this season's motto

When I look back through my old journals, I tend to see a theme for the season I was in.  My theme right now is "how bad do I want it?  The more I think I about it, the more I'm realizing that that is the guiding question behind the majority of my actions these days.

• When I don't want to wake up to read and spend time with the Lord, "how bad do I want ___" that time?

• When I want a sweet (or even my third apple of the day), "how bad do I want ___", to be a size smaller?

• When I don't want to go the gym, "how bad do I want ___" to run this morning?

• When I don't want to conquer the never decreasing pile of data entry on my desk, "how bad do I want ___" that pile to be filed?

The answer more often than not is yes, I do want to choose to spend time with the Lord, to be a (few) size smaller, to run, and to cross stuff off my to do list, etc.  I can have a list of "should do" each day, but when I'm onboard for wanting to, it's just so much more enjoyable.  That is probably a life lesson most have picked up on years ago, but one that I'm really enjoying walking in now.

food tour of Athens, February 2013 edition. Or, Nutan comes to town!

My bestie from high school came into Athens this weekend to see me.  Or so she says.  She says that she comes to see me, but I know that the food is a close second.  I have a strict no-eating-out on my own rule (for financial purposes, not because I'm embarrased to eat out alone), so I definitely get my fill of Athens goodies when she's in town.

During lunch on Friday, I picked up some salad's from Marti's at Midday for dinner.  You know a restaurant is good when it is successful enough to not have to be open on weekends.  I also picked up some teas.  Now, the teas came in paper cups that I knew would disintegrate by dinner time, so the obvious solution was to pour them into a pitcher.  Well, the smallest pitcher I had was a pyrex.  I thought this was great, but it received a small amount of mockery.

I was house-sitting as well this weekend, so I met Nutan at my house, grabbed our stuff (and the tea), and went on.  The house is in 5-Points and in easy walking distance to the Royal Peasant.  Trying to be a bit lively, I suggest walking over to get a beer and appetizer.  N's game, so we walk over, grab a table, and go to order.  I hadn't wanted to carry my wallet, so I gave my debit card to N at the house, but not my ID.  See where this is going?  We get carded, I don't have my ID, so we have to leave.  Well, we don't have to, but there was nothing else we really wanted.  So back to the house we go, change into sweats, and are eating our salads in front of Duck Dynasty by 7:15.  #granny

The next morning we went to Momma's Boy, which was more than worth the 30 minute wait.  I branched out and got the salmon cakes with poached eggs.  Oh my.  That's all I have to say about them.  After breakfast I took Nutan to some Athens stores, tried to convince her of how awesome patterned dresses are, and had fun seeing the winter sales.  She headed home early afternoon, and I was wiped out by 4.  #granny alert #2.

Thankful for the opportunity to see my NYC friend!

this week.

I came to blog, and I realized I had nothing exemplary to share from this week other than I'm pretty content.  This week I seem to have found myself in a rhythm that is working great for me for waking/scheduling/living.  I don't want to type it out because then it'll probably just be shot to pieces, but it's been good.

This week has been good too.  I've had a nice week at work, have spent time with so many of my favorite peoples over meals, had a good run, had fun with my outfits (come on, I did a fashion week.  I love getting dressed these days), and made black bean brownies.

That's about it.  It's been nice.  And now I'm off to bed, and looking forward to an awesome weekend (Nutan to town, Moroccan stew to be made, and long runs to be accomplished).

OH!  And post-diet life...I haven't been craving sugar.  At all.  I have passed on so many favorite treats recently.  Like, things I really like.  It's weird.  We'll see how long this lasts...

4/7, with some stumbles.

day 1 | day 2 | day 3

yep, it ended yesterday.  I woke up with a migraine.  I went for the skim milk/banana combo and started gagging and decided to call it a day.

Today was supposed to be:
Day 4

Bananas and skim milk: Eat at least 3 bananas and drink as much milk as you can today, along with the soup.

my weight
was steady as day before.

what i ate
banana
milk
breakfast sandwich from Starbucks (where everything skidded to a halt)
apple (another trip)
milk
1/3 cup cereal (and face plant)

my hunger level
After that bfast sandwich at 9, and apple at 11, I wasn't hungry for the rest of the day.

my mood
pretty normal?
really normal post carbs.

miscellaneous
my head hurts.  And I started having really bad stomach cramps.

what i learned from this experience
Unless it's a fast, I don't intend to do this ever again.  I'm seeing my diet through new eyes, and questioning everything I'm eating, and making better choices, like tonight at a work meeting it was easy for me to pass up the yummy dips for my apple slices and the crackers & cookies.  I'm saying I made better choices, but when I got home I ate an entire package of mushrooms with soup (yes, THESOUP.  I have a ton left) for dinner...live and learn.

3/7

day one | day two

day three:
Day 3

Eat all the soup, fruit and veggies you want. Do not have a baked potato.

my weight
Was down another 2 pounds.  I am even more skeptical.

what i ate
upon waking up and realizing it was a fruit day, I quickly had an apple.  Then some strawberries/blueberries/blackberries.
I went to Starbucks to write day #2 and got dried mango to go with my coffee.
I had soup, broccoli, and a lot of salad with a friend at Jason's Deli.

my hunger level
Night and day difference, having fruit.

my mood
No energy, not to enthused about that.

Miscellaneous
Normal day!

2/7

*so the house I'm house sitting at currently has no internets.  That is unfortunate.  And these updates may now be late.

day one recap

day two

Day 2

All vegetables. Eat until you are full with fresh raw, cooked or canned veggies. Try to eat green leafy veggies and stay away from dry beans, peas or corn. Eat veggies along with the soup and a baked potato at dinner time with butter. Don’t eat any fruits through today.

my weight
Was down two pounds.  I am skeptical.

what i ate

• a lot of soup
• an entire bag of baby carrots
• an entire bag of frozen brussels sprouts
• a baked potato
• NOFRUIT (please see miscellaneous for more commentary on this)

my hunger level
ugh.  I was missing protein, dairy, and CARBS something fierce.

my mood
up and down.  more downs than up.

miscellaneous
Not having any fruit was the hardest part.  OMG.
I also feeling the effect of being sugar/carb free because I was SO tired, and on an overwhelming day that wasn't good.

1/7.

At work this week a friend shared about a new diet she was doing, called "the sacred heart diet."  If you didn't want to follow the link, it's basically no sugar, no carbs, no dairy, and no meat for a few days, then meat again near the end.  When I looked at what she was eating it looked a lot like my regular diet.  What sold me was when she said it's a good diet if you're plateauing on weight loss, because it gets you going again.  So, I was game.  And pretty excited.  And the clincher was that I am house sitting at a home where I can't really exercise/run, and since you can't really run when you're doing this diet, the timing was good.

On Wednesday night I went to Aldi and Publix, loaded up on some veggies, and went home to make THESOUP.  There is a lot of soup in my future.

SOUP:

• 1 or 2 cans of stewed tomatoes
• 3 plus large green onions
• 1 large can of beef broth (no fat)
• 1 pkg. Lipton Soup mix (chicken noodle)
• 1 bunch of celery
• 2 cans green beans
• 2 lbs. Carrots
• 2 Green Peppers

But, I didn't follow it exactly...

• Stewed tomatoes, ewww.  I understand those to be the giant hunks of bad textured tomatoes.  I put in a can of diced tomatoes instead.  
• Green onions...I had yellow onions.  Publix had yellow onions.  We carried on.  
• Beef broth...I used my Better than Bullion goup, which is the only bullion base I'll use.  It has less sodium and fewer calories than canned/boxed broth.  
• I did NOT put in the Lipton Soup mix--way to much sodium and processing.  
• I hate celery.  
• And green peppers would kill me.  

So I added:

• Cabbage
• Spinach

And here we are on day one:
Any fruit (except bananas). Cantaloupes and watermelon are lower in calories than most other fruits. Eat only soup and fruit today.

Each day I'm going to be reporting on:
my weight | what i ate | my hunger level | my mood | miscellaneous

my weight
This morning I weighed myself (haha, not putting that # on the WWW.  I'll just let you know what direction the scale moved).  But I know where I'm starting.

what I ate

• I woke up and had cantaloupe and black coffee (I have black coffee, 6 cups worth, every morning), and when I got to work I had a bowl of the soup.  It took me about 30 minutes to finish it.  Hot veggies just aren't my thing at 9 a.m.  
• For lunch I had more soup and more cantaloupe.  
• For a snack in the afternoon I had a cup of hot tea (green tea with pomegranate) and an apple (obvi).  
• For dinner I had soup, cantaloupe (Yes, I did eat an entire cantaloupe and a half today), and half a grapefruit.  
• I'm planning on having another apple after hitting "publish."
• and water.  I've had TONS of water today.

my hunger level
Fine.  Not content, but I know I'm "full."  I don't think that I eat a lot of carbs or sugar most of the time, but this afternoon I had a pounding headache, which went away after some more cantaloupe and tea.

my mood
I'd consider it normal.  I slumped while at Target today, but that's about it.  And, photos on instagram or blogs of tasty food (noticeably things with carbs) made me a bit grumpy this evening.

miscellaneous

• The prep time is surprising me.  Tonight I had to spend time cooking my veggies for tomorrow.  It didn't take a lot of time, but just more time than usual in the kitchen.  
• When I was first talking about this diet, someone I support at work goes, "oh great, now you'll both be grumpy."  Haha!  But because of that alone I'm working HARD to not be grumpy.
• And, later when I was sharing about it with someone else he goes, "you know, I don't really get excited when I hear about diets where I loose a lot of weight quickly" and another friend goes, "it's because you're not a woman."

Time for my apple!

Endnote--I'm realistic.  I know if I cut out carbs for 7 days, that I'll gain back any lost weight quickly once I start eating them again.  I'm using this to help make myself slow down exercise wise for a period, detox a bit, and get cleaned up from sugar.

too much mileage.

I upped my mileage too much this weekend, and I'm reaping it this morning.  I feel like my legs are like jelly, along with having a deep-seated soreness in them.  I remember reading in Runner's World not to up your mileage by more than 10% a week and while I'm not good with numbers, I'm sure I overdid it this weekend.  I was house sitting in 5-Points, I had the time, and it was fun to take off for a while (about an hour and a half at a time).  I think the killer (and why I'm so sore) is that NOTHING was flat.  At all.  At one point I know I marveled at the topography, "how can EVERYTHING be uphill?!?!"

I've been asked numerous times recently, "why are you running, what are you training for?"  Right now, I don't have an answer.  I don't have any races in my sights, and the idea of running a race pricks me with anxiety.  I have slightly entertained the idea of the Disney Princess Half-Marathon (run through Disney world, yeah!  And it's FLAT.), but that's about as far as that thought-train has gone.

My confident answer to "why are you running?" is, "I run for fun."  Because that is why I run.  I like it.  It helps me loose weight.  It is a whole lot cheaper than therapy when stressed.   And I feel really strong when I'm done (and occasionally frozen).

Here are the few running thoughts I need to remember (thus why committing them to the blog world)--

• Take some stinking rest days.  This is the hardest one, and is the thing I fight the most.  I've had a few runs on "tired legs" and they are awful.  I think of the verse, "He MAKES me lie down in green pastures."  I fight rest, but it is very often the most necessary thing to keep going well.
• Fuel well.  I love me some apples (obvi), but I have a MUCH better run when I've had a complex carb the days before.
• Focus.  When I try to run distracted, I find that I can't get going and it's a struggle to finish.  But when I can focus on my stride, how I'm moving, or even just the pavement & surroundings, the time flies by.
• Music.  I ebb and wane on listening to music when I run indoors (I don't wear earbuds when I run outside, #safety).
• A bad run doesn't make me a bad runner.  

HF4F

Linking up with From My Grey Desk Blog-High Five for Friday

I acknowledge that there are only 3 photos.  I was slow on the camera this week.

1.  Lunch on Monday with Julie and the littles!  At Marti's!

2.  Lunch on Friday with Zakiya!  At Taste of India!  No pictures because we were too busy stuffing our faces with delicious Indian food.

3.  I've decided that for every 5 pounds I loose, I'm going to buy myself a new dress (I'm not above bribery when I'm at a plateau).  Instead of waiting another 5 lbs, I started this week, and found the pink dress at Plato's.  The best part is that it had the tags still on it from a downtown boutique that I frequently admire but never frequent, so that alone made me sold on it.  And for getting it $30 less than the original price.

4.  I'm back to my outside runs!  Well, I had my first one yesterday.  I was asked how I was doing and I responded with, "my legs are about to fall off."  I'm waiting for it to break 35 this morning before I head out again.

5.  Duck Dynasty marathon.  With Bella, who didn't appreciate my rolling laughter, so the cuddling didn't last long.

fashion week, edition 1 | days 4 & 5

day one

days two and three

thursday

outfit:

dress, entourage | necklace, target | tights, target | boots, clarks

I really should just call this my miracle dress.  It makes me look way, WAY skinnier than I am.  Every time I wear it I get compliments.  Loud pattern for the win.

friday 

outfit:

Blouse, J.Crew | Scarf, cardigan, jeans & necklace, LOFT | Boots, Clarks

This morning was SO COLD.  It was the quickest photo shot ever because we just wanted to get done and back to the warm.  We also took these photos first thing in the morning, and after seeing them (comparing them to the others) I immediately texted Erika and said that for our next edition we need to always do our photos first thing in the morning. 

fashion week, edition 1 | days 2 & 3

day one here

tuesday

I've been trying something new with my hair when I wear it straight--no flat ironing, just round brushing.  It's a good deal fluffier when I do that, but I can handle it.  Did you know in high school I used to dye my hair blonde?  It was horrible (hind-sight).

outfit:

Dress--LOFT via Suska clearance rack | Belt, Gap (circa 2009?) | Necklace, Banana Republic Outlet | Tights, Target | Boots, Clarks

So the hole in my tights can be seen...I wore this on Saturday to a tea that I organized and when I was setting up I got caught on a door.  I need to add gray tights to my shopping list--I forget how versatile they are until I wear them and love them anew.

wednesday

details--

Everything special about this outfit was from behind.  The ballerina updo, the buttons on my shirt, the exposed zipper on my skirt...a little too much attention behind me, I thinks.  The earrings were a gift from my dear cousin for my birthday this year, and my necklace was a birthday present from last year.

Fashion blogger pose!  Look down!  Look bored!

outfit:

Top, Gap (2010?) | Skirt, Banana Republic Clearance Rack | Tights, J.Crew | Booties, Clarks (where almost ALL my shoes come from)

So, those J.Crew tights.  Last year I went to J.Crew and they had these tights marked down from $25 to around $5, and I had another percentage off so I grabbed them.  I would never pay $25 for tights, but y'all.  These are something else.  I guess part of there $25 price tag is that they are from Italy, better materials, etc.  I put them on for the first time and went, "oh hey there."  The difference between them and my dear Target stand-bys is SO noticeable!  Makes me want to run over to J.Crew this weekend to see if there are any marked down from this season.

highlights of january

Highlights of January, not otherwise covered:

• 6 doctors visits in 3 weeks.  Think I'm done for the year now.  This really isn't a highlight, but more of a, "I can't believe I went that many times in that short a time."  Please keep in mind that until last year, I hadn't been to a physician in over a decade.
• Celebrated Rebekah's birthday

     

• Helped throw a good-bye party for a friend at work :(

     

• Threw a tea party for church!

• The Allan's came in from Scotland!  Yeah!  Made my first British recipe-Victorian sponge cake.

•  And went on some really cold evening walks.  I think cold evenings are worse than cold mornings.

the start of fashion week, edition 1

Friend and coworker Erika and I had our own Fashion Week this week at work.  Initial thoughts...

• It is awkward taking (many) pictures of yourself.
• I am highly uncomfortable in front of the camera.  This abated a little as the week went on.
• I survived having (lots) of pictures of me taken.  It helps that Erika has great pho-tog sills, and is fun to hang out with.
• And it was fun!  As we were walking away from our shoot this (freezing) morning we were already talking about the next edition.

Here we go!

Monday:

A rarity, all most all items in this outfit are from this season!

Sheer polka dot blouse:  Target | White lace cami:  Target

Rockstar skinnies (or glorified leggings that you can pass as jeans):  Old Navy

Flats:  Clarks (about 8 years old)

Sand-dollar Necklace:  From high school days | Bracelet:  Made by my grandfather!

Emi-jay hair tie:  If you haven't gotten one of these yet, go buy some.  They are worth it.

Fashion blogger pose attempt.  Haha.

And the most successful shot, cut off the top of my head.  

I forgot that these trousers were hard-found; I went to Old Navy to pick them up, and it was the day after they went off sale, so I refused to get them full price.  I went a couple weeks later with a coupon that wasn't valid yet, so I left again.  I went a third time, armed with a coupon and a sale, and got them for about $12.  Victory.

And lets be honest, this is far more real life:

Anyone else find that sheer shirts make you especially sweaty?  For being see-through, they sure do insulate well.  Maybe I should start running in them...