A month off.

I am taking a month off. I'm not tracking food meticulously, I'm not working out daily.  I am still trying to get a balanced meal plan, but I'm not tracking calories really closely at all. 

January - it's on.  

But December - is about survival! 

So watch for January. Because I have been inspired. Balance, care and mental health are all high on my list for 2014. Here we go. 

Have you ever taken time "off" from the constant battle with your weight? How long did you take? Did it help in the long run? 

**I'm not arguing that what I'm doing is the healthiest, but it's what I need to make it through right now, mentally.**

Update: Freezer Meals

I haven't COOKED A MEAL in over a week. It's glorious! 

Of course last week was Thanksgiving and we were out of town.   

But Monday before Thanksgiving we had the BBQ chicken. We put the chicken (shredded thanks to cooking so long!) on top of baked potatoes with a little sour cream - delish! 

We spent Sunday getting out all of our Christmas things so I knew we needed a good crock pot meal so we didn't have to focus on dinner.  We had the Curry chicken with basmati rice and homemade naan (frozen last time we had tikka masala).  

• Consensus was that it was good. I felt it was lacking a little flavor - maybe a spicy kick? Or salt. I tried adding more salt but it didn't hit the flavor note I was missing. Next time will add a touch of cayenne and maybe only one can of coconut milk instead of two. 

Monday night we had the Beef Pepperoncini sandwiches with fries and salad. 

• The kids thought it was a little spicy, but when you had the meat with cheese and the bread I put it on, the spice was cut for sure. Note: buy the chopped pepperoncinis or cut the stems off beforehand. :-)  I didn't think that through and I wound up burning my fingers trying to pull the stems off right before I served the sandwiches!

Tuesday we had the taco meat (ground beef, taco seasoning - homemade - and a can of rinsed black beans). We added water to the crock pot and let it cook.  About 20 minutes before I served it, I added half a bag of frozen corn to the meat. 

• The kids had seconds AND THIRDS!  I added ground beef that I had frozen before to my meal bag. Next time I will be sure to use unfrozen meat and flatten it out. It cooked the entire day in a lump. Easily remedied by using my potato masher, but the flavor may have been more consistent if it had cooked "crumbled" all day. 

Wednesday we tried the Mongolian Beef.  I sautéed green beans and broccoli with the drippings from the crock pot (mixed with a slurry of 1Tbsp of corn starch with 2 Tbsp of cold water). I served with brown rice. I put everything together in a bowl. 

• Husband and I would have eaten seconds - if I hadn't run out of meat!! I will DEFINITELY double the size of the roast I use next time in each package!  There are NO leftovers of meat from this meal, but we have extra brown rice and veggies.  The kids thought it was "ok" but I don't think it was their favorite of the foods we've tried. For me and hubby, it may be our favorite meal that we've tried so far!

All in all, this has been an EXCELLENT experience. 

What makes it better - ??   

CROCK POT LINERS! 

I've had barely any dishes to do post-dinner and it's been LOVELY. 

I think tomorrow night we will try either the wine/herb chicken or the rosemary honey chicken!  If the rosemary honey chicken is awesome, I may get a beef tenderloin to try with that flavor profile too. 

AFA my fitness - nonexistent now. I lost a total of 4lbs in November. Not too shabby but it's not where I'd hoped to be by December 1st. 

But that will change.

I resigned from my job last week. My last day is December 19th. I am looking forward to being home with my babies again, helping out at my KINDERGARTENER'S school, homeschooling my little guy until he's old enough for official preschool....   It was a hard decision but something that my husband and I agree is best for our family. 

So come January - the fitness/health will be kicking into high gear again. I am looking forward to being healthy about it. There is no doubt, looking back, that I was being unhealthy last Jan/Feb. I was working out 10+ hours a week, being ridiculous with my choices and becoming borderline obsessed with it. I am hopeful that I can keep an awesome balance for me and my little guy. 

So I'm taking December and having fun, enjoying my family and my last few weeks working.  But January - with the rest of the "new years resolution" crowd - I'll be kicking ass and taking names!

Freezer "OAMC" Meals

There's a lot of buzz around freezer meals lately. Or maybe it's not lately and I'm just late to the game. 

Oh well, whatever it is, I had a friend who posted about doing this last month and it REALLY inspired me.  We've been eating VERY poorly since I started working. I simply have NO inspiration and by the time I figure it out, whatever I've decided won't be ready for another hour or two.  And we have two small-ish kids with early bedtimes (for mommy's sanity!) 

When I read her plan and how she went about prepping her meals, I thought "hey, I can do that. And if I do it NOW, it will take me through the Christmas holiday!"   So I started looking through Pinterest and lots of blog posts finding some good and diverse menu plans.  I knew from the start that I wanted "dump" meals - I didn't want to spend a ton of time pre-cooking things and I wanted the prep on the day I cook to be minimal to nothing. 

I will say, almost everything in my meals is clean! I honestly didn't check the Worcestershire sauce or the A-1. 

I found the following meals: 

Mongolian Beef x2

Pepper Steak x2

Mexican Spiced Pork Loin x2

Coconut Chicken Curry x2

Honey Rosemary Chicken x2

Beef Pepperoncini Sandwiches* x2

Herb Wine "Dump" Chicken x2

BBQ Chicken (using SkinnyTaste BBQ Sauce!) x4

Tacos (my own creation) x3

Pizza Dough (following this recipe and process for cooking, but freezing after first rise) x3

I started the day with shopping. Costco and Walmart.  Here's my shopping list: 

Costco

5 lbs beef chuck roast

4.5 lbs beef roast (to chop into stew meat) 

2-5lb bags of onions

2-10lb bags of boneless, skinless chicken breasts

shredded mozzarella cheese

gallon sized bags (although we didn't need these!)

Worcestershire sauce

Walmart

Turkey pepperoni (to freeze for the pizzas)

Whole wheat flour

Fresh rosemary

Green peppers

Soy sauce

Hoisen sauce

Balsamic vinegar

Liquid smoke flavoring

Fresh ginger

1 lemon

2 jars pepperoncini

I had planned to shop today and prep all the food tomorrow. However, I came home and was too anxious looking at everything just sitting there to leave it be! (And my fridge was WAY too full!)   So I started prepping right away, around 3pm. 

After a brief run to the grocery store one last time (Helpful Hint: Don't just say "yes, I have balsamic vinegar in the pantry" - Actually MEASURE that you have enough. I was 1/3 cup shy for the recipe!!) I got to work. First thing I did was make up my own Italian seasoning and taco seasoning mixes. Then I started my pizza dough, knowing it would need to rise before I could package it away.  While my pizza crust was rising, I got to work on my BBQ sauce. I've made this recipe a few times, so I know I like the blend of spices & flavors so I made it exactly as written. 

Once this was done, I labeled all of my bags. I made sure to put today's date, the name of the recipe (sounds obvious, but it wouldn't shock me if I saw a bag mislabeled and could never find the recipe I used ever again!), any additional ingredients to be added at the time of cooking and the actual cooking directions! 

While that simmered and my pizza rose, I started chopping. I PURPOSEFULLY picked recipes that were fairly easy this time around (you know, the first time I've done this!)  Most of them were a sauce or spice mix and meat.  I chose very few veggies. Thankfully, my work schedule gets me home by 3pm everyday, so throwing together sides isn't usually an issue.  I have no problem making veggies and a starch once I'm home.  

My chopping prep consisted of  onions, 1 finger of ginger, 4 green peppers, slicing 1 lemon and some fresh rosemary. I even used pre-minced garlic to make it easier on myself. 

Around this time, my pizza dough finished it's first rise. I pulled it out, separated it into 4 servings and covered three to put away in the freezer. One became dinner tonight!

I put all of my chopped goods in the bags and moved on to the actual recipe ingredients. Sauces, spices, vinegars and sweeteners, if necessary. I did this one recipe at a time until I came to the end. 

Mexican Spiced Pork, Herb Wine Chicken

The last step I did was to add all of the meat. I started with the beef that I had to portion and chop into "stew meat" pieces. I weighed it out and added it to the separate bags - for Mongolian beef and Pepper Steak.   Then I pulled out the bags of chicken. We had an open bag in the chicken in the freezer so I started with that one.  Added frozen chicken breasts to each of the required bags. It took the remainder of the partial bag and a full 10lb bag. 

I didn't have a formal recipe for my bbq chicken or my taco meat. For my bbq chicken, I just made up the BBQ sauce then threw in 4-5 chicken breasts and froze. 

For the tacos, I took already frozen ground beef and added 2Tbsp of my homemade taco seasoning and a can of rinsed black beans. I plan to add a cup of water to the crockpot and probably a bag of frozen corn just before serving.

Obviously I can't speak to whether or not these recipes are TASTY, as we haven't tried them! But I will be sure to update with reviews as we begin eating them!

Curry Chicken, Honey Rosemary Chicken

 Four and a half hours, 2 3 trips to the store - 24 meals ready to go into my crockpot!! Yay for no cooking or meal planning between now and Christmas!! 

BBQ Chicken

Mongolian Beef, Pepperoncini Beef, Pepper Steak

November Weigh In #1

Last Friday - 164
Last Sunday - 165
Today (Friday weigh in #1) - 161!!  YAY!


Laying off the Halloween candy was KEY for me today. Laying off the candy at work - also a big deal.  I've been under my calories and trying to eat more veggies and protein for sure.

Hoping to see the 150's next week!!

Floating right along....

I feel like just when I get into the swing of things, something changes! I was doing well running then the stupid sun stopped rising!!! 

I'm still around! I'm getting more serious about my journey this month. It's my last month as a FitNut and I just want to do my team proud. Plus, I would love to get back down into the 150's. I'm at a high I haven't been at in a long time and let's face it, I'm not comfortable. 

So I'm adapting. Instead of running, I'm doing cardio at home by using the Wii!  I do Zumba Fitness and Just Dance (burns a SURPRISING amount of calories!). I've been doing the Biggest Loser game too, but I'm learning that I have to do the advanced levels in order to feel like it's worth my time. 

I had the worst time with Halloween candy last week! But I'm three days clean now :) 

I'm going to be looking back at the blog to figure out what the heck I used to snack on!!!  I'm having the WORST cravings tonight and I would love to be able to combat them!

Go! Halloween 10K 2013

Sunday was the Go! St. Louis Halloween 10k, maybe my favorite race of the year! I love love the 10k distance - it's far enough to be a challenge but not so far that it kills me. 

This year they changed the course so that it went along the riverfront, down to the Arch grounds. It was neat, aside from spending most of the race running into the sun!

I started out, trying to pace myself. I felt

Work out before the mile mark and thought "well great, this can't be good." Took a peek at my pace on run keeper and realized I could slow it WAY down and still meet my goal of finishing in under 1:10. I had run the race in 1:27 (2011) and 1:08 (2012) but after a half last weekend and only 1 run the week between, I wasn't sure how to expect my body to perform. 

Turns out, it did just fine!

I kept trying to slow down but my pace felt good! My splits were ridiculous and I wish I had picked it up a tough around the corners to come in under 1 hr. But, I wasn't far off at 1:01:40!! 

It just felt GOOD! It made me want to come home and sign up for more races, which is an awesome feeling. 

After the 10K, my kiddos were signed up for a 1 mile fun run. It was more fun for me than E (she burst into tears when someone encouraged her to keep going) and AJ than Daddy (who was wearing jeans and long underwear haha).  But in the end, both of them got their shirt and medal and were happy. :-) 

Guess I should do something more official with all these bibs now!! 

Lost.

So, half marathon last Sunday.

One run - Wednesday - this week.

10K on Sunday.

I'm gaining weight like nobody's business.  I am stuck over 160lbs and I can't get down to where I want to be. I'm in that place where I just want to give up. Throw in the towel. It's so much easier just to survive than to be healthy. Why IS that??

I KNOW what it takes to get there. I know I CAN do it. What is so hard about JUST DOING IT??

I'm still running, I lift when I can. I try to get all of my 10K steps in for the day.

The wake up moment? The size 10 work pants I had to go out and buy (because the 8s I fit into when I started in April were too small) and that now I feel like a sausage in those. In pants that I used to feel AWESOME wearing. And that I remember running and not feeling my hip-fat jiggle. Or my gut. And my feet didn't hurt from carrying more weight. And I felt like I could accomplish something - anything - when I was succeeding.

So folks, that settles it. I'm back on the wagon. If I need to write it all down, that's what I'll do. But I just can't continue to feel this way!! I'm going to make sure to look into Jamie Eason's recipes and menus to make sure I'm making appropriate food choices and food pairing choices. I'm going to cut out the treats (THE TREATS, OH THE TREATS have been insane lately!!).  Cut back on beer. (not wine, I love my wine too much for that! <--- maybe that's the attitude that is keeping me fat, eh??) DRINK MY WATER!!  I am so so bad about drinking enough water!

Weigh ins are on Tuesdays this month. I'm in a place where I EXPECT to gain every week. It's just not ok to be here. My goal is to lose weight this week, even just 1/2 lb. And to KEEP losing, because something has to change!!

Half Marathon #4!

Today was half marathon #4, the MO'Cowbell. It's advertised as the "fastest, flattest half marathon in the midwest" and it didn't disappoint! 

I woke up at 5am and started my pre-race routines - eating a banana, trying to decide if I need KT taped, etc.  We woke the kiddos up at 5:30 and headed out. 

We drove to the park and  I can't remember being this nervous before a race! I was starting to freak out when my little guy said "Mommy! I see stars!" "Twinkle twinkle little star, up above the world so high." He sang it through once, in his cute little way, and it really calmed me! So I asked him to keep singing. <3 And he did!

By the time we got to the park, I had pretty well talked myself out of the nerves. We lined up and rocked out to "Don't Fear the Reaper" (it IS the MO'Cowbell half, afterall!), ringing our cowbells and off we went. 

I made a pact with myself not to kill myself for a PR. I know, I know. Seriously, me not try to PR? But it put so much pressure on me, I just couldn't do it this time.  So as I was running, if Runkeeper was telling me I was going faster than 10:30 min/mile, I consciously tried to make myself slow down.

I had a discussion with someone at the expo on Friday about my last half and how AWFUL mile 8 was and she said I was definitely hitting a wall. Talking to her I realized that despite thinking I was getting the race nutrition I needed, I haven't been having ANY carbs!! So this time, I ran without my hydration belt and grabbed Gatorade. I took the GU pack instead of the honey stinger I usually use.  And amazingly - There was NO wall. I ran the WHOLE race - only walking so that I didn't wear my water/Gatorade instead of ingest it.

The wonderful part is that once I hit 10 miles, it was just another Wednesday morning run!  I am thankful that I'm in a place where 3 miles is something that I can do a few times a week instead of a huge distance. It made the last few miles really fly when I could say "Just 30 more minutes" or "2 miles, I do that before work everyday!" It was just such a nice place to be not to be MENTALLY drained during the race!

Of course, my phone died. FIVE MINUTES before I finished - my phone died!! THAT was my huge disappointment. I guess all in all, that's not a bad disappointment :-)

I finished in 2:21:40, 39 seconds behind my PR from April. BUT - the huge victory here is that I felt GOOD. No, I felt GREAT! Mentally, I wasn't defeated. I had a great time on the race, I didn't stop moving, I KNEW I could finish and I did it.  I'm excited that I have a solution to my mile-8-hatred and I almost can't wait to do another half to try to PR - I came SO CLOSE this time!

MORE BLING!

Next weekend is the GO St. Louis Halloween 10K. Last year, I did the 10K then the half the following weekend. I almost think the half first is a better plan (ask me about that assessment again next Sunday night!) because now the 10K will seem like a cake walk!

8/13

Virtual Race - FitNuts/September

FitNuts had another virtual 5K! The last weekend in Sept, the day we got home from vacation. 

Not my best time, but it was a huge NSV for me. I was having a horrible awful day mood-wise. Instead of turning to food, I left my house and went for a run. It wasn't my best 5K time - but it was still a victory for me. 



I skipped my run Monday, I knew I wouldn't be able to fit it in with going back to work. Tuesday was just a quick 1.5 miler. I have a half marathon on Sunday 10/5 so I didn't want to push myself TOO too hard.  Tuesday while running I twisted my ankle on a stick on the sidewalk. Thankfully it wasn't a long term hurt but it surprised me and slowed down my pace.  

Wednesday I headed to the Y and did my favorite cardio plus and Circuit classes. I hurt myself (MY FAULT, TERRIE, NOT YOURS! :-) ) so I took Thursday off. 

Friday I took a quick run just to keep comfortable. My hips were tight, my calves hurt and my feet were sore. My lower back was so incredibly sore but I made it 1.5 miles. 


 Saturday my family went apple picking. MAYBE one of my most favorite times of year :-)  We picked over 50 lbs of apples! Insane! I couldn't stop getting them, they were so big and lovely!! 


7/13

Vacation, people!

Back from vacation!! I'll admit, vacation with two small kids isn't as relaxing as I'd hope, but the sun and sand was ahhhmazing!

It was, however, a LOT of indulging in food and alcohol!  I had my first (2) Moscow mules before we even left for the beach. 

Then we started with our "traditional" beach drink - Lime-a-ritas & Grand Marnier!

I did go for a run on Sunday morning. It was short-ish, just 3 miles, but the HUMIDITY! It was killer!!  I feel like I walked outside and started sweating! Decent time, though. 

We ate out a lot. I made decent decisions, for the most part. Especially after I ate Pizza Hut on Monday night. I won't even tell you how MUCH Pizza Hut I ate, because it was disgusting. Let's just say I ate enough that I laid in bed that night trying to figure out if it would be ok to make myself get sick just to get it OUT of my body!  After that night, I pledged to make wiser decisions. Not GREAT but I definitely didn't make that mistake again! Lots of fish and grilled chicken for the rest of the week.

Thursday I went out for a long run - 10 miles! It was a few rough first miles - I bartered with myself a lot. 

"Make it to two miles, then I'll turn around - giving me 4 miles" 

"Ok ok, go for 2.5"  

"if you can run 3, you might as well run 3.5" 

"well heck if you are feeling good enough to hit 3.5, you should definitely be able to make 4.5" 

And so on. I made it 5 miles out and turned around, coming back 5 miles. Not GREAT time, but I'm happy with it. 

I came home and weighed in that night (dumb move) at 168. The next morning, after lots of water, I was down to 164. My final September weigh in was 162.5. A GAIN again!! 

This definitely motivated me for a sprint!! 

I have a half marathon on Sunday so this week I am just trying to eat clean to get myself FEELING good when I run. It's been a ROUGH go the last few times. I can tell as soon as I start running when I haven't been fueling my body properly. I feel out of breath. Bulky. Clumsy. Slow. 

This week starts no caffeine/no alcohol. I am attempting to eat clean, at least 75% of the time.  So far so good. I turned to a run yesterday during stress (that run is in the next blog post!) instead of all.the.food. I am looking FORWARD to my run in the am, if only I can sleep through the night!

Tomorrow starts my next FitNut monthly challenge. I changed teams this time, to mix it up a little.  The physical challenge this month is burpees/planks/pushups. It should be interesting! I plan on doing a plank to fatigue tomorrow, then again at the end of the month to see how much progress I've made. 

And here's to the Fastest, Flattest half marathon this weekend!

High Mileage!!

Well, I call my weeks Sunday to Saturday and if that's how it was calculated at RunKeeper, I'd have a high mileage weeks! I usually do a long run, then take 3-4 days off. Not this week! After my 10 miler on Sunday, I FORCED myself to get out Monday. It was a short run, but I did it!

 I took Tuesday as an off day. Wednesday, I went to the gym. I lifted for 37 minutes, including 110 squats (60 with 12lb weights), 30 side lunges (each side), and many leg presses. I ran a quick mile (9:02!) on the treadmill.

Thursday my legs hurt SO BADLY.  My Thursday and Friday runs suffered QUITE badly because of it. I was MUCH slower than average, but I did make myself go. The weather in St. Louis has finally turned (hopefully for the season!) to fall!  Thursday morning was 60 degrees and couldn't have been more perfect!

Today was one of my favorite days. The Color Run! This year, my hubby wanted to come with me. Kids under 5 can run without paying so my kiddos were all ready to run too. My daughter whined to sit down the whole time, except for when I could distract her with trying to figure out what color was next. :-)  My little guy apparently doesn't like being dirty - we had the rain cover on the jogging stroller and after we came out of the color stations, he would take a bandana and wipe every exposed part of his body off. :-)  

17.59 miles this week!! Whoop whoop !! (not counting the 5K this am, which I didn't track!) 

Of course, I forgot to weigh in this am so I did it after the run, after a lunch of burgers and shakes. And after an afternoon nap. So my weigh in was approximately 162 - Ouch! Taking this week to reclaim my comfy place and weigh in at a normal time :-) 

Just a reminder to myself & maybe you too!

Someone posted this on my FitNuts challenge page today. 

It's perfect for today - no run and I wanted to (and practically did) eat all.the.things. 

Word of the week: Awesome.

AWESOME fitness week.
Not so awesome food week.

It all evens out, though, right?

That 10 mile run today was in the POURING rain. It was DELIGHTFUL. 

I may only run when it rains from now on. <3

Some awesome things this week: 

I fit into a dress I've had hanging in my closet since 2006. No kidding - 2006. Tags on and everything. I've tried it on a few times a year since then, no go. But Wednesday? Finally, it fit!

Saturday, I got to snuggle the sweetest baby boy ever. He's a teeny peanut and I ALMOST tried to convince my friends to let me "borrow" him. Babies make my heart happy! 


Saturday when I came home and got the mail, I had a package from a FitNut friend.  We were paired up in my first challenge and have kept up with each other ever since. She sent me a freaking HRM!  Today's run was scheduled to be 9 miles, but I went a whole extra mile because I was so excited to see my burn with the HRM! Thanks, Jenn!! 

Color Run next weekend. Vacation right around the corner. Halloween 10K in mid-October. I turn 32 next month.  Big things on my horizon, people. Big things!! Must.keep.focused!