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

Whew!

Today was tiring. I woke up in time to be on the road for my 6-miler. The run went better than expected....I always dread running alone, but in all honesty it wasn't that bad. I ran the 1st 2 miles around the neighborhood loop, the 2nd two miles on the trails in the neighborhood, then decided to get back on the flat pavement thanks to my screaming right IT band. It made itself known at the San Antonio 1/2, but it wasn't too bad. Then, it got a bit worse on last week's 5-miler. Looks like I will have to do some extra stretching to get things back to normal. I also felt that weird tug in my lower back. The one that was there before I got preggo with the munchkin. The same stinkin' pain that drove me to do PT 2x a week. I was hoping all the core and strength training I've been doing for the past 4 months would help me keep the hips all aligned, but it doesn't look that way. I'll see if I can make it to January without too much trouble.

Then, I came home and made the family some eggs and bacon - egg beaters and turkey bacon for me, of course. :-) Next, we got everyone dressed and headed out to Garden Ridge for Christmas stuff...what a PITA! People were everywhere and there was not much of the stuff we were looking for left. The hubby hates crowds, so he was a joy to shop with...plus, the baby was fussy and the kiddo wanted to run all over the place. Ugh! Next stop - Krogers. Not as bad, but still stressful with the not-as-fussy baby and the kiddo who wants to see and wants you to see everything. Damn Disney for putting characters on just about everything - cereal, fruit snacks, bubble bath, ice cream, you name it.

Next, we came home and ate some lunch before starting on the Christmas decorations. The kiddo and I managed to get the tree up and decorated, but it was kinda hard with the munchkin trying to crawl all over the place. I tried the swing and the Exersaucer, but he wanted nothing to do with either one and would scream bloody murder if I tried to make him sit in either. Due to that, I put the rest of the decorating on hold until the kids were fast asleep. What now? I'm off to fold the kid's clothes before getting the last 100 pages of Breaking Dawn, the final book of the Twilight series.

As for the Twilight movie? It sucked. I don't think I was expecting a lot, so that was good...the acting was mediocre and the special effects were cheesy. The guy who plays the male lead did not live up to my expectation at all. Don't get me wrong, the guy is a cutie, but he's not the Adonis that's described in the book. Oh well, what do you expect for a teen movie based on a "young adult" novel? My Sister-in-Law and I did get a chuckle when all the teen girls in the theatre gasped the 1st time the male lead appeared on the screen. The same thing happened when he first spoke and once more when he kissed the female lead. Yes, I am rolling my eyes now just thinking about it. LOL!

Home Sweet Home

It feels great to be back home, even if my pocketbook is much, much lighter. That's what happens when your in-laws live less than 5-minutes from the San Marcos outlet mall! ;-) I love me some Ann Taylor outlet sales...gotta love it when you can get 2 new suits, a pair of slacks, a shirt and two sweaters all for under $300!

We had a great time seeing the family in Round Rock for Thanksgiving dinner. Even two cousins came in from South Dakota! I hadn't seen them in at least 7 years, so that was an awesome treat. Later that day, we met up with the hubby's side of the family. I am proud to say that I kept my eating under control better than ever - no pre-dinner snacking, loaded up on white meat with the turkey, had a ton of green beans, only a taste of the bad stuff, and just a sliver of dessert to satisfy the sweet tooth. Not perfect by any means, but much better than any past holidays!

As for the workouts...it's been 3 days! I discovered that the hubby wanted to get on the road MUCH earlier than expected on Thanksgiving morning, so instead of doing 5 miles that morning, I opted for 4 on the treadmill the night before. I was going to do 5, but realized mid-way through that I still had a cake to make for the next day. Doh!

Tomorrow - the goal is 6 miles solo through the 'hood followed by some Christmas decorating.

About last night...

What a night - I was hot, sweaty and gasping for breath...



















Wednesday, 11/5 - P90X, Plyometrics, 1 hour
Get your mind out of the gutter people. I was doing the P90X Plyometric workout. It's the 1st time since Ike that I've done it and man, I could tell! For the past 6 weeks, I've been skipping the cardio P90X workouts and only doing the strength training and core workouts. I justified that by thinking that my training runs were enough cardio for the week. I didn't realize until last night how much I was cheating myself out of an awesome workout. I think I will start incorporating at least one P90X cardio workout into my weekly exercise schedule. Seriously ya'll, I was dying before the warm-up was even over. I know running is a cardio workout, but this is a totally different kind of cardio. The hour-long routine is comprised of lunges and squats but with jumps in between, plus a just a lot of jumping and hopping. I just need to remember to wear my heart rate monitor from now on. Anyway, it's crazy tough and I LOVE it. I forgot that in the past 6 weeks, so there will be lots more plyo to come!

***************************************

Tonight I'm heading to Luke's for a little party just for the store's 4th anniversary. There are supposed to be some nice discounts on everything and there will be tasty treats and cocktails. Woohoo! It's time for new shoes, so I am definitely taking advantage of that discount. I might even get a new running skirt too!

***************************************

So post election, the 1st thing that popped into my head was the song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I feel fine)" by REM. And you know what? I do feel fine. I don't mean it literally, like, it's really the end of the world. I mean it in a good way - optimistic for the best. Some people are so stinkin' dramatic about our new President-Elect and think the sky is literally falling and have that fear-mongering mentality. Puh - lease people, get ahold of yourselves! I didn't vote for him, but hey, I was cool with whatever happened.

Peace-out!