My First runDisney Experience: Expedition Everest

Let's talk the Expedition Everest 5k Obstacle Course Scavenger Hunt. First off, what a name. Second, it was fantastic! Everything started Friday, the day before the event, when you went to pick-up all your goodie bags and race gear. This is when we got our awesome shirts, our race bibs, and some other fun stuff in the race bag.

Everything had to be picked up from the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and man was that place busy! Some advice to anyone who is planning on doing their first runDisney event would be to pick up their goods the day prior to the race. We had to go both Friday and Saturday because the person at the pick-up counter did not give the hubs his license back. Between the massive cheering event (which I think they plan on runDisney event weekends) and the massive morning races going on, the place was a mad house.

Fast forward to that evening and it was super fun. Again, everything was more crowded than I have ever seen Disney so getting into restaurants without a 40-minute wait was near impossible, but we were able to get a table pretty quick at Splitsville and have some yummy sushi a few hours before the run. runDisney recommended that we get to the Animal Kingdom by 8:30- about 2-hours before the race. 

We were able to get to the parking lot by about 8:15 and decided to stay in the car for a bit since there was a legitimate cold front going through and it was raining as well. Once we got into the run area everything was laid out super easy. Dropped off the bag, found our corral, then hit the pre-race party without any hold backs. 

The pre-race part was super fun with a massive aerobic dance workout lead by the nicest evil dance master ever. Seriously, it was a workout... but a fun one! We stayed at the front dance party area for a while, took some pictures at the photo-op areas, then headed to our "E" corral about an hour before the race started. The group dancing, also known as my favorite part, continued there! 

Then, they started the races. Each corral was set to depart 6-minutes after the previous one. We were in corral "E" so we did not start the race until a little after 11:00 pm. It was still raining and still quite cold, but that ended up being the best thing ever with all the running and dancing and obstacle coursing. 

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First up on the obstacle course was the hay bales where some of our part got separated. Next, we ran through the park and got to see the most incredible view of Everest ever. Really, it looked like this. Of course, there were also characters throughout the run area and places to take pictures, but we did not do any of that for reasons I still do not understand. 

The next obstacle was the tires, followed by the optional army crawl area. I did both and managed to stay up-right in the tires, even after a kind lady completely fell on me. Simple victories :) The hubs and I also met up during the run and were able to take a pretty awesome picture next to timed fire balls. It was pretty great, but I cannot find the picture anywhere on the runDisney photo section. Too bad. 

After the army crawl, there was a short bit left, then the finish line where they handed out Cliff bars and bananas. Then came the scavenger hunt! This was the hardest. scavenger hunt. ever. Really. We had five clues, total, and needed help on four of them. But, once we answered our questions we ran across the finish one more time, got our finisher medals (which are the coolest things ever... working compasses!), and hit the post race party. 

The party had singing and dancing and light beer and was held in Dinoland USA. It was pretty fun! We were able to do some more dancing, look at race products, ride Dinosaur, and go home. Overall, the race was incredible and just makes me want to do another runDisney event as soon as possible! Look out Wine and Dine 2015, I'm coming for you! 

5 Tips for Eating Healthy Without Much Effort

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Note: I am sorry this post is getting out so late. There were some issues on this end that seem to be cleared up now. 

When I was in college I had a wake-up call one day when looking in the mirror. It was not that I was seriously unhealthy or overweight, my body was just not where I wanted it to be. Being in intense science and math classes for my Biology major made the whole eating healthy and working out bit more difficult. Food was often drive-thru, frozen and re-heated, from a bag, and whatever I could get on campus. Oh, and plenty of sweets for my all-consuming sweet tooth. 

I needed to get on track. And what I needed even more was simple ways to stay on track. That is when I adopted little, easy changes and guidelines for my eating. It was never a, "you cannot have that situation." I do not work well with those. Instead, it was all about moderation, when I would eat something, and what eating something would mean. 

1. Start the Day with Something Healthy

One of my biggest issues was starting the day with something sweet or unhealthy. A cream cheese topped french toast bagel was no longer going to cut it. Those unhealthy things did nothing for my body in the morning and they only made me want more sweets during the day. 

Instead, I made a rule that the first thing I eat during the day must be nutritious and without tons of sugar. Fruit is off the table, so is coffee. Even though both of these can have positive effects and are not really seen as unhealthy, it started my day with a dangerous sweet tooth that was hard to kick. Starting my day with eggs, meal replacement drinks and bars, even certain yogurts made it easier for me to choose healthy options from the morning on.

2. One Sweet Per Day

This is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Really. This rule was created to curb eating cookies, drinking coffee, and ordering sweets for dessert. I can still have all that, just not all on the same day. This makes me much more decisive about what sweets I want and when. 

For me, coffee, cookies, desserts of any kind, and alcohol all fit into the sweet things category since they all have tons of unneeded sugars that do nothing for me. Now, when I do get a sweet treat, it is all the better because I know it is the one that I really want and it will not set all my fitness goals back.

3. The Coffee Rule

One cup of coffee per day. My cup is 12 ounces and that is the most I can take. If my sweet thing is coffee, I only get one serving. This helps me reduce my caffeine intake and also reduces the amount of fatty, sugary creamer that I use.

If I ever feel like I need more of a pick-me-up or warm thing on a cool day, I go for green tea. Green tea is one of those drinks that I have no limiting rule on, just like hot water with lemon. Both are delicious and have almost none of the negative effects of other warm beverages.

4. No Carbonated Beverages

Carbonated beverages cause bloating, can increase risk of cancer, and cause heart burn. There is really nothing good about them except the way they taste. Sure, I break this rule every once in a while, but not much. Cutting carbonated beverages out of my diet has massively decreased bloating for me.  

5. Exercise Four Times a Week

You may be wondering how this corresponds to eating healthy. Well, when we workout, we are doing something positive for our health. This positive reinforcement makes all those negatives easier to stay away from. 

Sweat sessions do no need to be an hour each time; sometimes, we just can't do that. My rule is that a workout must be 10-minutes and can include anything. Sometimes it is 10-minutes of yoga. Other times it is a 10-minute ab routine. Whatever these quickie workouts are, they get me off my bum and change my thinking from stress and schedules to something positive I am doing for myself and my future health. 

Interesting Reads

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Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was fantastic. I was able to get a lot of reading done this week and announce one big thing on the blog yesterday. If you were not able to read my crazy excited ramblings yet, you can find it's here. Enjoy.

Other than being ridiculously excited and catching up on some back-logged blogs, I was also able to travel down that YouTube black whole of videos. It all started by watching a Mother's Day video and quickly spiraled from there. Because of that, today's interesting reads may have a few interesting watches as well! Here are some kind of educational reads to ease you out of that weekend and into your week. Let's make it a wonderful one!

This YouTube video and is about a pretty serious and not-so understood problem. Do you know someone who is a workout addict or are you one yourself? Here is all the information you may want to know in a nice, nutshell of a video.

A nice trick for drying wet running shoes.

This super intriguing AMRAP workout.

The Fabletics new spring line.

A spaghetti squash recipe that looks like the best. thing. ever.

Something all those pre-vaccinated babies and Mommas will be happy to see.

Fun graphics that tell us all about caffeine. I seriously love things that are pretty and educational!

This Week in Workouts: What a Week!

What a week, and really, what a year this has been already! I feel like the hubs and I have more going on now and more that we have accomplished in the year so far than we did in the entire 2013 combined. So many of the projects and things that have (almost literally) fallen in my lap in the past few weeks are still a bit new to talk about, but trust me, when I am able to talk about them I will be shouting from the P+K mountain.

So, if you are not following me on social networks, now would be the time. Twitter, Facebook, and heck, Instagram are all good ways to stay in touch when some of this news decides to drop. This is not a ploy for more followers, anyone who sees my numbers knows I am not into false followings or buying fans; it is quality over quantity here. I just want to keep our P+K family in the loop about all the exciting things coming up. And trust me, they are exciting! Like can't sleep at night things!!

I am sorry, I wish I had more of an update for you than, "there are exciting secrets you don't know." Especially since these more personal Sunday posts are my favorite and a great time to share all those things all of us are excited about. Since I cannot share my exciting news, what are some exciting things going on in your life? Oh please tell me, otherwise I might just burst. Possibly for real.

One thing I can say is that I have accepted the position of Vice President of my local All Children's Guild. This is something crazy and exciting, and something I never thought I would be doing at the age of 27. Thankfully, the hubs keeps reminding me that 27 is not exactly young and I can handle it. I have some great ideas and high expectations of myself, so this VP gig should be pretty darn awesome!

Thankfully, I have still been able to workout through all of these changes and big news and I have not injured myself from lack of paying attention. Question: Does anyone else have serious issues paying attention when they are excited? I do.

Oh, and to all you amazing Moms out there, Happy Mother's Day to You!!!!!

Sunday: Walked around EPCOT. After the Expedition Everest Challenge, that is all the workout I wanted.

Monday: Rest day [again]

Tuesday: Hot Power Yoga with my sister-in-law. it was a super fun class!

Wednesday: 3-mile jog

Thursday: 2-mile jog

Friday: Rest day

Saturday: Orange Theory with my sister-in-law and 3 other ladies. The class was small and it was all ladies, so the instructor gave us a goal of reaching 2,500 group calories burned. We did it and I contributed 488 to that pot. Whoohooo!