#YearOfYou Diet Bet--join us!

I love the New Year: it's a time to set goals, dream big, and say goodbye to the negativity of the past. For so many (and this year, me included), January is a time to set some weight loss goals. Of course, I'm going to have to wait until our little man makes his debut before jumping into my fitness and weight loss goals, but you don't so we organized a little Diet Bet to help you along! You just can't take the coach out of me, even when my mind is preoccupied with a million other things!

So...how does it work? We start on Monday, January 4th. The bet is that you lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks. Diet Bet handles all the money, the payouts, the weigh-ins, and verifying that everyone is playing fair. Once you register, you will get an individual word that you will photograph with your scale, as well as photographing yourself on the scale, all within 24 hours of the start. As long as you lose the weight, you are guaranteed your money back at the least, BUT (this is the fun part) everyone who meets their goal splits the pot. Not that you want others to not reach their goals too, but the odds are in your favor that you stand to win more than you put in, that is, as long as you reach your goal. So it's you against yourself--you don't have to worry about being the "biggest loser".

There's even an app to keep you on track and I'll be posting tips throughout the game to give you an edge over the rest. It's fun, it's social, and it definitely works!

Are you in? It's time to get started! Follow this LINK and join us in betting on yourself in 2016!

Pregnancy, Nutrition, and Running--Oh My!

Well, we're getting close now, and it's almost D-Day! My due date is right around the corner and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the newest member of Disney Runs in the Family! Sitting here at 38.5 weeks in the middle of the holiday season, I'm feeling a little reflective of my pregnancy journey and how proud I am that I have made staying healthy a top priority for myself and my little man! Yes, I'm bragging, but why not? It would have been much easier to "eat for two" and spend 9 months living on Netflix!

During this pregnancy, I ran 3 race weekends: The Tink Half, The Disneyland Half, and The Avengers Half. The first two, I did the challenges with the 10k on Saturday and the Half on Sunday. I'm pretty darn impressed by that. My training wasn't perfect. It was actually far from perfect, but it's still a major accomplishment that I am very proud of. One half marathon per trimester--that just sounds really cool! I also managed to keep up with my other workouts, still teaching classes at the gym until 35 weeks. I had to eventually give it up, though, because I couldn't get through the hour of jumping around without using the restroom. I'm still taking classes and getting my workouts in, but I've really had to modify now that the baby is sitting low and we are close to the end.

One thing that I KNOW helped tremendously has been my nutrition. I really tried to stick with a healthy diet, rich in protein, fruits and veggies. Of course I had Shakeology daily to fill in any gaps with nutrition and drinking lots and lots of water was a top priority. My energy was a little low the entire time, but luckily I haven't had too much trouble sleeping except for the past 2 weeks. I also have not had any medications and only had to suffer through one quick cold right after Thanksgiving. All in all, I was super healthy. Of course, I attribute part of that to the choices I made, but I have to admit that I was lucky too.

Now, we are at the sit around and wait part. Depending on who you ask, I'm either already full-term or will be within a few days. I personally really wanted to get through Christmas, and that looks pretty good. Once I hit 39 weeks, though, the eviction notice will be served!

I have to admit, I'm really excited to get back to running fast and working out hard. Between my knee surgery last year and pregnancy this year, I haven't been able to work on speed in a long time and I'm ready to set some big goals! My first race will be the Hot Chocolate 15k in Vegas on February 28th. I know I won't be breaking any records, but it will be nice to be on a course with friends for some fun running! (By the way, if you're interested in this race, use my code LASVEGASBUFF3 to get extra swag in your bag) I'm hoping recovery from labor is quick and I can get a good month of training under my belt before race day, but I won't make any promises.

Stay tuned for our big birth announcement--hopefully sooner rather than later! We can't wait for our little monster to arrive!

Race Report: 2015 Avengers Half Marathon

Warning: I'm not an Avengers fan, I ran this race almost 8 months pregnant, and I didn't even get any Disneyland park time in during the weekend...I might be a little less than my normal positive self in this review! HAHAHA

Way back during the Tink Half weekend, I was about 5-6 weeks pregnant, feeling great, and got lured in by lower pricing and a cute runDisney bag--I registered for the Avengers Half Marathon at the Tink expo. I knew that our time living close(ish) to Disneyland was coming to an end in the next few years and traveling with an infant is difficult, so I thought this would be my chance to run the only race weekend I hadn't previously experienced. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

We arrived at Disneyland on Saturday around lunchtime. We had decided to save the cash and not even go to the parks--I had been there pregnant quite a few times already and it just didn't make sense. First stop was the expo to pick up my bib and swag bag. It was pretty empty, so that was nice, but there was nothing left. I thought maybe I could get some Christmas shopping done, but nope, that wasn't even an option with how picked through everything was (I was looking for just some generic runDisney stuff-not even the Avengers swag, which I knew would be gone). It wasn't a huge disappointment, as I knew that finding anything would be difficult so late in the game. I was, though, super disappointed in the speaker series! This was one of the things I would have liked to do. Since we didn't have theme park tickets, I thought we could spend the afternoon listening to speakers. Not so much. We ended up having lunch and browsing shops at Downtown Disney before heading back to our hotel. Not crushed, but just kind of blah.

For a pleasant bonus, we got to our hotel and were upgraded to the Presidential Suite--this room was seriously bigger than our house! It made the perfect excuse to stay in, order some food, watch some TV and rest before the race.  Ironically enough, I did NOT sleep well in our beautiful suite. I probably knew what the next day was going to bring.

In typical runDisney fashion, I was up early, costume on, taking pictures, and ready to roll. I was in corral B, so when we got to the race, I promptly lined up at the very back on the right side. My plan was to do 30 second run, 1 minute walk intervals to try and give my pregnant self a break. I definitely set myself up for disappointment, though, as I hadn't trained well and the last few weeks have been really tough as far as feeling "pregnant" (tired, big, tired, achy, and TIRED).

The race started late, which is not typical of runDisney at all. It just added to my bad attitude that morning. I started out with a 30 second run/1 minute walk interval. I felt fine for the first 4 miles. I even met another running mama-to-be, who was probably a lot smarter than me and was walking the entire race. I was maintaining an easy 12:30 pace, but at around 4.5 miles I had the most excruciating pain in my stomach. As I'm writing this, I haven't been through labor yet, though, so I'm sure this "most excruciating" will soon be replaced! I was tempted to pull myself off the course and for the next mile slowed to a snail's pace of walking. I debated for about half an hour on what to do, but since there was no medic tent in sight, it gave me enough time to walk it off and feel better. I wasn't about to chance starting to run again, so I decided to walk the rest.

The course was definitely my LEAST favorite of all the Disneyland courses. There is way too much time on narrow, dirt and gravel paths, and seeing as I was walking, I constantly felt like I had to walk so far right that I was tripping over everything on the path. Runners also were coming up around me on the right, which I absolutely HATE. I get it, you're running, I'm not, but I'm also trying to be as courteous as possible, so when you fly around me in the 6 inches of space on my right and almost knock me out, I start to get a bit irritable! The costumes were kind of "eh" on the course, so it didn't give me much to look at.

Soon enough I was nearing the finish. I had been out on the course almost 4 hours and I was done! My hubby was waiting right before the finish line, and asked "How do you feel?" My answer--I'm bored!!! The family standing next to him so sweetly started cheering for me. I didn't feel very cheery, but it was so nice of them to encourage me at the finish.

Overall, this was definitely my least favorite Disneyland race. I'm not a big Avengers fan and it was a recipe for disaster from the start. I'm still glad I did it, though, because I really do want to run all the races someday. I don't want to say I'll never be back, but this won't be on any of my must-do lists in the next few years for sure. On a happy note, up until this point Baby S had been breech. I have come to assume that the miserable pain that I felt at mile 4.5 was my baby flipping to get head down and ready for birth. Crazy, I know! When other mom's to be ask how to turn a baby, my answer is "run a half marathon". Guess that won't work for most mamas, but at least it did for me! See, the moral of the story is runDisney makes everything better, even if you don't know it at the time!

Have you ever run Avengers? What was your thoughts? Am I being too harsh?

I've Been a Bad, Bad Blogger!

What happens when you work a full-time job, run your own side business, work a part-time job, have a baby on the way, and it's the holiday season? Well, your blog goes unattended for weeks on end! I'm still here, I promise, and there's so me great stuff coming your way soon, from the race reports on the Avengers Half to our big Disney nursery reveal.

We only have a few weeks to go before we welcome our little monster, so stay tuned for a few pregnancy updates as well. Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season!