Weight-loss, Fitness, Running

Weight-loss, Fitness, Running

Weight-loss, Fitness, Running

Weight-loss, Fitness, Running

Monday, November 30, 2015

I was Surprised!

How did I end up with two of the same black shirts in two different sizes and not know it? 
I loved this new shirt so much that I bought it in three colors, black, gray and red-maroon.  I some how purchased two black shirts and I'm guessing it was because I was undecided about what size to get? Oh well, you can never have enough black shirts that are clean. 

Woke up to at least 2 inches more of snow. We will be getting another wave of snow later on. I will be getting out the cross country ski's and making my own trail through the woods later on. I'm excited to get the ski's out once again. Running is going to be too difficult today and probably a little too dangerous on the roads. I'll stick to another way to get in my hour of cardio by cross country skiing. 
I am just not super motivated to do anything right away this morning. I use to be a get up and go workout right away person. I've learned this past year it's okay to wait a few hours, I'll still get out there and run or for today ski. 
I'm not spending my Monday with Evan since his other grandmother is watching him today. I'm bummed to not spend the day with my favorite little guy. This does give me the whole day to ski and get some much needed organizing done around the house. I just have to get my todo list in order to get something accomplished. I'm just not moving fast since Steve and I went to see the new James Bond Movie at 9pm last night. A late night and up early this morning. 



Sunday, November 29, 2015

Moving Along and weekly wrap up!

I'm so glad I finished that run! 23*F chilly! I tried another new mix up route in the running. 3 loops around the hood on the road and one loop on the icy path. I had to walk up half the big hill since there was way too much ice to run. I managed to run on the grass where the path still had ice and snow covering it so it was not too bad, just a lot slower as you will see by my mile times. 
Mile 5, yep that's my ice on the path. I wore a shirt over my tank top for the entire run. I just took it off to cool down before heading inside to warm up my frozen buns. 
How was my weekly wrap up of all I did this week? 
Dieting mostly maintaining as I ate around 1700 to 2000 calories every single day. I skipped running three days this week due to a very busy work schedule. 
Running miles; 
Thursday - 6 miles
Friday- 5 miles
Saturday - 6 miles
Sunday 6 miles
Total miles = 23

Weekly Exercises: 
6 days out of 7
This is what I thought about while running today. 
My idea of a great retirement. Sell everything and travel the world. Run or bike to explore the world for fun. 

What is my Boston Qualifying Age Group time needed? (googles says? 3 hours and 55 minutes or 8:58 minute miles for 26.2 miles)


Those daily exercises are tough!

 My daily exercises are tough. I suppose this is why I'm still doing them each and every day for what 2+ years now? They never get easier and when they do.. what do I do? Make it harder.
There are a few things I really do like about my daily exercises. 
1. Planks, bridges, twists and triceps dips really warm me up when I'm feeling cold. 
2. My exercises all work the core. A strong core is essential for good running and for a good healhty fit life. 
There are many days were I wonder why am I still doing these daily exercises. They are soooo hard. It's tiring holding a plank for 2 minutes and then to do it again a few seconds later for a total of 10 minutes. I always think back to my personal training classes at DCTC where a woman and a young 18 or 20 year old guy were trying to outlast each other in a plank hold. Guess who won? The 40+ year old woman at 5 minutes for a plank! That was amazing! This was at a time were I struggled to hold a 30 second plank and I was shaking like a leaf. I might never be able to do a 5 minute plank all at one time but I'm working on it day by day. 
Its been super cold running in Minnesota the past few days. I tried out a new jacket/shirt combo for colder weather running. The results were the same. I took off the jacket exactly 1 mile into my run. Off came the face scarf but I did keep my ear warmer on the entire run. I'm happy to say, I ran almost exactly 6 miles Saturday morning. Exactly 5.98 miles in a little over 1 hour with 3 rest breaks for water. I plan to repeat the same run this Sunday morning. 

Look at this cutie. I love, love this photo of Evan. 



Saturday, November 28, 2015

Just waiting around for that sun to come up.

There are just some nights I can sleep and others I toss and turn. This was a toss and turn night and I even went to bed at midnight and there was no afternoon nap. Looks like I only needed 4 hours of sleep. I just need to burn a few hours before the sun comes up to be able to run. 
 I'm guessing my neighborhood path on the trails will be out today as well. I'm positive that its still going to be icy since most of it is in the shade. It's a cool 18+F this morning.. and there will be ice. I'll have to stick to the road once more for my morning run. It feels just as hilly as my normal running route. I just didn't have one monster big hill to run up. I do like that its just a tiny bit longer one time around as my normal route. 
I spent a lot of time shopping on Black Friday. After working an hour in the afternoon, I went back to the stores, the mall with the kids to shop. We found a few things for Celina but not a winter jacket for Logan which is why we went shopping. Maybe we will have better luck today? 
Friday was also another dieting goal date. Day 40. I completely blew it. I started off eating so healthy.. for breakfast and lunch.. then came snack.. I made chocolate chip cookies and I had to taste some of the cookie dough. Dinner was turkey leftovers with lots and lots of gravy.. and dessert a small slice of pecan pie.. then I got home from another evening shopping trip to get another laser light for the front yard, hit up TJ Maxx came home to find a hot pizza on the counter. I ate a few square of pizza too. So much for self control. Out the door! This was not my best week for dieting. I'd say more in the maintain week not any losing weight. There is always today. A fresh start!


Friday, November 27, 2015

My run was to the store on Black Friday.

I completely missed my opportunity to snag a good deal. I realized my too late my run to the store was for nothing. Home Depot was sold out of my $20 laser light deal at 8:30am. Guess when they open at 6am you must be there to get the deal. I'm usually up early but decided today was the day I'd sleep in till 7am. Since I was already out shopping I stopped at a few more stores. I walked into Bed Bath and Beyond and was greeted by a sales woman at the Fitbit display. I love my Fitbit and already own one so I just said Thanks for the info (on Sale today). The woman behind me said I'm not exercising, not going to happen. I then realized, I was in the wrong place. I needed to get out of there asap and go home to run. I don't want to be that person that does not think exercise is necessary! 
We finally got our covering of snow. Just in the right time to get in the Christmas mood now that Thanksgiving is over. The roads were a bit slippery since we had some freezing rain, plus, melting and freezing going on. I took to the streets of our neighborhood to avoid the skating rink on the path I usually take around the lakes. 
I would prefer to run my usual path, but I had no choice today with all the ice. There is no way to run safely on ice and I avoided it best I could on the streets. Running the loop around our neighborhood streets is about the same distance as my path run in our neighborhood. Its just a tiny bit longer in mileage on the street. I stopped at 4.65 miles figuring I'll be working for a bit today and doing some more shopping/walking miles. 
 Thanksgiving was nice. We all got together early around 1:30/2pm to have an early dinner. We played Yahtzee and a round of cribbage. 
I completely loaded my plate. Steve made my dad's stuffing, that is absolutely my favorite part of the meal. A new multi grain rice with butternut squash. I loved the new combo and we have leftovers which I will be eating. Mashed potatoes, a dab of sweet potatoes without the marshmallow topping, and a slice of turkey with gravy. Yep, it wouldn't be all that bad if I could just avoid the gravy. Plus, two glasses of white wine. 
 We had three pies. Apple, pecan and pumpkin/sweet potato pies. I think my favorite this year was the apple. I had a tiny slice of each. I was really wanting to like them all but the pumpkin was lacking sugar and the pecan had rum added which I didn't care for. Oh well.. next year I'll volunteer to make the pies. 
I was thankful that I ran that morning 6 easy miles on the path during the sleet, rain storm. 
The sleet hurt my face so I grabbed a visor just to protect me from the elements. Nothing like getting pelted with tiny ice chunks. 
a
Happy Black Friday shopping!

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Diet and Thanksgiving.. do they mix?

The Big Question of the day is "Does a diet and Thanksgiving mix?" The holiday where its all centered  around food? Well, aren't all holidays centered around food? This one meal claims to have around 3000 calories. That's far more then I need to stay on my healthy diet. 
Here is what I can not live without eating for my Turkey day meal. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and maybe sweet potatoes. Pie.. must have a tiny slice of pumpkin, sweet potato and pecan. I try to go easy on the helping size of everything I take. A little dab of each of the potatoes and 1 slice of turkey. I do love stuffing, so I won't eat any extra rolls. 
I'm on day 39.. yes, it's a slow weight loss plan. Is it changing the way I choose food? Yes. Am I losing weight? Yes. Am I hungry all the time, no. It it an easy diet to stick to? Yes. 
Logan requested quiche for dinner. Cheese filled quiche. How could I say no. It was delicious with a salad. 

Happy Thanksgiving


Happy Thanksgiving.. A turkey Running his buns off! 

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Life without running for three days

In three days without running.. I just don't feel right and have the blah's. Work has taken up my energy and I have nothing extra to give for a few miles of running. 
I am hoping with the three day break when we get this Thanksgiving day snow it won't bother me at all. I'll be mentally prepared to go out in any kind of weather that is thrown at me. Re-charged and ready to knock out 6 miles. 
Instead of running in the morning. I've been spending a lot of time doing yoga. Its just so relaxing. I sometimes do yoga twice during the day.for an hour or more each time. I like the sleepy yoga, where you just lay on the floor for most of my exercises. 
I'm on day 38 of my diet. Did  I mention that I tried on my two pairs of skinny blue jeans. One fit and one did not. I have a little way to go to drop more weight. 
We went out to eat last night at our favorite Mexican restraint, Cancun Fiesta. I ate far too many chips but did load them up with salad and tried to limited the number of chips somewhat. Logan and I split our favorite chicken fajita. I only ate one with a soft tortilla, otherwise only ate the veggies with some chicken. We all came home stuffed. I still ate for the day around 1700 calories I'm guessing. 


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

My legs want to run, but I know it's not going to happen.

I could use a few miles of running today. My legs really want to run but I'm saving my energy for work. I'm sure a run this morning would help the stress I'm  feeling from my kids waiting till its past time to do homework. Why do I get a text at 9pm asking about home work? Or wake up a kid extra early to do homework, only to find out the schools web page is down. That is poor planning and it stresses me out when my kids wait till the last minute. You know nothing ever works out when you wait. Its like the printer or the computer when you need to do something fast, that will be the time it takes forever! 
Sometimes I wait to make cookies for my work customers till the morning of. I tried another Pinterest recipe and this one was a fail. Mini chocolate chip snow balls. They just were dry and pretty tasteless with the exception of the chocolate chips. I won't ever make these again! 
Two more busy days of work. I'm missing out on some warmer 30+F morning temperatures to run in due to my busy work days. I'm not liking the Thanksgiving day weather forecast for snow/ice/rain mix and colder temperatures. Wish the warmer stuff could just hang around so when I am able to run on Thursday it will be nice. Wishful thinking! I'll still run but maybe not a turkey trot race? 

Monday, November 23, 2015

Are you ready for T-day?

It's Turkey Day week.. It's going to be a busy week, but at least we all have Thursday and Friday to look forward to. I will get through the next three days of work being extra, extra busy.
I've decided to take a mini break from running the next three days just because work is going to be burning plenty of calories. I might run a tiny bit.. maybe just one loop around the neighborhood 1.4 miles each day just because. 
Instead of hooking up a bunch of lights, we purchased one of those projector laser  light displays. 

It's either all green or a combo of green and red. I like the combo best. It's suppose to cover 4000 sq feet. Well, I was able to adjust it to cover all the house and 1/4 of the garage. I might need to back it up a bit to see if that helps. I like how it also lights up the trees. The really great thing is that its only on when dark out and turns off when the sun comes up. I think this is going to be our new outside holiday lights. At $39 its far less then we spent for 400 LED white lights. That only covers one tree! I'm all for making everything a lot easier. We might just purchase one more light and call it good! 
Sunday afternoon I made not one but two pans of cheese stuffed pasta shells. One of my favorites. I have leftovers for dinner tonight. 
Instead of buying an already made salad bag, I've been making my own. We purchased some kale, romaine lettuce, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese crumbs, craisins and poppy seed salad dressing. I was only missing some pumpkin seeds but will be making a special trip to Trader Joe's for more ASAP! The salad also could use chopped up Brussels sprouts but Target was out and I didn't feel like chopping them up myself. Just as good or better then the already made bagged salad and just as easy to make. I only had to chop up the lettuce, kale and tomatoes. 
I'm still on my healthy eating diet. To re-train myself on how to make healhty food choices. I'm on day 36. It's hard to believe I'm on week #6 of this diet. Considering its so very difficult to even start a diet and lose weight I'm pretty happy that I found a easy balance between healthy eating, eating less and not feeling deprived. My goals were simple. Start making better food choices most of the time. Make small changes in food choices. I made the most important decision when I first decided to diet. To not weight myself. I knew about where I was for weight and that's all I needed to know an aprox start weight. My measurement of weight loss was just wanting to be able to wear my skinny jeans comfortably. My first goal was getting back into my black skinny jeans. Mission accomplished! I was able to wear them comfortably last week. I tried on my skinny red jeans that I was able to wear at my lowest weight. I have a ways to go to get my butt back in those jeans. I do have two other pairs of blue jeans in two different sizes that I'll be trying on today to see where I'm at and to keep me going. I've just decided the number on the scale is not going to decide how I feel about myself. When ever I tried to diet the scale would end up being the reason I'd quit my diet. If I wasn't seeing weight loss I'd give up. This way not knowing exactly how much weight I lose each week doesn't matter. I have nothing to get discouraged about. Even if I eat a cupcake, cheese filled shells.. I limit the amount I eat. It's only one meal or one dessert and I get right back on track or make sure my calories for the day stay around 1500 to 1900 for the day. 
Sometimes this diet feels like I'm on a road to no where. I don't see big results but I feel better and I'm checking off the days I'm making better food choices. Getting rid of a little fat here and there. Getting a little more tone and in the process fitting back into some skinny jeans. What's not to like about being healthy. why stop when I can keep making good decisions for me. 
(diet day #36, beginning of week #6)

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Our First Snow fall..

I had no idea it even snowed last night. That's how little of snow we received. It was just a tiny coating of snow that only lasted on a few places on my path around our hood. 
It didn't feel as cold out as Saturday morning. I might just be getting use to the cold now that I've been running for a few days at temperatures in the teens and low 20's. 
How did I do this week of my diet Week #5? Pretty good for the most part. My daily calories were a low of 1500 up to 1900 max. Which is exactly where I wanted to be. 
My running miles: Total 33
Monday - Zero
Tuesday - 6
Wednesday - 6
Thursday - 3
Friday - 6
Saturday 6
Sunday - 6 
 7 days of daily exercises (planks, bridge, twists, tri)
30 minutes of weights,
2 miles on the stationary bike. 
I was starving when I was done running. I got a super late start thanks to sleeping in this Sunday morning. Sometimes you just have to sleep! Steve made waffles with real maple syrup, Canadian bacon and Yukon Gold smashed  potatoes. I'm calling it lunch since I ate it at 11:30 this morning. Delicious and just what I needed. 
Last night we were invited over to Steve's brother's house for dessert. Celina wanted to make chocolate Coffee cupcakes with coffee butter cream frosting. She made the cupcakes and I helped with the frosting and did the decorating. I used slices of the bars I made on top and they were super good. 
I might have to give some away since we still have a lot of left over cupcakes. 
We were all craving a good steak last night. Target has far better steaks and better prices then Cub foods so we drove a little farther for a better steak. Steve cooked the steaks medium rare with shallots and butter. Sides were fingerling potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli and mushrooms sauteed with garlic/butter with a small slice of bread on the side. This was one of the better meals I've had in ages. The steak was cooked perfect and I ate every bite! 

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Running Naked in 21*F degrees!

Now that's cold.. 21*F and I think it was actually 18 degrees this morning when I stepped out to run my 6 miles. I did my miles completely naked.. that  is Garmin naked. 
Nothing, zip, nada.. that's how I ran this morning. Without my Garmin to keep track of my pace. I guess running lately has been at what ever pace anyway. Plus, I always run the same 4 loops around the neighborhood so my miles are exactly the same every single run. It made perfect sense to just run without my Garmin when I found that it was not fully charged. Some how the connector was not attached exactly to my watch and it never charged up. Such is life.. 
I got out my extra, extra warm running leggings. They are the leggings I wear when cross country skiing. You know it's chilly out there if I get these pants out to run in. My butt was still cold, but it was not a solid block, just very chilled after my run. 

Once again I stayed up way too late Friday night. We got together with neighbors for some apps and drinks. Stayed until 11:30pm and woke to a headache. What? I only had one drink, an Angry Orchard Apple Cider and lots of water. I think me and staying up late just don't mix. I need to be in bed sleeping by 9pm, 10 at the very latest to feel normal the next day. Lets just say.. I took my sweet time getting ready to run. 
I love to bake but this even is new for me. I made not one but two recipes I found on Pinterest. The no bake peanut butter bars were still my absolute favorite but I'd have to say, these short bread caramel toffee bars come in  very close. Steve said they were even better then 7 layer bars and by far are his FAVORITE! 
Here's the info if you want to make them. They were super easy. 
Shortbread Toffee Cookie Bars (via: .http://cookiesandcups.com/)
 
makes 30 squares
Ingredients
Shortbread Crust
  • ¾ cup butter, room temperature
  • ¾ cup light brown sugar
  • 1½ cups flour
Filling
  • 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 Tbsp butter
Topping
  • 2 cups milk chocolate chips
  • 1½ cups Toffee Bits
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°
  2. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray lightly with nonstick spray.
Shortbread Crust
  1. Beat butter and sugar together until combined, 1-2 minutes.
  2. Mix in flour. Mixture will be slightly dry. Press into prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.
Filling
  1. In a small saucepan heat sweetened condensed milk and butter together until butter is smooth. Pour over shortbread crust. Bake 12-15 minutes until filling is bubbly and browned. It will almost take on a light caramel appearance. Remove from oven
Topping
  1. Immediately sprinkle milk chips on top of filling when it comes out of the oven. Place back in oven for 2 minutes until chips are shiny and soft.
  2. Carefully spread the chips over the filling with an off-set spatula.
  3. Sprinkle with toffee bits, pressing into milk chocolate.
  4. Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.