Weekend in the Country

I have spent the last few days back in my hometown with my family. It's been a bit of a high calorie nightmare, but overall I'm not too worried. My binge urges made quite the resurgence whilst babysitting, which was a little upsetting. I gave in to them while I was there, but I felt awful physically after and I remembered that those "little voices" are just junk. Since then, I've put a fairly successful lid on them. I worked hard helping my sister move her stuff out of a house and into storage, babysitting, ATV-ing, and wrestling dogs. In addition, I ran 5 miles on Saturday and 4 on Friday. 5 miles is my longest distance ever and, I gotta say, it felt pretty good. It was the best I've felt on a Saturday run since I started this thing. I ran/jogged about 3.5 miles of the 5, and I felt so...powerful. In addition, I got to spend some time with my cousins, and see one of my favorites in her high school musical. In addition to making me feel oh-so-very old, it made me so proud. I honestly don't have many complaints right now. My life is pretty good. Husband and I have worked out a budget and have a plan to pay down our debt and get him ready to go back to school in the fall. My bulk cooking expedition is paying dividends (crockpot beef stew for dinner tomorrow...yum!). My cold/bronchitis finally seems to have lifted, and my lung capacity and breath support are pretty much back to normal. Work has been good, even though I'm a little stressed out about starting at my third school this week. I finally have email access even, so I can actually do my job at work, even though I still have to work out of the computer lab. Breakfast for dinner tonight. Scale needs a new battery, so no new numbers yet. :)

Bulk Cooking

Today I decided to take another stab at bulk cooking. Really I didn't go all out because we only have a teeny freezer, but I feel pretty accomplished and there are several healthy meals for my family that are now far closer to ready to eat. Today I: Blanched a bunch of carrots, celery, and broccoli for freezing Made homemade chicken stock Shredded a whole chicken and portioned it out for freezing Made a beef stew freezer bag meal that's crock-pot ready Caramelized four onions and froze them in muffin tins for use in recipes Made powdered cream of _____ soup (MUCH healthier than canned cream soups) Made homemade taco seasoning Made homemade ranch seasoning/dressing/dip mix Cooked 1 lb of quinoa Made a dozen freezer burritos with lack beans, seasoned quinoa, ground turkey, onions, spinach, cheese, and salsa Made tuna salad for sandwiches for the week Started a sandwich loaf (will rise overnight and bake tomorrow) Chopped a couple onions for use this week Made three jar salads for lunches this week Roasted red potatoes for freezing Roasted a butternut squash for freezing I took a few days off from running to get over bronchitis. Antibiotics helped a ton and I did my full four miles yesterday. I worked out at the gym this morning. I just spent a few minutes looking over my training plan and I am so excited to accomplish it! Come April I'll start working on my plan for AFTER the race. I love the way I feel when I work out and eat healthy. For some reason the pounds have not been coming off this time around so far, but I feel myself gaining more endurance when I run, getting a little faster, handling a little more weight when I train, going a little further on the bike/elliptical each week... I can wait for the pounds to drop. I have a goal, and that's what I'm aiming for right now.

RUNderground

This morning I completed my first 5k of the year. It was a fun run in the commuter tunnels under OKC, which I had never been in before. I finished the race in just under 50 minutes, which I'm pretty proud of considering there were 8 flights of stairs on the course. The course itself was only 3/4 of a mile long, so the race consisted of going down and back twice. That was a LOT of stairs. And honestly, those were what killed me. I had to walk after every turned-off escalator, and the running got less frequent the closer I got to the finish. But I felt good about the whole thing, and I'm looking forward to the next one in March. My mood has been crappy the past few days, and I am having trouble figuring out what's wrong. I'm trying to think positive and hoping it passes, for the most part. I did willfully eat a half dozen sugar cookies on Thursday night when I was feeling particularly disrupted, but I logged them and did better the next day, and better today.

Doing It

Today was tough. This week, I've been cramping like crazy, more than normal even. I was almost sure I was getting past this debilitating pain stage, but it just keeps coming back this time around. If it keeps up much longer, I'm going to the doctor just to get things checked out. But this crampy lethargy feeling left me absolutely not wanting to run today. It was the farthest distance yet, it was cold and windy, and the thought of banging it you on the treadmill made me want to go back to sleep and pretend today wasn't happening. Eventually, I talked myself into going. 4 miles took me a little more than an hour. I felt like I fought almost the whole way, but I finished. Finishing felt good, I will say that. Today's run was SUCH a change from yesterday. Yesterday, I did have to drag myself out of the house and I did have cramps, but once I got started, it was almost fun. I had a faster average pace than any run before it, and I did 3.5 miles in 47 minutes. I was so proud of myself, and so motivated after. Today was nothing like that. But, I get that some days, ya just don't got it. That day was today. Tomorrow is a different day, and I'll have it back.

Of A Sunday

I feel great today. Emotionally, it's been a bit rough these past couple of weeks: Getting back to work, getting used to the idea of another major life change in the near(ish) future, and adding back my fitness have all come at once and it's taken me a bit of time to sort it all out in my head. But today, everything seemed settled and kind of...made sense. So this morning I went to the gym early to work out. Then I cleaned the house, baked some bread for the week, went grocery shopping, and cooked some more. As of right now, I have matchstick celery and carrots in the fridge, 4 cups of quinoa prepared, and enough leftovers and fixings to make lunches for Hubs and I all week, in addition to a list of meals I have all the ingredients for this week. This week I feel confident we can be frugal, healthy, and happy. I ran for more than a mile straight two days in a row last week, and I'm feeling stronger every day. It's been a pretty good Sunday, all things considered.