A Week in Food and Pictures

      4 Comments on A Week in Food and Pictures


IMG_5843-2

Last week was definitely outside of the normal realm, and not just because there was a holiday in there. My husband’s grandfather passed away, and the funeral was Wednesday. He will be missed, but he was also 87 (almost 88) when he passed away, and he lived a long life. I know my husband enjoyed getting together with the many members of his extended family, at least. And there are definitely a lot of them! :p

My new job is generous enough to allow me several days of time off for a funeral, so I was home Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I worked part of the day on Tuesday and Thursday, but being home allowed me to get up at a decent hour and get a couple of good five-mile runs in. That certainly helped with the amount of food that always happens during funerals. Including this delightful little gem:

IMG_7668

My kids are my best willpower, as it turns out, because the minute I brought one of those brownies back to our table at the luncheon, both of my boys immediately cried out, “I thought you weren’t eating chocolate?” 😉 I’m still limiting chocolate in my life, but this particular delectable treat just deserved to be eaten. And it was worth it!  And then, of course, there was tons of food left over after the luncheon, and somehow five more of those brownies ended up in a box that made its way to my house. :p I shared them with the family, and thankfully they were gone the next day. But I definitely had my share!

Friday was an actual holiday for me, so I didn’t have to work at all. I decided it was time to get out there and get serious about running again, and I made it a goal to run faster. And I did!

IMG_5881

It’s been a long time since I had a run as long as 4 miles that was sub-10! I was beat when I was done, but it felt good.

Saturday morning, I had to get up really early. My boys wanted to go to the Wyandotte Fourth of July parade with my sister and nephew, but I was bound and determined to do a 10-mile run, since I had been unable to get it done the previous two Saturdays. I was out on the road by 5:30, and it was pretty cool watching the sunrise.

IMG_5829

 

IMG_5832

I ran the first 7.5 miles on my own, and then Jamie and I did the last 2.5 together. He’s training for a 5K this coming Sunday, and he had to do one more long run. By the time I started running with him, I was actually kind of tired. Normally, Jamie’s long run pace works well for me to finish off a longer run, but on Saturday, he was motivated! After about a mile and a half, I realized that I was holding him back, so I told him to just go ahead if he felt like it. And he did!

IMG_5833

He ended up way ahead of me by the time we finished. It was kind of humbling to watch him shoot past me and make me feel like the slowpoke. 😉 I finally made it to the house, and his first words when I arrived were: “What was your pace?” I have no idea where he gets that competitive streak from. 😉

IMG_5836

The parade was a lot of fun. Here’s a picture from seven years ago and one from last Saturday:

4th

IMG_5840-2

What a difference!

Saturday night, I made a strawberry shortcake to reward myself for all that running (the same one I made a few weeks ago when I was canning strawberry jam). I was a bit worried about what would happen to the leftovers (i.e., would they all end up in my mouth), but then my neighbors invited us over for an impromptu Fourth of July get together. My neighbor and her husband are the parents of twin girls that are in Jamie’s class, and we always  have fun when we get together.  I brought over the shortcake and all the fixings, while she provided the plates, and it turned out pretty darn good!

IMG_5843

We had a great time sitting out in their gazebo, watching the fireworks and just chatting. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), my neighbor happens to be in the alcohol business, and he always has new and fun drinks for us to try. I had just one of a new, fruity type of beer, but I never, ever drink beer, and for some reason, it really hit me hard. I woke up Sunday morning with a headache, but I still dragged my boys to church. We hadn’t gotten home until about 11:30 the night before, so they were kind of cranky. As a reward for going anyway, I took them to breakfast. Going out to eat is always a challenge for me, especially breakfast, because it’s one of my weaknesses. I love to eat breakfast food and always the worst stuff! But, I decided that we don’t take the time to enjoy life enough, and I didn’t want my food issues to stop us from enjoying a nice breakfast.

We stopped at a diner that I hadn’t been to before, and I had planned on just ordering some scrambled eggs and toast, but then… I saw the menu, which included this:

IMG_5860

Yes, that’s a beautiful serving of eggs Benedict, from a diner! I just can’t resist eggs Benedict, and these were awesome! In reality, the worst part of eggs Benedict is that hollandaise sauce, so I just went easy on that.  But not easy enough, I guess.

FullSizeRender

I gained a pound last week, despite all the running and tracking everything I ate. 🙁  (I earned 75 activity points last week!)  I was so frustrated!!  I swear, it’s just the same old, same old, and I’m so SICK of it.  🙁

So, I’ve decided that for this week’s change (since I have to change something every damn week because nothing is working!), I’m going to only “use” half of my activity points.  We’ll see how that works. :/  If anyone has any other ideas, I’m all ears.  I’ve already limited both chocolate and wine…what’s left…oxygen?? :p

Hope everyone has a great week–thanks for reading!

4 thoughts on “A Week in Food and Pictures

  1. Meg B

    I love your week in pictures. way to go getting up super early for a long run on your day off. that simply would not happen for me!

    Reply
  2. Kelly@sublurbanmama

    Okay, two thoughts for getting “unstuck”. The first is to stay within your points but to eat more lean protein everyday. Like, .8 grams per pound of body weight. This helps with muscle recovery= more muscle. I know you strength train (*flexes muscles*) but make it more of a priority because muscle burns calories even at rest. Secondly, try to add in some non-running HIIT. Nothing too time-consuming, because *duh* I read your blog and know you’re not frittering away your time, but two or three ten minute HIIT cardio sessions will totally shock your body. That’s my two cents. I don’t know if it will truly help, but it def shouldn’t hurt. I mean *figuratively*. *Literally* HIIT will hurt like hell 😉
    Also? That strawberry shortcake looks insanely good. Remind me “help” you can next year so you can feed me 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *