Monday, November 29, 2010

Bootie Challenge Update

Posted my points for last week today. Here's the run down:
20th - 4 points
21st - 0 points
22nd - 3 points
23rd - 4 points
24th - 0 points
25th - 4 points
26th - 0 points

A few days there I was exhausted or the dog was sick and kept me up all nite and I just couldn't make myself get up.  But I was looking and I definitely didn't have the lowest points but I FOR SURE won't have the most!!  There's people with 60+ points the first week!!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Fa La La La Laaaa

It's been about 5 years since I actually decorated the house for Christmas.  This had everything to do with my going back to working in a store.  I had been a district manager in clothing retail for several years and this meant weekends and nites off so I was in a better frame of mind to take the time to decorate.  Dealing with the day to day and customers wore me out so by the time I was home I just wanted to rejuvenate which meant doing 'fun' things like reading, knitting, watching TV etc and it didn't include taking the time to decorate.  I have a lot of decorations from the past and have gone all out before but haven't felt like if for quite awhile.
BUT.......today was different.  For one thing, we cleaned out the last storage space from the move and all our decoration boxes were in there so they were out and accessible. 
I have to admit, it was fun putting it all together.  Here's the results.
Not sure why this photo is so yellow!

A little more detail on the side.
Manger scene.

Corner cabinet in dining room....there are two of these.

Kitchen window.

Each window in the front has a candle as well as the side windows in dining room and kitchen window.

Didn't take pics of the front or the wreath on the door I made on the fly.  I'll take more in the daylight.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

First Annual Palmyra Turkey Trot

FOR ONE!!!!  

And I was the WINNER!!  With a time of 32:14.  Not my best ever time but I did it!  It was cold and a little windy but I did it.  Even took the dog on the first ever Thanksgiving Dog Trot!  He needed his walk and it was so cold that I just decided to run most of it rather than walk it.

Did all my baking last night -

I am responsible for the dressing - a special family dressing made with canned biscuits - hence the large red bowl filled with them setting out to 'dry out' a bit.  And rolls - all the foil wrapped packages.  I also have to take something to munch on before lunch and I tried to chose things that were healthier.  Fruit with the dip and veggies with dip and whole grain Doritos with a great corn salsa we got at Trader Joes.

Not overeating is going to be my goal!!  Easier said than done but I am going to try and load up on the veggies as much as possible before the other carby things.

Yesterday between baking I needed to make a couple thank you cards for gifts I received for my birthday so I did that between baking and then decided I was having so much fun doing it that I continued on.  These are the two thank you's I made. 


Made a great recipe for Pumpkin Bread - made 2 loafs and they were gone in a couple days!  The boys loved it!!!



Happy Thanksgiving - I have so many things to be thankful for I can hardly begin to list them.  Mainly, I am thankful Danny and I still have all our parents still with us!!!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Bootie Challenge Points for today

Ran 3 miles = 3 pts
Walked the dog 20 min = 1 pt
Cleaned house = 1 pt ( this is a special add on according to the website for Thanksgiving)

5 pts today!

Cue the Monkees! I'm a Believer

"Now I'm a Believer"!

Yesterday I went on a disasterous run - no fuel and no water = bad run!

So this morning I made sure to take care of both of those and WHAT A DIFFERENCE!  I had a 1/4th of an Arnold Sandwich Thin with a teaspoon of PB and a little bit of jelly and had a small glass of water and set out to do 3 miles.  I can't even believe how good I felt for the majority of the run.  I took a different route starting with a gradual hill and then flatness where as my other run had a lot of hills at first and I was worn out quickly then struggled the rest of the run.

I didn't make my best avg pace but it was second best by 2 seconds!!  This really set the tone for the rest of my morning and felt so good!

Just got a new book.....
Thanks Amazon for the image!
I am not far at all in it but one thing the author did mention is 'are you willing to change something, not everything' and this spoke to me because I always feel like I am changing EVERYTHING and sacrificing so much just to eat better.  One of the biggest things for me - the bingeing - if I could not do that it would be half the battle!
My goal is to in the next few days brainstorm about things that I can change.  They gave an example of:
No fast food     -      get a kids meal
So instead of being really strict and saying NO fast food you can have a kids meal which would be less calories and fat. 
I like that way of thinking.  I need to make changes and this seems do-able for me.

Food today:
Breakfast:
     1/3 c oatmeal made with soy milk and water, topped with pumpkin butter, almond butter, almond slivers and granola.
     Iced coffee with almond milk
Lunch:
     Egg salad (made with vegan mayo and grey poupon) on sprouted grain bread with lots of spinach. 
     6 carrot sticks
Snack:
     Mini loaf of carrot cake with pumpkin spice cream cheese
     Piece of pumpkin bread with cream cheese
     2 pc of dark chocolate
Not sure about dinner yet.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Note to Self

Note to Self:
1.  If you are hungry before your run, eat something!!  Even just something little. 
2.  If you are thirsty before your run, drink some water!!

Was both of those things this morning before my run and I didn't do a thing about it.  I'm not sure if you are like me but there are a zillion steps I have to go thru in order to get out the door, so in the process of making sure I had everything just so, I forgot that I was hungry and thirsty until I was about 1/4 mile into my run.  Stomach growling, and mouth dry!!!  Lack of energy really showed in my time.  21:14.  Not my worst ever 2 mile but 2nd worse.
It was also windy on the way back so it was a double whamy!

I have not been sleeping well the last few nites.  One I was up till 4am after waking up about 1:30 then I was awakened last nite by the dog who HAD to go out.  And he did have to go. So I was wide awake after that.   He's been having issues and it was time to take him to the Vet today.  He had worms.....most likely from the few fleas we battled this summer.  $125 later, we hope that is solved and I can get some sleep.



                                                            He's pretty cute isn't he!
Lunch with Mom and Dad today at Pizza Hut they enjoy going to.  Had a salad so that was good and 2 slices of mushroom pizza.  Bad thing was Dad had made carrot cake (lucky he didn't put icing on mine!) and set along some of his chocolate covered pretzels and peanuts......sooooo good!

Today's food:
Breakfast:
     1/3 c oatmeal with pumpkin butter, almond butter, small amount of slivered almonds and granola
     iced coffee with 1/2 c of almond milk (30 calories)
Lunch:
     Green salad with green olives, sunflower seeds, 2T of cheese, cottage cheese and ranch.
     2 slices mushroom pizza
Snack:
     4 chocolate covered pretzels
     1 mini loaf carrot cake with pumpkin spice cream cheese
     4 chocolate covered peanut clusters
Dinner:
     Not sure yet because of how bad I was with the chocolate.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

What's it gonna be?

I am sitting up at 1:30am on Nov. 21 - which is my 49th birthday.  I was asleep but then in my usual way, I woke up for some reason and the brain starts moving and I can't get it shut off.
The topic of discussion in my brain this early morning is once again my lack of control over my eating and how out of control I feel.  It seems so daunting a task......food has a hold on me for some reason right now and I can't seem to get away from it.  WHY???
I have to say I think I am probably at my all time heaviest altho I have not weighed myself in a few months, I am so afraid to what the scale would say.  I am running and have been kickboxing for the last 12 weeks but it's only been to slightly slow down what the scale would be telling me......I would probably be 10 lbs heavier if I hadn't been exercising but I still am putting on the weight. 
This really scares me.......my lack of ability to control this!!!  It really does and I feel helpless to do anything to make it stop.  It has always been that I can catch myself at the 'right time' and get things back on track but I have tried again and again and it just doesn't seem to be working.
I have done myself a disservice in many ways:
1.  Severly restricted what I will allow myself to eat......ie, no carbs, no sugar, no fat etc.  This makes me want it even more and I find it's worse than ever before now.
2.  I have gone on many diets thinking that once I reach a certain goal I can go back to eating however I want.
3.  I binge on foods and don't make the effort to figure out why I do this.
4.  Food is comfort and also a reward.  My brain is really messed up here.
5.  I have 'talk bad' to myself when I mess up - telling myself I am stupid and a pig and I am weak because I can't seem to control this.
6.  I am extremely impatient and this plays against me....I think I should be making progress and when I realize I haven't made much then it sets me on a spiral. 

I have issues and I need to figure them out but I just don't seem to have a clue and how to do that.......I feel very overwhelmed and out of control right now. 
Happy 49th to me :(
When will I ever get this under control?  Where is my 'rock bottom' or ah-ha moment?

This HAS to be the year I wake up and make my health both physical and mental a priority.  I need to be committed to putting in the effort and time to get myself back on track.  I am past the half way point in the years I have left on this earth, what am I going to do with them........my quality of life as these years go by needs to be the highest ever.

Looming questions:
1.  Why am I not happy?
2.  What does it take to get me to make my health a priority?
3.  Why do I have such a self-defeating attitude?
4.  Why am I so impatient and can't see the long-term goal?
5.  What stressful things in my life might be causing some of these issues?
6.  WHY DON'T I LIKE MYSELF???  This is the big one.....and I think the root to the entire problem.

I need to take this first day of my 49th year and really dwell on these issues and decide what the future will hold for me.

Happy 49 - make it the best year yet.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

"Comparison" Shopping

Today is the first day of the Bootie Challenge and I got out and ran my modest amount of miles at my usual turtle pace.  4 miles at 42:51:59.  Avg pace 10:43/mile. 
So I'm feeling pretty good that I beat my goal of trying to get in UNDER an 11:00/mile average for the entire run and that I kept going even tho my lower leg muscles (not the calf, the one on the front outside of leg) were crying for mercy. I was feeling OK for most of the run but tired at the same time.

I get home, load my times from my trusty Garmin into the computer and compare my times with previous days and paces then take the dog on a walk.
Come home to check out my blogs I like to read of other runners and this one had run 20 MILES this morning in 3 hours!!  20 FREAKIN MILES!!  And that was just a training run and all her times were in the 8's and 9's.  I am immediately feeling defeated......I could NEVER do that.....I can't even run ONE MILE at a pace faster than 10:14!!  And she ran her last mile....mile 19 to 20 in 8:43.  WTF???  I'm exhausted thinking about it!

So I'm in the shower lamenting my sorry state and reason flows over me and I immediately start putting things into perspective:

1.  I am going to be 49 tomorrow - she is probably mid to late twenties. (Still couldn't have run that fast in my 20's but it sounds good)
2.  I have just been running again (and it wasn't alot before) in July.  Time is a big component in speed (I think - or hope!)  She has run MANY marathons.
3.  She's 30 lbs lighter than me.......I have some to lose hence the running......
4.  She doesn't have hills - I have lots of hills here in the sticks.  Can you tell I'm makin this up as I go along?? LOL
5.  She eats better quality food than I.......I have a GREAT relationship with crappy food! Trying to improve this.
6.  Etc, Etc.......

Biggest thing I realized tho.......I AM NOT HER!  I AM ME!   And I need to give myself a little more credit for getting out there and doing it when it's 33 degrees outside and it would have been A LOT.....I mean A LOT easier to have just stayed in bed or in my chair watching the morning shows and drinking coffee!!  I'm doubtful that I will ever be that fast....even when I was running before I just didn't have the speed.  I did a half marathon in 2 hrs 20 min.......I'm not Speedy Gonzales!  And I will have to say that doing 4 miles in July would have been unheard of so I am making progress.  Purchasing something that tracks my progress has helped tremendously.....now I am AWARE.

So the soon to be 49 year old is doing something that most 49 year old's don't do......so don't COMPARE, BE HAPPY!!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Late to the Party!

In the words of Sam Seabourne (West Wing - our all time favorite show) "Let's forget the fact that you are coming a little late to the party and embrace the fact that you showed up at all"!

I have been hearing for WEEKS how wonderful pumpkin is - and I have made a few things with pumpkin (these were delicious and I actually made them vegan unintentionally - forgot the eggs!)



and am stockpiling it like all the other food bloggers are




But had yet to try Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butter which I have been hearing about non-stop for all these weeks.


So I was in St Louis, the closest TJ's to me now that I am in the sticks so I decided to put it on the list.  Didn't dig into it till I finished the homemade Apple Butter I bought at Taste of Palmyra.  My husband has a way of making a big deal about me not finishing things that I buy, so I was determined to not break into the TJ's Pumpkin Butter till I finished the other.  Well, I finished the apple butter yesterday with my oatmeal and was excited to break out the new butter this morning.

I love it!!!!!  I can taste what all the hype was about!  I think I will only be doing Pumpkin Butter from now on.

So I'm embracing the fact that I came to the party at all!!!  And I'm glad I made it!

Activity today:
2 miles running 20:24 - not my fastest time but did feel pretty good - temp 32 degrees!
Tomorrow starts the Booty Challenge!!

Food Today:
B-fast:
1/3 cup oatmeal with granola, almonds, Quaker Oat Squares, Pumpkin Butter and Almond Butter
Lunch:
Cream of Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup (leftover from last nite and AWESOME), small tortilla wrap with Almond Butter and apple slices, carrots
2 TJ's Oatmeal/Cranberry Dunkers

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Booty Buster Contest

I just signed up for this Holiday challenge!!!  This should keep me moving during the holiday and trying to stay on track.
One of my goals this week was to eat 3 squares.....I would often eat crap and not even be hungry for a regular meal.  Trying really hard to watch the veggies and fruits too.

On of the blogs I like to read daily has a challenge to not buy anymore food thru November and use what you have.  At first I thought......CAN'T DO THAT!  But as I really started thinking about it I have so much that I could use up.  So I'm up for it.  Went to Wal-Mart today and didn't buy ANY food and that is unusal for me!!

I'm jazzed about this booty challenge.....I like tracking things!!!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Sunday stuff

After letting my knee rest since Thursday I decided to try my knee on a long run this morning.  It was the end of Daylight Savings so we got an extra hour sleep but it didn't do me much good because I was wide awake at 5:19am!!  Got up, ate something and iced knee and let the food settle and the sun come up.  Dressed and headed out for my run around 6:45.  Windy from the south so that was a bit of a challenge at times.  Just started running and had my new Forerunner so could just run and it would tell me how far I had gone.  Took a new route and made it up as I went.  Right lower leg tight for the first couple miles but like it usually does, it worked itself out.
Actually ran 7 miles!!!!
Took me 1 hour and 16 minutes.  Slow but like I said I had wind issues and I'm slower than dirt anyway!!  I had also told myself to just go out and have fun and don't push too hard because of my knee and not being sure how it would react.  It actually felt okay....it was getting tired when I was done tho but not a lot of residual pain tho.  Iced it when I got home.  Haven't figured out how to get my avg pace or what my laps were.  I'll be working on that.
Food log:
Before run - half a sandwich thin with natural PB and banana.
After run - 1/2 cup of oatmeal with almond butter, apple butter, chia seeds, granola and small sunflower cookie
Lunch - 1cup of Dad's slaw, and 1/2 cup of Yager green beans
             Dessert LF yogurt with 1/8 c of granola and 2 small TJoe's cookies
             3 small TJoe's cookies again......
Did yard work from noon till about 2:30.  Mowing, raking, picking up acorns.  Hardwork!!!

Not sure about dinner.....have some veggie chili that I will probably have.
Doing okay so far with food I think.

Shower

My niece will be getting married in December to Justin - wonderful guy!  Her sister Dana hosted a shower at their mom's (my older sister Sue) house.
Dana's theme for the shower was 'Awesome 80's' and you could dress up accordingly if desired.....I didn't desire!
There was really fun food.....all made by Dana.
There were games - which I participated in under derress!!!  I hate those shower games but we made the most of it.

Here's the bride in her beautiful toilet paper wedding dress - just stunning!

Sisters - me on the left (I am the middle child), Di (the youngest) in the middle, and Sue (the oldest) on the right.  And no, we are not all natural blondes!

Last weekend Di and I bought the very same shoes at the same time and low and behold, we worn them on the same nite!!

Jenna with her gift from me.  Dana her sister is right behind her with the red hair.

So did my strategy for not over-eating work?  Pretty much.
Here's what I ate:
Around 2:30 - 1/4 of a Think Thin bar that I purchased at Trader Joe's
Around 4pm - another 1/4 of the bar - was trying to not be starving when I got to the shower.
At the shower:
      2 small glasses of Sangria
      3 pac man cookies
      1 cupcake
      fresh fruit
      2 pieces of cheese pizza
Not too bad I didn't think.......normally I would have eaten tons more than that.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Lunch

Food Log:

Small tortilla with ~2T of FF refried beans, T of Mexican blend cheese.  Microwaved to melt and heat then rolled.
1/2 c of 'Dad's Coleslaw' with chickpeas.
1/2 of the PB&J sandwich T didn't finish.
And here's the kicker......I had just brushed my teeth so NONE of it tasted as good as it should have.  Maybe I need to be using that trick more often.

Afternoon plan........make sure I have something to snack on BEFORE I get to the shower because I will eat WAY too much if I don't.  Hoping to go to Trader Joe's in St Louis before the shower and maybe I can find something there like granola bars or something that would make a good snack.  I just know that when I am ravenous I get cranky AND will then just start eating everything in site!!

Dinner plan:  Not sure what they are having at the shower so need to be thinking portion size for sure!!!

Icing the Injury

I  have been dealing with a sore knee for the last couple weeks.  It's not bad and it really only hurts when I first step down on it but it really worries me that it could get worse.  After several days of doing nothing (I can be so dense at times!) I finally saw some blogging ramblings about how to lessen injury.  And it included ice on the knee!!! 


Duh on my part so I have started putting the ice on many times a day and haven't run (it's kind of killin me!) since Thur morning.  I really wanted to do a long run this morning but it hurt when I stepped out of bed so decided to give it a little more time.

Did walk the dog this morning for a couple miles and it didn't feel too bad but I had also just iced it. Icing it now after the walk too.  I am trying to be patient so it doesn't turn into something worse but it's really hard when you get this in the mail and want to try it out!!!

For now it will have to wait.  Maybe tomorrow and not a long one just a short one!

Food log:

1/2 c oatmeal cooked in 1 c of almond milk. Stirred in a few slivered almonds, one sunflower cookie, T of apple butter, T natural PB and chia seeds.  SOOOO good and it always sticks with me quite a while.

Just had 3 whoppers - T had dug them out of his Halloween candy and I couldn't resist - altho I should.

Not sure what lunch will be.....maybe a small tortilla with FF refried beans, cheese and some lettuce.

Heading to St Louis.  My niece is having a wedding shower.
And Nephew is running in State Cross Country as a FRESHMAN!!!!  Awesome!  He smokes my butt in time so bad it's not even funny!  Have a mentioned I am a SLOW runner???  At least I am out there doing it right?