This is why I married him

I wish I had cleaned out our closet before Jerry's and my anniversary, because all this stuff I found would have made the perfect anniversary post! But it was too good not to post, so I'm going to anyway ;)

Today, I literally spent the ENTIRE day cleaning the house. The kids went to a birthday party for a few hours, and since it was next door to my mom's house, she let them stay there all afternoon. I used that time to deep clean all of the bedrooms. It was all entirely boring, until I got to Jerry's and my bedroom closet.

I found SO MANY memories!! And even though Jerry was at work, I totally fell head over heels in love with him again. He is honestly the sweetest guy I've ever known. When Jerry acts goofy, a lot of people jokingly say to me, "He's yours?!" or "You married that?!" (For example, when we were at his softball tournament and he hiked his pants up into "nut huggers").

I always laugh and jokingly say something like, "I know, I must have been drunk when I said yes!" But Jerry is SUCH a great guy. There is a side to him that those people don't see, which is what I'm about to show you.

Jerry likes to draw pictures for me--not beautiful, artistic-type drawings, but more cartoon-like drawings. And when we were dating, it became a tradition that he would draw pictures on the paper place mats at restaurants we went to together. He still does this occasionally, but we don't eat out often, so most of the drawings are from 1999-2002 ish. Here are a few of my favorites:

I think that's supposed to be a pedestal that I'm on ;)

"I would swim through the seas for you. Seeing as how I can't swim,
I would take a submarine."

"Lucifer welcomes you to Camp Shane" BAHAHA,
Camp Shane was the weight loss camp that I was a
counselor at in 2002--it was awful.

The last one is hard to read...

"You look good in dark blue...
You look hot even with the flu.
But you look best with me on you.
I like it when you're so clean,
And not so mean,
I like it when you're free,
Even when you pee.
I love you as a she,
I would love you as a he."

A poet, Jerry is not... but this made me laugh! Here are a couple of other things I found:

We bought each other the same exact card for Sweetest Day
one year.

Some movie ticket stubs from 2002ish?

ALL of the letters we wrote to each other when Jerry was in basic training.
I'm going to have to read through mine and see how ridiculous I sounded then!

 (I don't know if I mentioned this before, but shortly after we started dating, Jerry left for basic training--he had joined the Army. But he broke his foot during a PT test, and they discharged him. He was gone for five months).

That's supposed to be the "You are my sunshine" song

Another of Jerry's lovely poems

And finally, something from our wedding. At the reception hall, instead of having a guest book (because those are boring), we had a stack of cards and pens for people to write advice to us for our new marriage. We had a big glass bowl that everyone put them in, and that night, after the wedding, we read them out loud to each other.

Going through those today was so fun!

A few favorites:

From my favorite uncle

This one is from my favorite aunt--she used to baby-sit my brothers, sister, and me when we were kids. She was there when we woke up and she got us off to school. She would make us ANYTHING we wanted for breakfast. I always chose a poached egg on toast. Here is what she wrote to Jerry: "Here's how to make a poached egg for Katie--Boil and egg in water until the white part is set. Make toast while egg is cooking. Butter toast, put egg on toast. Sprinkle with salt. Cut into squares. (Katie will eat the center piece first!) Love and happiness to you both."

This one I'm sure is from my little brother. "If you guys ever think about having kids, go stay the night with Tommy & Shannon."  Tommy is my cousin, and Shannon is his wife. They have two boys, a couple of years apart in age. Their house was always chaotic when the kids were little, which is what my brother was referring to. I think this is funny because now Jerry and I have two boys, 18 months apart, and OUR house is the chaotic one! I'm sure people would give this same advice to others, only replacing the names with "Jerry and Katie". ;)

Something that I don't have anymore, and I wish more than anything I'd saved, are my old hand-written journals. I kept a diary ever since I was able to write, and I had so many of them. But I would get paranoid that someone would read it, so I would burn them after a year or so. I would love to see what I was thinking then.

Anyway, I'm so glad that I saved all the pictures, letters, and notes from Jerry. It totally made my day to come across that stuff today!

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Afternoon in the hammock

It totally didn't feel like Friday today. Since Jerry had to work today, I had to reschedule my long run again. I'll do it on Sunday (18 miles!). Today I just did Wednesday's run (tempo intervals): 15 minutes easy, 5 repeats of (5 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy), then 10 minutes easy.

I was really excited to watch The Biggest Loser while I was running, because I finally made it to the marathon episode. I love watching the Biggest Loser marathons! This whole season has been really good (I'm watching season 9). I watched it when it first aired in January 2010, but since my life has changed so much since then, I see the whole show from a different perspective now.

I set the treadmill at 6.0 mph for the low, and 7.0 for the high. I didn't vary it at all from that, and it made my pace chart look nice and neat ;)

On the show, Daris killed the marathon with a 4:02 time!! That didn't mean much to me when I watched this episode the first time around, but now I am in awe. Even his 5K time in the middle of the season was like 21 minutes!

I was really interested in the weigh-in after the marathon, when Daris ended up gaining 2 pounds in the month that he was at home. He said something like, "I was focused on training for a marathon, not on losing weight. It's really hard to lose weight while training for a marathon." And then Jillian started telling him that was "bullshit", and he should have lost weight while training.

This was so familiar to me! I gained weight while training for my marathon, and I agree that I should have lost weight--IF I didn't increase my calories at all. But it was really hard not to eat more than usual when I was running so much. And it's very easy to justify eating junk when you've just run 16 or 18 miles! So I guess I agree with Daris and I agree with Jillian. (Food for thought... literally)

After my run, I showered and had breakfast, then took the kids grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. Noah has gotten too smart--now he reads the packaging of junk food he wants to buy, and finds the marketing ploy that is used so parents feel good about buying it for their kids. Like these frozen dinners:

Noah wanted those, and he said to me, "Mama, can we get these? It's a good source of protein..." Eli even caught on to what Noah was doing, and when he saw the fruit snacks, he said, "Mama, can we get these fruit snacks? They're made with real fruit!" I showed him the ingredients list and explained to him why fruit snacks aren't the same as fruit. I don't know why I bother, after the recent lesson in sugar. (By the way, I am NOT totally self-righteous about food for my kids--they certainly eat their share of junk--I'm just trying to teach them about why processed food isn't healthy).

This afternoon, it was really nice outside, so I decided to read Divergent out on the hammock. My parents bought a hammock at a garage sale recently for $10, and they said that ever since they bought it, neither of them has used it. So I told my dad that I want it. Yesterday morning, before going to work, my dad dropped it off at my house.

It was 5:30 in the morning, so we were still sleeping, but as he was unloading it, somehow he hit himself in the head with a pole, and started bleeding like a stuck pig. He said he knocked on our door, but I must have been in a deep sleep, because I didn't hear him. But later, when I went outside, there was blood all over our porch, our sidewalk, the hammock, and there was a small towel on the ground that was completely saturated with blood.

My dad is too stubborn to go get stitches, so he just went to work anyway, and washed all the blood out of his hair. I've heard that a cut on the head will bleed profusely, and now I totally believe it.

Anyway, I cleaned off the hammock and decided to test it out today. It was so nice!

 

Today was Day 3 of calorie counting, and I logged my food on SparkPeople, just like I said I would. It's been a long time since I've logged three days in a row! I've been keeping pretty busy, so I think that's helping.

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Annual physical

I had a very busy day today! When I woke up, I was debating whether or not to do the Wii Active, and I decided I probably should (I had no legitimate excuses not to). Since I wasn't doing the 30-Day Challenge anymore, I could just pick whatever workout I wanted. I chose the 30-minute Advanced Full-Body workout.

It was a good variety, it included a few exercises I hate (meaning they work), and I feel like it's good strengthening for my legs, to avoid knee injury. Anyway, I finished that.

I took a shower, got dressed, ate my oatmeal, and read some e-mail, and then I had to take Noah to his third dentist appointment in less than three weeks. The first appointment was a cleaning, where we found out he had 5 cavities (!!!) and then he had two cavities filled last week. Today, they filled two more. Next week, they'll fill the last one.

We came home and had lunch, and then my mom stopped over to pick up the kids (since I had my doctor's appointment today). Today is her 60th birthday, so I gave her a gift that I've been working on. She's been trying really hard lately to follow Weight Watchers and get down to her goal weight, so I made her a recipe book--it's filled with 60 of my favorite recipes I used while losing weight (60 for her 60th). The best part is, I calculated ALL of the nutrition info for EVERY recipe. (Basically, I'm trying to stress how much work I put into it!) I also calculated the Points and the Points Plus for each recipe. I totally forgot to get a picture of it before I gave it to her.

She took the kids to her house, and then I went to my appointment. I got into a room to see the doctor right away, but I was there for over an hour! First, a medical student came in (the medical assistant asked if it was okay that a med student check me out, and I said sure). He was super nice (and young and good-looking).

He started chatting with me about my weight loss (he'd looked over my chart). I thought maybe he was just making small talk until the doctor came in, but we chatted for a long time and did the typical exam stuff--listen to heart and lungs, check out eyes, ears, throat, check reflexes, etc. I told him all about the Ragnar Relay--I somehow manage to work that into conversation pretty much everywhere, because I am so excited for it! ;)

Finally, the doctor came in and went over some more stuff with me. Then she gave me the lab results from last week. I was nervous about my lipid profile, because I haven't been eating that great lately, and if my cholesterol was high, then my insurance would have an uber-high premium. (Over the past couple of years, our insurance has set standards that we must meet as far as our health, otherwise it's much more expensive).

My weight was just two pounds higher than last year at the same time, so I was happy about that (not happy with my actual number, of course... am I ever?) When I saw the cholesterol, my heart sank. It was 202--over 200 is high. But the doctor said my cholesterol is fantastic, and she was very happy with it--the reason it is a little high is because my HDL is 100!! (HDL is the "good cholesterol"; the average woman's is 50-60, the higher the better).

I was very happy with that number, but still worried about the insurance seeing just the "202". I texted Jerry to ask what the cutoff was, and he said 240, so I'm in the clear. All of my other numbers were fine, too.

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I asked my mom what she wanted to do for her birthday, and suggested doing something other than eating out, since we're both trying to lose weight. She said she'd like to go for a bike ride with my dad, me, and the kids (Jerry was invited too, but he was working).

So we loaded up all of our bikes and drove to the Metropark. We went to a park that I'd only been to a few times (with Jessica, while we were marathon training in the spring). The boys are terrible to ride bikes with, because they are constantly stopping to check things out next to the river or in the woods. Fun for exploring, but not so great if you're wanting to ride bikes!

We rode (and stopped) for about 45 minutes, and then my dad watched the kids so my mom and I could go at a speed faster than crawling down a different path. It was so nice, and I kept thinking how great it would be to run there, but I think I'd be too scared to run there alone. It's very secluded, so I'll have to save that for if I ever have a running partner.

It was really good to celebrate a birthday without food for once!

And speaking of food, I tracked my calories again today... still on the low end at 1468, but I was on the go all day. I didn't even get to eat dinner until 7:45. Can't wait to settle down with my book (Divergent) and relax!

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My love-hate relationship with running

I woke up feeling much better today than I did yesterday. It had to have been Jerry's Chicken Casserole Surprise ;)

I wanted to get my run out of the way first-thing. My running schedule got a little screwed up since I did my long run on Sunday instead of Friday. I'm going to have to do this week's long run on Sunday as well (unless I want to run 18 miles on the treadmill... HA!). So today, I did the run I was supposed to do Monday. And on Friday, I will do the run I was supposed to do today.

Today's was intervals--ugh. I have a love/hate relationship with intervals (actually with running in general, but especially with intervals). I love that intervals go by quickly, because you change pace so frequently. But I hate that they are so TOUGH. Today on the schedule: 20 minutes easy running, then six repeats of (3 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy), then 10 minutes easy. A grand total of 66 minutes.

The first 20 minutes went by pretty quickly today--I set the treadmill at 6.0 and just watched The Biggest Loser until my Garmin beeped that it was time to start the intervals. My plan was to try doing 8.0 for each 3-minute hard segment. I pressed the '8', and the speed shot up. Toward the middle of that sprint, I was thinking, "Well, maybe 8.0 is just too fast today".

I finished out that first sprint at 8.0, but decided to cut back to 7.5 for the rest. I didn't think I'd make it through 5 more intervals at that speed. Even the 7.5 was feeling tough toward the last minute of each sprint, but I fought through it and kept reminding myself how good I was going to feel when I was done. I love getting uber-sweaty, where there isn't a dry spot on my clothes; and I love having my muscles feel tired and a little achy for the rest of the day. But I hate feeling like I'm going to die during the run ;)

For the last sprint, I decided that I was going to try 8.0 again. I told myself, "If I can do 2 minutes of 8.0, then I am allowed to cut the interval short and go back to 6.0." See the mind games I play with myself? I ran at 8.0, and as soon as I hit 2 minutes of that, instead of pressing the 6, I kept running. I told myself, "You can do ANYTHING for just 60 seconds..." "...30 seconds..." "...10 effing seconds left!!" I was totally spent.

Unfortunately, I still had to run 13 minutes easy, so I set it at 6.0 and caught my breath. Those last 10 minutes were the longest part of my run, honestly. But to my delight, I was drenched in sweat.

Today's workout was a true testament of my love-hate relationship with running. To summarize:
I LOVE--dripping sweat, torching calories, using my muscles, feeling a little sore and spent, being able to eat yummy treats with the calories burned, sleeping better, relieving stress, doing something I never thought I could.
I HATE--running.

See? I was born to run. ;)

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Speaking of running, all hope is running out the door (see how I did that?) about the documentary's Kickstarter page. I was so confident before the page launched that the film company would raise the funds needed for the film. We're about $43,000 short right now, and only have 24 days to go ;)  If you've pledged money, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I hope to will do you proud in Key West!

Angela (one of the producers of the film) made a few changes to the preview of the film, and I think it's awesome!! Check it out:

Every time I watch this and hear Rik's voice breaks a little, I can't help but get teary-eyed. Even if I had nothing to do with this film at all, it's a documentary that I would love to watch! So I hope lots of other people (about $43,000 worth of people) feel the same ;)

I asked the producers why it costs so much to make a film, and I was really shocked at the costs of everything. They said that $50,000 is actually a pretty cheap budget. By comparison, the Hood to Coast documentary cost between $500,000 and $1 million (source)!! I'm so glad I'm not a producer. When Jennifer and Angela came here to interview me, I realized just how much work goes into everything, and I think I would lose my mind.

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True to my word, I logged my food into SparkPeople today. I kept really busy all day, so my calories were actually pretty low (1300). I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow for my annual physical, and I'm bummed because I think my weight is up about 5-10 pounds from last year at this time. I don't remember exactly what it was when I went, but I was hoping it would at least be the same this year.

Getting back to counting calories is HARD. I haven't counted consistently since I broke my jaw in 2010. But clearly, this summer I haven't been doing so well, and being 10 pounds up from my maintenance range does not make me happy. So my main focus right now is getting back to counting on a consistent basis. It would be awesome to be back at my goal before the marathon; and if not then, for sure when I go to Florida for Ragnar!

Do I sound like a broken record yet?

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Jerry's Chicken Casserole Surprise

I am so ready to snap out of this funk I've been in lately.

I know it's common for people to have seasonal depression in the winter months, but it usually happens to me in the summer. I've written before about the fact that I've had depression for the majority of my life, but for some reason it gets worse during the summer.

I keep reminding myself that fall is right around the corner, and that is my very favorite time of year, so I'm hoping that I'll start feeling better. Today was just a really rough day, for no reason at all. The kids were acting how they usually do (fighting constantly with each other, tattling, and asking for snacks all day); I didn't have a lot on my "to do" list today (all I really had to do was laundry); and I even have a book to read, that I've been looking forward to (Divergent).

But for some reason, I was just feeling really down. When it came time to make dinner, I immediately thought of Jerry's Chicken Casserole Surprise.

When I was pregnant with Noah--not far along, just a couple of months--I went to the bathroom and noticed that I was spotting a little. My mom had a miscarriage with her first pregnancy, and I was so upset that the same was happening to me. The doctor's office was closed, and there wasn't anything they would have been able to do anyway, since I was just a couple of months along.

I was really worried and upset, and just didn't want to do anything. Jerry had no idea what to do either, and to make me feel better, he decided to make dinner. Jerry is FAR from being a chef--he is the type that can somehow manage to burn water. He didn't even ask me any questions; he just picked a recipe from one of the three cookbooks we had at the time, and tried to follow it.

It was a casserole of chicken, egg noodles, and a creamy, cheesy sauce. He dished each of us up a bowl of it, and told me it was "Jerry's Chicken Casserole Surprise". I asked him what the surprise part was, and he responded, "I don't know, I thought that all casseroles are called 'something-something-surprise.'"

At the time, I couldn't really eat it. I was just too worried about the baby, and I picked at the casserole. I can remember it so well, sitting at the table with Jerry after having cried for a couple of hours, and feeling the love from him. He had no idea how to help me, but he tried by making a casserole.

Thankfully, nothing was wrong with my pregnancy, and Noah was born the following July, very healthy. I've only made the casserole a couple of times since Jerry made it that day, and it's always when I'm feeling very down. It is the ultimate "comfort food" for me. Today was one of those days, and I made the casserole for dinner.

And since Jerry is so sure that you want his "top secret" recipe, he told me I could share it on my blog ;)

Jerry's Chicken Casserole Surprise

1 lb. chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
12 oz. egg noodles
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 oz. sour cream
8 oz. shredded cheese (whatever you have on hand--in his original dish, he used jack cheese)
About 20 Ritz crackers, crushed

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the pasta and (raw) chicken. Cook until the pasta is done, and drain. In a 9x13 casserole dish, combine the soups, sour cream, and cheese. Add the cooked pasta and chicken to the casserole dish. Top with the crushed Ritz crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

I know it isn't a very healthy recipe, but it's healthy for my mind--and it really does taste good!

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So remember when I wrote about doing some short term goals, rather than my 30-in-30 list? I planned on doing that on the 19th (my 3-year weight loss anniversary), but I totally forgot to list some goals. I've been thinking about how I want to approach it, and I've come up with a solution that I hope will help keep me focused on just a couple of tasks, rather than a huge list.

I'm going to do three weekly goals--one food related goal, one fitness related goal, and one miscellaneous goal.

Since I have a habit of starting things on Wednesdays, tomorrow will start Day 1 of the first week. Here are my goals for Week 1:

Food--Log my food into SparkPeople every single day, whether I eat well or not.
Fitness--Do the Wii Active twice, in addition to my scheduled runs.
Misc--Finish the sewing project my sister asked me to do.

Being the nerd that I am, I even made a little checklist on my dry-erase board so that I can see my goals on a daily basis. I love being able to check things off a list!

I think making weekly goals like this will be much easier to keep track of! I did something like this throughout my weight loss, and once I hit maintenance, I stopped doing it. My plan is to post new goals every Tuesday, and on Wednesday, write about how I did on the previous week's goals. (Notice I said that's my plan--who knows how long it will last!)

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10 more days until I go to Minnesota for the Women Rock Minnesota Half-Marathon!! I'm very excited to get away for a couple of days, and even more excited that Renee is coming with me.

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Impulsive painting

Not sure where it came from, but I woke up with quite a bit of energy this morning. I felt like cleaning or organizing or something... that never happens!

I opened the cupboard under our sink where our cleaning supplies are, and I saw four cans of red spray paint that have been there for a couple of years. I bought them when I painted our shutters, and those were left over cans. When I saw those, I very impulsively decided that I was going to paint something with them.

My first victim (yes, first--meaning there were more) was the coffee table. Our coffee table was an ugly grayish brown color, very boring. I told Jerry I was going to paint it, and he really didn't like the idea. But he carried it outside for me, and even snapped a couple of pictures while I was painting...

You can see on the bottom left of the table what the color used to be; I think the red looks much better, don't you?!

Once I saw how good the table looked, and I still had two cans of paint left. I told Jerry to take the front door off the hinges, because I was going to paint it red. His eyes bugged out of his head, and he tried to talk me out of it.

I told him that we already look like hillbillies with all the crap in our yard (let's just say you can totally tell that we have kids), and having a spray painted door would just fit right in ;) 

As soon as I started spraying the door, I knew it was a mistake. The paint wasn't sticking to it like it did on the table, and it looked pink instead of red. Jerry was making fun of me, but I finished out the two cans of spray and the door looked horrible. I told him to get some paint from Lowe's, and he came home with a can of paint and a brush.

He painted the door with that, and it looks AWESOME. It's the same color red as the table (it was white before). It looked so good (and we still had paint left) so we painted the side door as well. Definitely my best idea ever ;)

Jerry was cutting the grass this afternoon, and he actually ran over a turtle! It was so small that he didn't see it until after he ran it over. Thankfully, it wasn't hurt at all. It was SO adorable that I wanted to keep it (but of course we didn't).

I believe this is a snapping turtle

Estelle was VERY curious about this little creature!

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After dinner, Jerry and I decided to take the kids to the rec center so we could all go swimming. I've mentioned before how I hate swimming, but I've been trying to be more active on a daily basis, so I brought my suit and got in as well. I even jumped off the diving board--I'm sure I looked as graceful as a swan, too. Bahahaha!

I went to the shallowest part of the pool (3.5 feet deep) and started running in circles. Running in the water is hard! My legs got a really good workout. I don't know what possessed me to try and swim laps, but I was bored enough to give it a try.

I was shocked at how tough of a workout it was! My heart was racing faster than it does when I RUN, and I was totally out of breath. I kept going, pausing for a few seconds after each lap to catch my breath. I ended up swimming 20 lengths of the pool! I think that is 500 meters, which is much farther than I thought I could go.

And before someone mentions it, NO, there are no triathlons in my future. ;)

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Sweet 16

Today is a very significant day for me.

Three years ago, I weighed 253 pounds. I was disgusted with the way I was living my life, and I felt like I wasn't being a very good mom to my boys because of it. I woke up on this day three years ago, and began what was the start of a 16 month journey to lose 125 pounds.

Today, I woke up with a task that was challenging as well--running 16 miles as a training run for my marathon. I've run 16 miles before, so it wasn't "new" to me, but that was with Jessica, and today was my longest solo run yet. On this anniversary today, since I had to run 16 miles, and it took me 16 months to lose the weight, I figured it couldn't be a coincidence--and I decided to use those miles to reflect on my weight loss journey.

Before starting (both the weight loss and the run today), I thought about how daunting the task seemed. I felt very overwhelmed with what was in front of me. However, I knew that I had what it took to get 'er done, so I started--with a single step in the right direction.

Mile 1/Month 1: At the very beginning of my weight loss, I felt like it was going to take FOREVER to get to my goal. Each small loss that I had on the scale seemed like nothing in the grand scheme of things. Just like on my run today, each step was so small when I was looking at 16 miles in front of me.

Mile 2/Month 2: I found my rhythm, although I was still overwhelmed with the huge task in front of me.

Mile 3/Month 3: Starting to see some progress, but still tempted to take short cuts to "finish early" and worry about the consequences of the short cuts later.

Mile 4/Month 4: Feeling strong and confident that I can keep going.

Mile 5/Month 5: Starting to think of excuses to stop now, but knowing that they will be poor excuses and I'll kick myself later if I stop.

Mile 6/Month 6: Feeling like I'm doing something "special", something most people don't do (both in the weight loss and running 16 miles).

Mile 7/Month 7: Definitely in the groove, and feeling strong--moving faster (this is when I started running during my weight loss journey).

Mile 8/Month 8: Halfway done. Feeling like I've come SO far, but still seeing how far I have to go.

Mile 9/Month 9: Getting tired of this, and just wishing I could see the finish line already.

Mile 10/Month 10: Double digits in the run today, and my first double digit miles walk in 2010.

Mile 11/Month 11: Starting to have the confidence that I might actually do this!!

Mile 12/Month 12: Feeling like my body is starting to slow down (fatigue during the run, and the weight loss slowed on my journey).

Mile 13/Month 13: Having a very hard time keeping on. Tired of it, and just wanting it to be over already!

Mile 14/Month 14: The last little bit ahead seems like it's taking forever, but knowing that if I stop now, I will be very disappointed in myself for quitting when I'm so close to the end.

Mile 15/Month 15: The hardest on my body--during the run, I was starting to feel very achy and fatigued; during the weight loss, I fell and broke my jaw.

Mile 16/Month 16: The home stretch. Pushing my limits, and feeling on top of the world. SO happy to have accomplished the task that seemed so impossible in the beginning.

Today I realized that the whole weight loss journey is a lot like running (a long run, in particular). I started off feeling so overwhelmed with what lay ahead of me, and trying to come up with every excuse in the book not to start. Even as the miles/months passed, I felt strong in the beginning, then I got tired of it and just wanted it to be over. There were times I wanted to quit early, for various reasons, or look for shortcuts, but I persevered. And toward the end, I felt amazing and realized that all those tough moments made the end result that much sweeter.

And even now, having run the 16 miles, I know it's not over--I have to run 18 next week, and in October, I'll be running 26.2. It will never be over! Just like the weight loss--sometimes I do really well at maintenance, and sometimes I struggle through every single day (or step, in a run). But I am ALWAYS happy that I'm working so hard at it, and my body thanks me for that.

I realize that this whole post is a little corny, but the comparison between running and weight loss was so evident that I had to write about it. So whether you're just starting, or midway through your own journey, just keep in mind that there are good days and bad days, but it is WORTH IT!

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Softball tournament

What a long day in the sun!

Today was Jerry's annual softball tournament. It's in Novi, which is almost an hour from us. I had a blast last year, so I was actually excited to go again. The kids stayed with my parents, so it was just Jerry and I.

This year, Jerry was on the team called the 'Misfits', who I hung out with last year. They are hilarious, and I was happy when Jerry chose to play on that team this year.

The Misfits have always been considered the "underdogs" because they don't take it too seriously. They weren't even given new uniforms this year, even though all the other teams got them. They got a hotel last night and were out drinking until the middle of the night, and then they showed up for their first game at 9:00 this morning. (Jerry and I didn't go last night, we left this morning)

Yes, that would be my husband with his pants hiked up

The whole team makes fun of each other mercilessly, and I couldn't stop laughing all day. I cannot imagine girls acting like that with each other! But the whole group of guys were seriously a blast.

During the tournament, once a team loses two games, they're out. Last year, the Misfits lost the first two games and then hung out in the parking lot. Jerry and I were kind of expecting the same thing today, and sure enough, they lost the first game (pretty badly) to Texas.

We had an hour before the next game, so we went to the parking lot for beer. I volunteered to drive, so I didn't drink anything (that always helped me when I was losing weight--being designated driver!) I have to run 16 miles tomorrow, so I had a big incentive to keep it healthy today.

The beer must have helped, because they had a great second game and won! We had lunch after that. I didn't want to have burgers and hot dogs that were provided (because I had to eat healthy for my long run tomorrow) so I brought a lunch--tuna and Triscuits, oranges, and pretzels.

The Misfits just kept getting better, and they won their third game. Jerry was being his usual goofy self, and tried distracting the pitcher by pulling his pants up reeeeally high, so they became "nut huggers". I don't think anyone but our team thought it was funny. ;-)

Their fourth game was against Texas again, and The Misfits actually mercied them!!

I think the whole team was exhausted after that, because they finally lost game #5, against Indiana. But that gave them third place overall, which was totally unexpected by everybody. I was so excited to see them do so well.

It was such a fun day. I haven't laughed that much in a long time!

I was starving for dinner on the way home. I ended up throwing together some stir-fried veggies, fettuccine, and spaghetti sauce. It wasn't as good as it sounded in my head, but it did the job. I'm nervous as heck about my 16-miler tomorrow. I have no idea why I'm so nervous about it! I'm going to try and go early, to get done before it gets hot outside. It's going to take me almost three hours--yikes!

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A lion cut

Thanks for the anniversary wishes yesterday! While our anniversary wasn't exactly exciting, it was definitely interesting.

I was bummed that I had scheduled my doctor's appointment at 3:00 yesterday, so I ended up going in at 10:00 just for my lab work (typical annual physical stuff), and I rescheduled my appointment for next week. Our insurance makes us get an annual physical by August 31st, and I always wait until the last minute. I promised my doctor I would at least try and get in a little earlier this year!

Jerry and the boys went with me, and from there, we went school clothes shopping for the boys. This is the first year we've actually gone shopping for school clothes--normally, I get their stuff at garage sales the summer before. But I didn't do much any garage saleing this summer. Jerry and I withdrew $200 from our savings account for the clothes, and we ended up spending $199.86! The boys got all the stuff they'll need though.

After we went shopping, we went out to lunch to celebrate our anniversary--yes, even with the kids. The kids were begging to go to Amigos, our favorite Mexican restaurant. As soon as our food got to the table, BOTH of the boys said they had to go poop--so Jerry had to take them to the bathroom. It took forever, and I ended up eating lunch alone on our anniversary--bahaha!

When we came home, the kids went outside to play, and Jerry and I did the most random thing every on our anniversary--we shaved Paolo (our Himalayan cat). I was so sick of his hairballs and finding his hair everywhere, that I decided we should just shave him. We called a groomer, and she said she "needs time to get to know the cats, so she's not taking on any new clients"... VERY strange. But Paolo absolutely LOVES getting brushed, so I figured it wouldn't be hard to do it myself with the clippers.

Sadly, we didn't get any pictures while we were doing it, but I took some of him afterward. Just like I thought, he loved getting his hair cut. He was rubbing all over me, and lying perfectly still in my lap, and just enjoying it all around. If I had tried this on any of the other cats, I would wind up getting another cat bite! ;) Here is what Paolo looked like before his hair cut:

And then here are a few from afterward:

I didn't say it was a "pretty" hair cut. Believe it or not, that was with a #2 blade shield--I thought he would look nearly bald, but his hair was SO thick it was hard to shave. His fur is very, very soft now--it was soft before, but now it's a whole new level of soft.

After that, the kids went to my parents' house and Jerry and I ended up going through tons of old pictures, choosing which ones to put on yesterday's blog post. We had a couple of beers and chatted about our years together. Then we went to Staples, because I needed a few things for a project I'm working on (for my mom's birthday, so I can't reveal it yet!)

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Today is Friday, which normally means it's my long run day. I even asked Renee if she could watch my boys this morning while I ran 16 miles, and everything was all good to go. But yesterday, I just knew I was going to have a hard time with it today--because of the crappy Mexican food I had for lunch, because of the beer I drank, and did I mention we ate ice cream for dinner? Yeah, I didn't think I'd have a very good run today.

So I postponed my 16-miler until Sunday. Tomorrow, I'm going to Jerry's baseball tournament all day, and he's off Sunday, so it will work out. I've been eating really well today, and will do the same tomorrow, to be very prepared come Sunday morning.

Since my last run was on Wednesday, I didn't want to go that long between runs, so I decided to run a short three-miler today. Instead of the treadmill, I took the kids to the rec center where they could play basketball while I ran on the indoor track. I haven't done the indoor track in a while.

I know that my foot pod calibration was way off, because I was running HARD and it was giving me a 10:00/mi pace. I even made a game out of making it stay under a 10:00/mi pace, but I was struggling. But, we'll never know.

Three miles FLIES by when you're used to doing 6+ miles at a time. I can't remember my last run that was less than 5 miles! Before marathon training for sure.

You can see where I sprinted at the end of each mile in order to get it under
a 10:00/mi average pace ;)

Hopefully my 16-miler on Sunday will be a good one.

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