I'm at a bit of a crossroads as far as the direction of this blog. I started it to keep myself accountable as well as to share my story. I hoped to reach just one person and let them know it IS possible to lose weight by eating less and moving more. While I am no longer focused on losing weigh, my life long focus will continue to be on leading a healthy life.
Basically I'm telling all my lovely readers to please keep reading. While you may not be at the same point in your journey as me, there is usually something in each one that we can all relate too.
Running is a passion of mine, and I'm sure it will show up in many future posts. I have started another blog.
What?!? Who needs two blogs? Its ok, that was my reaction too. Well, for the time being, the running blog is simply for my eyes only. A training log on my journey to a half marathon (and eventually full). While I haven't made the blog public, I do plan on occasionally bringing over some of the posts and putting them up here. If they hold a special significance to me then I will share them. The following is an excerpt from this past Sundays post on my training log:
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Long run, week 3 (69min)
Today was the "long run" for week 3. According to the schedule we were supposed to run 6 miles, but since we'd been covering that distance on the last few weekends we decided to go ahead with 7 today.
I got up at 7:30am and took a nice hot bath. It was down in the high 30s last night (cold for Florida), and I had woken up cold. After my hot dip I decided to get some calories in. I ate a banana with water at 8am and a small whole wheat bagel with 1/2 tbsp all natural peanut butter about half an hour later. I sipped water up until about 9:15, looking towards a 10am start.
After dropping the kiddo off at our lovely neighbors, we were off. It was 10:30am. Despite the 47 degree weather I dressed in a tech tshirt, cap and a pair of running capris.
I was glad I did because the sun started beating down by mile one and we warmed up quickly, although in the next hour the temp never got above 52.
I typically run without an ipod until about mile 4 or so when I close out the run with music. After a recommendation from a blogging buddy (thanks Amanda)I decided to try out audio books as I run. Today I started out listening to Chapters 1-8 of Eat,Pray,Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.
I'm enjoying it very much. I didn't even register the miles I was running as I listened, but I wonder if her calm prose isn't slowing me down. I got so caught up in her reading that I caught myself several times running to the slow,even cadence of her voice.
Mild "stich" in my side at mile 3.5. Just focused on breathing and it eventually went away.
At the end of mile 5 I switched over to music to bring it in strong. The first song up on my playlist was "I'm The Only One" by Melissa Etheridge. I could immediately feel myself pick up the pace as the music coursed through me.
The sun was smiling down on us, my feet felt light and I suddenly noticed the strangest thing.
I WAS SMILING.
Yes, a huge cheesy grin was on my face.
"Is this runners high?", I wondered to myself.
Outloud to Charles I said, "This is great, I feel great!".
I reveled in the feeling of my feet hitting the ground and then pushing off again. I marveled in what my body could accomplish.
I ran 7 miles.
And loved it.
Ok, so I looked like a dork there... .but I was excited. :)
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A couple of reviews:
That wonderful feeling of accomplishment isn't the only advantage to running longer distances. Guess what I found out? After a year of learning to eat LESS, I now need to eat a little MORE. Yep, when I get to higher mileage (coming up soon) then I need to add back in a few more calories. This is not an opportunity to binge and eat junk, don't get all excited. But I am focusing in adding in a few healthy snacks.
So the people at Amazing Grass were kind enough to send me samples of their products to try. They have tons of products that are organic,raw,gluten free,dairy free whole food nutrition. We were going fishing right after our run so I needed something quick to eat. I tried one of their Chocolate Energy Bars.
(pardon the blurry pic,I was trying to show you the green inside)
It was great. I don't usually like chocolate energy bars, but the organic chocolate they used wasn't too sweet and balanced out the vegetables well. I thought the taste was great, but my husband would have to disagree. When I let him try a bite he said, "It tastes like I'm eating grass." Which made me laugh since the name of the company is Amazing Grass, and he didn't even know it. I enjoyed the fresh "green" taste (if that makes sense) and will certainly buy these bars in the future. You can purchase them at Whole Foods or CLICK HEREto find a retail location near you. They sent me tons of other great products to try so I'm sure you'll be hearing about them in the future.
I've also been snacking on some pretty amazing organic,artisan baked crackers sent to me by Dr. Kracker.You've probably seen these at your Whole Foods or Publix. They are super crunchy and have 20g or more of whole grains per serving. They have sweet ones with cherry and apple and savory ones as well. They go great with peanut butter and laughing cow cheese. So far my favorite ones are the Seeded Spelt ones, the sunflower seeds on top are great! A serving is 8 crackers for 120 calories. That handful of crackers go a long way, they are very filling.Click HERE to find out where to buy them.
Does anyone else keep a "private blog"?
Have you tried either of these products?
Please share your accomplishments for the week.