Running

I can't believe how awesome I am at this blogging thing. Months between posts, it's like a I'm a total savant.

Anyway. Schools been out for awhile and I've been picking up some more hours at the furniture store doing non-internet things like learning how to process purchase orders, etc. This week the first of my photography went up on the blog.

I've been to our new Trader Joe's twice, and plan to make regular trips from here on out. Although I'm thinking I might limit myself to one or two a month, just to stock up on the things we really love. The prices are great, but there is so much to try!



And, finally revealing the reason for the title of this post, I've been training for a 5K. My family up in Iowa is doing a 5K challenge as a memorial and fundraiser for my cousin who was killed in action in Afghanistan last August. I've never done anything like this before, but I felt like it was important to participate. I've been getting up about dawn most days of the week to train. I found this plan on Pinterest and used it as a starting point. I've definitely had to make some adjustments to it, due to limited time (I decided I was going to do this just 5 weeks before the race) and my poor physical state. Sure, I've got a black toenail, shin splints, am wearing knee supports, and typically feel like I can take two or three naps a day, but I've made a lot of progress for starting at zero. And by zero, I mean I spent almost every night curled up on the couch watching "Murder, She Wrote" on Netflix. Today I ran 2.25 miles in 30 minutes. My workout totaled just under 5 miles. Tomorrow marks one week until the 5K and I'm feeling good. Aside from the aforementioned runner maladies. My cousin Angie is going to run the 5K with me, and some of my other family members are going to walk it, hopefully including my mom. Angie, my mom, and I are going to road trip it up to Iowa for everything, so we're excited about our summer adventure.

So, think good thoughts for me and my tired feet next week. And if you have some goodness to spare, send some of it to my Joshy, who should be hearing back about a job opening soon. It sounds too good to be true, so we're just hoping that isn't the case!

Now that I'm out of school and going in to work in the morning I'm trying to be better about what I'm eating. I used to bring a salad to work for lunch every day. That idea was much less appetizing when I started school and had to carry the salad around in my back pack until noon. But my pants are pretty tight these days, so I decided it was time to try and pay attention to what I'm eating again. This week has really been the first and the biggest weapon in my arsenal seems to be fruit. Breakfast this week has included oatmeal, greek yogurt, bananas, and a variety of berries. I made a fruit salad of kiwi, pineapple, and mandarin oranges that I keep in the fridge and snack on in the afternoon. I'm also loving pretzel crisps and red pepper hummus together at lunch. I also brought some zucchini sticks to go along with that. And I made a salsa-type bean salad that I had with tortilla chips for lunch Monday and Tuesday. Dinner hasn't been as tip-top, but it could be worse. Monday we had shrimp tacos with Mexican rice. I also made cookies that night, but as cookies go they weren't too bad since the recipe included some whole wheat flour, mashed banana, and oats. Last night we had whole grain linguine w/ alfredo sauce, peas, and roasted broccoli. I've greatly reduced the amount of coffee I'm drinking, having cut back to only a cup on weekend mornings, and I'm now brewing sun tea with one of my favorite varieties of green tea. We'll see how long I'm really able to stick with this. I'd like to do a weekend juice/smoothie cleanse at some point too. Now if I could just find the energy and willpower to add exercise back into my life, I might actually get somewhere with all of this.