The Daily Grind

I’m trying to get back to some kind of a routine, and that includes posting on a slightly more frequent basis. I mentioned with my last post that I had gained some weight after our fun hockey tournament in Pittsburgh, so this week I was really determined to settle back into a normal eating pattern. It’s been a bit of a challenge for me ever since I FINALLY hit my goal (right before Christmas), what with a holiday trip to North Carolina, and then New Year’s, and then a trip to Pittsburgh. My exercise has been spot on, but my eating has been a little lacking.

Last week, I had Monday off, and I managed to run 3 miles in 9° weather.

But that’s not the impressive part; the impressive part is that I then went into the barn and worked out, still in the 9° weather! I finally learned to wear thick winter gloves when I work out, instead of my usual thin gloves, and it definitely makes a world of difference. Don’t get me wrong, that weight bar is still frigid in the cold temperatures, but the thicker gloves definitely help keep my fingers from going completely numb.

Tuesday, I had to take the kids into school. I’m in charge of the eighth-grade auction project, and I had to go into the school at 8:15 to work with the eighth-graders on their portion of the project. That meant I got to sleep in, but it also meant that I was up until midnight, trying to prep for the training session I had to do with them. (They’re making a digital scrapbook of their K-8 school years, and I had to upload all the pictures their parents sent me and organize them all into folders on the website. It’s going to be so great when it’s done, but it’s been a lot of work to set it up!)

When the alarm went off at 4:40, I had only gotten about 4 1/2 hours of sleep, so I just rolled back over and said to hell with my 3-mile run. I’m not training for anything, and I know that missing one run won’t kill me. A

And yet, I spent the remainder of the day thinking about the fact that I had skipped my run. So, despite the fact that I knew I didn’t have to, when I got home, I immediately went out and ran 3 miles before Jamie’s hockey game. And in case you don’t know, I hate running after work! But I ended up having a really good run, at a nice, speedy pace, and I felt so much better afterwards. I also managed to witness a beautiful sunset.

That just goes to show you how much I’ve changed in the last 4 1/2 years; it’s not even the fact that I run now; it’s the fact that running has become so ingrained into my life, that it bothers me when I skip one. Consider how much I used to avoid ANY kind of exercise, that’s still amazes me!

Almost as amazing was the fact that I then got up less than 12 hours later and did it again! 😉 A nice, easy run on Wednesday, and then Thursday was a rest day. I still did my work out in the barn, but no running, so no extra calorie burn. But I managed to stay within my 1300 calories!

Friday was another good, hard run before work, and then Saturday was a group run with three other friends. Anna and Toddra, two of my awesome relay runners, were getting together with another friend to run six miles, so we all met up at 7 AM and ran around Trenton. It was 23°, but while I can typically handle that kind of temperature, it was the wind coming off the river that nearly did us all in. We first ran through downtown, where I got to enjoy seeing some really cool old buildings that I don’t normally see when I’m driving. Then we turned around and headed back into Elizabeth Park, a nice little county park on the water. It has a circular road, and when we came around the bend and started heading north along the river, it literally took our breath away! We were all talking, and then all of a sudden, all conversation stopped, because the wind was so strong, we needed every ounce of breath to keep going! But we did it, and then we did another little out and back to get more mileage in. We got back to our cars at about the 5.5 mark, but I ran a little extra over to the waterside to get some sunrise pictures.

They walked while I ran, and we met up and did some a quick group picture.

It was a fun time, and I was glad I went. We ran slower than normal, because one of our friends was recovering from being sick and needed to take a few extra rest breaks, but that just allowed me to take more pictures. Still, when we were done, I only had about 5.7 miles in. Because I’m kind of anal about numbers, I waited in till they all drove away…and then I got out and ran another .3 miles. 😉

After that, I spent the rest of the day cleaning the house, and I enjoyed delicious white chicken chili with homemade bread. After that freezing cold run, I’d earned it!

On Sunday, JJ’s team had a game way out on the west side, so I took him to his game, while Jamie’s team had their final district game at home. Now, I can’t lie: Jamie’s team has not had a good go of it in the “district” games. These games are the first round games for what eventually becomes the state championship, but you must play against every team in your district, regardless of whether or not you’re at the same level. There are only two other teams in our district at Jamie’s age group, and both teams are significantly higher level than Jamie’s. And we had to play each of them twice! 🙁 The scores were extremely lopsided, which I expected, but it’s still hard to watch a game when you’re team is losing 12-0, 15-1, and (gulp!) 20-0. (I didn’t even know that a team could score 20 goals in a game, but they have strict regulations about no mercies and no running clock in these games.)

Since I had done the first three district games, I let my husband take Jamie to the fourth one, while I took JJ. JJ’s team to the west side. They had a great game, winning pretty big. The game was over early enough that I could’ve made Jamie’s game, but some of the parents on JJ’s team we’re going to lunch, so I kind of chickened out and told my husband I wasn’t going to make it.

And, of course, THAT was the game that Jamie’s team came out on fire, and ended up losing only 5-0! :p Later, the team was communicating in the online chat room, and all the coaches were saying that it was their best game of the year, and that they were so proud of the boys for working so hard and overcoming those three earlier big losses. I was super happy for Jamie’s team, because that’s great momentum to take us into the playoffs and our tournament next month, but I was rather miffed at myself for missing it. :p

My plan for the rest of the evening was to relax and work on some things around the house, but then a couple of the coaches on JJ’s team invited everyone out to Trenton for some “pond hockey.” Ironically, that same park where I ran Saturday morning has an area where they flood the fields, and it sets up three different “ponds” to play hockey. I was only planning to stay for an hour, because we hadn’t had dinner yet, but of course, my boys didn’t want to leave after an hour. 😉 I let them stay, and one of the moms even went to McDonald’s and bought food for all the kids, bless her generous heart. I didn’t eat McDonald’s, but my boys had a few hamburgers. They stayed two hours, and they had a blast.

By the time we got home after 8 PM, I was starving, and the kids were hungry again, too. We’d been sent home with extra burgers, so I handed them to the kids and declared it dinner. Yeah, I’m a terrible mom, but whatever. :p Unfortunately, one of the burgers was a cheeseburger, and neither of my kids will eat McDonald’s cheese. JJ doesn’t like any kind of orange cheese, but Jamie surprised me about it. He’s a cheese lover like me, but he says he doesn’t like “American” cheese.

So, it fell upon me to remove the cheese from the extra cheeseburger so that someone could eat it, and let me tell you something…that was an eye-opening experience. By the time we got home, the burger had probably been sitting for a good 40 minutes, and McDonald’s cheese, as it turns out, is nauseating after it has been sitting out for a while. My stomach was actually turning as I did my best to remove the cheese from JJ’s burger. :S Although I haven’t eaten McDonald’s in about four years, there was a time when I used to devour McDonald’s double cheeseburgers, two at a time without even blinking an eye sometimes. After Sunday’s experience, though, I never want to touch McDonald’s cheese again, much less to put it in my body! 😮

I ended up having a little leftover chicken marsala, and I was happy to have stayed within my calories for the day, despite not running.

As far as overall good choices go, I did well last week. I was below my calorie goal every day, even when I didn’t have the extra calorie burn on my rest days. In fact, I had trouble even getting to the 1300 calorie minimum on Tuesday.

It definitely felt good to be back to normal, and the scale reflected that:

That’s a 2.6 pound loss, woohoo!! Not quite to goal, but within a pound, so I won’t complain. Of course, this weekend is my anniversary, so yet another deviation from the norm. :p But that’s life, right? I feel confident I can navigate it without going overboard, because I’ve been doing this “healthy eating” thing for FOUR years. That’s long enough to create a habit, right? 🙂

Speaking of habits (and crazy ones at that), I ran again this morning, my usual 3 miles that was anything BUT “usual.” I knew it was going to be tough when I woke up and heard the wind howling outside, but check out the gusts I had to deal with during my 30-minute run:

Yep, that’s me, the girl who runs in 40mph winds. 😉 It was

Thanks for reading!!