Another Long Run … Done.

This morning I found myself dreading my Half Marathon Training run. Actually I wasn’t dreading the run itself, I was quite excited to run with my new found group of friends… it was the distance that I was dreading. Ten miles. I was feeling gun (or run) shy after last Saturday’s dreadful 7-miler.

I had mentally prepared myself that I wasn’t going to even be able to run today because the Hubby wanted a chance to go run with the group since he stayed home with the toddler last weekend. At the last minute he decided to let me go instead. What an ass angel!

For motivation this morning I scoured the internet looking up running quotes/mantras and found a few I really liked. I like to repeat mantras to myself when the going gets really tough, it gives my brain something to concentrate on besides my body.

My two favorite that I found this morning were:

“Running is a big question mark that’s there each and every day. It asks you, ‘Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'” -Peter Maher, Canadian marathon runner

“My lungs are whiney babies that need to learn how to deal”. – Nike Ad

I wrote on my arm with a Sharpie marker to remind myself:

The combination of my mantra, the great weather and my great running partners made today’s 10 miles awesome!

 

We ran the 10 miles in 1:31:03 for a 9:04 pace. Not bad for a hilly course! 🙂

In just a little over a month I’ll be able to put this baby on my car:

I can’t wait.

Clean-ish Eating

I started my morning with a 5 mile run around my neighborhood today. Although my pace hasn’t been bad, I’ve noticed that I’m feeling super sluggish, slow and heavy on alot of my runs lately. During my run I realized that this sluggish feeling might have less to do with the heat and humidity of the summer that I’ve been blaming it on and more to do with my poor diet as of late. “Poor” is a relative term in this case. My diet is actually fairly healthy, healthier than probably 90% of people’s I know. But … I’ve been eating larger portions lately, more processed foods than usual, higher calorie/fatty food, too many desserts and too much alcohol.

During my run I decided that I would do my own version of a Clean Eating Diet. The basic principles of a clean diet are (from here):

Eating a mini-meal every two to three hours (5 to 6 small meals per day total) to keep blood sugar level and prevent hunger

Combining lean proteins and complex carbs at every meal

Avoiding all over-processed and refined foods (especially sugar, white rice, and white flour)

Avoiding saturated and trans fat, instead consuming healthy fats

Avoiding soda and other sugary juices and drinks

Avoiding high-calorie, zero nutrient foods (i.e., junk food)

Eating proper portion sizes

Drinking at least 8 cups of water every day

Its not really feasible for me to eat 5-6 times a day, so my version of the clean eating diet will focus on:

• Eating whole natural foods and limiting processed and refined foods.
• Decreasing dairy consumption, specifically cheese. (Its one of my week points).
• Avoiding sodas.
• Eating smaller portion sizes. (Being aware of my body, and eating only until satisfied … not stuffed).
• Drinking plenty of water.
• Decreasing alcohol intake.

I began to put my ideas into practice for my post-run breakfast.

A slice of homemade whole wheat toast topped with green eggs (spinach and 2 eggs blended together and then cooked) and salsa.

It was delicious! Normally I would put cheese in my eggs but it really wasn’t necessary.

My mom was in town today, we took Lincoln and my neice to the zoo for some family time.

 

We stopped by Jason’s Deli before heading home for a salad bar. I loaded up on fresh veggies and avoided the cheese, egg (since I already had plenty today) and heavy salad dressing. I topped my salad with an edamame succotash that had a little olive oil in it, its all my salad needed for dressing.

For dinner tonight I made homemade margherita pizza with some pizza crust that I made a while back and froze. It tasted amazing, even though my crust wasn’t cooked thoroughly. Oops! I should have baked the crust before topping it and then baked again.

I tried … but I wasn’t able to avoid having a beer with my pizza. Oh well, you win some … you lose some.

Off to bed now, getting up early for some Half Marathon training. I’m planning on doing 10 miles. Here’s hoping I feel strong, fast and rested.

The Training Continues …

I woke up at 2:30 am on Saturday morning after sleeping for 4 hours. I tried and tried to go back to sleep to no avail. At 6:00 am I met my Montgomery Half Marathon training group for our Saturday practice run. The best part of my weekends! I love this time to myself.

This week we decided to work on the back half of the course, we started at the 5 mile mark and ran to the end of the course. This back portion of the course in my opinion is much more challenging than the first 5 miles. It was TOUGH!

Running is 90% mental and 10% physical for me. Usually when I feel that a run went well or went badly it has more to do with how I felt mentally than how my body felt. Part of what made this portion of the course so hard for me is that I was starting at the 5 mile point … therefore my mind felt like I had already run 5 miles. Make any sense?

You can tell from the stats that physically I actually did just fine, it was completely mental.

 
My running buddy (Marsha) and I actually intended to run 8 miles, but somehow we miscalculated the mileage. We both agreed that we were fine with it, and felt that neither one of us could have taken one more single step.

There wasn’t wasn’t much time to relax after our tough run though, because I had to prepare for my friend Niki’s bridal couple’s shower and run errands.

I was completely exhausted, but a good time was had by all.

There weren’t very many vegetarian options, but Crockmiers has the best Stuffed Mushrooms around.

And plenty of beer …

That’s all it takes to make me happy.

Guest Post: Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Tonight’s post is brought to you by my hubby, he actually doesn’t know it yet though, as I just stole his post off his blog. Thanks hon! Hubby aka Tim has recently started blogging (or re-blogging) and tonight’s post is about his awesome homemade cinnamon raisin bread. You can find his blog at www.mcqueenonline.net. Be sure to bookmark it! 🙂

Now I’ll give it over to DH:

I’ll admit, I have very few hobbies.  I guess my hobby is collecting and trying out hobbies.  I’ve attempted building High Power rockets (lots of fun, and I may pick it up when my son gets older), stained glass (not as much fun as I thought), and many others.  Recently, my wife and I have been trying to find ways to cut back on spending, and my contribution has been homemade bread.

Like everything else, it started with a crazy idea I had a few years ago.  On a whim, I dropped $35 on a book called “The Bread Bible” at Amazon.  This turned out to be the most amazing food porn, almost as good as Anthony Bourdain’s “Les Halles Cookbook”.  The pictures make you want to just sink your teeth in.

A few weekends ago, I made the Basic Soft White Sandwich Loaf (p. 244), which turned out much better than expected.  This weekend I tried something along the same lines, but with a bit of a twist: Cinnamon Raisin Loaf (p. 260).  The big difference is that between the first and second rise, you roll out the dough and put egg wash and a mixture of Cinnamon and Sugar onto the dough, then roll it up into a loaf and let it rise again in the pan.  I misinterpreted one of the steps, so I put egg wash over the top of the first loaf.  This one turned out to be more photogenic.

The one on the bottom got the accidental egg wash

It starts off with a “sponge”, which is a mixture of flour, water, yeast and honey

Sponge.

The rest of the flour and some powdered milk are added and allowed to ferment for a while

Fermented Dough.

The dough is then kneaded for a couple of minutes and allowed to rest, then salt is added and the dough is kneaded for 8-10 minutes.  Once I screwed up and put in the salt with the second batch of flour and the dough never got shiny, but the bread turned out OK.

Ludicrous Speed!

Shiny, Kneaded Dough.

Raisins are added, and the dough is allowed to rise

Dough Before Rise.

until it doubles in size …

After the dough doubles in size, I divide it in two and fold it, then allow it to cool in the fridge to make it easier to roll out.

Dough Packaged, Ready to Chill.

The next bit was pretty messy, so I didn’t get pictures.  Maybe next time I’ll get my wife to document the process for me. I rolled out the dough into a rectangle about 8 inches by 14 inches, then brushed it with egg wash and sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar.  Next, I rolled it up into a loaf and put it into the bowl seam-side down (or at least that was the plan).

Loaves ready for second rise

Looking at the picture now, I realize that in addition to doing the egg wash on the top of the first one, I put it in seam-side up.  Well, it looked interesting, at least!

Finished Product

Imagine this piping hot, seconds out of the oven

The total cost for these two loaves:

23 oz flour – $0.86
1.5 oz Dry Milk – $0.50
1.5 of Honey – $0.38
1 cup Raisins – unknown, we buy in bulk so we had them on hand, probably around $0.25
4 oz Butter – $0.75
1/4 cup sugar – bulk, probably about $0.05
4 Tbsp Cinnamon – Bulk, probably about $0.10

Which makes them less than $3.00 for two loaves of what would probably go for about five apiece in the store.  That’s seven whole dollars that I get to spend on hookers and blow send to my car payment!

Red Beans & Banana Soft Serve?

Tonight I discovered that Red bean and rice + parmesan cheese = total awesomeness. Why has  no one ever discovered this??? I got my recipe from here. Honestly, I don’t remember it being this good the first time I made it. Tonight I heated up frozen leftovers … from February. It was awesome.

I also tried out the Banana Soft Serve recipe from Raw Food Nation. I was expecting perfection after all the rave reviews I’ve read. Honestly .. not so much. Sorry! Try it though, you may disagree, as much as the blog world has. Back to work tomorrow night. See you in a few day.

On a side not … tomorrow is Swagtravangaza day. Don’t miss out on the action. If you aren’t currently a member click this link to get going. Basically its a Google based search engine that you use for your normal everyday internet searches and randomly you will win Swagbucks which you can them redeem for a multitude of prizes. I like to trade mine in for the Amazon $5 gift cards. I’m saving mine up for the Hubby’s Christmas Present … shhhhh… don’t tell. I already have $45 worth of gift cards. 🙂

Use the Swagcode BackToSchool to score you 70 bucks just for signing up.

No spam mail. I promise. 🙂

H.E.A.T & R3 Prediction Run

Yesterday I tried something new for the first time in a while. I’m the kind of person that gets stuck in a routine and doesn’t go outside of her comfort zone very often.

A friend of mine asked me to go to a new exercise class with her yesterday and I decided to take her up on it. I figured it would be better to do something new with a friend than alone.

The class was called H.E.A.T. (High Energy Aerobic Training). I didn’t know anything about the class other than the name when I showed up, which is highly unusual for me. Normally I research everything to the nth degree.

The class was a good mix of cardio, weights, ab work and kickboxing.  It basically consisted of four 1 minute segments of work followed by 1 minute of rest. There were a few sets that I felt were entirely too hard to combine together, but overall it was a good class.

You know you got a good workout when you have to manually pick up your legs the next day to move them because they are so sore!

After one hour of sweatin’ my ass off in H.E.A.T I headed over to the River Region Runner’s 2 Mile Prediction Fun Run. No watches allowed. Predict your time to run the 2 mile course, closest guesser wins. The course was the same (but the opposite direction) as our Summer Solstice Fun Run back in June. In June I ran the course in 14:53, so I figured I’d give myself a little extra time to account for the heat and the H.E.A.T. I guessed 15:35.

As soon as I wrote it down I figured it was a big mistake! I basically just forced myself into running all out after an already strenuous workout. I ended up running the course in 15:23, only 12 seconds off my predicted time.

I wasn’t the fastest runner, but that didn’t matter in this “race”.

I was the closest guesser and therefore, I won 🙂

Tim came in 3rd for his guess in the male division.

Doesn’t he look so manly with his teeny-weeny trophy? 😛

This is How It’s Done

Don’t worry, I’m not trying to turn Eat to Live, Live to Run into a couponing blog. But I get so giddy excited when I get great deals that I just have to share. Its pretty much a hobby at this point, I find it sooo fun to see how much money I can save. I can’t believe the whole world doesn’t do this!

So these were my buys today:

Dial Nutriskin bodywash, Bio True contact solution, Schick Hydro shave gel, Shich Hydro 3 razor, Sharpie marker (filler item).

Normally this would have cost me: $21.95

With my coupons I paid: $9.03 out of pocket, but wait .. wait .. I got back Register Rewards (which are basically coupons off your next purchase of any item at Walgreen’s). I got back a $4 RR, a $3 one and a $2 one. So taking that into consideration I only paid $0.03 for all of this!!!

Oh .. but wait wait .. more .. there is also a “try it free Schick rebate” going on. I sent in my receipt and I will receive (in 6-8 weeks of course) the original price of the Schick Razor back, $7.99.

So I MADE $7.96 on this transaction!

Now on to the more blog themed topics:

The Half Marathon training program called for a 3 mile run + strength training today.

The Hubby and I headed to the gym tonight to get our workout on. Of course all of the treadmills were full of walkers reading books. I have no hate for walking, except for when I’m waiting to RUN! To make matters worse, I got ‘mill-blocked twice before I finally decided to get on the crappiest treadmill. In other words, I was waiting to get on and when the person got off someone else jumped on before I could make my way over …. twice!

So frustrating!

The crappy treadmill wasn’t so bad after all though, and I knocked out my 3 miles easily with a pace of 8:20. I did a few of the weight machines and some free weight arm exercises to get my strength training in. Strength is definitely not my strong suit, but I want to get better.

Dinner was a yummy Tomato, Basil & Mozzarella ravioli with a side salad. Followed by my favorite dessert as of late:

All hail the “Peanut Butter Spoon”, as Lincoln calls it. Really what can be better than a peanut butter spoon? …  except maybe …

Oh yeah baby!

An Update and A Mini Challenge

If you read my blog with any regularity you may remember that back in June I decided to really get back on the ball with my couponing and frugal living. This re-dedication was sparked by my surgery and income loss during my recovery time. Turns out I only missed about 2 weeks of work and it wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as I anticipated, but I decided to stick to my money saving plan to see where it got me. You may also remember that I’m on a debt eradicating mission, my basic goal being to pay off our outstanding debt as quickly as possible. Well, I’ve gathered some information from June and July to compare and the results are surprising … even to me.

July was the first full month that I stuck to the money saving plan, which basically consists of: don’t buy things you don’t need, make a list and stick to it, cut out extra spending where possible, and save wherever you can.

Here are the results:

	June	July
Groceries & Household	$813	$495
Dining	$285	$185
Electricity	$293	$244

By just being conscientious of what we buy, eating at home more and being mindful of the electricity we use we were able to save $467 in just one month in these categories!!

We were also able to live completely on Hubby’s income during the month of July which allowed us to pay off my car loan. Yay!

My big on-going challenge that I’m currently working on is to continue to live only on DH’s income and send my entire income towards our outstanding debt which at this point includes: hubby’s car loan and my student loans. But I also like to set mini challenges for myself.

Today I went through my pantry, fridge and freezer and created a list of meals that I have all of the ingredients on hand to make.

The challenge is to eat all of these meals before buying any additional groceries other than fresh vegetables and milk.

I’m confident that we can do it 🙂

———————————————————————-

If you are interested in hearing more about specific things I did to save money and websites I found particularly useful … read on …

• Couponing – Most people think that couponing is just hours of work for $0.25 off this or $.50 off that. I thought that too, until I learned the art. You have to combine coupons with sales to buy things at rock bottom prices. You also have to stockpile items that you can get super cheap until the next time they go on sale. Some websites that I have found particularly helpful are: Southern Savers, I Heart Publix, and My Frugal Adventures.
• Making It From Scratch – This entire month the Hubby and I have made all of our own bread instead of buying bread at the store. You wouldn’t believe how much money this saves! I have been using my bread machine (check at your local thrift store and you may score one super cheap), but you can also do it old school style. I’m looking into making my own laundry soap also (really easy), and vinegar makes a great household cleaner. There are tons of “recipes” online for household cleaners, as well as homemade bread. Hillbilly Housewife has tons of great recipes and tips.
• Use less AC – I realized that my thermostat doesn’t have to run at 72 degrees for me to be comfortable. This month I’ve kept the thermostat between 78-80, turned on some fans, worn cooler clothes and it hasn’t been bad at all. I also got on a levelized billing plan with my electric company where I pay an average of the last 6 months usage. This will cost me a little more in the winter, but I’ll see the savings in the summer.
• Cloth diapering – Once I realized that disposable diapers cost about $.25 each (not to mention are horrible for the earth) I pulled my cloth diapers back out. We use about 5-6 diapers a day, which saves us about $40 a month!
• Sell It – I went through my closets and storage areas and sold a bunch of things on eBay that were just sitting around that I’ll never use. I made $330 on eBay this month by just selling off a few things. I still have tons of stuff left to list.
• Reuse/Recycle – Find new uses for old things. I’ve been using old bread bags to keep my homemade bread in. There are tons of uses for plastic grocery sacks. Re-use Ziploc bags, no sense in throwing them away unless they get really dirty. Use cereal bags in place of wax paper.

Other ideas?

 

Double Digit Training Run

Today was my first double digit run since February 14th when I ran the Mercedes Half Marathon in Birmingham. I knew it had been a while, but it wasn’t until I consulted my DailyMile that I realized it had been THAT long.

I met up with the Montgomery Half Marathon training group again this morning downtown at 6:00 am.

I keep forgetting to get a group picture!

My running partner claimed on Facebook this morning:

‎10 miles……I’m coming for YOU!!!

To which I responded:

Aaaah, if you claim it on FB we have to do it! LOL

And we did!

I felt quite lost today because my Garmin wouldn’t turn on this morning. I needed to do a hard reset, but I didn’t figure it out until after I got back home. Just FYI if this ever happens to you hold in: reset + mode and push the power button. Good as new! I’ve had to do this twice now.

Fortunately, my partner had her Garmin so we weren’t completely disconnected. Its amazing how much we rely on technology these days.

Our course map for today looked like this:

Other stats:

The problem when I run like this is that I think I can eat whatever I want. And I do.

After our run we headed out for breakfast, I had a buy one, get one free coupon that was burning a hole in my pocket. Ha!

We asked to sit outside this time so that we wouldn’t stink up the joint and so that I wouldn’t freeze to death. I get really cold after I run.

I ordered a Santa Fe breakfast wrap, but was served a Santa Fe omelet instead. Whatev.

It was SPICY! But delicious. I ended up asking for sour cream to cool it down a little, then it was perfect!

I thought this breakfast would keep me full enough to skip lunch altogether, but lo and behold … I found myself hungry after a few hours.

Lunch was a BBQ sandwich.

I was just craaaaaving pork. With pickles and mustard of course, on homemade bread.

With tortilla chips and salsa on the side …

See what I mean about thinking I can eat anything and everything?

Don’t worry though, no animals were killed in the making of this sandwich. Its actually vegetarian bbq …

I probably never would have tried this except for the fact that I got it on super sale (with coupons) for $0.99. Its normally $4.99. I definitely wouldn’t have paid that price for it. It was pretty delish though I have to say. But I still won’t pay full price 😛

Now its nap time if I can ever get the toddler to give in to sleep.

Measuring Growth

People ask me occasionally how it feels to go from this:

To this:

I remember the process. But honestly, its hard to remember exactly how I felt about myself and how I felt as a person between then and now.

There are a few things that I specifically remember about my old life, like how I used to come home from work in the morning and eat 2 chicken, egg and cheese biscuits and 2 hash browns from Chick-fil-A before I would go to bed.

I remember feeling like I couldn’t do things in my life that I wanted to do because I was fat. Simple things like go to the beach, ride roller coasters, etc. I wonder how many adventures I missed out on because I was too self-conscious to do things. Did you know that I actually didn’t go to the beach, wear a swimsuit or a pair of shorts for over 7 years!?! Fat or not … what a waste of a life.

Other than a few specific details, most of my former life is a complete blur to me now. I feel disconnected from that person, like it wasn’t even me.

Another thing that I do specifically remember though was when Tim and I first moved to our home in 2006, we decided to start taking walks in the evenings together. It sounded like a good idea in theory but it only happened a time or two. This hill was a big part of the reason …

I would end up getting about half way up and having to take a break, then I’d beg Tim to grab my hand and pull me up the hill. It sounds crazy now, but it happened.

Yesterday I did my first hill repeat run in a while. My self-created training schedule called for 8 x hill repeats. This hill was my obvious choice.

Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t love hills. But it is so empowering to run up and down a hill 8 times, that once I couldn’t even walk up once!

That to me is a true measurement of growth!

It was a short 1.55 mile workout, but the confidence and self-gratification it gave me were immeasurable.

My confidence spilled over to today’s run as well, a 45 minute tempo run that I rocked! Tomorrow I’m giving my body a rest day, and Saturday morning I’m meeting a group for a Half Marathon Training run. I’m hoping to get in atleast 9 or 10 miles.