Frustrating evening

Last night turned out to be majorly disappointing. I didn't end up going to my wine club meeting after all. I got completely ready to go, hair and make-up and all that, and then when I was putting my coat on, I felt a really sharp pain shoot through my back. It was so sharp and so sudden, that I actually fell to my knees, gasping.

After that, twisting my upper body or lifting my arms caused a really sharp pain on the left side of my back, just under my left shoulder blade. I was determined to go to Winers anyway, so I grabbed my gift and went out to the car. It was snowing pretty hard, and the roads still weren't clear from the snow we got a few days ago.

I'm a pretty nervous driver, especially in the dark and/or bad road conditions, so the snow made me nervous. I went slow, which caused people to tailgate me, just adding to my anxiety. Because of the roads, I changed my route to get to Elaine's house (my friend who was hosting Winers); and I couldn't find it. I was getting really frustrated looking for it, and every time I turned my steering wheel, I would feel that pain shoot through my back.

By the time I found her house, I was in tears of frustration. Then I noticed that there wasn't anywhere to park. The whole street was covered in snow, and the street was narrow, so I couldn't park on the street itself. My Jeep doesn't have four-wheel drive, so I was afraid to get stuck in the snow (never mind the fact that I wasn't wearing boots, as I should have).

I tried squeezing into a couple of spots that I though may have room, but they didn't work out, and every move of the steering wheel was making me cringe from the back pain. I was so frustrated, that I just thought "Screw it, I'm leaving". And I went home.

I really should have just stopped and calmed down for a few minutes, and then try again. I was REALLY looking forward to wine club, and I know I would have had fun the second I walked in the door. But I just felt so frustrated in the moment that I made the impulsive decision to leave. It was a 35 minute drive home (normally would have been 20 minutes, in good road conditions).

When I got home, I took a muscle relaxer and Jerry gave me a back massage. The muscle relaxer helped quite a bit, and I was able to fall asleep (really early, too). When I woke up, my back only hurt when I twisted or raised my arms above my head. I'm being careful with it, because I can't let this screw up my Ragnar!

This morning, I woke up feeling fine. Then when I raised my arms to put my sports bra on, I felt the pain again. I only feel it when I twist or raise my arms. I ran four miles on the treadmill this morning without so much as a twinge, but when peeling my clothes off afterward, I felt it again. Ugh--awesome timing for a back spasm.

The treadmill was super boring today, as usual, but I kept thinking of all the comments that people leave me saying things like, "It's so inspiring that you run even when you don't feel like it!" I figured if I ran 14 miles on Friday, running just 4 today should be a cakewalk. I was super tempted to quit at three miles, but kept going to finish it out.

Tonight, we're going out to dinner with Sarah and Ne--to La Pita!! My favorite restaurant. I always order the same thing there:

That's the lunch portion of the chicken kabob, with rice pilaf, hummus, salad, and garlic sauce (served with pita bread). I've already calculated out the PointsPlus for what I'm going to eat. I'll skip the garlic sauce altogether (it's my favorite part, but it's 2 PP per tablespoon--so that little cup is 8 PP!). I'll eat the whole kabob, the salad (I actually like it--the dressing is lemon juice, olive oil, and dill), 1/4 cup of the hummus (I like to dip the chicken in the hummus), 1 pita bread, and 1/2 cup of the rice pilaf. That totals 16 PP for the meal--not too bad!

I cannot believe tomorrow is the last day of 2012 already! I feel like I have a million things to get done before I leave Thursday morning, so I'm sure I will keep busy. But I can't seem to think about anything else--I'm so excited!

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Saturday errands

Last night with Sarah and Ne was so fun! I made turkey chili for dinner, and then I avoided all snacks after that. I did have a few glasses of wine (oh, okay, and a couple of beers). We played Euchre--guys vs. girls--and Sarah and I wasted the guys.

I tried taking pictures, but this was the best I could do! I used all of my activity points on the drinks, but it was totally worth it. While we were playing cards, I looked behind me at Chandler, and took this hilarious picture of him:

He looks so annoyed, doesn't he? I didn't end up going to bed until around 12:30, which is super late for me. And naturally, I was awake at 5:30, even though my kids were at my parents' house and I had no reason to get up early.

Once Jerry woke up, and the kids were home, we took the kids out to return some Christmas stuff and run some other errands. The roads were horrible to drive on, and we almost turned around; but the interstate was totally clear.

 

We went to the mall, and walked by an old favorite of mine--Cinnabon. I used to love those things! I still do, but haven't had one in a few years. I remember when I was pregnant with Eli, I craved them like crazy. I bought a six-pack of them, and ate them all within 24 hours. The sign made me smile when I walked by:

Life needs frosting. I totally agree. I just checked the PointsPlus in an original Cinnabon, and it has 24 PP. That's actually not that bad, for a once-in-a-while treat! Maybe if I don't gain a ton of weight in Florida, I'll use my weekly PointsPlus to treat myself to a Cinnabon when I get home.

We ate lunch at Subway with a gift card that I had, and then we went to Party City to let Eli pick out the decorations for his birthday party. We're going to have his party the weekend after Jerry and I get home from Florida, so I wanted to get everything ready now. Jerry took Noah to Target while Eli and I picked out the birthday stuff. We had fun goofing around with some of the stuff in the store:

Some magnets that I found amusing:

I was tempted to get some candy at Party City, but decided that I'd get an ice cream cone from McDonald's on the way home instead. That was definitely the right choice--it was so good!

While we were driving home on the interstate, Noah saw something "sliding" across all three lanes. He said it looked like a tire. About a half mile later, we saw someone pulled over with a trailer that held a layout boat for duck hunting and duck decoys. Sure enough, it was missing a tire.

Jerry felt bad for the guy, who probably had no clue what happened, so we drove to the next exit, turned around, drove two exits and turned around again to pick up the tire. Noah remembered exactly where it was, so Jerry picked it up and we drove it over to the guys. The tire was too messed up to use, but at least he knew what happened. Maybe it would at least get him back home.

Tonight is my wine club meeting, and I love the theme: White Christmas (white wine, white chocolate, and a white elephant gift exchange).  We've done the white elephant gift exchanges for a few years, and it's always a blast. I have a perfect white elephant gift for tonight! And since this post won't go live until I'm already there, I can show it to you:

It's some sort of cocktail mixer, but it was the shoe-shaped bottle that sold me ;)  I bought it a long time ago at Big Lots specifically for this purpose!

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Treadmill half-marathon

I woke up this morning before everyone else in the house, determined to get my long run started and over with as early as possible. I already knew it was going to be a treadmill run--yesterday, we had tons of slush, and this morning's temps meant all that slush was now ice:

Unfortunately, they don't plow the streets around here, so the roads were completely coated with ice.

Anyway, I set up my computer in front of the treadmill, and was determined to run a half-marathon. The farthest I've ever run on the treadmill has been 12 miles. Today was scheduled to be a 13 mile run (but of course I would add the extra 0.1 to make it an even half-marathon distance!)

I turned on a show called Disappeared, and started watching it from Season One. My sister told me about it, and I hoped it would keep my attention for the next two hours. Oh, did I mention that I was planning to run the half-marathon under two hours? I've never done that before, either. I started running at 7:01, and told Jerry was determined to finish by 9:00.

Usually, my treadmill shows both my speed (in mph) and my pace (in minutes per mile). But I used a different setting, so when I started running, it just showed speed. I couldn't remember what speed would give me the correct pace for a sub-2:00 half-marathon (9:08/mi), so I had to play around with it for a couple of miles. I eventually settled on 6.7 mph.

However, I was almost a mile into my run, when I saw that I hadn't started my Garmin! I was bummed. If I ran a half-marathon, I wanted the proof ;)  So I decided to just run until my Garmin read 13.1 miles, even though it meant running an extra mile.

I felt great until about mile 10, when I started to feel really tired. I just wanted to stop. I hadn't thought about fuel during the run, so I didn't have Gu or anything; I asked Jerry to get me some grapes, and I ate those while I ran. Those worked really well for a little pick-me-up! Tastier (and healthier) than Gu, anyways. Jerry took this picture of me while I was running. It makes me look pretty fast ;)

It also makes my boobs look kind of big. They're not.

I was SO tempted to quit when the treadmill read 13.1, but I toughed it out and went the extra mile (literally) until the Garmin read 13.1. And I finished under two hours!

Now, if only I could do that at a race...

I was tired after that run, but I had to hurry up and shower, dress, eat breakfast, and head to Weight Watchers. I completely spaced out about my meeting yesterday, so I went today instead. I knew I was a little dehydrated from the run, so I wore boots in the hope that my weight wouldn't show too big of a drop. When I got on the scale, it read that I'd lost 1.5 pounds from last week. Oops. I just don't want that weight to become the new standard! Next week it might show a gain, since I won't have just run 13.1 14 miles.

I liked the members at this morning's meeting, and the leader was very genuine (she seemed to really care about each member's progress). I did disagree with a couple of things the leader said, though. She told us that we should count fruit/veggies as 2 PP each if we go over the recommended 5 half-cup servings per day. None of the WW materials tells us to count the PP for fruit/veggies. It says that those foods are "free", and that we should eat until satisfied (meaning, don't totally pig out on them).

I definitely eat more than 5 servings a day, mostly from fruit. I guess it may be hard for some people not to use fruit as a crutch, and eat too much of it; but I'm not going to start counting PP for fruit/veggies, since what I'm doing is working just fine. The free fruits/veggies are the main reason I've liked doing WW over counting calories!

After the meeting, I stopped at the library and Kroger to pick up a few things for tonight. I'm going to make turkey chili for when Sarah and Ne come over. I'm really excited to hang out with them!

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Oh, Jerry showed me this today, and I thought it was hysterical! I'm not sure where it originated, but I got it from weknowmemes.com. (Click it to enlarge)

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Too much candy

One week from this moment, I'll be in Miami, hanging out with my Ragnar Relay team, getting ready to toe the starting line the following morning. I cannot believe a year has passed since this whole idea came about! The year has passed so quickly, but this week is going to pass very slowly, because I'm just so excited.

A few people have asked me what I got Jerry for Christmas--when I wrote that I couldn't say what it was, it was just because Jerry might read it before Christmas. His present wasn't a big deal at all! The boys helped me pick it out--we got him some fleece pajama pants, slippers, a coffee mug, a hoodie, and a Star Wars game for the Kinect. Jerry got me pajamas (with cats on them), perfume, and an outfit from Victoria's Secret ("real" clothes and not lingerie, haha). Moving on...

This morning, I let the boys sleep in a bit, even though they had their winter break camp today. Usually, they're up bright and early, but yesterday's camp wore them out--and they slept in until a little after 8:00. I quickly got them ready and drove them to camp.

I had plans to meet Stacie tonight at Panera, but since I had the whole day free, I sent her a text to see if she wanted to meet this morning instead. She said 10:00 would be good, so I went to Dunham's and Hobby Lobby to kill some time. I was hoping Dunham's would have some good sales on Under Armour stuff, being post-Christmas, but nothing was on sale, so I didn't buy anything.

At Hobby Lobby, I bought the final things I needed to finish up a couple of the Virtual 5K prizes. I'd like to get all of those done and ready before I leave for Florida. Then I went and met Stacie at Panera. I just got a decaf coffee, and we ended up chatting for an hour and a half.

When I got home, I wanted to get my run done before eating lunch. We got a ton of snow yesterday, and today it's melting, so the streets are covered in slush. I love to run on snow, but slush is awful--it gets my shoes and socks soaked, and I get dirty water splashed all over me. I was scheduled for a tempo run (faster than usual), and I knew it would be even harder to do that in the slush, so I opted for the treadmill.

I set the speed at 7.2 mph and tried to focus on Bones (I set up my computer to play it on Netflix while I ran). I need to find a more exciting show to watch while I run on the treadmill! I just kept looking at the timer, and spent the entire run waiting for it to be over. When I finished mile 3, I bumped up the speed, and then bumped it up every quarter-mile until the last quarter, when I just kept increasing to get it done.

I'm debating what I'm going to do for tomorrow's long run. I was planning to run 13 miles, but I really don't want to do it on the treadmill! I could just run eight miles, and call it "tapering" for Ragnar ;) (There is no need for me to taper for this race). The most I've ever run on the treadmill is 12 miles, so maybe I'll do a half-marathon just to say I did.

I would like to run the full 13 miles, because of all the activity PointsPlus I'll earn. My friend Sarah (from Arizona) and her husband Ne are coming over tomorrow, and I know I'll be drinking a few glasses of wine while we play Euchre. I'm going to stay away from the Doritos that always end up here when Jerry and Ne get together, though!

Over the past few days, I've been eating too much candy. I've been counting the PointsPlus for it, but I knew I shouldn't be eating that much crap. I took a few little chunks of the kids' Hershey bars. Yesterday, we had to go to my parents' house to feed their cat (they were in Florida for a couple of days, came home tonight), and I took some stuff from their junk food drawer--a handful of Reese's Pieces, a handful of Coffee Crisp bites, and a truffle. I logged it when I got home, and I'd wasted a lot of points on what seemed like nothing while I was eating it.

So today, I vowed that I wasn't going to touch the kids' candy, or my parents junk drawer when I fed their cat. After I picked the kids up from their camp, we got an ice cream cone from McDonald's before going to my parents' house. That way I wouldn't be so tempted by the candy. And thankfully, I managed not to eat anything while I was there!

I have no pictures to go along with today's post... but here is a picture I took of Estelle today. She's never cuddly, but surprisingly, she sat on my lap and let me pet her...

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Scales

Week two of maintenance was a success!

I was 133 on the nose again this week. I can't believe what a smooth transition it's been from weight loss to maintenance! All I did was add 6 PointsPlus per day. My weight has been pretty stable each day--at the lowest, it was 132, and the highest was 133.5. I ate every single available PP this week, so I think that's the right amount for me to maintain. (32 daily PP x 7 days=224 + 49 weekly PP=273 + 31 activity PP= 304 PP for the week, or an average of  43/day)

I was recently asked if I'd like to review a digital bathroom scale by Conair. Before I get into that, let me explain a little about my scale (the one in the picture above). I got this scale years ago, when I was in college (probably 2002), and I remember paying quite a bit for it ($80). I love this scale, and I probably won't ever find another that I love quite as much.

My scale is extremely consistent--you can weigh yourself 10 times in a row, and it gives you the exact same number every time. It's also very accurate--I put dumbbells on it every once in a while to check that it's reading the correct weight:

A 10-lb dumbbell and a 5-lb dumbbell, so it's right on the money with 15.0 pounds.

I've never had to replace a battery in this scale, and I'm not sure how that's possible. The scale is super easy to turn on by pressing the bottom right corner; and it shuts off automatically. The only thing that I could possibly find to complain about is that it only measures in 0.5-lb increments. Over the years, I've bought a few different scales to try and find a good one that measures in 0.2 or 0.1 increments, but I've returned those scales because I just can't part with this one! I've not found another scale that is both accurate AND consistent... every single time.

So now that I've established my high standards, I will move on to the scale that I was given to review--the Weight Watchers by Conair Digital Scale. I wasn't expecting it to be perfect (like my scale), but I wanted to see how it compared. Out of the box, I really liked how it looks--it's very sleek and thin. There is only one button (lb/kg, on the underside of the scale), which was a good thing for me--I don't like scales that have all kinds of buttons and gadgets to mess with.

If it looks kind of plain, that's because it is--the scale also comes with vinyl sayings that you can stick on your scale to decorate it:

There is also a sheet of white ones, but you can't read them on a photo very well. Anyway, I decorated the scale to my liking:

My favorite sticker was the "determination!" one, because I'm always talking about how determination is MUCH more important than motivation. The stickers are just vinyl, so you can peel them off and swap them out very easily. I thought that was a fun little touch.

First, I gave the scale the old dumbbell challenge:

Now my 15-lb dumbbells weighed 15.6 pounds--so I give it a 'B' for accuracy. I've seen scales that are off by as much as 5-lbs, so 0.6 isn't too bad, but it's not perfect either.

Then, I did my consistency test--I weighed myself six times in a row, to see how many different numbers I got.
#1: 133.3
#2: 133.3
#3: 133.3
#4: 133.3
#5: 133.3
#6: 133.3

So I give this scale an 'A' for consistency.

Lastly, the ease of use. This is where I give the scale a 'C' grade. The directions say to tap the scale firmly in the center until it reads 0.0. I had a hard time figuring out just the right way to tap it to get it to turn on. You have to do it quickly and sharply in the center, harder than you would think. But I've mastered it now.

The scale has a maximum capacity of 400-lbs, which I think is great; most bathroom scales I've seen go up to 300- or 350-lbs. The price isn't bad, either--the average cost is $29.99. Overall, would I buy this scale? Yes. If my beloved HealthOMeter scale ever dies, I would happily use this as a replacement.

I was told I could offer a giveaway for one of these scales, but instead of doing the giveaway on this post, I'm going to give it away as one of the prizes for the Virtual 5K next month! By the way, there are almost 350 people signed up as of right now--that's amazing!

(In full disclosure, I was given a scale for free to review, but as always, all opinions are my own and honest)

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This morning, I took my kids to a winter camp at a local sports complex. It's three days long, and eight hours each day. They went last year, and loved it, so I told them they could do it again if they wanted. After I dropped them off, I went to return a few things--Meijer, Wal-Mart, and Kohl's. I was expecting total craziness, but there wasn't a line for customer service at all.

At Kohl's, I tried on some sundresses for Key West :)  Jerry's mom gave me a gift card for Christmas, so I thought it would be fun to use for some clothes for Florida. I tried on one dress that I thought was super cute, but it showed too much thigh for my liking. And it wasn't on sale. I like sale things.

I did end up buying that white dress you see in the background. I didn't take a pic of it, but it was super cute and only $6.40! I also bought this dress...

...for $3.20!! But I promise to wear it with a strapless bra when I'm actually in public, because I'm classy like that.

I also bought some white pants that I plan to hem into long shorts (the only shorts I wear must come down to my knee, at least); a pair of long black shorts; and a long-sleeved running shirt (not for Florida, but for here). It's fun to buy clothes while I'm maintaining my weight, because I don't have to wonder, "Will this fit me in a month?"

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Christmas 2012

Last night, we were getting the kids ready for bed, and Eli said, "Wait! We forgot to put cookies and milk out for Santa!" I paused and looked at him, because my boys have never believed in Santa. Then he laughed and said, "Oh wait, I forgot, there IS NO Santa!" We both started laughing, and I told him that the "Santa" in our house likes wine and chocolate ;)

He thought that was hysterical, and he asked if he could set that out instead of cookies and milk. So he carefully poured my wine and got out a Dove Promise; then he didn't want to leave Jerry out, so I helped him to pour Jerry's beer into a glass and put some pretzels in a bowl. He was so proud.

(Jerry and I each have the same snack just about every night--what you see in the picture).

The boys went to bed, and Jerry and I set out the presents for the morning.

I remembered that I had told Eli I would make cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning, which requires some prep work. I also realized I didn't have any powdered sugar for the icing. Since the store was closed, Jerry went over to my parents' house to get the sugar, while I put the ingredients for the dough into the bread machine. We watched a movie while the dough was cycling for an hour and a half; then I had to roll it out, spread the filling on it, roll it up, and slice it. Way more work than I wanted to do on a "relaxing" Christmas Eve! But I knew Eli was excited for the cinnamon rolls.

In the morning, I just had to throw them in the oven. I woke up at 6:00, and Jerry was up at 6:30. We sat around until 7:00 waiting for the boys to wake up! They never sleep that long, and I was sure they'd be up at 5:00. They opened their presents and were thrilled, of course. We got Eli a lot of Army stuff--toy jeeps, tanks, soldiers, etc. And Noah had been asking for Beyblades for a long time, so we got him some of those with the accessories. We also got them some games for the Kinect, a couple of board games, giant Hershey's bars... and by "giant", I mean, "the world's largest":

After presents, the boys wanted to play with their new stuff, of course, so I headed out for a short run. I just had three miles on the schedule at an easy pace. I saw that we actually had snow on the ground (just a tiny bit), so I was excited to run outside!

Once I got out there, though, I realized that the streets were coated in a thin layer of ice under the snow, and in a lot of spots, there wasn't even snow on top of it. As evidenced by my pace, I had to be very careful while I was running, and at some points, I felt like I was tip-toeing. I really enjoyed running in the first snow of the year, though!

I felt it was only appropriate to wear green and red, of course :)  I finished the run and headed inside for some breakfast (oatmeal for me, since the cinnamon rolls were about a billion calories each).

We didn't end up going to the movies today (there wasn't anything appropriate for kids playing at our local theater, unfortunately). But we played with the kids, and watched a couple of movies at home. It was a super relaxing day. Estelle cracked me up, as usual. She loved watching the boys open their gifts!

Playing in the wrapping paper

Fascinated by Noah's Beyblades

Playing inside of boxes, naturally

It's been a great day :)  I just can't believe that Christmas is over! This week, I get to see Sarah, who is here from Arizona (staying with her parents). Then next week (!!) I leave for Florida.

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Still waiting to hear from two of the NuNaturals giveaway winners...

Please e-mail my by Thursday with your full name, address, and phone number so that you can get your products from NuNaturals. Thanks!

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Christmas Eve

First, the winners of the NuNaturals giveaway:

Morgan Julane, RawrRach, k tharp, and Kim--please e-mail me (by Thursday) your full name, address, and phone number so I can pass it along to NuNaturals, and they will ship the goodies to you. Congrats! (My e-mail address is SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com).

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Last night was another night of zero sleep. Noah asked if his friend could spend the night, so the boys were all crazy before bed, of course--which was fine. I've been trying to be more patient and say "yes" instead of "no" more, because of how affected I felt by the Newtown tragedy. Anyway, Jerry and I were sleeping when Noah's friend knocked on our door, and said he couldn't sleep.

We got him settled in the the boys' room, and about 10 minutes later, he knocked again and asked if he could go home. So we let him call his mom, and she came to pick him up. That brought back memories for me--I was always the kid to go home from sleepovers because I was feeling homesick! ;)

It was hard to fall back asleep after that, and it felt like I barely blinked and it was morning already. I got up before the family to get my run done on the treadmill. Mondays are for speedwork--eight 1/4-mile intervals, pretty much as fast as I can go.

Last time I did intervals on the treadmill, I ran them at 9.0 mph, so today I decided to go for 9.1 mph. I set the treadmill for 9.1, and then hopped on and ran for 1/4 mile, and hopped back off and caught my breath while the treadmill kept running for 1/4 mile. Then I repeated that for a total of eight times.

Intervals 1-6: 9.1 mph (6:35/mi pace)
Interval 7: 9.2 mph (6:31/mi pace)
Interval 8: 9.3 mph (6:27/mi pace)

It was completely exhausting! I was pouring sweat when I was done, and I had only actually been running for a total of about 13 minutes (granted, I covered 2 miles in those 13 minutes!)  I don't know how people run at that pace for miles on end.

After I showered and had breakfast (another berry protein shake), I spent the entire day watching Christmas movies with the family while I worked on some prizes for the Virtual 5K. Estelle always gets completely in the way while I'm on the floor doing whatever craft I'm working on, and today was no different. She was batting at the scissors while I was cutting, she actually picked up my pin cushion and ran away with it (that could have been BAD for her, because there were lots of pins in it), she kept swatting at thread, and running off with pieces of fabric.

Finally, I found a way to make her happy and leave me alone:

She sat in the bag and just watched me for a long time. Problem solved, with a paper grocery bag of all things!

After lunch, I saw I was running low on grapes. Since the stores will be closed tomorrow, I sent Jerry to the store to buy me some more grapes. I didn't specify how much to buy (my mistake) and he came home with seven pounds of grapes! Hahaha. I usually buy about four pounds at a time, but I'm sure I'll be able to go through seven no problem ;)


We're going to stay kind of low-key tomorrow--open gifts in the morning, possibly go to the movies in the afternoon (I always loved going to the movies in Christmas when I was a kid, and since Jerry is off work, we'd like to take the boys), and then Jerry's parents are coming over in the evening to give the kids their gifts.

10 more days until Miami/Key West!!

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Last-minute shopping

I really need to get over my fear of running in the dark. Since it doesn't get light outside until 8:00, I just wait around before going for a run, even when I don't have to (like when Jerry is home with the boys, I could head out at 6:00 when I get up). I used to run in the dark all the time, but I quit doing that at some point.

This morning, I was up at 6:00, and the kids had spent the night at my parents' house, so it would have been perfect to go out for my run; but I just laid in bed reading for a while, and then dressed and headed outside. I had four miles on the schedule this morning, so I did my favorite out-and-back route. It was completely uneventful. Splits: 8:29, 8:33, 8:24, 8:04.

I wasn't trying to run it fast until I got halfway done and saw that my average pace was 8:31/mi. I was surprised to see that I was running that fast, so then I decided to try and hold that pace, which usually translates to: run even faster.

After writing that post about the NuNaturals giveaway yesterday, I was really craving the berry protein shake I posted about. So that's what I ended up having for breakfast. I spent some time knitting after breakfast--I used to knit all the time, but have gotten away from it ever since I started this blog (probably because all of my spare time goes to the blog!)

I'm making a wine tote, something I've made quite a few of for the women in my wine club. This is a picture of Renee's and mine:

The one I'm currently making may or may not be a prize for the Virtual 5K next month ;)  I'm almost up to all 31 prizes already! Once I get everything done, I will post pictures of all the prizes, and explain how I'm going to do the drawing.

This afternoon, I had to go get a couple of last minute Christmas presents--Jerry's and two more for Noah. And unfortunately, I had to take the kids with me, so I had to be very sneaky about getting Noah's presents without him seeing. The kids wanted to look at video games, so while they were looking, I chose two Kinect games for Noah (Wipe Out, and Minute to Win It, both games that I think he will like). I managed to pay for them and get them home without him seeing them. I also got a few gifts for Jerry, but since he reads my blog sometimes, I can't write about what they are.

I wrote a post last year that may hit home for some people this time of year, so today I posted the link on Twitter and Facebook; here is a link to the post if you missed it. It's about getting started now with healthy lifestyle changes, instead of waiting until the new year (or whatever other day). It's one of my favorite posts that I've written.

I'm super excited that Jerry is off work tomorrow and on Christmas. It's been a long time since he's had Christmas off! I'm not sure what we're going to do, but it will be nice to be able to spend it together :)

This is one of my favorite pictures of my boys!
It's from Christmas 2009.

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NuNaturals' new product review and giveaway!

I've never been a big fan of sugar substitutes. I love sugar, honey, and pure maple syrup; but I can't stand the taste of Splenda, or Equal, or any of the other artificial sweeteners. When Stevia first hit the market a while ago, I tried it and actually found it tolerable. And then when NuNaturals sent me their Stevia products to try last year, I found that I really liked them. I've tried a couple of different brands, but this one is honestly my favorite.

If you're new to Stevia, it's a natural (calorie-free) sweetener made from the leaves of a plant, and it's much sweeter than sugar. I've been using their packets and liquid drops in my oatmeal, tea, my protein shakes, and other drinks ever since. Recently, NuNaturals asked me if I'd like to try some new products they've come out with, so of course I wanted to!

Along with the regular packets, tablets, and drops, they now have flavored drops--orange, lemon, peppermint, and chocolate. Apparently, the chocolate is not new--but it was new to me, so I was excited to try it, along with the others.

Peppermint, Chocolate, Orange, Lemon, Vanilla, and plain drops
(seven drops is about as sweet as 1 tsp. sugar)

There are so many products, I haven't quite figured out how to use all of them! I've been experimenting for a few weeks now. I have to say, I love the flavored drops. I've been adding them to all kinds of stuff, and now I got Jerry hooked on the chocolate ones, too ;) The plus-side to using drops is that they easily dissolve in liquid, so you could use it for hot or cold drinks.

First, I tasted one drop of each straight out of the bottle, and was shocked at how good they were. Like most Stevia products, the drops are very potent, so a tiny little bit will go a long way.

I used the drops to perfect a chocolate-mint protein shake. I made it very similar to the Peppermint Patty shake that I posted recently, but I added 7 drops of chocolate Stevia, and 10 drops of peppermint Stevia (in place of the peppermint extract of the previous recipe). I liked using the peppermint Stevia MUCH more than using the peppermint extract--the flavor wasn't so harsh.

Chocolate Peppermint Protein Shake

1/2 cup milk (I usually use more, but I wanted it to be thicker this time)
1 serving vanilla protein powder
1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
7 drops chocolate Stevia drops (you could skip this, since there is enough chocolate, but I made it extra chocolatey with the drops)
7 drops peppermint Stevia drops
1/4 tsp. each xanthan gum and guar gum (optional, as always--I just like the texture that they give)
8 ice cubes

Blend until smooth.

I made another protein shake using the lemon and orange Stevia drops. Remember how I was starving after my long run last week? I threw 1 cup almond milk, 1 serving vanilla protein powder, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup frozen raspberries, handful of frozen spinach, 10 drops lemon Stevia, 7 drops orange Stevia, and 1/4 tsp. each guar and xanthan gum into the blender. This was heavenly!! The lemon + orange combo with the frozen berries was fanstastic. And it was only 3 PointsPlus for the whole shake.

Not the prettiest shake in the world, but it was delicious, and very filling (especially for being just 3 PP).

For those of you that like yogurt (blech!) I bet the flavored Stevia drops would be a good addition. Since most flavored yogurts use artificial sweeteners, the Stevia would at least be a natural alternative. But since I hate yogurt, there is no amount of Stevia that would make me enjoy it, I'm sure ;)

When it comes to using Stevia in drinks and my oatmeal, I think it's fantastic--but I'm not a huge fan of baking with it. Baked goods definitely don't taste like they do when you bake them with sugar.

I like the packets of NuNaturals Stevia to use in my tea. I use 1/2 a packet for a cup of tea (like I said, it's potent), or 4 drops of the liquid. If I'm having tea that would go well with the flavored drops, I'll use those instead. The lemon drops in chamomile tea are really good, and the orange drops in plain old black tea are yummy. Since you use so little, it takes forever to go through a bottle of drops or a box of packets.

Anyways, I'm going to keep experimenting with the products, but NuNaturals has very generously offered a giveaway to not one, but FOUR Runs for Cookies readers! I was so excited when I read that :) Each of the four winners will receive three bottles of the drops--one lemon, one orange, and one peppermint. Out of all the NuNaturals products, these drops are my favorite, so I hope you like them as much as I do!

To enter the random drawing, please "like" NuNaturals on Facebook, and leave ONE comment on this post. I'm sorry, international readers, but this one is just for readers in the U.S.; they also cannot ship to P.O. boxes. I will pick four winners on Monday, December 24 at 8:00 a.m. EST. Winners will have until Thursday, December 27th to e-mail me before I choose a new winner.

NuNaturals is also offering a discount code--if you use BLG1212 when checking out, you will receive 15% off your entire order (good until 12-31-12). You can check out their products on their website.

(In full disclosure, I was sent the NuNaturals products for free to review, but was not required to give a favorable review--options, as always, are my own).

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A very long treadmill run

Well, the world obviously didn't end today, but it was certainly a miserable day for a long run! One look outside, and I immediately thought, "Do I have to?" There were 25 mph winds and freezing rain--because of the wind, the rain looked like it was moving completely horizontal instead of falling from the sky. I could hear the wind, and started debating in my head whether it would be more miserable to run my 12 miles outside or on the treadmill.

I ultimately chose to run on the treadmill.

But first, I made breakfast. I added peanut butter to my favorite concoction today, and it was the perfect addition:

For those of you that have asked, these are the measurements I use... I cook 30 grams of quick-cooking oats in water (just 90 seconds in the microwave); then I top it with 13 grams of Marzetti fat-free caramel dip, 14 grams of peanut butter, 7 grams of shredded coconut, and 7 grams of mini chocolate chips. This bowl was 8 PointsPlus (it's 6 PP without the peanut butter).

After procrastinating a while longer, I finally set up the treadmill for a long run--laptop with Netflix turned to Bones (I'd never seen it, so I started watching from Season 1), water bottle, fan. I was debating between running just 7 miles or doing the whole 12 (or somewhere in-between). Running 12 miles on a treadmill is pure torture; so I decided that I could quit after 9 (the length of my longest Ragnar leg). But once I got that far, I decided that a few more miles wouldn't hurt, and I would be super proud for sticking it out.

I set the treadmill to 6.4 mph and just left it there until mile 12, when I started increasing every minute, then every 30 seconds, just to get done.

I was so happy to be done! Strangely, my legs didn't feel tired or sore or anything--and this is the longest run I've done since my marathon. That means I either should have been going faster, or the treadmill is just much easier on my joints. But regardless, I burned 1,051 calories, so I was happy with that :)

Renee and I had plans to get together for wine tonight, so I was counting on all my activity PointsPlus to allow me half a bottle of wine (11 PP). But she ended up having to reschedule, so I found myself with a lot of extra PP after dinner. I don't have to use them today, but I usually like to use my activity PP on the days that I earn them. So I'll probably have an extra snack tonight, most likely involving peanut butter.

Eli was building a fort for his Army guys, when Estelle decided that he was done:

Eli has been really into Army-everything for a couple of years now. His favorite gift that he's ever gotten was actually an $11 bucket of soldiers. And he can never have enough! Whenever he gets money, he buys more. And just as I was typing this, he brought me a note that he wrote on a sucker wrapper...

"From Eli; I want for Christmas some Army guys." We bought him a big bucket of soldiers, plus a bunch of Army vehicles, so I think he'll be pretty happy.

Jerry bought me something for Christmas this year (usually, we don't exchange gifts with each other), so this weekend, I have to go get him something. I have absolutely no idea what to get him, though! He keeps telling me that he put a lot of thought into my gift, so I'm feeling the pressure ;)

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