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running

Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Half Marathon 2019

May 17, 2019 by Rachel 6 Comments

Don’t let the fear of not being “good enough” hold you back from achieving your goals!

Nearly two weeks ago I finished my first postpartum race after having Mila and my second half marathon ever, at the Pittsburgh Marathon. I was underprepared.

Like, crazy, crazy underprepared. The days and hours where I should have been running were spent tending to sick children.

But I still got out there. I still showed up. I realized in the wee hours of that morning that I CAN DO VERY HARD THINGS. HECK, I birthed three babies on very little sleep (and one without an epidural). So I knew my body was (and is) capable of more than I think.

So if you think “I could never do ___,” take a step back and give yourself some darn credit! YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS!

Right now my body is still in recovery mode. The mud, sweat, and tears were totally worth that finishers medal (and the finishers beer!). YES, I’m proud of myself for physically finishing 13.1 miles. But mostly I’m proud of the fact that I mentally and psychologically could handle it. Postpartum baby number one and two, I could never have convinced myself to start, let alone finish. But this time my anxiety stayed far from that start and finish line.

That alone was worth the medal. So I’m going to consider this my freaking postpartum medal. And I goddamn earned it!

 

 

Filed Under: #GetFit, #MomLife, #SweatPink, 1/2 Marathon, Family Travel, fitness, health, postpartum, running, Travel Adventures, wellness, workout Tagged With: #GetFit, #MomLife, 1/2 Marathon + Running, Family Travel, fitness, health and beauty, postpartum, running, Travel Adventures, wellness, workout

End of Summer Health + Fitness Update | and a BIG announcement!

August 31, 2017 by Rachel 18 Comments

Guys, I am proud to say that I didn’t let the hustle and bustle of Summer get me off track with my health and fitness journey. Wooo hooo!

Weight Watchers Update  //

I’m at my lowest weight since Remy was born. Not my goal weight, but significantly closer. I’m down 30.5 pounds since I started WW last November. It’s a good feeling and I’ve been working my booty off to achieve it.

Have you ever seen a salad more beautiful?! I’m having serious vacation sadness today — especially in regards to food! . This BL(fried green)T salad was delicious. Can someone please teleport me back to Hilton Head?!? Cause I’m not about that drive… ?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . #clevelandblogger #clevelandbloggers #imsobloggingthis #ohioblogger #travelblogger #hiltonheadisland #eatlocal #hiltonheadeats #eatcolorfully #eatcolorfulfood #southerneats #documentyourdays #explorehiltonhead #localeats

A post shared by Rachel L (@itsahero) on Aug 29, 2017 at 5:07pm PDT

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again — I love that with WW I can still enjoy things like donuts because I’m not ‘counting calories.’ I mean, I’m not eating donuts everyday; but, gosh darnit, I’ll eat a donut every so often if I want to! 🙂

So we tried @duckdonuts for the first time today. And they were warm, and gooey, and AMAZING! ? Calories don’t count on vacation, right?? ?? . . . . . . . . . . . #hiltonhead #hiltonheadisland #imsobloggingthis #documentyourdays #clevelandbloggers #ilovedonuts #donutseveryday #vacationeats #eatlocal #travelblogger #ohioblogger

A post shared by Rachel L (@itsahero) on Aug 22, 2017 at 5:03pm PDT

Oh, and HUGE shoutout to Pink Blush for making me feel gorgeous in this amazing dress!

Favorite new dress alert! ❤️ The amount of compliments I receive when I wear a dress from @shoppinkblush is insane! Not only that, but their clothes are SO comfortable! . Unrelated: This photo is from a (rare) date night at @annieoskitchen. We just had to document a night away from the kids! ? . . . . . . . . #ad #clevelandblogger #clevelandbloggers #shoppinkblush #imsobloggingthis #thatsdarling #joyfulmamas #myhonestmotherhood #prettyinpinkblush #pinkblush #motherhoodsimplified #documentyourdays #travelblogger

A post shared by Rachel L (@itsahero) on Aug 27, 2017 at 4:41pm PDT

Workouts  //

I’ve consistently been working out (and earning those WW Fit Points!). I’m a little sad to say my workouts have consisted of very few runs. I just… I just… haven’t been feeling it. Especially not in the crazy heat.

When I did run this Summer, it was with the running group MRTT (or, Moms Run This Town). I have to admit, it’s way easier to get motivated — especially to run — when I run with this awesome group of ladies!

But I’ve been doing a LOT of cycling and kickboxing to ‘switch it up.’ And I’m noticing I’m getting SO much stronger and it’s absolutely helping me build back my endurance.

Made it to my first ever Yoga On Tap at @hihobrewingco with @balanceandbrews! It was the perfect morning flow to help close out the weekend! . . . . . . #akronohio #ohioblogger #ohiolove #imsobloggingthis #yogaeverydamnday #beeryogi #documentyourdays #hihobrewingco #travelblogger #ohiogram #akronlife #akrongram #exploreakron #summitpeeks #summitbrewpath #breweryfun #sweatpink

A post shared by Rachel L (@itsahero) on Jul 23, 2017 at 3:57pm PDT

In addition, I’ve hit up several yoga classes. I have to admit, I’ve been really missing yoga. When I’m on my mat, I’m in the zone. I feel strong and confident and powerful. And then I’ll go weeks without a yoga class for no reason other than it hasn’t really fit into my schedule. Bummer, bro.

Coaching Gymnastics  //

So I’m definitely not tumbling. Ha! But stretching and conditioning with these girls is making a noticeable difference in my core strength and flexibility. It’s been nice to build relationships and workout with these young gymnasts — and we both are building confidence in ourselves! Win-win!

PS. If you’re local to Akron and are looking to enroll your child in gymnastics, email me and I’ll let you know which classes I’m teaching! 🙂 

A BIG Cycling Update  //

I’m really excited to share this with you! My love of cycling has grown tremendously over the last year. And I’m happy to say that in October I’m going to get certified as an indoor cycling instructor!

I owe it to my incredible coworkers at the YMCA for helping me to pursue this dream of getting certified! And helping me to get put onto the Fall schedule for our cycling classes at the Riverfront YMCA location!

So yeah. I guess if I was MIA this Summer (both on the blog and IRL) this had something to do with it. I was busy, ya’ll! Busy being a goal-getter! 🙂

How did you do with your health and fitness goals this Summer?!

 

 

Filed Under: #GetFit, #SweatPink, busy mom, fitness, goals, health, running, wellness, workout, yoga Tagged With: #GetFit, #MomLife, #SweatPink, busy mom, fitness, health, wellness, workout, yoga

Our Summer in Pictures

August 28, 2017 by Rachel 18 Comments

Guys – something amazing happened this Summer — we had fun — and I stepped a bit away from this here blog. I did, however, start posting all kinds of photos to my Instagram stories as a way of ‘photo-blogging’ my way through the summer months!

In case you aren’t following me on Instagram (which, why aren’t you!?), here’s our Summer in Insta-stories:

 
























 



I worked out a LOT.







We visited the farmers market often.






Adventures at the zoo!


We spent a lot of time eating samples at Costco.






My children had a blast at the YMCA — both while I was working and while they
(well, specifically, Ari, was in swim lessons!).







We went to Kentucky to visit my parents.














We celebrated my nephews first birthday!





We took a BIG family vacay to Hilton Head!


































Basically, all of these pictures and I’m all “OMG I can’t believe it’s nearly September!” And now we have exactly ONE WEEK left of Summer break before our new school year starts. I’m absolutely going to make the most of this week and get one more ‘hurrah’ outta Summer! 😉

Summer 2017 — you kinda rocked. 

Filed Under: #GetFit, #MomLife, #SweatPink, Akron, beer, brews + food, busy mom, children, cleveland, Cleveland Flea, coffee, Columbus, cooking, creative, cupcakes, family, Flea Market Fun, food, in this moment, life, life with a toddler, live happy, Lululemon, mommyhood, NEO, Ohio, parenthood, pictures, Remy Bea, restaurants + bars, road trip, running, social media, starbucks, workout, yoga, Zoo Tagged With: #GetFit, #SweatPink, akron, brews + food, cleveland, cleveland flea, coffee, columbus, life with a toddler, mommyhood, motherhood, oh baby, ohio, parenthood, pictures, workout

Accountability // Health + Fitness Update # 1

June 9, 2017 by Rachel 15 Comments

It’s been one week since my fitness update. And I feel amazing! Don’t get me wrong — things have not been perfect. Nope. In fact, I’ve barely been home to make dinner; I’ve been slacking on things around the house; and I’ve generally been a crazy person.

But I feel amazing.

In fact, I had gained three pounds over the Memorial Day holiday. Yep. That’s what happens when you go to a wedding and have family parties literally all weekend! But I did my Weight Watchers weigh-in Tuesday and I lost 6. SIX! This is: a.) the most I’ve ever lost in a week. Ever. and b.) it wasn’t easy. Not at all.

I know I’ve mentioned previously how much I love that WW allots points weekly to focus on the ‘bigger picture,’ and this week was a testament. I mean, I had days where I went way over with my points (and used my allotted weekly ‘wiggle room’); but I also had days where I was right on track. One thing was consistent — I consistently moved — Every damn day.

In fact, my fitness goal of 108 points was surpassed tremendously — I earned 116 fitness points! Those fitness points can essentially be ‘used’ towards food; but, I didn’t use all of them, thankfully.

The key to my success was this: I tracked everything. When you hold yourself accountable and actually track — whether it be through an app or writing it down — what you eat? It changes the whole freaking game, ya’ll. I mean, I looooove food. Love it. And I have an affinity for craft beer. But tracking it all still held me accountable. I was able to see how much or how little I was eating and where my ‘points’ went!

And that automatically makes a gal make better decisions. But I still lived my life like a normal person.

AND I STILL LOST SIX POUNDS. Crazy. pants. ya’ll.

So let’s real-talk this out — Here’s what my fitness routine looked like last week (PS. My weigh-in days are Tuesdays):

Tuesday = an easy walk with the kids but not much else.

Wednesday = 30 minutes of running.

Thursday = Treadmill workout; quick-walking pace + steady incline.

Friday = an easy walk with the kids in the double stroller.

Saturday = 45-minute, butt-kicking, cycling class.

Sunday = 30 minute run, outside, by myself, in the rain! ♥

Monday = 45-minute, butt-kicking, cycling class (again).

Also, I regularly met my own personal goal of 10k steps per day. I just made sure my booty got up and moving!

So, in short, I moved + I sweated a lot. But I also ate mostly healthy and still indulged on occasion. But from hereon out I’m not going to refer to it as ‘indulging;’ I’m going to call it living. Because that’s what it is. It’s living.


Other developments:

You’re looking at the newest head-coach of the Riverfront YMCA Girls on the Run, 5th-8th grade girls! We are launching this Summer/Fall and I’m SO excited to be a part of this!

Also, I’ve been doing lots of interval training, but during my rainy-day run I actually ran 22.5 minutes straight before stopping. This is huge! I thought, for sure, I could keep going. But then I came upon a HUGE hill and almost died and the end. But 22.5 minutes! And then I walked for about 2 minutes (killer hill) and then ran another 8 minutes. Not bad. Not bad at all!


So yeah. This past week was a good one. A very good one, health-wise. If you’ve been following since the beginning of this blog (which I’m guessing 99% of you haven’t — because that was a long, loooong, time ago), I finally feel like I’m getting back to my ‘roots’ again. It feels… amazing.

Mostly, I am happy. I am happy that I’m finally beginning to get back to myself again. I can’t wait to keep you updated on my journey!

Filed Under: #GetFit, #MomLife, #SweatPink, fitness, goals, health, life, mother runner, running, wellness Tagged With: #GetFit, #MomLife, #SweatPink, being a mom, fitness, get fit, goal crusher, goals, health, just keep running, life, mother runner, running, wellness

Postpartum Health + Fitness After Baby # 2 //

May 31, 2017 by Rachel 27 Comments

Real talk: Postpartum health and fitness after one baby felt like a breeze. Postpartum health and fitness with a toddler and terrible newborn?? It feels impossible. Well, it felt impossible…

I know, I know — I’ve heard that we make time for things that are important. And if health and fitness are important, you do whatcha gotta do.

But here’s the thing — I tried really, really, hard to live by the motto “DO NOT COMPARE YOUR HEALTH AND FITNESS JOURNEY AND YOUR LIFE WITH OTHER PEOPLES.”

For me, I’m telling you, it was impossible to workout and focus on eating healthy in Remy’s first year. I was in full-on survival mode. She didn’t sleep, like, at all. No, I’m not just saying that. If you’ve followed this blog at all over the last year you’ll know she legit did not sleep. 2 hours of broken sleep in a 24-hour period. So I was a zombie. I wasn’t even on Mom-bie level; I was a straight-up emotional wreck without being able to comprehend how to perform normal daily tasks, let alone focus on myself. Heck, I was lucky to make it to the end of the day with all of us alive and well(ish).

I was so tired of hearing well-meaning(ish) people saying “You just have to make time for it.” Because, here’s the thing — I know how good it feels to work out. I really do. I spent the better part of my life in a full-on obsession with eating super healthy and working out 2.5-3 hours a day (yep – you read that right… 3 hours of working out a day). So I know how awesome endorphins feel. And, yes, I craved them. It just wasn’t in the cards for me the first year. I’m really and truly lucky that I didn’t end up hospitalized for postpartum psychosis (I had severe PPD/anxiety, but not psychosis — I know this because I was lucid enough to make the decision to hand my children off when I was at my breaking point).

But then, right around Remy Bea’s first birthday, something magical happened — she began to sleep. She was acting like a normal baby. And I could regain some sort of (new) normalcy back into my life.

It changed everything for me. Not only was I able to hold conversations and laugh again, but I wanted to start working out again!

Here’s what’s been working for me in this moment:

Weight Watchers  //

About 8 weeks ago I got an email from Weight Watchers with an offer that I just couldn’t pass up — but it required a year commitment. And, truthfully? that’s exactly what I needed to kick my butt in the right direction. In my mind, if I commit to one year, then I will be able to make the changes that I need to make and stick to it.

I was successfully with Weight Watchers after Ari was born because it doesn’t require calorie counting. See, I get obsessed with calorie counting — and not in a good way! And in the short amount of time I’ve been back on WW, I’ve already seen weight loss and other non-scale victories!

I really like weight watchers because there is some flexibility. Instead of focusing on each day, I focus on the week. It really focuses on the lifestyle change and creating balance instead of a ‘diet.’

Switching it up  //

The first time around I only did one thing, fitness-wise, to get back into shape: running. It really was the best option for me at the time because I had an hour lunch break at work and a running path right outside the door. So I would lace up and head out during the one hour of the day when I didn’t have my kids and I wasn’t busy working.

But this time, running is… difficult. I’ve been trying to still catch up on sleep, so waking up at the butt-crack of dawn to hit the road while the kids and husband are still sleeping isn’t going to happen. So I have been squeezing in time to work out at the YMCA when I’m not working (which is pretty much always). And instead of going for distance and speed, I’m focusing my treadmill efforts on intervals and incline.

 

Post-workout stretch!

I’ve also committed to three group-fitness classes a week: 2-HIIT/strength training classes and 1-cycling class. There have been plenty of days when I didn’t want to work out, but 100% of the time I am in a better mood afterward. And these group fitness classes are something that I’d forgotten how much I enjoy! I’ve been, unknowingly, longing for the comradery of sweating it out in a room full of other people who have an equal love-hate relationship with exercise! Ha!

Getting out of my comfort zone  //

Recently I did two things that really brought me out of my fitness comfort zone. First, I volunteered for the Cleveland Marathon a week ago. I helped get all of the runners into the starting corrals and watched them take off over the start line. It was energizing! It’s been awhile since I’ve run a race, let alone a major race! It reignited a fire inside of me — my love for running is slowly coming back!

The bonus? I get a free race entry into next year’s Cleveland Marathon just for volunteering! So while it’s a bit far away, I’m not pressuring myself to run a race before my body is ready (which I’ve totally done in the past); but I have set this goal for next Spring — to run the Cleveland Half Marathon!

 

The Starting Line of the 2017 Cleveland Marathon.

The second crazy thing I did was take Megaformer class at Corus Fitness in Beachwood. The Megaformer hits everything: strength, endurance, cardio, balance, core, and flexibility. To me it looks like a pilates reformer; but it isn’t. It uses small, slow movements to create a full-body, high intensity, low-impact workout!

 

Corus Fitness!

I really like pushing myself, but this was totally out of my comfort zone! I spent the first 15 minutes of class thinking “I don’t know if I will be able to do this.” But by the end, I was thinking about when I could make it back for another class! See?? It pays to get out of your comfort zone!

Focus, focus, focus  //

I have to admit, I feel defeated when I see the scale get just a couple pounds lighter each week. Defeated because I feel like it should be coming down faster. But I remind myself (almost daily) that this hard work is paying off and sticking with it will be beneficial.

Heck, I’m already feeling stronger and leaner! Slow and steady is my motto. And even if I have teeny setbacks, this is all paying off; and I am feeling better about myself in the process.

I think I like who I’m becoming  //

Rarely do people talk about how having children really changes who we are as women. I’m not talking about all the things you ‘give up’ to become a parent. I’m talking about how we change into completely different people at the core of who we are. I guess the term really should be ‘grow into’, but still. You catch my drift. Motherhood changes us.

I’ve struggled for a long time at being this new person — absolutely happy about motherhood, but also a bit sad that I don’t recognize myself anymore. But I’m finally growing into my role and embracing this new me. And part of this has been finally being able to make myself a priority again.

I’ve come to terms that I will never be the person who can dedicate 3-hours in the gym 7 days a week; I’m happy with squeezing in a faster, more effective workout and then chasing kids around the park the rest of the day. I’m accepting that sometimes dinner is less than ideal; but I’m making better choices and holding myself accountable. And so much of this is just accepting where I am and the stage of the life we’re living.

 

Had an amazing time at the Columbus Zoo for @andrea_halcat’s wedding! Remy and I were rocking our pretty dresses. . Mine is from @shoppinkblush and Remy Bea’s is from @oldnavy! ?? . . . . #imsobloggingthis #remybea #documentyourdays #letthembekids #letthembelittle #columbusohio #columbuszoo #weddingfun #exploreohio

A post shared by Rachel L (@itsahero) on May 30, 2017 at 5:58am PDT

So if you’re in the thick of it — the hardest, worst part of motherhood, just hang in there and know that you will find yourself again.

Filed Under: #GetFit, #MomLife, #SweatPink, busy mom, children, fitness, health, life, mommyhood, mother runner, Oh baby!, parenthood, postpartum, running, weight, wellness, workout Tagged With: #MomLife, #SweatPink, being a mom, busy mom, children, fitness, health, life, motherhood, parenthood, postpartum, running, weight loss, weight watchers, wellness, workout

Monday Mantra //

May 22, 2017 by Rachel 11 Comments

I spent almost the entire day in bed yesterday. I woke up well before any human should wake up (like, 3:30am) and went to meet up with some MRTT (Moms Run This Town) ladies to volunteer for the Cleveland Marathon. I was home by 8am, but so exhausted. Like, I took two- 2.5 hour naps and went to bed at 9PM still, tired.

And even though I was a tad bit filled with the dread of the weight of my completely full to-do list last night, this mantra totally spoke to me. I have no complaints. I deserved those naps. And now I’m going to go kick Monday’s butt!

 

 

Filed Under: mantra, running Tagged With: mantra, running

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