Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Weigh-In

Welcome to another weigh-in Wednesday!

I lost another pound this week, yahoo!


Starting: 183.1
Last Recorded Weight (8/5): 182.5
This Week: 176
Total Lost: -7.1

180 - Running Shoes
175 - Hydration Vest
170 - Subscription to a running magazine
165 - New sports bras
160 - New workout clothes
155 - Pedicure
152 - Wardrobe shopping spree

Only one more pound, and I will be able to get my hydration vest.  I have a hydration belt that has four bottles, but each bottle is only 6oz, and I go through them way too quickly for it to be of any real use.

On another note, I am happy to report that I've been able to get sub 10:00 paces on my three 3-mile runs!

10/15/15
Average pace: 9:46

10/17/15
 Average pace: 9:43

10/20/15
Average pace: 9:39

For my last two runs, I started using the virtual pacer on my Garmin.  This has really helped keep a fairly consistent pace.  I always try to push the last mile though...  On 10/17 I had the pace set at 9:55 and last night, I set it at 9:50.  Based on my splits last night, I am going to set it at 9:45 for my run today.

Monday, October 19, 2015

101 in 1001

                 
 Because I like lists, and making goals, I've decided to create a 101 goals in 1001 days list.

I have 1001 days to complete the following list of 101 goals I made for myself.

Start date: October 19th, 2015
End date: July 16th, 2018

Financial
1-5: $0/$100
  1. Put $20 into saving for each task I complete ($0/$2,020)
  2. Pay off two student loans (I have 5...ugh) (0/2)
  3. Have at least $5,000 in our savings account 
  4. Increase my IRA contribution
  5. Update my last name on my IRA account
Fitness/Health
6-20: $0/$300
  1. Run a marathon 
  2. Run a sub 2:00 half marathon
  3. Between running and walking, accumulate 3,000 miles (0/3,000)
  4. Run a race in another state
  5. Reach my goal weight of 152
  6. Rind out my blood type
  7. No candy for 30 days (0/30)
  8. Buy a treadmill
  9. Subscribe to a running magazine
  10. Run the Chicago Marathon
  11. Become a Tough Mudder
  12. Complete a sprint triathlon
  13. Run in the Belleville Fun Run
  14. Bike to Madison on the bike trail
  15. Run in at least 6 races (0/6)

Personal Growth/Learning
21-36: $0/$320
  1. "Adult" my wardrobe
  2. Recreate 10 outfits that I have pinned on Pinterest (0/10)
  3. Finish my 2nd bachelor's degree, in Spanish
  4. Read 150 books (0/150)
  5. Learn how to sew
  6. Learn how to knit
  7. Learn to drive a manual vehicle 
  8. Read 10 memoirs or biographies (0/10)
  9. Read 20 books from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (0/20)
  10. Start playing a musical instrument
  11. Join the book club at my local library
  12. Start learning a new language (NOT Spanish, German, or Italian)
  13. Read 10 non-fiction books (0/10)
  14. Learn basic American Sign Language
  15. Finish Reading the Harry Potters series in Spanish (1/7)
    1. Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal
  16. Have a month-long streak on Duolingo
Travel
37-44: $0/$160
  1. Travel abroad
  2. Travel to at least 2 states I've never been to (0/2)
  3. Get our passports
  4. Take a weekend vacation to a dog-friendly hotel/bed & breakfast
  5. Go to the Milwaukee Art Museum
  6. Ride the Merrimac Ferry
  7. Visit the Apostles Islands Ice Caves
  8. Go to the Wisconsin State Fair
Giving
45-50: $0/$120
  1. Start a pay-it-forward at a drive-thru
  2. Do a boudoir photo shoot as an anniversary gift for Nick
  3. Donate blood
  4. Buy Christmas gifts for a family in need
  5. Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity at least two times (0/2)
  6. Bake some yummy treats and send them to 5 friends/family members (0/5)
Home
51-65: $0/$300
  1. Build new bookshelves so I can organize my book collection
  2. Decorate about the cupboards in the kitchen
  3. Organize and clean basement storage shelves
  4. Organize and finalize camping totes
  5. Organize and clean out guest bedroom closets
  6. Improve our landscaping: e.g. redo river rock borders, add more flowers
  7. Set up/decorate a more welcoming foyer
  8. Establish a cleaning schedule and stick to it
  9. Re-purpose bedroom furniture
  10. Put up a tile backs plash in the kitchen 
  11. Put in new floors on our main level
  12. Do lawn maintenance i.e. eliminate weeds and crab grass
  13. Plant a blueberry bush
  14. Complete 5 DIY projects from my DIY Pinterest board (0/5)
  15. Buy new bed skirts
Cooking
66-72: $0/$140
  1. Bake a pie, from scratch
  2. Put together a favorite recipes binder
  3. Make homemade pasta
  4. Learn to make sushi
  5. Buy a bratzeli maker and make bratzelis for Christmas
  6. Make 3 authentic Italian recipes from Frank's cookbook (0/3)
  7. Take a couple's cooking class
Relationships
73-83: $0/$220
  1. Have a "picnic" dinner with Nick in front of the fireplace 
  2. Host a family Christmas
  3. Spend the day with my nephew
  4. Babysit our twin nieces and nephew overnight 
  5. Randomly send flowers to 3 friends (0/3)
  6. Watch a sunrise and drink coffee with Nick
  7. Watch a sunset and drink wine with Nick
  8. Have a baby
  9. Send Christmas cards
  10. Take my mom out to lunch
  11. Leave 10 love notes for Nick on the bathroom mirror (0/10)
Fun
84-101: $0/360
  1. Organize a girl's weekend
  2. Meet a fellow blogger in person
  3. Get another tattoo
  4. Go skiing
  5. Attend a play
  6. Attend a musical
  7. Complete the Badger Football puzzle to hang in our bar
  8. Go to Koz's Mini Bowl
  9. Write a letter to a favorite author
  10. Eat at 10 new restaurants (0/10)
  11. Watch the Star Wars series
  12. Watch 20 movies I haven't seen from IMDB top 250 move list (0/20)
  13. Buy perfume
  14. Go snow shoeing
  15. Drive through the Olin Christmas lights
  16. Walk through Pope Farm's sunflowers
  17. Buy a new pea coat
  18. Attend a Paint Night with friends 





Friday, October 16, 2015

A-Z About Me!

I really enjoy these silly little questionnaires to help connect with readers and fellow bloggers.  I am borrowing this one from Jen over at Jen Choose Joy.  Jen is the sweet ever and has a fun running blog, go check here out!  While you're at it, fill out the A - Z survey too!

A- Age: 28

B- Biggest Fear: Losing a loved one.

C- Current Time: 8:22 am CST

D- Drink You Last Had: Coffee with Natural Bliss Cinnamon creamer

E- Easiest Person To Talk To: Anna, my best friend since 7th grade. We talk about EVERYTHING.  Sex, work, babies, poop, life goals, love, what we're reading, hair, clothes, food.  EVERYTHING.  And somehow, it's never awkward.  That's what best friends are for!


F- Favorite Song: "Can't Help Falling in Love" Elvis 

G- Grossest Memory: Working at a deli/butcher shop in high school...I was the office girl, but I often had to go "behind the scenes".  The things I saw and heard, I'm surprised I'm not a vegetarian...

H- Hometown: New Glarus, Wisconsin

I- In Love With: Nick, obviously.  And, our furbabies.


J- Jealous Of: People that are naturally good at stuff.  Natural athletes.  Those that can easily do math in their heads.  Etc.  I know I'm good at certain stuff too, but I feel like I always have to work at it.

K: Kindest Person You Know: My dental hygienist.  Kind of a strange answer, but Katie is seriously the kindest/nicest person I have ever met!  I actually look forward to going to the dentist just so I can catch up with her! 

L- Longest Relationship: 4 years

M- Middle Name: Anne

N- Number of Siblings: 6: 2 biological brothers, 3 step brothers, and a step sister.

O- One Wish: For each person to open their minds and hearts and be more accepting of those that are different from themselves. 

P- Person You Spoke To on the Phone Last: Anna

Q- Question You’re Always Asked: Lately, "So, how's married life?"  My answer, "Exactly the same as unmarried life."  Am I missing something?  Was something supposed to change once we tied the knot?

R- Reason to Smile: Life is good :) :) :)

S- Song You Last Sang: “Can't Help Falling in Love"... When I listed it above, I of course had to listen to it, and sing along.

T- Time You Woke Up: 5:45 am CST

U- Unique Talent: I learned how to fold two different types (square of rectangular) of boxes out of paper in the 4th grade, and I still remember how to make them both.  When I'm bored, and have paper, or gum wrappers, I like going into a trance and making a bunch of little paper boxes.  It's kind of like a form of meditation.  If we're getting a drink at a bar, I like to make a little paper box to put the bartenders tip in :)  I can make all different sizes, depending the size of the piece of paper I have, and I don't require any other tools (i.e. scissors or tape/glue) than the piece of paper.

Because you obviously need proof.

V- Vacation Destination: In the Spring, Nick and I are going to Europe!  We haven't made any official plans yet, but we need to get started.  I studied abroad in college, and have already been to Italy (my exchange school was in Rome), Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, and Belgium. Nick really wants to go to Italy and Germany, but I'm a bit reluctant since I've already been...but it would be fun to play tour guide it Italy for him!  I want to go to the UK and the Scandinavian (Hello, ancestors!) countries. 
Eating Belgian waffles in Brussels, Belgium

Louvre entrance in Paris, France. 

View of the River Neckar from the castle in Heidelberg, Germany.

Colosseum  Rome, Italy

Trying on Dutch wooden shoes in Amsterdam, Netherlands 

Standing in the Balearic Sea in Barcelona, Spain 
W- Worst Habit: Twirling my hair.  I don't think it's a bad habit, but for some reason, it drives other people crazy and they always say they're going to chop off all of my hair...jerks.  I've done it my whole life, and will not be stopping any time soon.  I didn't have a blankie or stuffed animal that I carried with me everywhere like most children, instead, my hair was my security blanket and twirled
and played with it a lot. 

X- X-Rays You’ve Had: Broken arm in middle school, cracked tail bone in high school (most awkward x-ray ever!), and regular dental x-rays. 

Y- Your Favorite Food: Cheesecake.  Or, just plain cheese.  

Z- Zodiac Sign: Cancer.

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Weigh-In

Hey, everyone!

I'm a day late for weigh-in, but it went well!  The 180's are finally gone for good.

Starting: 183.1
Last Recorded Weight (8/5): 182.5
This Week: 177
Total Lost: -6.1

I've been slacking at blogging lately, but I just haven't had much to say.

The few things I have to say today are:

Running is still a work in progress.  I'm working on getting back down to 10:00 miles on my 3 mile runs...so close!  Here are my splits form my latest (Tuesday) run.



Hopefully on my run tonight, I'll get there.

Nick and I are awful people, and we still haven't finished out wedding thank-yous...we suck.

Ugh...about half way done though!

Our sweet little twin nieces were born on October 4th!  They are so tiny and cute.  To say I have baby fever, is an understatement :)



I got a FitBit a few months ago, and I made a goal to hit my step goal (12,000) every day in October.  Unfortunately, I've already missed two days.  One day, I was recovering from a bout of stomach flu, so awful, and I just didn't have the energy to move.  I didn't even break 1,200 steps that day.  The other day, I was just plan lazy and couldn't find the motivation.  Despite those two days, I've been averaging 13,000 steps a day for the month so far so I'm calling it a win.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Changes

I have decided to change things up around this little old blog.

When I first started blogging, back in 2012, I had some big running goals that I thought I would accomplish within the next year.  

Fast forward 3 years, and I still have not run a marathon, I still have not gotten a sub 2:00 half time, and I still have never run a 5k. 

I did sign up for a marathon, but never actually trained and therefore never ran it.  

Four half marathons have come and gone, but the time is still over 2:00.

How am I supposed to get a sub 30:00 5k time, if I never actually run a 5k?

So having the blog title of Running My Way to a Full just doesn't feel right any more.  I still have intentions of running a full marathon, I just have no idea when that will happen.

This year, I kept having feelings of guilt when I would blog.  I felt like I wasn't living up to my blog name.  I started blogging because I like writing, and I liked the connections I made from reading other people's blogs.  With the guilt, I didn't feel like I could keep those connections because I felt like a fake. 

I'm hoping a blog face lift and some goal evaluations will bring back the joy of blogging.

With that, welcome to the new Wooden Spoon Running!  It's still a work in progress, aka I really have no idea how to use Blogger effectively, so I'll be making more changes/updates over the next few weeks.

Why Wooden Spoon?  My maiden name means wooden spoon in German, and it's been a nickname since elementary school :)

What has this Wooden Spoon been up to lately?

Still running, just low mileage.  I need to build a better mileage base before I jump into anymore "training" plans. 

I've been getting up at 5am to get my runs in!  This way, I have no excuses (I need to make dinner, it's too hot this afternoon, I'm tired, I have to mow the law, etc) for skipping them later in the day.

Trying to calm my David's Tea addiction so I don't go broke.  So. Many. Flavors! I want them all!!

A little hard to see, but I currently have 23 flavors of tea on my wish list...23!

I am still working on these weight goals and rewards.

180 - Running Shoes

175 - Hydration Vest

170 - Subscription to a running magazine

165 - Pedicure

160 - New sports bras

155 - New workout clothes

152 - Wardrobe shopping spree

 I'm FINALLY out of the 80's, and wearing my new running shoes!! Booyah!

Nick and I built a pergola and fence in our back yard.  Well, Nick and my stepdad did most of it, I just cut a few boards... They did such a great job, I love it!





I work at a college, and one of our employee benefits is free classes.  I'm taking advantage this semester, and I'm taking a nutrition course.

Having conversations with Nick about starting our family and making babies :)  Not happening for about another year, but it never hurts to plan early!

Just loving life in general!

I look forward to reconnecting, and getting back into the groove of blogging regularly.