16 December 2006

I love Christmas!!!

Okay, not so much anymore. When the kids were little it was my favorite but now it's just me and hubby, ehh....

But after much discussion and debate back and forth on what each of us wanted for Christmas, earlier in the week we decided. Hubby had a real nice stereo system from his old truck with a kicker box and everything, that had never been installed in the new truck. He wanted to get that installed for his Christmas present. So he did on Thursday.

As for me, I've had a tattoo in mind for a long time now and I said I wanted it for Christmas. So last night I went and got it.


It's on my right wrist like a bracelet and on both sides of the dolphins, wrapping around my wrist, is my favorite saying, Do or do not. There is no try.

I absolutely love this. It came out way better than I thought it would. The skin is still all angry and red and the ink is still bubbly but I LOVE it!!!!!!!


Okay, that's all for now. I just had to share :)

14 December 2006

Oh yeah, one more thing.

Why can I no longer comment if the other blogger has switched to beta???? I haven't switched, and won't because I don't like it, so I can't comment on a blog that has switched. That's just not right. I hate being forced into doing something I don't want to do and that's what blogger is doing. First I get that stupid message everytime I log on, now I can't comment. Well, guess what blogger - screw you!!!! That beta version is not better!!! It sucks!!!! ( I have a secret blog that I switched, that's how I know). Why don't you fix it!!! In the mean time, let us freaking comment on all blogs!!!!!

The rain is out to get me.

Last night I got myself together to go out and watch the Gemind meteor shower, it was supposed to peak here at 10pm, only to have it start raining -hard- just before I went outside. It kept it up for awhile, so I went to bed. No meteor shower for me.

This morning I slept in a little because I was going to run. Since I only needed to do a little speed work I didn't have to get up quite so early. Just as I get up and start getting ready to run it starts pouring!! So I chickened out and opted to read blogs instead.

What's going on with the rain??? I do believe it's personal ;)

I will run tonight on the way home. My boss is leaving early, so I'm going to leave a little early and I'll stop in my favorite neighborhood and run. I will run even if it's raining. I've got to get my speed work in for this weekend. I have a botanical garden to conquer.

13 December 2006

Busy, busy, busy.......

like everyone else this time of year, right????

One person is out at work and that just makes things that much worse.

But overall things have been going very, very well. I have been working out every morning. My eating has been pretty darn good too.

Back in September I developed a theory about eating (I can't seem to link to it so you'll have to trust me). Basically it was that the human body will not hold on to stuff if it gets it on a regular basis. i.e.; water; the more you drink the more you want. Don't drink enough and you retain water. Salt; I've noticed that athletes who eat salt regularly excrete a lot of salt during races, whereas folks who don't really eat salt and take salt pills tend to not excrete salt. Food; skinny people eat all the time and are hungry a lot!!! Fat people tend to not feel hunger pains.

Okay, this is not perfect, it is purely anecdotal in nature but it's a general pattern I've noticed. My theory is that if you provide these items to your body regularly your body won't store them. So drink water, you're body won't retain it. Eat salt, you'll body will sweat it out. Eat food, you're body won't store as much fat.

Since that lightening bolt hit me I've really been working on eating regularly. Generally about 5 meals a day. When I do this regularly my hunger kicks in just like clockwork. I had a rough period where I wasn't doing this and I stopped getting hungry.

During most of this time I was keeping track of my food on FitDay. But I noticed I was getting way too caught up in the numbers. I would be totally discouraged when my caloric intake would hit 2500 for a day. Nevermind the fact that I did two workouts that day, I was stuck on the numbers.

Then I came across an article by a nutritionist, Dr. John M Berardi. He has a series of articles on how to customize an eating plan just for you. He said to start by following a few simple rules for the first 2 -3 weeks:

Eat every 2-3 hours.

Eat complete, lean protein with every meal

Eat veggies with every meal

Eat veggies/fruit with any meal. Eat "other" carbs only after exercise.

Eat healthy fats daily.

Don't drink beverages with more than 0 calories.

Eat whole foods whenever possible.

Simple, easy to follow and pretty much what I've been doing for a while now.

He also suggest creating 6 meals based on these guidelines that you could eat everyday.

He also suggests a compliance rate of 90% is great. So, I generally eat 5 meals a day x 7 days a week = 35 meals. I can then break the "rules" on 4 meals a week, not too bad.

So, using these rules as a basis, I've planned my eating for the last few weeks this way. I've done fairly well and really feel amazing.

I've stopped using FitDay and started using a written journal. In it I would only note deviations from my plan. For example, yesterdays entry read: "Eating was good. Had bratwurst for dinner and ice cream for dessert." This does a couple of things, it gets my focus away from the numbers and highlights when my problem times are (nighttime). It's also showing me how my eating effects my weight. I weigh myself every morning and log it in my journal. Interestingly, when I overeat, or drink beer ;) it takes 2 days to show up on the scale. This information is invaluable for my morale. When my eating is spot on yet the next morning the scale is up 2 lbs at least I understand what's going on.

Anyway, my point with this long winded report is that things are going well. I'm really feeling great, energy and a positive attitude. I've lost 4 lbs in the last 2 1/2 weeks and that's totally cool. More importantly is I feel totally in control again and that's a good thing.

10 December 2006

I have met my nemesis!!

Or should I say we've been reintroduced.

Yesterday I did not go running as planned because we needed to do some major shopping (Sam's Club, WalMart, etc...) and the only time our schedules coordinated was yesterday. So instead I did weights in the morning with cardio intervals. During one of the cardio intervals is when my HR hit 230, yeah right!!!

Anywho, this morning it was time to run. Now I have not run in the botanical gardens in about 5 years - yikes!!!! It was when I was training for my 1st marathon in 2001. At that time I wasn't speedy but could run through the gardens in about an hour, maybe just a touch more.

Now running in there is not like running on the road but it's not quite trail running either. It's like off road running. There is an asphalt road that runs through the gardens but it's at the base of the mountains so it's up and down and up and down and up ...... you get the idea.



This is at the entrance to the gardens. Those mountains, the Koolaus, have waterfalls in every crevice when it rains. It's one of my favorite places to be when it's raining.

As you can see there is an asphalt road but easy it ain't.

So I'm huffing and puffing through the beginning of the road and thinking, "what the hell are you doing????"

Then things start to get really fun.

For those of you that haven't been playing this game long, me and hills have, ummm, issues. If I have to run uphill longer than 30 seconds to 1 minute I get nauseous. Every. Single. Time.

I've tried a thousand things, eating, not eating, drinking, not drinking, slowing down, going faster, .... Nothing. Every time I get nauseous.

This was taken at the rear gate of the gardens and as you can see I'm standing at the highest point. Yes, there is an altitude gain and I ran up it all.

I ran up all the hills to get there and down the whole way back. I really need to do this to get over my stomach issues.

I've been trying to figure out how far it is. By mapping out a straight line it's 3 miles. But since the road takes a number of twists and turns I'm going to guesstimate it's 5 miles.

So it took me 1 hour 27 minutes to go 5 miles. Since I used to do this at right around an hour, I have met my nemesis and the thing I must conquer.

This run kicked my butt!! I have decided to do this run every weekend until I can do it without dying.




This is such a beautiful place to run I think I will enjoy these weekend runs.

Also, there are a lot of trails off the main road that I can run on. And, you can sneak out the back gate and it takes you onto an old road that's now closed that popular for running.

This will be where I'll spend my weekends for a while.










In other news. I'm such a dork. Yesterday I checked the oil in my car and was a quart low. So I added a quart. Apparently I forgot to put the oil cap back on - doh!!! I'm driving around this morning and all of a sudden there's smoke pouring out of my hood. I pull over and open the hood and immediately see the problem. What an idiot!!! I had to call hubby who came and rescued me with oil and a new oil cap. You would never know in a former life I was an auto mechanic would you!!!!

I also changed the windshield wipers and you know what??? New wipers rock. It's one of the simple things in life.

Well, I guess that about covers the weekend. I'm tired and am going to lay down and take a nap.

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...