05 February 2011

Salads

I love salads.  I could eat them everyday for lunch and dinner and never get tired.  I love lots of stuff in my salads; beans, beets, eggs, oranges, cranberries, whatever.  I love salads.  Lately though I have a whole new salad to love.  I love, love, love to take leftover meat from dinner; chicken or steak; and a little rice.  Heat them up and throw them in a salad with some ranch dressing.  OMG!!!  That is so awesome. I could eat that every day.  I absolutely love it.  The best part is I can make a huge bowl of greens with all manner of veggies in it, add 3 oz of meat and 1/2 cup of rice and I have a filling meal.  Really filling.  But not bloating, just filling.  I love it.  Tonight at dinner I had a salad and a plate with chicken and rice.  I ended up dumping my rice in my salad and eating it with pieces of chicken.  Awesome.....

Stress

is starting to get to me.  We are in pretty serious financial trouble.  Hubby lost his job back in November and that was our main source of income.  Then last week he took off from his other job because his son was here visiting.  Now we are broke. Flat ass broke. And it appears we owe taxes. Freaking perfect.  We have no money to pay bills or to buy anything.  I had to use my blogging money to buy some gas.  I'm worried.  And I can feel it starting to manifest in physical symptoms. I have no desire to workout. I just want to lie in bed and pull the covers over my head.  And I want to eat.  Of course, I have no money to buy any junk food so that's not really happening, but the desire is there.

So....what am I going to do about this??  Well, I have a number of "plans" but none of them are immediate. I am looking for a part time job to bring in more money and I am also looking into a teaching job that pays more. If I were to work for the DOE I would make about $12,000 more a year than I do now.  That is quite a chunk of change.  So there is that.  But even if I get a part time job tomorrow, I won't see any pay for a couple of weeks and the DOE won't start until July.  So these are long term fixes, I have absolutely nothing for the short term.  Nothing.  I don't know what the hell we are going to do.  The only thing I really care about is the mortgage.  As long as that is paid everyone else can wait.  Okay, enough feeling sorry for myself, I have to do something.

01 February 2011

February Goals

I have not made goals in a long, long time.  I'm thinking it may be time to go back to them and maybe it will help me.  So here goes.....

  • I have 16 runs scheduled in February and I want to complete at least 13 of them.  
  • I have 8 strength sessions penciled in and I want to complete at least 5 of them. 
  • I will stick to the WW program 5 out of 7 days every week. 
  • I will burn an average of 2500 calories a day
  • I will attend Saturday WW meetings.
Okay, I don't think that is too crazy, well within my control.  I am not going to focus on a scale number only on eating and fitness.  I think that will be good for me.

Along those lines, today was a potluck at work.  I have decided that I really don't like potlucks.  They never have really decent food even if people are "healthy" eaters.  There is always an overabundance of one type or another.  For  example we had:  chicken wings, teriakyi chicken, kalua pork, mexican casserole, curry beef stew, broccoli salad, 7-layer dip, fried noodles, and an entire table of desserts.  Lovely. Anyway, that was today and since we had to go from 7 am until 2 pm without eating - all bets were off.  I tried to maintain at least a bit but ended up overeating and having dessert.  I left feeling stuffed and yucky.  Hubby is working tonight so no dogwalk.  After I was home for a while I had a polish dog.  Awesome!!!  That's okay.  Tomorrow it's on like Donkey Kong.  Now I have to go put the birds to bed.

The Great Vibram Five Fingers Experiment

heretofore known as GVFFE. I was reading a blog about a runner who ran a 1/2 marathon in them.  They spoke of the good things about them and "answered" some common questions about them and running.  It really sparked something in me.  I have a pair that I have never given the time to really break in. So tonight I came home and put mine on.  I wore them to walk the dogs and around the house for a couple of hours. My feet were tired.  They did not hurt but they are used differently and get really tired.  So the plan is to wear them to walk the dogs every night and for an hour or so around the house.  Eventually I want to start running in them but I'm going to take my time and not rush it. One thing is that I seem to be beset with injuries whenever I run any significant amount.  My knee, hip, heel, you name it - it hurts.  So hopefully this will get me walking more normally and reduce the pains. So it begins.....

30 January 2011

And done....


There is the evidence. The numbers are as follows:
  • Total miles:   5.04 miles
  • Total time:  1:21
  • Average pace: 16:15
  • Fastest Pace: 8:56
I did take some walk breaks which accounts for the average pace.  I also walked the last quarter mile because I was exhausted.

I started out slow, just shuffling along because I wanted to run all or most of it.  So I shuffled.  After about 15 minutes I found my pace.  That pace that is perfect.  The one you can run forever.  That held for awhile until I started hitting the hills.  Those were tough and I ended up walking quite a few.  But the important part is I covered 5 miles, I ran far more than I walked, and I feel pretty good.  Marathon training is off to a fabulous start.

Overindulgence

definition: overindulge - gorge: overeat or eat immodestly; make a pig of oneself; "She stuffed herself at the dinner"; "The kids binged on ice cream"

Perfect to describe yesterday.  After writing yesterday's post, I realized that I shouldn't run. My plans called for starting on Sunday and if I ran yesterday I would screw up my plan before it even started.  So I didn't run.  I thought I would play some Wii during the day and do some schoolwork and maybe even some housework.  Not so much.  I was really hungry in the morning so I ate while I was writing my post.  Within an hour I was hungry again, so I made breakfast.  That didn't seem to do it so I had a snack about an hour later. Then Hubby came home with the pizza I had been craving.  I wasn't hungry right then so I waited a couple of hours before eating it.  The problem was once I started on it I could not stop.  I ended up eating approximately 20 points of pizza. Then it laid in my stomach all afternoon - nice.  I initially thought that I wouldn't eat dinner but the pizza was not moving just laying there, so I had a little dinner hoping to get the food moving again. It worked and I actually felt much better.  However, I'm sure I ate about 35 points yesterday and I don't really want to count them.  So I am thinking of changing my starting day to Sunday.  I don't know, I'll think about it today. 

So today it begins.  I have created a calendar with my running schedule on it. I have been wrapping my mind around the 4 runs a week.  I have been thinking and trying to set it into my brain.  I found that really works best for  me.  Instead of thinking that I have to run on Monday night, I think to myself, Monday night is running night.  It then becomes just something I do like walking the dogs or cleaning the bird room or feeding the animals. So I'm off to get ready for my first run.  5 miles is on the agenda and I know that I can do it. 

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...