Category Archives: 7 mile run

7-miler and views of myself

After last night’s Reeses throwdown (which I lost), I knew I needed a little extra boost on the exercise front today.  Not to mention my football dinner 😀

I wanted to go at least 6 miles.  Had a Zone Fudge Graham bar to start with.  Bars and bagels really and truly are the best preworkout fuel, although yogurt smoothies come in a close 2nd.  I did a daisy loop around the house.  A newly mapped 2 mile run, which turned out to be way more hilly than I thought.  I was a little tired from that, probably because of yesterday’s workout.  I wound back to home, drank some H2O and did a 3 mile loop.  For whatever reason, around mile 4.5 I got an energy boost.  Back at home for more water and then another 2 mile loop.  7+ total today.  I didn’t wear my watch.  I have decided that on long runs where I have a set distance to go, I don’t want to know the time.  It’s depressing to look down and see 20 minutes and know that I have more than 45 minutes left, you know?  I figure I will be done when I am done.

In the spirit of Operation Beautiful – I am showing that I am beautiful when I am sweaty!

sweaty

Had super delicious oats when I returned.  John cooked up one of the pie pumpkins last night in the pressure cooker and here is some fresh pumpkin!

pumpkin

Take *that* Libby’s!!

Added to my oats with a tsp of brown sugar and cinnamon and topped with cranberry preserves.

freshoats

So fresh tasting and yummy!

I am trying to think of ways to organize my blog into more helpful posts other than just me blabbing on about food and fitness of my own.  I am not sure if 2 posts a day is better or just 1.  I don’t like to overwhelm readers and I am not sure if it is better to have 2 shorter posts or 1 really long one as I am doing currently.  Any thoughts on this?

Yesterday I was talking with John over breakfast about the view I have of myself.  I had looked through some old pictures the other day and it is so weird seeing myself at 250 pounds in photos.  I almost don’t recognize myself in them.  However, I also look at photos of me now and think “Do I really look like that?”.  When I see myself in the mirror or look down at my legs, I have that sort of mix of still feeling heavy, yet feeling smaller.  I don’t know if I can describe it and not sure if any of you get what I mean.  Maybe it’s a feeling that is magnified by how much weight one has lost.  I said something to John about being chubby, and he said I wasn’t chubby at all.  In fact he called me a healthy dynamo, which kind of made me laugh.  Makes me think of this:

spinningtaz2

John asked how long it would be before I saw myself as I really am, and I don’t know.  It’s like not seeing myself as an athlete, but I think I am a bit of one.  Certainly not of a professional caliber, but one nonetheless.  I really don’t know how to correct that way of thinking, either.  I don’t view myself in any negative light and actually tend to be kind of clinical in how I look at the areas that I think need improvement. Maybe that isn’t really a bad way to think, I don’t know.

I spent the majority of 40 years being overweight and maybe it will take 40 before I get used to seeing me as I am LOL!

Well – it was my football winning dinner tonight!  Decided on downtown Glens Falls and stopped at Prima.  Yum.  They normally aren’t open for dinner on Thursdays, but tonight was a special night.

I had a delicious panini made on artisan wheat bread, turkey, brie, sprouts, and cranberry chutney.  So good!

prima

After dinner we walked around downtown.  Prima was open because it was opening night of balloon fest weekend!  (Guess you know what kind of pictures are coming up in a day or so 😀  ).

b2

They let us walk inside this balloon.  Here is a view from the inside out!

insideb

That was fun!

PSA – Another first time triathlete coming up this weekend!  Give PubsGal some love!

I’m off to do a little more work and indulge in my guilty pleasure of Project Runway!

7-miler, new doctor and chilly weather.

Woke up this morning somewhat early as per usual.  Wanted to sleep more, but it was not to be.  Checked temp – it was in the low 40s!  So chilly.  I wore a jacket over my trisuit.  It was also very foggy out, so I nixed any street running in favor of the safer track.  Fueled up with this:

p9010003

I love these.   I only get them when we shop at Price Chopper, since that is the only place I can find them, but we only go there once a month, maybe.

I also took some coconut water with me.  This stuff is absolutely amazing!

coc The plan was 6 miles.  I was going to do 3 and 3, but I was in a groove after 3 miles, so actually ran 4 before taking a break.  I drank 1/2 the coconut water and did 2 more miles.  Then I drank the rest of the coconut water.  It was like a shot in the arm and I decided to go around 1 more mile (I must be nuts).  So, 7 miles down today.  I don’t know how long it took as I didn’t wear a watch.  Probably 1:20 or so.

It was still cold enough to see my breath walking back home and I wanted something warm for brekkie in my favorite bowl:

brekkie

Oat bran made with a bit of brown sugar and topped with blueberry sauce.  I actually layered it in the bowl with sauce on the bottom, then oat bran, then the rest of the sauce.  It was so good!

[insert much working here]

Had a quick lunch before my doctor’s appointment:

lunchChobani low fat (not FF!) plain yogurt, strawberries, and Kashi Cinnamon Heart.  This is new and tasterrific!

So, I met with this doctor for the first time.  I also found out that I am not 5’2″, but 5 1-1/4?? WTF???  When did that happen?  I don’t think that is right, because John said he was about 3/4 inch shorter than he thought, too.

Anyway, I was discussing with the doctor about how I had lost some weight and was having some trouble getting off the last 10 pounds. She basically interupted me and said “Exercise more.”  Hmmm….  So I started to say that I did already exercise a lot and she cut me off with “No, you must exercise more.”  I was really irritated at that point.  Especially as I had run freaking 7 miles this morning!  So I asked if I could tell her what I did for exercise and listed everything.  She was writing it all down and then said “We’ll check a thyroid.”  Not that I really expect anything to be up with my thyroid, but it won’t hurt to have it checked.  It just irked me that she automatically dismissed my efforts as not enough.  Helloooo…. I trained and did a triathlon! Then we actually talked about how much weight I have already lost and she was very surprised (and impressed).  She actually didn’t say I really needed to lose any more weight, but she didn’t discourage me from it, either.  She was just happy that I have kept off 100 pounds for more than a year, as she said how that was the real accomplishment.   She also said that eating healthy, maintaining my weight loss, and exercising were better than any pill could be to stay healthy!

So, with the initial exam over, now I get the over 40 treatment in the next month:  Bloodwork, mammogram (squish), Pap, skin check – the works!  Wheee……

Dinner was like a little clam bake in spirit.  Grilled corn, clam strips and broccoli!

dinner

The corn was a little immature and not the best.

Going to my sister’s house tonight for a little get together for my niece’s birthday.  She is 10 today – a tween! Look out world!  Need to maintain cupcake control tonight.  Wish me luck!  That’s a way to start out the September challenge LOL!