One Month until the Disney Princess Half Marathon 2011!

Oh.my.goodness. Really, I do know that 1/2 marathon = 13.1 miles. I'm pretty good with the .1 miles, but I'm nervous about the 13 miles! I need to maintain a 16 min per mile pace, or I will be swooped up by the sweepers. Please tell me I won't be chanting "sweeper no sweeping, sweeper, no sweeping!". Oh, wait, that's Nick, Jr (formerly known as the cute Noggin', but then became Nick, Jr, so that my kids can feel cooler, I guess).

Anyhow, I have been listening to Jeff Galloway's podcasts and have decided to do the entire race in 1 min walk/1min run intervals. I'm sure that sounds crazy to some, but it puts me at a 12 min/mile pace and that will allow me to stop for character pictures, use the port-o-potty (dude, 3 babies in 3 years, I should be running in a depends), and still finish the race in an upright position with a smile on my face. I outright ran 5 miles a few weeks ago and was really tired, and slowing down towards the end. However, when I did the 1/1 last week doing those same 5 miles, I didn't want to stop when it was stop time, I felt great.

I'm part of the WISH group on a list-serve/on-line community dedicated to chatting about all things Disney and they inspire me with their motto:

DLF>DNF>>DNS

Dead Last Finish is greater than Did Not Finish which greatly trumps Did Not Start

WISH gave me the courage to start.

And lime green is WISH's signature color, just in case you see it along the run. I won't be in lime green, but I'll post about my outfit another time.

The point of this post (yes, there really is one) is that one month from tonight, I'll be going to bed and waking up to run a half marathon! We are down to crunch time. I just wrote out the last month of training miles on my calendar. And now, I'm doing something I've tried to do many times before - I'm giving up soda. I know it's evil, I know it uses too many WW points, and I know I don't need the sugar with diabetes in my family. But it is yummy, and it's my comfort food. Not anymore. I've been thinking about this for a few weeks, but decided I better wait until after my "monthly gift" since I'm already grumpy enough without a sugar/caffeine withdrawal, too.

Wish me luck! Pray for my family, cause I'm sure to be grumpy.

6-Months Clothes Challenge!

I had a mini-milestone birthday this week. I turned 35 on Sunday. My MIL gave me a great gift of a gift certificate to do anything I want with a Visa Giftcard. Whoo hooo! Perfect present for me. Why? Well, because I cannot for the life of me, fit another article of clothing into my closet. I'm saddened at how over-grown the closet has become with clothes....
As you can see, I now have a mix of scrubs and suits. I'm gradually going through the suits and trying to decide which classic ones to keep. I also seem to have a huge variety of scrubs for having been a huge variety of sizes with previous scrub-wearing jobs.

That's just one side of the closet. You really don't want to see the regular clothes side of the closet. The every day clothes, that somehow I never really wear!

I'm challenging myself to a six-month clothes challenge. My birthday is January 23rd, and my hubby's birthday is June 23rd, and so between this time, I am going to keep track of what I wear in my closet and anything that I haven't worn by June 23rd will need to find a new home. I am allowing myself to keep some items - like a couple of classic suits and some other special occasion outfits, but those things will get sealed into a suit-bag and placed in the hall closet.

My goal, is to go into my closet every day and see a bunch of clothes (just like now), but know that I actually like the clothes and fit comfortably in them and will wear them out (not like now!). A positive side-effect to this attempt at wearing more of my clothes will be that I will hopefully clean up my look a little bit, too! I'm wearing the same few things over and over again.

I'll check in from time to time and let you know how it's coming along.

Salad - it's for kids, too!

I am so blessed with good eaters for kids! Today's lunch on this school holiday was salad and cheese/cracker sandwiches with water.

My lunch:

0 Cal Sobe Drink

1 c. Organic Romaine Lettuce

1 c. Chopped Organic Tomato

1 left over grocery store chicken strip (hey, yesterday was busy, desperation took a hold of me at Publix yesterday for lunch!)

2 Tbsp dressing

1 serving of Triscuits

For a whopping total of 8 points for lunch!

What I learned today:

- My 0 Cal Sobe drink that I'm trying to replace my soda with is actually 2 points for a 20 ounce bottle of Fuji Apple Pear, instead of 4 points for a 12 ounce bottle of Coke.

- A serving size of Triscuits is SIX crackers. What? For real? I can recall eating at least twice that when packing lunches in the past. Isn't that why Ziplock bags are so big? Well, I know now what I should be eating!

- Annies Raspberry Salad Dressing is 1 point for 2 tasty tablespoons of this yumminess.

I'm not hungry - but I'm eating breakfast anyway!

I woke up very not-hungry. I woke up with a migraine headache and did not want to eat anything, but I know that's against the correct way of eating. So, I cooked for the family and had just enough food to be able to say that I ate breakfast.

One egg

One turkey sausage

One cup of cherries

Wash that down with a cup of water, a can of Coke and 800mg of Motrin (my fill in for Excedrin, since I'm out), and total damage done this morning - 8 points. The Coke is what really caused a jump in points, but my noggin' feels so much better, so it was worth it!

I know my plate looks rather pitiful, I probably could have added some whole wheat toast to round out the meal, and perhaps added some fresh squeezed OJ to replace the Coke.

Patriots Play-off Game Snacks - Bento Style

Darn it all! My picture just didn't want to cooperate with me tonight.

I bought these bento-style dishes two summers ago from Target and have put them through good use. I vary between using these dishes and my Laptop Lunchbox for bringing lunch to work. I also use these lunchboxes when packing up the kids to go to the park or beach - the hard plastic sides keep items from getting wet and soggy in the cooler, and the least amount of waste produced, the better.

The hubby is out at the shooting range with a buddy of his and so the kids and I are snacking and watching the game. We had a huge lunch around 2pm, and nobody was really hungry, so snacks it was!

Tonight's tasty snacks:

- Guacamole with tostito chips

- Celery with Peanut Butter (we are out of raisins) - otherwise known as Ants on a Log

- Cheese square

- Smoothie

Smoothie Recipe:

- 2 very ripe bananas

- 12 strawberries

- 1 1/2 c. Vanilla Flavored Almond Milk

- 2 c. ice (we like 'em cold!)

Makes enough for 4 juice-glass sized servings.

The kids have lost interest in the game, and it looks pretty painful watching the Pats getting beat, and so it looks like we'll be watching Transformers instead.

Too many veggies + not enough water = unhappy belly

So, guess what I learned this week?

Yup, if you read the title, you get it...too many veggies + not enough water = unhappy belly.

I ended up not dropping out of WW. I will admit I was frustrated with doing things "my way" and then somebody had to go shakin' it up on me. After reading more about the new program, I can understand and even appreciate the changes. I plugged in all my points for the week, and wow! I thought I was doing good last week and when I finally had a chance to sit to chart, I was at least 10 points over each day. It was also the first week of my new job, and so I was nervous eating quite a bit as well. Excuses, excuses! I see where my problems are and now I need to do some adjusting.

This week, I did a little better, but not by much. I think my problem falls on work days. I work 12 hour shifts and so I need to plan for breakfast, lunch and dinner away from home. And since being able to suck, swallow and breath all at the same time takes quite an effort from the patients I work with, I can find myself sitting in a recliner for a good 30 minutes or so unable to get up, multiply that by 3 and you have one busy morning, do that every 3 hours, along with attending rounds, teaching parents, putting out fires, preventing emergencies, charting (at least the EMR is more user-friendly than the WW site), and the list goes on - before I know it, I have fallen into the trap that most nurses do, not taking very good care of themselves.

I will put on my trying-not-to-be-judgmental hat for just a minute. Looking around these past couple of weeks, as well as at my nurse-friend peers, it appears that those that spend the bulk of their time caring for others, seem to have lost the ability to care for themselves. I became a martyr at my old job. I was in administration and would give up my own lunch, to scarf down whatever I could find leftover from a lunch-and-learn to work at my desk to get ahead. Ahead for who? Finally, 2 weeks ago, I took a leap of faith and demoted myself back to floor nurse, and now am very concerned about falling back into that trap of not taking care of myself. I feel as though I need to take even better care of myself now and be healthy and appear healthy. Especially now, since parents are scared and trusting that I will take the very best care of their littlest little ones, not that I expect them to trust me based on if my make-up looks good, or my clothes are pressed, or if I weigh a certain amount. No, no, no, that's not where I'm going. I guess I'm trying to say that I want others to know how important health is to me and I feel as though right now, I am not setting a very good example of that.

Also for my kids. I will confess to being ashamed of my overweight mother when I was growing up. I remember feeling sad in the 6th grade because my arms would not fit around my mother. I have never shared this with my mother, because she is still obese and I don't see that changing any time soon. I became afraid to eat and was extremely underweight all through high-school and college. I'm afraid of being that person, too. And so I am very mindful of not talking about points, or "fat" in front of my kids. My kids know that my purpose for running in the Princess Half marathon next month is just to have fun! (And beat Al Roker's time of 3:16, but that's just purely for motivation.)

Back to my issue of working from 6:45am to 7:15 pm. I have found what works successfully for me to keep my hunger at bay is to do this:

Breakfast 0530 - whole grain, fruit, water

Snack - 0930 - greek yogurt, fruit, water

Lunch - 1330 - 2 veggies, 1 protein, water

Snack - 1730 - kashi bar, water

Dinner - 2000 - cereal, almond milk, fruit

Keeping in mind my 0930 and 1730 snacks must be eaten very quickly, so they are usually pre-packaged foods.

I did great with my veggies and fruits yesterday, but not so good with my water, and this morning, ugggg, it caught up to me. Let's just say, I felt a little heavy. My weigh-in was 148.2, which is basically no loss all week. Likely because there are about 4 pounds hiding in my colon. I know, TMI, but really what did you think when you read the title?

That aside, I am considering doing a 24 hour cleanse sometime in the next month. I've since, ahem, fixed my heavy problem this morning. But I think I need something to clean the toxins out of my system. I overindulged tremendously during the holidays and ate many things that I don't usually eat. I need a clean-slate, literally.