My New Shoes

Well I have them and have now tried them out, once! Today, at the gym. And all I did was walk for 30 min and use the elliptical for 15 min. I am trying to get my feet used to them before my lovely 7 mile run this weekend.

So what did I get?

I got Asics GT 2000's. Aren't they PRETTY!

I will say I am a little on the fence. They do feel different. My foot actually is supported now and I hadn't realized how little support there really was in my old shoes. And my feet are kind of humming in the shoes right now. (like after you get an adjustment from the chiropractor and your body is like, this is good, but WHAT THE HECK DID YOU DO TO ME kind of humming.) Also the back of the shoes come up higher on my heel than my other ones did and I had some uncomfortable rubbing today.

Also the store said didn't have half sizes in stock for my Sasquatch feet, so I am in an 11 and my other shoes were an 11.5. I brought up this point with the shoe fitter guy and he said that they fit for now and how my feet are now not for how they could be in the summer with swelling and such. But since they are almost slipping now, a bigger size might not work that well!

~Here is what tread on the bottom of a shoe should look like!~

So the verdict is yet to be delivered at this point. I am going to see how tomorrows training run goes and I think I need to have my feet adjusted again at the chiropractor to make sure my talus is in the right alignment and then I might feel better overall about my new shoes. (it has been a few weeks since my last cracking session!)

~SUPER WHITE LEGS! EEK! Who needs a reflector when you are this white!~

(oh my goodness, Mason just giggled and it sounded like a pig squealing! so cute!)

Today Is The Day

Today I am going to get my new running shoes! Super excited for a brand new pair and to start training in them. A little nervous to find out if my foot has changed, or my support needs have changed. Maybe my foot size has changed too. It feels like so many things have changed in my feet since I have had Collin.

We were at Dick's Sporting Goods the other day and I made my way to the shoe area and was looking at the different running shoes. I remember that I was fitted with the ACIS GT 2000 and they didn't feel as good as my Brooks. I have had Nike's in the past and have wanted to try the ACIS Kayano and have heard great things about Mizuno. We will find out in just a few hours what I am destined to have for the next year and round of training!

Off to the running store I go now though to BUY MY NEW SHOES!

Early To Bed

Can I just say that I am totally loving the fact that Collin is sleeping in his own room! Maybe my friend has it right that she starts the kid in their own room from the day the baby comes home from the hospital, because this sleeping through the night thing is AMAZING! (awe man, another $1 in the jar!)

I have been sleeping so well at night. Thanks to my Fitbit charge I can actually see how much sleep I am getting and right now, especially the last 4 days has been AWESOME! (avoided using the other word!)

So, now my goal is to be in bed and asleep by 10pm every night. That allows me some time to blog, and check my social media stuff and chit chat with the hubs, maybe even catch an episode of something together before having to head off to bed. I think I have done pretty well with this so far this week. And since the sun doesn't come up till a little bit later, I am even able to sleep in for a little while longer before Mason yells at me to open the door. (Mason wakes with the sun. So in the winter he sleeps in and in the summer he is up and at 'em by 5am.) This has been so nice for me since working out super early just doesn't work for me. I tried it, see my post here about how I was going to try it. I failed at it and realized that I am just not an early morning waking up kind of person to work out! And that is ok! I am getting it done in the morning and I am ok with that!

There are some good reason why to go to bed early though and get a good night sleep: It can help with losing weight, keep your appetite under control, improve your memory, make you more nice, less grumpy, clear thinking, less chronic pain and inflammation. Give it a try for a week and see what it does for you!

So far though I am doing pretty well with the sleeping. I am just hoping that I can keep it up.

What time do yo go to bed?

Want more daily motivation and inspiration? Click here to join my private online community where you get info, tips, support and encouragement + a free gift with tips to help you get started with the right mindset for healthier nutrition choices TODAY!

What I am LOVING

Coconut Oil! I LOVE THIS STUFF! It is amazing! (oops, $1 goes in the jar!) I have been using coconut oil for everything right now it seems. I cook with it, feed my baby it and use it as lotion. Let me count the ways I love it!

1. It is a healthy fat! As I have mentioned Collin is not gaining as much weight as he should be. He is a super active baby and started crawling at 5.5 months and hasn't stopped yet. And I didn't supplement his solid foods diet with healthy fats. He was just getting super low calorie purees. So this month I have been fattening him up with FATS. No doughnuts or ice cream for him (although he has tried cake and ice cream and loves them) but I want him to have healthy fats. He dislikes avocados, and can stand egg yolks if they are mixed with bananas but the one fat that he will gobble down is coconut oil! I add 1/2 a teaspoon in his solid foods about 1-2 times a day. Like last night, he had prunes and 1/2 a teaspoon of melted coconut oil. (Coconut oil is actually solid until it reaches body temp, then it melts.) He loves the stuff and he smells so good afterwards when his face is covered with coconut oil! I wonder if he remembers the stuff from when he was just a tiny little baby. I used it to help my nipples when I started nursing him to avoid cracking and such. It totally worked!

2. Cooking with it! Matt loves stir fry and so I have been trying my hand at it. So I have been using coconut oil to coat my pan. Really anytime I use my pans on the stove I add coconut oil. I also use coconut oil spray to spray down my pan right before I cook my eggs. Mason loves the taste of coconut oil eggs and so do I. I know I am giving him good fats and not just empty calories and bad fats like from other spray cans.

3. Winter is hard on my skin. Really hard. I drink so much water but my hands and lips always get so chapped during the winter. So I have been using some coconut oil on my hands and lips to help them not be so bad. I apply at night so it has plenty of time to soak into my skin without me washing it off during the day and such and I will say that my hands look great! But it is not a quick fix. By the end of the day my hands are dry and ready for another coat of oil.

If you haven't tried coconut oil yet, GET ON THE BANDWAGON and try it! You will not be disappointed. It has so many good things for your body. You can add it in anything and not really taste it, unless you want to taste it, then you just use more. It is so clean tasting and it is just an amazing product that is like windex and can help almost anything.

What brands?: I use Trader Joe's Organic Virgin Coconut oil and also Trader Joe's Coconut Oil spray can. I also love Spectrums Organic Virgin Coconut oil but it is more expensive.

QOTD: What are you favorite things to use coconut oil in? Also I referenced 2 shows, 1 current TV show and 1 older movie in this blog post. Do you know what shows I am talking about???

January Week 3 Recap

Sorry this is 2 days late...again! This week we have been hit with a puking baby and a potty training toddler who thinks he needs to sit on the potty every 5 seconds. It is good that Mason is so dedicated to going potty but he requires me to be with him at all times. So it has been a pretty crazy few days here in the Allen home.

I am super happy with how last week went. I have been doing more for me. I have made it a goal to do squats every day to help build my leg strength and get some PiYo into my exercise routine as well. The gym attendance wasn't all that great but I still took care of me as much as I could. Life with 2 is challenging that is for sure!

Oh and an update on my running shoes. My coach is the owner of the running shoe store here in town. I stopped on the track to tell him on Saturday I was going to be in soon and if it was safe for me to go out on my run in the shoes or not. I showed him and he said that I need to get them replaced very soon and the way the shoes are could cause a stress fracture in my foot if I run too much longer in them. So new shoes it is. Just getting down there with 2 kids, almost impossible. Hoping this weekend to get my shoes taken care of.

Mason: Mason is learning more and more dinosaur names. And one thing that I have really noticed this past week is his growth in imagination. He is playing more with his toys. Making sounds for them to do things and using his toys to talk with each other. He makes his T-Rex eat other dinosaurs or the other dinos eat his T-Rex. But it just isn't with his dinos he does this with. He has a little Mickey and Goofy toy and they talk to each other and drive the car. It is really cool to watch him play with his toys now.

Collin: Collin is doing more crawling and standing. He is trying to stand at every moment he can find. We have been concerned about his weight. He has lost about half a pound since his 4 month appointment. So I have been trying to fatten him up with healthy fats and eating more solid foods in general. His main goal these days is to play with whatever toy brother is playing or grabbing mommy or daddy's tablet away. And sucking on any chord he can find! No teeth yet just lots of toothless grins for this momma!

Workout: 
Sunday: rest
Monday: 1 mile slow walk
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: PiYo lower define
Thursday: 30 min speed walk 30 min elliptical
Friday: 2.5 mile slow walk
Saturday: 6.13 mile run/walk. 15:10 min/mile pace. Super happy with this because it was on the 10 miler course and I just kept a consistent run a little walk a little pace.

Plus 30-40 squats every day.

Fitbit: 
Total Steps: 63,333 equal to 29.01 miles
Total Stairs: 54 (not including the hills from my 6.13 miles. I had to charge the thing. It died!)