3 Changes Challenge Update & Blogger Award!

Update on 3 Changes Challenge: Week 1 of the 3 Changes Challenge has gone pretty well so far.

Here's my 3 changes and how things have gone this past week:


1. Less Soda/More water - I have still had some soda here and there, but no where near what I was drinking before. I am still working to increase my water intake. It's definitely a work in progress.

2. 4-5 Core and Stretching sessions - I nailed this one on the head.

• 75 push-ups
• 60 crunches using bosu ball
• 490 side crunches w/8# medicine ball
• 50 regular cruches
• 1:15 to 1:45 plank x's 4
• 0:45 to 1:00 rocking plank x's 4
• 0:40 to 0:45 side planks x's 4

3. No Treats at work - This was really hard but overall pretty successful. I was able to turn down everything but the birthday ice cream cake from Cold Stone on Friday. I felt it would have been rude to turn down. But, the other 4 days at work I was able to turn down chocolate covered brownies, a dilly bar from Dairy Queen, caramel rolls and red velvet donuts. Yeah, you see what I am exposed to?!

I still need to really work on the treats and the soda/water, but other than that things are going pretty well... slowly transitioning into a better lifestyle, right?!






Blogger Award!


Patience over at A Reason or a Season has given me the following blogger award!

Isn't that lovely of her! I haven't been following her blog for very long, but I am happy that I found her, or she found me, and really enjoy reading her posts! Check her out!

The rules:

• Accept and thank the pereson who gave it to you!
• List 10 things about yourself.
• List 5 addition things you DON'T like.
• Then pick ten people to give this lovely award to!

10 Things about me:

1. I started keeping a food and exercise journal again. Not so much to lose weight, but to figure out what works and doesn't work for training.
2. I love dogs, despise cats.
3. Friends call me their "voice of reason". I tell them how it is and never sugar-coat things.
4. Sometimes the said term above gives people the impression that I am a hard ass, but don't worry, I have a soft side!
5. Realized this weekend that I am not a huge fan of water slides at hotels.
6. I would rather vaccuum and do laundry then clean bathrooms.
7. I love saurkrat on my veggie pizza. mmmm. mmm.
8. I love trying new recipes, but hate grocery shopping for ingredients.
9. I still haven't tried a green monster. Maybe tomorrow?!
10. I tend to be a procrastinator with work and homework... haven't started writing my final project for grad class that is due in less than 2 weeks!
    

5 Things I DON'T like:

1. Constant complainers
2. wind
3. food caught in my teeth
4. mean people
5. people who are unprofessional at work
   

Now to pick ONLY 10 people to pass this award on to... very tough, but here's the list:

1. Anne Marie @ Goals for the Week!
2. Mel @ 2nd Chances
3. Kelly @ She Wears a Red Sox Cap
4. Jess @ RunGirlRun
5. Jess @ 21Days
6. Holly @ Snapshots
7. Caroline @ Boston Runner
8. Mary @ Fit This, Girl!
9. Aron @ Runner's Rambles
10. Shannon @ It's Trickey

Time for some Randomness!

Badgergirl over at Adventures in Badgergirl so lovingly gave me the Gorgeous Blogger Award! How wonderful is she?!




With this award, I am supposed to tell you 6 random things about myself. She did her post based on a theme - six random things from her weekend, and as much as I wanted to do a theme as well, I just couldn't think of anything so you get stuck with 6 random things about myself (again):

1. Hello, my name is Stacy, and I am a Caribou Coffee Addict. Someone please help me, an intervention needs to be set in place immediately.
2. I thrive on organization, but when things get too messy, I have no idea where to even start and tend to let things pile up until I HAVE to take care of them.
3. Some might say I am a procrastinator as well (looking at above point). But, the busier I am, the more productive I am. (The same goes with my workout schedule)
4. Last night we had our second night of parent teacher conferences. As a special education teacher, I look forward to these nights primarily because I only have 4 or 5 15-minute conferences each night and then get to use the rest of the evening to get paperwork done. Sorry classroom teachers, but this is one time that I don't feel bad for getting extra time to finish the piles and piles of paperwork.
5. I swam 2500 Yds in the pool yesterday morning... in less than an hour. Booyah! It was one of my favorite workouts with sprints, tarzan swimming (head above water), using paddles and pull bouy, and fins.. fins are my fav!
6. I am looking forward to having the next two days off as part of our midwinter break... yeah, we call it a midwinter break here in NoDak. Nothing like dragging out the winter, in March.

Time to pass on the love: Since I know this has been going around blogland for a while and don't know who has and hasn't received this gawgous award, consider yourself tagged if you haven't received it yet!

Happy Hump Day, y'all!

You are my Sunshine...

... my only sunshine....

I want to say thanks to all those who have given me the Sunshine Award..... Caroline, Marlene, and Julie. If I missed someone, please accept my apologies.

This is something that kind of has a double meaning for me this week - I appreciate it more than you may know!

Award

Beautiful Blogger Award!

I want to thank Staci for the lovely award! I love reading her blog and we have some wonderful things in common - our name and that we're both teachers! According to the rules, I need to post 7 random things about myself and pass the award onto 7 other people. I have many new readers in addition to my wonderful followerd for the past couple of years, so I will try my best not to list too many things some of you already know about me... Let's do this!

1. I have never broken a bone or sprained anything, but I am pretty good at burning or cutting myself, some way... some how. Yesterday, I pulled a typical Stacy move... curling my hard, set the iron down, it spun around and faced me, I reached for it again without looking, and completely wrapped my entired hand around the hot end of the iron... It hurt so bad! Just two days ago I burned my forehead while curling my hair, too.


2. I never played sports in middle and high school. I was too introverted/shy. Instead, I was a music geek, taking 11 years of piano lessons and participating in band. I took the piano pretty serious, but the band - probably not as much. And yes, I went to band came, once, when I was 13. Can you guess which instrument I played?


3. I am 29 and single; trying to love every minute of it! Any single-tall-dark-handsome-active men out there reading? hehehe.


4. I am taking a class this semester, working towards my ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) credential. This class is online and I think I am really going to love the idea of learning from the comfort of my own couch!


5. I want to go backpacking in Europe. Anyone wanna join me? I have never traveled abroad but and thinking about going on a Contiki Tour...someday.


6. I am getting back into painting; something I really love to do and haven't done much of it in the past 10 years. The painting I am working on is a "welcome home" gift for my brother-in-law and even though I don't think he reads my blog, I am not going to post a picture of it. But, I promise I will share it after I give it to him.


7. I am kind of a bandwagon fan when it comes to NBA basketball... what can I say, I have a few favorite players that I love to follow. But I am true to my NC Tar Heels. And no, I did not go to school there... just been a fan since I was a kid.

Onto tagging 7 other people... There are so many people to choose from, but I guess I got to narrow it down to 7. Don't hold a grudge against me if I didn't choose you!

1. Jess from Run Girl Run


2. Ashley from Journey to a Better Me


3. J over at Morning Runner


4. Kelsalynn from KelsalynnFitBlo


5. Kelly over at She Wears a Red Sox Cap


6. Danielle at From 5K to Marathon


7. Shannon from LessonstoLearn
   

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Crossing my fingers that I don't get stuck inside my house all weekend due to the blizzard we are supposed to get!

Where has the week gone?

******Warning: Long Post******

The past week has been quite busy. In addition to the transition of moving, I have taken on another challenge, dog-sitting. It is supposed to be a few months, but with the difficulty of sitting a 1 year old pup that isn't potty trained very well, the owner (who is working out of town for a few months) has left me the option to take her to the humane society. I don't think I can do that, so I am in the process of trying to find her a good home with kids that will keep her busy as I am barely home except for a few hours in the evening.

However, here's what my week look like for workouts.... it's definitely not up to par, but I kept myself busy:
Monday - Rest
I cleaned out my apartment. That was enough work itself.
Tuesday - 2.92 mile run outside
I met with my apartment rental company and did the final walk through. I handed in my keys and was happy to be done with renting!
Wednesday - 2 mile walk with the dog
I also got a flu shot. I usually don't get a flu shot but I have already been sick, bad, once this year, I might as well give it a shot.
Thursday - 2 mile walk with the dog
Friday - 2 mile walk with the dog
Saturday - shopped and painted - that's gotta count for something!
Today - 3.05 mile run in approximately 36 minutes. It was a lovely day, about 60 degrees and no wind. The run was very slow but no walk breaks were necessary, again! Afterwards, I took the dog for a 1 mile walk before heading out to run some errands.

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Family Time:
This weekend my parents, as well as my sister and brother-in-law were in town again. Friday night we headed up to Grand Forks for the Sioux's first home hockey game - against the Wisconsin Badgers. The game was awesome and the Sioux finished off with a win, 3-2.

Saturday morning we were back in Fargo as I was expecting furniture to arrive that morning. After my couch and love seat arrived, we ran a few errands and did some shopping for a shower curtain and other bathroom stuff to go in the master bath. I picked up more paint, some for the bathroom, and then some for the basement. The master bathroom is finished and I will wait to paint to basement living room and hallway next weekend.

It was so nice to have family helping me with all this work. It sure makes it go by faster and it has been pretty fun to share this transition with them. Once I get the rest of the painting finished, I will post more pics.

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Awards:
Over a week ago I was given two blogger awards from Ms. Math.

The first:

Now the rules! Link back to the person who gave it to you and then award 10 other blogs!

Steph and Blaine
Wes
Chad
Jess
D10
Kelsalynn
Steve
Beachrunner411
Javamom
Sherry

The second:

Now the rules! List six things you value, six things you don't value, and then award six more people! Here goes!

Things I Value:

1. My family
2. My health and happiness (they go hand in hand)
3. My job/career
4. my own home
5. Friends (including all my wonderful readers!)
6. Sleeping - I have to agree with Steph on this one. Definitely love my sleep!

Things I Don't Value:

1. both MN and ND campaign ads. It's bad enough having to listen to all those ads, but when you live in Fargo, you get both MN and ND. Double wammie.
2. whiners
3. difficult parents - work related.
4. Negative attitudes. I am agree with Ms. Math here. It's one thing to be negative about things once and a while, but I don't see how some people can go around looking at everything as if the "glass is half empty".
5. cooking dinner for 1.
6. The war - I agree with Steph. again.

People I award:

1. Lisa
2. Runner Susan
3. Frayed Laces
4. See Bride Run
5. M*J*C
6. Viv
   

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October in Review:
I can't believe October has come and gone. I did my best to bring about more Breast Cancer Awareness and hope all has found some of the information beneficial. Now it is time to look back at the digits and look ahead to November.

Let's compare those numbers:

• SWIM - 12,450M..................8100M in September
• BIKE - 73.05 miles..............48.62 miles in September
• RUN - 22.94 miles................25.99 miles in September

I don't have much to comment on this. It's been a busy month, plain and simple. With that in mind, I think the month was pretty decent. Deep down inside, I wish I could have broke 30 miles of running, but once again that didn't happen. Maybe in November.

I hope y'all had a wonderful weekend! I look forward to spending the rest of the evening catching up on all your blogs and watching some football! Yay!