Runs for Cookies

Field trip

2013-05-17T21:00:00.000-04:00

What an exhausting day! I got up at 6:00, so it was too late to get in a short run before getting the kids ready. That wasn't really a big deal, because I just figured I'd do it this evening.

I got the kids ready for school, and myself dressed to chaperone Noah's field trip. Since I was chaperoning, I drove the kids to school instead of putting them on the bus. When I got there, his teacher told me that Noah had to ride the bus to the field trip, but I could drive separately so that we could go home when we were ready. His field trip was at Greenfield Village, about 45 minutes away.

I left the school and went right there, then I sat in the car and watched the buses coming in, so I would see when his class got there. I waited for a long time, probably about 25 minutes. My cell phone rang, and it was his teacher. Apparently, they'd been waiting for ME for about 20 minutes, and Noah was worried that I wasn't going to show up. I had misunderstood where to meet the buses. I ran from the car to where they were, and felt awful that Noah thought I wasn't coming.

So many parents had volunteered to chaperone that it was pretty much a 1:1 ratio of parents to kids. Noah and I were on our own to walk around the village, which was actually kind of nice that we could do it at our own pace. Well, we learned that neither of us enjoy learning about history ;) We were both pretty bored, so we only stayed a couple of hours.

He loved riding the train!

On the way out, Noah wanted to see the gift shop, naturally. They had fudge samples, and we each tried a piece. Yum! I somehow got talked into buying some (it wasn't hard), and Noah chose the Cookies & Cream flavor. We each had a piece (I was surprised to see that fudge is only 3 PointsPlus per ounce!), and it tasted like the inside of an Oreo.

I may have casually mentioned that we were down the road from La Pita, and Noah really wanted to go there for lunch. This was certainly not part of my plan for food this week, but considering the circumstances, I figured it would be great to have a nice lunch with Noah.

I've only ever ordered one thing from La Pita--the chicken kabob lunch, which you've seen pictures of a thousand times on my blog. Today, I was going to try and order something lighter, so I got the chicken shawarma sandwich (chicken shawarma and pickles wrapped in a pita). I also ordered a small side of hummus for the mini pitas on the table.

I was SO hungry that I practically inhaled three pieces of pita bread with hummus. I was expecting the small hummus to be about 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup at most; but I'm pretty sure it was about 1 cup spread out on a plate:

By the time my sandwich came, I really should have just put the whole thing in a container to take home, but I cut it in half and ate half of it. I learned that I don't like chicken shawarma. The sandwich would have been awesome if it were made with plain chicken tawook, but I won't be getting shawarma again. I don't like that there is dark meat in it, and it seemed kind of oily. I was surprised how well the pickles went with the chicken and pita, though. I never would have paired those together.

Next time, I think I will order the chicken tawook sandwich (same thing, only the chicken is plain grilled chicken breast chunks). The sandwich was the perfect size (if I hadn't eaten the pitas beforehand!), and only $4.

I ordered a large container of hummus to go, because their hummus is INSANELY good. Normally, I'm not a big hummus fan, but theirs is amazing. I figured I could eat it with veggies throughout the week. I paid our bill, and we left. As soon as I got home, I realized that I forgot the hummus at La Pita! I was so bummed. The hummus was $9, so I didn't want to just let it go. I called the restaurant, explained what happened to the manager, and she offered to send me a gift card in the mail. Perfect! Now I'll have an excuse to go back soon (not that I need an excuse to go to La Pita).

When I calculated my PointsPlus for the lunch (and fudge), it ended up being 30 PP. So much for eating a lighter lunch! But I was so full that it actually ended up being my lunch and dinner. I gave Jerry the other half of the sandwich, and he loved it.

I hate feeling really full, but that's how I felt when I got home. I decided to go for my run in the afternoon, hoping it would make me feel less full. I went outside and ran five miles. Running on a full stomach wasn't the greatest idea, because I felt sluggish, but by the time I got home, I felt much better.

Looking forward to a relaxing rest day tomorrow!

Spontaneous long run

2013-05-16T21:00:00.000-04:00

The weather looked so nice this morning when I woke up, I was actually looking forward to going for a run. After I got the kids on the bus I made breakfast. I made the same apple mixture I made a couple of days ago (this time adding some dried cranberries to it), and used it to top my oatmeal. Then I drizzled a little bit of almond butter over the whole thing. It was a huge bowl, and very filling.

Yes, there actually IS oatmeal underneath all the topping ;) I had breakfast and tea, and then figured I'd better get out and run if I was going to, because it wasn't getting any cooler outside.

I really wasn't in the mood to run around here, and Eli was actually on a field trip at the Metropark today, so I decided to drive to the Metropark to run. (When I signed the permission slip for him, I asked if he wanted me to chaperone, and he told me no. I guess I'm not "cool" enough to hang around with his friends!)

Since I was driving all the way there, I wanted to make it worth my while, and figured I'd do 6-8 miles rather than the 4 I had on the schedule today. Because of the heat, I brought my handheld water bottle with me. I wanted to keep my heart rate in Zone 3 (70-80% of my max, which for me ends up being 141-156 bpm).

I probably only ran about a tenth of a mile before my heart rate was in the zone. The heat definitely plays a big factor in my heart rate training; on cold days, I was struggling to get it up high enough.

The first mile today, my legs were feeling good, and I could have sworn I was running about a 9:30/mi pace, but when my Garmin beeped after mile 1, it read 8:38. That usually means I'm going to have a good run day (when I feel like I'm running much slower than I am, because it's not such a struggle).

My heart rate was on the upper end of Zone 3 for the majority of the run, and I kept consciously trying to slow down, but my legs were feeling so good that it was kind of hard to find the right pace. I really had to go to the bathroom, thanks to all the water and tea I drank before I left, so I ran to the tip of the park--the bathroom was there, at mile 3.45 of my run.

After using the bathroom, I figured I might as well run down the road until I hit four miles, so that I could turn around and make it an even eight when I got back to the car. Mile five felt really easy--I wasn't breathing hard, my legs felt great; and then when I saw my pace, I realized that was why I felt so good! I was running a 9:30 pace for that mile.

The last three miles, I ran as fast as I could without making my heart rate go into Zone 4. I actually wasn't nearly as miserable about the heat as I thought I would be--probably because it wasn't humid at all. The humidity in Michigan during the summer is KILLER, but today wasn't bad. The temp was still much higher than I like, but I expected it to feel worse than it did.

I got back to the car just in time to hear the beep of my eighth mile.

The good part about the higher heart rate is that I burn more calories with a slower pace that I do with a faster pace on a cold day. I burned 741 calories, where on a colder day (or on the treadmill), I would only burn something like 600.

I really wanted to spend my Activity PointsPlus on something good today, but I am going to try and save the PP for the family reunion on Sunday. Since I did an 8 mile run today, I'll probably do 4 tomorrow, and then a mid-length run on Sunday, like 6-8 miles. Tomorrow, I'm going on a field trip with Noah's class (HE thinks I'm cool, at least!), so I'll probably have to get up early tomorrow to get it done before the boys wake up.

Dinner is getting more and more creative as the month goes on. It's only been 16 days since we started our no-grocery-shopping-in-May challenge, but Jerry and I are seriously having so much fun with it. You would think it would be stressful, not having certain ingredients, but it just makes me stop and think of doing something differently than we're used to.

Yesterday, I was going to make lasagna, because there would be a lot of leftovers for lunches. I remembered we didn't have mozzarella cheese, so I figured I would make a "Mexican" lasagna, with taco meat, beans, and cheddar cheese. When I looked in the pantry, we didn't have any lasagna noodles. And all the other boxes of pasta had 2-4 oz. max in them.

I weighed out 16 oz. of dry pasta, all sorts of different shapes to use up what we had (I emptied five boxes!), and then cooked them all in one big pot. Then I made a layered casserole, using the Mexican lasagna idea. Pasta, taco meat, refried beans, corn, salsa, and cheddar cheese. It ended up turning out really good! I got two casseroles out of it, so I put one in the freezer.

Today, after looking through the pantry and the freezer, I decided to make stuffed shells. I had some cooked turkey sausage in the freezer, so I added that to a container of ricotta cheese, threw in an egg, and a handful of parmesan cheese. I cooked a box of large shells, and stuffed the shells with the meat mixture. I didn't have any jarred spaghetti sauce, which is what I normally would have used, so I made some sauce out of tomato paste, water, sugar, and Italian seasoning. I poured it over the shells, and topped with a little more parmesan.

I baked the whole thing for about 30 minutes, made some garlic toast out of homemade bread that was getting stale, and (again) dinner was great!

I never really thought about us being in a dinner "rut", but now that we haven't been grocery shopping, I realize that we pretty much eat the same rotation of dinners over a two week period. I'm glad I was forced to come up with other options, because now we have ideas for the future.

Here's an idea of how my summer is going to go...

Today at dinner, Noah tattled on Eli for calling him names. Then Eli tattled on Noah for tattling on him. Noah's response to Eli: "It's not 'tattling', Eli, it's 'informing Mama'".

...and so it begins ;)

Consistent weigh-ins

2013-05-15T21:00:00.000-04:00

I really didn't want to do my Wednesday Weigh-in today. I was even thinking about a post I could write, saying that I'm going to switch to once-per-month weigh-ins, because it's natural for weight to fluctuate, and all ~~those excuses~~ that jazz.

It's true--weight does fluctuate. But when I'm eating consistently, my weight is very consistent on a week-to-week basis. When I first started maintenance, I was very consistent in eating my daily PointsPlus target (along with my weekly PP, and my activity PP), without going OVER. The past 4-6 weeks or so, I've been finishing my week "in the negative", meaning I ate more than I was supposed to.

Generally, I've been following a pattern of going WAY over my PP once or twice a week, and spending the rest of the week making up for it... very inconsistent. And therefore, my weight has been very inconsistent for weeks now.

For the first couple of months of maintenance, I was playing with a range of ONE pound--130.5-131.5. It was very predictable, and actually easy to maintain that weight when my eating was consistent.

But now that I've gotten so inconsistent with my eating patterns, my weight has been bouncing between 131-136. That's too big of a range for me to feel comfortable, mainly because I know it's from overeating. This week, I actually did pretty well, with the exception of Monday--I went way over my PP on Monday, putting me into the negative for the week. Which is why I didn't want to weigh in today.

Posting my weight every Wednesday actually really helps me to be accountable. I think if I were to go to once-per-month weigh-ins, I would probably eat way too much for three weeks and then try to lose it on the fourth week. So, even though I'm doing my best NOT to gain weight, if I do happen to gain more than a few pounds, I'm still going to continue my weekly weigh-ins (as much as I won't want to).

Today's weigh-in:

I was 134, up 2.5 from last week. Since the pattern has been up, down, up, down, hopefully it will be back down next week. My main focus this week is going to be staying consistent with my eating, and not eating over my PointsPlus for the week. I don't have anything major going on this week, so it shouldn't be too difficult. I do have a family reunion on Sunday (at my parents' house), but if I plan well for it, I'm not worried about it. I may end up doing my long run on Sunday morning before the party, instead of Friday, so I'll have lots of activity PP to spend.

Today was a rest day, so I didn't run; but I still wanted to try and reach 100% of my ActiveLink goal today, so I went for a (very) long walk this morning. In fact, I think today's was the longest walk I've done since the Indy Mini-Marathon in 2010...

For a run, 6.1 miles is more of a mid-length run. But I was reminded today that it's a LONG walk--it took nearly an hour and a half. I walked out about three miles, then took a short detour to walk home through what used to be the woods across from my house. This week, a machine was out there crushing all of the dead phragmites. It looks SO different.

I brought my phone with me, and listened to Lori's interview on the Half Size Me podcast. Lori's was one of the first blogs I started reading several years ago. She's maintaining a 100+ pound weight loss, so she shared some tips on the podcast.

It was getting pretty hot for the second half of the walk, and by the time I was done, it was over 80 degrees outside. I'm glad I headed out when I did, otherwise the full sun would have probably made me stay home. But it was really nice to walk without thinking about pace, or calories burned, or anything other than enjoying the weather!

Homemade food

2013-05-14T21:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I said I was going to do hill repeats today; if I hadn't stated that, I most certainly would have opted for an easy 4-miler instead ;) But because I said that's what I was going to do, that's what I did.

Hill repeats are miserable, but they're very effective! Since I've been heart rate training recently, I was curious to see how the hill workout would affect my heart rate. The goal was to get my heart rate up to 90-100% of my maximum for a short period of time (Zone 5).

My plan was to do a short warm-up, then set the treadmill at 5% incline and 7.5 mph (8:00/mi pace). I would run 1/2 mile, and then hop off and rest while the treadmill continued to go for 1/4 mile. Repeat for a total of four times. I did this workout before, but it's been about a month. (I know 5% doesn't sound that difficult, considering my treadmill goes up to 12% incline--but after a quarter mile or so, it feels like it might as well be 12%!)

Today was TOUGH. The first interval was hard, but my heart rate stayed in Zone 4. Same with the second. But each interval got my heart rate higher than the previous. By the fourth interval, my heart rate finally got into Zone 5 for about 1/4 mile. I was gasping for breath after that interval, so I just walked at 2.0 mph for about 5 minutes until my heart rate got below 100. I had "runner's lungs" for the rest of the day--I love that feeling!

Since I am giving up peanut butter for six weeks, I decided to do something different for breakfast today (usually I have oatmeal with peanut butter and other stuff on top), and it ended up being really good! I chopped up an apple, and added a little water, cornstarch, cinnamon, and stevia. I microwaved it for a couple of minutes, and then stirred in 1/4 cup of muesli (this is the Muesli Fusion Athlete Fuel):

It was surprisingly really filling, and only 4 PointsPlus.

This whole no-grocery-shopping-in-May thing is getting pretty difficult. I still find it fun to have to be creative with meals, but the kids aren't happy with some of their choices. They want to bring CANNED soup to school for lunch instead of homemade soup. We're out of canned soup, so they just have to make do with homemade. I know, poor kids! ;)

The whole family is loving the homemade bread, though. I had a huge bag of bread flour in the pantry, so I've been making bread just about every other day. Today, for dinner, I made French toast with the homemade bread, and it was fantastic!

Jerry and I spent the afternoon cleaning out our cars. I have no idea how my boys make such a mess in the back of my Jeep. I took the vacuum out there and spent a long time vacuuming it out. Give my boys a couple of days, and it will look like I never cleaned it, I'm sure. But it always feels so nice to get into a clean car! (Kind of like getting into bed with freshly cleaned sheets--love that!).

Motivational Monday #15

2013-05-13T21:00:00.000-04:00

I was so excited that it was finally feeling like spring in Michigan, and then this morning when I woke up, it was 29 degrees outside. A cold run today! I was feeling extremely tired while running for some reason--not mentally tired, but my body felt exhausted; so I just ran three miles (in heart rate Zone 3) and called it quits. Tomorrow I'm going to do hill intervals, because I haven't done those since before my half-marathon last month.

Anyway, I was having a really great week as far as my food goes--until today. I ate 21 PP worth of peanut butter this afternoon! When I talked to Jerry about it, I decided to challenge myself to give up peanut butter again for six weeks. When I first started WW in September, I gave it up for six weeks and it worked wonders for my cravings. I really felt in control again after the six weeks were up.

I've been eating way too much peanut butter lately, and can't seem to practice portion control with it anymore, so I think giving it up for a little while will help. Starting tomorrow, I will not eat peanut butter until June 25th. Jerry is challenging himself to eat only the foods that he brings to work; he has a hard time with eating foods that his friends bring in. Giving ourselves little challenges like that seem to keep us motivated.

Speaking of motivation, this will be a short and sweet Motivational Monday post, because I didn't get many e-mails for today. But they are inspiring, none the less. Enjoy!

Stephanie has been working hard at losing weight, and she just hit a HUGE milestone of 100-pounds lost!

Carole and Kat just ran the Race for Hope for the second year in a row. In 2010, Carole was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and had her first brain surgery; in 2011, she had her second brain surgery. Last year, she decided to do the Race for Hope to support finding a cure for brain tumors instead of having (yet another) surgery. The two women walked the race together last year, and this year, they ran--improving their time by 30 minutes! They've also lost a collective 60 pounds. Carole is living with an inoperable brain tumor, but it's benign and hasn't grown at all, which is promising. Kat says that Carole has an amazing spirit!

Carole and Kat

Ivayla ran a Mother's Day 5K and improved her previous 5K time by 2 1/2 minutes, finishing in 34:25! She is signed up to run a 10K next month. This picture is with her son after the finish--he gave her a rose at the finish line :)

Rachel is on a journey to lose 220 pounds, and has lost 47 so far. Six weeks ago, she started running and could only run 15 seconds at a time. She says she's loving running now, and is up to 1:15 at a time! To reward herself for her efforts, she decided to buy a good pair of running shoes. The shoe store owner told her she was too heavy to run and should stick to walking, but she listened to her gut and has already put 10 miles on her new shoes--with plans for many more! (I have to say, shame on that store clerk! It's not his decision or his business to tell you what you what exercise is best for you. Assuming your doctor gave you the okay to run, I'm glad that you didn't let him scare you off!)

And of course, here is a snippet from the Motivational Monday Facebook post:

Remember, you can send me Motivational Monday e-mail anytime during the week--just make the subject "RfCMM" or "Motivational Monday" so that I know I have your permission to post it on the blog. Keep up the awesome work!

Just a bit windy

2013-05-12T21:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of my mom-readers!

My boys gave me handmade cards this morning. Both of them had drawn running shoes on the cards, and inside was money (from Jerry, obviously) to buy new running shoes. I've been overdue for new shoes for about 50 miles now, and I've been avoiding buying them because they're so expensive. I made Jerry promise not to get me a Mother's Day gift, so he figured that he'd just make me get the shoes I need ;)

I really didn't want the kids to make me breakfast this morning (they wanted me make me a TON of food, and I just wanted my oatmeal), so I asked that they make my tea instead. Jerry helped them with the boiling water, but they thought it was a lot of fun using the tea infuser. Jerry read off all the teas to Eli, and he chose Cookie Dough. Definitely a mama's boy!

There is a local 5K race that takes place on Mother's Day each year, and I've been wanting to go for a couple of years now, but it STILL didn't work out. A lot of my friends went with their families, but Jerry worked all night, so he needed to sleep when he got home. I hope that next year we'll be able to go.

Instead, my dad called and asked if I wanted to go to church with them, since it's Mother's Day. I know it means a lot to my mom when I go, so I went. After church, I stopped at Kohl's to return that lace top. I found it very humorous to see a bunch of teenage boys in there, looking at jewelry (no doubt for a last minute Mother's Day gift!)

When I got home, I did my run outside. I haven't chosen a show yet for the treadmill, but thanks for all the suggestions! I'm going to check them out and hopefully find one that I like. I forgot to mention that The Walking Dead was one that I loved. I watched the entire series in an embarrassingly short amount of time. ;)

It was SUPER windy today (21 mph winds, but the gusts almost knocked me over a few times). My AccuWeather app made me laugh:

"A BIT windier"? At what point is it "A LOT windier"?!

I decided to do a tempo run, and keep my heart rate in Zone 4 today. I had no idea just how hard that was going to feel! It took about 1/2 mile to get to Zone 4, and by then, I was running really hard. I had a headwind going out (of course), and the wind kept taking my breath away. I have no idea how I managed a sub-8:00 pace for my 10K in March! I just kept reminding myself that it would feel easier once I turned around, because then I'd have a tailwind.

I finally turned around after two miles, and it was definitely a little easier on my lungs (the wind blowing in my face on the way out had made it hard to breathe), but my legs felt like Jello. My heart rate was in the middle of Zone 4; I have no idea how I'll ever get to Zone 5 during my interval runs. I managed a sub-8 mile for the last mile. I was SO relieved to be done with that run!

In the afternoon, the boys wanted to go for a run again. Even though I was exhausted from my tempo run, I didn't want to tell them no, so I said sure. They wanted to run to the corner store and back (one mile exactly, round trip). And of course, they wanted to buy a treat at the corner store while we were there. I told them if it fit in their pocket, they could get one thing.

Jerry came with us, too, and I'm sure we looked pretty silly, the four of us running to the corner store. But the kids had fun, and Noah really pushed himself harder today than yesterday. Yesterday, his mile time was 13:30; today, we did most of it at 11:30 pace. When we got back to our street, I told them they could sprint home if they wanted, and Noah decided to go for it. He ran so fast that I was running my hardest to keep up with him at the end. For the last tenth of a mile, he ran a 6:00/mi pace! I felt like my legs were going to fall off.

His overall time ended up being 10:53, shaving more than 2:30 off of yesterday's mile. He was really proud of himself (after he was done gasping for breath from his sprint). I'm just glad that he's excited about running!

Stephanie sent me a few pictures from yesterday's shoot, and I LOVE them. I cannot wait to see the rest! Here is one of Jerry and me--I love this. I didn't even know she took it; Jerry was just goofing around, and I was rolling my eyes, and it turned out so cute!

The first mile

2013-05-11T21:00:00.000-04:00

Today was a rest day, my kids spent the night with my parents, and Jerry was at work this morning; so naturally, I would be wide awake at 5:00 AM! Whenever I have the perfect opportunity to sleep in, I wind getting up super early. Oh, well, at least I got some reading in.

Yesterday, after my long run, I only had two episodes left in Season 4 of Sons of Anarchy. Season 5 isn't on Netflix yet, so I really should have saved those episodes for a rainy day (literally), but I really wanted to see what happened. So last night, I walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes and watched one of the episodes.

This morning, with just one episode left, I finished the season. I wasn't crazy about the way it ended, but now I'm really disappointed that I don't have anything to watch when I'm on the treadmill. It has to be a show that REALLY sucks me in, like Sons of Anarchy. Breaking Bad was another one that I really liked. Any suggestions? For reference, some other shows that sucked me in like that are The Shield, Nip/Tuck, 24, and Prison Break.

At noon, I had a date with "That Loud Redhead" friend of mine, Stephanie. When I reached goal (on 12-12-12... easy to remember!), I asked her if she might want to take some goal photos for me. She did such a great job with the photos I needed for Fitness magazine that I was hoping she'd be willing to do more. She was thrilled that I asked, and suggested we wait for warmer weather.

Over the past week or so, we've had some really great days--in the 60's and 70's with full sun. Today, however, it was in the 40's and overcast. But Steph assured me that the pictures would look just fine.

I wanted to get some pictures with Jerry and the boys, too, so I cut the boys' hair this morning and got myself ready to go. I wore the lace shirt and dark blue jeans I just bought at Kohl's with my gift card. As I was walking out the door, I noticed that my shirt was ripped. Bummer! I was in a rush to meet Stephanie, so I just hoped it wouldn't show in the pictures. I'm going to try and bring it back tomorrow--I just took the tags off this morning, and I know I didn't rip it.

We met at my parents' house, because they live on the lake, and that would make a good backdrop for the pictures. We got a bunch of my family, a few of Jerry and I, and just the boys. Then Jerry took the kids home and Stephanie and I went to a couple other spots for pictures. I wore my red dress for some, and jeans and a red top that I really like for others. I'm excited to see them!

When Eli got home from school yesterday, he was SO excited to give me a Mother's Day present that he made for me. He didn't want me to wait until Sunday, so I opened it right away. It was homemade strawberry jam that his class had made at school. So cute!

I told him we would use it today for dinner, on a childhood favorite of mine: grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! (I make it just like a grilled cheese, only with PB&J instead of cheese). On homemade bread today, they were even better than I remembered.

I don't make them very often, because they're a lot of PointsPlus. This one was 10 PP. It was really filling, though, despite its size.

I am so glad to have made it through Saturday without going into the negative on my PointsPlus this week. For the past few weeks, Saturday has been my big downfall day. It's been really hard to stay on track. I almost caved tonight (to eat peanut butter right out of the jar), but I just made a cup of tea to hold me over until my wine and chocolate before bed. I'm going to do my best not to go into negative PointsPlus this week!

At around 8:00 tonight, Noah got really tearful and said to me, "I really wish I could run better, like you." He's been having a rough time lately at school when they do the mile run. He's always in last place, and he can't do it without walk breaks. I keep telling him that to get better, he has to practice, and that I'll go run with him ANY time he wants. He never takes me up on it.

After he cried about it for a couple of minutes tonight, I said, "Do you guys want to go for a run right now?" It had just gotten done raining, and it was getting dark, but I wanted to boost Noah's confidence. I told them they would have to stay with me, and we were going to go very slow. Noah was really nervous, and said we should just do around the block.

I knew he could go farther than that, but I just said we'd take it easy and see how it goes. So we headed out (I was wearing my pajama pants!) and ran very slowly down the street. It was SO awesome--I could see Noah's confidence growing with each stride. About a quarter mile in, he said he thinks we should walk, that it feels hard. I told him, "Noah, I KNOW you can do a whole mile today. We're going nice and slow, let's get to a half-mile at least." So we kept running.

A couple more times, he suggested we stop, but I kept encouraging him. When I told him we'd gone 3/4 of a mile, he was really excited. And then with just a tenth to go, I pointed to a telephone pole ahead and said, "That will be one mile--there's your finish line!"

When we got to the telephone pole, I heard the Garmin beep--HE DID IT! He ran his very first mile without stopping, without walking. He was so excited and proud. Eli was excited too, but it didn't mean much to him; not like it did to Noah. Now both of the boys are talking about running a 5K with me ;) When we got home, we took a picture to remember the occasion:

Noah, me, and Eli

Palmolive brownie

2013-05-10T21:00:00.000-04:00

Last night, I asked Jerry if he would mind getting the kids off to school this morning when he got home from work, so that I could head out for my long run first thing at 6:30. He, of course, said that was fine, so I planned to get up early and be ready when he got home.

Normally, getting up early is no problem for me--I'm always such a light sleeper. But today, I actually slept until 6:00, and I just wasn't feeling like hopping out of bed and out the door to run. So I changed my plans, and decided to just run when the kids left for school.

The weather app on my phone said 70% chance of rain. I was debating in my head whether to run outside or on the treadmill. It was like I was making the biggest decision of my lifetime, the way I was going over all the positives and negatives of each choice. Kind of ridiculous. I looked one more time at the weather, and saw that it was already 65 degrees. That swayed me toward the treadmill more than the rain did.

Since my next race over a 10K isn't until October, there is no real reason to run more than 8 miles or so. I figured I'd do 8-10, depending on how long the episodes of Sons of Anarchy were ;) My main goal for the run was to keep my heart rate in Zone 3 again, regardless of pace. After yesterday's run, I figured that I'd be running 9:30 miles by the end of my run.

I set the incline at 1%, how I always do, and started at 6.7 mph. My heart rate wasn't going up much, so I increased it to 6.9 mph, and after about a mile, I was at the low end of Zone 3. I just decided to leave it there until my heart rate got too high, and then I'd start decreasing the pace.

As I ran, I thought about my sister, because today, she had her last long run before her half-marathon next weekend. She was going to be running 12 miles on the treadmill, and it made me feel like a slacker for doing "just" 8, so I changed my mind and decided to go for 12 instead. ;)

The first episode of SoA that I watched happened to be 60 minutes, which was unusual (usually, they are about 42-45 minutes). The timing ended up being perfect for 12 miles--I watched 2 full episodes and had time for a 2 minute walk at the end when I finished.

My heart rate actually stayed right in Zone 3 the entire time while running 6.9 mph (that was about an 8:40 mile); I had to decrease it to 6.8 for the very last mile. I was really surprised by the numbers! It confirmed what I've always thought, that (to me) it feels easier to run on the treadmill than it does outside. So based on that, I should be running faster on the treadmill than I do outside.

If I hadn't been focused on my heart rate, I would never have started my long run at 6.9 mph--logically, I feel like that's too fast. But using my heart rate helps me to see what I'm capable of, despite what my mind may tell me.

I had no idea what I was going to eat for my long run treat today. I wasn't sure if I was "allowed" to get something because of the no-grocery-shopping-in-May challenge that we're doing. Jerry said I'd better get something, or else I'll be sure to binge, and he was probably right. I could have made cookies, but then I would have eaten them ALL, so it was better off that I just buy one item, like I usually do.

I had to go weigh in at Weight Watchers, which is right next to the mall, so I decided to get something from Mrs. Fields. Jerry had to weigh in at WW also, and he came with me. He's been doing he Insanity workouts, so he asked me to get him a bar, too. I ordered our bars, and the girl working there said, "Those are Buy 2, Get 1 Free!".

Dammit! I thanked her for the (three) bars, and I should have offered the third one to the person behind me in line, but I didn't think. I just took it. It bugged me all the way home, thinking of what to do with the third bar. My kids don't need it--they get enough junk, and I've been trying not to bring anything like that home for them if I can help it. I could have put it in the freezer, but I know I would have pulled it out (probably tonight) and ate it. So, I did the only thing I could think of that would help me get it out of my mind--I poured dish soap on it. (Throwing it away doesn't work for me, unless it's destroyed)

That was VERY hard to do, but I felt strong when I did it. There is nothing wrong with eating one Dream Bar on my long run day, but I certainly didn't need two--and I most likely would have eaten it if it was still around. Dish soap has saved me from many situations like this! ;)

Today was Pizza Friday, and when I looked for the stuff to make pizza, I realized we were out of mozzarella cheese. And this since we're not allowed to buy groceries this month, I had to get creative. We had lots of cheddar cheese, so I decided to make BBQ Chicken Pizza--and it turned out really good. ~~Two slices of it were only 7 PointsPlus, too--a bargain!~~ Crap! I knew that it was too good to be true. When I was putting the ingredients into the Recipe Builder on the WW site, I realized I only accounted for half of the dough. So it actually has 5 PointsPlus per slice. I wish I'd realized this before I had a third slice!

I was in a rush to make the crust, and usually I make a yeast crust which takes a little time. Today, I made a quick crust out of Bisquick. It was really soft and bread-like, rather than chewy; different, but very good! I wrote out the recipe for the BBQ Chicken Pizza on my recipes blog, if you're interested. I'm definitely going to use that crust recipe again.

National Weight Control Registry

2013-05-09T21:00:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've been doing my runs later and later in the day. I used to practically roll out of bed and into my running shoes. I always liked to get it done first thing in the morning. Recently, I've been waking up, getting the kids ready for school and on the bus, then I eat breakfast, drink some tea, read e-mail, and eventually get in my run.

It actually makes the day pass really quickly when I run in the late morning, and I'm starting to feel like I don't have enough time to get everything done. I'm going to try and start running first thing in the morning again, so my day feels longer.

Today, I headed out for a four-miler at around 9:00 this morning. The high today was supposed to be 79, so I really wanted to get out there before it got too hot. I was actually really in the mood to run this morning, and I was considering doing my long run today instead of tomorrow. When I walked out the door, I wasn't sure if I was going to run 4 or 12 miles.

My goal (again) today was to keep my heart rate in Zone 3--70-80% of my maximum, 141-156 beats per minute. I ran at what felt like a very comfortable pace (just in case I decided to do my long run), and I was surprised at how quickly my heart rate went up. My first mile split was 9:07, and I was a little disappointed to see that. I had been doing my long runs at about an 8:45 pace, so 9:07 seemed slow for a short run.

But I really want to give this heart rate training a fair chance, just to experiment. My second mile was 9:06. That was the point where I had to decide whether to keep running or turn around. I realized at that moment that I forgot to put on sunscreen, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, so I decided to turn around. If I'd remembered the sunscreen, I probably would have done 12 today, because I felt really good.

During the third mile, it was actually pretty hard to keep my heart rate down. My mind would wander, so I'd forget and run faster; then I'd notice my heart rate was approaching Zone 4, so I would slow down again. My pace was going up and down the whole time. It's kind of interesting, because about a week ago, I was surprised how hard it was to get my heart rate up to Zone 4.

I really do think that the heat and sun make a difference in my effort. When it's hot out, or full-sun, my pace is always slower, even if I push just the same as usual. The further I ran, the higher my heart rate went, so I had to slow down to compensate. I'm curious to see what happens tomorrow on my long run.

Anyway, I felt fantastic throughout the whole run, and I'm guessing that's because I kept my heart rate in the right zone. Tomorrow, I'm going to set my Garmin to show only my heart rate zone, and not my pace, so it doesn't mess with my mind. It will be fun to look at the data when I get home. (Yes, I used "fun" and "data" in the same sentence--I love this geeky stuff!)

After my run, I went to the fruit/veggie market for some fresh produce. Jerry and I agreed that during our no-grocery-shopping-in-May challenge, we could still buy fresh fruit, vegetables, and milk (nothing else). We were down to onions and a couple of oranges this morning, so it was time to get some fresh stuff.

I was amazed at how much stuff I got for just $26! A bag of potatoes, 1 stalk of celery, 12 apples, 2 red bell peppers, 1 jalapeno pepper, 1 lb. baby carrots, 1 seedless cucumber, 2 zucchinis, 3 pounds of strawberries, 8 bananas, 5 pounds of grapes, and 1 seedless watermelon. At Kroger, my grapes alone are usually $10-$15.

The grapes were still the most expensive part. If I hadn't gotten those, my total would have only been $18. But I love keeping a big bag of grapes in the freezer for snacking. Now we just have to make sure that none of it goes to waste! ;)

This afternoon, I took a survey for the National Weight Control Registry. I'd been wanting to join ever since I technically qualified, but I've been scared to, because I was afraid that as soon as I submitted the paperwork, I'd gain back all the weight.

If you're not familiar, the NWCR is a long-term study of successful weight loss/maintenance. They study real people that have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year to find out their habits and see what makes them successful.

I always kind of had it in my mind that I would join when I was SURE that I was going to keep the weight off. And last month, I finally filled out the paperwork. I had to submit some basic info and proof of the weight loss (either doctor's records or photos). Today was the first survey I took, and it was interesting. It asked a lot about my eating habits and exercise habits, both now and when I was losing weight. You can read some cool facts about the study findings here.

So, I've made it "official"... which means I'm feeling very confident in keeping the weight off. Even if I wind up 10-15 pounds or so heavier over the years, I don't ever see myself getting back up to 253 pounds again.

Tea flavors

2013-05-08T21:00:00.000-04:00

I'm so glad it's the start of a new Weight Watchers week for me. My weeks start on Wednesday (my weigh-in day), and I like starting a fresh week with a clean slate. After three days of being back on track, I hoped that the scale wouldn't reflect Saturday's binge. I was pretty happy when I stepped on!

I didn't post a weigh in last week because I posted Katie W.'s guest post. Two weeks ago, I was at 132, so I'm down half a pound from then. I'm very happy with that, because I had a couple of BAD eating days.

I'm almost back down to my "happy weight" of 131, so I'm going to stay in weight loss mode on Weight Watchers until I hit 131, then I'll switch back to maintenance. My main focus this week is just to stay binge-free. The first few weeks after a binge are really hard to stay on track.

This past week, I earned more activity PointsPlus than I've ever earned before--82! My goal was to reach 10 per day.

That gray line is my goal line (8 PP per day), and I reached it almost every day. On the days I run, it's not too hard to reach that line, but on my rest days, I have to find all kinds of reasons to move.

Today was a rest day as far as running, but I definitely got in a workout.We had three yards of dirt delivered this morning to fill in the tire marks in our yard. The neighbors keep parking in our yard, which is SO annoying; so I passive-aggressively spread out the dirt and planted grass seed, and then staked it out so they get the hint that it's not a parking lot. And by "I", I mean Jerry.

I spent the entire morning pulling weeds, and picking up random sticks in the yard. I have a big blister on my palm from using the dandelion puller, but it kept me super busy. In the afternoon, I went to Kohl's to use up a gift card from Christmas. I got a pair of jeans for $8, and a cute lace top and cami for $12.

A few people have asked recently what flavors of David's Tea I really like. I'm always saying how much I love their tea, and I've ordered it three times now, so I've tried quite a few of them. Here is a list of what I've tried (all are black tea unless noted):

Red Velvet Cake
Glitter & Gold
Toasted Marshmallow
Movie Night (green tea)
Cookie Dough (white tea)
Toasted Walnut (green tea)
Read My Lips
Bollywood Chai
Banana Dream Pie
Buttered Rum
Salted Caramel
Ceylon Star
Coffee Pu'erh (pu'erh tea--no idea what that is, or how to pronounce it)

Other than the green teas, I always drink my tea with 1/2 tsp. sugar and 1 Tbsp. fat-free half & half per cup. I think the cream and sugar make it taste more indulgent, and it only adds 17 calories per cup, so it's worth it to me.

What can I say? I like variety!

My very favorite flavor is the Red Velvet Cake. I wish I had a candle that smelled like that tea, because it's heavenly. It really does have the flavor of cake.

Also in my top ~~three~~ four would be Toasted Marshmallow, Glitter & Gold, and Read My Lips. If you like cloves, you will love Glitter & Gold. Read My Lips is perfect if you like mint and chocolate together. It's hard to describe the Toasted Marshmallow one, other than that I love it!

Movie Night sounded very strange to me when I read the ingredients, but it's really yummy. It kind of reminds me of buttered popcorn. Cookie Dough really does smell and taste like cookie dough, although it's a more subtle flavor than some of the others. I like strong flavor, so that's why it's not in my top four. Toasted Walnut was another subtle-flavored one. I enjoyed it, but I don't think I'd order it again.

Bollywood Chai is very fragrant and strong, like pretty much any chai. It would be delicious with lots of sugar and cream, like a typical chai would be served, but I thought it was pretty good how I drank it. If you like chai, you will enjoy this one.

Banana Dream Pie really does taste like I imagined it to. I'm normally not a banana-person, but I do like this one a lot. Buttered Rum is good; I can't think of much to say about that one. I thought I would love the Salted Caramel tea, but I didn't care too much for it. I was kind of turned off by the smell of it, but the tea itself is milder than the smell.

Ceylon Star is kind of a subtle flavor, but it's good. I have no idea what "Ceylon" means, so I don't know if the name describes the taste ;) Star Anise is one of the ingredients, so that could be it. It reminds me a little of the Toasted Marshmallow flavor.

The only one that I really disliked, and has been sitting in my cupboard unused since, is the Coffee Pu'erh. The description says that even die-hard coffee people will like this tea, so I thought maybe it would be a nice one to have when I crave coffee. I really disliked the smell of it, and it tastes exactly like it smells.

David's Tea sends free samples with each order, and those always suck me in! I taste it, love it, and then order it (which I'm sure they're betting on when they send samples).

I'm not affiliated with David's Tea in any way, and I don't get commission or anything if anyone buys it (unfortunately, because I talk it up all the time!). I did e-mail them to ask if they would let me give my readers a discount code, and they said no :( Bummer. Sorry! I tried.

If any of you have tried any of David's Teas, feel free to weigh in with your thoughts on favorite flavors. I just saw that there is a Birthday Cake flavor, which you know is going in my cart next time!

Must keep busy

2013-05-07T21:00:00.000-04:00

I've had a great couple of back-on-track days, mainly thanks to my sister (Jeanie) and brother-in-law (Shawn) being in town. On Sunday, Shawn and I drove to the running store, which is about 35 minutes away. He and Jeanie are running their first half-marathon on the 19th, so it was a good chance to chat about running.

When we got there, the store was closed! I guess I should have checked the hours, but it didn't even occur to me. Shawn needed a couple other things while we were out, so went to Best Buy and Dunham's before heading home. Spending the entire afternoon out and away from the house was just what I needed to stay on track. The afternoons are the worst time of day for me as far as binge triggers.

I got home later than planned, and was preparing to hurry up and make dinner before Jerry had to leave for work; but when I walked in the house, I smelled chili. Jerry had cooked lentil chili, so dinner was done already. I managed to make it through the evening without problems, and felt really good when I woke up that I had gotten right back on track after the binge on Saturday.

Yesterday, after I got the kids off to school and ate breakfast, I went out for a four-mile run. About a mile in, I stopped at my parents' house to see if Jeanie wanted to run with me, but she was still sleeping, so I finished out the run. As soon as I got home, I saw that she had sent me a text about 15 minutes prior, asking if I wanted to run three miles with her.

I was already sweaty and in my running clothes, so I said sure. We went to the State Park and ran the three-mile loop. It was a really nice run, and it made me think that I would probably actually enjoy running more if I wasn't focused on getting faster. We ran about a 12-minute/mile pace, and it was very comfortable and easy to have a conversation. I wouldn't mind doing that more often!

I came home and showered, and then Shawn and I went to the running store for his shoes. This time, we went to one in Toledo (about a 45 minute drive). As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, Shawn realized he forgot his wallet! Hahaha, thankfully, I had mine, so I lent him the money for his shoes.

We came back to my house and chatted for a while, and by that time, it was nearly 5:30--so again, I stayed so busy that I managed to make it through another binge-free afternoon. Jeanie and Shawn went home to Illinois last night, so I was on my own today.

I set up my Garmin to display my heart rate zone along with the beats per minute, so it's easier to see at a glance if my heart rate is where it should be while I'm running. My goal today was to keep it in Zone 3 for the whole run. It took about 1/4 mile to get it in the zone (I was going to write, "It didn't take long to get it up..." but then I re-read that and changed it for obvious reasons, haha).

About a mile in, I got a really sharp muscle cramp in my abdomen. I so badly wanted to walk, but I kept running, hoping it would go away. It lasted for the next two miles, which made for a miserable run. But finally, at mile three, it went away. The last mile was a little harder to stay consistent with my pace. I naturally tend to start running faster the closer I get to home, but that brought my heart rate up too high. Anyway, I was glad to be done.

The no-grocery-shopping-in-May thing is going well so far, but we're starting to have to get creative. Some of our "usual" foods have run out, so we have to make do with what we have. I made a loaf of bread today, and it turned out SO good. We used it to make BLT's for dinner. Can you believe that Jerry had never eaten a BLT before?! He really liked it.

I've been using my homemade English muffins to make mini pizzas for lunch, which has worked well to use up the feta cheese in the fridge. Last night, for a bedtime snack, the kids and I made Cook & Serve chocolate pudding. Eli had the idea to top it with peanut butter (my habits are definitely rubbing off on him!). Warm pudding with peanut butter was the perfect way to spend 5 PointsPlus.

I have a ton of pudding in the pantry, so I'll probably be eating that a lot this month. I'm thankful that I always have a stockpile of wine, so there is no chance I'll be running out of that for a while ;) This no-shopping challenge has been fun so far! But we're only 7 days in, so we'll see how I feel about it at the end of the month when we're down to the bare bones of our pantry...

OH! This was in my daily Buzzfeed e-mail yesterday, and it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I burst out laughing with every one of these photos--if you have a cat, you MUST check out this post, The Best Of "First World Cat Problems". Here is one of them...

So true.

Motivational Monday #14

2013-05-06T21:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Motivational Monday! Thank you all so much for your nice comments on my last post. As hard as it was to write about, I knew you would make me feel better, and I do. I stayed extremely busy yesterday and today, which has helped me get right back on track and not dwell on it anymore.

And of course, reading all the Motivational Monday accomplishments always makes me feel ready to take on anything! ;)

Alison was spring cleaning when she came across this shirt she used to wear 80 pounds ago. You can see on the right how tight it was, and now it just hangs on her! She's training for a 5K, and has stuck with her goal of walking a mile every single day until her race.

Andrea ran her first 10K (and is now registered for a 15K!) after losing 90 pounds over the last year!

Bethany ran a 5K with her (5-year old!) daughter, finishing in 50 minutes! (Don't they look adorable in their tutus?)

Briana ran her first half-marathon! She had her husband at her side, and finished in 2:11. She's down 65 pounds and counting!

Recently, I asked if any of my readers would like my race bib for the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon, since I wasn't able to go. I got an e-mail from Carolyn, who said she was a little nervous about it, but that she would love to do it. Her friend was already registered, so she thought it would be fun to meet up with her. And she did it! She finished in 2:16. (Carolyn is on the left)

Christina rode her bike 100 miles as part of a fundraiser for Camp Kesem and World Bicycle Relief! She says, "The trick to riding that far? Just keep going. When I struggle, I say, 'Just keep spinning, just keep spinning,' like Dory from Finding Nemo."

In March 2012, Julie Anna made a goal to run a 5K with her mom and sister. They all ran together, and then this year, she and her mother made a goal to run a 10K together (her sister became pregnant, and had to stop running). They just ran their 10K, after Julie Anna's mom lost 33 pounds and became quite a strong runner throughout the past year! (Here is the race report) Julie Anna is super proud of her mom.

Julie ran a 5K, and then accompanied her three-year old daughter on her first race--a kids fun run!

Kelly started running last summer by following the Couch to 5K program, and she just ran her first half-marathon! She was very worried about not finishing in the allotted time frame, and the race shutting down, but she surprised herself with just how well she did. She finished in 3:13:43. She says, "Running has become this amazing outlet for me to help calm my stress level, lose weight, increase myself esteem all of which makes me a better wife, mother, and employee"

Linda started running almost a year ago to keep off the 25 pounds she'd lost. She ran her first 5K in October and has run one or two a month since then. Saturday, she ran the Komen for the Cure 5K, and it was a very rainy, cold race. She is proud that she powered through the first mile that was all uphill--she does all of her training on the treadmill, so she wasn't used to that. She ran the whole way, and felt great!

After losing a collective 175 pounds, Lindsay and her husband ran the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon! She met her goal of sub-2:30, and her her husband finished in 2:01. Here is a before pic and a pic from the race:

Marcia (left) recently reconnected with high school friend Rosa via Facebook, after not seeing each other for 20 years. They discovered that they had each lost a lot of weight (Rosa lost 93 pounds, Maria lost 70). They also discovered that they had each signed up for the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon, and were planning to go alone; so they decided to drive there together, and felt as if no time had passed. They both ran a great race and reached their goals!

Nicole and her husband, Ben, ran in the American Odyssey Relay (200 miles from Gettysburg to D.C.)!

And there are lots more to read on the Facebook post, so make sure you check it out! Here is a snippet:

237 Days

2013-05-05T21:00:00.000-04:00

This is a really difficult post to write. I want to ignore it, and pretend it didn't happen, but I know that a lot of you enjoy reading my blog because of my honesty (particularly when I'm honest about difficult times through weight loss/maintenance).

I binged yesterday. I ruined my 237-day binge-free streak.

I'm trying really hard not to beat myself up about it, but I'm just so angry with myself and disappointed that I let it happen. It was like a perfect storm of events--my kids were spending the night with my parents, and Jerry had to work all night. Just before he left for work, we got in an argument, and then he had to leave. The argument was over something really stupid, and I knew he'd call me when he got to work and we'd apologize, and everything would be fine.

Instead, I just wanted to eat out of anger. You know that expression, "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face?" Well, I was mad at Jerry, and a binge almost felt like I was getting back at him somehow (which I know is stupid, because I'm the one that has to deal with the consequences). I'm not at all blaming the argument for the binge, because we've argued many times over the past 237 days, and I managed not to binge because of it.

Like I said, I'm trying to just let it be, and not beat myself up over it. I'm starting a new binge-free streak today, and I'm going to do my best to make it longer than 237 days. I got on the scale this morning, just like normal. I know that weighing every day isn't the best idea for everyone, but when I start to avoid the scale, my weight goes up FAST because it's so easy to ignore the consequences of poor eating. My weight was up to 136 today, which I know is mostly water weight, but it was still pretty sobering to see that number.

I know that if I get right back on track, I can be back down to 133 or so in a few days. Because I'm over my "panic weight" of 135, I switched my Weight Watchers settings to "weight loss mode" instead of maintenance. So now my daily PP target is 26 instead of 32. I'll keep it there until I get back down to about 131-132.

I'm really determined not to let yesterday's binge become a defining moment of gaining back the weight. I will not let it turn into another binge, or "just one more day" of bad eating. And, as much as I want to pretend it didn't happen, I'm not going to lie to myself either. It happened, it's over, and now I can go back to the norm.

This morning, the cats woke me up (wanting their breakfast) at 6:00, and I couldn't go back to sleep. Lately, I've been eating breakfast, drinking tea, checking e-mail, and some other stuff before running, but I had the urge to run first thing today. It was light outside already (the bonus to springtime), so I ran outside.

Today, I was going to try and get my heart rate to Zone 4 (156-172 bpm).

I figured this would be about an 8:30/mi pace. I was surprised just how difficult it was to get my heart rate up that high! My legs and lungs told me I was working hard, but my heart rate was right around 152-154 most of the run. This heart rate training is pretty interesting!

While I was running (and thinking), I had an "Aha!" moment. I always gain 15 or so pounds during the summer, and then manage to take it off again in the fall. I assumed this was because my kids were home, and constantly bored or bickering, which is stressful.

July 2012

But I realized that's not actually the reason I gain. I tend to gain in the spring, and then I just hold onto it all summer. And the reason for this (my "Aha!" moment) is that in the spring, when the weather gets nice, I get a very carefree attitude. The nice weather makes me want to hang out on the back deck, with a beer or margarita, go get ice cream with the family (or by myself!), snack on chips and dip all day, etc. It's pretty hard to work all of that into a daily diet, and I get frustrated with having to count everything I eat; so then I start to think, "Well, normal people do this stuff. Normal people don't have to count everything, or measure food. I can do that, too."

But I don't take into account the fact that I'm NOT a "normal, average person". I've lost 120+ pounds, and I'm maintaining that loss--most "normal" people haven't done that. So I can't eat the same way they do and expect the same results. My body works differently. Through trial and error over the last few years, I've learned that I have to measure and count my food to maintain my weight. I've tried "intuitive eating", but it leads to binge eating every single time.

So this time, when I find myself thinking that I don't have to count PointsPlus (or calories or whatever), I'm going to keep all of this in mind. Maybe I will actually be able to maintain my goal weight this spring and summer. I would love to experience summertime at my goal weight!

The winner of the book giveaway "Honey, Do You Need A Ride?" by Jennifer Graham is:

Congrats Crystal! I've sent you an e-mail. Hope you enjoy the book :)

Food talk

2013-05-04T21:00:00.000-04:00

A few days ago, Jerry and I decided to see if we could go the entire month of May without buying groceries. We have a ton of food in the pantry and freezer, and it would be nice to use some of it up. We agreed we could still buy milk and fresh fruits/veggies.

Yesterday, I ran out of English muffins (which I eat nearly every day), so I looked up a recipe for them online and made some. I used this recipe by Alton Brown, but instead of following his mixing instructions, I just put everything in my bread machine on the dough cycle. I didn't have shortening, so I used butter; and I used bread flour instead of all purpose. I didn't have any rings to pour the batter/dough into on the griddle, so I used aluminum foil to make some. They worked out really well!

It was hard to tell when to flip them, and you can see I flipped a couple of them too early, but the texture and flavor was fantastic. They have the little nooks and crannies that are characteristic of a good English muffin.. I am definitely going to continue making my own English muffins instead of buying them. These are really good, especially after toasting.

Last week, I stopped by this wholesale store that sells stuff from other stores that may have damaged packaging. You can buy dented boxes of cereal, or food that is close to it's sell by date, among other things, for pretty cheap. I like to stop in once in a while to see if there is anything good. Anyway, last week they had Fiber One products for 88 cents per box!

I know a lot of people can't stomach Fiber One stuff, but I love their Oats & Chocolate chewy bars and their Coconut Almond protein bars, so I picked up some of those. I also decided to try the chocolate chip cookie bars, the chocolate brownies, and the chocolate peanut butter brownies.

I've tried them over the past few days (each bar/brownie is only 2 PP), and I LOVE the cookies! I would definitely buy those again.

The brownies are just okay, but I don't think I'd buy them again. They reminded me of those Snackwell's devil's food cookies, which make me think of the old early-90's diet days. But the cookie bars are really good!

Ever since my Oscars party, when I made the red pepper and feta dip, I've been craving more roasted red peppers. I bought a couple of jars a while ago, and they've been sitting in my pantry, because I wasn't sure what to do with them.

My boys were at my parents' house today for dinner, so I made dinner for just Jerry and me, and decided to use the red peppers. I turned them into a pasta sauce, and the pasta dish was SO good. It was the perfect way to use them! I posted the recipe on my recipes blog, and you can find it here.

The mail just showed up with my latest David's Tea order--check out this flavor!! I'm super excited to try it :)

Kittens and ice cream and an evening stroll

2013-05-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

So right after I posted about Eli losing his tooth a couple of days ago, he came into the living room just before bed and told me that his other bottom front tooth was wiggly. I wiggled it, and said, "Do you want me to try and pull this one, too?" He said yes, so I wiggled it kind of hard and heard a pop--then I just pulled it right out!

Eli has been wanting to lose his first tooth for a couple of YEARS now, and then he went and lost TWO teeth within a matter of hours. Now Noah is missing his top two teeth, and Eli is missing his bottom two.

When Eli went to school, he got his name on the tooth chart, which he was really excited about. The teacher has a chart to keep track of how many teeth each kid has lost, and Eli was the only one NOT on the chart.

Last night, my friend Sarah was on the news to share her story about having melanoma! May is National Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and I'm really glad that Sarah got to share her story. Like most people, she thought that it couldn't (or wouldn't) happen to her.

The lovely Sarah

Melanoma is the deadliest of skin cancers, and Sarah's started as what she thought was "just a mole" on her calf. It had spread to her lymph nodes before she was even diagnosed (she was diagnosed with stage 3C, which is pretty far along). She had to have a large part of her calf removed, as well as lymph nodes, and is just starting to walk again. Unfortunately, she's still not in the clear, however.

I ignorantly used to think of melanoma as "just skin cancer", and I had no idea how deadly it was until Sarah was diagnosed. Now I am extra cautious about being in the sun (I stay out of the sun as much as possible, and wear sunscreen when I run or have to be in the sun). Jerry had a couple of spots on his skin that were a little odd, and a couple of years ago, I would have just thought, "Oh, it's nothing." But after seeing what Sarah has gone through, I urged him to go to the dermatologist immediately, to get it checked out. Thankfully, his biopsies were normal.

This Monday is "Melanoma Monday", a day dedicated to raising awareness about melanoma. To show your support in raising awareness, the American Academy of Dermatology encourages everyone to wear orange on the first Monday in May (the 6th). On their website, you can also find a free skin cancer screening in your area, so there is no excuse not to get those spots checked out.

Today was my long run day, and after running outside yesterday, I decided to run on the treadmill today. I am not a baby about running in the cold, or the rain, or the snow--but I HATE running in the heat! Yesterday, it was 65 when I was running, which I know most people don't consider "hot", but to me it is. This morning, it was 67, and I decided to do the treadmill.

My sister sent me a text saying that she ran 11 miles this morning! She's running her first half-marathon in two weeks in Rockford, IL (any of my readers running there?). She just started running at the end of last year, in order to train for and run my Virtual 5K in January. I am so excited that she kept at it, and is up to 11 miles now!

After reading her text, I quit procrastinating and got on the treadmill. I decided to run through two full episodes of Sons of Anarchy, regardless of how far that was. I also decided to try and keep my heart rate below 145. For some reason, I was thinking 145 was my maximum for Zone 3--I later learned I was wrong ;)

This app is called HR Zones, free from Runner's Ally

After the whole run, my average pace was 9:00/mi, and I kept my heart rate below 145. It was kind of fun to focus more on my heart rate than on my pace. Now that I've completed my goal races, I feel like I need something else to focus on, so I think I may try heart rate training, just for something different. I would basically be doing the same type of running schedule I'm doing now, only trying to stay within certain heart rate zones (rather than certain paces) for each run.

For my long run treat, I decided to take the whole fam with me to a local dairy farm for ice cream after dinner. They make their own ice cream on site, and it's delicious! I got a single scoop (we'll pretend that she actually gave me a single, because, well, just look at the size of it!) of half Maple Nut and half Cake Batter ice cream. Mmmm, so good.

We looked around at the animals, and I realized that this is the best time of year to go to the farm--there were baby animals everywhere! The baby goats were the cutest things I'd ever seen. It was impossible to get a good picture of them, but see how tiny? They were smaller than my cats! And they were chasing around a chicken.

There were four kittens hanging out in the goat area, playing together. They were so adorable!

On the way home, I was feeling pretty full from the ice cream, and it was so nice outside, that I told Jerry to drop me off when we were three miles from home. He said he felt so guilty just stopping the car and letting me out, but I wanted to walk. The sun was setting and it was gorgeous!

I never really took note of just how fast I walk, but I've been using the Map My Walk app on my phone when I go out for a stroll, and I'm pretty fast! Today, my average pace was 13:13/mi. When I first started RUNNING, my pace wasn't even that fast. It's interesting to see how far I've come in just a few years' time. I would NEVER have asked Jerry to drop me off three miles from home, that's for sure!

Today was a great day--kittens and ice cream and an evening stroll. Now I'm going to complete it with a glass of red wine :)

Honey, Do You Need a Ride? (Book review and giveaway)

2013-05-02T21:00:00.000-04:00

For someone who doesn't read much, I've been reading quite a bit lately--I actually accepted three different books for review, because they ALL sounded interesting to me. So this is the second one...

(When I received the book in the mail, I was a little stunned to see the cover--it looked like someone had stolen MY cover of a book I haven't even finished yet!) ;)

The book is titled "Honey, Do You Need a Ride? Confessions of a Fat Runner", and is written by Jennifer Graham. I have to admit, the title alone made me want to read it! I was a fat runner when I first started, so I thought it would be fun to read about someone else's point of view.

This book looked like it was made for me to read, so I was excited to get started. The book is light-hearted and funny, but Graham is very honest about some more serious issues, like her low self-esteem throughout her life. I enjoyed the little sarcastic or funny comments, and could definitely relate to the self-esteem issues.

One thing that surprised me right off the bat was that Graham calls herself a "fat runner" at 153 pounds (her weight bounces around from 150 ish to 200 ish, but I got the impression that she was around 180 for most of the book). The word "fat" is all relative to the individual. When I was 253 pounds, 153 was SKINNY. But to someone who has never been overweight, and maybe has weighed 110 her whole life, 153 would sound fat. It just depends on the person, and at the end of the book, Graham discusses this at length. She says she got a lot of flack on message boards for an article she'd written, calling herself a "fat runner"; but she's right, the book wouldn't have the same ring to it if it were called "Confessions of a Moderately Overweight Runner".

I could relate to Graham in a lot of ways, both with the weight issues and the running; some serious issues and some humorous issues. On the serious side, Graham had low self-esteem, and when she would see a group of people laugh or whisper, she assumed they were laughing or whispering about her. On the humorous side, it was fun reading about her trial and error with clothing choices for running, because I went through it all, too. And she has some very entertaining stories of things she's experienced over the years of running.

I loved her analogy of there being three lines in a runner's mind--a starting line, a finish line, and the "Never-Going-Back-to-My-Old-Life" line. Once you cross that line, she writes, you won't stop running until you're "in jail, vegetative, or dead". I think this is very true! Running is addictive, but it takes crossing that line to get to the addiction. It took me about six months or so of regular running to cross that line. But now I feel like I'm a runner for life--I can't even imagine NOT running!

Throughout the book, Graham makes references to the stereotypical runner, which she calls a "Shirtless Wonder" (skinny and arrogant), and I thought it was a little insulting at first; but to be honest, I had those same thoughts when I first started running, too. I had a certain image in my head of what a runner was like (skinny and arrogant). I later learned that I was completely wrong about that--runners are some of the friendliest people I know! Graham realized it, too, and wrote that the problem wasn't with the runners, but with her--her insecurities, her attitude, her sensitivity.

The one part of the book I certainly could have done without was when Graham writes about her running coach, who is actually imaginary (an elite runner who died years ago). She has imaginary conversations with him, which I thought was a little corny, but thankfully, it wasn't a huge part of the book.

Graham lives in Boston, along the route of the Boston Marathon, and I read this book before the tragedy happened this year. I was thinking how much fun it would be to live there and watch the race from your own front yard. The fact that her street is part of the race route was a huge selling point to her when she moved there. She watches the race every year, and has a couple of great stories to tell about the race. When the bombing happened at this year's race, I immediately thought of Graham.

Graham with her pet donkeys (yes, donkeys!)

I wish I could write a simple summary of the plot of this book, but I'm not really sure I know how to describe what it's about. Basically, an average woman (mother of four) writes about her experiences as a middle-of-the-pack runner. She writes it in an entertaining and humorous way, and I would bet that most runners could relate to at least some of it. It was refreshing to read a book about running from this point of view, rather than an elite runner writing about improving your "slow" marathon time of 2:50 ;)

This book is a great read for someone who wants to run, but thinks it's just for skinny people, or fast people. Graham makes running seem desirable for everyone, no matter their weight or speed. If you're looking for motivation to get started, she definitely delivers. And if you're an experienced runner, you will still enjoy the entertaining stories she has to tell.

Hedges Virtual Book Tours is allowing me to give away a copy of "Honey, Do You Need a Ride? Confessions of a Fat Runner" to check out for yourself! To enter, just fill out the form with your name and e-mail address below. I will pick a winner (by random draw) on May 5th at 8:00 AM EST. (By the way, if you are a blogger and interested in reading books for review, there is a form on the website where you can apply).

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Guest post by Katie W: "I Kept Running"

2013-05-01T21:00:00.000-04:00

On Motivational Monday, when Katie posted a comment on Facebook about her recent 10K race, I just had to hear the whole story. I asked her to write a guest post, so she could share it with all of us. This is a pretty long post, but I didn't want to edit anything out, because I think that it tells a great story! Prepare to be inspired...

When Katie asked me if I’d be willing to write a race report for my first 10k, I immediately agreed. Just ask a couple of my students who witnessed me having a minor freak-out at my desk when I read the email. :)

As I write this I am lying in bed covered in IcyHot from the waist down and listening to my neighbor try his darndest to sing like Taylor Swift: “Weeeee….ah nebeh ebeh ebeh ebeh….getteeen bahck togetheh!” Let me give you a little background story on how I got here, because without it I can’t fully express what this 10k meant to me.

I have been heavy my entire life. However, I played year-round sports all through grade school, and I was pretty fit and strong for being as overweight as I was. In college I started dating a guy, but the relationship grew into emotionally abusive codependence pretty quickly. I am a Christian, and looking back on that year I realize that I found my identity in being HIS girlfriend, not in Christ. I felt guilty all the time, and I turned to food for comfort to ease that guilt. My boyfriend, an ex-ROTC member, was alarmed by my weight gain, and tried to get me to run with him for a bit. However, running was literally my nightmare.

It made me come face to face with the fact that I had eaten myself to a point of physical exhaustion and sickness. I couldn’t keep up, I struggled to breathe, and his ROTC-drill sergeant encouragement tactics didn’t exactly make me feel inspired. Running meant frustration, failure, and fighting with him.

By the time we broke up one year later, I was nearly 100 pounds heavier and very much hated myself. The things he told me replayed in my head, “I don’t think you’re beautiful anymore,” “I thought if I loved you then you would lose weight and become the diamond in the rough. All the other guys would be jealous of me because I had you. But I guess I was wrong,” “I find you repulsive.”

Yeah…nice guy. And I believed him.

I left that relationship with a lot of scars (the most notable one being from a python bite…but that’s another story for another day). In the four years that followed I slowly went through the healing process, trying to ignore the lies he had told me and fighting a losing battle with my deeply entrenched emotional eating habits. During those four years I lost a grand total of seven pounds.

I graduated college in 2011, and eight days later I was on a plane and moving to Spain for my dream job: student development for a study abroad program in the enchanting city of Sevilla.

My first springtime in Sevilla (that's me in the middle). Weight: 243 lbs.

Living alone in a foreign country definitely led me to change my habits. Without a car, I adapted to walking everywhere or utilizing my citywide bike rental subscription. I started buying my own food from the fresh market across the street and learned how to make tasty local dishes with olive oil, lean meats, and lots of vegetables. In my first year living abroad I eventually came to a wonderful revelation that has changed my entire life: I can’t always control my circumstances or what happens to me, but I can control and choose how I respond. I was tired of playing the victim, and I was going to choose to stop.

So I faced my fears and decided to prove to myself that I could do hard things. I started running and counting calories. Just now as I wrote that, I was quite tempted to put it in quotation marks, like this: I started “running.” But that’s not true. The moment I ran, I was a runner. Not a “runner,” not a faker. Even though it meant only running slowly for 30 seconds at a time and walking for five minutes, dreading the next 30 second round of running. Eventually, 30 seconds became 1 minute became 2 minutes became 4. I remember the first time I ran for 10 minutes without stopping and the first time I ran a mile, about four months after my first 30 second run. I did a couple run/walk Color Run 5ks during my build-up to a mile, and one month after running my first mile I decided to do another 5k, setting the goal of running the entire thing.

Ecstatic after running 10 consecutive minutes for the first time ever! Weight: 224 lbs.

Run the entire thing was exactly what I did. Now, I would like to be able to tell you that I felt like I flew through the entire thing without so much as thinking about stopping, that when I crossed the finish line I was crowned as “Best Runner” and handed a puppy and waved majestically as people cheered me on in my great personal victory. What actually happened is that at 220 pounds I ran the entire thing very, VERY slowly (people power-walking were passing me), I wanted to stop every 10 seconds, I had no one in the crowd there to cheer for me, and after I crossed the finish line I threw up on a gypsy and was cursed in Romanian. True story.

Fast-forward a few months to February 2013. I was having a one-on-one with a student who brought up wanting to do a race, and I mentioned a 10k circuit that was coming up in April. And just like that, I started training for my first 10k. Six point freaking two miles. The longest distance I had ever run at that point was the 5k race, and my weekly runs were averaging about 1.5 miles. So I got a little help from the internet and constructed a 10-week training plan. I worked up to about 3.5 miles, and then I got sick. For two weeks I couldn’t run, and when I did start running again I was back down to 2.5 miles and still very slow. I managed to run the farthest I had ever run, which was 4 miles in one hour (see, told you I’m slow!) a couple weeks ago. And then race day arrived.

A photo with my students before the race (I'm in the yellow jacket). Weight: 202.5 lbs.

The morning of the race, I got dressed and hopped a bus to the other side of the city to the start line. I met up with a group of my students who were also doing the race. We warmed up and stretched together and then took our places in the starting mob of about 5,000 people. Some of the girls in my group are college athletes, and they went ahead to follow the 50’ pacer. I stayed back as I knew I would be in the second half of the finishers for sure. Then we started the push forward.

Within the first two minutes everyone passed me. Literally EVERYONE. Including the poor folks who were in the porta-potties when the race started and came frantically barreling past me. “Well,” I thought, “yay for self-esteem!” It was quite disheartening to realize that I would be running this race alone as the pack got further and further away, but I settled into the pace that I knew was good for me and that I could keep up until the finish. I kept reminding myself over and over that I hadn’t signed up for the race to beat anyone or to place but rather to prove to myself that I could do it. And so I kept running.

Running alone, I pushed over to the side and followed the orange cones down the middle of the closed streets. Around the first km mark, I saw the final pace car creeping past me out of the corner of my eye. I thought about pushing harder to keep up with it, but I knew it would only exhaust me and keep me from accomplishing my goal. Besides, as a rule of thumb, I never race against anything with an engine. ;) Then a couple minutes later, the police escort rolled slowly by on his motorcycle. Then one ambulance. Then another ambulance. And finally a city bus, used to pick up anyone who gave up in the middle of the race. Two thoughts crossed my mind when that bus passed me. 1) There is no way on EARTH I am getting on that bus of my own will or volition. 2) Can’t give up now, because the only thing that can carry you to the finish line now is your own two feet! And so I kept
running.

I passed a race volunteer, who clapped slowly and stared at me with pity as I came along about 5 minutes behind the rest of the racers. And then I started to cry. I sniffled and choked back tears and turned up my music really loud. I forced myself to stop crying because it was interfering with my breathing, and I had already come too far to let my own body quit on me. I had just managed to calm myself down and find my rhythm again when a policeman on a motorcycle approached me and told me they were opening the roads back up, so I would have to run on the sidewalk. After he left I started crying again, and the cycle of calming myself down repeated itself. But I kept running.

Traffic started to flow again, and I watched in dismay as they started picking up the cones marking the race route! I was angry. I had just as much right as everyone else who trained for and paid for this race to be able to do my best and finish it! I understood that the roads could only stay closed for so long, but it felt as if they were sending me the message that because I was so slow I wasn’t worth it. That I wasn’t a real athlete or a real runner because I had been left in the dust. And I had to keep telling myself with every step that that simply wasn’t true. I couldn’t control what was happening to me, but I could choose to respond with one determined step after another. And so I kept running, never stopping.

Eventually, there were no more cones and I relied on people standing on street corners to tell me which way the running mob of 5,000 people had gone before me. Most looked at me with expressions somewhere between confusion and pity. I ignored it. Last summer I started running with music because I got tired of the rude comments and whispers of pity about the fat girl plodding along, and I wasn’t about to let people who have no investment in my life define it for me. I kept running.

Around the 5k mark I came upon the water station…being torn down. Shortly thereafter, a race volunteer stopped me and asked me incredulously if I was in the race. I looked down at my bib and then up at him and said, “Yes.” He asked me, concerned, “Where is the ambulance? They should be right behind you!” I told him that they had left me behind a long time ago, and promptly started to cry again. That sweet man called the impatient ambulance drivers a few choice names, and I felt so relieved that someone felt indignant for me. He told me to keep running while he made a phone call and that he would catch up. I did what he said, and I kept running.

A couple minutes later he was by my side and fell into step with me. He told me they weren’t going to send anyone back for me, but he would run with me until the finish line. And of course I started to cry again, touched by this kind stranger. We continued making light, sporadic conversation for a while, and then he turned to me and asked if I knew where the race route was. I told him no, and he admitted that he also had no idea where we were supposed to be going. So we just kept running!

A bit later we saw some cones on a corner, so we ran to those. From there, we saw cones up ahead, but we also saw cones on the corner to our right. The man said that the sports center and the finish line were up ahead further and just to the right, so we continued straight. When we got to the next set of cones, the trail went cold, but he said that he was pretty sure the sports center was across the bridge to our right. So we crossed the bridge and saw the sports center up ahead. As we reached the road to turn into the final leg of the race, I saw a horde of runners coming in…from the other direction. My heart sank when I realized that I had missed a loop of the course somewhere and that crossing the finish line now would mean not completing the entire race. I said all this aloud, and my running buddy simply said, “Finish strong. You cross that finish line with the rest of them because
you deserve it.” And then he stopped running and disappeared from my side into the crowd before I even had the chance to say thank you or give him a hug.

Frustrated, angry, exhausted, and emotionally drained, I joined in the crowd of runners headed towards the finish line. As I did the loop around the stadium track, I heard my students cheering for me, but I couldn’t accept it. After all, I hadn’t done the full race. As I turned the afterburners on for the finish line I felt like Fat Amy from Pitch Perfect when she tells the girls to leave the burrito behind her ear and she says, “It fuels my hate fire.” I put every tear cried during that race into those last 20 meters. When I crossed the finish line, my students congratulated me, but I didn’t feel proud. I felt cheated. I felt robbed of the experience.

Crossing the finish line in 1:08:15

When I got home I calculated that I had run a little more than 8 of the 10 km. Later in the day I Skyped with one of my friends, and I told her that I felt like I wanted to find the race organizers and tell them my entire story of how I used to be hurt and broken. How I used to think I wasn’t beautiful or worth loving because I was too fat and I had made myself that way. How God redeemed me from that and showed me that I am worth it and that I have been deeply loved all along. How in the past year I have learned to nourish my body, built rock-hard running legs, lost 48 pounds, and covered lots of miles that less than a year ago would have been impossible for me. To tell the race organizers that I may be slow, but I am a runner. I put the same effort into my 3-mile long runs as a marathon runner puts into his or her 20-mile long runs. Even when I could have stopped, even when the odds were
against me, even when I felt humiliated, and even when I could no longer see where to go, I KEPT RUNNING.

As I write this from my bed, the pungent smell of IcyHot filling up my bedroom, my Spanish neighbor is still belting out poor attempts at pronouncing American pop songs. I now realize that all the things I wanted to tell the race organizers are my true victories from this race. A year ago, had I experienced a similar situation, I would have quit. I would have found a city bus and gone home ashamed and defeated. Back then I wouldn’t have understood that I was simply making the choice to quit and that I would have been able to choose to keep going.

I would be lying if I said that this race didn’t leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, but that doesn’t matter. I am proud that I finished and that I did so despite the challenges I faced and the embarrassment I felt at being left behind. Ultimately it doesn’t matter that I was the slowest of 5,000. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t get to run the full 10 km just because someone else didn’t think my slow self was worth waiting for. Regardless of what happens to me or how slow I go, I know I am worth it, and I will make a choice. I will choose to keep running. And I hope you choose the same.

Katie Wiggins is a 25 year-old Michigan native living in Spain and working in the study abroad field. She enjoys running, cooking, traveling, eating tapas, reading, spending time with college students, and practicing the fine art of siesta in her hammock. Katie also has a weakness for puppies. And gentlemen, she’s single. ;) You can follow her crazy life between two countries on her blog Beautiful Things Out of Spanish Dust.

Tuesday catch-up

2013-04-30T21:00:00.000-04:00

As soon as I got out of my sister's car after coming home from the race in Toledo, I discovered that I had forgotten my pillow at the hotel. I may be super cheap when it comes to my clothes, groceries, and household items, but I don't mess around with my bedding. I have a Tempur-Pedic mattress, 1000-thread count sheets, and nice, fluffy, goose down pillows. Bedding is a splurge for me. It certainly would have been cheaper to make the hour-long drive to go back and get my pillow, but I was sick of being in the car all day (from the relay and the drive home), so I just went to buy a new one.

After buying the brand new goose down pillow, I realized that I no longer had my pillowcase either--and that was $30 to replace! I opted not to get the pillowcase yet, so now we just have mismatched cases. What was originally a cheap $26/person stay at a hotel turned pretty expensive! But it is kind of nice to have a brand new pillow ;)

Yesterday afternoon, the mailman dropped off a big box for me--the bridesmaid dress that I had bought (used) online. I was a little nervous, because what if it didn't fit like the one in the store had? Or what if it had stains that the seller didn't mention?

I opened up the box, and was relieved to see that it looked brand new! It wasn't wrinkled, there weren't any stains, it was the correct style number and color... perfect. The seller even threw in a matching jacket for free, which was really cool of her! I had Jerry zip me into the dress (I can't do it myself for some reason) and was thrilled to see that it fit perfectly. Best of all? The previous owner had it hemmed to her height (5'4", same as me) so the hem was perfect, too!

I'm not wearing shoes in the pic, but I'll be wearing flats, so it'll fall just above floor-length. I still don't love the fact that I have to wear a strapless dress (I can already see myself tugging it up constantly), but at least I didn't have to spend $170 on it! If I had gotten it at David's Bridal, it would have been $170 (or $150 if I got it on sale) PLUS the cost to hem it ($60)... and I wouldn't have gotten the cute little jacket. But for this one, I paid $66 total, which included shipping. What a great deal! Hopefully I'll be able to sell it after the wedding, too.

Last night at around 7:45, Jerry and I were just getting the kids ready for bed, when I saw a car go FLYING down our street. I was pissed, because the speed limit is 15 mph and there are always kids playing outside in the streets (we don't have sidewalks). I yelled, "REALLY?!" and Jerry said, "That was a police car..."

So we looked out the window and saw that the police car stopped right in front of our next door neighbor's house, jumped out the car, and plowed over some kid who looked about 18 years old. Then two more police cars showed up. He was lying in the grass, and they were patting him down, then they picked him up and arrested him.

A lot of the neighbors were outside, wondering what the heck was happening. The cars left shortly after, but then we saw a bunch of police searching for something in the woods across from our house. Jerry asked them if they were looking for something, and they said no, that everything was fine. He said, "Well, my kids play out here, is it still safe for them to play?" And they assured him it was taken care of.

After asking around with the neighbors, we discovered that there were two people in a car, fleeing from the police (according to the neighbor, they were drunk driving and they fled the scene of an accident). The police arrested the one in front of our neighbor's house, but they were still searching for the other person in the woods. This kind of stuff never happens around here--I don't think I've ever even seen someone get arrested before!

Naturally, my kids were super excited and wanted to go outside to watch all the commotion. The police were still looking an hour later. Jerry heard that they found him, though. I'm a little irritated that the police told us everything was "fine" and "taken care of", when they were still looking for someone.

I was tempted not to run today, because it would be my sixth day of running in a row. Normally, I only run five days a week (Wednesdays and Saturdays are rest days); but I knew I'd be eating a lot on Saturday, so I did a very easy three miler on the treadmill that morning.

Anyway, the weather was super nice today--60 degrees and sunny, and it actually looked like spring. I wanted to take advantage of it, so I did my scheduled run. But I am definitely looking forward to a rest day tomorrow! I felt really fatigued today shortly after I started running, so it's definitely time for a break. I did get to wear a tank top for the first time this year (other than when I was in Florida, of course)...

Just wearing the bright yellow and running in the sunshine made it feel very spring-like. I think I'll have a glass of wine out on the back deck tonight--one of my favorite things to do in nice weather!

With this gorgeous spring day, we decided to cook out on the grill. We had barbecued chicken and corn on the cob. Eli was eating his corn, then got VERY excited because his tooth was really loose! He's been SO excited to lose a tooth. He's the only one in his class who hadn't lost one, and he even asked the dentist to pull one out for him when he got his teeth cleaned ;)

Anyway, I told him we were going to pull that sucker out tonight, and I grabbed a paper towel to start wiggling it. Within 20 seconds, I heard a pop, and it fell right out! He was thrilled. Doesn't he look adorable?

Oh, and I almost forgot! The winner of the book, Stranger Here, by Jen Larsen, is:

Congrats to Megan Mack! Hope you enjoy!

Motivational Monday #13

2013-04-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a great week! I had a rough morning, and I definitely needed a boost of positive energy today. Once again, you all came through with your super inspiring posts, so thank you!

I can't think of anything really noteable this week that I'm proud of. I did get right back on track yesterday after eating way too much on Saturday, so I am definitely happy about that. There were a couple of times this week that I wanted to binge for emotional reasons, and thankfully, I was able to get past that without a binge.

Anyway, let's get right to the good stuff... :)

Amy just finished her first 5K after lost nearly 50 pounds! She is proud that she ran the whole way, never stopping or walking. She said she couldn't have done it without the support of her sister, who ran beside her.

Connie has reached the 50-lbs lost mark of her journey to "move the mountain", as she calls her quest to lose 265 pounds. She's noticed quite a few changes, and not just in how she looks. She wrote a blog post about what 50 pounds gone feels like. It's hard to stay motivated with such a big task in front of you, but she is proof that mountains can be moved!

Dean ran the Glass City 5K yesterday, shaving 25 seconds off of his previous time! If you read my race report yesterday, you know it was a very rainy race, so that was no easy task.

Jennifer ran her first 5K. She was hoping to finish under 40 minutes, and ended up finishing in 36:41! She had a great race with great weather to match. Her daughter (in photo) asked her if she could get some running shoes so that she could run a race with her mom next time!

Kara organized a run for Boston, and about 75 people showed up to give their support! They ran/walked/even biked a 5K. Kara ran hers, and even PR'ed!

Katelyn ran her first half-marathon in 2:19:14! She said it downpoured the entire race, but she achieved her goal of running the whole distance without a walk break. She wrote, "I seriously could not be more proud of myself." Great job!

Katie walked 5.5 km to Starbucks, and was so happy with herself that she treated herself to a 4 PP drink! (That's definitely my kind of motivation...)

Laura ran her third half-marathon, and set a new PR! She's taken nearly 30 minutes off of her first half in 2010. She said the running had a nice side effect--she's down 40 pounds since October!

Lisa ran a 10K and PR'ed, finishing in 55:07! (Look at that gorgeous weather--why couldn't Toledo have been that nice yesterday?) Way to go, Lisa!

Margaret finished her half-marathon feeling strong, and took over an hour off of her previous time! While training, she raised $2700 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. She ran in honor of a college student named Alex Nieves, who battled leukemia, and in honor of her Gramma May, who lost her battle with leukemia in 1998. (Here is her race report)

Michelle ran her third half-marathon in 35 days, which qualified her for "Half Fanatics"--something she never thought possible! At her first 5K a couple of years ago, she saw someone wearing a "Half Fanatic" shirt, and thought it sounded crazy. But after training (and losing 60 pounds in the process) she completed it!

Sarah finished her first half-marathon in under three hours. She had decided to set a lofty goal of completing a half-marathon, and she declared it on Facebook. Then she trained for it and finished! Oh, and did I mention she used to weigh over 300 pounds? ;) She lost almost half of her starting weight!

Shannon is sporting a brand new bicep crease after completing her sixth week of the Insanity workouts! She's lost 10 pounds, can do multiple push-ups, hold planks, and complete an hour-long workout. She posted about it on her blog here.

When I was reading through all the great comments on Facebook this morning, one really stuck out to me and I immediately e-mailed her to see if she'd be interested in writing a guest post about her experience. Check this out, and tell me it's not inspiring(!):

Yep, I just tried to read that out loud to Jerry and I couldn't even do that without crying! I can't wait to read her post all about it.

Here is a peak at some of the posts on Facebook. You can read the whole thing here.

Glass City Marathon Relay race report

2013-04-28T21:00:00.000-04:00

The marathon start time was 7:00 this morning, so I got out of bed at 5:10 to get ready. I was really unsure of what the weather was going to do, but ultimately decided to go with my Cold Gear running tights and a long sleeved black shirt. I had made sparkle skirts and headbands for the whole team, so I wore those as well.

I brought oatmeal with me to eat for breakfast this morning, and forgot to bring a spoon. Ty had a plastic knife with her, so I used that to eat my oatmeal (and it actually worked out pretty well). There was HUGE line of cars at the starting line, so we ended up dropping Ty (runner #1) off and then we went to the first exchange point to wait for her.

As soon as we dropped Ty off, it started raining. Awesome. The first exchange point was at a church, and they were super nice to allow us to use their bathrooms and wait inside if we wanted. When it was close to time for Ty to come through, we went to the exchange point, which was very crowded. There was no organization whatsoever for the relay teams, and it was hard to see the runners coming. Thankfully, we were all wearing the sparkle skirts, which made it much easier to spot our team members!

I was runner #2, so Ty passed me the belt we had to wear. The relay team members had to wear THREE bibs--one on back that says "RELAY", an individual bib on front, and then the person who was running had to wear a belt with another bib. Ridiculous.

I fumbled getting the belt on for a minute, but took off running. The first tenth of a mile or so was downhill, and I was scared I was going to slip and fall in the rain. I was running with some fast marathoners, which was a strange experience. Ty's pace was something like 9:00/mi, and I was running at about an 8:30/mi pace, so I was passing marathoners who were aiming for about a 3:45 finish time. If I was running the full distance, there is no way I would be passing them!

I won't name any names (ahem, Detroit Runner), but whoever told me that Glass City was pancake flat was totally lying. At least my section was really hilly! They weren't huge hills, but they were very noticeable.

For the first two miles, I was running an 8:30 pace, and I was just ahead of some guys that were talking really loudly (they were running the marathon). They were really annoying, talking about how they were irritated that the spectators weren't cheering when they went by (let me just say, I am SO grateful for all the spectators that showed up, despite the pouring rain!!). I couldn't stand listening to them any longer, so I decided to disregard my plan of running at a pretty easy pace, and try to get ahead to where I couldn't hear them anymore.

Shortly after that, I passed this big guy who was running the relay. As soon as I passed him, he made this grunting noise and obviously picked up speed to pass me. I was kind of humored by that, so I picked up my own speed and passed him again. And so it went for the next three miles.

He was getting kind of mad every time I passed him, which I thought was funny, and he became my rabbit for this race. I really wanted to beat him. With about a mile and a half to go, I gained quite a bit on him, and thought I'd lost him. Then with just one mile left, he came up and blew past me. I picked up my pace again, and was running about a 7:45/mi pace, but he must have been running about a 7:15/mi pace, and I couldn't catch him. Dammit!

When I got close to the exchange, I could see my teammates really easily because of the skirts, and I handed the belt to Debbie. I was pretty impressed with my time!

Debbie was super nervous about this race, even though we kept telling her that it was just for fun. She's done 5K's before, but this was the longest distance she'd have run (4.75 miles). The rest of us drove to the next exchange point, and waited for Debbie, which actually didn't take long. She was way ahead of the time she expected. She was SO adorable when she finished--she started crying and hugging Jeanie. This was probably my favorite moment of the race.

Debbie had handed the belt off to Jen, so we all piled back in the car and drove to the next exchange to wait. Jen finished faster than she expected, too. And finally, Jen handed the belt off to Jeanie for the fifth and final leg.

Jeanie had written the race director to ask if we were allowed to cross the finish line as a team, and they said sure. So while Jeanie was running, Jen, Debbie, Ty, and I all went to the 26 mile marker to wait for her. The rain finally slowed to a drizzle just before Jeanie got there. When I saw her coming, I ran ahead to get a picture of her running, and then I hopped in to run alongside her and then the other girls joined in as well.

We moved over to the side of the road so that the few people behind us could pass us, and then we had a huge clearing of nobody behind us, so we ran together across the football field through the finish line, holding hands. It was awesome that it worked out so well! If someone had been behind us, we wouldn't have done that, but it was great timing.

We finished in 4:25:14, a 10:08/mi pace--not bad at all! We were predicting 5 hours, so we were surprised to finish much sooner, but all of us ran faster than we thought we would. After we got our medals, we took a team picture:

Jen, Jeanie (my sister), me, Debbie, and Ty

The race was SO fun! The only downer was the rain (it poured rain through the ENTIRE race), but we still had a blast. It was almost like a mini Ragnar Relay.

I think that a relay like this is the perfect way for a new runner to experience a race, too. Since your time is collective as a team, rather than individual runners, there is no pressure at all to aim for a certain pace. It's all about fun! And you have a personal cheerleading team waiting for you at the end of your leg ;)

I'm really glad that I got my sub-2 half-marathon a couple of weeks ago at the Martian race, because this course would have been really difficult to get that time. Most of my leg was through the woods on a tiny trail, and I couldn't pass people, which was frustrating. But other than that, I enjoyed the course (everyone else said they did, too), and I would definitely do it again next year! Hopefully with better weather, of course.

Nutella Skillet Cookie

2013-04-27T21:47:00.000-04:00

So relieved to report that my throat was feeling better when I got up today! I think this cold is finally passing. Normally, I wouldn't have run today, but since I knew I'd probably be splurging this weekend on food, I decided to do a short and easy three-mile run to burn a few extra calories.

I watched Season 4 Episode 7 of Sons of Anarchy and ran nice and easy, then walked for about 15 minutes until it was over. I was SHOCKED by the ending of that episode, and really wished I had more time so that I could keep watching (and walking).

My little cousin Kaitlin was getting married this morning at 10:00, and the ceremony was 45 minutes away, so I had a busy morning getting ready for the wedding AND my overnight trip tonight AND getting my kids ready for a day with Aunt Jeanie (my sister watched them while I was at the wedding). Jerry worked all night, so he had to sleep during the day, and didn't go to the wedding.

Kaitlin's wedding was beautiful, and she looked amazing. I'm usually not one to get emotional at weddings, and I didn't shed a single tear at my own wedding; but today, I must have cried about 50 times! My first cousin, Kim (Kaitlin's mom), died of cancer several years ago, leaving behind Kaitlin, her two sisters, and their father. It was really heartbreaking, because Kim was so young and SUCH a special person.

Anyway, I think everybody was thinking of Kim quite a bit today (I know I was). Kaitlin even used some lace from her mom's wedding dress to wrap her bouquet in.

Usually I'm the short one in pictures!

After the ceremony, we went to Ann Arbor for the lunch reception at noon. I sat at a table with my cousins (Kim's brothers and sister) and their spouses. I was a little uncomfortable going by myself, but I had a lot of fun--my cousins are hilarious, and I laughed quite a bit. I wasn't planning to have any drinks, but everyone else was, and wine sounded so yummy. I had a glass of pinot grigio.

After lunch (and a piece of cake), I didn't stay much longer, because I had to get home to go with my sister to Toledo. Ty headed down there early to get our packets, and the rest of us headed down when Debbie got out of work at 5:30.

Our dinner reservations were at 7:00 at Biaggi's. Let me start by saying I had really good intentions when I went there, but all of those intentions kind of took a back seat when I was in the moment. I wish I could say I don't regret it, but I know this will come back to haunt me when I get on the scale! I had bread before dinner, then margherita pizza for dinner, and then dessert afterward. Oh, and let's not forget, more wine. I feel like I need to run the entire marathon tomorrow to burn off all the calories I ate today!

I ended up getting the Nutella Skillet Cookie for dessert. It was very yummy, but I don't think I'd order it again. It tasted exactly like a very underbaked chocolate chip cookie (I couldn't taste any Nutella flavor, despite the name). It was scalding hot though, so I burned my mouth. I'm glad I got it, so I could taste it and not obsess over it, and I'm even gladder that it wasn't SO amazing that I just had to come back for more ;)

We just got to the hotel, and I took half a Xanax to hopefully sleep a little bit tonight. The race starts bright and early at 7:00 tomorrow morning. I'm excited!

Stranger Here book review and giveaway

2013-04-26T21:00:00.000-04:00

I wish I could say I slept really good last night, considering I found the source of the beeping, but this sore throat has been awful at night. It doesn't bother me during the day, but my throat gets really dry at night. If I'm going to get sick, I wish I would just get sick already, instead of having these tiny symptoms.

Anyway, considering I had a horrible run yesterday, I was kind of dreading today's run. I already had decided that I was going to do it on the treadmill, just in case I had a bad time again, I could stop early. And I had made up my mind to do just 8 miles, instead of 12.

I turned on Sons of Anarchy and watched two episodes while I was running (Season 4, Episodes 5-6). I felt much better than I did while running yesterday, no doubt because there was no wind, but I still couldn't wait to be done.

It's kind of funny, when I plan to do 12 miles, it really doesn't feel that long; but when I do "just" 8, it feels like forever! I think I have the idea in my head that it's going to go by super fast because I'm used to doing 12.

After eight miles, I kept running because there was still a good 15 minutes left of the episode. I ran until I reached mile nine, and then I walked until the episode was over. I was glad I went the extra mile!

I wanted to save my extra PointsPlus for this weekend, so my long run treat was lower in calories than I am used to. I ended up having an old favorite from when I was losing weight--a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich. I softened it for a few seconds in the microwave, and then topped it with Cool Whip Free and melted peanut butter. It was SO good, and only 6 PointsPlus!

Considering I usually spend an average of 20 PP on my long run treat, this was a good deal. But then in the evening, after the boys' first baseball practice of the season, I got talked into going out for ice cream. So I had a Reese's Cup Flurry, for 14 PP. Hahaha, so I wound up spending 20 PP anyway.

I've said this before, but I'll say it again--I'm not a big reader. A book has to really keep my attention long enough for me to finish, and because of that, I start a lot of books and just never finish them. So when I get requests to review books, I usually decline. But I've actually read a few books recently for review, so I'll be sharing those in the coming weeks.

The first I was asked if I'd like to read and review is called "Stranger Here" by Jen Larsen. The book is a memoir about a woman who had weight loss surgery (WLS) and her thoughts and feelings both before and after the surgery as she lost weight. Reading weight loss surgery stories isn't of interest to me, so I almost said no.

The description that changed my mind about reading the book was, "Larsen realized that getting skinny was not the magical cure she thought it would be--and that suddenly she wasn't sure who she was anymore." I could definitely relate to that, even though I lost weight through diet and exercise rather than weight loss surgery, so I agreed to read and review the book. I was curious how our experiences compared.

I, surprisingly, really liked the book! The thing that was so interesting to me was that this wasn't a super-happy feel-good memoir about a weight loss success story. Larsen wrote so honestly about the fact that she just wanted a "simple" way to be skinny. She admitted that she hadn't exhausted all of her options before considering WLS, but she knew the "right answers" to give the doctors so that they would agree to the surgery.

She also admitted to not having thought through the consequences of her choice to have surgery, and after the surgery, she was struck by the enormity of it. Her entire life had to change. I had no idea just how restrictive the diet is after WLS--Larsen had to agree to give up alcohol, sugar, and fats (pretty much my entire diet, hahaha) and consume almost nothing but protein (mostly in the form of shakes)--forever.

The part that I could relate to so much was her thought process as she lost weight. Her mind still saw herself as "the fat girl", and it was hard to see herself as anything else. There was one part toward the end of the book, where she wrote about a man (literally) picking her up, and she felt totally panicked because she was "too heavy" to pick up--even though she was thin.

This same scenario happened to me a couple of times since losing the weight, most recently when I was in Key West a few months ago. We were all at a bar, standing outside chatting and taking goofy pictures, and this guy scooped me up for a picture. It was like an alarm went off in my head, and I got SO panicked that I was going to hurt him, or he would drop me in front of everyone, because I was "too heavy" to be picked up. Some of those thoughts are probably going to be ingrained in my head forever.

Even at my heaviest, weight loss surgery was never something I even wanted to consider; I knew I was capable of losing weight "the old fashioned way", so I was determined to do so. Stranger Here is a great read for someone who is considering WLS, because Larsen writes about the good, the bad, the ugly of the process; but it's also a great read for someone like me, who lost weight without surgery, because I found that we had a LOT in common, despite the fact that we chose different methods of weight loss.

The whole book makes a big point that weight loss, no matter how it is achieved, doesn't solve any of your problems (except maybe health issues). It doesn't fix an unhealthy relationship, it doesn't fix issues with food and overeating or binge eating, it doesn't even mean that you will be happy. Larsen seemed to have a hard time separating her personality from her weight, and I think that's something that most overweight people (and even thin people) can relate to.

The surgery is just a small part of this book; most of the writing is about Larsen's thought process while she was obese, and then considering the surgery, and finally, as she lost weight. I think that's why I enjoyed the book so much.

If you're interested in reading it, you're in luck--one randomly selected Runs for Cookies reader will win a copy! ~~To submit your name into a random drawing, just fill out the form below. I will accept entries until 4/29/13 at 8:00 AM~~. Contest has ended.

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The not-so-silent alarm

2013-04-25T21:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm always complaining about how I wake up multiple times each night, and I wish I could sleep better. And remember how I said I always wake up at the exact same time of morning before my long runs? I thought it was interesting when Thomas mentioned that he did the same thing for a while, when he discovered that his computer would do some sort of update which would turn on a fan or something, causing him to wake up at the exact same time of day.

Well, a couple of nights ago, I could have sworn that each time I woke up, I heard a beep. It was super quiet, and I thought maybe I imagined it. Yesterday afternoon, Jerry and I tore apart our bedroom, looking for whatever could possibly have made the noise. And buried in one of our nightstand drawers was this:

A stopwatch. I have no idea why we have it or where it came from. Jerry said, "Let's wait until the top of the hour and see if it beeps." So we sat there talking, and then he counted down... 5-4-3-2-1...

Beeeeeep! It was very faint, high-pitched, and short, but it was there. That stupid beep had been going off every hour on the hour for God-only-knows how long. I am a super light sleeper, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was the reason I'd been waking up so much through the night. I somehow managed to disable the alarm, and now hopefully, we won't hear it again!

Last night, I was toying with the idea of doing my long run today, instead of the usual Friday. This morning, I was still in the mood to do it, so I got the kids off to school and then ate breakfast. I got dressed for the weather, in running tights and a tech shirt with my Women Rock MN light jacket from the half-marathon I did in August. I even remembered to put my pepper spray in the pocket in case I came across unleashed dogs.

I started running, and almost immediately, I felt miserable. It was SUPER windy, blowing right in my face. When I glanced at my pace, I saw I was at about a 9:00/mi, but I felt like I was putting in much more effort than that. About a mile in, I was just thinking about how miserable this 12-mile run was going to be, when I thought, "I don't HAVE to do a long run today! I'll just run four, and run long tomorrow."

The second mile was the hardest. The wind was so strong, and the sun was out, making me kind of hot in the jacket. I was dying to turn around early, but I stuck it out to the two-mile mark. I kept thinking that as soon as I turned around, I would have a tailwind, and feel a million times better. Not so.

The wind was only slightly better, but the sun was much worse after turning. It was all I could do not to just stop and walk. When I finally got to my street, I kept going past it, and then when I hit the four-mile mark, I stopped my Garmin and walked around my neighborhood for about 2/3 of a mile. I was having a hard time catching my breath, and once I finally got home, I figured it was probably from being sick.

My nose wasn't stuffed up or anything, but I just haven't been feeling well at all for a couple of days, ad it's hard to take a deep breath (but the cold is just in my head, not my chest). So I'm thinking for my long run tomorrow, I'll just run 8 miles instead of 12, and I'll do them on the treadmill so it's easier on me. Today's run was awful!

Normally on a four-mile run, I burn just over 300 calories; today, I burned 386. That means my body was definitely working harder, even though I was going slower.

For lunch, I eat the same thing almost every day--eggs with cheese and crumbled bacon, along with grapes and an English muffin with jam. Today, I decided to try a (genius) idea from Ty to make a different spread for my English muffin--mix PB2 with Torani sugar-free syrup! As the queen of PB2 while I was losing weight, you would think this would have occurred to me before. There are so many different syrup flavors, this could open up a whole new list of spreads for me.

The sugar-free syrups are 0 calories, but they use Splenda; so if you're a clean eater, this is not for you. I am (obviously) not a clean eater. Normally, I'm not a huge Splenda fan because of the taste, but I do like the Torani syrups in my protein shakes. Anyway, I mixed the PB2 with sugar-free caramel syrup, and the caramel + peanut combo tasted just like the inside of a Snickers bar--SO good! (I just used one serving of PB2 and enough syrup to reconstitute it, maybe a Tbsp.)

I am SO glad that Running on Candy suggested that I look for my bridesmaids dress used on E-bay. I didn't find the exact dress on E-bay (well, I did, but it was a size 2!), but I kept searching online until I found a few of them in my size and color needed. I messaged the owners to ask questions about alterations, stains, etc. The cheapest was an apple-colored size 6, exactly what I needed, and only $66. I thought it had to be too good to be true, so I asked for more pictures and if it had been altered. The woman who owns the dress was extremely helpful and quick to respond, which I was grateful for. She said that she had it hemmed, because she is 5'4", but that was the only alteration.

I was ecstatic! I am also 5'4", and was expecting to pay a small fortune for the dress (it's $170 new) plus the alteration fee to hem the length of it. So after some back-and-forth questions and answers, I bought the dress for $66, which includes shipping. I'm so relieved. Jerry and I have been talking lately about how we really need to cut spending, and I was feeling super guilty for having to buy this dress. She's shipping it tomorrow, and I'm just hoping that it fits the same way the one in the store did. And hoping that the hem is the right length; the bride says we are going to be wearing flats, which is a little unusual. But even if I have to pay for alterations, I'm still saving quite a bit!

The slippery slope

2013-04-24T21:00:00.000-04:00

This stupid semi-cold I have is making me crazy! I got almost no sleep last night, because my throat was sore, my head was aching, and my nose was either stuffy or runny. It's the same thing I had going on just before the Detroit Marathon; it never really turned into a full-blown cold, but just these irritating symptoms.

Since today was a rest day, and I was wide awake at 5:00 this morning, I just stayed in bed and watched a movie until it was time to get the kids ready for school. I was a little nervous about my Wednesday Weigh-in this morning, because of how horribly I ate over the four days I wasn't running.

The damage:

I was actually down a pound from last week! I was very happy to see that, after feeling like I'd gained 100 pounds from all the snacking I did.

Sunday was awful--I ate nearly 100 PP that day! The worst part about eating like that is that it's SO hard to get back on track the next day. I start to think, "Well, one more day can't be much worse, so I'll just get back on track tomorrow..." and then tomorrow comes and I say the same thing. That is a VERY slippery slope, and that is how I gained back 15-20 pounds last year.

My conversation with Pete Thomas in September made me really focus on making a plan for this year, when I tend to gain weight (all spring and summer long). This time, I promised myself that I wouldn't use the "just one more day" excuse if I binged or just had a bad eating day.

So on Monday, I was thinking, "My weight is already probably going to be up this week, so what can it hurt to just have one more day of constant snacking?" It was SO hard not to give in to that mentality, but I kept reminding myself that I promised I wouldn't use that excuse anymore. If I had a bad day, I wouldn't let it turn into two days, or a week, or more. I've learned that even after having a bad day or two, if I get right back on track as soon as possible, it really minimizes the damage.

This week is the perfect example of that! I was bouncing between 133-134, but after eating 94 PP on Sunday, my weight was 135.5 on Monday morning. If I had used the "just one more day" mentality, those extra few pounds would likely still be hanging on. But I got on track immediately, and it dropped back down just as quickly as I put it on.

At first, the large jump in weight is just water weight, or the weight of the food itself, which is easy to take off within a day or two--I knew that at most, with the amount of calories I exceeded, it was only physiologically possible for me to have gained about half a pound of fat. But if I kept eating way over my allotted calories/PP, then the fat-gain would really add up, and it takes a lot longer to take off. Basically, the sooner I take care of a gain, the easier it is to take off; the longer my weight remains at a particular weight, the harder it is to lose it.

When I started this post, I didn't intend to go into such depth about this! But I'm really hoping that this may help someone realize that it's never too late to get back on track. The sooner, the better, and using the "one more day" excuse just makes it that much harder to take off the gain later.

I'm feeling very motivated going into this week, and I'm hoping that I'll be back at my happy weight of 131 next week. I have a couple of obstacles this week, both on Saturday. Saturday afternoon, I'm going to a wedding with a lunch reception. I don't know what the food situation will be there, but I'm just going to do my best and estimate the PointsPlus the best I can. Having a lunch reception, rather than dinner, makes it easier on me, because I won't be tempted to order lots of drinks!

Then on Saturday night, I'm going out to dinner with my relay team at an Italian restaurant called Biaggi's. I looked up the menu online, to plan what to order, and, against my better judgement, I peeked at the dessert menu. Um, this stood out, to say the least:

REALLY?! I thought of my options: use it as my long-run treat of the week? Eat it and say "screw the PP!"? Order that for my dinner instead of a real meal? I really just want a taste of it. I had a conversation with Ty about it on Twitter. She said she's going to order it for sure, and I could have a couple of bites of it, so that's what I'll do. I'm stating my plan here, so that I will follow through. Those things are rarely as good as the menu makes them sound, so I'm sure I'd be disappointed if I ordered a whole one and felt obligated to eat it. I'm sure some of you tried it, and it's terrible, right? ;)

Thanks to everyone for voting on the cat photo contest! The vote wasn't even close--Kiwi won by a landslide (I think he had the whole kitten-thing going for him ;)

Congratulations, Kiwi! I hope you enjoy all the cat goodies as much as my cats have.

Oh, and speaking of my cats, I weighed Chandler for Wednesday Weigh-in today also, and he's still at 24 pounds. So he's losing slowly, which is good; I was afraid that I was starving him, because he always wants more after he eats his allotted portion of food. I'm hoping he'll lose 1-2 pounds per month.

A fall half-marathon

2013-04-23T21:00:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning at 4:45 with a very sore, dry throat and a very stuffed up nose. I'd been feeling the sore throat, along with a headache, for a couple of days, but just kept hoping it would pass by and not turn into a cold. My throat was so dry this morning that there was no way I was going to fall back asleep, so I just got out of bed at 5:00.

I had been planning to run my four miles outside after the kids left for school, but since I was already up so early, I just decided to do it on the treadmill. Thankfully, I still have Sons of Anarchy to keep me entertained! I think I'm midway through season four right now.

I just did a mile warm-up and then three miles, each one slightly faster than the previous (only because I wanted to get done sooner!). Again, no trouble with me knee, so I think it's safe to say that I either overreacted last Wednesday, or I caught it very early and it's fine now :)

I had a really great food/exercise day yesterday; I stuck to my plan exactly, and I felt so good about that when I woke up. I managed to stick to my plan all day today, too. After lunch, when I usually have a hard time staying out of the pantry, I went for a walk in the woods. Well, what used to be the woods, rather. The changes from the construction that has been going on are huge!

Here are some comparison pictures, from roughly the same position and angle (the green ones look prettier, but all that green is from the phragmites, a really invasive reed). I'm so excited to see how it looks once everything gets cleared out and flooded. The top photos in each set are from July 2011, the bottom ones were from yesterday.

I'm not sure what they constructed this little dock for.

As far as I understand, everything to the right and left of this path will be flooded

I walked the path with Jerry last week, and dreamed of when the construction is done. I think it would be AWESOME if they put a path that would go all the way around the "lake" (in quotes because there is no lake yet, but the plan is to flood it). It would probably be about two miles around, and would make an awesome running path. But I highly doubt that will happen. I'm just dreaming for now.

I'm super excited for my race this weekend. I'm doing the Glass City Marathon as part of a relay team with my friend Ty (whom I met from my blog), my sister, Jeanie, and her friends Jen and Deb. The race is on Sunday morning, so we're going to get together for dinner in Perrysburg on Saturday night, and then have a slumber party at a hotel. That way there is no chaos of driving to the race in the morning.

Ty is runner #1, and then I'm runner #2, so she'll make the hand-off to me. My leg is 6.1 miles, which is actually the longest leg of the relay. I don't have a time goal or anything, since we're doing this just for fun, which makes it even better ;)

In December, when I met up with my friend Stacie for coffee, she mentioned that she was trying to put together a half-marathon in our hometown to benefit the Special Olympics (she's a special education teacher, and also in charge of the Special Olympics).

As if she didn't have enough on her plate already, with the teaching and the Olympics stuff, she is now the race director for our hometown's first half-marathon this fall! This is super exciting news--I'm so glad that it's on November 10, about a month after the Chicago Marathon, so I will have enough time to recover and run it. Here is the Facebook page, if you're a local and are interested. They are working on a website, but it's not ready yet. There is also going to be a 5K and a "Friendship Relay", which I'm assuming is the half-marathon, split up into legs.

Finally, I just have to share this poster that Eli did at school for Earth Day. It's hilarious:

Apparently, my 7-year old wants to learn how to stop smoking?! Hahaha, I know that he meant he wants to somehow learn a way to get everyone to stop smoking, but I thought it was funny ;)