Skinny playlist

I finished the day yesterday with 15 Activity PointsPlus--not bad! It was pretty hard to get that many, but (obviously) not impossible. Now I just have to do it for six more days ;)

My mom reads my blog, so I usually avoid writing about very personal things (i.e. sex). So, Mom, if you're reading this, that was your cue to scroll down a bit. Okay, so last night, Jerry and I were--ahem--"talking" in bed, and all of a sudden, there were these bright flashy lights. I said, "What the heck is that?!" and then I realized it was my ActiveLink, which I forgot to take off (I wear it clipped to my underwear band).

When it gets in a certain position, the lights start flashing to show your activity progress for the day. So it was just letting me know that I'd reached almost 125% of my goal for the day. Just before bed, I had only earned 14 PP; but after the "talk" Jerry and I had, I'd earned another, bringing me to 15 for the day ;)

This morning, I did pretty much the exact same workout as yesterday. First, I ran five miles on the treadmill (keeping my heart rate in Zone 3). This time, I set it up as a virtual race, so the incline would go up and down randomly. The last couple of miles, I increased my pace to get my heart rate up a little higher. I realized that when I set the treadmill at 7.0 mph, my heart rate only gets up to about 145. I was a little nervous to set it higher, but at around 7.3-7.5 mph is where my heart rate got to the top of Zone 3.

I was watching Flashpoint, and that episode ended about five minutes before I reached five miles, so I started a new episode. Then, when I reached five miles, I just switched over to a walking program on the treadmill to keep earning the Activity PP.

This afternoon, I was getting edgy and wanting to eat out of boredom, so I started cleaning. I cranked up some music and cleaned the hell out of the house. A Blink 182 song came on and it reminded me of a playlist I used to have when I was losing weight. I have no idea what happened to it, but I titled it "Skinny" and it was a whole bunch of songs that just made me want to be thin and happy. Weird, right? When I was losing weight, and feeling like I wanted to binge, I would sometimes turn on the playlist and crank up the volume, and it would help take away the urge to binge.

I had forgotten just how helpful that was, so this afternoon, I created a new "skinny" playlist; mostly all the same songs as before. I have a lot of Blink 182 on there, because it reminds me of the hot summer nights of 1999, when Jerry and I first started dating (no idea why that is). I'm not going to write out the list, because, well, some of the songs are kind of embarrassing ;) The songs aren't inspirational or motivational in any way; rather, I chose them based on how I feel when I listen to them.

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Oh! I keep forgetting to write an update on Chandler's weight loss. He's down to 23 pounds now, which means he's lost 2 pounds in 2 months. That's pretty good for a cat! Jerry and I have noticed a HUGE difference in his energy level. He's very playful now. When we get out "the bird" toy, and fly it around, he actually leaps in the air for it. Before, I couldn't even get him to open his eyes, let alone play.

When Purina ONE gave me a month's worth of cat food, I assumed I'd just use it and then switch back to a cheaper food; but when we ran out, I asked Jerry what he thinks, and he said we should keep buying the Purina ONE Healthy Metabolism stuff. Even though it's more expensive, it lasts longer, because I've been feeding them on a schedule (which is a total pain in the ass, by the way, but the only way I can get Chandler not to eat more than he should). Also, the cats are doing so great on it that I'd hate to make any changes.

I feed the cats at 6:30 in the morning, and again at 4:30 pm. I mix a little wet food with some dry food, and they each get their own plate. Chandler wolfs his down, and then watches for the other cats to be done. If I don't watch him carefully, he'll finish off their food in mere seconds, so I have to watch them eat. I do leave dry food out all day in the puzzle feeders--Phoebe, Estelle, and Paolo eat from them, but Chandler refuses to work for his food, hahaha.

At first, Paolo wouldn't use it either. He would see me get a scoop of food and pour it in the top, then look at me like I was pure evil when he realized he couldn't eat it out of the top where I poured the food in. He figured it out, though ;)

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Flashpoint

Like I said yesterday, I expected a bad weigh-in today. I went over my PointsPlus by 165 for the week, so I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. I thought that the worst it could be was 137, because last week I was 134. In reality, it was actually higher than that...

At 137.5, that's a 3.5 pound gain for the week. I'm not liking this upward trend! I definitely feel ready to get back on track though. I really would like to start and end the summer at (or below) my goal weight of 133. Summer officially begins on June 21st, so I'm going to stick to my plan to get back to it.

I am shooting for 100 Activity PointsPlus this week, which is going to be very tough! That's over 14 PP per day. But I'm really hoping that it keeps me active and busy, so I don't think so much about eating. I'm also doing my best to get in all the Good Health Guidelines for Weight Watchers this week. Today, I checked them all off, even my healthy oils. (I actually love to drizzle oil over popcorn for a snack, sprinkled with lots of salt).

Today is normally a rest day, but I took Monday and Tuesday off after the half-marathon on Sunday, so I decided to run today. It was raining this morning, with a good chance of thunderstorms, so I ran on the treadmill. This is the first time I've run on it since finishing Sons of Anarchy, and I've been dreading it because I wasn't sure what new show to watch.

I'd added quite a few shows to my Netflix queue, so I chose one that looked interesting--"Flashpoint". The description on Netflix says: "Sgt. Gregory Parker and his Strategic Response Unit tackle high-risk cases too tough for normal cops, including bomb scares and hostage situations." I like crime/drama shows, so I gave it a try this morning.

It was really good! It's exactly what I was looking for--dramatic with lots of action and suspense to keep me interested when I really want to do anything other than run on the treadmill. There are four seasons, so it should keep me busy for a while.

I ran five miles today (heart rate in Zone 3), and then walked 2.2 miles (which got me through two episodes of the show). When I was done, I saw that I had already earned 8 PointsPlus. (I stopped my Garmin after the run, because I don't log the walking).

Once I plugged in my ActiveLink to the computer, a new message popped up, congratulating me for finishing the 12-week challenge.

 

I earned 785 Activity PointsPlus during the 12-week challenge. That's an average of 65 per week, or 9 per day. That's actually much more than I thought it would be. Now I've changed it to a goal of 12 per day (the highest it would let me), just for this week. Next week, I'll probably drop it back down to 9 or 10 per day.

I used an Amazon gift card to buy the Nike + Kinect Training game today. I've heard good things about it, and I really liked doing the Wii Active 30-Day Challenge last year. I'm going to try and do something similar this summer, and figured I'd check out the Nike + game.

Today was a great day--let's hope I can repeat it tomorrow!

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Travel day

I slept like a rock last night, and I think it was probably because yesterday was such a long travel day. My sister's house is about a six-hour drive away, but because I flew into Chicago and then took the bus to her house, it took nearly as long to get there.

Yesterday morning, Jeanie and Shawn took me to the bus station at 10:40, where I took the 11:00 bus to O'Hare. The bus took forever, and I was getting worried that I would miss my plane. My flight was at 2:00, and I finally got into the airport at 12:50. I had to pee really badly, but the security line was really long, and I wasn't sure if I'd have time to spare, so I suffered through the line.

Finally, I was through security and I headed to my gate. I had a couple of minutes to spare, so I was able to stop in the bathroom. Then, on impulse, I bought a bag of Twizzlers for the plane. Stupid! Those things are 1 PointsPlus each, and I can eat it in about 3 bites. Coupled with my nerves about flying, that 20-PointsPlus bag didn't stand a chance.

I was really nervous about the fact that I was stuck in a middle seat. I've always sat by the window, because I'm such a nervous flier, and it makes me more comfortable to be able to see the ground. I'd been checking the seating chart ever since I got my ticket to try and get a window seat, but the only seats available were middle seats.

It was a really bumpy take-off, and I felt really claustrophobic and panicky for about 10 minutes, because I couldn't see very well out the window, and I felt cramped between two other people. Thankfully, the flight from Chicago to Detroit is only 42 minutes (from take-off to touch-down). Pretty much as soon as we reached altitude, we were descending.

Because we lost an hour coming home (time zone change), it was 4:20 when we finally arrived at the gate. If I had driven home, I would have been about 20 minutes from home. Instead, Jerry was going to pick me up after he got off work at 6:00, so I had a couple of hours to kill at the airport.

I spent a lot of time walking around, but after walking past all these food places, I wanted to eat. I wasn't hungry at all, but I ended up eating at Burger King--my first time eating there since August 2009! It wasn't even good, so I have no desire to ever eat it again.

I worked on my blog post until Jerry picked me up, and then we went to the boys' baseball practice (my parents had taken them). I finally got home at 7:30 last night, and I was exhausted! I had a couple of glasses of wine and watched TV with Jerry for a little while before bed.

The weekend was SO fun, and I'm really, really glad that I went. It was awesome to be able to run with Jeanie, and then celebrate with Shawn, Jeanie, and Jen afterward. I don't regret the food choices I made while I was at Jeanie's, but I do wish I had given it more thought beforehand, and maybe planned it out ahead of time. The margarita I had with lunch? It was 43 PP!! To put that in perspective, I only earned 26 PP on during the half-marathon. (Although I have to say, it honestly was worth 43 PP... it was REALLY good!)

When I ordered it, I had no idea it would be that big. 

The scale was WAY up this morning, and (once again) I'm really not looking forward to my "official" weigh-in tomorrow, but I know that the gain is legit. I went over my PointsPlus by about 165 this week. No, that's not a typo.

I had a terrible week as far as food choices, but like I said, I don't regret it (well, I do regret the Twizzlers and the Burger King, but not the stuff I ate at Jeanie's). Mentally, I'm just going to wipe the slate clean and start completely fresh tomorrow. I'll still be in "weight loss" mode on Weight Watchers, because I'm sure my weight is going to be over goal (unless a miracle happens overnight).

I don't want this to sound like a negative post--I'm really happy that I went, I loved the Mexican food and drinks, and the Butter Pecan Blondie for dinner on Sunday. My weight is going to be up, but I can't complain about that, because I knew that when I ordered the food. I just have to reel it in now!

I think rather than focusing so much on getting my food back on track, I'm going to try and make this a 100 Activity PointsPlus week. The most I've ever earned in a week is 75, but I think that if I really focus on it, I could get 100. The point of that is not so I can eat more, but so that I keep myself really busy. If I'm constantly trying to earn PointsPlus, I won't be thinking about eating all day.

I'm also going to make a conscious effort to get in all of my Good Health Guidelines (5+ fruits/veggies, 2 tsp. healthy oils, 2 servings dairy...). I'm terrible with getting those in, especially the healthy oils and the dairy. I think by focusing on that, and the activity, I should be back on track without feeling too stressed about it.

We're still going strong on our no-grocery-shopping-in-May challenge... 10 more days! :)

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Motivational Monday #16

Funny story from this morning at my sister's house...

Shawn's friend came over to pick up Shawn to go to breakfast. While Jeanie went to get Shawn, I chatted with him for a minute. Making small talk, he said, "Oh, I met your other sister a few years ago." I must have looked confused (I don't have another sister, just Jeanie), because he started to explain, "She came out here to go camping; she brought her kids, and you all went camping for a couple of nights..."

Then it hit me. He was talking about ME, when I was still 253 pounds, and he just didn't recognize me now that I've lost the weight! Hahaha, I think I embarrassed him when I told him it was me, but that totally made my day :)

I'm working on this while I'm waiting for Jerry to pick me up from the airport, so I'm going to get right to the good stuff! I hope you all had a great week, and even if it wasn't so great, maybe you will find some motivation from today's stories...

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Amber just ran her second 5K race, and she says she was the last runner to finish, followed only by a couple of walkers. She said a lot of people were trying to console her by saying, "Hey, at least you finished!" but Amber says she just smiled and said she is very PROUD of her time. She says, "Three months ago, I would have been dead last, and four months ago, I would have been on my sofa!" She followed her training schedule and felt great through the race.

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When I read Colleen's e-mail, I really couldn't summarize it without cutting out a bunch of important stuff. So I'm just going to copy and paste what she wrote about this picture. It's a GREAT story, and the picture is awesome!

"I've been dying to send you this email. Today, I ran my first 1/2 marathon and killed my goal of sub 2 hours. Some background- when I lived in Chicago, I ran a lot. I ran the 2006 full marathon and various other Chicagoland area stapes (Shamrock Shuffle, etc.). When I moved to Denver, the elevation change was tough on my running. I've always struggled with getting my breath under control and I never felt like I could check out and just run because I was always gasping for air. Cut to living on the front range for five years and slowly building my endurance back up. 

When I started to get back into running last September, I found your blog and started to mimic your interval training and some of your work outs. It was really encouraging to see myself get faster and stronger. I ran the Running of the Green (7k) in March and attempted to maintain a 8:30 pace. Turns out, I ran it with an average 8:17. I was still afraid to take the plunge and sign up for a longer race until my work challenged us to do so. My boss, Vince DiCroce, is an avid marathoner/triathlete. He was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer 8 years ago, and made the choice to not only survive, but be better than before. He ran over 30 marathons and PR'd most of them. He also competed in Iron Mans. He's a super hero. Recently, the tumor came back and was more aggressive. We decided to Run with Vince to push ourselves to go beyond what we think we're capable. (http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=332359 and  http://www.denverpost.com/running/ci_23235866/colfax-marathon-just-another-way-vince-dicroces-life)  He signed up for the half, but ended up running the full today because his last chemo treatment wasn't that aggressive (!!!). He finished in 3:57.40. I know. Superman.

"Anyway, I knew I could run 10 miles. I knew it wouldn't be that big of a challenge, so I sucked it up, and before I could change my mind, swiped my credit card for the 1/2 with a goal of sub 2 hours. I continued to do speed interval work and added in long runs all while reading your blog. Today, I crossed the finish line in 1:51:30. I've attached some pictures of my elated ass because I just couldn't believe that someone like me could be "fast." Thanks for writing and continuing to motivate your readers. I know some days it is hard to open up and be honest, but I appreciate it so much, and I know others do to. Congrats on your race today and for helping out your sis! I'm sure she has her own MM post to write. You go girl(s)! "

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Felicia has a shiny new 5K PR of 30:31, which also earned her third place in her age group! Over the past year and a half, she's lost a whopping 82 pounds, and has run at least one race each month since October.

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Jen and her 15-year old son just completed their first 5K! She has been training 3-4 days per week, and has a goal of running the whole distance soon. She finished about two minutes faster than her "practice" times! She's also down 20 pounds since January--she decided that slow and steady was the way to go, and she's seeing great results :)

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Jennifer just finished her first 10K. She's a few weeks into half-marathon training now, AND has lost 42 pounds!

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Julie's daughter (shown in the pic) just ran 6.5 miles in her school's jogathon... and she's not even nine years old! The kids have to be in third grade to participate, and she was very excited that she was old enough to do it this year. The jogathon lasts 90 minutes, and she insisted on running the whole time! (I love that proud smile on her face!)

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Katie surprised herself when she ran a 5K in 26:01! She's used to running 9:30-10:00/mi pace, but she gave it all she had and got a shiny new PR. She's also lost 35 pounds since January, and she credits that partly to teaching Jazzercise. Here is a comparison pic from November and from last weekend.

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After completing the Couch to 5K program, Kylie just ran her first 5K! Her boyfriend raced with her, and her parents cheered her on, despite the rain. Her goal was to run the whole distance, and she did even better than she expected, finishing in 33:48!

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Laura (in gray) ran a 5K with her sister, Allison, and finished with a 3-minute PR. She's lost 52.6 pounds since October, when she started running!

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Lesleigh just ran her second 5K, taking a full 10 minutes off of her first from August! She's come a long way on her journey, losing 55 pounds and lots of inches. She said her husband was folding laundry, and said, "How did one of the boys' skinny jeans get mixed up in our wash?" She looked at them and realized they were HER jeans he was talking about. ;)

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Sara just ran her first 5K race in 33:12... she says that last summer, she couldn't even ride a stationary bike for 15 minutes, and now she's getting ready to start 10K training! She's come a long way in less than a year.

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Jen ran her third 5K, and finished with a 2-minute PR! Her kids, Ryan and Liam, each ran the 1K after being inspired by their mama to run. Ryan got her face painted at the after party :)

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Don't forget to check out this week's Motivational Monday Facebook post, also! Here is a snippet:

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Rockford Half-Marathon race report

Today was so much fun! Everything went better than I could have hoped. Jeanie and I got up pretty early this morning to get ready for the race. Shawn had worked all night long, and was planning to run the half-marathon after work--crazy, right?! But he didn't really have a choice.

We went to downtown Rockford and had no problems parking or finding the starting line, or anything like that. We used the porta-potties before the line got too long, and took some pictures at the starting line.

Jeanie and I lined up behind the 5:00 marathon pacer, because she was planning to run about a 12:00/mi pace. She said the best case scenario would be 2:30, but that was really unlikely, so she was aiming to have a 12:00/mi average pace for the race. (Shawn lined up closer to the front, because he was aiming for "anything under 2:00" (but I figured he'd run between 1:45-1:50).

The race was pretty small, so when it started, it only took us about minute to get to the starting line. And we were off! The course was awesome--one of the best courses I've ever run. And the race was VERY well organized--I would highly recommend this race if you're looking for a half- or full-marathon in Illinois (Rockford).

Jeanie was doing REALLY well--her splits were faster than she'd expected, and she kept commenting on how good she felt. A few miles in, we saw an older man in front of us wearing a yellow shirt that said, "1000 Marathons Larry". Jeanie and I looked at each other with our eyebrows raised. I said, "Hey there, are you Larry?" and he was very friendly. We learned that it was his 1,020-something marathon in 13 years. Last year, he ran 157 of them! I really wished I could talk to him for a while, because I'm sure he has some great stories, but we passed by him and kept going.

At around mile four, Jeanie's friend Jen jumped in and ran along with us for a few minutes. She said she'd seen Shawn, and he was doing really well. Then she moved on, and said she'd run with us for a little bit at mile 10. Jeanie started getting faster, and she was feeling good. I knew in my head that she was very capable of reaching her "A" goal of sub-2:30, but I didn't want to push it, so I just let her set the pace.

I was expecting the race to feel like a walk in the park, because it was a much slower pace than I'm used to, but I was surprised that my legs were actually taking a beating. I was really enjoying the course, though, and even though it was hot outside, it wasn't that bad. Jen popped in with us again a little before mile 10.

When we reached mile 10, I was delighted to see something I'd never seen in a race before--ice cold sponges! They were provided by a heating and cooling company called Gough (I want to give them a shout out, because I was SO excited about the sponges!). I grabbed one and wiped my face, neck, and arms, then squeezed it over my head. It was heavenly, and very much needed at mile 10.

Jeanie was starting to feel a little tired at that point, but she was still going strong, and was even running some sub-11:00 miles. I knew we were on pace for a sub-2:30 time, so I was hoping she'd keep at it, because I knew she'd be thrilled with that time.

Jen left around mile 11, and then just after mile 12, we saw Shawn! He'd finished and come back to run with Jeanie as well. I shouldn't just say "finished"--he CRUSHED his sub-2:00 goal with a 1:48:07 finish, as I knew he would ;)  Jeanie was really starting to hurt around mile 12.5, but we were in the home stretch, and I knew she could get her sub-2:30 goal.

With about a quarter mile to go, Shawn left us to finish on our own. We could see the finish line from there, and as soon as I saw it, I got really choked up. I was afraid to say anything, because I would cry. It's funny, I didn't feel that emotional when I finished my own first half, but doing this with Jeanie made me feel SO proud of her.

We sprinted the last stretch down the finisher's chute, and crossed the finish line in 2:28:13--she'd killed her "A" goal! We found Jen and Shawn, and hung out at the finish line for a little while.

Then we went to the only place we could find that served beer at 10:00 in the morning ;) A cold beer sounded SO good after that race! Then we went back to Jeanie's showered, and headed out to lunch at this AMAZING Mexican restaurant in Rockford. It was honestly the best Mexican food I've ever tasted. I ate about a billion and a half PointsPlus there, and I don't regret any of it. I'm sure I'll complain about it on Wednesday, when I weigh-in, but right now, it was totally worth the PP!

After lunch, Shawn went home to sleep, and Jeanie, Jen, and I went to play slot machines at a bar. I never do slots! I just always assume that I'll lose all my money, and I really can't afford that. My sister really wanted me to play, so she insisted that she give me $100 to play with. Well, it's a good thing I took her up on it, because I won--a LOT!

I insisted on cashing out after that, and then I gave Jeanie $200 of it (the money I played with, plus the $100 she played with and lost). It was so fun to win that much money!

We planned to skip dinner after our huge lunch, and just get dessert later. After playing the slots, I still wasn't even close to hungry, so we went back to her house and figured we'd just go get a late dessert. Jeanie loves sweets as much as I do, and she adores the maple blondies at Applebee's, so we're going there. I've never tried them, but they sound like the perfect end to a perfect day :)

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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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