A little bit of this - A little bit of that

I just came across this Virtual Race for Autism 5K. This is an excellent cause and Alicia has put together some amazing prizes! Just run or walk your 3.1 miles and report back her by June 10th. So sign up and help raise some money for a great cause!

 

I've been debating whether or not to try a sugar free challenge for a while.  While I was trying to decide if I could handle it I ran across Run To The Finish's 10 Day Sugar Free Challenge.  I couldn't pass it up. 10 days?!?! Anyone can do that! Even me :) It runs from June 1 - June 10. So check it out and do your body a huge favor!

And... Finally, the Circle of Moms Top 25 Health & Fitness Mom Blogs! Voting ends June 1st and you can vote once a day for your favorite mom blogs! There are many amazing mommy bloggers out there that would appreciate your votes during the last days of voting as well as myself :)

Hope everyone has an amazing Memorial Day Weekend!! Any exciting plans?

And don't forget to enter my Favorite Things Giveaway! Remember, I need to reach 100 followers to giveaway the Lauren Brooks DVD so spread the word! Thank you and Good luck!

A few of my Favorite Things GIVEAWAY for YOU :)

I finally reached 50 followers and I'm so thrilled. As a thank you to my followers, I'm hosting a giveaway of a few of my favorite things!

1. Tough Chik T-Shirts - My daughter and I loooove our T-shirts from Tough Chik! I wanna share the Tough Chik love with you guys. One lucky winner will get a Tough Chik Tee of their choice :)

2. Clif Bars! I eat entirely way too many of these. If I had nothing but Clif bars to eat for a week, I probably wouldn't complain. The builder's bars are excellent for a quick after workout protein fix. And you will not find my backpack or purse ever lacking a Clif bar. One lucky winner will get an assortment of Clif products!

3. Joshua Tree Ice Herbal Chalk - I love, love, love this chalk! What do you get when you combine aromatherapy with climbing? Pure bliss. It's so amazing I just need to share it with someone! One lucky winner will get a bag of herbal chalk! (If you are a non climber I can substitute chalk for another one of their great products!)

4. X-Balm - This is such a great lip balm. Yummy and great protection. I always have a stick in my backpack or purse. I'm in love with the extreme Ice flavor but one lucky winner will get to sample all 5 flavors!

And finally.... If I reach 100 followers by the end of the giveaway... I will give away Lauren Brooks Volume 1 Kettlebell DVD!!! Remember when I posted about my ass kicking here? I would really love for one of you to experience an ass kicking of your very own :)

So what do you have to do to win these awesome things?? Leave a seperate comment for each entry!

1. You MUST be a follower of my blog. *Mandatory*

2. You MUST like Tough Chik on facebook HERE *Mandatory*

Optional entries:

3. Like Climb Run Lift Mom on facebook HERE.

4. Follow @climbrunliftmom on twitter HERE.

5. Follow @tough_chik on twitter HERE.

6. Like XBalm on facebook HERE.

7. Like Clif Bar on facebook HERE.

8. Like Joshua Tree Skin Care on facebook HERE.

9. Follow Lauren Brooks' Blog HERE and sign up for the newsletter.

10. Share this! Tweet, Facebook, link to your blog, whatever! 1 entry each. Remember I need 100 followers before I give away Lauren's DVD! Spread the word :)

Giveaway will be open until June 19th. I will draw one winner for the first set of prizes, if I'm at 100 followers by that date I will draw a second winner for Lauren's DVD. Thank you so much, I really appreciate each and every one of you :)

Exciting news!

I just got back a impromptu climbing trip to The City of Rocks in ID. It was spectacular! Unfortunately my camera went MIA before I left so unless my friend managed to capture some great shots there will not be any pictures posted. But the weather was absolutely fabulous, the company was great, the climbing was wonderful and it was great to just get away.

But... Onto the even better (for you!) news! I have reached 50 followers! And I have an exciting giveaway coming up to thank you all for following my blog and all the wonderful comments I've received. I truly appreciate each and every one of you! More info to come this week!! Stay tuned :)

Have you had your ass kicked lately??

If not... You should. After working out with Kettlebells on my own for about a year, I finally ordered Lauren Brooks KB dvd (Volume 1). Wow! I have been missing out!! I tried it yesterday and woke up this morning to a glorious feeling. My glutes were on fire! Like the kind of pain where it hurts to even sit on the toilet. The kind of pain I use to look forward to after a good leg day at the gym. Needless to say my gym time has been limited as of late and I haven't felt that feeling for quite some time. I was thrilled. Her dvd is excellent. I really recommend it to beginner KB users (heck, anyone who hasn't tried her workouts should!). She has an entire section of exercise examples where she displays proper form (which is super important w/ KB's so you don't injure yourself). I'm very excited to have this addition to my workout dvd collection. This will be one that actually gets used on a regular basis!

On the Edge Fitness Kettlebell Workout Videos

Have you done a workout lately that completely destroyed you? How do you determine if your workout was good?

And on another ass kicking note, I am re-committing myself to the 100 Push Up Challenge! I have attempted this many times and always quit. I've also decided to try the 50 Pull Up Challenge (gotta work those opposing muscle groups!). Follow along with me HERE and feel free to yell, nag or otherwise encourage me in any way you can think of.  I'd also love some cohorts, so if you're up for a challenge lemme know!!

And lastly... I wanted to mention the AIDS/LifeCycle 7-day 545 mile cycling event to support HIV/AIDS services. I have 2 friends that are raising money and riding for this event. So please show your support and donate if you can. Even a little bit helps. Help show your support to an excellent cause.

My friend Shannon, aka - the original Tough Chik --> DONATE HERE

And my friend and fellow tweep, Demetrius (@SomeDudeD) --> DONATE HERE

Have you ever had one of those months???

You know... The kind where it seems that nothing goes right. Yeah... It's been one of those months.

I've had so much going on that my health and fitness has been sidelined. I've got that mom mentality that everyone else comes first. One of these days I will actually acknowledge that working out and eating healthy isn't a luxury and it isn't selfish. It is a necessity. And what kind of example am I setting for my children? When mom gets stressed she grabs a bottle of wine and a cheesecake?? No... Mom should go for a run. At least the kind of mom that I want to be would go for a run. Old habits sure are hard to break! This is the one thing that I struggle with fitness-wise and cannot overcome. Stress consumes me everytime and no matter what I tell myself it just takes over.

What do you do when you get stressed?? If you've had old, bad habits what do you do so you don't revert back to them??

And on a kinda unrelated note, I'm up to 47 followers!!! How exciting is that?! Everytime I see I have a new follower it seriously makes my day! I started this blog just as a means to hold myself accountable fitness-wise and to share my climbing adventures. I feel like it has become so much more :) So thank you, each and every one of you! I truly appreciate it :)

Dun! Dun! Dun!

This week has been crazy so bear with me!

The kids and I came back from Moab last week with just a couple days to get ready and leave for St. George and Las Vegas to see two of my best friends get married. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, the wedding was perfect and I've never seen my friends happier. And despite it being a climber couple's wedding, we did no actual climbing, lol! You'll have to forgive the lack of pictures, I used the brides camera more than my own... But I've got a couple to share nonetheless.

The Newlyweds

Myself and the Bride

The backdrop of the wedding - Red Rocks, NV

Anyways, the wedding was great! The next day we were supposed to go climbing, but the married couple didn't want to leave their hotel room... I didn't push the issue, lol. So the kids and I left them to enjoy being newlyweds and decided to swing thru Zion National Park on our way back home. It was beautiful! My only regret is that I didn't have more time. We just drove through part of the park where private vehicles were allowed. I didn't want to be confined the schedule of the shuttle when we still had a 6 hour drive ahead of us that day.

Zion National Park

The kids doing some exploring

We got back from the wedding just in time for my Birthday! I haven't really been much on celebrating my Birthday in the past, but it was a pretty good day. My daughter ended up coming down with an ear infection so that put a little damper on my Birthday plans (a long run, some kettlebells, some yoga and then champagne and cupcakes with friends). I couldn't take the kids to the sitter with Ava being sick to do my triple workout and then I had to cut my visit with my friends short to go to her Dr appt. But all in all it was a great day. Heard from all my family and friends and got a couple suprises delivered.

Beautiful flowers!

And this... From my sister.

Not sure if it's an actual gift or sabatoge!

My Birthday was also the first day of classes for the summer semester. I'm taking all my classes online so I have more flexibility this semester. I've got some absolutely scary, crazy, exciting life changes coming up this month and didn't want them to negatively impact school. School has already got me pretty busy. And I'm slacking with my running for no good reason... I tried to get out for a run last night to clear my mind and it did not go as planned. Although, I broke a 10 min/mile (hit 1 mile at 9:47) so it was kind of exciting. I got as far as 1.12 miles in 11:12 minutes before I had to stop... Dang baby moniter and children, lol. The life of a mother is never boring!

And lastly, today I'm packing up to head back to Wisconsin for a friend's wedding and my little sister's college graduation! So excited :) But, I'm still trying to figure out how to NOT gain 5-10 lbs while there. Everytime I go back the massive amounts of cheese and wine consume me... And I spend so much time trying to catch up with as many people as I can that workouts go right out the window. So if anyone has any advice, I'm open to suggestions!! I'm hoping to be able to find a couple spare minutes here and there to blog to keep myself slightly more accountable. And I'm packing my running shoes and hoping I can leave my children with family and sneak away for a couple of nice long runs while there.

How do you keep from gaining weight while away from home?