Hog Heaven

OMG, you know it's a boring day in the news when they have to resort to reporting on the hog problem in my neighborhood! Check it out:

Feral Hogs Run Rampant in Spring!

Upscale? Puh-lease!!! LOL!

I can honestly say I've only run into one hog in the early pre-dawn hours. Fortunately, our yard still remains untouched by these vicious vermin. :-)

Post-Holiday Run

Saturday the weather was supposed to be horrible, so Coach Bill planned for a 6.4 (?)mile route with an option to add an additional 3-mile loop if the weather held up. Fortunately for me and my non-12-miler-running self, the weather was fine...well, except for the nasty heat and humidity. As usual, my Garmin was off so I'm not sure of the exact mileage, but we seemed to pick up the pace a bit at the end and overall the run felt great! I only felt a little twinge of pain from the knee here and there and it even felt fine this morning. Go figure.

I need to get back into my routine and do P90X tonight, but I have a baby crawling here under my feet as I type...and it's 9:20 pm! That little munchkin has been under the weather the past few days and today he took a LONG nap...which might explain why he won't sleep now. The workout might have to just happen in the morning. That is, if the kiddo will stay asleep...she'a the early bird. Sigh!

Workout Stats
Woodlands Fit Run, 9.5-ish miles

Belated Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!! I've been taking Coach Bill's advice and been resting the knee. My only other workout this week has been the 16 minute Ab Ribber X on Wednesday morning, so I feel like a slug! I'm planning to do a good upper body workout later tonight, then take it easy on the Wfit 10-miler tomorrow morning.

A little of this, a little of that

The knee is feeling better...still hurts, but not as bad as Sunday night. I postponed my Dr's appointment and figured I would ice, rest and take some Aleve. Of course, I am not resting enough...I did the P90X "Legs and Back" workout last night! Luckily, none of the exercises caused the knee any trouble. We'll see how I do tonight with a super-easy 30 minute run.

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I'm happy to report that our holiday shopping is complete and all the gifts have been wrapped. We do have to put together the kiddo's dollhouse from Santa, but other than that we're all done! Probably a good thing, since the in-laws are all coming over tomorrow for our usual Christmas Eve gathering. I have lots of baking to do tonight...now if I can just keep myself from eating it! I'm officially down 10 pounds since I started tracking my food on Calorie King, so I think that will be enough incentive to stay on track over the next few days.

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Here are a few of the kiddo and munchkin's holiday pictures...not the best we've taken, but we still managed to get some cute ones. Do you know how friggin' hard it is to get your 7 month old to look at the camera and smile the same time your 4 year old does? Impossible, I tell ya! (oh, and there's also the kiddo's 4-year picture!)

Monday, 12/22 - Workout Stats

P90x - 60 minutes - Legs & Back

Saturday Run

It was one of those "Oh Crap!" "Oh my God!" mornings!

I woke up late on Saturday morning - usually I am out the door by 6:00 am and because we were being joined by Kingwood Fit this morning, I was planning to leave no later than 5:50 am.

6:10

When I woke up to the sound of Jason Mraz, I saw 6:10 on the alarm clock. For whatever reason, the volume was really low. I immediately jumped out of bed and said "Oh $@&%*!". I threw on my clothes, grabbed my PB&J from the fridge along with my fuel belt and ran out the door. During this craziness, I tossed around the idea of going back to bed, but there would be NONE of that! LOL!

I pulled in at Luke's right at 6:30, but everyone was already gone. The guy on the radio just said it was 6:30 am, so it confirmed the time for me. I jumped out of my car and thought, "Man, I need to pee. I didn't pee!". But I saw runners heading out of the parking lot and I just ran. I saw Coach Bill as I ran by, but for whatever reason forgot to grab a route card. I just thought to myself, "Run! Run and maybe you can catch up!" I really thought I could catch up. After awhile, I looked at my watch and my average pace was 10:18. Then, I stopped to walk briefly so I could ask another group of 5/1ers the route. I toyed with the idea of running with them, but they were running a bit slower. So, I ran some more. I didn't want to stop, but I HAD to stop at the bathroom at North Shore...it was the only one that I knew of that would be on the route. Then, I ran some more. I ended up running the 1st few miles at a 10:20 pace. I decided that if I found my group, I'd run the entire 12 but if I didn't I would do the 8. It was about that time that I decided I'd better slow down or I wouldn't even finish 8! I had gotten conflicting information about the 8-miler route, so I just decided to run 4 and turn around.

My Garmin hit 4 miles and I decided to go a bit farther. I finally decided to turn around...I don't even remember where I was. According to one person I knew who was still going forward, I was a little less than a mile from Kuykendahl. I toyed with the idea of continuing on, but the adrenaline from the rushing around was wearing off and I decided to stick to my 8-mile plan. Lucky for me, on the return trip I met up with another Wfitter, Bittney, who was running 4/1s and was running exactly my pace. We ran the rest of the route together and talked about our kids, work, etc. (She has a 2-month old and has already worked up to 8-miles!!!)

When I made it in, it turned out that I had run 8.8 miles in 1:43...an 11:37 pace and I am sure I did not have a negative split! I felt a bit like a weenie for not doing the entire 12 and even toyed with the idea of doing a lap around the neighborhood when I got home just because. But, I didn't. Once I made it home, I was done. The kiddo wanted eggs, the baby wanted me :-) and I decided to just call it a day.

This morning, the first time I went up the stairs I felt an awful pain in my knee! It felt like my IT Band, but it's weird because it didn't hurt at all during the run yesterday. This evening, I laid down with the kiddo to read a book at bedtime and when I got up, it hurt even more. I was all dressed to do P90X, but after pressing on my knee a little, I can barely walk on it! I even called my Dr's office, but the next available appointment with my doctor is January 6....so, I ended up making an appointment with some random doctor for Tuesday morning and will call a different orthopedic in the morning to see if I can get in there tomorrow. Please keep your fingers crossed that it's nothing!!!

Lil' Update

Sorry the posting has been sporadic at best this week...between the hubby's parents being in town to visit and trying to get all the gifts wrapped, it's been hectic!

This week's tip from Catherine...

Cake or wine, not both :)

(She's referring to my eating at our company's holiday party....but hey, I had the chicken sandwich rather than the burger and I skipped the fries, the smallest piece of cake which I shared with a co-worker and 2 glasses of wine with diet coke in between rather than 3 or more glasses!)

We need to make a Mexican food plan: Can you do two fajitas in corn tortillas, skip the chips and maybe have a light beer? I wouldn't mind if you splurged at the Mexican food as long as you didn't do it again the next night with wine and cake.

(Here she's referring to my eating at the Ladies holiday luncheon at work...hey, I only had 12 chips and salsa! I skipped the friggin' queso and enchiladas...I had Tilapia and grilled veggies!!! Who eats Tilapia and veggies at Pappasito's anyway??? I WANTED enchiladas or fajitas with FLOUR TORTILLAS! And the margarita? It was free... the company paid for it!!! Healthy eathing or not, who can turn down a FREE margarita???)

If you are going to do muffins I would prefer you buy the Fiber One muffin mix or try vitamuffins (www.vitalicious.com).

(Okay...I'll try healthy muffins. The kiddo wanted them and of course I ate my share of them too! )

Avoid the cookies in the afternoon. I like the hot chocolate for a sweet treat, but if it leads you to eat something sweet and high fat then we might not want to do it. What do you think?

(Yes, I had a cookie at work...but, I still hadn't touched the chocolate at this point! Do you know HOW MUCH crap they bring into my office???? Do you know how much I've sacrificed and not eaten ANY of it Lady? Last year, I would have sampled everything...three times!!!)

Then, I had to remind myself...this is exactly what you're paying her to do. It's nothing personal,

IT'S.
HER.
J-O-B.

She knows I am working to meet my goal weight by a certain date. To do that means giving up some of the crap I used to stuff my face with. I know I can have it in moderation, but Catherine is making sure I am aware of the choices I could have made. She did agree that compared to what I would have eaten, I did pretty damn good.

It's all cool.

I still lost almost pound last week.

I've done freaking awesome this week...despite the 1 Godiva cherry cordial I had this week. But hey, last year I would have had at least 10 pieces of Godiva. I'm making progress!

Workout Stats

Monday, 12/15 - no workout
I kept waiting and waiting for the in-laws to go to bed, so I could hop in the treadmill. In the meantime, I was wrapping presents...I should have just gotten up and done P90X, but I really didn't expect them to stay up so late! LOL!

Tuesday, 12/16 - 35 minute OUTDOOR run, 11:15 pace
Okay, I got smart and took my running clothes to work and ran after work. I had to be sneaky about it too...I had to change at work, drive home, park at the rec center and then run. If I go into the house, it's all over...the kiddo will beg me not to leave again! Silly, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

Wednesday, 12/17 - P90X -Kenpro X, 58 minutes
This is always a fun workout! It's a bit like Tae-Bo with the kicks, punches, etc. Great cardio!

Thursday, 12/18 - Treadmill run, 30 minutes
Having a low motivation day, so this was a slow run.

Friday, 12/19 - rest
Today is a rest day in preparation for tomorrow's 12-miler. Ugh, and the weather is going to suck! Oh well, I know we'll get-er done regardless, it just might not be pretty!

Weekend Re-Cap

Saturday’s run went well….we ran approximately 10.8 miles at an 11:27 pace and had a definite negative split. Of course, we followed the run with Starbucks, because what would Saturday morning be without Starbucks? This weekend we’re doing 12, which to be honest, I am not looking forward to due to the warmer temps we’re expecting. Looks like I need to get out the running skirt again.

Saturday afternoon was the kiddo’s 1st ever dance performance. She did awesome, as did the rest of the 3-4 year old class. I volunteered to be “stage mom”, which meant I had to be backstage with the kiddo’s class from the time the show began until intermission. I hadn’t really thought things through when I originally volunteered, because I really wanted to see the other performances too. It was a bit crazy with all the dancers running around, but the other stage mom was smart enough to bring crayons and several coloring books to keep the smaller kids occupied. Luckily, when it was time for the kiddo’s class to perform, we were able to watch from the wings. They did their “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” dance so well! It was so cute! I was able to see the company dancers perform after intermission, which totally confirmed that I had chosen the right school for Riley – they were awesome!

Saturday night the hubby and I headed to my company’s holiday party. This year the company decided to do something fun and out of the ordinary for us – bowling! The company gave every employee and their guest a bowling shirt, plus when we arrived they also gave us a bag full of goodies. The hubby and I had a total blast bowling, then we watched my co-workers sing karaoke…imagine that with an open bar! Hahahaha!

Workout Stats
Saturday, 12/13 – 10 mile Woodlands Fit run
Sunday, 12/14 – P90X – Chest and Back – 51 minutes, Ab Ripper X – 15 minutes

What the funk?

Much like Cassie and Viv, I've been in a bit of a funk this week. I am having motivation issues with my workouts and I can't seem to get the eating thing down this week! (graphic borrowed from shinybinary.com)

For the workouts, I've made myself do them , but it's been more of a "just git'er done" thing. Last night, I hemmed and hawed - I cleaned the kitchen (because I have OCD and the hubby just didn't quite get it done to my liking, hahaha) and then I watched about 30 minutes of ER. At 9:30 I finally convinced myself to get my butt on the treadmill...and even then it was slow. I just worried about getting in the 30 minutes and didn't worry at all about my pace.

For the nutrition, it's not that I've been eating bad foods...in fact, I have been chocolate free and stuck to the "100 calories of sweets a day" thing. The problem is that it's been a bit busy at work, so I haven't made the time to eat my snacks - which are when I get in my fruits. In fact, I have been having a really hard time getting even close to the amount of calories I should be eating. When I look at my stats on the Calorie King website, I have not been eating enough protein, carbs, fiber and even fat! I have been exceeding the sodium I should be eating, probably because the company has been bringing in sandwiches from places like Jason's Deli and the lunchmeat has tons of sodium! Also, for the 1st time in a long time, I have not been drinking enough water. I will try to do better next week...it's all about planning and I have not done much of that this week.

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It's going to be a busy (but very fun) weekend...I have the Wfit long run tomorrow and later that day the kiddo has her holiday dance recital, followed by my company's Christmas party. Sunday, I'll probably squeeze in some Christmas shopping in the morning, a trip to the grocery store and then we're heading to LaPorte to visit our friends who live in a subdivision that had a lot of Ike damage...that should be interesting, since many of the homes there were lost or are now unlivable.

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Sometime in the near future I would like to go look at road bikes! As much as I want my bike today, I have a feeling this purchase will have to wait until all the holiday craziness is over. If anyone has suggestions for where to buy a bike or on any special components to look for on a bike, please let me know!

Have a great weekend!!!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

The house and our snowman...


The kiddo's playset...


Our Texas Snowman


The kiddos in their winter gear...I just ordered this and it came in today. Talk about perfect timing!!!



And if you're not a native Texan/Houstonian and happen to be from a snowy location up north...keep your snide comments to yourself. Yes, we ALL act like children when it snows here. Even us adults. We don't see the white stuff here often...the last time was 4 years ago on Christmas Eve. The time before that was actually more of an ice storm in February '93 and before that we had a nice snowfall in December '89, before that it was at least a decade....see what I mean? Yeah, we also can't drive with a tiny bit of ice on the road. What do you expect? We can't drive here when it rains and you expect us to drive in snow and ice? LOL! Anyway, it was cool to have over 5 hours of snow. We'll see it again in a few years!

Another day with no chocolate!

I did it...despite all the holiday goodies coming in from our vendors, I managed to stay away from chocolate both yesterday and today. Actually, yesterday I had the day off but I'll post about that later...it was a crazy, crazy day and I completely blew off my workout. (and thanks to wildlifeonline.com for the graphic)

For some reason, my motivation to eat healthy is extremely high this week, but my motivation to work out is extremely low. I think I may have to move my P90X workouts back to the mornings, because I am sick and tired of starting my workouts at 9 or 9:30 pm. It leaves no room for evening downtime, which I'd really like right now. Today, I made it to the treadmill at 9:40 and decided that I was only going to do 20 minutes. After lolly-gagging around for the 1st 2 minutes, I decided that I would at least make this a good 20 minutes...you know, the whole quality over quantity thing. So here are the results...

Mile 1 - 11 minutes...not happy with that at all

Mile 2 - 10:14...much better!

So, it was a tad bit over 20 minutes. For me, it seems like anything under 11 minute miles these days is good. Maybe if I did some speedwork....lol! I'm sure I was completely anaerobic during the 2nd mile, but it felt good to get the legs going faster than normal.

Workout Stats

Monday, 12/8 - no workout

Tuesday, 12/9 - Treadmill run, 21:14 minutes

Day 4 & 5 - No, ummm, some chocolate

Saturday we were to run an 8-miler with Woodlands Fit. Dang it was cold! When I left the house, I watched my temperature gauge drop and drop after exiting the toasty garage. 37. Brrrrrr!

The 8 seemed extra easy, as there was lots of great conversation going on. But, turns out that the route was only a bit over 7 miles. Oh well, it was a good run anyway and we followed it up with Starbucks. Our little group of 5/1ers are planning another running weekend, this time at the Zooma 1/2 Marathon in Bastrop. The best part (besides hanging with a group of really fun gals)? The finishers receive a special silver necklace and mini-spa treatments!!! Also, I usually get a non-fat, no-whip mocha at Starbucks, but did you know a tall "skinny" Cinnamon Dolce Latter is only 96 calories??? That's 72 calories less than my usualy mocha! On days when I run, I might splurge on the Mocha, but for other days, I'm going with the fewer calories! (Huge thanks to Wfit peep, Katie, for suggesting the drink in the 1st place!)

After our run and Starbucks stop, I had to head over to Toys R Us for some shopping for the kiddos. I was expecting the worst - millions of customers, fist fights over the latest and greatest toy, madness at the registers - but, it was actually not bad! I think there may have been 20 customers there and I found almost everything I needed pretty easily. The one item I couldn't find, an associate was super helpful and found one in the back. So, huge kudos to the TRU in the Woodlands!

As for the chocolate, I broke the streak and had 10 of the kiddo's M&M's....technically, I don't think it was even enough to count, but still...it was chocolate. I did manage to get back on track on Sunday...except I did have a couple of Margarita's at lunch. Oops! The good news? I'm down another 1.8 lbs! That certainly beats my recent losses of .8 and .5 lbs!

My tip this week from nutritionist extraordinaire - " ...continue to work on your sugar intake. What do you think about eating 100 calories of sweets per day? To help with this try not to eat a fruit or starch by itself particularly as a snack. Add nuts, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese or peanut butter to your fruit or crackers in the morning or afternoon." Sounds easy enough, right??? After reviewing Sunday's log, she also suggested staying away from the margarita's as they are hundreds and hundreds of calories for just 4 ounces...and yes, I had way more than 4 ounces! I'll try to remember that at the holiday parties I'm going to this weekend!

Workout Stats

Saturday, 12/6/08 - Wfit run, 7 miles

Sunday, 12/7/08 - P90X - Chest, Shoulders and Triceps, 50 minutes & P90X - Ab Ripper X, 15 minutes

Day 3 - No chocolate

Wow, I am seriously proud of myself to have made it 3 days without any chocolate! And, day 4 is going well too. I'm using Calorie King to track everything I eat and it's amazing how easy it is to stay within your allotted amount of fat and sugar each day when you're not scarfing down a bunch of chocolate and 100 Calorie Snacks! Of course, the real test will come on Monday when it's time to weigh in again.

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Not much new stuff to report...I swear the kiddos are plotting together to postpone their bedtime as long as possible, because neither would cooperate when it was time to go to bed. As a result, I didn't end up getting on the treadmill until about 9:45, so I shortened my run to 20 minutes....hardly seemed worth it, but I figure it was better than nothing.

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Maybachs galore...you know, before seeing the Lil' Bow Wow episode of My Super Sweet 16, I never even knew what a Maybach was. (Yeah, I watch that show from time to time, so what? It's trash-tastic, okay?) But since seeing that episode, I've seen two Maybachs on the roads in our fair city - both the Maybach 57 which looked something like this:

And yesterday on my way home from work I saw this beauty:

I'm really not into cars, but every now and then one stands out (the Maserati, not the Maybach in this case). But Jesus, I would not pay the $100 plus to buy this one, much less the $350 - $1 mil to buy a Maybach...even if I could!

Workout Stats
Treadmill run - 20 minutes, 11:16 pace

Day 2 - No Chocolate

I survived a 2nd day without chocolate. I'm purdy darn proud of myself. In fact, I've been staying away from the 100 calorie snacks too...they don't do you much good when you eat 3 a day, lol! And, I've actually eaten all 5 of my fruits and veggies for the 3rd day in a row. I'm usually pretty good at getting 3-4 servings, but would rarely get in all 5. Yay me!

Workout - 12/3/08
P90X - Chest, Shoulders & Triceps - 58 minutes

Day 1 - No Chocolate

I made it...well, almost. It's 9:30 pm and I haven't had any chocolate today. The day's not over, but I am pretty sure I won't give in. :-) I don't even feel any different, lol! Other than that, not much new to report.

Workout Stats - 12/2/08
Treadmill Run - 30 minutes

Monday Bike Ride

Looks like I'm back on schedule...sort of. My friend Kristi and I managed to get in our regular Monday bike ride again after a 2-week hiatus. However, the ride was cut short due to the time change and it getting dark so darn early. The last time we rode, it was the Monday after the time change and we managed to make most of our 10-mile route before it got completely dark. Today, it seemed like it was getting dark before we even started. It started to get pretty creepy, so we turned around early. We may have to move our ride to the weekend, just to get in more mileage without worrying about the dark.

I came home and was determined to get in a bit more workout in, so I did the Ab Ribber X...that is, after the kiddos finally fell asleep. Is it possible that someone gave my soon to be 7-month old caffiene? He would not go to sleep! Same with the kiddo, but that's normal for her. :-) In fact, I can hear that the baby is awake again on the monitor - at 11:20 pm!

Workout Stats - 12/1/08
Cycling - 7 miles, 34 minutes - 12.35 mph
Ab Ripper X - 15 minutes

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I got my first bit of feedback from the nutritionist extraordinaire after she reviewed last week's food log...."Let's break the chocolate habit right now :) It is December 1st, we don't want this to go on all month. Try getting a chocolate Balance Bar or Luna Bar to help you with your chocolate cravings in the afternoon." Gotta love a gal who shoots straight from the hip. See, there's this little container of chocolates in the kitchen at work. The kitchen is where we also make copies, get supplies and get water. Every time I walk by there, I grab something - a hershey's kiss here, a Dove chocolate there...you get the idea. It's time to step away from the chocolate!

World AIDS Day

Here's a list of events going on here in Houston to commemorate World AIDS Day 2008.