Lessons, Cheat Days, Sleep Eating

Yesterday’s official title is “Tough Lessons”.  Yes.  There was drama all around yesterday regarding these life lessons.  And no, the drama did not involve me.  How was I involved?  I was the one the people went complaining to about the crap they’re dealing with and I basically had to tell them “Sorry, that’s just life.  And sometimes it sucks and more often than not you have to do things you don’t want to because other people have screwed up.  Deal.”  Too harsh?  In my opinion, no.  It made for a taxing day.

Good thing I got to run this morning!  That sure helped ease the stress from yesterday.  The run FLEW by.  I worked on speed.  I ran 5.2 miles in 53 minutes.  YAY me!  I did another “random” cardio adventure, but this time on the treadmill.  I would run a comfortable speed for a minute or two, then crank it up for another minute or two and just played the random card.  Boy, did it make my run go by fast.  And truth be told, I never felt that I pushed TOO hard.  Hooray for finally learning my limits.  I didn’t realize how super sweaty I was after my run until people kept staring at me.  WHY DO PEOPLE DO THIS?!  I’m at a gym.  I’m working hard.  I’m SUPPOSED to be sweaty.  Any hoosier, a rock star leg workout followed my super-stellar run, followed by a 20-minute interval elliptical finisher.  My tank was on E by the time I got home and I couldn’t make my recovery shake fast enough.  Peanut butter powder, almond milk, bananas, cocoa powder, vanilla protein powder…I kind of want to run home to make another one!  YUMMMM!

Here it is…the moment you’ve all been waiting for:  Cheat Days Explained (courtesy of Greatist.com).  I love this post.  It basically supports the 80/20 rule that is applied to everything.  In this case, watch yo’ diet 80% of the time, cheat 20%.  My diet and thought process behind my diet has drastically changed in the last few years.  For me, cheating is now psychological.  Eating a few dark chocolate M&Ms before bed makes me one happy camper hanging out in the campground of life. Yes, technically I’m cheating by eating sugar (and fat), but the psychological benefits of that small “cheat” help keep me on track for the next day.  I’m at the point where I now get giddy for granola (my healthy version) with a few melty M&Ms…sounds a little pathetic, but GOSH is it delectable! 🙂

Speaking of my granola & M&M combo…I didn’t have time for dessert last night so when I got home I was going to allow myself to have some granola & M&Ms before bed to satisfy my sweet tooth and my stress craving/pouty-ness for something sweet to make my day better.  I brought a tiny little serving of it to bed (I watch TV, really sleep through TV for a few minutes before I call it a night). I wasn’t really feeling it.  Emotionally my mind & body were wrecked from work & other things and my poor body felt AWFUL after 1-too-many-cups of coffee.  So I fell asleep with it on my nightstand.  I woke up around 10:30 with the TV & lights still on (typical…) and decided I was ready for that granola.  It almost felt like “sleep eating” since I was in a fog and just kept grabbing for the granola without any thought at all.  HA!  Now I know that I should NEVER (ever, ever, ever) keep a mini fridge by my bed.  Not that I ever would.

Cauliflower & Conditioning

A few housekeeping items:

Bye Week Volleyball Results: We took home another ‘W’ last night.  Lots of great teamwork and communication…even if the game was at 8:30pm.  And what Bye Week game would be complete without the ball somehow smacking me in the face.  Don’t worry, the face is fine – it just felt a little violated for a few minutes following the incident.  It was pretty intense, I tell ya!

Tuesday Workout:  For the last few months my Tuesday workouts have been with the Conditioning Boot Camp.  My Groupon & added 1-month unlimited deal ran out last week so I had to improvise at the gym today.  Tuesday is too soon to run after my long-run on Sunday (trying to give my foot 3 days in between runs) so I mixed it up on the bike.  I did 1-hr on the “random setting” so it was definitely a “random” workout.  And it was TOUGH.  Most of the programmed intervals lasted about 30-40 seconds with a few 10-20 seconds thrown in there.  I usually had at least 20 seconds of less-intensity intervals too.  One word: SWEATY!  Since today was more of a conditioning day, I didn’t want to do many weight workouts so I would be fully recovered for my harder weight workouts tomorrow and Thursday (must not disrupt the routine!).  After my bike ride I did some core exercises: planks, side planks w/5-lb weight, incline sit ups, cross-body mountain climbers, decline leg lifts (SO HARD!)…whew!  I feel great!  Sometimes you just need plain-ol’-cardio.

Cauliflower Not-So-Mashed-Potatoes Recipe.  I promised this to you yesterday and I never fall back on promises!

1. Steam 1 head of cauliflower (cut into small florets).
2. Place steamed cauliflower in food processor and “process” until smooth.
3. Add 1/4-cup to 1/3-cup non-fat Greek yogurt
4. Add 1/3-cup Gouda
5. Add salt & pepper to taste

And voila! Yummy mashed “potatoes” that are all vegetable and no starch!  They were a big hit!  I added a smidge of milk just to get them to my preferred consistency.  Another side note:  I don’t have a steamer (microwave or the stove-top kind) so I microwaved the cauliflower (for 3-5 minutes) in a microwave-safe bowl with 1/4 cup water and covered the bowl (it was a Pyrex bowl w/it’s mate-lid).  Let the cauliflower sit for about 2-3 more minutes for more “steam time”.  Neat trick, eh? 🙂

Tomorrow is a run-day.  I haven’t decided yet if I will target speed or hills…we’ll see how my legs feel tomorrow morning!  At this point I’m thinking SPEED! I must still be on a runner’s high from my Sunday “speedy” run. Fun!

T minus 4 days until I take 20 college students on the Spring Break Service Trip to New Orleans.  Gah.  Stressed is an understatement! 🙂

Tomorrow’s teaser:  Talking about “cheat days”.  Woo!

Fly-By Weekend

This weekend was b-u-s-y.  Busy. I had to switch my Saturday schedule around and make some adjustments so Friday night was packed.  I hit up hot yoga right after work (instead of going Saturday at 8am) which means we didn’t grab dinner (Fazoli’s for  pre-race high-carb, low-fat, low-fiber food) until 7.  My stomach hurt so bad during yoga because I was starving.  However, I decided I really like practicing yoga in the evening versus right when I wake up.  My muscles were already loosened up from the day so I could go deeper in the poses. (There!  A positive to my schedule change!)  After dinner, I ran to Target for some much-needed restocking of daily essentials.  Ever noticed how everything seems to run out at once and NEVER when you have a coupon or when things are on sale?  Blarg!

Saturday will need to be in bullet form because the thought of keeping it organized in paragraph-form makes my head spin:

• Up at 6:30 to finish laundry & make a batch of almond granola (I’m obsessed obviously…)
• Leave at 7:55am to head to St. Louis to meet up with Jeff’s friend
• Leave said-friend’s house to go to the Castlewood Cup 15K Trail Race.  I wasn’t racing and it was the first race I actually “watched” instead of participate in so it was super fun to see it from the eyes of a spectator.  I have an awesome post-race vomit story for you that only a runner can appreciate, but I feel the need to share in a later post…
• Leave Castlewood State Park around 1pm (after awards were announced)
• Get home around 2pm.  Here is where I fail at life.  Instead of listening to my body and taking a nap, I decided to be productive and take care of a few things on my to-do list. That being said, I’ve decided my “over-productive/over-achieving self” needs to listen more closely to my “lazy self” more often.  Working on that…
• Met up with some friends at Peel (excellent pizza place in Edwardsville).
• Met up with same friends and 2 others at a trivia night.  I love me some trivia nights…not just to test my useful knowledge but the people watching and side conversations are the best.  Seriously.  The BEST.

Sunday Runday.  YAY!  The best day ever.  If you recall (which you should ALL recall my life in detailed seconds :)), last week’s Sunday Runday wasn’t the best and I just didn’t have much strength.  BUT (big but…teehee), this particular Sunday Runday was great.  I’ve started my “taper weeks” before my race so I was planning to only run 10 or 11 miles (whichever felt right at the time).  I got to 10 miles and decided to hit the 11-mile mark.  But I was making such good time (I felt super fast!) that I just ran until the treadmill made me stop.  The treadmills at my gym run for 1 hour then give you a 5-minute cool down (I don’t use the cool down time for an actual cool down, I just keep running for 5 extra minutes.  Sick, I know).  So I did about 11.8 miles in 2.10.00.  Not bad for my slow, short-legged-self 🙂  I really had wished yesterday was my race day since I felt so strong and had so much positive energy (odd since I had a horrible diet the day before…). Even after my run, I cranked out some awesome leg workouts and had the pleasure of watching Dennis the Menace on ABC Family (my go-to channel at the gym).

I have a super-awesome recipe that I will share in tomorrow’s post (this post is getting a little drawn out with my super exciting life).  Just as a teaser…it’s a “Cauliflower Not-So-Mashed-Potatoes” recipe.  Super yum and super healthy!

 

Happy Monday, friends!  This time next week I will be in New Orleans getting my “service” on.  WOO! 🙂

 

Marbles, E vs. I, Catch-Up, Match Maker

This week can be summed up in one word: YIKES!  Meetings, drama, meetings, drama.  Good stuff.  Countdown ’til May anyone?  2.5 months.  That’s all.  I’ve had some odd DOMS this week…I must have switched up my work outs just enough to make my muscles really hate me.  Or maybe I need more H2O, even though I’m sure my bladder would smack me if I drank any more fluids.  Since I’ve been a little behind on my posts, here’s a quick update:

Tuesday’s dinner of Cream Cheese Chili was delicious!  We had ours in whole wheat tortillas and spinach leaves.  I know, I know…the spinach leaves don’t really GO with the chili.  But we wanted some veggies thrown in there.  The whole time I couldn’t help but think about how awesome it would have tasted with peanut butter…but I didn’t combine the two.  A decision I am still regretting.

After dinner on Tuesday I “unplugged” and took a little catnap on the couch.  I haven’t done this in MONTHS – it was nice to just veg on the couch.

Let’s all pretend Wednesday didn’t happen.  K?

Yesterday was also filled with meetings and prepping for the madness of the next few weeks.  Dinner was the Crockpot Chicken Fajitas.  And, YUM!  I had mine in a whole wheat tortilla with some 2% Kraft Mexican  cheese and salsa verde.  YUM!  I was still a little hungry afterwards so I warmed up more of the chicken, onions, and peppers with cheese and salsa.  Just as good, if not better without the tortilla.  1.5 servings of ice cream soon followed.

Today’s boot camp was KILLER!  My arms were SO tired that it was hard to wash and style my hair this morning.  I’m still trying to decide if I plan to pay for more boot camps or not.  I really like them and they spice up my normal gym routine.  As much as I love the gym, the thought of always being there can sometimes bring tears to my eyes.  Time to budget crunch yet again 🙂

 

An interesting find that I posted to Pinterest last night:

How true is that!  My introverted self could NOT stop laughing.  Gotta love staying home and recharging your batteries to prevent a mental breakdown. HAHA.  I’ve been on the verge of one again so I definitely cling so tightly to my couch/veg out time!

This weekend I plan to do some crock-potting and freeze some vacuum-sealed lunches for the next coming weeks.  Next weekend will be spent frantically getting last-minute stuff together for our Spring Break Service trip (I’m just a tad stressed about it, mk?) so I need to take full advantage of this weekend and focus on yours truly before my marbles scatter all over the floor again. HA!

Is it sad that I’m already thinking about what awesome things I will eat this Sunday after my long run?  Sunday (aside from Friday) is really my favorite day of the week.  Yeah, yeah that whole “but you have to go to work tomorrow” thing kind of stinks, but it’s my “zen” day to fold laundry, start “fresh” with my running, diet, and work-out week, and just simply EXIST.  No demands, no to-do lists.  It’s awesome.

Awkward Moment I regret not posting immediately after it happened:  While at church Wednesday evening for Ash Wednesday Mass, a friend’s mom was sitting behind me.  We were standing & waiting to walk up to the alter to get our ashes (we were all the way in the back so we had some time to kill), she and I started chatting and I asked how her son was doing  (an old friend from high school…we dated for maybe 1 month when we were 15…super serious, obviously).  Before I could even finish my sentence, she said “WELLLLL, he’s AVAILABLE now…!!!” (hint, hint: call him up!).  Uhhh…awkward.  Fortunately, since my life is one big awkward moment, I’ve gotten good at bouncing back and changing the subject in a way that’s painless for everyone involved.  Gota love it.

El Presidente Day

Boot Camp: Today’s Conditioning Boot Camp was AWESOME. Aside from the “Ladder” workout, this one was pretty great and left me sweaty:

We did 50/10 x3.  Each ‘station’ was 50 seconds of work with 10 seconds of rest/transition time.  We went through all 7 stations 3 times.

1. Cross Body Mountain Climbers
2. Cone Suicides
3. Glute Bridge  March
4. Sumo Jacks
5. Slide Plank (with band)
6. Zig Zag Hurdles
7. Med Ball Slams/Chest Passes

My favorite station was the “Cone Suicides”.  Why?  HELLOOOOO! I finally got to RUN in boot camp!  I just felt “at home” during my sprints.

Now I need to talk to the “owner” about offering some monthly deals.  The place that holds the boot camps was offering a 48-hour deal 1 month ago that was $1350 for unlimited boot camp/conditioning for 1 year (savings of $1158).  I don’t know about any of you, but I can’t exactly let go of $1350 in one lump sum.  PLUS, a whole year is a big deal.  What if I get hurt and have to limit my workouts? What if I start marathon training and can only make it 4 times per month instead of 8? Ugh! Tough decisions.  Obviously I ended up NOT purchasing the year unlimited.  I have another Groupon for a different Boot Camp gym nearby…maybe they have monthly payment plans…

Volleyball:  Bye Week took home another win last night.  We really didn’t deserve it – we didn’t play THAT well, but a win’s a win.  The great thing about last night’s game was the time: 6:15!  We were done by 7pm and hit up Fazoli’s President’s Day Penny Pasta deal: Buy 1 medium drink, purchase any penne pasta with marinara or meat sauce for 1 cent!  AWESOME, cheap, and delicious!

Crock Pot Adventures: Since I can leave work at 4:30pm like a normal person for the first time in weeks, we are having the Cream Cheese Chili that I made a few weeks ago.  I’m super pumped!  Also in Crock Pot Land, I made chicken fajitas (teehee) last night.  It was a super simple recipe from Skinny Crock Pot:

• 2 large chicken breasts (frozen)
• 1 medium onion (sliced or chopped…your preference)
• 3 bell peppers (1 of each color) – I used 4 bell peppers since mine were a wee bit small.
• 1 large garlic clove, chopped
• I added a bit of seasoning: cumin, chili powder, & pepper
• I also added half a can of fat free, low sodium chicken broth to give everything enough moisture…I have this irrational fear of my food burning in the crockpot 😦

Cook on low for 6 hours.  Hopefully it’s yummy!

I wish I had more things to talk about, but I haven’t even been watching/reading the news OR watching my regularly scheduled TV shows.  Sad life?  YES!  I need to get back into my routines to make my brain happy again!  But honestly, it’s been nice to be oblivious to all the political happenings…that stuff just makes my blood boil!

 

 

Holy Sleep Deprived-ness & Randomness

So yeah…sorry for lacking in the “posts” department last week.  It was a busy week: working until 8pm, coming home to edit dissertations, sleeping a few hours, and doing it all over again the next day.  “Sleep deprived” is an understatement.  The muscles in my face have even developed a twitch! HA!

But anyway, enough of my somewhat dramatic life.

Saturday morning/afternoon consisted of a not-so-fun hot yoga session (I greatly dislike the instructor that we had, which makes for a not-so-great mental state), presenting at the Leadership Seminar, running home to visit my dad for his LAST (hopefully) Saturday at the hospital (until we go through his other upcoming surgeries & health issues…HA!  Yay…).

This weekend was our “Valentine’s weekend”.  We wanted have a nice dinner and NOT at one of our usual healthy spots (Culver’s, Fazoli’s, Crazy Bowls & Wraps, or Subway).  So where did go?  Whole Foods.  Yes, we went to Whole Foods for dinner.  And it was great.  They’re grilled sandwiches & salads are da bomb.com and we’ve been craving them for a while, but since it’s not exactly in our neighborhood, we never can find time to go.  After our dinner date, we walked around REI, Trader Joe’s (to stock up!), and World Market.  It was a really nice night.  Who says you have to be wined & dined on Valentine’s Day anyway? 🙂

Sunday Runday results: ALMOST 13 miles.  I think I had about .30 miles left and I just couldn’t finish.  My legs (muscles & joints) hurt so bad.  I couldn’t figure out why I could finish my 12-miler so strongly last week but struggled through this week’s run.  The only thing coming to my mind is that MAYBE I didn’t drink enough water on Saturday.  I’m pretty sure I ate enough of the right “stuff” the day before (protein, carbs, fruits, etc.) so that’s all I can really attribute to the somewhat-failure.  My legs were so absolutely Tanked (yes, it needs to be capitalized) that I didn’t do much of a leg workout and cut my bike ride about 10 minutes short.  Friday’s boot camp and Saturday’s hot yoga really nuked my quads.  At that point, killing my legs even more wouldn’t have helped me at all and would have just exhausted my muscles & recovery even more.  No thanks – I’ve got too much on my to-do list to be even more tired than I already am.  (Amen).

The rest of Sunday was spent drinking lots of water, foam roller-ing, and MORE editing.  Sheesh.  I did manage to sit down and watch The Prestige during our Sunday dinner.  It’s probably one of my new favorites.  It was during this movie that I realized why I’m a bad movie-watcher:

1. I’m never sitting still because I always have SOMETHING I have to do or work on.  So the whole concept of sitting still for about 2 hours makes my mind do weird things
2. When I finally get the chance to sit and do nothing, my body & mind don’t know what to do, so I end up falling asleep (Movie Narcoleptic)
3. Since I don’t know how to slow down and do nothing, I have to always be checking things on the interwebs (email, facebook, pinterest, blogs, recipes…)you name it, I’ll find SOMETHING to do while the movie is on.  Because of this, I end up missing important stuff.  The movie ends up not making sense and I lose interest.

And there you have it.

I was able to get a whopping 8 hours of sleep last night.  And you know what?  I woke up MORE tired that I would have if I only got 5 or 6.  Silly brain.  I need to get back to the 7-hour zone so when I get the amount my body needs it doesn’t revolt.  You know what else would be awesome?  A day off.  With nothing to do.  Yeah.  Wish in one hand…right?! 🙂

Sorry for the randomness & blabbing & pity party.  That’s what being tired does to me.

Until a better post can be written,

Eye-Twitch McGee

 

VD Bell Curve & Meatloaf

❤
So uh, Happy Valentine’s Day…or somethin’…  HA!  No, I’m not a hater on Valentine’s Day, I just choose not to make an obnoxious deal about it.  I always picture Valentine’s Day like a bell curve.  To the left of the curve you have your “Boo hoo, I’m single and SOOOOO lonely.  Happy Singles Awareness Day”.  The the right of the curve you have the puke-tastic “I vomited flowers for you so you could have them everywhere you went today.  AND I bought you an iPad in case the flowers didn’t show you how much I care about you.”  Then in the middle there’s normal people (maybe not-so-normal…I’ve never called myself normal) that say “eh, it should be low key and more about random acts of kindness”.  Seriously.  Just like Molly said on Mike & Molly “We don’t have to do anything big, I’d just like to eat somewhere that has a separate spoon & fork”.  HA!!!! Amen sister, amen.

Aside from that, my “wide open, get lots of things crossed off my list” has been anything but.  Typical.  It has been a productive day, just productive in the sense that random pop-ups took up all my time.  And most importantly, that presentation I’m supposed to give THIS Saturday hasn’t even begun to shape up.  I only have pictures on the slides. HA! Typical.

Today was a conditioning boot camp.  It was a good one (lots of ropes = burning arms!) and I felt redeemed from, what I consider, my epic failure on Thursday when I could barely hack it because my lungs ceased to function.  My lungs still seem a little shaky today and still burned.  You know the burn when you haven’t worked out in a while and your cardiovascular system is just out of shape?  That’s what it felt like.  Which is impossible, friends.  Clearly my lungs are not liking some weird sickness my body is trying to fend off.  Hooray for stress, and hooray for an immune system! (there, positive thought for the day!)

Tonight after work I’m headed home to visit my Pops in his penthouse suite (hospital room..ha!).  I normally visit on Wednesdays, or on days when there’s been an emergency, but this week I’m working late Wednesday & Thursday so Tuesday was my only option.  Sorry, I’m selfish with my Fridays.  I know. I’m a horrible person.  Whatever.  My Mom is taking him meatloaf since hospital food is awful (and meatloaf is his favorite).  How sweet is that?!  Aw 🙂  They’re so cute

Monday Tidbits:  Scheduled volleyball game for 9:15pm.  Did that happen?  Nope.  Why?  I didn’t want to deal with the 4 inches of freshly fallen snow.  Nor did a few others on the team, but since I live 5 minutes away I was kind of a jerk when I told them to count me out.  I just didn’t think volleyball was worth another insurance deductible.  Sorry Bye Week.  Better luck next week when I’ll probably be late because of work.  YESSSS!  I hope they don’t kick me off the team 😉

Happy Tuesday.  2/5 of the way there!  Go US!

 

Weekend Recap: Hot Yoga, Sunday Runday, Dangerous Candy

Hey der, Monday.  After a much needed relaxing weekend, I’m so ready to tackle my crazy, routine-less week.

Weekend Recap:

Saturday=Hot Yoga.  I had some students from an organization I advise call me during the yoga session.  Obviously my phone is silenced and in another room so I couldn’t immediately respond to them.  I had a few moments of guilt that I wasn’t available until I started thinking that my workouts/yoga sessions are for ME.  My work schedule and the demands of the job leave little by means of relaxing or down time.  I consider my workouts & yoga my “church”.  Since the “sorry, I was at church and couldn’t talk” seems to be an acceptable excuse, that’s how I will justify missing phone calls during those times.

ANYHOO, I was a little nervous for the yoga session since I’d been battling some lung congestion & inflammation.  But apparently yoga does wonders and my breathing was phenomenal after 10-15 minutes of yogi breathing.  Yoga is creeping up there with running, friends.  There are 2 teachers that I really find comfort in and one of them was the instructor on Saturday.  It really makes a difference in the way you practice when you like the instructor.  And a better practice makes for a much better day (physically & emotionally).  Woo!

I came home, changed out of my super-sweaty clothes and recharged more with some laundry, light cleaning, and granola-makin’.  I had some weird issues with dizziness and feelings of absolute fatigue after breakfast so I parked my butt on the couch for the rest of the day.

Sunday Runday:  I woke up around 5:45am to squeeze in a 3+hr workout.  Before I left for the gym, something told me to check my ipod.  I’m glad I did because it was dead.  I charged it for a few minutes at home and in the car on the way there.  Unfortunately it only had 4-miles worth of battery.  So I did a 12-mile run on the treadmill with only 4 miles of ipod inspiration.  Strangely, I always feel that my runs without my ipod blaring go faster.  My mind really takes over and I start singing songs in my head and solving all the problems of the world :).  My lungs didn’t feel too hot in the first mile or 2 but they got their act together and we (my lungs and I) had a nice run.  Only 1 more long run (13-miler) before I decrease to rest up for March 24th.  Woo!  I’m ready to be done with the 3hr workouts.

I guzzled a yummy protein smoothie when I got home:

• 1 small banana
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 scoop sugar free protein powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp powdered peanut butter
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 cup of ice

It tasted amazing!  By far my favorite post-workout smoothie.  I had some whole wheat protein pancakes in the freezer (left over from last weekend’s post-run meal) and those were a nice “finisher” to my breakfast.  Don’t forget the 2 massive cups of coffee, too!

I couched it up the rest of the day until it was time for the Sunday meal-of-the-day.  We cooked 3 mini pizzas: Mediterranean, Traditional, Chicken Gorgonzola.

Mediterranean Pizza

• 1 whole wheat flat bread
• baby spinach (1st layer)
• grilled chicken (2nd layer)
• sliced kalamata olives
• crumbled fat-free feta
• diced red pepper

Traditional Pizza

• 1 whole wheat flat bread
• Low-sugar pizza sauce
• 2% shredded mozzarella
• turkey pepperoni
• sliced black olives

Chicken Gorgonzola Pizza

• 1 whole wheat flat bread
• thin layer of pesto
• thin layer of baby spinach
• grilled chicken
• lots of crumbled gorgonzola

YUM!!!  I loved them all and I’m obsessed with gorgonzola, but there’s something to be said about a traditional pizza!

Awkward Moment:  Strange to have one on a Sunday since I only interact with one person…but I somehow managed to slice (yes, ‘slice’, not an exaggeration) my tongue on a piece of hard candy.  To curb my sweet tooth, I was enjoying a sugar-free cinnamon hard candy.  It apparently had an air bubble in the middle of the candy that created a CRAZY-sharp edge.  My tongue slid right over the sharp edge, and WOW!  Apparently tongues bleed A LOT when they get cut.  Sadly, my first thought was, “NO! I hope it doesn’t hinder my pizza & diet cream soda experience!”.  Ridiculous, I know.  But when you run 12 miles and that pizza and soda was the only thing keeping you going, there’s a lot weighing on that meal.

You will be happy to know the “injury site” is 95% healed already.  I can’t believe it.

TGIF

Yesterday’s sick/mental health day was, without a doubt, the smartest thing I have done in a really long time.  Instead of my mind doing all the thinking (my poor mind is a little off kilter these days) and telling my body to “keep going, you pansy!” or “almost at the finish line (literally/figuratively), just push through!” my body said “HA! Watch this!” and proved everyone wrong.  See how I said ‘everyone’ there?  Everyone=my brain.  Proof that I’m losing it.

I couched it up all day aside from the trip to the grocery story when I spent too much money but was too tired to play “Cheap Sarah”, plus I had to pee and didn’t have a whole lot of time to really focus on the best deals.  A little before supper I started to feel like I might actually need to take another sick day, but once I got food & ice cream in my belly, I started feeling better and canceled my Friday morning Boot Camp.  For those of you who know me understand that it took a lot out of me to cancel a workout.  My muscles & joints just felt so tired & sore.  Plus my lungs still feel like someone doused them with gasoline & lit them on fire so sleeping a few extra hours this morning is just what my poor little body (& mind) needed).  Since I could sleep until 7, I put together a crock pot recipe for the upcoming late-nights work week.  Mexican Chicken (don’t ask me where I found it…I wrote down the ingredients and how long to let it simmer but didn’t save the website):

• 2 cans black beans (I soaked 1/2 a bag of black beans instead)
• 2 cans Rotel (or off-brand diced tomatoes with chiles)
• 3 chicken breasts
• 8-oz non-fat cream cheese

Combine first 3 ingredients and cook on low for 8-10 hours.  Add cream cheese.

Result?  YUM!  I’m planning to shred the chicken and put it in a whole wheat tortilla.  Can’t wait!

Today has been a wonderfully quiet “catch-up” day at work.  I was planning to have yesterday be a catch-up day too so I didn’t really miss too much with my mental health day.  Good timing, for once.

If the weather holds out we are planning to partake in a trivia night.  Since I only allow myself to hang out with human computers, we always rock trivia nights. I’m pretty pumped.

Tomorrow is looking like a yoga-only day.  And nothing else.  Maybe a little light cleaning and some crock-potting, but that’s IT.  I promise.  It’s my last weekend until April so I need to soak it uppppppp.  March was originally scheduled to be busy on the work-front and quiet(er) on the family front.  Recent developments have added “busy/scary” to the family-front too.  I need to condition my body and brain to be ready for another month & a half of stress.  Game on, let’s go.

 

Sick Day & Expletive

Ok, I’m officially behind here.  This post was originally drafted for Tuesday and it’s now Thursday so we’re going to do a recap mk?

TUESDAY:  I got up at 3:30am (yes, you read that right) to squeeze in a workout before my day started.  I had to be at the body shop (for my car…not me! :)), which is a 30-minute drive, at 8am so as I scooted everything up 1 – 1.25 hours, 3:30am is what I got.  I said remember that.  HA! Get it?!  No…?  Mk.  (Looovin’, is what I got…I said remember that).  My insurance coverage allows me to get a rental car while my sweet little Lucy (the name for my Mariner) is getting violated by strange men.  Now keep in mind, during my time as an Admission Counselor I became quite the car expert with all the rentals I had to endure.  My least favorite?  The Chevy HHR.  You know, the Al Capone-looking car.  What did Enterprise give me this time?  An HHR.  AWESOME.  The HHR is the most horribly designed car I’ve ever driven – it has awful blind spots, looks ugly, and is just hard to see out of when driving.  At least this one is silver and not fire engine red like the last HHR I had to drive (I was mortified).  I know, I know…I should shut up and just be thankful I have insurance and coverage that allows my to drive an HHR…*sigh*

Isn't it just AWFUL?!

The rest of Tuesday was a little awkward with the MLK awards luncheon/reception that my boss & I planned at work.  It was just awkward and full of drama.  I’ll spare everyone.  I’m sure it’s not that exciting anyway!

WEDNESDAY: Ok, so Wednesday was only yesterday but it seems like it was a week ago.  Seriously, life is a little trying right now.  During Wednesday I was running on 8 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period.  I was living on coffee, which consequently, leaves my appetite lacking, which consequently makes me more tired.  Super.  More Dad emergency health issues made for it to be an emotional & exhausting night & day.  Just when things seem to be getting better or life seems to slow down a bit, something else happens that has me running around trying to be everything to everyone.  And honestly (as horrible as it makes me sound) I’m really getting tired of it and it’s starting to make me angry & bitter.  For all you judgmental folks out there, you just wait for your turn…then we’ll see who’s judging.  My body has never felt so exhausted and worn down. Don’t ask me how I’m mustering the strength to work out at a normal rate…because I truly don’t know.  Yesterday was a 5-mile run ,”legs” day, and 20-minute interval bike ride (super tiring workout).

I was going from 8am-8:30pm yesterday (aka not at home).  When I got home around 9pm I still had about 75 pages of a dissertation to edit & review.  Could I fill my day any fuller?!  Probably.

THURSDAY:  Oh wait…that’s today.  I got a good 7 hours of sleep last night.  I woke up feeling awesome (well, compared to Tuesday & Wednesday), headed to boot camp (conditioning day, which I normally hit up on Tuesday).  It was an INSANE workout.  My performance, or lack thereof, made me start to think that I might be getting sick.  My lungs were on FIRE.  My lungs hadn’t hurt that bad in years!  I looked down at my heart rate on my watch and it wasn’t high enough for the way my lungs felt.  Fortunately, a lot of other regulars were struggling through the workout too.  During the drive home, I made the decision to take a ‘sick/mental health day’.  Technically, I am sick.  My lungs still feel inflamed, my eyes burn, and I feel exhausted (all the precepts of an impending illness).  Thinking logically for once, I decided to take the day off to do nothing but LAY AROUND and have time to mentally & physically heal myself.  There are so many things coming in the next weeks at work that I can’t at all afford to be hanging on to a cold that won’t go away.

You know what else is awesome?  I got a call from my mom saying there was another health scare early this morning, “What are your plans today?”.  Well, I had planned to FINALLY get a day of RESSTTTTT.  Guess that’s not happening after all.  I never use this phrase because I’m a fairly positive person and get tired of people over-using this and not being appreciative but, “FML.  Seriously.  FML x 100”.

Let’s try to end on a positive note…Tomorrow is Friday.  There.  That’s all I’ve got.