Archive for the Diet Category

Random Randomness

By on November 1, 2012

1. I am running my first half marathon Sunday with veteran marathoner Karyn. We drove the route last Sunday afternoon. The first 6 miles are going to suck.

2. I have run 340.76 miles this year…so far. Petra asked me last Friday night if I was running Saturday, and I said, “Yeah, but it’s only 6 miles.” Then I realized what I just said and followed up with “I can’t believe those words just came out of my mouth.”

3. Part of the conversation with Petra was about how crappy we’ve been eating lately and how crappy we feel because of our diets. So, starting Monday, I’m going to attempt to go vegan again. And because of me she can no longer eat hotdogs. lol

4. I am so ready for the election to be over with. I am so sick of the ads. Every year I get more and more sick of them. You know, with all the millions (or is it billions) that were spent on advertising, a lot of the poor could be fed – by each side.

5. I still don’t know how many kittens Spot had, but they are under the non-functional wet bar. Technically, I could just pull up the sink (since it isn’t fastened down) and count. But that area is like another closet where we just stuff things quickly to get it out of the way instead of putting it away (or throwing it away), so it would turn into a place to clean.

6. Have watched part of 2 episodes of Survivor this season for the first time…ever. I swore never to watch that show because in general I cannot stand “reality” shows. But, Blair…lol

7. Tuesday was our 19 year anniversary. 19 years. Wow. Where has the time gone?

8. The hubster took the kids trick or treating last night. I did not get a single picture. 🙁 I did, however, pay a large price for clothing items for their costumes. :-/

9. So I was booking it at the end of my run last night and thinking how great it felt and wishing I could feel like that for the first 2 miles, and then I realized that that was only the 3rd lap. I still had one more to go, and it was getting dark quick. Suffice to say, I maintained or maybe exceeded that pace for the remaining lap and a half (by lap, I am talking 1 circle around campus which is .94 miles) because it was dark and I was scared that werewolves were going to come out of the woods and eat me. Ok, I wasn’t really afraid of werewolves, but anybody could have stepped out of the woods and I’d have been done. Fear is a great motivator for speed. 😉

10. The hubster has a done a FANTASTIC job of cleaning up around the house since he’s been back. Aside from the upstairs rooms, I am no longer embarrassed to have someone come over to the house.

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Family, Life, Ramble, Rant. | 2 Comments

Cupcake Classic 5k

By on October 22, 2012

I guess I should end my unintentional hiatus? I really didn’t intend to go a month (approximately) between posts, but, well, I’ll blog about that later. 🙂

If there is a virtual 5k going on, you can bet that Molly is going to find it and force talk me into doing it. This was all well and good until I started training for a half marathon, and, well, it is hard to work in a 5k (3.1 miles) when you reach the point in your training that your short run is 4 miles. But I signed up for Jess’s Cupcake Classic 2012 anyway because 1) there was a cool shirt to be had and 2) there was a cool medal to be had. The only problem was I ended up sick the whole week and did not run at all until Saturday. :sigh:

So Friday night, I got a text from Karyn about running Saturday morning. It was totally expected because that is the day we do our long run, and yes, I had avoided texting her about the same thing because I was wanting to remain in denial that I hadn’t run all week, and therefore running 12 miles Saturday morning was going to suck. Big time. Especially since I hadn’t successfully ran more than 10 miles. But we settled on a time to meet and I told her I was considering baking some celebratory cupcakes. After all, I still had that 5k to run. And yes, at this point I knew there was no way I would run a 5k Sunday which was the last day. So, I forced myself to bake gluten free blueberry/blackberry muffins (muffin/cupcake – it’s all the same to me), packed up a few for post run, and hoped the hubster wouldn’t snore too bad so I could get good sleepies.

Up and dressed, and ready(ish) to run:

Yes, I am totally faking a smile after the rash of crap I got on Facebook over the lack of smile when showing off my new glasses. So, Kate, that fake smile is for you. :cheesy: And I am holding my head up in a futile attempt to cover up the double chin. 😉

I kind of guesstimated where the 3.1 mile mark was during our run, which I guesstimated wrong when I stopped the timer on my watch, and had to guesstimate a little more accurately via MapMyRun. It was 37+ min which I have written on an index card on my desk at home. Remember I said Saturday was a 12 mile run? And I hadn’t ran more than 10? Yeah, it sucked. That last lap around campus climbing that hill the last time, I was just about done, and unconsciously dropped to a walk. I realized it after a few steps and forced myself back into a run with the “You have less than a mile and you are over halfway up this hill and it’s the last hill. Run! You can do this!!”

And this is the only post-race pic I have:

And Karyn said the only thing that kept her going was the promise of these at the end:

She finished like 45 minutes before me, and passed me twice during my 7th lap. At least I think it was twice during the same lap. I might have zoned out an entire lap. It was brutal for us both. She ended up with a rather nasty blood blister, and I got some crazy chafing that nearly had me in tears in the shower. But those muffins were good. I could write a post on what a pain they were to make, but I can sum it up with this: the batter was the consistency of soft taffy. I think I cussed more than once while filling the paper liners.

But anyway, Karyn and I are ready for the half marathon. 13 days…

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, LinkWhoring, Photos, Running. | 5 Comments

Funday Friday #11

By on September 21, 2012

This will be one of those list posts because I just haven’t had time for felt like daily serious blogging.

1. I let Petra drug me with gluten free/dairy free cupcakes and trick me into talk me into taking 3 of her cats. That is the short version because part of the full version of why I took them I refuse to blog about. Anyway, my daughter finally has the black “kitten” (he’s 6 months old now) she tried to get 5 months ago. He is a sweetie, but the other 2 still keep their distance. Poor Spot hates them all, but she hates everybody and everything except me & the hubby. She likes Black Kitty, but for a different reason. 😉 Oh, and Petra still has more cats than me, unless Mittens shows back up and makes us tied. lol

2. I made an appointment with my doc for a physical with the intention of scheduling an OB/Gyn appointment as a follow up. He is very very pleased with my weight loss to date and said “You no longer need to concentrate on weight loss; just work on fitness.” My blood pressure is great, my glucose is fine (which it was before), and my cholesterol is now “phenomenally” good. He agreed with Petra’s diagnosis of gluten intolerance when I explained what all cleared up when I cut out gluten so I suppose that makes the diagnosis official now. 🙂 But when I explained that my cycle is still all messed up, he gave me the OB/Gyn exam pretty much on the spot, and is putting me on bc pills for 6 months to try to get everything back in sync. Ugh. But at least that’s out of the way, and I got a bonus rectal exam out of it. MacBros, consider that payback for all the jokes I make about you getting abducted by aliens. LOL I was then scheduled for a mammogram (which I had Tuesday), and I get to have a colonoscopy in a couple of years. :-/ But, anyway, he also checked my knees, and thinks they are fine just to ice them after runs…which does help tremendously.

3. I was blessed with enough additional income to pay off all debt except for the mortgage. My mom told me to buy a car, which I will probably do tomorrow.

4. I’m going to attempt once again to learn how to crochet as soon as the half-marathon is over and I have more time on my hands. Opal and Teeni have inspired me. 🙂

5. Speaking of the half-marathon, I am so ready for it to be OVER. I look to Saturdays with dread of that long run. I do enjoy spending time before and after the run with Karyn, but that long run wears me out mentally more than physically. That said, I did my 6 mile midweek run Wednesday and 1) beat my AF 2 mile time (10 seconds is 10 seconds) and 2) beat my fasted 5K time. Only thing I can figure that made the difference in the run was drinking this a few hours prior and still be pinging a little. 😉

6. After showing up for my eye appointment yesterday…2 weeks early…I used the opportunity to hit Angelina’s for some gluten free yumminess. I had seen their posts for the past 24 hours about moussaka, and I was getting some of that. Rather I thought I was going to have me some of that because it wasn’t gluten free. I might have died a little inside. 😉 However, Petra had informed me earlier in the week that I needed to get their gluten free chocolate chess pie and eat it while having alone time. After the bison burger recommendation, I made sure I got some pie because really, who doesn’t like pie? Oh, wait, that would be my daughter. 😯

“That looks like perfection.” – Petra

I got falafels instead of the moussaka I wanted so there was still flavor satisfaction. And I took the pie-hating daughter to Harris Teeter for sushi. And yes, I went off by myself and ate half that pie. I’ll be eating the other half in front of my co-workers. Maybe if I’m quiet they won’t notice… 😉 Then Karyn stopped by and dropped off their dolmas they didn’t eat. Seriously, I am like the only one of our group who likes those, and I end up eating everyone else’s. lol I am not ashamed. 🙂

7. And because this is AGAIN stuck in my head…

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Funday Friday, Life, Photos, Ramble, Running, Video. | 6 Comments

Feels like Monday

By on September 5, 2012

I had a 4 day weekend, and I don’t feel like I got any rest at all. It was nonstop busy from Friday night on. Shopping, traveling, cleaning, yard work, racing, cooking. Yes, I said racing, but should have said “racing.” I’ll get to that. 😉

Saturday morning Karyn picked me up and we went to do our long run. She did a long run. I did 4, and then sat on a picnic bench trying not to throw up until Karyn finished. haha We were both itching for some Ethiopian food and started planning a trip to the Ethiopian restaurant. She would have to secure child care, but we were going to try for that night. Turns out Sunday night was going to be better so with that trip postponed, I had no excuse not to mow my yard. Seriously, each of my neighbors has mowed at least twice since our front yard has been mowed. But, yeah, so I got the front and back yards mowed but no weed-eating.

I don’t remember if I mentioned it last week (or ever), but back in late May/early June, I got race registration happy and signed up for a bunch. I really didn’t pay too close attention or I would NOT have signed up for the RunRaleigh 8K the weekend following the CARA Run for their Lives 10K. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Anyway, that is why I only ran 4 on Saturday instead of the 9 that was scheduled. We drove up to downtown Raleigh with me hoping for a race-cancelling storm the whole way. No luck. Hot & muggy, though not as hot as it would have been had it not rained before we got there. It also rained some during the race. Knowing my pace, I stayed at the back when the race started, but pretty soon I was talking smack (in my head) about the runners I was passing thinking that they must be really slow. At the end of the first mile, I checked my pace and I was running just a little over a 10 min mile. Ok, I don’t run 10 min miles. Needless to say, just past mile 3, I hit the wall, and ended up having to walk up the hills (which weren’t even big hills), and trot down. I ran (if you could call it that) the last 2 blocks just because I wasn’t going to walk across the finish line. Run or crawl. I grabbed my time (1:04:41 (Gun), 1:04:18 (Chip)), a banana, bottle of water, and we booked it out of there.

I had the hubster text Karyn on our way home since we were getting home a full 45 min sooner than I had estimated in case they wanted to head up sooner. They did, and so I took a shower (Karyn insisted – lol), and we made our second trip of the day to Raleigh. The second trip was the better of the 2 by far! Joe & Karyn had already ordered (yes, this was preplanned), and it seems like the food came out soon after we got there. Really, that time we were at the restaurant seemed to just fly by…unlike that 8k. 😉

Monday was the second trip of the weekend to Walmart (ugh), and yesterday I spent behind the wheel for 6 hours. Oh, and let me drive for 1.5+ hours without having to change gears, and at the point I have to stop or slow down considerably, I will forget that I am driving a standard and wonder why the truck is bucking. haha. Ok, maybe it was because I was talking to my mom on the phone (hands free). I was so tired when I got home and the kids made me take them to the store. As if I hadn’t spent enough time in stores over the weekend. I went to bed at 8:30 and I guess I just passed out.

So, yeah. Today feels like a Monday. And I am not spell/grammar checking. Don’t judge me. lol

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Life, Ramble, Running. | 8 Comments

Hither, thither, and all that other stuff

By on August 6, 2012

I might be back. Or this might be a hodge-podge of crap with promises of more detailed posts later, which may or may not be empty promises.

Cats
About 2 weeks ago, I stopped at the mailbox before pulling into the driveway (as I do), and I noticed something in the neighbor’s driveway. A cat. One of our cats. Simon. The only one of our cats that the boy liked. He had been hit by a car, and the kids retrieved him and buried him though not before my daughter insisted on taking a picture to put on tumblr. :sigh: #parentingfail

3 days later, the hubby decided it was time to kick Spot out of the house, and she ran right into the backyard where the territorial dogs are that kill anything non-dog that gets in their space. She sat in a tree for 2 days, and finally the hubster got her down, and she’s back in the house.

Darci, our oldest dog and habitual escape artist, managed to dig out again, and I found her in the front yard as I let Evie out. I let the hubby know before I left for church, and thought no more of it until I got home. He said to me then, “Have you seen Mittens?” Now, this is kind of a dumb question (I’m thinking) because it’s always 1-5 days following an escape before we see her again. Then he said “Look out the window.” I see a mound of dirty white fur, and was crushed. But he followed my informing me that it was not Mittens, but a ‘possum.

Food & Exercise
I am pretty much back on track with the half marathon training. I did 5 miles weekend before last, 6 Saturday (6.24 specifically…), and that puts me on track for 7 this weekend catching me up to the schedule Karyn and I are following. She is smoking me, by the way. After the half I might work on speed. Might…

So, I had a week-long craving for a bacon cheeseburger last week. Wednesday, I wanted one bad enough to risk a glutening. Petra talked me off that cliff, and I sated that craving with chips & salsa. I know, the chips were bad (they were gluten, msg, & preservative free), but the salsa was YUMMY! So when a less persistent craving hit on Friday, I got some more salsa – chipotle garlic. Yeah, that made “medium” subjective because it BURNED us…and opened up our sinuses. When I went over to James at church that night, he was like “What did you eat?!?!” Karyn’s been eating salsa ever since. lol

Anyway, so Friday night, James made me a cheeseburger. I told him forget about the bacon. I didn’t have any gluten free buns, so I used lettuce instead. Very messy, but enabled me to eat it like a burger. Oh, it was yummy. James made stew Saturday that I wasn’t going to eat, but I had a little anyway, and it was way better with him spicing it than by using the McCormick seasoning (their beef stew seasoning is NOT gluten free – fyi). But yeah, then I got home from church yesterday and he had fried sausage. Now I don’t really even like sausage, but I ate 3 or 4 patties and it was GOOD! And I found a jar of salsa in the fridge… 😉

Needless to say, there was no weight loss this week poundwise. However, I think I am losing inches. My shirt isn’t so tight where the buttons tend to scream (Molly, you know what I’m talking about – lol), and my trousers seem a bit loose.

Wrap up
I am now sick of writing this post and can’t stand to have another post in my drafts queue.

Molly is vlogging every day in August. Check her out on YouTube. Seriously! Her vlogs while driving are seriously out.of.control.

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Fail, Life, Ramble, Running. | 4 Comments

Maniacal Monday #12

By on July 16, 2012

So much has happened over the last few days, and so much of it is stuff that I am just not going to blog about. At least not yet. It is a pretty safe bet that I will eventually. On the other hand, I have a few things I do want to talk about, if just briefly.

1. I have lost 32 pounds so far, and 8 since starting the Marathon Weight Loss Challenge. Whether or not I lose the remaining 18.2 pounds is not so important to me as losing what remains of my spare tire. 😉

2. I took last week off to heal my knee. It tried to hurt as I ran last night, but it calmed down after a mile. Both knees were hurting before I got to the half mile point. I only did 2 miles, and managed a consistent pace.

3. I ate vegan all weekend, but I don’t think I am going to be overly strict about it. For instance, I will still eat honey. I also don’t think I can resist another bison burger if I happen to be in Southern Pines. I tell you, though, it was hard cooking steaks for my family, and not eating one.

4. The hubby let the inside dogs eat leftover fried potatoes. Evie puked for 2 days. :-/

5. I take back envying stay at home moms. Seriously, if their days are like my Saturdays, on the go non-stop, and getting very little accomplished, but totally worn out from all the nothing-to-show-for-it work, I don’t know. I mean, I did do 3 loads of laundry, but only 2 of the 3 made it out of the dryer. I managed to cook the hubster a meal for dinner but that’s only because I found a pack of instant potatoes in the cabinet. Otherwise, it was just steak. Chuck. I can’t afford ribeye for the non-discriminating cow-eaters. 😉 I did get all the dishes washed…

6. Just realized that I was quite vocal in sunday school yesterday. Huh. Interesting.

7. Is totally not liking this romaine lettuce I bought. :-/ Had a similar dislike with baby swiss chard over the weekend.

That’s all I got for now, so I will leave you with this because it’s stuck in my head….

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Maniacal Monday, Ramble, Video. | 9 Comments

And then came the final blow

By on July 11, 2012

I really, really hate having to eat my words. I seem to be doing that on a regular basis lately. Just when I think I have my diet under control, I find out that I don’t. 3 or 4 years ago, my doctor “prescribed” a book for me to read: Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman, MD. Well, I’ve been reading it for the past 2 or 3 weeks, and am going to have to eat the words, “I can’t go vegetarian, and sure can’t go vegan. Why? Because I am seriously considering going vegan…and raw…like Opal.

I have already been heading that direction anyway, but I read enough about eating meat and its effect on hormone levels (even grass-fed, organic) to first cut way back, with the ultimate intention of cutting all animal completely. And yes, I am still wearing my “I &#9829 BACON” lanyard. The changes I have made so far have created the same response my body did last year when I went starch (and gluten) free, only without the withdrawls. haha! But yeah, cheese is BAD to be so yummy…

Whenever I finish the book, I will (maybe) write up a full review with quotes that were the mind changers for me.

This entry is filed under Diet, Life, Reading, Wholesome Wednesday. | 10 Comments

Settling back into normal

By on June 27, 2012

My mom turned 80 a week ago, and I flew home over the weekend to attend her birthday party hosted by one of my cousins. Great food, cousins I hadn’t seen in YEARS. My poor kids were overwhelmed by all the family who they didn’t know, but who knew them. I did not take a single picture, and I am waiting for someone to either email some out or post on Facebook. I would poke at them to do so if I could remember who was taking them. lol Just for the record, I have broken another one of my rules. I always said, “The DragonLady doesn’t get on a plane sober,” but I did going and coming. I wasn’t at all comfortable, but I was sober.

I got up and ran 5K Saturday morning from my mom’s. That was the craziest run I have had so far. I was fine running down to Uncle Fred & Aunt Becky’s, and I was fine running to the old school, but from that point on, every time I ran uphill, I thought I was going to poop. (That’s your TMI for today.) I mean, it was crazy, and I didn’t think I would ever get that last 400 meters done. Pretty sure the chick on Nike+ said “100 meters left” twice. And once I was done, I couldn’t go. Weird.

I lost 3 pounds during week 1 of Jess’s Marathon Weight Loss Challenge.

It probably would have been more had it not been for the birthday party, and that moment of weakness when I drank a Dr. Pepper. But, it’s all good because I met my 3rd milestone and went under 180. I began reading Eat to Live since my doctor “prescribed” it 3 or 4 years ago. So far it is reinforcing everything I have researched and fell upon since going gluten free and then going natural(ish).

After waking up sick yesterday morning, I ended up calling in and went back to bed and slept until 10:30am. I think maybe I was just exhausted and dehydrated because when I got up that second time, I ate and drank a bunch of water, and then felt fine by 3pm. So about 7, I decided I could try a run, and I ran 4.55 miles. I probably could have run farther, but I told the kids before I left that it shouldn’t take me more than an hour. The first mile felt good, I wanted to quit the entire second mile, I wanted to quit for half of the 3rd mile, and then I just kept telling myself that I could make it back to the church. Once there, I told myself I could make it to the 4 mile mark, and at that point I was confident I could make it home. I was feeling real good once I made it back.

And I am now training for the half marathon in November. Karyn sent me the 20 week training plan she is following, which this would be week 19 and I’ve not been exact, and still won’t be since I have a 5k next week, but it will be ok. I think.

This was stuck in my head nearly all day Monday…

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Family, Life, LinkWhoring, Ramble, Reading, Running, Video. | 2 Comments

Dieting sucks

By on June 20, 2012

Really, there is no other way to put it. It doesn’t matter how you dress it up, at the end of the day, when you are trying to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you consume. That means you can’t eat as much as you want, and you get hungry because you have spent the better part of your life not denying yourself any food or amount of food because food made you feel good. That sounded a bit confessional didn’t it?

I finally got a handle (mostly) on what I am consuming, and on regular (mostly) exercise, so it is down to it. And yes, I am keeping track of what I am eating. Not so much with a diary, but I am eating the same thing every day, at the same time (mostly), in the same amount. Boring, yes, but that in itself shows a problem. I don’t need my food to entertain me. That’s what Facebook is for right? 😉

Breakfast consists of 1 cup (cooked) quinoa & amaranth with 1 banana, equalish amounts of dried cranberries & blueberries (around 2 Tbsp each), and about a 1/4 cup of milk.

Lunch is about a half cup of wild rice, and sometimes a baked sweet potato and/or a probiotic yogurt.

Supper is a cheese omelette sandwhich which I look forward to all.stinking.day. 😉

And a multivitamin + vitamin D.

And starting next week, I plan to hit the farmer’s markets and get me some good veggies to go with the wild rice. 🙂

This entry is filed under Diet, Semi-confessional, Wholesome Wednesday. | 6 Comments

Maniacal Monday #9

By on June 18, 2012

1. Day 18. I will eventually explain this for everyone.

2. I was in a really bad mood Friday. I’m talking craptastic. So I would have gone for a run Friday night even if I hadn’t already planned on running that night. I really pushed myself hard that first mile trying to burn off some of the anger. Then I pushed myself the remaining 2.4 miles just to keep moving. It did wonders for my mood…until I went to sleep… The bad mood lasted pretty much all weekend, and today is Monday…

3. I’m running a 5K this week:

The way my running schedule turned out last week & this weekend, I will be running this on Wendesday.

4. I also start a marathon this week:

This has me nervous, and means I have to step up my working out and be diligent about sticking to my diet, ie, stay out of my daughter’s french vanilla ice cream. 😉

5. I got my whole yard mowed yesterday, except for the little bit that has to be push mowed and weed eated.

6. Excited that this is only a 4 day work week for me…and next week also…oh, and the week after that also!

This entry is filed under Diet, Exercise, Maniacal Monday, Running. | 4 Comments

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