Food prep night

I finally ran out of food today, so it was back to the kitchen to prepare some more for the next few days.  I made some of those small red potatoes.  Baked them in evoo, sea salt, pepper, and paprika.  I have a love/hate relationship with making red potatoes.  They never get soft enough when I bake them according to the directions, so they are always too hard.  Today, I cooked them a little too long, lol.  They are a little too soft, but still have a great flavor.  I also made some awesome tuna salad with light mayo, red peppers, celery, a hard boiled egg, and some relish.  Finally, I made a homemade salsa from Tosca Reno's newest eat clean cookbook.  It has tomatoes, onions, red peppers, garlic, cilantro, chili powder, and lemon.  I still have cut-up veggies in the fridge.  I have to get up really early in the morning tomorrow to go work a pharmacy that's about an hour and a half away.  Those days are usually bad for me because I tend to eat out all day.  Lunch is typically a Chinese buffet.  But not tomorrow!  I will have my lunchbox with healthy food packed and ready to go.

On a side note, I went to the gym and ran today.  I ran 3 miles.  They felt ok.  I want so bad to be back to running 10 miles.  I felt so good when I was running that much.  Not just physically, but mentally.  After the distance run, I planned on just taking a little rest from serious running.  Maybe a month.  But then the idea of running for an hour and a half just overwhelmed me.  I simply didn't want to do it.  I didn't want to give up my Sundays anymore, haha.  Now, I would give anything to be able to run 10 miles, lol.  I know I will get there again.  I need to quit sulking about it and just get my butt outside.  I'm trying, slowly.  I'm hoping for a 6 miler this coming Sunday.  Thank goodness I signed up for that winter series or I probably wouldn't have ran 1 mile this winter.  Oh, spring hurry up and get here!

Eating healthy day 2

I mentioned how inspired I was by Denise over at Running Journal to eat healthy.  She has been preparing her food ahead of time and taking it with her.  Great idea!  Except, that I spent hours in my kitchen Monday evening preparing and cooking food.  It was a lot of work, but it was very nice to come home yesterday after work and simply heat up a healthy meal!  I got off work at 6, and was home with dinner ready at 6:35.  I called my husband to tell him dinner was ready, and he was like, "you're home with dinner ready already??"  He knows that IF I make dinner after work, we don't eat till closer to 8.

Anyways, Monday evening I made several things.  For dinner that evening (which created healthy leftovers for lunch) I made a vegatable and chicken pasta.  It was a recipe I found on http://www.kraftfoods.com/ a long time ago and is very yummy.  It has asparagus, zucchini, and red peppers, chicken, and pasta.  For the sauce, you use chicken broth, 4oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese, and a little parmesan cheese.  It makes a lot of food, and I have eaten on it for a couple of days now.  Since I had extra asparagus, peppers, and onions, I went ahead and sauteed those up with some chicken and teriaki sauce, made some brown rice, and stuck that in the fridge for the next day.  I also chopped up veggies and fruit so I would have healthy snacks to take with me and make some hard boiled eggs.  I have packed my food for the whole day to take to work with me the last two days and am trying to eat every 2.5-3 hours.  So far, it's working out well.  Yesterday I got hungry here and there, but today is much better.  Hopefully the hunger pains will subside after I train my stomach to eat smaller portions again.

I guess I will repeat the meal prep on Friday.  I anticipate running out of food then.  It does take a lot of work to prepare all that food in one evening, but then it makes the rest of the week so easy.  Having my lunchbox makes what to eat not a question, and I'm much less likely to eat out everyday.  I hope to continue this!

A great run for a change

Since I haven't been running regularly, whenever I do get a run in it feels so difficult.  I think that's another reason, on top of the weather, that I haven't been running much.  Whenever I do run, I feel like poop.  Well, tonight I had a great run on the treadmill for a change.  Five miles and I felt great the whole time.  I ran it at the South Charleston Rec Center.  I think I've raved about that place before because each treadmill has a television.  I watched the end of American Idol and some new show called Human Target or something.  Pretty interesting, but not sure it will be around long, lol.  At any rate, it kept me going!

Running stats:  5 miles/57:41/10:32 min/mile

New Years Resolution 2 week update

Not so good.  Ok, it's been terrible.  I have not put forth much effort at all.  But, I have one excuse, which wouldn't even be an excuse if I had better prepared myself.  The first week I was going to start my resolutions to eat clean and run and such and ended up working six 10-hour shifts from Monday thru Saturday.  Needless to say, I wasn't able to get in clean eating or exercise with that work schedule.  I usually only work four 10-hour shifts, but we had a pharmacist on vacation and I chose to pick up the slack (and the overtime, lol).  Had I thought it out and prepared my meal plan for the week, I would've been fine, but I didn't and I was a total flop.  Last week was no excuse at all, I just didn't do anything I should've done.  I did run my 8k, on Sunday the 10th, though.  Yay me!  The only problem was that the entire 5 miles was a sheet of ice and snow, and I was more worried about not falling on my ass than speed.  This may have been a good thing because I ran a slower pace and finished without feeling like I wanted to die. 

I snapped this pic after the race.  I have never ran on ice and snow before, but it was kind of fun to do it with about 200 other crazy people.  I bet the neighborhood thought we were nuts!  I ended up finishing in just under 53 minutes for an average pace of about 10:30.  Last year I ran the same race in about 48 minutes, but there wasn't snow or ice on the ground and I actually trained for it.  This winter, as you all know, I haven't been running much at all.  The 10k is on Valentine's Day, so I have some time to prep for that, and I will actually train for it (I will!!).  I don't really think I can go into a 10k without running at least a few times per week, so I will have to train.  And, if I train like I want to and do well, then I may have my eye on the Pittsburgh half marathon on May 2.  Hopefully, I will get back into my groove training for this 10k, and the weather will be warming up shortly after that.  The weather has been by far my biggest barrier to running.  Winter kind of depresses me and I don't want to run in the cold or on a treadmill.  When the weather warms up, I will be outside guaranteed. 

So, I was really super motivated by a blog that was posted by Running Journal.  She is an absolutely amazing runner and is currently dedicated to eating clean.  Her blog was an inspiration to do what I need to do - go grocery shopping, come home and prep all my food for the week, and take it with me everyday.  It is very nice today, so I'm going to go for a run, then go to the grocery store and come home and prep my food.

I hope everybody is doing well and sticking to their resolutions.  I haven't forgotten or given up on mine, I'm just getting a late start!

Reflections on 2009 and New Years Resolutions

2009 was a good year for me.  I actually became a "runner" in 2009.  In April, I set a goal of running the Charleston Distance Run in September.  I signed up for the race really early and trained for four months.  My goal for the 15 mile race was 2:30, and I finished in 2:28.  I had a great time and learned a lot about myself in the process.  I learned that I really really like running.  Sure there were times when I didn't want to get out and run, but most of the time I couldn't wait to get outside.  Each run was like a new challenge for me.  I tackled speedwork, tempo runs, long runs, and hills.  I had bad runs and awesome runs.  I learned about running and nutrition.  I did the most I have ever done for my body in my entire life, and it felt amazing.  When I finished that race, it was the greatest accomplishment ever.

Then, I took some rest time....and some more rest time.....and some more rest time....and before you know it, it was getting dark outside at 6PM and it was winter.  I rested so much that I lost all my endurance and stamina.  Everything I had worked so hard for was lost.  The motivation of a big race.  Gone.  I even signed up to run a half marathon in Pittsburgh in November and didn't go because I had slacked so much.  For this, I am ashamed, but I guess when you don't feel like running, you don't feel like running.  Only you can give yourself the motivation you need to get out there everyday.

The whole reason I started training was to lose weight, and I didn't.  Sure, I was in great shape and lost enough inches to drop a size.  But, the scale didn't move.  While I trained for the race, I also trained myself to eat what I wanted, when I wanted, simply because I was running.  I told myself it was ok to eat the Chinese buffet, wings, Olive Garden, or whatever it was, because I was going to run 10 miles the next day.  This is the reason I didn't lose any weight, and the reason I have gained 5lbs since the race and feel like a fat blob, lol. 

So, I come to my resolutions.

1.  Get down to a goal weight of 140 pounds.  I am currently 5'3 and weigh 160lbs.  This is the heaviest I ever remember weighing in my adult life, lol.  I usually stick between 150-155.  When I was training, I got down to 148 quickly, then settled in at 153.  Basically, I have 20lbs to lose.  If I lose 1lb per week, that means I should reach my goal by May 23rd.  I'm going to make it a goal to reach by June 1st.

2.  Run at least 10-15 miles per week all year round.  None of this training hard for 4 months, and then doing nothing the rest of the time.  There have been 2 weeks at a time since my race that I haven't run 1 mile.  I resolve to not do that anymore.  I need to be active and fit exercise in each and every week of the year.

3.  Eat Clean.  Period.  This will obviously be the toughest of my resolutions.  Anybody can follow a healthy diet for a couple of months, but for a whole year?  The point is, it's not supposed to be a diet, it's supposed to be a way of life.  I'm reading Tosca Reno's The Eat-Clean Diet Recharged.  I read the original Eat-Clean Diet book over a year ago.  The prinicples are simple - eat clean.  Avoid processed foods and sugar.  In a nutshell, you don't eat anything that doesn't come from nature in its simplest form.  You eat fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats.  Brownie sundaes don't fit into this category, nor does pizza at midnight, or unlimited amounts of food at the buffet.  Eat 6 small meals per day, about every 3 hours, and drink lots of water.  This will be difficult with my husband and all his buddies around all the time, but I am serious about this.  I know how to eat healthy, I just need to do it.

4.  Strength train twice per week.  I always talk about doing it, but never make time for it.  I know the only way I'm going to get the results I want is if I weight train.  When I make my running training plan, I need to limit the running to 4 days per week, so I have time to do other exercise on the other days and still have a rest day or two.

5.  Eat out less.  I need to make healthy foods at home for me and my husband.  I love to cook and my husband loves it when I cook.  Eating out is the devil and is the reason our nation is so overweight and obese.

6.  Blog more.  Sorry, I know I have been a delinquent blogger.

So, that's about it.  I plan to run as many races as I can, and to run the CDR again this September.  Those aren't realy resolutions, just goals.  I know that to stick to these resolutions I am going to have to keep a training and food diary.  I am also going to have to lay off the chocolate.  There are days that I just want to eat a big bag of hershey kisses or M&M's.  Nothing like chocolate to sabotage a week's worth of healthy eating. 

I wish everybody good luck on their resolutions.  I know we will motivate each other!