Thursday, June 29, 2017

I am around....

It's been a long almost 2 weeks, and I have no pictures to share, so I will bullet

* Friday June 16 - Last Day of School!!!! Lots of time on Facebook trying to figure out who is in my son's class next year - My daughter won't know her Middle School schedule until late summer
* Saturday June 17 - Lots of sports, lots of organizing
* Sunday June 18 - We went into Boston for Father's Day and had a wonderful brunch at the top of one of the skyscrapers
* Monday June 19 - Me and the kids went to Water Country USA - So much fun! Beautiful weather and not many people there because a lot of schools weren't out yet
* Tuesday June 20 - My daughter went to a friends, so me and my son had a lazy day around the house
* Wednesday June 21 - My husband took the kids to Maine - 5 minutes after the left, my mother called and I had to take her to the hospital - the pins from her broken elbow last fall started coming out
* Thursday June 22 - I thought I had until 1:00 to get stuff done before having to take my mom to the hospital for her surgery, but she called at 10:00 and they pushed up the surgery, so for the second day in a row I had to rush out of the house without a shower and without eating. Thankfully the surgery went well.
* Friday June 23 - I was supposed to go to Maine to spend the day with my family and pick up my daughter, but since I hadn't gotten stuff done around the house, I didn't go and got a TON done and then did major shopping at Michael's and Target
* Saturday June 24 - Got more stuff done, family came home around 1:00, got more stuff done, went out to dinner
* Sunday June 25 - We all took my daughter to overnight camp - her first time going!
* Monday June 26 - My son started day camp (his 4th year there) and back to work for me.

No, you didn't miss anything about running because I haven't run in 2 weeks :( Just so busy and so tired (and throw in some hot and rainy days too). I am supposed to do 7 miles tomorrow.

Eating has been incredibly poor :( I didn't get to enjoy my usual good feelings in the first 1/2 of my cycle. Now I am approaching the 2nd half. But I am trying to get back on track!



Friday, June 16, 2017

6 Miles for Breakfast

I was planning on doing 6 miles Saturday morning, but when my runner friends said they were doing 6 this morning at 5 am, I jumped at it, even if that meant getting up at 4 am so I could eat something an hour ahead. They were definitely hard miles - I am not used to getting up that early, I hadn't slept very well the night before, and I sure didn't eat well yesterday! But the miles are done! It was also more humid than we thought (about 63 degrees, 80% humidity) but thankfully it was cloudy and an occasional breeze.

I had lunch out yesterday which I hadn't done in a while (and won't do again for a while) - I had a burrito and a Nutella shake - they really are to die for!

And then for dinner we had our "end of school celebration" which includes spaghetti, salad, ice cream and cupcakes.

My grocery shopping was fairly successful. I don't plan on cooking any time soon, so it was stocking up a lot for the pantry and very little produce, which is a little sad. But I will stock up on all that next week, and will buy just what I need if I find us having any dinners at home next week.

I am working a 1/2 day today but from the couch where I am trying to relax my sore and tired legs. I can't complain because one of my runner friends is my daughter's teacher and another is a pharmacist, so they will be on their feet all day.


Thursday, June 15, 2017

Almost vacation!

I did survive all of Wednesday eating well and being at home. A miracle! A lot of it was because I had weighed in that morning and really wanted to see what the scale said in the morning if I ate normally. It said 219.6! But then I got dressed and went to work (My husband is working from home today so I didn't need to be on kid duty) and I started having cramps and I calculated that today was Day 25 so feasibly I could be getting my period and alas I did - but thankfully no accidents since I am wearing very light cream pants!

Which brings me again to the fact that my weight is always so low on the day I get my period. It has been this way for years. It is very bizarre.

Of course I sat down at my desk and tried to calculate the odds of having my period during our 2 week vacation in August. Ideally I would get it at 25 days next month and the month after - yes that would mean that my heaviest day would be the day we fly - nothing more fun than a heavy flow day and having to deal with airplane bathrooms. But that would also mean that the 2 weeks of our vacation would be be my "good 2 weeks" which of course would be perfect. But we will have to see. Seeing that my cycle can be anywhere from 25-35 days, it will be a crapshoot. Joys of being in your late 40s.

This morning would have been perfect for running. But I chose to not lay anything out and just get up if I woke up. But I didn't. My husband's alarm was set for 6:20 since he is working from home. I went to bed at 9:30 and woke up with the alarm. I guess I really needed that sleep!

Since I got to work early I should be able to get out early and then go grocery shopping and then go home and do the last push to get everything ready for overnight camp. Just get me through the next 2 days!!!!

My daughter's team won her softball game last night so she is playing again Friday night (though it is supposed to rain) and then if she wins that there would be a game next week. We don't expect to win Friday (okay, we didn't expect to win last night either!). We just want to be able to do the Happy Dance at 3:15 on Saturday when my son's soccer game is over.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Happy Hump Day

The end of school and vacation (1 week for me, 10 weeks for the kids) is so close I can almost touch it, but I've got so long to go before I can officially say I am on vacation.

Monday was my daughter's elementary school graduation. Then I immediately had to go to work for a client meeting - I drank 8 oz of water in the 5 hour meeting and didn't get any steps in. Dinner was every-man-for-himself.

Tuesday was a crazy work day which meant lunch in the cafeteria. I consciously brought my debit card in hoping I'd get to have lunch with a co-worker, but instead I just grabbed my normal and kept on working. Last night's dinner was Tacos - probably the last Taco Tuesday for a while.

Today I chose to work from home. My daughter has softball tonight (last night if they lose - is it bad to hope they do so they don't have to play at 6 pm on the last day of school?!). Father's Day cards aren't made, coaches Thank You cards aren't written (Thankfully the teacher and bus drivers are, so that is a good thing). So much laundry needed to be done and put away. The dishwasher needed to be run and put away. And so, so much work to do. I did a pretty good job at a lot of it. I just need to get the kids to clean the gerbil cage and make Father's Day cards when they get home from school. I won't let them do the "but our brain is hurting from school" excuse to chill when they get home because we know they are doing NOTHING at school this week!

I also did a pretty big purge of the pantry/fridge/freezer. Not a lot of bad stuff, just some outdated stuff. I know I've been saying this for years, but I really hope to cook with all the stuff in my pantry this summer. I NEED to make different things.

And I was able to say to myself "I am not hungry, I am just stressed" this afternoon when I was looking aimlessly at the pantry.

I weighed myself this morning for the first time in a while (not good when I don't remember when it was) - 221.6. Some due to Taco Tuesday, some to do impending monthly visitor, and some due to the fact that I've just not been good lately. I really, really need to buckle down and get deep into the 210's before we go on our big vacation.


Monday, June 12, 2017

Up, up, up the mountain.....

My history with Mt Monadnock go far back. I would see the mountain almost every weekend for the first 13 years of my life when we would go to my grandfather's for the weekend. I had an opportunity to hike it when I was at camp when I was 11, but I was too scared. My senior year in high school we had to hike it. I hiked it a couple more times in my early twenties, always being one of those ill-prepared hikers in jeans, very little water. When I was 29 I started dating someone and that was our first date and we hiked it many times, including New Year's Day several times. And in 2002 I hiked it every month, January - August in preparation to hike Mt Rainier. And I hadn't hiked it again until yesterday.

I had wanted to do it on Mother's Day but it was pouring, and every weekend since we've been busy or the weather has been bad. Yesterday was our last chance before my daughter goes to the same camp I went to at the base of the mountain. Of course it was going to be 90 degrees.

I also wanted to test out a lot of our gear to bring on our trip.

Father and Son, ready to go

Getting close to tree line

Still a ways to go to get to the top, but at least we can see it


A little hazy, but beautiful views

The hats kept our heads and faces out of the sun, but unfortunately we had major fails when it came it sunscreen and our shoulders.





We had some other fails yesterday
1) Not bringing enough variety of food - the picky kids wouldn't eat much of the Gorp I made, and thus didn't get enough food
2) Forgetting that we need to eat every hour, even if we aren't hungry - we wanted until it was too late
3) Camel-Baks are great, but despite us telling the kids not to drink too much, they very quickly ran out of water - I think we each need 2 bladder's when hiking in Utah

Going down was very, very rough. I don't remember the descent being so technically challenging. By the end my hips really hurt. Overall the trip took almost 5 hours, a lot longer than I expected. We stopped for burgers on the way home and after a long bath I crashed early.

Last week was a major fail over all. Just so much going on with end-of-school stuff. More of the same this week, but I am going to TRY to do better.




Thursday, June 8, 2017

Darn Tollhouse Cookies

The week was going well - I was tracking my food on the Lose It app. I was eating what I was supposed to during the day, even when meeting friends down in the cafeteria (tracking helps with that, along with having my debit card in the car, not inside). Tuesday was wet and raw, all sports had been cancelled, my bored daughter decided to bake. Our favorite Tollhouse Cookies. She made them all on her own - she now feels comfortable taking the pans in and out of the oven. But between Tuesday and Wednesday I ate way too many of them! Yes, I tracked them. The app has them at 170 calories a piece! I probably had 8 a day!

I've been binge watching Felicity and staying up way too late, so I haven't gotten a run in (Tuesday would have been too rainy anyways, but I didn't have an excuse for this morning - I even woke up at 5:15 without my alarm (sun in my room, something we haven't seen much of lately) but I had only been asleep for 5 hours at that point, so I went back to sleep for an hour.

I am running on Saturday this weekend so we can go hiking as a family on Sunday. It is going to be 90 on Sunday. Welcome to Spring in New England.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend. I am kind of glad it is over, so I can get on the business of getting the next 2 weeks of school and work over with and then a week off!

Friday afternoon my daughter and I went to Target and bought a ton of stuff for her for camp, then went grocery shopping and bought mainly healthy stuff!

Saturday morning I slept in a little (weight, 220.4) but then spent a few hours doing chores and organizing around the house before leaving for a full day of sports that started at 10:00 am and ended at 9:00 pm!  I went to bed almost immediately so I could get up and run.

I was awake at 5:00 but forced myself to lie in bed and rest until 6:00 am. I then drove to my favorite rail trail for 6 miles. I won't be able to get back here for while, so I took in the beauty. The 6 miles wasn't real easy. I took 2 small walk breaks - one at 3 miles when I turned around I walked for .1 miles, and the second was at about 5 miles - usually I don't walk across a street but I decided. More of a mental hurdle than and physical one.


After I finished running I walked up the path a little to hang out by a brook. I wish I had brought flip flops with me or I would have gone wading.


The rest of the day was spent doing more chore and getting stuff ready for camp, and then the day finished out with my son's baseball game. It didn't get over until 7:00 and we were all starving so we went to Papa Ginos - I had 2 small pieces of pepperoni, a couple of small breadsticks, and a lot of Greek Salad. I was way over in calories today, but with 6 miles under my belt, I am okay with that.

On to Monday!

Friday, June 2, 2017

June 2nd Weigh-in

221.4 - It is what it is. My eating yesterday wasn't stellar (I bought lunch, which also meant a 12 oz coke). But today I am going to eat well (always a challenge WFH). I've purged everything from the house and today's grocery shopping will be very healthy - no temptations in the coming week!

Not sure if I will got to WW in the morning - I've really got to figure it out. Next Saturday I am chosing to run on Saturday morning so I can be on kid duty on Father's Day, and Saturday after that I will have spent all day at the beach and having a wonderful meal with my family.

But I am NOT giving up. Summer is here (feels like it today, but next week, not so much). Bring on the fresh fruit and veggies.


Thursday, June 1, 2017

June 1st!

My second favorite month!
Did I weigh-in. Um, no :( But I went running (more on that later!)

The long weekend was pretty busy. Saturday was spent doing errands and cooking for a BBQ we were having Sunday night. But also trying to relax and rest for my race Sunday morning.

A 4:30 wake-up call for the race that started in Boston at 7 am. Mentally the race was pretty tough - it was humid (but not sunny thankfully), and the mile markers vs. my Garmin were way off. I ended the race with 5.52 miles. Other people around me were 5.25 - 5.4. At the end of the race you have a long way to go to the finish line and it is deceptive - it ended up being .5 miles. I finished in 1:01:32, which was great for 5.5 miles! I would have even been happy with that time in 5 miles. 2 years ago I PRed in this race with 55 minutes. I hope for faster next year.
Always nice to add bling to my collection.

We were home by 10:00 - we would have been earlier but trying to get out of Boston with all the road closures for the race (there is also a 1/2 Marathon) took a while.
Since my daughter will be away for the 4th of July, we celebrated a little early.

Eating has been pretty poor. I did weigh-in on Saturday and it was 219.8, but who knows by now! I did a major purge yesterday - no junk at all in the house. But it did last longer than it should.

I didn't get in a run earlier in the week, so I finished May with 26 miles. I almost went on the treadmill yesterday to get an even 30, but friends were running this morning instead of Friday so I wanted to join them.

I got to wear new sneakers this morning. I try to change my sneakers every 100 miles because in the past my plantaar fascitis will flare up after that. You can't see in the picture but they are graduated color which remind me of the Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino.
The run this morning wasn't overally fast, and even though it was humid, it felt good to be out. I am really going to try to get out 2x during the week in June. Got to take advantage of the morning sun while I can!