Pumpkin Spice Doughnut

Today is Jerry's "change over" weekend--when he switches from midnights to days at work (this happens every four weeks). So he was off work all day yesterday and today, so we wanted to spend some time with the kids.

Last night, we took the boys out to dinner at Applebee's (their choice). Jerry and I were trying hard to decide where to eat, because we wanted to pick a place that we could fit into our PointsPlus. We were looking at menus online, and I was getting frustrated. Finally, I just said, "Let's just ask the kids where they want to go, and I'll make a good choice. Maybe I will go over my Points, but I don't care. I'm not going to avoid my favorite restaurants forever."

The kids ended up choosing Applebee's, which actually made counting Points really easy. Applebee's has a few items that are "Weight Watchers" items, and the Points values are even listed on the menu. I ended up getting the Creamy Parmesan Chicken (a chicken breast with a little cheese on top, served with spinach and rice pilaf). It wasn't bad! I definitely like homemade cooking better, but for a restaurant meal that fit into my Points, it was decent.

Afterward, we took the boys to get their Halloween costumes. Halloween is the only time of year that I think it would be more fun to have a little girl. My boys wanted to be all the gross/scary things, but we settled on a ninja and some sort of ghoul.

We went through the drive thru at McDonald's on the way home for a vanilla ice cream cone. I never, ever go to McD's, but I was really longing for dessert, and a cone from McD's is only 5 PP. It was so good, and easy to fit into my daily PP, that I think I will do that more often :)

This is a tea saucer-sized plate

This morning, Jerry went to get doughnuts to bring home for breakfast. We very rarely do something like that, but it's not very often that he has a weekend morning off where we get to just be lazy and spend time together as a family. I had already decided what to get--a seasonal Pumpkin Spice cake doughnut. I looked up the PointsPlus online, and it said 7 PP for a glazed cake doughnut. Not too bad, considering I had some extra activity points to use up today.

The 7 PP meant a two-ounce doughnut. I had no clue what they weighed, but I assumed that it was about two ounces, because it was about half the size of the yeast doughnuts. When Jerry brought it home, I put it on my kitchen scale to check: 4.5 ounces.

When I plugged in the numbers, that meant that my tiny little doughnut was 15 PP!!

Totally not worth it. That's equivalent to THREE of the McD's ice cream cones. So I didn't take a single bite. I let the kids and Jerry each try it, and then we threw it away. I was really disappointed, but there was no way I was going to spend 15 PP on that tiny little doughnut.

I ended up having two waffles with sugar-free syrup for 4 PP, and it was very satisfying.

This afternoon we had a birthday party to attend. Jerry's co-worker Daniel was turning 23, and his girlfriend planned a surprise party for him. She went all-out, and did a fantastic job with his party. It was at a bowling alley, and she put a lot of thought into the details.

I ate lunch before I went, and decided that I wouldn't have cake or anything else at the party. It was hard--she had little chocolates on sticks in the shape of moustaches:

Eli had already eaten a bite of his 'stache, but you get the idea

There were cookies and little cakes, pizza, soda, and birthday cake and ice cream. I didn't eat any of it, but I had already planned on getting another McDonald's cone on the way home, so it wasn't too difficult ;)

I stopped at Sam's Club on the way home to buy more grapes. I eat more grapes now than I did peanut butter a few weeks ago--I'm addicted! I really should start keeping track of the pounds of grapes I go through. While we were there, I spotted some pumpkin spice Bagel Thins. Those sounded really good to me, so I bought some. I hope I like them, because I had to buy them in bulk at Sam's! I'm going to try one for breakfast tomorrow. Trying to think of what to spread them with. Just cream cheese? Or maybe pumpkin butter...

Today marks the end of four full weeks on Weight Watchers. I feel as strong and determined as I did back in 2009-2010 when I went a whole year without a binge. It feels awesome to be back in control!

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Friends and running

My last double-digit run before the marathon! I haven't been very good at following one particular plan this whole marathon season--I started out with the plan that I got from a Women's Running magazine, and then had to make some adjustments for a couple of races. Then when my knee started giving me problems, I had to adjust even more.

But I did manage to get in a long run every week, including two 20-milers. So hopefully it's enough for the race. My training pace was actually faster than I plan on running at the race, which will help. I've been doing my long runs at a 10:30 pace, but for the race itself, I'm just going to try and stay at sub-11:00 miles. During training, I didn't factor in my bathroom breaks, water breaks, etc., and obviously those will count against my time when I'm racing.

Today I chose to do 12-miles for my long run (per Hal Higdon's schedule). Next week's long run will be eight miles, and then the following weekend is the race.

I had a hard time deciding where to run today. I'm so sick of all my routes. I can't run around my house for anything longer than about 6 miles. The route I've been training on is getting old--I've been doing all of my long runs there from spring and fall. I decided to run the route where I usually run into Renee, along a busy street and through a park on a gravel trail.

I didn't bring Gatorade or GU, since it was "only" 12 miles. I bought a bottle of water to keep in the car, and planned to do the lollipop route (six miles) twice. I only had to stop once in the first six miles (for a traffic light). The second half, however, took me about 25 minutes longer than the first--not because of my pace, but because I ran into friends to stop and chat with ;)

Nothing breaks up a monotonous, boring run like running into friends! First, I saw Alicia, who looked like she was on a mission, so I just exchanged a couple of words with her without stopping the run. About a quarter mile later, I ran into Renee. We always stop and chat for a couple minutes when we run into each other, so I was talking to her when Alicia came back. She was actually meeting Renee to do the second half of Renee's run with her. We were probably stopped for 10 minutes or so, and then I continued on my route.

When I got to the very top of the lollipop route, I ran into Courtney. We stopped and talked for about 10 minutes as well. By that time, I had three miles left, and was just glad to be almost done. I stopped at two water fountains for just a few seconds, and then made it back to the car. Total running time: 2:06:20; total elapsed time: 2:30:29. :)

When I first started running, I would never have considered stopping to talk to someone. I thought it meant the run "didn't count" if I stopped at all, for any reason. Now I realize how ridiculous that is. Running into friends (quite literally) is the best part of running! ;)

Speaking of friends, I get to spill the beans on a secret I've been keeping for months now. I think I've mentioned before that Renee is running the NYC marathon next month. This is her dream race, something she's always wanted to do as a runner.

Me and Renee after my first 5K (2010)

Renee was a huge factor in my weight loss and running success. She encouraged me and believed in me when I first mentioned the possibility of running a 5K--and she even ran the 5K with me (despite the fact that she normally runs much faster than me). I honestly don't think I ever would have started running if it weren't for Renee.

So in that sense, she helped me achieve MY dream goal. There was no way I could just sit at home while she went to NYC to achieve her dream of running in the NYC marathon--so a couple of months ago, I bought my plane ticket to go see her race in NYC this November!! :)

I'll be staying in New Jersey with Jen, from my Ragnar team. I'm SO excited to go, for so many reasons. I'll be arriving the Friday before the race, and then on Saturday, Jen and I are going to run the NYRR Dash to the Finish Line 5K. And then Sunday, marathon day, I'm going to do whatever I can do find a good spot and cheer for Renee along the course. My plane leaves Sunday evening.

Other than Jerry, my mom, and Jen, I didn't tell anyone about this. I was planning to surprise Renee on race day. Even when we were in Minnesota for the Women Rock half-marathon, I didn't breathe a word. But yesterday, my mom mentioned that I should tell her, because what if she doesn't see me? Then it would be for nothing ;) So when I saw Renee today while we were running, I told her what was going on, and she was very excited.

I love that I can talk about it now, because I've been really excited about the whole thing! Any of my readers running the NYC marathon or the 5K the day before?

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A walk in the woods

I'm happy to say that the situation with the neighbor yesterday is resolved, and I feel much better about it. His mom was very upset that he used the gun irresponsibly, and she took it away from him. And the boy felt terrible about what happened with the squirrel. He said he thought he was doing the right thing--he felt sorry for it because its legs were broken, so he thought it would be best to put it down (with his BB gun). When that didn't work, he pretty much panicked and felt like the situation was even worse, so he did what he could to kill the squirrel quickly.

His mom agreed that he didn't handle it well, and she explained to him what he should have done (told a grown-up about the squirrel). We let her know that we don't let our boys use guns (even BB guns) without an adult (and that's when she said she had taken his gun away when he told her about the squirrel yesterday). So I feel good about it now.

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Boy, did I ever have a lazy morning. After I got the kids off to school, I was folding laundry in front of the TV. I put on an episode of Nip/Tuck, and got sucked into that. Two episodes later, I made myself get up and do some housework.

It's a gorgeous day outside! I wanted to enjoy the weather, so I decided to go for a walk. It's rare for me to take a walk "just because", but it was really nice to not worry about mileage or how many calories I was burning, or anything like that. I did bring my Garmin because I was curious how far the path was, but that was the only reason.

Remember how I discovered that amazing path through the woods a couple summers ago? We'd lived here for about eight years, and I never knew it existed right in front of my house. Anyway, I decided to walk that today. I was a little nervous to go through the woods by myself, so I grabbed my pepper spray.

I was so surprised as I got to the point where the path starts. The woods are practically gone! It's state-owned land, and I knew they were going to be making some changes to it, but it looked like a completely different path. Here is a picture from before (summer 2011):

 And here are some pictures from today:

It may not look very appealing now, but apparently they are supposedly killing and removing all the phragmites (those tall brown grass-like things you can see in the second pic from today), and then flooding the entire thing to be a sort of man-made lake. So I'm hoping it will be gorgeous in a couple of years.

It was still a nice, very quiet walk. Round trip from my house, it was a little under 1.5 miles. That's the perfect distance to get a little fresh air and not feel so lazy ;)

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My Ragnar Relay team has some big news--good and bad. The bad news is that Mary is no longer going to be running on our team. If you're a follower of her blog, then you already know her big news--Mary is pregnant (the good news)!! It was obviously unexpected, but definitely exciting. I'm so sad that she won't be running with us, but we still consider her part of our team.

However, we do need someone to run in her place, so Carly has joined our team! You may remember her from the very inspiring guest post she wrote for my blog. She began running at 350 pounds (which was no easy task) and has since lost over 100 pounds and run a half-marathon! She is very excited about joining our team, and we are all happy to have her. She will now be Runner #11 and Ada will be Runner #4.

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Tomorrow is my long run. On the schedule is 17 miles, but I know it's not necessary to do that many while tapering. Depending on how my knee is feeling, I might just do 12. I still haven't gotten a patella strap, so I had to order it on Amazon instead of driving through all the construction again to get to the running store. I'd like to have enough time to try it out before the marathon, though. Hopefully it will arrive soon!

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A tofu experiment

I had a bit of an emotional morning. While Jerry and I were getting the kids ready for school, Eli was talking about an incident that happened yesterday while he was playing outside. I remembered him telling me a little about it before putting him to bed, but I was writing out checks to the school at the time (today was picture day, so I was filling out the forms and writing checks), so I admit, I wasn't fully paying attention yesterday.

Apparently, when the boys were playing in the back yard yesterday, a boy from our neighborhood threw a frisbee and knocked a squirrel out of a tree. The squirrel fell, and, according to Eli, both of its back legs were broken. Then the neighbor boy went in his garage and got out a BB gun. He shot the squirrel with it, and it was still alive, so he started stomping on it. Then he went and buried it in the woods.

This was so disturbing to me, on so many levels. First, I've told my boys a million times that if any of their friends ever brings out a gun, they are to come home and tell me immediately (and obviously they did not). I was also really disturbed because the neighbor boy was being extremely cruel to a poor squirrel, and I don't think that his behavior was "normal" boy behavior. I can only hope that maybe the boy was thinking he was putting the squirrel out of its misery because of the broken legs?

I could tell Eli was bothered by it too, because he brought it up twice, and he got a little emotional while talking about it. I told Jerry we should definitely tell the boy's mom, and he agreed. Noah and Eli both told me that this was the story, so I know they aren't making it up. I got really upset while listening to the story. So I had a talk with the boys about it before school, and I stressed the gun issue again.

Once the boys went to school, I had to get my run out of the way. I probably should have stuck with the treadmill, since it's easier on my knee, but I just really wanted to get outside in the fall weather to run. So I ran outside.

I was kind of scared to go through the neighborhoods where the unleashed dogs were, so I took a different route that was along a busy road, and I just ran on the shoulder. I was worried about knee pain, but I tried to really focus on my form. I actually made it all six miles without knee pain! I tried to keep a steady pace, and I did pretty good at that:

When I saw my heart rate chart, I was pretty irritated at my Garmin. The heart rate monitor strap of my new Garmin sucks. It feels like a razor blade under my boobs (chafing horribly), and sometimes, it just stops registering my heart rate:

You can see at the beginning where my heart rate just dropped off the radar, and then came back shortly after. It doesn't happen every time I run, but my old strap never had problems.

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After lunch today, I had 600 calories worth of ice cream (15 PointsPlus)... and it was planned! I have a lot of weekly points left, and I don't want my body to get used to not eating them all, so I splurged today. It's nice to eat something like that and not have it be a binge. I enjoyed every bite of it--and I counted the PointsPlus for it :)

I read about caloric cycling in Pete's book, and while it wasn't a new concept to me, Pete said it was his "secret weapon". So I've been trying to have at least one high-Points day a week, so that my body doesn't get used to having the same amount every single day.

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When I was grocery shopping earlier this week, I bought a bag of tofu shirataki noodles. I'd tried them before, years ago, and thought they were awful. But I decided I'd give them another try.

Since Jerry was having chili dogs with his coworkers, and my kids ate at my mom's house today, I was on my own for dinner. I followed the recipe on the bag (a Hungry Girl recipe), being careful to rinse very well and dry them really well, per the instructions. When they were done, they looked edible:

At first bite, I really didn't like them. They have a rubbery texture, and just a very strange flavor. I took two more bites, really hoping that I would like them (they're only 40 calories per bag); but after the third bite, I dumped the rest in the trash. Gross! It's kind of like eating fish-flavored rubber bands ;)

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Rik and Ada from my Ragnar team (Rik is our team captain, Ada was on The Biggest Loser) were interviewed on a running podcast that became available today. You can find their episode here, if you'd like to listen to it. I think Rik was born to do radio--he has the best voice for it! ;)

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Cat-ertainment

Today was a rest day, so in the morning, I decided to go pick up some stuff Jerry asked me to get at Sam's Club. He wanted to bring the stuff for chili dogs to work for he and his co-workers (about 12 people total) to eat. The running store is fairly close to Sam's Club, so I planned to stop there on the way, so that I could buy a patella strap.

I got on the expressway, and about 20 minutes later, I got to the exit I was supposed to take for the running store. The exit was closed, so I had to follow the detour signs. They had me get off a couple of exits later, and then go back on the expressway in the opposite direction, taking me to a different exit. It was very odd, but I'm terrible with directions, so I didn't know any other ways to get there.

I kept following the signs, and still had no clue where I was. Eventually, I got to another road block, and got so frustrated that I just decided to skip the running store and go to Sam's Club. It took forever to find my way back to the expressway, and 40 minutes after I had started following the detour signs, I arrived back at the exit where I had started. I had spent 40 minutes driving in circles!

I finally got to Sam's Club and picked up the stuff Jerry asked me to get. And of course, going in for "just a couple of things" turned into way more than I'd planned. I was so tempted by these enormous cookie cakes loaded with buttercream frosting--cookie cake with frosting is probably my all-time favorite treat--but I restrained myself.

By the time I left Sam's Club, I was starving. I hadn't been planning on that 40-minute detour, and it was 1:00 when I got home. I threw together a quick lunch (turkey sandwich and grapes), then finally got to work on cleaning the house, just like I promised.

When Jerry woke up, we actually just sat on the couch and let ourselves be entertained by the cats. Estelle was chasing a fly (again). She was running all over the place, jumping up in the air, and crashing into windows. Last week, we were at my parents' house and my mom was cleaning some stuff out of the attic--one of the things she brought down was a table that Jerry made in woodshop class in high school! I didn't want to get rid of it, so I brought it home. And now Estelle has claimed it as her "perch" to see what's going on outside.

We were making fun of Paolo, because he clearly has no idea what his name is, but anytime someone makes a clicking noise with their tongue, he starts looking around for the source of the noise, so that someone will pet him. We were both calling Paolo, and he was looking back and fourth, and couldn't decide who to go to.

We had the most fun watching Chandler, however. He was in our bedroom, and the door was open just a crack. All of the other cats know how to open the doors by sticking their paws in the crack and pulling the door toward them. Chandler seems to think the only way to open the door is with his face. He was looking at us from the crack under the door, obviously wanting to get out, but he didn't think to just open the door by pulling on it.

Jerry and I started calling him (he always comes when he's called), and he was trying to squeeze out through the crack in the door. I even tried "showing" him how to open the door, but he didn't understand. So I finally rescued him, and then he wouldn't leave us alone.

Chandler is always the one to let us know when the cats are out of food in their dish--I mean, look at him, he's obviously starving to death. We know they've run out of food when Chandler crawls on our laps, rubbing all over us, being extremely affectionate. He lets us know the very second the food dish is empty.

Phoebe was outside all day (it's impossible to keep her in unless it's snowing or raining), so she wasn't part of the entertainment.

I love that cats all have very unique personalities. Jerry and I always talk about what our cats would be like if they were people. If we had named them for Friends characters after we'd gotten to know their personalities, they would all have different names.

Anyway...hoping for a good run in the morning! :)

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Random Tidbits

This morning, Jerry came home and said, "Look in my lunch box." Weird, but I did. Inside was a frog! It was huge (his lunch box is enormous, so it makes the frog look small).

He said he saw it at work, and brought it home to show the kids. Estelle couldn't contain her excitement--it was hilarious to watch her. There was about an inch of water in the bottom, so I didn't worry about her jumping in (she loves to jump inside of any sort of box). Two seconds later, she jumped inside.

She kind of panicked because her paws got wet, so she jumped right back out. But after that, she was going crazy with curiosity about what was in the box. So she decided to just sit and stare at the box for no less than 20 minutes, occasionally circling it.

Anyway, the boys thought it was pretty cool, and then Jerry let it go when they went to school.

Today was a scheduled run day, but I didn't have much hope for being able to finish all 60 minutes that I had scheduled. After Friday's 20-miler, my left knee was killing me. I took it easy all weekend, and it was feeling good this morning, but I was worried it would start hurting while running.

I did the treadmill, because it's the easiest on my knees. Instead of doing the intervals I was scheduled to do, I just ran at an easy pace. After three miles, my knee started to hurt, so I called it quits. I'm not going to run through the pain, like I did in the spring. I'm going to do whatever I can to make it better before the marathon. I think I may try patella straps (a strap that goes around your leg, just under your knee).

I only did three miles at an easy pace, and when I was done, I didn't even really feel like I worked out. Usually my clothes are drenched in sweat, but I barely broke a sweat today. That was disappointing.

I totally forgot to stop my Garmin after I stopped running, so the fourth split shouldn't exist. I had to adjust the time.

I had volunteered to chaperone a field trip for Noah's class today, so I showered and got ready for that. I went to the school at noon, and we took a school bus to the local community college for a play. The bus ride on the way there was a little irritating. There were two boys sitting in front of me that put their window all the way down and thought it was hilarious to throw things out the window. I was freezing the whole 30 minute ride.

First time on a school bus in over a decade

That's a really creepy picture, isn't it? I think it's my eyes. Or my crooked smile. I don't know, but I think it's kind of creepy looking.

The play that we saw was called Bunnicula. About 10 minutes into it, I realized that it seemed familiar... and then I remembered that I had read that book in elementary school, maybe 2nd grade? It was interesting to watch the play after that, because I remembered how I felt while reading the book--I thought the book was so scary!

When I got home, Jerry and I had an hour before the boys would be home from school, so we watched the season premier of Dexter. I love that show! I was disappointed with the premier, though--I don't think this season is going to be very good, unfortunately. (It's Deb--she ruins everything!)

Yesterday, I was flipping through Health magazine, when I saw this little tidbit:

After reading that, I seriously started to think... How would candles cause cancer? Maybe from ingesting the wax somehow? I was trying to figure it out. BAHAHA, then I "got it" and couldn't believe I actually read that so stupidly ;)

This morning, after running on the treadmill, I made a cup of tea to drink while I was reading my e-mail (like I always do). The cup was very full, and as I started to set it down, some of it sloshed out right onto the mouse of my laptop. I grabbed the first thing I saw (a blanket) and wiped it off quickly. I didn't think any tea had gotten into the cracks where the mouse buttons were; but then when I tried to use my mouse, the pointer was jumping all over the screen.

I was so mad at myself for spilling the tea. I was trying to Google search what to do, but I couldn't control the mouse at all and it was impossible to do anything. I decided to see if I could take apart my computer and see if the tea had gotten in. I grabbed a butter knife and started prying at it, which was more difficult than I thought. I used the knife to try and lift the buttons up just a little to see whatever I could underneath. I didn't see anything, but prying at the buttons seemed to work, because then I had control over my mouse again! That was a close one.

Tomorrow, I MUST get my house back in order. I've been neglecting the vacuuming and sweeping, dusting, and the other stuff that I hate. I'm writing this because then maybe I will actually do it ;)

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Progress Report on Weight Watchers

I am just three weeks out from my marathon, which also means I'm three weeks IN to my challenges. I had created two six-week challenges for myself: 1) Give up peanut butter, and 2) Try the Weight Watchers PointsPlus program. Since today marks the halfway point, I figured I'd write a little progress report.

First, the peanut butter. This is probably the longest I've ever gone without peanut butter! I knew I was hooked on it, but I didn't realize just how many calories I was getting each day from peanut butter until I stopped eating it. I thought giving it up would be awful (seriously, I thought I would die), but it hasn't been too bad.

Some might stay I have a small obsession ;)

I've learned that peanut butter is my biggest binge trigger there is. More-so than ice cream or cookies or candy. Every time that I binge, the foods I choose contain peanut butter in some form. I am excited to say that I have been 100% binge-free for three weeks now. It's been a long time since I've gone that amount of time without a binge.

Before this challenge, my snacks would almost always be:
Toast with peanut butter
Carrots with peanut butter
A spoonful (or two or eight) of peanut butter
Nutella with peanut butter (yes, you read that right)
A granola bar spread with peanut butter
Peanut butter + honey + dry oats (kind of like a cookie dough)
Frozen yogurt or ice cream topped with peanut butter
A brownie with peanut butter

For the past three weeks, my snacks have been:
Fruit (mostly grapes)
Broccoli with ranch dip
Fiber One bar
Almonds
Popcorn

I certainly don't think there is anything "wrong" with peanut butter, but I was obviously eating a lot of junk WITH the peanut butter before. So my snacks have been much healthier. I do miss peanut butter sometimes, but it's usually in a binge-y kind of way, which is no good. Giving it up has really helped me with my second challenge...

Following the Weight Watchers' PointsPlus program for six weeks.

It's been three weeks, and I have logged my food and counted my PointsPlus (PP) every single day. I decided from the very beginning to give the program a fair chance, and not think about my past experiences with WW.

I had the materials at home to follow the program without actually joining, but to give it a 100% fair chance, I figured I should at least join the online program--which is what I did. I forget the exact cost, but I think it was about $60 for 3 months. ($20/month is a LOT to me--it was hard to fork over that money).

Ironically, it's the money that has made me stick to the plan! I honestly would have quit on Day 1 if I hadn't paid the money. Every time I had a thought of my usual, "Oh, I'll just start over tomorrow", I reminded myself that I just paid them a lot of money, and I better get my money's worth out of it in the long run.

I've had a few obstacles, but I took Pete's advice and made a plan ahead of time for how to handle them. First, was dinner at my mom's house; there was Jerry's 90-Day dinner for work; going out to lunch with Renee and Jessica; and a couple of date nights with Jerry. I stayed on plan for all of those, which is a big achievement.

I'm really surprised that this time around on WW, I actually like the plan. The free fruit thing has me sold ;)  Whenever I am feeling ultra snacky, and feel like I'm going to lose control, I'll usually have fruit (almost always grapes). I haven't been "abusing" the free fruit, either--I typically will have 3-4 servings per day. Grapes have really been my savior over the last three weeks!

Since my desserts almost always include peanut butter in some form, I haven't really been eating sweets. At night, for my daily "treat", I've been having a glass of wine and a single Dove Promise (dark chocolate).

Typically, my food intake is breakfast, then lunch, then snack, then dinner, and then a bedtime treat/snack. I'm allotted 26 PointsPlus per day, as well as 49 "weekly PP", and "activity PP" (for exercising, I can earn extra PP to use on food). I've been eating all of my daily's, all of my weeklies, and almost all of my activity PP for each of the last three weeks. Here is what a typical day might look like:

I log my weight on Sundays, and today's weight was 146. My technical starting weight was actually 156 (!!)--BUT, I don't consider that accurate, because I had binged the day before, which always makes me gain 4-5 pounds of water weight. So my actual starting weight was probably more like 152 (yes, that's way above my panic weight). That would be a total loss of six pounds, or an average of two pounds a week. I'm very happy with that!

The best part is just that I feel like I'm in control again. All summer long, I felt like I was just one binge away from gaining back 100+ pounds. I was stress-bingeing too often, and it scared me. But like I've said before, the summertime is very stressful for me, and I always do best at weight loss/maintenance in the fall and winter months.

My jeans were extremely tight, and a lot of them were unwearable--and now, after just three weeks on plan, my jeans are getting comfortable again (and some of the unwearables are now wearable).

So as of today, I'm very happy with the way things are going. I am going to continue with my challenges until the marathon (and possibly beyond?? I would be thrilled to get back down to my comfortable weight of 133). As far as counting calories vs. counting PointsPlus, I think either one is fine and both work. I got sick of counting calories, and decided to give WW another try. I like that it's easier to tally up PP in my head, and I love the free fruit. I'll write more about what I think about the plan after the six-week mark, but for now, I like it enough to keep going :)

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News article

Yesterday, Jessica sent me a text saying, "Why didn't you tell me that you're on the front page of the newspaper?" I had no idea when the article was going to be printed, and I really had no idea it would be on the front page. I come from a very small town, so I guess even the smallest news makes the front page of the daily paper ;)

I was really dreading seeing it, because of the issue with the photographs. Jerry bought the paper on his way home, and I almost didn't want to look. But I'm glad I did, because the photo wasn't nearly as bad as I pictured it to be!

I skimmed the article quickly, hoping that it was accurate--then I went back and re-read the whole thing slowly. I'm impressed that the facts are (mostly) accurate, and I'm very glad that the story focuses more on my team than on me. Despite what people may think, because of my very public blog, I hate having attention drawn to me. I'm shy, and private, and having this story on the front page of the newspaper really terrified me. (I think the title of the story is very ironic).

This newspaper actually wrote a story on my appearance on The Dr. Oz Show last year, and that was also ginormous on the front page. So I was especially nervous about being in the paper again; that people would think that I'm just after attention. 

My Ragnar team seemed to really like the article, which was the most important part to me. And as a bonus, I will think twice before buying lots of junk food, because of the possibility of someone recognizing me as "the girl who lost weight and was in the paper". I will be conscious of that everywhere I go now ;)

The article isn't online, so I took a photo of it. It will be hard to read unless you enlarge it (just click the picture to enlarge).

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Over the past couple of days, I've been trying to come up with a stress-less plan for next year. This year, I did too much, and it caused me to stress out a lot (I ran a LOT of races, including two full-marathons! And every time I traveled somewhere, it was for a race).

Next year, I want to do the opposite. (Well, after Key West, of course!) I'm only going to choose 2-3 races that are important to me, train for them properly (without extra races thrown in "just because"), and even take a trip without running a race. I've decided not to run my beloved Indy Mini-Marathon in 2013. If I do a spring race, it will be local. I may pick a half-marathon in the fall to do somewhere on location (maybe the Monster Dash in MN with my brother).

I have also been wanting to go visit my best friend Sarah in Arizona. She just had a baby recently, and I would love to go spend time with her (without also doing a race). So next year will be very low-key as far as racing. I'm going to cut my weekly mileage quite a bit after the marathon next month, and go back to the mileage that is comfortable for me--about 12-15 miles a week.

All the stress from this year has been getting to me, and I feel like it's all coming to a head. After my marathon, I will feel so much relief. I've done all the training, so not running the race isn't an option; but I will be relieved when it's over, and my longest run from there on out will be 13.1 miles!

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My last 20-miler!

The last thing I wanted to do today was run 20 miles, but I kept reminding myself that after today, I would be tapering for the marathon. And after the marathon, I don't ever have to run more than 13.1 miles again :)

It was 48 degrees outside, so I chose to wear a long-sleeved shirt. It was very breathable fabric, and a looser fit, so I figured I could just push up the sleeves if it was too hot. But my upper arms have been chafing badly on my long runs when I wear a t-shirt. They don't chafe with a tank top, or a long-sleeved shirt, but they chafe badly with a t-shirt.

I packed my GU and Gatorade, uploaded a couple new podcasts for my iPod, and, after much procrastinating, left the house. I parked at a high school to pick up the bike path that I love to run on. I picked a bad time to park there, because there were a billion teenagers pulling into the lot for school.

My plan was to do two out-and-back routes from my car. The first was a little under 12 miles, and the second was a little over 8 miles. The first few miles went by pretty quickly, and I didn't even look at my Garmin until mile five or so. I ate my first GU at mile eight, and was still feeling good.

At mile 10, the half-way point, I stopped for a second to stretch and send a text to Lealah. Lealah is a runner on my Ragnar team, and she was running her scheduled 20-miler at the same time I was. Since she lives in Oklahoma, we agreed to run together "in spirit"--via text message ;) I also snapped a quick picture since my phone was handy, and the scenery was pretty. As a bonus, there was nobody around to think about how vain I was, taking photos of myself.

Mile 10

At that point, I was running a 10:17/mi average pace--which is too fast for a 20-miler. Typically, my long runs during this training have been about 10:30/mi. This is where the whole run went downhill--not literally, because that would have made it easier! But the way I was feeling went downhill.

There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, so the sun was full-force. It was only 60ish degrees, but it felt hot with the sun and my long sleeves. I wished I'd worn a tank top. I pushed up the sleeves, and kept moving. When I reached my car, I refilled my water bottle with more Gatorade, stretched for a second, and then kept going. The last 8 miles was mostly through the Metropark, which is my favorite part of the run.

I was drinking a LOT of Gatorade through the run, but was still feeling thirsty. At 14.5 miles, I stopped for a bathroom break and to top off my Gatorade with water from the fountain. I ate my second GU. It was at this point that I started questioning whether I could actually do 20 miles. My body felt exhausted! My pace slowed drastically, and I took a short walk break.

At 16.6, I just felt like I was done. I had nothing left in me. My heart rate was up really high, and I was feeling short of breath. This only happened to me a couple of times before, the most memorable was when I hit the wall when running with Jessica. I sent Lealah another text:

I stopped for a minute, considering my options. I called Renee, to tell her that I might not be able to meet her for lunch, because I didn't know how long was going to take me to finish. I almost called Rik to whine about the run, but decided to take a true break instead. I decided to sit on the grass for 5-10 minutes, hoping that the break would give me fresh legs to finish it out.

Okay, I laid in the grass

I talked myself into finishing, because I had less than 3.5 miles left, and this was my last chance to get in 20 miles before the marathon. I started running again, at a pretty slow pace to keep my heart rate down. When my legs felt like lead, I stopped to stretch for a second. I took a few walk breaks the last 3 miles.

Those last miles took forever. Once I left the Metropark, I had just a half mile to go until I got to my car. I gave it everything I had, which wasn't much at all. I was so relieved when I heard the beep from my Garmin signaling the 20-mile mark!

The time and pace don't reflect the times I stopped moving. My walk breaks are figured in, but not my stretch breaks (or lying in the grass!).

I had just enough time to get home and shower before heading out to meet Renee and Jessica at Panera. We had to cancel plans to go to La Pita (it's far away and Jessica had a dentist appointment), but hopefully we'll be able to go there next week. I had a delicious lunch--tomato and mozzarella panini and chicken noodle soup with bread, for 17 PointsPlus.

The newspaper story about my Ragnar team was in today's paper (on the front page). But I will save that for tomorrow! This post is long enough.

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It's booked!

I had the worst night's sleep ever last night. Jerry had to work, but only an eight-hour shift (he usually does 12-hour shifts), so he would be home a little after 2:00 a.m. My mind was racing a mile a minute about the whole stolen photo thing from yesterday, and I couldn't fall asleep until sometime after 12:30. Then Jerry got home at 2:15, and I couldn't fall back asleep for anything!

The last time I remember looking at the clock, it was 4:55. I had to get up at 7:00 to get the kids ready for school. So I maybe had about 3-4 hours of sleep total. Not enough! Right now, I am wearing my so-very-cozy Vera Wang pajamas I bought yesterday. Seriously the most comfy pj's I've ever worn! I tried to get a picture, but it wasn't very easy, so this was the best I could do:

I did get an e-mail back from the ad agency that I contacted about my photo. They apologized profusely and said that it would be removed. I kept checking all day today, but it was still up there. I e-mailed again, and was told it could take up to 24 hours for it to be gone from all the spots that the ad appeared. I know when I edit a photo on my blog, it can take 24 hours for the editing to show up, so that was believable.

The person who was really in the wrong was the blogger who stole my photo. The ad agency probably didn't ask where he got it, and he obviously didn't tell them that he didn't have permission to use it. But anyway, I feel like I resolved that, so hopefully I can rest better tonight ;)

If any of you happen to see my photos on an ad, or just posted on a blog that I didn't write a guest post for, I would be very grateful if you'd let me know by sending me an e-mail with the link... because I can assure you, I did NOT give anyone permission to use my photos. (Posting a link to my blog is always fine, however).

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We got our team shirts! The back is a collage of
before and after photos of everyone on the team.

I spent the whole afternoon trying to figure out our travel plans for Florida in January for the Ragnar Relay. I wasn't sure if Jerry should go down with me, or go down a couple of days later, after the race. Since I'll be flying into Miami, and running down to Key West, I also had to figure out if I should fly home from Key West or go back up to Miami.

I looked at all the different flight possibilities, and was shocked to see that a round trip ticket was actually $50 cheaper than a one-way ticket! That makes no sense at all. So I knew I'd have to fly in and out of the same airport (Miami). And so would Jerry (the original plan was for him to fly into Key West). Yes, this is all very confusing.

So the whole point of this mess is that I booked our flights today!! Jerry and I will both be flying into Miami on Jan. 3rd. The following morning is when the race starts, so I'll go with my team for the race, and Jerry will make his way down to Key West with the spouses of my teammates. We'll meet up again at the finish line in Key West, and then Jerry and I are spending three glorious nights in a beautiful hotel on the beach!

Then we'll hopefully hitch a ride back up to Miami on Tuesday, and spend Tuesday night in Miami, before flying home on Wednesday. I am SO EXCITED. Jerry and I have never taken a "real" vacation before, and we've been together for 13 years! My kids will be staying with my parents, and they're really excited about that.

We're actually going to be gone for Eli's birthday, and I was feeling really guilty--but Eli got super excited when I told him he could spend his birthday at my parents' house ;) And I promised to buy him an extra special souvenir. He requested a fishing lure to catch squid. Hahaha! Eli is absolutely obsessed with fishing, and he loves lures.

By the way, do I happen to have any readers in Key West or Miami? Or is anyone running the Ragnar down there as well? Just curious :)

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I'm going to be early tonight. I can't afford to miss any more sleep--tomorrow I'm running 20 miles! After tomorrow's run, I will officially be tapering for my marathon :)

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