April 07, 2011

9 Miles

I had a scheduled long run today--9 miles. I always dread my long runs, and I even get nervous before them. I like to have a Green Monster before my runs, so I made that for breakfast.


Then I drove to my friend Renee's house to park and I did a 4.5 mile out-and-back run (actually, I overshot and went about 4.7 miles out, making the total run 9.36 miles. The first 5-6 miles, I felt totally fine. Then around mile 7, I just felt like I was dragging ass.

I just wanted it to be over!

That's the positive about an out-and-back run. You feel great the whole way out, feeling like you can run forever, the whole time getting farther and farther from your car (or house, or wherever you started). By the time you turn around and head back, it's too late to change your mind about how far to run. You have to get back somehow, right? When your legs feel like lead, you have no choice but to keep going. And I never stop to walk, because walking will just take longer.

My pace was terrible. I don't know what my funk is lately. I did great at the 10k on Saturday, but other than that, my pace has been slow. Today I averaged a little over a 9:30/mi pace. I really ought to be under a 9:00/mi pace.

Anyway, enough of that!  Today is my brother's birthday, and my mom invited us over there for dinner. She decided to bring home Chinese food. I told her last week about how important it is that I reach goal by the end of June, and I even told her not to be offended if I turn down dinner offers, etc.

I told her I wasn't going to go, and she got mad, so I told her that I'd go but just bring my own food.  So I made General Tsao's Chicken for me and my husband. Then I bought Smart Ones peanut butter cup sundaes for us to have instead of her dessert. I wasn't really tempted by the Chinese food, but refusing the Reese cup pie took some serious willpower.

My brother brought his new girlfriend to my parents house for dinner too, and I met her for the first time. I'm sure she thinks I'm a total self-righteous freak because I brought my own food. But I got over that a looong time ago. When I got very serious about losing weight, I quit giving a crap what other people thought about my food choices, and I learned to say NO.

By the way, if there is ONE change that you make to your diet for the better, it should be to give up restaurant food! I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've had restaurant food in the past year (maybe even two years!)  And that includes fast food. It was hard at first, but now I have no desire whatsoever to eat out (or order in).

I burned almost 1,000 calories during my run today, so naturally I ate more food for the day. Usually if I'm craving junk food, I eat it on my long run day. I was tempted to get a monster cookie today for that reason, but decided against it. Maybe next week for my 10-miler :)  Today I've just been snacking a little more than usual.

After seeing the plug on the 100-calorie packs of Wholly Guacamole on The Biggest Loser, I definitely had to buy some! I found them at Kroger. It's a 3 pack for a little under $2. I had one today with some baby carrots, and it was SOOO good. I may or may not have even licked the pouch until there wasn't a speck of green left ;)

Another snack I've been eating a lot lately is apple slices sprinkled with sea salt. I don't have a clue what possessed me to sprinkle salt on my apple, but it was fantastic! So I've been having that almost daily.

Today's food log:

Breakfast-
Green Monster  (189)
coffee with cream (25)

Lunch-
1 egg + 2 egg whites with Laughing Cow cheese (139)
waffle with almond butter (129)
pear with cinnamon  (98)

Dinner-
General Tsao's Chicken  (197)
brown rice (160)
Smart Ones peanut butter cup sundae  (170)

Snacks-
pineapple fluff  (181)
carrots with guacamole  (128)
WW carrot cake  (90)  <---these are soooo tiny and unsatisfying!
Caramello  (200)

Exercise-
Ran 9.36 miles  (+984)

Total calories eaten:  1705


3 comments:

  1. Way to go and not giving into your Mom's poor choices!! You are a lot stronger than me! I have eaten out more in the past few years than I've eaten in - bad I know. And lately I've been in a non dieting and exercising funk that I really need to get out of! UGH! Congrats on the progress!! I really need to start doing some long runs too, my first half is in 23 days!!!

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  2. Good for you for sticking to your guns. I hope your family understands and supports your goals. It's nice to have people in your corner.

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  3. I got some of those chocolate WW (twinkie-like) treats! They ARE tiny. I haven't eaten any, but son had one yesterday. He said they were delicious, but he could eat 10 of them! I saw a coupon in yesterday's paper for the guacamole they were advertising on Biggest Loser. I didn't know what I would be able to eat with it, since chips are probably not going to work. Carrots is a good idea though--so I'll try that. Thanks for the great idea. Now I have to check out the Gen. Tsao's chicken recipe! I love Chinese! Nice going on avoiding the high caloried food at your Mom's. That is really hard and you were a champ!

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