#2 Do a Mud Run

What better place to run through mud than somewhere that naturally has a lot of it, Oklahoma! I found out about the race 2 days before and started scavenging for friends that were not drinking beers and eating hot dogs on the lake for Memorial Day weekend!  Luckily, my long time family friend I like to refer to as my “brother from another mother” and fierce athletic competitor was up for the challenge!

Saturday morning, Jeffrey, myself and my photographer (also known as my Dad!) took off for Ardmore, Oklahoma to complete the Fitness Freak 5K Mud Run.

Got our numbers and in the words of the Dixie Chicks “ready, ready, ready, ready , ready to run!”

Started off strong… then this happened!

and 19 obstacles later…

The climb up the finish line begins and continues…

Good news: when you get to the top, you get to slide down!

And for my favorite picture of the day…

Jeffrey takes a breather at the end while I take advantage of a photo-op and pose!

We received our medals and continued over to the photo wall!

Battle wounds happened, but that’s what a run like this is all about right??

Now it was time to hose down and clean up! Good thing I borrowed my Moms old shoes, do you think she’ll want them back??

I’m going to say probably not!

I would recommend the run to anyone that wants a good challenge!  I will forever lovingly refer to this particular race as the “5K on Crack”!!  If you think running up and over walls in shoes full of mud with dirty water dripping down your back is awesome then this is the race for you!

The “Fitness Freaks” put on the mud run twice a year in May and October, if you’d like to join in the fun, visit their Facebook page for all the details!

The Healthy Side of My Food Addiction

With all of my food/cooking/eating posts, it may seem as if I’m a little “nutritionally-challenged” but it’s actually the opposite. I’m very much interested and involved in the health and fitness industry. I won’t lie that a lot of my love for the industry came from “The Biggest Loser”. One cold winter day about 5 years ago I was home sick and found a full season marathon of “The Biggest Loser” entice me into what is now a full-blown obsession with the show!  Everyone loves a good weight loss success show, but this one takes serious commitment, it’s not a complete transformation in one hour, oh no, this is 2 hours per week (1.5 hours if you DVR and FF, which is pretty much the only way to watch tv these days), for 6 months, kind of commitment! But it is so worth it! Yes, the show is a tad on the cheesy side, but you really can learn a lot about health, fitness and weight loss from tuning in, as well as be super inspired by the 48-year-old mom that goes from a size 22 to 2, yeah, that happened!

The combination of running my first half marathon, becoming a full blown “yogi” and the influence of “The Biggest Loser” I decided to devote my summer to becoming a certified personal trainer. I did a lot of research and decided to go with ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine), everyone said it was the hardest certification to obtain and I like a good challenge so I woke up every morning and studied throughout the summer. As I got more and more into it I realized how much science was involved and found myself really only interested in the chapter on nutrition. So today I will share with you all some of, what I thought, were the most interesting facts.  This may be a review for some of you but they’re important things to think about whether you are trying to lose weight or just want to maintain a balanced diet!

• The amount of energy in carbs, proteins and fats per gram are: 4,4,9
• Carbohydrates should be 55-65% of total daily caloric intake (at least 200-400 calories daily) and should be eaten every 3 hours to maintain blood sugar levels.
• When carbs are consumed in amounts greater than required for energy they are metabolized then stored as body fat (yuck!)
• Protein should be 15% of total daily caloric intake, app 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight should be consumed daily.
• Too much protein can cause an increase in urine production and lead to dehydration.
• The most common mineral deficiency is iron and too little iron in your diet can lead to poor endurance and a lower ability to burn fat (obviously none of us want that!)
• Fats should consume no more than 35% of daily caloric intake, the ideal intake is 25%
• Good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids that can be found in olive and canola oils or vegetable and corn oils and lower blood cholesterol levels, while maintaining high-density lipoprotein (good) cholesterol (out with the bad, in with the good is the motto here!)
• After consuming these calories, 150-400 should be expended each day in physical activity, 2000 per week for weight loss.
• And my least favorite fact: at age 17 girls have twice as much body fat as boys… life is just not fair!!!