The Liebster Award

My good friend Patti at Help, Mom's Melting nominated my blog for a Liebster Award. I had no idea what it was so of course I Googled it. What would we do without Google?! Turns out there are a ton of versions of this award out there with many ways to award it. Liebster in German means sweetheart, beloved person, darling; basically it's an award to bloggers for being your favorite blog. Cool! Thanks Patti!!!
This is how the version Patti sent to me works:
Write 11 random facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 interview questions you’ve been given by the person who nominated you.
Create 11 new questions.
Nominate 11 bloggers and mention them in your post.
Go and tell the person who nominated you, along with the people you’ve nominated about your post.

I'll play along, why not?! The only thing I'm not going to do is the nominate 11 bloggers - I don't know 11 bloggers and the blogs I do follow are huge (couple hundred plus followers), so I doubt they'd want to 'play along.' If you're reading this and you blog, let me know. I'd love to follow you and have 11 blogs to nominate!

11 Random Facts About Me
1. I was in the Navy.
2. I met my husband in the Navy - we were stationed on an aircraft carrier together.
3. We named our first dog, Vinson, after the ship we met on.
4. I married my husband on April Fool's Day so he'd never forget the date.
5. My best friend's Dad married us near a waterfall in WV.
6. I love the color green.
7. I actually enjoy running!
8. I cried when I had to sell my Toyota Tacoma.
9. I make everyone in my family wear silly hats on Christmas morning.
10. I love taking photos of my family.
11. I don't think there is anything better then eating the veggies that come from your own garden.

11 Interview Questions

1) Do you prefer to workout with a partner or yourself?

 I love working out with a partner!! However in September I lost both my workout partners and immediately lost all motivation to continue working out. I like having someone else around to 'suffer' with me through my workouts, but the hardest thing for me is to stay motivated when they can no longer join me. Now I workout alone, and if anyone wants to join me (like my husband) then cool! But I don't rely on anyone else anymore.

2) What was the breaking point to get you started on you journey?

 5 months after my son was born I saw a photo of myself and said no more. This is the photo.

My husband said he never realized how big I was until I started losing weight, and honestly, neither did I. Here is the before/current.

3) When do you prefer to workout?

I prefer to workout mid-mornings around 10-11am, but I'll workout whenever I can. Lately it's been in the evenings closer to 5pm and sometimes I'll go for a run as late as 8pm. I'll squeeze it in whenever I can!

4) How many days a week do you workout?

 Every day if I can, but usually 6 days. Rest is important, so I try to make sure that at least one day a week I'm taking it easy (although sometimes I'll still go for a walk on a rest day).

5) What is your favorite workout program?

P90X. It was my first at home workout and it's still my favorite. I could actually do 2 unassisted pull-ups after round 1. I'll be doing round 2 later this year.

A very, very close second is Jamie Eason's LiveFit Trainer. It's the program I'm doing right now (or was until I got so sick), and I absolutely love it!!

6) What is your favorite cheat meal?

Chinese- the horribly bad for you kind...General Tso's please!

7) What is your favorite workout song?

I don't workout to music! Seriously. I do actually have an MP3 player, but the songs on it are the same ones that my brother and sister helped me load on it the year I got it. I wore it while running one time with it on random and the song, "All by myself" came on...never again!

8) Who is you inspiration?

 My husband and my friends. They inspire me to keep on keeping on!

9) Do you have a favorite motto & if so what is it?

You must make a choice to take a chance or your life will never change. - Unknown

10) When did you start your journey?

 The very, very first time I started tracking what I eat and had a personal trainer was almost a year after my daughter was born - September 2009.

11) Do you have any advice for fellow bloggers?

Blog, blog, blog. It holds me accountable and it gives me a place to ramble about my fitness adventures. I'd be lost without my blog.

Since I'm not nominating anyone, I won't create any questions. Am I taking all the fun out of this?! LOL

Anyway, I'm still suffering from my cold. I did manage to go to the gym 3 out of the past 4 days, but all I did was walk on the treadmill for an hour or so while my husband worked out. Every time I coughed a lot and felt light headed when I got off the machines. Why, oh why, is this cold not going away?! UGH! I truly hate being sick. Tomorrow I'm going for a run! One of the girls on the running facebook page I'm on posted a couple of mornings this week she's going to run. I'm going to join her, why not! I need to get moving. My first half is in 13 weeks!!!! Time is ticking right on by.