Sunday Funday

I had a really great day with Jerry and the kids on Sunday. Noah had been asking if we could go on a picnic, but with all the rain we've gotten this spring/summer, it hasn't worked out. Sunday ended up being absolutely gorgeous outside, and perfect for a picnic.

We packed some turkey sandwiches and fruit, and then headed to Elizabeth Park. Jerry and I used to go there all the time when we were dating, but it had been YEARS since we were there. I forgot just how pretty it is! And, of course, I forgot to take pictures of the view (we sat on the riverfront side).

After we ate our lunch, the boys played catch with a baseball. I took off my shoes, and just laid on the blanket under a tree--it was so comfortable, I could have slept there all day.

We stopped at a playground before leaving the park, because they had a huge piece of equipment that none of us had ever seen before. It looked kind of like a spiderweb of ropes going up a pole. The kids wanted to try it, and after watching them play for a little bit, Jerry and I decided to climb to the top as well.

It was really fun to climb, but definitely a challenge--and considering it went up so high, I was surprised that they even have that on a playground for kids to play on! Doing stuff like that always makes me grateful that I lost the weight when I did. Six years ago, I never could have climbed that (nor would I have even attempted to). The kids thought it was funny that Jerry and I climbed it (and I didn't know it at the time, but Noah used my phone to take a video of me climbing to the top, haha).

When we left the park, we headed to a place called 3 & Up. It's a board game lounge that we've been wanting to check out for a while--they have over a thousand board games, and you pay by the hour to play as much as you'd like. You can even bring your own food and drinks, or have food delivered there! They also have an "electronic free" policy (no cell phones), in order to get people to connect with each other in real life, which I think is a really great idea. Because of that, I didn't take any photos; but we had a lot of fun, and the time flew by!

We played a few old school games that I thought the kids would enjoy. I saw some others that I was dying to play, but I'll have to go back with my childhood girlfriends to get the full experience--Dream Phone, Mall Madness, Girl Talk, etc ;) The guy working there suggested a game called Tsuro for us, and Jerry and I both really ended up liking it, so we'll probably buy it online. One of the things I like about the board game lounge is that you can try out games to see if they are worth buying. I wish it were closer to our house (it's about a 45 minute drive), but it is definitely worth the drive to spend quality time with family or friends.

We finished the day off with movie night at home. I've been wanting to watch The Birds lately, because of getting attacked while running, but my kids are way too scared to see it ;) We ended up choosing a movie about running (I can't remember the name of it now! But it wasn't very good). The whole day ended up being a lot of fun, and I'm glad we got to spend a quality day with the kids before they go to camp next week. This is the first year they're both going to be gone at the same time for nearly a week--it's going to feel so strange not having them home! It will be the longest I've gone without seeing them, but they're super excited for camp.

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Motivational Monday #114

Happy Motivational Monday! I hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend. I had a really fun day with Jerry and the kids yesterday, which I'll write about tomorrow. I had another good week on Weight Watchers (today marks 47 days binge-free!). It was kind of difficult a couple of times this week--I was getting thoughts of, "I can just do one MEAL without counting points..." or "It's a holiday, I don't have to count for a holiday...". I know those statements aren't true, though. I've used that sort of reasoning several times in the past, and it always leads to getting way out of control.

I know that one meal isn't going to make me gain back 100 pounds, but it most likely will make me lose control and eat poorly over several days or weeks (or even months). Anyway, as tempting as it was to throw my Points to the wind, I stayed on plan. The scale rewarded me by being UP a pound today, but my official weigh in isn't until Wednesday, so hopefully it'll be back down by then.

Today, I had three miles on the schedule, and the kids were asking to go swimming at the rec center, so I decided to run on the indoor track while they swam. I did 2:00-run and 0:30-walk intervals for the first two miles (each mile split was EXACTLY the same, at 10:21.2), and then for the third mile, I just ran the entire thing. I was really thrilled to see that I completed that last mile in 9:36. Last week, I did it almost a minute slower, at 10:35. (Granted, I can't really compare indoor track vs. outdoor running, but I am still happy with it.) It's fun to see my running improving after my stress fracture!

Here are a few stories for Motivational Monday. Enjoy!

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Liz used to hate running, but in March, she decided to start doing it for any weight loss benefits she may receive. Not surprisingly, she became completely addicted to it. She had her first race last Sunday, and PR'ed her 5K time, finishing in 39:05! (Liz blogs at Running for the Weekend)

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Staci had to stop running for most of this year due to illness, but she is proud to say that she is back to training! She is going to be running the Race for a Soldier Half Marathon in Gig Harbor, Washington this September. She is especially excited about this race, because the proceeds go toward supporting soldiers who are returning from service. She is fundraising for the race, and here is the link to her donation page. (Staci blogs at Panorama Runner)

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Margaret tends to set "safe" goals, which she realized is holding her back a little in her running lately. She participated in the Elmhurst "4 on the 4th" race this weekend, and at the starting line, she chose to line up between the 9:00 and 10:00 pace runners--although she had a secret goal to finish at or just under 34:00 (which is an 8:30/mile pace). She pushed herself hard, and ended up finishing in 33:38 (an 8:25/mile pace)! Her kids also did very well, and had a little bit of competition at the very last stretch--her daughter (11) was ahead of her son (9), when he passed her with just yards left in the race. Then her daughter pushed past her son, to finish just two seconds ahead of him! Margaret is now training for a Labor Day Half. She blogs at Running Through 4th Grade.

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Renee ran a Fourth of July 5K this weekend, and PR'ed by over two minutes! It has been her goal for over three years now to run a sub-30:00 5K, and she was finally able to do it. She finished in 29:29! She gave it everything she had, and was left with nothing in the tank when she crossed the finish line, but she has a shiny new PR to be proud of. Renee blogs at With Brave Wings She Runs.

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Congratulations on some great accomplishments! You can read more stories on the Motivational Monday Facebook post.

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Fireworks

I'm going to keep this pretty short, because I'm spending the weekend with Jerry and the kids. Hopefully everyone had a nice July 4th today!

Last night, Jerry and I ended up taking the kids to see the fireworks. The State Park does them, and the park gets really crowded with people arriving all day long to claim a spot on the beach for the fireworks display. I didn't want to have to get there super early, so we decided not to go to the park. Instead, our friends Joe and Amber said we could park at their house and walk to their neighborhood park, where you can see the display from there.

First, we made pita pizzas for "Pizza Friday". We don't always do Pizza Friday, but the kids asked to yesterday. After my run, I was craving salt like crazy, so I added some salty (and delicious!) toppings to my pita pizza:

Feta cheese, green peppers, black olives, and hot banana peppers--pretty much my perfect pizza. I love those square pitas. The whole pita is 150 calories (4 PP), so with the sauce, cheese, and toppings, my whole pizza was only 9 PP.

We left to see the fireworks at around 8:30, and there weren't a ton of people there yet. We set up our blankets and chairs right next to the lake.

I was curious to see how Joey was going to react to fireworks. I've heard stories of dogs really panicking from the noise, so I didn't want to leave him home alone; but having him there could have been disastrous, too. Thankfully, he didn't care at all about the noise. He was really excited and curious, more than anything. And he was most interested in the birds (Swallows) flying over the water eating bugs.

It felt like forever before the fireworks started. We thought they were going to start at 9:45, but it ended up being closer to 10:15. It was really fun to chat with the kids, though, while we were waiting. At home, they have so many distractions; it's nice to talk to them when they are fully paying attention.

It was surprisingly cold, so I was glad I changed into a sweatshirt before we left. The park filled up quickly, and there were dozens of people there. The fireworks ended up being farther away than I'd thought they would be, so it was a little disappointing. Next year we'll have to try to go out on my dad's boat to see them. Usually, that's what we do, but he was really busy yesterday and wasn't able to go. Regardless, we had fun.

Noah asked me if we could go on a picnic tomorrow, and we haven't done that in a long time, so I thought it was a fun idea. I'm not sure what I'm going to pack for our food, but I think we'll go to a park that Jerry and I used to go to when we were dating (for any of you locals, I'm talking about Elizabeth Park).

Anyway, I hope you're all having a fantastic holiday weekend! Don't forget to send me your Motivational Monday submissions tomorrow. I probably won't be writing a post tomorrow, so I just wanted to write a reminder today.

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Long run in the Metropark

I attempted to write a post a couple of times yesterday, but it was another crazy day, so I finally decided to just wait. The days during the summer seem so much busier than during the school year for some reason.

The boys had baseball practice yesterday morning, so I decided to take Joey with us and then walk him while the boys were practicing. There is a large loop of about four miles from the baseball fields. It's not an ideal place to walk a dog, because there aren't sidewalks and cars go pretty fast down that road, but we walked a couple of steps off of the road and into the grass in most places, so it wasn't bad.

At one point, we were going to pass by my friend Andrea's house, so I sent her a text to see if we could stop and get some water for Joey (it was only 66 degrees outside, but I wasn't sure how long he should walk before needing water). We stopped and I let him drink from the hose, then I chatted with Andrea for a few minutes before we finished our walk.

That had taken an hour and 15 minutes, and the boys' practice was two hours long. When we got back to the baseball fields, Joey and I sat to watch them play.

It felt really good to go for a long walk. I've gotten used to doing a couple of shorter walks with Joey each day, but to go walk for over an hour (in nice weather!) was great.

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The weather was looking really good for a long run this morning, too. I had eight miles on the schedule. The kids stayed the night at my parents' house last night, and I ended up sleeping a little longer than I would have liked (7:00). It was still about 60 degrees, though, so definitely great running weather for July!

I decided to go to the Metropark to run, in the hope of avoiding defensive birds. I know there are birds in the Metropark, but I hoped that they would be used to having people around, walking on the bike paths, and wouldn't be so aggressive like the ones around here. I parked at the high school, because I don't have a Metropark sticker for this year, and then I decided to do an out-and-back. The park is three miles, but the car was a half mile from the park, and I figured I could just run a little out of the park at the far end to hit four before turning around.

I set my Garmin to the run/walk intervals of 2:00 run and 0:30 walk; and I also set the face to show only the distance. I didn't want to see the pace at all, because my whole goal was to just finish eight miles--the farthest run in a long time--regardless of my pace. As I ran through the park, I was happy to see that my theory about the birds was right. There were a lot of birds, of course, but none of them swooped in very close.

I was feeling pretty good, and the run/walk ratio was perfect. No issues with my stress fracture site.

When I got to the far end of the park, I ran through the entrance/exit and onto a road. I just planned to run it for a half-mile or so before turning around. Apparently, those birds didn't get the memo that people aren't out to hurt them, because TWO black birds dive-bombed me. After that, I wanted to get back into the park ASAP, so I just turned around early. Back in the park, all was cool again.

I saw a couple of interesting things on the way back. A huge slug was was crossing the bike path.

Shortly after that, I thought I saw a big nightcrawler ahead, but when I got closer, I saw it was a leech! I've never seen a leech outside of the water before. It, too, was crossing the bike path.

(I did see some cute bunnies, too, but they were too quick for a picture). When I got back toward my car, I realized I was going to have to run past it for about a quarter mile in order to get in eight miles. I hate having to run past the car! But I did it, and I felt really great when I was done. Eight miles is no longer "easy" for me, even when doing the run/walk method, so I was happy to have accomplished it.

My pace from last week had improved quite a bit, too (of course, last week was a humid, hilly run in St. Louis, and not the flat Metropark here). My average pace was 11:01--so close to sub-11. I noticed after I stopped to take a picture of the leech during mile seven that I had forgotten to pause my Garmin. So if I hadn't taken the picture, my pace would probably have been in the 10's. Maybe next week!

Tonight, we're supposed to go watch the fireworks somewhere. The State Park is usually super crowded, so I think we'll go park at our friends' house and walk to the beach. It's a nice day for it! We haven't gotten rain in a couple of days, so it's starting to dry out :)

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Wave pool, birds, and flooding

Thanks for the great responses and suggestions on yesterday's post! If there is one thing I love, it's listing out goals. I had actually spent quite a bit of time making a vision board for the post yesterday, but it wasn't approved by Prudential for some reason, so I couldn't post it. I can share it here, though:

I adore that picture of Eli with the powder all over him. I had taken a shower, and 10 minutes later, Noah and Eli had emptied an entire container of baby powder in my living room! Seeing how cute they looked, I couldn't even be mad--I just started taking pictures and laughing. That picture reminds me to laugh off the small things.

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Yesterday, I had plans to get together with my friend Sarah, who is in town from Arizona. My kids have been begging to go to the wave pool, but it's been raining every day for about six weeks now. It was supposed to rain in the evening yesterday, so Sarah and her almost-three-year old son, Alex, planned to meet us at the wave pool at 1:30. We hoped to get in a couple of hours of swimming before the storm.

We ended up being the only people there at first! Usually, the wave pool gets pretty packed in the summer, but I imagine the impending storm was keeping people away. I like when it's not crowded, because it's much easier to watch the kids. Jerry was off work, so he came along, too. It ended up being a lot of fun! I mostly hung out with Sarah and Alex in the very shallow end while Jerry took Noah and Eli to the deep end, but during a few wave sessions, I went out there and joined them.

It ended up raining at around 3:00, so we stayed a little longer (you really can't feel the rain when you're in the pool), and then headed home. It was a fun (and kind of exhausting) couple of hours.

This morning, my mom called and asked if the kids and I wanted to go for a bike ride with her to check out the flooding from the Raisin River. It's been big news around here--with all the rain we've gotten, the river is extremely high, and has caused flooding over roads. I told her sure, but I wanted to get my run done first.

I had three miles on the schedule, and I decided to do the whole run with run/walk intervals of 2:00 run and 0:30 walk. My physical therapist told me I could run a mile once a week, but otherwise, keep doing the intervals. I felt really good from the very beginning of the run this morning! I didn't really feel like I was pushing the pace too much, but after the first mile, I saw I'd completed it in 10:16 (which included the walk breaks). I was excited to see that!

Once I saw my first split, I was hoping to keep the next two around the same pace, so I think I pushed a little harder on the running portions. Second mile was 10:04. And the third mile was sub-10, at 9:50! It's kind of mind-blowing to me to hit that pace when I'm walking for 30 seconds every two minutes. My average overall pace ended up being 10:03.

I tried to take a post-run selfie because I was feeling so good after my run, but Joey was way too excited to see me. Because, you know, I was gone for a whole 30 minutes.

That large spike in the last half-mile was when some birds were getting a little defensive. I know it's getting old that I've been talking about the birds, but I can't get over how crazy they are! Last Wednesday, I went out for a planned three miles: walk one mile, run one mile, walk one mile. Well, just two minutes into the walk, I got attacked by a couple of birds. I thought they were Purple Martins, but my dad later told me they were probably Swallows, which look similar.

It was terrifying! One grabbed a hold of my hair, and while I was swatting at it, the other swooped in from the front. I started running hard, but they were relentless. They kept following me! I ran for a full two-minutes at the hardest pace I could while flailing my arms to keep them off of my head. Check out this graph of my pace:

I finally made it to a busier street, where I darted across while the birds stayed on the other side. I spent the whole rest of the mile catching my breath. My throat and lungs were burning, even though I'd only run at an 8:00 pace for a total of 2 minutes. I ran a slow pace for the second mile, and then I just didn't want to go back down my street after that, so I stopped at my parents' house and asked my mom to drive me home. Because of birds! Crazy, right? I hope that their babies grow up quickly, so they can stop being so defensive.

After my run today, my mom and I took the boys on a bike ride. We drove toward the river, and then parked and rode on the sidewalks. I couldn't believe how high the river was when we got to the riverwalk.

Normally, you can go walk under that bridge, but the water was so high that it was completely covering the sidewalk. We went the other way, and discovered that the road was actually closed because it was totally flooded over:

There was no way around that, so we just turned around and headed back to the cars. I've never seen the streets flooded this badly! And we're still getting rain every day.

After we got back to the cars, I decided to take my bike to the bike shop, since I already had it with me. It was way overdue for a tune-up, and I was having an issue with my front brakes. I dropped it off there, and it should be ready in a few days. I think on Sunday, I'll try and do a long ride (maybe 20 miles).

Well, I'm off to the boys' baseball game!

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The best ME (Women Inspired post #2)

This is the second post of a three-post series. On the first post, I wrote about how I became the person I am today--which was writing a list of goals and working on crossing them off, one by one. On this post, I've been asked to write about how I can improve to be the best version of myself, as well as my aspirations and inspirations.

For most of my life, I could be described as: the introvert, the "practical" one, the worrier, the shy one, the people-pleaser, and the scaredy cat. These are traits that are just ingrained in my genes, and in my late 20's, I finally accepted that. I know I'm never going to be the super fun talkative chick at a party who everyone is just drawn to; I'm never going to go seeking out crazy adventures all in the name of living on the edge; and I'm never going to get rid of my practicality and fly by the seat of my pants. It's just not me!

However, I have also discovered, in my late 20's and early 30's, that amazing things don't just "happen"... I have to step outside of my comfort zone (sometimes so far it hurts!) and the reward can be huge. Take flying, for example: I missed out on SO MANY amazing trips and adventures with family and friends over the years because I was too afraid to get on a plane. When I finally started flying again in 2010, I have experienced some of the best times of my life! I'm still scared of flying, but I learned that a little (okay, a lot of) wine goes a long way to get me on the plane ;)

[Side note: Ironically, one of the things I agreed to for this Prudential program was to speak on a panel at the BlogHer conferences in July in NYC. I'm terrified of that! But I know the reward of stepping out of my comfort zone will far exceed the few moments of fear.]

I'm pretty sure I was born with anxiety; my mom has always been a worrier, and I can remember having severe anxiety when I was in elementary school (and probably even younger). Back then, I worried about my pets dying, or my parents being mad at me if I did something wrong, or kids not liking me. Now, as an adult, I worry about my kids--I want them to be happy and healthy. I'm always trying to find a happy medium between being too laid-back and being overprotective, which is hard to do. I don't want my kids to grow up sheltered, but I don't want anything bad to happen to them, either. And I want them to have great memories of their childhood, long after I'm gone.

I also worry about money--even though we certainly get by okay, we don't have any savings to fall back on if something major should happen. When I fainted in 2010 and broke my jaw, it came completely out of nowhere. We weren't at all prepared for the huge hospital bills! We have decent insurance, but the deductibles and co-pays were in the thousands of dollars, which we were unprepared for. Jerry also took a week or two off of work (unpaid) to take care of me. So, that "little fainting spell" cost a lot more than we could have imagined.

I would love to get to the point where I don't have to worry about unexpected financial burdens popping up: the furnace dying when it's 20 below zero, or getting in some sort of accident, or Jerry losing his job, or God forbid--a death in our family. We aren't prepared for any of these things, but I really don't know where to start. The thought of saving up an emergency fund is totally overwhelming to me! That is where I hope this experience with Prudential will help me come up with an idea of where to get started.

To answer the question of how I can be the best ME, here are just a few of the things I want to include in my life to be healthy and happy:

Maintain goal weight- Something that will never come easy to me, but I am definitely happier when I am at a weight of 130-140. My goals is to get back there and maintain it.

Travel- I was too scared to travel for so long (fear of flying), and even though I am still scared of flying, I haven't let it stop me from going new places. I'd love to continue that as I get older.

Reach running goals- I always feel on top of the world after I conquer a goal that I've been working on for a long time. No matter the goal, I'd like to continue to work to better my running.

Practice random kindness- Doing things for others has always brought me joy, and I'd like to continue to always look for opportunities to help people. (I can't mention random kindness without remembering Mark, who was all about helping others...)

Step out of my comfort zone- I never achieved anything worthwhile in my comfort zone, so stepping out is a must!

Create family memories- I want my kids to have fun memories of us as a family, so I'd like to always look for ways to be creative in our time together. (I don't love swimming, but I did a lot of it in Punta Cana so the kids would have memories of me swimming with them)

Be adventurous- Doing things I never thought I could/would do!

Be financially secure- Not worry about money, and have an emergency fund set aside in case we need it.

Laugh it off- Sometimes I get stressed or anxious, and I don't look past that to see the humor in situations. I want to remember not to sweat the small stuff.

Maintain friendships- I have some really amazing friends, and no matter where life takes us, I'd like to make our friendship a priority.

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What are your aspirations and inspirations? Share your vision by joining the growing community of women inspired in the comments below, or on Twitter using the hashtag #womeninspired. With your long-term goals in mind, do you have any financial challenges you want to tackle?

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Motivational Monday #113

Happy Motivational Monday, Friends! I had a great week, and I'm very proud of myself for sticking to Weight Watchers while I was in St. Louis. There was a lot of food that I was tempted to stuff myself with, but I made the best choices I could; and I even allowed enough points to splurge on a piece of cake for dessert Thursday, and some drinks on Friday evening. When I got home and weighed myself, I hadn't gained a single pound (I hadn't lost any either, but I am happy to have maintained!). I don't think there is anything I would have changed about how I handled the food situation in St. Louis, so that makes me feel good.

Today, I had a great run! My physical therapist gave me the okay to run a mile without doing the run/walk intervals, so I built that into my three-miler today. I decided to run/walk (at a 2:00 run/0:30 walk) ratio for the first mile, then run the second mile at an easy pace, and then do the run/walk again for the third mile.

I definitely feel like my cardio is improving a little, because it wasn't quite as hard today. My split times were not my best, but I'm okay with that. It's kind of interesting how similar the splits are whether I'm run/walking or just running. My splits were 11:10 (run/walk), 10:35 (run), and 10:53 (run/walk) today. I am very happy that I didn't feel so much as a single twinge where my stress fracture was, so hopefully that means the therapy is working. I'm going to continue to follow my PT's instructions, so that I don't get injured again (fingers crossed).

Anyway, I have some inspiring stories to share for Motivational Monday today! Enjoy :)

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Andréa recently completed her first half-marathon! She did the Twin Lobster Half, and her goal was to finish under 2:20 (her best time in training). She crushed that goal, finishing in 2:16:52! The coastline course was beautiful, and she felt great throughout the race--even saving enough energy to finish strong. She said the best part of the day, however, was watching her five-year old son complete the one-mile race in 10:39! She loves seeing him learn healthy habits and enjoy being active. She sets a great example for him, as she has lost 75 pounds since August of last year, and started running. Her 5K time has dropped from 38:46 to 28:57!

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Roxanne completed the Grandma's Half Marathon in Minnesota last weekend! Her goal was to run the entire 13.1-mile distance, and to finish in less than three hours. She crossed the finish line in 2:57, beating her goal by three minutes! This was her first half-marathon, and she just started running about two years ago.

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Eight years ago, Denise lost 80 pounds on Weight Watchers, and has kept it off! She started running about a year after the weight loss, and ran her first 5K race in 2009. Since then, she has run 38 races--everything from one-mile to a full marathon! She said signing up for races keeps her motivated to run, which has helped her keep the weight off all these years. Last weekend, she set a new PR in two distances: 26:50 in the 5K, and 1:33:01 in the 10-Mile! She says that she is somehow getting "older but faster" ;)

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Don't forget to share your own accomplishments from this week on the Motivational Monday Facebook post.  Congrats ladies!

(By the way, my second Prudential post has to go live at noon tomorrow. Normally, I post at 9:00 pm, but because of the Prudential post, I won't have another up until Wednesday night.)

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A grown-up field trip, part two

...continued from yesterday's post.

On Friday morning, my alarm woke me up at 4:40. I quickly got dressed in my running clothes, and headed downstairs to the front of the hotel, which is where I was going to meet Alicia. I was a little surprised to see that it was lightening and drizzling a tiny bit of rain. We had agreed the day before that if it was pouring down rain, we wouldn't go; but we didn't talk about lightening or anything else.

Alicia showed up a few minutes before 5:00, and she was so sweet! I was really glad that we'd made plans to run together, because if I hadn't been meeting her, I would certainly still be in bed. I would have used lightening as an excuse ;)

I had to be on the shuttle with Purina at 7:15 AM, so I wanted to make sure that we'd be done running in time for me to shower and get ready to head out on time. I'd warned Alicia that I had to do a run/walk, but she was totally fine with that (and going at my pace, which is much slower than hers). I set my watch for two minutes running and thirty seconds walking.

Forest Park was literally right across the street from my hotel, and it was a great place to run. The entire loop of the perimeter (including the path that led to the loop--it was a lollipop route) was 6.5 miles. I had been planning on 7 miles for a long run, but the 6.5 was perfect.

Being 5:00 in the morning, it was still pretty dark when we started running, but the street lights helped. The lightening was closer to the far end of the park, so as we ran, we got closer and closer to the storm. Alicia was super nice, and very easy to chat with. She showed me all of the fun things to do at the park (there are so many FREE things to do there--including the zoo!).

Once we reached the far end of the park, at around mile three, it really started to rain--not just a drizzle. The rain actually felt pretty good, though, because the air was thick with humidity. The rain started coming down harder by the minute, and the last mile, it was a total downpour. There was not one inch of my clothing that wasn't soaked. It was actually pretty fun! I was a little worried about my shoes, though, because I planned to wear them all day.

When we arrived back at the hotel, we'd hit 6.5 miles (by 6:15 am!), which was a nice start to the day. We took a quick picture once we were standing under the awning, and then said goodbye. Alicia had to go to work, and I had another busy day with Purina.

My shoes ended up being way too soaked through to wear, so I had to wear some dressier boot-type shoes. I made it to the shuttle with time to spare, and we headed to the Purina campus. Friday was "National 'bring your pet to work' day", and Purina hoped to set a world record for most pets in the workplace. Purina allows their employees to bring their pets to work every day, but they planned a big celebration day for Friday to get everyone to participate.

First, we had breakfast, and then we toured the manufacturing factory. We had to gear up to go inside:

I was amazed at how immaculately clean it was. I'm not sure what I expected, but it was seriously clean enough to eat off the floor. We weren't allowed to take photos, but it looked pretty much how I expected a manufacturing plant to look--just cleaner.

After our tour and a presentation about the manufacturing process, we went upstairs to learn from employees about what it's like to bring your pet to work. Some employees bring their pets every day, and they say it helps them to relax and be more productive. Most employees bring dogs, but there are some that bring cats.

From there, we went outside to where everyone was gathering for a photo of ALL the pets at work. There were hundreds of people and pets, so it was hard to get photos to show just how many dogs there were (I think there were only three cats, and two sugar gliders, among all the dogs). The thing that I noticed right off the bat was the huge variety of dog breeds. Where I live, you see the same four or five breeds pretty much anywhere. The Purina employees had dozens of different breeds represented--it was hard to even find two of the same breed near each other.

Purina used a drone to get an ariel photo of the employees and their pets...

I do believe that a record was set, with 280 dogs and three cats (and two sugar gliders). It was pretty amazing that there were no fights or incidents with all those dogs in one place!

After the photo, we broke off into small groups of about four people, meeting with three Purina employees. There, we had a "listening session", where Purina wanted to hear from us our thoughts of the event, and working with a brand. This was one of my favorite parts of the event--it was really great that they took the time to listen to our honest feedback about what our readers/listeners/viewers enjoy, and how they can make the program better.

I think Purina does a fantastic job, and there really isn't much I would change. I get offers to work with brands all the time, and I rarely accept, but Purina is really a pleasure to work with (and it's because of their summit that I adopted Joey!). I told them that I thought they would really benefit to invite random people from the public to attend events like this, because it really allows people to see all of the good things that Purina does. Word of mouth is really great advertising, so if people go and enjoy it, they can share what they've learned.

Anyway, we had lunch and then listened to a presentation about shelter pets from the APA adoption center in Missouri. It's a really great organization that takes in homeless pets until they are adopted. It's a small organization, but it makes a huge difference in the lives of pets who are about to be euthanized because of overcrowded shelters. We got to make fleece blankets for the APA.

After that, it was time to say goodbye. Some of the influencers were heading right to the airport, and some where sticking around for one more night. We were invited to stay for the Cardinals vs. Cubs game on Friday night, and I thought that sounded so fun! At 7:15, we got on a shuttle to take us to the game (I think there were about 15 of us that stuck around). The game was AWESOME--very exciting. It was tied, so they went into a 10th inning, and the Cardinals ended up winning.

This is Kady from Cats of Instagram

We celebrated at a place called Sub Zero, and then called it a night. I had to be downstairs by 6:00 AM for my flight home. Getting home seemed to take forever! It's a very short flight--about an hour and a half--but I didn't get home until after 1:00 (with the airport time, and then driving, and picking up my kids from my brother's house, getting Joey, etc.). I was completely exhausted when I finally went to bed yesterday at around 10:00, and I slept 9 hours last night!

(In full disclosure, Purina paid for my travel to St. Louis, but I'm not being paid for (or required to write) this post; and all opinions are honest--as always).

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Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! If you have a submission, here is where to send it. (If you send it to my regular email address, I may not see it in time to post, so please use the MM address).

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A grown-up field trip

Wow! I had such an amazing (and super busy) few days in St. Louis with Purina. (The whole event kept giving me memories of field trips when I was a kid, which was kind of nostalgic in a way.) I attended the True Nature of Cats event at the Purina headquarters in St. Louis a couple of years ago, and at the time, I really didn't know much about Purina. I just love cats, and thought it sounded like fun to talk about cats for two days ;) I ended up learning more than I could have imagined, and the things I took away from that trip stick with me on a daily basis as a pet owner. Then, in October 2014, I attended Purina's Better With Pets summit in New York City, and that was SO inspiring.

I was so intrigued by Victoria Stilwell's dog training presentation at that summit, and it planted the seed in my head to consider getting a dog in the near future. I couldn't stop thinking about it, and then in February, we decided to adopt Joey. Having Joey has been life changing! I'm still more of a cat person, but now I can say that I really do love dogs, too.

Anyway, both of those events were packed full of amazing information about pets, so I was very excited when Purina invited me to their headquarters once again, this time for a "Meet Purina" event. The purpose of this event was more focused on who Purina is and what they do (in addition to producing pet food, of course). There were about 25 "digital influencers" who attended--not only bloggers, but also Instagramers and YouTubers.

We arrived on Wednesday. My flight got in at around 1:00 pm, and then I went to the hotel to hang out for a little bit until we had "Yappy Hour" (drinks and hors d'oeuvres) at a nice restaurant called Scape. I wanted to stay on track with Weight Watchers for the whole trip, so I was careful about what I ate. I recognized a couple of women from previous Purina events, so I chatted with them and of course met lots of new people (and pets! This was a pet-friendly happy hour, and I totally fell in love with Ruby Roo):

Ruby Roo only has two legs (her hind legs) and she's the
sweetest little doggy ever!

Thursday was a super busy day, starting at 7:30 AM. We went to the Purina headquarters first thing, and had breakfast while we were introduced to several people who would be working with us while we were there. Everybody was so very nice, and it was obvious how passionate they were about their jobs--that was a common theme on the whole campus, actually.

The campus is gorgeous!

We took a tour of campus, and then spent the rest of the morning checking out the research labs and learning about the product innovation. It was all very scientific, and kind of went right over my head, but I was amazed at how much is involved in developing new products.

Lunch was quite the experience! Purina has a chef on staff that uses trends in human foods to inspire new pet products, and she cooked an enormous feast for us. Look at this menu:

The family-style foods were on our table, and we passed those around. Meanwhile, Chef Amanda Hassner served the plated foods listed above. This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I wanted to make sure to taste everything, even if I didn't think I'd like it (chicken hearts?!). I decided to take 1-2 bites of each item, which ended up being a good plan to not go overboard.

My favorite dish was the rice with botanical oil vinaigrette (it's under the pile of chicken skewers)... and the quinoa cake for dessert was pretty amazing as well! I left feeling satisfied, but not full, which was the goal.

After lunch, we interacted with the Purina brand teams, which was probably the most informative and interesting part of the event for me. There were two rooms set up like a trade show, and we walked around to talk about the different products and ask questions from each brand. At one table, for the Just Right line of food, I was so surprised when I was handed this bag:

It was actually kind of funny, because at first, I just looked at the words--"Joey's Blend"--and I said, "Oh, I have a dog named Joey!", thinking it was a coincidence. Haha, then I realized that the photo was actually Joey and me! The Just Right line is a food that is completely tailored to your dog based on a questionnaire that you fill out online. They put a cute, customized label on it, like the one of Joey and me, and then ship it to your house.

After that, we got on a bus to go to the Purina Farms, which are about an hour away. I had no idea that the place existed, but it was amazing. It's open to the public, and the whole place is dog-friendly. They have a huge building for dog shows and training. We were lucky enough to see some dogs show off their frisbee catching skills for us, which was really fun to watch. Here are a couple of videos:



We had dinner upstairs--an amazing barbecue spread. I tried to stick with healthier options (chicken instead of pulled pork, lots of veggies) to avoid a spending the 100 PointsPlus I easily could have spent. Someone mentioned that there was a chocolate cake for dessert, and I really wanted that. I decided to have just a couple of bites. I took the very last slice (which kind of fell apart on my plate), and it was SO AMAZING. I decided to go ahead and spend the 14 PP on it, and enjoy every bite.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel, and it was nearly 8:00 pm! I was exhausted, and I had plans to get up uber early (4:45) to meet up with a reader for a run on Friday morning. The plans for that were pretty spontaneous--someone named Alicia emailed me on Wednesday and said she reads my blog, and asked if I wanted some company on my run. I was a little intimidated to run Forest Park alone, for fear of getting lost, so I thought company would be nice!

This post is getting long, so I'll continue tomorrow... :) It feels good to be back home!

(In full disclosure, Purina sponsored my travel to St. Louis, but all opinions are honest--as always).

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NSV and physical therapy progress

I had a physical therapy appointment yesterday, but it wasn't until 12:30 pm, so I had time to run in the morning. I've been doing my runs on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, because my PT wants me to have a day of rest in-between each run. I've always had Wednesdays as a rest day, but I really like running on Wednesdays now--my Weight Watchers week starts on Wednesday, so it's nice to start the week off with activity Points.

Anyways, I decided to increase the running portions of the run/walk. I wanted to add just 10 seconds, but my Garmin only allows 15 second increments, so I set it for a 75 second run and 30 second walk. It was extremely humid when I stepped outside, and I was grateful I was only doing a 3-miler and not a long run.

It ended up being one of the toughest runs I've had in the past few weeks! The humidity made it really hard to catch my breath during the walk breaks, and I wasn't even pushing the pace for the running segments. I definitely felt the extra 15 seconds of running, but I know that I have to progress that eventually, so I was okay with that. It was just the humidity making it hard to breathe that made it feel so difficult.

My average pace was a little faster, but that was only because I was doing longer running segments; obviously, the longer you run, the faster your average pace will be. I'm curious to see what my pace ends up at once I reach two minutes of running and 30 seconds of walking. I'm hoping it'll be below 10:00, but even if it's not, I'm happy with how the run/walking is going.

Finished the run, and the sweat was literally pouring off of me and dripping at my feet. That's what the humidity will do! I took a picture, but you can't even really tell how bad it was.

I was trying to get this tank in the picture, too, because it's an NSV (non-scale victory) for me right now. Activyst sent me this tank several months ago (it's says "GOTTA RUN") and I typically have been wearing a medium shirt, but I wanted it to be a little loose, so I requested a large. When it arrived, I was shocked to see that it was tight! It sat unworn in my bedroom, and just for the heck of it yesterday, I tried it on.

Even though the scale has only gone down a couple of pounds since I started Weight Watchers, it fit pretty well! I've noticed that my clothes have been fitting much better lately, and a few people have said to me that I look like I'm losing weight--so I'm not sure what the deal is with the scale, but maybe it'll catch up sooner or later. I'm happy that I'm seeing progress in other areas!

After my run, I went to my physical therapy appointment. My PT had me warm up on the StairMaster--to be honest, I've ever used one (that I can remember, anyway). He set it for 10 minutes, while he finished stretching out another patient, and holy smokes--that was tough! Especially for a "warm-up" ;) We went through some of the exercises, and talked about the run/walking I've been doing.

He told me I could go ahead and add a one-mile run each week--not a run/walk, but running the entire distance. I was kind of surprised, because I expected it to take much longer before I progressed to that, but I'm curious to see how it goes. He wants me to take it easy, but not too easy (when running too slowly, it can mess up my form, which can cause further injury).

He told me that I could add a fourth day per week, and do just the one-mile run on that day, or I could swap one of my shorter runs with that one-miler. I think I'll try it tomorrow, by walking a mile, then running a mile, and then walking a mile (so I still complete three miles total). I'm a little nervous, but excited at the same time.

After doing the PT exercises, he said that my hip has shown improvement, but it still needs a lot of work. I'm going to work on those for about a month before I go back again, as long as everything is going smoothly. It was a good session--I left feeling optimistic.

Since I'm going to St. Louis tomorrow (coming home Saturday), I won't be able to go to my usual Weight Watchers meeting. I asked Glenda if she had any meetings today, and she did--so I decided to go to the one at 10:30 this morning. It's been six days since my last weigh-in, when she told me to increase my daily PointsPlus target to 29 (instead of 26). I was very happy when I got on my scale to see that I lost 1.5 pounds this week! After several weeks of losing just a fraction of a pound, I was getting discouraged, but I guess my body just wanted me to eat more. I'm going to continue with the higher PointsPlus target, as long as it's working.

Today was the eighth and final week of Glenda's challenge. I attended all eight weeks, even when I had to go to different meeting times/locations to fit them in. I always like challenges that are a specific length of time, because it seems very do-able. That's why I like to do monthly challenges (which reminds me, I haven't done that in a while... I need to come up with one for July!).

I'm not sure if I'll be posting for the next few days, but I'm going to bring my computer and hopefully post from the hotel. Tomorrow evening should be interesting. Purina is having a happy hour reception... with pets included! I was a little curious when I booked my flight, and they asked me if I'd be bringing a pet. If it were practical, I would have loved to bring Joey!

My long run is Friday, so I'm going to try to be adventurous and run in St. Louis. I always get nervous to venture out in unfamiliar places, but it's a great way to see a new city!

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