The Ups and Downs and a GIVEAWAY- Win Gear From Our Friends at XShadyside 24 Hour Gyms

So here we are just two days before Christmas. Oh my goodness, so many things have happened since my last post, but I promise not to bore you with all the details. Right now, things are good. My shopping is done and Christmas cards just got out yesterday morning (so they may in fact be New Year’s cards for some) and I only have a few items left to get from the store. The three things we still need are batteries, ice cream and beer. I’m handing that one over to the hubby. Ha ha.

Okay, so quick run/injury/workout update first.

I attempted a few runs the other week. Everything was fine. I went super slow and super short on the treadmill. I felt like my old self for exactly 6 days.

IN my head I was getting geared up to start slowly getting back and training for a race in 2017. I was so excited.

Then…….. I did something to my back and my sciatic got REALLY angry. I couldn’t walk for close to a week and I can’t even explain the pain that radiated down my right butt cheek. Lovely, right?

As of yesterday I can walk normal and have not run since that sporadic week of a couple runs. I may test the waters out this weekend a bit as a little Christmas present to myself, but I’m mentally changing gears and starting to take the whole getting back into long distances thing off the table. My torn labrum is annoying, but not painful so we won’t do surgery unless it really starts to cause problems. I’m just kind of in maintenance mode, but I’m going to have to think long and hard about what kind of personal goals I have going into 2017.

I’m thinking of finally taking up some yoga and really focusing on strength and coming up with some really cool new moves and workouts for my fitness classes I teach (currently 8 a week).

Let’s see, what else?

We went to Vegas to celebrate my dad’s 70th birthday. That was a blast.

This was on the High Roller thing. Expensive, but totally worth it.

We celebrated a gain at home by watching the boys at their first grade winter celebration performance.

We followed that with a little Chinese take out and martinis with our new drinking buddies that I got for Dad. How awesome was my guy Mitch? Ha ha.

We got a special VIP invite to see the movie Sing before it was released. It was super cute!

The old lizard secretary is my favorite. If you see it, look out for her and her glass eye that continuously pops out.

We went to see Santa.

Unfortunately there have been some request changes after our visit, but I told the boys Santa doesn’t really have time to deal with request changes this close to Christmas. I mean, really.

Our annual gingerbread making night was a success for about 10 minutes before there were tears and fights over who got to make the wreath over the front door. We called it quits pretty fast and ordered pizza for delivery.

Its’ finally getting a bit chilly here and we’ve had frost on the roof, deck and on the minivan. It’s pretty exciting.

The boys’ birthday is the 28th so we decided to have the party early so their school friends could come. We went this route.

I’ve been sleeping in instead of trying to workout before everyone else wakes up. This is how the workouts have been looking because of that.

It’s not really the mommy alone time I usually enjoy, but it gets the job done.

Okay, seriously, no more pictures of the boys. I’ll give you just one of the cats though.

You’re welcome.

Here are some random things I’ve been eating just because.

Egg whites, NuttZo and chicken sausage.

Roasted purple sweet potatoes with NuttZo or crunchy almond butter.

We’re all about the EPIC snacks these days too. The chicken bites and sriracha bars are our current favorite.

I like to use the chicken bars to dip in guacamole.

It’s good stuff.

These fruit and veggie Pressed by KIND bars were a huge hit when I sent them to school for the boys’ birthday instead of cupcakes. Their teacher only allows fruits and vegetables as snacks so I tried to win her over with these. He he.

My most recent concoction is this.

Yes. delicious. I added SunButter, Vital Proteins collagen and Nutpods creamer to my coffee and blended it together. Um….. YUM!

Yes. These. Try it.

Oh my goodness and one last thing. I have been in a slump for awhile and at my hair appointment the other day I told my friend Casey that I really just needed a change to feel better. Luckily she had saved my extensions from over a year ago so we decided to tape those suckers back in. I’m so glad we did. Now I’ll actually have to put some energy into doing my hair though. Ha ha.

Here’s the before and after of her magic.

GIVEAWAY TIME…. finally!

As a reward for surviving a bazillion pictures of the boys and in the spirit of gearing up for workouts in the new year, I have a giveaway for you!

Woot!

The prize is a $25 gift certificate to Dick’s Sporting goods for new workout gear!

Thanks to XShadyside 24 hour gyms Pittsburgh for providing the prize.

I mean, who doesn’t want to win a gift card for workout gear?

Enter the giveaway below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway