A big surprise!

I have been sitting on a big secret for WEEKS and I have been dying to write about it... and today is the day I can spill the beans!

As I've mentioned a few times, my sister (Jeanie) is running her first half-marathon tomorrow. She only started running in December when I planned the Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K for my birthday. She made a goal to run the 5K, and she did the Couch to 5K program to get there. And she did it!

Then, she decided to keep going, and started doing 10K training. And then 12 weeks ago, half-marathon training. Jeanie lives in Illinois, and I thought about going to cheer her on at the finish line, but there were a few factors keeping me from that--money, time away, and the family reunion tomorrow.

When I mentioned to Shawn (Jeanie's husband) that I was hoping to see her finish, he told me that Jeanie would be thrilled if I was there, and even more so if I ran it with her. He said that Jeanie was worried about running it by herself. I knew this race was a HUGE deal to Jeanie, and I didn't want it to be a bad experience.

Shawn and I talked about the logistics, and we got it all worked out--he wanted to buy Jeanie a gift for doing the half-marathon, so he said it would be ME :)  Hahaha, so I booked a flight to Chicago, and registered for the Rockford Half-Marathon.

It was SO HARD not to say anything to Jeanie about it. Remember when we went for a run together a couple of weeks ago? She talked about how she was going to be running alone, because she's a slow runner, and didn't want to hold Shawn back (it's his first half-marathon, too).

Jeanie reads my blog, so I couldn't write anything about it--even though I was DYING to. I wanted to keep her from suspecting anything, so I wrote a few things that would throw her off. I mentioned going to the family reunion, doing my long run on Thursday, having a nice relaxing "rest day" today... nothing too obvious, but things to throw her off.

This morning, I got up at 4:30 to get ready for my flight. Jerry drove me to the airport, and I got on an 8:55 flight to Chicago. When I got to Chicago, I had to get on a bus to take me about another hour to where my sister lives. Shawn picked me up from the bus station, and Jeanie was at work until noon, so we went back to their house and waited for her to get home.

While we waited for Jeanie, I showed Shawn how to use the video on my phone. I wanted to get a video of the surprise. He even practiced it a few times to make sure he knew how to do it. Then we heard Jeanie at the door, and I ran and hid. Shawn told her that he got her something she could run with at the race tomorrow, and told he to close her eyes. Then I stepped out next to him, and he said to open her eyes.

She was completely surprised (and thankfully, very excited)! In retrospect, she thought of some things that seemed a little odd, but she hadn't thought much of them, and they all make sense now.

I was really excited to post the video here, because everything went even better than I'd hoped, but unfortunately, Shawn accidentally took a picture instead of video--and the picture wasn't even a good one! I thought it was hilarious, and I feel bad for him because he was so worried about messing it up. So you'll just have to use your imagination :)  Here is a pic we took afterward:

 So anyway, I'll be running the Rockford Half-Marathon side-by-side with my sister tomorrow!  I'm staying the night tomorrow night as well (we have to celebrate, of course), and then I'll head home on Monday.

Many thanks to Shawn, my mom and dad (for helping with the kids), Jerry (for being a stay-at-home dad for the weekend), and Jeanie's friend Jen (who made sure that Jeanie would have Monday off work, because she was in on the secret, too).

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Field trip

What an exhausting day! I got up at 6:00, so it was too late to get in a short run before getting the kids ready. That wasn't really a big deal, because I just figured I'd do it this evening.

I got the kids ready for school, and myself dressed to chaperone Noah's field trip. Since I was chaperoning, I drove the kids to school instead of putting them on the bus. When I got there, his teacher told me that Noah had to ride the bus to the field trip, but I could drive separately so that we could go home when we were ready. His field trip was at Greenfield Village, about 45 minutes away.

I left the school and went right there, then I sat in the car and watched the buses coming in, so I would see when his class got there. I waited for a long time, probably about 25 minutes. My cell phone rang, and it was his teacher. Apparently, they'd been waiting for ME for about 20 minutes, and Noah was worried that I wasn't going to show up. I had misunderstood where to meet the buses. I ran from the car to where they were, and felt awful that Noah thought I wasn't coming.

So many parents had volunteered to chaperone that it was pretty much a 1:1 ratio of parents to kids. Noah and I were on our own to walk around the village, which was actually kind of nice that we could do it at our own pace. Well, we learned that neither of us enjoy learning about history ;)  We were both pretty bored, so we only stayed a couple of hours.

He loved riding the train!

On the way out, Noah wanted to see the gift shop, naturally. They had fudge samples, and we each tried a piece. Yum! I somehow got talked into buying some (it wasn't hard), and Noah chose the Cookies & Cream flavor. We each had a piece (I was surprised to see that fudge is only 3 PointsPlus per ounce!), and it tasted like the inside of an Oreo.

I may have casually mentioned that we were down the road from La Pita, and Noah really wanted to go there for lunch. This was certainly not part of my plan for food this week, but considering the circumstances, I figured it would be great to have a nice lunch with Noah.

I've only ever ordered one thing from La Pita--the chicken kabob lunch, which you've seen pictures of a thousand times on my blog. Today, I was going to try and order something lighter, so I got the chicken shawarma sandwich (chicken shawarma and pickles wrapped in a pita). I also ordered a small side of hummus for the mini pitas on the table.

I was SO hungry that I practically inhaled three pieces of pita bread with hummus. I was expecting the small hummus to be about 1/4 cup or 1/2 cup at most; but I'm pretty sure it was about 1 cup spread out on a plate:

By the time my sandwich came, I really should have just put the whole thing in a container to take home, but I cut it in half and ate half of it. I learned that I don't like chicken shawarma. The sandwich would have been awesome if it were made with plain chicken tawook, but I won't be getting shawarma again. I don't like that there is dark meat in it, and it seemed kind of oily. I was surprised how well the pickles went with the chicken and pita, though. I never would have paired those together.

Next time, I think I will order the chicken tawook sandwich (same thing, only the chicken is plain grilled chicken breast chunks). The sandwich was the perfect size (if I hadn't eaten the pitas beforehand!), and only $4.

I ordered a large container of hummus to go, because their hummus is INSANELY good. Normally, I'm not a big hummus fan, but theirs is amazing. I figured I could eat it with veggies throughout the week. I paid our bill, and we left. As soon as I got home, I realized that I forgot the hummus at La Pita! I was so bummed. The hummus was $9, so I didn't want to just let it go. I called the restaurant, explained what happened to the manager, and she offered to send me a gift card in the mail. Perfect! Now I'll have an excuse to go back soon (not that I need an excuse to go to La Pita).

When I calculated my PointsPlus for the lunch (and fudge), it ended up being 30 PP. So much for eating a lighter lunch! But I was so full that it actually ended up being my lunch and dinner. I gave Jerry the other half of the sandwich, and he loved it.

I hate feeling really full, but that's how I felt when I got home. I decided to go for my run in the afternoon, hoping it would make me feel less full. I went outside and ran five miles. Running on a full stomach wasn't the greatest idea, because I felt sluggish, but by the time I got home, I felt much better.

Looking forward to a relaxing rest day tomorrow!

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Spontaneous long run

The weather looked so nice this morning when I woke up, I was actually looking forward to going for a run. After I got the kids on the bus I made breakfast. I made the same apple mixture I made a couple of days ago (this time adding some dried cranberries to it), and used it to top my oatmeal. Then I drizzled a little bit of almond butter over the whole thing. It was a huge bowl, and very filling.

Yes, there actually IS oatmeal underneath all the topping ;) I had breakfast and tea, and then figured I'd better get out and run if I was going to, because it wasn't getting any cooler outside.

I really wasn't in the mood to run around here, and Eli was actually on a field trip at the Metropark today, so I decided to drive to the Metropark to run. (When I signed the permission slip for him, I asked if he wanted me to chaperone, and he told me no. I guess I'm not "cool" enough to hang around with his friends!)

Since I was driving all the way there, I wanted to make it worth my while, and figured I'd do 6-8 miles rather than the 4 I had on the schedule today. Because of the heat, I brought my handheld water bottle with me. I wanted to keep my heart rate in Zone 3 (70-80% of my max, which for me ends up being 141-156 bpm).

I probably only ran about a tenth of a mile before my heart rate was in the zone. The heat definitely plays a big factor in my heart rate training; on cold days, I was struggling to get it up high enough.

The first mile today, my legs were feeling good, and I could have sworn I was running about a 9:30/mi pace, but when my Garmin beeped after mile 1, it read 8:38. That usually means I'm going to have a good run day (when I feel like I'm running much slower than I am, because it's not such a struggle).

My heart rate was on the upper end of Zone 3 for the majority of the run, and I kept consciously trying to slow down, but my legs were feeling so good that it was kind of hard to find the right pace. I really had to go to the bathroom, thanks to all the water and tea I drank before I left, so I ran to the tip of the park--the bathroom was there, at mile 3.45 of my run.

After using the bathroom, I figured I might as well run down the road until I hit four miles, so that I could turn around and make it an even eight when I got back to the car. Mile five felt really easy--I wasn't breathing hard, my legs felt great; and then when I saw my pace, I realized that was why I felt so good! I was running a 9:30 pace for that mile.

The last three miles, I ran as fast as I could without making my heart rate go into Zone 4. I actually wasn't nearly as miserable about the heat as I thought I would be--probably because it wasn't humid at all. The humidity in Michigan during the summer is KILLER, but today wasn't bad. The temp was still much higher than I like, but I expected it to feel worse than it did.

I got back to the car just in time to hear the beep of my eighth mile.

The good part about the higher heart rate is that I burn more calories with a slower pace that I do with a faster pace on a cold day. I burned 741 calories, where on a colder day (or on the treadmill), I would only burn something like 600.

I really wanted to spend my Activity PointsPlus on something good today, but I am going to try and save the PP for the family reunion on Sunday. Since I did an 8 mile run today, I'll probably do 4 tomorrow, and then a mid-length run on Sunday, like 6-8 miles. Tomorrow, I'm going on a field trip with Noah's class (HE thinks I'm cool, at least!), so I'll probably have to get up early tomorrow to get it done before the boys wake up.

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Dinner is getting more and more creative as the month goes on. It's only been 16 days since we started our no-grocery-shopping-in-May challenge, but Jerry and I are seriously having so much fun with it. You would think it would be stressful, not having certain ingredients, but it just makes me stop and think of doing something differently than we're used to.

Yesterday, I was going to make lasagna, because there would be a lot of leftovers for lunches. I remembered we didn't have mozzarella cheese, so I figured I would make a "Mexican" lasagna, with taco meat, beans, and cheddar cheese. When I looked in the pantry, we didn't have any lasagna noodles. And all the other boxes of pasta had 2-4 oz. max in them.

I weighed out 16 oz. of dry pasta, all sorts of different shapes to use up what we had (I emptied five boxes!), and then cooked them all in one big pot. Then I made a layered casserole, using the Mexican lasagna idea. Pasta, taco meat, refried beans, corn, salsa, and cheddar cheese. It ended up turning out really good! I got two casseroles out of it, so I put one in the freezer.

Today, after looking through the pantry and the freezer, I decided to make stuffed shells. I had some cooked turkey sausage in the freezer, so I added that to a container of ricotta cheese, threw in an egg, and a handful of parmesan cheese. I cooked a box of large shells, and stuffed the shells with the meat mixture. I didn't have any jarred spaghetti sauce, which is what I normally would have used, so I made some sauce out of tomato paste, water, sugar, and Italian seasoning. I poured it over the shells, and topped with a little more parmesan.

I baked the whole thing for about 30 minutes, made some garlic toast out of homemade bread that was getting stale, and (again) dinner was great!

I never really thought about us being in a dinner "rut", but now that we haven't been grocery shopping, I realize that we pretty much eat the same rotation of dinners over a two week period. I'm glad I was forced to come up with other options, because now we have ideas for the future.

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Here's an idea of how my summer is going to go...

Today at dinner, Noah tattled on Eli for calling him names. Then Eli tattled on Noah for tattling on him. Noah's response to Eli: "It's not 'tattling', Eli, it's 'informing Mama'".

...and so it begins ;)

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Consistent weigh-ins

I really didn't want to do my Wednesday Weigh-in today. I was even thinking about a post I could write, saying that I'm going to switch to once-per-month weigh-ins, because it's natural for weight to fluctuate, and all those excuses that jazz.

It's true--weight does fluctuate. But when I'm eating consistently, my weight is very consistent on a week-to-week basis. When I first started maintenance, I was very consistent in eating my daily PointsPlus target (along with my weekly PP, and my activity PP), without going OVER. The past 4-6 weeks or so, I've been finishing my week "in the negative", meaning I ate more than I was supposed to.

Generally, I've been following a pattern of going WAY over my PP once or twice a week, and spending the rest of the week making up for it... very inconsistent. And therefore, my weight has been very inconsistent for weeks now.

For the first couple of months of maintenance, I was playing with a range of ONE pound--130.5-131.5. It was very predictable, and actually easy to maintain that weight when my eating was consistent.

But now that I've gotten so inconsistent with my eating patterns, my weight has been bouncing between 131-136. That's too big of a range for me to feel comfortable, mainly because I know it's from overeating. This week, I actually did pretty well, with the exception of Monday--I went way over my PP on Monday, putting me into the negative for the week. Which is why I didn't want to weigh in today.

Posting my weight every Wednesday actually really helps me to be accountable. I think if I were to go to once-per-month weigh-ins, I would probably eat way too much for three weeks and then try to lose it on the fourth week. So, even though I'm doing my best NOT to gain weight, if I do happen to gain more than a few pounds, I'm still going to continue my weekly weigh-ins (as much as I won't want to).

Today's weigh-in:

I was 134, up 2.5 from last week. Since the pattern has been up, down, up, down, hopefully it will be back down next week. My main focus this week is going to be staying consistent with my eating, and not eating over my PointsPlus for the week. I don't have anything major going on this week, so it shouldn't be too difficult. I do have a family reunion on Sunday (at my parents' house), but if I plan well for it, I'm not worried about it. I may end up doing my long run on Sunday morning before the party, instead of Friday, so I'll have lots of activity PP to spend.

Today was a rest day, so I didn't run; but I still wanted to try and reach 100% of my ActiveLink goal today, so I went for a (very) long walk this morning. In fact, I think today's was the longest walk I've done since the Indy Mini-Marathon in 2010...

For a run, 6.1 miles is more of a mid-length run. But I was reminded today that it's a LONG walk--it took nearly an hour and a half. I walked out about three miles, then took a short detour to walk home through what used to be the woods across from my house. This week, a machine was out there crushing all of the dead phragmites. It looks SO different.

I brought my phone with me, and listened to Lori's interview on the Half Size Me podcast. Lori's was one of the first blogs I started reading several years ago. She's maintaining a 100+ pound weight loss, so she shared some tips on the podcast.

It was getting pretty hot for the second half of the walk, and by the time I was done, it was over 80 degrees outside. I'm glad I headed out when I did, otherwise the full sun would have probably made me stay home. But it was really nice to walk without thinking about pace, or calories burned, or anything other than enjoying the weather!

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Homemade food

Yesterday, I said I was going to do hill repeats today; if I hadn't stated that, I most certainly would have opted for an easy 4-miler instead ;) But because I said that's what I was going to do, that's what I did.

Hill repeats are miserable, but they're very effective! Since I've been heart rate training recently, I was curious to see how the hill workout would affect my heart rate. The goal was to get my heart rate up to 90-100% of my maximum for a short period of time (Zone 5).

My plan was to do a short warm-up, then set the treadmill at 5% incline and 7.5 mph (8:00/mi pace).  I would run 1/2 mile, and then hop off and rest while the treadmill continued to go for 1/4 mile. Repeat for a total of four times. I did this workout before, but it's been about a month. (I know 5% doesn't sound that difficult, considering my treadmill goes up to 12% incline--but after a quarter mile or so, it feels like it might as well be 12%!)

Today was TOUGH. The first interval was hard, but my heart rate stayed in Zone 4. Same with the second. But each interval got my heart rate higher than the previous. By the fourth interval, my heart rate finally got into Zone 5 for about 1/4 mile. I was gasping for breath after that interval, so I just walked at 2.0 mph for about 5 minutes until my heart rate got below 100. I had "runner's lungs" for the rest of the day--I love that feeling!

Since I am giving up peanut butter for six weeks, I decided to do something different for breakfast today (usually I have oatmeal with peanut butter and other stuff on top), and it ended up being really good! I chopped up an apple, and added a little water, cornstarch, cinnamon, and stevia. I microwaved it for a couple of minutes, and then stirred in 1/4 cup of muesli (this is the Muesli Fusion Athlete Fuel):

It was surprisingly really filling, and only 4 PointsPlus.

This whole no-grocery-shopping-in-May thing is getting pretty difficult. I still find it fun to have to be creative with meals, but the kids aren't happy with some of their choices. They want to bring CANNED soup to school for lunch instead of homemade soup. We're out of canned soup, so they just have to make do with homemade. I know, poor kids! ;)

The whole family is loving the homemade bread, though. I had a huge bag of bread flour in the pantry, so I've been making bread just about every other day. Today, for dinner, I made French toast with the homemade bread, and it was fantastic!

Jerry and I spent the afternoon cleaning out our cars. I have no idea how my boys make such a mess in the back of my Jeep. I took the vacuum out there and spent a long time vacuuming it out. Give my boys a couple of days, and it will look like I never cleaned it, I'm sure. But it always feels so nice to get into a clean car! (Kind of like getting into bed with freshly cleaned sheets--love that!).

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Motivational Monday #15

I was so excited that it was finally feeling like spring in Michigan, and then this morning when I woke up, it was 29 degrees outside. A cold run today! I was feeling extremely tired while running for some reason--not mentally tired, but my body felt exhausted; so I just ran three miles (in heart rate Zone 3) and called it quits. Tomorrow I'm going to do hill intervals, because I haven't done those since before my half-marathon last month.

Anyway, I was having a really great week as far as my food goes--until today. I ate 21 PP worth of peanut butter this afternoon! When I talked to Jerry about it, I decided to challenge myself to give up peanut butter again for six weeks. When I first started WW in September, I gave it up for six weeks and it worked wonders for my cravings. I really felt in control again after the six weeks were up.

I've been eating way too much peanut butter lately, and can't seem to practice portion control with it anymore, so I think giving it up for a little while will help. Starting tomorrow, I will not eat peanut butter until June 25th. Jerry is challenging himself to eat only the foods that he brings to work; he has a hard time with eating foods that his friends bring in. Giving ourselves little challenges like that seem to keep us motivated.

Speaking of motivation, this will be a short and sweet Motivational Monday post, because I didn't get many e-mails for today. But they are inspiring, none the less. Enjoy!

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Stephanie has been working hard at losing weight, and she just hit a HUGE milestone of 100-pounds lost!

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Carole and Kat just ran the Race for Hope for the second year in a row. In 2010, Carole was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and had her first brain surgery; in 2011, she had her second brain surgery. Last year, she decided to do the Race for Hope to support finding a cure for brain tumors instead of having (yet another) surgery. The two women walked the race together last year, and this year, they ran--improving their time by 30 minutes! They've also lost a collective 60 pounds. Carole is living with an inoperable brain tumor, but it's benign and hasn't grown at all, which is promising. Kat says that Carole has an amazing spirit!

Carole and Kat

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Ivayla ran a Mother's Day 5K and improved her previous 5K time by 2 1/2 minutes, finishing in 34:25! She is signed up to run a 10K next month. This picture is with her son after the finish--he gave her a rose at the finish line :)

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Rachel is on a journey to lose 220 pounds, and has lost 47 so far. Six weeks ago, she started running and could only run 15 seconds at a time. She says she's loving running now, and is up to 1:15 at a time! To reward herself for her efforts, she decided to buy a good pair of running shoes. The shoe store owner told her she was too heavy to run and should stick to walking, but she listened to her gut and has already put 10 miles on her new shoes--with plans for many more! (I have to say, shame on that store clerk! It's not his decision or his business to tell you what you what exercise is best for you. Assuming your doctor gave you the okay to run, I'm glad that you didn't let him scare you off!)

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And of course, here is a snippet from the Motivational Monday Facebook post:

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Remember, you can send me Motivational Monday e-mail anytime during the week--just make the subject "RfCMM" or "Motivational Monday" so that I know I have your permission to post it on the blog. Keep up the awesome work!

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Just a bit windy

Happy Mother's Day to all of my mom-readers!

My boys gave me handmade cards this morning. Both of them had drawn running shoes on the cards, and inside was money (from Jerry, obviously) to buy new running shoes. I've been overdue for new shoes for about 50 miles now, and I've been avoiding buying them because they're so expensive. I made Jerry promise not to get me a Mother's Day gift, so he figured that he'd just make me get the shoes I need ;)

I really didn't want the kids to make me breakfast this morning (they wanted me make me a TON of food, and I just wanted my oatmeal), so I asked that they make my tea instead. Jerry helped them with the boiling water, but they thought it was a lot of fun using the tea infuser. Jerry read off all the teas to Eli, and he chose Cookie Dough. Definitely a mama's boy!

There is a local 5K race that takes place on Mother's Day each year, and I've been wanting to go for a couple of years now, but it STILL didn't work out. A lot of my friends went with their families, but Jerry worked all night, so he needed to sleep when he got home. I hope that next year we'll be able to go.

Instead, my dad called and asked if I wanted to go to church with them, since it's Mother's Day. I know it means a lot to my mom when I go, so I went. After church, I stopped at Kohl's to return that lace top. I found it very humorous to see a bunch of teenage boys in there, looking at jewelry (no doubt for a last minute Mother's Day gift!)

When I got home, I did my run outside. I haven't chosen a show yet for the treadmill, but thanks for all the suggestions! I'm going to check them out and hopefully find one that I like. I forgot to mention that The Walking Dead was one that I loved. I watched the entire series in an embarrassingly short amount of time. ;) 

It was SUPER windy today (21 mph winds, but the gusts almost knocked me over a few times). My AccuWeather app made me laugh:

"A BIT windier"? At what point is it "A LOT windier"?!

I decided to do a tempo run, and keep my heart rate in Zone 4 today. I had no idea just how hard that was going to feel! It took about 1/2 mile to get to Zone 4, and by then, I was running really hard. I had a headwind going out (of course), and the wind kept taking my breath away. I have no idea how I managed a sub-8:00 pace for my 10K in March! I just kept reminding myself that it would feel easier once I turned around, because then I'd have a tailwind.

I finally turned around after two miles, and it was definitely a little easier on my lungs (the wind blowing in my face on the way out had made it hard to breathe), but my legs felt like Jello. My heart rate was in the middle of Zone 4; I have no idea how I'll ever get to Zone 5 during my interval runs. I managed a sub-8 mile for the last mile. I was SO relieved to be done with that run!

In the afternoon, the boys wanted to go for a run again. Even though I was exhausted from my tempo run, I didn't want to tell them no, so I said sure. They wanted to run to the corner store and back (one mile exactly, round trip). And of course, they wanted to buy a treat at the corner store while we were there. I told them if it fit in their pocket, they could get one thing.

Jerry came with us, too, and I'm sure we looked pretty silly, the four of us running to the corner store. But the kids had fun, and Noah really pushed himself harder today than yesterday. Yesterday, his mile time was 13:30; today, we did most of it at 11:30 pace. When we got back to our street, I told them they could sprint home if they wanted, and Noah decided to go for it. He ran so fast that I was running my hardest to keep up with him at the end. For the last tenth of a mile, he ran a 6:00/mi pace! I felt like my legs were going to fall off.

His overall time ended up being 10:53, shaving more than 2:30 off of yesterday's mile. He was really proud of himself (after he was done gasping for breath from his sprint). I'm just glad that he's excited about running!

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Stephanie sent me a few pictures from yesterday's shoot, and I LOVE them. I cannot wait to see the rest! Here is one of Jerry and me--I love this. I didn't even know she took it; Jerry was just goofing around, and I was rolling my eyes, and it turned out so cute!

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The first mile

Today was a rest day, my kids spent the night with my parents, and Jerry was at work this morning; so naturally, I would be wide awake at 5:00 AM! Whenever I have the perfect opportunity to sleep in, I wind getting up super early. Oh, well, at least I got some reading in.

Yesterday, after my long run, I only had two episodes left in Season 4 of Sons of Anarchy. Season 5 isn't on Netflix yet, so I really should have saved those episodes for a rainy day (literally), but I really wanted to see what happened. So last night, I walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes and watched one of the episodes.

This morning, with just one episode left, I finished the season. I wasn't crazy about the way it ended, but now I'm really disappointed that I don't have anything to watch when I'm on the treadmill. It has to be a show that REALLY sucks me in, like Sons of Anarchy. Breaking Bad was another one that I really liked. Any suggestions? For reference, some other shows that sucked me in like that are The Shield, Nip/Tuck, 24, and Prison Break.

At noon, I had a date with "That Loud Redhead" friend of mine, Stephanie. When I reached goal (on 12-12-12... easy to remember!), I asked her if she might want to take some goal photos for me. She did such a great job with the photos I needed for Fitness magazine that I was hoping she'd be willing to do more. She was thrilled that I asked, and suggested we wait for warmer weather.

Over the past week or so, we've had some really great days--in the 60's and 70's with full sun. Today, however, it was in the 40's and overcast. But Steph assured me that the pictures would look just fine.

I wanted to get some pictures with Jerry and the boys, too, so I cut the boys' hair this morning and got myself ready to go. I wore the lace shirt and dark blue jeans I just bought at Kohl's with my gift card. As I was walking out the door, I noticed that my shirt was ripped. Bummer! I was in a rush to meet Stephanie, so I just hoped it wouldn't show in the pictures. I'm going to try and bring it back tomorrow--I just took the tags off this morning, and I know I didn't rip it.

We met at my parents' house, because they live on the lake, and that would make a good backdrop for the pictures. We got a bunch of my family, a few of Jerry and I, and just the boys. Then Jerry took the kids home and Stephanie and I went to a couple other spots for pictures. I wore my red dress for some, and jeans and a red top that I really like for others. I'm excited to see them!

When Eli got home from school yesterday, he was SO excited to give me a Mother's Day present that he made for me. He didn't want me to wait until Sunday, so I opened it right away. It was homemade strawberry jam that his class had made at school. So cute!

I told him we would use it today for dinner, on a childhood favorite of mine: grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! (I make it just like a grilled cheese, only with PB&J instead of cheese). On homemade bread today, they were even better than I remembered.

I don't make them very often, because they're a lot of PointsPlus. This one was 10 PP. It was really filling, though, despite its size.

I am so glad to have made it through Saturday without going into the negative on my PointsPlus this week. For the past few weeks, Saturday has been my big downfall day. It's been really hard to stay on track. I almost caved tonight (to eat peanut butter right out of the jar), but I just made a cup of tea to hold me over until my wine and chocolate before bed. I'm going to do my best not to go into negative PointsPlus this week!

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At around 8:00 tonight, Noah got really tearful and said to me, "I really wish I could run better, like you." He's been having a rough time lately at school when they do the mile run. He's always in last place, and he can't do it without walk breaks. I keep telling him that to get better, he has to practice, and that I'll go run with him ANY time he wants. He never takes me up on it.

After he cried about it for a couple of minutes tonight, I said, "Do you guys want to go for a run right now?" It had just gotten done raining, and it was getting dark, but I wanted to boost Noah's confidence. I told them they would have to stay with me, and we were going to go very slow. Noah was really nervous, and said we should just do around the block.

I knew he could go farther than that, but I just said we'd take it easy and see how it goes. So we headed out (I was wearing my pajama pants!) and ran very slowly down the street. It was SO awesome--I could see Noah's confidence growing with each stride. About a quarter mile in, he said he thinks we should walk, that it feels hard. I told him, "Noah, I KNOW you can do a whole mile today. We're going nice and slow, let's get to a half-mile at least." So we kept running.

A couple more times, he suggested we stop, but I kept encouraging him. When I told him we'd gone 3/4 of a mile, he was really excited. And then with just a tenth to go, I pointed to a telephone pole ahead and said, "That will be one mile--there's your finish line!"

When we got to the telephone pole, I heard the Garmin beep--HE DID IT! He ran his very first mile without stopping, without walking. He was so excited and proud. Eli was excited too, but it didn't mean much to him; not like it did to Noah. Now both of the boys are talking about running a 5K with me ;)  When we got home, we took a picture to remember the occasion:

Noah, me, and Eli

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Palmolive brownie

Last night, I asked Jerry if he would mind getting the kids off to school this morning when he got home from work, so that I could head out for my long run first thing at 6:30. He, of course, said that was fine, so I planned to get up early and be ready when he got home.

Normally, getting up early is no problem for me--I'm always such a light sleeper. But today, I actually slept until 6:00, and I just wasn't feeling like hopping out of bed and out the door to run. So I changed my plans, and decided to just run when the kids left for school.

The weather app on my phone said 70% chance of rain. I was debating in my head whether to run outside or on the treadmill. It was like I was making the biggest decision of my lifetime, the way I was going over all the positives and negatives of each choice. Kind of ridiculous. I looked one more time at the weather, and saw that it was already 65 degrees. That swayed me toward the treadmill more than the rain did.

Since my next race over a 10K isn't until October, there is no real reason to run more than 8 miles or so. I figured I'd do 8-10, depending on how long the episodes of Sons of Anarchy were ;)  My main goal for the run was to keep my heart rate in Zone 3 again, regardless of pace. After yesterday's run, I figured that I'd be running 9:30 miles by the end of my run.

I set the incline at 1%, how I always do, and started at 6.7 mph. My heart rate wasn't going up much, so I increased it to 6.9 mph, and after about a mile, I was at the low end of Zone 3. I just decided to leave it there until my heart rate got too high, and then I'd start decreasing the pace.

As I ran, I thought about my sister, because today, she had her last long run before her half-marathon next weekend. She was going to be running 12 miles on the treadmill, and it made me feel like a slacker for doing "just" 8, so I changed my mind and decided to go for 12 instead. ;)

The first episode of SoA that I watched happened to be 60 minutes, which was unusual (usually, they are about 42-45 minutes). The timing ended up being perfect for 12 miles--I watched 2 full episodes and had time for a 2 minute walk at the end when I finished.

My heart rate actually stayed right in Zone 3 the entire time while running 6.9 mph (that was about an 8:40 mile); I had to decrease it to 6.8 for the very last mile. I was really surprised by the numbers! It confirmed what I've always thought, that (to me) it feels easier to run on the treadmill than it does outside. So based on that, I should be running faster on the treadmill than I do outside.

If I hadn't been focused on my heart rate, I would never have started my long run at 6.9 mph--logically, I feel like that's too fast. But using my heart rate helps me to see what I'm capable of, despite what my mind may tell me.

I had no idea what I was going to eat for my long run treat today. I wasn't sure if I was "allowed" to get something because of the no-grocery-shopping-in-May challenge that we're doing. Jerry said I'd better get something, or else I'll be sure to binge, and he was probably right. I could have made cookies, but then I would have eaten them ALL, so it was better off that I just buy one item, like I usually do.

I had to go weigh in at Weight Watchers, which is right next to the mall, so I decided to get something from Mrs. Fields. Jerry had to weigh in at WW also, and he came with me. He's been doing he Insanity workouts, so he asked me to get him a bar, too. I ordered our bars, and the girl working there said, "Those are Buy 2, Get 1 Free!".

Dammit! I thanked her for the (three) bars, and I should have offered the third one to the person behind me in line, but I didn't think. I just took it. It bugged me all the way home, thinking of what to do with the third bar. My kids don't need it--they get enough junk, and I've been trying not to bring anything like that home for them if I can help it. I could have put it in the freezer, but I know I would have pulled it out (probably tonight) and ate it. So, I did the only thing I could think of that would help me get it out of my mind--I poured dish soap on it. (Throwing it away doesn't work for me, unless it's destroyed)

That was VERY hard to do, but I felt strong when I did it. There is nothing wrong with eating one Dream Bar on my long run day, but I certainly didn't need two--and I most likely would have eaten it if it was still around. Dish soap has saved me from many situations like this! ;)

Today was Pizza Friday, and when I looked for the stuff to make pizza, I realized we were out of mozzarella cheese. And this since we're not allowed to buy groceries this month, I had to get creative. We had lots of cheddar cheese, so I decided to make BBQ Chicken Pizza--and it turned out really good. Two slices of it were only 7 PointsPlus, too--a bargain! Crap! I knew that it was too good to be true. When I was putting the ingredients into the Recipe Builder on the WW site, I realized I only accounted for half of the dough. So it actually has 5 PointsPlus per slice. I wish I'd realized this before I had a third slice!

I was in a rush to make the crust, and usually I make a yeast crust which takes a little time. Today, I made a quick crust out of Bisquick. It was really soft and bread-like, rather than chewy; different, but very good! I wrote out the recipe for the BBQ Chicken Pizza on my recipes blog, if you're interested. I'm definitely going to use that crust recipe again.

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RECIPE: Barbecue Chicken Pizza

My family eats pizza for dinner every Friday, and I found myself short on the usual ingredients. I had to throw something together really quickly, and I made this BBQ Chicken Pizza on the fly. It turned out really good! Next time, I think I would add some pineapple tidbits, too. If you're a pineapple on pizza person, you would really like that!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Crust:
2 cups of Heart Smart Bisquick
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup very hot water

Toppings:
1/4 cup barbecue sauce (I like Sweet Baby Ray's)
6 oz. cooked chicken, chopped or shredded
2 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
thinly sliced red onion
1/4 cup Hormel crumbled bacon

To make the crust, just combine the Bisquick, sour cream, and water. It will look dry, but if you use your hands to knead it, it will come together. Roll it out onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Spread the sauce evenly over the crust. Top with chicken, cheese, onions, and bacon. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, until crust is light brown and cheese is melted.

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