Five Years and Why I’m Starting New Year’s Early

I can’t believe these guys are five years old.

I mean, really, has it been five years since this day?

Gosh life is crazy.

Yesterday was the big day. Judah an I woke up to this happening.

Yep, that’s his elbow being bitten off. Ha.

We also woke up to one heck of a beautiful day.

The three of us had big plans to go get donuts in our pajamas at our favorite donut shop. Well, wouldn’t you know it was closed for the holidays and won’t be open for at least another week.

Yeah, that didn’t go over so well.

But, we went home and made some delicious waffles from Trader Joe’s multigrain pancake mix and they were a big hit.

Another hit was letting the boys pick out their own toy with their $20 from Tutu from the toy store. They were in heaven.

Obviously they had their boots on.

Obviously we know how to put on a pretty classy family party.

Right? The boys each got a cake and I even tried to do a little writing on Judah’s.

Again, lovely.

I also mistakenly got trick candles. Oops. WE found that out pretty quickly when they started sparking.

It was a great day and night. Very low key, but we did the whole party thing last year and we’ve got lots of family activities planned this whole week so we’ll just keep celebrating.

I keep meaning to keep family chat off here more, but then I can’t help myself. Oh and look who got some new sweaters and shirts for Christmas and who also are already showing a love for Mizuno shoes. Ha ha.

Okay, so time to get serious for a bit.

There was a local Holiday Half race yesterday. I didn’t run it since it was the boys’ birthday and there was no way I was going to be that mom that had to find a babysitter on their birthday so I could go run a race, but it was a little tough to see everyone’s pictures on instagram from the race. I ran it last year and loved it, but I’m okay with having different priorities this year and figuring out the whole balancing act of being a mom of five year olds, being back at work full-time and keeping up with marathon training and racing. Sounds like it should be a piece of cake, yes?

I’ve been getting by for awhile, but it’s really time to buckle down and be smart. Smart about training and focusing on some goal races (Boston Marathon and the Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge) and smart about nutrition choices.

I’ve definitely been guilty this year about letting go during the holidays and it’s just gone on a bit too long. I’m finally putting my foot down. I’ve been giving myself “just one more day” pretty much since Thanksgiving. Well, no more excuses. I’ve been making them for over a month now and I’m just not in the best place. It happens. It’s life, but it’s time. You know, when you just get to that point and know it’s time? Well, I hit it big time yesterday and today it is. Today the new year and my new plan has started.

I won’t go into detail (unless you really want to know), but we’re definitely cleaning things up around here. I just wrapped up the remaining birthday cake and put it way back in the freezer for my birthday in a month.

It’s never easy to make changes, especially once you’ve really let yourself slip, but hey, if it was easy everyone would be doing it, right? I do best with small changes rather than going cold turkey, but everyone’s different.

Beavis. Let’s do this. It’s time to buckle up.

Last week’s running workouts got a little mixed up so I’m doing my best to follow things exactly as written in my training plan this week. Especially since it’s the start of the STUFT New Year and all.

I finished off my holiday movie marathon with some AT intervals on the treadmill.

Two warm up miles and then 5 mile repeats at 6:49 pace with a minute rest in between. I finished off with a cool down mile. I thought the whole workout was going to be horrible after all our birthday eating yesterday, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Which definitely tells me it can be THAT much better when nutrition is on point.

I’m not the only one who has to get my act together either. My little treadmill friend, Steve, has to get his act together also. This guy is a mess with the whole incline thing again. My cool down mile today was really uphill and it said it was at –0.5. Um no. I’ve been calibrating, but it needs a little more help I think.

I better get on that. Adding to my list.

I didn’t get my usual egg white feast until later today so I made it into a version of the old ultimate breakfast salad.

Egg whites (they’re on sale right now by the way) scrambled with chicken apple sausage with salad mix topped with Scotty B’s bacon jalapeño hot sauce, pomegranate balsamic vinegar and then a slice of Seedy Silk STUFT Bread with goat cheese cream cheese and red pepper jam. It was perfection.

And I’m off to purge some old toys to make room for these new ones. It’s all part of the total cleansing process going on. Ha.

I’m off to the gym tonight to teach a few classes. It’s always fun to see who comes this week in between the holidays. A lot of people wait it out until the New Year.

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Anyone else ready to make some changes? If so, what are they?

Who else is starting their New Year early?