what I may have previously thought was correct. As we know, the trend has been moving away from “fat is bad,” and I have been trying to not worry if I eat full-fat Greek yogurt, half an avocado, nuts and nut butter, cream in my coffee, and oil on my salads. In addition, the importance of protein (and specifically animal protein) seems to be something that hasn’t had enough emphasis on. I’ve never been a vegetarian, but I have been trying to eat more meat–especially meat from my parent’s farm and the meat Craig has hunted. Finally, I remember learning in my nutrition class that sugar is empty calories, but it has now been said that not only is sugar empty calories, it is also toxic to the body. Craig has cut out sugar from his diet (no desserts, very little fruit, no dried fruit, no sugar-added yogurts, no BBQ sauce, or anything of this nature) a year ago and lost 40 pounds in 2017. I haven’t been that diligent, but I have tried to be more mindful of the sugars and carbs I have been consuming.
Hopefully this gives you a little glimpse on our life. I might have to start incorporating more recaps on our daily life because I think those are fun to read, and it helps give you an idea of what we are up to!
Sugar is a hard thing to be mindful of. It’s something I’ve especially tried to be conscious of with my son. He didn’t have any sugar until his first birthday, and then he didn’t really like it. He loves plain yogurt, oatmeal with a little fruit (and no sweetener of any type), and a few other things most people prefer to be sweetened. We’re just going with it as long as we can! Little man does like dessert now though, haha. I’ve always been curious though about people cutting out fruit completely or mostly. That’s not a criticism, just a statement. Something to read more about!
Craig will have fruit occasionally, but the thing to remember is that your body recognizes sugar as sugar. It doesn’t matter if the sugar is coming from fruit, an unrefined sugar, a dessert, all-natural sugar, etc., your body sees it–and processes it–the same.
I’m on the same page as Craig- no sugar, only a little bit of fruit. I’ve been doing it for three years now and it has made a huge difference in my life, healthwise. Psychologically it also feels good to have broken that addiction. Glad your running is going well again!
Did you go cold-turkey or slowly wean yourself off? What was the hardest sugar-item to give up?