Pizza Thursday

This morning, while I was drinking my tea and browsing Facebook, I saw this post from Michigan Weather Watcher:

Since not everyone can read print so tiny, it says: "Check this out guys, what looks like precipitation on the radar is actually bugs! Yep, that's right, BUGS! These are Mayflies, but not to be confused with fishflies; mayflies are a lot smaller, but very similar. How wild is this?"

I happen to live in the yellow part. The Mayflies had hatched overnight, which means for the next week or two, the streets will be covered in them. They are already all over the outside of our house. I had been planning to run outside today while the boys were at basketball camp, but changed my mind and chose the treadmill instead. I'll probably be confined to the treadmill for a couple of weeks. This is a picture of the I took a couple of years ago while out for a run:

Gross, right? They make a popping noise when you step on them.

I had four miles on the schedule, so I turned on Pretty Little Liars, set the treadmill at 7.0, and just ran. Thankfully, I felt much better during today's run than I have lately. I think it's probably because I've been eating better the past few days. When I eat too much or eat really crappy food, my running suffers a lot.

After I showered, I took the boys to basketball camp, and then went to a local consignment shop to drop off a bunch of clothes. I haven't brought clothes there in a while, but when I recently cleaned out the boys' dressers and closets, there was a ton of stuff that was too small on them, and in really good condition. I figured I'd at least make a few bucks by consigning them instead of just donating them. While I was there, I browsed around a bit, but I really don't need any clothes right now.

Speaking of clothes, this afternoon I was putting a load of clothes in the laundry, when I felt something tickle my arm. I threw the clothes into the washer (thinking it was probably just a string or something on the clothes) but still felt the tickling, and when I looked down, there was a HUGE spider crawling up my arm!

I completely lost it, and started screaming and flinging my arms all over the place. I couldn't get the image out of my head of that spider on my arm. When I went back to try to finish loading the clothes, I very carefully picked up one piece of clothing at a time (touching as little of it as possible), and shaking it out before putting into the washer. I never did come across the spider again, which means it's somewhere in my house :(

The boys have another baseball game tonight, but it doesn't start until 8:00. We decided that since Jerry is off today, we'll do "Pizza Thursday" this week instead of "Pizza Friday", and go out for pizza before their game.There aren't very many places around here where you can dine in for pizza. We went to a place about 30 minutes away, near my brother Nathan's house.

If I hadn't made a bet with my sister yesterday, I totally would have blown my PointsPlus today. Eli and I both love fried pickles, so we got an order for an appetizer. I only ate four of them (I estimated 4 PP), even though I wanted to eat the entire plate. Then Jerry and I got a small pizza with ham, pineapple, and banana peppers. I had two slices of that (again, I would have plowed through it all if I could!).

I just tried to eat really slowly, so that by the time I was done, everyone else was already done with seconds. While we were eating, Jerry said, "Man, if I was Nathan, I'd eat this pizza every day." Right after he said that, Nathan walked in the door! He said he was meeting a friend for dinner. We chatted with him for a few minutes, and he said he's going to try to come to the kids' game tonight. I hope he does.

On the way home, I was thinking how glad I was that I only had two pieces of pizza. I even saved 5 PointsPlus for a McD's vanilla cone after the boys' baseball game tonight!

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Feta makes everything betta

Lately, I've been eating way too much on Tuesdays for some reason, which is the day before my weigh-ins; but yesterday, I managed to keep control of myself, and I was happy to see that the scale was down a bit from last week.

I am 2.6 pounds over goal weight, and last week I was 4 pounds over. I will be very happy when that reads 0.0!

I still went over my PointsPlus this week, but only by 30; and since I had ditched the ActiveLink, I was manually tracking my Activity PointsPlus (which gave me less than using the AL would have). I'm happy with the decision to stop using it.

The ActiveLink really did help develop some positive habits for me, though. Even though I wasn't wearing it this week, I still always made it a point to park very far from the entrance to the stores, do active things with my kids, and stay actively busy around the house. I knew I wasn't earning PP for doing those things, but I know that some extra movement never hurts!

Today, I realized that I could still wear the ActiveLink and not be subscribed to it. I wouldn't get any feedback on the computer as far as PointsPlus go, but that's what I like about the idea. My only goal would be to see how many lights I could light up each day (basically, just to keep me moving, but without earning PP as a reward). Like using a pedometer, only there wouldn't be any numbers. The only activity PointsPlus I would count would be from my running, and I would calculate those manually, as if I wasn't wearing the ActiveLink at all. Hard to describe, but it makes sense in my head ;)

I also made a deal with Jeanie. We've been texting our food logs to each other every night, but I still ended up going over my PointsPlus for the week. So this week, we are going to owe each other $1 for every PP that we go over. We can still use our daily, weekly, and activity PP; but if we use more beyond those (going into the negative), it will cost us $1 per PP. This week would have cost me $30. I think with that kind of incentive, I will be very likely to stick to my PP!

I tried a new Weight Watchers recipe for dinner, and it was SO good! Jerry's been wanting to cook on his new grill, so we made Greek Grilled Chicken Sandwiches. I've been buying these 4 PP hoagie rolls from Sam's Club, and they make an ordinary sandwich taste amazing, so we used those for the sandwiches tonight. I love anything with feta cheese, and this recipe includes a feta spread for the sandwich--it's just feta cheese, milk, and chopped onion. I could have eaten it all with a spoon!

Here is a link to the recipe. I followed it as-written, except I used dried dill instead of fresh and I used fat-free feta. It ended up being 9 PointsPlus--not bad at all for such a tasty sandwich! I bet it would be awesome on homemade pita bread, too.

 I'm going to place another David's Tea order tomorrow. They offer free shipping if you order $50 worth, so when I order, it's usually a pretty big list. Some of these aren't new to me, but I'm excited to try the ones that I haven't tried before:

The ones I haven't tried are the Brazillionaire, Birthday Cake, Mint Chocolate Rooibos, and Oh Canada!. I think David's Tea should have a "create your own sample pack" option, where you pay one price for a sample of a whole bunch of different teas of your choice. They have a lot of variety packs, but I think it would be awesome to create my own. Any other flavors that are a "must-try"?

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Niagara Falls

My kids have basketball camp this week (just a couple of hours each day). Yesterday, I dressed in my running clothes before we left, and decided to just run my four miles from the school where their camp was being held. The camp started at 10:00, and it was already 75 degrees (and very humid!) at that time.

I also decided to run the way I was pacing myself before my RRCA class, when I was training for my sub-2:00 half-marathon. Then, I was pushing myself on each run--not to the point that I felt awful, but a little faster than was comfortable. Lately, my pace has been slowing so much, that I just wanted a confidence booster, so I decided to see if I could still manage a sub-9:00 pace in the heat.

There wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and the sun was beating down. I swear it felt 100 degrees, and not just 75 ;)  But I was really happy with my pace, because I managed four sub-9:00 miles.

I think I paid the price for that today, though. My legs were tired, and I had intervals on the schedule.  I did the intervals on the treadmill before taking the kids to camp. I had 8 x 400's to do, which are done at a 6:58/mi pace. I honestly felt like I was going to puke. They felt SO HARD!

After I dropped the boys off at basketball camp, I headed to my mom's house to pick up my older brother, Brian. He flew from Minnesota to Detroit only to get his car from the airport to my parents' house, where my dad could fix a problem with it. He pulled his car into the driveway, then hopped in my car so I could take him back to the airport to fly right back to Minnesota. Crazy, right?! I guess when you're a pilot, it doesn't seem so weird.

Brian just ran the Ragnar Relay in Niagara Falls, and it was awesome to hear about it. His team had a really cool idea for choosing their legs for the race. Usually, teams assign their runners long before race day, and they know exactly what order they'll be running. Well, BioFuel (my brother's team), all threw their names in a bag (along with two "wild" cards). At the starting line, they still didn't know who was going to run first.

Brian's team (he's on the top right). I love the barrel costumes!
Very appropriate for a Niagara Falls finish line ;)

They handed the bag of names to the announcer, who waited until 10 seconds before the race started to pull out a name for them. When the girl's name was called, she quickly pulled out another name, who would be runner #2, and then she ran across the starting line and was off for the first leg.

At each major exchange, the team drew their leg assignments again, which meant they were also swapping van assignments around. I thought this was awesome! That way, you would get to see everyone from your team, rather than just the people assigned to your van.

The whole thing is SO hard to explain, but after hearing about it, I decided I'm going to put together a team for next year. It may end up being a From Fat to Finish Line team reunion, if everyone is interested. I just love the idea of the random leg assignments. It would be so exciting not knowing when you're going to be running next!

I just got a list of questions from someone via e-mail about Ragnar and how certain parts of it work. I'm going to post those this week, to hopefully clear it up a little.

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The boys had a baseball game tonight. I really love watching their games! They're at the age now where it's actually kind of exciting to watch. Noah and Eli are both pretty good, and they work really well together. Eli usually plays third base (he has a good arm) and Noah usually plays first (he catches everything). Jeanie was actually able to go to their game today, too--this was the first time she's been in town for one of their games.

My friend Sarah also came with me, because tonight was the only time that worked for both of us to get together. She stopped by my house first with her 10-month old boy, Alex. I miss my boys being that age! He was walking all over, following my cats around. I showed him the feather toy that my cats love, and he was swinging it around while chasing the cats.

Oh, speaking of the cats... I've been meaning to give an update on Chandler's weight loss. He weighs 21 pounds, down from 25, so he's lost 4 pounds! I'm really excited about that. I can see a difference in his body, too. He doesn't feel like he's ready to bust open at the gut anymore, and his skin feels like there's some slack to it. He still can't reach his whole body to groom himself, but he's getting better at it. When he reaches 5 pounds lost, maybe I'll post comparison photos ;)

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Motivational Monday #20

Wow, can you believe this is the 20th post of Motivational Mondays? I love getting your MM emails throughout the week; sometimes it's just what I need to get through a weak moment! The moment I am most proud of this week is definitely the fact that I stuck to my food plan yesterday at my parents' house. Instead of caving at the sight of fried fish and potatoes (and not to mention dessert), I ate the meal I'd brought along with me.

Unfortunately, I tend to have a few good days in a row, and then one bad day that negates all the good I did--which is getting SUPER frustrating for me! The scale isn't going back down, so I really need to get it together and stop having the sporadic bad eating days. But I am still proud of the fact that I am NOT giving up; I'm barely holding on by the skin of my teeth, but I AM holding on ;)

Let's see what you've been up to this week...

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Just 12 weeks ago, Jen was (in her words) "pretty sedentary". She started a No Boundaries 5K program from her local Fleet Feet store, and followed the training plan. Well, it certainly paid off--she just ran not one; not two; but THREE races in one week! Two 5K's and a 3.5 mile race. She's lost 40 pounds now, but says she doesn't run just for the weight loss benefits anymore. She has truly fallen in love with the sport.

Next in line for Jen? Between now and October, she has: a mud run, a 30-mile bike ride for cancer research, two 5K's, a 10K, and a half-marathon on the schedule. I'd say she's anything BUT sedentary now!

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Lyda, a self-proclaimed wimp when it comes to running in outdoors when the weather isn't ideal, ran a 5K race in the pouring rain! She says she probably would have left before the race started (due to the rain), but she saw a runner friend of hers; she didn't want to wimp out when her friend knew she was there ;) The race turned out to be a great experience!

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Katie completed her very first 5K race! She had set a goal for herself of 1:05, but she finished in 54:47, crushing her goal. (You can read her race recap on her blog.)

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Laura was thrilled to finally run a sub-10:00 mile! She started running when she was 42 pounds heavier and was completing a mile in about 15 minutes. Her next goal is a sub-30:00 5K! (You can read about it on her blog)

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I've seen a lot of before and after photos, but I have to admit, I was STUNNED when I saw these photos! Chelsea just celebrated her two-year anniversary of her new healthy lifestyle. She's lost 115 pounds (maintaining for seven months and counting), and has become a runner. In addition to her anniversary, she completed her first half-marathon on Saturday--in an amazing time, too! She had a goal to finish under two hours, and she finished in 1:57. (You can read her race recap on her blog). 

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After watching Elyse complete several 5K races, her niece and nephew were inspired to run their first kid race! Mya was very scared to run (I know just how that is, because my boys were the same way), but she had a blast; and her brother did great, too. The kids were excited to hang up their medals and bibs right next to their aunt's :)

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Jenn bought a brand new hybrid bike, despite the fact that she hadn't ridden in about 20 years! She said at first, she was nervous and a bit shaky, but she's been practicing and getting better. She usually does a 4-6 mile route, but last week, got the idea to try for 8-9 miles instead. She mapped it out so that she could head home at mile 6 if she needed to, but in the end, she actually pushed the extra mile and completed 10 miles! She said it was so much fun that she's mapping out a 15-mile course next.

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Don't forget to check out more on the Facebook post!

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So much candy

The last thing I felt like doing today when I woke up was run, especially at tempo pace. I decided to do it on the treadmill, because the treadmill feels so much easier than running outside. My tempo pace is 8:02-8:18/mi.

Jerry turned the treadmill around so that it now faces the shelf I hung for my computer, and I love it!

I decided to watch the pilot episode of Pretty Little Liars. I'd heard that it's an addicting show, so I wanted to give it a try.

At first, I started running at an 8:00/mi pace, but quickly changed it to 8:07. It took no time at all for my heart rate to get into the middle of Zone 4, which is where it should be for a tempo run. The run felt really hard though, and my heart rate kept creeping up. About two miles in, my heart rate was well into Zone 5.

So I started nudging the speed down a little, until my heart rate was back into Zone 4. At one point, I had to set it at 9:10/mi, which is nowhere near my tempo pace. The last mile, I was able to get back down into the low 8:00's, but I couldn't believe how tired my body was feeling today. It was a miserable run.

On the bright side, however, I really like Pretty Little Liars. It definitely keeps me wanting more, and I ended up watching two more episodes this afternoon.

Jerry tried out his new grill for lunch today. He cooked Italian sausages and corn on the cob. I sauteed some bell peppers and onions for the sausages, and the whole meal was delicious!

I cut up a leftover sausage and threw it in with the peppers and some leftover rice in the fridge to bring to my parents' house for dinner tonight.

The kids and I put together a gift for my dad. I saw something similar to it on Pinterest, so I bought my dad's favorite goodies to piece it together. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Yes, my dad actually prefers the Big K Diet Cola over Diet Coke or Pepsi ;)  Also included are Nutty Bars, Snickers, Milky Way, Butterfinger, Baby Ruth and Twix. My dad's sweet tooth is quite possibly as big as mine!

It was really hard not to just say "screw it" and eat all of the food that was at my parents' house (fried fish, french fries, lasagna, and garlic toast), but I knew I'd regret it later if I ate it. And the food I brought with me was really good. Dessert was even more tempting. A double-decker chocolate cake with homemade buttercream and a ton of candy...

Another Pinterest-inspired creation

I'm glad I didn't cave and eat it. There will be other fish frys, and other cakes, so I don't feel like I missed out. Lately, I've been feeling this lack of self-control, and today I felt very in-control, so that's a good feeling!

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Super productive day

Today was such a productive day in our household! I love those kind of days, where we just get all kinds of stuff done. The cats woke us up bright and early again. After I ate breakfast, I went to Lowe's to pick up a few things for around the house.

I got a shelf for our closet, because we have way too much crap in our room with nowhere to put it. Jerry wanted me to get a hose nozzle, so I picked up one of those. I bought a bunch of socket covers to replace the old ones. I also got a shelf to hang in front of my treadmill, so that I don't have to keep using the cat tree to hold my computer.

Remember this set-up?

It was a pain to have to move the cat tree back and forth  every time I wanted to use the treadmill. So I decided to turn the treadmill around and face the wall, but hang a shelf on the wall for my computer.

When I got home, I figured I would just leave all of that stuff for Jerry to do; but he was working really hard in the yard, so I started replacing the socket covers.

Then I got really ambitious and decided to hang the huge shelf in my closet. It's six feet long, and required my using a drill (for some reason, it seems more impressive that I used a drill). It took me about an hour, but I hung it and it looks good. I worked on organizing everything in the closet.

Then I hung the shelf for the treadmill. It's nothing special; just a little shelf big enough for my computer. It's much better looking than the cat tree, though. ;)

Not the greatest picture, but you get the point. Estelle is going to be so mad that she won't be able to sit on the cat tree and swat at me while I'm running now. I still have to have Jerry turn the treadmill around so it faces the shelf. I'm probably going to be using the treadmill quite a bit this summer--when the kids aren't in school, I can't go for a run anytime I'd like. I still haven't found a TV show that has me completely hooked (to keep me entertained for marathon training), so I hope I can find something soon!

While I was doing all this in the house, Jerry was cleaning out the gutters, washing the cars, and giving the kids some chores to do around the yard. At around four o'clock, the kids were begging to go swimming in our neighbors' pool that they had just opened a few days ago, so we all went swimming.

I really don't like to swim, but the kids guilted me into it, so I finally took the tags off of the bathing suit I bought in December. I knew if I felt the water beforehand, I wouldn't get in, so I just jumped in. It was freezing! We made a whirlpool, mainly so I could move around a lot and warm up. Jerry spent most of the time taking pictures of himself with my phone, hahaha.

The kids were having so much fun we ended up staying home tonight instead of going to Jerry's parents' house like we'd planned.

When I was in Illinois at my sister's house, she got me hooked on miniature York Peppermint Patties. I bought a big container of them and put them in the fridge, and I haven't eaten many of them... until today. Since I was so busy around the house, I was walking past the fridge constantly, and I would grab one when walking by. I probably had 10-12 of them, and I didn't even really feel like I got to enjoy them!

Since we didn't get to do Pizza Friday yesterday, we did that today--which means I used up the majority of my extra PointsPlus for the week in one day, between the peppermint patties and the pizza. The pizza was really good though, and totally worth it. I'll just have to be kind of stingy with my PointsPlus for the rest of the week.

Tomorrow, my sister is going to be in town, so we're going to my parents' house to celebrate Noah's birthday. His birthday isn't until July 13th, but Jeanie won't be around then, and she wanted to be able to celebrate with him. I think my dad is going to be making his famous fried fish, so I'll probably either eat before I go, or bring something with me. If I hadn't eaten all those peppermint patties today, I could have planned for the fish! I ended up giving the rest of the container of peppermint patties to our neighbors, because I don't know if I can keep those in the house. Bummer.

The kids were way too excited to give Jerry his Father's Day gift, so we gave it to him today. We got him a charcoal grill, something he's been wanting for a long time. It was actually Noah's suggestion, and as soon as he said that, I knew it was the perfect gift. He was thrilled with it :)

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Dinner date at home

Yesterday was a pretty tempting day for me (as far as food goes), but I managed to make it through. The kids had gotten coupons from school for a free meal at Wendy's, so I took them there before their baseball game last night. I didn't order anything there, and just had leftover General Tsao's Chicken for dinner instead. But their food smelled so good!

Then, after the baseball game, Jerry brought home fried pickles and boneless wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, where his employer treated a bunch of the guys to dinner and drinks. The wings were Honey BBQ flavor, which was my favorite back in the day. Again, it smelled so good!

Today was my long run day, and it was also a step-back week, so I only had to do eight miles. Jerry had a doctor's appointment this morning, so I had to wait for him to get back before I could head out to run, and by the time I got out the door, it was around 10:45. I drove about 10 minutes before I realized I forgot my Garmin at home.

I was irritated with myself, and I kept trying to convince myself to just run without it; people do that all the time! I knew the route, and pace isn't a big issue right now. But I just couldn't bare the thought of running without my Garmin, so I turned around and went home to fetch it.

By that time, I really didn't want to do the route I had planned on doing. I was in a really irritated mood, and NO route sounded good to me. I think I just really didn't want to run. I ended up doing the "three cities path" (not what it's actually called--I just call it that because within a 10 mile run, you run in three cities).

By the time I started, it was around 11:15, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The sun was hot, and I happened to pick a route without much shade. It was kind of discouraging to see my pace, because I felt like I was working hard (and according to my heart rate, I was), but my pace around a 9:30/mi the whole time. I think I need to just resort to the fact that this will be my "summer pace"; my 8:30/mi "winter pace" is long gone.

At around mile six, a thought popped into my head: I had parked near an A&W, and nothing sounded better at that moment than a Diet Root Beer from A&W. So strange, because I never crave pop, but a couple of weeks ago I had that Diet Coke from McD's craving during my long run, and then today was craving the root beer.

That thought actually helped me get through the next two miles, which seemed like forever. I was so glad when I got back to the car.

My overall pace ended up being 9:25/mi.

I couldn't get to the A&W fast enough! I ordered a large Diet Root Beer, and drank the entire thing on the way home.

Jerry and I were supposed to have a "date night" tonight, but we couldn't think of anywhere we wanted to go, so we decided just to stay home. First we went to the fruit/veggie market to get a watermelon, because they were on sale for $2--but when we got there, they were gross looking (lots of mushy spots), so we didn't end up getting one. Watermelon seems to have replaced my love affair with grapes over the past month or so. I've been eating a TON of it!

We stopped at Kroger and bought the stuff to make hamburgers on the grill for dinner, including asparagus and homemade "fries" (baked) on the side. It was such a yummy dinner! Much better than going out to eat, and a heck of a lot less PointsPlus. A burger sounded really good today.

After I took that picture, I promptly removed about half the bun. They were ENORMOUS Kaiser rolls--way too big for a 5 oz. burger patty. We ate outside on the deck and it was perfect weather for it. It was such a gorgeous day (when I wasn't running in this heat)!

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Trained

Phoebe is one smart little kitty. She's been waking me up every day at 6:00 on the nose, in the most annoying way possible. She knows that I scold her when she claws the carpet, and usually, she's very good about scratching her scratch pad instead of my carpet.

Recently, though, I wake up to the sound of her clawing the carpet in my room. When I yell, "Phoebe!" she runs out of the room. Then I start to drift back to sleep, and she does it again. When I lift my head up to look at her, she gives me this look that says, "I dare you to get out of bed and stop me!"

Since I don't want my carpet turning into shreds, I get out of bed and feed the cats.  If I close my door, all of the cats go nuts and try to get inside, so I can't lock her out. She has me trained very well. ;)

The boys had their third and final day of football day camp today (just a couple of hours each morning). I put on my running clothes before I took them to the football field. After I dropped them off, I decided to run an out-and-back route from my car.

I had four miles at easy run pace (8:55-9:53) on the schedule today. Out-and-back routes are easy to do on the fly, because you don't have to worry about making the run too long or too short. You just run out for half the distance you're going to cover, and then turn around and run back.

My legs felt very heavy today, and it was discouraging to see my pace. A couple of miles in, I switched my watch over to see my heart rate, and my heart rate was in the high part of Zone 3, so I knew I was working at the right intensity. It wasn't super hot or anything, so I don't know why my pace was sluggish. I guess it was just an "off" day for me, which happens sometimes.

When I got to the turn-around point, I thought that if I kept going, I could do a big loop that I estimated would be about four miles. So I nixed the out-and-back idea in favor of exploring uncharted territory (at least as far as running goes).

Around three miles in, my legs finally started warming up and feeling a little better. It turned out that I had estimated the loop route distance very well! When I reached the car, my watch showed 4.06 miles.

Yesterday, I had my food all planned out. After dinner, I had used 26 PP, and then I planned to have a glass of wine and a Dove Promise--like I do every night. I was reading my book, and couldn't put it down. I kept telling myself (and Jerry) "One more chapter!" We usually watch a show together after the kids are in bed, and that's when I drink my wine.

Well, I was so into the book that I skipped my wine completely last night! That never happens. It looks like Lisa Gardner is going to be my best friend this summer ;) I went to the library's website last night to request the first book in the series (I'd read the fourth book, because I didn't realize it was a series), and it wasn't available! It's an old book, so naturally, I assumed it wouldn't be checked out. But it's not due back until the 26th. So I just requested the second book for now. I don't think it matters much if I don't read them in order. Just as long as I am engrossed enough to stop focusing on food!

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Good-bye ActiveLink

Today is Wednesday, which means the start of a fresh new week. I'm sure I sound like a broken record every Wednesday when I say that I need to get it together and stay on track all week long. I finished my Weight Watchers week in the hole again with my PointsPlus.

My weigh in went pretty much how I expected it to:

I am 4 pounds over my goal weight (my goal weight is 133, so it's not hard to do the math!). I was 133 a few days ago, so I set up the Quantum Scale at that moment to reflect my goal weight. So now, when I post photos with the Quantum Scale, it will show where I'm at, relative to my goal weight.

Yesterday, my sister sent me a text asking me if I'd like to hold each other accountable on our food tracking. She's been having a rough time with her tracking lately, too. Each night, we'll report our daily PointsPlus used/earned in hopes of keeping some accountability.

I also made the decision to cancel my ActiveLink account yesterday. I really love the ActiveLink, and it worked very well to get me to move more, but I know that my issues with tracking started right around the same time I started using it. I started eating a lot more junk food, because I was earning so many more PointsPlus from activity. Then my weight started fluctuation hugely--rather than a pound up or down, it's been 4 pounds up or down.

I'm going to go back to tracking my activity manually. I'm still going to eat my activity PointsPlus, but I don't count the daily movements, like cleaning the house or walking around the block with the kids. I'll just count intentional exercise. That's what I did the whole time I was losing weight, and it worked out really well.

I don't think we have anything going on this week that will be a struggle for me as far as staying on plan. We're going to Jerry's parents' house for a cookout on Saturday, but I'm going to bring my own food and I'm driving, so I won't drink anything.

Today, I went to get Jerry a Father's Day gift, and while I was out, I saw Banana Bread flavored English muffins. I could smell them through the bag, and they smelled so good! I had to try them. I toasted one and on half, I spread Cinnamon Raisin Swirl peanut butter and on the other half, I spread Mighty Maple peanut butter.

It was REALLY good! I can't really say which half I liked better; probably the Cinnamon Raisin Swirl. That peanut butter is so good, and I can actually keep it in the house without eating it off the spoon. This was my first time trying the Mighty Maple flavor. The English muffins were fantastic! Very soft and not overwhelmingly banana-y, which I liked. If I was having this for breakfast, I would have used more peanut butter; but since it was just a snack, I wanted to keep it at 6 PointsPlus (4 for the English muffin, and 2 for the peanut butter).

The problem with "Limited Edition" foods, like these English muffins, is that I end up really liking them and then they're gone!

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Running in the rain

I had such a fun run yesterday! Remember those words, because I probably won't write them again for another three years or so ;)  It was raining all day yesterday, and normally when it's raining, I'll just run on the treadmill or wait until later.

When I'm out for a run, and it starts to rain, I really don't mind it; but to get motivated to go out and run while it's already raining is very difficult, so I don't do it often. Yesterday, though, I actually was in the mood to run in the rain.

After breakfast, I got my running clothes on and headed outside for a four-miler at an easy run pace (8:55-9:53/mi). Something about running in the rain makes it so much more fun! While most people cover their heads and run from their cars to their houses, I was out running--voluntarily--for four miles.

About a mile in, it really started pouring down. I kind of wished I had worn a visor, so I could keep my eyes open, but the rain felt really good. I was completely soaked. I wasn't really paying much attention to my pace, but when I got home, I was SHOCKED at how even my splits were...

9:00, 8:59, 9:00, 9:00... I couldn't do that again if I tried! It's rare that I have a run where I truly enjoy the actual running part, but yesterday was definitely one of those times. I'm going to make it a point to go for a run in the rain again.

Like I mentioned yesterday, Jerry and I wanted to do something fun with the boys. Because it was raining, our options were limited. They said they wanted to go to Jungle Java, this place about an hour away that is a huge jungle gym for kids along with a coffee house for the parents. It's geared toward young kids, and the last time we were there, my kids were about 5 and 4 years old. I really didn't think they would like it, but they had it in their mind that it was awesome, so I said we could go.

I told Jerry that I bet they wouldn't last 20 minutes. It costs $7 per kid to go in, and I knew I might as well have been flushing those dollars down the toilet, but I knew that if we didn't go, they'd ask about it all summer long. When we went inside, the boys took off to play, and I told Jerry, "Let's set the stopwatch and see how long they last before they want to leave. I bet it's less than 20 minutes!"

This is how long we stayed! Noah was done after about 15 minutes, and Eli was ready shortly after. They said they have no desire to go back again.

The good news was that we saw a frozen yogurt place called Menchies in the same complex as Jungle Java, so we went there to see how much fro-yo and toppings we could fit into four cups ;)  It was SO good--much better than the place Jerry and I went to after La Pita recently!

I had to buy some bridal shower prizes from IKEA for Jerry's sister, so we stopped in there. The boys saw a desk that they wanted to buy for their bedrooms. They didn't have enough money, but Jerry and I thought it was a good thing for them to buy (rather than candy and other crap), so we helped each of them to buy a desk and a chair.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at Red Robin. I knew I had an extra 23 PointsPlus to use up, so I wasn't TOO worried about going over my PointsPlus. I ordered the Onion Onion Burger, which was really good! When I got in the car, I looked up the PointsPlus, and it was 37 PP! I went way over for the day, and therefore, the week.

But I really don't feel badly about it, because it wasn't a binge and it wasn't emotional eating. It was just a dinner out with my family, which we don't do very often.  When we got home, Jerry started putting Eli's desk together, and Noah decided he wanted to try putting his own together. He did a great job! He followed the instructions right to the letter, and did the whole thing himself.

This morning, I woke up STILL feeling congested. It's getting a little better, though. I had intervals on the schedule today: 4 x 800 in 3:34-3:45 (which basically means four half-mile intervals at a pace of 7:08-7:30/mi) with a quarter mile jog in-between. When I looked at it on paper, it didn't seem that difficult, but it was a tough run!

I did the run on the treadmill, because it's much simpler to do intervals on the treadmill to keep a consistent pace.
I started with a half-mile warm-up at 6.2 mph.
Ran at 8.4 mph for 1/2 mile.
Ran at 5.5 mph for 1/4 mile.
(Repeat three more times for four intervals total)

That worked out to be 3.5 miles in 29:51. It was harder than I anticipated, and it felt good to get that done!

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