Runs for Cookies

June 09, 2016

Success Story Saturday (a possible new series)

I'll get to the Success Story Saturday idea below, but I wanted to share this first. I stopped doing the Motivational Monday series months ago, because I just wasn't receiving many submissions anymore, and I think the series kind of ran its course. I really enjoyed reading about people's accomplishments, though, and I still love getting emails from readers who tell me about running their first 5K or hitting a big weight loss milestone, etc.

I received this email from Allison recently, and since she mentioned that she had always hoped she'd be able to submit a MM post one day, I really wanted to share her accomplishment!

Here is what she wrote:

"Good morning!

I have been a reader of your website for years. I have followed your journey and really look forward to reading your blogs and seeing your adventures!! Since finding your website I always hoped that at one point I'd be able to submit a "Motivational" post. I have struggled with my weight like so many others. I was never truly interested in fitness and ate what I thought was a balanced diet. In January of this year I had my lightbulb moment... I would be turning 35, and I decided to start a workout routine and promised myself I wouldn't give it up like I have so many times before. I have lost 19 lbs so far and am just 15 lbs from my goal weight. I have two amazing sons, 13 and 10 and I want to set an example for them above anything else.

This morning I ran my first 5K!! It was a Navy sponsored run here at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, called the Fallen Heroes 5K. I signed up weeks ago and spent this month preparing for it the best I could. Here in South Texas the month of May can we pretty brutal weather wise. I set a personal goal to finish in 45 minutes, with a walk/run. Despite a heat index of 94 degrees with 95% humidity I finished with a time of 39 minutes :) It felt great and I am already looking forward to signing up for more races and seeing how I can improve my time!"

A huge congrats to Allison on her first 5K!

Allison's email reminded me of something I'd been thinking about for a while, and I think I'm ready to start it now. I would like to start a series called Success Story Saturday, which is a branch off of the Motivational Monday series. I receive a lot of emails from people who have been extremely successful in losing weight and/or fitness, and it's really motivating to read!

Success Story Saturday would be a series of guest posts that feature some of these people who have made big improvements in their lives. While I intended Motivational Monday to be centered around smaller weekly goals, I would like Success Story Saturday to be more about the big changes that have changed someone's entire life.

I won't be posting these every Saturday, but once in a while I thought it would be fun to have a guest post with someone's "success story". If this sounds like you, here is how you can submit a guest post for consideration:

Send me an email at SSS (at) runsforcookies (dot) com with your success story (written in first person). I may edit for length, spelling, etc., but I will basically copy and paste the email to a post.
Include a 2-3 sentence bio in your email, so I can include that at the end of your post. If you want to include a link to your personal blog or social media, you can add that as well. (Example bio: "Katie is a stay-at-home mom of two boys and can usually be found running or face first in a pile of cookies. You can find her around the web at...")
Attach 2-4 photos (no collages, please, but a side-by-side comparison photo would be okay).
Please keep the story to 1000 words or less.

Here are a few examples of stories I've shared in the past, so you can get an idea of what I'm looking for:

Your story doesn't have to be about a large weight loss, or about running. Maybe you overcame depression by making some healthy lifestyle changes, or maybe you used strength training to completely transform your body, or maybe you quit excessive drinking and started hiking instead, etc. I'm just looking for inspirational stories of positive lifestyle changes to share!

June 08, 2016

Week 43 Weigh-in

I almost completely forgot to post a weigh-in today! My Wednesday Weigh-in ritual has changed a lot since I started doing the moving average weight instead of my actual Wednesday weight, so it's actually pretty easy to forget.

Like I mentioned yesterday, I have not had a good week as far as my eating goes. I was having such a hard time feeling satisfied without eating what I truly wanted (due to the no-grocery-shopping challenge). I hadn't realized how important eating what I was craving was in staying binge-free and maintaining my weight--by eating what I really want, I feel more satisfied with smaller portions, and I don't go looking for snacks between meals. When I don't eat what I'm really craving, I could probably eat everything in the house and not feel satisfied. Hopefully that makes sense.

I went to the grocery store yesterday and bought some things that I'd been craving, and it was like my mood did a 180. I felt so much better! And I had no problem keeping my calories in check yesterday, either. I was starting to get worried, because my weight has been going up each week. This week, I saw the 130's for the first time in a few months.

Last week, my moving average was 129, and today it was 130. Hopefully, now that I've figured out the issue with overeating, I'll stop seeing the upward trend. I had another good day today, feeling very satisfied with my food, and I didn't overeat at all. It's interesting, though--last night, I knew I could have anything that I wanted for a bedtime treat, and I chose grapes. Haha! I have been back on a grape kick lately (I used to eat a TON of them). I love grapes!

While I definitely do better with my eating when I plan it all out, I am surprised at how well I've been doing while running without a schedule. I've just been winging it, and my only real "rule" is that I don't go more than two days without a run. I've kept my runs to 3-5 miles, which is the distance I am happiest doing. And I've been going at all different times of the day, which is kind of nice! I used to feel like I had to get it done first thing in the morning, but since I'm not really training for anything right now, I've just been doing what feels "right".

Eli got up early again this morning to get in his run before school, and I went with him. He said he wanted to beat his time from Monday (on Monday, he ran half a mile in 6:50). So we picked up the pace just a touch, and then when we got back to our street, he picked it up a little more to beat his time. He finished today's run in 6:06.

Tomorrow, the kids have a half day of school, and then they are out for the summer! Eli is super excited, but Noah said he's going to miss seeing his friends every day. I'm actually really looking forward to them being off, as long as I can keep them from fighting with each other. I can't believe that 2016 is almost halfway over, though.

We don't have any big plans for the summer until Labor Day. We'll be going to Virginia Beach to meet up with a lot of the From Fat to Finish Line community at the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon. We haven't done a family vacation since we went to Punta Cana in 2014, so I'm really excited about Virginia Beach (we've never been there, so it'll be a fun new place to explore, too).

Anyway, I have to cut this short because the kids have baseball games again tonight. Here are a few pictures of my kitties :) I've made my bed every single day since I redecorated my room, but today I was in a rush and forgot to do it. When I went in there to do it a little later, Phoebe had taken a napping spot right next to my pillow, and I didn't have the heart to disturb her, so the bed went unmade today.

And normally, Phoebe and Estelle can't stand being near each other, but they both love my bed so much that they share it--as long as they are at opposite ends ;)

And Chandler just avoids all the female drama, choosing to hang out in the cat tree instead.

Joey was totally jealous that I was taking pictures of the cats instead of paying attention to him, so I took his picture, too. This is what he does when he wants my attention. He sits right in front of me and wags his tail. He usually ends up getting a treat ;)

Well, gotta head out to the boys' baseball games!

June 07, 2016

A 5K plan and update on grocery challenge

Noah and Eli had great games yesterday! I was pretty much obsessed with this little basset puppy at Eli's games...

He was so cute! He kept grabbing a blanket and playing tug of war with himself.

I'm glad to see that there is so much interest in the 5K plan that I wrote! There are a ton of 5K plans around the internet for beginner runners, as well as experienced (fast) runners; but I realized there really aren't many that are geared toward experienced runners who are at the middle or back of the pack and want to improve their times. Just because some people may be slower doesn't mean they are inexperienced or aren't trying to improve their times!

So, that was my focus for the 5K plan I just wrote--experienced middle-of-the-pack runners who are looking to improve their finish times. I listed pace suggestions for sub-40, sub-35, sub-30, and sub-25... but the plan can be accommodated to other goals as well. You basically just need to figure out what pace you need to run to hit your goal (whatever it may be) and use that pace for the "key" workouts in the plan.

There are lots of pace calculators to help figure that out, including this one. Just enter your goal time and the distance (5K) and it will give you a goal pace.

Anyway, I created a page called Training Plans on my blog (which you can find in the tabs below my banner), and I posted the link to download the plan there. It's in PDF format for easy printing. I included instructions that (hopefully) explain it really well.

Even though it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed writing the plan, and I'd love to make some more. When I do, I will add them to that page. If you use the plans, please feel free to give me some feedback (good or bad) of what you thought. If there is a particular plan that you'd like to see, let me know, and I may write it in the future.

So... I decided to end the no-grocery-shopping challenge now instead of doing it through the end of June. It's only been a couple of weeks, but it's really messing with my intuitive eating habits. I was doing SO good with eating what I really wanted over the last 10 months, and that really helped me to stay binge-free.

Since I've been limiting myself by not buying groceries, I've really been struggling with overeating. I haven't actually binged, but I've come very close and I'm scared I'll ruin my binge-free streak soon. My weight has been in the low-130's all week, which isn't bad (still under my goal weight), but it's climbing and I really don't want it to continue going up!

I hate even writing about this, because I don't want to sound whiny, but there is no way around it--it's the truth. This time of year is SO hard for me as it is, and then when I add the no-grocery-shopping challenge to it, I think it's just too much for me. So, rather than continue to complain about it for the rest of the month, I'm choosing to end the challenge early.

I don't plan to go hog wild at the grocery store or anything, but there are some things I've been craving that I haven't eaten because of the challenge. I think what I'd like to do from now on is to shop several times a week, and only buy the things we'll be using within a couple of days. That way, I won't be buying more than we'll use, and I can continue to work on using up what we have in the pantry right now.

I'd like to try to get my weight back down to about 128 (I would love to see 125 again, but I won't push my luck, haha). At 128, I have a 5-pound cushion under my goal weight, so a splurge here and there doesn't cause any damage. Right now, I'm just a splurge away from being over my goal weight, and I really don't want that. I'm going to buy a few of my favorite foods tonight, and fit them into my meal plan for the week--hopefully that will help me to be satisfied with less food.

I did get kind of hooked on vegetable fried rice thanks to the challenge, though ;) I've been including more veggies each time, and it's SO good--I love sugar snap peas and mushrooms best, but I've included several other veggies, too. And I'm still addicted to avocado toast! It amazes me just how good two simple items are together (Ezekiel bread, toasted, with smashed avocado on top). I wish avocados didn't go bad so quickly, though--I just use half of one each time I make toast.

This is my current favorite--topped with crushed red pepper!

Anyway, the challenge wasn't a total failure--we did make a big dent in what we had in the pantry. And I discovered a few new recipes that I love (Pineapple Fried Rice was my favorite!). But I am glad to be able to eat what I'm really craving.

June 06, 2016

Quick Monday Bullets

Eli has a double-header game tonight, and Noah has a single game, so I am just going to write a quick post of bullets about the weekend. Nothing much was happening this weekend anyway!

On Saturday morning, I went to some city wide garage sales with the kids and my mom. I haven't been to garage sales in a long time! I didn't have much luck on Saturday, other than a couple of pairs of jeans. I got a bunch of nice Under Armour sweatshirts for Noah to wear in the fall for $1 each, which was a great score. Eli found a Lego set (a 184-piece Batman set) for 50 cents (and it wound up having all the pieces included!) For 50 cents, it was definitely a risk worth taking.

At one of the sales, I bought a new plastic pool for $5 for Joey. I'd been wanting to buy one for him, but they're too big to fit in my Jeep. We had my mom's car on Saturday, and we managed to fit the pool in the back. When we got home, the boys wanted to fill it up right away. Joey, being part lab that loves water, jumped in right away.

Jerry went to a friend's birthday party on Saturday night, and the kids stayed at my parents' house, so I had the house to myself. I had been up since 3:30 in the morning (insomnia), so I just stayed in and watched a couple of Lifetime movies. It felt kind of good to do nothing, but I was feeling restless when it was finally time to go to bed.

On Sunday morning, I really wanted to have a doughnut for breakfast and have a lazy morning with Jerry; but, I managed to avoid a doughnut and go out for a run instead. I'm really glad I did! I felt much more energetic when I was done with my run. I did five miles, and it was one of those runs that just felt really good the entire time. My pace ended up being 10:02/mile with a heart rate of 144 (goal is under 146), so I was very happy with that. I stopped seeing big improvements in my pace during heart rate training, so I wasn't sure if I hit a plateau or what. But I honestly don't mind--if my easy run pace stays at 10:00 or even 11:00 forever, I'm happy with that.

It's really difficult to keep my heart rate from jumping when I run these days, because it's prime bird season. They get really territorial, and I'm terrified of them dive-bombing me. I haven't had any close encounters this year (yet), but each time I get to a spot where they've been mean or attacked me in the past, my heart rate spikes. I found that when I run with headphones, I'm less anxious, because I don't hear them squawking at me. I forgot my headphones the last couple of times I ran, though.

We had a pretty relaxing day at home yesterday. I've been working really hard on a 5K plan that I want to post on my blog. It's an 80/20 plan to run a sub-30 5K (I've also included paces for sub-40, sub-35, and sub-25). It's actually been really fun to work on! I'll see how it goes over, and if people like it, maybe I'll write some more plans to share. I will get that one posted soon.

I'm going to follow the plan that I just wrote and see how I like it. The hardest part was getting the 80/20 ratio to work out correctly. I am really happy with what I wrote, though, and it made me want to follow the schedule myself! haha. Mondays are rest days, so the first run of the plan is actually tomorrow.

I wrote a couple of plans for Noah and Eli to follow this summer as well. I wrote a 10K schedule for Noah, so he'll be ready to run his first 10K in October; and I wrote a 5K schedule for Eli to be prepared to run a 5K race in August. He's never actually followed a training plan, and I want him to get used to it. Our cross country practices will start in mid-August, so he'll be ahead of the game when we start, which is nice!

Today, Eli started with his plan, and he had 0.5 miles on his schedule. He asked me to run it with him, so we got up at 6:00 and headed out right away. If we run two blocks from our house (a big square) it's exactly half a mile, so that's what we did. It was nice! I wish *my* runs were only half a mile ;)

Okay, I've got to get the boys fed and ready for baseball. Busy night!

June 03, 2016

Our own little field trip

Noah's last track meet was yesterday, so things should be calming down a bit for the summer. It was kind of crazy for a few weeks, with both track and baseball going on. I managed to get an awesome picture of Noah at his meet yesterday. If he would just wear running shorts, he'd look like an elite in this photo! ;)

He was running the 70-meter dash here, and he finished in 11 seconds--which means he was running about 14 miles per hour. I honestly don't think I could do that, even if it was for just 70 meters!

Noah said he doesn't want to do track again next year, because he likes running on the road and grass better than on the track, and he likes the longer distances (at a slower pace). I don't blame him--the track meet is a LOT of just sitting around and waiting for his events, and then it's over in (literally) 11 seconds.

Noah did say that he wants to run the Rock 'n' Roll 5K in Virginia Beach when we go down there for Labor Day. Jerry is going to run the half-marathon, so I think it would be awesome if Noah wants to do the 5K. Noah even set his alarm for 5:30 this morning so that he could get up and run two miles with Jerry before school. He hasn't run long distances in a while, so I wasn't even sure he'd make it two miles--but when he got home, they'd not only finished, but at a 10:00/mile pace!

I headed out for a run as soon as they got back, and for some reason, I decided to wear shorts (actual shorts, not my tight running capris) this morning. I've only ever run in them one time (the loose skin on my thighs makes shorts uncomfortable). I figured since I've been running really slowly for heart rate training, maybe I could wear them without any issues (less jiggling).

This was a more flattering angle than from the front! haha

Wow, you can really see the under-pronation (supination) of my left foot in that photo! It's something I'm always conscious of when I run, but I can't seem to correct it. It doesn't physically bother me, so I'm not really worried about it. Anyway, the shorts weren't too uncomfortable, but I was very self-conscious in them. I feel much better in my tight capris.

Noah had a field trip today, and Jerry was chaperoning. Eli was bummed out because he didn't get a single field trip this year (usually, they have two or three). I told him that he could stay home from school today and we would go to the dairy farm to see the animals and get ice cream--sort of a field trip of our own. We made this plan before our no-grocery-shopping challenge, so the ice cream today didn't count against us! ;)

I asked a friend of mine if she and her son wanted to join us, and they did. It was a gorgeous day to go to the farm! We got there just as a school bus was arriving (it's a popular place for a field trip). Eli and I both like feeding the goats.

We usually avoid the pond with geese when we go, because the geese can be really mean, but Eli's friend wanted to feed the fish. I had no idea there were enormous carp in the water, and that ended up being Eli's favorite part of the farm.

It was a fun day with Eli, and Noah had a blast with Jerry on his field trip. Next week is the kids' last week of school! (I cannot believe they will both be in the middle school next year--that is just crazy).

June 03, 2016

RECIPE: Ham and Swiss Bubble Up Casserole

I've been kind of obsessed with the "bubble up" casserole variations that are floating around food blogs. Basically, the only constant ingredient is biscuit dough--all the other ingredients are varied to make all sorts of different casseroles. Anyway, I had a bag of shredded swiss cheese in my fridge that I needed to use up before it went bad, and so I decided to make my own variation of a bubble up casserole... Ham & Swiss! It turned out to be absolutely delicious (probably my favorite bubble up I've made so far).

Click here for the printer-friendly PDF

Ham & Swiss Bubble Up Casserole

2 small (8 oz) cans of buttermilk biscuits (the kind that are 3 biscuits per serving)
8 oz. diced ham
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning
2 cups milk (I used whole fat milk)
6 oz. shredded swiss cheese
2 Tbsp. Parmesan cheese

Cut each biscuit in half, and then in half again (so you get four pieces from each biscuit) and put them in a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Toss the ham into the dish as well. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and add the butter. When the butter is melted, add the flour and stir until smooth. Add the Italian seasoning, and very gradually stir in the milk. Stir constantly while you add the milk, so that it stays smooth and you keep the roux from being clumpy. Once all the milk has been added, heat until it just comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the cheeses. Stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth.

Pour the cheese sauce into the casserole dish, and stir to combine the biscuits, ham, and cheese sauce. (It will look like there is way too much sauce, but the biscuits will "bubble up" while baking.) Bake uncovered for about 20-30 minutes (take it out when the biscuits just start to brown on the edges of the dish).

June 02, 2016

Global Running Day

Apparently, yesterday was "Global Running Day". I have no idea what that means, except that people were posting about running all over social media--I loved it! ;)

Bart Yasso, from Runner's World magazine, posted about making yesterday the "World's Biggest RUNch"--meaning, everybody running at lunchtime, globally. I did run at lunch time, but my reasons were more for procrastination than the camaraderie of a group virtual run, haha. I didn't have anything going on yesterday until the afternoon, so I really enjoyed a quiet morning.

Finally, at around 11:30, I headed out for a "RUNch". I did a running workout I haven't done in a very long time--if ever? I think maybe I've done it once or twice. Anyway, I'm talking about a Fartlek run. Fartlek means "speed play", and a Fartlek run is basically where you vary your speed during the run without rhyme or reason.

You might sprint to the mailbox, then jog to the corner, then run moderately until you see a blue car, etc. Very spontaneous and unstructured.

I don't know why I don't do this more often! It can be as easy or as hard of a workout as you want, and it's a great workout for runners who are just starting speed work. Instead of having them do 8 x 400 meters at 5K race pace or something, you just tell them to vary the speed whenever they feel like it, including hard and easy running.

During my 10K training, I did a LOT of very slow running, with a sprinkling of very fast running--but nothing in between. I almost forgot what a 8:30-9:30 pace felt like! I did several hard short-interval sessions at a 6:00-7:00/mile pace, a few 10K race pace sessions at 7:55/mi, and about 10,000 very slow sessions at 10:30-12:00/mi (10,000 might be a small exaggeration, but that's what it felt like). Yesterday, I decided to just try out different speeds and see how they felt.

First, I started with a true tempo pace, which is 8:10-ish per mile. It felt hard after the first quarter mile, probably because I haven't been doing much speed work lately. After about a half mile, I thought, I wonder if I can finish this mile under 8:00--so I picked up the pace to 7:45 ish for the duration of that mile (which felt much harder than I remember!) and clocked 7:56 for the first mile. I was happy to see that I still had a sub-8:00 mile in me!

I walked for a few seconds, then alternated jogging and moderate running for the whole second mile. At about mile 2.25, I decided to run at a pace that felt like what I USED to call "easy", even though it was actually moderate. Remember how I wrote about the importance of the easy run? (If you haven't read that post, go read it now--it's one of the most important posts I've ever written.) I used to call a 9:30 pace "easy", until I started heart rate training, and I realized my actual easy pace was 11:30--big difference!

Anyway, I started running at the effort level that felt like what I used to call "easy", and it ended up being about a 9:15 pace. My heart rate was at 162 bpm, but I think it would have been lower if I hadn't run that first mile so hard. Also, it was like 80 degrees outside because I waited until midday to run! I picked up speed for the last quarter mile to about a 7:40 pace, and finished the run at mile three.

It was actually really nice to go for a run without a real purpose and just run how I felt! I had turned off my heart rate alert, otherwise it would have been beeping the entire time, and I just ran at whatever pace I was feeling in the moment. A pretty fun way to run for Global Running Day.

For dinner last night, I made one of my favorites--Cabbage with Sausage. It's ridiculously easy, with only a few ingredients, but cabbage is my very favorite vegetable. Even when I was a kid, I would get really excited when my mom would make cabbage casserole.

I made Cabbage with Sausage one day when we were running very low on groceries. I had a smoked turkey sausage and a head of cabbage in the fridge, so I just heated up some butter in a large pan, cooked the sausage for a minute and then added the cabbage, salt, and pepper and cooked until it was soft. So few ingredients, super fast to make, but it tastes so good! I wish it was prettier to photograph, but judging by the ingredients, it looks just how you would expect. Like cabbage and sausage.

My kids really liked it, too, thankfully. They never used to be picky eaters when they were little, but as they get older, they're getting harder to please.

Tonight is going to be crazy busy, so I'm not sure what we'll do for dinner. Noah has a track meet from 3:30-5:15, Eli is performing a concert at school at 5:30, and both the boys have baseball practice at 6:30. I'll probably have to pack something to eat in the car between track and the concert. Today is the last day of track, so things will be much less chaotic from now on! :)

June 01, 2016

Week 42 Weigh-in

I'm glad today starts a new week of maintenance! This past week has been a bit of a struggle for me.

I was excited about doing the no-grocery-shopping challenge, but I wasn't thinking about what it would do for my eating habits. Over the past 10 months, I'd gotten used to eating whatever I wanted, which helped me to feel satisfied with smaller portions. Since we're not grocery shopping for a month, my options are limited to what we have at home (plus fresh produce).

I still eat things that sound good to me, but if given the option of ANYTHING that I want, I would probably make different choices. Anyway, due to not feeling entirely satisfied, I've been eating more of other stuff to make up for it, and my "moving average weight" is creeping upward.

At 129, I'm still under goal, but not by much! Just before I went to Portland in March, I was at 124, so a five pound gain isn't just "water weight". I'm not panicking, but I do want to be more careful not to continue to gain. I'm going to try and get extra creative with meals. I tend to feel more satisfied with my food when I'm excited to eat it, and one way of doing that is to try new recipes. So, rather than one new recipe a week, I'll try to come up with several (using the ingredients we have at home).

My toughest time of day is in the afternoon--after lunch, but before my kids get home from school. By then, I've usually done what needs to be done around the house and written a blog post or responded to blog emails. It's not a lot of "free" time--maybe an hour--but it's significant enough that I want to eat when I'm not hungry.

The kids' last week of school is next week, so things will change. I'll have them at home, and that will keep me super busy all day long. I started writing a list of things we can do this summer that don't involve food (which basically just turned into a list of parks that we can take Joey to run around, haha).

Speaking of keeping busy with the kids, I spent about five hours on Memorial Day putting together a K'Nex set for Eli. He got it for Christmas from a relative a few years ago, but we never opened it until Monday. The box said it was for ages 9+, but looking at the instructions, I couldn't believe there was a single 9-year old on the planet that could understand them.

I poured a glass of wine and got to work (wine makes the instructions easier to understand!) ;) Eli helped by sorting out all the pieces and handing them to me to put together. Finally, several hours later, we finished! It's a roller coaster that's battery operated, so it continues moving on a loop.

Chandler is totally captivated by watching it. He gets as close as he can without the car bumping into him, and just stares it down for as long as we let it run.

Noah really wanted to cook out on the grill for Memorial Day, which was tricky with the food we had to work with (no grocery shopping). We had turkey burgers in the freezer, but no buns; so, I ended up making homemade hamburger buns! I'd never made them before, and it was actually much easier than I thought.

I used this recipe, making a couple of changes per the suggestion of a reviewer (using 3 Tbsp. of sugar and 3 Tbsp. of oil). They turned out to be really good! I made them bigger than suggested (8 buns instead of 12) because the reviews said they were tiny; but they actually turned out to be too big. Next time, I think 10 buns would yield the perfect size. (I just realized I totally forgot to take a photo.)

Yesterday was a super busy afternoon/evening, because Noah had track practice and then each of the boys had baseball practice. Since I knew things would be chaotic, I threw the stuff for French Onion Meatballs in the Crock Pot. Eli adores French Onion Meatballs--he even ate leftovers for breakfast this morning! The recipe makes 11 servings, so it's good for having leftovers.

Making those made me want to make homemade French Onion Soup, so I think I'll do that soon (the only thing I'd have to buy is the onions). I'll even make homemade croutons for it. That's one of the things I actually really like about doing the no-grocery-shopping challenge--it forces me to make a lot of things from scratch. Ordinarily, I would just buy croutons or hamburger buns, but homemade stuff tastes so much better!

I don't know what exactly has come over me lately, but I have been in all-out spring cleaning mode. I've cleaned and organized our closets, pantry, drawers and cupboards. I even find myself thinking, "What can I organize today?" Haha! I'm not complaining--I think this is the most organized my house has ever been--but I'm running out of projects. It's nice having so much energy, though!

Despite this week being tough as far as food goes, I feel good going into a fresh new week of maintenance. I had a really good day today. My main focus will be sticking with my meal schedule, and trying new recipes to get as much satisfaction out of my meals as possible. Monday marked day 300 of being binge-free! Just 63 more days to go until it will be my longest streak ever :)

May 30, 2016

Sunset run with Jerry

Yesterday morning, I had been hoping to go for a sunrise run, but with Jerry's work schedule, it didn't work out (I don't want to leave the kids home alone). So, I just decided to call it a rest day and I showered and got ready for the day.

Even after my seven-day challenge of doing my hair and make-up every day was completed, I'm still doing it! The only two days I skipped were when I was painting and working on my bedroom--otherwise, I've gotten dressed in decent clothes, done my hair, and my make-up daily. I talked to my therapist about it, and she loved the idea. It's kind of amazing how much better my mood is when I take that extra 20 minutes or so (15 minutes for hair, 5 minutes for make-up) to get ready, even when I don't have plans that day.

Me, now, as I am sitting comfortably on my bed typing this post ;)

Anyway, I really didn't do much at all yesterday, which was nice, because I'd been so busy lately. I spent a long time working on yesterday's blog post about my favorite health apps. I had leftover rice in the fridge from when I made Beans and Rice, so I decided to make fried rice for dinner. I found a recipe for Pineapple Fried Rice on Pinterest, and that sounded intriguing.

It was really simple to throw together! I used coconut oil instead of olive oil (coconut and pineapple go together so well that it was an obvious substitution); I also used a bag of frozen mixed vegetables (peas, corn, carrots, and green beans) instead of the mix of fresh and frozen called for in the recipe. The veggies had been in the freezer for a while, so I wanted to use them before they were freezer burned.

(By the way, several people have mentioned to me that they don't understand how I could go without fresh produce for a month--but like I said in my post about the challenge, there are three exceptions to our "no grocery shopping" challenge: eggs, milk, and fresh produce. Since my goal is to use up what we have first, I don't mind using frozen veggies. But we ARE allowed to buy produce!)

The recipe was SO simple and SO delicious! I will certainly be making it again in the future. My kids were at my parents' house last night, so it was just Jerry and I for dinner (I don't think the kids would have liked the recipe). Jerry loved it, too.

I never would have thought to use ham in fried rice, but it was great. I even ate leftovers for breakfast this morning.

I was really bored yesterday evening, so I suggested taking Joey for a walk. Jerry and I walked Joey, and then we decided to do a sunset run (starting before sunset, which was at 9:00, and finishing after sunset). We brought Joey back to the house, and headed out a little after 8:00 for a five-miler. It was still 81 degrees, even that late! We'd just had a thunderstorm a few hours earlier, so it was really humid as well.

Jerry is training by heart rate, and his easy pace is in the mid-11:00's when keeping his heart rate under 145 bpm, so we ran at the guidance of his heart rate. It felt extra easy for me, which made for a more enjoyable run ;) There is something about going for an easy run together that makes us have some pretty good conversations! When we sit at home, a lot of times, it doesn't feel like we have much to talk about; but as soon as we start running, we get chatty.

As we were approaching our neighborhood at around mile 4.5, Jerry asked if I wanted to race. I laughed and said no way, but then I thought it might be fun. I haven't raced a friend like that since I was a kid! I actually got nervous--my heart rate, which had been in the low 130's the whole run, shot up to 148 as soon as I agreed to the race. Haha!

After we turned onto our neighborhood street, I counted down and then said Go! and we shot off. The street is about a quarter mile long, and we were neck and neck the whole way. I kept expecting to see him blow past me any second. We stopped at the street just before ours, so the whole race was only 0.15 miles. I won by about two steps ;) I was pretty impressed with Jerry for keeping up with me! Our pace for that little segment was about 6:05.

When we got home, we were both drenched in sweat because of the humidity. My heart rate was really low (131 average for the duration of the 5-mile run), but I looked liked I was running in a sauna. We sat on the porch for a while drinking ice water to cool off, then took this "Jerry face" photo:

Interestingly, it was taken at 9:15 or so, after sunset, but it still looks pretty light outside. I need seven more sunrise runs, and eight more sunset runs to earn my badges on Smashrun. After I earn these badges, I may try for one called the "Two by 33 by 10K"--you have to run 10K every other day within a period of 33 days. My runs lately have been short (about 3-5 miles) so it would be a lot of running! But I'll keep the pace easy, and I think it'll be a fun badge to earn.

Hope you all had a nice long weekend!

May 29, 2016

My Favorite Health Apps

People are always asking me what apps I use for this or that when it comes to running, weight loss or maintenance, and habit tracking. I decided to put them all in one place on this post!

These are the apps that I use daily, or almost daily...

(I have an iPhone, so I'm not sure of the availability of these apps on other devices.)

Fat Secret (Free)
This is the app that I use for calorie counting. I used to be a fan of My Fitness Pal, but once they integrated ads in the middle of my food log (causing it to lag as it reloaded after each addition), I decided to look for a new app. I tried Fat Secret, and I LOVE it--I even like it much better than I did My Fitness Pal. I have mine set up so that the only thing I see is calories, which is the only thing that I focus on, and I love how clean looking it is. It has a bar code scanner, a weight log, a recipe builder, and other features that are important to me.

Garmin Connect (Free)
This is one of a few different apps I use to log my runs. My Garmin watch uses Blutooth to upload my runs to Garmin Connect as soon as I finish running. On the app, you can easily view the stats that your watch logs--your pace, distance, splits, heart rate, etc. You can also add "Connections" ("friends") on Garmin Connect, so you can view their activities as well, and leave comments on them. Seeing my friends' runs always motivates me to get out and run myself! You can also keep track of the mileage on your shoes--since I rotate four different pairs of shoes, this feature is really important to me. (This app is great for anyone with a Garmin Forerunner or activity tracker)

McRun ($4.99)
This is a mobile version of the McMillan Running Calculator. I mainly use this when I write running plans for my family and friends, but it's fun for myself as well. I can plug in a recent race time, and it will tell me what my training paces should be, as well as what I could expect to run a race of a different distance.

Using my current 10K race, it predicts
my times for other race distances.

Using my current 10K race, it gives me
suggestions for my pace on other workouts.

Footpath ($0.99; $4.99 for Elite)
Footpath is an app that allows you to plan running, hiking, or biking routes. You simply use your finger to draw a rough outline of your route, and the app "snaps" the line to the path or roads (you could also disable that feature if you're "off-roading" it). This app is super useful for when I want to run a new route. I also like it when I travel, because I can map out a route where I am. You can also switch to satellite view, so you can see what the surroundings are like. This is the 5K route I like to run at the State Park:

ConnectStats ($1.99)
This app gives me all the info that the Garmin Connect app does, but also includes a LOT more detail. It uploads automatically from Garmin Connect. I like using this app for detailed running data. If you're a numbers person, or you like looking at graphs, this is perfect for you.

Overview of the runs (I like that it
includes heart rate on the overview)

You can click on each of those graph icons
to see a lot more detail about each particular stat.

Running Pace (Free)
This app is nice for when I'm setting my running goals. For example, I wanted to run 49:22 (or better) for my 10K race in April, so I plugged in the distance and time goal, and it calculated the pace I would need to run. It also calculates your mile (or kilometer) splits--so, in that example, I would know that I should hit mile three in 23:50, mile five in 39:43, etc. A simple, but helpful calculator!

Happy Scale (Free; Deluxe edition $4.99)
I wrote in detail about this app recently, which you can read about here. This is a great app for keeping a weight log!

Momentum (Free; Premium option $4.99)
This is the app that I use to track my binge-free days and some other goals that I set. It's very simple--if you do what you're supposed to, you just tap the box and it's marked as completed. It keeps track of your streak. You can choose how many days per week or month you want to do the task, too.

Period Tracker Lite (Free; Deluxe version $1.99)
I thought I'd throw this period tracker app in here as well. While this has a lot of features, the only one I use is to track the days of my period. It's nice to be able to look ahead and see if I'll be on my period during vacation or something important. You can also track PMS symptoms, ovulation, and other things if you wish to.

At a glance, you can see the countdown
until "dooms day".

The little pink triangles are period days; and
the gray ones are projected period days.

Relax Melodies (Free; Premium version $9.99)
This is totally random, but I use this app every single night and I love it. Jerry and I have always slept with a fan running in the room, simply because we needed the white noise to fall asleep. When I found this app, I decided to try it, and we have since stopped using a fan. This is just a compilation of dozens of sound effects--you can play just one at a time (wind, for example), or combine several (wind, crickets, and campfire). You can have it stay on all night, or shut off after a specified period of time. This has really helped me to fall asleep at night.