Clown Shoes did not work!

I purchased new running shoes Hokia's and they looked a lot like clown shoes. I hardly care what my running shoes look like because I'm all about fixing my sore toe issues. If it works great if not, I have to find something else. 

At first they felt pretty okay running and then come mile 3.5 and my toe pain was back in full force. I was trying to ignore it and that didn't work so well. 

Instead of running 2 more miles with my toes hurting, I switched up my running shoes. I put on my Brooks Glycerin 11's which never hurt my toes. You know what, they felt pretty great. Guess, I'm going back for more Glycerin's and see if this is the solution to my toe pain. 

I purchased new running socks too $15 for this pair. They are ultra thin which I like for summer. I dislike HOT feet. 

My diet didn't work so well last night. I had a caramel sunday from Mcd's and some lemon bread from HyVee. Just an FYI, Hyvee's bakery foods Suck! They aren't so good. We tried both the lemon bread and the Raspberry coffee cake. Just flavorless junk, crap and I will not make this mistake again. I will try the donuts and cupcakes, but I have a feeling they will be the same flavorless junk. 

Now that Zoey is almost 7 months old, I trust her enough to go into our forbidden rooms with carpeting. She has free access to our porch and likes to sleep on the couch at night. She also likes to sit in the chair next to me in the mornings while I'm on the computer. Lets just hope we have zero accidents on the carpet. 

Happy Thursdsay!

Putting in the miles

I have to start putting in the miles for my half marathon coming up in August. I have about 4-1/2 weeks of training left before the big race day! 

I've been slacking on my miles since my feet always hurt. I have to get new running shoes today. I will have plenty of time to train and break in the new running shoes and be good to go race day. I just need to find the perfect pair of shoes that won't cause foot /toe pain. 

While I was waiting for the chiropractor on Tuesday, I was looking through a Minnesota magazine and came across two new places to try for breakfast. Spoon and Stable and The Kenwood. I'm drooling over the pancakes, hash browns and pastries. 

It's not exactly diet food but a treat here and there is okay with me. I've been semi okay with my dieting. I pretty much tried to stick with lower calorie foods while on vacation but I was still over my 1500 per day, more like 2400 calories with all the extras. 

I was back on track Monday limiting my calories to 1500 - 1800 per day. I have no idea if I'm losing weight, but I sure feel better when I eat more healthy. 

Off to work and then I have a full day of errands and shoe shopping. 

I have so much to show and tell

I have a ton of catching up blogging to do since I did zero updates over the weekend. I have a lot to show and tell.. 

This is why I didn't update at all over the weekend. We were at a weekend long soccer tournament in Duluth for Logan's soccer team. 

They played the first game Friday and then two on Saturday and one more on Sunday. A fun weekend for the boys and parents. 

Canel park

At the park point beach.. 

 The view from the top of our hotel restaurant. 

And once again home.. after a good weekend of team bonding in Duluth. 

 We got zero exercise other then walking from the car to the soccer field. It's tough coming back from a lazy weekend. Steve and I eased into the workout once again by doing something fun, mountain biking in the woods. 

It takes all my concentration to not wipe out on my bike. I can't afford to break a wrist, hand or leg. 

I was planning on taking more photos in the woods but we only stopped a few times and that usually was because I was not going to ride or jump over a log on the path. 

It's nice going during the week when most of the riders are at work. We weren't alone out there as we had a few bikers pass us on the trail. 

I was back to running this morning. Steve came with to the park to run the paths around the lake. I did two laps around for 4 miles while Steve took it easier and finished one shortened loop then walked for another 20 minutes so I could finish up one more time around. 

Felt great to run again and then finish up two more miles in the hood. Six miles and back to running. I really need to get going on getting new running shoes. This not getting new shoes is just not going good for my toe pain. I have it on my Wednesday todo list. I'm going to check out a new store, the Endurance room. They sell stuff for Tri's too so it has a bunch of stuff to look at. 

On my way...

Yes that's right! I am on  my way to losing fat from my body. Day 4 of my diet to eat less and most importantly eat healthy, eliminating Sugar and the crap from my diet. 

I keep a food log and have been doing that for many, many weeks regardless if I'm dieting or not. I just write down it all. I have all smiley faces for my food choices this week at every meal. Its either that or a frown face. I like seeing all smiles instead of frowns from my snack choices. 

My diet will power sure was tested last night. We went to check out the new Hy-Vee Super Grocery store. If my phone wasn't completely dead I would have taken a million photos of the bakery. They have all the cakes, bars, donuts right up front in a glass case when you walk in the store. This took all my will power to not go crazy and buy a bunch of unhealthy treats. The store is not going any where.. and I will be back and have a few in moderation. This is how I got through the urge to do that impulse buy and eat. I'm completely sold on the store and we will be shopping here even if it is a bit of a drive out to Lakeville/Apple Valley area. 

I'm back to eating my favorite salad. I'm buying it pre-packaged since the salad dressing is in a controlled amount. I added in tomatoes, but did not add blue cheese like I use to do. I didn't want to add extra calories to my dinner. I ate this salad with a little bit of roasted chicken. 

Breakfast will never change, my whole grain bread with chunky Skippy Natural Peanut butter. 

Lunch - I am loving veggie soup at 160 -180 calories with another slice of bread with my PB. Keeps me full. 

Snacks, popcorn and fruit. I'll add in veggies soon enough. 

I've already pre-planned my meals for today. Same old b-fast (that never gets old), same lunch as yesterday soup and bread w/PB, and dinner a sweet potato. I might add chicken with that potato or something else.

Snacks will include watermellon, strawberries, blueberries, black berries and a banana. I can't go crazy on the bananas since they are sugar/calorie higher. One a day is plenty. 

I just feel better and have more energy in the afternoons now that I'm concentrating on healthy foods again and have gotten a lot of sugar out of my diet. I'll probably have a few slip ups but that's okay because I'm in the process of making diet/food changes. 

Peace...

Peace.. While running most days through our neighborhood a woman that drives by me on her way to work, gives me the peace sign. Do I sign it back or wave? I choose to wave.. not sure what's up with the peace sign but I'm okay with it. I supose it's her way of giving me the thumbs up for being out there and running/exercising. Peace to all you runners, walkers and daily or when ever worker out...ers.. 

 I didn't run a lot this morning. Just a quick or slow 1.5 miles around the hood.

 I have been busy taking care of Celina and the dog. Mostly Celina. She had her wisdom teeth out on Monday. All eight of them, yes that was not a typo. She had eight wisdom teeth, just a few extras, that's all. I was on call all day getting meds, water, paper towels, pillows, food etc.. She was in a ton of pain for the first four hours and then I realized she could have double the pain medicine I had given her intially. I feel bad.. after her 2nd dose she was able to rest and woke up with chipmunk cheeks. I won't take a photo of her since I'm sure she won't want that posted. 

When did Logan get so tall? Lets compare to last year the end of August when we were in South Dakota, shorter then Celina and now taller then her by about the same amount... he grew up with that new hair cut. 

Weightloss progress

I'm super happy about my weight loss progress. On Day 3 of making changes to my diet and dropping pounds. 

I have been doing great with no sugar and eating less the last few days. Its been pretty easy so far but I have to admit, I still feel like I want to eat in the evenings. I have a back up plan of low cal popcorn for those times I just need to munch and crunch endlessly. 

My goal is to just concentrate on eating less, around 1000 - 1500 calories per day. Losing 10 pounds and sticking with my diet until July7th (17 days total). That might not be enough time to lose 10 pounds but I will have lost something. I'm just feeling a lot better without sugar. Maybe that was dragging me down making me feel overly tired. Of course, I cut back on running too which usually wipes me out if I run 6 or more miles. 

Three easy miles this morning. I love it when it's over cast and around 60+F when I run. A light rain is always good too. I only had a few rain drops fall on this run. Quick and simple, I don't want to over do it since I'm eating less. Right now my diet is taking over my running miles. Plus, I alway have work exercise and that's usually enough.
Not to mention my daily exercises of planks, and lifting some weights all of which takes me 30 minutes some times longer if I keep getting interupted. 

I do 8 minutes of planks per day x 7 days a week = 56 minutes of planks a week. That's a lot of minutes of working on my abs. I'm working on losing belly fat to finally see my abs and all my hard work with those daily planks for the last.. 2+ years. It's time to come on out and say goodbye to my stomach fat. It's probably time for me to add more planks since it's getting pretty easy, well never easy but not as hard as it use to be. Since I get interupted multiple times every morning I'm thinking about adding a evening right before bed planks/weights to my daily todo list. I think this will help get me tired for bed and a good night time schedule. 

I'm serious this time

I have to get serious about losing 10 pounds. I am getting more specific in my goals. 

Starting off Monday on a weight loss plan seems like the smart thing to do. I have ten pounds I want to lose by the 4th of July.. plenty of time to lose that amount of weight. 

This Lazagna is certainly not diet food. It was last nights dinner in Northfield the town where Jessie James was killed. We ate at the Tavern by the river in this old hotel. It was a nice night so we ate out on the back patio.

The food was just okay.. So much for the four stars this place received. 

A few photos from our walk after dinner next to the cannon river. 

 The people down by the bridge caugh some small catfish out of the river while we walked by. 

Late afternoon the kids and I went jetskiing in Cannon falls on the lake. Steve was off on a motorcycle ride and met us at the lake to help put in the jetski and take it out. He wanted to spend father's day going for a bike ride in 90*F temps. 

The kids and I just drove around the lake and stopped at the cliffs to swim in the water.

That was pretty much our Sunday.. and now on to Monday and eating simple to lose the 10 pounds. Simple I mean sticking to my 1000 calories per day and the same foods so I can not go off track.