When I got to work this morning, I went through my daily running calendar to pull off the slips for the days that I was gone. Creators of this calendar know how to time phrases with certain days, as evidenced by what they posted for last Thursday, American Thanksgiving:
Yep. That pretty much sums up my weekend. But, for those who are interested in more detail, read on.
That was my Thanksgiving morning run to burn some calories for dinner. And for JJ’s pie:
No lie, except for a little bit of help here and there, JJ did it all himself. How many 10-year-olds do you know who can roll their own piecrust?!
We had a low-key dinner at home, just the four of us.
It was nice and relaxing. My husband made a delicious dinner, as always.
The reason we went low-key was because we had to leave the next morning for a hockey tournament–Jamie’s first tournament with the high school team! It was an interesting experience, because I dropped him off at the local rink to take a chartered bus with his team, and then I didn’t see him again, except for when he was on the ice, for about 36 hours! At first, it was a little sad, because it was hard to let my baby go, but eventually, I enjoyed having only one kid to worry about. 🙂 And since that kid had a built-in playmate (one of the coaches from an opposing team has a son on JJ’s team), I got to just supervise the 10-year-olds while they entertained each other. After the first game, the three of us went back to the hotel, and they enjoyed having the pool all to themselves.
They’re way back in the corner, in the hot tub, ha ha!
I went to bed early that night, and got up to run as soon as it got light. It has become my tournament tradition to do a Saturday morning run so I can explore a new town the best way I know how. We were in Big Rapids, which was a very cute and historic town on the Muskegon River. I took a lot of pictures.
The sunrise as I went out on the road was just beautiful!
Big Rapids, Michigan is home to Ferris State University, whose mascot is the Bull Dogs. I saw these “dogs” all over town, and it made me chuckle! These two guys were in front of the KFC!
Oops, a little blurry! But you get the idea–this is the downtown area of Big Rapids.
Green and gold signs, aka, Michigan historical markers, are my favorite! I squeal in delight when I see these. yes, I’m a history nerd. 😉
Another downtown building that I loved!
A color map of Big Rapids from 1870. I was almost drooling when I saw this. 😉
I believe the date on this bell was 1892. So cool!
Just a random creek that fed into the Muskegon River. But so pretty!
Sunrise over the Muskegon River (north end of town).
So, on the map, I found a “biking trail”, which I figured would be a nice, scenic route. Um…not exactly. It was basically the back end of an industrial area, with views like this. 😮 That’s definitely a first for me in all my running travels, lol!
Another view of the same creek from above. Behind me about 40 feet was the Muskegon River, which it fed into.
I had plotted out a 5-mile course on Garmin.com, but unfortunately, my phone died at mile 3.5! I had to pretty much guess my way back to the hotel, ha ha, and my five-mile run ended up being almost 7. 😛 I ended up on the Ferris State campus, and all I can say is thank God for campus maps!
My calorie burn wasn’t very high, because I kept having to stop to get my bearings and figure out where I was going. But although it was cold, and my fingers got numb, I had a great run.
Afterwards, I enjoyed my coffee and English muffin in the room, and then we headed out to the rink for game two. Neither of the games went very well as far as the scoreboard was concerned, but Jamie played great, and got lots of ice time. That’s pretty impressive, for a freshman! And, I’m very proud to say that my defenseman got an assist! That’s his first point as a high school player, which I think is pretty awesome for being both a freshman and a defenseman, and it being only his second game!
After the game, we headed back home, meeting up with Jamie at the rink and then going out for dinner. I felt like Mexican, and I hadn’t eaten all that much during the day, so I figured I could splurge. And I kind of did.
Those are steak, chicken, and shrimp fajitas, and they were really good! And yes, I did eat everything you see there. 😮
I woke up the next morning and took the kids to church, and then when I got home, I worked out. I was feeling kind of full and bloated from all the food I’d eaten over the past several days, so I decided to put in a quick run to help me burn some calories.
I had better calorie burn for that one because it was extremely windy on the way out, which caused my heart rate to go up.
For dinner, we had South of the Border soup, which isn’t too heavy, but I did have a few extra tortilla chips. And some leftover pumpkin pie. 😛 All in all, though, I didn’t go way over my calories for the holiday weekend. I had a feeling, though, before I weighed this morning, that it wasn’t going to be pretty. However, since I had lost weight the week before, I figured I was in good shape to maybe only gain a couple pounds back, which is pretty manageable, I think, after a holiday. And then…
“Are you f’g kidding me?” were my exact words when I saw it. But, yeah, that’s where the little quippy saying from the calendar comes into play here. Although I didn’t think I had done so bad, the truth was, my food choices were not stellar, and I could not, indeed, outrun my fork.
*big heavy sigh*
But, the weekend is over, and it’s back on track for me. And thus continues the life of your average Lifetime Weight Watcher. Speaking of which, I have to weigh in on Wednesday to keep that Lifetime status.
Shiiiiitttt. :/
Ah, well, hopefully you all had a better weekend than me. 🙂 Thanks for reading!
