Did you think I abandoned my journey?

Well, in a way, I DID abandon my journey. Life sidetracked me and I allowed it to do so. Cait had her MRI's and while we found no seizure activity, we did find a tethered spinal cord. September - January we were bombarded with doctor visits and then she had surgery in November, family came for Thanksgiving, then more doctor visits another hospital stay in December, then a follow up in January. And since then, Cait suffered 2 broken bones in one of her legs. She certainly does keep my life interesting. After 4 children, I thought I'd experienced just about everything, but Cait has proven me WRONG! So, in all of this, I kind of lost myself, not to mention I tore my quadriceps tendon the weekend after Thanksgiving. I was not able to resume running until the end of February. This put a HUGE hurting on my success and I lost track of eating properly and I went in a tail spin and gained back a lot of weight. As for disappointment, yes, I'm experiencing that. However, I am a strong woman and I am a determined person. I'm never going to give up on achieving my goals.

Recently, my father became insulin dependent. This scares me to no end. His genes are part of me. His insulin dependency is helping to motivate me to get back on track. I do not want to have to spend my life shooting myself in the stomach with chemicals to keep my body functioning properly. I was born with a healthy body and it is up to me to KEEP it that way.

Now that I am back to running my three miles three days per week, I have injured a shoulder. Thankfully, the doctor that I am seeing did not tell me I cannot workout. Instead he is putting me in physical therapy, so that we can rehab my shoulder and get me back to full workouts. So, currently I am focusing on running, strengthening my legs and strengthening my right side.

Coming up:

• April 27 SuperHero 5K
• May 11 Color Run - Baltimore
• May 11 Glow Run - Richmond
• June 22 Jack & Abby NeoNatal Foundation 5K
• June 22 Congenital Heart Walk
• July 13 Westby Centennial Fun Run

Having a schedule of upcoming races and activities helps me to keep my eye on the prize and keeps me moving and motivated.

I've initiated a Facebook Squat challenge with some of my sorority sisters and low and behold, others have joined in on the challenge! How FUN! Our first 50 squats was today! Cait actually did squats with me while I did mine. My little 3 year old workout buddy is the best! 

On the food -- this is the most difficult part for me. I've taken myself off of coffee and gone to green tea, no sugar. I'm attempting to not eat junk, but this weekend was a rough one for me! Lots of cake (birthdays and wedding showers, oh my)... but today is a new day, there is no cake in my house! I've had a spinach feta wrap and green tea, and then a protein bar for snack. Lunch will be veggies & triscuits w/ humus along with 1 egg cup (recipe found on Pinterest, and I subbed egg whites). Afternoon snack will be 1/2 of a banana in a high fiber low carb wrap with a serving of natural peanut butter. Dinner will be chicken and veggies, just not quite sure yet, how I'm cooking them.

I was unable to do a run this morning, so I may do a run this evening. I have completed 50 squats, I'm planning to put in 50 monkey's and then I'll be doing push ups, planks and side plank as well as an inverted plank with a butt raise/pulse. I'll be using the resistance band for bicep curls.

I'm looking for a good tabata workout and a good (FREE) Tabata app for my phone. Suggestions are welcome!