A+ Day

Thanks for the comments on my post from yesterday.  It really is a beautiful area.  I will have to get some more current pictures, plus some of the surrounding area.  Some of you asked how far of a move this is for us ..... it's about 3 1/2 - 4 hrs drive - so a move for sure, but not terribly far.  It's a completely different lifestyle.  Where I am now is almost city living.  The region I'm in (not the particular city) has a population of 2.5 million.  Where we are moving the regions population is under 300,000.  But city for city the population is pretty similar. 

The big kicker though is the weather.  The new place is classed as a cool semiarid climate, meaning it receives fairly low annual preciption.  It's also prone to fairly hot summers (25°-40°C or 75°-100°F) and somewhat cool winters (just above or slightly below freezing).  Where we are now we receive annual 62" of rain (sometimes it feels like we get that in a day!).  Up there it is 13".  That's a whole lot of difference!  The area we are moving to is often one of the hottest and driest in the country.  That's right up my ally!

Anyhow, enough with the figures and facts.

Yesterday was A+++++++++

When I wrote out my menu plan the other day I decided to "track" by counting points.  I no longer attend WWs meetings as they do nothing for me after all these years.  I'm a Lifetime member in good standing so don't have to pay anyway, but I'm just not into it.  However, counting points is easy for me.  I know by heart the points value of pretty much anything I regularly eat.  Plus I can calculate quite accurately the points value of a food just by looking at it's nutritional information.  Once in a while I pull out my tracker to check but I'm always right on.

I even remembered an old "pal" of mine from years ago - chocolate pudding and cool whip!  A small serving after dinner was exactly what I needed.  This isn't my pudding (though it does look awfully fancy, maybe I should try it), but you get the idea.  Actually the link I got it from looks pretty good if you wanna check it out.

source

Lately my whole schedule has been topsy turvy and I think that was contributing to me being so off balance with my eating.  For a while now I've been having a hard time preparing my lunches for work, often buying out.  Then coming home and struggling to put together dinner.  Too often I found myself reaching for (or going out and buying) packaged and/or prepared foods.  That a good diet does not make in my world!

What I am finding helpful (besides being organized and having a plan) is as soon as I get home from work I go straight to preparing dinner.  Ideally I like to come home and chill for a bit.  Maybe watch some TV, go on the computer, sit down and chat.  But then I'd find myself in a crunch to make dinner, plus I was HUNGRY and I'd find myself picking.  So I'd end up making something quick (and not usually very healthy) and because I ate late I'd end up feeling lethargic and skipping workouts.  Not a good combination.

I have to keep this up.  Keep up the planning.  Keep up the organization.  It helps SO much!  And I end the day feeling satisfied and without guilt or remorse.

Here's yesterday's eats:

Breakfast - Steel Cut Oats with peaches & brown sugar

Lunch - Brown Rice w/shrimp stir-fry (leftover from dinner) & an orange

Snack - Cottage cheese & pinapple (not good together, but great apart)

Dinner - Toasted english muffin with ham, cheese & egg

Dessert - Chocolate Pudding with cool whip

All this for 22 points

After dinner had all settled I hit up the gym for some running and a bit of core work.  I don't enjoy running on the treadmill, but sometimes it's a necessary evil.  I wanted to do 10K, but I find it so monotonous running on the TM.  Instead I did fast intervals:

2 x 1.5 miles

3 x 1.0 miles

average pace 7:40/mile

total time 47:30 **see below

Now ... there's NO way I could run a full 10K at that pace right now.  After each mile I paused the TM, caught my breath, had a sip of water and/or a little stretch (plus a piddle break in the middle) - then continued.  It took me closer to 60 minutes with all my breaks to actually finish.  But I think it's important to do intervals at a faster pace like that to improve your speed.  This has worked for me in the past.

I was really happy with my interval pace though.  I remember not too long ago where I couldn't break an 8 minute mile - even if just for one mile.  Now it's totally doable.

Hope you're having an A+ day!

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

Little Getaway

Not sure if anyone noticed ... but I was away for a few days.  I had limited internet access so wasn't able to blog or read blogs and I MISSED it!  I'm trying to catch up on everyone as quick as I can.

I haven't mentioned it on this blog before, but we're possibly (probably? are? maybe?) moving!  Just before Christmas we put in an offer on a property and we got it.  The sale closed a couple weeks ago.  I'm hesitant to say we're actually moving because at best it's a couple years away and there's a ton that has to happen for us to move.  But the possibility is quite real. 

This is a vacant lot.  There is a ton of land prep to be done (luckily we have the equipment to do this ourselves).  And of course the house will have to be built.  Plus ... our current house/property needs some major overhauling. 

We started the land prep this week and we went up to check out the progress.  It's looking incredible. 

The views from this property are amazing!  I don't do yoga, but if I did I think this would be an incredible place to build a studio with HUGE glass windows to do it in.  Totally serene.

These pictures are from December.  The snow is all gone now.  I have some current pictures on my camera from this weekend, but I haven't loaded them onto the computer yet.

From the house site you get a good view of two lakes. 

This is the large one to the north.  It's HUGE - 135 Km long and 4-5 Km wide.

And this is the one to the south.

With a decent set of binoculars I'll be able to see my sister camping there in the summer. ;)

And there are mountains (hills??) all the way around.  I guess mountains actually. 

There is a ski resort less than 20Km away from town.

This is a cool tree on the property.  We're going to try to leave this one. 

Apparently the bottom there was scratched off by a bear!

There are a ton of "critters" up there.  So far we've just seen a bazillion deer and some mountain sheep.  But apparently we will be expecting to see lots of coyotes, some bears, elk, maybe the odd moose or cougar even.  And then there's the critters that scare me .... rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, ticks.  I actually have lost sleep thinking about those ones.

The area this is in is highly active too.  You name it, you can do it here.  Water sports, snow sports, outdoor everything!  Everywhere you go people are doing some type of activity.  The road up to our property is about 10Km straight uphill with an elevation gain of 2000 feet.  If I can even walk from the bottom to the top I will have rockin' buns of steel.  I can't wait to walk, run (well try to) and ride it!

While up there I sadly only got out for one run.  The first day the weather was icky.  And yesterday it was super windy and seriously ... I was almost afraid I would blow away.  Apparently last night the winds were over 100 Km/h.  But the run I did do was wonderful!  I ran along the lake, then the river and return on a wonderful paved trail (with at least 3-4 bathroom stops - wahoo).  It was 8.5 miles return!  Pretty windy on the way out, but warm and sunny on the return.  This could SO be my regular route.

Eating has been .. uh ... not so wonderful. :(  But I spent some time last night writing out a menu plan for the next few days and also prepping some food.  It really is the area I struggle with most.

I'll try to catch up with everybody in the next couple days. 

Hope all is well!

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

One Step In The Right Direction

Writing all that out yesterday was actually therapeutic.  I've had that horrible habit of being a closet eater from time to time and getting it out made it real.  It also seemed to erase the guilt or the shame associated with hidden eating.  It's done, nothing can change that.  There's no need to feel guilty about it.  The only thing to be done is to take action and move forth.

Last night I skipped my workout!  Doesn't sound like action, does it?  But it was!  The workouts are the easy part for me.  Sometimes (like lately) I even use them to avoid facing tasks that need to be done.  Which is why I skipped it last night.

I finished cleaning up my kitchen, cupboards & fridges.  Two HUGE garbage bags full of junk.  I had tons of fruits & veggies, yet half of it was rotten.  So when I go to prepare a meal I was just faced with having to pick through things and got overwhelmed.  Same with my cupboards.  Boxes and packages of stale, out-dated food that had to go.

It felt so refreshing to get all that cleaned up.

Then, I made a new batch of hummus.  Not the prettiest batch I've ever made.  I added a bunch of cilantro & chili powder to it and it had a very disturbing browny/green tinge.  But it tastes pretty good.

I also prepared lunch for today!  As many of you noted, and I knew this too, pre-planning is a major part of success. 

So, today is going much better.

Breakfast - Raisin bran cereal with 1% milk
Lunch - Hummus & veggie wrap, cottage cheese, orange
Dinner - I'm thinking a shrimp stir fry with brown rice would hit the spot.
Dessert - Peaches

 ... and a big a$$ bottle of water too!

I'm hoping today we get the news that they'll take off my son's braces soon.  It's been over 2 years and his teeth look perfect, and have for some time.  They're not getting any more money from me and we both just want them off!  I'm actually getting kind of angry about it.

Definitely having a more positive ... in control day.

Hope you are too!

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

**GIVEAWAY**

Cute Under Armour Shirt at Destination 26.2 - go check it out

Confessions

I can go on and on about how my running is going.  For me, that's the easy part.  It's just one foot in front of the other ... One Step At A Time.

My eating however has been sliding down a slope at breakneck speed and I fear I'm getting out of control.

Confessions of what I have consumed since last Thursday, when the slide began:

Thursday

• Didn't pack lunch so had a Subway sandwich for lunch - that's not so bad.  But then had a sweet craving and walked across the street to the store and got a 227g package of Twizzlers red licorice = 750 calories.
• After work I had a crunch craving and ate a huge bowl of popcorn, plain, but still way more than a serving.   

Friday

• Oatmeal for breakfast with WAY too many toppings
• Mexican for lunch - huge bowl of bean soup and green salad not so bad, but most of a basket of deep fried tortilla strips

Saturday

• Woke up feeling stupid full.  Decided not to eat until I actually "felt" hungry.  That wasn't until about 5:30pm.  I had a bowl of mini wheats cereal. 
• An hour later my husband called and asked if we wanted to meet him at a restaurant for dinner.  Had chicken lettuce wraps.  Not a horrible choice, but alot of sodium and I felt pretty full afterwards so I must have eaten too much.

 Sunday

• Had a late breakfast of toasted buns (two) topped with peanut butter and jam.  This day actually wasn't too bad.  My "friend" arrived in the afternoon which led me to believe that may be the reason behind my excessive and unhealthy choices. 

Monday

• Didn't pack lunch again for work, got Subway again - this is my go to.  Knew that wouldn't be quite enough to sustain me so walked over to the grocery store with the intention of getting a piece of fruit and a yoghurt.  Instead I left with a baggy of party mix (pretzels, nuts, etc.) and some swedish berries. 
• Went grocery shopping after work and somehow ended up with another bag from the bulk bin with chocolate covered almonds.  Ate most of them on the drive home, then left the last few in my car - which I ate today. 
• Made a mexican bean soup for dinner (VERY good).  Then hubby came home with more junk again and right before bed I had a Reese's peanut butter cup, a Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookie, and a Riesen (never need a reason to have a Riesen!).
• Tossed and turned all night from a bloated, sick tummy - plus the feelings of guilt about my eating habits as of late. 

Tuesday

• Woke up exhausted from lack of sleep.  No time to prepare breakfast OR lunch, or even my morning tea.  Could barely keep my eyes open to drive to work.  Decided to pick up a fat free (wowie) French Vanilla Cappuccino - loaded with sugar and calories.  Then, I was still craving some sort of REAL food, so I went to McDonald's and got a Sausage McMuffin with egg & cheese.  We're looking at over 700 calories for my breakfast alone.
• Figured I'd just skip lunch because I had more than enough to sustain me.  But then hubby called and asked to meet me for lunch at my favourite place - The Olive Garden.  We rarely ever do lunch together (or a meal out) so I agreed to go.  Ate fairly light, but still felt stuffed.
• Came home after work determined that if I even felt hungry I would eat something very light.  Then, proceeded to dig into the junk still sitting on the coffee table - 2 Reese's peanut butter cups and 3 Riesens.
• Followed by a toasted english muffin with peanut butter and jam. 

I feel DISGUSTING!

And terrified!  So out of control and at this point I don't even know if I can stop it.  I'm only hoping by putting this out there that it helps me rein it in.  I can't remember the last time I felt so out of control, certainly not for so long.

After the english muffin tonight, I proceeded to clean out my cupboards & fridges.  Things were getting really disorganized and I had a ton of stuff to be cleaned out and reogranized.  Maybe this will help me????  Maybe it can at least get me back to packing my lunch and preparing more of my own meals.  If I don't need to go out for meals then I shouldn't be tempted to pick up the wrong thing.  I have lots of good food in my house and I need to use it!

Please, let me get things back in control! 

I don't like this feeling ... at all.

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

Recovery Week?

I'm not sure I have this concept down of a recovery/rest week. First there was the weekend before my first half where I ran the full 13.1 instead of my intended 12.1 miles. Then last weekend, there was the actual disaster race, where while I ran a little short, I still ran 12.1 miles.  Then this weekend I completely went over my anticipated mileage and almost did another half.

This week I had fully intended to back off the mileage a bit. Monday my husband and I decided to do an easy recovery run. We'd planned to go about 3 miles, but it ended up over 4 miles.

Wed I planned to do 2 miles ... I did 3.

Friday I went out running with a couple of friends, and a new running mate.  I expected we'd probably do about 4 miles ... we did over 6.

Sunday I was to run with friends again.  I expected we'd do maybe 5-6 miles on this run, however I wanted to go a bit longer than that (to keep up my half training for next months race) so I went early and planned to do 2-3 miles before meeting them.  This ended up being a lot longer (details to follow).

Friday was actually a pretty cool day.  I had plans to get together for coffee/tea with a good friend "Mel".  I run regualrly with her sister "Mac" and also had plans to run with her that day.  Mel is just starting to run again and decided she'd come out with us and we'd run ahead and then all meet up afterwards at the coffee shop.  It was a beautiful day.  Mac brought along a co-worker with her, who she's been running with and it was awesome to run with someone new.  Very nice lady!  We ended up running 6.35 miles.  A little slower than I've been running, but it was alot of fun to just yak and not think about running.

Afterwards Mel & I went to a 2nd hand store and I got myself an awesome sports bra in fantastic shape and 2 cute dresses - one with tags on still.  Then we went to my favourite little Mexican restaurant and had a lovely lunch.  It was a fun day.

This one is just a tad tight through the chest/back and waist.

I can wear it, but I know I'd be a bit more comfortable in it being down about 5 lbs.

This one is SO comfy!  I think it will be super comfortable to wear in the summer.

Sunday I met up with Mac and a couple other running friends.  As I said above, I wanted to do a few miles on my own, so I started before they got there.  I had planned on doing about 2-3 miles, but once I got going it just felt so good.  We'd had some more torrential rain in the morning, and the sun had just come out and it was SO warm.  I ran 2 1/2 miles then called Mac to see where she was.  She was running late - PERFECT, I wanted to run more.  I ended up doing 5.5 miles on my own before we even met up.

Mac & I run at a faster pace than the others, so we went ahead on our own.  I figured she'd want to do about 5-6 miles, so was very happy to be getting about 11 miles in for the day.  As it was, she wanted to go a bit longer and we ended up doing 7.3 together.

So in total, I ran 12.8 miles!  It was a much slower than race pace, but it was awesome.  Except for the last bout of rain we got.  About 2 miles from the end the skies suddenly opened up.  I could barely see from the rain falling in my eyes.  Insane!  At one point I threw up my arms and screamed to the skies "Bring It On!" ... I believe I got answered!

For a week that I'd anticipated running about 17 miles .... I ran 27 miles!

I'm going to be so ready for that next half!  I can't wait to go check out the route.


**GIVEAWAY TO MENTION**

Another giveaway at Running Through Life for a beautiful Adidas jacket.  I love Adidas clothes!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

Half Marathon Pics

I was lacking for bloggy ideas today, when these little gems showed up ... pics from our recent half marathon.

My husband is at the back in the brown hoodie. 

He always looks so big compared to most runners.

I am to his left, but am too short to see me behind bow-tie guy.

I'm pretty sure we were the last runners to cross the start line.

Being a chip time I didn't feel the need to crowd up into the start gate.

He took off his hoodie around the 2Km mark and left it by a volunteer.  After the race it wasn't there and it hadn't been returned to the organizers.  We left our name & number, but no one has called to say it was returned yet.  This kind of disappoints and suprises me. 

Here he is further along in the race (after ditching the sweater ... and leaving me).  At least he managed somewhat of a smile for the camera

UNLIKE ME.....

What?  That doesn't look like me?? 

I'm in the purple long sleeves behind this guy.

I didn't realize I was that much behind this guy. 

I think I was in front of him a bit when I got too sick and had to stop.

Here is the (un)HAPPY face I'm talking about ...

I think I was attempting a smile, but a bit late. 

And OH MY the hair. 

The way it's going up and back makes it look like I have a super short cut. 

When in fact, I'm trying to grow it out again and it's longer than it's been in a while.

At the next race I see a camera, I will try extra hard for more of this look

I had no idea that top moved that much either.  It always feels so snug.  Hmmm

Not the prettiest things, but eh. 

I haven't decided what to do with ours yet. 

Might hang them in the gym by the treadmill.

Speaking of the treadmill...

As I mentioned yesterday, I got up early and did the first workout from Making the Cut.  Then last night, I did the 2nd workout in the book.  I had missed Tuesday and wanted to make it up.

Afterwards I decided to do mile intervals with a short break in between each mile on the treadmill.  I want to work on turning my legs over quicker, so did shorter distances at a faster pace.  I was pretty happy with my paces, especially the last one.  I don't recall doing a sub 8 min mile before.

 

Mile 1 @ 8:13 mile/min

Mile 2 @ 8:00 mile/min

Mile 3 @ 7:45 mile/min

But somewhere about midway I got what I thought was a major cramp in my sides ... but both sides, not just one.  I've never had anything like that before and it felt REALLY weird.  It felt like something was grabbing my stomach inside and pulling it in.

It wasn't until this morning when I jogged up the stairs to my office that I put it all together.  It was my abs from the strength workouts!  It's been a while since I worked those babies hard.  I'm feeling that lovely little ache from a good workout today.  Love that burn!

It's a beautiful sunny day again today.  Got out for a short walk on my lunch break.  Tomorrow I'm supposed to go running with a friend and a new running mate of hers.  That's always exciting.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥

Wise Words

The sweet and fiesty Tamara left me this comment:

Heidi: maybe you can stop thinking this way as a public service. Because if you don't feel like you belong, how am I ever going to feel it? Or the next person who's just starting the C25K program?

Repeat after me: You're a runner. A great runner. An inspirational runner!

Say it. See it. Believe it.

This girl makes me laugh my butt off so often, plus she's kinda scary when she wants to be.  So ... I think I better listen to her advice! As a "public service" (hahaha) I will from now on always consider myself a true and competent runner.  Thanks Tamara!  She's so right too.

I went onto facebook today and my dear friend's daughter is going through some emotional and mentally challenging times right now with relationships, completing university classes (while still in high school) and just the future in general.  Her aunt, who I've yet to meet - her brother is our best friend - posted this advice to her ...

Remember... each morning when you wake up... YOU decide what your mood and attitude is going to be.. we can choose to feel sorry for ourselves.. or we can accept it as an opportunity to learn and grow and become stronger!

WOW - these words really struck me.  A couple years ago I spent more time being cranky & moody than any person should ever be.  Really, I didn't have a reason to be that way, but I just wasn't happy with life.  My weight was a big part of why I felt that way - and I believe my negative reaction to it just made matters worse.  I was choosing every day to focus on the things in my life that weren't ideal.  Consequently, I was blinded to all that was good.  It was a downward spiral.

I made a conscious effort to change how I felt about the world.

I ended a friendship that was tearing me down for quite some time.  I made a huge effort to change my attititude about things that I couldn't change.  And I also made an even bigger effort to change my reactions to other's attitudes, personalities, judgements.  I used to be pretty bad about sitting and talking with a friend/family member and bashing someone else - I REALLY didn't like that about myself.  It wasn't the type of person I was deep down, but I had let myself become that person. 

For the last few years I have really tried to live my life in a more positive light ... and I'm way happier because of it.  These words from my friend's sister really hit home for me and I think it's the motto I've been looking for for quite some time.  Thank you Kelly!

I just want to give a quick shout out to my Momma.  Yesterday was her very last radiation treatment after having uterine cancer last fall.  It's been a tough battle, but she made it through with shining colours.  I love you Mommy!  I'm so glad this has turned out so well.  Enjoy your well deserved vacation in the sun.  Wish I could be there with you!

Oh, and I had said that last night I would start with the first workout from Jillian Michaels: Making the Cut.  I didn't!  A bunch of stuff came up and I was really tired, so went to bed early.  BUT ... I got up early this morning and did it before work.  WOOOHOOO!  Tonight I will do Day 2, plus a little run.

Have a great day everyone! 

The sun is shining here and it's a wonderful day.

Heidi

♥♥♥♥♥