2015 Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K sign-up

Sadly, there were NO Motivational Monday submissions this week! :( So there won't be a MM post today. Hopefully I'll get some for next week.

I mentioned last week that I'm collecting submissions for the 100th Motivational Monday post--I thought it would be fun to share stories of people who have lost 100+ pounds! So, if you've lost over 100 pounds and want to share your before/after photos, feel free to email them to me (along with a short description of who you are, how you did it, or whatever you'd like to share). Here is the MM submission info. If you are submitting for the 100th post, then just use the subject "100" please.

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This year has gone by SO fast. I meant to get this posted several weeks ago, but it feels like I blinked and it's already Christmas! Sorry for the late notice...

In January 2013, for my 31st birthday, I thought it would be fun to host a Virtual 5K--3.1 miles for 31 years old. It was a huge success, and I can't even describe how much fun it was to read through all of the Facebook comments, blog comments, tweets, and Instagram posts! There were so many inspiring stories, and I loved seeing the pictures from people all over the world (literally) who ran "with" me on my birthday. Because it was so successful, I chose to do it again in 2014--and again, there was an awesome turnout!

I've been debating whether to do it again in 2015. I feel guilty for not having announced it several weeks ago, so everyone could have plenty of time to train. But I think I'd be sad to not do it again--I love reading through all the stories after everyone does the virtual race!

Therefore, in keeping with tradition, I'd like to announce the 2015 Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K. The "race" will take place on my 33rd birthday--Sunday, January 25th, 2015. I hope you all will join me for a run or walk on my birthday :)

Last year, several people asked me about giving out medals this time. I think medals are fun; but after giving it some thought, I decided I'd like to keep it simple, just as the last two years. This way, there is no cost to anyone, and it's something everyone can participate in. I'll still have a downloadable bib and t-shirt transfer, for anyone who wants one. I really just want the race to be all about having fun, sharing our stories (whether it's your first time doing a 5K or if you do them every weekend!), and congratulating each other on a job well done.

Basically, here is how it works:

• Sign up on the form below.
• Train to run or walk the 5K distance.
• On January 25th, run or walk 3.1 miles (indoors, outdoors, treadmill, whatever you want!). If you can't do the exact day, any time that weekend will be fine.
• Fill out the finisher's form that will be posted on my blog that day.
• Post a photo on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter with the hashtag #RfCVirtual5K (Most people posted a photo and description on my Facebook page, and that made it really easy to scroll through and read!)

I've had (self-funded) prizes each year, and I will this year as well. I have a few ideas in mind, but before I post them, I just want to be sure--so I will announce those later. But for now, I just wanted to make sure I get this sign-up posted so that you can train! Again, I'm sorry for the short notice, but I hope you'll all join me :)

The purpose of the sign-up form is to state your commitment and your goal (if you have one--I know that when I state my goals in public, like on my blog, I am much more likely to follow through). I thought a fun way to give away prizes this year would be based on whether you reach your goal. You can choose your goal for the race to be whatever you'd like (even if the goal is just to complete it!). Then, if you meet your goal, regardless of what it is, I'll enter you in the drawing for a prize.

So there you have it! (I can't believe I'm going to be 33 in less than a month...)

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A date with my little man

I had this all ready to post yesterday, and forgot to hit "publish", apparently! Oops :)

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Last night, Noah was invited to go to his friend's house to spend the night. Since Jerry was working, Eli was stuck at home with his mom on a Saturday night. He always gets jealous of Noah when Noah is invited somewhere, so I decided to have a little "date night" for just the two of us.

I told him we could go out to dinner, and that he could choose where we went--anywhere he wanted to go! He immediately picked Hawaiian Island, which has amazing Chinese food. It's not exactly the best "diet-friendly" place to go (well, I guess it could be, but not when you order sweet and sour chicken!). Eli was really excited to go.

When we sat down, we read the placemat that listed all the different animals that represented people based on what year they were born. I was born in 1982, which makes me a dog; and Eli was born in 2006, which makes him a dog also. Jerry was born in 1980, making him a monkey; and Noah was born in 2004, which also makes him a monkey. I thought that was kind of interesting ;)

Eli got almond chicken, and I got sweet and sour chicken. I was careful not to eat too much, because I hate feeling super full when I leave a restaurant. Eli was stuffed, and you can see he didn't even make a dent in his plate! (Their portions are huge.)

I ordered a carryout so I could drop it off to Jerry at work, and then we headed home. My mom wanted me to stop by and help her highlight her hair, so we went to her house first. I had never done the highlighting before, but it looked simple enough, so we worked on that for a little while. It turned out good! (Whew--I was nervous about that).

I asked Eli what he wanted to do when we got home, and he said he wanted to work on his Lego set that Aunt Jeanie gave him for Christmas. It was a huge set of about 900 pieces, and he had a couple of big chunks left of it. We got to work and about 45 minutes later, it was finished.

It some sort of Star Wars thing. I'm not a Star Wars fan, so I have no idea! I just love putting Legos together. It ended up being a fun night hanging out with just Eli. It's not very often that I get one of the kids alone.

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I haven't been sleeping much at ALL the past week or two. I went to bed at a decent time (10:30 ish), but I was wide awake at 1:30, and even was texting a friend because I couldn't sleep. The only thing I can think of is that maybe it's because I haven't been running much the past couple of weeks?

I had plans to do a long run today (not long-long, but about seven miles) to test out my foot and see how it felt. When I ran the Santa Hustle Half, the problem started at around mile 6.5, so I hoped that I'd feel good through mile 7.

I had finally fallen asleep at around 2:30 and slept in late, until 8:00! (I usually get up between 5 and 6). As soon as I woke up, I got dressed to go for a run. Again, it was pretty warm outside (considering it's almost January). I just wore running tights and a long-sleeved shirt--no gloves or hat needed.

I chose to do an out-and-back route that was really familiar to me, so hopefully my foot wouldn't have any surprises in terrain. While I didn't want to put any pressure on myself to hit a certain pace, I was secretly hoping to be able to do a 9:30-9:39 pace. I'm thinking about trying a new running plan for the Indy Mini, and the long run paces are pretty specific...

When I was at the Runner's World Half in Bethlehem, Matt Frazier (No Meat Athlete) and I rode back to the airport together, and we chatted for a bit about running. He said that he followed the "Run Less Run Faster" plan, with a big modification, and he qualified for Boston with it. That plan has you do just three runs per week, and I've said several times I'm not a fan of those plans (I've known a few people, including myself, to get injured from them). He said that he followed the plan as written, except that instead of the cross-training, he did easy (very easy) runs. When I got home, I bought the book to read, and I liked Matt's idea, so I wrote up a plan and I'm thinking of trying it.

The plan has the long runs at goal pace +20 or +30 seconds (meaning if my goal pace is 9:00/mi, then I would run my long runs at 9:20 or 9:30 per mile (depending on the day--it varies on the schedule). To run a sub-2:00 half, my pace would have to be 9:09 (although I'd like to say 9:00, just for a little cushion). So today, I figured I'd aim for 9:29-9:39, and just see how I felt. If it felt way too difficult, I'd nix the whole idea.

The first mile was tough. At about 0.9 miles in, I saw my pace was 9:59, so I almost decided just to forget about it. But then I thought I should at least get the first mile down to 9:39, and then decide after that what to do. So I picked up the pace a bit, and managed to hit 9:39 on the nose. That pace actually seemed to get easier the farther I ran, too. I never felt like I had to slow down or quit, so I think that pace will actually work out.

I almost managed to get negative splits, too--I don't know what the deal was with mile 6, but if I had known, I'd have picked up the pace to make it a negative split ;)

My foot felt great! I had a tiny bit of residual pain in my calf, but that only showed up when I was running on a slanted shoulder. I'm going to take it easy on building up the mileage--increasing just a mile per week on my long runs.

It was probably due to the weather, but today was a really great run! I felt good the whole time, and my foot held up. I keep forgetting that it's December. It's so weird that on January 7 (Eli's birthday) the temp was 30 below 0! We've been going outside with no coats all week, and it feels awesome. I would love it if the whole winter is this mild!

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Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you have a submission, you can check out the details here.

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Christmas mouse

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We had a nice, relaxing day at home. On Christmas Eve, we went to my aunt's house for dinner. I did well with counting my Points there, and even skipped dessert (a pecan pie cheesecake that my mom made). When I got home, I went through a ton of my childhood photos, and took pictures of the pictures so that I'd have them digitally (I didn't want to take the time to scan nearly a thousand photos, so the picture-of-a-picture was just fine!).

Jerry was off work on Christmas Eve and Christmas, which never happens, so it was nice having him home. I got up at around 6:00 on Christmas morning, and the kids were still sleeping. I fully expected them to wake us up by 5:00 ;)

I went into the kitchen to make some tea, and all three cats were crowded around the kids' backpacks, which were leaning against the wall. Jerry, who had been up since 5:00, said that the cats had been there the whole time. I thought that was weird, so I picked up the backpacks, and immediately saw a tiny little rodent run behind the trash can in the kitchen. The cats went nuts, and I shoo'ed them away while watching the trash can like a hawk. I freaked for a minute, wondering if maybe the gerbils got out; Jerry checked the gerbil cage, and they were fine, so I knew it was a mouse.

I didn't want to kill the mouse, so we very carefully set up a barrier around the garbage can, and then I lifted the can out. The poor mouse was crouched in the corner. I set a small bucket over him, and then we slid a magazine underneath to trap him inside. Jerry took him out to the woods to let him go :)

Poor little thing was probably scared to death, with the cats all torturing him. Three cats, and we still manage to have a mouse in the house? They're useless! ;)

Noah woke up at around 7:30, so we just decided to wake up Eli. The kids opened their gifts. Their "big" gift this year was an iPad Mini--of course they were super excited about that. They had asked for a Kindle so they could read books on it, but the iPad Mini wasn't all that much more expensive, so I got that instead.

Jerry and the kids got me a new electric throw blanket, which I'm thrilled with! My old one wasn't getting very warm, even on the high setting. The new one is pretty hot, even on the lowest setting. Not that I've used it much, because the cats have been hogging it!

Phoebe and Estelle hate each other, and you never see them this close together unless they're fighting; but they set aside their differences so they could enjoy the warmth of the blanket ;)

The gift we got Jerry was a Star Wars hoodie. He loves Star Wars, and he's been wanting this hoodie for a while:

After a lazy morning, I asked Noah if he'd want to go for a run with me. His Uncle Nathan (my brother) bought him a Garmin 10 for Christmas, so I thought he'd want to try it out. It was super nice outside--warm for Christmas! We ran around our neighborhood, which is a mile, and he did great. He hasn't been running much, so I was really impressed that he could actually go the whole mile, let alone a sub-10!

After I dropped him off at home, I headed out for two more miles on my own.

After a shower and putting my pajamas back on (yay, Christmas!) Jerry and I played The Game of Life with the kids (one of their Christmas gifts). I hadn't played that game in a long time! The new version is quite a bit different than the older version I was used to.

Jerry and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Breaking Bad. We finished the series. It's funny, I had watched the entire series already, but I had forgotten everything that happened, so it was like watching it for the first time again.

It was a good couple of days with the family. The weather was amazing today--45 degrees and sunny. I am hoping for a mild winter. Last year was all the snowy/icy weather I could take! I've been thinking about my goals for 2015, and I'm super excited about them. I'll write a post about that this week!

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Old friends!

This morning, I woke up feeling a little hung over, but I have to say--it was totally worth it for the fun I had last night! Once a year, at Christmastime, my childhood friends come over for a get-together. I grew up in a neighborhood that had a lot of kids my age (mostly boys), and we were all very close friends. We used to play sandlot baseball every morning at 7:45 during the summers when we were kids.

There was my best friend Sarah (now living in Arizona) who lived just a couple of houses down from me; Lance, who lived behind me, and who Sarah and I used to fight over; Spencer, Lance's brother; Joe, Sarah's younger brother, who was always in some sort of trouble; Mike and Brian, who lived next door to me (Brian now lives in L.A.); Chris and Matt, who lived a block over; and of course, my brother, Nathan.

Joe is sort of a "drifter", and since Sarah and Brian live out-of-state, it's rare that we all get together. Mike and Lance recently bought a bar together, and unfortunately, Mike had to work all day yesterday, so he wasn't able to come. Chris's son had the flu, and his baby-sitter canceled, so he wasn't able to make it yesterday, either. It ended up being Sarah and her husband, Ne; Nathan and his girlfriend, Kendall; Joe; Lance, and his girlfriend, Amanda; Jerry; and me.

Joe, Sarah, Lance, me, and Nathan

I really need to dig up some photos of us when we were little, but here is the oldest one I could find on my computer:

Christmas, 2000

We had dinner (pulled pork sliders, cheesy potatoes, Caesar salad, and buffalo chicken dip), and then did a white elephant gift exchange. We'd never done the gift exchange at our get-togethers before, and it was totally last minute, but it was fun! I wound up with Sarah's gift, which was some suckers with worms and scorpions in them--I knew my boys would love those.

Then we got down to business and played Apples to Apples, followed by Guesstures. My cheeks hurt from laughing so hard--that game never gets old! My friends always hate playing games with Sarah and I on a team, because we can pretty much read each others minds. (I will never forget one time when we were playing a game where Sarah had to describe a word to me, and she said, "Falling off a cliff..." and I shouted out, "MacGuyver!"--and it was correct. Hahaha, everyone thought we had to have cheated, but we just know each other very well ;) Anyway, I never stay up late, but before I knew it, it was 1:30 in the morning when everyone started heading out. I went to bed at 2:00, and then woke up at 7:00.

I'd had several beers last night, and my stomach was feeling kind of icky when I woke up, but I decided to go for a run before heading to Weight Watchers. Jerry got up and went with me. It was kind of crazy--I wore capris and a t-shirt, for a run on Christmas Eve in Michigan!

It was SUPER foggy outside all day. When we ran past the lake, you couldn't even see the water:

Normally, you can see the lake really easily right there, and looking across, you can see the peninsula, but it was so foggy we couldn't see anything. You could tell both of us were pretty tired, because we didn't talk much, but it was nice to get out and run off the beer (well, a little of it, anyway).

We just did three miles, because I had to get home and shower before going to Weight Watchers.

I took a quick shower and then went to my meeting. I wasn't expecting much from my weigh-in, especially after yesterday's eats/drinks, but I managed to lose 0.7 pounds this week. April was at the meeting today, and I was so glad to see that she's still going! She said right before I walked in, she and another member were just asking about what happened to me and where I've been. This coming week should be better as far as being on-plan, because I don't have much going on. Tonight, I'm going to my aunt's house for dinner, but I've planned out my PointsPlus ahead of time.

Tomorrow is going to be VERY low-key, and I'm super excited! The kids will open gifts in the morning, and we aren't going to leave the house at all tomorrow. We'll stay in pajamas all day, maybe watch a movie or two, play some games with the kids, and just have a very relaxing day.

I probably won't write tomorrow, so I hope that you all have a very merry Christmas! Enjoy the day, however you spend it :)

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Motivational Monday #92

Happy Motivational Monday! This week has been super busy with Christmas stuff going on. Hopefully everyone is having a great holiday week!

I chose to go back to my Weight Watchers meetings on Wednesday, and I'm really glad I did it. It was hard to go and weigh in after so long, knowing that my weight was up quite a bit from early this year. But I'm proud of myself for sucking it up and just doing it. I wish I'd have done it a long time ago, because my leader made me feel so much better!

This week, I've been doing pretty well with counting my points. My PointsPlus are in the negative for the week, but I'm okay with that. I'm still tracking everything, and regardless of how my week ends, I'm going to go to my Weight Watchers meeting on Wednesday morning and weigh in. Tomorrow is the last day that will be really difficult for me (I'm having friends over, and there will be food and drinks).

Today, my dad, my sister, and I went to see Mockingjay. I'd already seen it with Jerry, but my dad and sister hadn't seen it yet. I've gone with my dad to see The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, so of course I wanted to go with him to see Mockingjay. We saw a 9:20 AM show, so it actually wasn't even tempting to get popcorn or anything. I'd just eaten breakfast ;)

Only a couple of stories to share for MM today--but good ones! Enjoy.

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Leona (on right in photo) has lost 63 pounds since March! She's been doing 5K's throughout her journey, and at the SeaWorld Reindeer Run, she clocked 36:05--a full 4-minute PR from a month earlier. She was feeling frustrated because her weight had plateaued for about a month, but seeing her 5K time improve so drastically was just the encouragement she needed to keep going.

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Cassie ran the Santa Hustle Half this weekend! After becoming single early this year, she searched for healthy ways to be social. She met some women through her running community in Austin, and now they are her "sole sisters". They ran the Santa Hustle together, and had a blast!

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As you may have noticed, I'm getting close to the 100th Motivational Monday post. For that post, I thought it would be super fun to share stories of those of you who have lost 100+ pounds. I've gotten lots of emails from readers who have lost huge amounts of weight, and it's always so fun to see the before and after pictures.

If you'd be interested in sharing, please send me an email at MotivationalMonday (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, with the subject "100". Along with your picture(s), please include a short bio--who you are, how you lost the weight, maybe something that you can do now you couldn't before, etc. Whatever you'd like to share! Today is MM #92, so we have 8 weeks to compile the stories. (If you've already been on a MM post for your weight loss, feel free to send it again!)

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Running again

Thank you so much for the kind comments on yesterday's post. It's nice to feel things turning around in the eleventh hour of 2014.

My foot has been feeling really good, and yesterday, I didn't feel any twinges of pain at all. I know I said I was going to wait until next year to start running again, but I was really in the mood to try it out today. The weather was nice (cold, but no wind), so as soon as the boys left for church with my parents, I headed out for a run. I wasn't sure how far I would run--it just depended on how my foot felt.

I wore my Paradigms, and my feet were feeling good. I had no idea what my pace was going to be, but I just kind of ran however I felt like running. I was hoping for an easy sub-10:00 pace, and kind of surprisingly, I was managing 9:15-9:30 ish. I didn't feel a single twinge of pain as I ran down my street, so I hoped it'd stay that way.

I ended up deciding on a five-mile route that goes around the four neighborhoods on the peninsula. The miles actually went by rather quickly... before I knew it, I only had a mile left to go. I thought it would be a big confidence boost if I ran that last mile at a sub-9:00 pace, so I worked at it. It wasn't easy, but I didn't feel like I was dying, either ;)

After I ran just past my house, and hit the five-mile mark, I stopped my watch. I was really happy with my run! I didn't have any pain at all, and I ran a decent pace the whole way through.

Just because I ran today, I'm not going to jump right back into training; I'm going to take it very easy the rest of the year. If I feel like running, I'll run; but if not, I won't. I don't want to risk overtraining again, so I'm going to take it very easy. But it felt good to get out and run, instead of feeling lethargic and lazy!

When I got home, I went to Sam's Club to buy some stuff for Tuesday. My childhood friends (Sarah, Lance, Joe, and Chris) as well as my brother, Nathan, and their spouses/partners, are coming over for dinner, drinks, and games. I decided on pulled pork sliders, so I bought the ingredients for that, as well as drinks. We get together once a year at Christmastime, usually, and I always have so much fun! My friends are way more extroverted than I am, so they have some interesting stories to share ;)

Tomorrow is Motivational Monday, and I meant to mention that I added a tab at the top of my blog for "Motivational Monday". There, I explained how to submit a Motivational Monday if you'd like to share something. I love reading about your accomplishments! I set up an email address that is specifically for Motivational Monday, to help keep things organized (for me, anyway). So if you have anything to share, please just click there and it'll explain it better.

Tomorrow, I'm celebrating Christmas at my parents' house. Should be fun! :)

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Confessional

Last night was so fun! I hadn't been to my wine club meetings all year... mainly because I've been battling with my depression/anxiety SO much this year. I haven't written much about it on my blog, because it's so personal, and even one hurtful comment can really upset me, but I've been in a bad funk ever since Mark died. I'm not blaming Mark's death for causing it; but Mark was the closest person to me that I've ever lost, and I had no idea just how tough it was going to be.

I've been carrying around this guilt about all the things I feel I could have/should have done before he died. I never really wrote about his funeral or the details surrounding his death, and someday, maybe I will; but for now, I've just been dealing with all of the coulda-shoulda-woulda statements floating through my head.

 I sort of turned into a hermit this year, even though I may not have shown it here on my blog. I attended a few blogger events, and went on a few trips--but aside from those, I spent a lot of time alone. I neglected my friends, and I think that was partly because I couldn't understand how everyone could go on as if nothing had happened (in their world, nothing had happened). I didn't realize it before Mark died, but I think everyone probably feels that way when someone close to them dies; they feel the world has crashed down around them, and nobody should be happy.

My friend John called me when Mark died, and he understood very much what I was feeling. He said I was probably wondering how people could be so happy when Mark just died. And that, for example, how people could post such positive status updates on Facebook like nothing had happened, when I'd want to scream, "Mark just died! How can you be happy?!"

Talking with him made me feel a little better; or at least not alone. He said that pretty much everyone has those thoughts when someone close to them dies. Since I had never lost someone very close to me, I never really understood it. But the whole point is, due to my depression and anxiety, I was having a hard time being "normal".

A little over a month ago, I was feeling exceptionally down, and I told my Sole Mates Ragnar team about it. They're my "safe place" when I really need to talk. The next day, Dean asked if I wanted to get together for a run or lunch the following Wednesday. Immediately, I wanted to tell him "no", and come up with some excuse (not because I don't like Dean, but because I'd become used to saying no to everything). But I thought about how awesome it was that he reached out to me. When I told my team about how I was feeling, it wasn't to get sympathy or anything like that; I just really wanted to talk about it. Before I could change my mind, I told Dean yes, that going for a run would be great.

As promised, Dean drove nearly an hour to go for a run with me, and it ended up being really great to run with him. I started to feel like I wanted to get back to my "normal" self. That run with Dean was when I started to feel things change.

I started setting goals again, and making plans with friends. I tried to stop thinking about how my weight is over goal, and started thinking about a new beginning--that I could get back to goal before it got totally out of hand. I went out to dinner with my friend Renee, and I felt a million times better after that. She was one of the friends I'd neglected all year, and the guilt of that was eating me up inside. I apologized for being absent, and when I left the restaurant that evening, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

Yesterday, Renee asked me if I wanted to drive to her house, and then ride with her to Winers; that felt so normal. I'm sure she didn't think twice about it, but to me, it made me feel like things are really okay again. I had NO intentions of turning this post into such a confessional--but going to Winers last night made me feel like things are finally back to normal (or getting there, at least).

I drove over to Renee's, and gave her a birthday present (her birthday was earlier this month) before we left. Our friend Robin rode with us as well. We arrived at Shawna's (she was hosting), where I saw some more friends that I hadn't seen in a long time (probably since the last time I went to Winers--maybe a year ago?). It was really great chatting with everyone!

I'd planned on having just 8 oz. of wine, and no food. It was a little bit tough, because Shawna had some yummy snacks out. She had some mixed berries, so I ate some of those, and tried to pretend I didn't see the chocolate truffles ;) We sat and chatted for a while in front of the fireplace.

We had a white elephant gift exchange, which is always fun. Normally, when I think of "white elephant", I think of really ridiculous, crappy, but funny gifts. But as I learned in the past, the Winers girls always bring "nice" gifts for our white elephant exchange. The girls will find something nice around the house they don't want, and wrap it up. So this year, I played along with that theme--I brought the iFit Active activity monitor. I'd worn it for a few weeks, but I still preferred my Fitbit. Jessica had been talking about getting an activity monitor, so I thought that she'd probably really want the iFit Active.

Jessica, Renee, Stephanie, and I are running buddies, and it's tradition for us to take a picture together; Renee had just gotten an iPhone 6+ (which is huge) so she managed to get a "selfie" picture of all of us.

Renee, Steph, Jessica, and me

The gift I ended up with was pretty fun! A mix of naughty and nice ;)

A cookbook with recipes that use wine, a really nice-smelling candle, a couple of wine bottle gift bags, some cheese labels, a "ball sack" with a couple of golf balls (bahaha! I'm going to use this for a white elephant gift on Tuesday...), and a book called, "203 Ways to Drive a Man Wild in Bed" ;)  I sent Jerry a picture of the book cover, and he said, "Make sure you keep that gift!!" Hahaha.

I was really tempted to eat all kinds of chocolate while I was there, but I managed not to eat anything but some fruit. I really enjoyed spending time with my friends, and I'm so glad that I went!

Like I said, I never meant for this post to be such a confessional. But I am finally feeling like things are getting back to "normal", and I love that. Winers with my friends was so much fun :)

I have a lot going on the next few days, so my blogging may be sporadic. But I sincerely hope that you all have a fantastic holiday! XOXO

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14 Favorite Photos of 2014

I don't have much to write today, but I was organizing pictures on my computer, and decided to post my favorite 14 photos of 2014. I always do a "Top" post at the end of the year (like "Top 13 of 2013"); but that is more for my favorite events of the year. And I'll post that on New Year's Eve. So here, I'm just showcasing my favorite photos. I like these photos for all sorts of different reasons!

On one of Mark's better days--with a milkshake, of course!
I love that you can see on his face how happy he was.

Basically what we did for seven full days in Punta Cana

I LOVE this pic with my Sole Mates: Paige, Caitlin,
Hilary, Thomas, and me.

Impromptu family photo at my parents' house after Jeanie's first marathon. My dad
was goofing around, and it made for a good candid photo before the "real" pics.

Mid-race selfie with Jerry. We had so much fun that day! 

Noah's first 5K (Jerry got all of us making that face, haha)

I love this picture of Paolo! This was before his health went downhill.

This was such a strange thing to catch on camera! Here is where I wrote about it. 

These steel stacks in Bethlehem are AMAZING!

I had no idea just how BIG the head was going to be ;)

I liked this picture... until I realized my helmet was backwards! Hahaha

A rare photo of my entire family together: Me, Dad, Mom, Brian, Jeanie, Nathan
This was taken at Brian's wedding in September

I'd had too much wine to remember this photo being taken, but when I saw it,
I loved it! The orange hat I'm wearing reminds me of what a great time I had
that day with my Sole Mates in San Diego. (That, I DO remember, haha)

Jerry and I had a blast taking pictures underwater with the kids' cameras

I love this picture because I was laughing really hard at the very
end of a race--who does that?! 

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This is so funny... just after I scheduled this post to go live at 9:00, I got an email. I saw the subject first, before it registered in my mind who it was from:

I saw "Not Another Best of 2014 List" as the subject, and I was so confused for a second--did my post go live before it was supposed to? How did they know? What? Ohhhh. It's a "Best of 2014" list from Hulu. Hahaha

Anyway, I happen to LOVE lists. So, lame or not, I'm still posting it ;)

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Back to my Weight Watchers meetings

I had thought that the last time I went to Weight Watchers to weigh in was very early this year, but I looked at my weigh in card this morning, and it said I weighed in on May 21st. Not as bad as I thought! But I was still pretty nervous to go today.

After I got the kids off to school, I ate breakfast and sipped some tea until it was time to leave. Knowing that my weight was going to be up from last time regardless of what clothes I wore, I ended up wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers for my weigh in. Last time I weighed in, I'd been hoping that I was still under goal (or at least close), so I wore the lightest clothes I could.

When I walked inside, I was so glad to see that my leader was there today. I had been hoping she didn't switch her meeting times or locations or something since the last time I was there. She was really happy to see me, and she came around the counter to give me a hug. I instantly felt at ease, even though I knew I'd be weighing in. I talked to her for a minute about everything that's been going on, and she even told me I didn't have to weigh in if I didn't want to--but I really want the accountability, so I said I was going to weigh in.

I bought a new 12-Week Journal. Since I have 12 weeks until I leave for Portland, it'll be a nice way to count down the weeks and (hopefully) see myself getting closer to goal. When I first started losing weight, I made it a goal to go through an entire 12-Week Journal without a single binge... and I ended up going through FOUR of them! It would be nice to do the same with this one.

I sat down for the meeting and was a little disappointed to see that I didn't recognize more than a couple of people in there. April, the woman that I used to sit next to, wasn't there. I hope she still goes on Wednesdays.

Today's meeting was about food pushers--people who push you to take foods that you may not want or you don't have room in your plan for; and when you politely say no, they keep trying to change your mind.

Thankfully, I haven't had to deal with this for a few years. When I first started losing weight, I had to stay very firm with my decisions about food, and I think people just learned that I'm not going to give in just because they want me to. They know now that if I say no to something, it's not because I don't love them or want the food they made; it's because I have to put a lot of thought into my food choices.

One thing I love about Glenda, my leader, is that she is very careful never to call foods "good" or "bad". She, like me, believes that we can make room in our diets for anything we want. Some of the other leaders at meetings I've been to said things like, "How can we avoid eating a piece of cake at a birthday party?" But Glenda is realistic, and says if you want a piece of cake, just deduct it from your weekly PointsPlus allowance, and enjoy it! Today, when she was talking about the holidays, she used the same mentality.

When I was losing weight in 2009-2010, I was very picky about what I splurged on. I would have no problem turning down several splurge foods in order to really enjoy one splurge that I had my mind on. I chose my splurges very carefully. This year, I've gotten out of that habit, and I've been saying "yes" to pretty much everything. I didn't want to feel like I was missing out on things, so I just always said yes. My goal for now is to really put thought into what I choose to spend my PointsPlus on. I can have the things I want; just not everything all at once ;)

This week is going to be the most challenging week ever. I could have waited another week to go back to Weight Watchers, but I don't believe in "waiting until the new year", so to speak. If I can get through this week and feel good about my choices, then I will feel I can conquer anything! Haha.

My week at a glance:
Thursday- Dessert feast at Noah's school
Friday- Wine Club (Christmas party)
Sunday- Jeanie will be in town, so I'm guessing Keno and drinks?
Monday- Christmas at my mom's house (including dinner)
Tuesday- Childhood friends coming to my house for dinner, drinks, snacks, and games

That, on top of the fact that I'm not earning any activity PointsPlus right now, makes for one heck of a tough week! But I'm feeling up to the challenge. I don't plan to eat any desserts at Noah's school; I'll drive myself to Wine Club, so I won't be tempted to drink more than a glass or two of wine (knowing I have to drive); and I requested that my mom make a healthy Christmas dinner on Monday. The only day I'm worried about will be Tuesday, but I'll probably buy some super light beer (2 PP each) and keep the snacking to a minimum. When I have time to plan stuff out like this, I usually do pretty well; it's the unplanned events that I have a hard time with!

Anyway, I'm really glad I went back to my meeting today. Glenda was SO nice and I don't even know why I felt nervous about going. Weighing in made me feel really determined to have a good week!

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Real foods, foot injury, and Portland

Yesterday morning, Noah woke up with a fever. The flu has been going around here, so I really hoped it wasn't that! His only other symptom was a headache, so I just had him get some rest, and I kept him home from school.

In the mid-morning, we ended up watching a documentary called Hungry for Change (on Netflix). I'd seen it in 2012, and loved it; in fact, I even wrote in my blog that I wanted to buy it so I could watch it whenever I felt I needed a boost in motivation to eat healthy. It was fun watching it with Noah, because it opened up conversation about healthy eating. And the things I've been telling him are apparently more believable when someone on TV says them ;)

Watching the documentary made me want to read through my old "Real Foods Challenge" posts--where I'd challenged myself to eat only "real foods" for 30 days. I only made it through 20 days before I decided it was just too difficult (I was gaining weight like crazy, because I was eating too much of the real food), but there were some foods and recipes that I really enjoyed. One was homemade whole wheat tortillas.

When I first made them, I was SO blown away at how good they were. I swore I'd never buy tortillas again. Then, somewhere along the way, I forgot about them, and just bought tortillas. Yesterday afternoon, after reading through those posts, I decided to make some again. We used the tortillas to make tacos last night, and then this morning, I had scrambled egg whites and cheese wrapped inside one.

The tortillas themselves are 4 PointsPlus each, which is the same as the soft taco-size white tortillas that I buy at the store, but they taste a million times better! Here is the recipe I used.

Last night, I taught the kids (and Jerry) how to play Hearts. I've always thought of it as an adult card game, but the kids caught on surprisingly quickly. I'm sad that the kids are growing up so fast, but I do like the fact that the days of Candy Land and HiHo! Cherry-O are over ;)

I emailed Golden Harper (founder of Altra running shoes) yesterday about my foot issue. My gut feeling was telling me that my foot injury was NOT caused from the shoes, but I just wanted to see what his thoughts were. He has a degree in Exercise Science, and studied running technique and running injuries; I met him at the RW Half, and really trusted his opinion. He's very passionate about fixing the problem with running injuries. I've been conversing with him via email for a guest post/interview for my blog, and I thought I would pick his brain (I hate that phrase, by the way!) about my foot.

He wrote me back last night, and everything he said was exactly what I was thinking, and what my gut feeling was telling me. When I had done my 12-miler a week ago Sunday, I ran a different route that had recently been repaved; and the side of the road was slanted more than usual. I think that, along with the fact that I jumped from 8 miles to 12 in a week, is what caused the injury. Golden also suggested that I take some time off--he said he takes a month off each year, and that many of the Kenyans take up to three months off every year!

He said it would be helpful to rotate my shoes as well, in order to strengthen my feet and even out any muscle imbalances (which are the cause of most injuries, along with upping mileage/intensity too quickly). He agreed that since I was running injury-free with the shoes for two months, he highly doubts it was the shoe switch that caused the problem. I'll probably post his interview later this week, because it really is very interesting!

I decided to go back to my Weight Watchers meetings. I'm not a "free" Lifetime member right now, but I think that paying the weekly fee and weighing in once a week will help keep me accountable. I've been doing well this month, and I really want to keep it going and get to my goal by the time I go to Portland in March. I'm nervous to go to my meeting tomorrow, because I know the scale will show a gain (I think the last time I went was in early 2014?), but I love my leader, and she's not at all judgmental. I'm looking forward to going back, and seeing some of the people I'd gotten to know at my meetings.

I leave for Portland 12 weeks from Friday. To keep myself focused on my goal, I even bought a Trail Blazers hoodie.

Interestingly, the day I arrive in Portland, the Blazers are going to be playing the Detroit Pistons in Portland. If I was a sports fan, I would like to go! But we're going to go to the Shamrock Run expo instead, which is definitely more my style ;) By the way, I know several of you mentioned meeting up... the expo on Friday night would be a great time/place to meet if anyone is still interested! My flight arrives at 5:00 pm, and then we're going to head to the expo right away--so maybe 6:00 or 6:15.

This post is all over the place, but here is one more random picture that I just had to share. Chandler cracks me up!

I guess that's one way to fit on the new cat tree ;)

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