A Disney Princess: One Year Later

This past weekend, my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds were FULL of pictures and posts from the WDW Princess Half Marathon weekend. It also was my first attempt at running after having Robby. It had me thinking about where I was one year ago and how much life has changed in a year.

The Princess Half weekend 2015 was my "last hoorah" race. We had been talking seriously about starting a family, so we decided that I would run as many runDisney races as I could in a year and then we'd start trying for a baby after Princess. That (very cold) weekend, I ran all the races and we had a blast enjoying Walt Disney World. Who knew that in less than 2 months we'd be already expecting our little Disney prince?

I spent so much of my pregnancy focused on staying healthy and fit, which made my pregnancy a breeze. Postpartum, though, has really been a struggle. That brings me to my latest run: a planned 5-miler in preparation for the Hot Chocolate 15k this weekend. Ummmmm...so... Let's just say I'm not really ready for this race!

I didn't make the full 5 miles yesterday. In fact, I only made 2 miles of running, then had to walk home. Between being sick with a cold and my knee acting up (probably from the extra weight), I was just not feeling a run. Ugh! I thought coming back after pregnancy was going to be much easier. My plan is to just chug through this weekend, get to the finish line, then start from square one. As a coach, I know that building a proper running base is essential, and I don't know why I thought I could somehow just skip this step. Luckily I have 6 months before the Disneyland Half to get back into fighting shape.

No time like a Monday to start again, right? I'll be walking this week and just saying a few prayers to the running Gods on Sunday. I'm sticking to my plan of walking and running with a little PiYo to help with strength. I start back at the gym teaching in a week, so I better get ready for that too. Oh, the life of a new mommy!!

Any tips to start over?

The Honest Truth

On Sunday, Robby turned one month old! It's been a whirlwind month, full of happiness, ups and downs, and trying to figure out my new role as full-time mommy. You want the truth? I have NOT had any focus on nutrition OR working out! Yes, I took a few walks, but I have mainly been at home, on the couch, vegging out in front of the TV and binge eating junk food. I stocked my fridge with healthy options, but even eating a ton of healthy foods makes the scale move in the wrong direction.

So it's time to get real, get honest. I spent (almost) all of my pregnancy eating healthy and staying fit. Yes, I slid a bit toward the end--I was just too tired to workout hard and well, I have no excuse. I just got into some bad habits. So I'm putting it out there--I'm changing things up and getting back to my healthy self! Here's the plan:

Nutrition: I'm going to follow the 21 Day Fix meal plan, adding extra calories to ensure I have enough to continue to breastfeed. Lots of water too to keep myself milky. Of course, Shakeology daily to get in my daily dose of dense nutrition!

Fitness: This one is a bit harder because I feel like I've lost a lot in this area. For the rest of this month, my goal is walking at least 3 days per week and running 1-2 days per week. I have the inaugural Hot Chocolate 15k at the end of the month to keep me on track with this goal. I'm also planning on adding PiYo twice per week. It's the perfect new momma workout since it focuses so much on the core.

Time will definitely be a challenge, especially when I go back to work next week. I tell my clients all the time that time is just a terrible excuse, I can't use that as an excuse either! It's time to practice what I preach! Let's do this!!!!

It's Time to Register for the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend!

Tomorrow is the big day for all of you "regular" folks...me included...who do not have annual passes or DVC. It's time to warm up the credit cards, get all computers going, and register for the Disneyland Half Marathon weekend!

This year will be Bill's and my 4th Dumbo Double Dare and, of course, our newest addition will be joining in on the fun in his very first runDisney event: the Diaper Dash. This puts HUGE pressure on me to get all of us registered! I have enough anxiety registering just the two of us, heck, even just me, but 3? THREE registrations! I've got to be on my A-game. There's no doubt that Dumbo will continue to sell out fast. I would also expect the 10k and 5k to be quick sellouts, with kids races not far behind. The half--who knows? It seems as if the half marathons have been having some trouble selling out lately, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

2015 Disneyland Half Marathon

So how do you guarantee yourself a spot? Here are some great tips:
1. Have your Active.com account already pulled up and logged in on one tab.
2. Have runDisney open on another tab.
3. Be logged into Facebook and Twitter, following runDisney (in case the website crashes, which it always seems to do) and be on the lookout for a link.
4. Have your credit card ready to go.
5. Do this on a reliable computer--I find mobile devices too slow and unreliable!

You'll be put in a queue to register, so don't exit that queue or you risk losing your spot "in line". Finally, I also have some back up travel partners ready to go in case I can't get into the races I want. We've used a bunch of different travel partners in the past, and I can say with pretty good confidence that as long as they are listed on the runDisney site, you should be fine.

Dumbo is our legacy race, so the stress is always on to get registered for this one. Of course, this year, the pressure is also on for the Diaper Dash, since there's only a 6 month window when he can run. My mom was quick to point out that if we don't get in this time, we can always make another trip to WDW for either Wine and Dine or Marathon Weekend. Twist my arm, right?!?!

For now, though, my fingers are crossed and I will just follow my own advice, hoping to get all registered tomorrow! Any other tips to share? Will you be running this year?

Welcome to the Family--Part 2

I'm still recovering and adjusting to life with a newborn. It's hard to believe he's already 2 weeks old!!! Time is FLYING!!! If you missed Part 1 of my labor & delivery story, be sure to check it out HERE before reading. And now, here's the fun part--where we actually get to meet our little prince!

We got to the hospital around 3 a.m. and they brought us straight to labor and delivery. To be honest, I really could have lived without the wheelchair, but it was their policy, so I just wheeled along. We headed into triage and I was just hoping not to be sent home. There was something about being admitted; in my head that indicated we'd meet Robby soon. They checked me and I my water did break the evening before, as I had thought, but I was only 3 cm dilated. We headed to our room and I was immediately hooked up to IVs and monitors. My birth plan was to move as much as possible, so we kept disconnecting the monitors so I could walk, rock, even use a "birthing ball" (yep, fancy name for an exercise ball that they probably charge people 5 times as much for since it's for labor).

Once we hit the 24 hour mark, I was really tired and pretty much over it. The staff turned over and we got the BEST nurse! She was awesome and so supportive of me and my choices. The hours kept ticking by, and Bill need to make some important phone calls. At around 27 hours into labor, they checked me again and I was at a 3.5 cm dilated. The nurse tried to make me feel better by saying a 3-4, but really I wasn't making much progress. My midwife finally came to check on me, and we had to have a tough conversation--she wanted to prepare me that since I was progressing so slowly I might have to start on Pitocin, since once my water was broken for 24 hours the risk of infection becomes a factor.

I had wanted an all natural birth--no medication and definitely no drugs to induce or move things along. I had watched all the Netflix documentaries and really had put a lot of pressure on myself to do things as nature had intended. Finally, after somewhere between 27 and 28 hours of labor, I very teary-eyed looked at Bill and asked for an epidural. It was not what I had wanted, but I was exhausted and knew that we were in for a long day. About half an hour later, I got the epidural and was finally able to rest. I could not help but to feel like I had somehow failed; I was weak and not doing what was best for my child. That feeling sat with me for a few days, but now that he's here, I have no regrets.

As an added bonus to the epidural, the anestesiologist asked "did you know you have scoliosis?" Great. Just add insult to injury. Because of that I had some difficulty getting my right side to numb up. I ended up needing an extra boost a few hours later. It's really a weird feeling, but I don't know if I could have gotten through labor without it.

Pitocin was started to help move things along. They were super conservative and I only needed the very lowest dose. It got me moving, but also put Robby is a small amount of distress. Add in the oxygen! My all natural, granola labor was a faint memory! I don't know how, but the hours just ticked and ticked by.

I finally started to progress, and around 7 p.m. my midwife came back for delivery. We tried pushing once, but they wanted me to labor down for another 15-20 minutes to get him moving down. They positioned me, and of course, as just one more boost, I threw up. The midwife and nurse said this was a good sign that he was moving down. Finally, it was time to really push. That was the best and easiest part--5 pushes and he was here! I guess all that working out was helpful for something.

Photo Credit: Bella Baby

He was absolutely perfect--ten little fingers, ten little toes. 7 pounds, 12 ounces. 20.5 inches. A little bit of strawberry blond hair. All 39 hours were worth it, for sure, when I saw his little face. We had waited 40 weeks and 3 days for this little one to arrive; it was amazing. We are actually parents!

We've already had him in some great Disney outfits and imagined what our first trip to Disneyland will be like in September. He's already primed for a big finish at the 2016 Disneyland Half Marathon Diaper Dash! The future of this Disney baby is bright, and we can't wait to share some of his best Disney moments with you all!

Welcome to the Family Robby!

It's official! Disney Runs in the Family has grown! We welcomed our little prince Robby to the world on 1/7/16 at 7:53 pm. No, it's not really running or Disney related, but trust me, this little guy (and I) participated in the marathon of all marathons, ironically enough during the WDW marathon weekend. And hey, since it's my blog, I can share what I want--and I can't wait to share my labor story.

The newest member of Disney Runs in the Family

I'll start with a quick summary: 39 hours. Yep, that says it all! With that in mind, I figured a multi-part post was in order.

My due date had come and gone (I was due January 4th). Oddly enough I never even thought I'd go this long; I always assumed I'd have him early. He apparently had different plans. There's something really strange about waiting to go into labor. You're just sitting around, hoping to have a sign that something was going to happen. You take everything as a sign--I stubbed my toe, must be labor; the light twitched, must be labor; my hair looks bad; must be labor. I think we Googled "what does a contraction feel like" at least 100 times. People kept telling me "you'll know" but that wasn't good enough.

Our little runDisney family

It was true, though. Around 5 a.m. on Wednesday, January 3rd I was woken up by some significant pains in my belly. They were different, more painful, and I had the urge to get up and move through them. I paced in my bedroom for a little, then decided to grab Bill's phone and start timing. Yep, it was different, and I was having contractions every 7-8 minutes. Woohoo! It was finally starting. I had planned a beautiful, natural labor, so I took a long, hot shower to get myself in a relaxed mind and body.  When Bill woke up, I let him know that I was pretty sure I was in labor. It was all very calm and relaxed. My mom was still at our house, and I really just wanted to be alone, so we spent a lot of time in our bedroom just being quiet.

To move things along, we headed out for a morning walk. It was peaceful and relaxing, but the contractions weren't really progressing any quicker. I also tried to nap but the excitement and anticipation combined with the contractions didn't leave much room for rest. My contractions slowed (even to as little as once every 10-11 minutes) but they never stopped. I ate small, energizing meals. I was doing everything I had read and seen to move labor along and make sure my body was ready to welcome this new little one into the world.

The night kept progressing, but the contractions never got more frequent than every 7-8 minutes. We binge watched a few new shows on Netflix (that I now have to go back and start over, because apparently I wasn't actually paying attention). Around 9 pm my water finally broke. That started to move things along, but not nearly as fast as I thought it would. We kept timing contractions and debated going to the hospital. My plan was to labor at home as long as possible. I wanted to be in a comfortable place and able to move around without being constantly monitored. We finally decided to go in around 1:30 a.m. so I took a long, hot shower, finished packing the hospital bag, even put on a little makeup and fixed my hair (hey, I knew there were some really important pictures in my future). The hospital is less than 2 miles from our house, so we arrived around 3 a.m. It was our last time driving anywhere as a family of 2. Our lives were about to change!

Stay tuned for part 2! I know you already know the ending, but it's about the journey!

2016 Race Calendar

Yep, I'm still waiting on the arrival of the newest member of Disney Runs in the Family. Seeing that baby Robby isn't here yet, I've had plenty of time to think about the year ahead and goals I want to accomplish, specifically in running. Of course, I'm being realistic and know that I'm about to take on a whole new life with our baby, so my goals are short and sweet.

My "comeback" race: Las Vegas Hot Chocolate 15k--February 28th
This local race will be my first run postpartum. I'm honestly a little nervous, especially since it looks like I'll be going right up to or even past my due date of January 4th. I've stayed somewhat active, but may end up pulling back to the walker corral depending on when I can get back on the road.

My "speedy" race: Disneyland Half (as part of the Dumbo Double Dare)
I plan to take back my speed this year at the Disneyland Half Marathon. Since knee surgery and pregnancy, I haven't come close to my half PR of 2:04. This year, I'm planning on focusing my energy on getting my speed up so I can work toward that number again. I doubt I'll PR, but it will feel great to run fast and get close. I'm tired of running slow. I've learned a lot as a runner myself and as a coach to others, and I'm ready to put that in place and conquer some goals. I'm not setting a time YET, but once I can get back to running regularly, I'll have a better idea of specific goals.

My "just for fun" race: Disneyland Paris Half
We are so excited to be going to Paris, and there's no way I'm rushing through this race! We even got a Go Pro for Christmas so we can document every step, and we plan to take a million pictures on the course. No need for speed here! I'm ready to relish every magical mile, then spend a week putting in tons of miles of walking around the most romantic city on earth!

It's not a long list, but again, life around the Stater household is about to change BIG TIME. I can't wait to take Robby out for walks and runs (my BOB stroller was one of the first things I bought when I found out we were expecting). I really can't wait for his first race--the Diaper Dash during the Disneyland Half weekend. It'll be a fun, challenging year! Now, back to waiting for our Disney baby to arrive!

#YearOfYou Diet Bet--join us!

I love the New Year: it's a time to set goals, dream big, and say goodbye to the negativity of the past. For so many (and this year, me included), January is a time to set some weight loss goals. Of course, I'm going to have to wait until our little man makes his debut before jumping into my fitness and weight loss goals, but you don't so we organized a little Diet Bet to help you along! You just can't take the coach out of me, even when my mind is preoccupied with a million other things!

So...how does it work? We start on Monday, January 4th. The bet is that you lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks. Diet Bet handles all the money, the payouts, the weigh-ins, and verifying that everyone is playing fair. Once you register, you will get an individual word that you will photograph with your scale, as well as photographing yourself on the scale, all within 24 hours of the start. As long as you lose the weight, you are guaranteed your money back at the least, BUT (this is the fun part) everyone who meets their goal splits the pot. Not that you want others to not reach their goals too, but the odds are in your favor that you stand to win more than you put in, that is, as long as you reach your goal. So it's you against yourself--you don't have to worry about being the "biggest loser".

There's even an app to keep you on track and I'll be posting tips throughout the game to give you an edge over the rest. It's fun, it's social, and it definitely works!

Are you in? It's time to get started! Follow this LINK and join us in betting on yourself in 2016!