I guess I run now

I wanted to get up early to run before hubby & I have a day filled with annoying errands…the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak & the muscles under the flesh were very ouchie. So the plan now is to run errands & then either run or swim in the late afternoon. There, writing makes it so.

Food:

Breakfast: kashi & blueberries

Lunch: on the go…but I did okay: 1 1/2 cup of bean soup at the campus caf with 2 bags of oyster crackers

Snack: peach

Dinner: chicken sausage, whole wheat bun, corn on the cob, kale

Snack: hubby made bread pudding out of the remaining buns, so 1/2 cup bread pudding with 1 tbs peach jam; AND 1 cup cheeze its (DAMN IT!)

Exercise: none…but we left the car in one place & walked everywhere we needed to get to on campus, including 3 trips to 3 different buildings to pick up 3 of the keys hubby needs for his office & classrooms…yeah, they gotta make this process easier for new faculty!

Having a great day myself: slept late & heading to the Y to do some weights. My goal is to jog a mile first: I was thinking last night that it’d be nice to have a mile become just a standard thing I do everyday…hoping that’ll make me stronger when it comes to those 3 mile runs. We’ll see. I have some resolve now & a chance to make working out a part of my new routine (yay routine!), so I’m feeling good about my chances of dropping 17 pounds by Christmas. It’s a humble goal, but I’m a humble (read: lazy) gal.

Food:

Breakfast: kashi & blueberries

Lunch: my own chef salad: hb egg, slice of swiss, slice of ham, lettuce, tomato, low cal dressing

Snack: will be a peach was 1 cup cheeze its

Dinner: 1 slice meatloaf & pasta salad

Exercise: upper & lower body, 1 mile run, .25 mile walk. Did the weights first so I wouldn’t sweat all over the machines & that actually had me looking forward to the run!

cause I have no idea how to push myself. Pushing myself runs counter to my personality. I am a marathon napper, an over-eater, an unmotivated couch potato.

Or maybe I’m a recovering couch potato. Maybe it’s time for a “back in the day” type of list…back in the day, I used to fight for the closest parking space, now I don’t even look for a close one…it’s nice in the back of the lot. Yeah…I need more of that in my life right now. Ya’ll got any?

Hit the Y today. Walked .1, ran 1.5, walked .1, ran .5, walked .1, ran .1, walked to round it out to 2.6 miles. The two miles mostly running I managed in 26:50, which would make for a decent 5k time if I could keep it going for another 1.1 miles. But I can’t…not yet anyway. Speeds at 4.4 to 4.8, 5.2 for the last .1 of the two miles and for the tacked on .1 mile at the end. Feeling good & ready to run again.

But I need this place cause without it, I wouldn’t have gotten on the treadmill this morning. Maybe one day, but for now I have to blog, just have to.

& I need this place cause tiny2b’s got me thinking about signing up for boot camp & that’s not something I’d ever think about doing without this place.

Okay, food:

breakfast: kashi & blueberries

Lunch: pasta-zilla (recipe below)

Snack: (after dinner) fat free/sugar free chocolate pudding & coolwhip free

Dinner: One slice of meatloaf (yum!), pasta-zilla, beets, salad

Pasta-zilla–a giant pasta salad…nutritionally sound if the pasta is whole wheat & the veggies make up at least 50% of the salad, I think. This one reflects my attempt to expand my veggie horizons…first time using kale in a pasta dish & only second time eating pattypan and yellow zucchini.

Okay, I don’t measure stuff, so not the best of recipes, but..cook whole wheat rotini & chopped kale together & run under cold water when pasta is done (note: I gave the kale a 2 minute head start on the pasta, which seemed to work). In the oven, roast onion, garlic, zucchini, yellow zucchini, carrots, & pattypan until squashes are done (carrots will retain some crunch). Chop tomato & fresh chives, basil, & parsley. Pour roasted veggies over pasta, add tomato, herbs, and pinenuts. Sprinkle with olive oil, vinegar (I used basalmic, but red wine would work too), salt & pepper. It’s a pretty dish, so maybe I’ll post a picture of it later. Thinking this with hubby’s meatloaf, a salad, & some lovely beets for dinner.

Cheers ya’ll!

To see Feathers has already posted a post-op photo!

Off to ikea with hubby…our second trip this week, but the house is FINALLY starting to come along: I have an awesome new bookcase in the office & our closets are actually going to work now that we have new shelves. This trip is for a kitchen island to expand our galley kitchen out into the dining room (which is rectangular and really long).

No posts cause we’ve been busy with the workshops, some stupid meetings, house stuff & I managed to get another article off to a journal yesterday My eating’s been good, but no exercise to speak of, so I’ve remained mum.

Okay, no exercise, but I need to get back to recording my food at least:

Breakfast: WW toast with homemade cherry jam

Lunch: big salad with hb egg (my first salad in days, so this is me turning over a new leaf)

Snack: peach

Dinner: meatballs & mashed at ikea

Snack: kashi & blueberries

Found out the guy who runs the local feed store (where I get the dog’s food) brings in fresh veggies from his farm every morning. I’m planning to go back for green beans tomorrow (he promised them fresh off the vine & they’re hubby’s favorite) and maybe a giant cantaloupe, but for now the fridge is already packed with local corn, tomatoes, kale, potatoes, squash, zucchini, beets, and peaches, so this weekend we’ll eat like kings on nothing but the good stuff. For kicks I might just plan meals around the colors of the rainbow.

Okay, we’re off to shop again!

to help give a 2-day workshop for a local school district. Very tired, not eating well, no exercise. On top of that, the site for the workshop didn’t even have wireless, so I had no online access even during the down times & breaks.

Meetings for the next two days & they’re going to be miserable…

But hubby’s moved down & is slowly unpacking & school starts in 2 weeks, so life is about to settle down nicely. At least, I hope so!

I will say that this workshop had me in last winter’s dress slacks (our meeting room thermostat was set at about 50 degrees) & I like the way they hang so loose…so that’s an incentive: I started to imagine myself in smaller & cuter dress clothes for the winter…instead of wearing the same stuff over & over again cause nothing really fits.

So by the time the cooler weather rolls around, I want to hear myself utter the words, “gee, I guess I better go shopping cause everything I own is miles too big!”

That’s all for now…these workshops really drain me & I’m sitting here just dreaming of crawling into bed, which isn’t good since we really need to get some groceries into this house tonight or I’ll be eating crap for breakfast tomorrow. Okay, time to motivate!

Cheers ya’ll!

I’m battling a stomach bug or food poisoning or something, so light posting, no exercise, no eating until further notice

Hey, maybe I’ll drop some weight, although not my preferred method of doing so.

No need to come looking for me tiny2b, but thanks for the threat, which was my first smile all day.

for a while, anyway.

So I tried to make it a good one. Ran 1st two miles (with some walks in there) in 27 mins. Then walked for a bit, and walked/ran for a bit, and walked for a bit more. I ended up doing 6 miles. Most of that was just walking & enjoying the sights, sounds, & smells, but I threw in some runs for fun too. & I still find it weird that I’m using phrases like “runs for fun.” Who knew? But it was beautiful: sunny, breezy, about 65 degrees. So I kept walking, thinking that this time next year I want to be running a 10K, so I figured I’d see how far (approximately) that would be. It’s gonna be a nice run next summer…I just have to make sure I’m ready for it.

Tomorrow I think I’ll walk in to meet hubby after he teaches his class & then we’ll walk to our favorite restaurant for lunch…I’ve ordered their salmon on salad probably the last 8 times we’ve gone there, but it doesn’t disappoint & the walk in will be about 4 miles total, with another 1 mile back to the car after lunch.

Yesterday was busy. We took a 2 mile stroll along the Portage in the morning, packed some, wrote some, and then baby sat for our friends’ kids (3 of their 5 kids anyway…they took the newborn twins to dinner with them). Food wasn’t great…pantry cleaning food combined with a kid-friendly dinner isn’t a good idea, but neither is the ice cream that I had after dinner. So yesterday’s food & exercise:

Breakfast: corn chex & blueberries
Lunch: BLT on whole wheat, pasta salad
Snack: cherries & cheese popcorn (about 2 cups of the popcorn)
Dinner: Mac & cheese, ice cream

Exercise: 2 mile stroll

Today:

Breakfast: corn chex & blueberries
Lunch: BLT on WW & pasta salad
Dinner: 2 of hubby’s oatmeal cookies, cheddar popcorn (about 3 cups), about 12 cherries
Snack:

Exercise: 6 mile walk/run (mostly walk…the full trip took 1 1/2 hours)

Inspiration: oh hell, have you been watching the Olympics? Usually I focus on the men cause, well, they’re Olympic-style men for heaven’s sake, how can you help yourself? But this year, I’m all about the women. I want to be that strong, that powerful, that fast & muscular & confident & geeze! I mean, I can’t identify with the gymnasts at all cause they’re like 12 years old, but the runners & swimmers & bikers are amazing. Okay, so I was thinking about what it would take to get an athlete’s body on my walk/run today & that got me moving. When I get home, I’m going to start in on the weight machines & toss in some biking & swimming.

once wrote: “I hate writing, but I love having written.”

My paraphrase today: “I dread running, I love having run.”

Okay, I didn’t really dread the run this afternoon…looked forward to it mostly, but there was that little bit of fear there that I wouldn’t be able to do it. I guess that fear will go away eventually?

No bar for us last night. We went yard sale-ing with some friends who reminded me it was alumni weekend & around here that means hundreds of engineers trying to re-live their college days. So the bar didn’t seem like a productive or fun place to work. Maybe as a treat on Monday?

We’re in pantry-cleaning mode today, both literally & literally :). I’m going to tackle the pantry (which is pretty huge), get it semi-packed & thoroughly scrubbed down. In addition, we’re trying to eat what’s there & in the fridge so we don’t have to drag it all down south. There’s not much nutrition in them there shelves, since these are the foods that get hubby through the day, & not exactly my choices even when I didn’t care what I ate. Anyway, it’s going to be a challenge to eat decent for the next few days.

Today
Breakfast: corn chex & blueberries
Lunch: brown rice mixed with fresh zucchini, & unfrozen peas & broccoli; hard boiled egg
Dinner: probably not…hubby & I just had a big blow out & I’ve lost my appetite! ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!
Snack: Cheeries & at a moment, a beer.

Exercise: 3.5 mile run/walk. Ran first 2 miles in 25:27, which is purty dern fast for little ole me. Although I threw some walks in there as well. Ran the full 5k in 42:20. Kept my running speed between 4.6 & 6.0. Yes, 6.0 was one of my speeds, but only for .15 mile. Still, it’s important to note that I didn’t drop dead at 6.0 mph, so I can put that fear to rest now. I’m feeling more comfortable running in the 5 mph range these days with 4.6 feeling like a light jog & so, kinda useless if I want to get the miles covered & done with. Did the full 3.5 in 48:30, so clearly there was a lot of walking at the end.

Inspiration: Tiny2b just signed up for some kind of bootcamp at 5:30 every morning & getupnow’s thinking about possibly joining a group in training for a 5k. The bootcamp idea scares the hell out of me, but the training group sounds like it’s got potential, so I’m going to research them in my area.

& hubby’s irritable & I’ve just found out his tenant may arrive any day/minute now, rather than on the 15th. So today I’ll try to make the house presentable enough for company…it’s a mess from hubby’s divided work between fixing the place up, packing, and writing.

First stop is the kitchen, then the bathroom. A bit of a bitch since I’ll just have to clean them both again before I leave & I’m grumpy because hubby has been less than diligent finding out when this guy is actually planning to get here. So when he told me the tenant was moving in on the 15th, I figured that was perfect…I could come up here, clean, pack, and get out. But then last night I learn…yup, not so much. Once again, no plan. Yeah, not happy today.

Anyway, I’m irritable & need a nice long walk along the portage. But that’s my reward for later, I think. And then maybe I’ll go to the brew pub here & work. Sounds lovely, but for now, the kitchen awaits.

Food:
Breakfast: wheat & corn chex (cleaning out the pantry) with blueberries
Lunch: egg salad on 1/2 bagel
Dinner: biscuits & gravy & frozen (unfrozen, cause I like it better that way) broccoli
Snack: hubby & I split the remaining bag of cheddar popcorn

Exercise:

Inspiration: this little entry from my day 2 of the C25K 5 months ago: “Sunday, March 9th–sweating a lot & it’s clearly a workout, but I can do it, which is nice & I can see myself doing it again. I know I’ll get stronger too. At the moment, my resting walk is a 2.8 mph and run is 3.6 mph, but this will improve with time once I’ve got the hang of running for more than 60-second intervals.” Since my resting walk is now 3.6 & I can actually run more than 60-second intervals, I’m celebrating this little victory today. I’d actually like to run again today, but my right shin is bothering me, so I guess I’ll give it a rest & just walk.

UPDATE: feeling much better now. Figured that since I gotta do this cleaning anyway, doing a thorough job now won’t hurt too much…provided we don’t mess the place up again. So cleaned the fridge, stove/oven, shelves, & now the bathroom is spotless…lots more to do in the kitchen, though. But as I was cleaning the fridge, I got angry all over again cause, well, the idiots who make fridges have clearly never, NEVER EVER, not once in their lives, had to clean a fridge (read: MEN!). How do I know this? Well, if they’d ever cleaned one, they wouldn’t make them with grooves all in the drawers and the doors would be flat with no places for dirt & muck to get trapped, there’d be no wire racks that let liquids drip all over the place & that take a ton of time to clean off. Obviously ours is an old fridge, but it pisses me off that the important job of designing home appliances fell to men who, because they got to leave the home once in a while, had no freakin’ clue what works and what doesn’t work.

Okay, that’s my rant for today. A few pleasanter revelations while cleaning the tub…1. I AM going to do my writing at the nice brew pub tonight; 2. since this tenant will be paying us rent, I’m using that money to get a damn housekeeper to come in once a month & clean just our kitchen & bathroom (this one will never happen cause I’m really too cheap & we can’t really afford such a thing, but it’s fun to dream about it); 3. this time next week I will have only one the one house to clean & the worst part of these moves will be behind me.

Yes, tiny2b, I was on the road & being accountable here did keep me out of McDs, but that’s about all it did. So…here goes:

breakfast: hard boiled egg

lunch: pb&j on whole wheat, about 20 cherries

Dinner: pb&j on white (figured one on white would be just the treat I’d need to keep me out of the drive thru), 1/2 chicken sandwich on whole wheat with tomato & big basil leaves (my own creation, not fast food)

Snacks: (yes, snacks is plural) 1/2 bag of white cheddar popcorn (the big bag, not the jumbo one, but big enough for a family of 4 to snack comfortably on); snack sized container of pringles; more cherries; coffee with French vanilla creamer (you know the kind, it’s basically pure corn syrup).

So my meals were okay, but my snacking was out of control…total boredom munching.

Exercise: short walk from brake place to coffee shop & back, short walk on beach with dog, loading/unloading the car, I mean, I’m grasping at straws here people! I just need to say “no exercise today!”

Inspiration: well, the food could’ve been worse if it weren’t for my knowing that I’d have to write about it here. Yeah, it could’ve been much worse, I guess.

Today (Thursday)

Food
Breakfast: wheat chexs with blueberries
Snack: small handful of toasted (not salted) almonds
Lunch: Weight watchers enchiladas with rice. Rice was really good, but at some point I hit unidentifiable tan mush in the enchiladas…chicken paste, maybe?
Dinner: Applebee’s…1/2 portion shrimp with salad thing (egg, avocado, tomatoes, little bacon, avocado dressing on side) and 1/2 of cup of tomato soup and 10 oz light beer.

Exercise: just back from the rec center where I walked/ran total of 2.6 (ran 2.25, walked .35), walked .1, ran 1.5 miles, walked .1, ran .25, walked .05, ran .5, walked .1. Not counting the warm up walk, I did a 2 mile mostly-run in 26:15, which is pretty good for me. Kept my running speed between 4.4 & 5.2, but I did crank it up to 5.4 when I got bored near the end of each running session. Walking speed at 3.6. But if you look at the walk between my .25 & .50 runs, it makes no sense! I should’ve just kept running for that short bit. Especially since the .5 mile run felt pretty okay. Geeze, why’d I stop? UGH!

Inspiration: I have to say, it’s the fact that getupnow is running 2 miles now. I decided if she could do that, I could at least do a full 1.5 today. Of course, she’s skinny & fit, but I gotta start back somewhere if I’m going to be skinny & fit too! I’m going to try to run a few more times while I’m here so that when I get home next week, I’m in better shape & have, barring any more freakout food fests on the road, lost the 2 pounds I gained this past month.