Change is in the air

Well, we have had a lot going on recently. From illness, to remodeling projects, to freezing temperatures to basements flooding...it's been a wild ride these past few weeks. So I'm sorry for the absence of posts.

A few changes may be forthcoming in my lifestyle. I'm seriously debating the whole marathon idea. I hate to quit. I really don't want to give up. But my knees have still not recovered. I don't want to risk my future joint health because of my desire to be able to say I've run 26.2 miles. I'm considering setting my sights a little lower--a triathlon, maybe, definitely a 10K or maybe the Warrior Dash. I hate this. I really want to be able to run. I want to be a runner, an athlete. We shall see...

Also, I'm reconsidering the vegetarian thing. I feel like I've given it a good, fair try--I haven't really eaten meat since the day after Thanksgiving. For the most part it has been a good experience, but I feel like I am really not getting what I need. I can't explain it really--I just feel like my body does not feel right. I also have noticed a major change in my eating habits since I started the vegetarian thing--I am so much more snacky. I never used to be like that. I feel like I am just constantly trying to fill something in my diet that is lacking. Maybe it's meat?? I'm not planning to go hog wild now. I still believe that a mostly vegetarian diet is the most healthy way to eat. So that is what I will do now--mostly vegetarian. And I am still all about cage-free, free range and organic meat.

Anyway--my workout routine has been a bit off since our workout room flooded and I haven't been able to run. I have been doing the elliptical and Pilates. I will be happy when our workout room is functional again!!

Here is what I have eaten today. ..

French Toast made on homemade whole wheat bread with egg whites, vanilla protein powder, almond milk, cinnamon and vanilla with peanut butter, bananas, chia seeds and sugar free syrup on top. Wow. I think I want to have that again tomorrow. It was dang good.

Lunch was quinoa cooked in vegetable broth topped with black beans, tomatoes, corn, spinach, sprouts and pita chips with a little light Ranch as well. It was very filling. Quinoa is the perfect grain you know--it is a complete protein and carb all in one.


Then dinner was what we call "Strogaburgers" made with ground turkey and turkey bacon, fat free cream of mushroom soup and fat free sour cream served on 100 calorie, whole wheat "Thin Buns."

I haven't been doing my set morning and afternoon snacks at all lately--but I seem to want to stuff my face every night after dinner. I need to work on that!

I don't know what to do.

I attempted to run with Becca today. It would have been my first run since Tuesday. I couldn't even get down the street. My knees are in agony. I should have known it wouldn't work. Yesterday they were killing me when I was sitting, or standing, or laying down, or walking. Maybe I should try floating in water...

So here is the question...what do I do??? I can't run. I am supposed to be training for a marathon and I literally can barely move. I have NO idea why they hurt so badly. Maybe I am not "Born to Run" after all. Any advice would be welcomed!!!!

I'm back

Sorry I have been kind of MIA lately. My house feels the same way--neglected. I have been gone pretty much all of the last few days helping out a friend. But I have still been eating and working out--so I'll do in a mini-recap in pictures.

This one just makes me smile--it is Lincoln playing the Wii. He really gets into it.


A few nights ago I made quesadillas with carmelized onions for dinner. Take tons of sweet grilled onions...Add whole wheat tortillas, cheese, black beans and cilantro...

Top with fat free sour cream or plain Greek yogurt for added protein...Yum! I think salsa would have made it taste even better.

Here is what I have been eating a lot of lately. I shall name it "Rice Bowl." Brown rice, black beans, corn, cilantro, a touch of light Ranch and pita chips (not shown.)
But I didn't have any rice made yesterday and I didn't want to take the time to make it, so this is what I had instead...
A grilled portabello mushroom burger on whole wheat toast with sprouts, tomatoes and light ranch. Also a very tasty vegetarian lunch option.

Oh, and despite the fact that this...
is a typical breakfast for me, I think I am coming down with something. I have been abnormally tired and achy the past few days. Hopefully it won't get any worse.

In terms of working out, I have to admit I have been taking it easy--mainly because my knees are still killing me. I did my "long" run yesterday of 3.5 miles, but I think I probably scared anyone who saw me run by. My knees hurt so badly I think I looked like Big Bird trying to sprint or something.

By the time it was over I was seriously questioning this whole marathon thing. But maybe my knees hurting is just a symptom of this illness I'm fighting off. I went back and read some of "Born to Run" to motivate me. If it wasn't so cold and I didn't care about keeping all of my toes, I would seriously consider just going barefoot on my long runs outside. Maybe by the time the summer comes...

So my plan of action is to take it easy for the next two days--no running at all actually. Then Becca and I are going to do 5 miles on Friday. Hopefully.

Quick post

I'm thinking about going to bed right now. Yes, it is exactly 7:00 pm, but I am feeling exhausted and kind of achy and I'm really hopeful that there is nothing to be worried about. Maybe I am just worn out from the weekend...

Quick post, though. Things slipped a bit from my original goals due to some crises going on around me. Sometimes people are more important than working out.

Friday was a (running) rest day, but I did 20 minutes on the elliptical and a lower body strength session. Saturday I ran almost 5 miles with Becca, but we had to take it slow because my knees were killing me. I got home and took ibuprofen and stretched, but even last night they were hurting a lot, so I iced them for quite a while and tried to just take it easy. I don't know why they started hurting for no apparent reason. Today I took a longer walk with Kirby, but have still just tried to take it easy.

And now I'm thinking I will take it easy in my bed.

Oh yeah--I did weigh in today. :( Why do I bother? I lost exactly one pound from last week, but I'm still over what I was the week before. Ugh.

So my goal for this week is to focus on portion sizes and keep doing all the insane amount of working out that I did last week. Good night.

Busy day, four work outs

Today took some definite planning and scheduling on my part, but I made it work! I took Kirby on a walk first thing and was able to get in 20 minutes on the elliptical and Pilates this morning in between making the kids breakfast, getting them ready and taking them to school. Then I was off to the school to volunteer.

But first, let's get back to breakfast...it was gooood!
I dumped a can of sliced peaches (packed in JUICE, not syrup) in an 8x8 dish. I mixed some low-sugar granola, oatmeal, quinoa and chia seeds together, then cut in a little butter. I mixed that into the peaches and baked it for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with vanilla yogurt and voila! It's like uber-healthy peach cobbler.

My afternoon was busy as well, then I got to talk to my sister on the phone for quite a while, but that meant I pushed back the rest of my working out until later, which is not my favorite, but I did it.

Dinner was a tortellini salad with garbanzo and kidney beans. It wasn't a huge hit with the kids...
Tonight I ran just a mile and a half (per my schedule, mind you) and did upper body and ab strength while I watched trashy t.v. Hey, I do whatever I have to to motivate myself to go down to that cold basement work out room when I am exhausted. Bring on The Bachelor, I say.

Running party at my house!

This morning I invited another friend to run with us. When all was said and done, there were five three-year-olds, a five-year-old and a three-month-old puppy at my house. (I watch a few extras on Tuesdays.) We took turns watching them and running. Admittedly Becca bore the brunt of it! But the kids had fun and we all got our running in! I was on the schedule for 3 miles today, and I did just over that.

Here are the five little ones!

I started my day with a protein shake to fuel my run and then ate a yummy lunch--the same as yesterday. Cilantro Lime Rice topped with green salad, corn, black beans, alfalfa sprouts, chia seeds, cilantro, crushed pita chips and a bit of light Ranch. So good!!!
This afternoon I did lower body and abs as well as Pilates. For an afternoon snack I had Greek yogurt sweetened with Agave Nectar. Dinner was turkey enchiladas with added carrots and zucchini for everyone else. They smelled really good! I had leftover stuffed shells and salad.

I made popsicles for the kids yesterday and they loved them! Just fresh squeezed apple, orange and carrot juice.

Tonight I have snacked a bit on Kashi Toasted Berry Crumble with almond milk. Now I'm thinking I'll do a bit of Yoga. My knees have been feeling a bit stiff, so I think I'll pass on the elliptical tonight.

Happy MLK day!

Today we started off celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. day with French Toast. Okay, really the two are completely unrelated, but French Toast should always be eaten in celebration of something. Here is mine, made on homemade whole wheat bread, topped with all natural peanut butter, chia seeds and sugar free syrup. Yum.
(In case you haven't noticed, I'm kind of over the oatmeal every single day phase. I don't know how that lady that wrote "This is why you're fat" does it--but I can't take any more oatmeal! It makes me kind of nauseous, to be honest. There is too much of a good thing, I guess.)

Today I went to Sam's to stock up on more Pita chips and look what I found!!!
This ginormous thing of Greek yogurt for the same price as the small ones at Wal-mart!! Oh, happy day!!

I should have taken a picture of my lunch, but I was in a hurry. I had leftover cilantro lime rice mixed with leftover BBQ chop salad. Then I crushed a few pita chips on top. I think I'll be having that all week.

Dinner was stuffed shells--another four star as in four kids ate it without complaining meal!!
Think low-fat Ricotta cheese, low-fat Parmesan cheese, spinach, marinara and giant shell noodles and there you have it!

I did have some Greek yogurt and Kashi cereal for an after-dinner and pre-work-out snack. Then I went downstairs and busted my booty. I ran (barefoot) a mile and a half. Then I did an upper body and ab strength work out. Then I did 20 minutes on the elliptical. Then I did about 30 minutes of Pilates. Not too shabby. We will see what the scale has to say about that. Except I'm not supposed to be worrying about the scale this week...

Running and Biking--who cares about the snow?!

What a fabulous day! Seriously, it's been wonderful! We started off the day with egg frames made with fresh whole wheat bread dough and cage free eggs.

After getting chores around the house done, we took Kirby for his first visit to the dog park. There he got lots of exercise--we mostly wallowed in the MUD.

Then I got home and fed the kids. I had a piece of bread with some peanut butter and then I was off on my run with Becca. We splashed through the sloshy, wet snow for about 4.5 miles. It was awesome! It felt so good!

Lincoln has been bugging us to go on a family bike ride for days now, so we decided to load up and do it this afternoon. The high was supposed to be in the 50's today, so why not? The bike trail started out at a local park. The only other people at the park were there sledding. I don't know what that says about us...

It was cold, but we loved it!! Once we got Lincoln to wake up for it, that is...

Then home for rousing Wii games while I made dinner.

Cilantro Lime Rice and BBQ Chop salad--the rest of the family had theirs with chicken on it. It was delish!

I love good days.

Winter hazards, part deux

Why won't my kids just go to bed?! Ryan is off at meetings and I'm going crazy which is leading me to do things I shouldn't like eat cereal straight out of the box. Cereal because it is the only thing remotely sweet in my house. If we had chocolate that is what I would be eating.

Today I just ran a mile, due to time constraints and the fact that according to my schedule, today is technically supposed to be a rest day. Probably a good thing because it was ICY out there. I walked onto my driveway to start my run and ended up flat on my face before I even knew what happened. I didn't get hurt and as far as I could tell, no one actually witnessed my ungraceful moment.

I came home from my run and did a lower body workout. I like to watch t.v. while I work out, but today the two little boys (mine and Becca's) weren't making that possible, so instead I started teaching them all of the names of the muscles and explaining the different exercises I was doing. I see training in Lincoln's future. After he helped me count out every set he would say "Now put more on (weight) and do it again!" All day long he has been pointing to different muscle groups and asking "What's that called again?"

Tonight's dinner got 4 out of 4 stars. Meaning that all four of the kids actually ate it!!! But who can resist homemade mac and cheese (with whole wheat noodles, reduced fat cheese and pumpkin puree???) I mean, really.

Day 10

Nothing too exciting today. No muddy slush in the face. Although Isaac did fall into the creek today at school.

I ran a mile and a half on the treadmill and did Pilates and Yoga. I keep thinking that it would be awesome if a marathon was 1.5 miles. I'd be set! :)

Hazards of winter running

Well today I did 3.35 miles outside. It was interesting. Especially the part when a large SUV went flying by and sprayed me with a shower of icy, muddy slush. I kept on going. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor hail, nor snow, nor icy, muddy slush dripping down the side of my face in twenty degree weather will stop me from getting in my mileage!!

Running in the snow is interesting. I prefer dry ground. But you do what you have to do. Here is my thought, however. Be kind to your neighborhood runners. Shovel your sidewalk!!

I also did an upper body strength workout before my cold, wet run. Tonight we had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. I decided Tuesdays will be meat days. I just didn't eat any of the meatballs. The spaghetti noodles were whole wheat, the meatballs were ground turkey and I added pumpkin puree to the sauce. Yum!

I have been eating potato and vegetable curry every day for lunch, since none of my kids will eat it. It is really good, especially with a generous helping of Stacy's Pita Chips on the side!

Day 8, Week 2 and a MIRACLE!

Today was just 1.5 miles. Thank goodness we have a treadmill! It was a high of like 10 degrees today and very snowy. Running is such a good thing for my mental health. I was such a grouch after dealing with the kids and dog through the witching hour--I didn't even want to run. But I made myself go down there and now those endorphins have kicked in and I am MUCH better. Yes, working out is my drug of choice. That and Xanax. :)

And--wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles. The kids ate and LIKED dinner tonight!! I spent a good hour and a half last night planning out meals and menus for the next seven or so weeks (posted on left sidebar.) I tried to do things that were vegetarian (except I planned one meat meal a week) and healthy and kid friendly. Seriously, I might just have to publish a cookbook. You guys would all buy it, right?

Tonight we had...Pineapple Enchiladas! Sounds weird, but they are easy, good and most importantly--my kids even asked for seconds.

Day 7 and Weekly re-cap

Today I was supposed to walk for 30 minutes. I do that every morning anyway, so it worked well. It was so nice to get out this morning--it had snowed in the night so it was all quiet and serene and Kirby LOVES to romp through the snow. I like to just have that time to myself before the craziness of the day kicks in.

I also weighed myself this morning. And I lost weight! I lost 7.8 lbs!! Before you think it is that great, I have to tell you that I did cheat a little bit. Last week I weighed myself fully dressed, at night, after spending a week overindulging. Today it was first thing in the morning, minimally dressed with nothing in my stomach. But still, I lost something, so that is good. Just 18 more pounds to go!!

Day 5

Rest Day! Yeah, right. When do mothers ever rest?

So, I didn't run today. I did about 20 minutes on the elliptical and I did an upper body strength session. I spent the entire rest of the day cleaning out and organizing our office. It is so much better now! I love this time of the year--getting things all set up for success. Okay, that has nothing to do with this blog, but I am exhausted from all that cleaning and organizing, so maybe I burnt a lot of calories in the process.

I do hope so. I wasn't totally perfect on the eating side of things today. I made some delicious cranberry orange scones for breakfast. I had some for breakfast and some for a morning snack. Lunch was just this...

I have had a massive headache for three days now and DC was the only thing I wanted. So my dear friend, Amy, brought me one! Have I ever mentioned that I have great friends?

For dinner I made twice baked potatoes using cottage cheese and salsa. They were really good.

Then I got bad (read: stressed and tired) and decided I needed ice cream. So I found some leftover from Lincoln's birthday (Nov. 29th!) and ate it! Horrible, I know. For more than one reason. Oh well. Now I think I will go to bed and dream of organizing another room in my house...

Day 4

Becca came up with a brilliant plan today that we implemented for the first time. After months of clear skies and mild weather, it decided to snow and be cold right when I officially started my marathon training. Becca and I have typically been running at night, but with this change in the weather, our route has become somewhat treacherous in the dark. So we have decided to switch kids and run alone twice a week. All of our older kids are back in school, so we each just have a three year old boy at home--it's perfect! She dropped off Jackson at my house and ran while the boys played and I cleaned. Then a while later I took Lincoln to her house while I ran. Yes, I miss having her wit and wisdom with me while I run, but we are still going to go together on Saturdays. And I have to say I much prefer running in the daytime!

So, although I was scheduled for a rest day today, I ended up doing 3.46 miles--because I would be crazy to pass up a chance to run by myself in the daytime! After I got home I did a lower body strength workout. I plan on doing Pilates tonight as well--if Kirby will let me!

For breakfast we had some Oatmeal Raisin Bread with Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese. That sounds a lot fancier than it was--I just added pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice to fat free cream cheese.

Lunch was just a nice refreshing smoothie in a bowl topped with Kashi Go Lean Crunch--perfect after running!

I made breadsticks for the kids' afterschool snack--and I had a few of those as well. Sorry, no pictures!

Dinner was Corn and Bean Tostadas with a strange secret ingredient--chopped walnuts! I was just following the recipe--but it tasted good!
Now I will have my first real rest day tomorrow. I don't know what to think about that. I will rest from running, but I will still do an upper body workout and maybe the elliptical or some P90x as well. And more Pilates? We shall see.

Day 3

Here is my thought for the day: Puppies and Pilates don't mix. Every time I lay on the floor, Kirby seems to think I am his own personal chew toy. Once I finally put him outside I was able to do a full body Pilates work out this afternoon. Then tonight's run was just 1.5 miles.

Breakfast was low-sugar granola and a clementine. Lunch was leftovers from dinner last night. We had Baked Ziti--only they didn't have Ziti in whole wheat, so we had Baked Rotini. It was awesome--Isaac even took some to school in his thermos today.

We had BLT's for dinner--I tried out this stuff. The rest of the family had turkey bacon.
I'm not sure how I feel about this fake bacon. It tasted fine--I just don't know about the idea of it. I'm not going to eat meat but I'll eat "veggie protein strips?" It seems somewhat hypocritical in a bizarre way. Well, I'm just in an experimental mode now anyway. I had the fake bacon on whole wheat toast with roasted red pepper hummus, lettuce and tomatoes. It was good!

Day two

I tried to do this last night but my laptop was saying something about cookies and caches and I just was too tired to deal with it.

Anyway--marathon training, day 2! I took Kirby out for a morning walk, I did upper body strength in the afternoon and I ran three miles on the treadmill last night. I like these first few weeks of the schedule. I can handle these 1.5 and 3 mile runs just fine. We will see how I feel when I get to the 18 mile day. Yikes. That seems, um, impossible.

Onward and upward!

Day One

While it is not technically the first day of the New Year, it might as well be in my mind. I am finally home and settled in and ready to start things off! So today was also my first official day of marathon training. I am using a modified version of Hal Higdon's Novice Supreme Marathon training schedule. Today was easy--just 1.5 miles which I ran barefoot on the treadmill. I also did a lower body strength training work out. And I took Kirby out for an early morning walk/jog. That dog has major energy in the morning so I plan to start taking him out for some sort of exercise every morning before Ryan has to go to work.

I have a lot of goals this year. I have decided to spend the month of January really focusing on weight loss. I am going to be writing down every thing I eat (not on here--I think it just gets too boring for you.) I am also going to weigh myself weekly and try to really ramp up my exercise. If I don't see some sort of definite improvement this month I am going to find a new doctor that will actually listen to me and figure out what is going on. I have tried to come to terms with where I am at and I just don't feel happy with it. I don't even want to see anyone because I am so frustrated with the way I look. So I weighed myself tonight and I am ready to do this.