Today I had a "short" long run on the schedule of 7 miles. The schedule has the long runs increase in distance for two weeks, then decrease for a week, then increase for two weeks, etc. So the last two weeks were 9 miles and 10 miles, and today was just 7.
Since my kids are in Winter Break, I met Jessica pretty early (7:30) for our run. Jerry was with the kids and waited for me to get home so he could go to sleep (he works a swing shift, and he's on midnights right now).
The run was actually really nice. It was cold outside (18 degrees) but after a mile or two I felt good. I have a love/hate relationship with long runs--I hate them because they're long (duh) but I love them because I can take it at a slow, easy pace and not worry about my speed at all.
Our splits:
Mile 1: 10:36
Mile 2: 10:58
Mile 3: 11:21
Mile 4: 11:32
Mile 5: 11:14
Mile 6: 10:56
Mile 7: 10:49
When we were done, Jessica noticed that I had a "hair-cicle" from my sweat...
Yep, it was a cold one this morning! ;)
I altered my Breakfast Cookie recipe to make some "real food" muffin tops. They turned out really well. I made a batch to put in the freezer and pull out one at a time for breakfast. I had one after my run this morning, and it kept me full until lunch time.
I
was very close to calling it quits on this challenge today. Not because
I was tempted to eat something like the chocolates sitting on my
dresser, but because my weight keeps climbing. I know that it's because
of the peanut butter! (It's not muscle, I promise--my clothes are tighter and my body fat % is up, too). I've gone through three jars of peanut butter in
19 days. I refuse to open another one (natural pb is expensive!), so I'm going to try my best to
see if I can get my weight back down without counting calories and still
continuing with the challenge.
If there is one thing that I take away from this challenge, it's that I was completely right about the advice I always give: Don't make any changes that you're not willing to live with forever. This challenge is too restrictive, and it's not something that I'd be willing to do forever. It's so restrictive that it's making me binge on peanut butter and honey. If it's not peanut butter, then I'm sure it would be something else.
The whole time I was losing weight, I ate ANYTHING I WANTED as long as I counted the calories for it. This kept me satisfied, and I didn't feel too restricted. I think this was a key component to my weight loss. I was mentally satisfied as well as physically, and it worked.
I don't regret doing this challenge, because it really did confirm my belief that everything is okay in moderation. And there are a few things that will be permanent changes (or at least I will try to integrate them)--like eating more vegetables, using "real" ingredients whenever possible, baking with honey instead of sugar (on a lot of items). Oh, and let's not forget homemade tortillas! I won't be buying tortillas anymore.
While eating "real food" is certainly the ideal way of doing things, I can't wait to go back to "normal" and incorporate some of my favorite non-real foods back into my diet. This will make me feel more satisfied and hopefully get my weight back down.
My next challenge is going to be MUCH less challenging and something that I'd be willing to live with forever ;) All of this thinking has also made me decide not to give up nuts for Lent after all. Instead, I'm going to make it a mission to go 40+ days staying binge-free.
After lunch, the kids and I had some fun re-creating something that I saw on Pinterest. Here is the original picture that I saw:
Does that not have Estelle's name written all over it?! So when I was about to recycle a box today, I remembered this picture and decided to re-create it with my cats. It did NOT go as planned, but we still shared a few belly laughs while doing the cat photo shoot. Here are a few of the pics (and I think it's obvious how artistic I am, lol):
Since my kids are in Winter Break, I met Jessica pretty early (7:30) for our run. Jerry was with the kids and waited for me to get home so he could go to sleep (he works a swing shift, and he's on midnights right now).
The run was actually really nice. It was cold outside (18 degrees) but after a mile or two I felt good. I have a love/hate relationship with long runs--I hate them because they're long (duh) but I love them because I can take it at a slow, easy pace and not worry about my speed at all.
Mile 1: 10:36
Mile 2: 10:58
Mile 3: 11:21
Mile 4: 11:32
Mile 5: 11:14
Mile 6: 10:56
Mile 7: 10:49
When we were done, Jessica noticed that I had a "hair-cicle" from my sweat...
Yep, it was a cold one this morning! ;)
I altered my Breakfast Cookie recipe to make some "real food" muffin tops. They turned out really well. I made a batch to put in the freezer and pull out one at a time for breakfast. I had one after my run this morning, and it kept me full until lunch time.
If there is one thing that I take away from this challenge, it's that I was completely right about the advice I always give: Don't make any changes that you're not willing to live with forever. This challenge is too restrictive, and it's not something that I'd be willing to do forever. It's so restrictive that it's making me binge on peanut butter and honey. If it's not peanut butter, then I'm sure it would be something else.
The whole time I was losing weight, I ate ANYTHING I WANTED as long as I counted the calories for it. This kept me satisfied, and I didn't feel too restricted. I think this was a key component to my weight loss. I was mentally satisfied as well as physically, and it worked.
I don't regret doing this challenge, because it really did confirm my belief that everything is okay in moderation. And there are a few things that will be permanent changes (or at least I will try to integrate them)--like eating more vegetables, using "real" ingredients whenever possible, baking with honey instead of sugar (on a lot of items). Oh, and let's not forget homemade tortillas! I won't be buying tortillas anymore.
While eating "real food" is certainly the ideal way of doing things, I can't wait to go back to "normal" and incorporate some of my favorite non-real foods back into my diet. This will make me feel more satisfied and hopefully get my weight back down.
My next challenge is going to be MUCH less challenging and something that I'd be willing to live with forever ;) All of this thinking has also made me decide not to give up nuts for Lent after all. Instead, I'm going to make it a mission to go 40+ days staying binge-free.
After lunch, the kids and I had some fun re-creating something that I saw on Pinterest. Here is the original picture that I saw:
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| Photo source |
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| Estelle refused to put her face through the hole |
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| Chandler was too fat to fit comfortably in the box, lol |
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| Phoebe can fit through ANYTHING. |
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| Paolo wins for the best mouse photo ;) |
