May 07, 2013

Must keep busy

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.


15 comments:

  1. I had to lol at "It didn't take long to get it up..." :D I find that I am the same way, that if I am very busy, I don't think about food as much. Today was pretty busy, and so was yesterday, so I did well with staying on track. We do the not shopping for a while thing, other than stuff like milk and eggs and produce, but I don't think we could make it a month since we don't have a very large pantry, so it's not stockpiled. I have been trying to eat up what we have before buying more stuff. I LOVE the cook and serve pudding! I used to binge eat that stuff though, so I'd be scared to make it now. I like to eat it warm, with whipped cream.

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  2. thanks for the inspiration....I'm on the 'couch' part of couch to 5K ;) (well- I can walk forever....)

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  3. Way to get right back on track! Great job!

    Sarah
    www.thinfluenced.com

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  4. AnonymousMay 08, 2013

    I just wanted to say thanks for mentioning those fiber one cookie bars. I picked them up at target today. So good! I probably would not have tried them if you hadn't mentioned them! You mentioned a cookie dough tea the other day. How was it? Oh and the skinny cow ice cream sandwich with fat free cool whip was a brilliant idea! Thank you!!

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  5. English muffin mini pizzas! I totally forgot about those, they used to be my favorite. I've had a hard time coming up with dinner ideas and this will definitely be made for dinner this week! :)

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  6. That chocolate pudding is making my mouth water.

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  7. This is a crazy question, but do you think since you don't have your usual things you eat is making you anxious and wanting to binge?

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  8. AnonymousMay 08, 2013

    Afternoons are my bad time too, especially if I am at work late.....

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  9. I'm interested to hear your opinion of the heart rate training once you do some more of it. I had thought of doing it in the past, but then I did some research and learned how inaccurate HRMs and max HRs can be. My Garmin always says my average HR is around 187 on every single run, and I don't run nearly as fast as you. I pretty much ignore the HR readings, and I'm not even sure why I wear the HRM anymore...

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  10. You are 'spot on' with knowing you need to KEEP BUSY to avoid bingeing. So, taking your advice, I need to keep on with my house cleaning, instead of sitting here on my computer, reading your blog and thinking about food. ARGHHHHH!!!

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  11. AnonymousMay 08, 2013

    Hi Katie! Will you do a review of the Davis's Teas that you have tried? I am especially interested in the Cookie Dough one you recently mentioned. I am considering buying it and some others and would love to hear your opinion! Thanks!

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  12. Do you always pay attention to your pace? I've been training for my half and have started turning off my audio cues for whatever I'm not concentrating on. Like if it's a 12 mile run I only put on the cues for the miles so I don't push myself on my time thinking I need to do better when my only focus is really supposed to be the miles. It's making my runs a lot more enjoyable!

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  13. I'm sure you've heard of these websites before but in case you haven't here's one:
    http://myfridgefood.com/
    You check off the list of what foods you have on hand and it will come up with recipies for you. Good luck! I think that's a great idea!!

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  14. I would love to hear more about the warm pudding and peanut butter. Did you just heat up some pudding? That looks so yummy!

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  15. I also put peanut butter on everything! I just ordered some PB2 online, so hopefully that will reduce the amount of calories I consume via peanut butter!

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