Sad

I've been feeling so sad all day today. I know I should turn off the news, but I can't stop watching. And I can't watch it without crying. I feel so, so bad for all the people who were somehow involved with the horrible tragedy in Newtown.

I keep thinking of how scared those poor kids must have been, how those teachers had to make split-second decisions that could impact whether they lived or died, the parents who were waiting to hear if their children would be coming home, and even the police officers who had to walk in there and see all of those children's bodies. (I can't even type all this without crying).

My boys are both in elementary school, and the thought of them going through something like that is almost too much to bear. I asked them if they do lockdown drills at school, and they do--they explained to me what they were told to do. Eli asked me a bunch of questions about it, and I answered them the best I could without scaring him. Schools really ought to have panic rooms in all their classrooms--sad, but true.

This whole thing makes me scared to even let my kids out of my sight. It seems like kids aren't safe anywhere anymore. And they have to grow up so fast, seeing and learning about things that they shouldn't have to at this age.

Anyway, sorry this is a depressing post--but I'm sure most everyone is feeling this heartbreak today as well. Will hopefully have a most positive post tomorrow :)

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Starvin' like Marvin

Last night was fun! My kids had two events to choose from--their school was having an open house for Christmas, so the families could go and play games and see Santa and all that; and my aunt had invited us to go decorate cookies at her house. When I asked the kids what they wanted to do, they both said they wanted to go decorate cookies. I thought that was cute, and told my aunt how much they love going over there.

Eli was 100% better yesterday, no issues at all with his stomach. I'm glad, and just hoping it stays that way!

I was debating what to do about dinner last night--I knew my aunt would have food, but it wouldn't be very WW friendly. I had a CLIF bar before I left, and then at her house, I planned to not eat anything. There were cupcakes and a zillion cookies, hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, and tortellini soup. I could pass on it all, but the cookies were really tempting.

I finally decided to make a small one, load it up with frosting, and just estimate the PP in it. I ended up eating another half of one after that, but I'm happy I didn't go all-out and stuff my face with them.

Noah was eating his as fast as he could make them ;)

My mom said she would drive the boys home so that I could go to the Advent Tea that Renee had invited me to at her church. I left my aunt's house and went right to the church. There was more temptation--Biscoff cookies!!, and a lemon tart that Renee had made (plus tons of other desserts that I didn't even go look at). I put a two-pack of the Biscoff cookies in my purse to take home for later, and then was trying to decide if I should have a piece of the lemon tart.

I ultimately decided to have a piece, and look up the PP later. What's the point of being at goal if I can't enjoy these things? I ate a piece of the tart, and it was delicious! (When I looked up the PP later, I saw that it was 12!! That's a lot.) The tea was fun though, and it was nice to chat with adults for a couple of hours ;)

This was Renee's table--in front, Renee, me, Jessica, and Kerry; in back
is Stephanie and Andrea (photo from Stephanie)

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Jerry was off work today, so after the kids left for school, we had breakfast. Oatmeal with caramel, chocolate chips, and coconut...

I was hoping the carbs would help fuel me for my long run this morning. This is scheduled to be a step-back week (reduced mileage), so my long run was supposed to be seven miles. But since I'm going to Indiana for a few days, and I'm going to want to have extra PointsPlus to use there, I decided to run 11 miles instead. After last week's 10-miler, I was actually kind of looking forward to another long run on my new route.

I turned on Jillian Michaels' new podcast on my iPod, and headed out for an out-and-back run. After about a half-mile, I really had doubts about finishing. I normally run on an empty stomach, and I think maybe the fact that I ate before heading out made me feel crappy. I was debating in my head for a couple of miles whether to turn around, and I figured I could turn around at the 3.5 mile mark if I wanted, and just do 7 miles after all.

After mile three, I started to feel a little better. Not great, but certainly more bearable. I turned around at mile 5.5, and then at mile 8 or so, I was hit with a horrible hunger. I never feel hungry when I run, but this was awful. My stomach hurt badly from being so hungry! I was hoping Jerry would drive by to check on me or something, so I could hitch a ride (I should have brought my phone). The last couple of miles dragged, but my pace was great! My current half-marathon PR pace is 9:23/mi, so I was on pace for a half-marathon PR. With some more work, I can get my sub-2:00 half-marathon time.

When I got home and heard the beep of 11 miles, I ran into the house and started making a protein shake before I even showered. I threw some almond milk, protein powder, frozen raspberries, blueberries, and spinach, and some lemon and orange flavored Stevia (I'm working on a review for these, which I will post soon--I love them so far!) in the blender. It was really, really good! But it wasn't very pretty, that's for sure:

I showered, and was still hungry, so I had lunch immediately after (an omelet and some toast with peanut butter), and the Biscoff cookies from the tea last night. And later, Jerry and I got a vanilla cone from McDonald's. They did a good job with the cone today--we always look forward to seeing how our cones will look ;)

Today was one of those days where I just felt ravenous all day. Good thing I opted for 11 miles instead of 7, because I could surely use the extra PP!

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I had all of the above written before I heard the news about the elementary school shooting in Connecticut. I normally keep my blog pretty light-hearted, but I was completely heartbroken today when I heard about it. I feel absolutely horrible for the families of those poor kids. Please keep the families in your thoughts and/or prayers this Christmas. I can't even begin to imagine how heartbroken they feel right now.

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Virtual Active videos review

Thank you so much for all the nice comments on my post yesterday. I am still so, so excited to be at goal!

Yesterday afternoon, Eli was complaining about a stomachache. He's not the type to make that stuff up, so I felt bad for him. He was moaning and lying on the couch. At around 6:00, he said he felt like he was going to throw up, and he started crying because he hates the feeling of throwing up. I took him into the bathroom, and sure enough, he threw up everything he'd eaten that day. Poor kid. His stomach felt much better after that.

I had plans to meet Stacie at Tim Horton's again at 7:00, so I left as soon as Jerry got home. I spent about an hour chatting with Stacie, and when I got home at 8:15, Jerry said Eli threw up again a few minutes prior. He didn't have a fever or any other symptoms, and he felt better after that, so he went to bed.

At 1:00 in the morning, he came into our room and said he felt like he was going to throw up again. So again, into the bathroom he went, and again, he threw up. I'd already decided to keep him home from school, but I really hoped that it was just a short stomach bug or something. He hadn't eaten anything that I thought would be suspicious of food poisoning.

This morning, I kept him home, but he was much better and hasn't thrown up again. He's been eating just fine, so who knows what was going on.

I went to weigh in at Weight Watchers, then came home and ran 4 miles on the treadmill. Last week, I got some DVD's from a company called Virtual Active. I was really excited when they asked me to do a review of them, because when I looked at their website, I remember wanting to order those DVD's a LONG time ago. I don't remember where I'd heard of them, or why I didn't order them, but they looked interesting.

The DVD's are for viewing while you're on a treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike. The videos are supposed to give you the feel that you are running (or hiking, or biking) through different places in the world. They sent me a variety...

Since I did a few treadmill runs recently, I was able to try them out. I did the American Southwest run and the Northern Italy run. It was fun to try something new, and here are my thoughts:

Positives
*There is an option to have a (rather good-looking) "trainer" on each video, telling you when to change up your speed or incline, so you're not running the same speed the entire time. It's nice variety within the workout.
*The trainer doesn't give you specific speeds or incline--he may tell you "easy pace, moderate incline" and YOU choose the numbers. He'll give you a PRE number (perceived rate of exertion). It's a scale of 1-10, 1 being very easy and effortless, 10 being as hard as it gets. So again, YOU choose the speed and incline numbers to hit that PRE. Anyone (fast or slow, beginner or experienced) could do it.
*There is a little graph that pops up occasionally to show you were you are in the length of the workout, and its difficulty level. I liked seeing this to know how much I had left.
*It's easy to watch while exercising--sometimes it's hard for me to watch TV shows when I exercise hard, but this was so simple that you don't have to focus or think much.
*If you choose, you can watch the video without the trainer, and just go whatever speed you want. But I really liked the trainer. He talks to you about the scenery that you're seeing and gives you running tips occasionally.
*Each video is broken up into a handful of different locations, spending roughly 5 minutes in each. This would be great for beginners, to try and make it through one location first, and then two, and then three, etc. But they all play back-to-back, so advanced runners/bikers/walkers don't have a lag between each location.

A screen shot of the workout. The 6 is the PRE, and the arrows pointing to
the right are the speed (moderate, because two are highlighted);
the arrows pointing up are the incline (also moderate).

Negatives
*I think I would get bored with the same DVD after a few workouts. Part of the reason I liked it was that I didn't know what was next, so if I watched the same one a few times, I would know what to expect.
*A couple of times, I actually felt a little dizzy watching it! I would get caught up in the scenery, and not realize that I was getting off-center on the treadmill. That could just be my clumsiness...
*The workouts are short (at least compared to what I'm used to). They are 35 minutes (which includes a 5 minute cool down). It would be nice to have a longer option, or even a "continuous repeat" option.
*Cost. The DVD's are priced at $19.95, and I think that's a lot for a 35-minute workout. However, there is a download option (where you download the video instead of getting a DVD) and that is much more reasonable at $7.95. You have to choose between "guided" and "basic" download--the "guided" means with the trainer; the "basic" is just the scenery. Personally, I would choose guided.

Anyway, you can see sample videos on their website--and what you see in the samples is what you get (except the samples change scenes much faster than the video)--which is nice so that you aren't disappointed when you get it. I am going to be giving away at least one, if not two, of the DVD's as a prize in the virtual 5K next month. They sent me a biking one, which I know I won't use, so if you use a stationary bike, you might like it :)

(In full disclosure, I was given the Virtual Active DVDs for free to review and/or give away; but opinions, as always, are my own).

I've got a busy evening today. We were invited to go to my aunt's house to decorate Christmas cookies. She has her grandkids over every year to decorate cookies, and she always includes my kids as well--which is very nice, because my kids don't have any cousins to do stuff like that with! From there, I'm going to an "Advent Tea" at Renee's church.

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I DID IT!! My goal weight!!

I woke up to a very unexpected, but pleasant, surprise on the scale this morning for my Wednesday Weigh-In:

MY GOAL WEIGHT!!

I've never reached my goal weight in all my years of dieting. I did see 133 a couple of years ago, but my goal was 126 at the time, so I never actually reached goal. I later revised my goal to 133, and I've been trying to get there ever since.

It's kind of strange though, that I don't really feel any different than I did yesterday. Technically, I can switch over to "maintenance" mode, where I get to add more PointsPlus to my day; but I'm scared to. It's not that I'm afraid of gaining weight, because I'm not. I've just never, ever been to this point where I can stop trying to lose weight. It's so strange!

I don't know what I was expecting from Weight Watchers when I logged my weight, but it wasn't very exciting ;)

I decided to take my measurements, just to see how they compare to August 2009, when I was my heaviest. It's kind of amazing how many inches I've lost:

I think the most shocking is my neck. I can't believe I lost 4.5 inches in my neck! I never even thought of my neck as being fat, but looking back at the pictures, it definitely was.

Some snippets from my blog from 2006 about my goal weight:

"My goal weight is 150. I'd LOVE to get to 135, but I've never weighed less than 152 in my adult life, so I'm being realistic." 

"I can't even describe the hatred I feel right now for myself. I hate that I screw everything up. I hate being fat. I hate that I can't just stick to WW for long enough to reach my goal weight. I hate that I love food more than anything else."

And here are some from 2009:

"I wanted to binge today SO BADLY. I made the mistake of weighing myself and got really discouraged at the not-so-big number. I was expecting to have lost a lot so far, and I haven't, and it made me want to binge because I felt like all this effort wasn't paying off. But, I stuck to it and try to keep my mind off of it, and I chose not to binge. I want to see this through to the end--to finally reach my goal weight." 

"I can't believe I've gone 29 days now without bingeing. It's been a LONG time since that happened--probably over 2 years. I would much rather eat whatever I want, whenever I want, however much I want; but I'm hoping that reaching my GOAL weight will make it worth it. I don't know if it will, because I've never been at goal. The only reason I keep doing this is to reach my goal."

It's so interesting to see how my mindset has changed, even since 2009. I went from feeling 100% hopeless to actually believing that I would reach my goal--not IF, but WHEN.

I would really like to get some great goal weight photos (Stephanie?? I'll pay you with lots of wine!) but for now, here is a picture from today vs. my before picture. I chose that before picture because it looks like I'm laughing at the "new me".  The new pic is a little blurry, because Noah took it. ;)

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When the scale doesn't budge

Interval run today. I really didn't want to do it, and I realized that I've been dreading my runs a lot again lately. After the marathon, I loved the short, fast running. I decided that I'm going to rework my running plan, so that I won't dread it (as much) anymore.

I've liked running five days a week, so I'm going to continue to do that. And I have to include a long run up to 12 miles once a week. For the other four runs, I'm going to keep them short instead of increasing distance like my schedule calls for. The shorter runs will be 3-4 miles; two at an easy pace, one at a tempo pace, and then one for intervals. The interval run will include eight 1/4 mile repeats. That's how the schedule was shortly after the marathon, and I really liked it.

So today was an interval run, and I decided to do eight repeats instead of nine. I also decided to do them on the treadmill; not sure why. I set the treadmill for 9.0 mph (that's a 6:40/mi pace--yikes!) and then hopped on. I ran like hell for 1/4 mile, and then hopped off and took a breather while the treadmill kept going for 1/4 mile. And I repeated that for a total of eight time.

That speed was HARD. It took me roughly a minute and 40 seconds to do each interval at 9.0 mph. That's a long time to run that fast! I used to do my 30 second sprints at that speed, and it was tough then. After doing eight intervals, I'd only run for a little over 13 minutes total, but I was completely spent and dripping with sweat.

After I was done, I took Noah to the doctor--he's had a stubborn cough. He gets asthmatic bronchitis every year at this time, so I was sure that's what it was. I have have to give him breathing treatments three times a day until it clears up.

When I got home, I started working on a cover for my Weight Watchers 3-month journal. I had just made the denim one when WW went and changed the size of their journals, so I wanted to make a cover for the new one. I used a giraffe print fabric, and I love how it turned out!

Tomorrow is my Wednesday Weigh-in, but I don't think I've lost this week. Last week, at 134, I was just a single pound from goal--but these last few pounds have been killer to get off. I still haven't binged (93 days now!), and I've counted my WW PointsPlus religiously, but I've seen 134-135 all week on the scale.

Speaking of that, my sister called me yesterday to ask about weight loss and running. She signed up for the virtual 5K next month, and she said her goal is to run the whole thing. She sent me a text about a week ago saying that she ran a whole mile without stopping, which I was super excited about. She ended up running about four miles total last week.

She's also been completely religious about counting WW PointsPlus, and she was expecting to see a big loss on the scale--but she "only" lost 0.4. That's completely discouraging for her, which I totally understand. My mom had the same thing happen when she started training for the 5K as well. As soon as she started the C25K program, her weight loss stalled, even though her diet was great.

I get e-mails all the time asking the same thing, and I just want to say that it's normal! It happened to me when I first started running, as well as after I've taken a week or more off of running (after my surgeries and after my marathons). I wrote a post about it a while ago, which you can find here. But basically, your muscles hold on to water when you start pushing them by exercising.

The scale may stall, but if your diet is good, you're probably still losing fat. It might take a couple of weeks to start moving again, which can be frustrating. In the past, that always used to make me give up on my efforts. In 2010, when I started training to walk the Indy half-marathon, the only reason I didn't quit exercising was because I had committed to that race. I knew if I stopped exercising, my body would drop those few extra pounds of water that my muscles were holding onto, but I wanted to do that race--so I stuck it out. And after a few weeks, the scale picked up again.

I've posted this picture before, but I sent it to my sister last night, so I post it again here:

I weighed the same in both of these pictures--152 pounds. In the picture on the left, I was wearing barely squeezing into size 12 jeans. I had just lost about 50 pounds before my wedding by doing Weight Watchers; I didn't exercise at all, I just counted WW Points. In the picture on the right, I was wearing size 4 jeans. I had just lost 101 pounds from diet AND running. The only variable is the running.

Think of this when the scale isn't moving, but you're doing everything right--you WILL see progress if you keep moving forward!

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Non-food rewards

I'm back to sleepless nights, apparently. At 4:45 this morning, I decided to just get up and get some stuff done before the kids woke up, because I couldn't sleep for the life of me. I started some laundry, and then decided that I might as well get my run over with as early as possible, too.

Jerry was at work, so I had to do the treadmill. I haven't run on the treadmill in a while! It was kind of a pain to drag everything around to get my set-up the way I like it (I put the cat tree in front of the treadmill, and then put my laptop on the top of the cat tree, so it's at eye-level).

I rearranged my schedule a bit this week because of yesterday's race, so today I was scheduled to do five miles easy. I wasn't sure what to set my "easy" pace at, because the last time I used the treadmill my easy pace was 6.0 mph--and I've been going faster than that outside. After testing out a few different speeds, I settled on 6.5 mph.

I finished 5 miles in 45 minutes, and then took a shower, dressed, and blew my hair dry before the kids even got up. It was strange to be up that early and have gotten all that done. Once I got the kids off to school, I went to the post office and then to shop for some prizes for the virtual 5K.

I've been so unsure of how to do the prizes, but I knew I had to get a move on it because I'm going to be insanely busy with Christmas and then the Ragnar. I've decided to that what I'd like to do is get 31 prizes (because I'm turning 31), and all of them will have a theme of "my favorite things". While I wish I could actually give away some of my truly favorite things--Garmin Forerunner, Under Armour clothing, etc.--there is no way in hell I can afford that.

I went to Ollie's, a discount store, first, and I actually had a lot of luck there--I bought a few books that are perfect for prizes. I'd also like to make some of the prizes, since I love to craft, so I went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some supplies there. I also made a stop at Dunham's.

When I got home, I got to work on some of the crafty stuff. I spent all afternoon working on it, and I was happy with how they turned out. I'm being vague, because I think I'll wait until I have all 31 prizes ready before I reveal what they are :) 

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Q. Do you have any suggestions for non-food rewards, or non-food ways to celebrate reaching a goal?

A. I was always really bad at this while losing weight. I would write down rewards for certain goals, but once I reached each goal, I felt guilty spending the money on things I typically didn't need. I didn't want to splurge on clothes as I was losing weight, because I knew they'd soon be too big.

I did buy a few things as rewards, however. Most recently, I bought those muscle tights for getting back into the 130's. When I lost 100 pounds, I got a new laptop (but that was really needed at the time--so I just used the weight loss as an excuse to finally buy it). When I kept 100 pounds off for a year, I bought a fancy schmancy bike (which was stupid, because I've only put about 10 hours on it in a year and a half!).

My family has been super supportive of my weight loss. My sister planned something really great for me when I reached 100 pounds lost. She took me to a nice salon to get my hair cut, highlighted, and blown out (my first (and only) blow out, and I was super impressed). Then we went to Macy's, where a woman did our make-up, and my sister bought me the make-up she used. It was so fun! We spent the whole day together, and I felt like a new person afterward.

After hair and make-up, with the woman who did our make-up at Macy's. She was a riot, and we asked to get a picture with her.

Many years ago, when I was in college, I told my family that I wanted to lose weight for my wedding. My dad told me he'd give me $5 for each pound I lost. Well, that never happened. Fast forward to 2010, when I had lost 100 pounds, I asked him if his deal was still good. After some hem-hawing, he said yes--and he paid me $500! So I took that money and used some it to fly out to Minnesota and run the Ragnar Relay with my brother.

When I reached the 120's (for a minute back in 2010), Jerry bought me an iPod Nano so I had something to listen to while running.

Those are all kind of extreme examples, but there are lots of things you can reward yourself with for each goal--new clothes are an obvious choice (maybe new workout clothes?). Anything that may help you reach your goals, like a food scale, exercise equipment, a gym membership, or a race entry are good ideas.

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Jefferson Bears Jingle 5K race report

I was soooo nervous for this race! I know that sounds ridiculous, considering I ran TWO marathons this year, and this was a 5K, but I was not running my marathons for time. The only reason I was running this 5K was to get my sub-26 time! I've mentioned before that I hate 5K's, because it feels like a really long sprint--which is HARD. At the marathons, I could relax and have a conversation, and not feel like I was going to vomit.

I chose this race because it was sure to be a super small race. It started at 3:00 pm, which is a late start for me--usually I run at 8:00 in the morning. So I wasn't sure how the time difference would affect me. I like to run on an empty stomach, but I obviously wasn't going to skip breakfast and lunch to do this race. I had a protein shake for breakfast, and a lunch that I'm sure was delicious but my nerves were so bad that I could barely choke it down.

Mushroom soup, Ezekiel toast with sunflower seed butter, grapes, and a Cutie. I bought Maranatha sunflower seed butter, and I like it a lot better than the Sunbutter brand. The Sunbutter brand reminded me of the smell of a farm, and I couldn't get that out of my mind when I ate it. The Maranatha brand just tastes like sunflower seeds--yum!

Anyway, it was raining all morning, and really windy. I kept hoping that the weather would get better before the race, but it didn't :(  I didn't care though, because I wasn't going to let anything stop me from running this race today.

Beautiful day for a race

I dropped off my kids at my parents' house at 2:15, got to the school and picked up my shirt and bib, and saw that the route was the exact same road that I had run my 10-miler on Friday. This race was unlike any other I've ever run before. It was VERY small and intimate--like, everyone knew each other. I was the only one there without a friend or family member. I'm pretty sure everyone was running for fun, and I was the only one running for time. Again, I didn't care! I was going to get my sub-26.

Cute shirt!

I was bummed that it wasn't chip-timed, but because it was such a small race, I figured I could start at the front, so it wouldn't really matter. It was pretty funny, actually, at how small this race was--the race director had a microphone, and announced, "Okay, everyone's here, we're going to start. I'm going to take you over to the start line now." And she literally walked/ran 1/4 mile to the "start line"--which was just an imaginary line in the road. I lined up right behind the boys who looked like they'd be running quite fast. Everyone else looked like they were running for fun, so I didn't want to have to weave around anyone.

The race director said, "Okay ready? 3...2...1...GO!" She started the timer, and we were off. Only one person went past me in the beginning, so I felt like I started in the right spot. Shortly after we started running, the rain really picked up and it was soon pouring. I was totally drenched. It was 37 degrees, pouring rain, and super windy. My hands were frozen, so I pulled my sleeves over my hands, but it didn't help much. I glanced at my Garmin a couple of times in the beginning, and saw that I was running at a 6:00/mi pace--way too fast! I kept reminding myself that I was running my own race, and I didn't have to run that fast.

If I didn't get my sub-26, at least
I looked festive!

I noticed that there were only two females ahead of me, so I was determined to keep it that way. I've never placed in a race, even in my age group. There were about 50 people in this race, so I had a good chance of getting an age group award. The first mile seemed to last FOREVER. I was dying to hear the beep from my Garmin, signaling a mile.

My feet were very, very numb from the cold and rain. It felt like I was running on rocks, because parts of my feet were totally numb, and it was just weird. I finally heard the beep of my Garmin, looked down, and saw 7:58. I ran a sub-8 mile! I could feel myself slowing down, though, so I knew that would probably be my only sub-8 mile. To hit my sub-26 goal, I had to run 8:20/mi, so that's what I was focused on. I prayed that the course wouldn't be long.

The second mile, I had serious thoughts about quitting and turning around. My lungs were on fire, I was SO COLD that I couldn't stand it, and my feet were getting more and more numb. I could see the ambulance ahead, where the turn-around point was (it was an out-and-back route). After the turn around, I heard someone come up behind me kind of loud. Then he was right next to me, and he had a damn dog with him. I try to avoid dogs at all costs when I run because I'm terrified of them, but this husky actually seemed to be really well-behaved, and didn't even glance at me. I was thankful for that, but I was still uncomfortable running next to it.

But that guy kept pace with me the whole second half of the race. I tried to pass him, but I was already running as hard as I could. I kept thinking, "I can't let a DOG beat me!" I finally heard the beep at mile two, and I looked at my Garmin: 8:36. Shit. I knew I'd banked some time in the first mile, but I was going to have to really push it hard to finish under 26 minutes.

I felt like I was dying (did I mention how much I hate 5Ks?!) I finally saw the point where we would turn into the school parking lot, and I ran as hard as I could. I passed the guy with the dog, but he was right on my heels.  I heard the beep for mile three, and saw: 8:16. I could see the time clock at the finish line, and it read 25:14, so I put everything I had into that last little bit, and crossed the finish "line". I think I stopped my Garmin a couple of seconds after my "actual" finish, but I wasn't sure where the line was. There was a guy there collecting tags from our bibs, and he tore mine off. I could barely breathe, and I was SO relieved to be done!

Splits: 7:58, 8:36, 8:16, 7:25

The race director (who is actually part of my wine club!) congratulated me, and I could barely gasp out "Thanks!" I waited around for the awards, because I was pretty sure I'd get something. I was in the top 15 finishers (because I could actually count them while I was running, hahaha), and I know I was the third female overall.

The director waited for everyone to finish, and I just kept getting colder and colder while I waited in the gym. My teeth were chattering so loudly, I'm sure everyone could hear them. I couldn't stop trembling, and my whole body was shaking. Finally, they started the awards. First, they had an award for best costume. There weren't many people who entered for that:

The two candy cane ladies won. Then they announced the top male and top female. They gave medals to the top two in each age group. My age group was 30-39. I wasn't very surprised when she called me for FIRST PLACE, because the race was so small, but it was still very exciting!! This was my first award I've ever gotten for a race.

I was completely soaked to the bone, and I desperately wanted to leave to pick up the boys and take a scalding hot shower. But because the race was so small, everyone would have noticed if I left after I got my medal, so I hung around for a few more minutes ;)

Overall, the race was totally miserable--freezing cold, pouring rain, and super windy. But despite all those uncontrollable things, I'm glad I did it! I reached my sub-26 goal. And I experienced a very intimate race, which was pretty fun!

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Coffee Crisp!

Today was a tough day for me as far as temptation goes. No run on the schedule this morning, so I had a pretty lazy morning. My dad came over, and dropped off some of the kids' stuff, and then he said that he had something for me. My dad is notorious for junk food, so I assumed he brought me a fun-sized Butterfinger from his treat jar (my favorite thing to grab when I go over there).

He was holding it behind his back, and the kids were trying to guess what it was. I could hear the wrapper, and said, "It's a Butterfinger." But I was wrong--it was even better than a Butterfinger. What's better than a Butterfinger?

Coffee Crisps!! I absolutely love these candy bars, but they are only available in Canada (as far as I know). So whenever someone in my family goes to Canada for whatever reason, they come back with a bunch of Coffee Crisps. My dad used to bring me back the ginormous-sized ones, but I think he was trying to do something nice without sabotaging me. (Although a small part of me wishes he'd brought the ginormous ones...haha!)

The kids got Christmas cards in the mail from my brother's ex-wife, with gift cards to Target. They were SO excited. They talked all day yesterday how they were going to spend them. So this afternoon, I took them to Target to spend their gift cards. I also wanted to get the stuff for a care package for a soldier in Afghanistan, and that was actually really fun to shop for.

I asked my little brother (Nathan) for some ideas, because he spent three years in Iraq. He said his favorite things to get were beef jerky, "real" toilet paper, magazines, and homemade cookies. I never would have thought toilet paper would make the list, but I bought the best quality toilet paper they had ;)  The hard part was the cookies.

I don't bake, because I can eat a whole batch of cookies (or a whole pie, cake, sheet of brownies, etc). So it's easiest for me not to bake. But I really wanted to include something homemade in the care package, so I decided to make my very favorite oatmeal cookies. (Yes, the ones I almost ralphed when I decided to run them off last summer). I made a full batch, which is three dozen cookies. And since this particular soldier likes M&M's, I used those instead of chocolate chips.

I took a tiny taste of the dough, and it was soooo good. My good intentions went out the window, and I ate about 5 pinches of dough. I guesstimated it to be about 12 PointsPlus worth. When I realized it was getting out of control, I stopped what I was doing and went and brushed my teeth really well, so that I would have a minty mouth and cookies wouldn't taste good--or at least that's what I told myself. But it worked, I didn't touch any more of the dough, and I didn't eat a single cookie once they were baked. They were VERY tempting, however!

I packaged up as many of them as I could fit into the box I was preparing, and the kids and Jerry each ate a few. Now they are gone. I wasn't even hungry for dinner after that, so I just counted the cookies as dinner and moved on. Not the best choice, but stuff like that happens once in a while. I handled it much better than if I had binged!

Chandler is cracking me up. He and Phoebe were fighting, so I put him on the third level of the cat tree (he usually only goes on the second level, because it doesn't have sides and he can actually fit). He thought it was awesome being up there on level three!

And to my surprise, he got comfortable...

He looks kind of like a overfilled muffin--when the top gets so big that it spills over sides. He actually slept like that for a while.

Well, tomorrow is the big day for me. Sub-26 or bust! The race is at 3:00 in the afternoon, which means I'm going to be a nervous wreck all day. But I hope I'm feeling my best tomorrow and ready to run hard enough to puke.

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10 miles followed by Biscoff spread

I've discovered that I dread any run that's more than four miles. Fridays are my long run days, so today I was scheduled for 10 miles. I really wanted to get warm and cozy under my electric blanket and watch Lifetime movies all day, but I knew that wasn't going to happen ;)

I procrastinated for a little bit after the kids left for school, but finally dragged myself out the door. It was cold, but thankfully not rainy and cold, like the weather app predicted. Running in the rain doesn't bother me, but at 35 degrees, it would have been kind of miserable. I chose a route that I've never run before--basically five miles in one direction, and turn around and come back. I would be running on busier roads the entire time (which I like, because it's generally safe from dogs). I hoped trying a new route would distract me from the fact that I was running 10 miles.

As soon as I started running, I felt a weird cramp in my side--awesome. I hoped that it would go away soon, and just kept running. After about 3/4 of a mile, it started to sprinkle. Even more awesome. I started saying, "Please don't rain until after my run!" and naturally, the sprinkles turned into actual rain. I debated whether I should keep going or turn around and finish on the treadmill. I didn't dress for a wet run. I decided to keep going, and since I was going to be passing a recreation center at about mile four, I could just go inside and call for a ride if the rain was too bad.

The new route was the perfect distraction, and I actually was enjoying it. I refused to look at my Garmin the entire time, because I didn't want to push my pace--my race is on Sunday, so I want my legs to feel good. Unusual/interesting things I saw along the way, in order that I saw them:

• A man in his underwear taking a pizza box out to the trash (he looked totally embarrassed when he saw that I was running by, haha)
• A used condom
• A hypodermic needle
• A dead rabbit :(
• A homemade bong
• Another hypodermic needle

So based on my run this morning, one would think that I was running through the ghetto.

I felt surprisingly good after the first few miles. It helped that I wasn't concerned about my pace. Last week, my nine-mile run felt rough. I was pushing it, and I felt tired. Then at the end, I had to run super hard to get a sub-9:30 pace. Since today's run felt rather easy, I was guessing it was about a 10:15/mi pace. I was shocked when I stopped my watch and saw that I ran done a 9:30 average pace! I don't know what was different between last week and this week, but I was happy to see that I felt so good while running that pace.

I love how consistent my splits were! It's hard to do that even when I'm trying to.

I went grocery shopping after I showered. While I was there, I have no idea what possessed me, but I decided to buy a frozen meal for lunch. I despise frozen meals, and probably eat only one a year. I saw them in the display case, and I thought, "I wonder if they've gotten any better since the last time I tried one?" They were on sale, so I ended up buying one.

When I got home, I threw it in the microwave for four minutes, and it was done. After stirring it up, it looked like this:

It was 8 PointsPlus, which seemed like a lot for such a tiny amount of food. I kept thinking how I could cook something that tasted better, was cheaper, and a bigger portion--but I wanted to give it a chance.

Eh. It was okay. I wouldn't buy it again. It was pretty bland, and tasted like all the other frozen meals (it's weird how they all taste the same!)

Yesterday, I kept thinking about my ten-miler today and how I could buy a yummy treat to have after the run. I earned 12 PointsPlus, so I was excited to "spend" them on something good. But after the run, nothing really sounded good. Even at Kroger, I didn't see anything that sparked my interest.

But then it hit me in the late afternoon, and I knew the perfect way to spend the activity points--the last of the Biscoff spread! I did check how much was in there before eating it, because I wanted to make sure I was able to count the PP in it. There were 5 Tbsp. left (I usually eat 2 Tbsp at a time, which is a big spoonful). I happily savored every lick, and thoroughly cleared out the jar:

That was 11 PP, so it was the perfect amount for after my run. (Yes, Biscoff spread is pure junk food, but that's why I run!) I don't think I'll be buying another jar, though. I did great with this jar--I didn't binge at all--but I couldn't stop thinking about it, and it was driving me crazy. Knowing it was in the cupboard was taunting. It was great while it lasted, and I'm really happy I was able to go through a whole jar without bingeing, but now I'm fine with not buying more.

By the way, Jerry loved the reading your comments on my last post. I told him that he should write another guest post, and he said he wasn't sure what he should write about. So if anyone has questions for him, just leave a comment and he can do a Q&A post :)

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Weight Watchers 360 plan

Jerry must have read my blog post from yesterday, because I found this note from him on the mirror in the bathroom:

That put a big smile on my face!

I got dressed for a cold run, and then got the kids all ready for school. It's quite possible I was still asleep during my run today, because I don't remember much of anything about it! So weird. But I was dreading this run with a passion--I don't know why, but I just really wanted to skip out today. I thought of a million excuses not to do it, but excuses always lead to more excuses, so I knew I was going to get 'er done.

I even slept terribly last night, because I knew I was going to be running five miles in the morning when I didn't want to. Maybe that's why I don't remember much of my run! Anyway, I was scheduled for five miles at race pace (9:00/mi) and I had no intention of trying to push the pace--I would have been happy with nine minute miles, even though my previous race pace runs have been faster. I did an out-and-back route, and apparently I took a picture of myself when I returned:

(My plan was to have this be a wordless post--where I just took pictures of my day. But I quit before breakfast, because it was too much to think about. Maybe another day!)  Turns out that I ran faster than I'd planned on, despite being tired:

After my run, I jumped in the shower to get ready to head to Weight Watchers for my weigh-in and meeting. Since I'm in maintenance mode at WW, I don't want a big dip in my weight, so I just tried to make my weight the same as it was last week (with clothes and shoes and all that). The WW center got a new computer system last week, and when I saw my weight sticker, I thought the computer must not be very smart. I can do math in my head better than that:

Last weeks weight: 141.6; Today's weight: 141.5. That should be a loss of 0.1, right? Well, it said -1.5! I was confused, but since I didn't notice it until I got home, I figured I'd bring it up next week. What I think may have happened is that the computer uses my GOAL weight as the base, and then the +/- section is how far off of my goal I am...? My WW goal weight is 143, so 141.5 would be a loss of 1.5. That would make sense. Since I'm at goal, WW is only concerned with the fact that I stay at or below goal.

We got our materials for the 2013 plan, called Weight Watchers 360. From what I gathered, between WW Online, the meeting I attended today, and all the materials I've read, the 360 plan is the exact same plan as the 2012 PointsPlus plan. My leader said that the 360 plan is more about fitting WW into your lifestyle, but I didn't feel like anything was different.

I did buy a new 3-Month Journal, because that's how I log my food, and I really like the new design of it! It's bigger than the old one, but worth it when I see the layout.

2013 tracker vs. the 2012 tracker

This is new. Each week, you can plan out your meals in advance.

This is where you can plan your exercise for the week, and keep track of
your weekly points and activity points

These are the actual tracking pages to log your PP. I like that they have a
spot to distinguish between the daily, weekly, and activity points used (the
old planner didn't do this).

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I had such a great time last night catching up with Stacie! She's had quite a bit going on recently, so it was good to hear from her. We sat at Tim Horton's for about two hours, and then we made plans to meet up again on Monday (that way we don't go another year between visits!)

For reference, Stacie is the friend that I suckered into coming to dropped everything to fly out to Minnesota with me in August 2010 to run the Ragnar Relay Great River! Neither one of us had a clue what we were getting into. My brother (a team captain) had a couple of people drop out last minute, so Stacie and I took their places on the team. We had a blast! (Although we definitely questioned what the heck we were doing there).

 I believe this is in St. Paul... but I'm not sure. We had been awake for 30 hours, and I'm surprised we were still standing!

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