soup review

I keep forgetting to mention that I tried this recipe for panera bread black bean soup. This is the best black bean soup I have ever eaten, it even beats panera's hands down. Wow, I will be making this for the rest of my life.

strength training

I worked out with the trainer and my friend this morning. Ouch! It was hard and now I am very sore. I was supposed to do 3 miles tonight, but I didn't have time. Mike worked out on the treadmill instead and did 3.5. It looks like he is going to Disney with me now! I hope he will help me keep up to pace. But getting all our workouts in is going to be tricky. I hope it gets warmer again so we can do out workouts outside with Iz. Taking turns doing them on the treadmill when it takes over an hour for each of us to complete the milage is no fun. Looking at weather.com, though, it doesn't look like it is going to happen.

Off to bed.

HH Week 4, Workout 1

Exercise:

• What: walk/jog
• Distance: 4.2 miles
• Time: 81 minutes
• 0.3 miles (warmup and stretching): 11:12 m
• Mile 1: 14:55 min (ran about 8/10)
• Mile 2: 16:22 min (ran about 2/10)
• Mile 3: 15:59 min (ran all of it)
• 0.6 miles: 9:32 min (ran about 3/10)
• 0.3 miles (cool down): 12:53 min

If you consider a total time and total milage, it comes out to a 19.2 min/mile pace, but if you exclude warm up and cool down, it comes out to a 15;77 min/mile pace!!!! Look at me, on track for Disney!!!

Off to take a quick shower and grab Iz.

nice ending

Though yesterday sucked in a major way (cranky baby, ants overtaking my office at work, a huge glitch in my new job, so much so that I might not even want to stay my new job, the job that is the reason we moved to AL in the first place) it had a very happy ending. I went downstairs to sort through the many boxes that fill our storage room. I needed to find the shoe box and my sweater box because the weather has turned cold. In the process, I located several tubs of clothes that had been in the attic at our old house. The main reason these clothes were packed away is because they were too small, some of them barely too small (size 20 jeans when I was wearing size 22) and some of them significantly too small (things that I loved from high school or college and couldn't part with). There was a tub of jeans, a tub that had some shirts and dresses and my tub of sweaters which was a big mix of things I have had for a while and things I bought last year when I was size 22. I brought all the tubs upstairs and started trying on clothes. I found one pair of pants in size 18 that I could wear, though they were a little big, but all the other jeans were too big! Most of the sweaters were too big too. What made me happiest, though, were the clothes that finally fit, clothes that I loved for one reason or another that I had "grown" out of many years ago, but I refused to get rid of, like a hand knit sweater I bought in Scotland that never really fit. These clothes now fit fine or are even a smidge too big (not that it will keep me from wearing them!) So I scored a few new clothes that I love and can finally wear again, a big bag of donatables, and some empty tubs and storage space. I had such a good time, I want to go through the rest of the clothes down there and really clean house.

I also went shopping yesterday to buy a couple more pair of work pants. I have been doing laundry twice a week primarily because I only have a couple of pair of pants that fit. I have been sick of it for a while, but man do I hate to go shopping! It takes a lot to get me to try things on and deal with the crowds. When I saw that ants were taking over my work office, it was enough to motivate me to find something else to do for the afternoon. I also picked up some baby proofing stuff. I have been trying to avoid putting permanent baby proofers in our kitchen cabinets and drawers but Iz is now tall enough to not just open the drawers, but reach inside and pull stuff out.

Speaking of Iz, last night was our first baby free night for 10 days or so. She slept well in her crib and I finally got a complete night of sleep until the dog woke me up at 4:30 wanting some water.

There is 4.5 miles staring at me from my calendar for tonight. I will write later to let you know how it went.

day of rest

what a bad night! Iz was up again most of the night, coughing and sitting on my head. I am calling the doctor in a minute to see if I can get her into a real appt.

I weighed in this morning and am right at 51.5 lbs lost this year. The stomach flu I had over thanksgiving really helped. It didn't make me throw up, just have food aversion so I didn't want to eat too much. It is funny to be thankful for that, but I know I got a lot of good food (including chocolate pie!) in me anyway.

My legs and feet feel fine this morning. Tomorrow is a 4.5 mile day. I am going to see about joining the gym today.

Edited to add: The gym thing is kind of sucky. I thought I might be able to get a deal, but I can't so I would have to pay full price which is more than I want to commit to right now. I am going to buy a punch card that should get me through December, then I will reconsider in January. They do have a lot of great classes that could get me through the winter months.

Man, today sucks so bad. There is nothing good to say about it, so I won't. My plan is to try the black bean soup tonight for dinner. I need to get some things done so at least the day won't be a complete waste.

HH Week 3, Workout 3

Exercise:

• What: walk/jog
• Distance: 5 miles
• Time: 88 min
• Min/Mile: 17.6

I did 5 miles instead of 6 tonight. I ran every third lap, then took a recovery lap, then a fast walk lap. By the 5th mile, my legs were really tired, my knees were twitchy and my feet hurt, so I stopped.

back from thanksgiving

We had a great trip to my mom's for thanksgiving. Thanks to a touch of a stomach bug, I didn't eat much, but it was otherwise a very enjoyable trip. Iz was feeling better but started relapsing last night. I feel another trip to the doctor is in our very near future.

I am hydrating now and need to get out the door to exercise. I have 6 miles to do today...

HH Week 3, Workout 2

Exercise:

• What: walk/jog
• Distance: 2 miles
• Time: 36:30 minutes
• Min/Mile: 18.25

Today was another less than stellar day. Our wee one woke up covered in spots. I rushed her back to the "doc-in-a-box" I took her to this weekend only to be told that it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic, give her some benadryl and keep an eye on her. So that has been my day, watching over a spotted baby (who is otherwise better) and feeling sickly myself. Since my eat-a-palooza over the weekend, I am positively nauseous at the idea of food. I was also very irritated. At everything. I feel like a lot of the chores of the house have been falling my way because I have the more flexible schedule, but I have work-work to do too. I asked Mike to come home early and I knocked out my two miles and burned up my irritation as well. Tonight I tried to jog alot, but my min/mile dropped from just a normal walk because after jogging, I have to slow way down to catch my breath. I should definitely work on maintaining a fast walk after a jog in the next month.

I talked to my exercise friend today and agreed to do workouts with her and her personal trainer through December. I will try it out for a month and if I like it, I will stick with it in the new year.

We are off tomorrow for t-day, will be back on Sunday. Happy Holidays to all!

HH Week 3, Workout 1

Exercise:

• What: walk
• Distance: 3 miles
• Time: 54 minutes
• Min/Mile: 18

I was supposed to do 4 miles today, but I only did 3 because I didn't want to leave our (mostly better, but still cranky) Isabel in daycare any longer than necessary. When I picked her up, she had a rash so now we think she is allergic to the antibiotic.

But I feel infintely better now that I got a little exercise under my belt. I will definitely do the 2 miles tomorrow (jogging, I hope) then who knows what we will have time for over the holiday. We are going to my mom's and it is supposed to be cold. We will be driving back on Sunday morning, hopefully I can do the 6 miles here on the treadmill.

I am not hungry anymore, thank god! I ate us out of pizza and chocolate while I had pms earlier this week. I didn't know if I would ever stop.

exercise? what's that?

Oh my god! I thought the horrible thing would be if I got sick, but having a sick hubbie and sick kid are wreaking just as much havoc on my exercise schedule. I took a nap yesterday instead of walking which was a good thing since Iz woke me up at 2 vomitting all over our bed (she was sleeping with us.) After an hour or so, she was able to sleep again.

Today the weather has turned rainy and cold. Man, I am depressed. I am at home with Iz and feel like crap myself from PMS and no sleep. We are planning to go to my mom's this week for thanksgiving and I don't know when I will be able to exercise again. Now I need to go nap while she is napping, who knows what tonight will bring.

horrible night.

I went to bed last night about 9 pm, then Iz woke me up crying at 10. Lately she has been waking up at that time requiring a diaper change then right back to sleep so I thought nothing of it. I wander in there in the dart and "splat" I step is a pile of liquid. And notice a very unpleasant odor in the air. Iz had upchucked her supper all over her crib, the floor and herself. When I picked her up, she was completely wet and cold, from top to bottom. I turned on the light and got to work getting her cleaned up and in fresh pjs, then abandoned the mess until the morning. But the munchkin would not lay down in our bed, she started screaming as soon as I got close to it. She slid off the bed and ran to the door and led me to the kitchen. Lately she has been having this thing with the microwave, she opens and shuts the door, it soothes her. Anyway, after some quality microwave time, she laid her head back on my shoulder so I tried to take her back to our room and she was again having none of it. Finally I settled on the rocker in the living room, then was able to ease her onto her mat on the floor. (Since she started daycare, she likes to nap on a mat in the living room floor.) I snuck away to grab a blanket and pillow, then I slept there beside her all night. She was running a high fever and I wasn't very comfie directly on the floor so I didn't get much sleep. Around 4, I scooped her up and took her to our room where we spent the rest of the night. Mike (who has the same junk) took her out of the room around 8 to give her tylenol and let me get some more rest.

All this to say, this weekend has not gone quite as planned. Mike and Iz look like they are dozing on a chair in the living room right now, I think I should go grab a nap while I have a chance. The weather is BEAUTIFUL here today, I am mourning my walk, though I may still be able to get a short one in after a nap if all is well with the sickies.

Wrapped up

Amy -- sorry Izzy is sick! But good for you on the soup, parking and trainer!

I've been wrapped up with my life and my relatives and my holiday doings. Both literally and figuratively. Took a walk as a family Friday. That was nice. Today we went to lunch and got our Tofurky. Then came home and Paul cleaned the savannah monitor's tank and then worked on his dulcimer. I got laundry shuttling again and worked on cleaning more of the garage. Julia bopped around "helping" each of us. I found ssome nail decal stickers I got for my niece ages ago and let Julia put on the "hearts" theme set. Her tiny fingers are still so small those tiny nail stickers are too big!

I'm soooo close to being done with the Christmas shopping that I'm practically jumping for joy at every moment because it means I'm not going to be all stressed out during the weekends in December. I can just spend those shopping and decorating the house for my kid. I was starting to wrap the kid stuff and I got half done. I was checking my shopping list for purchases for the grandparents.Getting there.

Got through the BBQ for MIL's birthday reasonably well. Not great -- def. need to bring enough vegan food for TWO meals rather than just one.

Gearing up for Thanksgiving at MIL's now -- so I got a Tofurky Feast and plan on making roasted potatoes and lemon broccoli to go with it. It's going ot be 11 people I think. Granny Jones, Julia and I are the only veggie people so the Tofurky covers us well enough and then the sides to share will all ought to be ok. But I'm going to stick some PB&J in the car just in case. I'm not going ot risk runnign out of food like at the BBQ and then diving into the nearest place that sells fries so I wouldn't go beser k with low blood sugar.

5 AM and I am up way late given I have church inthe morning and then a tea party in the afternoon.

owie!

I have done something to my leg. I don't know what, but something. My right leg hurts along the outside thigh. It felt fine this morning, no soreness from yesterdays strength training. Then after my little 2.5 wait in folding chairs holding a swirmy tired sick toddler, it hurts. Go figure.

The rest of my family is fast asleep and has been for the past hour. In that time, I have stretched, done the dished and put 5 cds onto my computer to load on my iriver tomorrow for my walk. But all the sleeping in the house makes me tired, so I will join them after this last cds loads.

no exercise

Instead, I sat in a 8'x8' room for 2.5 hours! Yep, that is right, I made a trip to urgent care. Our little miss has an ear infection. She has been sick off and on for 4 weeks now with the change of seasons and the change of daycares. We were scratching it all up to a mean virus, until she started behaving like a little devil this morning. She absolutely could not be soothed and was either screaming her lungs out or laying on the floor in an exhausted heap. Me thinks it is time for a doctor visit! Sadly, Mike is also very ill so I was the only one well enough to make the trip. Of course, I had no idea it would take so long (we called before hand and they said the wait was 30 minutes.) By the time I left, I was so low on blood sugarI had to stop to pick up pizza and a soda! I can't remember the last time I had a soda. Now out to the pharmacy to get her prescription. Cross you fingers that everyone is recovered enough for me to do 5 miles tomorrow.

soup and one last note

The potato soup was really good! It was different than I expected, since it had a milk base and potatoes, I was thinking it would be like a corn chowder, but it was really much different, very garlicy and oniony, not sweet at all. And the milk was really limited, most of the soup-y ness of the soup was the blended potatoes with the stock. Anyway, it was really good, and I am very excited about leftovers. BTW, it took me almost 3 hours to make this soup, starting from the stock. Next time, I will buy the stock! It was a long wait till supper tonight.

One last note about the strength training workout this morning. Though the workout was amazing, probably the best strength workout I have ever had, I was a little irked by the conversation I had with the trainer afterward. I told her about myself, how I had lost 50 lbs this year and I was training to run/walk a half marathon in January. She asked me what my "goal weight" was, and I gave her my whole spiel about not having a goal weight, about how if I think in terms of weight, it is a strategy for disaster and how I try to focus only on improving my fitness level and increasing my health. YadaYadaYada. And then, of course, she said "I think you should weigh ..." Hello, did I not just say that those kind of numbers are a source of failure to me and I want to be happy with where I am now and proud of how far I have come. Oh, and I know exactly what the tables in the doctor's office say I should weigh. Then she proceded to tell me about how to eat to lose weight. Um, I just said I lost 50 lbs this year. It didn't just fall off, I had to work to remove it and I am pretty sure the food choice was a big part of it. Just a note. It won't stop me from going back to her, but if she continues to try to "help me" in ways other than giving me great exercises to try, I am going to have to talk to her about it. I dont' need a guru, I am my own friggen guru. I have read all the books and I know myself and my body and I don't need someone who has known me for 30 minutes to be putting their dogma out there in my face.

And while I am complaining, here is another thing. The grocery store here in AL that I frequent has several parking spaces that used to be handicapped parking spots, but the symbols and blue lines have been painted over. Granted, the paint job sucks and, at first glance, you could mistake a spot for a handicap spot. I actually appreciate this little painting snafu because many people are confused by these spots and avoid them altogether which means I can usually find a spot right out front. Tonight I had to go to the grocery store (for the third time, that soup was hard!) It was 5:00 and the parking lot was full of people running in on their way home from work. I was sitting in line behind a car that was blocking one of these perfectly-fine-not-handicapped spots while they waited for someone to pull out of a spot further down. I was a little annoyed that they wouldn't take the open spot and get out of my way, but hey, at least I was going to be able to take the close spot. Eventually they park and I park and as they get out of their car, they scream at me "Hey, did you know you are parked in a handicapped spot?" First off, let's just suppose that it really was a handicap spot and I decided to park in it. Are they the handicapped spot police? And do they really want to go around yelling at the dregs of society who have already decided to ignore the handicap spot rule and may just start to questions the whole don't kill anyone rule too? But more importantly, don't spread your friggen ignorance lady. Make sure it is handicapped before you start lecturing me. So then I turn around and have to explain to them that when they paint over the symbols, it isn't handicapped anymore. Making light of it like I appreciated them butting into my business and attempting to correct me. What I really wanted to do is to flip them off and tell them to mind their own friggen business. And let them continue to think they are handicapped because I don't want them parking there anyway.

Don't you wish you were here?

It is going to be one yummy weekend in Casa de Amy. Not only do I still have a few pumpkin muffins left (man, they dwindled fast!), I am going to be making 2 different kinds of savory soup. One is a roasted potato soup recommended by a friend and the other is the black bean soup that is modeled after the panera black bean soup. I am even making my own stock! I just went to the grocery store and now my house is full of yummy little niblets. I even bought a new soup pot and an immersion blender! To go along with the soup, I bought salad fixings and a loaf of french bread. Hopefully there will be enough leftovers to get us through until we leave for Thanksgiving.

Did I mention the sushi? Surely I did. We went to our old favorite sushi place two nights ago (the great thing about moving to a place where we used to live is that we know all the good restaurants.) We ordered every vegetarian roll they had on the menu plus soup and salad and it was SOOOO good. We even had leftovers which I ate last night and they were even better! Now I am craving sushi, but who knows when we will get to go there again. YUMMY.

I sure hope the weather warms back up, walking on the treadmill has so little appeal to me. We are one 3.5 walk behind this week. If it is warm enough, we could do a slow one tonight (nothing speedy since i am recovering from this morning's strength training) or a moderate one tomorrow. Sunday we have 5 miles to do.

strength training

A friend asked me to join her in a workout with her trainer this morning. It was HARD! But I loved it! I would like to keep it up, but then I would have to join the gym and it isn't cheap. It really proved to me though that even though I have been exercising loads for the past 6 months, I have very little strength, esp. in my abs, to show for it.

Exercise:

• What: strength training
• Time: 30 minutes

HH Week 2, Workout 2 (really 1)

Exercise:

• What: walk
• Time: 61 minutes
• Distance: 3.5 miles
• Min/Mile: 17.4

I had a really good treadmill walk today, better than I expected. Except for the first and last 5 minutes, I kept the pace between 16 and 17 min/mile. I felt like I could I have gone faster, but I have a hard time striding properly on a treadmill. Now it is Mike's turn while I watch the babe.

baking!

No exercise today because it was just too friggen cold! We dug the treadmill out of its cave last night, but haven't set up the tv in front it yet, hopefully will tonight. Instead, we went out for DIVINE vegetarian sushi and I am now baking some lowfat pumpkin muffins. I did the apple sauce for oil trick and egg beaters instead of eggs. I hope they are yummy, because I made loads. I had a great pumpkin muffin the other day from Atlanta Bread Company and have been wanting to make them ever since.

Exercise tomorrow on treadmill, then friday morning at a gym with a friend.

Edited to add: The muffins turned out great! I made 3 different sizes, a baby sized one, a snack sized one and a breakfast sized one. I think they might become regulars!

HH Week 2, Workout 2 (or 1)

Exercise:

• What: walk/jog
• Distance: 2 miles

Weather was ominous today, threatening severe thunderstorms, bad enough for most schools to let out early. When Mike got home at 4, the skies were graying and the winds picking up, but there was still a speck of blue sky every once in a while. We decided to go ahead and try to walk, but to do the loop close to our house. We are on a cul de sac which is off a circle. The circle is almost exactly 1 mile, 1/3 of it uphill, 1/3 of it downhill and 1/3 flat. We jogged the flat parts at a good clip, then walked the up and down. It was a great workout, probably the best I have had of late. I didn't time us, but it has been 30 minutes and a shower later and I am still sweating. :) We wanted to do the loop 3 times but the rain started just as we were finishing the second lap, so we ran back home. I hope we do this workout more often!

I went to the bookstore today mainly to look for parenting books, but I also looked at the exercise section. I was sadly disappointed in what I found. I was looking for something to inspire me these next 8 weeks and maybe to help me go faster. What I realized was I wanted a book that said "HEY YOU! Yeah I am talking to you AMY! Walk! Often! More! Faster! RUN! Often! More! Faster! And don't worry about it sooo friggen much. And when you rest, really rest, don't be thinking about the next workout and how good or bad you are going to be at it. You don't need to sit on your butt and read about how to do, you need to get off your butt and get out on the road and friggen get it done!" (I am going to write this down and tape in on my mirror.) I feel like I have the physical ability to do this, what I lack is the mental ability to press on when it gets hard or when I would rather not, to keep going and not to sucumb to negative self talk. So there you go, I just saved myself $20.

Not Good

It is not a good sign when I am up at 3 am, eating Iz's crackers and sucking down cough drops. Post nasal drip is to blame, I am afraid, and the entire time I was laying in bed cursing my fate, I was thinking about my workout today and how much harder it is going to be with no sleep. It is going to be hard anyway because it is supposed to be cold and rainy today so, instead of getting more sick, I would like to do my workout on our treadmill, but our treadmill is tucked away behind many big and heavy things that I can't lift or move. The movers put the treadmill in the very back of the storage room then proceded to box it in, then put our entertainment center (that requires more than 2 people to lift) in front of the storage room door so that even if I moved all the boxes and gave it a path out of the room, I couldn't get it into the rec room. We were planning on enlisting family to help us move the stuff at thanksgiving, not realizing the weather would take such a nasty turn this week.

Am I always this boring or just at 3am? I fear it may be the former.

I have been in the mood for soup lately and have been hitting up my friends for their favorite recipes. One of my favorite soups of all time is black bean soup, particularly the vegetarian black bean soup they served at Panera bread before they ruined my life by putting pork in it. Anyway, I am on a mission to find a comparable black bean soup recipe and attempted one tonight. I found a recipe on one of those on line recipe sites and it had 5 stars and a million great reviews, so I was hopeful, but it turned out ick. It required blending the beans with a cup of salsa, adding cumin, then cooking. It ended up tasting too much like salsa. And because the salsa was uncooked beforehand, the garlic in the salsa was still hard so the soup had a crunchy feel to it, never good for soup if you ask me.

Back to bed.

HH Week 1, Workout 4

Exercise:

• What: walk
• Time: 73 minutes
• Distance: 4 miles
• Min/Mile: 18.25

Didn't know if today's walk was going to happen. Iz was Very Sick this morning, several times, all over everything. After 10 or so, she seemed over the stomach part and was pretty happy the rest of the day. She went down for a nap at 1:30, I ran to the market to buy stuff for this week, then came home and watched part of a movie with Mike. I kept saying, "I am supposed to do 4 miles tonight." but the time kept ticking and Iz didn't wake up. When I walked the dog around 3, it was already getting cooler so even if she was awake, I don't know if we would have wanted to take her or not. So I went by myself. I had no idea if I would finish the entire walk or not. Walking long distances is such a mental game and because I am so focused on pacing, I am telling myself "I am too slow, why bother" right from the start. I am just going to have to let the pacing thing go. I really wish I had signed up for a half marathon that didn't have a pacing requirement so I wouldn't have this added dimension of failure looming over me. Now I have to get myself out to do the walks which get harder and longer each week, and fight this negative self talk about how I am not going fast enough.

The first week of HH went well. I got my 4 walks in and finished all the miles.

When I got back,Iz was STILL asleep! She just woke up! I am off to make some dinner.

pajama day

I have had a much better day today. We had a household mandatory pajama day, took a family nap between 10:30 and 12:30 and have just rested and relaxed. No unpacking, no running out to get x,y,z that we need right away. We did lift the pj restrictions to go outside and enjoy the warm weather for an hour this afternoon. Iz walked around the front lawn all by herself, I didn't have to jump up to keep her from wandering into the parking lot like I used to with our old townhouse. Our neighbors were out doing lawn work. It was great. I am feeling better and I hope Iz is too.

HH Week 1, Workout 3

I didn't walk yesterday. I was at home waiting for the phone guys to come out and hook up our service. It was too late by the time they left to do a 3 mile walk before dark. If I want to be home before dark, I have to leave at or before 4 for a 3 mile walk. This is going to get harder to do as the days get shorter and the workouts longer.

Today has been bad. To start with, I woke up with a drippy nose and a sore throat. The Absolute Last thing i can handle right now is a sickness. It depressed the hell out of me and made me feel even worse. Mike and I stayed home this morning to unpack a bit, then we had a meeting with our insurance person, then picked up Iz and back home. I kept falling asleep all day, but by 4 I felt well enough to make the 3 mile trek around the lake. I didn't time it or anything and I am not sure it was the smartest thing to do since my throat was killing me by the time I got home, but I did it. I went out to pick up some vitamin c and throat lozenges.

To make matters worse, I had a fight with my mom today. Somedays, you feel like you just shouldn't have gotten out of bed

Exercise:

• What: walk
• Distance: 2.8 miles

Quickie

Quickie as I nurse and then get back to sleep...

Amy -- WTG! Glad you are settling in at the new place and banging out the workouts. Wahoo!

Me? I've pulled out ye olde food log. Cracking down. In what is left of November, I have 6 things to attend. Which averages out to some party shindig every third day. I love the friends and family bit. I loathe the food bit. I don't even want to think about our December schedule.

Because while in normal non-holiday season occassions, I'm willing to loosen up to lacto-ovo veg if there are no vegan choices to be had, in my experience holdiay food for vegetarians = dairy bonanza.

And sorry to be blunt about it, but I don't much fancy gorging on cheese, cream, butter, et al every other turn.

HH Week 1, Wednesday

Exercise:

• What :walk/run
• Time: ?
• Distance: 1 mile walk, 1 mile run
• Minutes/mile: 15.75 (just for the run)

Today a 2 mile walk/run was on the schedule. We walked down the hill to the path around the lake, then started running at the first mile marker we saw (they have every 0.1 mile marked). We ran half a mile, then turned around and ran the half mile back. Running was hard, it has been more than 3 weeks since my last one. I timed the run part, but not the walk up and down. It is a cruel joke that we live on a hill and have to walk up the hill to get back to our house. I was feeling a little sick and headachy before we went and felt it even worse afterwards. But I was happy to run. I wanted to prove to myself that I could still do it and I did. Even though I REALLY wanted to stop at half a mile, I turned around and kept going. And at the end, I was going nuts looking for the final mile marker, I was so happy when I saw it. Mike ran a little ahead of me to allow for other people to pass so we didn't have much of a chance to talk. I think that made it harder too.

Tomorrow another 3 miles is on the schedule.

HH Week 1, Tuesday

Exercise:

• What :walk
• Time: 50 minutes
• Distance: 2.8 miles
• Minutes/mile: 17.85

I went and measured the distance in my car today and the primary loop around the lake and up to my house was 2.8 miles. Close enough to 3. We walked briskly, so I am little disappointed to see such a slow pace. But exercise done, dinner cooking, all is well.

schedule

I am at home now waiting for our new dining room table. I am so excited about it, we have had a hand me down table my whole adult life. The one we have now was my mom's before I was born. We are going to put it down in the basement for now. Our new one is oak with painted black chairs. Nothing fancy, just something solid I can hand down to Iz when she gets her own place!

I sat down this morning with a calendar, a copy of HH's novice running marathon training schedule and a marker. Though I will be walking the vast majority of the training walks, I am going to go ahead and do the milage of the running training program. He has a walking program too, but it is based on time and a pace (brisk, easy or stroll). This week I will do week 1 with a total of 12 miles to complete, next week I will do week 3 with 14 miles to complete, then week 5 with 16 minutes total and the last week of the month I will do week 7 (19 miles) and I will be on track after that. Hal breaks the runs into two medium distances, one short distance, and one long distance, so 4 walking/running days each week, plus a xtraining workout once a week. The other two days are rest days.

After a good hard look at the schedule, it feels hard, but doable. As always, pacing lays heavy on my mind. I will be right in front of the sweep van if I am not on it, so keeping a good pace during training walks will be key. I will go out today and measure the distance around the neighborhoods I will be walking so I can time myself and keep track of how fast we are going and figure out the loops that will work for different distances. The neighborhood I live in has a lake with a 2.4 mile track around it which will be my main place to walk. Adding little loops through different neighborhoods will add onto it to complete the shorter distances, I will just do it twice for distances over 5 miles.

So I have a plan and feel focused and motivated. It is 9 weeks and I can do anything for 9 weeks. :)

Cat- you are the definition of goddess, my friend.

felt it

I was so sore this morning when I got up even after a nice long jacuzzi last night. I took some tylenol and feel better now. Today was a well deserved rest day. Tomorrow another 3 mile walk is on schedule.

Food is hit or miss for me. I am not making the best decisions, but I am cutting down on portion sizes, paying attention to feelings of fullness and sharing everything with Iz. Tonight we did a cafeteria for dinner to get some veggies and I split my veggie plate with the wee one. I only ate half a portion and I hope at least 1/2 of what I gave iz made it into her mouth. Most things are in the lap these days.

Let's see, not much else to update. There are too many things to do to even think about it. Everyday something new is on the schedule. I feel pretty frustrated with our current situation. It is disappointing because we are in a great new house that I love but I am all moody and depressed which isn't unpacking the boxes. I am trying to just take every day as it comes and make sure I get what HAS to be done complete and let everything else go. Tomorrow, we have a table delivery and are starting a bank account.

Am I goddess yet?

So on Sat. my new friend Kym and I got together at her house to practice belly dancing again.

Although I haven't been writing about it, that's what I've been doing the last two weeks. Snake arms, washing machine hips, wrist circles, shimmies, and all that other stuff.

We both wore white T-shirts and Kym lent me a black skirt, a coin belt, a veil and the Goddess Workout on tape in case I wanted to view it before we went on Sunday.(intro to bellydance thing)

Paul and Julia had a good time watching us jiggle around and gosh, does it ever get HOT!

Sunday morning was a bit crazed because apart from having to dance, there were a few cases of crossed wires but in the end they got sorted out. Someone else covered while I had to be practicing in the morning and then perorming with Kym and right after we finished I dashed off to do Sunday school in the nursery.

It was partially planned and partially imrpovised since the dancers never got to actually practice in the church with the drummers until 30 min before going on but we managed ok. Got a lot of compliments from other people at coffee hour later so I suppose we put a good face in it despite feeling a bit wacky behind the scenes.

My favorite part of the whole thing other than getting to make a spectacle of myself was dancing down the aisle and seeing Julia pop up with her happy face yelling "Mommy dance!" and trying to dance along with me.

I took Paul to a park he hadn't bene to for lunch as a surprise. He said he enjoyed it and we'll do it again some other time.

That night we had to go to some Yougn Adult thing and after heather came over to hang out for a bit. That was nice.

Things on the family front are a bit strange. The holiday pressure building. Not so nice.

Work this morning was really cute. Evan got a little anxious when Mom left but he settled down with me pretty fast and he and Julai made me laugh interacting over playdough. Those two are buddies and it's funn watching them sort out problems like who gets what cookie cutter and who gets to drink the juice from Evan's lunchbox.

This week -- back to gym walks. No more bellydancing performaces to practice for.

Though I've learned that as an alternative workout, I could get into this bellydancing thing. :)

wow, exercise!

We actually walked tonight! A brisk pace, 2.5+ miles, it was good. Iz took a nap and Mike and I chatted a bit. I am sore though and I think I will feel it tomorrow.

new plan

Well, after thinking a lot about the next 9 weeks (NINE WEEKS TILL MARATHON!) I have decided to walk instead of try to run. I have lost a lot of conditioning from the three weeks without exercise and I don't want to have to deal with an injury at this stage of the game, so my training from here on out will focus on walking. I am going to do HH's training still and start with week 1, then skip every other week until I catch up. I may still run the short (~2 mile) run each week if I feel strong enough. I will want to start running again in the spring, anyway, so might as well keep it up as long as I can remain injury free. I am a little disappointed I won't be running, I was happily surprised at how much I enjoyed doing the couch-to-5k program. But I still want to finish the half and this seems the safest course of action.

Tomorrow, I will do a 3 mile walk, it will be my first walk for week 1. I hope it goes ok. I have a twinge in my right ankle and both knees from carrying heavy boxes up and down stairs.

Otherwise, things are going ok here. We made our first real trip to the grocery store today and stocked up enough stuff for a few meals. I was impressed with the amount of tofu analogs the local market carries, but sad to see that they don't stock the vegetarian chili we like. I will have to shop around and see if I can find it anywhere else. Iz has started a daycare that provides her with lunch and snacks. On days when the entree is meaty (most days) I am taking in a substitute. I have been trying to get similar food to what everyone else is having and this week they are going to have a chili salad. Other than the meat content, I have been very impressed with their menu. They have a wide variety of veggies and fruit everyday and salads once a week. Definitely not all chicken nuggets and grilled cheese.

Being in our new house is a little overwhelming. Everywhere I look there is something that needs to be done either right away or in the near or distant future. I am finding it difficult to prioritize what needs to happen and when. I am trying to just take it one day at a time and get something small done that day. We have enough unpacked to live quite comfortably for a while.

still unpacking

Or, I should say, need to get started unpacking. I am ashamed to say Mike has done most of the unpacking that has been done so far. I just haven't felt motivated to get it going. I weighed in this morning and it was better than I thought, a couple of pounds up from pre-move. I feel alot flabbier though. Not exercising is taking its toll. Today I am "working" at home (ie, checking up on my blogs that I haven't read it two weeks). This weekend we will definitely get a good walk or two in and I will think about what needs to happen next.

One of the benefits of moving south has been an extended summer. It is WARM here, in the 70s and 80s each day. Should help getting back into a good exercise routine.

Bellydancing sounds like fun, Cat!

Alabama

We arrive Monday in AL. Our stuff arrived yesterday. I miss you guys. I haven't done any exercise in the break, but I am still hoping to get back on track and do the half marathon. I am sad to hear that you don't think you are going to be able to, Cat. More in a couple of days.