Kelly Trepp, Author

Congratulations, folks! We have made it half way through 2012. Now, I don't want to get you too excited, but that means that there are only 175 days until Christmas ! Be still my heart! With that exciting news out of the way, I thought it might be nice to do a mid-year reflections post to see how closely I have followed my New Year's declarations that I made back in January. For those of you less inclined to click sketchy links in blog posts, here's a quote from my New Year's Reflections post: In 2012, I will run my first half-marathon and my first marathon if all goes according to plan. I intend to run more, read more, and stress less. I am determined to spend more time with family and less time stressing over work. Much less time stressing over work. I will nurture my relationship with God and spend more time in Church and worship. I will be a better version of myself. The best version I can be. Let's see how I've fared: In 2012, I will run my f...

I decided to bring back the Wednesday weigh in this week to check my progress since starting my CrossFit regimen. As always, I give the disclaimer that you should not restrict your fitness goals to a number on the scale. In fact, I am including my measurements ( **gasp** ) with this post because I have seen a drastic change in just a little over a week! For best results, always measure yourself at the same time of day as your body may fluctuate as many as five pounds throughout the day based on dieting and exercise habits. I choose to take my measurements first thing in the morning as a good baseline. Along with our CrossFit gym membership, we get access to the website, BeyondTheWhiteboard.com . Here, you can become affiliated with your gym, post Workout of the Day (WOD) results, track your dieting habits and sleep patterns, and keep tabs on your overall health. If you are obsessed with counting calories and keeping a journal of your progress like I am, this is a great new tool to...

Confession: I started writing this post nearly two weeks ago and it's just getting posted. It is not easy to find the time to commute, work, workout, cook, clean house, and write a blog. Oh and let's not forget sleep! It's all about making priorities. And like I posted earlier this year , I plan to spend more time with family (especially in light of recent family illnesses), spend more time focusing on myself and my health, and more time nurturing my relationship with God. So far so good. I'm sorry that my blog has been neglected in the process. The hubster and I recently started a new chapter in our lives. Chapter one of our married life began with a commitment to getting in better shape. I took that idea and ran with it. I ran 13.1 miles with it. He took that idea and cheered me on from the starting line, to mile 7, to the finish line where he greeted me with flowers. I kid, I kid. The fact of the matter is, hubby would join me on most of my long runs and would r...

For the better part of the last week, I have been in the sunshine state, praying for a miracle; and God has answered those prayers. My 80-year-old grandfather discovered a Meningioma tumor in his brain in November. At the time it was considered benign, as are most meningiomas, and the diagnosis was to observe the tumor's growth over the next year and see how it was progressing. Unfortunately, my grandfather started showing symptoms of the tumor shortly thereafter, having seizures that were taking a toll on his fragile body. After more MRIs in mid-March, the tumor appeared to have grown in size by about 20 percent. Surgery was now a necessary reality. So how did I take this news? That my grandfather, whom I very rarely get to see because he lives in Florida half the year and two hours away the rest of it, was going to be having life-saving surgery? I packed my bags and booked the last flight out on Friday evening after work. It's not really as heroic as I make it sound. ...

To those of you who have stuck with me through blog post frenzies and lulls, I would like to thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart. I love having an outlet for writing and to have an audience, even if there's only two of you, makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I am sending you virtual hugs through your computer right now. Go on, reach out and hold it. While I was away, I was not just resting on my laurels. I did complete my 8 mile long run two weekends ago, as scheduled. It was an amazing experience. My hubby came along with me, but felt pain in his shins around 2.75 miles. He urged me to go on without him while he limped along behind. I had let him set the pace for the first two miles, but when I left him, I increased my pace drastically. I set off for the third and fourth miles at a comfortable pace, but as I turned around to head back to the truck, I felt an overwhelming urge to catch up with the hubster and finish my miles with him. As a result, I was chasing hi...

A year ago, I was preparing for the holiday season weighing about 15 pounds more than I currently do. I was proud of myself for having lost 15 pounds up to that point, but I knew I had a lot further to go. I did not have any set goals other than to look great on my wedding day. I modified my goals as we got closer to the big day. I focused on being fit, rather than being skinny, incorporating weight training into my everyday work outs. I decided that weight was just a number on the scale, and that I should measure my success by how I feel. Shortly after the wedding, I made a commitment to myself to push further than what I thought I was capable of and to complete a half marathon. The thought of completing a half marathon was daunting, but if I did not try, I would never know. With a few 5ks under my belt, I signed up for a half marathon and created a training schedule . With training for a half marathon, as with most things in life, you have to be prepared to adapt. For example,...

The quarter-life crisis is the new mid-life crisis , and I am starting to feel like I am facing one. I have been waxing poetic a lot lately about the idea of going back to school. Unfortunately, we live in an area where there are not a whole lot of options in the way of continuing education. Second problem: since I have my degree in Journalism (a Bachelor of Arts) and I work in the engineering field, I would have to take a bunch of undergraduate courses before beginning any Masters programs in Engineering or Computer Science. Third, and most importantly, I am tired of sitting at a desk all day. Possible solutions I have brainstormed include taking courses online to complete a degree, staying with my parents during the week while taking classes at a state school and coming home on the weekends , taking a lesser paying job wherein my bank account would be less full, but I would feel fulfilled in my work and have a lesser commute. This last option is also ideal for starting a family ...

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." -- Robert Burns No matter how much planning we do, it's a law of science that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. Trust me, it's science . But seriously, all of these idioms exist for a reason. No matter how much planning we do, we cannot account for all events that come our way. As such, my best laid plans to train for this half marathon have already gone of the track. Staying late for work, traffic on my afternoon commute, calling financial institutions to change my legal name, and the lack of day light have all conspired against me to cause me to miss my training for the first time. Three for four isn't bad, right? There are so many things that can conspire against us to keep us from attaining our fitness goals. But even if you don't have time to get to the gym or don't make it for your evening run, here's a few ways that you can burn a few extra calories throughout the day: 1. P...

First, let me start off with saying that I do not condone daily weigh-ins. As I have written before ( Choosing a Healthy Goal ), choosing a fitness goal measured by how you look and feel is far more important than limiting yourself to a number on the scale. Furthermore, your body weight may fluctuate anywhere from one to five pounds at any given point in the day. That is why it is important to only weigh yourself once a week at the same time of day. For me, that's Wednesday morning before work. So this morning was the first time I weighed myself since our return from the honeymoon. I weighed myself immediately upon our return, but we'll not discuss that here. It was unsettling. The first week after the honeymoon, I kept telling everyone I was on the newly married, "letting myself go" diet. It worked and I enjoyed indulging myself on the honeymoon and for the first few days we were back, but then I found myself feeling lethargic and all and all, not very healthy. ...

It's Wednesday morning. You wipe the sleep out of your eyes and stretch as you roll over to check the clock. Time for your weekly Wednesday morning weigh-in. A million things run through your mind. I shouldn't have had that extra slice of garlic bread with my spaghetti last night. Forget the bread, why did I eat the pasta? You take a deep breath... We've all been there. The battle with the number that we see on the scale. Society puts unrealistic pressures on us to be a certain size, look a certain way, and reduce ourselves to a number. But what does that number really tell you? When you step on the scale, it doesn't tell you your muscle mass, or your BMI or any other healthy way of measuring your fitness. So why should a number constitute a fitness goal? Let's forget numbers all together. As I started losing weight thanks to my healthier meal selections, I tried to make exercising fun for myself to speed up the process. Sort of like this, but less 80s. I'm a f...