i'm not a good summer runner.

Well hello Monday.  First things first, I wanted to comment a little bit on last week's post and the feedback I received.  Most of it was completely positive, and I appreciate all of the 'you look great already!' and the 'you've had two kids, you look awesome!'.  Really, you guys are too sweet, and it puts the biggest smile on my face to hear I've inspired some of you.  And I'm not hating on my body.  Yes, I have body image issues often, I touched on it a tiny bit in this post, but I think a lot of it stems from having naturally little friends and growing up in the dance world.  No one ever said I was overweight or made a comment to me being bigger, but I'm not blind.  It was easy to see who the biggest one was among our group of friends, and there is no hiding anything in spandex hot shorts.

Right now I'm ok with my body.  It HAS birthed two children.  I weigh 20 pounds less than my highest weight (not pregnant), 10 pounds less than when I got pregnant with Ryann.  But I worked SO hard to get to where I was before I got pregnant with Elsie.  And I was happy, proud of what I was doing health and fitness wise.  I'm not completely unhappy right now, but I don't want to settle either.  I never want to get back to where I was after Ryann was born, physically or emotionally.  So I think there is nothing wrong with striving to get my 'old self' back again, eventually.

What concerned me with a few of the comments that were left last week, is that my desire to be a better me, should not make anyone feel less about themselves.  Let my want to be better and do better be an inspiration to be the best YOU that you can be right now.  Health and fitness goals and where you are with either should not be measured against anyone else.  They should be personal.  If you want to be better at something, try and be better than you were.  Not better than your neighbor, or another blogger or your spouse.  Sure a little friendly competition is always good, but don't let something I post make you feel less or inferior in any way.

My goal is simply to be the best me that I can be.  And right now?  I'm not there.  I'm doing a pretty good job.  I'm raising two kids and trying to take care of my body.  But I don't have it all figured out yet.  I'm working on it.

Ok, jumping off the soap box.  Sorry!  I've discovered a new favorite veggie to snack on.  Not new that I've never had it, but new that I've never really thought to keep it around the house as a snack.  Hello blanched sugar snap peas.

Seriously.  I'm not sure what it is about these little green guys, but they are SO good blanched.  I probably like them so much because they have a higher sugar content than most veggies damn sweet tooth, but there are only about 70 calories per cup of pea pods.  I'm going to guess that eating a cup of sugar snap peas is a much better choice than a handful of M&Ms.  I was eating the peas with a veggie dip that my mom had leftover, but it was sour cream based so that's no good.  Well, actually, the dip was REALLY good.  It tasted like it was probably sour cream mixed with maybe taco seasoning?  I'm not sure.  Something like that.  I would love to try and make my own with greek yogurt, but my little puke monster is back in full force so I'm trying to keep the dairy to a minimum.  Boo.

I managed to meet my goals this week.  I got in four sweat sessions:  one barbell class and three runs.  Barbell seriously left me sore for DAYS.  That is the class I will miss the most (I suspended my gym membership until further notice, read why here).  Anyone know if there is a video similar to a class like that (which I think is the equivalent of body pump at some gyms)?  My runs were pretty meh.  The first one was on the treadmill, and after the first mile I kind of wanted to bang my head against a wall, so I switched to intervals.  The second two were outside after not a whole lotta sleep and it was already 75+ degrees at 6:15am.  My pace wasn't what I would have liked and I took some walk breaks.  So there's that.  But I kind of hate summer running anyway, so I'm just trying to keep plugging away and survive until fall :o).  Also, the scale surprised me this morning, and I'm down 4.5 pounds.  Yeah, I'm going with water weight for the most part.  I know I made better choices this week, but I can almost guarantee you I didn't have that kind of calorie deficit.  Oh well, I'll take it!

My goals for this week:

three runs

lose one pound

30 minutes of core work

Hopefully I can have another successful week.  Our five year wedding anniversary is on Friday and I fully intend to enjoy our nice dinner out.

Link up your health and fitness related posts below!