Not a Chance

It's 10 freaking degrees outside (not counting the wind)
I'm on Day 3 of my juice fast - it hasn't been bad, but I do get pretty hungry and I'm feeling a little draggy, can't tell if it's the fast, allergies or the winter crud everyone has
and
another 2 hour delay for school today!

Gold's Gym - you didn't stand a chance in hell today!  I'll make up the miles somewhere else.
But, I promise I'll try and keep our date tomorrow!

Treadmill Success

     I did it!  I ran on the treadmill and there were no YouTube Videos made, nothing embarrassing at all.  I ran and it was good!  I was hoping to do 3 miles, but it went so well I went ahead and did 4 miles! I set it to run at a 10min pace and I actually felt strong and like I could keep going forever.  The last little bit I increased the pace a little bit. I didn't use any incline, I figured it was better to fun flat while I was still figuring it out.   Treadmills now are like frigging space ships.  There are 2 control panels with eleventy-billion buttons.  You can control the treadmill in numerous manners and you have your own personal TV that you can control as well.   Although I still sort of feel like if you are watching TV you really aren't exercising.  The only problem with not watching the TV is that then the monitor serves as a reflective surface and it forces me to watch my reflection run.  Since the monitor is mainly at boob level, I'm able to evaluate the appropriateness of my sports bra, which seems to be doing it's job.

Let's evaluate the Treadmill...
PROS:
1.  No hills, unless I choose them.
2.  No wind
3.  No dodging dog poop piles
4.  Warm
5.  Light

CONS:
1.  Boring... not as boring as running on a track, so that's a good thing, but still I think it's going to be boring eventually.
2.  It's inside, which is really only a CON when the weather is good, in which case I won't be running on the treadmill anyway.

So, it looks like the PROS win.  I thought people watching would be a definite entertainment factor, but unfortunately at 530am in the morning there really aren't that many people in the gym and those that are there are pretty serious.  I think most of the entertaining posers must come out after work.

So all in all, a win!  I'll continue with my Mon/Fri 530am Erging and Tues/Thurs 530am run.   I still haven't discovered the "Runner's High" that everyone talks about, when I'm running it still pretty much sucks and I hate it.  But the "high" comes at 645am when I'm driving to work and I know that my workout is done for the day!  That part is freaking AWESOME!  I know I'm done and anything else I do the rest of the day, walk the dogs, run at practice, sticks of sorrow with the boys, is all icing on the cake!  That is the high that will keep me getting up at 430am... I hope!!

Sometimes being bad is good! Or at least it tastes good!

When you know you have a 3 day juice fast coming up, sometimes you want to throw caution to the wind and eat whatever the hell you want...

I'm not ashamed to admit I ate both of them all by myself!  Now the Lays bag was the snack size and not the full size bag, but nevertheless...  I know you are supposed to "prepare yourself" before the juicing, but I like to prepare myself by eating everything I can think of before I start!  Going to try and do 3 days, just to get my head back in the game and out of the chocolate covered pretzel bag!  I wasn't terrible over the holidays, but I definitely let some good habits go.  So here's to trying to get back in the swing. 

I'm also going to step out of my comfort zone tomorrow and try running on the treadmill!  The high temperature is supposed to be 34 tomorrow with snow and there's no way I'm going to get up early and run in the dark and freezing cold, so I'm going to give the warm treadmill a try.  We'll see....  I just hope I don't become a YouTube video!

Best Christmas Present update....

I loved my new running shoes, my Captain Kirk USB drive, my rowing jacket, but it turns out theed the Ronco sandwich maker was the big winner!  I originally purchased it for Zachary, because I got Brenna a crock pot and you know... matching presents.  BTW, it's not Ronco really, but that's what it makes me think of - like the Ronco egg scrambler I got when I was in high school.  You put your egg on this little stand and a tiny needle pierced the egg and then when you pushed down it magically stirred and scrambled the egg IN THE SHELL, so all you had to do was crack it into the pan and Voila! ready to cook.  Because, obviously it takes SOOO much more time to crack it in a bowl and stir it with a fork....but I digress.... Anyway.... I bought Zack this breakfast sandwich maker, in the hopes that he would eat something besides poptarts and fruit snacks for breakfast...

This sandwich maker is the bomb!  I think someone has used it every single day since Christmas, most days more than one someone.  You can use english muffins, bagels, bread, ham, bacon, sausage - Brenna tried avocado... the combinations are endless!  McDonalds you are dead to me!

The night the lights went out

       Ever since the kids have been old enough we've had a definite division of labor when it comes to putting up our Christmas tree.  We all go out together to the local nursery on the corner - find a tree, hopefully in 15 mins or less and get home before anyone can cry, get mad, get bored or pinch someone!  Once we get home, John and Zack unload the tree and get it into the stand, Brenna is in charge of lights and I generally make the emergency light trip to Target to replace the lights that WORKED when we packed them away, but at the whim of the almighty Light Gods, refuse to work now.  Brenna and Zack divide up the ornaments so that each can hang their favorite ones until they get bored or the lure of their electronics call to them and they wander off. I stand by and hang the Island of Misfit ornaments that no one wants to hang but still deserve to be on the tree.  Finally, I bribe the kids to please come down and help me hang the beads.  Usually, only Brenna feels guilty enough to help; Zack sometimes wanders through the living room and will toss a bead strand or two on the tree if I beg.  It's our system and it works for us.  At the end, we all gather to admire our beautiful tree.
        When it's time to take the tree down, everyone gathers together and we work like a well-oiled machine and get that tree taken down in a flash, there might even be singing....NOT! When it's time to take down the tree, it's like a ghost town in our house. But in all honesty, I don't really mind taking the tree down and putting everything away.  There's organizing and tidying and often throwing out of things, all of which make my soul happy.  Except for one thing....THE LIGHTS!  Oh the FREAKING LIGHTS!  I don't know what kind of messed up logic Brenna uses when she puts those lights on the tree and I don't know if she is consciously or unconsciously fucking with me, but those lights could not be any more tangled if she was winning a money prize!!  There is NO WAY to get those lights out of the tree without using an axe, scissors or a hacksaw.  I'm just so thankful that I no longer have little ears listening around corners!  I also think it is very interesting that Brenna always seems to disappear, this time she jetted off to Brazil, so I can't even text her to complain!  Smart Girl! :o)

Sometimes it's a bad day and sometimes its a good day and sometimes it's both

A real tragedy occurred today....

I have had this knife since I left for my first day of college in 1988.  I was 17 and now I'm 48- that's 30 years of service this knife has given me.  I use if for literally everything!!!  I cut everything with it, fruit, veggies, meat, bread, paper - I could poke things with it, stab things with it, wave it around in a menacing manner... it was my Go To Knife and now it's dead! :o(  I'm not sure what I'm going to do without it.  It certainly will hamper my culinary exploits!!

In the midst of my mourning, I had to go to the grocery store and it was as if the powers that be knew I was in a vulnerable state.  This is what awaited me....

Oh joyous day!!  I snatched them to my chest and skipped joyfully to the checkout!!  There's always a silver lining!

Plus when you are feeling down there's nothing like precious puppies to make you feel better!

New Year, New Blog, New Resolutions 2015

I have been really remiss in keeping up with my blog.  I'm going to try and go back and fill in eventually, but for now, I'm just going to start fresh.  We had a very quiet New Year's Eve.

 Brenna jetted off off to Brazil to spend 9 days with Melanie and some family friends.  John, Zack and I destroyed some crab legs, watched a movie and went to bed hoping the new year would arrive without us actually ringing it in!

It did!

I ran my first race of the year - The Resolution 5K.  Which led me to think about my Resolutions for 2015.  I found a website called Run this Year.  You can either run 2015 miles or 2015 kilometers.  I'm going to go for the kilometers instead of miles, it will be easier.  Either way it's going to be insanely hard to accomplish, it's 3-4 miles everyday, but it will give me something to aim for.  I'm also going to include all the meters I'm erging as well.  Since I'm erging 3 days a week, that will hopefully help me get there.  I won't worry about races every single month, but will still try and do some as I feel like it.

The 2nd part of my Resolution - is MUCH MORE DIFFICULT to accomplish.  I've decided that I need/should attempt to GIVE UP FRUIT SNACKS!  Oh how I love fruit snacks!  I blame it all on little Evey Price who first introduced me to them about 2 years ago.  It's not like I eat an inordinate amount of them, but I do eat more than I probably need to, maybe 3-4 little snack packs a day.  Which isn't that bad until you consider each bag has 90 calories, which again isn't the end of the world 4 bags = 360 calories, until you realize that a 3 mile run is about 300 calories.  In essence, if I eat 3-4 little packs a day, then I have totally negated my 3 mile run - I might as well have not even run!  Say What??!!  

The other part that will make this difficult is that the entire Crew Team is addicted to fruit snacks as well.  We call them Fruit Crack.  I will have to continue to be the Crew Team Fruit Crack supplier, but refrain from partaking myself.  The True Test!

Here's to 2015 - resolutions, health, happiness and success in whatever guise it takes.