Stranger Here book review and giveaway

I wish I could say I slept really good last night, considering I found the source of the beeping, but this sore throat has been awful at night. It doesn't bother me during the day, but my throat gets really dry at night. If I'm going to get sick, I wish I would just get sick already, instead of having these tiny symptoms.

Anyway, considering I had a horrible run yesterday, I was kind of dreading today's run. I already had decided that I was going to do it on the treadmill, just in case I had a bad time again, I could stop early. And I had made up my mind to do just 8 miles, instead of 12.

I turned on Sons of Anarchy and watched two episodes while I was running (Season 4, Episodes 5-6). I felt much better than I did while running yesterday, no doubt because there was no wind, but I still couldn't wait to be done.

It's kind of funny, when I plan to do 12 miles, it really doesn't feel that long; but when I do "just" 8, it feels like forever! I think I have the idea in my head that it's going to go by super fast because I'm used to doing 12.

After eight miles, I kept running because there was still a good 15 minutes left of the episode. I ran until I reached mile nine, and then I walked until the episode was over. I was glad I went the extra mile!

I wanted to save my extra PointsPlus for this weekend, so my long run treat was lower in calories than I am used to. I ended up having an old favorite from when I was losing weight--a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich. I softened it for a few seconds in the microwave, and then topped it with Cool Whip Free and melted peanut butter. It was SO good, and only 6 PointsPlus!

Considering I usually spend an average of 20 PP on my long run treat, this was a good deal. But then in the evening, after the boys' first baseball practice of the season, I got talked into going out for ice cream. So I had a Reese's Cup Flurry, for 14 PP. Hahaha, so I wound up spending 20 PP anyway.

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I've said this before, but I'll say it again--I'm not a big reader. A book has to really keep my attention long enough for me to finish, and because of that, I start a lot of books and just never finish them. So when I get requests to review books, I usually decline. But I've actually read a few books recently for review, so I'll be sharing those in the coming weeks.

The first I was asked if I'd like to read and review is called "Stranger Here" by Jen Larsen. The book is a memoir about a woman who had weight loss surgery (WLS) and her thoughts and feelings both before and after the surgery as she lost weight. Reading weight loss surgery stories isn't of interest to me, so I almost said no.

The description that changed my mind about reading the book was, "Larsen realized that getting skinny was not the magical cure she thought it would be--and that suddenly she wasn't sure who she was anymore." I could definitely relate to that, even though I lost weight through diet and exercise rather than weight loss surgery, so I agreed to read and review the book. I was curious how our experiences compared.

I, surprisingly, really liked the book! The thing that was so interesting to me was that this wasn't a super-happy feel-good memoir about a weight loss success story. Larsen wrote so honestly about the fact that she just wanted a "simple" way to be skinny. She admitted that she hadn't exhausted all of her options before considering WLS, but she knew the "right answers" to give the doctors so that they would agree to the surgery.

She also admitted to not having thought through the consequences of her choice to have surgery, and after the surgery, she was struck by the enormity of it. Her entire life had to change. I had no idea just how restrictive the diet is after WLS--Larsen had to agree to give up alcohol, sugar, and fats (pretty much my entire diet, hahaha) and consume almost nothing but protein (mostly in the form of shakes)--forever.

The part that I could relate to so much was her thought process as she lost weight. Her mind still saw herself as "the fat girl", and it was hard to see herself as anything else. There was one part toward the end of the book, where she wrote about a man (literally) picking her up, and she felt totally panicked because she was "too heavy" to pick up--even though she was thin.

This same scenario happened to me a couple of times since losing the weight, most recently when I was in Key West a few months ago. We were all at a bar, standing outside chatting and taking goofy pictures, and this guy scooped me up for a picture. It was like an alarm went off in my head, and I got SO panicked that I was going to hurt him, or he would drop me in front of everyone, because I was "too heavy" to be picked up. Some of those thoughts are probably going to be ingrained in my head forever.

Even at my heaviest, weight loss surgery was never something I even wanted to consider; I knew I was capable of losing weight "the old fashioned way", so I was determined to do so. Stranger Here is a great read for someone who is considering WLS, because Larsen writes about the good, the bad, the ugly of the process; but it's also a great read for someone like me, who lost weight without surgery, because I found that we had a LOT in common, despite the fact that we chose different methods of weight loss.

The whole book makes a big point that weight loss, no matter how it is achieved, doesn't solve any of your problems (except maybe health issues). It doesn't fix an unhealthy relationship, it doesn't fix issues with food and overeating or binge eating, it doesn't even mean that you will be happy. Larsen seemed to have a hard time separating her personality from her weight, and I think that's something that most overweight people (and even thin people) can relate to.

The surgery is just a small part of this book; most of the writing is about Larsen's thought process while she was obese, and then considering the surgery, and finally, as she lost weight. I think that's why I enjoyed the book so much.

If you're interested in reading it, you're in luck--one randomly selected Runs for Cookies reader will win a copy! To submit your name into a random drawing, just fill out the form below. I will accept entries until 4/29/13 at 8:00 AM. Contest has ended.

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The not-so-silent alarm

Okay, so I'm always complaining about how I wake up multiple times each night, and I wish I could sleep better. And remember how I said I always wake up at the exact same time of morning before my long runs? I thought it was interesting when Thomas mentioned that he did the same thing for a while, when he discovered that his computer would do some sort of update which would turn on a fan or something, causing him to wake up at the exact same time of day.

Well, a couple of nights ago, I could have sworn that each time I woke up, I heard a beep. It was super quiet, and I thought maybe I imagined it. Yesterday afternoon, Jerry and I tore apart our bedroom, looking for whatever could possibly have made the noise. And buried in one of our nightstand drawers was this:

A stopwatch. I have no idea why we have it or where it came from. Jerry said, "Let's wait until the top of the hour and see if it beeps." So we sat there talking, and then he counted down... 5-4-3-2-1...

Beeeeeep! It was very faint, high-pitched, and short, but it was there. That stupid beep had been going off every hour on the hour for God-only-knows how long. I am a super light sleeper, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was the reason I'd been waking up so much through the night. I somehow managed to disable the alarm, and now hopefully, we won't hear it again!

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Last night, I was toying with the idea of doing my long run today, instead of the usual Friday. This morning, I was still in the mood to do it, so I got the kids off to school and then ate breakfast. I got dressed for the weather, in running tights and a tech shirt with my Women Rock MN light jacket from the half-marathon I did in August. I even remembered to put my pepper spray in the pocket in case I came across unleashed dogs.

I started running, and almost immediately, I felt miserable. It was SUPER windy, blowing right in my face. When I glanced at my pace, I saw I was at about a 9:00/mi, but I felt like I was putting in much more effort than that. About a mile in, I was just thinking about how miserable this 12-mile run was going to be, when I thought, "I don't HAVE to do a long run today! I'll just run four, and run long tomorrow."

The second mile was the hardest. The wind was so strong, and the sun was out, making me kind of hot in the jacket. I was dying to turn around early, but I stuck it out to the two-mile mark. I kept thinking that as soon as I turned around, I would have a tailwind, and feel a million times better. Not so.

The wind was only slightly better, but the sun was much worse after turning. It was all I could do not to just stop and walk. When I finally got to my street, I kept going past it, and then when I hit the four-mile mark, I stopped my Garmin and walked around my neighborhood for about 2/3 of a mile. I was having a hard time catching my breath, and once I finally got home, I figured it was probably from being sick.

My nose wasn't stuffed up or anything, but I just haven't been feeling well at all for a couple of days, ad it's hard to take a deep breath (but the cold is just in my head, not my chest). So I'm thinking for my long run tomorrow, I'll just run 8 miles instead of 12, and I'll do them on the treadmill so it's easier on me. Today's run was awful!

Normally on a four-mile run, I burn just over 300 calories; today, I burned 386. That means my body was definitely working harder, even though I was going slower.

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For lunch, I eat the same thing almost every day--eggs with cheese and crumbled bacon, along with grapes and an English muffin with jam. Today, I decided to try a (genius) idea from Ty to make a different spread for my English muffin--mix PB2 with Torani sugar-free syrup! As the queen of PB2 while I was losing weight, you would think this would have occurred to me before. There are so many different syrup flavors, this could open up a whole new list of spreads for me.

The sugar-free syrups are 0 calories, but they use Splenda; so if you're a clean eater, this is not for you. I am (obviously) not a clean eater. Normally, I'm not a huge Splenda fan because of the taste, but I do like the Torani syrups in my protein shakes. Anyway, I mixed the PB2 with sugar-free caramel syrup, and the caramel + peanut combo tasted just like the inside of a Snickers bar--SO good! (I just used one serving of PB2 and enough syrup to reconstitute it, maybe a Tbsp.)

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I am SO glad that Running on Candy suggested that I look for my bridesmaids dress used on E-bay. I didn't find the exact dress on E-bay (well, I did, but it was a size 2!), but I kept searching online until I found a few of them in my size and color needed. I messaged the owners to ask questions about alterations, stains, etc. The cheapest was an apple-colored size 6, exactly what I needed, and only $66. I thought it had to be too good to be true, so I asked for more pictures and if it had been altered. The woman who owns the dress was extremely helpful and quick to respond, which I was grateful for. She said that she had it hemmed, because she is 5'4", but that was the only alteration.

I was ecstatic! I am also 5'4", and was expecting to pay a small fortune for the dress (it's $170 new) plus the alteration fee to hem the length of it. So after some back-and-forth questions and answers, I bought the dress for $66, which includes shipping. I'm so relieved. Jerry and I have been talking lately about how we really need to cut spending, and I was feeling super guilty for having to buy this dress. She's shipping it tomorrow, and I'm just hoping that it fits the same way the one in the store did. And hoping that the hem is the right length; the bride says we are going to be wearing flats, which is a little unusual. But even if I have to pay for alterations, I'm still saving quite a bit!

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The slippery slope

This stupid semi-cold I have is making me crazy! I got almost no sleep last night, because my throat was sore, my head was aching, and my nose was either stuffy or runny. It's the same thing I had going on just before the Detroit Marathon; it never really turned into a full-blown cold, but just these irritating symptoms.

Since today was a rest day, and I was wide awake at 5:00 this morning, I just stayed in bed and watched a movie until it was time to get the kids ready for school. I was a little nervous about my Wednesday Weigh-in this morning, because of how horribly I ate over the four days I wasn't running.

The damage:

I was actually down a pound from last week! I was very happy to see that, after feeling like I'd gained 100 pounds from all the snacking I did.

Sunday was awful--I ate nearly 100 PP that day! The worst part about eating like that is that it's SO hard to get back on track the next day. I start to think, "Well, one more day can't be much worse, so I'll just get back on track tomorrow..." and then tomorrow comes and I say the same thing. That is a VERY slippery slope, and that is how I gained back 15-20 pounds last year.

My conversation with Pete Thomas in September made me really focus on making a plan for this year, when I tend to gain weight (all spring and summer long). This time, I promised myself that I wouldn't use the "just one more day" excuse if I binged or just had a bad eating day.

So on Monday, I was thinking, "My weight is already probably going to be up this week, so what can it hurt to just have one more day of constant snacking?" It was SO hard not to give in to that mentality, but I kept reminding myself that I promised I wouldn't use that excuse anymore. If I had a bad day, I wouldn't let it turn into two days, or a week, or more. I've learned that even after having a bad day or two, if I get right back on track as soon as possible, it really minimizes the damage.

This week is the perfect example of that! I was bouncing between 133-134, but after eating 94 PP on Sunday, my weight was 135.5 on Monday morning. If I had used the "just one more day" mentality, those extra few pounds would likely still be hanging on. But I got on track immediately, and it dropped back down just as quickly as I put it on.

At first, the large jump in weight is just water weight, or the weight of the food itself, which is easy to take off within a day or two--I knew that at most, with the amount of calories I exceeded, it was only physiologically possible for me to have gained about half a pound of fat. But if I kept eating way over my allotted calories/PP, then the fat-gain would really add up, and it takes a lot longer to take off. Basically, the sooner I take care of a gain, the easier it is to take off; the longer my weight remains at a particular weight, the harder it is to lose it.

When I started this post, I didn't intend to go into such depth about this! But I'm really hoping that this may help someone realize that it's never too late to get back on track. The sooner, the better, and using the "one more day" excuse just makes it that much harder to take off the gain later.

I'm feeling very motivated going into this week, and I'm hoping that I'll be back at my happy weight of 131 next week. I have a couple of obstacles this week, both on Saturday. Saturday afternoon, I'm going to a wedding with a lunch reception. I don't know what the food situation will be there, but I'm just going to do my best and estimate the PointsPlus the best I can. Having a lunch reception, rather than dinner, makes it easier on me, because I won't be tempted to order lots of drinks!

Then on Saturday night, I'm going out to dinner with my relay team at an Italian restaurant called Biaggi's. I looked up the menu online, to plan what to order, and, against my better judgement, I peeked at the dessert menu. Um, this stood out, to say the least:

REALLY?! I thought of my options: use it as my long-run treat of the week? Eat it and say "screw the PP!"? Order that for my dinner instead of a real meal? I really just want a taste of it. I had a conversation with Ty about it on Twitter. She said she's going to order it for sure, and I could have a couple of bites of it, so that's what I'll do. I'm stating my plan here, so that I will follow through. Those things are rarely as good as the menu makes them sound, so I'm sure I'd be disappointed if I ordered a whole one and felt obligated to eat it. I'm sure some of you tried it, and it's terrible, right? ;)

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Thanks to everyone for voting on the cat photo contest! The vote wasn't even close--Kiwi won by a landslide (I think he had the whole kitten-thing going for him ;)

Congratulations, Kiwi! I hope you enjoy all the cat goodies as much as my cats have.

Oh, and speaking of my cats, I weighed Chandler for Wednesday Weigh-in today also, and he's still at 24 pounds. So he's losing slowly, which is good; I was afraid that I was starving him, because he always wants more after he eats his allotted portion of food. I'm hoping he'll lose 1-2 pounds per month.

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A fall half-marathon

I woke up this morning at 4:45 with a very sore, dry throat and a very stuffed up nose. I'd been feeling the sore throat, along with a headache, for a couple of days, but just kept hoping it would pass by and not turn into a cold. My throat was so dry this morning that there was no way I was going to fall back asleep, so I just got out of bed at 5:00.

I had been planning to run my four miles outside after the kids left for school, but since I was already up so early, I just decided to do it on the treadmill. Thankfully, I still have Sons of Anarchy to keep me entertained! I think I'm midway through season four right now.

I just did a mile warm-up and then three miles, each one slightly faster than the previous (only because I wanted to get done sooner!). Again, no trouble with me knee, so I think it's safe to say that I either overreacted last Wednesday, or I caught it very early and it's fine now :)

I had a really great food/exercise day yesterday; I stuck to my plan exactly, and I felt so good about that when I woke up. I managed to stick to my plan all day today, too. After lunch, when I usually have a hard time staying out of the pantry, I went for a walk in the woods. Well, what used to be the woods, rather. The changes from the construction that has been going on are huge!

Here are some comparison pictures, from roughly the same position and angle (the green ones look prettier, but all that green is from the phragmites, a really invasive reed). I'm so excited to see how it looks once everything gets cleared out and flooded. The top photos in each set are from July 2011, the bottom ones were from yesterday.

I'm not sure what they constructed this little dock for.

As far as I understand, everything to the right and left of this path will be flooded

I walked the path with Jerry last week, and dreamed of when the construction is done. I think it would be AWESOME if they put a path that would go all the way around the "lake" (in quotes because there is no lake yet, but the plan is to flood it). It would probably be about two miles around, and would make an awesome running path. But I highly doubt that will happen. I'm just dreaming for now.

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I'm super excited for my race this weekend. I'm doing the Glass City Marathon as part of a relay team with my friend Ty (whom I met from my blog), my sister, Jeanie, and her friends Jen and Deb. The race is on Sunday morning, so we're going to get together for dinner in Perrysburg on Saturday night, and then have a slumber party at a hotel. That way there is no chaos of driving to the race in the morning.

Ty is runner #1, and then I'm runner #2, so she'll make the hand-off to me. My leg is 6.1 miles, which is actually the longest leg of the relay. I don't have a time goal or anything, since we're doing this just for fun, which makes it even better ;)

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In December, when I met up with my friend Stacie for coffee, she mentioned that she was trying to put together a half-marathon in our hometown to benefit the Special Olympics (she's a special education teacher, and also in charge of the Special Olympics).

As if she didn't have enough on her plate already, with the teaching and the Olympics stuff, she is now the race director for our hometown's first half-marathon this fall! This is super exciting news--I'm so glad that it's on November 10, about a month after the Chicago Marathon, so I will have enough time to recover and  run it. Here is the Facebook page, if you're a local and are interested. They are working on a website, but it's not ready yet. There is also going to be a 5K and a "Friendship Relay", which I'm assuming is the half-marathon, split up into legs.

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Finally, I just have to share this poster that Eli did at school for Earth Day. It's hilarious:

Apparently, my 7-year old wants to learn how to stop smoking?! Hahaha, I know that he meant he wants to somehow learn a way to get everyone to stop smoking, but I thought it was funny ;)

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Motivational Monday #12

It actually felt pretty good to whine a little on my blog yesterday ;)  This morning, I woke up at 5:30, and rather than get irritated that I woke up much earlier than needed, I got out of bed and dressed to run! I hardly ever look forward to running, but after four days off, and feeling very anxious and stressed, I couldn't wait to put a few miles on my running shoes today.

I decided to do the treadmill, just in case my knee bothered me, I could stop right away. I warmed up for a mile, then ran three more, and felt GREAT. My knee didn't even twinge the entire time, so the time off was totally worth it. I'm going to continue the foam rolling, which I probably should have been doing all along anyways ;)

I wrote out a food plan for the next 9 days (a week from Wednesday, my weigh in day) to stay on track with my eating and hopefully get my weight back down to 131 (from 133). I'm going to work really hard on stopping the snacking when I'm not hungry, because I know that's why my weight is up a couple of pounds. (I know that 2 pounds doesn't seem like it would make a difference, but at this weight, I definitely notice it).

Anyway, I'm feeling 100% back on track today, and I'm ready to have a great week! You all have continued to inspire me, once again...

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Andrea set a 3.5 minute PR on Saturday when she ran her second 5K race! It was a very cold 30 degrees, but she was proud to have run more than she walked, earning her PR.

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Andrea completed her third 5K! She said she is "slower than molasses", and actually debated whether or not to do the race because she was worried about being the last one on the course. She had lots of encouragement to do it, regardless of her speed, and she finished. Her time is improving, and she plans to do more races.

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Colleen and her husband set out on a two-mile hike, and somewhere along the way, made a wrong turn--adding another two very challenging miles! She said at times, she wanted to quit, but she persevered, and felt great afterward.

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Richard ran 12 hilly miles, preparing for a half-marathon in two weeks! (He says Cheryl, on the left, has lost 70 pounds and it will be her first half-marathon!)

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Shelley was pricing some old clothes for a garage sale, and came across a pair of ATV riding pants she wore a year ago. She had a nice visual of just how far she's come on her journey!

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Tamara set out on a run and decided not to look at her timing device--just run and see how far she could go. Her previous longest distance was 1.5 miles, and she ended up running 2.8 miles! She is running a 5K this summer, and this run built up her confidence. This is a before run/after run picture:

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Taycey (in pink) ran the entire distance of her first 5K, and registered for her first half-marathon in October! Almost as an afterthought in the e-mail, she mentioned that 2 years ago, she weighed 320 pounds, and is now 185!! 

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Court reached the three-month milestone of doing Weight Watchers online and 3-4 days of Zumba each week; she's down 40 pounds!

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Tracy completed a personal goal she had set to run a marathon in a week in honor of Boston. This photo was after a 6.7 mile run (the first 5K was a virtual 5K for Boston). She's lost an amazing 130 pounds since that first photo!

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Alisha reached her initial GOAL WEIGHT! She's down 80 pounds. She plans to lose a little more, but this is the original goal she set for herself. She also ran her first double digit run this week!

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Kellie (right) completed her first 10K race! She plans to do some more 10K's and possibly a half-marathon in the future.

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Pam ran a personal best 10K, beating her previous PR by 4 minutes! She finished in 1:00:59.

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Jennifer reached 60 pounds lost! She said she was very nervous about sharing her before picture, because she just can't believe that it's her. She says she "never wants to see her again".

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Stephanie ran her first 5K, and the race didn't go as smoothly as planned--she was running late, she forgot safety pins for her bib, and worst of all, she fell at the beginning of the race. A stranger helped her up, and she kept going--finishing in 29:28! In the chaos, she neglected to take a race photo, but she was happy to share her comparison photos--she went from 214 to 147 lbs!

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Meg completed the "toughest half-marathon in the northwest", the Race to Robie Creek in Boise, Idaho. The elevation profile is enough to make anyone shudder--8.75 miles uphill and then 4.25 miles downhill. She chose that race specifically because it is considered to be very challenging. She crushed her goal time of 4 hours, coming it at 3:10:50!

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I am just loving seeing all of your progress--great job this week! Here is a snippet of the comments on Facebook:

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Completely restless

I am SO frustrated with how this week is going! Not running is killing me. There is a certain point that I reach in taking a running break where I start to get really anxious, and crabby, and stressed; that point is 48 hours. If I go longer than 48 hours without a run, you don't want to be around me.

My last run was on Wednesday, when I felt my knee acting up a little. I made the decision not to run again until Monday, so that my knee trouble didn't turn into full-blown injury. I know I made the right decision, but this week is all off for me.

My eating as been terrible :(  I haven't been eating horrible foods, but I've been constantly snacking to relieve anxiety. Usually, going for a run does a pretty good job with the anxiety issue, but I just feel so restless right now, and I keep going back and forth to the pantry for handfuls of Cheerios, or almonds, or Goldfish. I know, logically, that I'm not hungry--I am just anxious and restless.

I've been counting my PointsPlus for everything, but I usually just estimate it AFTER the fact, which isn't very accurate. My weight has been bouncing between 133-134, so I'm glad it's not continuously climbing, but it's still higher than I am comfortable with (I loved when I was maintaining 131). Also, when I eat like this, I just FEEL really crappy. I feel like I've gained a hundred pounds overnight.

It doesn't help that I haven't earned many activity PointsPlus this week. Normally, I earn 65-75 per week, but since Wednesday, I've only earned 13 (and that was because I ran on Wednesday).

The "baseline" is the bare minimum activity I am supposed to do per day--and I didn't even reach
that point on Thursday or Friday

I feel so inactive, which is making me feel even lazier. Also, without the extra PP, I've had to cut back on how much I'm used to eating, which has been hard. (Good grief, could I be any whinier?!)

Anyway, I went for a walk yesterday and today, and didn't have any trouble with my knee, so I'm going to run tomorrow and see how it feels. Hopefully, the pain I felt on Wednesday was nothing, and I'll be back to normal tomorrow.

I'm also going to work hard to get my diet under control again. No more mindless snacking! I'm going to weigh out my portions BEFORE I eat a single bite. I'm going to plan out my meals in advance. And most importantly, I'm going to stay as busy as possible during the day so that I don't have time to be wandering into the kitchen constantly.

Tomorrow, I'm going to deep clean my kitchen--cleaning the oven, pulling out the appliances to clean behind them, cleaning the cupboards, etc. It's still way too cold to feel like spring, but I guess I'm in the mood for spring cleaning!

I really didn't intend for this post to be such a downer. I am just having a really rough week. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be feeling much better because I will have gotten a run in :)

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The True Nature of Cats, Part 4

This is the final post (of four) of my The True Nature of Cats experience at Purina ONE headquarters. Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Before I went to visit Purina ONE, we were asked if we had any questions for their experts about our cats. I had quite a few questions, and it was great to get answers to them. Here are a few Q&A's.

Q. What is the best food for a cat that is missing a lot of teeth? (Paolo only has a few teeth)
A. Although one would think soft food is the only option, most cats can eat even dry food without teeth.  I would recommend canned food for the water content since cats get most of their water from their food.

Q. How can I estimate the age of my (stray) cats that I took in?
A. Unfortunately, unless the cat is over  10 years old and showing wear on the teeth, it’s very difficult to determine the age of adult cats by looking at them.

This is Paolo exactly as we found him in our shed. You can't tell because
of all his fur, but he was SO skinny. We have no clue how old he is!

Q. How can I keep my cats from clawing up my new carpet? I must have a dozen scratching posts, but Estelle and Phoebe prefer to scratch my carpet.
A. It sounds like your cats like the texture of carpet and scratching on horizontal surfaces.

• Purchase carpet remnants of a different color and brightness than your carpet. This way, your cats can learn where it is okay to scratch.
• Spray the new carpet remnants with catnip oil, and put them in areas where your cat likes to scratch. 
• Reward your cat for scratching the remnants with praise and treats. Say "Ahhhhk" each time your cat scratches your regular carpet to disrupt the scratching.

 I really wish there was some way to find out how old Paolo is, but I guess we'll never know! I love the idea of different colored carpet remnants for scratching. 

Since this is my last cat post in the series, I thought I'd share a few tidbits that I found interesting, but just didn't really fit in anywhere else:

• When cats brush past each other in passing, and curl their tail over the top of the other cat's back, it is a cat's way of giving a hug. (I never used to notice this before, but now I've seen it a few times! Paolo does it with Chandler, and Estelle has done it with Chandler as well.)
• When cats roll around, belly-up, they are desiring affection and play. It's a good time to interact with your cat. 
• If you are interacting with your cat, and your cat is biting your hand (whether playing or not), your cat may be overstimulated. Try petting one area (say, under your cat's chin) very softly and slowly and see if she doesn't stop biting. This is worked WONDERS with Phoebe! She used to wrap her paws around our hands and then start biting and kicking her back legs, scratching the heck out of us, while she "played". I discovered she was overstimulated by the type of play we were doing, and when I started just petting her very softly in one spot, she immediately stops doing it.
• If your cat is taking things and moving them around your house, it could be a predatory instinct; they may be using it to replace a prey they would find in nature. In nature, they would kill something and bring it back; in the house, they may find it lying around somewhere and bring it to you. (Chandler used to do this constantly with my kids' baby socks--I would find them everywhere).
• Like people, cats can suffer from chronic stress. This stress can cause them to be aggressive, not using the litter box. excessive grooming or meowing. Common stressors for domestic cats are: boredom, new pets in the home, obstructed paths to the litter box or feeding area, unwanted contact, or unclean areas. Chances are, if you change these things to make your cat happy, then your cat will stop the bad behaviors.

 I've had my cats on their new diet for about three weeks, and they're doing really well. I honestly wasn't expecting to see a change in them at all, but since I got them on a feeding routine and started playing with them properly, they seem so much more energetic and happy. Chandler has always been very lazy, but he's been really playful--and he's now 24 pounds, meaning he's lost a pound this month! I've even seen Paolo playing a little bit, which he never used to do. Phoebe and Estelle LOVE the new play times--they get really excited when I bring out their favorite toy (the feather wand thing). 

Phoebe always rolls on her back when she's feeling playful

Last week, I asked you to e-mail a photo of your cat in his/her true nature (where they like to hide or hang out). My boys looked through all the pictures and chose their favorite one:

That is Fozzie, hanging out in the dishwasher ;)  Congrats, Fozzie! You'll be getting a coupon for a free case of Purina ONE wet food! 

Over the past three weeks I've gotten a ton of cat pictures submitted for the giveaways, and it's been so fun to see them all! My boys narrowed it down each week, to a total of three cats, and now those cats have a chance of winning a box of toys and puzzle feeders (courtesy of Purina ONE). I'm leaving this choice up to all of you! Choose your favorite picture, and the winner will receive the box of goodies. You can vote on the poll below, and I will accept votes until Wednesday, April 24th at 4:00 PM EST.  Here are the photos:

Kiwi

Lincoln

Fozzie

Please choose your favorite photo--Kiwi, Lincoln, or Fozzie? (Please only vote once)
 

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Shopping list

Last night, I was feeling really anxious for some reason. Once in a while when my anxiety gets bad, I'll take a Xanax, so I took one before bed. I woke up at 7:30 this morning!! I don't remember the last time I slept in that late. Thankfully, Jerry was off work today, so he had gotten up and got the kids ready for school. He let me sleep, knowing that I needed it.

Unfortunately, Xanax makes me groggy, so it took me a while to really "wake up" this morning. We turned on the news to see the latest info on the Boston bombers; I was surprised to see that one of them was dead, and they were searching for the other. That was fast, considering the FBI just released their photos last night. (Yay! Just before this post went live, he was the other bomber was caught)

I had to go to David's Bridal today to try on the bridesmaids dress I'll be wearing in Jerry's sister's wedding this September. I saw on Twitter that Starbucks was giving free coffee this morning until noon, so Jerry came with me because the closest Starbucks happens to be next to David's Bridal.

First, though, we stopped at Sam's Club. I told Jerry that we had to make a list and stick to the list; I always end up spending way too much money at Sam's Club! We only needed three items.

A very simple in-and-out trip. It never ends up that way, though, does it?! This is what we walked out with:

By that time, it was too late for Jerry to get his Starbucks, so we just went right to David's Bridal. I had no idea what the dress looked like or what color it was or anything. The saleswoman asked what size I thought I needed, and I said most likely a 6, because the bridesmaid dress I wore in Sarah's wedding was an 8, and that was 10-15 pounds ago.

The dress was strapless, and floor-length (it's an outdoor wedding), which didn't thrill me, but I really liked the color. Here is a pic from their website:

(source)

The size 6 fit just fine in the waist, which is the "fitted part" of the dress, but I have no boobs to hold up the top (which is why I don't like strapless dresses), so I can already picture myself constantly tugging it up. Also, the dress is probably made for someone who is about 5'8" tall, and and I'm 5'4"--even with the highest of heels, it would need to be hemmed :( 

I have no idea how it looks on me, because David's Bridal doesn't have mirrors in the dressing rooms! I'm guessing that's probably because they want you to step out of the room and be surrounded by mirrors and other people looking at you, but I just didn't feel comfortable doing that. It feels kind of like asking strangers to judge how you look in a dress, before you can even see it. I asked Jerry to come in and give his opinion, and he said it looks "good". Not that he would tell me if it didn't! ;)

After I left, I wished I'd have thought to have him take my picture in it, so I could see what it looked like. The dress was expensive, so I didn't order it today (I don't have to order it until June-ish). Just hoping I maintain my weight until September!

It felt SO strange not to run today. I was feeling really antsy all day, and I wanted to run. When we were walking around Sam's Club, however, I felt that small twinge in my knee, so I knew I wasn't imagining things. I'm going to stick with my plan of no running until Monday, no matter how good my knee may feel tomorrow or Sunday.

It's hard to adjust my eating, though--usually, I earn a lot of activity PointsPlus--about 10-11 per day on average. I'm going to be careful to ration out my weekly PP. Instead of my usual glass of wine and Dove Promise last night, I had tea with the Dove--saving 5 PP right there. Jerry is off this weekend, and we talked about maybe going out to dinner at La Pita tomorrow, so hopefully I can manage to work it in ;)

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Paranoia

I shouldn't have run yesterday. It was a rest day, so normally I wouldn't have. I was still slightly sore from my half-marathon on Saturday, which was all the more reason to take a rest day. But I wanted to participate in the Run for Boston, so I decided to just take it really easy.

That would have been just fine if I hadn't gotten the call from the school to go pick up Eli, causing me to run way too fast to get back to the car. A couple of hours after I got home, I noticed I was limping a little, to avoid feeling a twinge of pain in my left knee.

It wasn't horrible pain, but considering I spent all of last year nursing knee injuries, I immediately thought it was the end of the world. I had the initial reaction of, "Now I can't run in my race next weekend, and I certainly won't be able to train for or run the Chicago Marathon with Andrea. This is it. My running career is over, and I'll never be able to run again."

Dramatic, much?

I knew it was my IT band; God knows I've had enough experience with ITB pain. Out of the common knee injuries from running, the IT band is the better one to have--if you take care of it right away, it usually gets better quickly and it doesn't cause permanent damage. So after I was done dramatizing the small twinge of pain I felt with each step, I thought logically about what to do. I'm going to rest, ice, stretch, and foam-roll the hell out of it.

Phoebe helped me rest...

She was SO relaxed. I was cracking up at some of her sleeping positions.

Foam rolling is super painful (even when not injured), but I did it for a while last night, and almost immediately felt better. By the time I went to bed, I wasn't feeling the pain at all anymore. And today, it feels fine. I'm still going to take some rest days, just in case. I'm skipping my long run tomorrow, and taking the whole weekend off, so my next run will be Monday. Then I'll hopefully be pain free and this whole thing was just a huge overreaction.

If I hadn't been injured before, I certainly wouldn't have reacted the way I did. I would have run through it, because it wasn't that painful. But I learned the hard way last year that it's much better to take time off immediately than to wait until the pain is really bad. 

Speaking of being dramatic, I almost had a heart attack today.

Today I had a webinar meeting (of which I know nothing about), so I decided to give it a try. The invitation wasn't clear whether it was video or audio or just text. I'm super paranoid of having a camera on my computer, and the day I got my laptop, I taped a piece of a post-it over the webcam. That way I don't feel like I'm being watched. I had no idea what to expect at the Windows Champions meeting, and I kept picturing my face popping up on the screen, huge, for everyone to see my unwashed hair and my pajamas.

As soon as I was given access to the meeting room, there were some people who could be seen from their webcams, and others who just had a generic icon. I wasn't sure if my webcam was turned on or off, but I hoped it didn't matter, because I have the post-it over my camera. As I was looking around the screen, trying to figure out what the little icons meant, I noticed the chat box. The first thing that popped up was:

"love the post it over the webcam. just have to make sure it doesn't fall off when you have crazy hair."

Cue heart attack.

My face flushed, and I froze--how the hell could they see me?! I wanted to slam the computer shut, but I just had to figure out how they knew. I thought maybe the post-it was too see-through. Then I was able to scroll up through the conversation, and I saw that just before that comment, just before I logged in, someone had said that they have a post-it over their webcam, and the comment was just in response to that. BAHAHA! 

I genuinely laughed out loud at my own stupidity. (And then quickly covered my mouth, because what if they could hear me?) ;)

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This and that

This post is really just going to be a mish mash of things that have been going on the past few days. I finally uploaded some pictures (nothing too exciting), but it reminded me of things I wanted to write about.

On Sunday, I was super sore from the half-marathon on Saturday, so I took a rest day. On Monday, I was still really sore. Jerry didn't have to go in to work until noon, so I asked him if he would want to go for a short, easy recovery run with me. I knew my legs would probably feel better if I moved them a bit, and since Jerry only runs probably four times a year, he was the perfect running partner ;)

We went to the State Park and ran the 5K loop. We ran at a very comfortable pace, which I thought would feel like a piece of cake, but with my sore legs, I actually felt like I got a good workout. But it was really nice to run with Jerry--I think it was only our third time running together, and we've been together 14 years!

I had a pretty relaxing afternoon, until 3:30 or so. Jerry sent me a text saying that there were two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon watching the news.

I ate horribly on Monday afternoon/evening. I didn't binge, but I just kept snacking. I don't know if it was because of the news getting to me, or just feeling snacky. I got into the peanut butter and chocolate chips--a lethal combination for me--and eventually decided to throw away the chocolate chips. I did fine with them in the house for the longest time, but the past week or so, they were constantly beckoning me.

Then, even though I had already gone over my PointsPlus for the week, Jerry and I did a margarita taste test in the evening. A company called SmarteRita sent me a bottle of their product as well as a bottle of Skinny Girl Margarita to do a taste test. I will never turn down free margaritas! ;)

The two brands have nearly identical nutrition stats. They have 100 calories for 4 ounces, which isn't bad at all. I wanted to do a true taste test, without being biased, so I had Jerry pour a glass of each brand, and then I closed my eyes and tasted each of them.

The first one I tried was not very good. I thought it tasted like really watered down tequila. The second one was actually really good, and tasted like a "real" margarita--not the best margarita I've ever had, but good enough that if I were at a restaurant, I'd order a second one. I asked Jerry which was which, and he told me the first one was the Skinny Girl Margarita, and the second was the SmarteRita brand.

I did the same test for Jerry. He blindly tasted both of them, and had the same thoughts--he said the SmarteRita tasted like an ordinary margarita, and the Skinny Girl Margarita tasted "what you would expect a diet margarita to taste like--kind of tasteless".

I liked the SmarteRita so much that I ended up drinking two okay, three glasses of it that evening. I looked up on their website how much it costs, and it's $11.26/bottle. If you can find it in a store, that's a decent price. But when I checked out shipping, the shipping costs more than the drink! Shipping to my house is $12.95. I would honestly never order it because of the shipping cost, but would buy it if I found it at the grocery store. (If you're in Texas, you're in luck--here is a list of where you can buy it.)

(In full disclosure, I was given the two brands of margaritas to taste for free, but was not required to post a review. As always, my opinions are honest.)

So anyway, between the peanut butter and chocolate chips, and then the margaritas, I was 20 PointsPlus over for the week (I'd already used my activity PP and my weekly PP). It's no surprise, then, that the scale was up today:

Up a pound from last week, which isn't terrible, but I was happily maintaining 131 for a long time until about a month ago. I'm going to be careful about measuring and counting everything this week, and hopefully I won't see another gain next week!

I saw on Facebook a page called Run for Boston 4/17. Basically, they wanted to get as many people as possible to run today (4/17), wearing a blue or yellow shirt, and then take a picture with a sign that says "Run for Boston". Today is normally a rest day for me, but I wanted to participate, so I went to the State Park for a run.

I planned to do a nice, easy pace like I did yesterday. It was gorgeous outside! I stopped about a half-mile in to take a picture.

About halfway through my lollipop route, my cell phone rang. I almost ignored it, but decided to make sure it wasn't the school calling about one of the kids. I looked at the caller ID, and of course it would be the school. I stopped running and answered. It was super windy so it was hard to hear. I was also breathing a little hard from running. They said Eli told his teacher he felt like he was going to throw up, so they wanted me to come get him.

I knew I was 2-3 miles from my car, so I told her I'd be there as soon as I could. I tried calling my mom to see if she could pick him up, but didn't get an answer, so I just ran a pretty fast pace for the last half of the run. I was trying to get back to the car as fast as I could. My body did NOT want to run fast, since I'm still a little sore from Saturday's race. My adrenaline was going, and I was feeling stressed out. I felt like a bad mom, because it was going to take me 40 minutes to go get my kid. What started out as a nice run ended up being stressful and tough, mentally and physically.

Finally got back to the car and drove to the school to pick up Eli. He's totally fine, which I knew when they called; he hadn't complained about anything this morning. A lot of times, he gets a stomachache when he eats too fast, or drinks too much, or just eats something that doesn't agree with him. But the teacher said that a couple of kids have been out with a stomach bug, so it was best that I take him home.

Eli's pretty cute, though. On the way home, he asked me if he could do what he always does when he's sick: "watch a movie with a blanket and pillow on the couch and drink broth". I think it's kind of funny that his comfort food of choice is just chicken broth. It started when he was really dehydrated from the stomach flu one time, and now he always asks for it when he's sick. So we watched a movie together this afternoon.

Tomorrow, I'm for sure taking a rest day. I'm not sure how far I'm going to run for my long run on Friday. Now that the half-marathon is over, I don't have to run more than 6 miles until marathon training this summer! But I kind of like running 12 milers (long enough to be a little tough, but not enough to be miserable).

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