Happier Heather

Since our engagement, Nate and I kept kicking around different wedding dates. Originally, I wanted to get married in the fall because of the gorgeous leaves we get here in Minnesota. But, the more I thought about it, the less I wanted to wait that long! Next, we started thinking about a winter wedding because of our love of snowshoeing. Before we knew it, it was Christmas…why does that always seem to sneak up on me?

After the new year, we started thinking again about making a winter wedding happen this year. Suddenly, we decided on a date that worked for our immediate family and planning started…and ended…pretty quickly. It only took a few days to get all of the details ironed out.

On Saturday, January 26th, Nate and I were married in one of the local parks where we enjoy snowshoeing. We got married in a clearing next to the river, with just our immediate family members present. The temperature was approximately 20 degrees, which was warm considering the week before and the week after were in the single digits! Yes, we got married outside during January in Minnesota!

Exchanging vows and rings.

We chose to have an inexpensive and low-key ceremony because it just suits us and we were able to pay cash for everything. Oh, and because I’m not a fan of large weddings or being in the spotlight; for this reason we chose to wear jeans and peacoats. No fuss.

After the short ceremony our family joined us at Buca di Beppo, one of our favorite restaurants, for dinner. I’m very grateful to my parents for paying for the dinner. Our cake was a simple sheet cake, decorated with snowflakes.

Following dinner, we had our friends and family meet us at a local bar to celebrate the occasion with us. There was dancing, drinking and fun. It was a blast!

The turn out to our “reception” was larger than we expected and we are so thankful to have so many friends and family that came out to celebrate with us. We couldn’t have asked for a better day.

The total cost for our wedding was less than $1500, which included our wedding bands! We still think we should call the Dave Ramsey show about that. Thank you, Financial Peace University!

How we eliminated costs:

• Friends as photographers instead of professionals.
• Wore jeans instead of a wedding dress.
• Chose a restaurant that serves “family style” meals rather than individual plates.
• Took advantage of the DJ at the local bar for free music and a free reception venue.
• My fantastic friends were my hair and makeup experts.
• Utilized Facebook, email and phone calls as invites.
• Nate purchased his ring online, where the cost was a small fraction of what it would have been at a jewelry store. 
• Thinking of our friends, we also eliminated costs for them by requesting that they wear jeans (or other casual clothing). We also requested no gifts.

I love that while dancing with friends, one of them said, “Best wedding ever! I didn’t have to spend money on fancy clothes!” Another said, “This is so much fun! Thanks for throwing such a fun, casual party!”

The entire day ended up being just as I wanted it to be. Casual, fun and intimate. Something that reflected our relationship and who we are. There isn’t a thing I wish I had done differently.

As usual, I have a long list of goals for the upcoming New Year. Setting goals for me is about not letting myself become lazy and stagnant by knowing I have things out there to work toward. Of course, it better opportunities present themselves, I’m flexible enough to change my goals so as not to miss something great.

• Start trail running

• Finish my first Duathlon, with the primary goal of not falling off my bike and the secondary goal of not being last. One of those goals may be more realistic than the other

• Run a sub 30 minute 5k

• Complete a full round of TurboFire and/or ChaLean Extreme

• Make it a habit to exercise five days per week

• Visit Sadie weekly

• Blog and/or journal at least three times weekly

• Read 50 books this year; I’ve really slacked on this since getting Smartphone

• Run 350 miles

• Finish Warrior Dash under 55 minutes

• Pay off my student loan

• Family trip to Mount Rushmore

• Mission trip with church ~ Will depend on whether I get accepted to go on the trip I’d like to go on.

• Sell my house ~ I may not have a lot of control over this one since it depends on the housing market.
• Survive Ragnar Relay!

I actually have a few other goals or bucket list items I’m looking at, but these are the big ones I wanted to share.

What are your goals for 2013?

Yesterday I looked back at my goals for 2012 and today I thought I’d give a brief review of the year in general.

In conversation with my mom last week, she mentioned how 2012 was not a good year for her and she was looking forward to seeing 2013. Personally, I felt 2012 was a great year for me and I’m looking forward to 2013 to see just how much better it can get.

January: I started attending church and went through the Alpha course and I’ve been attending weekly since.

February: I got engaged to Nate, which you can read about here.

April: My 30th birthday.

May: This was a big month for me. Nate and I took a week-long vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia for sight-seeing and to run my first half marathon! I was fortunate enough to meet some friends from MyFitnessPal, too! On Labor Day weekend, I bought a new bicycle with the intention of completing a Duathlon in the future.

June: A friend and I took our horses to the River Valley Riders annual Ride-A-Thon fundraiser. Also went on my First Bloody Mary Run and completed my second Warrior Dash. Nate and I finished Financial Peace University and I paid off my car!

July: My first time volunteering to support a race and the Chicago Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon. It was my first time visiting Chicago and I had a blast with my running group. We also had a family reunion for my mom’s side of the family and had a blast visiting with family we hadn’t seen in a long time.

August: Completed my third half marathon, the Gopher to Badger. Started 30 Day Shred.

September: Completed 30 Day Shred, making it the first workout program I’m completely followed through on, even though it took me a little longer than 30 days.

October: Finished paying off my credit cards! Nate and I also finished our pre-marriage counseling at church.

November: The Kiddo ran his first race, the Gobble Gait 8k, with me on Thanksgiving morning! I’m still SO proud of him for this! I also registered for the Spring Classic Duathlon because it was super cheap on Black Friday. Paid off my medical bills this month, too, making my student loan and my mortgage my only remaining debt!

December: Nate and I got our marriage license, meaning we’re getting married sometime in the next six months. We had a nice, low-key Christmas and are starting to look forward to what 2013 has in store for us.

I’m sure I’ve missed something, but overall it was a good year. I’m looking forward to what 2013 has in store for us.

Since we’re less than a week away from 2013, I thought now would be a good time to give an update on my 2012 goals. I’ve also started thinking about my 2013 goals, but will share those in a separate post.

• Complete 20 races (one must be a duathlon) I only completed 15 races and may or may not hit 16 on New Year’s Eve. Race results are posted on my 2012 Race Results page, if you want to see just how slow I am! Also, I did not do any duathlons this year, but I did buy a new bike.
• Run 400 miles Falling out of love with running following my half marathon didn’t help here. As of today, December 26th, I’ve run 233 miles. I might get another 5-10 miles in before year-end and although this isn’t impressive mileage, it’s better than last year’s total. I’m happy there was some improvement.
• Complete one full 90 day circuit of ChaLean Extreme (re-started 1/2/2012) Quit 30 days in because I didn’t feel like the resistance bands were helping me progress in strength. I got sidetracked and didn’t return to it.
• Shave 10 minutes off my Warrior Dash time from last year Opposite of improvement happened here. Doing long runs killed any speed I had and slacking off of my workouts overall killed my endurance.
• Run a sub-30 5k Failed this one, too, but mostly because I focused on long runs and only a few 5ks this year. I plan to change this for 2013.
• Make it to the finish line alive and in one piece for both half marathons (preferably in under 3 hours, but I’m not pushing my luck) I survived the three half marathons I started and came in just under 3 hours for all three of them. Success!
• Pay off my car, credit cards and medical bills This one was a biggie and I paid them all off, thanks to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.
• Either hit my goal weight of 150 or fit comfortably in size 8 jeans Failed on this one. I should know better than to base any goals on size or weight numbers. I should also know better than to slack completely on workouts just because I didn’t love running anymore.
• Cook dinner at home at least twice weekly instead of eating out This was the goal I honestly didn’t think I’d make and boy, was I right! This one will be carried over into 2013.
• Blog more frequently, at least three times weekly Also failed at this one.
• Write new goals weekly, per Chalene Johnson’s book PUSH I managed to follow through with this one for the first few months of the year, then it fell to the wayside. I’ll be picking this one up again for 2013 as well.
• Visit my horse at least once per week I also started really well with this one, but as life got busy toward the fall, I fell off here, too. This is one I NEED to work on. I miss my Sadie!

Overall, I feel that I didn’t do very well on my 2012 goals, with the exception of the financial goals. I’m hoping that being in a better place financially going into 2013 will give me opportunity to put more focus on other goals.

How did you do on your 2012 goals?

The 25th Annual Reindeer Run 5k was held at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis on Saturday, December 1st. This is a race that wouldn’t have been on my radar, had it not been for the suggestion by the ladies in my running group. Being easily persuaded, I signed up.

The morning of the race was mild, though cool, and overcast. Pretty much perfect for running, if you ask me.

This race is a fun run with no official timing, and therefore, no starting corrals or lining up according to pace. It’s also a popular race, so the trail is quite crowded. I spent most of the race dodging around walkers.

The race course is simply one loop around Lake Harriet, starting and ending near the band shell (amphitheater?). It’s a pretty area and the path is fairly flat and smooth. I’m guessing for the fast runners who lined up near the front, it would be a fast course with good PR potential; however, for anyone lined up farther back, too much time is spent dodging walkers to really work on speed.

There were a few vendors at the race giving away goodies such as water bottles, key chains and leftover shirts from previous races during the year. For the inexpensive (I think it was $25) entry fee, it’s a good time with some perks. The hot chocolate provided after the race was a welcome treat on a cold morning.

This race benefits Toys for Tots, but unfortunately I didn’t plan far enough ahead to pick up a toy to donate. If I do this race in the future, this will be a priority. I’m a supporter of Toys for Tots and donate annually.

Shirts from the race were red, long-sleeve cotton T-shirts with the reindeer logo on the front. Personally, I love long-sleeve t-shirts, so I thought these were perfectly festive for this time of year.

Overall, I think it’s a good race, though I do recommend running without a time goal in mind and arriving early enough to find parking nearby. I also recommend running in a holiday-themed costume, which I will do if I participate in this race again.

Unofficial finishing time was 33:46.

Borrowed from http://www.gobblegait.com

After last year’s Gobble Gait race, The Kiddo said he wanted to do the 8k next time because the 2k wasn’t far enough.

After Thanksgiving with Nate’s family, as we were taking him to his mom’s house, he told us that if he trained by doing a few 5Ks this year, he would be able to run the 8k faster next year. I think he caught the running bug.

Image from www.jillianmichaelsbodyrevolution.com

I’ve been dragging my feet on doing this post because I’m frustrated with my lack of results. Granted, I took a week off between Week 2 and Week 3 and my eating habits haven’t been great. Still, I guess I expected something more exciting after seeing such great results with 30 Day Shred and no dietary changes.

My total results for Phase 1 was a GAIN of 2 lbs. on the scale and a loss of 0.5″ on my bicep. Disappointing, I know!

What I wasn’t prepared for, though, was seeing a 3.2 lb. LOSS on the scale this morning, which puts me at a weight below where I started JMBR!

In the past week, I haven’t changed much, except that I’ve decided not to eat back my exercise calories, based on some interesting information presented by a member of MyFitnessPal and the calorie recommendations in the TurboFire materials.

Overall, I’m enjoying the program. Jillian is a lot more personable and encouraging in this program than she is in 30 Day Shred or on Biggest Loser, which I like. The workouts are tough, but nothing that I couldn’t do with some slight modifications to some of the moves. In starting Phase 2, there were moves that I couldn’t dream of doing when they were done in 30 Day shred, yet I can do them now. So, even though I haven’t seen changes in measurements, I’m definitely seeing changes in fitness performance.

So far, I’ve only done the Phase 1 cardio DVD a few times and haven’t done the Phase 2 cardio at all yet. I’ve been substituting my weekly 3-4 mile run for one day of cardio and skipping the second day of cardio altogether; however, I may change this.

I’m disappointed that I don’t have better results to share, and I hope it doesn’t discourage anyone who was considering doing this program. I still think it’s a very good program and I’m optimistic about seeing some better results from Phase 2, especially if today is any indication.