Week 6 Run 3, walk 5, run 25, walk 5. Done,
I was leery of this one, so I eased into it. I now think my biggest problem is Saturday when I did my two 10 minute runs with a 3 minute walk in the middle, I didn't take my water bottle. It definitely makes a difference and I struggled to get that last 4 minutes done, eventhough it was a shorter run.
So today, I started my pace slower. I walked at 2.5 and started my run at 3. At 5 minutes in, I pushed it to 3.1 and continued to raise it every 5 minutes, at my last minute, I went ahead and pushed it to 3.5, which is where I ran my entire 20 minute one. three minutes after being done, I knew I could run again right then. I had thought all the way through this run that I would probably do week 6 over because I didn't think I would finish well, now I am still trying to decide what I am doing come Thursday. I have a feeling, I may go ahead and do week 7, all of next week's runs are 25 minutes a piece which would give me some time to work on pace. I did go ahead and get the 2 miles in, because of the slower pace, it took me 39 minutes. I know it's slow, but I also know slow and 25 minutes is a heck of a lot better than 25 minutes of nothing.
Here is the playlist I created for it too:
Glorious Day- Casting Crowns
Unwell-Matchbox Twenty
Jump-Van Halen
Don't Ask Me Why-Billy Joel
Call Me- Blondie
Hold On- Wilson Phillips
Believe=Cher
Just the Way You Are-Bruno Mars
The Way It Is-Bruce Hornsby & the Range
I know, it's a weird mix but it worked for me. Hold On and Believe were strategically placed at the end of my run and Just the Way You Are was still playing as I ended my run. The Way it Is is just one of my favorite songs and reminds me daily why I do what I do.
The others are, well, just because I like them--don't judge.
Tonight I weigh in, I was up last week by 4.4 lbs. Sadly, but truthfully, in the record books I have gained 17 lbs. since the 9th of September when I hit my 55 lb mark. Those who work with me see the correlation immediately--LIHEAP started September 1st. So, we now know I need to work on my stress eating....I knew that, I just now say it in print. I also have to work on my "lonely" eating. The guys started working on the farm the 17th of August. I see a big problem there too. So, here's the bright side if there is one, The morning after Christmas, I was up more than the 4.4 lbs. In fact, I didn't go to Weight Watchers the Monday after Christmas because I was already working towards getting it down. Sad truth again though, the morning after Christmas I weighed 23.6 lbs more than I did on the 55 lb weigh in. I lost 7.6 lbs from the day after Christmas until last Monday.....I had also started back to running.
I am expecting good result tonight though as I write, I am also trying to get Andrew in to see the dentist to have two teeth pulled. I may have my plans to go to WW changed, but we shall see.
I do love being back on track with Weight Watchers though because my body feels better. I love eating healthy, I don't know why it is so easy to get pulled into the other direction. My new favorite find is honey in Non-fat plain Greek yogurt. Love it!
And I made homemade banana pudding with Truvia yesterday. Yum...it was supposed to be 8 1/2 cup servings, came out to 2 points, but it was one of those magical recipes that 1 cup was just 3 points, so it is now 4 1 cup servings!
Want the recipe?
4 Bananas
1/2 c minus 2 TBSP of Truvia ( I usually take a couple of TBSP out so you don't take the twang, it is just a little sweeter than sugar so it all worked, of course you would use 1/2 cup sugar if you don't want artificial but you will have to figure the points yourself :-)
1/3 c flour
3 egg yolks
2 cups milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Cut the banana up in a two quart bowl, I'm not picky, especially when it is just at home but my grandma always layered one banana in the bottom, two layers in the middle and one on top, if you wanna do that, plan accordingly, but cut up all your bananas.
In a medium saucepan, mix the Truvia, flour, egg yolks, milk and salt. Keep heat at medium and stir constantly with a wire whisk, do not let it scorch. Stir until thickened, this could take up to 15 minutes, when it is thickened to the consistency of pudding (duh, but it needs to be thick!), stir in the vanilla and pour over your bananas. Stir in and let cool. I let mine cool a whole 4-5 minutes but it was good last night cold too.
So, Andrew has a dentist appointment this afternoon, this may change my plans for the week, I don't know. I will need to take him if he has a tooth cut out. My week is crazy this week to start with, but that is a whole other post and one I will probably feel more comfortable posting after the fact.
So for now, Happy Monday, and Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day. I have so much respect for this man who saw a brighter future and instead of sitting at home yelling at a tv, or telling what he thought on facebook (yeah, I know, but you get my point), he went out to change things.
So many things even my friends take for granted, have changed because Mr. King had a dream.
Happy Monday!
Monday, January 20, 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Making a Commitment
Motivated by actually running two 8 minute runs this morning, I am more excited than I have been forever about losing weight AND more importantly, getting healthier. I have to tell you, facebook is wonderful for motivation and I have it right now thanks to a little help from my friends. I normally get really aggravated at myself because this very same person that can have the "I can do this, I've got this, piece of cake" attitude at 7:00 in the morning after doing this run and eating a healthy breakfast of fresh pomegranate and fat free Greek yogurt is the SAME person that says, "What the heck" at 9:30 that same night and takes a spoon to the peanut butter. That has been the bane of my existence since a couple of weeks before Christmas.. NO MORE! IT STOPS TODAY!
It has been a hectic day but I have made it to the "witching hour" so to speak, it seems like my bad time is from 4:30- 9 (bedtime). Of course, most of the time I am at work the earlier part of the day, and the healthy side of me has packed my WW friendly lunch and snacks, actually most of the time I take my breakfast to work with me too. When I come home is when it hits, so that is what I am going to be holding myself especially accountable to here on my blog--that and the exercising. I made a goal of 5 times a week and so far this week, I have exercised everyday but Monday. I had been staying off the treadmill because it is too cold in the basement. I knew it was a poor excuse but it was one I was actually holding to until Wednesday when one of the other girls at work mentioned she had gotten a treadmill and was using my blog to keep her motivated.....ouch. So, Thursday morning, I trudged downstairs and started Week 5, warm up, run 5 minutes, walk 3, run 5, walk 3, run 5, cool down. Normally, my weeks had been the same run once your week started so I didn't even look at today's. And, the "being too cold" thing doesn't hold much water when you come upstairs drenched from sweat. Anyway, I went downstairs, put my earphones in and heard my little British accented girl say, "Today you will run twice, 8 minutes each". I about quit right there, but I was already started. I pulled up the actual app and sure enough, Week 5, run 2. The worst part was when I saw Week 5, run 3. Warm up, run 20 minutes, cool down. I kinda knew I had to challenge myself in public or Monday would wait until Tuesday, then Wednesday. The way it is, I have several people who I am pretty sure will check Monday morning to see if I truly did what I said I was going to do....run the 20 minute run. Just for the record. I. have. never. ran. twenty. minutes. at. one. time. in. my. entire. life. My high school PE teachers that tried to make me run the mile, never ended up getting it accomplished, I walked at least half, if not most of it, every year...Why?? Because I was too fat to run. That was my story and I'm sticking to it. Unfortunately, I weighed about 75 lbs, less than I do right now.
So, I have offered up brunch to anyone who wants to come out and run with me at the Miss D 5K, it will be around the first weekend in June. Kathy Walk, the LIHEAP Coordinator for CEFS and my work sister, committed some time ago. Tammy Tucker, my best friend from high school committed today. How about you?
I walked the Miss D 5K this year, I worked and worked at it, it seems a little odd to me that now, between the walking and running of a morning, I do over half of it every other morning. Not much over, I am slow, I walk at 3 MPH and I run at 3.5 mile an hour. My goal is to work up to running at 4.3 mile per hour but if I run the entire 5K, I really don't care how long it takes, as long as I do it.
Let me know if you want to join us. I am already looking forward to it, nothing like a party, and what better way to get to party (and eat) than to have worked it off before hand! Of course, it will be healthy, because after all, it will be that early morning Mindy you are dealing with, not the late night one!
It has been a hectic day but I have made it to the "witching hour" so to speak, it seems like my bad time is from 4:30- 9 (bedtime). Of course, most of the time I am at work the earlier part of the day, and the healthy side of me has packed my WW friendly lunch and snacks, actually most of the time I take my breakfast to work with me too. When I come home is when it hits, so that is what I am going to be holding myself especially accountable to here on my blog--that and the exercising. I made a goal of 5 times a week and so far this week, I have exercised everyday but Monday. I had been staying off the treadmill because it is too cold in the basement. I knew it was a poor excuse but it was one I was actually holding to until Wednesday when one of the other girls at work mentioned she had gotten a treadmill and was using my blog to keep her motivated.....ouch. So, Thursday morning, I trudged downstairs and started Week 5, warm up, run 5 minutes, walk 3, run 5, walk 3, run 5, cool down. Normally, my weeks had been the same run once your week started so I didn't even look at today's. And, the "being too cold" thing doesn't hold much water when you come upstairs drenched from sweat. Anyway, I went downstairs, put my earphones in and heard my little British accented girl say, "Today you will run twice, 8 minutes each". I about quit right there, but I was already started. I pulled up the actual app and sure enough, Week 5, run 2. The worst part was when I saw Week 5, run 3. Warm up, run 20 minutes, cool down. I kinda knew I had to challenge myself in public or Monday would wait until Tuesday, then Wednesday. The way it is, I have several people who I am pretty sure will check Monday morning to see if I truly did what I said I was going to do....run the 20 minute run. Just for the record. I. have. never. ran. twenty. minutes. at. one. time. in. my. entire. life. My high school PE teachers that tried to make me run the mile, never ended up getting it accomplished, I walked at least half, if not most of it, every year...Why?? Because I was too fat to run. That was my story and I'm sticking to it. Unfortunately, I weighed about 75 lbs, less than I do right now.
So, I have offered up brunch to anyone who wants to come out and run with me at the Miss D 5K, it will be around the first weekend in June. Kathy Walk, the LIHEAP Coordinator for CEFS and my work sister, committed some time ago. Tammy Tucker, my best friend from high school committed today. How about you?
I walked the Miss D 5K this year, I worked and worked at it, it seems a little odd to me that now, between the walking and running of a morning, I do over half of it every other morning. Not much over, I am slow, I walk at 3 MPH and I run at 3.5 mile an hour. My goal is to work up to running at 4.3 mile per hour but if I run the entire 5K, I really don't care how long it takes, as long as I do it.
Let me know if you want to join us. I am already looking forward to it, nothing like a party, and what better way to get to party (and eat) than to have worked it off before hand! Of course, it will be healthy, because after all, it will be that early morning Mindy you are dealing with, not the late night one!
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Snowpocalypse 2014
Well of course, a major event in history has to have a blog entry so here it is. For once, actually, what the weathermen predicted pretty well happened. We were to get between 10 and 14 inches of snow. It was still snowing when the wind picked up but at that time, we had between 11 and 12 inches in various places in the yard.
We were all home Sunday as church was cancelled and we all have jobs that we are off on Sunday (with the exception of Andrew, who isn't supposed to work Sundays but does once in a while when one of the other people need off). So, all day at home. I started out the morning with cinnamon rolls, coffee and just lazily watching the snow fall. It was pretty, and thanks to our furnace and new insulation, it was warmer in our house than ever. It was truly cozy.
I laid out our last package of T-bones and that was lunch, add some potatoes and broccoli for good measure. Robert and I made toasted raviolis for dinner, he appreciates the time it takes to make them more now :-)
I talked the guys into playing a game of Logos, I won, so we will probably never play again, but I thought it was fun anyway. We also watched Ghostbusters II, you can tell, we were really wild on our time off.
I was hoping to get some things worked on since it was the rare occasion that the guys were here instead of at the farm. The glass had been out of my flour bin and it is now fixed, the two light switches that needed replaced are replaced, I am a happy camper. The garage door didn't happen but I really didn't see the necessity in fixing it that day with the temps in the garage where they were. We also got the parts ordered for the AWANA Grand Prix track, something I had nagged Andrew about for the last 3 weeks.
We found out before noon that I was home until Wednesday. I brought work home because I kinda saw that coming but had too much going on not to work on some of it. Thanks to modern technology, it is pretty easy to work from home--even managed to get someone who was desperate some propane today. We found out by 5 that evening that both of they guys' employers had closed their stores. I was extremely happy.
On a side note, the winter of 78, it was bad, my dad got cabin fever faster than anyone I had ever seen. Robert is SO his grandson. Robert had made two trips to Circle K to get pop before they officially closed all the roads, he also drove up and down our driveway, anything to bring on the feeling that he is NOT trapped here.
So we spent yesterday at home too, we started a game of Risk but didn't get it finished before time to go to bed, it is waiting on us to finish it, but everyone had things going on when we got home so it didn't happen tonight, probably Friday night.
We had homemade pizza for supper, to end our 48 hours of togetherness. I have to tell you, it is remarkable to me that we can all be cooped up and handle each other so well. That makes me happy.
In the midst of everything Sunday, the electricity went out over much of our area, which included Greenup, so our office was out of power. Our brand new mail server should have been on a battery backup but it quit working Sunday so I assumed something malfunctions. The guys drove me up there Monday afternoon to work on it, all is fixed so all is well.
The guys went back to work today, both had a horrible time both ways but they did make it. I go back tomorrow so life as we know it returns to semi-normal tomorrow. Still no school so Robert doesn't have AWANA. He was supposed to have council time and that really makes him nervous so he is not upset in the least about that.
Just one last disclaimer, I do love snow, everyone who knows me knows that. I love it when people we work for are more about safety and family than money. That makes me feel like each of us are where we are supposed to be. I still hate it that people had to be out in it, I do not have reckless disregard for those who do put their lives on the line, whether it be first responders, or linemen, I thank God for them and their wiliness to do a job that needs done. Don't ever take life for granted people. Thank the Lord for each day you get and each person he lets you have in your life just one more day.
Following are our pictures of Snowpocalypse.....
We were all home Sunday as church was cancelled and we all have jobs that we are off on Sunday (with the exception of Andrew, who isn't supposed to work Sundays but does once in a while when one of the other people need off). So, all day at home. I started out the morning with cinnamon rolls, coffee and just lazily watching the snow fall. It was pretty, and thanks to our furnace and new insulation, it was warmer in our house than ever. It was truly cozy.
I laid out our last package of T-bones and that was lunch, add some potatoes and broccoli for good measure. Robert and I made toasted raviolis for dinner, he appreciates the time it takes to make them more now :-)
I talked the guys into playing a game of Logos, I won, so we will probably never play again, but I thought it was fun anyway. We also watched Ghostbusters II, you can tell, we were really wild on our time off.
I was hoping to get some things worked on since it was the rare occasion that the guys were here instead of at the farm. The glass had been out of my flour bin and it is now fixed, the two light switches that needed replaced are replaced, I am a happy camper. The garage door didn't happen but I really didn't see the necessity in fixing it that day with the temps in the garage where they were. We also got the parts ordered for the AWANA Grand Prix track, something I had nagged Andrew about for the last 3 weeks.
We found out before noon that I was home until Wednesday. I brought work home because I kinda saw that coming but had too much going on not to work on some of it. Thanks to modern technology, it is pretty easy to work from home--even managed to get someone who was desperate some propane today. We found out by 5 that evening that both of they guys' employers had closed their stores. I was extremely happy.
On a side note, the winter of 78, it was bad, my dad got cabin fever faster than anyone I had ever seen. Robert is SO his grandson. Robert had made two trips to Circle K to get pop before they officially closed all the roads, he also drove up and down our driveway, anything to bring on the feeling that he is NOT trapped here.
So we spent yesterday at home too, we started a game of Risk but didn't get it finished before time to go to bed, it is waiting on us to finish it, but everyone had things going on when we got home so it didn't happen tonight, probably Friday night.
We had homemade pizza for supper, to end our 48 hours of togetherness. I have to tell you, it is remarkable to me that we can all be cooped up and handle each other so well. That makes me happy.
In the midst of everything Sunday, the electricity went out over much of our area, which included Greenup, so our office was out of power. Our brand new mail server should have been on a battery backup but it quit working Sunday so I assumed something malfunctions. The guys drove me up there Monday afternoon to work on it, all is fixed so all is well.
The guys went back to work today, both had a horrible time both ways but they did make it. I go back tomorrow so life as we know it returns to semi-normal tomorrow. Still no school so Robert doesn't have AWANA. He was supposed to have council time and that really makes him nervous so he is not upset in the least about that.
Just one last disclaimer, I do love snow, everyone who knows me knows that. I love it when people we work for are more about safety and family than money. That makes me feel like each of us are where we are supposed to be. I still hate it that people had to be out in it, I do not have reckless disregard for those who do put their lives on the line, whether it be first responders, or linemen, I thank God for them and their wiliness to do a job that needs done. Don't ever take life for granted people. Thank the Lord for each day you get and each person he lets you have in your life just one more day.
Following are our pictures of Snowpocalypse.....
 |
| 6:00 am |
 |
| 6:00 am |
 |
| 8:30 am |
 |
| 8:30 am |
 |
| The almost foot of snow |
 |
| 6:30 pm |
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Bring on SNOW
(was supposed to post 1-4-2014)You know what they say about when God gives you lemon, he wants you to make lemonade? Well, I'm ready for my lemonade version of this snowstorm that is coming. I will note right now, I NEVER asked for the subzero temps and we all know it can snow just fine at 32° but the snow, I can handle. We grew up with this stuff people! IF you are not from around here, that's one thing but man, I have missed the winters we had when I was a kid. I still am very concerned about people getting around, having to go to work, etc. I figure when Monday morning comes, if we get what we are supposed to, there is a high likeliness that I will not have to go to work, there is a moderate likeliness that Andrew will not have to go. Robert is the one who will more than likely have to go to work. His bosses told him today that if he felt like it was too bad to not come, but Robert is his parents' child--if you are supposed to be at work, you will be at work. So, we worry about that when it gets here.
I have bought stuff to make a batch of Crispix mix and have board games for us to play, just to change things up a bit, should we be home, all day. I also hope that a couple of honeydos that need done around here can get done, like my garage door fixed (can be done from inside the garage) and two light switches in the front part of the house changed out. I also think I will lay out steaks to thaw, we could have steaks for lunch just to celebrate being home. I really, really don't mind a good snowday when I know everyone is safe and sound at home.
Wednesday, Robert and I got a preview on our trip to Chicago. Some call us crazy, I think we called ourselves crazy a couple of times on our way home but we made it, got what we went for and had a really great day! We started seeing snow basically at Chicago, but making the way around the west side and then north turned into a real trip in itself. I was listening to the traffic on Sirius and it kept saying the tollways were clear; then all of the sudden we slow down to about 10 and they say, "We are seeing some problems on the Tri-State", guess where we were?
It has never stopped us before, and wasn't going to stop us then. We went to IKEA, was there three hours, got everything I went for, plus Robert got tons of ideas for his kitchen, some we will buy, some he and his dad will make. When we left, our plans were to go to the Cheesecake Factory at Woodfield Mall, first off, the parking lot was atrocious, and then it was still snowing really hard. Robert had never ate at the Cheesecake Factory and I had multiple times so I didn't want to be the one to nix it. About the time I was thinking that, he asked if it was really worth it, well, to me, on that day, the answer would be no. I said let's drive south a little before we stop and eat. So, then I decided we ought to head south as quickly as possible and worry about getting east when we got out of town. I told Robert to tell his phone to get us to Pontiac, and we headed down 55. We stopped in Diamond at the Whistle Stop for supper. Hole in the wall, but a great place, we only ate breakfast and supper so the fact that it was still more food than either one of us could eat was really nice. One of those places we will probably never see again, but glad we did this time.
Robert drove from Diamond to Bloomington and we were bringing the snow right along with us, by the time we got to Bloomington, the roads were horrid again. My turn to drive. I can't even count the number of cars we saw in ditches, it wasn't pretty. The worst we saw was just south of Champaign, multiple fire trucks, ambulances and police cars, I told Robert not to gasp or anything, to just calmly tell me about it later because the people in front of me, that I had been trying to "maintain a safe distance" away from suddenly all had to slow down to gawk at what was going on. Pet peeve, let me tell you. We finally got ahead of the storm just north of Mattoon and made it home with 10 minutes to spare of the projected arrival in Newton. Robert ran to get gas and to the bank and it truly did start in at 9:00.
So, I went back to work this week too. Thanks to a post on facebook, my office was nicely "decorated" for my return.
I really am wanting to take a week off that is not centered around holidays. I mentioned it to my boss and she totally agreed, so probably February, I am planning a non-holiday vacation, though I was looking at either the week with Lincoln's birthday or President's Day, but it's not like Christmas. I'm conservative with my vacation days, eventhough I have a ton, if I took one of these weeks off, I would be using 4 vaca days instead of 5.
Tonight, Robert and I went to see the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was very good. I was impressed and it is a "makes you think about your life" movie. I have realized I have one Saturday a month that Robert is off at noon and Andrew has to close which means, no farm; and there is one Saturday a month that Andrew is off all day and Robert is off at noon, which means Andrew could handle not going to the farm until 1. I have captured these two days as mine. An afternoon with Robert, a morning with Andrew.
So, we are all snuggled in and ready for the snow.....Bring it on!!!!
I have bought stuff to make a batch of Crispix mix and have board games for us to play, just to change things up a bit, should we be home, all day. I also hope that a couple of honeydos that need done around here can get done, like my garage door fixed (can be done from inside the garage) and two light switches in the front part of the house changed out. I also think I will lay out steaks to thaw, we could have steaks for lunch just to celebrate being home. I really, really don't mind a good snowday when I know everyone is safe and sound at home.
 |
| Ready for Chicago, taking this so we could see that we were out the door BEFORE 6AM. (Does Robert look Russian?, lol) |
Wednesday, Robert and I got a preview on our trip to Chicago. Some call us crazy, I think we called ourselves crazy a couple of times on our way home but we made it, got what we went for and had a really great day! We started seeing snow basically at Chicago, but making the way around the west side and then north turned into a real trip in itself. I was listening to the traffic on Sirius and it kept saying the tollways were clear; then all of the sudden we slow down to about 10 and they say, "We are seeing some problems on the Tri-State", guess where we were?
It has never stopped us before, and wasn't going to stop us then. We went to IKEA, was there three hours, got everything I went for, plus Robert got tons of ideas for his kitchen, some we will buy, some he and his dad will make. When we left, our plans were to go to the Cheesecake Factory at Woodfield Mall, first off, the parking lot was atrocious, and then it was still snowing really hard. Robert had never ate at the Cheesecake Factory and I had multiple times so I didn't want to be the one to nix it. About the time I was thinking that, he asked if it was really worth it, well, to me, on that day, the answer would be no. I said let's drive south a little before we stop and eat. So, then I decided we ought to head south as quickly as possible and worry about getting east when we got out of town. I told Robert to tell his phone to get us to Pontiac, and we headed down 55. We stopped in Diamond at the Whistle Stop for supper. Hole in the wall, but a great place, we only ate breakfast and supper so the fact that it was still more food than either one of us could eat was really nice. One of those places we will probably never see again, but glad we did this time.
Robert drove from Diamond to Bloomington and we were bringing the snow right along with us, by the time we got to Bloomington, the roads were horrid again. My turn to drive. I can't even count the number of cars we saw in ditches, it wasn't pretty. The worst we saw was just south of Champaign, multiple fire trucks, ambulances and police cars, I told Robert not to gasp or anything, to just calmly tell me about it later because the people in front of me, that I had been trying to "maintain a safe distance" away from suddenly all had to slow down to gawk at what was going on. Pet peeve, let me tell you. We finally got ahead of the storm just north of Mattoon and made it home with 10 minutes to spare of the projected arrival in Newton. Robert ran to get gas and to the bank and it truly did start in at 9:00.
So, I went back to work this week too. Thanks to a post on facebook, my office was nicely "decorated" for my return.
I really am wanting to take a week off that is not centered around holidays. I mentioned it to my boss and she totally agreed, so probably February, I am planning a non-holiday vacation, though I was looking at either the week with Lincoln's birthday or President's Day, but it's not like Christmas. I'm conservative with my vacation days, eventhough I have a ton, if I took one of these weeks off, I would be using 4 vaca days instead of 5.
Tonight, Robert and I went to see the Secret Life of Walter Mitty. It was very good. I was impressed and it is a "makes you think about your life" movie. I have realized I have one Saturday a month that Robert is off at noon and Andrew has to close which means, no farm; and there is one Saturday a month that Andrew is off all day and Robert is off at noon, which means Andrew could handle not going to the farm until 1. I have captured these two days as mine. An afternoon with Robert, a morning with Andrew.
So, we are all snuggled in and ready for the snow.....Bring it on!!!!
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