Where's my NotPod?

I brought my workout clothes to work today so that I could run during lunch. I used to do this regularly, but lately I have been meeting a friend after work to run so I don't run at lunch as much. Today, I was excited and changed clothes to go running and realized that I left my NotPod at home! I have never ran without music. I am in the habit of turning up the music so loud that I can't hear myself breath hard.

Well, I went out anyway and told myself that if it was really weird then I would go half the distance and come back. As it turns out, it isn't too bad running without music. I went the full distance of my regular route at a pace of 10 minutes the first mile and 11.5 minutes the second mile. I will not do it all the time, but it is nice to know that if I forget my NotPod again, then it isn't the end of the world.

I am so new to this and I am not very good so I always worry when something is out of the ordinary. I was proud of myself for not chickening out and staying at the office during lunch and then running the whole way. So much for little signs of progress!

Friends in Low Places

Do you ever wonder if you would still be friends with someone if you met them for the first time today? I have a couple of friends (and I can think of a couple of family members too!) that I would not pursue a friendship with if I just met them today. Does this mean that I should just stop being friends with these people? In the case of the family members I certainly can't stop being family with them! But, I can stop associating with them.

In my case, one of the people I would like to stop associating with and the other person I can't see ever not associating with. So, it is both ends of the spectrum for me. The funny thing is that the one that I don't mind associating with is the one that gives me the most headaches! I guess when you look at it, I would not trade some of the memories or experiences for anything. Like the saying says, "Rather have loved and lost than never have loved at all.'

But, let's face it. There are people who we meet and somehow get roped into our social circles that we don't really click with. Maybe it is a rash decision to actually write these people out of your life, but then again maybe it isn't.

Having had most of my friends for a very long time, some of them have gone different places in their lives and I suspect that most people have a few friends like this. Do you really want to be friends with the guy who got convicted for breaking and entering? Or the girl who has a drug problem and can't take care of her kids? I know that some people need help and we need to be there for them and so on, but what if that help is rejected time and time again?

Something else to think about.

Sleeping Through The Night

My husband and I have 3 dogs, which are my life! I have a long haired daushund and an english bulldog and he has a lab/pit mix. We don't have kids so these dogs are our heart and soul.

This summer we had more of a problem with fleas than we have ever had. I don't know what was different this year or if anything changed, but we have gone crazy trying to figure out what's wrong. We have always used frontline http://frontline.us.merial.com/home/ but this year it did not work at all. In the last month or so it has gotten so bad that the dogs were up all night scratching or chewing. When they were up it kept me up. I don't like to be kept up. For years of my life I had problems sleeping so sleep is very dear to me!

In order to fix our problem I went to the vet and bought Comfortis http://comfortis4dogs.com/
This is flea medicine in pill form. It took me a few tries to get the daushund to eat the huge 'horse' pill, but once I got the appropriate pills down the throats of the appropriate dogs the fleas went jumping off my little babies! This stuff worked in about 20 minutes! For good measure I gave each one a bath and now I have 3 good smelling, flea less doggies that sleep all through the night!!! Which means that I sleep through the night!!! Whoo hoo!! Right now I am singing the praises of Comfortis! (until it stops working like Frontline did)

Chocolate

I am off work for the whole weekend in a couple of weeks so I am going to a friend's house for a slumber party. No, I don't think I am too old for a slumber party - thanks for asking! We are going to go running and do some strength training and then move on to the fun stuff like doing each others hair and make up and eating. My favorite food right now is chocolate - specifically brownies and her favorite food is mini corn dogs. That night we plan to pig out on both. In anticipation of the brownie decadence I vowed to not have any chocolate (with the exception of hot cocoa in the mornings. I am drinking it instead of hot tea or coffee because I don't want to get hooked on caffeine again and it is cold in the mornings when I get up!) until the slumber party.

In the past I have not ever had a problem passing up the sweets but since I have been on my healthy/running kick I can't get enough! I buy Hershey's miniatures to control my portions and satisfy my cravings, but I really have let it get out of hand.

I told you that so I can tell you this: One of the guys that I work with brought homemade chocolate chip cookies to work this morning! His wife made them and I know from experience that she is a damn fine baker! I passed them 3 times without trouble and then he brings the plate around making each person take some cookies! I took 2 so that he would leave me alone. BUT - I have not eaten them! I called my husband and told him that I am bringing him 2 ooey gooey choco chip cookies this afternoon! If I don't come home with those cookies I am in for it. Now I have to sit here for the rest of the day with 2 scrumptious cookies under my nose though.

I AM better than the cookie!
I AM better than the cookie!
I AM better than the cookie!

Running Woes... Again

A couple of entries ago I blogged about getting sluggish in my running. Since then any chance I got I have been running. I do not see any progress or change so far. I have started over, evidently, and for no apparent reason.

It frustrates me because I didn't slack off and take a day off here or there. The only thing I changed was running with a friend rather than running by myself. The only thing I can think of is that I am going at a faster pace (she runs at a much faster pace than me) and therefore, I don't run as far of a distance without having to stop.

I have tried to run on my own and slow my pace but my legs get tired. I thought my legs might be hurting because I was slacking off on strength training, therefore, I have made it a point to do my strength training, but with no results as far as my running goes. I went running on my lunch break today and my legs were just burning.

I have to do something to get out of this rut! Or to at least accept it and move on. If I can make some progress toward where I was before then it may be easier. I am really starting to beat myself up over it and that has to stop before I decide to give up all together. I am going to put some effort into finding a motivator or some encouragement! I may have lost some of the progress I have made, but not all of it. I am still out there able to run a few steps and not sitting on the couch being depressed.

I'll take that as a compliment!

Yesterday I met with an underwriter that I had not seen in a few months. The last time I saw her was at the beginning of the year probably before I lost weight. When she came in to the office yesterday she commented on my weight loss. We had a nice conversation about my running and my eating and little things like that. She said that she had recently started walking and was trying to walk 2 miles a day, which is exactly how I started out and I told her that. I always feel a little weird about talking about weight loss with people because I am really not any kind of an expert. I never know if people walk away thinking I am an idiot after me telling them what worked for me.

But, today I received an email from her saying the following:

"Just wanted to let you know that you are an inspiration. I did my 2 miles
yesterday in 33 minutes. Remember I am older and not as fit --- but working on
it.
Goal today is to do it in 32 minutes. And to keep up my “days in a
row”.
You rock girl ----- I am impressed and you definitely motivate
me.
Have a great day and weekend. "

How sweet is that!? This made my day! I admit that it is a lot of pressure being 'inspiration' because what if I mess up and gain some of the weight back? What if I revert back to my old ways and start couch surfing instead of running? But, I figure I can use this as motivation for myself too. If I think I have somebody keeping tabs on me then I might be less apt to slip up.

Hopefully I can keep my mind off of the pressure and just take the compliment. It is things like this that make it worth it. Well, that and my husband telling me that I have a 'hot body!'

I say that this compliment is the best way for me to start my weekend off. I am going to put this one in my pocket and live off of it for the weekend!

Starting Over

I can feel myself slipping back into a slump. I am getting more and more tense by the day. I have not been eating right and my exercise has slacked off. When I do run with my friend I am getting extremely frustrated and I feel like I slow her down which really plays on my self esteem. I need to regroup and start over so that I can hold on to everything. I really think that I need to back off from everybody again and get my head straight.

We are going into the holiday season soon. With all of our November birthdays in our family it seems to start early for us. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas though. I love both of those holidays. Hopefully, it will still be good this year in spite of everybody's money problems. I know that the holidays are not all about money and you don't need to spend money to really celebrate, but if everybody is down and in a bad mood because they couldn't buy this or that or couldn't pay the car note then the holidays just are not the same. I think most of us are fortunate enough to not be in those situations but you never really know what people have going on.

This entire entry was pretty much pointless. But, getting out that I need to start over really helped me so I will leave it for now.


Oh, and just after blogging about the greatness of m y car, we have a problem. I was on my way home last night and it started missing or sputtering or something. So, it is back to the shop. Ugh!

3rd Annual Drunkfest

WOW. That's about all I can say about this past weekend. My husband's (and 2 other friends') 30th birthday party was this weekend. It was awesome. (I think) I don't remember a lot but I have heard stories and seen pictures. There was somewhere between 60 and 70 people at my house!! I don't know how we made it through the night without the cops showing up. I would post some of the pictures but I don't know that any of them are worth it. I will decide later!

To everyone who did come out - THANK YOU! I hope everyone had as good of a time as I did.

Gabe, I know that you probably did not. Hope your face doesn't hurt too bad where Shelby hit you.

To all my work people, Whoo hoo! We had a great time!

I am glad that this is all over with and I am kind of exhausted! Time to get ready for next year. Wonder what the theme will be.... any ideas? So far, I have these suggestions: pirates, hippie, hillbilly, black tie affair, cowboys & Indians, ninjas. HA HA Any of these would be kind of funny


OH YEAH - Great news on my car... It turns out that the oil filter was not put on correctly when my oil was changed last. Therefore, after riding around for a couple of days it was jarred loose while I was going down the road and it dumped oil everywhere making it look as though I blew my engine! Whoo hoo! Had the oil changed again and went ahead and had the spark plugs replaced and voila! Almost like new.

Ridin' Along in My Automobile

Don't you hate it when you are going down the road and smoke starts pouring from the hood of your car? Well, I do. It sucks more than most other things.

I was surprisingly calm though. I pulled over and turned the car off really fast. Then, I called my husband and asked him to call a tow truck for me. We had it towed to the car dealership that we work at so they can look at it today. I picked up my husband's car so I could go home and change and go back up there and work. The minute I stepped in the door for some reason I just started crying my eyes out.

I have been doing so good emotionally lately that it kind of caught me off guard to cry like that. I don't think it was totally because of the car. I think the car just gave me an excuse to do it. I was by myself and it just happened. Afterward, I let the dogs outside, fed the fish, got dressed and went to work and everything was fine. When I came home from work I ran faster than I ever have. I was not able to run an entire 2 miles but it felt like I was flying when I ran. It felt good.

Today, I am waiting to hear the good (or bad) news as to whether or not I have to replace the motor in my car. Keep your fingers crossed for me! When the rest of the world are breaking their necks to get out of credit card debt, I am probably going to use a credit card for the first time in I don't know how long. And this after paying for 2 strippers for the party this weekend! Great timing. People always say I do the opposite of whatever is 'hot' at the moment!

Run, Run, Run

This past weekend was great. I ran 2 races, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. I finished the one on Saturday morning in 31 minutes, which I am proud of. There were several hills, which I truly suck at, so to still pull off a 10 minute mile was impressive to me. I was very satisfied! Oh, I also used a port-a-potty for the first time ever at this race!

It was held on the campus of Christian Brothers University and I walked around that campus for about 20 minutes before I realized that all the doors were locked and there was nothing but the port-a-john! Ewww! Luckily for me it had not been used yet that morning. But, it was obviously not a NEW port-a-potty so it was still disgusting.

The race Sunday was not as successful for me, but Kayla finished 2nd in our age group. It kind of irritated me because I would have finished right next to her, but I got sick half way through the race. It was over 80 degrees and half of the track was through a neighborhood where they had just paved the streets in. You could feel the heat radiating from the freshly paved black top and it was awful. I got sick on the actual track. Maybe if I didn't drink that glass of milk before I went to the race I could have finished 1st or 3rd next to my friend. It disappointed me so much!!! Next year I will place in that race.

Saturday night we went to eat sushi! ummmmm Eel roll! I tried sake for the first time! I ordered it and the waiter (no lie) says, "Oh, this will be funny!" Can you believe that? HAHAHA It was funny though. They brought me a tiny cup and a carafe of sake. It was so pretty. When you drink sake you get the burn from it being boiling hot liquid. Then, the burn from it being alcohol. I don't know if I would ever order it again, but I am definitely glad I had the experience.

I did not get a chance to finish up the last of the stuff for the party. I will have to be scrambling this week to get those little things done. Tonight is my husband's actual birthday so I get to give him his present! WHOO HOO!

Weekend Plans

Just an update on yesterday's run with my friend.... It was pretty good. We went at a faster pace than I usually go but I was able to keep up and do just fine. There are slight hills on the track we were at and I really have not trained on hills. But, it was a good work out. I had a great time and I am pumped up for our runs this weekend. Whoo Hoo!

In addition to running 5 miles last night, I also spent a couple of hours trying to get a picture of my husband's car so that we can make a poster of it for his birthday. I didn't realize that we are later in the year and it gets dark earlier. So, when we finished up running at 7:00pm I thought I would have time to switch cars with him and get a couple of good pictures of his car as the sun was going down. Unfortunately, it was already dark by the time I went to get his car. That left me scrambling for lighted parking lots! I may have a couple of decent pictures but I don't know if they are going to be of quality to blow up. We'll see.

I am actually off work this weekend! I have a race planned Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon. I am also going to finish up the plans/decorations for my husband's (and 2 other friends') 30th birthday party. He has not even found something to wear yet! I am also debating on whether or not to get some of those scene scapes that have become so popular in the past couple of years. I just want to make sure that we have plenty of atmosphere, or whatever you call it.

I hope everybody has a great weekend! We are supposed to have great weather so everyone needs to get out and enjoy it!

This Morning

Last night, I set my alarm for 5:30. I do this quit frequently thinking I am going to be able to get up and run in the morning before I go to work. Usually, I quickly re-set the alarm for a more respectable 6:30 and go back to sleep.

This morning when the alarm went off I was actually kind of awake. Did I get out of bed? No! Of course not. I laid there for about 10 minutes debating with myself the pros and cons of going running at 5:30 in the morning.

Some of the 'pro' arguments were that I really was not that tired or groggy. I already had my work out clothes laying on the table at the foot of the bed. I really, really need to do a good job running with a friend of mine this afternoon. And, finally, last night I only ran about 2 miles for 20 minutes because my husband was making cookies when I left and I knew that they would be hot out of the oven if I was not gone long (I know! I am supposed to be a dedicated runner, but cookies will get me every time!)

Some of the 'cons' were that it was kind of chilly outside. I have never ran that early before and I was worried about being out there by myself (Yes, I run in the middle of the night. I know it is a lame excuse!). I am running with a friend this afternoon and didn't want to over-do it (Funny how that is a pro and a con!).

So anyway, I compromised with myself in that I could go back to sleep if I would do strength training when I got up at 6:30. Comfortably, I drifted back to sleep. Ahhh! zzzzzz

At 6:30 the alarm went off and I was extremely tired! I couldn't believe it. At 7:30 I realized that I was still laying in bed and I should have been at work already! Oh, no! I overslept. I HATE it when that happens. It throws my whole day off. I should have got my butt out of bed at 5:30. This is the first morning in about 8 months that I have actually been awake enough to get out of bed and I turned the alarm off and woke up LATE and I was so TIRED when I did get up! What's up with that?

So, now i am hoping and praying that I feel better running with my friend than I did Monday. My head still hurts a little and i kind of have a tickle in my throat but not like I felt Monday.

Set Backs

When I started loosing weight I was not sure where it was going to take me or if I would stick with it so I did not tell any of my friends or my husband. If I didn't stick with it I didn't want to seem like a failure. Well, people noticed I was loosing weight and after a few months I figured there is a pretty good shot I would stick to it. To make a long story short, a couple of my friends have started trying to loose weight too so they ask for my advice or ask what I do in certain situations.


On the other hand, I have a friend who has always been oober work out girl. Just an FYI - I didn't know that she worked out that much before I started my process and she was asking me about it. We registered for 2 5k races this weekend together and I have been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks. So, last night we met at a local park to run together for the first time. I have been sick for the past couple of days, but not fall out sick. I am congested a bit and I have that feeling that there is something in my throat. We get out there and the weather is beautiful The track circles a gorgeous lake and the wind was blowing. Pretty much everything was perfect. So, we start running. Almost immediately, my throat closes up and my chest tightens! I feel like I did when I smoked! It was awful. I felt horrible. I went around the track once and then sat down for a minute and hocked up my lungs. Then, I set out again and I caught up with my friend, but I could not run for very long at a time.

I hope to God that last night was just because I have not been feeling well. I felt so inferior. I felt like all my hard work didn't mean anything.

We rescheduled to try it again on Thursday. I hope it goes better! We have these races this weekend and I hope they are a total waste because I am sick.

Wish Me Luck!