#RIOTS Week Six and Seven

It's weeks six and seven for the #RIOTS.  I got a week behind as I had a lot of personal things going on these last two weeks.

I haven't really been running much except for a mile a day but that came to screeching halt last Thursday on Valentine's Day.  I woke up with minor back pain but after being up for an hour, I couldn't move.  I'm not sure why this happens and my doctor isn't either except for minor sciatica so I took some pain medicine, got the heating pad and went back to sleep.  After several hours, the pain went away and I felt better. 

I am using my Apple watch, Garmin watch along with the Nike Run app.  I have been getting badges and awards on the Nike Run app.  I love getting these as they help keep me motivated.  Do you use this app?  Do you like this feature on the app?

On Saturday, February 9th, I ran a local race, Knightdale Cupid Run.  It was a small 5K and I really enjoyed it.  I will be writing a race recap about this race.  I'm currently behind in writing race recap.  

On Valentine's Day (which was the day I woke up and had the back pain), after several hours of a heating pad and pain medicine, we went to Your pie for a Valentine's Day special.  The special was two pizzas, two beers from Aviator Brewing along with two glasses and a tour pass to the brewery.  

The next day, I headed to Savannah, Georgia for the Best Damn Race series and the Savannah Book Festival.  The book festival has become a girls weekend and I just happened to see that the race series was doing the inaugural Savannah race.  I couldn't have asked for a better weekend-running and books.  I had a fabulous race and then rushed back to the book festival.  I heard and met several authors and had an amazing time.  

Of course, no trip to Savannah would be complete without a trip to Leopold's ice cream.  I love that during the four days of the book festival, Leopold's renames their ice cream after the author and their books.  

 I will be writing more about more this race and trip in my race recap. 

My hydration is off along with my running.  So far, this month I have only run 29 miles.  I have let things get out of control and now I'm reeling them back in.  Scores for these last two weeks would be a B- or C+.  Till next time and remember my journey continues...If you can dream it, you can do it as Walt Disney said!

#RIOTS Week Five

It's week five for the #RIOTS.  I am feeling better and staying accountable due to this wonderful group of women.

I did manage almost 15 miles this past week.  I also ran the Krispy Kreme Challenge on Saturday.  This is a local race which is a fundraiser for the UNC Children's Hospital.  $190,000 was raised for due to this race.  I will be writing a race recap later this week.

I did better with my hydration this week.  I reached my goal except for one day.  115% weekly for my hydration!  I am really enjoying my pink Hidrate Spark water bottle.  I also love that you set up challenges with friends who have a Hidrate Spark.  

January was a good month for me.  I went 20 days out of 31 days completing all three of my rings on my Apple watch.  The rings are move, exercise and stand.  Approximately 75% is great for me considering my crazy work schedule at times.  Next month's goal is 100%!  I can do it!

I also ran 51 miles in January.  While that may not be a lot of many of my running friends, I'm proud of this mileage.  My goal in February is to try to run 100 miles.  

Score for this week along with the month of January is B+.  Till next time and remember my journey continues...If you can dream it, you can do it as Walt Disney said!

#RIOTS Week Four

It's week four for the #RIOTS.  This week was hard for me.  I worked back to back jobs Monday through Friday and then an eight hour shift on Saturday and another four hour shift on Sunday.  So, my exercising and hydration are off.

I did manage to get at least a mile a day in except for Sunday.  I started the C2K app this week and got in two runs with it.  It felt great to run with the assistance of this app.

My hydration suffered this week too.  It turned cold here and I don't like to drink cold water when I'm already cold.  I feel like that I failed this week in my small goals but I'm not giving up!

I received a wonderful email this week.  I was chosen as a Global Impi Ambassador for Balega for a the third year!  I wasn't chosen last year and really missed being a part of the team.  So, I'm glad that I'm back!

I participated in a 24 in 48 hour readathon this weekend.  I have done this readathon three other times and managed to get 24 hours in two out of the three.  I am happy with my results as I finished four books.

I have the Krispy Kreme Challenge on Saturday morning and hope to get some more training on the app in before then along with increasing my hydration. 

Score for the week is a C+.  Till next time and remember my journey continues...If you can dream it, you can do it as Walt Disney said!

#RIOTS Week Three

Woo Hoo!  We are on week three for #RIOTS and I feel fabulous.  I have 37.75 miles in this month.  That may not seem like a lot of miles but for me, it's keeping my consistency along with the most that I have run in a month in a while.

Hydration thanks to my pink hidrate spark is going good.  I haven't made my daily water intake a couple of days but staying strong.  It's hard to drink water when it's cold for me but I feel much better when I hit my daily water intake.

This week was a struggle.  I knew that it would be due to a couple of fifteen hour work days.  I did miss my running or some sort of exercise on those days.  However, this year, I am working on being kind to myself.  So, I let that negative voice in my voice remain small and relatively quiet and rewarded myself with the thought that I would be fine.

On Friday, I left for Charlotte to work and run in the Hot Chocolate 15k.  I am a field hydration specialist along with being an ambassador for Nuun.  So early out at 6 am and off to work at the expo.  I met Mike, one of the Field Marketing Specialist from corporate along with his wonderful wife, Stephanie.  I also got to try the new Nuun Sport which is available now online and rolling out everywhere by the end of March.  I got to see my friend, Kim (more about this on my HC15K race recap) along with several other friends. 

On Saturday, I ran the Hot Chocolate 15k.  I wasn't sure about this distance since I hadn't really run any distance in a while.  It was rainy and damp and I was still debating but knew that I could do it.  Kim and I finished the race and I was proud of myself for keeping up with her until the last third of a mile which was uphill and I felt exhausted.  But overall I was very happy with what I did.  Again, more on my race recap.

So, I'm thinking that I need to set a minor goal and see how it goes.  I started the Active C25K app this morning. I hope to improve my running in the next week. 


Score for the week is a B+. 

Share your progress in the comment or go ahead and link up with us!  See you next week on #RIOTS! 

2019 is a #RIOT(s)

It's January and I'm already behind.  However, I'm not quitting!  #RIOTS is an acronym for "Running is Our Therapy Sisters" or "Squad".  I reached out to five amazing strong bloggers (I have actually met four and hope to meet the fifth one this year).  I have been in awe of these women and decided to ask for help in 2019.  I proposed to these women that we have some ACCOUNTABILITY for all of our goals for the 2019 calendar year.  We've all got goals and have a support network will enable all of us to reach our goals.

Here's how it works.  Every Sunday (or whenever afterwards we manage to get the blog post ready), we share both victories and setbacks.  We are counting on each other to keep track this year and the results are going to be fabulous and epic!

If you want to play, head over to Jenn's blog, Run With Pugs.  Grab our graphic, drop your link in the linkup, comment on the host blogs and as many others as you can, and play along!

Next, Meet the Accountability Squad:

Brandi at Funner Runner

Briana at Mat.Miles.Medals

Meghan at Meghan on the Move

Jenn at Runs with Pugs

Elizabeth at Train With Bain

And me , Anna Louise at Gracious Warrior Princess

My goals for 2019 right now are to run with consistency and post on my social media the same.  Since I'm still searching for a full time permanent job, my work schedule is crazy.  I'm not making any goals due to that as I have to sometimes work long days.  Hopefully once I can obtain a permanent job, my goals will change.

What are your 2019 goals for the year?

What motivates you to stay on track? How can I/we cheer you on to reach your goals?

Taking a digital sabbatical

You may be wondering why I haven't been writing on my blog since the beginning of summer along with taking several weeks off all my social media.  I decided that I needed a digital sabbatical.  Modern connection technology has given us the ability to become more connected but less have less humanity.  We are always engaged but increasingly isolated.  Modern technology provides the following:

• Community:  We can connect and find a tribe.
• Communication:  Ease and ability to communicate especially with long distance relationships.
• Self-Improvement:  We use technology for motivation and inspiration along with education.  You can learn how to practice yoga, cook, speak a different language or learn a new skill.
• Awareness: We now have world events at our fingertips in an instant.
• Exposure:  We can discover new items and enrich our lives.  

However, with all these wonderful items come the following losses:

• Time:  We get online to check email, social media and we lose valuable time.
• Empathy:  We lose our lose human aspects to see people as people with real feelings.
• Action:  We click on "like" but do we really ever do anything about issues anymore.
• Downtime:  We are always "on" and do we ever feel that we have downtime or time to discern.
• Confidence:  Social media is exhausting and leaves us comparing ourselves to others.  Are we ever good enough anymore?
• Focus:  We use the internet to distract us instead of focusing when we don't want to do something.

So, I asked myself some questions:

• Is this making life better or worse?  
• Am I avoiding something or learning something?
• Is it making me feel better or worse?

In being honest with myself, being online was making me feel worse. I felt as thought I was in a time warp and couldn't escape.  I felt overwhelmed, lonely, depressed and lacking in being a person.  So, time for a digital sabbatical.  I needed to reset my circuit breakers!

Taking time off was the best possible thing for me. It's all about self love! 

 I learned to relax, not compare myself to others and enjoy life.  I learned to listen-the birds singing, the quietness of water falling, the beautiful sounds of outside instead of always being connected.  I learned to actively listen to others instead of always looking at a screen.  But most of important, I learned how to connect with myself again.  Running has always been my outlet in my life but with my social media ambassadorships, I felt as though I was failing.  I started to compare myself with others and could never compete. I would never have enough time to train, enough money to attend races and events, even being an older runner felt awful.  So time off social media gave me a new perspective.  It gave me a chance to discover why I needed to step back and take time off.  

I learned to listen again to God and rejoice in His wisdom, strength and appreciate His love for me.  I realized that I'm worth it everyday of my life and even in my depression that there is no one like me in the whole world!  

I needed to feel good again about myself and my running.  And I do!  I will never be a fast runner again, have friends to attend races, have enough money to do more than a couple of race vacations a year but now I'm okay with all of that.  Taking time off and listening instead of constantly being connected allowed me to focus on me!

In rejoining our digital world, I have made a commitment to disengage every day.  I want to enjoy the simple things in life-reading a good book for hours, petting my cat, sitting outside with a good cup of coffee and enjoying the warmth of the sun while remembering you am I and what I am capable of doing good in this world.  

Do you ever take time off social media?  How do you manage your social media?  

Global Running Day Discounts

Today is Global Running Day!  One of my favorite days of the year!!!

To celebrate, I have some race discounts to share.  I am an ambassador for all these races and recommend them all due to the great swag, course and runners village after the race!  I hope to see you at some of these races and please let me know if you are planning on being there.  I would love to meet you!

RockNRoll is running the best prices of the year!  I did my first half marathon with RNR in Las Vegas and it was a blast!

Hot chocolate charlotte has chocolate stops, great swag (a jacket!) along with a fabulous mug and a medal with  chocolate afterwards.  What's not to love about a race that has chocolate in it!  Use discount code:  CHANNA19.

Ride and Run Race  series allows you to run through some cool amusement parks and then ride all the attractions for free afterwards. What's neat is that there are four options to run:  a half marathon, a quarter marathon, a 5K or a 1 mile.   I love the swag as it is the classic Peanuts gang and if you do more than one race, the medals are roller coasters magnets so that they all look like a classic roller coaster ride!  Use discount code:  RR-AMB-AnKa.  

Bull City Run Festival is a fabulous way to see the city of Durham.  What's really cool about this race is that there is a food truck rodeo at the runner's village!  You can run a half marathon, 5 miler or a 1 miler.  I did this year last year for the first time and I loved the runners village due to all the selections for food afterwards along with the beautiful settings.   Use discount code:  BCRFANNA.

Zooma Florida is one of the top twenty women's races in the country.  It's set in beautiful Amelia Island and I can't wait to attend for the first time this year.  I have done other Zooma races but since I live driving distance from Florida now, I am able to do this race this yeTillar.  I'm looking forward to attending and wait to see this beautiful race site!  Use discount code:  ANNA18.

Till next time and remember my journey continues..If you can dream it, you can do it as Walt Disney said!

Whole 30 (April 2018)

As a librarian, I'm always intrigued by books that are consistently checked out.  This was the case of Whole30.  So, I decided that since I was in a slump to check it out to see if I could gain some tips about losing weight and feeling better while having more energy.

After reading more about the program, I made the decision after talking with a friend who had done this to start on April 1st.  For 30 days, I wouldn't consume the following:

• No added sugar, real or artifical.
• No alcohol in any form, not even cooking.
• No grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats, corn, rice, millet, bulgar, sorghum, sprouted grains, etc).
• No legume (beans of all kinds, peas, chickpeas, lentils and peanuts).  No peanut butter, soy, edamame.
• No dairy.
• Do not consumer carrageenan, msg or sulfites.
• No recreating sweets, foods, etc.  
• Do not weigh yourself.

Quite an extensive list of don'ts there!  Yes, you may be wondering what you do eat.  That was the hardest part for me.  I had to do extensive research into reading labels,  finding shopping lists and recipes that would work for me.

I was excited to start and planned out my first week meals. It is recommended that you practice good mealtime habits such as eat at the table, no distractions, chew slowly and enjoy your food.   The book was correct in the day by day breakdown of how you would feel, what to do and help with motivation tips. 

Day one was wonderful as I was excited to try this.  Day two and three I actually felt "hungover" from withdraw of sugar and other foods.  I never went through the "kill all the things" and "napping" phase.  I did have the hardest days from day seven through fourteen.  After day fifteen, I noticed that I was feeling better.  TIGER BLOOD was happening!  For those of you wondering where the phrase originally came from, it was Charlie Sheen, in an interview with Esquire Magazine. Of course, no one knew what he was talking about!   It basically means that you are more in control of food, cravings, energy and your body.

I noticed that I had no cravings, was feeling better and getting used to what I could eat verses what I couldn't eat.  The hardest part at this point was that I ran Raleigh Rock-N-Roll weekend on April 7-8th and I couldn't eat what I normally do to prepare for races.  Going out to eat with friends that weekend was extremely hard and I felt hungry.  However, I did notice that even though I hadn't been training well, I wasn't sore at all after running a 5k and half marathon!  What a discovery to realize that my body didn't have the inflammation that I normally have after a race weekend!  That was the first thing that I discovered was working well with Whole 30.  I also discovered that my energy levels were better along with my sleep and my snoring was under control if not gone!  Breakthroughs!!

The hardest day beyond that was Day 29 when I just wanted to be done with the program.  It was funny that the next day there was a late night pancake breakfast on campus and the girls brought me pancakes at 11:45 and said that I could eat them after midnight because it was May 1st and my Whole 30 program was done!  I didn't eat those pancakes but it was tempting!

I was actually surprised because I thought that I would want all the foods that I had to give up for thirty days however I really didn't want them.  I did notice a lot of changes that occurred after this program.  The book calls these non-scale victories and here's what I noticed:

• My clothes fitting better.
• Less bloating during the 30 days.
• Feeling more confident in my body image.
• Less chronic fatigue.
• Less to little snoring.
• Sleeping more soundly.
• Improved moods.
• Started to feel like moving and exercising more.
• No more binge eating late at night on my job.
• A healthier relationship with the food that I ate.
• Fewer and then no cravings.
• Trying new recipes.
• More knowledgeable about nutrition and labels.

WOW!!!  I also lost 11.8 pounds and I feel great.  The biggest question that I get asked is will I stay on the program or go back to eating the way that I did before I started Whole30.  My answer is that I'm trying to stay as close to the program as I possibly can these day.  Why?  I learned so much over these 30 days in April about how the food that we eat affects our bodies and minds.  I learned that I'm in control more of how I can be healthy.  Is it hard?  Absolutely!  Do I want to eat all things some days?  Again, absolutely! Would I trade this for the way that I felt before Whole30? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!

I'm proud of my accomplishments and how I feel these days.  I feel great and whole again!  I'm still gaining back some of my confidence, running abilities but now have a newer perspective of how strong I am in my abilities to conquer things that I didn't think I would ever be able to do in my life.  

Till next time and remember my journey continues...If you can dream it, you can do it as Walt Disney said!

Wanderlust Raleigh 108

Disclosure: I was provided with a complimentary ticket to Wanderlust Raleigh 108.  This provides me with entry to their Wanderlust Raleigh 108, however no other compensation was provided and all travel and other expenditures are paid for by me.  As always, all thoughts are strictly my own.

I was able to attend the Wanderlust Raleigh 108 venue on Saturday, April 21st.  The mission of Wanderlust is to help you find your true north-to cultivate your best self.  They create events, media, products, and experiences to help guide you on your path toward a healthy and inspired life.  

I had heard about these events for the past couple of years and was greatly intrigued but never had the opportunity to attend.  So, when the wonderful people at Wanderlust emailed me about helping them promote the Raleigh event, I was beyond thrilled.

Wanderlust is entitled as "The World's Only Mindful Triathlon".  There are three mindful activites-running, yoga, and mediatation all done in local parks.  Wanderlust 108 is the ultimate opportunity to come together around shared values and practices.

First, the 5k is  entirely how you wish to complete a 5k.  You can run, skip, hop, dance your way to the finish line.  Second, you attend a gigantic yoga party in which a DJ and yoga teacher will guide you through a 90 minute yoga flow.  Third, you have a guided meditation for 30 minutes.  Afterwards, you can attend a ton of mini-classes to participate in for the afternoon.  

Wanderlust 108 is also good for the world.  For every ticket sold, $1.08 will be donated to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS through (RED).

My day started early at 6:00 am since I had to pick up everything and was given a press invite to attend.  I drove to Dorothea Dix Park since the event was being held there.  I was able to park across from the field where the event took place and walked around for about 30 minutes before the event started.  I found a space for my yoga mat and read until 8 am. 

I also found a face painter and got my face painted.  I loved that aspect of being placed in the mood of "warrior" and "finding my north"! 

At 8:30 am until 8:45, there was a pre-race stretch workout and the 5k started promptly at 9 am.  A lot of the women were walkers and 90 minutes was allocated for the time limit.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we were told to enjoy the 5k, allow our minds to rest and get ready for a mindful day for ourselves.  I finished and grabbed some water, ate an apple and got ready for yoga at 10:30 am. I even found a buddha wall!

The yoga instructor on the stage was great with her voice and her instructions.  Yoga lasted for an hour followed by thirty minutes of a mindful mediation.  At this point, it had really warmed up and laying on my yoga mat with my eyes closed during the mediation with the warmth of sun really set the tone for relaxation!  

I had packed a lunch so I didn't need to wait in the long line for Wanderbowl (the food tent) and I was thankful for that.  I would recommend packing food or pre-ordering food if you attend an event.  The afternoon consisted of a choice of multiple activities such as Aerial Yoga, Essential Oils, and Hooping to AcroYoga, AcroYoga Therapeutics, Tarot 101, and Bodywork.  I decided to try Aerial Yoga.  

I was a bit hesitate but decided that this was my chance to see if I enjoyed it and whether I should sign up for a more extensive class.  I loved it until the instructor stated that we were to flip over and just hang. 

I went into a panic and couldn't move so one of the guides help flip me back.  Of course, the picture that they took while I did this makes me look like a complete dork (which I am or feel like I am!). 

But it was fun and I can now say that I've done that.  I'm not sure that I will do it again but who knows.  I headed home after this as it was close to 3 pm and I was just done for the day.  

Wanderlust Raleigh 108 was a wonderful day filled with a total relaxation for me.  I loved everything about it!  From the moment that I arrived at the park, I was filled with the wonder of beauty, warmth and community.  Wanderlust builds on that throughout the day and allows you to find or be YOU!  Would I do it again?  ABSOLUTELY!  Would I recommend that you do it?  YES, and YES!!!!

Till next time and remember my journey continues...If you can dream it, you can do it as Walt Disney said!