......and I'm back!

Back to work, back to wearing makeup, no more wearing yoga pants, or eating gluten free pizza... Yup my mini vacation is over. Sad Face!!! I can now start counting down to my next time off of work during Thanksgiving. That will actually be my birthday weekend also so I took an extra day off on the end of the normal Thanksgiving holiday to celebrate :) T-minus 7 weeks to go! But I digress... Lets focus on the new week at hand and join Melyssa at the Nectar Collective to go over some of my weekly wishes!

Last week I had high hopes for getting a lot done around the house. I didn't get to clean out my closet but I did do a little shopping (YAY!) and got a ton of laundry and cleaning done. So I can't complain there. I ran 21 miles and was super productive at work (all 3 days ;) ). It was a great week overall!!

This week looks a little like this:

1- Kick butt back at the gym. I am switching programs starting this week. It's back to heavy weight training again. I've spent the past two months doing a lot of running and body weight training. I will spend the next two months lifting weights at the gym and very little running. I go back and forth like this every two months to keep my body guessing and always make it a challenge. I LOVE this part of my training. It is so satisfying to lift more than you ever thought you could... To see the muscles growing fast in your body... To have people at the gym see you with a fat barbell up on your shoulders. So fun! The first few weeks however are always killer. When I first started back to running my muscles felt so strong and heavy and it made running feel so hard. Like I was lugging around two weights around for legs. But as the months progressed I started feeling lighter and lighter. It was easy for me to run again and my joints were loosening up. In fact yesterday I ran my first 7 miles ever! And I actually didn't die! Which is awesome...until its time to lift heavy again. It will be a few weeks until my body is comfortable with the motions and amounts of weights I have planned for it. But this "keep the muscles guessing" is what works best for my body. So c'mon week..bring it on!

                                  

                                               7 Miles from my house and around the lake and back!

.

2- I want to get a lot of devotional time in this week. I crave it and need to feed the craving. This desire is as simple as that. Read, write, pray, soak in the Spirit,listen to studies, read the Bible. I have a whole lot of that planned for me this week and I am so looking forward to it!

Pretty much sums it up!

3- I know the holidays are still a little ways away but I like to spread my spending out over a few months.. So this week I want to start brainstorming things I want to get for my family. They are so hard to buy for so I need some serious inspiration this week! PS they already have holiday decorations up at Michaels!!!! OMG a little to soon people!

Really Michaels?? Realllly???

4- Keep it simple! I want to stay in my zen vacation mode so less is more this week. Have fun, relax, be kind, and stay me! 

 What are your wishes for this week??? I hope you have a fantastic 7 days planned too!!

xoxo
Katie 

Unexpected (but very welcome) Guests

Happy Friday ya'll!

...Oh wait its only Thursday.. That short week last week is all sorts of messing me up! Ok then Happy Thursday! 2 more days until another hot weekend here in SoCal. The past few days we cooled down a bit here which has been heaven sent. I am more ready for Fall than ever. I went to a friends house at the beach on Tuesday night and was able to wear my UGGS and a sweatshirt!!!! It was glorious I tell you! And the little taste of cool weather only made me want it more.

View from my dinner at my friends on Tuesday :)

So something in the blog world happened to me yesterday. Something I was so not prepared for. The oh so famous blogger Skinny Meg mentioned one of my posts "Lunch Break Workout" in her weekly workout posts!!! You guys I was shocked. I was minding my own business just doing my usual morning blog reading loop. And BAM there was MY picture on her page! I was confused for a second because hello that must not be right. I am new to blogging and was so not prepared for the traffic that would bring. Don't get me wrong I was jumping for joy all day! But at the same time it was like OMG I am so not ready for this moment (in a good way)! Like when you move into a new house and haven't gotten to unpack quite yet and ALL of your new neighbors stop by. You weren't expecting guests or else you would have thrown some pictures up on the wall or something! That's how I felt. Since starting the blog I have wanted to make sure that everything on here I was proud of (well except for that awful picture of Zoodles haha!). I didn't want to just post something to fill space. Which is why I haven't quite gotten to write my "About Me" page or spruce up some other things I'd like done. I want this blog to be genuinely ME and no one else. That being said I hope that anyone who stopped by my page was not wondering where the rest of my site was. If you came back today don't fret! It will be up very soon!!! Don't leave me! :) If you want to check the Skinny Meg blog post I am referring to please go check it out here "Workout Wednesday". You should really read her page daily if you don't already. Mama Laughlin and Skinny Meg were some of the first blogs I was reading regularly and they never fail to inspire and entertain!!

In other news I had a great run last night. It was the first time in a while that I have felt loose, not sluggish and not achy the whole time I run. My workouts go back and forth between weight training with heavy weights and running with body weight exercises. So I will go about 2 months doing heavy weights with short cardio warmups (10-20 minutes light jogging) and then for the next 2 months I do a lot of running and body weight training. So right now I am in my running / body weight training phase. More specifically I do one week of only running where the mileage is key. The more the better. Then the next week I will run about 2 miles then do a 30 minute circuit workout (usually at the beach or a local park to keep the scenery nice). I go back and forth between those two each week.

So this week is the mileage week. Ever since my last round of weight training my legs have felt so heavy and well... heavy. That's the best way to describe it. Its like I was lugging around two bricks with me. I'm not sure if the weight training had tightened me up or what but last night was the first night they felt almost back to normal. I know I need to be better at stretching during all phases of my workouts. Maybe that would help the transition from one phase to the next be a little less painful? Does this happen to any of you??

Are you one of the people that are visiting from skinny Megs post? Leave me a comment! I would love to hear from you!

Until Next Time,

xoxo

Katie

Weekly wishes & a secret about me.....

Happy Monday!!


So here is a little secret about me... I love making lists! (not as juicy as you had hoped for is it??). So when I saw the Weekly Wishes Linkup with Melyssa I knew I had to be a part of it! I had such a great weekend with family and close friends so I am going to try my best to make it another awesome week!!

So here are some of my goals for the week:

           1- Get in at least 12 miles of running between today and Sunday. In theory that should be pretty easy this week as my schedule isn't as busy as it has been (YAYYYY). Things always seem to creep up and get in the way of workouts though so I have to make it a priority and just do it! I also plan on doing so body weight training mixed in there (hopefully at least 3 days of this??). I will do a post on some of my favorite body weight exercises soon too!
       
           2- I want to try and write at least 4 blog posts this week. I am still getting into the groove of writing daily and fitting it in my schedule. I love writing though and am trying to do a better job of doing things I love! I hope to also get some extra posts written for a lazy rainy day when I can't get a blog post written. I also want to work on filling in parts of my blog that I still haven't gotten to.... like the "about me" section... Because I know you all are dying to know more :)

           3- This is a big one for me... This week I really want to find some people to inspire, encourage and uplift! It is SUCH an amazing feeling when you can bless someone else. I am not sure how this will look exactly this week, but God always makes an opportunity for us to show up and share his love... so I will spend my week being in the moment, actively paying attention to those around me and asking the Holy Spirit how I can help! Oh and you better believe I will report back to you on my stories that come from this! Pressures on now! ;)


What are your goals for this week??? How often do you make times to do things you love??

Go visit Melyssa at The Nectar Collective for more weekly wishes!