Thoughts on The Biggest Loser finale

After reading quite a bit about The Biggest Loser season finale, I really wanted to watch it for myself; since we don't have cable, I had to wait for it to be on Hulu. Last night, Jerry and I watched it together. I used to love the show, especially the finale, but it was after season 10 or so that I just didn't like watching anymore. I actually wasn't even going to watch this season at all, but Jerry still wanted to, so I watched with him. I wasn't really caught up in any particular contestant, though.

Anyway, the big controversy over the finale on Tuesday was about Rachel's weight. She weighed 105 pounds when she got on the scale at the finale, and all over the internet, people are saying that she looked "sickly", "too thin", "gaunt", "100 years old", "anorexic", and a whole bunch of other things. I'm not going to comment on what I thought of her appearance, because it's not for me to judge others' appearances. (By BMI standards, she is technically "underweight" now).

I just feel very, very bad for her. She was ashamed of her body when she was obese, and now, I imagine she's excited that she lost the weight; but she's getting bashed for losing too much weight. I feel awful that people are talking about her appearance as if she doesn't have feelings, or that her feelings don't matter. I know how hurtful it is when complete strangers say cruel things about you, especially online. For someone with low self-esteem, it can do some serious damage, even if the comments are well-intentioned. I imagine that in reading those comments, she probably feels like she'll never be "good enough"--she wasn't good enough when she was fat, and now she's not good enough when she's thin. That would be very hard to deal with!

All of that said, I think that The Biggest Loser definitely should make a couple of rule changes to the show. I think that a contestant should be disqualified if they become "underweight" (this has never been an issue until this season). Even better would be some sort of way to win without having to lose "the most" of anything. I don't know how it would work, but here's a thought: what if the person who is closest to goal weight wins? They could pick a healthy goal weight to aim for at the beginning of the show (something that they could reach without taking drastic measures), and whichever contestant comes closest to their particular goal weight at the end, wins.

Of course, that wouldn't be as dramatic, but I think it would solve a lot of the problems that the show has in regards to unhealthy weight loss. When I was running Ragnar Relay with Ada (from season 10), I learned a lot about the "behind the scenes" of the show. I don't know how much Ada was allowed to say, so I don't want to write about it and possibly get her in trouble; but I will say that I definitely don't believe everything I see on TV ;) Ada did say that she was fairly represented, however, as far as her story and her personality. And the overall experience for her was a good one.

photo source

Pete Thomas (from season 2) had a great experience on the show. I was thrilled to see him on the finale last night! When I met him in 2012, he played a big part in my getting back to goal weight. We had a long conversation about maintenance, and I took away a few tidbits that were enlightening to me. He hasn't gained back any of the weight he lost, and I know he works extremely hard at it. But again, he told me about a couple of contestants that had a really hard time feeling "good enough" after the show. They get used to working out for 6-8 hours a day, and then when they get home, they feel like "just" 4 hours isn't good enough. Or, they see a weight loss in double digits each week on the ranch, but at home, losing "just" 4-5 pounds a week isn't good enough.

photo source

It makes me think of the issue that I've noticed with getting too focused on the numbers: once you see a certain number on the scale, anything higher seems like "failure"; once you see a certain race time, any time slower than that feels like "failure". That's why I stopped focusing on the numbers so much, and I'm a lot happier for it. I accepted that my weight isn't the lowest it's ever been, but it's still healthy. I've accepted that running at a slower pace makes me enjoy my runs more, so it's okay not to go for PR's. I definitely feel like I'm "good enough" now, and I don't have to always keep trying to be "better". But I can certainly understand how some of the contestants feel so much pressure to keep upping the ante.

In my perfect television world, The Biggest Loser wouldn't be a contest at all--but rather, a documentation of a group of people who get together at the ranch to learn a healthy lifestyle, and reach a healthy weight. Dramatic? Not really. But certainly inspiring! And then, just like the show now, they'd go home for a few months to continue on their own, and we could see them at the "big reveal". I guess it would be a lot like Extreme Weight Loss, only with a group of people at a ranch, instead of one person at home.

I don't know if I'll watch the next season of The Biggest Loser or not. I'd like to see if the producers make any changes after the issue with Rachel (the show is getting some heat about it). I just think that there has to be a better way of doing it!

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Snow on top of snow on top of snow

I give up trying to get anything done! Today, my kids had their (9th? 10th? 11th?) snow day. I lost count. We were supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow, and it just started snowing when I was on my way home from urgent care last night at around 9:00 (TMI: I had symptoms of a UTI all day yesterday, and I was in so much pain last night that I went to urgent care. Sure enough, it's a bladder infection, so I'm on antibiotics now).

At 5:00, I woke up and wasn't able to fall back asleep. When we get the phone call canceling school, it's usually right at 5:00. So I assumed the kids had school. Then at 5:15, the phone rang, and of course, woke up the kids. The Honeywell Instant Alert System drives me crazy when we get an alert--I get a text, Jerry gets a text, the house phone rings (which also makes my cell phone ring because of call forwarding), then my cell phone rings, and then Jerry's cell phone rings. Oh, and Jerry and I both get an e-mail. We can't even remove our phones from the list (I would prefer just a text), because they want to make sure we get the message.

5:15 AM: message received.

Jerry left for work at 6:00, and he later told me that the roads were absolutely terrible. The 20-minute drive ended up taking 50 minutes. People were driving 10-20 mph on the expressway. So I'm not surprised that school was canceled, but I am seriously questioning when this craziness will end!

It snowed really hard from about 7:00-noon, and we got much more snow than we were expecting. In most places, it was about 10-12 inches deep. (I know this because I spent all afternoon shoveling it!) I wish the pics I took could show just how deep it was, but this was the best I could do:

I have a goal for February to get in 10,000 steps per day. On my rest days, I never even come close to that, unless I go for a couple of walks. Today, I was hoping that I could get in 10,000 without going for any walks, but after cleaning the house all morning, and shoveling the driveway for a couple of hours, I'd only accumulated 4,000 steps. My upper body got a serious workout from shoveling, though!

When I came inside, I was absolutely ravenous, so I had a Clif Bar with a smear of peanut butter on it to hold me over until dinner. Normally, I'm not nearly that hungry at 3:00 in the afternoon, but the shoveling definitely gave me an appetite! I was also really cold when I came it, and when I sat down on the couch, Estelle ran over to me to jump on my lap (like she always does). When she put her paw on my leg, she startled and pulled it back. Then she tentatively pushed on my leg a couple of times, deciding whether to climb on. Normally, I'm a nice warm body for her to lie on top of; but today, she didn't even want to get on my lap after I came in from shoveling ;)

I walked for 45 minutes on the treadmill to accumulate some more steps, but even after that, I was only at 8,500. I don't know how people get 10,000 on days that they don't deliberately exercise!

Another goal I made for February is to stay off of the scale for the entire month. Even though I have been much less focused on numbers for a couple of months, I still weigh daily out of habit. So I was 139 at the beginning of February, and I'm hoping that I'll be at (or less than) 139 by the end of February.

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My friend Linda just pointed out to me that I am on "The Awesome List of the Top 100 Best Running Blogs of 2104"... I didn't know that there were more than 100 running blogs out there, but I'm flattered to be on the list ;)   Anyway, I just wanted to point it out in case you're looking for more running blogs to read. When I get some time, I'm going to go through the list and check it out!

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Finally, I'm going to watch (on Hulu) The Biggest Loser Finale from last night. I've read so much about it on Twitter, that I have to see what all the hype is about!

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Incline interval workout

My kids had another snow day yesterday... can you believe that?! I've lost count how many days they've had off because of this weather. Yesterday, the temp wasn't bad at all--in the teens--but the roads were a couple inches thick with ice from the downpour of rain we got on Saturday. I went for a walk with my IceSpikes yesterday, and I couldn't believe how thick the ice was. I tried to get a good picture to show the ice, but the pics didn't do it justice at all. The streets didn't have just patches of ice--it was literally about two inches thick on top of the entire road.

Needless to say, I'm still using the treadmill. I've actually gotten to the point where I don't mind it anymore! I've been watching Flashpoint, which keeps me interested enough that I actually look forward to the treadmill. Yesterday, I tried a completely different type of run, just for the heck of it, and I ended up really liking it!

In short: 20 x 30 seconds at maximum incline (my treadmill goes to 12%) at pace equivalent to 1-mile race pace (see below), with 30 seconds rest in-between.

In long: First, I determined what my 1-mile race pace equivalent would be, with a 12% incline. My 1-mile race pace on flat ground would be about 6:55 (8.7 mph); but at a 12% incline, I could get the same effort level (and heart rate) by running at a much slower pace. I used a calculator to figure out the equivalent, and it came out to 5.9 mph (a 10:10/mi pace). So by running at 5.9 mph on a 12% incline, it simulates running 8.7 mph on a 0% incline (in terms of effort). Is that clear as mud? Good.

Here is the calculator I used. Click where it says "Calculate equivalent treadmill pace at __% incline" and type in the max incline that your treadmill goes to (usually 10-12). Then, type in your 1-mile race pace (the fastest pace you could run for 1 mile) in the spot on the top right, where it says "Pace". Then click "Submit" and you should get the equivalent pace and miles per hour. That mph is what I used to determine the speed for my treadmill.

So I set the treadmill at 12% incline and 5.9 mph. I hopped on and ran 30 seconds, then hopped off (straddling the sides of the treadmill) and completely rested for 30 seconds. And I repeated that 20 times. It sounds like a lot, but it goes by REALLY quickly.

At first, I thought, "This is WAY too easy... it should feel a lot harder than this" but that was when I realized that the incline was only at 6.5%. I have no idea why it stopped climbing when I pressed the "12", but after 5 of the 30-second intervals, I realized the mistake and increased the incline to 12% for the next 15 intervals. That was definitely a lot harder!

My heart rate was at the top of Zone 3 during most of the intervals, and then when I hopped off to rest, it usually climbed into Zone 4 for a few seconds. It was definitely a tough workout, but I loved that I didn't feel like I was tearing up my legs by running so fast and hard. It was a very gentle run, because of the slower pace and high incline, but it was still a kick-ass workout!

The first 5 intervals were at 6.5% incline by accident, so my HR was lower

Most shocking to me, however, was the number of calories I burned in that short little workout: 198! I was only actually running for half the amount of time shown, so about 10 minutes of actual run time.

I never see a calorie burn even close to that for just over one mile! Anyway, I really enjoyed this workout--it was challenging in a totally different way; I didn't have to run fast; it went by really quickly because each segment was only 30 seconds long; and I burned an insane number of calories.

Because my run was so short in terms of distance, I went for a walk to try and get in my 10,000 steps for the day. I walked to my parents' house, where my kids were playing outside with my dad. My parents live on Lake Erie, which is totally frozen right now for as far as you can see. The kids set up a little sledding hill from my parents' yard down to the lake. I went down it a couple of times, and it was pretty fun!

We walked out onto the lake (the ice was at least two feet thick). I was nervous at first, because I think I watched too many Rescue 911 episodes about people falling through the ice when I was kid! But once I realized just how solid it was, we walked out pretty far.

It was such a gorgeous day with the sun shining! The sun helped melt some of the ice on the roads, so thankfully, the kids had school today. I was planning to go visit Mark today, but Jerry sent me a text when he got to work that he accidentally took both sets of car keys with him... so I was stuck home at home (again). I'll definitely go visit Mark tomorrow!

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Motivational Monday #50

Today is the one-year anniversary of Motivational Mondays! When I first had the idea, I thought it would be a nice "easy post" to throw together once a week; a little break from blogging. Ha! Motivational Monday posts are extremely time consuming ;)  But I get a lot of positive feedback about them, and I really love to read about everyones accomplishments, so it's worth the extra time!

Some great stories today...

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BJ walked a HUGE number of steps in one day! (I've had a hard time getting in 10,000--I'm super impressed by this.) The day included: a walk to the gym, spinning class, 6.2 mile run, walk home, walk to the Metro, walked to the route of the Chinese New Year parade, walk to theater, then a walk home from the Metro. Whew!

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Sharon suffered from severe postpartum depression after her fourth child, and had trouble with simply functioning on a daily basis. On her path to recovery, she says she was forced to get a gym membership in the hope that it would help with the depression; she had used all other options. At first, she couldn't even get through a run on the treadmill without crying; but she didn't care who saw her, because she was so determined to become healthy, both physically and mentally. She is very proud to announce that she completed the Virtual 5K last weekend! That was the farthest distance she'd ever run. (I love seeing the smile, Sharon!)

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Nicki and her daughters did the Biggest Loser run/walk 5K in Las Cruces last weekend! To add to the excitement, her daughters placed in the top 10 of their age group :)

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Last Saturday, Jen completed my Virtual 5K; and her husband was so inspired by her, that he decided to walk 5K on the treadmill the next day! He then came up with the idea to do a 5K every weekend, which inspired Jen to make the same goal. Yesterday, they each completed a second 5K!

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Serena is celebrating her two-year "healthy me" anniversary! She's lost a whopping 138 pounds--exactly half of her starting weight. After having her third child in 2008, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and put on medication. The medication altered her appetite, to where she felt hungry ALL the time. She had already been overweight, but she gained another 73 pounds while on the medication. When she stopped taking the meds, however, she kept the same habits, and realized that she couldn't use the medication as a scapegoat anymore. She decided to lose the weight the healthy way--eating less and moving more. She tracked her calories, and started walking around the block. Eventually, she tried running a little... and then a lot. Now, she can run 10+ miles at a sub-10:00 pace!  She said she feels drastically younger, and much, much happier.

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After having her second child, Meg's weight was stuck at 220 pounds, which made her very unhappy with herself and her weight. Her unhappiness even affected her relationship with her husband, as well as her ability to be the mom she wanted to be. After taking photos for her 2012 Christmas card, she decided she was going to change her lifestyle. She took up running, and has lost 85 pounds over the past year. She's about to run her second 5K, and is trying to work up the nerve to register for a half-marathon (Do it!! I know you can!). Most importantly, she's happy with herself again.

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Wendy completed her first 5K, The Blacklight Run, on Saturday night! Her college roommate, Jennifer, and husband, San Juan, encouraged her and even did the race with her so she'd stay motivated. Wendy's goals were to finish, and to not be last--and she completed both of them! She finished in 1:05, and is already looking forward to beating her time at another 5K :)

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Charanna has lost a total of 94 pounds since she started her journey in July 2012! She doesn't have photos from when she was her heaviest, because she was too embarrassed to be captured by the camera. Now, however, she's feeling triumphant, victorious, and happy to be photographed!

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Congratulations to everyone on your accomplishments! Don't forget to check out more stories on the Motivational Monday Facebook post!

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The story of my life

Ah, the Super Bowl. As someone who is not a fan of football (honestly, "despise" would be an appropriate word for how I feel about the sport), I never watch it. In 1982, the Super Bowl took place on January 24th. My mom was pregnant with me, and she went into labor that morning. She and my dad drove (along with my sister, Jeanie, and my brother, Brian) an hour to the birthing center, only to find out that she was barely dilated. The doctor told her to walk around, so my parents, along with Jeanie and Brian, went to the mall across the street and walked around for a few hours.

My dad was 30, and my mom was 29 in this photo. Good grief, I feel old!

Meanwhile, in Pontiac, Michigan, a very exciting kick-off was happening for Super Bowl XVI.

As you can imagine, my dad and the doctor were beyond thrilled to spend the afternoon at the birthing center waiting for my arrival, rather than watching that game! ;)  Eventually, the doctor sent my mom home because she wasn't progressing, so my parents made the hour-long drive home. Later that night, my mom went into hard labor and went back to the birthing center. I was born at 1:45 in the morning of the 25th.

Because I was born in a birthing center, my brother and sister were allowed to be there and watch the birth. That was much more exciting than the Super Bowl. I figure that I hated football while I was in the womb, and decided to be born during the Super Bowl just to irritate the doctor (and my dad); or maybe I hate football because I was born on Super Bowl Sunday, and the doctor (and my dad) would rather have been watching the big game ;)

My brother was delighted ;)

My fifth birthday took place on the day of Super Bowl XXI, but I was too young to remember that. My "Sweet 16" birthday happened to fall on the day of Super Bowl XXXII. Secondary to planning a wedding, a Sweet 16 birthday is a big deal to teen girls! I remember really hating football for ruining my birthday that year. ;)  The Super Bowl has been in February ever since 2004, though, so it's only been on three of my birthdays--1982, 1987, and 1998.

For the past several years, I've spent a few hours on Super Bowl Sunday doing something useless that I enjoy, and not feeling guilty for it. Since we don't have cable, Jerry took the kids to my parents' house today to watch the game over there; which meant I had the house to myself! I made a yummy dinner that I normally wouldn't make for the family--sauteed shrimp (my kids don't like it, but I love it). I took a hot bath, and then had a glass of Chardonnay to chase the Oreo ice cream while watching an episode or three of Flashpoint. It turned out to be a very nice, relaxing evening!

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Tomorrow is Motivational Monday, so if you have a photo of a health/fitness accomplishment that you'd like to share, you can e-mail it to me at SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, subject: Motivational Monday, along with a brief description, and I may include it on tomorrow's post!

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Thomas' story

I've been wanting to introduce my Ragnar SoCal team for a while, but time just seems to be going WAY too fast... before I know it, it'll be April, and we'll be running from Huntington Beach to San Diego! This team came together much the same way as my Ragnar Florida Keys team--I looked through old emails from readers, or thought of people who have shared their stories with me in some way because of my blog (even some Motivational Monday stories). I sent out some invitations, and the team came together very fast!

It was John who had the idea to put together a team for SoCal, because he lives in San Diego, and he was totally up for having house guests. So John and I collaborated to put the team together, and we've all been getting to know each other. The only person from the team that I knew "in person" was John. I've since met a few others, but the whole team is made up of strangers, which led to our team name: Strangers to Sole Mates. Cute, right? ;)

Over the course of the next several weeks, I'd love to share the stories of my teammates. I previously introduced Caitlin, who is Runner #1; you know me, and I'm Runner #2. John is Runner #3, and I introduced him for the Ragnar Florida Keys. Today, I'd like to introduce Thomas, who is Runner #6...

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I first "met" Thomas when he completed my Virtual 5K last year, and he posted his picture and results on my Facebook page. I don't have many male readers, so he stuck out (and I have to admit, he's pretty darn cute!). I noticed that he was a very regular commenter on my blog, which led me to check out his blog. Thomas shares my love of numbers and data, so I liked reading about his runs and his race reports. I later learned that he'd started running to lose weight! I never would have guessed that he used to be 50 pounds heavier.

Something else that really struck me about Thomas is that he is SO very kind and genuine. When I read (on Motivational Monday) that he was part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, I thought it was so great that he would spend his time as a "Big Brother" to a boy named Brandon. As I've gotten to know Thomas, I've learned that he has a very fun side to him, and a great sense of humor. I'm so glad I asked him to join our team!

Some of Thomas' quality time with Brandon is spent running 5K's

Without further ado, I present Thomas...

Hi there, I'm Thomas. I'm excited to be sharing this awesome experience with such amazing, inspirational people. Honestly, I feel like they are WAY more inspirational than me (I only had to lose 50 lbs) but the fact I am now a runner is a miracle in itself!

On the left is Thomas after walking a 5K in 2010--he said his legs were killing
him after that! On the right is Thomas after *winning* a half-marathon in 2013!

I HATED running my entire life. Even before losing the weight for good, when I'd try to lose weight, I would often run, since I never joined a gym or anything. I always felt great after, but the running part abso-frickin-lutely sucked. I dreaded it. So I never lasted more than a few weeks and any weight I lost would come right back.

When I went to lose the 50 pounds for good, I lost about two pounds a week doing two things... watching what I ate and exercising. Since I 'hated' running (and treadmills... still hate those) I decided the elliptical was the machine for me. And it was! I loved 'running' on there and stayed motivated. The weight was slowly falling off. The problem was that machine was in the workout room at my apartment complex and there was only one. And after getting lucky for a few months finding it free most the time, all of a sudden every time I wanted to work out, it was occupied.

So instead of waiting, I would take off on the streets, annoyed. I could just run for 35 minutes and call it good. That way I didn't have to wait around. Now, I still didn't like running, but I was in decent enough shape from the elliptical that it didn't suck quite as bad. It was very different than the elliptical, and I was going slow (compared to my current pace) at 11-12 minutes/mile, but I would bust out a 5k in place of 30 minutes on the elliptical.

Eventually, those runs became more and more frequent. I would seriously be happy when I saw the elliptical occupied. I still didn't want to admit I liked running, but those 3-mile loops outside in the fresh air were suddenly a lot more appealing than that stuffy room.

Once I did my first 5k race, I was hooked. I LOVED racing, and still do. Without races, I'm not sure I would be running. Once I did one 5k, I needed to do another, then another, then a 10k. Eventually I did a half marathon and set a goal of completing a marathon. In October, I completed my first marathon, the Portland Marathon, in 3:36:42!

To sum things up: even now, runs aren't always great. Rarely am I grinning my head off during a run. Sometimes they suck. However, I love running. I love running for the friends it has given me, the way it allows me to maintain my weight loss, and how I am able to set and accomplish really ambitious goals like completing a marathon. And I love that is has allowed me to have the opportunity to share this Ragnar journey with 11 of my new friends!

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You can check out Thomas' Blog to read about his running shenanigans (and be amazed at how speedy he is!)

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Incline walk

Today was a busy day, as evidenced by the 20,000 steps on my Wii U Fit Meter! It was SO NICE outside today--a very comfortable 36 degrees. That meant that the snow started melting, which makes me very happy. We're supposed to get a bunch more snow tonight, but for today, I was happy to see it melting.

I thought about going to the Metropark for my long run (seven miles), but I really wanted to go visit Mark today, so I figured I'd better do the treadmill so that I had enough time to go to the nursing home. I set the treadmill at an easy speed, and watched an episode and a half of Flashpoint while I ran. My heart rate only got to Zone 3.3, so it stayed very easy today.

When I reached seven miles, I decided to keep going, because I wanted to finish the episode of Flashpoint. But I didn't want to run, so I set the treadmill at 4.0 mph and 12% incline. Holy heart rate! My heart rate went up to Zone 4, which is a "tempo run" zone for me--usually, I have to run about an 8:00-8:20 mile pace to reach Zone 4. But walking at that very steep incline was tough enough to get my heart rate up pretty quickly.

I only did a mile, but I felt like I worked harder during that mile of walking than I did during the entire seven-mile run! Despite being difficult, it was kind of fun. I may do it in place of a run once in a while, just for something different.

I don't know why I bother putting my splits on there, because it's a treadmill run, so obviously my splits will be the same (unless I change speeds). I stopped my Garmin when I did the incline walking, but I kind of wish I'd left it on to see my heart rate jump.

Today is the last day of January, and this is the first month since November 2012 that I haven't run at least 100 miles. Last week, I briefly thought about keeping the 100+ mile streak going, but I really didn't want to get obsessive over it. My main running goal for 2014 is to have fun, and if that means less miles, then I'll be running less miles! This month, my total ended up being 92.2 miles.

After my run, I quickly showered and dressed so I could go visit Mark. I'd had a dream about him last night, that by a crazy miracle, his cancer was gone. In my dream, he had his pizza party as a celebration of being cancer-free. I woke up feeling really good about it, and then I realized it was just a dream. It would be awesome if that actually came true, though!

I stopped at the post office to see if he had any cards (he had about 20! Thanks so much to everyone who has sent them!). Then I stopped at McDonald's to pick up some lunch for him. My dad said that the doctor told Mark he still needs to gain some more weight; but thanks to the milkshakes and candy I've been bringing him, he's gained 10 pounds since he was hospitalized. Today, I brought him a whole meal AND a shake, which he enjoyed more than the grilled fish that the nursing home was serving ;)

As soon as we sat down in the cafeteria, he started talking about the pizza party that he wants to throw for his friends at the group home. I just really hope that it's going to work out! Mark's been working hard in therapy with his walker (he has to be able to walk in order to go back to the group home). While we were talking about his pizza party, I saw my dad walk in. I didn't know that he was going to be visiting Mark today, otherwise I would have just gone with him. I waved him over, and he said that the nurses told him that "Mark is in the cafeteria with his daughter". Mark thought it was funny that they think I'm his daughter ;)

Anyway, Mark was doing really well today, and his spirit was high. He was really talkative, but he got tired after an hour and a half visit, so I took him back to his room for a nap. I hung up a few more of his postcards--his walls are pretty full of cards now! I need to find another way to display them.

On the way home, I stopped at Kroger to do some grocery shopping. I haven't been able to get out for groceries in a while, so I spent an hour in there, getting some stuff we needed. I saw my friend Andrea in there, and we chatted about how nice it was to finally get out of the house!

After school today, Noah asked me to make him a walking schedule. He wants to participate in a race I've been trying to get him to do for three years! It's a "kid marathon" that takes place the same day as the Martian Marathon (I've done the 10K twice, and the half-marathon last year). The way it works is that kids can sign up and then they have to log 25 miles between January 1st and the race day, April 12th. Then, on race day, they run the final 1.2 miles of the Martian Marathon. They get a t-shirt and the same medal as the marathoners, which I think is so cool!

Anyway, after doing my Virtual 5K on Saturday, Noah has been really excited about walking. I told him that he doesn't have to run the kids' marathon, that walking is perfectly fine (the whole point is to get kids to be active). So I wrote a little walking schedule for him to get him to 25 miles before race day. Eli wants the medal VERY badly, but I don't know if he's willing to put in the work ;)  I told him he can't do the race if he doesn't log the 25 miles he's supposed to beforehand. This is my medal from last year:

You can see why it would appeal to an eight-year old boy ;)

I'm really excited that Noah's excited about the whole thing. He is still so proud of himself for doing the 5K last weekend, and I think it boosted his confidence that he really CAN do this if he puts his mind to it.

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Birthday lunch at La Pita

This post is going to be extremely short, because I haven't had a whole lot going on, unfortunately. But, thankfully, the kids went to school today! I've liked having them at home (minus the arguing), but the fact that they went to school meant that the roads were okay to travel on, which meant I could get out of this house! This winter has made me feel like I'm losing my mind.

Renee had mentioned that for my birthday, she'd like to take me out to lunch at La Pita. So I made plans of going with Renee and Jessica today, assuming that the kids would be back at school. When we got the all-clear this morning, Renee said to meet at her house at 10:00.

After I got the kids ready for school and on the bus, I ate a quick breakfast and then got ready for a treadmill run. Today, I had three miles at half-marathon goal pace (8:20-ish/mile) on the schedule. I set the treadmill and started running, watching an episode of Flashpoint while I ran. My heart rate was in the low end of Zone 4, which was perfect for this run.

I'm curious to see what happens to my pace when I start running outside regularly again. In the last month or so, I've only run outside a few times, and I was dodging ice the whole time. In the past, I've noticed that the treadmill has helped me get faster, because I tend to run at a faster pace on the 'mill (the faster you run, the sooner you're done!)

I took a shower and got ready to head out, and then drove over to Renee's, where Jessica was waiting. It was 20 degrees out, which felt really nice! This is the warmest it's been in what feels like forever. Renee drove, and we stopped at Macy's so Renee could spend a gift card, and then I dropped off a box at FedEx. Then we got to La Pita a little after 11:00, and we were the only ones there at first. Usually, the parking lot is totally full. It was nice, because we didn't have to wait long for anything!

I got my "usual"--a lunch portion chicken kabob with rice pilaf, hummus, garlic sauce, salad, and pita bread. The last several times I've gone there, I was counting PointsPlus, and it was really nice to eat today without worrying about guesstimating portions and logging my food. I ate until I was comfortably full, and enjoyed every single bite.

Tomorrow, I'm really hoping to go visit Mark. I haven't seen him since Monday, and that was very brief because I had the kids (and one of their friends) with me. Mark watches the news, so he knows that when the weather is bad, I may not be there for a couple of days, but I always feel sorry when I can't get up there. I think of the stir-craziness I've been feeling, and it must be magnified times a hundred for Mark. He's been in the hospital/nursing home for nearly two months, and he can't even walk on his own!

I made plans to run with Stephanie for her long run on Saturday. She's scheduled for 15 miles (she's training for her first marathon!), and her pace is 11:30-12:00/mi right now, so even though I haven't run that far in a while, I'm sure I could handle it at the slower pace. The last time I did a long run with her was when she was training for her 2:10 half-marathon, and we ran a route that I told her I thought was a connector path to join two of the Metroparks. It turned out that I was wrong, but a couple of months later, I saw that it actually WAS being turned into a connector path, and they'd finished it.

I asked Steph if she'd want to check it out on one of her long runs for marathon training, and we planned to do her 15-miler. But the weather is looking extra crappy for Saturday, and while I love Stephanie dearly, I don't want to run 15 miles in the snow and freezing rain when I don't have to. So it looks like I'll be doing my long run of seven miles tomorrow, on the treadmill. I've really been enjoying Flashpoint, so it won't be too bad ;)

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Family vacation plans

The kids' school was canceled (again), and *cue broken record* I'm losing my mind being stuck in this house!

Today was a rest day, so I used the entire morning to figure out some travel plans for this year. When Jerry was working at that other job last year, he was making really good money, and we decided to sock some away for a big family vacation in 2014. The only "vacations" we've gone on as a family over the years have been to visit my brother or sister, or a few days in a rental house with my parents. The kids are at the age now where I think it would be really fun to take them on a nice vacation. Jerry and I would love it, too, of course ;)

The original plan was to go to Orlando, Florida, and go to a couple of the Disney parks. I was there when I was (I think) just 2 years old; and again at 15. But I've never been a big Disney fan, so I haven't had a desire to go back. I guess I just thought it's someplace that every kid should go at some point, so we figured we'd plan our vacation there.

We saved quite a bit of money for this vacation, but I was still completely shocked when I looked up the costs and saw that it was way over our budget. I know there are cheaper ways of doing it, but the point of this vacation was to enjoy it without worrying about money. When I priced it all out on the Disney trip planner, it was about $8,000 for a week. My kids really aren't all that interested in Disney, either, so I started to wonder if maybe the theme parks weren't the best idea. Even Chandler thought it sounded a bit much...

I started looking at Disney cruises, which were definitely cheaper. My sister loves to travel, and has been on quite a few cruises, so I asked her about it. She said that we could do a Carnival cruise for about 1/3 of the price of the Disney cruise, and it would be just as fun--especially since we're not "Disney people". After seeing the cost of the Orlando vacation, I couldn't believe how cheap the Carnival cruises were--about $800-1500 for 5-7 days (plus airfare).

My sister suggested one other idea, which was an all-inclusive resort in Punta Cana. Just hearing those words made me think, "Too fancy for us!" but when I checked out the website and reviews, I got a little googly-eyed, and I think that the resort will be what we end up choosing. It wouldn't cost much more than a cruise, and it would definitely be a lot less expensive than the Disney trip. It also looks like more fun--for Jerry and I, as well as the kids. And the fact that it's all-inclusive makes it much less stressful to plan.

Our tentative plan is to go the first week of December. It was kind of overwhelming while looking at all the stuff to do and places to stay. I think my sister was a travel agent in a former life, because she's awesome at that stuff, so I'm going to have her help me come up with a good plan. I'm excited to book the trip, so that we have something to really look forward to (and dream about while we're stuck inside our house with the temp at -20 outside!).

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Yesterday, I got an e-mail from someone I "met" on a site called Open Diary many years ago. In 2000, I worked a 10:00 pm-3:00 am shift as a dispatcher in college, and I used to get really bored in a little office by myself. I went on Bored.com one night, which had a bunch of games, random facts, and links to sites to pass time. One of them was a site called Open Diary, which was a blogging site (only I don't think "blog" was a mainstream word yet). It was basically a place where you could keep a public diary, as well as read others' diaries, and leave notes (comments) on them.

It was a very small community (nothing like blogs are now!), but I wrote there from 2000 until 2011, before I started Runs for Cookies. I mostly wrote about my struggles with weight loss, all the ups and downs I had over the years; and eventually, I documented my success at losing 125 pounds. Through all those years, I had a handful of readers, and it was a very tight-knit community. Almost like a family! Everybody on OD knew everybody else.

But in 2011, I decided to start completely fresh. My life was a lot different than it ever was in the past--I was at a "normal" weight for the first time in my life, and I'd become a runner, which was taking up quite a bit of my time and thoughts. I decided to switch over to Blogger, for a change of scenery (and because it was much easier to upload pictures to posts than on OD). I started Runs for Cookies, which has become an enormous part of my life, but a piece of my heart has always stayed with Open Diary.

I never closed my account there (but I "hid" my diary from public). I still checked out the site a couple of times a week, to read about my old "friends" on OD. And fast-forward to yesterday, when I got an e-mail from Melissa, telling me that OD will be shut down within a week. She suggested that I download my diary while I still could, which I'd done.

When I first read the e-mail, I didn't think that it was that big of a deal that OD was closing up shop, but today when I went to the site, it just seemed so empty... everybody writing good-bye posts, and leaving info on how to find them when OD shuts down. I went to my diary one last time in order to delete it, and it was so hard to make myself click the button. Eleven years of my life were written there! Even though I saved a copy, it just felt sad to type in my name and see "The diary name you have entered does not exist".

Anyway, as a little tribute to OD, here is the first thing I wrote in my Open Diary:

"I have struggled through my entire life with a weight problem. It all started in 4th grade when one of my classmates nicknamed me 'Shamu' and the whole class started calling me that. I've tried diet after diet. This year is my freshman year of college. I've heard of the 'Freshman 15' but I gained the 'Freshman 30'. When I stepped on the scale at 205 pounds this year, I decided this is it. I'm not going to deal with it anymore. And here I am. That was about 2 months ago. I've decided to get ready to lose weight by deciding how I'm going to do it. I want to do it the right way this time, so that it stays off. Since then, however, I've lost about 10 pounds from drinking water instead of soda. That's all I've really done... I'm looking forward to beginning my 'new beginning'."

Of course, that didn't "stick" ;)  I lost a little and gained a lot, and lost some more, and gained even more. Up and down until 2009, when I finally made the changes that I was willing to stick with forever! I'm so grateful that I've kept diaries/blogs all these years, because it preserved so many memories of things that I'd forgotten about until skimming through a few posts today. When I was a kid, I always kept a handwritten diary, which I would later destroy so that nobody could read it; I really wish I still had those! They'd certainly be good for some laughs, if nothing else ;)

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Another snow day!

As predicted, my kids' school was canceled yesterday and today. It looks likely it'll be canceled tomorrow, too. This has NEVER happened, for as long as I've been alive, that they've canceled so many days of school due to cold weather. I don't know that they would cancel it just because of the temperature, but the roads have been awful, too. It hasn't gotten warm enough to melt any snow, so it just keeps building up. Then, the super cold temps turn it into ice almost immediately when it does snow.

We are allowed six snow days per school year, and the kids are on day seven right now. So they'll be making up at least one day in June, and it's only January! The kids were actually not very happy that school was canceled today. The snow days have been boring, because it's too cold for them to play outside, the roads are too bad to drive anywhere, and there is only so much to do at home. Yesterday, they had a friend come over, so that kept them busy.

I've always liked cold weather, but I really don't like snow. This winter has just been awful, and it's definitely affecting my mood. It looks SO dreary outside:

It's not that bad if we have some warmer (and by warmer, I just mean mid-30's!) days thrown in the mix, with some sunshine. But it's been dreary and freezing cold every single day lately. I really hope this means we have a perfect summer!

This morning, I had just three miles on the schedule, but I figured I'd run for an entire episode of Flashpoint, about 43 minutes. My easy pace is back to feeling easy, and my heart rate is back down to normal. It occurred to me that the heart rate thing happened right after I got a flu shot; I have no idea if that had anything to do with it, but it's a possibility. My heart rate was really high, and I felt like crap for a couple of weeks (especially while running), but now it's totally back to normal.

Today, I ran at a 9:05-ish pace and my heart rate barely reached Zone 3. I've felt fantastic the past week or so while running, so I think I'm back to normal. Today, I just set the speed on the treadmill and then ran for the whole episode of Flashpoint, which ended up being 4.7 miles total.

After my run, I did strength training on the Wii Fit U. I've been doing well with sticking to my goal of strength training twice per week. Today, I added some more of the strength and yoga exercises to my routine. I like the Wii Fit exercises because they're short, and I think that's why I've actually stuck to doing the routine. I still feel like I get a good strength workout, though.

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Carly shared this article about weight loss myths on Facebook today, and I thought it was worth mentioning here. I really love that it discusses the "1200 calories a day" issue. When I first started losing weight, I'd always heard that 1200 calories per day was what I should aim for. And even SparkPeople suggested 1200-1550 per day. I tried that, and felt like I was absolutely starving! There was no way I could stick with that for very long.

I really wanted to be able to find a way of eating that I could live with forever, and still enjoy my life, so I experimented to be able to eat as much as possible and still lose weight. I found that I could lose weight while eating 1800 calories a day, and even more on the days that I ran. Eating 1800 kept me MUCH more satisfied, so that I was much less likely to binge; and I didn't feel hungry all the time. The scale even dropped faster when I was eating more. I really don't believe that there is a one particular "magic number"--we just have to experiment to find out what works for us as individuals.

Just for fun, I used the calorie calculator on the article's website see what number it said I should aim for in weight maintenance. My age just changed to 32, my weight was 139 today, and I exercise 3-5 days per week. It said that to maintain my weight, I should eat 2165 calories per day. If I had to guess how many calories I've been eating lately, I'd say that's pretty accurate! I've probably been eating between 2000-2500 for several weeks, and my weight has stayed very steady. It suggested that to lose weight, I should aim for 1840 calories per day (and the lowest would be 1624). I'm doing really well without counting calories or WW Points, so I don't plan to start counting now, but I thought it would be interesting to see what the calculator suggested.

Anyway, normally, I don't like to read weight loss articles, but when I saw that Carly shared it, I figured it must be decent ;)

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By the way, I haven't heard from Carolyn R. from Minneapolis, MN about winning the magazine giveaway. Carolyn, not sure if you saw on the post yesterday, but you won a one-year subscription to Runner's World from me! Just send me an e-mail with your full name and address where you'd like the magazine sent, and I'll get it ordered this week.

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