Up’s & Down’s & Johnny to the Rescue

January 11, 2012 by · 4 Comments

A few weeks ago you heard from Teal on her lifestyle changes that got her to the weight she is right now.  So I guess it would be my turn. 🙂  Probably like any girl I have my own body image issues, but I tend to blame the private school I attend on that to some degree.  It seemed like all the girls in my grade were skinny little stick figures and well there’s really no way my body can/will resemble that.  I have hips! Ha, they aren’t going anywhere and I’m still learning to love them.  With that said I had weight gains in typical points of my life.  I started college – hello ten pounds!

I spent two summers (2002 & 2003) in college working at a family camp as a counselor and a life guard.  We were SO active that the pounds just melted off.  Then I had a year in college which where I *think* I attempted to be apart of as many organizations as possible, hold positions in some of them and still be a full time student.  I look back at that year and still don’t understand how I survived it. Ha, but with that busyness came absolutely NO time where I was working out.  The pounds came creeping back.

Left: August 2004 Right: May 2006

My last year in college I had a lighter load than my previous years as I spent the majority of each week in a class room observing and/or teaching.  Because of that I spent little time in an actual classroom where I was the student and had homework to turn in.  The beginning of that last year I had a break up with my boyfriend and in about a week lost 10 pounds which was about what I’d put on in that previous busy, busy year.  Once I dropped those 10 pounds I didn’t want to put them back on, so I picked back up with my running.  Most days you could find me up on the 3rd floor of the Rec Center putting in 3 miles on the track and depending on the weather out running the streets of College Station.

Cancun Girls Trip in 2006 (with Teal) and this is literally the only swimsuit picture I have no qualms showing to anyone

When I moved back to Dallas the summer of 2006 I was determined to stay fit, so I joined a gym.  And just as quickly as I signed up for a 3 year contract I’d stopped going. 🙂  I hated that gym.  I won’t discuss what gym it is but this particular location I hated going in there after awhile I just realized the gym itself  was dark and dingy and just didn’t make me want to be in there.  I managed to stay at my ideal weight for quite awhile and it wasn’t until some of my friends and I had the brilliant idea in early 2007 of starting a weekly happy hour that the pounds started coming back.  In reality I had a combination of weekly happy hour and new relationship weight coming on. Well, in December 2006, a new gym had just opened up RIGHT by my house.  I went and toured it, liked what I saw and signed up with them!

So for 2.5 years I’d be paying for two gym memberships until my contract ran up with the first one.  Am I made of money? No, but I thought my health was important enough to sign up at a gym where I would actually go and be active even if it meant sacrificing somewhere else each month to cover the cost of the gym I did not go to.  I can still hear my cousin, who owns a few gyms, saying “You signed a contract with a gym? What were you thinking?”

One day I decided I’d try a spin class – I’d been to one in college taught by a friend, but before I knew it I was going to spin class every time Angie was teaching! I loved her personality, her music selection and enthusiasm to get us all working hard!  Angie’s husband singing and dancing around on the spin bike was just an added bonus to the hour workout.

After a class somewhere in late August or early September of 2007 Angie approached me and offered me a chance to go workout with her husband for free in one of his group training classes.  I was still in a rut with the weight I’d gained that year from happy hour and the new relationship that I was happy to take the opportunity.  So off I went that week either on a Tuesday or Thursday morning to workout with a group of ladies I’d never met before at 6:00 a.m.

Oh my gosh, we did so many lunges that morning – lunges with weights, now switch weights with the person behind you and lunge, walking lunges….lunges, lunges, lunges!  I am not sure I have ever been so sore from a workout in my life!

Then I was sold on working out with Johnny and I have been ever since that day!  See I was working out with other women doing weights with some cardio mixed in, and because it’s group you aren’t paying $75+ for a personal trainer although he does do personal training as well. 🙂  For the first year of working out with Johnny he was renting space from a gymnastic center and then he got his very own place just down the street in August of 2008.

Have you ever been to the Coppell location of Run On!, well, if you have then you’ve been next door to Johnny’s…more specifically Johnny’s Health & Fitness!  Actually right before Christmas JHF moved to the bigger space next door to help with their growing needs as a gym, so you can now find them two doors down from Run on! You can see me there pretty much every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 6:00 – 7:00 a.m.

Johnny & Angie really came into my life RIGHT when I was needing someone to help me get the extra pounds off.  Johnny discussed my eating habits and nutrition with me.  Ultimately I started drinking Premier Nutrition protein shakes on his recommendation, and I also incorporated a digestive enzyme pill into my everyday life based off of one of his recommendations.  What I can appreciate about Johnny’s recommendations is that if he wouldn’t do it, he’s not going to try and convince you to do it!  He gives it to you straight.  That’s also the approach he takes with his clients when he sees them slacking on their diet or not getting in the cardio outside of working out with him.  He gives it to you straight in this nice balance of here is the truth but not being a jerk about it.

(read more about Digest Plus here and Premier Nutrition Protein shakes here)

At this point I don’t remember how long into my training with Johnny it was that I had taken 12 pounds off.  Not only has he helped me keep my weight under control, but he’s also been a great resource to me as well with all of my running!  Because I know that he really wants to see each of his clients be the best that they can be!

I would be completely devastated if I were to move and/or no longer be able to workout with Johnny.  In my opinion truly good, dedicated trainers are hard to come by!  It’s also my opinion that the majority of trainers at big chain gyms are rarely going to push you the way Johnny pushes me and every single one of his clients.  I feel like I can say this based on trying out a workout with one of the trainers at my big chain gym I go to for spin class and other cardio machines.  Plus I know that for me having a personal trainer is just not in my budget so having a place where I can do group training is doable!

Johnny & me

I’ve made some great friends from my workout group and couldn’t even imagine where I would be right now if I did not have Johnny in my life!  If you live in the Coppell/Lewisville/Flower Mound area and are looking for a trainer check out Johnny’s Health & Fitness! I drive 15 minutes from Plano to workout with him.  I know other clients of his that drive from Dallas proper, Sasche and other places I don’t even know about to workout with Johnny. If you are interested in trying out a training class with Johnny get in touch with me!

Or you can check out his website here.

Follow Johnny on twitter.

Or like him on Facebook!

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Runner Stubbornness

December 16, 2011 by · 14 Comments

I am pretty sure I am not alone when I say I am stubborn in terms of working out in some sort of pain. I do it basically every time. Some days are worse than others, but I have very few where something doesn’t hurt in a weird way. I basically have gotten used to it. I have been to the doctor a bazillion times, each time for them to basically say the same thing, “Well, if it hurts, don’t do it.” If I followed that rule I would be out of shape. I hate admitting something hurts; I would rather just be tough about it. I have terrible knees that grind and pop and have deterioration of cartilage much more than someone my age should have and arthritis in both. The knee doctor said my IT band was too tight and that he should not be able to see it and he can. This is partially to blame for why my knee doesn’t stay in socket. Recently I have some pain across my lower stomach from running so many miles and being so tight. See… Stubborn – I don’t really stop doing anything.

 

The problem is I think most of the aforementioned problems have resulted in this current one that I can’t make go away. One week before White Rock I ran a super easy 6.2 mile run, symbolic, yea probably, and I was nervous about the race so I wanted to run something. My foot was sore but not in pain. I ran 3 miles on the treadmill that Tuesday and have essentially been in foot pain ever since. The Thursday before the race I was seriously wondering if I could run it, I told Beth that day that it was bothering me but I really didn’t say much. Saying it out loud would be admitting that something was more seriously wrong.

 

I ran the marathon, obviously, but have not run since. We are basically two weeks out from the marathon and I haven’t so much as run a ¼ mile. Something is wrong. My friend Cynthia had foot pain so bad she ended up having surgery. She went to so many doctors and eventually ended up in surgery that really didn’t completely work. She has been lecturing me since I told her my foot hurt. I think it is time to not be stubborn because now I am just scared. Everything else has seemed manageable, but not this.

 

I ran across a blog post from The Trail Jogger the other day and I am going to share with you kind of what it says BUT shockingly enough I have to STOP BEING STUBBORN. You can read the full post here but here is the condensed version.

 

1.      Stop Running: easier said than done, when it stops hurting start running with low mileage.

2.      Ice: This bores me and I hate it but isn’t that rule number one when something is hurt?

3.      Roll it: Use a tennis ball or golf ball and role the arch

4.      Stretch: especially the calf muscles – apparently all of that stuff is connected

5.      Hang your feet off the end of the bed when you sleep:– this is the easiest one! I’m 5’10”- apparently it helps in the morning when it hurts the worst

6.      Support it:– Wear shoes all the time (this one is hard for me. I HATE shoes!)

 

As far as everything else goes- I am foam rolling everything, stretching and going to yoga to strengthen and stretch, and using the “Stick” whenever I can.  Beth has had on and off hip flexor pain that she says has been so much better since yoga, so I am tagging along in that. We both attend Sunstone Yoga.

source

Here are some pics of the recovery process! This really is progress for me in terms of not ignoring something!

icing at home

rolling at work

Thank you to Emily for passing along the Ozarka bottle tip!

 

Yesterday we showed you our December running plan – I have essentially done none of it. This makes me SO nervous because I don’t want to lose endurance! That crap is hard to build. I hope to be able to run the New Year’s Double. My heart and mind say run the race- “How cool is this race, and the medal and the people,” but my body is like- “Really Teal, Why do you hate me?” I am torn and nervous. Essentially I know I will make it!  I ran 26 miles on it already. I know it will work for 26 more especially split into 2 days (see the crazy rationalization) but how long do I want it to hurt, and how do you really stop being stubborn?  

 Beth hasn’t exactly been following the plan either.  She keeps herself pretty busy too and now that the goal of a new unknown distance isn’t looming over her head she’s been enjoying some down time.  She’s still pretty much making it to yoga, Johnny’s or the gym every day with a rest day or two thrown in the mix. 

I can pretty much guarantee that you will see BOTH of us at the race! I’ll run regardless, even if it is slow and terrible, BUT perhaps admitting stubbornness is the first step to solving it?

Do you have any additional advice on treating Plantar Facsiitis?

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October’s Race

October 17, 2011 by · 3 Comments


Another race is done for us this year and that makes 13 races for us total! Saturday we participated in the Susan G. Komen 5k here in Dallas.  Before we even got to race day Beth realized she had thrown her race bib away since Susan G. Komen mails you your race packet. Which is very convenient but not the norm amongst races, so that was a bit confusing. Thankfully it had been a couple weeks since the trash had been taken out and barely any digging through the trash had to take place since it was pretty much on top!

20111017-075251.jpg

We made great time getting down to the race and were able to park with no problem whatsoever. We walked over to Northpark Center (mall, for you non Dallasites) to look for the Creekview Cheer Squad and Teal’s friend Cynthia from school and the gym. We found the cheer squad but no Cynthia, so we made our way to the name plate table and fastened pictures of Cindy on our backs.  Since we planned on pinning pictures of Cindy to our back we’d brought extra safety pins with us which are not actually something that come in your race packet with the bib.  Those little safety pins were hot commodities and so many people tried to steal them from us. Ha.

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Can you spy the Go Sport ID in this pic? 🙂

Snapped a picture real quick in between taking a potty break and lining up for the start of the race!

It took us twelve minutes to get from where we lined up to the start line….then a few seconds after that we remembered to start our Runkeeper apps.  We started out walking because there were SO many people out there!  Glad we both had decided our goal was going to be to enjoy the race and take it all in otherwise if we were really trying to race it I think we would have been so frustrated.  All of the walkers out there were all over the place – of course in the street but also up on the sidewalks and in the grass.  We were able to get some running in during that first mile but it was saaaaaa-low and full of dodging around or having to stop and walk or being cut off. 🙂

By the time we got to the first mile marker we’d been out on the course for about 14 minutes and at this point we had resolved to just walking the rest of the way, but walking as fast as we could!

During our 2nd mile we noticed a woman on someone’s front porch with a bunch of people surrounding her.  Not sure what happened there if she fell and got trampled or what, but so nice of the people in that house to take care of her!  One of the best parts of the race was that you could just tell a lot of the people out there do not normally get out and exercise like that.  We talked about how neat it was that t his cause encouraged so many people who aren’t regulars to working out to get out there and walk for a cause!  Hope some of them were inspired to keep up the walking!  We also laughed at the little girl we heard on the course tell another person in her group “if you wanna be skinny you gotta run!”

Somewhere past this sign Teal’s friend Cynthia texted her to say she had finished and wanted to know where we were.  We were so surprised she was finished AND she had gotten to run the whole thing.  Apparently, if we do this race next year we need to sign up as “Elite Runners” to be able to actually run it.  We didn’t do that originally because Elite Runners? – do we really fall into that category?  Beth was annoyed she hadn’t signed up to be chip timed, but who knew it wouldn’t end up not mattering anyways?  As we mentioned in our pre-race post, Teal actually did this run about 10 years ago and back then it had less people and the majority of them were runners. Ohh, how times change! 🙂

As we neared the finish line we found Cynthia and the Creekview Cheer Squad!  They had all finished the race and were motivating and inspiring everyone as they passed by and made their way to the finish line.  They were awesome!  We took the opportunity to get some pictures before crossing the finish line!

our junk in the trunk 🙂

I’m pretty sure I was suppose to crop that last picture, but it kind of makes me laugh so I didn’t. 🙂

Neither of us had expected to be out there as long as we were so we grabbed some free coffee and walked back to our car.  We probably walked faster to the car than we did the whole race, but we don’t care! We got to get out there and walk in honor of Cindy and #TeamCindy and that’s ALL that matters.  When we run Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio I think the emotions of running in honor of Cindy will be multiplied as we have been raising money for a few months now and have invested our own hearts into her story and her family!  And then, of course, we wouldn’t be Teal and Beth if we weren’t race walking to our car because Teal had to get to work and Beth was headed to a make up weights session at Johnny’s!

And because who doesn’t love a picture of a baby? – 

Post workout at Johnny’s, Beth was off to her nephew’s 5th Birthday Party (costume party)! That’s the youngest nephew trying to get in the spirit of the costume party, but not sold on it!

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