New workout routine

I have been fighting for the past 9 months to 1) find motivation to move forward in my weight loss journey & 2) to lose weight. So back in September/October 2012 time frame I decided to get set up with the trainer at the gym on base so I could get a more focused routine and plan. It seems like ever since I did that I fit problem after problem trying to get in the way of staying on track. But over all I finished the first 6 weeks of his program of daily weight training and 40 minutes of endurance cardio. I of course didn’t lose a pound but I did improve my flexibility a bit, increased my strength some and best of all went from a VO2 pathetic score to being VO2 elite. (VO2 a measure of your cardiorespiratory fitness level) So not all was lost, some things were moving forward, and now I ran about a 5K daily, took on the stair master and could start to see some muscle definition.

With the first 6 weeks done, it was time to switch weight training up and push harder in cardio. Time to move forward – insert here: more shin splints, hip pain and weakness, physical therapy for hip, family visiting, the holidays, and 2 allergic reactions. Working out and losing weight was a mini rollercoaster, up a few pounds then back down to my plateau weight, up a few, down a few, and return to my plateau weight. Im so tired of feeling like this battle is never going to be over. I have to change something to move forward.

My sister-in-law with the start of her weight loss journey has inspired me to hop back on the wagon, but this time I am trying something different, I am going back to the basic with my cardio and pushing myself more in strength training. Back in the beginning of 2012 I lost 34 pounds and have at least managed to keep it off and at that time I was learning to run. So, run a little, walk a lot, trying to improve my time and distance for a July 5K. I never kept track of my heart rate then, even though I was encouraged to, things were going good. Therefore, I am slowing down and paying attention to my heart rate with a new routine.

The new plan:

Keep my heart rate at about 70% for a 2 mile, 30 minute walk, checking my heart rate at about every half mile.

I have also compiled a strength training routine for the week too, my goal here is to improve each week on either the count, time, or modification (doing straight leg arm dips, straight leg push-ups, adding weights, etc.)

Monday – Arm dips, push-ups, bicycle crunches, plank, jack knife crunches

Tuesday – Jump squats, lunges, calf raises, bridge side crunches

Wednesday – Superman, Russian twist, inclined push-up, mountain climbers

Thursday – Glute kickbacks, inner thigh raise, side leg raise w/ half circle, pile squats, side plank

Friday – Wall sit, plank, burpees, squats, push-ups

As far as my eating I am following weight watchers.

Here’s to moving forward.


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Last 9 months in shorts

Well is has been some time so here is the last 9 months in shorts.

Jul 2012



Steven & I celebrated our 6th anniversary



Aug 2012



Steven & I finished our first 5K Mud Run, Fl ROC. So much fun!!!!


Oct 2012

Landen really enjoyed trick-or-treating this year. By the end he was more interested in finding out if homes had dogs more than candy.

 Nov 2012



Campouts in the living room with Grandma & the Buddies visiting



Dec 2012 - Busy Month

Eli the Elf came to visit. Our mission was the teach him about Jesus' love and grace. Boy, did he sure get into a lot of trouble. There were a few nice nights when he left treats for Landen.

Family Vaction to Sea World and a citrus farm with a monster bus tour. Very neat.

Picking oranges and limes.

G Papa went home to be with Jesus.

Eli continues to get into mischief

Eli gave Landen a great good-bye hug when Santa visited & picked up Eli to return home to the N. Pole.



Landen got his first gun from his Grandma and Grandpa Smith.



Jan 2013 - Happy New Year

We went to the circus and got back into the swing of things.

Feb 2013 - The boys went to the Monster Jam Show & Steven was baptized!

Landen tried out t-ball. It wasnt for him, so we finished that quickly.

Mar 2013

That crazy mischief making leprechaun visited. Maybe next year we will plot to catch him.

We visited the Easter Bunny



We colored eggs.



We had a great time visiting family at the GA farm.

Easter Sunday Landen was most impressed on how big the stone infront of Jesus' tomb was and that he wasnt still there. It is so neat to see Landen learn about our Lord. While we were at church the Easter bunny stopped by Nanny & Papa's & left bunny prints all over, a hello message for Landen and hid some eggs.

Other tidbits -

*We have been praying hard for God to take care of Landen in his schooling since the school in our zone is one of the worst in Duval, and we are up for orders. We feel like God has told us homeschooling Landen is the route to take. The idea has been so exciting and we have already started having fun with more learning focused play times. He is picking the letters he didnt know, learning to write his name, learning about butterflies and counting higher.

*We are still praying for God's will in getting our orders, we will go happily were He sends us. We are hoping for San Diego though, because of a wonderful new job opportunity. We are hoping to find something out at the end of the month.

*I am trying something new with my workouts and weight loss. More on that in the next post.

*We are starting to plan Landen's 4th! I know 4th birthday. We are thinking it is going to be a messy event.

Update & Goals

It’s been about 8 weeks, a lot has happened but all is well in the Smith house. Landen of course is growing and developing by leaps and bounds, his speaking has become a lot clearer, he never seems to stop ‘practicing’; even in his sleep he talks. He is fun to listen to, most of the time, and is starting to tell stories and recount events well. His imagination is another thing that is starting to develop greatly, we seem to have monsters and crazy monkeys under each bed and the couch, mostly blue ones.

Landen this past Monday, June 25, moved up to the preschool (a.k.a. big boy) class at school, he is enjoying the computers, big bikes, and the lego table. In just a short week I have already noticed a difference in his speech, his counting – he can now faithfully count to 4, and jumbled up to 20, he can sing a good bit of his ABCs and has already pointed out the letter ‘S’. He is really enjoying the new class, activities and skills.

I have had an up and down past 3 months as far as weight goes, I have managed to lose about 5-8 pounds depending on the day. But I did another Bod Pod evaluation and I did drop my body fat % by 2.8% & the amount of fat weight by 7.9 lbs and gain 2.5 lbs of muscle, so overall not a loss of three months. So I am going to pull up some motivation from somewhere and get on track again to get on with losing weight more steadily again.

As far as running and my couch to 5K, I was majorly slowed down by some pretty painful shin splints and calve strain, but I started using the elliptical most days and weight training to strengthen my leg muscles. It has been working so far. I still can’t run a steady 5K, I still do lots of starting and stopping but I can complete the 3.1 miles in about 36-40 minutes. I can’t complain about that, being that when I started about 10 weeks ago I couldn’t run one minute straight and one mile took me about 20-25 minutes. I did complete the July 4^th Celebration 5K in 38:07, and finished 371 in a race of 540 & 37^th in my class of 54. I’m not unimpressed.  My dad ran with me as well which was incredibly special and my mom, the Hubs and the Boy waited for us anxiously at the finish line. They said the Boy kept telling everyone around him “My mommy’s running”. So special!

Now that the 5K run in done, the Hubs and I are starting to train for the Fl Roc Mud Run. This will be my goal of strength, I will be working a lot on my growing my muscles and upper body strength. I want to be able to hold my own.

Rewarding Thanks, W3D3, & 2 A.M. Again!

We started attending church regularly in March and have so thoroughly enjoyed it. The teachings are done in series so a bigger lesson or story can be taught, this also seems to give the church more opportunity to be involved. This past week, we finished out a Beyond series, which charged us, the church to reach out into our community, country and world with prayer, acts of service and gifts. One of the first weeks of Beyond were able to help send some infant vitamins, lice shampoo, crayons and stickers with our missionaries going to Brazil. This was a great chance to teach Landen that we can give to others with a joyful heart.  The Sunday before last we were encouraged to reach out into our own community and give thanks to our community service workers. So we did. We brought a dinner to our local fire station to tell them that we are thankful for their service & dedication. They were equally grateful, we spent about an hour with them talking and learning. The Fire Chief happen to be visiting so we were able to meet him as well as two fire fighters, Jack & Jammer. They enjoyed Landen’s excitement and eagerness to peak at everything. Landen & Steven even got a short ride in the fire truck. We were told that it had been a very long time since anyone stopped by to visit the station or show the guys appreciation. Even before this visit Steven & I had decided to make our show of appreciation for our community service members a monthly action and now we couldn’t be more convinced that this is a great decision. We never thought it would be so touching to give gratitude.

Jammer showing Landen the Air Truck

 I completed week 3 yesterday and I am thinking I am going to veer a little off course. Week 3 I needed to run 3 minutes solid & I am really struggling with this, on the other hand though I don’t feel like I need to walk a straight 3 minutes to recover from running. I have been running 2 miles in about 23:30 so I am going to do a little of my own thing with the couch to 5K direction. I am going to try to run against the clock for the next week, sticking with 2 miles. Next week, in accordance with week 4, I am going to increase my distance to 2.5 miles, trying to still increase my time in small bits. I am also trying some compression therapy for my calves. I don’t think it is my shins that are bothering me as much as my calves. I learned this week that as you run and blood starts circulating faster and better through your body that it can tend to collect or pool in your calves. This without being counteracted is painful, very painful. So I am hoping with a little compression therapy I can help the circulation and relieve some of the pressure and pain. Let’s hope.

Sleeping has always been something I enjoyed but never really been great at. This being said I have been trying to stretch out my sleep aid prescription, so when I went yesterday to see about refilling it, I was told about melatonin. Something your body produces, usually more around evening time to make you tired and help you sleep through the night, I can take more of this in a vitamin form to help me naturally stay asleep through the night. So I thought, “why not?” I’ll give it a try, anything more natural. So last night was my trial run, I fell asleep fine & though I didn’t stay asleep all through the night, it seemed easier to fall back asleep after waking and the periods of wake seemed to be shorter. Good, right? Well Landen has not been the most soundful sleeper lately either & his waking seems to be right around 2 A.M. Landen last night moved his time to around midnight and since the hubs is on vacation I was able to encourage him to check on Landen at that time. So no 2 A.M. calls for Mama, right? Wrong! My normally quiet, sound sleeping Kora started barking right around 2. Scolding from bed didn’t work, so again Steven got up to get a quick glance that she was fine or to see what the ruckus was. She was fine & he didn’t see any reason of why she got this wild hair. So a few minutes more of listening to her bark I got up to dig around in the bathroom to see what the deal was. I was surprised, very surprised to find our aquatic pink frog trying to hide from this crazy little puppy. This frog somehow made it out of the only small hole in the fish tank lid, where the filter flows, and made it across the living room, into our room, under the bathroom door and into our bathroom, to make sure I was again awake at 2 A.M. After convincing Steven that I can’t make up a claim like this, he saved the frog from Kora, checked it over, flipped on a few lights and made sure everyone was in their appropriate beds we finally got back to sleep. 

W3D2

Whew, I could use a nap, I’m beat! I did better today with week 3, the first 3 minute cycle I only walked 10 seconds again but at the 55 second point this time, and then the second 3 minute cycle I didn’t walk but once for 10 seconds (which went by in a blink) at the 50 second point. So, over all slow progress, but it is progress & I’ll take it. My shins though are really killing me, I am going to spend the next 3 days, taking it easy, taking anti-inflammatories, using biofreeze, & staying off the beach. I hope some extra babying will help them enough to get back to running Monday, but if not I think I am looking at taking some time off from running. I will make sure to nag the hubby to air up my bicycle tires this weekend so I don’t have to be stuck in the gym if I can’t run. That or I may just spend the week working on building muscle.

W3D1

I didn’t do week three perfectly, for my first 3 minute cycle I walked for 10 seconds at the 2 minute mark and then finished jogging the last 50 seconds, then the second 3 minutes I walked 10 seconds at 1 minute and then again 15 seconds at 1:45 seconds. I feel like I still did well. Since I didn’t run the straight 3 minutes like I needed I went ahead and went to the 2 mile mark then pushed on my way back to see what my time would be for it. I did really well for me, I finished 2 miles in 23:30, making that an 11:45 mile. I am aiming to run the 5K in July in 30 minutes so I have some improving to do, but at least I am better than my starting 15 minute mile.

The First Thing I See

I had a good workout today, my calves & shins have been really bothering me (silly me won’t stay away from the beach where the sand re irritates my shins), so a strength days was needed.  The breeze was night today & I worked really hard, I tried to use my 8 pound weight more than my 6. It was a good workout.

I have noticed in the past week or so that the first thing I think when I look in a mirror now is not “I’m fat”, it’s now “I look pretty”. Not to sound conceded with saying that, but I am one of those people that I like how I look. I can now start to see the difference I have made with my weight, with my hard work. I am still not satisfied with my body, but I sure am a happier girl.