Real Foods Challenge: Day 4

I took Noah to swim class this morning, and when I came home, I discovered something I hoped I'd never see. You would think with four cats, I would never have to. I was putting away dishes when I discovered that a mouse has taken up residence underneath my dishwasher and cupboards near the sink.

I first noticed that the plastic on the silverware tray was scraped off in a spot--and the little shavings were next to it. I KNOW it was not there yesterday. I thought it was weird, and asked the kids if they were sawing it with a knife or something. They said no, and I looked more closely at the drawer, and I saw mouse droppings.

I pulled all the drawers out, and got out a flashlight to look in the space underneath the drawers and sink. More mouse droppings. Not a LOT--just enough that I think it's just one mouse. I pulled everything out of the drawers, and took ALL the silverware and ran it through the dishwasher. I used Pinesol to clean out the drawers really well (the drawers contained my silverware tray, my Ziploc bags and plastic wrap, and then a "junk drawer" full of pens and papers and other stuff.

I found a few droppings in the drawer with the bags and plastic wrap, so I ended up throwing it all away. I cleaned out the junk drawer really well, but didn't find any droppings in there. Eli was SO excited about the whole thing--such a boy! He even said, "This is the most exciting day of my life!!" and he kept shining the flashlight in there. We let Estelle go in and check it out, but she came out with an empty mouth, unfortunately (slacker!).

I went to the store and bought a couple of mousetraps. They had all kinds of different ones, but I just chose the basic one that you think of when you picture a mousetrap. I thought it was a little more humane than the sticky paper--I read the instructions on it, thinking maybe I could save the mouse, but it says once the mouse is stuck to the paper, you just throw it away. That's so cruel!

I put peanut butter on for the bait (might as well give him a really yummy last meal). I set the first one with no problem, and as I was setting the second one, I thought, "Who in the hell could accidentally--" SNAP! The trap snapped on my thumb. I yelled, what may or may not have been profane words, and gave it to Jerry to do. Yup, the thumb is a little sore.

I don't want to put the drawers back in, because I don't want to have to go through this all over again tomorrow, so I just put plastic wrap over the opening and taped it shut (I don't want the cats to go in there and get snapped with the mousetrap).

The good news is that our food is nowhere near those cupboards. I have a pretty big kitchen, and we keep all of our food in a huge pantry on the opposite corner of where these cupboards are. So the mouse would have to cross the kitchen and climb up the wall to get to our food--not likely. I really hope that he finds the trap tonight though!

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Another "real foods" day down the hatch! I'm kind of surprised how well I'm doing at this. Having the blog and making my intentions very public certainly helps--I would be too embarrassed to screw up, so I just keep that in mind when I'm tempted to quit the challenge.

Oh, speaking of which... I meant to write about this sooner, I really did, but I kept forgetting to talk about it. My super-long binge-free streak ended sometime around my birthday :(  I don't even remember when it happened the first time, but I had to start over. And today is only Day 4. Ah well, live and learn. I learned that I can't have more than ONE treat in my house at any given time. No batches of cookies, no cupcakes + cookies + chocolate, etc.

I do fine with portions when I just have one temptation in the house. But having more than that makes it very hard for me. But I'm determined to see this month through with real food, so hopefully I will stay binge-free as well.

I tried to vary my food a little today, so it's not such a boring food log ;)  I made "banana bread" oatmeal, and it was really good--topped with peanut butter, of course! I combined 1/2 cup old fashioned oats + 3/4 cup milk + 1/2 banana, sliced + 4 walnut halves, chopped + cinnamon + tiny dash of nutmeg in a bowl and microwaved on high for 3 minutes. It honestly tasted just like banana bread. And since I always eat banana bread with peanut butter spread on top, I had to do the same with the oatmeal.

Breakfast--banana bread oatmeal (above)
Lunch--salad with chicken, balsamic vinaigrette, raisins, almonds
Dinner--chicken and roasted veggies (I adore roasted veggies!!)
Snacks--1/2 banana with peanut butter, tea, peanut butter, popcorn with oil and salt

It was absolutely gorgeous outside today, and that actually made me do something I almost never do--go for an unscheduled run. I just wanted to be outside, so I decided to do a three miler. As always, once I started running, I thought, "Why the fuck am I running when I don't have to?!" ;)  But also as always, I was happy that I did once I was done.

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 3

I tried so hard to sleep in this morning, because my boys spent the night at my parents' house last night. I was up bright and early at 6, however, so I ended up just catching up on e-mail. I was contemplating going for a run before Eli got home, but my mom ended up bringing him home at 8:30. So I decided to put my run off until Jerry woke up in the afternoon.

I took Eli to the library so he could pick out a couple of movies and books (he's completely bored being out of school right now). I ended up getting a couple of books, too. Because I'm doing this "real foods" challenge, I got In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, and The Eat Clean Diet Stripped by Tosca Reno.

When I got home, I spent some time flipping through the Tosca Reno book, and I wasn't a big fan. I was picturing it to be more of a health book than a diet book (basically, I thought it would be about WHY eating clean is good for your body); and it was definitely a diet book, with rules and everything. I quit doing those kinds of diets in 2009. But I know a lot of people really like her, so maybe I should have read the first book she wrote instead of this "Stripped" one (about losing the last 10 pounds). This was the only one they had at the library.

I decided to quit reading that and switched to In Defense of Food. I could tell I was going to like this book from the very first page, where he starts, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." You can't get more basic than that! I got the book version and audio version, so that I would have something to listen to on my run today. I put it on my iPod and headed out for an "easy four" miles.

I won't comment on the book itself just yet, because I only made it through the introduction on my run. But I'm going to read some more of it tonight. I really like SIMPLE things, and I hate that the diet industry makes everything so complicated with so many rules. That seems to be a lot of what this book is about, so I think I'm going to enjoy it.

It was pretty warm today, enough so that I just wore a very light long-sleeved tech shirt and my thin, cool running tights. I kind of wished I'd worn gloves for the first mile or so, because my hands were frozen. But after that, I felt pretty good. And by the fourth mile, I was pretty warm.

When I got home, I wanted a snack. And peanut butter was calling my name...

Banana with peanut butter and toasted walnuts

I used to eat that combo a lot when I was training for my half-marathon last year. I have a feeling you'll be seeing it again (and again...)

My food log for today (again, not much change--sorry)
Breakfast--oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and pure maple syrup
Lunch--salad with chicken breast, almonds, raisins, and balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--leftover vegetarian fried rice
Snacks--banana with peanut butter and walnuts, spoonful of peanut butter, tea, popcorn with oil and salt

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Oh, so last night the kids spent the night at my parents' house, and Jerry was off work. We decided to watch a movie, and I wanted to try out making popcorn in a brown paper bag. I did it once before YEARS ago, and remember it being a disaster, but I wanted to give it a try again. And good thing I did, because my house smelled like THIS the rest of the night:

There is nothing less appetizing than the smell of burnt popcorn. I don't understand it! Half of the kernels didn't even pop, and most of what did pop was burnt. What am I doing wrong? I didn't add anything to bag at all--just the kernels (about 2 Tbsp). I think I'll just give it up and stick with my Presto thing that goes in the microwave.

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And I'll leave you with a couple of random thoughts...

I think I figured out why I seem to have changed my mind about salad. I love live for the last little bits in the bowl, once all the lettuce is gone.

Almonds, raisins, chicken, and my dressing

Finally, I managed to get a quick photo of Estelle when she was playing fetch. Here she is carrying her favorite straw:

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 2

This morning, after I got Noah off to school, I had to take Eli for yet another blood test. The doctor told us to go to the lab at the hospital because he would get the results faster. I had no idea that the wait in the waiting room would be FOREVER long.

Eli was SO mad at me because he really didn't want to get his blood drawn again. I let him bring his Nintendo DS, but he was so mad that he didn't even want to play it. While we were sitting in the waiting room, a man across from me said, "Boy, he doesn't look too happy."  I took one look and just laughed and said, "Hmm, how can you tell?"

See how thrilled he looks?  He literally sat with that scowl on his face and his arms crossed for about 20 minutes. All the people in the waiting room thought it was funny.

His blood work came back to be the same as yesterday, which isn't good, but it isn't bad either. The doctor stressed that he is to do NO activity whatsoever. Mentally, he feels totally fine and wants to play, so it's hard to keep him lying on the couch all day.

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So Day 2 of the Real Food Challenge went well. I still don't feel any different, but like I said, I'm not expecting much so soon. I've been craving my Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread with peanut butter. This afternoon when the craving hit, I had a spoonful of peanut butter and that helped (a little).

One of my favorite snacks (and something that I'm used to eating just about every day) is a piece of Ezekiel bread (toasted) with some sort of nut butter. I've been having pistachios as a snack instead--they're good, but certainly not as good as my toast with nut butter!

My food journal is pretty boring today, because it's nearly identical to yesterday... but that's the way I am. I go through food "phases", where I find something I like and I eat it every day until I find something else ;)  I'm still on the salad kick for lunch, which actually started on Christmas Eve. It's so funny--I ate probably two salads the entire time I was losing weight, because I just didn't like them. And out of nowhere, I was craving a salad on Christmas Eve, so I had one for lunch. And now I've had one nearly every day since then!

I still much prefer the French+Ranch dressing combo, but since that's not "real" food, I've made my own vinaigrette dressing. It's pretty good, but not the "Franch" I was used to eating.

A lot of you asked for the recipe for the fudge I made yesterday. I will warn you, if you're expecting it to taste like Mackinac Island Fudge, it doesn't. Not even close. It's good, though--very chocolatey and rich, but not super sweet. If given a choice between it and the Mackinac Island Fudge, with no concern for health or calories, I would certainly choose the Mackinac Island Fudge!

But anyway, I don't have a real "recipe" for it, but here is how I made it (measurements are approximate, because I don't measure).
Simply combine:
3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. honey
dash of vanilla extract (or almond extract, coconut extract, or whatever you'd like)
Enough water to bring it together (probably about 1/2 to 1 tsp)

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl. Add the water a very tiny amount at a time--you have to stir this for a long time to get all the cocoa moistened. It will be very thick, like a dough. Separate into two pieces and roll into balls. It tastes best if you refrigerate it until cold, but I can never wait that long ;)

And for those of you that asked for the recipe for the fried rice, you can find that here on my recipes blog.

Today's food log:
Breakfast--oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and maple syrup
Lunch--salad with avocado, chicken breast, and almonds, with balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--homemade chicken soup with brown rice instead of noodles
Snacks--pistachios, string cheese, spoonful of peanut butter, chai latte (see below), popcorn with oil and salt

*One of my favorite treats while I was losing weight was a chai latte that I made myself. I love the Stash brand chai tea bags, so I would heat 1 cup of milk in the microwave until very hot (about 2 minutes), then steep a tea bag in the milk. Add 1 Tbsp. honey. It's very sweet, which makes it almost like a dessert; and steeping it in milk instead of water makes it very decadent. A great bedtime treat!

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 1

The verdict on the kale chips is.... gross. I liked the texture--super light and airy and crispy--but the taste was JUST like raw broccoli. I like raw broccoli when it's dipped in something fattening, but otherwise, I'm not a big fan. I'm willing to try kale in other ways, though--thanks for all the suggestions! I think I might like it better as a hot side dish (like broccoli).

The tea I bought, on the other hand, was amazing! I was kind of hoping I wouldn't like it, because it's super expensive. But I think I still like the Celestial Seasonings Sweet Coconut Thai better. I can't believe I didn't think to look online for it! I will be ordering some for sure.

This morning, I met Jessica at the YMCA parking lot so that we could run intervals and then she could go in and do her step class after. I actually really like doing intervals because of how fast the whole run goes by.  These are our 1/4 mile splits...

 On our "fast" parts, we were averaging an 8:57/mi pace--and it felt pretty HARD. I just kept thinking about how I ran a 10k race in October at an 8:50/mi pace, and I don't know how I managed to do it! I honestly don't care much about my pace (especially for the marathon); but it's kind of frustrating that I seem to be getting slower rather than faster. My next run is a 4-miler on Friday.

After our run, I hurried home to shower and get Eli (Jerry was home with him) and take Eli to the doctor. The doctor drew blood again and said that the flu is still prevalent. Eli was coughing this morning when he woke up, but he actually started walking a little last night. The doctor said the earliest he'll be able to go back to school is Tuesday, and that's only if everything goes well from here on out.

My "real foods" challenge started today, and it went very well (so far, anyway). Here is my food log:

Breakfast-- oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and pure maple syrup
Lunch-- salad with chicken breast, homemade balsamic vinaigrette, walnuts, and avocado
Dinner-- homemade fried brown rice with tons of veggies and scrambled egg

Snacks-- pistachios, kale chips (just a couple), tea, air-popped popcorn, fudge (just combine cocoa powder, honey, a little water, and vanilla extract and form a "dough" with it)

So far, I haven't noticed a change mentally or physically--but I didn't really expect to notice a difference this quickly. I feel kind of anxious and crabby right now, probably from not having any sugar today (I haven't had the fudge yet, but I'm going to make it soon).

Oh! I was a little surprised and excited to see this when I logged into Blogger today...

Sometime this morning, my blog reached a million pageviews. That blows my mind!! I wish I had seen that coming, because I feel like I should have planned a giveaway or something fun to celebrate.

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Some of you have seen this on Facebook already, but I registered for the Tennessee Ragnar Relay in November of this year!  I'm a little nervous, because I don't know the team at ALL--Jessica was invited to join the team by her friend, and she asked if I could do it too. So Jessica is the only person I know on the team. But that's actually part of what is so FUN about a Ragnar--you get to meet some really cool people, and get to know them pretty well after spending 30ish hours in a van together :)

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Real groceries

Eli stayed home from school again today. Last night, I talked to his doctor on the phone (his "regular" pediatrician that I really like; he had to see someone else when he went in yesterday because it was a last-minute appt). The doctor told me that his ck (creatine kinase) levels were slightly elevated, which is what is causing the leg pain. He said the elevated ck level was due to a virus (flu).

It's just scary to see him unable to walk! He tries to, and sometimes he'll forget that it hurts--so I see him try to jump up and then he just falls because his legs hurt too badly to walk. Jessica told me today that this happened to her son when he was three. She said it was a few days before he could walk, but he had to get an IV in the hospital for fluids.

I'm going to keep him home probably for the rest of the week. I'm supposed to run with Jessica in the morning. Jerry is working nights, so I'll just have him stay awake until I get home in the morning from our run. We're just doing three miles of intervals.

This morning, I went grocery shopping for some "real foods". And just to clear things up, I am not doing a cleanse, or a fast, or eating "raw", or anything like that. Just good ol' REAL food for a month. While shopping today, I discovered a few things that I'm going to miss that I wasn't anticipating--salad dressing (I'm *still* on a salad kick! So strange. But I like lots of bottled dressing, and I am going to have to make my own "real" dressing); canned tomatoes (they have preservatives); and chicken broth (I usually use bouillon, because making my own broth is a pain in the ass--not to mention expensive).

I thought it was going to cost a fortune for groceries, but surprisingly, it was cheaper than usual. I spent $86, and that included cat food, plus groceries for Jerry and the kids (stuff I won't be eating).

Today's "real food" load of groceries

FYI, the Kroger brand whole wheat pasta has just ONE ingredient:  100% durum whole wheat flour. I also bought something I've been eye-balling for about a year, but I never buy it because it's $6.99! But today it was on sale for $4.99, so I just had to do it...

Celestial Seasonings has a tea called Sweet Coconut Thai, but I've never been able to find it again (I bought it once at Wal-Mart, and have been looking for it ever since). So when I saw this one, I REALLY wanted to try it, but haven't been able to spend the $7 for 22 sachets. Here is a pic of the Celestial Seasonings tea that I love and miss:

I wish I could find it somewhere!

My house REEKS right now. After reading so much about about "kale chips" that people make, I decided to give it a try. I've never tried kale, and I figured I'd try it out as part of my 30-in-30 list. I bought a bunch of kale today, and I found instructions online for making the chips in a food dehydrator. Well, apparently kale smells like shit. Literally.

I keep thinking that it's the litter box, but when I check, the litter box is clean... and then when I walk by the dehydrator, I get a huge whiff of it. Gross!  Hopefully the smell goes away once they're dehydrated? After they're done, I'm going to toss them with a tiny bit of oil and salt. I don't have high hopes, but I'm going to be open-minded when I try them. :)

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Real food in February

I've finally decided to challenge myself to something that I've always wanted to try, but have always put off for "another time". Since I mentioned that I wanted to start doing monthly challenges for myself, I'm going to start off with a bang in February--with what could possibly by the most difficult challenge I could pick for myself! ;)

I am going to eat 100% REAL food for an entire month (at least February is the shortest month!)  This isn't a weight loss kind of thing (since I'm trying to maintain my weight now) but more of a "feel good" thing. I want to see what happens to my body when I feed it "real" food. I'm hoping that it will help with my insomnia, my lethargy in the afternoons, and possibly my anxiety and depression.

I'll never know if it will help until I try it, so February is finally the time I'm going to do so!

Now, "real food" means different things to different people, so this is how I will define real food for my purposes:  1) Food as it appears in nature, without added stuff to it; 2) Packaged foods with just one ingredient (e.g. brown rice, natural peanut butter w/o added sugar or oil, pure maple syrup, one-ingredient whole wheat pasta, etc); 3) Homemade foods made from "real" ingredients; 4) meat, fish, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, spices, and other whole foods.

Obviously this is super strict, and I would never commit to living this way forever, but it's something I'd like to try for a month.  It's going to require a lot of planning, and certainly a lot of time for cooking and preparing foods. I plan on writing and sharing my food logs for the whole 29-day challenge adventure.

I think the hardest part of this for me will be that I can't have sugar! I think that's why I've avoided doing this challenge for so long--I love my dessert. I'm going to have to come up with some alternative desserts using honey and maple syrup for sweeteners. I've gotten some food ideas from the 100 Days of Real Food website, and I think that will be a helpful resource.

I'm not going to force my family to do this with me, so I'm sure I'll have temptations. But I'm actually kind of looking forward to doing this! I'll start on Wednesday.

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I was surprised how many of you asked about my 30-in-30 list and why Jerry's family hates me. "Hate" is probably a strong word, but they definitely dislike me enough to let it be known. Jerry said that he's always been the "black sheep" of his family, and some of his aunts and uncles really dislike him--and therefore, they dislike me and our kids as well. Some of them were extremely rude to us a few years ago, and I've avoided going to any "family functions" ever since. It's just really uncomfortable to be around people that I know don't like us.  BUT, I really don't want to bring up family drama into my "happy place" of a blog ;)  so let's just let it go! I'm honestly not worried about it at all.

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Poor Eli woke up this morning and his legs hurt so badly that he couldn't walk. I thought he was just being dramatic, but I kept him home from school because he still had a low-grade fever yesterday. After a while today, I realized he really wasn't faking the leg pain, and I made a doctor's appointment for him this afternoon.

Jerry just took him to see the doctor, and they tested him for the flu--it came back positive, which didn't surprise me. And the leg pain was actually due to dehydration. She said that he is very dehydrated, even though he hasn't been throwing up.

I'm really going to have to push liquids on him. We have Gatorade, but he doesn't like it. He will only drink water if he's dying of thirst. The only thing I can get him to drink is milk (which he would drink by the gallon if I'd let him) but he has a mild allergy to milk, so I only let him have one cup a day. I'm going to figure out some sort of reward system for him to drink lots of water.

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Today was my scheduled long run--and it was only 5 miles. During marathon training, the long runs go up for two weeks, then fall back for a week. So it was 6 miles for week one, then 7 for week two, and now just 5 miles. Then next week it'll be 9!

Because I kept Eli home from school, I couldn't go meet Jessica to run with her, and I ended up having to run on the dreadmill. It felt like the longest run EVER, but I managed to finish the 5 miles.

I did some hills, so it's showing a higher calorie burn than usual, but I did the 5 miles in 49:10. Eli has to stay home tomorrow too, per the doctor's orders, but I don't have a run scheduled.  Maybe I'll have a "movie/pajama day" with Eli.

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My friends are VERY sneaky...

Yesterday was my monthly Winers meeting, which Rachael was hosting. Amber volunteered to drive, so she picked me up and we rode together. I had decided not to wear my dress, because it was FREEZING last night, so I just wore a sweater and jeans. I almost decided not to go, because Eli was so sick, but Jerry was home with the boys and said they'd be fine.

When we got to Rachael's, I was wondering if we were at the wrong house by mistake, because the house was dark. We walked into her front porch area, and I was peeking in the windows, trying to figure out why I didn't see anyone. Then I saw some people on the stairs inside, so I opened the door to a very loud "Surprise!!" from all my Winers friends!

I was stunned for a minute, trying to figure out what was going on, when I realized that they had turned it into a surprise party for my 30th. I was completely amazed when they told me that Jerry even knew about it, because he wasn't acting suspicious at ALL. Normally, he can't keep a surprise for anything--he gets way too excited, and he always gives it away (even unknowingly). But I had absolutely NO CLUE at all that they were planning this.

They even had 30th party decorations, and a birthday cake; they chose some of my very favorite wines, and my favorite snacks (hello graham crackers with peanut butter and chocolate chips!!):

How awesome is that cake?!

It's the details... ;)

"Warning: 30th birthday party in progress"

Let's not overlook the Black Box!

They put three candles on my cake--one for each decade. That's how you know you're old! haha

The cake was DELICIOUS. Rachael said her husband Dan made it from a box, but it was seriously the best chocolate cake I'd ever had. I couldn't stop raving about it. As Jessica and I were eating hunks of cake, we were talking about how we need to quit eating so much to drop a few pounds that we've gained in the past week, lol. I found it hilarious that we were having the discussion over cake.

All in all, the night was so much fun, and I felt so special. I have some super amazing friends! The night wouldn't be complete without our group photo, of course:

[Special thanks to Stephanie (in blue next to me) for letting me use all of her photos!]

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My "30 Goals While I'm 30 Years Old" List (30 x 30 List)

Since I turned the big 3-0 on January 25, I decided to make a list of 30 goals to accomplish in my 30th year. Since I only have a year to do these, I'm making them simple--meaning things I can actually DO in just 12 months. If they are too complicated, I'll never get through all of them!

1. Pay off $4,000+ on my credit card.
2. Bare my new tummy in public--at least once (despite being self-conscious of my stretch marks).
3. Read 12 new-to-me books.
    1) Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide
    2) The Swing!
    3) The Wrong Mother
    4) 
4. Take my kids camping.
5. Attend one of Jerry's family functions (his family hates me, and I avoid going).
6. Go roller skating with my kids.
7. Run a marathon. Ran the Cleveland Rite Aid Marathon in May 2012
8. Take the kids sledding.
9. Visit my grandma's grave.
10.Monetize the blog.  (Just did this on my birthday, and it's working out well so far)
11.Try on everything in my closet and get rid of things I won't wear.
12. Go to church at least three times.
13. Try 30 new recipes.
      1. Quinoa Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce
      2. Homemade Cinnamon Raisin Bread
      3. Whole Wheat Banana Bread
      4. Grown-up Hamburger Helper Mac and Cheese
      5. Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
      6. Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies
14. Stay binge-free for an entire year. (Failed this one quickly)
15. Take Jerry on a surprise date.
16. Weigh-in on the first of every month, staying under 137. (Fail--marathon training was not good for my weight!)
17. Go on a nighttime run. Did this Feb. 2012, you can read about it here.
18. Go to a football game with Jerry.
19. Submit my weight loss story to a magazine. Did this Jan 2012, you can read about it here.
20. Try a new fruit.
21. Try a new vegetable. I tried kale, you can read about it here.
22. Meet a reader of my blog. I met two readers at a race.
23. Have a photo shoot done of my family.
24. De-clutter the house and have a yard sale.
25. Complete one knitting project.
26. Complete one crochet project. I made an iPhone cozy
27. Do something spontaneous when the opportunity presents itself (we'll see what it is!)
28. Get a skin cancer screening.
29. Have my friends over for a bonfire (something we used to do annually, but haven't the past couple of years because of the cost).
30. Run and PR a 5k. I ran the Corktown 5K and PR'ed.

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A super fun photo shoot

The photo shoot this morning ended up being so much fun!  I loved the photographer (she is the same age as me and it felt like we were old friends). I haven't seen the photos, but I have a feeling I'm going to love them.

So here's the story behind the photo shoot... a journalist who works at a company in L.A. contacted me after his wife saw my before and after photos on Pinterest, and he checked out my website. He asked if I would be interested in his writing a feature story about my weight loss to appear in a magazine--most likely a European magazine in Australia and/or the U.K. He also said they would pay me for my story, which of course I wouldn't turn down ;)

I checked out his company's website (to make sure it was legit) and I looked at a similar story they did. I was happy with it, so I said sure. I gave an interview over the phone, and I sent them a bunch of photos. Then they scheduled a photo shoot to get some good "after" photos.

They told me to wear a form-fitting dress and heels, so that is why I bought a new dress the other day (I didn't want to wear the same one that I wore on Dr. Oz). It sounds like the story is really going to focus on my love of cookies and how I didn't have to give them up to lose weight--so they asked me to make a batch of cookies to use in the photos.

The photographer (Juliet) came over this morning and spent a couple of hours taking pictures--mainly in my kitchen. We did all kinds of fun poses--lots with the cookies, some with my old jeans, a couple on the dreadmill in my dress and heels ;)  and some others. I'm super excited to see how they turned out!  But since so many of you asked, here is a picture of the dress I ended up wearing:

Express dress--reg. $99, sale for $25

I REALLY hope that they'll let me post the photos once the story is published, but I don't know yet. Juliet is going to find out what the deal is and let me know. Since a lot of the photos had cookies as a prop, I think they'd be perfect for my blog.

My "prop" oatmeal cookies

One of my goals on my 30-in-30 list was to submit my story to a magazine, so I guess I can cross that one off the list!  Which reminds me, I need to post my 30-in-30 list. I'll post it right after this in it's own separate blog post.

Tonight is my monthly Winers meeting, and Amber is going to pick me up at 7:45 for that. I'm thinking of wearing my dress, even though I'll be WAY overdressed for Winers. I'm just not used to dressing up, and it's so fun!

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A torture device

I was so looking forward to sleeping in this morning since my kids spent the night at my parents' house and I didn't have to BE anywhere. I even took a sleeping pill last night so that I could sleep through the night. Then at 7:10 this morning, the phone rang. Sigh.

It was Noah, and he just wanted to tell us that him and Eli were eating breakfast at Cracker Barrel before school with my mom. Of course I couldn't go back to sleep then, so I got up and procrastinated my run. I only had a 3-miler on the schedule, but it was VERY slushy outside. I ultimately decided to run on the dreadmill instead.

I finished my 3 miles and then took a shower. While I was getting dressed, I was flipping through my Runner's World magazine and I found this quote, which made me laugh (because it's totally true):

During the run, I did a few sprints at a 7:30/mi pace for 60 seconds each--and I kept thinking about how, on The Biggest Loser, that woman (forget her name) asked Dolvett if he'd ever given birth. Hahaha, I realized that when I run sprints, I always pick a focal point (like she talked about) and I focus on my breathing and just getting it done. I'll never be able to do that again without thinking of that woman asking Dolvett if he'd ever given birth.

Jerry and I worked on cleaning the house, and then I got into "project" mode. I went to Lowe's for one simple thing (an outlet plate) and ended up spending $360. I bought new blinds for the living room, which we have desperately needed for about six years. I was horribly embarrassed of the blinds that we had, because they were torn up from when we had Oliver (our dog) and from the kids pulling on them, and the cats messing with them. Here is what they looked like before:

 Terrible, right?! So while I was at Lowe's, I ended up getting new ones that look a million times better:

I also got new vertical blinds for the sliding glass door in the kitchen--they look just like the ones pictured above, only they are vertical.  I got a new thermostat for our furnace, which we've needed for a while. Plus some other boring stuff that we've needed for a very long time, but keep putting off.

While Jerry was bringing the blinds into the house, Phoebe snuck outside. Apparently, she thought it was too cold and she wanted back in. We were cleaning in the kitchen when we noticed she was looking for someone to rescue her from the cold:

This is when she spotted me taking pictures, lol

Jessica came over and brought me some jewelry to wear tomorrow for the photo shoot. The photographer called today to confirm, and she'll be here at 10:00 tomorrow morning. It sounded like she'll mainly be shooting in the kitchen. I'll have Jerry take a picture of me in the dress tomorrow so you can at least see an amateur photo ;)

The school nurse called today and had us pick up Eli from school early because his belly was hurting. I think he might have the stomach flu. He's been achy and moaning about his stomach all afternoon and evening, and he has a low-grade fever. I feel so bad when he complains about his stomach hurting, because there is nothing I can do. Of course this means he gets to skip his swimming lesson tomorrow morning, which he'll be thrilled about.

Well, I still have a lot to get done, so I better get to it!

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