Happy Day after Thanksgiving! I trust everyone had a wonderful day and ate lots of yummy food. I certainly did.

I spent Thanksgiving Day at my dad's house, joined by my brother and brother in law. My mom, sisters, and nieces are in Arizona until tomorrow, so we unfortunately didn't get to spend the holiday together. I was bummed because I am moving to Virginia in a week (!!!!!!!!) and won't be back for Christmas. For me, the holidays are all about family, and they are the rare days during the year when we are all together.

It's a good thing my dad did the turkey and stuffing and my brother watches a lot of Good Eats, because I was pretty much useless in the kitchen. Every Thanksgiving for at least the last 10 years, I've been in charge of desserts. This usually includes Pumpkin Pie, a chocolate chip pie, and a fruits salad made with whipped cream, cream cheese, sugar, and fruit. Desserts are good because there's usually a recipe and I can totally follow recipes. My mom always does everything else - the mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, and the gravy. I think everything ended up really good, though, even though we were worried about making it taste the same as when my mom cooks. My brother did an excellent job with the gravy, even though he did wing it, and he made an amazing green bean casserole. I don't know if he saw it on Good Eats or on the Food Network website, but thank you Alton Brown, because this was really good.

I slept in this morning until 8:00 - don't know the last time that happened. I had plans of going to a farmer's market I rarely get to go to because I am usually at work, but I blew that off to go SHOPPING! That's right, I am one of those crazies who hits the stores on Black Friday, Now granted, I am not a 3:30 in the morning, let's wait all night in line kinda person, but I do like to get in some shopping after Thanksgiving.

I have been in search of cold weather clothing, and since my current wardrobe includes none of that, and I headed to the mall. Score! I got some cute sweaters, long sleeved shirts, and a pair of pants. Now the only thing I really need are some new shoes. I'm not going to be able to walk around in flip flops all winter.

I'm really excited because tonight I'm seeing the brand new musical Wonderland at the performing arts center. It's a modern tale of Alice in Wonderland and has a lot of top people from Broadway attached to it. Should be a fun night at the theatre!

It's Thanksgiving!

I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

After walking the Turkey Trot 5K with a group of friends from my Weight Watcher's meeting, I plan on spending the rest of the day with my family, cooking, laughing, and enjoying the day.

I am very thankful for my wonderfully supportive and loving family, my great friends, my health, and the new adventure I will be undertaking soon. This year I have wanted for nothing, and for that I am also thankful.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Half Recap

I successfully completed my very first half marathon this morning. I can honestly say that this was one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.

Am I glad I did it? Absolutely!

Will I do another one? Not anytime soon!

It was such a beautiful day today, perfect Florida running weather with a great breeze that really helped toward the end of the race. The race benefited the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, so there were a ton of Team in Training groups there, and it was really inspirational to read all of the posters along the race course and the different t-shirts.

The starting line was a little crazy. Even though there were pace time designations at the start, the space between them was small and we were all kind of crammed together. It probably took me 3 or 4 minutes to cross the starting line and start running. I was with a few of the women from my training group and the first half of the course followed a lot of our training runs. We circled the Pier, ran through a really swanky neighborhood, and finished out through downtown St. Petersburg. The highlight of the race came at mile 11 when we ran around the field at Tropicana Field, home to the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. I thought that was really awesome.

I started off strong and felt pretty good. When I woke up this morning, my stomach didn't feel the greatest, and that worried me. I've had stomach issues before on long runs and I was really hoping to avoid any of that today. Luckily, by the time I got there and the race started, I was okay.

Then, before I even hit the first mile, the horror of all horrors occurred - the iPod died. Or, more specifically, the headphones died. I wasn't necessarily mad about that, just wondering how in the world I was going to entertain myself for the next 2 1/2 hours. I just eavesdropped on other people's conversations and listened to those cheering around me. Running without music wasn't as bad as I feared.

I ended up losing most of my group by mile 4 - they are just too fast for me - and did the rest of the race solo. Honestly, it sucked a little, but it really showed me what I could do by myself.

Mile 9 was when I hit my wall. Everything started to hurt - my hips and feet especially. This was when I started doing a run/walk combination. I would walk for a minute, run 9-10 minutes. I did this until I got out of the baseball stadium, then the run intervals were getting shorter and the walking intervals increased. I was so done at this point, but with only a mile left, I knew I was almost there.

I ran across the finish line, finishing as strong as I could at that point. According to my heart rate monitor, my final time was 2:53:29. This is slower than a lot of people out there, but as I struggled towards the latter half of the race, I knew I just wanted to finish under 3 hours. I had no time goal going into the race, just a goal of finishing. It's pretty amazing that I even did this at all.

I learned a few things today-

1. I don't think I'm a long distance runner. Not now anyway. I'm good with 5Ks and 10Ks, but struggle with runs that last over an hour.

2. Scarfing down a banana after the race was not a good idea. At all.

3. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you really want something. I am amazed at what I am capable of doing.

Running a race of this magnitude was never on my radar - I never thought in my life I would be in this kind of physical condition. I have a profound respect for all those out there who have accomplished this, will accomplish this, and are working towards it. And don't even get me started on people who run whole marathons - that's just amazing.

It was an experience I'll never forget.

Taking a break

I'm taking a much needed breather from boxes and packing and piles upon piles of my belongings. It's amazing how much stuff I've been able to cram into my one bedroom apartment. My to do list keeps growing - for every item that gets crossed off, one or two more new ones are added. I've never done a move of this magnitude before and to be honest, it's a little overwhelming.

I have been totally on plan for the last 3 days. I'm almost embarrassed to say that this is a record for me since my trip to Maryland almost 2 weeks ago. I need to clean out the pantry for real, so my meals have been boring, with a capital B. I made a big pot of steel cut oats in Sunday, enough to have for breakfast through Friday. Lunches have been leftover Bulgur Chili and fruit or yogurt. And for dinner, I've just been pulling random things together and calling them a meal - pork chops and butternut squash, fish and sweet potatoes, and canned or frozen veggies.

Exercise has been non existent since my group run on Saturday. Not good, Lynne. Whenever I think about going for a run or going to the gym, I talk myself out of it, using my to do list as an excuse. I am the queen of making excuses for skipping exercise. That's why I joined the Holiday Health Nuts Challenge, hoping it would motivate me. Needless to say, I am not doing too good with this challenge. And with the Half Marathon on Sunday...

That's all the updates I have for now. Time to get back to work.

Upheaval

Sorry for the lack of posts lately - late Wednesday I got some amazing news that has currently made my life chaotic.

I got a job in Virginia and will be moving shortly after Thanksgiving!!!!!!

I am soooooo excited, if you couldn't already tell. I have been wanting to move back up north for the longest time, and now it's finally happening. I'm also a bit overwhelmed, having to pack up my apartment and move all of my worldly belongings. It's currently a disaster zone here.

So, needless to say, posting will be sporadic at best for the next few weeks. I still plan on running the half marathon next weekend and will definitely post about that, but posting daily is doubtful. I'll continue reading as time allows, but will definitely be back to normal once I get settled in in my new home.

So excited!

Back and Back on Track

I'm back in FL, but it was extremely hard to get on the plane to come back. I loved every minute I spent in MD, the weather was great, and the scenery beautiful. I miss it already.

The flight up was great - and the first for my 2 nieces. Isabel and I sat next to each other on the flight up, which turned out great because I am a very nervous flier and she did a great job at keeping me distracted. She even commented to her mom that she kept Aunt Lynne safe.



There was a lot of family time, but we also went to the National Zoo in DC. Having grown up in MD, I've been to the zoo many, many times, but it was a new experience for my nieces and brother in law. It's changed a little since I was there last, but most everything was as I remembered.








Eating and exercising while away is always difficult for me. I did really good for the first 2 days - I ate on plan and even went for a morning run. But then, things kind of fell apart. We did brunch one day at the Amish Market, where I stupidly bought some chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels. It was a stupid, impulse purchase that kind of started my downward spiral for the rest of the trip. There was also some Five Guys in there, with a large consumption of french fries.

Saturday was supposed to be a 10 mile run - FAIL! I didn't exercise that day except for walking around the zoo. Even though I looked for adequate running routes or a running group that was meeting that morning, I knew in the back of my head that I probably wouldn't do the miles. I am not at the point yet where I can run for almost 2 hours by myself. I'm a little stressed about this because the half marathon is less than 2 weeks away.

It's taken me a little while to get my eating and exercising back on track. The food has been good while at work, but when I get home, it's been all about the processed, refined carbs. And I am definitely feeling the effects of my food choices. So, rather than tempt myself and try to resist, I just got rid of everything that was causing me problems.

As a result of my poor food choices last night, this morning's run was mediocre. I wanted to do an hour to make up for the lack of activity the past couple of days, but I only got in 40 minutes. Not even 10 minutes into the run, I got a stomach ache which turned into a bad side stitch that persisted even when I stopped to walk. Blah!

I made steel cut oats for breakfast this morning. While in MD, my aunt made them for breakfast one day, and I loved the texture and chewiness. I knew I would have to add these to my breakfast rotation.



The only negative is the cooking time - anywhere from 10-30 minutes, depending on the texture you want. I let them cook for about 20 minutes, but it could have gone longer.

Topped with some peanut butter and dried cranberries-



I am doing my best to get back on track today. Having this awesome breakfast is a step in the right direction.

I have the day off due to Veteran's Day, and I plan to take advantage of the time off. I have a to do list a whole page long, including trying some classes at the gym that I would never get to take. Time to get started!

Busy

I'm still getting used to this time change. The sun is up when I get up, which makes me think I'm late.

I've been super busy lately in advance of my trip this weekend (!!!) and have hardly been home. There's pluses and minuses to that, but I don't like feeling as if I won't be able to get everything done in time. I'll just have to do what I can do, and that has to be enough.

Last night, I made spaghetti squash with a loaded vegetable marinara. I would love to share a picture, but they all turned out horrible. So, just picture a huge bowl of spaghetti squash topped with a marinara sauce. For the sauce, I sauteed mushrooms, onion, green pepper, tomato, and garlic, then added 1/2 c marinara sauce at the end. It was pretty good and very vegetarian. I like discovering new to me foods and that I actually like them!

I succeeded in day 1 of the Holiday Health Nuts Challenge. My goals for the month are 320 minutes of exercise every week and journaling every bite. I wrote everything down, including all of the nibbles and tastes which I usually ignore (maybe that's my problem). I also got in 90 minutes of exercise, even though all I wanted to do was go home. I did a combination strength training, the row machine, and a spin class.

I had a classic bowl of oats this morning, topped with some dried cranberries.



Gotta run. Have a great Tuesday!