Tone It Up Nutrition Plan

Have you heard of Tone It Up?  It's this great fitness/nutrition community founded by two trainers, Karena and Katrina.  They have a blog, tons of YouTube exercise videos, a DVD, a nutrition plan and they even recently came out with their own (vegan - yay!) protein powder.  I have been thinking about purchasing the nutrition plan for quite some time.  I really like the trainers from Tone It Up, I watch the videos, read their blog, even bought their workout DVD.  The nutrition plan is expensive though so I had a hard time making a decision.  When my mother-in-law gave me money for my birthday, I knew just what I was going to do with it.

Best Birthday Present Ever!

The cool thing about the plan is that you can purchase the regular plan, gluten free plan, vegetarian or vegan plan.  Once I knew I was going to buy, I spent another week trying to decided between the vegetarian and vegan plan.  I ended up going with the vegetarian plan and I now kind of wish I had picked up the vegan plan.  Regardless, I really like it!  Some great recipes and a lot of really helpful hints about what to eat and when and an exercise plan.

There is also a section called the 7-Day Slim Down in the full plan and the 5-Day Slim Down in the summer edition (when you purchase their plan, you get all the updates as free downloads - bonus!).  Karena and Katrina challenged the community to join them on the 5-Day Slim Down starting this past Monday.  I don't feel the need to drop any weight (I'm more of a maintenance kind of girl) so I wasn't going to do it but then on Tuesday, decided to try it and see how doable it is.  The result?  In five days, I lost 2.5lbs (and to be totally honest, that is without giving up my wine!).  But more importantly, I feel incredible.  It was a wake up call to how much random snacking I was doing.  A handful of gluten free crackers here, a couple pieces of chocolate there.....etc, etc.  While on the 5-Day Slim Down, I stopped the mindless 3:00pm eating and followed the plan pretty much to a T.  The only variation was in the recipes.

My new favorite lunch - tofu and veggie romaine wrap!

I took their recipes and tweaked them just a bit to my liking without adding any additional calories.  My new favorite lunch - veggies and tofu wrapped in romaine lettuce - is now an addiction! I was never hungry on the plan, always felt full and satisfied.  I can't believe how good I feel.  I feel way more toned which I know sounds crazy, but I guess without the excess bloat of snacks/sugar/salt, that's what happens!

If you are interested, I highly recommend Tone It Up.  Check out their website - there are a ton of good recipes on there along with printable workouts.  And then head over to YouTube for some good quick workouts.

North Face Endurance Challenge

What a total mud fest!  We got hammered with rain in the days leading up to the North Face Endurance Challenge so I knew that my first trail race was going to be a bit messy.  Little did I know it was going to be muddier than the Run Amuck race I ran a few years ago.  It was crazy!  People were falling all over the place because it was so slippery.  I loved, loved, loved it though!  SO much fun!  It is just so different from anything I've ever done.  It is so challenging in a completely different way than a road half marathon.  The first thing I need to get better at is keeping my eye off my watch.  Mile splits in trail running are quite a bit slower then what I'm used to.  The course is so much more challenging for one and the majority of the race was single track, meaning passing was difficult.  We averaged 11:30s most of the time.  I finished in 2:33 compared to my road PR of 1:46 just to give you an idea.  I think if we hadn't gotten so much rain, we may have been able to go a bit faster but I'm sure it still would have been quite the challenge to pick up the pace much more.  There were several parts where all runners didn't have much of a choice other than to walk.  Regardless, I just loved it.  I felt so exhilarated after the race.  I was telling my husband all the details at about 100 miles per hour....he just stood there and laughed at me.  When we were close to the finish, my running partner said, "My trail running career is officially over!" but all I could think about was, "When can I register for the next one??"

After the race, we were waiting around for the kids race to start.  I registered my boys for Dean Karnazes' Karno Kids 1k.  There were races on Saturday too and on that day, he was actually there doing a meet and greet which would have been pretty cool (I'm a big dorky fan of his and have both of his books).  Anyway, as we were standing there waiting, he actually walks right by me.  As in, brushes my shoulder, walks by!  I was already all jacked up from the race but this just put me over the edge.  I started jumping up and down like a 3-year-old, grabbing my husband's arm saying, "He's here!  He's here!  He's heeerrrrreeee!!"  My kids were laughing at me and my husband just shook his head. 

Karno got up there and gave a really funny speech which all the kids loved then started them off.  After the race, my oldest said that he ran by Karno who called out, "Way to go! You are doing great!" to which my son responds, "Thanks! My mom is a big fan!"  Oh boy, that's a little embarrassing.  We hung out a bit longer, my husband and kids talking about their run, me stalking watching Dean.  My oldest says, "Why don't you go get a picture?"  Of course I said no, not many people were approaching him and besides, I do my best stalking watching from afar.  Well, finally Carter convinced me to do it and I'm really glad he did.  He could not have been a nicer person.  Chatted with us for several minutes.  In fact, at one point he said, "So Carter tells me you are a big fan." (not in an arrogant way, more of a teasing way....it was pretty funny actually).  I really don't remember what I said to that; my words were coming out like the teacher in the Peanuts.  But I got a fantastic photo and that's the part I'll remember!!

All in all, a really great day.  I'm so glad I did the run.  I was pretty nervous in the weeks leading up to it because with my father's illness, I hadn't done a run longer than 8 miles in I have no idea when.  Then I forced myself to take the week off of classes and running (did do one trial run) leading up to the race because of this hip/glute/hammy issue.  I'm glad I didn't back out.  Really glad.  Yes the pain is still an issue but I feel like it was worth it for such a fun, totally different and crazy challenging day!